t did not stink so of politicians!"

He strode into the anteroom where all the gladiators waited and
Narcissus had to follow him--well named enough, for he was lithe and
muscular and beautiful, but, nonetheless, though taller, not to be
compared with Commodus--even as the women, chosen for their good looks
and intelligence, who hastened to reappear the moment the emperor's back
was turned, were nothing like so beautiful as Marcia.

In all the known world there were no two finer specimens of human
shapeliness than the tyrant who ruled and the woman whose wits and
daring had so long preserved him from his enemies.

"Come to the arena," he called back to her. "Come and see how Hercules
throws javelins from a chariot at full pelt!"

But Marcia did not answer, and he forgot her almost before he reached
the entrance of the private tunnel through which he passed to the arena.
She had more accurately aimed and nicely balanced work to do than even
Commodus could do with javelins against a living target.

VII. MARCIA

In everything but title and security of tenure Marcia was empress of the
world, and she had what empresses most often lack--the common touch.
She had been born in slavery. She had ascended step by step to fortune,
by her own wits, learning by experience. Each layer of society was known
to her--its virtues, prejudices, limitations and peculiar tricks of
thought. Being almost incredibly beautiful, she had learned very early
in life that the desired (not always the desirable) is powerful to sway
men; the possessed begins to lose its sway; the habit of possession
easily succumbs to boredom, and then power ceases. Even Commodus,
accordingly, had never owned her in the sense that men own slaves; she
had reserved to herself self-mastery, which called for cunning, courage
and a certain ruthlessness, albeit tempered by a reckless generosity.

She saw life skeptically, undeceived by the fawning flattery that Rome
served up to her, enjoying it as a cat likes being stroked. They said of
her that she slept with one eye open.

Livius had complained in the Thermae to Pertinax that the wine of
influence was going to Marcia's head, but he merely expressed the
opinion of one man, who would have liked to feel himself superior to her
and to use her for his own ends. She was not deceived by Livius, or by
anybody else. She knew that Livius was keeping watch on her, and how he
did it, having shrewdly guessed th