[Sidenote:--11--] To Victorinus, prefect of the city, a statue was granted. [He died not as the victim of a plot. At one time what might be called a loud rumor and many reports were circulating in regard to his destruction] and, though Commodus frequently wished to get him out of the way, he still kept putting it off and shrinking from the deed until the man grew very bold, and one day approaching Perennis said: "I hear that you wish to kill me. Why then do you delay? Why do you put it off, when you might do it this very day?" [But not even this caused him to suffer any harm at the hands of any one else; it was a self-sought death that he suffered, and the fact seems strange, inasmuch as he had been honored among the foremost men by Marcus and in mental excellence and forensic eloquence stood second to none of his contemporaries. Indeed, by mentioning two incidents in his history I shall reveal his whole character.] Once, when he was governor of Germany, he at first attempted by private persuasion indoors to induce his lieutenant not to accept bribes. As the latter would not listen to him, he mounted the tribunal and [after bidding the herald proclaim him] took oath that he had never received bribes and never would receive any. Next he bade his under-officer also take oath; and when this person refused to perjure himself, he ordered him to be dismissed from office. [And later as commandant of Africa he had an associate of similar character to the man just mentioned. He did not, to be sure, treat him in the same way, but put him aboard a boat and sent him back to Rome.] This is the kind of man Victorinus was.