The government which Augustus now established was designed to preserve the memory of the republic, while the real power remained with the emperor alone. The people were deprived of all their former importance; the Comitia were only suffered to pass upon laws proposed by the Senate, which was now wholly under the control of the emperor. Consuls and other magistrates were still chosen annually, and Augustus, in the earlier years of his reign, was accustomed to solicit votes for his favorite candidates, who, however, were always elected; later he contented himself with furnishing them with a written recommendation. The Senate met twice in every month, instead of three times, as was the former custom, except during September and October, when no meetings were held. The provinces were governed by proconsuls, several of whom were appointed by the Senate and the people; but all of them were carefully observed by the emperor. Rome itself was governed by a prefect, whose duty it was to preserve the public peace.

In this manner Augustus, by the aid of his proconsuls, held a despotic rule over all his dominions. He controlled the Senate, too, through his authority as censor, and appointed or deposed its members; and he raised the property qualification of each Senator to about $50,000. A large part of the people of the capital were maintained by the free distribution of corn; but Augustus reduced the number from 320,000 to 200,000, providing for the poorer citizens by settling them in new colonies, and his measures seem to have produced general contentment.

He was also sincerely desirous to reform the morals of the nation. Several laws were passed encouraging marriage, and in B.C. 18 he obliged the Senate to decree that marriage should be imperative upon every citizen of suitable age. Celibacy was punished by an incapacity to receive bequests, and even the childless married man was deprived of half his legacy; these efforts, however, failed, and a general license prevailed. As censor, he sought to restrain extravagance, and limited the sum to be expended upon entertainments. He insisted that the toga, the national dress, be worn at least at the public spectacles; he endeavored to preserve the distinctions of rank by providing each of the three orders with its own seats in the circus; and he plainly sought to elevate the aristocracy, and to withdraw all political power from the people. It is said, however, that he once entertained the design of resigning his authority, but was prevented from doing so by the advice of his friends, who represented to him that the Romans were no longer capable of governing themselves.

The Praetorian guard, which Augustus provided for his own protection, consisted of ten cohorts, each containing 800 or 1000 men, both cavalry and foot: of these only three cohorts were kept in the city, the others being distributed through the Italian towns. These soldiers received double pay, and were commanded by the praefectus praetorii: at a later period they became the masters of the empire.

The whole army, amounting to about 350,000 men, was encamped in various portions of his dominions. His fleet, which numbered 500 ships, was stationed chiefly at Misenum and Ravenna. His revenues arose from the contributions of the provinces, from various taxes, and from the rent of the public domain. An excise was imposed upon all goods exposed for sale, and there was also a tax upon all bachelors.

Augustus encouraged commerce and industry, built new roads, and provided the capital with an abundance of food. Games and public spectacles were exhibited to amuse the people, a free distribution of corn relieved the indigent, literature was encouraged, the arts flourished with new vigor, and the people and the Senate, pleased with present tranquillity, bestowed upon Augustus the title of the Father of his Country.

Several conspiracies, however, alarmed the emperor. In B.C. 30, Lepidus, a son of the former triumvir, had formed a plot for his destruction, which was detected by Maecenas, and its author put to death. Another, in B.C. 22, was also unsuccessful. In A.D. 4, Cinna, a grandson of Pompey, was discovered in a similar attempt, and was pardoned at the request of Livia; he was afterward even raised to the consulship. But so intimidated was Augustus by the fear of assassination, that, toward the close of his life, he never went to a meeting of the Senate without wearing a breastplate under his robe.

The military enterprises of Augustus were in general successful. He led an army into Spain, and subdued the Cantabri and Astures, returning to Rome B.C. 24. While in Spain he founded several cities, among others Augusta Emerita (Merida), and Caesar Augusta (Saragossa). Phraates, king of the Parthians, fearful of the Roman arms, gave up the Roman standards taken from Crassus and Antony, B.C. 20, and this event was celebrated by striking medals and by the verses of the Augustan poets. The emperor hung up the standards in a temple which he had built at Rome to Mars, the Avenger.

Tiberius and Drusus, the two sons of Livia by her former husband, were distinguished commanders, and gained many victories over the Germans; but, in B.C. 9, Drusus died from a fall from his horse. Tiberius then took the command of the army, and gained a great victory over the Sigambri. He returned to Rome B.C. 6, and triumphed; was saluted Imperator, and received the tribunitian power for five years.

Soon after, indignant at the dissolute conduct of his wife Julia, and the honors bestowed upon her sons by Agrippa, he withdrew to Rhodes, where he remained for seven years, a discontented exile. He returned to Rome in A.D. 2, and, two years after, was adopted by Augustus as his son. He next conquered a large part of Germany, and defeated several large bodies of the Marcomanni in what is now the territory of Bohemia.

But, while he was employed upon this expedition, Arminius, the German hero, excited an insurrection of his countrymen against the cruel Romans, cut off Varus, their leader, with his army, and filled Rome with alarm. Germany seemed lost. Augustus, when he heard of the disaster, exclaimed, "Varus! Varus! give me back my legions!"

Tiberius, however, together with Germanicus, the brave son of Drusus, returned to the defense of the frontier, but did not venture to penetrate into the forests beyond the Rhine.

In his domestic life Augustus was singularly unfortunate. Livia, his wife, for whom he entertained a sincere affection, was a person of strong intellect and various accomplishments; but she was descended from the Claudian family, and inherited all the pride, ambition, and love of political intrigue which marked the descendants of Appius Claudius. She was also married to a Claudius, and thus her two sons by her first husband, Tiberius and Drusus, were even more than herself Claudians. On them all Livia's affections were fixed; to secure their aggrandizement she hesitated at no effort and no crime; and when Drusus died, her son Tiberius, who resembled his mother in disposition, became the chief object of her regard. Her husband and his family wore looked upon with jealousy and dislike, and the darkest suspicions were aroused at Rome by the death, one by one, of every person who stood between Tiberius and the throne.

Livia had no child by her second marriage, and the only heir of Augustus was Julia, the daughter of his former wife, Scribonia. Julia was beautiful, intelligent, and highly educated; and Augustus, who was strongly attached to his own family, looked upon his daughter with singular affection and pride. He hoped to see her grow up pure, wise, and discreet—a new Lucretia, the representative of the ideal Roman matron; and he early accustomed Julia to practice moderation in dress, to spend hours at the spinning-wheel, and to look upon herself as destined to become the model and example of Roman women.

Julia was first married to her cousin Marcellus, the son of Octavia, a young man of excellent character, whom Augustus adopted, and probably destined as his successor; but, in B.C. 23, Marcellus died, amid the sincere grief of all the Romans. Marcellus has been made immortal by a few touching lines of Virgil.



Not long after, Augustus married Julia to his friend Agrippa, and they had five children—three sons, Caius, Lucius, and Agrippa Postumus, the latter being born after the death of his father, and two daughters, Julia and Agrippina. These children were now the hope of the people and the emperor, and objects of jealousy and dislike to Livia and Tiberius.

In B.C. 12 Agrippa died. Augustus then prevailed upon Tiberius to divorce his own wife, to whom he was sincerely attached, in order to marry Julia. Their union was an unhappy one, and, after living together for about a year, they separated forever.

The conduct of Julia, in fact, had long been marked by gross immoralities, and Augustus alone was unconscious of her unworthiness. He refused to believe that his daughter, whom he had destined to become an example of purity, had so deceived and dishonored him. At length, however, he became convinced of her guilt, and banished her (B.C. 2) to the island Pandataria (Santa Maria), off the coast of Campania, where she was treated with just severity. Her daughter Julia, who had shared in her excesses, was also sent into exile.

Meanwhile Caius and Lucius Caesar both died suddenly. Caius was sent to the East in B.C. 1, to improve himself in military affairs, and there died, A.D. 3, from the effects of a wound given him by an assassin. Lucius, the younger, having gone on a mission to Spain in A.D. 2, fell sick and died at Massilia. About this time Tiberius had been recalled from Rhodes and intrusted with the chief care of public affairs. It was believed at Rome that Livia and her son had removed the two Caesars by poison and assassination.

All happiness must now have fled from the breast of the emperor. He still, however, attended carefully to the duties of his station. In A.D. 4 he adopted Tiberius, together with Agrippa Postumus; Tiberius was obliged at the same time to adopt Germanicus, the eldest son of his brother Drusus. In A.D. 7 Augustus was induced to banish Agrippa Postumus, who proved unworthy of his favor, to the island of Planasia, and this act was ratified by a decree of the Senate; it was thought, however, that Livia was again the cause of this unnatural act. In A.D. 8 the poet Ovid was banished for some unknown crime.



It was in the year 5 or 7 B.C., for the true date is unknown, that Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, was born at Bethlehem, in Judea.

In A.D. 14, Augustus, aided by Tiberius, took a census—the third during his reign. His health, which had always been delicate, now rapidly declined. He had long borne with patience the infirmities of old age, and he now retired to Nola, where he died, August 19, A.D. 14, in the same room where his father had died before him. It is said that as he was dying he exclaimed to those around him, "Have I not acted my part well? It is time for the applause."

