[356] THE VIA PRAENESTINA was a road for local intercourse. Just beyond Praeneste (now Palestrina,) it entered (at Toleria) the Via Labicana. [357] XYSTUS (Συστός--Hall) the name of the luxuriously-adorned garden back of the peristyle. See Cic. _Acad._ II, 13. [358] VELEDA. (Vĕlĕda or Vĕlēda) a German prophetess belonging to the Bructerian people, took part in the war against Rome under Civilis (A.D. 69) and afterwards roused her countrymen to another insurrection, but was captured and dragged to Rome. See Tac. _Hist._ IV, 61, 65; V, 23, 24, and Tac. _Germ._ 8. [359] THE GROVE OF NERTHUS. Nerthus, an ancient German divinity, the personification of mother earth, specially revered in the north of Germany. Her principal grove was at Rügen. CHAPTER XXI. In the house of Cornelius Cinna a slave had just announced that it was two hours after sunrise.[360] Cinna, though he had slept but badly, had long been out of bed, he would not, however, receive any of the numerous visitors, who were enquiring for him in the atrium, but was pacing the peristyle to and fro with his head sunk on his breast. Cornelia, who was taking breakfast in the dining-room with Chloe and one or two slave-girls, sent repeatedly to call her uncle. “Directly--in a minute,” was all the answer, and Cinna began to walk up and down the colonnade. His mind was principally occupied with an incident, which certainly seemed significant. Shortly before midnight his slave Charicles had brought him a mysterious note, which had been left with the door-keeper by a man concealed in a cloak. The paper, which was doubly tied round for safety, contained but a few words: “You are surrounded by spies; be on your guard.” There was no signature, nor did the large thick writing--a feigned hand no doubt--afford any clew. “Surrounded by spies!” This idea, stated with such uncompromising plainness, haunted his excited fancy with urgent persistency. He had long known, that under Domitian’s rule espionage and underhand reporting everywhere spread their treacherous snares. And yet it came upon him now, as something impossible and shocking. In vain he racked his brain to guess who could be the sender of this mysterious warning, and at last he came to the conclusion, that the whole thing was perhaps the spiteful jest of some enemy--or a trap laid by Caesar himself. While her uncle thus paced the arcade in gloomy displeasure, Cornelia eat her breakfast in the best of humors. The early day shone so gaily and invitingly into the room, the air, purified by the night’s rain, was so sweet! Besides, had not Cornelia, as she thought, the most particular reasons for seeing the whole world rose-colored to-day? The soft light in her eyes showed that she had recovered a peace of mind, a happy confidence, which for some time she had lost entirely.