IN the second century of the Christian Aera, the empire of Rome comprehended the fair­est part of the earth, and the most civilized Introduc­tion. portion of mankind. The frontiers of that ex­tensive monarchy were guarded by ancient re­nown and disciplined valour. The gentle, but powerful influence of laws and manners had gra­dually cemented the union of the provinces. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury. The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence: The Roman senate appeared to pos­sess the sovereign authority, and devolved on the emperors all the executive powers of govern­ment. During a happy period of more than A. D. 98,—180. [Page 2] fourscore years, the public administration was conducted by the virtue and abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines. It is the design of this, and of the two succeeding chapters, to describe the prosperous condition of their empire; and afterwards, from the death of Marcus Antoninus, to deduce the most im­portant circumstances of its decline and fall; a revolution which will ever be remembered, and is still felt by the nations of the earth.

The principal conquests of the Romans were Modera­tion of Augustus. atchieved under the republic; and the empe­rors, for the most part, were satisfied with pre­serving those dominions which had been acquir­ed by the policy of the senate, the active emula­tion of the consuls, and the martial enthusiasm of the people. The seven first centuries were filled with a rapid succession of triumphs; but it was reserved for Augustus, to relinquish the ambi­tious design of subduing the whole earth, and to introduce a spirit of moderation into the pub­lic councils. Inclined to peace by his temper and situation, it was easy for him to discover, that Rome, in her present exalted situation, had much l [...]ss to hope than to fear from the chance of arms; and that, in the prosecution of remote wars, the undertaking became every day more difficult, the event more doubtful, and the pos­session more precarious, and less beneficial. The experience of Augustus added weight to these sa­lutary reflections, and effectually convinced him, that, by the prudent vigour of his counsels, it [Page 3] would be easy to secure every concession, which the safety or the dignity of Rome might require from the most formidable Barbarians. Instead of exposing his person and his legions to the ar­rows of the Parthians, he obtained, by an ho­nourable treaty, the restitution of the standards and prisoners which had been taken in the defeat of Crassus ¹.

His generals, in the early part of his reign, attempted the reduction of Aethiopia and Ara­bia Felix. They marched near a thousand miles to the south of the tropic; but the heat of the climate soon repelled the invaders, and protected the unwarlike natives of those sequestered regi­ons ². The northern countries of Europe scarcely deserved the expence and labour of conquest. The forests and morasses of Germany were filled with a hardy race of barbarians, who despised life when it was separated from freedom; and though, on the first attack, they seemed to yield to the weight of the Roman power, they soon, by a sig­nal act of despair, regained their independence, and reminded Augustus of the vicissitude of for­tune ³. [Page 4] On the death of that emperor, his testa­ment was publicly read in the senate. He be­queathed, as a valuable legacy to his successors, the advice of confining the empire within those limits, which Nature seemed to have placed as its permanent bulwarks and boundaries; on the west the Atlantic ocean; the Rhine and Danube on the north; the Euphrates on the east; and towards the south, the sandy desarts of Arabia and Africa ⁴.

Happily for the repose of mankind, the mo­derate Imitated by his suc­cessors. system recommended by the wisdom of Augustus, was adopted by the fears and vices of his immediate successors. Engaged in the pur­suit of pleasure, or in the exercise of tyranny, the first Caesars seldom shewed themselves to the armies, or to the provinces; nor were they dis­posed to suffer, that those triumphs which their indolence neglected, should be usurped by the conduct and valour of their lieutenants. The military fame of a subject was considered as an insolent invasion of the Imperial prerogative; and it became the duty, as well as interest, of every Roman general, to guard the frontiers intrusted to his care, without aspiring to conquests which [Page 5] might have proved no less fatal to himself than to the vanquished barbarians ⁵.

The only accession which the Roman empire Conquest of Britain was the first excep­tion to it. received, during the first century of the Christian Aera, was the province of Britain. In this sin­gle instance the successors of Caesar and Augustus were persuaded to follow the example of the for­mer, rather than the precept of the latter. The proximity of its situation to the coast of Gaul seemed to invite their arms; the pleasing, though doubtful intelligence of a pearl fishery, attracted their avarice ⁶; and as Britain was viewed in the light of a distinct and insulated world, the con­quest scarcely formed any exception to the gene­ral system of continental measures After a war of about forty years, undertaken by the most stupid ⁷, maintained by the most dissolute, and terminated by the most timid of all the emperors, the far greater part of the island submitted to [Page 6] the Roman yoke ⁸. The various tribes of Bri­tons possessed valour without conduct, and the love of freedom without the spirit of union. They took up arms with savage fierceness; they laid them down, or turned them against each other with wild inconstancy; and while they fought singly, they were successively subdued. Neither the fortitude of Caractacus, nor the despair of Boadicea, nor the fanaticism of the Druids, could avert the slavery of their country, or resist the steady progress of the Imperial generals, who maintained the national glory, when the throne was disgraced by the weakest, or the most vicious of mankind. At the very time when Domi­tian, confined to his palace, felt the terrors which he inspired; his legions, under the com­mand of the virtuous Agricola, defeated the col­lected force of the Caledonians at the foot of the Grampian hills; and his fleets, venturing to ex­plore an unknown and dangerous navigation, dis­played the Roman arms round every part of the island. The conquest of Britain was considered as already atchieved; and it was the design of Agricola to complete and ensure his success by the easy reduction of Ireland, for which, in his opinion, one legion and a few auxiliaries were sufficient ⁹. The western isle might be improved into a valuable possession, and the Britons would [Page 7] wear their chains with the less reluctance, if the prospect and example of freedom was on every side removed from before their eyes.

But the superior merit of Agricola soon occa­sioned his removal from the government of Bri­tain; and for ever disappointed this rational, though extensive scheme of conquest. Before his departure, the prudent general had provided for security as well as for dominion. He had observ­ed, that the island is almost divided into two unequal parts by the opposite gulfs, or, as they are now called, the Friths of Scotland. Across the narrow interval of about forty miles, he had drawn a line of military stations, which was after­wards fortified in the reign of Antoninus Pius, by a turf rampart erected on foundations of stone ¹⁰. This wall of Antoninus, at a small dis­tance beyond the modern cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, was fixed as the limit of the Roman province. The native Caledonians preserved in the northern extremity of the island their wild independence, for which they were not less in­debted to their poverty than to their valour. Their incursions were frequently repelled and chastised; but their country was never subdued ¹¹. The masters of the fairest and most wealthy cli­mates of the globe, turned with contempt from [Page 8] gloomy hills assailed by the winter tempest, from lakes concealed in a blue mist, and from cold and lonely heaths, over which the deer of the forest were chased by a troop of naked barbarians ¹².

Such was the state of the Roman frontiers, and Conquest of Dacia; the second exception. such the maxims of Imperial policy from the death of Augustus to the accession of Trajan. That virtuous and active prince had received the education of a soldier, and possessed the talents of a general ¹³. The peaceful system of his pre­decessors was interrupted by scenes of war and conquest; and the legions, after a long interval, beheld a military emperor at their head. The first exploits of Trajan were against the Dacians, the most warlike of men, who dwelt beyond the Danube, and who, during the reign of Domitian, had insulted with impunity the Majesty of Rome ¹⁴. To the strength and fierceness of bar­barians, they added a contempt for life, which was derived from a warm persuasion of the im­mortality and transmigration of the soul ¹⁵. De­cebalus, the Dacian King, approved himself a rival not unworthy of Trajan; nor did he de­spair of his own and the public fortune, till, by the confession of his enemies, he had exhausted every resource both of valour and policy ¹⁶. This [Page 9] memorable war, with a very short suspension of hostilities, lasted five years; and as the emperor could exert, without controul, the whole force of the state, it was terminated by an absolute submission of the barbarians ¹⁷. The new pro­vince of Dacia, which formed a second exception to the precept of Augustus, was about thirteen hundred miles in circumference. Its natural boundaries were the Niester, the Teyss, or Tibis­cus, the Lower Danube, and the Euxine Sea. The vestiges of a military road may still be traced from the banks of the Danube to the neigh­bourhood of Bender, a place famous in modern history, and the actual frontier of the Turkish and Russian empires ¹⁸.

Trajan was ambitious of fame; and as long as Conquests of Trajan in the east, mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their bene­factors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters. The praises of Alexander, transmitted by a succession of poets and historians, had kindled a dangerous emulation in the mind of Trajan. Like him the Roman emperor undertook an expedition against the nations of the east, but he lamented with a sigh, that his advanced age scarcely left him any hopes of equalling the renown of the son of Phi­lip ¹⁹. Yet the success of Trajan, however tran­sient, [Page 10] was rapid and specious. The degenerate Parthians, broken by intestine discord, fled be­fore his arms. He descended the river Tigris in triumph, from the mountains of Armenia to the Persian gulph. He enjoyed the honour of being the first, as he was the last, of the Roman generals, who ever navigated that remote sea. His fleets ravaged the coasts of Arabia; and Trajan vainly flattered himself that he was ap­proaching towards the confines of India ²⁰. Every day the astonished senate received the intelligence of new names and new nations, that acknow­ledged his sway. They were informed that the kings of Bosphorus, Colchos, Iberia, Albania, Osrhoene, and even the Parthian monarch him­self, had accepted their diadems from the hands of the emperor; that the independent tribes of the Median and Carduchian hills had implored his protection; and that the rich countries of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, were reduced into the state of provinces ²¹. But the death of Trajan soon clouded the splendid prospect; and it was justly to be dreaded, that so many distant nations would throw off the unaccustom­ed yoke, when they were no longer restrained by the powerful hand which had imposed it.

It was an ancient tradition, that when the Ca­pitol Resigned by his suc­cessor A­drian. was founded by one of the Roman kings, the god Terminus (who presided over bounda­ries, [Page 11] and was represented according to the fashion of that age by a large stone) alone, among all the inferior deities, refused to yield his place to Jupiter himself. A favourable inference was drawn from his obstinacy, which was interpret­ed by the augurs, as a sure presage that the boundaries of the Roman power would never recede ²². During many ages, the prediction, as it is usual, contributed to its own accomplish­ment. But though Terminus had resisted the majesty of Jupiter, he submitted to the autho­rity of the emperor Hadrian ²³. The resignation of all the eastern conquests of Trajan was the first measure of his reign. He restored to the Par­thians the election of an independent Sovereign, withdrew the Roman garrisons from the pro­vinces of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, and, in compliance with the precept of Augustus, once more established the Euphrates as the fron­tier of the empire ²⁴. Censure, which arraigns the public actions and the private motives of princes, has ascribed to envy, a conduct, which might be attributed to the prudence and moderation of Hadrian. The various character of that emperor, capable, by turns, of the meanest and the most generous sentiments, may afford some colour to [Page 12] the suspicion. It was, however, scarcely in his power to place the superiority of his predecessor in a more conspicuous light, than by thus con­fessing himself unequal to the task of defending the conquests of Trajan.

The martial and ambitious spirit of Trajan, Contrast of Hadrian and Anto­ninus Pi­us. formed a very singular contrast with the modera­tion of his successor. The restless activity of Hadrian was not less remarkable, when compa­red with the gentle repose of Antoninus Pius. The life of the former was almost a perpetual journey; and as he possessed the various talents of the soldier, the statesman, and the scholar, he gratified his curiosity in the discharge of his duty. Careless of the difference of seasons and of cli­mates, he marched on foot, and bare-headed, over the snows of Caledonia, and the sultry plains of the Upper Egypt; nor was there a province of the empire, which, in the course of his reign, was not honoured with the presence of the mo­narch ²⁵. But the tranquil life of Antoninus Pius was spent in the bosom of Italy; and, during the twenty-three years that he directed the public administration, the longest journies of that ami­able prince extended no farther than from his palace in Rome, to the retirement of his Lanu­vian Villa ²⁶.

Notwithstanding this difference in their per­sonal Pacific sys­tem of Hadrian and the two Anto­nines. conduct, the general system of Augustus [Page 13] was equally adopted and uniformly pursued by Hadrian and by the two Antonines. They per­sisted in the design of maintaining the dignity of the empire, without attempting to enlarge its limits. By every honourable expedient they in­vited the friendship of the barbarians; and en­deavoured to convince mankind, that the Roman power, raised above the temptation of conquest, was actuated only by the love of order and jus­tice. During a long period of forty-three years their virtuous labours were crowned with success; and if we except a few slight hostilities that serv­ed to exercise the legions of the frontier, the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius offer the fair prospect of universal peace ²⁷. The Roman name was revered among the most remote na­tions of the earth. The fiercest barbarians fre­quently submitted their differences to the arbi­tration of the emperor; and we are informed by a cotemporary historian, that he had seen am­bassadors who were refused the honour which they came to solicit, of being admitted into the rank of subjects ²⁸.

The terror of the Roman arms added weight Defensive wars of Marcus Antoni­nus. and dignity to the moderation of the emperors. [Page 14] They preserved peace by a constant preparation for war; and while justice regulated their con­duct, they announced to the nations on their con­fines, that they were as little disposed to endure, as to offer an injury. The military strength, which it had been sufficient for Hadrian and the elder Antoninus to display, was exerted against the Parthians and the Germans by the emperor Marcus. The hostilities of the barbarians pro­voked the resentment of that philosophic mo­narch, and, in the prosecution of a just defence, Marcus and his generals obtained many signal victories, both on the Euphrates, and on the Danube ²⁹. The military establishment of the Roman empire, which thus assured either its tranquillity or success, will now become the pro­per and important object of our attention.

In the purer ages of the commonwealth, the Military establish­ment of the Roman emperors. use of arms was reserved for those ranks of citi­zens who had a country to love, a property to defend, and some share in enacting those laws, which it was their interest, as well as duty, to maintain. But in proportion as the public free­dom was lost in extent of conquest, war was gra­dually improved into an art, and degraded into a trade ³⁰. The legions themselves, even at the [Page 15] time when they were recruited in the most dis­tant provinces, were supposed to consist of Ro­man citizens. That distinction was generally considered, either as a legal qualification, or as a proper recompence for the soldier; but a more serious regard was paid to the essential merit of age, strength, and military stature ³¹. In all le­vies, a just preference was given to the climates of the North over those of the South: the race of men born to the exercise of arms, was sought for in the country rather than in cities; and it was very reasonably presumed, that the hardy oc­cupations of smiths, carpenters, and huntsmen, would supply more vigour and resolution, than the sedentary trades which are employed in the service of luxury ³². After every qualification of property had been laid aside, the armies of the Roman emperors were still commanded, for the most part, by officers of a liberal birth and edu­cation; but the common soldiers, like the mer­cenary troops of modern Europe, were drawn from the meanest, and very frequently from the most profligate, of mankind.

That public virtue which among the ancients Discipline. was denominated patriotism, is derived from a strong sense of our own interest in the preserva­tion and prosperity of the free government of [Page 16] which we are members. Such a sentiment, which had rendered the legions of the republic almost invincible, could make but a very feeble impression on the mercenary servants of a de­spotic prince; and it became necessary to supply that defect by other motives, of a different, but not less forcible nature; honour and religion. The peasant, or mechanic, imbibed the useful prejudice that he was advanced to the more dig­nified profession of arms, in which his rank and reputation would depend on his own valour: and that, although the prowess of a private sol­dier must often escape the notice of fame, his own behaviour might sometimes confer glory or disgrace on the company, the legion, or even the army, to whose honours he was associated. On his first entrance into the service, an oath was administered to him, with every circumstance of solemnity. He promised never to desert his stan­dard, to submit his own will to the commands of his leaders, and to sacrifice his life for the safety of the emperor and the empire ³³. The attachment of the Roman troops to their stan­dards, was inspired by the united influence of religion and of honour. The golden eagle, which glittered in the front of the legion, was the object of their fondest devotion; nor was it esteemed less impious, than it was ignominious, to abandon that sacred ensign in the hour of dan­ger ³⁴. These motives, which derived their [Page 17] strength from the imagination, were enforced by fears and hopes of a more substantial kind. Regular pay, occasional donatives, and a stated recompence, after the appointed time of service, alleviated the hardships of the military life ³⁵, whilst, on the other hand, it was impossible for cowardice or disobedience to escape the severest punishment. The centurions were authorized to chastise with blows, the generals had a right to punish with death; and it was an inflexible maxim of Roman discipline, that a good soldier should dread his officers far more than the ene­my. From such laudable arts did the valour of the Imperial troops receive a degree of firm­ness and docility, unattainable by the impetuous and irregular passions of barbarians.

And yet so sensible were the Romans of the Exercises. imperfection of valour without skill and practice, that, in their language, the name of an army was borrowed from the word which signified ex­ercise ³⁶. Military exercises were the important [Page 18] and unremitted object of their discipline. The recruits and young soldiers were constantly train­ed both in the morning and in the evening, nor was age or knowledge allowed to excuse the ve­terans from the daily repetition of what they had completely learnt. Large sheds were erected in the winter-quarters of the troops, that their use­ful labours might not receive any interruption from the most tempestuous weather; and it was carefully observed, that the arms destined to this imitation of war, should be of double the weight which was required in real action ³⁷. It is not the purpose of this work to enter into any minute description of the Roman exercises. We shall only remark, that they comprehended whatever could add strength to the body, activity to the limbs, or grace to the motions. The soldiers were diligently instructed to march, to run, to leap, to swim, to carry heavy burdens, to handle every species of arms that was used either for offence or for defence, either in distant engage­ment or in a closer onset; to form a variety of evolutions; and to move to the sound of flutes, in the Pyrrhic or martial dance ³⁸. In the midst of peace, the Roman troops familiarised them­selves with the practice of war; and it is prettily remarked by an ancient historian who had fought against them, that the effusion of blood was the [Page 19] only circumstance which distinguished a field of battle from a field of exercise ³⁹. It was the po­licy of the ablest generals, and even of the em­perors themselves, to encourage these military studies by their presence and example; and we are informed that Hadrian, as well as Trajan, frequently condescended to instruct the unex­perienced soldiers, to reward the diligent, and sometimes to dispute with them the prize of su­perior strength or dexterity ⁴⁰. Under the reigns of those princes, the science of tactics was cul­tivated with success; and as long as the empire retained any vigour, their military instructions were respected as the most perfect model of Ro­man discipline.

Nine centuries of war had gradually introdu­ced The legi­ons under the empe­rors. into the service many alterations and im­provements. The legions, as they are described by Polybius ⁴¹, in the time of the Punic wars, differed very materially from those which at­chieved the victories of Caesar, or defended the monarchy of Hadrian and the Antonines. The constitution of the Imperial legion may be de­scribed in a few words ⁴². The heavy-armed in­fantry, [Page 20] which composed its principal strength ⁴³, was divided into ten cohorts, and fifty-five com­panies, under the orders of a correspondent num­ber of tribunes and centurions. The first co­hort, which always claimed the post of honour and the custody of the eagle, was formed of eleven hundred and five soldiers, the most ap­proved for valour and fidelity. The remaining nine cohorts consisted each of five hundred and fifty-five; and the whole body of legionary in­fantry amounted to six thousand one hundred men. Their arms were uniform, and admirably Arms. adapted to the nature of their service: an open helmet, with a lofty crest; a breast-plate, or coat of mail; greaves on their legs, and an ample buckler on their left arm. The buckler was of an oblong and concave figure, four feet in length, and two and an half in breadth, framed of a light wood, covered with a bull's hide, and strongly guarded with plates of brass. Besides a lighter spear, the legionary soldier grasped in his right hand the formidable pilum, a ponderous javelin, whose utmost length was about six feet, and which was terminated by a massy triangular point of steel of eighteen inches ⁴⁴. This instrument was indeed much inferior to our modern fire­arms; [Page 21] since it was exhausted by a single dis­charge, at the distance of only ten or twelve paces. Yet when it was launched by a firm and skilful hand, there was not any cavalry that durst venture within its reach, nor any shield or corslet that could sustain the impetuosity of its weight. As soon as the Roman had darted his pilum, he drew his sword, and rushed forwards to close with the enemy. His sword was a short well­tempered Spanish blade, that carried a double edge, and was alike suited to the purpose of strik­ing or of pushing; but the soldier was always instructed to prefer the latter use of his weapon, as his own body remained less exposed, whilst he inflicted a more dangerous wound on his ad­versary ⁴⁵. The legion was usually drawn up eight deep; and the regular distance of three feet was left between the files as well as ranks ⁴⁶. A body of troops, habituated to preserve this open order, in a long front and a rapid charge, found themselves prepared to execute every dis­position which the circumstances of war, or the skill of their leader, might suggest. The sol­dier possessed a free space for his arms and mo­tions, and sufficient intervals were allowed, through which seasonable reinforcements might be introduced to the relief of the exhausted com­batants ⁴⁷. The tactics of the Greeks and Ma­cedonians [Page 22] were formed on very different prin­ciples. The strength of the phalanx depended on sixteen ranks of long pikes, wedged together in the closest array ⁴⁸. But it was soon discover­ed by reflection, as well as by the event, that the strength of the phalanx was unable to contend with the activity of the legion ⁴⁹.

The cavalry, without which the force of the Cavalry. legion would have remained imperfect, was di­vided into ten troops or squadrons; the first, as the companion of the first cohort, consisted of an hundred and thirty-two men; whilst each of the other nine amounted only to sixty-six. The entire establishment formed a regiment, if we may use the modern expression, of seven hundred and twenty-six horse, naturally connected with its respective legion, but occasionally separated to act in the line, and to compose a part of the wings of the army ⁵⁰. The cavalry of the em­perors was no longer composed, like that of the ancient republic, of the noblest youths of Rome and Italy, who, by performing their military ser­vice on horseback, prepared themselves for the offices of senator and consul; and solicited, by deeds of valour, the future suffrages of their countrymen ⁵¹. Since the alteration of manners [Page 23] and government, the most wealthy of the eques­trian order were engaged in the administration of justice, and of the revenue ⁵²; and whenever they embraced the profession of arms, they were immediately intrusted with a troop of horse, or a cohort of foot ⁵³. Trajan and Hadrian formed their cavalry from the same provinces, and the same class of their subjects, which recruited the ranks of the legion. The horses were bred, for the most part, in Spain or Cappadocia. The Roman troopers despised the complete armour with which the cavalry of the East was encum­bered. Their more useful arms consisted in a hel­met, an oblong shield, light boots, and a coat of mail. A javelin, and a long broad sword, were their principal weapons of offence. The use of lances and of iron maces they seem to have borrowed from the barbarians ⁵⁴.

The safety and honour of the empire was prin­cipally Auxilia­ries. intrusted to the legions, but the policy of Rome condescended to adopt every useful instru­ment of war. Considerable levies were regularly made among the provincials, who had not yet deserved the honourable distinction of Romans, Many dependant princes and communities, dis­persed round the frontiers, were permitted, for a while, to hold their freedom and security by the [Page 24] tenure of military service ⁵⁵. Even select troops of hostile barbarians were frequently compelled or persuaded to consume their dangerous valour in remote climates, and for the benefit of the state ⁵⁶. All these were included under the ge­neral name of auxiliaries; and howsoever they might vary according to the difference of times and circumstances, their numbers were seldom much inferior to those of the legions them­selves ⁵⁷. Among the auxiliaries, the bravest and most faithful bands were placed under the com­mand of praefects and centurions, and severely trained in the arts of Roman discipline; but the far greater part retained those arms, to which the nature of their country, or their early habits of life, more peculiarly adapted them. By this in­stitution each legion, to whom a certain propor­tion of auxiliaries was allotted, contained within itself every species of lighter troops, and of mis­sile weapons; and was capable of encountering every nation, with the advantages of its respec­tive arms and discipline ⁵⁸. Nor was the legion Artillery. destitute of what, in modern language, would be styled a train of artillery. It consisted in ten military engines of the largest, and fifty-five of [Page 25] a smaller size; but all of which, either in an oblique or horizontal manner, discharged stones and darts with irresistible violence ⁵⁹.

The camp of a Roman legion presented the Encamp­ment. appearance of a fortified city ⁶⁰. As soon as the space was marked out, the pioneers carefully le­velled the ground, and removed every impedi­ment that might interrupt its perfect regularity. Its form was an exact quadrangle; and we may calculate, that a square of about seven hundred yards was sufficient for the encampment of twen­ty thousand Romans; though a similar number of our own troops would expose to the enemy a front of more than treble that extent. In the midst of the camp, the praetorium, or general's quarters, rose above the others; the cavalry, the infantry, and the auxiliaries occupied their re­spective stations; the streets were broad, and per­fectly straight, and a vacant space of two hundred feet was left on all sides, between the tents and the rampart. The rampart itself was usually twelve feet high, armed with a line of strong and [Page 26] intricate palisades, and defended by a ditch of twelve feet in depth as well as in breadth. This important labour was performed by the hands of the legionaries themselves; to whom the use of the spade and the pick-axe was no less familiar than that of the sword or pilum. Active valour may often be the present of nature; but such pa­tient diligence can be the fruit only of habit and discipline ⁶¹.

Whenever the trumpet gave the signal of de­parture, March. the camp was almost instantly broke up, and the troops fell into their ranks without delay or confusion. Besides their arms, which the le­gionaries scarcely considered as an encumbrance, they were laden with their kitchen furniture, the instruments of fortification, and the provision of many days ⁶². Under this weight, which would oppress the delicacy of a modern soldier, they were trained by a regular step to advance, in about six hours, near twenty miles ⁶³. On the appearance of an enemy, they threw aside their baggage, and by easy and rapid evolutions con­verted the column of march into an order of bat­tle ⁶⁴. The slingers and archers skirmished in the front; the auxiliaries formed the first line, and were seconded or sustained by the strength of the [Page 27] legions: the cavalry covered the flanks, and the military engines were placed in the rear.

Such were the arts of war, by which the Ro­man Number and dis­position of the legi­ons. emperors defended their extensive conquests, and preserved a military spirit, at a time when every other virtue was oppressed by luxury and despotism. If, in the consideration of their ar­mies, we pass from their discipline to their num­bers, we shall not find it easy to define them with any tolerable accuracy. We may compute, how­ever, that the legion, which was itself a body of six thousand eight hundred and thirty-one Romans, might, with its attendant auxiliaries, amount to about twelve thousand five hundred men. The peace establishment of Hadrian and his successors was composed of no less than thirty of these for­midable brigades; and most probably formed a standing force of three hundred and seventy-five thousand men. Instead of being confined within the walls of fortified cities, which the Romans considered as the refuge of weakness or pusillani­mity, the legions were encamped on the banks of the great rivers, and along the frontiers of the barbarians. As their stations, for the most part, remained fixed and permanent, we may venture to describe the distribution of the troops. Three legions were sufficient for Britain. The principal strength lay upon the Rhine and Danube, and consisted of sixteen legions, in the following pro­portions: two in the Lower, and three in the Upper Germany; one in Rhaetia, one in Nori­cum, four in Pannonia, three in Maesia, and two in Dacia. The defence of the Euphrates was [Page 28] entrusted to eight legions, six of whom were planted in Syria, and the other two in Cappa­docia. With regard to Egypt, Africa, and Spain, as they were far removed from any im­portant scene of war, a single legion maintained the domestic tranquillity of each of those great provinces. Even Italy was not left destitute of a military force. Above twenty thousand chosen soldiers, distinguished by the titles of City Co­horts and Praetorian Guards, watched over the safety of the monarch and the capital. As the authors of almost every revolution that distracted the empire, the Praetorians will, very soon, and very loudly, demand our attention; but in their arms and institutions, we cannot find any circum­stance which discriminated them from the legions, unless it were a more splendid appearance, and a less rigid discipline ⁶⁵.

The navy maintained by the emperors might seem inadequate to their greatness; but it was Navy. fully sufficient for every useful purpose of govern­ment. The ambition of the Romans was con­fined to the land; nor was that warlike people ever actuated by the enterprising spirit which had prompted the navigators of Tyre, of Carthage, and even of Marseilles, to enlarge the bounds of the world, and to explore the most remote coasts of the ocean. To the Romans the ocean remain­ed [Page 29] an object of terror rather than of curiosity ⁶⁶; the whole extent of the Mediterranean, after the destruction of Carthage, and the extirpation of the pirates, was included within their provinces. The policy of the emperors was directed only to preserve the peaceful dominion of that sea, and to protect the commerce of their subjects. With these moderate views, Augustus stationed two permanent fleets in the most convenient ports of Italy, the one at Ravenna, on the Adriatic, the other at Misenum, in the bay of Naples. Ex­perience seems at length to have convinced the ancients, that as soon as their gallies exceeded two, or at the most three ranks of oars, they were suited rather for vain pomp than for real service. Augustus himself, in the victory of Actium, had seen the superiority of his own light frigates (they were called Liburnians) over the lofty but un­wieldy castles of his rival ⁶⁷. Of these Libur­nians he composed the two fleets of Ravenna and Misenum, destined to command, the one the eas­tern, the other the western division of the Medi­terranean; and to each of the squadrons he at­tached a body of several thousand marines. Be­sides these two ports, which may be considered as the principal seats of the Roman navy, a very considerable force was stationed at Frejus, on the coast of Provence, and the Euxine was guarded [Page 30] by forty ships, and three thousand soldiers. To all these we add the fleet which preserved the communication between Gaul and Britain, and a great number of vessels constantly maintained on the Rhine and Danube, to harass the country, or to intercept the passage of the barbarians ⁶⁸. If we review this general state of the Imperial forces; of the cavalry as well as infantry; of the legions, the auxiliaries, the guards, and the navy; the most liberal computation will not allow us to fix the entire establishment by sea and by land at more than four hundred and fifty thousand Amount of the whole esta­blishment. men: a military power, which, however formi­dable it may seem, was equalled by a monarch of the last century, whose kingdom was confined within a single province of the Roman empire ⁶⁹.

We have attempted to explain the spirit which View of the pro­vinces of the Ro­man em­pire. moderated, and the strength which supported, the power of Hadrian and the Antonines. We shall now endeavour, with clearness and preci­sion, to describe the provinces once united un­der their sway, but, at present, divided into so many independent and hostile states.

Spain, the western extremity of the empire, Spain. of Europe, and of the ancient world, has, in every age, invariably preserved the same natural limits; the Pyrenaean mountains, the Mediter­ranean, and the Atlantic Ocean. That great peninsula, at present so unequally divided be­tween [Page 31] two sovereigns, was distributed by Au­gustus into three provinces, Lusitania, Baetica, and Tarraconensis. The kingdom of Portugal now fills the place of the warlike country of the Lusitanians; and the loss sustained by the for­mer, on the side of the East, is compensated by an accession of territory towards the North. The confines of Grenada and Andalusia correspond with those of ancient Baetica. The remainder of Spain, Gallicia and the Asturias, Biscay and Navarre, Leon and the two Castilles, Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia, and Arragon, all contri­buted to form the third and most considerable of the Roman governments, which, from the name of its capital, was styled the province of Tar­ragona ⁷⁰. Of the native barbarians, the Celti­berians were the most powerful, as the Canta­brians and Asturians proved the most obstinate. Confident in the strength of their mountains, they were the last who submitted to the arms of Rome, and the first who threw off the yoke of the Arabs.

Ancient Gaul, as it contained the whole coun­try Gaul. between the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Rhine, and the Ocean, was of greater extent than mo­dern France. To the dominions of that power­ful monarchy, with its recent acquisitions of Al­sace and Lorraine, we must add the dutchy of [Page 32] Savoy, the cantons of Switzerland, the four elec­torates of the Rhine, and the territories of Liege, Luxemburgh, Hainault, Flanders, and Brabant. When Augustus gave laws to the conquests of his father, he introduced a division of Gaul equally adapted to the progress of the legions, to the course of the rivers, and to the principal national distinctions, which had comprehended above an hundred independent states ⁷¹. The sea-coast of the Mediterranean, Languedoc, Pro­vence, and Dauphiné, received their provincial appellation from the colony of Narbonne. The government of Aquitaine was extended from the Pyrenees to the Loire. The country between the Loire and the Seine was styled the Celtic Gaul, and soon borrowed a new denomination from the celebrated colony of Lugdunum, or Lyons. The Belgic lay beyond the Seine, and in more ancient times had been bounded only by the Rhine; but a little before the age of Cae­sar, the Germans, abusing their superiority of valour, had occupied a considerable portion of the Belgic territory. The Roman conquerors very eagerly embraced so flattering a circum­stance, and the Gallic frontier of the Rhine, from Basil to Leyden, received the pompous names of the Upper and the Lower Germany ⁷². Such, under the reign of the Antonines, were the six [Page 33] provinces of Gaul; the Narbonnese, Aquitaine, the Celtic, or Lyonnese, the Belgic, and the two Germanies.

We have already had occasion to mention the Britain. conquest of Britain, and to fix the boundary of the Roman province in this island. It compre­hended all England, Wáles, and the Lowlands of Scotland, as far as the Friths of Dunbarton and Edinburgh. Before Britain lost her freedom, the country was irregularly divided between thirty tribes of barbarians, of whom the most consider­able were the Belgae in the West, the Brigantes in the North, the Silures in South Wales, and the Iceni in Norfolk and Suffolk ⁷³. As far as we can either trace or credit the resemblance of manners and language, Spain, Gaul, and Britain were peopled by the same hardy race of savages. Before they yielded to the Roman arms, they often disputed the field, and often renewed the contest. After their submission they constituted the western division of the European provinces, which extended from the columns of Hercules to the wall of Antoninus, and from the mouth of the Tagus to the sources of the Rhine and Da­nube.

Before the Roman conquest, the country which Italy. is now called Lombardy, was not considered as a part of Italy. It had been occupied by a pow­erful colony of Gauls, who settling themselves along the banks of the Po, from Piedmont to Romagna, carried their arms and diffused their name from the Alps to the Apennine. The [Page 34] Ligurians dwelt on the rocky coast, which now forms the republic of Genoa. Venice was yet unborn; but the territories of that state, which lie to the east of the Adige, were inhabited by the Venetians ⁷⁴. The middle part of the pen­insula that now composes the dutchy of Tuscany and the ecclesiastical state, was the ancient seat of the Etruscans and Umbrians; to the former of whom Italy was indebted for the first rudi­ments of civilized life ⁷⁵. The Tyber rolled at the foot of the seven hills of Rome, and the country of the Sabines, the Latins, and the Vol­sci, from that river to the frontiers of Naples, was the theatre of her infant victories. On that celebrated ground the first consuls deserved tri­umphs; their successors adorned villas, and their posterity have erected convents ⁷⁶. Capua and Campania possessed the immediate territory of Naples; the rest of the kingdom was inhabited by many warlike nations, the Marsi, the Sam­nites, the Apulians, and the Lucanians; and the sea-coasts had been covered by the flourishing colonies of the Greeks. We may remark, that when Augustus divided Italy into eleven regions, the little province of Istria was annexed to that seat of Roman sovereignty ⁷⁷.

[Page 35] The European provinces of Rome were pro­tected by the course of the Rhine and the Da­nube. The latter of those mighty streams, The Da­nube and Illyrian frontier. which rises at the distance of only thirty miles from the former, flows above thirteen hundred miles, for the most part, to the south-east, col­lects the tribute of sixty navigable rivers, and is, at length, through six mouths, received into the Euxine, which appears scarcely equal to such an accession of waters ⁷⁸. The provinces of the Danube soon acquired the general appellation of Illyricum, or the Illyrian frontier ⁷⁹, and were esteemed the most warlike of the empire; but they deserve to be more particularly considered under the names of Rhaetia, Noricum, Pannonia, Dalmatia, Dacia, Maesia, Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece.

The province of Rhaetia, which soon extin­guished Rhaetia. the name of the Vindelicians, extended from the summit of the Alps to the banks of the Danube; from its source, as far as its conflux with the Inn. The greatest part of the flat country is subject to the elector of Bavaria; the city of Augsburg is protected by the constitution of the German empire; the Grisons are safe in their mountains, and the country of Tirol is ranked among the numerous provinces of the house of Austria.

[Page 36] The wide extent of territory, which is includ­ed between the Inn, the Danube, and the Save; Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, the Lower Noricum and Pan­nonia. Hungary and Sclavonia, was known to the an­cients under the names of Noricum and Panno­nia. In their original state of independence, their fierce inhabitants were intimately connect­ed. Under the Roman government they were frequently united, and they still remain the pa­trimony of a single family. They now contain the residence of a German prince, who stiles him­self Emperor of the Romans, and form the cen­ter, as well as strength, of the Austrian power. It may not be improper to observe, that if we except Bohemia, Moravia, the northern skirts of Austria, and a part of Hungary, between the Teyss and the Danube, all the other dominions of the House of Austria were comprised within the limits of the Roman empire.

Dalmatia, to which the name of Illyricum Dalmatia. more properly belonged, was a long, but narrow tract, between the Save and the Adriatic. The best part of the sea-coast, which still retains its ancient appellation, is a province of the Vene­tian state, and the seat of the little republic of Ragusa. The inland parts have assumed the Sclavonian names of Croatia and Bosnia; the for­mer obeys an Austrian governor, the latter a Turkish pasha; but the whole country is still in­fested by tribes of barbarians, whose savage in­dependence irregularly marks the doubtful limit of the Christian and Mahometan power ⁸⁰.

[Page 37] After the Danube had received the waters of the Teyss and the Save, it acquired, at least, among the Greeks, the name of Ister ⁸¹. It for­merly Maesia and Dacia. divided Maesia and Dacia, the latter of which, as we have already seen, was a conquest of Trajan, and the only province beyond the river. If we inquire into the present state of those countries, we shall find that, on the left hand of the Danube, Temeswar and Transylvania have been annexed, after many revolutions, to the crown of Hungary; whilst the principalities of Moldavia and Walachia acknowledge the su­premacy of the Ottoman Porte. On the right hand of the Danube, Maesia, which, during the middle ages, was broken into the barbarian kingdoms of Servia and Bulgaria, is again united in Turkish slavery.

The appellation of Roumelia, which is still Thrace, Macedo­nia, and Greece. bestowed by the Turks on the extensive countries of Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece, preserves the memory of their ancient state under the Roman empire. In the time of the Antonines, the mar­tial regions of Thrace, from the mountains of Haemus and Rhodope, to the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, had assumed the form of a province. Notwithstanding the change of masters and of religion, the new city of Rome, founded by Constantine on the banks of the Bosphorus, has ever since remained the capital of a great mo­narchy. The kingdom of Macedonia, which, [Page 38] under the reign of Alexander, gave laws to Asia, derived more solid advantages from the policy of the two Philips; and with its dependencies of Epirus and Thessaly, extended from the Aegean to the Ionian sea. When we reflect on the fame of Thebes and Argos, of Sparta and Athens, we can scarcely persuade ourselves, that so many immortal republics of antient Greece were lost in a single province of the Roman empire, which, from the superior influence of the Achaean league, was usually denominated the province of Achaia.

Such was the state of Europe under the Roman Asia Mi­nor. emperors. The provinces of Asia, without ex­cepting the transient conquests of Trajan, are all comprehended within the limits of the Turkish power. But, instead of following the arbitrary divisions of despotism and ignorance, it will be safer for us, as well as more agreeable, to observe the indelible characters of nature. The name of Asia Minor is attributed with some propriety to the peninsula, which, confined between the Eux­ine and the Mediterranean, advances from the Euphrates towards Europe. The most extensive and flourishing district, westward of mount Tau­rus and the river Halys, was dignified by the Romans with the exclusive title of Asia. The jurisdiction of that province extended over the ancient monarchies of Troy, Lydia, and Phrygia, the maritime countries of the Pamphylians, Ly­cians, and Carians, and the Grecian colonies of Ionia, which equalled in arts, though not in arms, the glory of their parent. The kingdoms of Bithynia and Pontus possessed the northern side [Page 39] of the peninsula from Constantinople to Trebi­zond. On the opposite side, the province of Cilicia was terminated by the mountains of Syria: the inland country, separated from the Roman Asia by the river Halys, and from Armenia by the Euphrates, had once formed the independent kingdom of Cappadocia. In this place we may observe, that the northern shores of the Euxine, beyond Trebizond in Asia, and beyond the Da­nube in Europe, acknowledged the sovereignty of the emperors, and received at their hands, either tributary princes or Roman garrisons. Budzak, Crim Tartary, Circassia, and Mingrelia, are the modern appellations of those savage coun­tries ⁸².

Under the successors of Alexander, Syria was Syria, Phoenicia, and Pales­tine. the seat of the Seleucidae, who reigned over Up­per Asia, till the successful revolt of the Par­thians confined their dominions between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. When Syria became subject to the Romans, it formed the eastern frontier of their empire; nor did that province, in its utmost latitude, know any other bounds than the mountains of Cappadocia to the north, and towards the south, the confines of Egypt, and the Red Sea. Phoenicia and Pales­tine were sometimes annexed to, and sometimes separated from, the jurisdiction of Syria. The former of these was a narrow and rocky coast; the latter was a territory scarcely superior to [Page 40] Wales, either in fertility or extent. Yet Phoe­nicia and Palestine will for ever live in the me­mory of mankind; since America, as well as Europe, has received letters from the one, and religion from the other ⁸³. A sandy desert alike destitute of wood and water skirts along the doubtful confine of Syria, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. The wandering life of the Arabs was inseparably connected with their independ­ence; and wherever, on some spots less barren than the rest, they ventured to form any settled habitations, they soon became subjects to the Roman empire ⁸⁴.

The geographers of antiquity have frequently Egypt. hesitated to what portion of the globe they should ascribe Egypt ⁸⁵. By its situation that celebrated kingdom is included within the immense pen­insula of Africa; but it is accessible only on the side of Asia, whose revolutions, in almost every period of history, Egypt has humbly obeyed. A Roman praefect was seated on the splendid throne of the Ptolemies; and the iron sceptre of the [Page 41] Mamalukes is now in the hands of a Turkish pasha. The Nile flows down the country, above five hundred miles from the tropic of Cancer to the Mediterranean, and marks, on either side, the extent of fertility by the measure of its inunda­tions, Cyrene, situate towards the west, and along the sea-coast, was first a Greek colony, afterwards a province of Egypt, and is now lost in the desert of Barca.

From Cyrene to the ocean, the coast of Africa Africa. extends above fifteen hundred miles; yet so closely is it pressed between the Mediterranean and the Sahara, or sandy desert, that its breadth seldom exceeds fourscore or an hundred miles. The eastern division was considered by the Ro­mans as the more peculiar and proper province of Africa. Till the arrival of the Phoenician colonies, that fertile country was inhabited by the Libyans, the most savage of mankind. Un­der the immediate jurisdiction of Carthage, it became the center of commerce and empire; but the republic of Carthage is now degenerated into the feeble and disorderly states of Tripoli and Tunis. The military government of Algiers oppresses the wide extent of Numidia, as it was once united under Massinissa and Jugurtha: but in the time of Augustus, the limits of Numidia were contracted; and, at least, two thirds of the country acquiesced in the name of Mauritania, with the epithet of Caesariensis. The genu­ine Mauritania, or country of the Moors, which, from the ancient city of Tingi, or Tan­gier, [Page 42] was distinguished by the appellation of Tingitana, is represented by the modern king­dom of Fez. Sallè, on the Ocean, so infamous at present for its piratical depredations, was no­ticed by the Romans, as the extreme object of their power, and almost of their geography. A city of their foundation may still be discovered near Mequinez, the residence of the barbarian whom we condescend to style the Emperor of Morocco; but it does not appear, that his more southern dominions, Morocco itself, and Segel­messa, were ever comprehended within the Ro­man province. The western parts of Africa are intersected by the branches of mount Atlas, a name so idly celebrated by the fancy of poets ⁸⁶; but which is now diffused over the immense ocean that rolls between the ancient and the new continent ⁸⁷.

Having now finished the circuit of the Roman empire, we may observe, that Africa is divided The Me­diterrane­an with its islands. from Spain by a narrow strait of about twelve miles, through which the Atlantic flows into the Mediterranean. The columns of Hercules, so famous among the ancients, were two mountains [Page 43] which seemed to have been torn asunder by some convulsion of the elements; and at the foot of the European mountain, the fortress of Gibral­tar is now seated. The whole extent of the Me­diterranean Sea, its coasts, and its islands, were comprised within the Roman dominion. Of the larger islands, the two Baleares, which derive their name of Majorca and Minorca from their respective size, are subject at present, the former to Spain, the latter to Great Britain. It is easier to deplore the fate, than to describe the actual condition of Corsica. Two Italian sovereigns assume a regal title from Sardinia and Sicily. Crete, or Candia, with Cyprus, and most of the smaller islands of Greece and Asia, have been subdued by the Turkish arms; whilst the little rock of Malta defies their power, and has emerg­ed, under the government of its military Order, into fame and opulence.

This long enumeration of provinces, whose General idea of the Roman empire. broken fragments have formed so many power­ful kingdoms, might almost induce us to forgive the vanity or ignorance of the ancients. Daz­zled with the extensive sway, the irresistible strength, and the real or affected moderation of the emperors, they permitted themselves to des­pise, and sometimes to forget, the outlying coun­tries which had been left in the enjoyment of a barbarous independence; and they gradually usurped the licence of confounding the Roman monarchy with the globe of the earth ⁸⁸ But the [Page 44] temper, as well as knowledge, of a modern historian, require a more sober and accurate language. He may impress a juster image of the greatness of Rome, by observing that the em­pire was above two thousand miles in breadth, from the wall of Antoninus and the northern limits of Dacia, to mount Atlas and the tropic of Cancer; that it extended, in length, more than three thousand miles from the Western Ocean to the Euphrates; that it was situated in the finest part of the Temperate Zone, between the twenty­fourth and fifty-sixth degrees of northern lati­tude; and that it was supposed to contain above sixteen hundred thousand square miles, for the most part of fertile and well cultivated land ⁸⁹.

IT is not alone by the rapidity, or extent of conquest, that we should estimate the great­ness of Rome. The sovereign of the Russian Principles of govern­ment. deserts commands a larger portion of the globe. In the seventh summer after his passage of the Hellespont, Alexander erected the Macedonian trophies on the banks of the Hyphasis ¹. Within less than a century, the irresistible Zingis, and the Mogul princes of his race, spread their cruel devastations and transient empire, from the sea of China, to the confines of Egypt and Germany ². But the firm edifice of Roman power was raised and preserved by the wisdom of ages. The obe­dient provinces of Trajan and the Antonines were united by laws, and adorned by arts. They might occasionally suffer from the partial abuse of delegated authority; but the general principle of government was wise, simple, and beneficent. They enjoyed the religion of their ancestors, whilst in civil honours and advantages they were exalted, by just degrees, to an equality with their conquerors.

[Page 46] I. The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned religion, was happily se­conded by the reflections of the enlightened, and Universal spirit of toleration. by the habits of the superstitious, part of their subjects. The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all con­sidered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the ma­gistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord.

The superstition of the people was not embit­tered Of the people. by any mixture of theological rancour; nor was it confined by the chains of any specula­tive system. The devout polytheist, though fondly attached to his national rites, admitted with implicit faith the different religions of the earth ³. Fear, gratitude, and curiosity, a dream or an omen, a singular disorder, or a distant journey, perpetually disposed him to multiply the articles of his belief, and to enlarge the list of his protectors. The thin texture of the Pa­gan mythology was interwoven with various, but not discordant materials. As soon as it was al­lowed that sages and heroes, who had lived, or [Page 47] who had died for the benefit of their country, were exalted to a state of power and immortality, it was universally confessed, that they deserved, if not the adoration, at least the reverence, of all mankind. The deities of a thousand groves and a thousand streams possessed, in peace, their local and respective influence; nor could the Roman who deprecated the wrath of the Tiber, deride the Egyptian who presented his offering to the beneficent genius of the Nile. The visi­ble powers of Nature, the planets, and the ele­ments, were the same throughout the universe. The invisible governors of the moral world were inevitably cast in a similar mould of fiction and allegory. Every virtue, and even vice, acquir­ed its divine representative; every art and pro­fession its patron, whose attributes, in the most distant ages and countries, were uniformly de­rived from the character of their peculiar vota­ries. A republic of gods of such opposite tem­pers and interest required, in every system, the moderating hand of a supreme magistrate, who, by the progress of knowledge and flattery, was gradually invested with the sublime perfections of an Eternal Parent, and an Omnipotent Monarch ⁴. Such was the mild spirit of antiquity, that the nations were less attentive to the difference, than to the resemblance, of their religious worship. The Greek, the Roman, and the Barbarian, as [Page 48] they met before their respective altars, easily per­suaded themselves, that under various names; and with various ceremonies, they adored the same deities. The elegant mythology of Homer gave a beautiful, and almost a regular form, to the polytheism of the ancient world ⁵.

The philosophers of Greece deduced their mo­rals Of philo­sophers. from the nature of man, rather than from that of God. They meditated, however, on the Divine Nature, as a very curious and important speculation; and in the profound inquiry, they displayed the strength and weakness of the human understanding ⁶. Of the four most celebrated schools, the Stoics and the Platonists endeavour­ed to reconcile the jarring interests of reason and piety. They have left us the most sublime proofs of the existence and perfections of the first cause; but, as it was impossible for them to conceive the creation of matter, the workman in the Stoic philosophy was not sufficiently distinguished from the work; whilst, on the contrary, the spiritual God of Plato and his disciples, resembled an idea, rather than a substance. The opinions of the Academics and Epicureans were of a less religi­ous cast; but whilst the modest science of the former induced them to doubt, the positive ig­norance [Page 49] of the latter urged them to deny, the providence of a Supreme Ruler. The spirit of inquiry, prompted by emulation, and supported by freedom, had divided the public teachers of philosophy into a variety of contending sects; but the ingenuous youth, who, from every part, re­sorted to Athens, and the other seats of learning in the Roman empire, were alike instructed in every school to reject and to despise the religion of the multitude. How, indeed, was it possible, that a philosopher should accept, as divine truths, the idle tales of the poets, and the incoherent traditions of antiquity; or, that he should adore, as gods, those imperfect beings whom he must have despised, as men! Against such unworthy adversaries, Cicero condescended to employ the arms of reason and eloquence; but the satire of Lucian was a much more adequate, as well as more efficacious weapon. We may be well as­sured, that a writer, conversant with the world, would never have ventured to expose the gods of his country to public ridicule, had they not already been the objects of secret contempt among the polished and enlightened orders of society ⁷.

Notwithstanding the fashionable irreligion which prevailed in the age of the Antonines, both the interests of the priests and the credulity of the people were sufficiently respected. In their writings and conversation, the philosophers of [Page 50] antiquity asserted the independent dignity of rea­son; but they resigned their actions to the com­mands of law and of custom. Viewing, with a smile of pity and indulgence, the various errors of the vulgar, they diligently practised the cere­monies of their fathers, devoutly frequented the temples of the gods; and sometimes condescend­ing to act a part on the theatre of superstition, they concealed the sentiments of an Atheist un­der the sacerdotal robes. Reasoners of such a temper were scarcely inclined to wrangle about their respective modes of faith, or of worship. It was indifferent to them what shape the folly of the multitude might chuse to assume; and they approached, with the same inward contempt, and the same external reverence, the altars of the Lybian, the Olympian, or the Capitoline Jupi­ter ⁸.

It is not easy to conceive from what motives a Of the ma­gistrate. spirit of persecution could introduce itself into the Roman councils. The magistrates could not be actuated by a blind, though honest bigotry, since the magistrates were themselves philoso­phers; and the schools of Athens had given laws to the senate. They could not be impelled by ambition or avarice, as the temporal and eccle­siastical powers were united in the same hands. The pontiffs were chosen among the most illus­trious of the senators; and the office of Supreme [Page 51] Pontiff was constantly exercised by the emperors themselves. They knew and valued the advan­tages of religion, as it is connected with civil go­vernment. They encouraged the public festivals which humanize the manners of the people. They managed the arts of divination, as a con­venient instrument of policy; and they respected as the firmest bond of society, the useful persua­sion, that, either in this or in a future life, the crime of perjury is most assuredly punished by the avenging gods ⁹. But whilst they acknow­ledged the general advantages of religion, they were convinced, that the various modes of wor­ship contributed alike to the same salutary pur­poses; and that, in every country, the form of superstition, which had received the sanction of time and experience, was the best adapted to the climate, and to its inhabitants. Avarice and In the pro­vinces; taste very frequently despoiled the vanquished nations of the elegant statues of their gods, and the rich ornaments of their temples ¹⁰: but, in the exercise of the religion which they derived from their ancestors, they uniformly experienced the indulgence, and even protection, of the Ro­man conquerors. The province of Gaul seems, and indeed only seems, an exception to this uni­versal toleration. Under the specious pretext of abolishing human sacrifices, the emperors Tibe­rius [Page 52] and Claudius suppressed the dangerous pow­er of the Druids ¹¹: but the priests themselves, their gods and their altars, subsisted in peaceful obscurity till the final destruction of Paganism ¹².

Rome, the capital of a great monarchy, was at Rome. incessantly filled with subjects and strangers from every part of the world ¹³, who all introduced and enjoyed the favourite superstitions of their native country ¹⁴. Every city in the empire was justified in maintaining the purity of its ancient ceremonies; and the Roman senate, using the common privilege, sometimes interposed, to check this inundation of foreign rites. The Egyp­tian superstition, of all the most contemptible and abject, was frequently prohibited; the tem­ples of Serapis and Isis demolished, and their worshippers banished from Rome and Italy ¹⁵. But the zeal of fanaticism prevailed over the cold and feeble efforts of policy. The exiles return­ed, the proselytes multiplied, the temples were restored with increasing splendor, and Isis and [Page 53] Serapis at length assumed their place among the Roman deities ¹⁶. Nor was this indulgence a departure from the old maxims of government. In the purest ages of the commonwealth, Cybele and Aesculapius had been invited by solemn em­bassies ¹⁷; and it was customary to tempt the protectors of besieged cities, by the promise of more distinguished honours than they possessed in their native country ¹⁸. Rome gradually became the common temple of her subjects; and the free­dom of the city was bestowed on all the gods of mankind ¹⁹.

II. The narrow policy of preserving, without Freedom of Rome. any foreign mixture, the pure blood of the an­cient citizens, had checked the fortune, and has­tened the ruin, of Athens and Sparta. The as­piring genius of Rome sacrificed vanity to am­bition, and deemed it more prudent, as well as honourable, to adopt virtue and merit for her own wheresoever they were found, among slaves or strangers, enemies or barbarians ²⁰. During the most flourishing aera of the Athenian com­monwealth, the number of citizens gradually de­creased from about thirty ²¹ to twenty-one thou­sand ²². [Page 54] If, on the contrary, we study the growth of the Roman republic, we may discover, that, notwithstanding the incessant demands of wars and colonies, the citizens, who, in the first cen­sus of Servius Tullius, amounted to no more than eighty-three thousand, were multiplied, before the commencement of the social war, to the number of four hundred and sixty-three thou­sand men, able to bear arms in the service of their country ²³. When the allies of Rome claim­ed an equal share of honours and privileges, the senate indeed preferred the chance of arms to an ignominious concession. The Samnites and the Lucanians paid the severe penalty of their rash­ness; but the rest of the Italian states, as they successively returned to their duty, were admit­ted into the bosom of the republic ²⁴, and soon contributed to the ruin of public freedom. Un­der a democratical government, the citizens ex­ercise the powers of sovereignty; and those pow­ers will be first abused, and afterwards lost, if they are committed to an unwieldy multitude. But when the popular assemblies had been sup­pressed by the administration of the emperors, the conquerors were distinguished from the vanquish­ed nations, only as the first and most honourable order of subjects; and their increase, however rapid, was no longer exposed to the same dangers. [Page 55] Yet the wisest princes, who adopted the maxims of Augustus, guarded with the strictest care the dignity of the Roman name, and diffused the freedom of the city with a prudent liberality ²⁵.

Till the privileges of Romans had been pro­gressively Italy. extended to all the inhabitants of the empire, an important distinction was preserved between Italy and the provinces. The former was esteemed the centre of public unity, and the firm basis of the constitution. Italy claimed the birth, or at least the residence, of the emperors and the senate ²⁶. The estates of the Italians were exempt from taxes, their persons from the arbitrary jurisdiction of governors. Their mu­nicipal corporations, formed after the perfect model of the capital, were intrusted, under the immediate eye of the supreme power, with the execution of the laws. From the foot of the Alps to the extremity of Calabria, all the natives of Italy were born citizens of Rome. Their partial distinctions were obliterated, and they in­sensibly coalesced into one great nation, united by language, manners, and civil institutions, and equal to the weight of a powerful empire. The republic gloried in her generous policy, and was frequently rewarded by the merit and services of [Page 56] her adopted sons. Had she always confined the distinction of Romans to the ancient families within the walls of the city, that immortal name would have been deprived of some of its noblest ornaments. Virgil was a native of Mantua; Ho­race was inclined to doubt whether he should call himself an Apulian or a Lucanian: it was in Padua that an historian was found worthy to re­cord the majestic series of Roman victories. The patriot family of the Catos emerged from Tus­culum; and the little town of Arpinum claimed the double honour of producing Marius and Ci­cero, the former of whom deserved, after Ro­mulus and Camillus, to be styled the Third Founder of Rome; and the latter, after saving his country from the designs of Catiline, enabled her to contend with Athens for the palm of elo­quence ²⁷.

The provinces of the empire (as they have The pro­vinces. been described in the preceding chapter) were destitute of any public force, or constitutional freedom. In Etruria, in Greece ²⁸, and in Gaul ²⁹, it was the first care of the senate to dissolve those dangerous consederacies, which taught mankind, that, as the Roman arms prevailed by division, [Page 57] they might be resisted by union. Those princes, whom the ostentation of gratitude or generosity permitted for a while to hold a precarious scep­tre, were dismissed from their thrones, as soon as they had performed their appointed task of fa­shioning to the yoke the vanquished nations. The free states and cities which had embraced the cause of Rome, were rewarded with a nomi­nal alliance, and insensibly sunk into real servi­tude. The public authority was every where exercised by the ministers of the senate and of the emperors, and that authority was absolute, and without control. But the same salutary maxims of government, which had secured the peace and obedience of Italy, were extended to the most distant conquests. A nation of Romans was gradually formed in the provinces, by the double expedient of introducing colonies, and of admitting the most faithful and deserving of the provincials to the freedom of Rome.

