Western Civilization

huge arena known as the Hippodrome. No residential

district was particularly fashionable; palaces, tene-

ments, and slums ranged alongside one another.

Justinian added many new buildings. His public works

projects included roads, bridges, walls, public baths,

law courts, and colossal underground reservoirs to

hold the city’s water supply. He also built hospitals,

schools, monasteries, and churches. Churches were his

special passion, and in Constantinople alone he built

or rebuilt thirty-four of them. His greatest achieve-

ment was the famous Hagia Sophia, the Church of the

Holy Wisdom, completed in 537. The center of Hagia

Sophia consisted of four large piers crowned by an

enormous dome, which seemed to be floating in space.

In part this impression was created by ringing the

base of the dome with forty-two windows, which

allowed an incredible play of light within the cathe-

dral. Light served to remind the worshipers of God.

As darkness is illuminated by invisible light, so too, it

was believed, is the world illuminated by an invisible

spirit.

The Hippodrome was a huge amphitheater; con-

structed of brick covered by marble, it held between

40,000 and 60,000 spectators. Although gladiator

The Emperor Justinian

and His Court.As the seat

of Eastern Roman power in

Italy, the town of Ravenna

was adorned with many

examples of Eastern Roman

art. The Church of San Vitale

at Ravenna contains some of

the finest examples of sixth-

century mosaics. Small pieces

of colored glass were set in

mortar on the wall to form

these figures and their

surroundings. The emperor is

seen as both head of state

(he wears a jeweled crown

and a purple robe) and head

ofthechurch(hecarriesa

gold bowl symbolizing the

S. Vitale, Ravenna//Scala/Art Resource, NY body of Jesus).

Interior View of Hagia Sophia.This view of the interior of

the Church of the Holy Wisdom, constructed under Justinian

by Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus, gives an idea of

how the windows around the base of the dome produced a

special play of light within the cathedral. The pulpits and

plaques bearing inscriptions from the Qur’an were introduced

when the Turks converted this church to a mosque in the

fifteenth century.

ª

Robert Harding/Digital Vision/Getty Images

164 Chapter 7Late Antiquity and the Emergence of the Medieval World

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

`ˆÌi`Ê܈̅Ê̅iÊ`i“œÊÛiÀȜ˜ÊœvÊ

˜vˆÝÊ*ÀœÊ*Ê

`ˆÌœÀÊ

/œÊÀi“œÛiÊ̅ˆÃʘœÌˆVi]ÊۈÈÌ\Ê