'I have.'
'Are the edicts ready?'
'They are.'
'Again then at the hour of noon let them glare forth upon the enemies of Rome from the columns of the capitol. Let Varus be so instructed. Now I would be alone.'
Whereupon the priest withdrew, and I also rose from where I had sat, to take my leave, when the Emperor said,
'This seems harsh to thee, Nicomachus?'
'I cannot but pray the gods,' I said, 'to change the mind of Aurelian!'
'They have made his mind what it is, Nicomachus.'
'Not they,' I said, 'but Fronto.'
'But,' he quickly added, 'the gods made Fronto, and have put their mind in him, or it has never been known on earth. You know not the worth, Greek, of this man. Had Rome possessed such a one two hundred years ago, this work had not now to be done.'