During the pillage of the house he was disregarded, and when Bessas had gone he only had to bear the scoffs of his fellow-slaves.

These unfortunates lived together as long as the scant provisions lasted, then scattered in search of sustenance.

The great house on the Quirinal stood silent, left to its denizens of marble and of bronze.
Sagaris, who suspected himself to have been tricked by Heliodora in the matter of her removal to the Palatine, and had not the least faith in her power to beguile Bessas, swore by all the saints that the day of his revenge should come; but for the present he had to think of how to keep himself alive.

Money he had none; it was idle to hope of attaching himself to another household, and unless he escaped to the Goths, there was no resource but to beg from one or other of those few persons who, out of compassion and for their souls' sake, gave alms to the indigent.
Wandering in a venomous humour, he chanced to approach the Via Lata, and out of curiosity turned to the house of Marcian.

Not knowing whether it was still inhabited, he knocked at the door, and was surprised to hear a dog's bark, for nearly all the dogs in Rome had already been killed and eaten.