Having spoken he hastened to the sacred precincts, and soon the deed was swifter than the neighbouring word; for rousing himself, as is right, he did not wait for his fellow shield-bearer to take up the golden necklace from his unbending neck, nor any golden staff that ever goes before kings, nor an army distinguished for the manliness of its fair-footed youth, a fellow-traveller on the well-armed, black-founded way. But suddenly on both sides men streamed together from all directions, the king having gone on before; and the shouts of the thronging men thundered, and a mingled echo resounded. But when he entered the temple and recognized the unshakable foundation of the house, he turned his whole mind to the encircling summit, and he acclaimed the art and mind of Anthemius, distinguished for his wise counsel. That man laid the first foundations of the temple, serving the tireless counsels of kings, a man skilled both to take up the tool and to trace the design, who put into the walls such strength as to contend with the sorely-trying assaults of the opposing demon. For it did not give way when its steep-sloped peak was cut off, but he fixed its foot unshaken on a well-laid foundation; and upon the former walls the director of the great throne among the Ausonians again built the beauty of a blameless head.

But who could sing of how with high-towering ornament he brought the temple back to life? Who is fit to describe the counsel, best in its birth-pangs, of the many-sceptered king? Those things, O scepter-bearer, which have been the care of the builder's art, we shall leave, and I shall come to the end of your tireless labors, having seen the newly-completed object of reverence, upon which divine love has sent forth the rays of every sight. Every mortal, straining his eye to the bright-formed heaven, does not endure for long with bent-back neck to see the circular meadow of the star-clad dance, but has led his eye away to a green hill, and has longed to see the stream of a flowery brook and the ripening ear of corn and the shelter of a well-wooded forest and flocks gamboling and the twisting olive tree, the vine leaning on thriving branches and the bright-eyed, grey calm over the sea, carded by the sea-drenched oars of the sailor. But if one sets foot in the god-fearing precincts, he does not wish to take his foot back again, but with charmed eyes to turn his much-turning neck this way and that; all satiety of the fair-gated is driven from the house. Such a blameless temple does the ever-watchful ruler raise, by the helping counsel of the immortal God. For by your labors, O king, you draw all-glorious Christ to be gracious continually. For you did not wish to set steep-sloped Ossa upon the peaks of Olympus, nor to drag Pelion over the neck of Ossa, making