Justinian Builds Hagia Sophia

In January 532 the circus factions of Constantinople joined forces against the emperor Justinian I. Their watchword was Nika, “Conquer”. For five days they burned the centre of the city, and with it the cathedral, which the people called Sophia, “Wisdom” (Procopius, Wars 1.24.7–10) (Marcellinus Comes, Chronicle under the year 532) (Procopius, Buildings 1.1.20–26). Procopius says that the court debated whether to flee by sea and that the empress Theodora spoke against it, ending with the old saying that “royalty is a good burial-shroud” (Procopius, Wars 1.24.32–38). The generals Belisarius and Mundus then attacked the crowd in the hippodrome, and more than thirty thousand people died that day (Procopius, Wars 1.24.50–54).

Justinian began to rebuild the church soon afterwards, sparing no expense and gathering craftsmen from everywhere. Procopius names the master builders, Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus (Procopius, Buildings 1.1.20–26). He describes a building that rises above the whole city: four great piers carry four arches, and on them rests a dome that seems, he says, to hang from heaven; the interior is so full of light that the radiance seems to be born inside it (Procopius, Buildings 1.1.27–47). The columns and marbles were of many colours, like a meadow in flower, and the sanctuary was adorned with forty thousand pounds of silver. Whoever enters to pray, Procopius writes, feels that God cannot be far away (Procopius, Buildings 1.1.59–65).

The church was dedicated on 27 December 537 (Marcellinus Comes, Chronicle continuation, under the year 537). Part of the dome later fell in an earthquake and was rebuilt, as the poem that Paul the Silentiary wrote for the reopening relates (Paul the Silentiary, Description of Hagia Sophia part 1, on the earthquake and the rebuilding (Lethaby and Swainson, pp. 35–36)); the poem describes the new dome with a cross at its crown, the marbles of the walls and the lamps that made night as bright as day (Paul the Silentiary, Description of Hagia Sophia).

Justinian also legislated for the church. The preface to a law of 535 on the ordination of clergy calls the priesthood and the empire the two greatest gifts of God, the one serving divine things and the other directing human affairs, and says that the emperor’s first care must be the honour of the priests (Justinian, Novels 6, preface). He acted on questions of doctrine as well. Evagrius says that he upheld the Council of Chalcedon while Theodora protected its opponents (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History 4.10), and he later summoned a council of his own (The Second Council of Constantinople).