CHAPTER IV.
_Panem et circenses!_ was the watchword of the Roman populace whenhungry or wearied.
The nation was really in a most admirable situation. It never knew theprosaic occupation of labour. The Caesars distributed gratis bread,wine, and oil, which were sent by the conquered provinces as tribute;and as for the games in the circus, the sovereigns strove to surpassone another in the magnificence of these entertainments.
Carinus excelled all the others by the great variety in these shows,and the reckless, extravagant splendour of their arrangement.
One day the whole arena was strewn with gold dust, so that the dustclouds whirled aloft by the hoofs of the trampling horses glitteredin the sunlight; and the quirites, whose garments were covered withit, went home actually gilded.
The next day the circus, as if by magic, was transformed into aprimeval forest. Giant oaks which had been brought with their rootsfrom the mountains, leafy palms conveyed in huge casks from the coastof Africa, had been planted in the midst of the huge space, and thestaring populace, who had just seen a desert covered with gold dust,had now come to admire, in the same spot, a great forest, beneathwhose shade appeared the rarest animals of the South and East, fromthe graceful giraffe to the shapeless hippopotamus--a perfectParadise, with trees ripening golden fruit, in whose foliage birdscarolled, amid whose branches serpents twined, and beneath which wildpeacocks and tame ostrichs preened their plumage.
When the people grew weary of gazing archers came and shot thebeautiful creatures. Then the forest was removed, and the next day thepopulace beheld in its place a sea on which whole navies fought bloodybattles.
Again, in midsummer, when everyone, languishing under the scorchingsunbeams, sought shelter in the shade, the people summoned to thecircus saw, with surprise bordering upon terror, a winter scene.
The circus was covered with snow, which had been brought in ships andcarts from the icy peaks of Noricum and Gallia, and over whichhundreds of pretty sledges were gliding amid the clear ringing oflittle bells--a sight never before witnessed by the Romans. In themidst of the arena icebergs towered aloft, on which lay strangelyformed seals, and over the surface of a round pond, where polishedglass took the place of ice, skilful skaters displayed their arts. Theshivering Romans wrapped their cloaks around them, wholly forgettingthat drops of perspiration were trickling down their brows from theheat; and while the skaters pelted the spectators with snowballs, theaudience, shouting in delight, enthusiastically cheered the Imperatorwho so generously provided for the amusement of his subjects.
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Let us now seek Carinus in his own palace. We will walk through theenormous building, which with its extensive gardens occupies the spaceof a whole quarter of the city. Gilded doors lead into corridors likestreets, which end in a peristyle supported by pillars. In the atriumthe whole court moves to and fro, slaves playing master and groomsplaying senator; and the entrance to the magnificent apartments ofCarinus is guarded by a brown-skinned Thracian giant.
Happy are those who can enter there!
For here man no longer walks on earth. These magnificent oval hallsallow admittance neither to the light of day nor to the season of theyear. Here there is neither winter nor summer, day nor night. Theapartment has no windows; lamps, perpetually burning behindtransparent curtains, diffuse a light whose steady glow is midwaybetween that of the sun and moonbeams. Here the best of every seasonof the year is represented: the warmth of summer, which is conductedhither by invisible pipes, the ice of winter, the flowers of spring,and the fruit of autumn. Carinus never knows whether it is dawn ortwilight, whether it rains or snows--with him pleasure is eternal.
There he lies among the cushions of his couch; before him is a tableladen with choice viands; around him a mob of sycophants, dancers,hetaerae, eunuchs, singing women, parrots, and poets.
His face is that of a youth satiated with every pleasure, pallid anddisfigured by large red freckles; his features express the wearinessof exhaustion. Only a few hairs are visible on his lips and his chin.
Two eunuchs are alternately lifting food to the Caesar's lips, foodwhich has already caused a violent headache, amid which a single dishhas perhaps cost hundreds of thousands, yet charms the palate solelyby its rarity. Carinus does not lift a finger; the corners of hismouth droop sullenly, and a motion of his eyes commands thefood-bearers to eat the expensive viands themselves.
Now ideally beautiful female slaves again lift golden goblets to hismouth; but he leaves them, too, untouched till at last a Phrygiantakes a sip of the spicy Cyprian wine and offers the intoxicatingliquor in her rosy lips. This stirs the torpid nerves of the Caesar,and drawing the slave toward him, he drinks from her coral mouth.
"I will marry this girl," he says, turning to one of the courtiers.
"You wedded the daughter of a proconsul yesterday, O my lord."
"I will divorce her to-day. Who is this slave's father?"
"A carpenter at the court."
"I will appoint him proconsul."
"This will be your ninth wife within four months."
