Behind them were the _praetorii_ and the _aedilicii,_[136] a full session of that great body which had matched its tireless wisdom and tenacity against Pyrrhus, Hannibal, and Antiochus the Great, and been victorious.

Drusus ran his eye over the seats.

There they sat, even in the midst of the general excitement, a body of calm, dignified elders, severe and immaculate in their long white togas and purple-edged tunics.

The multitudes without were howling and jeering; within the temple, reigned silence--the silence that gathered about the most august and powerful assembly the world has ever seen.
[136] Ex-praetors and ex-aediles.
The Temple was built of cool, grey stone; the assembly hall was quite apart from the shrine.

The Senate had convened in a spacious semicircular vaulted chamber, cut off from the vulgar world by a row of close, low Doric columns.