"No one seems to have recognized you as Andivius Hedulio while you were in the service of Pompeianus Falco under the name of Phorbas, except only Galen, who has explained and justified to me his reasons for protecting you, of which I entirely approve. He did well. As Phorbas I heard of you first, when it was represented to me that you had murdered your late master and been cleared by that indulgent humanitarian, Lollius Corbulo; that the case was a most flagrant miscarriage of justice and that such slackness would breed a crop of such murders unless temptation was counteracted by severity. I then directed Cassius Ravillanus to deal with you, for I trusted him.
"When, in the arena of the Colosseum, I saw the savage, ravening beasts not only spare you but fawn on you, I felt sure that you had been falsely convicted, that you were innocent and that the gods had intervened to save you. Later, when I heard the cries of 'Festus' and they were explained to me, I was doubly incensed against you. That no beast would touch you, even when bound and your face covered, convinced me of your complete innocence.
"Thereupon, after I had ordered you released, I had turned my attention again to the spectacle of the games in the arena, promising myself an interview with you later, for I was intensely curious about you. But, that very day, before dark, Flavius Clemens craved a brief private audience with me and informed me that he had recognized you as Andivius Hedulio and that you had confessed your identity. I ordered you at once into the Tullianum, pending my decision as to how to wring from you a complete disclosure of your villainies and accomplices before putting you to death.
"Then, to my amazement, the confession of the King of the Highwaymen represented you as a wholly innocent man, incredibly slandered and calumniated, and all by Marcus Galvius Crispinillus, why and for what end was unknown.
"I at once ordered you released and brought to the Palace. Here I have kept you in unmerited confinement until the papers of your traducer could be sifted and I could go over those relevant to your case. Manifestly you never had anything to do with inciting any conspiracy or any march on Rome. All aspersions on you were invented by Crispinillus. I am inexpressibly curious about you. I want you to tell me your story in your own way, in detail, taking your time. In particular I want to learn how you came to be with Maternus and later with the mutineers from Britain. I am at leisure to harken."
He had put me entirely at my ease. Manifestly he wanted to hear my story, was in the mood to listen, and rather enjoyed the respite from care which this carefully arranged interval of leisure gave him. I felt emboldened and began with an explanation of the feud between the Satronians and the Vedians, of the lawsuit between Ducconius Furfur and my uncle, and of his purchase of Marcia from Ummidius Quadratus and his manumission of her.
After these preliminaries I launched into my story. He listened attentively and with every indication of lively interest, with few interruptions. Once he clapped for his pages and had in snow-cooled wine to refresh me and soothe my throat. Upon my account of my wrestle with Nemestronia's leopard he cut in with a series of questions as to my power over animals. When I came to my encounter with Pescennius Niger he was keenly interested, as in my report of his reputation in Marseilles, according to Doris, and uttered one or two remarks. Otherwise he was apparently absorbed in my narrative.
When it was over he said:
"I believe you, your story sounds true; all of it. You have had amazing adventures and have escaped alive manifestly by the special favor of the immortal gods, particularly of Mercury. Like you, I pay special attention to winning and keeping the favor of Mercury, though, of course, for me, as for all soldiers, Mithras is the most important god.
"You may be very sure that I shall, as far as may be, provide that no informer or secret-service agent can ever again succeed in gaining credence for baseless fabrications, such as those from which you have suffered. I shall endeavor to have it arranged that reports of any one agent be checked up by reports of another, the two being wholly unknown to each other. Thus no man shall, if I can prevent it, again be persecuted as you have been. I am shocked at such laxity and I shudder at the power wielded by Marcus Galvius Crispinillus, and at his misuse of it. I can find no trace of any reasonable motive; he seems to have slandered you from mere whim or the mere love of causing misery, or some spite or perhaps to increase the impression of his own importance.