He was seventy-six years old. His subjects lamented his death with sincere grief, since they had felt the happy effects of his care. His funeral rites were performed in great solemnity; his body was burned on the Campus Martius, and his ashes were placed in the splendid mausoleum which he had built for himself and his family. The Senate ordered him to be numbered among the gods of Rome.

In appearance Augustus was of middle stature, his features regular, and his eyes of uncommon brilliancy. He was a tolerable writer, and capable of distinguishing literary merit; his chosen friends were all men of letters; and his fame with posterity rests, in a great degree, upon that circle of poets, historians, and eminent scholars by whom he was surrounded. The Augustan Age, indeed, forms one of the most remarkable periods in the history of the human intellect.



CHAPTER XL.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF TIBERIUS, A.D. 14-37, TO DOMITIAN, A.D. 96.

A feeling resembling loyalty had grown up at Rome toward the family of Augustus, and no one ventured to dispute the claim of Tiberius to the throne. Livia, however, who had attended the death-bed of the emperor, concealed his death until her son arrived, and then proclaimed, at the same moment, the death of Augustus and the accession of his successor. The first event of the new reign was the assassination of Agrippa Postumus, grandson of Augustus, and, according to the modern rule of descent, the proper heir to the throne. The guilt of this act was shared between Tiberius and his mother, who were also accused of having hastened the death of Augustus.

Tiberius summoned the Senate to assemble, announced the death of the emperor, and pretended a wish to be relieved from the cares of empire; the Senate, however, refused to accept his feigned resignation, and he yielded to their wishes. This body now became the chief source of legislation. Tiberius took away from the people the power of making laws and of electing magistrates. The senatus consulta, or decrees of the Senate, were made the source of law, without any authority from the Comitia. The Senate selected the Consuls from four candidates presented to them by the emperor, and thus the last trace of the popular power passed away.

Meanwhile two mutinies occurred among the soldiers, which seemed at first to threaten a change in the government. The legions of Pannonia, complaining of long service and indifferent pay, rose against their commander Blaesus, but were induced to return to their duty by Drusus, the son of Tiberius. A more important insurrection broke out among the legions of the Rhine, who sought to prevail upon Germanicus, the son of Drusus, to accept the imperial crown. Germanicus, however, who was adorned with many noble qualities, refused to yield either to their entreaties or their threats. Agrippina, his wife, with the infant Caius, joined Germanicus in imploring the soldiers not to forget their duty; and they at length relented, and even gave up their leaders.

Germanicus had now deserved the hatred of the jealous and treacherous Tiberius. He was beloved by the people and the army, was frank, generous, and brave; he had married Agrippina, the daughter of Julia and Agrippa, and was the adopted son of the emperor himself. His mind had been highly cultivated, and he excelled in all elegant exercises. He seems, in fact, to have been one of the noblest of the Romans.

In A.D. 14 he led an army across the Rhine, but the next year planned a more important expedition, in which he defeated the Germans under Arminius, and buried the remains of the army of the unfortunate Varus under an earthen mound. His third campaign was still more successful. In A.D. 16 he gained an important battle in the valley of the Weser, and recovered the last of the eagles lost by Varus.

Tiberius, jealous of his fame, now recalled him, and resolved that the limits of the empire should not be enlarged. In A.D. 17 Germanicus triumphed, surrounded in his chariot by his five sons. The same year he was sent to the East to settle the affairs of the Eastern provinces. Meanwhile a war broke out in Germany between Arminius and Marboduus. Drusus was sent thither to contrive the destruction of both leaders, which he seems to have effected, since Marboduus was driven to seek protection from the Romans, while the brave Arminius was soon after slain by the hands of his fellow-Germans.

Germanicus, in A.D. 18, visited Athens, sailed up the Nile the same year, and then, having returned to Syria, died of poison administered to him by Cn. Piso, a friend of the Empress Livia. His death excited great grief at Rome, where he was buried with solemnity in A.D. 20. Piso, meanwhile, being tried before the Senate, and finding himself about to be condemned, sought a voluntary death.

Tiberius was cold and unpopular in his manners, awkward and even timid in his carriage, but a master of dissimulation. The only person of whom he stood in awe was his mother Livia; but he lived in constant fear of insurrection. The Lex Majestas, which he enlarged and enforced with unusual severity, was now the source of great evil to his country. This law defined treason against the emperor. Tiberius made it include words as well as acts, and thus he who spoke lightly of the emperor's person or authority might be punished with death.

From this law grew up the Delatores, or informers, persons who made it their chief occupation to denounce those who were obnoxious to the emperor. The informers soon grew numerous: some of them were persons of high rank, who sought to display their eloquence, and to win the favor of the emperor, by denouncing his opponents in envenomed rhetoric, while others were common spies. No man's life was safe at Rome from this moment, and the purest and wisest citizens were exposed to the attacks of an infinite number of delators. Tiberius encouraged the informers. AElius Saturninus was flung from the Tarpeian Rock for a libel upon the emperor. Silanus was banished for "disparaging the majesty of Tiberius."

Tiberius, who professed to imitate the policy of Augustus in every particular, seems to have governed with firmness and ability. He improved the condition of the provinces, restrained the avarice of the provincial governors, maintained good order in the capital, and strove to check the growth of luxury; but the morals of the capital were now hopelessly depraved, and the vice and corruption of the whole world flowed into the streets of Rome.

AElius Sejanus, the Praefect of the Praetorians, had long been the friend and chief adviser of the emperor. He was cruel, unscrupulous, and ambitious—the proper instrument of a tyrant. In A.D. 21 an insurrection broke out in Gaul, which was scarcely subdued when the Germans rose against the Romans. The Gauls, too, led by Sacrovir, a Druid, who exercised a superstitious influence over his countrymen, once more rebelled. Drusus, who had been made Consul with his father, was sent against them, and reduced them to subjection. The Druid Sacrovir burned himself in a house to which he had fled. In A.D. 22 Drusus received the tribunitian power. He was the only son of Tiberius, and was married to Livia, or Livilla, as she was sometimes called.

Sejanus had now conceived a design which led him to resolve upon the destruction of all the imperial family, since he himself began to aspire to the throne; and the elevation of Drusus filled him with disgust. In A.D. 23 he prevailed upon Tiberius to remove all the Praetorian Guards, about nine or ten thousand in number, to a camp near the city. He appointed their officers, won the soldiers with bribes and flatteries, and thus believed he had gained a sure support.

Drusus stood in his path, and he resolved to destroy him. He won the affections of Livilla, and prevailed upon her to poison her husband. The unhappy prince died in 23. Tiberius received the news of his son's death with a composure almost incredible. He told the Senate, who put on mourning robes, that he had given himself to his country. A splendid funeral procession was prepared for Drusus, in which the statues of Attus Clausus, the Sabine chief, the founder of the Claudian Gens, and of AEneas, and the Alban kings, were carried side by side, thus recalling the memories of the early regal dynasty, as well as of the severe founders of the Republic.

Agrippina, the widow of Germanicus, together with her numerous family, next aroused the hostility of Sejanus, and he resolved upon their destruction. In A.D. 25 he proposed for the hand of Livilla, but Tiberius refused to sanction the connection. In A.D. 26 eleven cities contended for the privilege of making Tiberius their tutelar deity, but he declined this honor. Soon after, the emperor, as if anxious to escape from the sarcasms and the scandal of Rome, retired from the city, accompanied by a single Senator, Cocceius Nerva, and at length, in A.D. 27, hid himself in the island of Capreae, on the coast of Campania. Here he built twelve villas in different parts of the island, and lived with a few companions, shut out from mankind. No one was allowed to land upon the shores of Capreae, and even fishermen who broke this rule through ignorance were severely punished. Every day, however, dispatches were brought from the continent, and he still continued to direct the affairs of his vast empire.

Sejanus was left to govern Rome, but frequently visited the Emperor at his island. In A.D. 29, Livia, the widow of Augustus, died, at the age of eighty-six years, having retained her powerful intellect and her love of political intrigue to the close of her life. It is said that her private charities were great, and that she remained faithful to the memory of her imperial husband. The family of Germanicus, meanwhile, were crushed by the arts of Sejanus. In A.D. 29 Tiberius directed the Senate to banish Agrippina and her son Nero, and they were confined separately upon two barren islands. Drusus, the second son, was soon after imprisoned; while Caius, the youngest, by his flatteries and caresses, preserved the favor of Tiberius, and was admitted into Capreae. The emperor now began to doubt the fidelity of his chosen friend Sejanus, although their statues had been placed together in the Temple of Friendship on the island; and he sent a letter to the Senate in which he denounced him as a traitor. Such was the end of a guilty friendship. Sejanus was flung into the Mamertine Prison, and there strangled. The people threw his body into the Tiber, A.D. 31. Great numbers of his friends or relatives perished with him, and a general massacre filled Rome with terror. He was succeeded in his power by Sertorius Macro, who had aided in his destruction.

