Chapter XXIII: Part III: , European Nations; of which only 1 volume, Greeks, has (15)

The forms under which Augustus held the different branches of supreme
power (dictatorship excepted) were;--the consulate, which, till B. C.
21, was annually renewed; and the _potestas consularis_, which, in B.
C. 19, was settled on him for ever;--the _tribunicia potestas_, which
was, 30, granted him for ever, rendered his person sacred
(_sacrosancta_), and prepared the way to the _judicia majestatis_
(accusations of high treason). As _imperator_, 31, he continued
commander of all the forces, and obtained the _imperium proconsulare_
(proconsular power) in all the provinces. He assumed the _magistratura
morum_ (censorship), 19; and became _pontifex maximus_ (high priest),
13. To avoid all appearances of usurpation, Augustus at first
accepted the sovereign power only for ten years, and afterwards had it
renewed from time to time, for ten or five years, which, at a later
period, gave rise to the _sacra decennalia_.

2. The senate, indeed, remained a permanent council of state, and Augustus himself endeavoured to increase its authority by more than one purification (_lectio_); but the connection between him and that assembly seemed of a very fragile nature, as it was undetermined, and could not at this time be settled, whether Augustus was over the senate, or the senate over Augustus. All matters of state could not be brought before the senate, as even the most important often required secrecy. It naturally followed, that a prince, as yet without a court, and who had no proper minister, but only his friends and freedmen, should consult with those whom he thought most worthy his confidence, a Maecenas, or an Agrippa, etc. Hence afterwards was formed the secret council of state (_consilium secretum principis_). Among the republican magistrates the highest lost most; and as so much now depended upon the preservation of peace in the capital, the offices of praefect of the city (_praefectus urbis_) and praefect of provisions (_praefectus annonae_) were not only made permanent, but became, especially the former, the principal offices in the state.

The spirit of monarchy shows itself in nothing more than in its strict
distinction of ranks; hence, therefore, the magistrates, especially
the consuls, lost nothing. Hence also the long-continued custom of
nominating under-consuls (_consules suffecti_,) which in time
became merely a formal assumption of the _ornamenta consularia et
triumphalia_ (consular and triumphal ornaments). Other offices were
created for the purpose of rewarding friends and dependents.

3. The introduction of standing armies, already long prepared, naturally followed a dominion acquired by war; and became, indeed, necessary to guard the frontiers and preserve the newly-made conquests; the establishment of the guards and militia of the city (_cohortes praetorianae_ and _cohortes urbanae_) were measures equally necessary for the security of the capital and the throne. The creation of _two_ praetorian praefects, however, instead of _one_, diminished for the present the great importance of that office.

Distribution of the legions over the provinces in _castra stativa_
(fixed camps), which soon grew into cities, especially along the
Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates (_legiones Germanicae, Illyricae,
et Syriacae_). Fleets also were stationed at Misenum and Ravenna.

4. The government, as well as the administration and revenue of the provinces, Augustus willingly divided with the senate; keeping to himself those on the frontiers (_provinciae principis_,) in which the legions were quartered, and leaving to that assembly the others (_provinciae senatus_). Hence his deputies (_legati_, lieutenants) exercised both civil and military authority in his name; while those of the senate, on the contrary (_proconsules_), only administered in civil affairs. Both were, in general, attended by commissioners (_procuratores et quaestores_). The provinces were unquestionably gainers by this new arrangement, not only because their governors were more carefully looked after, but because they were paid by the state.

The fate of the provinces naturally depended, in a great degree, upon
the disposition of the emperor and governor; but there was also an
essential difference between the provinces of the emperor and those
of the senate (_provinciae principis et senatus_): in the latter there
was no military oppression as there was in the former; and to that may
be ascribed the flourishing state of Gaul, Spain, Africa, etc.

5. There is little doubt but that the finances of the treasury remained, upon the whole, much the same as before; but in its internal administration Augustus made many alterations, of which we have but a very imperfect knowledge. Of course there would be at first an obvious difference between the privy and military chest of the emperor (_fiscus_), which was at his immediate disposal, and the state chest (_aerarium_) which he disposed of indirectly through the senate, though it must afterwards follow as a natural consequence of increasing despotism, that the latter should progressively become merged in the former.

The great disorder into which the treasury had been thrown during the
civil wars, and especially by giving away the state lands in Italy to
the soldiers, together with the heavy sums required for the
maintenance of the standing army now established, must have rendered
it much more difficult for Augustus to accomplish the reform he so
happily executed; and in which it seems to have been his chief aim to
place everything, as far as possible, upon a solid and lasting
foundation. The principal changes which he made in the old system of
taxation seem to have been: 1. That the tithes hitherto collected in
the provinces should be changed into a fixed quota, to be paid by each
individual. 2. The customs, partly by reestablishing former ones, and
partly by imposing new ones as well as an excise (_centesima rerum
venalium_), were rendered more productive. The possession of Egypt,
which was the depot of nearly all the commerce of the east, rendered
the customs at this time of great importance to Rome. 3. All the state
lands in the provinces were, by degrees, changed into crown lands. Of
the new taxes the most considerable were the _vigesima hereditatum_
(the twentieth of inheritances), though with important restrictions;
and the fines upon celibacy by the _lex Julia Poppaea_.--The greater
part of these state revenues most likely flowed, from the very first,
into the _fiscus_: that is, the whole revenues of the _provinciae
principis_, as well as of those parts of the _provinciae senatus_ which
were appropriated to the maintenance of the troops; the revenues
arising from the crown domains; the _vigesima_, etc. To the _aerarium_
(now under three _praefecti aerarii_) remained a part of the revenues of
the _provinciae senatus_, the customs and the fines. Thus it appears
that Augustus was master of the finances, of the legions, and thereby
of the empire.

See above, p. 362, the writings of HEGEWISCH and BOSSE.

