A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

The Unpleasantness of Rome 499
in the narrow windings of the streets, and the abuse of the
drovers of
the herds, when they are brought to a stand,
would rob of sleep even Drusus and the sea-calves.
If invited to a "function," the rich man will be carried
through the yielding crowd, and will speed over their heads
on his huge Liburnian bearers, and will read on his way,
or write, or even sleep inside; for a litter with closed windows
is productive of sleep. Yet he will arrive before us;
we, in our hurry, are impeded by a wave in front, while
the multitude which follows us presses on our sides in
dense array; one strikes me with his elbow, another with
a hard pole, one knocks a beam against my head, another
a wine-jar. My legs are sticky with mud; before long I
am trodden on upon all sides by large feet, and the hobnails
of a soldier stick into my toe. . . .
Observe now the different and distinct dangers of the
night; what a height it is to the lofty house-tops, from
which a piece of pottery strikes your pate as often as
cracked and broken utensils fall from the windows; with
what a weight they dint and damage the flint pavement
when they strike it. You may well be accounted remiss
and improvident about a sudden accident, if you go out
to supper without having made your will. . . .
(The drunken and insolent fellow)
despises me, whom
the moon escorts home, or the dim light of a candle, whose
wick I regulate and husband.
Mark the preliminaries of
the wretched brawl, if brawl it be, where he strikes and I
alone am beaten. He stands facing you, and orders you
to stand; you must needs obey, for what are you to do
when a madman forces you, and he too stronger than
yourself? "Whence do you come?" he exclaims. "With
whose vinegar, with whose beans are you gorged?
cobbler cut leeks or sodden sheep's-head with you?
What
Do
calves were
famous
sleepers.)
The rich in
litters; the
poor on foot.
The dangers
of the
night; falling
pottery.
Drunkards,
burglars,
and footpads.