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It is probable that the residence of Constantine bore some resemblance in design and style to the house of Diocletian at Spalato and other mansions of the period. The descriptions of the octagonal Chrysotriklinos show that it was built under the influence of the new style of ecclesiastical architecture which was characteristic of the age of Justinian. The chief group of buildings which Theophilus added introduced a new style and marked a third epoch in the architectural history of the Great Palace. Our evidence makes it clear that they were situated between the Constantinian Palace on the northwest and the Chrysotriklinos on the south-east.?

These edifices were grouped round the Trikonchos or Triple Shell, the most original in its design and probably that on which Theophilus prided himself most. It took its name from the shell-like apses, which projected on three sides, the larger on the east, supported on four porphyry pillars, the others (to south and north) on two. This triconch plan was long known at Constantinople, whither it had been imported from Syria; it was distinctively oriental. On the west side a silver door, flanked by two side doors of burnished bronze, opened into a hall which had the shape of a half moon and was hence called the Sigma. The roof rested on fifteen columns of many-tinted marble. But these halls were only the upper storeys of the Trikonchos and the Sigma. The ground-floor of the Trikonchos 5 had, like the room above it, three apses, but differently oriented. The northern side of this hall was known as the Mysterion or Place of Whispers, See my Great Palace in B.Z. xx. tailed description of the buildings. (1911), where I have shown that Their situation is determined by comLabarte's assumption that the Lausi- bining the implications in this account akos was perpendicular to the Triklinos with data in the ceremonial descripof Justinian is not justified and has tions in Cer. I have shown (op. cit.) entailed many errors.

It has been that the Trikonchos was north of the adopted by Paspates and Ebersolt and Chrysotriklinos (not west as it is placed has not been rejected by Bieliaev. by Labarte, Ebersolt, etc.). That the line of these buildings was So-called Roman” stone, really perpendicular to the Hippodrome can. Egyptian (Cont. Th. 327): red not be strictly proved. It is bound up porphyry with white spots (Anna with the assumption that the east- Comnena, vii. 2, ed. Reifferscheid, i. west orientation of the Chrysotriklinos p. 230). Cp. Ebersolt, 111. was perpendicular to the axis of the 4 From Dokimion in Phrygia, near Hippodrome.

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because it had the acoustic property, that if you whispered in the eastern or in the western apse, your words were heard distinctly in the other. The lower storey of the Sigma, to which you descended by a spiral staircase, was a hall of nineteen columns which marked off a circular corridor. Marble incrustations in many colours formed the brilliant

1 decoration of the walls of both these buildings. The roof of the Trikonchos was gilded.

The lower part of the Sigma, unscreened on the western side, opened upon a court which was known as the Mystic Phiale of the Trikonchos. In the midst of this court stood a bronze fountain phiale with silver margin, from the centre of which sprang a golden pine-cone.? Two bronze lions, whose gaping mouths poured water into the semicircular area of the Sigma, stood near that building. The ceremony of the saximodeximon, at which the racehorses of the Hippodrome were reviewed by the Emperor, was held in this court; the Blues and Greens sat on tiers of steps of white Proconnesian marble, and a gold throne was placed for the monarch. On the occasion of this and other levées, and certain festivals, the fountain was filled with almonds and pistacchio nuts, while the cone offered spiced wine 4 to those who wished.

Passing over some minor buildings, we must notice the hall of the Pearl, which stood to the north of the Trikonchos. Its roof rested on eight columns of rose-coloured marble, the floor was of white marble variegated with mosaics, and the walls were decorated with pictures of animals.

The same building contained a bed-chamber, where Theophilus slept in

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1 εκ λακαρικών παμποικίλων (Cont. Th. 140).

στροβίλιον. Fountains in the form of pine-cones seem to have been com

There were two in the court of the New Church founded by Basil I. (Cont. Th. 327), and representations occur often in Byzantine art.

Such a fountain has been recognised in the Theodora mosaic of St. Vitale at Ravenna. See Strzygovski,

“ Die Pi. nienzapfen als Wasserspeier,” in Mittheilungen des d. arch. Instituts, Rom, xviii. 185 sqq. (1903), where the subject is amply illustrated, and it is shown that the idea is oriental. The pinecone occurs in Assyrian ornament, and

is used symbolically in the Mithraic cult. Strzygovski argues that, a symbol of fruitfulness in Assyria and Persia, it was taken by the Christians to symbolize fructification by the divine spirit, and he explains (p. 198) the

mystic Phiale” in this sense. 3 These åvaßáopai were on the west side of the Phiale (perhaps also on north and south), as we may infer from Cont. Th. 1434

κον διτος. 5 The Pyxites and another building to the west, and the Eros (a museum of arms), near the Phiale steps, to the north, of the Sigma.

