Listed 100 (total found 465) sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "ITALY Country EUROPE" .
LEUCANIA (Ancient country) ITALY
M. Lamponius, a Lucanian, was one of the principal captains of the Italians in the war of the allies with Rome, B. C. 90--88. He commanded in his native province at the breaking out of the war, since he drove P. Licinius Crassus, with great loss into Grumentum. (Front. Strat. ii. 4, 16.) In the last war with Sulla, B. C. 83--2, when the Samnites and Lucanians had become the allies of the Marian party at Rome, Lamponius was the companion of Pontius of Telesia in his march upon the capital. After victory finally declared for Sulla at the Colline gate, Lamponius disappeared with the herd of fugitives. (Appian, B. C. i. 40, 41, 90, 93; Plut. Sull. 29; Flor. iii. 21; Eutrop. v. 8.) Aponios in Diodorus (xxxvii. Eclog. i.) is a misreading for Lamponius.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
GELA (Ancient city) SICILY
Apollodorus of Gela in Sicily, was, according to Suidas and Eudocia, a contemporary of Menander, and accordingly lived between the years B. C. 340 and 290. Suidas and Eudocia attribute to him seven comedies, of which they give the titles. But while Suidas (s. v. Apollodoros) ascribes them to Apollodorus of Gela, he assigns one of these same comedies in another passage (s. v. spoudazo) to the Carystian. Other writers too frequently confound the two comic poets.
ROME (Ancient city) ITALY
Fundanius, C. Fundanius, a writer of comedies in the age of Augustus. Horace (Sat. i. 10. 41, 42) praises his management of the slaves and intrigantes of the comic drama. He puts into the mouth of Fundanius (Sat. ii. 8. 19) a description of the rich but vulgar supper of Nasidienus, that is, of Salvidienus Rufus. (Suet. Octav. 66; Vet. Schol. ad Hor. Sat. i. 10. 41.)
SYRACUSSES (Ancient city) SICILY
Deinolochus, (Deinolochos,) a comic poet of Syracuse or Agrigentum, was, according to some, the son, according to others, the disciple, of Epicharimus. He lived about B. C. 488, and wrote fourteen plays in the Doric dialect, about which we only know, from a few titles, that some of them were on mythological subjects. (Suid. s. v.; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. ii.; Grysar, de Doriens. Com. i.)
TARANTO (Ancient city) PUGLIA
A Greek comic poet, son of a potter of
Tarentum, who lived about B.C. 300, and invented a style of composition of his
own, which was much diffused in Magna Graecia, and is said to have been imitated
even by the Romans. It was called the Hilarotragoedia (Hilarotragoidia) -- cheerful
tragedy. It was a travesty of tragic myths by the intermixture of comic scenes.
The scanty fragments of the thirty-eight plays of Rhinthon do not give us any
adequate idea of this kind of composition.
THOURII (Ancient city) PUGLIA
372 - 270
Alexis. One of the most prolific and important writers of
the Middle Attic Comedy, and uncle to Menander. He was born at Thurii, B.C. 392,
and is said to have lived to the age of one hundred and six years, and to have
died on the stage with the crown of victory on his head. Some two hundred and
forty-five plays are attributed to him, of which numerous extracts are still extant
and display both wit and elegance.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Alexis. A comic poet, born at Thurii, in Magna Graecia (Suidas s. v. Al.), but
admitted subsequently to the privileges of an Athenian citizen, and enrolled in
the deme Oion, belonging to the tribe Leontis (Steph. Byz.). He was the uncle
and instructor of Menander (Suidas s. v. Alexis; Proleg. Aristoph.). When he was
born we are not expressly told, but he lived to the age of 106 (Plut. Defect.
Orac.), and was living at least as late as B. C. 288. Now the town of Thurii was
destroyed by the Lucanians about B. C. 390. It is therefore not at all unlikely
that the parents of Alexis, in order to escape from the threatened destruction
of their city, removed shortly before with their little son to Athens. Perhaps
therefore we may assign about B. C. 394 as the date of the birth of Alexis. He
had a son Stephanus, who also wrote comedies (Suidas l. c). He appears to have
been rather addicted to the pleasures of the table (Athen. viii.). According to
Plutarch (De Senis Administ. Reipubl.), he expired upon the stage while being
crowned as victor. By the old grammarians he is commonly called a writer of the
middle comedy, and fragments and the titles of many of his plays confirm this
statement. Still, for more than 30 years he was contemporary with Philippides,
Philemon, Menander, and Diphilus, and several fragments shew that he also wrote
pieces which would be classed with those of the new comedy.
He was a remarkably prolific writer. Suidas says he wrote 245 plays,
and the titles of 113 have come down to us. The Meropis, Ankulion, Olumpidoros,
and Paraditos, in which he ridiculed Plato, were probably exhibited as early as
the 104th Olympiad. The Agonis, in which he ridiculed Misgolas, was no doubt written
while he was alive, and Aeschines (c. Timarch.) in B. C. 345, speaks of him as
then living. The Adelphoi and Stoatiotes, in which he satirized Demosthenes, were
acted shortly after B. C. 343. The Hippos, in which he alluded to the decree of
Sophocles against the philosophers, in B. C. 316. The Puraunos in B. C. 312. The
Pharmakopole and Hupobolimaios in B. C. 306. As might have been expected in a
person who wrote so much, the same passage frequently occurred in several plays;
nor did he scruple sometimes to borrow from other poets, as, for example, from
Eubulus (Athen. i.). Carystius of Pergamus (ap. Athen. vi.) says he was the first
who invented the part of the parasite. This is not quite correct, as it had been
introduced before him by Epicharmus; but he appears to have been the first who
gave it the form in which it afterwards appeared upon the stage, and to have been
very happy in his exhibition of it. His wit and elegance are praised by Athenaeus
(ii.), whose testimony is confirmed by the extant fragments. A considerable list
of peculiar words and forms used by him is given by Meineke. His plays were frequently
translated by the Roman comic writers (Gell. ii. 23). The fragments we possess
of his plays have been preserved chiefly by Athenaeus and Stobaeus.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
AKRAGAS (Ancient city) SICILY
As nearly all the ancient aqueducts now remaining are of Roman
construction, it has been generally imagined that works of this description were
entirely unknown to the Greeks. This, however, is an error, since some are mentioned
by Pausanias. The Greeks, in fact, at a very early period, had some powers of
hydraulic engineering, as is shown by the drainage tunnels of the lake Copa is,
and the similar works of Phaeax at Agrigentum; (...)
This extract is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KROTON (Ancient city) CALABRIA
A celebrated athlete of Crotona, who had thrice gained the victory at the Pythian Games. He fought at the battle of Salamis, B.C. 480, in a ship fitted out at his own expense.
Phayllus : Perseus Encyclopedia
There is a statue at Delphi of Phaylus of Crotona. He won no victory at Olympia, but his victories at Pytho were two in the pentathlum and one in the foot-race. He also fought at sea against the Persian, in a ship of his own, equipped by himself and manned by citizens of Crotona who were staying in Greece. Such is the story of the athlete of Crotona.
ROME (Ancient city) ITALY
Euprepes, celebrated in the racing annals of Rome as having carried off 782 chaplets of victory, --a greater number than any single individual before his time had ever won. He was put to death when an old man, upon the accession of Caracalla (A. D. 211), because the colours which he wore in the circus were different from those patronised by the prince, who favoured the Blues. (Dion Cass. lxxvii. 1.)
SYRACUSSES (Ancient city) SICILY
Damoxenus, (Damoxenos). A boxer of Syracuse, excluded from the
Nemean Games for killing his opponent in a pugilistic encounter. The name of the
latter was Creugas; and the two competitors, after having consumed the entire
day in boxing, agreed each to receive from the other a blow without flinching.
Creugas first struck Damoxenus on the head, and then Damoxenus, with his fingers
unfairly stretched out, struck Creugas on the side; and such, observes Pausanias,
was the hardness of his nails and the violence of the blow that his hand pierced
the side, seized on the bowels, and, drawing them outward, caused instant death
to Creugas. A fine piece of sculpture has come down to us with this for its subject.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
NEAPOLIS (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
Canidia whose real name was Gratidia, as we learn from the scholiasts, was a Neapolitan hetaira beloved by Horace; but when she deserted him, he revenged himself upon her by holding her up to contempt as an old sorceress. This was the object of the 5th and 17th Epodes, and of the 8th Satire of the first book. The Palinodia in the 16th ode of the 1st book is supposed to refer to these poems. Horace attacks her by the name of Canidia because her real name Gratidia conveyed the idea of what was pleasing and agreeable, while the assumed one was associated with gray hairs and old age. (Comp. Hor. Sat. ii. 1. 48; Schol. Acr. and Cruqu. ad loc. and ad Sat. i. 8. 24.)
YKARA (Ancient city) SICILY
Celebrated Grecian hetaera, daughter of Timandra, probably born
at Hyccara in Sicily. According to some accounts she was brought to Corinth when
seven years old, having been taken prisoner in the Athenian expedition to Sicily,
and bought by a Corinthian. This story, however, involves numerous difficulties,
and seems to have arisen from a confusion between this Lais and the other woman
of the same name. She was a contemporary and rival of Phryne. She became enamoured
of a Thessalian named Hippolochus, or Hippostratus, and accompanied him to Thessaly,
where, it is said, some Thessalian women, jealous of her beauty, enticed her into
a temple of Aphrodite, and there stoned her to death.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
AKRAGAS (Ancient city) SICILY
Acron (Akron), an eminent physician of Agrigentum, the son of Xenon. His exact
date is not known; but, as he is mentioned as being contemporary with Empedocles,
who died about the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, he must have lived in the
fifth century before Christ. From Sicily he went to Athens, and there opened a
philosophical school (esophisteuen). It is said that he was in that city during
the great plague (B. C. 430), and that large fires for the purpose of purifying
the air were kindled in the streets by his direction, which proved of great service
to several of the sick (Plut. De Is. et Osir. 80; Oribas. Synops. vi. 24; Aetius,
tetrab. ii. serm. i. 94; Paul Aegin. ii. 35). It should however be borne in mind
that there is no mention of this in Thucydides (ii. 49, &c.), and, if it is true
that Empedocles or Simonides (who died B. C. 467) wrote the epitaph on Acron,
it may be doubted whether he was in Athens at the time of the plague. Upon his
return to Agrigentum he was anxious to erect a family tomb, and applied to the
senate for a spot of ground for that purpose on account of his eminence as a physician.
Empedocles however resisted this application as being contrary to the principle
of equality, and proposed to inscribe on his tomb the following sarcastic epitaph
(tothastikon), which it is quite impossible to translate so as to preserve the
paronomasia of the original:
Akron ietron Akron Akragantinon patros akrou Kruptei
kremnos hakros patridos akrotates.
The second line was sometimes read thus:
Akrotates koruphes tumbos akros katechei.
Some persons attributed the whole epigram to Simonides (Suid. s. v. Akron; Eudoc.
Violar., ap. Villoison, Anecd. Gr. i. 49; Diog. Laert. viii. 65). The sect of
the Empirici, in order to boast of a greater antiquity than the Dogmatici (founded
by Thessalus, the son, and Polybus, the son-in-law of Hippocrates, about B. C.
400), claimed Acron as their founder (Pseudo-Gal. Introd. 4. vol. xiv.), though
they did not really exist before the third century B. C. Pliny falls into this
anachronism (H. N. xxix. 4). None of Acron's works are now extant, though he wrote
several in the Doric dialect on Medical and Physical subjects, of which the titles
are preserved by Suidas and Eudocia.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ELEA (Ancient city) ITALY
Aegimus or Aegimius (Aigimos, or Aigimios), one of the most ancient of the Greek physicians, who is said by Galen to have been the first person who wrote a treatise on the pulse. He was a native of Velia in Lucania, and is supposed to have lived before the time of Hippocrates, that is, in the fifth century before Christ. His work was entitled Peri Palmon, De Palpitationibus, (a name which alone sufficiently indicates its antiquity,) and is not now in existence. Callimachus (ap. Athen. xiv.) mentions an author named Aegimius, who wrote a work on the art of making cheesecakes (plakountopoukon sungramma, and Pliny mentions a person of the same name (H. N. vii. 49), who was said to have lived two hundred years; but whether these are the same or different individuals is quite uncertain.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KROTON (Ancient city) CALABRIA
Democedes. A celebrated physician of Crotona. He practised medicine successively
at Aegina, Athens, and Samos. He was taken prisoner by the Persians, in B.C. 522,
and was sent to Susa to the court of Darius. Here he acquired great reputation
by curing the king's foot and the breast of the queen Atossa. Notwithstanding
his honours at the Persian court he was always desirous of returning to his native
country, and in order to effect this, he procured by means of Atossa that he should
be sent with some nobles to explore the coast of Greece and to ascertain in what
parts it might be most successfully attacked. At Tarentum he escaped, and settled
at Crotona, where he married the daughter of the famous wrestler Milo.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Democedes, (Demokedes), the son of Calliphon, a celebrated physician of Crotona, in Magna Graecia, who lived in the sixth century B. C. He left his native country and went to Aegina, where he received from the public treasury the sum of one talent per annum for his medical services, i. e. (if we reckon, with Hussey, Ancient Weights and Money, §c., the Aeginetan drachma to be worth one shilling and a penny three farthings) not quite 344l. The next year he went to Athens, where he was paid one hundred minae, i. e. rather more than 406l.; and the year following he removed to the island of Samos in the Aegean sea, and received from Polycrates, the tyrant, the increased salary of two talents, i. e. (if the Attic standard be meant) 487l. 10s. (Herod. iii. 131.) He accompanied Polycrates when he was seized and put to death by Oroetes, the Persian governor of Sardis (B. C. 522), by whom he was himself seized and carried prisoner to Susa to the court of Dareius, the son of Hystaspes. Here he acquired great riches and reputation by curing the king's foot, and the breast of the queen Atossa. (Ibid. c. 133.) It is added by Dion Chrysostom (Dissert. i. De Invid.), that Dareius ordered the physicians who had been unable to cure him to be put to death, and that they were saved at the intercession of Democedes. Notwithstanding his honours at the Persian court, he was always desirous of returning to his native country. In order to effect this, he pretended to enter into the views and interests of the Persians, and procured by means of Atossa that he should be sent with some nobles to explore the coast of Greece, and ascertain in what parts it might be most successfully attacked. When they arrived at Tarentum, the king, Aristophilides, out of kindness to Democedes, seized the Persians as spies, which afforded the physician an opportunity of escaping to Crotona. Here he finally settled, and married the daughter of the famous wrestler, Milo; the Persians having followed him to Crotona, and in vain demanded that he should be restored. (Herod. iii. 137.) According to Suidas (s. v.) he wrote a work on Medicine. He is mentioned also by Aelian (V. H. viii. 17) and John Tzetzes (Hist. ix. 3); and Dion Cassius names him with Hippocrates (xxxviii. 18) as two of the most celebrated physicians of antiquity. By Dion Chrysostom he is called by mistake Denmodocus.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MEDIOLANUM (Ancient city) LOMBARDIA
Elpidius or Helpidius (Elpidios), one of the physicians of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, A. D. 493--526, whom he attended in his last illness. (Procop de Bello Goth. lib. i. p. 167, ed. Hoschel.) He was a Christian, and in deacon's orders, and probably a native of Milan. There is extant a letter to him from king Theodoric (ap. Cassiod. Vrariar. iv. 24), and four from Ennodius (Epist. vii 7, viii. 8, ix. 14, 21; ap. Sirmondi Opera, vol. i.)
ROME (Ancient city) ITALY
Criton (Kriton). A physician at Rome in the first or second century after Christ, attached to the court of one of the emperors (Gal. De Compos. Medicam. sec. Locos, i. 3, vol. xii. p. 445), probably Trajan, A. D. 98-117. He is perhaps the person mentioned by Martial. (Epigr. xi. 60. 6.) He wrote a work on Cosmetics (Kosmetika) in four books, which were very popular in Galen's time (ibid. p. 446) and which contained almost all that had been written on the same subject by Heracleides of Tarentum, Cleopatra, and others. The contents of each chapter of the four books have been preserved by Galen (ibid.), by whom the work is frequently quoted, and have been inserted by Fabricius in the twelfth volume of the old edition of his Biblioth. Graeca. He wrote also a work on Simple Medicines (Peri ton Haplon Pharmakon) of which the fourth book is quoted by Galen (De Compos. Medicam. sec. Gen. ii. 11, vi. 1, vol. xiii. pp. 516, 862); he is also quoted by Aetius and Paulus Aegineta, and may perhaps be the person to whom one of the letters of Apollonius of Tyana is addressed. (Ep. xvii. ed. Colon. Agripp. 1623, 8vo.) None of his works are extant, except a few fragments preserved by other authors. He is perhaps the author of a work on Cookery, mentioned by Athenaeus. (xii. p. 516.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Evelpistus (Euelpistos), all eminent surgeon at Rome, who lived shortly before the time of Celsus, and therefore probably about the end of the first century B. C. (Cels. de Med.vii. praef. p. 137.) He is perhaps the same person one of whose plasters is preserved by Scribonius Largus, de Compos. Medicam, c. 215, p. 230.
Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman empire, was born on the 23rd of September of the
year B. C. 63, in the consulship of M. Tullius Cicero and C. Antonius. He was
the son of C. Octavius by Atia, a daughter of Julia, the sister of C. Julius Caesar,
who is said to have been descended from the ancient Latin hero Atys. His real
name was, like that of his father, C. Octavius, but for the sake of brevity, and
in order to avoid confusion, we shall call him Augustus, though this was only
an hereditary surname which was given him afterwards by the senate and the people
to express their veneration for him, whence the Greek writers translate it by
Sebastos. Various wonderful signs, announcing his future greatness, were subsequently
believed to have preceded or accompanied his birth. (Suet. Aug. 94; Dion Cass.
xlv. l, &c.)
Augustus lost his father at the age of four years, whereupon his mother
married L. Marcius Philippus, and at the age of twelve (according to Nicolaus
Damascenus, De Vit. Aug. 3, three years earlier) he delivered the funeral eulogium
on his grandmother, Julia. After the death of his father his education was conducted
with great care in the house of his grandmother, Julia, and at her death he returned
to his mother, who, as well as his step-father, henceforth watched over his education
with the utmost vigilance. His talents and beauty, and above all his relationship
to C. Julius Caesar, drew upon him the attention of the most distinguished Romans
of the time, and it seems that J. Caesar himself, who had no male issue, watched
over the education of the promising youth with no less interest than his parents.
In his sixteenth year (N. Damascenus erroneously says in his fifteenth) he received
the toga virilis, and in the same year was made a member of the college of pontiffs,
in the place of L. Domitius, who had been killed after the battle of Pharsalia
(N. Damasc. l c. 4; Vell. Pat. ii. 59; Suet. Aug. 94; Dion Cass. xlv). From this
time his uncle, C. Julius Caesar, devoted as much of his time as his own busy
life allowed him to the practical education of his nephew, and trained him for
the duties of the public career he was soon to enter upon. Dion Cassius relates
that at this time Caesar also brought about his elevation to the rank of a patrician,
but it is a well attested fact that this did not take place till three years later.
In B. C. 47, when Caesar went to Africa to put down the Pompeian party in that
country, Augustus wished to accompany him but was kept back, because his mother
thought that his delicate constitution would be unable to bear the fatigues connected
with such an expedition. On his return Caesar distinguished him, nevertheless,
with military honours, and in his triumph allowed Augustus to ride on horseback
behind his triumphal car. In the year following (B. C. 45), when Caesar went to
Spain against the sons of Pompey, Augustus, who had then completed his seventeenth
year, was to have accompanied his uncle, but was obliged to remain behind on account
of illness, but soon joined him with a few companions. During his whole life-time
Augustus, with one exception, was unfortunate at sea, and this his first attempt
nearly cost him his life, for the vessel in which he sailed was wrecked on the
coast of Spain. Whether he arrived in Caesar's camp in time to take part in the
battle of Munda or not is a disputed point, though the former seems to be more
probable (Suet. Aug. 94; Dion Cass. xliii. 41). Caesar became more and more attached
to his nephew, for he seems to have perceived in him the elements of everything
that would render him a worthy successor to himself : he constantly kept him about
his person, and while he was yet in Spain he is said to have made his will and
to have adopted Augustus as his son, though without informing him of it. In the
autumn of B. C. 45, Caesar returned to Rome with his nephew; and soon afterwards,
in accordance with the wish of his uncle, the senate raised the gens Octavia,
to which Augustus belonged, to the rank of a patrician gens. About the same time
Augustus was betrothed to Servilia, the daughter of P. Servilius Isauricus, but
the engagement appears afterwards to have been broken off.
The extraordinary distinctions and favours which had thus been conferred
upon Augustus at such an early age, must have excited his pride and ambition,
of which one remarkable example is recorded. In the very year of his return from
Spain he was presumptuous enough to ask for the office of magister equitum to
the dictator, his uncle. Caesar, however, refused to grant it, and gave it to
M. Lepidus instead, probably because he thought his nephew not yet fit for such
an office. He wished that Augustus should accompany him on the expedition which
he contemplated against the Getae and Parthians; and, in order that the young
man might acquire a more thorough practical training in military affairs, he sent
him to Apollonia in Illyricum, where some legions were stationed, and whither
Caesar himself intended to follow him. It has often been supposed that Caesar
sent his nephew to Apollonia for the purpose of finishing his intellectual education;
but although this was not neglected during his stay in that city, yet it was not
the object for which he was sent thither, for Apollonia offered no advantages
for the purpose, as may be inferred from the fact, that Augustus took his instructors
-the rhetorician Apollodorus of Pergamus and the mathematician Theogenes, with
him from Rome. When Caesar had again to appoint the magistrates in B. C. 44, he
remembered the desire of his nephew, and conferred upon him, while he was at Apolionia,
the office of magister equitum, on which he was to enter in the autumn of B. C.
43. But things turned out far differently. Augustus had scarcely been at Apollonia
six months, when he was surprised by the news of his uncle's murder, in March,
B. C. 44. Short as his residence at this place had been, it was yet of great influence
upon his future life : his military exercises seem to have strengthened his naturally
delicate constitution, and the attentions and flatteries which were paid to the
nephew of Caesar by the most distinguished persons connected with the legions
in Illyricum, stimulated his ambition and love of dominion, and thus explain as
well as excuse many of the acts of which he was afterwards guilty. It was at Apollonia,
also, that Augustus formed his intimate friendship with Q. Saividienus Rufus and
M. Vipsanius Agrippa.
When the news of Caesar's murder reached the troops in Illyricum,
they immediately offered to follow Augustus to Italy and avenge his uncle's death;
but fear and ignorance of the real state of affairs at Rome made him hesitate
for a while. At last he resolved to go to Italy as a private person, accompanied
only by Agrippa and a few other friends. In the beginning of April he landed at
Lupiae, near Brundusium, and here he heard of his adoption into the gens Julia
and of his being the heir of Caesar. At Brundusium, whither he next proceeded,
he was saluted by the soldiers as Caesar, which name he henceforth assumed, for
his legitimate name now was C. Julius Caesar Octavianus. After having visited
his stepfather in the neighbourhood of Naples, he arrived at Rome, apparently
about the beginning of May. Here he demanded nothing but the private property
which Caesar had left him, but declared that he was resolved to avenge the murder
of his benefactor. The state of parties at Rome was most perplexing ; and one
cannot but admire the extraordinary tact and prudence which Augustus displayed,
and the skill with which a youth of barely twenty contrived to blind the most
experienced statesmen in Rome, and eventually to carry all his designs into effect.
It was not the faction of the conspirators that placed difficulties in his way,
but one of Caesar's own party, M. Antony, who had in his possession the money
and papers of Caesar, and refused to give them up. Augustus declared before the
praetor, in the usual manner, that he accepted of the inheritance, and promised
to give to the people the portion of his uncle's property which he had bequeathed
them in his will. Antony endeavoured by all means to prevent Augustus from obtaining
his objects; but the conduct of Augustus gained the favour of both the senate
and the people. Augustus had to contend against Dec. Brutus, who was in possession
of Cisalpine Gaul, as well as against Antony; but to get rid of one enemy at least,
the sword was drawn against the latter, the more dangerous of the two. While Antony
was collecting troops for the war against D. Brutus, two of the legions which
came from Macedonia, the legio Martia and the fifth, went over to Augustus; and
to prevent the remaining troops following the example, Antony hastened with them
to the north of Italy. Cicero, who had at first looked upon Augustus with contempt,
now began to regard him as the only man capable of delivering the republic from
its troubles; and Augustus in rettrn courted Cicero. On the 10th of December,
Cicero, in his third Philippic, proposed that Augustus should be entrusted with
the command of the army against Antony, and on the first of January, B. C. 43,
he repeated the same proposal in his fifth Philippic. The senate now granted more
than had been asked: Augustus obtained the command of the army with the title
and insignia of a pretor, the right of voting in the senate with the consulars,
and of holding the consulship ten years before he attained the legitimate age.
He was accordingly sent by the senate, with the two consuls of the year, C. Vibius
Pansa and A. Hirtius, to compel Antony to raise the siege of Mutina. Augustus
distinguished himself by his defence of the camp near Mutina, for which the soldiers
saluted him as imperator. The fall of the two consuls threw the command of their
armies into his hands. Antony was humbled and obliged to flee across the Alps.
Various reports were spread in the meantime of disputes between D. Brutus and
Augustus, and it was even said that the death of the two consuls was the work
of the latter. The Roman aristocracy, on whose behalf Augustus had acted, now
determined to prevent him from acquiring all further power. They entrusted D.
Brutus with the command of the consular armies to prosecute the war against Antony,
and made other regulations which were intended to prevent Augustus gaining any
further popularity with the soldiers. He remained inactive, and seemed ready to
obey the commands of the senate. Antony had in the meantime become reconciled
with the governors in Gaul and Spain through the mediation of Lepidus, and was
now at the head of a powerful army. In these circumstances Augustus resolved to
seek a power which might assist him in gaining over Antony, or enable him to oppose
him more effectually if necessary. This power was the consulship. He was very
popular with the soldiers, and they were by promises of various kinds induced
to demand the consulship for him. The senate was terrified, and granted the request,
though, soon after, the arrival of troops from Africa emboldened them again to
declare against him. But Augustus had won the favour of these troops: he encamped
on the campus Martius, and in the month of August the people elected him consul
together with Q. Pedius. His adoption into the gens Julia was now sanctioned by
the curies; the sums due to the people, according to the will of Julius Caesar,
were paid, the murderers of the dictator outlawed, and Augustus appointed to carry
the sentence into effect. He first marched into the north, professedly against
Antony, but had scarcely entered Etruria, when the senate, on the proposal of
Q. Pedius, repealed the sentence of outlawry against Antony and Lepidus, who were
just descending from the Alps with an army of 17 legions. D. Brutus took to flight,
and was afterwards murdered at Aquileia at the command of Antony. On their arrival
at Bononia, Antony and Lepidus were met by Augustus, who became reconciled with
them. It was agreed by the three, that Augustus should lay down his consulship,
and that the empire should be divided among them under the title of triumviri
rei publicae constituendae, and that this arrangement should last for the next
five years. Lepidus obtained Spain, Antony Gaul, and Augustus Africa, Sardinia,
and Sicily. Antony and Augustus were to prosecute the war against the murderers
of Caesar. The first objects of the triumvirs were to destroy their enemies and
the republican party; they began their proscriptions even before they arrived
at Rome; their enemies were murdered and their property confiscated, and Augustus
was no less cruel than Antony. Two thousand equites and three hundred senators
are said to have been put to death during this proscription : the lands of whole
townships were taken from their owners and distributed among the veteran soldiers.
Numbers of Roman citizens took to flight, and found a refuge with Sex. Pompeius
in Sicily. Augustus first directed his arms against the latter, because Pompeius
had it in his power to cut off all provisions from Rome The army assembled at
Rhegium; but an attempt to cross over to Sicily was thwarted by a naval victory
which Pompeius gained over Q. Salvidienus Rufus in the very sight of Augustus.
Soon after this, Augustus and Antony sailed across the Ionian sea to Greece, as
Brutus and Cassius were leaving Asia for the west. Augustus was obliged to remain
at Dyrrhachium on account of illness, but as soon as he had recovered a little,
he hastened to Philippi in the autumn of B. C. 42. The battle of Philippi was
gained by the two triumvirs: Brutus and Cassius in despair put an end to their
lives, and their followers surrendered to the conquerors, with the exception of
those who placed their hopes in Sext. Pompeius. After this successful war, in
which the victory was mainly owing to Antony, though subsequently Augustus claimed
all the merit for himself, the triumvirs made a new division of the provinces.
Lepidus obtained Africa, and Augustus returned to Italy to reward his veterans
with the lands he had promised them. All Italy was in fear and trembling, as every
one anticipated the repetition of the horrors of a proscription. His enemies,
especially Fulvia, the wife of Antony, and sonic other of the friends of the latter,
increased these apprehensions by false reports in order to excite the people against
him; for Augustus was detained for some time at Brundusium by a fresh attack of
illness. But he pacified the minds of the people by a letter which he wrote to
the senate.
These circumstances not only prevented for the present his undertaking
anything fresh against Sext. Pompeius, but occasioned a new and unexpected war.
On his arrival at Rome, Augustus found that Fulvia had been spreading these rumours
with the view of drawing away her husband from the arms of Cleopatra, and that
L. Antonius, the brother of the triumvir, was used by her as an instrument to
gain her objects. Augustus did all he could to avoid a rupture, but in vain. L.
Antonius assembled an army at Praeneste, with which he threw himself into the
fortified town of Perusia, where he was blockaded by Augustus with three armies,
so that a fearful famine arose in the place. This happened towards the end of
B. C. 41. After several attempts to break through the blockading armies, L. Antonius
was obliged to surrender. The citizens of Perusia obtained pardon from Augustus,
but the senators were put to death, and from three to four hundred noble Perusines
were butchered on the 15th of March, B. C. 40, at the altar of Caesar. Fulvia
fled to Greece, and Tiberius Nero, with his wife Livia, to Pompeius in Sicily
and thence to Antony, who blamed the authors of the war, probably for no other
reason but because it had been unsuccessful. Antony, however, sailed with his
fleet to Brundusium, and preparations for war were made on both sides, but the
news of the death of Fulvia in Greece accelerated a peace, which was concluded
at Brundusium, between the two triumvirs. A new division of the provinces was
again made: Augustus obtained all the parts of the empire west of the town of
Scodra in Illyricum, and Antony the eastern provinces, while Italy was to belong
to them in common. Antony also formed an engagement with the noble-minded Octavia,
the sister of Augustus and widow of C. Marcellus, in order to confirm the new
friendship. The marriage was celebrated at Rome. Sext. Pompeius, who had had no
share in these transactions, continued to cut off the provisions of Rome, which
was suffering greatly from scarcity : scenes of violence and outrage at Rome shewed
the exasperation of the people. Augustus could not hope to satisfy the Romans
unless their most urgent wants were satisfied by sufficient supplies of food,
and this could not be effected in any other way but by a reconciliation with Pompeius.
Augustus had an interview with him on the coast of Misenum, in B. C. 39, at which
Pompeius received the proconsulship and the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica,
together with the province of Achaia. In return for these concessions he was to
provide Italy with corn. In order to convince the Romans of the sincerity of his
intentions, Augustus betrothed M. Marcellus, the son of Octavia and stepson of
Antony, who was present on this occasion, to a daughter of Pompeius.
Peace seemed now to be restored everywhere. Antony returned to the
East, where his generals had been successful, and Augustus too received favourable
news from his lieutenants in Spain and Gaul. Augustus, however, was anxious for
an opportunity of a war, by which he night derive Sext. Pompeius of the provinces
which had been ceded to him at Misenum. A pretext was soon found in the fact,
that Pompeius allowed piracy to go on in the Mediterranean. Augustus solicited
the aid of the two other triumvirs, but they did not support him; and Antony was
in reality glad to see Augustus engaged in a struggle in which he was sure to
suffer. The fleet of Augustus suffered greatly from storms and the activity of
Demochares, the admiral of Pompeius; but the latter did not follow up the advantages
he had gained, and Augustus thus obtained time to repair his ships, and send Maecenas
to Antony to invite him again to take part in the war. Antony hereupon sailed
to Tarentum, in the beginning of the year 37, with 300 ships; but, on his arrival
there, Augustus had changed his mind, and declined the assistance. This conduct
exasperated Antony; but his wife, Octavia, acted as mediator; the two triumvirs
met between Tarentum and Metapontum, and the urgent necessity of the times compelled
them to lay aside their mutual mistrust. Augustus promised an army to Antony for
his Parthian war, while Antony sent 120 ships to increase the fleet of Augustus,
and both agreed to prolong their office of triumvirs for five years longer. While
Antony hastened to Syria, Octavia remained with her brother. Soon after this,
M. Vipsanius Agrippa received the command of the fleet of Augustus, and in July
of the year 36, Sicily was attacked on all sides; but storms compelled the fleet
of Augustus to return, and Lepidus alone succeeded in landing at Lilybaeum. Pompeius
remained in his usual inactivity; in a sea-fight off Mylae he lost thirty ships,
and Augustus landed at Tauromenium. Agrippa at last, in a decisive naval battle,
put an end to the contest, and Pompeius fled to Asia. Lepidus, who had on all
occasions been treated with neglect, now wanted to take Sicily for himself ; but
Augustus easily gained over his troops, and Lepidus himself submitted. He was
sent to Rome by Augustus, and resided there for the remainder of his life as pontifex
maximus. The forces which Augustus had under his command now amounted, according
to Appian, to forty-five legions, independent of the light-armed troops and the
cavalry, and to 600 ships. Augustus rewarded his soldiers with garlands and money,
and promised still further rewards; but the veterans insisted upon their dismission,
and upon receiving (at once) the lands and all the sums that had been promised
them. Augustus quelled the rebellion in its commencement by severity combined
with liberality : he dismissed the veterans who had fought at Mutina and Philippi,
and ordered them to quit Sicily immediately, that their disposition might not
spread further among the soldiers. The latter were satisfied with the promises
of Augustus, which he fulfilled at the expense of Sicily, and lands were assigned
to the veterans in Campania. Augustus now sent back the ships of Antony, and took
possession of Africa. The Roman senate hastened to honour the conqueror in the
most extravagant manner; and when he approached the city, which Maecenas had governed
during his absence, the senate and people flocked out to meet him. Augustus addressed
the senate in a very modest manner, and declined some of the distinctions which
were offered him. He celebrated his ovation on the 13th of November, B. C. 36.
The abundant supply of provisions which was now brought to Rome satisfied the
wants and wishes of the people ; and as this happy state of things was the result
of his victory, his interests coincided with those of the people, whose burdens
were also lessened in various ways.
By the conquest of two of his rivals, Augustus had now acquired strength
enough to enter upon the contest with the third. He first endeavoured, however,
as much as was in his power, to remedy the confusion and demoralisation in which
Italy had been involved in consequence of the civil wars, and he pretended only
to wait for the arrival of his colleague in order to withdraw with him into private
life, as the peace of the republic was now restored. This pretended self-denial
did not remain unrewarded, for the people elected him pontifex maximus, though
Lepidus, who held this office, was yet alive; and the senate decreed, that he
should inhabit a public building, that his person should be inviolable, and that
he should sit by the side of the tribunes. Augustus took every opportunity of
praising and supporting his absent colleague, Antony, and by this stratagem the
Romans gradually became convinced, that if new disputes should break out between
them, the fault could not possibly lie with Augustus. But matters did not yet
come to this : the most urgent thing was to keep his troops engaged, and to acquire
funds for paying them. After suppressing a mutiny among the insolent veterans,
he prepared for a campaign against some tribes on the north-eastern coast of the
Adriatic, of which the Romans had never become complete masters, and which from
time to time refused to pay their tribute. Augustus marched along the coast, without
meeting with much resistance, until he came near the country of the Japydes :
their zapital Metulum was strongly fortified and garrisoned ; but the perseverance
of Augustus and the courage of his troops compelled the garrison to surrender,
and the place was changed into a heap of ashes by the brave Japydes themselves
(B. C. 35). As the season of the year was not yet much advanced, Augustus undertook
a campaign against the Pannonians in Segestica. After several engagements during
their march through the country, the Romans appeared before the town of Segesta,
which, after a siege of thirty days, sued for pardon. Augustus, to suit his own
purpose, imposed only a fine upon the inhabitants, and leaving his legate Fufius
Geminus behind with a garrison of twenty-five cohorts, he returned to Rome. Octavia
had in the meantime been repudiated by Antony; and at the request of Augustus
the senate declared Octavia and Livia inviolable, and granted them the right of
conducting their own affairs without any male assistance -an apparent reparation
for the insult offered to Octavia by her husband, but in reality a means of keeping
the recollection of it alive. Augustus intended next to make an expedition against
Britain, but the news of fresh revolts in the countries from which he had just
returned, altered his plan. His generals soon restored peace, but he himself went
to Dalmatia, where Agrippa had the command. Several towns were taken, and neither
life nor property was spared. Augustus penetrated as far as Setovia, where he
was wounded in his knee. After his recovery, he gave the command to Statilius
Taurus, and returned to Rome to undertake the consulship for the year B. C. 33,
which he entered upon on the 1st of January together with L. Volcatius Tullus,
and laid down on the same day, under the pretext of the Dalmatian war, though
his presence there was no longer necessary, since Statilius Taurus had already
completed the defeat of the Dalmatians. Out of the spoils made in this war Augustus
erected a portico called, after his sister, Octavia. During this year, Agrippa
was aedile, and did all he could to gain popularity for his friend Augustus and
himself, and Augustus also made several very useful regulations.
Meantime the arbitrary and arrogant proceedings of Antony in the East
were sufficient of themselves to point him out to the Romans as an enemy of the
republic, but Augustus did not neglect to direct attention secretly to his follies.
Letters now passed between the two triumvirs full of mutual criminations ; and
Antony already purchased from Artavasdes cavalry for the impending war against
his colleague. The rupture between the two triumvirs was mainly brought about
by the jealousy and ambition of Cleopatra. During the year B. C. 32, while Cleopatra
kept Antony in a perpetual state of intoxication, Augustus had time to convince
the Romans that the heavy sacrifices he demanded of them were to be made on their
own behalf only, as Italy had to fear everything from Antony War was now declared
against Cleopatra, for Antony was looked upon'only as her infatuated slave. In
B. C. 31, Augustus was consul for the third time with M. Valerius Messalla. Rome
was in a state of great excitement and alarm, and all classes had to make extraordinary
exertions. An attempt of Augustus to attack his enemy during the winter was frustrated
by storms; but, in the spring, his fleet, under the command of the able Agrippa,
spread over the whole of the eastern part of the Adriatic, and Augustus himself
with his legions landed in Epeirus. Antony and Cleopatra took their station near
the promontory of Actium in Acarnania. Their fleet had no able rowers, and everything
depended upon the courage of the soldiers and the size of their ships. Some persons
ventured to doubt the safety of entering upon a sea-fight, but Cleopatra's opinion
prevailed, and the battle of Actium was fought in September, 31. As soon as the
queen observed that victory was not certain on her side, she took to flight, and
Antony soon followed her. His fleet fought in vain to the last, and, after a long
hesitation, the land forces surrendered.
The danger which had threatened to bring Rome under the dominion of
an eastern queen was thus removed, the ambition of Augustus was satisfied, and
his generosity met with general admiration. After the battle of Actium, he proceeded
slowly through Greece and a part of western Asia, where he entered on his fourth
consulship for the year B. C. 30, and passed the winter at Samos. The confidence
of his army in him grew with his success, but the veterans again shewed symptoms
of discontent, and demanded the fulfilment of the promises made to them. Soon
after, they broke out into open rebellion, and Augustus hastened from Samos to
remedy the evil in person. It was with great difficulty that he escaped the storms
and arrived at Brundusium. Here he was met by the Roman senators, equites, and
a great number of the people, which emboldened him to ask for their assistance
to pay his soldiers. His requests were readily complied with, and he was enabled
to fulfil his engagements towards the veterans, and assigned lands to them in
various parts of the empire. Without going to Rome, he soon after sailed to Corinth,
Rhodes, Syria, and Egypt. Cleopatra negotiated with Augustus to betray Antony;
but when she found that Augustus only wanted to spare her that she might adorn
his triumph, she put an end to her life. Egypt was made a Roman province, and
the booty which Augustus obtained was so immense, that he could easily satisfy
the demands of his army. At Rome the senate and people rivalled each other in
devising new honours and distinctions for Augustus, who was now alone at the head
of the Roman world. In Samos he entered upon his fifth consulship for the year
B. C. 29. The senate sanctioned all his acts, and conferred upon him many extraordinary
rights and privileges. The temple of Janus was closed, as peace was restored throughout
the empire. In August of the same year, Augustus returned to Rome, and celebrated
his threefold triumph over the Pannonians and Dalmatians, Antony and Egypt; and
he obtained the title of imperator for ever.
After these solemnities were over, Augustus undertook the consulship
for the year 28 together with his friend Agrippa. He was determined from the first
not to lay down the power which his own successes and the circumstances of the
times had placed in his hands, although he occasionally pretended that he would
resign it. He first directed his attention to the restoration of order in all
parts of the government; and, as he was invested with the censorship, he began
by clearing the senate of all unworthy members; he ejected two hundred senators,
and also raised the senatorial census; but where a worthy senator's property did
not come up to the new standard, he very liberally made it up out of his own means.
He raised many plebeian families to the rank of patricians; and as he had a predilection
for ancient, especially religious, institutions, he restored several temples which
had fallen into decay, and also built new ones. The keeping of the aerarium was
transferred from the quaestors to the praetors and ex-praetors. After having introduced
these and many other useful changes, he proposed in the senate to lay down his
powers, but allowed himself to be prevailed upon to remain at the head of affairs
for ten years longer. This plan was afterwards repeated several times, and he
apparently allowed himself to be always persuaded to retain his power either for
ten or five years longer. He next made a division of the provinces, leaving the
quiet and peaceful ones to the senate, and retaining for himself those which required
the presence of an army. The administration of the former was given every year
by the senate to proconsuls, while Augustus placed the others under legati Caesaris,
sometimes also called propraetores, whom he appointed at any time he pleased.
He declined all honours and distinctions which were calculated to remind the Romans
of kingly power; he preferred allowing the republican forms to continue, in order
that he might imperceptibly concentrate in his own person all the powers which
had hitherto been separated. He accepted, however, the name of Augustus, which
was offered to him on the proposal of L. Munatius Plancus. In B. C. 23 he entered
upon his eleventh consulship, but laid it down immediately afterwards ; and, after
having also declined the dictatorship, which was offered him by the senate, he
accepted the imperium proconsulare and the tribunitia potestas for life, by which
his inviolability was legally established, while by the imperium proconsulare
he became the highest authority in all the Roman provinces. When in B. C. 12 Lepidus,
the pontifex maximus, died, Augustus, on whom the title of chief pontiff had been
conferred on a former occasion, entered upon the office itself. Thus he became
the high priest of the state, and obtained the highest influence over all the
other colleges of priests. Although he had thus united in his own person all the
great offices of state, yet he was too prudent to assume exclusively the titles
of all of them, or to shew to the Romans that he was the sole master. Other persons
were accordingly allowed to hold the consulship, praetorship, and other public
offices; but these offices were in reality mere forms and titles, like the new
offices which he created to reward his friends and partisans. Augustus assumed
nothing of the outward appearance of a monarch : he retained the simple mode of
living of an ordinary citizen, continued his familiar intimacy with his friends,
and appeared in public without any pomp or pageantry; a kingly court, in our sense
of the word, did not exist at all in the reign of Augustus.
His relation to the senate was at first rather undefined: in B. C.
28 he had been made princeps senatus, but in the beginning of the year 24 he was
exempted by the senate from all the laws of the state. During the latter years
of his life, Augustus seldom attended the meetings of the senate, but formed a
sort of privy council, consisting of twenty senators, with whom he discussed the
most important political matters. Augustus had no ministers, in our sense of the
word; but on state matters, which he did not choose to be discussed in public,
he consulted his personal friends, C. Cilnius Maecenas, M. Vipsanius Agrippa,
M. Valerius Messalla Corvinus, and Asinius Pollio, all of whom contributed, each
in his way, to increase the splendour of the capital and the welfare of the empire.
The people retained their republican privileges, though they were mere forms :
they still met in their assemblies, and elected consuls and other magistrates;
but only such persons were elected as had been proposed or recommended by the
emperor. The almost uninterrupted festivities, games, and distributions of corn,
and the like, made the people forget the substance of their republican freedom
; and they were ready to serve him who fed them most liberally: the population
of the city was then little better than a mob.
It was a necessary consequence of the dominion acquired by force of
arms, that standing armies (castra stativa) were kept on the frontiers of the
empire, as on the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates, which in many instances
became the foundations of flourishing towns. The veterans were distributed into
a number of colonies. For the protection of his own person, Augustus established
ten praetorian cohorts, consisting of one thousand men each, which were placed
under the command of two equites with the title of praefecti praetorio. For the
purpose of maintaining order and security in the city, he instituted a sort of
police, under the name of cohortes urbanae, which were under the command of the
praefectus urbi. The fleets were stationed at Ravenna, Misenum, and in various
ports of the provinces. In the division of the provinces which Augustus had made
in B. C. 27, especial regulations were made to secure strict justice in their
administration; in consequence of which many, especially those which were not
oppressed by armies, enjoyed a period of great prosperity. Egypt was governed
in a manner different from that of all other provinces. The division of the provinces
was necessarily followed by a change in the administration of the finances, which
were in a bad condition, partly in consequence of the civil wars, and partly through
all the domain lands in Italy having been assigned to the veterans. The system
of taxation was revised, and the taxes increased. The aerarium, out of which the
senate defrayed the public expenses, was separated from the fiscus, the funds
of the emperor, out of which he paid his armies.
Augustus enacted several laws to improve the moral condition of the
Romans, and to secure the public peace and safety. Thus he made several regulations
to prevent the recurrence of scarcity and famine, promoted industry, and constructed
roads and other works of public utility. The large sums of money which were put
into circulation revived commerce and industry, from which the eastern provinces
especially and Egypt derived great advantages.
Although Augustus, who must have been startled and frightened by the
murder of Caesar, treated the Romans with the utmost caution and mildness, and
endeavoured to keep out of sight every thing that might shew him in the light
of a sovereign, yet several conspiracies against his life reminded him that there
were still persons of a republican spirit. It will be sufficient here to mention
the names of the leaders of these conspiracies -M. Lepidus, L. Murena, Fannius
Caepio, and Cornelius Cinna, who are treated of in separate articles.
After this brief sketch of the internal affairs of the Roman empire
during the reign of Augustus, it only remains to give some account of the wars
in which he himself took part. Most of them were conducted by his friends and
relations, and need not be noticed here. On the whole, we may remark, that the
wars of the reign ot Augustus were not wars of aggression, but chiefly undertaken
to secure the Roman dominion and to protect the frontiers, which were now more
exposed than before to the hostile inroads of barbarians. In B. C. 27, Augustus
sent M. Crassus to check the incursions of the Dacians, Bastarnians, and Moesians
on the Danube; and, in the same year, he himself went to Gaul and Spain, and began
the conquest of the warlike Cantabri and Asturii, whose subjugation, however,
was not completed till B. C. 19 by Agrippa. During this campaign Augustus founded
several towns for his veterans, such as Augusta Emerita and Caesar Augusta. In
B. C. 21 Augustus travelled through Sicily and Greece, and spent the winter following
at Samos. After this, he went to Syria at the invitation of Tiridates, who had
been expelled from his kingdom of Parthia. The ruling king, Phraates, for fear
of the Romans, sent back the standards and prisoners which had been taken from
Crassus and Antony. Towards the end of the year 20, Augustus returned to Samos,
to spend the approaching winter there. Here ambassadors from India appeared before
him, with presents from their king, Pandion, to confirm the friendship which had
been sought on a former occasion. In the autumn of B. C. 19, he returned to Rome,
where new honours and distinctions were conferred upon him. His vanity was so
much gratified at these bloodless victories which he had obtained in Syria and
Samos, that he struck medals to commemorate them, and afterwards dedicated the
standards which he had received from Phraates in the new temple of Mars Ultor.
In B. C. 18, the imperium of Augustus was prolonged for five years, and about
the same time he increased the number of senators to 600. The wars in Armenia,
in the Alps, and on the Lower Rhine, were conducted by his generals with varying
success. In B. C. 16 the Romans suffered a defeat on the Lower Rhine by some German
tribes; and Augustus, who thought the danger greater than it really was, went
himself to Gaul, and spent two years there, to regulate the government of that
province, and to make the necessary preparations for defending it against the
Germans. In B. C. 13 he returned to Rome, leaving the protection of the frontier
on the Rhine to his step-son, Drusus Nero. In B. C. 9 he again went to Gaul, where
he received German ambassadors, who sued for peace; but he treacherously detained
them, and distributed them in the towns of Gaul, where they put an end to their
lives in despair. Towards the end of this year, he returned to Rome with Tiberius
and Drusus. From this time forward, Augustus does not appear to have again taken
any active part in the wars that were carried on. Those in Germany were the most
formidable, and lasted longer than the reign of Augustus.
In A. D. 13, Augustus, who had then reached his 75th year, again undertook
the government of the empire for ten years longer; but he threw some part of the
burden upon his adopted son and successor, Tiberius, by making him his colleague.
In the year following, A. D. 14, Tiberius was to undertake a campaign in Illyricum,
and Augustus, though he was bowed down by old age, by domestic misfortunes and
cares of every kind, accompanied him as far as Naples. On his return, he was taken
ill at Nola, and died there on the 29th of August, A. D. 14, at the age of 76.
When he felt his end approaching, he is said to have asked his friends who were
present whether he had not acted his part well. He died very gently in the arms
of his wife, Livia, who kept the event secret, until Tiberius had returned to
Nola, where he was immediately saluted as the successor of Augustus. The body
of the emperor was carried by the decuriones of Nola to Bovillae, where it was
received by the Roman equites and conveyed to Rome. The solemn apotheosis took
place in the Campus Martius, and his ashes were deposited in the mausoleum which
he himself had built.
As regards the domestic life of Augustus, he was one of those unhappy
men whom fortune surrounds with all her outward splendour, and who can yet partake
but little of the general happiness which they establish or promote. His domestic
misfortunes must have embittered all his enjoyments. Augustus was a man of great
caution and moderation -two qualities by which he maintained his power over the
Roman world; but in his matrimonial relations and as a father he was not happy,
chiefly through his own fault. He was first married, though only nominally, to
Clodia, a daughter of Clodius and Fulvia. His second wife, Scribonia, was a relation
of Sext. Pompeius: she bore him his only daughter, Julia. After he had divorced
Scribonia, he married Livia Drusilla, who was carried away from her husband, Tiberius
Nero, in a state of pregnancy. She brought Augustus two step-sons, Tiberius Nero
and Nero Claudius Drusus. She secured the love and attachment of her husband to
the last moments of his life. Augustus had at first fixed on M. Marcellus as his
successor, the son of his sister Octavia, who was married to his daughter, Julia.
Agrippa, jealous of Augustus' partiality for him, left Rome, and did not return
till Marcellus had died in the flower of his life. Julia was now compelled by
her father to marry the aged Agrippa, and her sons, Caius and Lucius Caesar, were
raised to the dignity of principes juventutis. At the death of Agrippa, in B.
C. 12, Tiberius was obliged to divorce his wife, Vipsania, and, contrary to his
own will, to marry Julia. Dissatisfied with her conduct and the elevation of her
sons, he went, in B. C. 6, to Rhodes, where he spent eight years, to avoid living
with Julia. Augustus, who became at last disgusted with her conduct, sent her
in B. C. 2 into exile in the island of Pandataria, near the coast of Campania,
whither she was followed by her mother, Scribonia. The children of Julia, Julia
the Younger and Agrippa Postumus, were likewise banished. The grief of Augustus
was increased by the deaths of his friend Maecenas, in B. C. 8, and of his two
grandsons, Caius and Lucius Caesar, who are said to have fallen victims to the
ambitious designs of Livia, who wished to make room for her own son, Tiberius,
whom the deluded emperor was persuaded to adopt and to make his colleague and
successor. Tiberius, in return, was obliged to adopt Drusus Germanicus, the son
of his late brother, Drusus. A more complete view of the family of Augustus is
given in the annexed stemma.
Our space does not allow us here to enter into a critical examination
of the character of Augustus: what he did is recorded in history, and public opinion
in his own time praised him for it as an excellent prince and statesman; the investigation
of the hidden motives of his actions is such a delicate subject, that both ancient
and modern writers have advanced the most opposite opinions, and both supported
by strong arguments. The main difficulty lies in the question, whether his government
was the fruit of his honest intentions and wishes, or whether it was merely a
means of satisfying his own ambition and love of dominion; in other words, whether
he was a straightforward and honest man, or a most consummate hypocrite. Thus
much is certain, that his reign was a period of happiness for Italy and the provinces,
and that it removed the causes of future civil wars. Previous to the victory of
Actium his character is less a matter of doubt, and there we find sufficient proofs
of his cruelty, selfishness, and faithlessness towards his friends. He has sometimes
been charged with cowardice, but, so far as military courage is concerned, the
charge is unfounded.
(The principal ancient sources concerning the life and reign of Augustus
are: Sueton. Augustus; Nicolaus Damasc. De Vita Augusti; Dion Cass. xlv.-lvi.;
Tacitus, Annal. i.; Cicero's Epistles and Philippics; Vell. Pat. ii. 59-124; Plut.
Antonius. Besides the numerous modern works on the History of Rome, we refer especially
to A. Weichert, Imperatoris Caesaris Augusti Scriptorum Reliquiae, Fasc. i., Grimae,
1841, which contains an excellent account of the youth of Augustus and his education;
Drumann, Geschichte Roms, vol. iv., who treats of his history down to the battle
of Actium; Loebell, Ucber das Principat des Augustus, in Raumer's Historisches
Taschenbuch, Jahrgang, 1834; Karl Hoeck)
Tiberius I., emperor of Rome, A. D. 14-37. His full name was Tiberius Claudius Nero Ceasar.
He was the son of T. Claudius Nero and of Livia, and was born on the 16th of November,
B. C. 42, before his mother married Augustus. Tiberius was tall and strongly made,
and his health was very good. His face was handsome, and his eves were large.
He was carefully educated according to the fashion of the day, and became well
acquainted with Greek and Latin literature. He possessed talent both as a speaker
and writer, but he was fond of employing himself on trivial subjects, such as
at that time were comprehended under the term Grammar (grammatica). His master
in rhetoric was Theodorus of Gadara. He was a great purist, and affected a wonderful
precision about words, to which he often paid more attention than to the matter.
Though not without military courage, as his life shows, he had a great timidity
of character, and was of a jealous and suspicious temper; and these qualities
rendered him cruel after he had acquired power. He had more penetration than decision
of character, and he was often irresolute (Tac. Ann. i. 80). From his youth he
was of an unsociable disposition, melancholy and reserved, and this character
developed itself more as he grew older. He had no sympathies nor affections, was
indifferent about pleasing or giving pain to others : he had all the elements
of cruelty; suspicion nourished his implacable temper, and power gave him the
opportunity of gratifying his long nourished schemes of vengeance. In the latter
years of his life, particularly, life indulged his lustful propensities in every
way that a depraved imagination could suggest : lust and cruelty are not strangers.
It is said, too, that he was addicted to excess in wine: he was not originally
avaricious, but he became so. He affected a regard to decency and to externals.
He was the prince of hypocrites; and the events of his reign are little more than
the exhibition of his detestable character.
Tiberius was about thirteen years of age when he accompanied Augustus
in his triumphal entry into Rome (B. C. 29) after the death of M. Antonius: Tiberius
rode on the left of Augustus and Mareellus on his right. Augustus conferred on
Tiberius and his brother Drusus titles of dignity, while his grandsons, Caius
and Lucius, were still living : but besides Caius and Lucius, Marcellus, the nephew
of Augustus had superior claims to the succession, and the prospect of Tiberius
sueceeding to the power of his mother's husband seemed at one time very remote.
The death of Agrippa made way for Tiberius being employed in public affairs, and
Augustus compelled him, much against his will, to divorce his wife Vipsania Agrippina,
the daughter of Agrippa, by whom he had one son, and who was then pregnant, and
to marry Julia (B. C. 11), the widow of Agrippa, and the emperor's daughter, with
whom Tiberitius did not long live in harmony. He had one child by Julia, but it
did not live.
He was employed on various military services during the lifetime of
Augustus. He made his first campaign in the Cantabrian war as Tribunus Militum.
In B. C. 20 he was sent by Augustus to restore Tigranes to the throne of Armenia.
Artabazus, the occupant of the throne, was murdered before Tiberius reached Armenia,
and Tiberius had no difficulty in accomplishing his mission (Dion Cass. liv. 9).
It was during this campaign that Horace addressed one of his epistles to Julius
Florus (i. 12), who was serving under Tiberius. In B. C. 15, Drusus and his brother
Tiberius were engaged in warfare with the Rhaeti, who occupied the Alps of Tridentum
(Trento), and the exploits of the two brothers were sung by Horace (Carm. iv.
4, 14; Dion Cass. liv. 22). In B. C. 13 Tiberius was consul with P. Quintilius
Varus. In B. C. 11, the same year in which he married Julia, and while his brother
Drusus was fighting against the Germans, Tiberius left his new wife to conduct,
by the order of Augustus, the war against the Dalmatians who had revolted, and
against the Pannonians (Dion Cass liv. 31). Drusus died (B. C. 9) owing to a fall
from his horse, after a campaign against the Germans between the Weser and the
Elbe. On the news of the accident, Tiberius was sent by Augustus, who was then
at Pavia, to Drusus, whom he found just alive (Dion Cass. lv. 2). He conveyed
the body to Rome from the banks of the Rhine, walking all the way before it on
foot (Sueton. Tiber. 7), and he pronounced a funeral oration over his brother
in the forum. Tiberius returned to the war in Germany, and crossed the Rhine.
In B. C. 7 he was again in Rome, was made consul a second time, and celebrated
his second triumph (Vell. Pat. ii. 97).
In B. C. 6 he obtained the tribunitia potestas for five years, but
during this year he retired with the emperor's permission to Rhodes, where he
spent the next seven years. Tacitus (Ann. i. 53) says that his chief reason for
leaving Rome was to get away from his wife, who treated him with contempt, and
whose licentious life was no secret to her husband : probably, too, he was unwilling
to stay at Rome when the grandsons of Augustus were attaining years of maturity,
for there was mutual jealousy between them and Tiberius. During his residence
at Rhodes, Tiberius, among other things, employed himself on astrology, and he
was one of the dupes of this supposed science. His chief master in this art was
Thrasyllus, who predicted that he would be emperor (Tacit. Ann. vi. 21). Augustus
had not been very ready to allow Tiberius to retire to Rhodes, and he was not
willing to let him come back; but, at the instance of Caius Caesar, Tiberius was
allowed to return, A. D. 2. He was relieved from one trouble during his absence,
for his wife Julia was banished to the island of Pandataria (B. C. 2), and he
never saw her again (Dion Cass. lv. 10). Suetonius says that Tiberius, by letter,
entreated the emperor to let Julia keep whatever he had given her.
