The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born at Villa Martis, in Liguria, A.D. 126. Assassinated at Rome, A.D. 193. Aged 67.] The son of a charcoal-burner. First a schoolmaster in Liguria, then a soldier. Rising to important command, he served in Great Britain and Africa. Upon the murder of Commodus, the Prætorians prevailed upon him to assume the purple. He accepted the honour in difficult times, when virtue met with as little mercy as vice. He stipulated that the dignity should not extend beyond himself, to his wife or son; he proclaimed that no man should be prosecuted for treason; he at once set about useful reforms in the state; but in less than three months after his accession, he was murdered by the same Prætorians, simply because he was too upright and too good a man. He had a venerable aspect, and was mild and winning in his address. [From the marble in the Rotunda of the Vatican.]