The principle of this thing for the time it will suffice to illustrate with these two examples: by a vulture they represent the word nature, because, as natural history records, no males can be found among these birds;The females were said to be impregnated by the south or the east winds; Aelian, ii. 46; cf. Plutarch, 93. and under the figure of a bee making honey they designate a king, showing by this imagery that in a ruler sweetness should be combined with a sting as well;Seneca, i. 19, 2 ff., compares a king to a bee. and there are many similar instances.

And because sycophants, after their fashion, kept puffing up Constantius and endlessly dinning it into his ears that, whereas Octavianus Augustus had brought over two obelisks from the city of Heliopolis in Egypt, one of which was set up in the Circus Maximus, the other in the Campus Martius, as for this one recently brought in, he neither ventured to meddle with it nor move it, overawed by the difficulties caused by its size-let me inform those who do not know it that that early emperor, after bringing over several obelisks, passed by this one and left it untouched because it was consecrated as a special gift to the Sun God, and because being placed in the sacred part of his sumptuous temple, which might not be profaned, there it towered aloft like the peak of the world.

But Constantine,That is, Constantine the Great. making little account of that, tore the huge mass from its foundations; and since he rightly thought that he was committing no sacrilege if he took this marvel from one temple and consecrated it at Rome, that is to say, in the temple of the whole world, he let it lie for a long time, while the things necessary for its transfer were being provided. And when it had been conveyed down the channel of the Nile and landed at Alexandria, a ship of a size hitherto unknown was constructed, to be rowed by three hundred oarsmen.

After these provisions, the aforesaid emperor departed this life and the urgency of the enterprise waned, but at last the obelisk was loaded on the ship, after long delay, and brought over the sea and up the channel of the Tiber, which seemed to fear that it could hardly forward over the difficulties of its outward course to the walls of its foster-child the gift which the almost unknown Nile had sent. But it was brought to the vicus AlexandriThe origin of the name is unknown; it was obviously on the Tiber, below Rome. distant three miles from the city. There it was put on cradles, which occurs only here, is the Greek χαμουλκός glossed by Latin traha (cf. Virg. i. 164). Here, a kind of sledge or platform without wheels, on which ships were launched or drawn up on the shore. and carefully drawn through the Ostian Gate and by the Piscina PublicaOne of the regions of the city, a part of the Aventine Hill. and brought into the Circus Maximus.

After this there remained only the raising, which it was thought could be accomplished only with great difficulty, perhaps not at all. But it was done in the following manner: to tall beams which were brought and raised on end (so that you would see a very grove of derricks) were fastened long and heavy ropes in the likeness of a manifold web hiding the sky with their excessive numbers. To these was attached that veritable mountain engraved over with written characters, and it was gradually drawn up on high through the empty air, and after hanging for a long time, while many thousand men turned wheelsHere meta must refer to the upper (outer) part of the mill, which was turned around the inner stone. resembling millstones, it was finally placed in the middle of the circus, regularly used for the spectators’ seats, here means the circus as a whole; cf. Plautus, 931, quod verbum in cavea dixit histric; Cic., ii. 15, 38. and capped by a bronze globe gleaming with gold-leaf; this was immediately struck by a bolt of the divine fire and therefore removed and replaced by a bronze figure of a torch, likewise overlaid with gold-foil and glowing like a mass of flame.