noon
Glaucus sighed . They were now in a street less crowded than the rest , at the end of which they beheld that broad and most lovely sea , which upon those delicious coasts seems to have renounced its prerogative of terror -- so soft are the crisping winds that hover around its bosom , so glowing and so various are the hues which it takes from the rosy clouds , so fragrant are the perfumes which the breezes from the land scatter over its depths . From such a sea might you well believe that Aphrodite rose to take the empire of the earth . ` It is still early for the bath , ' said the Greek , who was the creature of every poetical impulse ; ` let us wander from the crowded city , and look upon the sea while the noon yet laughs along its billows . ' ` With all my heart , ' said Clodius ; ` and the bay , too , is always the most animated part of the city . ' Pompeii was the miniature of the civilization of that age . Within the narrow compass of its walls was contained , as it were , a specimen of every gift which luxury offered to power .