CHAPTER II.
The Alexandrians were a stiff-necked generation. Only some phenomenalsight far transcending their every-day experience could avail to makethem turn their heads to stare at it, but just now there was somethingto look at, at every moment and in every street of the city. To-daytoo each one thought only of himself and of his own pleasure. Someparticularly pretty, tall, or well-dressed figure would give rise toa smile or an exclamation of approval, but before one sight had beenthoroughly enjoyed the inquisitive eye was seeking a fresh one.
Thus it happened that no one paid any special attention to Hadrian andhis companions who allowed themselves to be unresistingly carried alongthe streets by the current of the crowd; and yet each one of them was,in his way, a remarkable object. Hadrian was dressed as Silenus, Polluxas a faun. Both wore masks and the disguise of the younger man was aswell suited to his pliant and vigorous figure as that of the elder tohis powerful stately person. Antinous followed his master, dressed asEros. He wore a crimson mantle and was crowned with roses, while thesilver quiver on his shoulder and the bow in his hand clearly symbolizedthe god he was intended to represent. He too wore a mask, but his figureattracted many gazers, and many a greeting of "Long live the god oflove" or "Be gracious to me oh! son of Aphrodite" was spoken as hepassed.
Pollux had obtained all the things requisite for these disguises fromthe store of drapery belonging to his master. Papias had been out, butthe young man did not deem it necessary to ask his consent, for he andthe other assistants had often used the things for similar purposes withhis full permission. Only as he took the quiver intended for Antinous,Pollux hesitated a little for it was of solid silver and had beengiven to his master by the wife of a wealthy cone-dealer, whom he hadrepresented in marble as Artemis equipped for the chase.
"The Roman's handsome companion," thought the young artist as he placedthe costly object in with the others in a basket, which a squintingapprentice was to carry behind him--"The Roman's handsome companion mustbe made a splendid Eros--and before sunrise the useless thing will behanging on its hook again."
Indeed Pollux had not much time to admire the splendid appearance ofthe god of love he had so richly adorned, for the Roman architect waspossessed by such thirst for knowledge and such inexhaustible curiosityas to the minutest details that even Pollux who was born in Alexandria,and had grown up there with his eyes very wide open, was often unable toanswer his indefatigable questioning.
The grey-bearded master wanted to see every thing and to be informedon every subject. Not content with making acquaintance with the mainstreets and squares the public sites and buildings, he peeped into thehandsomest of the private houses and asked the names, rank and fortunesof the owners. The decided way in which he told Pollux the way he wishedto be conducted proved to the artist that he was thoroughly familiarwith the plan of the city. And when the sagacious and enlightened manexpressed his approval, nay his admiration of the broad clean streets ofthe town, the handsome open places, and particularly handsome buildingswhich abounded on all sides, the young Alexandrian who was proud of hiscity was delighted.
First Hadrian made him lead him along the seashore by the Bruchiomto the temple of Poseidon, where he performed some devotions, then helooked into the garden of the palace and the courts of the adjoiningmuseum. The Caesareum with its Egyptian gateway excited his admirationno less than the theatre, surrounded with pillared arcades in stories,and decorated with numerous statues. From thence deviating to the leftthey once more approached the sea to visit the great Emporium, to seethe forest of masts of Eunostus, and the finely-constructed quays. Theyleft the viaduct known as the Heptastadion to their right and the harborof Kibotus, swarming with small merchant craft, did not detain themlong.
Here they turned backs on the sea following a street which led inlandthrough the quarter called Khakotis inhabited only by native Egyptians,and here the Roman found much to see that was noteworthy. First he andhis companions met a procession of the priests who serve the gods of theNile valley, carrying reliquaries and sacred vessels, with images of thegods and sacred animals, and tending towards the Serapeum which toweredhigh above the streets in the vicinity. Hadrian did not visit thetemple, but he inspected the chariots which carried people along aninclined road which led up the hill on which was the sanctuary, andwatched devotees on foot who mounted by an endless flight of stepsconstructed on purpose; these grew wider towards the top, terminatingin a platform where four mighty pillars bore up a boldly-curved cupola.Nothing looked down upon the temple-building which with its halls,galleries and rooms rose behind this huge canopy.
The priests with their white robes, the meagre, half-naked Egyptianswith their pleated aprons and headcloths, the images of beasts and thewonderfully-painted houses in this quarter of the city, particularlyattracted Hadrian's attention and made him ask many questions, not allof which could Pollux answer.
