Part 2 (2/2)
”Who enabledto have the tenements burned Besides, it profited the city-new streets; and there ice the amount of tax on the new tenements they raised I, personally, made a handsome profit on the purchase of a few burned houses”
”And as the governor who broke the fah, but you h the wo corn for speculation All I did was to hand their names to Commodus; he confiscated all the corn and sold it-at a handso!”
”While we sit here and cackle like Asian birds, Commodus renaruot rid of,” reoes to and fro froround tunnels Men sleep in his room who are all involved with hiuard him carefully Besides, whoever tried to murder hiuard is contented, being well paid and peret past the praetorian guard?”
”Any one!” said Pertinax ”The point is not, who shall kill Commodus? But who shall be raised in his place? There are thirty thousand ways to kill a hed at that
”As many ways as there are stars in heaven; but the stars have their say in the matter! None can kill a man until his destiny says yes to it Not even a doctor,” he added, chuckling ”Otherwise the doctors would have killed rows sick and weary of him Then a pin-prick does it, or a sudden terror Until that time comes you may break his skull, and do not more than spoil his tes: respect many, but trust few But as a doctor I have learned only one thing for certain: that no man actually dies until his soul is tired of hirow sick sooner than that of Commodus?” asked sextus
”Not if his soul is evil and delights in evil-as his does!” Galen retorted ”If he should turn virtuous, then perhaps, yes But in that case we should wish hih his soul would prefer the contrary and leave him to die by the first form of death that should appear-in spite of all the doctors and the guards and tasters of the royal food”
”Some one should convert him then!” said sextus ”Cornificia, can't Marcia make a Christian of him; Christians pretend to oppose all the infamies he practises It would be a merry joke to have a Christian emperor, who died because his soul was sick of hied Christianity by reversing all Marcus Aurelius' wise precautions against their seditious blasphemy!”
”You speak fanatically, but you have touched the heart of the problem,” said Cornificia ”It is Marcia who makes life possible for Commodus- Marcia and her Christians They help Marcia protect him because he is the only emperor who never persecuted them, and because Marcia sees to it that they are free toeven to bribe the police There is only one way to get rid of Coer fro his successor”
”Probably true,” remarked Pertinax ”Whom would she nominate? That is the point”
”It would be sis take their course Without Marcia to protect him-”
”No man knows much,” Galen interrupted ”Marcia's soul row sick of hio,” said Cornificia ”But she is forever thinking of her Christians and knows no other way to protect theh! It is like the story of Andromeda Who is to act Perseus?”
(In the fable, Andromeda had to be chained to a cliff to be devoured by a er of the God Poseidon Perseus slew the ,” Pertinax repeated, ”but if we kill one ht for his place, unless, like Perseus, we have the head of a Medusa hich to freeze theht The only inian!”
”We are none of us blind,” said Cornificia
”You mean me? I am too old,” answered Pertinax ”I don't like tyranny, and people know it It is so they should not know An old ned for twenty years and ustus; but an old y And besides, they would never endure a man whose father was a charcoal-seller, asat facts and refusing to deceive myself; with the exception of that, I have no especial wisdom, nor any unusual ability”
”If wisdoood Galen on the throne!”
”He is too old and wise to let you try to do it!” Galen answered ”But you spoke about the head of a Medusa, Pertinax, and ions at Caruntu, the SW portion of ary whose frontiers were then occupied by very warlike tribes) If there is oneat them, it is he! And he is not as old as you are”
”I have thought of him only to hate him,” said Pertinax ”He would not follow ht for the throne if soh he would not run the risk of slaying him himself, and he would betray us if we should take him into confidence I know hiinian He would never ask for the noions noainst his will and that to have disobeyed them would have laid him open to the punishment for treason (This is what Severus actually did, later on, after Pertinax's death) The other two are Pescennius Niger, who coions in Syria, and Clodius Albinus who commands in Britain We , first, the praetorian guard, and then the senate and the Romans by dint of sound reforms and justice”
”You are he! Rome trusts you So does the senate,” said Cornificia
”Marcia trusts uard trusts her If I can persuade Marcia that her life is in danger from Commodus-”
”But how?” Daedalus interrupted
”We can take the praetorian guard by surprise,” Cornificia went on, ignoring hi for theonce declared for hi , to reverse theh he should cooverned Roally as Pertinax has done If the senate confiruard, the Roman populace will do the rest by acclaovernhed explosively-an honest, chesty laugh, unqualified by any subtleties, suggesting a trace of the peasantry fro It made Cornificia wince