No More Learning

ELEGIES OF PROPERTIUS. 818
ELEGIES OF PROPERTIUS.
[Sbxtub Pbopebtius, the foremost of Roman elegiac poets, was a wealthy country gentleman, born at Assisium (Assisi), in Umbria, — the birthplace of St. Francis, — about b. c. 60. Like Tibullus he was early orphaned, and his property confiscated after Philippi ; but his mother secured him an education, took him to Rome, and tried to make a lawyer of him. He preferred letters, however, and his first book of poems gained him admission to Maecenas' circle. Little is known of his later history, though he probably had a family, and certainly lived till after b. c. 16. He was a thin, sickly man, very careful in dress, morbidly sen sitive and impressionable, and much given to melancholy. His poems are very difficult in matter and language, but of high rank in originality, strength, and imaginative power. ]
To M^CENAS.
(Translated by Thomas Gray, — first published in Edmund Gosse'B edition. )
You ask why thus my loves I still rehearse, Whence the soft strain and ever melting verse ? From Cynthia all that in my numbers shines ; She is my genius, she inspires the lines ;
No Phoebus else, no other Muse I know,
She tunes my easy rhyme, and gives the lay to flow. If the loose curls around her forehead play,
Or, lawless, o'er their ivory margin stray :
If the thin Coan web her shape reveal,
And half disclose those limbs it should conceal;
Of those loose curls, that ivory front I write ;
Of the dear web whole volumes I indite :
Or if to music she the lyre awake,
That the soft subject of my song I make,
And sing with what a careless grace she flings
Her artful hand across the sounding strings.
If sinking into sleep she seems to close
Her languid lids, I favor her repose
With lulling notes, and thousand beauties see
That slumber brings to aid my poetry.
When, less averse, and yielding to desires,
She half accepts and half rejects my fires,
While to retain the envious lawn she tries,
And struggles to elude my longing eyes,
The fruitful muse from that auspicious night
Dates the long Iliad of the amorous fight.
In brief, whate'er she do, or say, or look,
'Tis ample matter for a lover's book ;
ELEGIES OF PROPERTIDS.
And many a copious narrative you'll see Big with the important Nothing's history.
Yet would the tyrant Love permit me raise
My feeble voice, to sound the victor's praise,
To paint the hero's toil, the ranks of war,
The laureled triumph and the sculptured car ;
No giant race, no tumult of the skies,
No mountain structures in my verse should rise,
Nor tale of Thebes nor Ilium there should be,
Nor how the Persian trod the indignant sea ;
Not Marius' Cimbrian wreaths would I relate,
Nor lofty Carthage struggling with her fate.
Here should Augustus great in arms appear,
And thou, Maecenas, be my second care;
Here Mutina from flames and famine free,
And there the ensanguined wave of Sicily,
And sceptered Alexandria's captive shore,
And sad Philippi, red with Roman gore :
Then, while the vaulted skies loud Ios rend,
In golden chains should loaded monarchs bend,
And hoary Nile with pensive aspect seem
To mourn the glories of his sevenfold stream,
While prows, that late in fierce encounter met,
Move through the sacred way and vainly threat. Thee, too, the Muse should consecrate to fame,
And with her garlands weave thy ever-faithful name.
But nor Callimachus' enervate strain
May tell of Jove, and Phlegra's blasted plain ;
Nor I with unaccustomed vigor trace
Back to its source divine the Julian race.
Sailors to tell of winds and seas delight,
The shepherd of his flocks, the soldier of the fight, A milder warfare I in verse display;
Each in his proper art should waste the day :
Nor thou my gentle calling disapprove, —
To die is glorious in the bed of love.
Happy the youth, and not unknown to fame, Whose heart has never felt a second flame.
Oh, might that envied happiness be mine !
To Cynthia all my wishes I confine ;
Or if, alas! it be my fate to try
Another love, the quicker let me die :
But she, the mistress of my faithful breast, Has oft the charms of constancy confest,
ELEGIES OF PROPERTIUS.
Condemns her fickle sex's fond mistake,
And hates the tale of Troy for Helen's sake.
Me from myself the soft enchantress stole ;
Ah ! let her ever my desires control,
Or if I fall the victim of her scorn,
From her loved door may my pale corse be borne, The power of herbs can other harms remove,
And find a cure for every ill but love.
The Melian's hurt Machaon could repair,
Heal the slow chief, and send again to war ;
To Chiron Phoenix owed his long-lost sight,
And Phoebus' son recalled Androgeon to the Light Here arts are vain, e'en magic here must fail,
The powerful mixture and the midnight spell ; The hand that can my captive heart release,
And to this bosom give its wonted peace,
May the long thirst of Tantalus allay,
Or drive the infernal vulture from his prey.
For ills unseen what remedy is found ?
Or who can probe the undiscovered wound ?
The bed avails not, nor the leech's care,
Nor changing skies can hurt, nor sultry air.
