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216 DARKNESS AND DAWN
should stand well at Rome, and know something about the
chief members of Roman society. He therefore asked Gallic
the names and history of some of the guests. We will follow
his pointed fingers, and perhaps the answers of Gallio may
enable us to realise something more of the condition of things
in pagan Rome. For Gallio did not spare a single reputation.
He did not require to invent. Malignity had no need to
search with candles. She only had to tell the truth, and
there were few guests there whose reputation did not wither
at her breath.
Agrippa first wanted to know something
about the ladies
who were present, and Gallio drew caustic sketches of Poppsea,
on whom Nero's eyes were constantly fastened, and of
Calvia Crispinilla. Agrippa's attention was next attracted by
Domitia Lepida, whose tutulus, or conical head-dress, it was
the exclusive task of a slave-maiden to adorn.
'
'
That lady,' said Gallio, is the Emperor's aunt. She used
to neglect him, but now that he is
Emperor she worships the
very ground on which he treads.'
'
And who is that lady in the sea-green Coan dress whose
hair seems to be powdered with gold dust '
?
That is Junia Silana, nominally a bosom friend of Agrippina,
'
really her deadliest enemy. Observe that lady near her,
whose grey hairs are so elaborately dyed, arid her cheeks so
thickly rouged, and who is dressed with such juvenility. She
is ^lia Catella. Would you believe that, though she is nearly
eighty, she still dances?'
'0 temporal mores!' said Agrippa. 'That exclamation
sufficed for Cicero a hundred years ago ;
but he would want
stronger expletives now.'
'I will give you Horace for your
sing
'
' " What has not cankering Time made worse ?
Viler than grandsires, sires beget
Ourselves, yet baser, soon to curse
The world with offspring baser yet."
'
Is there no honest and virtuous woman here ? '
Cicero. Did he not
asked the
young king.
Gallio pointed a little mockingly to the king's sister, the
beautiful Berenice, who had come with him to Rome. She
was now twenty-six, but had lost none of her voluptuous