Amid
so much that was destroyed it is impossible that there were not a
considerable number of works of art of the best periods. The one list
which has been left us by the Greek logothete professes to give
account of only the larger statues which were sent to the melting-pot.
But it is worth while to note what were these principal objects so
destroyed.
Constantinople had long been the great storehouse of works of art and
of Christian relics, the latter of which were usually encased with all
the skill that wealth could buy or art furnish. It had the great
advantage over the elder Rome that it had never been plundered by
hordes of barbarians. Its streets and public places had been adorned
for centuries with statues in bronze or marble. In reading the works
of the historians of the Lower Empire the reader cannot fail to be
struck alike with the abundance of works of art and with the
appreciation in which they were held by the writers.
First among the buildings as among the works of art, in the estimation
of every citizen, was Hagia Sophia. It was emphatically the Great
Church. Tried by any test, it is one of the most beautiful of human
creations.
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