having gone up; for the one rising towards the west is no longer equal to the other two, going beyond the narthex. But also at the western foot of the ambrosial temple you will see a courtyard surrounded by four porticoes, of which one is joined to the narthex, while the others are opened up by many-branched paths. And in the precious center of the lofty courtyard stands a very wide phiale, carved from the peak of Iassos, where a gurgling stream leaps up to send into the air a jet spouting up by the force of a brazen pipe, a jet that drives away all passions, whenever the people in the month of the golden tunic, at the mystic festival of God, draws the pure water in nightly vessels; a jet announcing the power of God; for upon those waters decay has never touched, even if for a very long time away from the spring it should remain enclosed in the hollows of a jug in a house. And on the stone-cut wall the well-graven marvels of art flash from every side. The quarry of sea-girt Proconnesus brought these forth. And the harmony of the much-cut marbles rivals paintings; for in it you will perceive in four-cut and eight-cut stones veins joined together in order; and the splendor of living forms the bound stones have imitated.

And many, here and there, around the sides and the high rims of the ambrosial temple you will see outside unroofed courts; for this was achieved with skillful design around the august palace, so that it might appear bathed in the bright gleams of the rosy-fingered dawn. And who, opening Homer's loud-sounding mouth, will sing of the marble meadows gathered around the firmly-fixed walls and the well-founded floor of the lofty temple? since even the green ridges of Carystus the quarrying steel has scored with its tooth, and has cut through the Phrygian neck of the variegated stone, the one to behold is rosy, mixed with bright white, the other glittering softly with both purple and silvery blossoms. And much Porphyry, having pressed down the river-barge on the fair-armed Nile, rising up as a purple stone, shines, sprinkled with fine stars. And you might see the green sparkle of Laconian stone and marbles flashing with much-wandering spirals, as many as the deep-bosomed quarry of the Iassian hill has found, showing with blood-red and livid white slanting paths, and whatever the Lydian glen twisting a pale flower mixed with ruddy; whatever the gleaming Libyan, glowing with golden sheen, fashions golden-gleaming saffron sparkles of stones around the deep-sloped ridge of the Maurousian peak; and whatever the deep-crystalled Celtic cliff sent up, casting much poured milk about its gleaming black surface, wandering here and there, as it may