6. The extension of the Roman empire under Augustus was very considerable; being generally of such a nature as conduced to the security of the interior, and to the safeguard of the frontiers. The complete subjugation of northern Spain, and western Gaul, secured the frontiers on that side; as did the threatened but never-executed expedition against the Parthians, and the one actually undertaken against Armenia, A. C. 2. But the most important conquest in this quarter was that of the countries south of the Danube, viz. Rhaetia, Vindelicia, and Noricum, as well as Pannonia, and afterwards Moesia. To counterbalance these, the expedition against Arabia Felix completely failed; and that against Aethiopia was of no further consequence than to strengthen the frontiers.

7. All these conquests together, however, did not cost the Romans so much as their fruitless attempt to subjugate Germany, first, by the sons-in-law of Augustus, Drusus and Tiberius Nero, and afterwards by the son of the former, Drusus Germanicus. Whether or not this undertaking was a political fault, must always remain a problem, as it is now impossible to say how far the security of the frontiers could be preserved without it.

Rome commenced her hostile attack upon Germany under the command of
Drusus, B. C. 12; Lower Germany (Westphalia, Lower Saxony, and Hesse)
being in general the theatre of the war: while the Lower Rhine was
attacked both by sea and land at the mouths of the Ems, the Weser, and
the Elbe, on account of the great assistance afforded the Romans by
their alliance with the nations on the coasts, the Batavi, Frisii, and
Chauci. The intrepid Drusus, in his second expedition, 10, penetrated
as far as the Weser, and, 9, even as far as the Elbe, but died on his
return. His successors in the command (Tiberius, 9-7, Domitius,
Aenobarbus, 7-2, M. Vinicius, 2-A. C. 2, then again Tiberius, A. C.
2-4, who was followed by Quintilius Varus, A. C. 5-9,) endeavoured
to build on the foundation laid by Drusus, and, by erecting forts and
introducing the Roman language and laws, gradually to reduce into a
province the part of Germany they had already subdued; but the
craftily organized revolt of the young Arminius (Hermann,) a prince of
the Cherusci, son of Siegmar, and son-in-law of Segestes, a friend of
the Romans, together with the defeat of Varus and his army in the
Teutoburg wald, or forest, near Paderborn, A. C. 9, rescued Germany
from slavery, and its language from annihilation. It moreover taught
the conquerors (what they never forgot) that the legions were not
invincible. Augustus immediately despatched Tiberius, who had just
quelled a furious insurrection in Pannonia, together with Germanicus,
to the Rhine; but these confined themselves to simple incursions, till
Germanicus, A. C. 14-16, again carried his arms further into the
country, and certainly penetrated as far as the Weser. Yet,
notwithstanding his victory near Idistavisus (Minden), the loss of his
fleet and part of his army by a tempest on his return, and the
jealousy of Tiberius at his victory, obliged him to give up his
command. From this time the Germans were left at rest in this quarter.

# MANNERT, _Geography of the Greeks and Romans_, part iii.

8. The long, and for Italy itself, peaceable reign of Augustus, has generally been considered a fortunate and brilliant period of Roman history; and, when compared with the times which preceded and followed, it certainly was so. Security of person and property were reestablished; the arts of peace flourished under the benign patronage of Augustus and his favourite Maecenas; and we may add, that, as the formal restoration of the republic would only have been the signal for new commotions, the government of Augustus, if not the very best, was, at least, the best that Rome could then bear. Should it be said his private life was not blameless, it may be replied, that he inflexibly maintained an outward decency, to which, indeed, he sacrificed his only daughter; and if laws could have bettered the public morals, there was no lack of decrees for that purpose.

Among his most important laws to this end are, the _lex Julia de
adulteriis_ and the _lex Papia Poppaea_ against celibacy. The latter
excited many murmurs.

9. Nearly all that remains of the history of Augustus, is an account of his domestic troubles; the most unhappy family being that of the emperor. The influence of Livia, his second wife, was very great, but does not seem to have been perverted to any worse purpose than raising her sons, Tiberius and Drusus, to the throne. The naturally unsettled state of the succession, in a government such as that of Rome now was, became much increased by circumstances. After the untimely death of his nephew and son-in-law Marcellus, whom he had adopted, his widow Julia, the only child of Augustus by his wife Scribonia, was married to Agrippa. The two eldest sons of this marriage, C. and L. Caesar, were adopted, upon the death of their father, by the emperor, who showed so much fondness towards them as they grew up, that Tiberius, who in the mean time had married their mother, Julia,--afterwards banished by Augustus for her licentious conduct--left the court in disgust. The death of the two young princes, however, again revived the hopes of Tiberius, who was adopted by Augustus upon the condition that he should also adopt Drusus Germanicus, the son of his deceased brother Drusus; after which Augustus, with the consent of the senate, formally associated him with himself in the government, making him an equal partner in the imperial privileges: called by his successors, _lex regia_.

_Marmor Ancyranum_; or, inscriptions in the temple of Augustus at
Ancyra. A copy of the account given of his government, which Augustus
latterly caused to be set up at Rome as a public memorial:
unfortunately much mutilated. It is to be found in CHISHULL, _Antiq.
Asiatic_.

_Memoirs of the Court of Augustus, by_ THOMAS BLACKWELL. London, 1760,
3 vols. 4to. divided into fifteen books. The last vol. was published
after the death of the author, by MR. MILLS. The last two books of
this prolix work contain a description of the contemporary affairs of
Augustus; the others go back to earlier times. A just appreciation of
Augustus requires a previous critical examination of the sources from
which Suetonius has drawn the materials for his biography.

_Histoire des triumvirats augmentee de l'histoire d'Auguste, par_
LARRY. Trevoux, 1741, 4 parts, 8vo. The last part of this simple
narrative contains the history of Augustus from the death of Catiline.

