r the Parthians. His kilt-
straps were of crimson leather, plated with gilt or gold overlapping
scales. His cloak was of the newest and most brilliant Imperial crimson.
The platform was so high that I could clearly see his shapely calves and
the gold eagles embroidered on the sky-blue soft leather of his half-
boots. In his hand, he held a short baton or truncheon, such as all field-
commanders carry as an emblem of independent command, such as I had seen
at Tegulata in the hand of Pescennius Niger. It was gilded or gold-plated
and its ends were chased pine-cones. Manifestly every detail of his
habiting had been meticulously considered and the total effect carefully
calculated. Certainly he was not only handsome and winsome, but dignified
and imposing, truly a princely and Imperial figure. Evidently he had
calculatingly arrayed himself so as to appear at one and the same time as
Emperor and as a field-commander. The effect on the men, if I could judge,
was all he had wished, all he could have hoped for. He dominated the mob
of men as he dominated the platform.

There was no need of his wave of the arm enjoining silence. The silence,
from his first movement as he rose, was as complete as possible.

"Fellow-soldiers," he said, and he spoke as well as the most practiced
orator, audibly to all, smoothly and charmingly, "you have come from
Britain across the sea, across Gaul, across the Alps, and half the length
of Italy, with the best intentions, with the sincerest hearts, to apprize
me of danger to me in my own Palace, danger unsuspected by me, as you
believe. Your loyalty, your good intentions, your sincerity I realize and
rejoice over. But I find it hard to believe that any soldiers in distant
frontier garrisons can be better informed than the Prince himself of what
goes on in Italy, in Rome, in the very Palace. You have lodged the gravest
accusations against one of my most important and most trusted officials. I
shall now state your charges, that the accused man may hear them now for
the first time from my own lips and may here and now make his defence to
you and to me."

He paused. My eyes had been on Commodus and now shifted to Perennis.
Perennis was a handsome man, but in spite of, rather than because of, his
build and features. Even through the splendid trappings of Prefect of the
Praetorium he appeared too tall and too thin, his neck was too long, his
face too long, his ears too big, his long nose overhung his upp