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Headword: *chro/lofos
Adler number: xi,65
Translated headword: Xerolophos, Xerolophus
Vetting Status: high
Translation:
[Note] that some formerly used to call the Xerolophos[1] Theama ["Spectacle"].[2] For there are 16 spirals[3] in it and a composite monument[4] of Artemis[5] and [one?] of its founder Severus[6] and a three-legged monument.[7] There Severus offered many sacrifices; there also many oracles occurred in the place, at which time too a young maiden was sacrificed.[8] There was also an astronomical position,[9] which lasted for 36 years.
Greek Original:
*chro/lofos: o(/ti to\n *chro/lofon prw/|hn *qe/ama tine\s e)ka/loun: e)n au)tw=| ga\r koxli/ai i#2# kai\ *)arte/midos su/nqetos sth/lh kai\ *seuh/rou tou= kti/santos kai\ qema/tion tri/poun. e)/nqa e)qusi/ase polla\s qusi/as *seuh=ros: e)/nqa kai\ xrhsmoi\ polloi\ tw=| to/pw| gego/nasi: kaq' o(\n kairo\n kai\ ko/rh parqe/nos e)tu/qh. kai\ qe/sis h)=n a)stronomikh/, l#2# xro/nous diarke/sasa.
Notes:
Source: Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai 20 (= Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum (Preger, ed.) 32.7-13), an early eighth-century compilation of antiquarian information about Byzantium/Constantinople. See the recent translation and commentary (with Preger's text) by Cameron and Herrin. Two other versions of the passage are found in the topographical section of the Patria Constantinopoleos once ascribed to Codinus (Preger S.o.C. 2.135-209), sections 19 and 105, and there is also one in an anonymous MS edited by M. Treu (section 11.1). The relation among all these versions is discussed by Preger (1895): 38, and the textual differences between them are sometimes significant (see below).
[1] Literally "Dry Hill", a triangular plateau in the southwestern part of Constantinople where numerous imperial monuments were located, including the forum and column of Arcadius. See Guilland 2.59 ff.; Müller-Wiener 250-53; Cameron and Herrin 195-6.
[2] This word is capitalized in Adler's text, but not in that of Preger. Elsewhere in the Parastaseis theama is used in general for "noteworthy sight" (see esp. sections 38, 42, 43). Cameron and Herrin state (196) that this specialized use "makes Guilland's suggestion that the forum was originally called "Thauma" most unlikely." Yet the use of the term is not so rigid (cf. sections 6, 17, 37, e.g.), and a parallel for its use in an expression of the kind we see here, "formerly some people called it theama," (Par. uses the aorist rather than the imperfect tense of the Suda here) is difficult to find. The use of the term as a toponym cannot be excluded.
[3] The Suda's koxli/ai, which is also the reading in the Patria and Treu, is koxli/dai, which Preger (followed by Cameron and Herrin) interprets as "spiral columns" on the basis of the Latin term coclides used to describe the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius in Notitia regionum urbis Romae 8 and 9.
[4] The term sth/lh, translated here as 'monument', is the most frequent term used in the Parastaseis for a 'statue', but it can also be applied to other monuments; cf. Cameron and Herrin 31.
[5] The Suda, along with the Patria, reads *)arte/midos ('of Artemis') whereas Parastaseis has the nominative case, *)/artemis. Hence the very different translation of Cameron and Herrin: "...and Artemis, a composite statue (stele), and one of the builder...Severus..." Either text could be referring to two sculptures, but with the text of the Suda and the Patria there is the possibility that we are dealing with a single sculptural work (perhaps even an actual stele) depicting both Artemis and Severus. This is also one possible explanation for the term sunqeth/ ('composite'). Cameron and Herrin alternatively suggest (196) that it could refer to the disparate features of an Artemis of the Ephesian type, and Bassett (2004): 187, that it represents a multi-figured sculptural composition. It may also refer to the use of different materials in the composition of the sculpture (cf. Hesychius Illustris 29 (apud Preger S.o.C 1.1-18)), although Bassett (loc. cit.) doubts this.
[6] The emperor Septimius Severus (reigned 193-211).
[7] qema/tion, translated here as "monument", is used for various objects in the Parastaseis (e.g. 5d, 6). Cameron and Herrin translate "...and a monument - a tripod."
[8] The Christian authors of the Parastaseis betray many interesting superstitions about pagan monuments and rituals. See Cameron and Herrin 31-34.
[9] The meaning of this is uncertain; cf. Cameron and Herrin 196.
References:
Bassett, S. The Urban Image of Late Antique Constantinople. Cambridge, 2004.
Cameron, A. and J. Herrin, eds. Constantinople in the Early Eighth Century: the Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai. Leiden, 1984.
Guilland, R. ɉtudes de topographie de Constantinople byzantine. 2 vols. Berlin 1969.
Müller-Wiener, W. Bildlexikon zur Topographie Istanbuls. Tübingen 1977.
Preger, T. Beiträge zur Textgeschichte der *Pa/tria *K-po/lews, Programm des k. Max.-Gymnasiums Munich, 1895.
Preger, T., ed. Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum. 2 vols. Leipzig 1901-7.
Keywords: architecture; art history; biography; children; Christianity; chronology; gender and sexuality; geography; historiography; history; religion; women
Translated by: James L. P. Butrica ✝ on 15 February 2000@12:43:45.
Vetted by:
Catharine Roth (cosmetics) on 2 June 2002@22:50:24.
Catharine Roth (added note and link) on 2 June 2002@23:10:50.
David Whitehead (added note; cosmetics) on 3 June 2002@04:15:45.
David Whitehead (augmented notes and keywords; another web address) on 30 August 2007@10:08:03.
William Hutton (tweaked translation, augmented notes and keywords, removed defective link, set status) on 10 September 2007@06:39:47.
David Whitehead (tweaks and cosmetics) on 10 September 2007@06:58:18.
Catharine Roth (typos) on 10 September 2007@11:52:38.
William Hutton on 11 September 2007@10:09:19.
William Hutton on 11 September 2007@10:11:23.
William Hutton (augmented notes and bibliography on the advice of Dr. Antonio Corso) on 20 September 2007@02:24:06.
Catharine Roth (cosmetics) on 9 July 2013@00:07:18.
Catharine Roth (deleted link) on 9 July 2013@00:17:21.
Catharine Roth (typo) on 23 November 2014@23:04:37.
Catharine Roth (cosmeticule) on 12 December 2020@22:50:31.

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