Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/184

 corners of a quadrangular space, they raised four piers of massive proportions to uphold an equal number of arches, each of which was to have a span of 100 feet. Blocks of stone were used for the construction of these piers, and, instead of mortar, melted lead was poured into the interstices to knit them more firmly together. At each corner, the triangular intervals left above the junctions of the arches were filled up with brickwork, and thus were formed four pendentives to sustain the base of the dome. To resist the thrust of the great arches, four lesser ones, two on each side, crossed the aisles of the church to the external walls, which in that position were provided with heavy masses of masonry to receive them. Forty windows ranged in a great

hall which supports the dome all round. Anthemius himself, probably, had lately finished the church of St. Sergius and Bacchus in Hormisdas (now called Little St. Sophia), but in this case eight pillars were given to the dome, and he was doubtless dissatisfied with the effect. Earlier domes in Syria are noticed in Voguë's work. By the use of iron or steel frame-work, much greater domes have been erected in modern times than anything known in earlier ages, e.g., Vienna Exhibition, 1873, 360 feet. In London we have the Albert Hall and British Museum (219 and 140 feet), the latter a reproduction of the Pantheon.]
 * [Footnote: measures one hundred and forty-two feet across, but this is a circular