They walked on towards the river. There they stood for a few minutes, watching the boats and gondolas, which gently drifted down to the Aelian bridge or struggled up stream under the stout strokes of the oarsmen. Beyond the opposite shore the beautiful hills, strewn with gardens and villas, smiled invitingly down on them, and farther off still rose the five peaks of Soracte.[322] “They will soon be crowned with snow,” sighed Claudia. “Yes, it is wearing into autumn,” said Quintus. “But now, my children, you must amuse yourselves without me. Till we meet to-morrow.” “You fellows,” said Claudia, turning to the Numidians, when Quintus was lost in the crowd. “Do you know what? You ought to be ashamed of yourselves, down to the very ground. If it had not been for Quintus, Aurelius would have been under the horse’s hoofs. Cowards! By the gods, but I am minded to have you punished, that you may remember this hour!” The Africans opened their wide thick mouths, and stared at their mistress as if some marvel had happened. None of her slaves had ever heard such words before from Claudia’s lips. “That comes of her being betrothed to that rich Furius,” whispered one of them. “I always told you, that the gentlest turn haughty when there is a husband in sight.” FOOTNOTES: [299] CAMPUS MARTIUS. The name given to the public pleasure grounds in the north-western part of Rome. Strabo describes them minutely. (V, 3.) [300] COLONNADE OF AGRIPPA. The most renowned object in the Campus Martius was the hundred-columned portico of Vipsanius Agrippa. [301] LAUREL GROVES. Within Agrippa’s colonnade were laurel and plane-groves. (Mart. _Ep._ I, 108, etc.) [302] VIRGIL. The author of the Aeneid had always been one of the most popular writers. He was even studied in the schools, as Schiller is in Germany at the present day. [303] BATTLE OF THE FROGS AND MICE. (βατραχομυομαχία) The Battle of the Frogs, a parody upon the Iliad; falsely attributed to Homer, and probably composed by Pigres of Halicarnassus. [304] ROSTRA. The name of the orator’s platform, adorned with a ship’s beak (rostrum, the ship’s beak) in the Forum Romanum.