Note 459 — Chapter IX · THE BUILDING OF ST. SOPHIA: THE ARCHITECTURAL WORK OF JUSTINIAN

See pp. 459, 462.

[460] Some personal and family details of these professionals are given by Agathias, v, 6-9. He also recounts an anecdote which shows that something of the power of steam was understood in those days. It appears that Anthemius had a next-door neighbour, a rich man, who incommoded him by additions to his mansion which interfered with some ancient lights, etc. The architect determined to revenge himself by terrifying the offender while in the act of entertaining a party of friends at a banquet. For this purpose he hit on the expedient of carrying pipes from large covered caldrons into the roof of the mansion, where he packed every outlet, and at a fitting moment applied fire to the vessels when full of water. Thus, after the steam began to rise and high pressure was induced in the confined space, a great commotion was occasioned which shook the mansion and caused the banqueters to rush out into the street exclaiming that there was an earthquake. Subsequently, when the affair was generally understood, Anthemius got the reputation of being a man who could produce artificial earthquakes. A work by Anthemius on Mechanical Paradoxes was published at Paris in 1777.

[461] Procopius alone (De Aedif., i, 1) gives any reliable details as to the progress of the reconstruction; but a much longer account (Anon., Banduri and Codinus, differing somewhat) composed in a later age exists, most of which is of a legendary character. It might be appropriately called "The Gospel of the Building of St. Sophia," it is so replete with marvels, some of which read like an extract from the New Testament and others like an episode from the Arabian Nights.

[462] The place was shown to a Russian pilgrim, Anthony of Novogorod (twelfth century; Soc. Orient. Latin. Sér. Géog., v). Other tales in the legendary account refer to a eunuch who yielded on being locked up to prevent his seeing the Circus games, and to a cobbler who stipulated to be saluted as Emperor, etc.

[463] Anon. (Codinus, p. 130, et seq.).

[464] We have seen that the City of Constantine was fitted out on the ready-made system (p. 67, etc.), and no doubt something of the same kind took place now. Gregorovius accepts the statement of the Anon. that Athens contributed art relics to St. Sophia; Athen im Mittelalter, 1889, i, 60.

[465] These details as to the marbles are drawn from the safe authority of Paul the Silentiary (617, et seq.), whose poem descriptive of St. Sophia is copious and exact. Lethaby and S. (op. cit., p. 235, et seq.) try to identify the marbles as far as they are known to modern commerce.

[466] The raising of domes in masonry was well understood throughout the Empire at this time. The knowledge had probably been brought to Rome in the second century B.C. as a result of her conquests in the East. The dome of the Pantheon, built or restored by Hadrian (c. 120), measures one hundred and forty-two feet across, but this is a circular hall which supports the dome all round. Anthemius himself, probably, had lately finished the church of St. Sergius and Bacchus in Hormisdas (now called Little St. Sophia), but in this case eight pillars were given to the dome, and he was doubtless dissatisfied with the effect. Earlier domes in Syria are noticed in Voguë's work. By the use of iron or steel frame-work, much greater domes have been erected in modern times than anything known in earlier ages, e.g., Vienna Exhibition, 1873, 360 feet. In London we have the Albert Hall and British Museum (219 and 140 feet), the latter a reproduction of the Pantheon.

[467] Procopius, loc. cit.; Paulus, 479. According to the Anon., relics of saints and martyrs were deposited in cavities of the masonry in various places.

[468] The earliest known dome on pendentives is a Roman mausoleum in Palestine of the second century; East. Pal. Mem., 1889, p. 172 (Lethaby and S., op. cit., p. 200).

[469] Procopius (loc. cit.) gives some indications of the difficulties they had to contend with through the piers threatening to give way, etc. The Anon. remarks that the dome was said to be made of pumice stone, but that it was in reality of bricks from Rhodes, one-twelfth the weight of ordinary bricks. The main theme of Choisy's work (L'Art de bâtir chez les Byz.) is that domes were built without "centreing" (wooden proppage), simply by working in circumferentially till closure.

[470] One hundred and seven pillars altogether are counted, but only fifty-four are visible as bounding the nave.

[471] Technically such corners are called exedras, and their shell-like roofs, conchs. In these corners six pillars stand over two, at the sides over four.

[472] See pp. 55, 111.

