A huge amount of card-playing and dice games filled up the court’s time. This kept everyone happy by creating patches of the day (like listening to opera) during which the Emperor did not need to talk to anyone. Surrounded by odd-looking ambassadors, professional toadies and drunken former military heroes day in day out, the Emperor was constantly obliged to find reasons for not engaging, not promising anything to yet another of an effectively infinite supply of supplicants.