chance; and whatever precious things Onyx, pale with its translucent substance, sent forth, and whatever the Atracian land brought forth on smooth plains and not in a high-necked glen, here sufficiently green and not very far from emerald, there with the dark-blue form of a deepening green; and there was something like snow near a black gleam, and a mixed grace of the stone arose. But before reaching the gleam of the much-cut mosaic, the stonecutter, weaving thin slabs of stone with his hand, incised the marble slabs into the middle of the walls with a horn bound with and heavy with rich fruits and baskets and leaves, and on the branches he carves a perching bird. And along the well-horned paths a vine with golden tresses runs all around, weaving a spiral-pathed bond with its crooked clusters; and it has gently stooped forward, so as to lightly shade the neighboring stone with the spiral plaiting of its foliage. All these things of the portico surround the beautiful chambers. But also on the high-crested columns, inside the footing of the stone projecting base, a much-embroidered spiral of acanthus crept up, winding lithely, a wandering, golden, lovely bond, twisting its rough point; and it crowns the bossed marbles like purple discs, gleaming with the soul-charming grace of the stone. And having paved the whole floor, the Proconnesian stone gladly offered its back to the mighty empress; and gently shimmering, the Bosphorian radiance shone upon the silvery stone with its dark-tipped surface. And the ceiling confines the gold-inlaid mosaic tesserae, from which, glittering profusely,

ἀνελθών· ἡ γὰρ ὑπερτέλλουσα πρὸς ἕσπερον οὐκέτι δοιαῖς ἴση ταῖς ἑτέρηισιν, ὑπὲρ νάρηκος ἰοῦσα. Ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀμβροσίοιο πρὸς ἐσπέριον πόδα νηοῦ τέτρασιν αἰθούσηισι περίδρομον ὄψεαι αὐλήν, ὧν μία μὲν νάρθηκι συνάπτεται, αἵ γε μὲν ἄλλαι πεπταμέναι τελέθουσι πολυσχιδέεσσι κελεύθοις. μηκεδανῆς δ' ἐρίτιμον ἐς ὀμφαλὸν ἵσταται αὐλῆς εὐρυτάτη φιάλη τις, Ἰασσίδος ἔκτομος ἄκρης, ἔνθα ῥόος κελαδῶν ἀναπάλλεται ἠέρι πέμπειν ὁλκὸν ἀναθρώσκοντα βίηι χαλκήρεος αὐλοῦ, ὁλκὸν ὅλων παθέων ἐλατήριον, ὁππότε λαὸς μηνὶ χρυσοχίτωνι, θεοῦ κατὰ μύστιν ἑορτήν, ἐννυχίοις ἄχραντον ἀφύσσεται ἄγγεσιν ὕδωρ· ὁλκὸν ἀπαγγέλλοντα θεοῦ μένος· οὐ γὰρ ἐκείνοις οὔποτε πυθομένοισιν ἐπέχραεν ὕδασιν εὐρώς, εἰ καὶ πουλυέτηρον ἐπὶ χρόνον ἔκτοθι πηγῆς κάλπιδος ἐν γυάλοισιν ἐελμένα δώμασι μίμνοι. λαότορον δ' ἀνὰ τοῖχον ἐΰγραφα δαίδαλα τέχνης πάντοθεν ἀστράπτουσιν. ἁλιστεφέος Προκονήσου ταῦτα φάραγξ ἐλόχευσε. πολυτμήτων δὲ μετάλλων ἁρμονίη γραφίδεσσιν ἰσάζεται· ἐν γὰρ ἐκείνηι τετρατόμοις λάεσσι καὶ ὀκτατόμοισι νοήσεις ζευγνυμένας κατὰ κόσμον ὁμοῦ φλέβας· ἀγλαΐην δὲ ζωοτύπων λάϊγγες ἐμιμήσαντο δεθεῖσαι.

