I may need your advice." Flattered, I felt strength course through my veins and fatigue vanish.

I passed completely round the lower part of the room and, with Tanno, took my stand near the southeastern door, by which he would pass out if on his way to the Stadium.
Few senators passed through that door with the party of which I was one, the invitations being based on horsemanship and good fellowship, not on wealth, social prominence or political importance.
In the Stadium, of course, it was not only possible but natural to sit down and Tanno and I took our seats in the shade and as far back as our rank permitted.
I was amazed to find how much I needed to sit down, what a relief it was, and to realize how near I had been to fainting.

In the breezy shade I soon revived and felt my strength come back.
From my comfortable seat I watched one of those exhibitions of miraculous horsemanship of which only Commodus was capable.
The Palace Stadium, of course, is a very large and impressive structure and its arena of no mean extent.

But compared, not merely with the Circus Maximus, but with the Flaminian Circus or Domitian's Stadium it seemed small and contracted.
In this comparatively cramped space Commodus, divested of his official robes and clad only in a charioteer's tunic, belt and boots, performed some amazing feats of horsemastery.
The pace to which he could speed up a four-horse team on that short straight-away, his ability to postpone slowing them down for the turn, and yet to pull them in handily and in time, the deftness and precision of his short turns, the promptness with which he compelled them to gather speed after the turn, these were astonishing, enough; but far more astonishing were his grace of pose, his perfect form in every motion, the ease of all his manoeuvres, the sense of his effortless control of his vehicle, of reserve strength greatly in excess of the strength he exerted; these were nothing short of dazzling.

His pride in his artistry, for it amounted to that, and his enjoyment of every detail of what he did and of the sport in general, was infectious and delightful.