VU1 T ci.avi Bk.ms.^ THE ETHEL CARR PEACOCK MEMORIAL COLLECTION Matris amori monumentum TRINITY COLLEGE LIBRARY DURHAM, N. C. 1903 Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Drcd Peacock f t Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/historyofromansu71meri VI i Cl % HISTORY OF THE ROMANS UNDER THE EMPIRE. BY CHARLES MERIVALE, B.D., LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE, OAMBEIDOa. FROM THE FOURTH LONDON EDITION. WITH A COPIOUS ANALYTICAL INDEX. VOL. VII. Zb 3 o S HE V YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 1892. 93 7 M 3 <° 3 JC? COOTE^TS OF THE SEVENTH VOLUME. CHAPTER LX. Chan, ;ter of the Flavian or Antonina Era. — Restoration and maintenance of peace by Vespasian. — Reaction from the extravagance of recent times. — Vespasian’s habits and policy. — Census and financial measures. — New Forum and Temple of Peace. — Endowment of the rhetoricians and teachers of literature. — The philosophers ex- pelled from Rome, and execution of Helvidius Prisons. — Demolition of Nero’s Golden House. — Baths of Titus. — The Colosseum. — Death of Vespasian, a.d. 79: a. u. 832. — Titus assumes the Empire. — Relations of Titus with Berenice. — Favour with which he was regarded by the Romans. — His death, a. d. 81 : a. it. 834 ; and character. — Destruction of Herculanum and Pompeii, and death of the elder Pliny. — A. D. 71-81 : A. u. 824-834. ....... Page 7 CHAPTER LXI. Domitian emperor. — His education and character. — External history of this reign. — Cam- paigns of Agricola in Britain, a.d. 78-84: a. u. 831-837. — He is recalled from the conquest of Caledonia. — Domitian’s expedition against the Chatti, a. d. 84: a. u. 837. — He claims a victory, and assumes the title of Germanieus. — Fiscal necessities and commencement of confiscations. — Campaigns against the Dacians. — Defeat and death of Fuscus. — Victory of Julianus. — Peace with the Dacians, a. d. 90 : a. u. 843. — A pretended Nero. — Successes in Africa. — Revolt of Antonius, a. d. 93 : a. u. 846. — Renewed cruelties and alarms of Domitian. ..... 63 CHAPTER LXT I. Internal history under Domitian. — His character, and strength of the evidence agatnr.l it. — His reign an epoch of reaction. — He affects to he a reformer of manners.-- Measures in honour of the Gods. — Prosecution of unchaste vestals. — Fate of Cor- nelia. — Enforcement of the laws of adultery. — The Scantinian Law. — Laws against mutilation. — Restrictions imposed on the mimes. — Decree against the Chaldaeans and philosophers, a. d. 89. — Economic measures. — Restoration of the Capitol. — Ascription of Divinity to Domitian. — Cult of Isis and Cybele. — Tribute enforced on tho Jews. — Death of Clemens, and alleged persecution of the Christians. — Domitian as a govern- 4 CONTENTS. or. administrator, and legislator. — He countenances delation. — Favours the soldiers.— Caresses the populace. — Spectacles. — The Capitoliue and Alban contests. — Patronage of literature repaid by flattery. — Domitian’s grim humour. — The Council of the Tur- bot, and funereal banquet. — Death of Agricola, A. D. 93; with suspicion of poison: followed by proscription of senators, and second edict against the philosophers. — Reign of terror. — Domitian’s personal alarms. — He is assassinated by his freedmen, A. d. 96. — (A. d. 81-98 : a. u. 834-349. 1 ..... Page 98 CHAPTER LXIII. Accession of Nerva. — Reaction against the tyranny of Domitian moderated by the clem- ency of Nerva. — The Praetorians demand the punishment of Domitian’s assassins. — Association of Trajan in the Empire. — Death of Nerva, A. D. 98 : A. u. 851. — Origin and early career of Trajan. — Ilis position and operations on the Rhenish frontier.— Roman fortifications between the Rhine and Danube. — Trajan’s moderation and popu- larity in Rome. — Pliny’s Panegyric. — Expedition against the Dacians, A. n. 101. — Tra- jan crosses the Danube. — His successes and triumph, A. n. 103. — Second expedition, A. D. 104. — Bridge over the Danube. — Conquest and annexation of Dacia. — The Ul- pian Forum and Trajan's Column at Rome. — Conquests in Arabia. — Trajan’s archi- tectural works in the city and the provinces. — Vigilance, splendour, and economy of his administration. — His personal qualities, countenance, and figure. — (a. d. 96-115: A IT. 849-868.) 158 CHAPTER LXPV. Effect of the Flavian reaction on Roman literature. — Comparison of Lucan and Silius Italicus : of Seneca and Quintilian. — Pliny the Naturalist. — Scholastic training. — Ju- venal compared with Persius: Statius with Ovid: Martial with Horace. — The His- torians: Tacitus: ingenuity of his plan.— His prejudices and misrepresentations. — Prevalence of biography. — Tacitus and Suetonius. — Uncritical spirit of historical com- position. — Memoirs and correspondence. — Pliny the Younger. — Interest attaching to his Letters. — Mutual approximation of the philosophical sects. — Prevalence of suicide. — Corellius. — Silius. — Arria. — Corruption of society. — Military manners. — Life among the intelligent nobles. — Spurinna. — Pliny the Elder. — Pliny the Younger. — Villas of the nobility. — The Laurentine and Tuscan of Pliny — The Surrentine of Pollius.— Decline of masculine character among the Romans.— Exceptions.— Tacitus and Juvenal masculine writers. — Contrast in their tempers.— Last champions of Ro- man ideas. 220 CHAPTER LXY. General expectation of a Deliverer favoured by Augustus and Vespasian. Revival of Judaism after the fall of Jerusalem.— The schools of Tiberias— Numbers of the Jews in the East. — Seditions raised and suppressed. — The Christians regarded with sus- picion as a Jewish sect. — Alleged decrees of Nero and Domitian. Persecution in Bithynia, and Letters of Pliny and Trajan, A. d. Ill : A. tt. 864. — Martyrdom of Igna- tius. — The Church, the Canon, and Episcopacy. — Trajan’s expedition into the East A. o. 114: A. IT. 867.— Earthquake at Antioch, a. d. 115— Annexation of Armenia.— CONTENTS. 5 Trajan s conquests beyond the Tigris. — Overthrow of the Parthian monarchy. — Tra- jan launches on the Persian Gulf. — Is recalled by defections in his rear. — His ill suc- cess before Atrae. — He returns to Antioch. — His illness and death at Selinus, A. D. 11T : A. it. 8T0. — Revolt of the J ews in the East : in Cyprus, Cyrene, and Egypt. — Revolt in Palestine. — Akiba and Barcochebas, leaders of the Jews. — Suppression of the re- volt. — Foundation of the colony of -Elia Capitolina. — Final separation of the Chris- tinas from the Jews. — (a. d. 111-133 : a. tx. 864-886.) . . . Page 279 CHAPTER LSYI. Birth and parentage of Hadrian. — His education and accomplishments. — His rise under Trajan’s guardianship. — His alleged adoption and succession. — He abandons Trajan’s conquests in the East. — His campaign in Haxsia, A. D. 118. — Suppression of a con- spiracy against him. — He courts the senate and the people. — Hadrian’s first progress, — He visits Gaul, Germany, Spain, Mauretania, confers with the King of Parthia. visits Athens, Sicily and Carthage, A. d. 119-123. — His seeond progress : he resides at Athens, Alexandria, and Antioch : Character of learning and society at these cities respectively. — He revisits Athens, and returns finally to Borne, A. J>. 125-134. — His buildings at Rome. — Adoption of Ceionius Verus, A. D. 135, who dies prematurely. — Adoption of Aurelius Antoninus, A. D. 138, who adopts Annius Yerus and L. Verus. — Infirmities and death of Hadrian, A. d. 138. — His character and personal appearance. — A.D. 117-138: A.' u. 870-891.) 821 CHAPTER XLVH. Early career of the emperor Antoninus Pius. — Attitude of the Barbarians. — The wall of Antoninus in Britain. — His paternal government at home. — His indulgence to the Christians.— His virtues and happiness. — Vices of the empress Faustina. — Early promise of M. Aurelius. — His testimony to the virtues of Antoninus. — Death of An- toninus Pius, and remarks on the character of his epoch. — Review of the political elements of Roman society. — 1. The populace of the city. — 2. The provincials. — Pro- gress of uniformity. — Extension of the franchise. — Development of the civil law. — 3. The Senate: its pride, pretensions and imbecility. — 4. The praetorians and the legions. — The final supremacy of the soldiers inevitable. — ( a. d. 138-161 : a. u. 891- 914) ... 895 CHAPTER LXVHI. M Aurelius Antoninus sole emperor. — Association of Verus. — Disturbances abroad and calamities at home. — Verus conducts a war with Parthia. — Joint triumph of the emperors, 166. — Administration of Aurelius at Rome. — Inroads of the Germans, Scythians and Sarmatians on the Northern frontier. — Pestilence spread through the Empire by the legions returning from Syria. — The emperors advance to Aquileia, 167. — They cross the Alps, 168. — Return and death of Verus, 169. — Aurelius on the Danube. — His v.ctory over the Quadi, 174. — His domestic troubles. — Unworthiness of his son Commodas. — Licentiousness of his consort Faustina. — Revolt and death of Avidius Cassius, 175. — Aurelius in the East. — He returns to Rome and triumphs over 6 CONTENTS. the Sarmatians, 176. — Repairs again to the Danube. — His successes oyer the Barba rians, and death, 180. — Compared with Alfred the Great. Symptoms of decline of the Empire. — 1. Contraction of the circulation. — 2. De- crease in population. — 3. Effects of vice, arising from slavery.— 4. Exhaustion of Italian blood, ideas, and principles. — 5. Effect of pestilence and natural disturbances. —Revival of superstitious observances and persecution of the Christians. — The “Commentaries” of M. Aurelius. — Stoicism. — New Platonism. — Revival of positive beliefl — Christianity. — Conclusion. — (a. d. 161-180: a. tj. 914-993.) * Page HISTORY OF THE ROMANS UNDER TEE EMPIRE. CHAPTER LX. A. D. 71-81. A. U. 824-834. CHARACTER OF THE FLAVIAN OR ANTONTNE ERA. RESTORATION AND MAINTEN- ANCE OF PEACE BY VESPASIAN. REACTION FROM THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF RECENT TIMES. VESPASIAN’S HABITS AND POLICY. CENSUS AND FINANCIAL MEASURES. NEW FORUM AND TEMPLE OF PEACE. ENDOWMENT OF THE RHETORICIANS AND TEACHERS OF LITERATURE. THE PHILOSOPHERS EXPELLED FROM ROME, AND EXECUTION OF HEL VIDIUS PRISCUS. DEMOLITION OF NERO’S GOLDEN HOUSE. BATHS OF TITUS. THE COLOSSEUM. DEATH OF VESPASIAN, A. D. 79 , A. U. 832 . TITUS ASSUMES THE EMPIRE. RELATIONS OF TITUS WITH BERENICE. FAVOUR WITH WHICH HE WAS REGARDED BY THE ROMANS. HIS DEATH, A. D. 81 , A. U. 834 ; AND CHARACTER. DESTRUCTION OF HERCULANUH AND POMPEII, AND DEATH OF THE ELDER PLINY. E now approach a period of Roman history, dis- tinguished by the general prosperity of the admin- istration, the tranquil obedience of the people, Tbe FIavian or and, with a single exception, by the virtue and riod°of U Eoman public spirit of the rulers. The period thus fa- hlstor r- vourably characterized, embraces eight reigns, and about an hundred and ten years, from the accession of Vespasian to the death of M. Aurelius. It has been usual, indeed, to confine this famous interval of good government within narrower limits, by making it commence after the death of Domitian ; 3 HISTORY OP THE ROMANS [A. D. 71. and it Las been generally designated by the name of the An- tonines, the last two of the emperors it includes. But both the limitation and the designation seem to me inappropriate. The Antonines thus referred to occupy in fact but forty years of this period, while the name they bore was perpetuated, in compliment to their virtues, through several ensuing reigns ; and if we are to speak of an Antonine period at all, we ought to extend it to the death of Alexander Severus. On the other hand, the era of peace and legal government, which we have been taught to associate with the title of Antonine, was really introduced by V espasian ; and the system commenced by him which remained in force, with but one interruption, above a century, might more justly and more intelligibly be styled the Flavian. Though founded on a military revolution, this system was marked by the utmost outward deference for the senate. In the respect they showed to this antique image of aristocratic authority, Vespasian, Trajan and the Antonines were not surpassed by Augustus himself, while other success- ors of Augustus had scarce pretended to respect it at all. For more than a century the long struggle between the im- perator and the nobility, between the army and the senate, the sword and the gown, the struggle which had drained the life-blood of Rome from Marius to ISTero, slumbered in re- pose. The claims of the contending powers seemed to be re- conciled; the real authority remained, no doubt, with the military chief, but the semblance was imparted to his rivals with a grace and a show of liberality Avhich cajoled them into complacent acquiescence. After the death of Aurelius, or, more properly, with the accession of Septimius Severus, the spell was once more broken, the veil was rent asunder, and the senate could never again be deceived into a belief in its sovereign authority. One or two faint attempts to reas- sert it were speedily and harshly suppressed, and the last sparks of independence were finally extinguished in the ad- ministrative revolution of Diocletian and Constantine. It is not, however, in the pretended government by the senate, a mere shadow of sovereignty, that the peculiar feat- V. U. S24.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 9 ures of the period now before us are traced. Of the eight Caesars in succession from Vespasian downwards, one only was a debauchee and a ty- rant ; seven were men of sense and vigour, able rulers, just and beneficent ad m inistrators. This unexampled series of good princes in an absolute monarchy has been regarded as a fortunate accident ; but it is not fair to ascribe it to acci- dent only. The men were the product of their times, and were legitimate representatives of the class from which they sprang, the military aristocracy of the empire. With the single exception above cited, they had all been trained from youth in habits of discipline and the discharge of public du- ties ; they had learnt to obey before they were called upon to govern ; a training which seldom failed, under the stern tra- ditions of Roman education, to make men of conduct and self-control. At the same time, the habits of their age, chas- tened by suffering, and sobered from the debauches of the youth of the empire, did not tempt them, as then- predeces- sors had been tempted, to the gross extravagance and cynicism which disgraced the nobles of the Julian and the Claudian court. The age was better, as we shall see, and the men who represented the age were accordingly better also. A period thus marked by virtue in the highest places, and by moderation and sobriety in the ranks beneath is naturally deficient in incident. Still more is the Flavian period deficient in historical records. Tran- deficient in records. quillity at home and success, for the most part, abroad, can furnish few events of stirring interest, and few characters attractive or instructive. Accident has deprived us of that large portion of Tacitus’s Histories in which the career of Vespasian and his sons was doubtless narrated in the fullest detail. The voluminous recital of Dion is reduced, almost at the same moment, to a meagre abridgment ; the bi- ographies of Suetonius become, as he approaches his own times, unaccountably slight and superficial. Although the century before us was prolific in historical composition, we possess none but the slightest fragments of contemporary 10 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. I). 71. narrative. Our materials for history must be gathered almost wholly from indirect sources ; from letter-writers, pan- egyrists, satirists and philosophers; from the scattered inti- mations of coins and inscriptions, or, as a last resource, from the vague, unfaithful compilations of later ages. The Fla- vian or Antonine period has indeed attracted the notice of many modern students, aud has been eulogized by some as a period of great and exceptional happiness for mankind . 1 It has been sketched in essays, in which a partial collection of facts, or a skilful disposition of light and shade, has sufficed to give to it precisely those features and characteristics which harmonized with the writer’s previous conception. It will he my task to lay before the reader an ample narrative of the events recorded, with such a delineation of the state of affairs as our imperfect information, and my own prescribed limits, will allow. If the triumph over Judea was celebrated, as we may conjecture, soon after Titus’s return from the East, — that is, in the middle of the summer of 824, — it would Vespasian ... _ closes the tem- Dearly coincide with the anniversary of Ves- ple of Janus. . . J pasian s assumption of the purple two years pre- viously . 2 The imperator was now in his sixty-second year; old enough to feel fatigued by a long ceremonial in which he took personally no interest. He was prouder, we may be- lieve, of the distinguished son who shared his triumph, than of the acclamations with which he was himself saluted, and complained of his own weakness in accepting in his old age honours to which he had little claim from his origin, and 1 I need scarcely refer the reader of Roman History to the early chapters of Gibbon’s History, which are animated throughout by this idea, or to the paragraph headed “general felicity,” near the end of ch. 2., in which it is more distinctly indiouted. A few years later Hegewisch worked it out, with special reference to Gibbon’s views, in a formal treatise, on “ The Epoch of Roman History which was the happiest for the Human Race ; ” by which he does not mean the happiest epoch of all history, an extravagance which seems to have been reserved for a very recent essayist. a The accession is dated, it will be remembered, from the salutation by the army at Caesarea, July 17., u. c. 822, a. d. 69. A. U. 824.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 11 which he so little coveted as the reward of his achievements . 1 The descent of the victor from the Capitol, and the return of his soldiers to their quarters, were followed by the solemn announcement of peace restored to the empire. The new Augustus closed once more the temple of Janus, which had stood open since the German war's of the first princeps ; or, according to the computation of the Christian Orosius, from the birth of Christ to the overthrow of the Jewish people : for the senate had refused to sanction Hero’s caprice in closing it on his precarious accommodation with Parthia . 2 hi ever be- fore had this solemn act addressed the feelings of the citizens so directly ; for in the recent season of war they had been made to taste more nearly and more painfully of its horrors than at any time since the days of Marius and Sulla. They had undergone a mutiny of their legions, a revolt in their provinces, the bitter hostility of a rival nation not yet broken to subjection; and all these perils had been enhanced by the irruption of barbarian hordes, in more than one quarter, within their frontiers. But these troubles, however terrible, were counted as nothing in comparison with the strife of Romans against Romans within the limits of Italy, even within the walls of Rome itself. F or a moment, the emperor, the senate and every other authority, had fallen beneath the heels of a tumultuous soldiery, and the laws had succumbed to the furious violence of the camp. The civilization of eight cen- turies had lain at the mercy of worse than barbarian frenzy. The preservation of the empire from so many perils ’ Suet. Vesp. 12. : “ meritove plecti qui triumphum, quasi aut debitum ma- joribus suis aut speratum unquam sibi, tarn inepte senex concupisset.” In a similar spirit he was wont to jeer at the folly of men who alfected the Empire : “ stultitiaa arguens, qui ignorarent quanta moles molestiaque imperio inesse.’’ Yictor, de Ccesar. 9. 2 Orosius, viL 3. ; from a lost passage of Tacitus : “ sene Augusto Janus patefactus usque ad Yespasiani duravit imperium.” The frontier wars of Rome could hardly be said at any moment to have entirely ceased; but the transient lull of hostilities on the conclusion of peace with Parthia, a. d. 63, just before the outbreaks on the Rhine and in Palestine, was perhaps as complete as at any time previous or subsequent. 12 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 71. around it and within it, is one of the most remarkable events Tranquillity of °f our history. Yet this is not the first time the provinces. that j n the m jtlst 0 f local rebellions and central dissension, the great hulk of the provinces, instead of rising in one mass against their conquerors, had remained passive under a yoke which it might seem easy to shake off for ever. The same phenomenon had occurred during the contests of Caesar and Pompeius, and again Avhen the whole Roman world was convulsed by the struggle of Octavius and An- tonius. If the frantic resistance of the Jews gave birth now to no sympathetic movements among the subject races of the East ; if in the W est the revolt of the legions excited no general outbreak of the nations from which they had chiefly sprung ; if the convention of the states of Gaul had separated with a resolution to stand aloof from the military mutiny, and the prospect of an independent sovereignty had roused no patriotic feeling among the descendants of Vercingetorix ; the Romans themselves might ascribe this apathy to a sense of the solid benefits of their rule. Such, indeed, is the ex- planation to which Tacitus, feeling evidently that an explana- tion is required, himself inclines : nevertheless we must remember that it will hardly apply to the circumstances of the earlier period, when the character of the Roman sway had not yet made itself fully felt. We must bear in mind, however, the great deficiency in ancient society of the means by which common feeling and opinion are concentrated and diffused through large tracts of country, and among wide- spread populations. Tribes and races were then more sharp- ly separated from each other in thought, speech and usage ; the centres of local action were indefinitely multiplied ; com- munication was tedious or uncertain ; the interchange of commerce was irregular and slender ; the continent was an archipelago of insulated communities, in which men were separated as much by their social jealousies as by the natural impediments to union and combination. It was only by the control of a powerful aristocracy that these clans could at any time be moved together. From the period of their con- A. IT. 824.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 13 , quest it had been the policy of the Romans to extinguish the authority of the chiefs throughout the provinces, and to set up in its place a multitude of local democracies, weak in themselves, full of domestic jealousies and foreign rivalries, suspicious of every appeal to a common sentiment, looking with petty exclusiveness to their own special interests, and neglecting more and more even the imperfect means of inter- communication which they possessed. Perhaps the Romans, accustomed themselves to the contemplation of national feel- ings and common motives of action, exaggerated the na- tional character of the resistance made to their arms in Gaul, Spain, Britain and Germany. It was not the mere illusion of vanity that induced a Ccesar or a Tacitus to dignify with the name of a vast nation the puny efforts of a mere clan or robber’s following. At all events we may be sure that no common bond of feeling or interest existed in any of those great provinces at the end of the first century of the em- pire . 1 Outside the bounds of Roman dominion there was still less opportunity for concerted action. The barbarians be- yond the Rhine and the Danube, on the shores of ^ the Euxine or the Caspian, always restless and foreign aggres- generally aggressive, could only combine under the precarious authority of some leader of unusual qualities or fortune. A Maroboduus or a Mithridates might have made himself formidable to Rome at the crisis of the late civil commotions : but the Germans had been skilfully divid- ed, the Scythians and the Dacians had not yet learnt to combine ; a single detachment in Moesia was sufficient to strengthen the presidiary legions, and assure the safety of the northern frontier. The Parthians, more vigilant, more politic, more united, were awed by their recent recollection ! It may be added that the provinces were generally disarmed. Juvenal’s rhetorical exclamation : “ spoliatis arma supersunt,” is hardly true. The pro- prietors, moreover, were held in check by their own slaves. The Jews could not have maintained their internecinal war against Rome, had not their social system been very different in this respect from that of Gaul or Africa. 14 HISTORY OF TIIE ROMANS [A. D. 71. of Corbulo ; and they too had their own troubles at this moment to contend with. The arms of Yologesus were oc- cupied by an incursion of the Alani, who were pouring east- ward from the mouth of the Tanais, and thundering against the Caspian gates. Yologesus had proudly offered Yespa- sian the assistance of a force of Parthian cavalry : hut no sooner was the imperator seated on his throne, than the Parthian found it convenient to ask for assistance in his turn. Yespasian, who had haughtily declined foreign aid him- self, was at liberty to reject his rival’s petition . 1 He had no taste for enterprise or adventure : he looked forward to no distant schemes of policy ; his own means were straitened, and the resources of the empire crippled. He had just inau- gurated an era of peace, and the tranquillity of the state was as dear to him as his own. Perhaps his greatest difficulty lay in resisting the solicitations of Domitian, who is said to have aspired to lead an army in person, and to have impor- tuned his father for the means of reaping laurels for himself 3 The joy of the citizens at their extraordinary deliverance is strongly marked in the scanty records of the time which The peace of have descended to us. The Peace of Vespasian pSeTbyThe was celebrated by a new bevy of poets and his- Komans. torians not less loudly than the Peace of Augus- tus. A new era of happiness and prosperity was not less passionately predicted. Even the dry prose of the philoso- pher Pliny bursts into luxuriance at the sight of the divine emperor marching with his sons majestically along the sacred path of virtue and beneficence , trodden by the chiefs of Ro- man story . 3 The medals of the period were stamped with 1 It was remarked that Yespasian allowed Yologesus to address him a letter, with the superscription, “ Arsaces, king of kings, to Flavius Vespasia- nus, greeting: ” and even used the same terms in his reply, without assuming himself the imperial titles. Dion, Ixvi. 11. 2 Suet. Domit. 2. Joseph. Bell. Jud. vii. 7. 4. Dion, lxvi. 15. This inci- dent is referred to the year u. c. 828., a. d. 75. 8 Plin. Hist. Nat. ii. 7. : “ Hac proceres iere Romani ; hac ccelesti passu cum liberis suis vadit maximus omnis ®vi rector Vespasianus Augustus, fessis rebus subveniens.” Com. Aurel. Victor, de (Jaesar. 9. : “ Exsanguem diu fes* A. U. 824.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 15 repeated allusions to this consummation of the emperor’s fortune, a consummation not attained by unworthy compli- ances, hut dignified by the restoration of domestic freedom and the overthrow of every foreign enemy . 1 This was the public service to which the Flavian dynasty could appeal, and it covered defects in title which would have startled the Romans of an earlier day. The family of the divine Julii, divine in birth, in beauty, and in genius, was replaced by a brood of mere plebeians, adapted neither by their origin, their history, nor their personal characteristics, to engage the sympathies of a superstitious and imaginative people. The father, the first of his name who had risen to civil honours, had only been known, while yet a subject, as the plainest of citizens, thrifty and penurious in his habits, mean in his ad- dress, homely in countenance and figure, gifted with no spark of enthusiasm or genius, a man who had descended from the highest office to exercise a trade, where he seemed to be just in his proper sphere ; and in accordance with this character, after his accession to power he made no secret of his con- tempt for the flatterers who pretended to discover an heroic origin for his race . 3 Of the sons, the elder, though rarely seen in the city, had been shunned there as a dissolute youth, of foreign manners and inclinations ; the younger was only too notorious for his frivolity and debaucheries. But Vespa- sian and Titus had deserved well of the republic in the field ; eumque terrarum orbem brevi refecit ; ” and Q. Curtius, x. 9., if we may as- sign this date to the author of the “ Life of Alexander.” Those who believe that the Aratea of “ Germanicus Csesar ” is the work of Domitian, will also compare v. 16.: “Pax tua, tuque adsis nato numenque secundes.” But, for myself, I adhere to the opinion I formerly expressed, that the “ Germanicu 3 C®sar ” of the Codd. is the nephew of Tiberius. Imhof shows, among other arguments, that Domitian never bears this title among his contemporaries, but rather that of “ Germanicus Augustus.” Imhof, Domilianm , p. 134. I Clinton, Fast. Bom. i. 59. Eckhel, Bod. Numm. Veil. vi. 323-330. See the legends: “ Roma resurges : ” “Pax orbis terrarum:” “Paci astern® do- oms Yespasiani : ” “ Assertor libertatis public® : ” “ Signis receptis,” &c. II Suet. Vesp. 12.: “ Conantes quosdam originem Flavi® gentis ad condi- tores Reatinos comitemque Eerculis irrisit ultro.” IG HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 71. they had saved their country from its foes : and even Domi- tian, contemptible as he was, might find some favour with the citizens as the defender of the Capitol against a new Gaulish invasion, as a patriot who had contended for the honour of the national deities, and waged the wars of Jove. 1 But in fact the regard in which the new dynasty was held, rested on deeper feelings than those of mere personal admiration. The temper of the Romans had undergone a great and sudden change. The voluptuous luxury of the early empire had reached its climax under Nero, and the na- tion was suffering from the effects of its indulgence. It was sick at heart, debilitated and remorseful. The rash attempt to follow their sovereign in the race of extravagance had overwhelmed the fortunes of his wealthiest courtiers ; his tyranny had crushed the most powerful nobles ; the confla- gration of the city had destroyed the palaces and accumu- lated treasures of many of the chief families ; disturbance in the provinces had dried up the sources of opulence, which had been wont to flow with unbroken current to Rome and Italy. The vulgar magnificence of upstart freedmen had outraged the national dignity, and put prodigality out of fashion. When "V espasian, by his firmness in redressing ex- tortion abroad, and his vigilance in checking peculation at home, enforced the moderation recommended by his own conspicuous example, he found his subjects well inclined to hail the new era, and accept with satisfaction the restrictions 1 Statius, Sylv. v. 3. 198. : “ Et Senonum furias Latte sumsere cohortes.” And Thebaid. i. 21. : “ Aut defensa prius vix pubescentibus annis Bella Jovis.” The defence of the Capitol was likened to the wars of Jupiter and the Titans. At a much later period we meet with an allusion to paintings on this subject • on the walls of the temple : “ Juvat infra tecta Tonantis Cernere Tarpeia pendentes rape Gigantas.” Claudian, xxviii. 45. A. U. 824.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 17 he might place on display and expenditure. Possibly, in- deed, the futility of sumptuary enactments had been discov- ered ; but while the inquisitions of the aediles had proved always ineffectual, the turn given to social manners by the habits of the court seems to have been both immediate and lasting. For a hundred years, says Tacitus, from the battle of Actium to the reign of Galba, the refinements of the table, the coarsest and most pervading form of luxury among the Romans, had flourished rankly ; but though there continued, no doubt, to occur many instances of gross and profuse liv- ing, the period of the worst extravagance now passed away, never to return in its pristine licentiousness . 1 One happy effect of the late bloody conflicts was the introduction of many new men from provincial families into the magistracy and senate, and these offshoots of a ruder stock retained, even with their enhanced fortunes, much of the simplicity of theii ancient manners. We may remark from this time much greater moderation in the tone of Roman literature, and generally more decorum of thought and language, than in the age preceding. The people seem to have become sud- denly sobered. Their most cherished delusions had been dispelled by suffering. We meet with little now of the trrgid declamation, of which we have heard so much, on the grandeur of Rome, the immensity of her conquests, the eter- nity of her dominion. Henceforth instead of flaunting con- trasts between the fortune of the empire and the meanness of all foreign nations, we shall find the greater happiness and virtue of the simple barbarians insinuated or even asserted. Arms are no longer exalted as the legitimate career of the citizen. Wealth is not ostentatiously worshipped as the 1 Tac. Ann. iii. 55.: “ Luxus mens® panlatim exolevere.” Of the existence of the two Apicii, each the model of luxurious living in his own time at Rome, there can be no reasonable doubt. The first lived in the first century before Christ, the second in the first century after. It is to the second that most of our notices refer. The third, who is said to have flour- ished in the reign of Trajan, i. e. the second century of our era, is only known from one anecdote, which may well be apocryphal, of Athenasus. 18 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 71 highest object of desire. Luxury, and the vices which at- tend it, are denounced as sins, not merely mocked as vulgar affectations. Obedience is held not less honourable than command ; domestic habits and virtues are regarded with pleasure and esteem. On the other hand, — such is the point at which the highest philosophy has arrived, — the true Di- vinity consists, according to Pliny, in rendering aid as a mortal to fellow mortals. This is recognized, at least among the most intelligent, as the actual origin of mythological romance ; and such as this is the godlike career of the august Yespasian, the greatest of all rulers in every age and realm, who sustains with his sons’ assistance the tottering fabric of society. This is the career of immortal glory, the only im- mortality, as the writer plainly intimates, to which man can hope to attain, however natural and pious the custom of as- cribing a divine eternity to the great benefactors of their species . 1 Even the court poets were awed to measured de- cency by the quiet sentiment of the nation. The panegyric of Yespasian by Silius Italicus, the ape of Virgil, is modelled upon that of Augustus Goesar , the offspring of the Gods ; but it hardly yields in dignity to one of the finest passages of the LEneid while it repudiates its most vicious audacities . 2 1 See the remarkable passage in Pliny, Hist. Nat. ii. 6., to part of which I have already referred. “ Ileus est mortal! juvare mortalem, et hmc ad seter- nam gloriam via. Hac proceres iere Romani Hie est vetustissimus referendi bene merentibus gratiam mos, ut tales numinibus ascribant. Quippe et omnium aliorum nomina deorum ..... ex hominum nata sunt meritis.” 2 Silius, iii. 594. : “ Exin’ se Curibus virtus cceleslis ad astra Efferet .... Hinc pater ignotam donabit vincere Thulen, Inque Caledonios primus trahet agmina lucos ; Compescet ripis Rhenum, reget impiger Afros, Falmiferamque senex bello domitabit Idumen ; Nec Stygis ille lacus viduataque lumine regna, Sed Superum sedes, nostrosque tenebit honores.- I need not repeat, for the classical reader, the corresponding encomium on Au gustus, uHneicl. vi. 793. : “Augustus (Jaesar Divurn genus,” fee. A. U. 824.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 19 Yet if we turn from the acts and merits of Vespasian to the lineaments of his face and figure, we can hardly re- frain from smiling at the enthusiasm avowed p erS0 nai ap- for him. None of the Roman emperors had a Eabiuof Vcs- countenance prosaic as his ; nor do the artists P asian - who were occupied upon it, seem to have imagined that they could commend themselves to their patron by an attempt to embellish or idealize it. The monuments of Vespasian represent him as short and compact in figure, with a thick neck and broad sensual chin, a round bald head, small restless eyes, coarse nose and lips, a forehead deeply wrinkled with fatigue rather than with thought, and his whole expression that of uneasiness and elfort . 1 It may be worth remarking, as a trait of manners, that the biographer, in noticing the robustness of his health, says that he took no further care of it than to rub his limbs regu- larly after bathing, and interpose one day’s fast in the course of every month. His ordinary habit, after attaining the sovereignty, was to be awakened before the customary hour, that is, before dawn, read his letters and despatches, and then admit his friends to his levee. He slipped his feet into sandals without assistance, huddled on his toga, and after transacting business, drove out and returned for his siesta . 2 His repose was soothed by female caresses ; but after the death of his legitimate consort he was content to renew the less regular union he had previously formed with a freed- woman named Coenis, and on losing her also, soon after his accession to power, made thenceforth no other permanent connexion . 3 From the midday retirement he proceeded to 1 Suetonius describes him with a few graphic touches : “ statura fuit quad rata, compactis firmisque membris, vultu yeluti nitentis.” Vesp. 20. 2 Suet. Vesp. 21, 22. 3 Coenis was a freedwoman of the Claudian family, and had been a fa- vourite of Antonia, the mother of Claudius. With her Yespasian formed the connexion tolerated by Roman law under the name of contiiberrdum. At a later period he made a regular marriage with a Roman matron, by whom he had the two sons who succeeded him. On her decease he recalled Ccenis on 20 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 71. the bath, and thence to supper, at which he demeaned him* self with the affability of a man conscious of having dis charged to his satisfaction all the duties of the day. His conversation was sprightly, and he allowed his companions almost as much licence in raillery as he assumed for himself ; but his humour was reputed somewhat low by the polished wits of the courts of Nero and Otho. Some of his coarse and caustic jests are recorded, Avhich might serve to illus- trate the manners of the times, were they fit for modern ears. One perhaps may be repeated, which is characteristic of the man, and has attained celebrity. When seized with his last illness and feeling the near approach of dissolution, Ah! he whispered to his attendants, methinlcs J am becoming a God . 1 But if such were the new emperor’s relaxations, he was thoroughly in earnest in matters of business. He took a plain soldier’s view of his duty, without looking A census, and L , other restora- forward as a statesman ; but m the daily work tivc measures before him he shrank from no responsibility. A Roman who understood the office of censor was always in earnest. It involved him in many feuds and some dangers. Tiberius had been too cynical ; Caius too reckless ; N ero too the former terms, the latv not admitting of union by confarreaiio or by ms et libra , in such a case. Suet. Vesp. : “ revoeavit in contubernium.” Coenis died in 824. Dion, lxvi. 14. 1 Suet. Vesp. 23.: “Vte! puto, deus fio.” The popular opinion of Vespa- sian’s amiable qualities is preserved in the romance on the life of Apollonius by Philostratus, but the anecdote there recorded of him can hardly be ac- cepted as history. It is pretended that Vespasian, conversing with the phi- losopher in Egypt, for whom he felt the highest reverence, and whose guidance he solicited, entreated him to make him emperor : noiriadv pe, eipri, [SaaiMa (v. 27.). “ I have already done so,” replied the sage, “ in praying the Gods to give us for emperor a just, generous, temperate, old-fashioned father of a fam- ily.” “0 Jupiter,” returned Vespasian, “ may I govern wise men, and may wise men govern me ! ” Then turning to the Egyptians, he said, “ Draw from me as from the Nile : ” (ap'voaod e d>c Neiiov napov). If he really said any- thing like this, it must have been in a moment of very unusual enthusiasm, it is possible, indeed, that even V espasian’s insensibility was not proof against the intoxication of flattery attending upon a great success. A. U. 824.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 21 self-indulgent to accept an invidious responsibility for the sake of the public weal. Augustus had assumed it from pol- icy, Claudius in pedantry fortified by insensibility, but to Vespasian it bore the form of an act of military discipline. The disorders of the times had thinned the ranks of the privileged orders. The senate, it is said, had been reduced to two hundred members . 1 2 Both senators and knights had been impoverished, degraded by ignominious compliances, blasted by popular odium. Illegitimate pretenders had stepped into the places left vacant by death and ruin. Ves- pasian set about the revision of the lists, after ancient prece- dent, and associated his son Titus with himself in the task. The elder seems indeed to have conducted himself with more temper than the younger colleague ; for it was against the son rather than the father that the murmurs of the victims were directed. Vespasian’s deference to the senate contin- ued after his demise to be noted as the great merit of his ad- ministration ; and it was mentioned to his honour that for many years he refused to accept the tribunitian power, and the title of Father of his country . 3 Nor would he have es- caped so free from the most odious charges of immorality, lavished at all times on the personal enemies of the order, had he rendered himself obnoxious by the austerity of his censures. But Titus, on the other hand, is branded with the most flagrant imputations, such as, having circulated at first privately, in angry and indignant circles, were too often ad mitted without proof, but without hesitation, among the 1 Such is supposed to be the meaning of Aurel. Victor, de Ccesar. 9, “ leo- tis undique optimis viris naiile gentes compositre, cum ducentas segerrime repo- risset.” He has just been speaking of the senate. But, as there were several individual families, and of course many persons of one family in the same gens or house, at the same time members of the senate, the phrase would not be a correct one. Still I can hardly suppose that the author means us to under- stand that the whole number of Roman houses, patrician and plebeian, was reduced to 200, or that Vespasian created new houses to such an extent. 2 Suet. Vesp. 12. Even during the civil war he relinquished the imperial etiquette of causing all who approached him to be searched for concealed weapons. 22 HISTORY OP THE ROMANS [A. D. 71. records of history. The inquisition now made into the char- acter, as well as the birth and means of the Roman nobles, furnished no doubt an opportunity for proscribing many persons against whom the Flavian dynasty might harbour ill-will . 1 Titus, we are told, charged with the defence of the new settlement of power, did not scruple, in one instance at least, to procure the assassination of an enemy to his family. He invited a hostile senator, the Yitellian general Csecina, to supper, and caused him to be waylaid on leaving his pres- ence, and murdered. The proofs of the victim’s complicity in a plot were said indeed to be notorious ; nevertheless a rumour prevailed, and was accepted by many as true, that his real offence was his supposed intimacy with Titus’s fa- vourite Berenice . 3 To prop the tottering and almost prostrate commonwealth, then to secure and adorn it, such according to the biographer The financial °f the Csesars was the chief care of Vespasian’s cai S poifcy of 8 ’ principate. Strict discipline must be restored to Vespasian. the camp ; the insolence of the victors must be re- pressed ; the angry restlessness of the vanquished must be soothed. Of the Vitellian soldiers the greater number re- ceived their discharge, sweetened, no doubt, by adequate compensations ; while to those who had shared his victory the conqueror extended no special indulgence, but doled out their legitimate remuneration slowly and grudgingly. The restriction of the first military honours, long unworthily lav- ished, to the greatest military services, caused perhaps mur- murs which have left their echoes in the record of our history.’ 1 Vespasian assumed the censorship u. c. 825, a. d. 72: “ intra quadrien- nium,” says Pliny, writing his Seventh Book (Nat. Hist. vii. 50). 8 Suet. Vesp. 8., Tit. 6. Victor, JEpit. 10. The Caocina of Suetonius is the AOienus of Dion, lxvi. 16., whose criminal intentions are admitted by that writer. Titus is accused of having effected the destruction of other suspected persons by sending his creatures into public places with instructions to call loudly for their punishment, which he pretended to interpret as the voice and declared will of the people. 8 Vespasian restored their due significance to the triumphal ornaments, such as the tunica palmata, which Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero had prostituted A U. 824.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 23 The frugal temper and actual poverty of the emperoi were half-disguised by an affected simplicity of manners; as when he rebuked a perfumed candidate with a gesture of disgust, and the sharp remark, I had rather you had smelt of garlic. The censorship offered an opportunity for a reconstitution of the provinces and free states, many of which were dealt with according to their political deserts, or sacrificed to the con- venience of the treasury. The gift of Latin rights to the whole of Spain was a tribute to the memory of Galba, and to the support his enterprise had received in the adhesion of the Iberians . 1 This favour to the western provinces was balanced by severity towards other portions of the empire. Achaia, to which Nero had precipitately granted freedom, was again reduced, on pretence of an insurrection, to the con- dition of a taxable province ; and Lycia, Rhodes, Byzantium, and Samos, were deprived also of their autonomy . 2 The de- pendent sovereignties which had subsisted up this time in Thrace, Cilicia, and Commagene, were finally absorbed into the state, and enrolled among the contributors to the fiscus . 3 Whatever pretext might be assigned for these harsh measures, they were no doubt really directed by financial expediency. The difficulties of the imperial government were in fact tre- mendous, and the charges of parsimony or avarice which have been made against this emperor, must be considered in to men of inferior claims and even to civilians. See Marquardt (Becker's Handbuch der Alterih. iii. 2. 453.). 1 Plin. Hist. Hat. iii. 4. 2 Suet. Vesp. 8. 14. ; Pausanias, vii. 17., after mentioning Nero's liberality to Greece : ov ppv "EA/lyat re igeyevero bvacdai tov S6pov • Ovecnracnavov yap uera N epoiva apgavToe, £f kpAvXiov araaiv wpoi/xBr/aav, /cat rsipag vttoteXeis re avBig 6 Oveorracnavbt; elvai v , /cat aKOveiv in ihevaev 7/yep.6vog, airopepa^ 6 ltdvcu ipi/cjag Trp> e^evdeptav to 'B?i?l7/vik6v. Comp. Philostr. Vit. Apollon, v. 41 ., where the philosopher is said to have expressed his indignation to the emperor’s face, a Suet 1. c. Josephus, Bell. Jud. vii. 7. 1., refers the. annexation of Com- magene to the year a. d. 72, tj. c. 825, when the King Antiochus was brought with his son to Rome. Flaviopolis, in Cilicia, commenced its era with the year 74. 24 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 71. reference to his necessities . 