11.—On the Church of the Saints Cosmas and Damian[1] in the district of Basiliscus
I, thy servant Sophia, O Christ, offer this gift to thy servants. Receive thine own, and to my emperor Justin give in payment therefor victory on victory over diseases and the barbarians.
12.—On St. Euphemia of Olyhrius
I am the House of the Trinity, and three generations built me. First Eudoxia, the daughter of Theodosius, having escaped from war and the barbarians, erected and dedicated me to God in acknowledgement of her rescue from distress. Next her daughter Placidia with her most blessed husband adorned me. Thirdly, if perchance my beauty was at all deficient in splendour, munificent Juliana invested me with it in memory of her parents, and bestowed the height of glory on her mother and father and her mother's illustrious mother by augmenting my former adornment. Thus was I made.
13.—In the same Church, inside the Gallery
I had loveliness before, but now in addition to my former beauty I have acquired greater splendour.
14.—Another
Thus did Juliana, after her mother and grandmother, scrape off my coat of old age, and I have new bloom.
15.—Another
There was then something more beautful than beauty, since my fabric, even formerly of world-wide celebrity, was advanced to a beauty greater than its former splendour by Juliana, so that now it rivals the stars.
- ↑ Physicians, called Ἀνάργυροι because they refused fees from sick folk who were willing to become Christians.
