Books: Quo Vadis A Narrative of the Time of Nero

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"Ah! Pomponia mentioned to me sonie god, who must be one
powerful and merciful. Where she has put away all the others is
her affair; it is enough that that Logos of hers cannot be very
mighty, or rather he must be a very weak god, since he has had
only two adherents, -- Pomponia and Lygia, -- and Ursus in
addition. It must be that there are more of those adherents, and that
they assisted Lygia."

"That faith commands forgiveness," said Vinicius. "At Acte's I met
Pomponia, who said to me: 'May God forgive thee the evil which
thou hast done to us and to Lygia.'"

"Evidently their God is some curator who is very mild. Ha! let him
forgive thee, and in sign of forgiveness return thee the maiden."

"I would offer him a hecatomb to-morrow! I have no wish for
food, or the bath, or sleep. I will take a dark lantern and wander
through the city. Perhaps I shall find her in disguise. I am sick."

Petronius looked at him with commiseration. In fact, there was
blue under his eyes, his pupils were gleaming with fever, his
unshaven beard indicated a dark strip on his firmly outlined jaws,
his hair was in disorder, and he wa~ really like a sick man. Iras and
the golden-haired Eunice looked at him also with sympathy; but he
seemed not to see them, and he and Petronius took no notice
whatever of the slave women, just as they would not have noticed
dogs moving around them.

"Fever is tormenting thee," said Petronius.

"It is."

"Then listen to me. I know not what the doctor has prescribed to
thee, but I know how I should act in thy place. Till this lost one is
found I should seek in another that which for the moment has gone
from me with her. I saw splendid forms at thy villa. Do not
contradict me. I know what love is; and I know that when one is
desired another cannot take her place. But in a beautiful slave it is
possible to find even momentary distraction."

"I do not need it," said Vinicius.

But Petronius, who had for him a real weakness, and who wished
to soften his pain, began to meditate how he might do so.

"Perhaps thine have not for thee the charm of novelty," said he,
after a while (and here he began to look in turn at Iras and Eunice,
and finally he placed his palm on the hip of the golden-haired
Eunice). "Look at this grace! for whom some days since Fonteius
Capiton the younger offered three wonderful boys from
Clazomene. A more beautiful figure than hers even Skopas himself
has not chiselled. I myself cannot tell why I have remained
indifferent to her thus far, since thoughts of Chrysothemis have not
restrained me. Well, I give her to thee; take her for thyself!"

When the golden-haired Eunice heard this, she grew pale in one
moment, and, looking with frightened eyes on Vinicius, seemed to
wait for his answer without breath in her breast.

But he sprang up suddenly, and, pressing his temples with his
hands, said quickly, like a man who is tortured by disease, and will
not hear anything, -- "No, no! I care not for her! I care not for
others! I thank thee, but I do not want her. I will seek that one
through the city. Give command to bring me a Gallic cloak with a
hood. I will go beyond the Tiber -- if I could see even Ursus."

And he hurried away. Petronius, seeing that he could not remain in
one place, did not try to detain him. Taking, however, his refusal
as a temporary dislike for all women save Lygia, and not wishing
his own magnanimity to go for naught, he said, turning to the
slave, -- "Eunice, thou wilt bathe and anoint thyself, then dress:
after that thou wilt go to the house of Vinicius."

But she dropped before him on her knees, and with joined palms
implored him not to remove her from the house. She would not go
to Vinicius, she said. She would rather carry fuel to the
hypocaustum in his house than be chief servant in that of Vinicius.
She would not, she could not go; and she begged him to have pity
on her. Let him give command to flog her daily, only not send her
away.

And trembling like a leaf with fear and excitement, she stretched
her hands to him, while he listened with amazement. A slave who
ventured to beg relief from the fulfilment of a command, who said
"I will not and I cannot," was something so unheard-of in Rome
that Petronius could not believe his own ears at first. Finally he
frowned. He was too refined to be cruel. His slaves, especially in
the department of pleasure, were freer than others, on condition of
performing their service in an exemplary manner, and honoring the
will of their master, like that of a god. In case they failed in these
two respects, he was able not to spare punishment, to which,
according to general custom, they were subject. Since, besides this,
he could not endure opposition, nor anything which ruffled his
calmness, he looked for a while at the kneeling girl, and then said,
-- "Call Tiresias, and return with him."

Eunice rose, trembling, with tears in her eyes, and went out; after a
time she returned with the chief of the atrium, Tiresias, a Cretan.

"Thou wilt take Eunice," said Petronius, "and give her
five-and-twenty lashes, in such fashion, however, as not to harm
her skin."

