throne of the Patriarch or Archbishop of Constantinople.[1] Light enters through mullioned windows glazed with plates of translucent marble. Every available space in the church is adorned with statues to the number of several hundreds, the majority of them representing pagan divinities and personifications of the celestial signs. Among them is a nearly complete series of the Roman emperors, whilst Helena, the mother of Constantine, appears thrice over in different materials, porphyry, silver, and ivory.[2] Close to St. Sophia on the north is the church of St. Irene, one of the earliest buildings erected for Christian worship by Constantine. It is usually called the Old Church.[3] Between these two sacred piles stands a charitable foundation, Sampson's Hospital, practically a refuge for incurables reduced by disease to a state of destitution.[4] Yet a third place of worship in this locality to the north-west of the Great Church may be mentioned, Our Lady (Theotokos) of the Brassworkers, built in a tract previously devoted to Jewish artisans of that class.[5]
On the east side of the Augusteum are situated two important public buildings, viz., the Senate-house, and, to the south of it, a palatial hall, the grand triclinium of Magnaura.[6] The latter stands back some distance from the
- ↑ Socrates, vi, 5; Sozomen, viii, 5.
- ↑ Codin., pp. 16, 64. There is no systematic description of this church, but the numerous references to it and an examination of ecclesiastical remains of the period show clearly enough what it was; see Texier and Fullan, op. cit., p. 134, etc.; Agincourt, op. cit., i, pl. iv, xvi; Eusebius, Vit. Const., iv, 46, etc. It may have been founded by Constantine, but was certainly dedicated by his son Constantius in 360; Socrates, ii, 16.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Procopius, De Aedific., i, 2, etc.
- ↑ Codin., p. 83; cf. Mordtmann, op. cit., p. 4.
- ↑ We know little of the Magnaura or Great Hall (magna aula) at this date, but its existence is certain; Chron. Paschal., an. 532. Codinus says it was built by Constantine (p. 19).