10. The reign of Tiberius Claudius Nero, or, as he was called after his adoption, Augustus Tiberius Caesar, from his fifty-sixth to his seventy-eighth year, changed rather the spirit than the form of the Roman constitution. He succeeded quietly to the vacant throne at Rome, although the legions in Pannonia, and still more in Germany, felt that they could make emperors. Under him the _comitia_, or assemblies of the people, were reduced to a mere shadow; as he transferred their duties to the senate, which also became the highest tribunal for the state crimes of its own members: this assembly, however, had now been so much accustomed to obey the will of the prince, that everything depended on his personal character. Tiberius founded his despotism upon the _judicia majestatis_, or accusations of high treason, now become an engine of terror, the senate also sharing his guilt with a pusillanimity and servility which knew no bounds. This degraded assembly, indeed, from the moment that it ceased to be the ruling authority of a free state, necessarily became the passive instrument of the most brutal tyranny. Notwithstanding the military talents and many good qualities of Tiberius, his despotic character had been formed long before his fifty-sixth year, when he mounted the throne; although exterior circumstances prevented him from entirely throwing off the mask which he had hitherto worn.

The foundation of the _judicia majestatis_, which soon became so
terrible by the unfixed state of crime, had been laid during the reign
of Augustus by the _lex Julia de majestate_, and the _cognitiones
extraordinariae_, or commissioners appointed to take cognizance of
certain crimes; it was, however, the abuse of them by Tiberius and his
successors, which rendered them so dreadful.

12. The principal object of Tiberius's suspicion, and therefore of his hate, was Germanicus, a man almost adored by the army and the people. This brave general he soon recalled from Germany, and sent into Syria to quell the disorders of the east. After having successfully put an end to the commotions which called him there, he was poisoned by the contrivances of Cn. Piso and his wife; and even that did not shelter the numerous family which he left behind, with his widow Agrippina, from persecution and ruin.

The expeditions of Germanicus in the east not only gave a king to
Armenia, but also reduced Cappadocia and Commagene to Roman provinces,
A. C. 17.

_Histoire de Caesar Germanicus, par_ M. L. D. B. [EAUFORT]. a Leyden,
1741. An unpretending chronological narrative.

13. Rome, however, soon experienced to her cost the powerful ascendancy which L. Aelius Sejanus, the praefect of the praetorian guard, had acquired over the mind of Tiberius, whose unlimited confidence he possessed the more, as he enjoyed it without a rival. The eight years of his authority were rendered terrible not only by the cantonment of his troops in barracks near the city (_castra praetoriana_), but (having first persuaded Tiberius to quit Rome for ever, that he might more securely play the tyrant in the isle of Capreae) by his endeavouring to open a way for himself to the throne by villanies and crimes without number, and by his cruel persecution of the family of Germanicus. The despotism he had introduced became still more dreadful by his own fall, in which not only his whole party, but every one that could be considered as connected with it, became involved. The picture of the atrocious despotism of Tiberius is rendered doubly disgusting by the horrid and unnatural lust which he joined to it in his old age.

Tiberius's misfortune was, that he came too late to the throne. His
early virtues made no compensation for his later cruelties. It is
properly the former which Vel. Paterculus praises, whose flattery of
Tiberius, in whose reign he flourished, is more easily justified than
his praise of Sejanus.

14. At the age of twenty-five Caius Caesar Caligula, the only remaining son of Germanicus, ascended the throne; but the hopes which had been formed of this young prince were soon wofully disappointed. His previous sickness and debaucheries had so distorted his understanding, that his short reign was one tissue of disorder and crime. Yet he did still more harm to the state by his besotted profusion than by his tiger-like cruelty. At length, after a career of nearly four years, he was assassinated by Cassius Chaerea and Cornelius Sabinus, two officers of his guard.

15. His uncle Tiberius Claudius Caesar, who, at the age of fifty, succeeded him, was the first emperor raised to the throne by the guards; a favour which he rewarded by granting them a _donative_. Too weak to rule of himself, almost imbecile from former neglect, profligate, and cruel from fear, he became the tool of the licentiousness of his wives and freedmen. Coupled with the names of Messalina and Agrippina, we now hear, for the first time in Roman history, of a Pallas and a Narcissus. The dominion of Messalina was still more hurtful to the state by her rapacious cupidity, to which everything gave way, than by her dissolute life; and the blow which at last punished her unexampled wantonness, left a still more dangerous woman to supply her place. This was Agrippina, her neice, widow of L. Domitius, who joined to the vices of her predecessor a boundless ambition, unknown to the former. Her chief aim was to procure the succession for Domitius Nero, her son by a former marriage--who had been adopted by Claudius, and married to his daughter Octavia--by setting aside Britannicus, the son of Claudius; and this she hoped to effect, by poisoning Claudius, having already gained Burrhus, by making him _sole_ praefect of the praetorian guard. Notwithstanding the contentions with the Germans and Parthians (see above, p. 303) were only on the frontiers, the boundaries of the Roman empire were in many countries extended.

Commencement of the Roman conquests in Britain (whither Claudius
himself went) under A. Plautius, from the year A. C. 43. Under the
same general, Mauritania, A. C. 42, Lycia, 43, Judaea, 44 (see above,
p. 312), and Thrace, 47, were reduced to Roman provinces. He also
abolished the praefectures which had hitherto existed in Italy.

