| [6] And he would have imposed upon the
guileless Hercules, had not Fever been there, who alone had left her shrine and
come with him. All the other divinities he had left behind at Rome. She said, “It is simple nonsense that
he is giving you. I tell you—I who have lived with him for so many years—he was
born at Lugudunum; you behold one of Marcus’
citizens. As I’m telling you, he was born sixteen miles from Vienna,
a genuine Gaul. And so as a Gaul ought to do, he
captured Rome.
Take my word for it, he was born at Lugudunum, where Licinus reigned for many years. But you, who have tramped
more lands than any wandering muleteer, ought to know men from Lugudunum and that there are a good many miles between the Xanthus and the Rhone.” At this point Claudius fired up and angrily
grumbled as loudly as he could. What he was saying, nobody understood, except
that he commanded Fever to be led away to punishment. With the familiar gesture
of his limp hand, that was steady enough for the one purpose of decapitating
people as he was accustomed, he had ordered her head to be struck off. You
would suppose all those present were his freedmen, so little attention did any
one pay him.
|