‘Wheresoever the Roman conquers, he in­habits,’ Colonies and muni­cipal towns. is a very just observation of Seneca ³⁰, confirmed by history and experience. The na­tives of Italy, allured by pleasure or by interest, hastened to enjoy the advantages of victory; and we may remark, that, about forty years after the reduction of Asia, eighty thousand Romans were massacred in one day, by the cruel orders of Mithridates ³¹. These voluntary exiles were en­gaged, [Page 58] for the most part, in the occupations of commerce, agriculture, and the farm of the re­venue. But after the legions were rendered per­manent by the emperors, the provinces were peopled by a race of soldiers; and the veterans, whether they received the reward of their service in land or in money, usually settled with their families in the country, where they had honour­ably spent their youth. Throughout the empire, but more particularly in the western parts, the most fertile districts, and the most convenient situations, were reserved for the establishment of colonies; some of which were of a civil, and others of a military nature. In their manners and internal policy, the colonies formed a per­fect representation of their great parent; and they were soon endeared to the natives by the ties of friendship and alliance, they effectually diffused a reverence for the Roman name, and a desire, which was seldom disappointed, of sharing, in due time, its honours and advantages ³². The municipal cities insensibly equalled the rank and splendour of the colonies; and in the reign of Hadrian, it was disputed which was the prefer­able condition, of those societies which had issu­ed from, or those which had been received into, the bosom of Rome ³³. The right of Latium, [Page 59] as it was called, conferred on the cities to which it had been granted, a more partial favour. The magistrates only, at the expiration of their office, assumed the quality of Roman citizens; but as those offices were annual, in a few years they cir­culated round the principal families ³⁴. Those of the provincials who were permitted to bear arms in the legions ³⁵; those who exercised any civil employment; all, in a word, who perform­ed any public service, or displayed any personal talents, were rewarded with a present, whose value was continually diminished by the increas­ing liberality of the emperors. Yet even, in the age of the Antonines, when the freedom of the city had been bestowed on the greater number of their subjects, it was still accompanied with very solid advantages. The bulk of the people acquired, with that title, the benefit of the Ro­man laws, particularly in the interesting articles of marriage, testaments, and inheritances; and the road of fortune was open to those whose pre­tensions were seconded by favour or merit. The grandsons of the Gauls, who had besieged Julius Caesar in Alesia, commanded legions, go­verned provinces, and were admitted into the senate of Rome ³⁶. Their ambition, instead of disturbing the tranquillity of the state, was in­timately connected with its safety and greatness.

[Page 60] So sensible were the Romans of the influence of language over national manners, that it was their most serious care to extend, with the pro­gress Division of the Latin and the Greek provinces. of their arms, the use of the Latin tongue ³⁷. The ancient dialects of Italy, the Sabine, the Etruscan, and the Venetian, sunk into oblivion; but in the provinces, the east was less docile than the west, to the voice of its victorious pre­ceptors. This obvious difference marked the two portions of the empire with a distinction of colours, which, though it was in some degree concealed during the meridian splendor of pros­perity, became gradually more visible, as the shades of night descended upon the Roman world. The western countries were civilized by the same hands which subdued them. As soon as the barbarians were reconciled to obedience, their minds were opened to any new impressions of know­ledge and politeness. The language of Virgil and Cicero, though with some inevitable mix­ture of corruption, was so universally adopted in Africa, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Pannonia ³⁸, that the faint traces of the Punic or Celtic idi­oms were preserved only in the mountains, or among the peasants ³⁹. Education and study in­sensibly [Page 61] inspired the natives of those countries with the sentiments of Romans; and Italy gave fashions, as well as laws, to her Latin provin­cials. They solicited with more ardour, and obtained with more facility, the freedom and honours of the state; supported the national dig­nity in letters ⁴⁰ and in arms; and, at length, in the person of Trajan, produced an emperor whom the Scipios would not have disowned for their countryman. The situation of the Greeks was very different from that of the barbarians. The former had been long since civilized and corrupted. They had too much taste to relin­quish their language, and too much vanity to adopt any foreign institutions. Still preserving the prejudices, after they had lost the virtues, of their ancestors, they affected to despise the unpolished manners of the Roman conquerors, whilst they were compelled to respect their su­perior wisdom and power ⁴¹. Nor was the influ­ence of the Grecian language and sentiments con­fined to the narrow limits of that once celebrated country. Their empire, by the progress of co­lonies and conquest, had been diffused from the Hadriatic to the Euphrates and the Nile. Asia [Page 62] was covered with Greek cities, and the long reign of the Macedonian kings had introduced a silent revolution into Syria and Egypt. In their pom­pous courts those princes united the elegance of Athens with the luxury of the East, and the ex­ample of the court was imitated, at an humble distance, by the higher ranks of their subjects. Such was the general division of the Roman em­pire into the Latin and Greek languages. To these we may add a third distinction for the body of the natives in Syria, and especially in Egypt. The use of their ancient dialects, by secluding them from the commerce of mankind, checked the improvements of those barbarians ⁴². The slothful effeminacy of the former, exposed them to the contempt; the sullen ferociousness of the latter, excited the aversion of the conquerors ⁴³. Those nations had submitted to the Roman pow­er, but they seldom desired or deserved the free­dom of the city; and it was remarked, that more than two hundred and thirty years elapsed after the ruin of the Ptolemies, before an Egyptian was admitted into the senate of Rome ⁴⁴.

It is a just though trite observation, that vic­torious Rome was herself subdued by the arts of General use of both languages. Greece. Those immortal writers who still com­mand the admiration of modern Europe, soon became the favourite object of study and imita­tion [Page 63] in Italy and the western provinces. But the elegant amusements of the Romans were not suf­fered to interfere with their sound maxims of po­licy. Whilst they acknowledged the charms of the Greek, they asserted the dignity of the Latin tongue, and the exclusive use of the latter was inflexibly maintained in the administration of ci­vil as well as military government ⁴⁵. The two languages exercised at the same time their sepa­rate jurisdiction throughout the empire: the for­mer, as the natural idiom of science; the lat­ter, as the legal dialect of public transactions. Those who united letters with business, were equally conversant with both; and it was almost impossible, in any province, to find a Roman subject, of a liberal education, who was at once a stranger to the Greek and to the Latin lan­guage.

It was by such institutions that the nations of Slaves. the empire insensibly melted away into the Ro­man name and people. But there still remained, in the centre of every province and of every fa­mily, an unhappy condition of men who endured the weight, without sharing the benefits, of so­ciety. In the free states of antiquity, the do­mestic slaves were exposed to the wanton rigour of despotism. The perfect settlement of the Their treatment. Roman empire was preceded by ages of violence and rapine. The slaves consisted, for the most part, of barbarian captives, taken in thousands [Page 64] by the chance of war, purchased at a vile price ⁴⁶, accustomed to a life of independence, and im­patient to break and to revenge their fetters. Against such internal enemies, whose desperate insurrections had more than once reduced the republic to the brink of destruction ⁴⁷, the most severe regulations ⁴⁸, and the most cruel treat­ment, seemed almost justified by the great law of self-preservation. But when the principal na­tions of Europe, Asia, and Africa, were united under the laws of one sovereign, the source of foreign supplies flowed with much less abundance, and the Romans were reduced to the milder but more tedious method of propagation. In their numerous families, and particularly in their country estates, they encouraged the marriage of their slaves. The sentiments of nature, the ha­bits of education, and the possession of a depen­dent species of property, contributed to alleviate the hardships of servitude ⁴⁹. The existence of a slave became an object of greater value, and though his happiness still depended on the tem­per and circumstances of the master, the huma­nity of the latter, instead of being restrained by [Page 65] fear, was encouraged by the sense of his own in­terest. The progress of manners was accelerat­ed by the virtue or policy of the emperors; and by the edicts of Hadrian and the Antonines, the protection of the laws was extended to the most abject part of mankind. The jurisdiction of life and death over the slaves, a power long exercised and often abused, was taken out of private hands, and reserved to the magistrates alone. The sub­terraneous prisons were abolished; and, upon a just complaint of intolerable treatment, the in­jured slave obtained either his deliverance, or a less cruel master ⁵⁰.

Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect con­dition, Enfran­chisement. was not denied to the Roman slave; and if he had any opportunity of rendering himself either useful or agreeable, he might very naturally expect that the diligence and fidelity of a few years would be rewarded with the inestimable gift of freedom. The benevolence of the master was so frequently prompted by the meaner sug­gestions of vanity and avarice, that the laws found it more necessary to restrain than to encourage a profuse and undistinguishing liberality, which might degenerate into a very dangerous abuse ⁵¹. It was a maxim of antient jurisprudence, that a slave had not any country of his own, he acquir­ed with his liberty an admission into the political [Page 66] society of which his patron was a member. The consequences of this maxim would have prosti­tuted the privileges of the Roman city to a mean and promiscuous multitude. Some seasonable exceptions were therefore provided; and the honourable distinction was confined to such slaves only, as for just causes, and with the approba­tion of the magistrate, should receive a solemn and legal manumission. Even these chosen freed­men obtained no more than the private rights of citizens, and were rigorously excluded from civil or military honours. Whatever might be the merit or fortune of their sons, they likewise were esteemed unworthy of a seat in the senate; nor were the traces of a servile origin allowed to be completely obliterated till the third or fourth ge­neration ⁵². Without destroying the distinction of ranks, a distant prospect of freedom and ho­nours was presented, even to those whom pride and prejudice almost disdained to number among the human species.

It was once proposed to discriminate the slaves Numbers. by a peculiar habit; but it was justly apprehend­ed that there might be some danger in acquaint­ing them with their own numbers ⁵³. Without interpreting, in their utmost strictness, the libe­ral appellations of legions and myriads ⁵⁴; we [Page 67] may venture to pronounce, that the proportion of slaves, who were valued as property, was more considerable than that of servants, who can be computed only as an expence ⁵⁵. The youths of a promising genius were instructed in the arts and sciences, and their price was ascertained by the degree of their skill and talents ⁵⁶. Almost every profession, either liberal ⁵⁷ or mechanical, might be found in the household of an opulent senator. The ministers of pomp and sensuality were multiplied beyond the conception of mo­dern luxury ⁵⁸. It was more for the interest of the merchant or manufacturer to purchase, than to hire his workmen; and in the country, slaves were employed as the cheapest and most labori­ous instruments of agriculture. To confirm the general observation, and to display the multitude of slaves, we might allege a variety of particu­lar instances. It was discovered, on a very me­lancholy occasion, that four hundred slaves were maintained in a single palace of Rome ⁵⁹. The same number of four hundred belonged to an estate which an African widow, of a very private [Page 68] condition, resigned to her son, whilst she reserved for herself a much larger share of her property ⁶⁰. A freedman, under the reign of Augustus, though his fortune had suffered great losses in the civil wars, left behind him three thousand six hundred yoke of oxen, two hundred and fifty thousand head of smaller cattle, and, what was almost in­cluded in the description of cattle, four thousand one hundred and sixteen slaves ⁶¹.

The number of subjects who acknowledged the Populous­ness of the Roman empire. laws of Rome, of citizens, of provincials, and of slaves, cannot now be fixed with such a de­gree of accuracy, as the importance of the object would deserve. We are informed, that when the emperor Claudius exercised the office of censor, he took an account of six millions nine hundred and forty-five thousand Roman citizens, who, with the proportion of women and children, must have amounted to about twenty mil­lions of souls. The multitude of subjects of an inferior rank, was uncertain and fluctuating. But, after weighing with attention every circum­stance which could influence the balance, it seems probable, that there existed, in the time of Claudius, about twice as many provincials as there were citizens, of either sex, and of every age; and that the slaves were at least equal in number to the free inhabitants of the Roman world. The total amount of this imperfect cal­culation would rise to about one hundred and twenty millions of persons: a degree of popu­lation [Page 69] which possibly exceeds that of modern Europe ⁶², and forms the most numerous society that has ever been united under the same system of government.

Domestic peace and union were the natural Obedience and union. consequences of the moderate and comprehensive policy embraced by the Romans. If we turn our eyes towards the monarchies of Asia, we shall behold despotism in the center, and weakness in the extremities; the collection of the revenue, or the administration of justice, enforced by the presence of an army; hostile barbarians establish­ed in the heart of the country, hereditary satraps usurping the dominion of the provinces, and sub­jects inclined to rebellion, though incapable of freedom. But the obedience of the Roman world was uniform, voluntary, and permanent. The vanquished nations, blended into one great peo­ple, resigned the hope, nay even the wish, of resuming their independence, and scarcely con­sidered their own existence as distinct from the existence of Rome. The established authority of the emperors pervaded without an effort the wide extent of their dominions, and was exercised with the same facility on the banks of the Thames, or of the Nile, as on those of the Tyber. The [Page 70] legions were destined to serve against the public enemy, and the civil magistrate seldom required the aid of a military force ⁶³. In this state of general security, the leisure as well as opulence both of the prince and people, were devoted to improve and to adorn the Roman empire.

Among the innumerable monuments of archi­tecture Roman monu­ments. constructed by the Romans, how many have escaped the notice of history, how few have resisted the ravages of time and barbarism! And yet even the majestic ruins that are still scattered over Italy and the provinces, would be sufficient to prove, that those countries were once the seat of a polite and powerful empire. Their greatness alone, or their beauty, might deserve our atten­tion; but they are rendered more interesting, by two important circumstances, which connect the agreeable history of the arts, with the more use­ful history of human manners. Many of those works were erected at private expence, and al­most all were intended for public benefit.

It is natural to suppose that the greatest num­ber, Many of them e­rected at private ex­pence. as well as the most considerable of the Ro­man edifices, were raised by the emperors, who possessed so unbounded a command both of men and money. Augustus was accustomed to boast that he had found his capital of brick, and that he had left it of marble ⁶⁴. The strict oeconomy [Page 71] of Vespasian was the source of his magnificence. The works of Trajan bear the stamp of his ge­nius. The public monuments with which Ha­drian adorned every province of the empire, were executed not only by his orders, but under his immediate inspection. He was himself an artist; and he loved the arts, as they conduced to the glory of the monarch. They were encouraged by the Antonines, as they contributed to the hap­piness of the people. But if the emperors were the first, they were not the only architects of their dominions. Their example was universally imi­tated by their principal subjects, who were not afraid of declaring to the world that they had spirit to conceive, and wealth to accomplish, the noblest undertakings. Scarcely had the proud structure of the Coliseum been dedicated at Rome, before the edifices of a smaller scale indeed, but of the same design and materials, were erected for the use, and at the expence, of the cities of Capua and Verona ⁶⁵. The inscription of the stupendous bridge of Alcantara, attests that it was thrown over the Tagus by the contribution of a few Lusitanian communities. When Pliny was intrusted with the government of Bithynia and Pontus, provinces by no means the richest or most considerable of the empire, he found the cities within his jurisdiction striving with each [Page 72] other in every useful and ornamental work, that might deserve the curiosity of strangers, or the gratitude of their citizens. It was the duty of the Proconsul to supply their deficiencies, to direct their taste, and sometimes to moderate their emulation ⁶⁶. The opulent senators of Rome and the provinces esteemed it an honour, and almost an obligation, to adorn the splendour of their age and country; and the influence of fashion very frequently supplied the want of taste or gene­rosity. Among a crowd of these private bene­factors, we may select Herodes Atticus, an Athe­nian citizen, who lived in the age of the Anto­nines. Whatever might be the motive of his conduct, his magnificence would have been wor­thy of the greatest kings.

The family of Herod, at least after it had been Example of Herodes Atticus. favoured by fortune, was lineally descended from Cimon and Miltiades, Theseus and Cecrops, Aeacus and Jupiter. But the posterity of so many gods and heroes was fallen into the most abject state. His grandfather had suffered by the hands of justice, and Julius Atticus, his father, must have ended his life in poverty and contempt, had he not discovered an immense treasure buried under an old house, the last remains of his pa­trimony. According to the rigour of law, the emperor might have asserted his claim, and the [Page 73] prudent Atticus prevented, by a frank confession, the officiousness of informers. But the equitable Nerva, who then filled the throne, refused to accept any part of it, and commanded him to use, without scruple, the present of fortune. The cautious Athenian still insisted, that the treasure was too considerable for a subject, and that he knew not how to use it. Abuse it, then, replied the monarch, with a good-natured pee­vishness; for it is your own ⁶⁷. Many will be of opinion, that Atticus literally obeyed the em­peror's last instructions; since he expended the greatest part of his fortune, which was much in­creased by an advantageous marriage, in the ser­vice of the Public. He had obtained for his son Herod, the prefecture of the free cities of Asia; and the young magistrate, observing that the town of Troas was indifferently supplied with water, obtained from the munificence of Hadrian, three hundred myriads of drachms (about a hun­dred thousand pounds) for the construction of a new aqueduct. But in the execution of the work the charge amounted to more than double the estimate, and the officers of the revenue began to murmur, till the generous Atticus silenced their complaints, by requesting that he might be per­mitted to take upon himself the whole additional expence ⁶⁸.

[Page 74] The ablest preceptors of Greece and Asia had been invited by liberal rewards to direct the edu­cation of young Herod. Their pupil soon be­came His repu­tation. a celebrated orator according to the useless rhetoric of that age, which, confining itself to the schools, disdained to visit either the Forum or the Senate. He was honoured with the con­sulship at Rome; but the greatest part of his life was spent in a philosophic retirement at Athens, and his adjacent villas; perpetually surrounded by sophists, who acknowledged, without reluc­tance, the superiority of a rich and generous rival ⁶⁹. The monuments of his genius have perished; some considerable ruins still preserve the same of his taste and munificence: modern travellers have measured the remains of the sta­dium which he constructed at Athens. It was six hundred feet in length, built entirely of white marble, capable of admitting the whole body of the people, and finished in four years, whilst Herod was president of the Athenian games. To the memory of his wife Regilla, he dedicated a theatre, scarcely to be paralleled in the empire: no wood except cedar, very curi­ously carved, was employed in any part of the building. The Odeum, designed by Pericles for musical performances, and the rehearsal of new tragedies, had been a trophy of the victory of the arts over Barbaric greatness; as the timbers employed in the construction consisted chiefly of the masts of the Persian vessels. Notwithstand­ing [Page 75] the repairs bestowed on that ancient edifice by a king of Cappadocia, it was again fallen to decay. Herod restored its ancient beauty and magnificence. Nor was the liberality of that illustrious citizen confined to the walls of Athens. The most splendid ornaments bestowed on the temple of Neptune in the Isthmus, a theatre at Corinth, a stadium at Delphi, a bath at Ther­mopylae, and an aqueduct at Canusium in Italy, were insufficient to exhaust his treasures. The people of Epirus, Thessaly, Euboea, Boeotia, and Peloponnesus, experienced his favours; and many inscriptions of the cities of Greece and Asia grate­fully style Herodes Atticus their patron and be­nefactor ⁷⁰.

In the commonwealths of Athens and Rome, Most of the Ro­man mo­numents for pub­lic use; temples, theatres, aqueducts, &c. the modest simplicity of private houses announced the equal condition of freedom; whilst the so­vereignty of the people was represented in the majestic edifices destined to the public use ⁷¹; nor was this republican spirit totally extinguished by the introduction of wealth and monarchy. It was in works of national honour and benefit, that the most virtuous of the emperors affected to dis­play their magnificence. The golden palace of Nero excited a just indignation, but the vast ex­tent of ground which had been usurped by his selfish luxury, was more nobly filled under the [Page 76] succeeding reigns by the Coliseum, the baths of Titus, the Claudian portico, and the temples dedicated to the goddess of Peace, and to the genius of Rome ⁷². These monuments of archi­tecture, the property of the Roman people, were adorned with the most beautiful productions of Grecian painting and sculpture; and in the tem­ple of Peace, a very curious library was open to the curiosity of the learned. At a small distance from thence was situated the Forum of Trajan. It was surrounded with a lofty portico, in the form of a quadrangle, into which four triumphal arches opened a noble and spacious entrance: in the centre arose a column of marble, whose height, of one hundred and ten feet, denoted the elevation of the hill that had been cut away. This column, which still subsists in its ancient beauty, exhibited an exact representation of the Dacian victories of its founder. The veteran soldier contemplated the story of his own campaigns, and by an easy illusion of national vanity, the peaceful citizen associated himself to the honours of the triumph. All the other quar­ters of the capital, and all the provinces of the empire, were embellished by the same liberal spirit of public magnificence, and were filled with amphitheatres, theatres, temples, porticos, tri­umphal [Page 77] arches, baths, and aqueducts, all variously conducive to the health, the devotion, and the pleasures of the meanest citizen. The last men­tioned of those edifices deserve our peculiar at­tention. The boldness of the enterprise, the solidity of the execution, and the uses to which they were subservient, rank the aqueducts among the noblest monuments of Roman genius and power. The aqueducts of the capital claim a just pre-eminence; but the curious traveller, who, without the light of history, should examine those of Spoleto, of Metz, or of Segovia, would very naturally conclude, that those provincial towns had formerly been the residence of some potent monarch. The solitudes of Asia and Africa were once covered with flourishing cities, whose populousness, and even whose existence, was derived from such artificial supplies of a pe­rennial stream of fresh water ⁷³.

We have computed the inhabitants, and con­templated Number and great­ness of the cities of the empire. the public works, of the Roman em­pire. The observation of the number and great­ness of its cities will serve to confirm the former, and to multiply the latter. It may not be un­pleasing to collect a few scattered instances rela­tive to that subject, without forgetting, however, that from the vanity of nations and the poverty of language, the vague appellation of city has been indifferently bestowed on Rome and upon Laurentum. Ancient Italy is said to have con­tained In Italy. [Page 78] eleven hundred and ninety-seven cities; and for whatsoever aera of antiquity the expres­sion might be intended ⁷⁴, there is not any reason to believe the country less populous in the age of the Antonines, than in that of Romulus. The petty states of Latium were contained within the metropolis of the empire, by whose superior in­fluence they had been attracted. Those parts of Italy which have so long languished under the lazy tyranny of priests and viceroys, had been afflicted only by the more tolerable calamities of war; and the first symptoms of decay, which they experienced, were amply compensated by the rapid improvements of the Cisalpine Gaul. The splendor of Verona may be traced in its remains: yet Verona was less celebrated than Aquileia or Padua, Milan or Ravenna. II. The spirit of Gaul and Spain. improvement had passed the Alps, and been felt even in the woods of Britain, which were gra­dually cleared away to open a free space for con­venient and elegant habitations. York was the seat of government; London was already enrich­ed by commerce; and Bath was celebrated for the salutary effects of its medicinal waters. Gaul could boast of her twelve hundred cities ⁷⁵; and though, in the northern parts, many of them, without excepting Paris itself, were little more than the rude and imperfect townships of a rising people; the southern provinces imitated the [Page 79] wealth and elegance of Italy ⁷⁶. Many were the cities of Gaul, Marseilles, Arles, Nismes, Nar­bonne, Thoulouse, Bourdeaux, Autun, Vienna, Lyons, Langres, and Treves, whose ancient con­dition might sustain an equal, and perhaps ad­vantageous comparison with their present state. With regard to Spain, that country flourished as a province, and has declined as a kingdom. Exhausted by the abuse of her strength, by America, and by superstition, her pride might possibly be confounded, if we required such a list of three hundred and sixty cities, as Pliny has exhibited under the reign of Vespasian ⁷⁷. Africa. III. Three hundred African cities had once ac­knowledged the authority of Carthage ⁷⁸, nor is it likely that their numbers diminished under the administration of the emperors: Carthage itself rose with new splendor from its ashes; and that capital, as well as Capua and Corinth, soon reco­vered all the advantages which can be separated from independent sovereignty. IV. The pro­vinces Asia. of the east present the contrast of Roman magnificence with Turkish barbarism. The ruins of antiquity scattered over uncultivated fields, and ascribed, by ignorance, to the power of magic, scarcely afford a shelter to the op­pressed peasant or wandering Arab. Under the reign of the Caesars, the proper Asia alone con­tained [Page 80] five hundred populous cities ⁷⁹, enriched with all the gifts of nature, and adorned with all the refinements of art. Eleven cities of Asia had once disputed the honour of dedicating a temple to Tiberius, and their respective merits were examined by the senate ⁸⁹. Four of them were immediately rejected as unequal to the burden; and among these was Laodicea, whose splendor is still displayed in its ruins ⁸¹. Laodicea collected a very considerable revenue from its flocks of sheep, celebrated for the fineness of their wool, and had received, a little before the contest, a legacy of above four hundred thousand pounds by the testament of a generous citizen ⁸². If such was the poverty of Laodicea, what must have been the wealth of those cities, whose claim ap­peared preferable, and particularly of Pergamus, of Smyrna, and of Ephesus, who so long dis­puted with each other the titular primacy of [Page 81] Asia ⁸³? The capitals of Syria and Egypt held a still superior rank in the empire: Antioch and Alexandria looked down with disdain on a crowd of dependent cities ⁸⁴, and yielded, with reluc­tance, to the majesty of Rome itself.

All these cities were connected with each other, Roman Roads. and with the capital, by the public highways, which issuing from the Forum of Rome, traversed Italy, pervaded the provinces, and were termi­nated only by the frontiers of the empire. If we carefully trace the distance from the wall of An­toninus to Rome, and from thence to Jerusalem, it will be found that the great chain of commu­nication, from the north-west to the south-east point of the empire, was drawn out to the length of four thousand and eighty Roman miles ⁸⁵. The public roads were accurately divided by mile-stones, and ran in a direct line from one [Page 82] city to another, with very little respect for the obstacles either of nature or private property. Mountains were perforated, and bold arches thrown over the broadest and most rapid streams ⁸⁶. The middle part of the road was raised into a terrace which commanded the adjacent country, consisted of several strata of sand, gravel, and cement, and was paved with large stones, or in some places, near the capital, with granite ⁸⁷. Such was the solid construction of the Roman highways, whose firmness has not entirely yielded to the effort of fifteen centuries. They united the subjects of the most distant provinces by an easy and familiar intercourse; but their pri­mary object had been to facilitate the marches of the legions; nor was any country considered as completely subdued, till it had been rendered, in all its parts, pervious to the arms and autho­rity of the conqueror. The advantage of receiv­ing the earliest intelligence, and of conveying Posts. their orders with celerity, induced the emperors to establish, throughout their extensive domini­ons, the regular institution of posts ⁸⁸. Houses were every where erected at the distance only of five or six miles; each of them was constantly provided with forty horses, and by the help of these relays, it was easy to travel an hundred [Page 83] miles in a day along the Roman roads ⁸⁹. The use of the posts was allowed to those who claimed it by an Imperial mandate; but though ori­ginally intended for the public service, it was sometimes indulged to the business or conveni­ency of private citizens ⁹⁰. Nor was the com­munication Navigati­on. of the Roman empire less free and open by sea than it was by land. The provinces surrounded and inclosed the Mediterranean; and Italy, in the shape of an immense promontory, advanced into the midst of that great lake. The coasts of Italy are, in general, destitute of safe harbours; but human industry had corrected the deficiencies of nature; and the artificial port of Ostia, in particular, situate at the mouth of the Tyber, and formed by the emperor Claudius, was an useful monument of Roman greatness ⁹¹. From this port, which was only sixteen miles from the capital, a favourable breeze frequently carried vessels in seven days to the columns of Hercules, and in nine or ten, to Alexandria in Egypt ⁹².

Whatever evils either reason or declamation Improve­ment of agriculture have imputed to extensive empire, the power of [Page 84] Rome was attended with some beneficial consequences to mankind; and the same freedom of intercourse which extended the vices, diffused in the we­stern coun­tries of the empire. likewise the improvements, of social life. In the more remote ages of antiquity, the world was unequally divided. The east was in the imme­morial possession of arts and luxury; whilst the west was inhabited by rude and warlike barba­rians, who either disdained agriculture, or to whom it was totally unknown. Under the pro­tection of an established government, the pro­ductions of happier climates, and the industry of more civilized nations, were gradually introduced into the western countries of Europe; and the natives were encouraged, by an open and pro­fitable commerce, to multiply the former, as well as to improve the latter. It would be almost impossible to enumerate all the articles, either of the animal or the vegetable reign, which were successively imported into Europe, from Asia and Egypt ⁹³; but it will not be unworthy of the dignity, and much less of the utility, of an his­torical work, slightly to touch on a few of the principal heads. 1. Almost all the flowers, the Introduc­tion of fruits, &c. herbs, and the fruits, that grow in our European gardens, are of foreign extraction, which, in many cases, is betrayed even by their names: the apple was a native of Italy, and when the Romans had tasted the richer flavour of the apricot, the peach, the pomegranate, the citron, and the orange, [Page 85] they contented themselves with applying to all these new fruits the common denomination of apple, discriminating them from each other by the additional epithet of their country. 2. In The vine. the time of Homer, the vine grew wild in the island of Sicily, and most probably in the adja­cent continent; but it was not improved by the skill, nor did it afford a liquor grateful to the taste, of the savage inhabitants ⁹⁴. A thousand years afterwards, Italy could boast, that of the fourscore most generous and celebrated wines, more than two-thirds were produced from her soil ⁹⁵. The blessing was soon communicated to the Narbonnese province of Gaul; but so intense was the cold to the north of the Cevennes, that, in the time of Strabo, it was thought impossible to ripen the grapes in those parts of Gaul ⁹⁶. This difficulty, however, was gradually vanquish­ed; and there is some reason to believe, that the vineyards of Burgundy are as old as the age of the Antonines ⁹⁷. 3. The olive, in the western The olive. world, followed the progress of peace, of which it was considered as the symbol. Two centuries after the foundation of Rome, both Italy and Africa were strangers to that useful plant; it was [Page 86] naturalized in those countries; and at length car­ried into the heart of Spain and Gaul. The timid errors of the ancients, that it required a certain degree of heat, and could only flourish in the neighbourhood of the sea, were insensibly ex­ploded by industry and experience ⁹⁸. 4. The cultivation of flax was transported from Egypt to Flax. Gaul, and enriched the whole country, however it might impoverish the particular lands on which it was sown ⁹⁹. 5. The use of artificial grasses Artificial grass. became familiar to the farmers both of Italy and the provinces, particularly the Lucerne, which derived its name and origin from Media ¹⁰⁰. The assured supply of wholesome and plentiful food for the cattle during winter, multiplied the num­ber of the flocks and herds, which in their turn contributed to the fertility of the soil. To all these improvements may be added an assiduous attention to mines and fisheries, which, by em­ploying a multitude of laborious hands, serve to increase the pleasures of the rich, and the sub­sistence of the poor. The elegant treatise of Co­lumella General plenty. describes the advanced state of the Spa­nish husbandry, under the reign of Tiberius; and it may be observed, that those famines which so frequently afflicted the infant republic, were seldom or never experienced by the extensive empire of Rome. The accidental scarcity, in any single province, was immediately relieved by the plenty of its more fortunate neighbours.

[Page 87] Agriculture is the foundation of manufactures; since the productions of nature are the materials of art. Under the Roman empire, the labour of Arts of luxury. an industrious and ingenious people was variously, but incessantly employed, in the service of the rich. In their dress, their table, their houses, and their furniture, the favourites of fortune united every refinement of convenience, of ele­gance, and of splendour; whatever could sooth their pride, or gratify their sensuality. Such refinements, under the odious name of luxury, have been severely arraigned by the moralists of every age; and it might perhaps be more con­ducive to the virtue, as well as happiness, of mankind, if all possessed the necessaries, and none the superfluities, of life. But in the present im­perfect condition of society, luxury, though it may proceed from vice or folly, seems to be the only means that can correct the unequal distribution of property. The diligent mechanic, and the skilful artist, who have obtained no share in the division of the earth, receive a voluntary tax from the possessors of land; and the latter are prompt­ed, by a sense of interest, to improve those estates, with whose produce they may purchase additional pleasures. This operation, the par­ticular effects of which are felt in every society, acted with much more diffusive energy in the Roman world. The provinces would soon have been exhausted of their wealth, if the manufac­tures and commerce of luxury had not insensibly restored to the industrious subjects, the sums which [Page 88] were exacted from them by the arms and autho­rity of Rome. As long as the circulation was confined within the bounds of the empire, it im­pressed the political machine with a new degree of activity, and its consequences, sometimes be­neficial, could never become pernicious.

But it is no easy task to confine luxury within Foreign trade. the limits of an empire. The most remote countries of the ancient world were ransacked to supply the pomp and delicacy of Rome. The forest of Scythia afforded some valuable furs. Amber was brought over land from the shores of the Baltic to the Danube; and the barbarians were astonished at the price which they received in exchange for so useless a commodity ¹⁰¹. There was a considerable demand for Babylonian carpets, and other manufactures of the East; but the most important and unpopular branch of fo­reign trade was carried on with Arabia and In­dia. Every year, about the time of the sum­mer solstice, a fleet of an hundred and twenty vessels sailed from Myos-hormos, a port of Egypt, on the Red Sea. By the periodical assistance of the Monsoons, they traversed the ocean in about forty days. The coast of Malabar, or the island of Ceylon ¹⁰², was the usual term of their navi­gation, and it was in those markets that the [Page 89] merchants from the more remote countries of Asia expected their arrival. The return of the fleet of Egypt was fixed to the months of De­cember or January; and as soon as their rich cargo had been transported on the backs of ca­mels, from the Red Sea to the Nile, and had de­scended that river as far as Alexandria, it was poured, without delay, into the capital of the empire ¹⁰³. The objects of oriental traffic were splendid and trifling: silk, a pound of which was esteemed not inferior in value to a pound of gold ¹⁰⁴; precious stones, among which the pearl claimed the first rank after the diamond ¹⁰⁵; and a variety of aromatics, that were consumed in religious worship and the pomp of funerals. The labour and risk of the voyage was rewarded with almost incredible profit; but the profit was made upon Roman subjects, and a few indivi­duals were enriched at the expence of the Pub­lic. As the natives of Arabia and India were Gold and silver. contented with the productions and manufactures of their own country, silver, on the side of the Romans, was the principal, if not the only in­strument of commerce. It was a complaint wor­thy of the gravity of the senate, that, in the pur­chase of female ornaments, the wealth of the state [Page 90] was irrecoverably given away to foreign and hos­tile nations ¹⁰⁶. The annual loss is computed, by a writer of an inquisitive but censorious tem­per, at upwards of eight hundred thousand pounds sterling ¹⁰⁷. Such was the style of dis­content, brooding over the dark prospect of ap­proaching poverty. And yet, if we compare the proportion between gold and silver, as it stood in the time of Pliny, and as it was fixed in the reign of Constantine, we shall discover within that pe­riod a very considerable increase ¹⁰⁸. There is not the least reason to suppose that gold was be­come more scarce; it is therefore evident that silver was grown more common; that whatever might be the amount of the Indian and Arabian exports, they were far from exhausting the wealth of the Roman world; and that the produce of the mines abundantly supplied the demands of commerce.

Notwithstanding the propensity of mankind to exalt the past, and to depreciate the present, the tranquil and prosperous state of the empire was warmly felt, and honestly confessed, by the provincials as well as Romans. ‘They acknow­ledged General felicity. that the true principles of social life, laws, agriculture, and science, which had been first invented by the wisdom of Athens, were now firmly established by the power of Rome, [Page 91] under whose auspicious influence, the fiercest barbarians were united by an equal govern­ment and common language. They affirm, that with the improvement of arts, the human species was visibly multiplied. They cele­brate the increasing splendour of the cities, the beautiful face of the country, cultivated and adorned like an immense garden; and the long festival of peace, which was enjoyed by so many nations, forgetful of their ancient animosities, and delivered from the apprehen­sion of future danger ¹⁰⁹.’ Whatever sus­picions may be suggested by the air of rhetoric and declamation, which seems to prevail in these passages, the substance of them is perfectly agree­able to historic truth.

It was scarcely possible that the eyes of contem­poraries Decline of courage; should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption. This long peace, and the uniform government of the Ro­mans, introduced a slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military spirit evaporated. The natives of Eu­rope were brave and robust, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Illyricum, supplied the legions with ex­cellent soldiers, and constituted the real strength of the monarchy. Their personal valour remain­ed, but they no longer possessed that public cou­rage which is nourished by the love of indepen­dence, [Page 92] the sense of national honour, the presence of danger, and the habit of command. They received laws and governors from the will of their sovereign, and trusted for their defence to a mer­cenary army. The posterity of their boldest leaders was contented with the rank of citizens and subjects. The most aspiring spirits resorted to the court or standard of the emperors; and the deserted provinces, deprived of political strength or union, insensibly sunk into the lan­guid indifference of private life.

The love of letters, almost inseparable from of genius. peace and refinement, was fashionable among the subjects of Hadrian and the Antonines, who were themselves men of learning and curiosity. It was diffused over the whole extent of their empire; the most northern tribes of Britons had acquired a taste for rhetoric; Homer as well as Virgil were transcribed and studied on the banks of the Rhine and Danube; and the most liberal rewards sought out the faintest glimmerings of literar merit ¹¹⁰ The sciences of physic and astronomy [Page 93] were successfully cultivated by the Greeks; the observations of Ptolemy and the writings of Ga­len are studied by those who have improved their discoveries and corrected their errors; but if we except the inimitable Lucian, this age of indo­lence passed away without having produced a sin­gle writer of original genius, or who excelled in the arts of elegant composition. The authority of Plato and Aristotle, of Zerno and Epicurus, still reigned in the schools; and their systems, transmitted with blind deference from one gene­ration of disciples to another, precluded every generous attempt to exercise the powers, or en­large the limits, of the human mind. The beau­ties of the poets and orators, instead of kindling a fire like their own, inspired only cold and ser­vile imitations: or if any ventured to deviate from those models, they deviated at the same time from good sense and propriety. On the revival of letters, the youthful vigour of the ima­gination, after a long repose, national emulation, a new religion, new languages, and a new world, called forth the genius of Europe. But the pro­vincials of Rome, trained by a uniform artificial foreign education, were engaged in a very un­equal competition with those bold ancients, who, by expressing their genuine feelings in their na­tive tongue, had already occupied every place of honour. The name of Poet was almost forgot­ten; that of Orator was usurped by the sophists. A cloud of critics, of compilers, of commenta­tors, darkened the face of learning, and the de­cline of genius was soon followed by the corrup­tion of taste.

[Page 94] The sublime Longinus, who in somewhat a later period, and in the court of a Syrian queen, preserved the spirit of ancient Athens, observes Degenera­cy. and laments this degeneracy of his contempora­ries, which debased their sentiments, enervated their courage, and depressed their talents. ‘In the same manner, says he, as some children always remain pigmies, whose infant limbs have been too closely confined; thus our ten­der minds, fettered by the prejudices and ha­bits of a just servitude, are unable to expand themselves, or to attain that well-proportioned greatness which we admire in the ancients; who living under a popular government, wrote with the same freedom as they acted ¹¹¹.’ This diminutive stature of mankind, if we pur­sue the metaphor, was daily sinking below the old standard, and the Roman world was indeed peopled by a race of pygmies; when the fierce giants of the north broke in, and mended the puny breed. They restored a manly spirit of freedom; and after the revolution of ten centu­ries, freedom became the happy parent of taste and science.

THE obvious definition of a monarchy seems to be that of a state, in which a single per­son, by whatsoever name he may be distinguish­ed, Idea of a monarchy. is intrusted with the execution of the laws, the management of the revenue, and the command of the army. But, unless public liberty is protected by intrepid and vigilant guardians, the authority of so formidable a magistrate will soon degenerate into despotism. The influence of the clergy, in an age of superstition, might be usefully employ­ed to assert the rights of mankind; but so inti­mate is the connexion between the throne and the altar, that the banner of the church has very seldom been seen on the side of the people. A martial nobility and stubborn commons, possessed of arms, tenacious of property, and collected into constitutional assemblies, form the only balance capable of preserving a free constitution against enterprises of an aspiring prince.

Every barrier of the Roman constitution had Situation of Augus­tus. been levelled by the vast ambition of the dic­tator; every fence had been extirpated by the cruel hand of the Triumvir. After the victory of Actium, the fate of the Roman world de­pended on the will of Octavianus, surnamed Cae­sar, by his uncle's adoption, and afterwards Au­gustus, [Page 96] by the flattery of the senate. The con­queror was at the head of forty-four veteran le­gions ¹, conscious of their own strength, and of the weakness of the constitution, habituated, during twenty years civil war, to every act of blood and violence, and passionately devoted to the house of Caesar, from whence alone they had received, and expected, the most lavish rewards. The provinces, long oppressed by the ministers of the republic, sighed for the government of a single person, who would be the master, not the accomplice, of those petty tyrants. The people of Rome, viewing, with a secret pleasure, the humiliation of the aristocracy, demanded only bread and public shows; and were supplied with both by the liberal hand of Augustus. The rich and polite Italians, who had almost universally embraced the philosophy of Epicurus, enjoyed the present blessings of ease and tranquillity, and suffered not the pleasing dream to be interrupted by the memory of their old tumultuous freedom. With its power, the senate had lost its dignity; many of the most noble families were extinct. The republicans of spirit and ability had perish­ed in the field of battle, or in the proscription. The door of the assembly had been designedly left open, for a mixed multitude of more than a thousand persons, who reflected disgrace upon their rank, instead of deriving honour from it ².

[Page 97] The reformation of the senate, was one of the first steps in which Augustus laid aside the ty­rant, and professed himself the father of his He re­forms the senate. country. He was elected censor; and, in con­cert with his faithful Agrippa, he examined the list of the senators, expelled a few members, whose vices or whose obstinacy required a pub­lic example, persuaded near two hundred to pre­vent the shame of an expulsion by a voluntary retreat, raised the qualification of a senator to about ten thousand pounds, created a sufficient number of Patrician families, and accepted for himself, the honourable title of Prince of the Senate, which had always been bestowed, by the censors, on the citizen the most eminent for his honours and services ³. But whilst he thus re­stored the dignity, he destroyed the independence of the senate. The principles of a free consti­tution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.

Before an assembly thus modelled and pre­pared, Resigns his usurp­ed power. Augustus pronounced a studied oration, which displayed his patriotism, and disguised his ambition. ‘He lamented, yet excused, his past conduct. Filial piety had required at his hands the revenge of his father's murder; the humanity of his own nature had sometimes given way to the stern laws of necessity, and to a forced connexion with two unworthy col­leagues: as long as Antony lived, the repub­lic [Page 98] forbad him to abandon her to a degenerate Roman, and a barbarian queen. He was now at liberty to satisfy his duty and his inclina­tion. He solemnly restored the senate and people to all their ancient rights; and wished only to mingle with the crowd of his fellow-citizens, and to share the blessings which he had obtained for his country ⁴.’

It would require the pen of Tacitus (if Tacitus Is prevail­ed upon to resume it under the title of Emperor or Gene­ral. had assisted at this assembly) to describe the va­rious emotions of the senate; those that were suppressed, and those that were affected. It was dangerous to trust the sincerity of Augustus; to seem to distrust it, was still more dangerous. The respective advantages of monarchy and a republic have often divided speculative inquirers; the present greatness of the Roman state, the corruption of manners, and the licence of the soldiers, supplied new arguments to the advo­cates of monarchy; and these general views of government were again warped by the hopes and fears of each individual. Amidst this confusion of sentiments, the answer of the senate was una­nimous and decisive. They refused to accept the resignation of Augustus; they conjured him not to desert the republic, which he had saved. After a decent resistance, the crafty tyrant sub­mitted to the orders of the senate; and consent­ed to receive the government of the provinces, [Page 99] and the general command of the Roman armies, under the well-known names of PROCONSUL and IMPERATOR ⁵. But he would receive them only for ten years. Even before the expiration of that period, he hoped that the wounds of civil dis­cord would be completely healed, and that the republic, restored to its pristine health and vi­gour, would no longer require the dangerous interposition of so extraordinary a magistrate. The memory of this comedy, repeated several times during the life of Augustus, was preserved to the last ages of the empire, by the peculiar pomp with which the perpetual monarchs of Rome always solemnized the tenth years of their reign ⁶.

Without any violation of the principles of the Power of the Roman generals: constitution, the general of the Roman armies might receive and exercise an authority almost despotic over the soldiers, the enemies, and the subjects of the republic. With regard to the soldiers, the jealousy of freedom had, even from the earliest ages of Rome, given way to the hopes of conquest, and a just sense of military discipline. The dictator, or consul, had a right to command the service of the Roman youth; and to punish an obstinate or cowardly disobe­dience by the most severe and ignominious pe­nalties, [Page 100] by striking the offender out of the list of citizens, by confiscating his property, and by selling his person into slavery ⁷. The most sacred rights of freedom, confirmed by the Porcian and Sempronian laws, were suspended by the mili­tary engagement. In his camp the general ex­ercised an absolute power of life and death; his jurisdiction was not confined by any forms of trial, or rules of proceeding, and the execution of the sentence was immediate and without ap­peal ⁸. The choice of the enemies of Rome was regularly decided by the legislative authority. The most important resolutions of peace and war were seriously debated in the senate, and solemnly ratified by the people. But when the arms of the legions were carried to a great distance from Italy, the generals assumed the liberty of direct­ing them against whatever people, and in what­ever manner, they judged most advantageous for the public service. It was from the success, not from the justice, of their enterprises, that they expected the honours of a triumph. In the use of victory, especially after they were no longer controlled by the commissioners of the senate, they exercised the most unbounded despotism. When Pompey commanded in the east, he re­warded his soldiers and allies, dethroned princes, [Page 101] divided kingdoms, founded colonies, and distri­buted the treasures of Mithridates. On his re­turn to Rome, he obtained, by a single act of the senate and people, the universal ratification of all his proceedings ⁹. Such was the power over the soldiers, and over the enemies of Rome, which was either granted to, or assumed by, the generals of the republic. They were, at the same time, the governors, or rather monarchs, of the conquered provinces, united the civil with the military character, administered justice as well as the finances, and exercised both the executive and legislative power of the state.

From what has been already observed in the Lieute­nants of the empe­ror. first chapter of this work, some notion may be formed of the armies and provinces thus intrust­ed to the ruling hand of Augustus. But as it was impossible that he could personally command the legions of so many distant frontiers, he was indulged by the senate, as Pompey had already been, in the permission of devolving the execu­tion of his great office on a sufficient number of lieutenants. In rank and authority these officers seemed not inferior to the ancient proconsuls; but their station was dependent and precarious. They received and held their commissions at [Page 102] the will of a superior, to whose auspicious influ­ence the merit of their action was legally attri­buted ¹⁰. They were the representatives of the emperor. The emperor alone was the general of the republic, and his jurisdiction, civil as well as military, extended over all the conquests of Rome. It was some satisfaction, however, to the senate, that he always delegated his power to the members of their body. The Imperial lieute­nants were of consular or praetorian dignity; the legions were commanded by senators, and the praefecture of Egypt was the only important trust committed to a Roman knight.

Within six days after Augustus had been com­pelled Division of the pro­vinces be­tween the emperor and the se­nate. to accept so very liberal a grant, he re­solved to gratify the pride of the senate by an easy sacrifice. He represented to them, that they had enlarged his powers, even beyond that degree which might be required by the melancholy con­dition of the times. They had not permitted him to refuse the laborious command of the ar­mies and the frontiers; but he must insist on being allowed to restore the more peaceful and secure provinces, to the mild administration of the civil magistrate. In the division of the pro­vinces, Augustus provided for his own power, [Page 103] and for the dignity of the republic. The pro­consuls of the senate, particularly those of Asia, Greece, and Africa, enjoyed a more honourable character than the lieutenants of the emperor, who commanded in Gaul or Syria. The former were attended by lictors, the latter by soldiers. A law was passed, that wherever the emperor was present, his extraordinary commission should supersede the ordinary jurisdiction of the go­vernor; a custom was introduced, that the new conquests belonged to the Imperial portion; and it was soon discovered, that the authority of the Prince, the favourite epithet of Augustus, was the same in every part of the empire.

In return for this imaginary concession, Au­gustus The for­mer pre­serves his military command, and guards in Rome itself. obtained an important privilege, which rendered him master of Rome and Italy. By a dangerous exception to the ancient maxims, he was authorized to preserve his military command, supported by a numerous body of guards, even in time of peace, and in the heart of the capital. His command, indeed, was confined to those citizens who were engaged in the service by the military oath; but such was the propensity of the Romans to servitude, that the oath was volun­tarily taken by the magistrates, the senators, and the equestrian order, till the homage of flattery was insensibly converted into an annual and so­lemn protestation of fidelity.

Although Augustus considered a military force Consular and tribu­nitian powers. as the firmest foundation, he wisely rejected it, as a very odious instrument of government. It was more agreeable to his temper, as well as to his [Page 104] policy, to reign under the venerable names of ancient magistracy, and artfully to collect, in his own person, all the scattered rays of civil juris­diction. With this view, he permitted the senate to confer upon him, for his life, the powers of the consular ¹¹ and tribunitian offices ¹², which were, in the same manner, continued to all his successors. The consuls had succeeded to the kings of Rome, and represented the dignity of the state. They superintended the ceremonies of religion, levied and commanded the legions, gave audience to foreign ambassadors, and pre­sided in the assemblies both of the senate and people. The general control of the finances was intrusted to their care; and though they seldom had leisure to administer justice in person, they were considered as the supreme guardians of law, equity, and the public peace. Such was their ordinary jurisdiction; but whenever the senate empowered the first magistrate to consult the safety of the commonwealth, he was raised by that degree above the laws, and exercised, in the defence of liberty, a temporary despotism ¹³. [Page 105] The character of the tribunes was, in every re­spect, different from that of the consuls. The appearance of the former was modest and hum­ble; but their persons were sacred and inviolable. Their force was suited rather for opposition than for action. They were instituted to defend the oppressed, to pardon offences, to arraign the enemies of the people, and, when they judged it necessary, to stop, by a single word, the whole machine of government. As long as the repub­lic subsisted, the dangerous influence, which ei­ther the consul or the tribune might derive from their respective jurisdiction, was diminished by several important restrictions. Their authority expired with the year in which they were elected; the former office was divided between two, the latter among ten persons; and, as both in their private and public interest they were averse to each other, their mutual conflicts contributed, for the most part, to strengthen rather than to destroy the balance of the constitution. But when the consular and tribunitian powers were united, when they were vested for life in a single person, when the general of the army was, at the same time, the minister of the senate and the representative of the Roman people, it was im­possible to resist the exercise, nor was it easy to define the limits, of his Imperial prerogative.

[Page 106] To these accumulated honours, the policy of Augustus soon added the splendid as well as im­portant dignities of supreme pontiff, and of cen­sor. Imperial preroga­tives. By the former he acquired the management of the religion, and by the latter a legal inspec­tion over the manners and fortunes of the Ro­man people. If so many distinct and independ­ent powers did not exactly unite with each other, the complaisance of the senate was pre­pared to supply every deficiency by the most ample and extraordinary concessions. The em­perors, as the first ministers of the republic, were exempted from the obligation and penalty of many inconvenient laws: they were authori­zed to convoke the senate, to make several mo­tions in the same day, to recommend candidates for the honours of the state, to enlarge the bounds of the city, to employ the revenue at their dis­cretion, to declare peace and war, to ratify trea­ties; and by a most comprehensive clause, they were empowered to execute whatsoever they should judge advantageous to the empire, and agreeable to the majesty of things private or pub­lic, human or divine ¹⁴.

When all the various powers of executive go­vernment The ma­gistrates. were committed to the Imperial magi­strate, the ordinary magistrates of the common­wealth languished in obscurity, without vigour, and almost without business. The names and [Page 107] forms of the ancient administration were preserv­ed by Augustus with the most anxious care. The usual number of consuls, praetors, and tri­bunes ¹⁵, were annually invested with their re­spective ensigns of office, and continued to dis­charge some of their least important functions. Those honours still attracted the vain ambition of the Romans; and the emperors themselves, though invested for life with the powers of the consulship, frequently aspired to the title of that annual dignity, which they condescended to share with the most illustrious of their fellow­citizens ¹⁶. In the election of these magistrates, the people, during the reign of Augustus, were permitted to expose all the inconveniences of a wild democracy. That artful prince, instead of discovering the least symptom of impatience, humbly solicited their suffrages for himself or his friends, and scrupulously practised all the duties [Page 108] of an ordinary candidate ¹⁷. But we may ven­ture to ascribe to his councils, the first measure of the succeeding reign, by which the elections were transferred to the senate ¹⁸. The assemblies of the people were for ever abolished, and the emperors were delivered from a dangerous mul­titude, who, without restoring liberty, might have disturbed, and perhaps endangered, the established government.

By declaring themselves the protectors of the The se­nate. people, Marius and Caesar had subverted the constitution of their country. But as soon as the senate had been humbled and disarmed, such an assembly, consisting of five or six hundred per­sons, was found a much more tractable and use­ful instrument of dominion. It was on the dig­nity of the senate, that Augustus and his suc­cessors founded their new empire; and they af­fected, on every occasion, to adopt the language and principles of Patricians. In the administra­tion of their own powers, they frequently con­sulted the great national council, and seemed to refer to its decision the most important concerns of peace and war. Rome, Italy, and the inter­nal provinces were subject to the immediate juris­diction of the senate. With regard to civil ob­jects, [Page 109] it was the supreme court of appeal; with regard to criminal matters, a tribunal, constituted for the trial of all offences that were committed by men in any public station, or that affected the peace and majesty of the Roman people. The exercise of the judicial power became the most frequent and serious occupation of the senate; and the important causes that were pleaded be­fore them, afforded a last refuge to the spirit of ancient eloquence. As a council of state, and as a court of justice, the senate possessed very con­siderable prerogatives; but in its legislative ca­pacity, in which it was supposed virtually to represent the people, the rights of sovereignty were acknowledged to reside in that assembly. Every power was derived from their authority, every law was ratified by their sanction. Their regular meetings were held on three stated days in every month, the Calends, the Nones, and the Ides. The debates were conducted with decent freedom; and the emperors themselves, who gloried in the name of senators, sat, voted, and divided with their equals.

To resume, in a few words, the system of the General idea of the Imperial system. Imperial government; as it was instituted by Augustus, and maintained by those princes who understood their own interest and that of the people, it may be defined an absolute monarchy disguised by the forms of a commonwealth. The masters of the Roman world surrounded their throne with darkness, concealed their irre­sistible strength, and humbly prosessed themselves [Page 110] the accountable ministers of the senate, whose supreme decrees they dictated and obeyed ¹⁹.

The face of the court corresponded with the Court of the empe­rors. forms of the administration. The emperors, if we except those tyrants whose capricious folly violated every law of nature and decency, dif­dained that pomp and ceremony which might offend their countrymen, but could add nothing to their real power. In all the offices of life, they affected to confound themselves with their subjects, and maintained with them an equal in­tercourse of visits and entertainments. Their habit, their palace, their table, were suited only to the rank of an opulent senator. Their family, however numerous or splendid, was composed entirely of their domestic slaves and freedmen ²⁰. Augustus or Trajan would have blushed at em­ploying the meanest of the Romans in those me­nial offices, which, in the household and bed­chamber of a limited monarch, are so eagerly solicited by the proudest nobles of Britain.

[Page 111] The deification of the emperors ²¹ is the only instance in which they departed from their accus­tomed prudence and modesty. The Asiatic Deifica­tion. Greeks were the first inventors, the successors of Alexander the first objects, of this servile and impious mode of adulation. It was easily trans­ferred from the kings to the governors of Asia; and the Roman magistrates very frequently were adored as provincial deities, with the pomp of altars and temples, of festivals and sacrifices ²². It was natural that the emperors should not re­fuse what the proconsuls had accepted; and the divine honours which both the one and the other received from the provinces, attested rather the despotism than the servitude of Rome. But the conquerors soon imitated the vanquished nations in the arts of flattery; and the imperious spirit of the first Caesar too easily consented to assume, during his life-time, a place among the tutelar deities of Rome. The milder temper of his suc­cessor declined so dangerous an ambition, which was never afterwards revived, except by the madness of Caligula and Domitian. Augustus permitted indeed some of the provincial cities to erect temples to his honour, on condition that they should associate the worship of Rome with that of the sovereign; he tolerated private super­stition, [Page 112] of which he might be the object ²³; but he contented himself with being revered by the senate and people in his human character, and wisely left to his successor, the care of his public deification. A regular custom was introduced, that on the decease of every emperor who had neither lived nor died like a tyrant, the senate by a solemn decree should place him in the number of the gods: and the ceremonies of his Apo­theosis were blended with those of his funeral. This legal, and, as it should seem, injudicious profanation, so abhorrent to our stricter prin­ciples, was received with a very faint murmur ²⁴, by the easy nature of Polytheism; but it was received as an institution, not of religion but of policy. We should disgrace the virtues of the Antonines, by comparing them with the vices of Hercules or Jupiter. Even the character of Caesar or Augustus were far superior to those of the popular deities. But it was the misfor­tune of the former to live in an enlightened age, and their actions were too faithfully recorded to admit of such a mixture of fable and mystery, as the devotion of the vulgar requires. As soon as their divinity was established by law, it sunk into oblivion, without contributing either to their own fame, or to the dignity of succeeding princes.

[Page 113] In the consideration of the Imperial govern­ment, we have frequently mentioned the artful founder, under his well-known title of Augustus, Titles of Augustus and Caesar. which was not however conferred upon him, till the edifice was almost completed. The obscure name of Octavianus, he derived from a mean family, in the little town of Aricia. It was stain­ed with the blood of the proscription; and he was desirous, had it been possible, to erase all memory of his former life. The illustrious sur­name of Caesar, he had assumed, as the adopted son of the dictator; but he had too much good sense, either to hope to be confounded, or to wish to be compared, with that extraordinary man. It was proposed in the senate, to dignify their minister with a new appellation: and after a very serious discussion, that of Augustus was chosen, among several others, as being the most expressive of the character of peace and sanctity, which he uniformly affected ²⁵. Augustus was therefore a personal, Caesar a family distinction. The former should naturally have expired with the prince on whom it was bestowed; and how­ever the latter was diffused by adoption and fe­male alliance, Nero was the last prince who could allege any hereditary claim to the honours of the Julian line. But, at the time of his death, the practice of a century had inseparably connected those appellations with the Imperial dignity, and they have been preserved by a long succession of [Page 114] emperors, Romans, Greeks, Franks, and Ger­mans, from the fall of the republic to the pre­sent time. A distinction was, however, soon introduced. The sacred title of Augustus was always reserved for the monarch, whilst the name of Caesar was more freely communicated to his relations; and, from the reign of Hadrian, at least, was appropriated to the second person in the state, who was considered as the presumptive heir of the empire.

The tender respect of Augustus for a free con­stitution Character and policy of Augus­tus. which he had destroyed, can only be explained by an attentive consideration of the character of that subtle tyrant. A cool head, an unfeeling heart, and a cowardly disposition, prompted him, at the age of nineteen, to assume the mask of hypocrisy, which he never afterwards laid aside. With the same hand, and probably with the same temper, he signed the proscription of Cicero, and the pardon of Cinna. His vir­tues, and even his vices, were artificial; and according to the various dictates of his interest, he was at first the enemy, and at last the father, of the Roman world ²⁶. When he framed the artful system of the Imperial authority, his mo­deration was inspired by his fears. He wished to [Page 115] deceive the people by an image of civil liberty, and the armies by an image of civil govern­ment.

