Caesareum?" replied the other.

"Alas! I did," said the first speaker, but he said no more perceiving,
close behind him, a Roman lictor who bore over his left shoulder his
fasces, a bundle of elmrods skilfully tied together, and who, with a wand
in his right-hand and the assistance of his comrades, was endeavoring to
part the crowd and make room for the chariot of his master, Titianus, the
imperial prefect, which came slowly in the rear. This high official had
overheard the citizens' heedless words, and turning to the man who stood
beside him, while with a light fling he threw the end of his toga into
fresh folds, he said:

"An extraordinary people! I cannot feel annoyed with them, and yet I
would rather walk from here to Canopus on the edge of a knife than on
that of an Alexandrian's tongue."

"Did you hear what the stout man was saying about Verus?"

"The lictor wanted to take him up, but nothing is to be done with them
by violence. If they had to pay only a sesterce for every venomous word,
I tell you Pontius, the city would be impoverished and our treasury would
soon be fuller than that of Gyges at Sardis."

"Let them keep their money," cried the other, the chief architect of the
city, a man of about thirty years of age with highly-arched brows and
eager piercing eyes; and grasping the roll he held in his hand with a
strong grip, he continued:

"They know how to work, and sweat is bitter. While they are busy they
help each other, in idleness they bite each other, like unbroken horses