The Gladiators. A Tale of Rome and Judæa

by G. J. Whyte-Melville

  CHAPTER XVIII

  WINGED WORDS

  The gladiators were pausing from their toil. Brawny chests heaved andpanted, deep voices laughed and swore with returning breath; strong armslooked heavier and stronger as the athlete rested his wide hands upon hiships, and not unconsciously brought his huge muscles into full relief inthe attitude. Esca and his late antagonist were wiping the sweat fromtheir brows, and looking at one another with wistful eyes, as if by nomeans loth to renew the contest, so equally had the last bout been waged.Hirpinus laid down the weighty clubs he had been wielding, with a grunt ofrelief. No unpractised arm could have lifted those cumbrous instrumentsfrom the ground, yet they were but as reeds in the hands of the gladiator;nevertheless, he lamented piteously the tendency of his mighty frame toincreasing bulk, which rendered such heavy and uninteresting worknecessary to fit him for the arena.

  "By the body of Hercules!" complained the giant, "I would I were but sucha half-starved ape as thou, my Lutorius! See what the master callstraining for a man of some solidity, and thank the gods that an hour'sgirls'-play with sword and buckler is enough to keep that slender waist ofthine within the compass of a knight's finger-ring."

  "Girls'-play, call you it?" answered Lutorius. "In faith 'tis a game thatwould put thy fat carcass on the sand, from sheer want of breath, in aquarter of the time. No more girls'-play for us, my lads, till after thefeast of Ceres. The school will be thinner then, or I am mistaken. Howmany pairs are promised by the Consul for this coming bout? I heard thecrier tell us in the street, but I have forgotten."

  "One hundred at least, for sword and buckler alone. And twenty of them outof the Family!" answered Euchenor readily, and with a malicious smile. Hisprofession as a boxer freed him from any fatal apprehensions; but he tooknone the less pleasure in recalling to his comrades the more deadly natureof their encounters. Rufus alone looked grave; perhaps he was thinking ofhis wife and children while he listened; perhaps that humble cottage inthe Apennines seemed farther off than ever, and the more desirable on thataccount. The others smiled grimly, and a wolfish expression gleamed for aninstant from their eyes--all but Esca, whose glowing young face displayedonly courage, excitement, and hope.

  "Bird of ill-omen!" said Hippias sternly. "What do you know of the clashof steel? Keep to your own boys'-play, and do not meddle with the gamethat draws blood at every stroke. I think I am master here!"

  Euchenor would have answered sullenly, but a knock at the door arrestedhis attention. As it swung open, to the surprise of all, and of none morethan Esca, Calchas stood before them.

  "_Salve!_" said the old man kindly, as he looked around, his venerablehead and calm dignified bearing contrasting nobly with the brute strengthand coarser faces of the gladiators. "_Salve!_" he repeated, smiling atthe astonishment his appearance seemed to call forth.

  Hippias was not lacking in a certain rough courtesy of the camp. Headvanced to the new-comer, bade him welcome as a stranger, and inquiredthe cause of his visit; "for," said he, "judging by your looks, O myfather! it can scarcely be a mission connected either with me or mydisciples here, whose trade, you may observe, is war."

  "I too am a soldier," answered Calchas quietly, looking the astonishedfencing-master full in the face. The gladiators had by this time gatheredround; like schoolboys at play they were ripe for mischief, and, likeschoolboys, it needed but the merest trifle to urge them into any extreme,either of good or evil.

  "A soldier!" exclaimed Euchenor, "then you fear not steel!"--at the samemoment he snatched a short two-edged sword from the wall, and delivered athrust with it full at the old man's breast. Calchas moved not a muscle;his colour neither rose nor fell; his eyelash never quivered as he lookedsteadily at the Greek, who probably only intended a brutal jest, and caredbut little how dangerous might be its result. The point had reached thefolds of the visitor's gown, when Rufus dashed it aside with his hand,while Hippias dealt the offender a buffet, which sent him reeling to theopposite wall.

  "What now?" exclaimed the professor, in a tone with which a man rates adisobedient hound. "What now? Am I not master here?"

