"Duty now, O my friends."
He took the chaplet from his head and gave it to the dice-player.
"Take thou the myrtle, O favorite of the tesserae!"he said. "If I return, I will seek my sestertii again; if I am not victor, I will not return. Hang the crown in thy atrium."
To the company he opened his arms, and they came one by one and received his parting embrace.
"The gods go with thee, O Quintus!" they said.
"Farewell," he replied.
To the slaves waving their torches he waved his hand; then he turned to the waiting ship, beautiful with ordered ranks and crested helms, and shields and javelins. As he stepped upon the bridge, the trumpets sounded, and over the aplustre rose the vexillum purpureum, or pennant of a commander of a fleet.