enough may be inferred from the absence of any legislation providing for the compulsory sale of property required for public purposes in accordance with the decision of a board of expert arbitrators.
As soon as the architects had matured their design for the construction of the great edifice, the collection of the materials required to bring their conceptions into substantial existence was in itself an arduous task. The church was to be built of brick, but its richness was to be derived from the liberal use of pillars and slabs of polished marble in every available situation. An Imperial rescript was despatched to the Rectors throughout the provinces, desiring them to search their districts, and transmit to the capital any relics of ruined and deserted temples which might be suitable for the Emperor's purpose. In response to this appeal it is particularized that eight porphyry columns, the remains of a temple of the Sun, were sent from Rome, and eight of green marble from Ephesus;[1] and we may assume that a large quantity of such mementoes of polytheism were amassed at Constantinople about this time, which, if not used for St. Sophia, were employed in the restoration of other parts of the disfigured city.[2] Much new marble was, however, quarried in various localities widely distant in order to obtain the variety of tints and variegated patterns
- [Footnote: legendary account refer to a eunuch who yielded on being locked up to
prevent his seeing the Circus games, and to a cobbler who stipulated to be saluted as Emperor, etc.]
- ↑ Anon. (Codinus, p. 130, et seq.).
- ↑ We have seen that the City of Constantine was fitted out on the ready-made system (p. 67, etc.), and no doubt something of the same kind took place now. Gregorovius accepts the statement of the Anon. that Athens contributed art relics to St. Sophia; Athen im Mittelalter, 1889, i, 60.
