Page:Juvenal and Persius by G. G. Ramsay.djvu/151

 to speak freely the thoughts of his heart, and stake his life upon the truth. Thus was it that he lived through many winters and saw his eightieth solstice, protected, even in that Court, by weapons such as these.

Next to him hurried Acilius, of like age as himself, and with him the youth who little merited the cruel death that was so soon hurried on by his master's sword, But to be both young and noble has long since become a prodigy; hence I would rather be a giant's little brother. Therefore it availed the poor youth nothing that he speared Numidian bears, stripped as a huntsman upon the Alban arena. For who nowadays would not see through patrician tricks? Who would now marvel, Brutus, at that old-world cleverness of yours? 'Tis an easy matter to befool a king that wears a beard.

No more cheerful in face, though of ignoble blood, came Rubrius, condemned long since of a. crime that may not, be named, and yet more shameless than a reprobate who should write satire. There too was present the unwieldy frame of Montanus; and Crispinus, reeking at early dawn with odours enough to out-scent two funerals; more ruthless than he Pompeius, whose gentle whisper would cut men's throats; and Fuscus, who planned battles in his marble halls, keeping his flesh for the Dacian vultures. Then along with the sage Veiento came the death-dealing Catullus, who burnt with love for a maiden whom he had never seen—a mighty and 65