Note 103 Among the crowd of ancients and moderns who have celebrated the edifice of St. Sophia, I shall distinguish and follow, 1. Four original spectators and historians: Procopius, (de Edific. l. i. c. 1,) Agathias, (l. v. p. 152, 153,) Paul Silentiarius, (in a poem of 1026 hexameters, and calcem Annae Commen. Alexiad.,) and Evagrius, (l. iv. c. 31.) 2. Two legendary Greeks of a later period: George Codinus, (de Origin. C. P. p. 64 - 74,) and the anonymous writer of Banduri, (Imp. Orient. tom. i. l. iv. p. 65 - 80.)3. The great Byzantine antiquarian. Ducange, (Comment. ad Paul Silentiar. p. 525 - 598, and C. P. Christ. l. iii. p. 5 - 78.) 4. Two French travellers - the one, Peter Gyllius, (de Topograph. C. P. l. ii. c. 3, 4,) in the xvith; the other, Grelot, (Voyage de C. P. p. 95 - 164, Paris, 1680, in 4to:) he has given plans, prospects, and inside views of St. Sophia; and his plans, though on a smaller scale, appear more correct than those of Ducange. I have adopted and reduced the measures of Grelot: but as no Christian can now ascend the dome, the height is borrowed from Evagrius, compared with Gyllius, Greaves, and the Oriental Geographer.]

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The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire —Fall In The East —Chapter 40