Palace of Lausus

[2] The Palace of Lausus was renowned throughout Constantinople for the vast collection of heroic and mythological statues that its owner housed within its walls.

Lausus' collection of pagan statues was the first that was dispassionately assembled on purely aesthetic and historical grounds, even though he was reportedly a devout Christian.

[3] Foremost amongst his collection was the Statue of Zeus at Olympia carved by Phidias in circa 500 BC[4] (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) and Praxiteles' Aphrodite of Cnidus.

The fire also destroyed the beautiful palace of Lausus and the statues therein, the Hera of Samos, the Athena of Lindos, and the Aphrodite of Cnidos, famous masterpieces of art...conflagration in the City which destroyed its most flourishing part... [it] also destroyed the porticoes on either side of the street Mesê and the excellent offerings of Lausus: for many ancient statues were set up there, namely the famous one of the Aphrodite of Cnidus....The fire extended as far as the Forum of the great Constantine, as it is called.The Palace's destruction occurred long after Lausus' death, which had transpired some thirty years earlier, around 436.

Today, the Cistern of Philoxenos is located beneath the site where the Palace of Lausus is commonly accepted to have stood.