Part 6 (1/2)
There was nobility and love of virtue, cheek by joith beastliness, nor was it always easy to discover which hich; but the birds sang blithely in the cages in the portico, where the long seat was on which philosophers discoursed to any one who cared to listen The baths that the Emperor titus built were the supreround, where the whipped slaves sweated in the dark, to doold and colored glass, they typified Rome, as the city herself was of the essence of the world
The approach to the Therh to be borne by eight h for company Women oftener than men shared litters with friends; then the troupe of attendants was doubled; slaves were in droves, flocks, hordes around the building, ht of it in their liveries, which were adaptations of the every-day costumes of almost all the countries of the knoorld
Under the entrance portico, between the double row ofof fortune-tellers of both sexes, privileged because the aedile of that year had superstitious leanings, but as likely as not to be driven away, and even whipped, when the nextthe crowd ran tipsters, touts for ga dens and sellers of char the slaves, who had nothing to do but wait, and stare, and yawn until their masters came out from the baths They were raw, inexperienced slaves who had not a coin or two to spend
Within the entrance of the Thermae was a marble court, where better known philosophers discoursed on topics of the day, each to his own group of admirers A Christian, dressed like any other Roman, held one corner with a crowd around hiainst the prevalent cynical materialism and the vortex of fashi+on was also the cauldron of new aspirations and the battle-ground of wits
Beyond the inner entrance were the two disrobing rooht where slaves, whose insolence had grown into a cultivated art, exchanged the folded garments for a bracelet with a nureen- veined idariue was surrounded by a mosaic promenade beneath a bronze and led indiscri wits, exchanging gossip, soed on the ainst the wall between the statues
There was not one gesture of indecency A man who had stared at a woman would have been thrown out, execrated and forever more refused admission But out in the street, where the litter-bearers and attendants whiled away the time, there were tales told that spread to the ends of the earth
On a bench of black marble, between two statues of the Grecian Muses, Pertinax sat talking with Bultius Livius, sub-prefect of the palace They were both pink-skinned fro in the pool, and the white scars, won in frontier wars, showed all the more distinctly Boltius Livius was a clean-shaven, sharp-looking man with a thin-lipped air of keenness
”This dependence on Marcia can easily be overdone,” he reht He lowered his voice ”nobody kno long her hold over Caesar will last She owns hihts in letting her revoke his orders; it's a fors purposely to have her overrule hiht it would”
”It will last as long as she and her Christians spy for him and make life pleasant,” said Pertinax
”Exactly But that is the difficulty,” Livius answered, ain restlessly There was not much risk of informers in the Thermae, but a man never kneho his enemies were ”Marcia represents the Christians, and the idiots won't let well enough alone By Hercules, they have it all their oay, thanks to Marcia They are allowed to hold their nored They even go unpunished if they don't salute Caesar's iot so now that if a man condemned to death pretends he is a Christian they're even allowed to rescue him out of the carceres! That's Juno's truth: I know of a dozen instances But it's the old story: Put a beggar on a horse and he will de theladiatorial coh if you like I have it froin by abolishi+ng the execution of criminals in the arena Shades of Nero! They keep after Marcia day and night to dissuade Caesar fro part in the spectacles, on the theory that he helps to make them popular”
”What do they propose to substitute in popular esteeh for anything, and their hold over Marcia is beyond belief The next thing you'll know, they'll persuade her it's against religion to be Caesar'soff the branch they're sitting on By Hercules, I hope they do it! Soo down in the scraive Christian reasons to the emperor?” asked Pertinax, his forehead puzzled
”No, no No, by Hercules No, no Marcia is as skillful athorses She talks about the dignity of Caesar and the glory of Roues that if he continues to keep co part in the coin to despise him”
”Ro a mere flicker of a smile ”But only let Commodus once wake up to the fact and-”
Bultius Livius nodded
”He will return the compliment and show us how to despise at wholesale, eh? Marcia's life and yours and mine wouldn't be worth an hour's purchase The problerows intolerant of friendly hints I ht matched German' litter-bearers-beauties-they cost a fortune-and I took the opportunity to have a chat with her She told h-she laughed-shethough she is, the wine of influence is going to her head You knohat that portends Few men, and feomen, can drink deeply of that wine and-”
”She comes,” said Pertinax
There was a stir near the bronze door leading to the woreetings, Marcia in their er than was necessary to return the wave of the hand hich Marcia greeted every one before walking down the steps into the plunge She did not even wear the customary bracelet with its numbered metal disk; not even the attendants at the Ther of the e of twelve had flung a slave into the furnace because the water was too hot, would have made short work of any one who mislaid Marcia's apparel
She did not belie her reputation It was no wonder that the sculptors claimed that every new Venus they turned out was Marcia's portrait Her beauty, as her toes touched water, was like that of Aphrodite rising froolden on her brown hair and her glossy skin She was a thing of sensuous delight, incapable of coarseness, utterly untouched by the suggestion of vulgarity, and yet-
”It is strange she should take up with fancy religions,” said Pertinax under his breath
She was pagan in every gesture, and not a patrician That was indefinable but evident to trained eyes Neither he, who knew her intimately, nor the newest, newly shaven son of a provincial for the first tiined her as anything except a rich ed into the pool and swa, cli-boards projected in tiers, one above the other, and passed through a bronze door into the first of the sweating rooms, evidently conscious of theno overt notice of it
”Who is to be the next to try to reason with her-you?” asked Boltius Livius
”No, not I I have shot my bolt,” said Pertinax and closed his eyes, as if to shut out sohts he did not relish There calint into Livius's eyes; he had a naue and its ramifications than even the sharp outline of his face would indicate