  The others looked on approvingly. The jest was well suited to theirhabits. They were amused at the discomfiture of the Greek, and pleasedwith the coolness shown by an old man of such unwarlike exterior. Esca,however, strode up to his friend's side, and glared about him in a mannerthat boded no good to the originator of any more such aggressions, eitherin sport or earnest.

  "Thou hast hurt the youth," remarked Calchas, in as unmoved a tone aswould have become the fiercest gladiator of the school. "Thou hast hurthim, and he was but in jest after all. In truth, Hippias, I have not seenso goodly a buffet dealt since I came to Rome. That arm of thine canstrike to some purpose, and thy pupils are, like their master, brave, andstrong, and skilful. I have heard of the legion called Invincible, surelyI have found it here. My sons, are you not the Invincibles?"

  He spoke so quietly they knew not whether he was jesting with them; butthe flattering title tickled their ears pleasantly enough, and thegladiators crowded round him, with shouts of encouragement and mirth.

  "Invincibles!" they laughed. "Invincibles! Well said, old man! yes, we arethe Invincibles. Who can stand against the Family? Hast come to join us?We shall have plenty of space in the ranks ere another moon be old."

  "Give him a sword, one of you!" exclaimed Rufus; "let us see what he cando with Lutorius. The Gaul has had a bellyful already; press him, old man,and he must go down!"

  "Nay, let him have a bout with the wooden foils," laughed Hirpinus. "He isbut young and tender. He would sicken at the sight of blood."

  "Or a cast with the net and trident," continued Manlius.

  "Or a round with the _cestus_," observed Euchenor; adding with a sneer, "Imyself am ready to exchange a buffet or two with him, for sheer goodwill."

  "Hold! my new comrades," interposed Esca, with rising colour. "In mycountry we are taught to venerate grey hairs. If ye are so keen for_cestus_, lance, and sword-play, here am I, untried and inexperienced,willing to stand against the best of you, from now till sundown."

  The gladiators gathered round the last speaker somewhat angrily; thechallenge was indeed a bold one in such company, and a contest begun inplay amongst those turbulent spirits, might end, not improbably, in toofatal earnest; but Hippias cut the matter short by commanding silence, inloud imperious tones, and, turning to the new-comer, bade him state atonce the business that had brought him there and have done with it.

  "I came here," said the old man, looking round with a glance of mingledpity and admiration; "I came here to see, with my own eyes, the band ofInvincibles. I have already told you that I too am a soldier, whose dutyit is to go down, if need be, daily unto death."

  There was something so quiet and earnest in the speaker's manner, such anabsence of self-consciousness or apprehension, a sincerity and goodwill sofrank and evident, that the rude fierce men whom he addressed could notbut give him their attention. There was all the interest of novelty inbeholding one whose appearance and habits were so at variance with theirown, thus throwing himself fearlessly on their forbearance, and trusting,as it were, to that higher nature, which, dormant though it might be, eachman felt to exist within himself. Even Hippias acknowledged the influenceof his visitor's confidence, and answered graciously enough--

  "If you are a soldier, I need not tell you that we are but on the drill-ground here. You will see my band to better advantage when they defile byCaesar at the games of Ceres."

  Calchas looked inquiringly round.

  "And the chorus," said he, "that I have heard ring out in such a warliketone, as your ranks marched past the imperial chair; are you perfect init, my friends? Do you practise the chant as you do your sword-play andyour wrestling?"

  He had fixed their attention now. Half-interested, half-amused at hisstrange persistency, they looked laughingly at each other, and their deepvoices burst out into the wild and thrilling cade
nce of their fatal dirge--

  _Ave, Caesar! Morituri te salutant!_

  As the last notes died away, silence pervaded the school; to the rudestand most reckless, there was something suggestive in the sounds they knewtoo well would be the last music they should hear on earth. Calchas turnedsuddenly upon Hippias.

  "And the wages Caesar gives your men?" said he; "since he buys them bodyand bones, they must be very costly. How many thousand sesterces doth hepay for each?"

  A brutal laugh echoed round him at the question.

  "Sesterces!" answered Hippias. "Nay; Caesar's generosity provideshandsomely for the training and nourishment of his swordsmen."

  "True enough!" added Rufus, at which there was another laugh. "He finds usin meat, and drink, and burial!"