'Tis hard th' elusive symptoms to explore :
To-day the lover walks, to-morrow is no more;
A train of mourning friends attend his pall,
And wonder at the sudden funeral.
315
When then my Fates that breath they gave shall claim, And the short marble but preserve a name,
A little verse my all that shall remain ;
Thy passing courser's slackened speed restrain ;
(Thou envied honor of thy poet's days,
Of all our youth the ambition and the praise ! )
Then to my quiet urn awhile draw near ; —
And say, while o'er the place you drop the tear,
Love and the fair were of his life the pride;
He lived, while she was kind ; and when she frowned, he died.
The Effigy of Love.
(Translation of Sir Charles Elton. )
Had he not hands of rare device, whoe'er First painted Love in figure of a boy ?
He saw what thoughtless beings lovers were,
Who blessings lose, whilst lightest cares employ.
ELEGIES OF PROPERTIUS.
Nor added he those airy wings in vain,
And bade through human hearts the godhead fly ;
For we are tost upon a wavering main ;
Our gale, inconstant, veers around the sky.
Nor, without cause, he grasps those barbed darts, The Cretan quiver o'er his shoulder cast ;
Ere we suspect a foe, he strikes our hearts ;
And those inflicted wounds forever last.
In me are fixed those arrows, in my breast ;
But sure his wings are shorn, the boy remains ;
For never takes he flight, nor knows he rest ; Still, still I feel him warring through my veins.
In these scorched vitals dost thou joy to dwell ? Oh shame I to others let thy arrows flee ;
Let veins untouched with all thy venom swell ; Not me thou torturest, but the shade of me.
Destroy me — who shall then describe the fair ? This my light Muse to thee high glory brings : When the nymph's tapering fingers, flowing hair,
And eyes of jet, and gliding feet she sings.
Prediction of Poetic Immortality.
(Translation of Sir Charles Elton. )
Sprite of Callimachus ! and thou blest shade,
I your grove would tread : From their pure fount in Latian's orgies led.
Coan Philetas !
Me, Love's vowed priest, have Grecia's choirs obeyed,
Say, Spirits ! what inspiring grotto gave Alike to both that subtly tender strain ?
Which foot auspicious entered first the cave,
Or from what spring ye drank your flowing vein ?
Who lists, may din with arms Apollo's ear :
Smooth let the numbers glide, whose fame on high
Lifts me from earth : behold my Muse appear ! And on wreathed coursers pass in triumph by !
With me the little Loves the car ascend ;
My chariot-wheels a throng of bards pursues ;
ELEGIES OF PROPERTIUS.
Why, with loose reins, in idle strife contend ? Narrow the course which Heaven assigns the Muse.
Full many, Rome, shall bid thy annals shine, And Asian Bactra rise thy empire's bound :
Mine are the lays of peace, and flowers are mine Gather'd on Helicon's untrodden ground.
Maids of the sacred fount ! with no harsh crown, But with soft garland wreathe your poet's head!
Those honors, which th' invidious crowd disown, While yet I live, shall doubly grace me dead.
Whate'er the silent tomb has veiled in shade Shines more august through venerable fame ;
Time has the merits of the dead displayed, And rescued from the dust a glorious name.
Who, else, would know, that e'er Troy-towers had bowed To the pine-steed? that e'er Achilles strove
With grappling rivers ? that round Ida flowed
The stream of Simois, cradling infant Jove ?
If Hector's blood dyed thrice the wheel-tracked plain ? Polydamas, Deiphobus, once fell,
Or Helenus was numbered with the slain ? Scarce his own soil could of her Paris tell.
Shrunk were thy record, Troy I whose captured wall Felt twice th' . ^Steean god's resistless rage :
Nor he, the bard that registered thy fall, Had left his growing song to every age.
Me too shall Rome, among her last, revere ; But that far day shall on my ashes rise ;
No stone a worthless sepulchre shall rear, The mean memorial where a poet lies.
So may the Lycian god my vows approve ! Now let my verse its wonted sphere regain ;
That, touched with sympathies of joy and love, The melting nymph may listen to my strain.
'Tis sung that Orpheus, with his Thracian tones, Stayed the wild herd, and stayed the troubled flood ;
Moved by Amphion's lute Cythaeron's stones Leaped into form, and Thebes aspiring stood.
ELEGIES OF PROPERTIUS.
Beneath rude ^Etna's crag, O Polypheme ! On the smooth deep did Galatea rein
Her horses, dropping with the briny stream,
And wind their course to catch the floating strain.
Then, if the god of verse, the god of wine,
Look down propitious, and with smiles approve ;
What wonder, if the fair's applause be mine, If thronging virgins list the lays of love ?
Though no green marble, from Taenarian mines, Swells in the columns that my roof uphold ; No ceiling's arch with burnished ivory shines,
And intersecting beams that blaze with gold ;
My orchards vie not with Phaeacian groves,
Through my carved grot no Marcian fountains play ;
With me the Muse in breathless dances roves; Nymphs haunt my dwelling ; readers love my lay.
