After Valens, the following ten emperors were invested with the purple at the Hebdomon: Arcadius,[1243] by his father Theodosius the Great, who also raised Honorius to the rank of Cæsar there;[1244] Theodosius II.;[1245] Marcian;[1246] Leo the Great;[1247] Zeno;[1248] Basiliscus;[1249] Maurice;[1250] Phocas;[1251] Leo the Armenian;[1252] and Nicephorus Phocas.[1253] Doubtless the fatigue involved in celebrating the ceremony so far from the heart of the city had much to do with transferring the scene of Imperial inaugurations to the Hippodrome. The custom of installing an emperor thus into his office was the continuation of an old Roman practice which testified to the power acquired by the army in deciding the succession to the throne. We have two accounts of the ceremonies observed on such an occasion at the Hebdomon, given at great length and with minute details by that devoted student and admirer of Byzantine Court etiquette, Constantine Porphyrogenitus.[1254] They are interesting, both as an exhibition of public life during the Later Empire, and as an illustration of the extent to which old Roman forms, and even the old Roman spirit, survived the profound changes which the Empire underwent after the capital was removed to the banks of the Bosporus. When all interested in the event of the day had assembled, the troops present laid their standards prostrate upon the ground, to express the desolation of the State bereft of a ruler. Meanwhile, from every point of the Campus rose the sound of prayer, as the immense multitudes gathered there joined in supplications that God would approve the man who had been chosen as the new chief of the Empire. “Hear us, O God; we beseech Thee to hear us, O God. Grant Leo life; let him reign. O God, Lover of mankind, the public weal demands Leo; the army demands him; the laws wait for him; the palace awaits him. So prays the army, the Senate, the people. The world expects Leo; the army waits for him. Let Leo, our common glory, come; let Leo, our common good, reign. Hear us, O God, we beseech Thee.” At length the emperor-elect appeared, and ascended the Imperial tribune. A coronet was placed upon his head by one high military officer, an armlet upon his right arm by another. And instantly the prostrate standards were lifted high, and the air shook with acclamations: “Leo, Augustus, thou hast conquered; thou art Pius, August. God gave thee, God will guard thee. Ever conquer, worshipper of Christ. Long be thy reign. God will defend the Christian Empire.”[1255] This was the first act in the dramatic spectacle. Next came the solemn investiture of the emperor with the Imperial insignia. This took place behind a shield held before him by soldiers of the household-troops known as the Candidati, and when he had been duly robed, crowned, and armed with shield and spear, the screen was removed, and the new sovereign stood before the gaze of his subjects in all his majesty.[1256]