I. The death of Caesar was ever before his Image of liberty for the people. eyes. He had lavished wealth and honours on his adherents; but the most favoured friends of his uncle were in the number of the conspirators. The fidelity of the legions might defend his authority against open rebellion; but their vigi­lance could not secure his person from the dag­ger of a determined republican; and the Romans, who revered the memory of Brutus ²⁷, would ap­plaud the imitation of his virtue. Caesar had provoked his fate, as much by the ostentation of his power, as by his power itself. The consul or the tribune might have reigned in peace. The title of king had armed the Romans against his life. Augustus was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his expectation, that the senate and people would submit to slavery, provided they were respectfully assured, that they still enjoyed their ancient free­dom. A feeble senate and enervated people cheer­fully acquiesced in the pleasing illusion, as long as it was supported by the virtue, or even by the pru­dence, of the successors of Augustus. It was a motive of self-preservation, not a principle of liberty, that animated the conspirators against Caligula, Nero, and Domitian. They attacked [Page 116] the person of the tyrant, without aiming their blow at the authority of the emperor.

There appears, indeed, one memorable occa­sion, Attempt of the se­nate after the death of Caligu­la. in which the senate, after seventy years of patience, made an ineffectual attempt to reassume its long forgotten rights. When the throne was vacant by the murder of Caligula, the consuls convoked that assembly in the Capitol, condemn­ed the memory of the Caesars, gave the watch­word liberty to the few cohorts who faintly ad­hered to their standard, and during eight and forty hours acted as the independent chiefs of a free commonwealth. But while they deliberated, the Praetorian guards had resolved. The stupid Claudius, brother of Germanicus, was already in their camp, invested with the Imperial purple, and prepared to support his election by arms. The dream of liberty was at an end; and the senate awoke to all the horrors of inevitable ser­vitude. Deserted by the people, and threatened by a military force, that feeble assembly was compelled to ratify the choice of the Praetorians, and to embrace the benefit of an amnesty, which Claudius had the prudence to offer, and the ge­nerosity to observe ²⁸.

II. The insolence of the armies inspired Au­gustus Image of govern­ment for the armies. with fears of a still more alarming nature. The despair of the citizens could only attempt, what the power of the soldiers was, at any time, [Page 117] able to execute. How precarious was his own authority over men whom he had taught to vio­late every social duty! He had heard their se­ditious clamours; he dreaded their calmer mo­ments of reflection. One revolution had been purchased by immense rewards; but a second revolution might double those rewards. The troops professed the fondest attachment to the house of Caesar; but the attachments of the mul­titude are capricious and inconstant. Augustus summoned to his aid, whatever remained in those fierce minds, of Roman prejudices; enforced the rigour of discipline by the sanction of law; and interposing the majesty of the senate, between the emperor and the army, boldly claimed their alle­giance, as the first magistrate of the republic ²⁹.

During a long period of two hundred and Their obe­dience. twenty years, from the establishment of this art­ful system to the death of Commodus, the dan­gers inherent to a military government were, in a great measure, suspended. The soldiers were seldom roused to that fatal sense of their own strength, and of the weakness of the civil autho­rity, which was, before and afterwards, produc­tive of such dreadful calamities. Caligula and Domitian were assassinated in their palace by their own domestics: the convulsions which agitated Rome on the death of the former, were confined to the walls of the city. But Nero involved the [Page 118] whole empire in his ruin. In the space of eigh­teen months, four princes perished by the sword; and the Roman world was shaken by the fury of the contending armies. Excepting only this short, though violent, eruption of military li­cence, the two centuries from Augustus to Com­modus passed away unstained with civil blood, and undisturbed by revolutions. The emperor was elected by the authority of the senate, and the consent of the soldiers ³⁰. The legions respected their oath of fidelity; and it requires a minute inspection of the Roman annals to discover three inconsiderable rebellions, which were all sup­pressed in a few months, and without even the hazard of a battle ³¹.

In elective monarchies, the vacancy of the Designa­tion of a successor. throne is a moment big with danger and mischief. The Roman emperors, desirous to spare the le­gions that interval of suspense, and the tempt­ation of an irregular choice, invested their de­signed successor with so large a share of present power, as should enable him, after their decease, to assume the remainder, without suffering the empire to perceive the change of masters. Thus [Page 119] Augustus, after all his fairer prospects had been snatched from him by untimely deaths, rested his last hopes on Tiberius, obtained for his adopted Of Tibe­rius. son the censorial and tribunitian powers, and dictated a law, by which the future prince was invested with an authority equal to his own, over the provinces and the armies ³². Thus Vespa­sian Of Titus. subdued the generous mind of his eldest son. Titus was adored by the eastern legions, which, under his command, had recently atchieved the conquest of Judaea. His power was dreaded, and, as his virtues were clouded by the intem­perance of youth, his designs were suspected. Instead of listening to such unworthy suspicions, the prudent monarch associated Titus to the full powers of the Imperial dignity; and the grate­ful son ever approved himself the humble and faithful minister of so indulgent a father ³³.

The good sense of Vespasian engaged him in­deed The race of the Cae­sars and the Flavi­an family. to embrace every measure that might con­firm his recent and precarious elevation. The military oath, and the fidelity of the troops, had been consecrated, by the habits of an hundred years, to the name and family of the Caesars: and although that family had been continued only by the fictitious rite of adoption, the Ro­mans still revered, in the person of Nero, the grandson of Germanicus, and the lineal successor of Augustus. It was not without reluctance and remorse, that the Praetorian guards had been [Page 120] persuaded to abandon the cause of the tyrant ³⁴. The rapid downfal of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, taught the armies to consider the emperors as the creatures of their will, and the instruments of their licence. The birth of Vespasian was mean; his grandfather had been a private soldier, his father a petty officer of the revenue ³⁵; his own merit had raised him, in an advanced age, to the empire; but his merit was rather useful than shining, and his virtues were disgraced by a strict and even forbid parsimony. Such a prince con­sulted his true interest by the association of a son, whose more splendid and amiable character might turn the public attention, from the obscure ori­gin, to the future glories of the Flavian house. Under the mild administration of Titus, the Roman world enjoyed a transient felicity, and his beloved memory served to protect, above fifteen years, the vices of his brother Domitian.

Nerva had scarcely accepted the purple from A. D. 96. the assassins of Domitian, before he discovered Adoption and cha­racter of Trajan. that his feeble age was unable to stem the tor­rent of public disorders, which had multiplied under the long tyranny of his predecessor. His mild disposition was respected by the good; but the degenerate Romans required a more vigorous character, whose justice should strike terror into the guilty. Though he had several relations, he [Page 121] fixed his choice on a stranger. He adopted Tra­jan, then about forty years of age, and who com­manded a powerful army in the Lower Germany; and immediately, by a decree of the senate, de­clared him his colleague and successor in the empire ³⁶. It is sincerely to be lamented, that A. D. 98. whilst we are fatigued with the disgustful relation of Nero's crimes and follies, we are reduced to collect the actions of Trajan from the glimmer­ings of an abridgment, or the doubtful light of a panegyric. There remains, however, one pa­negyric far removed beyond the suspicion of flat­tery. Above two hundred and fifty years after the death of Trajan, the senate, in pouring out the customary acclamations on the accession of a new emperor, wished that he might surpass the felicity of Augustus, and the virtue of Tra­jan ³⁷.

We may readily believe, that the father of his A. D. 117. country hesitated whether he ought to intrust the Of Hadri­an. various and doubtful character of his kinsman Hadrian with sovereign power. In his last mo­ments, the arts of the empress Plotina either fixed the irresolution of Trajan, or boldly sup­posed a fictitious adoption ³⁸; the truth of which could not be safely disputed, and Hadrian was [Page 122] peaceably acknowledged as his lawful successor. Under his reign, as has been already mentioned, the empire flourished in peace and prosperity. He encouraged the arts, reformed the laws, as­serted military discipline, and visited all his provinces in person. His vast and active genius was equally suited to the most enlarged views, and the minute details of civil policy. But the ruling passions of his soul were curiosity and va­nity. As they prevailed, and as they were at­tracted by different objects, Hadrian was, by turns, an excellent prince, a ridiculous sophist, and a jealous tyrant. The general tenor of his conduct deserved praise for its equity and mode­ration. Yet in the first days of his reign, he put to death four consular senators, his personal ene­mies, and men who had been judged worthy of empire; and the tediousness of a painful illness rendered him, at last, peevish and cruel. The senate doubted whether they should pronounce him a god or a tyrant; and the honours decreed to his memory were granted to the prayers of the pious Antoninus ³⁹.

The caprice of Hadrian influenced his choice Adoption of the el­der and younger Verus. of a successor. After revolving in his mind se­veral men of distinguished merit, whom he esteemed and hated, he adopted Aelius Verus, a gay and voluptuous nobleman, recommended by uncommon beauty to the lover of Antinous ⁴⁰. [Page 123] But while Hadrian was delighting himself with his own applause, and the acclamations of the soldiers, whose consent had been secured by an immense donative, the new Caesar ⁴¹ was ravished from his embraces by an untimely death. He left only one son. Hadrian commended the boy to the gratitude of the Antonines. He was adopted by Pius; and, on the accession of Mar­cus, was invested with an equal share of sove­reign power. Among the many vices of this younger Verus, he possessed one virtue; a duti­ful reverence for his wiser colleague, to whom he willingly abandoned the ruder cares of em­pire. The philosophic emperor dissembled his follies, lamented his early death, and cast a de­cent veil over his memory.

As soon as Hadrian's passion was either grati­fied Adoption of the two Anto­nines. or disappointed, he resolved to deserve the thanks of posterity, by placing the most exalted merit on the Roman throne. His discerning eye easily discovered a senator about fifty years of age, blameless in all the offices of life, and a youth of about seventeen, whose riper years opened the fair prospect of every virtue: the elder of these was declared the son and successor of Hadrian, on condition, however, that he him­self should immediately adopt the younger. The two Antonines (for it is of them that we are now speaking) governed the Roman world forty-two A. D. 138.—180. [Page 124] years, with the same invariable spirit of wisdom and virtue. Although Pius had two sons ⁴², he preferred the welfare of Rome to the interest of his family, gave his daughter Faustina in mar­riage to young Marcus, obtained from the se­nate the tribunitian and proconsular powers, and with a noble disdain, or rather ignorance of jea­lousy, associated him to all the labours of go­vernment. Marcus, on the other hand, revered the character of his benefactor, loved him as a parent, obeyed him as his sovereign ⁴³, and, af­ter he was no more, regulated his own admini­stration by the example and maxims of his pre­decessor. Their united reigns are possibly the only period of history in which the happiness of a great people was the sole object of govern­ment.

Titus Antoninus Pius has been justly deno­minated Character and reign of Pius. a second Numa. The same love of re­ligion, justice, and peace, was the distinguishing characteristic of both princes. But the situation of the latter opened a much larger field for the exercise of those virtues. Numa could only prevent a few neighbouring villages from plun­dering each other's harvests. Antoninus diffused order and tranquillity over the greatest part of the earth. His reign is marked by the rare ad­vantage of furnishing very few materials for his­tory; which is, indeed, little more than the [Page 125] register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. In private life, he was an amia­ble, as well as a good man. The native sim­plicity of his virtue was a stranger to vanity or affectation. He enjoyed with moderation, the conveniencies of his fortune, and the innocent pleasures of society ⁴⁴; and the benevolence of his soul displayed itself in a cheerful serenity of tem­per.

The virtue of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was Of Mar­cus. of a severer and more laborious kind ⁴⁵. It was the well-earned harvest of many a learned con­ference, of many a patient lecture, and many a midnight lucubration. At the age of twelve years he embraced the rigid system of the Stoicks, which taught him to submit his body to his mind, his passions to his reason; to consider vir­tue as the only good, vice as the only evil, all things external, as things indifferent ⁴⁶. His [Page 126] meditations, composed in the tumult of a camp, are still extant; and he even condescended to give lessons of philosophy, in a more public manner, than was perhaps consistent with the modesty of a sage, or the dignity of an empe­ror ⁴⁷. But his life was the noblest commentary on the precepts of Zeno. He was severe to him­self, indulgent to the imperfection of others, just and beneficent to all mankind. He regret­ted that Avidius Cassius, who excited a rebellion in Syria, had disappointed him, by a voluntary death, of the pleasure of converting an enemy into a friend; and he justified the sincerity of that sentiment, by moderating the zeal of the senate against the adherents of the traitor ⁴⁸. War he detested, as the disgrace and calamity of human nature; but when the necessity of a just defence called upon him to take up arms, he readily exposed his person to eight winter campaigns, on the frozen banks of the Danube, the severity of which was at last fatal to the weakness of his con­stitution. His memory was revered by a grate­ful posterity, and above a century after his death, many persons preserved the image of Marcus Antoninus, among those of their household gods ⁴⁹.

If a man were called to fix the period in the Happiness of the Ro­mans. history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosper­rous, [Page 127] he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus. The vast extent of the Roman empire was governed by absolute power, under the guidance of virtue and wisdom. The armies were restrained by the firm but gen­tle hand of four successive emperors, whose cha­racters and authority commanded involuntary respect. The forms of the civil administration were carefully preserved by Nerva, Trajan, Ha­drian, and the Antonines, who delighted in the image of liberty, and were pleased with consider­ing themselves as the accountable ministers of the laws. Such princes deserved the honour of re­storing the republic, had the Romans of their days been capable of enjoying a rational free­dom.

The labours of these monarchs were overpaid Its preca­rious na­ture. by the immense reward that inseparably waited on their success; by the honest pride of virtue, and by the exquisite delight of beholding the general happiness of which they were the authors. A just, but melancholy reflection embittered, however, the noblest of human enjoyments. They must often have recollected the instability of a happiness which depended on the character of a single man. The fatal moment was perhaps approaching, when some licentious youth, or some jealous tyrant, would abuse, to the destruc­tion, that absolute power, which they had ex­erted for the benefit of their people. The ideal restraints of the senate and the laws might serve [Page 128] to display the virtues, but could never correct the vices, of the emperor. The military force was a blind and irresistible instrument of oppres­sion; and the corruption of Roman manners would always supply flatteres eager to applaud, and ministers prepared to serve, the fear or the avarice, the lust or the cruelty, of their masters.

These gloomy apprehensions had been already Memory of Tiberi­us, Cali­gula, Ne­ro, and Domitian. justified by the experience of the Romans. The annals of the emperors exhibit a strong and various picture of human nature, which we should vainly seek among the mixed and doubtful characters of modern history. In the conduct of those monarchs we may trace the utmost lines of vice and virtue; the most exalted perfection, and the meanest degeneracy of our own species. The golden age of Trajan and the Antonines had been preceded by an age of iron. It is almost super­fluous to enumerate the unworthy successors of Augustus. Their unparalleled vices, and the splendid theatre on which they were acted, have saved them from oblivion. The dark unrelent­ing Tiberius, the furious Caligula, the feeble Claudius, the profligate and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius ⁵⁰, and the timid inhuman Do­mitian, are condemned to everlasting infamy. [Page 129] During fourscore years (excepting only the short and doubtful respite of Vespasian's reign ⁵¹) Rome groaned beneath an unremitting tyranny, which exterminated the ancient families of the repub­lic, and was fatal to almost every virtue, and every talent, that arose in that unhappy period.

Under the reign of these monsters, the slavery Peculiar misery of the Ro­mans un­der their tyrants. of the Romans was accompanied with two pecu­liar circumstances, the one occasioned by their former liberty, the other by their extensive con­quests, which rendered their condition more com­pletely wretched than that of the victims of ty­ranny in any other age or country. From these causes were derived, 1. The exquisite sensibility of the sufferers; and, 2. the impossibility of escaping from the hand of the oppressor.

I. When Persia was governed by the descend­ants Insensibi­lity of the Orientals. of Sefi, a race of princes, whose wanton cru­elty often stained their divan; their table, and their bed, with the blood of their favourites, there is a saying recorded of a young nobleman, That he never departed from the sultan's pre­sence, without satisfying himself whether his head was still on his shoulders. The experience of every day might almost justify the scepticism of Rustan ⁵². Yet the fatal sword, suspended above him by a single thread, seems not to have disturbed the slumbers, or interrupted the tran­quillity, of the Persian. The monarch's frown, he well knew, could level him with the dust; [Page 130] but the stroke of lightning or apoplexy might be equally fatal; and it was the part of a wise man, to forget the inevitable calamities of human life in the enjoyment of the fleeting hour. He was dignified with the appellation of the king's slave; had, perhaps, been purchased from obscure pa­rents, in a country which he had never known; and was trained up from his infancy in the severe discipline of the seraglio ⁵³. His name, his wealth, his honours, were the gift of a master, who might, without injustice, resume what he had bestowed. Rustan's knowledge, if he possessed any, could only serve to confirm his habits by prejudices. His language afforded not words for any form of government, except absolute monarchy. The history of the east informed him, that such had ever been the condition of mankind ⁵⁴. The Koran, and the interpreters of that divine book, inculcated to him, that the sultan was the de­scendant of the prophet, and the vicegerent of heaven; that patience was the first virtue of a Mussulman, and unlimited obedience the great duty of a subject.

The minds of the Romans were very differ­ently Know­ledge and free spirit of the Ro­mans. prepared for slavery. Oppressed beneath the weight of their own corruption and of mili­tary violence, they for a long while preserved the [Page 131] sentiments, or at least the ideas, of their free­born ancestors. The education of Helvidius and Thrasea, of Tacitus and Pliny, was the same as that of Cato and Cicero. From Grecian phi­losophy, they had imbibed the justest and most liberal notions of the dignity of human nature, and the origin of civil society. The history of their own country had taught them to revere a free, a virtuous, and a victorious commonwealth; to abhor the successful crimes of Caesar and Au­gustus; and inwardly to despise those tyrants whom they adored with the most abject flattery. As magistrates and senators, they were admitted into the great council, which had once dictated laws to the earth, whose name still gave a sanc­tion to the acts of the monarch, and whose au­thority was so often prostituted to the vilest pur­poses of tyranny. Tiberius, and those emperors who adopted his maxims, attempted to disguise their murders by the formalities of justice, and perhaps enjoyed a secret pleasure in rendering the senate their accomplice as well as their victim. By this assembly, the last of the Romans were condemned for imaginary crimes and real vir­tues. Their infamous accusers assumed the lan­guage of independent patriots, who arraigned a dangerous citizen before the tribunal of his coun­try; and the public service was rewarded by riches and honours ⁵⁵. The servile judges pro­fessed [Page 132] to assert the majesty of the commonwealth, violated in the person of its first magistrate ⁵⁶, whose clemency they most applauded when they trembled the most at his inexorable and impend­ing cruelty ⁵⁷. The tyrant beheld their baseness with just contempt, and encountered their secret sentiments of detestation with sincere and avowed hatred for the whole body of the senate.

II. The division of Europe into a number of Extent of their em­pire left them no place of refuge. independent states, connected, however, with each other, by the general resemblance of religion, language, and manners, is productive of the most beneficial consequences to the liberty of mankind. A modern tyrant, who should find no resistance either in his own breast, or in his people, would soon experience a gentle restraint from the example of his equals, the dread of present censure, the advice of his allies, and the apprehension of his enemies. The object of his displeasure, escaping from the narrow limits of [Page 133] his dominions, would easily obtain, in a happier climate, a secure refuge, a new fortune adequate to his merit, the freedom of complaint, and per­haps the means of revenge. But the empire of the Romans filled the world, and when that empire fell into the hands of a single person, the world became a safe and dreary prison for his enemies. The slave of Imperial despotism, whe­ther he was condemned to drag his gilded chain in Rome and the senate, or to wear out a life of exile on the barren rock of Seriphus, or the fro­zen banks of the Danube, expected his fate in silent despair ⁵⁸. To resist was fatal, and it was impossible to fly. On every side he was encom­passed with a vast extent of sea and land, which he could never hope to traverse without being discovered, seized, and restored to his irritated master. Beyond the frontiers, his anxious view could discover nothing, except the ocean, in­hospitable deserts, hostile tribes of barbarians, of fierce manners and unknown language, or de­pendent kings, who would gladly purchase the emperor's protection by the sacrifice of an ob­noxious fugitive ⁵⁹. ‘Wherever you are, said [Page 134] Cicero to the exiled Marcellus, remember that you are equally within the power of the con­queror ⁶⁰.’

THE mildness of Marcus, which the rigid discipline of the Stoics was unable to era­dicate, formed, at the same time, the most ami­able, Indul­gence of Marcus. and the only defective, part of his charac­ter. His excellent understanding was often de­ceived by the unsuspecting goodness of his heart. Artful men, who study the passions of princes, and conceal their own, approached his person in the disguise of philosophic sanctity, and acquired riches and honours by affecting to despise them ¹. His excessive indulgence to his brother, his wife, and his son, exceeded the bounds of private vir­tue, and became a public injury, by the example and consequences of their vices.

Faustina, the daughter of Pius and the wife to his wife Faustina; of Marcus, has been as much celebrated for her gallantries as for her beauty. The grave sim­plicity of the philosopher was ill calculated to engage her wanton levity, or to fix that un­bounded passion for variety, which often disco­vered personal merit in the meanest of man­kind ². [Page 136] The Cupid of the ancients was, in ge­neral, a very sensual deity; and the amours of an empress, as they exact on her side the plainest advances, are seldom susceptible of much senti­mental delicacy. Marcus was the only man in the empire who seemed ignorant or insensible of the irregularities of Faustina; which, according to the prejudices of every age, reflected some disgrace on the injured husband. He promoted several of her lovers to posts of honour and pro­fit ³, and during a connexion of thirty years, in­variably gave her proofs of the most tender con­fidence, and of a respect which ended not with her life. In his Meditations, he thanks the gods, who had bestowed on him a wife, so faithful, so gentle, and of such a wonderful simplicity of manners ⁴. The obsequious senate, at his ear­nest request, declared her a goddess. She was represented in her temples, with the attributes of Juno, Venus, and Ceres; and it was decreed, that, on the day of their nuptials, the youth of either sex should pay their vows before the altar of their chaste patroness ⁵.

[Page 137] The monstrous vices of the son have cast a shade on the purity of the father's virtues. It has been objected to Marcus, that he sacrificed to his son Commo­dus. the happiness of millions to a fond partiality for a worthless boy; and that he chose a successor in his own family, rather than in the republic. Nothing, however, was neglected by the anxious father, and by the men of virtue and learning whom he summoned to his assistance, to expand the narrow mind of young Commodus, to cor­rect his growing vices, and to render him wor­thy of the throne, for which he was designed. But the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous. The distasteful lesson of a grave philosopher was, in a moment, obli­terated by the whisper of a profligate favourite; and Marcus himself blasted the fruits of this laboured education, by admitting his son, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, to a full participation of the Imperial power. He lived but four years afterwards; but he lived long enough to repent a rash measure, which raised the impetuous youth above the restraint of reason and authority.

Most of the crimes which disturb the internal Accession of the em­peror Commo­dus. peace of society, are produced by the restraints which the necessary, but unequal laws of pro­perty, have imposed on the appetites of man­kind, by confining to a few the possession of those objects that are coveted by many. Of all our passions and appetites, the love of power is of the most imperious and unsociable nature, since the pride of one man requires the submission of [Page 138] the multitude. In the tumult of civil discord, the laws of society lose their force, and their place is seldom supplied by those of humanity. The ardor of contention, the pride of victory, the despair of success, the memory of past injuries, and the fear of future dangers, all contribute to inflame the mind, and to silence the voice of pity. From such motives almost every page of history has been stained with civil blood; but these motives will not account for the unprovok­ed cruelties of Commodus, who had nothing to wish, and every thing to enjoy. The beloved son of Marcus succeeded to his father, amidst A. D. 180. the acclamations of the senate and armies ⁶, and when he ascended the throne, the happy youth saw round him neither competitor to remove, nor enemies to punish. In this calm elevated station, it was surely natural, that he should prefer the love of mankind to their detestation, the mild glories of his five predecessors, to the ignomi­nious fate of Nero, and Domitian.

Yet Commodus was not, as he has been repre­sented, Character of Com­modus. a tiger born with an insatiate thirst of human blood, and capable, from his infancy, of the most inhuman actions ⁷. Nature had formed him of a weak, rather than a wicked disposition. His simplicity and timidity rendered him the slave of his attendants, who gradually corrupted his [Page 139] mind. His cruelty, which at first obeyed the dictates of others, degenerated into habit, and at length became the ruling passion of his soul ⁸.

Upon the death of his father, Commodus He returns to Rome. found himself embarrassed with the command of a great army, and the conduct of a difficult war against the Quadi and Marcomanni ⁹. The servile and profligate youths whom Marcus had banished, soon regained their station and influ­ence about the new emperor. They exaggerated the hardships and dangers of a campaign in the wild countries beyond the Danube; and they assured the indolent prince, that the terror of his name and the arms of his lieutenants would be sufficient to complete the conquest of the dismay­ed barbarians; or to impose such conditions, as were more advantageous than any conquest. By a dextrous application to his sensual appetites, they compared the tranquillity, the splendour, the refined pleasures of Rome, with the tumult of a Pannonian camp, which afforded neither leisure nor materials for luxury ¹⁰. Commodus listened to the pleasing advice; but whilst he hesitated between his own inclination, and the awe which he still retained for his father's counsellors, the summer insensibly elapsed, and his triumphal entry into the capital was deferred till the autumn. His graceful person ¹¹, popular address, and imagined [Page 140] virtues, attracted the public favour; the honour­able peace which he had recently granted to the barbarians, diffused an universal joy ¹²; his im­patience to revisit Rome was fondly ascribed to the love of his country; and his dissolute course of amusements was faintly condemned in a prince of nineteen years of age.

During the three first years of his reign, the forms, and even the spirit of the old administra­tion were maintained by those faithful counsel­lors, to whom Marcus had recommended his son, and for whose wisdom and integrity Com­modus still entertained a reluctant esteem. The young prince and his profligate favourites revel­led in all the licence of sovereign power; but his hands were yet unstained with blood; and he had even displayed a generosity of sentiment, which might perhaps have ripened into solid virtue ¹³. A fatal incident decided his fluctuating character.

One evening, as the emperor was returning to Is wound­ed by an assassin. the palace through a dark and narrow portico in the amphitheatre ¹⁴, an assassin, who waited his A. D. 183. passage, rushed upon him with a drawn sword, loudly exclaiming, ‘"The senate sends you this."’ The menace prevented the deed; the assassin was seized by the guards, and immediately revealed the authors of the conspiracy. It had been form­ed, [Page 141] not in the state, but within the walls of the palace. Lucilla, the emperor's sister, and widow of Lucius Verus, impatient of the second rank, and jealous of the reigning empress, had armed the murderer against her brother's life. She had not ventured to communicate the black design to her second husband Claudius Pompeianus, a se­nator of distinguished merit and unshaken loy­alty; but among the crowd of her lovers (for she imitated the manners of Faustina) she found men of desperate fortunes and wild ambition, who were prepared to serve her more violent, as well as her tender passions. The conspirators experienced the rigor of justice, and the abandoned princess was punished, first with exile, and afterwards with death ¹⁵.

But the words of the assassin sunk deep into the Hatred and cruelty of Commo­dus to­wards the senate. mind of Commodus, and left an indelible im­pression of fear and hatred against the whole body of the senate. Those whom he had dreaded as importunate ministers, he now suspected as secret enemies. The Delators, a race of men discou­raged, and almost extinguished, under the for­mer reigns; again became formidable, as soon as they discovered that the emperor was desirous of finding disaffection and treason in the senate. That assembly, whom Marcus had ever considered as the great council of the nation, was composed of the most distinguished of the Romans; and distinction of every kind soon became criminal. [Page 142] The possession of wealth stimulated the diligence of the informers; rigid virtue implied a tacit censure of the irregularities of Commodus; im­portant services implied a dangerous superiority of merit; and the friendship of the father always ensured the aversion of the son. Suspicion was equivalent to proof. Trial to condemnation. The execution of a considerable senator was at­tended with the death of all who might lament or revenge his fate; and when Commodus had once tasted human blood, he became incapable of pity or remorse.

Of these innocent victims of tyranny, none The Quin­tilian bro­thers. died more lamented than the two brothers of the Quintilian family, Maximus and Condianus; whose fraternal love has saved their names from oblivion, and endeared their memory to poste­rity. Their studies and their occupations, their pursuits and their pleasures, were still the same. In the enjoyment of a great estate, they never admitted the idea of a separate interest; some fragments are now extant of a treatise which they composed in common; and in every action of life it was observed, that their two bodies were animated by one soul. The Antonines, who valued their virtues, and delighted in their uni­on, raised them, in the same year, to the con­sulship: and Marcus afterwards intrusted to their joint care, the civil administration of Greece, and a great military command, in which they obtained a signal victory over the Germans. The [Page 143] kind cruelty of Commodus united them in death ¹⁶.

The tyrant's rage, after having shed the noblest The mi­nister Per­ennis. blood of the senate, at length recoiled on the principal instrument of his cruelty. Whilst Com­modus was immersed in blood and luxury, he devolved the detail of the public business on Per­ennis; a servile and ambitious minister, who had obtained his post by the murder of his pre­decessor, but who possessed a considerable share of vigour and ability. By acts of extortion, and the forfeited estates of the nobles sacrificed to his avarice, he had accumulated an immense trea­sure. The Praetorian guards were under his im­mediate command; and his son, who already discovered a military genius, was at the head of the Illyrian legions. Perennis aspired to the empire; or what, in the eyes of Commodus, amounted to the same crime, he was capable of aspiring to it, had he not been prevented, sur­prised, and put to death. The fall of a minister A. D. 186. is a very trifling incident in the general history of the empire; but it was hastened by an extra­ordinary circumstance, which proved how much the nerves of discipline were already relaxed. The legions of Britain, discontented with the administration of Perennis, formed a deputation of fifteen hundred select men, with instructions to march to Rome, and lay their complaints before the emperor. These military petitioners, [Page 144] by their own determined behaviour, by inflaming the divisions of the guards, by exaggerating the strength of the British army, and by alarming the fears of Commodus, exacted and obtained the minister's death, as the only redress of their grievances ¹⁷. This presumption of a distant army, and their discovery of the weakness of government, was a sure presage of the most dreadful convulsions.

The negligence of the public administration Revolt of Maternus. was betrayed soon afterwards, by a new disorder which arose from the smallest beginnings. A spirit of desertion began to prevail among the troops; and the deserters, instead of seeking their safety in flight or concealment, infested the highways. Maternus, a private soldier, of a daring boldness above his station, collected these bands of robbers into a little army, set open the prisons, invited the slaves to assert their freedom, and plundered with impunity the rich and de­fenceless cities of Gaul and Spain. The gover­nors of the provinces, who had long been the spectators, and perhaps the partners, of his de­predations, were, at length, roused from their supine indolence by the threatening commands of the emperor. Maternus found that he was en­compassed, and foresaw that he must be over­powered. A great effort of despair was his last resource. He ordered his followers to disperse, [Page 145] to pass the Alps in small parties and various dis­guises, and to assemble at Rome, during the licentious tumult of the festival of Cybele ¹⁸. To murder Commodus, and to ascend the vacant throne, was the ambition of no vulgar robber. His measures were so ably concerted, that his concealed troops already filled the streets of Rome. The envy of an accomplice discovered and ruined this singular enterprise, in the mo­ment when it was ripe for execution ¹⁹.

Suspicious princes often promote the last of The mini­ster Clean­der. mankind from a vain persuasion, that those who have no dependence, except on their favour, will have no attachment, except to the person of their benefactor. Cleander, the successor of Perennis, was a Phrygian by birth; of a nation, over whose stubborn, but servile temper, blows only could prevail ²⁰. He had been sent from his na­tive country to Rome, in the capacity of a slave. As a slave he entered the Imperial palace, ren­dered himself useful to his master's passions, and rapidly ascended to the most exalted station which a subject could enjoy. His influence over the mind of Commodus was much greater than that of his predecessor; for Cleander was devoid of [Page 146] any ability or virtue which could inspire the em­peror with envy or distrust. Avarice was the reigning passion of his soul, and the great prin­ciple His ava­rice and cruelty. of his administration. The rank of Con­sul, of Patrician, of Senator, was exposed to public sale; and it would have been considered as disaffection, if any one had refused to pur­chase these empty and disgraceful honours with the greatest part of his fortune ²¹. In the lucra­tive provincial employments, the minister shared with the governor the spoils of the people. The execution of the laws was venal and arbi­trary. A wealthy criminal might obtain, not only the reversal of the sentence by which he was justly condemned; but might likewise inflict what­ever punishment he pleased on the accuser, the witnesses, and the judge.

By these means, Cleander, in the space of three years, had accumulated more wealth than had ever yet been possessed by any freedman ²². Commodus was perfectly satisfied with the mag­nificent presents which the artful courtier laid at his feet in the most seasonable moments. To divert the public envy, Cleander, under the em­peror's name, erected baths, porticos, and places of exercise, for the use of the people ²³. He [Page 147] flattered himself that the Romans, dazzled and amused by this apparent liberality, would be less affected by the bloody scenes which were daily exhibited; that they would forget the death of Byrrhus, a senator to whose superior merit the late emperor had granted one of his daughters; and that they would forgive the execution of Arrius Antoninus, the last representative of the name and virtues of the Antonines. The for­mer, with more integrity than prudence, had attempted to disclose, to his brother-in-law, the true character of Cleander. An equitable sen­tence pronounced by the latter, when Proconsul of Asia, against a worthless creature of the fa­vourite, proved fatal to him ²⁴. After the fall of Perennis, the terrors of Commodus had, for a short time, assumed the appearance of a return to virtue. He repealed the most odious of his acts, loaded his memory with the public execra­tion, and ascribed to the pernicious counsels of that wicked minister, all the errors of his inex­perienced youth. But his repentance lasted only thirty days; and, under Cleander's tyranny, the administration of Perennis was often regretted.

Pestilence and famine contributed to fill up the Sedition and death of Clean­der. measure of the calamities of Rome ²⁵. The first could be only imputed to the just indignation of the gods; but a monopoly of corn, supported by A. D. 189. the riches and power of the minister, was con­sidered [Page 148] as the immediate cause of the second. The popular discontent, after it had long cir­culated in whispers, broke out in the assembled circus. The people quitted their favourite amuse­ments, for the more delicious pleasure of revenge, rushed in crowds towards a palace in the suburbs, one of the emperor's retirements, and demanded, with angry clamours, the head of the public ene­my. Cleander, who commanded the Praetorian guards ²⁶, ordered a body of cavalry to sally forth, and disperse the seditious multitude. The mul­titude fled with precipitation towards the city; several were slain, and many more were trampled to death: but when the cavalry entered the streets, their pursuit was checked by a shower of stones and darts from the roofs and windows of the houses. The foot guards ²⁷, who had been long jealous of the prerogatives and insolence of the Praetorian cavalry, embraced the party of the people. The tumult became a regular en­gagement, and threatened a general massacre. The Praetorians, at length, gave way, oppressed with numbers; and the tide of popular fury re­turned [Page 149] with redoubled violence against the gates of the palace, where Commodus lay, dissolved in luxury, and alone unconscious of the civil war. It was death to approach his person with the un­welcome news. He would have perished in this supine security, had not two women, his elder sister Fadilla, and Marcia, the most favoured of his concubines, ventured to break into his pre­sence. Bathed in tears, and with dishevelled hair, they threw themselves at his feet; and with all the pressing eloquence of fear, discovered to the affrighted emperor, the crimes of the minister, the rage of the people, and the impending ruin, which, in a few minutes, would burst over his palace and person. Commodus started from his dream of pleasure, and commanded that the head of Cleander should be thrown out to the people. The desired spectacle instantly appeased the tu­mult; and the son of Marcus might even yet have regained the affection and confidence of his subjects ²⁸.

But every sentiment of virtue and humanity Dissolute pleasures of Com­modus. was extinct in the mind of Commodus. Whilst he thus abandoned the reins of empire to these unworthy favourites, he valued nothing in sove­reign power, except the unbounded licence of indulging his sensual appetites. His hours were spent in a seraglio of three hundred beautiful women, and as many boys, of every rank, and of every province; and, wherever the arts of seduction proved ineffectual, the brutal lover had [Page 150] recourse to violence. The ancient historians ²⁹ have expatiated on these abandoned scenes of prostitution, which scorned every restraint of nature or modesty; but it would not be easy to translate their too faithful descriptions into the decency of modern language. The intervals of lust were filled up with the basest amusements. The influence of a polite age, and the labour of His igno­rance and low sports. an attentive education, had never been able to infuse into his rude and brutish mind, the least tincture of learning; and he was the first of the Roman emperors totally devoid of taste for the pleasures of the understanding. Nero himself excelled, or affected to excel, in the elegant arts of music and poetry; nor should we despise his pursuits, had he not converted the pleasing relax­ation of a leisure hour into the serious business and ambition of his life. But Commodus, from his earliest infancy, discovered an aversion to what­ever was rational or liberal, and a fond attach­ment to the amusements of the populace; the sports of the circus and amphitheatre, the com­bats of gladiators, and the hunting of wild beasts. The masters in every branch of learning, whom Marcus provided for his son, were heard with inattention and disgust; whilst the Moors and Parthians, who taught him to dart the javelin and to shoot with the bow, found a disciple who delighted in his application, and soon equalled [Page 151] the most skilful of his instructors, in the steadi­ness of the eye, and the dexterity of the hand.

The servile crowd, whose fortune depended on Hunting of wild beasts. their master's vices, applauded these ignoble pur­suits. The perfidious voice of flattery reminded him, that by exploits of the same nature, by the defeat of the Nemaean lion, and the slaughter of the wild boar of Erymanthus, the Grecian Her­cules had acquired a place among the gods, and an immortal memory among men. They only forgot to observe, that, in the first ages of so­ciety, when the fiercer animals often dispute with man the possession of an unsettled country, a successful war against those savages is one of the most innocent and beneficial labours of heroism. In the civilized state of the Roman empire, the wild beasts had long since retired from the face of man, and the neighbourhood of populous cities. To surprise them in their solitary haunts, and to transport them to Rome, that they might be slain in pomp by the hand of an emperor, was an en­terprise equally ridiculous for the prince, and oppressive for the people ³⁰. Ignorant of these distinctions, Commodus eagerly embraced the glorious resemblance, and stiled himself (as we [Page 152] still read on his medals ³¹) the Roman Hercules. The club and the lion's hide were placed by the side of the throne, amongst the ensigns of sove­reignty; and statues were erected, in which Commodus was represented in the character, and with the attributes, of the god, whose valour and dexterity he endeavoured to emulate in the daily course of his ferocious amusements ³².

Elated with these praises, which gradually Commo­dus dis­plays his skill in the amphithe­atre. extinguished the innate sense of shame, Com­modus resolved to exhibit, before the eyes of the Roman people, those exercises, which till then he had decently confined within the walls of his palace, and to the presence of a few favourites. On the appointed day, the various motives of flattery, fear, and curiosity, attracted to the am­phitheatre an innumerable multitude of spectators; and some degree of applause was deservedly be­stowed on the uncommon skill of the Imperial performer. Whether he aimed at the head or heart of the animal, the wound was alike cer­tain and mortal. With arrows, whose point was shaped into the form of a crescent, Commodus often intercepted the rapid career, and cut asun­der the long bony neck of the ostrich ³³. A pan­ther was let loose; and the archer waited till he had leaped upon a trembling malefactor. In the same instant the shaft flew, the beast dropt dead, and the man remained unhurt. The dens of the [Page 153] amphitheatre disgorged at once a hundred lions; a hundred darts from the unerring hand of Com­modus laid them dead as they ran raging round the Arena. Neither the huge bulk of the ele­phant, nor the scaly hide of the rhinoceros, could defend them from his stroke. Aethiopia and India yielded their most extraordinary produc­tions; and several animals were slain in the am­phitheatre, which had been seen only in the representations of art, or perhaps of fancy ³⁴. In all these exhibitions, the securest precautions were used to protect the person of the Roman Hercules from the desperate spring of any savage; who might possibly disregard the dignity of the emperor, and the sanctity of the god ³⁵.

But the meanest of the populace were affected Acts as a gladiator. with shame and indignation when they beheld their sovereign enter the lists as a gladiator, and glory in a profession which the laws and manners of the Romans had branded with the justest note of infamy ³⁶. He chose the habit and arms of [Page 154] the Secutor, whose combat with the Retiarius formed one of the most lively scenes in the bloody sports of the amphitheatre. The Secutor was armed with an helmet, sword, and buckler; his naked antagonist had only a large net and a trident; with the one he endeavoured to entan­gle, with the other to dispatch, his enemy. If he missed the first throw, he was obliged to fly from the pursuit of the Secutor, till he had pre­pared his net for a second cast ³⁷. The emperor fought in this character seven hundred and thirty­five several times. These glorious atchievements were carefully recorded in the public acts of the empire; and that he might omit no circumstance of infamy, he received from the common fund of gladiators, a stipend so exorbitant, that it became a new and most ignominious tax upon the Roman people ³⁸. It may be easily supposed, that in these engagements the master of the world was always successful: in the amphitheatre his victories were not often sanguinary; but when he exercised his skill in the school of gladiators, or his own palace, his wretched antagonists were frequently honoured with a mortal wound from the hand of Commodus, and obliged to seal their flattery with their blood ³⁹. He now disdained His infa­my and extrava­gance. the appellation of Hercules. The name of Pau­lus, a celebrated Secutor, was the only one which [Page 155] delighted his ear. It was inscribed on his colossal statues, and repeated in the redoubled acclama­tions ⁴⁰ of the mournful and applauding senate ⁴¹. Claudius Pompeianus, the virtuous husband of Lucilla, was the only senator who asserted the honour of his rank. As a father, he permitted his sons to consult their safety by attending the amphitheatre. As a Roman, he declared, that his own life was in the emperor's hands, but that he would never behold the son of Marcus pro­stituting his person and dignity. Notwithstand­ing his manly resolution, Pompeianus escaped the resentment of the tyrant, and, with his ho­nour, had the good fortune to preserve his life ⁴².

Commodus had now attained the summit of vice and infamy. Amidst the acclamations of a flattering court, he was unable to disguise, from himself, that he had deserved the contempt and hatred of every man of sense and virtue in his empire. His ferocious spirit was irritated by the consciousness of that hatred, by the envy of every kind of merit, by the just apprehension of danger, and by the habit of slaughter, which he contracted in his daily amusements. History [Page 156] has preserved a long list of consular senators sa­crificed to his wanton suspicion, which sought out, with peculiar anxiety, those unfortunate per­sons Conspira­cy of his domes­tics. connected, however remotely, with the fa­mily of the Antonines, without sparing even the ministers of his crimes or pleasures ⁴³. His cruelty proved at last fatal to himself. He had shed with impunity the noblest blood of Rome: he perished as soon as he was dreaded by his own domestics. Marcia, his favourite concubine, Eclectus his chamberlain, and Laetus his Praetorian praefect, alarmed by the fate of their companions and predecessors, resolved to prevent the destruction which every hour hung over their heads, either from the mad caprice of the tyrant, or the sud­den indignation of the people. Marcia seized the occasion of presenting a draught of wine to her lover, after he had fatigued himself with hunting some wild beasts. Commodus retired to sleep; but whilst he was labouring with the Death of Commo­dus. effects of poison and drunkenness, a robust youth, A. D. 192. 31st De­cember. by profession a wrestler, entered his chamber, and strangled him without resistance. The body was secretly conveyed out of the palace, before the least suspicion was entertained in the city, or even in the court, of the emperor's death. Such was the fate of the son of Marcus, and so easy was it to destroy a hated tyrant, who, by the arti­ficial powers of government, had oppressed, dur­ing thirteen years, so many millions of subjects, [Page 157] each of whom was equal to their master in per­sonal strength and personal abilities ⁴⁴.

The measures of the conspirators were con­ducted Choice of Pertinax for empe­ror. with the deliberate coolness and celerity which the greatness of the occasion required. They resolved instantly to fill the vacant throne with an emperor, whose character would justify and maintain the action that had been com­mitted. They fixed on Pertinax, praefect of the city, an ancient senator of consular rank, whose conspicuous merit had broke through the obscu­rity of his birth, and raised him to the first ho­nours of the state. He had successively governed most of the provinces of the empire; and in all his great employments, military as well as civil, he had uniformly distinguished himself by the firmness, the prudence, and the integrity of his conduct ⁴⁵ He now remained almost alone of [Page 158] the friends and ministers of Marcus; and when, at a late hour of the night, he was awakened with the news, that the chamberlain and the prae­fect were at his door, he received them with intrepid resignation, and desired they would exe­cute their master's orders. Instead of death, they offered him the throne of the Roman world. During some moments he distrusted their inten­tions and assurances. Convinced at length of the death of Commodus, he accepted the purple with a sincere reluctance, the natural effect of his knowledge both of the duties and of the dan­gers of the supreme rank ⁴⁶.

Laetus conducted without delay his new em­peror He is ac­knowledge­ed by the Praetorian guards; to the camp of the Praetorians, diffusing at the same time through the city a seasonable re­port that Commodus died suddenly of an apo­plexty; and that the virtuous Pertinax had already succeeded to the throne. The guards were rather surprised than pleased with the suspicious death of a prince, whose indulgence and liberality they alone had experienced; but the emergency of the occasion, the authority of their praefect, the re­putation of Pertinax, and the clamours of the people, obliged them to stifle their secret discon­tents, to accept the donative promised of the new emperor, to swear allegiance to him, and with joyful acclamations and laurels in their hands to [Page 159] conduct him to the senate-house, that the military consent might be ratified by the civil authority.

This important night was now far spent; with and by the senate. the dawn of day, and the commencement of the A. D. 193. 1st Janu­ary. new year, the senators expected a summons to attend an ignominious ceremony. In spite of all remonstrances, even of those of his creatures, who yet preserved any regard for prudence or decency, Commodus had resolved to pass the night in the gladiator's school, and from thence to take possession of the consulship, in the habit and with the attendance of that infamous crew. On a sudden, before the break of day, the senate was called together in the temple of Concord, to meet the guards, and to ratify the election of a new emperor. For a few minutes they sat in silent suspence, doubtful of their unexpected deliver­ance, and suspicious of the cruel artifices of Com­modus; but when at length they were assured that the tyrant was no more, they resigned them­selves to all the transports of joy and indignation. Pertinax, who modestly represented the mean­ness of his extraction, and pointed out several noble senators more deserving than himself of the empire, was constrained by their dutiful violence to ascend the throne, and received all the titles of Imperial power, confirmed by the most sin­cere vows of fidelity. The memory of Com­modus The me­mory of Commo­dus decla­red infa­mous. was branded with eternal infamy. The names of tyrant, of gladiator, of public enemy, resounded in every corner of the house. They decreed in tumultuous votes, that his honours [Page 160] should be reversed, his titles erased from the public monuments, his statues thrown down, his body dragged with a hook into the stripping­room of the gladiators, to satiate the public fury; and they expressed some indignation against those officious servants who had already presumed to screen his remains from the justice of the senate. But Pertinax could not refuse those last rites to the memory of Marcus, and the tears of his first protector Claudius Pompeianus, who lamented the cruel fate of his brother-in-law, and lamented still more that he had deserved it ⁴⁷.

These effusions of impotent rage against a dead Legal ju­risdiction of the se­nate over the empe­rors. emperor, whom the senate had flattered when alive with the most abject servility, betrayed a just but ungenerous spirit of revenge. The le­gality of these decrees was however supported by the principles of the Imperial constitution. To censure, to depose, or to punish with death, the first magistrate of the republic, who had abused his delegated trust, was the ancient and undoubt­ed prerogative of the Roman senate ⁴⁸; but that feeble assembly was obliged to content itself with inflicting on a fallen tyrant that public justice, from which, during his life and reign, he had been shielded by the strong arm of military des­potism.

[Page 161] Pertinax found a nobler way of condemning his predecessor's memory; by the contrast of his own virtues, with the vices of Commodus. On Virtues of Pertinax. the day of his accession, he resigned over to his wife and son his whole private fortune; that they might have no pretence to solicit favours at the expence of the state. He refused to flatter the vanity of the former with the title of Augusta; or to corrupt the inexperienced youth of the lat­ter by the rank of Caesar. Accurately distin­guishing between the duties of a parent and those of a sovereign, he educated his son with a severe simplicity, which, while it gave him no assured prospect of the throne, might in time have rendered him worthy of it. In public, the behaviour of Pertinax was grave and affable. He lived with the virtuous part of the senate (and in a private station, he had been acquainted with the true character of each individual), with­out either pride or jealousy; considered them as friends and companions, with whom he had shar­ed the dangers of the tyranny, and with whom he wished to enjoy the security of the present time. He very frequently invited them to familiar entertainments, the frugality of which was ridiculed by those, who remembered and regretted the luxurious prodigality of Com­modus ⁴⁹.

[Page 162] To heal, as far as it was possible, the wounds inflicted by the hand of tyranny, was the pleas­ing, but melancholy, task of Pertinax. The He endea­vours to reform the state. innocent victims, who yet survived, were recalled from exile, released from prison, and restored to the full possession of their honours and fortunes. The unburied bodies of murdered senators (for the cruelty of Commodus endeavoured to extend itself beyond death) were deposited in the sepul­chres of their ancestors; their memory was justi­fied; and every consolation was bestowed on their ruined and afflicted families. Among these consolations, one of the most grateful was the punishment of the Delators; the common ene­mies of their master, of virtue, and of their country. Yet even in the inquisition of these legal assassins, Pertinax proceeded with a steady temper, which gave every thing to justice, and nothing to popular prejudice and resentment.

The finances of the state demanded the most His regu­lations, vigilant care of the emperor. Though every measure of injustice and extortion had been adopted, which could collect the property of the subject into the coffers of the prince; the rapa­ciousness of Commodus had been so very inade­quate to his extravagance, that, upon his death, no more than eight thousand pounds were found in the exhausted treasury ⁵⁰, to defray the cur­rent expences of government, and to discharge the pressing demand of a liberal donative, which [Page 163] the new emperor had been obliged to promise to the Praetorian guards. Yet under these dis­tressed circumstances, Pertinax had the generous firmness to remit all the oppressive taxes invented by Commodus, and to cancel all the unjust claims of the treasury; declaring, in a decree of the senate, ‘that he was better satisfied to administer a poor republic with innocence, than to ac­quire riches by the ways of tyranny and dis­honour.’ Oeconomy and industry he con­sidered as the pure and genuine sources of wealth; and from them he soon derived a copious supply for the public necessities. The expence of the household was immediately reduced to one half. All the instruments of luxury, Pertinax exposed to public auction ⁵¹, gold and silver plate, cha­riots of a singular construction, a superfluous wardrobe of silk and embroidery, and a great number of beautiful slaves of both sexes; except­ing only, with attentive humanity, those who were born in a state of freedom, and had been ravished from the arms of their weeping parents. At the same time that he obliged the worthless favourites of the tyrant to resign a part of their ill-gotten wealth, he satisfied the just creditors of the state, and unexpectedly discharged the long arrears of honest services. He removed the op­pressive restrictions which had been laid upon commerce, and granted all the uncultivated [Page 164] lands in Italy and the provinces, to those who would improve them; with an exemption from tribute, during the term of ten years ⁵².

Such an uniform conduct had already secured and popu­larity. to Pertinax the noblest reward of a sovereign, the love and esteem of his people. Those who remembered the virtues of Marcus were happy to contemplate in their new emperor the fea­tures of that bright original; and flattered them­selves, that they should long enjoy the benign influence of his administration. A hasty zeal to reform the corrupted state, accompanied with less prudence than might have been expected from the years and experience of Pertinax, proved fatal to himself and to his country. His honest indiscretion united against him the servile crowd, who found their private benefit in the public dis­orders, and who preferred the favour of a tyrant to the inexorable equality of the laws ⁵³.

Amidst the general joy, the sullen and angry Discontent of the Prae­torians. countenance of the Praetorian guards betrayed their inward dissatisfaction. They had reluc­tantly submitted to Pertinax; they dreaded the strictness of the ancient discipline, which he was preparing to restore; and they regretted the licence of the former reign. Their discontents were secretly somented by Laetus their praefect, who found, when it was too late, that his new emperor would reward a servant, but would not [Page 165] be ruled by a favourite. On the third day of his reign the soldiers seized on a noble senator, with a design to carry him to the camp, and to invest him with the Imperial purple. Instead of being dazzled by the dangerous honour, the affrighted victim escaped from their violence, and took re­fuge at the feet of Pertinax. A short time after­wards A conspi­racy pre­vented. Sosius Falco, one of the consuls of the year, a rash youth ⁵⁴, but of an ancient and opu­lent family, listened to the voice of ambition; and a conspiracy was formed during a short ab­sence of Pertinax, which was crushed by his sud­den return to Rome, and his resolute behaviour. Falco was on the point of being justly condemned to death as a public enemy, had he not been saved by the earnest and sincere entreaties of the injured emperor; who conjured the senate, that the purity of his reign might not be stained by the blood even of a guilty senator.

These disappointments served only to irritate Murder of Pertinax by the Praetori­ans. the rage of the Praetorian guards. On the twenty-eighth of March, eighty-six days only after the death of Commodus, a general sedition A. D. 193. March 28th. broke out in the camp, which the officers wanted either power or inclination to suppress. Two or three hundred of the most desperate soldiers march­ed at noon-day, with arms in their hands and fury in their looks, towards the Imperial palace. The gates were thrown open by their companions upon [Page 166] guard; and by the domestics of the old court, who had already formed a secret conspiracy against the life of the too virtuous emperor. On the news of their approach, Pertinax, disdaining either flight or concealment, advanced to meet his assassins; and recalled to their minds his own innocence, and the sanctity of their recent oath. For a few moments they stood in silent suspense, ashamed of their atrocious design, and awed by the venerable aspect and majestic firmness of their sovereign, till at length the despair of pardon reviving their fury, a barbarian of the country of Tongres ⁵⁵ levelled the first blow against Per­tinax, who was instantly dispatched with a multitude of wounds. His head separated from his body, and placed on a lance, was carried in tri­umph to the Praetorian camp, in the sight of a mournful and indignant people, who lamented the unworthy fate of that excellent prince, and the transient blessings of a reign, the memory of which could serve only to aggravate their ap­proaching misfortunes ⁵⁶.

THE power of the sword is more sensibly felt in an extensive monarchy, than in a small community. It has been calculated by the Proportion of the mi­litary force, to the num­ber of the people. ablest politicians, that no state, without being soon exhausted, can maintain above the hun­dredth part of its members in arms and idleness. But although this relative proportion may be uniform, the influence of the army over the rest of the society will vary according to the degree of its positive strength. The advantages of mi­litary science and discipline cannot be exerted, unless a proper number of soldiers are united into one body, and actuated by one soul. With a handful of men, such an union would be ineffec­tual; with an unwieldy host, it would be im­practicable; and the powers of the machine would be alike destroyed by the extreme mi­nuteness, or the excessive weight, of its springs. To illustrate this observation we need only reflect, that there is no superiority of natural strength, artificial weapons, or acquired skill, which could [Page 168] enable one man to keep in constant subjection one hundred of his fellow-creatures: the tyrant of a single town, or a small district, would soon discover that an hundred armed followers were a weak defence against ten thousand peasants or citi­zens; but an hundred thousand well-disciplined soldiers will command, with despotic sway, ten millions of subjects; and a body of ten or fifteen thousand guards will strike terror into the most numerous populace that ever crowded the streets of an immense capital.

The Praetorian bands, whose licentious fury The Praetorian guards. was the first symptom and cause of the decline of the Roman empire, scarcely amounted to the last mentioned number ¹. They derived their insti­tution Their in­stitution. from Augustus. That crafty tyrant, sen­sible that laws might colour, but that arms alone could maintain, his usurped dominion, had gradually formed this powerful body of guards in constant readiness to protect his person, to awe the senate, and either to prevent or to crush the first motions of rebellion. He distinguished these favoured troops by a double pay, and su­perior privileges; but, as their formidable aspect would at once have alarmed and irritated the Roman people, three cohorts only were stationed in the capital; whilst the remainder was dis­persed [Page 169] in the adjacent towns of Italy ². But after fifty years of peace and servitude, Tiberius ventured on a decisive measure, which for ever Their camp. rivetted the fetters of his country. Under the fair pretences of relieving Italy from the heavy burthen of military quarters, and of introdu­cing a stricter discipline among the guards, he assembled them at Rome, in a permanent camp ³, which was fortified with skilful care ⁴, and placed on a commanding situation ⁵.

Such formidable servants are always necessary, Their strength and con­fidence. but often fatal to the throne of despotism. By thus introducing the Praetorian guards as it were into the palace and the senate, the emperors taught them to perceive their own strength, and the weakness of the civil government; to view the vices of their masters with familiar contempt, and to lay aside that reverential awe, which dis­tance only, and mystery, can preserve, towards an imaginary power. In the luxurious idleness of an opulent city, their pride was nourished by the sense of their irresistible weight; nor was it possible to conceal from them, that the person of the sovereign, the authority of the senate, the public treasure, and the seat of empire, were all [Page 170] in their hands. To divert the Praetorian bands from these dangerous reflections, the firmest and best established princes were obliged to mix blan­dishments with commands, rewards with punish­ments, to flatter their pride, indulge their plea­sures, connive at their irregularities, and to pur­chase their precarious faith by a liberal donative; which, since the elevation of Claudius, was ex­acted as a legal claim, on the accession of every new emperor ⁶.

The advocates of the guards endeavoured to Their spe­cious claims. justify by arguments, the power which they as­serted by arms; and to maintain that, accord­ing to the purest principles of the constitution, their consent was essentially necessary in the ap­pointment of an emperor. The election of con­suls, of generals, and of magistrates, however it had been recently usurped by the senate, was the ancient and undoubted right of the Roman peo­ple ⁷. But where was the Roman people to be found? Not surely amongst the mixed multitude of slaves and strangers that filled the streets of Rome; a servile populace, as devoit of spirit as destitute of property. The defenders of the state, [Page 171] selected from the flower of the Italian youth ⁸, and trained in the exercise of arms and virtue, were the genuine representatives of the people, and the best entitled to elect the military chief of the republic. These assertions, however defec­tive in reason, became unanswerable, when the fierce Praetorians increased their weight, by throwing, like the barbarian conqueror of Rome, their swords into the scale ⁹.

The Praetorians had violated the sanctity of They offer the empire to sale. the throne, by the atrocious murder of Pertinax; they dishonoured the majesty of it, by their sub­sequent conduct. The camp was without a leader, for even the praefect Laetus, who had excited the tempest, prudently declined the public indigna­tion. Amidst the wild disorder Sulpicianus, the emperor's father-in-law, and governor of the city, who had been sent to the camp on the first alarm of mutiny, was endeavouring to calm the fury of the multitude, when he was silenced by the clamorous return of the murderers, bearing on a lance the head of Pertinax. Though his­tory has accustomed us to observe every principle and every passion yielding to the imperious dic­tates of ambition, it is scarcely credible that, in these moments of horror, Sulpicianus should have aspired to ascend a throne polluted with the [Page 172] recent blood of so near a relation, and so excel­lent a prince. He had already begun to use the only effectual argument, and to treat for the Imperial dignity; but the more prudent of the Praetorians, apprehensive that, in this private contract, they should not obtain a just price for so valuable a commodity, ran out upon the ram­parts; and, with a loud voice, proclaimed that the Roman world was to be disposed of to the best bidder by public auction ¹⁰.

