SANCTA SOPHIA
CONSTANTINOPLE

“A work as they report surpassing every edifice in the world.”

William of Malmesbury.

“The fairest church in all the world.”

Sir John Mandeville.

“A marvellous and costful temple, clept St. Sophie.”

Capgrave’s Chronicle.

THE CHURCH OF
SANCTA SOPHIA
CONSTANTINOPLE
A STUDY OF
BYZANTINE BUILDING
BY W. R. LETHABY &
HAROLD SWAINSON

1894

Macmillan & Co. London & New York

Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, LONDON AND BUNGAY.

PREFACE

Sancta Sophia is the most interesting building on the world’s surface. Like Karnak in Egypt, or the Athenian Parthenon, it is one of the four great pinnacles of architecture, but unlike them this is no ruin, nor does it belong to a past world of constructive ideas although it precedes by seven hundred years the fourth culmination of the building art in Chartres, Amiens, or Bourges, and thus must ever stand as the supreme monument of the Christian cycle. Far from being a ruin, the church is one of the best preserved of so ancient monuments, and in regard to its treatment by the Turks we can only be grateful that S. Sophia has not been situated in the more learned cities of Europe, such as Rome, Aachen, or Oxford, during “the period of revived interest in ecclesiastical antiquities.” Our first object has been to attempt some disentanglement of the history of the Church and an analysis of its design and construction; on the one hand, we have been led a step or two into the labyrinth of Constantinopolitan topography, on the other, we have thought that the great Church offers the best point of view for the observation of the Byzantine theory of building.

It may be well for us to state how, in the main, we have shared our work. The one of us—by the accident of the alphabet, second named—has done the larger part of the reading and the whole of the translation required. The first has undertaken more of the constructive side of the book and the whole of the illustrations. We both visited Constantinople, and wish to thank Canon Curtis for help then and since. Mr. Ambrose Poynter has read the proofs. In our text we have thought it well to incorporate so far as possible the actual words of the writers to whom we have referred. The dates when the more ancient authors wrote are given under their names in the index; so are the years of the accession of the Emperors mentioned in the text. Although we have made full use of Salzenberg’s great work in the preparation of some of our illustrations, none are mere transcripts from his book. In some instances where scales are given to details, the scales are but rough approximations.

Much remains to be observed at S. Sophia; the Baptistery, the Cisterns beneath the church, and the Circular Building to the east are practically unknown, and any fact noted in regard to them will almost certainly be new. But it is still more important that building customs, recipes, and traditions should be recorded. Byzantine art still exists not only on Mount Athos but all over the once Christian East—at Damascus the builders are still Christians, and the Greek masons of Turkey, M. Choisy says, are still the faithful representatives of the builders of the Lower Empire, and their present practice is a sure commentary on the ancient buildings.

A conviction of the necessity for finding the root of architecture once again in sound common-sense building and pleasurable craftsmanship remains as the final result of our study of S. Sophia, that marvellous work, where, as has so well been said, there is no part where the principles of rational construction are not applied with “hardiesse” and “franchise” In estimating so highly the Byzantine method of building in its greatest example, we see that its forms and results directly depended on then present circumstances, and then ordinary materials. It is evident that the style cannot be copied by our attempting to imitate Byzantine builders; only by being ourselves and free, can our work be reasonable, and if reasonable, like theirs universal.

L’ART C’EST D’ÊTRE ABSOLUMENT SOI-MÊME.

CONTENTS

[CHAPTER I]. Byzantium. New Rome, The Acropolis, The Augusteum. First and Second Churches of S. Sophia. page 1

[CHAPTER II]. Justinian’s Church. Account of Procopius. Fall of Dome and Restoration. Accounts of Agathias and Evagrius. page 21

[CHAPTER III]. The Descriptive Poem of Paul the Silentiary, Parts 1 and 2. page 35

[CHAPTER IV]. The Silentiary’s Account, Part 3. The Ambo. Coronations in the Ambo. page 53

[CHAPTER V]. Main Divisions. Bema. Altar. Ciborium. Crowns, &c. Altar Veils. Iconostasis. Prothesis and Diakonikon. Holy Well and Metatorion. Solea. The Nave and Pavement. Font. Crosses. Miraculous Marbles, &c. Water Vessels. Images and Tombs. Hangings. Carpets. Synods. Clergy and Ritual. Adoration of the Cross. Procession to the Church. page 66

[CHAPTER VI]. § 1. The True Cross and Relics of the Passion. Other Treasure. Accounts by Russian Pilgrims. § 2. The Lighting of the Church. page 97

[CHAPTER VII]. § 1. Later History. Occupation of the Church by the Crusaders. Fall of Constantinople. § 2. The Anonymous Account of the Church. § 3. Legends. page 122

[CHAPTER VIII]. Fossati’s Reparations. Salzenberg’s Description of Design, Materials, Construction, and Decoration. page 148

[CHAPTER IX]. Precincts of the Church, &c. Palaces. Hippodrome. Augusteum. Milion. Horologium. S. Peter’s Chapel, &c. Boundaries of Church. Atrium. Phiale. Pavement. West Front. Belfry. Cisterns. Exterior generally. page 173

[CHAPTER X]. § 1. Byzantine Origins. § 2. The Builders of the Church. § 3. Original Form of the Church: Dome and N. and S. Arches, Atrium, N.W. and S.W. Angles, Baptistery and Loggia. § 4. Structural System. Arch Forms. Vaulting. Dome Construction. Chainage and Walling. Mortar and Cement. page 198

[CHAPTER XI]. § 1. Building Procedure. § 2. Marble Quarries and Identification of the Marbles. § 3. Application of Marble to the Walls. § 4. Marble Masonry. Seven Orders of Byzantine Capitals. Distribution and Dates of Capitals. Shafts and Bases. Responds. Cornices and Skirtings. Windows, &c. Carving. page 234

[CHAPTER XII]. § 1. Bronze Doors, &c. § 2. Mosaics. Salzenberg’s Description. First Scheme. Later Scheme. Fossati’s Description. Tesserae and Fixing. § 3. Glass. Plaster. Painting. § 4. Monograms and Inscriptions. page 264

S. SOPHIA CHAPTER I

THE CITY OF CONSTANTINE AND THE FIRST CHURCH

Byzantium.—Where the narrow swift-flowing Bosporus, which divides Asia from the most eastern part of southern Europe, flows into the Sea of Marmara, a crescent-shaped arm of the sea runs westward into the land, leaving a narrow promontory, which, like the prow of a boat in profile, puts out to the east. The point of this promontory is a mass of rock rising steeply from the sea: divided by a slight transverse depression from the rest of the land, it forms the first hill of the seven which were afterwards inclosed by the walls of Constantinople.

On this crest (by the present Seraglio Point), commanding the passage to the Euxine, was built, in the seventh century B.C., by colonists from Megara—with whom Dionysius couples the Corinthians—the Acropolis, the sacred city and citadel, and within certain limits the lines of its containing walls may still be traced. The lower city gathered about the slopes outside the Acropolis, and had other walls defining its landward limits. Dionysius, the ancient Byzantine writer, who describes the city before the siege of Severus, 196 A.D., says that this citadel of Byzantium was on the promontory of the Bosporus, above the bay called Keras (the Golden Horn). “At a little distance over the height is the altar of Athena Ecbasia—of the landing—where the colonists fought as for their own land. There is too a temple of Poseidon, an ancient one and hence quite plain, which stands over the sea.... Below the temple of Poseidon, but within the wall, on the level ground are stadia and gymnasia, and courses for the young.”[1] This Acropolis is roughly outlined in [Fig. 1], the evidence being the contours of the hill, remains and records of certain walls to be mentioned later, and the boundaries between the first four regions in Constantine’s city as given in the Notitia,[2] a description of the city written in the beginning of the fifth century. The Acropolis so defined has a striking resemblance to other Greek hill cities—Tiryns, Mycenae, Acrocorinth, and the Acropolis of Athens. In [Fig. 1] the cross shows the site of the present Church of S. Sophia; the arrow shows the Hippodrome, which, still existing, is the great monument of pre-Constantinian times, and forms the key for all study of the subsequent city; O shows the position of the column said to have been erected by Claudius Gothicus about 270 A.D., which stands at the north end of the Acropolis overlooking Seraglio or Demetrius Point.

Of the ancient Greek town few positive remains have come down to us, with the exception of the coins. A publication by the Greek Philological Society of Constantinople mentions as among several pre-Constantinian inscriptions a marble slab found in “the tower next to the Zouk Tsesmé gate on the left as one ascends to S. Sophia,” which refers to the stadium erected by Pausanias the General in 477 B.C., “within the walls of Byzantium and below the temple of Poseidon.”[3] The coins also go back to the fifth century B.C. The early ones show a cow standing on a dolphin, with the letters BY. In the third century we have Poseidon seated on a promontory, and later again a dolphin twined round a trident—all the types having evident reference to the sea-washed city. Another relic of ancient Byzantium is still to be seen below the curve of the Hippodrome, where a white marble capital of good Greek Doric work lies neglected on the seaward bank of the new railway.

In addition to the ancient buildings already mentioned, we learn from Dionysius that the city possessed a temple of Gé Onesidora—the fruitful earth—which consisted of “an unroofed space surrounded by a wall of polished stone.” Near by were “temples of Demeter and the Maiden (Persephone), with many pictures in them, relics of their former wealth.” This author was also shown the sites of temples to Hera and Pluto, “the former having been destroyed by Darius, and the latter by Philip of Macedon.” He also speaks of a large round tower joined to the wall of the city.

Some records or legends of the ancient city are also contained in the Paschal Chronicle.[4] After the siege Severus “built the public bath called Zeuxippus. Now in the middle of the four-porticoed[5] space stood a bronze stele of the sun, below which he wrote the name of the sun. The people of Thrace indeed call the place Helion, but the Byzantines themselves call this same public bath ‘of Zeuxippus’ after its original name, although the emperor ordered it should be called Severion. Opposite to it in the acropolis of Byzantium he built the temple of Apollo, which also faced the two other temples formerly built by Byzas—one to Artemis with the olive, and the other to Phedalian Aphrodite. And the figure of the sun was taken from the four-porticoes and placed in this temple (of Apollo). Opposite the temple of Artemis he built large kennels, and a theatre opposite the temple of Aphrodite. He bought houses and gardens from two brothers, and after pulling down the former and uprooting the latter he built the Hippodrome. Severus restored the Strategion as well. It was first named by Alexander of Macedon, who, in his campaign against Darius, reviewed his troops there before attacking the Persians.”

New Rome.—It was about 328 A.D. or the following year that Constantine decided to enlarge this city, which had long been under the domination of Rome, and to make it his capital. The work of building was pushed forward with great energy, and it was consecrated in May 330. By an edict engraved on a stone erected in the Strategium, it was called the New Rome of Constantine. In the documents of the patriarchs of the Greek Church the city is still called New Rome.

The quarries of easily wrought marble of large crystalline structure and soft white colour found in such abundance in the island of Proconnesus, only a few miles away over the sea to which it has given its name of Marmara, then as now furnished a perfect building material; while the still worked quarries of Egypt and Thessaly provided imperial purple and green. But a richer quarry was doubtless found in the porphyry and cippolino shafts of the old temples of many a declining city.

Constantine’s city does not appear to have been so completely Christian as the ecclesiastical writers would have us suppose. Zosimus tells us that Constantine erected a shrine to the Dioscuri in the Hippodrome, and he mentions the temples of Rhea and the Tyché of the city in a large four-porticoed forum. A whole population of bronze and marble statues was brought together from Greece, Asia Minor, and Sicily. The baths of Zeuxippus alone are said to have had more than sixty bronze statues,[6] a still greater number were assembled in the Augusteum and other squares, and in the Hippodrome, where, according to Zosimus,[7] Constantine placed the Pythian tripod, which had been the central object in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. On the triple coils of the bronze serpents in the At-Meidan can still be read the names of the Greek states, which, after the battle of Plataea, dedicated a tithe of the spoil to the Delphic oracle, as described by Herodotus.[8]

An extremely valuable description of ancient Byzantium and the reconstruction by Constantine is given by Zosimus, writing not much more than a century after the transformation. “Now the city lay upon the crest of a hill which forms a part of the isthmus that is made by what is called the ‘Horn’ (κέρας) and the Propontis. And formerly it had its gate (πύλη) at the end of the colonnades which Severus built.” ... “And the wall on its western part descending along with the crest reached to the temple of Aphrodite, and the sea of Chrysopolis [Scutari] which is opposite; and in the same way from the crest the wall descended northward to the harbour which is called Neorion, and from thence up to the sea which lies directly in front of the straits through which one enters the Euxine.” ... “This then was the ancient size of the city. And Constantine erected a circular forum where formerly was the gate, and surrounded it with porticoes of two storeys. He set up two very big arches of Proconnesian marble opposite each other; through them one entered the porticoes of Severus or issued from the ancient city. And wishing to make the city much larger he further continued the old wall fifteen stadia, and inclosed the city with a wall which cut off the isthmus from sea to sea.”

It is clear from this that the ancient land gate of Byzantium stood on the crest of the ridge close to the site now occupied by the Porphyry Column (which was set up by Constantine in the New Forum), and formed the end of a street of columns built by Severus (the Mese). From this gate the wall ran southwards to a temple of Aphrodite, and along the shore of the Propontis opposite Scutari. Northwards it descended to the Golden Horn at the Neorion port, and turned along the shore to Seraglio Point. Now the Neorion port was just outside the entrance to the modern Galata bridge,[9] and the account agrees perfectly with the Notitia in which we find the following: “The sixth ward at entering on it is level ground for a short distance, all the rest is upon the descent; for it extends from the Forum of Constantine to the stairs where you ferry over to Sycae [Galata]. It contains the porphyry pillar of Constantine; the Senate House in the same place, the Neorion port; the stairs of Sycae, &c.”

It is evident that the city which Constantine found had been virtually rebuilt by Severus in the style of the East. From the days when Alexandria and Antioch were planned a city had become a whole to be designed according to rule. Essential features of such cities—of which Palmyra is the best representative—were long avenues of columns forming the main streets, and a triumphal arch with a central “golden milestone.” The main street of columns at Constantinople, which we later hear of by the name of the Mese as forming the way from the Milion to the Forum of Constantine, cannot be any other than the “Porticoes of Severus” just mentioned. In the fifth century we find the Mese referred to in the building laws of Zeno. “We ordain that none shall be allowed to obstruct with buildings the numerous rows of columns which are erected in the public porticoes, such as those leading from what is called the Milion to the Capitol,” any shops or booths between the columns “must be ornamented on the outside at least with marble, that they may beautify the city and give pleasure to the passers by.”[10] Mordtmann shows that this great columned way occupied very nearly the line of the present Divan Yiulu; indeed, it is hardly possible to divert the great arteries at any stage of a city’s evolution, and the Mese itself probably followed the course of a foot-track to the gate of the Acropolis.

By building walls across the land between the Golden Horn and the sea at distances farther and farther from Seraglio Point, the city has been successively enlarged; the great land walls, within which the shrunken city now lies, are mainly the work of Theodosius II. These, the walls of the Constantinople known to the Crusaders, are still comparatively perfect; a triple line on the land side and a single line around the sea margin, some fourteen miles of walls, eight or ten to fifteen feet thick, strengthened by great towers, completely girdles the city round about. The land-wall of Constantine’s city, situated between the Acropolis and the present walls, has disappeared, but its course has been traced (see [Fig. 1]).

Acropolis.—The topography of ancient Constantinople has engaged the attention of generations of writers, and an approximation to true results has undoubtedly been reached. First we must mention Pierre Gilles, usually called Gyllius, who, travelling to collect MSS. for Francis I., resided in the city for many years, and died in 1555. Then Du Cange, in his great work Constantinopolis Christiana, 1680, by a careful comparison of the authorities, certainly made discoveries in a country he had never visited. The folios of Banduri[11] followed in 1711; and in 1861 Labarte published a more detailed study of the Imperial quarter, chiefly based on the ample notices in the Book of Ceremonies of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. This work, Le Palais Impérial de Constantinople et ses Abords, shows remarkable insight and critical acumen. Buzantios in Constantinopolis, 1861, and Paspates in his Byzantinae Melatae, 1877, made several further identifications. The latter followed with The Great Palace of Constantinople, recently translated by Mr. Metcalfe, which goes over the same ground as Labarte; but the excavations for the railway, which now circles Seraglio Point, had in the meantime exposed some remains, and made the examination of certain walls possible.

Although Paspates made several valuable suggestions, many of his conclusions are certainly not sustained by his reasoning; indeed, Labarte in many points of divergence was probably much nearer the facts. Paspates’ views were accepted by Mr. Bury,[12] to be followed in turn by Mr. Oman in The Byzantine Empire of the “Story of the Nations” Series. A work in Russian has recently been devoted to the study of the Palace quarter.[13] Unger’s collection of topographical references in Quellen der Byzantinischen Kunstgeschichte is also of the greatest service.

Fig. 1.—Plan of Constantinople showing its development.

