ant; a thing which has not been seen in
Alexandria for a hundred years! It was passing through with two tame
tigers, as a present to the boy at Byzantium, from some hundred-wived
kinglet of the Hyperborean Taprobane, or other no-man's-land in the
far East. I took the liberty of laying an embargo on them, and, after a
little argumentation and a few hints of torture, elephant and tigers are
at our service.'

'And of what service are they to be?'

'My dearest madam-- Conceive.... How are we to win the mob without a
show?.... When were there more than two ways of gaining either the whole
or part of the Roman Empire--by force of arms or force of trumpery? Can
even you invent a third? The former is unpleasantly exciting, and hardly
practicable just now. The latter remains, and, thanks to the white
elephant, may be triumphantly successful. I have to exhibit something
every week. The people are getting tired of that pantomime; and since
the Jews were driven out, the fellow has grown stupid and lazy, having
lost the more enthusiastic half of his spectators. As for horse-racing,
they are sick of it.... Now, suppose we announce, for the earliest
possible day--a spectacle--such a spectacle as never was seen before in
this generation. You and I--I as exhibitor, you as representative--for
the time being only--of the Vestals of old--sit side by side....
Some worthy friend has his instructions, when the people are beside
themselves with rapture, to cry, "Long live Orestes Caesar!"....Another
reminds them of Heraclian's victory--another couples your name with
mine.... the people applaud.... some Mark Antony steps forward, salutes
me as Imperator, Augustus--what you will--the cry is taken up--I refuse
as meekly as Julius Caesar himself--am compelled, blushing, to accept
the honour--I rise, make an oration about the future independence of the
southern continent--union of Africa and Egypt--the empire no longer to
be divided into Eastern and Western, but Northern and Southern. Shouts
of applause, at two drachmas per man, shake the skies. Everybody
believes that everybody else approves, and follows the lead.... And the
thing is won.'

'And pray,' asked Hypatia, crushing down her contempt and despair, 'how
is this to bear on the worship of the gods?

'Why.... why,.... if you thought that people's minds were sufficiently
prepared, you might rise in your turn, and make an oration--you can
conceive one. Set forth how these spectacles, former