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524 DARKNESS AND DAWN
you not,' he asked the '
trembling girl, sacrifice the revenues
of your dower, did you not even sell the necklace off your
neck, to get funds for your magic incantations '
?
Servilia prostrated herself upon the ground, and for some
time could find no voice to speak then ; rising, and
'
embracing
the altar of Venus G-euetrix, I invoked,' she. exclaimed, ' no
infernal deities ;
I uttered no prayers of imprecation. The
sole object of my ill-omened supplications was that thou, O
Caesar, that ye,
senators, might preserve to me this the best
of fathers. I gave the Chaldeans my gems, my robes, the
adornment of my matronly dignity; I would have given them,
had they demanded it, my blood, my
life. Let them look to
it their ; very existence and the nature of their arts were
hitherto unknown to me. I never mentioned the name of
the Emperor, except among the deities. And of all that I did
my father knew nothing. If what I have done be a crime, I
have sinned alone.'
'
'
'
Senators ! exclaimed her father, Soranus, let her be at
once acquitted. She is free from all the charges urged against
me. She did not accompany me to my province she was too
;
young to have known Rubellius Plautus she was in no ;
way
implicated in the accusations against her husband. Her sole
error has been her filial affection. Separate her case from mine.
She is still in early youth. Let one victim suffice you. I am
prepared to undergo whatever fate you inflict upon me, but
spare my child '
!
At those tender words he opened his arms, and his daughter
sprang to his embrace, but the lictors lowered their cruel fasces,
and interposed between them.
Then the witnesses were called, and a murmur of contempt
and indignation broke out even among those abject senators
when Publius Egnatius Celer stepped out first
among them.
The lip of Soranus curled in strong disdain, and he muttered
the one word ' '
Traitor ! For Egnatius was a professed Stoic ;
he was a client of Soranus ;
he had been his teacher in philosophy
he was
; old, and Soranus young he had received from
;
his hands unnumbered kindnesses ;
he had himself encouraged
Servilia to consult the astrologers. He wore the dress of a
philosopher ;
he had trained his features to assume the aspect
of Stoic dignity. But on this day he tore the mask off his
own face, and revealed himself as what he was a lecherous,