Talbot Mundy

“ 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. ”

“ Beyond the inner entrance were the two disrobing rooms—women to the left, men to the right—where slaves, whose insolence had grown into a cultivated art, exchanged the folded garments for a bracelet with a number. Thence, stark-naked, through the bronze doors set in green-veined marble, bathers passed into the vast frigidarium, whose marble plunge was surrounded by a mosaic promenade beneath a bronze and marble balcony. ”

“ Dead or alive, they were not to dare to come without him, and meanwhile the rest of the legion was kept waiting at Ostia, with all the usual nuisance of desertions and drunkenness and what not else.”
“Everybody knows about that,” said Pertinax. “As governor of Rome it was my duty to point out to the emperor the inconvenience of keeping that legion waiting under arms so near the city. I was snubbed for my pains, but I did my duty.”
“Your duty? There were plenty of people more concerned than you,” said Livius, looking again as if he thought he had detected an intrigue. ”

“ Pertinax looked at the bronze door leading to the sweating room, shrugging himself as if the frigidarium had grown too cool for comfort.
“Marcia actually persuaded Commodus to countermand the order!” Livius said, emphasizing each word. “Almighty Jove can only guess what argument she used, but if Maternus had been one of her pet Christians she couldn’t have saved him more successfully. Commodus sent a messenger post-haste that night to recall the cohort.”
“And a good thing too,” Pertinax remarked. “It isn’t a legion’s business to supply cohorts to do the work of the district police. ”

“ There men and women mingled indiscriminately, watching the divers, conversing, matching wits, exchanging gossip, some walking briskly around the promenade while others lounged on the marble seats that were interspaced against the wall between the statues. ”

“ The problem is, who shall warn Marcia? She grows intolerant of friendly hints. I made her a present the other day of eight matched German litter-bearers—beauties—they cost a fortune—and I took the opportunity to have a chat with her. She told me to go home and try to manage my own wife! Friendly enough—she laughed—she meant no enmity; but shrewd though she is, and far-seeing though she is, the wine of influence is going to her head. You know what that portends. Few men, and fewer women, can drink deeply of that wine and—”
“She comes,” said Pertinax. ”

“ A man who had stared at a woman would have been thrown out, execrated and forever more refused admission. But out in the street, where the litter-bearers and attendants whiled away the time, there were tales told that spread to the ends of the earth.
ON A bench of black marble, between two statues of the Grecian Muses, Pertinax sat talking with Bultius Livius, sub-prefect of the palace. ”

“ Put a beggar on a horse and he will demand your house next. There’s no satisfying them. I am told they propose to abolish the gladiatorial combats! Laugh if you like. I have it from unquestionable sources. They intend to begin by abolishing the execution of criminals in the arena. ”

“ They even go unpunished if they don’t salute Cæsar’s image! They are allowed to preach against slavery. It has got so now that if a man condemned to death pretends he is a Christian they’re even allowed to rescue him out of the carceres! ”