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Installation details

english name	Baths of Constantius/Theodosius
turkish name	-
original name	Thermae Constantianae, αἱ Κυνσταντινιαναί/Κωνσταντιαναί; Thermae Theodosianae
ottoman name	-
events	Baths of Constantius – Construction 345 - 427Baths of Constantius – Change of function (Easter) 404 - 404Baths of Constantius – Reduced supply 800 - 800Baths of Constantius – Reuse 1389 - 1391
event persons	John Chrysostom - User, Constantius II - Founder (337-361), Valens - Builder (364-378), Theodosius II - Finisher (408-450), Flavius Hierius - Inaugurator (425-432)
purposes	Bathing (public)
still exists	No
type	Bath
location	-
description	Located in Region X. The construction of this bath took extremely long: it begun named as Constantinianae, but it was completed as Theodosianae. Due to the altitude of Region X, the baths were probably supplied by the Valens Waterway (Crow et al., 2008, p. 10, 13). According to the Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai (73-74), the baths were adorned with statues. The bath has falsely attributed to Constantine the Great (r. 306-337) by sources such as the Chronikai (supported by Eusebius who merely stated Constantine built baths in general), but it was actually built by his son Constantius II (r. 337-361). The baths were used for Easter Celebration in 404 by John Chrysostom, who was condemned after quarreling with empress Eudoxia in 403 over her silver statue. A Russian account from the 14th century still thought the baths to be in function, albeit at reduced capacity. Majeska, 1984, p. 247 thinks these are actually the ones built by emperor Basil I above the Boukoleon, near the Pharos terrace, which was decorated by Constantine VII (Cf. 'Bath of Leo VI?') (EDITORS: check).
comments	Completed as Thermae Theodosianae. EDITORS: see Crow et al 2008, 13, 'The aqueduct of Valens can be associated with the higher ground of the new Constantinian and later city... Region X, where th eThermae Constantinianae (not completed before 425) > see system and dating. See also Janin, 1964, p. 219-220.
systems	Valens Waterway
external	-

Literature of related events

#	Event	Code	Type	Page	Excerpt
1	Construction: 345	Callistus 1300	Primary source	225	(Historia Ecclesiastica 8) The emperor (Valens) ordered that the walls of Chalcedon opposite Byzantium be torn down ... The wall then was torn down at the command of the ruler, and the stones were immediately brought to Constantinople to the public bath of Constantianae.
2	Construction: 345	Chronicon Paschale 641 Whitby	Primary source	25-26	(Dindorf 534) In the time of these consuls (345) the building of the Constantianae bath in Constantinople near the Apostles was begun by Constantius Augustus, from day 17 of the month April.
3	Construction: 345	Chronicon Paschale 641 Whitby	Primary source	70	(Dindorf 581-82) In the time of these consuls (427) the bath was inaugurated which was formerly the Constantinianae, but now the Theodosianae, after Hierius, twice prefect and consul had completed it in the month Hyperberetaeus, on day 5 before Nones of October (3 October).
4	Construction: 345	Crow, Bardill & Bayliss 2008		pp. 9-10
5	Construction: 345	Marcellinus 380 Rolfe	Primary source	379-381	(Ammianus Marcellinus 31.1.4) Finally, when the old walls of Chalcedon were torn down, in order that a bath might be built at Constantinople, and the rows of stones were taken apart, there was found on a squared block hidden in the midst of the structure of the wall an inscription containing the following Greek verses, clearly revealing what was to happen: When gaily through the city's festal streets Shal whirl soft maidens in a happy dance, When mournfully a wall shall guard a bath, Then countless hordes of men spread far and wide With warlike arms shall cross clear Istrus' stream To ravage Scythia's fields and Mysia's land. But mad with hope when they Pannonia raid, There battle and life's end their course shall check.
