Aurelian; or, Rome in the Third Century
yet why, Aurelian, need it be done at such expense of life? Can no way
be devised by which the professors of this faith shall be banished, for
instance, the realm, and no new teachers of it permitted to enter it
afterward but at the risk of life, or some other appointed penalty? Sure
I am, from what I heard from the Christian Probus, and what I have heard
so often from the lips of Julia, this people cannot be the sore in the
body of the state which Fronto represents them.'
'I cannot, Livia,' replied the Emperor, 'refuse to obey what to me have
been warnings from the gods.'
'But may not the heavenly signs have been read amiss?' rejoined Livia.
'There is no truth in augury, if my duty be not where I have placed it,'
answered Aurelian.
'And perhaps, Aurelian,' said the Empress, 'there is none. I have heard
that the priests of the temples play many a trick upon their devout
worshippers.'
'Livia, it has doubtless been so; but you would not believe that Fronto
has trifled with Aurelian?'
'I believe Fronto capable of any crime by which the gods may be served.
Have you not heard, Aurelian what fell from the dying Christian's lips?'
'I have, Livia; and have cast it from me as at best the coinage of a
moonstruck mountebank. Shall the word of such a one as Macer the
Christian, unseat my trust in such a one as Fronto? That were not
reasonable, Livia.'
'Then, Aurelian, if not for any reason that I can give, for the love you
bear me, withhold your hand from this innocent people. You have often
asked me to crave somewhat which it would be hard for you to grant, that
you might show how near you hold me. Grant me this favor, and it shall
be more to me than if you gave me the one half the empire.'
The Emperor's stern countenance relaxed, and wore for a moment that
softened expression, accompanied by a smile, that on his face might be
termed beautiful. He was moved by the unaffected warmth and winning
grace with which those words were spoken by Livia. But he only said,
'I love thee, Livia, as thou knowest,--but not so well as Rome or the
gods.'
'I would not, Aurelian,' replied the Empress, 'that love of me should
draw you away from what you owe to Rome--from what is the clear path of
a monarch's duty; but this seems at best a doubtful case. They who are
equally Roman in their blood differ here. It is not wrong to ask you,
for my sake, to lean to the side of mercy.'
'You are never wrong, Livia. And were it only right to--'
'But are you not, Aurelian, always sure of being right in being
merciful? Can it ever afterward repent you that you drew back from the
shedding of blood?'
'It is called mercy, Livia, when he who has the power spares the
culprit, forgives the offence, and sends him from the gibbet or the
cross back to his weeping friends. The crowds throw up their caps and
shout as for some great and good deliverance. But the mercy that returns
upon the world a villain, whose crimes had richly earned for him his
death, is hardly a doubtful virtue. Though, as is well known, I am not
famed for mercy, yet were it clear to me what in this case were the
truest mercy--for the pleasure, Livia, of pleasuring thee, I would be
merciful. But I should not agree with thee in what is mercy. It were no
mercy to Rome, as I judge, to spare these Christians, whatever the grace
might be to them. Punishment is often mercy. In destroying these
wretches I am merciful both to Rome and to the world, and shall look to
have their thanks.'
'There comes, Aurelian.' said Livia, rising, 'thy evil genius--thy
ill-possessing demon--who has so changed the kindly current of thy
blood. I would that he, who so loves the gods, were with them. I cannot
wait him.'
With these words Livia rose and left the apartment, just as Fronto
entered in another direction.
'Welcome, Fronto!' said Aurelian. 'How thrive our affairs?'
'As we could wish, great Emperor. The city with us, and the gods with
us,--we cannot but prosper. A few days will see great changes.'
'How turns out the tale of Curio? What find you to be the truth? Are the
Christians here, or are they fled?'
'His tale was partly false and partly true. More are fled than Piso or
the Christians will allow; but doubtless the greater part, by large
odds, remain.'
'That is well. Then for the other side of this great duty. Is thine own
house purged? Is the temple, new and of milk-white marble, now as clean
and white in its priesthood? Have those young sots and pimps yet atoned
for their foul impieties?'
'They have,' replied Fronto. 'They have been dealt with; and their
carcases swinging and bleaching in the wind will long serve I trust to
keep us sweet. The temple, I now may believe, is thoroughly swept.'
'And how is it, Fronto, with the rest?'
'The work goes on. Your messengers are abroad; and it will be neither
for want of power, will, nor zeal, if from this time Hellenism stands
not before the world as beautiful in her purity as she is venerable in
years and truth.'
'The gods be praised that I have been stirred up to this! When this
double duty shall be done, Hellenism reformed, and her enemy extinct,
then may I say that life has not been spent for naught. But meanwhile,
Fronto, the army needs me. All is prepared, and letters urge me on.
To-morrow I would start for Thrace. Yet it cannot be so soon.'
'No,' said the priest. 'Rome will need you more than Thrace, till the
edicts have been published, and the work well begun. Then, Aurelian, may
it be safely entrusted, so far as zeal and industry shall serve, to
those behind.'
'I believe it, Fronto. I see myself doubly reflected in thee: and almost
so in Varus. The Christians, were I gone, would have four Aurelians for
one. Well, let us rejoice that piety is not dead. The sacrifice this
morning was propitious. I feel its power in every thought and
movement.'
'But while all things else seem propitious, Aurelian, one keeps yet a
dark and threatening aspect.'