Tiberius was employed in public affairs until the death of L. Caesar
(A. D. 2). which was followed by the death of C. Caesar (A. D. 4). Augustus, now
being without a successor of his own blood, adopted Tiberius, tile son of his
wife Livia, with the view of leaving to him the power that he had himself acquired;
and at the same time he required Tiberius to adopt Germanicus, the son of his
brother Drusus, though Tiberius had a son Drusus by his wife Vipsania (Sueton.
Tiber. 15 ; Vell. Pat. ii. 103). Augustus was not ignorant of the character of
Tiberius, but, like others in power, he left it to a man whom he did not like,
and could not esteem, rather than allow it to go out of his family. Augustus had
indeed adopted Postumus Agrippa, the brother of C. and L. Caesares, but there
was nothing to hope for from him; and Germanicus was too young to be adopted by
Augustus with a view to the direct succession.
From the year of his adoption to the death of Augustus, A. D. 14,
Tiberius was in command of the Roman armies, though he visited Rome several times.
He was sent into Germany A. D. 4, and the historian Velleius Paterculus accompanied
him as praefectus equitum. Tiberius reduced all Illyricumn to subjection A. D.
9; and in A. D. 12 he had the honour of a triumph at Rome for his German and Dalmatian
victories. Tiberius displayed military talent during his transalpine campaigns
; he maintained discipline in his army, and took care of the comforts of his soldiers.
In A. D. 14 Augustius held his last census, in which he had Tiberius for his colleague.
Tiberius being sent to settle the affairs of Illyricum, Augustus accompanied
him as far as Beneventum, but as the emperor was on his way back to Rome he died
at Nola, on the 19th of Autgust, A. D. 14. Tiberius was immediately summoned home
by his mother Livia, who managed affairs so as to secure the power to her son,
so far as such precaution was necessary. If nothing more had been known of Tiberius
than his conduct during the lifetime of the emperor, he might have descended to
posterity with no worse character than many other Romans. His accession to power
developed all tile qualities which were not unknown to those who were acquainted
with him, but which hitherto had not been allowed their full play. He took the
power which nobody was prepared to dispute with him, affecting all the while a
great reluctance; and lite declined the name of Pater Patriae, and only took that
of Augustus when he wrote to foreign princes. He began his reign by putting Postumus
Agrippa to death, and he alleged that it was done pursuant to the command of Augustus
(Tacit. Ann. i. 6).
His conduct in other respects was marked by moderation and prudence;
he rejected all flattery from the senate; he conferred offices according to merit,
and he allowed persons to grow old in them. He endeavored to relieve the scarcity
of bread, a kind of complaint at Rome, which occurred at intervals, notwithstanding,
and perhaps, in consequence of, the efforts of the government to secure a supply
of food for the city. His mode of life was frugal, and without ostentatious display,
and there was little to find fault with in him (Dion Cass. lvii. 2, &c.). He had
got rid of Agrippa, who was the nearest rival, and who, if he had possessed merit,
would have seemed to have a better title to the imperial power than Tiberius,
for he was the son of Julia. Germanicus was the son of his younger brother, and
had a less direct claim than Tiberius ; but Tiberius feared the virtues and the
popularity of Germanicus, and so long as he felt that Germanicus might be a rival,
his conduct was exceedingly circumspect (Tacit. Ann. i. 14, 15). When he felt
himself sure in his place, he began to exercise his craft. He took from the popular
assembly the election of the magistrates, and transferred it to the senate, for
this is what Tacitus means in the passage of the Annals just referred to: the
popular assembly still enacted laws, though the consulta of the senate were the
ordinary form of legislation front the time of the accession of Tiberius. The
emperor limited himself to the recommendation of four candidates annually to the
senate, who of course were elected; and he allowed the senate to choose the rest.
He also nominated the consuls.
The news of the death of Augustus roused a mutiny among the legions
in Pannonia, which was quelled by Drusus, the son of Tiberius, aided by the terrors
of an eclipse which happened very opportunely (27th September, A. D. 14). The
armies on the Rhine under Germanicus showed a disposition to reject Tiberius,
and a mutinous spirit, and if Germanicus had been inclined to try the fortune
of a campaign, he might have had the assistance of the German armies against his
uncle. But Germanicus restored discipline to the army by his firmness, and maintained
his fidelity to the new emperor. Tiberius, however, was not yet free from his
fears, and he looked with suspicion on Germanicus and his high-spirited wife Agrippina,
who was also disliked by Livia, the mother of Tiberius. Tile first year of his
reign was marked by the death of Julia, whom Augustus had removed from Pandataria
to Rhegisum; her husband deprived her of the allowance that she had from her father,
and allowed her to pine away in destitution. One of her lovers, Semipronius Gracchus,
who was living in exile in a small island on the coast of Africa, was by the order
of Tiberius put to death (Tacit. Ann. i. 53).
Germanicus (A. D. 15) continued the Germanic war, though with no important
results, but Agrippina's courage on a trying occasion aroused the emperor's fears,
and he had now a man about him, Sejanus, who worked on the emperor's suspicious
temper for his own sinister purposes. It became common at this time to listen
to informations of treason or laesa majestas against the emperor; and persons
were accused not of acts only, but words, and even the most indifferent matters
were made the ground of such charges. Thus was established a pestilent class of
men, under the name of Delatores, who became a terrible means of injustice and
oppression (Tacit. Ann. i. 73), and enriched themselves at the expense of their
victims by encouraging the cruel suspicions of the emperor. In the lifetime of
Augustus, Tiberius had urged the emperor to punish those who spoke disrespectfully
of the emperor, but his more prudent step-father, content with real power and
security, allowed the Romans to indulge their taste for satire and pasquinades.
(Sueton. Aug. c. 51.) Tiberius followed this wise advice for a time, and made
great profession of allowing liberty of speech, but his real temper at last prevailed,
and the slightest pretence was sufficient to found a charge of laesa majestas
(Sueton. Tiber. c. 28). He paid unwillingly and tardily the legacies left by Augustus
to the people, and he began his payment with an act of cruelty, which was not
the better for being seasoned with humour (Sueton. Tiber. c. 57; Dion Cass. lvii.
14, tells the same story).
Vonones, the son of Phraates, once a hostage at Rome, had been invited
back to his Parthian kingdom in the time of Augustus, but Artabanus of the royal
house of the Arsacidae drove him out (A. D. 16), and he sought refuge in Armenia,
which being then without a king accepted Vonones. The new king however was unable
to maintain himself against a threatened attack of Artabanus. Tiberius did not
wish to get into a quarrel with Artabanus, by giving Vonones aid, and the exiled
king took refuge with Creticus Silanus, governor of Syria. (Tacit. Ann. ii. 12.)
Germanicus was carrying on the war with success in Germany, and Tiberius, who
had long been jealous of his rising fame, recalled him to Rome under the pretext
of giving him a triumph. It seems somewhat inconsistent that Tiberius who was
addicted to astrology and divination should have allowed this class of imposters
to be banished from Italy (Tacit. Ann. ii 32); this, however, was one of the events
of this year.
Germanicus enjoyed (26th of May A. D. 17) the triumph which had been
decreed. Tiberius added to the Roman empire the kingdom of Cappadocia, the last
king of which, Archelaus, had been summoned to Rome, and died there, probably
of old age and grief combined, after being accused of some frivolous matters before
the senate. Tiberius was enabled by the produce of the new province to reduce
the tax of one per cent. on auctions to one half per cent (Tacit. Ann. ii. 42).
The state of affairs in the East, where the kingdoms of Commagene and Cilicia
were disturbed by civil dissensions and Syria and Judaea were uneasy at the weight
of taxation, gave Tiberius an opportunity of removing Germnanicus from Rome by
conferring on him by a decree of the senate the government of the East. Drusus,
the son of Tiberius, was sent into Illyricum. This year is memorable for the great
earthquake in Asia, the greatest on record at the time when it happened, and the
more destructive from having happened by night. Twelve cities were damaged or
destroyed, the earth opened and swallowed up the living, and even southern Italy
and Sicily felt the terrific shock. Sardes suffered the most of the twelve cities.
The emperor alleviated the calamity by his bounty, and in the case of Sardes by
a remission of all payment to the aerarium or fiscus for five years. It is just
to commemorate his refusal to take testamentary bequests, when not made by persons
who were on terms of intimacy with him; but the emperor did not want money, nor
yet prudence; and it was not prudent to be taking money from every body, even
those of no character. In this year died Titus Livius, the historian, and Ovid
in his exile at Tomi.
Germanicus restored quiet to Armenia (A. D. 18) by crowning with his
own hands Artaxias as king in the city of Artaxata. His administration of the
East was prudent and successful, hut he died in Syria A. D. 19, and the dislike
of Tiberius and the enmity of Cn. Piso, the governor of Syria, gave credibility
to the report that Germanicus was poisoned. About this time Maroboduus, king of
the Suevi, being driven front his states by Roman intrigues, crossed the Danube,
came to Italy and settled at Ravenna. A Thracian king Rhescuporis, who had murdered
his nephew Cotys, who was king of part of Thrace, wrote to Tiberius to inform
him that Cotys had been punished for his treachery. Tiberius artfully got Rhescuporis
into his power, and had him brought to Rome, where he was convicted by the senate,
and Thrace was divided between the son of Rhescuporis and the children of Cotys
(Tacit. Ann. ii. 64).
A regard to external decency was one of the characteristics of the
reign of Tiberius, and a decree of the senate was made against certain classes
of women who professed the occupation of courtezans (Sueton. Tiber. c. 35; Tacit.
Ann. ii. 85). But religious tolerance was not one of the merits of the time of
Tiberius; a senatus consultum imposed penalties on those who practised the ceremonial
of the Egyptian or Jewish worship, though this was not the first example of the
kind of intolerance at Rome (Tacit. Ann. ii. 85; compare Seneca, Ep. 108). This
year was memorable for the appearance of a new island above the sea near Delos
(Plin. Hist. Nat. ii. 87).
In the spring of A. D. 20 Agrippina landed at Brundisium with the
ashes of her husband. The remains of Germanicus received a public interment, but
Tiberius and Livia did not show themselves, for which Tacitus assigns a reason,
which may be true or false (Ann. iii. 3). Piso, who came to Rome, was accused
before the senate of having taken the life of Germanicus. There was strong suspicion,
but little or no proof; yet Piso, seeing that Tiberius gave him no support, released
himself by a voluntary death, or was put to death by order of Tiberius. His wife
Plancina, who was guilty if her husband was, escaped through the influence of
Livia. There is certainly strong reason to believe that in this matter of the
death of Germanicus as well as of Piso, Tiberius was guilty (Tacit. Ann. iii.
16), though Tacitus does not pronounce a positive opinion. Tiberius gave Julia,
the daughter of his son Drusus, in marriage to Nero, the eldest son of Germanicus,
which was a popular measure. He also moderated the penalties which the Lex Papia,
passed in the time of Augustus, imposed on unmarried persons, with the double
purpose of encouraging matrimony and filling the aerarium (Tacit. Ann. iii. 25).
The year A. D. 21 was the fourth consulship of Tiberius, and the second
of his son Drusus Caesar, but it was considered a bad omen for Drusus, because
all those who had been his father's colleagues in the consulship had come to a
violent death. A great revolt broke out this year headed by Julius Florus, at
Treves on the Mosel, and by Julius Sacrovir, among the Aedui. The alleged grounds
of the revolt were the heavy taxation, and the oppression of the Roman governors.
Sacrovir mustered forty thousand men at Autun (Augustodunum), eight thousand of
whom were furnished with the arms of the legionary soldiers, which had been secretly
fabricated. and the rest had staves, knives, and other implements of the huntsman.
The rising was not unlike the style of insurrection that has often shown itself
in France since 1789. The rebellion was put down; and Florus and Sacrovir only
escaped from the Romans by dying by their own hands (Tacit. Ann. iii. 40).
The principle of treason against the princeps (laesa majestas) was
already established under Tiberius in its utmost extent, for C. Lutorius Priscus
was condemned by the senate for having written a poem upon the death of Drusus,
in anticipation of the event, Drusus being then very ill. The senate seem to have
proceeded in the mode of a bill of pains and penalties, for there does not appear
to have been any law applicable to such a case. Priscus was executed, and Tiberius,
in his usual perplexed mode of expression, blamed the senate; he praised their
affectionate zeal in avenging insults to the princeps, but he disapproved of such
hasty penalties being inflicted for words only (Tacit. Ann. iii. 49). It was on
this occasion that a senatus consultum was enacted, that no decree of the senate
should be carried to the Aerarium before the tenth day, and thus a reprieve of
so many days would be allowed to the condemned (Tacit. Ann. iii. 51; Dion Cass.
lvii. 20). In the vear A. D. 22 the senate conferred on Drusus, at the request
of Tiberius, the Tribunitia Potestas, the highest title of dignity, and an intimation
that Drusus was to be the successor of Tiberius. Though the senate had conferred
the honour in terms of great adulation, Drusus. who appears to have been in Campania
at the time, did not think it worth while to come to Rome to thank them (Tacit.
Ann. iii. 59). Tacfarinas, an African chieftain, had long troubled the province
of Africa, and Junins Blaesas was sent as proconsul, with orders to catch him
; but it was no easy thing to take this wandering robber, and Blaesus only seized
his brother. Tiberius allowed the soldiers to salute Blaesus with the title of
Imperator, and he was the last Roman citizen, except the emperors, who enjoyed
this ancient distinction (Tacit. Ann. iii. 74).
In A. D. 23 Drusus, the son of Tiberius, died, Being poisoned by the
contrivance of Sejanus . His death was no loss to the state, for he gave indications
of a character in no respect better than that of his father; yet he had lived
on good terms with Germanicus, and after his death he had behaved well to his
children, or at least had not displayed any hostility towards them. The emperor
either did not feel much sorrow for the death of his son or he concealed it; and
when the people of Ilium some time after sent him a message of condolence, he
returned the compliment by condoling with them on the death of their fellowcitizen
Hector (Sueton. Tiber. c. 52). It was remarked that the influence of Sejanus over
Tiberius increased after the death of Drusus, and Tiherius began to display the
vices of his character more and more. The same was remarked also after the death
of Germanicus, and again when his mother Livia died. Tiberius allowed the cities
of Asia to erect a temple to himself and his mother at Smyrna, the first instance
of this flattery which he had permitted. But when the province of Hispania Ulterior
asked permission to do the same thing, the emperor refused, and stated his reason
in an oration to the senate, which is characterised by modesty and good sense.
This singular man had a sound judgment, and if we formed our opinion of him from
his words only, we should place him among the wisest and best of the Roman emperors.
His measures too were often prudent and beneficial ; and yet such was his insincerity,
that we can hardly know when to give him credit even for a good action.
Tacfarinas, who had given the Romans so much trouble, was at last
defeated and killed by the proconsul P. Cornelius Dolabella (A. D. 24); but Dolabella
did not obtain the triumphal honours, though with inferior forces he had accomplished
that which his predecessors had in vain attempted: this was owing to the influence
of Sejanus, who was unwilling that the glories of his uncle Blaesus should be
eclipsed by honours conferred on Dolabella. The system of delations was now in
full activity, and Rome witnessed the scandalous spectacle of a son accusing his
father, Q. Vibius Serenus, of a conspiracy against the emperor, without being
able to prove any thing against him. The abject senate condemned Serenus to death,
but Tiberius used his tribunitian power to prevent the execution of the capital
sentence, and the man against whom nothing could be proved even by putting his
slaves to the torture, was banished to the island of Amorgus. Caecilius Cornutus,
who had been charged with being an accomplice of Serenus, committed suicide. On
this occasion a motion was made in the senate for giving no reward to informers,
if the person accused of treason should die by his own hand before sentence was
pronounced; but Tiberius, seeing that this would weaken one of his engines of
state-craft, in harsh terms, and contrary to his practice, openly maintained the
cause of the informers; such a measure as the senate proposed would, he said,
render the laws ineffectual and put the state in jeopardy; they had better subvert
all law than deprive the law of its guardians. Tiberius, always fearing enemies,
thought his safety consisted in encouraging informers; here he spoke out fairly.
and revealed one of his secrets of governing. Cremutius Cordus had written Annals,
in which he had commended Brutus and Cassius: he was accused, and as he had made
up his mind to die, he spoke boldly in his defence. After going out of the senate
house he starved himself to death; the senate ordered the aediles to search for
his works and burn them, but all the copies were not discovered, and his Annals
were extant when Tacitus wrote (Ann. iv. 35).
In the year A. D. 26 Tiberius left Rome, and never returned, though
he care sometimes close to the walls of the city. He left on the pretext of dedicating
temples in Campania, but his real motives were his dislike to Rome, where he heard
a great deal that was disagreeable to him, and his wish to indulge his sensual
propensities in private. Sejanus may have contributed to this resolution of leaving
Rome, as it is said. but Tiberius still continued to reside out of Rome for six
years after the death of Sejanus (Tacit. Ann. iv. 57). A great accident happened
at Fidenae in the following year: a man named Atilius built a temporary amphitheatre,
for the exhibition of a show of gladiators, but being ill-constructed, it fell
down during the games, and twenty thousand people, it is said, were killed (Tacit.
Ann. iv. 62; compare Sueton. Tiber. 40). Atilius was banished. About this time
a great conflagration destroyed all the buildings on the Mons Caelius, and the
emperor liberally relieved the sufferers in proportion to their losses, a measure
which procured him the good-will of the people. His dislike of publicity was shown
during his residence in Campania, by an edict which commanded the people not to
disturb his retirement, and he prevented all assemblages of people by placing
soldiers in various posts. In order, however, to secure the retirement which he
loved, he went (A. D. 27) to the island of Capri (Capreae), which is about three
miles from the promontory of Surrento. This retreat was further recommended by
having an almost inaccessible coast. A poor fisherman, who had caught a large
mullet, with difficulty made his way up the rocks to present it to the emperor,
who rewarded him by ordering his face to be well rubbed with the fish (Sueton.
Tiber. c. 60).
The new year (A. D. 28) was opened with the death of Titus Sabinus,
a friend of Germanicus, whom Latinius Latiaris bad inveigled into very strong
expressions against Sejanus and Tiberius, while he had placed persons in secret
to be witnesses. The villains informed Tiberius of the words of Sabinus, and at
the same time of their own treachery. The emperor let the senate know his wishes,
and this servile body immediately put Sabinus to death, for which they received
the thanks of Tiberius (Tacit. Ann. iv. 68). In this year Tiberius married Agrippina,
a daughter of Germanicus, to Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, and the result of this
union was the emperor Nero. The death of Livia (A. D. 29), the emperor's mother,
released Tiberius from one cause of anxiety. He had long been tired of her, because
she wished to exercise authority, and one object in leaving Rome was to be out
of her way. He did not visit her in her last illness, nor come to the funeral,
being, as he said, overwhelmed with public affairs, he who neglected all important
affairs, and devoted himself to his solitary pleasures (Tacit. Ann. v. 2; Dion
Cass. lviii. 2). Livia's death gave Sejanus and Tiberius free scope, for Tiberius
never entirely released himself from a kind of subjection to his mother, and Sejanus
did not venture to attempt the overthrow of Livia's influence. The destruction
of Agrippina and her children was now the chief purpose of Sejanus, who had his
own ambitious projects to serve, as it is shown in his life; he finally got from
the tyrant the reward that was his just desert, an ignominious death.
In A. D. 32 Latinius Latiaris, the infamous accuser of Sabinus, was
executed. Cotta Messalinus, a notorious scoundrel, was accused before the senate.
but Tiberius wrote to them in his favour. This memorable letter (Tacit. Ann. iv.
6) began with an admission, the truth of which will not surprise any one; but
it is somewhat singular, that so profound a dissembler as Tiberius could not keep
to himself the consciousness of his own wretchedness: "What to write to you, P.
C., or how to write, I know not; and what not to write at this time, may all the
gods and goddesses torment me more, than I daily feel that I am suffering, if
I do know". This artful tyrant knew how to submit to what he could not hel : M.
Terentius was charged before the senate with being a friend of Sejanus, and he
boldly avowed it. His courage saved him from death, his accusers were punished,
and Tiberius approved of the acquittal of Terentius (Dion Cass. lviii. 19). The
emperor also prudently took no notice of an insult of the praetor L. Sejanus,
the object of which was to ridicule the emperor's person. Tiberius now left his
retreat for Campania, and he came as far as his gardens on the Vatican; but he
did not enter the city, and he placed soldiers to prevent any one coming near
him. Old age and debauchery had bent his body, and covered his face with ugly
blotches, which made him still more unwilling to show himself; and his taste for
obscene pleasures, which grew upon him, made him court solitude still more.
One of the consuls of the year A. D. 33 was Serv. Sulpicius Galba,
afterwards emperor. A great number of informers in this year pressed for the prosecution
of those who had lent money contrary to a law of the dictator Caesar. The Romans
never could understand that money must be treated as a commodity, and from the
time of the Twelve Tables they had always interfered with the free trade in money,
and without success. The law of Caesar was enforced, but as many of the senators
had violated it, eighteen months were allowed to persons to settle their affairs,
so as to bring them clear of the penalties of the lex. The consequence was great
confusion in the money market, as every creditor was pressing for payment, and
people were threatened with ruin by a forced sale of their property, to meet their
engagements. The emperor relieved this distress by loans of public money, on security
of land, and without interest (Tacit. Ann. vi. 17).
The death of Sex. Marius, once a friend of Tiberius, is given by Dion
Cassius (lviii. 22), as an example of the emperor's cruelty. Marius had a handsome
daughter, whom he removed to a distance, to save her from the lust of his imperial
friend. Upon this he was accused of incestuous commerce with his own daughter,
and put to death; and the emperor took possession of his gold mines, though they
had been declared public property. The prisons, which were filled with the friends
or supposed friends of Sejanus, were emptied by a general massacre of men, women,
and children, whose bodies were thrown into the Tiber.
About this time, when the emperor was returning to Capreae, he married
Claudia, the daughter of M. Silanus, to C. Caesar, the son of Germanicus, a youth
whose early years gave ample promise of what he would be and what he was, as the
emperor Caligula. Asinius Gallus, the son of Asinius Pollio, and the husband of
Vipsania, the divorced wife of Tiberius, died this year of hunger, either voluntarily
or by constraint. Drusus, the son of Germanicus, and his mother Agrippina, also
died at this time. The death of Agrippina brought on the death of Plancina, the
wife of Cn. Piso, for Livia being dead, who protected her, and Agrippina, who
was her enemy, there was now no reason why justice should not have its course;
yet it does not appear what evidence there was against her. Plancina escaped a
public execution by voluntary death (Tacit. Ann. vi. 26).
In the year A. D. 33 Jesus Christ suffered under Pontius Pilatus,
in Judaea.
It became the fashion in the time of Tiberius either for the accused
or the accuser to be punished; and there was perhaps justice in it at such a time.
Abudius Rufo made it a charge against L. Gaetulicus, under whom he had served,
that Gaetulicus had designed to give his daughter to the son of Sejanus, and Abudius
was banished from the city. Gaetulicus was at that time in command of the legions
in Upper Germany, and he is said to have written a letter to Tiberius, from which
the emperor might learn that a general at the head of an army, by whom he was
beloved, was not to be treated like a man who was within the walls of Rome.
Artaxias, whom Germanicus had placed on the throne of Armenia, was
now dead, and Artabanus, king of the Parthians, had put his eldest son, Arsaces,
on the throne. But Artabanus had enemies around him, who sent a secret message
to Rome to ask the emperor to send them Phraates for their king, whom his father
Phraates had given as a hostage to Augustus. Phraates was sent, but he died in
Syria, upon which Tiberius nominated Tiridates, who was of the same family, and
he sent L. Vitellius to direct affairs in the East (A. D. 35). It was the policy
of Tiberius to give employment to Artabanus by raising up enemies against him
at home, rather than by employing the arms of Rome against him.
Rome was still the scene of tragic occurrences. Vibulenus Agrippa,
who was accused before the senate, after his accusers had finished their charge
against him took poison in the senate-house, and fell down in the agonies of death;
yet he was dragged off to prison, and strangled though life was already extinct.
Tigranes, once king of Armenia, who was then at Rome, was also accused and put
to death. In the same year (A. D. 36) a conflagration at Rome destroyed a part
of the Circus contiguous to the Aventine hill, and the houses on the Aventine
also; but the emperor paid the owners of property to the full amount of their
losses.
Tiberius, now in his seventy-eighth year, had hitherto enjoyed good
health; and he was accustomed to laugh at physicians, and to ridicule those who,
after reaching the age of thirty, required the advice of a doctor to tell them
what was useful or injurious to their health (Tacit. Ann. vi. 46). But he was
now attacked with a slow disease, which seized him at Astura, whence he travelled
to Circeii, and thence to Misenum, to end his life in the villa of Lucullus. He
concealed his sufferings as much as he could, and went on eating and indulging
himself as usual. But Charicles, his physician, took the opportunity of feeling
the old man's pulse, and told those about him that he would not last two days.
No successor was yet appointed. Tiberius had a grandson, Tiberius Nero Gemellus,
who was only seventeen, and too young to direct affairs. Caius, the son of Germanicus,
was older and beloved by the people; but Tiberius did not like him. He thought
of Claudius, the brother of Germanicus, as a successor, but Claudius was too weak
of understanding. Accordingly, says Tacitus, he made no declaration of his will,
but left it to fate to determine his successor. Dion Cassius says (lviii. 23)
that he named C. Caligula, because he knew his bad disposition; but this is always
Dion's fashion. Suetonius (Tiber. c. 76) says that he made a will two years before
his death, in which he instituted Caius and Tiberius Gemellus his coheredes, with
mutual substitution; and this will might be a disposition of the empire as well
as of his private property. Caius had for some time employed all his artifices
to win the favour of the emperor, and also that of Macro, who was now allpowerful
with the emperor. It seems that Tiberius certainly did not like Caius, and if
he had lived longer, he would probably have put him to death, and given the empire
to his grandson.
On the sixteenth of March A. D. 37, Tiberius had a fainting fit, and
was supposed to be dead, on which Caius came forth and was saluted as emperor;
but he was alarmed by the intelligence that Tiberius had recovered and called
for something to eat. Caius was so frightened that he did not know what to do,
and was every moment expecting to be put to death; but Macro, with more presence
of mind, gave orders that a quantity of clothes should be thrown on Tiberius,
and that he should be left alone. Thus Tiberius ended his life. Suetonius, quoting
Seneca, gives a somewhat different account of his death. Tiberius reigned twenty-two
years, six months, and twenty-six days. His body was taken to Rome, and his funeral
ceremony was conducted with the usual pomp. His successor Caligula pronounced
the oration, but he spoke less of Tiberius than of Augustus, Germanicus, and himself.
Tiberius did not receive divine honours, like Augustus. Tacitus (Ann. vi. 51)
has given, in a few words, his character, the true nature of which was not fully
shown till he was released from all restraint. He was probably one of those men
who, in a private station, might have been as good as most men are, for it is
fortunate for mankind that few have the opportunity and the temptation which unlimited
power gives.
In the time of Tiberius lived Valerius Maximus, Velleius Paterculus,
Phaedrus, Fenestella, and Strabo; also the jurist Massurius Sabinus, M. Cocceius
Nerva, and others.
Tiberius wrote a brief commentary of his own life (Sueton. Tiber.
c. 61), the only book that the emperor Domitian studied: Suetonius made use of
it for his life of Tiberius. Suetonius also made use of various letters of Tiberius
to princes and others, and his Orationes to the senate. Tiberius made several
public orations, such as that on his father, delivered when he was nine years
old, but this we must assume to have been written by somebody else; the funeral
oration of Augustus; that on Maroboduus, delivered before the senate A. D. 19,
was extant when Tacitus wrote (Ann. ii. 63). Tiberius also wrote Greek poems,
and a lyric poem on the Death of L. Caesar. (Vell. Pat. ii. 94; Tacitus, Annales,
i.-vi.; Dion Cassius, lvii. lviii.; Suetonius, Tiberius)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Caligula, the third in the series of Roman emperors, reigned from A. D. 37 to A. D. 41.
His real name was Caius Caesar, and he received that of Caligula in the camp,
from caligae, the foot dress of the common soldiers, when he was yet a boy with
his father in Germany. As emperor, however, he was always called by his contemporaries
Caius, and he regarded the name of Caligula as an insult (Senec. De Constant.
18). He was the youngest son of Germanicus, the nephew of Tiberius, by Agrippina,
and was born on the 31st ot August, A. D. 12 (Suet. Cal. 8). The place of his
birth was a matter of doubt with the ancients; according to some, it was Tibur;
according to others, Treves on the Moselle; but Suetonius has proved from the
public documents of Antium that he was born at that town. His earliest years were
spent in the camp of his father in Germany, and he grew up among the soldiers,
with whom he became accordingly very popular (Tac. Annal. i. 41, 69; Suet. Cal.
9; Dion Cass. lvii. 5). Caligula also accompanied his father on his Syrian expedition,
and after his return first lived with his mother, and, when she was exiled, in
the house of Livia Augusta. When the latter died, Caligula, then a youth in his
sixteenth year, delivered the funeral oration upon her from the Rostra. After
this he lived some years with his grandmother, Antonia. Caligula, like his two
elder brothers, Nero and Drusus, was hated by Sejanus, but his favour with Tiberius
and his popularity as the son of Germanicus saved him (Dion Cass. lviii. 8).
After the fall of Sejanus in A. D. 32, when Caligula had just attained
his twentieth year Tiberius summoned him to come to Capreae. Here the young man
concealed so well his feelings at the injuries inflicted upon his mother and brothers,
as well as at the wrongs which he himself had suffered, that he did not utter
a sound of complaint, and behaved in such a submissive manner, that those who
witnessed his conduct declared, that there never was such a cringing slave to
so bad a master (Suet. Cal. 10; Tac. Annal. vi. 20). But his savage and voluptuous
character was nevertheless seen through by Tiberius. About the same time he married
Junia Claudilla (Claudia), the daughter of M. Silanus, an event which Dion Cassius
(lviii. 25) assigns to the year A. D. 35. Soon afterwards he obtained the quaestorship,
and on the death of his brother Drusus was made augur in his stead, having been
created pontiff two years before (Dion Cass. lviii. 8; Suet. Cal. 12).
After the death of his wife, in March A. D. 36, Caligula began seriously
to think in what manner he might secure the succession to himself, of which Tiberius
had held out hopes to him, without however deciding anything (Dion Cass. lviii.
23 ; Tac. Annal. vi. 45, &c.). In order to ensure his success, he seduced Ennia
Naevia, the wife of Macro, who had then the command of the praetorian cohorts.
He promised to marry her if He should succeed to the throne, and contrived to
gain the consent and co-operation of Macro also, who according to some accounts
introduced his wife to the embraces of the voluptuous youth (Suet. Cal. 12; Tac.
Annal. vi. 45; Dion Cass. lviii. 28). Tiberius died in March A. D. 37, and there
can be little doubt but that Caligula either caused or accelerated his death.
In aftertimes he often boasted of having attempted to murder Tiberius in order
to avenge the wrongs which his family had suffered from him. There were reports
that Caligula had administered to Tiberius a slow poison, or that he had withheld
from him tile necessary food during his illness, or lastly, that he had suffoeated
him with a pillow. Some again said, that he had been assisted by Macro, while
Tacitus (Ann d. vi. 50) mentions Macro alone as the guilty person (Suet. Tib.
73, Cal. 12; Dion Cass. lviii. 28). When the body of Tiberius was carried from
Misenum to Rome, Caligula accompanied it in the dress of a mourner, but he was
sainted by the people at Rome with the gretest enthusiasm as the son of Germanicus.
Tiberius in his will had apponted his grandson Tiberius as coheir to Caligula,
but the senate and the people gave the sovereign power to Caligula alone, in spite
of the regulations of Tiberius (Suet. Cal. 14; Dion Cass. lix. 1; comp. Joseph.
Ant. Jud. xviii. 6. 9). In regard to all other points, however, Caligula carried
the will of Tiberius into execution: he paid to the people and the soldiers the
sums which the late emperor had bequeathed to them, and even increased these legacies
by his own munificence. After having delivered the funeral oration upon Tiberius,
he immediately fulfilled the duty of piety towards his mother and his brother:
he had their ashes conveyed from Pandataria and the Pontian islands to Rome, and
deposited them in the Mausoleum with great solemnity. But notwithstanding the
feeling which prompted him to this act, he pardoned all those who had allowed
themselves to be used as instruments against the members of his family, and ordered
the documents which contained the evidence of their guilt to be burnt in the Forum.
Those who had been condemned to imprisonment by Tiberius were released, and those
who had been exiled were recalled to their country. He restored to the magistrates
their full power of jurisdiction without appeal to his person, and he also endeavoured
to revive the old character of the comitia by allowing the people to discuss and
decide the matters brought before them, as in former times. Towards foreign princes
who had been stripped of their power and their revenues by his predecessor, he
behaved with great generosity. Thus Agrippa, the grandson of Herod, who had been
put in chains by Tiberius, was released and restored to his kingdom, and Antiochus
IV. of Commagene received back his kingdom, which was increased by the maritime
district of Cilicia.
On the first of July A. D. 37, Caligula entered upon his first consulship
together with Claudius, his father's brother, and held the office for two months.
Soon after this he was seized by a serious illness in consequence of his irregular
mode of living. He was, indeed, restored to health, but from that moment appeared
an altered man. Hitherto the joy of the people at his accession seemed to be perfectly
justified by the justice and moderation he shewed during the first months of his
reign, but from henceforward he appears more like a diabolical than a human being--he
acts completely like a madman. A kind of savageness and gross voluptuousness had
always been prominent features in his character, but still we are not justified
in supposing, as many do, that he merely threw off the mask which had hitherto
concealed his real disposition ; it is much more probable that his illness destroyed
his mental powers, and thus let loose all the veiled passions of his soul, to
which he now yielded without exercising any control over them. Immediately after
his recovery he ordered Tiberius, the grandson of his predecessor, whom he had
raised before to the rank of princeps jurentutis, to be put to death on the pretext
of his having wished the emperor not to recover from his illness; and those of
his friends who had vowed their lives for his recovery, were now compelled to
carry their vow into effect by putting an end to their existence. He also commanded
several members of his own family, and among them his grandmother Antonia, Macro,
and his wife Ennia Naevia, to make away with themselves. His thirst for blood
seemed to increase with the number of his victims, and murdering soon ceased to
be the consequence of his hatred; it became a matter of pleasure and amusement
with him. Once during a public fight of wild beasts in the Circus, when there
were no more criminals to enter the arena, he ordered persons to be taken at random
from among the spectators, and to be thrown before the wild beasts, but that they
might not be able to cry out or curse their destroyer, he ordered their tongues
to be cut out. Often when he was taking his meals, he would order men to be tortured
to death before his eyes, that he might have the pleasure of witnessing their
agony. Once when, during a horse-race, the people were more favourably disposed
to one of his competitors than to himself, he is said to have exclaimed, "Would
that the whole Roman people had only one head".
But his cruelty was not greater than his voluptuousness and obscenity.
He carried on an incestuous intercourse with his own sisters, and when Drusilla,
the second of them, died, he raved like a madman with grief, and commanded her
to be worshipped as a divinity. No Roman lady was safe from his attacks, and his
marriages were as disgracefully contracted as they were ignominiously dissolved.
The only woman that exercised a lasting influence over him was Caesonia. A point
which still more sliews the disordered state of his brain is, that in his self-veneration
he went so far as to consider himself a god: he would appear in public sometimes
in the attire of Bacchus, Apollo, or Jupiter, and even of Venus and Diana; he
would frequently place himself in the temple of Castor and Pollux, between the
statues of these divinities, and order the people who entered the temple to worship
him. He even built a temple to himself as Jupiter Latiaris, and appointed priests
to attend to his worship and offer sacrifices to him. This temple contained his
statue in gold, of the size of life, and his statue was dressed precisely as he
was. The wealthiest Romans were appointed his priests, but they had to purchase
the honour with immense sums of money. lie sometimes officiated as his own priest,
making his horse Incitatus, which he afterwards raised to the consulshsip, his
colleague. No one but a complete madman would have been guilty of things like
these.
The sums of money which he squandered almost surpass belief. During
the first year of his reign he nearly drained tile treasury, although Tiberius
had left in it the sum of 720 millions of sesterces. One specimen may serve to
shew in what senseless manner he spent the money. That he might be able to boast
of having marched over the sea as over dry land, he ordered a bridge of boats
to be constructed across the channel between Baiae and Puteoli, a distance of
three Roman miles and six hundred paces. After it was covered with earth and houses
built upon it, he rode across it in triumph, and gave a splendid banquet on the
middle of the bridge. In order to amuse himself on this occasion in his usual
way, he ordered numbers of the spectators whom he had invited to be thrown into
the sea. As the regular revenues of the state were insufficient to supply him
with the means of such mad extravagance, he had recourse to robberies, public
sales of his estates, unheard-of taxes, and every species of extortion that could
be devised. In order that no means of getting money might remain untried, he established
a public brothel in his own palace, and sent out his servants to invite men of
all class to avail themselves of it. On the birth of his daughter by Caesonia,
lie regularly acted the part of a beggar in order to obtain money to rear her.
He also made known that he would receive presents on new year's day, and on the
first of January he posted himself in the vestibule of his palace, to accept the
presents that were brought him by crowds of people. Things like these gradually
engendered in him a love of money itself without any view to the ends it is to
serve, and he is said to have sometimes taken a delight in rolling himself in
heaps of gold. After Italy and Rome were exhausted by his extortions, his love
of money and his avarice compelled him to seek other resources. He turned his
eyes to Gaul, and under the pretence of a war against the Germans, he marched,
in A. D. 40, with an army to Gaul to extort money from the wealthy inhabitants
of that country. Executions were as frequent here as they had been before in Italy.
Lentulus Gaetulicus and Aemilius Lepidus were accused of having formed a conspiracy
and were put to death, and the two sisters of Caligula were sent into exile as
guilty of adultery and accomplices of the conspiracy. Ptolemaeus, the son of king
Juba, was exiled merely on account of his riches, and was afterwards put to death.
It would be endless and disgusting to record here all the acts of cruelty, insanity,
and avarice, of which his whole reign, with the exception of the first few months,
forms one uninterrupted succession. He concluded his predatory campaign in Gaul
by leading his army to the coast of the ocean, as if he would cross over to Britain;
he drew them up in battle array, and then gave them the signal--to collect shells,
which he called the spoils of conquered Ocean. After this he returned to Rome,
where he acted with still greater cruelty than before, because lie thought the
honours which the senate conferred upon him too insignificant and too human for
a god like him. Several conspiracies were formed against him, but were discovered,
until at length Cassius Chaerea, tribune of a praetorian cohort, Cornelius Sabinus,
and others, entered into one which was crowned with success. Four months after
his return from Gaul, on the 24th of January A. D. 41, Caligula was murdered by
Chaerea near the theatre, or according to others, in his own palace while he was
hearing some boys rehearse the part they were to perform in the theatre. His wife
and daughter were likewise put to death. His body was secretly conveyed by his
friends to the horti Lamiani, halt burnt, and covered over with a light turf.
Subsequently, however, his sisters, after their return from exile, ordered the
body to be taken out, and had it completely burnt and buried. (Sueton. Caligula;
Dion Cass. lib. lix.; Joseph. Ant. xix. 1; Aurel. Vict. De Caes. 3; Zonar. x.
6)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Claudius I., or, with his full name, Tib. Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, was the fourth in
the series of Roman emperors, and reigned from A. D. 41 to 54. He was the grandson
of Tib. Claudius Nero and Livia, who afterwards married Augustus, and the son
of Drusus and Antonia. He was born on the first of August, B. C. 10, at Lyons
in Gaul, and lost his father in his infancy. During his early life he was of a
sickly constitution, which, though it improved in later years, was in all probability
the cause of the weakness of his intellect, for, throughout his life, he shewed
an extraordinary deficiency in judgment, tact, and presence of mind. It was owing
to these circumstances that from his childhood he was neglected, despised, and
intimidated by his nearest relatives; he was left to the care of his paedagogues,
who often treated him with improper harshness. His own mother is reported to have
called him a portentum hominis, and to have said, that there was something wanting
in his nature to make him a man in the proper sense of the word. This judgment,
harsh as it may appear in the mouth of his mother, is not exaggerated, for in
everything he did, and however good his intentions were, he failed from the want
of judgment and a proper tact, and made himself ridiculous in the eyes of others.
Notwithstanding this intellectual deficiency, however, he was a man of great industry
and diligence. He was excluded from the society of his family, and confined to
slaves and women, whom he was led to make his friends and confidants by his natural
desire of unfolding his heart. During the long period previous to his accession,
as well as afterwards, he devoted the greater part of his time to literary pursuits,
Augustus and his uncle Tiberius always treated him with contempt; Caligula, his
nephew, raised him to the consulship indeed, but did not allow him to take any
part in public affairs, and behaved towards him in the same way as his predecessors
had done.
In this manner the ill-fated man had reached the age of fifty, when
after the murder of Caligula he was suddenly and unexpectedly raised to the imperial
throne. When he received the news of Caligula's murder, he was alarmed about his
own safety, and concealed himself in a corner of the palace; but he was discovered
by a common soldier, and when Claudius fell prostrate before him, the soldier
saluted him emperor. Other soldiers soon assembled, and Claudius in a state of
agony, as if he were led to execution, was carried in a lectica into the praetorian
camp. There the soldiers proclaimed him emperor, and took their oath of allegiance
to him, on condition of his giving each soldier, or at least each of the praetorian
guards, a donative of fifteen sestertia -the first instance of a Roman emperor
being obliged to make such a promise on his accession. It is not quite certain
what may have induced the soldiers to proclaim a man who had till then lived in
obscurity, and had taken no part in the administration of the empire. It is said
that they chose him merely on account of his connexion with the imperial family,
but it is highly probable that there were also other causes at work.
During the first two days after the murder of Caligula, the senators
and the city cohorts, which formed a kind of opposition to the praetorian guards,
indulged in the vain hope of restoring the republic, but being unable to make
lead against the praetorians, and not being well agreed among themselves, the
senators were at last obliged to give way, and on the third day they recognized
Claudius as emperor. The first act of his government was to proclaim an amnesty
respecting the attempt to restore the republic, and a few only of the murderers
of Caligula were put to death, partly for the purpose of establishing an example,
and partly because it was known that some of the conspirators had intended to
murder Claudius likewise. The acts which followed these shew the same kind and
amiable disposition, and must convince every one, that, if he had been left alone,
or had been assisted by a sincere friend and adviser, his government would have
afforded little or no ground for complaint. Had he been allowed to remain in a
private station, he would certainly have been a kind, good, and honest man. But
he was throughout his life placed in the most unfortunate circumstances. The perpetual
fear in which he had passed his earlier days, was now increased and abused by
those by whom he was surrounded after his accession. And this fear now became
the cause of a series of cruel actions and of bloodshed, for which he is stamped
in history with the name of a tyrant, which he does not deserve.
The first wife of Claudius was Plautia Urgulanilla, by whom he had
a son, Drusus, and a daughter, Claudia. But as he had reason for believing that
his own life was threatened by her, he divorced her, and married Aelia Petina,
whom he likewise divorced on account of some misunderstanding. At the time of
his accession he was married to his third wife, the notorious Valeria Messalina,
who, together with the freedmen Narcissus, Pallas, and others, led him into a
number of cruel acts. After the fall of Messalina by her own conduct and the intrigues
of Narcissus, Claudius was, if possible, still more unfortunate in choosing for
his wife his niece Agrippina, A. D. 49. She prevailed upon him to set aside his
own son, Britannicus, and to adopt her son, Nero, in order that the succession
might be secured to the latter. Claudius soon after regretted this step, and the
consequence was, that he was poisoned by Agrippina in A. D. 54.
The conduct of Claudius during his government, in so far as it was
not under the influence of his wives and freedmen, was mild and popular, and he
made several useful and beneficial legislative enactments. He was particularly
fond of building, and several architectural plans which had been formed, but thought
impracticable by his predecessors, were carried out by him. He built, for example,
the famous Claudian aquaeduct (Aqua Claudia), the port of Ostia, and the emissary
by which the water of lake Fucinus was carried into the river Liris. During his
reign several wars were carried on in Britain, Germany, Syria, and Mauretania;
but they were conducted by his generals. The southern part of Britain was constituted
a Roman province in the reign of Claudius, who himself went to Britain in A. D.
43, to take part in the war; but not being of a warlike disposition, he quitted
the island after a stay of a few days, and returned to Rome, where he celebrated
a splendid triumph. Mauretania was made a Roman province in A. D. 42 by the legate
Cn. Hosidius.
As an author Claudius occupied himself chiefly with history, and was
encouraged in this pursuit by Livy, the historian. With the assistance of Sulpicius
Flavius, he began at an early age to write a history from the death of the dictator
Caesar ; but being too straightforward and honest in his accounts, he was severely
censured by his mother and grandmother. He accordingly gave up his plan, and began
his history with the restoration of peace after the battle of Actium. Of the earlier
period he had written only four, but of the latter forty-one books. A third work
were memoirs of his own life, in eight books, which Suetonius describes as magis
inepte quam ineleganter composita. A fourth was a learned defence of Cicero against
the attacks of Asinius Pollio. He seems to have been as well skilled in the use
of the Greek as of the Latin language, for he wrote two historical works in Greek,
the one a history of Carthage, in eight books, and the other a history of Etruria,
in twenty books. However small the literary merit of these productions may have
been, still the loss of the history of Etruria in particular is greatly to be
lamented, as we know that he made use of the genuine sources of the Etruscans
themselves. In A. D. 48, the Aedui petitioned that their senators should obtain
the jus petendorum honorum at Rome. Claudius supported their petition in a speech
which he delivered in the senate. The grateful inhabitants of Lyons had this speech
of the emperor engraved on brazen tables, and exhibited them in public. Two of
these tables were discovered at Lyons in 1529, and are still preserved there.
The inscriptions are printed in Gruter's Corp. Inscript. P. DII.
(Sueton. Claudius; Dion Cassius, lib. Ix. ; Tacit. Annal. libb. xi. and xii.;
Zonaras, xi. 8, &c.; Joseph. Ant. Jud. xix. 2, &c., xx. 1; Oros. vii. 6; Eutrop.
vii. 13; Aurel. Vict. de Caes. 4. Epit. 4; Seneca, Lusus de Morte Drusi)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Nero, Roman emperor, A. D. 54-68. The emperor Nero was the son of Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus,
and of Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus Caesar, and sister of Caligula. Nero's
original name was L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, but after the marriage of his mother
with her uncle, the emperor Claudius, he was adopted by Claudius A. D. 50, and
was called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus. Claudius had a son, Britannicus,
who was three or four years younger than Nero.
Nero was born at Antium, a favourite residence of many of the Roman
families, on the coast of Latium on the 15th of December A. D. 37. Shortly after
his adoption by Claudius, Nero being then sixteen years of age, married Octavia,
the daughter of Claudius and Messallina. Among his early instructors was Seneca.
Nero had some talent and taste. He was fond of the arts, and made verses; but
he was indolent and given to pleasure, and had no inclination for laborious studies.
His character, which was naturally weak, was made worse by his education; and
when he was in the possession of power he showed what a man may become who has
not been subjected to a severe discipline, and who in a private station might
be no worse than others who are rich and idle.
On the death of Claudius, A. D. 54, Agrippina, who had always designed
her son to succeed to the power of the Caesars, kept the emperor's death secret
for a while. All at once the gates of the palace were opened, and Nero was presented
to the guards by Afranius Burrhus, praefectus praetorio, who announced Nero to
them as their master. Some of them, it is said, asked where was Britannicus; but
there was no effort made to proclaim Britannicus, and Nero being carried to the
praetorian camp, was saluted as imperator by the soldiers, and promised them the
usual donation. The senate confirmed the decision of the soldiers, and the provinces
quietly received Nero as the new emperor (Tacit. Ann. xii. 69; Dion Cass. lxi.
1, &c.).
Nero showed at the commencement that he had not all the acquirements
which the Romans had been accustomed to see in their emperors. His public addresses
were written by Seneca, for Nero was deficient in one of the great accomplishments
of a Roman, oratory. The beginning of his reign was no worse than might be expected
in an illeducated youth of seventeen; and the senate were allowed to make some
regulations which were supposed to be useful (Tac. Ann. xiii. 4). The affairs
of the East required attention. The Less Armenia was given to Aristobulus, a Jew,
and son of Herodes, king of Chalcis. Sophene was given to Sohemus.
The follies and crimes of Nero were owing to his own feeble character
and the temper of his mother. This ambitious woman wished to govern in the name
of her son, and she received all the external marks of respect which were due
to one who possessed sovereign power. Seneca and Burrhus exerted their influence
with Nero to oppose her designs, and thus a contest commenced which must end in
the destruction of Agrippina or her opponents. Nero began to indulge his licentious
inclinations without restraint, and one of his boon companions was an accomplished
debauchee, Otho, who afterwards held the imperial power for a few months. Nero
assumed the consulship A. D. 55, with L. Antistius Vetus for his colleague. The
jealousy between him and his mother soon broke out into a quarrel, and Agrippina
threatened to join Britannicus and raise him to his father's place. Nero's fears
drove him to commit a crime which at once stamped his character and took away
all hopes of his future life. Britannicus, who was just going to complete his
fourteenth year, was poisoned by the emperor's order, at an entertainment where
Agrippina and Octavia were present. Nero showed his temper towards his mother
by depriving her of her Roman and German guard; but an appearance of reconciliation
was brought about by the bold demeanour of Agrippina against some of her accusers,
whom Nero punished (Tacit. Ann. xiii. 19-22).
In A. D. 57 Nero was consul for the second time with L. Calpurnius
Piso as his colleague, and in A. D. 58, for the third time with Valerius Messalla.
Nero, who had always shown an aversion to his wife Octavia, was now captivated
with the beauty of Poppaea Sabina, the wife of his companion Otho, a woman notorious
for her dissolute conduct. Otho was got out of the way by being made governor
of Lusitania, where he acquired some credit, and passed the ten remaining years
of Nero's life.
The affairs of Armenia, which had been seized by the Parthians, occupied
the Romans from the beginning of Nero's reign, and Domitius Corbulo was sent there
to conduct the war. This vigorous commander re-established discipline among the
troops. The chief struggle commenced A. D. 58, with Tiridates, who had been made
king of Armenia by the Parthian king Vologeses, who was his brother. Corbulo was
ambitious to make the Roman arms again triumphant in the countries in which L.
Lucullus and Cn. Pompeius had once acquired military fame. After some attempt
at negotiation, Corbulo prosecuted the war with great activity. He took and destroyed
Artaxata, the capital of Armenia; and afterwards, marching to the town of Tigranocerta,
which the Romans had formerly captured under Lucullus, he took this strong place
also, or, according to other accounts, it surrendered like Artaxata (Tacit. Ann.
xiii. 41, xiv. 24). The capture of Tigranocerta took place A. D. 60, and the Romans
were now complete masters of Armenia. The affairs of the Rhenish frontier were
tolerably quiet in the early part of Nero's reign. The Roman soldiers, under Paullinus
Pompeius on the lower Rhine, were employed in finishing the embankments which
Drusus had begun sixty-three years before for checking the waters of the river;
and L. Vetus formed the noble design of uniting the Arar (Saone) and Moselle by
a canal, and thus connecting the Mediterranean and the German Ocean by an uninterrupted
water communication, through the Rhone and the Rhine. But the mean jealousy of
Aelius Gracilis, the legatus of Belgica, frustrated this design.
Nero's passion for Poppaea was probably the immediate cause of his
mother's death. Poppaea aspired to marry the emperor, but she had no hopes of
succeeding in her design while Agrippina lived, and accordingly she used all her
arts to urge Nero to remove out of the way a woman who kept him in tutelage and
probably aimed at his ruin. That Agrippina might have attempted to destroy her
son, or at least to give the imperial power to some new husband of her choice,
is probable enough; and it is a significant fact, that we find her own head and
that of Nero on the same face of a medal, and that at the beginning of his reign
she was hardly prevented from assuming the discharge of the imperial functions
(Tacit. Ann. xiii. 5). After an unsuccessful attempt to cause her death in a vessel
near Baiae, she was assassinated by Nero's order (A. D. 59), with the approbation
at least of Seneca and Burrhus, who saw that the time was come for the destruction
either of the mother or the son (Tacit. Ann. xiv. 7). The death of Agrippina was
communicated to the senate by a letter which Seneca drew up, and this servile
body, with the exception of Thrasea Paetus, returned their congratulations to
the emperor, who shortly after returned to Rome. But though he was well received,
he felt the punishment of his guilty conscience, and said that he was haunted
by his mother's spectre (Suet. Ner. 34). A great eclipse of the sun happened during
the sacrifices which were made for the death of Agrippina, and there were other
signs which superstition interpreted as tokens of the angler of the gods (Dion
Cass. lxi. 16, ed. Reimarus, and the note). Nero drowned his reflections in fresh
riot, in which he was encouraged by a band of flatterers. One of his great passions
was chariot-driving, and he was ambitious to gain credit as a musician, and actually
appeared as a performer on the theatre. At the same time his extravagance was
exhausting the finances, and preparing the way for his ruin, though unfortunately
it was still deferred for some years.
In A. D. 60, Nero was consul for the fourth time with C. Cornelius
Lentulus for his colleague. There was a comet in this year, which then, as in
more recent times, was considered to portend some great change. In this year Tigranes
was settled as king of Armenia, and the Roman commander Corbulo, leaving some
soldiers to protect him, retired to his province of Syria. The fear of Nero now
induced him to urge Rubellius Plautus, who belonged to the family of the Caesars
through his mother Julia, the daughter of Drusus, to leave Rome. Plautus was a
man of good character, and Nero considered him a dangerous rival. He retired to
Asia, where he was put to death two years after by Nero's order (Tacit. Ann. xiv.
22; Dion Cass. lxii. 14). In A. D. 61, the great rising in Britain under Boadicea
took place, which was put down by the ability and vigour of the Roman commander
Suetonius Paullinus.
The praetor Antistius was charged with writing scandalous verses against
Nero, and he was tried under the law of majestas, and only saved by Thrasea from
being condemned to death by the senate. Antistius was banished, and his property
made public. Fabricius Veiento, who had written freely against the senate and
the priests, was convicted and banished from Italy. His writings were ordered
to be burnt, the consequence of which was they were eagerly sought after and read
: when they were no longer forbidden they were soon forgotten, as Tacitus remarks
(Ann. xiv. 49), and his remark has much practical wisdom in it. The death of Burrhus
(A. D. 62) was a calamity to the state. Nero placed in command of the praetorian
troops, Fennius Rufus and Sofonius Tigellinus: Rufus was an honest inactive man;
Tigellinus was a villain, whose name has been rendered infamous by the crimes
to which he urged his master, and those which he committed himself. Seneca, who
saw his credit going, wisely asked leave to retire; and the philosopher, who could
not approve of all Nero's excesses, though his own moral character is at least
doubtful, left his old pupil to follow his own way and the counsels of the worst
men in Rome.
Nero was now more at liberty. In order that he might marry Poppaea,
he divorced his wife Octavia, on the alleged ground of sterility, and in eighteen
days he married Poppaea. Not satisfied with putting away his wife, he was instigated
by Poppaea to charge her with adultery, for which there was not the slightest
ground, and she was banished to the little island of Pandataria, where she was
shortly after put to death. According to Tacitus (Ann. xiv. 64) Octavia was only
in her twentieth year; her unhappy life and her untimely death were the subject
of general commiseration.
The affairs of Armenia (A. D. 62) were still in a troubled state, and the accounts
of the historians of the period are not very clear. The Parthians again invaded
Armenia, and Tiridates attempted to recover it from Tigranes. It seems to have
been agreed between Vologeses and Corbulo that Tiridates should have Armenia,
and that hostilities should cease. But the ambassadors whom Vologeses sent to
Rome, returned without accomplishing the object of their mission, and the war
against the Parthians in Armenia was renewed under L. Caesennius Paetus. But the
incompetence of the general caused the ruin of the enterprise, and he was forced
to sue for terms to Vologeses, and to consent to evacuate Armenia (Tacit. Ann.
xv. 16; Dion Cass. lxii. 21). In the following year Corbulo came to terms with
Tiridates, who did homage to the portrait of Nero in the presence of the Roman
commander (Tacit. Ann. xv. 30), and promised that he would go to Rome, as soon
as he could prepare for his journey, to ask the throne of Armenia from the Roman
emperor. The town of Pompeii in Campania was nearly destroyed in this year by
an earthquake. Poppaea gave birth at Antium to a daughter, who received the title
of Augusta, which was also given to the mother. The joy of Nero was unbounded,
but the child died before it was four months old.
The origin of the dreadful conflagration at Rome (A. D. 64) is uncertain.
It is hardly credible that the city was fired by Nero's order, though Dion and
Suetonius both attest the fact, but these writers are always ready to believe
a scandalous tale. Tacitus (Ann. xv. 38) leaves the matter doubtful. The fire
originated in that part of the circus which is contiguous to the Caelian and Palatine
hills, and of the fourteen regiones of Rome three were totally destroyed, and
in seven others only a few halfburnt houses remained. A prodigious quantity of
property and valuable works of art were burnt, and many lives were lost. The emperor
set about rebuilding the city on an improved plan, with wider streets, though
it is doubtful if the salubrity of Rome was improved by widening the streets and
making the houses lower, for there was less protection against the heat. Nero
found money for his purposes by acts of oppression and violence, and even the
temples were robbed of their wealth. With these means he began to erect his sumptuous
golden palace, on a scale of magnitude and splendour which almost surpasses belief.
The vestibule contained a colossal statue of himself one hundred and twenty feet
high (Suet. Ner. c. 31; Martial, Spect. Ep. 2). The odium of the conflagration
which the emperor could not remove from himself, he tried to throw on the Christians,
who were then numerous-in Rome, and many of them were put to a cruel death (Tacit.
Ann. xv. 44, and the note of Lipsius).
The tyranny of Nero at last (A. D. 65) led to the organisation of
a formidable conspiracy against him, which was discovered by Milichus, a freedman
of Flavius Scevinus, a senator and one of the conspirators. The discovery was
followed by many executions. C. Calpurnius Piso was put to death, and the poet
Lucan, a vile flatterer of Nero (Pharsal i. 33, &c.), 1 had the favour of being
allowed to open his veins. Plautius Lateranus was hurried to death without having
time allowed to embrace his children. It is not certain if Seneca was privy to
the conspiracy: Dion, of course, says that he was. It is probable that some proposals
might have been made to him by the conspirators, and it is probable that he declined
to join them. However this may be, the time was come for Nero to get rid of his
old master, and, with his counsellors Poppaea and Tigellinus near him, he sent
Seneca orders to die. The philosopher opened his veins, and, after long suffering,
he was taken into a bath or vapour room, which stifled him. It seems that Seneca
died about the time when the conspiracy was discovered ; Lucan and others died
after him. The senate was assembled, as if they were going to hear the results
of a successful war, and Tigellinus was rewarded with the triumphal ornaments
(Tacit. Ann. xv. 72).