In 1892 appeared Dr. Mordtmann’s Esquisse, together with a large plan of the city, on which the probable identifications of the ways and buildings were laid down; this was prepared at the instance of the Comte Riant, who, in his Exuviae Constantinopolitanae, contributed the result of much research to our knowledge of Byzantine antiquities.

Fig. 2.—Plan of the Acropolis, &c., of Constantine’s city.

Dr. Mordtmann, by a study of the whole of the city area and its entire circumvallation as we have it to-day, in comparison with the written descriptions, has laid a firmer grasp on the problem. Labarte, he points out, was chiefly misled by a confusion of the buildings in the Forum of Constantine and those in the Forum Augusteum—a mistake elaborated in some respects by Paspates. Labarte thus placed the porphyry column of Constantine, which still marks the site of the former, together with other buildings that were quartered about it, all within the Augusteum, which last he rightly identified with the present open space to the south-west of S. Sophia. Texier, who in 1834 made a careful study of the ancient city, rightly distinguished the two fora.[14]

[Fig. 2] will assist in making clear our views as to the transformation of the Acropolis under Constantine. The Byzantine brick walls which now inclose the old Serai Labarte regarded as of late work, and we think the style of the building would very well bear out Paspates’ opinion that they were erected by Michael Palaeologus. The excavation for the railway exposed some remains of a wall near O in our [Fig. 1] which Paspates describes as “built of large stones as much as 10 feet long by 2½ broad, and 1½ thick.”[15] The rest of the seaward wall still forming the substructure of the retaining wall of the sea-front of the old Serai, and running in a direction parallel to the Hippodrome, is also of stone. This wall is probably ancient or follows the course of the ancient Acropolis inclosure which is described by Dion Cassius as “built on rising ground and projecting into the sea.... The walls are very strong, formed of large squared stones bound together with copper, and the inside is so strengthened with earth and buildings that the whole seems one thick wall.”[16]

The late Anonymous author edited by Banduri says that the wall of ancient Byzantium commenced at the Golden Horn near the gate of S. Eugenius to pass along by the Golden Milestone.[17] We place no reliance on the Anonymous for early history, but there is much to confirm Mordtmann’s view that an ancient wall occupied this position and that the Milion—which the Anonymous says was the land gate—was situated upon its course and formed indeed the entrance from the Street of Columns. This wall, which Mordtmann says passed on the land side of the old Serai in front of the modern museum (Tchenli Kiosk) where there is a high retaining wall, and continued to the west of S. Sophia not far from the narthex, we consider must be that which formed the landward inclosure of the Acropolis. The fourth region of the city, Mordtmann says, was separated from the second by the rock of the Acropolis and this wall. We are confirmed in our acceptance of the other wall described by Paspates as the seaward wall of the Acropolis, not only because it is built against the steep escarpment of the rock, but by finding that in the division of the city into the wards or regions of the Notitia the first ward exactly comprised the space between the wall and the sea; the second region contained the old Acropolis itself, with a triangle of lower ground at the north against the Golden Horn, where was probably the sea gate; while the third was divided from the fourth by the great way which left the Milion gate on the old landward wall of the Acropolis. Such pre-existing features naturally formed the boundaries of the wards.

We now give from the Notitia Dignitatum the descriptions of the first four regions of the fourteen into which Constantine’s city was divided, which will show how Constantine occupied the old areas with the royal and public quarters of his new city. Twelve regions were included within the walls, and two others were formed by the suburbs of Blachernae and Galata.

Region I.

Contains the house of Placidia Augusta; the house of most noble Marina; the Baths of Arcadius; 27 streets or alleys; 118 houses; 2 porticoes; 15 private baths; 4 public cornmills; 15 private cornmills; 4 terraces of steps. It is under one curator, who looks after the whole region; it has 1 vernaculus, a slave (or messenger) for all regions; 25 collegiati, who are selected from different Guilds (Corporati), and help at fires; and 5 street wardens, who watch the city at night.

Region II.

Gradually rises with a gentle ascent beginning from the smaller theatre, and then descends abruptly to the sea. It contains the Great Church; the Ancient Church; the Senate; the Tribunal built with porphyry steps; the Baths of Zeuxippus; the theatre; the amphitheatre; 34 streets or alleys, 98 houses; 4 large porticoes; 13 private baths; 4 private cornmills; 4 terraces of steps. It had also 1 curator, 1 vernaculus; 35 collegiati, 5 street wardens.

Region III.

Is a plane surface in its higher part, where is the Circus, but from the end of this it descends steeply to the sea. It contains the Circus Maximus; the house of Pulcheria Augusta; the new harbour; a semicircular portico, called by the Greeks Sigma; the Tribunal of the Forum of Constantine; 7 streets; 94 houses; 5 large porticoes; 11 private baths; 9 private cornmills. It had 1 curator; 1 vernaculus; it had also 21 collegiati; and 5 street wardens.

Region IV.

From the Golden Milliarium is prolonged, with hills rising to right and left in a valley leading to an open space. It contains the golden Milliarium; the Augusteum; the Basilica; the Nymphaeum; the Portico of Fanio; a marble ship—the monument of a naval victory—the church or martyrium of S. Mennas; the Stadium; the Scala Timasii; 32 streets; 375 houses; 4 large porticoes; 7 private baths; 5 private cornmills; 7 terraces of steps. It had 1 curator; 1 vernaculus; 45 collegiati; 5 street wardens.

Augusteum.—Thus Region I., occupying the land between the Acropolis wall and the sea, was partly reserved for palaces; Region II. coincided with the Acropolis, and had its south end devoted to the Forum Augusteum and the Christian Basilicas of S. Sophia (“the Great Church”) and St. Irene (“the Old Church.”). It will be observed that in the Notitia the Augusteum is given to Region IV., to which it does indeed adjoin; Mordtmann[18] considers that the Augusteum, like the buildings round it, must have belonged to Region II., but suggests that there may have been a continuation of the open space farther to the west in Region IV., and some such space as this certainly seems required by several of the references.

Gyllius first made the identification of the Augusteum with the present open space on the south of S. Sophia; in this he was followed by Labarte, and Mordtmann concurs. Paspates in making the Augusteum occupy the ground along the east side of the Hippodrome stands alone against, as it seems to us, all evidence. For example, he is compelled to shift the inscribed pedestal of the statue of the Empress Eudoxia, which we cannot but believe was found in its original position (see Mordtmann, p. 64, and Paspates, p. 105, and below, p. [13]). The Mese moreover he makes the centre of his Augusteum. Mr. Bury thought it proved that the Augusteum “was also called the Forum of Constantine,” because a passage in Cedrenus speaks of the Senate House (τὸ σενάτον) as in the Forum of Constantine. It is perfectly clear however from the Notitia that there were two Senate Houses—one in the Forum mentioned in the extract we have given from the description of the sixth ward, and the other included in the second region as just quoted.[19]

In the Augusteum was erected a Senate, its front facing the west. “The Senate,” says Mordtmann, “was placed where to-day stands the Tribunal of Commerce.” That is, on the east side of the present place of S. Sophia against what must have been the eastern side of the Augusteum and the ancient Acropolis, on the seaward wall of which it was probably founded. In digging the foundations of the Tribunal of Commerce in 1847 the ancient pavement was found, at a depth of twelve feet, and the base of the celebrated statue of Eudoxia, with an inscription, marked it as the site of the Courts of Justice (Mordtmann, p. 64). The statue, Socrates[20] says, was “of silver, and it stood upon a lofty pedestal (bema), not far from the church called S. Sophia, with a road between.”

The Augusteum, following the Hippodrome, does not lie four-square with the cardinal points, but almost diagonally to them: for convenience, however, we shall speak of the directions as North, South, East, and West, calling the side towards the Mese the west. On the north side, and following the same system of alignment, is the present S. Sophia. The palace of the Patriarch probably adjoined the church, on the north side of the square.

The royal palaces mentioned in the Notitia were on the south of the Augusteum. According to the Paschal Chronicle, written about 630 A.D., Constantine the Great made a palace beside the Hippodrome, “and the ascent from the palace to the stand of the Hippodrome was by means of the stair called the spiral” (Paspates, Great Palace, p. 47). This palace does not seem to have become of great importance until Justinian’s time. The Notitia merely mentions the House of Placidia Augusta, and the House of the most noble Marina, the daughters of Arcadius, in the first ward; and the House of Pulcheria Augusta in the third; and speaks of several other royal palaces in the 9th, 10th, and 11th wards. The palace of the emperor at this time was in the 14th ward, which was outside the walls and isolated, making “the figure of a small city by itself;” this is the celebrated palace of Blachernae.

The Church.—It was in May 328 that Helena is said to have discovered the true cross and other relics at Jerusalem. And this event, which synchronizes exactly with Constantine’s choice of Byzantium as his capital, was probably not without direct relation to the foundation of the church dedicated to Christ. Socrates writes, “A portion of the cross she (Helena) inclosed in a silver chest and left in Jerusalem as a memorial, but the other part she sent to the king.”[21]

Theophanes, Cedrenus, Glycas, Paul the Deacon, Nicephorus Callistus, and other late historians agree in making Constantine the founder of the first Church dedicated to the Second Person of the Trinity as the Divine Wisdom; and Cedrenus even gives a name—Euphrates—to the architect.[22] Codinus, who wrote in the fifteenth century, alone relates that Constantine purified a previously existing temple and dedicated it to Christian uses.

There is much evidence to show that the church could not have been completed by Constantine even if he had founded it, or contemplated its foundation. In the life of the emperor, the Church of the Holy Apostles, which was built near the Forum of Constantine, and in which the emperor was buried, is described at length,[23] but it does not mention S. Sophia, although the author takes pains to enumerate the Christian objects in the city—saying that there were “many Oratories and Martyria, and by the fountains in the middle of the agorae were figures in gilt bronze of the Good Shepherd and of Daniel with the lions; in the palace was a cross wrought in gold with many coloured precious stones.”[24]

In the fifth century Notitia, as we have seen, S. Irene is called the Old Church and S. Sophia the Great Church.

The historian Socrates, probably the best authority, says that Constantine “built two churches, one he called Irene and the other the Apostles,”[25] and he attributes S. Sophia entirely to Constantius. “The King built the great church which is called Sophia and joined it to that called Irene, which the father of the king had previously increased and beautified, and now both churches were included within one wall and had one title.”

Upon its completion, it was dedicated, with magnificent ceremony, by the patriarch Eudoxius on Sunday, February 15th, 360 A.D., “in the thirty-fourth year after its foundation.”[26] This would fix its foundation in the year 326 A.D., two years after Constantine, having defeated Licinius, had begun to reign alone. Cedrenus writes, “Eudoxius consecrated a second time the Church of the Divine Wisdom, because after its first completion, and the dedication by Eusebius, it had fallen and been again restored by Constantius,”[27] and he places this event in the twenty-second year of Constantius’ reign.

Cedrenus is a late and credulous writer, and in attributing a first dedication to Eusebius—who would certainly have told us himself—he shows how untrustworthy is the whole story. Altogether we cannot do better than accept the account of Idatius and that given in the Paschal Chronicle, with perhaps a little suspicion on the part which refers to Constantine, “In this year (360) in the month Peritius was dedicated the great church of Constantinople, in the thirty-fourth year from the time when Constantine had laid the foundations. For the opening ceremony (encaenia) Constantius brought many offerings of gold, and great treasure of silver; many tissues adorned with gold thread and stones for the sanctuary; for the doors of the church different curtains (amphithuriai) of gold; and for the outside gateways (puleones) many others with gold threads.” According to the late Anonymous author (see page [129]), “in the reign of Theodosius the Great († 395) and in the patriarchate of Nectarius (381-398), seventy-four years after the church was built, the roof of the church was destroyed by fire;” he probably really meant the fire of 404 in Arcadius’ reign. At that time S. John Chrysostom, incurring the dislike of the Empress Eudoxia, was banished. He was brought back at the end of two days, once more preached in S. Sophia, and was exiled again, with disastrous results, for his partisans set fire to the church and destroyed it. “This happened on the 20th of June, in the consulship of Honorius and Aristaenetus” (404).[28]

The fire was by some thought to be of supernatural origin. Palladius, the bishop’s biographer, writes, “Then a flame seemed to burst from the centre of the throne in which he used to sit, and climbed up by the chains [of lamps] to the roof ... and crept like a wriggling snake upon the back of the houses of the church.” There was also burnt the Senate, “lying many paces to the south opposite the church; and the fire spared only the little house, in which the sacred vessels were kept.”

The church was again injured by fire, restored by Theodosius II., and rededicated in 415.[29] Fresh relics were required for this rededication.[30] One fact of importance in regard to this church is related by Sozomenus of the Empress Pulcheria. “She dedicated an altar in the church of Constantinople, a most wonderful work of gold and precious stones, on behalf of her virginity and her brothers’ empire. And she wrote this on the face of the table so that it might be clear to all.”[31]

From this time until the outbreak known as the Nika sedition, in January 532, the church is not said to have been further altered. According to Cedrenus, the records and charters perished with the church.

There cannot be a doubt that the present S. Sophia occupies the site of the first church. A church once made holy by dedication and the reception of relics could not be transported. Indeed it is possible that it may occupy the site of one of the Greek temples, for there was a constant tendency to this supersession on one sacred site; and the present church stands on the very crest of the old Acropolis. If there were any sufficient reason to identify the site with that of the altar of Pallas, the dedication of the church itself would evidently be one of the many instances of a transference of title from the old worship. The Parthenon—where Hellenic rites survived to the sixth century—became a church in this way dedicated to the Holy Wisdom.[32] The axis of the church seems to point somewhere between 30° and 35° south of east, where there is a considerable sea prospect and a low horizon. This direction, either by accident or intention, must agree very closely with sunrise at the winter solstice:[33] the latitude of the church being 41° 0′ 26″. The plan will show that the ancient Hippodrome, and probably the other buildings, were set out in relation to this axis.

In comparing the early Basilicas of Constantinian date, both those that exist and those of which we have descriptions, we find that they generally, if not invariably, had their doors of entrance at the east end, and their apses towards the west, exactly the opposite of the more recent custom. Rohault De Fleury says this was usual in the East till the fifth century, and the custom continued much later in Rome. Kraus, in the best study of the subject,[34] writes: “S. Agatha at Ravenna must be mentioned as the first which had its altar at the east end: it was built in 417, and in this century the practice became general.”

Socrates († 440) says of the church of Antioch that “the altar stood not at the east but at the west,” but he speaks of this as contrary to the usual custom at the time he wrote. This church was founded by Constantine and finished by his son. The Church of the Apostles at Constantinople, built by Constantine to contain the relics of S. Luke, seems also to have been entered at the east, for S. John Chrysostom[35] speaks of the emperor being buried “in the part in front of the doors,” and an anonymous author, who wrote about the imperial sepulchres, says that Constantine’s sarcophagus was “in front towards the east.”[36]

We shall thus be following the reasonable suggestion of comparative archæology in saying that the first church of S. Sophia almost certainly had its entrance doors at the east—the sanctuary end of the present church.

The church was probably only of medium size; the length of the present church is about 250 feet, its vastness being in its width. The Paschal Chronicle speaks of “its stupendous and marvellous columns all being ἐκ τετραέντου”; but owing to a variant reading it is difficult to determine whether it means that the pillars were square, or were set in a square, or formed four bays. Glycas and Codinus, who wrote a thousand years after the foundation of the church, say that it was basilican (dromika), and had a wooden roof (xulotroullos), and the latter says that the church of Theodosius had cylindrical vaults. As it is evident from the rapid destruction by fire that the roofs of the early churches were of wood, they were probably Basilicas. Only a few minor particulars, such as the existence of an atrium, and the right of sanctuary in the bema (thusiasterion), can be gathered from the homilies of S. Chrysostom. Socrates tells us that this patriarch was wont to preach “in the ambo for the sake of being better heard.”[37] From Palladius we learn that there was a baptistery (in which the Sixth Council of Constantinople, A.D. 394,[38] appears to have met) attached to the church, and it was here Chrysostom took leave of the deaconesses at his banishment, as described in a passage difficult to interpret. “He went out of the baptistery on the east side, for there was no western (exit). The mule which he usually rode was made to stand westwards before the gate to the church, where is the porch, so that he might escape the people who were expecting him.” The passage from the same author about the waters of the font being stained with blood does not, as is sometimes supposed, necessarily refer to S. Sophia.

In applying the plan of a church of mean size so that the doors should face eastwards, we are at once struck by finding that the western hemicycle of the present church would lie about the apse; and we cannot but suggest that in this we may have the very raison d’être of the remarkable plan of the present church, which it would seem might be properly classed with those churches which have apses at both ends, like the early basilica at Orleansville near Tunis;[39] the MS. plan of S. Gall is the best known example; our own early church at Canterbury was another instance, the result of adding to a church with a western apse; France furnishes Besançon and Nevers, and Germany numerous examples.

