Ciconiae Nixae

Richardson's predecessor Samuel Ball Platner maintained the integrity of the phrase and conjectured that the Ciconiae Nixae was "a certain district of the city, probably an open square, in which there was a statue, or perhaps a relief on one of the surrounding buildings, of two or more storks with crossed bills.

"[4] William Warde Fowler gathered that the Ciconiae were "three storks carved in stone with bills crossing each other," and that the landmark had not existed during the Republican era.

Hesychius says[7] that Apollonius of Tyana installed them to scare off real storks, blamed for poisoning the water supply by dropping venomous snakes into the cisterns.

Regardless of why the location was known as the Ciconiae — a representation of storks remains as good a guess as any — an inscription twice mentions that taxes were paid there pertaining to shipments of wine.

[10] The annual sacrifice of the October Horse was held ad Nixas, within the Tarentum in the general area of the Campus Martius.