“Since such is your decision,” said he, “we will not seek to change it. Cæsar, I salute you. Come, Vashti, let us be going.” As the two arose to depart, Titus walked over to them, as if not willing that Berenice should hear what he had to say. “My sire, Vespasian, knowing that you have been disappointed in the expectation of the crown of Pontus, has offered you the thing that is most like it--namely, the governorship of that province. Its people will be delighted when they know that the wife of the new governor is the granddaughter of the good queen Pythodoris.” But Crispus had little desire for the honor; he would be more happy with Vashti in his beautiful villa among the Sabine hills than in presiding over the destinies of the Pontic people. While thinking thus, however, he received from Vashti a wistful glance which seemed to be urging him to accept the post. “What, Vashti? Ambitious that I should sit in a curule chair?” “Yes,” whispered she, “for if Crispus be ruler of Pontus there will always be _one_ safe asylum for Christians.” “You speak wisely, little woman,” replied he; and, turning to Titus, he said, “Cæsar, I accept the post with all thankfulness.” Berenice watched the two as they quitted the Ivory Hall. She never saw them again! After a brief visit to Jerusalem, where bishop Simeon joined the hands of the pair, Crispus, accompanied by his bride, set out for his province of Pontus, there to begin a long administration, whose wisdom and justice were to win golden opinions from all men. * * * * * And Berenice? The Roman senate and the Roman people soon made short work of her dream of an imperial throne! Their anger at the thought of a Jewish empress was so fiercely expressed that Titus, albeit with all reluctance, was compelled to banish her from his presence.[40] Scorned by the Romans because she came of the Jewish people; scorned by the Jewish people because she had allied herself with a Roman; branded with deserved infamy by the poet Juvenal;[41] eating out her heart over the ignominious ending of her splendid ambition, Berenice passed into a state of obscurity and oblivion, History failing to record the time, the place, or the manner of her death. NOTES 1 The Talmud. 2 Told by the heathen Plutarch in his _Cessation of Oracles_. 3 Josephus.--_Vita_ 2. 4 Acts xxv. 16. 5 Greek Anthology.--I. 77. 6 Acts xxiii. 14. 7 Flaccus, pro-Consul of Asia, for example.--CICERO. _Pro Flacco._ 8 The ancient usage in the Jerusalem synagogues of anathematizing Christ and the Christians is said by some to have originated, not with Simeon, but with his father Gamaliel, a statement scarcely reconcilable with Acts v. 38. 9 A saying of Simeon’s, according to the Talmud. 10 The Talmud. 11 Jos.--_Bell. Jud._ vi. 5, 3. Tac.--_Hist._ v. 13. Luke xxi. 11.