ome one should convert him then!" said Sextus. "Cornificia, can't
Marcia make a Christian of him; Christians pretend to oppose all the
infamies he practises. It would be a merry joke to have a Christian
emperor, who died because his soul was sick of him! It would be a
choice jest--he being the one who has encouraged Christianity by
reversing all Marcus Aurelius' wise precautions against their seditious
blasphemy!"

"You speak fanatically, but you have touched the heart of the problem,"
said Cornificia. "It is Marcia who makes life possible for Commodus--
Marcia and her Christians. They help Marcia protect him because he is
the only emperor who never persecuted them, and because Marcia sees to
it that they are free to meet together without having even to bribe the
police. There is only one way to get rid of Commodus: Persuade Marcia
that her own life is in danger from him, and that she will have a full
voice in nominating his successor."

"Probably true," remarked Pertinax. "Whom would she nominate? That is
the point."

"It would be simpler to kill Marcia," said Daedalus. "Thereafter let
things take their course. Without Marcia to protect him--"

"No man knows much," Galen interrupted. "Marcia's soul may be all the
soul Commodus has! If she should grow sick of him--!"

"She grew sick long ago," said Cornificia. "But she is forever thinking
of her Christians and knows no other way to protect them than to make
Commodus love her. Ugh! It is like the story of Andromeda. Who is to
act Perseus?"

(In the fable, Andromeda had to be chained to a cliff to be devoured by
a monster, in order to save her people from the anger of the god
Poseidon. Perseus slew the monster.)

"There are thirty thousand ways of killing," Pertinax repeated, "but if
we kill one monster, four or five others will fight for his place,
unless, like Perseus, we have the head of a Medusa with which to freeze
them into stone! There is no substitute for Commodus in sight. The
only man whose face would freeze all rivals is Severus the
Carthaginian!"

"We are none of us blind," said Cornificia.

"You mean me? I am too old," answered Pertinax. "I don't like tyranny,
and people know it. It is something they should not know. An old man
may be all very well when he has reigned for twenty years and men are
used to him, and he used to the task, as was Augustus; but an old man
new to the throne lacks energy. And besides, they would nev