, as
exhibiting to Vetranio the store of offal which he had collected during
the famine for the consumption of the palace) had contrived of late
greatly to increase his master's confidence in him. On the organisation
of the Banquet of Famine, he had discreetly refrained from testifying
the smallest desire to save himself from the catastrophe in which the
senator and his friends had determined to involve themselves. Securing
himself in a place of safety, he awaited the end of the orgie; and when
he found that its unexpected termination left his master still living to
employ him, appeared again as a faithful servant, ready to resume his
customary occupation with undiminished zeal.
After the dispersion of his household during the famine, and amid the
general confusion of the social system in Rome, on the raising of the
blockade, Vetranio found no one near him that he could trust but
Carrio--and he trusted him. Nor was the confidence misplaced: the man
was selfish and sordid enough; but these very qualities ensured his
fidelity to his master as long as that master retained the power to
punish and the capacity to reward.
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