The death of Poppaea came next. Her brutal husband, in a fit of passion,
kicked her when she was with child, and she died of the blow. Her body was not
burnt, but embalmed and placed in the sepulchre of the Julii. Nero now proposed
to marry Antonia, the daughter of the emperor Claudius and his sister by adoption,
but she refused the honour, and was consequently put to death. Nero, however,
did marry Statilia Messallina, the widow of Vestinus, whom he put to death, because
he had married Messallina, with whom Nero had cohabited.
The catalogue of the crimes of Nero makes the greater part of his
life, but his crimes show the character of the man and of the times, and to what
a state of abject degradation the Roman senate was reduced, for the senate was
made the instrument of murder. The jurist C. Cassius Longinus was exiled to Sardinia.
L. Junius Silanus Torquatus, a man of merit, L. Antistins Vetus, his mother-in-law
Sextia, and his daughter Pollutia, the wife of Rubellius Plautus, were all sacrificed.
Virtue in any form was the object of Nero's fear. For some reason or caprice the
emperor gave a large sum, which we may assume was public money, to rebuild Lugdunum
(Lyon), which had suffered by a fire; and the town showed its gratitude, by espousing
his cause when he was deserted by every body. The grant, however, was made some
years after the conflagration.
In the reign of Nero (A. D. 66) Apollonius of Tvana visited Rome,
and, though he was accused of magic, he had the good luck to escape. Nero now
became jealous of the philosophers, and Musonius Rufus, a Roman eques and a stoic
philosopher, was banished by the emperor. The fragment of the sixteenth book of
the Annals of Tacitus concludes with the account of the death of Annaeus Mella,
the father of Lucan, and C. Petronius, a man of pleasure, but probably not the
author of the Satyrica. Nero, as Tacitus says (Ann. xvi. 21), now attacked virtue
itself in the persons of Thrasea Paetus and Barea Soranus. The crime of Thrasea
was his virtue: the charge against him was that he kept away from the senate,
and by his absence condemned the proceedings of that body. The senate condemned
him to die, but he had the choice of the mode of death, and he opened his veins.
Soranus was rich, and that made part of his crime. He was condemned with his young
daughter Servilia, who had without his knowledge consulted the fortune-tellers
to know what would be her father's fate. (Tacit. Ann. xvi. 30, &c.) With the death
of Thrasea, who, as the blood flowed from his veins, declared it to be a libation
to Jupiter the Liberator, the fragment of the sixteenth [p. 1165] book of Tacitus
ends, and the fate of the despicable tyrant has not been transmitted to us in
the words of the indignant historian, who himself is compelled to apologise for
his tedious record of crimes and bloodshed (Tacit. Ann. xvi. 16).
The time chosen for the death of Thrasea and Soranus was that when
Tiridates was preparing to make his entry into Rome. The Armenian king came by
land to Rome with his wife and his children. The provinces that he passed through
had to support the expense of his numerous train. He entered Italy from Illyricum,
and was received by Nero at Naples, before whom he fell on his knees, and acknowledged
him as his lord. Tiridates was conducted to Rome, where he humbled himself before
Nero in the theatre, who gave him the crown .of Armenia and permission to rebuild
Artaxata (Dion Cass. lxiii. 6). Tiridates went home by way of Brundusium. Vologeses
was invited to Rome by Nero to go through the' same ceremony, but he declined
the honour, and suggested that if Nero wished to see him he should come to Asia
(Dion Cass. lxiii. 7).
Nero formed some plans for extending the empire, and various expeditions
were talked of, but Nero was not a soldier: he had not even that Roman virtue.
In the latter part of this year he visited Achaea with a great train, to show
his skill to the Greeks as a musician and charioteer, and to receive the honours
which were liberally bestowed upon him. While Nero was in Achaea, Cestius Gallus,
the governor of Syria, sent him intelligence of his defeat by the Jews, who were
in arms; on which Nero sent Vespasian, the future emperor, to carry on the war
against them, and Mucianus to take the administration of Syria.
In the year A. D. 67 Nero was present at the Olympic games, which
had been deferred from the year 65 in order that so distinguished a person might
be present. To commemorate his visit he declared all Achaea to be free, which
was publicly proclaimed at Corinth on the day of the celebration of the Isthmian
games. But the Greeks paid dear for what they got, by the price of every thing
being raised in consequence of Nero's visit; and they witnessed one of his acts
of cruelty, in putting to death, at the Isthmian games, a singer whose voice drowned
that of the imperial performer (Lucian, Nero). Nero also paid a visit to Delphi,
and got a kind of indirect promise of a long life; but other matters reported
about this visit are somewhat confusedly told by different authorities. He also
designed a canal across the Isthmus, which was commenced with great parade, and
Nero himself first struck the ground with a golden spade. The works were carried
on vigorously for a time, but were suspended by his own orders. While Nero was
in Greece he summoned Corbulo there in an affectionate letter, but, on the old
soldier arriving at Cenchreae, Nero sent orders to put him to death, which Corbulo
anticipated by stabbing himself. Thus perished a man who had served the empire
and the emperor faithfully, and whose military talent and integrity entitled him
to the name of a genuine Roman (Dion. lxiii. 17).
Nero had left Helius a freedman in the administration of Rome, with
full power to do as he pleased, which power he abused. Helius, foreseeing the
mischief that was preparing for his master, wrote to request him to return to
Rome, and finally he went to Greece to urge his departure. Nero left Greece probably
in the autumn of A. D. 67. He entered Rome in triumph, as befitted an Olympic
victor, through a breach made in the walls, riding in the car of Augustus, with
a musician at his side; and he displayed the numerous crowns that he had received
in his Grecian visit. Music, chariot driving, and the like amusements, occupied
this foolish man until, as Tillemont naively remarks, the rising in Spain and
Gaul gave him other occupation.
Silius Italicus, the poet, and Galerius Trachalus were consuls A.
D. 68, the last year of Nero's life. The storm that had long been preparing broke
out in Gaul, where Julius Vindex, the governor of Celtica, called the people together,
and, pointing out their grievances, and pourtraying the despicable character of
Nero, urged them to revolt. Vindex was soon at the head of a large army, and he
wrote to Galba, who was governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, to offer his assistance
in raising him to the imperial power. Galba at the same time learned that Nero
had sent orders to put him to death, on which he made a public harangue against
the crimes of Nero, and was proclaimed emperor; but he only assumed the title
of legatus of the senate and the Roman people. Nero was at Naples when he heard
of the rising in Gaul. which gave him little concern, and he went on with his
ordinary amusements. At last he came to Rome, where he heard of the insurrection
of Galba, which threw him into a violent fit of passion and alarm, but he had
neither ability nor courage to organise any effectual means of resistance. The
senate declared Galba an enemy of the state; and Nero, for some reason or other,
deprived the two consuls of their office, and made himself sole consul. This was
his fifth consulate. Possibly he had some vague idea of putting himself more distinctly
at the head of affairs with the title of sole consul, which Cn. Pompeius had once
enjoyed before him and C. Julius Caesar.
Verginius Rufus, governor in Upper Germany, a man of ability and integrity,
was not favourable to the pretensions of Galba. Rufus first marched against Vindex,
and was supported by those parts of Gaul which bordered on the Rhine; the town
of Lyon, with others, declared against Vindex. Verginius laid siege to Vesontio
(Besanqon), and Vindex came to relieve it. The two generals had a conference,
and appear to have come to some agreement; but, as Vindex was going to enter the
town, the soldiers of Verginius, thinking that he was about to attack them, fell
on the troops of Vindex. The whole affair is very confused; but the fact that
Vindex perished, or killed himself, is certain. The soldiers now destroyed the
statues of Nero, and proclaimed Verginius as Augustus; but he steadily refused
the honour, and declared that he would submit to the orders of the senate. The
death of Vindex discouraged Galba, who was beginning to lose all hopes, when he
received intelligence from Rome that he was recognised as the successor of Nero.
A famine at Rome, and the exertion that Nero was making to raise money,
hastened his ruin. Nymphidius Sabinus, who was now praefectus praetorio with Tigellinus,
taking advantage of a rumour that Nero was going to fly to Egypt, persuaded the
troops to proclaim Galba. Nero was immediately deserted. He escaped from the palace
at night with a few freedmen, and made his wav to a house about four miles from
Rome, which belonged to Phaon, one of his freedmen, where he passed the night
and part of the following day in a state of agonising terror. His hiding-place
being known, a centurion with some soldiers was sent to seize him. Though a coward,
Nero thought a voluntary death better than the indignities which he knew were
preparing for him; and, after some irresolution, and with the aid of his secretary
Epaphroditus, he gave himself a mortal wound when he heard the trampling of the
horses on which his pursuers were mounted. The centurion on entering attempted
to stop the flow of blood, but Nero saying, "It is too late. Is this your fidelity?"
expired with a horrid stare.
The body of Nero received funeral honours suitable to his rank, and
his ashes were placed in the sepulchre of the Domitii by two of his nurses and
his concubine Acte, who had won Nero's affections from his wife Octavia at the
beginning of his reign (Tac. Ann. xiii. 12; Suet. Ner. 50). Suetonius, after his
manner, gives a description of Nero's person, which is not very flattering: the
"cervix obesa" of Suetonius is a characteristic of Nero's bust.
I n his youth Nero was instructed in all the liberal knowledge of the
time except philosophy; and he was turned from the study of the old Roman orators
by his master Seneca. Accordingly, he applied himself to poetry, and Suetonius
says that his verses were not made for him, as some suppose, for the biographer
had seen and examined some of Nero's writing-tablets and small books, in which
the writing was in his own hand, with many erasures and cancellings and interlineations.
He had also skill in painting and modelling. Though profuse and fond of pomp and
splendour, Nero had apparently some taste. The Apollo Belvedere and the Fighting
Gladiator, as it is called, by Agasias, were found in the ruins of a villa at
Antium, which is conjectured to have belonged to Nero.
Nero's progress in crime is easily traced, and the lesson is worth
reading. Without a good education, and with no talent for his high station, he
was placed in a position of danger from the first. He was sensual, and fond of
idle display, and then he became greedy of money to satisfy his expenses; he was
timid, and by consequence he became cruel when he anticipated danger; and, like
other murderers, his first crime, the poisoning of Britannicus, made him capable
of another. But, contemptible and cruel as he was, there are many persons who,
in the same situation, might run the same guilty career. He was only in his thirty-first
year when he died, and he had held the supreme power for thirteen years and eight
months. He was the last of the descendants of Julia, the sister of the dictator
Caesar.
There were a few writers in the time of Nero who have been preserved-Persius
the satirist, Lucan, the author of the Pharsalia, and Seneca, the preceptor of
Nero. The jurists, C. Cassius Longinus, after whom the Sabiniani were sometimes
called Cassiani, and Nerva, the father of the emperor Nerva, lived under Nero
(Tac. Ann. xiii.xvi.; Suet. Ner.; Dion Cass. lxi.-lxiii. ed. Reimarus. All the
authorities for the facts of Nero's life are collected by Tillemont, Histoire
des Empereurs, vol. i.)
Galba, Ser. Sulpicius, a Roman emperor, who reigned from June, A. D. 68 to January, A. D. 69. He was
descended from the family of the Galbae, a branch of the patrician Sulpicia Gens,
but had no connection with the family of Augustus, which became extinct by the
death of Nero. He was a son of Sulpicius Galba and Mummia Achaica, and was born
in a villa near Terracina, on the 24th of December, B. C. 3. Livia Ocellina, a
relative of Livia, the wife of Augustus, and the second wife of Galba's father,
adopted young Ser. Sulpicius Galba, who on this account altered his name into
L. Livius Ocella, which he bore down to the time of his elevation. Both Augustus
and Tiberius are said to have told him, that one day he would be at the head of
the Roman world, from which we must infer that he was a young man of more than
ordinary talents. His education appears to have been the same as that of other
young nobles of the time, and we know that he paid some attention to the study
of the law. He married Lepida, who bore him two sons, but both Lepida and her
children died, and Galba never married again, although Agrippina, afterwards the
wile of Claudius, did all she could to win his attachment. He was a man of great
wealth, and a favourite of Livia, the wife of Augustus, through whose influence
he obtained the consulship. She also left him a considerable legacy, of which,
however, he was deprived by Tiberius. He was invested with the curule offices
before attaining the legitimate age. After his praetorship, in A. D. 20, he had
the administration of the province of Aquitania. In A. D. 33 he was raised to
the consulship on the recommendation of Livia Drusilla, and after this he distinguished
himself in the administration of the province of Gaul, A. D. 39, where he carried
on a successful war against the Germans, and restored discipline among the troops.
The Germans had invaded Gaul, but after severe losses they were compelled by Galba
to return to their own country. On the death of Caligula many of his friends urged
him on to take possession of the imperial throne, but he preferred living in a
private station, and Claudius, the successor of Caligula, felt so grateful to
him for this moderation, that he received him into his suite, and showed him very
great kindness and attention. In A. D. 45 and 46,, Galba was entrusted with the
administration of the province of Africa, which was at the time disturbed by the
licentiousness of the Roman soldiers and by the incursions of the neighbouring
barbarians. He restored peace, and managed the affairs of the province with great
strictness and care, and on his return he was honoured with the ornamenta triumphalia,
and with the dignity of three priesthoods ; he became a member of the college
of the Quindecimviri, of the sodales Titii, and of the Augustales. In the reign
of Nero he lived for several years in private retirement, for fear of becoming,
like many others, the victim of the tyrant's suspicion, until, in B. C. 61, Nero
gave him Hispania Tarraconensis as his province, where he remained for a period
of [p. 207] eight years. In maintaining discipline among his troops, his strictness
at first bordered upon cruelty, for the severest punishments were inflicted for
slight offences, but during the latter period of his administration he became
indolent, for fear, it is said, of attracting the attention of Nero, but more
probably as a naturai consequence of old age. In A. D. 68, when the insurrection
of C. Julius Vindex broke out in Gaul, and Vindex called upon the most distinguished
men in the other provinces to join him, he also sent messengers to Galba, whom
he looked upon as the most eminent among the generals of the time, and whom he
had destined in his mind as the successor of Nero. Index accordingly exhorted
him to vindicate the rights of oppressed humanity. Galba, who was at the same
time informed that some officers in Spain had received secret orders from Nero
to murder him, resolved at once to take the perilous step, and place himself at
the head of the Roman world, although he was already upwards of severity years
old. He assembled his troops, excited their sympathy for those who had been murdered
by Nero, and was at once proclaimed imperator by the soldiers. He himself, however,
at first professed to act only as the legate of the Roman senate and people. he
began to organise his army in Spain, instituted a kind of senate which was to
act as his council, and made all preparations for a war against Nero. Some of
his soldiers, however, soon began to repent, and as he was engaged in suppressing
this spirit among his own men, he received the intelligence of the fall of Vindex,
who in despair had put an end to himself. Being thus deprived of his principal
supporter, Galba withdrew to Clunia, a small town of his province, and was on
the point of following the example of Vindex. But things suddenly took a different
turn. Nymphidius Sabinus, prefect of the praetorians at Rome, created an insurrection
there, and some of the friends of Galba, by making munificent promises in his
name, succeeded in winning the troops for him. Nero was murdered. Galba now took
the title of Caesar, and, accompanied by Salvius Otho, the governor of Lusitania,
he went to Rome, where ambassadors soon arrived from all parts of the empire to
do homage to Galba as the lawful sovereign.
Galba by this time seems to have lost the good qualities that distinguished
his earlier years: a report of his severity and avarice had preceded him to Rome;
and it soon became manifest that the accounts of his avarice were not exaggerated.
Instead of doing all he could to win the favour of the soldiers, who had only
just become aware of the fact that they had it in their power to dispose of the
sovereignty, and that they might depose him just as they had raised him, he made
several unpopular changes in the army at Rome, and punished with severity those
who opposed his measures. The large donatives which his friends had promised in
his name were not given, and various rumours about his niggardly and miserly character
were sedulously spread at Rome, and increased the discontent. Some of his arrangements
were wise enough; and had he not been the victim of avarice, the common foible
of old age, and been able to part with some of his treasures, he might have maintained
himself on the throne, and the Roman world would probably not have had much reason
to complain. In addition to this, he was completely under the sway of three favourites,
T. Vinius, Cornelius Laco, and Icelus; and the arbitrary manner in which he acted
under their influence showed that the times were little better than they had been
under Nero. His unpopularity with all classes daily increased, and more especially
among the soldiers. The first open outbreak of discontent was among the legions
of Germany, which sent word to the Praetorians at Rome, that they disliked the
emperor created in Spain, and that one should be elected who was approved of by
all the legions. Similar outbreaks occurred in Africa. Galba, apparently blind
to the real cause of the discontent, and attributing it to his old age and his
having no heir, adopted Piso Licinianus, a noble young Roman, who was to be his
coadjutor and successor. But even this act only increased his unpopularity; for
he presented his adopted son to the senate and the soldiers, without giving to
the latter the donatives customary on such occasions. Salvius Otho, who had hoped
to be adopted by Galba, and had been strongly recommended by T. Vinius, now secretly
formed a conspiracy among the troops. The insurrection broke out six days after
the adoption of Piso Licinianus. Galba at first despaired, and did not know what
to do, but at last he took courage, and went out to meet the rebels; but as he
was carried across tile forum in a sedan-chair, a troop of horsemen, who had been
waiting for his arrival, rushed forward and cut him down, near the Lacus Curtius,
where his body was left, until a common soldier, who passed by, cut off his head,
and carried it to Otho, who had in the mean time been proclaimed emperor by the
praetorians and legions. His remains were afterwards buried by one Argius in his
own garden. A statue of his, which the senate erected on the spot where he had
been murdered, was afterwards destroyed by Vespasian, who believed that Galba
had sent assassins into Judaea to murder him. (Tac. Hist. i. 1-42; Dion Cass.
lxiv. 1-6; Suet. Galba ; Plut. Gulba ; Aurel. Vict. De Cues. 6; Eutrop. vii. 10).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Otho, M. Salvius, Roman emperor A. D. 69, was descended from an ancient Etruscan family. His father
L. Otho, who was consul in A. D. 33, had two sons, Marcus and L. Salvius Titianus.
Marcus Otho was born in the early part of A. D. 32. He was of moderate stature,
ill-made in the legs, and had an effeminate appearance. He was one of the companions
of Nero in his debaucheries, till he was sent as governor to Lusitania, which
he administered with credit during the last ten years of Nero's life. Otho attached
himself to Galba when he revolted against Nero, in the hope of being adopted by
him and succeeding to the empire. But Galba, who knew Otho's character, and wished
to have a worthy successor, adopted L. Piso, on the tenth of January, A. D. 69,
and designated him as the future emperor (Tacit. Hist. i. 15).
Otho thus saw his hopes disappointed. His private affairs also were
in. a ruinous condition, and he resolved to seize the power which an astrologer
had foretold him that he would one day possess. He enlisted in his design a few
soldiers, and on the fifteenth of January he was proclaimed emperor by a mere
handful of men, who, with their, swords drawn, carried him in a litter to the
camp, where he was saluted emperor. Otho was ready to promise any thing and to
stoop to any thing to extricate himself from his dangerous position, and to receive
the prize at which he aimed (Tacit. Hist. i. 36). A little vigour and decision
on the part of Galba might have checked the rising. The matter was at last decided
by Otho and the soldiers making their way into the forum, upon which the standardbearer
of the cohort that accompanied Galba snatched from it the emperor's effigy, and
threw it on the ground. This was the signal for deserting Galba, who received
his death-blow from a common soldier.
The soldiers showed they were the masters of the emperor by choosing
as praefecti praetorio, Plotius Firmus and Licinius Proculus; Flavius Sabinus,
the brother of Vespasian, was made praefectus urbi. On the evening of the day
in which Galba was murdered the senate took the oath of fidelity to Otho, who
afterwards offered a sacrifice in the Capitol, with no favourable omens. The new
emperor showed his moderation or his prudence by protecting against the fury of
the soldiers, Marius Celsus, who had maintained his fidelity to Galba, and who
showed the same devotion afterwards to the cause of Otho. The punishment of Tigellinus,
the guilty encourager of Nero's crimes, and the first to desert him, was demanded
by the people, and granted. This abominable wretch received the news of his death
being required while he was enjoying the waters of Sinuessae, and he cut his throat
with a razor. The indulgence of Otho towards those who were his personal enemies,
and the change in his habits shown by devoting himself to the administration of
affairs, gave people hopes that the emperor would turn out better than was expected.
Still these appearances were by many considered deceptive, and there was little
confidence in a man who owed his elevation to the murder of Galba, and the violence
of the soldiers, whom he was compelled to keep in good humour. Otho was acknowledged
emperor by Luceius Albinus, governor of Mauritania (Tacit. Hist. ii. 58), and
by Carthage and the rest of Africa. The legions in Dalmatia, Pannonia, and Maesia
took the oath of fidelity to the emperor. He was also recognised by Egypt, by
Mucianus in Syria, and by Vespasian in Palestine; by Gallia Narbonensis, Aquitania,
and by Spain. But he had a formidable opposition in the legions stationed in Germany
on the Rhine, whither Vitellius had been sent to take the command by Galba, in
the month of December, A. D. 68. Vitellius was a glutton, a drunkard, and a man
of no capacity, but by his affable manners and his liberality he gained the good
will of the soldiers who were dissatisfied with Galba. Vitellius had the command
of four legions on the Lower Rhine, and two other legions on the upper course
of the river were under Hordeonius Flaccus. Some of the Gallic towns also were
ill disposed to Galba.
Neither Flaccus nor Vitellius had energy enough to commence a movement:
it was begun by Fabius Valens, who commanded a legion in Lower Germany, and stimulated
Vitellius to aim at the supreme power. Alienus Caecina, who also commanded a legion
in Upper Germany, and was an officer of ability, hated Galba; and thus, before
the murder of the aged emperor, every thing was ripe for a revolt in Germany.
Vitellius, who was in the town of Cologne (colonia Agrippinensis),
was greeted with the title of imperator, on the third of January, A. D. 69. He
accepted the title of Germanicus, but he would not assume that of Caesar. There
was a striking contrast between the ardour of the soldiers, who wished to march
for Italy in the midst of the winter, and the sluggishness of their newly-elected
emperor, who even by midday was drunk and stupified with his gluttonous excesses.
But every thing favoured Vitellius. Valerius Asiaticus, governor of Belgica, declared
for him, and Junius Blaesus, governor of Gallia Lugdunensis. The troops in Rhaetia
and Britain were also on his side. Valens and Caecina were sent forward, each
at the head of a large army. The lazy emperor followed at his leisure. Valens
had advanced as far as Toul (civitas Leucorum, Tacit. Hist. i. 64; D'Anville,
Notice de la Gaule, "Tullum"), when he heard of Galba's death, the news of which
determined Gallia Narbonensis and Aquitania to declare for Vitellius, though they
had taken the oath to Otho. Cluvius Rufus, the governor of Spain, did the same.
Valens advanced by the route of Autun, Lyon, Vienne, and Lucus (Luc),
to the foot of the Alps, plundering, and robbing all the way. The march of Caecina
was still more disastrous to the country through which he made his way. He readily
picked a quarrel with the Helvetii, many of whom were slaughtered, and others
were sold as slaves. Aventicum (Avenche), their capital, surrendered, and its
fate was left to the mercy of Vitellius, who yielded to the eloquent entreaty
of Claudius Cossus, one of the legati who were sent to mollify the emperor. Caecina,
while he was still on the north side of the Alps, received intelligence that a
body of cavalry on the Po had taken the oath to Vitellius, under whom they had
formerly served in Africa. Mediolanum (Milan), Vercellae, and other towns in North
Italy, followed this example. Caecina having sent some Gallic, Lusitanian, British,
and German troops over the mountains to support his new friends, led his soldiers
across the Pennine Alps, through the snow with which they were still covered.
The revolt of Vitellius had not reached Rome at the time of Galba's
death. As soon as it was known, Otho wrote to Vitellius, and offered to give him
all that he could desire, and even to share the empire with him. Vitellius replied
by offers on his part, but they could come to no terms, and both sides made preparation
for war. A disturbance was caused at Rome by the praetorian soldiers, who suspected
that there was some design against Otho. They broke into the palace, threatening
to kill the senators, many of whom were supping with Otho, and with difficulty
made their escape. The soldiers penetrated even to the emperor's apartment, in
order to be assured that he was alive. The tumult was at last allayed, but the
approach of a civil war, from the evils of which the state had so long been secure,
caused general uneasiness.
Otho left Rome for North Italy about the fourteenth of March. His
brother Titianus remained at Rome to look after the city, with Flavius Sabinus,
Vespasian's brother, who was praefectus urbi. Otho had under him three commanders
of ability, Suetonius Paulinus, Marius Celsus, and Annius Gallus. He marched on
foot at the head of his troops, in a plain military equipment (Tacit. Hist. ii.
11). Otho's fleet was master of the sea on the north-west coast of Italy, and
the soldiers treated the country as if it was a hostile territory. They defeated
the Ligurian mountaineers and plundered Albium Intemelium (Vintimiglia). Annius
Gallus and Vestricius Spurinna were commissioned by Otho to defend the Po. Spurinna,
who was in Placentia, was attacked by Caecina, but succeeded in repelling him
and destroying a large part of his force. Caecina retired, but the magnificent
amphitheatre which was outside the walls was burnt during the contest. Caecina
retreated towards Cremona, and bodies of his troops sustained fresh defeats. Martins
Macer, at the head of Otho's gladiators, surprised some auxiliaries of Caecina,
who took refuge in Cremona, but Macer from caution prevented his men from following
them into the town. His conduct brought suspicion on Suetonius and the other generals
of Otho, and Titianus, his brother, was sent for to take the conduct of the war.
Caecina made another attempt to retrieve his losses, but hewas beaten by Marius
Celsus and Suetonius, who, however, would not allow the men to follow up their
advantage ; and that which probably was prudence, became the foundation of a charge
of treason against him from his troops.
Valens, who was at Ticinum (Pavia), now joined his forces to those
of Caecina, and the two generals, who had been jealous of one another, now thought
only of combining to defeat the enemy. Otho's generals advised him to avoid a
decisive battle, but his own opinion, and that of his brother and of Proculus,
praefectus praetorio, was in favour of bringing the war at once to a close; and
this determination ruined the cause of Otho. He was advised to retire to Brixellum
(Brescelli), to be out of the way of danger, and he went there with a considerable
force. The generals of Vitellius knew the state of affairs in Otho's army, and
were ready to take advantage of it. The hostile armies were on the Po. The forces
of Otho, under Titianus and Proculus, were marched to the fourth milestone from
Bedriacum (Cividale ?), and on their route they suffered for want of water. They
had now sixteen miles to march to the confluence of the Adda and the Po, to find
the enemy, whom they came up with before they were expected. A fierce battle was
fought in which Otho's troops were entirely defeated. It is said that forty thousand
men fell in this battle. The troops of Vitellius followed up the pursuit within
five miles of Bedriacum, but they did not venture to attack the enemy's camp on
that day. On the next day the two armies came to terms, and the soldiers of Otho
received the victors into their camp.
Though Otho had still a large force with him, and other troops at
Bedriacum and Placentia, he determined to make no further resistance, and to die
by his own hand. After settling his affairs with the utmost coolness and deliberation,
he stabbed himself. The manner of his death is circumstantially told by Suetonius.
His life had been dissolute, and his conduct at the last, though it may appear
to have displayed courage, was in effect only despair. He died on the fifteenth
of April, A. D. 69, in the thirty-seventh year of his age. His sepulchre was at
Brixellum, and Plutarch, who saw it, says that it bore simply his name, and no
other inscription. Suetonius, who records every thing, has not forgotten Otho's
wig. His hair was thin, and he wore a perruque, which was so skilfully fitted
to his head that nobody could tell it from true hair.
(Suetonius, Otho ; Plutarch, Otho; Dion Cassius, lxiv.; Tacitus, Hist. i. ii.;
all the authorities are collected by Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, vol. i.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Vespasianus, T. Flavius Sabinus, Roman emperor, A. D. 70-79, was born in the Sabine country on the 17th of November,
A. D. 9. His father was a man of mean condition, of Reate, in the country of the
Sabini. His mother, Vespasia Polla, was the daughter of a Praefectus Castrorum,
and the sister of a Roman senator. She was left a widow with two sons, Flavius
Sabinus and Vespasian. On laying aside the toga virilis, Vespasian, with reluctance
and at the urgent solicitation of his mother, took the latus clavus. He served
as tribunus militum in Thrace, and was quaestor in Crete and Cyrene. He was afterwards
Aedile and Praetor. About this time he took to wife Flavia Domitilla, the daughter
of a Roman eques, by whom he had two sons, both of whom succeeded him. In the
reign of Claudius, and by the influence of Narcissus, he was sent into Germany
as legatus legionis; and in A. D. 43 he held the same command in Britain, and
reduced the Isle of Wight. (Sueton. Vespas. 4.) He was consul during the last
two months of A. D. 51, and Proconsul of Africa under Nero, in which capacity
Tacitus says (Hist. ii. 97) that he was much disliked. He was at this time very
poor. and was accused of getting money by dishonourable means. Love of money indeed
is said to have always been one of his faults. But he had a great military reputation,
and he was liked by the soldiers. He was frugal in his habits, temperate, and
an enemy to all ostentation; of a kind disposition, without the passions of hatred
or revenge. He had many great qualities, with some mean ones -a combination not
at all rare. His body was strong and his health good; and it is recorded that
he used to fast one day in every month (Sueton. Vespas. 8).
Nero, who did not like Vespasian because he was no admirer of Nero's
vocal powers, forbade him to appear in his presence; but when he wanted a general
for the Jewish war, he thought nobody was fitter than Vespasian, and he sent him
to the East at the close of A. D. 66, at the head of a powerful army. His conduct
of the Jewish war had raised his reputation, when the war broke out between Otho
and Vitellius after the death of Galba. He was proclaimed emperor at Alexandria
on the first of July A. D. 69, in Judaea, where he then was, on the third of the
same month, and soon after all through the East. He arranged that Mucianus, governor
of Syria, should march against Vitellius, and that his son Titus should continue
the war against the Jews. Titus, however, did little until the following year;
and Antonius Primus defeated or gained over the troops of Vitellius, who was put
to death about the 20th of December. Vespasian was in Egypt when he heard the
news of the victory which his troops had gained at Cremona on the 25th of October;
and he entered Alexandria, where he saw Apollonius of Tyana. Dion Cassius says
that he made himself odious to the Alexandrines by increasing the taxes and imposing
new ones, and the Alexandrines, according to their fashion, retaliated by satire
and sarcasm. His object in going to Egypt was to cut off the supplies of grain
from Alexandria to Rome, and so to compel Vitellius to yield; but this was unnecessary,
for Domitian, the second son of Vespasian, then at Rome, was proclaimed Caesar
upon the death of Vitellius (Tacit. Hist. iii. 86). The Senate conferred on Vespasian
the imperial title, with a specific enumeration of powers, and released him from
all the laws from which Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius had been released; and
the Senatus-consultum was confirmed by a Lex. A fragment of this Lex still remains.
Titus was made consul for the following year with his father.
Mucianus, who arrived at Rome the day after the death of Vitellius,
acted with full authority, for Vespasian had given him all powers. Domitian, also
as Caesar, took a share in public business, and availed himself of his new rank
to commit many acts of violence. Mucianus presented Domitian to the soldiers,
who gave them a largess or congiarium. Mucianus put several persons to death,
and among them Galerianus, the son of C. Piso, who had aspired to the empire in
the time of Nero. In A. D. 70 Titus was consul with his father, though neither
of them was in Rome on the 1st of January; and Domitian was praetor. Antonius
Primus had anticipated Mucianus in the defeat of Vitellius; and as Mucianus did
not like Primus, who was also a turbulent man, he compelled his legions, which
were much attached to their commander, to quit Rome. Mucianus also deprived Arrius
Varus of the charge of Praefectus Praetorio, which he gave to Clemens Aretinus.
The first care of the senate after the death of Vitellius was to rebuild the Capitol,
which had been recently burnt; and Helvidius Priscus laid the first stone on the
21st of June with great solemnity (Tacit. Hist. iv. 53). Vespasian restored three
thousand plates of bronze, which had been consumed in the conflagration, the invaluable
records of the Roman state (Sueton. Vespas. c. 8). For this purpose all copies
of the lost originals were carefully looked for. In this year the Sarmatians invaded
Maesia and killed the governor, Fonteius Agrippa. Rubrius Gallus, who was sent
by Vespasian, compelled the Sarmatians to retire across the river.
The Romans had now to carry on a war against the Batavi, who were
situated near the mouth of the Rhine. These Batavi furnished soldiers for the
Roman armies in Germany and Britain, and were so far in the relation of subjects
to Rome. Claudius Civilis, a one-eyed man like Hannibal and Sertorius, and one
of the most illustrious of the Batavi, had begun to excite his countrymen to resistance
by preventing the march of the new recruits whom Vitellius had ordered to be enlisted.
Having induced the Caninefates to join them, the Batavi attacked and defeated
the Romans under Aquilius. Hordeonius Flaccus, who commanded the troops in Germany,
sent Mummius Lupercus against Civilis with two legions, part of which joined Civilis,
and the rest were driven back to Castra Vetera, perhaps Xanten in Cleves. Eight
cohorts of Batavi and Caninefates, which Vitellius had ordered to march into Italy,
turned back from Mainz and defeated Herennius Gallus near Bonn (Tacit. Hist. iv.
19). Civilis made his troops take the oath to Vespasian, and shortly after he
was informed of the defeat of the Vitellians at Cremona, and that he ought now
to lay down his arms, if he had taken them up for the cause of Vespasian; but
Civilis had no intention to do so, and he declared that his object was to free
his country and the Gauls from the Roman yoke (Tacit Hist. iv. 32). The history
of this war is told under Civilis, Claudius.
Domitian left Rome on the news of the revolt of the Gauls with the
intention of conducting the war against Civilis, and Mucianus, knowing his character,
thought it prudent to accompany him. On their route the news arrived that Cerealis
had ended the war with Civilis, and Mucianus persuaded Domitian to go no farther
than Lyon. Domitian returned to Italy before the end of the year to meet his father.
When Vespasian heard at Alexandria of the de feat of the party of
Vitellius, his first care was to send vessels to Rome with supplies of corn, which
were much wanted. He also forwarded an edict to Rome, by which he repealed the
laws of Nero and his three successors as to the crime of laesa majestas. and also
banished astrologers, and yet he consulted astrologers himself, for all his good
sense had not placed him above this superstition (Tacit. Hist. ii. 28). At Alexandria
Vespasian is said to have cured a man who had a disease of the eyes, and a man
with a paralysed hand,though probably neither of them was beyond the ordinary
means of the healing art (Tacit. Hist. iv. 81). Vespasian, in his voyage from
Egypt, visited Rhodes and several cities of Asia Minor. He landed in the south
of Italy, and was joyfully received by the Italians on his journey to Rome and
on his arrival there.
Vespasian worked with great industry to restore order at Rome and
in the empire. He disbanded some of the mutinous soldiers of Vitellius, and maintained
discipline among his own. He cooperated in a friendly manner with the senate in
the public administration. Many sites in Rome still remained unbuilt since the
great conflagration in Nero's time, and Vespasian allowed any person to build
on these sites, if the owners did not do so, after a certain lapse of time (Sueton.
Vespas. c. 8). In this year Vespasian as censor purged the Senate and the Equites
of many unworthy members, and made up the deficient members by new nominations.
He also raised several persons to the rank of Patrician, and among them Cn. Julius
Agricola, afterwards the conqueror of Britain. The simplicity and frugality of
his mode of life formed a striking contrast with the profusion and luxury of some
of his predecessors, and his example is said to have done more to reform the morals
of Rome than all the laws which had ever been enacted. He lived more like a private
person than a man who possessed supreme power: he was affable and easy of access
to all persons. The personal anecdotes of such a man are some of the most instructive
records of his reign. He was never ashamed of the meanness of his origin, and
ridiculed all attempts to make out for him a distinguished genealogy (Sueton.
Vespas. 12). He often visited the villa in which he was born, and would not allow
any change to be made in the place. When Vologeses, the Parthian king, addressed
to him a letter commencing in these terms, "Arsaces, king of kings, to Flavius
Vespasianus", the answer began, "Flavius Vespasianus to Arsaces, king of kings".
If it be true, as it is recorded, that he was not annoyed at satire or ridicule,
he exhibited an elevation of character almost unparalleled in one who filled so
exalted a station. Vespasianus was mainly indebted to Mucianus, governor of Syria,
for his imperial title, and he was not ungrateful for the services that Mucianus
had rendered him, though Mucianus was of an arrogant and ambitious disposition,
and gave Vespasian some trouble by his behaviour. He knew the bad character of
his son Domitian, and as long as he lived he kept him under proper restraint.
The stories that are told of his avarice and of his modes of raising
money, if true, detract from the dignity of his character; and it seems that he
had a taste for little savings, and for coarse humour, Yet it is admitted that
he was liberal in all his expenditure for purposes of public utility. Love of
getting money and niggardliness in personal matters are by no means inconsistent
with bountiful outlay for great and noble objects.
In A. D. 71 Vespasianus was consul for the third time with M. Cocceius
Nerva, the same probably who was afterwards emperor, for his colleague. The senate
had decreed a triumph to Vespasian and Titus separately, for the conquest of the
Jews ; but Vespasian thought that one triumph was enough for both, and for the
first time, it is said, in the history of Rome, a father and a son triumphed together.
Vespasian was very weary of the pompous ceremony before it was over. The temple
of Janus was closed as the signal of war being ended, and the emperor commenced
the erection of a temple of Peace. Titus at this time began to assist his father
in the administration, and undertook the important functions of Praefectus Praetorio.
In A. D. 72 Caesennius Paetus, whom Vespasian had made governor of Syria in place
of Mucianus, informed the emperor that Antiochus, king of Commagene, and his son
Epiphanes, were in treaty with the Parthian king and preparing to revolt. Whether
the charge was true or false, Vespasian gave Paetus full powers to act, and the
governor entered Commagene and took possession of the country. Antiochus was ultimately
settled at Rome, where his two sons joined him, and Commagene was made a Roman
province.
Petilius Cerealis, who had terminated the war with the Batavi at the
close of A. D. 70, was afterwards sent into Britain, and reduced to subjugation
a large part of the Brigantes. Julius Frontinus, after him, subdued the Silures,
or people of South Wales. Frontinus was succeeded by Julius Agricola in the command
in Britain.
A great disturbance at Alexandria (A. D. 73) is recorded by Eusebius,
but little about it appears in other writers. It was at this time that Achaea,
Lycia, Rhodes, Byzantium, Cilicia, and other places, which were up to this time
either considered as free states or governed by kings, were all subjected to a
Roman governor, on the ground that their liberty was only used for the purposes
of disturbance (Pausan. vii. 17.4).
The execution of Helvidius Priscus took place under the reign of Vespasian,
and by his order; but the extravagant behaviour of Priscus and the mild temper
of Vespasian justify us in concluding that the emperor's conduct in this affair
may have had a reasonable justification. Priscus was a Stoic, who carried his
doctrines to an absurd excess; and he and others of the same sect seem to have
aimed at exciting insurrection. Vespasian banished the philosophers, as they were
called, from Rome, with the exception of Musonius Rufus. Demetrius, one of these
rabid sages, tried the emperor's patience by insulting him in the streets of Rome
(Sueton. Vespas. 13). In A. D. 74 Vespasian and Titus made a census or enumeration
of the Roman citizens, the last that was made. The conversation which is the subject
of the Dialogus de Oratoribus is represented as having taken place in the sixth
year of Vespasian, A. D. 75.
In the year A. D. 77, the eighth consulship of Vespasianus and the
sixth of Titus Caesar, Plinius addressed to Titus his great compilation, intitled
Naturalis Historia. In the same year Eusebius records a pestilence at Rome.
In A. D. 78 Agricoia was sent to Britain, and he reduced to submission
North Wales and the island of Anglesey, which had before been subjected by the
Romans, but had revolted under the administration of Suetonius Paullinus. The
following year (A. D. 79)Vespasian was guilty of an act of cruelty which marks
his character with a stain. Julius Sabinus, who had assumed the title of Caesar
in Gaul at the beginning of A. D. 70, was at last discovered, after nine years'
concealment, and brought to Rome with his wife Epponina. The faithful devotion
of Epponina during these years of concealment and alarm, has immortalised her
name. When she was carried before Vespasian, she threw herself at his feet with
the two children whom she had borne to her husband, whom she used to visit in
his hiding-place. Vespasian, though moved to tears, condemned both Sabinus and
his wife to die. The two children were preserved (Tacit. Hist. iv. 55, 67). The
story is told at length by Plutarch.
Alienus Caecina and Marcellus, both of whom had received favours from
Vespasian, conspired against him. The evidence was said to be complete. Titus
invited Caecina, against whom he had some cause of complaint, to sup with him,
and as he was leaving the palace, he ordered him to be put to death. This irregular
proceeding, whatever may have been the guilt of Caecina, is a reproach to the
memory of Titus and his father. Marcellus was tried by the Senate and condemned.
He cut his throat.
In the summer of this year Vespasian, whose health was failing, went
to spend some time at his paternal house in the mountains of the Sabini. By drinking
to excess of cold water he damaged his stomach, which was already disordered.
But he still attended to business, just as if he had been in perfect health; and
on feeling the approach of death he said that an emperor should die standing ;
and in fact he did die in this attitude on the 24th of June A. D. 79, being 69
years of age, seven months and seven days. He reigned ten years all but six days,
for his reign is dated from his proclamation as emperor at Alexandria on the first
of July A. D. 69.
The wife of Vespasian died before her husband's elevation to the imperial
dignity, and also her daughter Domitilla. After his wife's death he cohabited
with a freed woman named Caenis, whom, after he became emperor, he had, says Suetonius,
almost as a lawful wife. A marriage with Caenis would not have been a Roman marriage,
and she was a concubine, in the Roman sense. Caenis is accused of selling places
under the emperor.
(Suetonius, Vespasianus; Tacitus, Hist.; Dion Cassius, lxvi.; Tillemont, Histoire
des Empereurs, vol. ii.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus, Roman emperor, A. D. 79-81, commonly called by his praenomen Titus, was the son
of the emperor Vespasianus and his wife Flavia Domitilla. He was born on the 30th
of December, A. D. 40, about the time when Caius Caligula was murdered, in a mean
house and a small chamber, which were still shown in the time of Suetonius. From
his childhood he manifested a good disposition. He was well made, and had an agreeable
countenance, but it was remarked that his belly was somewhat large. (Sueton. Titus,
3.) Yet he was active, and very expert in all bodily exercises ; and he had a
great aptitude for learning. He was brought up in the imperial household with
Britannicus, the son of Claudius, in the same way and with the same instructors.
It is said that he was a guest at Nero's table, when Britannicus was poisoned,
and that he also tasted of the same deadly cup. He afterwards erected a gilded
statue to the memory of Britannicus, on the Palatium. Fitus was an accomplished
musician, and a most expert shorthand writer, an art in which the Romans excelled.
When a young man he served as tribunus militum in Britain and in Germany,
with great credit; and he afterwards applied himself to the labours of the forum.
His first wife was Arricidia, daughter of Tertullus, a Roman eques, and once praefectus
praetorio; and, on her death, he married Marcia Furnilla, a woman of high rank,
whom he divorced after having a daughter by her, who was called Julia Sabina.
After having been quaestor, he had the command of a legion, and served under his
father in the Jewish wars. He took the cities of Tarichaea, Gamala, and other
places.
When Galba was proclaimed emperor, A. D. 68, Titus was sent by his
father to pay his respects to the new emperor, and probably to ask for the promotion
to which his merits entitled him; but hearing of the death of Galba at Corinth,
he returned to his father in Palestine, who was already thinking of the higher
destiny to which he was called. Titus managed to reconcile Mucianus the governor
of Syria, and his father, and thus he contributed greatly to Vespasian's elevation.
Vespasian was proclaimed emperor on the 1st of July, A. D. 69, and Titus accompanied
him to Alexandria in Egypt. He returned to Palestine to prosecute the siege of
Jerusalem, during which he showed the talents of a general with the daring of
a soldier. The siege of Jerusalem, one of the most memorable on record, was concluded
by the capture of the place, on the 8th of September, A. D. 70, and Titus received
from the acclamations of his soldiers the title of Imperator. The most complete
account of the siege and capture of Jerusalem is by Josephus. He did not return
to Italy for eight months after the capture of Jerusalem, during which time he
had an interview with the Parthian ambassadors at Zeugma on the Euphrates, and
he paid a visit to Egypt, and assisted at the consecration of the bull Apis at
Memphis (Sueton. Titus, c. 5). On his journey to Italy he had an interview with
Apollonius of Tyana, who gave him some very good advice for a youth in his elevated
station.
Titus triumphed at Rome with his father. He also received the title
of Caesar, and became the associate of Vespasian in the government. They also
acted together as Censors. Titus undertook the office of Praefectus Praetorio,
which had hitherto only been discharged by Roman equites. His conduct at this
time gave no good promise, and the people looked upon him as likely to be another
Nero. He was accused of being excessively addicted to the pleasures of the table,
of indulging lustful passions in a scandalous way, and of putting suspected persons
to death with very little ceremony. A. Caecina, a consular whom he had invited
to supper, he ordered to be killed as he was leaving the room; but this was said
to be a measure of necessary severity, for Titus had evidence of Caecina being
engaged in a conspiracy. His attachment to Berenice also made him unpopular. Berenice
was the sister of King Agrippa II., and the daughter of Herodes Agrippa, sometimes
called the Great. She was first married to Herodes, king of Chalcis, her uncle,
and then to Polemon, king of Cilicia. Titus probably became acquainted with her
when he was in Judaea, and after the capture of Jerusalem she followed him to
Rome with her brother Agrippa, and both of them lodged in the emperor's residence.
It was said that Titus had promised to marry Berenice, but as this intended union
gave the Romans great dissatisfaction, he sent her away from Rome after he became
emperor, as Suetonius says, but in his father's lifetime according to Dion. The
scandalous story of Titus having poisoned his father at a feast (24th June, A.
D. 79) is not believed even by Dion, who could believe any thing bad of a man.
The year A. D. 79 was the first year of the sole government of Titus,
whose conduct proved an agreeable surprise to those who had anticipated a return
of the times of Nero. His brother Domitian, it is said, was dissatisfied at Titus
being sole emperor, and formed the design of stirring up the soldiers; but though
he made no decided attempt to seize the supreme power, he is accused of having
all along entertained designs against his brother. Instead of punishing him, Titus
endeavoured to win Domitian's affection, and urged him not to attempt to gain
by criminal means that power which he would one day have in a legitimate way.
During his whole reign Titus displayed a sincere desire for the happiness of the
people, and he did all that he could to relieve them in times of distress. A story
is told, that one evening, recollecting that he had given nothing during the day,
he said, "My friends, I have lost a day". He assumed the office of Pontifex Maximus
after the death of his father, and with the purpose, as he declared, of keeping
his hands free from blood; a resolution which he kept. Two patricians who were
convicted by the senate of a conspiracy against him, were pardoned and treated
with kindness and confidence. He checked all prosecutions for the crime of laesa
majestas, which from the time of Tiberius had been a fruitful source of false
accusations; and he severely punished all informers. He also removed from about
him many young men, whose acquaintance had damaged his reputation, and he associated
only with persons of good repute.
At the close of this year Titus repaired one of the Roman aqueducts,
and he assumed the title of Imperator on the occasion of the successes of Agricola
in Britain. This year is memorable for the great eruption of Vesuvius, which desolated
a large part of the adjacent country, and buried with lava and ashes the towns
of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Plinius the elder lost his life in this terrible catastrophe;
the poet Caesius Bassus is said to have been burnt in his house by the lava, and
Agrippa the son of Claudius Felix, once governor of Judaea, perished with his
wife. Dion Cassius (lxvi. 21, &c.) has described the horrors of this terrible
calamity ; and we have also the description of them in a letter addressed to Tacitus
by the younger Plinius. Titus endeavoured to repair the ravages of this great
eruption : he sent two consulars with money to restore the ruined towns, and he
applied to this purpose the property of those who had been destroyed, and had
left no next of kin. He also went himself to see the ravages which had been caused
by the eruption and the earthquakes. During his absence a fire was burning at
Rome for three days and three nights A. D. 80 : it destroyed the Capitol, the
library of Augustus, the theatre of Pompeius, and other public buildings, besides
many houses. The emperor declared that he should consider all the loss as his
own, and he set about repairing it with great activity: he took even the decorations
of the imperial residences, and sold them to raise money. The eruption of Vesuvius
was followed by a dreadful pestilence, which called for fresh exertions on the
part of the benevolent emperor.
In this year he completed the great amphitheatre, called the Colosseum,
which had been commenced by his father; and also the baths called the baths of
Titus. The dedication of these two edifices was celebrated by spectacles which
lasted one hundred days; by a naval battle in the old naumachia, and fights of
gladiators: on one day alone five thousand wild animals are said to have been
exhibited, a number which we may reasonably suspect to be exaggerated. He also
repaired several aqueducts, and paved the road from Rome to Rimini (Ariminum).
In the year A. D. 81 Agricola was employed in securing his conquests
in Scotland south of the Clyde and the Forth. After presiding at some games, at
the close of which he is said to have wept bitterly, though the cause of his sorrow
is not stated, Titus went off to the country of the Sabines in very low spirits,
owing to some bad omens. He was seized with fever at the first resting-place,
and being carried from thence to a villa, in which his father had died, he ended
his life there on the 13th of September, after a reign of two years and two months,
and twenty days. He was in the forty-first year of his age. There were suspicions
that he was poisoned by Domitian. Plutarch says that his health was damaged by
the frequent use of the bath. There is a story that Domitian came before Titus
was dead, and ordered him to be deserted by those about him : according to another
story, he ordered him to be thrown into a vessel full of snow, under the pretext
of cooling his fever. It is reported that shortly before his death, Titus lamented
that he was dying so soon, and said that he had never done but one thing of which
he repented. Nobody knew what this one thing was; but there were various conjectures.
Perhaps the difficulty may be best solved by supposing that he never uttered the
words, or if he did, that he was in the delirium of his fever. Titus was succeeded
by his brother Domitian. His daughter Julia Sabina was married to Flavius Sabinus,
his cousin, the son of Flavius Sabinus, the brother of Vespasian.
Titus is said to have written Greek poems and tragedies: he was very
familiar with Greek. He also wrote many letters in his father's name during Vespasian's
life, and drew up edicta.
(Suetonius, Titus Flavius Vespasianus; Tacitus, Hist.; Dion Cassius, lxvi.; Tillemont,
Histoire des Empereurs, vol. ii.)
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Domitianus, or with his full name T. Flavius Domitianus Augustus, was the younger
of Vespasian's sons by his first wife Domitilla. He succeeded his elder brother
Titus as emperor, and reigned from A. D. 81 to 96. He was born at Rome, on the
24th of October, A. D. 52, the year in which his father was consul designatus.
Suetonius relates that Domitian in his youth led such a wretched life, that he
never used a silver vessel, and that he prostituted himself for money. The position
which his father then occupied precludes the possibility of ascribing this mode
of life to poverty, and if the account be true, we must attribute this conduct
to his bad natural disposition. When Vespasian was proclaimed emperor, Domitian,
who was then eighteen years old, happened to be at Rome, where he and his friends
were persecuted by Vitellius; Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, was murdered, and
it was only with the greatest difficulty that Domitian escaped from the burning
temple of the capitol, and concealed himself until the victory of his father's
party was decided. After the fall of Vitellius, Domitian was proclaimed Caesar,
and obtained the city praetorship with consular power. As his father was still
absent in the east, Domitian and Mucianus undertook the administration of Italy
until Vespasian returned. The power which was thus put into his hands was abused
by the dissolute young man in a manner which shewed to the world, but too plainly,
what was to be expected, if he should ever succeed to the imperial throne: he
put several persons to death, merely to gratify his desire of taking vengeance
on his personal enemies; he seduced many wives, and lived surrounded by a sort
of harem, and arbitrarily deposed and appointed so many magistrates, both in the
city and Italy, that his father with a bitter sarcasm wrote to him, "I wonder
that you do not send some one to succeed me". Being jealous of the military glory
of his father and brother, he resolved upon marching against Civilis in Gaul,
in spite of the advice of all his friends to remain at Rome; but he did not advance
further than Lugdunum, for on his arrival there he received intelligence of Cerealis
having already conquered the rebel.
When his father at length arrived at Rome, Domitian, who was conscious
of his evil conduct, is said not to have ventured to meet him, and to have pretended
not to be in the perfect possession of his mind. Vespasian, however, knew his
disposition, and throughout his reign kept him as much as possible away from public
affairs; but in order to display his rank and station, Domitian always accompanied
his father and brother when they appeared in public, and when they celebrated
their triumph after the Jewish war, he followed them in the procession riding
on a white warsteed. He lived partly in the same house with his father, and partly
on an estate near the Mons Albanus, where he was surrounded by a number of courtezans.
While he thus led a private life, he devoted a great part of his time to the composition
of poetry and the recitation of his productions. Vespasian, who died in A. D.
79, was succeeded by his elder son Titus, and Domitian used publicly to say, that
he was deprived of his share in the government by a forgery in his father's will,
for that it had been the wish of the latter that the two brothers should reign
in common. But this was mere calumny : Domitian hated his brother, and made several
attempts upon his life. Titus behaved with the utmost forbearance towards him,
but followed the example of his father in not allowing Domitian to take any part
in the administration of public affairs, although he was invested with the consulship
seven times during the reigns of his father and brother. The early death of Titus,
in A. D. 81, was in all probability the work of Domitian. Suetonius states that
Domitian ordered the sick Titus to be left entirely alone, before he was quite
dead; Dion Cassius says that he accelerated his death by ordering him while in
a fever to be put into a vessel filled with snow; and other writers plainly assert,
that Titus was poisoned or murdered by Domitian.
On the ides of September, A. D. 81, the day on which Titus died, Domitian
was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers. During the first years of his reign he
continued, indeed, to indulge in strange passions, but Suetonius remarks that
he manifested a pretty equal mixture of vices and virtues. Among the latter we
must mention, that he kept a very strict superintendence over the governors of
provinces, so that in his reign they are said to have been juster than they ever
were afterwards. He also enacted several useful laws: he forbade, for example,
the castration of male children, and restricted the increasing cultivation of
the vine, whereby the growth of corn was neglected. He endeavoured to correct
the frivolous and licentious conduct of the higher classes, and shewed great liberality
and moderation on many occasions. He further took an active part in the administration
of justice; which conduct, praiseworthy as it then was, became disgusting afterwards,
when, assisted by a large class of delatores, he openly made justice the slave
of his cruelty and tyranny; for, during the latter years of his reign he acted
as one of the most cruel tyrants that ever disgraced a throne, and as Suetonius
remarks, his very virtues were turned into vices. The cause of this change in
his conduct appears, independent of his natural bias for what was bad, to have
been his boundless ambition, injured vanity, jealousy of others, and cowardice,
which were awakened and roused by the failure of his [p. 1062] undertakings and
other occurrences of the time. In A. D. 84 he undertook an expedition against
the Chatti, which does not seem to have been altogether unsuccessful, for we learn
from Frontinus (Strateg. 1. 3), that he constructed the frontier wall between
the free Germans and those who were subject to Rome, so that he must at any rate
have succeeded in confining the barbarians within their own territory. After his
return to Rome he celebrated a triumph, and assumed the name of Germanicus. In
the same year Agricola, whose success and merits excited his jealousy, was recalled
to Rome, ostensibly for the purpose of celebrating a triumph; but he was never
sent back to his post, which was given to another person. The most dangerous enemy
of Rome at that time was Decebalus, king of the Dacians. Domitian himself took
the field against him, but the real management of the war was left to his generals.
Simultaneously with this war another was carried on against the Marcomanni and
Quadi, who had refused to furnish the Romans with the assistance against Decebalus,
which they were bound to do by a treaty. The Romans were defeated by them, and
the consequence was, that Domitian was obliged to conclude peace with Decebalus
on very humiliating terms, A. D. 87. Another dangerous occurrence was the revolt
of L. Antonius in Upper Germany; but this storm was luckily averted by an unexpected
overflow of the Rhine over its banks, which prevented the German auxiliaries,
whom Antonius expected, from joining him; so that the rebel was easily conquered
by L. Appius Norbanus, in A. D. 91. An insurrection of the Nasamones in Africa
was of less importance, and was easily suppressed by Flaccus, the governor of
Numidia.
But it is the cruelty and tyranny of Domitian that have given his
reign an unenviable notoriety. His natural tendencies burst forth with fresh fury
after the Dacian war. His fear and his injured pride and vanity led him to delight
in the misfortunes and sufferings of those whom he hated and envied; and the most
distinguished men of the time, especially among the senators, had to bleed for
their excellence; while, on the other hand, he tried to win the populace and the
soldiers by large donations, and by public games and fights in the circus and
amphitheatre, in which even women appeared among the gladiators, and in which
he himself took great delight. For the same reason he increased the pay of the
soldiers, and the sums he thus expended were obtained from the rich by violence
and murder; and when in the end he found it impossible to obtain the means for
paying his soldiers, he was obliged to reduce their number. The provinces were
less exposed to his tyranny, and it was especially Rome and Italy that felt his
iron grasp. The expression of thought and sentiment was suppressed or atrociously
persecuted, unless men would degrade themselves to flatter the tyrant. The silent
fear and fearful silence which prevailed during the latter years of Domitian's
reign in Rome and Italy are briefly but energetically described by Tacitus in
the introduction to his Life of Agricola, and his vices and tyranny are exposed
in the strongest colours by the withering satire of Juvenal. All the philosophers
who lived at Rome were expelled; from which, however, we cannot infer, as some
writers do, that he hated all philosophical and scientific pursuits; the cause
being in all probability no other than his vanity and ambition, which could not
bear to be obscured by others. Christian writers attribute to him a persecution
of the Christians likewise; but there is no other evidence for it, and the belief
seems to have arisen from the strictness with which he exacted the tribute from
the Jews, and which may have caused much suffering to the Christians also.