16. Nero Claudius Caesar, supported by Agrippina and the praetorian guard, succeeded Claudius at the age of seventeen. Brought up in the midst of the blackest crimes, and, by a perverted education, formed rather for a professor of music and the fine arts than for an emperor, he ascended the throne like a youth eager for enjoyment; and throughout his whole reign his cruelty appears subordinate to his fondness for debaucheries and revelry. The unsettled state of the succession first called into action his savage disposition; and after the murder of Britannicus the sword fell in regular order upon all those who were even remotely connected with the Julian family. His vanity as a performer and composer excited in an equal degree his cruelty; and as, among all tyrants, every execution gives occasion for others, we need not wonder at his putting to death every one that excelled him. His connection, however, in the early part of his reign, with Agrippina, Burrhus, and Seneca, during which he introduced some useful regulations into the treasury, kept him within the bounds of decency. But Poppaea Sabina having driven him on to the murder of his mother and his wife Octavia, and Tigellinus being made his confident, he felt no longer restrained by the fear of public opinion. The executions of individuals, nearly all of which history has recorded, was not, perhaps, upon the whole, the greatest evil; the plunder of the provinces, not only to support his own loose and effeminate pleasures, but also to maintain the people in a continual state of intoxication, had nearly caused the dissolution of the empire. The last years of Nero were marked by a striking and undoubted insanity, which displayed itself in his theatrical performances, and even in the history of his fall. It appears that both around and upon a throne like that of Rome, heroes were formed for vice as well as virtue!

Discovery of the conspiracy of Piso, 65, and the revolt of Julius
Vindex in Celtic Gaul, 68, followed by that of Galba in Spain, who is
there proclaimed emperor, and joined by Otho, in Lusitania.
Nevertheless, after the defeat of Julius Vindex in Upper Germany, by
the lieutenant Virginius Rufus, these insurrections seemed quelled,
when the praetorian guard, instigated thereto by Nymphidius, broke out
into rebellion in Rome itself. Flight and death of Nero, June 11, 68.
Foreign wars during his reign: in Britain (occasioned by the revolt
of Boadicea), great part of which was subdued and reduced to a Roman
province, by Suetonius Paulinus; in Armenia, under the command of the
valiant Corbulo, against the Parthians (see above, p. 303); and in
Palestine against the Jews, 66. Great fire in Rome, 64, which gives
rise to the first persecution against the Christians.

The principal cause why the despotism of Nero and his predecessors was
so tamely submitted to by the nation, may undoubtedly be found in the
fact, that the greater part of it was fed by the emperors. To the
monthly distributions of corn were now added the extraordinary
_congiaria_ and _viscerationes_ (supplies of wine and meat). The
periods of tyranny were very likely the golden days of the people.

17. By the death of Nero the house of Caesar became extinct, and this gave rise to so many commotions, that in somewhat less than two years, four emperors by violence obtained possession of the throne. The right of the senate to name, or at least to confirm, the successors to the throne, was still indeed acknowledged; but as the armies had found out that they could create emperors, the power of the senate dwindled into an empty ceremony. Servius Sulpicius Galba, now seventy-two years of age, having been already proclaimed emperor by the legions in Spain, and acknowledged by the senate, gained possession of Rome without striking a blow, the attempt of Nymphidius having completely failed, and Virginius Rufus voluntarily submitting to him. Galba, however, having given offence both to the praetorian guard and the German legions, was dethroned by the guards, at the instigation of his former friend Otho, at the very time when he thought he had secured his throne by adopting the young Licinius Piso, and had frustrated the hopes of Otho.

18. M. Otho, aged thirty-seven, was indeed acknowledged emperor by the senate, but wanted the sanction of the German legions, who, proclaiming their general, A. Vitellius, emperor, invaded Italy. Otho marches against him, but after the loss of the battle of Bedriacum kills himself--whether from fear or patriotism, remains uncertain.

The special sources for the history of Galba and Otho, are their
_Lives_ by PLUTARCH.

19. Vitellius, in his thirty-seventh year, was acknowledged emperor not only by the senate, but likewise in the provinces; his debaucheries and cruelty, however, together with the licentiousness of his troops, having rendered him odious at Rome, the Syrian legions rebelled and proclaimed their general, T. Flavius Vespasian, emperor, who, at the solicitation of the powerful Mutianus, governor of Syria, accepted the imperial diadem. The troops on the Danube declaring for him shortly after, and marching into Italy under their general Antonius Primus defeated the army of Vitellius at Cremona. Vitellius was immediately hurled from the throne, though not till after some blood had been spilt by the commotions that took place at Rome, in which Flavius Sabinus, the brother of Vespasian, was slain, and the capitol burnt.

20. Flavius Vespasian ascended the throne in his fifty-ninth year, and became thereby the founder of a dynasty which gave three emperors to Rome. The state, almost ruined by profusion, civil war, and successive revolutions, found in Vespasian a monarch well suited to its unhappy condition. He endeavoured, as far as he could, to determine the relations between himself and the senate; while, by a decree, he restored to it all the rights and privileges which had been conferred upon it by his predecessors of the family of Caesar, and settled and added some others (_lex regia_). He made a thorough reform in the completely-exhausted treasury, which he recruited in part by reducing the countries Nero had made free, together with some others, into provinces; partly by restoring the ancient customs, by increasing others, and by imposing new ones: without this it would have been impossible for him to have reestablished the discipline of the army. His liberality in the foundation of public buildings, as well in Rome as in other cities; and the care with which he promoted education, by granting salaries to public teachers, are sufficient to free him from the reproach of avarice; and although, on account of their dangerous opinions, he banished the Stoics (who since the time of Nero had become very numerous, and retained nearly all the principles of republicanism), the annulling of the _judicia majestatis_ and the restoration of the authority of the senate show how far he was from being a despot.

Rhodes, Samos, Lycia, Achaia, Thrace, Cilicia, and Commagene, were
brought by Vespasian into the condition of provinces. Foreign wars:
that against the Jews, which ended with the destruction of Jerusalem,
A. C. 70; and a much greater war against the Batavians and their
allies under Civilis, who during the late civil wars, sought to shake
off the Roman yoke, 69; but were reduced to an accommodation by
Cerealis, 70. Expeditions of Agricola in Britain, 78-85, who not only
subdued all England, and introduced the Roman manners and customs, but
also attacked and sailed round Scotland.

