PART FOURTH
SAULUS IN ROME
CHAPTER XXXVIII
AWAITING TRIAL BEFORE NERO
It was a little past mid-day, after a toilsome journey, that Julius, with his notable prisoner, accompanied by Luke, Aristarchus, and a few soldiers, approached the city of the Cæsars. From the summit of a rise in the Appian Way, a few miles distant, Saulus had the first view of the place of his fateful residence. The long wall of blue Sabine mountains, with Soracte in the distance, enclosed the broad Campagna, which stretched across to the sea and around the base of the Alban hills. The great city seemed blended in one indiscriminate mass of color, in which were mingled every grade and variety of human domiciles, with colossal baths, temples, theatres, colonnades, and palaces, relieved by the gilded domes and roofs which flashed forth the brightness of the warm afternoon sun. As they approached the emporium, the great thoroughfare became more confusing and thronged. It seemed like a mighty, swift-flowing river with counter currents. Chariots, richly carved and gilded, drawn by three or four horses abreast, two and four wheeled vehicles of all qualities, luxurious litters, inlaid with mother of pearl, carried upon the shoulders of slaves, whose proud occupants looked down upon pedestrians, horsemen, and footmen [pg 482]of all nationalities, soldiers and civilians, patricians and beggars, formed a dense and endless moving panorama. It was the pulsation of the main artery near the heart of the world. On either side were countless tombs, architecturally beautiful, containing numerous bas-reliefs and inscriptions, including those of the Scipios, Cæcilia Metella, and others of notable fame, with endless statues, columns, and other stately memorials.
“What conflux issuing forth or passing in;
Prætors, Proconsuls to their provinces
Hasting, or on return, in robes of state,