Tiberius, meanwhile, seems to have become a raging madman. He put to death his niece Agrippina, with her two children, and ruled over the Senate with pitiless cruelty. His companion, Cocceius Nerva, filled with melancholy at the misfortunes of his country, resolved upon suicide; nor could all the entreaties or commands of Tiberius prevail upon him to live. In A.D. 35 Tiberius made his will, dividing his estate between Caius, the youngest son of Germanicus, and Tiberius Gemellus, the son of the second Drusus. Macro, probably fearing the fate of Sejanus, had formed a close intimacy with Caius, and they now planned the death of the emperor, whose feeble health, however, since he was near seventy-seven years of age, promised Rome a speedy deliverance. Tiberius died March 16, A.D. 37, Macro, it is said, having smothered him with a pillow.

If we may trust the account of the Jew Philo, he left the empire in a prosperous condition. His cruelty, in fact, seems to have been exercised upon the great and the rich, while the people lived in security. His administration may be said to have been a fortunate one. His character and his crimes disgrace human nature.



REIGN OF CAIUS CALIGULA, A.D. 37-41.—Caius Caesar, known as Caligula, was the son of Germanicus and Agrippina, and men fondly hoped that he had inherited the virtues of his father, whom he resembled in his personal appearance. The soldiers proclaimed him emperor, and the Senate and the people acknowledged him with unfeigned joy. He was now twenty-five years of age, and his first acts were generous and humane. He recalled many exiles, abolished various taxes, and gratified the people with spectacles and gifts. He also buried the remains of his mother and brother, who had died in exile, with decent solemnity.

But, having been seized with a severe illness after he had reigned eight months, upon his recovery his mind seemed to have been fatally injured. He abandoned himself to cruelty and lust; he surpassed the vices of Tiberius; and at length, declaring himself to be a god, would often go through the streets of Rome dressed as Bacchus, Venus, or Apollo: he compelled the people to worship him, and made the wealthiest citizens his priests. He even conferred the consulship on his favorite horse.

His boundless wastefulness soon consumed the public treasures, and he was forced to resort to every kind of extortion to obtain money. Having exhausted Rome and Italy, in A.D. 39 he led a large army across the Alps for the purpose of plundering Gaul, where the richest citizens were put to death and their property confiscated. He was assassinated in his palace January 24, A.D. 41.

REIGN OF TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS DRUSUS NERO, A.D. 41-54.—The Emperor Claudius was the son of Drusus and Antonia, and the brother of Germanicus. He was fifty-one years old when, after the murder of Caligula, the Praetorian Guard raised him to the throne. His health had always been delicate, his mind feeble, and he had never taken any part in public affairs. His first acts were popular and mild, but, having fallen under the control of his wife Messalina, who was a monster of wickedness, he put to death many of the best of the Romans. When, however, Messalina ventured to marry C. Silius, a young Roman knight, Claudius directed her execution. He then married his niece Agrippina, who prevailed upon him to set aside his son Britannicus, and to adopt her own son Nero, who was now destined for the throne. Nero was educated by the philosopher Seneca, together with Burrus Afranius, praefect of the Praetorians. Claudius, however, becoming suspicious of the designs of his wife, she resolved upon his death. Locusta, a noted poisoner, was hired to prepare a dish of poisoned mushrooms, of which Claudius ate: but the poison not proving fatal, the physician Xenophon forced a larger quantity into his throat, and he died October 13, A.D. 54.

Claudius was fond of letters, and wrote memoirs of his own time and histories in Greek of Etruria and of Carthage. He also made various useful laws, and carried out several public works of importance. He completed the Claudian aqueduct, begun by Caligula, and built a fort and light-house at Ostia, and a tunnel from Lake Lucinus to the River Liris. Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) was raised by his orders to the most important military station in Lower Germany.

In A.D. 43 a Roman army invaded Britain. Claudius himself entered that country soon after, and returned to Rome to triumph. But Vespasian, afterward emperor, together with his son Titus, overran Britain, defeated Caractacus, the brave British chieftain, and sent him and his family prisoners to Rome. Claudius, pleased with his manly conduct, gave him his liberty.

NERO, A.D. 54-68.—The first five years of the reign of Nero were marked by the mildness and equity of his government. He discouraged luxury, reduced the taxes, and increased the authority of the Senate. His two preceptors, Seneca and Burrus, controlled his mind, and restrained for a time the constitutional insanity of the Claudian race. At length, however, he sank into licentiousness, and from licentiousness to its necessary attendants, cruelty and crime. From a modest and philosophic youth, Nero became the most cruel and dissolute of tyrants. He quarreled with his mother Agrippina, who for his sake had murdered the feeble Claudius; and when she threatened to restore Britannicus to the throne, he ordered that young prince to be poisoned at an entertainment. In order to marry Poppaea Sabina, a beautiful and dissolute woman, wife of Salvius Otho, he resolved to divorce his wife Octavia, and also to murder his mother Agrippina. Under the pretense of a reconciliation, he invited Agrippina to meet him at Baiae, where she was placed in a boat, which fell to pieces as she entered it. Agrippina swam to the shore, but was there assassinated by the orders of her son. The Roman Senate congratulated Nero upon this fearful deed, while the philosopher Seneca wrote a defense of the matricide. The philosopher, the Senate, and the emperor seem worthy of each other.

It would be impossible to enumerate all the crimes of Nero. In A.D. 64 a fire broke out in Rome, which lasted for six days, consuming the greater part of the city. Nero was supposed to have ordered the city to be fired, to obtain a clear representation of the burning of Troy, and, while Rome was in flames, amused himself by playing upon musical instruments. He sought to throw the odium of this event upon the Christians, and inflicted upon them fearful cruelties. The city was rebuilt upon an improved plan, and Nero's palace, called the Golden House, occupied a large part of the ruined capital with groves, gardens, and buildings of unequaled magnificence.

In A.D. 65 a plot was discovered in which many eminent Romans were engaged. The poet Lucan, Seneca, the philosopher and defender of matricide, together with many others, were put to death. In A.D. 67 Nero traveled to Greece, and performed on the cithara at the Olympian and Isthmian games. He also contended for the prize in singing, and put to death a singer whose voice was louder than his own. Stained with every crime of which human nature is capable, haunted by the shade of the mother he had murdered, and filled with remorse, Nero was finally dethroned by the Praetorian Guards, and died by his own hand, June 9, A.D. 68. He was the last of the Claudian family. No one remained who had an hereditary claim to the empire of Augustus, and the future emperors were selected by the Praetorian Guards or the provincial legions.

During this reign, Boadicea, the British queen, A.D. 61, revolted against the Romans and defeated several armies; but the governor, Suetonius Paulinus, conquered the insurgents in a battle in which eighty thousand Britons are said to have fallen. Boadicea, unwilling to survive her liberty, put an end to her life.

On the death of Nero, Servius Sulpicius Galba, already chosen emperor by the Praetorians and the Senate, was murdered in the Forum, January, A.D. 69. He was succeeded by Salvius Otho, the infamous friend of Nero, and the husband of Poppaea Sabina. The legions on the Rhine, however, proclaimed their own commander, A. Vitellius, emperor, and Otho's forces being defeated in a battle near Bedriacum, between Verona and Cremona, he destroyed himself.

Vitellius, the new emperor, was remarkable for his gluttony and his coarse vices. He neglected every duty of his office, and soon became universally contemptible. Vespasian, the distinguished general, who had been fighting successfully against the Jews in Palestine, was proclaimed emperor by the governor of Egypt. Leaving his son Titus to continue the war, Vespasian prepared to advance upon Rome. His brave adherent, Antonius Primus, at the head of the legions of the Danube, without any orders from Vespasian, marched into Italy and defeated the army of Vitellius. The Praetorians and the Roman populace still supported Vitellius; a fearful massacre took place in the city, and the Capitoline Temple was burned; but Antonius Primus took the Praetorian camp, and Vitellius was dragged from his palace and put to death, December 20, A.D. 69.

REIGN OF T. FLAVIUS VESPASIANUS, A.D. 69-79.—Vespasian, the founder of the first Flavian family of emperors, was a soldier of fortune, who had risen from a low station to high command in the army. He was brave, active, free from vice, and, although fond of money, was never charged with extortion or rapacity. Toward the close of the summer, A.D. 70, he arrived in Rome, and received the imperium from the Senate. He began at once to restore discipline in the army, and raised to the rank of Senators and Equites illustrious men from the provinces, as well as from Italy and Rome, thus giving to the provincials a certain share in the government. The courts of justice were purified, the Delatores, or spies, were discountenanced, and trials for treason ceased. To increase his revenues, Vespasian renewed the taxes in several provinces which had been exempted by Nero, and he introduced economy and good order into the administration of the finances. Yet he expended large sums in rebuilding the Capitoline Temple, and also in completing the Colosseum, whose immense ruins form one of the most remarkable features in the modern scenery of Rome. He built, too, the Temple of Peace and a public library. He appointed lecturers upon rhetoric, with a salary of 100 sesterces, but was possessed himself of little mental cultivation. He is even said to have disliked literary men, and, in the year A.D. 74, expelled the Stoic and Cynic philosophers from Rome.

