Cameron, Alan
Oxford University Press (Clarendon Press), 1999 (reprint of 1973 edition).
cloth, dj., 314 pp.
Book Number 20954
Porphyrius Calliopas was the greatest of all the heroes of the 6th century Byzantine hippodrome, celebrated in the Anthology and in monumental reliefs. Only two bases of monuments to Porphyrius survive, the second found in 1963. Cameron presents the first published study of this second base, elucidating the iconography, explaining the inscriptions and also reassessing the first base in the light of the new evidence. Matching the epigrams of the bases to those in the Anthology, he infers from the remaining epigrams that there were a further five monuments to Porphyrius and contemporary charioteers, now lost. The book reconstructs the careers of the charioteers, exploring their fame and material rewards and the sudden increase in the scale of their monuments. It also discusses the changing fortunes of the hippodrome under the emperors Anastasius and Justinian, the vexed issue of faction violence and the important way in which the victorious charioteer was seen as a reflection of the victorious Emperor.