Page:Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto volume 2 Haines 1920.djvu/299

 be of all peoples and of all cities I pray and beseech to guard for long years to come your health, on which is based the empire of the Roman People and our safety and the liberty, dignity, and security of the provinces and of all races and nations, and to keep you safe far into the future, and the cities so that they be unharmed may you restore  and may they keep their conspicuous virtues (to be)  an ornament of the Latin name  the mainstay of our changing fortunes.

And about their banquet the facts are known: they are common talk everywhere: the speech of our fellow citizen from Cirta also bears witness to them:—

"On a regular day they come together for a feast with all their children and sisters and mothers, persons of both sexes and of every age. Then after much feasting, when the banquet has waxed hot and the passion of impure lust and drunkenness has been kindled in the company, a dog which has been tied to the standing lamp is incited to jump and bound up by a little cake thrown to it beyond its tether. The tell-tale light being by this means cast down and extinguished, the guests under cover of the shameless darkness embrace one another in their unspeakable concupiscence, as chance brings 283