h it. In the universal disorder and in the
destruction of authority no one had thought of furnishing new supplies.
Only after the arrival of Tigellinus were proper orders sent to Ostia;
but meanwhile the people had grown more threatening.

The house at Aqua Appia, in which Tigellinus lodged for the moment,
was surrounded by crowds of women, who from morning till late at night
cried, "Bread and a roof!" Vainly did pretorians, brought from the great
camp between the Via Salaria and the Nomentana, strive to maintain order
of some kind. Here and there they were met by open, armed resistance. In
places weaponless crowds pointed to the burning city, and shouted,
"Kill us in view of that fire!" They abused Caesar, the Augustians, the
pretorians; excitement rose every moment, so that Tigellinus, looking
at night on the thousands of fires around the city, said to himself that
those were fires in hostile camps.

Besides flour, as much baked bread as possible was brought at his
command, not only from Ostia, but from all towns and neighboring
villages. When the first instalment came at night to the Emporium, the
people broke the chief gate toward the Aventine, seized all supplies in
the twinkle of an eye, and caused terrible disturbance. In the light of
the conflagration they fought for loaves, and trampled many of them into
the earth. Flour from torn bags whitened like snow the whole space from
the granary to the arches of Drusus and Germanicus. The uproar continued
till soldiers seized the building and dispersed the crowd with arrows
and missiles.

Never since the invasion by the Gauls under Brennus had Rome beheld such
disaster. People in despair compared the two conflagrations. But in the
time of Brennus the Capitol remained. Now the Capitol was encircled by a
dreadful wreath of flame. The marbles, it is true, were not blazing;
but at night, when the wind swept the flames aside for a moment, rows
of columns in the lofty sanctuary of Jove were visible, red as glowing
coals. In the days of Brennus, moreover, Rome had a disciplined integral
people, attached to the city and its altars; but now crowds of a
many-tongued populace roamed nomad-like around the walls of burning
Rome,--people composed for the greater part of slaves and freedmen,
excited, disorderly, and ready, under the pressure of want, to turn
against authority and the city.

But the very immensity of the fire, which terrified every heart,
disarmed the crowd in a ce