6	Construction: 345	Marcellinus 534	Primary source	14	(Chronicle A.D. 427) The Theodosian baths were dedicated (426/7).
7	Construction: 345	Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae 425	Primary source	229	First Region ... Contains in it: ... Arcadianae baths ... Fifteen private baths ... Second Region ... Contains in it: ... Baths of Zeuxippus ... Thirteen private baths ... Third Region ... Contains in it: ... Eleven private baths Fourth Region ... Contains in it: ... Nymphaeum ... Seven private baths Fifth Region ... Contains in it: ... Honorianae baths ... Theodosian cistern ... Eudociane baths ... Nymphaeum ... Eleven private baths Sixth Region ... Contains in it: ... Nine private baths Seventh region ... Contains in it: ... Carosianae baths ... Eleven private baths Eighth Region ... Contains in it: ... Ten private baths Ninth Region ... Contains in it: ... Anastasianae baths ... Fifteen private baths Tenth Region ... Contains in it: ... Constantinianae baths ... Large nymphaeum ... (Twenty-two?) private baths Eleventh Region ... Contains in it: ... Arcadiaca cistern. Modestiaca cistern ... Fourteen private baths Twelfth Region ... Contains in it: ... Five private baths Thirteenth Region (Sycae) ... Contains in it: ... Honorianae baths ... Five private baths Fourteenth Region (Rhegium?) ... Contains in it: ... Nymphaeum. Baths ... Five private baths Collection of the city ... The Constantinopolitan city therefore has: ... Eight baths (the regional list gives nine) ... Four cisterns (only three were listed) ... Four Nymphaea (correct) ... One hundred and fifty-three private baths (if the total is correct, it suggests that there were twenty-two in the tenth region). Comment by Crow 2008: See the discussion and translation into German of the Notitia by Berger (1997a).
8	Construction: 345	Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai 829	Primary source	-	(Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai 85) The statues of Perseus and Andromeda came, so we are told, in the reign of Constantius, after the completion of the church of Antioch, to the bath of Constantinianae. Comment by Crow 2008: On the statues, see Bassett (2004), 156-8.
9	Construction: 345	Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai 829	Primary source	153-155	(Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai 73-4) 73 The Constantinianai were built by Constantine the Great, as was the so-called Fossa. There were many remarkable statues in the Constantinianai which have been destroyed. 74 ... the cistern of the Basilica (was built) by Constantine the Great, the Chrysorrhoe by Licinius (308-324) at the order of Constantine. The loss of the statues in the baths at Constantinianai (Constantianai) probably indicates that the baths themselves were no longer in use by the time this text was written (c. 800) The Chrysorrhoe is unlikely to have been a cistern, contrary to Janin (1964), 2012.
10	Construction: 345	Socrates 439	Primary source	99	(Church History 4.8) Of the Oracle found inscribed on a Stone, when the Walls of Chalcedon were demolished by Order of the Emperor Valens. An order was issued by the emperor that the walls of Chalcedon, a city opposite to Byzantium, should be demolished: for he had sworn to do this, after he should have conquered the usurper, because the Chalcedonians had sided with the usurper, and had used insulting language toward Valens, and shut their gates against him as he passed by their city. In consequence of the imperial decree, therefore, the walls were razed and the stones were conveyed to Constantinople to serve for the formation of the public baths which are called Constantianae. On one of these stones an oracle was found engraven, which had lain concealed for a long time, in which it was predicted that when the city should be supplied with abundance of water, then should the wall serve for a bath; and that innumerable hordes of barbarous nations having overrun the provinces of the Roman empire, and done a great deal of mischief, should themselves at length be destroyed. We shall here insert this oracle for the gratification of the studious: 'When nymphs their mystic dance with wat'ry feet Shall tread through proud Byzantium's stately street; When rage the city wall shall overthrow, Whose stones to fence a bathing-place shall go: Then savage lands shall send forth myriad swarms, Adorned with golden locks and burnished arms, That having Ister's silver streams o'erpast, Shall Scythian fields and Moesia's meadows waste. But then with conquest flushed they enter Thrace, Fate shall assign them there a burial-place.' Such was the prophecy. And indeed it afterwards happened, that when Valens by building an aqueduct supplied Constantinople with abundance of water, the barbarous nations made various irruptions, as we shall hereafter see. But it happened that some explained the prediction otherwise. For when that