It is indeed possible that some parts of the old structure may have given practical and positive reasons contributing to this result, and a thorough examination of the cisterns beneath the present floor of S. Sophia may yet yield full evidence of the first basilica; or if these vaults were entirely built for Justinian’s church, their material would almost certainly be derived from the earlier building.

We suggest that the circular brick building lying at the north-east angle of the present church belonged to the pre-Justinian church, and formed its baptistery. It is about forty-five feet exterior diameter, and the plan as given by Salzenberg shows great resemblance to other circular structures of the Constantinian age; such as S. Constantia in Rome, the “tomb of Helen” at Rome, and the round tomb buildings which adjoined S. Peter’s as shown in the plan of Ciampini.[40]

The entrance doorway of this building was to the east.

As to its use. In the contemporary account of Justinian’s church, the poet Paulus, describing the north aisle, says, “On the north is a door admitting the people to the founts that purify the stains of mortal life and heal every scar.” He does not mention the present south-west building, nor has he any other reference to a font. We suppose therefore that this isolated building on the north-east escaped the Nika fire, and served as the baptistery of the new church, until the square building, on the side of the church towards the Augusteum, which is spoken of in the Ceremonies as the “Great Baptistery by the Horologium,” was erected for or diverted to this purpose.

We very probably have some relics of the earlier buildings in certain capitals which Salzenberg found in the church:[41] the inscribed bricks,[42] and a Byzantine Corinthian capital now lying in the courtyard, may likewise have belonged to it. The fine bronze doors to south porch are evidently earlier than the present church, and so probably are the slabs of which the screen on south side of first floor is partly made up.

CHAPTER II

JUSTINIAN’S CHURCH

The New Church.—The pre-Justinian church was burnt on the 15th January, 532[43]—the first day of the sedition—and the work of reconstruction was begun on the 23rd of the following month.[44]

Theophanes[45] says the period employed in the construction was five years eleven months and ten days; the statements therefore of Codinus and Glycas, that it took seventeen years to build, are completely at variance with this more credible author.

The solemn dedication took place, as Marcellinus Comes describes,[46] on 26th December, 537, Indiction 15, in the eleventh year of Justinian’s reign.

A description of this dedication ceremony is given by Theophanes.[47] “The procession started from the church of Anastasia, Menas the patriarch sitting in the royal chariot, and the king walking with the people.”

In the thirty-second year of Justinian’s reign an earthquake destroyed a great portion of the newly erected church.[48]

Now Procopius, whose contemporary history of the edifices built by Justinian was, according to Krumbacher,[49] finished and published in the year 558 or the spring of 559 at latest, makes no mention of this earthquake of 558, though he describes in full how, during the building of the church, which was completed in 537, the piers of the eastern arch threatened to give way before it was finished. We may therefore conclude that he describes Justinian’s church in its first state.

The translation from Procopius here given is based on that of Mr. Aubrey Stewart, published by the Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, which has been compared with the original. We give in [Fig. 3] a plan of the church as built by Justinian, so far as the evidence will allow of an approximately certain restoration.

As the several different curved portions of the plan are difficult to distinguish, we propose so far as possible to reserve certain words for separate parts. The small eastern semicircle and its vault will be called apse and apsoid respectively. Hemicycle and semidome will refer to the great semicircle at the east or west and its vault. The pairs of curved spaces forming the lateral recesses in the hemicycles we propose to name exedras and their half-domes conchs.

Fig. 3.—Plan of S. Sophia as built by Justinian.

Procopius.—“The lowest dregs of the people in Byzantium once assailed the Emperor Justinian in the rebellion called Nika, which I have clearly described in my History of the Wars. To prove that it was not merely against the emperor but no less against God that they took up arms, they ventured to burn the church of the Christians which the people of Byzantium call Sophia, a name most worthy of God. God permitted them to effect this crime, knowing how great the beauty of this church would be when restored. Thus the church was entirely reduced to ashes; but the Emperor Justinian not long afterwards adorned the new one in such a fashion, that if any one had asked the Christians in former times, if they wished their church to be destroyed and thus restored, showing them the appearance of the church which we now see, I think it probable that they would have prayed that they might so soon as possible behold their church destroyed, in order that it might be changed into its present form. The emperor, thinking not of cost of any kind, pressed on the work, and collected together workmen (technitai) from every land. Anthemius of Tralles, the most skilled in the builder’s art, not only of his own but of all former times, carried forward the king’s zealous intentions, organised the labours of the workmen, and prepared models of the future construction. Associated with him was another architect (mechanopoios) named Isidorus, a Milesian by birth, a man of intelligence, and worthy to carry out the plans of the Emperor Justinian. It is indeed a proof of the esteem with which God regarded the emperor, that He furnished him with men who would be so useful in effecting his designs, and we are compelled to admire the wisdom of the emperor, in being able to choose the most suitable of mankind to execute the noblest of his works.

“The church consequently presents a most glorious spectacle, extraordinary to those who behold it, and altogether incredible to those who are told of it. In height it rises to the very heavens, and overtops the neighbouring buildings like a ship anchored among them, appearing above the rest of the city, while it adorns and forms a part of it. One of its beauties is that being a part of and growing out of the city, it rises so high that the whole city can be seen as from a watchtower. The length and breadth are so judiciously arranged that it appears to be both long and wide without being disproportioned.

“It is distinguished by indescribable beauty, excelling both in its size, and in the harmony of its measures, having no part excessive and none deficient; being more magnificent than ordinary buildings, and much more elegant than those which are not of so just a proportion. The church is singularly full of light and sunshine; you would declare that the place is not lighted by the sun from without, but that the rays are produced within itself, such an abundance of light is poured into this church. The Apse.—Now the head (prosopon) of the church (that is to say the part towards the rising sun, where the sacred mysteries are performed in honour of God) is built as follows. The building rises from the ground not in a straight line, but setting back somewhat obliquely, it retreats in the middle into a rounded form which those who are learned in these matters call semicylindrical, rising perpendicularly. Apsoid and Semidome.—The upper part of this work ends in the fourth part of a sphere, and above it another crescent-shaped (menoeides) structure is raised upon the adjacent parts of the building, admirable for its beauty, but causing terror by the apparent weakness of its construction; for it appears not to rest upon a secure foundation, but to hang dangerously over the heads of those below, although it is really supported with especial firmness and safety. Exedras.—On each side of these parts are columns standing upon the floor, which are not placed in a straight line, but arranged with an inward curve of semicircular shape, one beyond another like the dancers in a chorus. These columns support above them a crescent-shaped structure. Opposite the east wall is built another wall, containing the entrances, and upon either side of it also stand columns, with stone-work above them, in a half-circle exactly like those previously described. Great Piers and Arches.—In the midst of the church are four masses of stone called piers (pessoi), two on the north, and two on the south sides, opposite and alike, having four columns in the space between each pair. These piers are formed of large stones fitted together, the stones being carefully selected, and cleverly jointed into one another by the masons,[50] and reaching to a great height. Looking at them, you would compare them to perpendicular cliffs. Upon them, four arches (apsides)[51] arise over a quadrilateral space. The extremities of these arches join one another in pairs, their ends resting upon the piers, while the other parts of them rise to a great height, suspended in the air. Two of these arches, that is those towards the rising and the setting of the sun, are constructed over the empty air, but the others have under them some stone-work, and small columns. Dome and Pendentives.—Now above these arches is raised a circular building of a curved form through which the light of day first shines; for the building, which I imagine overtops the whole country, has small openings left on purpose, so that the places where these intervals occur may serve for the light to come through. Thus far I imagine the building is not incapable of being described, even by a weak and feeble tongue. As the arches are arranged in a quadrangular figure, the stone-work between them takes the shape of a triangle, the lower angle of each triangle, being compressed where the arches unite, is slender, while the upper part becomes wider as it rises in the space between them, and ends against the circle which rests upon them, forming there its remaining angles. A spherical-shaped dome (tholos) standing upon this circle makes it exceedingly beautiful; from the lightness of the building, it does not appear to rest upon a solid foundation, but to cover the place beneath as though it were suspended from heaven by the fabled golden chain. All these parts surprisingly joined to one another in the air, suspended one from another, and resting only on that which is next to them, form the work into one admirably harmonious whole, which spectators do not dwell upon for long in the mass, as each individual part attracts the eye to itself. The sight causes men constantly to change their point of view, and the spectator can nowhere point to any part which he admires more than the rest. Seeing the art which appears everywhere, men contract their eyebrows as they look at each part, and are unable to comprehend such workmanship, but always depart thence, stupefied, through their incapacity. So much for this.

“The Emperor Justinian and the architects Anthemius and Isidorus used many devices to construct so lofty a church with security. One of these I will now explain, by which a man may form some opinion of the strength of the whole work; as for the others I am not able to discover them all, and find it impossible to describe them in words. It is as follows: The piers, of which I just now spoke, are not constructed in the same manner as the rest of the building; but in this fashion; they consist of quadrangular courses of stone, rough by nature, and made smooth by art; of these stones, those which make the projecting angles of the pier are cut angularly (engonios), while those which go in the middle parts of the sides are cut square (tetragonos).

“They are fastened together not with lime (titanos), called ‘unslaked’ (asbestos), not with asphaltum, the boast of Semiramis at Babylon, nor anything of the kind, but with lead, which, poured into the interstices, has sunk into the joints of the stones, and binds them together; this is how they are built.

“Let us now proceed to describe the remaining parts of the church. The entire ceiling is covered with pure gold, which adds to its glory, though the reflections of the gold upon the marble surpass it in beauty. There are two aisles one above another on each side, which do not in any way lessen the size of the church, but add to its width. In length they reach quite to the ends of the building, but in height they fall short of it; these also have domed ceilings adorned with gold. Of these two porticoes one [ground floor] is set apart for male and the other [upper floor] for female worshippers; there is no variety in them, nor do they differ in any respect from one another, but their very equality and similarity add to the beauty of the church. Who could describe these gynaeceum galleries, or the numerous porticoes (stoai) and cloistered courts (peristuloi aulai) with which the church is surrounded? Who could tell of the beauty of the columns and marbles with which the church is adorned? One would think that one had come upon a meadow full of flowers in bloom! Who would not admire the purple tints of some, and the green of others, the glowing red and the glittering white, and those too, which nature, painter-like, has marked with the strongest contrasts of colour? Whoever enters there to worship perceives at once that it is not by any human strength or skill, but by the favour of God, that this work has been perfected; the mind rises sublime to commune with God, feeling that He cannot be far off, but must especially love to dwell in the place which He has chosen; and this is felt not only when a man sees it for the first time, but it always makes the same impression upon him, as though he had never beheld it before. No one ever became weary of this spectacle, but those who are in the church delight in what they see, and, when they leave, magnify it in their talk. Moreover it is impossible accurately to describe the gold, and silver, and gems, presented by the Emperor Justinian; but by the description of one part, I leave the rest to be inferred.—That part of the church which is especially sacred, and where the priests alone are allowed to enter, which is called the Sanctuary (thusiasterion), contains forty thousand pounds’ weight of silver.

“The above is an account, written in the most abridged and cursory manner, describing in the fewest possible words the most admirable structure of the church at Constantinople, which is called the Great Church, built by the Emperor Justinian, who did not merely supply the funds for it, but assisted at its building by the labour and powers of his mind, as I will now explain. Of the two arches (apsides), which I lately mentioned—the architects (mechanopoioi) call them loroi[52]—that one which stands towards the east had been built up on each side, but had not altogether been completed in the middle, where it was still imperfect; when the piers (pessoi) upon which the building rested, unable to support the weight which was put upon them, somehow all at once split open, and seemed as though before long they would fall to pieces. Upon this Anthemius and Isidorus, terrified at what had taken place, referred the matter to the emperor, losing all confidence in their own skill. He at once, I know not by what impulse, but probably inspired by Heaven, for he is not an architect, ordered them to complete this arch; for it, said he, resting upon itself, will no longer need the piers (pessoi) below.[53] Now if this story were unsupported by witnesses, I am well assured that it would seem to be written in order to flatter, and would be quite incredible; but as there are many witnesses now alive of what then took place I shall not hesitate to finish it. The workmen performed his bidding, the arch was safely suspended, and proved by experiment the truth of his conception. So much then for this part of the building; now with regard to the other arches, those looking to the south and to the north, the following incidents took place. When the arches called loroi were raised aloft during the building of the church everything below them laboured under their weight, and the columns which are placed there shed little scales, as though they had been planed.

“Alarmed at this, the architects (mechanikoi) again referred the matter to the emperor, who devised the following scheme. He ordered the upper part of the work that was giving way to be taken down where it touched the arches for the present, and to be replaced afterwards when the damp had thoroughly left the fabric. This was done, and the building has stood safely ever since, so that the structure, as it were, bears witness to the emperor’s skill.”

Fall of Dome and Restoration.—On the 7th of May, 558, the eastern part of the dome, “built by Isaurian workmen, with the apse, was thrown down by an earthquake, destroying in its fall the holy table, the ciborium, and the ambo.”[54] Reference is made to this in the opening lines of the Silentiary’s poem (see Chapter [III].). According to Theophanes “the architects attributed its fall to the fact that to save expense the piers had been made too full of openings. The emperor restored the piers and raised the dome twenty feet.” The church was again consecrated in the fifth year after the catastrophe by Eutychius in the thirty-sixth year of Justinian, on the 24th of December.[55] Theophanes[56] describes the emperor and patriarch as riding together to the church in a chariot, and bearing the gospel with them, “while the people chanted the ‘Lift up your gates.’”

The church, after its repair, is described by three contemporary authors—Paul the Silentiary, Agathias, and Evagrius. The poem of the first of these is given in the next chapter.

Agathias.—Agathias, surnamed the scholar, was born in 536 at Myrina in Asia Minor,[57] studied at Alexandria, and came in 554 to Constantinople, where he became known as a historian and a poet, and died in 582.

Justinian, he says, restored several buildings after the earthquake, his especial care however was the great church of S. Sophia.[58] “Now the former church having been burnt by the angry mob, Justinian built it up again from the foundations as big and more beautiful and wonderful, and this most beautiful design was adorned with much precious metal. He built it in a round form with burnt brick and lime, it was bound together here and there with iron, but they avoided the use of wood, so that it should no more be easily burnt. Now Anthemius was the man who devised and worked at every part.

“And as by the earthquake the middle portion of the roof and the higher parts had been destroyed, the king made it stronger, and raised it to a greater height. Anthemius was then dead, but the young man Isidorus and the other craftsmen, turning over in their minds the previous design, and comparing what had fallen with what remained, estimated where the error lay, and of what kind it was. They determined to leave the eastern and western arches (apsides) as they were. But of the northern and southern (arches) they brought towards the inside, that portion of the building which was on the curve.[59] And they made these arches wider so as to be more in harmony with the others, thus making the equilateral symmetry more perfect. In this way they were able to cover the measurelessness of the empty space, and to steal off some of its extent to form an oblong design. And again they wrought that which rose up over it in the middle, whether orb (kuklos), or hemisphere, or whatever other name it may be called. And this also became more straightforward and of a better curve, in every part agreeing with the line; and at the same time not so wide but higher, so that it did not frighten the spectators as formerly, but was set much stronger and safer.”

Fig. 4.—Longitudinal Section, having regard to Dome as first built.

Evagrius.—This historian was born in 536 A.D.[60] at Epiphania on the Orontes. In his Ecclesiastical History we learn of the suffering caused by the invasion of Chosroes in 540. From this time all Syria was continually disturbed, and the educated Christians fell back more and more on Constantinople. Evagrius came to Constantinople in 589, though he returned to Antioch afterwards. His history commences with the Council of Ephesus in 431 and extends to the year 593. He says[61]:—

“In the city of Constantinople Justinian constructed many churches of wonderful beauty in honour of God, and the saints—among them was a great and incomparable work of a kind that none like it was ever remembered—the great church of S. Sophia; which excelling in beauty, far surpasses power of description.

“As far as I can I will explain it. The nave (naos) of the temple has a dome (tholos) over it spreading its weight on four arches, raised to such a height, that to those looking from below it is difficult to see the whole hemisphere. And those who are above, however bold they are, never dare to bend over and look on to the ground: and the arches are open from the base up to their crown. On the right and left however, opposite to one another, are ranged columns of Thessalian marble. These with other neighbouring columns carry upper chambers, which offer a place to lean forward for those who wish. Here it is that the empress is wont to attend service on festal days.

“But the arches to east and west are left so that nothing interferes with admiration of their size. Now the arcades of the just mentioned upper chambers are supported from beneath by columns and small arches, which greatly add to the work. In order that the wonder of this building may be more easily grasped, I have here placed in feet the measures of the length, breadth, and height; and of the arches their diameter and height. The length then from the door opposite the holy apse, where is offered the bloodless sacrifice, to the apse itself is 190 feet; the breadth of the nave from north to south is 115. The height from the centre of the dome to the ground is 180 feet. And of the arches, the width of each in feet is [no number given]. And the length from east to west is 200 feet. The width of the opening is 75 feet.[62] There are also to the west two fine porticoes, and everywhere open courts of wonderful beauty.”

