Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/88

 Chios. The Podium, or lower boundary of the marble benches, is elevated about twelve feet above the floor of the arena by a columnar wall; at the upper limit of these seats a level terrace or promenade is carried completely round the Circus. This walk is crowded with statues in brass and stone, many of them inscribed with their place of origin, from whence they have been carried off. A number of them are deserving of special mention: a bronze eagle with expanded pinions rending a viper with its talons, and engraved with mystic symbols beneath the wings, said to have been erected by the arch-charlatan or illusionist, Apollonius Tyaneus, as a charm against the serpents which infested Byzantium; a group representing the semi-piscine Scylla devouring the companions of Ulysses, who had been engulfed by Charybdis; the figure of a eunuch named Plato, formerly a Grand Chamberlain, removed from a church notwithstanding a prohibition cut on the breast: "May he who moves me be strangled"; a man driving an ass, set up by Augustus at Actium in memory of his having met, the night before that battle, a wayfarer thus engaged, who, on being questioned, replied, "I am named Victor, my ass is Victoria, and I am going to Caesar's camp;" the infants Romulus and Remus with their foster-motherCf. Plutarch, Antony.]