s and javelins for
fresh encounters and cutting off heads when the death rattle was too
slow sounding. Often have I lifted mine eyes from the sands dyed red
to the glitter and pomp above, and have said, 'Who payeth for all this?
Who payeth for the striped-backed and spotted-bellied beasts? Who
payeth for the shining pythons and the wild bulls that toss bare bodies
until from their bleeding wounds long entrails hang while bejeweled
women and swine-snouted men cheer? Who payeth for the silver cages
that house Numidian lions? Who payeth for the tanks of perfume in
which naked women sport to please licentious eyes? Who payeth for the
purple and the emerald--the palace and the villa? And who for the
olive oil and the wine that Caesar doth give to the populace to win him
favor?"

"In the slave pens of Via Sacra find I my answer. The _arficulata
implemente_ of Rome payeth for all these things whether this jointed
implement be bound or free. And who would keep the slave and working
man forever under the heel of the master? What meant the relentless
war that Cicero did wage against the working class? Because of his
Pagan belief in the divine rights of the _gens_ families and a like
strong belief that he who toileth hath no right to freedom, did he make
war. And for like reason is war still upon us until, like rats, we
burrow into the belly of the earth, and were it not for the Jus Coeundi
that doth allow free organization for religious and death ceremonies,
would we and our Brotherhood perish on a forest of crosses. Yet
starved, we struggle! Beaten, we toil! Damned, we hope! Believing
that out of Brotherhood will come the Liberty for which we die, we hold
ourselves together. That which sitteth on the Seven Hills above us
rotteth at the core. Signs are fast ripening of a change. Egyptian
wisdom doth tell us the Phoenix is about to spring again to birth from
her ashes. Somewhere is the savior and his coming shall be swift and
terrible as lightning."

As the arena-cleaner made reference to the coming of a world savior,
the Phoenician pushed himself before the _kurios_ and when the last
word had been uttered he said in a voice that filled the chamber vault,
"Hear! Hear!" and he lifted his arm and pointed into the face of the
orator. As he did so his sleeve fell back disclosing on his arm, a
fish with a lion's head and a circle in its mouth.

All eyes were turned on the stranger as the _kurios_ spoke, "Who art