Much confusion exists as to the marbles of which the ancient writers speak; this has been occasioned necessarily by wrong identifications when but few ancient quarries had been recovered, and most unnecessarily by a persistence in using antique names for modern varieties, long after the true provenance has been discovered, when the ancient marbles are not “in the market.” It is the Italian names that have been corrupted in this way, and it would be a great advantage if they were discarded in England, or better still, used only in conjunction with the geographical names. In this case as the Italian names are descriptive, and, as many varieties of marble are found in the same or neighbouring quarries, we should get a safe nomenclature. Synnadan would thus be qualified as Pavonazzetto or Fior de Persico, and the banded varieties from Carystian, Proconnesian, or modern quarries might without confusion be called cipollino.
In endeavouring to identify the marbles mentioned by the ancient writer on S. Sophia, we have made use of Salzenberg’s notes to the Poem of the Silentiary, and of the researches of Garofalo,[350] Corsi,[351] and C. O. Müller;[352] and we have also been helped by the practical knowledge of Mr. W. Brindley. The account of ancient marbles easily accessible in Professor Middleton’s Ancient Rome, 1892, is substantially an extract from Corsi.
Porphyry.—The “porphyry powdered with bright stars” of the poet is used for the columns of the exedras, and for some of the panels on the walls. The Anonymous author states that these columns came from a temple of the Sun, but the Silentiary says “they loaded the boats on the bosom of the Nile,” and there seems no reason to doubt that the columns came direct from the porphyry quarries at Mons Porphyrites in Egypt. This porphyry mountain is at Djebel Dochan, twenty-five miles north-east from Thebes. Lepsius[353] seems to prove that the quarries were worked as long as the Nile canal remained open; and ships still sailed on the canal till the appearance of Islam. Letronne[354] gives details of the method of transit. The porphyry was brought from the quarry to the Red Sea, and then by the Nile canal to the Lower Nile, and hence into the Mediterranean.
On this evidence we would say that the porphyry used at Constantinople in Justinian’s reign was quarried for the purpose, and not brought from Roman buildings.
Marmor Molossium.—“The marble that the land of Atrax yields,” is called elsewhere in the poem “Thessalian,” and, from the province in Thessaly where it was found, “Molossian.” Corsi and Garofalo both wrongly describe Molossian as Fior di Persico. The marble really is the brecciated serpentine and limestone, now called Verde Antico, the Lapis Atracius of the ancients, of which the eight great columns in the nave and many others are formed. Here again it has been said that these eight large columns were taken from a building at Ephesus, but the Silentiary says, “Never were such columns hewn from sea-washed Molossis,” and we can hardly doubt that they were quarried especially for S. Sophia, together with the rest of the enormous quantity used in the church. The quarries were near Atrax in Thessaly, and the marble is best named as by French writers, Thessalian green.
Lapis Lacedaemonius.—“The fresh green, like emerald, from Sparta,” was probably the porphyry quarried in Mount Taygetus in Laconia. This green porphyry, called by Corsi serpentino, is used in the opus sectile of S. Sophia. As a green porphyry is obtainable in Egypt, the former should be distinguished as Spartan.
Proconnesium.—“The hills of Proconnesus,” according to Paulus, “strewed the floor.” The same marble was also used for the columns in the upper aisles, for the eight square columns below, and for the capitals, door frames, window lattices and other structural parts; also for the plating of the lower arcade and other parts of the wall-surfaces, and as frames to the coloured marbles. It is a soft white, or white with gray-banded streaks. The quarries of Marmora are still worked. This marble was greatly prized in Classic times, and Pliny mentions that it was used at the palace of Mausolus, where, it is said, the method of plating brick walls with marble was first applied. It closely resembles gray Carystian but they should not be confounded.
“The Bosporus stone with white streaks on black,” used for the floor, was probably the ordinary limestone—black with white veins—used at Constantinople.
Marmor Carystium.—“The fresh green from Carystus,” is the marble now known as cipollino; it was quarried at Carystus, at the foot of Mount Ocha, in the island of Euboea. Its beautiful greenish white surface, marked with broad wavy lines of green or purplish gray, was often praised by the later classical writers. Its resemblance to the markings of a sliced onion is the origin of its name. Modern cipollino need not be confused with true Carystian marble, which the ancient material should always be named.
Marmor Phrygium.—“The marble hewn from the Phrygian land towards the Mygdonian heights,” spoken of as “many-coloured,” has been identified as the marble which came from Dokimion near Synnada in Phrygia. The descriptions by Statius and Claudianus of the deep red-veined marble of Synnada agree closely with the Phrygian and Mygdonian stone as described by Paulus. It is a brecciated marble of a rosy colour, slabs of which alternate with verde antique in the panelling of the side aisles of S. Sophia.