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The next day, on being brought into the senate, he stated that Carthage, the capital of Spain, had been captured in one day, that several cities which had revolted were regained, and that fresh ones had been received into alliance. From the prisoners, information was gained, corresponding for the most part with what was contained in the letter of Marcus Valerius Messala.
"Fifty talents, fifty talents!" echoed the throng, in amazement. Then Drusus came to the rescue. "By Hercules!" he shouted, "the paper lies, and the Jew is a liar. Who but Caesar hath fifty talents at order? Down with the insolent white!" The cry was angry, and it was angrily repeated; yet Sanballat kept his seat, and his smile grew more exasperating the longer he waited. At length Messala spoke.
It is not probable Messala will set peril on foot for me until he has given the procurator time to answer him; and that cannot be in less than seven days from the despatch of his letter. The meeting him in the Circus is a pleasure I would buy at whatever risk."
At the same time the description of Sulpicia as a poetess seems to point to her as authoress of the pieces that bear her name, and from one or two allusions we gather that Messala was paying her attentions that were distasteful but hard to refuse. The materials for coming to a decision are so scanty, that it seems best to leave the authorship an open question.
These men perished for the reasons specified and no statements about them were communicated to the senate. This was what led the emperor at the outset to send for him to come to Syria, pretending to have very great need of him, whereas his real fear was that Messala might bring about a change of attitude on the part of the senators.
She stretched her hands towards him; but when almost touching them he was seized and forced aside. Then he heard some one say, speaking loudly, "That is he!" Judah looked, and saw Messala. "What, the assassin that?" said a tall man, in legionary armor of beautiful finish. "Why, he is but a boy." "Gods!" replied Messala, not forgetting his drawl. "A new philosophy!
The young Messala, educated in Rome, but lately returned, had caught the habit and manner; the scarce perceptible movement of the outer corner of the lower eyelid, the decided curl of the corresponding nostril, and a languid utterance affected as the best vehicle to convey the idea of general indifference, but more particularly because of the opportunities it afforded for certain rhetorical pauses thought to be of prime importance to enable the listener to take the happy conceit or receive the virus of the stinging epigram.
If the Roman pays, he is ruined; if he refuses to pay, he is dishonored. The imperial policy will decide the matter. To offend the East would be a bad beginning with the Parthians; to offend Sheik Ilderim would be to antagonize the Desert, over which lie all Maxentius's lines of operation. Wherefore Simonides bade me tell you to have no disquiet; Messala will pay."
CESTIUS PIUS, a native of Smyrna, espoused the same florid style, and was even preferred by his audience to such men as Pollio and Messala. To us the extracts from these authors, preserved in Seneca, present the most wearisome monotony, but contemporary criticism found in them many grades of excellence. The most celebrated of all was Porcius Latro, who, like Seneca himself, came from Spain.
Persius concludes his Satire on the common hypocrisy of those prayers and offerings to the gods which were but a service of the lips and hands, in words of which an English rendering may give the sense but not the beauty: "Nay, then, let us offer to the gods that which the debauched sons of great Messala can never bring on their broad chargers, a soul wherein the laws of God and man are blended, a heart pure to its inmost depths, a breast ingrained with a noble sense of honour.
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