asserted the
honor of his rank. As a father, he permitted his sons to consult their
safety by attending the Amphitheatre. As a Roman he declared that his
own life was in the Emperor's hands, but that he would never behold the
son of Marcus prostituting his person and dignity. Notwithstanding his
manly resolution, Pompeianus escaped the resentment of the tyrant, and,
with his honor, had the good fortune to preserve his life.

Commodus had now attained the summit of vice and infamy. Amid the
acclamations of a flattering court he was unable to disguise from
himself that he had deserved the contempt and hatred of every man of
sense and virtue in his empire. His ferocious spirit was irritated by
the consciousness of that hatred, by the envy of every kind of merit, by
the just apprehension of danger, and by the habit of slaughter which he
contracted in his daily amusements. History has preserved a long list of
consular senators sacrificed to his wanton suspicion, which sought out,
with peculiar anxiety, those unfortunate persons connected, however
remotely, with the family of the Antonines, without sparing even the
ministers of his crimes or pleasures.

His cruelty proved at last fatal to himself. He had shed with impunity
the noblest blood of Rome: he perished as soon as he was dreaded by his
own domestics. Marcia, his favorite concubine, Eclectus, his
chamberlain, and Laetus, his praetorian prefect, alarmed by the fate of
their companions and predecessors, resolved to prevent the destruction
which every hour hung over their heads, either from the mad caprice of
the tyrant or the sudden indignation of the people. Marcia seized the
occasion of presenting a draught of wine to her lover, after he had
fatigued himself with hunting some wild beasts. Commodus retired to
sleep; but while he was laboring with the effects of poison and
drunkenness, a robust youth, by profession a wrestler, entered his
chamber and strangled him without resistance. The body was secretly
conveyed out of the palace, before the least suspicion was entertained
in the city, or even in the court, of the Emperor's death. Such was the
fate of the son of Marcus, and so easy was it to destroy a hated tyrant,
who, by the artificial powers of government, had oppressed, during
thirteen years, so many millions of subjects, each of whom was equal to
their master in personal strength and personal abilities.

FOOTNOTES:

[46] His brother by adoption, and his collea