Andivius Hedulio

Andivius Hedulio, by Edward Lucas White

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Title: Andivius Hedulio Adventures of a Roman Nobleman in the Days of the Empire
Author: Edward Lucas White
Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8532] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on July 20, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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ANDIVIUS HEDULIO Adventures of a Roman Nobleman in the Days of the Empire
BY EDWARD LUCAS WHITE

Mirum atque inscitum somniavi somnium. --PLAUTUS
[Illustration: THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE SECOND CENTURY A.D. To Show The Wanderings Of ANDIVIUS HEDULIO]
[Illustration: THE CITY OF ROME UNDER THE EMPIRE]

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON WHO, IN READING FICTION, LOVED "THE OPEN ROAD AND THE BRIGHT EYES OF DANGER"

CONTENTS
BOOK I. DISASTER
HEDULIO'S PREFACE
CHAPTER
I.
AN UNEXPECTED GUEST
II. A COUNTRY DINNER
III. TENANTRY AND SLAVERY
IV. HOROSCOPES AND MARVELS
V. ENCOUNTERS
VI. A RATHER BAD DAY
VII. A RATHER GOOD DAY
VIII. THE WATER GARDEN
IX. THE SQUALL OF THE LEOPARD
BOOK II. DISAPPEARANCE
X. ESCAPE
XI. HIDING
XII. SUCCOUR
XIII. THE LONELY HUT
XIV. WINTER IN THE MOUNTAINS
XV. THE HUNT
XVI. THE CAVE
XVII. THE FESTIVAL
XVIII. GALLOPING
XIX. MARSEILLES AND TIBER WHARF
XX. CHARIOTEERING
XXI. MISADVENTURES
BOOK III. DIVERSITIES
XXII. THE MUTINEERS
XXIII. THE EMPEROR
XXIV. THE MASSACRE
XXV. THE OPEN COUNTRY
XXVI. THE OUTLAWS
XXVII. THE POINT OP VIEW
XXVIII. MOONLIGHT
BOOK IV. DISSIMULATIONS
XXIX. FELIX
XXX. FESTUS
XXXI. RECOGNITION
XXXII. PHORBAS
XXXIII. IMPOSTURE
XXXIV. PALUS THE INCOMPARABLE
XXXV. MURMEX
XXXVI. ANXIETY
XXXVII. ACCUSATION
XXXVIII. TORTURE
XXXIX. THE TULLIANUM
XL. SEVERUS
EPILOGUE
NOTES

ANDIVIUS HEDULIO

HEDULIO'S PREFACE
(PRAEFATIO HEDULIONIS)
By no means absurd, it seems to me, but altogether reasonable, is the impulse which urges me to write out a detailed narrative of my years of adversity and of the vicissitudes which befell me during that wretched period of my life. My adventures, in themselves, were worthy of record and my memories of them and of the men and women encountered in them are clear and vivid. It is natural that I should wish to set them down for the edification of my posterity and of any who may chance to read them.
For my experience has been, I believe, unique. Since the establishment of the Principate in our Republic many men, even an uncountable horde of men, have incurred Imperial displeasure. Of these not a few, after banishment from Italy or relegation to guarded islands or to some distant frontier outpost, have survived the Prince who exiled them and have, by the favor of his successors, been permitted to return to Rome and to the enjoyment of their property. But I believe that no Roman nobleman implicated, justly or unjustly, in any conspiracy against the life of his Sovereign, ever escaped the extreme penalty of death. Some, by their own hands, forestalled the arrival of the Imperial emissaries, others perished by the weapons or implements of those designated to abolish the enemies of the Prince. Except myself not one ever survived to regain Imperial favor in a later reign; except myself not one ever recovered his patrimony and enjoyed, to a green old age, the income, position and privileges to which he had been born. If such a thing ever occurred, certainly there is no record of any other nobleman domiciled in Italy, except myself, having grasped at the slender chance of escape afforded by the device of arranging that he be supposed dead, of disguising himself, of vanishing among the populace, of passing himself off for a man of the people. I not only was led, by my clever slave, to attempt this histrionic feat, but I succeeded in the face of unimaginable difficulties. An experience so notably without a parallel seems peculiarly deserving of such a record as follows.

BOOK I
DISASTER
CHAPTER I
AN UNEXPECTED GUEST
When I look back on the beginning of my adventures, I can set the very day and hour when the tranquil course of my early life came to an end, when the comfortable commonplaces of my previous existence altered, when the placid current of my former life broke suddenly and without warning into the tumultuous