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.[1] 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.[2] It is the usual place of public execution for the lower classes, whether capital or by mutilation.[3] This square, which is close to the streamlet Lycus,[4] 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.[5]
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.[6] 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.[7] Farther on is the last square we shall find it necessary to view, the Forum of Arcadius, founded by that prince.[8] Its dis-*
- ↑ Codin., pp. 45, 65.
- ↑ Cedrenus, i, p. 566.
- ↑ Ibid.; Anna Comn., xii, 6.
- ↑ Codin., p. 45. Unless the course of the brook has altered, the Amastrianum should be more to the south or west than shown on Mordtmann's map.
- ↑ Codin., pp. 45, 172; forming some kind of boundary or inclosure perhaps.
- ↑ Cedrenus, i, p. 566.
- ↑ Ibid.; Codin., pp. 44, 173.
- ↑ Theophanes, an. 5895, etc.; cf. Chron. Paschal., an. 421.