Paul the Silentiary.—As this author’s really detailed account of the church is of considerable length, we have reserved it for the next chapter, although it was written before the descriptions just given by Agathias and Evagrius. For the little that is known of the author we are almost entirely indebted to his friend Agathias, who says: “If any one living perchance far from this city, wishes to know and see everything as if present and looking on, let him read what Paulus, son of Cyrus, son of Florus, has written in hexameter verse; he is chief of the Royal Silentiaries, and sprung from a noble race; inheriting ancestral wealth, yet zealously brought up in the study of letters, by which he was the more glorious and famous. He wrote a number of other poems worthy of memory and praise, but it seems to me that that which he wrote on the Great Church is completed with the most skill and labour, even as its subject is more worthy than any other. For you will find in his poem the arrangement of the form, and the nature of the stones explained; the beauty and purpose of the curtains; the lengths and heights, what is curved and what straight, what projects and what is suspended. You will learn, too, how with silver and gold the more sacred part, intended for the divine mysteries, was adorned; as well as whatever ornament great or small is there, which those who frequent the church may see.”

The Silentiaries, of whom Paulus was one, were court officials. Their office was an exalted one, as they ranked with the senators, and were employed on all kinds of service, not unfrequently becoming the historians of the emperor. Paulus belonged to the cultivated and literary circle, who during Justinian’s reign interested themselves in literature, and to him are attributed more than eighty poems in the Anthology.[63]

The description or rather explanation of S. Sophia was most probably written and recited as an Opening Ode at the Encaenia of December 24th, 563. Körtum (in Salzenberg) conjectures that the poem was recited in “a hall of the Imperial Palace,” but Du Cange is probably more correct in assigning only the first eighty lines to the Palace. The succeeding lines he says “were addressed to the clergy in the Patriarch’s Palace,” but we believe, from the antithesis between the Palace of the Emperor and the House of God, that the address to the patriarch was spoken within the walls of the church itself, and that the whole poem, which is divided into three parts, was written to be recited in connection with the opening ceremony mentioned above.

It shows us how much architecture was esteemed by Justinian, that the historian of his wars wrote also a history of his buildings; and the court poet was employed to celebrate the greatest of them in verse. On many accounts the poem is the best ancient architectural description extant. It is exact in accuracy, most orderly in its sequence when read with a knowledge of the building, and must have been written within its walls. A close and careful study written when architectural ideas were in the ascendant—the chief subject of thought in times of peace—it is no futile attempt to explain a work of genius in terms of mechanics and foot-rule measurements, after the manner of an architectural lecture, but it translates the ideas of the artist into the words of the poet. The conceit of Homeric metre and phrasing is almost a charm at this distance of time, the poet’s enthusiasm being quite sufficient to carry off the affectation of attempting an architectural epic. It is not however in its form but in its stimulus to imagination that we see its chief value.

CHAPTER III

THE SILENTIARY’S POEM—PART I

The first eighty lines of the Prelude are an eulogy on the emperor. The succeeding lines were addressed to the clergy. “We come to you, sirs, from the home of the emperor, to the home of the Almighty Emperor, the Deviser of the Universe, by whose grace victory cleaves to our lord. The august head of our state lent a kindly ear to our words, as he sat in the hall; now we see the chief of the sacred priests. May he too favour us, and may none of those who listen carp at our words.”

The poem itself, in long Homeric hexameters, begins by describing the general peace throughout the Roman world at the time of the restoration of S. Sophia. Dr. Körtum notes the following references to events only then recently passed. The rule of the Vandals in Africa had been destroyed by Belisarius (534), and a later insurrection quelled (545); the reign of the Ostrogoths in the West had come to an end (554), and peace had just been concluded with the Persians (561). There is also an allusion to the conspiracy of this same year, when an attempt was made on the emperor’s life.

The poet then, describing the ruin caused by the earthquake (558) at S. Sophia, tells us that “the very foundations of the dome failed, and thick clouds of dust darkened the midday sun. Yet the whole church did not fall, but only the top of the eastern vault, and a portion of the dome above. Part lay on the ground, part open to the light of day, hung suspended in the air.” “But the emperor soon began to build again, the Genius of New Rome by his side.”

When the emperor went to the ruins of the church he praised the skilful craft of Anthemius; “he it was who laid the first foundations of the church, one skilled to draw a circle or set out a plan.[64] And he gave to the walls strength to resist the pushing arches, which were like active demons. This time it was not merely the crown of the arch that gave way [see above, p. [28]], for the very piers were shaken to their foundations.”

The poet now describes the building: “Whoever raises his eyes to the beauteous firmament of the roof, scarce dares to gaze on its rounded expanse sprinkled with the stars of heaven, but turns to the fresh green marble below, seeming as it were to see flower-bordered streams of Thessaly, and budding corn, and woods thick with trees; leaping flocks too and twining olive-trees, and the vine with green tendrils, or the deep blue peace of summer sea, broken by the plashing oars of spray-girt ship. Whoever puts foot within the sacred fane, would live there for ever, and his eyes well with tears of joy. Thus by Divine counsel, while angels watched, was the temple built again.

“At last the holy morn had come, and the great door of the new-built temple groaned on its opening hinges, inviting emperor and people to enter; and when the inner part was seen sorrow fled from the hearts of all, as the sun lit the glories of the temple. ’Twas for the emperor to lead the way for his people, and on the morrow to celebrate the birth of Christ. And when the first gleam of light rosy-armed driving away the dark shadows, leapt from arch to arch, then all the princes and people with one voice hymned their songs of prayer and praise; and as they came to the sacred courts, it seemed to them as if the mighty arches were set in heaven.

Apse and Exedras.—“Towards the East unfold triple spaces of semicircular form; and above, on an upright band of wall, soars aloft the fourth part of a sphere. Even so, high over its back and triple crest, shimmer the tail feathers of a peacock, with their countless eyes. These crowning parts men learned in the builder’s art call conchs; and certain it is they call them so from a shell of the sea, or ’tis a craftsman’s name.

Apse.—“The middle apse holds the stalls (thokoi) and steps (bathra) ranged circle-wise. Some on the level of the ground are massed close together round the centre; and as they rise higher, with the spaces between them, they widen out little by little, until they come to the stalls of silver. Thus with increasing circles they ever wheel round a fixed circle in the pavement.

Bema.—“Now the apse is separated [from the nave] by a space between vertical walls built on strong foundations, with an arch[65] above, not a portion of a sphere, but in the form of a cylinder cleft in twain.

Exedras.—“And westwards again are two conchs on columns, one on either side; projecting as if stretching out bent arms to embrace the people singing in the church. They are borne by columns of porphyry, bright of bloom ranged in semicircular line, and with capitals (karenoi) of gold, carrying the weight of the arches (kukloi) above. These columns were once brought from the cliffs of Thebes, which stand, like greaved warriors, by the banks of Nile. Thus, on two columns, on either side, rise the lower parts of either exedra (apsis). And for the support of each, the skilled workman has bent from below three small semicircular arches (apsides); and, beneath their springing, the tops (kareata) of the columns are bound with well-wrought bronze, overlaid with gold, which drives away all fear. Now above the porphyry columns stand others from Thessaly, splendid flowers of fresh green. Here are the fair upper galleries for the women. These too have arches, as may be seen from below, though they show six Thessalian columns and not two. And one wonders at the power of him, who bravely set six columns over two, and has not trembled to fix their bases over empty air.[66]

Fig. 5.—Ground Plan.

Fig. 6.—Plan of Gynaeceum Galleries. The left-hand side of each plan shows the vaults, and the right-hand side the iron ties and wood struts at springing of vaults.

“Now the workman has fenced all the spaces between the Thessalian columns, with stone closures, on which the women can lean and support their elbows. Thus as you raise your gaze to the eastern arches (antuges) a never-ending wonder appears.

Eastern Semidome.—“And upon all of them, above the curved forms rises yet another vault (apsis), borne on the air, raising its head aloft up to the wide-reaching arch, on whose back are firmly fixed the lowest courses of the divine head-piece (koros) of the centre of the church. Thus rises on high the deep-bosomed vault, borne above triple voids below; and through fivefold openings, pierced in its back, filled with thin plates of glass, comes the morning light scattering sparkling rays.

Part II

Western End.—“And looking towards the sunset, one might see the same as towards the dawn, though a portion differs. For there in the centre it is not drawn round in a circle, as on the eastern boundary, where sit the learned priests on seats of resplendent silver, but at the west end is a vast entrance (puleon); not only one door, but three.

Narthex.—“And outside of the doors (pulai) there stretches a long porch (aulon), receiving beneath wide portals (thuretroi) those that enter; and it is as long as the wondrous church is broad. In the Greek speech this part is called the narthex. Here through the night swells the melodious sound, pleasing to the ears of Him who giveth life to all; when the psalms of David are sung in antiphonal strains—that sweet-voiced David, whom the divine voice of the Almighty praised, and whose glorious posterity conceived the sinless Son of God, who was in Virgin’s pangs brought forth, and subjected to a Mother’s care. Now into this porch open seven wide holy gates (puleones), inviting the people to enter. One of them is on the south of the narrow porch, and another opens to Boreas, but the others are opened on creaking hinges by the doorkeeper (neokoros) in the west wall. This wall is the end of the church.

“Whither am I carried? What breeze has driven, like a ship at sea, my errant speech? The very centre of the famous church is all forgotten; return, my muse, to see the wonders scarcely to be believed when seen or heard.

The Four Piers.—“Alongside of the eastern and western curves (kukloi)—the half-circles with their pairs of columns from Thebes—stand four strong well-built piers (toichoi), naked to look on in front, but on their sides and backs they have supporting arches, and the four rest on strong foundations of hard stones. In the joints the workman has mixed and poured the dust of fireburnt stone, binding all together with the builder’s art.

“Above them spring measureless curved arches like the many-coloured bow of Iris: one opens towards the home of Zephyr, another to Boreas, another to Notus, and yet another to the fiery Eurus. And every arch (antux) has its foot at either end fixed unshaken, and joined to the neighbouring curves. But as each rises slowly in the air in bending line, it separates from the other to which first it was joined.

The Pendentives.—“Now the part between these same arches (apsides) is filled with wondrous skill. For where, as needs must be, the arches bend away from one another, and would have shown empty air, a curved wall, like a triangle, grows over, touching the rim of the arches on either side. And the four triangles, creeping over, spread out, until they become united above the crown of each arch. The middle portion of the arches, as much as forms the curved rim, the builder’s skill has formed with thin bricks (plinthoi), and has thus made fast the topmost curves of the house of stone.

“Now in the joints they have put sheets of soft lead, lest the stones, as they lie on one another, adding weight to weight, should have their backs broken. Thus with the lead inserted, the pressure is softened, and the stone foundation is gently burdened.

Cornice of Dome.—“A rim (antux) curving round, is firmly fixed on the backs (of the arches), where rests the base of the hemisphere[67]; this is the circle of the lowest course which they have set as a crown on the backs of the arches (apsides). And just under the projecting firmament (kosmos), the hanging stones form a narrow curved path, on which the man who cares for the sacred lights can walk fearlessly, and trim each in turn.

The Dome.—“And above all rises into the immeasurable air the great helmet [of the dome], which, bending over, like the radiant heavens, embraces the church. And at the highest part, at the crown, was depicted[68] the cross, the protector of the city. And wondrous it is to see how the dome gradually rises, wide below, and growing less as it reaches higher. It does not however spring upwards to a sharp point, but is like the firmament which rests on air, though the dome is fixed on the strong backs of the arches.”

(Here is a lacuna in the Greek text; two broken lines, 94, 95, speak of “window openings made in the apses, through which streams the splendour of the golden morning light.”)

“With dauntless pen I will describe what plan the emperor devised for the broad church, and how, with builder’s skill, both the curves of the arches and the vault of the wide-extended house were formed with thin bricks (plinthoi), and raised on firm foundations. Thus the skilful master-man, well versed in every craft, formed a ceiling to the lofty nave. Yet he did not send to the hills of Phœnician Lebanon, nor to search the dark woods of the Alpine crags, nor where some Assyrian or Celtic woodman goads on the oxen in dense forests, nor did he think to use fir (peuke) or pine (elate) to roof the house. From neither the glades of Daphne[69] by Orontes, nor from the wooded crags of Patara[70] came cypress wood, to form a covering for the mighty temple. For our noble king, since nature could produce no timber great enough, had it covered with stones (lithoi) laid in a round form. Thus on the four arches (apsides) rose, like a beauteous helmet, the deep-bosomed swelling roof (kaluptra): and it seems that the eye, as it wanders round, gazes on the circling heavens. And beneath the two great arches (apsides), to the east and to the west, you must know that it is all open, and extended in the air.

“But towards the murmuring south wind and the cold dry north, a wall, mighty in strength, rises to the under side of the rounded arch (antux). Now this wall is made bright with eight windows, and rests below on great props of marble. For beneath it six columns, like the fresh green of the emerald, in union support untired the weight of wall. And these again are borne on strong columns fixed immovable on the ground, glittering jewels of Thessalian marble, with capitals above them like locks of golden hair. These separate the middle portion of the glorious nave from the neighbouring aisle (aithousa) that stretches alongside. Never were such columns, blooming with a many-hued brightness,[71] hewn from the craggy hills of sea-washed Molossis.

North Aisle, Centre Division.—“And in the aisle itself, in the middle space Anthemius of many crafts, and with him Isiodorus the wise,—for both of them, acting under the will of the king, built the mighty church—have placed two pairs of columns, and in measure they are less than those others near them, but they are as bright with fresh green bloom, and they came from the same quarry.

“Yet their bases are not placed in a row, one after the other, but they stand on the pavement two facing two opposite; and above their capitals on fourfold arches (seireai) rises the underside of the women’s galleries. And close by these columns on the north side is a door, admitting the people to the founts that purify the stains of mortal life, and heal every deadly scar.

“Thus on four columns of beautiful Thessalian stone, in order, placed here and there, towards the twilight and to the dawn, along the length of the aisle (aithousa) there curves a weight of bending vaults (kulindroi) extending to the walls, which are pierced with openings; on the northern side they lean on the spaces that join the twin windows,[72] but on the south, instead of windows are empty spaces like a colonnade.

North Aisle, East and West Divisions.—“And again towards the east and west stand two columns from Thessaly, with lofty crests, and twin piers (stemones) from famous Proconnesus, fixed close by the doors. Towards the east there is but one door, though on the side of the cold north they walk through twain.

South Aisle.—“On the south you will see a long aisle as on the north, yet made bigger. For a part is separated off from the nave by a wall, and here the emperor takes his accustomed seat on the solemn festivals, and listens to the reading of the sacred books.

Gynaecea.—“And whoever mounts will find on both sides of the church the aisles for women similar to those below, and there is yet another, though not like those on either side, above the narthex.

Atrium.—“Now on the western side of this divine church you will see a great open court (aule) surrounded by four cloisters. One of these joins on to the narthex, but the others spread round the sides, where stand their several paths. In the very centre of the wide garth stands a spacious phiale, cleft from the Iassian peaks; and from it bubbling water gushes forth and throws a stream into the air, leaping up from the pressure of the brazen pipe—a stream that purges away all suffering, when the people, in the month of the golden vestments[73] at the mystic feast of Christ, draw the unsullied waters in vessels by night. And the water shows the power of God; for never will you find decay on its surface, even if it remains in its vessel, and away from the fountain for more than a year.[74]

“Everywhere the walls glitter with wondrous designs, the stone for which came from the quarries of seagirt Proconnesus. The marbles are cut and joined like painted patterns, and in stones formed into squares or eight-sided figures the veins meet to form devices; and the stones show also the forms of living creatures.

“And on either side along the flanks and outskirts (antuges) of the beautiful church, you would see open courts (aulai). These were all planned about the building with cunning skill, that it might be bathed all round by the bright light of day.

The Marbles.—“Yet who, even in the measures of Homer, shall sing the marble pastures gathered on the lofty walls and spreading pavement of the mighty church? These the iron with its metal tooth has gnawed—the fresh green from Carystus, and many-coloured marble from the Phrygian range, in which a rosy blush mingles with white, or it shines bright with flowers of deep red and silver. There is a wealth of porphyry too, powdered with bright stars, that has once laden the river boat on the broad Nile. You would see an emerald green from Sparta, and the glittering marble with wavy veins, which the tool has worked in the deep bosom of the Iassian hills, showing slanting streaks blood-red and livid white. From the Lydian creek came the bright stone mingled with streaks of red. Stone too there is that the Lybian sun, warming with his golden light, has nurtured in the deep-bosomed clefts of the hills of the Moors, of crocus colour glittering like gold; and the product of the Celtic crags, a wealth of crystals, like milk poured here and there on a flesh of glittering black. There is the precious onyx, as if gold were shining through it: and the marble that the land of Atrax yields, not from some upland glen, but from the level plains; in parts fresh green as the sea or emerald stone, or again like blue cornflowers in grass, with here and there a drift of fallen snow,—a sweet mingled contrast on the dark shining surface.

