"The trouble with Commodus is that he is growing tired of exhibiting himself as an athlete to invited audiences in the Palace.

He is perfectly frantic to show himself off in the Circus or in the Amphitheatre.

He oscillates between the determination to disregard convention and to do as he likes and virtuous resolutions, when he has been given a good talking-to by his old councillors and has made up his mind to behave properly.

He will break out yet into public exhibitions of himself.

He is really pathetically unhappy over his hard lot and positively wails about the amount of his time which is taken up with State business and about the pitifully small opportunity he has for training and exercise." My bath was broken off, sooner than I had intended, by the appearance of one of the kitchen-boys, who asked for me so tragically and so urgently and was so positive that no one else would suffice, that I went down into the kitchen in a towering rage at being interrupted and wondering why on earth I could be needed.