In A.D. 70, September 2, his son Titus took the city of Jerusalem, after a brave defense by the Jews, who were finally betrayed by their own factions. The city was totally destroyed, and nearly half a million of the Jews perished in the siege. Those who survived, being forbidden to rebuild their city, were scattered over the empire, and each Jew was compelled to pay a yearly tax of two drachmae, which was appropriated to rebuilding the Capitoline Temple. The Arch of Titus, which still exists at Rome, was erected in commemoration of the fall of Jerusalem.

Vespasian's generals repressed an insurrection of the Germans, and in A.D. 71 C. Julius Agricola, father-in-law of the historian Tacitus, entered Britain as legate to Petilius Cerialis. He was made governor of the province in A.D. 77, and led his victorious armies as far north as the Highlands of Scotland. This excellent character, by his justice and moderation, reconciled the Britons to the Roman yoke.

By his first wife, Flavia Domatilla, Vespasian had three children—Titus, Domitian, and Domatilla. When she died he formed an inferior kind of marriage with Coenis, a woman of low station, who, however, seems to have deserved his esteem. He died 23d of June, A.D. 79, at the age of seventy. Although never a refined or cultivated man, Vespasian, by his hardy virtues, restored the vigor of the Roman government, and gave peace and prosperity to his subjects; while he who founded a library and established schools of rhetoric can not have been so wholly illiterate as some writers have imagined.

REIGN OF TITUS, A.D. 79-81.

Titus was one of the most accomplished and benevolent of men. Eloquent, warlike, moderate in his desires, he was called Amor et deliciae humani generis, "The love and the delight of the human race." In early life he had been thought inclined to severity, and his treatment of the Jews, at the fall of their city, does not seem in accordance with his character for humanity. But no sooner had he ascended the throne than he won a general affection. Such was the mildness of his government that no one was punished at Rome for political offenses. Those who conspired against him he not only pardoned, but took into his familiarity. He was so generous that he could refuse no request for aid. He was resolved, he said, that no one should leave his presence sorrowful; and he thought that day lost in which he had done no good deed. Titus wrote poems and tragedies in Greek, and was familiar with his native literature. During his reign, A.D. 79, occurred a violent eruption of Vesuvius, together with an earthquake, by which Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Pompeii, three towns on the Bay of Naples, were destroyed. The emperor was so touched by the sufferings of the inhabitants that he expended nearly his whole private fortune in relieving their wants. Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were covered by lava or ashes, were thus preserved from farther decay, and, having been partially excavated and restored, enable us to form a truthful conception of the domestic life of the Roman cities in the age of Titus. We here enter the villas of the rich or the humble homes of the poor, and find every where traces of comfort, elegance, and taste.

The next year after the destruction of these cities, a fire broke out in Rome, which raged for three days, desolating the finest regions of the city. The Capitoline Temple was again destroyed, together with many buildings in the Campus Martius. A pestilence followed soon after, which ravaged Rome and all Italy.

In A.D. 81 Titus dedicated the Colosseum, which was now completed, and also his famous baths, the ruins of which may still be visited at Rome. Splendid games and spectacles were exhibited in honor of these events. Few military events occurred during this reign, the empire being perfectly quiet, except where the active Agricola was subduing the wandering tribes of Scotland.

At length Titus, having gone to the Sabine villa where his father Vespasian died, was himself suddenly arrested by death. It was believed that his brother Domitian was the cause of this unhappy event, and all the people lamented their emperor as if they had lost a father or a friend. Titus died September 13, A.D. 81.

REIGN OF DOMITIAN, A.D. 81-96

Domitian, who was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers upon his brother's death, possessed the mental ability of the Flavian family, joined to the vices and cruelty of the Claudian. In him Nero or Caligula seemed revived. His first political acts, however, were often useful, and for several years he concealed his true disposition. But he soon surrounded himself with spies and informers, and put to death the noblest men of his time. To preserve the fidelity of the soldiers he doubled their pay, while he won the populace by games and donations. But, to maintain his expenditure, he confiscated the property of the richer citizens, and no man of wealth was safe from an accusation of treason.

Agricola, who had gained a great victory over the Caledonians at the foot of the Grampion Hills, and who was about to subdue all Scotland, Domitian recalled, being jealous of his military fame; and that brave leader passed the last eight years of his life in retirement at Rome, in order to avoid the suspicions of the tyrant. Meanwhile, the Dacians, led by their king Decebalus, having crossed the Danube, Domitian took the field against them, and, in A.D. 90, was defeated, and forced to conclude a humiliating peace. Yet, on his return to Rome, he celebrated a triumph, assuming the name of Dacicus. The next year an insurrection broke out among the German legions, which was, however, suppressed.

Domitian now ordered himself to be styled the "Lord and God," and was worshiped with divine honors. A ferocious jealousy of all excellence in others seemed to possess him with rage against the wise and good. The most eminent of the nobility were put to death. All philosophers, and among them the virtuous Epictetus, were banished from Rome. The Christians, which name now included many persons of high station, were murdered in great numbers. At last the tyrant resolved to put to death his wife Domitia, but she discovered his design, and had him assassinated, 18th September, A.D. 96. The Senate passed a decree that his name should be erased from all public monuments, and refused to yield to the wishes of the soldiers, who would have proclaimed him a god.



CHAPTER XLI.

PROSPERITY OF THE EMPIRE, A.D. 96.—COMMODUS, A.D. 180.—REIGN OF M. COCCEIUS NERVA, A.D. 96-98.

This venerable man was sixty-four years old when he was proclaimed emperor upon the death of Domitian. He was a native of the town of Narnia, in Umbria, and his virtues had won him a general esteem. The Praetorians, who had not been consulted in his election, never looked upon him with favor, and Nerva was obliged to act with great caution. He stopped trials for high treason, pardoned political offenders, diminished taxes, recalled exiles, and strove by every honest art to attain popularity. But the Praetorians, becoming mutinous, not only put the murderers of Domitian to death, but forced the emperor to approve of their act publicly. This insult was deeply felt by Nerva, who now resolved to adopt a colleague, in order to increase his own authority. He therefore selected M. Ulpius Trajan, a distinguished general, who was in command of the army of Lower Germany.

We now enter upon the most pleasing period in the history of the Roman Empire. During the next eighty years a general prosperity prevailed. The emperors were all men worthy to command, and capable of giving tranquillity to their vast dominions. Several of them were of the purest morals, of high mental cultivation, and are still looked upon as ornaments of the human race; and while they could not check the decline of their people, these virtuous emperors prevented, for a time, the fall of the Roman Empire.

Nerva, in order to elevate the condition of his people, purchased lands, which he distributed among them, and he sought to make them feel the necessity of labor and of self-dependence. But it was too late to reform the manners of the indolent, licentious plebs, corrupted by the indulgence of their tyrants. Nerva died of a fever, January 27, A.D. 98.

M. ULPIUS TRAJANUS, A.D. 98-117

Trajan, the first emperor who was not a native of Italy, was born at Italica, in Spain, and was about forty years of age at the death of Nerva. His memory was so much revered among the Romans, that, two hundred and fifty years later, the Senate hailed the accession of the new emperor with the prayer that he might be happier than Augustus, better than Trajan. He was free from every vice except an occasional indulgence in wine. His mind was naturally strong, his manners pleasing, his appearance noble and imposing. He desired only to restore the simple manners and virtuous habits of an earlier age.

Trajan, after his adoption by Nerva, entered upon his high office at Cologne, and then traveled toward Rome. In A.D. 99 he entered that city on foot, followed by a small retinue, and was received with general good will. He abolished the trials for high treason, judicia majestatis, which had made Rome so often a scene of terror, restored freedom of speech to the Senate, revived the Comitia for the election of magistrates, and bound himself by oath to observe the laws. He punished the principal informers, banishing many of them to the barren islands around Italy, while he at once, by severe measures, reduced the turbulent Praetorians to obedience. His wife Plotina, who was a woman of excellent character, with her sister Marcina, revived by their virtues the dignity of the Roman matron. The society of the city was purified, and the family of the emperor offered an example of propriety that produced an excellent effect upon the manners of the higher ranks.

Among the first acts of Trajan was the foundation of public schools for the education and maintenance of poor children in various parts of Italy. He founded, too, the Ulpian Library at Rome, and adorned every part of his empire with magnificent buildings, roads, bridges, and various useful improvements. He seemed to live, in fact, wholly for his people, and passed his life in devising and executing plans for their advantage.

