Palmyra be what Rome has been--mistress of the world? Who more fit to rule
than the great Zenobia? A few years may see great changes. Who can tell
what shall come to pass?' These, and many such sayings, were uttered by
those around me, accompanied by many significant gestures and glances of
the eye. I thought of them afterward. We now descended the hill, and the
long line of caravan moved on toward the city.




Letter II.



I fear lest the length of my first letter may have fatigued you, my
Curtius, knowing as I so well do, how you esteem brevity. I hope at this
time not to try your patience. But, however I may weary or vex you by my
garrulity, I am sure of a patient and indulgent reader in the dear
Lucilia, to whom I would now first of all commend myself. I salute her,
and with her the little Gallus. My writing to you is a sufficient proof
that I myself am well.

By reason of our delaying so long on that little hill, and at other
points, for the sake of drinking in full draughts of the unrivalled beauty
which lay spread over all the scenery within the scope of our vision, we
did not approach the walls of the city till the last rays of the sun were
lingering upon the higher buildings of the capital. This rendered every
object so much the more beautiful; for a flood of golden light, of a
richer hue, it seemed to me, than our sun ever sheds upon Rome, rolled
over the city, and plain, and distant mountains, giving to the whole a