Porphyrogenitus speaks of the “cup of the phiale”; and it seems most probable, considering the simple description of the Silentiary, that, as in so many ancient churches, it was at first merely a bowl, standing on a pillar rising from a polygonal basin. In the time of Michael Palaeologus, there was such a basin on the sides of which “was engraved on the marble the honoured form of the cross.”[315] A bowl figured by Gruterus[316] in 1602 as “newly found at Constantinople,” has been spoken of by Du Cange and others as having belonged to S. Sophia, although the evidence of this is not very positive.[317] This was a circular bowl very similar to the well-known representation of a cantharus of Justinian’s time in the Ravenna mosaic. The inscription around the rim read equally well in both directions.[318] This circle being horizontal, we cannot but think, as it would necessarily be read from outside, that Gruterus was mistaken in putting the bottom of the letters toward the centre; we have therefore reversed this in our figure. The words “Wash thy sins, not thy face only,” almost certainly refer it to a phiale. Eusebius, for instance, speaking of one of these fountains, says, “it is not meet for an unclean foot to step on the sacred place within the temple,” and Paulinus tells us that at Nola those who entered the church washed their hands in a similar place.[319] Probably, so accurate a writer as Du Cange had good reasons for referring the bowl in question to S. Sophia. Dr. Covel of Cambridge, who was at Constantinople from 1670 to 1677, and has left a valuable MS. now in the British Museum, which we shall have further occasion to quote, also gives the inscription, which he says came from the fountain of S. Sophia, but again, it is possible he derived this from Du Cange, or from Grelot, whom he appears to have met, for some of the Frenchman’s drawings are included in the MS.
Fig. 26.—Inscription on Phiale from Gruter.
In this collection are drawings of two beautiful phiale cups, which existed at Ephesus when visited by Dr. Covel. From the simple elegance of their forms we suppose that these bowls cannot be later than the sixth century.[320] See [Fig. 27].
Pavement of the Court.—When the Anonymous tells us that the four boundaries of the church were called after the rivers that flowed from Paradise, it is quite evident from the context that he is speaking of the atrium; and it seems probable that immediately before, where he speaks of “ever flowing waters of great rivers,” he is describing the pavement of the court as figuring four streams. This certainly would furnish a reason for the walks taking their names from the four rivers of marble which flowed towards them, like the four real streams flow in the court of the Alhambra. There is much to countenance this theory. For instance, the atrium of old St. Peter’s was called Paradise: Simeon of Thessalonica tells us the part outside the doors of a church represented the creation, as the bema symbolised heaven; and the idea might easily be referred to the words used in the service for blessing the waters of the phiale.
Fig. 27.—Phiale Bowls from Ephesus.
This custom of blessing the waters on the eve of Epiphany, to which Paulus the Silentiary alludes (see page [44]), was practised as early as the end of the fourth century.[321] Goar gives the ritual.[322] After the evening service the priest with the censer and candlestick proceeds to the “luter of the mesaulion,” chanting “the voice of the Lord is upon the waters.” Part of the ceremony of blessing included a prayer, “We beseech thee, O Almighty Father ... who fixed Paradise in Eden and bade its quadruple spring flow far and wide ... who blessed the waters for Jacob, and hast bidden us, through thy prophet Isaiah, to draw water in gladness from the fountains of the Saviour.” The account of the Anonymous may be a duplication of his description of the interior, but outside Charlemagne’s church at Aix there is a pine cone which formerly belonged to a phiale; the water rained from it through little holes, and about the foot are verses referring to the rivers of Paradise and Baptism.
West Front.—On the east side of the atrium court, against the west wall of the exonarthex, rise four great piers from which spring flying arches to the west wall of the church. Salzenberg thought that the upper arches were Turkish, and that the piers were originally intended to support equestrian statues, which he therefore shows in his drawings. Other writers, amongst whom is Fossati, say that the bronze horses now on the gallery outside the west front of S. Mark’s at Venice, taken from Constantinople in 1204, came from this position; but there is not the least authority for this statement, and the horses at Venice are not half the size of those that would be required to justify the suggestion. Bondelmontius in 1422 describing the columns of the city, speaks first of that of Justinian, “secondly of that of the Cross, where are seen four upright porphyry columns; and on them were placed four bronze horses which the Venetians took to S. Mark’s at Venice, but the columns remain.” Brocquière, writing ten years later, says that “westward [in the city] is a very high square column with characters traced on it, and bearing on the summit an equestrian statue of Constantine in bronze. He holds a sceptre in his left hand, with his right extended towards Turkey in Asia and the road to Jerusalem as if to denote that the whole of that country was under his government. Near this column are three [sic] others placed in a line, and of single pieces which bore the three gilt horses now in Venice.” Brocquière has here certainly confused the column of Justinian, and that of Constantine, but we may safely accept Bondelmontius. The porphyry column of Constantine, situated in the Forum Constantine, at this time bore a cross with the inscription “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Many modern writers place the four horses in the hippodrome, as Nicetas speaks of “the arched starting-places for the racers, above which are fixed powerful horses of gilt bronze, curving their necks and facing one another as if eager for the course” (Ed. Bonn, p. 150).
Between the four great piers of the west front there are now three doorways. If, however, we refer to the plates of Salzenberg, we shall find that only the two lateral ones are there shown, and that the position of the central door is occupied by a window; this arrangement was seen by Texier in 1834, and is shown in a MS. drawing of his, now in the library of the Royal Institute of Architects. Referring to the views and plan which Grelot published in 1680, we see the central bay occupied by a belfry, with a pyramidal top rising above the roof of the exonarthex. Now in Goar’s Euchologium[323] there is a note to this effect, “The Greeks first took up the use of bells from the time when Urso Patricio, Doge of Venice, in the year 865, sent them to Michael the emperor, who greatly valued them, and built a tower for them against S. Sophia.” We have already seen that large repairs were made to the west front of the church about this time (page [123]), with a view of counteracting the thrust of the vaults. Before the belfry was built the Semantron would have been used; this was a plate of bronze or wood suspended in the atrium and struck like a gong (see [Fig. 28]). It appears from the Russian pilgrims that the bells remained in use for only a short time. A sixteenth century French MS. in the British Museum speaks of the old square tower and bells. Grelot[324] says “this tower, formerly the belfry, is now void, the Turks having exchanged the music of bells for the noise of cannon.” It was not fifty toises high, and could not have held many bells, or large ones.[325]