"And the roads of the Legions are overgrown with grass and brushwood."
"And the troops receive no wages."
"But they pay themselves by plundering the burghers, whom they should defend."
"And the walls of Juvavum are falling, the moats are dry, the sluices destroyed; the rich people go away, there only remain poor wretches like ourselves, who cannot leave."
"I wonder that the money-lender has not long ago moved with his great gold-bag over the Alps."
"I would not go, uncle, if I could; and why, indeed, could I not? My art, my trade will be honoured everywhere, so long as the Romans dwell in stone, not wooden houses, like the Germans. But I am firmly fixed to this soil. Many, many generations have my fathers dwelt here; they say since the founding of the colony by the Emperor Hadrian. They have cleared the forests, drained the marshes, made roads, raised fords, laid out house and garden, grafted the rich fruits on the wild apple and pear-trees; the climate itself has become milder. I know Italy, I have bought marble in Venetia, but I would rather live here on the old inheritance of my fathers."
"But if the barbarians come, wilt thou then also?"----
"Stay! I have my own thoughts about that. For us unimportant people it is better under the barbarians than"----
"Say not, than under the Emperor. Thou art a Roman!"
The stout Crispus said this very gravely, but the other laughed; the good uncle but little resembled a Roman hero. His neighbours declared that he modelled his statues of Bacchus from his own figure.