Caesar Dies

ntioch in gleaming gold above a miracle of greenery and marble. Like a sluggish, muddy stream with camel's heads afloat in it, the south-bound c

gents, smugglers, and the men to whom the latest news meant livelihood, who streamed out of the cit

ro on the selfsame stage of a mountainous road had grown displeasing and devoid of all romance. Two were wounded. One, with a dent in the helmet that

in curt, staccato sentences, grudging the very gesture that he made toward the wounded men. The tribune glanced at the report, signed it, turned his horse and rode into the city, disregarding the decurion's salute, his military cloak a splash of very bright red, seen aga

ended. The long portico of Caesar's baths resounded to the hollow hum of voices. Streaming lines of slaves in the midst of the street were delayed by the crowd, and abused for obstructing it. Gossip went up like the voice of the sea to the cliffs and startled clouds of spray-white pigeons, faintly edged with pink against an azure s

courses in advance of floods, whips cracking to inspire zeal. Wagon-loads of flowers, lowing milk- white oxen, white goats-even a white horse, a white ass-oil and wine in painted

affering began in corn-shops, where the lawless agreements for delivery of unsown harvests changed hands ten times in the hour, and bills on Rome, scrawled over with endorsements, outsped currency as well as outwitted the revenue men. No tax-farmer's slave could keep track of the flow of intangible wealth

cher than the owners of the men he dealt with, saving his peculium-the personal savings which slaves were sometimes enc

ord to match wits with the sharpest traders in the world might enter the basilica and lounge amid the statuary. Thither well dressed slaves came hurrying with contracts and the news of changing prices. There, on marble benches, spread with colored cushions, at the rear under

or the priests, if they wish, to repeat. As for me, I was born in Tarsu

prepare hot meals, a man strode up to where some slaves were seated around a fire. He burned a piece of parchment. All nine slaves agree that he was about Maternus' height and build; that he strode like a man who had been hurt; that he had mud and grass stains on his knees, and covered his face with a toga. They also swear he said he was Maternus, and that he was gone before they could recover their wits. They say his voice was sepulchral. One of the slaves

rive early and get the formalities over with. They came past the place of execution before sunrise. They had heard the news of the execution from the north-bound caravan that p

bers always have a troupe of women. Maternus never had to st

t the narrowest part of the pass, where it curves and begins to descend on this side of the mountain-they were attacked by robbers who made use of

e? You want to ruin me? Oh. You are quite sure? Very well: A good man, that-went out and met the caravan-bought low-sold high, and the price is falling. But as I was saying, yo

thought, until they passed the place

hemselves removed it an

ern

ear he might die on the way to the place of execution. There is no doubt he was crucified, but he was only tied, not nailed. It would have been perfectly simple to subs

ides, you can't persuade me that a man who had been scourged, and crucified, if only for one day, could walk into Daphne two or three nights afterward and carry on a conversation. Why should he visit Daphne? Why sho

priests a

ed, managed to convey a message to his followers commanding them to offer sacrifices to Apollo, who accordingly

stition out of you! Better leave word where we are going, so that our fa

ble heaped with parchment rolls. A dozen secretaries labored in the next room, but the door between was closed; the only witnesses were leisurely, majestic swans, seen down a vista o

ast to the lean and active, although older Pertinax. His smile was cynical. His

ied," he said, "if I coul

is the matter with your police? In Rome, if I prop

seen, although it is known, and you admit, that he dined with you last night at Daphne. He has no property worth mentioning. His house is under lien to money-lenders. He is well known to

of it makes me shudder! There is, of course, no doubt about Sextus; the emperor's own proscription brands him as a miscreant unfit to live, and he was lucky to have died by accident instead of being torn apart by tongs. It seems to me unquestionable that Norbanus shared his guilt and took care to escape before he could be seized and brought to justice. What is in doubt, most noble Pertinax, is how you can excuse yourself to our sacre

games that the emperor proposed to preside over in person. You can imagine, I suppose, how profitable that would be for Antioch-and

ertinax erect and definite, the governor of Antioch in

said the governor of A

us exe

said Pertinax. "Has it ever occurred to you to wonder how many soldiers in the

He resented the suggestions that ther

ight be Norbanus. He has been tortur

look li

badly beaten by the slaves, who slashed his face, which is heavily banda

sted in him," Pertinax suggest

der Roman law there was practically no imprisonment for crime. Fines, flogging, banishment were the substitutes for execution.) more than a month. I was reserving him for execution by the lions at th

would like to see the

tin

ng sect of Christians, who leaned from a balcony over the street and exhorted a polyglot crowd of fre

a crowd to gather while we prated about refusal to do homage to

listen," sai

in the choice of phrases. The Greek idiom he used was unadorned-the language of the market-place and harbor-fro

qual before God, and on the last d

rer hec

fied too?-what

up his right hand, sn

t thou be with me in paradise'; but to the other nothing. Nevertheless, all shall rise up from the dead on the

t grinned t

er, he had not been crucified many hours. Come, let us go to the baths before the crowd gets there. If one is late those insolent attendants lose one's clothin