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PAULUS
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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.