The priests did not understand his sneers, and Phineas, of Galilean
origin, refused to translate them. Aulus suddenly became angry, the
more so because the little Asiatic, frightened at the tumult, had
disappeared. The feast no longer pleased the noble glutton; the dishes
were vulgar, and not sufficiently disguised with delicate flavourings.
After a time his displeasure abated, as he caught sight of a dish of
Syrian lambs' tails, dressed with spices, a favourite dainty.
To Vitellius the character of the Jews seemed frightful. Their God was
like Moloch, several altars to whom he had passed upon his route; and
he recalled the stories he had heard of the mysterious Jew who fattened
small children and offered them as a sacrifice. His Latin nature was
filled with disgust at their intolerance, their iconoclastic rage, their
brutal, stumbling bearing. The proconsul wished to depart, but Aulus
refused to accompany him.
The exaltation of the people increased. They abandoned themselves to
dreams of independence. They recalled the glory of Israel, and a Syrian
spoke of all the great conquerors they had vanquished,--Antigone,
Crassus, Varus.
"Miserable creatures!" cried the enraged proconsul, who had overheard
the Syrian's words.
In the midst of the uproar Antipas remembered the medallion of the
emperor that Herodias had given to him; he drew it forth and looked at
it a moment, trembling, then held it up with its face turned towards the
throng.
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