In
fact, some outlet must be given to their excited appetite for novelty;
and therefore, after much solemn consideration, the senate yielded to
the public clamor, and voted an ovation.
As a token of national appreciation, therefore, the honor thus bestowed
upon Sergius Vanno was not one of the first order; nor were such
pageants a novelty to the Roman people. Several times before, within the
memory of that generation, victorious generals had entered the city with
myrtle wreaths upon their brows, and had exhibited to applauding throngs
the gathered wealth of conquered provinces. Nor had many years elapsed
since the present emperor--then prince--crowned with the richer and more
lavish glories of a triumph, had ridden through the Via Sacra, greeted
with welcoming acclamations as the destroyer of the Jewish
capital--displaying before him the spoils of the sacred temple, and
bringing in his train such thousands upon thousands of captives, that it
had seemed as though all Palestine was being emptied into Rome. Compared
with such exploits, those of Sergius were of trifling importance. But it
now entered little into the minds of the people to make these
comparisons. Whatever had been done in past time by other commanders,
was not worth considering at present. Whoever might have been renowned
before, Sergius Vanno was the hero of to-day.
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