[99] Ed. Bonn, p. 259.
[100] Cons. Porphyr. in Labarte, Pal. Impérial, p. 92.
[102] See Anon. p. [138] below.
[103] The Euchologium, ed. 1647, p. 499, speaks of taking the garments of those about to become conventuals and placing them on or in the “little sea” (thalassidion) of the Holy Table. Here Goarus interprets it as “the hollow recess of the Holy Table,” which seems to have been beneath the table, and used for washing the vessels, like the piscina in the later Latin church.
[104] “ἔλεκτρον or ἀλλότυπον united with glass and fine stones; such is the material of which the Holy Table of S. Sophia is made.” Glossary of Suidas quoted by Labarte in Recherches sur la Peinture en Email, p. 89.
[105] Porphyrogenitus describes the table in the chapel built by Basil the Macedonian as “a mixture of all precious materials placed in order and bound together by fire into a many-coloured mass of surpassing beauty, which is the wonder of all nations.” We also read of “Holy Tables of silver, having gold and precious stones and pearls poured over them, forming a compact union together.”
[106] Hopf, Chroniques Gréco-Romanes.
[107] Nic. Chron. Hist., ed. Bonn, p. 758.
[108] Vera Historia Unionis, Hague, 1660.