1 The Flavian dynasty succeeded to the inheritance of an exhausted population, a rapacious soldiery, and an empty and embarrassed treasury. The Capi- tol was not yet completed, and probably large debts re- mained to discharge on the cost of its reconstruction. The losses of the civil wars had been severe and various. Italy had been devastated, the more distant provinces had been drained. Whole cities awaited the restoring hand of the em- peror. Meanwhile the revenues of the wealthiest regions had been embezzled by the prefects, or diverted into the camps. Vespasian not only suspended the dissipation of the finances in the mad luxury of the imperial court, and in the construction and embellishment of the imperial palace ; he ordered the demolition of the greater part at least of N ero’s golden house. Nevertheless there were other heavy expenses which he could not refuse to assume . 2 The Capitol was to be rebuilt with a magnificence suited to the age ; the temple of Peace, the pledge of his policy, was to be erected ; it was essential perhaps to the stability of the new dynasty to ac- knowledge the principle of deifying deceased emperors, and the shrine of Claudius, vowed to him by Agrippina, but swept away by his successor, was to be restored : at the same time the amusement of the citizens must not be neglected; and the erection of a great amphitheatre for the national spectacles, was a prudent indulgence to the passions of the populace. It was no doubt with reference to the manifold expenses by which he found himself beset, the arrears of the past, and the anticipations of the future, of which but a por- 1 Tac. Hist. ii. 5. : “ prorsus, si avaritia abesset, antiquis ducibus par.” 2 Among the incidental cares of a prince who arrived at power after the disorders of civil war, may be mentioned that of replacing the archives of the empire which had been lost in the sack of the Capitol. The most important documents of Roman history, senatorial decrees, resolutions of the people, treaties of peace and- alliance, engraven on brazen tablets, had been stored up in that sacred receptacle, and were consumed in its conflagration. Yespasian caused them all to be re-engraved from the best sources within reach, and tha collection he made amounted to 3000 pieces. Suet. Vesp. 8. A. U. 824.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 25 tion has here heen indicated, that Vespasian is said to have declared, that the sum of forty millions of sesterces was re- quired to maintain the commonwealth . 1 The inquisition of the censorship, extending to every part of the empire, was directed to settling the finances on a solid basis, and the arrangements above noticed were intended to balance the public revenues and expenditure. Vespasian’s Besides bringing several new territories within ^t™stignla- the sphere of direct taxation, Vespasian revived tlzed - various imposts which Galba in the first fervour of his tri- umph had abolished, and also added new ones. He enhanced the tributes of all the provinces, and, in some cases, even doubled them . 3 The Roman writers on land have left us some curious notices, showing how minute and searching was the assessment now made ; and they add, that the measures for raising revenue on the strips of public domain still unas- signed in Italy, but illegitimately occupied, caused commo- tions which could only be appeased by desisting from the attempt . 3 Many trivial particulars of the Flavian finance are added by the historian, who could often see in the reason- 1 Suet. Vesp. 16. : “ Summa eerarii fiscique iuopia, de qua testificatus sit initio statim principatus, professus quadringenties millies opus esse ut respub- lica stare posset.” This sum of 40,000 millions of sesterces, or 320 millions sterling, has been supposed by some writers to represent the annual revenue or expenditure of the state. Others, startled at the extravagance of this explana tion, have proposed to alter quadringenties into quadragies ; i. e. 400 millions, or 32 millions sterling. So violent a remedy is inadmissible; nor need we suppose that the sum represents the annual revenue of the state, which never probably came under one head at all. See the remarks made in chapter xxxii. of this work. Some of the wide conjectures which have been advanced, as to the amount of the imperial revenues, are collected in a note by Marquardt (Becker’s Handbuch, iii. 2. 213.). Dureau de la Malle’s solution corresponds with that I have proposed in the text. See Econ. Pol. des Domains , ii. 465. 435. Suet. Vesp. 16. 3 Frontinus, de Colon, ed. Gees. p. 146. Aggenus, de Controv. Agrorum : Hyginus, de Gener. Conirov. in Script. Pei Agrar. ed. Laehmann, pp. 81. 133. See Dureau de la Malle, ii. 436. Laboulaye, Droit fonciere , 71. Marquardt (Becker’s Handb., iii. 1. 339.). 117 26 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 71. able policy of the most honest of the Caesars nothing hut the petty parsimony of a sordid mind. Vespasian is accused of making- small gains by speculations ; of selling offices to can- didates and pardons to criminals ; of advancing the most rapacious prefects to the most opulent prefectures, that they might have more to disgorge when it suited him to condemn them for extortion ; finally, of inventing new and etmn dis* gusting objects of taxation, and defending himself, according to the well-known anecdote, by remarking that the coin smelt not less sweet from them . 1 Nevertheless, Suetonius himself bears witness to many instances of this prince’s lib- erality towards all classes of men / to impoverished senators and consulars, to afflicted communities, and generally to the professors of the arts and sciences. It was remarked, as an instance of his consideration for deserving industry, that he rejected a proposal to move the materials for his buildings by improved machinery, declaring that he must be suffered to feed liis people? The foundation of colonies had been, heretofore, the or- dinary mode of paying olf the discharged veterans of the civil Foundation of war s, and though Vespasian does not seem to colonies. have made any new establishments of this kind, the number of older colonies he reconstituted shows that he followed the policy of his predecessors in relieving, by these means, his over-burdened finances. Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, Nola and Puteoli in the wealthiest region of Cam- pania, Forum Populi, Reate, and other places in the districts round the capital, were thus recruited with a new stock ; nor need we suppose that, as in the assignments of Octavius, the actual inhabitants were dispossessed for it. This is, per- haps, the first historical fact that confirms what the poets had already indicated, the decrease of population even in the heart of Italy . 3 But the censors must have revealed the token of 1 Suet. L c. Dion, Ixvi. 14. 2 Suet. Vespas. 18.: “ jrsefatus, sineret se plebeculam pascere.” 8 Nero, indeed, had in the same manner restored Antium and Tarentum. Tac. Ann. xiv. 27. A. U. 824.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 27 this ominous movement to the emperor, and thrown a gloom over his prudent efforts to restore the finances . 1 The colonist sheathed his sword when he put his hand tc the plough, and the establishment of colonies was understood as a pledge of the restoration of peace. Among x 0 New forum aua the architectural works with which Vespasian temple of x , Peace. now decorated the city, one of the most promi- nent was the forum with which he extended the line of clois- tered areas thrown open by Julius and Augustus. The great fire had cleared a site for these new constructions at the back of the Roman forum. As the works of his great predeces- sors had been illustrated by the shrines of Yenus and Mars, so the colonnades of Vespasian were arranged to embrace the new temple of Peace, a bold personification of the aspirations of the age, unknown to the Grecian Olympus. This temple, which seems to have been of unusual size and splendour, was embellished with the spoils of the J ewish war, and works of art from other countries of the East . 2 He completed the de- sign with a basilica, in which he invited the learned of all professions to meet, and conduct their tranquil discussions . 3 1 Several places in tlie provinces may be added to the list of Vespasian’s colonies ; Aventicum in Gaul, Flaviobriga in Spain, Develtus, Siscia and Flavi- opolis in Thrace, Caesarea in Samaria, and another Elaviopolis, already men- tioned, in Cilicia. Comp. Plin. Hist. Nat. iv. 18. 31. 34., and inscriptions. Tyre, Paphos, Salamis, and other places in the East, seem to have received favours from Vespasian or Titus, which they acknowledged by commemorat- ing the auspicious year, stoq veov lepov , on their coins. Of Tyre, Q. Curtius, whose work has been generally assigned to this period, says (iv. 4.) : “ multis ergo casibus defuncta, et post excidium renata, nunc tamen longa pace cuncta refovente, sub tutela Roman® mansuetudinis acquiescit.” But from the same passage Niebuhr argues that the writer lived in the time of Severus. Comp. Herodian, iii. 9. 10. Ulpian, in the Digest , 1. 15. 1. 2 Joseph. Bell. Jud. vii. 5. 7. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxv. 36, xxxvi. 24. Hero- dian, i. 44. A picture of the battle of Issus, by an artist of Alexandria, was removed by Vespasian and suspended in the temple of Peace. Ptolemaeus apud Phot. (Sharpe’s Hist, of Hgypt, i. 307.). Here also were placed several works of art which Nero had seized in the provinces for the decoration of Iris Golden House. Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 19. 24. 3 Gellius, v. 21., xvi. 8. Galen, de Comp. Medic, i. See Reimar’s note or 28 HISTORY OF THE ROMAVS [A. D. 71. Augustus had endowed the literature of his time with the collection of the Palatine library. V espasian not only found- ed a library in his forum, but was the first of the Roman sovereigns to institute a salaried hierarchy of teachers. Au- Vespasian’s gustus in a simpler and more generous age had me°ntof n nt°- flr " stimulated genius by personal condescension: crature. but the Flavian era could not appreciate the delicacy of the Augustan, and Vespasian could find no happier means of patronizing letters than by handsome wages paid quarterly. Destitute himself of learning and polite accomplishments, he cannot have been instigated to this indulgence by any just appreciation of the claims of literary merit . 1 Nevertheless, the measure he adopted was systematic, munificent, and permanent. Not only did he confer presents or pensions upon poets and artists, but to the rhetoricians and grammarians, both Greek and Latin, in the provinces as well as in the city, he assigned an annual pay- ment, varying in regular gradations, but amounting ordi- narily to a liberal stipend, in addition to their pupils’ fees . 3 For such extensive liberality, so new to the policy of Rome, there must have been a strong public motive. Amidst all the brilliancy of the late reigns, the solid education of the Dion, Ixvi. 15. Upon the locality of this temple the topographers are now agreed. For a long time the great ruins which bear the name of Constantine were mistaken for it. 1 Aurelius Victor notices as an important fact, that hitherto all the empe- rors from Augustus, and particularly the five who were of Cassarean blood, were men of literary accomplishments : Epit. 8. “ adeo literis culti atque eloquentia fuere ut, ni cunetis vitiis, absque Augusto, nimii forent, profecto texissent modica fiagitia.” 2 Suet. Vesp. 18.: “ingenia et artes vel maximefovit: primus e fisco La- tinis Gracisque rhetoribus annua centena (80(V.) constituit.” See farther Schmidt, “ Dank- und Glaiibensfreiheit im 1 sten Jahrlmndcrt ,” p. 440 foil. The rhetoricians included the sophists or philosophers. Vespasian extended hia liberality occasionally to poets and artists : “ prcestantissimos poetas, neenon et artifices, Com Veneris, item Colossi refectorem, insigni congiario donavit.” He made a present of 500,000 sesterces (4000A) to Saleius Bassus, the “ tenuis Saleius ” of Juvenal. Tacitus Dial, de Oral. 9., who calls this liberality “ mira et eximia” A. U. 824.1 UNDER THE EMPIRE. 29 upper ranks, in the alarm or reckless profusion of the times, had been grievously neglected, and the encouragement given by Nero to trivial accomplishments had weakened the foun- dation of the Roman character. The new system may be in- terpreted as an attempt to restore the tone of society, to infuse into the national mind healthier sentiments and aspira- tions, in harmony with its sobered view of material enjoyments. At the same time the emperor was not blind to the importance of attaching the Roman youth to his government, and gain- ing the direction of their thoughts. Hence, perhaps, the jealousy and aversion with which the new mode of public in- struction was regarded by such a writer as Tacitus, the depositary of pre-imperial traditions. It was not the publi- city of education itself, but the influence assumed over it by the government, that really excited the odium of the old aristocracy. They felt, too, that the professors, the men of phrases and arguments, would soon work their way into the place of governors and magistrates, and supplant the proud but indolent magnates in their immemorial privileges. The rhetorician might be raised to the consul’s seat or the consul might descend to the rhetorician’s : either alternative was equally distasteful to the adherents of antique prejudice and custom. Quintilian, the teacher of youth and private tutor in the palace, was perhaps the first pedagogue that obtained the consular ornaments; but his class retained to the last the advantages they now acquired, and continued to scale the heights of office from the modest but convenient elevation of the professor’s chair. Moreover the grammarians were x’or the most part philosophers, and the teachers of wisdom and morality, the avowed critics of political authority, were soothed by the same measures which converted the profess- ors of literature into instruments of government. A lasting alliance was effected between the preachers of ethics and the guardians of the public peace, the absence of which had caused many collisions in the reigns of earlier emperors. At Rome, at Athens, at Antioch, and other centres of intellectual activity, ideas were generally enlisted on the side of govern- 80 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 71. ment. The experiment of the Greek sovereigns of Egypt was applied with like results throughout the empire. At Alexandria Vespasian had observed and meditated on the policy of the Ptolemies : he appreciated the caresses and flat- teries he there received from grammarians and sophists ; and possibly the consciousness of his own deficiency in the learn- ing of the schools enhanced his notion of its political im- portance. The alliance, I have said, was durable, but its effect was not immediately complete. Philosophy, during the last cen- Measures of tury, had been a school of political opposition ; aSnst'the and though the common voice of the unlettered philosophers. populace hailed the Flavian empire as a blessing, the men of ideas and theories refused, at least for one gene- ration, to descend from the heights of their impracticable dogmatism, and acknowledge the sovereignty of a mild auto- crat as the sole refuge from anarchy and barbarism. The temple of Peace was consecrated in the year 828 ; but the alliance it Avas intended to cement between the prince and the philosophers was quickly broken by intrigues against the chief of the state, which could be too surely traced to men of character and influence. Curiatius Maternus, a distin- guished orator, the favourite of the old aristocracy, excited the jealousy of Vespasian’s government, mild and liberal though it professed itself, by the freedom of his tragedies on Roman subjects, in which he painted the fall ofliberty. In a later reign this eccentricity seems to have proved fatal to him. 1 Hel vidius Priscus, a man of higher fame, whose in- temperate opposition has already been noticed, continued to murmur at the conduct of affairs ; but in the absence of de- tails Ave can only acquiesce in Dion’s judgment on his princi- ples. He indulged in vain and aimless allusions to liberty 1 Maternus is one of the principal characters in the dialogue da Oraloribiis, ascribed to Tacitus. See capp. 2. 3. 11. 13. Besides a Medea and a Tliyeslcs, he wrote a Domilius and a Cato. Some critics hold him to be the an thor of the Octavia which goes under the name of Seneca. He is supposed to be tha Maternus put to death by Domitian: Dion, lxA'ii. 12. A. U. 824. J UNDER THE EMPIRE. 31 and the free state, shades of the past to which no public man pretended to give a substance, fancying that on him had de- scended the mantle of his father-in-law, the reserved and prudent Thrasea, who, on the contrary, while he withdrew from political life under the tyranny of Nero, professed no violent opposition, nor would ever have balanced a visionary republic against the wise and legitimate prineipate of Ves- pasian . 1 It is the penalty of power that inferior minds can- not discriminate between tyranny and just authority, and are more likely to revolt against an indulgent prince than an un- scrupulous despot. Helvidius indeed was exasperated against the emperor by a private grudge, and the penalty he at last paid was due to his perverse malignity. Vespasian long bore with this unprincipled opposition, which distressed and mortified him. He knew himself to be the object of many conspiracies, encouraged if not actually fostered by the mur- murs of such orators as Helvidius. He was engaged on a great experiment in maintaining just and equitable govern- ment. The threat he once pronounced after listening to a petulant harangue, Either my son shall succeed me or I will have no successor , implying that if his dynasty was rejected, the state would be left without a chief at all, was received with a shudder by thousands who felt that the empire was a state necessity . 2 It was to protect the state no less than himself that he procured a decree for death of He] Helvidius’s exile, and followed it with an order 1 Such at least was the conduct of Thrasea as depicted by Tacitus. Dion obscures at first the real difference between the two : 'E Jwv'diog . . . rfpv rov Qpaaeov -irappr/aiav oil cvv naipcf pipovpevog : though in the fragment which seems to be rightly appended to this chapter, he plainly contradicts himself, adding : f/v yap tov Boa.- tov yapfipog leal ty/hovv aiirov eir/iArrero' tvoav - 80 - credit the statement of a late authority, ten thousand persons perished daily for some time together . 2 The great eruption of V esuvius, which overwhelmed the cities of Campania, was perhaps more alarming, though the loss it inflicted might be much less considerable. The incident, as is well known, has been described to us in some detail, and it will be interesting to dwell upon it before we close the brief annals of this reign. A less popular prince might have been accused of himself setting fire to the city, and even the eruption and the pesti- lence might have been imputed to the divine vengeance on his crimes. But in this case the Romans were willing to charge the national sufferings on national sins. The wrath of the gods required no doubt a signal expiation, and the ded- ication of the Colosseum gave room for the display of pious magnificence on a scale hitherto unrivalled. A battle of cranes with dwarfs representing the Pigmies was Eed ; cation of a fanciful novelty, and might afford diversion for the Colosseum - 1 Suet. Tit. 8. Dion, lxvi. 24. Originating, apparently, in the outskirts of the Campus Martius, this fire injured, rather than consumed, the Pantheon, and several circumjacent buildings. It then took a southerly direction, to fol- low the order of the names as given by Dion, attacking the Diribitorium, the theatres of Balbus and Pompeius, the portico of Octavia, and finally the Capi. tol. The S. W. summit of the Capitoline hill, on which, as I believe, the tem- ple stood, immediately overlooked the “ Octavian edifices,” and would thus fall exactly within the line of the conflagration. a This extravagant statement is given in the Chronicon of Eusebius, who, however, places it under the reign of Vespasian. Suspicion always attaches to the Christian accounts of Pagan calamities. 118 VOL. VII.- 50 HISTORY OP THE ROMANS [A. 1). 60. a moment ; there were combats of gladiators, among whom women were included, though no noble matron was allowed to mingle in the fray ; and the capacity of the vast edifice was tested by the slaughter of five thousand animals within its circuit. The show was crowned with the immission of water into the arena, and with a sea fight representing the contest of the Corinthians and Corcyroeans related by Thucydides. From the amphitheatre the spectators were invited to the Haumachia of Augustus, which seems to have afforded more room for naval evolutions, and here the siege of Syracuse by the Athenians was still more vividly portrayed. These exhi- bitions endured through a hundred days, and terminated in a scramble for tickets entitling the gainer to rations of bread, pork, and other eatables. The generosity of the most ami- able of princes was the theme of every tongue, and the echoes of his praises still live in the meagre records of the time which have preserved so little besides. When indeed all was over, Titus himself was seen to weep, perhaps from fatigue, possibly from disgust and vexation ; but his tears were interpreted as a presentiment of his death, which was now impending, and it is probable that he was already suf- fering from a decline of bodily strength. His health had been long feeble. He had tried in vain all the remedies sug- gested by the physicians, and afterwards by the priests. With superstitious feelings kindled at the Eastern altars, he sought to propitiate heaven by strange rites and sacrifices. His constitution, perhaps always delicate, possibly injured by poison imbibed in early life, was said to be weakened by the immoderate use of warm baths ; but in the last stage of his disorder he desired to be conveyed to the Cutilian springs, where his father had sought to reinvigorate his old age. Titus lamented effeminately the premature decease he too surely anticipated ; and opening the curtains of his litter, Death of Titus looked wistfully at the heavens, exclaiming that A B 81 he did not deserve to die. 1 He expired on the 13th a. u. 884. 0 f September, 81, having not quite completed his 1 Suet. Tit. 10. . “eripi sibi vitam immerenti.” A. U. 833. | UNDER THE EMPIRE. 51 fortieth year. During the course of his short reign of two years and two months, counting from the death of Vespasian, he had religiously observed the principle which he had pro- claimed on accepting the chief priesthood, that the hands of the gods’ first minister should be kept free from any stain of blood . 1 * No senator, no citizen fell by his orders. The Romans generously affirmed that he had committed no crime, and had discharged every duty. When he declared on his deathbed that there was but one thing of which he re- pented, they surmised that he was anxious about the fate of his countrymen under the sway of his brother, and accused himself of weakness in refraining from the punishment of Domitian’s repeated intrigues against his life. Snch are the soft and gentle traits that predominate to the last in this prince’s character, a temper which may seem amiable at the outset of an imperial career, and raise hopes in the inexperi- enced ; but which must be regarded with distrust and even with apprehension by those who have learnt the lessons of history. Titus inherited from his prudent parent a stable throne and a full treasury : had he lived to exhaust the treas- ury, — and his brief career was wantonly improvident, — he would soon have found his throne shaken, and been driven to acts of repression and tyranny which would have black- ened his fame with posterity. It would be harsh on a mere guess at future possibilities, to liken him to Nero, from whom he differed, as we have seen, in many essential features ; nevertheless we may accede to the judgment which was finally passed on him by his countrymen, and which settled into a maxim with later ages, that he was fortunate in the briefness of his power . 3 The virtuous character which the Romans agreed to as- 1 Suet. Tit. 9.: “ periturum se potius quam perditurum affirmans.” Vari- ous conflicting reports of the cause and manner of this prince’s death are given by Suetonius, Dion, Plutarch, Victor, Eusebius, and others, and are collected by Reimar in a note to Dion, lxvi. 26. 3 Ausonius, Ordo Inperal . : “ Titus imperii felis brevitate.” Comp. Dion, lxvi. 18. : Taxa av kl eyx^elg elye km paupbv bn evTV%ia ix^e'covi $ apery exp^aro. 52 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A, H. 81 cribe to Titus has not been impugned by the compilei's of „ Christian tradition. The conqueror of Jerusalem View of Titus’s . 1 character taken had learnt perhaps from his intercourse with the by the Chris- . . . . tians and the Eastern spiritualists to regard with religious awe Jews. , 1 . . . ° . , , , ° the great events m which he had borne a part, and to conceive of himself as of a special minister of the di vine judgments. As such he was hailed without hesitation by the historian Orosius, who expounds the course of Provi- dence in Roman affairs from the point of view of the Chris- tians . 1 The closing of Janus on the fall of the Jewish city, appears to this writer a counterpart to the announcement of universal peace at the birth of Jesus. He passes lightly over the N calamities of Titus’s reign, the fire, the pestilence, and the volcanic eruptions, as well as his premature decease, all which had he lifted a hand against the Christians, would have been branded as manifest tokens of divine vengeance . 3 But with the Jews it was far otherwise. By them the memory of the Flavian princes was naturally held in the deepest abhorrence. They asserted that Vespasian commenced a cruel Jewish legend , . . „ , , on the death persecution ot the presumed lineage ol the roval of Titus. 1 ° J David, ihe disasters ot the doomed prmcipate of Titus they regarded with grim exultation. They gloated 1 Though we may smile at the confidence with which Orosius has judged the divine decrees, we must signalize him as the first secular historian who di- rected men’s views to the providential guidance of human history, an inevitable subject of Christian speculation, however hazardous, of which we may say, like the science of the mathematici, “ et vetabitur semper et retinebitur.” 2 Oros. vii. 9. Comp. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. iii. 12. IT. A late Christian his- torian, of inferior authority, Sulpicius Severus, asserts that Titus was induced to destroy the Temple, from the idea that it was the centre and stronghold of the Christian faith, Hist. Sacr. ii. 44. ; and it has been attempted to show that this writer took his information from the lost narrative of Tacitus. Some ot the phrases of Sulpicius may, indeed, remind us of the style of Tacitus : “ At contra alii et Titus ipse evertendum templum imprimis censebant : quo plenius Judseorum et Christianorum religio tolleretur. Quippe has religiones, licet contrarias sibi, iisdem tamen auctoribus profectas ; Christianos ex Judasis ex- stitisse ; radice sublata stirpem facile perituram," &c. But Sulpicius is a mani- fest imitator, and we need not infer from such an apparent resemblance that he actually copied the words of Tacitus. A. U. 834. UNDER THE EMPIRE. 53 over his shattered health, which they attributed to divine ven- geance, and inserted among their legends a wild account of the nature of his sufferings. The conqueror of Jerusalem, they said, had desecrated the Temple of the Most High with orgies suited to the shrine of the Paphian V enus. He had pierced the veil with his sword, before tearing it down to wrap the sacred vessels, and transport them to Rome. Assailed on his voyage homeward, and nigh to perishing by tempest, he had impiously exclaimed, The god of the Jews who drowned Pharaoh has power on the waters , but I am more than his match on land. Jehovah suffered him to gain the shore, and there, in scorn of the scorner, sent a gnat to creep into his nostrils and lodge itself in his brain. For seven years the restless insect gnawed the vital tissue. One day, when the tortured prince passed by a blacksmith’s forge, the thunders of the hammer seemed to startle and arrest it. F our pieces of silver daily did the sufferer give to have the noise contin- ued in his ear without ceasing. At the end of thirty miser- able days the insect became accustomed to the clang and resumed his ravages. Phineas, the son of Erouba, was present with the chief nobles of Rome at the death of the emperor. The Jewish witness reported that the head of the deceased was opened, and the creature was there dis- covered as big as a swallow, with a bi'azen beak and claws of iron . 1 Thus it is that the disappearance from the stage of life of a weak, though perhaps a pleasing unit in the great sum, may be recorded by many pens, remembered through " J ° Destruction of many generations, attended with sighs or sneers Hercniannm of millions, if fortune has placed it in a conspicu- and Pumptn * ous position. Almost at the same moment, whole hives of human beings, historic cities, monuments of the arts of ages, may subside into annihilation, and pass, almost without no- tice, into the night of oblivion. Herculanum and Pompeii vanished from before the eyes of Italy, like the scenes of a theatre, and their awful disappearance, strange to say, at* 1 Salvador, from the Talmud : Domin. Rom. a: Jvdee. ii. 498. 54 HISTORY OP THE ROMANS [A. D. 81. tracted hardly a more lasting interest. Yet, the disaster it- self was one of the most signal in human annals, and is con- nected with circumstances which have heen related for us in a picturesque and striking manner, and have engaged the sympathies of many readers through a long succession of ages. The same eruption of Vesuvius which overwhelmed the cities of Campania, scorched and stifled the great natu- ralist Pliny, and the account of the catastrophe is minutely detailed by the most elegant writer of the day, himself part- ly an eye-witness. We have learnt from moralists the habit of contrasting the works of art and nature, as types of the perishable and the eternal. Yet in some respects, and under Changes in the . . . „ physical aspect certain conditions, the outward framework oi and the Cam- nature is not less liable to change and dissolution paman coast. t p an £] ia t 0 f more human creations. In the Co- losseum, as it now stands before us, broken down through one half of its circumference, and at one spot almost levelled to the ground, its columns and architraves ruined or defaced, its surface ruffled with the scars of time, or the rank foliage of a wild vegetation, we behold no more than the wreck of the glorious amphitheatre which rose in complete majesty before the gaze of V espasian and Pliny. But if we turn our eyes to the great features of the Bay of Naples, its shores, its plains, and its central mountain, we may remark that the destruction of two considerable cities was one of the least of the changes effected in the scene, by the revival of volcanic agency which dates from this period, in the region of V esu- vius. This mountain had been the greatest of nature’s am- phitheatres ; the ridge of its truncated cone was level, like the cornice of the Colosseum ; its sides, steep and even, were adorned with the fairest of nature’s handy work, with forests of oak, chestnut, and ilex on the north, with vines, cultivate. 1 or growing wild to its summit, on the south. 1 The interior 1 Strabo (v. 4. p. 247.) describes the fertility of the slope up to its summit: to bpog to 01 ecraoviov, aypoig irepLoiKovpevov nayKaTioig, ■r'k t/v Tjjg Kopvippg- am/) 6’ eTTimSog fiev ttoXv ftbpog eariv. The forest trees of the region hare been A. U. S34.J UNDER THE EMPIRE. 55 of the summit was more or less depressed, and the masses of igneous formation, and broken furrows which scarred or seamed it, betokened to thoughtful observers that it was the choked-up crater of a volcano extinct for ages. 1 The erup- tion of the year 79 effected, possibly at one blow, the ruin of this amphitheatre, such as it has taken centuries to ac- complish in the Flavian Colosseum. One half of its sides has been completely blown away ; the remainder has been abraded and lowered almost throughout ; the apex alone, now known by the name of Monte di Somma, may still show the level of the original crater. But from the floor of this amphitheatre has risen another cone, which has almost filled it with its accumulating debris, and has at times exceeded the height of Somma ; much as if a larger pyramid than that of Cestius had been piled on the arena of the Colosseum. 2 From this cone torrents of molten rocks, and showers of burning cinders, have been for ages ejected, and the luxuriant vegetation of the mountain slopes has been consumed or buried for many hundred feet from the summit. The peaceful charms of Vesuvius, such as they appeared to the eyes of Virgil and Tiberius, have been ti’ansformed to terrible majesty, and the long swelling outline of the fertile found to spring abundantly, at least on the northern side, whenever the moun- tain has been long at rest, as before the eruption of 1611 ; but Martial cele- brates its vineyards in his time, iv. 43. : “ Hie est pampineis viridis modo Yesvius umbris,” and the followers of Spartacus escaped from the crater by ropes of twisted wild-vines. Plutarch, Crass. 10. 1 Strabo, 1. c. ; whose description, however, does not favour the idea of a deep crater at that period, nor indeed does Plutarch’s account imply it, though often cited with that view. Vitruvius, in the time of Augustus, recognises the tradition of Vesuvius as a volcano, ii. 6.: “non minus etiam memoretur anti- quitus crevisse ardores et abundavisse sub Vesuvio monte, et inde evomuisse •jirca agros flammam.” Comp. Diodor. Sic. iv. 21. 2 Monte di Somma is 3450 (French) feet high. The cone, which is known by the name of Vesuvius, has been recently 3700, and at one time is said to have exceeded 4000. It was reduced by the eruption of 1855 to a level with the rival summit, and it has been stated by eye-witnesses of the agitation of 1861, that it has now sunk a little below it. Every year, in fact, in modem times, has produced more or less change in the features of the mountain. 6G HISTORY OF THE ROMAIC [A. D. 79. hill has been broken by frowning cliffs and jagged pinnacles . 5 Nor are the changes produced on the plain and along the coast-line less signal than the transformation of the ancient mountain. The Lucrine lake has been choked by the uplift- ing of a mighty cone from its abysses. The foundations of the mole of Puteoli have been sunk many feet into the sea, and raised again, though not to their original level. Various remains of Roman buildings, and lines of road along the shore, may be now spied beneath the waters ; while on the other hand long strands of shingle have been heaved above the surface, at the foot of hills which the action of the waves had once scarped into precipitous cliffs. There has been in fact first a subsidence, and again a raising of the whole coast ; but the distance at which the ruins of Pompeii now lie from the sea which once washed its walls, is attributed not so much to a change of the relative levels of land and water, as to the accretion of volcanic matter from Vesuvius. Pompeii itself is covered with a mass of ashes long since converted into mould, and rife with the seeds of vegetation, to the depth of about fifteen feet ; but Ilerculanum after suffering a like catastrophe has since been more than once overwhelmed by streams of lava, which have gained a thickness of more than twice as many yards. From such data we may imagine how entirely the face of the country has been changed along the southern base of the mountain which has been so great an agent of destruction and renovation . 1 2 3 1 The date of the Argonautica and Punka may be determined from allu- sions to fatal activity of Yesnvius. Yaleg. FI. iii. 208. : “ mugitor anhelat Yesvius ; ” iv. 507. : “ Sic ubi prorupti tonuit cum forte Yesevi Hesperi® leta* lis apex.” Silius Ital. xvii. 594. : “Evomuit pastes per ssecula Yesvius ignes.” Statius recurs more than once to the subject, -which was peculiarly interesting to him as a native of Neapolis. See Sylv. iv. 4. 78., iv. 8. 4., v. 3. 205. 2 There is something affecting in the delight with which Pliny describes the charms of the Campanian coast on which he was so soon to perish in a general catastrophe. See Hist. Nat. iii. 9. : “ hinc felix ilia Campania est. Ab hoa sinu incipiunt vitiferi colies et temulentia nobilis succo per omnes terras inclyto .... base litora calidis fontibus rigantur . . . . et hoc quoque certamen An* tnaiice voluptaiis tenuere Osci, Graeci,” &c. &. U. 832.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 57 Sixteen years before the date of this fatal eruption, the populous town of Pompeii had been afflicted with a terrible earthquake ; but the language both of Tacitus Pompeil af and Seneca, who speak of it as swallowed up or fitted with an . . . earthquake. destroyed, is plainly exaggerated. Xne remains ^ discovered in modern times attest the fact of a convulsion which had overturned some of the principal build- ings ; but all the ordinary habitations of the people were standing, and the place was as full of residents as ever, en- gaged in their usual concerns, when the final catastrophe overtook it . 1 Pompeii was a maritime city at the mouth of the river Sarnus, the most sheltered recess of the Neapolitan Crater. Its origin was lost in antiquity, and the tradition that it was founded by Hercules, together with the other spot which bore the name of the demigod, was derived per- haps from the warm springs with which the region abounded. The Greek plantations on the Campanian coast had been overrun by the Oscans and Samnites ; nevertheless the grace- ful features of Grecian civilization were still everywhere con- spicuous, and though Pompeii received a Latin name, and though Sulla, Augustus, and Nero had successively endowed it with Roman colonists, it retained the manners and to a great extent the language of the settlers from beyond the sea . 2 The accident which buried this provincial city under 1 There is a discrepancy of one year in the date of the earthquake in Seneca and Tacitus. The first, who was a contemporary, places it in the consulship of Regulus and Yirginius (tj. c. 816. a. d. 63.); the other, writing six years later, assigns it to the year before. We may admit with Brotier the possibility of the shocks having commenced in the one year and terminated in the next. Seneca, however, with extraordinary coolness, speaks of the entire subsidence of the city : “ Pompeios celebrem Campani® urbem, .... desedisse terr® motu, Lucili virorum optime, audivimus.” — Nat. Qucest. vi. 1. Tacitus less strongly: “et motu terrse celebre Campani® oppidum, Pompeii, magna ex parte proruit.” — Ann. xv. 22. In the Nisi. i. 2. : “ haust® aut obrut® urbes : ” in the one case, swallowed up in streams of lava ; in the other overwhelmed by showers of ashes. 2 The style of building at Pompeii is essentially Greek, but such a3 th« Romans at this time adopted whenever an opportunity occurred ; on the other 58 HISTORY OP THE ROMANS [A. D. 71, a mass of cinders, and preserved its basement at least invio- late for seventeen centuries, has furnished us with means, which we should vainly seek in any other part of the world, of comparing modern forms of life with those of the mixed Groeco-Romans of the empire. Into these details this is not the place to enter ; but the account we have received of the fatal eruption is valuable for the study of Roman character, as well as for its The great erup- own intrinsic interest. The writer is the younger tion ol Vesu- . J vius described Pliny, the nephew of the great naturalist, who by the younger ... ° Riiny- describes it in two well-known letters . 1 The elder Pliny, the friend and devoted servant of Vespasian and Titus, at this time commanded the imperial fleet at Misenum, and divided his time with marvellous assi- duity between the discharge of official duties, and the accu- mulation of extraordinary stores of knowledge. Remarkable for his industry even among the industrious statesmen of his country, Pliny had served the commonwealth at home and abroad, in peace and war, in the highest posts, never inter- mitting throughout his career the habit of reading, noting, and composing, till, notwithstanding the multifarious busi- ness in which he had been immersed, his completed works and his collections for future arrangement had together reached an extent almost appalling to the imagination . 2 His compositions on contemporary history seem to have soon fallen into oblivion, and we possess no testimony to their merits ; but the great work by which we know him became the recognised repertory of all the accepted facts of Nature, and its utility secured its preservation. His labour in col- hand, the Romans imposed on their Grecian subjects some of the worst of their own fashions. In the time of Nero, Pompeii was deprived of its public shows for ten years, as a punishment for an affray that had occurred there during a g.adiatorial exhibition. Tac. Ann. xiv. 17. 1 Plin. Ep. vi. 16, 20. 2 Plin. Ep. iii. 5. The contemporary, or nearly contemporary, histories were : 1. A life of Pomponius Secundus ; 2. A continuation of the history of Aufidius Bassus ; 3. An account of the German wars. A. U. 832.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 59 looting facts, and his assiduity, and to a great extent skill, in arranging them, deserve our highest admiration ; he was not gifted, however, with much talent for observation, still less does he deserve from his powers of analysis or combination to be ranked with his master Aristotle. But the ardent thirst for knowledge, which impelled him to seek the scene of interest and danger, might have done honour to the wisest of philosophers, and the name of Pliny will ever be memorable as of an ancient martyr of science. Such was the irony of fate, that while the most illustrious explorer of nature, our own immortal Bacon, died from a vulgar cold caught in the ignoble experiment of stuffing a fowl with snow, his prede- cessor, far his inferior in genius and intelligence, perished gloriously in the examination of a grand volcanic phenome- non. On the 24th of August in the year 79, Pliny was residing in his villa on the Misenian promontory, which lies about twenty miles in a direct line from the summit of * The elder Vesuvius, conspicuous across the gulf of Naples. Pimy examines tt- . _ , . , , the eruption, His attention was drawn from his books and and perishes in writings to a cloud of unusual form and charac- ter, which hung over the mountain, and rose, as appeared on further examination, from it, spreading out from a slender and well-defined stem, like the figure of a pinetree . 1 Its colour changed rapidly from black to white, as the contents of the ejected mass of which it proved to be composed, were earth or ashes. The admiral ordered his Liburnian cutter to be manned, and casting aside his papers prepared to cross the water, and observe the phenomenon nearer. He asked his nephew to accompany him, but the younger student was 1 Plin. Ep. vi. 16. : “ cujus similitudinem et formam non aim magis arbor, quam pinua, expresserit. Nam longissimo velut trunco elata in altum, quibus- dam ramis diffundebatur ; ” i. e. with a vertical stem and horizontal head ; such as the phenomenon has often been described by subsequent observers. Scacchi, however, noted a different appearance in the eruption of 1850 : the smoke was carried off in a long horizontal stream at a small elevation. Roth, Vesuv ., p. 248. (1857.) 60 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 79. too intent on the volumes before him to prosecute an inquiry into the operations of nature . 1 Meanwhile, intelligence ar- rived from the terrified residents at the foot of the mountain. They implored the powerful assistance of the commander oi the fleet. Pliny directed his largest vessels to he got ready and steered to the point nearest to the danger. As he ap- proached the shore the ashes began to fall thick and hot upon his deck, with showers of glowing stones. A shoal formed suddenly beneath his keel, and impeded his progress. Turn- ing a little to the right, he came to land at Statute, at the dwelling of a friend. Here he restored confidence to the affrighted occupants by the calmness of his demeanor, while he insisted on taking the usual refreshment of the bath and supper, and conversed with easy hilarity. As the shades of evening gathered, the brightness of the flames became more striking; but to calm the panic of those around him, the philosopher assured them that they arose from cottages on the slope, which the alarmed rustics had abandoned to the descending flakes of fire. He then took his customary brief night’s rest, sleeping composedly as usual ; but his attendants were not so easily tranquillized, and as the night advanced, the continued fall of ashes within the courts of the mansion convinced them that delay would make escape impossible. They roused their master, together with the friend at whose house he was resting, and hastily debated how to proceed. By this time the soil around them was rocking with repeated shocks of earthquake, which recalled the horrors of the still recent catastrophe. The party quitted the treacherous shelter of the house-roof, and sought the coast in hopes of finding vessels to take them off. To protect themselves from the thickening cinders they tied cushions to their heads. The sky was darkened by the ceaseless shower, and they groped their way by torchlight, and by the intermitting flashes from the mountain . 2 The sea was agitated, and abandoned *>y 1 Plin. 1. c. : “ respondi, studere me malle : — et forte ipse , quod scriberem t dederat." The apologetical whisper in the last clause is exquisite. s The ashes, as Dion had been informed, were wafted not only to Rome, A. U. 832.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 61 every bark. Pliny, wearied or perplexed, now stretched himself on a piece of sail-cloth, and refused to stir farther, while on the bursting forth of a fiercer blast accompanied with sulphureous gases, his companions, all but two body slaves, fled in terror. Some who looked back in their flight a ffirmed that the old man rose once with the help of his at- tendants, but immediately fell again, overpowered, as it seemed, with the deadly vapours. When the storm abated and light at last returned, the body was found abandoned on the spot ; neither the skin nor the clothes were injured, and the calm expression of the countenance betokened death by suffocation. Such is the account the younger Pliny gives of his uncle’s death from hearsay. In another letter he relates the circum- stances which he himself witnessed from his safer . . Pompen and. post at Misenum, and as might be expected with Bercuianum 1 . . -,-n abandoned and more vividness and distinctness : and allowance almost forgot- ten, must be made for the vanity and frivolity of ex- pression which disfigure, it must be confessed, the dreadful tale, from the youth of the narrator, who was but eighteen at the time. It may be observed that his remarks give no indi- cation of the streams of mud or lava, which form generally the most destructive features of volcanic convulsions. The projected volume of solid matter, such as sand and ashes in a state of ignition, consumed, as we have seen, all the habita- tions of man on which it lighted, or if its heat was a little abated by distance, engulfed them under a ponderous mass of dust and cinders. The shower was wafted perhaps in where they were supposed to have caused the pestilence which ensued, but to Africa, Syria, and Egypt. Dion, lxvi. 23. In later eruptions they have been carried to Africa, and even to Constantinople. Valerius Flaccus, a contempo- rary, seizes upon this incident for a novel simile, comparing it to the rapid flight of the Harpies (iv. 508.) : “ Vix dum ignea montem Torsit hyems, jamque Eoas cinis induit urbes.” 1 Plin. Ep. vi. 20. Both this and the other letter are addressed by the writer to his friend Tacitus, with a view to the account of his own times, which the great historian was then compiling : “ quo verius tradere posteris possis.” 