174 THE LIFE AND LOVE OF THE INSECT 



but little confidence, notwithstanding what gentle Virgil 

 wrote of him : 



Deus nobis haec otia fecit. 



It is success that makes gods. Had he not succeeded 

 in his criminal projects, Augustus the divine would have 

 remained Octavius the scoundrel. 



His minister pleases me better. He was a great shifter 

 of stones, who, with his building operations, his aqueducts, 

 his roads, came to civilize the rustic Volscse a little. Not 

 far from my village, a splendid road crosses the plain in 

 a straight line, starting from the banks of the Aygues, 

 and climbs up yonder, tedious in its monotonous length, 

 to cross the Serignan hills, under the protection of a 

 powerful oppidum, which, much later, became the old 

 castle, the Castelas. It is a section of Agrippa's Road, 

 which joined Marseilles and Vienne. The majestic ribbon, 

 twenty centuries old, is still frequented. We no longer 

 see the little brown foot-soldier of the Roman legions 

 upon it ; in his stead, we see the peasant going to market 

 at Orange, with his flock of sheep or his drove of unruly 

 porkers. And I prefer the latter. 



Let us turn over the green-crusted penny. " COL. 

 NEM.," 1 colony of Nimes, the reverse tells us. The in- 

 scription is accompanied by a crocodile chained to a palm- 

 tree from which hang crowns. It is an emblem of Egypt, 

 conquered by the veterans who founded the colony. 

 The beast of the Nile gnashes its teeth at the foot of the 

 familiar tree. It speaks to us of Antony, the rip ; it 

 tells us of Cleopatra, whose nose, had it been an inch 

 shorter, would have changed the face of the world. 

 Thanks to the memories which it awakens, the scaly- 

 rumped reptile becomes a superb historical lesson. 



1 Nemansus, the Latin name of Nimes. Translator's Note. 



