[116] Birt _artus_; I return to the vulg. _arcus_. * * * * * Page 211 ankles are still scarred and livid with their wearing of the fetters of servitude and though their branded foreheads deny their owners’ right to office and disclose their true title. Among them Eutropius holds the first place; Hosius, on whom he relies, comes next. He of a truth is more popular, a cunning artificer of justice who knows well how to steam his cases; at times boiling with anger, yet well able to render down that anger when aroused.[117] These sit enthroned, joint rulers of the eastern empire, the one a cook the other a pander. The backs of both are scarred with the whip, each was a slave though of a different kind. The one had been bought and sold a hundred times, the other brought up a dependant in a Spanish household. When, therefore, the chief men were gathered together for consultation in this strait and to comfort the sickness of the state, forthwith they forget Phrygia and, setting aside the question of war, start their accustomed fooling and engage in disputes about the Circus. With heat as fierce as it is pointless they wrangle what boy can best whirl quivering limbs in an easy somersault or sweep the marble floor with his drooping locks; who can most twist his flanks into a boneless arch; who can best suit his gestures to his words and his eyes to his character. Some recite speeches from tragedy, others chant the play of Tereus, others again that of Agave, never before staged. Eutropius chides them; the present moment, says he, demands other spectacles than these; it is war which now should claim all their care. For his part (for he is an old man and a weary) it is enough to defend the frontiers of Armenia; single-handed [117] Hosius, by birth a Spaniard, had been a slave and a cook--whence these various double meanings. He rose to be _magister officiorum_ at the court of Arcadius (_circa_ 396-8). * * * * * Page 212 nec tantis unum subsistere posse periclis; ignoscant senio, iuvenes ad proelia mittant:-- qualis pauperibus nutrix invisa puellis 370 adsidet et tela communem quaerere victum rauca monet; festis illae lusisse diebus orant et positis aequaevas visere pensis, irataeque operi iam lasso pollice fila turbant et teneros detergent stamine fletus. 375