Oh, fortunate, fair maid ! whoe'er thou art, That, in my gentle song, shalt honored be !
This to each charm shall lasting bloom impart; Each tender verse a monument of thee !
The sumptuous pyramids, that stately rise Among the stars, the Mausolean tomb,
Th' Olympic fane, expanded like the skies — Not these can scape th' irrevocable doom.
The force of rushing rains, or wasting flame,
The weight of years may bow their glories down;
But Genius wins an undecaying name,
Through ages strong, and deathless in renown.
Praise of a Life of Ease.
(Translation of Sir Charles Elton. )
Love is the god of peace : we lovers know
But love's hard combats, and a mistress-foe : Not gold's devouring want my soul has curst; Not from a jeweled cup I slake my thirst ;
I plow not wide Campania's mellowed soil,
Nor for thy brass in ships, O Corinth I toil.
Ah ! hapless clay that erst Prometheus pressed, Molding a rash and unforeseeing breast:
ELEGIES OF PROPERTIUS. 319
The skill, that knit the frame, o'erlooked the heart; An upright reasoning soul escaped his art.
Now tost by winds we roam the troubled flood, Link foe to foe, and restless pant for blood.
Fool ! not on Acheron thy wealth shall float,
All naked drifting in th' infernal boat.
The conqueror with the captive skims the tide,
And chained Jugurtha sits at Marius' side :
Eobed Crœsus shares the tattered Irus' doom,
And owns that death the best, which soon shall come. Me in youth's flower could Helicon entrance,
My hands with Muses linked in mazy dance :
Me has it charmed to bathe my soul in wine,
And vernal roses round my temples twine :
When irksome age hath stolen on love's delight, And strewn my sable locks with sprinkled white; Then may it please to search in Nature's ways, And learn what god the world's vast fabric sways ; How dawns the rising east and fades again ;
How the round moon repairs her crescent wane ;
How winds the salt sea sweep, and th' eastern blast
The billows warps, and clouds their ceaseless waste. Whether a day shall come, when headlong hurled
Shall fall the tottering pillars of the world ;
Why drinks the purpling bow the rainy cloud ;
Why Pindus' summits reel, in earthquake bowed ;
Why shines the sun's wheeled orb with umbered light,
His golden coursers palled in mourning night;
Why turns Bootes slow his starry wain,
Why sparkling throng the Pleiads' clustered train;
Why bounded roll the deepening ocean's tides ;
Why the full year in parted seasons glides ;
If under earth gods judge, and giants rave ;
Tisiphone's fierce ringlets snaky wave ;
Furies Alcmaeon scourge, and Phineas hungering crave ; Thirst burn in streams, wheels whirl, rocks backward leap, Or Hell's dark mouth three-headed Cerberus keep :
If Tityus' straitened limbs nine acres press ;
Or fables mock man's credulous wretchedness
Through long tradition's age : nor terror's strife
Survive the pyre : — be such my close of life.
Go ye who list, the Parthian overcome,
Bring Crassus' wrested standards back to Bome.
ELEGIES OF PROPERTIUS.
The Plea of Cornelia.
(Translation of Professor E. D. A. Morshead. )
Cease, Paullus, cease ! thy fruitless tears withhold ; Unto no prayer will Hell's dark gates unfold !
From Death's dark bourne none cometh forth again ; Grief beats th' impenetrable bars in vain.
Tho' Dis should harken, in his gloomy hall,
The deaf shores drink whatever teardrops fall. Prayers may to Heaven and heavenly gods aspire, But, when Hell's ferryman hath ta'en his hire,
The dark gate seals the legacy of fire.
That truth sad trumpets pealed, when kindling flame Dropped through the bier the ashes of my frame — Mine — Scipio's child and Paullus' consort hailed, Mother of noble children — what availed ?
Found I, for all my fame, the Fates less stern ?
Light dust am I, a handful in an urn !
Ye nights of Hell ! ye fens and marshes gray, And snakelike streams that wind about my way ! Untimely have I come, yet guiltless all —
Lord of the Dead, soft let thy sentence fall !
If ^Eacus, if judgment here there be,
Let urn and scroll speak justice' doom on me ; Judge sit by judge — let Minos' throne be nigh, And the stern court, and Furies' company.
Rest, Sisyphus ! forego thy stone and hill ;
Ixion, let thy whizzing wheel be still !
The cheating wave let Tantalus recall ;
Let Cerberus no passing ghost appal ;
Hell's bolt be silent, and its chain let fall !
Lo, mine own cause I plead ! If false my plea,
Hard weigh the Danaides' urn of doom on me !
If trophied spoils bring heritage of fame,
Speak, Spain and Afric, of my grandsires' name ! Well matched with them may stand my mother's line, And Scipio's stock with Libo's race combine.