When Decebalus, king of the Dacians, sent to demand the tribute which had been promised him by Domitian, Trajan refused to be bound by the disgraceful treaty, and, having levied an army of 60,000 men, marched against the Dacians, who had boldly advanced across the Danube. A terrible battle took place, in which the Romans were victorious; but so great was the slaughter that sufficient linen could not be obtained to dress the wounds of the soldiers, and Trajan tore up his imperial robes to supply their wants. He took the capital of the Dacian king, defeated him in various encounters, and compelled him (A.D. 102) to make peace, giving up a part of his territory. Having returned to Rome, Trajan received from the Senate the surname of Dacicus. But in A.D. 104 the Dacians again rose in arms, and the Senate declared Decebalus a public enemy. Trajan led an army in person against the barbarians, and, to provide for an easy access to their territory, built a stone bridge across the Danube of immense size and strength, fortified at each end with towers. He next advanced into the midst of the hostile country, took the capital of the Dacians, and reduced them to subjection. Decebalus, in despair, fell by his own hand. All Dacia, comprising the modern countries of Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania, was made a Roman province; and several Roman colonies were planted among the barbarians, thus for the first time preparing for the spread of civilization in that savage country. Trajan now returned to Rome, to triumph a second time for his Dacian successes. He also began that famous Column in commemoration of his victories which still stands at Rome, and which shows in its rich sculpture the various captives and spoils of the Dacian war.



Arabia Petraea was also at this time added to the Roman Empire, after which a peace of several years succeeded. In A.D. 114, a Parthian war breaking out, Trajan hastened to the East, and, having passed the winter at Antioch, witnessed a severe earthquake, which shook that city as well as all Syria. He himself escaped with difficulty from a falling house. In the spring, at the head of his legions, he overran Armenia and formed it into a province. He next built a bridge across the Tigris, resembling that upon the Danube, and led his army into Assyria, a country never yet visited by a Roman general. He took Babylon and Ctesiphon, the capital of the Parthian kingdom, and, sailing down the Tigris, passed through the Persian Gulf, and annexed a large portion of Arabia Felix to his empire. The Jews, too, about this time revolted, but were subdued, after a brave resistance, and treated with great severity. His Eastern conquests, however, proved by no means secure, and his new subjects revolted as soon as his armies were gone. In A.D. 117 Trajan entered Southern Arabia to complete the subjection of that country, when he was seized with a dropsy and forced to return to Rome. He did not reach that city, but died, August 9th, A.D. 117, at Selinus, in Cilicia. His ashes were carried to Rome, and placed under the magnificent column which recorded his Dacian victories.

During Trajan's reign, the empire, already too extensive, was made more unwieldy by his various conquests. He was evidently ambitious of the fame of a conqueror, and possessed many of the qualities of an able general. He was also a skillful ruler of his immense dominions, leaving no portion unprotected by his vigilance. The only stain upon his fame is his persecution of the Christians, whom he continued to treat with severity even when convinced of their perfect innocence.

After the conclusion of the Dacian war he celebrated games and spectacles, which are said to have lasted through four months, and in which ten thousand gladiators fought and suffered for the entertainment of the people—a proof that the Romans were yet, in some respects, barbarians. Trajan, however, forbade the performance of indecent pantomimes. Trajan's bridge across the Danube is described by Dion Cassius as of greater importance than any of his other works. He designed it to form an easy access to his Dacian province. It was formed of twenty stone piers, distant about 170 feet from each other, and sixty feet wide: they were probably connected by arches of wood. Trajan also began to make roads across the Pontine Marshes, and founded several public libraries. Pliny the younger, who lived during this reign, was the most eminent literary man of the time, and wrote a fine panegyric upon his friend the emperor. Pliny saw the first eruption of Vesuvius, in which his uncle and adopted father, the elder Pliny, perished. He was a person of great wealth and uncommon generosity, having given 300,000 sesterces yearly to maintain the children of the poor in his native town of Comum. His letters to Trajan show that he was an excellent master, husband, and friend, and we may well believe that in this happy period many Romans resembled Trajan and his learned correspondent.

REIGN OF HADRIAN, A.D. 117-138.

Hadrian, descended from a family of Hadria, in Picenum, was a military commander, distinguished for his courage and activity. His father had married an aunt of the late emperor, who, upon the father's death, was appointed one of Hadrian's guardians. Yet it is supposed Trajan made no nomination of a successor to the throne, and that his wife Plotina forged the will by which the world was made to believe that he had adopted Hadrian. This will was, however, published, and Hadrian entered upon his government at Antioch, August 11th, A.D. 117, and was there proclaimed emperor. The Senate, to whom he wrote a letter announcing his appointment, at once confirmed him in his power. He now made peace with the Parthians, and restored to Chosroes, their king, Assyria and Mesopotamia. He adopted the policy of Augustus, refusing to extend the limits of the empire. In A.D. 118 he returned to Rome, but was soon forced to march to the defense of the province of Moesia, which had been invaded by the Sarmatae and Roxolani. His object being merely to preserve the boundaries of the empire, he concluded a peace with the Roxolani, and probably purchased their submission. He was about to march against the Sarmatae, when the news of a conspiracy at Rome was brought to him. He seems to have ordered the leaders to be put to death, although he afterward denied that he had done so. Having returned to Rome, he endeavored to win the affections of the people by donations, games, and gladiatorial shows. He also canceled a large amount of unpaid taxes, now due for fifteen years, and promised the Senators never to punish one of their body without their approval. He divided Italy into four regions, a Consular Magistrate being placed over each; and he introduced a new system of administration into the palace, the army, and the state, which lasted until the reign of Constantine the Great.

In A.D. 119 he began a journey through all the provinces of his empire, in order to examine into their condition, and to discover and amend any faults in the system of government. Hadrian, too, was fond of travel, and was never content to remain long in repose. A large part of his reign was occupied with this important journey. He first visited Gaul and Germany, and thence, in A.D. 121, passed over into Britain. Here he found the Britons already partially civilized, but unable to defend themselves from the incursions of their neighbors the Caledonians. To protect them from these forays, he built a wall across the island from the mouth of the Tyne to Solway, remains of which are still shown to the traveler. On his return he adorned the town of Nemausus (Nismes) with fine buildings, and then went into Spain, where he passed the winter. He returned to Rome A.D. 122, but soon after went to Athens, where he spent three years. During his residence in that city he began many magnificent buildings, and he seems to have looked upon Athens with singular affection and reverence. He visited Sicily, returned to Rome, set out for Africa, whence, after a brief visit, he once more visited Athens, to view the completion of his architectural designs. He finished the Temple of the Olympian Jupiter, the largest and most magnificent in the world, which had been commenced by Pisistratus, and left many other fine works behind him. Then he passed through Asia, inspecting the conduct of the provincial officers, and next traveled through Syria into Egypt, where his favorite Antinous, a beautiful youth, was drowned. This event seems to have filled him with a lasting grief. At length, in A.D. 131, he returned to Rome.

]

Here he published the Edictum Perpetuum, a codification of the edicts of the Roman Praetors, which was composed by Salvius Julianus, an eminent lawyer. The design of this work was to condense the vast body of the law into a convenient form.

A revolt broke out among the Jews, Hadrian having established a colony called AElia Capitolina on the site of Jerusalem, and, not content with introducing pagan worship into the holy city, had even issued an edict forbidding the practice of circumcision. These imprudent measures produced a revolt among the Jews, who, under their leader Barcochab, fought with their usual courage and desperation. The war continued for several years, during which more than half a million of Jews are said to have perished. At length Julius Severus came from Britain to lead the Roman armies, and the rebellion was suppressed. The Jews were now forbidden to live in Jerusalem or its neighborhood, and the nation was scattered over the habitable world.

A war which seemed about to break out with the Albanians and Iberians in the East was prevented by Hadrian, who, with his usual policy, sent large presents to his enemies, and thus converted them into friends. He now returned from his travels to Rome, where he built his magnificent villa at Tibur, the extensive ruins of which may still be seen; and he passed the remainder of his life either at Tibur or in Rome. His health had been affected by his incessant labors, and in A.D. 135 he was seized with dropsy. Having no children, he adopted L. Ceionius, under the name of L. AElius Verus, a young noble, who, however, died on the first day of the year A.D. 138. Hadrian then adopted Arrius Antoninus (afterward the Emperor Antoninus Pius), and presented him as his successor to the Senators assembled around his bed. At the same time he obliged him to adopt L. Commodus Verus, the son of the former Verus, and also M. Annius Verus, the future Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Ill health seems now to have fatally affected the mind and disposition of Hadrian. He became morose and cruel. He put many eminent nobles to death, and is said to have sunk into debauchery at his Tiburtine villa. His disease proving incurable, he several times attempted suicide; but having removed to Baiae, hoping for some relief in that fine climate, he died there July 10th, A.D. 138, aged sixty-three. He was buried in the villa of Cicero, near Puteoli. When the Senate, enraged at his cruelties in the latter part of his life, wished to annul his acts, and would have refused him divine honors, Antoninus interposed, and excused his adopted father on the plea that ill health had disordered his mind. For this filial conduct he received the name of Pius. The Senate not only numbered Hadrian among the deities, but ordered temples to be erected in his honor. He left the empire prosperous and at peace. During his reign the Senate lost its importance in the administration of affairs, since Hadrian supplied its place by a Consistorium Principis, or council, composed of eminent men, presided over by a distinguished lawyer. Hadrian was fond of letters and the arts, and adorned every part of his empire with fine buildings or useful works. Wherever he traveled he did something for the benefit of his subjects.

