of old,
whose many facetious and elegant expressions are recorded by tradition
and by history.

33. For these clever gentlemen have now devised a new method of
expressing applause, which is, at every spectacle to cry out to those
who appear at the end, whether they are couriers, huntsmen, or
charioteers--in short, to the whole body of actors, and to the
magistrates, whether of great or small importance, and even to nations,
"It is to your school that he ought to go." But what he is to learn
there no one can explain.

34. Among these men are many chiefly addicted to fattening themselves up
by gluttony, who, following the scent of any delicate food, and the
shrill voices of the women who, from cockcrow, cry out with a shrill
scream, like so many peacocks, and gliding over the ground on tiptoe,
get an entrance into the halls, biting their nails while the dishes are
getting cool. Others fix their eyes intently on the tainted meat which
is being cooked, that you might fancy Democritus, with a number of
anatomists, was gazing into the entrails of sacrificed victims, in order
to teach posterity how best to relieve internal pains.

35. For the present this is enough to say of the affairs of the city;
now let us return to other events which various circumstances brought to
pass in the provinces.

V.

Sec. 1. In the third consulship of the emperors a vast multitude of Saxons
burst forth, and having crossed the difficult passage of the ocean, made
towards the Roman frontier by rapid marches, having before often
battened on the slaughter of our men. The first storm of this invasion
fell upon the count Nannenus, who was in command in that district, being
a veteran general of great merit and experience.

2. He now engaged in battle with a host which fought as if resolved on
death; but when he found that he had lost many of his men, and that he
himself, having been wounded, would be unequal to a succession of
battles, he sent word to the emperor of what was necessary, and
prevailed on him to send Severus, the commander of the infantry, to aid
him at this crisis.

3. That general brought with him a sufficient body of troops, and when
he arrived in the country he so arrayed his men that he terrified the
barbarians, and threw them into such disorder, even before any battle
took place, that they did not venture to engage him, but, panic-stricken
at the brilliant appearance of the standards and eagles, they implored
pardon and