As in all similar cases, the tyrant's own cruelty brought about his
ruin. Three officers of his court, Parthenius, Sigerius, and Entellus, whom Domitian
intended to put to death (this secret was betrayed to them by Domitia, the emperor's
wife, who was likewise on the list), formed a conspiracy against his life. Stephanus,
a freedman, who was employed by the conspirators, contrived to obtain admission
to the emperor's bed-room, and gave him a letter to read. While Domitian was perusing
the letter, in which the conspirators' plot was revealed to him, Stephanus plunged
a dagger into his abdomen. A violent struggle ensued between the two, until the
other conspirators arrived. Domitian fell, after having received seven wounds,
on the 18th of September, A. D. 96. Apollonius of Tyana, who was then at Ephesus,
at the moment Domitian was murdered at Rome, is said to have run across the market-place,
and to have exclaimed, "That is right, Stephanus, slay the murderer!"
There are few rulers who better deserve the name of a cruel tyrant
than Domitian. The last three years of his reign forn one of the most frightful
periods that occur in the history of man; but he cannot be called a brutal monster
or a madman like Caligula and Nero, for he possessed talent and a cultivated mind;
and although Pliny and Quintilian, who place his poetical productions by the side
of those of the greatest masters, are obviously guilty of servile flattery, yet
his poetical works cannot have been entirely without merit. His fondness and esteem
for literature are attested by the quinquennial contest which he instituted in
honour of the Capitoline Jupiter, and one part of which consisted of a musical
contest. Both prose writers and poets in Greek as well as in Latin recited their
productions, and the victors were rewarded with golden crowns. He further instituted
the pension for distinguished rhetoricians, which Quintilian enjoyed; and if we
look at the comparatively flourishing condition of Roman literature during that
time, we cannot help thinking that it was, at least in great measure, the consequence
of the influence which he exercised and of the encouragement which he afforded.
It is extremely probable that we still possess one of the literary productions
of Domitian in the Latin paraphrase of Aratus's Phaenomena, which is usually attributed
to Germanicus, the grandson of Augustus. The arguments for this opinion have been
clearly set forth by Rutgersius (Var. Lect. iii. p. 276), and it is also adopted by Niebuhr. (Tac. Hist. iii, 59, &c., iv. 2, &c., Agric. 39,
42, 45; Suet. Domitian.; Dion Cass. lib. lxvi. and lxvii.; Juvenal, Satir.; Quintil.
iv. 1.2, &c., x. 1.91, &c.)
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Nerva, M. Cocceius, Roman emperor, A. D. 96-98, was born at Narnia, in Umbria (Aur. Vict. Epit. 12),
as some interpret the words of Victor, or rather his family was from Narnia. His
father was probably the jurist, No. 3. The time of his birth was A. D. 32, inasmuch
as he died in January, A. D. 98, at the age of nearly sixty-six (Dion Cass. lxviii.
4). He was consul with Vespasian, A. D. 71, and with Domitian, A. D. 90. Tillemont
supposes him to be the Nerva mentioned by Tacitus (Ann. xv. 72), but this Nerva
is, perhaps, the father of the emperor.
Nerva was probably at Rome when Domitian was assassinated, and privy
to the conspiracy, though Aurelius Victor (de Caes. 12) seems to intend to say
that he was in Gaul, which is very improbable. His life was saved from the cruelty
of Domitian by the emperor's superstition, who believed an astrologer's prediction
that Nerva would soon die a natural death (Dion Cass. lxvii. 15). On the assassination
of Domitian, in September, A. D. 96, Nerva was declared emperor at Rome by the
people and the soldiers, and his administration at once restored tranquillity
to the state. He stopped proceedings against those who, under the system of his
predecessor, had been accused of treason (majestas), and allowed many exiled persons
to return to Rome. The class of informers were suppressed by penalties (Plin.
Pagyr.y c. 35); some were put to death, among whom was the philosopher Sura; and,
conformably to the old law, Nerva declared that slaves and freedmen should never
be examined as witnesses against their masters or patrons when accused of a crime
(Dion Cass. lxvii. 1). These measures were necessary to restore order and confidence
after the suspicious and cruel administration of Domitian. But there was weakness
in the character of Nerva, as appears from the following anecdote. He was entertaining
Junius Mauricus and Fabius Veiento at table. Veiento had played the part of an
accuser (delator) under Domitian. The conversation turned on Catullus Messallinus,
who was then dead, but had been an infamous informer under Domitian. "What would
this Catullus be doing", said Nerva, "if he were alive now"; to which Mauricus
bluntly replied, "he would be supping with us" (Aur. Vict. Epit. 12).
The public events of his short reign were few and unimportant; and
it is chiefly his measures of internal administration of which there are any records.
Nerva attempted to relieve the poverty of many of the citizens by buying land
and distributing it among them, one of the remedies for distress which the Romans
had long tried, and with little advantage. The practice of occasionally distributing
money among the poor citizens, and allowances of grain, still continued under
Nerva, one of the parts of Roman administration which continually kept alive the
misery for which it supplied temporary relief. He also diminished the expences
of the state by stopping many of the public shows and festivals. Many enactments,
by which we must understand Senatus consulta, were passed in his time, among which
the prohibition against making eunuchs is worthy of notice but Domitian had already
made the same regulation in the beginning of his reign (Dion Cass. lxvii. 2),
whence we must conclude that the law had either been repealed or required some
stricter penalties to enforce it.
In the second year of his reign, Nerva was consul, for the third time,
with L. Verginius Rufus, also for the third time consul. Rufus had been proclaimed
emperor by the soldiers in the time of Nero, A. D. 68, but had refused the dangerous
honour. The emperor made no difficulty about associating Rufus with himself in
the consulship, but Rufus was a very old man, and soon died. Calpurnius Crassus,
a descendant of the Crassi of the republic, with others, conspired against the
emperor, but the plot was discovered, and Nerva rebuked the conspirators by putting
into their hands at a show of gladiators, the swords with which the men were going
to fight, and asking the conspirators, in the usual way, if they were sharp enough.
This anecdote, if true, shows that the exhibitions of gladiators were in use under
Nerva. The text of Diou does not state what was the punishment of Crassus, but
Victor (Epit. 12) says that Crassus was relegated [p. 1168] with his wife to Tarentum,
and that the senate blamed the emperor for his leniency; but Nerva had sworn at
the commencement of his reign that he would put no senator to death, and he kept
his word.
The feebleness of the emperor was shown by a mutiny of the Praetorian
soldiers, who were either urged on by their Praefectus, Aelianus Casperius, or
had bribed him to support them. The soldiers demanded the punishment of the assassins
of Domitian, which the emperor refused. Though his body was feeble, his will was
strong, and he offered them his own neck, and declared his readiness to die. However,
it appears that the soldiers effected their purpose, and Nerva was obliged to
put Petronius Secundus and Parthenius to death, or to permit them to be massacred
by the soldiers (Plin. Panegyr. c. 6; Aur. Vict. Epit. 12; Dion Cass. lviii. 3).
Casperius, it is said, carried his insolence so far as to compel the emperor to
thank the soldiers for what they had done.
Nerva felt his weakness, but he showed his noble character and his
good sense by appointing as his successor a man who possessed both vigour and
ability to direct public affairs. He adopted as his son and successor, without
any regard to his own kin, M. Ulpius Trajanus, who was then at the head of an
army in Germany, and probably on the Lower Rhine. It was about this time that
news arrived of a victory in Pannonia, which is commemorated by a medal, and it
was apparently on this occasion that Nerva assumed the title of Germlanicus. He
conferred on Trajan the title of Caesar and Germanicus, and the tribunitian power.
Trajan was thus associated with Nerva in the government, and tranquillity was
restored at Rome. In the year A. D. 98, Nerva and Trajan were consuls. The emperor
died suddenly on the 27th of January, in the sixty-third year of his age, according
to Victor; but according to Dion, at the age of sixty-five years, ten months and
ten days. Eutropius incorrectly states that he was seventyone. Victor records
an eclipse of the sun on the day of Nerva's death, but the eclipse happened on
the 21st of March, A. D. 98.
The body of Nerva was carried to the pile on the shoulders of the
senators, as that of Augustus had been, and his remains were placed in the sepulchre
of Augustus. Nerva received the honour of deification.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Trajanus, M. Ulpius, Roman emperor A. D. 98-117, was born at Italica (Alcala del Rio), near Seville,
the 18th of September, A. D. 52, according to some authorities. His father, also
named Trajanus, had attained, it is said, the dignity of consul, and been elevated
to the rank of patrician; but his name does not occur in the Fasti.
The son was trained to arms, and served as tribunus militum. It appears
that he was employed near the Euphrates, probably about A. D. 80, when he checked
the progress of the Parthians ; and it is not unlikely that he was at this time
serving under his father. He was raised to the praetorship some time before A.
D. 86, and was consul in A. D. 91 with M' Acilius Glabrio. He afterwards returned
to Spain, whence he was summoned by Domitian to command the troops in Lower Germany,
and he had his head-quarters at Cologne. At the close of A. D. 97, he was adopted
by the emperor Nerva, who gave him the rank of Caesar, and the names of Nerva
and Germanicus, and shortly after the title of imperator, and the tribunitia potestas.
His style and title after his elevation to the imperial dignity were Imperator
Caesar Nerva Trajanus Augustus. He was the first emperor who was born out of Italy.
Trajan was a man adapted to command. He was strong and healthy, of
a majestic appearance, laborious, and inured to fatigue. Though not a man of letters,
he had good sense, a knowledge of the world, and a sound judgment. His mode of
living was very simple, and in his campaigns he shared all the sufferings and
privations of the soldiers, by whom he was both loved and feared. He was a friend
to justice, and he had a sincere desire for the happiness of the people. Yet it
is said that he sometimes indulged in wine to excess, and during intoxication
was subject to fits of passion. A strong nature, like that of Trajan, may sometimes
have required excitement, notwithstanding his habitual temperance. It is difficult
to decide between the testimony of his panegyrist Plinius, who commends the chastity
of Trajan, and the testimony of Dion Cassius, the universal calumniator, who says
that he was addicted to shameful vices. Julian, a severe judge, has not spared
him on this point.
Nerva died in January A. D. 98, and was succeeded by Trajan, who was
then at Cologne. He did not come to Rome for some months, being employed in settling
the frontiers on the Rhine and the Danube. It was apparently about this time that
the Chamavi and Angrivarii drove the Bructeri from their lands on the Rhine, and
destroyed the greater part of them, the Romans being witnesses of the bloody combat,
and seeing with indifference, or even pleasure, the mutual slaughter of their
enemies.
In A. D. 99 Trajan did not take the consulship, though it was usual
for an emperor to hold this office in the year which followed his elevation. One
of the consuls of this year was C. Sosius Senecio, whom Plutarch addresses in
the beginning of his life of Romulus, and in several of his moral essays. Trajan
entered Rome on foot, amidst the rejoicings of the Romans, accompanied by his
wife Pompeia Plotina. This lady is highly commended by Plinius the younger for
her modest virtues, and her affection to Marciana, the sister of Trajan. The title
of Pater Patriae was accepted by the emperor after his arrival at Rome, and the
new designation of Optimus. It seems probable that his wife and sister also had
the title of Augustae.
It was usual for a new emperor to bestow a gift of money on each of
his soldiers, and it appears from the medals that Trajan made his congiarium in
this year. He also showed the same liberality to the Roman citizens, and extended
it to children under eleven years of age, who had not been allowed to share in
former donations of this kind. The emperor made allowances for the bringing up
of the children of poor free persons at Rome, the direct object being to encourage
the procreation, or rather the preservation of children, who otherwise would have
been allowed to perish. "It is", says Plinius (Panegyr. c. 27), "a great inducement
to bring up children, to raise them with the hope of receiving sustenance (alimenta),
of receiving donations (congiaria)". Plinius commends the emperor for being liberal
out of his own means, that is, out of the imperial revenue; but this money came
either from taxes, or from the produce of lands which belonged to the fiscus.
So long as a bounty is paid for the procreation of children, the state may rest
secure that it will not want citizens. This system was extended to other towns
of Italy, where provision was made for supporting the children of the poor. This
was the mode in which the Roman policy attempted to meet an evil, which grows
up in all large towns, a population without the means of subsistence (see the
Tabula Alimentaria of Velleia). Trajan also occupied himself with provisioning
Rome, a part of Roman policy which had been long established. There are only two
ways of feeding a people; one way is to let them feed themselves by removing all
obstacles to freedom of trade and freedom of communication; the other is by taking
from one to give to another, a system which is more agreeable to him who gains
than to him who loses. Trajan punished the odious class of informers, a measure
that will always be popular.
There was at Rome a tax of five per cent. (vicesima) on successions,
that is, on property which came to a man by the death of another. This mode of
raising a revenue contains the principle of the state assuming that a man's title
to property ceases with his life, for if the amount of the tax is carried high
enough, the whole will go to the state. It is not like a tax annually paid upon
the annual produce or value of land, which is only a contribution of a portion
of the fruits. Trajan (Plin. Paneg. c. 37, &c.) released from this tax on successions
those heredes who were not extranei, and also those who succeeded to a small hereditas.
Many of the public buildings at Rome were repaired by the emperor in the early
part of his reign, and he added accommodation to the Circus for five thousand
persons.
In the year A. D. 100, various persons enjoyed for a time the honour
of the consulship; Sex. Julius Frontinus, the author of a work on the aqueducts
of Rome, Tertullus Cornutus, and C. Caecilius Plinius Secundus. In this year Marius
Priscus, proconsul of Africa, was tried by the senate for peculation in his province.
Plinius and Cornelius Tacitus, the historian, were appointed by the senate to
prosecute. Priscus made no defence, and submitted to be convicted. He was banished,
but he still enjoyed himself in his exile (Juv. Sat. viii. 120). Caecilius Classicus,
proconsul of Baetica, was accused about the same time of pillaging the people
whom he had been sent to govern. He died or killed himself before judgment was
given (Plin. Ep. iii. 9); but the matter was still prosecuted : the property which
Classicus had before he was governor was given to his daughter, and the rest was
distributed among those whom he had robbed. Some of the accomplices of Classicus
were also punished. The Panegyricus on Trajan, which is our authority for many
of Trajan's acts up to this time, was pronounced by Plinius in A. D. 100, the
year in which he received the consular honour. Some additions were made to the
Panegyricus after it was pronounced (Plin. Ep. iii. 13, 18). It was perhaps about
this time that Hadrian, afterwards emperor, married Sabina, the grand-niece of
Trajan; and to this date or somewhere about this time we may refer a letter of
Plinius (Ep. iii. 20), in which he says that all the senators on the day of electing
the magistrates demanded the vote by ballot (tabellas postulaverunt).
In his fourth cousulship, A. D. 101, Trajan left Rome for his campaign
against the Daci. Decebalus, king of the Daci, had compelled Domitian to purchase
peace by an annual payment of money; and Trajan, either being tired of paying
this shameful tribute, or having other grounds of complaint, determined on hostilities.
Decebalus was defeated, and one of his sisters was taken prisoner, and many of
his strong posts were captured. Trajan advanced as far as Zermizegethusa, probably
the chief town of the Dacian king, and Decebalus at last sued for peace at the
feet of the Roman emperor; but Trajan required him to send ambassadors to Rome
to pray for the ratification of the treaty. The conqueror assumed the name of
Dacicus, and entered Rome in triumph.
Plinius (Ep. iv. 22) records a curious decision at Rome in the emperor's
consilium. Trebonius Rufinus, duumvir of Vienna, had put an end to certain games
in that town, which had been established by a testamentary bequest; the ground
of not allowing their celebration was, that the games were injurious to the morals
of the people of Vienna. The case was carried by appeal to Rome, and the judgment
of Rufinus was confirmed. When the members of the consilium were asked their opinion
Junius Mauricus said that he wished such exhibitions could be stopped at Rome
also. This was the same man who gave Nerva a rebuke (Plin. Ep. iv. 22).
It was probably some time in A. D. 103, that Trajan made an artificial
harbour at Centum Cellae (Civita Vecchia), the form of which is recorded on a
medal: the operations of constructing the port are described by Plinius (Ep. vi.
31). The port was called Trajanus Portus, but the old name of Centum Cellae afterwards
prevailed. In this year or the following Plinius was sent by Trajan as governor
of Pontus and Bithynia, with the title of Legatus and Propraetor, and with Consularis
Potestas. It was during his residence of about eighteen months in this province
that part of his correspondence with Trajan took place, which is preserved in
the tenth book of the letters of Plinius. He was particularly commissioned by
the emperor to examine the state of the revenue and expenditure of the towns,
and to cut off all useless cost. The correspondence of Trajan with his governor
shows the good sense and moderation of the Roman emperor, his attention to business,
his honest straightforward purpose. As to the treatment of the Christians in Bithynia,
see Plinius, C. Caecilius Secundus.
An embassy from a Sarmatian king (A. D. 104) passed through Nicaea
in Bithynia on their way to Trajan (Plin. Ep. x. 14). In this year the remains
of Nero's golden palace were burnt, and Orosius adds (vii. 12) that it was a visitation
upon Trajan for his persecution of the Christians; but as it is not proved to
the satisfaction of all persons that Trajan was a persecutor, perhaps the historian
may be mistaken in his opinion. Besides, the burning of Nero's palace, who set
the first example of persecution, does not seem to have been an appropriate punishment
for Trajan, even if he deserved punishment.
In this year Trajan commenced his second Dacian war against Decebalus,
who, it is said, had broken the treaty; and when Trajan required him to surrender
himself, he refused, and prepared for resistance. The senate declared Decebalus
an enemy, and Trajan conducted the campaign in person. The Dacian attempted to
rid himself of his formidable enemy by sending two pretended deserters to assassinate
him when he was in Maesia. Longinus, one of the generals of Trajan was surprised
by Decebalus in an ambuscade, and the Dacian king offered to restore him, if Trajan
would grant peace, restore the country as far as the Danube, and pay the expenses
of the war. Trajan, who could not accept such terms as these, gave an evasive
answer, and in the mean time Longinus relieved the emperor from his difficulty
by poisoning himself. In order to effect a communication with the country north
of the Danube, Apollodorus the architect constructed, by Trajan's command, a bridge
over the river, which is described by Dion Cassius (lxviii. 13, and the valuable
note of Reimarus), though his description is inaccurate, and his measurements
exaggerated. "When the water is very low, some of the piles stand two or three
feet above it". The bridge was built at a place called Szernecz. The piers were
of enormous size, but the arches were constructed of wood. Trajan crossed the
Danube on his new bridge, and entered Dacia. He found great obstacles in this
country, where there were no roads, and every thing was almost in a state of nature.
Hadrian commanded a legion under the emperor, and greatly distinguished himself
in this Dacian campaign. Decebalus being defeated on every side, killed himself,
and his head was carried to Rome. Dacia was reduced to the form of a Roman province;
strong forts were built in various places, and Roman colonies were planted. It
is generally supposed that the column at Rome called the Column of Trajan was
erected to commemorate his Dacian victories. On his return Trajan had a triumph,
and he exhibited games to the people for one hundred and twenty-three days, a
time long enough to satisfy the avidity of the Romans for these spectacles. Eleven
thousand animals were slaughtered during these amusements; and an army of gladiators,
ten thousand men, gratified the Romans by killing one another. We must assume
that there was at least another army as large to prevent the outbreak of so many
desperate men. Probably many of these gladiators were prisoners. (A. D. 105.)
About this time Arabia Petraea was subjected to the empire by A. Cornelius
Palma, the governor of Syria; and an Indian embassy came to Rome.
Trajan constructed a road across the Pomptine marshes, and built magnificent
bridges across the streams. Buildings, probably mansiones, were constructed by
the side of this road. He also called in all the old money, and issued a new coinage.
In the autumn of B. C. 106 Trajan left Rome to make war on the Armenians
and the Parthians. The pretext for the war was that Exedares, the king of Armenia,
had received the diadem from the Parthian king, and he ought to have received
it from the Roman emperor, as Tiridates had received it from Nero. When Chosroes,
the Parthian king, knew that Trajan was seriously bent on war, he sent ambassadors,
who found Trajan at Athens, and, in the name of Chosroes, offered him presents,
and informed him that Chosroes had deposed Exedares, and begged him to confer
the crown on Parthamasiris. Trajan refused his presents, and said that when he
arrived in Syria he would do what was proper. He reached Seleucia in Syria in
the month of December, and entered Antioch early in the following January. The
evidence for the interview at Antioch between the emperor and Ignatius, which
ended in the condemnation of Ignatius, is stated elsewhere. The circumstances,
as told, are exceedingly improbable, and sound criticism would lead us to reject
the genuineness of the narrative contained in the Martyrdom of Ignatius on the
internal evidence alone.
From Antioch Trajan marched to Armenia, by way of Samosata, on the
Euphrates, which he took. He thence advanced to Satala, and Elegia, a town in
Armenia, where he granted Parthamasiris an interview. Parthamasiris had already
written to Trajan, and in his letter he assumed the title of king. Trajan sent
no answer, and he wrote again, dropping the title of king, and prayed that M.
Junius, governor of Cappadocia, might be sent to him : Trajan sent to him the
son of Junius. The Armenian king took the diadem from his head. and placed it
at the feet of Trajan, who sat on his tribunal within the Roman camp. He expected
that Trajan would give it back to him, but he was told that Armenia was now a
Roman province, and he was sent away escorted by some horsemen. The kings of the
countries bordering on Armenia made a form of submission to the Roman emperor;
the king of the Iberi, of the Sauromatae, of Colchis, and others.
Trajan returned by way of Edessa, where he was well received by the
cautious Abgarus, king of Osrhoene, who now made his apology for not having paid
the emperor a visit at Antioch, and through the interest of his son Arbandes,
whom Trajan had seen and liked, the king of Osrhoene was excused for his former
want of respect. The transactions with some of the petty chieftains of Mesopotamia
hardly merit a notice, but military operations in this country are dangerous enough
even without a formidable enemy, and the emperor set his soldiers an example of
endurance, which may have been an act of prudence as of hardihood. The town of
Singar (Sinjar) is one of those which are mentioned as having been taken by the
Romans. The history of this campaign of Trajan is lost, and the few scattered
notices that remain of it do not enable us to construct even a probable narrative.
In fact the period from A. D. 108 to A. D. 115 is nearly a blank; it is even doubful
whether Trajan ever returned to Rome. The year A. D. 112 was the sixth and last
consulship of Trajan, and there is some slight evidence which renders it probable
that he was at Rome in this year.
In the spring of A. D. 115 he left Syria on his Parthian expedition.
He had constructed boats of the timber which the forests near Nisibis supplied,
and they were conveyed on waggons to the Tigris, for the formation of a bridge
of boats. He crossed the river and advanced into the country of Adiabene, an event
which is recorded by an extant medal. The whole of this country, in which were
situated Gaugamela and Arbela, places memorable in the history of Alexander, was
subdued. From Adiabene he marched to Babylon, according to Dion Cassius (lxviii.
26), and he must therefore have recrossed the Tigris. His course was through the
desert to the Euphrates, and past the site of Hit (Is), where he saw the springs
of bitumen, which was used for cement at Babylon, and which Herodotus has described.
Trajan meditated (Dion Cass.) the formation of a canal from the Euphrates to the
Tigris, in order that he might convey his boats along it, and construct a bridge
over the lower course of the Tigris. We must suppose that the bridge of boats
over the upper Tigris in Adiabene was intended to remain; and that Trajan had
also sent boats down the Euphrates, which Dion Cassius has not mentioned. Dion
Cassius's narrative, which exists only in the epitome of Xiphilinus, is very confused.
There were already canals existing, which joined the Euphrates and Tigris, and
we must therefore suppose that they required clearing out, and were not in a fit
condition for the transit of boats'. According to Dion Cassius, Trajan did not
cut the intended canal, for fear that the Euphrates might be drained by it of
its waters. Accordingly, the boats were taken across by land, the Tigris was bridged,
and the Roman emperor entered the Parthian capital of Ctesiphon. This event was
commemorated by his assuming the name of Parthicus, though it seems that he had
assumed it before.
Tillemont supposes that Trajan returned to Antioch in the winter of
A. D. 115, during which happened the great earthquake, which nearly destroyed
Antioch and many other cities; but Dion Cassius places the earthquake before the
capture of Ctesiphon. This terrible calamity, which was as awful in its circumstances
as the great earthquake of Lisbon in the last century, destroyed a great number
of buildings and many people: Pedo the consul perished, and Trajan escaped through
a window, with a slight injury, being led forth by a man of supernatural size.
In the following year Trajan descended the Tigris and entered the
Erythraean Sea (the Persian Gulf). The king of the district called Mesene, between
the lower course of the Tigris and the Euphrates, submitted to the emperor. Dion
Cassius adds that Trajan sailed as far as the Ocean, and seeing a vessel bound
for India, said that he would have gone thither, if he were younger. In the mean
time he was losing his Eastern conquests as quick as he had gained them; some
of his governor were slaughtered, and others expelled. He sent his generals Lusius
and Maximus to restore obedience. Maximus lost his life; but Lusius was successful,
for he recovered Nisibis, and took Edessa by storm and burnt it. Seleucia on the
Tigris, near Ctesiphon, was taken and burnt by Erycius Clarus and Julius Alexander.
It appears that the whole country east of the Tigris from north to south, had
risen against the Romans. Returning to Ctesiphon. Trajan determined to give the
Parthians a king. He assembled the Romans and Parthians in a great plain near
the city, and ascending a lofty tribunal, he commemorated his own exploits, and
concluded by declaring Parthamaspates king of the Parthians, and placing the diadem
on his head. The conquest of Arabia is recorded by several medals among the exploits
of Trajan, but it is impossible to say which of the several parts of Asia included
under that name, was conquered by him. Dion Cassius says: "after this he went
into Arabia and attacked the Atreni, who had revolted; and their city is neither
large nor rich". By Arabia he here means northern Mesopotamia, for Atra is Al
Hadhr. Trajan was obliged to raise the siege of this town. Tillemont supposes
that Trajan entered the Indian Ocean, and penetrated "even to the extremities
of Arabia Felix", but it is impossible to adopt his conclusions from the evidence
that he produces.
Trajan fell ill after the siege of Atra, and as his complaint grew
worse, he set out for Italy, leaving Hadrian in Syria, and Parthia again hostile,
for the Parthians had ejected the king whom Trajan gave them. The emperor seems
to have had a variety of complaints, both dropsy and paralysis. He lived to reach
Selinus in Cilicia, afterwards called Trajanopolis, where he died in the early
part of August, A. D. 117, after a reign of nineteen years six months and fifteen
days. His ashes were taken to Rome in a golden urn, carried in triumphal procession,
and deposited under the column which bears his name. He left no children, and
he was succeeded by Hadrian.
Trajan constructed several great roads in the empire; he built libraries
at Rome, one of which, called the Ulpia Bibliotheca, is often mentioned; and a
theatre in the Campus Martius. His great work was the Forum Trajanum, the site
of which was an elevation which was removed, and the ground was levelled to a
plain, in the centre of which was placed the column of Trajan, the height of which
marked the height of the earth which had been removed. The inscription on the
column fixes the date at the year A. D. 11 2, the sixth consulship of Trajan.
Apollodorus was Trajan's architect. Trajan constructed the port of Ancona, on
the ancient mole of which there still stands a triumphal arch, dedicated to Trajan,
his wife, and his sister. The inscription on the bridge of Alcantara over the
Tagus belonged to the year A. D. 106, but though the inscription was in honour
of Trajan, it states that the bridge was made at the common expense of the several
towns which are there mentioned.
Under the reign of Trajan lived Sextus Julius Frontinus, C. Cornelius
Tacitus, the Younger Plinius, and various others of less note. Plutarch, Suetonius,
Epictetus, survived Trajan. The jurists Juventius Celsus, and Neratius Priscus,
were living under Trajan.
The authorities for part of the reign of Trajan are very defective.
Tillemont, with all his industry, has not been able to construct a narrative of
the latter years of his reign, which we can fully accept, and his chronology is
open to several objections. Still the life of Trajan in the Histoire des Empereurs
(vol. ii.) contains all the materials that exist for the reign of this distinguished
man, and, with the notes of Reimarus on the sixty-eighth book of Dion Cassius,
must be the foundation of any future attempts to give a satisfactory history of
this period. There is an essay by H. Francke, Zur Geschichte Trajans und seiner
Zeitgenossen, &c., 1837, which is well spoken of.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hadrianus, P. Aelius, the fourteenth in the series of Roman emperors, reigned from the 11th of August,
A. D. 117, till the 10th of July, A. D. 138. He was born at Rome on the 24th of
January, A. D. 76; and not as Eutropius (viii. 6) and Eusebius (Chron. no. 2155)
state, at Italica. This mistake arose from the fact, that Hadrian was descended,
according to his own account, from a family of Hadria in Picenum, which, in the
time of P. Scipio, had settled at Italica in Spain. His father, Aelius Hadrianus
Afer, was married to an aunt of the emperor Trajan; he had been praetor, and lived
as a senator at Rome. Hadrian lost his father at the age of ten, and received
his kinsman Ulpius Trajanus (afterwards the emperor Trajan) and Caelins Attianus
as his guardians. He was from his earliest age very fond of the Greek language
and literature, which he appears to have studied with zeal, while he neglected
his mother tongue. At the age of fifteen he left Rome and went to Spain, where
he entered upon his military career; but he was soon called back, and obtained
the office of decemvir stlitibus; and about A. D. 95 that of military tribune,
in which capacity he served in Lower Moesia. When Trajan was adopted by Nerva,
A. D. 97, Hadrian hastened from Moesia to Lower Germany, to be the first to congratulate
Trajan; and in the year following he again travelled on foot from Upper to Lower
Germany, to inform Trajan of the demise of Nerva ; and this he did with such rapidity,
that he arrived even before the express messengers sent by Servianus, who was
married to his sister Paulina. Trajan now became more and more attached to Hadrian,
though the attachment did not continue undisturbed, until Trajan's wife, Plotina,
who was fond of Hadrian, contrived to confirm the connexion by bringing about
a marriage between her favourite and Julia Sabina, a grand-daughter of Trajan's
sister Marciana. Henceforth Hadrian rose every day in the emperor's favour, for
the preservation of which he did not always adopt the most honourable means. He
was successively invested with various offices at Rome, such as the quaestorship
in A. D. 101. In this capacity he delivered his first speech in the senate, but
was laughed at on account of the rudeness and want of refinement in its delivery.
This induced him to study more carefully his mother tongue and Latin oratory,
which he had hitherto neglected. Soon after the expiration of his quaestorship
he appears to have joined Trajan, who was then carrying on the war against the
Dacians. In A. D. 105 he obtained the tribuneship of the people, and two years
later the praetorship. In [p. 320] Trajan's second expedition against the Dacians,
he entrusted to Hadrian the command of a legion, and took him with him. Hadrian
distinguished himself so much by his bravery, that Trajan rewarded him with a
diamond which he himself had received from Nerva, and which was looked upon as
a token that Trajan designated him as his successor. In A. D. 108 Hadrian was
sent as legatus praetorius into Lower Pannonia; and he not only distinguished
himself in the administration of the province, and by the strict discipline he
maintained among the troops, but he also fought with great success against the
Sarmatians. The favourable opinion which the emperor entertained of Hadrian on
this account was increased through the influence of Plotina and Licinius Sura,
a favourite friend of Trajan; and Hadrian was made consul suffectus for the year
109; nay, a report was even spread that Trajan entertained the thought of adopting
Hadrian, and of thus securing to him the succession. After the death of Licinius
Sura, Hadrian became the private secretary of Trajan; and the deference paid to
him by the courtiers now increased in the same proportion as the intimacy between
him and the emperor. Through the influence of Plotina, he obtained in A. D. 114
the office of legate during the war against the Parthians; and in 117 he became
consul designatus for the year following. It is said that at the same time he
was promised to be adopted by the emperor; but Dion Cassius expressly denies it;
and the further remark, that he was designated only consul suffectus, seems to
show that lrajan, at least at that time, had not yet made up his mind as to his
adoption.
While Trajan was carrying on the war against the Parthians, in which
he was accompanied by Hadrian, and while he was besieging the town of Hatra, he
was taken severely ill. He placed Hadrian at the head of the army and the province
of Syria, and returned to Rome; but on his way thither he died, at Selinus, in
Cilicia. Now it is said, that on the 9th of August, 117, Hadrian received intelligence
of his adoption by Trajan, and on the 11th the news of his death; but this statement
is contradicted by Dion Cassius, who renders it highly probable that Plotina and
Attianus fabricated the adoption after the death of the emperor, and that for
this purpose Trajan's death was for a few days kept secret. It is even said that
Trajan intended to make Neratius Priscus his successor. Thus much, however, seems
certain, that the fact of Trajan leaving Hadrian at the head of affairs in the
east, when his illness compelled him to leave, was a sufficient proof that he
placed the highest confidence in him. Hadrian was at the time at Antioch, and
on the 11th of August, 117, he was proclaimed emperor. He immediately sent a letter
to the senate at Rome, in which he apologised for not having been able to wait
for its decision, and solicited its sanction, which was readily granted.
The Roman empire at this period was in a perilous condition: the Parthians,
over whom Trajan had gained brilliant victories, had revolted, and been successful
in several engagements; the provinces of Mauritania and Moesia were invaded by
barbarians; and other provinces, such as Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, were in
a state of insurrection. Hadrian, with a wise policy, endeavoured, above all things,
to establish peace in the east. He purchased it with a great but necessary sacrifice:
it was surely wise to give up what could not be maintained. He therefore renounced
all the conquests which his predecessor had made east of the Euphrates; he restored
Mesopotamia and Assyria to the Parthians, and recognised Cosrhoes, whom Trajan
had deposed, as their king; while he indemnified Parthamaspater, whom Trajan had
made king of the Parthians, by assigning to him a small neighbouring kingdom.
Armenia, moreover, was raised to the rank of an independent kingdom. While engaged
in making these arrangements, he is said to have been advised by Attianus to put
to death Baebius Macer, praefect of the city, Laberius Maximus, and Frugi Crassus,
either because they opposed his accession, or because they were otherwise hostile
towards him; but it is added that Hadrian rejected this advice, though Frugi Crassus
was afterwards killed, but without the emperor's command. Lusius Quietus, who
at the time had the command in Mauritania, but was suspected of an attempt to
place himself at the head of the Roman world, was deprived of his post, which
was given to Marcius Turbo, who, under Trajan, had reduced the rebellious Jews,
and was a personal friend of Hadrian.
After having settled thus the most urgent affairs of the empire, he
went from Antioch to Cilicia, to see the body of Trajan, which was to be conveyed
to Rome by Plotina, Attianus, and Matidia. Soon after his return to Antioch he
appointed Catilius Severus governor of Syria, and travelled to Rome in A. D. 118.
A triumph was celebrated to commemorate the victories of Trajan in the east, and
the late emperor's image was placed in the triumphal car. The solemnity was scarcely
over when Hadrian received the news that the Sarmatae and Roxolani had invaded
the province of Moesia. He forthwith sent out his armies, and immediately after
he himself followed them. The king of the Roxolani complained of the tribute,
which he had to receive from the Romans, not being fully paid; but Hadrian concluded
a peace with him, for which he had probably to pay a heavy sum. After this was
settled, it appears that Hadrian intended marching into Dacia to attack the Sarmatians,
when he was informed of a conspiracy against his life; it had been formed by the
consular, Nigrinus, in conjunction with others of high rank, among whom are mentioned
Palma, Celsus, and Lusius Quietus. Hadrian escaped from the hands of the conspirators,
and all of them were put to death, as Hadrian himself said, by the command of
the senate, and against his own will, though it was believed at the time, and
is also maintained by Dion Cassius, that Hadrian himself had given orders for
their execution. In consequence of this act of severity, popular feeling was very
strong against him, especially as it was rumoured, that the conspiracy was a mere
pretence, devised for the purpose of getting rid of those men who had been opposed
to him during the reign of Trajan. As Hadrian had to fear the consequences of
this state of public feeling, he entrusted the provinces of Pannonia and Dacia
to Marcius Turbo, who had just pacified Mauritania, and returned to Rcme. His
first object was to refute the opinion that he had any share in the execution
of the four consulars, and he soothed the minds of the people by games, gladiatorial
exhibitions, and large donations in money. Another act, which must have won for
him the favour of thousands, both in Italy and the [p. 321] provinces, was that
he cancelled an enormous sum due to the state as taxes, viz. all the arrears of
the last 15 years, and to remove all fears from the minds of the people, he had
the documents publicly burnt in the forum of Trajan. He further endeavoured to
secure his government by winning the good will of the senate; he not only denied
the charge brought against him respecting the four consulars, but swore that he
would never punish a senator except with the sanction of the senate; and the senate
was, in fact, made to believe that it had never been in the enjoyment of such
extensive and unlimited powers as now. At the same time, however, he found it
necessary to remove his former friends Attianus and Similis from their office
of praefects of the praetorians, and to appoint Marcius Turbo and Septicius Clarus
their successors.
The war against the Sarmatians was continued in the meantime by Hadrian's
legates, and lasted for several years, if we may believe the chronicle of Eusebius,
which mentions it as still going on in A. D. 120. In the year A. D. 119 Hadrian
began his memorable journey through the provinces of his empire, many portions
of which he traversed on foot. His desire to promote the good of the empire by
convincing himself every where personally of the state of affairs, and by applying
the necessary remedies wherever mismanagement was discovered, was unquestionably
one of the motives that led him to this singular undertaking; but there can be
little doubt that the restlessness of his mind and the extraordinary curiosity
which stimulated him to go and see himself every thing of which he had heard or
read, had as great a share in determining him thus to travel through his vast
empire, as his desire to do good. These travels occupy the greater part of his
reign; but the scanty accounts we have of them do not enable us to follow them
step by step, or even to arrange them in a satisfactory chronological order. In
A. D. 119 he left Rome and first went to Gaul, where he displayed great liberality
in satisfying the wants of the provincials. Front Gaul he proceeded to Germany,
where he devoted most of his attention to the armies on the frontier. Although
he was more desirous to maintain peace than to carry on war, he trained the soldiers
always as though a great war had been near at hand; and the excellent condition
of his troops, combined with the justice he displayed in his foreign policy, and
the sums of money he paid to barbarian chiefs, were the principal means of keeping
the enemies away from the Roman provinces. The limes in Germany was fortified,
and several towns and colonies were greatly benefited by him. From Germany he
crossed over into Britain, where he introduced many improvements in the administration,
and constructed the famous wall dividing the Roman province from and protecting
it against the barbarous tribes of the north; it extended from the Solway to the
month of the river Tyne, a distance of 80,000 feet, and traces of it are to be
seen even at the present day. From Britain Hadrian returned to Gaul, and constructed
a magnificent basilica at Nemausus (Nismes), in honour of his wife, Sabina, although
during his absence in Britain, her conduct was such that he is reported to have
said he would divorce her if he lived in a private station. After this he went
to Spain, where he spent the winter, probably of A. D. 121 and 122, and held a
convents of all the Romans residing in Spain. In the spring of 122 he crossed
over to Africa, where he suppressed an insurrection in Mauritania, and then travelled
through Egypt into Asia. A war with the Parthians was on the eve of breaking out,
but Hadrian averted it by an interview which he had with their king. He next travelled
through the provinces of Western Asia, probably during the early part of A. D.
123, visited the islands of the Aegean, and then went to Achaia, where he took
up his residence at Athens. It would seem that he stayed there for three years,
till A. D. 126. Athens was his favourite place, and was honoured by him above
all the other cities of the empire: he gave to the people of Athens new laws,
and showed his reverence for their institutions by being initiated in the Eleusinian
mysteries, by acting the part of agonothetes at their public games, and by allowing
himself to be made archon eponymus. From Athens he returned to Rome by way of
Sicily, either in A. D. 126 or 127. He was saluted at Rome as pater patriae, and
his wife distinguished by the title of Augusta. The next few years he remained
at Rome, with only one interruption, during which lie visited Africa. He seems
to have chiefly employed his time at Rome in endeavouring to introduce the Greek
institutions and modes of worship, for which he had conceived a great admiration
at Athens. It seems to have been about A. D. 129 that Hadrian set out on his second
journey to the east. He travelled by way of Athens, where he stayed for some time
to see the completion of the numerous buildings which he had commenced during
his previous visit, especially to dedicate the temple of the Olympian Zeus, and
an altar to himself. In Asia he conciliated the various princes in the most amicable
and liberal manner, so that those who did not accept his invitation had afterwards
themselves most reason to regret it. He sent back to Cosrhoes a daughter who had
been taken prisoner by Trajan; and the governors and procuratores in the provinces
were punished severely wherever they were found unjust or wanting in the discharge
of their duties. From Asia Minor he proceeded through Syria and Arabia into Egypt,
where he restored the tomb of Pompey with great splendour. During an excursion
on the Nile he lost his favourite, Antinous, for whom he entertained an unnatural
affection, and whose death was to him the cause of deep and lasting grief. From
Egypt, Hadrian returned, through Syria, to Rome, where he must have spent the
latter part of the year A. D. 131, and the first of 132, for in the former year
he built the temple of Venus and Roma, and i the latter he promulgated the edictuen
perpetuum.
Not long after his return to Rome the Jewish war broke out, the only
one that disturbed the peace of his long reign. The causes of this war were the
establishment of a colony under the name of Aelia Capitolina on the site of Jerusalem,
and an order issued by Hadrian forbidding the Jews the rite of circumcision. The
war was carried on by the Jews as a national struggle with the most desperate
fury; it lasted for several years, and it was not till the general Julius Severus
came over from Britain, that the Romans gradually succeeded in paralysing or annihilating
the Jews; and the country was nearly reduced to a wilderness when peace was restored.
The Jews were henceforth not allowed to reside at Jerusalem and its immediate
vicinity; and from this time they were dispersed through the world. After the
close of the Jewish war another threatened to break out with the Albanians, who
had been instigated by Pharasmanes, king of the Iberians. But the rich presents
which Hadrian made to the Albanians and Iberians averted the outbreak, and Pharasmanes
even paid a visit to Hadrian at Rome.
In the meantime, probably in the autumn of A. D. 132, Hadrian had
again gone to Athens, where he stayed during the whole of the year following.
From a letter of Hadrian, addressed to his brother-in-law, Servianus, and preserved
by Vopiscus (Suturnin. 8), we must infer that in 134 the emperor again visited
Alexandria in Egypt, and, on his return through Syria, where he attended the sale
of the Jews who had been made prisoners in the war, superintended the building
of the colony at Jerusalem, and regulated its constitution. After his return to
Rome, Hadrian spent the remainiig years of his life partly in the city and partly
at Tibur, where he built or completed his magnificent villa, the ruins of which
occupy even now a space equal to that of a considerable town. The many fatigues
and hardships to which he had been exposed during his travels had impaired his
health, and he sank into a dangerous illness, which led him to think of fixing
upon a successor, as he had himself no children. After some hesitation, he adopted
L. Ceionius Commodus, under the name of L. Aelius Verus, and raised him to the
rank of Caesar, probably for no other reason than his beauty; for Ceionius Commodus
had formerly been connected with Hadrian in the same manner that Antinous was
afterwards connected with him. The adoption had been made contrary to the advice
of all his friends, and those who had most strongly opposed it appeared to Hadrian
in no other light than that of personal enemies. Servianus, who was then in his
90th year, and his grandson Fuscas, were the principal objects of his suspicions,
and both were put to death by his command. Aelius Verus, however, who was entrusted
with the administration of Pannonia, did not afford Hadrian the assistance and
support he had expected, for he was a person of a weakly constitution, and died
on the 1st of January, A. D. 138. Hadrian now adopted Arrius Antoninus, afterwards
surnamed Pius, and presented him to the senators assembled around his bed as his
successor. But Hadrian, mindful of the more distant future, made it the condition
with Antoninus that he should at once adopt the son of Aelius Verus and M. Annius
Verus (afterwards the emperor M. Aurelius). These arrangements, however, did not
restore peace to Hadrian's mind : as his illness grew worse his suspicious and
bitter feelings increased, and prompted him to many an act of cruelty; many persons
of distinction were put to death, and many others would have been sacrificed in
the same manner had they not been saved by the precautions of Antoninus Pius.
The illness of which Hadrian suffered was of a consumptive nature, which was aggravated
by dropsy; and when ne found that he could not be saved, he requested a slave
to run him through with a sword; but this was prevented by Antoninus. Several
more attempts were made at suicide, but in vain. At last he was conveyed to Baiae,
where he hoped to find at least some relief, and Antoninus remained behind at
Rome as his vicegerent. But his health did not improve; and soon after the arrival
of Antoninus at Baiae, whom he had sent for, he died on the 10th of July, 138,
at the age of 63, and after a reign of nearly twenty years. He was buried in the
villa of Cicero, near Puteoli. The senate, indignant at the many acts of cruelty
of which he had been guilty during the last period of his life, wanted to annul
his enactments, and refused him the title of Divus, but Antoninus prevailed upon
the senate to be lenient towards the deceased, who during the latter part of his
life had not been in the full possession of his mind. A temple was then erected
as a monument on his tomb, and various institutions were made to commemorate his
memory. Antoninus is said by some to owe his surname of Pius to these exertions
of filial love towards his adoptive father.
The above is a brief sketch of the events of the life and reign of
Hadrian; and it now remains to offer a few observations on his policy, the principles
of his government, his personal character, his influence upon art and literature,
and his own literary productions, so far as they are known to us. The reign of
Hadrian was one of peace, and may be regarded as one of the happiest periods in
Roman history. His policy, in reference to foreign nations, was to preserve peace
as much as possible, not to extend the boundaries of the empire, but to secure
the old provinces, and promote their welfare, by a wise and just administration.
For this reason he gave up the eastern conquests of Trajan, and would have given
up Dacia also, had it not been for the numerous Roman citizens who had taken up
their residence there. This general peace of the reign of Hadrian, however, was
not the result of cowardice, or of jealousy of his predecessor, as some of the
ancients asserted, but the fruit of a wise political system. Hadrian's presents
and kindness to the barbarians would not have been sufficient to ward off their
attacks, but the frontiers of the empire were guarded by armies which were in
the most excellent condition, for the military system and discipline introduced
by Hadrian were so well devised, that his regulations remained in force for a
long time afterwards, and were regarded as law. With regard to the internal administration
of the empire, Hadrian was the first emperor that understood his real position,
and looked upon himself as the sovereign of the Roman world; for his attention
was engaged no less by the provinces than by Rome and Italy, and thus it happened
that the monarchical system became more consolidated under him than under any
of his predecessors. He gained the favour of the people by his great liberality,
and that of the senate by treating it with the utmost deference, so far as form
was concerned, for, in reality, the senate was no more than the organ of the imperial
will. An institution which gradually deprived the senate of its jurisdiction,
and its share in the government, was that of the consilium, or consistorium principis,
which had indeed existed before, but received its stability and organisation from
Hadrian. The political offices and those of the court were regulated by Hadrian
in a manner which, with a few exceptions, remained unaltered till the time of
the great Constantine. The praefectus praetorio henceforth was the president of
the state-council (consilium principis), and always a jurisconsult, so that we
may henceforth regard him as a kind of minister of justice. Hadrian himself paid
particular attention to the proper exercise of jurisdiction in the provinces as
well as in Italy: his reign forms an epoch in the history of Roman jurisprudence.
It was at Hadrian's command that the jurist Salvius Julianus drew up the edictum
perpetuum, which formed a fixed code of laws. Some of the laws promulgated by
Hadrian are of a truly humane character, and aimed at improving the public morality
of the time. He divided Italy into four regions, placing each under a consular,
who had the administration of justice. The fact of his taking the titles of the
highest magistracies in several towns in Italy and the provinces may indeed have
been little more than a form, but it shows, at any rate, that he took a considerable
interest in the internal affairs of those towns. The proceedings of those persons
who were connected with the administration of provinces were watched with the
strictest care, and any violation of justice was severely punished. While he thus
on the one hand benefited the provinces by punishing and preventing oppression
and injustice, he won the hearts of the provincials by his liberality during his
travels. There is scarcely one of the places he visited which did not receive
some mark of his favour or liberality; in many places he built aquaeducts, in
others harbors or other public buildings, either for use or ornament; and the
people received large donations of grain or money, or were honoured with distinctions
and privileges. But what has rendered his name more illustrious than any thing
else are the numerous and magnificent architectural works which he planned and
commenced during his travels, especially at Athens, in the southwest of which
he built an entirely new city, Adrianopolis. We cannot here enter into an account
of the numerous buildings he erected, or of the towns which he built or restored:
suffice it to direct attention to his villa at Tibur, which has been a real mine
of treasures of art, and his mausoleum at Rome, which forms the groundwork of
the present castle St. Angelo. His taste in architecture, however, appears to
have been very capricious, and very different from the grandeur and simplicity
of earlier times; in addition to this, he was tenacious of the plans he had once
formed, and unable to bear any opposition or contradiction. The great architect,
Apollodorus, had to pay with his life for the presumption with which he ventured
to censure one of Hadrian's works; for the emperor's ambition was to be thought
a great architect, painter, and musician.
Hadrian was not only a patron and practical lover of the arts, but
poetry and learning also were nurtured and patronised by him. He was fond of the
society of poets, scholars, rhetoricians, and philosophers, but, as in architecture,
his taste was of an inferior kind. Thus he preferred Antimachus to Homer, and
imitated the former in a poem entitled Catacriani. The philosophers and sophists
who enjoyed his friendship had, on the other hand, to suffer much from his petty
jealousy and vanity, which led him to overrate his own powers and depreciate those
of others. He founded at Rome a scientific institution under the name of Athenaeum,
which continued to flourish for a long time after him. We possess few specimens
of Hadrian's literary productions, although he was the author of many works both
in prose and in verse. In his earlier years he had devoted himself with much zeal
to the study of eloquence, but, in accordance with the prevailing taste of the
age, he preferred the earlier Roman orators and poets to Cicero and his contemporaries.
Some of Hadrian's own declamations were extant down to a very late period. He
further wrote the history of his own life, from which some statements are quoted
by his biographer Spartianus, and which was edited by his freedman Phlegon. The
Latin Anthology contains six epigrams by Hadrian, and six others in Greek are
preserved in the Greek Anthology, but none of them display any real poetical genius;
they are cold and far-fetched.
Our sources of information respecting the life and reign of Hadrian
are very poor and scanty, for the two main authorities, Hadrian's own work, and
another by Marius Maximus, are lost, and, on the whole, we are confined to Spartianus's
Life of Hadrian and the abridgement of the 69th book of Dion Cassius, by Xiphilinus.
(Comp. Eutrop. viii, 3; Aurel. Vict. de Caesar. 14; Zonar. xi. 23, &c.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Antoninus Pius. The name of this emperor in the early part of his life, at full length, was Titus
Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus--a series of appellations derived from
his paternal and maternal ancestors, from whom he inherited great wealth. The
family of his father was originally from Nemausus (Nismes) in Transalpine Gaul,
and the most important members of the stock are exhibited in the following table:
Antoninus himself was born near Lanuvium on the 19th of September,
A. D. 86, in the reign of Domitian; was brought up at Lorium, a villa on the Aurelian
way, about twelve miles from Rome; passed his boyhood under the superintendence
of his two grandfathers, and from a very early age gave promise of his future
worth. After having filled the offices of quaestor and praetor with great distinction,
he was elevated to the consulship in 120, was afterwards selected by Hadrian as
one of the four consulars to whom the administration of Italy was entrusted, was
next appointed proconsul of the province of Asia, which he ruled so wisely that
he surpassed in fame all former governors, not excepting his grandfather Arrius,
and on his return home was admitted to share the secret counsels of the prince.
In consequence, it would appear, of his merit alone, after the death of Aelius
Caesar, he was adopted by Hadrian on the 25th of February 138, in the 52nd year
of his age. He was immediately assumed by his new father as colleague in the tribunate
and proconsular imperium, and thenceforward bore the name of T. Aelius Hadrianus
Antoninus Caesar. Being at this period without male issue, he was required to
adopt M. Annius Verus, the son of his wife's brother, and also L. Ceionius Commodus,
the son of Aelius Caesar, who had been previously adopted by Hadrian but was now
dead. These two individuals were afterwards the emperors M. Aurelius Antoninus
and L. Aurelius Verus.
Hadrian died at Baiae on the 2nd of July, 138, but a few months after
these arrangements had been concluded, and Antoninus without opposition ascended
the throne. Several years before this event, he had married Annia Galeria Faustina,
whose descent will be understood by referring to the account given of the family
of her nephew, M. Aurelius. By her he had two daughters, Aurelia Fadilla and Annia
Faustina, and two sons, M. Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus and M. Galerius Antoninus.
Aurelia married Lamia Syllanus, and died at the time when her father was setting
out for Asia. Faustina became the wife of her first cousin Marcus Aurelius, the
future emperor. Of the male progeny we know nothing. The name of the first mentioned
was discovered by Pagi in an inscription, the portrait of the second appears on
a rare Greek coin, with the legend, M. GALEPIOX. ANTONEINOX. AUTOKPATOPOX. ANTONEINOT
UIOX. On the reverse of the medal is the head of his mother, with the words, THEA
PHAUXTEINA, which prove that it was struck subsequently to her death, which happened
in the third year after her husband's accession. It will be observed, that while
Galerius is styled "son of the emperor Antoninus", he is not termed KAISAP, a
title which would scarcely have been omitted had he been born or been alive after
his father's elevation. From this circumstance, therefore, from the absolute silence
of history with regard to these youths, and from the positive assertion of Dion
Cassius (lxix. 21), that Antoninus had no male issue when adopted by Hadrian,
we may conclude that both his sons died before this epoch; and hence the magnanimity
ascribed to him by Gibbon (c. 3) in preferring the welfare of Rome to the interests
of his family, and sacrificing the claims of his own children to the talents and
virtues of young Marcus, is probably altogether visionary.
The whole period of the reign of Antoninus, which lasted for
upwards of twenty-two years, is almost a blank in history--a blank caused by the
suspension for a time of war, and violence, and crime. Never before and never
after did the Roman world enjoy for an equal space so large a measure of prosperous
tranquillity. All the thoughts and energies of a most sagacious and able prince
were steadfastly dedicated to the attainment of one object: the happiness of his
people. And assuredly never were noble exertions crowned with more ample success.
At home the affections of all classes were won by his simple
habits, by the courtesy of his manners, by the ready access granted to his presence,
by the patient attention with which he listened to representations upon all manner
of subjects, by his impartial distribution of favours, and his prompt administration
of justice. Common informers were discouraged, and almost disappeared; never had
confiscations been so rare; during a long succession of years no senator was punished
with death; one man only was impeached of treason, and he, when convicted, was
forbidden to betray his accomplices.
Abroad, the subject states participated largely in the blessings diffused
by such an example. The best governors were permitted to retain their power for
a series of years, and the collectors of the revenue were compelled to abandon
their extortions. Moreover, the general condition of the provincials was improved,
their fidelity secured, and the resources and stability of the whole empire increased
by the communication, on a large scale, of the full rights and privileges of Roman
citizens to the inhabitants of distant countries. In cases of national calamity
and distress, such as the earthquakes which devastated Rhodes and Asia, and the
great fires at Narbonne, Antioch, and Carthage, the sufferers were relieved, and
compensation granted for their losses with the most unsparing liberality.
In foreign policy, the judicious system of his predecessor was steadily
followed out. No attempt was made to achieve new conquests, but all rebellions
from within and all aggressions from without were promptly crushed. Various movements
among the Germans, the Dacians, the Jews, the Moors, the Greeks, and the Egyptians,
were quelled by persuasion or by a mere demonstration of force ; while a more
formidable insurrection in northern Britain was speedily repressed by the imperial
legate Lollius Urbicus, who advancing beyond the wall of Hadrian, connected the
friths of the Clyde and the Forth by a rampart of turf, in order that the more
peaceful districts might be better protected from the inroads of the Caledonians.
The British war was concluded, as we learn from medals, between the years 140-145,
and on this occasion Antoninus received for a second time the title of imperator
-a distinction which he did not agair accept, and he never deigned to celebrate
a triumph.
Even the nations which were not subject to Rome paid the utmost respect
to the power of Antoninus. The Parthians, yielding to his remonstrances, abandoned
an attempt upon Armenia. The Scythians submitted disputes with their neighbours
to his arbitration; the barbarians of the Upper Danube received a king from his
hands; a great chief of the clans of Caucasus repaired to Rome to tender his homage
in person, and embassies flocked in from Hyrcania and Bactria, from the banks
of the Indus and of the Ganges, to seek the alliance of the emperor.
In his reign various improvements were introduced in the law, by the
advice of the most eminent jurists of the day; the health of the population was
protected by salutary regulations with regard to the interment of the dead, and
by the establishment of a certain number of licensed medical practitioners in
the metropolis and all large towns. The interests of education and literature
were promoted by honours and pensions bestowed on the most distinguished professors
of philosophy and rhetoric throughout the world. Commercial intercourse was facilitated
by the construction or repair of bridges, harbours, and lighthouses; and architecture
and the fine arts were encouraged by the erection and decoration of numerous public
buildings. Of these the temple of Faustina in the forum, and the mausoleum of
Hadrian on the right bank of the Tiber, may still be seen, and many antiquarians
are of opinion, that the magnificent amphitheatre at Nismes, and the stupendous
aqueduct now termed the Pont du Gard, between that town and Avignon, are monuments
of the interest felt by the descendant of the Aurelii Fulvi for the country of
his fathers. It is certain that the former of these structures was completed under
his immediate successors and dedicated to them.
In all the relations of private life Antoninus was equally distinguished.
Even his wife's irregularities, which must to a certain extent have been known
to him, he passed over, and after her death loaded her memory with honours. Among
the most remarkable of these was the establishment of an hospital, after the plan
of a similar institution by Trajan, for the reception and maintenance of boys
and girls, the young females who enjoyed the advantages of the charity being termed
puellae alimentariae Faustinianae. By fervent piety and scrupulous observance
of sacred rites, he gained the reputation of being a second Numa ; but he was
a foe to intolerant fanaticism, as is proved by the protection and favour extended
to the Christians. His natural taste seems to have had a strong bias towards the
pleasures of a country life, and accordingly we find him spending all his leisure
hours upon his estate in the country. In person he was of commanding aspect and
dignified countenance, and a deep toned melodious voice rendered his native eloquence
more striking and impressive.
His death took place at Lorium on the 7th of March, 161, in his 75th
year. He was succeeded by M. Aurelius.
Some doubts existed amongst the ancients themselves with regard to
the origin of the title Pius, and several different explanations, many of them
very silly, are proposed by his biographer Capitolinus. The most probable account
of the matter is this. Upon the death of Hadrian, the senate, incensed by his
severity towards several members of their body, had resolved to withhold the honours
usually conferred upon deceased emperors, but were induced to forego their purpose
in consequence of the deep grief of Antoninus, and his earnest entreaties. Being,
perhaps, after the first burst of indignation had passed away, somewhat alarmed
by their own rashness, they determined to render the concession more gracious
by paying a compliment to their new ruler which should mark their admiration of
the feeling by which he had been influenced, and accordingly they hailed him by
the name of Pius, or the dutifully affectionate. This view of the question receives
support from medals, since the epithet appears for the first time upon those which
were struck immediately after the death of Hadrian; while several belonging to
the same year, but coined before that date, bear no such addition. Had it been,
as is commonly supposed, conferred in consequence of the general holiness of his
life, it would in all probability have been introduced either when he first became
Caesar, or after he had been seated for some time on the throne, and not exactly
at the moment of his accession. Be that as it may, it found such favour in the
eyes of his successors, that it was almost universally adopted, and is usually
found united with the appellation of Augustus.
