th side by Bishop
Frugiferus, about 550, as the monogram at the left of the apse shows.
The mosaics in the apse are late Byzantine. Four great columns support a
cupola in front of the presbytery, by means of four round arches,
pendentives, and a drum, round which is an arcade of sixteen stilted
round arches with foliated caps and prominently projecting abaci, which
it is thought may belong to the original building, though the cupola
itself is later. The small apse of the south aisle, with vaulted roof,
also belonged to the first building. In front of the apses is a _solea_
with a wagon vault, except in front of the small aisle apse, where it is
quadripartite. The aisle is raised a step above the nave. The arcades
are uniformly round-arched and stilted, and the caps generally have
super-abaci. The north aisle has pointed arches at intervals and a flat
roof; the nave of the Santissimo also has a flat roof with beams and
brackets. There is a triumphal arch and one blocked window in the apse,
with mosaic on the splay of the jamb.

The mosaic in the semi-dome is probably an eleventh-century restoration
of an older work, itself very carefully restored in 1863. The Virgin,
robed in blue and holding the Divine Child to her bosom, is enthroned
between the archangels Michael and Gabriel, who hold lilies and are
robed in priestly costume. The Child blesses with the right hand in the
Greek fashion. Below, on the wall, are figures of the Apostles, of a
very early date, for SS. Peter and Paul are without their usual
attributes, and the white draperies shaded with pale colours are early
Christian in arrangement. Between the figures are palm-trees and
conventional plant ornaments. The church is very dark, but the details
of the mosaics may be studied in the careful copies in the museum. Above
the altar of S. Giusto, to the right, in the semi-dome, SS. Giusto and
Servolo stand on each side of our Saviour, beneath whose feet are two
monsters, asp and basilisk. The central apse was reconstructed in the
seventeenth century. The main reconstruction took place in the
fourteenth century. The aisle walls of the two churches were demolished,
and a nave built reaching from the pillars of one church to those of the
other, thus uniting them under one roof, the western wall being placed
contiguous to the campanile, and chapels added at each side. The
memorial of the Gens Barbia was sawn in two and used as jambs for the
west door, and inscriptions f