Then, when I passed from maiden unto bride, And wedlock's snood my virgin tresses tied,
Till death should part, to Paullus' side I came — Wife to one only be my funeral fame !
Dead sires ! whose threshold carven busts adorn And conquered Afric's figure, slavelike shorn —
ELEGIES OF PROPERTIUS.
Bear witness from your ashes to your home — Those ashes, worthy of thy worship, Rome ! Bear witness, Perses ! — all thy breast on fire To match Achilles' self, thy godlike sire — Thou too, whose valor shattered from its base That home of Perses' and Achilles' race — That ne'er, for sin of mine, was law made tame, Nor blushed our household for Cornelia's shame. Thro' me no stain on our renown could come — Me, crown and model of our glorious home !
I walked unswerving, held a stainless fame, From wedding torch to funeral, the same.
For Nature wrought for me a law within — Thou shalt not shun the judgment, but the sin. What urn soever shall my doom decide,
No woman e'er shall blush to seek my side :
Not thou, O Claudia, who with spotless hand Didst hale the ling'ring galley from the strand, Cybele's bark — thou matron of renown,
Servant of her who wears the turret-crown !
Not she who erst, when angered Vesta came, From stainless robe relit th' entrusted flame. Thou too, dear heart, Scribonia, mother mine ! Ne'er have I grieved thee. If thy soul repine, Say this — no more. Too short a date was thine. Tears, true as thine, the weeping city gave,
And Caesar sighed detraction from my grave. The mother of my Julia was thine, — He said ; thy life was worthy of my line Farewell ! and tears fell from his eyes divine. Mine too it was, the honored stole to gain; Nor from a barren wedlock was I ta'en. —
Ah sons, my twofold solace after death
Propped on your bosoms I resigned my breath ! Brother, twice throned in power ! the selfsame day Saw thee made consul and me rapt away.
Child, pride of Paullus' censorship begun,
Live thou like me, love one and only one.
Loyal to one, keep thou thy bed unstained,
And by thine offspring be our line maintained !
My race shall glorify my name — and now
Loosed be the death-boat — I am lief to go !
Of woman's fame, this is the highest crown,
When praised, and freed, and dead, we hold Renown.
vOL. v. — 21
ELEGIES OF PROPERTIUS.
Guard, Paullus, guard the pledges of our love — My very dust that ingrained wish can move ! Father thou art, and mother must thou be,
Unto those little ones bereft of me.
Weep they, give twofold kisses, thine and mine, Solace their hearts, and both our loves combine ; And if thou needst must weep, go, weep apart — Let not our children, folded to thine heart, Between thy kisses feel thy teardrops start. Enough, for love, be nightlong thoughts of me, And phantom forms that murmur I am she.
Or, if thou speakest to mine effigy,
Speak soft, and pause, and dream of a reply.
Yet — if a presence new our halls behold, — And a new bride my wonted place shall hold
My children, speak her fair, who pleased your sire, And let your gentleness disarm her ire ;
Nor speak in praise of me — your loyal part Will turn to gall and wormwood in her heart. But, if your father hold my worth so high, That lifelong love can people vacancy,
And solitude seem only love gone by,
Tend ye his loneliness, his thoughts engage, And bar the avenues of pain to age.
I died before my time — add my lost years Unto your youth, be to his heart compeers ; So shall he face, content, life's slow decline, Glad in my children's love, as once in mine.
Lo, all is well ! I ne'er wore garb of woe For child or husband : I was first to go.
Lo, I have said ! Rise, ye who weep ;
In high desert, worthy the Spirit Land.
Worth hath stormed Heaven ere now ; this, this I claim To rise, in death, upon the waves of Fame.
I stand
ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS. 323
ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS. By W. A. BECKER.
[Wilhelm Adolf Becker, a noted German classical antiquary, was born at Dresden, 1796 ; died at Meissen, 1846. Designed for trade, he left it for scholarship ; studied at Leipsic, and the last four years of his life was professor there. His still familiar works are " Charicles " and " Gallus," novels embody ing the social life of the Greeks in Alexander's time and the Romans in Augustus'. His "Handbook of Roman Antiquities" (1843-1846) is his chief monument as a scholar.
This historical novel of Becker's is based on the real fate of Cornelius Gallus. ]
Studies and Letters.
Gallus had for some time past kept as much as possible aloof from the disquieting labors of public life, and had been accustomed to divide his time between the pleasures of the table and of love, the society of friends, and the pursuit of his studies, serious as well as cheerful. On the present occasion also, after his friends had departed, he withdrew into the chamber, where he used daily to spend the later hours of the morning, in converse with the great spirits of ancient Greece —a pursuit animating and refreshing alike to heart and soul —or to yield himself up to the sport of his own muse. . . .
