Then, in spite of the efforts of the governor and the alabarch to detain them, in the hope of pacifying the potentate, as soon as they heard the word "go," they hurried out; and, for better or for worse, the few bolder spirits had to follow.
As soon as the door was closed upon them, Caesar's features lost their cruel look.

He patted the lion with soothing words of praise, and exclaimed, contemptuously: "These are the descendants of the Macedonians, with whom the greatest of heroes conquered the world! Who was that fat old fellow who shrank into himself so miserably, and made for the door while I was yet speaking ?" "Kimon, the chief of the night-watch and guardian of the peace of the city," replied the high-priest of Alexander, who as a Roman had kept his place by the throne; and Theocritus put in: "The people must sleep badly under the ward of such a coward.

Let him follow the prefect, noble Caesar." "Send him his dismissal at once," said Caracalla; "but see that his successor is a man." He then turned to the high-priest, and politely requested him to assist Theocritus in choosing a new head for the town-guard, and Timotheus and the favorite quitted the room together.
Philostratus took ingenious advantage of the incident, by at once informing the emperor that it had come to his knowledge that this coward, so worthily dismissed from office, had, on the merest suspicion, cast into prison a painter who was undoubtedly one of the first of living artists, and with him his guiltless relations.
"I will not have it!" Caesar broke out.

"Nothing but blood will do any good here, and petty aggravations will only stir their bile and increase their insolence.

Is the painter of whom you speak an Alexandrian ?--I pine for the open air, but the wind blows the rain against the windows." "In the field," the philosopher remarked, "you have faced the weather heroically enough.