All power of enforcing order
had long since been lost; the few soldiers gathered about the senators
made one abortive effort to drive the people back, and then resigned any
further resistance to their will.
Feebly and silently the spirit-broken assembly now moved along the great
highways, so often trodden, to the roar of martial music and the shouts
of applauding multitudes, by the triumphal processions of victorious
Rome; and from every street, as it passed on, the wasted forms of the
people stole out like spectres to join it.
Among these, as the embassy approached the Pincian Gate, were two,
hurrying forth to herd with their fellow-sufferers, on whose fortunes in
the fallen city our more particular attention has been fixed. To
explain their presence on the scene (if such an explanation be required)
it is necessary to digress for a moment from the progress of events
during the last days of the siege to the morning when Antonina departed
from Vetranio's palace to return with her succour of food and wine to
her father's house.
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