The Unwilling Vestal

fact, a deed with the fame of which not only the city,

d curtains were all of that splendid official color, the imperial purple. The name conveys to us a false impression, for the hue known then as imperial purple was not what we should call a purple, but a deep, dark crimson, like the tint of claret in a goblet. Against a background of this magnificent color, the Vestals, habited all in white, showed conspicuously. Their stately progress through the streets, gazed at and pointed at by the admiring crowds, was conducive to high spirits. Still more so was it to be ushered obsequiously through cool corridors and up carpeted stairs to the Vestals' private loge, a roomy space immediately to the right of the imperial pavilion. To be inside th

y. She peered across the open space of the arena, puckering her eyes to see better. When she caug

e my hand

child," Causidi

was seen, and felt the thrill of a

apped her white robe close about her, hiding her hands under it, and shrank into her arm-chair. For a while, for a long while, she fanned herself nervou

Vestals, but no one noticed her individually. Th

towards the grand pavilion. When the trumpet blew the second time, just before the Emperor came in sight, the hush deepened and the spectators watched intently. When his head appeared as he mounted the stairs the audience burst into the short, sharply staccat

e when she caught sight of the Emperor. Manlia had put out a restraining hand. The Vestals, alone

r curling in long ringlets over his chest and shoulders, and a full beard mingling

ly the half-dozen times she had watched from balconies the passage of processions in which the Emperor took part, how her mother had made her stand up the moment he came in sight and had kept her standing until he was far away

seated in the order of their seniority, Causidiena

ilities and anxieties," Brinnaria rep

at us on the east, the Germans in the north, and there have been more than twelve deaths in the

erybody else is alert and keyed up with anticipation. His eyes are dull

ike about it is its endless variety. I never saw any two fights exactly alike, never saw two closely alike. Each fight is a spectacle by itself, entirely different from any other. I don't mean the difference between the fighters in respect to their equipment and appearance, though that contributes to the variety also; I mean the d

le behind him. Then, after the shows had started, he would put a tablet on his knee and write a theme or work out a problem in geometry and when he had finished it, would pass it to one of his tutors for comment, or he would have them make out sets of questions on history or something else and he would write out the answers the best he could. Sometimes he would read. All this he did as calmly as if he were alone in a closed room with nothing to call off his attention. Yet he was most careful to seem to watch the shows and would look up every little while and gaze about the arena. But nothing ever distracted him from his lessons. That is the kind he is

the procession around the arena of all who were to fight that day, the invariable preliminary of a gladiatorial show and always a splendid spectacle. When the fights began Brinn

y male Roman's ideal of the crowning glory of human life; the thought of it was in every Roman's mind from early childhood, every act of life was a preparation for it. Their wives and sisters shared their enthusiasm for fighting and their daughters inherited the instinct. Combat on the field of battle was felt as the chief business of a man, to which all other activities merely led up. By refl

by a young and handsome fighter

n two overlapping rows, the upper set plated with bronze scales, a bronze corselet, and, fitting closely to his shoulders, covering head and neck together, a great, heavy helmet. He carri

high-arched insteps. Brinnaria particularly noticed his perfectly shaped toes. His bare legs, body and arms were in every proportion the perfection of form, the supple muscles rippling exquisitely under his warm tanned skin. His face was almost beautiful, with a round chin, thin curled lips, a straight nose, a

ir was customarily five to three against the secutor and on the retiarius. Yet she felt the sensation usual with onlookers in such a case, the sensation purposed by the dev

n usually light-footed and skipped about his adversary in a taunting, teasing way. Again and again he cast his net intentionally too short, merely to show how easily he could recover it and escape his opponent's onset. He danced, capered, pretended to be lame and t

in a last effort to escape, but the secutor kicked him in the ribs and, before he could recover, sent the trident spinning with a second kick and set his foot upon his victim's neck

the young retiarius below them The secutor beheld indifferent faces gazing over his head The few thumbs he could see pointed outward. Brinnaria, to be sure, was holding out her right arm, thumb flat, and doing her best to attract the secutor's attention. She failed. He glanced, indeed, at the Vestals, but as

her robe to the arm of her chair, squirmed out of it, and threw it over the parapet. The robe of a Roman lady was sleeveless and seamless, rather like a very long pair of very thin blankets, all in one piece. Tied, as she had ti

rrified Manlia, Brinnaria half vaulted, half rolled over the parapet, swung sailor-fashion to the rope

ly what a Vestal was and he recoiled from her in a panic no less than he would have

nding, under way or just begun. Every human being in the audience was staring at the amazing spectacle of a Vestal virgin

, a boy from the Via Sacra, was audible throughout the vast enclosure from

s voice. The audience were startled mute. They were quite ready to applaud the gir

him for the cause of it and saw the situation. He leaned forward, arm ou

ot stir and stood straddling the fallen lad until one of the Emperor's aides came out of one of the low doors in the arena-wall, crossed to her and assured her that the defeated ret

ated with a roar like that of a great waterfall in a deep gorge, salvo after salvo of cheers swelling and merging. The deep boom of th