He was too parsimonious to promise such generosity unless
absolutely certain that the occasion for it would never confront him. Yet
how could he escape it and why did he feel so sure? How could any
beneficiary from such a grant of confiscated property be induced to
disgorge except by Imperial order and that with full compensation? Why had
Severus so sedulously, yet so obviously, avoided naming the present holder
of my former property? The Emperor was an austere man, stern by habit,
almost grim by nature, certainly serious. He had spoken seriously. Yet I
sensed a jest somewhere in the background of his thoughts. I almost
believed I had caught the glint of a twinkle in his hard, gray eyes. Could
I be wrong? Could I be right?
It seemed like a jest to send me to an interview with a beneficiary of a
grant of confiscated property, enriched thereby, and to imply, even to
suggest, that he might be induced to restore to me his acquisitions,
without pressure, merely by amicable converse. I conjured up before me the
probable appearance of the man I was to meet; perhaps gross and greedy
like Satronius Satro, perhaps dwarfish and mean like Vedius Vedianus,
probably like anyone of the avaricious magnates, associated with
Pullanius, whom I had met while impersonating Salsonius Salinator.
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