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(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.
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