Practise the rough Diversions of the Stadia.
Cedrinus relates, that in this Bagnio there was a pleasant Variety of Prospects of surprizing Art, both in Marble and Stone-work, in Statues of Brass, and Figures of Persons of Antiquity, who seem’d to want nothing but a Soul to animate and enliven them. Among these celebrated Pieces of the most exquisite Workmanship, was the Statue of old Homer, in a thoughtful Posture, just as he was, his Hands folded in his Breast, his Beard carelessly hanging down, his Hair very thin before, his Face wrinkled with Age, and the Cares of the World; his Nose well proportion’d, his Eyes fix’d in their Sockets, as is usual with blind Persons, which he was generally look’d upon to be. Over his close Coat hung a loose Garment, and under his Feet, upon the Pedestal of the Pillar, was a Bridle in Brass. This Place was also beautify’d with the brazen Statues of all those renown’d Personages who had been famous for Wisdom, Poetry, Oratory or Courage, throughout the World, but were all destroy’d by Fire. Among these were the Statues of Deiphobus, Æschines, Demosthenes, Aristotle, Euripides, Hesiod, Theocritus, Simonides, Anaximenes, Calchas, Pyrrhus, Amymone; of Sappho, Apollo, Venus, Chrysa, Julius Cæsar, Plato, Hermaphroditus, Herinna, Terpander, Pericles, Pythagoras, Stesichorus, Democritus; of Hercules, Aurora, Æneas, Creusa, Helenus, Andromachus, Menelaus, Helena, Ulysses, Hecuba, Cassandra, Polyxena, Ajax, Paris, and his Oenone; of Milo, Dares and Entellus, Charidemus, Melampus, Panthous, Demogeron, Isocrates, Amphiaraus, Sarpedon, Achilles, Mercury, Apuleius, Diana, Pherecydes, Heraclitus, Cratinus, Menander, Amphitryon, Thucydides, Herodotus, Pindar, Xenophon, Alcmæon, Pompey and Virgil. There were also many other Statues which have been describ’d in Verse by Christodorus a Poet of Thebes, or, as others report, a Native of Coptos in Ægypt, which, were it not a Work of Prolixity, I would explain to the Reader. There stood near the Bagnio call’d Zeuxippum, a small Bath, taken Notice of by Leontius in the following Lines:
Let not thy stately Walls, O proud Zeuxippum,
Resent the Meanness of this little Bath.
In Heaven’s high Tower, near the Constellation
Of Ursa Major shines the Polar Star.
There is nothing of the Zeuxippum remaining at present, nor of many other fine Bagnio’s, although we have many Inscriptions relating to them; as of that famous one celebrated by Agathius, in which Venus is said to have bathed her self; also of another call’d Didymum, in which both Sexes used to wash, describ’d in Verse by Paulus Silentiarius, and a third made memorable by an Inscription of the learned Leontius. Besides these, there was another named Cupido, describ’d by the ingenious Marianus; yet are all of them either entirely ruin’d, or so defaced by the Mahometans, that you cannot discover who built them, or to whom they belong’d.
Chap. VIII.
Of the Hospitals of Sampson and Eubulus.
THERE was built, as Procopius says, a Hospital for the Relief of poor and sick People. It was founded in ancient Times by a holy Man, whose Name was Sampson. But it did not escape the Flames, occasion’d by a riotous Mob, which burnt down that and the Church of St. Sophia. It was rebuilt by Julian, who beautify’d and enlarged it with a Multitude of small handsome Apartments, and afterwards endow’d it with a yearly Stipend, for the Support and Comfort of the miserable and distressed. But the good Emperor not being content with this Oblation he had made to God, with the Co-assistance of his Imperial Consort Theodora, built over-against it two other Hospitals on the same Ground, where formerly stood the Houses of Isidorus and Arcadius. Thus far Procopius. From whence I would observe, that the Hospital of Sampson was not far from the Church of St. Sophia, and have read in the History of an unknown Author, that it stood over-against it. I am confirm’d in this Opinion by the Authority of Zonaras, who tells us in the like Manner, that there was a Fire occasion’d by a Faction, which burnt down the great Church, that of St. Irene, the Hospital of Eubulus, the Chalca, the Bagnio of Severus, call’d the Zeuxippum, and many other Buildings. This is farther attested by Cedrinus, who speaking of the same Fire, tells us, That a great Part of the City, the Churches of St. Sophia and St. Irene, the Hospitals of Sampson and Eubulus, with the sick People inhabiting them, as also the Augustean Gate-house of the Basilica, the Chalca, the two Portico’s, as far as the Forum, the Octogon and the Bagnio of Zeuxippus, were destroy’d by Fire. After I had made the former Quotation from the printed Works of Procopius, I lighted by chance upon a Manuscript of him, wherein I was inform’d, that the Hospital of Sampson stood between the two Churches of St. Sophia and St. Irene.