that Marcia's eunuchs had been told to keep an eye on him; two yellow-
robed, insufferably impudent inquisitors strode in among his own
attendants.

An escort of twenty praetorian guards and a decurion was waiting at the
gate to take its place between the lictors and Marcia's litter, but that
did not in any way increase Livius' sense of security. The praetorian
guard regarded Marcia as the source of its illegal privileges. It
looked to her far more than to the emperor for favors, buying them with
lawless loyalty to her. She ruined discipline by her support of every
plea for increased perquisites. No outraged citizen had any hope of
redress so long as Marcia's ear could be reached (although Commodus got
the blame for it). It was the key to Marcia's system of insurance
against unforeseen contingencies. The only regularly drilled and armed
troops in the city were as loyal to her, secretly and openly, as Livius
himself was to the principle of cynical self-help.

He began to feel thoroughly frightened, as he told himself that the
escort and their decurion would swear to any statement Marcia might
make. If she had learned that he was in the habit of receiving secret
information from her slave, there were a thousand ways she might take to
avenge herself; a very simple way would be to charge him with improper
overtures and have him killed by the praetorians--a way that might
particularly interest her, since it would presumably increase her
reputation for constancy to Commodus.

The eunuchs watched him. The lictors and praetorians cleared the way,
so there were no convenient halts that could enable him to slip
unnoticed through the crowd. His own attendants seemed to have divined
that there was something ominous about the journey, and he was not the