Their walk which now took them farther and farther from the sea extendedto the extreme south of the town and the shores of lake Mareotis. Nileboats and vessels of every form and size lay at anchor in this deep andsheltered inland sea; here the sculptor pointed out to Hadrian the canalthrough which goods were conveyed to the marine fleet which had beenbrought down the river to Alexandria. And he pointed out to the Romanthe handsome country-houses and well-tended vineyards on the shores ofthe lake.
"The bodies in this city ought to thrive," said Hadrian meditatively."For here are two stomachs and two mouths by which they absorbnourishment; the sea, I mean, and this lake."
"And the harbors in each," added Pollux.
"Just so; but now it is time we should turn about," replied Hadrian, andthe party soon took a road leading eastward; they walked without pausethrough the quiet streets inhabited by the Christians, and finallythrough the Jews' quarter. In the heart of this quarter many houseswere shut up, and there were no signs to be seen of the gay doings whichcrowded on the sense and fancy in the heathen part of the town, forthe stricter among the Hebrews held sternly aloof, from the holidayfestivities in which most of their nation and creed who dwelt among theGreeks, took part.
For a third time Hadrian and his companions crossed the Canopic waywhich formed the main artery of the city and divided it into thenorthern and southern halves, for he wished to look down from the hillof the Paneum on the combined effect as a whole of all that he had seenin detail. The carefully-kept gardens which surrounded this elevationswarmed with men, and the spiral path which led to the top was crowdedwith women and children, who came here to see the most splendidspectacle of the whole day, which closed with performances in all thetheatres in the town. Before the Emperor and his escort could reachthe Paneum itself the crowd suddenly packed more closely and beganexclaiming among themselves, "Here they come!" "They are early to-day!""Here they are!"
Lictors with their fasces over their shoulders were clearing the broadroadway, which led from the prefect's on the Bruchiom to the Paneum,with their staves and paying no heed to the mocking and witty speechesaddressed to them by the mob wherever they appeared. One woman, as shewas driven back by a Roman guardian of the peace, cried scornfully,"Give me your rods for my children and do not use them on unoffendingcitizens."
"There is an axe hidden among the faggots," added an Egyptianletter-writer in a warning voice.
"Bring it here," cried a butcher. "I can use it to slaughter my beasts."The Romans as they heard these bandied words felt the blood mountingto their faces, but the prefect, who knew his Alexandrians well, hadcounselled them to be deaf; to see everything but to hear nothing. Nowthere appeared a cohort of the Twelfth Legion, who were quartered ingarrison in Egypt, in their richest arms and holiday uniforms. Behindthem came two files of particularly tall lictors wearing wreaths,and they were followed by several hundred wild beasts, leopardsand panthers, giraffes, gazelles, antelopes, and deer, all led bydark-colored Egyptians. Then came a richly-dressed and much be-wreathedDionysian chorus with the sound of tambourines and lyres, double flutesand triangles, and finally, d
rawn by ten elephants and twenty whitehorses, a large ship, resting on wheels and gilt from stem to stern,representing the vessel in which the Tyrrhenian pirates were said tohave carried off the young Dionysus when they had seen the black-hairedhero on the shore in his purple garments. But the miscreants--so themyth went on to say--were not allowed long to rejoice in their violence,for hardly had the ship reached the open sea when the fetters droppedfrom the god, vines entwined the sails in sudden luxuriance, tendrilsencumbered the oars and rudder, heavy grapes clustered round the ropes,and ivy clung to the mast and shrouded the seats and sides of thevessel. Dionysus is equally powerful on sea and on land; in the pirates'ship he assumed the form of a lion, and the pirates, filled with terror,flung themselves into the sea, and in the form of dolphins followedtheir lost bark.
All this Titianus had caused to be represented just as the Homerichymns described it, out of slight materials, but richly and elegantlydecorated, in order to provide a feast for the eyes of the Alexandrians,with the intention of riding in it himself, with his wife and the mostillustrious of the Romans who formed the Empress' suite, to enjoy allthe Holiday doings in the chief streets of the city. Young and old,great and small, men and women, Greeks, Romans, Jews, Egyptians,foreigners dark and fair, with smooth hair or crisp wool, crowded withequal eagerness to the edge of the roadway to see the gorgeous boat.
