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The senate being in consequence incensed against the consuls, by whose delays the allies had been betrayed, ordered a dictator to be created. Caius Claudius Regillensis was appointed, and he nominated Caius Claudius Hortator as master of the horse.
He promises well. I will know more of him." Directly the tribune caught the view he wished the rower turned and looked at him. "A Jew! and a boy!" Under the gaze then fixed steadily upon him, the large eyes of the slave grew larger the blood surged to his very brows the blade lingered in his hands. But instantly, with an angry crash, down fell the gavel of the hortator.
These the hortator proceeded to lock upon the oarsmen, going from number to number, leaving no choice but to obey, and, in event of disaster, no possibility of escape. In the cabin, then, a silence fell, broken, at first, only by the sough of the oars turning in the leathern cases. Every man upon the benches felt the shame, Ben-Hur more keenly than his companions.
Calm from despair, Ben-Hur held his oar at poise, and gave his foot to the officer. Then the tribune stirred sat up beckoned to the chief. A strong revulsion seized the Jew. From the hortator, the great man glanced at him; and when he dropped his oar all the section of the ship on his side seemed aglow.
"The hortator tells me thou art his best rower." "The hortator is very kind," the rower answered. "Hast thou seen much service?" "About three years." "At the oars?" "I cannot recall a day of rest from them." "The labor is hard; few men bear it a year without breaking, and thou thou art but a boy." "The noble Arrius forgets that the spirit hath much to do with endurance.
The tribune, standing upon the helmsman's deck with the order of the duumvir open in his hand, spoke to the chief of the rowers. Called hortator. "What force hast thou?" "Of oarsmen, two hundred and fifty-two; ten supernumeraries. "Making reliefs of " "Eighty-four." "And thy habit?" "It has been to take off and put on every two hours." The tribune mused a moment.
At a signal passed down from the deck, and communicated to the hortator by a petty officer stationed on the stairs, all at once the oars stopped. What did it mean? Of the hundred and twenty slaves chained to the benches, not one but asked himself the question. They were without incentive. Patriotism, love of honor, sense of duty, brought them no inspiration.
At every turn of the oar he looked towards the tribune, who, his simple preparations made, lay down upon the couch and composed himself to rest; whereupon number sixty chid himself, and laughed grimly, and resolved not to look that way again. The hortator approached. Now he was at number one the rattle of the iron links sounded horribly. At last number sixty!
"Knowest thou the man just come from yon bench?" he at length asked of the hortator. A relief was going on at the moment. "From number sixty?" returned the chief. "Yes." The chief looked sharply at the rower then going forward. "As thou knowest," he replied "the ship is but a month from the maker's hand, and the men are as new to me as the ship." "He is a Jew," Arrius remarked, thoughtfully.
With such a scenic ornament he saw the tale of Apuleius represented, heard the names of Fotis and Byrrhaena and Lucius proclaimed, and the deep intonation of such sentences as Ecce Veneris hortator et armiger Liber advenit ultro.
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