[Footnote 78: This mausoleum, begun by Hadrian, is now the Castle of St. Angelo.]



REIGN OF ANTONINUS PIUS, A.D. 138-161.

This excellent man was born at Lanuvium, September 19th, A.D. 86, but his family came from the town of Nemausis (Nismes), in Gaul. Soon after his accession to the empire he married his daughter Faustina to Marcus Aurelius, procured for him the tribunitian and proconsular power from the Senate, and made him his associate in the labors of the government. His tranquil and prosperous reign is the most pleasing period in the history of the Roman Empire. The world enjoyed a general peace, and the emperor endeavored, by every wise measure, to secure the prosperity of his subjects. Like Numa, to whom he has often been compared, Antoninus was the peacemaker between distant nations, who were accustomed to submit their differences to him, and to abide implicitly by his award. He checked the persecutions to which the Christians had been exposed in former reigns, and to him Justin Martyr addressed his apology for Christianity. He watched carefully the conduct of the provincial governors, and applied the public revenues to founding schools, repairing roads and harbors, and encouraging every where industry and trade. When Asia and Rhodes were devastated by an earthquake, Antoninus expended large sums in relieving the sufferers by that calamity, as well as those who were reduced to indigence by the great fires which nearly destroyed Carthage, Narbonne, and Antioch, in A.D. 153. He appointed teachers of rhetoric in various cities of the empire, conferred honors and emoluments upon men of letters, and in A.D. 141 founded a charity-school for orphan girls, whom he styled Puellae Alimentariae Faustinianae, in memory of his wife Faustina, who had died the year before. Faustina, however, does not seem to have merited his esteem, and the emperor was well acquainted with her faults; yet he generously overlooked them while she lived, and upon her death paid unusual honors to her memory. His piety, his devotion to the national religion, and his various virtues, seem to have won for him universal love and veneration, and his successors during the next century assumed the name of Antoninus as their worthiest title.

Antoninus made no attempt to extend the boundaries of the empire. The barbarous races who were now beginning to swarm upon the frontiers, the Germans and the Dacians, were held in check; and although the Brigantes made several inroads into Britain, they were defeated by A. Lollius, the Legate, in A.D. 141; and a wall of turf was raised beyond the former wall built by Agricola to check the incursions of the Caledonians. This peaceful reign, however, seems to have increased the general indolence of the people, and the martial spirit of the Roman soldiers declined in the idleness of their stationary camps. After a reign of twenty-three years, Antoninus died, March 7th, A.D. 161, in his villa at Lorium, aged seventy-five years.

REIGN OF MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS, A.D. 161-180.

He was succeeded by Aurelius, who was born at Rome A.D. 121. This prince is known as the Philosopher; and the wish of Plato that philosophers might be kings, or kings philosophers, seems to have been fulfilled at his accession. Aurelius had been from his youth a lover of truth. His morals and his intellect were trained by the purest and wisest men of his age. He had studied under Herodes Atticus and Cornelius Fronto, two famous rhetoricians, and also under the Stoic philosophers Junius Rusticus and Apollonius; and he had been constantly employed by his adopted father Antoninus as an associate in all his useful and benevolent designs. His health was, however, delicate, and he now admitted to a share in the empire his adopted brother, L. Verus, who possessed a vigorous constitution, but was addicted to licentious pleasures.

The general peace which had prevailed during the reign of Marcus Antoninus was forever passed away, and the world was in future to be desolated by almost perpetual hostilities. The Parthian king Vologeses III. having invaded the eastern provinces, and cut to pieces a Roman legion, L. Verus was sent to oppose his advance; but upon arriving at Antioch, Verus remained there, plunged in dissipation, while his brave lieutenant Avidius Cassius drove back the Parthians, invaded Mesopotamia, destroyed Seleucia, and penetrated to Babylon. Another Roman general conquered Armenia, and restored the legitimate king Soaemus to his throne. At the close of the war, Verus, A.D. 166, returned to Rome, and triumphed. His army brought the plague with it from the East, which now desolated Italy and Rome. Many illustrious men died; but the famous physician Galen (Claudius Galenus), who had come from Pergamus to Rome, was now enabled to exhibit his uncommon professional skill. This pestilence lasted for several years.

Verus died of intemperance A.D. 171, and Aurelius prevailed upon the Senate to rank him among the gods. He now marched against the Marcomanni, but was defeated in a great battle, and, in order to provide a new army, sold the imperial plate and jewels. He now took up a position at Sirmium (Sirmich), and endeavored to wear out the barbarians by skirmishes and sudden attacks, without venturing far from his strong-hold. At length, however, upon one occasion, having been drawn into a defile, the Roman army was relieved by a fierce storm of thunder and rain, which terrified the barbarians. Tradition attributes this sudden storm to the prayers of a Christian legion. The barbarians now submitted, and withdrew beyond the Danube.

Soon after, an insurrection broke out in Syria, where Avidius Cassius, at the instigation, it is said, of the emperor's wife Faustina, had proclaimed himself emperor. But Cassius, by his severity, disgusted his own soldiers, and was assassinated by a centurion. Aurelius lamented this event, since it deprived him of an opportunity of showing clemency to an erring friend. He at once set out for the East, and there freely forgave all those who had conspired against him. He took the young family of Cassius under his protection, and ordered the papers of that officer to be destroyed, lest they might disclose the names of the conspirators. Faustina, who had accompanied her husband to Cilicia, died soon after, it is said, by her own hand.

It is remarkable that this philosophic emperor should have permitted a cruel persecution of the Christians in A.D. 177, perhaps at the instigation of the Stoic philosophers—the only blot upon his general humanity and benevolence. Among the victims of this persecution was Justin Martyr, the author of the Apologies for Christianity, addressed to Antoninus, as well as to Aurelius himself. Toward the close of his reign, having become convinced of the falseness of the charges made against the Christians, Aurelius became once more tolerant and philosophic.

In A.D. 176 the emperor triumphed at Rome for his various successes. He gave a donation of eight pieces of gold to every citizen, and made his son Commodus his colleague. In the mean time the barbarians in the interior of Europe, moved by a general impulse, began to press upon the frontiers of the empire, and from this time seem never to have ceased their inroads until the final destruction of the Roman power. Aurelius marched, A.D. 177, to the frontier, defeated the barbarians in various engagements, and had perhaps proved the savior and second founder of Rome, when he was seized with a fever at Vindobona (Vienna), A.D. 180, and died after a few days' illness. He was the last of the Roman emperors who labored for the welfare of his people. He was, no doubt, the greatest and wisest of them all, and he united the different talents of a man of learning, a fine writer, a skillful soldier, and a benevolent, judicious ruler. His "Meditations," which have made him known to posterity, are among the most delightful productions of the human intellect, while his private character seems to have been no less attractive than his writings.

REIGN OF M. COMMODUS ANTONINUS, A.D. 180-192.

The depraved Commodus succeeded his virtuous father at the age of twenty. He had been educated with singular care, but was wholly given up to coarse sensuality. The people, however, still hoped that he might be worthy of his father, and received him, upon his accession, with loud expressions of joy. For a short time he concealed his true disposition; but his sister Lucilla, jealous of her brother's wife Crispina, formed a conspiracy against him in A.D. 182, and he escaped with difficulty from the hand of the assassin. From this moment he threw off all disguise, and indulged his natural vices without restraint. He put to death the most illustrious men of the time, encouraged informers and false accusations, and filled Rome with terror. In the midst of these cruelties he often sang, danced, or played the buffoon in public, fought as a gladiator in the circus, and ordered the people to worship him as a second Hercules. His lieutenant Marcellus, in A.D. 184, defeated the Caledonians, after they had passed the long wall of Hadrian, and had ravaged the northern part of Britain; and in A.D. 191 an invasion of the Frisians was repelled. Commodus, however, paid no attention to the affairs of the empire. In A.D. 189 Italy suffered from a pestilence and famine, when the people of Rome rose against the emperor's praefect, Cleander, and tore him to pieces. Commodus still continued his murders, and was at last assassinated by the directions of his mistress, Marcia, whose death he had resolved upon. He died December 31st, A.D. 192. The Senate ordered his memory to be held infamous, and his body to be dragged by iron hooks through the streets, and then to be thrown into the Tiber; but his successor Pertinax prevailed that it should be placed in the mausoleum of Hadrian. Such was the son of Marcus Aurelius.



CHAPTER XLII.

FROM PERTINAX TO DIOCLETIAN. A.D. 192-284.

