Tiberius stood as a ghost at his own feast, surrounded by the blind and the treacherous. They puffed their chests and brayed with laughter at the "curiosities" Julian had painstakingly sourced for the evening's entertainment.
As with any imperial celebration, there were the requisite musicians and mummers, but the jesters were ignored in favor of the freakshow. Anything that marked a soul as different was treated as a reason for scorn and laughter.
People pointed and howled at the man whose skin was a thicket of hair from brow to heel, leaving only his eyes and mouth visible. They gawked at the dwarf who used a towering man as a living ladder, performing a handstand atop the giant's head with surprisingly nimble hands..