Hadrian, far more anxious to see the show than his younger but lessexcitable favorite, pushed into the front rank, and as Antinous wastrying to follow him, a Greek boy, whom he had shoved aside, snatchedhis mask from his face, threw himself on the ground, and slipped nimblyoff with his booty. When Hadrian looked round for the Bithyman, theship-in which the prefect was standing between the images of the Emperorand Empress, while Julia, Balbilla, and her companion, and other Romanlords and ladies were sitting in it--had come quite near to them. Hissharp eye had recognized them all, and fearing that the lad's uncoveredface would betray them he cried out:
"Turn round and get into the crowd again." The favorite immediatelyobeyed, and only too glad to escape from the crowd, which was a thinghe detested, he sat down on a bench close to the Paneum, and lookeddreamily at the ground while he thought of Selene and the nosegay hehad sent her, neither seeing nor hearing anything of what was going onaround him.
When the gaudy ship left the gardens of the Paneum and turned intothe Canopic way, the crowd pursued it in a dense mass, hallooing andshouting. Like a torrent suddenly swelled by a storm it rushed on,surging and growing at each moment, and carrying with it even those whotried to resist its force. Thus even Hadrian and Pollux were forced tofollow in its wake, and it was not till they found themselves in thebroad Canopic way that they were able to come to a stand-still. Thebroad roadway of this famous street was bordered on each side by a longvista of colonnade, and it extended from one end of the city to theother. There were hundreds of the Corinthian columns which supported theroof that covered the footway, and near to one of these the Emperor andPollux succeeded at last in effecting a halt and taking breath.
Hadrian's first thought was for his favorite, and being averse toventuring himself once more to mix with the crowd, he begged thesculptor to go and seek him and conduct him safely.
"Will you wait for me here?" asked Pollux.
"I have known a pleasanter halting place," sighed the Emperor.
"So have I," answered the artist. "But that tall door there, wreathedround with boughs of poplar and ivy, leads into a cook-shop where thegods themselves might be content to find themselves."
"Then I will wait there."
"But I warn you to eat as much as you can, for the Olympian table' askept by Lykortas, the Corinthian, is the dearest eating-house in thewhole city. None but the richest are his guests."
"Very good," laughed Hadrian. "Only find my assistant a new mask andbring him back to me. It will not ruin me quite, even if I pay fora supper for all three of us, and on a holiday one expects to spendsomething."
"I hope you may not live to repent," retorted Pollux. "But a long fellowlike me is a good trencherman, and can do his part with the wine-jar."
"Only show me what you can do," cried Hadrian after him as Polluxhurried off. "I owe you a supper at any rate, for that cabbage stew ofyour mother's."
While Pollux went to seek the Bithyman in the vicinity of the Paneum,the Emperor entered the eating house, which the skill of the cook hadmade the most frequented and fashionable in Alexandria. The place inwhich most of the customers of the house dined, consisted of a largeopen hall, surrounded by arcades which were roofed in on three ofits sides and closed by a wall on its fourth; in these arcades stoodcouches, on which the guests reclined singly, or in couples, or inlarger groups, and ordered the dishes and liquors which the servingslaves, pretty boys with curling hair and hand some dresses, placedbefore them on low tables. Here all was noise and bustle; at onetable an epicure devoted himself silently to the enjoyment of somecarefully-prepared delicacy, at another a large circle of men seemed tobe talking more eagerly than they either eat or drank, and from severalof the smaller rooms behind the wall at the back of the hall came soundsof music and song, and the bold laughter of men and women.
The Emperor asked for a private room, but they were all occupied, andhe was requested to wait a little while, for that one of the adjoining.rooms would very soon be vacant. He had taken off his mask, and thoughhe was not particularly afraid of being recognized in his disguise hechose a couch that was screened by a broad pillar in one of thearcades at the inner side of the court, and which, now that evening wasbeginning to fall was already in obscurity. There he ordered, first somewine and then some oysters to begin, with; while he was eating these hecalled one of the superintendents and discussed with him the detailsof the supper he wished presently to be served to himself and his twoguests. During this conversation the bustling host came to make hisbow to his new customer, and seeing that he had to do with a man fullyconversant with all the pleasures of the table, he remained to attend onhim, and entered with special zeal into Hadrian's various requirements.
There was, too, plenty to be seen in the court, which roused thecuriosity of the most inquisitive and enquiring man of his time. In thelarge space enclosed by the arcades, and under the eyes of the guests,on gridirons and hearths, over spits and in ovens the various disheswere prepared which were served up by the slaves. The cooks preparedtheir savory messes on large, clean tables, and the scene of theirlabors, which, though enclosed by cords was open to public gaze wassurrounded by a small market, where however only the choicest of wareswere displayed.