Carinus drew the Phrygian down beside him and laid his head in herlap. Singing and dancing were going on around him, and Aevius, payingno heed to either, was declaiming before him. His iambics extolledwith shameless flattery all the qualities which Carinus did notpossess, his roseate complexion, his bold, fearless soul. He describedthe games with the utmost detail, and spared neither Jupiter norApollo, that he might laud Carinus above them.
"Alas, something oppresses and disturbs me. I don't know what it is,"whined Carinus.
Instantly two or three slaves were at his side, straightening hiscushions, arranging his hair, loosening his garments.
"Oh, it oppresses and disturbs me still."
"Perhaps Aevius's iambics trouble you," said Marcius, the Imperator'sbarber.
"Perhaps so. Stop, Aevius."
The poet bowed with an humble look, though secretly bursting withrage. The barber had interrupted his finest verses.
"What is it that disturbs me still?" groaned Carinus wrathfully."Guess! Must I think instead of you? Something irritates, somethingvexes me! I should like to be angry."
"I have guessed it," said the barber. "These few hairs of your beardwhich disfigure your glorious face and insolently tickle your majesticnose and lips are annoying you. O Carinus, have them removed! Yourface is so feminine in its beauty, and would be fairer still were itnot injured by these ugly signs of manhood!"
"You may be right, Marcius," replied the youth, and allowed the hairsto be plucked out, which operation was performed by the barber withsuch skill that, at its close, the Caesar appointed him prefect.
At the same moment a noise was heard outside the door. Severalrecognized the voice of old Mesembrius, who was trying to force hisway into the imperial apartments.
Galga, the gigantic Thracian doorkeeper, held the old man back, andtold him to come the next day. Carinus was asleep.
"This is the tenth time I have come here!" shouted the old man. "Onceyou said he was sleeping, again he was eating, the third time he wasbathing, and the fourth he was not at leisure. But I _will_ speak tohim."
It cost Galga a hard struggle before he could force the aged Senatorout of the atrium, and then it needed two or three slaves to push himthrough the door. Carinus was much pleased with Galga.
"Since you know how to guard my door so well, you deserve to be madeChancellor of Rome."
"And I? Do I deserve nothing, my lord?" asked Aevius in alarm.
"To you, Aevius, I will have a temple erected, in which every poetshall lay his verses upon your altar."
"I thank you, O Augustus, for the temple and the verses of beginners;but my Tusculum?"
"Surely you know on what condition I promised it."
"If by the power of my eloquence, the honey of my tongue, and themagic of my poetry, I induced that earthly goddess, Glyceria, torender you happy by her favor. Did I not bring her to you?"
"You brought her, doubtless; but what did it avail? After thisbewitching phantom had kindled my love to the utmost by the sight ofher charms, and lured my secrets from me, she suddenly laughed at me,thrust me from her, and left me, while I have longed for herpossession a hundred times more."
"Did you not have the power to detain by force the fair demon who hadentered the snare?"
"Ask my slaves what she did to them? When I commanded them to stop theaccursed enchantress she seized a goblet filled with wine, muttered afew strange words of incantation, and smoke and flames instantly rosefrom the cup. Then, with a face that inspired terror, she turned tothe slaves, crying in a ringing voice: 'Whoever does not throw himselfon the floor, and remain there motionless, will be instantlytransformed into a hog.' The dolts flung themselves down, and thebold sorceress walked over their heads to the door, where she blindedGalga so that he did not recover his sight for three days. But, OAevius, why do you compel me to talk so much? Why do you weary mythoughts and rob my tongue of its rest?"
Aevius probably thought that his own tongue was not so valuable, andbegan to babble: "Glorious Carinus! That woman is not worthy of yourlove, but of your contempt. I have discovered a far more precioustreasure, beside whom Glyceria is a pebblestone beside the diamond, ashooting star beside the sun, common wine beside nectar."
"Who is it?"
"The former is a virgin, the latter already a widow. The former hasnot yet loved at all; the latter has learned to hate love, and theformer's beauty is still more marvellous. She is a Christian maiden,who was captured a short time ago, thrown by your order, with hercompanions, to the lions, and lo! the starved beasts were tamed by herglance, crouched caressingly at her feet, and licked her hands. Iwitnessed this with my own eyes, O Augustus, and was amazed. Theguards of the animal cages took the girl from the midst of the lions,and gave her to the fiercest Illyrian legionaries. And what happened?An hour after these very soldiers were seen kneeling before her,listening with devout fervour to the words of magical power which fellfrom her lips; and when the tribunes attempted to take her away todeliver her to others, they defended her, and allowed themselves to beslain for her to the last man."
Carinus started from his pillows in great excitement; an unwonted fireglowed in his eyes. He pushed his last wife away from him and beckonedto Aevius:
"Let this girl be brought before me!"
The poet received the Caesar's command with deep satisfaction, and,provided with his seal ring, hastened directly to the prison.