Theophanes the Confessor, Chronography

having its floor paved with similar slabs, and the parts above with some figures of gold-gleaming tesserae gathering fruits, and furthermore the floor of Proconnesian stone, it has also built with it an oratory, containing two bemas, one in the name of the most-holy lady Theotokos, the other in the name of the archistrategos Michael. Below this is a mezzanine, which having its view towards the Chrysotriklinos through a marble screen, was set apart as a library by the Christ-loving emperor Constantine Porphyrogennetos; of which the dining-room is there, having its walls brightened with stones of Bathys, and the whole floor of inlays and different colors. The second kuboukleion after the Kâmilâs, having its ceiling similar to the first and supported by four Docimian columns, has its floor paved with Proconnesian stone, of its walls, like the first, bearing the upper part completely embellished with golden tesserae, having some trees and patterns of green filling the remainder of the tesserae. The one below this, which is also called the Mesopatos, is for the dwelling of the *kartzimades* entrusted with the gynaikonitis. The third after the kuboukleion, which is now used as the vestiary of the Augusta, has a ceiling similar to these and a floor paved with white Proconnesian stone, but all its walls 146 were later, but not then, embellished with icons by his son Michael. The lower story joined and connected to this has its ceiling supported by seven Carian columns, five to the south and two to the east, and is fortified by two walls, made of Roman and Peganusian and Carian slabs, and also beautified with green Thessalian river-stone; This is named the Mousikos on account of the precise inlay of the marbles, whence also it has the paving of its floor arranged from different patterns and from different and beautiful stones. Seeing it, you would say that it is a meadow teeming with various flowers. To this on the west a kuboukleion is joined at the side, bearing in all respects a similar beauty of marbles, and also with five Carian columns, three to the south and two to the west, supporting the ceiling. Another is at its foot, divided into two rooms, and adjoining the Augustiakos koiton; where the Christ-loving emperor Leo built an oratory of Saint Anne, it too having its ceiling raised on four columns of Bathys, its floor of white Proconnesian stone, and its walls fashioned from slabs of Bathys. But this, as we said, adjoins the koiton of the Augusta; while that one to the west of the Mousikos has its descent into the aforementioned koiton by a staircase, and likewise also its entrance; It leads also to the Kainourgion, a koiton and triklinos 147 which the emperor Basil of famous memory built, and to the portico of the fifth kuboukleion, in which the oratory of Saint Paul was founded by the emperor Basil of famous memory. 44 These things, then, in the palace, both to the north and to the south, were built by Theophilos, and are handed down by us in history, because we do not wish his works, whatever they may be, to be given over to oblivion, for a judgment of his manner of life. But also the triklinoi, both the so-called Lausiakos, and moreover also that of Justinian, he decorated with golden tesserae; and the basket-vaulting he transferred from the palaces of the tyrant Basiliscus and set it around the Lausiakos. And another triklinos with four august and splendid kuboukleia, of which two are towards the mezzanine of the second kuboukleion after the Kâmilâs, having their golden ceiling under four arches, are towards the Porphyra, which is so called

