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Event details

name	Basilica Cistern – Construction
event type	Construction
start date	527
end date	541
date comments	The project was possibly not completed until 541 when Malalas records that the city prefect Longinus repaved the open courtyard and constructed the colonnades (Crow et al., 2008, p. 17).
installations	Basilica Cistern
persons	Justinian - Founder (527-565), Longinus - Builder (537-541)
description	Before the cistern, the location housed an overground structure that included a basilica and a library. These original buildings were destroyed in a fire in 476. The basilica and octagon were destroyed by the Nika riots in 532. Longinus the city prefect restored the courtyard and buildings; a project that was completed around 542. It is during this same restoration that Justinian built the Basilica cistern below the courtyard (Müller-Wiener, 1977, p. 283-284). According to Procopius' Buildings, the reason for the construction of the Basilica Cistern were the seasonal droughts. The cistern was built under the courtyard of the Imperial Portico. As Crow et al., 2008, p. 17 notes: the construction of this cistern reveals the challenge of acquiring a large public space in the crowded eastern end of the city. The Basilica Cistern was supplied by the Hadrian Waterway.
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Literature connected to this Event

#	Code	Page	Excerpt
1	Chronicon Paschale 641 Whitby	110	(Dindorf 618-19) The same emperor (Justinian I) also completed the public bath, the one in the quarter of Dagistheus, which Anastasius the emperor had formerly begun to build in Constantinople. And the same emperor also made the central court of the Basilica of Illus a great cistern, wishing to send into it the water from the Hadrianic aqueduct. The same emperor restored this aqueduct, which had formerly been constructed by emperor Hadrian for the Byzantines to supply water before Byzantium had a water supply. Comment by Crow 2008: Compare Cedrenus, History 1.645.
2	Crow, Bardill & Bayliss 2008	17, 114
3	Malalas 565	252	(Chronicle 18.17) The emperor (Justinian I) also completed the public bath in Constantinople known as Dagitheos', which the emperor Anastasios had begun to build. He built the central hall of the Basilican cistern (436), intending to bring the water of Hadrian's aqueduct into it. He also reconstructed the city's aqueduct (i.e. the supply line of Valens).
4	Malalas 565	286	(Chronicle 18.91) In that year (541/2) Longinus was appointed city prefect. He paved the central hall of the Basilican cistern. He also built the colonnades of the Basilica (above the cistern) magnificently. Comment by Crow 2008: This appears to mean that he repaved the area above the cistern so as to restore the public space.
5	Procopius 550 Dewing Downey	91-92	(Buildings 1.11.10-15) As one sails from the Propontis up towards the eastern side of the city, there is on the left a public bath. This is called the Arcadianae, and it is an ornament to Constantinople, large as the city is. There this Emperor (Justinian) built a court which lies outside the city, and it is always open to those who tarry there for promenades and to those who anchor there as they are sailing by ... I shall now describe the labours which were carried out here by this Emperor (Justinian I) to ensure an abundant water-supply. In the summer season the imperial city used to suffer from scarcity of water as a general thing, though at the other seasons it enjoyed a sufficiency. Because that period always brings droughts, the springs, running less freely than at the other seasons, used to deliver through the conduits a less abundant flow of water to the city. Wherefore the Emperor devised the following plan. At the Imperial Portico, where the lawyers and prosecutors prepare their cases, as well as all others who are concerned with such matters, there is a certain very large court, very long, and broad in proportion, surrounded by columns on the four sides, not set upon a foundation of earth by those who constructed it, but built upon living rock. Four colonaded stoas surround the court, standing one on each side. Excavating to a great depth this court and one of the stoas (that which faces toward the south), the Emperor Justinian made a suitable storage reservoir for the summer season, to contain the water which had been wasted because of its very abundance during the other seasons. For receiving this overflow of the aqueduct when its stream is spilling over, this cistern both furnishes a place for the water which for the moment can find no space, and provides a supply for those who need it when water becomes scarce. Thus the Emperor Justinian made provision that the people of Byzantium should not be in want of fresh water.