The statuary collection held at the baths of Zeuxippus (Ap 2) and the search for Constantine’s museological intentions

Abstract

Constantine intended to portrait his very own Constantinople as the new (third) Troy, the most complete portrait of Greek and Roman paidea. He and his team had no more than six years to redesign and rebuilt an entire city, the old Byzantium; plastic arts, mainly sculpture, played an important role in the entire public process. Looking once again at the archaeological remains of the statuary collection held at the baths of Zeuxippus, in relation to their literary description by Christodoros (Greek Anthology II), the present paper essays a museological reading of these statues as part of the global architectural plan of Constantine for his own new capital of the Imperium.