THE GAY LIFE OF THE POMPEIAN LOUNGER - A MINIATURE LIKENESS OF THE ROMAN BATHS

WHEN Glaucus left Ione, he felt as if he trod upon air. In the interview with which he had just been blessed, he had for the first time gathered from her distinctly that his love was not unwelcome to, and would not be unrewarded by her. This hope filled him with a rapture for which earth and heaven seemed too narrow to afford a vent. Unconscious of the sudden enemy he had left behind, and forgetting not only his taunts but his very existence, Glaucus passed through the gay streets, repeating to himself, in the wantonness of joy, the music of the soft air to which lone had listened with such intentness; and now he entered the Street of Fortune, with its raised foot-path its houses painted without, and the open doors admitting the view of the glowing frescoes within. Each end of the street was adorned with a triumphal arch: and as Glaucus now came before the Temple of Fortune, the jutting portico of that beautiful fine (which is supposed to have been built by one of the family of Cicero, perhaps by the orator himself) imparted a dignified and venerable feature to a scene otherwise more brilliant than lofty in its character. That temple was one of the most graceful specimens of Roman architecture. It was raised on a somewhat lofty podium; and between two flights of steps ascending to a platform stood the altar of the goddess. From this platform another flight of broad stairs led to the portico, from the height of whose fluted columns hung festoons of the richest flowers. On either side the extremities of the temple were placed statues of Grecian workmanship; and at a little distance from the temple rose the triumphal arch crowned with an equestrian statue of Caligula, which was flanked by trophies of bronze. In the space before the temple a lively throng were assembled some seated on benches and discussing the politics of the empire, some conversing on the approaching spectacle of the amphitheater. One knot of young men were lauding a new beauty, another discussing the merits of the last play ; a third group, more striker in age, were speculating on the chance, of the trade with Alexandria, and amid these were many merchants in the Eastern costume, whose loose and peculiar robes, painted and gemmed slippers, and composed and serious countenances, formed a striking contrast to the tunicked forms and animated gestures of the Italians: For that impatient and lively people had, as now, a language distinct from speech a language of signs and motions inexpressibly significant and vivacious; their descendants retain it, and the learned Jorio bath written a most entertaining work upon that species of hieroglyphical gesticulation.

Sauntering through the crowd, Glaucus soon found himself amid a group of his merry and dissipated friends.

Ah," said Sallust, " it is a lustrum since I saw you."

And how have you spent the lustrum ? What new dishes have you discovered ?"

I have been scientific," returned Sallust, and have made some experiments in the feeding of lampreys; I confess I despair of bringing them to the perfection which our Roman ancestors attained."

"Miserable man ! and why !"

Because," returned Sallust, with a sigh, " it is no longer lawful to give them a slave to eat. I am very often tempted to make away with a very fat carptor (butler) whom I possess, and pop him slyly into a reservoir. He would give the fish a most oleaginous flavor ! But slaves are not slaves nowadays, and have no sympathy with their masters' interest or Davus would destroy himself to oblige me !"

What news from Rome ?' said Lepidus, as he languidly joined the group.

The emperor has been giving a splendid supper to the senators," answered Sallust.

" He is a good creature," quoth Lepidus they say 'he never sends a man away without granting his request."

Perhaps he would let me kill a slave for my reservoir returned Sallust, eagerly.

" Not unlikely," said Glaucus ; "for he who grants a favor to one Roman, must always do it at the expense of another. Be sure, that for every smile Titus has caused, a hundred eyes have wept."

Long live Titus ! cried Pansa, overhearing the emperor's name, as he swept patronizingly through the crowd; "he has promised my brother a qu storship, because be had run through his fortune."

"And wishes now to enrich himself among the people, my Pansa," said Glaucus.

" Exactly so," said Pansa.

" That is putting the people to some use," said Glaucus.

To be sure " returned Pansa. " Well, I must go and look after the larium it is a little out of repair;" and followed by a long train of clients, distinguished from the rest of the throng by the togas they wore (for togas, once the sign of freedom in a citizen, were now the badge of servility to a patron), the dile fidgeted fussily away.

" Poor Pansa !" said Lepidus ; " he never has time for pleasure. Thank heaven, I am not all dile!"

" Ah, Glaucus ! how are you ? gay as ever !" said Clodius, joining the group.

"Are you come to sacrifice to Fortune ?" said Sallust.

I sacrifice to her every -right," returned the gamester.

I do not doubt it. No man has made more victims !"

By Hercules, a biting speech !" cried Glaucus, laughing.

