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62 DARKNESS AND DAWN
she dared, invited him to be present on festive occasions, and
in her apartments he could find refuge for a time from the
most detested of the spies with whom his stepmother had
surrounded him from his early boyhood.
There was but one person about him whom he really trusted
and loved. It was the centurion Puclens, who, being one of
the imperial guard called excubitores, was often stationed at
one point or other of the Palace. So vast was the interior of
that pile of architecture, so intricate its structure, owing to the
numerous additions which had been made to it
by each succeeding
Emperor, that for a boy bent, as Britannicus was, on
occasionally eluding the intolerable watchfulness of his
nominal slaves, it was not difficult to conceal his movements.
Happily, too, he had one boyish friend whom he loved, and
who loved him, with entire affection. It was Titus, the elder
son of Vespasian. Even as a boy he gave promise of the fine
moral qualities by which he was afterwards distinguished.
His father was a soldier who had risen by merit to high command,
and had even been Consul ;
but his grandfather was
only a humble provincial, and, as his family was poor, he little
dreamed that he too was destined to the purple of which his
friend had been deprived. He was only a month or two older
than Britannicus. They shared the same studies and the
same games, and there was something contagious in his healthy
vigour and imperturbable good humour. It was at least some
alleviation to the sorrows of the younger boy that this manly
and virtuous lad, with his short curly hair and athletic frame,
was always ready to exert himself to brighten his loneliness
and divert his thoughts. Painters might have called the
features of Titus plebeian, but in his eyes and rnouth there
was an expression of honesty and sweetness which endeared
him to the heart of the lonely prince, who admired him far
more than any of the boys in the noblest families.
The political insignificance
of the Flavian family had been
one reason why Agrippina had chosen Titus as a companion
for the son of Claudius, instead of some scion of the old aristocracy
of Rome. It was well for Britannicus that his fellowpupil
came of a race purer and simpler than that of the
youthful patricians.
The two boys had been educated together for some years ;
and Titus, when he became Emperor,
still retained a fond