for the bloody banquet in the unfaithfulness of his wife, Gildo’s motive was hatred, not vengeance. Violated rights, the sorrowing father, the unburied dead, the unnatural crime all call upon thee as avenger. If thou, Athens, didst dedicate an altar to the sorrowing and ordain to those that mourn a special deity, if the women of Argos won to their aid the Athenian phalanx by their tears and bought burial for their slain lords at the price of war;[77] if Adherbal, driven from his throne, roused the Senate against the Numidians by the sad appeal of unkempt locks and by his tears, then let Gildo be sorry that now this man also whom he has crushed by so many murders is come into the field against him, and let him learn that he must bow before thy suppliants. Let Gildo flee headlong before him whom he put to flight and fear him whom he o’erwhelmed with the murder of his children. As he is being dragged off to the slaughter let him recognize his brother’s hand.” When this advice had been accepted by his son-in-law, Stilicho made ready for war the most famous regiments in the army, selecting therefrom special companies of picked men; he further prepared the fleet in the harbours of Etruria. Alcides himself commands the Herculean cohort; the king of the gods leads the Jovian. No standard-bearer feels the weight of his eagle, so readily do the very standards press forward. The Nervian cohort follows and the Felix, well deserving its name, the legion, too, named after Augustus, that well called The Un-conquered, and the brave regiment of the Lion[78] to whose name their shields bear witness. But before they start the emperor, standing upon a platform of earth, heartens them with his words: [77] A reference to the support given by Theseus, King of Athens, to Adrastus, King of Argos, when the Thebans had refused to allow the burial of the Argives slain at Thebes; _cf._ Eur. _Supplices_. [78] Orosius (vii. 36. 6) says Mascezel only had 5000 men. The legion may have been leg. viii. Augusta. The other names are those of various _numeri_ (the unit of the post-Diocletianic army). * * * * * Page 130