 By the late fourth century, however, specially-commissioned diptychs began to be included among the gifts that appointees to high office distributed to celebrate and publicize the public games that were their principal duties.These diptychs were made of ivory, with relief carvings on the outside chosen by the donor, looking superficially similar to codicils but containing no writing and with no official status.The routine distribution of such diptychs in the East is marked by a decision by Theodosius I in 384 to limit expenditure on the games of Constantinople by reserving ivory diptychs (and golden gifts) to consuls alone.