'What mean you?'
'Piso!--'
'Fronto, I have in that made known my will, and more than once. Why
again dispute it?'
'I know no will, great Caesar, that may rightly cross or surmount that of
the gods. They, to me, are supreme, not Aurelian.'
Aurelian moved from the priest, and paced the room.
'I see not, Fronto, with such plainness the will of Heaven in this.'
''Tis hard to see the divine will, when the human will and human
affections are so strong.'
'My aim is to please the gods in all things,' replied the Emperor.
'Love too, Aurelian, blinds the eye, and softening the heart toward our
fellow, hardens it toward the gods.' This he uttered with a strange
significancy.
'I think, Fronto, mine has been all too hard toward man, if it were
truly charged. At least, of late, the gods can have no ground of blame.'
'Rome,' replied the priest, 'is not slow to see and praise the zeal that
is now crowning her seven hills with a greater glory than ever yet has
rested on them. Let her see that her great son can finish what has been
so well begun.'
'Fronto, I say it, but I say it with some inward pain, that were it
plain the will of the gods were so--'
'Piso should die!' eagerly interrupted the priest.
'I will not say it yet, Fronto.'
'I see not why Aurelian should stagger at it. If the will of the gods
is in this whole enterprise; if they will that these hundreds and
thousands, these crowds of young and old, little children and tender
youth, should all perish, that posterity by such sacrifice now in the
beginning may be delivered from the curse that were else entailed upon
them, then who can doubt, to whom truth is the chief thing, that they
will, nay, and ordain in their sacred breasts, that he who is their
chief and head, about whom others cluster, from whose station and power
they daily draw fresh supplies of courage, should perish too; nay, that
he should be the first great offering, that so, the multitudes who stay
their weak faith on him, may, on his loss, turn again unharmed to their
ancient faith. That too, were the truest mercy.'
'There may be something in that, Fronto. Nevertheless, I do not yet see
so much to rest upon one life. If all the rest were dead, and but one
alive, and he Piso, I see not but the work were done.'
'A thousand were better left, Aurelian, than Piso and the lady Julia!
They are more in the ears and eyes of Rome than all the preachers of
this accursed tribe. They are preaching, not on their holydays to a mob
of beggarly knaves, men and women dragged up by their hot and zealous
caterers from the lanes and kennels of the city, within the walls of
their filthy synagogues, but they preach every day, to the very princes
and nobles of the state--at the capitol to the Senate--here in thy
palaces to all the greatest and best of Rome and, by the gods! as I
believe, make more converts to their impieties than all the army of
their atheistical priesthood. Upon Probus, Piso, and Julia, hang the
Christians of Rome. Hew them away, end the branches die. Probus, ere
tomorrow's sun is set, feeds the beasts of the Flavian--then--'
'Hold, Fronto! I will no more of it now. I have, besides, assured Piso
of his safety.'
'There is no virtue like that of those, who, having erred, repent.'
Aurelian looked for the moment as if he would willingly have hurled
Fronto, and his temple after him, to Tartarus. But the bold man heeded
him not.
'Shall I,' he continued, 'say what it is that thus ties the hands of the
conqueror of the world?'
'Say what thou wilt.'
'Rome says, I say it not--but Rome says, 'tis love.'
'What mean they? I take you not. Love?'
'Of the princess Julia, still so called.'
A deep blush burned upon the cheek of Aurelian. He paused a moment, as
if for some storm within to subside. He then said, in his deep tone,
that indicates the presence of the whole soul--but without passion--
'Fronto, 'tis partly true--truer than I wish it were. When in Syria my
eye first beheld her, I loved her--as I never loved before, and never
shall again. But not for the Emperor of the world would she part from
young Piso. I sued, as man never sued before, but all in vain. Her image
still haunts the chambers of my brain; yet, with truth do I say it, but
as some pure vision sent from the gods. I confess, Fronto, it is she who
stands between me and the will of Heaven. I know not what force, but
that of all the gods, could make me harm her. To no other ear has this
ever been revealed. She is to me god and goddess.'
'Now, Aurelian, that thou has spoken in the fullness of thy heart, do I
hold thee redeemed from the invisible tyrant. In our own hearts we sin
and err, as we dare not when the covering is off, and others can look in
and see how weak we are. Thou canst not, great Caesar, for this fondness
forget and put far from thee the vision of thy mother, whom, in dreams
or in substantial shape, the gods sent down to revive thy fainting zeal!
Let it not be that that call shall have been in vain.'
'Fronto, urge now no more. Hast thou seen Varus?'
'I have.'
'Are the edicts ready?'
'They are.'
'Again then at the hour of noon let them glare forth upon the enemies of
Rome from the columns of the capitol. Let Varus be so instructed. Now I
would be alone.'
Whereupon the priest withdrew, and I also rose from where I had sat, to
take my leave, when the Emperor said,
'This seems harsh to thee, Nicomachus?'
'I cannot but pray the gods,' I said, 'to change the mind of Aurelian!'
'They have made his mind what it is, Nicomachus.'
'Not they,' I said, 'but Fronto.'
'But,' he quickly added, 'the gods made Fronto, and have put their mind
in him, or it has never been known on earth. You know not the worth,
Greek, of this man. Had Rome possessed such a one two hundred years ago,
this work had not now to be done.'