would never ask for the nomination; he is too crafty. He would say his
legions nominated him against his will and that to have disobeyed them
would have laid him open to the punishment for treason. (This is what
Severus actually did, later on, after Pertinax's death.) The other two
are Pescennius Niger, who commands the legions in Syria, and Clodius
Albinus who commands in Britain. We must find a man who can forestall
all three of them by winning, first, the praetorian guard, and then the
senate and the Romans by dint of sound reforms and justice."

"You are he! Rome trusts you. So does the senate," said Cornificia.
"Marcia trusts me. The praetorian guard trusts her. If I can persuade
Marcia that her life is in danger from Commodus--"

"But how?" Daedalus interrupted.

"We can take the praetorian guard by surprise," Cornificia went on,
ignoring him. "They can be tricked into declaring for the man whom
Marcia's friends nominate. Having once declared for him they will be
too proud of having made an emperor, and too unwilling to seem
vacillating, to reverse themselves in any man's favor, even though he
should command six legions. The senate will gladly accept one who has
governed Rome as frugally as Pertinax has done. If the senate confirms
the nominee of the praetorian guard, the Roman populace will do the rest
by acclamation. Then, three months of upright government--deification
by the senate--"

Pertinax laughed explosively--an honest, chesty laugh, unqualified by
any subtleties, suggesting a trace of the peasantry from which he
sprang. It made Cornificia wince.