When, however, I told them
that it was the work of a lady in Judaea, although they did not believe
me, since all of them declared that no woman had shaped that marble,
knowing that they had nothing to fear from so distant an artist whoever
he might be, they began to praise the work with one voice, and all that
evening until the wine overcame them, talked of nothing else. Also they
continued talking on the morrow, until at length the fame of the thing
came to the ears of Nero, who also is an artist of music and other
things. The end of it was that one day, without warning, the Emperor
visited my house and demanded to see the bust, which I showed to him.
For many minutes he examined it through the emerald with which he aids
his sight, then asked:
"'What land had the honour to bear the genius who wrought this work?'
"I answered, 'Judaea,' a country, by the way, of which he seemed to know
little, except that some fanatics dwelt there, who refused to worship
him. He said that he would make that artist ruler of Judaea. I replied
that the artist was a woman, whereon he answered that he cared
nothing--she should still rule Judaea, or if this could not be managed he
would send and bring her to Rome to make a statue of him to be set up in
the Temple at Jerusalem for the Jews to worship.
Pages:
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205