Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/89

 the wolf; a Helen of the rarest beauty, her charms enhanced by the most captivating dress and ornaments; a factitious basilisk crushing an asp between its teeth; a hippopotamus, a man grappling with a lion, several sphinxes, a well-known hunchback in a comic attitude, statues of emperors on foot and on horseback, and various subjects from pagan mythology, the whole representing the spoliation of more than a score of cities looted in time of peace at the caprice of a despot. Four handsome arched gateways, two on each side, with containing towers, give the public access to the interior of the Hippodrome. That on the south-east is named the Gate of the Dead, a term which originated at the time when a special entry was reserved for removing the bodies of those slain in the fatal, but now obsolete, combats of gladiators. The Sphendone, however, is now frequently used for the execution of offenders of rank, not always criminal, and this portal has still, therefore, some practical right to its name. When necessary, the Circus can be covered with an awning as a protection against the sun or bad weather.