12.] [Footnote 11: Herodian, l.i.p.

16.] [Footnote 12: This universal joy is well described (from the medals as well as historians) by Mr.Wotton, Hist.

of Rome, p.

192, 193.] During the three first years of his reign, the forms, and even the spirit, of the old administration, were maintained by those faithful counsellors, to whom Marcus had recommended his son, and for whose wisdom and integrity Commodus still entertained a reluctant esteem.

The young prince and his profligate favorites revelled in all the license of sovereign power; but his hands were yet unstained with blood; and he had even displayed a generosity of sentiment, which might perhaps have ripened into solid virtue.