  "No more?" said Calchas. "Yet I have been told that in Rome everythingfetches its price; but little did I think such men as these could bebought for less money than a Syrian dancing-girl, or a senator's whitehorses. So you are willing to toil day after day, harder than the peasanton the hillside, or the oarsman in the galley, to live simply,temperately, ay, virtuously, for months together, and then to face certaindeath, often in its ghastliest form, for the wages a Roman citizen giveshis meanest slave--a morsel of meat and a draught of wine! If you conquerin the struggle, a branch of palm may be added to a handful of silver, andyou deem your reward is more than enough. Truly, I am old and feeble,these hands are little worth to strike or parry, yet would I grudge tosell this worn-out body of mine at so mean a price."

  "You told us you were a soldier," observed Rufus, on whom the argument ofrelative value seemed to make no slight impression.

  "So I am," replied Calchas; "but not at such a low rate of pay as yours.My duties are not heavy. I am not forced to toil all day, nor to watch allnight. My head aches with no weighty helmet; breastplate and greaves ofsteel do not gall my body nor cumber my limbs. I have neither trench todig, nor mound to raise, nor eagles to guard. I need not stand, like you,against my comrade and my friend, with my point at his throat, and slaythe man who has been to me even as a brother, lest he slay me. Yet, thoughmy labours be so easy, and my service be so deficient and inadequate, allthe gold and jewels you have seen glistening in a triumph, all thetreasures of Caesar and of Rome, would not equal the reward I hope toearn."

  The gladiators looked from one to the other with glances of astonishmentand curiosity. This was a subject that spoke to their personal interest,and roused their feelings accordingly.

  "Are there vacancies in your ranks, comrade?" asked Hirpinus, using themilitary form of speech habitually affected by his profession. "Will youenrol a man of muscle like myself, who has been looking all his life for aservice in which there is little to do and plenty to get? Take my word forit, you will not long want for recruits."

  "There is room for all, and to spare," answered Calchas, raising his voicetill it rung through every corner of the building. "My Captain will enlistyou freely, and without reserve. Only you come to Him and range yourselvesunder His banner, and stand by Him for a few short watches, a week, amonth, a decade or two of years at the most, and He will stand by you whenCaesar and his legions are scattered to the four winds of heaven; ay, andlong after that, for ages and ages rolling on in a circle that has no end!Will you come, brave hearts? I have authority to receive you, man by man."

  "Where is your Captain?" asked Hirpinus. "He must needs have a largefollowing. Is he here in Rome? Can we see him ere we take the oaths andraise the standard? Comrades!" he added, looking round, "this old manspeaks as though he were in earnest. Nay, he would scarcely dare to laughin our very beards!"

  "You might have seen Him," answered Calchas, "not forty years ago, as Imyself did, on the sunny plains of Syria. You will not see Him now, till apinch of dust has been sprinkled on your brow, and the death-penny putinto your mouth. Then, when you have crossed the dark river, He will bewaiting for you on the other side."

  The gladiators looked at one another. "What means he?" said they. "Is hemad?" "Is he an augur?" "Doth he deal in magic?" Rufus reared his tallhead above the throng. "Would you have us believe in what we cannot see?"was the apposite question of that practical swordsman. The old man drewhis mantle round his shoulders with the air of one who prepares forargument. All he wanted was a fair hearing.

  "Which is the nobler gift," he asked, "a strong body, or a gallant heart?Ye have fought many times, most of you, in the arena. Answer metruly--which is the conqueror, courage or strength?"

  "Courage," they exclaimed, with one voice; all except Euchenor, whomuttered something about skill and good fortune being preferable toeither.

