OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
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disperse, to pass the Alps in small parties and chap.
various disguises, and to assemble at Rome, __
during the licentious tumult of the festival ofCybele. 3 To murder Commodus , and to ascendthe vacant throne, was the ambition of no vul-gar robber. His measures were so ably con-certed, that his concealed troops already filledthe streets of Rome . The envy of an accom-plice discovered and ruined this singular enter-prise, in the moment when it was ripe for exe-cution. 1
Suspicious princes often promote the lowest The minis-of mankind, from a vain persuasion that those d e e ‘ r CIean 'who have no dependence, except on their fa-vour, will have no attachment, except to theperson of their benefactor. Cleander, the suc-cessor of Perennis, was a Phrygian by birth ;of a nation, over whose stubborn, but serviletemper, blows only could prevail." He hadbeen sent from his native country to Rome , inthe capacity of a slave. As a slave he enteredthe imperial palace, rendered himself useful tohis master’s passions, and rapidly ascended tothe most exalted station which a subject couldenjoy. His influence over the mind of Com-modus was much greater than that of his pre-
s During the second punic war, the Romans imported from Asia theworship of the mother of the gods. Her festival, the Megalesia, beganon tire fourth of April, and lasted six days. The streets were crowdedwith mad processions, the theatres with spectators, and the public ta- ,
bles with unbidden guests. Order and police were suspended, andpleasure was the only serious business of the city. See Ovid de Fastis,
1. iv, 189, &c.
” Cicero pro Flacco, c. 27,
VOL. I.
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