62 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 79. various directions by the shifting breezes ; Herculanum to the south-west, and Pompeii to the south-east of the moun- tain were completely overwhelmed by it, while other spots between them and around them escaped almost scatheless. The eruption seems to have been preceded by some premoni- tory shocks, and it is evident that these towns were in a great measure abandoned at the moment of the catastrophe ; the descent, indeed, of the falling masses was not too sudden and precipitate to allow the people to fly themselves, and remove at least a portion of their effects . 1 Some attempts seem also to have been early made to revisit the scene of desolation, and repair the damage inflicted ; but fresh heav- ings of the mountain, and repeated showers of ashes, continu- ed to baffle the survivors. New homes were found; the old treasures were abandoned when the spot where they lay could no longer be traced ; and in the lapse of two or three genera- tions the careless loungers of the Campanian coast had for- gotten even the site of the ruined cities beside them . 2 1 Dion says loosely and inaccurately, lxvi. 23. : r6 re ’EpKovXaveov nal lloyiryiovg, iv deaTpip tov opiXov avTfjq Kadypevov, narexuoe. This should re- fer to Pompeii ; but the theatres excavated here and at Herculanum present no remains of a buried population. 2 Statius, as might be expected, speaks more feelingly of the calamity than any of the few other writers who allude to it ; but even he is ready, within ten or twelve years, to consign it to oblivion. Comp. Sylv. iv. 4. 81 : “ Mira fides : credetne virum ventura propago, Cum segetes iterum, cum jam h®c deserta virebunt, Infra urbes populosque premi, proavitaque toto Rura abiisse mari ! Nec dum letliale minari Cessat apex.” The emperor Marcus Aurelius moralizes on the subject a century later: Hcdilaliones , iv. 48. — ’’Evvoelv awexoic irbaoc fih> larpol aTroredv-f/icaai .... iroooi be oi .... itCooi 6e rvpawoi . . . nboai be •irbXtis bX ai, iv ovto>c ei ttu, redvr/icaac , 'EiU/oy 'cal nal ’HpaKXavov nal aX/.ai avapld ptr-oi. A.U. 8S2.": UNDER THE EMPIRE. 03 CHAPTER LXI. POMITIAN EMPEROR. — HIS EDUCATION AND CHARACTER. — EXTERNAL HISTORY OP THIS REIGN. CAMPAIGNS OP AGRICOLA IN BRITAIN, A. D. 78-84: A. U. 831- 837. HE IS RECALLED PROM THE CONQUEST OP CALEDONIA. DOMITIAN’S EX- PEDITION AGAINST THE CHATTI, A. D. 84. : U. C. 837. — HE CLAIMS A VICTORY, AND ASSUMES THE TITLE OP GERMANICUS. FISCAL NECESSITIES AND COM- MENCEMENT OF CONFISCATIONS. CAMPAIGNS AGAINST THE DACIANS. DEFEAT AND DEATH OF FUSCUS. — VICTORY OF JULIANUS. — PEACE WITH THE DACIANS, a. d. 90 : a. u. 843. — a pretended nero. — successes in Africa. — revolt OF ANTONIUS, A. D. 93. : A. u. 846. — renewed cruelties and alarms of DOMITIAN. I T was reported that Domitian had intrigued against his father, and there was little question but that he had sought to supplant his brother. Rumour accused ■ f • Domitian as- m m further of having hastened the death of litus, enmes the em- by causing him, in an access of his mortal fever, 1 * u to he immersed in a hath of snow . 1 Contemporary history affirmed at least for certain that he quitted his brother’s bed- side, while life was yet in him, and hurried to Rome to seize the suffrage of the praetorians, and secure with their assistance the homage of the senate. Titus indeed had already declared that he regarded Domitian as the partner of his power, and had continued, even under the greatest provocation, to point to him as his legitimate successor. It was in vain, however, that the gentle emperor had sought the love and gratitude of his unworthy brother. Domitian scowled upon him with ill-disguised impatience for his decease, and when, at last, he obtained possession of the throne, declared with brutal exul- tation that he had himself bestowed it upon his father and 1 I presume this was in fact the same vigorous cold water treatment which had saved Augustus and killed Harcellus. f>4 HISTORV OP THE ROMAN'S [A. D. 81. brother, and now received back his own gift from them. lie discharged the formal duty of pronouncing the funeral ora- tion, and soliciting the consecration of Titus ; but his praises were cold or insidious, and the people were little satisfied with the meed of honour assigned to their favourite. 1 Titus left, as we have seen, no male descendant, and the daughter of a Roman house could not take the inheritance of her father, which was in law the property of ilis claims su- . . x J iierior to those the family, and went alone; with the liability to of the daughter J of Titus, or of maintain the family rights, and perform the prop- her husband. „ . _ . . ’ 1 , er functions of a citizen, lo accept the ofhee of princeps or imperator, of censor or pontiff, was not more im- possible for Julia than to assume the chiefship of a patrician house. Domitian, the deceased’s brother, was the apparent heir to the estate, and therewith presumptive heir, according to the notions of the time, to the political functions with which the deceased had been invested. It might require in- deed a vote of the senate and a lex curiata to confer the em- pire formally upon him ; but subject to this formality, his claim might be considered as sufficiently established. The natural feelings of paternity, however, were beginning to assert themselves against the long descended rules of law and primitive usages. Titus was anxious for his daughter’s happiness and greatness. With his Asiatic training, he had discarded, no doubt, many of his ancestral prejudices, and the son of the plain Sabine burgher had felt no scruple in proposing to unite his daughter in marriage with his oivn brother. Such unions, as we have seen, had been legitimized by Claudius, but they had not been sanctioned by public opinion. By the genuine Roman they were still reputed foreign, oriental, abominable. Domitian rejected the pro- posal. True, he might feel that his claim was too strong to require any subsidiary support : true, he was enamoured of the wife of a senator whom he required to repudiate her hus- 1 Comp. Suet. Domit. 2. : “ defunctum nullo prasterquam consecrationis honore dignatus, sajpe etiam carpsit obliquis orationibus et edictis.” Dion, lxvii. 2. : iravra ra kvavTi^Tara uv efioiiAero aicjj’KTd/j.evog. A. U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 65 band in order to contract nuptials with himself . 1 Nevertbe- less, a purist as he was by early breeding, and a reformer as he afterwards proved himself, and uncontaminated by con- tact with the licentious East, Domitian shrank perhaps with genuine repugnance from the questionable arrangement pro- posed to him. Julia, thus repulsed, was united to her father’s first cousin, Flavius Sabinus, and this man might feel perhaps aggrieved that the splendid inheritance of the Caesars should pass out of the line of natural descent, or, that he should not be himself adopted by his father-in-law. Hence the jealousy with which, as we shall see, Domitian continued to regard him ; and hence, perhaps, the intrigue which the emperor carried on, even before his accession, according at least to common rumour, with the niece whom he had refused in marriage, but whom he might craftily seek to attach to him- self by the tie of an irregular connexion . 2 The personal history of Domitian indeed has been made the sport of common fame, and we need hardly trouble our- selves to analyse it. The anecdotes of the histo- ^ - nst dlspar . rians are put together with little judgment or x?j“nian°3 consistency. Suetonius, for instance, assures us early education, explicitly that the advantages of his distinguished parentage, born, as he was, in the very year of his father’s consulship, were wholly lost to him, and while Titus enjoyed a liberal educa- tion, Domitian was entirely neglected in consequence of the ob- scurity and indigence into which Vespasian subsequently fell . 3 1 This was Domitia, daughter of Corbulo, and wife of iElius Lamia. Suet. Domit. 22. Dion, lxvi. 3. Domitian had seduced her in the year of his ad- ministration with Mucianus, when he was himself but nineteen years of age, and had soon afterwards married her. In the year 826 (his second consulship, Suet. Domi*. 3. Clinton, Fast. Fom.) she bore him a son who died in infancy. Domitian continued to live with her, with one interruption, until his death. 2 This connexion began, apparently, as soon as Julia was betrothed, and before she was married to Sabinus. Suet. Domit. 22.: “fratris filiam adhuc virginem, oblatam in matrimonium sibi, quum devinctus Domitias nuptiis per- tinacissime reeusasset, non rnuito post alii collocatam, corrupit ultro, et quidem vivo adhuc Tito.” 3 Suet. Domit. 1. Domitian was born in the year of his father’s first 66 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 81 , While Titus found honourable employment in the camp and rose to the highest commands, his brother, we are told, was suffered to grow up uncared for, in a mean corner of the city, and in such wretched poverty as to be driven to the vilest degradation for patronage or support. But even the same writer’s casual remark, that '"the young man, when fleeing from the burning Capitol, took refuge in the house of a fellow student , shows that this account is not to be lightly credited. Nor is the reputation he subsequently attained for literary accomplishments, however much it may have been enhanced by interested flatterers, consistent with such abject beginnings. Even the patronage he pretended at least to extend to let- ters, of which more will be said hereafter, seems to evince an appreciation of literary adulation seldom found in the grossly rude and ignorant. His mother indeed died in his childhood, and his father may have been frequently absent or engaged ; but it is not likely that the nephew of a personage so distin- guished as Sabinus would be left in utter destitution. Domi- tian, we may presume, received and profited by the usual instruction in grammar, rhetoric and philosophy. Possibly he enjoyed, from the Sabine traditions of his house, a simpler and severer training than usually fell to the lot of children of his rank. When in later life he replaced the humble ten- ement in which he first saw the light, with a temple to the Flavian family, we may trace, perhaps, the act not to super- stitious feelings only but to an antique sentiment of pious affection . 1 consulship, a. u. 804 (Oct. 24.), and was therefore ten years younger than Titus. 1 Suet. Domit. 1. Martial, ix. 21. : “ Hie steterat veneranda domus. quas prfestitit orbi Quod Rhodus, astrifero quod pia Creta polo.” The birth-place of Domitian, and consequently the site of the temple of the Flavian family, was at a place called the Malum Punicum in the Sixth Region, denominated Alta Semita, which included the Quirinal and some of the densest parts of the Servian city. This temple is not to be confounded with that of Vespasian in the Forum. A. U. 834.1 UNDER THE EMPIRE. 67 Our authorities delight iu representing the younger son of Vespasian as a striking contrast to the elder, the darling of the Roman people. Yet there was at least a A 1 Comparison strong family resemblance between them. Both between Titus ° J . .. and Domitian. were constitutionally impulsive and irritable, both took with feminine facility the varnish of patrician re- finement ; both were naturally voluptuous and sensual, and surrendered themselves to the charms of Circe and the Sirens. Had Titus been left at Rome in his tender years, exposed to every temptation, and denied the conduct of affairs and the discipline of active life, these propensities would have at- tained the same ascendancy over him which appeared so fatally in Domitian. But whether from the misfortune of his breeding, or from his natural deficiencies, the character of the younger brother presents, on the whole, but a pale re- flection of that of the elder. That which is generosity in the one becomes mere physical sensibility in the other. Titus pledged himself to shed no human blood during his princi- pate; Domitian proposed to forbid the sacrifice of oxen . 1 The one could be cruel from policy or necessity, the other from mere puerile impatience. Titus wasted Judea with fire and sword; Domitian persecuted the flies, and made a soli- tude of his chamber . 2 The deportment of the elder brother was sociable and kindly, and if he enjoyed with too keen a zest the pleasures of his station, he at least shared them ge- nially with his companions. Domitian is described as morose and solitary, even in his relaxations. He gave, indeed, the banquets prescribed by custom; but they were joyless and 1 Suet. Domit. 9. : “ inter initia usque adeo ab omni csede abborruit, ut absente adhuc patre, recordatus Yirgilii versum, Impia quam ccesis gens esi epulata juvencis, edicere destinarit ne bores immolarentur.” 2 Suet. Domit. 3. : “nec quicquam amplius quam muscas captare, ac stylo prasacuto eonfigere.” When it was asked, “Was any one with Domitian?'* “Not even a fly,” answered the witty Crispus (“ Crispi jucunda senectus:” Juv. iv. 81.). Comp. Dion, lxvi. 9. Victor. Epit. 11.; Cces. 11. Comp. Plin. Paneg. 48. : “ non adire quisquam non alloqui audebat, tenebras semper secre- tumque captantem, nec unquam ex solitudine sua prodeuntem, nisi ut solitudi- nem faceret.” 68 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS LA. D. 81 hurried, irksome both to the host and to his guests . 1 Titus, again, devoted himself nobly to sustain his father’s interests, while he shared his fame ; but Domitian, with equal ambition, was meanly jealous of his brother’s reputation, and anxious to snatch laurels in which his kinsmen should have no part. Frustrated in his endeavours to emulate their military glory, he might pretend to occupy himself in arts and letters ; but neither the pleasure of study, nor the praise of flatterers, could really soothe his wounded vanity, and he intrigued against them living, and detracted from their merits when dead. But the stately march of the Roman princes has too long occupied the stage and engrossed our whole attention. A new scene of war and military glory ma y here q, e Prosecution of. . . J 0 J J the conquest of interpolated m the imperial drama, and remind us Britain. „ , 1 . . ..... ot the aggressive attitude which m its vigorous old age the empire still retained in the face of opposing bar- barism. The Britannic legions had been little moved by the passion of the civil wars. With Galba, at least, and with Otho, they had no personal connexion ; they were too far re- moved from the centre of affairs to covet the spoils of Rome and Italy ; and above all, their hands and minds were fully occupied with the toils and dangers immediately before them . 2 But the accession of a great military chief to power had roused the pride of the soldiers, and given a sudden impetus to the career of conquest. Y espasian might regard with per- sonal interest the complete reduction of Britain where he had gained his own earliest distinctions. The Fourteenth legion, which had followed Vitellius to Bedriacum, had been sent 1 Suet. Domit. 21. : “ lavabal de die prandebatque ad satietatem,” i. e., his solitary morning meal was ample ; but, “ convivabatur,” he supped “ frequen- ter et large, sed psene raptim : certe non. ultra solis occasum ; nec postea com- issabatur.” 2 Tac. Hist. i. 9. : “ in Britannico exercitu nihil irarum. Non sane alias legiones, per omnes bellorum civilium motus, innoeentius egerunt : seu, quia procul et Ocoano divisae ; seu crebris expeditionibus doctse hostem potius odisse.” A. U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 69 back, flushed with victory and chafed with disap- „ J m / Successive pr3 pointment, to its quarters in the island, and its facts: Petro- 1 7 x . nius Turpilia- discontent could only be allayed by the excite- nus, a.d. 6i. , Trebellius ment of active service. But since the removal Maximus, of Suetonius Paulinus, the prefects of the British province had been directed to keep the sword, if possible, in the scabbard. Petronius Turpilianus had been satisfied with restoring the disturbed districts to submission. Trebellius Maximus had mitigated the severity of the proconsular gov- ernment, but at the same time had relaxed the discipline of the legions. The soldiers pretended that he was immersed in the care of amassing a fortune, and the Twentieth legion, disdaining his control, had broken out in mutiny, at the in- stigation of its chief, and driven him out of the island. 1 Tre- bellius had repaired to Rome, where Vitellius was clutching at the purple ; but the tottering emperor could give no sup- port. The soldiers rallied together for their own security, and the peace of the province did not suffer by the paralysis of the capital. On the restoration of authority at Rome, Vettius Bolanus was sent to take the command, and their recent excesses seem to have been prudently overlooked. With equal prudence the mutinous legion had declared itself for Vespasian, and the Second, which he had himself former- ly commanded, naturally sided with him. 2 Tacitus affirms that the new governor was indolent though not seditious ; but the depression of one chief is an easy artifice for exalting his successor, and I am tempted in this instance to weigh the testimony of a poet against that of an historian. 3 The praises of Statius, however overstrained, seem at least to in- dicate that Bolanus placed himself at the head of his movable columns, laid out his camps, erected his tribunals, fought bat- 1 Tac. Ann. xiv. 39. ; Hist. i. 60., ii. 65. ; Agric. 16. a Tac. Agnc. 16. ; Hist. i. 60. 3 Tac. Agric. 8. : praeerat tunc Britannia Yettius Bolanus, placidius quam feroci provineia dignum est. Comp. 16. 10 HISTORY OP THE ROMANS ties, gained victories, and dedicated to tlie Gods of Rome the spoils of vanquished enemies . 1 2 Tacitus might have remembered that it was impossible to undertake any extensive operations while the loyalty of the legions was yet unassured, and while, from the want of rein, forceinents and the cessation of the ordinary levies, their num- bers were probably incomplete. C. J ulius Agricola, a brave and able officer, but as yet unknown to fame, was placed at the head of the mutinous Twentieth, the head quarters of which were at Deva, whence it kept in check the Brigantes of Yorkshire on the one hand, and the Ordo vices of North Wales on the other . 3 The recovery of this corps to the interests of Ves- pasian secured the position of the Romans in Britain. Peti- lius Cerialis, the next proconsul, -was enabled to Petilius Ceri- ’ 1 ’ aiis, a. d. 71. carry on offensive operations, and Julius Fron- juiius Front;- tinus, who followed him chastised and pacified nus, a. d. 75. „ • . _ the revolted bilures. I he services ot Agricola coia, U consuf, gri were rewarded by promotion to the government consul in Brit- of Aquitania, from whence, in less than three aiD A.i>. 78. years, he was summoned to Rome, and elevated a.u. boi. t j ie consu } s ] 1 jp < Vespasian was anxious to maintain and possibly to extend his possessions in Britain, and he chose this distinguished chief as the best instrument for controlling the legions and pacifying the natives . 3 In the palmy days of Rome the same man was both war- rior and statesman : the consul led the Fathers in the senate 1 Statius, Sylv. v. 2. 144. foil. : “ Hie suetus dare jura parens ; hoc cespite turmas Affari : nitidas speeulas castellaque longe Aspicis ? ille dedit, cinxitque base moenia fossa.” 2 Agricola belonged to the colony of Forum Julii in the Narbonensis. He was doubly devoted to the defence of the new Flavian dynasty, his father hav- ing been sacrificed to the tyranny of Caius Csesar, and his mother slain by ma- rauders from the fleet of Otho. Agric. 4. '7. 3 Tac. Agric. 8. 9. During his consulship (a. tj. 8S0), and with this greater preferment full in view, Agricola betrothed his daughter to Tacitus, who appreciated the value of a choice which seemed to open to him the highest honours. UNDER THE EMPIRE. 71 house and their sons on the battle field : but with .... Agricola’s con- the change of manners a new theory now pre- duct as gover- 0 . „ „ nor, and first vailed, that the profession of arms unfits men tor and second . . 7.-7 . campaigns, political attairs. Many think, says 1 acitus, that a. d. is, 79 . the military character lacks subtlety and tact. ' ' damps are governed by strong will and prompt action • and give no play to the shrewdness which sways the forum. 1 But Agricola, to follow the portraiture of his son-in-law, disproved this theory, or served to confirm it by one notable exception. His administration in peace was just and temperate, and showed that he could guide the men of the gown as well as he could command the men of the sword. His first care was to gain the confidence of the provincials and engage them to embrace the arts and manners of their conquerors. He pro- posed the dress and language of Rome for their adoption, and taught them, with more success than any of his prede- cessors, to admire and cultivate the luxuries of southern civilization. Meanwhile the flower of their youth was draft- ed off to recruit the forces of the empire in distant regions, and battalions from Gaul and Spain, from Thrace and Africa, brought over to furnish auxiliaries to the legions in Britain, and maintain by their side the quarrels of the empire. Even iu his first summer, when he had been but a few months in the island, and when none even of his own officers expected active service, Agricola led his forces into the country of the Ordovices, in whose mountain passes the war of independence still lingered, drove the Britains across the Menai Straits, and pursued them into Anglesey, as Suetonius had done before him, by boldly crossing the boiling current in the face of the enemy. Another summer saw him advance northward into the territory of the Brigantes, and complete the organization of the district, lately reduced, between the Humber and Tyne. Struck perhaps with the natural defences of the line from the Tyne to the Solway, where the island seems to have been 1 Tac. Agric. 9. : “ credunt plerique militaribus ingeniis subtilitatem deesse ; quia castrensis jurisdictio secura et obtusior, ac plura manu ageus, calliditatem fori non exerceat.” 72 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS broken, as it were, in tbe middle and soldered unevenly to- gether, he drew a chain of forts from sea to sea, to protect the reclaimed subjects of the Southern valleys from the untamed barbarians who roamed the Cheviots and the Pentlands . 1 To penetrate the stormy wilds of Caledonia, and track to their- fastnesses the hordes of savages, the Ottadini, Horestii, , . , , and Masatas, who flitted among- them, was an en- Aerricola estab- . . ° 7 lishes himself terprise which promised no plunder and little on the line of . 1 the Tyne and glory. The legions of Rome, with their expen- sive equipments, could not hope even to support themselves on the bleak mountain sides, unclaimed by men and abandoned by nature. His camps on the Tyne and Irth- ing were the magazines from which Agricola’s supplies must wholly be drawn ; the ordinary term of a provincial prefec- ture was inadequate to a long, a distant, and an aimless adventure. But Vespasian had yielded to the ardour of his favourite lieutenant ; ample means were furnished, and ample time was allowed. In the third year of his command, Agri- cola pushed forward along the eastern coast, and making good with roads and fortresses every inch of his progress, reached, as I imagine, the Firth of Forth . 2 3 * * * Fie Reaches the / . isthmus be- had quitted the waist and had here reached the tween the . Forth and neck ot Britain, the point where the two seas are divided by an isthmus less than forty miles in breadth. Here he repeated the operations of the preceding winter, planting his camps and stations from hill to hill, and 1 Tac. Affric. 18-20. The first and second campaigns of Agricola occu- pied the summer of 881, 832. The winters were employed — “ saluberrimis consiliis ” — in bending the minds of the Britons to the arts of peace. 3 Tac. Agric. 22. : “ tertius expeditionum annus (833) novas gentes .ape- ruit, vastatis usque ad Tanaum , asstuario nomen est, nationibus.” This is the true reading of the MSS. for which Taum (the Tay) was substituted by Puteo- lanus from a marginal gloss. I cannot suppose that Agricola crossed the Firth of Forth in this campaign. Wex, in his edition of the Agricola, suggests that Tanaus is the North Tyne, which falls into the Firth near Dunbar. Tan, as is well known, is a common Celtic appellative for running water, and may possi- bly be applied to the estuary itself, although Bodotria is the name specifically assigned to the river Forth, if not to the Firth called after it. UNDER THE EMPIRE. 73 securing a new belt of territory, ninety miles across, for Ro- man occupation. The natives, scared at his presence and fleeing before him, were thus thrust, in the language of Taci- tus, as it were into another island. For a moment the empire seemed to have found its northern limit. Agricola rested through the next summer, occupied in the organization of his conquests, and employed his fifth year also in strengthening his position between the two isthmuses, and reducing the furthest corners of the province, whence the existence of a new realm was betrayed to him. The grassy comes in sight plains of teeming Hibernia offered a fairer prey ^ ^he Mull than the gray mountains which frowned upon his of Gallowa y- fresh entrenchments, and all their wealth, he was assured, might be secured by the valour of a single legion. But other counsels prevailed ; Agricola turned from the Mull of Gallo- way, and Ireland, so the fates ordained, was left to her fogs and feuds for eleven more centuries. 1 The Caledonians had resumed their courage during the two years’ inaction of the invading legions. In the year 836, the sixth of his protracted command, Agricola, Agricola pene- understanding that they were collecting their therorth.° nd forces to make a combined attack upon his lines, A D 83 determined to surprise them by a rapid incursion A - 886 - into the regions beyond the Forth. The necessities of his own armament had required the attendance of a naval force, and when he advanced along the coasts of Fife, he drew his most certain supplies from the vessels which moved parallel to his flank. The rude natives might be amazed at the move- ments of these marine monsters ; nevertheless, they were not dismayed, but thrusting themselves between his advancing columns and the fortifications in the rear, threatened, if they could not arrest his progress, at least to cut off his retreat. Agricola marshalled his forces in three brigades, to meet them at various points. The Ninth legion, the same which had been cut up by Boadicea, was assailed in its camp, and 119 Tac, Agric. 22-24., a. u. 834, 835. 74 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS only saved by the vigour of the division led by the general in person. The object of the campaign was gained perhaps by the discovery of a tract of fertile plains, stretching along the coast for many miles, and the invaders might return within their lines for the winter, with the expectation of fix- ing themselves firmly beyond them in the ensuing summer . 1 Roused to redoubled exertions by the assurance that the ilying enemy had now but little room for retreat, surprised and encouraged by the attractive character of the Site of the great batth with GalgacuSo great battle lowlands, which continued still to border the A D g4 eastern sea, the Romans pushed forward in a a. u. 837 . seventh campaign, and at last brought the Cale- donians to bay on the battle field. The site of the famous struggle, which, described in the vigorous narrative of Taci- tus, has invested with equal glory the names of both Agri- cola and Galgacus, has not been clearly determined. The opinion popularly received is unusually moderate. The imposing remains of Roman castrametation at Ardoch in Strathallan, have drawn the attention of the native antiqua- ries, who are generally content to suppose that the invaders did not actually penetrate more than ten miles beyond Stir- ling . 3 To me this spot seems to lie too far inland, if we may suppose at least that the legions depended on their fleet for almost all their supplies. I should presume also, that in this, their second campaign beyond the Forth, they pushed their successes considerably further north. The fields of Fife and Angus are seamed with numerous vestiges of Roman entrench- ments ; and though these may in fact be the work of a later generation of invaders, and though, as far as I can discover, 1 Tac. Agric. 2S-27. 2 The great camp at Ardoch would contain about 30,000 men, according to the Polybian arrangement; but if Agricola adopted the system which pre- vailed certainly under Trajan, and which was probably in use some generations earlier, this camp would accommodate fully 67,000, and this is a much larger number than his force can have reached. Hence it may be suspected that this camp belongs to the time of Severus, who is said to have penetrated into Cale- donia with a much larger army. See Roy, Military Antiq. p. 190., who, how- ever, supposes Agricola to use the Polybian castrametation. UNDER THE EMPIRE. there is nothing in the character of the entrenchments them- selves to fix them to the first rather than to the second or third century, I am still inclined, on the whole, to place the scene in question in the neighbourhood of Forfar or Bre- chin . 1 The speeches put into the mouths of the rival chiefs are among the finest gems of Tacitean eloquence, and express the contrast, ever present to the philosophic histo- ’ 1 ..... Battle of the rian’s mmd, between the civilized world and the Grampians, barbarian, their respective hopes, fears, claims a. d. si. and destinies. Whether or not he had enjoyed, as some have supposed, an opportunity of studying this con- trast on the spot, during an early residence on the Germanic frontier, his instinct seems, at least, to have discovered in it the germ of an impending revolution in the fortunes of his own countrymen . 2 JSTor is the battle-piece which follows, and fitly crowns the narrative of his hero’s military exploits, less celebrated for its vigour and vividness. To us it is chiefly interesting for the glimpse it reveals of Roman tactics at this period. Agricola had with him probably three Roman legions ; but when menaced by the full force of the enemy, he prepares to meet the attack with his auxiliary cohorts of eight thousand men in the centre, and his auxiliary squadrons of cavalry, numbering three thousand, on the flanks. The legions, the flower of the whole army, are drawn up before the camp, far in the rear ; nor, when pressed by his own offi- cers to employ them in the field, will he consent to expose one man of this powerful reserve to the onset of the barba- rians. All the loss and danger must fall upon the Batavians, 1 Tacitus only says, “ ad montem Grampium pervenit.” Even the word Grampiw, from which the modern geographical name for the frontier ridge of the eastern highlands has been adopted, seems to be an error. The best MSS. are said to give Graupius. Wex, on Agric. 29., and Proleg. p. 194. 2 Pliny, Hist. Nat. vii. 16, mentions a Cornelius Tacitus, a Roman knight, as procurator of Gallia Belgica, who has been vainly surmised to be the his- torian himself. This, however, is inconsistent with the dates. It is possible, nowever, that the procurator may have been the historian’s father, and that our Tani+'is may have resided as a child in the provinces. 76 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS the Usipians, the Gauls and Spaniards; hut when the day is won hy the hlood of her subjects it is Rome that reaps the profit, and the legions of Rome that reap the glory, and ac- quire the titles of Rapacious and Invincible , Apollinean and Minervian. This battle closed Agricola’s seventh campaign . 1 The short summer was past, and no further progress could be a p sx. made by land. But the complete reduction of a. v. 837. Caledonia was still present to his view, and he meditated fresh plans of conquest from behind his entrench- ments on the F orth and Clyde. Meanwhile, he directed the fleet which had attended him to advance north- Pretended cir- cumnavigation ward along the coast from headland to headland, of Britain. , and carry the terror oi the Roman name among the remotest tribes, while it procured him the information he required about the nature and resources of the country. The Roman mariners now for the first time entered the Pentland Firth, surveyed and counted the Orkney islands, and gained perhaps a glimpse of the Shetlands. They ascertained the point at which Britain terminates northward, and possibly noted the great deflection of the coast southward from Cape Wrath. Having effected the object of the expedition, they returned, as I cannot doubt, still creeping timidly, as was their wont, from headland to headland, and having hugged the eastern coast from Caithness to the Firth of Forth, were finally drawn up for the winter on the beach from which they had been launched at the commencement of the season.® 1 The campaigns of Agricola extend from 78 (u. c. 831) to 84 (it. c. 837) inclusive. The battle with Galgacus was fought in the seventh year. But “ oclavus annus est,” says Agricola in his speech. Some critics suspect an error of viii. for tii. I hardly think Tacitus would have used so weak an ex- ordium as “ Septimus annus est.” But though it was Agricola’s seventh, it might be called the eighth campaign of his army ; for in the year preceding his arrival, Julius Frontinus had led an expedition against the Silures. Agric. 17. 2 The account I have ventured to give of this remarkable expedition re- quires some justification. Tacitus says [Agric. 38.), “ Prasfecto classis circum- vehi Britanniam prsecepit et simul classis secunda tempestate ac fama Trutulensem portum tenuit, unde, proximo latere Britannise lento omr.i, redie UNDER THE EMPIRE. 77 The best authorities, Ctesar and Diodorus, Pliny and Mela, had long before asserted the insular character of Bri- tain ; but the Romans, up to this time, had had a very im- perfect conception of its size and figure, and when the legions, advancing northwards, season after season, saw the moun- tain crests of Caledonia still rising before them, and the ex- pected limits of the island still constantly receding, they might feel some distrust of their geographical information, and require a more certain assurance of the fact known hith- erto only by hearsay. The demonstration thus obtained was itself regarded as a triumphant achievement, and Agricola was celebrated by his countrymen as an explorer J "E 1 Recall of Agri- as well as a conqueror. But before the fleet had cola, returned to its winter station, the decree had none a. d. 84. ® a. tr 837 forth by which his career of conquest and dis- rat.” The last clause is crabbed and perhaps corrupt. Dion (lxvi. 20.) sup- poses the fleet to have circumnavigated the whole island, and such has been the usual interpretation of modern critics, which they confirm by reference to Agric. 10. and 28. I am countenanced by Hannert in rejecting this interpre- tation. In c. 10., Tacitus, referring by anticipation to this voyage, says, speaking of the projecting part of Britain, which is called distinctively Cale- donian : “ banc oram novissimi maris time primum Romana classis circum- vecta insulam esse Britanniam affirmavit ; ” that is, confirmed the inference previously drawn from the character of the southern district. It is unneces- sary, therefore, to suppose that the fleet completed the circumnavigation of the whole island on this occasion. Again, in c. 28., our author relates the incident of certain Usipians in the service of Agricola seizing on some ships by which, “ circumvecti Britanniam,” they were at last wafted to the coast of Friesland. Here the circumstances cannot reasonably admit of the common explanation. “ Circumvehi,” however, does not necessarily mean to be carried round ; but may signify simply to make a sweep, or to be wafted from point to print. Thus, Virgil says: “ circum pictis vehitur sua rura phaselis.” See several other in- stances in Forcellini under “circumveho, circumvecto.” The Usipians, as 1 understand it, ran down the east coast from the Forth, till they came opposite to Friesland. The “ portus Trutulensis ” is not mentioned elsewhere. The critics commonly suppose it to be a false reading for “ Eutupensis.” But the fleet which attended upon Agricola must have had its winter haven in the north, and nowhere so probably as in the Firth of Forth. The expedition, then, according to my view, sailed from the Forth to Cape Wrath, or there abouts, and returned the same way that it went, having skirted all the nearest, L e., the east coast of Caledonia. 78 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. I). 84 covery was to be arrested, and tbe great proconsul was him- self, in obedience to bis letters of recall, far advanced on tbe road to Italy. Directed to transfer bis authority to tbe suc- cessor assigned to bim, be obeyed without hesitation, for Agricola knew bow to obey as well as to command . 1 Domi tian, indeed, according to a popular rumour, was apprehen- sive lest bis victorious lieutenant, at the head of a province which respected, and an army which idolized him, should re- fuse to surrender his power, and challenge his imperator to a conflict. He sent a freedman to him, with the ofier of the government of Syria; charging him at the same time not to deliver it if Agricola should have already relinquished his post unbribed. The envoy encountered the returning gen- eral in mid-channel, kept the letter under his skirt, and restor- ed it unopened to his master . 2 The bitter charges Tacitus makes against Domitian, the envy and dissimulation he imputes to him in the matter of jealousy of Agricola’s recall, are such as from the tyrant’s pifted°to Do"- known character we may readily believe. Yet, mifian. a better and abler man than the degenerate son of Yespasian, might now have hastened, not from jealousy, but with a wise discretion, to bring the British campaigns to a close. It was hardly consistent with prudent policy, nor would it have been permitted in the sounder ages of the Republic, any more than of the Empire, that the gov- ernor of a distant dependency should remain for many yeai s in command of all its resources, with the entire disposal of its places and emoluments, with a great public faction growing around him, and threatening to force him into a hostile attitude. Ho proconsul since Caesar had waged seven years of warfare in any province, and the memory of Caesar’s proconsulate was not reassuring either to the senate 1 Tac. Agric. 8. : “ virtute in obsequendo . , . extra invidiam, nee extra gloriam erat.” 2 Tac. Agric. 40. : “ credidere plerique . . . sive verum istud, sive ex ingenio principis Return ac compositum est.” A. U. 837.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 79 or the emperor. 1 Germanicus had been recalled after three campaigns ; the hand of Corbulo had been held from year to year suspended. 1ST or were the results, calmly considered, worth the hazard. The victories of Agricola were barren ; his conquests were merely disappointments. Never before were such efforts made for so trifling an object. The reduc- tion of the whole of Caledonia would hardly have brought one gold piece into the imperial treasury. But the expense was enormous. Britain must have been exhausted by the requisitions imposed upon her for the supply of men and mu- nitions ; her tribute must have run low ; her commerce must have languished ; the progress of Roman arts and manners must have been arrested within her borders. The long career which had been already vouchsafed to Agricola was owing, perhaps, to the premature death of his first patron, Vespasian, the easy indolence of Titus, and the timidity of Domitian on his first accession to a position which he had earned by no merits of his own. But in the third year of his reign, the emperor, as we shall see, had conducted a campaign in per- son, and Rome acquiesced in his claim to a victory. Tacitus affirms indeed that the consciousness of his own failure in arms made him the more jealous of a genuine hero. 2 To me 1 Tiberius, indeed, could say, Ann. ii. 26. : “ se novies a divo Augusto in Germaniam missum : ” but these missions were not consecutive, and some of them had been bloodless : “ plura consilio quam vi perfecisse.” Forcible in the mouth of Tiberius, the arguments here advanced would be still more forci- ble in that of Domitian. 2 Tac. Agric. 89. : “ inerat conscientia derisui fuisse nuper falsum e Ger- mania triumphum, emptis per commercia quorum habitus et crines in captivo- rum speciem formarentur.” The reader will observe the repetition of previous insinuations against the genuineness of the spoils of Caligula. I am compelled to express some doubt of the statement that there was any such triumph at ail at this time. Eusebius in his Chronicle records one occasion of triumph only under Domitian (ad ann. 91) : “ Domitianus de Dacis et Germanis trium- phavit.” Suetonius says (c. 6.) : “ de Chattis Dacisque duplicem triumphum egit ; ” still referring to a single occasion, though the double solemnity may have occupied two consecutive days. The Dacian triumph, which undoubtedly took place, as we shall see, a. d. 91, is alone referred to by Dion, and there is no trace of an earlier one in the poets Martial and Statius. Suetonius, however, 60 HISTORY OE THE ROMANS [A. I). 84. it seems more probable that tbe conviction of bis own prow- ess first gave him courage to check the aspiring chief, whom he naturally apprehended as a rival. In this, however, Do- mitian was unjust to his lieutenant. Agricola yielded with dignified submission. He shrank from the applause which the people would have lavished upon him ; he accepted, in- deed, respectfully, the triumphal ornaments proffered by hia master, but he declined all further advancement or employ- ment, and baffled the malice of his enemies by the studied moderation of his life and language in the city . 1 For nine years he continued to enjoy this prudent retirement, blessed in the happiness of a daughter married to the high-minded Tacitus, whose ardent aspirations for an impracticable liberty he controlled by the wisdom of his counsels and the living force of his example . 2 The mutual relations of the barbarian hordes beyond the Rhine and Danube, which began from the second century to disturb the pride, to shake the power, and at Attitude of the 15 . 1 ’ . German tribes last to threaten the existence of the empire, towards Kome. . . : hardly yet require the attention of the reader of Roman history. At present, while the great peril was con- cealed, and no anxiety awakened, we may look from the Roman point of view on the Germans and Dacians, whose hostility caused as yet only transient and occasional annoy- ance. Claudius indeed, on the recall of Corbulo, had drawn within the Rhine the outposts of the Germanian province. Conquest was forbidden, and the eyes of the Romans were must be in error when he says (c. 13.) : “ post duos triumphos Germanici nomine assumpto ; ” for the title Germanicus appears on the coins of Domitian from the year 84 downwards. Eckhel, vi. 378. Tacitus seems to have been misled by the assumption of this title after the campaign of 84. 1 Tac. Agric. 40. : “ cultu modicus, sermone facilis, uno atque altero ami- conim comitatus.” 2 Tac. Agric. 42. : “ non contumacia, neque inani jactatione libertatis, famam fatumque provocabat.” Compare Corbulo (Dubois du Guchan Tacile el eon siecle, ii. 387.). The merit of Agricola appears very strongly on comparing him with Corbulo, who could not keep within the limits prescribed to the sub- ject either of a monarchy or of a republic. Corbulo might have become another Sulla or Marius. A. D. 837. j UNDER THE EMPIRE. 81 averted from the prospect of future aggrandisement in that quarter. If the internal dissensions of the natives still oper- ated for the advancement of Roman interests among them, the government assiduously disclaimed all intention of profit- ing thereby. It received petitions, heard complaints, recom- mended the redress of wrongs and giievances, and even arbi- trated between rival aspirants to power in their respective communities, but it effectually checked the warlike ardour of its lieutenants, the most restless and dangerous class of its subjects, by lavishing the triumphal ornaments, the last object of military ambition, on the chiefs who refrained from war, and directed their energies to works of peace and meas- ures of public security. To build a road or dig a canal might entitle the Germanian prefect to the favour and honours for- merly reserved for a brilliant foray or a gallant victory . 1 It is true that the inactivity thus impressed on the command of the frontier armies encouraged the barbarians to insults and even outrages ; but their hasty and inconsiderate attacks were easily baffled ; their delinquent chiefs, instead of being punished by arms, were invited to carry their complaints to Rome, and there, surrounded by all the glories of imperial splendour, learnt to estimate the power of the conquering race, and to sigh for its luxuries. When the Frisian envoys beheld in the theatre the Allies of the Roman people seated next to the Consuls and Senators, they turned away from the games and shows in ivhich they took little interest, but ex- claimed that among the spectators of the games there were no friends more devoted to Rome than the Germans, and in- sisted on receiving a place among the most favoured nations . 2 The northern frontier of the empire was skirted by three groups of barbarians : on the Rhine by the tribes of lower Germany, from the Frisii, on the coast, to the Three groups Chatti, in Nassau and Baden, some of which, on tiie northern 6 uch as the Cherusci and others, were well dis- %w er u° n thc posed to Rome, while the Chatti made them- the n x s ter. and selves obnoxious by the eagerness with which tu. 837. 1 Tac. Ann. si. 18-20. 2 Tac. Ann. xiii. 14. 62 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 84. they seized every safe opportunity of aggression. On the Danubius, or Upper Danube, the Marcomanni, for- merly the subjects of Maroboduus, still retained a strong and settled polity, and were controlled by a chief named Yannius, who was able to maintain a durable peace with Rome. On the Ister, or Lower Danube, we hear of the rest- less hostility of the Mcesians, a name which will soon give way to that of the more famous and more formidable Da- cians. During the insurrection of Civilis, the Chatti had made an inroad into the Roman province, and attempted to seize Mogirntiacum. At the same period Mucianus, while advancing towards Italy, had been compelled to detach a force to repel an incursion of the Moesians into Thrace. Domitian had flown to defend the Rhine, but the foe had al- ready retreated, and it was not thought necessary to pursue them. Eager to distinguish himself as a warrior, he had be- sought his father to intrust him with another command on the frontiers ; but the prudent V espasian had maintained the tranquil policy of Claudius, and the young prince was doomed to remain still unlaurelled. Upon his accession to power his vanity was free to indulge itself. In the year 84 he placed himself at the head of the forces on the Rhine, and conducted an expedition against the Chatti. It was a mere summer promenade, in which the enemy resorted to their old tactics of retreat, and it is probable that no great engagement took place. Yet, the contempt with which the campaign is treated by some of our authorities seems hardly justified. One mili- tary writer, attached perhaps to the emperor’s suite, and though a courtier by position, a man who at least had good means of knowing the circumstances, speaks of it with warm but not overweening applause. The Germans were indeed always ready to accede to moderate demands of slaves or tribute exacted from them as the price of withdrawal, and the treaty concluded with the Chatti by Domitian is no proof of a brilliant success. But the weight of the emperor’s sword is rather to be traced in the tranquillity which con- Domitian leads an expedition against the Chatti* a. d. 84. a. u. 837. A U. 637.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 83 timied to reign in this quarter, and in the Romanized popu- lation spread throughout the contiguous districts, which enabled Trajan, a few years later, to annex them permanently to the empire . 