This last expedient for freeing Rome from the blockade was adopted
almost as soon as imagined. The impatience of the starved populace for
the immediate collection of the ransom allowed the government little
time for the tedious preliminaries of deliberation. The soldiers were
provided at once with the necessary implements for the task imposed on
them; certain chosen members of the senate and the people followed them,
to see that they honestly gathered in the public spoil; and the priests
of the Christian churches volunteered to hallow the expedition by their
presence, and led the way with their torches into every secret apartment
of the temples where treasure might be contained. At the close of the
day, immediately after it had been authorised, this strange search for
the ransom was hurriedly commenced. Already much had been collected;
votive offerings of price had been snatched from the altars, where they
had so long hung undisturbed; hidden treasure-chests of sacred utensils
had been discovered and broken open; idols had been stripped of their
precious ornaments and torn from their massive pedestals; and now the
procession of gold-seekers, proceeding along the banks of the Tiber, had
come in sight of the little temple of Serapis, and were hastening
forward to empty it, in its turn, of every valuable that it contained.
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