twelve o'clock
The skirmishers were busy -- patrician and plebeian , master and slave , oppressor and oppressed . Soon all were to see the line of battle , the immortal captains , the children of darkness , the children of light , the beginning of a great revolution . Rome was like a weary child whose toys are gods and men , and who , being weary of them , has yet a curiosity in their destruction . Those days it was near twelve o'clock by the great dial of history . One day , about mid-afternoon , the old capital lay glowing in the sunlight . Its hills were white with marble and green with gardens , and traced and spotted and flecked with gold ; its thoroughfares were bright with color -- white , purple , yellow , scarlet -- like a field of roses and amarantus . The fashionable day had begun ; knight and lady were now making and receiving visits .