When he had said this, he passed into the library, and, sitting down
at a table of rose-colored marble, began to work on his "Feast of
Trimaichion." But the flight of Lygia and the illness of the infant
Augusta had disturbed his mind so much that he could not work
long. That illness, above all, was important. It occurred to
Petronius that were Caesar to believe that Lygia had cast spells on
the infant, the responsibility might fall on him also, for the girl had
been brought at his request to the palace. But he could reckon on
this, that at the first interview with Caesar he would be able in
some way to show the utter absurdity of such an idea; he counted a
little, too, on a certain weakness which Poppaea had for him, -- a
weakness hidden carefully, it is true, but not so carefully that he
could not divine it. After a while he shrugged his shoulders at
these fears, and decided to go to the trielinium to strengthen
himself, and then order the litter to bear him once more to the
palace, after that to the Campus Martins, and then to
Chrysothemis.

But on the way to the trielinium at the entrance to the corridor
assigned to servants, he saw unexpectedly the slender form of
Eunice standing, among other slaves, at the wall; and forgetting
that he had given Tiresias no order beyond flogging her, he
wrinkled his brow again, and looked around for the atriensis. Not
seeing him among the servants, he turned to Eunice.

"Hast thou received the lashes?"

She cast herself at his feet a second time, pressed the border of his
toga to her lips, and said, -- "Oh, yes, lord, I have received them!
Oh, yes, lord!" In her voice were heard, as it were, joy and
gratitude. It was clear that she looked on the lashes as a substitute
for her removal from the house, and that now she might stay there.
Petronius, who understood this, wondered at the passionate
resistance of the girl; but he was too deeply versed in human
nature not to know that love alone could call forth such resistance.

"Dost thou love some one in this house?" asked he.

She raised her blue, tearful eyes to him, and answered, in a voice
so low that it was hardly possible to hear her, -- "Yes, lord."

And with those eyes, with that golden hair thrown back, with fear
and hope in her face, she was so beautiful, she looked at him so
entreatingly, that Petronius, who, as a philosopher, had proclaimed
the might of love, and who, as a man of aesthetic nature, had given
homage to all beauty, felt for her a certain species of compassion.

"Whom of those dost thou love?" inquired he, indicating the
servants with his head.

There was no answer to that question. Eunice inclined her head to
his feet and remained motionless.

Petronius looked at the slaves, among whom were beautiful and
stately youths. He could read nothing on any face; on the contrary,
all had certain strange smiles. He looked then for a while on
Eunice lying at his feet, and went in silence to the trielinium.

After he had eaten, he gave command to bear him to the palace,
and then to Chrysothemis, with whom he remained till late at
night. But when he returned, he gave command to call Tiresias.

"Did Eunice receive the flogging?" inquired he.

"She did, lord. Thou didst not let the skin be cut, however."

"Did I give no other command touching her?"

"No, lord," answered the atriensis with alarm.

"That is well. Whom of the slaves does she love?"

"No one, lord."

"What dost thou know of her?"

Tiresias began to speak in a somewhat uncertain voice:

"At night Eunice never leaves the cuhiculum in which she lives
with old Acrisiona and Ifida; after thou art dressed she never goes
to the bath-rooms. Other slaves ridicule her, and call her Diana."

"Enough," said Petronius. "My relative, Vinicius, to whom I
offered her to-day, did not accept her; hence she may stay in the
house. Thou art free to go."

"Is it permitted me to speak more of Eunice, lord?"

"I have commanded thee to say all thou knowest."

"The whole familia are speaking of the flight of the maiden who
was to dwell in the house of the noble Vinicius. After thy
departure, Eunice came to me and said that she knew a man who
could find her."

"Ah! What kind of man is he?"

"I know not, lord; but I thought that I ought to inform thee of this
matter."

"That is well. Let that man wait to-morrow in my house for the
arrival of the tribune, whom thou wilt request in my name to meet
me here."

The atriensis bowed and went out. But Petronius began to think of
Eunice. At first it seemed clear to him that the young slave wished
Vinicius to find Lygia for this reason only, that she would not be
forced from his house. Afterward, however, it occurred to him that
the man whom Eunice was pushing forward might be her lover,
and all at once that thought seemed to him disagreeable. There
was, it is true, a simple way of learning the truth, for it was enough
to summon Eunice; but the hour was late, Petronius felt tired after
his long visit with Chrysothemis, and was in a hurry to sleep. But
on the way to the cubiculum he remembered -- it is unknown why
-- that he had noticed wrinkles, that day, in the corners of
Chrysothemis's eyes. He thought, also, that her beauty was more
celebrated in Rome than it deserved; and that Fonteius Capiton,
who had offered him three boys from Clazomenc for Eunice,
wanted to buy her too cheaply.

