[154] Having passed through the Ionian Gulf he sailed upon the sea which extends to Corinth, a spectacle to the Peloponnesian cities on the seaboard when they heard of his sudden change of fortune. For whenever he disembarked the people flocked thither, the baser natures out of malice, the rest, whose way is to find lessons of wisdom in the fate of others, to sympathize.

[155] And crossing the Isthmus from Lechaeum to the opposite coast and coming down to Cenchreae, the port of Corinth, he was forced by his guards, who refused him any kind of intermission, to embark at once on a small merchant vessel and put to sea, where under the violence of a contrary wind he suffered a thousand discomforts and only with difficulty arrived storm-tossed at the Peiraeus.

[156] When the tempest ceased he coasted along Attica to Cape Sunium and then continued his journey along the series of islands, namely Helene, Cia, Cythnus and the rest, which lie in a row one after the other, to that which was to be the end of his journey, the island of the Andrians.

[157] When he saw it afar off the miserable man let a stream of tears pour down his cheeks as from a fountain and smiting his breast with bitter wailing cried “Oh my guards and escort, it is for this fine land of Andros, this unblest island that I exchange happy Italy,

[158] I, Flaccus, who was born and reared and educated in sovereign Rome, the school-mate and familiar associate of the grandsons of Augustus, chosen at the court of Tiberius to be among his foremost friends, entrusted for six years with the charge of Egypt the greatest of his possessions?

[159] This great reversal what does it mean? A night in daytime as in an eclipse has taken possession of my life. This petty island what shall I call it? My home of exile, or a new fatherland, a hapless haven and refuge? A tomb would be its truest name, for as I journey in my misery it is as though I were bearing the corpse that is myself to a sepulchre. For either through my afflictions I shall break the thread of my miserable life, or even, if I am able to survive die a long drawn-out death in which consciousness still lives.”

[160] In such wise did he lament and when the ship put in at the haven he got out with his whole body bowing down to the ground, as people do under the pressure of an exceedingly heavy load, his neck over-weighted with his misfortunes, lacking either the strength even to lift his head, or else the courage to face those who met him and came to gaze at him as they stood in front on either side of the road.

[161] His escort brought him to the popular assembly of the Andrians and exhibited him to them all, calling them to witness to the arrival of the exile at the island.

[162] Then having fulfilled their service they departed, but Flaccus having no longer before his eyes any familiar face felt his sufferings renewed thereby more poignantly as his imaginations grew more vivid. And gazing at the wide desolation around him, in the midst of which he was isolated, it seemed to him that a death by violence in his native land would be the lighter evil, or rather in comparison with his present plight a welcome boon. His wild gesticulations were just like those of a madman. He would often jump about, run up and down, clash his hands together, smite his thighs, fling himself on the ground and often cry out,

[163] “I am Flaccus, who but now was governor of Alexandria, that great city, or multitude of cities, ruler of the highly blest land of Egypt, to whom so many thousands of inhabitants paid regard, who had among his subjects great forces of infantry, cavalry, naval, not a mere lot of counters but all men of the best-proved excellence, who every day when I proceeded forth went escorted by a host of followers.

[164] But was this then a phantom, not the truth? Was I asleep and dreamt the light-heartedness of those days, saw but spectres moving in a void, figments of a soul which recorded as we may suppose things which had no existence as though they were? Yes, I have been deluded.

[165] They were the shadow of realities, not the realities themselves, a counterfeit of clear vision, not the clear vision which exposes the falsehood to the light. For just as when we wake up we find nothing of what we saw in our dreams, but all are gone and have taken flight together, so, too, that brightness which surrounded my life has been quenched in one short moment of time.”