Immediately adjoining this apartment was the library, full of the most precious treasures acquired by Gallus, chiefly in Alexandria. There, in presses of cedar wood, placed round the walls, lay the rolls, partly of parchment, and partly of the finest Egyptian papyrus, each supplied with a label, on which was seen, in bright red letters, the name of the author and title of the book. Above these again were ranged the busts, in bronze or marble, of the most renowned writers, an entirely novel ornament for libraries, first introduced into Rome by Asinius Pollio, who perhaps had only copied it from the libraries of Pergamus and Alexandria. True, only the chief representatives of each separate branch of literature were to be found in the narrow space available for them ; but to com pensate for this, there were several rolls which contained the portraits of seven hundred remarkable men. These were the hebdomades or peplography of Varro, who, by means of a new and much-valued invention, was enabled in an easy manner to multiply the collection of his portraits, and so to spread copies
824 ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS.
of them, with short biographical notices of the men, through the whole learned world.
On the other side of the library was a larger room in which a number of learned slaves were occupied in transcribing, with nimble hand, the works of illustrious Greek and the more ancient Roman authors, both for the supply of the library, and for the use of those friends to whom Gallus obligingly com municated his literary treasures. Others were engaged in giving the rolls the most agreeable exterior, in gluing the separate strips of papyrus together, drawing the red lines which divided the different columns, and writing the title in the same color ; in smoothing with pumice-stone and blacken ing the edges ; fastening ivory tops on the sticks round which the rolls were wrapped, and dyeing bright red or yellow the parchment which was to serve as a wrapper.
Gallus, with Chresimus, entered the study, where the freed- man, of whom he was used to avail himself in his studies, to make remarks on what was read, to note down particular passages, or to commit to paper his own poetical effusions, as they escaped him, was already awaiting him. After giving Chresimus further instructions to make the necessary prepara tions for an immediate journey, he reclined, in his accustomed manner, on his studying couch, supported on his left arm, his right knee being drawn up somewhat higher than the other, in order to place on it his books or tablets.
" Give me that roll of poetry of mine, Phaedrus," said he
I will not set out till I have sent the book finished to the bookseller.
I certainly do not much desire to be sold in the Argiletan taverns for five denarii, and find my
to the freedman ; "
name hung up on the doors, and not always in the best com pany ; but Secundus worries me for it, and therefore be it so. " " He understands his advantage," said Phajdrus, as he drew forth the roll from the cedar- wood chest. " I wager that his scribes will have nothing else to do for months, but to copy off your Elegies and Epigrams, and that you will be rewarded with the applause poured upon them not by Rome only, nor by
Italy, but by the world. "
" Who knows ? " said Gallus. " It is always hazardous to
give to the opinion of the public that which was only written for a narrow circle of tried friends : and besides, our public is so very capricious. For one I am too cold, for another I speak too much of Lycoris ; my Epigrams are too long for a third ;
ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS. 825
and then there are those grammarians, who impute to me the blunders which the copyist in his hurry has committed. But look ! " continued he, as he unfolded the roll, " there is just room left before we get to the umbilicus, for a small poem on which I meditated this morning when walking to and fro in the peristyle. It is somewhat hurriedly thrown off, I grant, and its jocular tone is not exactly in keeping with the last elegy. Perhaps they will say I had done better to leave it out, but its contents are the best proof of its unassumingness : why, therefore, should I not let the joke stand ? Listen, then, and write. " "
No," said Gallus, "the time before our departure is too brief. Take style and tablet, write with abbreviations, and insert it afterwards whilst
the roll, and to send thither Philodamus, whom his master generally employed to write his letters ; equally acquainted with both languages, he used, in most instances, to discharge the duties of the Greek and Latin correspondent, and particu larly when the contents of the letters made a confidential scribe necessary. To-day, however, this was not the case ; for Gallus only wished some short friendly letters, which contained no secrets, to be written. Philodamus brought the style, the wooden tablets coated over with wax, and what was requisite for sealing the letters ; took the seat of Phaedrus, and set down with expert hand the short sentences which Gallus dictated. Notifications of his departure to his friends ; invitations to them to visit him at his villa ; approval of a purchase of some statues and pictures, which a friend in Athens had made for him ; recommendations of one friend to another in Alexan dria ; such were the quickly dispatched subjects of the day's correspondence. . . .
He read over once more the letters which Philodamus had written ; the slave then fastened the tablets together with crossed thread, and where the ends were knotted, placed a round piece of wax ; while Gallus drew from his finger a beau tiful beryl, on which was engraved by the hand of Dioscorides, a lion driven by four amoretts, breathed on it, to prevent the tenacious wax from adhering to and then impressed deeply into the pliant mass. Meanwhile Philodamus had summoned the tabellarii, or slaves used for conveying letters. Each of
Phaedrus here was about taking the roll.
I am dictating a few letters. " . . .
Phaedrus departed to copy the poem more intelligibly on
it,
it
326 ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS.
them received a letter ; but that destined for Athens was about to be intrusted to a friend journeying thither.
