rincely opulence in Saguntum, as if she were still in
the house in the Street of Tripods, and Actaeon one of the poor artists
who visited her of an afternoon to discuss affairs of the city, in the
intimacy of comrades. She laughed at the latest witticisms of the idlers
in the Agora, at the song in vogue the year before, when Actaeon left
Athens; and with frowning brow and the gravity of a goddess, she
listened to a detailed relation of the recent changes of fashion and of
the style of coiffure used by the most celebrated hetaerae.

The curiosity of the exiled Athenian being satisfied, she longed to
penetrate the adventurous life of her guest, and Actaeon told his story
simply. Born in Athens, he had been taken to Carthage at twelve years of
age. His father, in the service of the African republic, fought with
Hamilcar in Sicily. In a village in the interior the selfsame slave
attended the son of the Greek mercenary and a lion-cub of Hamilcar, who
was at that time only four years of age. It was Hannibal. The Athenian
recalled the blows he had often dealt the savage youngster in exchange
for bites with which the African surprised him in the midst of their
games. The revolt of the mercenaries broke out with those horrors which
gave it the name of "the truceless war," and his father, who had
remained faithful to Carthage and would not take up arms with his
companions, was despite his loyalty crucified by the Carthaginian
populace, who, forgetting his wounds received in the service of the
Republic, saw in him only a foreigner, a friend of Hamilcar who was
hated by the partisans of Hanno. The son miraculously escaped these
red-handed reprisals; and Hamilcar's faithful slave smuggled him aboard
ship for Athens.

There, under the protection of relatives, he received the education of
all young Greeks. He won prizes in the Gymnasium, in wrestling, in
running, and in throwing the discus; he learned to ride unbridled horses
bareback, balancing himself merely by resting his toe in a groove of the
lance; to temper the rudeness of this education he was taught to play
the lyre and to sing verses in diverse styles, and being strong of body
and mind, he was sent, as were all Athenian youths, to pass his military
apprenticeship in the garrisons on the frontier.

The monotony of this existence bored him; it was dull, and he loved
pleasure; the blood of his forefathers, soldiers of fortune all, surged
through his body; and he ran away from