A Christian But a Roman Part 10

CHAPTER IX.

As Glyceria had learned through her spies, Manlius was summoned by the lictors to Carinus' presence that very day. But instead of waiting for the command, he went to the palace before he received it.

Instead of his plain military costume he had donned the ample flowered silk toga worn by the fashionable dandies of the time, rubbed his hair with perfumed ointments, loaded his fingers with gems, adorned his ankles with circlets, and even ornamented his toes with rings which glittered between the thongs of his sandals, while he had scattered little red spots over his face till it looked as freckled as the Caesar's. So, with an indolent, loitering step and a coquettish carriage of the head, he entered the vestibule of the imperial palace, which was already swarming with courtiers similarly attired, who gazed enviously at the youth's unusually magnificent costume--only they could not understand why he had painted freckles on his face.

Manlius bowed to the floor before Carinus--a form of salutation which had been transplanted to Rome from the Persian court. Even aevius was forced to admit that no one understood how to bow with so much humility as Manlius. Then, seizing a corner of the imperial mantle, he kissed it with the devout fervour which only the most pious Jews show in kissing the thora.

Carinus wished to appear stern.

"You have already been in Rome four days, and this is the first time you have come to me," he said reproachfully.

"O glorious Augustus," replied Manlius in an inimitably sweet tone; "I have already been ten times in your atrium to deliver the news I bring from Asia, but I learned as often that you were enjoying the delights envied by the G.o.ds, and I am not one of those rude soldiers who recklessly force their way in with their messages of supposed importance, and rob you of hours of bliss which can never be regained."

"Good. You are a man of worth; but what tidings do you bring from Persia?"

"There is no life anywhere in the world, O Augustus, except where you are. All the lands of the earth exist only to make the contrast between them and Rome the sharper. I will not weary you with tiresome tales of war and battles. Wars merely serve to lessen the number of dissatisfied people, so why should I disturb your repose with my descriptions?"

"You are right, Manlius. Speak of other things."

"My experiences are at your command. I saw the marvels of Barbarian lands, and always thought of you. In Africa I saw horses whose shining skins were streaked with stripes, animals whose like no Imperator has ever shown in our circus games. I left orders with the commandant of Alexandria to send several of them to you. In the Indian seas a kind of snail was discovered, which fastened itself to the rocks by means of threads as fine as a cobweb. From these threads the people there manufacture a fabric even more brilliant than _seric.u.m_, and I brought a _velamen_ of it for you, such as only the princes of that country wear."

As he spoke, Manlius gave the Imperator a superb textile which he had brought with him from India in the hope that it would be Sophronia's bridal veil.

The Caesar was filled with admiration at the sight of the unusually brilliant, delicate texture.

"Manlius, I appoint you Senator."

The courtiers began to stare enviously at Manlius. As the barber, who was the most jealous of any sign of favour from the Caesar, could find no fault with the _velamen_, he vented his anger upon Manlius' face.

"Where did you get those freckles, Manlius? You look as if the flies had played an evil trick with your features."

"You are a barber, Marcius. I painted these freckles. It is a very aristocratic fashion which I learned at the court of Persia."

"Is it the fashion there to wear freckles?" asked Carinus, whose cheeks Marcius was in the habit of painting white and pink.

"Only among the aristocrats. It is the distinguishing mark between the dignitaries of the kingdom and the common people. True, it requires a more refined taste than yours, Marcius, to appreciate this; one must understand, too, why and in what degree these freckles embellish the face. The empty, smooth face, like yours, for instance, which, when one looks at it, shows only white and pink, is the beauty of the plebeian; Apollo's countenance is freckled."

Manlius knew that Carinus liked to be called Apollo.

The courtiers were horrified at this bold a.s.sertion.

"I repeat that Apollo's face is adorned with freckles. For Apollo's image is the sun, and is not the sun itself full of spots? Is not the sky strewn with stars, and are not the stars the freckles of the sky, as freckles are the stars of the human face? Therefore, O Marcius, do not censure this magnificent taste of mine."

Carinus motioned to his barber to remove the paint from his face.

"Divine countenance!" cried Manlius rapturously. "O you profaners of the sanctuary, who conceal the freckles which the graces have scattered with lavish generosity over these features. Come, friends, let this face be the model of ours."

And the courtiers instantly sat down in turn before Marcius and had freckles painted on their faces that they might resemble Carinus.

From that moment it was the fashion in Rome to have freckles painted on the face.

"Manlius," said the Caesar, "I appoint you Prefect of Rome."

All the imperial favourites were supplanted by the young Tribune.

aevius was in despair.

"To what shall I henceforth compare the Caesar in my poems, since roses and lilies are no longer beautiful?" he wailed.

"Compare him to the royal panther," Manlius advised. And the poet was content.

At this moment Mesembrius arrived, and hearing in the atrium that Manlius had already entered, hastened after him.

On the threshold he caught a glimpse of the young soldier and started back.

"Is that actor Manlius?" he asked himself, gazing at his silk toga and freckled face. "Have you seen Glyceria?" he whispered.

"Yes," replied Manlius.

"Have you killed her?"

"No."

"Then I understand the change. Hitherto only caterpillars became b.u.t.terflies; in you a lion has undergone the change. I pity you."

The old Senator, as he spoke, moved forward with dignified bearing and, leaning on his crutches, stood before the Augustus.

"Augustus Carinus, I have come to bring a charge, or, if it pleases you better, to beseech a favour. I had an only daughter----"

"You have another," interrupted aevius.

"I say I had an only daughter. She was the joy of my life, the prop of my old age. Allured by a new religion, this girl and her companions were captured at the meeting place of the Christians. I will not argue with you over matters of belief, Carinus, but I entreat you to listen to the pet.i.tion of a man who has grown grey in the service of Rome, and restore my only child."

Carinus raised himself indolently from his _lectisternium_ and whispered a few words to his eunuch. Then he turned to Mesembrius.

"Senator, we do not know whether your daughter is among the captured Christians; had we been aware of it we should have delivered her up to you long ago. She was beautiful, you said?"

"I did not say so, O Lord."

"I have so understood. But unfortunately I must inform you that a beautiful girl in this band of Christians killed herself last night in prison."

"That was not my daughter. Sophronia could not forget her grey-haired father, whom her loss would drive to despair."

"Look at the corpse, Senator, and if it is not your daughter, which from my heart I hope, I will have her brought here at once and she can then return with you."

Mesembrius was so startled by this unexpected favour that he forgot to express his thanks for it.