[258] Const. Porph., i, 63; Codin., p. 100. The Circus, begun by Severus, was finished by Constantine; Codin., pp. 14, 19; see Ducange, sb. nom.
[259] Euripus (Εὔριπος). I. The narrow strait at Chalcis, said to ebb and flow seven times a day; Strabo, x, 2; Suidas, sb. v. II. Tr. Any artificial ornamental pool or channel, partic. if oblong; see refs. in Latin Dicts., esp. Lewis and S. III. A canal round the area of the Roman Circus, to shield the spectators from the attack of infuriated beasts; devised apparently by Tarquinius Priscus; Dionysius Hal., iii, 68; rather by Julius Caesar, and abolished by Nero; Pliny, H. N., viii, 7, etc. IV. Restored by, or in existence under, Elagabalus as a pool in the centre; Hist. Aug., 23; so Cassiodorus, Var. Ep., iii, 51; Jn. Malala, vii, p. 175 (whence Chron. Pasch., Olymp., vii, p. 208; Cedrenus, i, p. 258); Lyons and Barcelona mosaics (see Daremberg and S. Dict. Antiq.). V. The name tr. to whole Spine by Byzantines; Jn. Lydus, De Mens., i, 12, Εὔριπος ὠνομάσθη ἡ μέσον τοῦ ἱπποδρόμου κρηπίς; Const. Porph., op. cit., pp. 338, 345; Cedrenus, ii, p. 343, etc. Labarte seems strangely to have missed all but one of the numerous allusions to the Euripus; op. cit., p. 53. This note is necessary, as no one seems to have caught the later application of the name.
[260] This monument still exists; see Agincourt, loc. cit., for reproduction of the sculptures, etc.
[261] Notitia, Col. Civ. This name was not bestowed on it by Gyllius, as Labarte thinks (p. 50). It remains in position in a dilapidated condition; see Grosvenor, op. cit., p. 320, etc.
[262] Also in evidence at the present day; see Grosvenor’s photographs of the three, pp. 320, 380. It is mentioned by Herodotus (ix, 80); and by Pausanias (x, 13), who says the golden tripod was made away with before his time. Some of the Byzantines, however, seem to aver that Constantine had regained possession of that memorial; Eusebius, Vit. Const., iii, 54; Codin., p. 55; Zosimus, ii, 31, etc. It appears that the defacement of this monument was carried out methodically during a nocturnal incantation under Michael III, c. 835. At the dead of night “three strong men,” each armed with a sledge-hammer, stood over it (Ἐν τοῖς εἰς τὸν εὔριπον (see [p. 62]) τοῦ ἱπποδρομίου χαλκοῖς ἀνδριᾶσιν ἐλέγετό τις εἶναι ἀνδριὰς τρισὶ διαμορφούμενος κεφαλαῖς) prepared to knock off the respective heads on the signal being given by an unfrocked abbot. The hammers fell, two of the heads rolled to the ground, but the third was only partly severed, the lower jaw, of course, remaining; Theoph., Cont., p. 650; Cedrenus, ii, p. 145. On the capture of the city in 1453 the fragment left was demolished by Mahomet II with a stroke of his battle-axe to prove the strength of his arm on what was reputed to be a talisman of the Greeks; Thévenot, Voyage au Levant, etc., 1664, i, 17, “la maschoire d’embas.” So history, as it seems, has given itself the trouble to account for the mutilation of this antique. I must note, however, that neither Buondelmonte, Gyllius, Busbecq, Thévenot, nor Spon, has described the damages it had sustained at the time they are supposed to have contemplated the relic. See also Grosvenor, op. cit., p. 381, whose account is scarcely intelligible and is not based on references to any authorities.
[263] Nicetas Chon., De Signis CP. This figure appears to be delineated in the plate of Panvinius, which, however, is not very reliable, as both the Colossus and the Serpent-pillar are absent from it.
[264] Codin., p. 124. Probably, and supplanted at a later date by one of Irene Attica. This is the literal Euripus.
[265] Theophanes, an. 699. That the Empress sat in this lodge to view the races (Buondelmonte) is beyond all credence, nor is there any authority for placing it to one side among the public seats (Grosvenor’s diagram), where her presence would be equally absurd. Her bust may have appeared in it beside that of her husband. It is clearly indicated in its true place on the engineering sculptures of the Theodosian column (see above).
[266] Nicetas Chon., De Alexio, iii, 4; De Signis; Codin., p. 39. First at Tarentum; Plutarch, in Fabius Max., etc. To the knee it measured the height of an ordinary man.
[267] Nicetas Chon., De Signis; also celebrated by Christodorus, Anthology, loc. cit.