The Drinkers.
The lamps had been long shining on the marble panels of the walls in the triclinium, where Earinos, with his assistants, was making preparations, under the direction of the tricliniarch, for the nocturnal comissatio. Upon the polished table between the tapestried couches stood an elegant bronze candelabrum, in the form of a stem of a tree, from the winterly and almost leaf less branches of which four two-flamed lamps, emulating each other in beauty of shape, were suspended. Other lamps hung by chains from the ceiling, which was richly gilt and ingen iously inlaid with ivory, in order to expel the darkness of night from all parts of the saloon. A number of costly goblets and larger vessels were arranged on two silver sideboards. On one of these a slave was just placing another vessel filled with snow, together with its colum, whilst on the other was the
caldarium, containing water kept constantly boiling by the coals in its inner cylinder, in case any of the guests should prefer the calda, the drink of winter, to the snow-drink, for which he might think the season was not sufficiently advanced.
steaming
By degrees the guests assembled from the bath and the peristylum, and took their places in the same order as before on the triclinium. Gallus and Calpurnius were still wanting. They had been seen walking to and fro along the cryptoporticus in earnest discourse. At length they arrived, and the gloom seemed dissipated from the brow of Gallus ; his eyes sparkled more brightly, and his whole being seemed to have become more animated.
" I hope, my friends, you have not waited for us," said he to Pomponius" and Caecilianus, who reproached him for his long absence. How could we do otherwise," responded Pomponius, " as it is necessary first to choose the king who shall reign su preme over the mixing bowl and cyathus ? Quick, Lentulus, let us have the dice directly, or the snow will be turned to calda before we are able to drink it. "
On a signal from Lentulus, a slave placed upon the table the dice-board, of terebinth us wood, the four dice made from the knuckles of gazelles, and the ivory turret-shaped dice-box.
ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS. 327
" But first bring chaplets and the nardum" cried the host ; "roses or ivy, I leave the choice to each of you. "
Slaves immediately brought chaplets, both of dark green ivy and of blooming roses.
" Honor to the spring," said Gallus, at the " same time en circling his temples with a fragrant wreath ; ivy belongs to winter ; it is the gloomy ornament with which nature decks her own bier. "
"Not so," said Calpurnius, "the more somber garland becomes men. I leave roses to the women, who know nothing but pleasure and trifling. "
"No reflection on the women," cried Faustinus, from the lectus summits ; " for they, after all, give the spice to life, and I should not be at all grieved if some gracious fair one were now at my side. Listen, Gallus : you know that I sometimes attempt a little poetry ; what think you of an epigram I have lately made ?
" Let women come and share our festal joy,
For Bacchus loves to sit with Venus' boy !
But fair her form and witty be her tongue,
Such as the nymph's whom Philolaches sung. Just sip her wine, with jocund glee o'erflow, To-morrow hold her tongue — if she know how. "
" Very
apply as well to men ;
I will continue your epigram :
—
good," said Gallus ; " but the last doctrine will
" And you, O men ! who larger goblets drain,
Nor draining blush, — this golden rule maintain. While foams the cup, drink, rattle, joke away, All unrestrained your boisterous mirth display. But with the wreath be memory laid aside,
And let the morn night's dangerous secrets hide. "
"Exactly so," cried Pomponius, whilst a loud a-o$<S? re sounded from the lips of the others : " let the word of which the nocturnal triens was witness, be banished from our memory, as if it had never been spoken. But now to business. Bassus, you throw first, and he who first throws the Venus is king for the night. " "
Bassus collected the dice in the box, and shook it.
theris for me," cried he, as he threw ; it was an indifferent cast.
Cy-
328 ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS.
" Who" would think of making so free with the name of his beloved ! said Faustinus, as he prepared for his chance. " To the beautiful one of whom I am thinking ; take care, it will be the Venus. " He threw ; loud laughter succeeded ; it was the dog.
The dice passed in this manner from hand to hand till they came to Pomponius. " Ah I " exclaimed Lentulus, as Pom- ponius seized the box, " now I am anxious to know which, out of the number of"his loves, he will invoke, — Chione or Galla, Lyde or Neaera ?
" Neither of them," answered Pomponius. " Ah ! one, three, four, six ; here's the Venus ! but as all have not yet thrown, another may be equally fortunate. " He handed the dice to Gallus, who, however, as well as the Perusians, having declined the dignity, Pomponius was hailed as lord over the crater and cyathus.
" Do not let us have too much water in the mixture," said Caecilianus ; "for Lentulus, you know, would not be sulky even should we drink the wine neat. "
" No, no," replied Pomponius ; " we have had a long pause, and may now well indulge a little. Three parts of water and two of wine is a fair proportion, that shall be the mixture to-night. Do you, Earinos, measure out five cyathi for each of us. "
The goblets were filled and emptied amidst jokes and mer riment, which gradually grew louder, for Pomponius took care that the cyathi should not have much repose. "I propose," said he at length, when, from the increased animation of the conversation, the power of the Falernian became evident, " that we try the dice a little. Let us play for low stakes, merely for amusement ; let each of us stake five denarii, and put in another for every ace or six that may be thrown. Whoever throws the Venus first, gains the whole sum staked. "
The proposal was acceded to, and the play began.
