e
populace to roar with enthusiasm excited by the warlike display, came a
group of girls holding a peplus of finest texture on which the principal
Grecian women of the city had embroidered the combat of Minerva with the
Titans. It was the offering which was to remain in the new temple of the
goddess as a perpetual token of the festival.

Closing the procession, the sacred squadron advanced, the richest
citizens, mounted on fiery horses, which, with their evolutions
compelled the crowd to fall back against the walls. They presented a
brave display, making their steeds rear on their hind feet, guided only
by the bridle, riding bareback, pressing their knees into the horses'
ribs. The eldest of the horsemen wore huge hats in the Athenian fashion.
The young men wore the winged helmet of Mercury or went bareheaded,
their short curls bound by a fire-colored ribbon. Alorcus wore the crown
he had won, and Actaeon, riding beside him on one of the Celtiberian's
horses, smiled at the crowd, which regarded him with a certain respect
as if he were Sonnica's husband and in possession of her enormous
riches. The horsemen gazed with pride at the swords which hung at their
sides and clanked against the flanks of their horses, and they took in
with a glance the high Acropolis and the city lying at its feet, as if
expressing confidence in their strength, and faith in the tranquility in
which Saguntum might dwell, sure of protection.

The crowd fired with enthusiasm by the brilliant procession, acclaimed
Sonnica. Surrounded by her slave women, she gazed down from the terrace
of her great building in the ward of the merchants where she stored her
merchandise. She was the organizer, the one who bore the cost of the
peplus of Minerva, she it was who had transplanted to Saguntum the
beautiful festival of Athens. Fragrant odors from the censers were flung
upon the air; a shower of roses fell from the windows upon the maidens;
arms glistened in the sunlight, and in moments when the people were
silent the sounds of lyres and flutes floated on the breeze,
accompanying with soft melodies the voices of the Homeric rhapsodists.

The crude Celtiberians, gathered to witness the festival, remained
silent in astonishment at the procession which dazzled them with its
glitter of arms and jewels and the multicolored confusion of costumes.
The natives of Saguntum congratulated their fellow-citizens, the Greeks,
admiring the splendor of the festival.

The