Above the marble portico of the guest-house of Apollo, built for the
poor, for pilgrims and the disabled, ran these letters in Homeric
Greek along the pediment:
"_Strangers and beggars are all sent by Zeus,
And dear to them is the little we give._"[11]
[11] _Odyssey_, xiv. 57, 58.
The Emperor went into the inner court. A graceful Ionic colonnade
ran round it. The hospice had formerly been a palæstra or
wrestling-ground. It was a soft and sunny afternoon, before sunset,
but a heavy atmosphere came to the portico from the inner rooms.
There, massed together, children and old men were crawling about,
Christians and Pagans, the sound and the sick; folk disabled,
deformed, enfeebled, dropsical, consumptive; folk bearing on their
faces the stamp of every vice and every form of suffering.
A half-naked old woman, with a tanned skin like the colour of dead
leaves, was rubbing her sore, pockmarked back against the pure marble
of a pillar.
In the middle of the court stood a statue of the Pythian Apollo, bow
in hand, quiver on shoulder. At the foot of the statue was seated a
wrinkled monster who seemed neither young nor old. His arms were
huddled round his knees, his head rested on one side; and swinging
himself from right to left with a stupid air, he kept declaiming in a
monotone--
"Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have mercy upon us, the lost, lost,
lost!"
At last the principal inspector, Marcus Ausonius, appeared, pale and
trembling--
"Most wise and merciful Cæsar, will you not deign to come into my
house? The atmosphere is hurtful here ... there are contagious
maladies...."
"No, I am not afraid. Are you the inspector?"
Ausonius, keeping in his breath in order not to breathe the vitiated
air, bowed low.
"Are bread and wine distributed every day?"
"Yes, as you have ordered, divine Augustus...."
"What filth!"
"They are Galileans. To wash, is for them a sin. It's impossible to
make them take baths."
"Bring me the account-books!" ordered Julian.
The inspector fell on his knees, and for long could not utter a word.
Finally he faltered--
"Sire ... everything is in due order, ... but unfortunately ... the
books have been burnt...."
The Emperor's brow clouded.