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THE ADVENTURES OF A RUNAWAY 89
polenta on the chance of a farthing flung to him now and then
in scornful alms. The accident which threw him in the path
of Pudens came only just in time to save him from ruin and
despair.
Nereus, the freedman of Pudeus, was not unwilling to get
for nothing an active youth who might turn out to be a useful
slave ;
and in that household he once more found kindness and
happiness. It is true that Pudens was not yet an open
Christian, but several of his slaves were, as Onesimus soon
discovered; and he had learnt by experience that, among
Christian men and women, he was safe from a thousand
miseries and a thousand temptations. The busy thronging,
rushing life of Eome delighted his quick intelligence, and all
the more from the contrast it presented to the silent streets of
Colossse, and the narrow valley of its strange white stream.
He had several adventures, and such principles of righteousness
as were left to him were severely tried. Some of
the young slaves whom he encountered took him to the
theatres, and in the pantomimic displays and Atellan fables a
cynical shamelessness reigned supreme. To witness the acting
of a Paris or an Aliturus was to witness consummate
human skill and beauty pandering to the lowest instincts of
humanity. Yet Onesimus could not keep away from these
scenes, though Stachys and Nereus and Junia and others of
the Christian slaves of Pudens did their best, when the chance
offered, to save him from the vortex of such perilous dissipation.
Still more brutalising, still more destructive of every element
of pureness and kindness were the gladiatorial games. Of these
he had no experience. In the provinces they were comparatively
rare, and Philemon had forbidden his slaves ever to be
present in the amphitheatre when they were exhibited.
Onesimus, who had nothing cruel in his nature, had so far
preserved a sort of respect for the wishes of Philemon, that
he determined not to witness a gladiatorial show.
When the
great day came, all the slaves were talking of the prowess of
Gallina and Syrus, two famous gladiators, and of the
magnificent
number of lions and tigers which were to be exhibited.
He could not help being interested in a topic which seemed
so absorbing, but he still meant to keep away. Some of his
comrades, however, thought that scruples which might suit a
Cicero and a Seneca were quite out of place in a Phrygian