These brand-new people though, were clever and inventive too. Many of them were drawn here, to the center of the empire. Most of Byzantium's brightest brains were packed into these tiny streets and apartments that surrounded the palace complex in Constantinople. There were people here coming to seek their fortune at the court from all over the empire, from Spain, from Egypt, from Syria. There were mathematicians, lawyers, doctors, scientists, magicians, alchemists, all sorts of weird and wonderful people packed and living tightly together in these little streets.

 

In the 520s and 530s, there was a great excitement bubbling up inside this unique community. Justinian and Theodora had planned to build new palaces and churches such as the world had never seen. The ancient forms, arches, vaults and column tops, were being used for something revolutionary, something that would be echoed in ten thousand different churches for a thousand years and more, the style that is Byzantium.

 

This seaside church sat right beside the palace was made for some of Theodora's favorite priests. It was probably the work of one Anthemius, the famous physician and mathematician. This was where the style began. Theodora built the church to hold the blood-stained clothes and bodies of two martyr soldiers, Sergius and Bacchus, the army's patron saints. Now it's a mosque. Anthemius's subtle compass has transformed all the usual ancient forms