and still possessed a hearty appetite, a perfect digestion,
mighty muscles, hard and solid, all over his hulking frame, and the vast
strength of his early prime; all these chief actors framed against a
background of gaudily caparisoned officers and courtiers.

In scarcely more than the twinkling of an eye Perennis. was seized by four
brawny frontier sergeants and hurled down among the men, among whom he
vanished like a lynx under a pack of dogs. I caught no afterglimpse of him
nor of his frayed corpse; I descried only a sort of whirlpool of active
men about the spot where he had, as it were, sunk into their vortex.

When the flailing arms ceased flailing and the panting executioners stood
quiet, the Emperor stretched out his right hand for silence; the rumbling
snarls and growls of the mob abated till silence reigned. Into it he
spoke:

"You know the custom of our fathers since Numa. The family of a traitor is
abolished with him."

There came a second roar of the ravening, ferocious men, a second surge of
the foremost up the face of the platform, and, instantly, the sons, wife
and sister of Perennis were pushed from it, cast down among the mob, and
never reappeared. After the mob quieted a second time Commodus again
raised his hand for silence. Quicker than before the men were still. He
spoke loud and clear: "You have saved me from a treacherous Prefect of
the Praetorium. I have meditated whom to appoint to his vacant post. I
have considered well. I now present him to you; my faithful henchman,
Cleander of Mazaca, who, by his own deserts, has won citizenship in the
Republic, equestrian rank and my favor and gratitude."

The mob cheered.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE MASSACRE

Retrospectively, Cleander is talked of, if at all, chiefly as having been
brutish, dull, stupid, venal, avaricious and cruel. Cruel and avaricious
he certainly became; venal and brutish he certainly seemed; but dull or
stupid I cannot admit that he ever was. Indubitably, at the time of his
appointment to be Prefect of the Praetorium, he possessed some qualities
fitting him, as he later was, to be entrusted by his self-indulgent master
with the administration of the whole Empire. Certainly he was quick-
thinking, prompt, ingenious, incredibly persuasive, resolute and ruthless,
which qualities go far towards equipping a ruler. Without these
characteristics he could not have conceived or adopted the plan which he
successfully executed.

Commo