" How shall it be, Bassus ? " said Pomponius, " a hundred denarii that I make the lucky throw before you. "
" Agreed," replied the other.
" I will also bet the same with you," said Gallus : " a hun dred denarii on each side. "
The dice went round the table, and first Caecilianus and then one of the Perusians won the pool. The bets remained
" And I bet you the same sum," said Lentulus to Gallus ; " and if either of us should throw the dog, he must pay double. "
ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS. 829
still undecided. When Pomponius had again thrown, he cried, "Won ! look here, each dice exhibits a different number. "
Gallus took the box and threw. Four unlucky aces were the result. The Perusians laughed loudly ; for which Gallus darted a fierce glance at them. The money was paid.
" Shall we bet again ? " inquired Lentulus.
" Of course," replied Gallus ; " two thousand sesterces, and let him who throws sixes also lose. "
Lentulus threw ; again the Venus appeared, and loud laughter arose from the lectus imus. By degrees the game became warmer, the bet higher, and Gallus more desperate. In the meantime Pomponius had, unnoticed, altered the pro portions of the mixture. " I am now in favor of a short pause," said he, "that we may not entirely forget the cups. Bring larger goblets, Earinos, that we may drink according to the custom of the Greeks. " "
Pour out for me six cyathi," cried he. " This cup I drink to you, Gal
Larger crystal glasses were placed before him.
lus. Hail to you I "
Gallus replied to the greeting, and then desired the cyathus
to be emptied seven times into his goblet. " Let us not forget the absent," said he. " Lycoris, this goblet I dedicate to you. " " "Well done," said Bassus, as his cup was being filled.
Now my turn has come. Eight letters form the name of my love. Cytheris ! " said he, as he drained the glass. Thus the toast passed from mouth to mouth, and finally came to the turn of the Perusians.
" I have no love," said the one on the middle seat, " but I will give you a better name, to which let each one empty his glass ; Caesar Octavianus ! hail to him. "
" Hail to him," responded the other Perusian. " Six cyathi to each, or ten ? What, Gallus and Calpurnius ! does not the name sound pleasant to you that you refuse the goblet ? "
" I have no reason for drinking to his welfare," rejoined Gallus, scarcely suppressing his emotion.
" Reason or no," said the Perusian, " it is to the father of our fatherland ! "
"Father of our fatherland ! " screamed Calpurnius, vio lently enraged. " Say rather to the tyrant, the bad citizen, the suppressor of liberty ! "
" Be not so violent," said the stranger, with a malicious smile ; "if you will not drink it, why, leave it undone. But
330 ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS.
yet I wager, Gallus, that you have often enough drunk to our lord before his house was closed upon you. It certainly is not pleasant, when a man thinks he has made the lucky throw, to find" the dog suddenly before him. " "
Scoundrel ! " cried Gallus, springing up ;
a matter of entire indifference to me whether the miserable, cowardly tyrant close his doors on me or no. "
" No doubt he might have used stronger measures," quietly continued the stranger ; " and if the lamentations of the Egyp tians had made themselves heard, you would now be cooling yourself by a residence in Mœsia. "
" Let him dare to send me there," called out Gallus, no longer master of himself.
" Dare ! " said the Perusian, with a smile, " he dare, who could annihilate you with a single word ! "
" Or I him," exclaimed Gallus, now enraged beyond all bounds : " Julius even met with his dagger. "
know that it is
" Ah ! unheard-of treason ! " cried the second stranger,
"I call the assembled company to witness that I have taken no part in the highly treasonable speeches that have been uttered here. My sandals, slave: to remain here any longer would be a crime. "
starting up ;
The guests had all risen, although a part of them reeled. Some endeavored to bring Gallus, who now did not seem to think so lightly of the words which had hastily escaped him, to moderation. Pomponius addressed the Perusians, but as they insisted on quitting the house, he promised Gallus that he would endeavor to pacify them on the way home.
The other guests also bethought them of departing ; one full of vexation at the unpleasant breaking up of the feast, another blaming Pomponius for introducing such unpolished fellows; Gallus not without some anxiety, which he in vain endeavored to silence by bold resolutions for the future.
The Catastrophe.
