By murder of his mother's son,
As Misadelphos must be known."

"Indeed!" murmured Caesar, with a pale face, and then he went on in a
low, sullen tone: "Always the same story--my brother, and my small
stature. In this town they follow the example of the barbarians, it
would seem, who choose the tallest and broadest of their race to be king.
If the third epigram has nothing else in it, the shallow wit of your
fellow-citizens is simply tedious.--Now, what have we next? Trochaics!
Hardly anything new, I fear!--There is the water-jar. I will drink; fill
the cup." But Alexander did not immediately obey the command so hastily
given; assuring Caesar that he could not possibly read the writing, he
was about to take up the tablets. But Caesar laid his hand on them, and
said, imperiously: "Drink! Give me the cup."

He fixed his eyes on the wax, and with difficulty deciphered the clumsy
scrawl in which Alexander had noted down the following lines, which he
had heard at the "Elephant"

"Since on earth our days are numbered,
Ask me not what deeds of horror
Stain the hands of fell Tarautas.
Ask me of his noble actions,
And with one short word I answer,
'None!'-replying to your question
With no waste of precious hours."

Alexander meanwhile had done Caracalla's bidding, and when he had
replaced the jar on its stand and returned to Caesar, he was horrified;
for the emperor's head and arms were shaking and struggling to and fro,