_D. Vespasianus, sive de vita et legislatione T. Flavii Vespasiani
Imp. commentarius, auctore_ A. G. CRAMER. Jenae, 1785. An excellent
enquiry, with illustrations of the fragments of the _lex regia_. The
second part, _de legislatione_, contains a learned commentary upon the
_senatus consulta_, during his reign.

21. His eldest son, Titus Flavius Vespasian, who in the year 70 had been created Caesar, and reigned from his thirty-ninth to his forty-second year, gives us the rare example of a prince becoming better on the throne. His short and benevolent reign was, indeed, only remarkable for its public calamities: an eruption of mount Vesuvius, overwhelming several cities, was followed by a destructive fire, and a dreadful plague at Rome. His early death secured him the reputation of being, if not the happiest, at least the best of princes.

22. His younger brother and successor, L. Flavius Domitian, who reigned from his thirtieth to his forty-fifth year, gives an example quite opposite to that of Titus: beginning with justice and severity, he soon degenerated into the completest despot that ever swayed the Roman sceptre. His cruelty, joined to an equal degree of pride, and nourished by suspicion and jealousy, made him the enemy of all who excelled him by their exploits, their riches, or their talents. The mortifications to which his pride must have been subjected in consequence of his unsuccessful wars against the Catti, and more particularly the Daci, increased his bad disposition. His despotism was founded upon his armies, whose pay he augmented one fourth; and that he might not thereby diminish the treasury, as he had too much done at first, he multiplied the _judicia majestatis_, rendering it still more terrible by the employment of secret informers (_delatores_), in order, by confiscations, to augment the wealth of his private treasury (_fiscus_). By confining his cruelty chiefly to the capital, and by a strict superintendence over the governors of provinces, Domitian prevented any such general disorganization of the empire as took place under Nero. His fall confirmed the general truth, that tyrants have little to fear from the people, but much from individuals who may think their lives in danger.

The foreign wars during this reign are rendered more worthy of remark
by being the first in which the barbarians attacked the empire with
success. Domitian's ridiculous expedition against the Catti, 82, gave
the first proof of his boundless vanity; as did the recall of the
victorious Agricola, 85, from Britain, of his jealousy. His most
important war was that against the Daci, or Getae, who, under their
brave king Dercebal, had attacked the Roman frontiers; this again
occasioned another with their neighbours, the Marcomanni, Quadi, and
Jazygi, 86-90, which turned out so unfortunate for Rome, that Domitian
was obliged to purchase a peace of the Daci by paying them an annual
tribute.

23. M. Cocceius Nerva, aged about seventy years was raised to the throne by the murderers of Domitian; and now, at last, seemed to break forth the dawn of a more happy period for the empire. The preceding reign of terror completely ceased at once; and he endeavoured to impart fresh vigour to industry, not only by diminishing the taxes, but also by distributing lands to the poor. The insurrection of the guards certainly cost the murderers of Domitian their lives; but it was at the same time the cause of Nerva's securing the prosperity of the empire after his death, by the adoption of Trajan.

24. M. Ulpius Trajan (after his adoption, Nerva Trajan), a Spaniard by birth, governed the empire from his forty-second to his sixty-second year. He was the first foreigner who ascended the Roman throne, and at the same time the first of their monarchs who was equally great as a ruler, a general, and a man. After completely abolishing the _judicia majestatis_, he made the restoration of the _free Roman constitution_, so far as it was compatible with a monarchical form, his peculiar care. He restored the elective power to the _comitia_, complete liberty of speech to the senate, and to the magistrates their former authority; and yet he exercised the art of ruling to a degree and in a detail which few princes have equalled. Frugal in his expenses, he was nevertheless splendidly liberal to every useful institution, whether in Rome or the provinces, as well as in the foundation of military roads, public monuments, and schools for the instruction of poor children. By his wars he extended the dominion of Rome beyond its former boundaries; subduing, in his contests with the Daci, their country, and reducing it to a Roman province; as he likewise did, in his wars against the Armenians and Parthians, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and part of Arabia. Why was so great a character disfigured by an ambition of conquest?

The first war against the Daci, in which the shameful tribute was
withdrawn and Dercebal reduced to subjection, lasted from 101-103.
But as Dercebal again rebelled, the war was renewed in 105, and
brought to a close in 106, when Dacia was reduced to a Roman province,
and many Roman colonies established therein. The war with the
Parthians arose from a dispute respecting the possession of the throne
of Armenia (see above, p. 304), 114-116: but although Rome was
victorious she gained no permanent advantage thereby.

The especial source for the history of Trajan is the _Panegyricus_ of
PLINY THE YOUNGER; the correspondence, however, of the same writer,
while governor of Bithynia, with the emperor, affords us a much deeper
insight into the spirit of his government: PLINII _Epist._ lib. x. Who
can read it without admiring the royal statesman?

RITTERSHUSII _Trajanus in lucem reproductus_. Ambegae, 1608. A mere
collection of passages occurring in ancient authors respecting Trajan.

_Res Trajani Imperatoris ad Danubium Gestae, auctore_ CONRAD MANNERT.
Norimb. 1793: and

JOH. CHRIST. ENGEL, _Commentatio de Expeditionibus Trajani ad
Danubium, et origine Valachorum_. Vindob. 1794.--Both learned
dissertations, written for the prize offered by the Royal Society of
Gottingen; the first of which obtained the prize, and the other the
_accessit_, i. e. was declared second best.

