The description by Paulus is so precisely accurate where we can--as is so largely the case--check it by the existing work, that there cannot be a doubt of his entire accuracy. With the Anonymous this is not so; and it must first of all be borne in mind that he professes not to write of the church as he saw it, but to celebrate its splendour when first completed by Justinian; in this his account differs entirely from the Silentiary’s, which there is no sign to show that he had ever read. The Anonymous has been very largely used by scholars of the ability of Labarte and Bayet, but we believe him to be entirely unreliable where he speaks of the former state of the church. He simply gathers the legends which had grown up, because facts were forgotten, and enumerates the relics. “The great church,[221] known as S. Sophia [formerly a place of heathen worship--Codinus], was first built of an oblong (_dromica_) form, like those of S. Andronicus and S. Acacius. On its completion it was adorned with many statues. This building lasted seventy-four years. But in the reign of Theodosius the Great, at the time of the second synod of Constantinople, an Arian uproar arose, during which the roof of the church was destroyed by fire. The most holy patriarch Nectarius took up his office at S. Irene, a church which was also built by Constantine. Then for two [Codinus and Glycas say sixteen] years S. Sophia was without a roof, until Theodosius, with Rufinus as his master workman (_magistros_), covered it with cylindrical vaults. After this it remained unhurt for thirty-nine years, making altogether eighty-five years (_sic_) from the time of Constantine, until the fifth year of Justinian’s reign. This was after the massacre in the Circus, in which thirty-five thousand men were killed, when a faction elected Hypatius emperor. However, in the fifth year of Justinian’s reign, the Most High God put it into his mind that he should build a temple to surpass all that had ever been built from the time of Adam. “He wrote therefore to the strategi, toparchs, judges, and satraps of the different provinces, that with all zeal they should look for materials--columns, piers, panels, and lattice-doors--everything in fact that would be useful for building. Obeying the emperor’s letter, they quickly sent all that could be found from the shrines of the pagan idols, from baths, and private houses, from every province of east, west, north, and south, and from all the islands.