Note 199 — Chapter I · CONSTANTINOPLE IN THE SIXTH CENTURY[3]

See an illustration in Gori, Thesaur. Vet. Diptych.; reduced in Agincourt, op. cit., ii, 12, also another in Montfaucon containing a female figure supposed to be the Empress Placidia Galla; III, i, p. 46 (but Gori makes it a male figure!). The kiborion (a cup), also called kamelaukion (literally a sort of head covering), was sometimes fixed, in which case the columns might be of marble. Silver pillars are mentioned in Const. Porph., op. cit., i, 1; cf. Texier and Pullan, op. cit., p. 135, a cut of an elaborate silver kiborion. From Gori it may be seen that the design of these state chairs is almost always that of a seat supported at each of the front corners by a lion’s head and claw, etc.