25. By the contrivances of Plotina, his wife, Trajan was succeeded by his cousin and pupil, whom he is said also to have adopted, P. Aelius Adrian, who reigned from his forty-second to his sixty-third year. He was acknowledged at once by the army of Asia, with which he then was, and the sanction of the senate followed immediately after. He differed from his predecessor in that his chief aim was the preservation of peace; on which account he gave up (rare moderation!), directly after his accession, the newly conquered provinces of Asia, Armenia, Assyria, and Mesopotamia, and so put an end to the Parthian war (see above, p. 304.) He retained, though with some unwillingness, that of Dacia, because otherwise the Roman colonies would have become exposed. He well made up for his pacific disposition, however, in seeking, by a general and vigorous reform in the internal administration, and by restoring the discipline of the army, to give greater solidity to the empire. For that purpose he visited successively all the provinces of the Roman empire; first the eastern, and afterwards the western; making useful regulations and establishing order wherever he came. He improved the Roman jurisprudence by the introduction of the _edictum perpetuum_. Passionately fond of and well instructed in literature and the fine arts, he gave them his liberal protection, and thus called forth another Augustan age. Upon the whole, his reign was certainly a salutary one for the empire; and for any single acts of injustice of which he may be accused, he fully compensated by his choice of a successor. After having first adopted L. Aurelius Verus (afterwards Aelius Verus), who fell a sacrifice to his debaucheries, he next adopted T. Aurelius Antoninus (afterwards T. Aelius Adrianus Antoninus Pius), upon condition that he should again adopt M. Aurelius Verus (afterwards M. Aurelius Antoninus), and L. Cesonius Commodus (afterwards L. Verus), the son of Aelius Verus.

During his reign a great revolt broke out in Judaea, under Barcochab,
132-135, occasioned by the introduction of pagan worship into the
Roman colony of _Aelia Capitolina_ (the ancient Jerusalem).

The especial source for the history of Adrian, is his _Life_ and that
of _Aelius Verus_ by AeLIUS SPARTIANUS _in Script. Hist. Aug. Minores_,
already quoted.

26. The reign of Antoninus Pius, from his forty-seventh to his seventieth year, was without doubt the happiest period of the Roman empire. He found everything already in excellent order; and those ministers which Adrian had appointed, he continued in their places. His quiet activity furnishes but little matter for history; and yet he was, perhaps, the most noble character that ever sat upon a throne. Although a prince, his life was that of the most blameless individual; while he administered the affairs of the empire as though they were his own. He honoured the senate; and the provinces flourished under him, not only because he kept a watchful eye over the conduct of the governors, but because he made it a maxim of his government to continue in their places all those whose probity he had sufficiently proved. He observed rigid order in the finances, and yet without sparing where it could be of service in the foundation or improvement of useful institutions; as his erection of many buildings, establishment of public teachers with salaries in all the provinces, and other examples fully show. He carried on no war himself; on the contrary, several foreign nations made choice of him to arbitrate their differences. Some rebellions which broke out in Britain and Egypt, and some frontier wars excited by the Germans, the Daci, the Moors, and the Alani, were quelled by his lieutenants.

The principal and almost the only source for the history of Antoninus
Pius, Dion Cassius's history of this period being lost, is his _Life_
by JULIUS CAPITOLINUS in the _Script. Hist. August._ And even this
refers to his private character rather than his public history.
Compare the excellent _Reflections_ of MARCUS AURELIUS, i, 16. upon
this prince.

_Vie des Empereurs Tite Antonin et Marc Aurele_, _par_ M. GAUTIER DE
SIBERT. Paris, 1769, 8vo. A valuable essay on the lives of the two
Antonines.

27. He was succeeded by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the philosopher (aged 40-59 years), who immediately associated with himself, under the title of Augustus, L. Verus (aged 30-40 years, ! 169), to whom he gave his daughter in marriage. Notwithstanding the differences of their character, the most cordial union existed between them during the whole of their common reign; L. Verus, indeed, being almost always absent in the wars, took but a very small share in the government. The reign of M. Aurelius was marked by several great calamities: a dreadful pestilence, a famine, and almost continual wars. Nothing short of a prince like Aurelius, who exhibited to the world the image of wisdom seated on a throne, could have made so much misery tolerable. Soon after his accession, the Catti made an irruption upon the Rhine, and the Parthians in Asia. L. Verus was sent against them. But the wars on the Danube with the Marcomanni and their allies in Pannonia, and other northern nations, who now began to press forward with great force upon Dacia, were of much greater consequence. They occupied M. Aurelius from the year 167, with but little intermission, to the end of his reign. He succeeded, indeed, in maintaining the boundaries of the empire; but then he was the first who settled any of the barbarians within it, or took them into the Roman service. In the internal administration of affairs he closely followed the steps of his predecessor, except that he was rather too much influenced by his freedmen and family. The only rebellion which broke out against him, was that of Avidius Cassius, his lieutenant in Syria, occasioned by a false report of his death; but it was quelled by the destruction of that general, as soon as the truth was made known.

The war against the Parthians (see above, p. 304) was indeed brought
to a successful issue by Verus, the principal cities of the Parthians
falling into the hands of the Romans; Verus left them, however, to be
carried on by his lieutenants, while he rioted in debaucheries at
Antioch. The first war against the Marcomanni, carried on in the
beginning and until the death of Verus, by the two emperors together,
was highly dangerous for Rome, as many other nations had joined the
Marcomanni, particularly the Quadi, Jazygi, and Vandals, and
penetrated as far as Aquileia. M. Aurelius ended this war by a
glorious peace, 174, as he found it necessary to stop the progress of
Cassius's rebellion; in 178, however, the Marcomanni again commenced
hostilities, and before their close M. Aurelius died at Sirmium.
Contemporary with these wars, yet, as it seems, without any connection
with them, were the attacks of other nations upon Dacia, the Bastarnae,
Alani, etc. who poured in from the north, probably pressed forward by
the advance of the Goths. _This was the first symptom of the great
migration of nations now beginning._

The especial sources for the history of M. Aurelius, are the
Biographies of him and L. Verus, written by JULIUS CAPITOLINUS, as
well as that of Avidius Cassius, by VULCATIUS GALLICANUS in _Script.
Hist. August._ The letters discovered in Milan, among and together
with the writings of FRONTO, are of no historical service.--His
principles are best learnt from his _Meditations on himself_.

