ABSTRACT
It is impossible adequately to describe the multitude of those spectacles, and their magnificence under every conceivable aspect, whether in works of art or diversity of riches or natural rarities; for almost all the objects which men who have ever been blessed by fortune have acquired by one — the wonderful and precious productions of various nations — by their collective exhibition on that day displayed the majesty of the Roman empire. Silver and gold and ivory in masses, wrought into all manner of forms, might be seen, not as if carried in procession, but flowing, so to speak, like a river; here were tapestries borne along, some of the rarest purple, others embroidered by Babylonian art with perfect portraiture; transparent gems, some set in golden crowns, some in other fashions, swept by in such profusion as to correct our erroneous supposition that any of them was rare. Then, too, there were carried images of their gods, of marvellous size and no mean craftsmanship, and of these not one but was of some rich material. Beasts of many species were led along all caparisoned with appropriate trappings. The
numerous attendants conducting each group of animals were decked in garments of true purple dye, interwoven with gold; while those selected to take parts in the pageant itself had about them choice ornaments of amazing richness. Moreover, even among the mob or captives, none was to be seen unadorned, the variety and beauty of their dresses concealing from view any unsightliness arising from body disfigurement.
