ry object, just as night does.
The fervor of a July day, increased by the heat of the burning parts of
the city, became unendurable. Smoke pained the eyes; breath failed in
men's breasts. Even the inhabitants who, hoping that the fire would not
cross the river, had remained in their houses so far, began to leave
them, and the throng increased hourly. The praetorians accompanying
Vinicius were in the rear. In the crush some one wounded his horse with
a hammer; the beast threw up its bloody head, reared, and refused
obedience. The crowd recognized in Vinicius an Augustian by his rich
tunic, and at once cries were raised round about, "Death to Nero and his
incendiaries!" This was a moment of terrible danger; hundreds of hands
were stretched toward Vinicius; but his frightened horse bore him away,
trampling people as he went, and the next moment a new wave of black
smoke rolled in and filled the street with darkness. Vinicius, seeing
that he could not ride past, sprang to the earth and rushed forward on
foot, slipping along walls, and at times waiting till the fleeing
multitude passed him. He said to himself in spirit that these were vain
efforts.

At times he stopped and rubbed his eyes. Tearing off the edge of his
tunic, he covered his nose and mouth with it and ran on. As he
approached the river the heat increased terribly. Vinicius, knowing that
the fire had begun at the Circus Maximus, thought at first that that
heat came from its cinders and from the Forum Boarium and the Velabrum,
which, situated near by, must be also in flames. But the heat was
growing unendurable. One old man on crutches and fleeing, the last whom
Vinicius noticed, cried: "Go not near the bridge of Cestius! The whole
island is on fire!" It was, indeed, impossible to be deceived any
longer. At the turn toward the Vicus Judaeorum the young tribune saw
flames amid clouds of smoke. Not only the island was burning, but the
Trans-Tiber and the other end of the street on which he ran.

The thunder of the flames was more terrible than the roar of wild
beasts, and the hour had come now in which he must think of his own
safety, for the river of fire was flowing nearer and nearer from the
direction of the island, and rolls of smoke covered the alley almost
completely. The taper which he carried was quenched from the current of
air. Vinicius rushed to the street, and ran at full speed toward the Via
Portuensis, whence he had come; the fire seemed to pursue hi