CHAPTER III.
The prefect ordered the lictors, who were awaiting him with his chariot,to hasten to his house, and to conduct to Pontius several most worthyslaves, familiar with Alexandria--some of whom he named--and at the sametime to send the architect a good couch with pillows and coverlets, andto despatch a good meal and fine wine to the old palace at Lochias. Thenhe mounted his chariot and drove through the Bruchiom along the shore tothe great edifice known as the Caesareum. He got on but slowly, forthe nearer he approached his destination the denser was the crowdof inquisitive citizens, who stood closely packed round the vastcircumference of the building. Quite from a distance the prefect couldsee a bright light; it rose to heaven from the large pans of pitch whichwere placed on the towers on each side of the tall gate of the Caesareumwhich faced the sea. To the right and left of this gate stood a tallobelisk, and on each of these, men were lighting lamps which had beenattached to the sides and placed on the top, on the previous day.
"In honor of Sabina," said the prefect to himself. "All that thisPontius does is thoroughly done, and there is no more complete sinecurethan the supervision of his arrangements."
Fully persuaded of this he did not think it necessary to go up to theilluminated door-way which led into the temple erected by Octavian inhonor of Julius Caesar; on the contrary, he directed the charioteer tostop at a door built in the Egyptian style, which faced the garden ofthe palace of the Ptolemies, and which led to the imperial residencethat had been built by the Alexandrians for Tiberius, and had beengreatly extended and beautified under the later Caesars. A sacred grovedivided it from the temple of Caesar, with which it communicated bya covered colonnade. Before this door there were several chariots andhorses, and a whole host of slaves, black and white, were in attendancewith their masters' litters. Here lictors kept back the sight-seekingcrowd, officers were lounging against the pillars, and the Roman guardwere just assembling with a clatter of arms, to the sound of a trumpetwithin the door, to await their dismissal.
Everything gave way respectfully before the chariot of the prefect, andas Titianus walked through the illuminated arcades of the Caesareum,passing by the masterpieces of statuary placed there, and the rows ofpictures--and reached the halls in which the library of the palace waskept, he could not help thinking of all the care and trouble which withthe assistance of Pontius, he had for months devoted to rendering thispalace which had not been used since Titus had set out for Judaea, fitquarters for Hadrian's reception. The Empress now lived in the roomsintended for her husband, and decorated with the choicest works of art,and Titianus reflected with regret that, after Sabina had once becomeaware of their presence there, it would be quite impossible to transferthem to Lochias. At the door of the splendid room which he had intendedfor Hadrian he was met by Sabina's chamberlain who undertook to conducthim at once into the presence of his mistress.
The roof of the hall in which the prefect found the Empress, in summerwas open to the sky; but at this season was suitably covered in by amovable copper roof, partly to keep off the rain of the Alexandrianwinter, and partly too because, even in the warmer season Sabina waswont to complain of cold; but beneath it a wide opening allowed theair free entrance and exit. As Titianus entered the room a comfortablewarmth and subtle perfume met his senses; the warmth was produced bystoves of a peculiar form standing in the middle of the room; one ofthese represented Vulcan's forge. Brightly glowing charcoal lay infront of the bellows which were worked by an automaton, at short regularintervals, while the god and his assistants modelled in brass, stoodround the genial fire with tongs and hammers. The other stove was alarge silver bird's-nest, in which likewise charcoal was burning. Abovethe glowing fuel a phoenix, also in brass, and in the likeness of aneagle, seemed striving to soar heavenwards. Besides these a number oflamps lighted the saloon, which in truth looked too large for thenumber of people assembled in it, and which was lavishly furnishedwith gracefully-formed seats, couches, and tables, vases of flowers andstatues.
