at fires, around casks of wine.

In the evening was heard with delight bellowing which was like thunder,
and which sounded throughout the city. The prisons were overflowing
with thousands of people; every day the mob and pretorians drove in
new victims. Pity had died out. It seemed that people had forgotten
to speak, and in their wild frenzy remembered one shout alone: "To
the lions with Christians!" Wonderfully hot days came, and nights more
stifling than ever before; the very air seemed filled with blood, crime,
and madness.

And that surpassing measure of cruelty was answered by an equal measure
of desire for martyrdom,--the confessors of Christ went to death
willingly, or even sought death till they were restrained by the stern
commands of superiors. By the injunction of these superiors they began
to assemble only outside the city, in excavations near the Appian Way,
and in vineyards belonging to patrician Christians, of whom none had
been imprisoned so far. It was known perfectly on the Palatine that to
the confessors of Christ belonged Flavius, Domitilla, Pomponia Graecina,
Cornelius Pudens, and Vinicius. Caesar himself, however, feared that the
mob would not believe that such people had burned Rome, and since it
was important beyond everything to convince the mob, punishment and
vengeance were deferred till later days. Others were of the opinion, but
erroneously, that those patricians were saved by the influence of Acte.
Petronius, after parting with Vinicius, turned to Acte, it is true, to
gain assistance for Lygia; but she could offer him only tears, for she
lived in oblivion and suffering, and was endured only in so far as she
hid herself from Poppaea and Caesar.

But she had visited Lygia in prison, she had carried her clothing
and food, and above all had saved her from injury on the part of the
prison-guards, who, moreover, were bribed already.

Petronius, unable to forget that had it not been for him and his plan
of taking Lygia from the house of Aulus, probably she would not be in
prison at that moment, and, besides, wishing to win the game against
Tigellinus, spared neither time nor efforts. In the course of a few days
he saw Seneca, Domitius Afer, Crispinilla, and Diodorus, through whom
he wished to reach Poppaea; he saw Terpnos, and the beautiful Pythagoras,
and finally Aliturus and Paris, to whom Caesar usually refused nothing.
With the help of Chrysothemis, then mistress of Vatinius, he tried to