beian, knight, or
noble. Since first I bought him of the blue-eyed Celt, who wept in his
barbarian fondness for the colt, no leg save only mine has crossed his
back, nor ever shall, while the light of day smiles on Aurelius Victor."

Without a word Fuscus leaped from the back of the fine blood-bay barb he
bestrode, and beckoning to a confidential slave who followed him, "Here,"
he said, "Geta, take Nanthus, and ride straightway up the Minervium to the
house of Arvina; thou knowest it, beside the Alban Mansions, and do as he
shall command you. Tell him, my Paullus."

"Carry this signet, my good Geta," said the young man, drawing off the
large seal-ring which adorned his right hand, and giving it to him, "to
Thrasea, my trusty freedman, and let him see that they put the housings
and gallic wolf-bit on the black horse Aufidus, and bring him thou, with
one of my slaves, down the slope of Scaurus, and past the Great Circus, to
the Carmental Gate, where thou wilt find us. Make good speed, Geta."

"Ay, do so," interposed his master, "but see that thou dost not blow
Nanthus; thou wert better be a dead slave, Geta, than let me find one drop
of sweat on his flank. Nay! never grin, thou hang-dog, or I will have thee
given to my Congers(9); the last which came out of the fish pond were but
ill fed; and a fat German, such as thou, would be a rare meal for them."

The slave laughed, knowing well that his master was but jesting, mounted
the horse, and rode him at a gentle trot, up the slope of the Caelian hill,
from which Arvina had but a little while before descended. In the mean
time, Aristius gave the rein of his dappled grey to one of his followers,
desiring him to be very gentle with him, and the three young men sauntered
slowly on along the Sacred Way toward the Forum, conversing merrily and
interchanging many a smile and salutation with those whom they met on
their road.

Skirting the base of the Palatine hill, they passed the old circular
temple of Remus to the right hand, and the most venerable relic of Rome's
infancy, the Ruminal Fig tree, beneath which the she-wolf was believed to
have given suck to the twin progeny of Mars and the hapless Ilia. A little
farther on, the mouth of the sacred grotto called Lupercal, surrounded
with its shadowy grove, the favourite haunt of Pan, lay to their left; and
fronting them, the splendid arch of Fabius, surnamed Allobrox for his
victorious prowess against that savage tribe, gave entr