Note 238 — Chapter XI · —Siege and capture of the Rock Aornis

Curtius had no doubt here in his eye a passage from Livy, whose picturesque style was his exemplar: “Ipse collis est in modum metae in acutum cacumen a fundo satis lato fastigatus” (B. xxxvii. 27). In the centre of the Roman circus ran lengthways down the course a low wall, at each extremity of which were placed, upon a base, three wooden cylinders of a conical shape which were called metae—the goals.