The Life of the Weevil 
his criminal projects, Augustus the divine 
would have remained Octavius the scoundrel. 
His minister pleases me better. He was 
a great mover of stones, who, with his build- 
ing-operations, his aqueducts and his roads, 
came and civilized the rude Volsce a little. 
Not far from my village a splendid road 
crosses the plain, starting from the banks of 
the Aygues, and climbs up yonder, tedious in 
its monotonous length, to cross the Sérignan 
hills, under the protection of a mighty 
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 centu- 
ries old, is still frequented. We no longer 
see the little brown foot-soldier of the Ro- 
man 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. 
Of the two I prefer the peasant. 
Let us turn over our green-crusted penny. 
“COL. NEM..,’ the reverse tells us. The 
inscription is accompanied by a Crocodile 
chained to a palm-tree from which hang 
1 Colony of Nimes. Nemansus was the Latin name of 
Nimes.—Translator’s Note. 
