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The senate took a high hand, and asserted its right to make those appointments; but Claudius and the Praetorians thought otherwise; and the senate, after blustering, had to crawl.
He could not bear, he said, to intrust the defense of his own person and of the city of Alexander to an Egyptian, so long as a Greek could be found capable of the duty. He proposed presently to have the two candidates brought before him, and to decide between them in the presence of the prefect of the praetorians.
But what was that?" Loud voices were audible outside the sick-room. Nemesianus stationed himself in front of the lady, sword in hand. This protection, however, proved unnecessary, for, instead of the praetorians, Johanna entered the room, supporting on her arm the half-sinking form of a young man in whom no one would have recognized the once beautifully curled and carefully dressed Alexander.
His reply was that the praetorians would do nothing against a daughter of Germanicus and that Anicetus should accomplish what he had promised. Anicetus showed himself prompt to crime, and Nero thanked him in a rapture of gratitude.
The centurion had thrown in a deprecatory word or two, but Berenike continued as if she had not heard him, till at last Martialis cried: "You ask too much of me, lady. Caesar is hateful to me, but I am no longer one of the praetorians, and am banished the country. How is it possible that I should approach him? How dare I, a common man "
A hint conveyed itself that she could summon the praetorians if he did not answer swiftly. "He plots against Caesar." "You know too little or too much!" said Marcia. "What else?" He closed his lips tight. "I know nothing else." "Have you had any dealings with Sextus?" "Never." He was shifting now from one foot to the other, hardly noticeably, but enough to make Marcia smile.
The praetorians stood by the picked men of the Macedonian phalanx, and with these were all the troops who had escorted the imperial general hither, and the garrisons of the city of Alexander who hoped to be called out in the next war.
They enjoyed themselves, and no doubt praised our cook and our wine. And now another honor we can duly appreciate! he sends his praetorians to turn this house of mourning into a tavern, a wine-shop, where they call creatures in from the street to dance and sing.
And that is the way in which popular governments lose their vitality and perish. The Roman consuls derived their power from the people and were responsible to the people; but Rome went on pretending that the emperors and their servants were consuls long after the Praetorians were the only source of power and the only power exercised was that of irresponsible despotism.
"And remember," he added, "there will be many weeping mothers here by to-morrow morning; but there is one I must see again, and that not as a corpse that bedizened thing in red whom I saw in the Circus I mean the wife of Seleukus, of the Kanopic way." On the wide ascent leading to the Serapeum the praetorians stood awaiting Caesar's commands.
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