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Event details

installation	Baths of Zeuxippos
name	Baths of Zeuxippos - Damage
event type	Demolition/damage
start date	532
end date	532
date comments	-
persons	-
description	The baths suffered fire damage during the Nika riots in 532 as the rioters put the city to the torch. The great fire started at the praetorium of the prefects and extended into Region I (old Hagia Sophia, parts of the palace including Zeuxippos and as far as the Forum of Constantine). Lydus (6th century), Malalas (6th century) and Theophanes (9th century) all provide the detail that especially the columns were damaged by the fire. [CHECK] Procopius, as eyewitness (6th century), records that damaged/destroyed buildings such as the propylaea of the Palace, the Bronze Gate (Chalke) and the House of Ares, as well as the Baths of Zeuxippos and their colonaded stoas as far as the Forum of Constantine, were restored by Justinian afterwards (Buildings, 1.10.3).
comments	Some interesting details emerge here: in their descriptions of the Nika riot, the sources list different baths as being damaged. Could this simply be a different scope of the city, or could someone have conflated the baths of Zeuxippos with those of Alexander? Those who omit Zeuxippos in favour of Alexander all are non-contemporaries. - Sources that mention Zeuxippos: Procopius (Wars and Buildings, 6th century), Lydus (6th century), Malalas (6th century) - Sources that mention Alexander: Chronicon Paschale (7th century), Theophanes (9th century)

Literature connected to this Event

#	Code	Page	Excerpt
1	Chronicon Paschale 641 Whitby	118-119	(Dindorf 622) And on the Friday, day 16 of the same month (January 532), the people went to the praetorium of the prefects, and threw fire there, and the roofs of the two imperial houses were burnt and of the same praetorium only where the archives were. For a north wind blew and drove the fire away from the praetorium; and the bath of Alexander was burnt and the hospice of Eubulus in part and St. Irene ( ... ) which had been built by Illus the Isaurian, who rebelled against Zeno the emperor.
2	Lydus 550	245	(On the Magistracies 3.70) (On the Nika of January 532) ... the multitude rebelled and, having united in one ill-starred design, burned almost the entire city. And the Cappadocian disappeared, but the fire got its start at the gates of the court. Then from there it spread to the First Temple. From the latter it leapt to the council-house of Julian called Senatus after the Assembly Hall of Augustus. From this it proceeded to the forum called Zeuxippus after King Zeuxippus, under whom, in the thirty-eighth Olympiad, Megarians who had emigrated to Byzantium called the forum thus in his honour, just as the Megarians who had colonized Cyzicus named the Arcades of Charidemus after him. The latter, too, is mentioned as having reigned over the Greeks, as Castor recorded in his Epitome of Annals. As for the public bath, it was named Severeum after Severus, a commander of the Romans, who, because he was afflicted with an illness of the joints, had the bath built for himself while he was tarrying in Thrace on account of his dispute with Niger. When structures of such grandeur had been turned into flames, the colonnades which lined the city all the way up to the Forum of Constantine and shaded the broad street with graceful contours by the beauty and size of their columns were inescapably caught up.
3	Malalas 565	276	(Chronicle 18.71) (14 January 532) Part of the public colonnade as far as the Zeuxippon (475) was burnt.
4	Müller-Wiener 1977	51
5	Procopius 550 Dewing	223	(Wars 1.24.9) (On the Nika riots of January 532) The sanctuary of Sophia and the baths of Zeuxippos, and the portion of the imperial residence from the propylaea as far as the market place (forum) which bears the name of Constantine, in addition to many houses of wealthy men and vast amount of treasure.
6	Procopius 550 Dewing Downey	81	(Buildings 1.10.3) (After the Nika riots of January 532) At this point, only this shall be set down, that this Emperor's work includes the propylaea of the Palace and the so-called Bronze Gate as far as what is called the House of Ares, and beyond the Palace both the Baths of Zeuxippus and the great colonaded stoas and indeed everything on either side of them as far as the market-place which bears the name of Constantine.
7	Theophanes 814	279	(Chronicle AM 6024) Next they (the rioters) went and burned the baths of Alexander, the great hospice of Sampson (where the patients perished), and the Great Church along with all its columns. It collapsed entirely on all four sides.
8	Zytka 2019	30,