Here in tempting array was every variety of vegetable reared on Greek orEgyptian soil; here speckless fruits of every size and hue were set out,and there ready baked, shining, golden-brown pasties were displayed.Those containing meat, fish or the mussels of Canopus were prepared inAlexandria itself, but others containing fruit or the leaves of flowerswere brought from Arsinoe on the shores of Lake Moeris, for in thatneighborhood the cultivation of fruit and horticulture generally werepursued with the greatest success. Meat of all sorts lay or hung insuitable places; there were juicy hams from Cyrene, Italian sausages anduncooked joints of various slaughtered beasts. By them lay or hung gameand poultry in select abundance, and a large part of the court was takenup by a tank in which the choicest of the scaly tribes of the Nile,and of the lakes of Northern Egypt, were swimming about as well asthe Muraena and other fish of Italian breed. Alexandrian crabs and themussels, oysters, and cray-fish of Canopus and Klysma were kept alive inbuckets or jars. The smoked meats of Mendes and the neighborhood ofLake Moeris hung on metal pegs, and in a covered but well-aired room,sheltered from the sun lay freshly-imported fish from the Mediterraneanand Red Sea. Every guest at the 'Olympian table' was allowed here toselect the meat, fruit, asparagus, fish, or pasty which he desired tohave cooked for him. The host, Lykortas, pointed out to Hadrian an oldgentleman who was busy in the court that was so prettily decorated withstill-life, engaged in choosing the raw materials of a banquet he
wishedto give some friends in the evening of this very day.
"It is all very nice and extremely good," said Hadrian, "but the gnatsand flies which are attracted by all those good things are unendurable,and the strong smell of food spoils my appetite."
"It is better in the side-rooms," said the host. "In the one kept foryou the company is now preparing to depart. In behind here the sophistsDemetrius and Pancrates are entertaining a few great men from Rome,rhetoricians or philosophers or something of the kind. Now they arebringing in the fine lamps and they have been sitting and talking atthat table ever since breakfast. There come the guests out of the sideroom. Will you take it?"
"Yes," said Hadrian. "And when a tall young man comes to ask for thearchitect Claudius Venato, from Rome, bring him in to me."
"An architect then, and not a sophist or a rhetorician," said mine host,looking keenly at the Emperor.
"Silenus,--a philosopher!"
"Oh the two vociferous friends there go about even on other days nakedand with ragged cloaks thrown over their lean shoulders. To-day they arefeeding at the expense of rich Josephus."
"Josephus! he must be a Jew and yet he is making a large hole in theham."
"There would be more swine in Cyrene if there were no Jews; they areGreeks like ourselves, and eat everything that is good."
Hadrian went into the vacant room, lay down on a couch that stood by thewall, and urged the slaves who were busied in removing the dishes andvessels used by his predecessors, and which were swarming with flies.As soon as he was alone he listened to the conversation which was beingcarried on between Favorinus, Florus, and their Greek guests. He knewthe two first very well, and not a word of what they were saying escapedhis keen ear.
Favorinus was praising the Alexandrians in a loud voice, but in flowingand elegantly-accented Greek. He was a native of Arelas--[Arles]--inGaul, but no Hellene of them all could pour forth a purer flow of thelanguage of Demosthenes than he. The self-reliant, keen, and vivaciousnatives of the African metropolis were far more to his taste than theAthenians; these dwelt only in, and for, the past; the Alexandriansrejoiced in the present. Here an independent spirit still survived,while on the shores of the Ilissus there were none but servile souls whomade a merchandise of learning, as the Alexandrians did of the productsof Africa and the treasures of India. Once when he had fallen intodisgrace with Hadrian, the Athenians had thrown down his statue, andthe favor or disfavor of the powerful weighed with him more thanintellectual greatness, valuable labors, and true merit.
Florus agreed with Favorinus on the whole, and declared that Rome mustbe freed from the intellectual influence of Athens; but Favorinus didnot admit this; he opined that it was very difficult for any one who hadleft youth behind him, to learn anything new, thus referring, with lightirony, to the famous work in which Florus had attempted to divide thehistory of Rome into four periods, corresponding to the ages of man,but had left out old age, and had treated only of childhood, youth, andmanhood. Favorinus reproached him with overestimating the versatility ofthe Roman genius, like his friend Fronto, and underrating the Hellenicintellect.