Πολλὰς δ' ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα περὶ πλευράς τε καὶ ἄκρας ἄντυγας ἀμβροσίοιο κατόψεαι ἔκτοθι νηοῦ αὐλὰς ἀσκεπέας· τόδε γὰρ τεχνήμονι κόσμωι ἠνύσθη περὶ σεμνὸν ἀνάκτορον, ὄφρα φανείη φέγγεσιν εὐγλήνοισι περίρρυτον ἠριγενείης. Καὶ τίς ἐριγδούποισι χανὼν στομάτεσσιν Ὁμήρου μαρμαρέους λειμῶνας ἀολλισθέντας ἀείσει ἠλιβάτου νηοῖο κραταιπαγέας περὶ τοίχους καὶ πέδον εὐρυθέμειλον; ἐπεὶ καὶ χλωρὰ Καρύστου νῶτα μεταλλευτῆρι χάλυψ ἐχάραξεν ὀδόντι καὶ Φρύγα δαιδαλέοιο διέθρισεν αὐχένα πέτρου, τὸν μὲν ἰδεῖν ῥοδόεντα, μεμιγμένον ἠέρι λευκῶι, τὸν δ' ἅμα πορφυρέοισι καὶ ἀργυφέοισιν ἀώτοις ἁβρὸν ἀπαστράπτοντα. πολὺς δ' εὐπήχεϊ Νείλωι φορτίδα πιλήσας ποταμίτιδα λᾶας ἀνίσχων πορφύρεος λεπτοῖσι πεπασμένος ἀστράσι λάμπει. καὶ χλοερὸν λάϊγγος ἴδοις ἀμάρυγμα Λακαίνης μάρμαρά τε στράπτοντα πολυπλάγκτοισιν ἑλιγμοῖς, ὅσσα φάραγξ βαθύκολπος Ἰασσίδος εὗρε κολώνης, αἱμαλέωι λευκῶι τε πελιδνωθέντι κελεύθους λοξοτενεῖς φαίνουσα, καὶ ὁππόσα Λύδιος ἀγκὼν ὠχρὸν ἐρευθήεντι μεμιγμένον ἄνθος ἑλίσσων· ὅσσα Λίβυς φαέθων, χρυσέωι σελαγίσματι θάλπων, χρυσοφανῆ κροκόεντα λίθων ἀμαρύγματα τεύχει ἀμφὶ βαθυπρήωνα ῥάχιν Μαυρουσίδος ἄκρης· ὅσσα τε Κελτὶς ἀνεῖχε βαθυκρύσταλλος ἐρίπνη χρωτὶ μέλαν στίλβοντι πολὺ γλάγος ἀμφιβαλοῦσα ἔκχυτον, ἧι κε τύχηισιν, ἀλώμενον ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα· ὅσσα τ' Ὄνυξ ἀνέηκε διαυγάζοντι μετάλλωι ὠχριόων ἐρίτιμα, καὶ Ἀτρακὶς ὁππόσα λευροῖς χθὼν πεδίοις ἐλόχευσε καὶ οὐχ ὑψαύχενι βήσσηι, πῆι μὲν ἅλις χλοάοντα καὶ οὐ μάλα τῆλε μαράγδου, πῆι δὲ βαθυνομένου χλοεροῦ κυανώπιδι μορφῆι· ἦν δέ τι καὶ χιόνεσσιν ἀλίγκιον ἄγχι μελαίνης μαρμαρυγῆς, μικτὴ δὲ χάρις συνεγείρετο πέτρου. Πρὶν δὲ πολυτμήτοιο σέλας ψηφῖδος ἱκέσθαι, λεπτὰς λαοτόρος παλάμηι λάϊγγας ὑφαίνων μαρμαρέας ἔγραψε μετὰ πλάκας ἐς μέσα τοίχων σύνδετον εὐκάρποισι κέρας βεβριθὸς ὀπώραις καὶ ταλάρους καὶ φύλλα, κατ' ἀκρεμόνων δὲ χαράσσει ἑζομένην ὄρνιθα. μετ' εὐκεράους δὲ κελεύθους κλήμασι χρυσοκόμοισι περίδρομος ἄμπελος ἕρπει, δεσμὸν ἑλιξοπόρον σκολιοῖς πλέξασα κορύμβοις· ἠρέμα δὲ προνένευκεν, ὅσον καὶ γείτονα πέτρην βαιὸν ἐπισκιάειν ἑλικώδεϊ πλέγματι χαίτης. αἰθούσης τάδε πάντα καλοὺς περινείσσεται οἴκους. ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑψιλόφοις ἐπὶ κίοσιν, ἔνθοδι πέζης λαϊνέης προβλῆτος, ἕλιξ πολύκεστος ἀκάνθης ὑγρὰ διερπύζων ἀνελίσσετο, δεσμὸς ἀλήτης, χρύσεος, ἱμερόεις, ἀκίδα τρηχεῖαν ἑλίσσων· μάρμαρα δ' ὀμφαλόεντα περιστέφει εἴκελα δίσκοις πορφυρέοις, στίλβοντα χάριν θελξίφρονα πέτρης. πᾶν δὲ πέδον στορέσασα Προκοννήσοιο κολώνη ἀσπασίως ὑπέθηκε βιαρκέϊ νῶτον ἀνάσσηι· ἠρέμα δὲ φρίσσουσα διέπρεπε Βοσπορὶς αἴγλη ἀκροκελαινιόωντος ἐπ' ἀργεννοῖο μετάλλου. Χρυσεοκολλήτους δὲ τέγος ψηφῖδας ἐέργει, ὧν ἄπο μαρμαίρουσα χύδην