[58] HERODIANUS NOT ONLY BOLTED THE DOOR, BUT BARRED IT TOO. The fastening of the door was usually accomplished _either_ by bolts (_pessuli_), or by means of a crossbar (_sera_). Here the crossbar is used _besides_ the ordinary fastening of the bolt, as an additional means of security. The crossbar was generally made of wood. [59] CITY PREFECT, (_praefectus urbi_). His position under the emperors was similar to the office of a chief of police. He commanded the _cohortes urbanae_, the city-guard. His authority extended to the hundredth mile-stone. [60] VIA ARDEATINA. The highway to the little city of Ardea, situated on a hill eighteen miles south of Rome. See _Liv._ 1, 57; V, 11. [61] ORACLE OF THE FAUN. This was about two-thirds of the distance from Rome to Ardea. [62] LAVINIUM, LAURENTUM. Only the ruins of these two cities exist at the present day. [63] SETIAN WINE. Setia, a city in Latium, south-east of Suessa Pometia. A famous place for wine, now Sezze. See Liv. VI, 30; VII; 42 etc. Plin. _Hist. Nat._ XIV; 6, 60. Mart. _Ep._ IV, 64, 69; VI, 86; IX, 2; X, 13, 36; XIII, 23 (--“old Setian wine may be compared to Chian figs.”) CHAPTER VII On the following morning the frightful news spread like wild-fire through the city that several citizens, some of them men of high position, had been seized at dead of night by the city-prefect and carried off to the state-prisons; while others--and among them the Senators Cornelius Cinna and Marcus Cocceius Nerva--had only escaped sharing their fate by flight. After Cinna’s rash demonstration, in opposition to the law against the Christians, such proceedings were not considered very astonishing. Nerva, too, had long seemed ripe for destruction, from the point of view of the state-craft of the time. But that a host of individuals who, till now, had been regarded as blamelessly innocent, nay, that such a man as Furius should be apprehended, produced a painful impression on the public mind. Every one, who did not feel himself protected by his modest station and personal insignificance, began to quake, and even the humble population of the Subura seemed to be dragged into sympathy with the anxiety of the higher classes. The cries of the wandering dealers and street pedlars were subdued, and though the cook-shops and barbers' rooms were crowded, the talk was in low mysterious tones. On every hand suspicious and anxious looks prevailed.