Valeria

pping aqueduct above it, the centurion and his secretary traversed rapidly the crowded streets of a fa

g fresco of the banquet halls and chambers of a long line of emperors, was then the scene of life and activity, of pomp and splendour. Marble courts and columned porticos stretched on in almost endless vistas, covering many acres of ground. Flashing fountains leaping

g the presence of the Emperor. Having made their toilet they advanced to the inner court. The guards who stood in burnished mail at the portal of the palace respectfully made way for

ng this time. He accompanies me on bu

und with filets from the top of which projected a polished silver axe, came forward and conduc

n to whom divine honours had been ascribed, who held in his hand the lives of all his myriads of subjects, and the word of wh

crimson-bordered toga, or fine linen vestment of flowing folds. His broad, coarse features are of plebeian cast, for he had been originally a Dalmatian slave, or at least the son of a slave; but the long-continued exercise of despotic authority had given an imperious haughtiness to his bearing. He was now in his fifty-eighth year, but his features,

he servile lictors, "the centurion whom you summon

ius, coming forward with a profound inclination of his uncove

of the accursed sect of Christians, who have spawned and multiplied like frogs throughout the realm. This execrable superstition must be everywhere destroyed and the worship of the gods revived.[6] Even hero in Rome the odious sect swarms like vermin, and 'tis even said that the precincts of this palace are not free. Now, purge me this city as with a besom of wrath. Spare not

Libya, and am ready to fight them anywhere. Nevertheless, I would fain be discharged from this office of censor of the city. I know naught, save by Rumour, who is ever a lying jade, your Imperial Majesty, against this outlawed sect. A

"but I have need of such. Do thy duty, on thy allegiance, and see that thou soon bring these culprits to justice. Is it no

secretary a cloud sat on his brow. He was moody and taciturn, and evidently little pleased with his newly-imposed duties. But the confirmed habit of unquestioning obedience inherent in a Roman soldier led to an almost mechanical acceptance of his uncong

TNO

S. AVG. SVPERSTITIONE CHRIST. VBIQ. DELETAET CVLTV, DEOR. PROPAGATO"-"To Diocletian, C?sar Augustus, the Christian superstition being everywhere destroyed and the