1 Domitian hastened hack to Rome, and no doubt vaunted his prowess to the utmost. The people applauded ; the sol- diers, gratified with an addition to their pay, D 0m itian shouted behind him as he entered the city, and tor™andasi shook their formidable weapons ; the poets nj^cVfGer- chanted their elaborate compliments ; here and mamcus - there only a whisper or a placard hinted that the victory was a lie, the' show an imposture, the captives bought or bor- rowed for the occasion . 2 Domitian wanted magnanimity to despise these cavils, even if he knew them to be undeserved. But he now felt himself strong in the favour of the army, which he had led to the Capitol, and he could venture to re- call the brave lieutenant •whose exploits transcended his own. He had gained a victory over Agricola and his other cap- tains, worth many victories over the enemies of Rome. He assumed himself the surname of Germanicus ; he imposed this designation upon the month of September ; but these empty titles added little to the complacency with which he felt that he was now the Chief of his own armies, now an Emperor indeed . 3 1 For the expedition against the Chatti, see Suet. Domit. 6. ; Dion, lxvii. 4. These writers treat it with the utmost contempt. On the other hand comp. Frontinus, Stratagem, i. 1. 8., ii. 11. 7. ; Stat. Sylv. L 4. 89., iii. 3. 168. : “ victis parcentia fcedera Chattis.” 2 See a preceding note on the triumph erroneously, as it would seem, as- cribed to Domitian by Tacitus. The solemn entry of the emperor into Rome, after a victorious expedition, might bear the appearance, and perhaps attain, in loose language, the name of a triumph, without having any legitimate claim to it. Pliny refers to a later triumph over the Dacians (see below) when he contrasts with it the genuine honours of Trajan : “ accipiet aliquando Capito- lium non mimicos currus, nec falsa simulacra victoria;” see Panegyr. 16. 17. The imputation of fictitious trophies seems to have been as common as it was easy. 3 Martial, ix. 2. : “ Dum Janus hiemes, Domitianus auctumnos. Augustus annis commodabit {estates : 84 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 84 The senate next decreed that Domitian should he per- petual censor, and encouraged him to assume the consul- ship year after year successively. He had now repaired the damage inflicted on the Capitol by the recent fire, and completed the restoration, of the most august of the Roman temples. But the treasures of Vespasian had already melted away in the hands of the liberal Titus ; costly wars and bar- ren triumphs had drained perhaps to the last sesterce the Domitian is coffers of the empire ; the day, fatal to despots, money^ and had arrived, when the revenues of the state ser?es'of C con- could no longer meet its expenditure. The peace fiscations. which Domitian had patched up in Germany, and imposed upon his lieutenants in Britain, might relieve the military chest in those quarters, but the increase of pay which the soldiers had extorted must at least have balanced this re- duction. His attempt to reduce the numbers of the soldiery produced both alarm and peril, and seems to have been abandoned as impolitic or impracticable . 1 The means of raising fresh supplies for his personal extravagance, or for the shows and largesses which the people unceasingly de- manded, were unfortunately too obvious. The emperor readily listened to the insinuations of his freedmen and flat- terers. The noblest and wealthiest of his subjects were de- nounced as disaffected and dangerous. Already, in his third year of power, Domitian allowed himself to be seduced into the path of proscriptions and confiscations, and the senate shuddered at the apparation of a new Hero or Caligula . 3 Hum grande famuli nomen asseret Rheni, Germanicarum magna lux Calendarum.” The assumption of this title was already known on the Nile in December, as appears from an inscription scratched on the statue of Memnon : “ Sextus Licinius Pudens legionis xxii. xi. kal. Januarias anno nil. D(omini) N(ostri) Domitiani Csesaris Aug. Germanici audi Memnonem;” Orelli, Inscript, i. 621. The fourth year of Domitian commenced in Sept. 84. 1 Suet. Domit. 12. a Euseb. Chron. ann. 2099, Domitiani 3. (from Oct. 83) : “ Domitianua nobiles multos relegavit et occidit.” Clinton, F. R., sub ann. 84. Comp A. U. 837.] UNDER THE EMPIRE, 85 The people witnessed with indifference the terror of the great, while they applauded the establishment of the Capi- toline games, which were founded, in fact, on the ruins of the most illustrious Roman houses . 1 The prostration of the imperial finances was soon appar- ent in the inability of the government to interfere for the protection of its clients and suppliants in Ger- L , ± A Domitian re- many. Rome had recently given a prince to the frains from fur- J J , . 1 . ther interfer- (Jherusci ; but the nation had risen against a enee in Ger- nominee bred in a foreign city, the son of a chief 1 who had demeaned himself by taking the name of Italicus, and they had thrown themselves upon the protection of the Chatti. In another quarter the Quadi and Marcomanni, who had also allowed Rome to nominate their ruler, found them- selves attacked by the Lygii and Hermunduri, tribes of the interior. They appealed to the emperor for support ; but, instead of armed legions, he sent them a deputation of a hun- dred knights with presents and promises . 2 Domitian well understood the true interest of his government, and he was disposed to look calmly on while the Germans fought out among themselves their private quarrels. Rome had sur- rounded the borders of her empire with a zone of half- reclaimed barbarians, but the cries of these dependents for assistance revealed the existence beyond them of another zone, far broader, of wholly unbroken communities whose names had not yet been bruited in Italy. The Hermunduri contended with the Chatti for the salt mines on the river Saale, in the very heart of Germany : the Chamavi and An- grivarii, which last may be placed in the district of Osnaburg, attacked the Bructeri on the Lippe. Sixty thousand of this Oros. vii. 10. : “ nobilissimos e Senatu invidise simul et pradse causa interfecit,” &c. 1 Juvenal, iv. in fin. : “ Lamiarum caede madenti.” The head of this wealthy house, the former husband of Domitia, was sacrificed about this period to the cupidity rather than to the jealousy of Domitian. 2 Dion, lxvii. 5. ; Plin. Hist. Nat. iv. 28. : “ regnum Yannianum ; ” from Vannius, king of the Quadi and Marcomanni, who succeeded through Roman influence to Maroboauus and Catualda. S6 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 84 nation, says Tacitus exultingly, were slain, by the hands, not of Romans, but of their own countrymen, for the benefit of the Romans, which is still more gratifying • and the tribe, he adds, was utterly annihilated. The philosophic historian was sanguine in his patriotism. The name of the Bructeri reappears at intervals in the annals of border warfare, and even in the fifth century retains a place among the German tribes enumerated by Claudian, all of whom, no doubt, clutched their share of the spoils of the falling empire . 1 In one quarter of the Northern world, however, it was im- possible to retain this indifferent attitude. Twice already have the Dacians come before us as a restless Hostile atti tude of the people, who troubled the Roman provinces on the lower Danube. In the latter years of Tiberius they had burst into Pannonia, and the weary or timid empe- ror had made no vigorous effort to restrain them . 2 Again, in the heat of the late civil wars, they had watched the mo- ment Avhen the strength of the legions had been withdrawn from Moesia, and crossing the frontier stream, had swept away the slender outposts of the empire, and threatened to storm the head quarters of the provincial government. The fortu- nate turn of Vespasian’s affairs in Italy allowed Mucianus to detach one legion, the Sixth, from the forces he was himself bringing up from the East ; and with this brigade, reinforced shortly afterwards by some battalions from the army of Vi- tellius, Eonteius Agrippa recovered the province, and drove the barbarians beyond the Ister . 3 Dion considers, probably 1 “ Pulsis Bructeris et penitus excisis vicinarum consensu nationum.” Tat Germ. 83. The date of the event referred to is not given. The book De Monbus Germ, is supposed to have been written a. n. 99, the third year of Trajan. In the early part of this reign Spurinna is said to have gained a victory over the Bructeri. Plin. Ep. ii. 6. This nation finds a place too in the Peutinger Table of the third century. Comp, also Claudian, viii. 451. : “accola sylvae Bructerus Hercynias.” Greenwood, Hist, of the Germans , i. ITS. note. See also Bede, Hist. Eccles. v. 10. : “ Antiqui Saxones Boructuarii . . . paganis adhuc ritibus servientes.” 2 Suet. Oct. 21. ; Tib. 41. s Tac. Hist. iii. 46. A. U. 837.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 87 with justice, that the inhabitants of both banks of the Ister were homogeneous, and that the people whom the Romans designated as Dacians were known to the Greeks by the ap- pellation of Getse. Popularly, however, the former name is given to the tribes beyond the river, the latter to those with- in it ; the one were the enemies and invaders, the others the subjects and provincials of the empire. Stretching from the Theiss to the Euxine, these tribes, though known by one gen- eric name, formed a confederation of various communities. They had apparently a common capital, or temple, or place of assembly in the mountain fastnesses of Transylvania, from whence their broad territories gently sloped in every direc- tion and the chief to whom they gave the command of their warlike expeditions was distinguished by the title, rather than the personal appellation, of Decebalus, or the Strength of the Dacians? The appellations, indeed, of the barbarian chiefs who flit from time to time across the stage in contest with the Ro- mans have but little interest for us ; for we can Domitian’s assign neither distinctive meaning to the names, aSst s the nor character to the men who bore them. It would seem that the headship of the Dacian tribes A - u - 839_m was relinquished at this time by a king called Duras to an- other known to ns by the name of Diarpaneus, and it is possi- ble that this last was the same whom we shall meet with again under the title of Decebalus, in long sustained conflict with a later emperor. In the first year of Domitian, this war- ! Of the locality more will be said hereafter ; but the allusions in Statius refer to the custom of the Dacians as known in Domitian’s time. Theb. i. 20. • “Et conjurato dejectos vertice Dacos ; ” Sylv. i. 1. 7. : “attoniti vidit domus ardua Daci ; ” ib. 80. : “ tu tardum in foedera montem Longa pace domas ; ” iii. 3. 169. : “ Quseque suum Dacis donat dementia montem.” 2 Leo, the great Sanscrit scholar, explains Decebalus by the Sanscrit DhAvaka-bala, Dacorum robur, and Diurpaneus by Durpana, validam manum habens. See Imhof, Domitianm, p. 55. Dr. Latham derives the Dacians from the Scythians, and discovers the name of Decebalus in Dizabulus, the first recorded king of the Turks. Bergmann ( Les Geies, p. 40.) refers it to Dakh. yalhus, Scythian words, which he interprets Faucon diurne. 88 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 86. rior had ventured to cross the Danube and invade the Mcesian province ; he routed a legion with the loss of its eagle, slew the praetor Oppius Sabinus, stormed and sacked many towns, and ravaged the Roman territory to the foot of the Haem us. Strong measures were required to recover and secure the province. Numerous levies were to be raised, abundant supplies were to be collected. War against the savage races of the Danube could not be made self-supporting. While Domitian, just returned from his dubious successes on the Rhine, was courting the applause of the citizens and bribing the soldiers to fidelity, his preparations for a second expedi- tion, more important and more dangerous than the first, were being urged forward in Italy, Illyricum, and Macedonia. In the spring of 86 all was ready for the emperor’s descent upon the scene of action in person. He dared not intrust the com- mand of his forces to the brave captain he had lately humili- ated; but in Cornelius Fuscus, prefect of the praetorians, he possessed at least a faithful adherent of moderate ability, whom he could place at the head of his armies while he loi- tered himself in indolence at a frontier station. The Dacian chief had trained his followers in the Roman tactics, and ut- terly despised the adversary who now marched against him. He is said to have tauntingly required, as the price of peace, a poll-tax on the head of every Roman citizen. Nor were these arrogant pretensions unsupported by valour and con- duct in the field. Withdrawing from the plains of Moesia he enticed Fuscus to cross the Danube and follow Defeat and death of Cor- his retreating forces, till he could close on him nelius Fuscub, . a. d. 87 . with advantage. I he operations of the retreat and pursuit may have occupied some time, and we have no acquaintance with the particulars; but they end- ed in the complete defeat and rout of the Romans, with the loss of at least one legion and eagle, and the death of their commander. 1 1 Suet. Domit. 6. ; Juvenal, iv. 112.; Martial, vi. '?6. The death of Fuscus may be placed in the year 87 (840). The loss of the Romans was supposed to have been very great, but Tacitus, in relating these events, declared that it was A. U. 839.1 UNDER THE EMPIRE. 89 The luxury and frivolity in which Domitian indulged ia the conduct of this campaign are noted by the unfriendly hand of the younger Pliny. It was particularly asserted that he caused himself to he towed on his progress up or down the great rivers of Pannonia, to avoid the dissonant noise of oars . 1 However this maybe, he seems to have taken no active part in the perils of the expedition, and soon quit- ted it for Rome, where he was persecuting the senate and the people, while his lieutenant was penetrating into the Dacian fastnesses and perishing sword in hand . 3 The dis- grace of this defeat was, however, retrieved by a subsequent . , . , . . _ . , J success. considerable victory gamed m a subsequent cam- paign by Julianus, who encountered the enemy also on his own soil at a place named Tap®, the site of which is not ascertained . 3 Decebalus, it is said, saved himself from de- struction by the stratagem of cutting down a forest to the height of the human figure, and clothing the stumps of the trees in armour, which deterred the Romans from advancing to complete their victory. Domitian was encouraged perhaps by this turn of fortune to leave Rome again for the frontiers, and even to advance in person against the Marcomanni, the Quadi, and the Sarmatians . 4 These tribes, it seems, had failed to furnish Rome Avith the supplies she had demanded of them. They were now chastised for them neglect. Domi- tian satisfied himself that he had made the necessary impres- the duty of a good citizen to conceal the numbers of the slain. The lost books of the Histories were known to Orosius, who has preserved this incident (vii, 10.) : “ Corn. Tacitus, qui banc historiam diligentissime contexuit, de reticendo interfectorum numero, et Sallustium Crispum, et alios auctores quam plurimos sanxisse, et seipsum potissimum elegisse dicit.” 1 Plin. Paneg. 82. ; Dion, lxvii. 6. 2 Oros. vii. 10. : “ cum et in urbe senatum populumque laniaret, et foris male circumactum exercitum assidua hostes clade conficerent.” The secular games followed in 88, and this was perhaps the year of the victory of Julianus. 3 Julianus (Titius, Tertius or Tettius?) had been mentioned before by Tacitus as an able commander in Moesia. Hist. i. T9. ; ii, 85. ; iv. 39, 40. 4 These names indicate, respectively, the tribes of the modern Bohemia, Moravia, and North-Western Hungary. HISTORY OF THE ROMANS 90 [A. D. 90 sion ; though Tacitus would lead us to believe that here too the Roman arms met with some bloody reverses . 1 * Meanwhile Julianus continued to press on the discomfited enemy, and Decebalus, we are assured, made many applica Peace with the ti° ns f° r peace before the emperor thought fit to Dacians. declare the terms on which he would be content to grant it. Such perhaps were the fictions with which Ro- mon vanity glossed over the disgrace of consenting, while the frontier of the empire received no extension, to make presents, or more truly, to pay tribute to a worsted enemy . 3 Still deeper was the disgrace, though little felt perhaps at the time, that Decebalus should not venture to put himself in the hands of the Roman emperor, but should send a vassal to conduct the treaty for him. Domitian flattered the pride of the soldiers by pretending to place a crown on the head of this envoy. s He then sheathed his sword, and returned as a victor to his capital, where the people were prepared, as before, to receive him with acclamations, the poets to chant his glories, the senate to prostrate itself in servile assenta- tion . 4 * He claimed a triumph for his lieutenant’s victories over the Dacians, and celebrated conjointly with them his own successes in Germany ; but for the more doubtful laurels he had gained in Sarmatia, he was content to demand the in- ferior honour of an ovation . 6 He decreed that October, the month of his own birth, should henceforth be styled Domiti- 1 Tac. Agric. 41., summing up the disasters of Domitian’s reign: “tot exercitus in Mresia Daciaque et Germania Pannoniaque . . . amissi.” So Eu- trop. vii. 23. : “ in Sarmatia legio ejus cum duce interfecta.” Martial combines the Sarmatian with the Dacian campaigns, ix. 102 : “ Cornua Sarmatici ter perfida contudit Istri, Sudantem Geticd, ter nive lavit equum.” J Plin. Pancg. 11, 12. ; Dion, Ixviii. 6. 9. s Dion, lxyii, l 7. ; Martial, v. 3. 4 The peace with the Dacians was concluded in December 90, about the time of the Saturnalia: Comp. Martial, vii. 80, 91, 95. (Imhof, p. 65.), and Domitian returned to Rome in Jan. 91. Martial, viii. 8. The triumph may b« placed in this year, in the consulship of Ulpius Trajanus and Acilius Glabrio. 6 Euseb. ad ann. 91 : “ Domitianus de Dacis et Germanis triumphavit.’ 1 A. U. 843.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 91 anus . 1 He erected an arch, long since overthrown, hut which rivalled in its day the Flavian arch on the Velia, near the gate of Triumph and the temple of Returning F ortune . 2 The city, — all the world, savs Dion, — was filled with J Triumphal statues ot the glorious emperor, and the (Japitol arch, and other , . r . .... monuments of was adorned with many such images m gilt bronze. Domitian’s The citizens, anxious to possess themselves of such brilliant portraits of their favourite hero, were forbid- den to make their golden statues of less than a certain speci- fied weight. But of all these effigies the most w , . . magnificent was the equestrian colossus in gilt col °ssus. bronze, erected in the centre of the forum, before the shrine of the Flavian family. Planted on a lofty pedestal, from which his head might be said, in poetic language, to pierce the sky, and shining down upon the glowing roofs of halls and temples, Domitian sate with his right hand advanced in the attitude of command, and bearing in his left a figure of Minerva, his sword reposing peacefully in its scabbard, while Suet. Domit. 6. : “ de Sarmatis lauream modo Capitolino Jovi intulit.” Of. Eutrop. vii. 23. ; Martial, viii. 15. ; Stat Sylv. iii. 3. 168. “ Haec est quae victis parcentia foedera Chattis, Quasque suum Dacis donat dementia montem : Quae modo Marcomanos post horrida bella vagosque Sauromatas Latio non est dignata triumpho.” It is commonly said that Domitian assumed the title of Dacieus in addition to that of Germanicus. The former title, however, does not appear on his coins, as is the case with the latter repeatedly, from 84 downwards. The line of Juvenal, vi. 205. : “ Dacicus et scripto radiat Germanicus auro,” refers more probably to Trajan. On the other hand, Martial’s eighth book is dedicated Imp. Domitiano Caes. Aug. Germ. Dacico. 1 Suet. Domit. 13. September 13 was the date of his acoession, October 24 of his birth. Comp. Macrob. Saturn, i. 12. ; Stat. Sylv. iv. 1. 42. “ Nondum omnis honorem Annus habet, cupiuntque deem tua nomina menses.” 3 According to Suetonius, Domitian erected so many Jani (small double arches) and other arches to his own honour, that some one at last scratched upon them the word ap/cei, Enough! For the triumphal arch and the adjacent temple see a spirited epigram of Martial, viii. 65. 92 HISTORY OP THE ROMAN'S | A. D. 91 his prancing war-horse trampled on the forehead of the cap tive Rhine . 1 We could have wished that the gorgeous verses of Statius had been addressed to a worthier object, and one which might have deserved a longer term of existence. But horse and rider were soon rolled in the dust, and our notion of one of the proudest works of art at Rome must be gathered by a comparison of the poet’s laboured description with the existing statue of Aurelius, to which it seems to have borne a remarkable resemblance . 2 Our historians insinuate that the glories of Domitian’s triumph were, after all, but borrowed plumes ; that, in de- fault of the glittering spoils which had been so Triumph and ° D 1 shows of Do- often borne to the Capitol, he had caused the fur- niture of his own palaces to be paraded before him ; and the same tradition seems to be preserved in the sneer of Tacitus at the pretended captives from the Rhine. This is a mere repetition of the stories afloat on the occasion of Caligula’s mock triumph, and history which repeats itself is justly suspected. But, however scanty were the trophies of the Germanic and Dacic wars, the people demanded shows 1 Statius, Si/lv. i. 1. “ Qua3 superimposito moles geminata colosso Stat Latium complexa forum ? . . . . Ipse autem puro celsurn caput aere septus Templa superfulges ? Dextra vetat pugnas ; Icevam Tritonia virgo Non gravat, et sectse prastendit colla Medusae . . . It tergo demissa chlamys : latus ease quieto Seeurum . . . vacute pro respite terrse iErea captivi crinem terit ungula Rheni.” The statue seems to have been raised on a lofty pedestal, and it was placed on the site of the Curtian pool of the early forum, possibly on the exact spot where the column of Phocas, erected five centuries later, still stands. 2 The lines above selected from the description of Statius may show the points of resemblance and difference. The attitude of the two riders is the same ; in both the right hand is advanced unarmed. From the position of the left hand of Aurelius, there can be no doubt that it held the Palladium. But Aurelius nas no sword by his side, and his steed does not appear to have trodden on a captive enemy. k. U. 844. j UNDER THE EMPIRE. 93 and games in increasing profusion, and the emperor was com- pelled to plunder Ms own subjects to satisfy their rapacity. Large gifts, under the name of coronary gold, were required from every province and city, to bribe the soldiers and gorge the citizens. 1 2 * * All the nobility of Rome feasted with their ruler at an enormous banquet. The victor in a sterile cam- paign against the public enemy levied his exactions on nobles and provincials, and amidst all the exultations of his flatterers indications are not wanting, that the despot had now plung- ed with little restraint into a systematic career of violence and bloodshed. 5 During the progress of these distant wars Doinitian had been disturbed, though only for a moment, by the appearance of a pretended N ero, who threw himself on the r. i- . . . Appearance of support of the king of PartMa, n he was not in apretended fact set up by the Parthians to annoy the chief a.’d. S9. of the rival empire. This event occurred per- haps in 89, when the forces of the Roman government were fully occupied with their operations against the Dacians ; nevertheless Domitian assumed a high tone, and demanded the surrender of the adventurer. War was threatened, and the note of preparation already sounded. When Tiridates promptly obeyed the summons, the court poets declared that their master had conquered the PartMans, and chanted their pagan over the baffled nations of the East. The Romans were at last disabused of the imposture regarding their late 1 The triumph was an opportunity for demanding large sums from the provinces under the name of “ aurum coronarium.” Compare, for the extor- tion of Domitian, Plin. Paneg. 17. 41. The great banquet is celebrated by Martial, viii. 50.: “Yescitur omnis eques tecum, populusque, patresque, Et eapit ambrosias cum duce Roma dapes ; ” and by Statius, Sylv. iv. 2., who speaks of himself as a guest, and assures us that this immense concourse of citizens, — “ Romuleos proceres trabeataque Csesar Agmina mille simul j'ussit discumbere mensis,” — was entertained under the roof of the vast imperial palace ; “ tantum domino minor.” 2 Orosius, 1. c. Domitian seems to have laid his hands on the funds of public institutions. Frontinus, de Aqucedud. 118. See Marquardt, (Becker’s) AUerthum. iii. 3. p. 86. note. 94 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 91. tyrant, which had so long floated before their eyes ; but the fable survived, as has been already mentioned, among the Jews and Christians, for many generations after the fall of the Flavian dynasty . 1 A revolt among the Nasamones in Numidia, caused by some fiscal oppression, demanded that the sword of Domitian should be drawn once more in the third quarter of the globe. The insurgents stormed a Roman camp, made themselves drunk, and were cut in pieces by the praetor Flaccus. The emperor wrote boastfully to the senate announcing, in the haughty language of divinity, that he had forbidden the Nasamones to exist . 2 3 * * * * Once more the poets profited by the occasion : once more Silius emulated the lofty flights of Yirgil, and declared that to his patron, as to Augustus, the tribes of Canges tendered their slackened bows, the Bactrians offered their emptied quivers. Again the exploits of a Roman emperor were likened to the triumph- ant progress of Hercules and Bacchus. The sources of the Nile, the summits of Atlas, were at last surmounted ; the sun and stars were left behind in the panting i-ace . 8 The Dacian triumph, and the acts of tyranny which accom panied it, seem to have been quickly followed by a military 1 Reimar, on Dion, Ixiv. 9., enumerates the false Neros — 1. A slave who raised a sedition, in Pontus. and was slain by Asprenas during the reign of Otho ; Tac. Hist. ii. 8. ; Dion, 1. c. 2. A man whose real name was Terentius Maximus, who appeared also in Asia; Zonar. xi. 18. 3. The pretender of whom we are now speaking, mentioned by Suetonius, Her. 57., as appearing twenty years after Nero’s death, i. e. in 89. 2 Zonar. Annal. xi. 19. N ana/iavag hi&Xvoa elvai. 3 Sil. Ital. iii. 612. : “ Huic laxos arcus olim Gangetica pubes Submittet, vacuasque ostendent Bactra pharetras ; Hie et ab Arctoo currus aget axe per urbem, Ducet et Eoos, Baccho cedente, triumphos,” Slat. Syh. iii. 154. : “ Nunc magnos Oriens dabit triumphos. Ibis quo vagus Hercules et Evan Ultra sidera, flammeumque solem, Et Nili caput et nives Atlantis.” A. U. 844.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 95 insurrection, to which indeed they may have main- ^ ly conduced. When an obscure soldier, such as tomns satumi- Vitellius or Vespasian, revolted against the reign- 1. d. 93. ing emperor, we may conclude him to have been the instrument of the legions or their officers in the provinces in which the revolt arose ; but when, as in some less conspic- uous instances, a man of high family and great connexions raised the standard of insurrection, it is fair to infer that he was instigated by sympathy with the oppressed class to which he personally belonged, and rather led the legions than was impelled by them. L. Antonius Saturninus com- manded the Roman forces in the Upper Germany. 1 * He was proud of his descent, in which he united two of the great houses of the republic, and of a name which might revive recollections both of a powerful triumvir and of a popular tribune. 3 He might claim respect from the nobles as well as favour from the people ; and when the cry of the persecuted senators reached him on his prsetorial tribunal, he might deem the moment propitious for opening to his soldiers the way to Rome, and invoking, at the same time, the hallowed associations of republican freedom. He intrigued with the 1 We possess no continuous narrative of Domitian’s reign. Tlie epitome of Dion is peculiarly meagre and confused, and in its slight notice of the revolt of Antonius, refers its date to “about the time” of Domitian’s triumph. Clin- ton accordingly places it in 91. Imhof, however, shows that there is reason for fixing it as late as 93. The date is important, inasmuch as all the authori- ties concur in remarking that it was after this event that Domitian’s fears im- pelled him to the cruelties which make his name so infamous. See Suet. Dom.it. 10. ; Dion, lxvii. 11. ; Victor, Evil. 11. ; Comp. Tac. Aqric. 43. a Martial, iv. 11. : “ Dum nimium vano tumefaetus nomine gaudes, Et Saturninum te miser esse pudet, Impia Parrhasia movisti bella sub ursii, Qualia qui Phariee conjugis arma tulit.” If we regarded Martial’s pieces as following in chronological ordei, we might put this event as far back as 88 with Tillemont. Victor ascribes the revolt of Antonius to private pique. Domitian had called him by an oppro- brious term, yet one which seems to have been fully bandied about among the loose talkers and loose livers of the time : “ se scortum vocari dolebat.” 96 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 93. officers of his two legions, — such was the amount to which, since the recent disturbances, the forces on the Rhine had been reduced, — and the title of Imperator was conferred upon him with acclamations. Jealous as the Caesars had long been of their lieutenants, nevertheless, in still greater jealousy of the soldiers, they had placed in their hands the pecuniary means of waging war against the state at any moment. For in order to retain the legionary under his standards, and in- sure his fidelity, it was a rule of the service that a portion of his pay, — as much, it is said, as one half, — should be kept back as a reserved fund, till the period of his discharge. Even the donatives so often lavished upon the soldiers were thus intercepted on their way, and perhaps in the same pro- portion . 1 A large sum of ready money was thus accumulated in the military chest ; and when the legions bound up their own lives and fortunes with a chief who promised to lead them to plunder, they willingly allowed him to lavish this convenient hoard on the requisite preparations. Antonius expected aid at the same time from the German bank of the Rhine, and did not scruple, it seems, to call into the field the natural enemies of Rome. The danger was imminent, and Domitian, who was not timid in the face of open dangers, prepared as on former occasions to lead his own forces against his adversary. His movements, however, were anticipated by the vigour of a faithful lieutenant. Aorbauus attacked Antonius on the first opening of spring, when the sudden thaw of ice prevented the barbarians from hastening across the Rhine to his assistance . 2 The rebel chief was quickly 1 Suet. Bondi. V. : “ fiduciam eessisse ex depositorum summa videbatur.” The writer represents these deposits indeed as voluntary, which may have been partly the case; but the account given of the usual practice by Yegetius, dc Mil. Rom. ii. 20., seems to offer a better explanation of the custom. 2 Suet. JDomit. 6. The victory, according to the marvellous story of the day, was known at Rome on the very day that it occurred in Germany. Sueto- nius is confirmed by Plutarch, JEmil. 25. Similar wonders are common in Roman, and, indeed, in all history. So of the battle of Pharsalia, according to the tradition no doubt faithfully reported by Lucan, vii. 204. : “ Spectari e toto potuit Pharsalia mundo.” A. U. 846.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. f» 7 routed and slain. Horbanus had perhaps personal reasons for making all traces of the conspiracy disappear, and he destroyed the papers of the vanquished before the emperor could demand them. Domitian meanwhile was advancing from Rome with a powerful force, dragging with him many senators, old as well as young, whom he dared not leave be- hind him in the capital. Disappointed of full Fo]lowedb information about his concealed enemies, he ex- proseriptioca. tended all the more widely his precautionary severities, and sought to terrify the rebel’s friends by exhibiting his head upon the Rostra. Such were the ghastly scenes with which the proscriptions of the olden time had generally commenced, and now again proscription followed ; but the names of the victims were forbidden to be inscribed on the public records. 1 Another precaution against future insurrections was to for- bid the soldiers keeping more than 1000 sesterces in deposit at their standards ; the surplus of their accumulated arrears being removed, we may suppose, to some central quarters. It was further determined that henceforth two legions should never occupy the same winter station together. 3 These jealous measures show how deep a gloom of dis- trust was thickening before Domitian’s vision. Hitherto he had been content perhaps to indicate to the dela- Domitian’s tu- tors a few among the high nobility, who, if con- ror an<1 crUelty - demned with a decent show of judicial process, would be ac- ceptable victims offered to the necessities of the fiscus. How, however, a feeling more potent than cupidity seized and mastered him. In dire alarm for his power and his life, he saw an enemy in every man of distinction in the city or the camps ; and the short career which yet remained to him be- came one continued paroxysm of terrified ferocity. 3 1 Suet. Domit. 10. describes the torments inflicted on the culprits. Dion, IxviL 11 . : kic&hvce aTjvai. 2 Suet. Domit. 7. : “ Geminari legionum castra prohibuit : nec plus quam mille nummos a quoquam ad signa deponi.” 1000 sesterces= 8 Z. 3 Victor, Epit. 11. : “quo per Norbanum Appium acie strato Domitianus longe tetrior in omne hominum genus, etiarn in suos, ferarum more grassaba, 120 VOL. VII. — HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D„ 81. S£ CHAPTER LXII. INTERNAL HISTORY UNDER DOMITIAN. HIS CHARACTER, AND STRENGTH OF THE EVIDENCE AGAINST IT. — HIS REIGN AN EPOCH OF REACTION. — HE AFFECTS TO BE A REFORMER OF MANNERS. — MEASURES IN HONOUR OF THE GODS. — PROSE- CUTION OF UNCHASTE VESTALS. FATE OF CORNELIA. ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAWS OF ADULTERY. THE SCANTINIAN LAW. LAWS AGAINST MUTILATION. RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED ON THE MIMES. — DECREE AGAINST THE CHALDEANS AND PHILOSOPHERS, A. D. 89. ECONOMIC MEASURES. RESTORATION OF THE CAPITOL. — ASCRIPTION OF DIVINITY TO DOMITIAN. — CULT OF ISIS AND CYBELE. — TRIBUTE ENFORCED ON THE JEWS. DEATH OF CLEMENS, AND ALLEGED PER- SECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS. — DOMITIAN AS A GOVERNOR, ADMINISTRATOR, AND LEGISLATOR. — HE COUNTENANCES DELATION. — FAVOURS THE SOLDIERS. — CARESSES THE POPULACE. SPECTACLES. THE CAPITOLINE AND ALBAN CON- TESTS. — PATRONAGE OF LITERATURE REPAID BY FLATTERY. — DOMITIAN’S GRIM HUMOUR. THE COUNCIL OF THE TURBOT, AND FUNERAL BANQUET. DEATH OF AGRICOLA, A. D. 93 : WITH SUSPICION OF POISON : FOLLOWED BY PRO- SCRIPTION OF SENATORS, AND SECOND EDICT AGAINST THE PHILOSOPHERS. — REIGN OF TERROR. — DOMITIAN’S PERSONAL ALARMS. — HE IS ASSASSINATED BY HIS FREEDMEN, A. D. 96. A. D. 81-96. A. u. 834-849. S UCH are the fragments remaining from the wreck of his- tory, which embrace what little we know of the external affairs of Rome at this period. Henceforth we must he con- tent to work with these, or even scantier materials. More interest, if not more completeness, may, however, he given to our sketch of the Roman interior, by scrutinizing the character of the emperor’s domestic administra- The character . . , of Dom it km tion. It happens, indeed, that the personal char- of the itomaus acter oi JJomitian, the most conspicuous figure on the scene, reflects with peculiar fidelity the temper of the age, and affords a key to much of its history. i.U 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 99 The degeneracy of the sons of Vespasian paints the decline of the Roman people. In the father we have seen a type of the armed citizen of the republic, a Sabine by birth and tem- per, a genuine representative of that middle-class which still retained the stamp of rustic simplicity, so long associated in the imagination of the Italians with the farmers of the hills, and the artisans of the country towns of Sabellia. But this native simplicity had seldom been proof against the seductions of city life. Transplanted from their cabins in the mountains to the pillared halls of the Quirinal or the Carinas, the chil- dren of the Apennines were sure to lose, at least in the second generation, the rough coating of antique manners which pre- served their moral strength and hardihood, and to adopt the vices of patrician luxury, together with its lustre and refine- ment. No wonder that, bred in the atmosphere of a court, the sons of the yeoman of Reate should quickly cast aside the conventional restraints of their homely childhood. In an earlier and manlier age the transformation would have been no unmixecl evil. Civilization ripens the growing fruit, though it corrupts the fallen and over mellow. The sweets of polished life worked like poison in the veins of the plebe- ian of Rome’s silver age, substituting feebleness for grace, pliancy for urbanity, vicious propensities for elegant tastes. The deterioration was more marked in the younger of the two brothers, inasmuch as he was tried and tempted at an earlier age; and accordingly, while the weakness of Titus appeared in occasional or pai’tial defects, that of Domitian was found to pervade and leaven his whole character. The younger Flavius fell at once into that moral decrepitude to which the Roman people had been descending through many generations. With some kindly, and even generous emo lions, not wholly devoid of refined tastes, and of a sound in- telligence, he lacked the tenacity of fibre which strung the old Roman and Sabine fabric, and displayed no firm deter- mination, no vigour and persistence in his designs. The nerves of the Roman people were relaxed by ages of indulg- ence ; by sensual luxuries ; by moral turpitudes ; by long 100 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 81. loss of self-respect ; and they were now generally unequal to any sustained exertion ; unable even to keep long in view any arduous and noble object. The contradictions which appear in the career of the prince before us are the same we observe in the people generally. Such were his desire for military distinction combined with caprice and timidity in the pursuit of it ; his literary tastes and leanings, associated with jealous impatience of the free exercise of letters ; his softness and effeminacy of disposition, issuing in jealous cru- elty; his love of law and discipline, distorted by wanton freaks of tyranny; his mixture of gloomy austerity with childish horse-play . 1 From this conspicuous example we may learn how unfit were the people whom he represented for the forms of self-government; how impossible self-gov- ernment must always be to a nation which has corrupted it self by oppressive violence, by licentious dissipation, and by a tame renunciation of the rights and duties of political life. There is none of the Caesars, except perhaps Caius, against whom the evidence of history is so uniform and consistent as The eyideueo the younger Flavius. There may have been a con- mitian' uniform spiracy out of court; the witnesses may have and consistent, p een tampered with by senatorial agency. No doubt it is the duty of the judge to lean against the weight of testimony so suspiciously harmonious. But as long as he can detect no flaw in the chain of circumstance, he must leave the case, with only an admonitory caution, to the de- cision of the jury represented by the judgment and conscience of succeeding generations. I would content myself with, recommending all the consideration that can be fairly allowed 1 Dion describes him at the same time bold and passionate, crafty and dis- sembling : ■zoAAa {lev ug aiojitTog ipninroiv Tialv eXv/xaivero, noXAa de tail in Trapaanevijg knaKovpyei, lxvii. 1. The tyrant allowed the tyrants his pre- decessors to be freely lashed. Thus Statius says of Caligula : “ nec proximus hseres Immitis quanquam, et furiis agitatus, abegit.” Sylv. iii. 3. 70. ; of Nero still more pointedly : “ pallidumque visa matris lampade respicit Neronem,” Sylv. ii. 7. 118. The Genetldiaeon Lucani is a continued protest in favour of tlie victim of Nero’s cruelty. Comp, also, Sylv. v. 2. 33. A. U. 834. UNDER THE EMPIRE. 101 for the frightful temptations of the position. The abilities of Domitian seem to me to have been of a higher order than they are generally represented. The fulsome eulogies of some of his flatterers have perhaps injured the reputation of the man who was at least weak enough to tolerate them. When we cast an eye on the complex system of administra- tion which embraced the vast extent of the empire, and trace all its leading threads to the imperial cabinet on the Pala- tine, and to the hand of the eager, impulsive, and luxurious child of fortune there installed, we must admit that the fact of such a machine being so firmly guided for so many years is itself an answer to much of the ribald scandal which con- nects his name with the extreme of frivolity and licentious- ness. The defects of Domitian as a governor were those of -eccentricity rather than feebleness, his ideas were crude and ill-conceived, misapplications of accredited theories, political anachronisms; in short, the errors of imperfect education struggling in its meshes, casting about here and there for advisers, but rejecting the control of favourites. It was ob- served of Domitian by a competent critic that he was well served by his ministers ; 1 and the course of our history will show conclusively that of all the Caesars he held himself most free from their control and dictation ; two facts which speak with equal force for the good sense and natural ability of a despot. The reign of Domitian was an epoch of administrative reaction, such as repeatedly occurred in the history both of the Republic and the Empire, when an attempt , Domitian’s was made, or at least attected, to recall society reign an epueh to ancient principles and ideas. There is some- thing striking in these repeated struggles of the state con- science, something even affecting in the anxiety evinced by so many of the emperors, by some who were personally among the most selfish and vicious of them, for the amend- 1 Lamprid. in Alex. Sever. 65. The passage is evidently corrupt, but the remark seems to be attributed to Trajan. 102 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 81 ment of public morals, and tbe restoration of a golden age of virtuous simplicity. It was tbe general tendency of Pa* ganism to look backward rather than forward ; and the em- perors, as protectors and patrons of the religious sentiment among then’ people, which had no hope for the future, in- stinctively directed its regretful yearnings towards the past, Domitian was, moreover, a disciplinarian by birth and breeding. The early household training of the Roman citi- Domition af- zen still made itself felt in his temper and bear- t?on or r man™ a " trig, however surprising might be the revolution ners - in the circumstances of his family. The antique severity of Sabellia had been celebrated from primitive times : V espasian had retained on the throne of the world the homely manners of his rude stock. The sons, especially the younger, while they cast off the manners, retained in no slight degree the traditions and prejudices of their fathers. Domitian was not deterred by any sense of his own vices from the attempt to reform the morals of his countrymen. He had forfeited none of the Sabine faith in temperance and chastity, by his personal indulgence in the grossest excesses. Less subtle than Augustus, less an imitator than Claudius, his projects of revival sprang with more genuine impulse from his own heart, than those of either of his predecessors. He had no need of the sanctimonious pretensions which cast on Augustus the taint, or at least the suspicion of hypocrisy. The empire which the first princeps founded on a moral sen- timent was now firmly fixed, and the citizens had learnt to acquiesce in the decay of manners as the law of their destiny. Domitian’s attempts at reform were unquestionably sincere ; he had no political interest to serve by alarming the national conscience; but his measures sprang from a morbid taste for petty discipline. Nor was his rigid religionism the bastard product of a seared heart and a troubled conscience ; it was not the despairing effort of the startled sinner to slake the furies of remorse by a bloody propitiation. It His zeal for the J . 1 1 . . purity of the was rather a mixture of vanity and fanaticism vestal virgins. . ... engendered by the prophecies and portents which A. U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 103 had heralded the elevation of his house, and by the fortune which had saved him in the crisis of a godless anarchy, and made him the instrument for restoring the patrons of Rome to their august abodes. Scarcely was Domitian seated on his throne when he began to hold his inquest as chief pontiff on the irregularities imputed to certain of the Sacred Virgins. The fire on the altar of Vesta, the mysterious patroness of the commonwealth, had been tended from the earliest ages by a college of pure maidens, devoted to the solemn duty by the noblest parents, honoured with every mark of outward deference, bound by the most awful sanctions to preserve their virtue unsullied till advancing years should release them from their honourable servitude. To such purity, such sanctity, the mere idea of death was repugnant. The culprit for whom they interceded must be pardoned; the criminal on whom they barely cast their eyes on his way to the scaf- fold, must be exempted from the penalty of his delinquen- cies. But on the other hand the punishment of guilt in one so honoured must be signal ; the sinner must be cut off from the land of the living, and hidden away from the sight of her fellow-creatures. The blood of the wanton vestal was not to be shed by man ; the sword of earthly justice must not fall upon her; a higher tribunal demanded a more solemn and appalling sentence. Ho corpse could be buried in the city; but in placing the Vestal’s tomb at a spot within the walls the Romans seemed to violate no legal principle, for she de- scended alive into the earth . 1 The horrid rite was said to have been originally sanctioned by Huma, and tradition told of its having been more than once enacted in the first and brightest ages of the republic. But though amidst the relax- ation of later manners, the sacred ministers of the pure god- dess were less than ever exempt from infirmity, the sacrifice had been rarely repeated, and for more than two centuries wholly disused . 3 It was generally under the pressure of a The ritualists explained this mode of execution as an offering to Vesta, vno was identified with Tellus, the goddess of the earth. Ovid. Fast. iv. 459. 2 The case of Opimia occurred a. u- 273 ; that of Urbinia 284. Dion. Hal J 04 HISTORY OP THE ROMANS [A. D. 81 public calamity, sucb as a pestilence, or the occurrence of evil omens, that the priests bad calmed or attempted to calm the terror of the citizens by decreeing this fearful expiation ; and a victim sought with such a purpose was sure to be found. Had Hero been a religious reformer he would doubt- less have required the sacrifice of a Vestal after the burning of the city. Fortunately that monster of cruelty was not superstitious. But Rome had now a tyrant who was cruel and superstitious also. And with his superstition was min- gled perhaps some feeling of spite towards his father and brother, with - whom he always maintained a tacit rivalry. He complained that his predecessors had relaxed from the old prescriptions of religion, and had neglected the due pro- pitiation of the national divinities. The burning of the Cap- tol, twice repeated, had demanded a signal expiation, and inquisition into 110 suc ^ expiation had been made. Domitian in- their character, quired into the conduct of the Sacred Virgins ; the inquisition was carried back to past years ; two members of the college were denounced, examined, and convicted ; but the temper of the age was supposed to be averse from the literal execution of the frightful penalty, and, instead of being buried alive, the culprits were allowed to kill them- selves. Their paramours, who might have been scourged to death in the comitium, were graciously permitted to retire into banishment . 