The very tribunes, factious and reckless as they were, potent for ill and powerless for good, presumed not to interpose. Not even Lucius Bestia, deep as he was in the design—Bestia, whose accusation of the consul from the rostrum was the concerted signal for the massacre, the conflagration—not Bestia himself, relied so far on the inviolability of his person, as to intrude his veto.
The good cause had prevailed—the good Consul triumphed! The Senate was dismissed, and as the stream of patrician togas flowed through the temple door conspicuous, the rash and reckless traitor shouldered the mass to and fro, dividing it as a brave galley under sail divides the murmuring but unresisting billows.
Once in the throng he touched Julius Cæsar's robe as he brushed onward, and as he did so, a word fell on his ear in the low harmonious tones which marked the orator, second to none in Rome, save Cicero alone!—
"Fear not," it said—"another day will come!—"
"Fear!—" exclaimed the Conspirator in a hoarse cry, half fury, half contempt. "What is fear?—I know not the thing, nor the word!—Go, prate of fear to Cicero, and he will understand you!"
These words perhaps alienated one who might have served him well.
But so it ever is! Even in the shrewdest and most worldly wise of men, passion will often outweigh interest; and plans, which have been framed for years with craft and patience, are often wrecked by the impetuous rashness of a moment.
END OF VOL. I.
Footnotes
[1.]Vicus sceleratus. So called because Tullia therein drove her chariot over her father's corpse.[2.]Τροιας αμακον αθιραβη κιονα.—Pindar[3.]That it was such, can scarce be doubted, from the line of Martial: "Myrrheaque in Parthis pocula cocta focis."[4.]It must not be imagined that this is fanciful. Rooms were fitted up in this manner, and termed camera vitræ, and the panels vitræ quadraturæ. But a few years later than the period of the text, B. C. 58, M. Æmilius Scaurus built a theatre capable of containing 80,000 persons, the scena of which, composed of three stories, had one, the central, made entirely of colored glass in this fashion.[5.]About £90 sterling. See Pliny Hist. Nat. 13, 16, for a notice of this very table, which was preserved to his time.[6.]By the Lex annalis, B. C. 180, passed at the instance of the tribune L. V. Tappulus.[7.]The Quinquertium, the same as the Greek Pentathlon, was a conflict in five successive exercises—leaping, the discus, the foot race, throwing the spear, and wrestling.[8.]The Aqua Crabra was a small stream flowing into the Tiber from the south-eastward, now called Maranna. It entered the walls near the Capuan gate, and passing through the vallis Murcia between the Aventine and Palatine hills, where it supplied the Circus Maximus with water for the naumachia, fell into the river above the Palatine bridge.[9.]The Muræna Helena, which we commonly translate Lamprey, was a sub-genus of the Conger; it was the most prized of all the Roman fish, and grew to the weight of twenty-five or thirty pounds. The value set upon them was enormous; and it is said that guilty slaves were occasionally thrown into their stews, to fatten these voracious dainties.[10.]The aureus was a gold coin, as the name implies, worth twenty-five denarii, or about seventeen shillings and nine pence sterling.[11.]The stylus was a pointed metallic pencil used for tracing letters on the waxen surface of the table.[12.]The cavalry attached to every legion, consisting of three hundred men, was divided into ten troops, turmæ of thirty each, which were subdivided into decuriæ of ten, commanded by a decurio, the first elected of whom was called dux turmæ, and led the troop.[13.]The guests at Roman banquets usually brought their own napkins, mappæ, and wore robes of bright colors, usually flowered, called cænateriæ or cubitoriæ.[14.]Pro certo creditur, necato filio, vacuam domum scelestis nuptiis fecisse.[15.]The Petasus was a broad brimmed hat of felt with a low round crown. It was originally an article of the Greek dress, but was adopted by the Romans.[16.]Seven thousand talents, about 7,500,000 dollars.[17.]The classical reader will perhaps object to the introduction of the Alcaic measure at this date, 62 B. C., it being generally believed that the Greek measures were first adapted to the Latin tongue by Horace, a few years later. The desire of giving a faint idea of the rhythm and style of Latin song, will, it is hoped, plead in mitigation of this very slight deviation from historical truth—the rather that, in spite of Horace's assertion,