A council
having been convened, the faction of court sycophants pressed upon his
attention the inclemency of the climate, contrasting it with the genial
skies and sunny fields of Italy; and the season, which happened to be
winter, gave strength to their representations. What! would the emperor be
content for ever to hew out the frozen water with an axe before he could
assuage his thirst? And, again, the total want of fruit-trees--did that
recommend their present station as a fit one for the imperial court?
Commodus, ashamed to found his objections to the station upon grounds so
unsoldierly as these, affected to be moved by political reasons: some
great senatorial house might take advantage of his distance from home,--
might seize the palace, fortify it, and raise levies in Italy capable of
sustaining its pretensions to the throne. These arguments were combated by
Pompeianus, who, besides his personal weight as an officer, had married
the eldest sister of the young emperor. Shame prevailed for the present
with Commodus, and he dismissed the council with an assurance that he
would think farther of it.
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