aqueduct was completed, Clearchus the prefect of the city built a stately bath (hydreion megiston = large nymphaeum), to which the name of 'the Plentiful Water' was given, in that which is now called the Forum of Theodosius: on which account the people celebrated a festival with great rejoicings, whereby there was, say they, an accomplishment of those words of the oracle, 'their mystic dance with wat'ry feet shall tread through proud Byzantium's stately street.' But the completion of the prophecy took place afterwards. While the demolition was in progress, the Constantinopolitans besought the emperor to suspend the destruction of the walls; and the inhabitants of Nicomedia and Nicaea, sending from Bithynia to Constantinople, made the same request. But the emperor being exceedingly exasperated against the Chalcedonian, was with difficulty prevailed upon to listen to these petitions in their favour: but that he might perform his oath, he commanded that the walls should be pulled down, while at the same time the breaches should be repaired by being filled up with other small stones. Whence it is that in the present day one may see in certain parts of the wall very inferior materials laid upon prodigiously large stones, forming those unsightly patched which were made on that occasion. So much will be sufficient on the walls of Chalcedon. Comment by Crow 2008: According to the Notitia of c. 425 the nymphaeum maius was in Region X, and therefore near, but not in, the Forum of Theodosius, which was divided between Regions VII and VIII, see the discussion in Chapter 6.
11	Construction: 345	Themistius 357	Primary source	223	(Oratio IV.58bc) And since shortly before the speech has mentioned Alexander, Pella did in no way receive a benefit or profit from the good fortune of Alexander, but after he had acquired such a great swathe of land for himself he did not make his hometown larger by a single plethron, whereas the city who is of the same age as the imperial office fittingly grows up together with the emperor. For I hear that the father at the same time clad the city with the circular wall and the son with the purple gown. As a consequence having justly tripled his rule he has multiplied the one (i.e. the city) who is of the same age as it (i.e. the rule), not by extending the circuit but by devising additions to its beauty, and by searching more bountiful sources of water and building baths that bear his name, of which you already see the size, and whose beauty is expected to be in accordance with this size, by girding her (i.e. the city) with a covered course as with a colourful sash, and by braiding the imperial market-place like some veil with gold and particles. But most lovely and desirable of all is that while he himself does not live in luxury he provides an abundance of luxury to the city, and while he closes off his own soul to pleasures he assembles for you the licit ones from everywhere.
12	Construction: 345	Zonaras 1145	Primary source	226	(History 13.16.33) Valens used the material from the walls of Chalcedon for the building of a conduit (holkos) of water, which the parlance of the people calls the aqueduct (agogos), and also called it 'Valens', through which he caused the water to enter the city in order that it had water in abundance both for other uses and for baths (loutra).
13	Change of function: 404	Socrates 439	Primary source	151	(Church History 6.18) ... the emperor therefore sent to tell John that he could not go to the church (Hagia Sophia), because two synods had condemned him. Accordingly Chrysostom was silenced, and went no more to the church; but those who were of his party celebrated Easter in the public baths which are called Constantinae, and thenceforth left the church.
14	Change of function: 404	Sozomen 443	Primary source	412	(Church History 8.21) When the people perceived the plot, they did not use the church on the following day, but celebrated the Paschal feast in the very spacious public baths called after the emperor Constantius.
15	Reduced supply: 800	Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai 829	Primary source	153-155	(Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai 73-4) 73 The Constantinianai were built by Constantine the Great, as was the so-called Fossa. There were many remarkable statues in the Constantinianai which have been destroyed. 74 ... the cistern of the Basilica (was built) by Constantine the Great, the Chrysorrhoe by Licinius (308-324) at the order of Constantine. The loss of the statues in the baths at Constantinianai (Constantianai) probably indicates that the baths themselves were no longer in use by the time this text was written (c. 800) The Chrysorrhoe is unlikely to have been a cistern, contrary to Janin (1964), 2012.
16	Reuse: 1389	Anonymous 1391	Primary source	243	(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.
17	Reuse: 1389	Majeska 1984	Secundary literature	247