CH. MEINERS _de M. Aurel. Antonini ingenio, moribus, et scriptis, in
Commentat. Soc. Gotting._ vol. vi.

28. By means of adoption the Roman empire had been blessed, during the last eighty years, with a succession of rulers such as have not often fell to the lot of any kingdom. But in J. Commodus the son of M. Aurelius (probably the offspring of a gladiator), who reigned from his nineteenth to his thirty-first year, there ascended the throne a monster of cruelty, insolence, and lewdness. At the commencement of his reign he bought a peace of the Marcomanni that he might return to Rome. Being himself unable to support the burden of government, the helm of state was placed in the hands of the stern and cruel Perennis, praefect of the praetorian guard; but who, being murdered by the discontented soldiers, was succeeded by the freedman Cleander, who put up all for sale, till he fell a sacrifice to his own insatiable avarice, in a revolt of the people, caused by their want of provisions. The extravagant propensity of Commodus for the diversions of the amphitheatres, and the combats of wild beasts and gladiators, wherein he himself usually took a part, in the character of Hercules, became a chief cause of his dissipation, and thereby of his cruelty; till at last he was killed at the instigation of his concubine Marcia, Laetus the praefect of the praetorian guard, and Electus. The wars on the frontiers during his reign, in Dacia, and especially in Britain, were successfully carried on by his lieutenants, generals who belonged to the school of his father.

The especial source for the history of Commodus is his private life
by AEL. LAMPRIDIUS, in the _Script. Hist. August._--The history of
Herodian begins with his reign.

29. The disasters under M. Aurelius, and the extravagances of Commodus, had injured the empire, but not enfeebled it. Towards the close of the period of the Antonines it still retained its pristine vigour. If wise regulations, internal peace, moderate taxes, a certain degree of political, and unrestrained civil liberty, are sufficient to form the happiness of a commonwealth, it must have been found in the Roman. What a number of advantages did it possess over every other, simply from its situation! Proofs of it appear on every side. A vigorous population, rich provinces, flourishing and splendid cities, and a lively internal and foreign trade. But the most solid foundation of the happiness of a nation consists in its moral greatness, and this we here seek for in vain. Otherwise the nation would not so easily have suffered itself to be brought under the yoke of Commodus by praetorian cohorts and the legions. But what best shows the strength which the empire still retained, is the opposition it continued to make, for two hundred years longer, to the formidable attacks from without.

D. H. HEGEWISCH _upon the Epochs in Roman History most favourable to
Humanity_. Hamburg, 1800-8.

Foreign commerce, so flourishing in this period, could only be carried
on, to any extent, with the east--mostly with India--as the Roman
empire spread over all the west. This trade continued to be carried on
through Egypt, and also through Palmyra and Syria. Information
thereupon will be found in

W. ROBERTSON'S _Disquisition concerning the Knowledge which the
Ancients had of India_. London, 1791, 4to. Often reprinted. And
particularly upon Egypt, in

W. VINCENT, _the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea_. London, 1802, 4to. 2
vols. A very instructive work.

HEEREN, _Commentationes de Graecorum et Romanorum de India notitia, et
cum Indis commerciis_: _in Commentat. Soc. Gott._ vol. x. xi.

SECOND SECTION.

_From the death of Commodus to Diocletian, A. C. 193-284._

SOURCES. The Extracts of Xiphilinus from DION CASSIUS, lib.
lxxiii-lxxx. though often imperfect, reach down as low as the
consulate of Dion himself under Alexander Severus, 229.--HERODIANI
_Hist._ libri viii. comprise the period from Commodus to Gordian,
180-238.--The _Scriptores Historiae Augustae Minores_ contain the
private lives of the emperors down to Diocletian, by JULIUS
CAPITOLINUS, FLAVIUS VOPISCUS, etc.--The _Breviaria Historiae Romanae_
of EUTROPIUS, AURELIUS VICTOR, and S. RUFUS are particularly important
for this period.--Finally, the important information that may be
derived from the study of medals and coins, not only for this section,
but for the whole history of the emperors, may be best learnt by
consulting the writers upon those subjects: J. VAILLANT, _Numismata
Augustorum et Caesarum_, _cura_ J. F. BALDINO. Rome, 1743, 3 vols. _The
Medallic History of Imperial Rome_, by W. COOKE. London, 1781, 2
vols.--But above all, the volumes belonging to this period in ECKHEL,
_Doctrina Nummorum Veterum_.

With the period of the Antonines begins the great work of the British
historian:

_The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, by EDWARD
GIBBON. Oxford, 1828, 8 vols. 8vo. In worth and extent this work is
superior to all others. It embraces the whole period of the middle
ages; but only the first part belongs to this period.

1. The extinction of the race of the Antonines by the death of Commodus was attended with convulsions similar to those which took place when the house of Caesar became extinct at the death of Nero. It is true that P. Helvius Pertinax, aged sixty-seven, praefect of the city, was raised to the throne by the murderers of Commodus; and that he was acknowledged, first by the guards, and afterwards by the senate. But the reform which he was obliged to make at the beginning of his reign in the finances, rendered him so odious to the soldiers and courtiers, that a revolt of the first, excited by Laetus, cost him his life before he had reigned quite three months. This was the first commencement of that dreadful military despotism which forms the ruling character of this period; and to none did it become so terrible as to those who wished to make it the main support of their absolute power.

The insolence of the praetorian guard had risen very high during the
reign of Commodus; but it had never, even in the time of the
Antonines, been entirely suppressed. It was only by large donatives
that their consent could be purchased, their caprice satisfied, and
their good humour maintained; especially at every new adoption. One of
the greatest reproaches to the age of the Antonines is, that those
great princes, who seem to have had the means so much in their power,
did not free themselves from so annoying a dependence.