This infamous offer, the most insolent excess It is pur­chased by Julian, of military licence, diffused an universal grief, shame, and indignation throughout the city. It A. D. 193. March 28th. reached at length the ears of Didius Julianus, a wealthy senator, who, regardless of the public calamities, was indulging himself in the luxury of the table ¹¹. His wife and his daughter, his freedmen and his parasites, easily convinced him that he deserved the throne, and earnestly con­jured him to embrace so fortunate an oppor­tunity. The vain old man hastened to the Prae­torian camp, where Sulpicianus was still in treaty with the guards; and began to bid against him from the foot of the rampart. The unworthy negociation was transacted by faithful emissaries, who passed alternately from one candidate to the other, and acquainted each of them with the [Page 173] offers of his rival. Sulpicianus had already pro­mised a donative of five thousand drachms (above one hundred and sixty pounds) to each soldier; when Julian, eager for the prize, rose at once to the sum of six thousand two hundred and fifty drachms, or upwards of two hundred pounds sterling. The gates of the camp were instantly thrown open to the purchaser; he was declared emperor, and received an oath of allegiance from the soldiers, who retained humanity enough to stipulate that he should pardon and forget the competition of Sulpicianus.

It was now incumbent on the Praetorians to Julian is acknow­ledged by the senate. fulfil the conditions of the sale. They placed their new sovereign, whom they served and de­spised, in the centre of their ranks, surrounded him on every side with their shields, and con­ducted him in close order of battle through the deserted streets of the city. The senate was com­manded to assemble; and those who had been the distinguished friends of Pertinax, or the per­sonal enemies of Julian, found it necessary to affect a more than common share of satisfaction at this happy revolution ¹². After Julian had filled the senate-house with armed soldiers, he expatiated on the freedom of his election, his own eminent virtues, and his full assurance of the affections of the senate. The obsequious assem­bly congratulated their own and the public feli­city; engaged their allegiance, and conferred on him all the several branches of the Imperial [Page 174] power ¹³. From the senate Julian was conducted, by the same military procession, to take posses­sion of the palace. The first objects that struck Takes pos­session of the palace. his eyes, were the abandoned trunk of Pertinax, and the frugal entertainment prepared for his supper. The one he viewed with indifference; the other with contempt. A magnificent feast was prepared by his order, and he amused him­self till a very late hour, with dice, and the per­formances of Pylades, a celebrated dancer. Yet it was observed, that after the crowd of flatterers dispersed, and left him to darkness, solitude, and terrible reflection, he passed a sleepless night; revolving most probably in his mind his own rash folly, the fate of his virtuous predecessor, and the doubtful and dangerous tenure of an empire, which had not been acquired by merit, but purchased by money ¹⁴.

He had reason to tremble. On the throne of The pub­lic discon­tent. the world he found himself without a friend, and even without an adherent. The guards them­selves were ashamed of the prince whom their avarice had persuaded them to accept; nor was there a citizen who did not consider his elevation with horror, as the last insult on the Roman name. The nobility, whose conspicuous station and ample possessions exacted the strictest caution, dissembled their sentiments, and met the affect­ed [Page 175] civility of the emperor with smiles of com­placency, and professions of duty. But the peo­ple, secure in their numbers and obscurity, gave a free vent to their passions. The streets and public places of Rome resounded with clamours and imprecations. The enraged multitude af­fronted the person of Julian, rejected his libera­lity, and conscious of the impotence of their own resentment, they called aloud on the legions of the frontiers to assert the violated majesty of the Roman empire.

The public discontent was soon diffused from The ar­mies of Britain, Syria, and Pannonia declare a­gainst Ju­lian. the centre to the frontiers of the empire. The armies of Britain, of Syria, and of Illyricum, lamented the death of Pertinax, in whose com­pany, or under whose command, they had so often fought and conquered. They received with surprise, with indignation, and perhaps with envy, the extraordinary intelligence, that the Praetorians had disposed of the empire by public auction; and they sternly refused to ratify the ignominious bargain. Their immediate and una­nimous revolt was fatal to Julian, but it was fatal at the same time to the public peace; as the generals of the respective armies, Clodius Albinus, Pescennius Niger, and Septimius Se­verus, were still more anxious to succeed than to revenge the murdered Pertinax. Their forces were exactly balanced. Each of them was at the head of three legions ¹⁵, with a numerous train of auxiliaries; and however different in their [Page 176] characters, they were all soldiers of experience and capacity.

Clodius Albinus, governor of Britain, sur­passed Clodius Albinus in Britain. both his competitors in the nobility of his extraction, which he derived from some of the most illustrious names of the old republic ¹⁶. But the branch from whence he claimed his descent, was sunk into mean circumstances, and transplanted into a remote province. It is dif­ficult to form a just idea of his true character. Under the philosophic cloak of austerity, he stands accused of concealing most of the vices which degrade human nature ¹⁷. But his accusers are those venal writers who adored the fortune of Severus, and trampled on the ashes of an un­successful rival. Virtue, or the appearances of virtue, recommended Albinus to the confidence and good opinion of Marcus; and his preserving with the son the same interest which he had ac­quired with the father, is a proof at least that he was possessed of a very flexible disposition. The favour of a tyrant does not always suppose a want of merit in the object of it; he may, without intending it, reward a man of worth and ability, or he may find such a man useful to his own service. It does not appear that Albinus served the son of Marcus, either as the minister of his cruelties, or even as the associate of his pleasures. [Page 177] He was employed in a distant honourable com­mand, when he received a confidential letter from the emperor, acquainting him of the trea­sonable designs of some discontented generals, and authorizing him to declare himself the guar­dian and successor of the throne, by assuming the title and ensigns of Caesar ¹⁸. The governor of Britain wisely declined the dangerous honour, which would have marked him for the jealousy, or involved him in the approaching ruin, of Commodus. He courted power by nobler, or, at least, by more specious arts. On a premature report of the death of the emperor, he assembled his troops; and, in an eloquent discourse, de­plored the inevitable mischiefs of despotism, described the happiness and glory which their ancestors had enjoyed under the consular govern­ment, and declared his firm resolution to rein­state the senate and people in their legal autho­rity. This popular harangue was answered by the loud acclamations of the British legions, and received at Rome with a secret murmur of ap­plause. Safe in the possession of this little world, and in the command of an army less distinguish­ed indeed for discipline than for numbers and valour ¹⁹, Albinus braved the menaces of Com­modus, maintained towards Pertinax a stately ambiguous reserve, and instantly declared against [Page 178] the usurpation of Julian. The convulsions of the capital added new weight to his sentiments, or rather to his professions of patriotism. A regard to decency induced him to decline the lofty titles of Augustus and Emperor; and he imitated per­haps the example of Galba, who, on a similar occasion, had styled himself the Lieutenant of the senate and people ²⁰.

Personal merit alone had raised Pescennius Pescennius Niger in Syria. Niger from an obscure birth and station, to the government of Syria; a lucrative and important command, which in times of civil confusion gave him a near prospect of the throne. Yet his parts seem to have been better suited to the se­cond than to the first rank; he was an unequal rival, though he might have approved himself an excellent lieutenant, to Severus, who afterwards displayed the greatness of his mind by adopting several useful institutions from a vanquished ene­my ²¹. In his government, Niger acquired the esteem of the soldiers, and the love of the pro­vincials. His rigid discipline fortified the valour and confirmed the obedience of the former, whilst the voluptuous Syrians were less delighted with the mild firmness of his administration, than with the affability of his manners, and the apparent pleasure with which he attended their frequent and pompous festivals ²². As soon as the intel­ligence [Page 179] of the atrocious murder of Pertinax had reached Antioch, the wishes of Asia invited Ni­ger to assume the Imperial purple and revenge his death. The legions of the eastern frontier embraced his cause; the opulent but unarmed provinces from the frontiers of Aethiopia ²³ to the Hadriatic, cheerfully submitted to his power; and the kings beyond the Tigris and the Eu­phrates congratulated his election, and offered him their homage and services. The mind of Niger was not capable of receiving this sudden tide of fortune; he flattered himself that his ac­cession would be undisturbed by competition, and unstained by civil blood; and whilst he enjoyed the vain pomp of triumph, he neglected to secure the means of victory. Instead of entering into an effectual negociation with the powerful armies of the west, whose resolution might decide, or at least must balance, the mighty contest; in­stead of advancing without delay towards Rome and Italy, where his presence was impatiently expected ²⁴, Niger trifled away in the luxury of Antioch those irretrievable moments which were diligently improved by the decisive activity of Severus ²⁵.

[Page 180] The country of Pannonia and Dalmatia, which occupied the space between the Danube and the Hadriatic, was one of the last and most difficult Pannonia and Dal­matia. conquests of the Romans. In the defence of na­tional freedom, two hundred thousand of these barbarians had once appeared in the field, alarm­ed the declining age of Augustus, and exercised the vigilant prudence of Tiberius at the head of the collected force of the empire ²⁶. The Pan­nonians yielded at length to the arms and insti­tutions of Rome. Their recent subjection, how­ever, the neighbourhood, and even the mixture, of the unconquered tribes, and perhaps the cli­mate, adapted, as it has been observed, to the production of great bodies and slow minds ²⁷, all contributed to preserve some remains of their original ferocity, and under the tame and uniform countenance of Roman provincials, the hardy features of the natives were still to be discerned. Their warlike youth afforded an inexhaustible supply of recruits to the legions stationed on the banks of the Danube, and which, from a per­petual warfare against the Germans and Sarma­tians, were deservedly esteemed the best troops in the service.

The Pannonian army was at this time com­manded Septimius Severus by Septimius Severus, a native of Africa, who, in the gradual ascent of private honours, had concealed his daring ambition, which was [Page 181] never diverted from its steady course by the al­lurements of pleasure, the apprehension of dan­ger, or the feelings of humanity ²⁸. On the first news of the murder of Pertinax, he assembled his troops, painted in the most lively colours the crime, the insolence, and the weakness of the Praetorian guards, and animated the legions to arms and to revenge. He concluded (and the peroration was thought extremely eloquent) with promising every soldier about four hundred pounds; an honourable donative, double in value to the infamous bribe with which Julian had purchased the empire ²⁹. The acclamations of declared emperor by the Pan­nonian le­gions. the army immediately saluted Severus with the names of Augustus; Pertinax, and Emperor; and he thus attained the lofty station to which A. D. 193. April 13th. he was invited, by conscious merit and a long train of dreams and omens, the fruitful offspring either of his superstition or policy ³⁰.

The new candidate for empire saw and im­proved the peculiar advantage of his situation. His province extended to the Julian Alps, which [Page 182] gave an easy access into Italy; and he remem­bered the saying of Augustus, That a Pannonian army might in ten days appear in sight of Rome ³¹. By a celerity proportioned to the greatness of Marches into Italy. the occasion, he might reasonably hope to re­venge Pertinax, punish Julian, and receive the homage of the senate and people, as their law­ful emperor, before his competitors, separated from Italy by an immense tract of sea and land, were apprized of his success, or even of his elec­tion. During the whole expedition he scarcely allowed himself any moments for sleep or food; marching on foot, and in complete armour, at the head of his columns, he insinuated himself into the confidence and affection of his troops, pressed their diligence, revived their spirits, ani­mated their hopes, and was well satisfied to share the hardships of the meanest soldier, whilst he kept in view the infinite superiority of his reward.

The wretched Julian had expected, and thought Advances towards Rome. himself prepared, to dispute the empire with the governor of Syria; but in the invincible and rapid approach of the Pannonian legions, he saw his inevitable ruin. The hasty arrival of every mes­senger increased his just apprehensions. He was successively informed, that Severus had passed the Alps; that the Italian cities, unwilling or unable to oppose his progress, had received him with the warmest professions of joy and duty; that the [Page 183] important place of Ravenna had surrendered without resistance, and that the Hadriatic fleet was in the hands of the conqueror. The enemy was now within two hundred and fifty miles of Rome; and every moment diminished the nar­row span of life and empire allotted to Julian.

He attempted, however, to prevent, or at least Distress of Julian. to protract, his ruin. He implored the venal faith of the Praetorians, filled the city with una­vailing preparations for war, drew lines round the suburbs, and even strengthened the fortifica­tions of the palace; as if those last intrenchments could be defended without hope of relief against a victorious invader. Fear and shame prevented the guards from deserting his standard; but they trembled at the name of the Pannonian legions, commanded by an experienced general, and ac­customed to vanquish the barbarians on the frozen Danube ³². They quitted, with a sigh, the plea­sures of the baths and theatres, to put on arms, whose use they had almost forgotten, and beneath the weight of which they were oppressed. The unpractised elephants, whose uncouth appearance, it was hoped, would strike terror into the army of the north, threw their unskilful riders; and the awkward evolutions of the marines, drawn from the fleet of Misenum, were an object of ri­dicule to the populace; whilst the senate enjoyed, [Page 184] with secret pleasure, the distress and weakness of the usurper ³³.

Every motion of Julian betrayed his trembling His uncer­tain con­duct. perplexity. He insisted that Severus should be declared a public enemy by the senate. He in­treated that the Pannonian general might be as­sociated to the empire. He sent public ambassa­dors of consular rank to negociate with his rival; he dispatched private assassins to take away his life. He designed that the Vestal virgins, and all the colleges of priests, in their sacerdotal ha­bits, and bearing before them the sacred pledges of the Roman religion, should advance, in solemn procession, to meet the Pannonian legions; and, at the same time, he vainly tried to interrogate, or to appease, the fates, by magic ceremonies, and unlawful sacrifices ³⁴.

Severus, who dreaded neither his arms nor his Is deserted by the Prae­torians. enchantments, guarded himself from the only danger of secret conspiracy, by the faithful at­tendance of six hundred chosen men, who never quitted his person or their cuirasses, either by night or by day, during the whole march. Ad­vancing with a steady and rapid course, he passed, without difficulty, the defiles of the Appennine, received into his party the troops and ambassa­dors sent to retard his progress, and made a short halt at Interamnia, about seventy miles from [Page 185] Rome. His victory was already secure; but the despair of the Praetorians might have rendered it bloody; and Severus had the laudable ambition of ascending the throne without drawing the sword ³⁵. His emissaries, dispersed in the capital, assured the guards, that provided they would abandon their worthless prince, and the perpe­trators of the murder of Pertinax, to the justice of the conqueror, he would no longer consider that melancholy event as the act of the whole body. The faithless Praetorians, whose resistance was supported only by sullen obstinacy, gladly complied with the easy conditions, seized the greatest part of the assassins, and signified to the senate, that they no longer defended the cause of Julian. That assembly, convoked by the consul, unanimously acknowledged Severus as lawful emperor, decreed divine honours to Pertinax, and pronounced a sentence of deposition and and con­demned and exe­cuted by order of the senate, death against his unfortunate successor. Julian was conducted into a private apartment of the baths of the palace, and beheaded as a common criminal, after having purchased, with an im­mense A. D. 193. June 2. treasure, an anxious and precarious reign of only sixty-six days ³⁶. The almost incredible expedition of Severus, who, in so short a space of time, conducted a numerous army from the banks of the Danube to those of the Tyber, [Page 186] proves at once the plenty of provisions produced by agriculture and commerce, the goodness of the roads, the discipline of the legions, and the indolent subdued temper of the provinces ³⁷.

The first cares of Severus were bestowed on Disgrace of the Prae­torian guards. two measures, the one dictated by policy, the other by decency; the revenge, and the honours, due to the memory of Pertinax. Before the new emperor entered Rome, he issued his commands to the Praetorian guards, directing them to wait his arrival on a large plain near the city, without arms, but in the habits of ceremony, in which they were accustomed to attend their sovereign. He was obeyed by those haughty troops, whose contrition was the effect of their just terrors. A chosen part, of the Illyrian army encompassed them with levelled spears. Incapable of flight or resistance, they expected their fate in silent consternation. Severus mounted the tribunal, sternly reproached them with perfidy and cowar­dice, dismissed them with ignominy from the trust which they had betrayed, despoiled them of their splendid ornaments, and banished them, on pain of death, to the distance of an hundred miles from the capital. During the transaction, an­other [Page 187] detachment had been sent to seize their arms, occupy their camp, and prevent the hasty consequences of their despair ³⁸.

The funeral and consecration of Pertinax was Funeral and apo­theosis of Pertinax. next solemnized with every circumstances of sad magnificence ³⁹. The senate, with a melancholy pleasure, performed the last rites to that excellent prince, whom they had loved, and still regretted. The concern of his successor was probably less sincere. He esteemed the virtues of Pertinax, but those virtues would for ever have confined his ambition to a private station. Severus pro­nounced his funeral oration with studied elo­quence, inward satisfaction, and well-acted sor­row; and by this pious regard to his memory, convinced the credulous multitude that he alone was worthy to supply his place. Sensible, how­ever, that arms, not ceremonies, must assert his claim to the empire, he left Rome at the end of thirty days, and, without suffering himself to be elated by this easy victory, prepared to encounter his more formidable rivals.

The uncommon abilities and fortune of Se­verus Success of Severus against Ni­ger, and against Albinus. have induced an elegant historian to com­pare him with the first and greatest of the Caesars ⁴⁰. The parallel is, at least, imperfect. Where shall we find, in the character of Severus, the commanding superiority of soul, the generous clemency, and the various genius, which could [Page 188] reconcile and unite the love of pleasure, the thirst of knowledge, and the fire of ambition ⁴¹? In one instance only, they may be compared, with some degree of propriety, in the celerity of their motions, and their civil victories. In less than four years ⁴², Severus subdued the riches of the east, and the valour of the west. He vanquished A. D. 193—197. two competitors of reputation and ability, and defeated numerous armies, provided with wea­pons and discipline equal to his own. In that age, the art of fortification, and the principles of tactics, were well understood by all the Roman generals; and the constant superiority of Severus was that of an artist, who uses the same instru­ments with more skill and industry than his rivals. I shall not, however, enter into a minute narra­tive of these military operations; but as the two civil wars against Niger and against Albinus, were almost the same in their conduct, event, and consequences, I shall collect into one point of view, the most striking circumstances, tending to develope the character of the conqueror, and the state of the empire.

Falsehood and insincerity, unsuitable as they seem to the dignity of public transactions, offend Conduct of the two civil wars. [Page 189] us with a less degrading idea of meanness, than when they are found in the intercourse of private life. In the latter, they discover a want of cou­rage; in the other, only a defect of power: and, as it is impossible for the most able statesman to subdue millions of followers and enemies by their own personal strength, the world, under the name of policy, seems to have granted them a very li­beral indulgence of craft and dissimulation. Yet Arts of Severus the arts of Severus cannot be justified by the most ample privileges of state reason. He promised only to betray, he flattered only to ruin; and however he might occasionally bind himself by oaths and treaties, his conscience, obsequious to his interest, always released him from the incon­venient obligation ⁴³.

If his two competitors, reconciled by their towards Niger; common danger, had advanced upon him with­out delay, perhaps Severus would have sunk un­der their united effort. Had they even attacked him, at the same time, with separate views and separate armies, the contest might have been long and doubtful. But they fell, singly and succes­sively, an easy prey to the arts as well as arms of their subtle enemy, lulled into security by the moderation of his professions, and overwhelmed by the rapidity of his action. He first marched against Niger, whose reputation and power he the most dreaded: but he declined any hostile declarations, suppressed the name of his antago­nist, and only signified to the senate and people, [Page 190] his intention of regulating the eastern provinces. In private he spoke of Niger, his old friend and intended successor ⁴⁴, with the most affectionate regard, and highly applauded his generous design of revenging the murder of Pertinax. To punish the vile usurper of the throne, was the duty of every Roman general. To persevere in arms, and to resist a lawful emperor, acknowledged by the senate, would alone render him criminal ⁴⁵. The sons of Niger had fallen into his hands among the children of the provincial governors, detained at Rome as pledges for the loyalty of their parents ⁴⁶. As long as the power of Niger inspired terror, or even respect, they were edu­cated with the most tender care, with the chil­dren of Severus himself; but they were soon in­volved in their father's ruin, and removed, first by exile, and afterwards by death, from the eye of public compassion ⁴⁷.

Whilst Severus was engaged in his eastern war, towards Albinus. he had reason to apprehend that the governor of Britain might pass the sea and the Alps, occupy the vacant seat of empire, and oppose his return [Page 191] with the authority of the senate and the forces of the west. The ambiguous conduct of Albinus, in not assuming the Imperial title, left room for negotiation. Forgetting, at once, his professions of patriotism, and the jealousy of sovereign power, he accepted the precarious rank of Caesar, as a reward for his fatal neutrality. Till the first contest was decided, Severus treated the man, whom he had doomed to destruction, with every mark of esteem and regard. Even in the letter, in which he announced his victory over Niger, he styles Albinus the brother of his soul and em­pire, sends him the affectionate salutations of his wife Julia, and his young family, and intreats him to preserve the armies and the republic faith­ful to their common interest. The messengers charged with this letter, were instructed to accost the Caesar with respect, to desire a private audi­ence, and to plunge their daggers into his heart ⁴⁸. The conspiracy was discovered, and the too cre­dulous Albinus, at length, passed over to the continent, and prepared for an unequal contest with his rival, who rushed upon him at the head of a veteran and victorious army.

The military labours of Severus seem inade­quate Event of the civil wars, to the importance of his conquests. Two engagements, the one near the Hellespont, the other in the narrow defiles of Cilicia, decided the fate of his Syrian competitor; and the troops of Europe asserted their usual ascendant over the ef­feminate [Page 192] natives of Asia ⁴⁹. The battle of Lyons, where one hundred and fifty thousand ⁵⁰ Romans were engaged, was equally fatal to Albinus. The valour of the British army maintained, in­deed, a sharp and doubtful contest, with the hardy discipline of the Illyrian legions. The fame and person of Severus appeared, during a few moments, irrecoverably lost, till that war-like prince rallied his fainting troops, and led them on to a decisive victory ⁵¹. The war was finished by that memorable day.

The civil wars of modern Europe have been decided by one or two battles. distinguished, not only by the fierce animosity, but likewise by the obstinate perseverance, of the contending factions. They have generally been justified by some principle, or, at least, coloured by some pretext, of religion, freedom, or loyalty. The leaders were nobles of independent property and hereditary influence. The troops fought like men interested in the decision of the quarrel; and as military spirit and party zeal were strongly diffused throughout the whole community, a van­quished chief was immediately supplied with new adherents, eager to shed their blood in the same cause. But the Romans, after the fall of the republic, combated only for the choice of masters. [Page 193] Under the standard of a popular candidate for empire, a few enlisted from affection, some from fear, many from interest, none from principle. The legions, uninflamed by party zeal, were al­lured into civil war by liberal donatives, and still more liberal promises. A defeat, by disabling the chief from the performance of his engage­ments, dissolved the mercenary allegiance of his followers; and left them to consult their own safety, by a timely desertion of an unsuccessful cause. It was of little moment to the provinces, under whose name they were oppressed or go­verned; they were driven by the impulsion of the present power, and as soon as that power yielded to a superior force, they hastened to im­plore the clemency of the conqueror, who, as he had an immense debt to discharge, was obliged to sacrifice the most guilty countries to the ava­rice of his soldiers. In the vast extent of the Roman empire, there were few fortified cities ca­pable of protecting a routed army; nor was there any person, or family, or order of men, whose natural interest, unsupported by the powers of government, was capable of restoring the cause of a sinking party ⁵².

Yet, in the contest between Niger and Seve­rus, Siege of Byzan­tium. a single city deserves an honourable excep­tion. As Byzantium was one of the greatest passages from Europe into Asia, it had been pro­vided with a strong garrison, and a fleet of five [Page 194] hundred vessels was anchored in the harbour ⁵³. The impetuosity of Severus disappointed this prudent scheme of defence; he left to his gene­rals the siege of Byzantium, forced the less guarded passage of the Hellespont, and, impa­tient of a meaner enemy, pressed forward to en­counter his rival. Byzantium, attacked by a nu­merous and increasing army, and afterwards by the whole naval power of the empire, sustained a siege of three years, and remained faithful to the name and memory of Niger. The citizens and soldiers (we know not from what cause) were ani­mated with equal fury; several of the principal officers of Niger, who despaired of, or who dis­dained, a pardon, had thrown themselves into this last refuge: the fortifications were esteemed impregnable, and, in the defence of the place, a celebrated engineer displayed all the mechanic powers known to the ancients ⁵⁴. Byzantium, at length, surrendered to famine. The magistrates and soldiers were put to the sword, the walls de­molished, the privileges suppressed, and the des­tined capital of the east subsisted only as an open village, subject to the insulting jurisdiction of Perinthus. The historian Dion, who had ad­mired the flourishing, and lamented the desolate, [Page 195] state of Byzantium, accused the revenge of Se­verus, for depriving the Roman people of the strongest bulwark against the barbarians of Pontus and Asia ⁵⁵. The truth of this observation was but too well justified in the succeeding age, when the Gothic fleets covered the Euxine, and passed through the undefended Bosphorus into the centre of the Mediterranean.

Both Niger and Albinus were discovered and Deaths of Niger and Albinus. put to death in their flight from the field of bat­tle. Their fate excited neither surprise nor com­passion. Cruel con­sequences of the civil wars. They had staked their lives against the chance of empire, and suffered what they would have inflicted; nor did Severus claim the arro­gant superiority of suffering his rivals to live in a private station. But his unforgiving temper, stimulated by avarice, indulged a spirit of re­venge, where there was no room for apprehen­sion. The most considerable of the provincials, who, without any dislike to the fortunate candi­date, had obeyed the governor under whose au­thority they were accidentally placed, were pu­nished by death, exile, and especially by the confiscation of their estates. Many cities of the east were stript of their ancient honours, and obliged to pay, into the treasury of Severus, four times the amount of the sums contributed by them for the service of Niger ⁵⁶.

[Page 196] Till the final decision of the war, the cruelty of Severus was, in some measure, restrained by the uncertainty of the event, and his pretended Animosity of Severus against the senate. reverence for the senate. The head of Albinus, accompanied with a menacing letter, announced to the Romans, that he was resolved to spare none of the adherents of his unfortunate compe­titors. He was irritated by the just suspicion, that he had never possessed the affections of the senate, and he concealed his old malevolence under the recent discovery of some treasonable correspondences. Thirty-five senators, however, accused of having favoured the party of Albinus, he freely pardoned; and, by his subsequent be­haviour, endeavoured to convince them, that he had forgotten, as well as forgiven, their supposed offences. But, at the same time, he condemned forty-one ⁵⁷ other senators, whose names history has recorded; their wives, children, and clients, attended them in death, and the noblest provin­cials of Spain and Gaul were involved in the same ruin. Such rigid justice, for so he termed it, was, in the opinion of Severus, the only conduct capable of ensuring peace to the people, or stabi­lity to the prince; and he condescended slightly to lament, that, to be mild, it was necessary that he should first be cruel ⁵⁸.

[Page 197] The true interest of an absolute monarch ge­nerally coincides with that of his people. Their numbers, their wealth, their order, and their se­curity, The wis­dom and justice of his go­vernment. are the best and only foundations of his real greatness; and were he totally devoid of virtue, prudence might supply its place, and would dictate the same rule of conduct. Severus considered the Roman empire as his property, and had no sooner secured the possession, than he bestowed his care on the cultivation and im­provement of so valuable an acquisition. Salu­tary laws, executed with inflexible firmness, soon corrected most of the abuses with which, since the death of Marcus, every part of the govern­ment had been infected. In the administration of justice, the judgments of the emperor were characterized by attention, discernment, and im­partiality; and whenever he deviated from the strict line of equity, it was generally in favour of the poor and oppressed; not so much indeed from any sense of humanity, as from the natural propensity of a despot, to humble the pride of greatness, and to sink all his subjects to the same common level of absolute dependence. His ex­pensive taste for building, magnificent shows, and above all a constant and liberal distribution of corn and provisions, were the surest means of captivating the affection of the Roman people ⁵⁹. [Page 198] The misfortunes of civil discord were obliterated. The calm of peace and prosperity was once more experienced in the provinces; and many cities, General peace and prosperity. restored by the munificence of Severus, assumed the title of his colonies, and attested by public monuments their gratitude and felicity ⁶⁰. The fame of the Roman arms was revived by that warlike and successful emperor ⁶¹, and he boasted with a just pride, that, having received the em­pire oppressed with foreign and domestic wars, he left it established in profound, universal, and honourable peace ⁶².

Although the wounds of civil war appeared Relaxation of military discipline. completely healed, its mortal poison still lurked in the vitals of the constitution. Severus pos­sessed a considerable share of vigour and ability; but the daring soul of the first Caesar, or the deep policy of Augustus, were scarcely equal to the task of curbing the insolence of the victorious legions. By gratitude; by misguided policy, by seeming necessity, Severus was induced to relax the nerves of discipline ⁶³. The vanity of his [Page 199] soldiers was flattered with the honour of wearing gold rings; their ease was indulged in the per­mission of living with their wives in the idleness of quarters. He increased their pay beyond the example of former times, and taught them to ex­pect, and soon to claim, extraordinary donatives on every public occasion of danger or festivity. Elated by success, enervated by luxury, and raised above the level of subjects by their dangerous privileges ⁶⁴, they soon became incapable of mi­litary fatigue, oppressive to the country, and im­patient of a just subordination. Their officers asserted the superiority of rank by a more profuse and elegant luxury. There is still extant a letter of Severus, lamenting the licentious state of the army, and exhorting one of his generals to begin the necessary reformation from the tribunes them­selves; since, as he justly observes, the officer who has forfeited the esteem, will never com­mand the obedience, of his soldiers ⁶⁵. Had the emperor pursued the train of reflection, he would have discovered, that the primary cause of this general corruption might be ascribed, not indeed to the example, but to the pernicious indulgence, however, of the commander in chief.

The Praetorians, who murdered their emperor New esta­blishment of the Praetorian guards. and sold the empire, had received the just pu­nishment of their treason; but the necessary, [Page 200] though dangerous, institution of guards, was soon restored on a new model by Severus, and in­creased to four times the ancient number ⁶⁶. Formerly these troops had been recruited in Italy; and as the adjacent provinces gradually imbibed the softer manners of Rome, the levies were ex­tended to Macedonia, Noricum, and Spain. In the room of these elegant troops, better adapted to the pomp of courts than to the uses of war, it was established by Severus, that from all the le­gions of the frontiers, the soldiers most distin­guished for strength, valour, and fidelity, should be occasionally draughted; and promoted, as an honour and reward, into the more eligible service of the guards ⁶⁷. By this new institution, the Italian youth were diverted from the exercise of arms, and the capital was terrified by the strange aspect and manners of a multitude of barbarians. But Severus flattered himself, that the legions would consider these chosen Praetorians as the re­presentatives of the whole military order; and that the present aid of fifty thousand men, supe­rior in arms and appointments to any force that could be brought into the field against them, would for ever crush the hopes of rebellion, and secure the empire to himself and his posterity.

The command of these favoured and formi­dable The office of Praeto­rian Prae­fect. troops soon became the first office of the empire. As the government degenerated into military despotism, the Praetorian Praefect, who [Page 201] in his origin had been a simple captain of the guards, was placed, not only at the head of the army, but of the finances, and even of the law. In every department of administration, he repre­sented the person, and exercised the authority, of the emperor. The first Praefect who enjoyed and abused this immense power was Plautianus, the favourjte minister of Severus. His reign lasted above ten years, till the marriage of his daughter with the eldest son of the emperor, which seemed to assure his fortune, proved the occasion of his ruin ⁶⁸. The animosities of the palace, by irri­tating the ambition and alarming the fears of Plautianus, threatened to produce a revolution, and obliged the emperor, who still loved him, to consent with reluctance to his death ⁶⁹. After the fall of Plautianus, an eminent lawyer, the cele­brated Papinian, was appointed to execute the motley office of Praetorian Praefect.

Till the reign of Severus, the virtue and even The senate oppressed by military despotism. the good sense of the emperors had been distin­guished by their zeal or affected reverence for the senate, and by a tender regard to the nice frame of civil policy instituted by Augustus. But the youth of Severus had been trained in the implicit obedience of camps, and his riper years spent in [Page 202] the despotism of military command. His haughty and inflexible spirit could not discover, or would not acknowledge, the advantage of preserving an intermediate power, however imaginary, between the emperor and the army. He disdained to profess himself the servant of an assembly that detested his person and trembled at his frown; he issued his commands, where his request would have proved as effectual; assumed the conduct and style of a sovereign and a conqueror, and ex­ercised, without disguise, the whole legislative as well as the executive power.

The victory over the senate was easy and in­glorious. New max­ims of the Imperial preroga­tive. Every eye and every passion were di­rected to the supreme magistrate, who possessed the arms and treasure of the state; whilst the se­nate, neither elected by the people, nor guarded by military force, nor animated by public spirit, rested its declining authority on the frail and crumbling basis of ancient opinion. The fine theory of a republic insensibly vanished, and made way for the more natural and substantial feelings of monarchy. As the freedom and honours of Rome were successively communicated to the provinces, in which the old government had been either unknown, or was remembered with abhor­rence, the tradition of republican maxims was gradually obliterated. The Greek historians of the age of the Antonines ⁷⁰ observe, with a ma­licious pleasure, that although the sovereign of Rome, in compliance with an obsolete prejudice, abstained from the name of king, he possessed the [Page 203] full measure of regal power. In the reign of Se­verus, the senate was filled with polished and elo­quent slaves from the eastern provinces, who jus­tified personal flattery by speculative principles of servitude. These new advocates of prerogative were heard with pleasure by the court, and with patience by the people, when they inculcated the duty of passive obedience, and descanted on the inevitable mischiefs of freedom. The lawyers and the historians concurred in teaching, that the Imperial authority was held, not by the delegated commission, but by the irrevocable resignation of the senate; that the emperor was freed from the restraint of civil laws, could command by his ar­bitrary will the lives and fortunes of his subjects, and might dispose of the empire as of his private patrimony ⁷¹. The most eminent of the civil lawyers, and particularly Papinian, Paulus, and Ulpian, flourished under the house of Severus; and the Roman jurisprudence having closely united itself with the system of monarchy, was supposed to have attained its full maturity and perfection.

The contemporaries of Severus, in the enjoy­ment of the peace and glory of his reign, forgave the cruelties by which it had been introduced. Posterity, who experienced the fatal effects of his maxims and example, justly considered him as the principal author of the decline of the Roman empire.

THE ascent to greatness, however steep and dangerous, may entertain an active spirit with the consciousness and exercise of its own Greatness and dis­content of Severus. powers; but the possession of a throne could never yet afford a lasting satisfaction to an am­bitious mind. This melancholy truth was felt and acknowledged by Severus. Fortune and merit had, from an humble station, elevated him to the first place among mankind. ‘He had been all things, as he said himself, and all was of little value ¹.’ Distracted with the care, not of acquiring, but of preserving an empire, oppressed with age and infirmities, care­less of fame ², and satiated with power, all his prospects of life were closed. The desire of per­petuating the greatness of his family, was the only remaining wish of his ambition and paternal tenderness.

Like most of the Africans, Severus was pas­sionately His wife the em­press Ju­lia. addicted to the vain studies of magic and divination, deeply versed in the interpreta­tion [Page 205] of dreams and omens, and perfectly acquaint­ed with the science of judicial astrology; which, in almost every age, except the present, has maintained its dominion over the mind of man. He had lost his first wife, whilst he was gover­nor of the Lionnese Gaul ³. In the choice of a second, he sought only to connect himself with some favourite of fortune; and as soon as he had discovered that a young lady of Emesa in Syria had a royal nativity, he solicited, and obtained her hand ⁴. Julia Domna (for that was her name) deserved all that the stars could promise her. She possessed, even in an advanced age, the at­tractions of beauty ⁵, and united to a lively ima­gination, a firmness of mind, and strength of judgment, seldom bestowed on her sex. Her amiable qualities never made any deep impression on the dark and jealous temper of her husband; but in her son's reign, she administered the prin­cipal affairs of the empire, with a prudence, that supported his authority; and with a moderation, that sometimes corrected his wild extravagancies ⁶. Julia applied herself to letters and philosophy, with some success, and with the most splendid [Page 206] reputation. She was the patroness of every art, and the friend of every man of genius ⁷. The grateful flattery of the learned has celebrated her virtues; but, if we may credit the scandal of ancient history, chastity was very far from being the most conspicuous virtue of the empress Julia ⁸.

Two sons, Caracalla ⁹ and Geta, were the fruit Their two sons, Ca­racalla and Geta. of this marriage, and the destined heirs of the empire. The fond hopes of the father, and of the Roman world, were soon disappointed by these vain youths, who displayed the indolent security of hereditary princes; and a presumption that fortune would supply the place of merit and application. Without any emulation of virtue or talents, they discovered, almost from their in­fancy, a fixed and implacable antipathy for each other. Their aversion, confirmed by years, and Their mu­tual aver­sion to each other. fomented by the arts of their interested favour­ites, broke out in childish, and gradually in more serious, competitions; and at length di­vided the theatre, the circus, and the court, into two factions; actuated by the hopes and fears of their respective leaders. The prudent emperor endeavoured, by every expedient of advice and [Page 207] authority, to allay this growing animosity. The unhappy discord of his sons clouded all his pro­spects, and threatened to overturn a throne raised with so much labour, cemented with so much blood, and guarded with every defence of arms and treasure. With an impartial hand he main­tained between them an exact balance of favour, conferred on both the rank of Augustus, with the revered name of Antoninus; and for the first time the Roman world beheld three emperors ¹⁰. Three em­perors. Yet even this equal conduct served only to in­flame the contest, whilst the fierce Caracalla asserted the right of primogeniture, and the milder Geta courted the affections of the people and the soldiers. In the anguish of a disappointed father, Severus foretold, that the weaker of his sons would fall a sacrifice to the stronger; who, in his turn, would be ruined by his own vices ¹¹.

In these circumstances the intelligence of a war The Cale­donian war. in Britain, and of an invasion of the province by the barbarians of the North, was received A. D. 208. with pleasure by Severus. Though the vigilance of his lieutenants might have been sufficient to repel the distant enemy, he resolved to embrace the honourable pretext of withdrawing his sons from the luxury of Rome, which enervated their minds and irritated their passions; and of inur­ing their youth to the toils of war and govern­ment. Notwithstanding his advanced age (for [Page 208] he was above three-score), and his gout, which obliged him to be carried in a litter, he trans­ported himself in person into that remote island, attended by his two sons, his whole court, and a formidable army. He immediately passed the walls of Hadrian and Antoninus, and entered the enemy's country, with a design of completing the long attempted conquest of Britain. He penetrated to the northern extremity of the island, without meeting an enemy. But the concealed ambuscades of the Caledonians, who hung un­seen on the rear and flanks of his army, the coldness of the climate, and the severity of a winter march across the hills and morasses of Scotland, are reported to have cost the Romans above fifty thousand men. The Caledonians at length yielded to the powerful and obstinate at­tack, sued for peace, and surrendered a part of their arms, and a large tract of territory. But their apparent submission lasted no longer than the present terror. As soon as the Roman legi­ons had retired, they resumed their hostile inde­pendence. Their restless spirit provoked Severus to send a new army into Caledonia, with the most bloody orders, not to subdue but to extir­pate the natives. They were saved by the death of their haughty enemy ¹².

This Caledonian war, neither marked by deci­sive Fingal and his heroes. events, nor attended with any important consequences, would ill deserve our attention; but it is supposed, not without a considerable [Page 209] degree of probability, that the invasion of Seve­rus is connected with the most shining period of the British history or fable. Fingal, whose fame, with that of his heroes and bards, has been re­vived in our language by a recent publication, is said to have commanded the Caledonians in that memorable juncture, to have eluded the power of Severus, and to have obtained a signal victory on the banks of the Carun, in which the son of the King of the World, Caracul, fled from his arms along the fields of his pride ¹³. Some­thing of a doubtful mist still hangs over these High­land traditions; nor can it be entirely dispelled by the most ingenious researches of modern cri­ticism ¹⁴: but if we could, with safety, indulge Contrast of the Cale­donians and the Romans. the pleasing supposition, that Fingal lived, and that Ossian sung, the striking contrast of the situation and manners of the contending nations might amuse a philosophic mind. The parallel would be little to the advantage of the more ci­vilized people, if we compared the unrelenting revenge of Severus with the generous clemency of Fingal; the timid and brutal cruelty of Cara­calla, [Page 210] with the bravery, the tenderness, the ele­gant genius of Ossian; the mercenary chiefs who, from motives of fear or interest, served under the Imperial standard, with the freeborn warriors who started to arms at the voice of the king of Morven; if, in a word, we contemplated the untutored Caledonians, glowing with the warm virtues of nature, and the degenerate Romans, polluted with the mean vices of wealth and sla­very.

The declining health and last illness of Severus Ambition of Cara­calla. inflamed the wild ambition and black passions of Caracalla's soul. Impatient of any delay or di­vision of empire, he attempted, more than once, to shorten the small remainder of his father's days, and endeavoured, but without success, to excite a mutiny among the troops ¹⁵. The old emperor had often censured the misguided lenity of Marcus, who, by a single act of justice, might have saved the Romans from the tyranny of his worthless son. Placed in the same situation, he experienced how easily the rigour of a judge dis­solves away in the tenderness of a parent. He deliberated, he threatened, but he could not pu­nish; and this last and only instance of mercy, was more fatal to the empire than a long series of cruelty ¹⁶. The disorder of his mind Death of Severus, and acces­sion of his two sons. irritated the pains of his body; he wished im­patiently for death, and hastened the instant of it by his impatience. He expired at York in A. D. 4th Febru­ary. [Page 211] the sixty-fifth year of his life, and in the eigh­teenth of a glorious and successful reign. In his last moments he recommended concord to his sons, and his sons to the army. The salutary advice never reached the heart, or even the un­derstanding, of the impetuous youths; but the more obedient troops, mindful of their oath of allegiance, and of the authority of their deceased master, resisted the solicitations of Caracalla, and proclaimed both brothers emperors of Rome. The new princes soon left the Caledonians in peace, returned to the capital, celebrated their father's funeral with divine honours, and were cheerfully acknowledged as lawful sovereigns, by the senate, the people, and the provinces. Some pre-eminence of rank seems to have been allowed to the elder brother; but they both ad­ministered the empire with equal and independ­ent power ¹⁷.

Such a divided form of government would have Jealousy and hatred of the two emperors. proved a source of discord between the most affectionate brothers. It was impossible that it could long subsist between two implacable ene­mies, who neither desired nor could trust a re­conciliation. It was visible that one only could reign, and that the other must fall; and each of them judging of his rival's designs by his own, guarded his life with the most jealous vigilance from the repeated attacks of poison or the sword. Their rapid journey through Gaul and Italy, [Page 212] during which they never eat at the same table, or slept in the same house, displayed to the pro­vinces the odious spectacle of fraternal discord. On their arrival at Rome, they immediately di­vided the vast extent of the Imperial palace ¹⁸. No communication was allowed between their apartments; the doors and passages were dili­gently fortified, and guards posted and relieved with the same strictness as in a besieged place. The emperors met only in public, in the pre­sence of their afflicted mother; and each sur­rounded by a numerous train of armed followers. Even on these occasions of ceremony, the dissi­mulation of courts could ill disguise the rancour of their hearts ¹⁹.

This latent civil war already distracted the Fruitless negocia­tion for di­viding the empire be­tween them. whole government, when a scheme was suggested that seemed of mutual benefit to the hostile bro­thers. [Page 213] It was proposed, that since it was im­possible to reconcile their minds, they should separate their interest, and divide the empire between them. The conditions of the treaty were already drawn with some accuracy. It was agreed, that Caracalla, as the elder brother, should remain in possession of Europe and the western Africa; and that he should relinquish the sovereignty of Asia and Egypt to Geta, who might fix his residence at Alexandria or Antioch, cities little inferior to Rome itself in wealth and greatness; that numerous armies should be con­stantly encamped on either side of the Thracian Bosphorus, to guard the frontiers of the rival monarchies; and that the senators of European extraction should acknowledge the sovereign of Rome, whilst the natives of Asia followed the emperor of the East. The tears of the empress Julia interrupted the negociation, the first idea of which had filled every Roman breast with sur­prise and indignation. The mighty mass of con­quest was so intimately united by the hand of time and policy, that it required the most for­cible violence to rend it asunder. The Romans had reason to dread, that the disjointed members would soon be reduced by a civil war under the dominion of one master; but if the separation was permanent, the division of the provinces must terminate in the dissolution of an empire whose unity had hitherto remained inviolate ²⁰.

[Page 214] Had the treaty been carried into execution, the sovereign of Europe might soon have been the conqueror of Asia; but Caracalla obtained an Murder of Geta. easier though a more guilty victory. He artfully A. D. 212. 27th Fe­bruary. listened to his mother's entreaties, and consented to meet his brother in her apartment, on terms of peace and reconciliation. In the midst of their conversation, some centurions, who had con­trived to conceal themselves, rushed with drawn swords upon the unfortunate Geta. His distract­ed mother strove to protect him in her arms; but, in the unavailing struggle, she was wounded in the hand, and covered with the blood of her younger son, while she saw the elder animating and assisting ²¹ the fury of the assassins. As soon as the deed was perpetrated, Caracalla, with hasty steps, and horror in his countenance, ran towards the Praetorian camp as his only refuge, and threw himself on the ground before the statues of the tutelar deities ²². The soldiers attempted to raise and comfort him. In broken and dis­ordered words he informed them of his imminent danger and fortunate escape; insinuating that he had prevented the designs of his enemy, and de­clared his resolution to live and die with his faith­ful [Page 215] troops. Geta had been the favourite of the soldiers; but complaint was useless, revenge was dangerous, and they still reverenced the son of Severus. Their discontent died away in idle murmurs, and Caracalla soon convinced them of the justice of his cause, by distributing in one lavish donative the accumulated treasures of his father's reign ²³. The real sentiments of the sol­diers alone were of importance to his power or safety. Their declaration in his favour, com­manded the dutiful professions of the senate. The obsequious assembly was always prepared to ratify the decision of fortune; but as Caracalla wished to assuage the first emotions of public indigna­tion, the name of Geta was mentioned with de­cency, and he received the funeral honours of a Roman emperor ²⁴. Posterity, in pity to his mis­fortune, has cast a veil over his vices. We con­sider that young prince as the innocent victim of his brother's ambition, without recollecting that he himself wanted power, rather than inclination, to consummate the same attempts of revenge and murder.

The crime went not unpunished. Neither Remorse and cruel­ty of Cara­calla. business, nor pleasure, nor flattery, could defend Caracalla from the stings of a guilty conscience; and he confessed, in the anguish of a tortured mind, that his disordered fancy often beheld the angry forms of his father and his brother rising [Page 216] into life, to threaten and upbraid him ²⁵. The consciousness of his crime should have induced him to convince mankind, by the virtues of his reign, that the bloody deed had been the invo­luntary effect of fatal necessity. But the repent­ance of Caracalla only prompted him to remove from the world whatever could remind him of his guilt, or recal the memory of his murdered brother. On his return from the senate to the palace, he found his mother in the company of several noble matrons, weeping over the untimely fate of her younger son. The jealous emperor threatened them with instant death; the sentence was executed against Fadilla, the last remaining daughter of the emperor Marcus; and even the afflicted Julia was obliged to silence her lament­ations, to suppress her sighs, and to receive the assassin with smiles of joy and approbation. It was computed that, under the vague appellation of the friends of Geta, above twenty thousand persons of both sexes suffered death. His guards and freedmen, the ministers of his serious busi­ness, and the companions of his looser hours, those who by his interest had been promoted to any commands in the army or provinces, with the long-connected chain of their dependents, were included in the proscription; which endeavoured to reach every one who had maintained the small­est correspondence with Geta, who lamented his death, or who even mentioned his name ²⁶. [Page 217] Helvius Pertinax, son to the prince of that name, lost his life by an unseasonable witticism ²⁷. It was a sufficient crime of Thrasea Priscus, to be descended from a family in which the love of liberty seemed an hereditary quality ²⁸. The particular causes of calumny and suspicion were at length exhausted; and when a senator was accused of being a secret enemy to the govern­ment, the emperor was satisfied with the general proof that he was a man of property and virtue. From this well-grounded principle he frequently drew the most bloody inferences.

The execution of so many innocent citizens Death of Papinian, was bewailed by the secret tears of their friends and families. The death of Papinian, the Prae­torian praefect, was lamented as a public cala­mity. During the last seven years of Severus, he had exercised the most important offices of the state, and, by his salutary influence, guided the emperor's steps in the paths of justice and moderation. In full assurance of his virtues and abilities, Severus, on his death-bed, had con­jured him to watch over the prosperity and union [Page 218] of the Imperial family ²⁹. The honest labours of Papinian served only to inflame the hatred which Caracalla had already conceived against his fa­ther's minister. After the murder of Geta, the Praefect was commanded to exert the powers of his skill and eloquence in a studied apology for that atrocious deed. The philosophic Seneca had condescended to compose a similar epistle to the senate, in the name of the son and assassin of Agrippina ³⁰; ‘That it was easier to commit than to justify a parricide,’ was the glorious reply of Papinian ³¹, who did not hesitate be­tween the loss of life and that of honour. Such intrepid virtue, which had escaped pure and un­sullied from the intrigues of courts, the habits of business, and the arts of his profession, reflects more lustre on the memory of Papinian, than all his great employments, his numerous writings, and the superior reputation as a lawyer, which he has preserved through every age of the Roman jurisprudence ³².

It had hitherto been the peculiar felicity of the Romans, and in the worst of times their con­solation, His tyran­ny extend­ed over the whole em­pire. that the virtue of the emperors was active, and their vice indolent. Augustus, Tra­jan, Hadrian, and Marcus, visited their exten­sive dominions in person, and their progress was marked by acts of wisdom and beneficence. [Page 219] The tyranny of Tiberius, Nero, and Domitian, who resided almost constantly at Rome, or in the adjacent villas, was confined to the senatorial and equestrian orders ³³. But Caracalla was the common enemy of mankind. He left the capi­tal (and he never returned to it) about a year A. D. 213. after the murder of Geta. The rest of his reign was spent in the several provinces of the empire, particularly those of the East, and every province was by turns the scene of his rapine and cruelty. The senators, compelled by fear to attend his capricious motions, were obliged to provide daily entertainments at an immense expence, which he abandoned with con­tempt to his guards; and to erect, in every city, magnificent palaces and theatres, which he either disdained to visit, or ordered to be immediately thrown down. The most wealthy families were ruined by partial fines and consiscations, and the great body of his subjects oppressed by ingenious and aggravated taxes ³⁴. In the midst of peace, and upon the slightest provocation, he issued his commands, at Alexandria in Egypt, for a gene­ral massacre. From a secure post in the temple of Serapis, he viewed and directed the slaughter of many thousand citizens, as well as strangers, without distinguishing either the number or the crime of the sufferers; since, as he coolly inform­ed [Page 220] the senate, all the Alexandrians, those who had perished and those who had escaped, were alike guilty ³⁵.

The wise instructions of Severus never made Relaxation of disci­pline. any lasting impression on the mind of his son, who, although not destitute of imagination and eloquence, was equally devoid of judgment and humanity ³⁶. One dangerous maxim, worthy of a tyrant, was remembered and abused by Cara­calla, ‘To secure the affections of the army, and to esteem the rest of his subjects as of lit­tle moment ³⁷.’ But the liberality of the father had been restrained by prudence, and his indulgence to the troops was tempered by firm­ness and authority. The careless profusion of the son was the policy of one reign, and the in­evitable ruin both of the army and of the em­pire. The vigour of the soldiers, instead of be­ing confirmed by the severe discipline of camps, melted away in the luxury of cities. The exces­sive increase of their pay and donatives ³⁸ exhaust­guards [Page 221] ed the state to enrich the military order, whose modesty in peace, and service in war, is best secured by an honourable poverty. The demean­or of Caracalla was haughty and full of pride; but with the troops he forgot even the proper dignity of his rank, encouraged their insolent familiarity, and, neglecting the essential duties of a general, affected to imitate the dress and manners of a common soldier.

It was impossible that such a character, and Murder of Caracalla. A. D. 217. 8th March. such a conduct as that of Caracalla, could inspire either love or esteem; but as long as his vices were beneficial to the armies, he was secure from the danger of rebellion. A secret conspiracy, provoked by his own jealousy, was fatal to the tyrant. The Praetorian praefecture was divided between two ministers. The military depart­ment was intrusted to Adventus, an experienced rather than an able soldier; and the civil affairs were transacted by Opilius Macrinus, who, by his dexterity in business, had raised himself, with a fair character, to that high office. But his favour varied with the caprice of the emperor, and his life might depend on the slightest sus­picion, or the most casual circumstance. Malice or fanaticism had suggested to an African, deeply [Page 222] skilled in the knowledge of futurity, a very dan­gerous prediction, that Macrinus and his son were destined to reign over the empire. The report was soon diffused through the province; and when the man was sent in chains to Rome, he still asserted, in the presence of the Praefect of the city, the faith of his prophecy. That ma­gistrate, who had received the most pressing in­structions to inform himself of the successors of Caracalla, immediately communicated the exa­mination of the African to the Imperial court, which at that time resided in Syria. But, not­withstanding the diligence of the public messen­gers, a friend of Macrinus found means to apprize him of the approaching danger. The emperor received the letters from Rome; and as he was then engaged in the conduct of a chariot race, he delivered them unopened to the Praetorian Praefect, directing him to dispatch the ordinary affairs, and to report the more important busi­ness that might be contained in them. Macrinus read his fate, and resolved to prevent it. He inflamed the discontents of some inferior officers, and employed the hand of Martialis, a desperate soldier, who had been refused the rank of cen­turion. The devotion of Caracalla prompted him to make a pilgrimage from Edessa to the celebrated temple of the Moon at Carrhae. He was attended by a body of cavalry; but having stopped on the road for some necessary occasion, his guards preserved a respectful distance, and Martialis approaching his person under a pretence of duty, stabbed him with a dagger. The bold [Page 223] assassin was instantly killed by a Scythian archer of the Imperial guard. Such was the end of a monster whose life disgraced human nature, and whose reign accused the patience of the Ro­mans ³⁹. The grateful soldiers forgot his vices, remembered only his partial liberality, and oblig­ed the senate to prostitute their own dignity and that of religion by granting him a place among the gods. Whilst he was upon earth, Alexan­der Imitation of Alex­ander. the Great was the only hero whom this god deemed worthy his admiration. He assumed the name and ensigns of Alexander, formed a Mace­donian phalanx of guards, persecuted the dis­ciples of Aristotle, and displayed with a puerile enthusiasm the only sentiment by which he dis­covered any regard for virtue or glory. We can easily conceive, that after the battle of Narva, and the conquest of Poland, Charles the Twelfth (though he still wanted the more elegant accom­plishments of the son of Philip) might boast of having rivalled his valour and magnanimity: but in no one action of his life did Caracalla express the faintest resemblance of the Macedonian hero, except in the murder of a great number of his own and of his father's friends ⁴⁰.

After the extinction of the house of Severus, Election and cha­racter of Macrinus. the Roman world remained three days without a [Page 224] master. The choice of the army (for the autho­rity of a distant and feeble senate was little regarded) hung in an anxious suspense; as no candidate presented himself whose distinguished birth and merit could engage their attachment and unite their suffrages. The decisive weight of the Praetorian guards elevated the hopes of their praefects, and these powerful ministers be­gan to assert their legal claim to fill the vacancy of the Imperial throne. Adventus, however, the senior praefect, conscious of his age and infirmi­ties, of his small reputation, and his smaller abilities, resigned the dangerous honour to the crafty ambition of his colleague Macrinus, whose well-dissembled grief removed all suspicion of his being accessary to his master's death ⁴¹. The troops neither loved nor esteemed his character. They cast their eyes around in search of a com­petitor and at last yielded with reluctance to his promises of unbounded liberality and indulgence. A short time after his accession, he conferred on A. D. 217. March 11. his son Diadumenianus, at the age of only ten years, the Imperial title and the popular name of Antoninus. The beautiful figure of the youth, assisted by an additional donative, for which the ceremony furnished a pretext, might attract, it was hoped, the favour of the army, and secure the doubtful throne of Macrinus.

The authority of the new sovereign had been Discontent of the se­nate, ratified by the cheerful submission of the senate and provinces. They exulted in their unexpect­ed [Page 225] deliverance from a hated tyrant, and it seemed of little consequence to examine into the virtues of the successor of Caracalla. But as soon as the first transports of joy and surprise had subsided, they began to scrutinize the merits of Macrinus with a critical severity, and to arraign the hasty choice of the army. It had hitherto been con­sidered as a fundamental maxim of the constitu­tion, that the emperor must be always chosen in the senate, and the sovereign power, no longer exercised by the whole body, was always dele­gated to one of its members. But Macrinus was not a senator ⁴². The sudden elevation of the Praetorian praesects betrayed the meanness of their origin; and the equestrian order was still in possession of that great office, which commanded with arbitrary sway the lives and fortunes of the senate. A murmur of indignation was heard, that a man whose obscure ⁴³ extraction had never been illustrated by any signal service, should dare to invest himself with the purple, instead of be­stowing it on some distinguished senator, equal [Page 226] in birth and dignity to the splendour of the Im­perial station. As soon as the character of Ma­crinus was surveyed by the sharp eye of discon­tent, some vices, and many defects, were easily discovered. The choice of his ministers was in many instances justly censured, and the dissatis­fied people, with their usual candour, accused at once his indolent tameness and his excessive seve­rity ⁴⁴.

His rash ambition had climbed a height where it was difficult to stand with firmness, and im­possible and the ar­my. to fall without instant destruction. Train­ed in the arts of courts and the forms of civil business, he trembled in the presence of the fierce and undisciplined multitude, over whom he had assumed the command; his military talents were despised, and his personal courage suspected; a whisper that circulated in the camp, disclosed the fatal secret of the conspiracy against the late em­peror, aggravated the guilt of murder by the baseness of hypocrisy, and heightened contempt by detestation. To alienate the soldiers, and to provoke inevitable ruin, the character of a re­former was only wanting: and such was the pe­culiar hardship of his fate, that Macrinus was compelled to exercise that invidious office. The prodigality of Caracalla had left behind it a long train of ruin and disorder; and if that worthless [Page 227] tyrant had been capable of reflecting on the sure consequences of his own conduct, he would per­haps have enjoyed the dark prospect of the distress and calamities which he bequeathed to his suc­cessors.

