Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

secular architecture 941
(b) Inns
Several inns (xenon, xenodochion) have been identified by inscription in northern
Syria. An inn built, possibly in the mid fifth century, outside the north
gate of Antioch had a large entrance court and a mosaic pavement, as did an
inn (510) in the village of Frikya. Below Qal�at Sim�an (ancient Telanissos)
three inns, called pandocheia, were constructed in 471 and 479, for the use of
pilgrims visiting the column of St Symeon the Elder. Elsewhere in the area,
inns having stables on the lower level and accommodation for travellers
above were built in 436 at Dar Qita (Fig. 42) and 504. The inn situated inside
a fort at Umm al-Halahil may have served as a metaton or staging-post between
the cities of Chalcis and Epiphania (Hama). Inns were excavated in the monasteries
of Mt Nebo and Martyrius (Fig. 50) in Palestine (see below). 40
(c) Hospitals and orphanotrophia
In this period the Greek word xenon or xenodochion could apply either to an
inn or to a hospital/hospice, the latter also being called a nosokomeion.
Hospitals are recorded being built in several major cities during this period
– at Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and at Constantinople, where several hospitals
were established in the fifth and sixth century. These included the
hospice for both the destitute and the seriously ill built between St Irene
and St Sophia by one Samson before 450 (Fig. 40). Destroyed during the
Nika riot in 532, it was rebuilt by Justinian, who made it ‘nobler . . . in the
beauty of its structure and much larger in the number of its rooms’. The
seventh-century Miracles of St Artemius relate that a deacon of St Sophia
underwent surgery there. The plan of ruins excavated on the site of this
hospice reveals a cistern to the east and a large hall with colonnaded
entrance to the west. 41
Not far from the Samson hospice was the orphanage of St Paul, founded
by Justin II (Fig. 40). What have been identified as its remains include a row
of late antique chambers with colonnaded façade, behind which lie others
of medieval date; so large was the orphanage that in the twelfth century
Anna Comnena described it as being ‘a city within a city’. It had a twostorey
residential wing for the poor and sick, an international school and a
Georgian nunnery. 42
(d) Monasteries
The monastic rule of Basil the Great, which represents the norm of
Byzantine monasticism, advocated a self-sufficient community. Hence
many monasteries were land-based and engaged in agriculture, so that early
monasticism is more associated with the countryside than the city. However,
40 Mango, M. M. (1984) Gazetteer, i.a.1 458; i.b.23 436; i.b.45 504/5; i.b.81 471, 479; ii.b.27 510;
ii.b.98. 41 Miller (1990). 42 Anna Comnena, Alexiad xv.7.3–9; Mango, Développement 34.
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