1 Domitian had been personally intent on a prosecution from which he expected great glory to redound on his administration ; thus far public opinion was undoubt- edly with him, and encouraged him to proceed in his inves- tigations . 2 A third victim, named Cornelia, was soon brought Ant. Horn. viii. 89., is. 40. Livy mentions the sentence against Floronia in 633, which she seems to have escaped by flight, xxii. 67. : and a still later in- stance is recorded by Dion in 640. See Reimar on Dion, lxvii. 3. 1 Suet. Domit. 8. It is with reference to these cases apparently that Do- mitian boasted, according to Dion, of his clemency in not exacting the full penalty of the law. Dion, lvii. 3. : ijyaXksTO on rag aenrapBbovg ug rjvdpope. vag ov nar/dpv^ev, d/Utd aXkug cnrodvr/aneiv EKEAevoe. a Even Apollonius the philosopher, in the biography of Philostratus, seems A. U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 105 oefore him, whose fate is recorded in a letter Cornelia buried of the younger Pliny, in which the dreadful de- aliv0, tails of these barbarities are vividly related . 1 a.b. 91 . Domitian, advancing from horror to horror, now determined to exact the penalty in all its atrocity. The culprit was con- demned and duly entombed alive, with a crust and a flask of water, in a vault prepared for her. The narrator is moved indeed to pity in his account of the poor creature’s protesta- tions of innocence ; yet even he feels more keenly the arro- gance of the chief pontiff in summoning his priests to his im- perial villa at Alba, instead of the official mansion in the forum, than the abominable cruelty of the sentence itself. The alleged partner of the crime, a Roman knight, was scourged to death, protesting his innocence also ; a praetorian, named Licinianus, who was suspected of criminality with her, but against whom proof seemed to fail, was induced to make a confession, upon which his escape from the city was connived at. Domitian feared that he had shown too great eagerness to convict ; and on the culprit’s avowal exclaimed with evident satisfaction, that he was now himself acquitted. Licinianus was allowed to remain in banishment, and some portion of his property was reserved from confiscation. Such however was the sympathy of the people with these propi- tiatory sacrifices, that even after Domitian’s fall, the virtu- ous A erva, his successor, did not think proper to recall the exile . 2 The zeal of Domitian in this matter was actuated not by a moral, but by a religious feeling. He was concerned for to approve of the emperor’s pious severity, vii. 6. : ical pryv nal 16yov aQiKops- • >ov ug ha fin pav nadapoiv eli] A opsriavog ireTZOLJipevog rfjg 'Pupatav 'Ecm'af el yap nal ci), eipij, KadapdsLjjg , ''H hie, tgiv adittuv tj>6vuv av iraaa / rj OLK.ovp.tvJi pecrr) vvv. 1 Plin. Up. iv. 11. Eusebius gives the date a. d. 91., but in Chron. Pasch. the event stands two years earlier. Clinton, Past. Pom. in ann. 91. 2 Plin. 1. c. : “ exilium molle yelut prosminm dedit. Ex quo tamen postea dementia divi Nervse translates est in Sicilians, ubi nunc profiteturP He sup- ported himself by teaching rhetoric. 106 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D 81 „ . . the maintenance of an ancient cult, not for the Domitian en- . # 7 forces the; laws preservation of personal chastity. The purity of the vestals was dear to the gods, and the sov- ereign pleasure of the gods must be shielded from outrage by human disobedience. But next to the purity of the Sa- cred Virgins, the gods fixed the seal of their approval on the purity of married life, when it had once been consecrated by the sanctions of certain specific ceremonies. The sole object of the laws against adultery, prescribed by Augustus, and enforced from time to time by his successors, was to con- ciliate the divine patrons of the married state, and we must not confound the imperial legislation on this subject with the attempts of later rulers, under the influence of Chris- tian ideas, to repress sins of incontinency and elevate the morals of society. Amidst the degradation of manners at this period, the citizens themselves seem to have been but imperfectly aware of their master’s real aim. The old re- ligious ideas were dissolving, and some vague moral instincts rising, at the same time, into greater prominence among them, while their ruler was personally actuated only by the desire of reviving the old ideas, and was utterly incapable of sympathy with the new. The sins of Domitian, freely cited against him in pasquinade and innuendo, were gross moral delinquencies ; 1 but he was a blameless worshipper of the divinities of the Capitol. He might live in incestuous intercourse with his own brother’s daughter after her widow- hood ; but he had stiffly declined to marry her as a virgin, and contract a union which, though sanctioned by a recent enactment, was fundamentally opposed to the principles of the state religion. When he upheld and enforced the law of adultery, the satirist might assert that such new-fangled strictness was enough to terrify the licentious deities of Olympus ; but Mars and V enus were not transgressors of the Julian law, and Vulcan had not taken his celestial spouse 1 Pliny, 1. c. scoffs at the zeal for purity of a judge, who was said to live in incest with his own niece : “ cum ipse fratris filiam incesto .... poUuiseet.” Comp. Panegyr. 62. 63. «l.U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 107 with the holy rites of confarreation . 1 * Even Domitian’s false principles were better than none at all. The dawn of better things, however, was beginning to break, and the heathens were feeling their way with doubt and hesitation towards it. The twelfth of the Caesars was the last of the reactionary emperors ; from henceforth their attempts at moral reforma- tion began to look forward instead of backward ; they made their appeal to the moral sense of man, in its gradual development, not to the effete traditions of an antique the- ology. The enforcement of the Julian law produced the punishment of some culprits of distinction ; the crime of defamation was prosecuted with renewed severity against both men and women of the highest rank ; the revival of the Scantinian enactments against a disQmstino- form ° . Enforcement of vice, which the law, much to its honour, had of tiie scanti- _ -. . . . _ . , nian law. branded from ancient times, may have excited still further surprise and indignation . 3 It is true that in the later years of the republic the penalty of death was com- muted in these cases to a fine of only a thousand sesterces, and the crime itself was limited to acts of incontinency be- tween Roman citizens. Here too, it was not the moral tur- pitude that the law regarded, but solely the violation of a political enactment. Ho delinquency was imputed to the stranger, no protection was thrown over the slave. The ex- cesses of Domitian himself, which he allowed his court poets to deck with their choicest verses, were no violation of the principle which he now recalled into operation . 3 The subject is one on which it is impossible to dwell ; but a passing allu- sion may suffice to explain the apparent confusion of prudery and licentiousness which reigned in the minds of the Roman 1 Juvenal, ii. 29. “ Qualis erat nuper tragico pollutus adulter Concubitu, qui turn leges revocabat amaras Omnibus, atque ipsis Yeneri Martique timendas.” * Suet. Domit. 8.; Dion, lxvii. 12. % Statius, Sylv. iii. 4. 108 niSTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 81. „ legislators. In one direction indeed, and one And of laws ° . . ’ against mutiia- only, Domitian seems to have deviated from his usual recurrence to ancient prescriptions, and to have acted on the motion of a more enlightened moral con- science . 1 No Roman legislator before him had forbidden the detestable practice of human mutilation. This iniquity had been from early times the opprobrium of the East; and so much had men’s feelings been blunted to the degradation it inflicted, that eunuchs had been allowed to sit upon the throne of Persia . 2 So abhorrent however had it been to the manlier sentiment of the West, that amid all the abominations to which the Romans had debased themselves, here at least they had maintained the rights of nature and humanity long after the more effeminate Greeks had cast off the last re- straints of self-respect. The custom of buying young slaves thus foully treated had been introduced into the palace from the example of the Asiatic courts, probably by Caius, the first imperial imitator of Oriental depravities ; hut Claudius, with his habitual recurrence to national usage, had perhaps resist- ed it, and had brought some impertinent remarks on himself by his regard for decorum if not for principle. Under Nero the fashion had again flourished, and spread from the palace to the mansions of the nobility. Seneca declaims with petu- 1 The insinuation that Domitian had no other motive than to cast a reflec- tion on his predecessor seems unreasonable. Dion, lxvii. 2. The emperor’s contemporaries may be suspected of flattery, as Martial, vi. 2., and elsewhere, and Statius, Si/lv. iv. 3. 13. ; but Ammianus Marcellinus expresses the deliber- ate judgment of a much later age: “juvat veterem laudare Domitianum, qui receptissima inclaruit iege, qua minaeiter interdixerat ne intra terminos juris- dictionis Roman® castraret quisquam puerum,” xviii. 4. 2 Plin. Hist. Nat. xiii. 9. Comp, the story of Bagoas, Diod. Sic. xvii. 5. Ammianus Marcellinus, xiv. 6., attributes the invention to Semiramis. Comp. Olaudian, in Eutrop. i. 339. Periander of Corinth was the first to introduce it into Greece, Herod, iii. 49. And it was from Greece, or the Greek monarchies in Asia, that the Romans no doubt adopted it, though they were pleased to impute this corruption of their manners to their intercourse with Parthia, Claudian, in Eutrop. i. 415. : “ Arsacio postquam se regia fastu Sustulit, el nostros corrupit Parthia mores.” 4.U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 10 ? lance rather than indignation against it ; Pliny, with more dignity, is silent upon the odious subject . 1 In the writings of Martial, Statius, and Juvenal, it becomes obtrusively promi- nent. Domitian himself had his miserable favourites, and the custom he pretended to denounce was never abandoned in the high places of the empire till it was again forbidden by Christian legislators . 2 This edict was intended to curb the shameless luxury of the great, and restore the modest dignity of ancient manners among the senators and nobles. In order to Measures brace the morals of the lower ranks, our reformer against the revived the laws of his predecessors against the instruments of more vulgar pleasures, the singers and dancers of the theatres, whose contentions or rather the contentions of whose patrons and partisans, had troubled the police of the city for many generations. Augustus had issued proclamations to control these noxious artists, and Tiberius had banished them from Rome. They were denounced to the guardian of public virtue, not untruly, as corrupters of the women as well as viola- tors of the peace of the city. But these attempts had signally failed. Under Nero the factions of the theatre and the circus had filled the streets with tumult and bloodshed. The mimes found no doubt a protector in the prince of mimes, but hi fact the passion of the populace for these performances had always defeated the legislation of the reformers. Yespasian seems to have desisted from what he deemed a futile proscrip- tion. It was not till Domitian’s accession to power that an- other serious effort was made to impose a check on these disorders. The measures of this prince were moderate, and perhaps the circumstances of the times favoured his inter- ference. The increasing extent and frequency of the shows in the amphitheatres, the introduction of new and grosser 1 Senec. Epist. 95. 24. ; Be Brev. Vit. 12. 4 2 The edict of Domitian was repeated in latei times, showing that the prac- tise was not eradicated. See the Digest, xlviii. 8. 884. Comp, also Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 29. The legislation of the Christian emperors on the subject is reviewed by Wallon, Hist, de VEsdavage, dte., Pt. iii. ch. x. 110 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 81. forms of public amusement, may have weaned the populace from the more refined diversions of dancing and singing. To the smaller class who still retained a taste for art and elegance, the emperor allowed the gratification of witnessing the ballet in their private houses, and he was satisfied with merely for- bidding such performances in public . 1 2 From this time the regulations against the mimes were alternately enforced and suspended ; but no such scandal seems again to have arisen from them as in the first century of the empire. Domitian had also his personal favourites among this profession, and allowed them easy access to his person. Such was Latinus, who boasted that his manners were untainted by the disso- luteness common to his associates, and that he was a player only upon the stage . 3 Such too was Paris, a man of greater note, the Roscius of the empire, who seems to have justified the imputation cast on his profession of corrupting female morals, if the story be true that he was the notorious para- mour of Domitia, and was at last waylaid and assassinated in the streets, on that account, by the emperor’s orders. Domitian hardly refrained, in the first access of passion, from inflicting death upon his consort also. As a noble Roman he could not do less than solemnly divorce her; but he did not long endure the separation, and presently recalled her to the palace pretending that the people required it . 3 His rage, 1 Suet. Domit. 7. : “ interdisit histrionibus scenam, intra domurn quidem exercendi artem jure concesso.” On the other hand, he added Wo factions, the golden and the purple, to the four already established in the circus. Suet. L c. ; Dion, lxvii. 4. 2 Suet. Domit. 15.: Martial, 1. 5., ix. 29., who makes him say of himself : “ sola scenicus arte feror : Nec poteram gratus domino sine moribus esse.” Latinus, However, had other recommendations to imperial favour, if, as is c on- jectured, he was the delator of Juvenal, i. 35., vi. 44. 3 Dion, lxvii. 3. ; Suet. Domit. 3. Dion mentions the divorce under the year 83 (the 9th consulship of Domitian), and the date of so solemn an act must have been well known. But this was at least ten years from the mar- riage, and Domitian was supposed to have been long carrying on bis inter course with Julia, which he continued after receiving his wife back. A.. U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. Ill however, against the seducer was not appeased even by the death of the victim. He seized and chastised the unfortunate player’s admirers, when they assembled on the spot where he had fallen, and strewed it with flowers. Some indeed ascribe the edict against the mimes to this personal mortification ; but we must guard ourselves against the proneness of our authori- ties to find a special motive for every occurrence of the times. The prohibition was more probably part of the settled policy already noticed. Thus when a quasstorian senator ventured to appear on the stage, an irregularity against which Augus- tus, as we have seen, had so earnestly contended, Domitian revived the precedent of the first imperial reformer, and ex- pelled the offender from the illustrious order . 1 The same jealousy with which the government had so long regarded the licentiousness of the stage, had been extend- ed even from an earlier period, to the Chaldseans x 1 . Edicts against and astrologers, the men of occult science, ivho the astrologers . . . . . . and the philoso- agitated society with visions and predictions, and pliers, filled with nefarious intrigues the families of the a. t>. so. citizens. Every interdict on players and dancers was accompanied with a proclamation against the mathe- matici. Yespasian’s practical good sense had tolerated this class also ; for the evil, if repressed in one shape, was sure, as he knew, to spring up in another. The diviners indeed deserved some favour from the adventurer whom their breath had seemed to waft to fortune. But Domitian, the third of his dynasty, might fear every portent of change, which to him could only be a change from good to evil. In common with all the princes who succeeded to an hereditary throne, he was induced to regard the prophets as his natural ene- mies . 2 It is impossible to say to what extent the astrologers 1 Suet. Domit. 8. : “ quasstorium virum, quod gesticulandi saltandique stu- dio teneretur, movit senatu.” Dion, lxvii. 13., adds the name Caecilius Rufinus. I presume that the culprit exhibited himself in public. 2 Tertullian pertinently asks : “ cui autem opus est perscrutari super Cse- saris salute, nisi a quo aliquid adversus ilium cogitatur vel optatur ? ” Apo- log. 35. Seuec. Ludus in Morte Claud, c. 3. : “ mafchematicos, qui ilium, es 112 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 81 and tlie philosophers were now connected together : Apollo- nius of Tyana, for instance, one of the greatest moral teachers of the time, appears to ns, even in the pages of his own biog- rapher, as a diviner and a thaumaturge ; it is possible, however, that his character in this respect is misrepresented by the in- judicious admiration of a less intelligent age. But enough intimacy subsisted, doubtless, between the two classes to excite the jealousy of the government, and to induce Domi- tian to renew his father’s decrees against the professors of Grecian wisdom. It does not appear indeed that he was more stringent in his measures than his predecessor. The expelled philosophers assembled without molestation in the Campanian villas of their noble patrons, and even under the walls of the city . 1 Probably some special exceptions were made, and a more distant banishment required in the case of the more turbulent or more notoriously disaffected. A much greater outcry was raised against the illiberality of Domitian than against that of his father ; but whether this was owing to the greater severity of his measures, or the detestation in which he was generally held, may be still a question . 2 quo princeps factus est, omnibus annis, omnibus mcnsibus efferunt.” Comp. Dubois de Guchan, Tacite cl son siecle , i. 515. 1 Pliny, Epist. iii. 11., speaks of visiting one of the banished philosophers “ in Suburbano.” “ Equidem cum essent philosoplii ab urbe submoti, fui apud ilium in Suburbano, et quo notabilius hoc periculosiusque esset, fui Praetor.” In the life of Apollonius, vii. 11., Demetrius, Apollonius, and others are repre- sented as discoursing, during this period, in Cicero’s Cumaean villa : “ Happy insects,” exclaimed one of them, on hearing the grasshoppers chirping, “ that can sing your old song, free from the jealousy of tyrants, from sensual pas- sions, from envy,” &e. Yet only a few pages before, (c. 4.) the biographer had represented many at least of the class as flying to Gaul, Africa and the deserts of Scythia for safety. 2 The forcible-feeble satire of Sulpicia supplies a fair measure of the im- portance to be attached to this act of the government, which seems to have been much exaggerated ; as, for instance, in that gush of laboured rhetoric : “ Die mihi Calliope, quidnam pater ille deorum Cogitat ? an terras et patria sascula mutat, Quasque dedit quondam morientibus eripit artes ? Nosaue jubet tacitos, et jam rationis egenos, A. a. 834.1 UNDER THE EMPIRE. 113 To give an antique colour to these proceedings, and re- mind the citizens of the long-accredited principles on which they were founded, Domitian had assumed from ^ J Domitian as- an early period the office of censor, which he con- sumes the cen- , , , _ , . sorship, and tmued to hold, contrary to all precedent, through- institutes re- out the remainder of his reign . 1 By repeated enactments he endeavoured to drill his subjects, at least with- in the city, to the maintenance of external decorum ; he reg- ulated their dress, their behaviour, their places in the thea- tres ; he attempted to preserve, amidst the mass of nations and habits fermenting around him, an image of the ancient republic, which should attract the eye both of gods and men, and engage the favour of the one and the reverence of the other. Such were the points to which, as we have repeatedly seen, the attention of all the imperial reformers was directed, and Domitian may have had a personal motive to quicken his zeal from the wish to connect himself, as the representa- tive of a new dynasty, with the traditions of the families which had ruled by right divine before him. But, often as we have noticed the recurrence of measures for the regulation of manners, we seldom meet with an instance of legal inter- ference with economical interests. The government of Do- mitian, however, is distinguished by a sumptuary edict of this character, which cannot fail to attract observation. It gives us a glimpse, at least, of the attitude assumed by the state towards industry, whether as its patron or its oppressor. W e have discovered already more than one symptom of the decay of wealth among the nobles of Rome. This decay was Non aliter quam cum primo surreximus sevo, Glandibus et purge rursus procumbere lymphse ? ” The specific cases of punishment were those of declaimers or conspirers against the government, such as Maternus; Dion, lxvii. 12. Two edicts were issued in 89 and 93, 94. Euseb. Chron ., Tac. Agr. 2., Dion, lxvii. 13. ; and the last seems to have followed on the suppression of the Antonian revolt. 1 Suet. Dornit 8. ; Dion, lxvii. 4. : TtgrjTr/Q dia P'lov iroorog Kal gdvoc na) Idiarav ital avT0KnaT6 f ?uv kxeipOTovijOii. Comp. Statius, Sylv. iv. 3. 13.; Mar tial, vi. 4 . : “ Censor maxime, principumque princeps.” 114 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS f A. D. 81. undoubtedly in continual progress, and was now plainly ap- parent in portions even of Italy. In the great towns and the more favoured districts of the coast or inland, it was disguis- a decline of ed by a vast display of borrowed magnificence, tobe 1 peree’ivcd ^ ie outlay of rent or tribute from every quarter in Italy. of j] IG globe; and the government had sought anxiously to conceal it, by attracting the wealthiest of its subjects to the neighbourhood of the capital, and fixing them with their liberal expenditure in the centre of the empire. Meanwhile the operation of natural laws was constantly working in a contrary direction. The wasteful and expensive processes of slave labour were devouring the capital of the proprietors, not in Italy only, but in all the seats of the old- est civilization, especially in Greece, and the lesser Asia. This decline was at the same time hastened by the demands of the government on certain provinces, such as Africa, Spain, Gaul and Britain, where the productiveness of the soil was generally developed by the hands of free coloni. According- ly, not in Italy only, but in Greece and Asia, the production of corn had materially diminished, and fertile land had been withdrawn from the plough ; but in its place many a ridge of barren hill-side had been scarped and terraced for the vineyard. Wine, the produce hitherto of some limited dis- tricts of the empire, was becoming more and more the com- mon beverage of the whole population in every province, and demanded an ever-increasing area for its production. It would seem, therefore, that the great change which had thus occurred in the economical circumstances of different parts of the Roman world, was the natural result of their amalga- mation in one body politic, and the nearly uniform system of law and impost that prevailed throughout it. We may conclude that the complaints we have heard of the decay of agriculture were only partially true, and do not fairly repre- sent the actual state of the whole empire. It was not to be expected, however, that the statesmen of Rome should take a broad and scientific view of interests so A. U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 115 widely extended, and so complex in their nature, Edict respect- and we need not wonder at the confusion into the 1 '™* which they fell, in seeking a remedy for evils of vme - which they saw neither the causes nor the compensations, nor, indeed, are our accounts sufficiently intelligent or explicit, to enable us to understand the real action of the government, still less to penetrate its motives. A strange story is report- ed, on the trifling authority of Philostratus in his life of Apollonius, that Domitian forbade the cultivation of the vine in the Ionian provinces, because, forsooth, wine excited the people to tumults and seditions . 1 He commanded, not only that no more vines should be planted, but that the existing plantations should be rooted up. The lonians, it is added, sent a deputation to Rome to plead for the industry by which they subsisted, and the sophist Scopelianus, whom they em- ployed to argue for them, was so successful that the decree was rescinded, and penalties denounced against those who should neglect the cultivation of the vine in future. It seems more likely that this edict was part of a general measure, such as that indicated by Suetonius, by which the emperor, alarmed at the increasing dearth of corn and cheapness of wine, prohibited the withdrawal of arable land from the plough in Italy, and restricted the cultivation of the vine throughout the provinces to one half at most of the extent to which it had been developed . 2 If such an arbitrary regula- tion was ever seriously meant to be enforced, it is plain that it could not have been really executed, nor could the emperor himself be long deceived by the erroneous principles on which it was founded. He soou desisted from the attempt. The 1 Philostr. Vit. Apoll. vi. 42. : comp. Vit. Sophist, i. 12. To this edict and to that which enforced the Julian law, the temperate philosopher declared him- self equally indifferent: p6vog yap avdp&i xuv ovt’ aidoiav Seopai ovr’ oivov. Vespasian, according to Philostratus, had deprived the Greek cities of their autonomy on account of their turbulence. 2 Suet. Domit. 7. : “ ne quis in Italia novellaret, atque in provinciis vineta exciderentur, relicta, ubi plurimum, dimidia parte : nec exsequi rem perseve' ravit.” ilG HISTORY OP THE ROMANS [A. D. 81. remembrance of it was chiefly preserved by the pungent epi- gram of Evenus, which declared that extirpate the vine as he might, there should still remain wine enough to pour a liba- tion on the imperial victim . 1 2 The culture of the vine contin- ued however to depend on the favour of the government. Thus we read at a later period, of the emperor Probus grant- ing such an indulgence to certain of the northern provinces.* The senate long before, expressly for the advantage of the Italian vine-growers, but possibly with the further object of stimulating the growth of corn in its dependencies, proscrib- ed the cultivation of the vine throughout the transalpine regions . 3 As regarded the observance of religious forms, Dornitian seems to have felt it incumbent on him to follow closely in the steps of Augustus. Thus he repeated, as we have seen, after a lapse of only forty-one years, the celebration of the secular games by Claudius, pleading perhaps that more than a century had elapsed since that solemn ceremony had been performed by the founder of the empire . 4 He enacted with dignity the part of censor and Domitian’s buildings in Kome. 1 I cannot, with some critics, cite the line quoted above, “ Glandibus et purse rursus procumbers lymphae,” as a reference to this edict. The epigram of Evenus is a well-known parody on an older couplet : kayi]Q kid pi£av, opue eri r.apiroipopTjaa oaaov imoiteioat. K aiaapi Ovopkvo). Anthol. i. 97. Jacobs. 2 Eutrop. ix. 17.: “ vineas Gallos et Pannonios habere permisit.” Yopiscus in Prob. 18. : “ Gallis omnibus et Hispanis et Britannis hie permisit ut vites haberent, vinumque confieerent.” 3 Cicero, de Rcpubl. iii. 9. : “ nos vero justissimi homines, qui transalpinas gentes oleam et vitem serere non sinimus, quo pluris sint nostra oliveta, nos- traeque vineae.” It is evident that this interdict did not long continue in force. 4 Suet. Domit. 4.: Censorin. de Die Nat. 17.: Tac. Ann. xi. 11. The secular games of Dornitian are referred to his fourteenth consulship, i. e., a. u. c. 841. Eckhel, vi. 384. : Clinton, sub. ann. On this occasion Tacitus officiated as one of the college of Quindecimvirs. He was also Praetor at the lime. “Domitianus edidit ludos sssculares, iisque intentius affui sacerdotio quindecimvirali praeditus ac turn praetor.” Comp. Hist. i. 1. “ dignitatem nos- trum a Vespasiano inchoatam, a Tito auctam, a Domitiano longius provectam nou abnuerim.” A. U. 834. j UNDER THE EMPIRE. m chief pontiff, and visited with stern reproof every appearance of disrespect to the gods and their temples. When one of his own freedmen ventured to make use of some pieces of marble, destined for re-building the Capitol, for a monument to his son, he caused the monument to be destroyed, and flung the remains of the buried child into the sea.' The wondrous preservation he had himself experienced in the sack of the sacred fane, seems to have sunk deeply into his mind, and fancying himself the special object of divine pro- tection, he made genuine efforts to repay the obligation with lavish expenditure. It was his privilege to retrieve the dis- asters which had befallen the empire under a father and brother less favoured than himself. To him it fell to com- plete a second restoration of the national temple, and the splendour with which he executed the blessed work far ex- ceeded the modest dignity with which his staid predecessors had proposed to invest the edifice. Plutarch had himself seen lying at Athens columns of bright Pentelic marble, of exquisite proportions, which were brought to Rome, and there, as he complains, chiselled, scraped and polished, and reduced to an ungraceful slenderness. The ornamentation of the edifice was of the most lavish character . 1 2 The gilding of the bronze tiles Avith which it was covered was the gift of Domitian ; the estimate we have received of its amount, even if we include in it the gilding of the bases and capitals of the pillars, and of the innumerable statues which crowded the precincts, exceeds belief . 3 But the restoration of the Capi- 1 Suet. Domit. 8. 2 Plutarch. Poplic. 15. ol Se doves . . . kv ry '’SufiyirXriyevTes avdis nai avagvoSevTes, oil tooovtov hsxov y?&avevres. 3 Plutarch assures us that the gilding, $ xpverucns, amounted to 12,000 talents, which, according to the ordinary computation of about 200?. to the talent, would amount to 2,400,000?., and says that this immense sum exceeded any private fortune at Rome. Stilicho, at the beginning of the fourth cen- tury, stripped the doors of some of their gold plating ; and Genseric, in the sack of Rome, 453, carried off further spoils from the Capitol ; but the gild- ing of the roof continued for many centuries to be a conspicuous ornament of 118 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS r A. D. 81. tol was not the only monument of Domitian’s piety. The recent fire had left many sacred sites desolate, both on the Capitoline and in the Campus. Augustus might have led the way ; but he would have required his wealthy nobles to fol- low ; and many of them would have competed gallantly with him in the display of patriotism and liberality. Such times were now past. The shrunken revenues of the magnates of Rome could not vie with the fiscus of the emperor, nor could the nobles even modestly imitate them prince’s generosity. Domitian had no Agrippa, no Pollio, no Maecenas, no Taurus, to erect temples for the gods, or halls, theatres, and baths for the public. The universal patron was Caesar. Several build- ings, both religious and secular, were restored or constructed by Domitian ; among them a temple of Minerva in the Cam- pus, and another in the Forum Transitorium, a temple of Isis and Serapis, to wFich we may add a restoration or repair of the Pantheon. The Diribitorium, the great hall of Agrippa, which boasted a roof of the widest span in the ancient world, had suffered in the fire of Titus, and the second century of the empire lacked skill or energy to cover it again . 1 This, however, seems to have been the only instance of acknowl- edged inferiority. On the contrary, from this time forward the emperors continued to adorn the city with new works, the size and splendour of which increased with every genera- tion ; but these were the works of the emperors only. But with all his zeal for the honour of the national divini- ties, the chief of the Roman people could not fail to remark Ascription of that none of their deities was so present to their charactoto niinds as an object of regard and veneration, as Domitian. the person of the prince himself, their august pa- tron and protector. A feeling of mysterious awe attached t’ue city, and contributed to give her the name “ Urbs aurea,” which she re- tained late into the middle ages. Gregorovius, Gesch. der Sladt Rom im Mitte- lalter, i. 41. 1 Dion, lxv. 8. : fyv tie ohcoq peytCToq tuv Traurdre piav opoiprjv ix^vrov" vim yao tJ$, rf/q orkyijQ avrov Kada/peOelayg, bn ovu ijSvvjjOr] avdiq cvoTijvat, axavift tori. A. U. 834.; UNDER THE EMPIRE. 119 to the living principle which seemed to animate the conduct of human affair’s from the centre to the circumference of the empire, and this feeling was easily lost in religious devotion to the visible chief of the state. Domitian followed the bias of the times in sanctioning more openly than hitherto the outward expression of Csesar-worship. The recognition of his father and brother as divinities, already cordially ac- cepted, made it scarcely possible to distinguish the nature of the dead and the living members of the same celestial house. No other emperor had succeeded to an actual father and brother. No other emperor except Titus himself had even descended directly from a deified ancestor . 1 * Accord- ingly the notion of Domitian’s participation, even while yet alive, in the divine nature, was instinctively admitted by the vague superstitious feelings of the people. It was the pleas- ure, and still more the interest of courtiers and parasites to foster and exaggerate this feeling ; but even Statius and Martial generally confine themselves to oblique insinuations, and leave the direct inference to the reader’s imagination. Domitian had thronged the narrow precincts of the Capito- line hill with statues of himself, which thus jostling the most venerable images of the national ends, challenged the wor- ship of the devotees of Jupiter. And so the poets contrived to mingle the idea of the emperor as Ruler, Father, Tarpeian and Capitoline, with that of the Greatest and Best of beings, who was adored under the same appellations. They de- scribed his statues as eternal, a pretty strong intimation that he was eternal himself. They styled his works, his exploits, his verses divine, a pretty clear avowal of the divinity which was supposed to animate their author . 3 Still the emperor refrains from claiming divine honours. While he allows victims to be slaughtered before his statues, and even the beasts which were driven towards the temples to be stopped on the way and sacrificed to his own images, while he raises 1 Plin. Panegyr. 11.: “ Vespasianum Titus, Titum Domitianus (dicavit ccelo) ; sed ille ut Dei films, hie ut frater videretur.” 5 Martial, v. 5. : “ Ad Capitolini coelestia earmina belli.” 120 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS LA. D. 81. to heaven not only his brother, who had worn the purple, but his infant child, who had attained to no popular venera- tion, he abstains from erecting a temple to himself, or placing his own altar by the side of the altars of the Flavian divini- ties . 1 If, however, it was only under the veil of a rhetorical figure that the citizens might claim to address their ruler as God, they professed to be delighted at the sense and natural piety of strangers, who were scared by no conventional scruples from the simple effusion of their enthusiastic adora- tion . 3 If Domitian is not a god in the abstract, he is at least as a god to the Romans . 8 The government of the terrestrial globe is a delegation from the Powers of Olympus to the Power of Rome, while yet he lives the life of a man among men . 4 Domitian and his consort represent to Roman eyes the Ausonian Jupiter and Juno . 6 The object of all this flattery favoured the illusion with deliberate affectation 1 Thus Dion expressly declares that no temple, even in his day, had been raised to a living emperor in Rome or Italy, to no emperor, at least, “ of any consideration : ” k’ dnocrovovv Pidyov rivbg agiov, as if to exclude Caligula. Dion, li. 20. The only child of Domitian (born a. d. 82, Euseb. Chronic.), which died in infancy, appears on coins as “ divus Aug. fil.” Comp. Sil. ItaL iii. 629. : “ Siderei juxta radiabunt tempora nati ; ” and Stat. Sylv. i. 1. 97. : “ Ibit in amplexus natus, fraterque, paterque, Et soror ; una locum cervix dabit omnibus astris ; ” from which it would appear that a sister had been canonized also. Comp. Suet. Vesp. 3. : Gruter, ccclxvi. 4. 2 Martial, v. 3. on the adoration of the Dacian Degis. 3 Martial, vii. Si. : u nostri mente calens Dei.” Quintil. Inst. Oral. iv. procem. 4 Statius, Sylv. v. i. 37. : “ Notat ista Deus qui flectit habenas Orbis, et humanos propior Jove digerit actus.” 6 Statius, Sylv. iii. 4. 18.: “Jupiter Ausonius, pariter Romanaque Juno,” Comp. Martial, ix. 37.: “Phryx puer allerim gaudia nota Jovis.” Both Au- gustus and Tiberius had been represented in statues and cameos as the earthly Jupiter. See Mongez, Icon. Horn. pi. 19, 22, 26. Muller, Denkmaler dev alien Kunst , p. 47, 60. So Germanicus and Agrippina appear in cameo as Trip- tolemus and Ceres, Livia as Cybele. Possibly all these are provincial symbol- isms. A.U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 121 When he took hack his wife after the divorce, he declared that he had restored her, not to his pillow, as a mortal might say, hut to his sacred cushion ; he encouraged the mob of the theatres to hail him and the empress as Our Lord and Lady / and, finally, he suffered his procurator to style him, in a public document, Our Lord and God. The daring phrase was eagerly caught up and popularly repeated . 1 It was, no doubt, a pleasant conceit of Martial’s, that when Domitian replaced the head of a colossal Hercules with his own celestial countenance, the jealousy disrespect to of Juno was at last appeased by the happy meta- {^ e \tS P as°Mas- morphosis. But these pretensions to divinity, P hern - y - whether received in earnest, or handled in joke, led naturally to a terrible consequence. Every act which could be con- strued into disrespect to the prince became, when viewed through this fatal medium, impiety and sacrilege. Thus, an unfortunate citizen, who complained, in the amphitheatre, of the emperor’s partiality to one of the combatants, was seized and thrown into the arena for blasphemy . 2 The case is all the worse, if, as seems too probable, the common feel- ing of the spectators assented to this arbitrary interpretation. But the consciousness, no doubt, of their self-degradation made the Roman people as jealous of one another as was their master of them. The slaves of Domitian could not bear that any of their fellow men should walk erect and independent. We may remark how differently certain creeds and cults were now regarded, on which the popular theology might be expected to look with equal jealousy. Isis and Cybele became henceforth fully naturalized at Cult of Isis Rome; they were accepted as allies of the indi- at genous divinities, with whom they were content Iiome - to exercise a divided sovereignty . 3 The charges of effemi- 1 Suet. Dorrdt. 13. Comp Martial, viii. 2. 6. ; Aurel. Victor, Cces. 11. ; Dion, lxvii. 13. ; Eutrop. vii. 23. 2 Suet. Lomit. 10. : Comp. Zonar. Ann. si. 19. ; yw-ij Tiq on evavrlov eh<6vo( avTo v aneSvcaro ttpoveWq. 3 The worship of Isis and Serapis was established about this period at 121 122 HISTORY OP THE ROMANS [A. D. 81. nacy and vice, once so justly made against their votaries, were at least tacitly withdrawn. But the freedom and inde- pendence of Judaism, respected by a manlier aye, Judaism more 1 J than ever of- and favoured by more magnanimous Caesars, re- buked the lifeless superstitions of the declining empire, and offended the vanity of a Domitian. The politi- cal self-assertion of the Jews had been sufficiently crushed, at least for a season ; the nation was, to all appearance, effectually subdued ; but its opinions survived, and perme- ated the veins and arteries even of Italy herself. With the destruction of their temple and the abolition of their ritual observances, the metaphysical dogmas of the Jews would appear more mysterious than ever to a people whose religion was almost wholly absorbed in the external and the sensuous. Judea , says Lucan, adores some unknown , undiscovered deity ; but fifty years later, Juvenal reproaches the followers of Moses with worshipping nought but the clouds and the sky-god, while they made a traffic of their superstitious dreams . 1 In the time of ISTero, Seneca could say of them, that, though conquered they gave laws to their conqueror f so firmly had they established themselves in the world’s capital, so deeply had they impressed their ideas on every Rome, according to the statement of Tertullian, Apol. 6. ; and Gibbon (c 2.) naturally supposes that it owed this favour to the gratitude of the Flavian family. Hence Statius addresses Isis with the utmost respect as Queen of Egypt and Goddess of the East : “ Isi, Phoroneis quondam stabulata sub antris, Nunc regina Phari, numenque Orientis anheli, .... .... Marti juvenem, Dea, trade Latino.” — Sylv. iii. 2. 110. But the emperor Otho had already patronized this foreign cult, and had publicly sonducted its ceremonies in the linen vestments of the Isiac priesthood. Suet. Olho, 12. 1 Lucan, ii. 592. : “ dedita sacris Incerti Judaea dei.” Juvenal, xiv. 97. : “Nil prater nubes, et coeli numen adorant,” vi. 547. : “ Qualiacunque voles Judsei somnia vendunt.” * Seneca, in a fragment quoted by S. Augustin, de Civ. Dei , vi. 11. : “ usque eo sceleratissimae gentis consuetudo convaluit, ut per omnes jam terras recepta sit : victi victoribus leges dederunt.” L. 0 . 834 .] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 123 class of the citizens, snch a demand had they created for the stimulus they could administer to the jaded imaginations of both women and men. From the time of Caesar down- wards, the Jews had thrust themselves into every Roman society, and not least into the highest. They had been favoured by princes, courted by princes’ freedmen ; ministers had flattered them, matrons had caressed them. A Jewish potentate had moulded the character of the emperor Caius ; a Jewish princess had enslaved the passions of the emperor Titus; a Jewish dancer had enchanted alike the empress, the senators, and the populace. Many citizens of every rank had more or less openly addicted themselves to Jewish usages and tenets, and when a Jewish sect ventured to trans- fer its obedience from the law of Moses to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the number of its adherents in the capital of the empire would seem to have embraced Jews, Greeks, and Romans in nearly equal proportions. Between these two branches of the same stem there reigned a deep antagonism, in which the government and the mass at least of the Roman people took no . „ T1 , . , , 1 Hostile atti- mterest. VV hen the jealousy ot the government tudeofthe . , . , _ . . government was excited agamst the Jews, indignant both at towards Ju- their turbulence and their proselytizing spirit, ing Christian- they might involve the Christians in the com- Uy ’ mon charge, or might, perhaps, divert it from themselves upon their rivals. When, however, after the great Jewish war, that jealousy was converted into settled hostility, both the Jews and the Christians would be placed under the same ban, and if the sword was retained in its scabbard, they would be sternly forbidden to exercise their spiritual influ- ence upon the citizens around them, or receive converts from the national religion into their ranks. Their ex- modcrated by emption at this period from actual persecution the Jew5u nt ° f might be secured by the demand that was made tribute - upon them for tribute. Both Jews and Christians, undis- tinguished by the Roman government, were required to pay the double drachma, according to Yespasian’s enactment, L 24 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 81. and if the Christians exclaimed against being thus confound- ed with a religion which they really renounced, those at least among them who were of Jewish extraction would be traced by the national token of circumcision . 1 2 Suetonius has re- corded an instance of the harshness with which this inqui- sition was enforced, and it seems possible that the old man of ninety, who was required to uncover, and convicted of Judaism in spite of his own denial, was in fact a Jewish convert to Christianity . 3 While, however, sectarians of Jewish birth were tolerated for the sake of their contributions to the treasury, Domitian, as a champion of religion, affected great indignation against the conversion of citizens to any form of Jewish manners _ „ . or doctrine. When, at a later period, the Pa- Charge of 1 m- # 7 A > piety and jew- gan conservatives sought to propitiate the gods isli manners 0 x 0 against citizens who seemed to abandon them, they held up the of rank. , . , * , . Christians to popular odium as atheists ; but this was a charge never brought specifically against the Jews . 3 Nevertheless, both Jews and Christians might be branded as impious in the Roman sense, that is, as cleniers of the Roman 1 There seems to be a reference to the Christians in the words of Suetonius, Domit. 12. : “ deferebantur qui vel improfessi Judaieam viverent vitam, vel dissimulate origine imposita genti tributa non pependissent.” As soon, how- ever, as the Christians established their independence of Judaism, they fell under the ban of an illicit religion. 2 Suet. Domit. 1. c. : “prater cjeteros Judaicus fiscus acerbissime actus est interfuisse me adolescentulum memini, quum a procuratore, frequentisshnoque concilio, inspiceretur nonagenarius senex an circumsectus esset.” The tribute of the didpaxpov continued in force in the third century (Origen, Ep. ad Africanum) ; nor do I find that there was any actual persecu- tion of the Jews during that period. There exists a rescript of Antoninus Pius forbidding a Roman lady to bequeath money to the Jewish Society at Antioch, Cod. Justin, i. 9. ; and Severus, after a revolt in Palestine, issued an interdict against conversions, apparently in the East. £ Milman, Hist, of Christianity, ii. 61. The charge of “atheism” was brought against the Christians in the third century, as we read in Minucius Felix, in Tertullian, Origen, and Lucian. No such accusation is advanced by Tacitus or Pliny. It was the last refuge of declining Paganism, and showed a fear of Christianity which had never been excited by Judaism. A. U. 831.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 125 divinities, and as tempting men to withdraw from their ser- vice. This charge of 'Impiety was, it seems, now advanced against many persons of rank in the city, and combined with that of neglecting the duties of a citizen ; and to this was added the kindred charge of adopting Jewish manners . 1 Whether these culprits were guilty of Judaism or of Christi- anity it seems impossible to determine. If I lean to the latter interpretation, it is because Judaism seems to have lost at this time almost all its attraction in Roman eyes, and, as the creed of a conquered and degraded people, lay under the ban of ill-success, which, with Pagan inquirers, would be deemed fatal to its pretensions . 