It had been
serviceable, indeed, and though the need of it had gone, still the
institution endured, and in enduring constituted the chief delight
of the vestals and of Rome. By means of it a bankrupt became
consul and an emperor beloved. It had stayed revolutions, it was
the tax of the proletariat on the rich. Silver and bread were for
the individual, but these things were for the crowd.
During the pauses of the combats the dead were removed by men
masked as Mercury, god of hell; red irons, that others, masked as
Charon, bore, being first applied as safeguard against swoon or
fraud. And when, to the kisses of flutes, the last palm had been
awarded, the last death acclaimed, a ballet was given; that of
Paris and Venus, which Apuleius has described so well, and for
afterpiece the romance of Pasipha? and the bull. Then, as night
descended, so did torches, too; the arena was strewn with
vermilion; tables were set, and to the incitement of crotals,
Lydians danced before the multitude, toasting the last act of that
wonderful day.
It was with such magnificence that Nero showed the impresario's
skill, the politician's adroitness. Where the artist, which he
claimed to be, really appeared, was in the refurbishing of Rome.
In spite of Augustus' boast, the city was not by any means of
marble. It was filled with crooked little streets, with the
atrocities of the Tarquins, with houses unsightly and perilous,
with the moss and dust of ages; it compared with Alexandria as
London compares with Paris; it had a splendor of its own, but a
splendor that could be heightened.
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