Truly, this stone is not in vain; for they did not simply cut a wild pillar from a steep summit, a long-measured guide for a lengthy path; but it is all brightened by skillful works and, having a variegated nature, is adorned with splendor. Upon it run through, as it were, whirlpools, in some places like endless circles, and in others they stretch out into spirals, having deviated slightly from the circles. In some places one can see redness mixed with pallor, and in others a beautiful gleam like human fingernails. Elsewhere a gleam, tending towards a silvery sheen, lingering gently, has imitated the grace of boxwood or the lovely image of honeyed wax, which mortals, washing it with pure streams from cliffs, often dry under the sun's rays; which rushes towards a silvery color, but has not yet changed its whole hue, still showing golden remnants. Such also is ivory, stained by long furrows, that drives its silvery hue to the ripeness of years. In some places it has a livid grace; for divine nature has not simply left the livid hue to wander, but has mixed well-graven artistry with the stone. And upon these a silvery, multifaceted floral light runs around; for in some places it comes over a wide area, surface-dyed with the flower of livid saffron, and in others it appears thinned out, and like the new-born moon it winds its light around its slender horns. And near the rocky cliff is the city of Hierapolis, which has fitted its famous name to the rock. And all that rock-hewn seat with its beautiful foundation, where they bring up the God-inspired counsels of the books of the wise, art has fitted with eight ornate columns, of which two are toward the North wind, two toward the South, and two toward the Sun, two toward the foundations of the night, so that it might be levered up, and beneath the rock there might be another hall, as it were, where the interpreters of wisdom prepare their gracious, bright-childed song. And for those below it is a roof, but for those above it is a floor. And you will perceive the one to be like outstretched plains, unbending around the feet of mortals; but the one below the stonemason hollowed out, having dug it, and it rises over the heads of the celebrants, curved upwards in skillful adornment, like the stooping back of a hard-shelled tortoise, or some bull-hide shield raised above a helmet, when the pyrrhic dance makes a man whirl nimbly in leaps. And the jagged face of that entire stone they girded on all sides with silver metals, where a skillful man with an iron point, carving trees of varied form and beautiful flowers, has set in the delicate leaves of many-branched clusters.

And for all alike—the bases, the floor, and the columns themselves—a skilled man, keeping all the foundations unshaken, raises a stone base beneath the foundation, rising the height of a man's foot above the ground. And so that they might widen those foundations of the hall, they placed around the middle belly on either side half-cut circles of stones, and in the space thus cut out they set up columns at intervals, crowning half a circle. And the whole belly was widened by four most fortunate columns here and there, to the South and to the North. And the cave, like a house, a spiral on either side, is enclosed by a stone fence. These lovely columns the quarrymen set up in the Phrygian land toward the southern parts of the Mygdonian peak with their strong pick-axes; and one who sees the flowers of the stone would say that white lilies have been mixed with the buds of roses and with the soft petals of the short-lived anemone, in some places sufficiently rosy and gently white in its substance, and in others sufficiently bright-white and gently appearing fiery-red; and there thin veins split through the stone here and there, a little at a time; and poured into one another they give a purple hue like the blood of a Laconian shell.

First, having placed a foundation underneath, they set up a winding, ornate one, gleaming with curved spirals, they set up stone altars fixed on high, cut from a goodly stone cliff of the Bosporus. And they flash white, even if a dark vein is scattered in sporadic paths over their bright-white surface. Twice, on four sides for each altar the stonemason carved a grace, and for them a circular neck

