ar any moment from out the smoke, which was stretching more
widely over all the Campania.

This seemed to him more likely, since he met increasing numbers of
people, who had deserted the city and were going to the Alban Hills;
they had escaped the fire, and wished to go beyond the line of smoke.
Before he had reached Ustrinum he had to slacken his pace because of the
throng. Besides pedestrians with bundles on their backs, he met horses
with packs, mules and vehicles laden with effects, and finally litters
in which slaves were bearing the wealthier citizens. Ustrinum was so
thronged with fugitives from Rome that it was difficult to push through
the crowd. On the market square, under temple porticos, and on the
streets were swarms of fugitives. Here and there people were erecting
tents under which whole families were to find shelter. Others settled
down under the naked sky, shouting, calling on the gods, or cursing the
fates. In the general terror it was difficult to inquire about anything.
People to whom Vinicius applied either did not answer, or with eyes
half bewildered from terror answered that the city and the world were
perishing. New crowds of men, women, and children arrived from the
direction of Rome every moment; these increased the disorder and outcry.
Some, gone astray in the throng, sought desperately those whom they had
lost; others fought for a camping-place. Half-wild shepherds from the
Campania crowded to the town to hear news, or find profit in plunder
made easy by the uproar. Here and there crowds of slaves of every
nationality and gladiators fell to robbing houses and villas in the
town, and to fighting with the soldiers who appeared in defence of the
citizens.

Junius, a senator, whom Vinicius saw at the inn surrounded by a
detachment of Batavian slaves, was the first to give more detailed news
of the conflagration. The fire had begun at the Circus Maximus, in the
part which touches the Palatine and the Caelian Hill, but extended with
incomprehensible rapidity and seized the whole centre of the city. Never
since the time of Brennus had such an awful catastrophe come upon
Rome. "The entire Circus has burnt, as well as the shops and houses
surrounding it," said Junius; "the Aventine and Caelian Hills are on
fire. The flames surrounding the Palatine have reached the Carinae."

Here Junius, who possessed on the Carinae a magnificent "insula," filled
with works of art which he loved, seized a handful of