so much the more because the Tiber formed a natural
fosse close before it. On the top of the wall of the Mausoleum stood
about three hundred of the most beautiful statues of bronze, marble,
and iron, mostly placed there by Hadrian and his successors. Amongst
them were that of the Divus Hadrianus; his beautiful favourite
Antinous; a Jupiter of Soter; a Pallas "town-protectress;" and many
others. Cethegus rejoiced at the fulfilment of his ideas, and became
exceedingly fond of this place, where he used to wander every evening
with his beloved Rome spread out at his feet, examining the progress of
the works. He had even caused a number of beautiful statues from his
own villas to be added to those already existing, in order to increase
the splendour of his creation.

CHAPTER X.

Cethegus was obliged to be more prudent in the execution of a second
plan, not less necessary for the success of his projects. In order to
be able to defy the Goths, and, if needful, the Greeks, from within
_his_ Rome, as he loved to call it, he was in want--not only of walls,
but of soldiers to defend them.

At first he thought of mercenaries, of a body-guard such as had been
often kept by high officials, statesmen and generals in those times,
such as Belisarius and Narses possessed in Byzantium.

It would have been very easy for him, by means of his riches and the
connections he had formed during his travels in Asia, to hire brave
troops of the savage Isaurian mountain people, who then played the part
of the Swiss of the sixteenth century; but this procedure had two very
straitened limits. On the one side he could not, without exhausting the
means that were indispensable for other purposes, keep more than a
comparatively small band, the kernel of an army, not an army itself. On
the other side it was impossible to bring these mercenaries in larger
numbers to Italy or Rome, without arousing suspicion. He was obliged to
smuggle them over with much cunning--by pairs, singly, or in small
groups, to his scattered villas and estates, as his slaves, freedmen,
clients, or guests; and to employ them as sailors and ship-officials in
the harbour of Ostia, or as workmen in Rome.

Lastly, the Romans themselves would, after all, have to save and defend
Rome, and all his plans urged him to re-accustom his fellow-citizens to
the use of arms. But Theodoric had wisely excluded the Italians from
the army--exceptions were only