PAULUS  , surnamed SII,ENTIARIUS (" the silentiary," one of the ushers appointed to maintain silence within the imperial

palace), Greek poet, contemporary and friend of Agathias, during the reign of Justinian . In addition to some 8o epigrams, chiefly erotic and panegyric in character, preserved in the Greek Anthology, there is extant by him a description (ie4 pauis) of the church of St Sophia, and of its pulpit (aµ43wv), in all some 1300 hexameters after the style of Nonnus, with short iambic dedications to Justinian . The poem was recited at the second dedication of the church (A.D . 562), in the episcopal hall of thepatriarchate . The poems are of importance for the history of Byzantine art in the 6th century . Another poem (also preserved in the Anthology) on the warm baths of Pythia in Bithynia, written in the Anacreontic rhythm, has sometimes been attributed to him .