"But Constantine deeming that a consideration of no importance, had it torn up from its place, and thinking rightly that he should not be offering any insult to religion if he removed a splendid work from some other temple to dedicate it to the gods at Rome, which is the temple of the whole world, he let it lie on the ground for some time while arrangements for its removal were being prepared. And when it had been carried down the Nile, and landed at Alexandria, a ship of burden hitherto unexampled, requiring three hundred rowers to propel it, was built to receive it. "And when these preparations were made, and after the aforenamed emperor had died, the enterprise began to cool. However, after a time it was at last put on board ship, and conveyed over sea and up the stream of the Tiber, which seemed as it were frightened lest its own winding waters should hardly be equal to conveying a present from the almost unknown Nile to the walls which itself cherished. At last the obelisk reached the village of Alexandria, three miles from the city, and then it was placed in a cradle, and drawn slowly on, and brought through the Ostia gate and the public fish-market to the Circus Maximus. "The only work remaining to be done was to raise it, which was generally believed to be hardly if at all practicable. And vast beams having been raised on end in a most dangerous manner, so that they looked like a grove of machines, long ropes of huge size were fastened to them, darkening the very sky with their density, as they formed a web of innumerable threads; and into them the great stone itself, covered over as it was with elements of writing, was bound, and gradually raised into the empty air, and long suspended, many thousands of men turning it round and round like a millstone, till it was at last placed in the middle of the square. On it was placed a brazen sphere, made brighter with plates of gold; and as that was immediately afterwards struck by lightning and destroyed, a brazen figure like a torch was placed on it, also plated with gold, to look as if the torch were fully lighted. "But the writing which is engraven on the old obelisk in the Circus we have set forth below in Greek characters, following in this the work of Hermapion:-- ΑΡΧΗΝ ΑΠΟ ΤΟΝ ΝΟΤΙΟΝ ΔΙΕΡΜΗΝΕΥΜΕΝΑ ΕΧΕΙ ΣΤΙΧΟΣ ΠΡΩΤΟΣ ΤΑΔΕ. "The first line, beginning on the south side, bears this interpretation:--'The Sun to Ramestes the King--I have given to thee to reign with joy over the whole earth; to thee whom the Sun and Apollo love; to thee, the mighty truth-loving son of Heron, the god-born ruler of the habitable earth, whom the Sun has chosen above all men, the valiant, warlike King Ramestes, under whose power, by his valour and might, the whole world is placed. The King Ramestes, the immortal son of the Sun.'