εχων ἐξ ὁμοίων κατεστρωμένα πλακῶν, τὰ δ' ανω ἐκ χρυσοαυγῶν ψηφίδων ἀγάλ- ματά τινα τρυγῶντα καρπούς, ετι δὲ καὶ τουδαφος ἐκ λίθων Προικοννησίων, συνῳκοδομημένον εχει καὶ εὐκτήριον, δύο περίε- χον βήματα, εν μὲν εἰς ονομα τῆς ὑπεραγίας δεσποίνης θεοτόκου, θάτερον δὲ εἰς ονομα τοῦ ἀρχιστρατήγου Μιχαήλ. ὑποβεβηκὸς δὲ τούτου μεσόπατόν ἐστιν, ο  τὴν μὲν σκοπιὰν διὰ μαρμαρίνου κλου- βίου πρὸς τὸν Χρυσοτρίκλινον εχον εἰς βιβλιοθήκην ἀφώρισται παρὰ Κωνσταντίνου τοῦ φιλοχρίστου πορφυρογεννήτου βασιλέως· ουπερ τὸ ἀριστητήριον αυθίς ἐστιν ἐκ λίθων μὲν Βαθυΐνων τοὺς τοίχους εχον λελαμπρυσμένους, ἐκ συγκοπῶν δὲ καὶ διαφόρων χροιῶν τὸ εδαφος πᾶν. τὸ δὲ μετὰ τὸν Καμιλᾶν κουβούκλειον δεύτερον, τὴν ὀροφὴν ὁμοίαν τῷ προτέρῳ εχον καὶ ὑπὸ τεσσάρων κιόνων ἐστηριγμένον δοκιμίνων, τὸ εδαφος ἐκ Προικοννησίου λίθου κατέστρωται, τῶν τοίχων, ὡς τὸ πρότερον, τὸν μὲν ἀέρα ἐκ χρυ- σοειδῶν ψηφίδων ολως κατηγλαϊσμένον φέρον, δένδρα δέ τινα καὶ ποικίλματα ἐκ πρασίνων εχοντα τὸ λεῖπον ψηφίδων ἀναπληρού- μενον. τὸ τούτῳ δὲ ὑποβεβηκός, ο  καὶ Μεσόπατος λέγεται, εἰς οικησιν τῶν τὴν γυναικωνῖτιν πεπιστευμένων καρτζιμάδων ἐστίν. τὸ δὲ τρίτον μετὰ τοῦ κουβουκλείου, τὸ καὶ νῦν τῆς Αὐγούστης βεστιάριον χρηματίζον, ὁμοίαν εχει τούτοις τὴν ὀροφὴν καὶ του- δαφος ἐκ λευκοῦ λίθου Προικοννησίου κατεστρωμένον, τοὺς τοί- 146 χους δὲ απαντας ὑπὸ εἰκόνων υστερον ἀλλ' οὐ τότε καταγλαϊσθέν- τας ὑπὸ τοῦ υἱοῦ Μιχαήλ. τὸ τούτῳ δὲ ἡνωμένον καὶ συμπεφυ- κὸς κατώγεον ἑπτὰ μὲν κίοσι Καριανοῖς τὴν ὀροφὴν στηρίζεται, πέντε μὲν πρὸς μεσημβρίαν δύο δὲ πρὸς ἀνατολήν, τοίχοις δὲ δύο ὠχύρωται, ἐκ πλακῶν ̔Ρωμαίων καὶ Πηγανουσίων καὶ Καριανῶν, πρὸς δὲ καὶ πρασίνων καλλωπιζομένοις ποταμίων Θετταλικῶν· Μουσικὸς ουτος κατονομάζεται διὰ τὴν τῶν μαρμάρων ἀκριβῆ συγκοπήν, οθεν καὶ τὴν τοῦ ἐδάφους λείωσιν ἐκ διαφόρων μὲν σχημάτων ἐκ διαφόρων δὲ καὶ ὡραίων λίθων ἐξηρτυμένην εχει. ειποις αν αὐτὸ ἰδὼν λειμῶνα ειναι διαφόροις ανθεσι βρύοντα. τούτῳ πρὸς μὲν δύσιν κατὰ πλευρὰν κουβούκλειον ηνωται τὴν τῶν μαρμάρων ὡραιότητα κατὰ πάντα φέρον ἐφόμοιον, ετι δὲ καὶ κίοσι πέντε Καριανοῖς, τρισὶ μὲν πρὸς μεσημβρίαν δύο δὲ πρὸς δυσμάς, τὴν ὀροφὴν βαστάζουσιν. ετερον δὲ πρὸς πόδας τούτου ἐστίν, εἰς δύο μὲν δόμους διῃρημένον, τῷ Αὐγουστιακῷ δὲ πλησιάζον κοιτῶνι· ενθα καὶ Λέων ὁ φιλόχριστος βασιλεὺς εὐκτήριον τῆς ἁγίαςΑννης ἐδείματο καὶ αὐτὸ ἐκ τεσσάρων μὲν κιόνων Βαθυΐνων τὴν ὀροφὴν ἀνεγειρόμενον, τὸ εδαφος δὲ ἐκ λίθου λευκοῦ Προι- κοννησίου, πρὸς τοὺς τοίχους ἐκ Βαθυΐνων πλακῶν διαμορφούμε- νον. ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν τῷ τῆς Αὐγούστης πλησιάζει κοιτῶνι, ὡς εφαμεν· ἐκεῖνο δὲ τὸ πρὸς δύσιν τοῦ Μουσικοῦ τὴν μὲν κάθοδον ἐν τῷ προρρηθέντι εχει κοιτῶνι διὰ κλίμακος, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τὴν εισοδον· εἰσάγει δὲ καὶ πρὸς τὸ καινούργιον, κοιτῶνα καὶ τρίκλι- 147 νον ον Βασίλειος ὁ ἀοίδιμος εκτισε βασιλεύς, καὶ πρὸς τὸν πόρ- τικα τοῦ πέμπτου κουβουκλείου, ἐν ῳ  τὸ τοῦ ἁγίου Παύλου εὐ- κτήριον ὑπὸ Βασιλείου τοῦ ἀοιδίμου ιδρυται βασιλέως. 44 Ταῦτα μὲν ουν ἐν τοῖς ἀνακτόροις κατά τε βορρᾶν καὶ νότον ὑπὸ Θεοφίλου μὲν ἀνῳκοδόμηνται, ὑφ' ἡμῶν δὲ ἱστορίᾳ πα- ραδίδονται, οτι μὴ βουλόμεθα τὰ ἐκείνου εργα, ὁποῖά ποτ' αν ῃ, λήθῃ παραδίδοσθαι, εἰς διάγνωσιν τῆς ἐκείνου περὶ τὸν βίον προ- αιρέσεως. ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς τρικλίνους, τόν τε ουτω καλούμενον Λαυ- σιακόν, προσέτι δὲ μὴν καὶ τὸν ̓Ιουστινιανοῦ, ἐκεῖνος τοῖς χρυσο- ειδέσι ψήφοις ἐκόσμησε· καὶ τὴν καλάθωσιν ἐκ τῶν Βασιλίσκου τοῦ τυράννου παλατίων μεταγαγὼν τῷ Λαυσιακῷ περιέθηκεν. καὶ ετερον δὲ τρίκλινον μετὰ τεσσάρων κουβουκλείων σεμνῶν τε καὶ λαμπρῶν, ων τὰ δύο μὲν πρὸς τὸ μεσόπατον τοῦ δευτέρου κουβου- κλείου τοῦ μετὰ τὸν Καμιλᾶν, ὑπὸ τεσσάρων ἁψίδων τὴν χρυσοειδῆ ὀροφὴν εχοντα, πρὸς τὴν Πορφύραν εἰσίν, ητις ουτω λέγεται