ur town house and country
estates were granted by the _fiscus_, under proper seal, ostensibly by the
command of Commodus, to the present owner. That present owner is in
possession of the official transfer deeds and they are properly made out.
Yet neither from the present owner nor from the deeds can it be
ascertained which Prefect of the Palace authorized the transfer. Between
Cleander and Aemilius Laetus, Commodus had thirty different Prefects of
the Palace, most of them for very brief terms, one for less than a full
day, for he was appointed after noon one day and put to death before noon
of the day following. To a certainty, I cannot ever get legal proof that
the grant was gotten by bribery or was in any way illegal.

"Therefore I cannot command the present holder to return your former
property to the _fiscus_, in order that the _fiscus_ may turn it over to
you. Nor is there any precedent for one Prince revoking a grant made under
a predecessor. Nor is there anything in our law or customs enabling me to
bid the present holder to sell back to the _fiscus_ your entire former
property, even at a high valuation.

"Moreover I do not feel that I ought, unless I must, take from the
treasury the cash necessary to repurchase your house and estates, so as to
be able to restore you to full possession of them; or to hand you a sum in
cash sufficient to recompense you for the confiscation of your heritage.

"Yet, whatever straits the treasury may be in, I pledge you my word that,
if you cannot recover full possession of your estates in any other way, I
shall compel the present holder to release them to the _fiscus_ and shall
order the _fiscus_ to restore them to you, I, out of our depleted
treasury, paying the present holder, but I do not want to resort to this
unless all other means fail.

"Hoping that the matter may be adjusted in another way, easier for all
three of us, I have arranged to have the present holder of your former
estates here in the Palace.

"When this interview between you and me terminates, I shall have you
escorted to a room where you will find awaiting you the present holder of
your former estates. If you two cannot come to some agreement by which,
with full satisfaction to both of you, you become again possessed of your
patrimony, I shall then take the measures to which I have pledged myself.

"To that end I have given orders that, if you formally make request for a
second private audience with me, you