Lamia pulled from a fold of his toga a roll containing the Treatise on Nature of Epicurus, stretched out on the ground and started to read. But the cries of a slave warned him to get up to make way for a litter that was coming up the narrow path through the vines. As the open litter came nearer, Lamia saw, stretched out on the cushions, a hugely fat old man who, head in hand, looked out with an eye both sombre and proud. His aquiline nose came down to his lips, made tight by a prominent chin and powerful jaws. Right away, Lamia was sure he knew that face. He hesitated though for a moment in putting a name to it. Then he all of a sudden rushed to the litter in a transport of surprise and joy: "Pontius Pilate!" he exclaimed. "Gods be praised. It has been given to me to see you again!" The old man motioned to the slaves to stop and focused his attention on the man now greeting him. "Pontius, my dear host," the latter continued. "Have twenty years sufficed to make my hair white enough and my cheeks sunken enough for you to no longer recognize your friend Aelius Lamia?" On hearing this name, Pontius Pilate got down from the litter in as sprightly a manner as the weariness due to his age and the gravity of his bearing allowed him. And he twice hugged Aelius Lamia. "It's certainly good to see you again," he said. "Alas, you remind me of the old days, when I was procurator of Judea in the province of Syria. I saw you for the first time thirty years ago. It was in Caesarea where you came to drag out the vexations of your exile. I was quite happy to mitigate them somewhat, and you, out of friendship, Lamia, followed me to that sad Jerusalem where the Jews filled me to the brim with bitterness and disgust. You stayed as my guest and my companion for more than ten years, and we both of us, talking of Rome, consoled ourselves, you for your misfortunes, me for my promotions." Lamia again embraced him. "That's not all, Pontius. You fail to recall that you used in my favour your credit with Herod Antipas and opened your purse to me liberally." "Don't even mention it," Pontius replied, "since, when you were back in Rome, you sent me by one of your freed men a sum of money that paid me off with interest." "I don't think I'm out of your debt for any amount of money, Pontius. But tell me, have the gods granted what your heart desired? Do you enjoy all the happiness that you deserve? Speak to me of your family, your fortune, your health!"