[Sidenote:—­22—­] And he did die (or rather was despatched) before a great while.  Laetus and Eclectus, displeased at the way he acted, and moreover filled with fear at the threats he uttered against them when he was checked in any of his whims, formed a plot against him.  Commodus was anxious to slay both the consuls (Erucius Clarus and Sosius Falco) and on the first of the month to issue as consul and secutor at once from the place where the gladiators are kept.  He had the first cell in their quarters, as if he were one of them.  Let no one be incredulous about this, for he even cut off the head of the Colossus and put one of his own there instead; and then, having given it a club and placed a bronze lion at its feet so as to make it look like Hercules, he inscribed, besides the titles that belonged to him, also this sentence:  “First of secutors to engage; the only left-handed fighter that has conquered twelve times”—­I think it is—­“a thousand.”

[Lacuna] was written by Lucius Commodus Hercules, and upon it was inscribed the well known couplet, viz.:  “Hercules I, Jove’s son, Lord of Fair Fame, Not Lucius, howsoe’er constrained thereto.”

For these reasons Laetus and Eclectus, making Marcia their confidante, attacked him.  At night on the last of the year, when people were busy with merry-making, they had Marcia administer poison to him in cooked beef.  The wine he had consumed and his always immoderate use of the baths kept him from succumbing at once, and instead he vomited; this caused him to suspect the attempt and he uttered some threats.  Then they sent Narcissus, an athlete, to him and had this man strangle him in the midst of a bath.  This was the end that Commodus met after ruling twelve years, nine months, and fourteen days.  He had lived thirty-one years and four months, and with him the imperial house of the true Aurelii ceased.

[Sidenote:—­23—­] After this there occurred most violent wars and factional disturbances.  The compilation of facts in this work of mine has been due to the following chance.  I had written and published a book about the dreams and signs which caused Severus to expect the imperial power; and he, happening to look at a copy that was sent him by me, wrote me a long and complimentary acknowledgment.  This letter I received about nightfall and soon after went to sleep.  And in my slumbers Heaven commanded me that a history be written.  So it came about that I wrote the narrative with which I am at this moment concerned.  And because it pleased Severus himself and other people very much, I then conceived a desire to compile a record of all other matters of Roman interest.  Therefore I decided no longer to leave that treatise as a separate composition, but to incorporate it in this present history, in order that in one undertaking I might write positively everything from the beginning as far as Fortune sees fit to permit.  I have obtained this goddess, it appears, as the guide