midday
`` Join you , '' retorted the other with a grim smile , `` join you in what ? in this senseless folly of talking in whispers in public places ? The Forum this day is swarming with spies , Hortensius Martius . Hast a wish to make a spectacle for the plebs on the morrow by being thrown to a pack of tigers for their midday meal ? '' And with a nod of his head he pointed up to the rostrum where the dusky auctioneer had momentarily left off shouting and had thrown himself flat down upon the matting , ostensibly in order to speak with one of the scribes on the tier below , but who was in reality casting furtive glances in the direction where Hortensius Martius stood talking with the praefectus . `` These slaves , '' said Taurus Antinor curtly , `` all belong to the imperial treasury ; their peculium is entirely made up of money gained through giving information -- both false and true . Have a care , O Hortensius Martius ! ''