“No one has mentioned anything to me.”
“They dare not.”
“Because your views are well known. They know that you hate the populace—and the populace yesterday achieved a triumph.”
“And in what way?” asked Claudius frowning.
“In the circus.[138] I can tell you, my respected friend, it was a frightful scandal, a real storm in miniature! Caesar turned pale—nay he trembled.”
“Trembled!” cried Claudius indignantly.
“With rage of course,” said Clodianus in palliation. “The thing occurred thus. One of the charioteers[139] of the new party—those that wear purple—drove so magnificently, that Caesar was almost beside himself with delight. By Epona, the tutelary goddess of horses![140] but the fellow drove four horses that cannot be matched in the whole world. Incitatus,[141] old Caligula’s charger, was an ass in comparison, and the names of those splendid steeds are in every one’s mouth to-day like a proverb: Andraemon, Adsertor, Vastator and Passerinus[142]—you hear them in every market and alley; our poets might almost be envious. And the charioteer too, a free Greek in the service of Parthenius the head chamberlain, is a splendid fellow. He stood in his quadriga[143] like Ares rushing into battle. In short it was a stupendous sight, and then he was so far ahead of the rest—I tell you, no one has won by so great a length since Rome was a city. Scorpus[144] is the rascal’s name. Every one was fairly carried away. Caesar, the senators, the knights—all clapped till their hands were sore. Even strangers, the watery-eyed Sarmatians[145] and Hyperboreans[146] shouted with delight.”
“Well?” asked Titus Claudius, as the narrator paused.
“To be sure—the chief point. Well, it was known that Caesar would himself grant the winner some personal favor, and every one gazed at the imperial tribune in the greatest excitement. Caesar ordered the herald to command silence. ‘Scorpus,’ said he, when the uproar was lulled, ‘you have covered yourself with glory. Ask a favor of me,’ and Scorpus bowed his head and demanded in a firm voice, that Domitian should be reconciled to his wife.”