When he was weary of Phaeton’s chatter, Caesar had his bearers to carry him about in the gardens for a while, and at last back to the palace--almost exactly at the hour when the assembled Fathers were coming down from the Capitoline, after passing the decree against the Christians. He remained in his room till he went to table, and at the meal he was lively, almost excited, though he eat but little, while, on the other hand, he drank full draughts of Falernian unmixed with water. When the _coena_ was over, he retired to his private business-room. There he rushed up and down the room in loud and vehement soliloquy, fighting the air like a gladiator and exclaiming wildly: “Come on--only come on, you villains! my good sword shall cleave your skulls.” Then he took to catching flies, as he had been wont to do as a boy,[41] impaling them on his writing-stylus. “Through and through!” he exclaimed in a tone of triumph. “Have I got you now, traitors? Aye, writhe and wriggle--like mad things! you shall not escape me now, till Tartarus yawns to receive your souls.” By degrees his excitement calmed down; still, when the chamberlain made his appearance, he was so vigorous and eager, that Parthenius allowed himself to make a somewhat broad allusion to the evening’s adventure. “You are a precious witty fellow!” laughed the Emperor. “But I feel myself that you have, in jest, hit the truth. Up then to deeds of glory! I only hope that Isis, the celestial Egyptian, may be content with her new brother.” FOOTNOTES: [34] IN THE FORM OF THE HAWK-HEADED GOD, OSIRIS. Nothing is said by the ancient authors concerning such a farce enacted by Domitian; but from all we know of the man’s character, there is no doubt that my imagination does him no injustice. With respect to the incident itself, similar ones actually happened, and in A. D. 19 Flavius Josephus relates that a Roman knight, Decius Mundus, pursued an aristocratic lady called Paulina a long time with offers of love, without obtaining a hearing. As she was eagerly devoted to the worship of the goddess Isis, Decius Mundus, by the offer of 5,000 denarii, induced the priest to tell her that the god Anubis (son of Isis and Osiris) desired a nocturnal meeting. Paulina believed this, and Decius Mundus appeared in the jackal-headed mask of the god. The cheat was successful, but when the emperor Tiberius heard of it, he sent the knight into exile, ordered the priests to be crucified, the temple levelled to the ground, and the statue of the goddess flung into the water.--By the way, it may be remarked that Domitian, before he was emperor, escaped from the besieged Capitol, whither he had fled in the war with Vitellius, _in the costume of a priest of Isis_, and remained concealed until his enemy’s defeat.