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THE ADVENTURES OF A RUNAWAY 91
of a summer tempest sweep over the waving corn ? What
wonder that the hearts of thousands, as though they were the
heart of one man, throbbed together in fierce sympathy, and
became like a wild ^Eolian harp, of which the strings were
beaten into murmurs or shrieks or sobs by some intermittent
hurricane ? In the concentrated passion of those hours, when
every pulse leapt and tingled with excitement, the youth
seemed to live through years in moments his whole
; being
palpitated with a delicious horror, which annihilated all the
ordinary interests of life. Here, for the mere dissipation of
time, the most consummate tragedies were enacted as part of
a scenic display. The spasms of anguish and the heroism of
endurance were but the passing incidents of a gymnastic show.
When Onesimus returned to his cell that night he was a
changed being. For a long time he could not sleep, and
when lie did sleep the tumult of the arena still rolled through
his troubled dreams. His fellow-slaves, long familiar with
such games, were amused to hear him start up from his pallet
with shouts of Habet ! Occide ! Verbera ! and all the wild
cries of the amphitheatre, and from these bloodshot dreams
he would awake panting as from a nightmare, while the chant
of the gladiators, Ave, Ccesar ! Morituri te salutamus, still
woke its solemn echoes in his ears.
All life looked stale and dull to the Phrygian slave when
the glow of an Italian morning entering his cell aroused him
to the duties of the day. Slaves, even in a humble home like
that of Pudeus, were so numerous as to make those duties
inconceivably light. For the greater part of the day his
time was his own, for all he had to do was to wait on Pudens
when he went out, carrying anything which his master might
require. But henceforth his thoughts were day-dreams, and,
when not engaged in work, he found nothing to do but to join
in the gossip of his fellow-slaves. Their talk turned usually
on three subjects their masters, and all the low society
slanders of the city ;
the delights of the taverns ;
the merits of
rival gladiators and charioteers, whose names were on every
lip.
Such conversation led of.course to incessant betting, and
many a slave lost the whole amount of his savings again and
again by backing the merits of a Pacideianus or a Spicillus ;
or by running up too long scores at the cook-shop (popina)
to which his fellow-slaves resorted or ; by trying to win the