In the management of this necessary reforma­tion, Macrinus attempts a reforma­tion of the army. Macrinus proceeded with a cautious pru­dence, which would have restored health and vigour to the Roman army, in an easy and almost imperceptible manner. To the soldiers already engaged in the service, he was constrained to leave the dangerous privileges and extravagant pay given by Caracalla; but the new recruits were received on the more moderate though liberal establishment of Severus, and gradually formed to modesty and obedience ⁴⁵. One fatal error destroyed the salutary effects of this judi­cious plan. The numerous army, assembled in the East by the late emperor, instead of being immediately dispersed by Macrinus through the several provinces, was suffered to remain united in Syria, during the winter that followed his elevation. In the luxurious idleness of their quar­ters, the troops viewed their strength and num­bers, communicated their complaints, and re­volved in their minds the advantages of another revolution. The veterans, instead of being flat­tered by the advantageous distinction, were alarm­ed by the first steps of the emperor, which they [Page 228] considered as the presage of his future intentions. The recruits, with sullen reluctance, entered on a service, whose labours were increased while its rewards were diminished by a covetous and un­warlike sovereign. The murmurs of the army swelled with impunity into seditious clamours; and the partial mutinies betrayed a spirit of dis­content and disaffection, that waited only for the slightest occasion to break out on every side into a general rebellion. To minds thus disposed, the occasion soon presented itself.

The empress Julia had experienced all the vi­cissitudes Death of the em­press Julia. Education, pretensi­ons, and revolt of Elagaba­lus, called at first Bas­sianus and Antoni­nus. of fortune. From an humble station she had been raised to greatness, only to taste the superior bitterness of an exalted rank. She was doomed to weep over the death of one of her sons, and over the life of the other. The cruel fate of Caracalla, though her good sense must have long taught her to expect it, awakened the feelings of a mother and of an empress. Not­withstanding the respectful civility expressed by the usurper towards the widow of Severus, she descended with a painful struggle into the con­dition of a subject, and soon withdrew herself by a voluntary death from the anxious and humiliat­ing dependence ⁴⁶. Julia Maesa, her sister, was ordered to leave the court and Antioch. She retired to Emesa with an immense fortune, the fruit of twenty years favour, accompanied by her two daughters, Soaemias and Mamaea, each of [Page 229] whom was a widow, and each had an only son. Bassianus, for that was the name of the son of Soaemias, was consecrated to the honourable mi­nistry of high priest of the Sun; and this holy vocation, embraced either from prudence or su­perstition, contributed to raise the Syrian youth to the empire of Rome. A numerous body of troops was stationed at Emesa; and, as the se­vere discipline of Macrinus had constrained them to pass the winter encamped, they were eager to revenge the cruelty of such unaccustomed hard­ships. The soldiers, who resorted in crowds to the temple of the Sun, beheld with veneration and delight the elegant dress and figure of a young pontiff: they recognised, or they thought that they recognised, the features of Caracalla, whose memory they now adored. The artful Maesa saw and cherished their rising partiality, and readily sacrificing her daughter's reputation to the fortune of her grandson, she insinuated that Bassianus was the natural son of their murdered sovereign. The sums distributed by her emis­saries with a lavish hand, silenced every objection, and the profusion sufficiently proved the affinity, or at least the resemblance, of Bassianus with the great original. The young Antoninus (for he had assumed and polluted that respectable name) A. D. 218. May 16. was declared emperor by the troops of Emesa, asserted his hereditary right, and called aloud on the armies to follow the standard of a young and liberal prince, who had taken up arms to revenge [Page 230] his father's death and the oppression of the mili­tary order ⁴⁷.

Whilst a conspiracy of women and eunuchs was Defeat and death of Macrinus. concerted with prudence, and conducted with rapid vigour, Macrinus, who, by a decisive mo­tion, might have crushed his infant enemy, floated between the opposite extremes of terror and security, which alike fixed him inactive at Antioch. A spirit of rebellion diffused itself through all the camps and garrisons of Syria, successive detachments murdered their officers ⁴⁸, and joined the party of the rebels; and the tardy restitution of military pay and privileges was im­puted to the acknowledged weakness of Macri­nus. At length he marched out of Antioch, to meet the increasing and zealous army of the young pretender. His own troops seemed to take the field with faintness and reluctance; but, in the heat of the battle ⁴⁹, the Praetorian guards, A. D. 218. 7th June. almost by an involuntary impulse, asserted the [Page 231] superiority of their valour and discipline. The rebel ranks were broken; when the mother and grandmother of the Syrian prince, who, accord­ing to their eastern custom, had attended the army, threw themselves from their covered cha­riots, and, by exciting the compassion of the soldiers, endeavoured to animate their drooping courage. Antoninus himself, who, in the rest of his life, never acted like a man, in this important crisis of his fate approved himself a hero, mounted his horse, and, at the head of his rallied troops, charged sword in hand among the thickest of the enemy; whilst the eunuch Gannys, whose occu­pations had been confined to female cares and the soft luxury of Asia, displayed the talents of an able and experienced general. The battle still raged with doubtful violence, and Macrinus might have obtained the victory, had he not be­trayed his own cause by a shameful and precipi­tate flight. His cowardice served only to pro­tract his life a few days, and to stamp deserved ignominy on his misfortunes. It is scarcely ne­cessary to add, that his son Diadumenianus was involved in the same fate. As soon as the stub­born Praetorians could be convinced that they fought for a prince who had basely deserted them, they surrendered to the conqueror; the contend­ing parties of the Roman army mingling tears of joy and tenderness, united under the banners of the imagined son of Caracalla, and the East ac­knowledged with pleasure the first emperor of Asiatic extraction.

[Page 232] The letters of Macrinus had condescended to inform the senate of the slight disturbance occa­sioned by an impostor in Syria, and a decree im­mediately Elagaba­lus writes to the se­nate. passed, declaring the rebel and his fa­mily public enemies; with a promise of pardon, however, to such of his deluded adherents as should merit it by an immediate return to their duty. During the twenty days that elapsed from the declaration to the victory of Antoninus (for in so short an interval was the fate of the Roman world decided), the capital and the provinces, more especially those of the East, were distracted with hopes and fears, agitated with tumult, and stained with a useless effusion of civil blood, since whosoever of the rivals prevailed in Syria, must reign over the empire. The specious letters in which the young conqueror announced his victory to the obedient senate, were filled with profes­sions of virtue and moderation; the shining ex­amples of Marcus and Augustus, he should ever consider as the great rule of his administration; and he affected to dwell with pride on the strik­ing resemblance of his own age and fortunes with those of Augustus, who in the earliest youth had revenged by a successful war the murder of his father. By adopting the style of Marcus Aure­lius Antoninus, son of Antoninus and grandson of Severus, he tacitly asserted his hereditary claim to the empire; but, by assuming the tribunitian and proconsular powers before they had been conferred on him by a decree of the senate, he offended the delicacy of Roman prejudice. This new and injudicious violation of the constitution [Page 233] was probably dictated either by the ignorance of his Syrian courtiers, or the fierce disdain of his military followers ⁵⁰.

As the attention of the new emperor was di­verted Picture of Elagaba­lus. A. D. 219. by the most trifling amusements, he wasted many months in his luxurious progress from Syria to Italy, passed at Nicomedia his first winter after his victory, and deferred till the ensuing summer his triumphal entry into the capital. A faithful picture, however, which preceded his arrival, and was placed by his immediate order over the altar of Victory in the senate-house, conveyed to the Romans the just but unworthy resemblance of his person and manners. He was drawn in his sa­cerdotal robes of silk and gold, after the loose flowing fashion of the Medes and Phoenicians; his head was covered with a lofty tiara, his nu­merous collars and bracelets were adorned with gems of an inestimable value. His eyebrows were tinged with black, and his cheeks painted with an artificial red and white ⁵¹. The grave senators confessed with a sigh, that, after having long experienced the stern tyranny of their own countrymen, Rome was at length humbled be­neath the effeminate luxury of Oriental de­spotism.

The Sun was worshipped at Emesa, under the His super­stition. name of Elagabalus ⁵², and under the form of a [Page 234] black conical stone, which, as it was universally believed, had fallen from heaven on that sacred place. To this protecting deity, Antoninus, not without some reason, ascribed his elevation to the throne. The display of superstitious grati­tude, was the only serious business of his reign. The triumph of the god of Emesa over all the religions of the earth, was the great object of his zeal and vanity: and the appellation of Elagaba­lus (for he presumed as pontiff and favourite to adopt that sacred name) was dearer to him than all the titles of Imperial greatness. In a solemn pro­cession through the streets of Rome, the way was strewed with gold dust; the black stone, set in precious gems, was placed on a chariot drawn by six milk-white horses richly caparisoned. The pious emperor held the reins, and, supported by his ministers, moved slowly backwards, that he might perpetually enjoy the felicity of the divine presence. In a magnificent temple raised on the Palatine Mount, the sacrifices of the god Elaga­balus were celebrated with every circumstance of cost and solemnity. The richest wines, the most extraordinary victims, and the rarest aromatics, were profusely consumed on his altar. Around the altar a chorus of Syrian damsels performed their lascivious dances to the sound of barbarian music, whilst the gravest personages of the state and army, clothed in long Phoenician tunics, of­ficiated in the meanest functions, with affected zeal and secret indignation ⁵³.

[Page 235] To this temple, as to the common centre of religious worship, the Imperial fanatic attempted to remove the Ancilia, the Palladium ⁵⁴, and all the sacred pledges of the faith of Numa. A crowd of inferior deities attended in various sta­tions the majesty of the god of Emesa; but his court was still imperfect, till a female of distin­guished rank was admitted to his bed. Pallas had been first chosen for his consort; but as it was dreaded lest her warlike terrors might affright the soft delicacy of a Syrian deity, the Moon, adored by the Africans under the name of Astarte, was deemed a more suitable companion for the Sun. Her image, with the rich offerings of her temple as a marriage portion, was transported with solemn pomp from Carthage to Rome, and the day of these mystic nuptials was a general festival in the capital and throughout the em­pire ⁵⁵.

A rational voluptuary adheres with invariable His profli­gate and effeminate luxury. respect to the temperate dictates of nature, and improves the gratifications of sense by social in­tercourse, endearing connections, and the soft colouring of taste and the imagination. But Ela­gabalus (I speak of the emperor of that name), [Page 236] corrupted by his youth, his country, and his for­tune, abandoned himself to the grossest pleasures with ungoverned fury, and soon found disgust and satiety in the midst of his enjoyments. The inflammatory powers of art were summoned to his aid: the confused multitude of women, of wines, and of dishes, and the studied variety of attitudes and sauces, served to revive his languid appetites. New terms and new inventions in these sciences, the only ones cultivated and pa­tronised by the monarch ⁵⁶, signalized his reign, and transmitted his infamy to succeeding times: A capricious prodigality supplied the want of taste and elegance; and whilst Elagabalus la­vished away the treasures of his people in the wildest extravagance, his own voice and that of his flatterers applauded a spirit and magnificence unknown to the tameness of his predecessors. To confound the order of seasons and climates ⁵⁷, to sport with the passions and prejudices of his subjects, and to subvert every law of nature and decency, were in the number of his most deli­cious amusements. A long train of concubines, and a rapid succession of wives, among whom was a vestal virgin, ravished by force from her [Page 237] sacred asylum ⁵⁸, were insufficient to satisfy the impotence of his passions. The master of the Roman world affected to copy the dress and manners of the female sex, preferred the distaff to the sceptre, and dishonoured the principal dig­nities of the empire by distributing them among his numerous lovers; one of whom was publicly invested with the title and authority of the em­peror's, or, as he more properly styled himself, of the empress's husband ⁵⁹.

It may seem probable, the vices and follies of Contempt of decency which dis­tinguished the Roman tyrants. Elagabalus have been adorned by fancy, and blackened by prejudice ⁶⁰. Yet confining our­selves to the public scenes displayed before the Roman people, and attested by grave and con­temporary historians, their inexpressible infamy surpasses that of any other age or country. The licence of an eastern monarch is secluded from the eye of curiosity by the inaccessible walls of his seraglio. The sentiments of honour and gal­lantry have introduced a refinement of pleasure, a regard for decency, and a respect for the public opinion, into the modern courts of Europe; but [Page 238] the corrupt and opulent nobles of Rome gratified every vice that could be collected from the mighty conflux of nations and manners. Secure of impunity, careless of censure, they lived with­out restraint in the patient and humble society of their slaves and parasites. The emperor, in his turn, viewing every rank of his subjects with the same contemptuous indifference, asserted without control his sovereign privilege of lust and luxury.

The most worthless of mankind are not afraid Discon­tents of the army. to condemn in others the same disorders which they allow in themselves; and can readily disco­ver some nice difference of age, character, or station, to justify the partial distinction. The li­centious soldiers, who had raised to the throne the dissolute son of Caracalla, blushed at their ignominious choice, and turned with disgust from that monster, to contemplate with pleasure the opening virtues of his cousin Alexander the son of Mamaea. The crafty Maesa, sensible that her grandson Elagabalus must inevitably destroy him­self by his own vices, had provided another and surer support of her family. Embracing a fa­vourable moment of fondness and devotion, she had persuaded the young emperor to adopt Alex­ander, Alexander Severus declared Caesar. A. D. 221. and to invest him with the title of Caesar, that his own divine occupations might be no longer interrupted by the care of the earth. In the second rank that amiable prince soon acquired the affections of the public, and excited the ty­rant's jealousy, who resolved to terminate the dangerous competition, either by corrupting the manners, or by taking away the life, of his rival. [Page 239] His arts proved unsuccessful; his vain designs were constantly discovered by his own loquacious folly, and disappointed by those virtuous and faithful servants whom the prudence of Mamaea had placed about the person of her son. In a hasty sally of passion, Elagabalus resolved to exe­cute by force what he had been unable to compass by fraud, and by a despotic sentence degraded his cousin from the rank and honours of Caesar. The message was received in the senate with silence, and in the camp with fury. The Prae­torian guards swore to protect Alexander, and to revenge the dishonoured majesty of the throne. The tears and promises of the trembling Elaga­balus, who only begged them to spare his life, and to leave him in the possession of his beloved Hierocles, diverted their just indignation; and they contented themselves with empowering their praefects to watch over the safety of Alexander, and the conduct of the emperor ⁶¹.

It was impossible that such a reconciliation should last, or that even the mean soul of Elaga­balus Sedition of the guards, and mur­der of Ela­gabalus. A. D. 222. 10 March. could hold an empire on such humiliating terms of dependence. He soon attempted, by a dangerous experiment, to try the temper of the soldiers. The report of the death of Alexander, and the natural suspicion that he had been mur­dered, inflamed their passions into fury, and the tempest of the camp could only be appeased by [Page 240] the presence and authority of the popular youth. Provoked at this new instance of their affection for his cousin, and their contempt for his person, the emperor ventured to punish some of the leaders of the mutiny. His unseasonable severity proved instantly fatal to his minions, his mother, and himself. Elagabalus was massacred by the in­dignant Praetorians, his mutilated corpse dragged through the streets of the city, and thrown into the Tyber. His memory was branded with eter­nal infamy by the senate; the justice of whose decree has been ratified by posterity ⁶².

In the room of Elagabalus, his cousin Alexan­der Accession of Alex­ander Se­verus. was raised to the throne by the Praetorian guards. His relation to the family of Severus, whose name he assumed, was the same as that of his predecessor; his virtue and his danger had already endeared him to the Romans, and the eager liberality of the senate conferred upon him, in one day, the various titles and powers of the [Page 241] Imperial dignity ⁶³. But as Alexander was a modest and dutiful youth, of only seventeen years of age, the reins of government were in the hands of two women, of his mother Mamaea, and of Maesa, his grandmother. After the death of the latter, who survived but a short time the eleva­tion of Alexander, Mamaea remained the sole re­gent of her son and of the empire.

In every age and country, the wiser, or at least Power of his mother Mamaea. the stronger, of the two sexes, has usurped the powers of the state, and confined the other to the cares and pleasures of domestic life. In he­reditary monarchies, however, and especially in those of modern Europe, the gallant spirit of chivalry, and the law of succession, have accus­tomed us to allow a singular exception; and a woman is often acknowledged the absolute sove­reign of a great kingdom, in which she would be deemed incapable of exercising the smallest em­ployment, civil or military. But as the Roman emperors were still considered as the generals and magistrates of the republic, their wives and mo­thers, although distinguished by the name of Au­gusta, were never associated to their personal ho­nours; and a female reign would have appeared an inexpiable prodigy in the eyes of those primi­tive Romans, who married without love, or loved without delicacy and respect ⁶⁴. The haughty [Page 242] Agrippina aspired, indeed, to share the honours of the empire, which she had conferred on her son; but her mad ambition, detested by every citizen who felt for the dignity of Rome, was disappointed by the artful firmness of Seneca and Burrhus ⁶⁵. The good sense, or the indifference, of succeeding princes, restrained them from of­fending the prejudices of their subjects; and it was reserved for the profligate Elagabalus, to discharge the acts of the senate, with the name of his mother Soaemias, who was placed by the side of the consuls, and subscribed, as a regular member, the decrees of the legislative assembly. Her more prudent sister, Mamaea, declined the useless and odious prerogative, and a solemn law was enacted, excluding women for ever from the senate, and devoting to the infernal gods, the head of the wretch by whom this sanction should be violated ⁶⁶. The substance, not the pageantry, of power was the object of Mamaea's manly am­bition. She maintained an absolute and lasting empire over the mind of her son, and in his af­fection the mother could not brook a rival. Alexander, with her consent, married the daugh­ter of a Patrician; but his respect for his father­in-law, and love for the empress, were incon­sistent with the tenderness or interest of Mamaea. The Patrician was executed on the ready accu­sation [Page 243] of treason, and the wife of Alexander driven with ignominy from the palace, and banished into Africa ⁶⁷.

Notwithstanding this act of jealous cruelty, as Wise and moderate admini­stration. well as some instances of avarice, with which Mamaea is charged; the general tenour of her administration was equally for the benefit of her son and of the empire. With the approbation of the senate, she chose sixteen of the wisest and most virtuous senators, as a perpetual council of state, before whom every public business of mo­ment was debated and determined. The cele­brated Ulpian, equally distinguished by his know­ledge of, and his respect for, the laws of Rome, was at their head; and the prudent firmness of this aristocracy restored order and authority to the government. As soon as they had purged the city from foreign superstition and luxury, the remains of the capricious tyranny of Elagabalus, they applied themselves to remove his worthless creatures from every department of public admi­nistration, and to supply their places with men of virtue and ability. Learning, and the love of justice, became the only recommendations for civil offices. Valour, and the love of discipline, [Page 244] the only qualifications for military employ­ments ⁶⁸.

But the most important care of Mamaea and Education and virtu­ous temper of Alex­ander. her wise counsellors, was to form the character of the young emperor, on whose personal qualities the happiness or misery of the Roman world must ultimately depend. The fortunate soil assisted, and even prevented, the hand of cultivation. An excellent understanding soon convinced A­lexander of the advantages of virtue, the plea­sure of knowledge, and the necessity of labour. A natural mildness and moderation of temper preserved him from the assaults of passion and the allurements of vice. His unalterable regard for his mother, and his esteem for the wise Ulpian, guarded his unexperienced youth from the poison of flattery.

The simple journal of his ordinary occupations Journal of his ordi­nary life. exhibits a pleasing picture of an accomplished emperor ⁶⁹, and with some allowance for the dif­ference of manners, might well deserve the imi­tation of modern princes. Alexander rose early: the first moments of the day were consecrated to private devotion, and his domestic chapel was filled with the images of those heroes, who, by improving or reforming human life, had deserved the grateful reverence of posterity. But, as he [Page 245] deemed the service of mankind the most accept­able worship of the gods, the greatest part of his morning hours was employed in his council, where he discussed public affairs, and determined private causes, with a patience and discretion above his years. The dryness of business was relieved by the charms of literature: and a por­tion of time was always set apart for his favourite studies of poetry, history, and philosophy. The works of Virgil and Horace, the republics of Plato and Cicero, formed his taste, enlarged his understanding, and gave him the noblest ideas of man and government. The exercises of the body succeeded to those of the mind; and Alex­ander, who was tall, active, and robust, sur­passed most of his equals in the gymnastic arts. Refreshed by the use of the bath and a slight din­ner, he resumed, with new vigour, the business of the day; and, till the hour of supper, the principal meal of the Romans, he was attended by his secretaries, with whom he read and an­swered the multitude of letters, memorials, and petitions, that must have been addressed to the master of the greatest part of the world. His table was served with the most frugal simplicity; and whenever he was at liberty to consult his own inclination, the company consisted of a few select friends, men of learning and virtue, amongst whom Ulpian was constantly invited. Their conversation was familiar and instructive; and the pauses were occasionally enlivened by the recital of some pleasing composition, which supplied the place of the dancers, comedians, and even gla­diators, [Page 246] so frequently summoned to the tables of the rich and luxurious Romans ⁷⁰. The dress of Alexander was plain and modest, his demeanor courteous and affable: at the proper hours his palace was open to all his subjects, but the voice of a crier was heard, as in the Eleusinian mys­teries, pronouncing the same salutary admoni­tion; ‘Let none enter those holy walls, unless he is conscious of a pure and innocent mind ⁷¹.’

Such an uniform tenour of life, which left General happiness of the Roman world. A. D. 222—235. not a moment for vice or folly, is a better proof of the wisdom and justice of Alexander's govern­ment, than all the trifling details preserved in the compilation of Lampridius. Since the ac­cession of Commodus, the Roman world had ex­perienced, during a term of forty years, the successive and various vices of four tyrants. From the death of Elagabalus, it enjoyed an auspicious calm of thirteen years. The pro­vinces, relieved from the oppressive taxes in­vented by Caracalla and his pretended son, flou­rished in peace and prosperity, under the admi­nistration of magistrates, who were convinced by experience, that to deserve the love of the sub­jects, was their best and only method of obtain­ing the favour of their sovereign. While some gentle restraints were imposed on the innocent luxury of the Roman people, the price of pro­visions, and the interest of money, were reduced, [Page 247] by the paternal care of Alexander, whose prudent liberality, without distressing the industrious, supplied the wants and amusements of the popu­lace. The dignity, the freedom, the authority of the senate were restored; and every virtuous senator might approach the person of the empe­ror, without fear, and without a blush.

The name of Antoninus, ennobled by the vir­tues Alexander refuses the name of Antoni­nus. of Pius and Marcus, had been communi­cated by adoption to the dissolute Verus, and by descent to the cruel Commodus. It became the honourable appellation of the sons of Severus, was bestowed on young Diadumenianus, and at length prostituted to the infamy of the high priest of Emesa. Alexander, though pressed by the studied, and perhaps sincere importunity of the senate, nobly refused the borrowed lustre of a name; whilst in his whole conduct he laboured to restore the glories and felicity of the age of the genuine Antonines ⁷².

In the civil administration of Alexander, wis­dom He at­tempts to reform the army. was enforced by power, and the people, sensible of the public felicity, repaid their bene­factor with their love and gratitude. There still remained a greater, a more necessary, but a more difficult enterprise; the reformation of the military order, whose interest and temper, con­firmed [Page 248] by long impunity, rendered them impa­tient of the restraints of discipline, and careless of the blessings of public tranquility. In the execution of his design the emperor affected to display his love, and to conceal his fear, of the army. The most rigid oeconomy in every other branch of the administration, supplied a fund of gold and silver for the ordinary pay and the ex­traordinary rewards of the troops. In their marches he relaxed the severe obligation of car­rying seventeen days provision on their shoulders. Ample magazines were formed along the public roads, and as soon as they entered the enemy's country, a numerous train of mules and camels waited on their haughty laziness. As Alexander despaired of correcting the luxury of his soldiers, he attempted, at least, to direct it to objects of martial pomp and ornament, fine horses, splen­did armour, and shield enriched with silver and gold. He shared whatever fatigues he was obliged to impose, visited, in person, the sick and wounded, preserved an exact register of their services and his own gratitude, and expressed, on every occasion, the warmest regard for a body of men, whose welfare, as he affected to declare, was so closely connected with that of the state ⁷³. By the most gentle arts he laboured to inspire the fierce multitude with a sense of duty, and to restore at least a faint image of that discipline to which the Romans owed their empire over so [Page 249] many other nations, as warlike and more power­ful than themselves. But his prudence was vain, his courage fatal, and the attempt towards a re­formation served only to inflame the ills it was meant to cure.

The Praetorian guards were attached to the Seditions of the Prae­torian guards, and mur­der of Ul­pian. youth of Alexander. They loved him as a ten­der pupil, whom they had saved from a tyrant's fury, and placed on the Imperial throne. That amiable prince was sensible of the obligation; but as his gratitude was restrained within the limits of reason and justice, they soon were more dissatisfied with the virtues of Alexander, than they had ever been with the vices of Elagabalus. Their praefect, the wise Ulpian, was the friend of the laws and of the people; he was con­sidered as the enemy of the soldiers, and to his pernicious counsels every scheme of reformation was imputed. Some trifling accident blew up their discontent into a furious mutiny; and a civil war raged, during three days, in Rome, whilst the life of that excellent minister was de­fended by the grateful people. Terrified, at length, by the sight of some houses in flames, and by the threats of a general conflagration, the people yielded with a sigh, and left the virtuous, but unfortunate, Ulpian to his fate. He was pursued into the Imperial palace, and massacred at the feet of his master, who vainly strove to cover him with the purple, and to obtain his pardon from the inexorable soldiers. Such was the deplorable weakness of government, that the emperor was unable to revenge his murdered [Page 250] friend and his insulted dignity, without stooping to the arts of patience and dissimulation. Epa­gathus, the principal leader of the mutiny, was removed from Rome, by the honourable employ­ment of praefect of Egypt; from that high rank he was gently degraded to the government of Crete; and when, at length, his popularity among the guards was effaced by time and ab­sence, Alexander ventured to inflict the tardy, but deserved punishment of his crimes ⁷⁴. Under the reign of a just and virtuous prince, the tyran­ny of the army threatened with instant death his most faithful ministers, who were suspected of an intention to correct their intolerable disorders. The historian Dion Cassius had commanded the Danger of Dion Cas­sius. Pannonian legions with the spirit of ancient dis­cipline. Their brethren of Rome, embracing the common cause of military licence, demanded the head of the reformer. Alexander, however, instead of yielding to their seditious clamours, shewed a just sense of his merit and services, by appointing him his colleague in the consulship, and defraying from his own treasury the expence of that vain dignity: but as it was justly appre­hended, that if the soldiers beheld him with the ensigns of his office, they would revenge the in­sult in his blood, the nominal first magistrate of the state retired, by the emperor's advice, from [Page 251] the city, and spent the greatest part of his con­fulship at his villas in Campania ⁷⁵.

The lenity of the emperor confirmed the in­solence Tumults of the le­gions. of the troops; the legions imitated the example of the guards, and defended their pre­rogative of licentiousness with the same furious obstinacy. The administration of Alexander was an unavailing struggle against the corruption of his age. In Illyricum, in Mauritania, in Ar­menia, in Mesopotamia, in Germany, fresh mu­tinies perpetually broke out; his officers were murdered, his authority was insulted, and his life at last sacrificed to the fierce discontents of the army ⁷⁶. One particular fact well deserves to Firmness of the em­peror. be recorded, as it illustrates the manners of the troops, and exhibits a singular instance of their return to a sense of duty and obedience. Whilst the emperor lay at Antioch, in his Persian expe­dition, the particulars of which we shall here­after relate, the punishment of some soldiers, who had been discovered in the baths of women, ex­cited a sedition in the legion to which they be­longed. Alexander ascended his tribunal, and with a modest firmness represented to the armed multitude, the absolute necessity as well as his inflexible resolution of correcting the vices intro­duced by his impure predecessor, and of main­taining the discipline, which could not be relaxed without the ruin of the Roman name and em­pire. Their clamours interrupted his mild ex­postulation. [Page 252] ‘Reserve your shouts, said the undaunted emperor, till you take the field against the Persians, the Germans, and the Sarmatians. Be silent in the presence of your sovereign and benefactor, who bestows upon you the corn, the clothing, and the money of the provinces. Be silent, or I shall no longer style you soldiers, but citizens ⁷⁷, if those in­deed who disclaim the laws of Rome deserve to be ranked among the meanest of the peo­ple.’ His menaces inflamed the fury of the legion, and their brandished arms already threat­ened his person. ‘Your courage, resumed the intrepid Alexander, would be more nobly dis­played in the field of battle; me you may de­stroy, you cannot intimidate; and the severe justice of the republic would punish your crime, and revenge my death.’ The legion still per­sisted in clamorous sedition, when the emperor pronounced, with a loud voice, the decisive sen­tence, ‘ Citizens! lay down your arms, and de­part in peace to your respective habitations.’ The tempest was instantly appeased; the soldiers, filled with grief and shame, silently confessed the justice of their punishment and the power of dis­cipline, yielded up their arms and military en­signs, and retired in confusion, not to their camp, but to the several inns of the city. Alexander enjoyed, during thirty days, the edifying spec­tacle [Page 253] of their repentance; nor did he restore them to their former rank in the army, till he had punished with death those tribunes whose connivance had occasioned the mutiny. The grateful legion served the emperor, whilst living, and revenged him when dead ⁷⁸.

The resolutions of the multitude generally de­pend Defects of his reign and cha­racter. on a moment; and the caprice of passion might equally determine the seditious legion to lay down their arms at the emperor's feet, or to plunge them into his breast. Perhaps, if the singular transaction had been investigated by the penetration of a philosopher, we should discover the secret causes which on that occasion autho­rized the boldness of the prince, and command­ed the obedience of the troops; and perhaps, if it had been related by a judicious historian, we should find this action, worthy of Caesar himself, reduced nearer to the level of probability and the common standard of the character of Alexander Severus. The abilities of that amiable prince seem to have been inadequate to the difficulties of his situation, the firmness of his conduct in­ferior to the purity of his intentions. His vir­tues, as well as the vices of Elagabalus, con­tracted a tincture of weakness and effeminacy from the soft climate of Syria, of which he was a native; though he blushed at his foreign ori­gin, and listened with a vain complacency to the flattering genealogists, who derived his race from [Page 254] the ancient stock of Roman nobility ⁷⁹. The pride and avarice of his mother cast a shade on the glories of his reign; and by exacting from his riper years the same dutiful obedience which she had justly claimed from his unexperienced youth, Mamaea exposed to public ridicule both her son's character and her own ⁸⁰. The fatigues of the Persian war irritated the military discon­tent; the unsuccessful event degraded the repu­tation of the emperor as a general, and even as a soldier. Every cause prepared, and every cir­cumstance hastened, a revolution, which distract­ed the Roman empire with a long series of in­testine calamities.

The dissolute tyranny of Commodus, the civil wars occasioned by his death, and the new max­ims Digression on the fi­nances of the empire. of policy introduced by the house of Severus, had all contributed to increase the dangerous power of the army, and to obliterate the faint image of laws and liberty that was still impressed [Page 255] on the minds of the Romans. This internal change, which undermined the foundations of the empire, we have endeavoured to explain with some degree of order and perspicuity. The personal characters of the emperors, their vic­tories, laws, follies, and fortunes, can interest us no farther than as they are connected with the general history of the Decline and Fall of the monarchy. Our constant attention to that great object, will not suffer us to overlook a most im­portant edict of Antoninus Caracalla, which com­municated to all the free inhabitants of the em­pire the name and privileges of Roman citizens. His unbounded liberality flowed not, however, from the sentiments of a generous mind; it was the forbid result of avarice, and will naturally be illustrated by some observations on the finances of that state, from the victorious ages of the com­monwealth to the reign of Alexander Severus.

The siege of Veii in Tuscany, the first con­siderable Establish­ment enterprise of the Romans, was protracted to the tenth year, much less by the strength of the place than by the unskilfulness of the be­siegers. The unaccustomed hardships of so many winter campaigns, at the distance of near twenty miles from home ⁸¹, required more than common encouragements; and the senate wisely prevented [Page 256] the clamours of the people, by the institution of a regular pay for the soldiers, which was levied by a general tribute, assessed according to an equitable proportion on the property of the citi­zens ⁸². During more than two hundred years after the conquest of Veii, the victories of the republic added less to the wealth than to the power of Rome. The states of Italy paid their tribute in military service only, and the vast force both by sea and land, which was exerted in the Punic wars, was maintained at the expence of the Romans themselves. That high-spirited peo­ple (such is often the generous enthusiasm of freedom) cheerfully submitted to the most exces­sive but voluntary burdens, in the just confidence that they should speedily enjoy the rich harvest of their labours. Their expectations were not disappointed. In the course of a few years, the riches of Syracuse, of Carthage, of Macedonia, and of Asia, were brought in triumph to Rome. The treasures of Perseus alone amounted to near and aboli­tion of the tribute on Roman ci­tizens. two millions sterling, and the Roman people, the sovereign of so many nations, was for ever delivered from the weight of taxes ⁸³. The in­creasing revenue of the provinces was found suffi­cient to defray the ordinary establishment of war and government, and the superfluous mass of gold and silver was deposited in the temple of [Page 257] Saturn, and reserved for any unforeseen emer­gency of the state ⁸⁴.

History has never perhaps suffered a greater or Tributes of the pro­vinces more irreparable injury, than in the loss of the curious register bequeathed by Augustus to the senate, in which that experienced prince so ac­curately balanced the revenues and expences of the Roman empire ⁸⁵. Deprived of this clear and comprehensive estimate, we are reduced to collect a few imperfect hints from such of the an­cients as have accidentally turned aside from the splendid to the more useful parts of history. We are informed that, by the conquests of Pom­pey, the tributes of Asia were raised from fifty to of Asia, one hundred and thirty-five millions of drachms; or about four millions and a half sterling ⁸⁶. of Egypt, Under the last and most indolent of the Ptole­mies, the revenue of Egypt is said to have amounted to twelve thousand five hundred ta­lents; a sum equivalent to more than two mil­lions and a half of our money, but which was afterwards considerably improved by the more exact oeconomy of the Romans, and the increase of the trade of Aethiopia and India ⁸⁷. Gaul of Gaul, was enriched by rapine, as Egypt was by com­merce, and the tributes of those two great pro­vinces have been compared as nearly equal to [Page 258] each other in value ⁸⁸. The ten thousand Eu­boic or Phoenician talents, about four millions sterling ⁸⁹, which vanquished Carthage was con­demned of Africa, to pay within the term of fifty years, were a slight acknowledgment of the superiority of Rome ⁹⁰, and cannot bear the least proportion with the taxes afterwards raised both on the lands and on the persons of the inhabitants, when the fertile coast of Africa was reduced into a pro­vince ⁹¹.

Spain, by a very singular fatality, was the Peru of Spain, and Mexico of the old world. The discovery of the rich western continent by the Phoenicians, and the oppression of the simple natives, who were compelled to labour in their own mines for the benefit of strangers, form an exact type of the more recent history of Spanish America ⁹². The Phoenicians were acquainted only with the sea-coast of Spain; avarice, as well as ambition, carried the arms of Rome and Carthage into the heart of the country, and almost every part of the soil was found pregnant with copper, silver, and gold. Mention is made of a mine near Car­thagena which yielded every day twenty-five [Page 259] thousand drachms of silver, or about three hun­dred thousand pounds a year ⁹³. Twenty thou­sand pound weight of gold was annually received from the provinces of Asturia, Gallicia, and Lusitania ⁹⁴.

We want both leisure and materials to pursue of the isle of Gyarus. this curious inquiry through the many potent states that were annihilated in the Roman empire. Some notion, however, may be formed of the revenue of the provinces where considerable wealth had been deposited by nature, or collected by man, if we observe the severe attention that was directed to the abodes of solitude and ste­rility. Augustus once received a petition from the inhabitants of Gyarus, humbly praying that they might be relieved from one-third of their excessive impositions. Their whole tax amount­ed indeed to no more than one hundred and fifty drachms, or about five pounds: but Gyarus was a little island, or rather a rock, of the Aegean sea, destitute of fresh water and every necessary of life, and inhabited only by a few wretched fishermen ⁹⁵.

From the saint glimmerings of such doubtful Amount of the re­venue. and scattered lights, we should be inclined to believe, 1st, That (with every fair allowance for [Page 260] the difference of times and circumstances) the general income of the Roman provinces could seldom amount to less than fifteen or twenty millions of our money ⁹⁶; and, 2dly, That so ample a revenue must have been fully adequate to all the expences of the moderate government instituted by Augustus, whose court was the mo­dest family of a private senator, and whose mili­tary establishment was calculated for the defence of the frontiers, without any aspiring views of conquest, or any serious apprehension of a foreign invasion.

Notwithstanding the seeming probability of Taxes on Roman ci­tizens in­stituted by Augustus. both these conclusions, the latter of them at least is positively disowned by the language and con­duct of Augustus. It is not easy to determine whether, on this occasion, he acted as the com­mon father of the Roman world, or as the op­pressor of liberty; whether he wished to relieve the provinces, or to impoverish the senate and the equestrian order. But no sooner had he assumed the reins of government, than he fre­quently intimated the insufficiency of the tri­butes, and the necessity of throwing an equitable proportion of the public burden upon Rome and Italy. In the prosecution of this unpopular de­sign, he advanced, however, by cautious and well-weighed steps. The introduction of customs was followed by the establishment of an excise, [Page 261] and the scheme of taxation was completed by an artful assessment on the real and personal pro­perty of the Roman citizens, who had been ex­empted from any kind of contribution above a century and a half.

I. In a great empire like that of Rome, a The cus­toms. natural balance of money must have gradually established itself. It has been already observed, that as the wealth of the provinces was attracted to the capital by the strong hand of conquest and power; so a considerable part of it was restored to the industrious provinces by the gentle influ­ence of commerce and arts. In the reign of Augustus and his successors, duties were im­posed on every kind of merchandise, which through a thousand channels flowed to the great centre of opulence and luxury; and in what­soever manner the law was expressed, it was the Roman purchaser, and not the provincial mer­chant, who paid the tax ⁹⁷. The rate of the customs varied from the eighth to the fortieth part of the value of the commodity; and we have a right to suppose that the variation was directed by the unalterable maxims of policy: that a higher duty was fixed on the articles of luxury than on those of necessity, and that the produc­tions raised or manufactured by the labour of the subjects of the empire, were treated with more indulgence than was shewn to the pernicious, or at least the unpopular commerce of Arabia and [Page 262] India ⁹⁸. There is still extant a long but im­perfect catalogue of eastern commodities, which about the time of Alexander Severus were subject to the payment of duties; cinnamon, myrrh, pepper, ginger, and the whole tribe of aromatics, a great variety of precious stones, among which the diamond was the most remarkable for its price, and the emerald for its beauty ⁹⁹: Parthian and Babylonian leather, cottons, silks, both raw and manufactured, ebony, ivory, and eunuchs ¹⁰⁰. We may observe that the use and value of those effeminate slaves gradually rose with the decline of the empire.

II. The excise, introduced by Augustus after the civil wars, was extremely moderate, but it The ex­cise. was general. It seldom exceeded one per cent.; but it comprehended whatever was sold in the markets or by public auction, from the most con­siderable purchases of lands and houses, to those minute objects which can only derive a value from their infinite multitude and daily consump­tion. Such a tax, as it affects the body of the people, has ever been the occasion of clamour and discontent. An emperor well acquainted [Page 263] with the wants and resources of the state, was obliged to declare by a public edict, that the support of the army depended in a great measure on the produce of the excise ¹⁰¹.

III. When Augustus resolved to establish a Tax on le­gacies and inherit­ances. permanent military force for the defence of his government against foreign and domestic ene­mies, he instituted a peculiar treasury for the pay of the soldiers, the rewards of the veterans, and the extraordinary expences of war. The ample revenue of the excise, though peculiarly appro­priated to those uses, was found inadequate. To supply the deficiency, the emperor suggested a new tax of five per cent. on all legacies and inheritances. But the nobles of Rome were more tenacious of property than of freedom. Their indignant murmurs were received by Au­gustus with his usual temper. He candidly re­ferred the whole business to the senate, and ex­horted them to provide for the public service by some other expedient of a less odious nature. They were divided and perplexed. He insinu­ated to them, that their obstinacy would oblige him to propose a general land-tax and capitation. They acquiesced in silence ¹⁰². The new impo­sition on legacies and inheritances was however mitigated by some restrictions. It did not take place unless the object was of a certain value, [Page 264] most probably of fifty or an hundred pieces of gold ¹⁰³; nor could it be exacted from the nearest of kin on the father's side ¹⁰⁴. When the rights of nature and poverty were thus secured, it seemed reasonable, that a stranger, or a distant relation, who acquired an unexpected accession of fortune, should cheerfully resign a twentieth part of it, for the benefit of the state ¹⁰⁵.

Such a tax, plentiful as it must prove in every Suited to the laws and man­ners. wealthy community, was most happily suited to the situation of the Romans, who could frame their arbitrary wills, according to the dictates of reason or caprice, without any restraint from the modern fetters of entails and settlements. From various causes the partiality of paternal affection often lost its influence over the stern patriots of the commonwealth, and the dissolute nobles of the empire; and if the father bequeathed to his son the fourth part of his estate, he removed all ground of legal complaint ¹⁰⁶. But a rich child­less old man was a domestic tyrant, and his power increased with his years and infirmities. A ser­vile crowd, in which he frequently reckoned praetors and consuls, courted his smiles, pam­pered his avarice, applauded his follies, served his passions, and waited with impatience for his [Page 265] death. The arts of attendance and flattery were formed into a most lucrative science; those who professed it acquired a peculiar appellation; and the whole city, according to the lively descrip­tions of satire, was divided between two parties, the hunters and their game ¹⁰⁷. Yet, while so many unjust and extravagant wills were every day dictated by cunning, and subscribed by folly, a few were the result of rational esteem and vir­tuous gratitude. Cicero, who had so often de­fended the lives and fortunes of his fellow-citi­zens, was rewarded with legacies to the amount of an hundred and seventy thousand pounds ¹⁰⁸; nor do the friends of the younger Pliny seem to have been less generous to that amiable orator ¹⁰⁹. Whatever was the motive of the testator, the treasury claimed, without distinction, the twen­tieth part of his estate; and in the course of two or three generations, the whole property of the subject must have gradually passed through the coffers of the state.

In the first and golden years of the reign of Nero, Regulati­ons of the emperors. that prince, from a desire of popularity, and perhaps from a blind impulse of benevolence, conceived a wish of abolishing the oppression of the customs and excise. The wisest senators ap­plauded his magnanimity; but they diverted him [Page 266] from the execution of a design, which would have dissolved the strength and resources of the republic ¹¹⁰. Had it indeed been possible to realize this dream of fancy, such princes as Tra­jan and the Antonines would surely have em­braced with ardour the glorious opportunity of conferring so signal an obligation on mankind. Satisfied, however, with alleviating the public burden, they attempted not to remove it. The mildness and precision of their laws ascertained the rule and measure of taxation, and protected the subject of every rank against arbitrary inter­pretations, antiquated claims, and the insolent vexation of the farmers of the revenue ¹¹¹. For it is somewhat singular, that, in every age, the best and wisest of the Roman governors per­severed in this pernicious method of collecting the principal branches at least of the excise and customs ¹¹².

The sentiments, and, indeed, the situation of Edict of Caracalla. Caracalla, were very different from those of the Antonines. Inattentive, or rather averse to the welfare of his people, he found himself under the necessity of gratifying the insatiate avarice, which he had excited in the army. Of the several im­positions introduced by Augustus, the twentieth on inheritances and legacies was the most fruit­ful, as well as the most comprehensive. As its [Page 267] influence was not confined to Rome or Italy, the produce continually increased with the gradual extension of the ROMAN CITY. The new citi­zens, though charged, on equal terms ¹¹³, with the payment of new taxes, which had not affect­ed them as subjects, derived an ample compensa­tion from the rank they obtained, the privileges they acquired, and the fair prospect of honours and fortune that was thrown open to their ambi­tion. But the favour, which implied a distinc­tion, The free­dom of the city given to all the provinci­als, for the purpose of taxation. was lost in the prodigality of Caracalla, and the reluctant provincials were compelled to assume the vain title, and the real obligations, of Roman citizens. Nor was the rapacious son of Severus contented with such a measure of taxation, as had appeared sufficient to his moderate predecessors. Instead of a twentieth, he exacted a tenth of all legacies and inheritances; and during his reign (for the ancient proportion was restored after his death) he crushed alike every part of the empire under the weight of his iron sceptre ¹¹⁴.

When all the provincials became liable to the Tempora­ry reduc­tion of the tribute. peculiar impositions of Roman citizens, they seemed to acquire a legal exemption from the tributes which they had paid in their former condition of subjects. Such were not the maxims of government adopted by Caracalla and his pre­tended son. The old as well as the new taxes were, at the same time, levied in the provinces. [Page 268] It was reserved for the virtue of Alexander to relieve them in a great measure from this into­lerable grievance, by reducing the tributes to a thirtieth part of the sum exacted at the time of his accession ¹¹⁵. It is impossible to conjecture the motive that engaged him to spare so trifling a remnant of the public evil; but the noxious weed, which had not been totally eradicated, again sprang up with the most luxuriant growth, and in the succeeding age darkened the Roman world with its deadly shade. In the course of this his­tory, we shall be too often summoned to explain the land-tax, the capitation, and the heavy con­tributions of corn, wine, oil, and meat, which were exacted from the provinces for the use of the court, the army, and the capital.

As long as Rome and Italy were respected as Conse­quences of the univer­sal free­dom of Rome. the centre of government, a national spirit was preserved by the ancient, and insensibly imbibed by the adopted, citizens. The principal com­mands of the army were filled by men who had received a liberal education, were well instructed in the advantages of laws and letters, and who had risen, by equal steps, through the regular succession of civil and military honours ¹¹⁶. To their influence and example we may partly ascribe the modest obedience of the legions during the two first centuries of the Imperial history.

[Page 269] But when the last enclosure of the Roman constitution was trampled down by Caracalla, the separation of professions gradually succeeded to the distinction of ranks. The more polished citizens of the internal provinces were alone qua­lified to act as lawyers and magistrates. The rougher trade of arms was abandoned to the pea­sants and barbarians of the frontiers, who knew no country but their camp, no science but that of war, no civil laws, and scarcely those of mili­tary discipline. With bloody hands, savage manners, and desperate resolutions, they some­times guarded, but much oftener subverted, the throne of the emperors.

OF the various forms of government, which have prevailed in the world, an hereditary monarchy seems to present the fairest scope for ridicule. Is it possible to relate, without an in­dignant The appa­rent ridi­cule smile, that, on the father's decease, the property of a nation, like that of a drove of oxen, descends to his infant son, as yet unknown to mankind and to himself; and that the bravest warriors and the wisest statesmen, relinquishing their natural right to empire, approach the royal cradle with bended knees and protestations of in­violable fidelity? Satire and declamation may paint these obvious topics in the most dazzling colours, but our more serious thoughts will re­spect a useful prejudice, that establishes a rule of succession, independent of the passions of man­kind; and we shall cheerfully acquiesce in any expedient which deprives the multitude of the dangerous, and indeed the ideal, power of giving themselves a master.

In the cool shade of retirement, we may easily and solid advantages of heredi­tary suc­cession. devise imaginary forms of government, in which [Page 271] the sceptre shall be constantly bestowed on the most worthy, by the free and incorrupt suffrage of the whole community. Experience overturns these airy fabrics, and teaches us, that, in a large society, the election of a monarch can never de­volve to the wisest, or to the most numerous, part of the people. The army is the only order of men sufficiently united to concur in the same sen­timents, and powerful enough to impose them on the rest of their fellow-citizens: but the tem­per of soldiers, habituated at once to violence and to slavery, renders them very unfit guardians of a legal, or even a civil constitution. Justice, humanity, or political wisdom, are qualities they are too little acquainted with in themselves, to appreciate them in others. Valour will acquire their esteem, and liberality will purchase their suffrage; but the first of these merits is often lodged in the most savage breasts; the latter can only exert itself at the expence of the public; and both may be turned against the possessor of the throne, by the ambition of a daring rival.

The superior prerogative of birth, when it has Want of it in the Ro­man em­pire pro­ductive of the greatest calamities. obtained the sanction of time and popular opi­nion, is the plainest and least invidious of all distinctions among mankind. The acknowledged right extinguishes the hopes of faction, and the conscious security disarms the cruelty of the mo­narch. To the firm establishment of this idea, we owe the peaceful succession, and mild admi­nistration, of European monarchies. To the de­fect of it, we must attribute the frequent civil [Page 272] wars, through which an Asiatic Despot is obliged to cut his way to the throne of his fathers. Yet, even in the East, the sphere of contention is usually limited to the princes of the reigning house, and as soon as the more fortunate compe­titor has removed his brethren, by the sword and the bow-string, he no longer entertains any jea­lousy of his meaner subjects. But the Roman empire, after the authority of the senate had sunk into contempt, was a vast scene of confusion. The royal, and even noble, families of the pro­vinces, had long since been led in triumph before the car of the haughty republicans. The ancient families of Rome had successively fallen beneath the tyranny of the Caesars; and whilst those princes were shackled by the forms of a common­wealth, and disappointed by the repeated failure of their posterity ¹, it was impossible that any idea of hereditary succession should have taken root in the minds of their subjects. The right to the throne, which none could claim from birth, every one assumed from merit. The daring hopes of ambition were set loose from the salutary restraints of law and prejudice; and the meanest of mankind might, without folly, entertain a hope of being raised by valour and fortune to a rank in the army, in which a single crime would enable him to wrest the sceptre of the world from his feeble and unpopular master. After the mur­der [Page 273] of Alexander Severus, and the elevation of Maximin, no emperor could think himself safe upon the throne, and every barbarian peasant of the frontier might aspire to that august, but dan­gerous station.

About thirty-two years before that event, the Birth and fortunes of Maximin. emperor Severus, returning from an eastern ex­pedition, halted in Thrace, to celebrate, with military games, the birth-day of his younger son, Geta. The country flocked in crowds to behold their sovereign, and a young barbarian of gigantic stature earnestly solicited, in his rude dialect, that he might be allowed to contend for the prize of wrestling. As the pride of discipline would have been disgraced in the overthrow of a Roman soldier by a Thracian peasant, he was matched with the stoutest followers of the camp, sixteen of whom he successively laid on the ground. His victory was rewarded by some trifling gifts, and a permission to inlist in the troops. The next day, the happy barbarian was distinguished above a crowd of recruits, dancing and exulting after the fashion of his country. As soon as he perceived that he had attracted the emperor's notice, he instantly ran up to his horse, and fol­lowed him on foot, without the least appearance of fatigue, in a long and rapid career. ‘Thra­cian, said Severus, with astonishment, art thou disposed to wrestle after thy race?’ Most willingly, Sir, replied the unwearied youth, and, almost in a breath, overthrew seven of the strongest soldiers in the army. A gold collar was [Page 274] the prize of his matchless vigour and activity, and he was immediately appointed to serve in the horse-guards who always attended on the person of the sovereign ².

Maximin, for that was his name, though born on the territories of the empire, descended from His mili­tary service and ho­nours. a mixed race of barbarians. His father was a Goth, and his mother, of the nation of the Alani. He displayed, on every occasion, a valour equal to his strength; and his native fierceness was soon tempered or disguised by the knowledge of the world. Under the reign of Severus and his son, he obtained the rank of centurion, with the favour and esteem of both those princes, the for­mer of whom was an excellent judge of merit. Gratitude forbade Maximin to serve under the assassin of Caracalla. Honour taught him to decline the effeminate insults of Elagabalus. On the accession of Alexander he returned to court, and was placed by that prince in a station useful to the service, and honourable to himself. The fourth legion, to which he was appointed tribune, soon became, under his care, the best disciplined of the whole army. With the general applause of the soldiers, who bestowed on their favourite hero the names of Ajax and Hercules, he was successively promoted to the first military com­mand ³; and had not he still retained too much [Page 275] of his savage origin, the emperor might perhaps have given his own sister in marriage to the son of Maximin ⁴.

Instead of securing his fidelity, these favours Conspi­racy of Maximin. served only to inflame the ambition of the Thra­cian peasant, who deemed his fortune inadequate to his merit, as long as he was constrained to acknowledge a superior. Though a stranger to real wisdom, he was not devoid of a selfish cun­ning, which shewed him, that the emperor had lost the affection of the army, and taught him to improve their discontent to his own advantage. It is easy for faction and calumny to shed their poison on the administration of the best of princes, and to accuse even their virtues, by artfully con­founding them with those vices to which they bear the nearest affinity. The troops listened with pleasure to the emissaries of Maximin. They blushed at their own ignominious patience, which, during thirteen years, had supported the vexatious discipline imposed by an effeminate Sy­rian, the timid slave of his mother and of the senate. It was time, they cried, to cast away that useless phantom of the civil power, and to elect for their prince and general a real soldier, educated in camps, exercised in war, who would assert the glory, and distribute among his com­panions the treasures of the empire. A great [Page 276] army was at that time assembled on the banks of the Rhine, under the command of the emperor himself, who, almost immediately after his return from the Persian war, had been obliged to march against the barbarians of Germany. The im­portant care of training and reviewing the new levies was intrusted to Maximin. One day, as he entered the field of exercise, the troops, either from a sudden impulse or a formed conspi­racy, saluted him emperor, silenced by their loud acclamations his obstinate refusal, and hastened to consummate their rebellion by the murder of A. D. 235. March 19. Alexander Severus.

The circumstances of his death are variously Murder of Alexander Severus. related. The writers, who suppose that he died in ignorance of the ingratitude and ambition of Maximin, affirm, that, after taking a frugal re­past in the sight of the army, he retired to sleep, and that, about the seventh hour of the day, a part of his own guards broke into the Imperial tent, and, with many wounds, assassinated their virtuous and unsuspecting prince ⁵. If we credit another, and indeed a more probable account, Maximin was invested with the purple by a nu­merous detachment, at the distance of several miles from the head-quarters; and he trusted for success rather to the secret wishes than to the [Page 277] public declarations of the great army. Alexan­der had sufficient time to awaken a faint sense of loyalty among his troops; but their reluctant professions of fidelity quickly vanished on the ap­pearance of Maximin, who declared himself the friend and advocate of the military order, and was unanimously acknowledged emperor of the Romans by the applauding legions. The son of Mamaea, betrayed and deserted, withdrew into his tent, desirous at least to conceal his approach­ing fate from the insults of the multitude. He was soon followed by a tribune and some centu­rions, the ministers of death; but, instead of re­ceiving with manly resolution the inevitable stroke, his unavailing cries and entreaties dis­graced the last moments of his life, and con­verted into contempt some portion of the just pity which his innocence and misfortunes must inspire. His mother Mamaea, whose pride and avarice he loudly accused as the cause of his ruin, perished with her son. The most faithful of his friends were sacrificed to the first fury of the soldiers. Others were reserved for the more deliberate cruelty of the usurper; and those who experi­enced the mildest treatment, were stripped of their employments, and ignominiously driven from the court and army ⁶.

The former tyrants, Caligula and Nero, Com­modus Tyranny of Maxi­min. and Caracalla, were all dissolute and un­experienced youths ⁷, educated in the purple, and [Page 278] corrupted by the pride of empire, the luxury of Rome, and the perfidious voice of flattery. The cruelty of Maximin was derived from a different source, the fear of contempt. Though he de­pended on the attachment of the soldiers, who loved him for virtues like their own, he was con­scious that his mean and barbarian origin, his sa­vage appearance, and his total ignorance of the arts and institutions of civil life ⁸, formed a very unfavourable contrast with the amiable manners of the unhappy Alexander. He remembered, that, in his humbler fortune, he had often waited before the door of the haughty nobles of Rome, and had been denied admittance by the insolence of their slaves. He recollected too the friendship of a few who had relieved his poverty, and assisted his rising hopes. But those who had spurned, and those who had protected the Thracian, were guilty of the same crime, the knowledge of his original obscurity. For this crime many were put to death; and by the execution of several of his benefactors, Maximin published, in charac­ters of blood, the indelible history of his baseness and ingratitude ⁹.

The dark and sanguinary soul of the tyrant, was open to every suspicion against those among his subjects who were the most distinguished by their birth or merit. Whenever he was alarmed [Page 279] with the sound of treason, his cruelty was un­bounded and unrelenting. A conspiracy against his life was either discovered or imagined, and Magnus, a consular senator, was named as the principal author of it. Without a witness, with­out a trial, and without an opportunity of de­fence, Magnus, with four thousand of his sup­posed accomplices, were put to death. Italy and the whole empire were infested with innumerable spies and informers. On the slightest accusation, the first of the Roman nobles, who had governed provinces, commanded armies, and been adorned with the consular and triumphal ornaments, were chained on the public carriages, and hurried away to the emperor's presence. Confiscation, exile, or simple death, were esteemed uncommon instances of his lenity. Some of the unfortunate sufferers he ordered to be sewed up in the hides of slaughtered animals, others to be exposed to wild beasts, others again to be beaten to death with clubs. During the three years of his reign, he disdained to visit either Rome or Italy. His camp, occasionally, removed from the banks of the Rhine to those of the Danube, was the seat of his stern despotism, which trampled on every principle of law and justice, and was supported by the avowed power of the sword ¹⁰. No man [Page 280] of noble birth, elegant accomplishments, or knowledge of civil business, was suffered near his person; and the court of a Roman emperor re­vived the idea of those ancient chiefs of slaves and gladiators, whose savage power had left a deep impression of terror and detestation ¹¹.

As long as the cruelty of Maximin was con­fined Oppression of the pro­vinces. to the illustrious senators, or even to the bold adventurers, who in the court or army ex­pose themselves to the caprice of fortune, the body of the people viewed their sufferings with indifference, or perhaps with pleasure. But the tyrant's avarice, stimulated by the insatiate desires of the soldiers, at length attacked the public pro­perty. Every city of the empire was possessed of an independent revenue, destined to purchase corn for the multitude, and to supply the ex­pences of the games and entertainments. By a single act of authority, the whole mass of wealth was at once confiscated for the use of the Impe­rial treasury. The temples were stripped of their most valuable offerings of gold and silver, and the statues of gods, heroes, and emperors were melted down and coined into money. These im­pious orders could not be executed without tu­mults and massacres, as in many places the people chose rather to die in the defence of their altars, than to behold in the midst of peace their cities exposed to the rapine and cruelty of war. The soldiers themselves, among whom this sacrile­gious plunder was distributed, received it with a [Page 281] blush; and, hardened as they were in acts of violence, they dreaded the just reproaches of their friends and relations. Throughout the Roman world a general cry of indignation was heard, imploring vengeance on the common enemy of human kind; and at length, by an act of private oppression, a peaceful and unarmed province was driven into rebellion against him ¹².

