History

The Forum of Theodosius, also called Tauros, was a monumental public space conceived and planned by Theodosius I to the west of the Forum of Constantine, where modern Beyazit Square is located.1 Theodosius oversaw the radical re-arrangement of a large open area that had served as the necropolis of the city of Byzantion in the Hellenistic period.2 The Forum, which was most likely modelled on Trajan’s Forum in Rome, was inaugurated in 393.3 It was adorned with a triumphal arch at each of the two main entrances in the east and west, a grand basilica (Basilica Theodosiana), a monumental column, and a number of honorific statues. The column of Theodosius, which was probably raised in 386 at the center of the Forum to celebrate the emperor’s victories over the Goths, was carved with relief work of exceptional quality.4 The column seems to have been equipped with an inner spiral staircase that allowed access to its top.5 A silvered bronze statue of Theodosius was set up on the column in around 393/4 but toppled in an earthquake in 480.6 Multiple authors state that Emperor Anastasios I (491-518) eventually put up his own statue on Theodosius’s empty column in ca. 506.7 After the monument’s destruction, some fragments of sculpture were visibly immured in the foundations of the Beyazit Bath and thus remain visible, while other fragments are now kept in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.8 The Basilica Theodosiana, whose remains have not been identified, was of enormous dimensions (28m × 80m) and, in all likelihood, occupied the south section of the Forum of Theodosius; it was destroyed by fire in ca. 462.9 As Sarah Bassett noted, the Forum of Theodosius contained far less statuary than that of Constantine.10 The most celebrated statue of the plaza was an equestrian image of Theodosius, or less likely of Arkadius (395-408), shown with one arm raised and the other pointing toward the city of Constantinople.11 In addition to the statues of Emperor Theodosius and his son, Arkadius, the Patria also mentions the existence of a statue of the fifth-century patrician of Gothic origin, Aspar, on a war horse.12 The monumental effigies of Theodosius and those of other emperors before and after him, were set up in such public spaces to establish and convey their distinct position within a long-standing Greco-Roman tradition of kingship.13 Our last mention of the Forum refers to a major earthquake in 599/600 that caused severe damages to the west triumphal arch.14

In the fifth century, the Forum of Theodosius served as a commercial and administrative center of Constantinople, while sources report that it was here that the emperor used to receive incoming foreign ambassadors.15 This protocol certainly changed by the eight century however, when Emperor Constantine V (741-75) transferred the Constantinopolitan cattle market from the Prosphorion harbor to the Forum of Theodosios.16

Archaeology

Our knowledge of the arrangement and architectural configuration of the buildings of the Forum is limited. Aside from the aforementioned relief fragments built into the Beyazit Bath, remains of the west arch of the Forum have been uncovered along the street of Ordu Caddesi at Beyazit Square. The foundations of the arched entrance as well as some parts of marble shafts carved with the tear drop motif and others decorated with oversized human hands, still remain in situ.17 The three-part west arch was supported by four pedestals, each bearing a quartet of monumental Prokonnesian columns.18 According to Rudolf Naumann's reconstruction of the arched entrance, the central arch measured about 7.20 meters in width and the lateral arches 3.60 meters each.19 Excavations showed that at some point the central arch was significantly reduced in size due to damage caused in an earthquake, most likely of 557.20 The east arch and the borders of the Forum of Theodosius have not been identified. Based on the discovery of the foundations of a colonnaded hall, Rudolf Naumann assumed that the western border of the Forum was located next to the remains of the west arch and to the west of the Beyazit Bath.21 After a meticulous review of Naumann’s archaeological report and plans, and in conjunction with the relevant textual sources, Franz Alto Bauer suggested that the Forum extended to the area where the main campus of Istanbul University is located, and that the historiated column of Theodosius must have been situated in the environs of present-day Eski-Saray.22 He also argued that the Basilica Theodosiana should have been located to the south of the main space of the Forum and north of the Mese.      

