182 Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia Hadrian’s Wall spans 73 miles on the Roman northern border in Britain and was built to separate Romans from barbarians excavated material on either side, blocked access from the south and may have marked the military zone Other building projects completed by the emperor Hadrian included the Pantheon in Rome, started by Agrippa, and the temple to Olympian Zeus in Athens, begun six centuries earlier Hadrian also designed his own villa and gardens in Tivoli; he founded cities and built harbors, aqueducts, temples, baths, gymnasiums, and markets throughout the empire Hadrian’s attempts to build a temple to Zeus on the ruins of the Temple in Jerusalem and his outlawing of circumcision sparked a violent rebellion in Judaea in 132, led by Bar Kokhba Hadrian selected Antoninus Pius as his successor and persuaded Antoninus to adopt two further heirs, who did in fact corule Rome after Antoninus’s death: Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius Hadrian died on July 10, 138 By 155 the Roman frontier had fallen back to Hadrian’s Wall and remained there until the late fourth or early fifth century, when the Roman army left Britain See also Antonine emperors; Jewish revolts; Roman Empire; Rome: buildings, engineers Further reading: Birley, Anthony R Hadrian, the Restless Emperor New York: Routledge, 1997; Boatwright, Mary T Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000; Forde-Johnston, James Hadrian’s Wall London: Michael Joseph, 1978; Speller, Elizabeth Following Hadrian New York: Oxford University Press, 2003 Vickey Kalambakal The cathedral church of Constantinople, built on the ruins of an earlier church, dates back to the fourth century c.e hagia sophia in Greek means “holy wisdom,” referring to the holy wisdom of God, a theological concept much discussed in religious traditions The original church was destroyed by fire in 532 during a massive riot against the government of Emperor Justinian I (527–565 c.e.) Justinian restored order and commanded the construction of Christendom’s then greatest church The plan was designed by architects Anthemios of Tralles and Isidore of Miletos and took, according to one source, two teams of 5,000 workers five years to complete The magnificence of the church was apparent upon its consecration in 537, when Justinian reportedly declared, “O Solomon [the legendary builder of the Temple in Jerusalem], I have outdone thee!” The church is approximately 250 feet long, 230 feet wide, and sits beneath a dome 100 feet in diameter that reaches nearly 185 feet from the ground The dome rests on four arches (themselves supported by four massive piers) Beneath the dome are openings that let light in, creating an appearance that the dome rests on air, held up by heaven itself The dome’s design was extremely bold and suffered as a result, collapsing in 558 The dome was repaired but was susceptible to damage by earthquakes in subsequent centuries Hagia Sophia radiated Orthodox Byzantine power and wealth Its interior mesmerized onlookers with the sparkle of a ceiling covered in gold, a sanctuary adorned by 40,000 pounds of silver, glowing mosaics, and decorative marble, all of which proclaimed the glory of Byzantium For building this church, the memory of Emperor Justinian in the Byzantine mind was outdone only by that of Constantine the Great, who built Constantinople A mosaic in the Hagia Sophia’s narthex depicts each emperor offering his monument to the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child Constantinople and Hagia Sophia came to epitomize Byzantium for the next millennium of Byzantine history As the church of the Orthodox Patriarch, Hagia Sophia served as the liturgical center of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire It also played a central role in the empire’s political life as the location where the patriarch crowned each new emperor It also played an essential part in imperial processions and the expression of Byzantine power to foreign ambassadors The sight of the Hagia Sophia impressed visitors from Western Christendom, the Slavic lands, the Muslim world, and the various tribes of the north When, in the 10th cen-