s, asking for privileges, or begging for alms. They
rent their clothing and jostled one another; and at last, in order to
drive them back, several slaves, armed with long staves, charged upon
them, striking right and left. Those nearest the gates made their escape
and descended to the road; others rushed in to take their place, so that
two streams of human beings flowed in and out, compressed within the
limits of the gateway.

Vitellius demanded the reason for the assembling of so great a throng.
Antipas explained that they had been invited to come to a feast in
celebration of his birthday; and he pointed to several men who, leaning
against the battlements, were hauling up immense basket-loads of food,
fruits, vegetables, antelopes, and storks; large fish, of a brilliant
shade of blue; grapes, melons, and pyramids of pomegranates. At this
sight, Aulus left the courtyard and hastened to the kitchens, led by his
taste for gormandizing, which later became the amazement of the world.

As they passed the opening to a small cellar, Vitellius perceived some
objects resembling breast-plates hanging on a wall. He looked at them
with interest, and then demanded that the subterranean chambers of the
fortress be thrown open for his inspection. These chambers were cut into
the rocky foundation of the castle, and had been formed into vaults,
with pillars set at regular distances. The first vault opened contained
old armour; the second was full of pikes, with long points emerging from
tufts of feathers. The walls of the third chamber were hung with a kind
of tapestry made of slender reeds, laid in perpendicular rows. Those of
the fourth were covered with scimitars. In the middle of the fifth cell,
rows of helmets were seen, the crests of which looked like a battalion
of fiery serpents. The sixth cell contained nothing but empty quivers;
the seventh, greaves for protecting the legs in battle; the eighth
vault was filled with bracelets and armlets; and an examination of the
remaining vaults disclosed forks, grappling-irons, ladders, cords, even
catapults, and bells for the necks of camels; and as they descended
deeper into the rocky foundation, it became evident that the whole mass
was a veritable honeycomb of cells, and that below those already seen
were many others.

Vitellius, Phineas, his interpreter, and Sisenna, chief of the
publicans, walked among these gloomy cells, attended by three eunuchs
bearing torches.

In the deep sha