Produced by Ted Garvin, Danny Wool and PG Distributed Proofreaders A Roman Lawyer in Jerusalem First Century By W.W. Story A ROMAN LAWYER IN JERUSALEM Marcus, abiding in Jerusalem, Greeting to Caius, his best friend in Rome! _Salve!_ these presents will be borne to you By Lucius, who is wearied with this place, Sated with travel, looks upon the East As simply hateful--blazing, barren, bleak, And longs again to find himself in Rome, After the tumult of its streets, its trains Of slaves and clients, and its villas cool With marble porticoes beside the sea, And friends and banquets--more than all, its games-- This life seems blank and flat. He pants to stand In its vast circus all alive with heads And quivering arms and floating robes--the air Thrilled by the roaring _fremitus_ of men-- The sunlit awning heaving overhead, Swollen and strained against its corded veins And flapping out its hem with loud report-- The wild beasts roaring from the pit below-- The wilder crowd responding from above With one long yell that sends the startled blood With thrill and sudden flush into the cheeks-- A hundred trumpets screaming--the dull thump Of horses galloping across the sand-- The clang of sabbards, the sharp clash of steel-- Live swords, that whirl a circle of grey fire-- Brass helmets flashing 'neath their streaming hair-- A universal tumult--then a hush Worse than the tumult--all eyes staining down To the arena's pit--all lips set close-- All muscles strained--and then that sudden yell, _Habet!_--That's Rome, says Lucius! so it is! That is, 'tis _his_ Rome--'tis not yours and mine. And yet, great Jupiter here at my side, He stands with face aside as if he saw The games he thus describes, and says, "That's life! Life! life! my friend, and this is simply death! Ah! for my Rome!" I jot his very words Just as he utters them. I hate these games, And Darius knows it, yet he will go on, And all against my will he stirs my blood-- I suspend my letter for a while.