Our chief and almost only authority for the life of Antoninus Pius
is the biography of Capitolinus, which, as may be gathered from what has been
said above, is from beginning to end an uninterrupted panegyric. But the few facts
which we can collect from medals, from the scanty fragments of Dion Cassius, and
from incidental notices in later writers, all corroborate, as far as they go,
the representations of Capitolinus; and therefore we cannot fairly refuse to receive
his narrative merely because he paints a character of singular and almost unparalleled
excellence.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
M. Aurelius Antoninus, commonly distinguished by the epithet of "the philosopher", was born at Rome,
on the Coelian hill, on the 20th of April, A. D. 121. From his paternal ancestors,
who for three generations had held high offices of state and claimed descent from
Numa, he inherited the name of M. Annius Verus, while from his great-grandfather
on the mother's side he received the appellation of Catilius Severus (...)
N.B. M. Aurelius and Faustina seem to have had several children. Three
daughters were still alive after the death of Commodus (Lamprid. Commod. 18; Herodian.
i. 12), and one of these was put to death by Caracalla in 212. We find in an inscription
the names of his sons, T. Aurelius Antoninus, and T. Aelius Aurelius, both of
whom were, it is probable, older than Commodus, and died young.
The father of young Marcus having died while praetor, the boy was
adopted by his grandfather, Annius Verus, and from a very early period enjoyed
the favour of Hadrian, who bestowed on him the honours of the equestrian order
when only six years old, admitted him as a member of the fraternity of the Salian
priests at the age of eight, and as a tribute to the sincerity and truthfulness
of his disposition, was wont in playful affection to address him not as Verus
but Verissimus. At the age of fifteen he received the manly gown, and was betrothed
to the daughter of Aelius Caesar, the heirapparent to the throne. But not long
after (138), in consequence of the sudden death of his intended father-in-law,
still more brilliant prospects were suddenly opened up to the youth. For, according
to the arrangement explained under Antoninus Pius, both he and L. Ceionius Commodus,
son of Aelius Caesar, were adopted by Antoninus Pius, immediately after the latter
had been himself adopted by Hadrian. He was now styled M. Aelius Aurelius Verus
Caesar, and was immediately chosen to fill the office of quaestor for the following
year. The proposed union with the daughter of Aelius Caesar was set aside, on
account, it was alleged, of disparity in age, and Faustina, the daughter of Pius,
who had been previously destined by Hadrian for young Ceionius Commodus, was fixed
upon as the future wife of Marcus Aurelius. Their nuptials, however, were not
celebrated until after a lapse of seven years (145). In 140 he was raised to the
consulship, and in 147, after the birth of a daughter by Faustina, was permitted
to share the tribunate, and was invested with various other honours and privileges
befitting his station. From this time forward he was the constant companion and
adviser of the monarch, and the most perfect confidence subsisted between the
son and his adopted father until the death of the latter, which happened on the
7th of March, 161.
The first act of the new ruler was the admission of Ceionius Commodus
to a full participation in the sovereign power, and these emperors henceforward
bore respectively the names of M. Aurelius Antoninus and L. Aurelius Verus. When
the double adoption by Antoninus Pius took place, it was settled that the son
of Aelius Caesar should be considered as the younger brother. Thus, on the coins
struck before the death of Pius, M. Aurelius alone bears the appellation of Caesar,
to him alone Pius committed the empire with his dying breath, and to him alone
did the senate formally offer the vacant throne. Hence his conduct towards L.
Verus was purely an act of grace. But the alliance promised to prove advantageous
both to the parties themselves, and also to the general interests of the state.
Marcus was weak in constitution, and took more delight in philosophy and literary
pursuits than in politics and war, while Lucius, young, active, and skilled in
all manly exercises, was likely to be better fitted for the toils of a military
life. His aptitude for such a career was soon put to the proof. The war, which
had been long threatening the east, at length burst forth. Verus, after being
betrothed to Lucilla, the daughter of his colleague, was despatched in all haste
to the Parthian frontier towards the end of 161, while M. Aurelius remained in
the city to watch an irruption of the Catti into the Rhenish provinces and a threatened
insurrection in Britain.
Vologeses III., who had been induced to abandon a meditated attack
upon Armenia by the remonstrances of Antoninus Pius, thinking that a fitting season
had now arrived for the execution of his long-cherished schemes, had destroyed
a whole Roman legion quartered at Elegeia, and advancing at the head of a great
army, had spread devastation throughout Syria. Lucius having collected his troops,
proceeded to Antioch, where he determined to remain, and entrusted the command
of his army to Cassius and others of his generals. Cassius compelled the Parthians
to retreat, invaded Mesopotamia, plundered and burnt Seleuceia, razed to the ground
the royal palace at Ctesiphon, and penetrated as far as Babylon; while Statius
Priscus, who was sent into Armenia, stormed Artaxata, and, rescuing the country
from the usurper, reinstated the lawful but dethroned monarch Soaemus. Vologeses
was thus constrained to conclude an ignominious peace, in virtue of which Mesopotamia
was ceded to the Romans. These events took place in 162 and the three following
years. In 166, Lucius returned home, and the two emperors celebrated jointly a
magnificent triumph, assuming the titles of Armeniacus, Parthicus Maximus, and
Medicus. But although this campaign had terminated so gloriously, little praise
was due to the commanderin-chief. Twice he was unwillingly prevailed upon to advance
as far as the Euphrates, and he made a journey to Ephesus (in 164) to meet his
bride on her arrival from Italy; but with these exceptions he passed his winters
at Laodiceia, and the rest of his time at Daphne or at Antioch, abandoning himself
to gaming, drunkenness, and dissolute pleasures of every kind. All the achievements
of the war were performed by his legates, and all the general arrangements conducted
by M. Aurelius at Rome.
A still heavier danger was now impending, which threatened to crush
Italy itself. A combination had been formed among the numerous tribes, dwelling
along the whole extent of the northern limits of the empire, from the sources
of the Danube to the Illyrian border, including the Marcomanni, the Alani, the
Jazyges, the Quadi, the Sarmatae, and many others. In addition to the danger from
without, the city was hard pressed by numerous calamities from within. Inundations
had destroyed many buildings and much property, among which were vast granaries
with their contents, the poor were starving in consequence of the deficiency thus
caused in the supplies of corn, and numbers were perishing by a fearful pestilence,
said to have been brought from the east by the troops of Verus. So great was the
panic, that it was resolved that both emperors should go forth to encounter the
foe. Previous to their departure, in order to restore confidence to the populace,
priests were summoned from all quarters, a multitude of expiatory sacrifices were
performed, many of them according to strange and foreign rites, and victims were
offered to the gods with the most unsparing profusion.
The contest which had now commenced with the northern nations was
continued with varying success during the whole life of M. Aurelius, whose head-quarters
were generally fixed in Pannonia; but the details preserved by the historians
who treat of this period are so confused and so utterly destitute of all chronological
arrangement, that it becomes impossible to draw up anything like a regular and
well-connected narrative of the progress of the struggle. Medals are our only
sure guide, and the information afforded by these is necessarily meagre and imperfect.
It would appear that the barbarians, overawed by the extensive preparations of
the Romans and by the presence of the two Augusti, submitted for a time and sued
for peace, and that the brothers returned to Rome in the course of 168. They set
out again, however, in 169, but before they reached the army, L. Verus was seized
with apoplexy, and expired at Aetinum, in the territory of Veneti. Marcus hastened
back to Rome, paid the last honours to the memory of his colleague, and returned
to Germany towards the close of the year. He now prosecuted the war against the
Marcomanni with great vigour, although from the ravages caused by the plague among
the troops, he was forced to enrol gladiators, slaves, and exiles, and, from the
exhausted state of the public treasury, was compelled to raise money by selling
the precious jewels and furniture of the imperial palace. In consequence of the
success which attended these extraordinary efforts, the legends Germanicus and
Germania Subacta now appear upon the coins, while Parthicus, Armeniacus, and Medicus
are dropped, as having more especially appertained to L. Verus. Among the numerous
engagements which took place at this epoch, a battle fought on the frozen Danube
has been very graphically described by Dion Cassius (lxxii. 7); but by far the
most celebrated and important was the victory gained over the Quadi in 174, which
having been attended by certain circumstances believed to be supernatural, gave
rise to the famous controversy among the historians of Christianity upon what
is commonly termed the Miracle of the Thundering Legion. Those who may desire
to investigate this question will find the subject fully discussed in the correspondence
between King and Moyle (Moyle's Works, Lond. 1726). There is an excellent summary
of the whole argument in Lardner's "Jewish and Heathen Testimonies" (chap. xv.),
and many useful remarks are to be found in Milman's History of Christianity (chap.
vii.), and in the Bishop of Lincoln's "Illustrations, &c. from Tertullian" . An
attempt has been made recently to restore the credit of the supposed miracle,
in the essay by Mr. Newman, prefixed to a portion of Fleury's "Ecclesiastical
History", published at Oxford in 1842.
Whatever opinion we may form upon the subject of debate, we may feel
certain of the fact, that the Romans were rescued from a very critical situation
by a sudden storm, and gained an important victory over their opponents. That
they attributed their preservation to the direct interposition of heaven is proved
by the testimonies of the ancient historians, and also by the sculptures of the
Antonine column, where a figure supposed to represent Jupiter Pluvius is seen
sending down streams of water from his arms and head, which the Roman soldiers
below catch in the hollow of their shields.
This success, and the circumstances by which it was accompanied, seem
to have struck terror into the surrounding nations, who now tendered submission
or claimed protection. But the fruits were in a great measure lost, for the emperor
was prevented from following up the advantage gained, in consequence of the alarm
caused by unexpected disturbances which had broken out in the East, and had quickly
assumed a very formidable aspect. Faustina had long watched with anxiety the declining
health of her husband, and anticipating his speedy death, was filled with alarm
lest, from the youth and incapacity of her son Commodus, the empire might pass
away into other hands. She had, therefore, opened a correspondence with Avidius
Cassius, who had gained great fame in the Parthian war commemorated above, who
had subsequently suppressed a serious insurrection in Egypt, and had acted as
supreme governor of the Eastern provinces after the departure of Lucius Verus.
Her object was to persuade him to hold himself in readiness to aid her projects,
and she offered him her hand and the throne as his rewards. While Cassius was
meditating upon these proposals, he suddenly received intelligence that Marcus
was dead, and forthwith, without waiting for a confirmation of the news, caused
himself to be proclaimed his successor. The falseness of the rumour soon became
known, but deeming that his offence was beyond forgiveness, he determined to prosecute
the enterprise; within a short period he made himself master of all Asia within
Mount Taurus, and resolved to maintain his pretensions by force. A report of these
transactions was forthwith transmitted to Rome by M.Verus, the legate commanding
in Cappadocia. Aurelius, who was still in Pannonia, summoned his son to his presence
in all haste, and bestowed on him the manly gown, intending to set out instantly
for the seat of war. But in the midst of active preparations for a campaign Cassius
was assassinated by two of his own officers, after having enjoyed a nominal sovereignty
for three months and six days. His son soon after shared the same fate. The conduct
of Marcus throughout the whole of this rebellion can scarcely fail to excite the
warmest admiration. In the mournful address delivered to his soldiers, he bitterly
deplores that he should be forced to engage in a contest so revolting to his feelings
as civil strife. His chief dread was that Cassius, from shame or remorse, might
put an end to his own life, or fall by the hand of some loyal subject -his fondest
wish, that he might have an opportunity of granting a free pardon. Nor did this
forgiving temper exhaust itself in words. When the head of the traitor was laid
at his feet, he rejected with horror the bloody offering, and refused to admit
the murderers to his presence. On repairing to the East, where his presence was
thought necessary to restore tranquillity and order, he displayed the greatest
lenity towards those provinces which had acknowledged the usurper, and towards
those senators and persons of distinction who were proved to have favoured his
designs. Not one individual suffered death; few were punished in any shape, except
such as had been guilty of other crimes; and finally, to establish perfect confidence
in all, he ordered the papers of Cassius to be destroyed without suffering them
to be read. During this expedition, Faustina, who had accompanied her husband,
died in a village among the defiles of Taurus. According to some, her end was
caused by an attack of gout; according to others, it was hastened by her own act,
in order to escape the punishment which she feared would inevitably follow the
discovery of her negotiations with Cassius. Her guilt in this matter is spoken
of by Dion without any expression of doubt; is mentioned by Capitolinus as a report
only, and positively denied by Vulcatius; but the arguments employed by the latter
are of no weight.
After visiting Egypt, the emperor set out for Italy, touched at Athens
on his homeward journey, reached Brundusium towards the end of the year 176, and
celebrated a triumph along with Commodus, now consul elect, on the 23rd of December.
Scarcely was this ceremony concluded, when fresh tumults arose upon the Danube,
where the presence of the emperor was once more required. Accordingly, after concluding
somewhat earlier than he had intended the nuptials of Commodus and Crispina, he
quitted Rome along with his son, in the month of August (177), and hastened to
Germany. During the two following years his operations were attended with the
most prosperous results. The Marcomanni, the Hermanduri, the Sarmatae, and the
Quadi, were repeatedly routed, their confederacy was broken up, and everything
seemed to promise that they would at length be effectually crushed. But the shattered
constitution of Marcus now sunk beneath the pressure of mental and bodily fatigue.
He died in Pannonia, either at Vindobona (Vienna) or at Sirmium, on the 17th of
March, 180, in the 59th year of his age and the 20th of his reign. A strong suspicion
prevailed that his death had been accelerated by the machinations of his son,
who was accused of having tampered with the physicians, and persuaded them to
administer poison.
The leading feature in the character of M. Aurelius was his devotion
to philosophy and literature. When only twelve years old he adopted the dress
and practised the austerities of the Stoics, whose doctrines were imparted to
him by the most celebrated teachers of the day -Diognotus, Apollonius, and Junius
Rusticus. He studied the principles of composition and oratory under Herodes Atticus
and Cornelius Fronto, and by his close and unremitting application laid the foundation
of the bad health by which he was so much oppressed in after life. While yet Caesar
he was addressed by Justin Martyr (Apolog. i. init.) as Verissimus " the philosopher",
an epithet by which he has been commonly distinguished from that period down to
the present day, although no such title was ever publicly or formally conferred.
Even after his elevation to the purple, he felt neither reluctance nor shame in
resorting to the school of Sextus of Chaeroneia, the descendant of Plutarch, and
in listening to the extemporaneous declamations of Hermogenes. From his earliest
youth he lived upon terms of the most affectionate familiarity with his instructors,
as we may gather from his correspondence with Fronto; the most worthy were, through
his influence, promoted to the highest dignities; after their death he placed
their images in the chapel of his lares, and was wont to strew flowers and offer
sacrifices on their graves. Nor was his liberality confined to his own preceptors,
for learned men in every quarter of the world enjoyed substantial proofs of his
bounty. Philosophy was the great object of his zeal, but the other branches of
a polite education were by no means neglected; music, poetry, and painting, were
cultivated in turn, and the severer sciences of mathematics and law engaged no
small portion of his attention. In jurisprudence especially, he laboured throughout
life with great activity, and his Constitutions are believed to have filled many
volumes. These are now all lost, but they are constantly quoted with great respect
by later writers.
With the exception of a few letters contained in the recently discovered
remains of Fronto, the only production of Marcus which has been preserved is a
volume composed in Greek, and entitled Markou Antoninou tou autukratoros ton eis
eauton bibblia ib. It is a sort of common-place book, in which were registered
from time to time the thoughts and feelings of the author upon moral and religious
topics, together with striking maxims extracted from the works of those who had
been most eminent for wisdom and virtue. There is no attempt at order or arrangement,
but the contents are valuable, in so far as they illustrate the system of self-examination
enjoined by the discipline of the Stoics, and present a genuine picture of the
doubts and difficulties and struggles of a speculative and reflecting mind.
The education and pursuits of M. Aurelius exercised the happiest influence
upon a temper and disposition naturally calm and benevolent. He succeeded in acquiring
the boasted composure and self-command of the disciples of the Porch, without
imbibing the harshness which they were wont to exhibit. He was firm without being
obstinate; he steadfastly maintained his own principles without manifesting any
overweening contempt for the opinions of those who differed from himself; his
justice was tempered with gentleness and mercy; his gravity was devoid of gloom.
In public life, he sought to demonstrate practically the truth of the Platonic
maxim, ever on his lips, that those states only could be truly happy which were
governed by philosophers, or in which the kings and rulers were guided by the
tenets of pure philosophy. In general policy, both at home and abroad, he steadily
followed in the path of his predecessor, whose counsels he had shared for more
than twenty years. The same praise, therefore, which belongs to the elder may
fairly be imparted to the younger Antonine; and this is perhaps the most emphatic
panegyric we could pronounce. No monarch was ever more widely or more deeply beloved.
The people believed, that he had been sent down by the gods, for a time, to bless
mankind, and had now returned to the heaven from which he descended. So universal
was this conviction among persons of every age and calling, that his apotheosis
was not, as in other cases, viewed in the light of a mere empty form. Every one,
whose means permitted, procured a statue of the emperor. More than a century after
his decease, these images were to be found in many mansions among the household
gods, and persons were wont to declare, that he had appeared to them in dreams
and visions, and revealed events which afterwards came to pass.
The great, perhaps the only, indelible stain upon his memory is the
severity with which he treated the Christians; and his conduct in this respect
was the more remarkable, because it was not only completely at variance with his
own general principles, but was also in direct opposition to the wise and liberal
policy pursued by Hadrian and Pius. The numerous apologies published during his
reign would alone serve to point out that the church was surrounded by difficulties
and dangers; but the charge of positive persecution is fully established by the
martyrdom of Justin at Rome, of the venerable Polycarp, with many others, at Smyrna
(167) in the early part of his reign, and by the horrible atrocities perpetrated
at Vienne and Lyons several years afterwards (177). It would be but a poor defence
to allege, that these excesses were committed without the knowledge of a prince
who on all other occasions watched with such care over the rights of his subjects
in the most remote provinces. But, in so far as the proceedings in Gaul are concerned,
we have clear evidence that they received his direct sanction; for when the Roman
governor applied for instructions, an answer was returned, that all who confessed
themselves to be Christians should suffer death. It is probable that his better
feelings were in this instance overpowered by the violence of evil counsellors;
for had he followed the dictates of his own nature, he would have been contented
to moralise upon and lament over what he viewed as ignorant and obstinate adherence
to a vain superstition. (See Med. xi. 3.) But this calm contempt by no means satisfied
the active hate of the crowd of real and pretended Stoics, whom his patronage
had attracted. Many of these were bigots of the worst class, and cherished sentiments
of the most malignant animosity towards the professors of the new religion. Accustomed
to regard all other sects with self-satisfied disdain, they could ill brook the
freedom with which their follies and fallacies were now attacked and exposed;
they regarded with jealous rage a code of morals and a spotless purity of life
far superior to aught they had ever practised, or taught, or imagined; and least
of all could they forgive the complete overthrow of their own exclusive pretensions
to mental fortitude and calm endurance of bodily suffering.
Although no other serious charge has been preferred against M. Aurelius,
for the rumour that he poisoned L. Verus never seems to have obtained or deserved
the slightest credit, we may perhaps by a close scrutiny detect a few weaknesses.
The deep sorrow expressed upon the death of Faustina, and the eagerness with which
he sought to heap honours on the memory of a wicked woman and a faithless wife,
who rivalled Messalina in shameless and promiscuous profligacy, if sincere, betoken
a degree of carelessness and blindness almost incredible; if feigned, a strange
combination of apathy and dissimulation. Nor can we altogether forgive his want
of discernment or of resolution in not discovering or restraining the evil propensities
of his son, whose education he is said to have conducted with the most zealous
care. Making every allowance for the innate depravity of the youth, we can scarcely
conceive that if he had been trained with judicious firmness, and his evil passions
combated and controlled before they became fully developed, he would ever have
proved such a prodigy of heartless cruelty and brutal sensuality.
Our chief authorities for this period of history are the life of M.
Aurelius by Capitolinus, a mass of ill-selected and badly arranged materials,
and the 71st book of Dion Cassius, a collection of awkwardly patched fragments.
Some facts may be extracted from the minor Roman historians, and from Aristeides
(Orat. ix.), Herodian, Joannes Antiochenus, and Zonaras.
The editio princeps of the Meditations was published by Xylander (Tigur.
1558), and republished with improvements by the same scholar ten years afterwards
(Basil. 1568). The next in order was superintended by Merick Casaubon (Lond. 1643),
followed by the edition of Gataker (Cantab. 1652), reprinted at London (1697)
with additional notes from the French of And. Dacier, and his life of M. Aurelius
translated into Latin by Stanhope. This last edition must, upon the whole, be
still considered as the most useful and ample. A new recension of the text, accompanied
by a commentary, was commenced by Schulz, at the beginning of the present century
(Slesvic. 1802), but the work is still imperfect, one volume only having appeared.
There are numerous translations into most of the European languages.
In English, the best, though indifferent, is that published at Glasgow in 1749
and 1764; in French, that of Madame Dacier (Paris, 1691); in German, that of Schulz.
(Sleswick, 1799.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Commodus, L. Aurelius, son of M. Aurelius and the younger Faustina, was born at
Lanuvium on the last day of August, A. D. 161, a few months after the death of
Antoninus Pius, and this was the first of the Roman emperors to whom the title
of Porphyrogenitus could be correctly applied. Faustina at the same time gave
birth to a twin son, known as Antoninus Geminus, who died when four years old.
The nurture and education of Commodus were watched and superintended from infancy
with anxious care; and from a very early age he was surrounded with the most distinguished
preceptors in the various departments of general literature, science, and philosophy.
The honours heaped upon the royal youth as he advanced towards manhood have been
accurately chronicled by his biographers. He received the appellation of Caesar
along with his younger brother Annius Veras on the 12th of October, A. D. 166,
at the time when M. Aurelius and L. Verus celebrated their triumph over the Partians;
he was styled Germanicus on the 15th of October, 172; in 175, on the 20th of January,
he was admitted a member of all the sacerdotal colleges; on the 19th of May he
left the city, having been summoned in all haste to Germany in consequence of
the news which had arrived from Syria of the rebellion of Avidius Cassius; on
the 7th of July he was invested with the manly gown, proclaimed Princeps Juxentutis,
and nominated consul-elect; he then accompanied his father to the East, and, during
his absence from Rome, Sarmaticus was added to his other titles; on the 27th of
November, 176, he was saluted Imperator; on the 23rd of December, he shared in,the
triumph celebrated over the Germans, and was assumed as colleague in the tribunician
power; on the 1st of January, 177, he entered on his first consulship; in the
same year he married Bruttia Crispina, daughter of Bruttius Praesens, was hailed
as Augustus and Pater Patriae, and thus at the age of 16 was admitted to a full
participation in all the imperial dignities except the chief pontificate, which,
according to the principle maintained inviolate until the reign of Balbinus and
Pupienus, could be held by one individual only. On the 5th of August he set forth
to take part in the war then raging on the Upper Danube, which was prosecated
with signal success until the death of M. Aurelius, on the 17th of March, 180.
Impatient of hardship and eager to indulge without restraint in the
pleasures of the capital, Commodus, disregarding alike the last injunctions of
his sire and the earnest advice of the trusty counsellors to whose care he had
been consigned, concluded a hasty and therefore uncertain peace with the barbarians,
who in their depressed and enfeebled condition might by a vigorous effort have
been crushed for ever. In autumn he reached Rome, where his authority was as fully
and freely acknowledged by the senate, the praetorians, and the people, as it
had been by the legions which he commanded in person and the armies of the distant
provinces. No prince ever commenced a career of power under fairer auspices. The
love and veneration entertained by men of every condition for the father had descended
like an inheritance on the son, and although some who knew him well and had marked
his boyhood might whisper distrust and fear, such murmurs were drowned by the
general acclamations which greeted his first appearance as emperor. Nor were the
hopes of men for a while disappointed. Grave and calculating statesmen might feel
displeasure and alarm at the reckless profusion which characterised the very commencement
of the new reign; but since a large portion of the sums squandered was lavished
upon the soldiers and the people, the lower orders at least of the community were
enthusiastic in their attachment to the new ruler. This state of things did not
endure long. A formidable plot against his life was organised (A. D. 183) by his
sister Lucilla, jealous, it was believed, of the superior influence and position
of Crispina; but the scheme failed in consequence of the awkwardness of the assassin,
who, instead of dealing the fatal blow at the proper moment, put the prince upon
his guard by exclaiming as he rushed forward, "The senate sends thee this". The
event seems to have awakened the slumbering ferocity of a temper which now burst
forth with frightful vehemence, and raging from that time forward without controul,
especially against the members of that body in which the conspiracy was said to
have originated, rendered the remainder of his life an unbroken tissue of sanguinary
excesses. Every pretext was seized for the exhibition of the most savage cruelty;
false accusations, vague suspicions, great wealth, high birth, distinguished learning,
or any conspicuous virtue, were sufficient to point out and doom his victims,
long lists of whom have been preserved by Lampridius, including nearly all who
had risen to fame and fortune under M. Aurelius, with the exception of Pertinax,
Pompeianus, and Victorinus. All other passions were indulged with the same freedom
as the thirst for blood. Resigning the reins of government into the hands of the
various favourites who followed each other in rapid succession, he abandoned himself
without interruption to tile most shameless and beastly debauchery. But while
devouring in gluttony the resources of the empire and wallowing in every description
of sensual filth, he was at the same time the slave of the most childish vanity,
and sought for popular applause with indefatigable activity. He disdained not
to dance, to sing, to play the charioteer and the buffoon, to disguise himself
as a pedlar or a horse-dealer, and to essay his skill in the practical pursuits
of the humble artizan. Frequently he would appear and officiate as a sacrificing
priest, and eagerly assisted in all the orgies of foreign superstition, celebrating
the rites of Isis, of Anubis, of Serapis, or of Mithra, in all their folly and
all their horror. His pride and boast, however, was his skill in the use of martial
weapons. This he sought not to display against the enemies of his country in the
field, but he fought as a gladiator upwards of seven hundred times, and slew many
thousands of wild beasts in the amphitheatre with bow and spear. Other emperors
had sought or accepted the compliment of having one month named after themselves,
but Commodus decreed that the whole twelve should be designated by the epithets
and titles which he had at different periods assumed, and that they should be
arranged and enumerated in the following order: Amazonius, Invictus, Felix, Pius,
Lucius, Aelius, Aurelius, Commodus, Augustus, Herculeus, Romanus, Exsuperatorius,
ordaining also that the happy epoch during which he had sojourned on earth should
be distinguished as Seculum aureum Commodianum, the nation as Commodiana, the
senate as Commodianus, the armies as Commodiani, and the eternal city itself as
Colonia Commodiana. At length the miserable craving could be no longer appeased
by the homage and flatteries which a more mortal might claim. Long ere this, indeed,
the Greeks had been wont to compare their rulers, both domestic and foreign, to
deities, and the Romans had sometimes delicately hinted at some such resemblance
by the devices stamped on the reverse of the coins of their Augusti. But as yet
no inscription had appeared openly ascribing divine attributes to living princes,
nor had any symbol appeared on their medals which could openly and directly convey
such impious meaning. It was left for Commodus to break through these decent restrictions;
his exploits in the slaughter of wild beasts suggested an analogy with the Tirynathian
hero; he demanded that he should be worshipped as Hercules, and hence from the
year 191 we find a multitude of coins on which he is represented in the attire
of the immortal son of Alcmena, with the epigraph of Hercules Commodianus or Hercules
Romanus. His statues also, we are told by the historians of the day, were clad
in the appropriate robes; sacrifices were publicly offered as to a present God;
when he went abroad the lion's hide and other insignia were borne before him;
and, to crown the whole, a number of unhappy wretches were inclosed in cases terminating
in serpent-tails, and these he slaughtered with his club, as if they had been
the giants warring against heaven.
After having escaped many plots provoked by atrocious tyranny, he
at length cane to a fitting [p. 819] end. He had a mistress named Marcia, to whom
he was deeply attached, and whom he especially loved to behold equipped as an
Amazon. Hence the epithet Amazonius was frequently assumed by himself: the name
Amazonius, as we have already seen, was attached to the first month, and he displayed
his own person in the amphitheatre arrayed in the Amazonian garb. The first of
January, 193, was to have been signalized by a spectacle which would have thrown
into the shade the insults previously heaped upon the senate and the people, for
Commodus had determined to put to death the two consuls-elect, Q. Sosius Falco
and C. Julius Erucius Clarus, and to come forth himself as consul at the opening
of the year, not marching in robes of state from the palace to the capitol at
the head of the senate, but in the uniform of a secutor, followed by a band of
gladiators issuing from their training-school. This project he communicated to
Marcia, who earnestly implored him to abandon a design so fraught with disgrace
and danger, and her remonstrances were warmly seconded by Laetus and Eclectus,
the one praefect of the praetorians, the other imperial chamberlain. These counsellors
were dismissed with wrath from the presence of the prince, who retired to indulge
in his wanted siesta, having previously inscribed on his tablets a long catalogue
of persons who were to be put to death that night, the names of Marcia, Laetus,
and Eclectus appearing at the head of the list. This document was found by a favourite
child, who entered the apartment while Commodus was asleep, and was carried by
him in sport to Marcia, who at once perceived its import. She immediately communicated
the discovery to Laetus and Eclectus. The danger was imminent, and, unless promptly
met, inevitable. Their plans were quickly matured and quickly executed. That evening
poison was administered, and its operation proving so slow as to excite apprehensions
of its efficacy, Narcissus, a celebrated athlete, was introduced, and by him Commodus
was strangled on the night of December the 31st, A. D. 192, in the thirty-second
year of his age and the thirteenth of his reign. When the news of his death, at
first cautiously attributed to apoplexy, was spread abroad, tile intelligence
diffused universal joy among all ranks except the guards, who had been permitted
to revel in indolence and luxury and could scarcely expect again to find a master
so indulgent and liberal. When his successor, Pertinax, repaired next morning
before daylight to the senate, that venerable body, while greeting their new sovereign,
poured forth a string of curses upon the dead tyrant in a sort of strange chaunt,
the words of which have been preserved by Lampridius, declared him a public enemy,
and, being unable to vent their rage upon the living man, begged that his body
might be dragged, like that of a criminal, through the streets with a hook, and
cast into the Tiber -a request with which Pertinax, to his credit, refused to
comply, and the corpse was decently interred in the mausoleum of Hadrian.
We seldom meet in history with a character which inspires such pure
and unmixed detestation as that of Commodus. While his vices and crimes were inexpressibly
revolting, they were rendered if possible more loathsome by his contemptible meanness
and weakness. The most grinding oppression was combined with the most childish
vanity, the most savage cruelty with the most dastardly cowardice. He hated, persecuted,
and massacred the senate and the nobles, and at the same time eagerly drank in
their most disgusting flatteries. He slew thousands and tens of thousands of wild
beasts, but his arrows were shot and his darts were hurled from behind a screen
of network which protected his person from the possibility of risk. He butchered
hundreds of his fellow-men in gladiatorial combats; but while he was clad in the
impenetrable armour and wielded the heavy blade of a sector, his antagonists had
no defences except weapons of lead or tin; and when as, Hercules, he crushed with
his club the unhappy creatures dressed up to resemble the monstrous progeny of
Earth, the rocks which they hurled at their assailant were formed of sponge. After
examining tile ample records preserved of his career, we shall be unable to find
a trace of one generous action or one kindly feeling, to discern a single ray
of human sympathy to relieve the portentous blackness of his guilt. Dion, indeed,
represents him as naturally of a weak and extremely simple temper; as one who
easily received impressions, and whose crimes were to be attributed rather to
the artful advice of evil counsellors acting upon a timid and yieldnig disposition,
than to any inherent depravity; and imagines that he erred at first from ignorance
of what was rigllt, and gliding by degrees into a habit of doing evil, became
gradually faniliar with deeds of shame and wickedness. But had this been the case.
the lessons so carefully inculcated in early life would never have been so rapidly
and for ever obliterated. We feel more inclined to give credit to the assertion
of Lampridius, who declares that from his earliest boyhood he displayed evident
proofs of dark passions and a corrupt heart, a propensity to indulge freely in
every low and dissolute pleasure, and utter indifference to human suffering and
life.
It is almost needless to remark, that Commodus paid no attention to
foreign policy nor to the government and regulation of the provinces, except in
so far as they might be made to minister to his profusion and profligacy. The
integrity of the empire was however maintained, and the barbarians repulsed from
the Dacian frontier by the skill and valour of Clodius Albinus and Pescennius
Niger, the same who after the death of Pertinax contested the throne with Septimius
Severus. A still more serious disturbance arose in Britain; for the northern tribes
having forced a passage across the wall of Antonine, defeated the Roman troops
who opposed their progress, slew their leader, and laid waste the more peaceful
districts far and wide. But Ulpius Marcellus having assumed the chief command,
the Caledonians were speedily driven back, the war was successfully terminated
about A. D. 1814, Commodus was saluted Imperator for the seventh time, and added
Britannicus to his other titles.
(Dion Cass. lib. lxxii. and Excerpta Vaticana; Herodian. i. 10-55; Capitolin.
M. Aurel.; Lamprid. Commod.; and the minor Roman historians.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Severus, L. Septimius, Roman emperor A. D. 193-211, was born on the 11th of April,
A. D. 146, near Leptis in Africa, and it has been remarked, that he was the only
Roman emperor who was a native of that continent. His family was of equestrian
rank; the name of his father was Geta, of his mother Fulvia Pia, and from the
correspondence of appellation and country we may fairly conjecture that he was
a descendant of the Septimius Severus of Leptis to whom Statius addresses a graceful
poem. He devoted himself eagerly when a boy to the study of Greek and Latin literature,
and became a proficient in these languages. Having removed to Rome he entered
upon a public career, and at the age of thirty-two was made praetor elect by M.
Aurelius, his ambitious views having been effectually promoted by the influence
of his kinsman Septimius Severus, who had been raised to the consulship. From
this time forward the progress of Severus was steady and rapid. He successively
commanded the fourth legion then stationed near Marseilles -governed, with high
reputation for impartiality and integrity, the province of Gallia Lugdunensis-
was legate of Pannonia, proconsul of Sicily, and consul suffectus in A. D. 185,
along with Apuleius Rufinus, being one of the twenty-five who in that year purchased
the office from Cleaner. He was subsequently commander-in-chief of the army in
Pannonia and Illyria, and upon the death of Commodus tendered his allegiance to
Pertinax, but after the murder of the latter, and the shameful elevation of Julianus,
which excited universal indignation throughout the provinces, he was himself proclaimed
emperor )by the troops at Carnutum. Although he consented with reluctance to receive
this honour, yet, when his decision was once made he acted with the greatest promptitude
and energy. While Pescennius Niger, who had been saluted as Augustus by the eastern
legions, was loitering at Antioch, Severus marched straight upon Rome, and disregarding
the threats, the assassins, and the peaceful overtures of Julianus, as well as
the resolutions of the senate, in terms of which he had been declared a public
enemy, he pressed onwards with great rapidity, announcing himself every where
as the avenger of Pertinax, whose name he assumed, and from that time forward
constantly retained among his titles. His arrival before the city on the 1st or
2d of June, A. D. 193, was the signal for the death of Julianus, and the praetorians
having submitted, his first exercise of power was to take vengeance on the actual
murderers of Pertinax. He then collected the rest of the guards, surrounded them
with his legions, compelled them to lay down their arms, and banished them from
Rome, forbidding them upon pain of death to approach within a hundred miles of
the metropolis. This act of justice and of policy being performed, he proceeded
to enter the city, where all orders in the state now vied with each other in welcoming
him with joyful homage. He declared Clodius Albinus, whose rivalry he dreaded,
Caesar, -celebrated the obsequies of Pertinax with the utmost splendor- distributed
an enormous donative to his soldiers, amounting we are told to 30,000 sesterces
for each man, and having arranged all matters connected with the internal government
of the state, quitted Rome within thirty days after his triumphal entry, and hurried
to the East in order to prosecute the war against Niger. While he marched direct
towards Syria at the head of a portion of his forces, he despatched some legions
into Africa, lest the enemy passing through Egypt, or along the coast, might gain
possession of the great granary of the empire and starve the metropolis. So eagerly
did he watch over this department of the public service in after life, that when
he died the storehouses of Rome were found to contain a stock of corn sufficient
for the consumption of seven years, and as much oil as would have supplied the
wants of all Italy for five.
The progress of the campaign, which was terminated by the capture
of Niger after the battle of Issus, A. D. 194, need not be recapitulated. But
Severus was not yet satisfied. Some of the border tribes still refusing to acknowledge
his authority, he crossed the Euphrates in the following year (A. D. 195), wasted
their lands, captured their cities, forced all whom he encountered to submit,
and won for himself the titles of Adiabenicus, Arabicus, and Parthicus. In A.
D. 196 Byzantium, after an obstinate resistance, protracted for nearly three years,
was taken, to the great joy of the emperor, who treated the vanquished with little
moderation. Its famous walls were levelled with the earth, its soldiers and magistrates
were put to death, the property of the citizens was confiscated, and the town
itself, deprived of all its political privileges, made over to the Perinthians.
Meanwhile Clodius Albinus, who, although created Caesar, found that after the
destruction of Niger he was treated with little consideration, had accepted the
imperial dignity proffered by the troops in Gaul. Severus being thus compelled
to return to Europe, endeavoured, in the first instance, to remove his antagonist
by treachery, but his schemes having been baffled, he procured a decree of the
Senate, pronouncing him a public enemy, and then hastened on to Gaul to prosecute
the war. On the nineteenth of February, A. D. 197, the contending hosts encountered
near Lyons, the rivals commanding in person, each at the head of 150,000 men.
The battle was fiercely contested, and for a time fortune seemed to waver. Severus.
when rallying his men, lost his horse and narrowly escaped being slain; but eventually
his superior skill and experience prevailed. The loss upon both sides was terrible.
The whole plain was covered with the dead and wounded, and streams of blood mingled
with the waters of the Rhone. Albinus took refuge in a house near the river; but
finding himself hotly pursued and his retreat cut off, perished by his own hand.
The conqueror, after feasting upon the spectacle of his enemy's corpse, ordered
the head to be cut off and despatched to Rome, whither he quickly followed, and
put to death many senators suspected of having been in correspondence with the
foe. Games were exhibited, and largesses bestowed on the people; but as soon as
the first excitement of success had passed away Severus, still thirsting for military
renown, resolved to return to Asia, and again assail the Parthians, who, taking
advantage of the civil strife in the West, had spread over Mesopotamia. Accordingly
he set forth accompanied by his sons Caracalla and Geta, crossed the Euphrates
early in the year A. D. 198, and commenced a series of operations which were attended
with the most brilliant results. Seleucia and Babylon were evacuated by the enemy;
and Ctesiphon, at that time their royal city, was taken and plundered after a
short siege. The campaign against the Arabs, who had espoused the cause of Niger,
was less glorious. The emperor twice assailed their chief town Atra, and twice
was compelled to retire with great loss.
The next three years were spent in the East. Severus entered upon
his third consulship in Syria (A. D. 202), Caracalla being his colleague; visited
Arabia, Palestine, and Egypt; and having made all the necessary arrangements in
these countries, returned to Rome in the same year, in order to offer the decennial
vows, and to celebrate the marriage of his eldest son with Plautilla. The shows
in honour of the return of the prince, of the completion of the tenth year of
his reign, of his victories, and of the royal nuptials, were unparalleled in magnificence;
that is to say, the bloodshed and butchery of men and animals were greater than
ever. On one occasion, four hundred wild beasts were let loose in the amphitheatre
at one moment, and seven hundred, at the rate of a hundred for each day, were
slaughtered during the course of the frames. At this time, also. each citizen
whose poverty entitled him to obtain corn from the public store, and each of the
praetorians received ten aurei; a largess which consumed about sixteen millions
and a half sterling, the greatest sum which had ever been bestowed in such a manner
on any one occasion.
For seven years Septimius remained tranquilly at Rome; but in A. D.
207, either because a rebellion in northern Britain had assumed an aspect so serious
that his presence was deemed requisite, or for the purpose of giving active employment
to his sons, who were leading a life of profligacy, and to the legions, whose
discipline had become relaxed, he determined again to take the field. Accordingly,
passing through Gaul, he reached his destination, early in A. D. 208. Marching
at once to the disturbed districts, he entered Caledonia, and penetrated, we are
told, to the very extremity of the island, the inhabitants offering no steady
or formidable opposition, but rather luring the invaders onward, in the expectation
that they might be destroyed in detail, by want and misery. Nor do these anticipations
appear to have been altogether disappointed: after having endured excessive toil
in transporting supplies over barren pathless mountains, in raising causeways
across swampy plains, and in throwing bridges over anfordable river, the troops
retraced their steps, worn out with hardships of every description, without having
accomplished any great object, or secured any permanent advantage. In this expedition
incalculable misery was inflicted; the prince lost fifty thousand men, and gained
the title of Britannicus. That no moral impression even was made is evident from
the fact that, scarcely had the legions withdrawn towards the south, and commenced
the famous wall which still bears the name of their commander, when a fresh insurrection
broke out among the Meatae and the Caledonians. Enraged by this audacity, Severus
declared his resolution to exterminate the whole race, and instantly began to
make preparations for a new campaign. But his designs were cut short by death.
He was attacked by a violent disease in the joints, and expired at York, on the
4th of February, A.D. 211, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and the eighteenth
of his reign. His ashes were conveyed to Rome, and deposited in the tomb of M.
Aurelius. As a matter of course, his apotheosis was decreed by the senate, and
Herodian has preserved a detailed account of the ceremonies performed.
Although the character of Severus appears in a most favourable light
when viewed in contrast with those rulers who immediately preceded and followed
him, there is in it not much to admire, and nothing to love. He was, it must be
admitted, a stranger to their brutal vices; he was free from all capricious tyranny;
under ordinary circumstances he governed the state with integrity, and did all
that might best promote the interests of the community at large. He devoted himself
with great zeal to the administration of justice, and to the reform of public
abuses : he was, moreover, an admirable general; and the strict discipline maintained
by him among the troops, effectually repressed, for a season, military insolence
and excess. Nor can we refuse to acknowledge that he possessed a large, keen,
and vigorous intellect, such as might well befit the ruler of such an empire in
such unhappy times. But he was utterly devoid of all high moral principle, totally
destitute of gentleness and generosity of temper. When he had once resolved to
gain an object, he entertained no scruples with regard to the means by which his
purpose was to be accomplished; and although not naturally cruel, was perfectly
indifferent to human suffering and life. Nor did success soften this hardness
of heart, or qualify the bitter resentment which he cherished against all who
in any way opposed or thwarted his designs. Not content with victory, he ever
sought to glut his vengeance on his fallen foes, and was always most odious in
the hour of triumph. In private life it is said that he was a warm friend, simple
and domestic in his habits, and fond of literary pursuits.
Although undoubtedly possessed of a masculine tone of mind, we find
one singular trait of weakness, so much at variance with his shrewdness, sagacity,
and strong sense in other matters, that we must regard it as a most remarkable
example of the paralysing influence of vanity. He endeavoured to establish a connection
between himself and his predecessors in the purple, and most preposterously announced
that he was the adopted son of M. Aurelius, fifteen years after the death of that
prince. In this manner he set up a claim to a long line of imperial ancestors,
which he formally and [p. 808] pompously enunciated in many inscriptions still
extant, where he is styled son of M. Aurelius, brother of Commodus, and, mounting
up through Pius, Hadrian, and Trajan, greatgreat-great-grandson of Nerva.
(Dion Cass. lxxiv. lxxv. lxxvi.; Herodian; Spartian. Sever.; Eutrop. viii. 10;
Aurel. Vict. Caes. xx; Oros. vii. 17)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Caracalla or Caracallus, son of Septimius Severus and his second wife Julia Domna,
was born at Lyons on the 4th or 6th of April, A. D. 188. while his father was
governor of Gallia Lugdunensis. The child was originally called Bassianus after
his maternal grandfather, but when Severus thought fit to declare himself the
adopted offspring of M. Aurelius, he at the same time changed the name of his
boy to M. Aurelius Antoninus, a designation retained by him ever after. Caracalla
or Caracallus, which never appears on medals or inscriptions, was a nickname derived
from a long tunic or great coat with a hood, worn by the Gauls, which he adopted
as his favourite dress after he became emperor, and introduced into the army.
These vestments found great favour, especially among the lower orders, and were
known as Antoninianae Caracallae.
Young Bassianus is said to have been remarkable in early life for
a gentle and pleasing address. At this period he was beloved alike by his parents
and the people, and displayed no indication of that ferocious temper which subsequently
rendered him the scourge of the world. At the age of eight (196) he received the
title of Caesar and Princeps Juventutis, in Maesia, while his father was marching
from the East to encounter Albinus, and the year following (197) he was admitted
an extraordinary member of the pontifical college. After the overthrow of Albinus,
we find him styled Destinatus Imperator; and in 198, when ten years old, he was
invested with the tribunician power, and created Augustus. He accompanied Sevenis
in the expedition against the Parthians, sharing his victories and honours, put
on the manly gown at Antioch in 201, entered upon his first consulship in 202,
and, returning through Egypt to Rome, was married in the course of a few months
to Plautilla, daughter of Plautianus, the praetorian praefect. The political events
from this date until the death of Severus, which took place at York, on the 4th
of February, A. D. 211, are given in the life of that prince, whose acuteness
and worldly knowledge were so conspicuous, that he could not, under any circumstances,
have failed to fathom the real character of his son, who assuredly was little
of a hypocrite. But, although the youth was known to have tampered with the troops,
and once, it is said, was detected in an open attempt to assassinate his father,
no punishment was inflicted, and parental fondness prevented the feeble old man
from taking any steps which might save the empire from being cursed with such
a ruler. Geta, however, was named joint heir of the throne, having been previously
elevated to the rank of consul and dignified with the appellations of Caesar and
Augustus.
The great object of Caracalla was now the destruction of this colleague,
towards whom he entertained the most deadly hatred. Having failed in persuading
the army to set aside the claims of his rival, he, on various occasions, sought
his life secretly while they were journeying from Britain to Rome with the ashes
of their father; but these treacherous schemes were all frustrated by the vigilance
of Geta, who was well aware of his danger, and fear of the soldiery prevented
open violence. A pretended reconciliation now took place: they entered the city
together, together bestowed a donative on the guards and the people, and a negotiation
was commenced for a peaceful partition of the empire. But the passions of Caracalla
could no longer be restrained. During an interview held in the chamber of Julia,
soldiers, who had been craftily concealed, rushed forth and stabbed the younger
son of the empress in his mother's arms, while the elder not only stood by and
encouraged, but with his own hands assisted in completing the deed. The murderer
sought to appease the irritated troops by pretending that he had only acted in
self-defence; but was eventually compelled to purchase their forbearance by distributing
among them the whole wealth accumulated during his father's reign. The senate
he treated with wellmerited contempt, and, feeling now secure, proceeded to glut
his vengeance by massacring all whom he suspected of having favoured the pretensions
or pitied the fate of Geta, whose name was forthwith erased from the public monuments.
The number of persons sacrificed is said to have amounted to twenty thousand of
both sexes, among the number of whom was Papinianus, the celebrated jurist. But
these crimes brought their own retribution. From this moment Caracalla seems never
to have enjoyed tranquillity for a single hour. Never were the terrors of an evil
conscience more fearfully displayed. After endeavouring in vain to banish remorse
by indulgence in all the dissolute pleasures of Rome, by chariot-racing and gladiatorial
shows and wild beast hunts, to each of which in turn he devoted himself with frantic
eagerness; after grinding the citizens to the earth by taxes and extortions of
every description; and after plundering the whole world to supply the vast sums
lavished on these amusements and on his soldiers, he resolved if possible to escape
from himself by change of place. Wandering with restless activity from land to
land, he sought to drown the recollection of his past guilt by fresh enormities.
Gaul, Germany, Dacia, Thrace, Asia, Syria, and Egypt, were visited in succession,
and were in succession the scene of varied and complicated atrocities. His sojourn
at Alexandria was marked by a general slaughter of the inhabitants, in order to
avenge certain sarcastic pleasantries in which they had indulged against himself
and his mother; and the numbers of the slain were so great, that no one ventured
to make known the amount, but orders were given to cast the bodies instantly into
deep trenches, that the extent of the calamity might be more effectually concealed.
The Greeks now believed that the furies of his brother pursued him with their
scourges. It is certain that his bodily health became seriously affected, and
his intellects evidently deranged. He was tormented by fearful visions, and the
spectres of his father and the murdered Geta stood by him, in the dead of night,
with swords pointed to his bosom. Believing himself spell-bound by the incantations
of his foes, he had recourse to strange rites in order to evoke the spirits of
the dead, that from them he might seek a remedy for his tortures; but it was said
that none would answer to his call except the kindred soul of Commodus. At last,
he sought the aid of the gods, whom he importuned by day and night with prayers
and many victims; but no deity would vouchsafe a word of comfort to the fraticide.
While in this excited and unhappy condition, he demanded in marriage
the daughter of Artabanus, the Parthian king; but the negotiation having been
abruptly broken off, he suddenly passed the Euphrates in hostile array. The enemy
were totally unprepared to resist an invasion so unexpected, and could offer no
effectual resistance. Mesopotamia was wasted with fire and sword, Arbela was captured,
and the emperor, after digging up the sepulchres of the Parthian kings and scattering
their bones, returned to winter at Edessa. Having treacherously gained possession
of the person of Abgarus, king of the Osroeni, he seized upon his territory, and
took the field in spring with the intention of carrying his arms beyond the Tigris.
His course was first directed towards Carrhae, that he might offer homage at a
celebrated shrine of the Moondeity in that neighbourhood; but during the march
he was assassinated, at the instigation of Macrinus, the praetorian praefect,
by a veteran named Martialis, on the 8th of April, 217, in the thirtieth year
of his age and the seventh of his reign.
The chronology of the last years of Caracalla is full of difficulty,
and it is almost impossible to arrange the different events recorded in their
proper order with anything like certainty. We hear of an expedition against the
Alemanni and another against the Getae. The former, commemorated by the epithet
Germanicus, terminated in a purchased peace; the latter appears to have been partially
successful. The portion of Dion Cassius which refers to this period consists of
disjointed and imperfect chapters, between which we can seldom establish any connexion.
They contain, however, much curious information, to which considerable additions
have been made by the fragments recently discovered by Mai. Dion tells us, that
after death Caracalla was usually spoken of under the insulting name of Tarantus,
taken from a gladiator remarkable from his short stature, ugly features, and sanguinary
disposition. The historian himself, having explained this term (lxxviii. 9), invariably
employs it in the subsequent portions of his work.
We must not omit to observe, that Gibbon, following Spanheim and Bunnann,
ascribes to Caracalla the important edict which communicated to all free inhabitants
of the empire the name and privileges of Roman citizens, while several ancient
authors attribute this document to M. Aurelius. The truth seems to be, that M.
Aurelius was the author of a very broad and liberal measure in favour of the provincials,
clogged, however, by certain conditions and restrictions which were swept away
by Caracalla, in order that he night introduce an uniform system of taxation and
extort a larger revenue in return for a worthless privilege.
(Dion Cass. Ixxvii. lxxviii.; Herodian. iv.; Spartian. Vit. Caracall.; Aurel.
Vict. Epit. xxi., Caes. xxi.; Eutrop. xxi.)
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Macrinus, Roman emperor, April, A. D. 217 - June, A. D. 218. M. Opelius (or Opilius)
Macrinus, afterwards M. Opelius Severus Macrinus, at whose instigation Caracalla
was assassinated, when marching to encounter the Parthians, was a native of Caesareia
in Mauritania, and was born of very humble parents, in the year A. D. 164. Having
been recommended to the notice of Plautianus, the all-powerful favourite of Septimius
Severus, he was admitted into his employment, and narrowly escaped being involved
in the destruction of his patron. Having subse. quently received several appointments
of trust in the imperial household, he was at length named praefect of the praetorians,
by Caracalla, and discharged the duties of that high office with the greatest
prudence and integrity, whenever he was permitted to follow the dictates of his
own inclinations uncontrolled. The death of Caracalla took place on the 8th of
April, A. D. 217, and on the 11th Macrinus, who had hitherto abstained from coming
forward openly, lest he might be suspected of having participated in the plot,
having, through the secret agency of his friends, succeeded in gaining over the
soldiers by the promise of a liberal donative, was proclaimed emperor, the title
of Caesar being at the same time conferred upon his son Diadumenianus. He immediately
repealed the additional tax imposed by his predecessor on manumissions and inheritances,
and expressed a determination to abolish all unlawful exactions both in the city
and in the provinces. The senate, filled with joy on receiving intelligence of
the death of their hated tyrant, gladly confirmed the choice of the army.
The emperor at once marched to meet Artabanus the Parthian, who, burning
with rage on account of the dishonour and loss sustained through the treachery
of Caracalla, and confident in his own strength, had haughtily rejected all offers
of accommodation, except upon such terms as it was impossible to accept. The opposing
hosts encountered near Nisibis, the Romans were signally defeated, and after having
been compelled to purchase the forbearance of the conqueror, by a great sum of
money and heavy sacrifices, retired, covered with disgrace, into Syria. At the
commencement of the following year a discontented and mutinous spirit began to
be openly displayed in the legions, who found the sovereign of their choice far
less indulgent and open-handed than the son of Severus. Taking advantage of these
feelings, Julia Maesa, who was at that time living at Emesa, persuaded the detachments
quartered in the vicinity that her grandson Elagabalus was in reality the child
of Caracalla, and having seduced them from their allegiance by lavish offers,
induced them to receive the boy into their camp, and to acknowledge him as their
prince. Macrinus advanced to Antioch to crush the impostor, but after an engagement,
fought on the 8th of June, A. D. 218, in which great cowardice was displayed on
both sides, the fortune of the day having been eventually decided by the energy
and bold example of Maesa and Soemias, he was compelled to fly, and, casting away
his royal robes, reached Chalcedon disguised in mean attire. There he was quickly
betrayed, was dragged back, and slain in Cappadocia, in the fifty-fourth or fifty-fifth
year of his age, after a reign of fourteen months. His head, and that of his son,
who had been discovered and put to death elsewhere, were stuck upon poles, and
carried about in triumph. If we can trust Capitolinus, he scarcely deserves our
pity, for he is represented by the Augustan historian as haughty, blood-thirsty
and inhumanly cruel in the infliction of punishments. Great complaints were made
of the number of unfitting and unworthy persons invested by him with the highest
dignities.
(Dion Cass, Ixxxviii. 11-41; Capitolin. Macrin.; Aurel. Vict de. Caes. 22, Epit.
22; Eutrop. viii. 12; Zonar. xii. 13)
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Elagabalus. The Roman emperor commonly known by this name, was the son of Julia Soemias and
Sextus Varius Marcellus, and first cousin once removed to Caracalla. He was born
at Emesa about A. D. 205, and was originally called Varius Avitus Bassianus, a
series of appellations derived from his father (Varius), maternal grandfather
(Avitus), and maternal greatgrandfather (Bassianus). While yet almost a child
lie became, along with his first cousin Alexander Severus, priest of Elagabalus,
the Syro-Phoenician Sun-god, to whose worship a gorgeous temple was dedicated
in his native city. The history of his elevation to the purple, to which in the
earlier portions of his life he was not supposed to possess any claim, was effected
in a very singular manner by his grandmother, Julia Maesa. She had long enjoyed
the splendors and dignities of the imperial court in the society of her sister,
Julia Domna, the wife of Septimius Severus and the mother of Geta and Caracalla.
But after the murder of the latter by Macrinus, Maesa was compelled to return
to Syria, there to dwell in unhonoured retirement. While still smarting under
a reverse peculiarly galling to her haughty temper, she received intelligence
that the army was already disgusted by the parsimony and rigid discipline of their
new ruler, and was sighing for the luxury enjoyed under his predecessor. Maesa,
skilled in court intrigues and familiar with revolutions, quickly perceived that
this feeling might be turned to her own advantage. A report was circulated with
industrious rapidity that Elagabalus was not the son of his reputed father, but
the offspring of a secret commerce between Soemias and Caracalla. The troops stationed
in the vicinity to guard the Phoenician border had already testified their admiration
of the youth, whom they had seen upon their visits to Emesa gracefully performing
the imposing duties of his priesthood, and, having been further propitiated by
a liberal distribution of the wealth hoarded by Maresa, were easily persuaded
to receive Elagabalus with his whole family into the camp, and to salute him as
their sovereign by the title of M. Aurelius Antoninus, as if he had really been
the undoubted progeny and lawful heir of their late monarch. These proceedings
took place on the 16th of May, A. D. 213. Macrinus having received information
of what had happened, despatched Julianus with a body of troops to quell the insurrection.
But these, instead of obeying the orders of their general, were prevailed upon
to join the mutineers. Whereupon Macrinus advanced in person to meet his rival,
was signally defeated in a battle fought on the borders of Syria and Phoenicia,
and having escaped in disguise was soon afterwards discovered, brought back, and
put to death. The conqueror hastened to Antioch, from whence he forwarded a letter
to the senate, in which he at once assumed, without waiting for the form of their
consent, all the designations of Caesar, Imperator, son of Antoninus, grandson
of Severus, Pius, Felix, Augustus, and Proconsul, together with the tribunitian
authority. At the same time he inveighed against the treachery of Macrinus towards
his master, his low birth, and his presumption in daring to adopt the title of
emperor, concluding with a promise to consult the best interests of all classes
of the community, and declaring that he intended to set up Augustus, whose age
when he first grasped the reins of power lie compared with his own, as a model
for imitation. No resistance to these claims was testified on the part of the
senate or people, for we find from a curious inscription, discovered some years
ago at Rome, that the Fratres Arvales assembled in the Capitol on the 14th of
July, that is scarcely more than five weeks after the decisive victory over Macrinus,
in order to offer up their annual vows for the health and safety of their young
prince, who is distinguished by all the appellations enumerated above.
Elagabalus entered upon his second consulship in A. D. 219, at Nicomedeia,
and from thence proceeded to Rome, where he celebrated his accession by magnificent
games, by prodigal largesses, and by laying the foundation of a sumptuous shrine
for his tutelary deity. Two years afterwards, when he had rendered himself alike
odious and contemptible by all manner of follies and abominations, he was persuaded
by the politic Maesa to adopt his first cousin, Alexander Severus, to proclaim
him Caesar, and nominate him consul-elect. Soon after, having repented of these
steps, he endeavoured to procure the death of his kinsman, but was frustrated,
partly by the watchfulness of his grandmother and partly by the zeal of the soldiers,
with whom Alexander was a great favourite A repetition of a similar attempt the
year following (A. D. 222) proved his own destruction; for a mutiny having arisen
among the praetorians in consequence, he was slain along with Soemias in the camp
while endeavouring to appease their fury. The two bodies were dragged through
the streets and cast into the Tiber, and hence the epithet or nickname of Tiberinus,
one of the many applied in scorn to the tyrant after his death.