Florus answered the Gaulish orator in a deep voice, and with such agrand flow of words, that the listening Emperor would have enjoyedexpressing his approbation, and could not help considering the questionas to how many cups of wine his usually placid fellow-countryman mighthave taken since breakfast to be so excited. When Floras tried to provethat under Hadrian's rule Rome had risen to the highest stage of itsmanhood, his friend, Demetrius, of Alexandria, interrupted him, andbegged him to tell him something about the Emperor's person. Floruswillingly acceded to this request, and sketched a brilliant pictureof the administrative talent, the learning, and the capability of theEmperor.
"There is only one thing," he cried eagerly, "that I cannot approve of;he is too little at Rome, which is now the core and centre of the world.He must need see every thing for himself, and he is always wanderingrestlessly through the provinces. I should not care to change with him!"
"You have expressed the same ideas in verse," said Favorinus.
"Oh! a jest at supper-time. So long as I am in Alexandria and waitingon Caesar I can make myself very comfortable every day at the 'Olympiantable' of this admirable cook."
"But how runs your poem?" asked Pancrates.
"I have forgotten it, and it deserved no better fate," replied Florus.
"But I," laughed the Gaul, "I remember the beginning. The first lines, Ithink, ran thus:
"'Let others envy Caesar's lot; To wander through Britannia's dales And be snowed up in Scythian vales Is Caesar's taste--I'd rather not?'"
As he heard these words Hadrian struck his fist into the palm of hisleft hand, and while the feasters were hazarding guesses as to why hewas so long in coming to Alexandria, he took out the folding tablet hewas in the habit of carrying in his money-bag, and hastily wrote thefollowing lines on the wax face of it:
'Let others envy Florus' lot; To wander through the shops for drink, Or, into foolish dreaming sink In a cook-shop, where sticky flies Buzz round him till he shuts his eyes Is Florus' taste--I'd rather not?'
[From verses by Hadrian and Florus, preserved in Spartianus.]
Hardly had he ended the lines, muttering them to himself with muchrelish as he wrote, when the waiter showed in Pollux. The sculptor hadfailed to find Antinous, and suggested that the young man had probablygone home; he also begged that he might not be detained long at supper,for he had met his master Papias, who had been extremely annoyed by hislong absence. Hadrian was no longer satisfied with the artist's society,for the conversation in the next room was to him far more attractivethan that of the worthy young fellow. He himself was anxious to quitthe meal soon, for he felt restless and uneasy. Antinous could no doubteasily find his way to Lochias, but recollections of the evil omens hehad observed in the heavens last night flitted across his soul like batsthrough a festal hall, marring the pleasure on which he again tried toconcentrate it, in order to enjoy his hours of liberty.
Even Pollux was not so light-hearted as before. His long walk had madehim hungry, and he addressed himself so vigorously to the excellentdishes which rapidly followed each other by his entertainer's orders,and emptied the cup with such unfailing diligence, that the Emperor wasastonished: but the more he had to think about, the less did he talk.
Pollux, to be sure, had had his answer ready for his master, and withoutconsidering how easy it would have been to part from him in kindness, hehad shortly and roundly quitted his service. Now indeed he stood on hisown feet, and he was longing to tell Arsinoe and his parents of what hehad done.
During the course of the meal his mother's advice recurred to his mind:to do his best to win the favor and good will of the architect whoseguest he was; but he set it aside, for he was accustomed to owe all hegained to his own exertions, and though he still keenly felt in Hadrianthe superiority of a powerful mind, their expedition through the cityhad not brought him any nearer to the Roman. Some insurmountable barrierstood fixed between himself and this restless, inquisitive man, whorequired so many answers that no one else had time to ask a question,and who when he was silent looked so absorbed and unapproachable thatno one would have ventured to disturb him. The bold young artist had,however, tried now and again to break through the fence, but each time,he had at once been seized with a feeling, of which he could not ridhimself, that he had done something awkward and unbecoming. He feltin his intercourse with the architect as a noble dog might feel thatsported with a lion, and such sport could come to no good. Thus, forvarious reasons, host and guest were well content when the last dish wasremoved. Before Pollux left the room the Emperor gave him the tabletswith the verses and begged him, with a meaning smile, to desire thegate-keeper at the Caesareum to give them to Annaeus Florus the Roman.He once more urgently charged the sculptor to look about for his youngfriend and, if he should find him at Lochias, to tell him that he
,Claudius Venator, would return home ere long. Then the artist went hisway.
Hadrian still sat a long time listening to the talk close by; but afterwaiting for above an hour to hear some fresh mention made of himself,he paid his reckoning and went out into the Canopic way, now brilliantlylighted. There he mingled with the revellers, and walked slowly onward,seeking suspiciously and anxiously for his vanished favorite.