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He built the divine house of Life, which had been razed to the ground, almost matching the former one. In addition to these, he also restored the divine church of the martyr Akakios in the Heptaskalon, which was already nearly in ruins and on the verge of collapse, and having secured it with all kinds of fortifications, he snatched it from its fall and made it stand firm. And the church of the prophet Elijah at the Petrion, as if fainting, he revived and splendidly built, freeing it also from the surrounding and oppressive congestion of the common houses. 83 But why do we turn to his lesser works, even if they have become very great, and not add the great and admirable work, which he himself, supervising and working with his own hands, built right in the imperial courts? which alone is sufficient to show both his piety towards the divine and his magnificence and worthiness of wonder in the things undertaken. For as if repaying for their favor toward him the master Christ and the first of the angelic powers Gabriel and Elijah the Tishbite, the zealot, who also served as a messenger to his mother of her son's elevation to the empire, in their name and everlasting memory, and also that of the Theotokos and of Nicholas, the first among hierarchs, he built a divine and most beautiful church, into which came together art and wealth and fervent faith and most lavish purpose, and the most beautiful things from everywhere converged, which I know are more credible to those who see than to those who hear. This, like a bride beautified and adorned with pearls and gold and the brilliance of silver, and also with the varieties of multicolored marbles and compositions of mosaics and coverings of silk fabrics, he brought to the immortal bridegroom, Christ. (84) For the roof, being composed of five hemispheres, gleams with gold and flashes with the beauties of icons like stars, being beautified on the outside with bronze of a metal similar to gold, and the walls on either side are variegated with the costly and multicolored marble, and the sanctuary of the church has been both variegated and enriched with gold and silver and precious stones and pearls. And the railings separating the altars from the outside and the small columns in them and what serve as lintels above, and the seats within and the steps before them and the holy tables themselves, all have their structure and composition made of silver, with gold poured over it, and costly stones set among pearls. The floor itself would seem to be filled with spread silk fabrics or Sidonian works; so has everything been beautified and variegated by the multicolored marble slabs underneath and by the multiform bands of mosaics enclosing them and by the precision of the joinery and by the exceeding grace that runs through everything. There he also appointed a multitude of singers to serve and assigned sufficient revenues, which he ordered to be distributed honorably and magnificently to those attending to such a sanctuary, having been ambitious to surpass almost all those before him in such great generosity. 327 85 But such is the church and so are its inner parts, in so far as it is possible to declare great things in a few words, and instilling complete astonishment in the minds of the beholders; but what of the things outside! To the west and right in the forecourts of the church stand two fountains, one to the south and the other to the north, possessing every excess of art and splendor of material and the ambition of the creator of the works. Of these, the one to the south has its composition of Egyptian stone, which we are accustomed to call Roman. Around it one can see serpents, which the stone-carver's art has excellently fashioned. In its middle stands a cone-shaped and perforated pine-cone, and around it small white columns, hollow on the inside, in the form of a chorus