The reign of this prince, who perished at the age of eighteen, after
having occupied the throne for three years, nine months, and four days, dating
from the battle of Antioch, was characterised throughout by an accumulation of
the most fantastic folly, and tire most frantic superstition, together with impurity
so bestial that the particulars almost trauscend tine limits of credibility. Had
he confined himself to the absurd practical jokes of which so many have been recorded;
had he been satisfied within shipping on the tongues of peacocks and nightingales,
with feeding lions on pheasants and parrots, with assembling companies of guests
who were all fat, or all lean, or all tall, or all short, oi all bald, or all
gouty, and regaling them with mock repasts; had he been content to occupy his
leisure hours in solemnizing the nuptials of his favourite deity with the Trojan
Pallas or the African Urania, and in making matches between the gods and goddresses
all over Italy, men might have laughed goodnaturedly, anticipating an increase
of wisdom with increasing years. But unhappily even these trivial amusements were
not unfrequently accompanied with cruelty and bloodshed. His earnest devotion
to that god whose minister he had been, and to whose favour he probably ascribed
his elevation, might have been regarded as excusable or even justifiable had it
not been attended with persecution and tyranny. The Roman populace would with
easy toleration have admitted and worshipped a new divinity, but they beheld with
disgust their emperor appearing in public, arrayed in the attire of a Syrian priest,
dancing wild measures and chanting barbaric hymns; they listened with horror to
the tales of magic rites, and of human victims secretly slaughtered; they could
scarcely submit without indignation to the ordinance that an outlandish idol should
take precedence of their fathers' gods and of Jupiter himself, and still less
could they consent to obey the decree subsequently promulgated, that it should
not be lawful to offer homage at Rome to any other celestial power. Buut by far
the blackest of his offences were his sins against the decencies of both public
and private life, the details of which are too horrible and too disgusting to
admit of description. (Dion Cass. lxxvii. 30-41, lxxix.; Herodian, v. 4-23 ; Lamprid.
Elagab.; Capitolin. Macrin. ; Eutrop. viii. 13; Aurel. Vict. de Caes. xxiii.,
Epit. xxiii.)
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Severus, M. Aurelius Alexander, usually called Alexander Severus, Roman emperor,
A. D. 222-235, the son of Gessius Marcianus and Julia Mamaea, and first cousin
of Elagabalus, was born at Arce, in Phoenicia, in the temple of Alexander the
Great, to which his parents had repaired for the celebration of a festival. There
is some doubt as to the year and day of his birth; but the 1st of October, A.
D. 205, is probably the correct date, although Herodian places the event so low
as A. D. 208. His original name appears to have been Alexianus Bassianus, the
latter appellation having been derived from his maternal grandfather. Upon the
elevation of Elagabalus, he accompanied his mother and the court to Rome, a report
having been spread abroad, and having gained credit, that he also, as well as
the emperor, was the son of Caracalla. This connection was afterwards recognised
by himself, for he publicly spoke of the divine Antoninus as his sire; and the
same fact is asserted by the genealogy recorded on ancient monuments. In A. D.
221 he was adopted by Elagabalus and created Caesar, pontiff, consul elect, and
princeps juventutis, at the instigation of the acute and politic Julia Maesa,
who, foreseeing the inevitable destruction of one grandson, resolved to provide
beforehand for the quiet succession of tile other. The names Alexianus and Bassianus
were now laid aside, and those of M. Aurelius Alexander substituted; M. Aurelius
in virtue of his adoption; Alexander in consequence, as was asserted, of a direct
revelation on the part of the Syrian god. Elagabalus speedily repented of his
choice, and made many efforts to remove one upon whom he now looked with jealousy
as a dangerous rival; but his repeated efforts, open as well as secret, being
frustrated by the vigilance of Mamaea and the affection of the soldiers, eventually
led to his own death, as has been related elsewhere.
Alexander was forthwith acknowledged emperor by the praetorians, and
their choice was upon the same day confirmed by the senate, who voted all till
customary distinctions; and thus he ascended the throne, on the 11th of March,
A. D. 222, in his seventeenth year, adding Severus to his other designations,
in order to mark more explicitly the descent which he claimed from the father
of Caracalla.
For the space of nine years the sway of the new monarch was unmarked
by any great event; but a gradual reformation was effected in the various abuses
which had so long preyed upon the statemen of learning and virtue were promoted
to the chief dignities, while the city and the empire at large began to recover
a healthier tone in religion, morals, and politics. But during the period of tranquillity
in Italy, a great revolution had taken place in the East, whose effects were soon
felt in the Roman provinces, and gave rise to a series of convulsions which shook
the world for centuries. The Persians, after having submitted to the sway of Alexander
the Great, of the Seleucidae, and of the Parthians in turn, had made a desperate
effort to regain their independence: after a protracted and sanguinary struggle,
their chief, Artaxerxes, overcame the warlike Artabanus, and the sovereignty of
Central Asia passed for ever from the hands of the Arsacidae. The conquerors,
flushed with victory, now began to form more ample schemes, and fondly hoped that
the time had now arrived when they might thrust forth the Western tyrants from
the regions they had so long usurped, and, recovering the vast dominion once swayed
by their ancestors, again rule supreme over all Asia, from the Indus to the Aegaean.
Accordingly, as early as A. D. 229, Mesopotamia and Syria were threatened by the
victorious hordes; and Alexander, finding that peace could no longer be maintained,
set forth from Rome in A. D. 231 to assume in person the command of the Roman
legions. The opposing hosts met in the level plain beyond the Euphrates, in A.
D. 232. Artaxerxes was overthrown in a great battle, and driven across the Tigris;
but the emperor did not prosecute his advantage, for intelligence having reached
him of a great movement among the German tribes, he hurried back to the city.
where he celebrated a triumph in the autumn of A. D. 233.
Such is the account given of the result of this campaign by all ancient
writers, with the exception of Herodian, who draws a frightful picture of the
losses sustained by the sword and by disease, and represents Severus as having
been obliged to retreat ingloriously into Syria, with the mere skeleton of an
army. But the well known hostility of this historian to Severus would, in itself,
throw discredit upon these statements, unless corroborated by more impartial testimony;
and the character of this prince forbids us to suppose that he would have deliberately
planned and executed a fraud which could have imposed upon no one, and would have
commemorated by speeches to the senate and people, by medals, by inscriptions,
and finally by a gorgeous triumph, that which in reality was a shameful and most
disastrous defeat. Although little doubt, therefore, call be entertained with
regard to the main facts of the expedition, the determination of the dates is
a matter of considerable difficulty, and has given rise to much controversy among
chronologers; for the evidence is both complicated and uncertain. On the whole,
the opinion of Eckhel sees the most probable. He concludes that Severus left the
city for the Persian war, at the end of A. D. 230, or the beginning of A. D. 23;
that the battle with Artaxerxes was fought in A. D. 232; and that the triumph
was celebrated towards the end of A. D. 233.
Meanwhile, the Germans having crossed the Rhine, were now devastating
Gaul. Severus quitted the metropolis with an army, in the course of A. D. 234;
but before he had made any progress in the campaign, he was waylaid by a small
band of mutinous soldiers, instigated, it is said, by Maximinus, and slain, along
with his mother, in the early part of A. D. 235, in the 30th year of his age,
and the 14th of his reign.
All ranks were plunged in the deepest grief by the intelligence of
his death, and their sorrow was rendered more poignant by the well-known coarseness
and brutality of his successor. Never did a sovereign better merit the regrets
of his people. His noble and graceful presence, the gentleness and courtesy of
his manners, and the ready access granted to persons of every grade, produced,
at an early period, an impression in his favour, which became deeply engraven
on the hearts of all by the justice, wisdom, and clemency which he uniformly displayed
in all public transactions, and by the simplicity and purity which distinguished
his private life. The formation of his character must, in a great measure, be
ascribed to the high principles instilled by his mother, who not only guarded
his life with watchful care against the treachery of Elagabalus, but was not less
vigilant in preserving his morals from the contamination of the double-dyed profligacy
with which he was surrounded. The son deeply felt the obligations which he owed
to such a parent, and repaid them by the most respectful tenderness and dutiful
submission to her will. The implicit reliance which he reposed on her judgment,
is said to have led to his untimely end; for Mamaea inculcated excessive and ill-timed
parsimony, which conjoined with the strict discipline enforced, at length alienated
the affections of the troops, who were at one time deeply attached to his person.
So sensible was he of this fatal error, that he is said to have reproached his
mother, with his dying breath, as the cause of the catastrophe. (Herodian. v.
5, 17-23, vi. 1-18; Dion Cass. lxxx. frag.; Lamprid. Alex. Sever., comp. Antonin.
Elagab., Victor, de Caes. xxiv., Epit. xxiv.; Eurrop. viii. 14; Zosim. i. 11-13)
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Maximinus I., Roman emperor, A. D. 235-238. C. Julius Verus Maximinus was born in a village
on the confines of Thrace, of barbarian parentage, his father Micca being a Goth,
his mother Ababa a German, from a tribe of the Alani. Brought up as a shepherd,
he attracted the attention of Septimius Severus, by his gigantic stature and marvellous
feats of strength, was permitted to enlist in the cavalry, was appointed one of
the guards in immediate attendance on the person of the emperor, and soon gained
the good-will of his officers and the respect of his fellow-soldiers. Under Caracalla
he attained to the rank of centurion, and was familiarly designated, from his
prowess, Milo, Antaeus, or Hercules. Being regarded with suspicious hatred by
Macrinus, the assassin of his patron, he retired for a while to his native province,
where he acquired some property, and maintained a cordial intercourse with his
barbarian countrymen, to whom he was an object of no small pride and admiration.
Returning to Rome upon the accession of Elagabalus, although disgusted by his
profligate folly, he accepted the appointment of tribune, studiously absenting
himself, however, from court during the whole reign. By Alexander lie was received
with great distinction, was entrusted with the important task of organising the
great host, collected chiefly from the East, for the invasion of Germany, was
eventually, if we can trust the desultory and indistinct narrative of the Augustan
historian, nominated general-in-chief of all the armies, and hopes were held out
that his son would receive in marriage the sister of the emperor. But even these
honours did not satisfy his ambition. Taking advantage of the bad feeling which
existed among the troops, he artfully contrived to stimulate their discontent,
until a regular conspiracy was matured, which ended in the assassination of Severus
in Gaul, and in his own investiture (A. D. 235) with the purple by the mutinous
soldiers, whose choice was not resisted by an intimidated senate.
Maximinus immediately bestowed the title of Caesar on his son Maximus,
and without seeking to display his new dignity in the metropolis, determined to
prosecute with all vigour the war against the Germans, and accordingly crossed
the Rhine towards the end of the year A. D. 235. The campaign, which lasted for
upwards of eighteen months, was triumphantly successful. The enemy, after having
in vain attempted to withstand the progress of the invaders, were compelled to
take refuge in their woods and marshes, many thousand villages were destroyed,
the flocks and herds were slaughtered or driven off, a vast amount of plunder,
ilcluding multitudes of prisoners, was secured, and the emperor retired to Pannonia
in the autumn of 237, with the resolution of re-crossing the Danube in the following
spring, in order that he might subjugate the Sannatians and carry his arms even
to the shores of the ocean. Meanwhile, his administration had been characterised
by a degree of oppression and sanguinary excess hitherto unexampled. His maxim,
we are assured, was "nisi crudelitate imperium non teneri," and unquestionably
his practice seems to have been guided by some such brutal principle. This violence
was first called forth by the discovery of an extensive plot, contrived originally,
we are told, by a certain Magnus, a consular, in which many officers and men of
rank were involved. The vengeance of the tyrant was not glutted until four thousand
victims had been sacrificed, the greater number of whom were destroyed upon the
most vague suspicion. From this time forward informers were encouraged to ply
their trade. An accusation was instantly followed by a sentence of death or confiscation;
the most opulent were persecuted with untiring rancour, and numbers of illustrious
families reduced to indigence. When the sums lavished on the troops could no longer
be supplied by the plunder of private individuals, the next step was to lay violent
hands on public property of every description. The sums reserved in the treasury
for the purchase of corn, the fund set apart for theatrical exhibitions, the wealth
accumulated in the temples, and the very statues of the gods, were all ruthlessly
seized,-proceedings which called forth expressions of such deep indignation, that
the soldiers were ashamed to enrich themselves from these sources. Against no
class did the jealous rage of Maximinus burn so fiercely as against the senate.
Remembering with bitterness the insults he had endured in former days from the
very slaves of the haughty nobles, he eagerly seized every pretext for pillaging,
exiling, and murdering the members of a body so detested. The same ferocity broke
forth even against the soldiers, who were subjected for trivial offences to the
most horrid tortures, so that history and mythology were ransacked to discover
some monstrous prototype for the man whom they had once loved to term Hercules,
or Ajax, or Achilles, but who was now more frequently designated as Cyclops, or
Busiris, or Sciron, or Phalaris, or Typhon, or Gyges. But this fury was kindled
into absolute madness, when, in the beginning of A. D. 238, Maximinus received
intelligence of the insurrection in Africa headed by the Gordians. of the favour
displayed by the provinces and the senate towards their cause, of the resolutions
by which he himself had been declared a public enemy, of the subsequent elevation
of Maximus with Balbinus, and of their recognition in Italy by all orders of the
state. He is said upon this occasion to have rent his garments, to have thrown
himself upon the ground and dashed his head against the wall in impotent fury,
to have howled like a wild beast, to have struck all whom he encountered, and
to have attempted to tear out the eyes of his own son. Abandoning at once his
projected expedition, orders were instantly given to march against Rome. Passing
over the Julian Alp, the army descended upon Aquileia. That important city, the
chief bulwark of the peninsula on the north-eastern frontier, stimulated by the
patriotic zeal of Crispinus and Menophilus, the two consulars entrusted with the
defence of the district, shut its gates against the tyrant, who was forced to
form a regular siege. The walls were bravely defended, and the assailants suffered
severely, not only from the valour of the townsmen, but likewise from the want
of supplies, the whole of the surrounding district having been laid waste in anticipation
of their approach. The bad passions and ungovernable temper of Maximinus were
lashed into frenzy by these delays, the chief officers were put to death, and
the most intemperate harshness employed towards the men. At length a body of praetorians,
dreading some new outbreak of cruelty, repaired to the tent of the emperor and
his son, who were reposing during the mid-day heat, and having forced an entrance,
cut off their heads, which were first displayed on poles to the gaze of the citizens
on the battlements of Aquileia, and then despatched to Rome. The grisly trophies
were exposed for a time to public view, that all might revel in the spectacle,
and then burned in the Campus Martins, amidst the insulting shouts of the crowd.
These feelings were shared by all the civilised provinces in the empire, although
the rude dwellers on the northern frontiers lamented the loss of a sovereign chosen
from among themselves.
We have already seen that Maximinus owed his first advancement to
his physical powers, which seem to have been almost incredible. His height exceeded
eight feet, but his person was not ungraceful, for the size and muscular development
of his limbs were in proportion to his stature, the circumference of his thumb
being equal to that of a woman's wrist, so that the bracelet of his wife served
him for a ring. His fair skin gave token of his Scandinavian extraction, while
the remarkable magnitude of his eyes communicated a bold and imposing expression
to his features. In addition to his unequalled prowess as a wrestler, he was able
single-handed to drag a loaded waggon, could with his fist knock out the grinders,
and with a kick break the leg of a horse; while his appetite was such, that in
a day he could eat forty pounds of meat, and drink an amphora of wine. At least
such are the statements of ancient writers, though they should doubtless be received
with some deductions.
The chronology of this reign, which is extremely obscure, in consequence
of the ignorance and carelessness of our ancient authorities, has been elucidated
with great skill by Eckhel, whose arguments, founded chiefly upon the evidence
afforded by medals, appear quite irresistible. From these it appears certain that
the death of Alexander Severus happened not later than the beginning of July,
A. D. 235; that Maximinus betook himself to Sirmium, after his successful campaign
against the Germans, towards the close of A. D. 237; that the elevation of the
Gordians in Africa took place about the commencement of March, A. D. 238, and
their death about six weeks afterwards; that Maximinus set out upon his march
for Rome early in April, sat down before Aquileia towards the end of the month,
and was slain, in all probability about the middle of May.
The names C. Julius Verus, together with the titles Dacicus Maximus
and Sarmaticus Maximus, appear in inscriptions only; medals at first exhibit the
simple Maximinus, to which Germanicus is added in those struck during A. D. 236,
and the following years.
(Capitolin. Maximin. duo; Herodian. lib. vii. viii.; Zonar. xii. 16.)
Decius, Roman emperor, A. D. 249-251, whose full name was C. Messius Quintus Trajanus
Decius, was born about the close of the second century at Bubalia, a village in
Lower Pannonia, being the first of a long series of monarchs who traced their
origin to an Illyrian stock. We are altogether unacquainted with his early career,
but he appears to have been entrusted with an important military command upon
the Danube in A. D. 245, and four years afterwards was earnestly solicited by
Philippus to undertake the task of restoring subordination in the army of Moesia,
which had been dishowever, organized by the revolt of Marinus. Decius accepted
this appointment with great reluctance, and many misgivings as to the result.
On his appearance, the troops deeming their guilt beyond forgiveness, offered
the envoy the choice of death or of the throne. With the sword pointed to his
heart he accepted the latter alternative, was proclaimed Augustus, and forced
by the rebels to march upon Italy, having previously, according to Zonaras, written
to assure his sovereign that his faith was still unbroken, and that he would resign
the purple, as soon as he could escape from the thraldom of the legions. Philippus,
not trusting these professions, hastened to meet his rival in the field, encountered
him in the vicinity of Verona, was defeated, and slain. This event took place
towards the end of A. D. 249.
The short reign of the new prince, extending to about thirty months,
was chiefly occupied in warring against the Goths, who now, for the first time,
appeared as a formidable foe on the north eastern frontier, and having crossed
the Danube, under Cniva their chief, were ravaging the Thracian provinces. The
details of their invasion are to found in Jornandes, Zosimus, and the fragments
of Dexippus, but these accounts appear so contradictory, that it is impossible,
in the absence of an impartial historian, to explain or re concile their statements.
It would seem that the barbarians, in the first instance, repulsed Decius near
Philippopolis, and were thus enabled to take that important city, but having lost
their best troops during these operations, and finding them selves surrounded
by the Romans who were now advancing from different points, they offered to purchase
an unmolested retreat by the surrender of their prisoners and plunder. These overtures
being rejected, the Goths turned to bay, and gave battle near Abricium late in
the year A. D. 251. After a deadly struggle, their desperate valour, aided by
the incautious confidence of the Romans, prevailed. The son of the emperor was
slain by an arrow, while Decius himself, with his best troops, became entangled
in a marsh, and were cut to pieces or engulfed.
Some proceedings in the civil administration of this epoch, which
at first sight would be considered as wholly without connexion with each other,
but which were in reality intended to promote the accomplishment of the same object,
deserve special attention. The increasing weakness of the state was every day
becoming more painfully apparent, and the universal corruption of public morality
was justly regarded as a deepseated canker which must be eradicated, before any
powerful effort could be made for restoring healthful vigour to the body politic.
Two remedies suggested themselves, and were immediately called into action. It
was determined to revive the censorship and to persecute the Christians. It was
hoped that, by the first, order and decency might be revived in the habits of
social life; it was imagined that, by the second, the national religion might
be restored to its ancient purity, and that Rome might regain the favour of her
gods. The death of Decius prevented the new censor, Valerian, the same who afterwards
became emperor, from exerting an authority which could scarcely have produced
any beneficial change; but the eager hate of Pagan zealots was more prompt in
taking advantage of the imperial edict, and made much havoc in the church. Rome,
Antioch, and Jerusalem, lamented the martyrdom of their bishops Fabianus, Babylas,
and Alexander; Origen was subjected to cruel tortures, while Alexandria was the
scene of a bloody massacre. In Africa, vast numbers, falling away from the truth,
disowned their belief, and after the danger was past, the readmission of these
renegades, comprehended under the general appellation of Lapsi, gave rise to various
bitter controversies, which distracted for a long period the ecclesiastical councils
of the west.
Of the general character of Decius it is impossible to speak with
certainty, for our authorities are scanty, and the shortness of his public career
afforded little opportunity for its development. Victor pronounces a warm panegyric,
declaring that his disposition was most amiable, that he was highly accomplished,
mild and affable in his civil relations, and a gallant warrior in the field. Zosimus
and the Christian historians, writing under the influence of strong feeling, have
severally represented him as a model of justice, valour, liberality, and all kingly
virtues, or as a monster of iniquity and savage cruelty, while even, in modern
times, the tone adopted by Tillemont on the one hand, and by Gibbon on the other,
can [Figure] scarcely be pronounced fair or dispassionate, the language of the
latter especially being such as to mislead the unlearned reader both as to the
nature and extent of our information, and to induce him to conclude that we posses
materials for pronouncing a judgment which do not in reality exist.
(Victor, de Caes. 29; Epit. 29; Eutrop. ix. 4; Trebell. Pollio Valerian.
c. 1; Euseb. Hist. Eccles. vi. 39, &c; Zosim. i. 21-23; Zonar. xii. 19, 20; Jornandes,
R. G. c. 16, &c.)
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Valerianus, Roman emperor, A. D. 253-260. P. Licinius Valerianus, whose father's name was
Valerius, traced his descent from an ancient and noble stock. After passing through
various grades in the service of the state, he had risen to the highest honours
at least as early as A. D. 237, for we find him styled a consular when despatched
a year later by the Gordians to Rome. Decius having determined to revive the censorship,
and having called upon the senate to name the individual most worthy of such an
office, demanding the union of the most spotless integrity with the most sound
discretion, the whole assembly with one voice fixed upon Valerian eagerly, extolling
his accomplishments and worth. This singular unanimity, and the tone of hyperbolical
compliment in which the choice was announced, must be received either as a proof
of the surpassing merit of the personage thus distinguished, or as an indication
that the emperor, although he ostensibly left the election open, had contrived
beforehand to make known his own sentiments and wishes. The untimely fate of Decius
saved the regulator of public morals from the embarrassment which must have attended
the discharge of difficult and invidious duties, while at the same time he was
admitted to the full confidence of Gallus, by whom he was employed to quell the
rebellion of Aemilianus, and recall the legions of Pannonia and Moesia to their
allegiance. While an army was forming in Noricum and Rhaetia, the rapid movements
of the usurper and the murder of the prince completely changed the aspect of affairs,
and Valerian, who had taken up arms to support the interests of another, now employed
them to advance his own. The sudden death, whether caused by disease or treachery,
of his rival, whom he found encamped near Spoleto, prevented a hostile encounter.
Valerian was chosen (A. D. 254) to fill the vacant throne, not, says the Augustan
historians, by the rude clamours of a camp, nor by the disorderly shouts of a
popular assembly, but in right of his merits, and, as it were, by the unanimous
voice of the whole world. The new sovereign having assumed his eldest son Gallienus
as an associate in the purple, prepared to repel, as best he might, the barbarian
hosts which, gathering confidence from the increasing weakness of the Roman dominion,
were pressing forwards more and more fiercely on the various frontiers. But although
the Franks were ravaging Gaul and Spain, although the Alemanni were making repeated
descents upon the provinces of the Upper Danube, and threatening Italy itself,
although the Goths were loading their boat fleets with the plunder of Asia and
of Greece, yet the dismemberment of the empire seemed most imminent in Syria.
Scarcely had Ardeschir Babegan, by his crowning victory in Khorasan, overthrown
the dynasty of the Arsacidae, and revived the ancient supremacy of Persia, when
he vowed that he would drive the Western usurpers from the regions once swayed
by his ancestors. His schemes were baffled by the energy and valour of Severus,
but the haughty and ambitious Sapor having at length succeeded in subjugating
Armenia, the ally and great outwork of the Roman power, thought that the time
had now arrived for realising the mighty projects of his sire. Having driven the
garrisons from the strongholds on the left bank of the Tigris, he overran Mesopotamia,
then crossing the Euphrates, rushed like a torrent upon Syria, and bearing down
all resistance, stormed Antioch, the metropolis of the East. At this juncture
Valerian assumed the command of the legions in person, and for a time his measures
were both vigorous and successful. Antioch was recovered, the usurper Cyriades
was slain, and Sapor was compelled to fall back behind the Euphrates ; but the
emperor, flushed by his good fortune, while his faculties were perhaps impaired
by age, followed too rashly. He found himself, like a second Crassus, surrounded,
in the vicinity of Edessa, by the countless horsemen of his active foe ; he was
entrapped into a conference, taken prisoner, and passed the remainder of his life
in captivity subjected to every insult which Oriental cruelty could devise. After
death his skin was stuffed and long preserved as a trophy in the chief temple
of the nation.
Although no doubts exist with regard to the leading facts connected
with the career of Valerian and his miserable fate, yet so imperfect, confused,
and contradictory are the records of this period, that it is impossible to arrange
the events in regular order, or to speak with any certainty of the details. We
should have imagined that little difficulty could have been found in fixing the
precise date of the capture and sack of Antioch, the destruction of its edifices,
and the massacre of its population, a catastrophe which must have caused a profound
sensation throughout the civilised world, yet we cannot decide whether these things
happened during the reign of Gallus, of Valerian, or of Gallienus. In like manner
it is hard to decide in what year Valerian was made prisoner, although the weight
of evidence is in favour of A. D. 260.
(Trebell. Poll. Frag. Vit. Valerian.; Aurel. Vict. de Caes. xxxii., Epit. xxxii.;
Eutrop. ix. 6; Amm. Marc. xxiii. 5; Zosim. i. 27, foll. iii. 32; Zonar. xii. 23)
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Gallienus, with his full name, P. Licinius Valerianus Egnatius Gallienus, Roman emperor A.
D. 260-268. When Valerian, upon the death of Aemilianus, was raised to the throne
(A. D. 253), he immediately assumed his eldest son Gallienus as an associate in
the purple, and employed him, under the care of the experienced Postumus, governor
of Gaul, to check the incursions of the barbarian Franks and Alemanni upon the
Upper Danube and the Rhine. Could we repose any faith in the testimony of medals
and inscriptions, the oft-repeated title of Germanicus, the legends Victoria Germanica,
Victoria Augustorum, Restitutor Galliarum, accompanied by representations of the
great rivers of the West crouching as suppliants at the feet of the prince, would
indicate a long series of glorious achievments. But the records of this epoch,
imperfect as they are, tell a very different tale, and prove that these pompous
manifestations of triumph were weak frauds, intended to minister to vanity, or
to conceal for a moment defeat and dishonour. Our authorities are so imperfect,
that it is impossible to describe with distinctness, even in outline, the events
which occurred during the reign of Valerian, from his accession in A. D. 253 until
his capture by the Persians in A. D. 260, or during the eight following years,
while Gallienus alone enjoyed the title of Augustus. It is certain that towards
the close of this period the Roman dominion, which for a quarter of a century
had sustained a succession of shocks, which seemed to threaten its dissolution,
reached its lowest point of weakness. So numerous were the foes by which it was
on every side assailed from without, and so completely were its powers of resistance
paralysed by the incapacity of its rulers, that it is hard to comprehend how it
escaped complete dismemberment, became again united and victorious, and recovered
some portion at least of its ancient glory. During this period the Franks ravaged
Gaul and Spain, and even sailed over the straits to Africa; the Alemanni devastated
unceasingly the provinces of the Upper Danube; the Goths pillaged the cities of
Asia on the southern shores of the Euxine, gained possession of Byzantium, and
diffused dismay throughout Greece by the capture of Athens; the Sarmatians swept
all Dacia, and the fertile valley of Moesia, to the base of Mount Haemus; while
Sapor made himself master of Armenia, recovered Mesopotamia, and, passing the
Euphrates, pursued his career of victory through Syria, until Antioch yielded
to his arms.
Nor were the population and resources of the empire exhausted by the
direct ravages of war alone. The ravages of the barbarians were followed by a
long protracted famine, which in its turn gave energy to the frightful plague,
first imported from the East by the soldiers of Verus, and which having for a
time lain dormant now burst forth with terrific violence. At the period when the
virulence of the epidemic attained its greatest height, five thousand sick are
said to have perished daily at Rome; and, after the scourge had passed away, it
was found that the inhabitants of Alexandria were diminished by nearly two thirds.
Paradoxical as the assertion may appear, general anarchy and a complete
dissolution of the political fabric were averted mainly by a series of internal
rebellions. In every district able officers sprung up, who, disdaining the feeble
sceptre of the emperor, asserted and strove to maintain the dignity of independent
princes. The armies levied by these usurpers, who are commonly distinguished by
the fanciful designation of The Thirty Tyrants (see Aureolus),
in many cases arrested the progress of the invaders, until the strong arm and
vigorous intellect of a Claudius, an Aurelian, and a Probus collected and bound
together once more the scattered fragments into one strong and well-compacted
whole.
The character of Gallienus himself is one of the most contemptible presented in
history. So long as he remained subject to his parent, he maintained a fair and
decent reputation, but no sooner was he released from this control than he at
once gave way to his natural propensities. The accounts of his father's capture
were received with evident pleasure, and not a single effort was made to procure
the release of the imprisoned emperor. Sinking at once into indolence, he passed
his life in a succession of puerile and profligate indulgences, totally indifferent
to the public welfare. At the same time, he was not deficient in talents and accomplishments.
He possessed skill and grace as a rhetorician and a poet, several of his bons
mots which have been preserved possess considerable neatness and point, he displayed
great skill in the art of dress, and was deeply versed in the science of good
eating. But, amidst all his follies, we find traces of nobler impulses and of
darker passions. When fairly roused by the approach of unavoidable danger, he
showed no want of courage and military prudence, all of which were evinced in
the victory gained over the Goths in Thrace, and in his campaign against Postumus,
although on this last occasion he probably owed much to the experienced valour
of his generals Aureolus and Claudius. On the other hand, the latent treachery
and cruelty of his temper were manifested in the massacre of the mutinous soldiers
at Byzantium, who had surrendered under the express stipulation of an amnesty,
and in the curious letter preserved by the Augustan historian, in which Celer
Verianus is earnestly enjoined to mutilate, slay, and cut to pieces (lacera, occide,
concide) all whto had favoured the pretensions of the usurper Ingenuus, old and
young, without distinction.
Gallienus appears to have set out for Greece in A. D. 267, in order
to oppose the Goths and Heruli, who were devastating Moesia; he returned hastily
to Italy upon receiving news of the insurrection of Aureolus, whom he defeated,
and shut up in Milan; but, while pressing the siege of that city, he was slain
by his own soldiers, in the month of March, A. D. 268, in the fiftieth year of
his age, after lie had enjoyed the title of Augustus for fifteen years, and reigned
alone for upwards of seven.
(Trebell. Poll. Valerian. pater et fil., Gallieni duo; Victor, de Caes. xxxiii,
Epit. xxxii. xxxiii ; Eutrop. ix. 7, 8; Zonar. xii. 23, 24; Zosim. i. 30, 37,
40, who speaks in such gentle terms of this prince, that some persons have imagined
that his character was wilfully misrepresented by the historians of the age of
Constantine, who sought to render the virtues of their own patrons more conspicuous
by calumniating their predecessors).
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Claudius II. (M. Aurelius Claudius, surnamed Gothicus), Roman emperor A. D. 268-270,
was descended from an obscure family in Dardania or Illyria, and was indebted
for distinction to his military talents, which recommended him to the favour and
confidence of Decius, by whom he was entrusted with the defence of Thermopylae
against the northern invaders of Greece. By Valerian he was nominated captain-general
of the Illyrian frontier, and commander of all the provinces on the Lower Danube,
with a salary and appointments on the most liberal scale; by the feeble and indolent
son of the latter he was regarded with mingled respect, jealousy, and fear, but
always treated with the highest consideration. Having been summoned to Italy to
aid in suppressing the insurrection of Aureolus, he is believed to have taken
a share in the plot organized against Gallienus by the chief officers of state,
and, upon the death of that prince, was proclaimed as his successor by the conspirators,
who pretended that such had been the last injunctions of their victim--a choice
confirmed with some hesitation by the army, which yielded however to an ample
donative, and ratified with enthusiastic applause by the senate on the 24th of
March, A. D. 268, the day upon which the intelligence reached Rome. The emperor
signalized his accession by routing on the shores of the Lago di Garda a large
body of Alemanni, who in the late disorders had succeeded in crossing the Alps,
and thus was justified in assuming the epithet of Germanicus. The destruction
of Aureolus also was one of the first acts of the new reign: but whether, as some
authorities assert, this usurper was defeated and slain by Claudius in the battle
of the Adda, or slain by his own soldiers as others maintain who hold that the
action of Pons Aureoli (Pontirolo) was fought against Gallienus before the siege
of Milan was formed, the confusion in which the history of this period is involved
prevents us from deciding with confidence. A more formidable foe now threatened
the Roman dominion. The Goths, having collected a vast fleet at the mouth of the
Dniester, manned it is said by no less than 320,000 warriors, had sailed along
the southern shores of the Euxine. Proceeding onwards, they passed through the
narrow seas, and, steering for mount Athos, landed in Macedonia and invested Thessalonica.
But having heard that Claudius was advancing at the head of a great army, they
broke up the siege and hastened to encounter him. A terrible battle was fought
near Naissus in Dardania (A. D. 269); upwards of fifty thousand of the barbarians
were slain; a still greater number sank beneath the ravages of famine, cold, and
pestilence; and the remainder, hotly pursued, threw themselves into the defiles
of Haemus. Most of these were surrounded and cut off from all escape; such as
resisted were slaughtered; the most vigorous of those who surrendered were admitted
to recruit the ranks of their conquerors, while those unfit for military service
were compelled to labour as agricultural slaves. But soon after these glorious
achievements, which gained for the emperor the title of Gothicus, by which he
is usually designated, he was attacked by an epidemic which seems to have spread
from the vanquished to the victors, and died at Sirmium in the course of A. D.
270, after a reign of about two years, recommending with his last breath his general
Aurelian as the individual most worthy of the purple.
Claudius was tall in stature, with a bright flashing eye, a broad
full countenance, and possessed extraordinary muscular strength of arm. He was
dignified in his manners, temperate in his mode of life, and historians have been
loud in extolling his justice, moderation, and moral worth, placing him in the
foremost rank of good emperors, equal to Trajan in valour, to Antoninus in piety,
to Augustus in self-controul--commendations which must be received with a certain
degree of caution, from the fact, that the object of them was considered as one
of the ancestors of Constantine, his niece Claudia being the wife of Eutropius
and the mother of Constantius Chlorus. The biography of Trebellius Pollio is a
mere declamation, bearing all the marks of fulsome panegyric; but the testimony
of Zosimus, who, although no admirer of Constantine, echoes these praises, is
more to be trusted. It is certain also that he was greatly beloved by the senate,
who heaped honours on his memory: a golden shield bearing his effigy was hung
up in the curia Romana, a colossal statue of gold was erected in the capitol in
front of the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, a column was raised in the forum
beside the rostra, and a greater number of coins bearing the epithet divus, indicating
that they were struck after death, are extant of this emperor than of any of his
predecessors.
(Trebell. Pollio, Claud.; Aurel. Vict. Epit. 34, de Caes. 34; Eutrop. ix. 11;
Zosim. i. 40-43; Zonar. xii. 25, 26. Trebellius Pollio and Vopiscus give Claudius
the additional appellation of Flavius, and the former that of Valerius also, names
which were borne afterwards by Constantius)
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Tacitus, M. Claudius, Roman emperor from the 25th September, A. D. 275, until
April, A. D. 276. After the death of Aurelian, the army in Thrace, filled with
remorse on account of their fatal mistake, and eager to testify their penitence,
instead of proclaiming a new emperor with tumultuous haste, despatched a submissive
letter to the senate, requesting that assembly to nominate out of their own body
a successor to the vacant throne, and pledging themselves to ratify the choice.
The senate at first received this most unlooked-for communication with mingled
surprise and distrust, and, fearing to take advantage of what might prove a very
transient ebullition of feeling, courteously declined to accede to the proposal.
At the same time, expressing their frill confidence in the discretion of the soldiers,
they referred the election to the voice of the legions. The troops, however, again
urged the fathers to yield to their wishes ; and although again met with the same
reply, still persisted in their original solicitation. This extraordinary contest
continued for upwards of six months, "an amazing period", says Gibbon, "of tranquil
anarchy, during which the Roman world remained without a sovereign, without an
usurper, and without sedition".
Such a state of things could not however long endure. The barbarians
on the frontiers, who had been quelled and daunted by the skill and daring vaiour
of Aurelian, were not slow to take advantage of the opportunity presented by this
strange position of public affairs. The Germans had already crossed the Rhine:
Persia, Syria, Africa, Illyria and Egypt were in commotion, when the senate, at
length convinced that the soldiers were sincere, joyfully prepared to discharge
a duty so unexpectedly devolved upon them. At a meeting convoked on the 25th of
September, A. D. 275, by the consul Velius Cornificius Gordianus, all with one
voice declared that no one could be found so worthy of the throne as M. Claudius
Tacitus, an aged consular, a native of Interamna (Vopisc. Florian. 2), who claimed
descent from the great historian whose name he bore, who was celebrated for his
devotion to literature, for his vast wealth, for his pure and upright character,
and who stood first on the roll. The real or feigned earnestness with which he
declined the proffered honour, on account of his advanced age and infirmities,
was encountered by the reiterated acclamations of his brethren, who overwhelmed
him with arguments and precedents, until at length, yielding to their importunate
zeal, he consented to proceed to the Campus Martins, and there received the greetings
of the people, and the praetorians assembled to do homage to their new ruler.
Quitting the city, he repaired to the great army still quartered in Thrace, by
whom, on their being promised the arrears of pay and the customary donative, he
was favourably received. One of his first acts was to seek out and put to death
all who had been concerned in the murder of his predecessor, whose character he
held in high honour, commanding statues of gold and silver to be erected to his
memory in the most frequented thoroughfares of the metropolis. He likewise directed
his attention to the improvement of public morals by the enactment of various
sumptuary laws regulating the amusements, luxurious indulgences, and dress of
the citizens, he himself setting an example to all around, by the abstemiousness,
simplicity, and frugality of his own habits. His great object was to revive the
authority of the senate, which now for a brief period asserted and maintained
a semblance of its ancient dignity, and the private letters preserved by Vopiscus
(Florian. 6) exhibit an amusing picture of the sacrifices and banquets by which
the senators manifested their exultation at the prospect opening up before them
of a complete restoration of their ancient privileges.
The only military achievement of this reign was the defeat and expulsion
from Asia Minor of a party of Goths, natives of the shores of the sea of Asof,
who having been invited by Aurelian to cooperate in his meditated invasion of
the East, and having been disappointed of their promised reward by the death of
that prince, had turned their arms against the peaceful provinces on the southern
coasts of the Euxine, and had carried their devastations vastations across the
peninsula to the confines of Cilicia.
But the advanced years and failing strength of Tacitus were unable
any longer to support the cares and toils so suddenly imposed upon him, and his
anxieties were still farther increased by the mutinous spirit of the army, which
soon ceased to respect a leader whose bodily and mental energies were fast hurrying
to decay. After a short struggle, he sunk tinder the attack of a fever, either
at Tarsus or at Tyana, about the 9th of April, A. D. 276; according to Victor,
exactly two hundred days after his accession. By one account, he fell a victim
to the anger of the soldiers; but the weight, of evidence tends to prove that
they were not the direct instruments, at least, of his destruction.
Our best authority is the biography of Vopiscus, who, if not actually
an eyewitness of what he recounts, had an opportunity of consulting the rich collection
of state papers stored up in the Ulpian Library; and from these he gives several
remarkable extracts. He refers also to a more complete life of Tacitus by a certain
Suetonius Optatianus, but of this no fragment remains. See likewise Eutrop. ix.
10; Aurel. Vict. de Caes. xxxvi. Epit. xxxvi.; Zonar. xii. 28, who says that he
was seventy-five years old, and in Campania, when proclaimed emperor.
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Probus, M. Aurelius, Roman emperor A. D. 276-282, was a native of Sirmium in Pannonia.
His mother is said to have been of more noble extraction than his father Maximus,
who after having served as a centurion with good reputation was raised to the
rank of tribune, and died in Egypt, bequeathing a very moderate fortune to his
widow and two children, a son and a daughter. Young Probus, at an early age, attracted
the attention, and gained the favour of Valerian, from whom, in violation of the
ordinary rules of military service, he received while almost a boy the commission
of tribune. Letters have been preserved by Vopiscus, addressed by the prince to
Gallienus, and to the praetorian prefect, in which he announces the promotion
of the youth, whom he praises warmly, and recommends to their notice. Nor did
he prove unworthy of this patronage. He conducted himself so gallantly in the
war against the Sarmatians beyond the Danube, that he was forthwith entrusted
with the command of a distinguished legion, and was presented in a public assembly
with various military rewards, among others with the highest and most prized of
all decorations, a civic crown, which he had earned by rescuing a noble youth,
Valerius Flaccus, a kinsman of the emperor, from the hands of the Quadi. His subsequent
exploits in Africa, Egypt, Arabia, Scythia, Persia, Germany, and Gaul, gained
for him the esteem and admiration of Gallienus, Aurelian, and the second Claudius,
all of whom expressed their feelings in the most earnest language, while his gentle
though firm discipline, the minute care which he evinced in providing for the
wants and comforts of the soldiers, and his liberality in dividing spoils, secured
the zealous attachment of the troops. By Tacitus he was named governor of the
whole East, and declared to be the firmest pillar of the Roman power, and, upon
the death of that sovereign, the purple was forced upon his acceptance by the
armies of Syria. The downfal of Florianus speedily removed his only rival, and
he was enthusiastically hailed by the united voice of the senate, the people,
and the legions.
The whole reign of Probus, which lasted for about six years, presents
a series of the most brilliant achievements. His attention was first turned to
Gaul, which had become disturbed upon the overthrow of Postumus, and after the
death of Aurelian had been ravaged, occupied, and almost subjugated by the Germans.
By a succession of victories the new ruler recovered sixty important cities, destroyed
400,000 of the invaders, and drove the rest across the Rhine. Following up his
success, he penetrated into the heart of Germany, compelled the vanquished tribes
to restore the whole of the plunder which they had borne away, and to furnish
a contingent of 16,000 recruits, which were distributed in small numbers among
the different armies of the empire; he established a line of posts stretching
far into the interior, and even formed the scheme of disarming the inhabitants
and of reducing the whole country to the form of a province. Passing onwards,
every foe was swept away from the frontiers of Rhaetia and Noricum, which now
enjoyed complete security, the Goths upon the Thracian borders, overawed by his
name, tendered submission or were admitted to alliance, the robber hordes of Isauria
and the savage Blemmyes of Ethiopia were crushed or dispersed, a treaty was concluded
with the Persians at their own eager solicitation, while, in addition to the conquest
of foreign foes, the rebellions of Saturninus at Alexandria, of Proculus and Bonosus
in Gaul, were promptly suppressed. The emperor on his return to the metropolis
celebrated a well-earned triumph, and determined forthwith to devote his whole
energies to the regulation of the civil government. The privileges restored by
his predecessor to the senate were confirmed, agriculture was promoted by the
removal of various pernicious restrictions, large bodies of barbarians were transplanted
from the frontiers to more tranquil regions, where they were presented with allotments
of land in order that they might learn to dwell in fixed abodes, and to practise
the occupations and duties of civilised life, while in every direction protection
and encouragement were extended to industry. But the repose purchased by such
unremitting exertion proved the cause of ruin to Probus. Fearing that the discipline
of the troops might be relaxed by inactivity and ease, he employed them in laborious
works of public utility, and was even rash enough to express the hope that the
time was fast approaching when soldiers would be no longer necessary. Alarmed
by these ill-judged expressions, and irritated by toils which they regarded as
at once painful and degrading, a large body of men who were employed under his
own inspection in draining the vast swamps which surrounded his native Sirmium,
in a sudden transport of rage made an attack upon the emperor, who, having vainly
attempted to save himself by taking refuge in a strong tower, was dragged forth
and murdered by the infuriated mutineers.
History has unhesitatingly pronounced that the character of Probus
stands without a rival in the annals of imperial Rome, combining all the best
features of the best princes who adorned the purple, exhibiting at once the daring
valour and martial skill of Aurelian, the activity and vast conceptions of Hadrian,
the justice, moderation, simple habits, amiable disposition, and cultivated intellect
of Trajan, the Antonines, and Alexander. We find no trace upon record of any counterbalancing
vices or defects, and we can detect no motive which could have tempted the writers
who flourished soon after his decease to employ the language of falsehood or flattery
in depicting the career of an obscure Illyrian soldier, unconnected by blood or
alliance alike with those who went before him, and with those who succeeded him
on the throne.
Our chief authority is the biography, in the Augustan History, of
Vopiscus, who complains that even when he wrote, the great achievements of this
extraordinary man were rapidly sinking into oblivion, obliterated doubtless by
the stirring events and radical changes in the constitution which followed with
such rapidity the accession of Diocletian. By the aid, however, of the books and
state papers which he had consulted in the Ulpian and Tiberian libraries, the
public acts, the journals of the senate, together with the private diary of a
certain Turdulus Gallicanus, he was enabled to compile a loose and ill-connected
narrative. We may refer also, but with much less confidence, to Zosimus, i. 64,
&c., the concluding portion of the reign being lost; to Zonaras, xii. 29; Aurel.
Vict. de Caes. xxxvii, Epit. xxxvii; Eutrop. ix. 11.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Diocletianus, Valerius, was born near Salona in Dalmatia, in the year A. D. 245, of most obscure parentage;
his father, according to the accounts commonly received, which are, however, evidently
hostile, having been a freedman and provincial scribe, while the future emperor
himself was indebted for liberty to a senator Anulinus. Were this last statement
true he must have been born while his parent was a slave; but this is impossible,
for, as Niebuhr has pointed out, the Roman law, even as it stood at that period,
would have prevented the son from being enlisted in the legion. From his mother,
Doclea, or Dioclea, who received her designation from the village where she dwelt,
he inherited the appellation of Docles or Diocles, which, after his assumption
of the purple, was Latinized and expanded into the more majestic and sonorous
Diocletianus, and attached as a cognomen to the high patrician name of Valerius.
Having entered the army he served with high reputation, passed through various
subordinate grades, was appointed to most important commands under Probus and
Aurelian, in process of time was elevated to the rank of consul suffectus, followed
Carus to the Persian war, and, after the death of that emperor on the banks of
the Tigris, remained attached to the court during the retreat in the honourable
capacity of chief captain of the palace guards (domestici). When the fate of Numerianus
became known, the troops who had met in solemn assembly at Chalcedon, for the
purpose of nominating a successor, declared with one voice that the man most worthy
of the sovereign power was Diocletian, who, having accepted the preferred dignity,
signalized his accession by slaying with his own hands Arrius Aper praefect of
the praetorians, who was arraigned of the murder of the deceased prince, his son-in-law.
The proceedings upon this occasion were characterised by an intemperate haste,
which gave plausibility to the report, that the avenger of Numerian, notwithstanding
his solemn protestations of innocence and disinterested zeal, was less eager to
satisfy the demands of justice than to avert suspicion from himself and to remove
a formidable rival, especially since he did not scruple to confess that he had
long anxiously sought to fulfil a prophecy delivered to him in early youth by
a Gaulish Druidess, that he should mount a throne as soon as he had slain the
wild-boar (Aper). These events took place in the course of the year 284, known
in chronology as the era of Diocletian, or the era of the martyrs, an epoch long
employed in the calculations of ecclesiastical writers, and still in use among
Coptic Christians. After the ceremonies of installation had been completed at
Nicomedeia, it became necessary to take the field forthwith against Carinus, who
was hastening towards Asia at the head of a numerous and well-disciplined army.
The opposing armies met near Margus in upper Moesia, and, after an obstinate struggle,
victory declared for the hardy veterans of the Western legions; but while Carinus
was hotly pursuing the flying foe he was slain by his own officers. His troops,
left without a leader, fraternized with their late enemies, Diocletian was acknowledged
by the conjoined armies, and no one appeared prepared to dispute his claims. The
conqueror used his victory with praiseworthy and politic moderation. There were
no proscriptions, no confiscations, no banishments. Nearly the whole of the ministers
and attendants of the deceased monarch were permitted to retain their offices,
and even the praetorian praefect Aristobulus was continued in his command. There
was little prospect, however, of a peaceful reign. In addition to the insubordinate
spirit which prevailed universally among the soldiery, who had been accustomed
for a long series of years to create and dethrone their rulers according to the
suggestions of interest, passion, or caprice, the empire was threatened in the
West by a formidable insurrection of the Bagaudae under Aelianus and Amandus,
in the East by the Persians, and in the North by the turbulent movements of the
wild tribes upon the Danube. Feeling himself unable to cope single-handed with
so many difficulties, Diocletian resolved to assume a colleague who should enjoy,
nominally at least, equal rank and power with himself, and relieve him from the
burden of undertaking in person distant wars. His choice fell upon the brave and
experienced, but rough and unlettered soldier Maximianus, whom he invested with
the title of Augustus, at Nicomedeia, in 286. At the same time the associated
rulers adopted respectively the epithets of Jovius and Herculius, either from
some superstitious motive, or, according to the explanation of one of the panegyrists,
in order to declare to the world that while the elder possessed supreme wisdom
to devise and direct, the younger could exert irresistible might in the execution
of all projects.
The new emperor hastened to quell, by his presence, the disturbances
in Gaul, and succeeded without difficulty in chastising the rebellious boors.
But this achievement was but a poor consolation for the loss of Britain, and the
glory of the two Augusti was dimmed by their forced acquiescence in the insolent
usurpation of Carausius.
Meanwhile, dangers which threatened the very existence of the Roman
dominion became daily more imminent. The Egyptians, ever factious, had now risen
in open insurrection, and their leader, Achilleus, had made himself master of
Alexandria; the savage Blemmyes were ravaging the upper valley of the Nile; Julianus
had assumed imperial ornaments at Carthage; a confederacy of five rude but warlike
clans of Atlas, known as the Quinquegentanae (or Quinquegentiani), was spreading
terror throughout the more peaceful districts of Africa; Tiridates, again expelled
from Armenia, had been compelled once more to seek refuge in the Roman court;
and Narses having crossed the Tigris, had recovered Mesopotamia, and openly announced
his determination to re-unite all Asia under the sway of Persia; while the Germans,
Goths, and Sarmatians were ready to pour down upon any unguarded point of the
long line of frontier stretching from the mouths of the Rhine to the Euxine. In
this emergency, in order that a vigorous resistance might be opposed to these
numerous and formidable attacks in quarters of the world so distant from each
other, and that the loyalty of the generals commanding all the great armies might
be firmly secured, Diocletian resolved to introduce a new system of government.
It was determined that, in addition to the two Augusti, there should be two Caesars
also, that the whole empire should be divided among these four potentates, a certain
fixed and definite portion being assigned to each, within which, in the absence
of the rest, his jurisdiction should be absolute. All, however, being considered
as colleagues working together for the accomplishment of the same object, the
decrees of one were to be binding upon the rest; and while each Caesar was, in
a certain degree, subordinate to the Augusti, the three junior members of this
mighty partnership were required distinctly to recognise Diocletian as the head
and guide of the whole. Accordingly, on the 1st of March 292, Constantius Chlorus
and Galerius were proclaimed Caesars at Nicomedeia, and to knit more firmly the
connecting bonds, they were both called upon to repudiate their wives; upon which
the former received in marriage Theodora, the step-daughter of Maximian; the latter
Valeria, the daughter of Diocletian. In the partition of the provinces the two
younger princes were appointed to the posts of greatest labour and hazard. To
Constantius were assigned Britain, Gaul, and Spain, the chief seat of government
being fixed at Treves; to Galerius were intrusted Illyricum, and the whole line
of the Danube, with Sirmium for a capital; Maximian resided at Milan, as governor
of Italy and Africa, together with Sicily and the islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea;
while Diocletian retained Thrace. Egypt, Syria, and Asia in his own hands, and
established his court at Nicomedeia. The immediate results of this arrangement
were most auspicious. Maximianus routed the Mauritanian hordes, and drove them
back to their mountain fastnesses. while Julian being defeated perished by his
own hands; Diocletian invested Alexandria, which was captured after a siege of
eight months, and many thousands of the seditious citizens were slain, Busiris
and Coptos were levelled with the ground, and all Egypt, struck with terror by
the success and severity of the emperor, sank into abject submission. In Gaul
an invading host of the Alemanni was repulsed with great slaughter after an obstinate
resistance, Boulogne, the naval arsenal of Carausius, was forced to surrender,
and the usurper having soon after been murdered by his chosen friend and minister,
Allectus, the troops of Constantius effected a landing in Britain in two divisions,
and the whole island was speedily recovered, after it had been dismembered from
the empire for a space of nearly ten years. In the East the struggle was more
severe; but the victory, although deferred for a while, was even more complete
and more glorious. Galerius, who had quitted his own province to prosecute this
war, sustained in his first campaign, a terrible defeat in the plains of Carrhae.
The shattered army, however, was speedily recruited by large drafts from the veterans
of Illyria, Moesiaand Dacia, and the Roman general, taught caution by experience,
advanced warily through the mountains of Armenia, carefully avoiding the open
country where cavalryy might act with advantage. Persevering steadily in this
course, he at length, with 25,000 men, fell unexpectedly upon the careless and
confident foe. They were completely routed, and the harem of Narses, who commanded
in person and escaped with great difficulty, fell into the hands of the conquerors.
The full fruits of this victory were secured by the wise policy of Diocletian,
who resolved to seize the opportunity of offering a peace by which he might receive
a moderate but certain advantage. A treaty was concluded, by which the independence
of Armenia was guaranteed, and all Mesopotamia, together with five provinces beyond
the Tigris and the command of the defiles of Caucasus, were ceded to the Romans.
For forty years the conditions of this compact were observed with good faith,
and the repose of the East remained undisturbed.
The long series of brilliant achievements, by which the barbarians
had been driven back from every frontier, were completed when Diocletian entered
upon the twentieth year of his reign, and the games common at each decennial period
were combined with a triumph the most gorgeous which Rome had witnessed since
the days of Aurelian.
But neither the mind nor the body of Diocletian, who was now fifty-nine
years old, was able any longer to support the unceasing anxiety and toil to which
he was exposed. On his journey to Nicomedeia he was attacked by an illness, from
which, after protracted suffering, he scarcely escaped with life, and, even when
immediate danger was past, found himself so exhausted and depressed, that he resolved
to abdicate the purple. This resolution seems to have been soon formed, and it
was speedily executed. On the 1st of May, A. D. 305, in a plain three miles from
the city where he had first assumed the purple, in the presence of the army and
the people, he solemnly divested himself of his royal robes. A similar scene was
enacted on the same day at Milan by his reluctant colleague. Constantius Chlorus
and Galerius being now, according to the principles of the new constitution, raised
to the dignity of Augusti, Flavius Severus and Maximinus Daza were created Caesars.
Diocletian returned to his native Dalmatia, and passed the remaining eight years
of his life near Salona in philosophic retirement, devoted to rural pleasures
and the cultivation of his garden. Aurelius Victor has preserved the well-known
anecdote, that when solicited at a subsequent period, by the ambitious and discontented
Maximian, to resume the honours which he had voluntarily resigned, his reply was,
"Would you could see the vegetables planted by my hands at Salona, you would then
never think of urging such an attempt", His death took place at the age of sixty-seven.
The story in the Epitome of Victor, that he put himself to death in order to escape
the violence which he apprehended from Constantine and Licinius, seems to be unsupported
by external evidence or internal probability.
Although little doubt can be entertained with regard to the general
accuracy of the leading facts enumerated in the above outline, the greatest confusion
and embarrassment prevail with regard to the more minute details of this reign
and the chronological arrangement of the events. Medals afford little or no aid,
the biographies of the Augustan historians end with Carinus, no contemporary record
has been preserved, and those portions of Ammianus Marcellinus and Zosimus which
must have been devoted to this epoch have disappeared from their works, purposely
omitted or destroyed, as some have imagined, by Christian transcribers, who were
determined if possible to prevent any flattering picture of their persecutor or
any chronicle of his glories from being transmitted to posterity. Hence we are
thrown entirely upon the meagre and unsatisfactory compendiums of Eutropius, the
Victors, and Festus; the vague and lying hyperboles of the panegyrists, and the
avowedly hostile declamations of the author of the work, De Mortibus Persecutorum,
and other writers of the same stamp. Hence, from sources so scanty and so impure,
it is extremely difficult to derive such knowledge as may enable us to form a
just conception of the real character of this remarkable man.
It is certain that he revolutionized the whole political system of
the empire, and introduced a scheme of government, afterwards fully carried out
and perfected by Constantine, as much at variance with that pursued by his predecessors
as the power exercised by Octavianus and those who followed him differed from
the authority of the constitutional magistrates of the republic. The object of
this new and important change, and the means by which it was sought to attain
that object, may be explained in a few words. The grand object was to protect
the person of the sovereign from violence, and to insure a regular legitimate
succession, thus putting an end to the rebellions and civil wars, by which the
world had been torn to pieces ever since the extinction, in Nero, of the Julian
blood. To accomplish what was sought, it was necessary to guard against insubordination
among the powerful bodies of troops maintained on the more exposed frontiers,
against mutiny among the praetorians at home, and against the faint spark of free
and independent feeling among the senate and populace of Rome. Little was to be
apprehended from the soldiery at a distance, unless led on by some favourite general;
hence, by placing at the head of the four great armies four commanders all directly
interested in preserving the existing order of things, it was believed that one
great source of danger was removed, while two of these being marked out as heirs
apparent to the throne long before their actual accession, it seemed probable
that on the death of the Augusti they would advance to the higher grade as a matter
of course, without question or commotion, their places being supplied by two new
Caesars. Jealousies might undoubtedly arise, but these were guarded against by
rendering each of the four jurisdictions as distinct and absolute as possible,
while it was imagined that an attempt on the part of any one member of the confederacy
to render himself supreme, would certainly be checked at once by the cordial combination
of the remaining three, in self-defence. It was resolved to treat the praetorians
with little ceremony; but, to prevent any outbreak, which despair might have rendered
formidable, they were gradually dispersed, and then deprived of their privileges,
while their former duties were discharged by the Jovian and Herculian battalions
from Illyria, who were firm in their allegiance to their native princes. The degradation
of Rome by the removal of the court, and the creation of four new capitals, was
a death-blow to the influence of the Senate, and led quickly to the destruction
of all old patriotic associations. Nor was less care and forethought bestowed
on matters apparently trivial. The robe of cloth of gold, the slippers of silk
dyed in purple, and embroidered with gems, the regal diadem wreathed around the
brow, the titles of Lord and Master and God, the lowly prostrations, and the thousand
intricacies of complicated etiquette which fenced round the imperial presence,
were all attributed by short-sighted observers to the insolent pride of a Dalmatian
slave intoxicated with unlooked-for prosperity, but were in reality part and parcel
of a sagacious and well meditated plan, which sought to encircle the person of
the sovereign with a sort of sacred and mysterious grandeur.
