[17] FEAST OF MINERVA. Reference is here made to the Quinquatria (a five-day festival, principally for the benefit of workmen, artists, etc., as well as school-boys) which Domitian ordered to be annually celebrated in the month of March, at his Albanian estate. [18] THIS POEM is an almost literal translation from Martial, _Ep._ IV, 1. [19] HE WAS WRITING DOWN ON A WOODEN TABLET THE NAMES OF THOSE WHOM HE DEVOTED TO DEATH. The story of this wooden tablet, according to its actual characters, is borrowed from the account of Dio Cassius, (LXVII, 15). CHAPTER II. Early next morning Quintus made his way to the Flamen’s house. The great sitting of the Senate, which was to determine the fate of the edict against the Nazarenes, had been fixed for this forenoon; until he should join it, Titus Claudius was spending the morning with his family. The weather was unusually mild for the late season, and Octavia had ordered that breakfast should be served in the peristyle, and here, comfortably extended on his couch, the high-priest was enjoying his favorite dish, fresh eggs with _garum_.[20] The ladies, attended only by Baucis and a little girl, were sitting in easy-chairs, sipping milk cooled with ice[21] out of pale, gleaming Murrhine cups. Perfect silence reigned in the cavaedium; not even a slave stole across the marble flags, and the very tree-tops, golden in the morning sunshine, were motionless in the mild autumn air. As Quintus came in from the arcade, and saw this party of those who were near and dear to him, his heart sank within him. A longing, which even in his sleep had haunted his dreams, and had driven him from his bed before daybreak, came over him now with almost irresistible force; his impulse was to throw himself at his father’s feet, and kiss the hands that had so often rested lovingly on his head and brow. But he controlled himself. He went up to the high-priest, and gave him an affectionate kiss as usual, pressed his hand warmly, and then greeted the rest of the party gaily enough.