rds a palace in the suburbs, one of the emperor's
retirements, and demanded, with angry clamors, the head of the public
enemy. Cleander, who commanded the Praetorian guards, [26] ordered a body
of cavalry to sally forth, and disperse the seditious multitude. The
multitude fled with precipitation towards the city; several were slain,
and many more were trampled to death; but when the cavalry entered the
streets, their pursuit was checked by a shower of stones and darts from
the roofs and windows of the houses. The foot guards, [27] who had
been long jealous of the prerogatives and insolence of the Praetorian
cavalry, embraced the party of the people. The tumult became a regular
engagement, and threatened a general massacre. The Praetorians, at
length, gave way, oppressed with numbers; and the tide of popular fury
returned with redoubled violence against the gates of the palace, where
Commodus lay, dissolved in luxury, and alone unconscious of the civil
war. It was death to approach his person with the unwelcome news. He
would have perished in this supine security, had not two women, his
eldest sister Fadilla, and Marcia, the most favored of his concubines,
ventured to break into his presence. Bathed in tears, and with
dishevelled hair, they threw themselves at his feet; and with all the
pressing eloquence of fear, discovered to the affrighted emperor the
crimes of the minister, the rage of the people, and the impending
ruin, which, in a few minutes, would burst over his palace and person.
Commodus started from his dream of pleasure, and commanded that the head
of Cleander should be thrown out to the people. The desired spectacle
instantly appeased the tumult; and the son of Marcus might even yet have
regained the affection and confidence of his subjects. [28]

[Footnote 25: Herodian, l. i. p. 28. Dion, l. lxxii. p. 1215. The
latter says that two thousand persons died every day at Rome, during a
considerable length of time.]

[Footnote 26: Tuneque primum tres praefecti praetorio fuere: inter quos
libertinus. From some remains of modesty, Cleander declined the title,
whilst he assumed the powers, of Praetorian praefect. As the other
freedmen were styled, from their several departments, a rationibus,
ab epistolis, Cleander called himself a pugione, as intrusted with the
defence of his master's person. Salmasius and Casaubon seem to have
talked very idly upon this passage. * Note: M. Guizot denies that
Lampridius means Clea