2 Among these inquirers, however, there would be some accurate knowledge of the difference between Judaism and Christianity, and while the government and the historians writing from official records would confound them carelessly together, I can believe that the new faith was at this time making real progress among the higher ranks of society, and assuming in some degree, in spite of the disabilities under which it lay, the position held in an earlier generation by the old. Nevertheless, assuming this probability, we are still as far as ever from fathoming the real motives of the tyrant for the proscription with which, in the fifteenth p roscr i p tion of year of his reign, he visited some of his highest on b thi?cSrge, nobles, and among them some of his own nearest A - D - 95 - kindred. The first charge might be that of impiety and Judaism; but, besides these crimes, Acilius Gla- AcaiasGla . brio, lately consul, was accused of the high mis- bri0 - demeanor of having fought with beasts in the amphitheatre, an act which savours little of a Christian or even of a Jew- ish professor . 3 Flavius Clemens was first cousin to Domitian, 1 Dion, lxvii. 14. : emjvexdi] 6e appdiv kyiiXjjfia adeSrprog, vp’ tjq Kal aXXoi eg rd tgiv ’I ovdaluv ffirj k^oKeXXovreg ttoaXo! KarediKacdTjaav. 2 Of the contempt into which Judaism seems to have fallen at this time at Rome, I shall have occasion to speak hereafter. 3 Dion, L c. : tov de Si) YXabpiuva .... Karrpj'oprjdkvTa ra re aXXa ola Kal ol ttoXXoi, Kal oti Kal / &t]pioig kjuaxsro, icarkKTeivev. Acilius Glabrio, the younger of two nobles of Domitian’s court, was consul, a. d. 93. 126 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 81. being the son of Vespasian’s brother, Sabinus, and was mar- ried to Domitian’s niece, Domitilla. He had Flavins Clem . . ensandDo- stood high in the emperors favour. His two mitilla. . jr , . . , sons, who had received the auspicious names ox Vespasianus and Domitianus, had been placed by the em- peror himself under the tuition of the favourite rhetorician, Quintilian, and were destined, as all believed, to the imperial succession , 1 Suddenly the Romans learnt, with consterna- tion, that this illustrious scion of the reigning family was arrested and convicted of the crime of Judaizing, to which was added a vague charge of withdrawing from the civil, or, perhaps, from the religious duties of a citizen. Acilius was convicted and degraded to the arena, and, when he came off victorious in the combat, was sent into exile, and promptly despatched there. Clemens was sentenced at once to death and executed ; and his consort was banished to an island. Of their children we hear no further : possibly they suffered with their parents. The proscription extended to many other personages of distinction, whose names are not re- corded, who seem to have been generally banished, and who, after the death of the tyrant, were recalled among other sur- viving victims by his successor . 2 This proscription took place about eight months before Domitian’s death, at a period when he was tormented by the utmost jealousy of all around, and when his heart was hardened to acts of unparalleled barbarity ; 3 and it seems more likely that it was counselled 1 Suet. Dornit. 15. Quintil. Inst. Oral, prooem. iv. : Suetonius applies to Clemens the stigma, “ contemptissimse inerti®,” though he had just been consuL The phrase seems to refer to neglect of Roman usages and social prescriptions, which it was more and more difficult to enforce upon the higher ranks of citizens. It is apparently the same as the “ publica circa bonas artes socordia ” of Tacitus, Annal. xi. 15., and is not to be restricted to the evasion of political duties. 2 Tertullian states that the exiled Christians were recalled by Domitian himself, Apolog. 5. ; but this is contradicted by Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. iii. 20,, and seems in itself improbable. Comp. Oros. vii. 11. 3 The exact date is thus ascertained : Clemens was consul, a. d. 95, and gave his name to the year , but Domitian put him to death, according to Sue- A..U. 834.1 UNDER THE EMPIRE. 127 by abject fear for his own person or power, than by concern for the religious interests of the state, however sincere he may once have been in his zeal for the honour of d Alleged pcrse- the gods. We must be content to draw the veil cation of the again over this slight and dubious glimpse of the precarious state of the Christians under Domitian, which has been too hastily dignified with the name of a persecu- tion . 1 If Domitian was a precisian in religious affairs, not less did he carry the spirit of discipline into the administration of the laws. This branch of government, after • • -TNi t it -Domitian en- excitins: the feverish activity of Claudius, had courages the — * * delators been entirely neglected by Nero, and Vespasian was to the last too much of a blunt soldier to undertake a duty requiring tact and subtilty. Domitian had the train- ing of a civilian, and his temper was inclined to chicane. His edicts and rescripts were issued in restless haste, and seem to have obtained little respect from posterity. But his tonius : “ tantum non in ipso ejus consulatu ; ” therefore, immediately after the termination of the year, or at the commencement of 96. Domitian himself perished in the middle of September of that year. 1 The ecclesiastical tradition of St. John’s miraculous preservation from the boiling oil (Tertull. de Prescript. Hard. 86.) has no historical value, though we may give full credit to the statement of Irenasus, that the last of the Apos- tles was living almost at the close of the first Christian century. The Flavian persecution is claimed by Tertullian, Lactantius, Orosius, and Eusebius ; but on no other grounds than those stated in the text. Eusebius gives, indeed, an interesting story from Hegesippus, which may have some foundation in fact, in reference to the inquiries instituted by Vespasian, and continued, no doubt by his successors, into all Jewish claims to the royal succession of David. The sons of Judas, “ the brother of our Lord,” were called before Domitian. He demanded whether they descended from David. They confessed it. Again he inquired what were their means. They declared that they possessed but 9000 denarii, and a few acres of land. They showed him their hands, hard with daily toil, in token of the simple industry by which they gained their living. Once more the emperor asked, what was the meaning of Christ’s kingdom ; to which they replied that it was not of this world, but should ap- pear at the consummation of all things. Domitian, it is said, was satisfied with these answers, and, it is added, put a stop from that moment to the perse- cutions of the Christians. Hist. Eccl. 1. c. 128 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 81. personal diligence almost equalled that of Claudius, and was, no doubt, beneficial to bis people. Nor must we let ourselves speak with disrespect of the vigilance, however often ill-di- rected, with which he superintended the procedure of the magistrates in Rome, and throughout the provinces . 1 2 Never were so many had judges and corrupt governors brought to justice; hut the vigilance of the prince in his solitary watch- tower would have availed little, had he not employed the eyes of a legion of informers. At the commencement of his principate, Domitian had trodden carefully in the steps of his predecessor in repudiating and proscribing such vile services. He had expressed his abhorrence of them in a sentence which was carefully recorded by the historians : The prince who does not repress delation , encourages it? But the necessities of his own policy undermined this indignant virtue. The same ruler who punished the delators of Nero fostered a similar brood without scruple in his own interest. The distinction between the delator and the legitimate ac- cuser was accurately drawn, and it will be well to hear it in mind to understand clearly the crime so often urged against the emperors . 3 In civil cases, particularly in those relating to the collection of the public dues, the government em- ployed its own servants for the discovery and prosecution of defaulters. It was the business of the advocatus jisci thus to watch over the interests of the imperial revenues. But the officious zeal of irregular spies, though often really encouraged, was always professedly denounced, and such information given by slaves against their masters was re- pudiated with especial horror. In criminal cases the right of accusation was legally restricted to certain near relations, and the interference of a mere stranger was unauthorized delation. The legitimate pursuer, however, might enrploy an advocate, who stept into his place and became his repre- sentative The provinces might thus employ a patron at 1 Suet. Domit. 8. ; Victor, Epit. 11. 2 Suet. Domit. 9. ; Comp. Dion, Ixvii. 1. 8 Cod. Justin, ix. 1., x. 11. A. U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 129 Rome to accuse, in their name, their delinquent prefect ; or the senate might itself appoint an advocate or accuser, as was often done in cases of public crime, particularly in cases of majesty. But the senator who, unemployed and unap- pointed, came forward of his own accord to accuse, was branded as a delator, and was deemed to transgress law and usage, as well as to violate the confidence which ought to reign among the members of a privileged order . 1 The diffi- culty in which the emperors were placed will he easily seen. Constrained as they were to veil the extent and foundation of their power, and to court, instead of demanding the obedi- ence and homage of their subjects, cases constantly occurred in which it was essential to their safety that their supremacy should be vindicated, while it was impossible for them to come forward openly and demand protection and satisfaction. Firmly to reject the proffered assistance of the voluntary de- lator required an amount of self-restraint and self-confidence which few men in such a position could boast ; least of all one who was conscious of his own demerits, and of the un- popularity with which he had surrounded himself. With conspirators in the senate, in the forum, in the camp, even in his own household, with a whole people constantly on the watch for the evil auguries of the soothsayers, the most trifling marks of disrespect might cause deep uneasiness, and the means of indirect repression, through the agency of the delator, must be accepted as a necessary weapon of defence. But the necessity for the use of this fatal weapon grew with its exercise. Domitian seems, of all the emperors, to have carried it furthest, and adopted it most sys- Character of tematically. It was an aggravation rather than the delators - an extenuation of his crime that he seduced into his service 1 Hence tlie use of the phrase : “ sponte accusasse ” to mark the enormity of the delator. Of Silius Italieus, Pliny says, JEpist. iii. 7. : “ l®serat famam suam sub Nerone ; credebatur sponte accusasse.” On the other hand, he is careful to let his correspondents know that in his own public accusations he was appointed by the senate. TSp. vii. 33. 130 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. SI, men of high rank and character, and turned the senate into a mob of rivals for the disgrace of thus basely serving him. The instruments of his jealous precaution rose in a gradu- ated hierarchy. The knights and senators trembled before a Massa Baebius, a Cams, and a Latinus ; but these delators trembled in their turn before the prince of delators, Memmius Regulus, and courted him, not always successfully, by the surrender of their estates or their mistresses. A school of high prerogative lawyers speedily arose to humour the em- peror’s legal tastes, and to invent a justification for every sentence it might please him to pronounce. Men who thus prostituted their abilities were found liable, as might be expected, to charges of gross irregularity in their own con- duct. Thus Palfurius Sura was accused of having descended, being a consular, into the arena, to gratify Nero by wrestling with a female athlete. When, however, Vespasian struck his name from the roll of the senate, he went over to the Stoics, set up for an austere precisian, and a professed oppo- nent of the imperial government . 1 Received back into favour by Domitian, he employed himself as readily in building up the theory of imperial prerogative. The men, indeed, who did this kind of work were sycophants; nevertheless, the work itself was seasonable. It was time that the reality of monarchy should be stripped of its disguises, and no pretence left for the fitful assertion of an impracticable idea of liberty. The long enjoyment of good and temperate government which followed, was probably in a great degree owing to the naked interpretation of imperial power put forth by the crown lawyers of Domitian. But some years of mutual sus- picion and misunderstanding were still to be endured by prince and people before this consummation could be reached. The best and noblest of the citizens were still marked out as the prey of delators, whose patron connived at enormities 1 The story is told by the scholiast on Juvenal, iv. 53. : “ Si quid Palfurio, si credimus Armillato, Quicquid conspicuum pulcrumque est fequore toto, Res fisci est, ubicunque natat.” A. U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 131 which hound their agents more closely to himself, and made his protection more necessary to them. The haughty nobles quailed in silence under a system in which every act, every word, every sigh Avas noted against them, and disgrace, exile, and death followed upon secret whispers. The fears of Do- mitian increased Avith his seA r erities. He listened to the tales not of senators and consulars only, hut of the humblest offi- cials, and CA'en of private soldiers. Often, says Epictetus, was the citizen, sitting in the theatre, entrapped by a dis- guised legionary beside him, Avho pretended to murmur against the emperor, till he had led his unsuspecting neigh- bour to confide to him his OAvn complaints, and then skulked away to denounce him . 1 The government of Domitian leant more and more on the soldiers. Every step he took in tyranny required to be secured by fresh measures of force and cruelty. J . . Favour sFowd But the guardians of the imperial tyranny might by Domitian to at any moment become its avengers. It was ne- cessary to divide the officers as well as to unite the soldiers. Hence the jealousy Avith Avhich the imperator kept his best lieutenants unemployed, or entrusted them only with inferior commands. Hence, perhaps, his practice of dividing the pre- fecture of the city, the most confidential post in the empire, among as many as twelve colleagues. 3 The legionaries, how- ever, found themselves humoured, indulged, and pampered. Of reducing their number for the sake of economy there Avas no further mention. They stalked along the streets as a separate and favoured class, driving the herd of citizens to the right and left with the clang of their boot-heels, and the rattling of their gaudy accoutrements. It concerned the dig- nity perhaps, and certainly the safety of the emperor, that the bravest of his subjects should seem also the most hon- oured, and the most fortunate ; so that elevated by privileges, as Avell as ornamental distinctions, above the unarmed deni- 1 Epictetus, Dissert, iy. 13. 2 This fact is stated by Lydus, de Magistratibus , i. 49., ii. ] 9. Imhof ’a Domilianus, p. 100. 132 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. I). 81 zens of the city, they might share at least with their chief the envy and hatred of the people . 1 To gain the confidence of this class the emperor tore himself repeatedly from the pleasures of the capital, and pretended to share their toils in distant campaigns. In Domitian we seem first to return to that early condition of society to which despotism in civilized states is ever tending, when the chief is compelled to resume the command of his armies in person, and make himself the actual leader of a horde of organized banditi. The position to which this emperor was first called was accepted with in- creasing unreserve by his successors. In Rome they solem- nized their triumphs ; in their Campanian villas they enjoyed brief snatches of repose ; but it was on the frontiers more and more that they reaped the laurels which attached the soldiers to their persons, and from the camp that they issued more and more the decrees by which they ruled the world. Meanwhile the mob of the city demanded its accustomed indulgences more keenly than ever. Domitian lavished on it the old amusements in increased profusion, and Domitian ca- . , rcsses the popu- invented new. k rom year to year he squandered his treasures on shows and entertainments. His costly exhibitions displayed with exaggerated features the tasteless extravagance in which the Romans delighted. Glad- iators hewed and hacked one another ; wild beasts tore their victims ; chariots raced and jostled as of old ; but the Flavian amphitheatre afforded a wider arena than any former edifice, and the shows appropriated to it were enhanced in grandeur and extent. The citizens shouted with admiration at a sea- fight enacted within the stone enclosure, the vast space be- neath them being flooded for the occasion from the tanks or fish-ponds of Nero’s gardens . 2 Here, too, women fought with women, or even with men; an army of dwarfs was 1 Juvenal, xvi. in fin. : “ ducis hoc referre videtur.” 2 Suet. Dom.il. 4. ; Comp. Tit. V. Domitian constructed also a naumachia Dy the side of the Tiber : ev iiaivu tivi x u p' l V > says Dion, lxvii. 8., to distin- guish it from that of Augustus. A. U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE 133 marshalled in a combat against cranes . 1 Domitian added two colours, the purple and the golden, to the four factions of the circus, and increased the number of the chariots that dashed in tumultuous fury round the goal. He courted popu- larity by the constancy with which he attended these exhibi- tions, which every citizen of taste and refinement had long pronounced intolerably vulgar; but he preserved his own dignity with more self-respect than some of his predecessors, and though noted for exquisite skill in some manual exercises, he never deigned to exhibit it in public, or purchase applause by personal degradation . 2 Sometimes, indeed, his caprice or imperiousness broke through the restraints of his self-imposed affability. On the occasion of a sudden storm of rain he re- fused to allow the veil of the amphitheatre to be drawn over the spectators ; and once, when the mob of the circus dis- turbed him by their clamour, he did not scruple to command the herald to call them to silence, a bold breach of etiquette towards the majesty of the people . 3 While, indeed, the brutal or senseless amusements of fight- ing and racing still enchained the passions of the populace, a more elevated taste was apparently making; way 1 r . J & J Establishment among a large middle class of citizens. The mag- of the capitoi- „ . ine contests in nates of the city put some check on the extrava- singing and gance of their luxury, and their clients and depend- composltlou - ents began to yearn for intellectual recreations, little known to the earlier generations. The moral triumph of Greece over her conquerors was complete on the day when the Homan 1 Stat. Sylv. i. 6-53. : “ Stat sexus rudis insciusque ferri, Et pugnas capit improbus viriles .... Casuraequc vagis grues rapinis Hirantur pumilos ferociores.” Women fighting in the arena had been seen under Nero. Tac. Arm. xv. 32. 3 Suetonius ( Domit . 19.) mentions some extraordinary instances of his ski]] with the bow, which he would sometimes exhibit to select guests in his Alban villa. 3 Dion, lxvii. 8. ; lxix. 6. : roi/ro dr/ to tov Aofienavov oiurr^aaTe. 134 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 81. emperor deigned to institute quinquennial contests in poetry, eloquence, and music, after the fashion of the graceful games of Hellas, long since naturalized in the Grecian cities of Cam- pania . 1 2 But Domitian was an antiquarian, and he required a precedent. He discovered that on the first rebuilding of the Capitol by Camillas, the senate had directed their pre- server to institute dramatic shows, in which the taking of Veii held a prominent place . 1 Fortified by this authority, Domitian celebrated his own restoration of the national tem- ple with games on the Grecian model, such as Hero had ex- hibited with some reserve in his private circus, in the most public manner, and on a scale of unusual magnificence. On the summit of the Capitoline hill, in the face of men and gods, the compositions of the rival candidates, both in Greek and Latin, were cited, and the victors crowned with oak-leaves in gilded metal . 3 The subjects of these pieces were vari- ous, but we may believe that they turned for the most part on the praise of the emperor himself, and served, more or less directly, for his glorification, as a warrior, a poet, a ruler, or a demigod . 4 * The connexion between the founder of the prize and the god in whose honour it was founded was touched, no doubt, more or less delicately by every competitor . 6 The favourite poets and orators of the day contended eagerly for these distinctions, and lamented, when they failed of success, the harshness or ingratitude of 1 Suet. Domit. 4. Sturdy Romans still continued to protest against these Hellenic corruptions, and even, when they could, to put them down. When Rufinus abolished the Gymnic Games at Vienna, Junius Mauricus exclaimed in the senate, “ Vellem etiam Rom® tolli possent ! ” Plin. Ep. iv. 22. 2 Liv. v. 50. (a. u. c. 389) ; Festus, p. 322. 3 Censorin. de Die Nat. 18. (a. u. c. 839, a. d. 86, Eckhel, vi. 381.); Stat. Sylv. iii. 5. : “ sanctoque indutum Csesaris auro.” Martial, iv. 1. 6. : “ Perque manus tantas, plurima quercus eat.” 4 Plin. Fancy. 54. : “Et quis jam locus miser® adulationis man ebat ignarus, cum laudes imperatorum ludis etiam et comissationibus celebrarentur, saltaren- tur, atque in omne ludibrium effeminatis vocibus, modis, gestibus franger- entur ? ” 6 Quintil. Inst. Oral. iii. T. 4. A. U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 135 the patron deity . 1 The transformation of Italian Rome into a Grecian city by the architects of Hero was crowned by this truly Grecian solemnity, which seems to have taken root in the habits and tastes of the people, and exercised, no doubt, great influence upon them. The periodical contests of the Agon Capitolinus (for even the name they bore was Greek) continued without interruption down to the fifth century ; the solemn consecration to the muses of a spot known for so many ages only as the stronghold of national force, sank deep into the minds of successive generations. The temple and the citadel have vanished in storm and fire, and even their sites have become the battlefield of antiquaries ; but it was on the Capitoline hill that the song of Petrarch was crowned in history, and the song of Corinna in romance. At the Capitoline games Domitian presided in person, in the Grecian costume, which it had hitherto been deemed disgraceful for a Roman to assume in Rome, wearing also on his head a new-fangled coronet of gold adorned with figures of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva: the flamens of Jupiter, who sate by his side, bore on their own fillets the image of the emperor. The first of the Caesars had chosen his ancestress Venus for his patron divinity; Augustus had placed himself under the protection of Apollo ; Domitian affected to believe that he was the special favourite of Minerva . 2 He founded Assumes Mi- nerva as Ms patroness, and institutes games in her honour at his Alban villa. 1 Stat. Sylv. iii. 5. 3T. : “ Tu cum Capitolia nostra Inficiata lyroe, ssevum ingratumque dolebas Mecum victa Jovem.” v. 3. 232. : “ Et fugit speratus honos, cum lustra parentis Invida Tarpeii canerem.” Posterity has avenged the defeated competitor by preserving so large a portion of his verses, while it has let even the names of his rivals perish. Imhof sup- poses, not unreasonably, that he was distanced, not in poetry, but in adulation. 2 Quintil. Inst. Or at. x. 1. 91. : familiare numen Minervae.” Suet. Homit. 15. Statius and Martial, passim. In token of his devotion to this goddess Domitian is said to have demanded to be chosen Archon of Athens. Philostr. 136 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 81. annual contests in her honour at his Alban villa, and in these, too, he combined poetry and rhetoric with musical and gym- nic exhibitions. Statius, who failed of the prize on the Capi- tol, was thrice crowned at Alba ; but he seems to have held the olive chaplet of the goddess which he gained in less es- timation than the oaken wreath of Jupiter which was denied him . 1 Domitian’s vanity was better employed when it led him to bestow his regards, however cold and stately, on men of letters ; when he conferred on the learned and virtuous Quintilian the ornaments of the consul- ship, and made him tutor to his youthful kins- men ; when he encouraged, with his applause, and at least with some trifling recognition of more substantial value, the genius of Statius and Martial. Men of still higher character or position, such as Tacitus and Pliny, owed to his discerning patronage their early advance- ment in public life ; though they and others might pretend at a later period to have shrunk from a protection which de- manded unworthy adulation. True it is, perhaps, that no business, however trifling, was transacted in the senate with- out the preface of a fulsome eulogy on the prince . 2 The em- peror’s tame lion, or mutilated valet, was celebrated with no less fervid eloquence than a victory over the foes of the re- public . 3 The repair of twenty miles of pavement on the well-worn route to Puteoli was made the subject of an ex- His patronage of men of let- ters. Quintil- ian, Statius, Martial, Taci- tus, and Pliny the younger. tended panegyric, while the Flavian amphitheatre, the im- mortal work of Y espasian and Titus, to Avhich Domitian had only set the coping stones, extorted from the courtliest of his poets the tribute of but one or two short epigrams . 4 Vit. Apoll. viii. 16. He assumed her effigy on his medals from the year 833, Eckhel, vi. 375. Philostratus affirms that he pretended to be her son. 1 Suet. Domit. 4. ; Stat. Sylv. iii. 2. 28. : “ ter me nitidis Albana ferentem Serta comis.” 2 Plin. Paneg. 34. : “ nihil tarn vuigare tam parvum in Senatu agebatur, ut non laudibus principum immorarentur quibuscunque censendi necessitas inch disset.” s Stat. Sylv. ii. 5. : “ Leo mansuetus Imperatoris ; ” iii. 4. : “ Coma Earini. ' * Stat. Sylv. iv. 3. : “Via Domitiana.” Martial, De Speclac. 1. 2. A. U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 137 Domitian’s dubious successes in the field furnished a theme for many sounding hyperboles . 1 But the men of letters reserved, as might be expected, their most laboured encomiums for the verses or speeches to which their princely patron himself save utterance. To him. say Silius, the muses . , ^ ^ shall themselves bring offerings , and Phoebus shall flattery of the marvel at a song more potent than that which stayed the Hebrus , and uprooted Rhodope ? Such were the inordinate compliments which could please the ears of a son of the homely Vespasian, when, con- scious of the hatred of his senators, he could no longer soothe his apprehensions by the vows of loyalty extorted from them. The poor poets could cause him no anxiety. He need not 1 Martial, ii. 2., v. 19., vii. 1-8. Sil. Ital. iii. 608. Stat. Sglv. 11, cc. Theb. i. 19. : “ Bisque jugo Rhenum, bis adactum legibus Istrum Et conjurato dejectos vertice Dacos.” 2 Sil. Ital. iii. 618. : “ Quin et Romuleos superabit voce nepotes Quis erit eloquio partum decus : huic sua Musre Sacra ferent ; meliorque lyra cui substitit Hebrus Et venit Rhodope, Phrebo miranda loquetur.” Comp. Quintil. Inst. Orat. x. i. 91. : “Hos nominavimus quia Germanicum Augustum ab institutis studiis deflexit cura terrarum, parumque Dis visum est esse eum maximum poetarum,” &e. Valerius Elaecus specifies a poem by Domitian on the war in Judea (Argon, i. 12.): “Versam proles tua pandat Idumen, Namque potest,” and some modem critics ascribe to him, I think erroneously, the translation of Aratus, which goes under the name of German- icus Caesar. Quintilian, in the preface to Inst. Orat. iv., flatters him for his accomplishments as an orator, and even Suetonius admits them to some extent. It is difficult to say how far Domitian deserves to be regarded as a patron of literature. The seventh satire of Juvenal beginning, “ Et spes et ratio studiorum in Csesare tantum,” is probably of a later date. Suetonius speaks in the most disparaging terms of his personal acquirements, which are so highly lauded by the authorities above cited. He allows, however, that he bestowed pains and expense in restoring the treasures of the great libraries destroyed at Rome by fire : “ exemplaribus undique petitis missisque Alexandriam qui describerent emendarentque.” Domit. 20. His favours to Statius and Martial seem to have been but slender. Tacitus only allows that he pretended to love letters and poetry. Hist. iv. in fin. 138 HISTORY OR THE ROMANS [A. D. 81. read their blessings backwards, and interpret their notes of admiration into disguised tokens of disgust. To them he could allow unlimited licence to brand the memory of Nero, to sound the praises of Lucan, who had plotted against a ty- rant, and of Thrasea, whom a tyrant had sacrificed, neglect- ing in their favour the common interest of tyrants to protect the memory of one another. 1 Even in the last moments of his own tyranny he clung tenaciously to flatteries such as had hardly been lavished on the opening promise of his pre- decessor. On the kalends of January 95, the fifteenth year of his reign, when he entered on his seventeenth consulship, a period when all the worst features of his character had been brought into full relief by the terrors of the Antonian con- spiracy, he could allow the humble courtier Statius to paint in glowing colours the greetings of the god Janus, the patron of Roman chronology. Hail , great father of the world , about to inaugurate with me the ages! Behold the fresh splendour of our temples! Behold the aspiring flames of our festal fires! on thee the constellations of my winter rain a genial warmth! .... Augustushore the fasces thirteen times ; but it was in his latter years that he first began to deserve them. Thou, still in thy youth , hast already transcended thy ancestors. A thousand trophies shalt thou gain ; only permit them to be triumphs ! Tet remaineth Bactria to be conquer- ed: yet remaineth Babylon. JSfo Indian laurel has yet been laid in the lap of Jupiter : the Arabs , the Seres kneel not yet in supplication. All the year hath not yet its full honours. 1 Statius, Sylv. ii. 7. 100. : “ Sic et tu rabidi nefas tyranni Jussus prsecipitem subire lethem.” Martial, vii. 21. : “Heu! Nero crudelis nullaque invisior umbra.” i. 9. : “magni Thrasese consummatique Catonis.” The praises of Cato had been tolerated by Augustus, but Pompeius and the whole “ Pharsalian crowd ” receive their apotheosis from Statius : “ Qua Pharsalia turba congregatur ; Et te Dobile carmen insonantem Pompeii comitantur et Catones.” A U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 139 Ten months still wait impatient to be designated by thy titles .* Nero Lad Lis social Lours, and tlie temper to enjoy tLem. His smile was attractive ; Le could flatter and cLarm ; Le Lad companions and favourites, possibly friends and ^ lovers. But the genius of Domitian was always moodiness and solitary and morose ; he seems to Lave Lad no per- sonal intimacies ; Lis humour, when Le chose to unbend, was caustic and saturnine. Shrewd enough to take an accurate measure of the sycophants around him, Le enjoyed a grim sat- isfaction in playing on their fears. If you only talked with him on the state of the weather, your life was at stake, says the satirist, and you felt that it was at stake . 1 2 In the depth of his disimulation he was an imitator of Tiberius whom he profess- ed to make his model both in his measures and his demeanour ; but the amusement he derived from dissembling with his vic- tims was all his own. Of the feats he performed in disguising his cruel intentions from the wretches he was about to sacri- fice, some ghastly stories were circulated, which suffice at least to show the estimate commonly formed of him . 3 The incident about to be related is not to be regarded as a myth invented in later times to realize the popular idea of Domitian’s moody humour. Though narrated by T]l0 colincil of a professed satirist, we are expressly told to con- descriSby” skier it as a veritable history, and we are bound, Juvenal - I think, to accept it as at least true in the main. If indeed we admit the accuracy of every particular, it presents inter- nal evidence of having occurred not later than the early win- ter of the year 84 , the fourth of the tyrant’s reign ; and as it 1 Statius, Sylv. iv. 1. These warlike aspirations are very like those at the beginning of Lucan’s poem ; but there they are addressed to Rome and the citizens, here to the emperor alone. 2 Juvenal, iv. ST. : “ Cum quo de pluviis aut sestibus aut nimboso Yere locuturi fatum pendebat amici.” 8 Suet. Domit. 11.; Plin. Paneg. 66.: “quod tarn infidum mare quam olanditise principum illorum ? ” etc. 140 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D.81. shows the insolence of Domitian rather than his barbarity, the meek subservience of his attendants rather than their ab- ject terror, it may appear to represent one of the earlier scenes of his career. 1 About the end, then, of the year 84, the members of the imperial council, the select associates and advisers, — not the favourites, we are reminded, of the prince, but rather the especial objects of his hate, and pale as all might see, from the anxiety ever present to those who were most in contact with him, — were suddenly required to repair in haste to their master. 2 They were, it seems, eleven in number, and in twice or thrice as many verses their crimes or virtues are succinctly traced for us with a pen of cynical sincerity. One after another pass before us, Pegasus the pre- fect — say rather, the bailiff— of the city ; for what is Romo but the emperor’s farm, and the prefect of Rome, but his manciple ? 3 Fuscus, brave and voluptuous, soon to leave his limbs a prey to the Dacian vultures ; 4 Crispus, a mild and genial grey-beard, who has long owed his life to the meek- ness with which he has yielded to the current, and shrunk from the vain assertion of independence ; 6 the Glabrios, father 1 Juvenal, iv. 35.: “Res vera agitur.” Assuming, as Isay, the accuracy of details, the date may be fixed by the introduction of Fuscus into the scene, who was killed in Dacia in the campaign of 85, or at least quitted Rome for the frontiers in the spring of that year. But the incident took place, “jam cedente pruinis Auctumno,” i. e., at the beginning of winter ; not later, there- fore, than November 84. It might be argued, perhaps, from the allusion to Britain as not yet pacified, that it was before the conclusion of Agricola’s war- fare, and accordingly a year, or even two years, earlier. 2 Juvenal, iv. '72. : “ quos oderat ille.” Comp. Tacitus {Hist. iv. 8.) of a confidant of Nero, who confesses : “ non minus sibi anxiam talem amicitiam quam aliis exilium.” 3 From the scholiast on Juv. iv. '76., and from some notices in the Corpus Jur. Civil., we learn that Pegasus, the freedman of Domitian or Yespasian, obtained the consulship, and gave his name to certain edicts of the senate. He seems, even by the satirist’s admission, to have been a respectable man. 4 Juv. iv. 112. : “ Et qui vulturibus servabat viscera Dacis Fuscus, marmorea meditatus prmlia villa.” • Juv. iv. 81. Quintilian has some favourable allusions to this man’s wit and temper. A. U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 141 and son, of whom the elder slunk through an inglorious exist- ence in pusillanimous security, the younger was doomed to perish innocently condemned to fight with beasts in the are- na ; 1 2 the blind Catullus, deadliest of delators, with whom Domitian, as with a blind and aimless weapon, aimed at his destined victims ; 3 to these were added the sly Yeiento, the fat old sycophant, Montanus, Crispinus redolent with the perfumes of his native East, the vile spy Pompeius who slit men’s throats with a whisper, and Rubrius the perpetrator of some crime too bad, it seems, to be specified even in that day of evil deeds and shameless scandals. Such were the men who now hurried in the darkness along the Appian way, and met at midnight in the vestibule of the imperial villa, or the tyrant’s fortress, which crowned the long slope of the ascent to Alba . 3 Anxiously they asked each other, What news ? What the purport of tlieir unex- pected summons? What foes of Home had broken the prince’s slumbers — the Chatti or the Sicambri, the Britons or the Dacians ? "While they were yet waiting for admission, the menials of the palace entered, bearing aloft a huge turbot, a present to the emperor, which they had the mortification of seeing introduced into his presence, while the doors were still shut against themselves. A humble fisherman of the Upper coast had found the monster stranded on the beach, 1 Juvenal, iv. 94. foil. The younger Acilius Glabrio has been mentioned before. Juvenal insinuates that his descent into the arena was a feint to make himself despicable, and so protect himself from the emperor’s jealousy, and is compared to the simulated folly of Brutus. 2 Of Messalinus Catullus see Plin. Ep. iv. 22. : “ qui luminibus orbatus ingenio saevo mala csecitatis addiderat ; non verebatur, non erubescebat, non miserebatur ; qui saspius Domitiano, non secus ac tela, quae et ipsa caeca et improvida feruntur, optimum quemque contorquebatur.” 3 Juvenal, iv. 145. : “ quos Albanam dux magnus in arcem Traxerat.” The 6ite of this villa, which belonged originally to Pompeius, and became a favour- ite residence of the emperors, may still be traced on the slope of the hill covered by the modem Albano, about fourteen miles from Rome. A detach- ment of prastorians was quartered in the vicinity, whence the term arx applied to the palace itself. 142 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 81. beneatli the fane of Venus at Ancona, and had hurried with his prize across the Apennines, to receive a reward for so rare an offering to the imperial table. When at last the councillors were admitted, the question reserved for their deliberations was no other than this, whether the big fish should be cut in pieces, or served up whole on some enormous platter, constructed in its honour. The cabinet was no doubt sensibly persuaded that the question allowed at least of no delay, and with due expressions of surprise and admiration voted the dish, and set the potter’s wheel in motion.. Such is the outline of a story which Juvenal has embellished with his happiest sallies, abounding with illustrations of character and manners. Could we believe in its literal truth, we might regard it perhaps as the most curious domestic anecdote of antiquity ; but if it be no more than a sport of wit, and a bold satirical invention, it still has its value as a lively representation of the genius of the times . 1 * There was a time when Domitian might be satisfied with indulging his cynical contempt for his creatures by merely The funereal vexing and humiliating them. As he advanced ecribedby 6 " 111 his caree r of tyranny he required the more Dlon - pungent gratification of overwhelming them with terror. Such an anecdote is preserved by Dion, and the narrative of the historian forms a fitting pendant to that of the satirist. Having once made a great feast for the citizens , he proposed, we read, to follow it up with an entertainment to a select number of the highest nobility. He fitted up an apartment all in blade. The ceiling was blade , the walls were blade , the pavement was blade , and upon it were ranged rows of bare stone seats , blade also. The guests were intro- duced at night without their attendants , and each might see at the head of his couch a column placed , like a tombstone , on which his own name was graven , with the cresset lamp 1 The reader will remember the “ Minerva’s shield ” of Vitellius, and sus- pect perhaps that this story, notwithstanding the mock gravity of the author’s disclaimer, is fancifully combined from the tradition of the one emperor’s gluttony, and the grim humour of the other. A.U. 834.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 143 above it , such as is suspended in the tombs. Presently there entered a troop of nalced boys , blackened, who danced around with horrid movements , and then stood still before them , offering them the fragments of food ivhich are commonly presented to the dead. The guests were paralyzed with terror , expecting at every moment to be put to death / and the more, as the others maintained a deep silence, as though they were dead themselves, and JDomitian spake of things pertaining to the state of the departed only. But this funereal feast was not destined to end tragically. Caesar; happened to he in a sport- ive mood, and when he had sufficiently enjoyed his jest, and had sent his visitors home expecting worse to follow, he bade each he presented with the silver cup and platter on which his dismal supper had been served, and with the slave, now neatly washed and apparelled, who had waited upon him. Such, said the populace, was the way in which it pleased the emperor to solemnize the funereal banquet of the victims of his defeats in Dacia, and of his persecutions in the city . 1 Such graceless buffoonery in a public man offended Roman dignity to a degree we can scarcely estimate. It was no empty truism, no vapid moralizing on the part of indignation of the poet, when he broke off abruptly in the midst fmperor’s* of his comic relation, to exclaim with passionate niocker r- indignation : Better all these follies, — better that he had spent in this despicable child's play all the hours he gave to the slaughter of Pome’s noblest offspring, unpunished and um requited. And so he seems to clench his fist and grind his teeth at the bald-pate Nero , and hails his destined fall, when at last he shall have made himself a terror, not to his nobles only, but to the slaves of his own household. But at this period the best blood of Rome had trickled under his hand in a few intermittent drops only, like the first of a thunder shower. It was not till after the Antonian conspiracy that the stream began to flow in a copious and unceasing torrent, 1 Dion, lxvii. 9. From this allusion, and from the mention of the feast given to the citizens, we may fix this incident to the period of Domitian’s Dacian triumph, a. d. 91. 144 HIST0R5T OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 93. and the signal for the outburst was, perhaps, the death of the bravest of the Romans, the man of whom Domitian stood most in awe, whose removal might seem the most necessary for the secure exercise of his cruelty. 1 Since his recall from Britain, the conqueror of Galgacus had been content with the modest dignity of a private sta- Deatk of Agri- tion, in which he enjoyed the respect of all good C0 * a. d. 93 . men, and might feel that of all the chiefs of the an (^rumour of arm i es there was none to whom, had the prince’s poison. jealousy allowed it, the contest with the Dacians and Sarmatians might so confidently be entrusted. But Do- mitian had plainly intimated that he dared not again employ him, and Agricola had discreetly refrained from soliciting employment. If he was named for an important government, it was with the understanding that he should himself decline it ; but the emperor took what was deemed a base advantage of his moderation, in withholding the salary of the office, which, it seems, ought in fairness to have been pressed upon him. Domitian knew that he had now openly mortified a gallant and popular officer, and he began to hate the man he had injured. Such, as Tacitus reminds us, is a common in- firmity of our nature ; but Doraitian’s temper, he adds, was prone to take offence, and the more he dissembled the more was he implacable. Yet even his morose and sullen humour was soothed by the prudence and reserve of Agricola, who abstained from provoking his own fate by a vain pretence of free-mouthed patriotism. Thus he continued to live in the eyes of prince and people down to the year 93, the ninth from his return to Rome; but on his death, which occurred at that critical period, the rumour spread that he had been cut off by poison. For myself, ’ adds his biographer, I know nothing, and can affirm nothing. This , however , I can say, that throughout his last illness the emperor’’ s own freedmen, the emperor’s own physicians, were constant in their visits and inquiries , more constant than courtly etiquette might warrant , 1 Tac. Agric. 43. A. U. 846.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 145 whether it were from anxiety or from curiosity only. The day he died his last moments were watched , and every symp- tom reported by set couriers , and none could believe that the emperor would take such pains to get the first intimation of an event he really deprecated. Nevertheless , he assumed all the outward signs of grief \ though reckless by this time of popular hatred ; for it was easier to Dornitian to dissemble his joy over a dead enemy than his fear of a living one. Thus much , at least , was ascertained , that on reading Agri- colds will , in which he found himself appointed coheir with the wife and daughter , he openly avowed his satisfaction at the honour done him , and at the esteem , as he supposed. , thus manifested towards him. So blind was he, so corrupted by constant flattery , as not to know that a virtuous prince is never chosen for his heir by a virtuous parent. 1 We have been too much accustomed to the unproved in- sinuations of foul play advanced by Tacitus against the enemies of his order to expect from him any cor- . ,, , . Considerations roboration tor charges thus brandished m the ontheimputa- r- c* i „ tion of poison- tace ot the tormentor ot the senate. W e can ing to Domi- only regard them as a manifesto of defiance, de- livered indeed long after the tyrant’s fall, and addressed to an audience that welcomed every censure, and applauded every surmise against him. Yet, there is a fair presumption against a despot to whom such crimes could be popularly imputed. Dornitian was surely not incapable of poisoning Agricola. The death of the old commander, it may be added, was singularly opportune to the emperor. The biographer, indeed, has told us in memorable language, that the sufferer himself was fortunate not only in the brilliancy of his life, but in the seasonableness of his decease. Agricola , he ex claims, in the long organ peals of his sounding peroration, Agricola saw not the curia besieged , and the senate surround- ed by armed men, and the slaughter of so many consulars, the 1 Tac. Agric. 48. Agricola died August 23, a. d. 93 (a. tr. 846), at the age of fifty-six. Agric. p. 44. Dion accepts the rumour propagated by Tacitus, and ascribes his death without hesitation to poison. 122 140 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 93 flight or exile of so many noble women , from one fatal pro scription. Hitherto, he assures us, the delators, such as Carus and Catullus, exercised their hideous trade in the secret chambers of the palace. Not till after Agricola’s death did they venture to denounce the good, the noble, the wise, in public, and incited senators to lay hands on senators, praetorians on consulars. 