Eventliteraturerelation details

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243
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Primary source
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(Majeska, 142 n. 50, 243) Constantine's Baths is near the walls, high up over the sea. Emperor Leo had water brought there and had a marvellously designed large stone cistern. A large wooden barrel encircled with iron bands was placed in a corner of this bath with seven taps which supplied whatever kind of water anyone wanted. There was no charge for anyone washing (there) and he (Leo) even placed a stone statue of a man in another corner as a watchman to hold a bronze bow in his hand, and bronze arrows, so that if anyone attempted to exact a fee from someone, he would shoot the barrel so that there would be no more water from it. Alongside the barrel he built a lighthouse encircled with Latin glass, and it burned continuously day and night. Some people told me that this bath lasted three hundred years after Emperor Leo. People washed in it and the water never stopped flowing from this barrel, and the lighthouse continued to burn until the Franks began to charge a fee, and then this statue shot an arrow and hit the barrel. The barrel broke and the lighthouse went out. The Franks then cut the head of the statue, as they broke many decorations. Comment by Crow 2008: For commentary, see Majeska (1984), 247.