Passing over the military skill of Diocletian, we can scarcely refuse
to acknowledge that the man who formed the scheme of reconstructing a great empire,
and executed his plan within so brief a space of time, must have combined a bold
and capacious intellect with singular prudence and practical dexterity. That his
plans were such as a profound statesman would approve may fairly be questioned,
for it needed but little knowledge of human nature to foresee, that the ingenious
but complicated machine would never work with smoothness after the regulating
hand of the inventor was withdrawn; and, accordingly, his death was the signal
for a succession of furious struggles among the rival Caesars and Augusti, which
did not terminate until the whole empire was reunited under Constantine. Still
the great social change was accomplished; a new order of things was introduced
which determined the relation between the sovereign and the subject, until the
final downfall of the Roman sway, upon principles not before recognized in the
Western world, and which to this day exercise no small influence upon the political
condition of Europe.
One of the worst effects, in the first instance, of the revolution,
was the vast increase of the public expenditure, caused by the necessity of supporting
two imperial and two vice-regal courts upon a scale of oriental splendour, and
by the magnificent edifices reared by the vanity or policy of the different rulers
for the embellishment of their capitals or favourite residences. The amount of
revenue required could be raised only by increased taxation, and we find that
all classes of the community complained bitterly of the merciless exactions to
which they were exposed. Yet, on the whole, Diocletian was by no means indifferent
to the comfort and prosperity of his people. Various monopolies were abolished,
trade was encouraged, a disposition was manifested to advance merit and to repress
corruption in every department. The views entertained upon subjects connected
with political economy are well illustrated by the singular edict lately discovered
at Stratoniceia, by Colonel Leake, fixing the wages of labourers and artizans,
together with the maximum price, throughout the world, of all the necessaries
and commodities of life. It is not possible to avoid being struck by the change
wrought upon the general aspect of public affairs during the years, not many in
number, which elapsed between the accession and abdication of Diocletian. He found
the empire weak and shattered, threatened with immediate dissolution, from intestine
discord and external violence. He left it strong and compact, at peace within,
and triumphant abroad, stretching from the Tigris to the Nile, from the shores
of Holland to the Euxine.
By far the worst feature of this reign was the terrible persecution
of the Christians. The conduct of the prince upon this occasion is the more remarkable,
because we are at first sight unable to detect any motive which could have induced
him to permit such atrocities, and one of the most marked features in his character
was his earnest avoidance of harsh measures. The history of the affair seems briefly
this: The pagans of the old school had formed a close alliance with the sceptical
philosophers, and both perceived that the time was now arrived for a desperate
struggle which must finally establish or destroy their supremacy. This faction
found an organ in the relentless Galerius, stimulated partly by his own passions,
but especially by the fanaticism of his mother, who was notorious for her devotion
to some of the wildest and most revolting rites of Eastern superstition. As the
health of Diocletian declined, his mind sunk in some degree under the pressure
of disease, while the influence of his associate Augustus became every day more
strong. At length, after repeated and most urgent representations, Galerius succeeded
in extorting from his colleague--for even the most hostile accounts admit that
the consent of Diocletian was given with the greatest reluctance--the first edict
which, although stern and tyrannical in its ordinances, positively forbad all
personal violence. But when the proclamation was torn down by an indignant believer,
and when this act of contumacy was followed by a conflagration in the palace,
occurring under the most suspicious circumstances, and unhesitatingly ascribed
by Galerius to the Christians, the emperor considered that the grand principle
for which he had been so strenuously contending, the supreme majesty and inviolability
of the royal person, was openly assailed, and thus was persuaded without further
resistance to give his assent to those sanguinary decrees which for years deluged
the world with innocent blood. It is not improbable that the intellects of Diocletian
were seriously affected, and that his malady may have amounted to absolute insanity.
(Aurel. Victor. de Cacs. 39, Epit. 39; Eutrop. ix. 13. &c.; Zonar. xii. 31)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Maximianus I., Roman emperor, A. D. 286-305-310. M. Aurelius ValeriusMaximianus
born of humble parents in Pannonia, had acquired such high fame by his services
in the army, that when Diocletian carried into effect (A. D. 285) his celebrated
scheme for dividing without dismembering the empire, he was induced to select
this rough soldier for his colleague, as one whose habits and abilities were likely
to prove particularly valuable in the actual disturbed state of public affairs,
and accordingly created him first Caesar (285), and then Augustus (286), conferring
at the same time the honorary appellation of Herculius, while he himself assumed
that of Jovius, epithets which afforded a copious theme to the panegyrists of
that epoch for broad adulation and far-fetched conceits. The subsequent history
of Maximian is so intimately blended with that of his patron and of Constantine,
that almost every particular has been fully detailed in former articles. It will
be sufficient, therefore, to direct attention to the leading facts, that after
having been most reluctantly persuaded, if not compelled to abdicate, at Milan,
on the first of May, A. D. 305, he eagerly obeyed the invitation of his son Maxentius
the following year (306), and quitting his retirement in Lucania, was again invested
with all the insignia of the imperial station; that having by his bravery and
skill, averted the dangers which threatened Italy, having compassed the death
of Severus (307), and having repulsed Galerius, he formed a close union with Constantine,
on whom he bestowed the title of Augustus and the hand of his daughter Fausta
; that on his return to Rome he was expelled by Maxentius, who, having become
impatient of his control and dictation, pretended or believed that he had formed
a plot for his dethronement; that having betaken himself to the court of Galerius,
and having been there detected in the prosecution of treasonable intrigues, he
sought refuge with his son-in-law, and, to disarm all suspicion, once more formally
threw off the purple; that having taken advantage of the temporary absence of
his protector and treacherously gained possession of the treasures deposited at
Aries, by profuse bribery he persuaded a body of soldiers to proclaim him Augustus
for the third time; that having been shut up in Marseilles and compelled to surrender,
he was stripped of all his dignities, but permitted to retain his life and liberty
(308); but that, finally, two years afterwards, having vainly endeavoured to induce
his daughter Fausta to destroy her husband, he was ordered to choose the manner
of his death, and strangled himself in the month of February, A. D.
The whole history of this stormy period bears testimony to the military
talents of Maximianus, and proves with equal certainty that he was totally destitute
of all dignity of mind, thoroughly unprincipled, not merely rough and stem, but
base and cruel. All authorities agree that he was altogether devoid of cultivation
or refinement, and it is said that his features and general aspect were an index
of the coarseness and harshness of the mind within. So long as he was guided by
the superior genius and commanding intellect of Diocletian, he performed well
the work for which he was chosen, but the latter years of his life, when left
to the direction of his own judgment, exhibit a melancholy spectacle of weak ambition,
turbulence, perfidy, and crime.
Maximianus married Eutropia, a widow of Syrian extraction, by whom
he had two children, the emperor Maxentius, and Fausta, wife of Constantine the
Great. Eutropia, by her former husband, who is unknown, had a daughter, Flavia
Maximiana Theodora, who was united to Constantius Chlorus when he was elevated
to the rank of Caesar.
(Zosim. ii. 7, 8, 10, 11; Zonar. xii. 31, 32, 33; Actor. de Mort. Persec. 8, 29,
30; Panegyr. Vet. ii. passim, iii. 3, 10, 14, vi. 9, vii. 14, &c.; Victor, de
Caes. Epit. 39, 40; Eutrop. ix. 14, 16, x. 1. 2; Oros. vii. 25, 28; Gruter. Corp.
Inscrip. cclxxxi. 4; Tillemont, Hist. des Emp. not. v. xix. in Dioclet.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Constantius I., surnamed Chlorus (o Chloros), "the Pale", Roman emperor, A. D. 305-306, the father
of Constantine the Great, was the son of one Eutropius, of a noble Dardanian family,
and Claudia, the daughter of Crispus, who was the (younger?) brother of the emperors
Claudius II. and Quintilius. He was probably born in 250. Distinguished by ability,
valour, and virtue, Constantius became governor of Dalmatia during the reign of
the ermperor Carus, who, disgusted with the extravagant conduct of his son Carinus,
intended to adopt and appoint as his successor the more worthy Constantius. Death
prevented Carus from carrying that plan into execution, and the reward of Constantius
was left to the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, who had experienced that the
government of the immense Roman empire, in its perpetual and hostile contact with
so many barbarians, was a burden too heavy not only for one, but even for two
emperors, however distinguished they were. They consequently resolved that each
should appoint a co-regent Caesar, and their choice fell upon Constantius, who
was adopted by Maximian, and Galerius, who was adopted by Diocletian. Both the
Caesars were obliged to repudiate their wives, and Galerius was married to Valeria,
the daughter of Diocletian, while Constantius received the hand of Theodora, the
daughter of the wife of Maximian. Their appointment as Caesars took place at Nicomedeia
on the 1st of March, 292. The government of the empire was distributed among the
four princes in the following manner: Constantius was set over the provinces beyond
the Alps, that is, Gaul, Britain, and Spain (?); Galerius received both the Illyriae
and Moesia, an extensive tract comprising all the countries from the Inn in Germany
to mount Athos and the shores of the Archipelago, and from the Adriatic Sea to
the mouth of the Danube; Maximian governed Italy and Africa; and Thrace, Egypt,
and all the Asiatic provinces were reserved for the authority of Diocletian. The
first and most important business of Constantius was the reunion of Britain with
the empire, as Carausius had succeeded in making himself independent of the authority
of Diocletian and Maximian. After the murder of Carausius by Allectus in 293,
this officer seized the government; but Britain was taken from him after a struggle
of three years], and Constantius established his authority there. Some time afterwards,
the Alemanni invaded Gaul. A pitched battle took place, in 298, between them and
Constantius at Lingones, in Lugdunensis Prima, now Langres: the Romans were nearly
routed, when Constantius restored the battle, defeated the enemy, and killed either
60,000 or 6000 barbarians. They suffered another defeat at Vindonissa, now Windish,
in Switzerland: there are doubts with regard to this battle. After the abdication
of Diocletian and Maximiian, in 305, Constantius and Galerius assumed the title
and dignity of Augusti, and ruled as co-emperors. Constantius died fifteen months
afterwards (25th of July, 306) at Eboracum, now York, on an expedition against
the Picts, in which he was accompanied by his son Constantine, whom he had by
his first wife, Helena, whom he had repudiated. The same Constantine, afterwards
the Great, succeeded him in his share of the government.
Constantius was one of the most excellent characters among the later
Romans, and it is to be regretted that we know so little about him. His administration
of his provinces procured him, great honour, for he took the most lively interest
in the welfare of the people, and was so far from imitating the rapacity of other
governors, that he was not even provided with such things as are necessary to
men of his rank, though a vulgar appellation calls them luxuries. In his abstinence
from luxuries he seems, however, to have shewn some affectation. The Pagans praised
him for his humanity, and the Christians for his impartiality and toleration.
Theophanes calls him Christianophron, or a man of Christian principles. His conduct
during the persecution of the Christians by Diocletian was very humane. It is
not known whence he received the surname of Chlorus, or the Pale, which is given
to him only by later Byzantine writers. Gibbon observes, that any remarkable degree
of paleness seems inconsistent with the rubor mentioned in the Panegyrics (v.
19). Besides his son and successor, Constantine, Constantius had by his second
wife, Theodora, three sons and three daughters, who are mentioned in the genealogical
table prefixed to the life of Constantinus I.
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Maximianus II., Roman emperor, A. D. 305-311. Galerius ValeriusMaximianus, born
near Sardica in Dacia, was the son of a shepherd, and in early life followed the
humble calling of his parent. Hence he is frequently designated in history by
the epithet Armnentarius, although this must be regarded rather as a familiar
than as a formal appellation, since it nowhere appears upon any public monument.
Having served in the wars of Aurelian and Probus, he passed through all the inferior
grades of military rank in succession, with such distinguished reputation, that
when Diocletian remodelled the constitution of the empire, he was chosen along
with Constantius Chlorus, in A. D. 292, to discharge the dignified but arduous
duties of a Caesar, was adopted by the elder emperor, whose daughter Valeria he
received in marriage, was permitted to participate in the title of Jovius, and
was entrusted with the command of Illyria and Thrace. In A. D. 297 he undertook
an expedition against the Persian monarch Narses, and after his failure was treated
with the most insulting harshness by his father-in-law. But having fully redeemed
his credit by the glorious issue of the second campaign, he from this time forward
assumed a more haughty bearing, which gradually took the form of arrogant dictation,
as the bodily health and mental energies of his superior gradually sunk under
the pressure of complicated anxieties. Upon the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian
(A. D. 305), an event which is said to have been hastened, if not caused, by his
intrigues and threats, Galerius having succeeded in nominating two creatures of
his own, Daza and Severus, to the posts of Caesars, now vacant in consequence
of the elevation of himself and Constantius to the higher rank of Augusti, began
to look forward with confidence to the period when the death of his colleague
should leave him sole master of the world. But these hopes were destined to be
signally frustrated. The news of the decease of Chlorus was accompanied by the
intelligence that the troops had enthusiastically proffered their allegiance to
his son. Galerius, filled with disappointment and rage, found himself in no condition
to resist, and although he refused to concede a higher title than that of Caesar
to Constantine, was obliged virtually to resign all claim to the sovereignty of
Gaul and Britain. This mortification was followed by the more formidable series
of disasters occasioned by the usurpation of Maxentius which led to the destruction
of Severus, to the disgrace of Galerius himself, after a most calamitous campaign,
and thus to the loss of Italy and Africa, A. D. 307. From this time forward, however,
his life passed more tranquilly, for having supplied the place of Severus by his
old friend and comrade Licinius, he seems to have abandoned those schemes of extravagant
ambition once so eagerly cherished, and to have devoted his attention to great
works of public utility, the draining of lakes and the clearing of forests, until
cut off in A. D. 311, by the same terrible disease which is said to have terminated
the existence of Sulla and of Herod Agrippa.
Of a haughty and ungovernable temper, cruel to his enemies, ungrateful
to his benefactors, a stranger to all the arts which soften the heart or refine
the intellect, the character of this prince presents nothing to admire, except
the valour of a fearless soldier and the skill of an accomplished general. The
blackest shade upon his memory is thrown by his pitiless persecution of the Christians,
whom he ever regarded with rancorous hostility, instigated, we are told, by the
furious bigotry of his mother, an ardent cultivator of some of the darker rites
of the ancient faith. The fatal ordinance of Diocletian, which for so many years
deluged the world with innocent blood, is said to have been extorted by the pertinacious
violence of Galerius, whose tardy repentance expressed in the famous edict of
toleration published immediately before his death, made but poor amends for the
amount of misery which he had deliberately caused.
Galerius, by his first wife, whose name is unknown, and whom he was
required to repudiate when created Caesar, had one daughter, who was married to
Maxentius; by his second, Galeria Valeria, the daughter of Diocletian, he had
no children.
(Zosim. ii. 8, 10, 11; Zonar. xii. 32, 33, 34; Euseb. H. E. viii. 5, 17, Vit.
Constant. 18; Auctor. de Mort. Persec. 18, &c., 33, &c.; Amm. Marc. xiv. 11.10;
Victor, de Caes. 39, 40, Epit. 39, 40; Eutrop. ix. 15, x. 1-3; Ores. vii. 26,
28; Jornandes, de Rebus Get. 21)
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Maximinus II., Maximinus II., Roman emperor 305-314. Galerius Valerius Maximinus, who originally
bore the name of Daza, was the nephew of Galerius by a sister, and in early life
followed the occupation of a shepherd in his native Illyria. Having forsaken this
humble calling for the life of a soldier, by force of interest rather than of
any conspicuous merit, he rose to the highest rank in the service, and upon the
abdication of Diocletian at Nicomedeia in A. D. 305, although altogether undistinguished,
and indeed unknown, was adopted by the new emperor of the East, received the title
of Jovius, was elevated to the rank of Caesar, and was nominated to the government
of Syria and Egypt. Little grateful for these extraordinary and most undeserved
marks of favour, he displayed violent indignation upon being passed over in the
arrangements which followed the death of Constantius Chlorus in A. D. 307, when
Licinius was created Augustus.Far from being satisfied by the concession of Galerius,
who invented the new title of Filii Auyustorum to supersede the appellation of
Caesars, he assumed without permission the highest imperial designation, and with
much difficulty succeeded in wringing a reluctant acquiescence from his uncle.
Upon the death of the latter, in 311, he entered into a convention with Licinius,
in terms of which he received the provinces of Asia Minor in addition to his former
dominion, the Hellespont and the Bosporus forming the common boundary of the two
sovereignties; but having treacherously taken advantage of the absence of his
neighbour, who had repaired to Milan in 313 for the purpose of receiving in marriage
the sister of Constantine, he suddenly invaded Thrace, and surprised Byzantium.
leaving, however, been signally defeated in a great battle fought near Heracleia,
he fled first to Nicomedeia and thence to Tarsus, where lie soon after died according
to some accounts of despair, according to others by poison. His wife and children
were murdered, and every imaginable insult heaped upon his memory by the conqueror.
The great military talents of Herculius, Galerius, and Licinius, served
in some degree, if not to palliate, at least to divert attention from, their vices
and their crimes. But not one quality, either noble or dazzling, relieves the
coarse brutality of Maximin, who surpassed all his contemporaries in the profligacy
of his private life, in the general cruelty of his administration, and in the
furious hatred with which he persecuted the Christians. His elevation, which was
the result of family influence alone, must have been as unexpected by himself
as by others; but he did not prove by any means such a passive and subservient
tool as was anticipated. His extravagant vanity, for we can scarcely dignify the
feeling by the name of ambition, was for a while gratified, because Galerius felt
unwilling to engage in a civil war with the creature of his own hands; but the
arrogance engendered by this success in all probability prompted him to the unprovoked
aggression which proved his ruin.
(Zosim. ii. 8; Victor, Epit. 40; Oros. vii. 25; Auctor. de Mort. Persec. 5, 32,
36, 38, 45, &c.; Euseb. H. E. viii. 14, ix. 2, &c.)
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Severus, Flavius Valerius, Roman emperor, A. D. 306--307. After the abdication
of Diocletian and Maximian, followed by the elevation of Galerius with Constantius
Chlorus to the rank of Augusti, it became necessary, in order to maintain the
scheme of the empire, to appoint new Caesars. The right of nomination was conceded
to Galerius, who selected two creatures of his own, devoted, as he believed, to
his interests, Maximinus Daza and Severus. The latter, an obscure Illyrian adventurer,
altogether unknown, save as the dissolute, although faithful, adherent of his
patron, was invested with the insignia of his new dignity at Milan, on the 1st
of May, A.D. 305, by Herculius in person, and obtained Italy, and probably Africa
and Upper Pannonia also, as his provinces. But as soon as intelligence was received
of the death of Constantius Chlorus, which happened at York, in July, A. D. 306,
Severns was forthwith proclaimed Augustus in his stead, by Galerius, and soon
after was instructed to quell the disturbances excited by the usurpation of Maxentius.
The details of this disastrous campaign, the advance of Severus upon the capital,
the defection of his troops, his hasty retreat, and his surrender at Ravenna to
Herculius, upon the most solemn assurances of ample protection, have been related
in thearticle Maxentius. In spite, however, of all the promises of the conqueror,
the vanquished prince was conveyed as a prisoner of war to the vicinity of Rome,
and detained in captivity at Tres Tabernae, on the Appian road, where, upon receiving
intimation that he might choose the manner of his death, he opened his veins,
and was entombed in the sepulchre of Gallienus, A. D. 307.
(Panegr. Vet. i. v.; Auct. De Mort. Persec. 18, 19, 20, 25, 26; Victor, de Caes.
40, Epit. 40; Eutrop. x. 2; Excerpta Valeslan. 5-10; Zosim. ii, 8, 10)
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Maxentius, Roman emperor A. D. 306-312. M. Aurelius Valerius Maxentius, the son
of Maximianus Herculius and Eutropia, received in marriage the daughter of Galerius;
but in consequence, it would seem, of his indolent and dissolute habits, was altogether
passed over in the division of the empire which followed the abdication of his
father and Diocletian in A. D. 305. A strong feeling of disaffection towards the
existing government prevailed at this time in Rome, arising from the pressure
of increased taxation upon the nobles and wealthier classes, from the discontent
of the praetorians who had been recently deprived of all their exclusive privileges,
and from the indignation which pervaded the whole community, in consequence of
the degradation of the ancient metropolis by the selection of Nicomedeia and Milan
as the residences of the Augusti. It proved no difficult task for the neglected
prince to turn this angry spirit to his own advantage, and to place himself at
the head of the party who styled themselves patriots. A regular conspiracy was
soon organised and eagerly supported by men of all ranks, the standard of open
revolt was raised, the feeble resistance of the few magistrates who remained true
to their allegiance was easily overcome, Maxentius was proclaimed emperor on the
28th of October, A. D. 306, amidst the most enthusiastic demonstrations of zeal
by the senate, the populace, and the soldiery; all Italy followed the example
of the capital; and Africa, acquiescing in the choice, struck medals in honour
of the new ruler. Severus, to whom the guardianship of these provinces had been
committed, straightway marched upon Rome to suppress what he vainly deemed a trifling
insurrection; but a large body of his troops having deserted to their old commander,
Maximianus, who, upon the invitation of his son, had quitted his retreat in Lucania,
and had again assumed the purple, the Caesar was compelled to retreat in all haste
to Ravenna, hotly pursued by the veteran. In an evil hour he was persuaded by
treacherous representations to quit this almost impregnable stronghold, and to
trust to the clemency of his foe, who, having once obtained possession of his
person, granted him nothing save the liberty of choosing the manner of his death
(A. D. 307). Galerius, enraged by these disasters, hastened, at the head of a
numerous host, drawn from Illyria and the East, to chastise the usurper; but the
military talents of Maximianus devised a system of defence which paralysed the
energies of his opponent. The invader found himself in a desert, the whole population
had quitted the open country, every town capable of resistance shut its gates,
and thus, although he penetrated almost unmolested to within less than a hundred
miles of the city, the embarrassments by which he was surrounded, from want of
supplies, from enemies in his rear, and from the doubtful fidelity of his soldiers,
proved so numerous, that he considered it prudent to make overtures of peace;
and when they were contemptuously rejected, commenced a hasty retreat. Maxentius,
relieved from these imminent dangers, proceeded to disentangle himself from the
control which his father sought to exercise; and having succeeded in driving him
from the court, turned his arms against Africa, where a certain Alexander had
established an independent sway. The contest was quickly terminated by the destruction
of the pretender, and the victory was savagely abused. The whole country was ravaged
with fire and sword; Car. thage, at that epoch one of the most splendid cities
in the world, was made the scene of a general conflagration and massacre, after
which the conqueror returned to Rome, there to celebrate a flagitious triumph,
and to indulge the worst passions of a depraved nature, at the expense of the
citizens.
Elated by these successes, Maxentius now openly aspired to dominion
over all the Western provinces; and having first insulted and then declared open
war against Constantine, assuming, as a pretext, the conduct of the latter towards
Maximianus, he prepared to pass into Gaul with an army numbering not less than
two hundred thousand men. But his schemes were frustrated by the prudent boldness
of his adversary, who, encouraged by an embassy despatched from Rome imploring
relief from the oppression of the despot, determined at once to cross the Alps.
The events of this campaign are detailed elsewhere . The forces of the tyrant,
shattered by the defeats of Turin and Verona, retired upon Rome; the decisive
battle was fought at Saxa Rubra, not far from the storied stream of the Cremera;
the imperial army, cut off from retreat, were driven by thousands into the Tiber;
the Milvian bridge broke beneath the fugitives at the verymoment when Maxentius
was forcing his way through the throng which choked up the passage, and borne
down by the weight of his armour, he perished miserably in the stream on the 28th
of October, 312, exactly six years from the day on which he was saluted emperor.
All historians agree in representing this prince as a monster of rapacity,
cruelty, and lust. The only favoured class was the military, upon whom he depended
for safety; and in order to secure their devotion and to gratify his own evil
passions, every other portion of his subjects were made the victims of the most
revolting licentiousness, and ruined by the most grinding exactions. Various statements
have been put forth with regard to his conduct towards the Christians, since by
some he is commended for the solitary virtue of tolerance, while by others he
is numbered among the most cruel persecutors. The truth seems to be, that neither
of these representations is accurate. The Christians suffered in common with all
who had the misfortune to own his sway; but while there is no reason to believe
that they received any encouragement or patronage, so, on the other hand, there
is no evidence to prove that they were at any time the objects of special hostility.
(Zosim. ii. 9-18; Zonar. xii. 33, xiii. 1; Panegyr. Vet. ix. 2, 3, 11-25, x. 6,
7, &c., 27, &c., xi. 16; Auctor. de Mort. Persecut. cc. 26, 28, 44; Euseb. H.
E. viii. 14, Vit. Const. i. 26, 33, &c.; Fragments published by Valesius at the
end of his edition of Ammianus Marcellinus; Victor, de Caes. 40, Epit. 40; Eutrop.
x. 2.)
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Licinius, Roman emperor (A. D. 307-324), whose full name was Publius Flavius Galerius Valerius
Licinianus Licinius, was by birth a humble Dacian peasant, the early friend and
companion in arms of the emperor Galerius, by whom, with the consent of Maximianus
Herculius and Diocletian, after the death of Severus and the disastrous issue
of the Italian campaign (see Maxentius), he was raised at once to the rank of
Augustus without passing through the inferior grade of Caesar, and was invested
with the command of the Illyrian provinces at Carmentum, on the 11th of November,
A. D. 307. Upon the death of his patron, in 311, he concluded a peaceful arrangement
with Daza, in terms of which he acknowledged the latter as sovereign of Asia,
Syria, and Egypt, while he added Greece, Macedonia, and Thrace to his own former
dominions, the Hellespont, with the Bosporus, forming the common boundary of the
two empires. Feeling, however, the necessity of strengthening himself against
a rival at once ambitious, unscrupulous, and powerful, he entered into a league
with Constantine, and after the termination of the struggle with Maxentius, during
which he had acted the part of a watchful spectator rather than of a sincere ally,
received in marriage (A. D. 313) Constantia, the sister of the conqueror, to whom
he had been betrothed two years before. Meanwhile, Maximinus, taking advantage
of the absence of his neighbour, who was enjoying the splendours of the nuptial
festivities at Milan, placed himself at the head of a for midable army, and setting
forth in the dead of winter succeeded, notwithstanding the obstacles offered to
his progress by the season, in passing the straits, stormed Byzantium in April,
and soon after captured Heracleia also. But scarcely had he gained possession
of the last-named city when Licinius, who had hurried from Italy upon receiving
intelligence of this treacherous invasion, appeared at the head of a small but
resolute and well-disciplined force to resist his further progress. The battle
which ensued was obstinately contested, and the result was long doubtful, but
the bravery of the troops from the Danube, and the great military talents of their
leader, at length prevailed. Maximinus fled in headlong haste, and died a few
months afterwards at Tarsus, thus leaving his enemy undisputed master of one half
of the Roman empire, while the remainder was under the sway of his brother-in-law
Constantine. It was little likely that two such spirits could long be firmly united
by such a tie, or that either would calmly brook the existence of an equal. Accordingly,
scarce a year elapsed before preparations commenced for the grand contest, whose
object was to unite once mote the whole civilised world under a single ruler.
The leading events are detailed elsewhere, and therefore it will suffice briefly
to state here that there were two distinct wars; in the first, which broke out
A. D. 315, Licinius was compelled by the decisive defeats sustained at Cibalis
in Pannonia, and in the plain of Mardia in Thrace, to submit and to cede to the
victor Greece, Macedonia, and the whole lower valley of the Danube, with the exception
of a part of Moesia. The peace which followed lasted for about eight years, when
hostilities were renewed, but the precise circumstances which led to this fresh
collision are as obscure as the causes which produced the first rupture. The great
battle of Hadrianople (3rd July, A. D. 323) followed by the reduction of Byzantium,
and a second great victory achieved near Chalcedon (18th September), placed the
eastern Augustus absolutely at the mercy of his kinsman, who, although he spared
his life for the moment, and merely sentenced him to an honourable imprisonment
at Thessalonica, soon found a convenient pretext for commanding the death of one
who had long been the sole impediment in his path to universal dominion.
H owever little we may respect the motives, and however deeply we may
feel disgusted by the systematic hypocrisy of Constantine, we can feel no compassion
for Licinius. His origin, education, and early habits might very naturally inspire
him with a distaste for literature. although they could scarcely justify or excuse
the rancour which he ever manifested towards all who were in any way distinguished
by intellectual acquirements, and a life passed amidst a succession of scenes
in which human nature was exhibited under its worst aspect, was by no means calculated
to cherish any of the purer or softer feelings of the heart. But while he had
all and more than all the vices which such a career might produce, he had none
of the frank generosity of a bold soldier of fortune. He was not only totally
indifferent to human life and suffering, and regardless of any principle of law
or justice [p. 784] which might interfere with the gratification of his passions,
but he was systematically treacherous and cruel, possessed of not one redeeming
quality save physical courage and military skill. When he destroyed the helpless
family of Maximinus he might plead that he only followed the ordinary usage of
Oriental despots in extirpating the whole race of a rival; but the murders of
the unoffending Severianus, of Candidianus the son of his friend and benefactor
Galerius, who alone had made him what he was, of Prisca and of Valeria, the wife
and daughter of Diocletian (Valeria), form a climax of ingratitude and cold-blooded
ferocity to which few parallels can be found even in the revolting annals of the
Roman empire.
(Zosim. ii. 7, 11, 17-28; Zonar. xiii. 1; Aurel. Vict. de Caes. 40, 41, Epit.
40, 41; Eutrop. x. 3, 4; Oros. vii. 28.)
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Constantinus II. Flavius Claudius, surnamed the Younger, Roman emperor, A. D. 337-340, the second son of Constantine the Great, and the first whom he had by his second wife, Fausta, was born at Arelatum, now Aries, in Gaul, on the 7th of August, A. D. 312. As early as A. D. 316, he was created Caesar, together with nis elder brother, Crispus, and the younger Licinius, and he held the consulship several times. In commemoration of the fifth anniversary of his Caesarship, in 321, the orator Nazarius delivered a panegyric (Panegyr. Veter. ix.), which, however, is of little importance. In 335 he was entrusted with the administration of Gaul, Britain, and Spain. After the death of his father, 337, he received in the division of the empire between the three sons of the Great Constantine and his nephews, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus, the same provinces which he had governed under his father, and a part of Africa. Being the eldest surviving son of Constantine, he received some exterior marks of respect from the other emperors, but he had no authority over them. Dissatisfied with his share of the spoil, he exacted from his younger brother Constans the rest of Africa and the co-administration of Italy. Constans refused to give up those provinces. Constantine declared war against him, and invaded Italy by sea and by land, and at Aquileia met with the army of Constans, who approached from Dacia. Having rashly pursued the enemy when they gave way in a mock flight, Constantine was suddenly surrounded by them and fell under their swords. (A. D. 340.) His body was thrown into the river Alsa, but was afterwards found and buried with royal honours. He was twice married, but the names of his wives are not known; they probably both died before him, and he left no issue. An unknown author pronounced a monody on his death, which is contained in Havercamp's edition of Eutropius. (Zosim. lib. ii. ; Zonar. lib. xiii.; Euseb. Vita Const. iv. 40-49; Prosper, Chron. Acyndino et Proculo Coss; more authorities are given in the lives of his brothers, Constantius and Constans.)
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Constans I., Flavius Julius, the youngest of the three sons of Constantine the Great and Fausta, was at an early age appointed by his father governor of Western Illyricum, Italy, and Africa, countries which he subsequently received as his portion upon the division of the empire in A. D. 337. After having successfully resisted the treachery and violence of his brother Constantine, who was slain in invading his territory, A. D. 340, Constans became master of the whole West, and being naturally indolent, weak, and profligate, abandoned himself for some years without restraint to the indulgence of the most depraved passions. While hunting in Gaul, he suddenly received intelligence that Magnentius had rebelled, that the soldiers had mutinied, and that emissaries had been despatched to put him to death. Flying with all speed, he succeeded in reaching the Pyrenees, but was overtaken near the town of Helena (formerly Illiberis) by the cavalry of the usurper, and was slain, A. D. 350, in the thirtieth year of his age and the thirteenth of his reign. (Aurel. Vict. de Caes. xli., Epit. xli.; Eutrop. x. 5; Zosimus, ii. 42; Zonaras, xiii. 6.)
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Magnentius, Roman emperor in the West, A. D. 350-353. Flavius Popilius Magnentius,
according to the accounts preserved by Victor and Zosimus, belonged to one of
those German families who were transported across the Rhine, and established in
Gaul, about the end of the third century; according to the statement of Julian,
which is not irreconcilable with the former, he was a captive taken in war by
Constantius Chlorus, or Constantine. Under the latter he served with reputation
in many wars, rose eventually to the dignity of count, and was entrusted by Constans
with the command of the famous Jovian and Herculian battalions who had replaced
the ancient praetorian guards when the empire was remodelled by Diocletian. His
ambition was probably first roused by perceiving the frailty of the tenure under
wich the weak and indolent prince whom he served held power; and having associated
himself with Marcellinus, chancellor of the imperial exchequer (comes sacrarum
larqitionum), a plot was deliberately contrived and carefully matured. A great
feast was given by Marcellinus at Autun on the 18th of January, A. D. 350, ostensibly
to celebrate the birthday of his son, to which the chief officers of the army
and the most distinguished of the court were invited. When the night was far spent,
Magnentius, who had quitted the apartment under some pretext, suddenly reclad
in royal robes, and was instantly saluted as Augustus by the conspirators, whose
acclamations were caught up and echoed almost unconsciously by the remainder of
the guests. The emissaries despatched to murder Constans succeeded in accomplishing
their purpose, the troops no longer hesitated to follow their leaders, the peaceful
portion of the population did not resist the example of the soldiery, and thus
the authority of the usurper was almost instantly acknowledged throughout Gaul,
and quickly extended over all the Western provinces, except Illyria, where Vetranio,
the imperial general, had himself assumed the purple. Intelligence of these events
was quickly conveyed to Constantius, who hurried from the frontier of Persia to
vindicate the honour of his house, by crushing this double rebellion. The events
which followed-the fruitless attempts of the two pretenders to negotiate a peace-the
submission of Vetranio at Sardica-the distress of Constantius in Pannonia, which
induced him in his turn, but fruitlessly, to make overtures to his opponent-the
defeat of Magnentius at the sanguinary battle of Mursa on the Drave, in the autumn
of A. D. 351, followed by the loss of Italy, Sicily, Africa, and Spain -his second
defeat in the passes of the Cottian Alps- the defection of Gaul, and his death
by his own hands about the middle of August, A. D. 353, are fully detailed in
other articles (Constantious, Decentius, Desiderius, Nepotanus, Vetranio).
Magnentius was a man of commanding stature great bodily strength,
was well educated, and accomplished, fond of literature, an animated and impressive
speaker, a bold soldier, and a skilful general. But, however striking his physical
and intellectual advantages, however conspicuous his merits when in a subordinate
station, not one spark of virtue relieved the blackness of his career as a sovereign,
not one tiait of humanity gave indication that the Christianity which he professed
had ever touched his heart. The power which he obtained by treachery and murder
he maintained by extortion and cruelty, rendered, if possible, more odious by
a hypocritical assumption of good-natured frankness.
(Julian. Orat. i. ii.; Liban. Orat. x.; Amm. Marc. xiv. 5; Aurel. Vict. de Caes.
41, 42, Epit. 41, 42; Eutrop. x. 6, 7; Zosim. ii. 41-54; Zonar. xiii. 5-9; Socrat.
H. E. ii. 32; Sozomen. H. E. iv. 7)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Valentinianus I., Roman emperor A. D. 364-375, was the son of Gratianus, and was born A. D. 321,
at Cibalis in Pannonia. He bore also the name of Flavius, which was common to
all the emperors after Constantine. His first wife was Valeria Severa, by whom
he became the father of the emperor Gratianus. Valentinian entered the army when
young, and showed military talents; but the emperor Constantinus for some reason
or other deprived him of his rank A. D. 357. Under Julian he held the office of
tribune of the guard, or of the Scutarii, as Orosius terms the body (vii. 32),
and in this capacity he was with Julian at Antioch, A. D. 362, and accompanied
him to a heathen temple. Julian, it is said, commanded him to sacrifice to the
idol, or resign his office; but Valentinian, who had been baptized in the Christian
faith, refused. According to most of the historians, Valentinian was exiled for
his adherence to his religion.
Jovian succeeded Julian A. D. 363, and Lucilianus, the father-in-law
of Valentinian, took him with him to Gaul. Lucilianus lost his life in a disturbance
at Rheims, and Valentinan only saved himself by flight. Returning to the East
he was rewarded by Jovian with the office of captain of the second company of
Scutarii. When Jovian died suddenly at Dadastana, on the borders of Galatia and
Bithynia, on the 16th of February, A. D. 364, Valentinian was at Ancyra. For ten
days the empire was without an emperor, but it was at last agreed by the officers
of the army of Jovian, who were at Nicaea, that Valentinian should be the successor
of Jovian. Valentinian came to Nicaea, and on the 26th of February he assumed
the imperial insignia in the presence of the army in the plain of Nicaea.
Valentinian maintained the pure Catholic faith, though his brother
Valens was an Arian. He forbade, under pain of death, all pagan ceremonials, magical
arts and sacrifices by night; but this was a prudent measure of police, and nothing
more. He restored the figure of the cross and the name of Jesus Christ on the
Labarum or chief standard of the armies, for Julian had removed these Christian
symbols. He also renewed and perhaps extended a law of Constantine, which forbade
any judicial proceedings, or the execution of any judicial sentence on Sunday.
However, Valentinian did not meddle with religious disputes, and either from in-difference
or good sense, he said it was not for him, a layman, to deal with difficulties
of that description. Though a Catholic, he did not persecute either Arians or
heathens: he let every man follow his own religion, for which Ammianus Marcellinus
(xxx. 9) has commended him; and certainly his moderation in this respect must
be considered a remarkable feature in his character. Though there were some enactments
made by him against Manichaeans, Donatists and the other heretics, the general
religious freedom which he allowed is undisputed (Cod. Theod. 9. tit. 16. s. 9),
and the emperor set an example which even now is not completely followed in modern
Europe. This is the most unequivocal evidence of the good sense and the courage
of Valentinian. Ecclesiastical writers, like Baronius, as a matter of course blame
that toleration which they suppose to be condemned by the religion which they
profess.
Ammianus and other writers have spoken particularly of the personal
merits and defects of Valentinian. He was robust and handsome; he had a natural
eloquence, though he had no literary acquirements; he was neat in his apparel,
but not expensive; and his chastity is specially recorded. He possessed good abilities,
prudence, and vigor of character. He had a capacity for military matters, and
was a vigilant, impartial, and laborious administrator. Ammianus sums up by saying
that he had so many good qualities that, if every thing had been equal in him,
he would have been as great a man as Trajan or Marcus Aurelius. Among his faults
was that of having a very good opinion of himself, and he punished sometimes with
excessive severity. Yet he is accused of behaving with too much lenity to the
officers when they misconducted themselves; and of enriching himself by arbitrary
means, though the same authorities say that he endeavoured to alleviate the sufferings
of the people. The truth is that the character of a man, who possesses supreme
power, may be made to appear almost anything, according to a writer's temper and
judgment. Many instances of the severity, and even of the cruelty of Valentinian
are recorded; and Gibbon, following chiefly the authority of Ammianus, has made
him a monster of cruelty. Yet Valentinian had feelings of compassion, when he
was not in an angry mood, and he promulgated a constitution against the exposure
of children; and he encouraged learning, though he was illiterate, by the foundation
of schools. (Cod. Theod. 14. tit. 9)
Valentinian, after being declared emperor on the 26th of February,
moved to Nicomedia on the 1st of March, where he conferred on his brother Valens
the dignity of Constable, that is, he made him chief of the stable; and on the
28th of March, being then at Constantinople, he declared him Augustus in the Hebdomon,
or field of Mars, in the neighbourhood of that city. The two brothers confirmed
to the town of Nicaea, when Valentinian was declared emperor, the title of Metropolis,
and raised it to equal rank with Nicomedia. In the early part of this year the
two emperors left Constantinople, and passed through Hadrianople, Philippopolis,
and Sardica, to Naesus in Dacia, in the neighbourhood of which they remained some
days to arrange the affairs of the empire. Valentinian kept Jovinus general of
the troops in Gaul (magister armorum), to which rank he had been promoted by Julian,
and Dagalaephus (militiae rector), who owed his promotion to Jovian. Victor and
Arinthaeus were attached to the service of Valens. Zosimus, indeed, states (iv.
2) that the two emperors were hostile to all the friends of Julian, and that all
those who had been promoted by Julian were deprived of their offices, except Arinthaeus
and Victor; but Zosimus may be mistaken here, as in other cases. The provinces
of the empire were also distributed between the two brothers. Valens had the East,
comprising Asia, Egypt, and Thrace; Valentinian had the West, comprising Illyricum,
Italy, the Gauls, Britain, Spain, and Africa. After this partition Valens set
out for Constantinople to govern the East, of which he knew not even the language,
and Valentinian for Italy.
Valentinian went to Milan, where he arrived some time in November,
and he stayed there till the beginning of A. D. 365.
Volusianus, prefect of Rome, was succeeded in this year by Symmachus,
the father of the orator, to whom some constitutions of Valentinian are addressed,
by which the emperor endeavoured to secure the provisioning of Rome, and provided
for the repair of the buildings. A constitution of this year enacted that the
governors of provinces must not sit in judgment in matters civil or criminal,
in private, but that judicial proceedings must be held with open doors.
The nations on the Roman frontiers were disturbing the provinces,
and the vigilance of Valentinian was required to protect his empire. Romanus,
who had been made comes of Africa under Jovian (A. D. 363), instead of protecting
the country, which he was sent to govern, plundered the people worse than the
border tribes. On the accession of Valentinian, the people of Leptis sent their
presents to the new emperor, and at the same time represented to him the wretched
condition of their country. In the mean time, a barbarous tribe, called Austuriani,
were threatening Leptis and plundering the country, and Valentinian sent Palladius
to inquire into the state of affairs in the province of Africa. But Palladius,
who was corrupted by Romanus, reported that the people of Leptis and the rest
of the province had nothing to complain of. The result was, that those who had
complained of Romanus were punished (Amm. Marc. xxviii. 6).
It appears from various constitutions, that Valentinian visited several
places in North Italy during the year A. D. 365. A constitution of this year appears
to be the earliest in which the Defensores are spoken of, and it is addressed
to " Seneca Defensor" (Cod. Just. i. tit. 55). In the month of October Valentinian
left Italy for Gaul, and he was at Paris about the end of the month. His presence
was required by an irruption of the Allemaimi, who had ravaged the country west
of the Rhine. Valentinian sent Dagalaephus against them, and he went himself as
far as Rheims; but the Allemanni had retired, and Valentinian returned to Paris,
where he appears to have remained the following year A. D. 366. In the beginning
of A. D. 366 the Allemanni again entered Gaul during a severe winter, defeated
the Roman troops and killed Charietto, who was comes of the Two Germanies. Dagalaephus,
who was sent against the Allemanni by the emperor, was tardy in his movements,
and he was replaced by Jovinus the master of the horse (magister equitum), who
defeated the Allemanni in several engagements. One battle was fought at Scarponna
between Metz and Toul, and another in the neighbourhood of Chalons-sur-Marne with
a body of Allemanni which had penetrated as far as this place. Jovinus announced
his victory to the emperor at Paris, who at the same time received the head of
the usurper Procopius, which had been sent to him by his brother Valens. Valentinian
appears to have passed the close of the year and the winter at Rheims. At this
time he built forts on the Rhine to stop the incursions of the Germans, and he
recruited his armies for the defence of this frontier. His measures secured tranquillity
on that side of the empire during the rest of his reign.
The residence of Valentinian at Rheims to the month of June A. D.
367, is proved by the constitutions which he promulgated. One of the 18th of August
is dated from Amiens, and addressed to Praetextatus, prefect of Rome. During this
time he was suffering so much from illness that there was talk about his successor;
but Valentinian recovered, and, on the 24th of August, his son Gratianus, then
little more than eight years of age, was declared Augustus at Amiens in presence
of the army. About this time Valentinian divorced his wife Severa or Valeria Severa,
and married Justina, a Sicilian woman, by whom he became the father of Valentinian
II. and of three daughters, one of whom, Galla, was afterwards the wife of Theodosius
I. Justitna was an Arian, but she concealed her heresy as long as her husband
lived.
At the close of A. D. 367 the Allemanni, under Randon, surprised and
pillaged Moguntiacum (Mainz) during a festival which the Christians [p. 1209]
were celebrating. The Romans retaliated by gaming over an Allemann to assassinate
his king Vithicabus, a man who in a feeble body possessed a great spirit, and
had caused the Romans no small trouble. While the emperor was on his road from
Amiens to Treves on the Mosel, he heard of the ravages which the Picts and other
barbarians were committing in Britain. The conduct of this war was finally entrusted
to Theodosius, the father of the first emperor Theodosius.
To the year A. D. 368 probably belongs a constitution of Valentinian
addressed to Olybrius, then praefect of Rome (Cod. Theod. 2. tit. 10. s. 2 ; Cod.
Just. 2. tit. 6. s. 6), for the regulation of the conduct of advocates, who were
forbidden to use abusive language, or to say anything which might injure the reputation
of the party to whom they were opposed, unless it was necessary to maintain the
case of their client. The constitution contains other regulations. By another
constitution he ordered that there should be a physician appointed for each of
the fourteen regions of Rome, to look after the health of the poor. In the autumn
of this year Valentinian left Treves for an expedition against the Allemanni,
whom he drove with great loss from a mountain where they had fortified themselves.
This place called Solicinium has been conjectured to be Sulz, near the source
of the Necker. The emperor returned with his son to Treves, which he entered in
a kind of triumph.
In A. D. 369 Valentinian was occupied with building forts on the left
bank of the Rhine, from its mouth to the country of the Rhaeti; and he also constructed
some forts on the other side of the river. Mannheim, at the junction of the Necker
and the Rhine, is supposed to be one of these positions. His residence was chiefly
at Treves during this year, but he made excursions to various places on the Rhine.
A story recorded in the Alexandrine Chronicle, and also in Zonaras, of the emperor's
severity seems hardly credible. An eunuch named Rhodanus, an attendant on Valentinian,
had been convicted before Sallustius of defrauding a widow, and he was ordered
to make restitution. Instead of doing this he appealed from the judgment, and
the widow was advised to present her petition to Valentinian when he was seated
in the Circus. The eunuch was near his master, when the widow presented her petition,
and the emperor immediately ordered the eunuch to be seized, to be carried round
the Circus while proclamation of his crime was made, land then to be burnt alive
in the presence of the spectators.
In A. D. 370 Valentinian was still at Treves, or near it, as appears
from the constitutions promulgated in this year. The Saxons now broke loose on
the Roman territory, where they plundered all before them; but they were alarmed
by the appearance of Severus, commander of the infantry (peditum magister), who
made place With them on condition of their retiring. Butt the Romans treacherously
laid an ambuscade, and destroyed the Saxons on their march back, at a place called
Deuso, according to Hieronymus, which may be Dentz, opposite to Cologne. Ammianus
(xxviii. 5) considered this treachery justifiable under the circumstances. A constitution
of this year addressed to Damasus, bishop of Rome (Cod. Theod. 16. tit 2. s. 20),
was intended to check the greediness of the clergy. It is commented on by Gibbon
with his usual relish for scandal against the clergy, against whom, however, we
have the evidence of the imperial constitution, and that of Hieronymus. Damasus,
the bishop of Rome, was himself a man of dubious character, and the virtuous Praetextatus,
a pagan, told him that he would turn Christian himself if he could secure the
see of Rome, "a reproach", observes Gibbon, "in the form of a jest".
Ammianus (xxviii. 1) gives an account of the cruelties exercised at
Rome by Maximinus, who held the office of the Vicaria Praefectura, against persons
who were accused of magical arts. Maximinus put many persons to the torture, and
even to death, upon the charge of using magic. Maximinus was punished by Gratian,
the successor of Valentinian, for all his misdeeds. Magic, or whatever is meant
by the term, was a great abomination in the eyes of Valentinian : he permitted
all the arts of the Roman aruspices to be practised, and every other ceremonial
of the ancient religion, provided no magic was practised. He even maintained the
Pontifices in the provinces in all their privileges, and allowed them the same
rank as Comites. This-was going even beyond toleration, and further than a wise
policy can justify. He relieved from all civil duties such ecclesiastics as devoted
all their time to the service of the church, and had entered the clerical body
before the commencement of his reign; but as to others, they were liable to discharge
all civil duties like any layman. These and other constitutions of the first half
of A. D. 371 were promulgated at Treves, the favourite residence of Valentinian,
which he left for a short time to conduct operations against the Germans in the
neighbourhood of Mainz. He was again at Treves in December, and he appears to
have passed the year A. D. 372 there or in the neighbourhood. The emperor did
nothing this year that is recorded, except to promulgate a constitution against
the Manichaeans, who were always treated with great severity.
The year A. D. 373 was the fourth joint consulship of the two Augusti,
Valentinian and Valens, and Valentinian spent a great part of this year in Italy.
Maximinus was made Praefectus (of Gaul, as Tillemont shows), and this brought
about the ruin of Remigius, once Magister Officiorum, who had been a partner of
Comes Romanus in his maladministration. Remigius had resigned his office and retired
to the pleasant neighbourhood of his native Mainz to cultivate the land. Maximinus,
who was somewhere near, which is confirmatory of Tillemont's conjecture that he
was in this year prefect of Gaul, put to the torture one Caesarius, who had served
tinder Remigius, in order that he might discover what Remigius had received from
Romanus. Remigius, being informed of these proceedings against him, hanged himself
(Amm. Marc. xxx, 2). Palladius, who had deceived his master in the affair of Comes
Romanus, was also arrested by order of Valentinian; and he too pronounced his
own sentence, and executed it by hanging himself. Romanus, the chief criminal,
was put in prison by Theodosius, when he was sent against Firmus, and proof was
found of his knavery in the affair of Leptis. The historian, however, has not
the gratification of finding any evidence of the punishment of Romanus, either
under the reign of Valentinian or that of his successor.
Valentinian passed the winter of A. D. 373 at Milan, but he was again
at Treves in May and June of the following year A. D. 374. He was upon the Rhine,
probably in the neighbourhood of Bale, when he received intelligence of the Quadi
invading Illyricum : the cause was this. As the emperor was anxious to protect
the frontiers, he ordered some forts to be built north of the Danube, in the country
of the Quadi. The Quadi complained of this encroachment to Equitius, master-general
of Illyricum, who consented to suspend the works till the emperor had signified
his pleasure. But Marcellinus, the son of Maximinus, was made dux of Valeria,
a province of Illyricum, by his father's interest, and he continued the fortifications
without troubling himself about the Quadi. The king of the Quadi, Gabinius, came
to remonstrate with Marcellinus, who received him civilly and asked him to eat;
but as the king was retiring after the entertainment, the Roman treacherously
caused him to be assassinated. The Quadi, joined by the Sarmatians, crossed the
river into the Roman province, which was destitute of troops, and destroyed the
grain which was ready for the harvest. Probus, Praefectus Praetorio, though much
alarmed, prepared to defend Sirmium; but the barbarians did not disturb him, and
preferred running after Equitius to whom they attributed the death of their king.
The barbarians destroyed two legions, and the province would have been lost, but
for the vigour and courage of a young man, who was afterwards the emperor Theodosius.
Valentinian heard of this incursion of the Quadi at his royal residence
of Treves, but he deferred his campaign against the Quadi to the following year,
and in the mean time he employed himself in securing the friendship of Macrianus,
king of the Allemanni, with whom he had an interview near Mainz. Macrianus accepted
the terms which the Roman emperor came to offer, and became the ally, or at least
not the enemy of Valentinian. The emperor spent this, his last winter at Treves,
which he did not quit till the month of April, A. D. 375, to march towards Illyricum.
He took with him his wife Justina and his second son Valentinian. Gratian was
left at Treves.
The emperor fixed his head-quarters at Carnuntum, which was probably
on the Danube, and below the site of Vienna. His first care was to inquire into
the conduct of Probus, the praefect, who was charged with oppressing the people;
but Valentinian did not live long enough to come to any decision about Probus.
After preparing for the campaign the emperor crossed the Danube, but his operations
were not very decisive, and at the approach of winter he re-crossed the river,
and fixed himself at Bregetio, probably near Presburg. While giving an audience
to the deputies of the Quadi, and speaking with great heat, he fell down in a
fit and expired suddenly on the 17th of November, after a reign of twelve years,
all but a hundred days. His body was embalmed and carried to Constantinople to
be interred.
Gibbon's sketch of the reign of Valentinian and Valens (c. 25) has
great merit: it is rapid, exact and instructive Tillemont (Histoire des Empereurs,
v.) is painfully minute as usual; but his authorities are always valuable, and
his judgment, when not biassed by his peculiar way of thinking, is generally sound.
The reign of Valentinian is worth a careful study in his extant legislative enactments.
His many great qualities entitle him to a place among the most distinguished of
the illustrious Romans.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Gratianus Aug., son of the emperor Valentinian, by his first wife Severa (or perhaps Valeria Severa),
was born at Sirmium, in Pannonia, 19th April, A. D. 359, about five years before
his father's accession to the empire. In A. D. 366, while yet nobilissimus puer,
or heir apparent, he was made consul, and on 24th Aug. 367, he was raised by his
father to the rank of Augustus, at Ambiani or Amiens, in Gaul. This elevation
is ascribed by Aurelius Victor to the influence of his mother, Severa, and his
maternal grandmother. In the following year he accompanied his father in the campaign
against the Alamanni, in their own country, though lie was not, on account of
his tender age, exposed to the full hardships and dangers of the war. Great care
was bestowed on his education; and the poet Ausonius, whom, in gratitude for his
instruction, he after wards (A. D. 379) raised to the consulship, was his tutor.
On the sudden death of Valentinian, at Bregitio or Bergentio, now
Bregenz, on the lake of Constance (17 Nov. A. D. 375), the troops there, at the
instigation of some of their officers, elevated Valentinian II., a child of four
years, half brother of Gratian, to a share in the empire. The writers of best
authority tell us that the good disposition and prudence of Gratian, or his advisers,
prevented that prince from taking umbrage at this intrusion upon him of a partner
in his power; but Theophanes and Zonaras say that lie punished the authors of
his [p. 302] brother's elevation, and Zonaras adds that he severely rebuked the
troops for their share in the transaction. A division of the provinces of the
West was made between the brothers, though the greater age of Gratian gave him
pre-eminence. As the eastern provinces remained subject to Valens, brother and
colleague of Valentinian I., the part immediatety subject to the government of
Gratian comprehended Gaul, Spain, and Britain. But there is some doubt both as
to the time when the provinces of the West were partitioned, and as to the authority,
if any, which Gratian retained or exercised in the provinces of his brother. Treviri,
now Treves, seems to have been his usual residence.
In the early part of his reign hostilities were fiercely carried on
along the Danubian provinces and in Illyricum, where Frigeridus, Gratian's general,
defeated the Taifali; and Gratian himself was preparing to march into Thrace to
assist his uncle Valens against the Goths, but was detained in the West by an
incursion of the Lentienses, who formed part of the great confederation of the
Alamanni. The invading host, to the Number of 40,000 (some accounts, probably
exaggerated, make them 70,000), was encountered and cut to pieces by the army
of Gratian, under his generals Nannienus and Mellobaudes the Frank, who held the
office of Comes Domesticorum at Argentovaria or Argentaria (at or near Colmar,
in Alsace), about May, A. D. 378 or according to some authorities in 377. Whether
Gratian was present at the battle does not appear; but he conducted his army in
person across the Rhine, and compelled the Lentienses to submit. He afterwards
advanced towards or into the eastern empire, where the Goths, who had defeated
and killed Valens near Adrianople (Aug. 378), were committing great devastation.
By the death of his uncle, Valens, the eastern empire had devolved upon him; but
his consciousness of his inadequacy to this increased charge led him to send for
Theodosius from Spain, and after appointing him in the first instance general
against the Goths, he soon after (Jan. 19, 379), at Sirmium, raised him to be
his colleague in the empire, and committed the East to him.
For some time after this the pressure of affairs compelled Gratian
to exert himself. He sanctioned the settlement in Pannonia and Upper Maesia of
some German nations, who were pressing upon the frontier of the empire; perhaps
thinking thus to repair the waste of population in the Gothic war, or to raise
up a barrier against further invasion. His generals, the Franks, Bauto and Arbogastes,
with their army, were sent to assist Theodosius ; and Gratian himself, if we may
trust an obscure expression of Idatius, gained a victory over some hostile army,
but of what nation is not said. He also, during the illness of Theodosius, arranged
or strengthened a treaty with the Goths. After these transactions, which may be
referred to the year 380 at latest, we hear little of any warlike or other transactions
in which Gratian was engaged.
Historians, Pagan and Christian, are agreed as to the character of
this prince. In person he was well made and good looking; in his disposition gentle
and docile; submissive. as a youth, to his instructors, possessed of a cultivated
understanding and of a ready and pleasing eloquence. Even in the camp he cultivated
poetry; and the flattering panegyric of Ausonius declares that Achilles had found
in him a Roman Homer. He was pious, chaste, and temperate; but his character was
too yielding and pliant, it wanted force; and the influence of others led him
to severities that were foreign to his own character. By the instigation of his
mother, he had, at the commencement of his reign, put to death Maximus, praefectus
praetorio in Gaul, Simplicius, and others of his father's officers. It is difficult
to determine how far he is answerable for the death of Count Theodosius, father
of the emperor, who was put to death at Carthage soon after Gratian's accession,
unless we could ascertain whether the partition of the western provinces had then
been made; and if so, whether Gratian retained any authority in the provinces
allotted to his brother. His piety and reverence for ecclesiastics, especially
for Ambrose of Milan, rendered him too willing a party to the persecutions which
the Christians, now gaining the ascendancy, were too ready to exercise, whether
against the heathens or against heretics of their own body. Valentinian I. had
wisely allowed religious liberty ; but under Gratian this was no longer permitted
(Cod. Theod. 16. tit. 9. s. 4, 5, with the notes of Gothofredu..) He refused to
put on the insignia of Pontifex Maximus, on the plea that a Christian could not
wear them; and herein he only acted consistently. Tillemont, on the authority
of Ambrose, ascribes to him the removal of the Altar of Victory at Rome, and the
confiscation of its revenues ; and the prohibition of legacies of real property
to the Vestals, with the abolition of their other privileges, steps of which the
justice is more questionable. Ambrose also ascribes to him the prohibition of
heathen worship at Rome, and the purging of the church from all taint of sacrilegious
heresy -vague expressions, but indicative of the persecuting spirit of his government.