Sectile and carved Spandrils.—“Before I come to the glitter of the mosaic,[75] I must describe how the mason (laotoros), weaving together with skill thin slabs of marble, has figured on the flat surface of the walls intertwining curves laden with plenteous fruit, and baskets, and flowers, and birds sitting on the twigs. And the curved pattern of a twining vine with shoots like golden ringlets, weaves a winding chain of clusters; little by little does it put forth shoots, until it overshadows all the stone near with ripples like beauteous tresses. Such ornament as this surrounds the church.

The Capitals.—“And the lofty crest of every column, beneath the marble abacus (peze), is covered with many a supple curve of waving acanthus—a wandering chain of barbed points all golden, full of grace. Thus the marble in bulging forms crowns the deep red columns, as wool the distaff; the stone glittering with a beauty that charms the heart.

The Floor.—“And gladly have the hills of Proconnesus bent their backs to necessity, and strewed the floor with marble. In parts too shimmers the polish of the Bosporus stone, with white streaks on black.

The Mosaic.—“Now the vaulting is formed of many a little square (psephos) of gold cemented together. And the golden stream of glittering rays pours down and strikes the eyes of men, so that they can scarcely bear to look. One might say that one gazed upon the midday sun in spring, what time he gilds each mountain height.

Iconostasis.—“Our emperor has levied from the whole earth, and brought together the wealth of the barbarians of the west; for as he did not deem stone a fitting adornment for the divine, eternal temple, on which [New] Rome has centred the expectancy of joy; he has not spared enrichments of silver, and so the ridge of Pangaeus[76] and the height of Sunium[77] have opened all their silver veins, and many treasure-houses of our subject kings have yielded their stores.

“For as much of the great church by the eastern arch as was set apart for the bloodless sacrifices, no ivory, no stone, nor bronze distinguishes, but it is all fenced with the silver metal. Not only upon the walls, which separate the holy priests from the crowd of singers,[78] has he placed mere plates of silver, but he has covered all the columns themselves with the silver metal, even six sets of twain; and the rays of light glitter far and wide. Upon them the tool has formed dazzling circles, beautifully wrought in skilled symmetry by the craftsman’s hand, in the centre of which is carved the symbol of the Immaculate God, who took upon Himself the form of man. In parts stand up an army of winged angels in pairs, with bent necks and downcast mien (for they could not gaze upon the glory of the Godhead, though hidden in the form of man to clear man’s flesh from sin). And elsewhere the tool has fashioned the heralds of the way of God, even those by whose words were noised abroad, before He took flesh upon Him, the divine tidings of the Anointed One. Nor had the craftsman forgotten the forms of those others, whose childhood was with the fishing-basket and the net; but who left the mean labours of life and unholy cares to bear witness at the bidding of a heavenly king, fishing even for men, and forsaking the skill of casting nets to weave the beauteous seine of eternal life. In other parts art has limned (kategraphe) the Mother of Christ, the vessel of eternal Light, whose womb brought Him forth in holy travail.

“But on the middle panels of the sacred screen, which forms the barrier for the priests, the carver’s art has cut one letter that means many words, for it combines the name of our king and queen. And he has also wrought a form like a shield with a boss, showing the cross in the middle parts. And through the triple doors the screen opens to the priests. For on each side the skilful hand of the workman has made small doors.

The Ciborium.—“And above the all-holy table of gold rises in the air a tower (purgos) indescribable, reared on fourfold arches of silver. And it is borne aloft on silver columns, on whose tops every arch rests its silver feet. And above the arches rises a figure like a cone, yet it is not complete. For at the bottom its edge (antux) does not turn round in the circular form, but has an eight-sided base, and from a broad plan it gradually diminishes to a sharp point, having eight sides of silver. And at the juncture of each to other is, as it were, a long backbone (rachis) which seems to join with the triangular faces of the eight-sided form, and rises to a single crest, where is artfully wrought the form of a cup. And the edges of the cup bend over and assume the form of leaves, and in the midst of it has been placed a shining silver globe, and the cross surmounts it all. May it be an omen of peace! But above the arches many a curve of acanthus twines round the lower part of the cone, and the plant shows sharp projections which rise up from the groundwork like the fruit of a fragrant pear, glittering with light.

“Now where the fitted edges join the flat base are fixed and set bowls of silver. And in each cup stands as it were a candle, though it is a glittering symbol not made of wax, and beauty flashes from them and not light. For they are made round of silver, brightly polished. Thus the candle flashes a silver ray not the light of fire.

The Altar.—“And on columns of gold is raised the all gold slab[79] of the holy table, standing on gold foundations, and bright with the glitter of different stones.

“Whither am I carried? whither tends my unbridled speech? Let my voice be silent, and not lay bare what is not meet for the eyes of the people to see.

Altar Curtains.—“But, ye priests, as the sacred laws command you, spread out the curtain dipped in the red dye of the Sidonian shell and cover the sacred table. Unfold the veils (kaluptrai) hanging on the four sides of silver, and show to the countless crowd a multitude of beautiful designs in gold of skilful handiwork. On one side is cunningly wrought the form of Christ. And this was not worked by skilful hands plying the needle on the stuff, but by the web, the produce of the worm[80] from distant lands, changing its coloured threads of many shades. A garment shimmering with gold, like the rays of rosy-fingered dawn, flashes down to the divine knees, and a chiton, deep red from the Tyrian shell dye, covers the right shoulder beneath its well-woven web. The veiling upper robe has slipped away, and pulled up across the side it only covers the left shoulder, while the forearm and the hand are bare. He seems to point the fingers of the right hand, as if preaching the words of Life, and in the left hand He holds the book of the divine message,—the book that tells what the Messiah accomplished when his foot was on the earth. And the whole robe shines with gold; for on it a thin gold thread is led through the web, as if a fair chain was laid on the cloth in a groove or channel and bound with silken thread by sharp needles. And on either side stand the two messengers of God—Paul, full of divine wisdom, and also the mighty doorkeeper of the Gates of Heaven, binding with both heavenly and earthly chains. One holds the book pregnant with sacred words, and the other the form of a cross on a staff of gold. And both the cunning web has clothed in robes of silver white, and over their sacred heads rises upward a temple of gold, with triple apses fixed on four columns of gold.

“Now on the extreme borders of the curtain shot with gold, unspeakable art has figured the works of mercy of our city’s kings; here one sees hospitals for the sick, there sacred fanes, while on either side are displayed the miracles of Christ; such is the grace and beauty of the work.

“But on the other curtains you see the kings of the earth on one side with their hands joined to those of the Virgin, on the other side with those of Christ, and all is cunningly wrought by the threads of the woof with the sheen of a golden warp. Thus is everything adorned with splendour. Thus may you see all that fills the eyes with wonder.

The Lighting.—“No words can describe the light at night-time; one might say in truth that some midnight sun illumined the glories of the temple. For the wise forethought of our king has had stretched from the projecting rim (antux) of stone, on whose back is firmly planted the temple’s air-borne dome, long twisted chains (seirai) of beaten brass, linked in alternating curves with many windings. And these chains, bending down from every part in a long course, come together as they fall towards the ground. But before they reach the pavement, their path from above is checked, and they finish in unison on a circle.

“And beneath each chain he has caused to be fitted silver discs, hanging circle-wise in the air, round the space in the centre of the church. Thus these discs, pendent from their lofty courses, form a coronet above the heads of men. They have been pierced too by the weapon of the skilful workman, in order that they may receive shafts[81] of fire-wrought glass, and hold light on high for men at night.

“And not from discs alone does the light shine at night, but in the circles close by a disc you would see the symbol of the mighty cross, pierced with many holes, and in its pierced back shines a vessel of light. Thus hangs the circling chorus of bright lights. Verily you might say that you gazed on the bright constellation of the Heavenly Crown by the Great Bear, and the neighbouring Dragon.

“Thus through the temple wanders the evening light, brightly shining. In the middle of a larger circle you would find a crown with lightbearing rim; and above in the centre another noble disc spread its light in the air, so that night is compelled to flee.

“Near the aisles too, alongside the columns, they have hung in order single lamps (lampter) apart one from another; and through the whole length of the far-stretching nave is their path. Beneath each they have placed a silver vessel, like a balance pan, and in the centre of this rests a cup of well-burning oil.

“There is not however one equal level for all the lamps, for you may see some high, some low, in comely curves of light; and from twisted chains they sweetly flash in their aerial courses, even as shines twin-pointed Hyas fixed in the forehead of Taurus.

“One might also see ships of silver, bearing a flashing freight of flame, and plying their lofty courses in the liquid air instead of the sea, fearing no gale from south-west, nor from Boötes, sinking late to rest. And above the wide floor you would see shapely beams (with lamps), running between two-horned supports of iron, by whose light the orders of priests, bound by the rubrics, perform their duties.

“Some there are along the floor, where the columns have their bases, and above again others pass, by far-reaching courses, along the crowning work of the walls. Neither is the base of the deep-bosomed dome left without light, for along the projecting stone of the curved cornice the skilful workman suspends single lamps to bronze stakes. As when some handmaid binds round the neck of a royal virgin a graceful chain shining with the glitter of fiery gold; even so has our emperor fixed round all the cornice lights in circle-wise, companions everywhere to those below.

“There is also on the silver columns [of the Iconostasis], above their capitals, a narrow way of access for the lamp-lighter, glittering with bright clusters; these one might compare to the mountain-nourished pine, or cypress with fresh branches. From a point ever-widening circles spread down until the last is reached, even that which curves round the base; instead of a root, bowls of silver are placed beneath the trees, with their flaming flowers. And in the centre of this beauteous wood, the form of the divine cross, pierced with the prints of the nails, shines with light for mortal eyes.

“A thousand others within the temple show their gleaming light, hanging aloft by chains of many windings. Some are placed in the aisles, others in the centre or to east and West, or on the crowning walls, shedding the brightness of flame. Thus the night seems to flout the light of day, and be itself as rosy as the dawn. And whoever gazes on the lighted trees, with their crown of circles, feels his heart warmed with joy; and looking on a boat[82] swathed with fire, or some single lamp, or the symbol of the Divine Christ, all care vanishes from the mind. So with wayfarers through a cloudless night, as they see the stars rising from point to point; one watches sweet Hesperus, another’s attention is fixed on Taurus, and a third contemplates Boötes, or Orion and the cold Charles’ Wain; the whole heaven, scattered with glittering stars, opens before them, while the night seems to smile on their way.

“Thus through the spaces of the great church come rays of light, expelling clouds of care, and filling the mind with joy. The sacred light cheers all: even the sailor guiding his bark on the waves, leaving behind him the unfriendly billows of the raging Pontus, and winding a sinuous course amidst creeks and rocks, with heart fearful at the dangers of his nightly wanderings—perchance he has left the Ægean and guides his ship against adverse currents in the Hellespont, awaiting with taut forestay the onslaught of a storm from Africa—does not guide his laden vessel by the light of Cynosure, or the circling Bear, but by the divine light of the church itself. Yet not only does it guide the merchant at night, like the rays from the Pharos on the coast of Africa, but it also shows the way to the living God.”

CHAPTER IV

THE AMBO

The third part of the description of the Silentiary is devoted to the ambo, the chief feature in Justinian’s reinstatement of the interior. It stood far out from the bema, on the central axis of the church. Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople from 715-740 A.D., and Simeon of Thessalonica both speak of this as the right position for ambones; “the most holy bema should be towards the east, with the ambo in front of it, if there is room.”[83] The two flights of steps, by which the ambo—the name of which is derived from the Greek for ascending—was reached, were on the east and west sides. In the ambo the Gospel was read, and here was recited a prayer[84] at the conclusion of the liturgy, which seems to have been a compendium of those previously uttered in the sanctuary; the priest left the bema, ascended the ambo on the east side, and prayed with his face towards the west. Important offices in coronations were also performed here.

Paulus’ description of the ambo opens with a preface of thirty iambic lines in praise of the emperor, who has added the “one thing needful to our all-glorious church.” The importance of this work is made an excuse for interrupting the “usual pursuits of his hearers even for a third time.” Twenty hexameter lines are devoted to an invocation to the apostles and saints, and then follows the description of the ambo.

“Now in the central space of the wide temple, yet tending rather towards the east, rises a tower (purgos), fair to look upon, set apart for the reading of the sacred books. Upright it stands on steps, reached by two flights, one of which stretches towards the west, but the other towards the dawn. So are they opposite to one another, and both lead to a space formed like a circle. Now one stone curves round to form this circular space, though it is not altogether equal to a complete curve (tornos), but it agrees with it except where the edge of the stone is lengthened; for towards east and west a flight of steps is drawn out like a neck, projecting from the circled stone.

Fig. 7.—Plan of the Ambo both above and below.

“And up to the height of a man’s girdle our godlike king has formed, with the help of silver, beauteous walls curving like crescents. He has not bent silver right round the stone, but a silver plaque (plax) is spread out in the centre, to adorn the circling wall. Thus has the skilful workman spread out two sure crescents and opened on either side a flight of steps.

“Nor does fear seize those descending the sacred steps, because the sides are unfenced; for hedge walls of glittering marble have been reared there; and they are high above the steps for the hand of a man to hold as he mounts, grasping them to ease his way; so on each side they grow upwards in a rising line, and stop at length with the steps which are between them. Thus good use is made of the stone; for they have quarried savage hill, and steep promontory, to have a far-stretching safeguard to the long flight. And the whole is cunningly wrought with skilful workmanship, and glitters with ever-changing brightness. In parts it seems that whirlpools eddy over the surface, intertwining circles winding under the wandering curves of other circles. In parts is seen a rosy bloom, mingled with wan paleness, or fair gleams of light, as from bright spearheads; in other places shines a softer glory, like the radiance of boxwood, or the delightsome bees-wax, which mortal men ofttimes lay on the unsullied cliffs, and turn over beneath the rays of the sun, while it changes to a silver white; yet not completely altering its substance, it still shows veins of gold. Even so the deep-stained ivory of many a year’s growth expands its gleaming flesh on the curved breast. At times it seems to have a pale green hue. Yet the craftsman has not left it pallid and unadorned, for he has fixed it in fair and cunningly wrought designs on the stone. Thus over all in many a curve its beauty is displayed. In parts the broad surface is tinged with the choicest tint of the pale crocus, or appears almost without colour, like light creeping round the pointed horns of the new-born moon.

“Now near a rocky hill stands the sacred city—Hierapolis—which gives its name to a well-known marble; and of this is made all the fair floor of the place where they read the divine wisdom of the holy books; and it is fitted by the craftsmen’s skill on eight cunningly wrought columns. Two of these are towards the north, two towards the southern wind, two towards the east, and two towards the home of evening. Thus is the floor raised up. And beneath there is as it were another space, where the priests continue their sacred song. The stone is a covering to those below, but above it is like a spreading plain, untouched by the feet of mortals. And the underside the mason (laotomos) has cut out and hollowed, so that, by the craftsmen’s skill, it rises from the capitals, curving over like the hollow shell-back of the tortoise, or some oxhide shield held up over the helmet, when the warrior leaps in the mazes of the Pyrrhic dance.

“Now the rugged surface (metopon) of the stone they have girdled everywhere with the silver metal; and there the skilled workman, cutting, with the point of his iron, twining foliage and lovely flowers, has inlaid the beauteous leaves of ivy, with its clusters and budding shoots.

“But with all its steps and floor and the columns as well, the artificers have formed for it a fixed foundation, and raised a base (krepis), the height of a man’s foot, above the floor of the church; and in order that they might widen the foundation of the space they have placed on either side, round the belly (gaster) in the middle, half-circles in stone, and they have surrounded the space with separate columns arranged in semicircles. Thus the whole belly is widened by means of four rich columns on either side, to north, and to south; and the cave space (speos), like a house, is surrounded on all sides by a fence of circling stone.

“Some of the fair columns that the masons have set up are from the Phrygian land, towards the Mygdonian heights, hewn with strong axes: and looking on these flowers of stone, one would say that white lilies mingled with rose cups, or the soft petals of the shortlived anemone. Here is abundance of red and a mere tinge of white, there thin sinews mix with the veins which dye the columns deep red, as with drops from the Laconian shell.

“First then at the bottom they have placed the fairly wrought plinth (krepis) supporting all, made beautiful with twisting curves; and above it they have set stone bases, firmly fixed, cut from the rich quarries of the Bosporus. Quite white, they glitter, and in branching veins a deep blue line wanders in the shining flesh. And the bases on the eight sides the mason has adorned with moulded bronze rings fixed circle-wise round each base, as round a neck. And through the space of the whole church shines the glory of each column fixed on its polished base, like a white cloud wrought into patterns by the ruddy rays of the rising sun.

“Thus are ranged in half-circles the company of four, and this half with the other four they have connected by a fair chiton of stone, even round the well-formed hollow (antron); for the three spaces between the four columns have been closed by the skilful mason with fencestones of marble from Hierapolis, firmly fixed on the plinth (krepis). And it is meet that this crown of stone on the fair floor of the sacred fane should be called of ‘the Holy City’ (Hierapolis). In the boundary is placed a door, slightly curved, through which enters the priest, to the floor of the hollow cavern (antron).