the aether passable for mortal feet; but having accomplished by holy labors a work beyond hope, you have no need of a ladder of mountains, that you might leap up to heaven, but on the straight-faring wings of piety you drive toward the divine aether. But why do I delay to sing the day of the care-dispelling festival? And why do we spin out our story outside the temple? Let us go into the sacred precincts, and you, initiated ones, sing to God, calling him as a suppliant, the helper of my words. Just now the sickle, its blade blunted after the grape-clusters, was awaiting the summer-born work of the coming sheaf, and the sun, shaking the reins beside the wing of the south wind, drove toward the unwarmed regions of the fishy Goat, having just left the downcast sender of shafts. And the revered, early-born one came, and the opening ambrosial gate of the newly-built temple groaned, calling the people inside and to the feast. As the black night wanes and the light of day waxes for all, so truly, when the great temple appeared, the night of grief waned and the gleam of joy ran over all. It was fitting for you, mighty scepter-bearer, it was fitting for Rome, it was fitting to open the door of the temple for your peoples, the herald of the ambrosial God's festival; it was fitting, in order after that divine day, for the birthday of the life-giving Christ to come. And indeed the night was finished, the forerunner of swift-footed dawn, calling for gladness, and Plato, the ambrosial herald of God, received the sound of the sleepless choir in his divine precincts, where with mystic voice men gladly shouted the all-night hymns of life-strong Christ with unsilenced songs. But when the rosy-armed gleam, having drawn back her shadowy veil, ran under the heavenly chariot-rails, then indeed all the people

φάμενος τεμένεσσιν ἐπείγετο, καὶ τάχα μύθου γείτονος ἔργον ἔην ταχινώτερον· ὀρνύμενος γὰρ ὡς θέμις οὐκ ἀνέμιμνε συνέμπορον ἀσπιδιώτην χρύσεον ἀγνάμπτοιο κατ' αὐχένος ὅρμον ἑλόντα, οὐ χρυσέην τινὰ ῥάβδον ἀεὶ προκέλευθον ἀνάκτων, οὐ στρατὸν ἠνορέηισι κεκασμένον εὔποδος ἥβης, σύνδρομον εὐόπλοιο μελαγκρήπιδα κελεύθου. ἐξαπίνης δ' ἑκάτερθε συνέρρεον ἄλλοθεν ἄλλοι προφθαμένου βασιλῆος· ἐπεκτύπεον δὲ βοεῖαι ἀνδρῶν στεινομένων κανάχιζε δὲ συμμιγὲς ἠχώ. ἀλλ' ὅτε δὴ κατὰ νηὸν ἐδύσατο καὶ βάσιν ἔγνω δώματος ἀστυφέλικτον, ὅλην ἔτρεψε μενοινὴν ἐς κορυφὴν περίμετρον, ἐπευφήμησε δὲ τέχνην καὶ νόον Ἀνθεμίοιο κεκασμένον ἔμφρονι βουλῆι. κεῖνος ἀνὴρ τὰ πρῶτα θεμείλια πήξατο νηοῦ εὐκαμάτων βουλῆισιν ὑποδρήσσων βασιλήων, δεινὸς ἀνὴρ καὶ κέντρον ἑλεῖν καὶ σχῆμα χαράξαι, ὃς τοίχοις ἐνέηκε τόσον σθένος ὅσσον ἐρίζειν δαίμονος ἀντιβίοιο βαρυτλήτοισιν ἐρωαῖς. οὐ γὰρ ἀποτμηγέντος ἐρικνήμοιο καρήνου ὤκλασεν, ἀλλ' ἀδόνητον ἐϋκρήπιδι θεμείλωι ἴχνος ἐπεστήριξεν· ἐπὶ προτέροισι δὲ τοίχοις ἰθυντὴρ μεγάλοιο παρ' Αὐσονίοισι θοώκου αὖτις ἀμωμήτοιο χάριν δωμήσατο κόρσης.