Ναὶ μὴν οὐδ' ὅγε λᾶας ἐτώσιος· οὐδὲ γὰρ αὕτως ἄγριον ἠλιβάτου κορυφῆς τμήξαντο κολώνην μηκεδανῆς τανύμετρον ἀπιθυντῆρα κελεύθου· ἀλλὰ καὶ εὐτέχνοισιν ὅλος φαιδρύνεται ἔργοις καὶ φύσιν αἰολόμορφον ἔχων ποικίλλεται αἴγληι. τοῦ μὲν ἔπι τροχάουσι διαμπερὲς οἷά τε δῖναι, πῆι μὲν ἴσαι κύκλοισιν ἀτέρμοσι, πῆι δέ γε κύκλων βαιὸν ἀποπλαγχθέντας ὑπεκτανύουσιν ἑλιγμούς. ἔστι δὲ πῆι μὲν ἔρευθος ἰδεῖν κεκερασμένον ὤχρωι, πῆι δὲ καλὸν βροτέοισι σέλας στονύχεσσιν ὁμοῖον. ἄλλοθι δ' ὁρμηθεῖσα πρὸς ἀργεννὸν σέλας αἴγλη, ἠρέμα μιμνάζουσα, χάριν μιμήσατο πύξου ἠὲ μελισσήεντος ἐπήρατον εἰκόνα κηροῦ, ὃν καθαραῖς προχοῆισι βροτοὶ νίζοντες ἐρίπναις πολλάκι τερσαίνουσιν ὑπ' ἠελιώτιδας αὐγάς· ὃς δὲ μεταΐσσει μὲν ἐς ἄργυφον, εἰσέτι δ' οὔπω τρέψεν ὅλην χροιὴν ἔτι λείψανα χρύσεα φαίνων. τοῖος καὶ δολιχῶν ἐλέφας κεχρωσμένος ὁλκοῖς χροιὴν ἀργυχέην ἐτέων ἐπὶ μῆλον ἐλαύνει. πῆι δὲ πελιδνωθεῖσαν ἔχει χάριν· οὐδὲ γὰρ αὕτως δῖα φύσις προλέλοιπε πελιδνήεσσαν ἀλᾶσθαι χροιήν, ἀλλ' ἐπέμιξεν ἐΰγραφα δαίδαλα πέτρηι. ἀργεννὴ δ' ἐπὶ τοῖσι πολύτροπος ἄνθεος αὐγὴ ἀμφιθέει· πῆι μὲν γὰρ ἐπέρχεται εὐρέϊ χώρωι ἀκροβαφὴς κροκέοιο πελιδνήεντος ἀώτωι, πῆι δ' ὑπολεπτυνθεῖσα φαείνεται, ἶσα δὲ μήνηι ἀρτιγενεῖ περὶ λεπτὰ κεράατα φέγγος ἑλίσσει. ἄγχι δὲ πετραίης Ἱερὴ πόλις ἐστὶν ἐρίπνης, ἥ τις ἑὸν περίπυστον ἐφήρμοσεν οὔνομα πέτρωι. Πᾶν δὲ τὸ καλλιθέμειλον ἔδος πετραῖον ἐκεῖνο, ἔνθα σοφῶν ἀνάγουσι θεηγόρα δήνεα βίβλων, ὀκτὼ δαιδαλέοισιν ἐφήρμοσε κίοσι τέχνη, ὧν δύο πρὸς Βορέην, δύο δ' ἐς Νότον εἰσὶν ἀήτην, καὶ δύο πρὸς Φαέθοντα, δύο πρὸς ἐδέθλια νυκτός, ὥς κεν ἀνοχλίζοιτο, γένοιτο δὲ νειόθι πέτρης οἷά περ ἄλλο μέλαθρον, ὅπηι σοφίης ὑποφῆται ἵλαον ἀγλαόπαιδα προεντύνουσιν ἀοιδήν. ἔστι δὲ τοῖς μὲν ἔνερθε τέγος, τοῖς δ' ὑψόθεν οὖδας. καὶ τὸ μὲν ἐκταδίοισιν ἴσον πεδίοισι νοήσεις ἀκλινὲς ἀμφὶ πέδιλα βροτῶν· τὸ δ' ἔνερθε λαχήνας λαοτόμος κοίληνεν, ὑπερτέλλει δὲ καρήνων εὐϊέρων κυρτωθὲν ἄνω τεχνήμονι κόσμωι, οἷα κραταιρίνοιο κεκυφότα νῶτα χελώνης, ἤ τις ὑπὲρ πήληκος ἀνορθωθεῖσα βοείη, πύρριχος εὐδίνητον ὅθ' ἅλμασιν ἀνέρα πάλλει. ὀκριόεν δὲ μέτωπον ὅλης λάϊγγος ἐκείνης πάντοθεν ἀργυρέοισι διεζώσαντο μετάλλοις, ὁππόθι δαιδαλοεργὸς ἀνὴρ γλωχῖνι σιδήρου δένδρεα ποικιλόμορφα καὶ ἄνθεα καλὰ χαράσσων ἁβρὰ πολυπτόρθων ἐνεθήκατο φύλλα κορύμβων.

