t a late hour of the night, he was
awakened with the news, that the chamberlain and the praefect were at his
door, he received them with intrepid resignation, and desired they would
execute their master's orders. Instead of death, they offered him the
throne of the Roman world. During some moments he distrusted their
intentions and assurances. Convinced at length of the death of Commodus,
he accepted the purple with a sincere reluctance, the natural effect of
his knowledge both of the duties and of the dangers of the supreme rank.

Laetus conducted without delay his new emperor to the camp of the
Praetorians, diffusing at the same time through the city a seasonable
report that Commodus died suddenly of an apoplexy; and that the virtuous
Pertinax had already succeeded to the throne. The guards were rather
surprised than pleased with the suspicious death of a prince, whose
indulgence and liberality they alone had experienced; but the emergency
of the occasion, the authority of their praefect, the reputation of
Pertinax, and the clamors of the people, obliged them to stifle their
secret discontents, to accept the donative promised by the new emperor,
to swear allegiance to him, and with joyful acclamations and laurels
in their hands to conduct him to the senate house, that the military
consent might be ratified by the civil authority.

This important night was now far spent; with the dawn of day, and the
commencement of the new year, the senators expected a summons to attend
an ignominious ceremony. * In spite of all remonstrances, even of those
of his creatures who yet preserved any regard for prudence or decency,
Commodus had resolved to pass the night in the gladiators' school, and
from thence to take possession of the consulship, in the habit and with
the attendance of that infamous crew. On a sudden, before the break of
day, the senate was called together in the temple of Concord, to meet
the guards, and to ratify the election of a new emperor. For a few
minutes they sat in silent suspense, doubtful of their unexpected
deliverance, and suspicious of the cruel artifices of Commodus: but when
at length they were assured that the tyrant was no more, they resigned
themselves to all the transports of joy and indignation. Pertinax, who
modestly represented the meanness of his extraction, and pointed out
several noble senators more deserving than himself of the empire, was
constrained by their dutiful violence to ascend the