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Ζωῆς τὸν θεῖον οικον ἠδα- φισμένον σχεδὸν κατάλληλον τοῦ πρῴην ἐδείματο. πρὸς τούτοις δὲ καὶ τὸν τοῦ μάρτυρος ̓Ακακίου ἐν τῷ ̔Επτασκάλῳ θεῖον ναὸν ηδη σχεδὸν καταρρυέντα καὶ πρὸς πτῶσιν συνελαυνόμενον ἀνακαι- 325 νίσας καὶ παντοίοις κατασφαλισάμενος ὀχυρώμασι τοῦ πτώματος ηρπασε καὶ ἑδραίως ἑστηκέναι πεποίηκεν. τὸν δὲ ̓Ηλιοὺ τοῦ προ- φήτου κατὰ τὸ Πετρίον ναὸν ωσπερ λειποψυχοῦντα ἀνέρρωσε καὶ περιφανῶς ἐκτίσατο, ἐλευθερώσας καὶ τῆς περιστοιχούσης καὶ πιεζούσης τῶν κοινῶν οἰκιῶν συνοχῆς. 83 ̓Αλλὰ τί στρεφόμεθα περὶ τὰ μικρὰ τῶν ἐκείνου, εἰ καὶ πάνυ μεγάλα καθέστηκε, καὶ οὐ προστιθέαμεν τὸ μέγα εργον καὶ ἀξιάγαστον, ο κατ' αὐτὰς τὰς βασιλείους αὐλὰς αὐτὸς ἐπι- στατῶν τε καὶ αὐτουργῶν ᾠκοδόμησεν; οπερ ἀρκεῖ καὶ μόνον τήν τε περὶ τὸ θεῖον αὐτοῦ δηλοῦν ὁσιότητα καὶ τὸ πρὸς τὰ ἐπιβαλλό- μενα μεγαλουργόν τε καὶ θαύματος αξιον. ἀμειβόμενος γὰρ ωσπερ τῆς περὶ αὐτὸν εὐμενείας τὸν δεσπότην Χριστὸν καὶ τὸν πρῶτον τῶν ἀγγελικῶν δυνάμεων Γαβριὴλ καὶ τὸν Θεσβίτην ̓Ηλίαν τὸν ζηλωτήν, ος καὶ τῇ αὐτοῦ μητρὶ τῆς πρὸς βασιλείαν τοῦ υἱοῦ ἀν- υψώσεως ἐχρημάτισεν αγγελος, εἰς ονομα τούτων καὶ μνήμην ἀΐδιον, ετι δὲ τῆς θεοτόκου καὶ Νικολάου τοῦ ἐν ἱεράρχαις πρω- τεύοντος, θεῖον καὶ περικαλλῆ ναὸν ἐδομήσατο, εἰς ον συνῆλθε τέχνη καὶ πλοῦτος καὶ ζέουσα πίστις καὶ ἀφθονωτάτη προαίρεσις, καὶ τὰ πανταχόθεν συνέδραμε κάλλιστα, α τοῖς ὁρῶσι μᾶλλον η τοῖς ἀκούουσιν οιδα τυγχάνειν πιστά. ον ὡς νύμφην ὡραϊσμένην καὶ περικεκοσμημένην μαργάροις τε καὶ χρυσῷ καὶ ἀργύρου λαμ- πρότησιν, ετι δὲ καὶ μαρμάρων πολυχρόων ποικιλίαις καὶ ψηφί- 326 δων συνθέσεσι καὶ σηρικῶν ὑφασμάτων καταστολαῖς, τῷ ἀθα- νάτῳ προσήγαγε νυμφίῳ Χριστῷ. (84) ο τε γὰρ οροφος ἐκ πέντε συμπληρούμενος ἡμισφαιρίων στίλβει χρυσῷ καὶ εἰκόνων ὡς ἀστέρων ἀστράπτει κάλλεσιν, εξωθεν μετάλλοις ἐμφεροῦς χρυσίῳ χαλκοῦ καλλυνόμενος, οι τε παρ' ἑκάτερα τοῖχοι τῷ πολυτελεῖ καὶ πολυχρόῳ τῶν μαρμάρων καταποικίλλονται, καὶ τὰ αδυτα τοῦ ναοῦ καὶ χρυσῷ καὶ ἀργύρῳ καὶ λίθοις τιμίοις καὶ μαργάροις κα- ταπεποίκιλται καὶ καταπεπλούτισται. καὶ αἱ τῶν ἐκτὸς διείργου- σαι τὰ θυσιαστήρια κιγκλίδες καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐταῖς περίστυλα καὶ τὰ ανωθεν οιον ὑπέρθυρα χρηματίζοντα οι τε ἐντὸς θᾶκοι καὶ αἱ πρὸ τούτων βαθμίδες καὶ αὐταὶ αἱ ἱεραὶ τράπεζαι, ἐξ ἀργύρου πάντα περικεχυμένον εχοντος τὸν χρυσὸν καὶ λίθοις τιμίοις ἐκ μαργαρι- τῶν ἠμφιεσμένοις πολυτελῶν τὴν σύμπηξιν καὶ σύστασιν εχουσιν. αὐτὸ δὲ τὸ εδαφος σηρικῶν ὑφασμάτων η Σιδονίων εργων ἐφη- πλωμένων δόξει τυγχάνειν ἀνάπλεων· ουτω πᾶν ἐξωράϊσται καὶ καταπεποίκιλται τῷ πολυχρόῳ τῶν ὑποκειμένων ἐκ μαρμάρων πλακῶν καὶ ταῖς πολυειδέσι τῶν ταύτας περικλειουσῶν ψηφίδων ζώναις καὶ τῷ τῆς ἁρμογῆς ἀκριβεῖ καὶ τῷ περιττῷ τῆς περιθεού- σης ἐν απασι χάριτος. ενθα καὶ πλῆθος ᾀδόντων ἐξυπηρετου- μένων ἀφώρισε καὶ προσόδους ἱκανὰς ἀπέταξεν, ας φιλοτίμως καὶ μεγαλοπρεπῶς διανέμεσθαι τοῖς προσανέχουσι τῷ τοιούτῳ ἱλαστη- ρίῳ προσέταξεν, ὑπερβαλέσθαι σχεδὸν τοὺς πρὸ αὐτοῦ πάντας τῇ περὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα μεγαλοδωρεᾷ φιλοτιμησάμενος. 327 85 ̓Αλλ' ὁ μὲν ναὸς τοιοῦτος καὶ ουτω τὰ ἐντὸς εχων, οσον μικρῷ λόγῳ δηλῶσαι δυνατὸν τὰ μεγάλα, καὶ πᾶσαν ἐντι- θέντα ταῖς τῶν θεωμένων διανοίαις εκπληξιν· τὰ δὲ ἐκτὸς οια! πρὸς ἑσπέραν μὲν καὶ κατ' αὐτὰ τοῦ ναοῦ τὰ προαύλια φιάλαι δύο ἑστήκασιν, ἡ μὲν πρὸς νότον ἡ δὲ πρὸς βορρᾶν, πᾶσαν εχουσαι καὶ τέχνης ὑπερβολὴν καὶ υλης λαμπρότητα καὶ φιλοτιμίαν τοῦ τῶν εργων δημιουργοῦ. ων ἡ μὲν πρὸς νότον ἐξ Αἰγυπτίου λίθου, ον ἡμεῖς ̔Ρωμαῖον λέγειν εἰώθαμεν, εχει τὴν σύστασιν. περὶ ην καὶ δράκοντας εστιν ἰδεῖν, ους ἡ λιθοξόος τέχνη αριστα διεμόρφω- σεν. ης μέσον μὲν κωνοειδὴς καὶ διάτρητος ἀνέστηκε στρόβιλος, πέριξ δὲ κιονίσκοι λευκοὶ καὶ τὸ ενδον ὑπόκενοι χοροῦ σχῆμα