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ROMAN TRADITIONS OF PETER AND PAUL. 253
and brilliant, was his, and to this he joined an attempt at
the grand in a superficial sense—at that which wakens
amazement by gigantic size and mighty proportions.
When his art-dreams were not cabinet pieces, they were
fever fancies, the realization of which defied all human
power. Palaces with roofs reaching the sky, supported
by forests of pillars, bearing in their turn high up in the
air, rocks shaped into statues ; vistas, losing themselves
in an infinity of colonnades ; fountains, casting whole
floods as drops into space ; marble basins, with isles and
oared ships ; a world of gold, ivory, mother-of-pearl, of
jasper and marble, adorned with the choicest works of
Polygnotus’, Parrhasius’, and Apelles’ pencils, and of the
chisels of Phidias, Skopas and Praxiteles—such was the
vision he conjured up before the emperor, as they looked
out over the Forum, Capitolium and Esquilinus.
Nero listened with greater delight, the looser rein the
artist gave his wild imagination.
" But knowest thou,’’ continued Celer, " knowest thou,
Caesar, what I see there, high above house and sanctuary ?
I see the brow of a god, on the temples of which the sun-
set light yet lingers, when it has gone out upon the hills
of Rome. I see a giant figure, the like of which the
world has never looked on yet, and by the side of which
the Colossi of the Pharaohs are dwarfs. The statue is
worthy my palace. The vision bears thy features. That
brow, from which the sunshine will not depart, is Nero’s.
"But," he added with a sigh, " all that is a dream "
—
" Which shall become reality," interrupted the em-
peror.
" That promise I expected of thee !
" cried Celer. " I
cannot dream more boldly than thou canst execute. But
then, why art thou emperor, if not to do great deeds ?
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