hurch; and the seasonable discovery of a vein of
red marble supplied its beautiful columns, two of which, the supporters
of the exterior portico, were esteemed the largest in the world. The
pious munificence of the emperor was diffused over the Holy Land; and if
reason should condemn the monasteries of both sexes which were built or
restored by Justinian, yet charity must applaud the wells which he
sunk, and the hospitals which he founded, for the relief of the weary
pilgrims. The schismatical temper of Egypt was ill entitled to the
royal bounty; but in Syria and Africa, some remedies were applied to
the disasters of wars and earthquakes, and both Carthage and Antioch,
emerging from their ruins, might revere the name of their gracious
benefactor. Almost every saint in the calendar acquired the honors of a
temple; almost every city of the empire obtained the solid advantages
of bridges, hospitals, and aqueducts; but the severe liberality of the
monarch disdained to indulge his subjects in the popular luxury of baths
and theatres. While Justinian labored for the public service, he was not
unmindful of his own dignity and ease. The Byzantine palace, which had
been damaged by the conflagration, was restored with new magnificence;
and some notion may be conceived of the whole edifice, by the vestibule
or hall, which, from the doors perhaps, or the roof, was surnamed
_chalce_, or the brazen. The dome of a spacious quadrangle was
supported by massy pillars; the pavement and walls were incrusted with
many-colored marbles--the emerald green of Laconia, the fiery red, and
the white Phrygian stone, intersected with veins of a sea-green hue: the
mosaic paintings of the dome and sides represented the glories of the
African and Italian triumphs. On the Asiatic shore of the Propontis, at
a small distance to the east of Chalcedon, the costly palace and gardens
of Heraeum were prepared for the summer residence of Justinian, and more
especially of Theodora. The poets of the age have celebrated the rare
alliance of nature and art, the harmony of the nymphs of the groves, the
fountains, and the waves: yet the crowd of attendants who followed the
court complained of their inconvenient lodgings, and the nymphs were too
often alarmed by the famous Porphyrio, a whale of ten cubits in breadth,
and thirty in length, who was stranded at the mouth of the River
Sangaris, after he had infested more than half a century the seas of
Constantinople.

Th