[472] See pp. 55, 111.
[473] Measured at the level of the galleries, therefore, the length is three hundred feet.
[474] Procopius, loc. cit.; Paulus, 668.
[475] Salzenberg's great coloured illustrations (Berlin, 1854) must be inspected in order to get a vivid notion of the interior, but it is doubtful if any mosaic of Justinian's fixing now remains. Anything pictorial is generally covered up with Mahometan whitewash, but in 1847 extensive repairs had to be undertaken, of which Salzenberg, commissioned by the Prussian government, took advantage.
[476] Everything is minutely described by Paulus Sil. Procopius (loc. cit.) says the silver alone consumed in fitting up the Bema amounted to forty thousand pounds (Troy).
[477] The latter part, nearly half, of the Silentiary's poem is devoted to a panegyric on this elaborate pulpit.
[478] Marcellinus Com., an. 537.
[479] Theophanes, an. 6030.
[480] Codinus, p. 143.
[481] Procopius, op. cit., i, 4. It is almost certain that St. Mark's, Venice, was copied from this church.