“ PAULUS, surnamed Silentiarius (“the silentiary,” one of the ushers appointed to maintain sUence within the imperial palace) , Greek poet, contemporary and friend of Agathias, during the reign of Justinian. In addition to some 80 epigrams, chiefly erotic and panegyric in character, preserved in the Greek Anthology, there is extant by him a description (ἔκφρασις) of the church of St Sophia, and of its pulpit (ἄμβων) , in all some 1300 hexameters after the style of Nonnus, with short iambic dedications to Justinian. ”