The procurator of Africa was a servant worthy Revolt in Africa. A. D. 237. April. of such a master, who considered the fines and confiscations of the rich as one of the most fruit­ful branches of the Imperial revenue. An ini­quitous sentence had been pronounced against some opulent youths of that country, the execu­tion of which would have stripped them of far the greater part of their patrimony. In this ex­tremity, a resolution that must either complete or prevent their ruin, was dictated by despair. A respite of three days, obtained with difficulty from the rapacious treasurer, was employed in collecting from their estates a great number of slaves and peasants, blindly devoted to the com­mands of their lords, and armed with the rustic weapons of clubs and axes. The leaders of the conspiracy, as they were admitted to the audience of the procurator, stabbed him with the daggers concealed under their garments, and, by the as­sistance of their tumultuary train, seized on the little town of Thysdrus ¹³, and erected the stand­ard [Page 282] of rebellion against the sovereign of the Ro­man empire. They rested their hopes on the hatred of mankind against Maximin, and they judiciously resolved to oppose to that detested tyrant, an emperor whose mild virtues had al­ready acquired the love and esteem of the Ro­mans, and whose authority over the province would give weight and stability to the enterprise. Gordianus, their proconsul, and the object of their choice, refused, with unfeigned reluctance, the dangerous honour, and begged with tears that they would suffer him to terminate in peace a long and innocent life, without staining his feeble age with civil blood. Their menaces compelled him to accept the Imperial purple, his only refuge indeed against the jealous cruelty of Maximin; since, according to the reasoning of tyrants, those who have been esteemed worthy of the throne deserve death, and those who deli­berate have already rebelled ¹⁴.

The family of Gordianus was one of the most Character and eleva­tion of the two Gor­dians. illustrious of the Roman senate. On the father's side, he was descended from the Gracchi; on his mother's, from the emperor Trajan. A great estate enabled him to support the dignity of his birth, and, in the enjoyment of it, he displayed an elegant taste, and beneficent dis­position. The palace in Rome, formerly inha­bited by the great Pompey, had been, during [Page 283] several generations, in the possession of Gordian's family ¹⁵. It was distinguished by ancient tro­phies of naval victories, and decorated with the works of modern painting. His villa on the road to Praeneste, was celebrated for baths of singular beauty and extent, for three stately rooms of an hundred feet in length, and for a magnificent portico, supported by two hundred columns of the four most curious and costly sorts of mar­ble ¹⁶. The public shows exhibited at his ex­pence, and in which the people were entertained with many hundreds of wild beasts and gladia­tors ¹⁷, seem to surpass the fortune of a subject; and whilst the liberality of other magistrates was confined to a few solemn festivals in Rome, the magnificence of Gordian was repeated, when he was aedile, every month in the year, and ex­tended, during his consulship, to the principal [Page 284] cities of Italy. He was twice elevated to the last mentioned dignity, by Caracalla and by Alex­ander; for he possessed the uncommon talent of acquiring the esteem of virtuous princes, with­out alarming the jealousy of tyrants. His long life was innocently spent in the study of letters and the peaceful honours of Rome; and, till he was named proconsul of Africa by the voice of the senate and the approbation of Alexander ¹⁸, he appears prudently to have declined the com­mand of armies and the government of provinces. As long as that emperor lived, Africa was happy under the administration of his worthy repre­sentative; after the barbarous Maximin had usurped the throne, Gordianus alleviated the miseries which he was unable to prevent. When he reluctantly accepted the purple, he was above fourscore years old; a last and valuable remains of the happy age of the Antonines, whose virtues he revived in his own conduct, and celebrated in an elegant poem of thirty books. With the ve­nerable proconsul, his son, who had accompanied him into Africa as his lieutenant, was likewise declared emperor. His manners were less pure, but his character was equally amiable with that of his father. Twenty-two acknowledged con­cubines, and a library of sixty-two thousand vo­lumes, attested the variety of his inclinations; and from the productions which he left behind [Page 285] him, it appears that the former as well as the latter were designed for use rather than for osten­tation ¹⁹. The Roman people acknowledged in the features of the younger Gordian the resem­blance of Scipio Africanus, recollected with plea­sure that his mother was the grand-daughter of Antoninus Pius, and rested the public hope on those latent virtues which had hitherto, as they fondly imagined, lain concealed in the luxurious indolence of a private life.

As soon as the Gordians had appeased the first They soli­cit the con­firmation of their au­thority. tumult of a popular election, they removed their court to Carthage. They were received with the acclamations of the Africans, who honoured their virtues, and who, since the visit of Hadrian, had never beheld the majesty of a Roman em­peror. But these vain acclamations neither strengthened nor confirmed the title of the Gor­dians. They were induced by principle, as well as interest, to solicit the approbation of the senate; and a deputation of the noblest provin­cials was sent, without delay, to Rome, to relate and justify the conduct of their countrymen, who, having long suffered with patience, were at length resolved to act with vigour. The letters of the new princes were modest and respectful, excusing the necessity which had obliged them to accept the Imperial title; but submitting their election [Page 286] and their fate to the supreme judgment of the senate ²⁰.

The inclinations of the senate were neither The senate ratifies their elec­tion of the Gordians; doubtful nor divided. The birth and noble alli­ances of the Gordians had intimately connected them with the most illustrious houses of Rome. Their fortune had created many dependants in that assembly, their merit had acquired many friends. Their mild administration opened the flattering prospect of the restoration, not only of the civil but even of the republican government. The terror of military violence, which had first obliged the senate to forget the murder of Alex­ander, and to ratify the election of a barbarian peasant ²¹, now produced a contrary effect, and provoked them to assert the injured rights of freedom and humanity. The hatred of Maximin towards the senate was declared and implacable; the tamest submission had not appeased his fury, the most cautious innocence would not remove his suspicions; and even the care of their own safety urged them to share the fortune of an en­terprise, of which (if unsuccessful) they were sure to be the first victims. These considerations, and perhaps others of a more private nature, were debated in a previous conference of the consuls and the magistrates. As soon as their resolution was decided, they convoked in the temple of Castor the whole body of the senate, [Page 287] according to an ancient form of secrecy ²², cal­culated to awaken their attention, and to conceal their decrees. ‘Conscript fathers, said the consul Syllanus, the two Gordians, both of consular dignity, the one your proconsul, the other your lieutenant, have been declared em­perors by the general consent of Africa. Let us return thanks, he boldly continued, to the youth of Thysdrus; let us return thanks to the faithful people of Carthage, our gene­rous deliverers from an horrid monster—Why do you hear me thus coolly, thus timidly? Why do you cast those anxious looks on each other? why hesitate? Maximin is a public enemy! may his enmity soon expire with him, and may we long enjoy the prudence and feli­city of Gordian the father, the valour and constancy of Gordian the son ²³!’ The noble ardour of the consul revived the languid spirit of the senate. By an unanimous decree the elec­tion and de­clares Maximin a public ene­my. of the Gordians was ratified, Maximin, his son, and his adherents, were pronounced enemies of their country, and liberal rewards were offered to whosoever had the courage and good fortune to destroy them.

During the emperor's absence, a detachment Assumes the com­mand of Rome and Italy, of the Praetorian guards remained at Rome, to [Page 288] protect, or rather to command the capital. The Praefect Vitalianus had signalized his fidelity to Maximin, by the alacrity with which he had obeyed, and even prevented, the cruel mandates of the tyrant. His death alone could rescue the authority of the senate and the lives of the se­nators, from a state of danger and suspence. Before their resolves had transpired, a quaestor and some tribunes were commissioned to take his devoted life. They executed the order with equal boldness and success; and, with their bloody daggers in their hands, ran through the streets, proclaiming to the people and the soldiers, the news of the happy revolution. The enthusiasm of liberty was seconded by the promise of a large donative, in lands and money; the statues of Maximin were thrown down; the capital of the empire acknowledged, with transport, the autho­rity of the two Gordians and the senate ²⁴; and the example of Rome was followed by the rest of Italy.

A new spirit had arisen in that assembly, whose and pre­pares for a civil war. long patience had been insulted by wanton des­potism and military licence. The senate assumed the reins of government, and, with a calm intre­pidity, prepared to vindicate by arms the cause of freedom. Among the consular senators re­commended by their merit and services to the favour of the emperor Alexander, it was easy to select twenty, not unequal to the command of an army, and the conduct of a war. To these [Page 289] was the defence of Italy intrusted. Each was appointed to act in his respective department, authorized to enrol and discipline the Italian youth; and instructed to fortify the ports and highways, against the impending invasion of Maximin. A number of deputies, chosen from the most illustrious of the senatorian and eques­trian orders, were dispatched at the same time to the governors of the several provinces, earnestly conjuring them to fly to the assistance of their country, and to remind the nations of their an­cient ties of friendship with the Roman senate and people. The general respect with which these deputies were received, and the zeal of Italy and the provinces in favour of the senate, sufficiently prove that the subjects of Maximin were reduced to that uncommon distress, in which the body of the people has more to fear from oppression than from resistance. The con­sciousness of that melancholy truth, inspires a degree of persevering fury, seldom to be found in those civil wars which are artificially supported for the benefit of a few factious and designing leaders ²⁵.

For while the cause of the Gordians was em­braced Defeat and death of the two Gordians. A. D. 237. 3d July. with such diffusive ardour, the Gordians themselves were no more. The feeble court of Carthage was alarmed with the rapid approach of Capelianus, governor of Mauritania, who, with a small band of veterans, and a fierce host of bar­barians, [Page 290] attacked a faithful, but unwarlike pro­vince. The younger Gordian sallied out to meet the enemy at the head of a few guards, and a numerous undisciplined multitude, educated in the peaceful luxury of Carthage. His useless valour served only to procure him an honourable death, in the field of battle. His aged father, whose reign had not exceeded thirty-six days, put an end to his life on the first news of the defeat. Carthage, destitute of defence, opened her gates to the conqueror, and Africa was ex­posed to the rapacious cruelty of a slave, obliged to satisfy his unrelenting master with a large ac­count of blood and treasure ²⁶.

The fate of the Gordians filled Rome with just, Election of Maximus and Balbi­nus by the senate. 9th July. but unexpected terror. The senate convoked in the temple of Concord, affected to transact the common business of the day; and seemed to de­cline, with trembling anxiety, the consideration of their own, and the public danger. A silent consternation prevailed on the assembly, till a senator, of the name and family of Trajan, awak­ened his brethren from their fatal lethargy. He represented to them, that the choice of cautious dilatory measures had been long since out of their power; that Maximin, implacable by nature, [Page 291] and exasperated by injuries, was advancing to­wards Italy, at the head of the military force of the empire; and that their only remaining alter­native, was either to meet him bravely in the field, or tamely to expect the tortures and igno­minious death reserved for unsuccessful rebellion. ‘We have lost, continued he, two excellent princes; but unless we desert ourselves, the hopes of the republic have not perished with the Gordians. Many are the senators, whose virtues have deserved, and whose abilities would sustain, the Imperial dignity. Let us elect two emperors, one of whom may con­duct the war against the public enemy, whilst his colleague remains at Rome to direct the civil administration. I cheerfully expose my­self to the danger and envy of the nomination, and give my vote in favour of Maximus and Balbinus. Ratify my choice, conscript fathers, or appoint, in their place, others more worthy of the empire.’ The general apprehension silenced the whispers of jealousy; the merit of the candidates was universally acknowledged; and the house resounded with the sincere acclama­tions, of ‘long life and victory to the emperors Maximus and Balbinus. You are happy in the judgment of the senate; may the republic be happy under your administration ²⁷!’

[Page 292] The virtues and the reputation of the new em­perors justified the most sanguine hopes of the Their cha­racters. Romans. The various nature of their talents seemed to appropriate to each his peculiar de­partment of peace and war, without leaving room for jealous emulation. Balbinus was an admired orator, a poet of distinguished fame, and a wise magistrate, who had exercised with innocence and applause the civil jurisdiction in almost all the interior provinces of the empire. His birth was noble ²⁸, his fortune affluent, his manners liberal and affable. In him, the love of pleasure was corrected by a sense of dignity, nor had the habits of ease deprived him of a capacity for business. The mind of Maximus was formed in a rougher mould. By his valour and abilities he had raised himself from the meanest origin to the first em­ployments of the state and army. His victories over the Sarmatians and the Germans, the aus­terity of his life, and the rigid impartiality of his justice, whilst he was Praefect of the city, com­manded the esteem of a people, whose affections were engaged in favour of the more amiable Balbinus. The two colleagues had both been [Page 293] consuls (Balbinus had twice enjoyed that ho­nourable office), both had been named among the twenty lieutenants of the senate; and since the one was sixty and the other seventy-four years old ²⁹, they had both attained the full maturity of age and experience.

After the senate had conferred on Maximus Tumult at Rome. The youn­ger Gordi­an is de­clared Cae­sar. and Balbinus an equal portion of the consular and tribunitian powers, the title of Fathers of their country, and the joint office of Supreme Pontiff, they ascended to the Capitol, to return thanks to the gods, protectors of Rome ³⁰. The solemn rites of sacrifice were disturbed by a se­dition of the people. The licentious multitude neither loved the rigid Maximus, nor did they sufficiently fear the mild and humane Balbinus. Their increasing numbers surrounded the temple of Jupiter; with obstinate clamours they asserted their inherent right of consenting to the election of their sovereign; and demanded, with an ap­parent moderation, that, besides the two empe­rors chosen by the senate, a third should be add­ed of the family of the Gordians, as a just return of gratitude to those princes who had sacrificed their lives for the republic. At the head of the city-guards, and the youth of the equestrian order, Maximus and Balbinus attempted to cut [Page 294] their way through the seditious multitude. The multitude, armed with sticks and stones, drove them back into the Capitol. It is prudent to yield when the contest, whatever may be the issue of it, must be fatal to both parties. A boy, only thirteen years of age, the grandson of the elder, and nephew of the younger, Gordian, was produced to the people, invested with the orna­ments and title of Caesar. The tumult was ap­peased by this easy condescension; and the two emperors, as soon as they had been peaceably acknowledged in Rome, prepared to defend Italy against the common enemy.

Whilst in Rome and Africa revolutions suc­ceeded Maximin prepares to attack the senate and their em­perors. each other with such amazing rapidity, the mind of Maximin was agitated by the most furious passions. He is said to have received the news of the rebellion of the Gordians, and of the decree of the senate against him, not with the temper of a man, but the rage of a wild beast; which, as it could not discharge itself on the dis­tant senate, threatened the life of his son, of his friends, and of all who ventured to approach his person. The grateful intelligence of the death of the Gordians, was quickly followed by the assurance that the senate, laying aside all hopes of pardon or accommodation, had substituted in their room two emperors, with whose merit he could not be unacquainted. Revenge was the only consolation left to Maximin, and revenge could only be obtained by arms. The strength of the legions had been assembled by Alexander [Page 295] from all parts of the empire. Three successful campaigns against the Germans and the Sarma­tians, had raised their fame, confirmed their discipline, and even increased their numbers, by filling the ranks with the flower of the barbarian youth. The life of Maximin had been spent in war, and the candid severity of history cannot refuse him the valour of a soldier, or even the abilities of an experienced general ³¹. It might naturally be expected, that a prince of such a character, instead of suffering the rebellion to gain stability by delay, should immediately have marched from the banks of the Danube to those of the Tyber, and that his victorious army, in­stigated by contempt for the senate, and eager to gather the spoils of Italy, should have burned with impatience to finish the easy and lucrative conquest. Yet as far as we can trust to the ob­scure chronology of that period ³², it appears that [Page 296] the operations of some foreign war deferred the Italian expedition till the ensuing spring. From the prudent conduct of Maximin, we may learn that the savage features of his character have been exaggerated by the pencil of party, that his pas­sions, however impetuous, submitted to the force of reason, and that the barbarian possessed some­thing of the generous spirit of Sylla, who sub­dued the enemies of Rome, before he suffered himself to revenge his private injuries ³³.

When the troops of Maximin, advancing in Marches into Italy. A. D. 238. February. excellent order, arrived at the foot of the Julian Alps, they were terrified by the silence and deso­lation that reigned on the frontiers of Italy. The villages and open towns had been abandoned on their approach by the inhabitants, the cattle was driven away, the provisions removed, or destroy­ed, the bridges broke down, nor was any thing left which could afford either shelter or sub­sistence to an invader. Such had been the wise orders of the generals of the senate; whose de­sign was to protract the war, to ruin the army of Maximin by the slow operation of famine, and to consume his strength in the sieges of the prin­cipal cities of Italy, which they had plentifully stored with men and provisions from the deserted country. Aquileia received and withstood the Siege of Aquileia. first shock of the invasion. The streams that issue from the head of the Hadriatic gulf, swelled [Page 297] by the melting of the winter snows ³⁴, opposed an unexpected obstacle to the arms of Maximin. At length, on a singular bridge, constructed with art and difficulty, of large hogsheads, he trans­ported his army to the opposite bank, rooted up the beautiful vineyards in the neighbourhood of Aquileia, demolished the suburbs, and employed the timber of the buildings in the engines and towers, with which on every side he attacked the city. The walls, fallen to decay during the security of a long peace, had been hastily repair­ed on this sudden emergency; but the firmest defence of Aquileia consisted in the constancy of the citizens; all ranks of whom, instead of being dismayed, were animated by the extreme dan­ger, and their knowledge of the tyrant's unrelent­ing temper. Their courage was supported and directed by Crispinus and Menophilus, two of the twenty lieutenants of the senate, who, with a small body of regular troops, had thrown themselves into the besieged place. The army of Maximin was repulsed on repeated attacks, his machines [Page 298] destroyed by showers of artificial fire; and the generous enthusiasm of the Aquileians was exalt­ed into a confidence of success, by the opinion, that Belenus, their tutelar deity, combated in person in the defence of his distressed worship­pers ³⁵.

The emperor Maximus, who had advanced as Conduct of Maximus. far as Ravenna, to secure that important place, and to hasten the military preparations, beheld the event of the war in the more faithful mirror of reason and policy. He was too sensible, that a single town could not resist the persevering efforts of a great army; and he dreaded, lest the enemy, tired with the obstinate resistance of Aquileia, should on a sudden relinquish the fruitless siege, and march directly towards Rome. The fate of the empire and the cause of freedom must then be committed to the chance of a bat­tle; and what arms could he oppose to the vete­ran legions of the Rhine and Danube? Some troops newly levied among the generous but enervated youth of Italy; and a body of German auxiliaries, on whose firmness, in the hour of trial, it was dangerous to depend. In the midst of these just alarms, the stroke of domestic con­spiracy punished the crimes of Maximin, and delivered Rome and the senate from the cala­mities that would surely have attended the vic­tory of an enraged barbarian.

[Page 299] The people of Aquileia had scarcely expe­rienced any of the common miseries of a siege, their magazines were plentifully supplied, and Murder of Maximin and his son. A. D. 238 April. several fountains within the walls assured them of an inexhaustible resource of fresh water. The soldiers of Maximin were, on the contrary, ex­posed to the inclemency of the season, the con­tagion of disease, and the horrors of famine. The open country was ruined, the rivers filled with the slain, and polluted with blood. A spi­rit of despair and disaffection began to diffuse itself among the troops; and as they were cut off from all intelligence, they easily believed that the whole empire had embraced the cause of the senate, and that they were left as devoted vic­tims to perish under the impregnable walls of Aquileia. The fierce temper of the tyrant was exasperated by disappointments, which he imput­ed to the cowardice of his army; and his wan­ton and ill-timed cruelty, instead of striking terror, inspired hatred and a just desire of re­venge. A party of Praetorian guards, who trem­bled for their wives and children in the camp of Alba, near Rome, executed the sentence of the senate. Maximin, abandoned by his guards, was slain in his tent, with his son (whom he had associated to the honours of the purple), Anuli­nus the praefect, and the principal ministers of his tyranny ³⁶. The sight of their heads, borne [Page 300] on the point of spears, convinced the citizens of Aquileia, that the siege was at an end; the gates of the city were thrown open, a liberal market was provided for the hungry troops of Maximin, and the whole army joined in solemn protesta­tions of fidelity to the senate and the people of Rome, and to their lawful emperors Maximus and Balbinus. Such was the deserved fate of His por­trait. a brutal savage, destitute, as he has generally been represented, of every sentiment that distin­guishes a civilized, or even a human being. The body was suited to the soul. The stature of Maximin exceeded the measure of eight feet, and circumstances almost incredible are related of his matchless strength and appetite ³⁷. Had he lived in a less enlightened age, tradition and poetry might well have described him as one of those monstrous giants, whose supernatural power was constantly exerted for the destruction of man­kind.

It is easier to conceive than to describe the Joy of the Roman world. universal joy of the Roman world on the fall of the tyrant, the news of which is said to have been carried in four days from Aquileia to Rome. The return of Maximus was a triumphal proces­sion, [Page 301] his colleague and young Gordian went out to meet him, and the three princes made their entry into the capital, attended by the ambassa­dors of almost all the cities of Italy, saluted with the splendid offerings of gratitude and supersti­tion, and received with the unfeigned acclama­tions of the senate and people, who persuaded themselves that a golden age would succeed to an age of iron ³⁸. The conduct of the two empe­rors corresponded with these expectations. They administered justice in person; and the rigour of the one was tempered by the other's clemency. The oppressive taxes with which Maximin had loaded the rights of inheritance and succession, were repealed, or at least moderated. Discipline was revived, and with the advice of the senate many wise laws were enacted by their imperial ministers, who endeavoured to restore a civil constitution on the ruins of military tyranny. ‘What reward may we expect for delivering Rome from a monster?’ was the question asked by Maximus, in a moment of freedom and confidence. Balbinus answered it without hesi­tation, ‘The love of the senate, of the people, and of all mankind.’ ‘Alas! replied his more penetrating colleague, Alas! I dread the hatred of the soldiers, and the fatal effects of their resentment ³⁹.’ His apprehensions were but too well justified by the event.

[Page 302] Whilst Maximus was preparing to defend Italy against the common foe, Balbinus, who remain­ed Sedition at Rome. at Rome, had been engaged in scenes of blood and intestine discord. Distrust and jealousy reigned in the senate; and even in the temples where they assembled, every senator carried either open or concealed arms. In the midst of their deliberations, two veterans of the guards, actu­ated either by curiosity or a sinister motive, auda­ciously thrust themselves into the house, and ad­vanced by degrees beyond the altar of Victory. Gallicanus, a consular, and Maecenas, a Praeto­rian senator, viewed with indignation their inso­lent intrusion: drawing their daggers, they laid the spies, for such they deemed them, dead at the foot of the altar, and then advancing to the door of the senate, imprudently exhorted the multitude to massacre the Praetorians, as the secret adherents of the tyrant. Those who es­caped the first fury of the tumult took refuge in the camp, which they defended with superior advantage against the reiterated attacks of the people, assisted by the numerous bands of gla­diators, the property of opulent nobles. The civil war lasted many days, with infinite loss and confusion on both sides. When the pipes were broken that supplied the camp with water, the Praetorians were reduced to intolerable distress; but in their turn they made desperate sallies into the city, set fire to a great number of houses, and filled the streets with the blood of the inha­bitants. The emperor Balbinus attempted, by ineffectual edicts and precarious truces, to recon­cile [Page 303] the factions at Rome. But their animosity, though smothered for a while, burnt with re­doubled violence. The soldiers, detesting the senate and the people, despised the weakness of a prince who wanted either the spirit or the power to command the obedience of his subjects ⁴⁰.

After the tyrant's death, his formidable army Discontent of the Prae­torian guards. had acknowledged, from necessity rather than from choice, the authority of Maximus, who transported himself without delay to the camp before Aquileia. As soon as he had received their oath of fidelity, he addressed them in terms full of mildness and moderation; lamented, ra­ther than arraigned, the wild disorders of the times, and assured the soldiers, that of all their past conduct, the senate would remember only their generous desertion of the tyrant, and their voluntary return to their duty. Maximus en­forced his exhortations by a liberal donative, purified the camp by a solemn sacrifice of expia­tion, and then dismissed the legions to their seve­ral provinces, impressed, as he hoped, with a lively sense of gratitude and obedience ⁴¹. But nothing could reconcile the haughty spirit of the Praetorians. They attended the emperors on the memorable day of their public entry into Rome; but amidst the general acclamations, the sullen dejected countenance of the guards, sufficiently declared that they considered themselves as the object, rather than the partners, of the triumph. When the whole body was united in their camp, those who had served under Maximin, and those [Page 304] who had remained at Rome, insensibly commu­nicated to each other their complaints and appre­hensions. The emperors chosen by the army had perished with ignominy; those elected by the se­nate were seated on the throne ⁴². The long dis­cord between the civil and military powers was decided by a war, in which the former had ob­tained a complete victory. The soldiers must now learn a new doctrine of submission to the se­nate; and whatever clemency was affected by that politic assembly, they dreaded a slow revenge, coloured by the name of discipline, and justified by fair pretences of the public good. But their fate was still in their own hands; and if they had courage to despise the vain terrors of an impotent republic, it was easy to convince the world, that those who were masters of the arms, were masters of the authority, of the state.

When the senate elected two princes, it is Massacre of Maximus and Balbi­nus. probable that, besides the declared reason of pro­viding for the various emergencies of peace and war, they were actuated by the secret desire of weakening by division the despotism of the su­preme magistrate. Their policy was effectual, but it proved fatal both to their emperors and to themselves. The jealousy of power was soon exasperated by the difference of character. Max­imus despised Balbinus as a luxurious noble, and was in his turn disdained by his colleague as an [Page 305] obscure soldier. Their silent discord was under­stood rather than seen ⁴³; but the mutual con­sciousness prevented them from uniting in any vigorous measures of defence against their com­mon enemies of the Praetorian camp. The whole city was employed in the Capitoline games, and the emperors were left almost alone in the palace. On a sudden they were alarmed A. D. 238. July 15. by the approach of a troop of desperate assas­sins. Ignorant of each other's situation or de­signs, for they already occupied very distant apartments, afraid to give or to receive assistance, they wasted the important moments in idle debates and fruitless recriminations. The ar­rival of the guards put an end to the vain strife. They seized on these emperors of the senate, for such they called them with mali­cious contempt, stripped them of their gar­ments, and dragged them in insolent triumph through the streets of Rome, with a design of inflicting a slow and cruel death on these un­fortunate princes. The fear of a rescue from the faithful Germans of the Imperial guards, shortened their tortures; and their bodies, man­gled with a thousand wounds, were left ex­posed to the insults or to the pity of the popu­lace ⁴⁴.

[Page 306] In the space of a few months, six princes had been cut off by the sword. Gordian, who had already received the title of Caesar, was the only The third Gordian remains sole em­peror. person that occurred to the soldiers as proper to fill the vacant throne ⁴⁵. They carried him to the camp, and unanimously saluted him Augustus and Emperor. His name was dear to the senate and people; his tender age promised a long im­punity of military licence; and the submission of Rome and the provinces to the choice of the Praetorian guards, saved the republic, at the ex­pence indeed of its freedom and dignity, from the horrors of a new civil war in the heart of the capital ⁴⁶.

As the third Gordian was only nineteen years Innocence and virtues of Gor­dian. of age at the time of his death, the history of his life, were it known to us with greater accuracy than it really is, would contain little more than the account of his education, and the conduct of the ministers, who by turns abused or guided the simplicity of his unexperienced youth. Immedi­ately after his accession, he fell into the hands of [Page 307] his mother's eunuchs, that pernicious vermin of the East, who, since the days of Elagabalus, had infested the Roman palace. By the artful conspi­racy of these wretches, an impenetrable veil was drawn between an innocent prince and his op­pressed subjects, the virtuous disposition of Gor­dian was deceived, and the honours of the empire sold without his knowledge, though in a very public manner, to the most worthless of man­kind. We are ignorant by what fortunate acci­dent the emperor escaped from this ignominious slavery, and devolved his confidence on a mi­nister, whose wise counsels had no object except the glory of his sovereign, and the happiness of the people. It should seem that love and learn­ing A. D. 240. Admini­stration of Misitheus. introduced Misitheus to the favour of Gor­dian. The young prince married the daughter of his master of rhetoric, and promoted his fa­ther-in-law to the first offices of the empire. Two admirable letters that passed between them, are still extant. The minister, with the conscious dignity of virtue, congratulates Gordian that he is delivered from the tyranny of the eunuchs ⁴⁷, and still more that he is sensible of his deliver­ance. The emperor acknowledges, with an amiable confusion, the errors of his past conduct; and laments, with singular propriety, the misfor­tune of a monarch, from whom a venal tribe of [Page 308] courtiers perpetually labour to conceal the truth ⁴⁸.

The life of Misitheus had been spent in the The Per­sian war. A. D. 242. profession of letters, not of arms; yet such was the versatile genius of that great man, that, when he was appointed Praetorian Praefect, he dis­charged the military duties of his place with vi­gour and ability. The Persians had invaded Mesopotamia, and threatened Antioch. By the persuasion of his father-in-law, the young em­peror quitted the luxury of Rome, opened, for the last time recorded in history, the temple of Janus, and marched in person into the East. On his approach with a great army, the Persians withdrew their garrisons from the cities which they had already taken, and retired from the Eu­phrates to the Tigris. Gordian enjoyed the plea­sure of announcing to the senate the first success of his arms, which he ascribed with a becoming modesty and gratitude to the wisdom of his fa­ther and Praefect. During the whole expedition, Misitheus watched over the safety and discipline of the army; whilst he prevented their dangerous murmurs by maintaining a regular plenty in the camp, and by establishing ample magazines of vinegar, bacon, straw, barley, and wheat, in all the cities of the frontier ⁴⁹. But the prosperity [Page 309] of Gordian expired with Misitheus, who died of a flux, not without very strong suspicions of poi­son. Philip, his successor in the praefecture, was A. D. 243. Arts of Philip. an Arab by birth, and consequently, in the earlier part of his life, a robber by profession. His rise from so obscure a station to the first dignities of the empire, seems to prove that he was a bold and able leader. But his boldness prompted him to aspire to the throne, and his abilities were em­ployed to supplant, not to serve, his indulgent master. The minds of the soldiers were irritated by an artificial scarcity, created by his contriv­ance in the camp; and the distress of the army was attributed to the youth and incapacity of the prince. It is not in our power to trace the suc­cessive steps of the secret conspiracy and open sedition, which were at length fatal to Gordian. A sepulchral monument was erected to his me­mory Murder of Gordian. A. D. 244. March. on the spot ⁵⁰ where he was killed, near the conflux of the Euphrates with the little river Aboras ⁵¹. The fortunate Philip, raised to the empire by the votes of the soldiers, found a ready obedience from the senate and the provinces ⁵².

We cannot forbear transcribing the ingenious, Form of a military republic. though somewhat fanciful description, which a [Page 310] celebrated writer of our own times has traced of the military government of the Roman empire. ‘What in that age was called the Roman em­pire, was only an irregular republic, not unlike the Aristocracy ⁵³ of Algiers ⁵⁴, where the mi­litia, possessed of the sovereignty, creates and deposes a magistrate, who is styled a Dey. Perhaps, indeed, it may be laid down as a general rule, that a military government is, in some respects, more republican than monar­chical. Nor can it be said that the soldiers only partook of the government by their diso­bedience and rebellions. The speeches made to them by the emperors, were they not at length of the same nature as those formerly pronounced to the people by the consuls and the tribunes? And although the armies had no regular place or forms of assembly; though their debates were short, their action sudden, and their resolves seldom the result of cool re­flection, did they not dispose, with absolute sway, of the public fortune? What was the emperor, except the minister of a violent go­vernment elected for the private benefit of the soldiers?’

‘When the army had elected Philip, who was Praetorian praefect to the third Gordian; the [Page 311] latter demanded, that he might remain sole emperor; he was unable to obtain it. He re­quested, that the power might be equally di­vided between them; the army would not listen to his speech. He consented to be degraded to the rank of Caesar; the favour was refused him. He desired, at least, he might be ap­pointed Praetorian praefect; his prayer was re­jected. Finally, he pleaded for his life. The army, in these several judgments, exercised the supreme magistracy.’ According to the his­torian, whose doubtful narrative the president De Montesquieu has adopted, Philip, who, during the whole transaction, had preserved a sullen silence, was inclined to spare the innocent life of his benefactor; till, recollecting that his inno­cence might excite a dangerous compassion in the Roman world; he commanded, without regard to his suppliant cries, that he should be seized, stript, and led away to instant death. After a moment's pause the inhuman sentence was exe­cuted ⁵⁵.

On his return from the east to Rome, Philip, Reign of Philip. desirous of obliterating the memory of his crimes, and of captivating the affections of the people, [Page 312] solemnized the secular games with infinite pomp and magnificence. Since their institution or re­vival by Augustus ⁵⁶, they had been celebrated by Claudius, by Domitian, and by Severus, and were now renewed the fifth time, on the accom­plishment of the full period of a thousand years from the foundation of Rome. Every circum­stance Secular games. A. D. 248. April 21. of the secular games was skilfully adapted to inspire the superstitious mind with deep and solemn reverence. The long interval between them ⁵⁷ exceeded the term of human life; and as none of the spectators had already seen them, none could flatter themselves with the expectation of beholding them a second time. The mystic sacrifices were performed, during three nights, on the banks of the Tyber; and the Campus Martius resounded with music and dances, and was illuminated with innumerable lamps and torches. Slaves and strangers were excluded from any participation in these national cere­monies. A chorus of twenty-seven youths, and as many virgins, of noble families, and whose parents were both alive, implored the propitious gods in favour of the present, and for the hope [Page 313] of the rising generation; requesting, in religious hymns, that, according to the faith of their an­cient oracles, they would still maintain the virtue, the felicity, and the empire of the Roman peo­ple ⁵⁸. The magnificence of Philip's shows and entertainments dazzled the eyes of the multitude. The devout were employed in the rites of super­stition, whilst the reflecting few revolved in their anxious minds the past history and the future fate of the empire.

Since Romulus, with a small band of shepherds Decline of the Roman empire. and outlaws, fortified himself on the hills near the Tiber, ten centuries had already elapsed ⁵⁹. During the four first ages, the Romans, in the laborious school of poverty, had acquired the virtues of war and government: By the vigorous exertion of those virtues, and by the assistance of fortune, they had obtained, in the course of the three succeeding centuries, an absolute empire over many countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The last three hundred years had been consumed in apparent prosperity and internal decline. The nation of soldiers, magistrates, and legislators, who composed the thrity-five tribes of the Roman people, was dissolved into the common mass of mankind, and confounded with the millions of servile provincials, who had received the name, [Page 314] without adopting the spirit of Romans. A mer­cenary army, levied among the subjects and bar­barians of the frontier, was the only order of men who preserved and abused their independ­ence. By their tumultuary election, a Syrian, a Goth, or an Arab, was exalted to the throne of Rome, and invested with despotic power over the conquests and over the country of the Scipios.

The limits of the Roman empire still extended from the Western Ocean to the Tigris, and from Mount Atlas to the Rhine and the Danube. To the undiscerning eye of the vulgar, Philip ap­peared a monarch no less powerful than Hadrian or Augustus had formerly been. The form was still the same, but the animating health and vi­gour were fled. The industry of the people was discouraged and exhausted by a long series of op­pression. The discipline of the legions, which alone, after the extinction of every other virtue, had propped the greatness of the state, was cor­rupted by the ambition, or relaxed by the weak­ness, of the emperors. The strength of the fron­tiers, which had always consisted in arms rather than in fortifications, was insensibly undermined; and the fairest provinces were left exposed to the rapaciousness or ambition of the barbarians, who soon discovered the decline of the Roman empire.

WHENEVER Tacitus indulges himself in those beautiful episodes, in which he relates some domestic transaction of the Germans The bar­barians of the East and of the North. or of the Parthians, his principal object is to re­lieve the attention of the reader from a uniform scene of vice and misery. From the reign of Au­gustus to the time of Alexander Severus, the enemies of Rome were in her bosom; the tyrants, and the soldiers; and her prosperity had a very distant and feeble interest in the revolutions that might happen beyond the Rhine and the Eu­phrates. But when the military order had le­velled, in wild anarchy, the power of the prince, the laws of the senate, and even the discipline of the camp, the barbarians of the north and of the east, who had long hovered on the frontier, boldly attacked the provinces of a declining mo­narchy. Their vexatious inroads were changed into formidable irruptions, and, after a long vi­cissitude of mutual calamities, many tribes of the victorious invaders established themselves in the provinces of the Roman empire. To obtain a clearer knowledge of these great events, we shall endeavour to form a previous idea of the cha­racter, forces, and designs of those nations who avenged the cause of Hannibal and Mithridates.

[Page 316] In the more early ages of the world, whilst the forest that covered Europe afforded a retreat to a few wandering savages, the inhabitants of Asia Revolu­tions of Asia. were already collected into populous cities, and reduced under extensive empires, the seat of the arts, of luxury, and of despotism. The Assyrians reigned over the east ¹, till the sceptre of Ninus and Semiramis dropt from the hands of their enervated successors. The Medes and the Baby­lonians divided their power, and were themselves swallowed up in the monarchy of the Persians, whose arms could not be confined within the nar­row limits of Asia. Followed, as it is said, by two millions of men, Xerxes, the descendant of Cyrus, invaded Greece. Thirty thousand soldiers, under the command of Alexander, the son of Philip, who was intrusted by the Greeks with their glory and revenge, were sufficient to subdue Persia. The princes of the house of Seleucus usurped and lost the Macedonian command over the East. About the same time, that, by an ig­nominious treaty, they resigned to the Romans the country on this side Mount Taurus, they were driven by the Parthians, an obscure horde of Scythian origin, from all the provinces of Upper Asia. The formidable power of the Par­thians, [Page 317] which spread from India to the frontiers of Syria, was in its turn subverted by Ardshir, or Artaxerxes; the founder of a new dynasty, which, under the name of Sassanides, governed Persia till the invasion of the Arabs. This great revolu­tion, whose fatal influence was soon experienced by the Romans, happened in the fourth year of Alexander Severus, two hundred and twenty-six years after the Christian aera ².

Artaxerxes had served with great reputation in The Per­sian mo­narchy re­stored by Arta­xerxes. the armies of Artaban, the last king of the Par­thians, and it appears that he was driven into exile and rebellion by royal ingratitude, the cus­tomary reward for superior merit. His birth was obscure, and the obscurity equally gave room to the aspersions of his enemies, and the flattery of his adherents. If we credit the scandal of the former, Artaxerxes sprang from the illegitimate commerce of a tanner's wife with a common sol­dier ³. The latter represent him, as descended from a branch of the ancient kings of Persia, though time and misfortune had gradually re­duced his ancestors to the humble station of pri­vate [Page 318] citizens ⁴. As the lineal heir of the monar­chy, he asserted his right to the throne, and chal­lenged the noble task of delivering the Persians from the oppression under which they groaned above five centuries since the death of Darius. The Parthians were defeated in three great bat­tles. In the last of these their king Artaban was slain, and the spirit of the nation was for ever broken ⁵. The authority of Artaxerxes was so­lemnly acknowledged in a great assembly held at Balch in Khorasan. Two younger branches of the royal house of Arsaces were confounded among the prostrate satraps. A third, more mindful of ancient grandeur than of present ne­cessity, attempted to retire, with a numerous train of vassals, towards their kinsman, the king of Armenia; but this little army of deserters was intercepted, and cut off, by the vigilance of the conqueror ⁶, who boldly assumed the double dia­dem, and the title of King of Kings, which had been enjoyed by his predecessor. But these pom­pous titles, instead of gratifying the vanity of the Persian, served only to admonish him of his duty, and to inflame in his soul the ambition of restor­ing, in their full splendour, the religion and em­pire of Cyrus.

I. During the long servitude of Persia under Reforma­tion of the Magian religion. the Macedonian and the Parthian yoke, the na­tions of Europe and Asia had mutually adopted [Page 319] and corrupted each other's superstitions. The Arsacides, indeed, practised the worship of the Magi; but they disgraced and polluted it with a various mixture of foreign idolatry. The me­mory of Zoroaster, the ancient prophet and phi­losopher of the Persians ⁷, was still revered in the East; but the obsolete and mysterious language, in which the Zendavesta was composed ⁸, opened a field of dispute to seventy sects, who variously explained the fundamental doctrines of their reli­gion, and were all indifferently derided by a crowd of infidels, who rejected the divine mission and miracles of the prophet. To suppress the idolaters, reunite the schismatics, and confute the unbelievers, by the infallible decision of a general council, the pious Artaxerxes summoned the Magi from all parts of his dominions. These priests, who had so long sighed in contempt and obscurity, obeyed the welcome summons; and on the appointed day appeared, to the number of about eighty thousand. But as the debates of [Page 320] so tumultuous an assembly could not have been directed by the authority of reason, or influenced by the art of policy, the Persian synod was re­duced, by successive operations, to forty thou­sand, to four thousand, to four hundred, to forty, and at last to seven Magi, the most respected for their learning and piety. One of these, Erdavi­raph, a young but holy prelate, received from the hands of his brethren three cups of sopori­ferous wine. He drank them off, and instantly fell into a long and profound sleep. As soon as he waked, he related to the king and to the be­lieving multitude, his journey to Heaven, and his intimate conferences with the Deity. Every doubt was silenced by this supernatural evidence; and the articles of the faith of Zoroaster were fixed with equal authority and precision ⁹. A short delineation of that celebrated system will be found useful, not only to display the character of the Persian nation, but to illustrate many of their most important transactions, both in peace and war, with the Roman empire ¹⁰.

The great and fundamental article of the sys­tem, Persian theology; two prin­ciples. was the celebrated doctrine of the two prin­ciples; a bold and injudicious attempt of Eastern philosophy to reconcile the existence of moral [Page 321] and physical evil, with the attributes of a benefi­cent Creator and Governor of the world. The first and original Being, in whom, or by whom, the universe exists, is denominated in the writings of Zoroaster, Time without bounds; but it must be confessed, that this infinite substance seems rather a metaphysical abstraction of the mind, than a real object endowed with self-consciousness, or possessed of moral perfections. From either the blind, or the intelligent operation of this in­finite Time, which bears but too near an affinity with the chaos of the Greeks, the two secondary but active principles of the universe, were from all eternity produced, Ormusd and Ahriman, each of them possessed of the powers of creation, but each disposed, by his invariable nature, to exercise them with different designs. The prin­ciple of good is eternally absorbed in light; the principle of evil eternally buried in darkness. The wise benevolence of Ormusd formed man capable of virtue, and abundantly provided his fair habitation with the materials of happiness. By his vigilant providence, the motion of the planets, the order of the seasons, and the tem­perate mixture of the elements, are preserved. But the malice of Ahriman has long since pierced Ormusd's egg; or, in other words, has violated the harmony of his works. Since that fatal ir­ruption, the most minute articles of good and evil are intimately intermingled and agitated to­gether; the rankest poisons spring up amidst the most salutary plants; deluges, earthquakes, and [Page 322] conflagrations, attest the conflict of Nature, and the little world of man is perpetually shaken by vice and misfortune. Whilst the rest of human kind are led away captives in the chains of their infernal enemy, the faithful Persian alone reserves his religious adoration for his friend and protector Ormusd, and fights under his banner of light, in the full confidence that he shall, in the last day, share the glory of his triumph. At that decisive period, the enlightened wisdom of goodness will render the power of Ormusd superior to the fu­rious malice of his rival. Ahriman and his fol­lowers, disarmed and subdued, will sink into their native darkness; and virtue will maintain the eternal peace and harmony of the universe ¹¹.

The theology of Zoroaster was darkly compre­hended Religious worship. by foreigners, and even by the far greater number of his disciples; but the most careless observers were struck with the philosophic sim­plicity of the Persian worship. ‘That people, says Herodotus ¹², rejects the use of temples, of altars, and of statues, and smiles at the folly of those nations, who imagine that the gods are sprung from, or bear any affinity with, the human nature. The tops of the highest moun­tains [Page 323] are the places chosen for sacrifices. Hymns and prayers are the principal worship; the Supreme God who fills the wide circle of Hea­ven, is the object to whom they are addressed.’ Yet, at the same time, in the true spirit of a polytheist, he accuses them of adoring Earth, Water, Fire, the Winds, and the Sun and Moon. But the Persians of every age have denied the charge, and explained the equivocal conduct, which might appear to give a colour to it. The elements, and more particularly Fire, Light, and the Sun, whom they called Mithra, were the ob­jects of their religious reverence, because they considered them as the purest symbols, the noblest productions, and the most powerful agents of the Divine Power and Nature ¹³.

Every mode of religion, to make a deep and lasting impression on the human mind, must ex­ercise Ceremo­nies and moral pre­cepts. our obedience, by enjoining practices of devotion, for which we can assign no reason; and must acquire our esteem, by inculcating moral duties analogous to the dictates of our own hearts. The religion of Zoroaster was abundantly pro­vided with the former, and possessed a sufficient portion of the latter. At the age of puberty, the faithful Persian was invested with a mysteri­ous girdle, the badge of the divine protection; and from that moment, all the actions of his life, even the most indifferent, or the most necessary, [Page 324] were sanctified by their peculiar prayers, ejacu­lations, or genuflexions; the omission of which, under any circumstances, was a grievous sin, not inferior in guilt to the violation of the moral duties. The moral duties, however, of justice, mercy, liberality, &c. were in their turn requir­ed of the disciple of Zoroaster, who wished to escape the persecution of Ahriman, and to live with Ormusd in a blissful eternity, where the de­gree of felicity will be exactly proportioned to the degree of virtue and piety ¹⁴.

But there are some remarkable instances, in Encou­ragement of agricul­ture. which Zoroaster lays aside the prophet, assumes the legislator, and discovers a liberal concern for private and public happiness, seldom to be found among the groveling or visionary schemes of superstition. Fasting and celibacy, the com­mon means of purchasing the Divine favour, he condemns with abhorrence, as a criminal re­jection of the best gifts of Providence. The saint, in the Magian religion, is obliged to be­get children, to plant useful trees, to destroy noxious animals, to convey water to the dry lands of Persia, and to work out his salvation by pursuing all the labours of agriculture. We may quote from the Zendavesta a wise and be­nevolent maxim, which compensates for many an absurdity. ‘He who sows the ground with [Page 325] care and diligence, acquires a greater stock of religious merit, than he could gain by the repetition of ten thousand prayers ¹⁵.’ In the spring of every year a festival was celebrated, des­tined to represent the primitive equality, and the present connexion, of mankind. The stately kings of Persia, exchanging their vain pomp for more genuine greatness, freely mingled with the humblest but most useful of their subjects. On that day the husbandmen were admitted, with­out distinction, to the table of the king and his satraps. The monarch accepted their petitions, inquired into their grievances, and conversed with them on the most equal terms. ‘From your labours, was he accustomed to say (and to say with truth, if not with sincerity), from your labours, we receive our subsistence; you derive your tranquility from our vigilance; since, therefore, we are mutually necessary to each other, let us live together like brothers in concord and love ¹⁶.’ Such a festival must indeed have degenerated, in a wealthy and des­potic empire, into a theatrical representation; but it was at least a comedy well worthy of a royal audience, and which might sometimes im­print a salutary lesson on the mind of a young prince.

Had Zoroaster, in all his institutions, invaria­bly Power of the Magi. supported this exalted character, his name would deserve a place with those of Numa and [Page 326] Confucius, and his system would be justly enti­tled to all the applause, which it has pleased some of our Divines, and even some of our philoso­phers, to bestow on it. But in that motley com­position, dictated by reason and passion, by en­thusiasm and by selfish motives, some useful and sublime truths were disgraced by a mixture of the most abject and dangerous superstition. The Magi, or sacerdotal order, were extremely nu­merous, since, as we have already seen, fourscore thousand of them were convened in a general council. Their forces were multiplied by disci­pline. A regular hierarchy was diffused through all the provinces of Persia; and the Archima­gus, who resided at Balch, was respected as the visible head of the church, and the lawful suc­cessor of Zoroaster ¹⁷. The property of the Magi was very considerable. Besides the less invidious possession of a large tract of the most fertile lands of Media ¹⁸, they levied a general tax on the fortunes and the industry of the Persians ¹⁹. ‘Though your good works, says the interested prophet, exceed in number the leaves of the [Page 327] trees, the drops of rain, the stars in the hea­ven, or the sands on the sea-shore, they will all be unprofitable to you, unless they are accepted by the destour, or priest. To obtain the acceptation of this guide to salvation, you must faithfully pay him tythes of all you pos­sess, of your goods, of your lands, and of your money. If the destour be satisfied, your soul will escape hell tortures; you will secure praise in this world, and happiness in the next. For the destours are the teachers of religion; they know all things, and they deliver all men ²⁰.’

These convenient maxims of reverence and implicit faith were doubtless imprinted with care on the tender minds of youth; since the Magi were the masters of education in Persia, and to their hands the children even of the royal family were intrusted ²¹. The Persian priests, who were of a speculative genius, preserved and investigated the secrets of Oriental philosophy; and acquired, either by superior knowledge or superior art, the reputation of being well versed in some occult sciences, which have derived their appellation from the Magi ²². Those of more active dispositions mixed with the world in courts and cities; and it is observed, that the admini­stration of Artaxerxes was in a great measure directed by the counsels of the sacerdotal order, whose dignity, either from policy or devotion, that prince restored to its ancient splendour ²³.

[Page 328] The first counsel of the Magi was agreeable to the unsociable genius of their faith ²⁴, to the practice of ancient kings ²⁵, and even to the ex­ample Spirit of persecuti­on. of their legislator, who had fallen a victim to a religious war, excited by his own intolerant zeal ²⁶. By an edict of Artaxerxes, the exercise of every worship, except that of Zoroaster, was severely prohibited. The temples of the Par­thians, and the statues of their deified monarchs, were thrown down with ignominy ²⁷. The sword of Aristotle (such was the name given by the Orientals to the polytheism and philosophy of the Greeks) was easily broken ²⁸; the flames of persecution soon reached the more stubborn Jews and Christians ²⁹; nor did they spare the heretics of their own nation and religion. The majesty of Ormusd, who was jealous of a rival, was se­conded by the despotism of Artaxerxes, who could not suffer a rebel; and the schismatics within his vast empire were soon reduced to the inconsider­able number of eighty thousand ³⁰. This spirit [Page 329] of persecution reflects dishonour on the religion of Zoroaster; but as it was not productive of any civil commotion, it served to strengthen the new monarchy, by uniting all the various inhabitants of Persia in the bands of religious zeal.

II. Artaxerxes, by his valour and conduct, Establish­ment of the royal au­thority in the pro­vinces. had wrested the sceptre of the East from the an­cient royal family of Parthia. There still remain­ed the more difficult task of establishing, through­out the vast extent of Persia, a uniform and vigorous administration. The weak indulgence of the Arsacides, had resigned to their sons and brothers the principal provinces, and the greatest offices of the kingdom, in the nature of here­ditary possessions. The vitaxae, or eighteen most powerful satraps, were permitted to assume the regal title; and the vain pride of the monarch was delighted with a nominal dominion over so many vassal kings. Even tribes of barbarians in their mountains, and the Greek cities of Upper Asia ³¹, within their walls, scarcely acknowledg­ed, or seldom obeyed, any superior; and the Parthian empire exhibited, under other names, a lively image of the feudal system ³² which has since prevailed in Europe. But the active vic­tor, [Page 330] at the head of a numerous and disciplined army, visited in person every province of Persia. The defeat of the boldest rebels, and the reduc­tion of the strongest fortifications ³³, diffused the terror of his arms, and prepared the way for the peaceful reception of his authority. An obstinate resistance was fatal to the chiefs; but their fol­lowers were treated with lenity ³⁴. A cheerful submission was rewarded with honours and riches; but the prudent Artaxerxes, suffering no person except himself to assume the title of king, abo­lished every intermediate power between the throne and the people. His kingdom, nearly Extent and population of Persia. equal in extent to modern Persia, was, on every side, bounded by the sea or by great rivers; by the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Araxes, the Oxus, and the Indus, by the Caspian Sea, and the Gulph of Persia ³⁵. That country was computed [Page 331] to contain, in the last century, five hundred and fifty-four cities, sixty thousand villages, and about forty millions of souls ³⁶. If we compare the administration of the house of Sassan with that of the house of Sefi, the political influence of the Magian with that of the Mahometan religion, we shall probably infer, that the kingdom of Artaxerxes contained at least as great a number of cities, villages, and inhabitants. But it must likewise be confessed, that in every age the want of harbours on the sea-coast, and the scarcity of fresh water in the inland provinces, have been very unfavourable to the commerce and agri­culture of the Persians; who, in the calculation of their numbers, seem to have indulged one of the meanest, though most common, articles of national vanity.

As soon as the ambitious mind of Artaxerxes Recapitu­lation of the war be­tween the Parthian and Ro­man em­pire. had triumphed over the resistance of his vassals, he began to threaten the neighbouring states, who, during the long slumber of his predecessors, had insulted Persia with impunity. He obtained some easy victories over the wild Scythians and the effeminate Indians; but the Romans were an enemy, who, by their past injuries and present power, deserved the utmost efforts of his arms. A forty years tranquillity the fruit of valour and [Page 332] moderation, had succeeded the victories of Tra­jan. During the period that elapsed from the accession of Marcus to the reign of Alexander, the Roman and the Parthian empires were twice engaged in war; and although the whole strength of the Arsacides contended with a part only of the forces of Rome, the event was most com­monly in favour of the latter. Macrinus, in­deed, prompted by his precarious situation, and pusillanimous temper, purchased a peace at the expence of near two millions of our money ³⁷; but the generals of Marcus, the emperor Seve­rus, and his son, erected many trophies in Ar­menia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria. Among their exploits, the imperfect relation of which would have unseasonably interrupted the more import­ant series of domestic revolutions, we shall only mention the repeated calamities of the two great cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon.

Seleucia, on the western bank of the Tigris, Cities of Seleucia and Ctesi­phon. about forty-five miles to the north of ancient Babylon, was the capital of the Macedonian con­quests in Upper Asia ³⁸. Many ages after the fall of their empire, Seleucia retained the genuine characters of a Grecian colony, arts, military virtue, and the love of freedom. The inde­pendent republic was governed by a senate of three hundred nobles; the people consisted of [Page 333] six hundred thousand citizens; the walls were strong, and as long as concord prevailed among the several orders of the state, they viewed with contempt the power of the Parthian: but the madness of faction was sometimes provoked to implore the dangerous aid of the common ene­my, who was posted almost at the gates of the colony ³⁹. The Parthian monarchs, like the Mogul sovereigns of Hindostan, delighted in the pastoral life of their Scythian ancestors; and the Imperial camp was frequently pitched in the plain of Ctesiphon, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, at the distance of only three miles from Seleucia ⁴⁰. The innumerable attendants on luxury and despotism resorted to the court, and the little village of Ctesiphon insensibly swelled into a great city ⁴¹. Under the reign of Marcus, the Roman generals penetrated as far as Ctesi­phon and Seleucia. They were received as friends A. D. 165. by the Greek colony; they attacked as enemies the seat of the Parthian kings; yet both cities experienced the same treatment. The sack and conflagration of Seleucia, with the massacre of three hundred thousand of the inhabitants, tar­nished [Page 334] the glory of the Roman triumph ⁴². Se­leucia, already exhausted by the neighbourhood of a too powerful rival, sunk under the fatal blow; but Ctesiphon, in about thirty-three years, A. D. 198. had sufficiently recovered its strength to maintain an obstinate siege against the emperor Seve­rus. The city was, however, taken by assault; the king, who defended it in person, escaped with precipitation; an hundred thousand captives, and a rich booty, rewarded the fatigues of the Roman soldiers ⁴³. Notwithstanding these mis­fortunes, Ctesiphon succeeded to Babylon and to Seleucia, as one of the great capitals of the East. In summer, the monarch of Persia enjoyed at Ecbatana the cool breezes of the mountains of Media; but the mildness of the climate engaged him to prefer Ctesiphon for his winter-residence.

From these successful inroads, the Romans de­rived Conquest of Osrho­ene by the Romans. no real or lasting benefit; nor did they attempt to preserve such distant conquests, sepa­rated from the provinces of the empire by a large tract of intermediate desert. The reduction of the kingdom of Osrhoene, was an acquisition of less splendour indeed, but of a far more solid advantage. That little state occupied the north­ern and most fertile part of Mesopotamia, be­tween the Euphrates and the Tigris. Edessa, [Page 335] its capital, was situated about twenty miles be­yond the former of those rivers; and the inha­bitants, since the time of Alexander, were a mix­ed race of Greeks, Arabs, Syrians, and Arme­nians ⁴⁴. The feeble sovereigns of Osrhoene, placed on the dangerous verge of two contending empires, were attached from inclination to the Parthian cause; but the superior power of Rome exacted from them a reluctant homage, which is still attested by their medals. After the con­clusion of the Parthian war under Marcus, it was judged prudent to secure some substantial pledges of their doubtful fidelity. Forts were construct­ed in several parts of the country, and a Roman garrison was fixed in the strong town of Nisibis. During the troubles that followed the death of Commodus, the princes of Osrhoene attempted to shake off the yoke: but the stern policy of Severus confirmed their dependance ⁴⁵, and the perfidy of Caracalla completed the easy conquest. Abgarus, the last king of Edessa, was sent in A. D. 216. chains to Rome, his dominions reduced into a province, and his capital dignified with the rank of colony; and thus the Romans, about ten years before the fall of the Parthian monarchy, ob­tained [Page 336] a firm and permanent establishment beyond the Euphrates ⁴⁶.

Prudence as well as glory might have justified Artaxer­xes claims the pro­vinces of Asia, and declares war against the Ro­mans. A. D. 230. a war on the side of Artaxerxes, had his views been confined to the defence or the acquisition of a useful frontier. But the ambitious Persian openly avowed a far more extensive design of conquest; and he thought himself able to sup­port his lofty pretensions by the arms of reason as well as by those of power. Cyrus, he alleged, had first subdued, and his successors had for a long time possessed, the whole extent of Asia, as far as the Propontis and the Aegaean Sea; the provinces of Caria and Ionia, under their empire, had been governed by Persian satraps, and all Egypt, to the confines of Aethiopia, had acknow­ledged their sovereignty ⁴⁷. Their rights had been suspended, but not destroyed, by a long usurpation; and as soon as he received the Per­sian diadem, which birth and successful valour had placed upon his head, the first great duty of his station called upon him to restore the ancient limits and splendour of the monarchy. The Great King, therefore (such was the haughty style of his embassies to the emperor Alexander), commanded the Romans instantly to depart from [Page 337] all the provinces of his ancestors, and, yielding to the Persians the empire of Asia, to content themselves with the undisturbed possession of Europe. This haughty mandate was delivered by four hundred of the tallest and most beautiful of the Persians; who, by their fine horses, splen­did arms, and rich apparel, displayed the pride and greatness of their master ⁴⁸. Such an em­bassy was much less an offer of negociation than a declaration of war. Both Alexander Severus and Artaxerxes, collecting the military force of the Roman and Persian monarchies, resolved in this important contest to lead their armies in per­son.

