“You know Rome well?” Casca asked. “I pray you tell me if I shall find it easy to frequent a school of learning there. Now that I am free of Burrhus, though I wish him no ill, yet I do feel that I lose a hard master. It is learning for which I crave.” “Thy craving for learning can be satisfied, boy,” said Caius, “as all things can be satisfied in Rome. Rome holds within her hand all that her sons and daughters can need, be it for war, or fame, or pleasure, or learning. There is a school, kept by one Cassius, who may receive you for learning by day; and as for a home, I have a poor little villa not far from the schools, where my good mother lives, and there, as I have said, you will be welcome till the good pleasure of your father, the noble Severus, is known. For myself, I must present myself before the Emperor’s minions and report the loss of the chief part of the maniple under Burrhus, and the capture of the large galley and the small baggage vessel by the swart African pirates. “May the gods protect us from further attacks from them! I did not forget to sacrifice to Neptune before we set sail. I think I was the only man who did so propitiate the god; and see how he has rewarded me! Ay, it is beyond a doubt that no sacrifice or libation poured out is in vain; and here I have proved it, as my good mother will be glad to hear. She is one who is always amongst the first in the temples at grand ceremonies, and the very sight of you, fair maiden, about to be vowed to the highest service, will fill her old heart with pride that she is allowed to touch your hand. “And now it is time for rest. Your couch, and that of your slave, is made ready; and if Neptune and Æolus deign to favour us, we shall be well on our voyage ere you open your eyes on another day.” CHAPTER VII. ROME. There are many travellers in the present day who, when they reach Rome, and exchange the railway for an omnibus, feel a throb of disappointment. The “eternal city” of their dreams vanishes for the moment into thin air, and in place of it there is only a modern town, where the voices of the great past are lost in the noise and din of the present. But the Rome upon which the eyes of Casca and Hyacintha gazed with intense wonder, on the September afternoon of 303, may hardly be adequately described, even by the aid of those wonderful discoveries which the zeal and untiring exertions of exploring labourers in the work of excavation have lately brought to light.