Part 5 (2/2)
”Conjure your iination!” Pertinax retorted ”I am to inquire into the suitability of Antioch or Daphne as the site of the Olyames that the eine, I suppose, how profitable that would be for Antioch-and you Am I to tell the eovernment make the selection of Antioch unwise?”
They stared at each other silently across the table, Pertinax erect and definite, the governor of Antioch indefinite and stroking his chin with fat, white fingers
”It would be siovernor of Antioch at last, ”to have Norbanus executed”
”Sons proscription lists!” said Pertinax ”Has it ever occurred to you to wonder how ions in the distant provinces were certified as dead before they left Roovernor of Antioch sht be tricks he did not understand
”I have a prisoner,” he said, ”who ht be Norbanus He has been tortured He refused to identify himself”
”Does he look like him?”
”That would be difficult to say He broke into a jeweler's and was very badly beaten by the slaves, who slashed his face, which is heavily bandaged He appears to be a Roman and is certainly a thief, but beyond that-”
”Much depends on who is interested in hiested ”Usually a overnor of Antioch's fat hand esture ”He has no friends He has been in the carceres (the cells in which prisoners were kept who had been sentenced to death Under Roman law there was practically no i, banishment were the substitutes for execution)hiaotten him I rite out a warrant for Norbanus' execution and it shall be attended to this ames-”
”The emperor, I think, would like to see them held in Antioch,” said Pertinax
Theto the baths stood curiously for a while to watch one of the rapidly increasing sect of Christians, who leaned frolot crowd of freedmen, slaves and idlers He was bearded, brown-skinned from exposure, brown- robed, scrawny, vehement
”Peculiar times!” one ather while we prated about refusal to do hoe to the Gods-of whom mind you, the emperor is one, and not the least-”
”But let us listen,” said the other
The man's voice was resonant He used no tricks of oratory such as Romans over-valued, and was not too careful in the choice of phrases The Greek idioe of the market-place and harbor-front He uide to far-off countries giving information:
”Slaves-freedmen-masters-all are equal before God, and on the last day all shall rise up from the dead-”
A loiterer heckled him:
”Hah! The crucified too?-what about Maternus?”
The preacher, throwing up his right hand, snatched at opportunity:
”There were two thieves crucified, one on either hand, as I have told you To the one was said: 'This day shalt thou be withNevertheless, all shall rise up from the dead on the last day-you, and your friends, and the wise and the fools, and the slave and the free-aye, and Maternus also-”
One rinned to the other:
”Yet I think it was on the first night that Maternus rose up! They stiffen if they stay a whole night on the cross If he could walk to Daphne three nights later, he had not been crucified ets there If one is late those insolent attendants lose one's clothing, and there is no chance whatever of getting a good soft-handed slave to rub one down Don't you hate to be currycoers?”
V ROME-THE THERMAE OF titUS
There were even birds, to fill the air with music All the knoorld, and the far-away mysterious lands of which Alexander's followers had started legends o, had contributed to Roh in spite of distances The city had becoy, virility and vice of east and west-a glory of ilded cornices, of doeousness and squalor-license, privilege and rigid forance-and of innumerable Gods