lum) drives out morality and
invites the most trifling contentions; it is the emptier of honourable
conduct, the ever-flowing spring of squabbles: a thing which Antiquity
commenced as a matter of religion, but which a quarrelsome posterity
has turned into a sport.

'For Aenomaus is said first to have exhibited this sport at Elis, a
city of Asia (?), and afterwards Romulus, at the time of the rape of
the Sabines, displayed it in rural fashion to Italy, no buildings for
the purpose being yet founded. Long after, Augustus, the lord of the
world, raising his works to the same high level as his power, built a
fabric marvellous even to Romans, which stretched far into the Vallis
Murcia. This immense mass, firmly girt round with hills, enclosed a
space which was fitted to be the theatre of great events.

'Twelve _Ostia_ at the entrance represent the twelve signs of the
Zodiac. These are suddenly and equally opened by ropes let down by the
_Hermulae_ (little pilasters)[310]. The four colours worn by the four
parties of charioteers denote the seasons: green for verdant spring,
blue for cloudy winter, red for flaming summer, white for frosty
autumn. Thus, throughout the spectacle we see a determination to
represent the works of Nature. The _Biga_ is made in imitation of the
moon, the _Quadriga_ of the sun. The circus horses (_Equi
desultorii_), by means of which the servants of the Circus announce
the heats (_Missos_) that are to be run, imitate the herald-swiftness
of the morning star. Thus it came to pass that while they deemed they
were worshipping the stars, they profaned their religion by parodying
it in their games.

[Footnote 310: The Ostia are denoted by A and the Hermulae by H in
the accompanying plan. (See page 230.)]

'A white line is drawn not far from the ostia to each _Podium_
(balcony), that the contest may begin when the quadrigae pass it, lest
they should interrupt the view of the spectators by their attempts to
get each before the other[311]. There are always seven circuits round
the goals (_Metae_) to one heat, in analogy with the days of the week.
The goals themselves have, like the decani[312] of the Zodiac, each
three pinnacles, round which the swift quadrigae circle like the sun.
The wheels indicate the boundaries of East and West. The channel
(_Euripus_) which surrounds the Circus presents us with an image of
the glassy sea, whence come the dolphins which swim hither through the
waters[313] (?). The l