A (at S end of table). An eagle, looking to proper r. and with wings outstretched, clutches thunderbolts with both claws. His large rounded chest (projecting 0.11 from background) and legs are covered with overlapping feathers. Upper wings have a similar pattern; lower wings have six long feathers each. Head, projecting into space from background, has narrow curling feathers. Tail, visible behind l. leg, is flattened out along background as if turned at r. angle. Each foot has three large talons. Thunderbolts are tied twice in center, where they yield to the pressure of the rope. Diagonal strokes in opposite directions on each thunderbolt band make a rope-like impression.

L. side has a simple molding at top, then six strigils; at bottom, four lion claws roughly blocked out. R. side is even more roughly blocked out with no strigil decoration. Back is only rough-trimmed; the top is claw-trimmed, showing no dowel or clamp holes.

B (at N end of table). The eagle's head again is turned to r., but it is an antithetic piece in that tail appears behind r. leg. The strigil decoration is at opposite (r.) end, which means it is at the same side of the table as on piece A. Top has a smoothed band at r. edge, 0.05 W., and a small dowel hole (0.02 by 0.03 by 0.01 D.).

A massive stone table top, decorated with egg and dart motif, rested upon the two legs, which stood 2.13 m. apart (total span). The table was found on the central axis of the Syn and in that position belongs to the latest major building phase of the main hall (1st half of the 4th C. A.D.); however, the style of carving, with almost no drilling (only two short runs, one at the neck and one on the head), belongs to the late Hellenistic or early Imperial period. Also, the style of egg and dart is no later than Augustan, according to the late A. Henry Detweiler. Apparently the eagle table legs, which are very roughly trimmed on the inside, were cut off from a much earlier Roman monument and reused in their Syn context -- as were the lions which were found nearby (Cat. 25 Figs. 92-101; see restoration Fig. 382).

Could these eagles, symbols of Roman power, have stood at the ends of the tribunal of earlier Roman magistrates? It is not impossible that the reliefs may have decorated the ends of the apse in earlier days when it is quite likely that the Syn was used as a civil basilica. Later, when it was transformed into a house of worship, the eagles would have been readily available for reuse when the table was being set up.

Large-grained grayish white local marble.

Stone cracking from exposure. Piece A: cracked across top, and on eagle's chest; face and beak broken away. Piece B: cracked through entire H., just r. of eagle; lower l. corner cracked off; face of eagle broken away.