s. Senators who owned
extensive territories and hundreds of slaves, paraded their togas
covered with patches in civic pride through the Forum. In all Rome there
existed but a single table-service of silver, the property of the
Republic, which passed from the house of one patrician to that of
another when an envoy arrived from Greece, an ambassador from Sicily, or
an opulent merchant from Carthage, habituated to Asiatic refinements and
in whose honor banquets had to be given.

Actaeon, accustomed to philosophic arguments in the Athenian Agora, to
dialogues on poetry or on the mysteries of the soul wherever two
unoccupied Greeks chanced to meet, strolled through the Forum listening
to the conversations carried on in that rude and inflexible Latin which
wounded an Athenian's ears. In one group they were discussing the
health of the flocks and the price of wool; in another they were closing
the sale of an ox in the presence of five adult citizens who served as
witnesses. The purchaser placed the bronze, the value of the purchase,
in a balance, and touching the ox with his hand he said in solemn
accent, as if reciting an oration:

"This is mine, according to the law of the Quirites. I have paid for it
with this metal duly weighed."

Farther on, a legionary with hungry face was adjusting a loan with an
old man, offering as security his helmet and his greaves, and
pronouncing the formulas of the law in such a case:

"_Dari spondes?_" (Do you promise to give?) the soldier asked.

"_Spondeo_" (I promise), replied the lender.

The bargain was closed with these sober words, the alteration of a
single syllable in which was sufficient to annul the operation, for the
Romans professed a superstitious respect for the letter and formula of
their laws.

In another group they were discussing the points which a slave must have
in order to be useful to his master and to be maintained by him; and
throughout the entire Forum this grave people, austere, and without
ideals, talked only of possessions, and of the manner of increasing
them.

The attention of the Greek was attracted by a youth who, although barely
twenty years of age, displayed the gravity of an old man. His hair was
red and close-cropped; his steady gaze gave him an expression of
intelligence and penetration. He was walking slowly beside a boy who
was listening to him attentively, as to his master.

"Although your father is consul," said the red-headed man, "you must n