Up in the colonnade reserved for women were two Greek ladies, natives of Asia Minor: Myrtis, a matron of high rank, and her young friend Coryna, a maiden of medium height and of perfect mould, with a wealth of braided auburn hair. The matron wore a stola, a long tunic girded in broad folds under the breast, and a white palla, a wide upper garment, loosely over her shoulders. Her companion had a white robe with a broad purple border, and over it an azure palla covered with golden stars. Both ladies had refined feelings and elegant manners. They were in the Colosseum for the first time.
"What dost thou think of all this, my Myrtis?" enquired Coryna, with a marked expression of pain in her sympathetic countenance.
"Think," answered Myrtis, striving to repress her agitation; "in the dexterity of the combatants I had a gruesome interest, but upon the prostrate, dying men I cannot look"; and the stout but comely woman of tender feeling turned her fair head farther away from the ghastly sight below.
"It is horrible," remarked Coryna, casting a furtive glance into the arena.
"I cannot remain," said Myrtis, "but what would Titanus say?" and she glanced down over the intervening galleries to the podium, where her illustrious Roman husband sat.
Beside him was Coryna's brother, Tharsos, a distinguished young officer, wearing a toga, with a white lacerna or mantle of elegant form.
Behind Titanus stood his young son, Carnion, a raven-haired boy of twelve, dressed in the toga praetexta, a becoming garment of white with a wide edge of purple, and suspended from his neck the bulla, a round ornament of gold, worn especially by the children of the noble. He held in his hand a cluster of lilies, a little gift meant for Coryna, but which he had forgotten to hand over when entering the amphitheatre.
"See how Carnion is disturbed!" observed Coryna; "the dear boy turns away his head and will not look at the expiring horseman right underneath."
The mother saw her child's attitude with pleased eyes, indeed they were often on him.
"Though tender-hearted, yet my Carnion is brave and strong," said she with a smile of pride.