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Quotations
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Themistius on the city suffering from thirst
[...] δίψει δὲ αὐτὴν καὶ αὐχμῷ ὁρῴη πιεζομένην καὶ ὀλίγον ἀπολιμπάνουσαν τοῦ ἀποπτῆναι αὐτῷ χρυσῷ καὶ αὐτῇ πορφύρᾳ.
Themistius, Or. 13, 167d, G. Downey – Norman, A.F. (eds), Themistii orationes 1 (Leipzig 1965), pp. 240-1.
Procopius on the works of Justinian I to ensure the capital's water supply
Ὅπερ δὲ ὕδατος εὐπορίας πέρι ἐνταῦθα διαπεπόνηται τῷ βασιλεῖ τούτῳ αὐτίκα δηλώσω. θέρους ὥρᾳ ἡ βασιλὶς πόλις ὕδατος ὑπεσπάνιζεν ἐκ τοῦ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον, καίπερ ἐς τοὺς ἄλλους καιροὺς διαρκὲς ἔχουσα. τοῦ γὰρ καιροῦ τηνικάδε αὐχμοὺς ἔχοντος ἐλασσόνως ἢ κατὰ τὰς ἄλλας ὥρας αἱ πηγαὶ τὸ ὕδωρ ἀποβλυστάνουσαι καταδεεστέραν παρείχοντο τὴν ὀχεταγωγίαν τῇ πόλει. διὸ δὴ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐπενόει τοιάδε. κατὰ τὴν βασιλέως στοάν, ἵνα δὴ τὰς δίκας παρασκευάζονται οἵ τε ῥήτορες καὶ εἰσαγωγεῖς καὶ εἴ τινες ἄλλοι τοῦ ἔργου τούτου ἐπιμελοῦνται, αὐλή τίς ἐστιν ὑπερμεγέθης, περιμήκης μὲν καὶ εὔρους ἱκανῶς ἔχουσα, ἐν τετραπλεύρῳ δὲ περίστυλος οὖσα, οὐκ ἐπὶ γεώδους ἐδάφους τοῖς αὐτὴν δειμαμένοις, ἀλλ’ ἐπὶ πέτρας πεποιημένη. στοαί τε τὴν αὐλὴν περιβάλλουσι τέσσαρες, κατὰ πλευρὰν ἑκάστην ἑστῶσαι. ταύτην τε οὖν καὶ τῶν στοῶν μίαν, ἥπερ αὐτῆς τέτραπται πρὸς ἄνεμον νότον, ἐς βάθους μέγα τι χρῆμα κατορύξας Ἰουστινιανὸς βασιλεύς, ἀποβαλλομένοις τῇ περιουσίᾳ κατὰ τὰς ἄλλας ὥρας τοῖς ὕδασιν ἐς θέρος ἐν ἐπιτηδείῳ θησαυρὸν ἔθετο. δεχόμενα γὰρ τὰ ἔλυτρα τάδε τοῦ ὀχετοῦ τὴν ἐπιρροὴν ὑπερβλύζοντος στενοχωρουμένοις μὲν τοῖς ὕδασι τότε χαρίζεται χώραν, ποθεινῶν δὲ αὐτῶν γινομένων ἐπὶ καιροῦ τοῖς δεομένοις παρέχεται πόρον. οὕτω μὲν μὴ προσδεῖν Βυζαντίοις ποτίμων ὑδάτων βασιλεὺς Ἰουστινιανὸς διεπράξατο.
I shall now describe the labours which were carried out here by this Emperor 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 (aulê), very long, and broad in proportion, surrounded by columns (peristylos) on the four sides (tetrapleuron), not set upon a foundation of earth by those who constructed it, but built upon living rock. Four colonnaded 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.
Procopius, Buildings I, xi.10-15, trans. H.B. Dewing, Procopius Opera, vol. 7. Loeb Classical Library (London 1940), pp.90-3.
Statues of the Lausus collection in the vicinity of the Philoxenus cistern
Ὅτι ἐν τοῖς Λαύσου ἦσαν οἰκήματα παμποίκιλα καὶ ξενοδοχεῖά τινα, ὅπου ἡ φιλόξενος ἐχορήγει τὸ ὕδωρ, ἔνθα ἔσχε τὴν κλῆσιν. ἵστατο δὲ καὶ τὸ ἄγαλμα τῆς Λινδίας Ἀθηνᾶς τετράπηχυ ἐκ λίθου σμαράγδου, ἔργον Σκύλλιδος καὶ Διποίνου τῶν ἀγαλματουργῶν, ὅπερ ποτὲ δῶρον ἔπεμψε Σέσωστρις Αἰγύπτου τύραννος Κλεοβούλῳ τῷ Λινδίῳ τυράννῳ. καὶ ἡ Κνιδία Ἀφροδίτη ἐκ λίθου λευκῆς, γυμνή, μόνην τὴν αἰδῶ τῇ χειρὶ περιστέλλουσα, ἔργον τοῦ Κνιδίου Πραξιτέλους.
[transl.: «Note that in the quarter of Lausos there used to be various buildings and certain hostels at the place where the [cistern of] Philoxenus ["fond of guests"] provided its water, whence its name. There stood there also a statue of Lindian Athena, four cubits high, of emerald stone, the work of the sculptors Skyllis and Dipoinos, which Sesostris, tyrant of Egypt, once sent as a gift to Kleoboulos, tyrant of Lindos. Likewise the Knidian Aphrodite of white stone, naked, shielding with her hand only her pudenda, a work of Praxiteles of Knidos.»]
George Cedrenus, Historiarum Compendium 1, ed. I. Bekker (CSHB, Bonn 1838), p. 564; transl. in Guberti Bassett, S., “ ‘Excellent Offerings’: The Lausos Collection in Constantinople,” The Art Bulletin 82.1 (Mar. 2000), pp. 6-7.
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