, and her husband, the excellent Piso? Others
like them, what wonder if inferior! had also, both in Palmyra, and at
Tibur and Rome--for they were to be found everywhere--drawn largely both
on my respect and my affections. I beheld with sorrow the signs which
now seemed to portend suffering and disaster. And my sympathies were the
more moved seeing that never before had there been upon the throne a man
who, if he were once entered into a war of opposition against them, had
power to do them greater harm, or could have proved a more stern and
cruel enemy. Not even Nero or Domitian were in their time to be so much
dreaded. For if Aurelian should once league him with the state against
them, it would not with him be matter of mere cruel sport, but of
conscience. It would be for the honor of the gods, the protection of
religion, the greatness and glory of the empire, that he would assail
and punish them; and the same fierce and bloody spirit that made him of
all modern conquerors the bloodiest and fiercest, it was plain would
rule him in any encounter with this humble and defenceless tribe. I
could only hope that I was deceived, as well as others, in my
apprehensions, or, if that were not so, pray that the gods would be
pleased to take their great subject to themselves.

Full of such reflections and emotions I arrived at the palace, and was
ushered into the presence of Livia. There was with her the melancholy
Aurelia--for such she always seems--who appeared to have been engaged in
earnest talk with the Empress, if one might judge by tears fast falling
from her eyes. The only words which I caught as I entered were these
from Aurelia, 'but, dear lady, if Mucapor require it not, why should
others think of it so much? Were he fixed, then should I indeed have to
ask strength of God for the trial--' then, seeing me, and only receiving
my salutations, she withdrew.

Livia, after first inquiring concerning Zenobia and Faustula, returning
to what had just engaged her, said,

'I wish, good Nicomachus, that I had your powers of speech, of which, as
you can remember, I have been witness in former days--those happy days
in Syria--when you used, so successfully, to withstand and subdue my
giddy or headstrong mind. Here have I been for weary hours--not weary
neither, for their aim has, I am sure, been a worthy one--but, here have
I been persuading, with all the reason and eloquence I could bring to
bear, this self-willed girl to renounce t