How far I’ve come, he thought as he looked upon the polished cuirass and crested helmet of the Praetorian prefect. Even farther than Plautianus. He sighed. But he wasn’t patient enough. I must be patient.
Macrinus did not mind serving, but it had been easier with Severus, and even as a legal advisor under Plautianus. That was when it occurred to him that perhaps the most powerful role in the empire was that of Praetorian prefect, especially when one had a weak emperor.
But, he knew nothing was certain, and Plautianus had lost sight of that. I’ve worked too long and hard to get to where I am, he thought, remembering the hovel he and his family lived in when he was a child in Mauretania, a place stinking of camel dung and goat urine.
He looked around the ornate marble room, the painted wa