Chapter XIII

NEXT morning, Petronius had barely finished dressing in the
unctorium when Vinicius came, called by Tiresias. He knew that
no news had come from the gates. This information, instead of
comforting him, as a proof that Lygia was still in Rome, weighed
him down still more, for he began to think that Ursus might have
conducted her out of the city immediately after her seizure, and
hence before Petronius's slaves had begun to keep watch at the
gates. It is true that in autumn, when the days become shorter, the
gates are closed rather early; but it is true, also, that they are
opened for persons going out, and the number of these is
considerable. It was possible, also, to pass the walls by other ways,
well known, for instance, to slaves who wish to escape from the
city. Vinicius had sent out his people to all roads leading to the
provinces, to watchmen in the smaller towns, proclaiming a pair of
fugitive slaves, with a detailed description of Ursus and Lygia,
coupled with the offer of a reward for seizing them. But it was
doubtful whether that pursuit would reach the fugitives; and even
should it reach them, whether the local authorities would feel
justified in making the arrest at the private instance of Vinicius,
without the support of a pretor. Indeed, there had not been time to
obtain such support. Vinicius himself, disguised as a slave, had
sought Lygia the whole day before, through every corner of the
city, but had been unable to find the least indication or trace of
her. He had seen Aulus's servants, it is true; but they seemed to be
seeking something also, and that confirmed him in the belief that it
was not Aulus who had intercepted the maiden, and that the old
general did not know what had happened to her.

When Tiresias announced to him, then, that there was a man who
would undertake to find Lygia, he hurried with all speed to the
house of Petronius; and barely had he finished saluting his uncle,
when he inquired for the man.

"We shall see him at once, Eunice knows him," said Petronius.
"She will come this moment to arrange the folds of my toga, and
will give nearer information concerning him."

"Oh! she whom thou hadst the wish to bestow on me yesterday?"

"The one whom thou didst reject; for which I am grateful, for she
is the best vestiplica in the whole city."

In fact, the vestiplica came in before he had finished speaking, and
taking the toga, laid on a chair inlaid with pearl, she opened the
garment to throw it on Petronius's shoulder. Her face was clear and
calm; joy was in her eyes.

Petronius looked at her. She seemed to him very beautiful. After a
while, when she had covered him with the toga, she began to
arrange it, bending at times to lengthen the folds. 1-Je noticed that
her arms had a marvellous pale rose--color, and her bosom and
shoulders the transparent reflections of pearl or alabaster.

"Eunice," said he, "has the man come to Tiresias whom thou didst
mention yesterday?"

"He has, lord."

"What is his name?"

"Chilo Chilonides."

"Who is he?"

"A physician, a sage, a soothsayer, who knows how to read
people's fates and predict the future."

"Has he predicted the future to thee?"

Eunice was covered with a blush which gave a rosy color to her
ears and her neck even.

"Yes, lord."

"What has he predicted?"

"That pain and happiness would meet me."

"Pain met thee yesterday at the hands of Tiresias; hence happiness
also should come."

"It has come, lord, already."

"What?"

"I remain," said she in a whisper.

Petronius put his hand on her golden head.

"Thou hast arranged the folds well to-day, and I am satisfied with
thee, Eunice."

Under that touch her eyes were mist-covered in one instant from
happiness, and her bosom began to heave quickly.

Petronius and Vinicius passed into the atrium, where Chio
Chilonides was waiting. When he saw them, he made a low bow.
A smile came to the lips of Petronius at thought of his suspicion of
yesterday, that this man might be Eunice's lover. The man who was
standing before him could not be any one's lover. In that
marvellous figure there was something both foul and ridiculous.
He was not old; in his dirty beard and curly locks a gray hair shone
here and there. He had a lank stomach and stooping shoulders, so
that at the first cast of the eye he appeared to be hunchbacked;
above that hump rose a large head, with the face of a monkey and
also of a fox; the eye was penetrating. His yellowish complexion
was varied with pimples; and his nose, covered with them
completely, might indicate too great a love for the bottle. His
neglected apparel, composed of a dark tunic of goat's wool and a
mantle of similar material with holes in it, showed real or
simulated poverty. At sight of him, Homer's Thersites came to the
mind of Petronius. Hence, answering with a wave of the hand to
his bow, he said, -- "A greeting, divine Thersites! How are the
lumps which Ulysses gave thee at Troy, and what is he doing
himself in the Elysian Fields?"

