may be a Procession of some five hundred asses, whose it is to supply
her with the milk in which she bathes for the preservation of her
admirable velvety skin.

There are, of course, many other individuals and types to be met with.
If you happen to be traversing certain parts of Spain, the mountains
of Greece, the southern provinces of Asia Minor, or the upper parts of
Egypt, you will perhaps also meet with a bandit, or even with a band
of them. In that case, prepare for the worst. Some of the gang have
been caught and crucified: you may have passed the crosses upon your
way. This does not render the rest more amiable. St. Paul takes it as
natural to be thus "in peril of robbers." Perhaps certain regions of
Italy itself were as dangerous as any. We have more than one account
of a traveller who was last seen at such-and-such a place, and was
never heard of again. It is therefore well, before undertaking a
journey through suspected parts, to ascertain whether any one else is
going that way. There is sure to be either an official with a military
escort or some other traveller with a retinue; at least there will be
some trusty man bearing letters, or some sturdy fellow whom you can
hire expressly to accompany you.

After allowing for this occasional embarrassment--which was certainly
not greater and almost certainly very much less than you would have
encountered in the same parts of the world a century ago--it must be
declared that, on the whole, travel by land in the Roman world of the
year 64 was remarkably safe. If it was not very expeditious, it was
probably on the average quite as much so as in the eighteenth century.

Ordinary travelling by road may not have averaged more than sixty or
seventy miles a day, although hundred miles could be done without much