The Palace of Lausus or Lausos, also known as the Lauseion , was a 5th-century building located in Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

 that was acquired and owned by the eunuch Lausus.

Lausus

Lausus, who had formerly served as a eunuch in the court of Theodosius II

Theodosius II

Theodosius II , commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger, or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople...

, became the imperial chamberlain sometime around 420. He was described in a letter by the bishop of Caesarea as being charitable to the poor, but also being very wealthy and owning a fine estate. Whilst he is reported to have lost his position as imperial chamberlain to Macrobius only two years after promotion, he may have regained the title ten years or so later following recommendation by Cyril of Alexandria

Cyril of Alexandria

Cyril of Alexandria was the Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444. He came to power when the city was at its height of influence and power within the Roman Empire. Cyril wrote extensively and was a leading protagonist in the Christological controversies of the later 4th and 5th centuries...

, re-establishing his wealth.

Description of the palace

The Palace of Lausus was renowned throughout Constantinople for the vast collection of heroic and mythological statues that its owner housed within its walls. Lausus amassed this huge collection from eastern temples that were being sacked and emptied during the reign of Theodosius – and, as such, his collection was likely the most diverse to have existed in Constantinople at the time. Lausus' collection of pagan statues was the first that was dispassionately assembled on purely aesthetic and historical grounds, even though he was reportedly a devout Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

. Foremost amongst his collection was the statue of Zeus from Olympia carved by Phidias

Phidias

Phidias or the great Pheidias , was a Greek sculptor, painter and architect, who lived in the 5th century BC, and is commonly regarded as one of the greatest of all sculptors of Classical Greece: Phidias' Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World...

 in circa 500 BC and Praxiteles

Praxiteles

Praxiteles of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attic sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue...

' Aphrodite of Cnidus. Lausus is also known to have owned the Hera of Samos and the Athena of Lindos, as well as statues of both Eros

Eros

Eros , in Greek mythology, was the Greek god of love. His Roman counterpart was Cupid . Some myths make him a primordial god, while in other myths, he is the son of Aphrodite....

 and Kairos

Kairos

Kairos is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment . The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time in between, a moment of indeterminate time in which something special...

. Reports indicate that Lausus had arranged his collection in a certain order. The aforementioned statue of Zeus was located in an apse at the far end of the hall, with Eros and Kairos at his side. One wall was dedicated to sculptures of goddesses, the other of animals.

The exact location of the Palace of Lausus in Constantinople is a matter of debate, although it is generally accepted that the Palace was connected to the western flank of the Hippodrome

Hippodrome of Constantinople

The Hippodrome of Constantinople was a circus that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. Today it is a square named Sultanahmet Meydanı in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with only a few fragments of the original structure surviving...

 by a rotunda

Rotunda (architecture)

A rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building . The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome...

, and that it was adjacent to the Palace of Antiochos

Palace of Antiochos

The Palace of Antiochos was an early 5th-century palace in the Byzantine capital, Constantinople . It has been identified with a palatial structure excavated in the 1940s and 1950s close to the Hippodrome of Constantinople, some of whose remains are still visible today...

. It was also very close to the Mese

Mese (Constantinople)

The Mese was the main thoroughfare of ancient Constantinople . The street was the main scene of Byzantine imperial processions. Its ancient course is largely followed by the modern Divanyolu Avenue.- Description :...

, the central thoroughfare of Constantinople, that led from the Augustaeum to the Golden Gate. See the map on the right for a more detailed analysis.

Both Zonaras

Joannes Zonaras

Ioannes Zonaras was a Byzantine chronicler and theologian, who lived at Constantinople.Under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos he held the offices of head justice and private secretary to the emperor, but after Alexios' death, he retired to the monastery of St Glykeria, where he spent the rest of his...

 and Cedrenus report that the Palace of Lausus, along with much of the city, was destroyed by fire in 475. Lausus' entire collection was lost to the blaze.
The Palace's destruction occurred long after Lausus' death, which had transpired some thirty years earlier, around 436.

Today, the Cistern of Philoxenos

Cistern of Philoxenos

The Cistern of Philoxenos , or Binbirdirek Cistern, is a man-made subterranean reservoir in Istanbul, situated between the Forum of Constantine and the Hippodrome of Constantinople in the Sultanahmet district...

is located beneath the site where the Palace of Lausus is commonly accepted to have stood. The ruins of the palace of Antiochos still remain on the site today, as does the rubble from the rotunda joining the Palace of Lausus to the Hippodrome.