"Noble lord," answered Chilo Chionides, "Ulysses, the wisest of
the dead, sends a greeting through me to Petronius, the wisest of
the living, and the request to cover my lumps with a new mantle."

"By Hecate Triformis!" exclaimed Petronius, "the answer deserves
a new mantle."

But further conversation was interrupted by the impatient Vinicius,
who inquired directly, -- "Dost thou know clearly what thou art
undertaking?" "When two households in two lordly mansions
speak of naught else, and when half Rome is repeating the news, it
is not difficult to know," answered Chio. "The night before last a
maiden named Lygia, but specially Callina, and reared in the house
of Aulus Plautius, was intercepted. Thy slaves were conducting
her, O lord, from Caesar's palace to thy 'insula,' and I undertake to
find her in the city, or, if she has left the city -- which is little
likely -- to indicate to thee, noble tribune, whither she has fled and
where she has hidden."

"That is well," said Vinicius, who was pleased with the precision
of the answer. "What means hast thou to do this?"

Chilo smiled cunningly. "Thou hast the means, lord; I have the wit
only."

Petronius smiled also, for he was perfectly satisfied with his guest.

"That man can find the maiden," thought he. Meanwhile Vinicius
wrinkled his joined brows, and said, -- "Wretch, in case thou
deceive me for gain, I will give command to beat thee with clubs."

"I am a philosopher, lord, and a philosopher cannot be greedy of
gain, especially of such as thou hast just offered magnanimously."

"Oh, art thou a philosopher?" inquired Petronius. "Eunice told me
that thou art a physician and a soothsayer. Whence knowest thou
Eunice?"

"She came to me for aid, for my fame struck her ears."

"What aid did she want?"

"Aid in love, lord. She wanted to be cured of unrequited love."

"Didst thou cure her?"

"I did more, lord. I gave her an amulet which secures mutuality. In
Paphos, on the island of Cyprus, is a temple, O lord, in which is
preserved a zone of Venus. I gave her two threads from that zone,
enclosed in an almond shell."

"And didst thou make her pay well for them?"

"One can never pay enough for mutuality, and I, who lack two
fingers on my right hand, am collecting money to buy a slave
copyist to write down my thoughts, and preserve my wisdom f or
mankind."

"Of what school art thou, divine sage?"

"I am a Cynic, lord, because I wear a tattered mantle; I am a Stoic,
because I bear poverty patiently; I am a Peripatetic, for, not
owning a litter, I go on foot from one wine-shop to another, and on
the way teach those who promise to pay for a pitcher of wine."

"And at the pitcher thou dost become a rhetor?"

"Heraclitus declares that 'all is fluid,' and canst thou deny, lord,
that wine is fluid?"

"And he declared that fire is a divinity; divinity, therefore, is
blushing in thy nose."

"But the divine Diogenes from Apollonia declared that air is the
essence of things, and the warmer the air the more perfect the
beings it makes, and from the warmest come the souls of sages.
And since the autumns are cold,a genuine sage should warm his
soul with wine; and wouldst thou hinder,

O lord, a pitcher of even the stuff produced in Capua or Telesia
from bearing heat to all the bones of a perishable human body?"

"Chilo Chionides, where is thy birthplace?"

"On the Euxine Pontus. I come from Mesembria."

"Oh, Chio, thou art great!"

"And unrecognized," said the sage, pensively.

But Vinicius was impatient again. In view of the hope which had
gleamed before him, he wished Chilo to set out at once on his
work; hence the whole conversation seemed to him simply a vain
loss of time, and he was angry at Petronius.

"When wilt thou begin the search?" asked he, turning to the Greek.

"I have begun it already," answered Chio. "And since I am here,
and answering thy affable question, I am searching yet. Only have
confidence, honored tribune, and know that if thou wert to lose the
string of thy sandal I should find it, or him who picked it up on the
street."

"Hast thou been employed in similar services?" asked Petronius.

The Greek raised his eyes. "To-day men esteem virtue and wisdom
too low, for a philosopher not to be forced to seek other means of
living."

"What are thy means?"

"To know everything, and to serve those with news who are in
need of it."

"And who pay for it?"

"Ah, lord, I need to buy a copyist. Otherwise my wisdom will
perish with me."

"If thou hast not collected enough yet to buy a sound mantle, thy
services cannot be very famous."