If we credit what should seem the most authen­tic Pretended victory of Alexander Severus. A. D. 233. of all records, an oration, still extant, and delivered by the emperor himself to the senate, we must allow that the victory of Alexander Severus was not inferior to any of those formerly obtained over the Persians by the son of Philip. The army of the Great King consisted of one hundred and twenty thousand horse, clothed in complete armour of steel; of seven hundred ele­phants, with towers filled with archers on their backs, and of eighteen hundred chariots, armed with scythes. This formidable host, the like of which is not to be found in eastern history, and has scarcely been imagined in eastern romance ⁴⁹, [Page 338] was discomfited in a great battle, in which the Roman Alexander approved himself an intrepid soldier and a skilful general. The Great King fled before his valour; an immense booty, and the conquest of Mesopotamia, were the imme­diate fruits of this signal victory. Such are the circumstances of this ostentatious and impro­bable relation, dictated, as it too plainly appears, by the vanity of the monarch, adorned by the unblushing servility of his flatterers, and received without contradiction by a distant and obsequi­ous senate ⁵⁰. Far from being inclined to believe that the arms of Alexander obtained any memo­rable advantage over the Persians, we are in­duced to suspect, that all this blaze of imaginary glory was designed to conceal some real dis­grace.

[Page 339] Our suspicions are confirmed by the authority of a contemporary historian, who mentions the virtues of Alexander with respect, and his faults More pro­bable ac­count of the war. with candour. He describes the judicious plan which had been formed for the conduct of the war. Three Roman armies were destined to invade Persia at the same time, and by different roads. But the operations of the campaign, though wisely concerted, were not executed either with ability or success. The first of these ar­mies, as soon as it had entered the marshy plains of Babylon, towards the artificial conflux of the Euphrates and the Tigris ⁵¹, was encompassed by the superior numbers, and destroyed by the ar­rows, of the enemy. The alliance of Chosroes king of Armenia ⁵², and the long tract of moun­tainous country, in which the Persian cavalry was of little service, opened a secure entrance into the heart of Media, to the second of the Roman armies. These brave troops laid waste the adja­cent provinces, and by several successful actions against Artaxerxes, gave a faint colour to the emperor's vanity. But the retreat of this victo­rious army was imprudent, or at least unfortunate. In repassing the mountains, great numbers of soldiers perished by the badness of the roads, and [Page 340] the severity of the winter season. It had been resolved, that whilst these two great detachments penetrated into the opposite extremes of the Per­sian dominions, the main body, under the com­mand of Alexander himself, should support their attack, by invading the centre of the kingdom. But the unexperienced youth, influenced by his mother's counsels, and perhaps by his own fears, deserted the bravest troops and the fairest pro­spect of victory; and after consuming in Meso­potamia an inactive and inglorious summer, he led back to Antioch an army diminished by sick­ness, and provoked by disappointment. The behaviour of Artaxerxes had been very different. Flying with rapidity from the hills of Media to the marshes of the Euphrates, he had every where opposed the invaders in person; and in either fortune, had united with the ablest conduct the most undaunted resolution. But in several ob­stinate engagements against the veteran legions of Rome, the Persian monarch had lost the flower of his troops. Even his victories had weakened his power. The favourable opportunities of the absence of Alexander, and of the confusions that followed that emperor's death, presented them­selves in vain to his ambition. Instead of ex­pelling the Romans, as he pretended, from the continent of Asia, he found himself unable to wrest from their hands the little province of Me­sopotamia ⁵³.

[Page 341] The reign of Artaxerxes, which from the last defeat of the Parthians lasted only fourteen years, forms a memorable aera in the history of the East, Character and max­ims of Ar­taxerxes. A. D. 240. and even in that of Rome. His character seems to have been marked by those bold and com­manding features, that generally distinguish the princes who conquer, from those who inherit, an empire. Till the last period of the Persian mo­narchy, his code of laws was respected as the ground-work of their civil and religious policy ⁵⁴. Several of his sayings are preserved. One of them in particular discovers a deep insight into the constitution of government. ‘The autho­rity of the prince,said Artaxerxes, must be defended by a military force; that force can only be maintained by taxes; all taxes must, at last, fall upon agriculture; and agri­culture can never flourish except under the protection of justice and moderation ⁵⁵.’ Ar­taxerxes bequeathed his new empire, and his ambitious designs against the Romans, to Sapor, a son not unworthy of his great father; but those designs were too extensive for the power of Per­sia, and served only to involve both nations in a long series of destructive wars and reciprocal ca­lamities.

[Page 342] The Persians, long since civilized and corrupt­ed, were very far from possessing the martial in­dependence, and the intrepid hardiness, both of Military power of the Per­sians. mind and body, which have rendered the north­ern barbarians masters of the world. The sci­ence of war, that constituted the more rational force of Greece and Rome, as it now does of Europe, never made any considerable progress in the East. Those disciplined evolutions which harmonize and animate a confused multitude, were unknown to the Persians. They were equal­ly unskilled in the arts of constructing, besieg­ing, or defending regular fortifications. They trusted more to their numbers than to their cou­rage; more to their courage than to their dis­cipline. The infantry was a half-armed spirit­less crowd of peasants, levied in haste by the Their in­fantry con­temptible. allurements of plunder, and as easily dispersed by a victory as by a defeat. The monarch and his nobles transported into the camp the pride and luxury of the seraglio. Their military ope­rations were impeded by a useless train of women, eunuchs, horses, and camels, and in the midst of a successful campaign, the Persian host was often separated or destroyed by an unexpected fa­mine ⁵⁶.

But the nobles of Persia, in the bosom of lux­ury Their ca­valry ex­cellent. and despotism, preserved a strong sense of personal gallantry and national honour. From [Page 343] the age of seven years they were taught to speak truth, to shoot with the bow, and to ride; and it was universally confessed, that in the two last of these arts, they had made a more than common proficiency ⁵⁷. The most distinguished youth were educated under the monarch's eye, practised their exercises in the gate of his palace, and were severely trained up to the habits of temperance and obedience, in their long and laborious par­ties of hunting. In every province, the satrap maintained a like school of military virtue. The Persian nobles (so natural is the idea of feudal tenures) received from the king's bounty lands and houses, on the condition of their service in war. They were ready on the first summons to mount on horseback, with a martial and splendid train of followers, and to join the numerous bo­dies of guards, who were carefully selected from amongst the most robust slaves, and the bravest ad­venturers of Asia. These armies, both of light and of heavy cavalry, equally formidable by the impetuosity of their charge, and the rapidity of their motions, threatened, as an impending cloud, the eastern provinces of the declining empire of Rome ⁵⁸.

THE government and religion of Persia have deserved some notice from their connexion with the decline and fall of the Roman empire. We shall occasionally mention the Scythian, or Sarmatian tribes, which, with their arms and horses, their flocks and herds, their wives and families, wandered over the immense plains which spread themselves from the Caspian Sea to the Vistula, from the confines of Persia to those of Germany. But the warlike Germans, who first resisted, then invaded, and at length overturned, the western monarchy of Rome, will occupy a much more important place in this history, and possess a stronger, and, if we may use the expres­sion, a more domestic, claim to our attention and regard. The most civilized nations of mo­dern Europe issued from the woods of Germany, and in the rude institutions of those barbarians we may still distinguish the original principles of our present laws and manners. In their primi­tive state of simplicity and independence, the Germans were surveyed by the discerning eye, and delineated by the masterly pencil, of Tacitus, the first of historians who applied the science of philosophy to the study of facts. The expressive conciseness of his descriptions has deserved to ex­ercise [Page 345] the diligence of innumerable antiquarians, and to excite the genius and penetration of the philosophic historians of our own times. The subject, however various and important, has al­ready been so frequently, so ably, and so success­fully discussed, that it is now grown familiar to the reader, and difficult to the writer. We shall therefore content ourselves with observing, and indeed with repeating, some of the most impor­tant circumstances of climate, of manners, and of institutions, which rendered the wild barba­rians of Germany such formidable enemies to the Roman power.

Ancient Germany, excluding from its inde­pendent Extent of Germany. limits the province westward of the Rhine, which had submitted to the Roman yoke, extended itself over a third part of Europe. Al­most the whole of modern Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Livonia, Prussia, and the greater part of Poland, were peopled by the various tribes of one great nation, whose com­plexion, manners, and language denoted a com­mon origin, and preserved a striking resemblance. On the west, ancient Germany was divided by the Rhine from the Gallic, and on the south, by the Danube, from the Illyrian provinces of the empire. A ridge of hills, rising from the Da­nube, and called the Carpathian Mountains, co­vered Germany on the side of Dacia or Hungary. The eastern frontier was faintly marked by the mutual fears of the Germans and the Sarmatians, and was often confounded by the mixture of war­ring and confederating tribes of the two nations. [Page 346] In the remote darkness of the north, the ancients imperfectly descried a frozen ocean that lay be­yond the Baltic Sea, and beyond the Peninsula, or islands ¹ of Scandinavia.

Some ingenious writers ² have suspected that Europe was much colder formerly than it is at Climate. present; and the most ancient descriptions of the climate of Germany tend exceedingly to confirm their theory. The general complaints of intense frost, and eternal winter, are perhaps little to be regarded, since we have no method of reducing to the accurate standard of the thermometer, the feelings, or the expressions of an orator, born in the happier regions of Greece or Asia. But I shall select two remarkable circumstances of a less equivocal nature. 1. The great rivers which co­vered the Roman provinces, the Rhine and the Danube, were frequently frozen over, and ca­pable of supporting the most enormous weights. The barbarians, who often chose that severe sea­son for their inroads, transported, without appre­hension or danger, their numerous armies, their [Page 347] cavalry, and their heavy waggons, over a vast and solid bridge of ice ³. Modern ages have not presented an instance of a like phaenomenon. 2. The rein deer, that useful animal, from whom the savage of the North derives the best comforts of his dreary life, is of a constitution that sup­ports, and even requires, the most intense cold. He is found on the rock of Spitzberg, within ten degrees of the Pole; he seems to delight in the snows of Lapland and Siberia; but at present he cannot subsist, much less multiply, in any country to the south of the Baltic ⁴. In the time of Caesar, the rein deer, as well as the elk, and the wild bull, was a native of the Hercynian forest, which then overshadowed a great part of Germany and Poland ⁵. The modern improvements sufficiently explain the causes of the diminution of the cold. These immense woods have been gradually cleared, which intercepted from the earth the rays of the sun ⁶. The morasses have been drained, and, in proportion as the soil has been cultivated, the air has become more temperate. Canada, at this [Page 348] day, is an exact picture of ancient Germany. Although situated in the same parallel with the finest provinces of France and England, that country experiences the most rigorous cold. The rein deer are very numerous, the ground is co­vered with deep and lasting snow, and the great river of St Lawrence is regularly frozen, in a sea­son when the waters of the Seine and the Thames are usually free from ice ⁷.

It is difficult to ascertain, and easy to exagge­rate, the influence of the climate of ancient Ger­many Its effects on the na­tives. over the minds and bodies of the natives. Many writers have supposed, and most have al­lowed, though, as it should seem, without any adequate proof, that the rigorous cold of the North was favourable to long life and generative vigour, that the women were more fruitful, and the human species more prolific, than in warmer or more temperate climates ⁸. We may assert, with greater confidence, that the keen air of Ger­many formed the large and masculine limbs of the natives, who were, in general, of a more lofty stature than the people of the South ⁹, gave them a kind of strength better adapted to violent exer­tions than to patient labour, and inspired them with constitutional bravery, which is the result of nerves and spirits. The severity of a winter cam­paign, [Page 349] that chilled the courage of the Roman troops, was scarcely felt by these hardy children of the North ¹⁰, who, in their turn, were unable to resist the summer heats, and dissolved away in languor and sickness under the beams of an Ita­lian sun ¹¹.

There is not any where upon the globe, a large Origin of the Ger­mans. tract of country, which we have discovered desti­tute of inhabitants, or whose first population can be fixed with any degree of historical certainty. And yet, as the most philosophic minds can sel­dom refrain from investigating the infancy of great nations, our curiosity consumes itself in toil­some and disappointed efforts. When Tacitus considered the purity of the German blood, and the forbidding aspect of the country, he was dis­posed to pronounce those barbarians Indigenae, or natives of the soil. We may allow with safety, and perhaps with truth, that ancient Germany was not originally peopled by any foreign co­lonies, already formed into a political society ¹²; but that the name and nation received their ex­istence from the gradual union of some wandering [Page 350] savages of the Hercynian woods. To assert those savages to have been the spontaneous production of the earth which they inhabited, would be a rash inference, condemned by religion, and un­warranted by reason.

Such rational doubt is but ill-suited with the Fables and conjec­tures. genius of popular vanity. Among the nations who have adopted the Mosaic history of the world, the ark of Noah has been of the same use, as was formerly to the Greeks and Romans the siege of Troy. On a narrow basis of acknowledged truth, an immense but rude superstructure of fable has been erected; and the wild Irishman ¹³, as well as the wild Tartar ¹⁴, could point out the indivi­dual son of Japhet, from whose loins his ancestors were lineally descended. The last century abound­ed with antiquarians of profound learning and easy faith, who, by the dim light of legends and traditions, of conjectures and etymologies, con­ducted the great grandchildren of Noah from the Tower of Babel to the extremities of the globe. Of these judicious critics, one of the most enter­taining [Page 351] was Olaus Rudbeck, professor in the uni­versity of Upsal ¹⁵. Whatever is celebrated either in history or fable, this zealous patriot ascribes to his country. From Sweden (which formed so considerable a part of ancient Germany) the Greeks themselves derived their alphabetical cha­racters, their astronomy, and their religion. Of that delightful region (for such it appeared to the eyes of a native) the Atlantis of Plato, the coun­try of the Hyperboreans, the gardens of the Hes­perides, the Fortunate Islands, and even the Ely­sian Fields, were all but faint and imperfect tran­scripts. A clime so profusely favoured by Nature, could not long remain desert after the flood. The learned Rudbeck allows the family of Noah a few years to multiply from eight to about twenty thousand persons. He then disperses them into small colonies to replenish the earth, and to propagate the human species. The German or Swedish detachment (which marched, if I am not mistaken, under the command of Askenaz the son of Gomer, the son of Japhet) distinguished itself by a more than common diligence in the prose­cution of this great work. The northern hive cast its swarms over the greatest part of Europe, Africa, and Asia; and (to use the author's meta­phor) the blood circulated from the extremities to the heart.

But all this well-laboured system of German antiquities is annihilated by a single fact, too well The Ger­mans ig­norant of letters; [Page 352] attested to admit of any doubt, and of too deci­sive a nature to leave room for any reply. The Germans, in the age of Tacitus, were unac­quainted with the use of letters ¹⁶; and the use of letters is the principal circumstance that distin­guishes a civilized people from a herd of savages incapable of knowledge or reflection. Without that artificial help, the human memory soon dissi­pates or corrupts the ideas intrusted to her charge; and the nobler faculties of the mind, no longer supplied with models or with materials, gradually forget their powers; the judgment becomes feeble and lethargic, the imagination languid or irregular. Fully to apprehend this important truth, let us attempt, in an improved society, to calculate the immense distance between the man of learning and the illiterate peasant. The for­mer, by reading and reflection, multiplies his own experience, and lives in distant ages and re­mote countries; whilst the latter, rooted to a single spot, and confined to a few years of exist­ence, surpasses, but very little, his fellow-la­bourer [Page 353] the ox in the exercise of his mental fa­culties. The same, and even a greater, differ­ence will be found between nations than between individuals; and we may safely pronounce, that without some species of writing, no people has ever preserved the faithful annals of their history, ever made any considerable progress in the ab­stract sciences, or ever possessed, in any tolerable degree of perfection, the useful and agreeable arts of life.

Of these arts, the ancient Germans were wretch­edly of arts and agricul­ture; destitute. They passed their lives in a state of ignorance and poverty, which it has pleased some declaimers to dignify with the appellation of virtuous simplicity. Modern Germany is said to contain about two thousand three hundred walled towns ¹⁷. In a much wider extent of coun­try, the geographer Ptolemy could discover no more than ninety places, which he decorates with the name of cities ¹⁸; though, according to our ideas, they would but ill deserve that splendid title. We can only suppose them to have been rude fortifications, constructed in the centre of the woods, and designed to secure the women, children, and cattle, whilst the warriors of the tribe marched out to repel a sudden invasion ¹⁹. [Page 354] But Tacitus asserts, as a well-known fact, that the Germans, in his time, had no cities ²⁰; and that they affected to despise the works of Roman industry, as places of confinement rather than of security ²¹. Their edifices were not even conti­guous, or formed into regular villas ²²; each bar­barian fixed his independent dwelling on the spot to which a plain, a wood, or a stream of fresh water, had induced him to give the preference. Neither stone, nor brick, nor tiles, were em­ployed in these slight habitations ²³. They were indeed no more than low huts of a circular figure, built of rough timber, thatched with straw, and pierced at the top to leave a free passage for the smoke. In the most inclement winter, the hardy German was satisfied with a scanty garment made of the skin of some animal. The nations who dwelt towards the North, clothed themselves in furs; and the women manufactured for their own use a coarse kind of linen ²⁴. The game of various sorts, with which the forests of Germany were plentifully stocked, supplied its inhabitants [Page 355] with food and exercise ²⁵. Their monstrous herds of cattle, less remarkable indeed for their beauty than for their utility ²⁶, formed the principal ob­ject of their wealth. A small quantity of corn was the only produce exacted from the earth: the use of orchards or artificial meadows was un­known to the Germans; nor can we expect any improvements in agriculture from a people, whose property every year experienced a general change by a new division of the arable lands, and who, in that strange operation, avoided disputes, by suffering a great part of their territory to lie waste and without tillage ²⁷.

Gold, silver, and iron, were extremely scarce in Germany. Its barbarous inhabitants wanted and of the use of me­tals. both skill and patience to investigate those rich veins of silver, which have so liberally rewarded the attention of the princes of Brunswick and Saxony. Sweden, which now supplies Europe with iron, was equally ignorant of its own riches; and the appearance of the arms of the Germans furnished a sufficient proof how little iron they were able to bestow on what they must have deemed the noblest use of that metal. The va­rious transactions of peace and war had intro­duced some Roman coins (chiefly silver) among the borderers of the Rhine and Danube; but the more distant tribes were absolutely unacquainted with the use of money, carried on their confined traffic by the exchange of commodities, and [Page 356] prized their rude earthen vessels as of equal value with the silver vases, the presents of Rome to their princes and ambassadors ²⁸. To a mind ca­pable of reflection, such leading facts convey more instruction, than a tedious detail of subor­dinate circumstances. The value of money has been settled by general consent to express our wants and our property; as letters were invented to express our ideas; and both these institutions, by giving a more active energy to the powers and passions of human nature, have contributed to multiply the objects they were designed to re­present. The use of gold and silver is in a great measure factitious; but it would be impossible to enumerate the important and various services which agriculture, and all the arts, have received from iron, when tempered and fashioned by the operation of fire, and the dexterous hand of man. Money, in a word, is the most universal incite­ment, iron the most powerful instrument, of hu­man industry; and it is very difficult to conceive by what means a people, neither actuated by the one, nor seconded by the other, could emerge from the grossest barbarism ²⁹.

If we contemplate a savage nation in any part Their in­dolence. of the globe, a supine indolence and a carelessness of futurity will be found to constitute their gene­ral character. In a civilized state, every faculty [Page 357] of man is expanded and exercised; and the great chain of mutual dependence connects and em­braces the several members of society. The most numerous portion of it is employed in constant and useful labour. The select few, placed by fortune above that necessity, can, however, fill up their time by the pursuits of interest or glory, by the improvement of their estate or of their un­derstanding, by the duties, the pleasures, and even the follies of social life. The Germans were not possessed of these varied resources. The care of the house and family, the management of the land and cattle, were delegated to the old and the infirm, to women and slaves. The lazy war­rior, destitute of every art that might employ his leisure hours, consumed his days and nights in the animal gratifications of sleep and food. And yet, by a wonderful diversity of Nature (accord­ing to the remark of a writer who had pierced into its darkest recesses), the same barbarians are by turns the most indolent and the most restless of mankind. They delight in sloth, they detest tranquillity ³⁰. The languid soul, oppressed with its own weight, anxiously required some new and powerful sensation; and war and danger were the only amusements adequate to its fierce temper. The sound that summoned the German to arms was grateful to his ear. It roused him from his uncomfortable lethargy, gave him an active pur­suit, and, by strong exercise of the body, and violent emotions of the mind, restored him to a [Page 358] more lively sense of his existence. In the dull intervals of peace, these barbarians were immo­derately addicted to deep gaming and excessive drinking; both of which, by different means, the one by inflaming their passions, the other by extinguishing their reason, alike relieved them from the pain of thinking. They gloried in pass­ing whole days and nights at table; and the blood of friends and relations often stained their numerous and drunken assemblies ³¹. Their debts of honour (for in that light they have transmitted to us those of play) they discharged with the most romantic fidelity. The desperate gamester, who had staked his person and liberty on a last throw of the dice, patiently submitted to the decision of fortune, and suffered himself to be bound, chastised, and sold into remote slavery, by his weaker but more lucky antagonist ³².

Strong beer, a liquor extracted with very little art from wheat or barley, and corrupted (as it is Their taste for strong liquors. strongly expressed by Tacitus) into a certain sem­blance of wine, was sufficient for the gross pur­poses of German debauchery. But those who had tasted the rich wines of Italy, and afterwards of Gaul, sighed for that more delicious species of intoxication. They attempted not, however (as has since been executed with so much success), to naturalize the vine on the banks of the Rhine and Danube; nor did they endeavour to procure [Page 359] by industry the materials of an advantageous commerce. To solicit by labour what might be ravished by arms, was esteemed unworthy of the German spirit ³³. The intemperate thirst of strong liquors often urged the barbarians to invade the provinces on which art or nature had bestowed those much envied presents. The Tuscan who betrayed his country to the Celtic nations, at­tracted them into Italy by the prospect of the rich fruits and delicious wines, the productions of a happier climate ³⁴. And in the same manner the German auxiliaries, invited into France during the civil wars of the sixteenth century, were al­lured by the promise of plenteous quarters in the the provinces of Champaigne and Burgundy ³⁵. Drunkenness, the most illiberal, but not the most dangerous of our vices, was sometimes capable, in a less civilized state of mankind, of occasioning a battle, a war, or a revolution.

The climate of ancient Germany has been mol­lified, State of popula­tion. and the soil fertilized, by the labour of ten centuries from the time of Charlemagne. The same extent of ground which at present main­tains, in ease and plenty, a million of husband-men and artificers, was unable to supply an hun­dred thousand lazy warriors with the simple ne­cessaries of life ³⁶. The Germans abandoned their [Page 360] immense forests to the exercise of hunting, em­ployed in pasturage the most considerable part of their lands, bestowed on the small remainder a rude and careless cultivation, and then accused the scantiness and sterility of a country that re­fused to maintain the multitude of its inhabitants. When the return of famine severely admonished them of the importance of the arts, the national distress was sometimes alleviated by the emigra­tion of a third, perhaps, or a fourth part of their youth ³⁷. The possession and the enjoyment of property are the pledges which bind a civilized people to an improved country. But the Ger­mans, who carried with them what they most valued, their arms, their cattle, and their women, cheerfully abandoned the vast silence of their woods for the unbounded hopes of plunder and conquest. The innumerable swarms that issued, or seemed to issue, from the great storehouse of nations, were multiplied by the fears of the van­quished, and by the credulity of succeeding ages. And from facts thus exaggerated, an opinion was gradually established, and has been supported by writers of distinguished reputation, that, in the age of Caesar and Tacitus, the inhabitants of the North were far more numerous than they are in [Page 361] our days ³⁸. A more serious inquiry into the causes of population, seems to have convinced modern philosophers of the falsehood, and indeed the impossibility, of the supposition. To the names of Mariana and of Machiavel ³⁹, we can oppose the equal names of Robertson and Hume ⁴⁰.

A warlike nation like the Germans, without German freedom. either cities, letters, arts, or money, found some compensation for this savage state in the enjoy­ment of liberty. Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism. ‘Among the Suiones (says Tacitus), riches are held in honour. They are therefore subject to an ab­solute monarch, who, instead of intrusting his people with the free use of arms, as is practised in the rest of Germany, commits them to the safe custody not of a citizen, or even of a freedman, but of a slave. The neighbours of the Suiones, the Sitones, are sunk even below servitude; they obey a woman ⁴¹.’ In the mention of these exceptions, the great historian sufficiently acknowledges the general theory of government. We are only at a loss to conceive [Page 362] by what means riches and despotism could pene­trate into a remote corner of the North, and extinguish the generous flame that blazed with such fierceness on the frontier of the Roman provinces: or how the ancestors of those Danes and Norwegians, so distinguished in latter ages by their unconquered spirit, could thus tamely re­sign the great character of German liberty ⁴². Some tribes, however, on the coast of the Baltic, acknow­ledged the authority of kings, though without relinquishing the rights of men ⁴³; but in the far greater part of Germany, the form of govern­ment was a democracy, tempered indeed, and controlled, not so much by general and positive laws, as by the occasional ascendant of birth or valour, of eloquence or superstition ⁴⁴.

Civil governments, in their first institutions, are Assemblies of the peo­ple. voluntary associations for mutual defence. To obtain the desired end, it is absolutely necessary, that each individual should conceive himself obliged to submit his private opinion and ac­tions, to the judgment of the greater number of his associates. The German tribes were content­ed with this rude but liberal outline of political society. As soon as a youth, born of free pa­rents, had attained the age of manhood, he was [Page 363] introduced into the general council of his coun­trymen, solemnly invested with a shield and spear, and adopted as an equal and worthy member of the military commonwealth. The assembly of the warriors of the tribe was convened at stated seasons, or on sudden emergencies. The trial of public offences, the election of magistrates, and the great business of peace and war, were determined by its independent voice. Some­times, indeed, these important questions were previously considered, and prepared in a more select council of the principal chieftains ⁴⁵. The magistrates might deliberate and persuade, the people only could resolve and execute; and the resolutions of the Germans were for the most part hasty and violent. Barbarians accustomed to place their freedom in gratifying the present passion, and their courage in overlooking all future consequences, turned away with indig­nant contempt from the remonstrances of justice and policy, and it was the practice to signify by a hollow murmur, their dislike of such timid counsels. But whenever a more popular orator proposed to vindicate the meanest citizen from either foreign or domestic injury, whenever he called upon his fellow-countrymen to assert the national honour, or to pursue some enterprise full of danger and glory, a loud clashing of shields and spears expressed the eager applause of the assembly. For the Germans always met [Page 364] in arms, and it was constantly to be dreaded; lest an irregular multitude, inflamed with faction and strong liquors, should use those arms to en­force, as well as to declare, their furious resolves. We may recollect how often the diets of Poland have been polluted with blood, and the more numerous party has been compelled to yield to the more violent and seditious ⁴⁶.

A general of the tribe was elected on occasions Authority of the princes and magistrates of danger; and, if the danger was pressing and extensive, several tribes concurred in the choice of the same general. The bravest warrior was named to lead his countrymen into the field, by his example rather than by his commands. But this power, however limited, was still invi­dious. It expired with the war, and in time of peace the German tribes acknowledged not any supreme chief ⁴⁷. Princes were, however, ap­pointed, in the general assembly, to administer justice, or rather to compose differences ⁴⁸, in their respective districts. In the choice of these magistrates, as much regard was shewn to birth as to merit ⁴⁹. To each was assigned, by the public, a guard, and a council of an hundred persons; and the first of the princes appears to have enjoyed a pre-eminence of rank and honour [Page 365] which sometimes tempted the Romans to com­pliment him with the regal title ⁵⁰.

The comparative view of the powers of the more abso­lute over the proper­ty than o­ver the per­sons of the Germans. magistrates, in two remarkable instances, is alone sufficient to represent the whole system of Ger­man manners. The disposal of the landed pro­perty within their district, was absolutely vested in their hands, and they distributed it every year according to a new division ⁵¹. At the same time they were not authorized to punish with death, to imprison, or even to strike, a private citizen ⁵². A people thus jealous of their per­sons, and careless of their possessions, must have been totally destitute of industry and the arts, but animated with a high sense of honour and independence.

The Germans respected only those duties which Voluntary engage­ments. they imposed on themselves. The most obscure soldier resisted with disdain the authority of the magistrates. ‘The noblest youths blushed not to be numbered among the faithful compa­nions of some renowned chief, to whom they devoted their arms and service. A noble emulation prevailed among the companions to obtain the first place in the esteem of their chief; amongst the chiefs to acquire the great­est number of valiant companions. To be ever surrounded by a band of select youths, was the pride and strength of the chiefs, their ornament in peace, their defence in war. The [Page 366] glory of such distinguished heroes diffused itself beyond the narrow limits of their own tribe. Presents and embassies solicited their friend­ship, and the fame of their arms often ensur­ed victory to the party which they espoused. In the hour of danger it was shameful for the chief to be surpassed in valour by his com­panions; shameful for the companions not to equal the valour of their chief. To survive his fall in battle, was indelible infamy. To protect his person, and to adorn his glory with the trophies of their own exploits, were the most sacred of their duties. The chiefs combated for victory, the companions for the chief. The noblest warriors, whenever their native country was sunk in the laziness of peace, maintained their numerous bands in some distant scene of action, to exercise their restless spirit, and to acquire renown by vo­luntary dangers. Gifts worthy of soldiers, the warlike steed, the bloody and ever victorious lance, were the rewards which the companions claimed from the liberality of their chief. The rude plenty of his hospitable board was the only pay that he could bestow, or they would accept. War, rapine, and the free­will offerings of his friends, supplied the ma­terials of this munificence ⁵³.’ This institu­tion, however it might accidentally weaken the several republics, invigorated the general cha­racter of the Germans, and even ripened amongst [Page 367] them all the virtues of which barbarians are sus­ceptible; the faith and valour, the hospitality and the courtesy, so conspicuous long afterwards in the ages of chivalry. The honourable gifts, bestowed by the chief on his brave companions, have been supposed, by an ingenious writer, to contain the first rudiments of the fiefs, distri­buted, after the conquest of the Roman pro­vinces, by the barbarian lords among their vas­sals, with a similar duty of homage and military service ⁵⁴. These conditions are, however, very repugnant to the maxims of the ancient Germans, who delighted in mutual presents; but without either imposing, or accepting, the weight of obligations ⁵⁵.

‘In the days of chivalry, or more properly of German chastity. romance, all the men were brave, and all the women were chaste;’ and notwithstanding the latter of these virtues is acquired and pre­served with much more difficulty than the for­mer, it is ascribed, almost without exception, to the wives of the ancient Germans. Polygamy was not in use, except among the princes, and among them only for the sake of multiplying their alliances. Divorces were prohibited by manners rather than by laws. Adulteries were punished as rare and inexpiable crimes; nor was [Page 368] seduction justified by example and fashion ⁵⁶. We may easily discover, that Tacitus indulges an honest pleasure in the contrast of barbarian virtue, with the dissolute conduct of the Roman ladies: yet there are some striking circumstances that give an air of truth, or at least of proba­bility, to the conjugal faith and chastity of the Germans.

Although the progress of civilization has un­doubtedly Its proba­ble causes. contributed to assuage the fiercer pas­sions of human nature, it seems to have been less favourable to the virtue of chastity, whose most dangerous enemy is the softness of the mind. The refinements of life corrupt while they polish the intercourse of the sexes. The gross appetite of love becomes most dangerous when it is ele­vated, or rather, indeed, disguised by sentimental passion. The elegance of dress, of motion, and of manners, gives a lustre to beauty, and inflames the senses through the imagination. Luxurious entertainments, midnight dances, and licentious spectacles, present at once temptation and op­portunity to female frailty ⁵⁷. From such dan­gers the unpolished wives of the barbarians were secured, by poverty, solitude, and the painful cares of a domestic life. The German huts, open, on every side, to the eye of indiscretion or [Page 369] jealousy, were a better safeguard of conjugal fidelity, than the walls, the bolts, and the eunuchs of a Persian haram. To this reason, another may be added of a more honourable nature. The Germans treated their women with esteem and confidence, consulted them on every occasion of importance, and fondly believed, that in their breasts resided a sanctity and wisdom, more than human. Some of these interpreters of fate, such as Velleda, in the Batavian war, governed in the name of the deity, the fiercest nations of Ger­many ⁵⁸. The rest of the sex, without being adored as goddesses, were respected as the free and equal companions of soldiers; associated even by the marriage ceremony to a life of toil, of danger, and of glory ⁵⁹. In their great inva­sions, the camps of the barbarians were filled with a multitude of women, who remained firm and undaunted amidst the sound of arms, the various forms of destruction, and the honourable wounds of their sons and husbands ⁶⁰. Fainting armies of Germans have more than once been driven back upon the enemy, by the generous despair of the women, who dreaded death much less than servitude. If the day was irrecoverably lost, they well knew how to deliver themselves and their children, with their own hands, from [Page 370] an insulting victor ⁶¹. Heroines of such a cast may claim our admiration; but they were most assuredly neither lovely, nor very susceptible of love. Whilst they affected to emulate the stern virtues of man, they must have resigned that at­tractive softness in which principally consist the charm and weakness of woman. Conscious pride taught the German females to suppress every tender emotion that stood in competition with honour, and the first honour of the sex has ever been that of chastity. The sentiments and con­duct of these high-spirited matrons may, at once, be considered as a cause, as an effect, and as a proof of the general character of the nation. Female courage, however it may be raised by fanaticism, or confirmed by habit, can be only a faint and imperfect imitation of the manly va­lour that distinguishes the age or country in which it may be found.

The religious system of the Germans (if the Religion. wild opinions of savages can deserve that name) was dictated by their wants, their fears, and their ignorance ⁶². They adored the great visible objects and agents of Nature, the Sun and the [Page 371] Moon, the Fire and the Earth; together with those imaginary deities, who were supposed to preside over the most important occupations of human life. They were persuaded, that, by some ridiculous arts of divination, they could discover the will of the superior beings, and that human sacrifices were the most precious and acceptable offering to their altars. Some ap­plause has been hastily bestowed on the sublime notion, entertained by that people, of the Deity, whom they neither confined within the walls of a temple, nor represented by any human figure; but when we recollect, that the Germans were unskilled in architecture, and totally unacquaint­ed with the art of sculpture, we shall readily assign the true reason of a scruple, which arose not so much from a superiority of reason, as from a want of ingenuity. The only temples in Ger­many were dark and ancient groves, consecrated by the reverence of succeeding generations. Their secret gloom, the imagined residence of an in­visible power, by presenting no distinct object of fear or worship, impressed the mind with a still deeper sense of religious horror ⁶³; and the priests, rude and illiterate as they were, had been taught by experience the use of every artifice that could preserve and fortify impressions so well suited to their own interest.

[Page 372] The same ignorance, which renders barbarians incapable of conceiving or embracing the useful restraints of laws, exposes them naked and un­armed Its effects in peace, to the blind terrors of superstition. The German priests, improving this favourable tem­per of their countrymen, had assumed a juris­diction, even in temporal concerns, which the magistrate could not venture to exercise; and the haughty warrior patiently submitted to the lash of correction, when it was inflicted, not by any human power, but by the immediate order of the god of war ⁶⁴. The defects of civil policy were sometimes supplied by the interposition of ecclesiastical authority. The latter was con­stantly exerted to maintain silence and decency in the popular assemblies; and was sometimes ex­tended to a more enlarged concern for the na­tional welfare. A solemn procession was occa­sionally celebrated in the present countries of Mecklenburg and Pomerania. The unknown symbol of the Earth, covered with a thick veil, was placed on a carriage drawn by cows; and in this manner the goddess, whose common resi­dence was in the isle of Rugen, visited several adjacent tribes of her worshippers. During her progress, the sound of war was hushed, quarrels were suspended, arms laid aside, and the restless Germans had an opportunity of tasting the bles­sings of peace and harmony ⁶⁵. The truce of God, so often and so ineffectually proclaimed by the [Page 373] clergy of the eleventh century, was an obvious imitation of this ancient custom ⁶⁶.

But the influence of religion was far more in war. powerful to inflame, than to moderate, the fierce passions of the Germans. Interest and fanaticism often prompted its ministers to sanctify the most daring and the most unjust enterprises, by the approbation of Heaven, and full assurances of success. The consecrated standards, long rever­ed in the groves of superstition, were placed in the front of the battle ⁶⁷; and the hostile army was devoted with dire execrations to the gods of war and of thunder ⁶⁸. In the faith of soldiers (and such were the Germans) cowardice is the most unpardonable of sins. A brave man was the worthy favourite of their martial deities; the wretch, who had lost his shield, was alike banished from the religious and the civil assem­blies of his countrymen. Some tribes of the north seem to have embraced the doctrine of transmigration ⁶⁹, others imagined a gross para­dise of immortal drunkenness ⁷⁰. All agreed, that a life spent in arms, and a glorious death in battle, were the best preparations for a happy futurity, either in this or in another world.

[Page 374] The immortality so vainly promised by the priests, was, in some degree conferred by the bards. That singular order of men has most The bards. deservedly attracted the notice of all who have attempted to investigate the antiquities of the Celts, the Scandinavians, and the Germans. Their genius and character, as well as the reve­rence paid to that important office, have been sufficiently illustrated. But we cannot so easily express, or even conceive, the enthusiasm of arms and glory, which they kindled in the breast of their audience. Among a polished people, a taste for poetry is rather an amusement of the fancy, than a passion of the soul. And yet, when in calm retirement we peruse the combats described by Homer or Tasso, we are insensibly seduced by the fiction, and feel a momentary glow of martial ardour. But how faint, how cold is the sensation which a peaceful mind can receive from solitary study! It was in the hour of battle, or in the feast of victory, that the bards celebrated the glory of heroes of ancient days, the ancestors of those warlike chieftains, who listened with transport to their artless but animated strains. The view of arms and of danger heightened the effect of the military song; and the passions which it tended to excite, the desire of fame, and the contempt of death, were the habitual sentiments of a German mind ⁷¹.

[Page 375] Such was the situation, and such were the manners, of the ancient Germans. Their cli­mate, their want of learning, of arts, and of Causes which checked the pro­gress of the Ger­mans. laws, their notions of honour, of gallantry, and of religion, their sense of freedom, impatience of peace, and thirst of enterprise, all contributed to form a people of military heroes. And yet we find, that, during more than two hundred and fifty years that elapsed from the defeat of Varus to the reign of Decius, these formidable barba­rians made few considerable attempts, and not any material impression on the luxurious and enslaved provinces of the empire. Their pro­gress was checked by their want of arms and dis­cipline, and their fury was diverted by the in­testine divisions of ancient Germany.

I. It has been observed, with ingenuity, and Want of arms not without truth, that the command of iron soon gives a nation the command of gold. But the rude tribes of Germany, alike destitute of both those valuable metals, were reduced slowly to acquire, by their unassisted strength, the pos­session of the one as well as the other. The face of a German army displayed their poverty of iron. Swords, and the longer kind of lances, they could seldom use. Their frameae (as they called them in their own language) were long spears headed with a sharp but narrow iron point, [Page 376] and which, as occasion required, they either dart­ed from a distance or pushed in close onset. With this spear, and with a shield, their cavalry was contented. A multitude of darts, scatter­ed ⁷² with incredible force, were an additional resource of the infantry. Their military dress, when they wore any, was nothing more than a loose mantle. A variety of colours was the only ornament of their wooden or osier shields. Few of the chiefs were distinguished by cuirasses, scarce any by helmets. Though the horses of Germany were neither beautiful, swift, nor prac­tised in the skilful evolutions of the Roman ma­nage, several of the nations obtained renown by their cavalry; but, in general, the principal strength of the Germans consisted in their infan­try ⁷³, which was drawn up in several deep co­lumns, according to the distinction of tribes and families. Impatient of fatigue or delay, these and of dis­cipline. half-armed warriors rushed to battle with dis­sonant shouts and disordered ranks; and some­times, by the effort of native valour, prevailed over the constrained and more artificial bravery of the Roman mercenaries. But as the barba­rians poured forth their whole souls on the first onset, they knew not how to rally or to retire. A repulse was a sure defeat; and a defeat was most commonly total destruction. When we [Page 377] recollect the complete armour of the Roman soldiers, their discipline, exercises, evolutions, fortified camps, and military engines, it appears a just matter of surprise how the naked and unassisted valour of the barbarians could dare to encounter in the field, the strength of the legions, and the various troops of the auxiliaries, which seconded their operations. The contest was too unequal, till the introduction of luxury had ener­vated the vigour, and a spirit of disobedience and sedition had relaxed the discipline, of the Roman armies. The introduction of barbarian auxiliaries into those armies, was a measure at­tended with very obvious dangers, as it might gradually instruct the Germans in the arts of war and of policy. Although they were admitted in small numbers and with the strictest precaution, the example of Civilis was proper to convince the Romans, that the danger was not imaginary, and that their precautions were not always suffi­cient ⁷⁴. During the civil wars that followed the death of Nero, that artful and intrepid Batavian, whom his enemies condescended to compare with Hannibal and Sertorius ⁷⁵, formed a great design of freedom and ambition. Eight Batavian cohorts, renowned in the wars of Britain and Italy, repaired to his standard. He introdu­ced an army of Germans into Gaul, prevailed [Page 378] on the powerful cities of Treves and Langres to embrace his cause, defeated the legions, destroyed their fortified camps, and employed against the Romans the military knowledge which he had acquired in their service. When at length, after an obstinate struggle, he yielded to the power of the empire, Civilis secured himself and his coun­try by an honourable treaty. The Batavians still continued to occupy the islands of the Rhine ⁷⁶, the allies not the servants of the Roman mo­narchy.

II. The strength of ancient Germany appears Civil dis­sentions of Germany formidable, when we consider the effects that might have been produced by its united effort. The wide extent of country might very possibly contain a million of warriors, as all who were of age to bear arms were of a temper to use them. But this fierce multitude, incapable of concert­ing or executing any plan of national greatness, was agitated by various and often hostile inten­tions. Germany was divided into more than forty independent states; and even in each state the union of the several tribes was extremely loose and precarious. The barbarians were easily provoked; they knew not how to forgive an in­jury, much less an insult; their resentments were bloody and implacable. The casual disputes that so frequently happened in their tumultuous par­ties of hunting or drinking, were sufficient to [Page 379] inflame the minds of whole nations; the private feud of any considerable chieftains diffused itself among their followers and allies. To chastise the insolent, or to plunder the defenceless, were alike causes of war. The most formidable states of Germany affected to encompass their territo­ries with a wide frontier of solitude and devasta­tion. The awful distance preserved by their neighbours, attested the terror of their arms, and in some measure defended them from the danger of unexpected incursions ⁷⁷.

‘The Bructeri (it is Tacitus who now speaks) fomented by the po­licy of Rome. were totally exterminated by the neighbouring tribes ⁷⁸, provoked by their insolence, allured by the hopes of spoil, and perhaps inspired by the tutelar deities of the empire. Above sixty thousand barbarians were destroyed; not by the Roman arms, but in our sight, and for our entertainment. May the nations, enemies of Rome, ever preserve this enmity to each other! We have now attained the utmost verge of prosperity ⁷⁹, and have nothing left to demand of Fortune, except the discord of these barbarians ⁸⁰.’ These sentiments, less [Page 380] worthy of the humanity than of the patriotism of Tacitus, express the invariable maxims of the policy of his countrymen. They deemed it a much safer expedient to divide than to combat the barbarians, from whose defeat they could derive neither honour nor advantage. The money and negociations of Rome insinuated themselves into the heart of Germany; and every art of seduction was used with dignity, to con­ciliate those nations whom their proximity to the Rhine or Danube might render the most useful friends, as well as the most troublesome enemies. Chiefs of renown and power were flattered by the most trifling presents, which they received either as marks of distinction, or as the instruments of luxury. In civil dissentions, the weaker faction endeavoured to strengthen its interest by entering into secret connexions with the governors of the frontier provinces. Every quarrel among the Germans was fomented by the intrigues of Rome; and every plan of union and public good was defeated by the stronger bias of private jealousy and interest ⁸¹.

The general conspiracy which terrified the Transient union a­gainst Marcus Antoni­nus. Romans under the reign of Marcus Antoninus, comprehended almost all the nations of Germany, and even Sarmatia, from the mouth of the Rhine [Page 381] to that of the Danube ⁸². It is impossible for us to determine whether this hasty confederation was formed by necessity, by reason, or by pas­sion; but we may rest assured, that the barba­rians were neither allured by the indolence, or provoked by the ambition, of the Roman mo­narch. This dangerous invasion required all the firmness and vigilance of Marcus. He fixed generals of ability in the several stations of at­tack, and assumed in person the conduct of the most important province on the Upper Danube. After a long and doubtful conflict, the spirit of the barbarians was subdued. The Quadi and the Marcomanni ⁸³, who had taken the lead in the war, were the most severely punished in its catastrophe. They were commanded to retire five miles ⁸⁴ from their own banks of the Da­nube, and to deliver up the flower of the youth, who were immediately sent into Britain, a remote island, where they might be secure as hostages, and useful as soldiers ⁸⁵. On the frequent rebel­lions of the Quadi and Marcomanni, the irri­tated emperor resolved to reduce their country [Page 382] into the form of a province. His designs were disappointed by death. This formidable league, however, the only one that appears in the two first centuries of the Imperial history, was en­tirely dissipated, without leaving any traces be­hind in Germany.

In the course of this introductory chapter, we Distinction of the Ger­man tribes. have confined ourselves to the general outlines of the manners of Germany, without attempting to describe or to distinguish the various tribes which filled that great country in the time of Caesar, of Tacitus, or of Ptolemy. As the ancient, or as new tribes successively present themselves in the series of this history, we shall concisely men­tion their origin, their situation, and their par­ticular character. Modern nations are fixed and permanent societies, connected among themselves by laws and government, bound to their native soil by arts and agriculture. The German tribes were voluntary and fluctuating associations of soldiers, almost of savages. The same territory often changed its inhabitants in the tide of con­quest and emigration. The same communities, uniting in a plan of defence or invasion, bestowed a new title on their new confederacy. The dis­solution of an ancient confederacy restored to the independent tribes their peculiar but long for­gotten appellation. A victorious state often communicated its own name to a vanquished people. Sometimes crowds of volunteers flock­ed from all parts to the standard of a favourite leader; his camp became their country, and some circumstance of the enterprise soon gave a com­mon [Page 383] denomination to the mixed multitude. The distinctions of the ferocious invaders were perpe­tually varied by themselves, and confounded by the astonished subjects of the Roman empire ⁸⁶.

Wars, and the administration of public affairs, Numbers. are the principal subjects of history; but the number of persons interested in these busy scenes, is very different, according to the different con­dition of mankind. In great monarchies, mil­lions of obedient subjects pursue their useful oc­cupations in peace and obscurity. The attention of the Writer, as well as of the Reader, is solely confined to a court, a capital, a regular army, and the districts which happen to be the occa­sional scene of military operations. But a state of freedom and barbarism, the season of civil commotions, or the situation of petty republics ⁸⁷, raises almost every member of the community into action, and consequently into notice. The irregular divisions, and the restless motions, of the people of Germany, dazzle our imagination, and seem to multiply their numbers. The pro­fuse enumeration of kings and warriors, of armies and nations, inclines us to forget that the same objects are continually repeated under a variety of appellations, and that the most splendid ap­pellations have been frequently lavished on the most inconsiderable objects.

FROM the great secular games celebrated by Philip, to the death of the emperor Gallie­nus, there elapsed twenty years of shame and The nature of the sub­ject. A. D. 248—268. misfortune. During that calamitous period, every instant of time was marked, every province of the Roman world was afflicted, by barbarous in­vaders and military tyrants, and the ruined em­pire seemed to approach the last and fatal mo­ment of its dissolution. The confusion of the times, and the scarcity of authentic memorials, oppose equal difficulties to the historian, who at­tempts to preserve a clear and unbroken thread of narration. Surrounded with imperfect frag­ments, always concise, often obscure, and some­times contradictory, he is reduced to collect, to compare, and to conjecture: and though he ought never to place his conjectures in the rank of facts, yet the knowledge of human nature, and of the sure operation of its fierce and unre­strained passions, might, on some occasions, sup­ply the want of historical materials.

There is not, for instance, any difficulty in conceiving, that the successive murders of so The empe­ror Philip. many emperors had loosened all the ties of alle­giance between the prince and people; that all [Page 385] the generals of Philip were disposed to imitate the example of their master; and that the caprice of armies, long since habituated to frequent and violent revolutions, might every day raise to the throne the most obscure of their fellow-soldiers. History can only add, that the rebellion against the emperor Philip broke out in the summer of the year two hundred and forty-nine, among the legions of Maesia; and that a subaltern officer ¹, named Marinus, was the object of their seditious choice. Philip was alarmed. He dreaded lest the treason of the Maesian army should prove the first spark of a general conflagration. Distracted with the consciousness of his guilt and of his dan­ger, he communicated the intelligence to the se­nate. A gloomy silence prevailed, the effect of fear, and perhaps of disaffection: till at length Services, revolt, vic­tory, and reign of the empe­ror Decius. A. D. 249. Decius, one of the assembly, assuming a spirit worthy of his noble extraction, ventured to dis­cover more intrepidity than the emperor seemed to possess. He treated the whole business with contempt, as a hasty and inconsiderate tumult, and Philip's rival as a phantom of royalty, who in a very few days would be destroyed by the same inconstancy that had created him. The speedy completion of the prophecy inspired Phi­lip with a just esteem for so able a counsellor; and Decius appeared to him the only person ca­pable of restoring peace and discipline to an army, whose tumultuous spirit did not immedi­ately [Page 386] subside after the murder of Marinus. De­cius, who long resisted his own nomination, seems to have insinuated the danger of presenting a leader of merit, to the angry and apprehensive minds of the soldiers; and his prediction was again confirmed by the event. The legions of Maesia forced their judge to become their accom­plice. They left him only the alternative of death or the purple. His subsequent conduct, after that decisive measure, was unavoidable. He conducted, or followed, his army to the con­fines of Italy, whither Philip, collecting all his force to repel the formidable competitor whom he had raised up, advanced to meet him. The Imperial troops were superior in number ²; but the rebels formed an army of veterans, com­manded by an able and experienced leader. Philip was either killed in the battle, or put to death a few days afterwards at Verona. His son and associate in the empire was massacred at Rome by the Praetorian guards; and the victo­rious Decius, with more favourable circumstances than the ambition of that age can usually plead, was universally acknowledged by the senate and provinces. It is reported, that, immediately after his reluctant acceptance of the title of Au­gustus, [Page 387] he had assured Philip by a private mes­sage, of his innocence and loyalty, solemnly pro­testing, that, on his arrival in Italy, he would resign the Imperial ornaments, and return to the condition of an obedient subject. His professions might be sincere. But in the situation where fortune had placed him, it was scarcely possible that he could either forgive or be forgiven ³.

The emperor Decius had employed a few He march­es against the Goths. A. D. 250. months in the works of peace and the administra­tion of justice, when he was summoned to the banks of the Danube by the invasion of the GOTHS. This is the first considerable occasion in which history mentions that great people, who afterwards broke the Roman power, sacked the Capitol, and reigned in Gaul, Spain, and Italy. So memorable was the part which they acted in the subversion of the Western empire, that the name of GOTHS is frequently but improperly used as a general appellation of rude and warlike bar­barism.

In the beginning of the sixth century, and after Origin of the Goths from Scan­dinavia. the conquest of Italy, the Goths, in possession of present greatness, very naturally indulged them­selves in the prospect of past and of future glory. They wished to preserve the memory of their an­cestors, and to transmit to posterity their own at­chievements. The principal minister of the court of Ravenna, the learned Cassiodorus, gratified the inclination of the conquerors in a Gothic history, which consisted of twelve books, now reduced to [Page 388] the imperfect abridgment of Jornandes ⁴. These writers passed with the most artful conciseness over the misfortunes of the nation, celebrated its successful valour, and adorned the triumph with many Asiatic trophies, that more properly be­longed to the people of Scythia. On the faith of ancient songs, the uncertain, but the only, me­morials of barbarians, they deduced the first origin of the Goths, from the vast island, or pe­ninsula, of Scandinavia ⁵. That extreme country of the North was not unknown to the conquerors of Italy; the ties of ancient consanguinity had been strengthened by recent offices of friendship; and a Scandinavian king had cheerfully abdicated his savage greatness, that he might pass the re­mainder of his days in the peaceful and polished court of Ravenna ⁶. Many vestiges, which can­not be ascribed to the arts of popular vanity, at­test the ancient residence of the Goths in the countries beyond the Baltic. From the time of the geographer Ptolemy, the southern part of Sweden seems to have continued in the possession of the less enterprising remnant of the nation, and a large territory is even at present divided into east and west Gothland. During the middle ages (from the ninth to the twelfth century) whilst Christianity was advancing with a slow progress into the north, the Goths and the Swedes com­posed [Page 389] two distinct and sometimes hostile mem­bers of the same monarchy ⁷. The latter of these two names has prevailed without extinguishing the former. The Swedes, who might well be satisfied with their own fame in arms, have, in every age, claimed the kindred glory of the Goths. In a moment of discontent against the court of Rome, Charles the Twelfth insinuated, that his victorious troops were not degenerated from their brave ancestors, who had already subdued the mistress of the world ⁸.

Till the end of the eleventh century, a cele­brated Religion of the Goths. temple subsisted at Upsal, the most consi­derable town of the Swedes and Goths. It was enriched with the gold which the Scandinavians had acquired in their piratical adventures, and sanctified by the uncouth representations of the three principal deities, the god of war, the god­dess of generation, and the god of thunder. In the general festival, that was solemnized every ninth year, nine animals of every species (with­out excepting the human) were sacrificed, and their bleeding bodies suspended in the sacred grove adjacent to the temple ⁹. The only traces [Page 390] that now subsist of this barbaric superstition are contained in the Edda, a system of mythology, compiled in Iceland about the thirteenth century, and studied by the learned of Denmark and Swe­den, as the most valuable remains of their an­cient traditions.

Notwithstanding the mysterious obscurity of Institu­tions and death of Odin. the Edda, we can easily distinguish two persons confounded under the name of Odin; the god of war, and the great legislator of Scandinavia. The latter, the Mahomet of the north, instituted a religion adapted to the climate and to the people. Numerous tribes on either side of the Baltic were subdued by the invincible valour of Odin, by his persuasive eloquence, and by the fame, which he acquired, of a most skilful ma­gician. The faith that he had propagated; dur­ing a long and prosperous life, he confirmed by a voluntary death. Apprehensive of the igno­minious approach of disease and infirmity, he re­solved to expire as became a warrior. In a so­lemn assembly of the Swedes and Goths, he wounded himself in nine mortal places, hastening away (as he asserted with his dying voice) to pre­pare the feast of heroes in the palace of the god of war ¹⁰.

The native and proper habitation of Odin is Agreeable but uncer­tain hypo­thesis con­cerning Odin. distinguished by the appellation of As-gard. The happy resemblance of that name with As-burg, [Page 391] or As-of ¹¹, words of a similar signification, has given rise to an historical system of so pleasing a contexture, that we could almost wish to persuade ourselves of its truth. It is supposed that Odin was the chief of a tribe of barbarians which dwelt on the banks of the lake Maeotis, till the fall of Mithridates and the arms of Pompey menaced the north with servitude. That Odin, yielding with indignant fury to a power which he was un­able to resist, conducted his tribe from the fron­tiers of the Asiatic Sarmatia into Sweden, with the great design of forming, in that inaccessible retreat of freedom, a religion and a people, which, in some remote age, might be subservient to his immortal revenge; when his invincible Goths, armed with martial fanaticism, should issue in numerous swarms from the neighbourhood of the Polar circle, to chastise the oppressors of man­kind ¹².

If so many successive generations of Goths were Emigra­tion of the Goths from Scan­dinavia into Prus­sia. capable of preserving a faint tradition of their Scandinavian origin, we must not expect, from [Page 392] such unlettered barbarians, any distinct account of the time and circumstances of their emigra­tion. To cross the Baltic was an easy and na­tural attempt. The inhabitants of Sweden were masters of a sufficient number of large vessels, with oars ¹³, and the distance is little more than one hundred miles from Carlscroon to the nearest ports of Pomerania and Prussia. Here, at length, we land on firm and historic ground. At least as early as the Christian aera ¹⁴, and as late as the age of the Antonines ¹⁵, the Goths were establish­ed towards the mouth of the Vistula, and in that fertile province where the commercial cities of Thorn, Elbing, Koningsberg, and Dantzick were long afterwards founded ¹⁶. Westward of the Goths, the numerous tribes of the Vandals were spread along the banks of the Oder, and the sea-coast of Pomerania and Mecklenburgh. A striking resemblance of manners, complexion, re­ligion, and language, seemed to indicate that the Vandals and the Goths were originally one great people ¹⁷. The latter appear to have been sub­divided [Page 393] into Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Gepidae ¹⁸. The distinction among the Vandals was more strongly marked by the independent names of Heruli, Burgundians, Lombards, and a variety of other petty states, many of which, in a future age, expanded themselves into powerful monar­chies.

In the age of the Antonines, the Goths were From Prussia to the Uk­raine. still seated in Prussia. About the reign of Alex­ander Severus, the Roman province of Dacia had already experienced their proximity by frequent and destructive inroads ¹⁹. In this interval, there­fore, of about seventy years, we must place the second migration of the Goths from the Baltic to the Euxine; but the cause that produced it lies concealed among the various motives which ac­tuate the conduct of unsettled barbarians. Ei­ther a pestilence, or a famine, a victory, or a de­feat, an oracle of the Gods, or the eloquence of a daring leader, were sufficient to impel the Go­thic arms on the milder climates of the south. Besides the influence of a martial religion, the numbers and spirit of the Goths were equal to [Page 394] the most dangerous adventures. The use of round bucklers and short swords rendered them formid­able in a close engagement; the manly obedi­ence which they yielded to hereditary kings, gave uncommon union and stability to their councils ²⁰; and the renowned Amala, the hero of that age, and the tenth ancestor of Theodoric, king of Italy, enforced, by the ascendant of personal me­rit, the prerogative of his birth, which he derived from the Anses, or demigods of the Gothic na­tion ²¹.