JUL. CAPITOLINI _Pertinax Imp. in Script. Hist. Aug._

2. When, upon the death of Pertinax, the rich and profligate M. Didius Julianus, aged fifty-seven, had outbid, to the great scandal of the people, all his competitors for the empire, and purchased it of the praetorian guard, an insurrection of the legions, who were better able to create emperors, very naturally followed. But as the army of Illyria proclaimed their general Septimius Severus, the army of Syria, Pescennius Niger, and the army of Britain, Albinus, nothing less than a series of civil wars could decide who should maintain himself on the throne.

AEL. SPARTIANI _Didius Julianus, in Script. Hist. Aug._

3. Septimius Severus, however, aged 49-66, was the first who got possession of Rome, and, after the execution of Didius Julianus, he was acknowledged by the senate. He dismissed, it is true, the old praetorian guard, but immediately chose, from his own army, one four times more numerous in its stead. And after he had provisionally declared Albinus emperor, he marched his army against Pescennius Niger, already master of the east, whom, after several contests near the Issus, he defeated and slew. Nevertheless, having first taken and destroyed the strong city of Byzantium, a war with Albinus soon followed, whom the perfidious Severus had already attempted to remove by assassination. After a bloody defeat near Lyons, Albinus kills himself. These civil wars were followed by hostilities against the Parthians, who had taken the part of Pescennius, and which ended with the plundering of their principal cities (see above, p. 304). Severus possessed most of the virtues of a soldier; but the insatiable avarice of his minister Plautianus, the formidable captain of the praetorian guard, robbed the empire even of those advantages which may be enjoyed under a military government, until he was put to death at the instigation of Caracalla. To keep his legions employed, Severus undertook an expedition into Britain, where, after extending the boundaries of the empire, he died at York (_Eboracum_), leaving his son the maxim, "to enrich the soldiers, and hold the rest for nothing."

Agricola had already erected a line of fortresses, probably between
the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. These were changed by
Adrian into a wall along the present boundaries of Scotland. Severus
again extended the frontiers, reestablished the fortresses of
Agricola, and afterwards built a wall from sea to sea; his son,
however, gave up the conquered country, and the wall of Adrian again
became the boundary of the empire.

AEL. SPARTIANI _Septimius Severus et Pescennius Niger_.

JUL. CAPITOLINI _Claudius Albinus, in Script. Hist. Aug._

4. The deadly hatred which reigned between the two sons of Severus, M. Aurelius Antoninus Bassianus Caracalla, aged 23-29, and his young step-brother Geta, aged twenty-one, led to a dreadful catastrophe; for at their return to Rome, and after a fruitless proposition had been made for a division of the empire, Geta was assassinated in the arms of his mother Julia Domna, together with all those who were considered as his friends. The restless spirit of Caracalla, however, soon drew him from Rome, and in traversing first the provinces along the Danube, and then those of the east, he ruined them all by his exactions and cruelty, to which he was driven for money to pay his soldiers, and to purchase peace of his enemies on the frontiers. The same necessity led him to grant the right of citizenship to all the provinces, that he might thereby gain the duty of the _vicesima hereditatum et manumissionum_ (twentieth upon inheritances and enfranchisements), which he very soon afterwards changed into a tenth (_decima_).--With respect to his foreign wars, his first was against the Catti and Alemanni, among whom he remained a long time, sometimes as a friend and sometimes as an enemy. But his principal efforts, after having previously ordered a dreadful massacre of the inhabitants of Alexandria, to satisfy his cruel rapacity, were directed against the Parthians (see above, p. 304); and in his wars against them he was assassinated by Macrinus, the praefect of the praetorian guard.

The praefect, or captain, of the praetorian guard became, from the time
of Severus, the most important officer in the state. Besides the
command of the guards, the finances were also under his control,
together with an extensive criminal jurisdiction. A natural
consequence of the continually increasing despotism.

AEL. SPARTIANI _Antoninus Caracalla et Ant. Geta, in Script. Hist.
Aug._

5. His murderer, M. Opelius Macrinus, aged fifty-three, was recognized as emperor by the soldiers, and forthwith acknowledged by the senate. He immediately created his son, M. Opelius Diadumenus, aged nine years, Caesar, and gave him the name of Antoninus. He disgracefully terminated the war against the Parthians by purchasing a peace, and changed the _decima_ (tenth) of Caracalla again into the _vicesima_ (twentieth). However, while he still remained in Asia, Bassianus Heliogabalus, grand-nephew of Julia Domna, and high priest in the temple of the Sun at Emesa, whom his mother gave out for a son of Caracalla, was proclaimed emperor by the legions, and, after a combat with the guards, subsequently to which Macrinus and his son lost their lives, they raised him to the throne.

Maesa, the sister of Julia Domna, had two daughters, both widows;
Soaemis, the eldest, was the mother of Heliogabalus, Mammaea, the
youngest, the mother of Alexander Severus.

JUL. CAPITOLINI _Opelius Macrinus, in Script. Hist. Aug._

6. Heliogabalus, aged 14-18, who assumed the additional name of M. Aurelius Antoninus, brought with him from Syria the superstitions and voluptuousness of that country. He introduced the worship of his god Heliogabal in Rome, and wallowed openly in such brutal and infamous debaucheries, that history can scarcely find a parallel to his dissolute, shameless, and scandalous conduct. How low must the morality of that age have been sunk, in which a boy could so early have ripened into a monster!--The debasement of the senate, and of all important offices, which he filled with the degraded companions of his own lusts and vices, was systematically planned by him; and he deserves no credit even for the adoption of his cousin, the virtuous Alexander Severus, as he shortly after endeavoured to take away his life, but was himself for that reason assassinated by the praetorian guards.

# AEL. LAMPRIDII _Ant. Heliogabalus, in Script. Hist. Aug._