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THE SPOLIARIUM 341
Junia a bliss which they had uot dared to anticipate. At
the close of the week of rejoicing he bade them, with a
smile, to accompany him to the Praetor's tribunal. The
order could have but one meaning that he meant to set
them free. The tears rushed into the old slave's eyes.
Nereus and Junia had, indeed, learnt to be content with
any condition to which God called them, but now that
liberty had spontaneously been offered they felt an almost
incommunicable joy.
Pudens sympathised with them in their emotion, and, with
a few cheering words, bade them walk behind him towards
the Forum. The ceremony of emancipation was very brief.
The centurion stated to the Praetor that he wished to manumit
Nereus and Junia of whom the latter had been born in his
house for their great merits and long faithfulness. The
Praetor's lictor laid a rod on each of their heads, with a slight
blow, and turned them each round ;
then the Praetor declared
them free in accordance with the right of citizens, and they
became liberti. On their return home, the rest of the familia,
formerly their fellow-slaves, received them with showers of
sweetmeats and clapping of hands and congratulations, and
were allowed to hold one more humble banquet in their
honour.
Nereus still wished to serve Pudens and Claudia as their
freedman ;
but it was arranged that he should live in lodgings
near the house. He and Junia soon made the new home
of their freedom look as pleasant as their circumstances
admitted, and one evening they were sitting hand in hand
thanking the Lord of their life for His mercy, when a timid
knock was heard. Opening the door, Junia saw a pretty
slave-girl, who asked to speak with her in private. Junia
had known her as one of the slaves of Pedanius Secundus,
and felt the deepest pity for her because she was afflicted
with epilepsy a disease which among the ancients was so
ill-omened as to be the cause of endless trouble and distress.
There was but one remedy for the disease which the
ancients thought perfectly efficacious, and it is conceivable
that the desperate nature of this remedy may have had some
mysterious effect upon the nerves, and have proved in some
cases to be a real cure through
its influence on the mind of
the sufferer. It was to drink blood from a recent wound.