Source: Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai 20 (= Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum (Preger, ed.) 32.7-13), an early eighth-century compilation of antiquarian information about Byzantium/Constantinople. See the recent translation and commentary (with Preger's text) by Cameron and Herrin. Two other versions of the passage are found in the topographical section of the Patria Constantinopoleos once ascribed to Codinus (Preger S.o.C. 2.135-209), sections 19 and 105, and there is also one in an anonymous MS edited by M. Treu (section 11.1). The relation among all these versions is discussed by Preger (1895): 38, and the textual differences between them are sometimes significant (see below).
[1] Literally "Dry Hill", a triangular plateau in the southwestern part of Constantinople where numerous imperial monuments were located, including the forum and column of Arcadius. See Guilland 2.59 ff.; Müller-Wiener 250-53; Cameron and Herrin 195-6.
[2] This word is capitalized in Adler's text, but not in that of Preger. Elsewhere in the Parastaseis theama is used in general for "noteworthy sight" (see esp. sections 38, 42, 43). Cameron and Herrin state (196) that this specialized use "makes Guilland's suggestion that the forum was originally called "Thauma" most unlikely." Yet the use of the term is not so rigid (cf. sections 6, 17, 37, e.g.), and a parallel for its use in an expression of the kind we see here, "formerly some people called it theama," (Par. uses the aorist rather than the imperfect tense of the Suda here) is difficult to find. The use of the term as a toponym cannot be excluded.
[3] The Suda's koxli/ai, which is also the reading in the Patria and Treu, is koxli/dai, which Preger (followed by Cameron and Herrin) interprets as "spiral columns" on the basis of the Latin term coclides used to describe the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius in Notitia regionum urbis Romae 8 and 9.
[4] The term sth/lh, translated here as 'monument', is the most frequent term used in the Parastaseis for a 'statue', but it can also be applied to other monuments; cf. Cameron and Herrin 31.
[5] The Suda, along with the Patria, reads *)arte/midos ('of Artemis') whereas Parastaseis has the nominative case, *)/artemis. Hence the very different translation of Cameron and Herrin: "...and Artemis, a composite statue (stele), and one of the builder...Severus..." Either text could be referring to two sculptures, but with the text of the Suda and the Patria there is the possibility that we are dealing with a single sculptural work (perhaps even an actual stele) depicting both Artemis and Severus. This is also one possible explanation for the term sunqeth/ ('composite'). Cameron and Herrin alternatively suggest (196) that it could refer to the disparate features of an Artemis of the Ephesian type, and Bassett (2004): 187, that it represents a multi-figured sculptural composition. It may also refer to the use of different materials in the composition of the sculpture (cf. Hesychius Illustris 29 (apud Preger S.o.C 1.1-18)), although Bassett (loc. cit.) doubts this.
[6] The emperor Septimius Severus (reigned 193-211).
[7] qema/tion, translated here as "monument", is used for various objects in the Parastaseis (e.g. 5d, 6). Cameron and Herrin translate "...and a monument - a tripod."
[8] The Christian authors of the Parastaseis betray many interesting superstitions about pagan monuments and rituals. See Cameron and Herrin 31-34.
[9] The meaning of this is uncertain; cf. Cameron and Herrin 196.