[Footnote 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.]