Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/150

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122
TRAVELS AND DISCOVERIES

("the enchanted figures") was given to this colonnade by the Spanish Jews of Salonica, in whose quarter it stands.

In a narrow, dirty street still stands an arch erected by Constantine the Great. It is ornamented with two friezes, in low relief, one above the other.

On the upper frieze is represented the Emperor in a triumphal car, attended by a troop of cavalry, passing from a gate on his left to another on his right, within which appear buildings and a temple with a figure in it placed on a rock, probably representing the Acropolis. At each corner is a Victory holding up a trophy.

The lower frieze represents a battle-scene, the conquered party being barbarians in the Dacian costume. In the centre is a figure on horseback, probably the Emperor, attacking the leader of the barbarians, who is falling backwards, as if he had received his death-blow. In the right-hand corner is a figure in a chariot rushing forward into the middle of the fray, probably a Victory. In the left-hand corner is a figure Avitli a shield, on which is represented in rehef a figure of Hercules, holding in his right hand a club, and on his left arm a lion's skin.

After leaving Salonica, we went to Gallipoli, where we were comfortably lodged in the house of M. Sitrides, the British consular agent, a very intelligent and obliging person. He showed me some interesting antiquities in his house and about the town. The most remarkable of these is a group sculptured in high relief, in white marble, which belongs to a relation of M. Sitrides. It