“And you say it as calmly....” “Shall I worry beforehand over things I cannot prevent? But I will do my utmost to win my father over. He is stern, but he loves me, and for his daughter’s happiness he would make a sacrifice--a sacrifice I say advisedly, for you know how strictly he adheres to his principles, and one of his principles is a prejudice against the class of knights....” “And if your hopes deceive you--if all is in vain?” “Then I remember that the old saying: ‘Where you, Caius, are, there will I, Caia, be’[387] is a pledge no less sacred than obedience to parents; and I too am of the race of Claudius!” They had reached the open plot in front of the house, where Cneius Afranius was standing with Lucilia and his mother, cutting ripe grapes into a basket with a sharp knife. Dressed in a flowered tunic, the city lawyer was humming the air of a Gaulish popular song; every now and then he interrupted himself with a cry of surprise at the huge size of the grapes, or a jesting word to the young girl, and all the time his jolly pleasant face, ruddy with the exertion and with the October sun, shone like a living tribute to Bacchus. “There!” he exclaimed, as Quintus and Cornelia also appeared upon the scene, “now, a few leaves, and men Zeuxis[388] himself could not paint a prettier picture! Aha! here are our peripatetic[389] philosophers! Come along, our country dining-room is quite ready! Come, Quintus, and see if Fabulla’s spelt porridge and cabbage sprouts[390] are to your liking; I am credibly informed too, that there is a fish salad with chopped eggs and leeks. Such a cybium[391] as my mother makes, you have never tasted. Even the great Euphemus, with all his art, must yield to that triumph of culinary skill. Walk in, most worshipful company, walk in, for here too the gods abide!” FOOTNOTES: [377] PEPONILLA, the wife of Julius Sabinus, who had incited an unsuccessful insurrection in Gaul, lived for nine years with her husband in a subterranean cave, always hoping the emperor would pardon the hunted man. But Vespasian was inexorable, and when Julius Sabinus was discovered, condemned not only him, but his faithful wife, to death. See Dio Cass. LXIV, 16. In Tacitus (_Hist._ IV, 67) she is called Epponina, in Plutarch (_Dial. de amicit_, 25,) Empona. [378] THULE (Θούλη) an island in the German ocean, was the moat extreme northern point of the earth known in those days. See Tac. _Agr._ X., Virg. _Geog._ I. 30. It it supposed to be what is now called Iceland, or a part of Norway. [379] A CARGO OF BEASTS FOR THE CENTENNIAL GAMES. A catalogue of animals, dating from the time of Gordian III, (238 to 244 A.D.) mentions thirty-two elephants, ten tigers, sixty tame lions, three hundred tame leopards--but only one rhinoceros.