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Spare a copper for a bath!" In the littered shade at the back of the most prestigious buildings, there are beggars. This wit knew how to suggest his request should be granted urgently; he was filthy. In fact he was so filthy he looked as if he had covered himself with grime on purpose. Anyone charitable would shoo him to hot water and a strigil. [Anyone who then thought twice would remember that most towns offer free public baths. This beggar was dirty from choice] I held up a coin. Then I gave it to him. There was no point holding back; he would just say what I wanted to hear in order to obtain the money. Seen anyone leave the temple just before I came around the corner? Which way did he go?" A grimy arm, swathed in dreadful rags, waved vaguely down the Cardo Maximus, towards the far Laurentine Gate. The man was probably drunk. He looked too verminous to question at close quarters. I had to decide whether I believed him. With nothing else on offer, I set off up the road.
I'm Cassius!" he croaked after me.
I'll remember!" I lied, fleeing. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck with a madman with dangerous politics. Having a bust of Cassius in your house still counts as treason. On the birthdays of Brutus and Cassius, all sensible men are very careful not to hold di
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When they turned off the Cardo it was just before the town Gate, but even though they were not going to the necropolis I had a gloomy premonition. I knew this place. I had been here one quiet morning, during my extended search for temples. It was no use to me then, and I would rather not have had it become significant now. Fulvius and Zeno had entered the sanctuary of the Great Mother. Cybele. That was bad enough. Even before I got there, I could hear that this was not a quiet occasion. The old city walls provided one boundary for a large triangular area; it was bigger than any other temple campus I had seen at Ostia, bigger than any religious sanctuary in Rome's crowded public areas, apart from the sacred heights of the Capitol and Arx. We entered this haunt from the Cardo, halfway along, through a row of little shops. Directly opposite, stood the main Temple of Cybele. A corner to my left had a cluster of other buildings, one of which I knew was the shrine for Attis. Cybele kept her castrated consort at a distance, although a colo