thies of all ranks;
the nobles honoured in him the head of the conspiracy; he governed the
clergy through Silverius, who was the right hand of the pope, and, by
public opinion, appointed his successor, and who showed to the Prefect
a devotion that was even surprising to its object. He gained the common
people, not only by occasional gifts of bread, and games in the Circus,
but also by promoting great undertakings, which, at the cost of the
Gothic Government, provided work and sustenance for thousands.

He persuaded Amalaswintha to give orders that the fortifications of
Rome, which had suffered much more since the reign of Honorius from the
inroads of time and the selfishness of Roman architects, than from the
Visigoths and Vandals, should be quickly and completely restored "to
the honour of the Eternal City, and," as she imagined, "for protection
against the Byzantines."

Cethegus himself, and, as was afterwards proved by the unsuccessful
sieges of the Goths and Byzantines, with great strategic genius, made
the plan of the magnificent works. With the greatest zeal he set about
the gigantic task of transforming the immense city, with its
circumference of many miles, into a stronghold of the first rank. The
thousands of workmen, who well knew to whom they owed their well-paid
employment, applauded the Prefect whenever he showed himself upon the
ramparts, to examine what progress had been made, or excite to new
industry, and, sometimes, to put his own hand to the work. And the
deceived Princess assigned one million _solidi_ after another for the
expenses of fortifications, against which the whole power of her people
was shortly to be wrecked and annihilated.

The most important point of these fortifications was the Tomb of
Hadrian, known now under the name of Castle St. Angelo. This
magnificent edifice, built of blocks of Parian marble, which were laid
one upon the other without any uniting cement, lay, at that time, about
a stone's-throw from the Aurelian Grate, the flanking walls of which it
by far overtopped.

Cethegus had seen at a glance that this incomparably strong building,
which until now had been designed for offence _against_ the city,
might, by very simple means, be converted into a powerful bulwark of
defence _for_ the city; he caused two walls to be built from the
Aurelian Grate towards and around the Mausoleum.

And soon the towering marble castle formed an assault-proof rampart for
the Aurelian Grate,