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ALITURUS AMONG THE CHRISTIANS 443
men !
Among these was happiness, or it was nowhere. He
had seen palaces their gilded misery, their monotonous
weariness, their reckless guilt he had experienced the
emptiness of that intoxicating fame which shouted in the voice
of innumerable spectators. Alas, alas ! what a bubble was the
life of the gentile world, and what spectres followed those who
chased it !
His thoughts went back to the days of a childhood spent
in Hebron under the rustling boughs of the oak of Marnre.
Happier for him had he lived and died in his native Palestine,
unknown, innocent, faithful to the religion of his people. But
his grandfather had been implicated in the tearing down of
the golden eagle, instigated by the two bold young Eabbis
Judas and Matthias, in the days of Herod the Great, and had
been put to death. His father had struggled in vain against
adversity, and his widowed mother, left in utter destitution,
had died of a broken heart. Penniless and an orphan, the boy
had been carried down to Gaza by a villanous agent of Herod,
and had been sold to a Roman slave-dealer. This trader in
human flesh had seen in him the promise of extraordinary
beauty, which would enable him to repay himself in a few
years a hundred times over the paltry sum which he had paid
for the Jewish orphan. He kept him with care, fed him well,
had him taught Greek, and gave him an artistic education
not from any feelings of kindness, but solely with a view to
ultimate gain. He kept him apart from the other slave-boys
of his shop, who were meant for less luxurious destinies, and
would only command moderate prices as grooms or foot-boys.
They, with chalked feet, were exposed for sale on the public
catasta in sight of every passer-by, and could be purchased for
little more than five hundred sesterces ;
but those who wished
to see the brilliant Aliturus must be persons of wealth and
distinction, who were admitted into the inner apartments, and
who would be willing to pay at least eight thousand sesterces.
He had been purchased by the wealthy and luxurious Sulla,
who, charmed by his vivacity, grace, and genius, saw a means
of enriching himself by having him trained as a pantomime.
During these years Aliturus had not only seen the darkest side
of pagan life, but had grown familiar with its viciousness in
every form. Abandoning the religion of Moses, he had found
no other in its place, and lived only for the present. On the