  "And yet you cannot see it," resumed Calchas. "Will you therefore arguethat it cannot exist? Is there one of you here that doth not feel asomething wanting to complete his daily existence? Why do you long for thesmiles of women, and the bubble of the winecup? Why can you not rest whenthe training of to-day is over, for thinking of the labours of to-morrow?Why are you always anxious, always anticipating, always dissatisfied?Because a man consists of two parts, the body and the spirit; because hislife is made up of two phases, the present and the future. Your bodiesbelong to Caesar, let him have them to do with them what he likes, to-day,to-morrow, at the games of Ceres, at the feast of Neptune, what matter?But the spirit, the man within you, is your own. He it is who doth notwince when the javelin pierces to the quick, or the wild beast rends tothe marrow. He it is who quails not when the level sweep of sand seems torock beneath him, and heave up against his face; when the white garmentsand eager faces of the crowd spin round him faster and faster as they fadeupon his darkening eye. He is the better man of the two, and he will livefor ever. Shall you not provide for _him_? What is your present? Muchtrouble, many hours of toil. A foot or two of steel in the hand, and adash at a comrade's throat, then a back-fall below the equestrian benches,and so the future begins. Do you think there is nothing better there thanold Charon's ferry-boat, and the pale misty banks of the uncertain river?I know the way to a golden land far brighter and fairer than the fabledislands of the West. There is a high wall round it, and the gate is lowand narrow; but the key stands in the lock, and you need no death-penny topurchase entrance for the poorest of you. Go to the door in rags, with noother possession but the hope and trust that you may crawl in upon yourknees, and it opens ere you have knocked."

  Something in each man's heart told him, as he listened, that if he couldbut believe this, the conviction was worth more than all the treasures ofthe empire put together. Liable as were these gladiators to stand in thejaws of death at a day's notice, there was something inexpressiblyelevating in the idea that the supreme moment which the most careless ofthem could not but sometimes picture to himself, was the mere passage to anobler state of existence. The words of a man who is telling what hehimself implicitly believes to be the truth, carry with them no smallamount of persuasion; and when Calchas paused, the swordsmen lookeddoubtingly at him with eyes in which incredulity and admiration werestrangely mingled; not without a certain wistful gleam of hope. Hippias,indeed, whose tastes inclined him to materialism, and his reflections toutter disbelief in everything save the temper of a blade, seemed disposedto cut the matter short, as being a waste of valuable time; but theanxiety of his pupils, and especially of Esca, to hear more of the glowingpromises held out, induced him to fold his arms and listen, with a smileof conscious superiority, not devoid of contempt.

  "And the Captain who leads us?" asked the Gaul, after a whisper and a pushfrom Hirpinus. "What of him? Your promises are fair enough, I grant you,but I would fain know with whom I serve."

  Not one of them but noted the gleam on the old man's face, as he replied--

  "The Captain went up to death with a patient, calm, and kindly face, foryou, and you, and you, and me--for those who had never seen Him; for thosewho mistrusted Him; for those who failed Him, and turned back from Him atHis need. Nay, for those who tortured and slew Him, and whom He forgavewith the free full forgiveness of a God!--ay, of a God! Which
of your godshas done as much for you? When did one of them leave their Mount Olympus,save for some human need, or some human mission of bloodshed and crime?Where is the king who would give up an earthly throne, and go voluntarilyto a shameful death for the sake of his people? You are men, myfriends--brave, resolute, hearty men; what would you have in him whom youserve? courage, patience, mercy, goodwill to all? What think ye of Him wholeft the rulership of the whole universe, and went so willingly to die,that He might buy you to be His own here and hereafter? Come and rangeyourselves under His standard. I will tell you of Him day by day. There isno jealousy amongst His soldiers. The service is easy; He has told us soHimself; and neither mine nor any mortal tongue can calculate the reward."

  "Enough of this!" interrupted Hippias, noting the eager looks and excitedgestures of the swordsmen; interpreting, as he did, the words of Calchasin their literal sense, and fearing lest he might, indeed, lose theservices of the daring band, on whose blood it was his trade to live."Enough of this, old man! We have heard you patiently, and now begone! Mygladiators have enlisted under Caesar, and they will not desert theirstandard for any inducement you can offer. I know not why I have listenedto you so long; but trespass not further on my forbearance. This buildingis no Athenian school of rhetoric; and the only arguments acknowledged byHippias, are those which may be parried with two foot of steel.Nevertheless, go in peace, old man, and fare you well."

  So Calchas went out from amongst these fierce and turbulent spirits,unharmed and well satisfied. He had sown a handful of the good seed, andknew that somewhere it would take root. More than one of the gladiatorswas already pondering on his words; and the young Briton, with his ardentnature, his kind heart, and his predisposition in favour of Mariamne'skinsman, had resolved that he would hear more of these new doctrines,which seemed to dawn upon him like light from another world.