“Now you must know that the curve (spelunx), with columns, and plinth (krepis), and fence wall, is alike on either side, towards Garamas on the south and towards Arimaspus [to the north]. But the doors the workmen have not fixed in like places, but one is westwards and the other eastwards—the western one inclines towards the north, but the southern gate is towards the east. Moreover the fence-walls do not stand the same height as the columns, but they rise above the beauteous pavement, as much as to hide a man in the hollow space (antron). But the eight columns with fair carved capitals come out above the fence wall, and stand round it on the base with equal spaces between them, even on the stone plinth. The capitals shine with gold, like high peaks which the golden-rayed sun strikes with its arrows.

“And all the capitals on high are crowned above in circled order by an embracing rim of beams (douratea antux), which binds the columns together in one curve, though at the same time each column is separate from its fellow. And fixed upon the rim you might see trees, with clusters as of fire,—the glitter of silver boughs shining afar. Nor does each sapling wander at will, but it is restrained in a cone-like form of many edges, from a wide circle ever lessening to a point at the top. Now the fair girdle (zoster) that forms the rim is all crowned with golden ivy-leaves, and coloured with the sapphire dust. But towards the home of Zephyr, and also towards the fiery-winged Eurus, there are fixed upon the rim (antux) two crosses of silver, with a curved spike (hêlos) above each, bending like a shepherd’s crook, flashing a thousand lights to the eyes.

“In this manner is the shining ambo made; thus have they called it ‘the place ascended’ (ambatos), by holy paths, and here the people direct their eyes, as they gaze on the divine gospel.

“And it is to good purpose that they have placed the cut stones in steps, on whose white surface one might descry thin veins of deep red like the dye of the sea-shell. For the unpolished stones the mason has hewn into a long flight (rachis) of steps, a strong support for the feet of men, lest any one slipping from above and falling should descend all unsteady to the floor; thus in order and in continuous line one stone, as it rises above another, recedes from it, even as much as a man ascending plants one step in turn in front of another.

“And as an island rises amidst the swelling billows, bright with patterns of cornfields, and vineyards, and blossoming meadows, and wooded heights, while sailors, as they steer by it, are gladdened, and the troubles and anxieties of the sea are beguiled; so in the middle space of the boundless temple rises upright the tower-like ambo of stone, with its marble pastures like meadows, cunningly wrought with the beauty of the craftsman’s art. Yet though it stands in the middle, it is not quite cut off, like an island girdled by the sea, but is rather like some wave-washed land, extended by a narrow isthmus through the gray billows into the middle of the sea, and were it not for this binding chain, it would be cut off and seen as a true island; but though it projects into the ocean, it is still joined to the mainland coast by the isthmus, as by a cable.

“Such is the ambo; for a long path starts from the last step of its eastern flight, and stretches out until it comes to the space by the twin silver doors, even striking with its lengthy plinth the fence wall of the sacred rites; and the path is warded on both sides by walls. Now for these fence walls they have not placed lofty slabs, but they are as high up as the navel of a man standing by them; and here the priest, as he holds the golden gospel, passes along, and the surging crowd strive to touch the sacred book with their lips and hands, while moving waves of people break around.

“Thus is this path prolonged like an isthmus, wave-washed on either side, and it leads the priest as he descends from the distant ambo with its lofty cliffs, to the shrine of the holy table. And the whole path on both sides is fenced with the fresh green stone of Thessaly; and the abundant rich meadows of the stones bring the delight of beauty to the eyes. Now at both ends of each slab from Thessaly stand posts of equal height, not like a cylinder in form: one skilled in figures would say that the posts were not equal-sided, but have the shape of a lengthened cube. And the masons (laotoroi) have made the joints of the Molossian slabs, by wedging one stone into another; it is from the Phrygian land that the stone-cutter (laotupos) has had these posts quarried. And resting the wandering glance there one might see snake-like coils twining over the fair marble, winding in beauteous paths; there white and fiery red are set alongside of one another and a flesh colour between both, the lines bending in alternating coils, as they roll round in their courses. First on one side, then on another, are seen the forms of the moon and stars.

“And on the uppermost rim of the fence wall they have fitted another long stretching stone, quarried from the same foreland crag, so that the Thessalian slab is fixed below on the firm foundations of the plinth, and is bound above by another band of marble; and the edges of the Thessalian slabs are joined together as in a chain by the square columns, which are set upright and firm on the foundation.

“And as when one winds the gold twisted thread in and out over the many-coloured surface of a Tyrian robe, and adds a fitting pattern round the bottom edges, or in the fair centre of the robe, or about the sleeve-holes for the arms while the fresh green web of the cloak shines like a meadow in spring,—the glory of the golden warp adding beauty to beauty, and decking it as if with flowers; even so the cunning workman has cast on the fresh green stones of the sacred rock the glitter of golden rays, giving a brighter beauty to them.

“But at the eastern end of the passage, by the holy fence walls of the altar, they have cut off the isthmus, so as to form a speedier path for those who pass from side to side.

“Such works as these has our emperor, bestowing splendid gifts, built for God the King. For to the great bounties of his peaceful reign he has added this much-praised temple, so that with divine foresight he might prepare a gift for the Creator of the world, Christ, King of All. Be thou, O glory of the eternal Trinity, thrice favourable to this city of Rome, to our citizens, our emperor, and our much-loved temple.”

In following this description we see that it begins on the raised floor of the ambo which was rounded on two sides, the others being open to the steps at the east and west. The breast wall on each side was largely covered with applied silver wrought into patterns; and the rest, together with the parapet slabs to the steps, were inlaid in ivory, probably carved like the contemporary bishop’s throne at Ravenna. The body of the ambo inlaid thus with ivory and silver was upheld on eight columns, the underside of the floor stone being hollowed into a flat dome like the fluted soffite of the still older ambo at S. Apollinare at Ravenna. On either side, around the ambo, was a semicircle of large columns of rosy-veined Synnada marble on white bases with bronze annulets and gilt capitals; between the columns breast-high slabs of Hierapolis marble inclosed a space. The circle of columns stood on a raised step, and above they were bound together by a carved beam, the pattern being gilt with the interspaces painted in ultramarine. On this to east and west stood silver crosses; their upper limbs “bent like shepherds’ crooks” doubtless formed the ΧΡ monogram. Silver candelabra, cones of diminishing circles, stood round about on the top of the beam. From the eastern steps a passage way ran back to the step of the iconostasis, inclosed on both sides by marble slabs grooved into posts, bearing a top rail. This closure of Verde antique slabs was inlaid in white and red patterns and gold mosaic.

In this description two separate parts appear, the ambo proper reached by the narrow inclosed way and ascended by steps; and the space entered by two doors screened off about it by the circle of large columns and closure slabs, “where the priests continue their sacred song.” So in Constantine Porphyrogenitus’ Book of the Ceremonies[85] we read of the “psaltae” placed in the ambo singing, “Christ is risen.”

We know little of the later history of the ambo. The Anonymous Author, who probably wrote not earlier than the twelfth century, comparing the mythical splendour of an earlier ambo destroyed by a fall of the dome to another which he attributes to Justinian’s nephew, Justin, says they made the latter of marble, with columns covered with silver, and with silver screens going round the solea. It had no dome. Immediately after he compares the pavement which he says was destroyed at the same time with one that now is. So that we may assume that he wrote of an ambo then existing, and that therefore in this instance he may be trusted.[86] The work attributed to Justin by the Anonymous is really the restoration under Justinian; he seems to have confused the nephew of the architect who was then employed with the nephew of the emperor. Rohault De Fleury,[87] who accepts this story, suggests that a canopied ambo which appears in the Menologium of Basil (976-1025) figures one in S. Sophia which may have replaced the former ambo after the fall of the dome in 975. Robert de Clari (1200) merely says, “The place from which they read the Gospel is so rich and noble, that we do not know how to describe the making of it.”[88] The ambo of that time was destroyed by the Crusaders (1203).[89] Clavijo, the Spanish ambassador, who saw S. Sophia two hundred years later, has left this description of the covered ambo then existing. “On the floor in the centre of the area is a pulpit placed on four columns of jasper; and the sides of it are overlaid with panels of jasper of many colours, and this pulpit is surmounted by a cover, which stands on eight very large jasper columns; and here they preach and read the Gospel on feast days.”

Coronations.—We shall now quote two descriptions of the ceremonies associated with the ambo at coronations. These are of the age of the Palaeologi, and the first is especially interesting as describing the Megale Eisodos and the Celebration.

“And about the second hour of the same day the prince who is to be anointed is set upon a shield;[90] the reigning emperor, who may be his father, and the patriarch take hold of the front part of the shield, which is also held by the officials of rank and the nobility. They then raise it, and show the new emperor to the assembled populace. After he has been greeted with acclamation, they attend him into the church, where the rest of the ceremony must be completed. Now a little edifice of wood has previously been prepared for this very purpose, into which they lead the new emperor, and put on him the purple and the diadem, which have been blest by the bishops. And round his head it is customary to put only a chaplet. After this the service of the Mass (mustagogia) proceeds. And near the erection just mentioned a set of movable steps, also of wood, are prepared, and these they cover with purple silk. And upon it are placed golden thrones, according to the number of the princes, not like other thrones, but raised on four or five steps; here the princes take their seats. The princesses also ascend with them, and sit on the thrones, wearing their crowns, but she that is about to be crowned wears a chaplet. Now before the hymn Trisagion is sung, the patriarch comes out of the bema and ascends the ambo, and with him are the rulers of the church, all wearing their sacred robes. He then dismisses them, and summons the princes, and they immediately arise from their thrones and come to the ambo, while profound silence is kept by the whole congregation. Then the patriarch goes through the prayers appointed for the anointing, some silently by himself, others out loud, praying for the blessing of God on him who is about to be anointed. After this the new emperor removes from his head whatever he is wearing, and then it is right for all, as many as are present, to stand with bared heads. Then the patriarch with the holy oil anoints the head of the emperor with the form of the cross, saying with a loud voice ‘Holy’; and as soon as they hear it those standing on the ambo pronounce it three times, and after them all the people. After this the crown is brought by deacons from the bema where they keep it (now it is not above the Holy Table as some say), and taken to the ambo. If any previously crowned emperor be there, he and the patriarch take the crown together, and place it on the head of the prince, the patriarch saying ‘Holy’ in a loud voice. Those in the ambo repeat it three times, and the people, as after the anointing. Then the patriarch repeats some more prayers, and the prince descends from the ambo, not on the side by which he ascended, but on the side which is turned towards the solea. If he is unmarried he then ascends the steps and reseats himself upon his throne, but if he has a wife then she also must be crowned. She is then led, as she rises from the throne, by two kinswomen one on either side, or if she has no relatives, eunuchs lead her down from the steps, and stand with her before the solea. Then the emperor descends from the ambo, and takes the crown held ready by the kinswomen or eunuchs, and places it upon the head of his wife, and she kneels before her husband, swearing fealty to him. And the patriarch, standing by the solea, offers up a prayer for the emperor and empress, and all their people. Thus the emperor crowns his own wife. And then both ascend the steps, and sit upon their thrones, and the rest of the mysteries are proceeded with. But at the singing of the Trisagion, or at the reading from the apostolic writings, or the Gospels, they stand up.

“And on both sides of the nave, on wooden steps made for this purpose, are those called protopsaltae, and domestici, and others of ecclesiastical rank who know how to sing, and who are called because of this kraktai;[91] all these sing anthems especially made for the occasion. But when the part of the mysteries which is called The Great Entrance[92] is beginning, the chief of the deacons comes and summons the emperor, and he comes with them into the prothesis, where are set out the Holy Elements, and, standing outside the prothesis, a golden mantle is put upon him over the diadem and the purple; and in the right hand he holds the cross, which he usually carries when he wears his crown, but in the left he carries the rod, which he who is called deputatus usually carries. With these in both hands the emperor leads the sacred entrance, and on both sides of him march the Varangi with their axes, and the sons of the nobility armed and unarmed, about a hundred in all, follow; and immediately behind him come the deacons in order, and the priests, carrying the vessels for the service—and other most holy things. And after going round the nave, as is their wont, when they come into the solea, all the others stand outside, but the emperor alone enters the solea and finds the patriarch standing at the sacred screen, and after bowing to one another the patriarch goes inside, but the emperor remains without, and then the deacon who followed immediately after the emperor, holding in his right hand a censer, and in his left what is called the maphorion of the patriarch, approaches and censes the emperor. The emperor bows his head, while the deacon with a loud voice calls out, ‘May the Lord be mindful of the power of thy kingdom in His universal kingdom, now and always and for ever and ever, Amen.’ And in order the rest of the deacons and the priests approach and say the same. And when this is finished the emperor bows to the patriarch, takes off the mandya, which is taken away by the refendarius. The emperor again ascends the tribune and sits down on the throne, but he stands during the creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the elevation of our Lord’s body. And after the elevation, if he is not prepared for the Communion he remains seated till the end of the service. But if he is prepared, the deacons again come and summon him. And with them he enters into the bema and, having been given a censer, he censes the Holy Table, looking first of all to the east, then north, west, and south, and having again censed towards the east, he censes the patriarch also. The patriarch bows to him and takes the censer, and censes the emperor in return. After this the emperor removes the crown, and gives it into the hands of the deacons. Then the patriarch puts into his hand a portion of our Lord’s body, and after that he drinks of the life-giving blood, not from a spoon like the rest of the people, but from the cup itself like the priests. Then the emperor replaces the crown, and comes out of the bema, and after the congregation has shared in the Communion, and he has been blessed by the patriarch, and the priests, and has kissed their right hands, they lead him to the part called catechumena to receive the acclamations of the people. When this is finished, he comes down again, and he and the empress mount on horseback, and ride back to the palace to partake of a banquet.”[93]

Codinus Curopalata[94] has also a description, almost in the same words, but with some additions. The future emperor is “led to the triclinium called Thomaites, which looks on to the Augusteum, where are standing the populace with the army. But before the emperor shows himself, what are called epicombia are thrown to the people by one of the senators, whom the emperor has selected. These epicombia are made as follows. They cut pieces of cloth, and in each piece they bind up three gold and as many silver numismata and three obols, and then throw them to the people, and they scatter as many thousands of these as the emperor shall arrange. Now it is customary to throw these epicombia in the proaulion of the great church, that is in the part called Augusteum;—he who scatters them standing above the steps of the Augusteum.” Inside the church a wooden tribunal had been prepared in the gynaeceum, and at the end of the ceremony “the young emperor with his wife the empress, and the emperor, his father, and his mother, ascend. But the golden velothyra hide the tribunal, so that they shall not be seen. Then the psaltae sing ‘Lift up,’ and immediately the velothyra are raised, and the princes in the gynaeceum are greeted with acclamations by the people.”

CHAPTER V

THE RITUAL ARRANGEMENTS AND INTERIOR PARTS OF THE CHURCH

Main Divisions.—Du Cange, in the commentary to his edition of the Silentiary’s Poem, was the first to make a serious attempt to elucidate the interior arrangements of S. Sophia. This appeared with the poem in the folio of 1670,[95] but a revised edition was incorporated in his Historia Byzantina, 1680.[96]

In the first his knowledge of the actual state of the church seems to have been limited to the description of Gyllius unassisted by any plan. Drawings of S. Sophia were desiderata at that time, and Grelot tells us how he was induced to attempt to make them by a knowledge that others who had been commissioned by the King of France had failed. Before the publication of his revised edition of 1680 Du Cange had obtained a plan. This appeared in the same year as Grelot’s work, and divergences seem to show that the plans were, in great measure at least, independent of one another. The main text of his commentary however remained the same, and the alterations, although crucial, were mostly made by the omission of a few lines here and there without any attention being specially called to the fact.

This has been the cause of much confusion, as it has unfortunately happened that the first edition has been reproduced without remark in the series of Byzantine texts published at Bonn and in Migne’s Patrologiae Cursus Completus. In this Du Cange placed the iconostasis “under the great eastern arch which supports the dome,” and thus included the whole eastern hemicycle in the bema. He devoted the whole central square under the dome to the “priests and singers,” separating it from the western hemicycle by “marble columns,” which were obtained by a curious misreading of Gyllius’ description of the verde antique columns in the western opening on the first floor. In the centre between these “marble columns” he placed the “Beautiful” or “Royal Gate,” and the western hemicycle outside this was alone allotted to the people. In the corrected edition of 1680 the bema is confined to the eastern extension, the eastern hemicycle became the solea, and the central area and western hemicycle are given to the people.

There is actually very little diversity of opinion in regard to the main divisions of the church between Du Cange, Neale,[97] and Salzenberg, but Rohault de Fleury has been misled into making an engraving of the iconostasis, stretching across the whole hundred feet of the hemicycle.