• 1. On the Forum of Theodosius, see Bassett 2004: 208-12; Berger 1996: 19-24; Bauer 1996: 187-203, 416-17 (with further bibliography); also Mango 1985: 43-5; Müller-Wiener 1977: 258-66.
• 2. Müller-Wiener 1977: 258.
• 3. Chronicon Paschale (translation in Whitby and Whitby 1989: 55).
• 4. Bauer 1996: 198. Theophanes, Chronographia 70: 4, gives 386 as the date of the column’s erection (translation in Mango and Scott 1997: 107).
• 5. Constantine of Rhodes, On Constantinople and the Church of the Holy Apostles 34: 212-18; George Kedrenos Synopsis historion I, 566: 4-9.
• 6. Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai 66 (translation in Herrin and Cameron 1984: 149). See also Patria 175: 47. 1-2 (translation in Berger 2013: 83).
• 7. Theophanes, Chronographia 149: 10-14 (translation in Mango and Scott 1997: 107). John Malalas, Chronographia 328: 13. 83-6 (translation in Jeffreys, Jeffreys, and Scott 1986: 225). Cf. John Zonaras, Epitome historion III, 144: 27-8.
• 8. Sande 1981: 1-78; Firatlı 1990: fig. 55-61. For an eyewitness account of the column’s demolition in ca. 1517, see Gyllius, 3, 6; translation in Byrd 2008: 151.
• 9. The only description we possess is by George Kedrenos, Synopsis historion I, 609-10: 23. See also Bauer 1996: 189-90.
• 10. Bassett 2004: 93.
• 11. See, for example, the tenth-century description by Constantine of Rhodes, On Constantinople and the Church of the Holy Apostles 35: 219-40. It is noteworthy that the Chronicon Paschale 565: 394 (translation in Whitby and Whitby 1989: 55), states that Theodosius erected a statue of himself in his Forum, but does not specify the existence of a rider and a horse. See now, James 2012: 109, n. 77. It remains uncertain whether this was the equestrian statue reused by Justinian and erected outside Hagia Sophia, as recorded by John Malalas, Chronographia 408: 94. 22-5 (translation in Jeffreys, Jeffreys, and Scott 1986: 287). On Justinian’s statue, see primarily Mango 1959: 1-16; Mango 1993: 1-8. Alternatively, Patria reports that the wider public identified the statue either as Joshua or as Belleropon on his horse, Pegasos. See Patria 176: 47 (translation in Berger 2013: 83). This tradition was picked up by Niketas Choniates, Historia 643, 649 (translation in Magoulias 1984: 353, 358), who reported on the destruction of the statue by the crusaders in 1204. For a discussion of the sources, see Bauer 1996: 197-201; Bassett 2004: 208-11.
• 12. Patria 204: 99 (translation in Berger 2013: 123). See also Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai 29:14 (translation in Herrin and Cameron 1984: 77).
• 13. On the relation of statuary selection and lines of kingship in the Forum of Theodosius, see Bassett 2004: 93-4.
• 14. See Bauer 1996: 202, n. 412.
• 15. Patria 176: 47 (translation in Berger 2013: 83). Bauer 1996: 203, noted that spaces like the Forum of Theodosius, the Forum of Constantine, and the Augusteion served similar administrative and political purposes.
• 16. Patria 264: 149; translation in Berger 2013: 205. See also, Magdalino 2007: 26.
• 17. See Guilland 1969: 53-67.
• 18. For a reconstruction of the west arch, see Naumann 1976: 117-41. See also, the discussion of the archaeological evidence in tandem with the textual dossier in Bauer 1996: 193-6.
• 19. Bauer 1996: 190.
• 20. See Theophanes, Chronographia 231: 27 (translation in Mango and Scott 1997: 339).
• 21. Naumann 1976: 117-26.
• 22. Bauer 1996: 196-7.