Beyond Chalke, the term includes its dependencies, we enter a court, colonnaded as usual, which leads on the right to a small church dedicated to St. Stephen,[1] the upper galleries of which overlook the Hippodrome. On the left, that is on the east of this court, is an octagonal hall, the first chamber in a more secluded section of the palace called Daphne.[2] It derives its name from a notable statue of Daphne, so well known in Greek fable as the maiden who withstood Apollo.[3] On the domed roof of this second vestibule stands a figure, representing the Fortune of the the City, erected by Constantine.[4] The palace of Daphne contains the private reception rooms of the Emperor and Empress, whose chief personal attendants are a band of nobles entitled Silentiaries. The duty of these officers,
- [Footnote: 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.]):
Nay, lady, sit; if I but wave this wand,
Your nerves are all bound up in alabaster,
And you a statue, or, as Daphne was,
Root-bound that fled Apollo.
Milton's Comus.
]
- ↑ Built by Constantine; Codin., p. 18.
- ↑ Another foundation of Constantine, clearly enough from Chron. Pasch. (an. 328, p. 528), as Labarte remarks (op. cit., p. 137).
- ↑ Codin., p. 100; it had been brought from Rome. I prefer this indigenous explanation to the surmise of Reiske (Const. Porph., op. cit., ii, p. 49), that it was here that the victors in the games received their crowns of laurel ([Greek: Daphnê
- ↑ Codin., p. 101; the most likely position, as a surmise.
