Yet the
public suspicions settled upon a different quarter; and a very memorable
scene must have pointed his own in the same direction, supposing that he
had previously been blind to his danger. On a day of great solemnity, when
Rome had assembled her myriads in the amphitheatre, just at the very
moment when the nobles, the magistrates, the priests, all, in short, that
was venerable or consecrated in the State, with the Imperator in their
centre, had taken their seats, and were waiting for the opening of the
shows, a stranger, in the robe of a philosopher, bearing a staff in his
hand, (which also was the professional ensign [Footnote: See Casaubon's
notes upon Theophrastus.] of a philosopher,) stepped forward, and, by the
waving of his hand, challenged the attention of Commodus. Deep silence
ensued: upon which, in a few words, ominous to the ear as the handwriting
on the wall to the eye of Belshazzar, the stranger unfolded to Commodus
the instant peril which menaced both his life and his throne, from his
great servant Perennius. What personal purpose of benefit to himself this
stranger might have connected with his public warning, or by whom he might
have been suborned, was never discovered; for he was instantly arrested by
the agents of the great officer whom he had denounced, dragged away to
punishment, and put to a cruel death.
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