Note 439 — Chapter I · CONSTANTINOPLE IN THE SIXTH CENTURY[3] (continued 2)

Const. Porph., op. cit., i, 69; Theophanes, an. 5969, etc. The winners usually received about two or three pounds in money, also a laurel crown and a cloak of a peculiar pattern (Pellenian, perhaps; Strabo, VIII, vii, 5); Chrysostom, In Matth. Hom. liv, 6 (in Migne, vii, 539); but under some of the insensate emperors immense prizes, small fortunes in fact, were often given; see Reiske’s Notes, ad op. cit., p. 325. I have not met in Byzantine history with any allusion to the seven circuits of the races (except Jn. Lydus, De Mens., i, 12), the eggs or the dolphins; these are assumed from the Latin writers of old Rome and from the sculptured marbles. It appears from Cod. Theod. (XV, ix, etc.), that the successful horses, when past their prime, were carefully nurtured through their old age by the state. The choicest breeds of these animals came from Spain and Cappadocia; Claudian, De Equis Hon., etc. All the technical details of the Roman Circus will be found in the Dicts. of Clas. Antiqs., especially Daremberg and Saglio’s; see also Rambaud, De Byzant. Hip., Paris, 1870.