Porphyrogennitos (Porphyrogennetos)
The title
porphyrogennetos (female porphyrogennita), means "born in the purple"
and refers specifically to those individuals born legitimately to a
reigning emperor. The title was both figurative and literal. The structure in Constantinople in which royal
children were born was decorated in purple, and was called the Porphyra.
The concept existed in the early Byzantine
period, but its dynastic overtones did not develop until the mid-ninth
century. Its most famous possessor, Constantine VII, described the
ceremony surrounding the birth of a porphyrogennetos.