"Spondeo" (I promise), replied the lender.
The bargain was closed with these sober words, the alteration of a single syllable in which was sufficient to annul the operation, for the Romans professed a superstitious respect for the letter and formula of their laws.
In another group they were discussing the points which a slave must have in order to be useful to his master and to be maintained by him; and throughout the entire Forum this grave people, austere, and without ideals, talked only of possessions, and of the manner of increasing them.
The attention of the Greek was attracted by a youth who, although barely twenty years of age, displayed the gravity of an old man. His hair was red and close-cropped; his steady gaze gave him an expression of intelligence and penetration. He was walking slowly beside a boy who was listening to him attentively, as to his master.
"Although your father is consul," said the red-headed man, "you must not forget, Scipio, that in order to be a good citizen and to serve the Republic, it is necessary not only to know how to use the lance and to manage a horse, but to know how to till the soil, and to be familiar with the secrets of cultivation. Some day you may command our armies, and you will not only have to conquer lands for Rome, but cultivate them, so that they will produce abundantly. Do you realize that?"
"Yes, Cato," said the youth.
"Every day you should learn a month of the calendar which our forefathers made. With that well fixed in your memory it will be easier for you to command your slaves promptly and well in their work in the fields. Yesterday I taught you the month of May; repeat it, Scipio."
"Month of May," recited the boy wrinkling his brows in order to better concentrate his mind. "Thirty-one days. The nones fall on the seventh day. The day has fourteen and a half hours; the night nine hours and a half. The sun is in the sign of Taurus; the month is under the protection of Apollo. Wheat should be weeded. Sheep should be shorn. The wool should be washed. Young steers should be put under the yoke. The vetch should be mown in the meadows. The lustration of the crops should be performed. Sacrifices to Mercury and to Flora."
"You remember it well, Scipio. Our ancestors neither had nor desired any other science; they were satisfied with knowing what they should do in each month throughout the year, and with this, and with valor and audacity to hold their fields, and to take possession of the lands of their neighbors, they founded our city, which grows and will grow until it becomes the greatest in the world. We are not charlatans like the Greeks, who kneel in admiration before marble puppets and argue like buffoons about what comes after death. We are not madly ambitious like the Carthaginians, who base their life on commerce and risk all their wealth upon the sea. Our life is spent on the land; we are ruder but more solid than other people; we advance more slowly, but we shall go farther. On the soil which we tread for the first time we do not set up a tent as do others; we plunge in the plow, and that is why what Rome takes none wrests from her. Do not forget that, Scipio!"
The Athenian followed not far behind. The words of that man, old at twenty years, taught him more than his observations. Rome seemed to speak through his mouth in that lesson given to the son of one of her consuls.