Pertinax, an aged senator of consular rank, and now Praefect of the city, was summoned by the conspirators, who came to his house late at night, after the murder of Commodus, to ascend the vacant throne. He was one of the few friends and ministers of Marcus Aurelius who yet survived, and, having filled many important offices, had always been distinguished for firmness, prudence, and integrity. The rumor was spread that Commodus had died of apoplexy, and that Pertinax had succeeded him; but the Praetorian Guards were dissatisfied at his election. The Senate, however, confirmed the choice of the conspirators, and Pertinax lived among his own order rather as an equal than a master. His manners were simple, his mode of life frugal, and he sought to revive the pleasing simplicity of the early Republic.

Pertinax administered justice with strictness, released those who had been left in prison by Commodus, reformed the finances and introduced economy, redivided the uncultivated lands among those who would till them, removed oppressive restrictions upon trade, and deserved the respect of the wiser portion of his subjects.

But the Praetorians were never reconciled to his rule, and on the 28th of March, A.D. 193, eighty-six days after his election, they broke into the imperial palace, and struck down the emperor with innumerable blows. His head was separated from his body, and, being placed upon a lance, was carried in triumph to the Praetorian camp, while the people silently lamented the death of this virtuous ruler.

The soldiers, meanwhile, proclaimed from the ramparts of their camp that the throne of the world would be sold at auction to the highest bidder. Didius Julianus, a wealthy Senator, whose age had not quenched his vanity and ambition, offered about a thousand dollars to each man for the possession of the prize. He was declared emperor, and, surrounded by the armed Praetorians, was carried to the Senate, who were forced to accept the selection of the soldiers. But the Senators and the people felt deeply the disgrace of their country, and even the Praetorians were ashamed of their unworthy choice. Julianus found himself on the throne of the world without a friend.



The armies in the provinces, when they heard of these transactions at the capital, rose in revolt, and refused to acknowledge the authority of Julian. Clodius Albinus commanded the legions in Britain, Septimius Severus those in Pannonia, and Pescennius Niger the army of the East. Severus, more active than his competitors, was saluted by his soldiers as emperor, and marched rapidly toward Rome. Julian, deserted by the Praetorians, was condemned to death by the Senate, and was executed as a common criminal after a reign of only sixty-six days. Severus was acknowledged as their lawful emperor by the Senate, June 2, A.D. 193, and his first act was to disarm the Praetorian Guards and banish them from the capital.

He next marched against Niger, and defeated him in two battles, while he was also successful in a severe contest with Clodius Albinus at Lyons. Both of his competitors were put to death, and Severus, now set free from fear of rivalry, began to show the native cruelty of his disposition. Forty-one Senators, whom he accused of having favored Albinus, were executed, with their wives and children; and many of the provincial nobles of Spain and Gaul shared their fate. Yet Severus was in many respects a useful ruler; strict in the administration of the laws, careful to correct abuses, and restraining his subjects with stern impartiality. Peace returned to the provinces, cities were repeopled, roads repaired, Rome abounded in provisions, and the people were satisfied. Severus changed the constitution of the Praetorian Guards, and filled up their ranks with the bravest soldiers of the legions of the frontier. These barbarians, he thought, would be able to suppress any rebellion that might arise; and he increased the number to fifty thousand men. The Praefect of the Praetorians, who had at first been a simple soldier, now became the chief minister of the emperor, and was at the head of the finances and even of the law. The celebrated lawyer Papinian was appointed Praefect after the fall of Plautianus; and several great jurisconsults, particularly Paulus and Ulpian, flourished under the reign of Severus or his family.

Severus, however, was a military despot, and, despising the feeble Senate, assumed both the legislative and the executive power. The jurisconsults, in fact, from this reign, begin to treat the emperor as the source of all law, the Senate and the people being no longer considered in the state. But this arbitrary rule, introduced by Severus, is thought to have tended more than any thing else to destroy the vigor of the Roman Empire, by leading the people to an abject dependence upon their rulers.

The wife of Severus, Julia Domna, a Syrian lady of great beauty and various accomplishments, became the mother of two sons, Caracalla and Geta, and the emperor hoped that they would prove worthy of the high office to which they were born. They soon, however, showed themselves incapable of any serious study or employment, and were chiefly remarkable for the hatred they bore toward each other. The court was already divided into two factions, composed of the adherents of either son; and the emperor, who in vain strove to remove their rivalry, foresaw that one must fall a victim to the hatred of the other.

In A.D. 208 a war broke out in Britain, and Severus, although now more than sixty years of age, and afflicted with the gout, so that he was carried on a litter, set out at the head of his army, attended by his two sons, and penetrated into the interior of Scotland. This was his last enterprise, for he died at York, February 4, A.D. 211. He left his empire to his two sons, who returned to Rome, and were acknowledged by the Senate and the army.



Their discord, however, still continued, and they planned a division of the empire, a measure which was then distasteful to all the Romans, and which was only prevented from taking place by the tears and entreaties of their mother, Julia Domna. Geta, the younger son, who was of a gentle disposition, soon after, in A.D. 212, February 27th, was murdered by the cruel and relentless Caracalla. Twenty thousand of his friends are said to have been put to death at the same time, and his unhappy mother, Julia Domna, was forced to receive her guilty son with feigned smiles and words of approbation. Remorse, however, fastened upon Caracalla, and the shade of Geta haunted him wherever he went. His cruelties now redoubled. He put to death Papinian, the Praetorian Praefect, the splendid ornament of the Roman bar; and his massacres filled every part of the empire with mourning and terror. In A.D. 213 he left the city of Rome, and never returned thither again; the rest of his reign was passed in the provinces, and wherever he came he indulged himself in endless murders, confiscations, and acts of violence. "He was," says Gibbon, "the common enemy of mankind." He directed a general massacre of the people of Alexandria, who had lampooned him, and viewed the scene from a secure post in the Temple of Serapis. To retain the affections of his army, he lavished upon them immense sums, the plunder of his empire; and he was at length assassinated, March 8, A.D. 217, at the instigation of Macrinus, one of the Praetorian Praefects, who had discovered that the tyrant had planned his own death.

Macrinus, Praefect of the Praetorian Guard, was elected emperor March 11, A.D. 217, and the Senate and the provinces submitted without a murmur. But the new emperor was disliked by the nobles on account of his humble origin, and soon offended his army by endeavoring to reform their discipline. The Empress Julia now withdrew by a voluntary death from the sorrow which surrounded her, and the family of Severus became extinct. A rebellion broke out in the Syrian army, who proclaimed Bassianus, the grandson of Julia Maesa, sister of the late empress, and who assumed the name of Antoninus. He pretended that he was the natural son of Caracalla. A battle took place, in which Macrinus was defeated, and soon after put to death; and Elagabalus, for that is the name under which this monster is commonly known, ascended the throne.

He at once plunged into every vice. The sun was worshiped at Emessa under the name of Elagabalus, from whence the new emperor derived his surname, having been a priest in the temple; and he now introduced the lascivious rites of the Syrian deity into the capital of the world. A magnificent temple of the god Elagabalus was raised on the Palatine Mount, and the grave and dignified nobles of Rome were forced to take part in the ceremonies, clothed in long Phoenician tunics.

It would be impossible to describe the vices of this wretched being, who seems to have sunk to the very extreme of depravity. His cousin, however, Alexander Severus, as if to show that human nature had not wholly declined, was amiable, virtuous, and learned. Elagabalus was murdered by the Praetorians March 10, A.D. 222, and Alexander placed upon the throne.

Alexander Severus seems to have inclined toward the Christian faith, which was now very widely extended throughout the empire. He revoked all former edicts against the Christians, and ordered the words "Do unto others as you would have them do to you" to be inscribed upon his palaces and other buildings. The Persian Empire was now arising in new strength under the house of the Sassanides, and a war having broken out with them, Alexander marched against the Persians, and gained a considerable victory. He returned to Rome in triumph, and entered the city in a chariot drawn by four elephants. Soon after, the Germans having invaded Gaul, he led his army to the defense of the frontier; but, while attempting to reform the discipline of the Gallic legions, he was assassinated by a band of discontented soldiers, and Maximin, a Thracian peasant of great personal strength, who had risen to a high command in the army, was raised to the throne.



Maximin, A.D. 235, began his reign by massacring many of the friends of the late emperor, and even all those who showed any regret for his death. He was a fierce, ignorant barbarian, but was very successful in his wars against the Germans, having ravaged their country, and sent great numbers of them to be sold as slaves in Italy. He also defeated the Dacians and Sarmatians. But his severities produced a revolt in Africa, where the legions proclaimed their proconsul Gordian emperor, then in the eightieth year of his age. The Senate now revolted against Maximin, and ordered all his friends in Rome to be put to death. Maximin now made peace with the barbarians, and marched toward Italy, while, in the mean time, Gordian and his son were defeated and slain in Africa. The Senate immediately elected Papianus and Balbinus emperors, to whom, in order to gratify the people, they joined the younger Gordian, then only twelve years of age. Maximin entered Italy and besieged Aquileia, but his soldiers, weary of the length of the siege, put him to death, A.D. 238. The Goths on the Danube and the Persians in the East now assailed the empire, and at the same time the Praetorian Guards murdered his two associates, leaving Gordian sole emperor of Rome. Gordian was married to the daughter of Misitheus, Praefect of the Praetorians, an excellent minister and commander. Together they marched to the East, and defeated the Persians under their king Sapor, in various engagements. Misitheus now died, and Gordian appointed the Arab Philip his prime minister. Sapor was again defeated; but the Arab conspired against Gordian, his benefactor, who was assassinated in A.D. 244.