1 It was opportune for Domitian that at the opening of this sanguinary career, at the moment when his terrors had been frenzied by the outbreak of the Antonian conspiracy, and his only safety seemed to lie in the swift extermination of the highest and the noblest, the man whom of all others he might have thought most formidable, should be suddenly and unexpectedly removed. Had Agri- cola lived, would Domitian have dared to inaugurate his reign of terror ? Had Domitian given the rein to his sav- age cruelty, would not the Senate have called on Agricola to deliver it ? Such considerations may still make us hesitate to absolve Domitian from the crime of assassination. On the other hand, we must observe that the language, both Proscription of . . . . the best and of JLacitus and Pliny, points to this epoch as the noblest of the . „ J -A senators. commencement ot a new era ol blood, and leaves us under the impression that hitherto the despot’s tyranny had been exhibited in only occasional excesses. It was in the year 93 that Pliny filled the office of praetor ; but he did not succeed to the consulship till a later period, and under a new and more auspicious reign. Hitherto, as he tells us, he had consented to be advanced in his public career by the archdissembler, whose wickedness he had not fully fa- Jhomed; but now, when Domitian threw off the mask, and openly professed a hatred of all good men , the virtuous aspi- rant at once stopped short. 2 * * 5 But the death of Agricola was, 1 Tac. Agric. 45. : “ mox nostrse duxere Helvidium in carcerem manus ; ” Comp. Plin. Ep. ix. 13. : “inter multa scelera multorum nullum atrocius vide- batur quam quod in senatu senator senatori, praetorius consular!, reo judex manus intulisset.” 5 Plin. Paneg. 95. : “ cursu quondam provectus ab illo insidiosissimo prin A. U. 846.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 147 as it 'were, the signal for the proscription of the most eminent senators, precisely those most closely connected in blood and feeling with Thrasea, the victim of Nero, and Helvidins, the victim of Vespasian. Upon them and others the fury of the delators was let loose, and charges, on grounds for the most part absurdly frivolous, were advanced in the senate. Aru- lenus Rusticus and Senecio were thus hunted to death for writing in praise of these noble Stoics ; a son of Helvidius for appearing to reflect on Domitian’s conjugal infidelities ; Ma- ternus for the crime of declaiming against tyrants ; Cocceia- nus suffered for having kept the birthday of his kinsman, the emperor Otho ; Pomponianus on the still more trifling pretext that he set up in his house a in ap of the world, and compiled a volume of royal speeches from the history of Livy ; Lucul- lus, formerly prefect in Britain, perished for giving to a newly-invented javelin the name of Lucullean. And lastly, to close the gloomy list, which might be still further extend- ed even from our imperfect records, Flavius Sabinus, the em- peror’s cousin, suffered ostensibly on no graver charge than the mistake of a herald in styling him imperator instead of consul. Meanwhile Juventius Celsus, who had actually con- spired against Domitian, was allowed to live, on his under- taking to make important disclosures, which he postponed on various pretexts till the emperor’s death relieved him from his pledge . 1 The death of Agricola was also followed by the second and more stringent edict against the philosophers, a persecu- tion which we cannot fail to connect with the second edict judicial murder of the Stoics in the senate, the ^“lo^ers, connexions of Thrasea and Helvidius. Domitian A - D - 9i cipe, antequam profiteretur odium bonorum ; postquam professus est substitL” But, in Ep. iii. 11., he says that he was praetor in the year in which the philoso- phers were banished (the second time, a. d. 93 extr.), and Helvidius and others put to death. Up to this year then Pliny at least would have us believe that Domitian’s conduct had not been flagrantly tyrannical. 1 Suet. Domit. 10. ; Dion, Ixvii. 13. Sabinus, it will be remembered, was the husband of Julia, and Domitian had long regarded him with jealousy, as affecting imperial airs: “indigne ferens albatos et ipsum ministros habere, proclamavit, owe ayadov wo2.VK.oipa.viri." Suet. c. 12. 148 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 94 had grounds, no doubt, to apprehend an understanding be- tween the indignant statesmen of the curia and the professors of wisdom and virtue in the schools. Both held the same language and used the same watchwords ; both appealed to the same principles and the same living examples ; whether the Stoic declaimed his high political doctrines from the benches of the assembly, or whether he fled from public business and murmured his discontent in the shades of do- mestic privacy, he was equally an object of suspicion to the tyrant, who feared open hostility in the one case, and covert intrigue in the other. While, however, the politicians were put cruelly to death, the rhetoricians seem to have been treated with some mildness. If we may believe indeed their own complaints, they were driven to the wildest recesses of the empire, to the shores of Gaul, the sands of Libya, and the steppes of Scythia. But Artemidorus, son-in-law of Musonius, was removed, as Pliny himself informs us, no further than to a suburban villa, while many teachers of philosophy, on throwing off their gowns, were suffered to abide unmolested in the city. Demetrius was able to conceal him- self within the limits of Italy ; nor is it clear .that Dion Chry- sostomus was actually relegated to the Ister, to which he wandered in his restless migrations. 1 Epictetus set up his professorial chair at Nicopolis in Epirus. Apollonius of Tyana, who had been convicted of treasonable machinations early in Domitian’s reign, had been allowed to settle in the eastern provinces, and was still haranguing, agitating, and possibly conspiring in the pleasant retreat of Ephesus. Another, and yet another year of terrors and persecutions followed, till the jealousies of Domitian were crowned by the measures already noticed against the Jews aixfiast ’ cr Christians. The murder of Flavius Clemens mitian, ° ° was the last, and perhaps the worst, of the atro- cities of this reign. But committed as he now was to a struggle for life against all that was virtuous and Philostr. Vtt. A poll. vii. 4. 10. ; Vit. Sophist, i. 7. A. U. 847.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 149 honest among men, Domitian seems to have felt at last that the time for intrigue or dissimulation in crime was past, and his increasing barbarity did not scruple to evince its pleasure in the actual sight of the suffering it inflicted. Even Nero, it was said, had shrunk from witnessing the torments of his victims, but Domitian came in person into the senate-house to watch the agonies of the accused and the suspected ; he personally interrogated them when arrested, holding their chains in his hands for his own security, while the natural redness of his countenance might equally disguise the glow of shame, or the coolness of utter shamelessness . 1 If, indeed, his victims’ pains could be compensated by those of their persecutor, they had ample revenge in the fears that haunted and maddened him. The dissimulation he had practised towards them was a tribute to the terrors they continued to inflict on him. Like his master in statecraft, he affected to cast on the senate the odium of his most hateful sentences, and sometimes even courted popularity by pretending to re- lax the penalties his over-zealous counsellors had recom- mended . 2 But the very adulation of the senators became to him a source of solicitude from the general disgust it inspired. Accordingly, he declined with nervous eagerness the honours they continued to press on him, and he fretfully disclaimed the invidious pomp of a guard of knights. Old traditions of self-respect might still linger even in the second order of citizens, and disgust them with an act of bodily service. The imperator led the Romans in the field, but the prince was 1 Tac. Agric. 45. : “Nero tamen subtraxit oculos, jussitque scelera non spectavit.” It was only the injury to Roman nobles that, in the view of Taci- tus, deserved the name of “ scelera,” atrocities. He does not represent Nero as withdrawing from the sight of more vulgar sufferings. Comp, the expression which follows : “ s®vus ille vultus et rubor quo se contra pudorem muniebat,” with Suet. Domit. 18. : “commendari se verecundia oris sentiebat.” The red- ness was natural, not factitious. For the other circumstances mentioned in the text see Dion, Ixvii. 12. 2 Suet. Domit. 11. On such occasions he would say: “intelligent me omnes senatui interfuisse.” 150 HISTORY OF THE KOMARS [A. D. 95. still only first among tils peers in the city . 1 * Yet neither among the senators nor the knights was there spirit enough to refrain from the most loathsome excesses of servility ; still less did either order now raise a hand against the tyrant who reigned over them. They beheld without resistance the most honoured of their fellow-citizens sacrificed for the crime of praising the illustrious dead ; they beheld then* writings consumed in the forum, and the voice of the Roman people, the liberty of the Roman senate, stifled, as it were, on the funeral pyre ; they showed, as Tacitus, himself not the least patient among them, says, a remarkable example of patience, and carried subservience to its utmost limits, as their ances- tors had carried independence . 3 Instead of concerting the honourable antagonism of a Galba or a Vespasian in the camps, they left it to the freedmen of the imperial household to organize assassination in the palace. Domitian, red with the blood of the Lamise, reeking from the slaughter of the noblest of the citizens, fell at last by the blow of a miscreant’s dagger, when he had made himself formidable to his own menials . 3 In the fifteenth year of his protracted principate, Domitian had arrested the prefects of the palace and of the guard, and 1 Suet. Domit. 14. When Honorius entered Rome, at the close of the fourth century, his moderation was remarked in not suffering the senators to walk before him. The emperor had gained a victory, and the senate were willing perhaps to treat his appearance among them as a triumph, in which case such deference would not have been irregular. But he recalled them to a juster sense of the circumstances, and of the real traditions of the state. Claudian some- what enhances his merit by still treating his entry as triumphal; vi. Com . Honor. 549. “ moderataque laudant Tempora, quod clemens aditu, quod pectore, solus Romanos vetuit currum pracedere Patres.” 3 Tac. Agric. 2. 3 Juvenal, iv. ult. The allusion to the Lamia? refers to the death of iElius Lamia, who indeed may have perished earlier, as the complaint against him was a sarcasm he uttered on Domitian’s taking his wife from him, which occurred early in the reign of Yespasian. Suet. Domit. 10. A. IT. 848.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 151 Prodigies and omens. could no longer rely on those most closely at- D anger and tached to his personal service. He could now Snf I)0 ' hold power only by redoubled terror, and by the A D 96 suddenness of his blows. It was to overwhelm A - u - 849 - and paralyse the intriguer in his own household that he now required the head ofEpaphroditus, the freedman who had assist- ed Nero in his suicide . 1 This man had been banished years before for the crime of killing Caesar, even at Caesar’s own re- quest. Domitian would cut off all hope of life even in exile from the wretch who should lay hands on the sacred person. But the sacrifice was unavailing. He could now free himself neither from men nor from the gods ; neither from the sword nor the elements. Day and night he was shaken by strange fears. Evil omens and prodigies mul- tiplied. The Chaldeans were impotent to console him. The gods by visions and miracles had inaugurated the Flavian dynasty : the gods, as the worst and weakest of the race might well believe, were now manifestly departing from the Flavian house. It was said, and it may have been said truly, that during the last eight months of Domitian’s reign there was unusual stir in the atmosphere. Never since the days preceding the first Carsar’s fall had thunderstorms been so frequent or appalling. The Capitol was struck from heaven. The Flavian temple had been scarred by lightning ; the bolts which fastened the emperor’s golden statue on the arch of triumph were torn from their sockets. Of the three great deities, the august assessors in the Capitol, Minerva was re- garded by Domitian as his special patroness. Her image stood by his bedside : his customary oath was by her divini- ty. But now a dream apprised him that the guardian of his person was disarmed by the guardian of the empire, and that Jupiter had forbidden his daughter to protect her favourite any longer. Scared by these accumulated horrors he lost all self-control, and petulantly cried, and the cry was itself a 1 Suet. Domit. 14. ; Dion, Lxvii. 14. 152 DISTORT OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 9k portent; Jbloio strike Jove whom ne will f 1 From supernatu- ral terrors he reverted again and again to earthly fears and suspicions. Henceforward the tyrant allowed none to be admitted to his presence without being previously searched; and he caused the ends of the corridor in which he took exer- cise to be lined with polished marble, to reflect the image of any one behind him . 2 At the same time he inquired anxious- ly into the horoscope of every chief whom he might fear as a possible rival or successor. Many, it was said, he caused to be slain on the intimations thus conveyed to him of sup- posed danger. Cocceius X erva, the senator who actually succeeded him, was only suffered to live because, though the presage of his destiny might excite alarm, Domitian was assured by an astrologer, in whom he specially confided, that he was doomed to die very shortly . 3 Nerva’s career was in- deed brief, but Domitian’s proved still briefer. On the other hand, the prince’s enemies were equally busy. The battle of the horoscopes raged without and within the palace. Every one who hated and feared the tyrant, every one who hoped to leap into his place, consulted the secrets of futurity. The ruler was really in danger when hundreds, perhaps thousands, of his subjects were asking how long he was to live. One inquirer who imprudently announced, on the German frontier, the moment when Domitian should perish (a prophecy which was in fact punctually fulfilled), was sent in chains to Rome, interrogated, and sentenced. At the last moment the tyrant’s death saved him, and he was even rewarded with a present from the successor. Another, it seems, had uttered a similar prediction still earlier. Being arrested and questioned, he had sought to confirm the assurance of his prophetic powers by declaring that he was destined himself to be shortly torn in pieces by dogs. To falsify this prognostication the crimi nal was committed to the flames; but the rains descended 2 Suet. Do'rriit. 15. ; Dion, Ixvii. 16. 2 Suet. Domit. 14. : “ parietes lapide phengite distinxit.” For the phengites (s) r yovg), see Plin. Hist. Hat. xxxvi. 22. s Dion, Ixvii. 15. A. U. 849.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 153 and extinguished them, and the dogs after all devoured his body as it lay among the half-burnt faggots . 1 This dismal incident was related to Domitian at supper. The victim of superstition had long since, it was said, pene- trated futurity, and ascertained too surely the Apprehensions year, the day, the hour which was to prove fatal to him. He had learnt too that he was to die by fatal secunt y- the sword. Yespasian, himself, it was affirmed, not less addicted to the diviner’s art in his own and his children’s interests, had ascertained the precise destiny which awaited his son, and once, when the young Domitian expressed ap- prehension of some mushrooms at table, had told him that he need not fear, for he was doomed to perish by steel, not by poison. The omens were now closing about the victim, and his terrors became more importunate and overwhelming. Something, he exclaimed, is about to happen, which men shall talk of all the world over ! Drawing a drop of blood from a pimple on his forehead, May this be all! he added. He had fixed on the fifth hour of that very day as the direful period. His attendants, to reassure him, declared that the hour had passed. Embracing the flattering tale with alacrity, and rushing at once to the extreme of confidence, he an- nounced that the danger was over, and that he would bathe and dress for the evening repast . 2 But the danger was just then ripening within the walls of the palace. The mysteries there enacted few, indeed, could penetrate, and the account of Domitian’s fall has been coloured by invention and fancy. The story that a child, whom he suffered to attend in his private chamber, found by chance the tablets which he placed under his pillow, and that the empress, on inspecting them, and finding herself, with his most familiar servants, desig- nated for execution, contrived a plot for his assassination, is one so often repeated as to cause great suspicion. But neither can we accept the version of Philostratus, who would have us believe that the murder of Domitian was the deed 1 Suet. Dion, 11. cc. Suet. Domit. 15. 16. 154 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 9R of a single traitor, a freedman of Clemens, named Steplianus, who, indignant at his patron’s death, and urged to fury by the sentence on his patron’s wife, Domitilla, rushed alone into the tyrant’s chamber, diverted his attention by a frivo lous pretence, and smote him with the sword he bore con- cealed in his sleeve. It is more likely that the design, however it originated, was common to several of the house- hold, and that means were taken among them to disarm the victim and baffle his cries for assistance. Stephanus, who is said to have excelled in personal strength, may have been employed to deal the blow; for not more, perhaps, than one attendant would be admitted at once into the presence. Domitian as- Struck in the groin, but not mortally, Domitian Bassinated. snatched at his own weapon, but found the sword removed from the scabbard. He then clutched the assassin’s dagger, cutting his own fingers to the bone; then desperately thrust the bloody talons into the eyes of his assailant, and beat his head with a golden goblet, shrieking all the time for help. Thereupon rushed in Parthenius, Maximus, and others, and despatched him as he lay writhing on the pavement . 1 That the actual occurrence of great events is at times revealed by divine intuition to seers and prophets at a dis- The act re- tance, lias been a common superstition . 2 3 As this «me e to a lpoi- catastrophe was portended by many omens be- lonius. forehand, so, according to the story, at the mo- ment of its befalling at Rome, the sage Apollonius, the philosopher of Tyana, himself a reputed wonder-worker, had mounted an eminence in Ephesus, and there calling the people around him, had exclaimed with inspired fervour, Well done , Stephanus ! bravo , Steplianus ! slay the murder - 1 Circumstantial accounts of the assassination are given by both Dion and Philostratus, which differ principally in the assertion by the one that the attendants rushed in at their master’s cries, and slew Stephanus in the fray, while the other says that they helped to kill the emperor. This latter version seems to correspond with the slighter notice of Suetonius. See Philostr. Yit. Apollon, viii. 25.; Dion, lxvii. 18. ; Suet. Domit. 17. 3 Comp. Lucan, Pharsal. vii. 192. ; Herod, ix. 69., on the battle of PlatEea A. U. 849.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 155 erf Thou hast stricken / thou hast wounded ; thou hast slain / And this is true , declares tlae historian Dion, this , I say , is true, let who will deny it. Dion’s account is identi- cal with that of the biographer Philostratus ; but from this earnest asseveration it may be inferred that it was from no single source, and no partial authority, that the historian liiinself had derived it. The tradition, whatever else may be its value, seems at least to point to a wide-spread animosity, or possibly a wide-spread conspiracy, against the tyrant whose crimes after all were mostly confined to the narrow sphere of Rome, and who may not unjustly be reputed a discreet and able governor of the provinces. But Domitian had made himself enemies of the two classes who jiossessed the greatest powen_to blacken his memory. The nobles, whom he had insulted and tormented, poisoned, no doubt, the sources of history at Rome ; and the philosophers, whom ne proscribed in the capital, spread their bitter feelings against him far and wide throughout the empire. I can only repeat what I have said before, that there are no facts to set against the overwhelming testimony by which Domitian is condemned; but the moral influence of the philosophers at this period was felt in every quarter, and we know that in more modern times a prince would with difficulty obtain a hearing from posterity who had given mortal offence to both his nobility and his clergy . 1 The busts and coins of Domitian concur in presenting us with a countenance which bears a strong family resemblance to those of the elder Flavii, coarse and plebeian, ^ t ^ OoDtrist but at the same time handsome, and not without tween the heirs , to the purple, marks ol intellectual power. He appears to have and the elected been vain of his person, and to have suffered prmcc8 ' much vexation from the baldness which his countrymen re- 1 Suet. Domit. IT. : “occisus est quarto decimo Kal. Oct.” (Sept. 18, a. u, 849, a. d. 96.) Domitian was born Sept. 24. 804, and commenced his reign Sept. 13. 834 ; he perished, therefore, at the age of forty-five ; and his reign numbered fifteen years and five days. Comp. Dion, Ixvii. 1 8. 156 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 96 gardecl as a serious blemish. By one indeed who affected divinity such personal defects might he felt as real disad- vantages, and the affectation of divinity, partly from vanity, hut still more from policy, is the key to much of the conduct of this last of an upstart dynasty. The princes who inherited imperial power are all marked with a similar impress. Caius, Nero, and Domitian, were strongly influenced by the necessi- ty of maintaining the charm of legitimacy, in default of a personal claim, as their title to power. The right of Julius and Augustus to a primacy among the Romans, if not strictly definable, was generally admitted as the meed of genius, or beauty, or even of might. It was the will of the gods, veri- fied by manifest desert, and placed beyond human question. Tiberius was the chosen of Augustus; but this reflected merit he was anxious to fortify by the sanction of the senate, the representative of the Roman patriciate. Galba and Vespa- sian had been formally elected by the fathers, and their patrons had sustained their choice by alleging, in token of their fitness, the divine descent of both the one and the other. These were the emperors of the senate ; they maintained for the most part the interests of the order in its struggles against popular or military encroachment. But the princes who were born in the purple knew that the principle of le- gitimacy was obnoxious to the caste which pretended to the right of election. They saw, on the other hand, that the notion of hereditary claim, which was scarcely recognized by the old Roman law in cases even of private descent, had a peculiar charm for the mixed races which now constituted the nation, and struck a chord of sympathy wherever the artificial rules of the early republic were unknown or forgot- ten. Hence the legitimate princes instinctively attached themselves to the people, and entered on a career of mutual jealousy with the nobles, which, after repeated acts of re- pression and tyranny, always ended in their overthrow and slaughter. When Suetonius tells us that Domitian devoted himself to studying the arts of Tiberius, and made that prince A. U. 849.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 15 ? his model, he is thinking only, I believe, of the deep dissimu- lation in which he proved so apt an imitator; but it does not seem that the later emperor, whose general policy was that of an archaic revival, followed in other respects the example of the earlier, who was a hard and logical materialist. 1 58 HISTOKY OF THE ROMANS TA. D. 9(1. CHAPTER LXI1I. ACCESSION OP NERVA. — REACTION AGAINST THE TYRANNY OP DOMITIAN MODERATED BY THE CLEMENCY OP NERVA. THE PILETORIANS DEMAND THE PUNISHMENT OP domitian’s ASSASSINS. — ASSOCIATION OP TRAJAN in the EMPIRE. — DEATH OP NERVA, A. D. 98. A. U. 861. ORIGIN AND EARLY CAREER OF TRAJAN. HIS POSITION AND OPERATIONS ON THE RHENISH FRONTIER. ROMAN FORTIFI- CATIONS BETWEEN THE RHINE AND DANUBE. — TRAJAN’S MODERATION AND POPULARITY IN ROME. PLINY’S PANEGYRIC. EXPEDITION AGANST THE DACIANS, A. D. 101. TRAJAN CROSSES THE DANUBE. — HIS SUCCESSES AND TRIUMPH, A. D. 103. SECOND EXPEDITION, A. D. 104. BRIDGE OVER THE DANUBE. CONQUEST AND ANNEXATION OF DACIA. — THE ULPIAN FORUM AND TRAJAN’S COLUMN AT ROME. — CONQUESTS IN ARABIA. TRAJAN’S ARCHITECTURAL WORKS IN THE CITY AND THE PROVINCES. — VIGILANCE, SPLENDOUR, AND ECONOMY OF HIS ADMINISTRATION. — HIS PERSONAL QUALITIES, COUNTENANCE, AND figure. — (a. D. 96-115, A. u. 849-868.) D OMITIAN had fallen in the recesses of his palace by the hands of his own private attendants ; hut no sooner was the blow struck than it appeared how wide the Cocceius Nerva elected em- conspiracy had reached, how far the conspirators senate/ plans and precautions had extended. The chiefs a. i>. 96. of the senate had evidently consulted together, ^ u ' ’ and ascertained among themselves the man on whom their own suffrages could he united, and who would be at the same time acceptable to the military power en- camped at their gates. They had fixed on M. Cocceius Nerva, a man well versed in affairs, an accomplished speaker and writer, and whose family took rank among the official no- bility . 1 Though he had attained the chief magistracy, he 1 Martial addressing him when a private citizen speaks favourably of his literary accomplishments (viii. 70., ix. 27.), and says that Nero stood in awe of his poetical genius. He was twice Consul, in *71 and 90. Eutropius adds that he was “ nobiiitstis mediae.” A. U. 849.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 159 had not hitherto been eminent in public life, nor could he pretend to superior genius or striking fitness for command ; his birth was not such as could cast a shade on the represent- atives of the ancient houses ; bis character was not of the severe and antique cast which would rebuke the laxity of his voluptuous courtiers ; self-indulgent if not vicious himself, he might be expected to tolerate the weaknesses of others, while his age and infirmities would dispose him to study his own ease by yielding to the influences around him . 1 The senators hoped to guide him, the soldiers could hardly fear him ; but his personal appearance was agreeable and imposing, and in the charm which soonest wins and retains longest the admi- ration of the populace, he might hope to rival Augustus and Tiberius, Nero and Titus. Such was the ideal of a prince conceived at this epoch by the Roman nobles . 2 The moment was an important turning- point in the career of the empire. It is by a 1 . . . . . His character mere accident indeed that the series of imperial and preten- biographies compiled by Suetonius closes with Domitian, and that the name of the Caesars is commonly given, by way of eminence, to the first twelve only of the Roman emperors. The title of Caesar continued, I need hardly repeat, to be applied to the chief of the state from age to age, while the actual blood of the first of the number was exhausted, as we have seen, in Nero, the sixth in suc- cession. Nevertheless, the death of Domitian and the acces- sion of Nerva form a marked epoch in our history, on which we shall do well to pause. The empire now enters on a new phase of its existence. Hitherto the idea that the primacy was due to the most excellent man in the commonwealth, which easily led to the notion of the emperor’s divine char- acter and origin, had, except in the transient usurpations of 3 Dion, Ixviii. 1. ; Victor, Gees. 13., charges him with excess in wine. 5 No doubt it might be said of Nerva, as was said before of Piso, the chief of the conspiracy against Nero: “sed procul gravitas morum .... idque pluribus probabatur, qui in tanta vitiorum dulcedine summum injperium non re- Btrictum nec perseverum volunt.’" Tac. Ann. xv. 48. Comp, also Tac. Hist. ii. 37. 160 HISTORY OP THE ROMANS TA. D . 96. Otlio and Yitellius, been faithfully preserved. But the elec- tion of Nerva was avowedly a mere matter of political con- venience. The senate at last was master of the situation, and it rejected pointedly the flimsy notions with which the nation had so long suffered itself to be amused. Cocceius ISTerva was the son of an official, the grandson of a jurist, the great grandson of the minister of Augustus. His ancestors and all their affinities, for several generations, were well known to the senators, and they were very sure that no drop of celestial ichor had ever flowed in the veins of any one of them. Though the family had been settled in Italy for a hundred years, it was known to have come over from Crete, where centuries before it had been planted by an Italian progenitor . 1 For the first time the emperor of the Romans was neither a Julius nor a Claudius, nor a Domitius, nor even a Flavius, all ancient names of Latium or Sabellia ; he was not the son of a god, nor the remotest descendant of one ; he was not even in popular acceptance a Roman or an Italian, but a provincial by origin. The pedants of a later age, and probably the pedants of that age itself, remarked apologet- ically that the first of the Tarquins, the best and wisest of the Roman kings, had been not a Roman but an Etruscan ; and they added truly that Rome had flourished by the for- eign virtues she had grafted upon the parent stock . 2 But it 1 Victor, Cces. 12.: “quid enim Nerva Cretensi prudentius.” In the Epi- tome lie is styled “Namiensis,” and this word some of the commentators would restore in the passage above cited. There is, indeed, no other authority for the presumed foreign origin of Nerva ; but both in the Ccesars and the Epitome , Victor remarks particularly that hitherto all the emperors were either Roman by origin or at least Italian, as Otho and Vespasian : “hactenus Romse, seu per Italiam orti imperium rexere : hinc advenas.” The foreign extraction of Nerva’s successors generally is well ascertained. I have little doubt, therefore, that “ Cretensis ” is Victor’s word. 2 Victor, Cces. 11. (Comp. Epit. 11.): “plane compertum urbem Romam extemorum virtute atque insitivis artibus prtecipue erevisse.” Martial has two brilliant panegyrics on Nerva : xi. 5., xii. 6. He compares him to Numa, bespeaks for him the reverence of the old Roman heroes, and declares finally that now at last, “ Si Cato reddatur, CEesarianus erit.’ A. U. 849.] UKDER THE EMPIRE- 161 was felt on all hands that a great revolution had practically been accomplished. The transition from Domitian to Xerva may he compared to the descent in our own history from James to William, from the principle of divine right to the principle of compact and convention. The private career of Xerva had been that of his class generally. His disposition was naturally good, his under- standing; excellent and well cultivated, his morals & . ... .„ ’ Doubtful atti- pliant ; his ambition, if such he had, had been tude of the ie- kept under strict control, and, satisfied with the dignities to which he could safely aspire, he had refrained from exciting his master’s jealousy. He had thus reached in safety and good repute the ripe age of sixty-five, or, accord- ing to some accounts, seventy years. But Xerva was older in constitution than in years ; the luxury in which he had indulged may have impaired his vital forces, and he now suf- fered perhaps for his imprudence by excessive weakness of digestion. In choosing him for their prince, the nobles, too timid themselves to dispute the throne with Domitian, may have looked to another proximate vacancy, when the succes- sion might be environed with fewer perils. The praetorians seem to have felt no regard for the Flavian dynasty, which had never condescended to humour them. The legions on the Danube, to whom Domitian was personally known, and whose officers were of his direct appointment, murmured, and threatened to mutiny at his fall ; 1 but the army of the Rhine was controlled by a brave and faithful commander, whose influence extended perhaps even further than his au- thority ; a commander whose merits should have gained him the election of the senate without a competitor, had tran- scendent merit been the object of its search. It remained for Xerva to offer soon afterwards a share in the supreme power to tne man to whose loyal support he owed no doubt his own tranquil succession. We shall soon arrive at the association 1 Philostr. Vit Sophist, i. 1., where the soldiers are said to have been recalled to their duty by the persuasive eloquence of the sophist Dion Chrvsos- tomus. 162 HISTORY OF THE ROMAYS [A. D. 96. of Trajan in the empire. We must first notice the circum- stances of alarm and perplexity which compelled the new ruler, whom the senate and army had just chosen with ac- clamations, to strengthen his weak hands by resorting to this magnanimous assistant. Domitian’s body lay unheeded on his chamber floor, till it was removed by the pious care of his nurse Phyllis, and indignities borne on a common bier by hired hands to his memory o/do- suburban villa on the Latin Way. From thence mitian. his ashes were privily conveyed to the temple of the Flavian family, and placed beside those of his niece J ulia. 1 2 The people, who witnessed with unconcern the trans- fer of power to a new dynasty, took no interest in these humble obsequies, which the nobles, though fully resolved that the third of the Flavii should not share in the divine honours of his father and brother, did not care to interrupt. In the Curia indeed the tyrant’s fall was hailed with tumultu- ous rejoicings. The fathers broke out in execrations and contumelies against him, placed ladders against the walls, and tore down his images and trophies. The city had been thronged with his statues, which now fell in the general pro- scription ; those of marble were ground to powder, those of gold, silver and bronze, were melted down, and among them doubtless the noble colossus in the forum. The name of Do- mitian was effaced on every monument, and possibly his arch of triumph overthrown, as well as the Janus-arches with which he had decorated the thoroughfares. 3 1 Suet. Domit. 17. ; Dion, lxvii. 18 2 Suet. Domit. 23. ; Plm. Paneg. 52. ; Dion, lxviii. 1. Gruter gives several inscriptions in which Domitian’s name is erased. The Senate refused to enrol their latest tyrant among the national divinities ; but they did not carry their resentment to the memory of his predecessors. The Flavian temple in the forum was allowed to stand, and perpetuate the cult of Vespasian and Titus to a late age. It was burnt and again restored a hundred years afterwards. Possibly the destruction of Domitian’s monuments was not so complete as it is represented ; at least Procopius declares that he saw a bronze statue of this prince erect in his own day, on the right hand of the ascent to the Capitol from the forum. Procop. Hist. Arcan. 8. A.U. 849.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 183 But the effervescence of popular exultation was directed to more important objects. The exiles of the late proscrip- tion were recalled with acclamation, and this in- Eeca]1 of tl)e dulgence embraced the philosophers as well as exiles - the political sufferers . 1 There arose a general cry against the instruments of the tyrant’s cruelty, and vengeance was demanded on the delators, among whom were Prosecution of senators, pnetors, and consulars. Nerva, discreet delators - and mild, would have been content with staying all the suits then in progress, with reversing all sentences in force against Domitian’s victims, and compensating, as far as possible those who had suffered ; but the time-servers who had crouch- ed most ignobly under the late tyranny were now the loud- est in invoking punishment on its ministers, and attacked their foes with a violence not inferior to that which they had themselves endured . 2 Those who had no personal wrongs to avenge resented the ill-treatment of friends and connexions. Pliny, who had risen high under Domitian, seized the occa- sion to distinguish himself. His vanity does not r]jru ., g attack allow us to give him credit for disinterestedness. 011 Certus - It was a fine opportunity, so he himself proclaims, for at- tacking the guilty, for avenging the innocent, for advancing oneself . 3 Of all the enormities of the tyrant’s creatures, none, he says, had been greater than that of Certus, who had act- ually laid hands in the Curia on the noble Helvidius. With Helvidius Pliny was connected in friendship, and they had common friends in the Fannias and Arrias, the noble consorts of the Psetuses and Thraseas. Pliny assails Certus in the 1 The ecclesiastical tradition that St. John was recalled on this occasion from his exile in Patmos (Euseb. Hist. Heel. iii. 20. ; Oros. vii. 11.) seems to be reflected from the popular recollection of this recall of the philosophers. The proscriptions of Domitian and the rehabilitations of Nerra refer simply to Rome or Italy. 3 Plin. Ep. ix. 18.: “ae primis quidem diebus redditce libertaiis pro se quisque inimicos suos incondito turbidoque more postulaverant, simul et oppres- serant.” 3 Plin. 1. c. : “ materiam inseetandi nocentes, miseros vindicandi, se pr& ferendi .” 164 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 9(5, senate ; the culprit dares not appear ; his friends in vain ex- cuse or intercede for him in the face of the indignant fathers. Nerva refrains indeed from moving the assembly to institute a process against him, but refuses him the consulship, and even supersedes him in the prsetorshxp. Certus dies within a few days ; of mortification, it may be hoped ; for thus much at least is popularly known, that the image of Pliny, sword in hand, ever floated from that moment before him in his disturbed imagination . 1 2 The moderation which Nerva prescribed to himself in regard to this great criminal seems to have marked his dealings with all the class, and the vic- tims of the delators were probably little satisfied with the amount of favour they experienced from him. They had yet to wait for a prince of firmer hand or harsher character for the full revenge, which was not long in arriving. Much, however, as the nobles feared the treachery and falsehood of accusers among their own order, they lived in more constant Clemency of Nerva. dread of the denunciations of their retainers. It was hailed as a great safeguard of their lives and honour, when Nerva once more forbade the admission of a slave’s testimony against his master, or even of a freedman against his patron . 5 The edict of Titus against false accusa- tions was revived with additional penalties. One more pledge was necessary to restore the entire confidence of the fathers. Nerva came forward of his own accord, and vowed that no member of the order should suffer death under his adminis- tration. Then, and not till then, could Pronto, a distinguished senator, interpose to arrest the torrent of prosecution, and demand a general amnesty. It is ill , he said, to have a prince under whom no one may do anything ; but worse to have one who lets every one do as he will. 3 * 1 Plin. 1. c. He continues : “ verane hsec, adfirmare non ausim ; interest tamen exempli ut vera videantur.” 2 It is especially mentioned that Nerva forbade slaves to accuse their mas- ters of “ Jewish manners.” Dion, lxviii. 1. 3 Dion, 1. c. Eeimar believes him to have been C. Julius Fronto, and consul in 99 ; Clinton styles him Cornelius, and places his consulship in 100. A. U. 849.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 165 Such free speaking in the august presence was as rare as the clemency to which it pointed, and the historian who relates it immediately subjoins the remark, that . . . Nerva’s moder- Nerva was weak m health and constitution ation mingled . . . . with timidity. leaving us to inter that there was some want ot intellectual and moral vigour also in a prince who could listen so complacently and act so gently. Such indeed was Nerva’s timidity, that on a report of Domitian being yet alive, he is said to have been quite unmanned, and only sus- tained through the crisis by the resolution of his immediate attendants . 1 However this may be, Nerva continued to act throughout his brief career with a consistent moderation, which was founded, we may hope, on principle. He forbade statues to be made of himself in the precious metals. He restored, as far as possible, to their proper owners the estates and fortunes which Domitian had confiscated. He divided portions of land among needy citizens in the spirit of the republican legislation, and was the first to' devise a scheme, which received ample development under his successors, for relieving the poor by a state provision for their children . 2 To meet these extraordinary expenses he sold great masses of imperial property, the accumulated furniture of his palaces, vestments, jewels, and pleasure-houses, distributing at the same time liberal presents among his Mends. The more sober portion of the citizens were not displeased at his re- trenching the expenditure in games and spectacles, and for- bidding so much blood to be shed in the amphitheatre, while he gratified the populace by allowing the return of the mimes . 3 He owed it perhaps to the briefness of his tenure of power that he was enabled, liked Titus before him, to keep his vow not to cause the death of a senator, and the 1 Victor, Epit. 12. 2 Dion, lxviii. 2. Nerva founded or restored colonies at Scylacium and Verulas in Italy, and Sitifa in Mauretania. Zumpt, Comm. Epigr. i. 899. Victor, Epit. 12.: “puellas puerosque natos parentibus egentibus surnptu publico per Italias oppida ali jussit.” 3 Nerva forbade the single combats of the Gladiators. Zonar. xi. 20. 166 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 97 favour in which he was held by the nobles shines forth in the famous panegyric of their spokesman Tacitus, that he recon- ciled the two conflicting political principles, the authority of the prince, and the freedom of the people . 1 The Romans indeed took pleasure in comparing him with the virtuous son of Vespasian, and the story told of Titus that he put swords in the hands of suspected conspirators, to show his just con- fidence in his own merit, was now repeated, whether truly or not, of Nerva . 2 Nor was it forgotten, however, that this good ruler took care to confirm the best measures even of the monster Domitian, and particularly the edict against mutila- tion . 3 On reviewing his career, Nerva could boast with justice that he had committed no act which should prevent him from abdicating, if he thought fit, in perfect security. Nevertheless he did not escape, even during his lifetime, some harsh reflections on a clemency so ill appreciated. One evening Mauricus, just returned from banishment, was sup- ping with him. Among the guests was Veiento, mentioned above among the vilest of Domitian’s creatures, who had made himself bitter enemies by his zeal in denouncing and prosecuting the noblest Romans. The conversation fell on the subject of Catullus, then lately deceased, whose pander- ing to the jealous humours of Domitian has been already mentioned. Were Catullus now alive, said Nerva, what would his fate be? lie would be supping with us, rejoined the free-spoken Mauricus, with a glance at the odious de- lator . 4 1 Tac. Agric. 3. : “ res olim dissociabiles miscuerit, principatum et liber- tatem.” 2 Dion, lxviii. 2. 3 Dion, 1. c. Nerva is said to have forbidden the marriage of uncles with their brothers’ daughters, a licentious innovation which Domitian, as we have seen, had discountenanced. All the tyrant’s legislation would probably have been swept away had not his best enactments or views been sustained by his successor. 4 Plin. Ep. iv. 22. For the cause of Domitian’s animosity to Junius Mam ricus, see Tac. Hist. iv. 40., and for his banishment Agric. 45. He was brothe/ of Arulenus Rusticus, and suffered in the proscription of the year 93. A. U. 850. J UNDER THE EMPIRE. 167 On the whole the senators were well satisfied with the prince they had set up, and they allowed his merits to he blazoned forth without a breath of detraction. Conspiracy of The name of Nerva has been associated in after Caipumiusde- feated. ages with the mildness of age, and the charm of paternal government . 1 Nevertheless he did not escape the penalty of his station. Plots were formed against him, to which even his good qualities, connected as they might seem to be with some weakness of character, may have partly con- duced. An attempt was made to overthrow him by a certain Calpurnius Crassus, who boasted his descent from the family of the triumvir, and whose haughty temper, though controlled by the firmer hand of preceding despots, could not brook the supremacy of one of his own class, no more, as he himself professed, than the first of the senators. This conspiracy, however, was easily suppressed. The nobles of the city, even had they generally wished it, had long lost the art of con- spiring. It would seem that only freedmen and soldiers could now overthrow an emperor. Nerva, faithful to his promise, declined to take the life of his enemy, and merely banished him to the pleasant retreat of Tarentum . 2 But a greater danger beset the prince of the senators from another quarter. When the nobles were satisfied the soldiers were generally discontented. Casperius iEliauus, pre- Mutiny 0 f tlie feet of the praetorians under the last emperor, wiwdemand whom Nerva had allowed to retain his important o^DomitWs 114 post, excited the guards of the palace against his assassins - too generous master, and encouraged them to demand the blood of Domitian’ s assassins. No inquiry, it seems, had been made into the act which had freed the Romans from their odious yoke ; the perpetrators of the deed had not been punished, but neither had they been rewarded. It was enough that the deed was done, a deed of bad example for princes, yet such as both the prince and the people might fairly turn to their own advantage. Perhaps, had the assas- 1 Auson. Oces. 13. : “Nerva senex, princeps nomine, mente parens.” 3 Dion, lxviii. 3. ; Victor, 1. c. 168 HISTORY OP THE ROMANS I A. D. 97. sins been citizens, they would have been hailed with public demonstrations of gratitude, like the tyrannicides of earlier days; but the act of slaves or freedmen was decorously passed over in silence, Herva, however, opposed himself to this threatened violence with a noble courage. He bared his neck to the praetorians, whose fury he had n© means of resist- ing, and offered himself as a sacrifice in place of then 1 2 victims. But Casperius was master, at least for a moment, and directed the slaughter, without form of trial, of Parthenius, and such of his associates as could be arrested. 1 When the deed was done, nothing remained for the emperor but to make such excuse for it in public as the circumstances admitted. It might be represented as the hasty explosion of mistaken zeal, of extravagant loyalty, of blind devotion to the military sacrament. To the new emperor and to his well-wishers, the senate and people of Rome, it was a pledge that a life dear to the interests of peace and freedom should be well protected or signally avenged. But, whatever he might say in public, Nerva felt in his heart the disgrace of being thus controlled, an imperator by his soldiers, and resolved, if he could not punish this outbreak, at least never to subject himself to such Nerva adopts another. He addressed a letter to Ulpius Tra- associates him janus, then commanding on the Rhine, offering in the empire, {j j in a share in the empire, and invoking him, according to the story, with a verse of Homer, to exact retribution in arms from the Greeks for the tears they had drawn from his sovereign. 3 Without awaiting a reply, 1ST erva ascended the Capitol, and convening the citizens before the temple of Jupiter, proclaimed his new colleague as his own adopted son, with the words, I hereby adopt M. Ulpius Nerva Trajanus : may the gods bless therein the senate, the 1 Dion, 1. c. ; Victor, Epit. 24. : “ sed neglecto principe requisites jugula- rere.” Plin. Paneg. 6. : “ magnum illud sasculo dedecus : magnum reipublic® vulnus impressum est. Imperator et parens generis humani obsessus, captus, mclusus : ablata mitissimo seni servandorum hominum potestas.” It must be remembered that Pliny uses all the emporors as foils to his own patron Trajan 2 Dion, 1. c. : rtoeiav A avaol tga daupva aolai PeXegcu. A. U. 850.