Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/55

 hundred yards, forming a crescent or, as the Greeks call it, Sigma.

The first strategic gate, first also of the land-wall, being scarcely a furlong from the Propontis, offers a notable exception to the constructive plainness of all the other entries. Intended only as a state entry to the capital for the display of Imperial pomp, it has been built and adorned with the object of rendering it the most splendid object in this part of the city. A pair of massive towers, each one hundred feet high, advance from a façade of equal altitude, which is aversed by three arched portals, that in the centre being levated to sixty feet. The whole is constructed in white marble, and this chaste and imposing foundation is made resplendent by the addition of gilded statues, bas-reliefs, and mouldings. From a central pedestal above rises a figure of Victory with flowing draperies, her hand extended offering a laurel crown. At her feet stands an equestrian statue of Theodosius the Great, and from the extremity of each tower springs the two-headed Byzantine eagle. Below, the surfaces of the monument are ensculptured all round with mythological designs, among which we may recognize Prometheus the Fire-giver, Pegasus, Endymion, the labours of Hercules and many others. Corinthian columns of green-veined marble bound the main portal, within which is erected a*