of the words and obscured the meaning of the inscription.
The remaining letters are in unrestored mosaic.

I venture to suggest that the original text was a quotation from Amos
ix. 6, with possibly some variations:

[Greek: ho oikodomon eis ton ouranon anabasin autou kai ten
epangelian autou epi tes ges themelion].

'He who builds his ascent up to the heaven and his command
on the foundations of the earth.'

The words, [Greek: elpeisamen eis to onoma autou], 'we have hoped in his
name,' may be original (Psalm xxxii. 21; Isaiah xxvi. 8).

With these inscriptions may be compared the beautiful collect used at
the consecration of a church:

[Greek: Akolouthia eis enkainia naou.

Nai Despota Kyrie ho Theos ho Soter hemon, he elpis panton ton
peraton tes ges, epakouson hemon ton hamartolon deomenon sou kai
katapempson to panagion sou Pneuma to proskyneton kai pantodynamenon
kai hagiason ton oikon touton].

'Yea, Lord God Almighty our Saviour, the hope of all the ends
of the earth, hear us sinners when we call upon thee, and send thy
Holy Spirit, the worshipful and all powerful, and sanctify this house.'

Below the windows of the apse are ranges of seats for the clergy,
forming a sloping gallery, and consisting of eleven risers and eleven
treads, so that, according to the method of seating adopted, there are
five or six or eleven rows of seats. There is no vestige of a special
episcopal seat in the centre, but the stonework has been disturbed; for
some of the seats are built with portions of the moulded base of the
marble revetment of the building. Underneath the seats runs a narrow
semicircular passage originally well lighted through openings[142] in
the riser of one range of seats, and having a doorway at each end.

[Illustration: PLATE XX.
(1) S. IRENE. MOSAIC ON SOFFIT OF AN ARCH BETWEEN THE NARTHEX AND THE
ATRIUM.
(2) S. IRENE. PORTION OF THE MOSAIC INSCRIPTION ON THE OUTER ARCH OF THE
APSE.
_To face page 96._]

On either side of the nave, towards the eastern end of each aisle,
there is an approximately square compartment covered with a domical
vault, and having an opening communicating with the nave immediately to
the west of the bema. To the east of these compartments stands what was
the original eastern wall of the church, and in it, in the north aisle,
a large doorway retaining its architrave and cornice, is still found.
Of the corresponding doorway in the south aisl