Commodus dissembled his panic for
the present; but soon after, having received undeniable proofs (as is
alleged) of the treason imputed to Perennius, in the shape of a coin which
had been struck by his son, he caused the father to be assassinated; and,
on the same day, by means of forged letters, before this news could reach
the son, who commanded the Illyrian armies, he lured him also to
destruction, under the belief that he was obeying the summons of his
father to a private interview on the Italian frontier. So perished those
enemies, if enemies they really were. But to these tragedies succeeded
others far more comprehensive in their mischief, and in more continuous
succession than is recorded upon any other page of universal history. Rome
was ravaged by a pestilence--by a famine--by riots amounting to a civil
war--by a dreadful massacre of the unarmed mob--by shocks of earthquake--
and, finally, by a fire which consumed the national bank, [Footnote: Viz.
the Temple of Peace; at that time the most magnificent edifice in Rome.
Temples, it is well known, were the places used in ancient times as banks
of deposit.
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