Bema.—A church, as Simeon of Thessalonica writes, is properly “divided into three parts, the pronaos, the naos, and the bema.” The bema (see Plan, [Fig. 5]) is the raised part within the screen or iconostasis included by the apse. This was the place set apart for the priests, who are hence sometimes called “they of the bema.”[98] Decrees were passed from time to time to enhance its sacred character; as that no member of the laity should pass beyond the screen, except with the consent of a bishop. Even the emperor was only allowed there during a few portions of the liturgy.

The bema of S. Sophia was indifferently called the adyta, hierateion, thusiasterion. The history of Michael Attaliotas also speaks of it as the “second skene, that is, the Holy of Holies.”[99] The apse proper is by Paulus mentioned apart from the space contained by the straight walls, and it is possible that this is the kuklios (cyclius) of Porphyrogenitus. From the poet we gather that the priests’ stalls against the wall were plated with silver. The upper part of the curved wall is incrusted with precious marble of sombre golden tones, beneath which the surface has been disturbed and is now covered by plain gray slabs. When we recall the immense quantity of silver that Procopius says was used in the sanctuary, and remember that the iconostasis and the altar-ciborium were of silver and the Holy Table of gold, it seems likely that the plating of the silver stalls covered the whole of this narrow strip, which would not be more than six or eight feet above the top seat, the level of which we suppose is marked by the projection of the lower part of the wall. In the small oratory of the Saviour built by Basil in the palace “the whole pavement was of massive silver wrought by the hammer and enriched by niello, and the walls to the right and left were covered with great plates of silver damascened in gold and glistening with precious stones and pearls.”[100] To this space we should refer the four panels with images in the wall mentioned in the Novgorod Chronicle,[101] which we suppose were of embossed silver or enamel. The most eastward point of the apse was occupied by the patriarch’s throne.[102] A bishop’s chair with a canopy preserved in the cathedral church of S. George at Constantinople, said to have belonged to S. Sophia, is in any case quite late. It is of wood, ornamented with inlaid work representing the two-headed eagle, which was not adopted earlier than the tenth century.

In [Fig. 8] we give an outline of a miniature in the Menologium (Jan. 16) of the adoration of S. Peter’s chains, which were kept in the chapel of S. Peter attached to the great church. We have here a bema fully represented with the altar, ciborium, and apsidal stalls for the clergy. We can hardly suppose that these latter could have belonged to a small dependent chapel, and hence the miniature in the symbolic way of these old drawings is probably intended as a view of the great apse.

Altar.—The central object of the bema was the altar, which stood beneath the cylindrical vault, on the under side of which the two great watching angels are represented in the mosaic. Paulus says, “On columns of gold is raised the all golden slab of the Holy Table; it stands too on a base of gold, and from it gleams the brightness of precious stones.” The doubtful Anonymous says that it was “supported on four columns, overlaid with gold,” and again that “it was set up on solid columns of gold, studded with precious stones;” and that beneath the altar was a “sea” (thalassa) ornamented with gold and precious stones.[103] This seems to refer to the “base of gold” beneath the columns.

Fig. 8.—View of Bema from the Menologium.

According to Labarte, the description by the Anonymous (see p. [138]) shows that the altar itself was decorated with the bright diversity of enamel. This he seems to prove by passages in Suidas[104] and Cedrenus. The last-named writes: “It is formed of gold, of silver, of every kind of stone and metal and wood, and everything which earth, sea, or the whole universe contains. Of all these he (Justinian) collected the most valuable, with some small amount of commoner ones. He then melted those that would melt, added those that were dry, and poured them into a mould till it was filled. He wrote upon it, ‘We (Justinian and Theodora) thy servants, O Christ, bring thee of thine own, praying that thou wilt graciously accept it, O Son and Word of God made flesh and crucified for us. Strengthen us in the true faith, increase and guard this state, which thou hast intrusted to us, through the mediation of Mary, the holy Virgin, the Mother of God.’”

However doubtful these late Greek writers are as authorities for Justinian’s time, enamel was used in later days in the most extravagant manner, and we cannot doubt that at the time when the Crusaders took the church the altar was of enamel.[105] Robert de Clari,[106] writing at this time, says, “the chief altar of the church (S. Sophia) is so rich that one cannot value it; for the slab which forms the altar is of gold and of precious cut stones (esquartelées) and pearls (molucs) all thrown together.” Nicetas is even clearer; describing the capture of Constantinople and the sack of the church, he says: “The Holy Table, made of all kinds of precious materials, cemented together by fire, and formed into a many-coloured harmony so as to be the wonder of all nations, was broken in pieces and distributed by the soldiers.”[107]

It is very probable that some of the enamels added to the Pala d’Oro at Venice after the sack of Constantinople came from the sanctuary of S. Sophia, possibly from its altar. Sylvester Sguropulus[108] who accompanied John Palaeologus to Venice in 1438, describes the Pala d’Oro as “an icon which is formed out of many, and we heard that some of these were taken from the Church of S. Sophia.” It may be only a coincidence that one of the panels of the Pala contains the figure of Solomon with the Greek inscription, “Wisdom hath builded her house,” that being the usual legend for Solomon.

The altar would have been covered, like the altars shown in the mosaics at Ravenna, and the illustrations of the Menologium,[109] by a cloth reaching on all sides to the floor. These cloths bear very simple devices—in the centre a plain cross, circle, or star, and at the four corners gammidae ⛶ which in the code of symbolism probably expressed the four corners of that world, for which the daily sacrifice was offered.

Others however were more richly embroidered. In the Liber Pontificalis of Agnellus[110] it is said that Maximian, the Archbishop of Ravenna in Justinian’s time, ordered a most precious altar-cloth (endothis) of byssus, on which was embroidered the whole history of the Saviour. “It is not possible to imagine the human figures, or the beasts and birds which are made on it.” The figure of the archbishop was represented with the inscription, “Praise the Lord with me, for he hath raised me from the dust.” The Continuator of Theophanes also speaks of an altar-cloth on which “the birth of the Lord was represented.”[111]

The general Greek name for altar-cloth was endute. Those at S. Sophia are thus spoken of by the Anonymous, and we read that Michael Palaeologus sent to the Pope “an endute of the Great Church, of rose red, with gold and pearls worked on it.”[112]

Ciborium.—The altar stood under a canopy of silver called a kiborion, as is fully described by Paulus. According to the Anonymous it was patterned with niello or damascening (see p. [138]). Such ciboria are frequently spoken of in the Lives of the Popes.[113] Thus Gregory I. made for S. Peter’s a “ciborium with four columns of pure silver,” and Leo III. “made for the basilica of S. Paul a ciborium with large and beautiful columns of the purest silver.” The ciborium of S. Demetrius at Salonica, a fifth-century work described in the Acta Sanctorum, was also of silver. It supported at the top “a solid sphere of silver, with wonderful lily-leaves curved round it, and a cross above.”[114]

An illustration[115] in an eighth-century Gospel preserved at Venice represents a ciborium, like that at S. Sophia. We see four arches on four columns, and from the flat top above rises an octagonal cone. At the four corners stand bowls, and in each bowl is a candle or a representation of one, as the Silentiary describes. Pope Leo III. placed “above the altar of S. Peter four large cups of the purest silver, every one having in its centre a candle of silver-gilt.”[116]

The ciborium at S. Sophia described by Paulus may have lasted till 1203; Robert de Clari, writing at this time, says: “Around the altar there are columns of silver, which carry a canopy (abitacle) over the altar, made like a tower (clokier), which is all of massive silver, and so rich that one cannot estimate its value.”

Crowns, &c.—From the first a crown and dove of gold would have been suspended from the centre of the canopy; such doves are spoken of as being in use in Constantinople during the Council of 536.[117] Theophanes says: “On Easter Day Sophia, the widow of Justin II., and Constantia, the wife of Maurice, gave the Emperor Maurice a crown of exceeding value. When the emperor saw it, he took it to S. Sophia, and hung it above the Holy Table by triple chains of gold and precious stones.”[118] This, Nicephorus Callistus says, was preserved there till the taking of the city by the Latins.[119] According to Buzantios, the emperor Leo IV. and his wife Irene also suspended crowns here. Nicetas speaks of the “crown of the great Constantine, which hung above the Holy Table;” and again of one “John, surnamed Crassus, who rushed into S. Sophia and placed on his head a small crown, one of those which hang round the Holy Table;”[120] and it appears from the account of the Russian pilgrim Anthony, given in the next chapter, that just before the Crusade there were thirty crowns suspended from the ciborium—a beautiful symbolism.

The splendid hanging crowns at Monza and in the Cluny Museum show us that these votive crowns were broad circlets of gold incrusted with large uncut rubies and emeralds with borders of pearls, and strings of jewels, and other pendants hanging from the rim. A small enamelled crown for suspension above an altar which is amongst the Constantinople treasures at S. Mark’s is inscribed ΛΕΟΝ ΔΕϹΠ(ΟΤΗϹ); this, according to Labarte, must be Leo VI., who died in 911.[121]

Altar-veils.—Round the four sides of the ciborium were suspended the curtains described in such detail by Paulus. They were all the more wonderful at this time as being silk-woven and not embroidered.[122] The gold thread however seems to have been “laid” on. By the later Greeks those curtains were named tetrabela. They were often of deep red embroidered with gold, and were usually hung on rods going from capital to capital of the ciborium, as some of the illustrations in the Menologium show, though others seem to have been suspended from the curves of the arches.

The Iconostasis.—For a description of the screen in front of the bema, with its columns, beam, panels, and doors plated with silver, we refer to the Silentiary. A screen of this kind, from the sacred paintings with which it is adorned, is now called the iconostasis, but by the Byzantine writers it is usually named herkos, druphrakta, kinklidai, or kankelloi. Such screens were generally of bronze or marble. The Church of S. John the Evangelist, built by Galla Placidia at Ravenna, had a screen of silver. At the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople, built by Constantine, the iconostasis was gilded bronze. The screen of S. Peter’s in Rome was formed by the twelve beautiful antique columns which figure in Raphael’s tapestry, standing in two rows.[123] Eusebius connects twelve columns which stood about the tomb in the Sepulchre church with the number of the apostles, and it is possible, as De Fleury suggests, that in the six pairs of pillars forming the iconostasis at S. Sophia a reference may be seen to the dismissal of the apostles two by two. From the narrowness of the bema it seems certain that the coupling of the pillars was transversely to the screen as shown on our plan, [Fig. 5]. Thus they easily supported the passage way, where stood a great gemmed cross and a row of branched silver candelabra. This was the “narrow way for the lamp-lighter above the silver columns” described by the Silentiary.

The decoration of the silver plating of the breastwork and the beam by figures of apostles, prophets, and angels, and with circles bearing crosses and monograms, may have been formed in repoussé, like a beautiful gilt panel with a figure of the Virgin and Greek inscription now at Kensington Museum, which formed a part of the decoration of the screen at Torcello, but we think it more probable that it was damascened with gold like the silver work in Basil’s chapel.

The iconostasis probably reached up to the base of the porphyry strip which forms the border of the marble plating of the bema; if so it was about twenty feet high; it had three doors—“The Holy Doors”—that in the centre being the largest.

The “gold and silver columns in the middle of the temple” seen by Benjamin of Tudela, 1173, must refer to the iconostasis.

When the Crusaders practically sacked the church, the iconostasis, ciborium, and altar were broken up and distributed. Nicetas says, “The furniture of surpassing beauty, the silver, which went round the screen of the bema, the ambo, the doors, and many ornaments, in which gold was used, were carried away.” The Novgorod Chronicle[124] gives a fuller account of the eventful morning when the doors were broken through and S. Sophia was invaded. “They broke down the podium of the priests, ornamented with silver, the twelve silver columns, the four panels in the wall, decorated with images, and the Holy Table. They also destroyed the screen walls of the altar placed between the columns, and twelve crosses which stood above the altar; amongst these were crosses of metal, like trees, higher than a man. All these things were made of silver.

“They carried off also the wonderful table, with the gems and a great pearl; so great a crime did they commit in ignorance. Moreover they snatched away forty cups standing on the altar, and silver candelabra, whose number was so great that it is not possible to enumerate them, as well as the silver vessels which the Greeks use, more especially on feast days.

“They stole a Gospel, that was used for the services, and sacred crosses and single images and the covering which was above the altar, and forty censers made of pure gold: they laid hands on all gold and silver and on priceless vessels in the cupboards, walls, and other places, in such quantity that they cannot be numbered.”

Grelot says that before the Turks altered the church the iconostasis had figures of the Virgin and S. John Baptist between the central and side-doors and the Twelve Apostles over.[125]

Prothesis and Diakonikon.—Two chapels that in Byzantine churches almost invariably occur right and left of the bema with which they communicate directly are usually called the prothesis and diakonikon; they were sacristies, used respectively for the preparation of the mass and as a treasury or vestry. Du Cange in both editions placed them in the two exedras of the eastern hemicycle, and in this he is followed by Salzenberg. The impossibility of this arrangement is shown by Neale, who suggests that two chambers on either side of the bema which Du Cange thought were only supplementary were the sacristies in question. The chapels at the east end of S. Sophia have now been built up, but the doors that led into them still exist. We are not however certain that these chapels were built with the church. Paulus does not mention them, and there do not appear to have been chapels in this position at S. Sergius. In regard to the use of the prothesis and diakonikon, Dr. Freshfield[126] considers that the procession with the bread and wine called the Megale Eisodos, described in our last chapter, only became a part of the ritual in the reign of the successor of Justinian, to whose time the Cherubic Hymn sung during the ceremony is referred. The earlier liturgies, he says, contain no directions for this ceremony, but merely speak of the deacon as moving the elements from the prothesis table to the altar, and he concludes that the two side-chapels found in so many churches belong to a time subsequent to Justin II. Two narrow passages however, right and left of the bema, at S. Sophia, S. Sergius, S. Irene, and S. Vitale seem to show that they were intended for access to lateral portions used in connection with the bema, even if these parts were merely screened from the aisles, and a comparison of many early churches in Syria and Asia Minor proves that such chapels were in frequent use if not essential long before Justinian built his church.[127] See our figures [31] and [32], and compare Cattaneo, page 60.

The prothesis and diakonikon of S. Sophia are very infrequently mentioned by those names. In the catalogue of the Constantinopolitan patriarchs we read of “relics being kept in the diaconicum.”[128] The diakonikon is also named where Codinus speaks of the emperor as “hearing the prayers of S. Basil near the diakonikon,” and the prothesis is mentioned in the passage on p. [63]. Certain divisions of the church at the east end are however frequently mentioned by Porphyrogenitus, the Anonymous, and the Russian pilgrims. Thus we have the skeuophylakium (treasury of vessels) and other chapels referred to. The skeuophylakium of the Anonymous seems to be the same as the “lesser sanctuary” of Anthony, by which stood the cross which gave the exact height of Christ. This lesser sanctuary, or skeuophylakium, is probably the diakonikon—“the oratory in front of the metatorion”—where the relics of the Passion were kept.[129] Again we read: “Then by the right-hand side of the bema, they enter the oratory where stands the silver crucifix ... after worshipping they ascend by the cochlea [spiral stair, we suppose at south-east angle where minaret now is] which is by the part called the Holy Well, to the eastern part of the right-hand catechumena.” Again, “Then by the right-hand side of the bema, they enter the oratory where stands the silver crucifix.”[130]

The Holy Well and Metatorion.—The Holy Well, so frequently mentioned in the Ceremonies, seems to have been not merely an object but a division of the church. Labarte makes it a chamber external to the church on the south side, but the Anonymous shows that it was to the east, by speaking of “that part of the temple in which was the Holy Well, the bema, and the ambo.” The author of an account of “the miracle in the Holy Well of the Great Church” speaks of a picture of Christ as being by the eastern gate, “where is the holy mouth of the well of Samaria.”[131]

The Russian pilgrims generally speak of the Samaritan well, from which flowed water from the Jordan, as “in the sanctuary:” the Anonymous Russian says “in the chapel to the right.” At this time it was probably in one of the eastern chapels, which, may have been identical with the prothesis or diakonikon. Some passages of the Ceremonies seem to imply that in the tenth century the Holy Well was without the building; thus we hear of the “embolos [portico] of the Holy Well:” and again, “from the Holy Well, they enter by the door leading to the church;”[132] possibly it was moved later, but probably one of the eastern attached chapels will fulfil the conditions. In our [Fig. 5] we have followed Du Cange’s ground-plan in the distribution of these eastern chapels. It is possible that the round north-east building was used as a great sacristy as Salzenberg suggests; Grelot calls it so on his plan, and T. Smith says this was a tradition. The Anonymous definitely distinguishes the Skeuophylakium, the Holy Well, and the Chapel of S. Peter.

