"No, Aurelian, I've had a previous engagement to meet at my own house a man who is a celebrity in the city for his charity and skill in healing medicines. When my wife, Theodora, was so very ill last season, the old Grecian slave that nursed her said that, if permitted, she would seek Clement—that is his name—and told us of some wonderful cures he had wrought in her native country by an application of oil. I gladly accepted the offer. Clement, a venerable old man, effected Theodora's recovery. Since then he has been a frequent and welcome visitor at my house. If not too late, drop in when returning from the emperor's, and you will hear anecdotes of strange scenes and travels in many lands. Clement spends the evening with us."
"This, then, is what prevented your acceptance of Domitian's invitation?"
"Yes, and I assure you I look forward with more pleasure to an evening's conversation with my friend Clement than I would to the imperial festivities, although I understand no expense has been spared to make them surpass anything before witnessed, even the magnificence of Nero."
"Are you not afraid that your absence from the senatorial party will be noticed? Take care, lest, like the late Consul Clemens Domitilla, who scrupulously avoided those entertainments of the Saturnalia, you be suspected of a leaning toward the Jews. If so, your great popularity and worth would scarcely save you, as they did not save him, who was, moreover, cousin german of the emperor."
"Not I, Sisinnius! Afraid? Why, I am ready at any moment to sacrifice to the gods of my country and of my family. I to acknowledge as the only son of the supreme Jupiter a Jew, of whom we know nothing save that he was nailed on a cross by the procurator Pilate! Poor Clemens Domitilla! So unaffected, so earnest, so honorable! May his manes enjoy elysium! It has been always a mystery to me how a man of his education, of his intelligence, of his high position and practical sense, could have been infected with this Christian leprosy. To deny the gods worshipped by his forefathers since the days of Romulus and Numa, and to adore in their stead this crucified Jew, of whom we are beginning to hear so much of late—it is inexplicable."
"It is part of the infatuation which clouds betimes the greatest intellects," said Aurelian; and then, lowering his voice, he added: "Pardon me for introducing a subject which you must not mention to your wife Theodora, nor to my affianced, Flavia?"
"I have no secrets from my wife, Aurelian, nor should you from your betrothed. No two men in Rome have more reason to trust a wife and an affianced than have you and I."
"There was a time, Sisinnius, when I thought as you. Would I had no cause to think otherwise now! What if they are infected, as you express it, with this Christian leprosy, which led to the death of my betrothed's uncle, Clemens Domitilla?"
"But you know," whispered Sisinnius, "there was another motive for Clemens' execution—he was the most popular member of the imperial family. Domitian was jealous of his popularity and influence, as he is now jealous of this Jesus who is called King of the Jews, whose relatives he is seeking out in every quarter."