Andivius Hedulio: Adventures of a Roman Nobleman in the Days of the Empire
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EPILOGUE
I do not think it necessary to describe in detail my marriage to Vedia,nor our dinners at Nemestronia's, at Tanno's, at Segontius Almo's; nor thedinners we gave at my old home, after it had been fitted up to our liking,all trace of its occupancy by tenants effaced and we had settled there.
Why tell at length of my manumission of Agathemer, of my endowment of himwith a goodly share of my heritage from poor Falco, or of his dispositionof Falco's gems and his rapid acquisition of vast wealth and of hiscontinued prosperity?
When my misfortunes began Nemestronia was past her eighty-fourth birthday.After my rehabilitation Vedia and I helped at the celebration of herninety-fifth, and of three more.
Nemestronia lived almost to her hundredth birthday, in full possession ofher faculties and, until near the end, in marvellously good health. She isstill remembered as having been the oldest noble matron ever known inRome.
Like her, Chryseros Philargyrus, though long past the usual term of humanlife when my disasters overtook us, survived my nine winters of adventuresand lived to greet me as a son rearisen from the dead, in the tenth summerafter he had sped me on my way in the midnight woods from DucconiusFurfur's land.
Enough to say that Vedia and I, from a second-floor balcony, watched passthe triumphal procession of our great Prince of the Republic, SeptimiusSeverus, when he returned victorious over both his rivals and reenteredRome, indubitably master of the world.
As to my later life I cannot forbear remarking that I am the only man withpierced ears who ever mingled as an equal with the bathers in the Baths ofTitus, the only man, certainly, with a brand mark on his shoulder andscourge-scars on his back who ever habitually frequented that mostmagnificent of our fashionable pleasure-resorts. My brand-marks andscourge-scars have not diminished my enjoyment of life except that theyfrequently give bores a pretext for insisting on my narrating myadventures.
Of course, as in my city mansion, so also at Villa Andivia, I have hadconstructed and consecrated a handsome private chapel to Mercury.