Philip, having made peace with the Persians, returned to Rome, where he won the favor of the people by his mild conduct. In his reign the secular games were celebrated, it being reckoned one thousand years since the foundation of the city. Philip ruled with mildness, and was an enemy to persecution. In A.D. 249, however, the Illyrian army revolted, and proclaimed their commander, Trajanus Decius, emperor, who defeated Philip near Verona, and put him to death. His son, who had remained at Rome, was slain by the Praetorian Guards.

In A.D. 250 the Goths invaded the empire. These fierce barbarians came from the north of Europe, and were among the chief instruments of the fall of Rome. Decius, who does not seem to have wanted skill and courage, was finally defeated and slain by them, together with his son. Decius is remembered as one of the most cruel persecutors of the Christians. The innocent victims of his rage were subjected to torture, driven to hide in the wilderness among rocks and forests, and were glad to live among the wild beasts, more humane than man. The Bishop of Rome, Fabian, the bishops of Antioch and Alexandria, and many more eminent in the Church, suffered from the unrelenting severity of this persecutor.

A son of Decius, Hostilianus, together with Gallus, an experienced soldier, were now made emperors. They concluded a disgraceful, but probably necessary peace with the Goths. But Hostilianus soon after died, and Gallus was defeated and slain by AEmilianus, who was himself assassinated, and Valerian, the Censor, in A.D. 253, was made emperor. A very high character is given of this ruler, whose reign, however, was filled with disasters. Having joined his son Gallienus with him, Valerian vainly sought to repel the attacks of innumerable enemies on every side of the empire—the Goths, the Franks, the Scythians, and the Persians. In a campaign against the latter Valerian was taken prisoner, and for nine years languished in captivity, his unnatural son making no effort for his liberation.

The Allemanni, meanwhile, had entered Italy, ravaged its northern territory, and even threatened Rome. They withdrew, loaded with plunder. To gain allies among the barbarians, Gallienus now married the daughter of the king of the Marcomanni. Every part of the empire seems now to have been laid open to the invaders. Greece was ravaged by the Goths; the famous Temple of Diana at Ephesus was burned by them, together with that fine city; and Sapor, king of the Persians, overran Syria and Asia. He was, however, finally repelled by the brave Odenatus, who, with his queen Zenobia, ruled at Palmyra.

Valerian died in captivity, while a crowd of usurpers rose in arms against the weak Gallienus. There were nineteen pretenders to the throne according to Gibbon, but this period is usually known as that of the Thirty Tyrants. This melancholy period was also marked by a pestilence, which raged for fifteen years in every province. Five thousand persons are said to have died daily at Rome for some time; cities were depopulated, and the number of the human species must have sensibly declined. A famine preceded and attended the pestilence, earthquakes were common, and the third century is, no doubt, the most melancholy period in the history of Europe.

Gallienus was murdered in A.D. 268, and was succeeded by Marcus Aurelius Claudius, who died of a pestilence which had broken out in his army in Egypt. Aurelian, a native of Pannonia, was the next emperor. His reign lasted four years and nine months, but was filled with remarkable events. He abandoned Dacia to the Goths, defeated the Alemanni, and drove them out of Italy. But he foresaw the danger of future invasions, and surrounded Rome with new walls about twenty-one miles in extent. In A.D. 272 he marched against Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, who ventured to defy the power of Rome. This illustrious woman was not only learned, beautiful, and an agreeable writer, but governed the East for five years with discretion and success. Aurelian was amazed at her warlike preparations upon the fall of Palmyra, and treated her beautiful city with lenity; but the Palmyrenians having rebelled, the city was taken by storm, and its people put to death. The ruins of Palmyra are still among the most remarkable of the ancient world.

Aurelian now returned to Rome to celebrate his triumph. The spoils of every climate were borne before him; his captives were from Germany, Syria, and Egypt, and among them were the Emperor Tetricus and the beautiful Zenobia, bound with fetters of gold. A whole day was consumed in the passage of the triumphal procession through the streets of Rome. But Aurelian, who was illiterate, unpolished, and severe, failed to win the regard of his people, and was plainly more at his ease at the head of his army than in the cultivated society of Rome. He returned, therefore, to the East, where he died, as was usual with so many of the emperors, by the hand of an assassin, in A.D. 275. He restored vigor to the empire, and preserved it from instant destruction.

The army, filled with sorrow for the loss of the emperor, revenged his death by tearing his assassin in pieces; and they then wrote a respectful letter to the Senate, asking the Senators to select his successor. The Senate, however, passed a decree that the army should name the new emperor. The soldiers, in their turn, refused, and thus for eight months an interregnum prevailed while this friendly contest continued. At last the Senate appointed the virtuous Tacitus, who claimed a descent from his namesake, the famous historian. Tacitus, however, who was seventy years old, sank under the hardships of his first campaign, and died A.D. 276, at Tyania, in Cappadocia.

His brother Florian then ascended the throne, but was defeated and put to death by Probus, the best soldier of the age, who, in six years, once more repelled the barbarians from every part of the empire. He delivered Gaul from the ravages of the Germans, pursued them across the Rhine, and every where defeated them. He suppressed, also, several insurrections, and employed his soldiers in various useful works. But at length, weary of these labors, they put Probus to death, A.D. 282.

Carus, the next emperor, was singularly frugal in his mode of life. When the Persian embassadors visited him in his tent they found him sitting upon the grass, clothed in a coarse robe, and eating his supper of bacon and hard pease. Carus gained many victories over the Persians, but died suddenly in A.D. 283. His two sons, Carinus and Namerian, succeeded him, but were soon assassinated, giving place to the more famous Diocletian.



CHAPTER XLIII.

FROM DIOCLETIAN, A.D. 284, TO CONSTANTINE'S DEATH, A.D. 337.

Diocletian began to reign A.D. 284, and once more revived the vigor of the declining empire, which now seemed more than ever to depend for its existence upon the qualities of a single ruler. It seems, indeed, to have required an intellect of no common order to preserve the unity of the empire, composed of so many different nations, of territories separated by such vast distances, and threatened on every side by innumerable foes; but, of all his contemporaries, Diocletian was best suited to this task. His parents had been the slaves of a Roman Senator, and he had himself risen from this low station to the highest positions in the army. He acted with generosity toward the servants of the former emperor, not only suffering them to remain in safety under his rule, but even to retain their offices. Finding the empire too large to be governed by a single ruler, he selected as his colleague Maximian, a brave, but fierce and ignorant soldier, who, like himself, had risen to a high rank in the army. Maximian, however, always admitted the intellectual superiority of Diocletian. The emperor assumed the title of Jovius, and Maximian that of Herculius. Diocletian also appointed two Caesars, Constantius and Galerius, to aid him in the defense of the empire, which was divided between the four princes. Gaul, Spain, and Britain were intrusted to the care of Constantius, Italy and Africa to Maximian, Galerius commanded the legions on the Danube, while Diocletian reserved for himself Thrace, Egypt, and Asia. The four rulers seemed to have labored together in harmony, but the establishment of four courts in different parts of the empire obliged them to increase the taxes, and every province suffered under new impositions. Even Italy, which had always been favored in this particular, was now heavily burdened, and every where lands were abandoned and left uncultivated because their owners could not pay the taxes and impositions. In A.D. 287 a rebellion occurred in Gaul, which was suppressed by Maximian; soon after, Carausius, having become master of Britain, and possessing a considerable fleet, defied the power of the emperor; but when Constantius was appointed Caesar he prepared to reduce the island to subjection. In A.D. 294 Carausius was put to death by Allectus, a new usurper. Constantius now crossed the Channel and recovered the island, which, after a separation of ten years, was once more reunited to the empire. During this reign the Goths, Vandals, and other northern barbarians wasted their strength in destructive contests with each other; but whenever, in intervals of peace, they invaded the Roman territory, they were driven back by the valor of the two Caesars. Maximian, in the mean time, subdued a revolt in Africa; and Diocletian himself suppressed one of those seditions to which Egypt was constantly exposed. The emperor besieged Alexandria for eight months, cut off the aqueducts which conveyed water to the city, and, having taken it, put many thousands of its citizens to death. One remarkable edict which he now published forbade the study of alchemy in Egypt, and ordered all books upon that subject to be burned. He also made a treaty with the Nubians, in order to protect the frontiers of Egypt.