Volume I Part 31 (2/2)
”Stop! By holy Bacchus!” cried Balbus, ”it is the torture of Tantalus. It is all the same to me out of what I drink, whether from pistachio-wood or amethyst; but to listen to this list of divine dainties with a dry throat, is more than I can stand. Down with Cethegus, the tyrant! Let him die, if he lets us thirst!”
”I feel as if I were Emperor, and heard the roar of the faithful Roman populace! I will save my life and yield. Serve the dishes, slaves.”
At this the sound of flutes was heard from an outer room, and six slaves entered, marching in time to the music, with ivy in their s.h.i.+ning, anointed locks, and dressed in red mantles and white tunics.
They gave to each guest a snowy cloth of finest Sidonian linen, with purple fringes.
”Oh,” cried Ma.s.surius, a young merchant who traded princ.i.p.ally with beautiful slaves of both s.e.xes, and enjoyed the rather doubtful reputation of being a great critic in such wares, ”the best cloth is beautiful hair,” and he pa.s.sed his hands through the locks of a Ganymede who was kneeling near him.
”But, Kallistratos, I hope those flutes are of the female s.e.x. Up with the curtain; let the girls in.”
”Not yet,” ordered Cethegus. ”First drink, then kiss. Without Bacchus and Ceres, you know----”
”Venus freezes, but not Ma.s.surius!”
All at once lyres and citharas sounded from the side room, and there entered a procession of eight youths in s.h.i.+ning silken garments of a gold-green colour. Foremost the ”dresser” and the ”carver.” The other six bore dishes upon their heads. They pa.s.sed the guests with measured steps, and halted at the sideboard of citron-wood. While they were busy there, castanets and cymbals were heard from another part of the house; the large double doors turned upon their s.h.i.+ning bronze hinges, and a swarm of slaves in the becoming costume of Corinthian youths streamed into the room.
Some handed bread in ornamentally-perforated baskets; others whisked the flies away with fans of ostrich feathers and palm-leaves; some gracefully poured oil into the wall-lamps from double-handled vases; whilst others swept the crumbs from the mosaic pavement with besoms of Egyptian reeds, or helped Ganymede to fill the cups, which now were circling merrily.
The conversation grew more rapid and animated, and Cethegus, who, although he remained cool and collected, seemed to be quite lost in the enjoyment of the moment, charmed the young guests by his youthful gaiety.
”What do you say?” asked the host, ”shall we play dice between the dishes? There stands the dice-box, near Piso.”
”Well, Ma.s.surius,” observed Cethegus, with a sarcastic look at the slave-dealer, ”will you try your luck with me once more? Will you bet against me? Give him the dice-box, Syphax,” he said to the Moor.
”Mercury forbid!” answered Ma.s.surius, with comical fright. ”Have nothing to do with the Prefect he has inherited the luck of his ancestor, Julius Caesar.”
”Omen accipio!” laughed Cethegus. ”I accept the omen, with the dagger of Brutus into the bargain.”
”I tell you, he is a magician! Only lately he won an unwinnable bet against me about this black demon,” and the speaker threw a cactus-fig at the slave's face, but Syphax caught it cleverly with his s.h.i.+ning white teeth, and quietly ate it up.
”Well done, Syphax!” said Cethegus. ”Roses from the thorns of the enemy! Thou canst become a conjurer as soon as I let thee free.”
”Syphax does not wish to be free: he will always be your Syphax, and save your life as you saved his.”
”What is that--thy life?” asked Lucius Licinius.
”Did you pardon him?” asked Marcus.
”More than that, I bought him off.”
”Yes, with my money!” grumbled Ma.s.surius.
”You know that I immediately gave him the money I won from you as his private possession,” answered Cethegus.
”What about this bet? Let us hear. Perhaps it will afford a subject for my epigrams,” said Piso.
”Retire, Syphax. There! the cook is bringing us his masterpiece, it seems.”
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