Ἀλλὰ τίς ἂν μέλψειεν ὅπως ὑψαύχενι κόσμωι νηὸν ἀνεζώγρησε; τίς ἄρκιός ἐστι χαράξαι μῆτιν ἀριστώδινα πολυσκήπτρου βασιλῆος; κεῖνα μέν, ὦ σκηπτοῦχε, μεμηλότα τέκτονι τέχνηι λείψομεν, εὐκαμάτων δὲ τεῶν ἐπὶ τέρματα μόχθων ἵξομαι, ἀρτιτέλεστον ἰδὼν σέβας, ὧι ἔπι πάσης θεῖος ἔρως ἀκτῖνας ἀνεπτοίησεν ὀπωπῆς. πᾶς βροτὸς ἀγλαόμορφον ἐς οὐρανὸν ὄμμα τανύσσας οὐκ ἐπὶ δὴν τέτληκεν ἀναγναμφθέντι τραχήλωι κύκλιον ἀστροχίτωνος ἰδεῖν λειμῶνα χορείης, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐς χλοάουσαν ἀπήγαγεν ὄμμα κολώνην, καὶ ῥόον ἀνθεμόεντος ἰδεῖν ἐπόθησεν ἀναύρου καὶ στάχυν ἡβώοντα καὶ εὐδένδρου σκέπας ὕλης πώεά τε σκαίροντα καὶ ἀμφιέλικτον ἐλαίην, ἄμπελον εὐθαλέεσσιν ἐπικλινθεῖσαν ὀράμνοις καὶ χαροποῦ γλαυκῶπιν ὑπὲρ πόντοιο γαλήνην ξαινομένην πλωτῆρος ἁλιβρέκτοισιν ἐρετμοῖς. εἰ δέ τις ἐν τεμένεσσι θεουδέσιν ἴχνος ἐρείσει, οὐκ ἐθέλει παλίνορσον ἄγειν πόδα, θελγομένοις δὲ ὄμμασιν ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα πολύστροφον αὐχένα πάλλειν· πᾶς κόρος εὐπήληκος ἐλήλαται ἔκτοθεν οἴκου. τοῖον ἀειφρούρητος ἀμεμφέα νηὸν ἐγείρει κοίρανος ἀθανάτοιο θεοῦ χραισμήτορι βουλῆι. σοῖς γάρ, ἄναξ, καμάτοισιν ἐφέλκεαι ἵλαον εἶναι Χριστὸν ὑπερκύδαντα διαμπερές. οὐ γὰρ ἐρεῖσαι Ὄσσαν ἐρικνήμιδα κατ' Οὐλύμποιο καρήνων ἤθελες, οὐκ Ὄσσης ὑπὲρ αὐχένα Πήλιον ἕλκειν, ἀμβατὸν ἀνδρομέοισιν ὑπ' ἴχνεσιν αἰθέρα τεύχων· ἀλλ' ὁσίοις μόχθοισιν ὑπέρτερον ἐλπίδος ἔργον ἐξανύσας ὀρέων μὲν ἐπεμβάδος οὔτι χατίζεις, ὥς κεν ἀναΐξειας ἐς οὐρανόν, εὐσεβίης δὲ ἰθυπόροις πτερύγεσσι πρὸς αἰθέρα δῖον ἐλαύνεις. Ἀλλὰ τί δηθύνω λαθικηδέος ἦμαρ ἑορτῆς ὑμνῆσαι; τί δὲ μῦθον ἑλίσσομεν ἔκτοθι νηοῦ; ἴομεν ἐν τεμένεσσι, θεὸν δ' ὑμνήσατε μύσται ἱκέσιον καλέοντες ἐμῶν χραισμήτορα μύθων. Ἄρτι μὲν ἀμβλυνθεῖσα γένυν μετὰ βότρυας ἅρπη ἐσσομένης ἀνέμιμνε θερειγενὲς ἔργον ἀμάλλης, ἠέλιος δὲ νότοιο παρὰ πτερὸν ἡνία πάλλων αἰγὸς ἐς ἰχθυόεντος ἀθαλπέας ἤλαε μοίρας, ἄρτι κατηφήσαντα λιπὼν ἀφετῆρα βελέμνων. ἤλυθε δ' ἠριγένεια σεβάσμιος, οἰγομένη δὲ ἄμβροτος ἀρτιδόμοιο πύλη μυκήσατο νηοῦ, λαὸν ἔσω καλέουσα καὶ ἤρανον. εὖτε κελαινὴ νὺξ μινύθει καὶ πᾶσιν ἀέξεται ἠμάτιον φῶς, ὣς ἐτεὸν μινύθει μεγάλου νηοῖο φανέντος νὺξ ἀχέων καὶ πάντας ἐπέδραμε χάρματος αἴγλη. ἔπρεπέ σοι, σκηπτοῦχε μεγασθενές, ἔπρεπε Ῥώμηι, ἔπρεπεν ἀμβροσίοιο θεοῦ προκέλευθον ἑορτῆς ὑμετέροις λαοῖσι θύρην νηοῖο πετάσσαι· ἔπρεπεν ἑξείης μετὰ θέσκελον ἦμαρ ἐκεῖνο ζωοτόκου Χριστοῖο γενέθλιον ἦμαρ ἱκέσθαι. καὶ δὴ νὺξ τετέλεστο προηγέτις εὔποδος ἠοῦς εὐφροσύνην καλέουσα, θεοῦ δ' ὑπεδέξατο κῆρυξ ἄμβροτος ἀγρύπνοιο Πλάτων κελάδημα χορείης θεσπεσίοις τεμένεσσιν ἑοῖς, ὅθι μυστίδι φωνῆι παννυχίους Χριστοῖο βιαρκέος ἀνέρες ὕμνους ἀσπασίως ἐβόησαν ἀσιγήτοισιν ἀοιδαῖς. ἀλλ' ὅτε δὴ σκιόεσσαν ἀναστείλασα καλύπτρην οὐρανίας ῥοδόπηχυς ὑπέδραμεν ἄντυγας αἴγλη, δὴ τότε λαὸς ἅπας