“He wrote therefore to the strategi, toparchs, judges, and satraps of the different provinces, that with all zeal they should look for materials—columns, piers, panels, and lattice-doors—everything in fact that would be useful for building. Obeying the emperor’s letter, they quickly sent all that could be found from the shrines of the pagan idols, from baths, and private houses, from every province of east, west, north, and south, and from all the islands.
“Eight porphyry columns from Rome, which, according to Plutarch, Justinian’s secretary, a widow Marcia had received as dowry, were transmitted to Constantinople. They had formerly stood in a temple of the Sun built by Valerian, who surrendered himself to the Persians. Eight others of green, of marvellous beauty, were quarried and sent from Ephesus by the praetor Constantine. The Marcia, whom I have just mentioned, wrote to the emperor as follows: ‘I send thee, master, eight columns from Rome of equal length and size, and the same weight, for the safety of my soul.’
“Of the other columns some were brought from Cyzicus, some from the Troad, others from the Cyclades and Athens. And when sufficient was collected for the work seven and a half years had been spent. Then in the twelfth year of Justinian’s reign, the church built by Constantine was destroyed with the foundations; the old materials were put aside, as a sufficient amount of fresh had been prepared; and Justinian began to buy up the neighbouring houses. The first of these was one belonging to a widow named Anna, of which the price was estimated at eighty-five librae. She was however unwilling to sell it to the emperor, and refused to give it up under five hundred librae; nor did the emperor gain his purpose by sending the nobles of the court to win her over. He finally went himself and begged her to sell her house at any price. But when she saw him as a suppliant, she fell at his feet, saying, ‘Lord and King, I can accept no moneys for my house from thee; I ask only that I may obtain reward in the day of judgment, and that I may be buried in a tomb near the future church, so that the memory of my gift may live for ever.’ The emperor promised that when the church was finished she should be buried there, for the land which she had given up, that the memory of it might live for ever. The part which she gave to the great church is that now occupied by the skeuophylakium, and the chapel (naos) of S. Peter.
“Then the part which is occupied by the Holy Well, and all about the thysiasterium, and the place of the ambo, and the middle of the nave, was the house of a certain eunuch, Antiochus, which was valued at thirty-eight librae. He was offended because the emperor had not offered him a proper price for it. Now the emperor was much distressed, wondering what to do. But the Magister Strategius—a guardian of the treasures, the adopted brother of the emperor—promised that the emperor should gain his point by a little guile, and that the other should sell his house. Now this Antiochus was an eager frequenter of the Circus, and especially favoured the blue faction. When the games were about to be given, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Praetorian prison. Then Antiochus called out from the prison that if he could only witness the games he would do whatever the emperor wished. He was then led by the emperor’s orders to his empty seat, and made to sell his house before the games commenced, the Quaestor and the whole Senate being witness. Now there used to be the custom, that as soon as the emperor ascended to his seat the charioteers should begin, but because they stopped then, until the eunuch had accomplished his deed of sale, even to the present day the chariots for the races are accustomed to enter at a slow trot.
“The whole of the right-hand part of the Gynaeceum[222] up to the column of S. Basil, and some portion of the nave, was the house of an eunuch, Chariton, nicknamed Chenopolus, who sold it as a favour for double its value, which was twelve librae.
“The left part of the Gynaeceum[222] up to the column of S. Gregory Thaumaturgus was the house of one Xenophon, a cobbler. When they wanted to buy this house, besides asking twice the value, which was fourteen librae, he also demanded that, on the day of the games, the four charioteers of the four factions should do obeisance to him as well as to the emperor. The emperor decreed that it should be done as he had asked, but made him a laughing-stock for ever. For on the day of the games he was set midway in the boundaries, so that the charioteers, by way of joke, bowed to his back before beginning their courses, and so it is still done, and the man is styled ‘Chief of those below.’ He wears a white chlamys, woven with byssus.
“On the area of the naos, the four nartheces, the louter, and the parts adjacent, was the house of Damianus, a noble of Seleucia, the value of which he estimated at ninety librae, and gladly gave to the emperor.
“Now Justinian, when he had measured out the site, and found a stone to act as centre, from the thysiasterium as far as the lower [western] apse, laid the foundations of the great dome in circle-wise. Now from the apses right away to the most outside narthex, the foundations were laid in marshy and spongy ground. And when it had been begun, he urged Eutychius the patriarch to offer up prayers to God for its safe building, and then, taking with his own hands lime and stone, giving thanks to God, he himself laid the first stone in its place. Now before the church was built he constructed the oratory of S. John the Precursor with a gilt vault, and various ornamentations of precious stones. This is generally called the Baptistery, and is situated near the Horologium. He built at the same time the adjacent portion of the Metatorium, that he might frequently rest there with his court, and refresh himself with food. Then also he built the whole of the portico, which leads from the palace up to the Great Church, so that, as often as he liked, he might cross over and devote his time to the building, without being seen by any one. There were one hundred master workmen, and each had a band of a hundred men under him, making ten thousand men altogether. Fifty bands took one side, and fifty the other; and by the emulation between them, the work quickly progressed.
“The form of the church was shown to the emperor in a dream by an angel. And the first Deviser (mechanikos) of the builders was skilful and full of sound wisdom, and well versed in building churches. Barley was put into cooking pots, and its decoction, instead of water, was mingled with unslaked lime (asbestos) and tiles [crushed]. The mixture, when warm, became viscous and sticky. At the same time they cut slips off willow trees, which were cast into the cooking pots with the barley; they then made solid masses, having a length of over fifty feet, and fifty feet broad, and twenty feet deep, and placed them in the foundations. They were put there, not hot, nor yet quite cold, that so they might bind better, and above these masses they placed large square stones.
“When the foundations had arisen from the earth two cubits, they had spent four hundred and fifty-two miliarisia of gold. Money was brought daily from the palace, and placed in the Horologium, and each of those who carried stone received a piece of silver, lest any slackness should come upon them, or they should be tempted to complain. Some of them, when carrying stone, gave way under the weight, and fell head foremost and were hurt. Strategius, whom I have mentioned, distributed the wages: he was a Count of the royal treasury, and foster-brother of Justinian.