populace, so long restrained, would possess themselves
with sufficient patience to await the occasion with proper calmness. In
fact, some outlet must be given to their excited appetite for novelty;
and therefore, after much solemn consideration, the senate yielded to
the public clamor, and voted an ovation.

As a token of national appreciation, therefore, the honor thus bestowed
upon Sergius Vanno was not one of the first order; nor were such
pageants a novelty to the Roman people. Several times before, within the
memory of that generation, victorious generals had entered the city with
myrtle wreaths upon their brows, and had exhibited to applauding throngs
the gathered wealth of conquered provinces. Nor had many years elapsed
since the present emperor--then prince--crowned with the richer and more
lavish glories of a triumph, had ridden through the Via Sacra, greeted
with welcoming acclamations as the destroyer of the Jewish
capital--displaying before him the spoils of the sacred temple, and
bringing in his train such thousands upon thousands of captives, that it
had seemed as though all Palestine was being emptied into Rome. Compared
with such exploits, those of Sergius were of trifling importance. But it
now entered little into the minds of the people to make these
comparisons. Whatever had been done in past time by other commanders,
was not worth considering at present. Whoever might have been renowned
before, Sergius Vanno was the hero of to-day. To him should be all the
honor which tens of thousands of ringing voices and applauding hands
could lavish. And therefore, once more, as in the days of the past, the
balconies of the palaces and villas lining the broad Sacra Via were
gorgeous with rich gold and purple tapestries--the Forum glowed bright
and resplendent with statues and decorated arches--altars smoked with
sacrifice in front of columned temples--and the walls and slopes of the
Palatine Hill were joyous with triumphal tokens, while, upon the summit,
the house of the Caesars glittered with banners and brave devices, and
such costly adornments as were best fitted to grace the festivity and do
honor to the exploits of a much-esteemed subject.

We know the scene. At first--in the full blaze of the noonday
sun--standing silent and nearly deserted, except by a few workmen and
artisans, who here and there lingered to complete the festive
preparations, or by scattered parties of the praetorian guard, who, in
holida