.) What miracles
would not his genius have performed for the public service, with royal
expense, and in the strong sun of Constantinople or Syracuse?]

[Footnote 100: John Malala (tom. ii. p. 120--124) relates the fact; but
he seems to confound the names or persons of Proclus and Marinus.]

[Footnote 101: Agathias, l. v. p. 149--152. The merit of Anthemius as
an architect is loudly praised by Procopius (de Edif. l. i. c. 1) and
Paulus Silentiarius, (part i. 134, &c.)]

[Footnote 102: See Procopius, (de Edificiis, l. i. c. 1, 2, l. ii. c.
3.) He relates a coincidence of dreams, which supposes some fraud in
Justinian or his architect. They both saw, in a vision, the same plan
for stopping an inundation at Dara. A stone quarry near Jerusalem was
revealed to the emperor, (l. v. c. 6:) an angel was tricked into the
perpetual custody of St. Sophia, (Anonym. de Antiq. C. P. l. iv. p.
70.)]

The principal church, which was dedicated by the founder of
Constantinople to St. Sophia, or the eternal wisdom, had been twice
destroyed by fire; after the exile of John Chrysostom, and during the
Nika of the blue and green factions. No sooner did the tumult subside,
than the Christian populace deplored their sacrilegious rashness; but
they might have rejoiced in the calamity, had they foreseen the glory
of the new temple, which at the end of forty days was strenuously
undertaken by the piety of Justinian. [103] The ruins were cleared away,
a more spacious plan was described, and as it required the consent of
some proprietors of ground, they obtained the most exorbitant terms
from the eager desires and timorous conscience of the monarch. Anthemius
formed the design, and his genius directed the hands of ten thousand
workmen, whose payment in pieces of fine silver was never delayed beyond
the evening. The emperor himself, clad in a linen tunic, surveyed
each day their rapid progress, and encouraged their diligence by his
familiarity, his zeal, and his rewards. The new Cathedral of St. Sophia
was consecrated by the patriarch, five years, eleven months, and ten
days from the first foundation; and in the midst of the solemn festival
Justinian exclaimed with devout vanity, "Glory be to God, who hath
thought me worthy to accomplish so great a work; I have vanquished thee,
O Solomon!" [104] But the pride of the Roman Solomon, before twenty
years had elapsed, was humbled by an earthquake, which overthrew
the eastern part of the dome. Its splend