s, and can
discuss the details on our way. You, my young friend, go now and order
away the imperial litter; bid my steward to have the horses put to my
covered harmamaxa. There is room in it for us all three."

By the time Alexander returned, the daylight was waning, and the clatter
of the chariots began to be audible which conveyed Caesar's court to the
Circus.

CHAPTER XXVII.

The great Amphitheatre of Dionysus was in the Bruchium, the splendid
palatial quarter of the city, close to the large harbor between the
Choma and the peninsula of Lochias. Hard by the spacious and lofty
rotunda, in which ten thousand spectators could be seated, stood the
most fashionable gymnasia and riding-schools. These buildings, which had
been founded long since by the Ptolemiac kings, and had been repeatedly
extended and beautified, formed, with the adjoining schools for
gladiators and beast-fighters, and the stables for wild beasts from
every part of the world, a little town by themselves.

At this moment the amphitheatre looked like a beehive, of which every
cell seems to be full, but in which a whole swarm expects yet to find
room. The upper places, mere standing-room for the common people, and
the cheaper seats, had been full early in the day. By the afternoon the
better class of citizens had come in, if their places were not reserved;
and now, at sunset, those who were arriving in litters and chariots,
just before the beginning of the show, were for the most part in
Caesar's train, court officials, senators, or the rich magnates of the
city.

The strains of music were by this time mingling with the shouting and
loud talk of the spectators, or of the thousands who were crowding round
the building without hoping to obtain admission. But even for them there
was plenty to be seen. How delightful to watch the well-dressed
women, and the men of rank and wealth, crowned with wreaths, as they
dismounted; to see the learned men and artists arrive--more or less
eagerly applauded, according to the esteem in which they were held
by the populace! The most splendid sight of all was the procession of
priests, with Timotheus, the high-priest of Serapis, at their head, and
by his side the priest of Alexander, both marching with dignity under
a canopy. They were followed by the animals to be slaughtered for
sacrifice, and the images of the gods and the deified Caesars, which
were to be placed in the arena, as the most worshipful of all the