FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132  
133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   >>   >|  
at I can't get through the work of the month. We ought to be sheep-shearing; you have no chance of wool. We ought to be swarming the bees, pressing the honey, boiling and purifying the wax. We ought to be plucking the white leaves of the camomile, and steeping the golden flowers in oil. We ought to be gathering the wild grapes, sifting off the flowers, and preserving the residue in honey. We ought to be sowing brassicum, parsley, and coriander against next spring. We ought to be cheese-making. We ought to be baking white and red bricks and tiles in the sun; we have no hands for the purpose. The _villicus_ is not to blame, but the anger of the gods." The country _employe_ of the procurator of the imperial _Baphia_ protests that the insect cannot be found from which the dye is extracted; and argues that the locusts must have devoured them, or the plant on which they feed, or that they have been carried off by the pestilence. Here is old Corbulus in agonies for his febrifuge, and a slave of his is in high words with the market-carrier, who tells him that Mago, who supplied it, is dead of a worse fever than his master's. "The rogue," cried the slave, "my master has contracted with him for the year, and has paid him the money in advance." A jeering and mocking from the crowd assailed the unfortunate domestic, who so truly foreboded that his return without the medicine would be the signal for his summary committal to the _pistrinum_. "Let old Corbulus follow Mago in his passage to perdition," said one of the rabble; "let him take his physic with Pluto, and leave us the bread and wine on which he's grown gouty." "Bread, bread!" was the response elicited by this denunciation, and it spread into a circle larger than that of which the slave and the carrier were part. "Wine and bread, Ceres and Liber!" cried a young legionary, who, after a night of revelry, was emerging still half-intoxicated from one of the low wine-shops in the vaults which formed the basement of the _Thermae_ or hot baths; "make way there, you filthy slime of the earth, you half-kneaded, half-fermented Africans, who never yet have quite been men, but have ever smelt strong of the baboon, who are three quarters _must_, and two vinegar, and a fifth water,--as I was saying, you are like bad liquor, and the sight of you disagrees with the stomach and affects the eyes." The crowd looked sullenly, and without wincing, at his shield, which was the only portion of hi
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132  
133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Corbulus
 

carrier

 

master

 
flowers
 

denunciation

 

larger

 

elicited

 

spread

 

circle

 

follow


passage

 
perdition
 

pistrinum

 
committal
 
medicine
 

signal

 

summary

 

rabble

 

physic

 

response


intoxicated

 

vinegar

 

quarters

 

strong

 

baboon

 
wincing
 

sullenly

 

shield

 

portion

 

looked


liquor

 

disagrees

 
stomach
 

affects

 

emerging

 

formed

 

vaults

 

revelry

 

legionary

 

basement


Thermae
 
kneaded
 

fermented

 

Africans

 

filthy

 
coriander
 

parsley

 
spring
 
brassicum
 

sowing