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294 DARKNESS AND DAWN
CHAPTER XXXV
THE MATRICIDE
'
It was not in the battle,
No tempest gave the shock ;
She sprang no fatal leak,
She ran '
upon no rock
OOWPER.
'
Hsec monstra Neroni
Nee jussse quondam prrestiteratis aquae.'
MART. iv. 63.
BALE in the springtide of A. D.
59 must have heen as lovely a
place as the world can show. Its blue sky, its soft air, its
sparkling sea, its delightful shore, its dry hard yellow sands
and rocks gleaming in the clear water, its green and wooded
heights, combined with its healing waters and splendid buildings
to make it a fairyland of beauty and enjoyment. Marius,
Pompey, Ccesar, had built villas there, and the whole line of
coast to Puteoli had gradually become crowded with the gay
houses of the Eoraan aristocracy. Temples, and baths, and
theatres, and palaces rose on every side, among groves enriched
with grottoes and blooming like a garden'of enchantment with
fruits and flowers. Passing the promontory of Misenum, the
traveller first arrived at the bright town of Baise itself, and
then at the more quiet and exclusive Bauli, until he reached
the lakes of Lucrine and Avernus, of which the former had
been joined to the sea by a canal, and protected by the
magnificent causeway of Agrippina's grandfather Agrippa.
Beyond these was Puteoli, with the stately and pillared
fane of Serapis, the ruins of which still attest its former
magnificence.
The festive splendour of the lovely and dissolute resort was
heightened by the universal holiday of the Quinquatrus, or
Feast of Minerva. It was kept almost like our Christmastide.
All the boys had five days' holiday, beginning on March