there; some say he isn't. He is reported to visit Rome in various
disguises, and to be able to conduct himself so well that he can pass
for a patrician. Some say he has a large band; some say, hardly any
followers. Some say it was he who robbed the emperor's own mail a month
ago. He is reported to be here, there, everywhere; but there came at
last reliable information that he lives in a cave in the woods on an
estate that fell to the fiscus (the government department into which all
payments were made, corresponding roughly to a modern treasury
department) at the time when Maximus and his son Sextus were
proscribed."

Pertinax looked bored. He yawned.

"I think I will go in and sweat a while," he remarked.

"Not yet. Let me finish," said Livius. "It was reported to Caesar that
the highwayman Maternus lives in a cave on this Aventine estate, and
that the slaves and tenants on the place, who, of course, all passed to
the new owner when the estate was sold, not only tolerate him but supply
him with victuals and news. Caesar went into one of his usual frenzies,
cursed half the senators by name, and ordered out a cohort from a legion
getting ready to embark at Ostia. He ordered them to lay waste the
estate, burn all the woods and if necessary torture the slaves and
tenants, until they had Maternus. Dead or alive, they were not to dare
to come without him, and meanwhile the rest of the legion was kept
waiting at Ostia, with all the usual nuisance of desertions and
drunkenness and what not else."

"Everybody knows about that," said Pertinax. "As governor of Rome it
was my duty to point out to the emperor the inconvenience of keeping