The prefect and Pontius had intended a quite different room to serve forsmaller assemblies, and had fitted it up suitably for the purpose,but the Empress had preferred the great hall to the smaller room. Thevenerable and nobly-born statesman was filled with vexation, nay, withan embarrassment that made him feel estranged, when he had to glanceround the room to find the persons in it, collected, as they were,into small knots. He could hear nothing but hushed voices; here anunintelligible murmur and there a suppressed laugh, but from no one afrank speech or full utterance. For a moment he felt as if he had foundadmittance to the abode of whispering calumny, and yet he knew whyhere no one dared to speak out or above a murmur. Loud voices hurtthe Empress, and a clear voice was a misery to her, and yet few menpossessed so loud and penetrating a chest voice as her husband, who wasnot wont to lay restraint upon himself for any human being, not even forhis wife.
Sabina sat on a large divan, more like a couch than a chair; her feetwere buried in the shaggy fell of a buffalo, and her knees and ankleswrapped round with down-cushions covered with silk. Her head she heldvery upright, and it was difficult to imagine how her slender throatcould support it, loaded as it was with strings of pearls and preciousstones which were braided in the tall structure of her reddish-goldhair, that was arranged in long cylindrical curls pinned closely side byside. The Empress's thin face looked particularly small under themass of natural and artificial adornment which towered above her brow.Beautiful she could never have been, even in her youth, but her featureswere regular, and the prefect confessed to himself as he looked atSabina's face, marked as it was with minute wrinkles and touched up withred and white, that the sculptor who a few years previously had beencommissioned to represent her as 'Venus Victrix' might very well havegiven the goddess a certain amount of resemblance to the imperial model.If only her eyes, which were absolutely bereft of lashes, had notbeen quite so small and keen--in spite of the dark lines painted roundthem--and if only the sinews in her throat had not stood out quite soconspicuously from the flesh which formerly had covered them!
With a deep bow Titianus took the Empress's right hand, covered withrings; but she withdrew it quickly from that of her husband's friend andrelative, as if she feared that the carefully-cherished limb--useless asit was for any practical purpose, a mere toy among hands--might suffersome injury, and wrapped it and her arm in her upper-robe. But shereturned the prefect's friendly greeting with all the warmth at hercommand. Though formerly at Rome she had been accustomed to see Titianusevery day at her house, this was their first meeting in Alexandria; forthe previous day, exhausted by the sufferings of her sea-voyage, she hadbeen carried in a closed litter to the Caesareum, and this morning shehad declined to receive his visit, as her whole time was given up to herphysicians, bathing-women, and coiffeurs.
"How can you survive in this country?" she said in a low but harshvoice, which always made the hearer feel that it was that of a dull,fractious, childless woman. "At noon the sun burns you up, and in theevening it is so cold--so intolerably cold!' As she spoke she drewher robe closer round her, but Titianus, pointing to the stoves in themiddle of the hall, said:
"I hoped we had succeeded in cutting the bowstrings of the Egyptianwinter, and it is but a feeble weapon."
"Still young, still imaginative, still a poet!" said the Empresswearily. "I saw your wife a couple of hours since. Africa seems tosuit her less well; I was shocked to see Julia, the handsome matron, soaltered. She does not look well."
"Years are the foe of beauty."
"Frequently they are, but true beauty often resists their attacks."
"You are yourself the living proof of your assertion."
"That is as much as to say that I am growing old."
"Nay--only that you know the secret of remaining beautiful."
"You are a poet!" murmured the Empress with a twitch of her thinunder-lip.
"Affairs of state do not favor the Muses."
"But I call any man a poet who sees things more beautiful than they are,
or who gives them finer names than they deserve--a poet, a dreamer, aflatterer--for it comes to that."
"Ah! modesty can always find words to repel even well-meritedadmiration."
"Why this foolish bandying of words?" sighed Sabina, flinging herselfback in her chair. "You have been to school under the hair-splittinglogicians in the Museum here, and I have not. Over there sits Favorinus,the sophist; I dare say he is proving to Ptolemaeus that the stars aremere specks of blood in our eyes, which we choose to believe are in thesky. Florus, the historian, is taking note of this weighty discussion;Pancrates, the poet, is celebrating the great thoughts of thephilosopher. As to what part the philologist there can find to take inthis important event you know better than I. What is the man's name?"
