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 Less frequently the Circus may be contemplated under a more serious aspect, as the focus of national agitation. In the year 491, during Easter week, Constantinople was thrown into a great commotion by a report that the Emperor Zeno had died somewhat suddenly, and that no successor had yet been nominated for the throne. The people, the Demes, and the Imperial guards at once rushed to the Hippodrome, where all took up the stations allotted to them for viewing the Circensian games. On all sides an incessant clamour then arose, and the cry, addressed to those in authority, was vociferously repeated: "Give an Emperor to the Romans." Simultaneously the great officers of the Court, the Senate, and the Patriarch assembled hastily within the Palace in order to decide on what course to pursue. In this convention the counsel of the chief eunuch Urbicius, Grand Chamberlain, had most weight; and, fearing a riot, it was resolved that the Empress Ariadne, on whose popularity they relied, should proceed immediately to the Kathisma, and, by a suitable address, attempt to pacify the populace. On the appearance of the Empress in the Hippodrome, with the retinue of her supreme rank, the clamours were redoubled. Exclamations arose from every throat: "Ariadne Augusta, may you be victorious! Lord have mercy on us! Long live the Augusta!

Dicts. of Clas. Antiqs., especially Daremberg and Saglio's; see also Rambaud, De Byzant. Hip., Paris, 1870.]
 * [Footnote: etc. All the technical details of the Roman Circus will be found in the