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Event details

installation	Baths of Achilles
name	Baths of Achilles – Rebuilding
event type	Restoration
start date	433
end date	443
date comments	It took 10 years to restore the Baths after damage in a fire.
persons	Flavius Cyrus - Builder (426-441)
description	The Baths of Achilles were destroyed in a fire on 21 August 433 (Chronicon Paschale 582) and were restored 10 years later (Marcellinus Comes 443). According to the Chronicon Paschale (583), they were inaugurated on January 11 443.
comments	-

Literature connected to this Event

#	Code	Page	Excerpt
1	Chronicon Paschale 641 Whitby	71	(Dindorf 582) In the time of these consuls (433) there was a great conflagration from the Neorion; and the granaries and the bath called Achilles burnt, in the month Lous, on day 12 before Kalends of September (21 August).
2	Chronicon Paschale 641 Whitby	73	(Dindorf 583) In the time of these consuls (443) the public bath called Achilles was inaugurated, in the month Audynaeus, on day 3 before Ides of January (11 January)
3	Codex Justinianus 529	195-196	(Codex Justinianus 11.42.6) The Same Emperors (Theodosius and Valentinian) to Cyrus, Praetorian Prefect. Every servitude permitting water to be drawn from the aqueduct of Hadrian, whether for domestic use, for the irrigation of land, for country villas, or for baths, either by virtue of an Imperial Rescript, or secured by usurpation, is hereby absolutely abolished; for We prefer that the aforesaid aqueduct should be used to provide water for the public, hot and cold baths, and for Our palace. We decree that this law shall, by all means, be observed hereafter, and that permission shall be granted to no one, in answer to a petition, to take water from the said aqueduct, nor shall anyone venture to pierce it for that purpose. All persons who, for any reason whatsoever, may think that they are entitled to this privilege (or any official who dares to grant it, or even receive a petition for that purpose), are hereby notified that they will be fined a hundred pounds of gold for the benefit of the Treasury. We order that no trees shall be planted within ten feet of a public aqueduct, but that, on each side of the same, the space of ten feet shall remain unoccupied and unobstructed. Moreover, We decree that the same rule shall be observed with reference to the leaden pipes which conduct water to the hot baths called by the name of Achilles, which We have learned that Your Highness has erected; for We desire that the above-mentioned pipes shall only be used for providing the hot and cold baths with water, which is the purpose for which you intended them. Your Highness must also give authority to your subordinates to exercise supervision over houses, suburban villas, and baths, without running any risk, in order to prevent deception from being practised, or suppression, or any other illegal act from being committed by anyone against the public welfare, so far as the use of water is concerned. Comment by Crow 2008: Cyrus was Urban Prefect in 426 and 439-41, but Praetorian Prefect in 439-41 see PLRE 2, s.v. Fl. Taurus Seleucus Cyrus.
4	Marcellinus 534	18	(Chronicle A.D. 443) The dedication of the so-called Baths of Achilles was held (442/3).
5	Martindale 1980	336-338.	See 'Fl. Taurus Seleucus Cyrus 7'.