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summer; its porticoes faced east and south, and the walls and roof displayed the same kind of decoration as the Pearl. Το the north of this whole group, and fronting the west, rose the Karianos, a house which the Emperor destined as a residence for his daughters, taking its name from a flight of steps of Carian marble, which seemed to flow down from the entrance like a broad white river.

In another quarter (perhaps to the south of the Lausiakos) the Emperor laid out gardens and constructed shelters or “sunneries,” if this word may be permitted as a literal rendering of héliaka. Here he built the Kamilas, an apartment? whose roof glittered with gold, supported by six columns of the green marble of Thessaly.

The walls were decorated with a dado of marble incrustation below, and above with mosaics representing on a gold ground people gathering fruit. On a lower floor 3 was a chamber which the studious Emperor Constantine VII. afterwards turned into a library, and a breakfast-room, with walls of splendid marble and floor adorned with mosaics. Near at hand two other houses, similar yet different, attested the taste of Theophilus for rich schemes of decoration. One of these was remarkable for the mosaic walls in which

green

trees stood out against a golden sky. The lower chamber of the other was called the Musikos, from the harmonious blending of the colours of the marble plaques with which the walls were covered— Egyptian porphyry, white Carian, and the green riverstone of Thessaly, while the variegated floor produced the effect of a flowering meadow.

If the influence of the luxurious art of the East is apparent in these halls and pavilions which Theophilus added to his chief residence, a new palace which his architect Patrikes built on the Bithynian coast was avowedly modelled on the palaces of Baghdad. It was not far from the famous

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palace of Hieria, built by Justinian. The Asiatic suburbs of Constantinople not only included Chrysopolis and Chalcedon, but extended south-eastward along the charming shore which looks to the Prince's Islands, as far as Kartalimen. Proceeding in this direction from Chalcedon, one came first to the peninsula of Hieria (Phanaráki), where Justinian had chosen the site of his suburban residence. Passing by Rufinianae (Jadi-Bostan), one reached Satyros, once noted for a temple, soon to be famous for a monastery. The spot chosen by Theophilus for his new palace was at Bryas, which lay between Satyros and Kartalimen (Kartal), and probably corresponds to the modern village of Mal-tépé. The palace of Bryas resembled those

of Baghdad in shape and in the schemes of decoration.” The only deviations from the plan of the original were additions required in the residence of a Christian ruler, a chapel of the Virgin adjoining the Imperial bedroom, and in the court a church of the triconch shape dedicated to Michael the archangel and two female saints. The buildings stood in a park irrigated by watercourses.

Arabian splendour in bis material surroundings meant modernity for Theophilus, and his love of novel curiosities was shown in the mechanical contrivances which he installed in the audience chamber of the palace of Magnaura.* A golden plane-tree overshadowed the throne; birds sat on its branches and on the throne itself. Golden griffins couched at the sides, golden lions at the foot; and there was a gold

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organ in the room. When a foreign ambassador was introduced to the Emperor's presence, he was amazed and perhaps alarmed at seeing the animals rise up and hearing the lions roar and the birds burst into melodious song. At the sound of the organ these noises ceased, but when the audience was over and the ambassador was withdrawing, the mechanism was again set in motion.”

One of the most remarkable sights in the throne room of the Magnaura was the Pentapyrgion, or cabinet of Five Towers, a piece of furniture which was constructed by Theophilus. Four towers were grouped round a central and doubtless higher tower; each tower had several, probably four, storeys; 4 and in the chambers, which were visible to the eye, were exhibited various precious objects, mostly of sacred interest. At the celebration of an Imperial marriage, it was the usage to deposit the nuptial wreaths in the Pentapyrgion. On special occasions, for instance at the Easter festival, it was removed from the Magnaura to adorn the Chrysotriklinos."

If the Emperor's love of magnificence and taste for art impelled him to spend immense sums on his palaces, he did not neglect works of public utility. One of the most important duties of the government was to maintain the fortifications of the city in repair. Theophilus did not add new defences, like Heraclius and Leo, but no Emperor did more than he to strengthen and improve the existing walls. The experiences of the siege conducted by Thomas seem to have shown that the sea-walls were not high enough to be impregnable. It was decided to raise them in height, and this work, though commenced by his father on the side of the Golden Horn, was mainly the work of Theophilus. Numerous inscriptions

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1 Two gold organs were made for Theophilus, but only one of them seems to have been kept in the Magnaura. Simeon (Add. Georg.), 793.

2 Constantine, Cer. 568-569; Vita Bas. 257 = Cont. Th. 173. For such contrivances at Baghdad see Gibbon, vi. 126.

3 Simeon, ib. (cp. Pseudo-Simeon, 627); it was made by a goldsmith related to the Patriarch Antonius. If not of solid gold, it was doubtless richly decorated with gold. The same