According to the historian Nicephorus Gregoras,[501] who was long and closely connected with the church, the Chora was founded by Justinian the Great, and then presented the form of a basilica. But there is reason to believe that the edifice erected by that emperor was the reconstruction of an older shrine. The fame of a restorer often eclipsed the memory of the founder of a sanctuary, especially when the restorer was the superior in rank and reared a larger and more beautiful building. According to Symeon Metaphrastes,[502] the site of the Chora was first consecrated by the interment of S. Babylas and his eighty-four disciples, who were martyred in 298 during the reign of Maximianus. The scene of their execution, indeed, was Nicomedia; but friendly hands obtained possession of the bodies of the champions of the faith, and taking them to Constantinople, buried them outside the walls of the city, towards the north, in the place subsequently occupied by the monastery of the Chora. As will appear, the relics of S. Babylas and his disciples formed part of the treasures of the Chora in the ninth century.[503] [Illustration: PLATE LXXXI. S. SAVIOUR IN THE CHORA, FROM THE WEST.] [Illustration: S. SAVIOUR IN THE CHORA, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST. _To face page 288._] The settlement of the approximate date of the foundation of the church depends, ultimately, upon the meaning to be attached to the term Chora ([Greek: Chôra]). There are some writers who incline to the idea that in this connection that term was employed from the first in a mystical sense, to denote the attribute of Christ as the sphere of man's highest life; and there can be no doubt that the word was used in that sense in the fourteenth century. That is unquestionably its meaning in the legends inscribed on mosaics which adorn the walls of the building. [Greek: IC XC MÊR THY HÊ CHÔRA HÊ CHÔRA TOU TÔN ZÔNTÔN ACHÔRÊTOU] And it is in that sense that the term is employed by Cantacuzene[504] and Phrantzes.[505] On this view the description of the church as 'in the Chora' throws no light on the date of the church's foundation. Other authorities,[506] however, maintain that the term Chora was originally associated with the church in the obvious topographical signification of the word, to denote territory outside the city limits, and that its religious reference came into vogue only when changes in the boundaries of Constantinople made the literal meaning of Chora no longer applicable. According to this opinion the church was, therefore, founded while its site lay beyond the city walls, and consequently before the year 413, after which the site was included within the capital by the erection of the Theodosian wall.