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Meanwhile Arria and Appius, fearing the power of this new king of Judea, and thinking also of the peril of Vergilius, travelled slowly, considering what they should do. Appius feared either to go or to return, but Arria was of better courage. "I must go to him," said she. "You know not this love in me, dear brother. I would give up my life to be with him.
It was hung with tapestry, upon which were represented the figures of Sappho sweeping the lyre; of the Spartan mother bending over the body, and counting the wounds of her son; of Penelope in the midst of her maidens, carefully unravelling the funeral web of her husband; of Lucretia inflicting upon herself a glorious and voluntary death; and of Arria teaching her husband in what manner a Roman should expire.
"Oh, son of Varro! why do you not come?" said the girl, impatiently. "I love him so I could die for him I could die for him! Perhaps he loves me not and I shall never see him again." She hurried to the outer court, whispering anxiously: "Come, son of Varro. Oh, come quickly, son of Varro!" When Vergilius arrived Arria was waiting for him there in the court of the palace.
She is a granddaughter of the Arria who comforted her husband in his dying moments and showed him how to die. She told me many stories of her grandmother, just as heroic but not so well known as the manner of her death, and I think they will seem to you as you read them quite as remarkable as they did to me as I listened to them.
If he failed with splendor, he was beginning to consider what he might do with power. That day of the interview between youth and emperor a letter came to Arria from her lover. It began as follows: "DEAR LOVE, It has been a day illumined with new honor and the praises of a king. Now, before sleeping, I send these words to tell you that I have not forgotten.
Besides this general consideration, I also happened to be on terms of particular intimacy with Helvidius, as far as this was possible with one who, through fear of the times, endeavoured to veil the lustre of his fame, and his virtues, in obscurity and retirement. Arria likewise, and her daughter Fannia, who was mother-in-law to Helvidius, were in the number of my friends.
I desire one mistress for my heart, one purpose for my conduct, and one great master for my country." "The gods grant them!" said Augustus, leading the applause. "And now I shall proclaim the word he has written. It is 'Arria, and stands, I know well, for the sister of Appius." He turned quickly to the still and silent figure of the slave behind him. All eyes were now watching her.
What was there in the tender, peaceful look of the mother, what in her full breasts, what in the breathing of the child, what in the stir of those baby hands to make the soldier bare and bow his head? He leaned against the rock wall of the cave and covered his eyes and thought of his beloved Arria, of his dream of home and peace and little children. The sword fell from his hand.
The appalling Sixth Satire, in which he unhesitatingly declares that most women if not all are bad, and that virtue and chastity are so rare as to be almost unknown, in which he roundly accuses them of all the vices known to human depravity, reads like a monstrous and disgraceful libel on the sex when one turns to Pliny and makes the acquaintance of Arria, Fannia, Corellia, and Calpurnia.
No doubt he felt keenly the judicial murder of his friends Senecio, Rusticus, and Helvidius, and the banishment of Mauricus, Gratilla, Arria, and Fannia for women were not spared in the general proscription; but, after all, the fact that he held office during the closing years of Domitian's life is ample proof that he knew how to walk circumspectly, and did not allow his detestation of the informers to compromise his safety.
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