his vow; though he was a scribe, [he told
him] his mistress's property in him was not the less. Lastly, he asked,
how he ever came to run away; such a lank meager fellow, for whom a
pound of corn [a-day] would be ample. We were so diverted, that we
continued that supper to an unusual length.

Hence we proceed straight on for Beneventum; where the bustling landlord
almost burned himself, in roasting some lean thrushes: for, the fire
falling through the old kitchen [floor], the spreading flame made a
great progress toward the highest part of the roof. Then you might have
seen the hungry guests and frightened slaves snatching their supper out
[of the flames], and everybody endeavoring to extinguish the fire.

After this Apulia began to discover to me her well-known mountains,
which the Atabulus scorches [with his blasts]: and through which we
should never have crept, unless the neighboring village of Trivicus had
received us, not without a smoke that brought tears into our eyes;
occasioned by a hearth's burning some green boughs with the leaves upon
them. Here, like a great fool as I was, I wait till midnight for a
deceitful mistress; sleep, however, overcomes me while meditating love;
and disagreeable dreams make me ashamed of myself and every thing about
me.

Hence we were bowled away in chaises twenty-four miles, intending to
stop at a little town, which one cannot name in a verse, but it is
easily enough known by description. For water is sold here, though the
worst in the world; but their bread is exceeding fine, inasmuch that the
weary traveler is used to carry it willingly on his shoulders; for [the
bread] at Canusium is gritty; a pitcher of water is worth no more [than
it is here]: which place was formerly built by the valiant Diomedes.
Here Varius departs dejected from his weeping friends.

Hence we came to Rubi, fatigued: because we made a long journey, and it
was rendered still more troublesome by the rains. Next day the weather
was better, the road worse, even to the very walls of Barium that
abounds in fish. In the next place Egnatia, which [seems to have] been
built on troubled waters, gave us occasion for jests and laughter; for
they wanted to persuade us, that at this sacred portal the incense
melted without fire. The Jew Apella may believe this, not I. For I have
learned [from Epicurus], that the gods dwell in a state of tranquillity;
nor, if nature effect any wonder, that the anxious gods send it from