Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/99

 portals, executed in brass. Above the first gateway is affixed a significant symbol, namely, a modius or measure for wheat standing between a pair of severed hands. It records the punishment by Valentinian I of an unjust dealer who ignored his law that corn should be sold to the people with the measure heaped up to overflowing. The Forum on which the Tetrapyle opens is called the Amastrianum, perhaps from a wanderer belonging to Amastris in Paphlagonia, who was found dead on this spot. It is the usual place of public execution for the lower classes, whether capital or by mutilation. This square, which is close to the streamlet Lycus, is no exception to the rule that such open spaces should be crowded with statues. Among them we may notice the Sun-god in a marble chariot, a reclining Hercules, shells with birds resting on the rim, and nearly a score of dragons.

Yet two more open spaces on the Mese arrest our progress as we proceed to the Golden Gate. The first is the Forum of the Ox, which contains a colossal quadruped of that species brought hither from Pergamus. This is in reality a brazen furnace for the combustion of malefactors condemned to perish by fire, and has the credit of having given some martyrs to the Church, especially under the Emperor Julian. Farther on is the last square we shall find it necessary to view, the Forum of Arcadius, founded by that prince. Its dis-*