ed Paullus; and, with the word, they gave their
horses head, and cantered onward for the field of Mars.

The way for some distance was narrow, lying between the fortified rock of
the Capitol, with its stern lines of immemorial ramparts on the right
hand, and on the left the long arcades and stately buildings of the
vegetable mart, on the river bank, now filled with sturdy peasants, from
the Sabine country, eager to sell their fresh green herbs; and blooming
girls, from Tibur and the banks of Anio, with garlands of flowers, and
cheeks that outvied their own brightest roses.

Beyond these, still concealing the green expanse of the level plain, and
the famous river, stood side by side three temples, sacred to Juno Matuta,
Piety, and Hope; each with its massy colonnade of Doric or Corinthian, or
Ionic pillars; the latter boasting its frieze wrought in bronze; and that
of Piety, its tall equestrian statue, so richly gilt and burnished that it
gleamed in the sunlight as if it were of solid gold.

Onward they went, still at a merry canter, their generous and high mettled
coursers fretting against the bits which restrained their speed, and their
young hearts elated and bounding quickly in their bosoms, with the
excitement of the gallant exercise; and now they cleared the last winding
of the suburban street, and clothed in its perennial verdure, the wide
field lay outspread, like one sheet of emerald verdure, before them, with
the bright Tiber flashing to the sun in many a reach and ripple, and the
gay slope of the Collis Hortulorum, glowing with all its terraced gardens
in the distance.

A few minutes more brought them to the Flaminian way, whereon, nearly
midway the plain, stood the _diribitorium_, or pay-office of the troops;
the porticoes of which were filled with the soldiers of Metellus Creticus,
and Quintus Marcius Rex, who lay with their armies encamped on the low
hills beyond the river, waiting their triumphs, and forbidden by the laws
to come into the city so long as they remained invested with their
military rank. Around this stately building were many colonnades, and open
buildings adapted to the exercises of the day, when winter or bad weather
should prevent their performance in the open mead, and stored with all
appliances, and instruments required for the purpose; and to these Paullus
and his friends proceeded, answering merely with a nod or passing jest the
salutations of many a helmed centurion and gorgeous tr