156 THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap amusements. History has preserved a long list

_of consular senators sacrificed to his wanton

Conspira- suspicion, which sought out, with peculiar *domestic*, anxiety, those unfortunate persons, connected,however remotely, with the family of the Anto-nines, without sparing even the ministers of hiscrimes or pleasures . 11 His cruelty proved atlast fatal to himself. He had shed with impu-nity the noblest blood of Rome: he perishedas soon as he was dreaded by his own domestics.Marcia, his favourite concubine, Eclectus, hischamberlain, and Lsetus his praetorian prefect,alarmed by the fate of their companions andpredecessors, resolved to prevent the destructionwhich every hour hung over their heads, eitherfrom the mad caprice of the tyrant, or the sud-den indignation of the people. Marcia seizedthe occasion of presenting a draught of wine to ^her lover, after he had fatigued himself withDeath of bunting some wild beasts. Commodus retiredtfus. to sleep ; but whilst he was labouring with the3istbe-’ effects of poison and drunkenness, a robustcember. y 0 U £b, by profession a wrestler, entered hischamber, and strangled him without resistance.

The body was secretly conveyed out of the pa-lace, before the least suspicion was entertainedin the city, or even in the court, of the emper-or’s death. Such was the fate of the son ofMarcus, and so easy was it to destroy a hatedtyrant, who, by the artificial powers of govern- >ment, had oppressed, during thirteen years, so

“ The prefects were changed almost hourly or daily ; and the cap-rice of Commodus was often fatal to his most favourite chamberlaius.

Hist. August, p. 46, 51.