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Rh Domitian feared lest his victorious and popular lieutenant might prefer security in Britain to very possible danger at Rome. But whether the emperor were jealous of him or not, Agricola, a man of the old Roman stamp, "knew how to obey as well as to command." To soothe his mortification, if he felt any, at being ordered to resign, a freedman was sent to him with the tempting offer of the government of Syria. The messenger was charged not to deliver the letter if he found the proconsul ready to obey. Agricola never saw the imperial rescript; it was brought back unopened to the Cæsar—the ex-proconsul was already crossing the Channel on his way Rome-ward.

With his recall from Britain ended the public life of Agricola. He prudently avoided all display: he entered Rome after nightfall, so as to shun reception by his friends or the populace: at night also he went to the palace, and after a hurried embrace from Domitian, who deigned not a word to his ex-viceroy, he mingled in the crowd of courtiers. Henceforward he studiously shunned publicity. Simple in dress, courteous in conversation, accompanied by two or three friends, he excited the surprise of a people accustomed and not unfavourable to ostentation. "Can this," they said, "be the hero of a hundred fights? Can this be the man who has really conquered those warlike islanders, whom the mighty Julius left to their original freedom, and whom Claudius and his captains imperfectly subdued?" "The many," says Tacitus, "who commonly judge of great men by their external grandeur, after having seen and attentively surveyed him, asked the secret of a greatness which but few could explain."