"

"I should not like to be thy brother."

"Thou Maeotian copper-nose!"

"Thou Ligurian mule!"

"Thy skin is itching, evidently, but I don't advise thee to ask me to
scratch it."

"Scratch thyself. If thou scratch thy own pimple, thou wilt destroy what
is best in thee."

And in this manner they attacked him. He defended himself venomously,
amid universal laughter. Caesar, clapping his hands, repeated, "Macte!"
and urged them on. After a while Petronius approached, and, touching the
Greek's shoulder with his carved ivory cane, said coldly,--

"This is well, philosopher; but in one thing thou hast blundered: the
gods created thee a pickpocket, and thou hast become a demon. That is
why thou canst not endure."

The old man looked at him with his red eyes, but this time somehow he
did not find a ready insult. He was silent for a moment; then answered,
as if with a certain effort,--

"I shall endure."

Meanwhile the trumpets announced the end of the interval. People began
to leave the passages where they had assembled to straighten their legs
and converse. A general movement set in with the usual dispute about
seats occupied previously. Senators and patricians hastened to their
places. The uproar ceased after a time, and the amphitheatre returned to
order. On the arena a crowd of people appeared whose work was to dig out
here and there lumps of sand formed with stiffened blood.

The turn of the Christians was at hand. But since that was a new
spectacle for people, and no one knew how the Christians would bear
themselves, all waited with a certain curiosity. The disposition of the
audience was attentive but unfriendly; they were waiting for uncommon
scenes. Those people who were to appear had burned Rome and its ancient
treasures. They had drunk the blood of infants, and poisoned water; they
had cursed the whole human race, and committed the vilest crimes. The
harshest punishment did not suffice the roused hatred; and if any
fear possessed people's hearts, it was this: that the torture of the
Christians would not equal the guilt of those ominous criminals.

Meanwhile the sun had risen high; its rays, passing through the purple
velarium, had filled the amphitheatre with blood-colored light. The sand
assumed a fiery hue, and in those gleams, in the faces of people, as
well as in the empty arena, which after a time was to be filled with
the torture of people and the rage of savage beasts, there was something
terri