Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation, spelling and punctuation remain unchanged.

The table of contents was added by the transcriber

The cover was prepared by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society. OF THE

BUILDINGS OF JUSTINIAN.

BY PROCOPIUS (Circ. 560 A.D.).

Translated by AUBREY STEWART, M.A., LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,

AND ANNOTATED BY COL. SIR C. W. WILSON, R.E., K.C.M.G., F.R.S., AND PROF. HAYTER LEWIS, F.S.A.

LONDON: 1. ADAM STREET, ADELPHI. 1888.

CONTENTS.

PREFACE.

Procopius was born at Cæsarea in Palestine, early in the sixth or at the end of the fifth century. He made his way, an adventurer, to Constantinople, where he began as an advocate and Professor of Rhetoric. He had the good fortune to be recommended to Belisarius, who appointed him one of his secretaries. In that capacity Procopius accompanied the general in his expedition to the East, A.D. 528, and in that against the Vandals, A.D. 533. The successful prosecution of the war enriched Belisarius to such an extent that he was enabled to maintain a retinue of 7000 men, of whom Procopius seems to have been one of the most trusted, since we find him appointed Commissary General in the Italian war. On his return to Constantinople, he was decorated with one of the innumerable titles of the Byzantine Court, and entered into the Senate. In the year 562 he was made Prefect of Constantinople, and is supposed to have died in 565—the same year as his former patron Belisarius.

His works are (1) the Histories (ἱστορίαι) in eight books, namely, two on the Persian War (408-553), two on the War with the Vandals (395-545), and four on the Wars with the Goths, bringing the History down to the year 553. (2) The six books on the Buildings of Justinian, and (3) the Anecdota, or Secret History—a work which has always been attributed to him.

The ‘Histories’ appeared first in Latin, 1470, the translator being Leonardo Bruni d’Arezzo (Leonardo Aretino), who, believing his own MS. to be the only one in existence, gave himself out for the author. They were first published in Greek, at Augsburg, 1607: but the ‘Buildings’ had already appeared at Basle, 1531.

The ‘Secret History’ was first published, with a translation into Latin, at Lyons in 1623. The ‘Histories’ and the ‘Anecdota’ have been translated into French. An English translation of the ‘Secret History’ was published in 1674. No other part of Procopius has, until now, been translated.

The following version of the ‘De Ædificiis’ has been specially made for the Pilgrims’ Text Society, by Aubrey Stewart (late Fellow of Trinity, Cambridge), who has added the valuable notes marked (S.). The notes marked (L.), chiefly archæological, have been supplied by Professor Hayter Lewis, and those marked (W.), chiefly topographical, by Colonel Sir C. W. Wilson, the Director of the Society.

The illustrations of St. Sophia are taken from the magnificent work by Salzenberg, published at Berlin.

Those from Texier and Pullan are taken by the kind permission of Mr. Pullan from their work on ‘Byzantine Architecture.’

In the investigation of the antiquities of Palestine, the name of Justinian, as associated with them, comes forward as often as that of Constantine or Herod.

From Bethlehem to Damascus—from the sea-coast to far beyond the Jordan—there are few places of note in which some remains, dating from his era, do not exist, or in which, at the least, some records of his works are not left in the history of his time. To him Mount Sinai owes the Church of the Holy Virgin.

At Bethlehem he is said to have enlarged, if not rebuilt, the great Basilica.

At Gerizim the mountain still bears on its summit the remains of the church which he there constructed, and Tiberias is still surrounded, in part, by the walls raised by him.

He is known to have constructed a large church to the Virgin on the Mount of Olives, and several other churches in and about Jerusalem, the grandest of which is described to have been an architectural gem, was in the Harem area itself.

Besides these, which are definitely recorded to have been his work, he is supposed by some of the best authorities to have erected the Golden Gate and the Double Gate; and of late years it has been contended that the Sakhrah itself was constructed by him as it now exists.

But there is scarcely one of these edifices, where remains of them exist or are supposed so to do, which has not been the subject of controversy, the authorship of the Sakhrah (taking that as an instance) having been assigned, by various persons who would usually be considered as authorities on the subject, to the Romans under Constantine, to the Byzantines under Justinian, and to the Arabs under Abd-el-Melek.

It becomes, therefore, important to have a clear record as to what Justinian did, not only in Palestine but in other countries, so as to be able to judge to some extent, by well-authenticated examples, of the founders of those edifices whose history is involved in doubt.

Of the writers who can give us this record, none has such authority as Procopius, or gives so much detailed information; and he has, for that reason, been largely quoted by Gibbon and by well-nigh every other writer on Byzantine history; and he gives such definite information as to the dates of many of Justinian’s buildings which remain to us, as to form a standard by which to recognise the general characteristics in outline and detail adopted by his architects in his greatest works, and which characterize the style now well known as Byzantine.

Its first and greatest example is St. Sofia at Constantinople, which is, perhaps, the boldest instance of a sudden change in almost every respect, whether of plan, elevation, or detail, which is known in architecture.

Before its construction, the ground-plan of well-nigh every building known to Western architects had defined the plan of all above it.