Twelve o'clock
They visited the flower-market , lingering where the coronarii pressed on them the newest species , and purchased zinias , now in blossom -LRB- like painted flowers , thought Marius -RRB- , to decorate the folds of their togas . Loitering to the other side of the Forum , past the great Galen 's drug-shop , after a glance at the announcements of new poems on sale attached to the doorpost of a famous bookseller , they entered the curious -LSB- 176 -RSB- library of the Temple of Peace , then a favourite resort of literary men , and read , fixed there for all to see , the Diurnal or Gazette of the day , which announced , together with births and deaths , prodigies and accidents , and much mere matter of business , the date and manner of the philosophic emperor 's joyful return to his people ; and , thereafter , with eminent names faintly disguised , what would carry that day 's news , in many copies , over the provinces -- a certain matter concerning the great lady , known to be dear to him , whom he had left at home . It was a story , with the development of which `` society '' had indeed for some time past edified or amused itself , rallying sufficiently from the panic of a year ago , not only to welcome back its ruler , but also to relish a chronique scandaleuse ; and thus , when soon after Marius saw the world 's wonder , he was already acquainted with the suspicions which have ever since hung about her name . Twelve o'clock was come before they left the Forum , waiting in a little crowd to hear the Accensus , according to old custom , proclaim the hour of noonday , at the moment when , from the steps of the Senate-house , the sun could be seen standing between the Rostra and the Graecostasis . He exerted for this function a strength of voice , which confirmed in Marius a judgment the modern visitor may share with him , that Roman throats and Roman chests , namely , must , in some peculiar way , be differently -LSB- 177 -RSB- constructed from those of other people . Such judgment indeed he had formed in part the evening before , noting , as a religious procession passed him , how much noise a man and a boy could make , though not without a great deal of real music , of which in truth the Romans were then as ever passionately fond . Hence the two friends took their way through the Via Flaminia , almost along the line of the modern Corso , already bordered with handsome villas , turning presently to the left , into the Field-of-Mars , still the playground of Rome .