place!”
“The favourite has won,” her father smiled, “and so lots of people have made money.”
“I expect they are glad,” she said. She knew about money. Money was important and they never had enough of it. She knew that.
Workmen scurried onto the racetrack to remove the tangled wreckage of two chariots that had crashed spectacularly at the further bend. To distract the crowd, a gaudy procession now emerged from an arched entrance in one long side of the horse-shoe track: two white horses decked with bells and plumes galloped out in front, each with a trick rider who balanced bareback, jumped off, ran alongside, leapt up again, somersaulted, stood on his head, and generally defied death by trampling hooves. Next came a group that juggled flaming torches, then scarlet-clad giants on stilts; four ostriches with feathers dyed brilliantly green or blue dashed onto the track bearing small riders who clung perilously to their long necks; a squat dwarf in a golden tunic trotted out with a gilded crocodile on a kind of sled, acrobats cartwheeled, carried each other upside down, and formed a human pyramid which rapidly dismantled itself before the topmost little person could crash into the dust. Clowns in baggy stripes brought up the rear; they fell over, staggered, and whacked each other with huge flat weapons that emitted loud farting noises on contact. The little girl cheered and laughed with the crowd.
“Oh, I wish they would never stop!” she cried. But already the participants in the next race were in place behind the gates from which they would set off.
“Twelve gates, you see, sweetheart,” said Acasius. “One for each of the signs of the Zodiac. The heavenly signs, you know, for the months of the year.”
“I know, for when you were born. My sign is Aries, the sign of the Ram. Mother says so. She says it means that I am strong and one day I will be powerful.”
Acasius smiled indulgently at his small, pale daughter. “Yes, my sweet Theodora. And the circus arena is the earth. The Hippodrome is the navel of the world, the Christian Roman world of which Constantinople is the capital. The very centre. And when the Emperor sits in the Kathisma, he is seated …”
“… right at the centre of the world,” she finished, smiling with delight. “Is he there today, Father?”
“I believe he is. But we can’t see him from here, we’re directly beneath him.”
“What is his name? Does he have a name, like ordinary people?”
“Anastasius.”
“Oh! Nearly like Mother. And Stasie.”
“Yes. Also: Thrice August. And Basileus. And …” he whispered in her ear, “old Odd-eyes. Because he has one blue eye and one black.”
She giggled. “Maybe he sees one kind of world if he closes one eye and a different world if he closes the other one.”
“He shouldn’t see us at all,” warned Acasius. “Especially not if we think he’s funny.”
“But he can’t see us.” She snuggled into the cloak. She rubbed her cheek against his rasping chin. He would need a shave, too, before he came home. Her interested gaze took in more details of the huge stadium.
“There are snakes,” she said, and pointed at a column that glinted with bronze highlights in the sun. The intertwined coils ended in three ferocious mouths with vicious fangs. “But I’m not afraid.”
“No need. That is the Serpentine Column. Dedicated to Apollo, to celebrate a victory in warfare.”
The stands buzzed as the chariots for the next race moved into the starting slots. A trumpeter blew a fanfare and the starter gave the signal. The spring-loaded gates snapped up. The roar swelled as the teams of horses thundered out into the straight; their helmeted drivers balanced expertly on the light two-wheeled racing vehicles and cracked their whips in the air above their teams of four matched horses.
“But they’re tied up,” she said, surprised. “The drivers are tied up. What if there’s an accident and they fall?”
“Yes, the reins are tied around their waists. But they carry knives, to slash themselves loose if need be.”
“Why do they need four horses, for such a little cart?”
Acasius smiled at this term for a racing chariot. “Only the two in the middle actually pull it. The outside horses are lightly attached – they’re only needed for stability. Just look at those teams move! Marvellous animals, marvellous.”
“It must be fun,” she said, leaning forward to get a better view. “Especially if you don’t crash, and you win.”
He smiled again. “Indeed. You see those columns, along the spina, with stone eggs on top? At the end of each lap, one egg drops into a slot. That way everybody knows how many laps there are to go.”
“I see them, I see them! There! The first one dropped!” She jumped in his arms with excitement. “Look at that one go! Will he win, Father, will he win?”
Acasius laughed at her excitement. “Probably not, he’ll be the pacesetter for the Blues. He’ll stay out in front for a while.”
“Are we Blue or Green, Father?”
“Oh, Green, Green! I work for the Greens, remember!”
The Blue leader maintained his headlong pace for a second round.
Theodora could hardly breathe. “The Green’s catching up! He’ll pass, he’ll pass! Look!”
“No, his job is to jostle the Blue out in front, if he can. Then his team mate, who’s faster, can get by.”
“But that’s cheating!”
“No, just tactics. There! Did you see that?”
A howl from the stands greeted a near-crash as the Green edged nearer to the frontrunner. Both chariots rocked wildly.
“Oh, well held,” her father exclaimed. He stared intently as the two charioteers managed to avoid disaster. “Now watch that one coming up on the outside. That’s the Blues’ best driver.”
Delirious cheers urged the challenger on as he swept past the others and tore ahead.
“Nika! Nika!” echoed around the arena.
“What are they shouting?” the child asked.
“‘Nika’ means ‘win’. It means ‘victory’. They’re shouting: Victory! Victory!”
“Nika!” she shouted. “Nika!”
“Not when the Blues are ahead,” her father said. “Only cheer the Greens. Don’t back the wrong team, sweetheart.”
“We’ll pass again, won’t we, Father?”
“Watch our man try,” he agreed, and let out a yell in concert with a hundred thousand other throats as the champion driver of the Greens hurled his chariot forward to pass his team mate and the Blue pacesetter. But the Blue charioteer swept onward. The rest of the field were some distance behind the two leaders; they charged along choked by