Πᾶσι δ' ὁμῶς βάθροις τε καὶ οὔδεϊ κίοσί τ' αὐτοῖς ἴδρις ἀνήρ, ἀδόνητα θεμείλια πάντα φυλάσσων, λαϊνέης ὑπένερθε βάσιν κρηπῖδος ἐγείρει, ἀνδρομέου ποδὸς ὕψος ὑπερτέλλουσαν ἀρούρης. ὄφρα δ' ἀνευρύνωσι θεμείλια κεῖνα μελάθρου, ἡμιτόμους ἑκάτερθε μέσην περὶ γαστέρα κύκλους λάεσιν ἀμφεβάλοντο, περιτμηγέντι δὲ χώρωι κίονας ἐστήσαντο διασταδόν, ἥμισυ κύκλου ἀμφιπεριστέψαντας. ὅλη δ' εὐρύνετο γαστὴρ τέτρασιν ὀλβίστοις ὑπὸ κίοσιν ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα, ἐς Νότον ἐς Βορέην τε. τὸ δὲ σπέος εἴκελον οἴκωι ἀμφιέλιξ ἑκάτερθεν ὑφ' ἕρκεϊ λᾶας ἐέργει. τοὺς μὲν ἀνὰ Φρύγα χῶρον ἐς ἔνδια Μυγδόνος ἄκρης λαοτόμοι σθεναρῆισιν ἀνεστήσαντο μακέλλαις κίονας ἱμερόεντας· ἰδὼν δέ τις ἄνθεα πέτρης, ἐξενέποι κρίνα λευκὰ ῥόδων καλύκεσσι μιγῆναι καὶ μαλακοῖς πετάλοισι μινυνθαδίης ἀνεμώνης, πῆι μὲν ἅλις ῥοδόεντα καὶ ἠρέμα λευκὰ μετάλλωι, πῆι δ' ἅλις ἀργινόεντα καὶ ἠρέμα πυρσὰ φανέντα· τῆι δὲ μίγα σχίζουσι διὰ φλέβας ἶνες ἀραιαὶ τῆι καὶ τῆι κατὰ βαιόν· ἐν ἀλλήλαις δὲ χυθεῖσαι εἴκελα πορφύρουσι Λακωνίδος αἵματι κόχλου.

Πρῶτα μὲν ἀμφιέλισσαν ὑπὸ κρηπῖδα βαλόντες, δαιδαλέην, καμπτοῖσιν ἀποστίλβουσαν ἑλιγμοῖς, λαϊνέους στήσαντο πεπηγότας ὑψόθι βωμούς, Βοσπορίης τμηγέντας ἀπ' εὐλάϊγγος ἐρίπνης. λευκὰ δ' ἀπαστράπτουσι, καὶ εἰ σποράδεσσι κελεύθοις σκίδναται ἀργινόεντι περὶ χροῒ κυανέη φλέψ. δισσάκι μὲν πισύρεσσιν ὑπὸ πλευρῆισιν ἑκάστωι βωμῶι λαοτύπος χάριν ἔξεσεν, αὐχένα δ' αὐτοῖς κυκλοτερῆ