A tunic of amethyst color, forbidden to ordinary mortals, cast a bluish tinge on his broad and short face.

He had dark hair, dressed, in the fashion introduced by Otho, in four curls.
He had no beard, because he had sacrificed it recently to Jove,--for which all Rome gave him thanks, though people whispered to each other that he had sacrificed it because his beard, like that of his whole family, was red.

In his forehead, projecting strongly above his brows, there remained something Olympian.

In his contracted brows the consciousness of supreme power was evident; but under that forehead of a demigod was the face of a monkey, a drunkard, and a comedian,--vain, full of changing desires, swollen with fat, notwithstanding his youth; besides, it was sickly and foul.

To Lygia he seemed ominous, but above all repulsive.
After a while he laid down the emerald and ceased to look at her.