The competing chariots usually arrived at the amphitheatre in grand procession, but this had not been thought advisable in the prevailing excitement; they had driven into the oppidum singly and without any display; and the images of the gods, which in former days had always been placed on the spina before the games began, had long since fallen into disuse.
[The spina was the division down the middle of the arena.

At each end of it were placed the metae or goals, at a distance from it of about 13 feet.

The spina was originally constructed of wood, subsequently it was of stone, and its height was generally about 29 feet.

The spina in the Circus of Caracalla was more than 900 feet long.] All this was vexatious to Demetrius, and when he had taken his seat it was in no pleasant temper that he looked round at the ranks of spectators.
His step-mother was sitting on the stuffed bench covered with lion-skins which was reserved for the family.

Her tunic and skirt displayed the color blue of the Christian charioteer, being made of bright blue and silver brocade of a beautiful pattern in which the cross, the fish, and the olive-branch were elegantly combined.