254 i Flora Unveiled
sometimes referred to as the Vienna Dioscorides or Codex Vindobonensis.^7 It was a gift to
the Roman imperial princess, Patricia Juliana Anicia from the people of Honoratae, a sub-
urb of Constantinople, in gratitude for the construction of a vast, elaborately decorated
church dedicated to St. Polyeuktos, a third- century martyr. Princess Juliana was descended
from two of the most illustrious and aristocratic families in the Roman Empire. Her father
had been one of the last Emperors of the West, whereas her mother was descended from
both Theodosius I, who briefly united the Western and Eastern Empires, and Valentinian
III, another late emperor of the Western Empire. Disappointed that her son had not suc-
ceeded to the throne, Juliana built the Church of St. Polyeuktos both as an expression of
her extreme piety and as an assertion of her family’s prestige and importance. So impressive
was the Church of St. Polyeuktos that Emperor Justinian, who reigned from 527 to 565 ce,
is believed to have ordered the construction of the Hagia Sophia expressly to outshine it.
The walls and foundation of St. Polyeuktos were excavated in 1960, and an inscription
was found on a marble slab lavishly eulogizing Princess Juliana:
What choir is sufficient to sing the work of Juliana, who after Constantine—
embellisher of his Rome, after the holy golden light of Theodosius, and after the royal
descent of so many forebears, accomplished in a few years a work worthy of her family,
and more than worthy? She alone has conquered time and surpassed the wisdom of
renowned Solomon, raising a temple to receive God, the richly wrought and graceful
splendor of which the ages cannot celebrate.^8The inscription continues with rapturous praise of the architectural and artistic wonders
of the church. Archaeologist Martin Harrison has speculated that the decorations for the
Church of St. Polyeuktos (Figure 10.1) were inspired by Solomon’s Temple, which, accord-
ing to biblical descriptions, was decorated with botanical imagery: palm trees, open flowers,
pomegranates, capitals in the form of lilies, and, in the Herodian Temple, grapevines. Most
of the decorations of the columns, walls, and arches of St. Polyeuktos were also botani-
cally inspired, a pastiche of Near Eastern plant iconography and more naturalistic botanical
motifs reminiscent of the Ara Pacis, such as grape vines (see Figure 10.1D).
It is no accident that Juliana, a powerful and wealthy aristocrat, chose botanical themes
for the decorations of her magnificent church. As we saw in earlier chapters, the associa-
tion of women and plants in ancient religions predates Christianity. Indeed, the Church of
St. Polyeuktos might easily be mistaken for a temple devoted to Flora, Ceres, or some other
agricultural deity. What better gift of appreciation to the Princess than a stunningly illus-
trated herbal, a graphic reminder of the church’s botanical themes? Note that the church’s
plant motifs range from the highly stylized (Figure 10.1C) to the naturalistic (Figure 10.1D).
The illustrations in the Juliana Anicia Codex display the same broad range in style, from the
iconographic to the naturalistic, reflecting the openness of sixth- century Constantinople to
a wide range of artistic styles from diverse cultural traditions. It is likely that the floral deco-
rations of St. Polyeuktos inspired those adorning the columns and arches of Hagia Sophia.
Significantly, Juliana’s enthroned, goddess- like portrait in the frontispiece of the codex is
painted in the more naturalistic Greco- Roman style rather than in the prevailing Byzantine
style (Figure 10.2A). The Byzantine style had arisen when Greco- Roman art, notable for its