The Metatorion, frequently spoken of together with the Holy Well, Labarte and Paspates place on the south side, external to the church. We think it was probably the name of portions of the side-aisles screened off by curtains. This would agree with Unger,[133] who thinks that the word means a “quarter of the church” (metatio), and that Du Cange was mistaken in deriving it from mutatorium. In the Ceremonies,—“The princes go out of the right side of the bema and enter the metatorion.” Again, the patriarch stands within the iconostasis “on the right-hand side of the bema, towards the metatorion.” From the metatorion a small door led to the Holy Well. Again, “they leave the bema by the right-hand side through the small holy door (in iconostasis) and proceed to the porphyry columns (of exedra), and by the staircase of the metatorion they enter the catechumena.”[134] Again, “the emperor takes off his crown in the metatorion within the Beautiful Gate,” and “within the veil, hanging in the metatorion at the back of the narthex door.” Metatoria in the catechumena of S. Sophia and of S. Sergius are also referred to.[135]

Solea.—The later writers often mention the solea of S. Sophia. Thus Cantacuzenus speaks of the emperor passing through the solea up to the “Holy Doors.”[136] It was immediately outside the iconostasis, and must have closely agreed with the choir of the singers in a Western church. Paulus does not use the word, but he describes the singers as occupying the space in front of the Holy Doors, and embraced by the exedras. The ambo, with its long passage of approach from the step of the Holy Doors, divided this space in two, so it is clear that the singers stood on either side of the ambo. The portion round about the ambo screened by the circle of columns was reserved for the leaders of the choir, the Protopsaltae.[137] We cannot infer from the Silentiary that there was any other screen to the Solea, and no stalls for the singers are mentioned.

It is possible that in the tenth century, when the Book of the Ceremonies was written, the ambo had been modified at least in regard to the approach from the bema, and that a considerable space was interposed between it and the Holy Doors, in front of which there was at this time a porphyry omphalion stone (see our page [96]). Paspates[138] says this is still quite intact, somewhat oval in shape, seven feet across, and adorned with a mosaic of marbles. It seems probable from the Anonymous that in these later days the solea was inclosed by a screen which he says was of silver.[139]

Paulus describes a part on the south side as being inclosed for the emperor, and in Porphyrogenitus we read that the emperor had his seat “near the Holy Doors on the right-hand side.” It is probable that opposite the emperor’s throne there was another bishop’s chair, for that in the bema might only be occupied by the bishop in his own diocese. Grelot indeed reports that the emperor’s and bishop’s thrones were opposite one another.

Nave.—We now come to the central division of the church, the naos or nave, the square space beneath the dome contained between the four main piers: its centre was called omphalos, mesomphalos, or mesonaos.

The pavement, according to the poet Paul, was covered with white Proconnesian marble and darker Bosporus stone. In the opening lines of the description before given he seems to compare the veined marble to flowing streams, or foam-flecked sea, and the ambo is likened to an island rising from the sea. According to Glycas and Codinus the first pavement was of various hues like the ocean. The Anonymous, in comparing a pavement which he says was laid down afterwards with this supposed earlier one, says that “messengers were sent to Proconnesus, and marble of a green colour was worked there, as is seen now like rivers flowing into the sea.” Codinus says, “four rivers of leek-green marble were like the four streams which flow from Paradise to the sea.” As is seen now certainly seems to bring something definite before our eyes, and so far as the pavement can be seen through the narrow chinks of the matting there is much to confirm this part of the Anonymous. Grelot tells us that the pavement is laid in compartments. It is of whitish gray Proconnesian marble, laid in slabs about 4 × 10 feet, with here and there strips of verde antique about 2 feet wide, which suggest the quartering of the floor by a great cross. Moreover the square of rich Alexandrine work still existing, and figured by Salzenberg, lies on a diagonal, and would thus exactly occupy one of four square spaces left in the angles (see [Fig. 5]). Now in the palace the floor of the bedchamber of Basil had four rivers or streams of Thessalian-green marble which seemed to flow away from the centre, and the quarters were filled with mosaics of large eagles.[140] It may also be noticed that four rivers are depicted as flowing away from the cross on the central bronze door of narthex. Many parallel examples of pavements, still existing, confirm the Anonymous in this respect. The mosaic floors of Italy furnish many instances where the four rivers of Eden are represented in the several angles as human forms pouring from urns, waters which are inscribed with the names Gihon, Tigris, Euphrates, and Pison. The design of the pavement of the Baptistery at Florence has been much disturbed, but it seems to have represented flowing streams, which led from the font in the middle to the doors like four paths. It has been pointed out that the carpet of Chosroes, which is described as having represented a garden with flowing streams, was a traditional pattern of which an example showing four streams quartering the field is in the possession of Mr. Colvin.[141] We understand that a similar carpet is now in New York.

We give here a representation of a square of pavement at the centre of the Western Gynaeceum; it is of Proconnesian slabs with border, and a disc of verde antico.

Fig. 9.—Marble Pavement at centre of West Gallery.

Font.—A fine marble font formerly in the precincts of the Mosque Zeinab Sultana at the west of S. Sophia, and now in the Imperial Museum, is the one referred to by Paspates as being probably the font of S. John Baptist (the Baptistery). He writes that there were only two remaining in Constantinople, the other being a smaller font in the precincts of the Mosque Kotza Mustapha Pasha.[142] The font in the museum which we illustrate is 8 feet 2½ inches long, 6 feet 1½ inches wide, and 4 feet 6 inches high, wrought out of one fine block of Proconnesian marble. The outside is carefully finished, which shows that it stood above the floor. The inside is formed into steps, and about the rim are several roughly sunk crosses, which we suggest were filled by inlaid votive crosses of metal. Similar fonts are shown in the mosaics at S. Mark’s and other places. Texier found one in the marble quarries of Synnada with steps inside, and others are found in Palestine, one of which, illustrated in the Memoirs of the Exploration Fund,[143] closely resembles this at Constantinople, which we may therefore look on as a typical Byzantine font.

Fig. 10.—Font from Constantinople.

Consecration or other Crosses.—On the great verde antico columns of the north side of the nave, about six feet above the floor, appear sunk crosses about six inches high; on the south side shallow sunk panels occupy similar positions, formed we may suppose by the Turks for the purpose of destroying the crosses. Similar sunk crosses occur on some of the marble columns in the gallery at S. Sergius and at Bethlehem; at Sinai the nave columns bear inlaid bronze crosses. From the character of those at S. Sophia we should suppose that they were also formerly filled by inlaid metal; their similarity in size and the regularity with which they are placed seem to show that they are of the nature of consecration crosses rather than being merely votive, or rather that they were made by the builders, just as a farmer crosses his bags of wheat. In most of the cisterns of Constantinople one column at least bears a large fairly wrought cross.

Miraculous Marbles and Mosaics.—Clavijo describes a large white slab in the right of the gallery naturally figuring “the Virgin with Christ in her most holy arms:” beneath this was an altar in a little chapel where they said mass. These marbles, in which accidental resemblances to figures might be traced, were evidently much valued. Felix Fabri describes a slab at the Holy Sepulchre in which S. Jerome and his lion appeared. “This picture was not produced by art, but by simple polishing alone.”

The column of S. Gregory Thaumaturgus, mentioned by Anthony of Novgorod as by the entrance and “covered with bronze plates,” may possibly be the celebrated “sweating column,” which is the first square pillar in the north aisle. At about five feet from the floor it is cased with bronze, in which a hole is left over the cavities in the pillar which are supposed to exude the dampness. The indents are smooth, and look like natural cavities discovered in the marble when it was wrought. Canon Curtis, who was kind enough to examine the pillar for us, says it was perfectly dry, and the attendants assured him that water never oozed out of the cavities, although “a few drops of water might be easily kept in each of them.” Sweating columns are well known in the legends of the middle ages. Benjamin of Tudela speaks of two in Rome which sweated on the anniversary of the fall of Jerusalem, and Mandeville mentions four pillars in the Holy Sepulchre “that always drop water, and some men say that they weep for our Lord’s death.” Stephen of Novgorod speaks of a mosaic of Christ in S. Sophia from which holy water flowed from the wounds of the feet.

Water Vessels.—At the west end of the church in the right and left exedras stand two large white Proconnesian marble urns about seven feet high, of beautiful gourd-like forms. They rise from the centre of polygonal basins, and water is drawn from them through bronze taps. It has been said that they were brought from Pergamus or Marmora by Sultan Murad III.[144] The carving of the turban-like tops is certainly Turkish, but the vessels seem to be of Byzantine form, and we are disposed to agree with Grelot, who saw them in their present position before 1680. He says they were kept full of water “to cool the Mohammedans overheated by their devout gesticulations.” “If they are not very ancient, they stand in the place of others, which contained holy water for the Christians who entered the church.” He associates with these the palindrome inscription given by Gruter (see our page [191]), which he says was written on these, or similar, vessels in gold letters.[145]

Now a beautiful cantharus in the Church of S. Peter and S. Andrew, on the island of Murano,[146] which is almost identical with those of S. Sophia, is stated to have been brought back thence with the Venetian booty, and bears a Byzantine inscription:—

ΑΝΤΛΗϹΑΤΑΙ · ΥΔΩΡ · ΜΕΤΑ · ΕΥΦΡΟϹΥΝΗϹ · ΟΤΙ · ΦΩΝΗ · ΚΥ · ΕΠΙ · ΤΩΝ · ΥΔΑΤΩΝ ·

(“Draw the water with gladness, for the voice of the Lord is upon the waters”); together with a monogram which reads ΝΙΚΟΜΕΔΟΥ. Beneath the monogram appears a stopping where evidently a tap was fixed, in exactly the position of those to the urns in S. Sophia. The first half of the latter inscription is on a small vessel of lead found at Tunis, which, from the character of the decoration, cannot be later than the fourth or fifth century. The first mention of the vessels in S. Sophia which we have been able to find is by an English traveller, Fynes Moryson (1595), who says, “I did see two nuts of marble of huge bigness and great beauty.”

We give in [Fig. 11] the vessel in the south exedra at S. Sophia, together with that of Murano, and for further comparison some beautiful vessels from a relief of Justinian’s time on the ivory throne at Ravenna. We have omitted the Turkish top of the former. Canon Curtis, who has specially examined them, writes to us that between the top and body of each vessel is a copper band which conceals the joint, if there is a joint.

Images and Tombs.—Very few fragments of Christian sculpture remain in Constantinople. The Silentiary does not mention any sculpture at S. Sophia. Probably the feeling which was mature in Leo the Isaurian was always latent; Oriental Christians sharing in the dislike with which Jew and Moslem regarded statues. Canon Curtis writes: “On the northern side of the sweating column I used to see parts of a bas-relief representing, as I thought, a procession, but it was almost concealed by the metal plates, and now it is entirely hidden.” The wealth of the church in icons at a late period may be gathered from incidental references. Not until a late time do we hear of any tombs in the church. S. Chrysostom and most of the other patriarchs were buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles.

Pachymeres mentions “the stele of the three Germani (Patriarchs of Constantinople) near the porphyry columns on the west.” Nicephorus Gregoras[147] also writes that the remains of the patriarch Arsenius were buried in the great Church of S. Sophia.

Fig. 11.—Water Vessels from S. Sophia and Murano.

Hangings.—The descriptions on several occasions mention veils and hangings by the names of vela and velothyra. With mosaics and miniatures to help us it is possible to judge of the lavish way in which these hangings were used.

The mosaics at Ravenna show veils hanging at the door of the church through which Theodora is about to enter, and the large elevation of the Palace of Theodoric, likewise in mosaic, shows hangings in all the arches of the portico. Such textiles suspended at entrance doorways are often mentioned by contemporary authors.[148] At S. Sophia the doors entering the narthex, and those between it and the church, all have bronze hooks, to which such “door veils” were suspended; and embroidered Turkish hangings, which roll up from the bottom by means of cords and pulleys, are still hung to them. In the Byzantine mosaics the hangings are often shown raised by being gathered into a loose knot, or by being drawn to the sides and passed once round the pillars between which they hang.

Fig. 12.—Vessels of Sixth Century: from Ivory Throne, Ravenna.

The account of the coronation ceremony describes how the royal persons were seated in the gynaeceum, screened by “golden velothyra,” so that they should not be seen until the psaltae sang the “Lift up,” when immediately the velothyra were raised. Of these hangings in the interior we have a picture in the account given in the continuation of Theophanes of an ambassador, Iber Curopalates, who visited Constantinople in 923, and “was taken to the church of S. Sophia, that he should inspect its beauty and size and precious ornaments. Now the walls were all draped with cloth of gold before they led him in, and he, struck with the great size of the church and its wealth of adornment, exclaimed, ‘Truly this is the house of God,’ and returned home.”[149] The Ceremonies mention gold hangings in Catechumena above Royal Door.[150] Nicetas tells us how the Crusaders “spared neither the house of God nor His ministers, but stripped the great church of all its fine ornaments and hangings, made of the richest brocades of inestimable value.”

We have no doubt that S. Sophia was frequently adorned inside by the arcades of both tiers having hangings suspended from the iron bars, which cross all these arches at their springing, exactly like those shown in the mosaic of Theodoric’s palace. Indeed Ignatius of Smolensk (circ. 1395), who was present at the coronation of Manuel, says that the women in the galleries remained behind curtains of silk so that none might see their faces.[151]

These hangings seem either to have had simple figures such as squares with large “gammidae” at the corners worked on them, probably in gold, or they were patterned over with figures, animals, and flowers, woven in the stuff like the elaborate veils of the altar described by the Silentiary. The linen vestments found at Panopolis in Egypt show us that the “gammidae” originated in embroidered shoulder straps, with seal-like ends applied on either side of the neck opening. [Fig. 13] shows two of the door veils represented at Ravenna; that on the right is from the mosaic in S. Apollinare Nuovo showing the palace. The gammidae are here exactly of the form found on the early Coptic linen vestments, and it cannot be doubted that they were “applied” in a similar way. The pattern on the left is the door-hanging from the mosaic of S. Vitale; the plain squares are of gold. The designs on the robes in this mosaic are interesting. Justinian’s chlamys is covered with birds in circles, the border of Theodora’s robe displays the three Magi making their offerings; one of her attendants has a robe powdered with swimming ducks and a mantle with four petalled red roses on a gold ground, and another robe has five pointed leaves scattered over its field. Many examples of the figured silks are preserved in museums. There is at South Kensington Museum a piece of pictured silk of this kind, probably of Justinian’s time, which is covered with circles, in each of which is figured a man and a lion. More than a century before the time of Justinian, Asterius, Bishop of Amasius, had made these elaborately figured stuffs a subject of satire: “When men so draped appear in the streets the passers-by regard them like painted walls. Their clothes are pictures which little children trace out with their fingers. There are lions, panthers, and bears, also rocks, woods, and hunters. The most devout carry Christ, His disciples, and His miracles. Here we may see the marriage in Galilee and the pots of wine; there is the paralytic carrying his bed, the penitent woman at the feet of Jesus, or Lazarus come again to life.”[152]

Fig. 13.—Door Veils of the Sixth Century: Ravenna Mosaics.

Later the patterns became more heraldic and larger in scale, figuring for the most part great displayed eagles, and griffons, or lions affronted. A piece of a textile of this kind in the museum at Düsseldorf, of which there is a full-size copy at South Kensington, bears golden lions about two feet six inches long, and the names of Constantine VIII. and Basil on a pallid purple ground. Frauberger[153] compares this with another signed example of the same age and similar design preserved at Siegburg, and a third at Autun, “all of which were intended for church hangings.” The same writer says that after Justinian’s introduction of silk weaving in 552 and the loss of Bosra with its purple-dye vats to Chosroes, an imperial textile industry was established by the Golden Horn, which existed until the fourteenth century. Here these hangings were probably produced.

Carpets.—Portions of the floor of S. Sophia were almost certainly strewn with carpets. Porphyrogenitus relates of the New Church of Basil that “woollen carpets (nakopetai) called prayer carpets, of wonderful size and beauty, and resembling the bright plumage of peacocks, were laid one over another, completely covering the mosaic pavement of valuable stones.” The carpets and prayer-rugs of the mosques thus had their direct parallels, if not their prototypes, in the Byzantine churches.

Synods.—The patriarchal registers, dating from the fourteenth century, speak of synods sitting “in the right-hand catechumena”; this probably refers to the south gallery, where the vault has displayed in mosaic the descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles.

Across this gallery there is at present a screen, which possibly, as Paspates suggests, shut off the part used by the Synods. (See dotted line on [Fig. 6].) The screen is made up of two marble slabs, each sculptured into the form of panelled double doors, with architraves and carved panels. Above the opening left between these is a coloured marble slab. At the top is a carved wood beam, which, being exactly like the permanent vault ties, is evidently of Justinian’s age; but the whole is certainly not an original assemblage of the parts. Each slab, which imitates a pair of wood doors, has a representation of a bronze ring handle and a lock-plate on one half, and a hasp on the other, all exactly copied in sculptured marble. We believe that these imitation doors are earlier than the church; the idea was common in late classic times. De Vogüé and Dr. Merrill[154] found several tomb doors, similarly panelled, studded with imitation nails, and having elaborate knockers, all carved in stone. An example in marble now in the museum at Leeds closely resembles the S. Sophia slabs.

Clergy and Ritual.—In the time of Justinian the total number of clergy was 525, but at the time of Heraclius this had been increased to 600.[155] They were thus divided:—