Byzantine Preservation of Ancient Monuments at Miletus in Caria

195

remained standing as empty shells, because population, needs, and means had dropped
below earlier levels.35 Miletus fared even worse in the middle Byzantine period, dur-
ing which the site appears to have been abandoned altogether,36 but during the early
Byzantine period the ancient city centre was continuously maintained, renovated, and
redeveloped, as is attested by the following archaeological evidence.
The orthogonal street grid that dates back from the Archaic period,37 but later
became associated with Miletus’ Classical city planner Hippodamus, remained in use,
and some streets appear to have been paved with marble for the first time.38 Previously,
in Greek and Roman times, normal streets had simple dirt floors,39 and the new mar-
ble pavements may have been laid in response to the annual flooding that started in
late antiquity and would have turned dirt floors impossibly muddy. Numerous medi-
um-sized lyre capitals that consist of marble from Proconnesus near Constantinople
and were imported in the fifth or sixth century may also be related to the renovation
of streets: the finding places of the capitals are not recorded, but they were found in
the early twentieth century, when the city centre was explored through long trenches
along the streets, and the capitals may thus have been used to build or renovate porti-
coes along streets,40 as was customary in late antiquity.41
The Market Gate was renovated at an unknown point in time during late antiq-
uity or the early Byzantine period, and an inscription found among the debris of the
gate, crediting the rule of Emperor Justinian with the “building” of a gate, may in fact
refer to the renovation in question.42 The Baths of Faustina were subject to a major
renovation,43 for which Hesychios, son of Hesychios, was honoured with a statue and
a dedicatory inscription that includes crosses, thus apparently confirming that Hesy-
chios was a Christian.44 It is not clear whether this Hesychios was identical with, or
related to, the homonymous historian.45
Other ancient buildings in the centre of Miletus were not simply renovated but
fundamentally redeveloped in the early Byzantine period: a late Roman peristyle house
and an adjacent temple of Dionysus were converted into the episcopal residence and
35 Harris (1999); Lançon (2000); Behrwald/Witschel (2012).
36 Niewöhner (2013a), pp. 224-231; Niewöhner (2016e).
37 von Graeve (2006), pp. 258-262; Niewöhner (2016c), pp. 68-77.
38 Niewöhner (2015b), pp. 202-205.
39 von Graeve (2005), pp. 168-170 fig. 1-2; Niewöhner (2015b), pp. 202-205; Niewöhner (2016c), p. 70;
Niewöhner (2oi6d), pp. 236-240 fig. 22-21.
40 Niewöhner (2016a), pp. 107-108. All other known buildings from the early Byzantine period employed
tailor-made capitals from local marble (see below) rather than standardized imports from Proconnesus/
Constantinople.
41 For example at Didyma in the immediate neighbourhood of Miletus: Tuchelt (1980), pp. 120-121;
Schneider (1990). A sixth-century date may be deduced from the porticoes capitals: cf. Peschlow (1975),
pp. 216-218, cat. 9-npl. 39,3-5.
42 Foss (1972), p. 481 n. 45; Foss (1977), p. 478 n. 49.
43 Schneider (2009).
44 von Graeve (1997-2006), vol. 1, pp. 116-117, 213-214 cat. 341-343.
45 Feissel (2004), pp. 319-321; Thonemann (2011), pp. 315-317.