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 1G9 people , and myself. This act he again ratified with legal solemnities in the curia, 1 the nobles admitting without demur the exercise by the emperor of the rights common to every father of a Roman family, though in this case it implied no less than a pledge of the imperial succession. Their habitual deference to legal principles could not have blinded them to the political disability they thus practically imposed upon themselves. Henceforth, the power of adoption, with all its legitimate consequences, was regularly claimed by the reign- ing emperor, and after-ages acknowledged the wisdom with which for generations it was exercised. 2 The aged emperor was thus confirmed on his throne. The turbulent guards of the city trembled before the legions of a resolute chief, and shrank back into their camp. ISTerva had mated T , , his assailants : but his own game was now nearly va, played out, and he enjoyed but a short breathing a. space of ease and security before his death, which happened on the 23d of January, 98, after a reign of sixteen months and a few days only. The little our records have transmitted to us of the life and qualities of Herva can be but inadequately supplied by the testimony of busts and medals to his per- Personal ap- sonal appearance ; nevertheless none of the em- pearance of perors is more vividly characterized in the effigies which remain of him. The representations of ISTerva in marble are numerous, and rank among the most interesting monuments we possess of this description. Among the treasures of antiquity preserved in modern Rome none sur- passes, none perhaps equals, in force and dignity, the sitting statue of this emperor, which draws all eyes in the Rotunda 1 Dion, 1. c. The adoption took place in October, 97. 2 Claudian, xxviii. 417 . : “ Hie illi mansere viri, quos mutua virtus Legit, et in nomen Romanis rebus adopians Judicio pulcram seriem, non sanguine duxit. Hie proles atavum deducens HHia Nervam, Tanquillique Pii, bellatoresque Seven.” 123 170 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 98 of the Yatican, embodying the highest ideal of the Roman magnate, the finished warrior, statesman, and gentleman of an age of varied training and wide practical experience . 1 Such a figure an Englishman might claim with pride as the effigy of a governor-general of half a continent. Unfortu- nately, we are too little acquainted with the original to pro- nounce on its agreement with his actual character ; and we could wish that it had come to us as the portrait of an Agri- cola, — of one whose magnanimity we accept on trust from the panegyric of Tacitus. We do not hear, indeed, of iSTerva that he ever commanded in the provinces, or led an army against the foes of the empire ; nor, in sooth, can he be ab- solved from the charge of vices, common to the idle and luxurious of his rank and class, which in better and healthier times would argue great moral degradation ; yet, if we really contemplate his likeness in the noble figure in the Yatican, we may fairly say of the prince as the historian affirms of the general: you might easily deem him good ; you woidd willingly believe him great? Your filial love , most venerable imperator , made you wish your succession to be long retarded ; but the gods were eager to advance your virtues to the helm of state, which you had promised to direct. This being so, I invoice all happiness on yourself and on mankind, as befits the age which is illustrated by your name. For my own sake, and for the peoples sake, I pray for your health both in mind and body? Such is the form of congratulation with Nerva’s merit In adopting l’rajan. 1 The antiquity of this remarkable statue is acknowledged. It is asserted, however, that the upper and lower halves, the one naked, the other draped, did not originally belong to the same figure. Meyer on Winckelmann, Gesch. der Kunst , &c., xi. Buch. 3. Kap. 2 Tac. Agric. 44. : “ quod si habitum quoque ejus posteri noscere velint, decentior quam sublimior fuit ; nihil metus in vultu, gratia oris supererat ; bonum virum facile crederes, magnum libenter.” Comp. Julian. Ccesar. : itapfpStv ’em rovroig ytpov btydijvai naXoc — Xapirei yap toTiv 5re ical tv to yt/pg to KaXXog — IvtvxsIv irpgdTctTOQ , xt )7 U laT ' LCSal diKaidraroc. 8 Plin. Ep. x. 1. This is the first of a series of letters which embraces the correspondence between Pliny and Trajan, and gives us a curious insight into the manners of the times, and the relation of the prince to his people. A. U. 851. j UNDER THE EMPIRE. 171 which Pliny hails the consummation of his friend’s greatness, when the lately-adopted son and associate of the deceased Nerva was acknowledged by the senate and people as his legitimate successor. ISTerva’s career had been too brief to forfeit the hopes entertained of his clemency and discretion, but it allowed him to perform the one act by which he is dis- tinguished among the Caesars, the act by which he earned the blessings of his people, and secured the approbation of a late posterity. The choice he made of Trajan for his asso- ciate and heir was full, even at the time, of happy augury ; and when he was suddenly removed but a few months later, the Romans were satisfied with the prospect he bequeathed them, and transferred their vows of allegiance, without a murmur or a misgiving, to one whom they fully believed to be the best and bravest of his countrymen. This loyal ac- ceptance of the legitimate consequences of their own act was creditable to the sense and feeling of the Roman nobles ; for it cannot be doubted that, had Fiery a made himself an ob- ject of detestation, they would have repudiated his adoption as easily as any other of the legal acts of his principate. They proceeded to mark their respect and gratitude even more strongly, by reviving in his favour the rite of deifica- tion which they had refused to Domitian. To such a distinc- tion 1ST erva, in theory only the first of the citizens, could have no such pretensions as a Julius, or even a Flavius. But the inconsequence of the proceeding might easily be overlooked, especially if Trajan, as we may suppose, himself solicited it. The act itself had now doubtless lost some portion of its earlier significance, and henceforth the claims of deceased princes to divinity were regarded as purely political. M. FI pi us Trajanus, w T hose conduct in the purple has placed him in the foremost rank among the heroes of history, is little known to us before his elevation, and we origin of the may not at first sight perceive the grounds of the ™J, r>< a ™j favour in which he was already held by his con- of his father - temporaries. 1 The Ulpian Gens, to which he was attached, 1 Eutropius, viii. 2., alone gives him the additional name of Cricitus : 172 HISTORY OP THE ROMANS [A. D. 98. though reputed ancient, was obscure, nor had it contributed a single name to the Fasti. But the Traian Gens, from which some ancestor of the emperor had passed by adoption into the Ulpian, was, perhaps, still less known; and even after the greatness and virtues of Trajan had drawn attention to it, historians and biographers could say no more of his family than that it was probably transplanted from Italy to Spain, when Scipio Africanus founded a colony at Italica on the Bsetis. The Trajani were men of some note in the province, which gave birth to many personages distinguished after- wards at Rome. Trajanus, the father of the emperor, and Silius Italicus, the consul and poet, were natives of the same colony, and nearly contemporary in age; but their career was different, for while Silius, a man of fortune and literary acquirements, enjoyed fame and fashion in the capital, his fellow-citizen devoted himself to a career of arms, won victo- ries over the Parthians and the Jews, gained the triumphal ornaments, and governed provinces. Trajanus had com- manded the Tenth legion at the bloody storming of Joppa ; 1 he had proved himself an adroit courtier as well as a gallant officer ; and having advanced in due time to the consulship, reached the summit of official distinction as proconsul of Asia. After this we hear no more of him ; but there seems reason to believe that he survived his son’s elevation to power, and received from him after death the honours of apotheosis . 3 perhaps a by-name of his family from the Turdetanian fashion of wearing their hair long. The name is not recognized on the monuments. We have no com- plete biography of Trajan. Notices of his birth and early career are found in Eutropius and Aurelius Victor, Ctes. 13., Epit. 13. Dion compressed the reigns of Nerva and Trajan into a single book, of which we possess an imperfect and confused epitome. Pliny, in his Letters and Panegyric , is our most valuable authority. These and other materials had long since been put together by Tillemont in the History of the Emperors, which was long generally acknowl- edged as the best compilation that could be made. But recently the elaborate work of Francke, Geschichte Trajans, has supplied many deficiencies in Tille- mont, and the chronology of the latter year of this reign has been put on a more satisfactory footing. 1 Joseph., Bell.Jud. iii. 11. a Pliny in his Panegyric (a. p. 100) speaks of Trajan the father as ther A.U. 851.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 173 Trajan, the son, was horn, according to the most probable statement, towards the end of the year 53, and, accordingly, on his accession to the undivided sovereignty, had ° Early career o reached the middle of his forty-fifth year . 1 From the emperor J J Trajan. early youth he had been trained in the camp by his father’s side, and had gained the love and confidence of the legions, among which he had waged the border warfare of the empire. He seems to have risen through the various grades of the service, and had held the post of military trib" une for ten years, in which he had become familiar with all the methods and resources of Roman warfare, and had learnt the names of officers and soldiers in many distant garrisons, whose bravery and whose wounds he had personally wit- nessed . 2 He had shown talents for administration, as well as for war, and to his personal merits alone must he have owed his periodical recall from the camp to occupy the chief places in the civil government. It may be presumed that an officer who was deemed qualified to become praetor and con- sul, had enjoyed the ordinary advantages of training in rhet- oric and literature; but Trajan’s attainments in learning were slender, and modesty or discretion led him to conceal deficiencies rather than affect accomplishments he did not possess . 3 His elevation to the consulship, which occurred in dead, but not yet deified ; the interval, we may suppose, would not be long. That he was actually “ consecrated ” appears from a medal inscribed : “ Divi Nerva et Trajanus pater.” 1 The statements of Eutropius, Yictor, and Eusebius vary by one or more years. Dion, who specifies the length of his reign and day of his death, makes him 41 at his accession. But as Pliny assures us that he served in his father’s Parthian campaign, which can hardly be placed later than 67, he must have been then at least 14 years of age, and, therefore, the latest date we can assign to his birth would be 53, that is, 44 years before his adoption. 2 Plin. Parley . 15. 3 Yictor, F/pit. 13. : “ quum ipse pare® esset scienti®, moderateque elo» quens.” Dion, lxviii. 7. : mudeiac pb> yap anpi/Sovg, bar; kv Xdyocg, ov perelx e - Comp. Julian, Ccescir. of Trajan : 6 tie naiirep SwapevoQ teyeiv vtto padvpiag .... ipdeyybfievoc paPkov ^ ?Ayav. An epigram in the Anthologia is ascribed to Trajan, and he composed commentaries on his Wars in Dacia. See Reimar on Dion, 1. c. The story that he was instructed by Plutarch may be rejected 174 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. 1). 98. 91, may have seemed even beyond Ms deserts, and hence tbe story which obtained currency, at least at a later period, that it was attended with omens portending his own accession to the purple, and at the same time the sudden downfall of his colleague Glabrio. 1 When his term of office expired, Trajan succeeded to a government in Spain, which he afterwards exchanged for a command in the lower Germany. The tribes beyond the Rhine had been exasperated rather than repressed by the idle campaigns of Domitian, and required for then - control a firm hand and an experienced eye. Trajan, His discreet while faithful to his imperator, had a discreet re- ™ m manlier on g ai 'd to his own interests also. He plunged into the Ehme. n0 aggressive warfare, but was satisfied Avith the fame of vigilance and prudence for preserving peace on the frontiers.” By such self-restraint he escaped, perhaps, the mortification of an Agricola, retained his post throughout the latter years of his jealous master, and reaped the fruits of his temperate reserve, when the prince of the senate required the protection of his best officer against his own mutinous guards. When, indeed, Nerva was reduced to seek this protection, his choice would necessarily lie between the commanders of the two great European divisions of the Roman Accession of ^ . Trajan to the forces, the prefect of the Rhenish, and the prefect of the Danubian legions ; for the chief of the army of Syria lay at too great a distance to compete, at least at the moment, with either of these formidable champions. But of the military triumvirate in whose hands the fate of Rome now actually resided, the commander on the Rhine had generally the most decisive influence ; and it was fortunate for the feeble emperor that he possessed at this juncture in his lieutenant Trajan the most devoted as Avell as the bravest of ] >artisans. The adoption of such a colleague silenced dig" affection; the few remaining months of Nerva’s reign were as a fiction, founded, perhaps, on the favour he undoubtedly showed to that philosopher. 1 Suet. Domii 12. 3 Plin. Paneff. 14. X. D. 851.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 175 passed in tranquillity and honour ; and even the praetorians acquiesced without a murmur in the accession of the valiant captain on the Rhine. The messengers of the senate, charged with the vows of all the citizens, found Trajan among his soldiers at Cologne, and there announced to him his succession . 1 He Trajan gives had already been nominated to his second con- pledges for ... . . moderation. sulship ; he now assumed all the great functions of state which together constituted the imperial power. He replied with a letter to the senate, in which he promised, after his father’s example, that no magnate of their order should suffer capitally during his reign ; and this formal an- nouncement was accepted as a pledge of constitutional gov- ernment. Nor was it an empty compliment. It implied a promise to conduct affairs in a spirit of moderation ; not to pamper the soldiers or the people ; not to scatter the public treasures in needless debauchery ; not to create a dire neces- sity for rapine, which must mark for plunder and slaughter the wealthiest and noblest of the citizens. So perfect was the content of all classes, so easily did the wheels of admin- istration move in the capital, that the new emperor was not required even to hasten to Rome, and assume the reins in person. He had conceived a system of government different from that of any of his predecessors. Though not wanting in ability for the direction of civil affairs, his experience and his tastes were chiefly military. Long accustomed to the life of the camps, he had been debarred by his master’s jeal- ousy from the full exercise of his genius for war ; but he had laboured in restoring the discipline of the legions, and had attached them personally to him, even while forced to restrain their ardour for more active employment. lie flattered him- self that he had prepared a career of victory by the perfection to which he had brought the instrument which was to ac- complish it. Trajan completed the fortification of the Rhen- ish frontier by the establishment of colonies and military 1 Victor, Epil. 13. : “ Hie imperium apud Agrippinam nobilem Gallia coloniam accepit." 176 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 98. posts. Nigh to the ruined leaguer of Castra Vetera he planted the station which bore for centuries the name of Ulpia Traiana. He threw a bridge across the Rhine at Trajan’s bridge J n ° . across the Mainz, and settled a colony ten miles beyond the Rhine atMainz. . . 17 , river, possibly at Hochst, and another further south, at the medicinal springs of Baden Baden . 1 2 He repair* ed and strengthened the lines commenced by Drusus, and ex- tended by Tiberius, which ran from a point nearly opposite to Bonn, in an oblique direction, across the Taunus district ; and he contemplated carrying a continuous fosse and rampart to the bank of the Danube. The upper waters of the two great rivers of western Europe approach very near to each other in the Black F orest, where the Danube has its source ; but from thence they rapidly diverge to the north and east respectively. The wedge of land between them had, from the time of Caasar’s contest with the Suevi, been abandoned for the most part by the natives to a slender but constant immigration of Romanized Gauls ; and these new occupants gladly compounded for the protection or countenance of the empire by a tribute, to which was given the name of tenths . 8 The A A - D - "■ tion ; the title also of Germanicus, together with the name of his father 1ST erva, had been bestowed on him on the same occasion. The consulship, with which he had been a second time invested while the late emperor was still living, he de- clined to claim for the ensuing year, being himself absent from the city, from respect, perhaps, to the ancient usage ; nor would he allow the senate to salute him as Father of his Btatum belli, sed subjecit ditioni suae hostes quorum refugia nudaverat.” But this I rather interpret of a road driven into the heart of a country, than of a limitary rampart. So Frontinus again, i. 5. 10. : “ ab altera parte limitem agere coepit, tanquam per eum erupturus.” 1 The line of “ Trajan’s wall” has been carefully examined within the last few years by Mr. Yates, whose interesting account of it I have read, if I am not mistaken, in a recent volume of Transactions of the Archaeological Institute. 178 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 99 country till he had presented himself to the citizens, and earned the endearing appellation by his courtesy and modera- tion . 1 * * * His demeanour as well as his actions were such as befitted the true patriot and citizen, and excited accordingly the warmest enthusiasm. Throughout his progress from Germany he abstained from the demands and exactions usually made even on subjects and provincials. His entry into Rome was a moral triumph. Martial, in a few graphic touches, brings vividly before us the man, the place, and the people . 5 Pliny exerts himself to describe more elaborately the extreme condescension and affability of the prince, who deigned to approach the home of law and freedom on foot, unattended by guards, distinguished only by the eminence of his stature, and the dignity of his bearing ; allowing the citizens of all grades to throng about him; admitting the greetings of the senators on his return as emperor, with the same graciousness with which he had accepted them when he went forth as a fellow-subject; addressing even the knights by name; paying his vows to his country’s gods in the Capi- tol, and entering the palace of the Caesars as the modest 1 Pliny, Paneg. 20., declares, 'with headlong adulation, that every emperor before Trajan had assumed this title without hesitation on the day of his accession. We know, however, that Augustus long deferred it; so did Tiberius (Tac. Ann. i. 72., Suet. Tib. 67.) and Yespasian (Suet. Vcsp. 12.). Capitolinus, indeed, asserts that Pertinax, nearly a century later, was the first of the empe- rors who assumed it at once. 5 Martial, x. 6. : “ Felices quibus urna dedit spectare coruscum Solibus Arctois sideribusque ducem,” &c. But this is in anticipation of the hero’s arrival, for which the poet proceeds to offer his vows in the next epigram : “ Nympharum pater amniumque Rhene .... Trajanum populis suis et Urbi, Tibris te dominus rogat, remittas.” Compare the verses of Claudian on Stilicho’s entry into Rome, xxii. 397, foil. The reader should be warned against the confusion of dates in the arrangement of Martial’s pieces. In book x. epigrams 6, 7., and probably 71., refer to Trajan : but xi. 4, 5., though inscribed in the edition to Nerva Traja- nus, undoubtedly to Nerva. In book xii. epigram 6. refers to the earlier, and 8. to the later emperor. A. U. 852.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 179 owner of a private mansion . 1 Hor did Trajan stand alone in this exhibition of patriotic decorum. His wife, Plotina, bore herself as the spouse of a simple senator ; and as Magnanimity she mounted the stair of the imperial residence, wUe!°nd jjar- turned towards the multitude, and declared that Clana ’ hls slster - she was about to enter it with the same equanimity with which sbte should wish hereafter, if fate so required, to aban- don it . 2 Her behaviour throughout her husband’s career corresponded with this commencement. ISTor less magnani- mous was the conduct of Trajan’s sister, Marciana, who in- habited the palace in perfect harmony with the empress, and assisted her in maintaining its august etiquette. Trajan himself renewed by word of mouth the oath he had before made in writing, that he would never harm the person of a senator, an oath which he continued faithfully to respect. But he was not unmindful of his parent’s adjuration, and sought out for condign punishment the mutineers who had trampled on Herva’s weakness. Such was his confidence in his authority over the soldiers, that he ventured to reduce the customary donative to one-half the amount to which his predecessors had raised it. Hot a murmur was heard even in the camp of the praetorians ; and when he handed to the prefect the poniard which was the symbol of his office, he could boldly say, Use this for me , if I do well • if ill, against me. s We have seen that the lenient or feeble Herva, though he revived the edicts of Titus against the delators, had failed to satisfy the fury of his nobles in punishing them. Trajan had no such weakness, and showed no such moderation. Giving the rein at last to the passions of the sufferers, he 1 Pliny, Paneg. 22, foil. : “ qui dies ille quo exspectatus desideratusque urbem ingressus es ? . . . . gratum erat cunctis quod senatum oseulo exciperes, ut dimissus oseulo fueras, &c quod latus tuum crederes omnibus,” &c. 2 Dion, Ixviii. 5. s Dion, Ixviii. 16. : Victor, Ctes. 13. This famous saying was remembered in the last decline of Rome, and alluded to by Sidonius Apollinaris, Carm. 5. : “ Vix habuit mores similes cui, teste Senatu, In se etiam tractum commiserat Ulpius ensem.” 180 HISTORY OP THE ROMANS [A. D. 100. executed what, according to Pliny’s account, we might call a razzia upon the remnant of the culprits. Pliny describes the extraordinary spectacle of a number of these people dragged in chains through the circus before the assembled citizens, with every circumstance of deliberate insult ; and when the most obnoxious had been selected for capital punishment, the rest were shipped for exile beyond sea, on the craziest barks in the stormiest weather. 1 The famous Panegyric , an impressive monument of this illustrious reign, which seems to have been delivered by Trajan receives Bl' m y, as consul, on the third anniversary of Tra- timus°° ° f 0l> ' jan’s Tribunitian power, not only celebrates such a d 100 instances of his magnanimity and justice, but a. it. 853. enumerates also many wise and beneficent meas- ures he had already carried into effect. Our review of these may be deferred till we can comprise the whole course of his civil administration, which was soon interrupted by a long interval of warlike operations. So favourable, however, was the impression Trajan had made during his sojourn in the city, that the senate decreed him, in addition to the other titles usually borne by the emperors, the transcendent appel- lation of Optimus, or the Best. 2 ISTor was this a merely for- mal compliment. While the titles of Csesar and Augustus, of Magnus and Germanicus, were suffered to descend from sire to son, no other emperor was honoured with the special appellation of Optimus ; though it is said to have been usual, 1 “Congesti sunt in navigia raptim conquisita, ac tempestatibus dediti. Abirent, fugerent yastatas delationibus terras, ac si quem fluctus ac procell® scopulis reservassent, hie nuda saxa et inhospitale litus incoleret.” Paneg. 34. Similar severities had been used before by Titus (Suet. Tit. 8., see above), but the wrongs sustained had been less, and they had not perhaps been celebrated i> ith such passionate exultation. 2 Pliny, Paneg. 2. 88. It has been remarked, indeed, that the title “ Opti- mus ” does not appear on Trajan’s coins before his eleventh year, and we must suppose that, though formally assigned him by the senate, he forebore for a time to assume it. Dion (Ixviii. 23.) refers this title to a still later date. He adds that Trajan was more proud of it than of any other, as a compliment to his character rather than to his exploits. A. U. 853. J UNDER THE EMPIRE. 181 In later times, for the senate, on the accession of each new chief of the republic, to exclaim, as the highest token of its admiration, that he was more fortunate than Augustus, and better than Trajan . 1 But the flattery of the senate, even in the polished phrases of Pliny, the most accomplished of his order, must have been irksome to a man of Trajan’s plain sense. We Trajan marches can well believe that he soon bee'an to fret under the Da ' the restraints of deference to a society by which , D lftl he must have been frequently mortified, and A - u - 854 longed to fling himself into the stir and movement of the military career. Confined for many years within the de- fences of the camp, he had there assiduously prepared all the machinery of aggressive warfare, and he was now anxious to go and prove it. In the fourth year of his reign he quitted the city to undertake war on a large scale, and with great ends in view, against the long-formidable Dacians . 2 The motives ascribed to him are, indignation at the successes which these barbarians could boast in their previous conflicts with the empire, and disgust at the payment of an annual tribute to which Domitian is said to have consented. But these, perhaps, were mere pretences. Confident in the per- fection of the instrument he now wielded, he trusted by its means to emulate the glories of a Julius or an Alexander. The legions of the Rhine also, however exact their discipline, were doubtless burning for employment ; those on the Ister were turbulent as well as impatient. The founder of a new dynasty could hardly depend on their fidelity without hu- mouring their martial instincts. We must consider, too, that Eutrop. viii. 5. : “ hujus tantum memorise delatum est, ut usque ad nos- tram setatem non aliter in Senatu principibus acclamaretur, quam, felicior Augusto melior Trajano ! ” One of Trajan’s most popular sayings is also re- corded by this writer : “ talem se imperatorem esse privatis, quales esse eibi imperatores privatus optasset.” 5 Clinton, Fast. Rom. The Panegyric of Pliny was delivered in the autumn preceding, when Trajan was designated consul for the fourth time. This con- Bulship he held in 101. 182 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 101 the vast and increasing expenses of a military government required to he maintained by extraordinary means, and Tra- jan may have launched himself against the foe beyond the frontier to obviate the necessity of levying fresh contributions on his own subjects. He meant that his wars should be self- supporting ; that their expenses should be defrayed by the conquered enemy, and the cupidity of the soldiers satisfied with the plunder of foreigners. The Dacians, though in name barbarians, seem to have been actually possessors of considerable wealth, and to have attained to a certain degree of social refinement. They were a branch of the Get®, a people of whom it was remarked that they stood nearest to the Greeks in their natural aptitude for civilization ; 1 and besides the stores they accumulated in their repeated inroads oil the Greek and Roman settlements, their country abounded in mines of gold and silver, as well as of iron. Such were the glittering spoils which tempted the long-restrained ardour of the legionaries, even more than their fertile plains and illimitable pastures. The Get® and the Thracians, of cognate origin, occupied the region of Bulgaria and Roumelia, and, according to tra- dition, the Dacians were an off-shoot from these Geographical . position of the nations, which crossed the ister, overran the Dacians Banat, Wallachia and Moldavia, and finally fixed its strongholds in the mountainous district of Transylvania. In the second century they may be considered as occupying the broad block of land bounded by the Theiss, Their pre - . ** dntory incur- the Carpathians, the lower Danube or Ister, and the Pruth. In the centre of this region rose the great mountainous tract in which the Maros takes its rise, 1 Justin, xxxii. 3. : “ Daci quoque soboles Getarum sunt.” Dion, Ixvii. 6. : Aa/cotf de aiiroiig rcpoaayopebo], tioTrep ttov nal avrol iavrovg nal ol ' P apaloi uut Martial, who has supplied us Ulpian forum. . 11 with many hints, at least oi the architectual glo- ries of Nero and Domitian, had retired to his native Bilbilis before the commencement of the works in which the grandi- osity of Spanish taste was first exemplified in marble ; the panegyric of Pliny had been already pronounced, and the letters comprised in his collection belong to an earlier date . 3 Juvenal, who is not wholly silent on other buildings of Trajan, has no allusion to the forum or the column ; and indeed this writer, while he describes life at Rome in almost every line of almost all his satires, is strangely deficient in topographical notices. Tacitus reserved a work on the Affairs of Trajan for the solace of an old age which possibly he never attained. Since the fall of Domitian, Suetonius has deserted us, and the era at which we are now arrived stands on the verge of a great chasm in Roman literature. At a much later period we get occasional glimpses of the Ulpian forum, which seems to have long retained its paramount dignity among the re- mains of ancient magnificence. It was here that the empe- rors long sate in state, attended by the lictors with their gilded fasces ; and here, in the last decline or revival of old traditions, when there were no longer emperors at Rome, the consuls continued to create new Quirites by manumission on the kalends of January . 3 When the second of the Christian 1 See the ichnography of this series of buildings in Becker’s Handbuch, taken from Canina’s Indicazione Topografica , and adopted in the art. “ Roma Smith’s Diet, of Class. Geography. 2 The date of the dedication of the Trajan column is inscribed on its base, and answers to the 17th year of his reign, a.v. 114. The latest of Pliny’s letters that can be dated belongs to the year 107, but the period of his death is unknown. 8 Claudian, xxviii. 646. : “ desuetaque cingit Regius auratis fora fascibus Ulpia lictor,” Sidon Apoll. : « “ ad Ulpia poscunt Te fora donabis quos libertate Quirites.” 4. E 860..] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 203 and Byzantine Caesars visited the abandoned capital, he was struck with tne glories of this spot, which even then had no rival in splendour under heaven . 1 Even its decorations seem to have been singularly respected. Five hundred years after the Dacian triumph, when Rome had been taken and retaken by Goths, Lombards, and Greeks, and had suffered from earthquakes and inundations, from natural decay and squalid poverty, more than even from the violence of the spoiler, a legend, which seems not wholly groundless, relates how Pope Gregory the Great, traversing the forum of Tra- jan, was struck with the sight of a group in bronze, one of the many works still conspicuous on the spot, in which a generous action of its imperial founder was vividly repre- sented . 2 The TJlpian forum, however, though the largest and the most interesting, was by no means the only construction of this emperor at Rome. ISTo reign perhaps was marked by more extensive alterations and additions to the . . „ . . Other buildings existing features of the city. Trai an prolonged of Trajan in 1 ■ „ . „ , . . . , , ° , the city. the senes of halls and porticos which decorated the Campus Martius, among which the Pantheon and the Julian mausoleum still rose preeminent in grandeur. He constructed a theatre in the same quarter, which was re- markable from its circular shape ; he added another gymna- sium and another odeum to the places of the kind already existing, consecrated to the display of Grecian arts and accomplishments ; he gave to the people new thermae, the site 1 See tlie account of the visit of Constantius in Ammianus, xvi. 6. : “ cum ad Trajani forum venisset, singularem sub omni cselo structuram.” Cassiodor. Variar. vii. 6. ; Victor, de Region, viii. 2 The incident is related by the biographers of Gregory, John and Paul Diaconus, and by John of Salisbury, De eurial. magis. v. 8. The group repre- sented Trajan dismounting to listen to a female petitioner, who would not be put off with a distant promise of an audience when he should return from the wars. The Pontiff, it is added, prayed for the soul of the righteous heathen, »nd received an assurance that Trajan’s soul should be released from Purgatory. Comp. Dante, Purgat. x. V 8. ; Farad, xx. 40. As regards the female petitioner, Dion, it may be observed, tells the story of Hadrian, kk. 6. 204 HISTORY OP THE ROMANS [A. I). 107. of which was near to those of Titus, if indeed they were not actually an extension of the Flavian edifice. 1 He brought the waters of the lake Sabatinus to the Janiculus, thus add- ing a tenth to the nine existing aqueducts of the city. 1 2 There seems ground for supposing that he completed the arch of Titus, still unfinished, on the Yelia. The Circus Maximus had been arranged by J ulius Ctesar for the reception of the whole Roman people, with a lower story of masonry, and wooden galleries above. The wood-work had been swept away by Nero’s fire; the restoration of this favourite resort had been conducted by succeeding emperors ; but Trajan earned popu- larity by enlarging its accommodation, whereby room was obtained for the still increasing multitude of the citizens. 3 4 While, however, the magnificent emperor was intent on raising the abode of the Romans to the level of their fortunes, inundations and earthquakes, the most ancient and inveterate of her foes, were making havoc of many of her noblest build- ings ; the fragments still remaining of 1ST ero’s brilliant palace were consumed by fire, the Pantheon was stricken by light- ning, and the calamities which befell the mistress of the world might point a moral for a Christian writer of a much later date, who ascribed them to the judgment of God on a persecutor of his holy religion. 4 Of this hereafter. The princely prodigality of Trajan’s taste was defrayed by the plunder or tribute of conquered Trajan's archi- enemies, and seems to have laid at least no extra- hi C theproy- rk3 ordinary burdens on his subjects. His rage for “ ces - building had the further merit of being directed for the most part to works of public interest and utility. He 1 Pausan. 1. c. 2 Becker’s Allcrthumer, i. p. 706. 8 Plin. Paneg. 61. Comp. Dion, Ixviii. 7. The text of Pliny makes tho additional seats only 5000, which seems absurd. Csesar made room for 260,000, and at a later period we read of 385,000 or even 485,000 spectators. Possibly all these numbers are corrupt. 4 Orosius, vii. 12. To guard against these disasters Trajan limited the height of private dwellings to sixty feet, or ten feet below the maximum allowed by Augustus. Victor, j 'Spit. 13. A. C. 860 .] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 205 built for the gods, the senate, and tlie people, not for himself; he restored the temples, enlarged the halls and places of pub- lic resort ; but he was content himself with the palaces of his predecessors . 1 Not in Rome only, but in innumerable places throughout Italy and the provinces, the hand of Trajan was conspicuous in the structures he executed, some of which still attest the splendour of the epoch, and the large-minded pa- triotism of their author. An arch at Ancona still reminds us that here he constructed a haven for his navy on the upper sea; and the port of Civita Vecchia is still sheltered by the mole he cast into the waters to defend the roadstead of Centum- cellse . 2 The bridge' over the Tagus at Alcantara affirms, by an inscription-still legible upon it, that it was built by J ulius La- cer, one of Trajan’s favourite architects, though the cost was de- frayed, according to the same interesting record, by the local contributions of some rich and spirited communities . 3 A writer three centuries later declares of Trajan that he built the world over ; and the wide diffusion and long continuance of his fame, beyond that of so many others of the imperial series, may be partly attributed to the constant recurrence of his name conspicuously inscribed on the most solid and best known monuments of the empire . 4 The greatest of his suc- 1 Pliny even praises Trajan for his great moderation in building, at least within the walls of Rome : “ idem tam parcus in sedificando quam diligens u> tuendo.” Paneg, 51. — But the Panegyricus, it must be remembered, refers only to the commencement of the reign. 2 Pliny, Ppist. vi. 31., describes the port of Centumcell®. Comp, coins in Eckhel, inscriptions in Gruter, &c. To this, according to the scholiast, Juvenal alludes, xii. 75. : “ Tandem intrat positas inclusa per ®quora moles, Tyrrhenamque Pharon, porrectaque brachia rursum.” 9 Francke, Gesch. Trajans , p. 584., after Gruter and others. The dimen- sions of this work, as given by Brotier, are: height 200 feet, length 6V0, width 28 ; arches 6, each of 80 feet span: all, of course, in French measure. Trajan erected bridges also over the Rhine, the Euphrates, and the Tigris. 4 Eutrop. viii. 2. : “orbem terrarum mdificans.” Several coins of families, e. g., iEmilia, Cassia, Cornelia and others, attest the restoration by Trajan of temples and basilicas erected by the great men of the republic. See Brotier’s Tacitus : in append, chronol. a. c. c. 856. 200 HISTORY OP THE ROMANS [A. D. 107. cessors, the illustrious Constantine, full of admiration for his genius, and touched perhaps with some envy of his glory, compared him pleasantly to a wallflower, which clings for support to the stones on which it flourishes so luxuri- antly . 1 2 The care of this wise and liberal ruler extended from the harbours, aqueducts, and bridges, to the general repair of _ . , . . the highways of the empire. Nor was it only as Trajan’s vigi- 0 J 1 * lance in the the restorer of military discipline or the reviver administration . J x of the prov- of the old tradition of conquest, that he took in charge the communications which were originally designed chiefly for military purposes . 3 He was the great improver, though not the inventor, of the system of posts upon the chief roads, which formed a striking feature of Roman civilization as an instrument for combining the re- motest provinces under a centralized administration . 3 The extent to which the domestic concerns of every distant municipium were subjected to the prince’s supervision is curiously pourtrayed in the letters of Pliny, who appears, as governor of Bithynia, to have felt it incumbent on him to consult his master on the answer he should return to every petition of the provincials, whether they wanted to construct an aqueduct, to erect a gymnasium, or to cover a common sewer . 4 It is possible indeed that the courtly prefect may, 1 Victor, Epil. 60.: “hie (Constnntinus) Trajanum herbamparietariam, ob titulos multis aedibus inscriptos appellare solitus erat.” 2 The roads constructed or repaired by Trajan are carefully enumerated by Francke, pp. 577-683. ; i. e. 1. on the northern side of Italy between Auximum and Aquileja ; 2. the AppianWay; 3. from Beneventum to Brundisium ; 4. various roads in Spain. They are for the most part ascertained from inscrip tions. 3 Victor, Coes. 13.: “noscendis ocyus quse ubique e republica gerebantur admota media publici cursus.” Comp. Plin. Epist. x. 54, 55. The system had been originally set up by Augustus (Suet. Octav. 49.), as has been mentioned in an earlier chapter. The minute economy of its administration appears in divers letters of Pliny to Trajan, in which he excuses himself for what might be considered an illegitimate use of it, x. 30, 31, 121, 122. ed. Gierig. 4 Pkn. Epist. x. 21. 22. 47. 48. 57. 61. 70-73. 98. 99. (ed. Gierig). We A. U. 8 GO.] UNDER TEE EMPIRE. 207 in this instance, have been over obsequious, and Trajan him- self seems almost to resent the importunity with which he begs to have an architect sent him from Rome. Are there no such artists in your province or elsewhere? asks the emperor. It is from Greece that the architects come to Rome , and Greece is nearer to you than Italy } These works, whether of convenience or splendour, were, it seems, generally constructed by the governing bodies in the prov- inces themselves, and by local taxation, though assisted not uncommonly by imperial munificence. Wealthy citizens might continue, as of old, thus to gratify their own vanity, taste or generosity, of which Pliny is himself an example ; but the days of the splendid magnates, who pretended to rival the prince in their lavish expenditure, had passed away, and it was upon the master of the empire and proprietor of the fiscus, that the burden continued more and more to fall . 2 While the chief functionaries of the state subsided into mere agents of police, the senate itself, even under the most may be surprised at the minuteness of the supervision exercised by the central government, as exemplified in these records. This was, however, no novelty in the Roman administration, which under the free state was at least equally jealous and exacting. See an anecdote in Vitruvius, i. 4. : “in Apulia oppidum Salpia vetus .... ex quo incolae quotannis segrotando laborantes aliquando pervenerunt ad M. Hostilium, eoque publice petentes impetraverunt, uti his idoneum locum ad mosnia transferenda conquireret, eligeretque. Tunc is moratus non est, sed statim, rationibus doctissime quaesitis, secundum mare mercatus est possessionem loco salubri : ab senatuque pop. que Rom. petiit ut sineret transferre oppidum,” &c. 1 Plin. Epist. x. 33, 34. Whether an architect was to be sought for from Greece or Rome, it shows how small the class of intelligent artists must have been throughout the empire, that a province like Bithynia, which contained such great cities as Nicsaa and Nicomedia, was obliged to look so far for an architect. See the remarks of Dubois-Guchan, Tacile et son Siecle, i. 564. 2 Pliny’s munificence was on a small scale, as befitted the modest position of an advocate and a man of letters. See an instance in Ep. iv. 1. Licinius Sura, a wealthy and ambitious noble, built a gymnasium for the Roman people. A small part only of the liberality of Herodes Atticus, of whom more hereafter, was bestowed on the Romans. Dion, lxviii. 15. 208 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 107. obliging of its princes, abdicated its duties, and left to him the initiative in every work of public Domical meaa - interest. The emperor had become the sole le- mta gislator, the sole administrator, the sole overseer of the com- monwealth, and at last he found himself almost its sole benefactor also. A mere selfish voluptuary might neglect or repudiate this duty, but a prince of sense and honoui acknowledged the obligation of providing, from the re- sources placed in his hands, for every object of general utility. The endowment of the professors of learning by Vespasian seems to have been made from the fisc. Domitian, in the midst of his necessities, had respected this allocation of the imperial treasures; but his own liberality was prob- ably confined to establishing the paltry prizes of his Capi- toline and Alban games. The ordinary largesses of grain by which the citizen of the lower ranks was almost wholly supported, had been extended by Augustus to infants, and the munificence of successive governments had added, from time to time, the condiments of wine, oil, and bacon to the produce of the Egyptian wheatfields; but Nerva seems to have first introduced the habit of providing a special endowment in money for the children of ™n° ^ on the poor, and more particularly for orphans. This prince’s charity was casual and imperfect. It was re- served for Trajan to expand it into a system, and establish it as an imperial institution. Of the origin of this alimentation there is no trace. We can only imagine the motive for it in the anxiety so long manifested by government for the increase of the free population, and its wish to encourage legitimate wedlock . 1 The provision itself is recorded on many coins of Trajan and his successors, and is mentioned generally by the historians ; but it is from the inscribed tablet of Veleia that we derive our full knowledge of its extent and character . 2 If we may venture to apply to Rome - Plin. Paneg. 26. : “ Hi subsidium bellorum, ornamentum pads, publicis sumptibus aluntui .... ex his castra, ex his tribus replebantur.” 2 For the coins and inscriptions see Eckhel and Gruter. The tablet referred A..U. 8G0.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 209 and to Italy generally the data thus acquired with regard to one obscure municipium, it would seem that there was a graduated scale of endowment for male and female children, for legitimate and illegitimate, sufficient for their entire maintenance, and that the whole number of recipients throughout the peninsula might amount to 300, 000. 1 This provision was continued up to the eighteenth year for males, and to the fourteenth for females. The number of boys thus supported would seem to have been ten times that of girls; and though the care of the government might naturally be directed to the one sex more than to the other, the dis- proportion seems, nevertheless, to point significantly to the fact, of which Ave have had other indications, of the frequent abandonment of female children. 2 The sums by which this system was maintained were advanced doubtless by the fiscus. Loans were made to the local proprietors for the cul- tivation or improvement of their estates, at the reduced rate of five per cent., instead of the twelve per cent., which was ordinarily demanded. 3 The tablet of Yeleia specifies the to is an inscribed plate of bronze, found in the neighbourhood of Placentia in the year 1747, from which the character of the institution has been deduced by the learning and ingenuity of Huratori, Maffei, Gori and Terrasson. 1 Such is the calculation of Erancke ( Gesch . Trajans , p. 413.) on the as- sumption that the number relieved, and the scale of relief at Yeleia (including Placentia and Liburna), may be taken as an index to the whole of Italy. But for this we have not sufficient warrant. On the contrary, we might perhaps infer that the munificence of Trajan was local rather than universal, from the fact that Pliny undertakes to establish a fund for the relief of his own towns- people at Comum : Epist. vii. 18. In his Panegxjnc (cap. 28.) Pliny specifies the number of 6000 infants whom Trajan had thus endowed, but possibly in Rome only ; but this refers to an early period in his reign. 2 It was the practice of a special class of dealers to rear children deserted by their parents, in order to sell them as slaves. The trade was recognized and regulated by law, and many intricate questions arose from the claims of the parents to their children in after life, See Pliny, Epist. x. 74, 75. Such children were called “ altelli.” 3 Such is the explanation of Hegewisch and his translator Solvet (Epoque la plus heureme, &c.), followed by Erancke, and apparently the true one. Comp. Dion, Ixviiii. 6. : k at Tcdg tz6As