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828 DARKNESS AND DAWN
way in which he shook one of them who, to escape notice,
had pretended to be asleep. They were still more amused
when the impatient official turned out a finely dressed personage
who protested that he was a knight, but unluckily
dropped in the scuffle a large key, which showed him to be a
slave.
At last the shouting of the multitude who thronged about
the principal entrance announced the arrival of the Preefect.
Amid the acclamations of the populace, the magnificent procession
by which Pedauius was accompanied passed round the
arena to the reserved seats. Pedanius was scarcely seated,
when the Emperor, surrounded by a group of his most brilliant
courtiers, took his place in the imperial box. As the
roar of applause continued, he rose again and again with his
hand on his heart, to bow and cringe before the public
omnia serviliter pro imperio. For the mob of Rome was at
once his master and his slave, and was as ready at slight
excuse to burst into open menaces as into blasphemous
adulation. Nero was as well aware as Tiberius that 'he was
only holding a wolf by the ears '
and he often ;
quoted the
saying of that keen observer, that few realised ' what a monster
Empire was.'
Then Pedanius rose in his seat and flung down the
scarlet napkin which was the signal that the sports were
to begin.
The opening amusements were harmless and curious. First
a number of German aurochs were led round the circus.
They had been trained to stand still while boys hung from
their huge horns, or danced and fenced standing on their broad
backs. A tiger was guided by its keeper with a chain of flowers.
Four chariots swept past in succession, the first drawn by
leopards with gay silken harness, the second by stags champing
golden bits, the third by shaggy bisons, the fourth by four
camels who amused the people by their expression of supercilious
disapproval. Then an elephant performed some clumsy
dances under the bidding of its black keeper. Next a winged
boy led in a wild boar by a purple halter. Last of all, a tame
lion was introduced, which, to the delight of the shouting
populace, dandled a hare in its paws without hurting it, and
then suffered its keeper to put his head and his hand in its
open mouth. But at this point a frightful tragedy occurred.