Supplicant Soldiers' Relief from Istanbul

[Renatus]

It would be great if the stone with the Supplicant Soldiers relief has been saved. I'm wondering now if its not in the restored Hamami building itself?

The photograph shows the relief exhibited in a museum setting (and remarkably unscathed, considering that it had had a flight of concrete steps erected against it). The caption states that it is in the Beyazit Hamam museum. I assume, like you, that part of the restored building has been set aside as a museum. Either that or there is a separate museum nearby. An enquiry would be worthwhile, if you have time when you are there.

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As to the Soldiers and their gear- having closely inspected another stone with similar relief's on them in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum I can say that they all wear Muscle Cuirasses with defined rims around the edges. Most of the infantry have spears and shields and the shield design is the Chi-Rho symbol. This is exactly what is seen in other photographs of the 'missing'(presumed found) Supplicant Soldier stone.

I am aware of a similar relief in the Archaeological Museum but that only shows the inside of the shields. Do you have a photograph of any showing the shield design?

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I have no idea why anyone connects them with any one else other than the Emperor Arcadius as we know that the stones were all taken from the Column of Arcadius, erected to commemorate the victory over Gainas in 400AD and erected in 425AD. It was badly damaged by earthquakes and by a fire and then was torn down, the rubble used in the building of the Hamami foundations. The base of the column still exists off Beyazit Square in Istanbul.

I don't think that we 'know' anything of the sort. Scholarly opinion has long held that the reliefs built into the Beyazit Hamam came from the Column of Theodosius and the base of the Column of Arcadius is not off Beyazit Square but some considerable distance away on Haseki Kadin Sokagi. It is most likely that they were built into the foundations because they were lying about in the area when the baths were constructed, not that they were brought half-way across town for the purpose. This is supported by the discovery of similar stones nearby in 1973 which had not been used in the construction.