The dog's letter is never out of your mouth, Sallust," said Clodius, angrily; "you are always snarling."

I may well have the dog's letter in my month, since, whenever I play with you, I have the dog's throw in my hand," returned Sallust.

Hist !" said Glaucus, taking a rose from a flower-girl, who stood beside.

The rose is the token of silence," replied Sallust; "but I love only to see it at the supper-table."

Talking of that, Diomed gives a grand feast next week," said Sallust ; "are you invited, Glaucus ?"

Yes, I received an invitation this morning."

" And I, too," said Sallust, drawing a square piece of papyrus from his girdle ; I see that he asks us an hour earlier than usual; an earnest of something sumptuous."

Oh ! he is rich as Croesus," said Clodius; and his bill of fare is long as an epic."

Well, let us to the baths," said Glaucus; this is the time when all the world is there; and Fulvius, whom you admire so much, is going to read us his last ode."

The young men assented readily to the proposal, and they strolled to the baths.

Although the public therm , or baths, were instituted rather for the poorer citizens than the wealthy (for the last had baths in their own houses), yet, to the crowds of all ranks who resorted to them, it was a favorite place for conversation, and for that indolent lounging so dear to a gay and thoughtless people. The baths at Pompeii differed, of course, in plan and construction from the vast and complicated therm of Rome; and, indeed, it seems that in each city of the empire there was always some slight modification of arrangement in the general architecture of the public baths. This mightily puzzles the learned as if architects and fashion were not capricious before the nineteenth century! Our party entered by the principal porch in the Street of Fortune. At the wing of the portico sat the keeper of the baths, with his two boxes before him, one for the money he received, one for the tickets he dispensed. Round the walls of the portico were seats crowded with persons of all ranks; while others, as the regimen of the physicians prescribed, were walking briskly to and fro the portico, stopping every now and then to gaze on the innumerable notices of shows, games, sales, exhibitions, which were painted or inscribed upon the walls. The general subject of conversation was, however, the spectacle announced in the amphitheater ; and each new-comer was fastened upon by a group eager to know if Pompeii had been so fortunate as to produce- some monstrous criminal, some happy case of sacrilege or of murder, which would allow the diles to provide a man for the jaws of the lion; all other more common exhibitions seemed dull and tame when compared with the possibility of this fortunate occurrence.

" For my part," said one jolly-looking man, who was a goldsmith, " I think the emperor, if he is as good as they say, might have sent us a Jew."

" Why not take one of the new sect of Nazarenes?" said a philosopher. "I am not cruel: but an atheist, one who denies Jupiter himself, deserves no mercy."

"I care not how many gods a man likes to believe in," said the goldsmith; "but to deny all gods is something monstrous."

" Yet I fancy," said Glaucus, "that these people are not absolutely atheists. I am told that they believe in a God nay, in a future state."

Quite a mistake, my dear Glaucus," said the philosopher. I have conferred with them they laughed in my face when I talked of Pluto and Hades."

O ye gods!" exclaimed the goldsmith in horror; "are there any of these wretches in Pompeii?"

I know there are a few, but they meet so privately that it is impossible to discover who they are."

As Glaucus turned away a sculptor, who was a great enthusiast in his art, looked after him admiringly.

Ah !" said he, " if we could get him on the arena there would be a model for you! What limbs! what a head! he ought to have been a gladiator! A subject a subject worthy of our art! Why don't they give him to the lion?"

Meanwhile Fulvius, the Roman poet, whom his contemporaries declared immortal, and who, but for this history, would never have been heard of in our neglectful age, came eagerly up to Glaucus: Oh, my Athenian, my Glaucus, you have come to hear my ode! That is indeed an honor; you, a Greek, to whom the very language of common life is poetry. How I thank you! It is but a trifle; but if I secure your approbation, perhaps I may get all introduction to Titus. Oh, Glaucus ! a poet without a patron is an amphora without a label ; the wine may be good, but nobody will laud it! And what says Pythagoras? 'Frankincense to the gods, but praise to man.' A patron, then, is the poet's priest; he procures him the incense and obtains him his believers."

" But all Pompeii is your patron, and every portico an altar in your praise."

Ah! the poor Pompeians are very civil they love to honor merit. But they are only the inhabitants of a petty town spero meliora! Shall we within?"

Certainly; we lose time till we hear your poem."

At this instant there was a rush of some twenty persons from the baths into the portico; and a slave stationed at the door of a small corridor now admitted the poet, Glaucus, Clodius, and a troop of the bard's other friends, into the passage.