swear on the altar whatever
solemn oath you wish."

Pertinax smiled cynically.

"The men who slew Julius Caesar were under oath to him," he remarked.
"Most solemn oaths they swore, then turned on one another like a pack of
wolves! Octavian and Anthony were under oath; and how long did that
last? My first claim to renown was based on having rewon the allegiance
of our troops in Britain, who had broken the most solemn oath a man can
take--of loyalty to Rome. An oath binds nobody. It simply is an
emphasis of what a man intends that minute. It expresses an emotion. I
believe the gods smile when they hear men pledge themselves. I
personally, who am far less than a god and far less capable of reading
men's minds, never trust a man unless I like him, or unless he gives me
pledges that make doubt impossible."

"Then you don't like me?" asked Livius.

"I would like you better if I knew that I could trust you."

"You shall, Pertinax! Bring witnesses! I will commit myself before
your witnesses to do my part in--"

His restless eyes glanced right and left. Then he lowered his voice.

"--in bringing about the political change you contemplate."

"Let us go to the sweating room," Pertinax answered. "Keep near me. I
will think this matter over. If I see you holding speech not audible to
me, with any one--"

"I am already pledged. You may depend on me," said Livius. "I trust
you more because you use caution. Come."

VI. THE EMPEROR COMMODUS

The imperial palace was a maze of splendor such as Babylon had never
seen. It had its own great aqueducts to carry water for its fountains,
for the gardens and for the imperial baths that were as magnificent, if
not so large, as the Thermae of Titus. Palace after palace had been
wrecked, remodeled and included in the whole, under the succeeding
emperors, until the imperial quarters on the Palatine had grown into a
city within a city.

There were barracks for the praetorian guard that lacked not much of
being a fortress. Rooms and stairways for the countless slaves were
like honeycomb cells in the dark foundations. There were underground
passages, some of them secret, some notorious, connecting wing with
wing; and there was one, for the emperor's private use, that led to the
great arena where the games were held, so that he might come and go with
less risk of assassination.

Even temples had been taken over and included within the surrounding
wall to ma