Porphyrogenitus speaks of the “cup of the phiale”; and it seems most probable, considering the simple description of the Silentiary, that, as in so many ancient churches, it was at first merely a bowl, standing on a pillar rising from a polygonal basin. In the time of Michael Palaeologus, there was such a basin on the sides of which “was engraved on the marble the honoured form of the cross.”[315] A bowl figured by Gruterus[316] in 1602 as “newly found at Constantinople,” has been spoken of by Du Cange and others as having belonged to S. Sophia, although the evidence of this is not very positive.[317] This was a circular bowl very similar to the well-known representation of a cantharus of Justinian’s time in the Ravenna mosaic. The inscription around the rim read equally well in both directions.[318] This circle being horizontal, we cannot but think, as it would necessarily be read from outside, that Gruterus was mistaken in putting the bottom of the letters toward the centre; we have therefore reversed this in our figure. The words “Wash thy sins, not thy face only,” almost certainly refer it to a phiale. Eusebius, for instance, speaking of one of these fountains, says, “it is not meet for an unclean foot to step on the sacred place within the temple,” and Paulinus tells us that at Nola those who entered the church washed their hands in a similar place.[319] Probably, so accurate a writer as Du Cange had good reasons for referring the bowl in question to S. Sophia. Dr. Covel of Cambridge, who was at Constantinople from 1670 to 1677, and has left a valuable MS. now in the British Museum, which we shall have further occasion to quote, also gives the inscription, which he says came from the fountain of S. Sophia, but again, it is possible he derived this from Du Cange, or from Grelot, whom he appears to have met, for some of the Frenchman’s drawings are included in the MS. [Illustration: FIG. 26.--Inscription on Phiale from Gruter.] In this collection are drawings of two beautiful phiale cups, which existed at Ephesus when visited by Dr. Covel. From the simple elegance of their forms we suppose that these bowls cannot be later than the sixth century.[320] See Fig. 27.