Here and
there, knights and soldiers of high rank--riding up on horseback, and
pushing through the struggling mass of slaves to the front, or more
leisurely, but to equal purpose, waiting until their own menials had
gone before, and, with mingled threats and blows, had cleared out a
vacant space for them. Other crowds, standing in favorable positions
upon housetops and upon hastily constructed stagings; and more
especially upon the great amphitheatre, whose arches were blackened with
clusters of spectators, and whose summit, in place of the last few
layers of stone, so soon to be adjusted, had its deep human fringe. Upon
palace balconies, patricians and noble ladies, displaying a dazzling
array of gold and purple and rare jewelry, and attended by Ethiopian
slaves, who, in glittering armlets, stood behind, holding feathered
canopies to shield their mistresses from the sun. All this confusing
concourse of wealth and poverty each moment increasing in breadth, and
density, as every avenue emptied new swarms into the packed arena, until
it seemed as though not only all Rome, but half the empire had gathered
there.
Later yet, the music of flutes and hautboys--which, for a time, had been
only indistinctly heard--breaking upon the ear with a clearer sound, and
the van of the procession suddenly emerging into full view from behind
the Circus Maximus, and, accompanied by the ringing shout of thousands
spreading abroad new and louder welcomes, beginning to file past with
rapid steps.
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