o the light of the law-court before the seat of judgement.

55. I might discourse at greater length on the nature and importance
of such accusations, on the wide range for slander that this path
opens for Aemilianus, on the floods of perspiration that this one poor
handkerchief, contrary to its natural duty, will cause his innocent
victims! But I will follow the course I have already pursued. I will
acknowledge what there is no necessity for me to acknowledge, and will
answer Aemilianus' questions. You ask, Aemilianus, what I had in that
handkerchief. Although I might deny that I had deposited any
handkerchief of mine in Pontianus' library, or even admitting that it
was true enough that I did so deposit it, I might still deny that
there was anything wrapped up in it. If I should take this line, you
have no evidence or argument whereby to refute me, for there is no one
who has ever handled it, and only one freedman, according to your own
assertion, who has ever seen it. Still, as far as I am concerned I
will admit the cloth to have been full to bursting. Imagine yourself,
please, to be on the brink of a great discovery, like the comrades of
Ulysses who thought they had found a treasure when they stole the bag
that contained all the winds. Would you like me to tell you what I had
wrapped up in a handkerchief and entrusted to the care of Pontianus'
household gods? You shall have your will. I have been initiated into
various of the Greek mysteries, and preserve with the utmost care
certain emblems and mementoes of my initiation with which the priests
presented me. There is nothing abnormal or unheard of in this. Those
of you here present who have been initiated into the mysteries of
father Liber alone, know what you keep hidden at home, safe from all
profane touch and the object of your silent veneration. But I, as I
have said, moved by my religious fervour and my desire to know the
truth, have learned mysteries of many a kind, rites in great number,
and diverse ceremonies. This is no invention on the spur of the
moment; nearly three years since, in a public discourse on the
greatness of Aesculapius delivered by me during the first days of my
residence at Oea, I made the same boast and recounted the number of
the mysteries I knew. That discourse was thronged, has been read far
and wide, is in all men's hands, and has won the affections of the
pious inhabitants of Oea not so much through any eloquence of mine as
because it t