Queen answered musically
“Yet, Highness, such is my plight. I have creditors to whom I owe money, while others owe money to me. And those whom I...
Superficial difference between them
Not civility, but servility was now the rule, and Theodora was the slave driver. So far had Roman society been corrupted, between the false...
Own Officials
HOW HE ROBBED HIS OWN OFFICIALS
I will next describe another way in which he robbed his subjects. Those who serve the Emperor and the...
Mother sympathized with these often persecute
He knew his mother sympathized with these often persecuted people. He had been intrigued, too, by the stories his fellow schoolmates told of strange...
Emperor Diocletian at Nicomedia
Most often Constantine placed himself at the eastern center of the Empire, the palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Nicomedia in the beautiful province...
Flavius Valerius Constantinus
It was a day to turn a boy’s thoughts away from the schoolroom where he had spent the morning at the feet of his...
Essentially Oriental character of Byzantine architecture
The Oriental love of splendour is shown in the piling up of domes and still more in facing the walls with slabs of marble,...
Koimesis or Dormitio in Nicaea
A type appearing more frequently is the domical church plan or the Greek-cross plan. The Koimesis, or Dormitio, in Nicaea (ninth century) has a...
Paul the Silentiary – the Magnificence of Hagia Sophia
Here are some short extracts from a famous encomium by Paul the Silentiary, in which he draws on the imagery of Hagia Sophia...
