His Body Carried to the Palace in Constantinople

After this the soldiers lifted the body from its couch and laid it in a golden coffin. They wrapped it in a purple covering and carried it to the city that was called by his own name. There it was placed on a raised platform in the chief hall of the imperial palace, surrounded by candles burning in golden candlesticks. It was a marvelous sight, such as no one under the light of the sun had ever seen on earth since the world began. For in the central hall of the imperial palace the emperor’s body lay on its raised resting place, dressed in the emblems of sovereignty, the diadem and the purple robe, and surrounded by a large company of attendants who kept watch around it without ceasing, night and day. [a]