he east and south sides of
the great cistern to the south-west of the church.

[75] Constant. Porphyr. _De cer._ ii. pp. 562-3.

[76] Gyllius says six.

[77] See passage from his _Tagebuch_ quoted on page 50.

[78] _Altchristliche Baudenkmaeler von Konstantinopel_, Blatt iv.

[79] _Vida del Gran Tamorlan y itinerario_, pp. 55-56 (Madrid, 1782).

[80] _I.e._ From the elevated floors of the galleries one could look
over the church.

CHAPTER III

THE CHURCH OF SS. SERGIUS AND BACCHUS,
KUTCHUK AYA SOFIA

On the level tract beside the Sea of Marmora, to the south of the
Hippodrome, and a few paces to the north-west of Tchatlady Kapou, stands
the ancient church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus. It is commonly known as
the mosque Kutchuk Aya Sofia, Little S. Sophia, to denote at once its
likeness and its unlikeness to the great church of that name. It can be
reached by either of the two streets descending from the Hippodrome to
the sea, or by taking train to Koum Kapou, and then walking eastwards
for a short distance along the railroad.

There can be no doubt in regard to its identity. For the inscription on
the entablature of the lower colonnade in the church proclaims the
building to be a sanctuary erected by the Emperor Justinian and his
Empress Theodora to the honour of the martyr Sergius. The building
stands, moreover, as SS. Sergius and Bacchus stood, close to the site of
the palace and the harbour of Hormisdas.[81] When Gyllius visited the
city the Greek community still spoke of the building as the church of
SS. Sergius and Bacchus--'Templum Sergii et Bacchi adhuc superest, cujus
nomen duntaxat Graeci etiam nunc retinent.'[82]

[Illustration: PLATE XI.
SS. SERGIUS AND BACCHUS. INTERIOR, LOOKING NORTH-WEST.
_To face page 62._]

The foundations of the church were laid in 527, the year of Justinian's
accession,[83] and its erection must have been completed before 536,
since it is mentioned in the proceedings of the Synod held at
Constantinople in that year.[84] According to the Anonymus, indeed, the
church and the neighbouring church of SS. Peter and Paul were founded
after the massacre in the Hippodrome which suppressed the Nika Riot. But
the Anonymus is not a reliable historian.[85]

The church did not stand alone. Beside it and united with it, Justinian
built also a church dedicated to the Apostles Peter and Paul,[86] so
that the two buildings formed a double sanctuary, having a common court
an