Carthaginians, Egyptians, Phoenicians, who dealt in costly
merchandise--trinkets of gold, tusks of ivory, ostrich feathers, and
pieces of amber. Before their doors paused rich women clad in white
mantles, followed by slaves, and as they talked they peeped their rosy
faces into the shop, fascinated by the exotic aroma of stimulating
spices from Asia and mysterious perfumes from the Orient. Rare birds
brought from the East strode majestically among the bales with strident
calls, trailing their multicolored plumage like a royal mantle.

Actaeon, after hastily examining these shops, entered the Forum. It was
market day, and the life of the city streamed to the great square.
Farmers spread out their garden stuff near the porticos; shepherds from
the public domain piled their cheeses in pyramids in front of little
pitchers of milk, and women of the port, brown and almost naked, called
attention to their fresh fish, arranged upon beds of leaves in flat rush
baskets. At one end shepherds from the mountain, dressed in esparto,
ferocious of aspect, and armed with lances, watched over cattle and
horses offered for sale. These were Celtiberians, of whom it was told
with horror that they sometimes ate human flesh, and they seemed to feel
imprisoned inside the plaza, contemplating with hostile eyes that
bee-like activity, so different from the independent solitude they
enjoyed in their wandering life. The riches excited their appetites for
robbing and horse-stealing, and, grasping their lances, they stared with
ferocious eyes at the group of armed mercenaries in the service of the
city, who at the lower end of the Forum, on the steps of the temple,
guarded the senator charged with dispensing justice on market days.

In the centre of the square swarmed the multitude, buying and dickering,
dressed in a thousand colors, and speaking diverse tongues. The virtuous
women of the city, simply dressed in white, passed along, followed by
slaves who deposited in netted sacks the provision for the week; the
Greeks, in long, saffron-colored chlamydes investigated everything,
haggling tediously before making an insignificant purchase; the
Saguntine citizens, Iberians who had lost their primitive rudeness
through infinite intermarriages, imitated the manner and bearing of the
Romans who were at the moment the people in highest esteem. Mingled with
these were natives from the interior, bearded, begrimed, with long
dishevelled hair, attracted by th