amongst whom Anastasius was included before his elevation to the purple,[1] is to keep order in the Imperial chambers.[2] The terraces and balconies of Daphne, which face the west, overlook the Hippodrome. Adjoining the Palace on the south is an area fitted up as a private circus, which is used by members of the Court for equestrian exercises.[3]
Passing through Daphne to the east we enter a further court, and find ourselves opposite a third vestibule which, being of a semi-elliptical form, is called the Sigma of the Palace.[4] The division of the Imperial residence to which this hall introduces us is specially the Sacred or "God-guarded" Palace, because it contains the "sacred cubicle" or sleeping apartment of the Emperor.[5] In this quarter a numerous band of cubicularies or eunuchs of the bed-*chamber have their principal station, controlled by the Praepositus of the sacred cubicle.[6] Here also are a crowd(ibid., p. 79), on the shore near the Bucoleon.]
- ↑ Jn. Malala, xvi; Zonaras, xiv, 3, etc.
- ↑ Procopius, De Bel. Pers., ii, 21, etc. "Three decurions marshalled the thirty brilliantly armed Silentiaries who paced backwards and forwards before the purple veil guarding the slumber of the sovereign"; Hodgkin, Cassiodorus, p. 88.
- ↑ Codin., p. 101; see the plans of Labarte and Paspates.
- ↑ Built by Constantine according to Codinus (p. 19) as emended by Lambecius. The original palace extended eastward to the district called [Greek: Topoi
- ↑ The conception of the sanctity of the Emperor's person, which originated in the adulation of the proconsuls of the eastern provinces by the Orientals and in the subservience of the Senate to Augustus, attained its height under Diocletian (c. 300), who first introduced at Court the Oriental forms of adoration and prostration (Eutropius, ix, etc.). It was probably even increased under the Christian emperors, and Theodosius I was enabled to promulgate a law that merely to doubt the correctness of the Emperor's opinion or judgement constituted a sacrilege (Cod., IX, xxix, 3, etc.).
- ↑ Cod. Theod., VI, viii; Cod., XII, v.
