wells larger and larger,
mounts higher and higher, as though a miniature heaven rose overhead.
For lightness, for grace, for proportion, the effect is unrivalled. The
walls of the building are reveted with marbles of various hues and
patterns, arranged to form beautiful designs, and traces of the mosaics
which joined the marbles in the rich and soft coloration of the whole
interior surface of the building appear at many points. There are forty
columns on the ground floor and sixty in the galleries, often crowned
with beautiful capitals, in which the monograms of the emperor Justinian
and the empress Theodora are inscribed. The eight porphyry columns,
placed in pairs in the four bays at the corners of the nave, belonged
originally to the temple of the sun at Baalbek. They were subsequently
carried to Rome by Aurelian, and at length presented to Justinian by a
lady named Marcia, to be erected in this church "for the salvation of
her soul." The columns of verde antique on either side of the nave are
commonly said to have come from the temple of Diana at Ephesus, but
recent authorities regard them as specially cut for use in the church.
The inner narthex of the church formed a magnificent vestibule 205 ft.
long by 26 ft. wide, reveted with marble slabs and glowing with mosaics.

The citizens of Constantinople found their principal recreation in the
chariot-races held in the Hippodrome, now the At Meidan, to the west of
the mosque of Sultan Ahmed. So much did the race-course (begun by
Severus but completed by Constantine) enter into the life of the people
that it has been styled "the axis of the Byzantine world." It was not
only the scene of amusement, but on account of its ample accommodation
it was also the arena of much of the political life of the city. The
factions, which usually contended there in sport, often gathered there
in party strife. There emperors were acclaimed or insulted; there
military triumphs were celebrated; there criminals were executed, and
there martyrs were burned at the stake. Three monuments remain to mark
the line of the Spina, around which the chariots whirled; an Egyptian
obelisk of Thothmes III., on a pedestal covered with bas-reliefs
representing Theodosius I., the empress Galla, and his sons Arcadius and
Honorius, presiding at scenes in the Hippodrome; the triple serpent
column, which stood originally at Delphi, to commemorate the victory of
Plataea 479 B.C.; a lofty pile of masonry, built in