13 SEPTEMBER 2008, Page 70

Toby Young is associate editor of The Spectator .

Forum, challenging anyone to hold him to account. That’s class.

And that, too, is the point. No one became or stayed emperor without blood on his hands. Sheer terror at losing immunity on becoming a private citizen played its part. So did the prospect of losing status, position, prestige, honour, respect — however artificial the respect any emperor enjoyed.

Cincinnatus in 458 BC showed how to do it. Invited to abandon his plough, don his toga and assume absolute power in Rome to save the city from assault, he agreed. Job done, he relinquished office, returned to where he had left his plough and continued ploughing. But that was when Romans were honest, noble, bold and true. Doubtless that is how Musharraf will come to see himself.