Talbot Mundy

“ Who knows what Bultius Livius may have told him? Who knows which of us will be alive tomorrow morning? Who knows what Sextus is doing? If Sextus has heard of this crisis he will seize the moment and either arouse the prætorian guard to mutiny or else reach Commodus himself and slay him with his own hand! Sextus is a man! Are you no more than Flavia Titiana’s cuckold and Cornificia’s plaything?”
“I am a Roman,” Pertinax retorted angrily. “I think of Rome before myself. You women only think of passion and ambition. Rome—city of a thousand triumphs!” ”

“ And it has been the emperor’s until this minute,” Pertinax said grimly. “Galen tells us Commodus is mad. And I agree that Rome deserves a better emperor. But whether I am fit to be that emperor is something not yet clear to me. I doubt it. Whom the Fates select for such a purpose, they compel, and he is unwise who resists them. I will not resist. But let there be no doubt on this point: I will not slay Commodus. I will not draw sword against the man to whom I owe my fortune. I am not an ingrate. Sextus lives for his revenge. ”

“ I am Governor of Rome—though you are Galen the philosopher. And I remember many of your adages this minute, as for instance: ‘It is he who acts who is responsible.’ To kill an emperor is easy, Galen. To replace him is as difficult as to fit a new head to a body. We have talked a lot of treason, most of it nonsense. I have listened to too much of it. I am as guilty as the others. But when it comes to slaying Commodus and standing in his shoes—”
Marcia interrupted.
“By the great Twin Brethren, Pertinax! Who can be surprized that Flavia Titiana seeks amusement in the arms of other men! ”