The day commenced very differently, on the present occa sion, in the house of Gallus, from what it had done on the morning of his journey. His disgrace, by some foreseen, but to most both unexpected and looked upon as the harbinger of still more severe misfortunes, formed the principal topic of the
ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS. 331
day, and was discussed in the forum and the tabernae with a thousand different comments. The intelligence of his return to Rome soon became diffused throughout the city; and the loud tidings of his presence should have collected the troop of clients who, at other times, were accustomed to flock in such great numbers to his house. On this day, however, the ves- tibulum remained empty; the obsequious crowd no longer thronged it. The selfish, who had promised themselves some advantage from the influence of their patron, became indif ferent about a house which could no longer be considered, as it had lately been, the entrance-hall of the palace. The timid were deterred by fear of the cloud which hung threatening over Gallus, lest they themselves should be overtaken by the destroy ing flash. The swarm of parasites, prudently weighing their own interest, avoided a table of doubtful duration, in order that they might not forfeit their seats at ten others, where un disturbed enjoyment for the future appeared more secure. And even those few in whom feelings of duty or shame had over come other considerations, seemed to be not at all dissatisfied when the ostiarius announced to them that his master would receive no visitors that day.
In the house itself all was quiet. The majority of the slaves had not yet returned from the villa, and those who were present seemed to share the grief of the deeply affected dispensator.
Uneasiness and anxiety had long since banished sleep from the couch of Gallus. He could not conceal from himself to what a precipice a misuse of his incautious expressions would drive him, and that he could expect no forbearance or secrecy from the suspicious-looking strangers. Animated by the dreams of freedom with which Calpurnius had entertained him ; half enlisted in the plans which the enthusiast, sincerely moved at the misfortune of his friend, had proposed to him ; highly excited by the strength of the wine and the heat of the play ; and stung to fury by the insolence of the strange guests, — he had suffered himself to be drawn into an indiscreet avowal which he was far from seriously meaning. On calmer reflections he perceived the folly of all those bold projects which, in the first moment of excitement, seemed to present the possibility of averting his own fate by the overthrow of the tyrant ; and he now found himself without the hope of escape, in the power of two men whose whole behavior was calculated
332 ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS.
to inspire anything but confidence. His only consolation was that they had been introduced by Pomponius, through whose exertions he hoped possibly to obtain their silence ; for Gallus still firmly believed in the sincerity of his friendship, and paid no attention even to a discovery which his slaves professed to have made on the way homeward. It was as follows : His road, in returning from the mansion of Lentulus, passed not far from that of Largus ; and the slaves who preceded him with the lantern had seen three men, resembling very much Pomponius and the two Perusians, approach the house. One of them struck the door with the metal knocker, and they were all immediately admitted by the ostiarius. Gallus certainly thought so late a visit strange ; but, as it was no uncommon thing for Largus to break far into the night with wine and play, he persuaded himself that it must be some acquaint ances who had called upon him on their return from an earlier party.
At last the drowsy god had steeped him in a beneficial obliv ion of these cares, and although the sun was by this time high in the heavens, yet Chresimus was carefully watching lest any noise in the vicinity of his bed-chamber should abridge the moments of his master's repose. The old man wandered about the house uneasily, and appeared to be impatiently wait ing for something. In the atrium he was met by Leonidas, approaching from the door. "
" Well, no messenger yet ?
" None," replied the vicarius.
"And no intelligence in the house? " Chresimus again
asked.
"None since his departure," was the answer. He shook
his head, and proceeded to the atrium, where a loud knocking at the door was heard. The ostiarius opened it. It was an express with a letter from Lycoris.
" At last," cried Chresimus, as he took the letter from the tabellarius.
" My lady," said the messenger, " enjoined me to make all possible haste, and bade me give the letter only to yourself or your lord. Present it to him directly. " I
" Your admonition is not wanted," replied Chresimus : " have been long expecting your arrival. "
The faithful servant had indeed anxiously expected the letter. Although Gallus had strictly forbidden him from
he hastily inquired of him.
ROMAN LIFE UNDER AUGUSTUS. 833
letting the cause of his departure from the villa become known, yet Chresimus believed that he should be rendering him an important service by acquainting Lycoris with the un fortunate occurrence. She had at Baiae only half broken to him the secret, which confirmed but too well his opinion of Pomponius. He had therefore urged her not to lose a moment in making Gallus acquainted, at whatever sacrifice to herself, with the danger that was threatening him, and immediately return herself, in order to render lasting the first impression caused by her avowal. He now hastened toward the apart ment in which his master was still sleeping, cautiously fitted the three-toothed key into the opening of the door, and drew back the bolts by which it was fastened.
" Gallus, awakened by"the noise, sprang up from his couch. What do you bring ? cried he to the domestic, who had
pushed aside the tapestry and entered.
" A letter from Lycoris," said the old man, " just brought
by a courier. He urged me to deliver it immediately, and so I was forced to disturb you. "
Gallus hastily seized the tablets. They were not of the usual small and neat shape which afforded room for a few tender words only, but from their size they evidently inclosed a large epistle. "Doubtless," said he, as he cut the threads with a knife which Chresimus had presented to him, " doubt less the poor girl has been terrified by some unfavorable re ports about me.