The Priscillianists indeed are said to have obtained readmission into the church
by bribing the officers of his court; and during the short time after Valens'
death that he held the Eastern empire, he contented himself with relieving the
orthodox party from persecution, and tolerated the Arians, probably from the conviction
that in the critical period of the Gothic war, it would not do to alienate so
powerful a body. The Eunomians, Photinians, and Manichaeans were not, however,
tolerated even then. (Suidas, s. v. Gratianos, and notes of Gothofredus to Cod.
Theod. l. c.) Sulpicius Severus intimates that at one time he issued an edict
for the banishment of all heretics; but it is difficult to believe that this could
have been effected or even attempted. The religious meetings of heretics were,
however, interdicted by him. (Cod. Theod. l. c.) After these indications of his
zeal, we do not wonder that Ambrose addressed to him his treatise De Fide.
While these persecuting measures were cooling the attachment of those
of his subjects who were exposed to his severity, his constant engagement in field
sports, to the neglect of more serious matters, incurred contempt. The indulgence
and flattery of his councillors and courtiers allowed and induced him to devote
himself to amusement. Night and day, says Aurelius Victor, he was thinking of
nothing else than arrows, and considered that to hit the mark was the greatest
of pleasures and the perfection of art. So sure was his aim. that his arrows were
said to be endowed with intelligence. [p. 303] He associated with a few of the
Alans, whom he made his friends and followers, and travelled habited in their
garb. This deportment excited the contempt of the army. While thus unpopular,
a competitor for the empire suddenly appeared in the person of Maximus, a man
of energy and reputation, who was elected by the legions in Britain, and at once
crossed over into Gaul, and defeated Gratian somewhere near Paris. Deserted by
his troops, and, according to some, betrayed by his general, Mellobaudes, or Merobaudes,
Gratian fled in the direction of Italy, but being excluded by the inhabitants
of the cities in his route, was overtaken and slain apparently near Lugdunum or
Lyon, by Andragathius, whom Maximus had sent in pursuit of him. (25 Aug. 383.)
In his last extremity he called upon the name of Ambrose. Zosimus places his death
near Singidunum, now Belgrade, on the borders of Pannonia and Maesia. Maximus
refused to give up his body to his brother Valentinian for burial; but subsequently,
probably on the overthrow of Maximus, it was removed and interred at Milan. Sozomen
and Socrates, followed by Theophanes, describe the stratagem by which Andragathius
succeeded in killing him, and though their story is improbable enough, it perhaps
originated in some treachery actually employed.
Gratian was twice married. 1. About A. D. 374 or 375, to Flavia Maxima
Constantia, daughter of the emperor Constantius II., by whom he appears to have
had a son, of whom nothing is known. Constantia died about six months before her
husband. 2. To Laeta, of whom little is known, and who survived him.
(Amm. Marc. xxvii. 6, xxviii. 1, xxix. 6, xxx. 10, xxxi. 9, 10; Aurel. Vict. Epit.
c. 45, 47, 48; Oros. vii. 32, 33, 34; Zosim. vi. 12, 19, 24, 34, 35, 36; Zonar.
xiii. 17; Marcellin. Prosper Aquit., Prosper Tiro, Chronica; Idatius, Chronicon
and Fasti ; Theophan. Chronograph. vol. i.; Socrat. H. E. iv. 31, v. 2, 11; Sozom.
H. E. vi. 36, vii. 1, 13; Rufinus, H. E. xi. 13, 14; Sulpic. Severus, Histor.
Sacra, ii. 63; Themist. Orat. xiii.; Auson. Epigr. 1, 2, Gratiarum Actio pro Consulatu
; Ambros. De Fide Prolog. Epistolae 11, 17, 21, Consolatio de Obitu Valentin.
c. 79)
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Valentinian II., Roman emperor A. D. 375--392, a son of Valentinianus I., was with his mother Justina,
about one hundred miles from the camp of Bregetio, when his father died there,
A. D. 375. His brother Gratianus was at Treves. Valentinian and his mother were
summoned to Bregetio, when the army proclaimed Valentinian, Augustus, six days
after his father's death. He was then only four or five years of age; and Gratian
was only about seventeen. Gratian assented to the choice of the army, and a division
of the West was made between the two brothers Valentinian had Italy, Illyricum
and Africa. Gratian had the Gauls, Spain and Britain. This division, however,
if it actually took place, was merely nominal. and Gratian as long as he lived
was actually emperor of the West. One reason for supposing that Gratian really
retained all the imperial power is the fact, that after the death of Valens, and
in A. D. 379 Gratian ceded a part of Illyricum to Theodosius I., whom he declared
emperor of the East. This seems to show at least that the division of the empire
of the West between Gratian and Valentinian was not completed at the time when
Theodosius received a part of Illyricum.
In A. D. 383, Gratian was murdered at Lyon. Milan was the chief residence
of Valentinian II. from the time of his father's death, and he was in this city
during A. D. 384. He made Symmachus prefect of Rome, probably about the close
of A. D. 383. Valentinian was still at Milan in the first half of A. D. 386, and
afterwards at Aquileia. His mother Justina, who acted in his name, and was an
Arian, employed herself in persecuting the Catholics during this and the following
year. In A. D. 386, Valentinian addressed a letter to Sallustius, the prefect
of Rome, in which he ordered him to rebuild the church of St. Paul, near Rome,
on the road to Ostia. The church was rebuilt, but apparently somewhat later than
the time of this order.
Maximius, who had usurped the throne of Gratian, left Valentinian
a precarious authority out of fear for Theodosius I.: but in August, A. D. 387,
he suddenly crossed the Alps, and advanced towards Milan, the usual residence
of Valentinian. The emperor and his mother fled to the Hadriatic, where they took
shipping and arrived at Thessalonica. In A. D. 388, Theodosius defeated Maximus,
and restored Valentinian to his authority as emperor of the West. In A. D. 389,
Valentinian went into Gaul to conduct operations against the Franks on the Rhine.
Arbogast was at that time commander of the Roman forces in Gaul. Nothing further
is recorded of this campaign, except that Valentinian had a conference with Marcomir
and Sunnon, the chiefs of the Franks, who gave him hostages. Valentinian spent
the winter at Treves, as appears from a constitution dated the 8th of November.
Tillemont remarks, "that Theodosius, who spent about three years in
Italy, after the defeat of Maximus, had by his wise advice effaced from the mind
of the youthful emperor all the bad impressions which his mother Justina had fixed
in him against the faith and St. Ambrose, and forming himself after the example
of Theodosius, he had a fervent devotion towards God, and loved St. Ambrose with
such affection, that he cherished him as much as he had formerly persecuted him".
In A. D. 391, Q. Aurelius Symmachus, who was consul with Tatianus, was the head
of a deputation from the Roman senate to Valentinian, the object of which was
to ask of the emperor the restoration of the privileges which Gratian had taken
from the temples of the idols. The emperor however positively refused to grant
the petition.
At this time, the barbarians were in motion, on the side of the Illyrian
Alps, and it was apprehended that they might disturb Italy. Valentinian set out
for Italy, with the intention of going to Milan. He was at Vienna (Vienne), when
he sent for Ambrosius to baptize him before he entered Italy, for he was yet only
a catechumen. There were many bishops in France, but Valentinian wished to receive
this Christian rite at the hands of Ambrose. "After having written to Ambrose,
he passed the two following days in such inquietude and such impatience to see
the saint, that having despatched a courier in the evening, he asked on the morning
of the third day, which was the last of his life, if the courier had not returned,
and if the saint was not coming" (Tillemont.).
Arbogast, a Frank by origin, a man probably of violent temper, though
on this point there is a difference in the testimony, but a rude soldier and a
man of courage and address, was aiming at governing Valentinian, who was still
a youth. Gratian employed Arbogast and sent him in A. D. 381 under Bauton to assist
Theodosius who was pressed by the Goths. After the death of Bauton, Arbogast assumed
the command of the troops without, it is said, waiting for the orders of Valentinian.
During the usurpation of Maximus, Arbogast was faithful to his master, and contributed
greatly to the overthrow of Maximus. Presuming however on his abilities, his influence
with the army, and the youth of Valentinian, Arbogast kept the emperor in a kind
of tutelage, of which Valentinian complained to Theodosius. At last the emperor
mustered courage to give into the hands of Arbogast a written order by which he
was deprived of his military rank; but the proud soldier told his to his face,
that he had not given him his office and that it was not in his power to take
it away. With these words he tore the writing, threw it on the ground, and quitted
the emperor's presence.
There are different accounts of the death of Valentinian. The most probable is,
that he was strangled by order of Arbogast. His body was taken to Milan for interment
by the side of his father, and Ambrose pronounced the funeral oration. Valentinian
II. died on the 15th of May, being only a few months above twenty years of age.
Justa and Grata, the two sisters of Valentinian, deplored with sincere affection
the untimely end of their brother. "Ambrose, who was so well instructed in the
doctrine of the church, does not hesitate in his funeral oration to assure us
of the salvation of a prince, who had not received the sacrament of salvation,
but had asked for it, and was disposed to receive it" (Tillemont.).
Justina, the mother of Valentinian, was dead ; she had not long survived
the restoration of her son to his throne, and her influence expired before she
died. Justa and Grata, the sisters of the emperor, remained unmarried; and Galla,
the wife of Theodosius, who deeply lamented her brother's death, died in A. D.
394, in childbed, when Theodosius was leaving Constantinople to avenge the death
of Valentinian.
The reign of Valentinian is of little importance; and what concerns the Roman
legislation of this period belongs to the history of Theodosius I.
(Gibbon, Decline and Fall, &c.; Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, v., where the
authorities are collected.)
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Eudocia, daughter of Valentinian II. and of Eudoxia, daughter of Theodosius II. She was
carried captive to Carthage by Genseric, king of the Vandals, when lie sacked
Rome (A. D. 455), together with her mother and her younger sister Placidia. Genseric
married Eudocia (A. D. 456), not to one of his younger sons, Gento, as Idatius
says, but to his eldest son Hunneric (who succeeded his father, A. D. 477, as
king of the Vandals); and sent Eudoxia and Placidia to Constantinople. After living
sixteen years with Hunneric, and bearing him a son, Hulderic, who also afterwards
became king of the Vandals, Eudocia, on the ground of dislike to the Arianism
of her husband, secretly left him, and went to Jerusalem, where she soon after
died (A. D. 472), having bequeathed all she had to the Church of the Resurrection,
and was buried in the sepulchre of her grandmother, the empress Eudocia.
Constantius III., emperor of the West, A. D. 421, was born in Illyria in the latter part of the
4th century of our aera. He became early known by his military deeds, and was
beloved at the court of the emperor Honorius, as well as among the people and
the soldiers, for his talents and amiable yet energetic character. which were
enhanced by extraordinary manly beauty. When the tyrant Constantine, after his
return fiom Italy, was besieged in Arles by his rebellious and successful general,
Gerontius, Constanitius was despatched by Honorius to reduce Gaul and Spain to
obedience; but the emperor refrained from sending troops over to Britain, since
this country was then in a hopeless state of revolt against everything Roman.
It is related under Constantine the tyrant how Constantius, whose first lieutenant
was Ulphilas, a Goth, compelled Gerontius to raise the siege and to fly to the
Pyrenees, where he perished. Constantius then continued the siege; but, although
closely confined, his adversary found means to send one Edobicus or Edovinchus
into Germany, for the purpose of calling the nations beyond the Rhine to his assistance.
Edobicus soon returned at the head of a body of Frankish and Alemannic auxiliaries;
but, instead of surprising Constantius, the latter surprised him, having suddenly
left his camp. and marched to attack the barbarians, whom he and Ulphilas met
with beyond the Rhene and defeated entirely. Edovicus was murdered by a friend
in whose house he had taken refuge, and the murderer presented the head of Edovicus
to the victor, expecting a recompense. With the virtue of an ancient Roman, Constantius
refused to accept the hideous present, and ordered the murderer to be turned out
of his camp straightway. Constantius hastened back to Aries, resumed the interrupted
siege, and forced Constantine to surrender, whose fate is related in his life.
Constantius was rewaruded for his victory by Honorius with the consulship
(A. D. 414), and was also created comes and patricius. In A. D. 414 he marched
against Ataulphus, who supported the claims of the rival emperor Attalus, but
was defeated and compelled to give him up to his victor in 416. The reward of
Constantius was the hand of Placidia, the sister of Honorius, who, after being
a captive of the West-Gothic kings, Ataulphus (to whom she was married), Sigericus,
and Wallia, since 410, was given up in 417 by Wallia, who became an ally of the
Romans. Constantius afterwards induced him to cede the conquests which he had
made in Spain to Honorius, and Wallia received in compensation Aquitania II. and
probably also Novenmpopulania, or Aquitania III. From this time Toulouse became
the capital of the West-Gothic kings. In 421 (8th of February), Honorius conferred
upon Constantius the dignity of Augustus and the authority of a co-emperor of
the West. Theodosius II., emperor of the East, having refused to recognize him
as Augustus, Constantius prepared to make war against him; but, before actual
hostilities had broken out, he died at Ravenna, on the 11th of September, 421,
after a short reign of not quite seven months. After his accession he was more
severe than he used to be, but it seems that he does not deserve reproaches for
it, since he shewed that severity in restoring domestic peace to Italy and Rome,
where ambitious men of all nations caused disturbances of the worst description.
His children by Placidia were Flavius Placidius Valentinianus, afterwards Valentinian
III., emperor, and Justa Grata Honoria, afterwards betrothed to Attila. (Zosim.
lib. v. ult. and lib. vi., the chief authority; Sozom. ix. 13-16; Oros. vii. 42,
43; Philostorg. xii. 4, 12; Theoph.; Prosper, Chon. Theodosio Aug. IV. Cons. &c.)
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Galla Placidia, so named in coins and inscriptions; but by historians more commonly called simply Placidia, was the daughter of Theodosius the Great by his second wife Galla, The date of her birth does not appear: it must have been not earlier than 388, and not later than 393. She was at Rome in A. D. 408, and is accused of being one of the parties to the death of her cousin Serena, Stilicho's widow, who was suspected of corresponding with or favouring Alaric, who was then besieging the city. It appears from this, that Placidia was then old enough to have some influence in public affairs, which consideration would lead us to throw back the date of her birth as far as possible. Gibbon says she was about twenty in 408, which is probably correct. When Alaric took Rome, A. D. 410, Placidia fell into his hands (if indeed she had not been previously in his power), and was detained by him as a hostage, but respectfully treated. After Alaric's death she continued in the power of his brother-in-law and successor, Ataulphus. Constantius (afterwards emperor) the Patrician, on the part of the emperor Honorius, half brother of Piacidia, demanded her restoration, having already, as Tillemont thinks, the intention of asking her in marriage. Ataulphus, however, having it also in view to marry her, evaded these demands, and married her (according to Jornandes), at Forum Livii, near Ravenna, but according to the better authority of Olympiodorus and Idatius, at Narbonne, A. D. 414. Idatius states that this matter was regarded by some as the fulfilment of the prophecy of Daniel (cb. xi.) respecting the King of the North and the daughterofthle king of the South. Philostorgius considers that another passage of the same prophetical book was fulfilled by the event. Ataulphus treated her with great respect, and endeavored to make an alliance with Honorius, but was not successful, through the opposition of Constantius. In A. D. 415 Ataulphus was killed at Barcelona, leaving no issue by Placidia, their only child, Theodosius, having died soon after its birth. Ataulphus, with his last breath, charged his brother to restore Placidia to Honorius, but the revolutions of the Visi-Gothie kingdom prevented this being done immediately and it was not until after Placidia had suffered from the wanton insolence of Sigeric or Singerich, the ephemeral successor of Ataulphus, that she was restored by Valia or Wallia, who succeeded Sigeric. Her restoration took place in A. D. 41; and on the first day (1st January) of the next year (417) she was married, though against her will, to Constantius, by whom she had two children, a daughter, Justa Grata Honoria, and a son, afterwards the emperor Valentinian III., born A. D. 419. Constantius was declared Augustus by Honorius, who was, however, somewhat reluctant to take him as colleague in the empire, and Placidia received the title of Augusta; and the infant Valentinian received, through Placidia's influence, the title "Nobilissimus," which was equivalent to his appointment as successor to the throne. Constantius died A. D. 421, about half a year after his elevation. After his death Honorius showed Placidia such regard and affection as gave rise to discreditable surmises respecting them; but after a time their love was exchanged for enmity, their respective friends raised tumults in Ravenna, where the Gothic soldiers supported the widow of their king, and in the end Placidia and her children fled (A. D. 423) to Theodosius II. at Constantinople to seek his aid. It was probably in this flight that she experienced the danger from the sea, and made the vow recorded in an extant inscription on the church of St. John the Evangelist at Ravenna. It is not likely that Theodosius would have believed her against Honorius, as he had never acknowledged Constantius as Augustus, or Placidia as Augusta; but the death of Honorius and the usurpation of Johannes or John, determined him to take up her cause, which had now become the cause of his family. He therefore authorized Placidia to take or resume the title of Augusta, and the little Valentinian that of Nobilissimus. They were sent back to Italy (A. D. 424), with a powerful army, under Ardaburius, Aspar, and Candidianus. John was taken and put to death; and Valentinian, who had been previously raised to the rank of Caesar, was declared Augustus, or emperor, and left to govern the West, under the tutelage of his mother. Her regency was signalised by her zeal for the church and her intolerance. She banished from the towns Manichacans and other heretics, and astrologers; and excluded Jews and heathens from the bar and from public offices; but her lax government and easy disposition in other matters than those of the church left the empire to be torn by the disputes and rivalry of Aetius and Boniface; and her over-indulgence to her son tended to make him an abandoned profligate. She died A. D. 450 or 451, at Rome, and was buried at Ravenna. (Zosim. vi. 12; Olympiod. apud Phot. Bibl. cod. 80; Socrat. H. E. vii. 23, 24; Philostorg. H. E. xii. 4, 12, 13, 14; Marcellin., Idatius, Prosper Aquit., Prosper Tiro, Chronica ; Procop. de Bell. Vand. i. 3)
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Valentinian III., Roman emperor A. D. 425-455. Honorius, emperor of the West, died in August, A.
D. 423, and Joannes, the Primicerius, or first of the secretaries, assumed the
imperial dignity at Rome. Joannes sent to the emperor Theodosius II. to ask for
his consent to his usurpation; but the emperor's answer was not favourable, and
Joannes sent the general Aetius to the Huns, to seek their help. Joannes, wishing
to secure the support of this able commander, gave him the rank of Curopalates,
as the mayor of the palace was afterwards called. Theodosius (A. D. 424) sent
Ardaburius, and his son Aspar with a powerful army against the usurper. They were
accompanied by Placidia, and her young son Valentinian, who, pursuant to the orders
of Theodosius, was invested with the title of Caesar at Thessalonica by Helion,
the Magister Officiorum, and the emperor also betrothed to him his daughter Eudocia,
who was born A. D. 422. Valentinian was now between five and six years of age.
Valentinian was the son of Constantius III. by Placidia, the sister of Honorius,
and the daughter of Theodosius I.
I n A. D. 425, Theodosius II. was consul for the eleventh time, with
Valentinianus Caesar for his colleague. Aspar, accompanied by Valentinian and
Placidia, arrived in Italy before the usurper expected them, and took possession
of Aquileia. Ardaburius came with a fleet, but a storm having arisen in the Hadriatic,
he was separated from his fleet, and with two galleys fell into the hands of the
soldiers of Joannes, who took him to the usurper at Ravenna. Joannes treated the
general kindly, in the hope of securing him as a friend, but Ardaburius made use
of his opportunity to gain over the officers of Joannes, and sent his son Aspar
instructions to approach Ravenna. Aspar arrived with his cavalry, and being conducted
across the marshes by a shepherd, or, as Socrates says, by an angel, found the
gates of Ravenna open, and took possession of the place without any difficulty.
Joannes was seized and sent to Aquileia, where he was ignominiously put to death.
Little is known of this usurper, but it is certain that the ecclesiastics were
his enemies, for he attempted to destroy the privileges of the church; and as
an instance, he compelled all ecclesiastics to submit to the jurisdiction of the
civil judge.
In the meantime Aetius entered Italy with the Huns, and there was
a bloody battle between him and Aspar, which was followed by a peace. The barbarians
retired at the instance of Aetius and by the stronger persuasion of money; and
Aetius was pardoned and raised to the dignity of Comes. The first measure of Valentinian,
or rather of Placidia, who acted in his name, was to restore to the ecclesiastics
all their privileges of which the usurper had deprived them. The same edict excluded
Jews and Heathens from the practice of the law, and from all military rank. Manichaeans
and other heretics and schismatics and astrologers were driven out of the towns.
Placidia was zealous for the church.
On the 23rd of October, A. D. 425, Valentinian, who was then probably
at Rome, received from his cousin Theodosius the imperial purple and the title
of Augustus. Placidia also received the title of Augusta, and probably at the
same time when her son was made Augustus. In this year Theodoric, king of the
Goths, took several places within the limits of the empire, and laid siege to
Arelate (Arles) in Gaul, but on the approach of Aetius the Goths retired with
some loss. In January A. D. 426, Valentinian was at Rome, as appears front the
date of the imperial constitutions, which contained various provisions against
informers (delatores), for the maintenance of the privileges of senators and magistrates,
and other matters. Some constitutions of this year, dated from Ravenna, were intended
to maintain the Christian faith: Jews and Samaritans were prohibited from disinheriting
their children because they had turned Christians.
Bonifacius, comes of Africa, had assisted the cause of Placidia and
her son by refusing to acknowledge the usurper Joannes, while Aetius had supported
him; and Bonifacius had received from Placidia during a visit to Italy testimonials
of her gratitude. But on his return to Africa, Aetius, who was jealous of Bonifacius,
accused him to Placidia of having a design to make himself independent in his
province, and advised her to test his fidelity by summoning him to appear before
her. With double treachery, he at the same time warned Bonifacius not to come,
because Placidia designed him no good, and Bonifacius, believing what he heard,
disobeyed the summons of Placidia. Troops were sent against Bonifacius, and he
called in to his aid (A. D. 428) the Vandals from Spain and their king Genseric.
The subsequent history of Bonifacius is told elsewhere.
Aetius, who had stirred up an enemy in Bonifacius, was employed at
the same time in fighting against the Franks, whom he defeated A. D. 428, and
recovered from them those parts on the Rhine, where they had settled. In the following
year Aetius was made commander of the Roman armies, in place of Felix, and he
defeated the Goths near Arles, and took prisoner their chief Ataulphus. he also
defeated the Juthongi, a German tribe near Rhaetia, and reduced the tribes of
Noricum, which had revolted. Aetius had with him in these campaigns Avitus, who
was afterwards emperor. In A. D. 431 he also reduced the Vindelici, having the
same enemies to contend against whom Tiberius and Drusus had subdued in the time
of Augustus. In A. D. 432 Aetius was consul with Valerius; and in the same year
apparently while Aetius was in Gaul, Bonifacius was recalled to Italy by Placidia,
who had discovered the knavery of Aetius, and gave him the rank of master general
of the forces. As early as A. D. 430 Placidia and Bonifacius knew the treachery
of Aetius and were reconciled; and Bonifaicius then attempted to check the formidable
enemy whom he had invited. After maintaining himself against the Vandals for some
time in Hippo Regius and losing a battle, he retired from Africa and was welcomed
at the court of Ravenna. On hearing of the promotion of his rival, Aetius returned
to Italy, and the two generals settled their quarrel by a battle, in which Aetius
was defeated, and Bonifacius received a mortal wound from the spear of Aetius,
who fled to the Huns in Pannonia ; but he was soon pardoned and restored : he
was too dangerous a man to make an enemy of.
In February A. D. 435 Valentinian made peace with Genseric; but at
the same time disturbances broke out in Gaul, caused by the Bagaudae. The name
first occurs in the time of Diocletian, and appears to have been adopted by the
peasants themselves, who rose in arms, as it appears, against the oppression of
their governors. The Bagaudae were put down again, but they were not destroyed,
for to destroy them it would have been necessary to remove the causes that called
forth these bands of armed peasants, and the cause was the evils tinder which
they groaned, heavy taxation, and all kinds of oppression. The picture of their
sufferings, drawn by Salvianus, bears no small resemblance to the condition of
the French peasantry before the revolution of 1789. In this year is also recorded
a defeat of the Burgundians on the Rhine by the Romans, under Aetius.
The Western empire had enemies on all sides. The Goths who had been
settled in Aquitania and the bordering countries since A. D. 419, broke out in
hostilities in A. D. 436, and besieged the ancient Roman colony of Narbonne thunder
their king Theodoric, the son of Alaric. The siege lasted some time, but the Goths
finally abandoned the undertaking, when the town had received a supply of provisions
through the vigor of some hunnish auxiliaries, headed by Comes Litorius. At this
time the western part of the Mediterranean and the shores of the ocean were infested
by pirates, some of whom were Saxons.
On the 21st of October A. D. 437, Valentinian, being then eighteen
years of age, came to Constantiople to celebrate his marriage with Eudocia, the
daughter of Theodosius, who had been betrothed to, him in A. D. 424. Valentinian
surrendered to his father-in-law the western Illyricium, which had been already
promised to the Eastern emperor by Placidia. He passed the winter with his wife
at Thessalonica, and returned to Ravenna in the following year. By this marriage
Valentinian had two daughters, Eudoxia and Placidia.
In A. D. 439 the Gothic war still continued, and Litorius was besieging
Theodoric in Toulouse, who asked for peace, which Litorius refused. A battle ensued
in which Litorius was defeated, and the Goths carried him a prisoner into the
city which he had hoped to take. Notwithstanding this success, Theodoric concluded
a peace with Aetius, who threatened with a formidable army to dispute the further
conquests of the Gothic king.
The Western empire was gradually losing its extreme possessions. Merida
in Spain was taken by Richila, king of the Suevi; and Genseric seized Carthage
by surprise on the 9th of October A. D. 439. This was the more unexpected as a
treaty had heen made with him in A. D. 435. The capture of Carthage, which had
been in the hands of the Romans for near six hundred years, destroyed the Roman
power in a large part of western Africa; but Valentinian still retailed the two,
provinces of Mauritania, and some other parts.
Valentinian was at Rome in January and in March A. D. 440. as appears
from the date of several Novellae. In the month of June Genseric left Carthage
with a great fleet. He landed il Sicily, ravaged the country and laid siege to
Palermo. Aetius was still in Gaul, where he restored tranquillity and set out
for Italy. It was about this time that Salvianus wrote his work on the Judgment
of God, in which he shows that the Romans had brought upon themselves, by their
sins, the calamities under which they were then suffering. The grievous burden
of taxation and the oppression of the powerful made the Romans prefer the form
of servitude under the Franks, Huns, and Vandals, under which they enjoyed real
liberty and paid no taxes, to the semblance of liberty under the Roman government
whose exactions were intolerable. The barbarians were in possession of a large
part of Gaul and a still larger part of Spain; Italy had been ravaged several
times, Rome had been besieged, Sicily and Sardinia devastated, and Africa was
in the hands of the Vandals. Treves had been several times sacked, and yet, says
Salvianus, while the place was reeking with the blood of the slain, the citizens
still eagerly called for the games, which were exhibited in their amphitheatre,
the ruins of which still exist on the site of the ancient city of the Treviri.
By a constitution of the 20th of February A. D. 441, the emperor made
some regulations for making the property of the great dignitaries of the church
and of the city of Rome liable to equal taxation with other property, and also
liable for the repair of the roads and the walls of the towns and all other imposts.
In A. D. 442 Valentinian made peace with the Vandals, who were left in undisturbed
possession of part of Africa.
In A. D. 446, the Romans abandoned Britain. The Picts and Scots were
ravaging the country, and the Britons in vain applied for help to Aetius who was
then consul. A revolt took place in Armorica in A. D. 448 which was however soon
settled.
Ravenna was the ordinary residence of the emperor ; but he went to
Rome early in A. D. 450 with his wife and mother, when by a constitution, dated
the 5th of March, he remitted all the taxes that had become due up to the 1st
of September A. D. 448; from which we may conclude that the people were unable
to pay them. Sardinia and Africa were excepted from this indulgence. The emperor
spoke of the exactions of the commissioners who were sent into the provinces to
prevent the exactions of others; they enriched themselves at the expence both
of the tax-payers and of the Fiscus. Oppressive taxation is the symptom of vicious
government and of the approaching ruin of a state.
Theodosius II. died on the 28th of July A. D. 450, and Marcianus succeeded
hint without waiting for the approbation of Valentinian, who, however, confirmed
his election. On the 27th of November in the same year, Placidia, the emperor's
mother, died at Rome just when hostilities were going to break out between Valentinian
and Attila, king of the Hunts. The result of this war was the defeat of Attila
by Aetius, near Chalons sur Marne in the former French province of Champagne,
in A. D. 451. The history of Valentinian's unfortunate sister Honoria is connected
with that of Attila.
The Western empire was in a deplorable state, overrun by barbarians
who brought with then " the detestable heresy of the Arians with which they were
infected." Italy however seems to have been free from barbarians, though it contained
many Goths under the name of confederates; and they were Arians too. The Visigoths,
whose capital was Toulouse, had a new king in consequence of the death of Theodoric
who fell in the great battle at Chalons, fighting on the side of the Romans. He
was succeeded by his son Thorismond.
In A. D. 452 Attila made a descent into Italy and spread consternation.
Aetius had returned to Italy, and he and Valentinian sent Pope Leo to Attila to
sue for peace, and the barbarian retired after he had devastated the north of
Italy. A constitution of Valentinian of this year, which a zealous Roman Catholic
writer calls " a scandalous law and altogether unworthy of a Christian prince,"
declares that the law does not allow bishops and priests to have jurisdiction
in civil affairs, and that they can only take cognizance of matters pertaining
to religion; and it requires even bishops to appear before the ordinary judges
in all suits to which they were parties, unless the other party consented to submit
to the judgment of the church. It also forbids ecclesiastics to traffic, or if
they do, they are allowed no particular privilege.
Valentinian was relieved in A. D. 453 from a formidable enemy by the
death of Attila, and in the same year Thorismond, king of the Visigoths, who was
of a restless and warlike character, was murdered by his brothers, one of whom,
Theodoric II., succeeded him.
The power and influence of Aetius had long excited the jealousy and
fears of Valentinian, and the suspicious temper of the unwarlike and feeble emperor
was encouraged by the calumnies of the eunuch Heraclius. Aetius was too powerful
to be the subject of a contemptible master; and the betrothal of his son Gaudentius
to Eudoxia, the daughter of Valentinian, may have excited his ambitious designs
and awakened his treacherous disposition. His pride and insolence were shown in
a hostile declaration against his prince, which was followed by a reconciliation
and an alliance, the terms of which were dictated by Aetius. After this insult
he had the imprudence to venture into the emperor's palace at Rome, in company
with Boethius, Praefectus Praetorio, and to urge the marriage of the emperor's
daughter with his son. In a fit of irritation the emperor drew his sword and plunged
it into the general's body. Theslaughter [p. 1214] was completed by the attendants
of Valentinian, and Boethius, the friend of Aetius, also shared his fate. (A.
D. 454.) The principal friends of Aetius were singly summoned to the palace, and
murdered. Thus the bravest man, the ablest commander of the age, the last great
Roman soldier, perished by the treacherous hand of the most unwarlike of the Roman
Caesars.
A grievous insult to Petronius Maximus is said to have been the immediate
cause of Valentinian's death. Maximus had a handsome wife, who resisted the emperor's
solicitations, but he got her within the palace by an artifice, and compelled
her to yield to force what she had refused to persuasion. The injured husband
resolved on the emperor's destruction, and he gained over some of the domestics
of Valentinian who had been in the service of Aetius. While he was amusing himself
in the field of Mars with some spectacle, two of these men fell upon him; and,
after killing the guilty Heraclius, despatched the emperor without any resistance
from those who were about him, A. D. 455. This was the end of Valentinian III.,
a feeble and contemptible prince, the last of the family of Theodosius. He was
ill brought up, and had all the vices that in a princely station disgrace a man's
character. Even his zeal for the Catholic faith and the church is not allowed
to have been sincere.
(Gibbon, Decline and Fall, c. 33, &c.; Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, vol. vi.)
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Avitus, M. Maecilius, emperor of the West, was descended from a noble family in
Auvergne, and spent the first thirty years of his life in the pursuits of literature,
field-sports, jurisprudence, and arms. The first public office to which he was
promoted was the praetorian praefecture of Gaul, and whilst in retirement in his
villa near Clermont, he was appointed master of the armies of Gaul. During this
period, he twice went as ambassador to the Visigothic court, first in A. D. 450
to Theodoric I., to secure his alliance on the invasion of Attila; secondly in
A. D. 456, to Theodoric II., on which last occasion, having received the news
of the death of Maximus, and of the sack of Rome by the Vandals, he was, by the
assistance of the Visigoths, raised to the vacant throne; but, after a year's
weak and insolent reign, was deposed by Ricimer, and returned to private life
as bishop of Placentia. But the senate having pronounced the sentence of death
upon him, he fled to the sanctuary of his patron saint lulian, at Brivas in Auvergne,
and there died, or at least was buried. (A. D. 456.) His private life is chiefly
known from the Panegyric of his son-in-law, Sidonius Apollinarus; his public life
from Gregor. Turon. ii. 11, and Idatius, Chronicon.
Maiorianus, Julius Valerius, emperor of Rome (A. D. 457-461), ascended the throne
under the following circumstances. After the death of the emperor Avitus, the
supreme power in the western empire remained in the hands of Ricimer, who was
the real master previously, and would have assumed the imperial title, but for
the certainty that his elevation would create a terrible commotion. For he was
a Suevian by origin, and there was a decided prejudice among the Romans to choose
a barbarian for their emperor. Ricimer consequently gave the crown to Majorianus,
with the consent of the Eastern emperor Leo (A. D. 457). The name of Majorian
appears as early as 438, when he distinguished himself in the war against the
Franks, and ever since he had continued to serve in the field, making himself
known at once for his military skill and his excellent character. He was descended
from a family distinguished in the army, and was indeed one of the best men that
ever filled the throne of the Caesars: he had experienced both good fortune and
bad fortune, and enjoyed unbounded popularity with the troops. Ricimer thought
he was only a general, unfit for administrative business, who, being accustomed
to obey him, would continue so. In this respect, however, Ricimer was mistaken.
As soon as Majorian was possessed of the supreme title, he aimed at supreme power
also. His choice of his principal officers did great credit to his discernment:
among them we mention his private secretary Petrus, Egidius who commanded in Gaul,
Magnus, praefectus praetorio in Gaul, and others. In 458 the coast of Campania
was infested by the Vandals, who held the sea with a powerful fleet; but Majorian,
informed of their designs, had posted his troops so well, that the main body of
the Vandals was surprised when on shore, and totally defeated. The only means
to stop the perpetual incursions of the Vandals was to attack their king Genseric
in Africa, and this Majorian resolved to do. He consequently entered Gaul with
a strong army, and succeeded in quelling the domestic troubles by which that province
was agitated through the intrigues of the West Gothic king Theodoric. The Roman
army which he was leading to Africa was, however, anything but Roman, being mostly
composed of barbarians, such as Bastarnae, Suevians, Huns, Alani, Rugii, Burgundians,
Goths, and Sarmatians with whom he passed the Alps in November, 458. Majorian
first went to Lyon, where he was complimented by the poet Sidonius Apollinaris,
who there wrote his panegyric of Majorian, after having been pardoned by him for
his participation in the previous revolt. From Lyon the emperor went to Aries,
where he stayed the whole year 459, having fixed upon that city as a meeting-place
for those immense, but still scattered forces, with which he intended to invade
Africa. At Arles he prevailed upon Theodoric to desist from further attempts at
causing disturbances in Gaul. In the beginning of 460 every thing was ready for
setting out for Africa, and Majorian crossed the Pyrenees, his intention being
to join his fleet, which lay at anchor in the harbour of Carthagena. Meanwhile,
Genseric made offers for peace, which, having been rejected by the emperor, he
employed intrigues, and succeeded in bribing some of the principal officers of
the Roman navy, who enabled him to surprise the fleet at Carthagena. The defeat
of the Romans was complete, the whole of their ships being sunk, burnt, or taken.
The traitors were personal enemies of Majorian, who looked with jealousy upon
his rising fortune. The loss of the fleet obliged the emperor to return to Gaul,
where he remained during the ensuing winter; and Genseric having renewed his offers,
he accepted them, and peace was made between Rome and Carthage. From Gaul Majorian
went to Italy, where his presence became indispensable to his own interest. Ricimer,
jealous of the rising power and popularity of a man whom he looked upon as his
tool, formed a scheme to deprive him of the crown. While Majorian was at Tortona
in Lombardy, the conspiracy broke out: he found himself unexpectedly surrounded
by the partizans of Ricimer; and the only way to save his life was to abdicate,
which he did on the 2d of August, 461. He died suddenly, on the 7th of August,
five days after his abdication, of dysentery, as was reported; but Idatius plainly
says that he was put to death by order of Ricimer, who now placed Severus on the
throne.
We cannot finish this notice without calling the student's attention
to the laws of Majorian, which ensure him an honourable rank among Roman legislators.
He put an end to the awful fiscal oppression in the provinces; he re-invested
the provincial magistrates with power to assess taxes ; he stopped the dilapidation
of the splendid monuments in Rome and other places, which venal officers would
allow any body, who wanted building materials, to take down, if money was paid
for the permission; and he made several other wise and useful laws and regulations,
which are contained in the Codex Theodosianus.
(Sidon. Apoll. Panegyr. Major. Epist. i. 1; Procop. Vandi. 7, 8; Greg. Turon.
ii. 7; Priscus in Excerpt. Legat.; Evagr. H. E. ii. 7, sub fin.; Idatius, Chron.;
Marcellin. Chronn.)
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Anthemius, emperor of the West, remarkable for his reign exhibiting the last effort of the Eastern empire to support the sinking fortunes of the Western. He was the son of Procopius, and son-in-law of the emperor Marcian, and on Ricimer applying to the eastern emperor Leo for a successor to Majorian in the west, he was in A. D. 467 named for the office, in which he was confirmed at Rome. His daughter was married to Ricimer ; but a quarrel arising between Anthemius and Ricimer, the latter acknowledged Olybrius as emperor, and laid siege to Rome, which he took by storm in 473. Anthemius perished in the assault. His private life, which seems to have been good, is given in the panegyric upon him by Sidonius Apollonius, whom he patronized; his public life in Jornandes (de Reb. Get. c. 45), Marcellinus (Chron.), and Theophanes. See Gibbon, Decline and Fall c. 36.
Olybrius, Anicius (Olubrios), Roman emperor in A. D. 472, was a descendant of the ancient and noble
family of the Anicians. Down to 455 he lived in Rome, but left it after its sack
by Geneseric and the accession of Avitus, and went to Constantinople. In 464,
he was made consul; and in the same year, or some time previously, married Placidia,
the daughter of the emperor Valentinian III., the same princess who had been a
captive of Genseric. It appears that Olybrius stood on very intimate terms with
that king of the Vandals, whoi was active in helping him to the imperial crown
of Italy. In 472, during the troubles occasioned by, the dissensions between the
Western emperor Anthemius and the powerful patrician Ricimer, Olybrilus was sent
to Italy by Zeno under the pretext of assisting Anthemlius; but his real motive
wis to seize the supreme power, a scheme in which he was openly assisted by Genseric,
and secretly by the emperor Zeno, who, it appears, stood in feat of Olybrius oil
account of his connectionrs with the king of thle Vandals. Instead, therefore,
of pronioting the interest of Anthlemius, he entered into negotiations with Ricimer,
and ere long he was proclaimed emperor by a strong fic tion, with the connivance
of Ricimer, to whom the imperial power vwas of more value than the imperial title.
Anthemius, however, was still in Rome, and enjoyed popularity. When Ricimer came
to attack him, Anthemius, supported by Gothic auxiliaries under Gelimer, made
a stout resistance, till at last the besieger gained the city in consequence of
his victory at the bridge of Hadrian. Rome was once more plundered, and Anthemiuns
s wa murdered by order of Ricimer (11th July, 472). Olybrius was now recognised
as emperor without any opposition, and could exercise his power free from any
control since immediately after this catastrophe, Ricimer was attacked by a violent
distemper which carried hin off a few weeks afterwards. The only act of Olybrius
during his short reign, which is recorded in history, is the raising of Gundobaldus,
the nephew of Ricimer, to the patrician dignity. Olybrius died a natural death,
as it appears, on the 23d of October 472, after a short and peaceful reign of
three months and thirteen days.' He left a daughter, Juliana Anicia, by his wife
Placidia. His successor was Glycerius.
(Marcellinus Cones, Cassiodorus, Victor, Chronica; Chiron. Alexandr., Chron. Pascstle;
Ennudius, Vita Epiph.; Evagrius, ii. 16 ; Procop. Fond. i. 57; Zonar. vol. i.;
Malchus; Priscus in Excerpt. Legat.; Theophan.)
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Glycerius, one of the phantom emperors of the latest period of the western empire. Before
his accession he held the office of Comes domesticorum, and is described by Theophanes
as aner ouk adokimos ("a man of good reputation"). After the death of the emperor
Olybrius and the patrician Ricimer, Glycerius was instigated to assume the empire
by Gundibatus or Gundobald the Burgundian, Ricimer's nephew. His elevation took
place at Ravenna in March, A. D. 473. His reign was too short, and the records
of it are too obscure, for us to form any trustworthy judgment of his character.
He showed great respect for Epiphanius, bishop of Ticinum or Pavia, at whose intercession
he pardoned some individuals who had incurred his displeasure by some injury or
insult offered to his mother. When Widemir, the Ostro-Goth, invaded Italy, Glycerius
sent him several presents, and induced him to quit Italy and to march into Gaul,
and incorporate his army with the Visi-Goths, who were already settled in that
province. This event, which is recorded by Jornandes, is, by Tillemont, but without
any apparent reason, placed before the accession of Glycerius. The eastern emperor
Leo I., the Thracian, does not appear to have acknowledged Glycerius; and, by
his direction, Julius Nepos was proclaimed emperor at Ravenna, either in the latter
part of 473 or the beginning of 474. Nepos marched against Glycerius, and took
him prisoner at Portus (the harbour of Rome at the mouth of the Tiber), and compelled
him to become a priest. He was appointed then, or soon afterward, to the bishoprick
of Salona in Dalmatia.
The subsequent history of Glycerius is involved in some doubt. The
Chronicon of Marcellinus comprehends the notice of his deposition, ordination
to the priesthood,and death in one paragraph, as if they had all happened in the
same year. But according to Malchus, he was concerned in the death of the emperor
Nepos, who, after being driven from Italy by the patrician Orestes, preserved
the imperial title, and apparently a fragment of the empire, at Salona, and was
killed (A. D. 480) by his own followers, Viator and Ovida or Odiva, of whom the
second was conquered and killed the year after by Odoacer. A Glycerius appears
among the archbishops of Milan mentioned by Ennodius, and Gibbon, though with
some hesitation, identities the archbishop with the ex-emperor, and suggests that
his promotion to Milan was the reward of his participation in the death of Nepos;
but we much doubt whether the two were identical.
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Nepos, Julius, the last emperor but one of the Western Empire, A. D. 474--475.
He was the son of Nepotianus, by a sister of that Marcellinus who established
a temporary independent principality in Illyricum, about the middle of the fifth
century. A law of the Codex of Justinian mentions a Nepotianus as general of the
army in Dalmatia in A. D. 471, but it is doubtful whether this was the emperor's
father or the emperor himself, as it is not clear whether the true reading of
the Codex is Nepotianus or Nepos, and even the determination of the reading would
not settle the point, as Theophanes (Chronographia, ad A. M. 5965) gives to the
emperor himself the name of Nepotianus, and adds that he was a native of Dalmatia.
It is not improbable that the family of Marcellinus preserved, after his death
in A. D. 468, a portion of the power which he had possessed in Illyricum, and
that this was the motive which induced the Eastern emperor Leo to give to Nepos
his niece (or, more accurately, the niece of his wife the empress Verina) in marriage,
and to declare him, by his officer Domitianus, at Ravenna, Augustus (Jornandes
incorrectly says Caesar) of the Western empire (Jornand. de Regnor. Success.).
The actual emperor, at the time when Nepos was thus exalted, was Glycerius, who
was regarded at Constantinople as an usurper. Nepos marched against his competitor,
took him prisoner at Portus at the mouth of the Tiber, and obliged him to become
a priest. These events took place, according to the more numerous and better authorities,
in A. D. 474, but Theophanes, by contracting the reign of Glycerius to five months,
brings his deposition within the year 473. The elevation of Nepos is placed by
the Chronicon of an anonymous author, published by Caspinianus (No. viii. in the
Vetustior. Latinor. Chronica of Roncallius), on the 24th of June, which date,
if correct, must refer to his victory over Glycerius, for his proclamation as
emperor at Ravenna must have been antecedent to the death of Leo (which occurred
in January 474), at least antecedent to the intelligence of Leo's death reaching
Ravenna. If we suppose the proclamation of Nepos as emperor to have occurred in
August 473, a supposition to which we see no objection, the date given by Theophanes,
who, as a Byzantine, would compute the reign of Nepos from his accession de jure,
may be reconciled with that of the Latin chroniclers, who date from the time of
his becoming emperor de facto, and on this supposition the interval from August
473 to June 474 must have been occupied in preparing his armament or executing
his march against Glycerius.
From hints in the letters of Sidonius Apollinaris (Ep. v. 16) it may
be ga thered that Nepos had, before his accession, acquired some reputation both
for warlike ability and for general goodness of character, and that during his
brief reign his conduct was answerable to his previous character. But the condition
of the empire was past remedy. The Visigoths, settled in Aquitania, were eagerly
striving, under their king Euric, to expel the Romans from the territories of
the Arverni, the modern Auvergne, the last part of the province which remained
to its ancient masters, and which was bravely defended by its inhabitants under
the conduct of Ecdicius (Jornandes calls him Decius), brother-in-law of Sidonius
Apollinaris. The Goths besieged the town of Arverni or Clermont, in the summer
of 474, but Epiphanius, bishop of Ticinum (Pavia), being sent by Nepos, concluded
a peace (Ennod. Vita Epiphan.), which, however, Euric soon broke, and Nepos was
obliged, in a second treaty, in which the quaestor Licinianus was his negotiator,
to cede the disputed territory to its assailants (Sirmond, Not. ad Sidon. Ep.
iii. 1). Tillemont makes the embassy of Licinianus unavailing, and considers that
of Epiphanius to have been consequent on its failure; but we think Sirmond's view
of the matter more consistent with the account of Ennodius.
These transactions with the Visigoths constitute almost the whole
that is known of the reign of Nepos. He had recalled Ecdicius from Gaul, and had
appointed Orestes to be magister militum of that diocese in his place. Orestes,
assuming the command of the troops assembled at Rome, and, marching as if towards
Gaul, came to Ravenna, where Nepos appears to have been, raised there the standard
of revolt, and proclaimed his son Augustulus emperor. Nepos fled into Dalmatia.
His expulsion is fixed by the anonymous Chronicon already cited for the date of
his accession, on the 28th of August 475, so that his actual reign was about fourteen
months.
After his expulsion from Italy, he appears to have retained the Dalmatian
territory, which he, or some of his family, had inherited from Marcellinus, and
was still recognised at Constantinople and in the East as emperor of the West.
Meanwhile, Orestes was defeated and killed, and Augustulus deposed, by Odoacer
the Herulian, who sought the patronage of the Eastern emperor Zeno; but Zeno persisted
in recognising the title of Nepos (Malchus, apud Collectan. de Legation). In A.
D. 480 Nepos was killed near Salona, where he appears to have resided, by Viator
and Ovida or Odiva, two of his own officers (Marcellin. Chrmoicon), probably at
the instigation of his deposed predecessor Glycerius, who held the bishopric of
Salona (Malchus, apud Phot. Bibl. Cod. 78). Odiva or Ovida was vanquished and
killed the next year, 481, by Odoacer who had invaded Dalmatia (Cassiodor. Chron.).
Tillemont thinks that the title of Nepos, till his death, was recognised by some
of the cities of Gaul. The accounts of the life and reign of Nepos are brief and
fragmentary. To the authorities cited in the course of the article may be added
Marius Aventic. Chronicon; Chronici Prosperiani Auctarium, No. iv. apud Roncallium;
Catalogus Imperatorum, No. xi. apud eundem; Jornandes, de Rebus Geticis; the Excerpta
subjoined by Valesius to Amm. Marc.; Evagrius, H. E.ii. 16; Tillemont, Hist. des
Empereurs, vol. vi.; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. xxxvi.
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Augustulus, Romulus, the last Roman emperor of the West, was the son of Orestes, who seized the government
of the empire after having driven out the emperor Julius Nepos. Orestes, probably
of Gothic origin, married a daughter of the comes Romulus at Petovio or Petavio,
in the south-western part of Pannonia; their son was called Romulus Augustus,
but the Greeks altered Romulus into Momullos, and the Romans, despising the youth
of the emperor, changed Augustus into Augustulus. Orestes, who declined assuming
the purple, had his youthful son proclaimed emperor in A. D. 475, but still retained
the real sovereignty in his own hands. As early as 476, the power of Orestes was
overthrown by Odoacer, who defeated his rival at Pavia and put him to death; Paulus,
the brother of Orestes, was slain at Ravenna. Romulus Augustulus was allowed to
live on account of his youth, beauty, and innocence, but was exiled by the victor
to the villa of Lucullus, on the promontory of Misenum in Campania, which was
then a fortified castle. There he lived upon a yearly allowance of six thousand
pieces of gold: his ultimate fate is unknown.
The series of Roman emperors who had governed the state from the battle
of Actium, B. C. 31, during a period of five hundred and seven years, closes with
the deposition of the son of Orestes; and, strangely enough, the last emperor
combined the names of the first king and the first emperor of Rome.
(Amm. Marc. Excerpta; Cassiod. Chronicon, ad Zenonem; Jornand. de Regnorum Successione;
Procop. de Bell. Goth. i. 1, ii. 6 ; Cedrenus; Theophanes; Evagrius, ii. 16)
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TARANTO (Ancient city) PUGLIA
Aristonicus, of Tarentum, the author of a mythological work which is often referred
to (Phot. Cod. 190; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 335; Caes. Germ. in Arat. Phaen. 327; Hygin.
Poet. Astr. ii. 34). He is perhaps the same as the one mentioned by Athenaeus
(i), but nothing is known about him.
ALATRI (Town) LAZIO
Fabricia Gens, seems to have belonged originally to the Hernican town of Aletrium, where Fabricii
occur as late as the time of Cicero (pro Cluent. 16, &c.). The first Fabricius
who occurs in history is the celebrated C. Fabricius Luscinus, who distinguished
himself in the war against Pyrrhus, and who was probably the first of the Fabricii
who quitted his native place and settled at Rome. We know that in B. C. 306, shortly
before the war with Pyrrhus, most of the Hernican towns revolted against Rome,
but were subdued and compelled to accept the Roman franchise without the suffrage:
three towns, Aletrium, Ferentinum, and Verulae, which had remained faithful to
Rome, were allowed to retain their former constitution; that is, they remained
to Rome in the relation of isopolity (Liv. ix. 42, &c.). Now it is very probable
that C. Fabricius Luscinus either at that time or soon after left Aletrium and
settled at Rome, where, like other settlers from isopolite towns, he soon rose
to high honours. Besides this Fabricius, no members of his family appear to have
risen to any eminence at Rome; and we must conclude that they were either men
of inferior talent, or, what is more probable, that being strangers, they laboured
under great disadvantages, and that the jealousy of the illustrious Roman families,
plebeian as well as patrician, kept them down, and prevented their maintaining
the position which their sire had gained. Luscinus is the only cognomen of the
Fabricii that we meet with under the republic: in the time of the empire we find
a Fabricius with the cognomen Veiento. There are a few without a cognomen.
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Fabricius, C. & L., belonged to the municipium of Aletrium, and were twins. According to Cicero (pro Cluent. 16, &c.), they were both men of bad character; and C. Fabricius, in particular, was charged with having allowed himself to be made use of as a tool of Oppianicus, about B. C. 67, to destroy A. Cluentius.
L. Fabricius, C. F., perhaps a son of C. Fabricius Luscinus, was eurator viarum
in B. C. 62, and built a new bridge of stone, which connected the city with the
island in the Tiber, and which was called, after him, pons Fabricius. The time
at which the bridge was built is expressly mentioned by Dion Cassius (xxxvii.
45), and the name of its author is still seen on the remnants of the bridge, which
now bears the name of ponte quattro capi. On one of the arches we read the inscription:
"L. FABRICIUS, C. F. CUR. VIAR. FACIUNDUM COERAVIT IDEMQUE PROBAVIT "; and on
another arch there is the following addition: "Q. LEPIDUS, M. F., M.LOLLIU, M.
F., EX S. C. PROBAVERUNT", which probably refers to a restoration of the bridge
by Q. Lepidus and M. Lollius. The scholiast on Horace (Sat. ii. 3, 36) calls the
Fabricius who built that bridge a consul, but this is obviously a mistake. There
is also a coin bearing the name of L. Fabricius.
ANAGNI (Town) LAZIO
Cispia, Gens, plebeian, which came originally from Anagnia, a town of the Hernici. An ancient tradition related that Cispius Laevus, of Anagnia, came to Rome to protect the city, while Tullus Hostilius was engaged in the siege of Veii, and that he occupied with his forces one of the two hills of the Esquiline, which was called after him the Cispius mons, in the same way as Oppius of Tusculum did the other, which was likewise called after him the Oppius mons.
No persons of this name, however, occur till the very end of the republic. The only cognomen of the gens is Lsevus: for those whose surname is not mentioned, see Cispius.
AREZZO (Town) TOSCANA
Cilnii, a powerful family in the Etruscan town of Arretium, who seem to have been usually firm supporters of the Roman interests. They were driven out of their native town in B. C. 301, by the party opposed to them, but were restored by the Romans. The Cilnii were nobles or Lucu-mones in their state, and some of them in ancient times may have held even the kingly dignity (Comp. Hor. Carm. i. 1. 1, iii. 29. 1, Serm. i. 6. 3). Till the fall of the republic no separate individual of this fallily is mentioned, for the "Cilnius" of Silius Italicus (vii. 29) is a poetical creation, and the name has been rendered chiefly memorable by C. Cilnius Maecenas, the intimate friend of Augustus. It appears from sepulchral inscriptions that the Etruscan form of the name was Cfenle or Cfelne, which was changed by the Romans into Cilnius, much in the same way as the Etruscan Lecne was altered into Licinius.
ARPINA (Ancient city) LAZIO
Fadius, the name of a family of the municipium of Arpinum. Some of the members of it settled
at Rome, while others remained in their native place. The Fadii appear in history
about the time of Cicero, but none of them rose to any higher office than the
tribuneship. The only cognomens that occur in the family, are Gallus and Rufus.
The following have no surnames:
1. C. or Q. Fadius, for in one of the two passages in which he is mentioned, he
is called Caius, and in the other Quintus. He was a libertinus, and seems to have
possessed considerable wealth, for his daughter, who was married to M. Antonius,
is called a rich woman (Cic. Philipp. ii. 2, ad Att. xvi. 11).
2. L. Fadius, was aedile in his native place of Arpinum, in B. C. 44 (Cic. ad
Att. xv. 15, 17, 20).
3. Sex. Fadius, a disciple of the physician Nicon, but otherwise unknown. (Cic.
ad Fam. vii. 20).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ARPINO (Town) LAZIO
Cicero, the name of a family of the Tullii. The Tullii Cicerones had from time immemorial been settled at Arpinum, which received the full franchise in B. C. 188; but they never aspired to any political distinction until the stock was raised by the great orator from that obscurity into which it quickly relapsed after his death. His genealogy, so far as it can be traced, is represented in the following table.
FIDENAE (Ancient city) LAZIO
Fidenas, a surname of the Sergia and Servilia Gentes, derived from Fidenae, a
town about five miles from Rome, and which frequently occurs in the early history
of the republic. The first Sergius, who bore this surname, was L. Sergius, who
is said to have obtained it because lie was elected consul in the year (B. C.
437) after the revolt of Fidenae; but as Fidenae was a Roman colony, he may have
been a native of the town. This surname was used by his descendants as their family
name..
The first member of the Servilia gens who received this surname was
Q. Servilius Priscus, who took Fidenae in his dictatorship, B. C. 435; and it
continued to be used by his descendants as an agnomen, in addition to their regular
family name of Priscus.
1. L. Sergius C. F. C. N. Fidenas, held the consulship twice, and the consular
tribunate three times; but nothing of importance is recorded of him. He was consul
for the first time in B. C. 437 (Liv. iv. 17; Diod. xii. 43); consular tribune
for the first time in 433 (Liv. iv. 25; Diod. xii. 58); consul for the second
time in 429 (Liv. iv. 30 ; Diod. xii. 73); consular tribune for the second time
in 424 (Liv. iv. 35; Diod. xii. 82); and consular tribune for the third time in
418. (Liv. iv. 45; Diod. xiii. 2)
2. M'. Sergius L. F. L. N. Fidenas, consular tribune in B. C. 404 (Liv. iv. 61;
Diod. xiv. 19), and again in B. C. 402 (Liv. v. 8, &c.; Diod. xiv. 38). His
bad conduct in the latter year, in which he allowed himself to be defeated by
the enemy, and his punishment, in consequence, by the people, are related under
Esquilinus, No. 4.
3. L. Sergius M'. F. L. N. Fidenas, son of No. 2, consular tribune in B. C. 397.
(Liv. v. 16 ; Diod. xiv. 85)
4. C. Sergius Fidenas, consular tribune three times, first in B. C. 387 (Liv.
vi. 5), a second time in B. C. 385 (Liv. vi. 11), and a third time in B. C. 380.
(Liv. vi. 27.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MESSINA (Ancient city) SICILY
Heius, (Heeios), the name of an ancient and noble family at Messana in Sicily. They were probably hereditary clients of the Claudii. (Cic. in Verr. iv. 3; comp. c. 17.)
Fulvia Gens (of which the older term was Foulvia), plebeian, but one of the most illustrious
Roman gentes. According to Cicero (pro Planc. 8, comp. Phil. iii. 6) and Pliny
(H. N. vii. 44), this gens had come to Rome from Tusculum, although some members
must have remained in their native place, since Fulvii occur at Tusculum as late
as the time of Cicero. The gens Fulvia was believed to have received its sacra
from Hercules after he had accomplished his twelve labours. The cognomens which
occur in this gens in the time of the republic are:Bambalio, centumalus, Curvus,
Flaccus, Gillio, Ntacca, Nobilior, Paetinus and Veratius or Neratius.
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