conflict, upon a vast lake formed artificially for that express purpose.
Mimic land-fights were conducted, in which all the circumstances of real
war were so faithfully rehearsed, that even elephants "indorsed with
towers," twenty on each side, took part in the combat. Dramas were
represented in every known language, (_per omnium linguarum histriones_.)
And hence [that is, from the conciliatory feeling thus expressed towards
the various tribes of foreigners resident in Rome] some have derived an
explanation of what is else a mysterious circumstance amongst the
ceremonial observances at Caesar's funeral--that all people of foreign
nations then residing at Rome, distinguished themselves by the conspicuous
share which they took in the public mourning; and that, beyond all other
foreigners, the Jews for night after night kept watch and ward about the
emperor's grave. Never before, according to traditions which lasted
through several generations in Rome, had there been so vast a conflux of
the human race congregated to any one centre, on any one attraction of
business or of pleasure, as to Rome, on occasion of these spectacles
exhibited by Caesar.

In our days, the greatest occasional gatherings of the human race are in
India, especially at the great fair of the _Hurdwar_, in the northern
part of Hindostan; a confluence of many millions is sometimes seen at that
spot, brought together under the mixed influences of devotion and
commercial business, and dispersed as rapidly as they had been convoked.
Some such spectacle of nations crowding upon nations, and some such
Babylonian confusion of dresses, complexions, languages, and jargons, was
then witnessed at Rome. Accommodations within doors, and under roofs of
houses, or of temples, was altogether impossible. Myriads encamped along
the streets, and along the high-roads in the vicinity of Rome. Myriads of
myriads lay stretched on the ground, without even the slight protection of
tents, in a vast circuit about the city. Multitudes of men, even senators,