hich others so unreasonably admire....
Generally the shows were most splendid, but not to your taste, if I may
judge of yours by my own. First, the veteran actors who for their own
honor had retired from the stage, returned to it to do honor to Pompey.
Your favorite, my dear friend Aesopus, acquitted himself so poorly as to
make us all feel that he had best retire. When he came to the oath--

'And if of purpose set I break my faith,'

his voice failed him. What need to tell you more? You know all about the
other shows; they had not even the charm which moderate shows commonly
have. The ostentation with which they were furnished forth took away all
their gayety. What charm is there in having six hundred mules in the
_Clytemnestra_ or three thousand supernumeraries in the _Trojan Horse,_
or cavalry and infantry in foreign equipment in some battle-piece. The
populace admired all this; but it would have given you no kind of
pleasure. After this came a sort of wild-beast fights, lasting for five
days. They were splendid: no man denies it. But what man of culture can
feel any pleasure when some poor fellow is torn in pieces by some
powerful animal, or when some noble animal is run through with a hunting
spear. If these things are worth seeing, you have seen them before. And
I, who was actually present, saw nothing new. The last day was given up
to the elephants. Great was the astonishment of the crowd at the sight;
but of pleasure there was nothing. Nay, there was some feeling of
compassion, some sense that this animal has a certain kinship with man."
The elder Pliny tells us that two hundred lions were killed on this
occasion, and that the pity felt for the elephants rose to the height of
absolute rage. So lamentable was the spectacle of their despair, so
pitifully did they implore the mercy of the audience, "that the whole
multitude rose in tears and called down upon Pompey the curses which
soon descended on him."

And then Pompey's young wife, Julia, Caesar's daughter, died. She had
been a bond of union between the two men, and the hope of peace was
sensibly lessened by her loss. Perhaps the first rupture would have
come any how; when it did come it found Pompey quite unprepared for the
conflict. He seemed indeed to be a match for his rival, but his strength
collapsed almost at a touch. "I have but to stamp with my foot," he said
on one occasion, "and soldiers will spring up;" yet when Caesar declared
war by crossin