"Apollonius."
"Hadrian has nick-named him 'the obscure.' The more difficult it is tounderstand the discourses of these gentlemen the more highly are theyesteemed."
"One must dive to obtain what lies at the bottom of the water--all thatfloats on the surface is borne by the waves, a plaything for children.Apollonius is a very learned man."
"Then my husband ought to leave him among his disciples and his books.It was his wish that I should invite these people to my table. Florusand Pancrates I like--not the others."
"I can easily relieve you of the company of Favorinus and Ptolemaeus;send them to meet the Emperor."
"To what end?"
"To entertain him."
"He has his plaything with him," said Sabina, and her thin lips curledwith an expression of bitter contempt.
"His artistic eye delights in the beauty of Antinous, which iscelebrated, but which it has not yet been my privilege to see."
"And you are very anxious to see this marvel?"
"I cannot deny it."
"And yet you want to postpone your meeting with Caesar?" said Sabina,and a keen glance of inquiry and distrust twinkled in her little eyes.
"Why do you want to delay my husband's arrival?"
"Need I tell you," said Titianus eagerly, "how greatly I shall rejoiceto see once more my sovereign, the companion of my youth, the greatestand wisest of men, after a separation of four years? What would I notgive if he were here already! And yet I would rather that he shouldarrive in fourteen days than in eight."
"What reason can you have?"
"A mounted messenger brought me a letter to-day in which the Emperortells me that he proposes to inhabit the old palace at Lochias, and notthe Caesareum."
At these words Sabina's forehead clouded, her gaze, dark and blank, wasfixed on her lap, and biting her under-lip, she muttered:
"Because I am here."
Titianus made as though he had not heard these words, and continued inan easy tone:
"There he has a wide outlook into the distance, which is what he hasloved from his youth up. But the old building is much dilapidated, andthough I have already begun to exert all the forces at my command, withthe assistance of our admirable architect, Pontius, to restore a portionof it at any rate, and make it a habitable and not too uncomfortableresidence, the time is too short to do anything thoroughly worthy--"
"I wish to see my husband here, and the sooner the better," interruptedthe Empress with decision. Then she turned towards the row of pillarswhich stood by the right-hand wall of the hall, and which were at somedistance from her couch, calling out "Verus." But her voice was so weakthat it did not reach the person addressed, so turning to the prefect,she said: "I beg of you to call Verus to me, the praetor Lucius AureliusVerus." Titianus immediately obeyed.
As he entered the hall he had already exchanged friendly greetings withthe man to whom the Empress wished to speak. He now did not succeed inattracting his attention till he stood close at his elbow, for he formedthe centre of a small group of men and women who were hanging onhis words. What he was saying in a subdued voice must have beenextraordinarily diverting, for it could be seen that his hearers weremaking the greatest efforts to keep their suppressed laughter frombreaking out into a shout that would shake the very hall, a noise theEmpress detested. When the prefect came up to Verus, a young girl, whosepretty head was crowned by a perfect thicket of little ringlets, wasjust laying her hand on his arm and saying:
"Nay-that is too much; if you go on like this, for the future wheneveryou speak I shall stop my ears with my hands, as sure as my name isBalbilla."
"And as sure as you are descended from King Antiochus," added Verusbowing.
"Always the same," laughed the prefect, nodding to the audacious jester.
"Sabina wants to speak to you."
"Directly, directly," said Verus. "My story is a true one, and you allought to be grateful to me for having released you from that tediousphilologer who has now button-holed my witty friend Favorinus. I likeyour Alexandria, Titianus; still it is not a great capital likeRome. The people have not yet learned not to be astonished; they areperpetually in amazement. When I go out driving--"
"Your runners ought to fly before you with roses in their hair and wingson their shoulders like Cupids."
"In honor of the Alexandrian ladies?"
"As if the Roman ladies in Rome, and the fair Greeks at Athens,"interrupted Balbilla.
"The praetor's runners go faster than Parthian horses," cried theEmpress's chamberlain. "He has named them after the winds."
