Photo from Edwin ^V. Grosvenor 



THU LONG-FAMED GOLDEN GATE THROUGH WHICH TITE TURKS BEUEVE A CHRISTIAN 



CONQUEROR WILE SOME DAY ENTER CONSTANTINOPLE 



This gate was never opened, except for triumphal processions. After the capture of 

 Constantinople by Mohammed, in 1453, the gate was closed by special order of the Conqueror. 

 The Turks regard the gate with dread, believing that through it some future Christian con- 

 queror is to take possession of the city. 



THE MASTER ARCHITECT 



Anthemios of Tralles, the most skillful 

 architect and engineer of the centur)-, the 

 first of the Greeks to utilize the power of 

 steam — "a. man," Agathias says, "able to 

 imitate earthquakes and thunderbolts'" — 

 was chosen architect-in-chief. With him 

 were associated Isidores of Aliletus and 

 Ignatios the restorer of the iVugustaeum, 

 architects of almost equal ability and 

 fame. 



An angel was considered to have re- 

 vealed the plan of Sancta Sophia to the 

 Emperor in a dream, not indeed in its en- 

 tirety and elaborateness of detail, but the 

 one idea, the main conception, which 

 afterward the architects were to develop 

 and clothe with form. This conception 

 was that of a dome, of the greatest pos- 

 sible diameter, made the segment of the 

 largest possible circle, elevated to a dizzy 



height and sustained by the least possible 

 support. The revelation did not consist 

 in the mere conception of a dome — Avhich 

 was no new idea, though afterward al- 

 most monopolized by a single school — 

 but in the most perfect combination of 

 these conditions. Anthemios was to be 

 no mere developer or servile imitator of 

 any system then existent. Byzantine 

 architecture was to spring into its fullest 

 development almost at a bound. Sancta 

 Sophia was "at once the herald and cul- 

 minator of a new style." 



A MARVELOUS CREATION 



Proclamations were sent all over the 

 Empire announcing the work Justinian 

 had begun and inviting the cooperation 

 and assistance of the faithful and devout. 

 Patriotism, personal ambition, desire of 

 the Emperor's favor, hope of preferment. 



471 



