lain first,
as an initiatory sacrifice. But in the present instance, the
experienced Pansa thought it better that the sanguinary drama should
advance, not decrease, in interest and, accordingly, the execution of
Olinthus and Glaucus was reserved for the last. It was arranged that
the two horsemen should first occupy the arena; that the foot
gladiators, paired Off, should then be loosed indiscriminately on the
stage; that Glaucus and the lion should next perform their part in the
bloody spectacle; and the tiger and the Nazarene be the grand finale.
And, in the spectacles of Pompeii, the reader of Roman history must
limit his imagination, nor expect to find those vast and wholesale
exhibitions of magnificent slaughter with which a Nero or a Caligula
regaled the inhabitants of the Imperial City. The Roman shows, which
absorbed the more celebrated gladiators, and the chief proportion of
foreign beasts, were indeed the very reason why, in the lesser towns of
the empire, the sports of the amphitheatre were comparatively humane and
rare; and in this, as in other respects, Pompeii was but the miniature,
the microcosm of Rome. Still, it was an awful and imposing spectacle,
with which modern times have, happily, nothing to compare--a vast
theatre, rising row upon row, and swarming with human beings, from
fifteen to eighteen thousand in number, intent upon no fictitious
representation--no tragedy of the stage--but the actual victory or
defeat, the exultant life or the bloody death, of each and all who
entered the arena!

The two horsemen were now at either extremity of the lists (if so they
might be called); and, at a given signal from Pansa, the combatants
started simultaneously as in full collision, each advancing his round
buckler, each poising on high his light yet sturdy javelin; but just
when within three paces of his opponent, the steed of Berbix suddenly
halted, wheeled round, and, as Nobilior was borne rapidly by, his
antagonist spurred upon him. The buckler of Nobilior, quickly and
skillfully extended, received a blow which otherwise would have been
fatal.

'Well done, Nobilior!' cried the praetor, giving the first vent to the
popular excitement.

'Bravely struck, my Berbix!' answered Clodius from his seat.

And the wild murmur, swelled by many a shout, echoed from side to side.

The vizors of both the horsemen were completely closed (like those of
the knights in after times), but the head was, nevertheless, t