CHAPTER II

The ramparts were thronged with people when at last Vitellius entered
the castle gates, leaning on the arm of his interpreter. Behind them
came an imposing red litter, decorated with plumes and mirrors. The
proconsul wore a toga ornamented with the laticlave, a broad purple band
extending down the front of the garment, indicating his rank; and his
feet were encased in the kind of buskins worn by consuls. A guard
of lictors surrounded him. Against the wall they placed their twelve
fasces--a bundle of sticks with an axe in the centre. And the populace
trembled before the insignia of Roman majesty.

The gorgeous litter, borne by eight men, came to a halt. From it
descended a youth. He wore many pearls upon his fingers, but he had
a protruding abdomen and his face was covered with pimples. A cup of
aromatic wine was offered to him. He drank it, and asked for a second
draught.

The tetrarch had fallen upon his knees before the proconsul, saying that
he was grieved beyond words not to have known sooner of the favour of
his presence within those domains; had he been aware of the approach
of his distinguished guest, he would have issued a command that every
person along the route should place himself at the proconsul's orders.
Of a surety, the proconsul's family was descended direct from the
goddess Vitellia. A highway, leading from the Janiculum to the sea,
still bore their name. Questors and consuls were innumerable in that
great family; and as for the noble Lucius, now his honoured guest, it
was the duty of the whole people to thank him, as the conqueror of
the Cliti and the father of the young Aulus, now returning to his own
domain, since the East was the country of the gods. These hyperboles