ium, which list one of
Caesar's freedmen had brought him that morning.

"My name is on it; so is thine," said he. "Thou wilt find the same at
thy house on returning."

"Were I not among the invited," replied Petronius, "it would mean that I
must die; I do not expect that to happen before the journey to Achaea. I
shall be too useful to Nero. Barely have we come to Rome," said he, on
looking at the list, "when we must leave again, and drag over the road
to Antium. But we must go, for this is not merely an invitation, it is a
command as well."

"And if some one would not obey?"

"He would be invited in another style to go on a journey notably
longer,--one from which people do not return. What a pity that thou
hast not obeyed my counsel and left Rome in season! Now thou must go to
Antium."

"I must go to Antium. See in what times we live and what vile slaves we
are!"

"Hast thou noticed that only to-day?"

"No. But thou hast explained to me that Christian teaching is an enemy
of life, since it shackles it. But can their shackles be stronger than
those which we carry? Thou hast said, 'Greece created wisdom and beauty,
and Rome power.' Where is our power?"

"Call Chilo and talk with him. I have no desire to-day to philosophize.
By Hercules! I did not create these times, and I do not answer for them.
Let us speak of Antium. Know that great danger is awaiting thee, and it
would be better, perhaps, to measure strength with that Ursus who choked
Croton than to go there, but still thou canst not refuse."

Vinicius waved his hand carelessly, and said,--"Danger! We are all
wandering in the shadow of death, and every moment some head sinks in
its darkness."

"Am I to enumerate all who had a little sense, and therefore, in spite
of the times of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, lived eighty
and ninety years? Let even such a man as Domitius Afer serve thee as
an example. He has grown old quietly, though all his life he has been a
criminal and a villain."

"Perhaps for that very reason!" answered Vinicius.

Then he began to glance over the list and read: "Tigellinus, Vatinius,
Sextus Africanus, Aquilinus Regulus, Suilius Nerulinus, Eprius
Marcellus, and so on! What an assembly of ruffians and scoundrels! And
to say that they govern the world! Would it not become them better to
exhibit an Egyptian or Syrian divinity through villages, jingle sistra,
and earn their bread by telling fortunes or dancing?"

"Or exhibit