"As they deserve," added Verus "Come, Titianus." He laid his hand in aconfidential manner on the arm of the prefect, to whom he was related;and as they went towards Sabina he whispered in his ear:
"I can keep her waiting as if I were the Emperor."
Favorinus who had been engaged in talk with Ptolemaeus, the astronomer,Apollonius, and the philosopher and poet Pancrates in another part ofthe hall, looked after the two men and said:
"A handsome couple. One the personification of imperial and dignifiedRome; the other with his Hermes-like figure."
"The other"--interrupted the philologist with stern displeasure, "theother is the very incarnation of the haughtiness, the luxury pushed toinsanity, and the infamous depravity of the metropolis. That dissipatedladies-man."
"I will not defend his character," said Favorinus in his pleasant voice,and with an elegance in his pronunciation of Greek which delighted eventhe grammarian. "His ways and doings are disgraceful; still you mustallow that his manners are tinged with the charm of Hellenic beauty,that the Charites kissed him at his birth, and though, by the stern lawsof virtue we must condemn him, he deserves to be crowned with praise andgarlands from the point of view of the feeling for beauty."
"Oh! for the artist who wants a model he is a choice morsel."
"The Athenian judges acquitted Phryne because she was beautiful."
"They did wrong."
"Hardly in the eyes of the gods, whose fairest works must deserve ourrespect."
"Still poison may be kept in the most beautiful vessels."
"And yet body and soul always to a certain extent correspond."
"And can you dare to call the handsome Verus the admirable Verus?"
"No, but the reckless Lucius Aurelius Verus is at the same time thegayest and pleasantest of all the Romans, free alike from spite orcarefulness, he troubles himself with no doctrines of virtue, and aswhen a thing pleases him, he desires to possess it, he endeavors to givepleasure to every one else."
"He has wasted his pains so far as I am concerned."
"I do as he wishes."
The last words both of the philologer and the sophist were spokensomewhat louder than was usual in the presence of the Empress. Sabina,who had just told the praetor which residence her husband had decidedon inhabiting, drew up her shoulders and pinched her lips as if in pain,while Verus turned a face of indignation--a face which was manly inspite of all the delicacy and regularity of the features--on thetwo speakers, and his fine bright eyes caught the hostile glance ofApollonius.
An intimation of aversion to his person was one of the things whichto him were past endurance; he hastily passed his hand through hisblue-black hair,
which was only slightly grizzled at the temples andflowed uncurled, but in soft waving locks round his head, and said,not heeding Sabina's question as to his opinion of her husband's latestinstructions:
"He is a repulsive fellow, that wrangling logician; he has an evil eyethat threatens mischief to us all, and his trumpet voice cannot hurt youmore than it does me. Must we endure him at table with us every day?"
"So Hadrian desires."
"Then I shall start for Rome," said Verus decidedly. "My wife wants tobe back with her children, and as praetor, it is more fitting that Ishould stay by the Tiber than by the Nile."
The words were spoken as lightly as though they were nothing more thana proposition to go to supper, but they seemed to agitate the Empressdeeply, for her head, which had seemed almost a fixture during herconversation with Titianus, now shook so violently that the pearls andjewels rattled in the erection of curls. There she sat for some secondsstaring into her lap.
Verus stooped to pick up a gem that had fallen from her hair, and as hedid so she said hastily:
"You are right. Apollonius is intolerable. Let us send him to meet myhusband."
"Then I will remain," answered Verus, as pleased as a wilful boy who hasgot his own way.
"Fickle as the wind," murmured Sabina, threatening him with her finger."Show me the stone--it is one of the largest and finest; you may keepit."
When an hour later, Verus quitted the hall with the prefect, Titianussaid:
"You have done me a service cousin, without knowing it. Now can youcontrive that Ptolemaeus and Favorinus shall go with Apollonius to meetthe Emperor at Pelusium?"
"Nothing easier" was the answer.
And the same evening the prefect's steward conveyed to Pontius theinformation that he might count on having probably fourteen days for hiswork, instead of eight or nine only.