To this last select company Drusus found himself that evening admitted; and in fact he and Curio were the proconsul's only personal guests.

The dinner itself was more remarkable for the refinement of the whole service, the exquisite chasteness of the decorations of the dining room, the excellent cooking of the dishes, and the choiceness of the wines than for any lavish display either of a great bill of fare, or of an ostentatious amount of splendour.

The company of officers and gentlemen of the Ravenna district dined together in a spacious hall, where Drusus imagined they had a rather more bounteous repast than did the immediate guests of their entertainer.

At one end of this large hall was a broad alcove, raised a single step, and here was laid the dinner for the proconsul.

Caesar passed through the large company of his humbler guests, followed by Curio and Drusus,--now speaking a familiar word to a favourite centurion; now congratulating a country visitor on his election to his local Senate; now introducing the new-comers to this or that friend.