“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 him to live, although 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 him!  It would be a choice jest—­he being the one who has encouraged 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 to meet together without having even to bribe the police.  There is only one way to get rid of Commodus:  Persuade Marcia that her own life is in danger from him, and that she will have a full voice in nominating his successor.”

“Probably true,” remarked Pertinax.  “Whom would she nominate?  That is the point.”

“It would be simpler to kill Marcia,” said Daedalus.  “Thereafter let things take their course.  Without Marcia to protect him—­”

“No man knows much,” Galen interrupted.  “Marcia’s soul may be all the soul Commodus has!  If she should grow sick of him—!”

“She grew sick long ago,” said Cornificia.  “But she is forever thinking of her Christians and knows no other way to protect them than to make Commodus love her.  Ugh!  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 monster, in order to save her people from the anger of the god Poseidon.  Perseus slew the monster.)

“There are thirty thousand ways of killing,” Pertinax repeated, “but if we kill one monster, four or five others will fight for his place, unless, like Perseus, we have the head of a Medusa with which to freeze them into stone!  There is no substitute for Commodus in sight.  The only man whose face would freeze all rivals is Severus the Carthaginian!”

“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 something they should not know.  An old man may be all very well when he has reigned for twenty years and men are used to him, and he used to the task, as was Augustus; but an old man new to the throne lacks energy.  And besides, they would never endure a man whose father was a charcoal-seller, as mine was.  I have made my way in life by looking at facts and refusing to deceive myself; with the exception of that, I have no especial wisdom, nor any unusual ability.”