"Modesty hinders me. But remember, lord, that to-day there are
not such benefactors as were numerous formerly; and for whom it
was as pleasant to cover service with gold as to swallow an oyster
from Puteoli. No; my services are not small, but the gratitude of
mankind is small. At times, when a valued slave escapes, who will
find him, if not the only son of my father? When on the walls there
are inscriptions against the divine Poppae, who will indicate those
who composed them? Who will discover at the book-stalls verses
against Caesar? Who will declare what is said in the houses of
knights and senators? Who will carry letters which the writers will
not intrust to slaves? Who will listen to news at the doors of
barbers? For whom have wine-shops and bake-shops no secret? In
whom do slaves trust? Who can see through every house, from the
atrium to the garden? Who knows every street, every alley and
hiding-place? Who knows what they say in the baths, in the Circus,
in the markets, in the fencing-schools, in slave-dealers' sheds, and
even in the arenas?"

"By the gods! enough, noble sage!" cried Petronius; "we are
drowning in thy services, thy virtue, thy wisdom, and thy
eloquence. Enough! We wanted to know who thou art, and we
know!"

But Vinicius was glad, for he thought that this man, like a hound,
once put on the trail, would not stop till he had found out the
hiding-place.

"Well," said he, "dost thou need indications?"

"I need arms."

"Of what kind?" asked Vinicius, with astonishment.

The Greek stretched out one hand; with the other he made the
gesture of counting money.

"Such are the times, lord," said he, with a sigh.

"Thou wilt be the ass, then," said Petronius, "to win the fortress
with bags of gold?"

"I am only a poor philosopher," answered Chilo, with humility; "ye
have the gold."

Vinicius tossed him a purse, which the Greek caught in the air,
though two fingers were lacking on his right hand.

He raised his head then, and said: "I know more than thou thinkest.
I have not come empty-handed. I know that Aulus did not intercept
the maiden, for I have spoken with his slaves. I know that she is
not on the Palatine, for all are occupied with the infant Augusta;
and perhaps I may even divine why ye prefer to search for the
maiden with my help rather than that of the city guards and
Caesar's soldiers. I know that her escape was effected by a servant,
-- a slave coming from the same country as she. He could not find
assistance among slaves, for slaves all stand together, and would
not act against thy slaves. Only a co-religionist would help him."

"Dost hear, Vinicius?" broke in Petronius. "Have I not said the
same, word for word, to thee?"

"That is an honor for me," said Chio. "The maiden, lord,"
continued he, turning again to Vinicius, "worships beyond a doubt
the same divinity as that most virtuous of Roman ladies, that
genuine matron, Pomponia. I have heard this, too, that Pomponia
was tried in her own house for worshipping some kind of foreign
god, but I could not learn from her slaves what god that is, or what
his worshippers are called. If I could learn that, I should go to
them, become the most devoted among them, and gain their
confidence. But thou, lord, who hast passed, as I know too, a
number of days in the house of the noble Aulus, canst thou not
give me some information thereon?"

"I cannot," said Vinicius.

"Ye have asked me long about various things, noble lords, and I
have answered the questions; permit me now to give one. Hast
thou not seen, honored tribune, some statuette, some offering,
some token, some amulet on Pomponia or thy divine Lygia? Hast
thou not seen them making signs to each other, intelligible to them
alone?"

"Signs? Wait! Yes; I saw once that Lygia made a fish on the sand."

"A fish? A-a! O-o-o! Did she do that once, or a number of times?"

"Only once."

"And art thou certain, lord, that she outlined a fish? O-o?"

"Yes," answered Vinicius, with roused curiosity. "Dost thou divine
what that means?"

"Do I divine!" exclaimed Chio. And bowing in sign of farewell, he
added:

"May Fortune scatter on you both equally all gifts, worthy lords!"

"Give command to bring thee a mantle," said Petronius to him at
parting. "Ulysses gives thee thanks for Thersites," said the Greek;
and bowing a second time, he walked out.

"What wilt thou say of that noble sage?" inquired Petronius.

"This, that he will find Lygia," answered Vinicius, with delight;
"but I will say, too, that were there a kingdom of rogues he might
be the king of it."

"Most certainly. I shall make a nearer acquaintance with this stoic;
meanwhile I must give command to perfume the atrium."

But Chilo Chionides, wrapping his new mantle about him, threw
up on his palm, under its folds, the purse received from Vinicius,
and admired both its weight and its jingle. Walking on slowly, and
looking around to see if they were not looking at him from the
house, he passed the portico of Livia, and, reaching the corner of
the Clivus Virbius, turned toward the Subura.