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The Church Fathers · c. 554–560

The Buildings

Procopius of Caesarea · c. 500 – c. 565

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What it is

A catalogue of Justinian's construction across the empire, opening with Hagia Sophia — a dome that seems not to rest on solid masonry but to hang by a golden chain from heaven — and running on through churches, forts, cisterns, and bridges.

Why it lasted

The third of Procopius's books on the same reign, and the flattering one, which makes the trio a case study in how the same events could be written three ways. It is also the primary source for buildings that no longer stand.

Scripture it works from

Where to read it

Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.

These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.

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