Olybius well knows that the least faltering on his part would probably be followed by his being shown the mandate for Vopiscus to supersede him in the government; for which he determines to not give him the least pretence: hence he orders the immediate arrest of all suspected; convenes his council in the halls of justice, and announces thus his views:
“Hear me, ye priests on earth, ye gods in heaven!
By Vesta, and her virgin-guarded fires;
By Mars, the sire and guardian god of Rome;
By Antioch’s bright Apollo; by the throne
Of him whose thunder shakes the vaulted skies;
And that dread oath I add, that binds the immortals,
The unblessed waters of Tartarean Styx;
Last, by the avenger of despised vows,
The inevitable, serpent-haired Eumenides,