[473] Measured at the level of the galleries, therefore, the length is three hundred feet.

[474] Procopius, loc. cit.; Paulus, 668.

[475] Salzenberg's great coloured illustrations (Berlin, 1854) must be inspected in order to get a vivid notion of the interior, but it is doubtful if any mosaic of Justinian's fixing now remains. Anything pictorial is generally covered up with Mahometan whitewash, but in 1847 extensive repairs had to be undertaken, of which Salzenberg, commissioned by the Prussian government, took advantage.

[476] Everything is minutely described by Paulus Sil. Procopius (loc. cit.) says the silver alone consumed in fitting up the Bema amounted to forty thousand pounds (Troy).

[477] The latter part, nearly half, of the Silentiary's poem is devoted to a panegyric on this elaborate pulpit.

[478] Marcellinus Com., an. 537.

[479] Theophanes, an. 6030.

[480] Codinus, p. 143.

[481] Procopius, op. cit., i, 4. It is almost certain that St. Mark's, Venice, was copied from this church.

[482] Ibid., passim.

[483] Ibid., v, 6, 9.

[484] Procopius, op. cit., i, 10.

[485] Ibid., 2. It was repaired by Michael VIII, c. 1270; Nicephorus Greg., vii, 12 (with note). Gyllius saw the last of it, c. 1550; Top. C.P., ii, 17. An old drawing of the horseman is reproduced by Mordtmann, op. cit., p. 65. The reputation of the great Theodosius, or at least his statue, was now obsolete, so Justinian demolished it and set up his own in its stead, substituting base metal for the silver one (see p. 59) of 7,400 pounds (Troy); Zonaras, xiv, 6. He also recovered much lead at this time (543) by doing away with an underground water conduit; ibid.

[486] If we accept the judgment of Procopius, "you would have taken these objects for the productions of Phidias, Lysippus, or Praxiteles"; op. cit., i, 11.

[487] Procopius, op. cit., i, 4.

[488] Jn. Malala, xviii, p. 435; Chron. Paschal., an. 528. The Binbir derek ("Thousand-one pillars") long supposed to be the cistern of Philoxenus (see p. 74) is now with more probability recognized as this reservoir. The identification rests on the pillars having heads of the "impost" variety, which is not known to have been in use for long before the sixth century. See Forscheimer, etc., Die byzant. Wasserbehälter, 1892; cf. Lethaby and S., op. cit., p. 248.

[489] Procopius, op. cit., i, 11. The Yeri-Batan Seraï ("Underground Palace") still in existence and full of water; for details, see Forscheimer, op. cit. Views of both cisterns are given in all modern popular works on CP.

[490] Procopius, De Aedificiis, in six books. Evagrius (ii, 18) mentions that in Africa alone, after the conquest, J. dealt with 150 cities on a more or less extensive scale.

[491] Procopius, op. cit., iv, Nov. xi; cxxxi.

[492] See Alemannus, op. cit., p. 397 et seq. He has made out a complete list of every place or thing distinguished by the names of one or other of the royal partners.

[493] Procopius, op. cit., ii, 3, 6, 7, 8; v, 2, 4, 5. The preservation of Palmyra, which seems to have been on the road to effacement, demanded a great deal of attention; Ibid., ii, 11; Malala, p. 425.

[494] Procopius, op. cit., ii, 7.

[495] Ibid., v, 3. The bridge exists, spanning a dry valley, and is figured in Texier's Asie Mineure (copied in Diehl's Justinian).

[496] Notitia, Reg. xiv; Chron. Paschal., an. 528. It had twelve arches; Codinus, p. 30, etc.

[497] Procopius, op. cit., ii, 5.

[498] Ibid., 1 (Texier and Pullan, op. cit., p. 57).

[499] Ibid., iv, 4, 11. These protective castles consisted of a wall about seven feet thick and from thirty to forty feet high, to which towers were attached externally of nearly double the height. Most frequently the space enclosed was a quadrangle of about one hundred feet, but might be much larger and of irregular shape. They have been studied mostly in French Africa, where numbers are still found in good preservation. A large portion of Diehl's Afrique Byzantine is occupied with a minute description of them, accompanied by views, plans, etc.

[500] Procopius, op. cit., iv, 2, 10.

[501] See pp. 124, 164.

[502] Procopius, op. cit., iv, 9.