The fame of a great enterprise excited the The Go­thic nation increases in its march. bravest warriors from all the Vandalic states of Germany, many of whom are seen a few years afterwards combating under the common stand­ard of the Goths ²². The first motions of the emigrants carried them to the banks of the Pry­pec, a river universally conceived by the ancients to be the southern branch of the Borysthenes ²³. The windings of that great stream through the plains of Poland and Russia gave a direction to their line of march, and a constant supply of fresh water and pasturage to their numerous herds of [Page 395] cattle. They followed the unknown course of the river, confident in their valour, and careless of whatever power might oppose their progress. The Bastarnae and the Venedi were the first who presented themselves; and the flower of their youth, either from choice or compulsion, in­creased the Gothic army. The Bastarnae dwelt on the northern side of the Carpathian mountains; the immense tract of land that separated the Ba­starnae from the savages of Finland, was possessed, or rather wasted, by the Venedi ²⁴: we have some reason to believe that the first of these nations, which distinguished itself in the Macedonian war ²⁵, and was afterwards divided into the for­midable tribes of the Peucini, the Borani, the Carpi, &c. derived its origin from the Germans. With better authority, a Sarmatian extraction may be assigned to the Venedi, who rendered themselves so famous in the middle ages ²⁶. But Distinction of Ger­mans and Sarma­tians. the confusion of blood and manners on that doubtful frontier often perplexed the most accu­rate observers ²⁷. As the Goths advanced near the Euxine sea, they encountered a purer race of Sarmatians, the Jazyges, the Alani, and the Roxolani; and they were probably the first Ger­mans who saw the mouths of the Borysthenes, and of the Tanais. If we inquire into the cha­racteristic [Page 396] marks of the people of Germany and of Sarmatia, we shall discover that those two great portions of human kind were principally distin­guished by fixed huts or moveable tents, by a close dress, or flowing garments, by the marriage of one or of several wives, by a military force, consisting, for the most part, either of infantry or cavalry; and above all by the use of the Teuto­nic, or of the Sclavonian language; the last of which has been diffused by conquest, from the confines of Italy to the neighbourhood of Japan.

The Goths were now in possession of the Uk­raine, Descrip­tion of the Ukraine. a country of considerable extent and un­common fertility, intersected with navigable ri­vers, which, from either side, discharge them­selves into the Borysthenes; and interspersed with large and lofty forests of oaks. The plenty of game and fish, the innumerable bee-hives, depo­sited in the hollow of old trees, and in the ca­vities of rocks, and forming, even in that rude age, a valuable branch of commerce, the size of the cattle, the temperature of the air, the aptness of the soil for every species of grain, and the lux­uriancy of the vegetation, all displayed the libe­rality of Nature, and tempted the industry of man ²⁸. But the Goths withstood all these tempt­ations, and still adhered to a life of idleness, of poverty, and of rapine.

[Page 397] The Scythian hords, which, towards the east, bordered on the new settlements of the Goths, presented nothing to their arms, except the doubt­ful The Goths invade the Roman provinces. chance of an unprofitable victory. But the prospect of the Roman territories was far more alluring; and the fields of Dacia were covered with rich harvests, sown by the hands of an in­dustrious, and exposed to be gathered by those of a warlike, people. It is probable, that the conquests of Trajan, maintained by his successors, less for any real advantage, than for ideal dignity, had contributed to weaken the empire on that side. The new and unsettled province of Dacia was neither strong enough to resist, nor rich enough to satiate, the rapaciousness of the barba­rians. As long as the remote banks of the Niester were considered as the boundary of the Roman power, the fortifications of the Lower Danube were more carelessly guarded, and the inhabitants of Maesia lived in supine security, fondly conceiving themselves at an inaccessible distance from any barbarian invaders. The ir­ruptions of the Goths, under the reign of Philip, fatally convinced them of their mistake. The king, or leader of that sierce nation, traversed with contempt the province of Dacia, and passed both the Niester and the Danube without encoun­tering any opposition capable of retarding his progress. The relaxed discipline of the Roman troops betrayed the most important posts, where they were stationed, and the fear of deserved pu­nishment induced great numbers of them to inlist [Page 398] under the Gothic standard. The various multi­tude of barbarians appeared, at length, under the walls of Marcianopolis, a city built by Trajan in honour of his sister, and at that time the capital of the second Maesia ²⁹. The inhabitants con­sented to ransom their lives and property, by the payment of a large sum of money, and the in­vaders retreated back into their deserts, animated, rather than satisfied, with the first success of their arms against an opulent but feeble country. Intelligence was soon transmitted to the empe­ror Decius, that Cniva, king of the Goths, had passed the Danube a second time, with more considerable forces; that his numerous detach­ments scattered devastation over the province of Maesia, whilst the main body of the army, con­sisting of seventy thousand Germans and Sarma­tians, a force equal to the most daring atchieve­ments, required the presence of the Roman mo­narch, and the exertion of his military power.

Decius found the Goths engaged before Ni­copolis, Various events of the Gothic war. A. D. 250. on the Jatrus, one of the many monu­ments of Trajan's victories ³⁰. On his approach they raised the siege, but with a design only of marching away to a conquest of greater import­ance, [Page 399] the siege of Philippopolis, a city of Thrace, founded by the father of Alexander, near the foot of mount Haemus ³¹. Decius followed them through a difficult country, and by forced marches; but when he imagined himself at a considerable dis­tance from the rear of the Goths, Cniva turned with rapid fury on his pursuers. The camp of the Romans was surprised and pillaged, and, for the first time, their emperor fled in disorder be­fore a troop of half-armed barbarians. After a long resistance, Philippopolis, destitute of suc­cour, was taken by storm. A hundred thousand persons are reported to have been massacred in the sack of that great city ³². Many prisoners of consequence became a valuable accession to the spoil; and Priscus, a brother of the late empe­ror Philip, blushed not to assume the purple un­der the protection of the barbarous enemies of Rome ³³. The time, however, consumed in that tedious siege, enabled Decius to revive the courage, restore the discipline, and recruit the numbers of his troops. He intercepted several parties of Carpi, and other Germans, who were hastening to share the victory of their country­men ³⁴, intrusted the passes of the mountains to officers of approved valour and fidelity ³⁵, repair­ed [Page 400] and strengthened the fortifications of the Da­nube, and exerted his utmost vigilance to oppose either the progress or the retreat of the Goths. Encouraged by the return of fortune, he anxiously waited for an opportunity to retrieve, by a great and decisive blow, his own glory, and that of the Roman arms ³⁶.

At the same time when Decius was strug­gling Decius re­vives the office of censor in the person of Valeri­an. with the violence of the tempest, his mind, calm and deliberate amidst the tumult of war, investigated the more general causes, that, since the age of the Antonines, had so impetuously urged the decline of the Roman greatness. He soon discovered that it was im­possible to replace that greatness on a permanent basis, without restoring public virtue, ancient principles and manners, and the oppressed ma­jesty of the laws. To execute this noble but arduous design, he first resolved to revive the obsolete office of censor; an office, which, as long as it had subsisted in its pristine integrity, had so much contributed to the perpetuity of the state ³⁷, till it was usurped and gradually neglect­ed [Page 401] by the Caesars ³⁸. Conscious that the favour of the sovereign may confer power, but that the esteem of the people can alone bestow authority, he submitted the choice of the censor to the un­biassed voice of the senate. By their unanimous A. D. 251. 27th Octo­ber. votes, or rather acclamations, Valerian, who was afterwards emperor, and who then served with distinction in the army of Decius, was de­clared the most worthy of that exalted honour. As soon as the decree of the senate was trans­mitted to the emperor, he assembled a great council in his camp, and, before the investiture of the censor elect, he apprized him of the dif­ficulty and importance of his great office. ‘Happy Valerian, said the prince, to his dis­tinguished subject, happy in the general appro­bation of the senate and of the Roman repub­lic! Accept the censorship of mankind; and judge of our manners. You will select those who deserve to continue members of the se­nate; you will restore the equestrian order to its ancient splendour; you will improve the revenue, yet moderate the public burdens. You will distinguish into regular classes the various and infinite multitude of citizens, and accurately review the military strength, the wealth, the virtue, and the resources of Rome. Your decisions shall obtain the force of laws. The army, the palace, the ministers of justice, [Page 402] and the great officers of the empire, are all subject to your tribunal. None are exempt­ed, excepting only the ordinary consuls ³⁹, the prefect of the city, the king of the sacrifices, and (as long as she preserves her chastity in­violate) the eldest of the vestal virgins. Even these few, who may not dread the severity, will anxiously solicit the esteem, of the Roman censor’ ⁴⁰.

A magistrate, invested with such extensive The design impracti­cable and without effect. powers, would have appeared not so much the minister as the colleague of his sovereign ⁴¹. Valerian justly dreaded an elevation so full of envy and of suspicion. He modestly urged the alarming greatness of the trust, his own insus­ficiency, and the incurable corruption of the times. He artfully insinuated, that the office of censor was inseparable from the Imperial dignity, and that the feebel hands of a subject were un­equal to the support of such an immense weight of cares and of power ⁴². The approaching event of war soon put an end to the prosecution of a project so specious but so impracticable; and whilst it preserved Valerian from the danger, saved the emperor Decius from the disappoint­ment, which would most probably have attended [Page 403] it. A censor may maintain, he can never restore, the morals of a state. It is impossible for such a magistrate to exert his authority with benefit, or even with effect, unless he is supported by a quick sense of honour and virtue in the minds of the people; by a decent reverence for the public opinion, and by a train of useful prejudices com­bating on the side of national manners. In a period when these principles are annihilated, the censorial jurisdiction must either sink into empty pageantry, or be converted into a partial instru­ment of vexatious oppression ⁴³. It was easier to vanquish the Goths, than to eradicate the public vices; yet even in the first of these enterprises, Decius lost his army and his life.

The Goths were now, on every side, surround­ed Defeat and death of Decius and his son. and pursued by the Roman arms. The flower of their troops had perished in the long siege of Philippopolis, and the exhausted country could no longer afford subsistence for the remaining multitude of licentious barbarians. Reduced to this extremity, the Goths would gladly have purchased, by the surrender of all their booty and prisoners, the permission of an undisturbed retreat. But the emperor, confident of victory, and resolving, by the chastisement of these in­vaders, to strike a salutary terror into the na­tions of the North, refused to listen to any terms of accommodation. The high-spirited barba­rians preferred death to slavery. An obscure [Page 404] town of Maesia, called Forum Terebronii ⁴⁴, was the scene of the battle. The Gothic army was drawn up in three lines, and, either from choice or accident, the front of the third line was co­vered by a morass. In the beginning of the action, the son of Decius, a youth of the fairest hopes, and already associated to the honours of the purple, was slain by an arrow, in the sight of his afflicted father; who summoning all his fortitude, admonished the dismayed troops, that the loss of a single soldier was of little import­ance to the republic ⁴⁵. The conflict was ter­rible; it was the combat of despair against grief and rage. The first line of the Goths at length gave way in disorder; the second, advancing to sustain it, shared its fate; and the third only remained entire, prepared to dispute the passage of the morass, which was imprudently attempted by the presumption of the enemy. ‘Here the fortune of the day turned, and all things be­came adverse to the Romans: the place deep with ooze, sinking under those who stood, slip­pery to such as advanced; their armour heavy, the waters deep; nor could they wield, in that uneasy situation, their weighty javelins. The barbarians, on the contrary, were enured to encounters in the bogs, their persons tall, their spears long, such as could wound at a [Page 450] distance ⁴⁶.’ In this morass the Roman army, after an ineffectual struggle, was irrecoverably lost; nor could the body of the emperor ever be found ⁴⁷. Such was the fate of Decius, in the fiftieth year of his age; an accomplished prince, active in war, and affable in peace ⁴⁸; who, to­gether with his son, has deserved to be compared, both in life and death, with the brightest exam­ples of ancient virtue ⁴⁹.

This fatal blow humbled, for a very little time, Election of Gallus. A. D. 251. December., the insolence of the legions. They appear to have patiently expected, and submissively obey­ed, the decree of the senate, which regulated the succession to the throne. From a just re­gard for the memory of Decius, the Imperial title was conferred on Hostilianus, his only sur­viving son; but an equal rank, with more ef­fectual power, was granted to Gallus, whose experience and ability seemed equal to the great trust of guardian to the young prince and the distressed empire ⁵⁰. The first care of the new emperor was to deliver the Illyrian provinces [Page 406] from the intolerable weight of the victorious Goths. He consented to leave in their hands the rich fruits of their invasion, an immense A. D. 252. booty, and, what was still more disgraceful, a great number of prisoners of the highest merit and quality. He plentifully supplied their camp Retreat of the Goths. with every conveniency that could assuage their angry spirits, or facilitate their so much wished­for departure; and he even promised to pay them annually a large sum of gold, on condition they should never afterwards infest the Roman terri­tories by their incursions ⁵¹.

In the age of the Scipios, the most opulent Gallus purchases peace by the pay­ment of an annual tri­bute. kings of the earth, who courted the protection of the victorious commonwealth, were gratified with such trifling presents as could only derive a value from the hand that bestowed them; an ivory chair, a coarse garment of purple, an in­considerable piece of plate, or a quantity of cop­per coin ⁵². After the wealth of nations had cen­tred in Rome, the emperors displayed their great­ness, and even their policy, by the regular exer­cise of a steady and moderate liberality towards the allies of the state. They relieved the poverty of the barbarians, honoured their merit, and recompensed their fidelity. These voluntary marks of bounty were understood to flow not from the fears, but merely from the generosity [Page 407] or the gratitude of the Romans; and whilst pre­sents and subsidies were liberally distributed among friends and suppliants, they were sternly refused to such as claimed them as a debt ⁵³. But this stipulation of an annual payment to a Popular discontent. victorious enemy, appeared without disguise in the light of an ignominious tribute; the minds of the Romans were not yet accustomed to ac­cept such unequal laws from a tribe of barba­rians; and the prince, who by a necessary con­cession had probably saved his country, became the object of the general contempt and aversion. The death of Hostilianus, though it happened in the midst of a raging pestilence, was inter­preted as the personal crime of Gallus ⁵⁴; and even the defeat of the late emperor was ascribed by the voice of suspicion to the perfidious coun­sels of his hated successor ⁵⁵. The tranquillity which the empire enjoyed during the first year of his administration ⁵⁶, served rather to inflame than to appease the public discontent; and, as soon as the apprehensions of war were removed, the infamy of the peace was more deeply and more sensibly felt.

[Page 408] But the Romans were irritated to a still higher degree, when they discovered that they had not even secured their repose, though at the expence Victory and revolt of Aemili­anus. of their honour. The dangerous secret of the wealth and weakness of the empire, had been revealed to the world. New swarms of barba­rians, A. D. 253. encouraged by the success, and not con­ceiving themselves bound by the obligation, of their brethren, spread devastation through the Illyrian provinces, and terror as far as the gates of Rome. The defence of the monarchy, which seemed abandoned by the pusillanimous empe­ror, was assumed by Aemilianus, governor of Pannonia and Maesia; who rallied the scattered forces, and revived the fainting spirits of the troops. The barbarians were unexpectedly at­tacked, routed, chased, and pursued beyond the Danube. The victorious leader distributed as a donative the money collected for the tribute, and the acclamations of the soldiers proclaimed him emperor on the field of battle ⁵⁷. Gallus, who, careless of the general welfare, indulged himself in the pleasures of Italy, was almost in the same instant informed of the success, of the revolt, and of the rapid approach, of his aspiring lieutenant. He advanced to meet him as far as the plains of Spoleto. When the armies came in sight of each other, the soldiers of Gallus compared the ig­nominious conduct of their sovereign with the glory of his rival. They admired the valour of Aemilianus; they were attracted by his liberality, [Page 409] for he offered a considerable increase of pay to all deserters ⁵⁸. The murder of Gallus, and of his son Volusianus, put an end to the civil war; Gallus a­bandoned and slain. and the senate gave a legal sanction to the rights of conquest. The letters of Aemilianus to that A. D. 253, May. assembly, displayed a mixture of moderation and vanity. He assured them, that he should resign to their wisdom the civil administration; and, contenting himself with the quality of their ge­neral, would in a short time assert the glory of Rome, and deliver the empire from all the bar­barians both of the North and of the East ⁵⁹. His pride was flattered by the applause of the senate; and medals are still extant, representing him with the name and attributes of Hercules the Victor, and of Mars the Avenger ⁶⁰.

If the new monarch possessed the abilities, he Valerian revenges the death of Gallus, and is ac­knowledg­ed empe­ror. wanted the time, necessary to fulfil these splendid promises. Less than four months intervened between his victory and his fall ⁶¹. He had van­quished Gallus: he sunk under the weight of a competitor more formidable than Gallus. That unfortunate prince had sent Valerian, already dis­tinguished by the honourable title of censor, to bring the legions of Gaul and Germany ⁶² to his aid. Valerian executed that commission with zeal and fidelity; and as he arrived too late to [Page 410] save his sovereign, he resolved to revenge him. The troops of Aemilianus, who still lay encamped in the plains of Spoleto, were awed by the sanc­tity of his character, but much more by the su­perior strength of his army; and as they were now become as incapable of personal attachment as they had always been of constitutional prin­ciple, they readily imbrued their hands in the A. D. 253. August. blood of a prince who so lately had been the ob­ject of their partial choice. The guilt was theirs, but the advantage of it was Valerian's; who obtained the possession of the throne by the means indeed of a civil war, but with a degree of inno­cence singular in that age of revolutions; since he owed neither gratitude nor allegiance to his predecessor, whom he dethroned.

Valerian was about sixty years of age ⁶³ when Character of Vale­rian. he was invested with the purple, not by the ca­price of the populace, or the clamours of the army, but by the unanimous voice of the Ro­man world. In his gradual ascent through the honours of the state, he had deserved the favour of virtuous princes, and had declared himself the enemy of tyrants ⁶⁴. His noble birth, his mild but unblemished manners, his learning, pru­dence, and experience, were revered by the se­nate and people; and if mankind (according to the observation of an ancient writer) had been [Page 411] left at liberty to chuse a master, their choice would most assuredly have fallen on Valerian ⁶⁵. Perhaps the merit of this emperor was inade­quate to his reputation; perhaps his abilities, or at least his spirit, were affected by the languor and coldness of old age. The consciousness of General misfor­tunes of the reigns of Valerian and Galli­enus. his decline engaged him to share the throne with a younger and more active associate ⁶⁶: the emergency of the times demanded a general no less than a prince; and the experience of the Roman censor might have directed him where A. D. 253—268. to bestow the Imperial purple, as the reward of military merit. But instead of making a judi­cious choice, which would have confirmed his reign and endeared his memory, Valerian, con­sulting only the dictates of affection or vanity, immediately invested with the supreme honours his son Gallienus, a youth whose effeminate vices had been hitherto concealed by the obscurity of a private station. The joint government of the father and the son subsisted about seven, and the sole administration of Gallienus continued about eight, years. But the whole period was one un­interrupted series of confusion and calamity. As the Roman empire was at the same time, and on every side, attacked by the blind fury of foreign invaders, and the wild ambition of do­mestic [Page 412] usurpers, we shall consult order and per­spicuity, by pursuing, not so much the doubt­ful arrangement of dates, as the more natural distribution of subjects. The most dangerous enemies of Rome, during the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, were, 1. The Franks. 2. The Inroads of the barba­rians. Alemanni. 3. The Goths; and, 4. The Per­sians. Under these general appellations, we may comprehend the adventures of less considerable tribes, whose obscure and uncouth names would only serve to oppress the memory and perplex the attention of the reader.

1. As the posterity of the Franks compose one Origin and confedera­cy of the Franks. of the greatest and most enlightened nations of Europe, the powers of learning and ingenuity have been exhausted in the discovery of their unlettered ancestors. To the tales of credulity, have succeeded the systems of fancy. Every passage has been sifted, every spot has been sur­veyed, that might possibly reveal some faint traces of their origin. It has been supposed, that Pannonia ⁶⁷, that Gaul, that the northern parts of Germany ⁶⁸, gave birth to that cele­brated colony of warriors. At length the most rational critics, rejecting the fictitious emigra­tions of ideal conquerors, have acquiesced in a sentiment whose simplicity persuades us of its [Page 413] truth ⁶⁹. They suppose, that about the year two hundred and forty ⁷⁰, a new confederacy was formed under the name of Franks, by the old inhabitants of the Lower Rhine and the Weser. The present circle of Westphalia, the Land­graviate of Hesse, and the duchies of Brunswick and Luneburg, were the ancient seat of the Chauci, who, in their inaccessible morasses, de­fied the Roman arms ⁷¹; of the Cherusci, proud of the fame of Arminius; of the Catti, formid­able by their firm and intrepid infantry; and of several other tribes of inferior power and re­nown ⁷². The love of liberty was the ruling passion of these Germans; the enjoyment of it their best treasure; the word that expressed that enjoyment, the most pleasing to their ear. They deserved, they assumed, they maintained the honourable epithet of Franks or Freemen; which concealed, though it did not extinguish, the peculiar names of the several states of the con­federacy ⁷³. Tacit consent, and mutual advan­tage, dictated the first laws of the union; it was gradually cemented by habit and experience. [Page 414] The league of the Franks may admit of some comparison with the Helvetic body; in which every canton, retaining its independent sove­reignty, consults with its brethren in the com­mon cause, without acknowledging the autho­rity of any supreme head, or representative assem­bly ⁷⁴. But the principle of the two confedera­cies was extremely different. A peace of two hundred years has rewarded the wise and honest policy of the Swiss. An inconstant spirit, the thirst of rapine, and a disregard to the most solemn treaties, disgraced the character of the Franks.

The Romans had long experienced the daring They in­vade Gaul, valour of the people of Lower Germany. The union of their strength threatened Gaul with a more formidable invasion, and required the pre­sence of Gallienus, the heir and colleague of Imperial power ⁷⁵. Whilst that prince, and his infant son Salonius, displayed, in the court of Treves, the majesty of the empire, its armies were ably conducted by their general Posthumus, who, though he afterwards betrayed the family of Valerian, was ever faithful to the great inte­rest of the monarchy. The treacherous lan­guage of panegyrics and medals darkly announces a long series of victories. Trophies and titles attest (if such evidence can attest) the fame of Posthumus, who is repeatedly styled The conquer­or of the Germans, and the saviour of Gaul ⁷⁶.

[Page 415] But a single fact, the only one indeed of which we have any distinct knowledge, erases, in a great measure, these monuments of vanity and adula­tion. ravage Spain. The Rhine, though dignified with the title of Safeguard of the provinces, was an imperfect barrier against the daring spirit of enterprise with which the Franks were actuated. Their rapid devastations stretched from the river to the foot of the Pyrenees: nor were they stopped by those mountains. Spain, which had never dreaded, was unable to resist, the inroads of the Germans. During twelve years, the greatest part of the reign of Gallienus, that opulent country was the theatre of unequal and destructive hostilities. Tarragona, the flourishing capital of a peaceful province, was sacked and almost destroyed ⁷⁷; and so late as the days of Orosius, who wrote in the fifth century, wretched cottages, scattered amidst the ruins of magnificent cities, still re­corded the rage of the barbarians ⁷⁸. When the exhausted country no longer supplied a variety of plunder, the Franks seized on some vessels in the ports of Spain ⁷⁹, and transported themselves into Mauritania. The distant province was astonished and pass over into Africa. with the fury of these barbarians, who seemed to [Page 416] fall from a new world, as their name, manners, and complexion, were equally unknown on the coast of Africa ⁸⁰.

II. In that part of Upper Saxony beyond the Origin and renown of the Suevi. Elbe, which is at present called the Marquisate of Lusace, there existed, in ancient times, a sacred wood, the awful seat of the superstition of the Suevi. None were permitted to enter the holy precincts, without confessing, by their servile bonds and suppliant posture, the immediate pre­sence of the sovereign Deity ⁸¹. Patriotism con­tributed as well as devotion to consecrate the Sonnenwald, or wood of the Semnones ⁸². It was universally believed, that the nation had re­ceived its first existence on that sacred spot. At stated periods, the numerous tribes who gloried in the Suevic blood, resorted thither by their am­bassadors; and the memory of their common ex­traction was perpetuated by barbaric rites and human sacrifices. The wide extended name of Suevi filled the interior countries of Germany, from the banks of the Oder to those of the Da­nube. They were distinguished from the other Germans by their peculiar mode of dressing their long hair, which they gathered into a rude knot on the crown of the head; and they delighted in an ornament that shewed their ranks more lofty and terrible in the eyes of the enemy ⁸³. Jealous, as the Germans were, of military renown, they [Page 417] all confessed the superior valour of the Suevi; and the tribes of the Usipetes and Tencteri, who, with a vast army, encountered the dictator Caesar, declared that they esteemed it not a disgrace to have fled before a people, to whose arms the im­mortal gods themselves were unequal ⁸⁴.

In the reign of the emperor Caracalla, an in­numerable A mixed body of Suevi as­sume the name of Alemanni, swarm of Suevi appeared on the banks of the Mein, and in the neighbourhood of the Roman provinces, in quest either of food, of plunder, or of glory ⁸⁵. The hasty army of vo­lunteers gradually coalesced into a great and permanent nation, and, as it was composed from so many different tribes, assumed the name of Allemanni, or All-men; to denote at once their various lineage, and their common bravery ⁸⁶. The latter was soon felt by the Romans in many a hostile inroad. The Alemanni fought chiefly on horseback; but their cavalry was rendered still more formidable by a mixture of light infantry, selected from the bravest and most active of the youth, whom frequent exercise had enured to ac­company the horseman in the longest march, the most rapid charge, or the most precipitate re­treat ⁸⁷.

[Page 418] This warlike people of Germans had been asto­nished by the immense preparations of Alexander Severus, they were dismayed by the arms of his invade Gaul and Italy, successor, a barbarian equal in valour and fierce­ness to themselves. But still hovering on the frontiers of the empire, they increased the general disorder that ensued after the death of Decius. They inflicted severe wounds on the rich provinces of Gaul: they were the first who removed the veil that covered the feeble majesty of Italy. A nu­merous body of the Alemanni penetrated across the Danube, and through the Rhaetian Alps, into the plains of Lombardy, advanced as far as Ra­venna, and displayed the victorious banners of barbarians almost in sight of Rome ⁸⁸. The in­sult and the danger rekindled in the senate some sparks of their ancient virtue. Both the empe­rors are repuls­ed from Rome by the senate and peo­ple. were engaged in far distant wars, Valerian in the east, and Gallienus on the Rhine. All the hopes and resources of the Romans were in them­selves. In this emergency, the senators resumed the defence of the republic, drew out the Praeto­rian guards, who had been left to garrison the capital, and filled up their numbers, by inlisting into the public service the stoutest and most wil­ling of the Plebeians. The Alemanni, astonished with the sudden appearance of an army more nu­merous than their own, retired into Germany, laden with spoil; and their retreat was esteemed as a victory by the unwarlike Romans ⁸⁹.

[Page 419] When Gallienus received the intelligence that his capital was delivered from the barbarians, he was much less delighted, than alarmed, with the The sena­tors ex­cluded by Gallienus from the military service. courage of the senate, since it might one day prompt them to rescue the public from domestic tyranny, as well as from foreign invasion. His timid ingratitude was published to his subjects, in an edict which prohibited the senators from ex­ercising any military employment, and even from approaching the camps of the legions. But his fears were groundless. The rich and luxurious nobles, sinking into their natural character, ac­cepted, as a favour, this disgraceful exemption from military service; and as long as they were indulged in the enjoyment of their baths, their theatres, and their villas, they cheerfully resigned the more dangerous cares of empire, to the rough hands of peasants and soldiers ⁹⁰.

Another invasion of the Alemanni, of a more Gallienus contracts an alliance with the Alemanni. formidable aspect, but more glorious event, is mentioned by a writer of the lower empire. Three hundred thousand of that warlike people are said to have been vanquished, in a battle near Milan, by Gallienus in person, at the head of only ten thousand Romans ⁹¹. We may however, with great probability, ascribe this incredible vic­tory, either to the credulity of the historian, or to some exaggerated exploits of one of the em­peror's lieutenants. It was by arms of a very [Page 420] different nature, that Gallienus endeavoured to protect Italy from the fury of the Germans. He espoused Pipa the daughter of a king of the Mar­comanni, a Suevic tribe, which was often con­founded with the Alemanni in their wars and conquests ⁹². To the father, as the price of his alliance, he granted an ample settlement in Pan­nonia. The native charms of unpolished beauty seem to have fixed the daughter in the affections of the inconstant emperor, and the bands of po­licy were more firmly connected by those of love. But the haughty prejudice of Rome still refused the name of marriage, to the profane mixture of a citizen and a barbarian; and has stigmatized the German princess with the opprobrious title of concubine of Gallienus ⁹³.

III. We have already traced the emigration of Inroads of the Goths. the Goths from Scandinavia, or at least from Prussia, to the mouth of the Borysthenes, and have followed their victorious arms from the Bo­rysthenes to the Danube. Under the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, the frontier of the last mentioned river was perpetually infested by the inroads of Germans and Sarmatians; but it was defended by the Romans with more than usual firmness and success. The provinces that were the seat of war, recruited the armies of Rome with an inexhaustible supply of hardy soldiers; and more than one of these Illyrian peasants at­tained [Page 421] the station, and displayed the abilities, of a general. Though flying parties of the barba­rians, who incessantly hovered on the banks of the Danube, penetrated sometimes to the confines of Italy and Macedonia; their progress was com­monly checked, or their return intercepted, by the Imperial lieutenants ⁹⁴. But the great stream of the Gothic hostilities was diverted into a very different channel. The Goths, in their new set­tlement of the Ukraine, soon became masters of the northern coast of the Euxine: to the south of that inland sea, were situated the soft and wealthy provinces of Asia Minor, which possessed all that could attract, and nothing that could resist, a barbarian conqueror.

The banks of the Borysthenes are only sixty Conquest of the Bos­phorus by the Goths, miles distant from the narrow entrance ⁹⁵ of the peninsula of Crim Tartary, known to the ancients under the name of Chersonesus Taurica ⁹⁶. On that inhospitable shore, Euripides, embellishing with exquisite art the tales of antiquity, has placed the scene of one of his most affecting tra­gedies ⁹⁷. The bloody sacrifices of Diana, the arrival of Orestes and Pylades, and the triumph of virtue and religion over savage fierceness, serve to represent an historical truth, that the Tauri, [Page 422] the original inhabitants of the peninsula, were, in some degree, reclaimed from their brutal man­ners, by a gradual intercourse with the Grecian colonies, which settled along the maritime coast. The little kingdom of Bosphorus, whose capital was situated on the Straits, through which the Maeotis communicates itself to the Euxine, was composed of degenerate Greeks, and half-civil­ized barbarians. It subsisted, as an independent state, from the time of the Peloponnesian war ⁹⁸, was at last swallowed up by the ambition of Mi­thridates ⁹⁹, and, with the rest of his dominions, sunk under the weight of the Roman arms. From the reign of Augustus ¹⁰⁰, the kings of Bosphorus were the humble, but not useless, allies of the empire. By presents, by arms, and by a slight fortification drawn across the Isthmus, they ef­fectually guarded against the roving plunderers of Sarmatia, the access of a country, which, from its peculiar situation and convenient harbours, commanded the Euxine sea and Asia Minor ¹⁰¹. As long as the sceptre was possessed by a lineal succession of kings, they acquitted themselves of their important charge with vigilance and success. Domestic factions, and the fears, or private in­terest, [Page 423] of obscure usurpers, who seized on the vacant throne, admitted the Goths into the heart of Bosphorus. With the acquisition of a super­fluous waste of fertile soil, the conquerors ob­tained the command of a naval force, sufficient to transport their armies to the coast of Asia ¹⁰². The ships used in the navigation of the Euxine were of a very singular construction. They were who ac­quire a na­val force. slight flat-bottomed barks framed of timber only, without the least mixture of iron, and occasion­ally covered with a shelving roof, on the appear­ance of a tempest ¹⁰³. In these floating houses, the Goths carelessly trusted themselves to the mercy of an unknown sea, under the conduct of sailors pressed into the service, and whose skill and fidelity were equally suspicious. But the hopes of plunder had banished every idea of dan­ger, and a natural fearlessness of temper supplied in their minds the more rational confidence, which is the just result of knowledge and experi­ence. Warriors of such a daring spirit must have often murmured against the cowardice of their guides, who required the strongest assurances of a settled calm before they would venture to em­bark; and would scarcely ever be tempted to lose sight of the land. Such, at least, is the practice of the modern Turks ¹⁰⁴; and they are probably not inferior, in the art of navigation, to the an­cient inhabitants of Bosphorus.

[Page 424] The fleet of the Goths, leaving the coast of Circassia on the left hand, first appeared before Pityus ¹⁰⁵, the utmost limits of the Roman pro­vinces; First naval expedition of the Goths.; a city provided with a convenient port and fortified with a strong wall. Here they met with a resistance more obstinate than they had reason to expect from the feeble garrison of a distant fortress. They were repulsed; and their disappointment seemed to diminish the terror of the Gothic name. As long as Successianus, an officer of superior rank and merit, defended that frontier, all their efforts were ineffectual; but as soon as he was removed by Valerian to a more honourable but less important station, they re­sumed the attack of Pityus; and, by the destruc­tion of that city, obliterated the memory of their former disgrace ¹⁰⁶.

Circling round the eastern extremity of the The Goths besiege and take Tre­bizond. Euxine sea, the navigation from Pityus to Trebi­zond is about three hundred miles ¹⁰⁷. The course of the Goths carried them in sight of the country of Colchis, so famous by the expedition of the Argonauts; and they even attempted, though without success, to pillage a rich temple at the mouth of the river Phasis. Trebizond, celebrated in the retreat of the ten thousand as an ancient colony of Greeks ¹⁰⁸, derived its wealth [Page 425] and splendour from the munificence of the em­peror Hadrian, who had constructed an artificial port on a coast left destitute by nature of secure harbours ¹⁰⁹. The city was large and populous; a double enclosure of walls seemed to defy the fury of the Goths, and the usual garrison had been strengthened by a reinforcement of ten thou­sand men. But there are not any advantages ca­pable of supplying the absence of discipline and vigilance. The numerous garrison of Trebizond, dissolved in riot and luxury, disdained to guard their impregnable fortifications. The Goths soon discovered the supine negligence of the besieged, erected a lofty pile of fascines, ascended the walls in the silence of the night, and entered the de­fenceless city, sword in hand. A general mas­sacre of the people ensued, whilst the affrighted soldiers escaped through the opposite gates of the town. The most holy temples, and the most splendid edifices, were involved in a common de­struction. The booty that fell into the hands of the Goths was immense: the wealth of the adja­cent countries had been deposited in Trebizond, as in a secure place of refuge. The number of captives was incredible, as the victorious barba­rians ranged without opposition through the ex­tensive province of Pontus ¹¹⁰. The rich spoils of Trebizond filled a great fleet of ships that had been found in the port. The robust youth of the [Page 426] sea-coast were chained to the oar; and the Goths, satisfied with the success of their first naval expe­dition, returned in triumph to their new esta­blishments in the kingdom of Bosphorus ¹¹¹.

The second expedition of the Goths was un­dertaken The se­cond expe­dition of the Goths. with greater powers of men and ships; but they steered a different course, and, disdain­ing the exhausted provinces of Pontus, followed the western coast of the Euxine, passed before the wide mouths of the Borysthenes, the Niester, and the Danube, and increasing their fleet by the cap­ture of a great number of fishing barks, they ap­proached the narrow outlet through which the Euxine sea pours its waters into the Mediterra­nean, and divides the continents of Europe and Asia. The garrison of Chalcedon was encamped near the temple of Jupiter Urius, on a promon­tory that commanded the entrance of the Strait; and so inconsiderable were the dreaded invasions of the barbarians, that this body of troops sur­passed in number the Gothic army. But it was They plunder the cities of Bithy­nia. in numbers alone that they surpassed it. They deserted with precipitation their advantageous post, and abandoned the town of Chalcedon, most plentifully stored with arms and money, to the discretion of the conquerors. Whilst they hesi­tated whether they should prefer the sea or land, Europe or Asia, for the scene of their hostilities, a perfidious fugitive pointed out Nicomedia, once the capital of the kings of Bithynia, as a rich and easy conquest. He guided the march, which [Page 427] was only sixty miles from the camp of Chalce­don ¹¹², directed the resistless attack, and partook of the booty; for the Goths had learned sufficient policy to reward the traitor, whom they detested. Nice, Prusa, Apaemaea, Cius, cities that had sometimes rivalled, or imitated, the splendour of Nicomedia, were involved in the same calamity, which, in a few weeks, raged without controul through the whole province of Bithynia. Three hundred years of peace, enjoyed by the soft in­habitants of Asia, had abolished the exercise of arms, and removed the apprehension of danger. The ancient walls were suffered to moulder away, and all the revenue of the most opulent cities was reserved for the construction of baths, temples, and theatres ¹¹³.

When the city of Cyzicus withstood the ut­most Retreat of the Goths. effort of Mithridates ¹¹⁴, it was distinguished by wise laws, a naval power of two hundred gal­lies, and three arsenals; of arms, of military en­gines, and of corn ¹¹⁵. It was still the seat of wealth and luxury; but of its ancient strength, nothing remained except the situation, in a little island of the Propontis, connected with the con­tinent of Asia only by two bridges. From the recent sack of Prusa, the Goths advanced within eighteen miles ¹¹⁶ of the city, which they had de­voted [Page 428] to destruction; but the ruin of Cyzicus was delayed by a fortunate accident. The season was rainy, and the lake Apolloniates, the reservoir of all the springs of Mount Olympus, rose to an un­common height. The little river of Rhyndacus, which issues from the lake, swelled into a broad and rapid stream, and stopped the progress of the Goths. Their retreat to the maritime city of Heraclea, where the fleet had probably been sta­tioned, was attended by a long train of waggons, laden with the spoils of Bithynia, and was marked by the flames of Nice and Nicodemia, which they wantonly burnt ¹¹⁷. Some obscure hints are men­tioned of a doubtful combat that secured their retreat ¹¹⁸. But even a complete victory would have been of little moment, as the approach of the autumnal equinox summoned them to hasten their return. To navigate the Euxine before the month of May, or after that of September, is esteemed by the modern Turks the most unques­tionable instance of rashness and folly ¹¹⁹.

When we are informed that the third fleet, Third na­val expe­dition of the Goths. equipped by the Goths in the ports of Bosphorus, consisted of five hundred sail of ships ¹²⁰, our ready imagination instantly computes and multiplies the formidable armament; but, as we are assured [Page 429] by the judicious Strabo ¹²¹, that the piratical ves­sels used by the barbarians of Pontus and the Lesser Scythia, were not capable of containing more than twenty-five or thirty men, we may safely affirm, that fifteen thousand warriors, at the most, embarked in this great expedition. Impatient of the limits of the Euxine, they steered their destructive course from the Cimmerian to the Thracian Bosphorus. When they had almost gained the middle of the Straits, they were sud­denly driven back to the entrance of them; till They pass the Bos­phorus and the Helle­spont, a favourable wind springing up the next day, carried them in a few hours into the placid sea, or rather lake of the Propontis. Their landing on the little island of Cyzicus, was attended with the ruin of that ancient and noble city. From thence issuing again through the narrow passage of the Hellespont, they pursued their winding navigation amidst the numerous islands scattered over the Archipelago, or the Aegean Sea. The assistance of captives and deserters must have been very necessary to pilot their vessels, and to direct their various incursions, as well on the coast of Greece as on that of Asia. At length the Gothic fleet anchored in the port of Piraeus, five miles distant from Athens ¹²², which had attempted to make some preparations for a vigorous defence. Cleodamus, one of the engineers employed by the emperor's orders to fortify the maritime cities against the Goths, had already begun to repair the ancient walls fallen to decay since the time of [Page 430] Sylla. The efforts of his skill were ineffectual, and the barbarians became masters of the native seat of the muses and the arts. But while the conquerors abandoned themselves to the license of plunder and intemperance, their fleet, that lay with a slender guard in the harbour of Piraeus, was unexpectedly attacked by the brave Dexip­pus, who, flying with the engineer Cleodamus from the sack of Athens, collected a hasty band of volunteers, peasants as well as soldiers, and in some measure avenged the calamities of his coun­try ¹²³.

But this exploit, whatever lustre it might shed on the declining age of Athens, served rather to ravage Greece, and threat­en Italy. irritate than to subdue the undaunted spirit of the northern invaders. A general conflagration blazed out at the same time in every district of Greece. Thebes and Argos, Corinth and Sparta, which had formerly waged such memorable wars against each other, were now unable to bring an army into the field, or even to defend their ruin­ed fortifications. The rage of war, both by land and by sea, spread from the eastern point of Sunium to the western coast of Epirus. The Goths had already advanced within sight of Italy, when the approach of such imminent danger awakened the indolent Gallienus from his dream of pleasure. The emperor appeared in arms; [Page 431] and his presence seems to have checked the ar­dour, and to have divided the strength, of the enemy. Naulobatus, a chief of the Heruli, ac­cepted Their di­visions and retreat. an honourable capitulation, entered with a large body of his countrymen into the service of Rome, and was invested with the ornaments of the consular dignity, which had never before been profaned by the hands of a barbarian ¹²⁴. Great numbers of the Goths, disgusted with the perils and hardships of a tedious voyage, broke into Maesia, with a design of forcing their way over the Danube to their settlements in the Ukraine. The wild attempt would have proved inevitable destruction, if the discord of the Roman generals had not opened to the barbarians the means of an escape ¹²⁵. The small remainder of this destroying host returned on board their ves­sels; and measuring back their way through the Hellespont and the Bosphorus, ravaged in their passage the shores of Troy, whose fame, immor­talized by Homer, will probably survive the me­mory of the Gothic conquests. As soon as they found themselves in safety within the bason of the Euxine, they landed at Anchialus in Thrace, near the foot of Mount Haemus; and, after all their toils, indulged themselves in the use of those pleasant and salutary hot baths. What remained [Page 432] of the voyage was a short and easy navigation ¹²⁶. Such was the various fate of this third and greatest of their naval enterprises. It may seem difficult to conceive, how the original body of fifteen thousand warriors could sustain the losses and di­visions of so bold an adventure. But as their numbers were gradually wasted by the sword, by shipwrecks, and by the influence of a warm cli­mate, they were pepetually renewed by troops of banditti and deserters, who flocked to the stand­ard of plunder, and by a crowd of fugitive slaves, often of German or Sarmatian extraction, who eagerly seized the glorious opportunity of free­dom and revenge. In these expeditions, the Go­thic nation claimed a superior share of honour and danger; but the tribes that fought under the Gothic banners, are sometimes distinguished and sometimes confounded in the imperfect histories of that age; and as the barbarian fleets seemed to issue from the mouth of the Tanais, the vague but familiar appellation of Scythians was fre­quently bestowed on the mixt multitude ¹²⁷.

In the general calamities of mankind, the death Ruin of the temple of Ephe­sus. of an individual, however exalted, the ruin of an edifice, however famous, are passed over with careless inattention. Yet we cannot forget that the temple of Diana at Ephesus, after having risen with increasing splendour from seven re­peated [Page 433] misfortunes ¹²⁸, was finally burnt by the Goths in their third naval invasion. The arts of Greece, and the wealth of Asia, had conspired to erect that sacred and magnificent structure. It was supported by an hundred and twenty-seven marble columns of the Ionic order. They were the gifts of devout monarchs, and each was sixty feet high. The altar was adorned with the mas­terly sculptures of Praxiteles, who had, perhaps, selected from the favourite legends of the place the birth of the divine children of Latona, the concealment of Apollo after the slaughter of the Cyclops, and the clemency of Bacchus to the vanquished Amazons ¹²⁹. Yet the length of the temple of Ephesus was only four hundred and twenty-five feet, about two-thirds of the measure of the church of St. Peter's at Rome ¹³⁰. In the other dimensions, it was still more inferior to that sublime production of modern architecture. The spreading arms of a Christian cross require a much greater breadth than the oblong temples of the Pagans; and the boldest artists of anti­quity would have been startled at the proposal of raising in the air a dome of the size and propor­tions of the pantheon. The temple of Diana was, however, admired as one of the wonders of the world. Successive empires, the Persian, the [Page 434] Macedonian, and the Roman, had revered its sanctity, and enriched its splendour ¹³¹. But the rude savages of the Baltic were destitute of a taste for the elegant arts, and they despised the ideal terrors of a foreign superstition ¹³².

Another circumstance is related of these inva­sions, Conduct of the Goths at Athens. which might deserve our notice, were it not justly to be suspected as the fanciful conceit of a recent sophist. We are told, that in the sack of Athens the Goths had collected all the libraries, and were on the point of setting fire to this funeral pile of Grecian learning, had not one of their chiefs, of more refined policy than his brethren, dissuaded them from the design; by the profound observation, that as long as the Greeks were addicted to the study of books, they would never apply themselves to the exer­cise of arms ¹³³. The sagacious counsellor (should the truth of the fact be admitted) reasoned like an ignorant barbarian. In the most polite and powerful nations, genius of every kind has dis­played itself about the same period; and the age of science has generally been the age of military virtue and success.

[Page 435] IV. The new sovereigns of Persia, Artaxerxes and his son Sapor, had triumphed (as we have already seen) over the house of Arsaces. Of the Conquest of Arme­nia by the Persians. many princes of that ancient race, Chosroes, king of Armenia, had alone preserved both his life and his independence. He defended him­self by the natural strength of his country; by the perpetual resort of fugitives and malecon­tents; by the alliance of the Romans, and, above all, by his own courage. Invincible in arms, during a thirty years war, he was at length assas­sinated by the emissaries of Sapor king of Persia. The patriotic satraps of Armenia, who asserted the freedom and dignity of the crown, implored the protection of Rome in favour of Tiridates the lawful heir. But the son of Chosroes was an infant, the allies were at a distance, and the Per­sian monarch advanced towards the frontier at the head of an irresistible force. Young Tiri­dates, the future hope of his country, was saved by the fidelity of a servant, and Armenia con­tinued above twenty-seven years a reluctant pro­vince of the great monarchy of Persia ¹³⁴. Elat­ed with this easy conquest, and presuming on the distresses or the degeneracy of the Romans, Sapor obliged the strong garrisons of Carrhae and Nisibis to surrender, and spread devastation and terror on either side of the Euphrates.

[Page 436] The loss of an important frontier, the ruin of a faithful and natural ally, and the rapid success of Sapor's ambition, affected Rome with a deep Valerian marches into the East. sense of the insult as well as of the danger. Va­lerian flattered himself, that the vigilance of his lieutenants would sufficiently provide for the safety of the Rhine and of the Danube; but he resolved, notwithstanding his advanced age, to march in person to the defence of the Euphrates. During his progress through Asia Minor, the naval enterprises of the Goths were suspended, and the afflicted province enjoyed a transient and fallacious calm. He passed the Euphrates, en­countered the Persian monarch near the walls of Edessa, was vanquished and taken prisoner by Sapor. The particulars of this great event are Is defeat­ed and taken pri­soner by Sapor king of Persia. A. D. 260. darkly and imperfectly represented; yet, by the glimmering light which is afforded us, we may discover a long series of imprudence, of error, and of deserved misfortunes on the side of the Roman emperor. He reposed an implicit con­fidence in Macrianus, his Praetorian praefect ¹³⁵. That worthless minister rendered his master for­midable only to the oppressed subjects, and con­temptible to the enemies of Rome ¹³⁶. By his weak or wicked counsels, the Imperial army was betrayed into a situation, where valour and mili­tary skill were equally unavailing ¹³⁷. The vi­gorous attempt of the Romans to cut their way through the Persian host was repulsed with great [Page 437] slaughter ¹³⁸; and Sapor, who encompassed the camp with superior numbers, patiently waited till the increasing rage of famine and pestilence had ensured his victory. The licentious mur­murs of the legions soon accused Valerian as the cause of their calamities; their seditious clamours demanded an instant capitulation. An immense sum of gold was offered to purchase the permis­sion of a disgraceful retreat. But the Persian, conscious of his superiority, refused the money with disdain; and detaining the deputies, ad­vanced in order of battle to the foot of the Ro­man rampart, and insisted on a personal confer­ence with the emperor. Valerian was reduced to the necessity of intrusting his life and dignity to the faith of an enemy. The interview ended as it was natural to expect. The emperor was made a prisoner, and his astonished troops laid down their arms ¹³⁹. In such a moment of tri­umph, the pride and policy of Sapor prompted him to fill the vacant throne with a successor entirely dependent on his pleasure. Cyriades, an obscure fugitive of Antioch, stained with every vice, was chosen to dishonour the Roman purple; and the will of the Persian victor could not fail of being ratified by the acclamations, however reluctant, of the captive army ¹⁴⁰.

[Page 438] The imperial slave was eager to secure the favour of his master, by an act of treason to his native country. He conducted Sapor over the Sapor overruns Syria, Ci­licia, and Cappado­cia. Euphrates, and by the way of Chalcis to the metropolis of the East. So rapid were the mo­tions of the Persian cavalry, that, if we may credit a very judicious historian ¹⁴¹, the city of Antioch was surprised when the idle multitude was fondly gazing on the amusements of the theatre. The splendid buildings of Antioch, private as well as public, were either pillaged or destroyed; and the numerous inhabitants were put to the sword, or led away into captivity ¹⁴². The tide of devastation was stopped for a moment by the resolution of the high priest of Emesa. Arrayed in his sacerdotal robes, he appeared at the head of a great body of fanatic peasants, armed only with slings, and defended his god and his property from the sacrilegious hands of the followers of Zoroaster ¹⁴³. But the ruin of Tar­sus, and of many other cities, furnishes a melan­choly proof that, except in this singular instance, the conquest of Syria and Cilicia scarcely inter­rupted the progress of the Persian arms. The advantages of the narrow passes of mount Tau­rus were abandoned, in which an invader, whose principal force consisted in his cavalry, would have been engaged in a very unequal combat: [Page 439] and Sapor was permitted to form the sie geof Caesarea, the capital of Cappadocia; a city, though of the second rank, which was supposed to contain four hundred thousand inhabitants. Demosthenes commanded in the place, not so much by the commission of the emperor, as in the voluntary defence of his country. For a long time he deferred its fate; and, when at last Caesarea was betrayed by the perfidy of a phy­sician, he cut his way through the Persians, who had been ordered to exert their utmost diligence to take him alive. This heroic chief escaped the power of a foe, who might either have ho­noured or punished his obstinate valour; but many thousands of his fellow-citizens were in­volved in a general massacre, and Sapor is accused of treating his prisoners with wanton and unrelent­ing cruelty ¹⁴⁴. Much should undoubtedly be allowed for national animosity, much for hum­bled pride and impotent revenge; yet, upon the whole, it is certain, that the same prince, who, in Armenia, had displayed the mild aspect of a legislator, shewed himself to the Romans under the stern features of a conqueror. He despaired of making any permanent establishment in the empire, and sought only to leave behind him a wasted desert, whilst he transported into Persia the people and the treasures of the provinces ¹⁴⁵.

[Page 440] At the time when the East trembled at the name of Sapor, he received a present not unwor­thy of the greatest kings; a long train of camels Boldness and success of Odena­thus a­gainst Sa­por. laden with the most rare and valuable merchan­dises. The rich offering was accompanied with an epistle, respectful but not servile, from Ode­nathus, one of the noblest and most opulent senators of Palmyra. ‘Who is this Odenathus (said the haughty Victor, and he commanded that the presents should be cast into the Eu­phrates), that he thus insolently presumes to write to his lord? If he entertains a hope of mitigating his punishment, let him fall pro­strate before the foot of our throne with his hands bound behind his back. Should he hesitate, swift destruction shall be poured on his head, on his whole race, and on his coun­try ¹⁴⁶.’ The desperate extremity to which the Palmyrenian was reduced, called into action all the latent powers of his soul. He met Sapor; but he met him in arms. Infusing his own spi­rit into a little army collected from the villages of Syria ¹⁴⁷, and the tents of the desert ¹⁴⁸, he hovered round the Persian host, harassed their retreat, carried off part of the treasure, and, what was dearer than any treasure, several of the [Page 441] women of the Great King; who was at last obliged to repass the Euphrates with some marks of haste and confusion ¹⁴⁹. By this exploit, Ode­nathus laid the foundations of his future fame and fortunes. The majesty of Rome, oppressed by a Persian, was protected by a Syrian or Arab of Palmyra.

The voice of history, which is often little Treatment of Valeri­an. more than the organ of hatred or flattery, re­proaches Sapor with a proud abuse of the rights of conquest. We are told that Valerian, in chains, but invested with the Imperial purple, was exposed to the multitude, a constant spectacle of fallen greatness; and that whenever the Per­sian monarch mounted on horseback, he placed his foot on the neck of a Roman emperor. Notwithstanding all the remonstrances of his al­lies, who repeatedly advised him to remember the vicissitude of fortune, to dread the returning power of Rome, and to make his illustrious cap­tive the pledge of peace, not the object of insult, Sapor still remained inflexible. When Valerian sunk under the weight of shame and grief, his skin, stuffed with straw, and formed into the likeness of a human figure, was preserved for ages in the most celebrated temple of Persia; a more real monument of triumph, than the fan­cied trophies of brass and marble so often erected by Roman vanity ¹⁵⁰. The tale is moral and [Page 442] pathetic, but the truth of it may very fairly be called in question. The letters still extant from the princes of the East to Sapor, are manifest forgeries ¹⁵¹; nor is it natural to suppose that a jealous monarch should, even in the person of a rival, thus publicly degrade the majesty of kings. Whatever treatment the unfortunate Valerian might experience in Persia, it is at least certain, that the only emperor of Rome who had ever fallen into the hands of the enemy, languished away his life in hopeless captivity.

The emperor Gallienus, who had long sup­ported Character and admi­nistration of Gal­lienus. with impatience the censorial severity of his father and colleague, received the intelligence of his misfortunes with secret pleasure and avow­ed indifference. ‘I knew that my father was a mortal, said he, and since he has acted as becomes a brave man, I am satisfied.’ Whilst Rome lamented the fate of her sovereign, the savage coldness of his son was extolled by the servile courtiers, as the perfect firmness of a hero and a stoic ¹⁵². It is difficult to paint the light, the various, the inconstant character of Gallienus, which he displayed without constraint, as soon as he became sole possessor of the empire. In every art that he attempted, his lively genius [Page 443] enabled him to succeed; and as his genius was destitute of judgment, he attempted every art, except the important ones of war and govern­ment. He was a master of several curious but useless sciences, a ready orator, and elegant poet ¹⁵³, a skilful gardener, an excellent cook, and most contemptible prince. When the great emergencies of the state required his presence and attention, he was engaged in conversation with the philosopher Plotinus ¹⁵⁴, wasting his time in trifling or licentious pleasures, preparing his initiation to the Grecian mysteries, or soliciting a place in the Areopagus of Athens. His pro­fuse magnificence insulted the general poverty; the solemn ridicule of his triumphs impressed a deeper sense of the public disgrace ¹⁵⁵. The [Page 444] repeated intelligence of invasions, defeats, and rebellions, he received with a careless smile; and singling out, with affected contempt, some particular production of the lost province, he carelessly asked, whether Rome must be ruined, unless it was supplied with linen from Egypt, and Arras cloth from Gaul? There were, how­ever, a few short moments in the life of Gallienus, when, exasperated by some recent injury, he suddenly appeared the intrepid soldier, and the cruel tyrant; till satiated with blood, or fatigued by resistance, he insensibly sunk into the natural mildness and indolence of his character ¹⁵⁶.

At a time when the reins of government were The thirty tyrants. held with so loose a hand, it is not surprising, that a crowd of usurpers should start up in every province of the empire against the son of Vale­rian. It was probably some ingenious fancy, of comparing the thirty tyrants of Rome with the thirty tyrants of Athens, that induced the wri­ters of the Augustan history to select that cele­brated number, which has been gradually receiv­ed into a popular appellation ¹⁵⁷. But in every light the parallel is idle and defective. What resemblance can we discover between a council [Page 445] of thirty persons, the united oppressors of a sin­gle city, and an uncertain list of independent rivals, who rose and fell in irregular succession through the extent of a vast empire? Nor can the number of thirty be completed, unless we include in the account the women and children who were honoured with the Imperial title. The reign of Gallienus, distracted as it was, produced only nineteen pretenders to the throne; Cyriades Their real number was no more than nineteen., Macrianus, Balista, Odenathus, and Zenobia in the east; in Gaul, and the western provinces, Posthumus, Lollianus, Victorinus and his mo­ther Victoria, Marius, and Tetricus. In Illyricum and the confines of the Danube, Ingenuus, Re­gillianus, and Aureolus; in Pontus ¹⁵⁸, Satur­ninus; in Isauria, Trebellianus; Piso in Thes­saly; Valens in Achaia; Aemilianus in Egypt; and Celsus in Africa. To illustrate the obscure monuments of the life and death of each indi­vidual, would prove a laborious task, alike bar­ren of instruction and of amusement. We may content ourselves with investigating some general characters, that most strongly mark the condition of the times, and the manners of the men, their pretensions, their motives, their fate, and the destructive consequences of their usurpation ¹⁵⁹.

It is sufficiently known, that the odious appel­lation Character and merit of the ty­rants. of Tyrant was often employed by the an­cients to express the illegal seizure of supreme [Page 446] power, without any reference to the abuse of it. Several of the pretenders, who raised the stand­ard of rebellion against the emperor Gallienus, were shining models of virtue, and almost all possessed a considerable share of vigour and abi­lity. Their merit had recommended them to the favour of Valerian, and gradually promoted them to the most important commands of the empire. The generals, who assumed the title of Augustus, were either respected by their troops for their able conduct and severe discipline, or admired for valour and success in war, or beloved for frankness and generosity. The field of victory was often the scene of their election; and even the armourer Marius, the most contemptible of all the candidates for the purple, was distinguish­ed however by intrepid courage, matchless strength, and blunt honesty ¹⁶⁰. His mean and recent trade cast indeed an air of ridicule on his elevation; but his birth could not be more ob­scure Their ob­scure birth. than was that of the greater part of his rivals, who were born of peasants, and inlisted in the army as private soldiers. In times of confusion, every active genius finds the place assigned him by Nature: in a general state of war, military merit is the road to glory and to greatness. Of the nineteen tyrants, Tetricus only was a senator; Piso alone was a noble. The blood of Numa, through twenty-eight suc­cessive generations, ran in the veins of Calphur­nius [Page 447] Piso ¹⁶¹, who, by female alliances, claimed a right of exhibiting, in his house, the images of Crassus and of the great Pompey ¹⁶². His an­cestors had been repeatedly dignified with all the honours which the commonwealth could bestow; and of all the ancient families of Rome, the Cal­phurnian alone had survived the tyranny of the Caesars. The personal qualities of Piso added new lustre to his race. The usurper Valens, by whose order he was killed, confessed, with deep remorse, that even an enemy ought to have respected the sanctity of Piso; and although he died in arms against Gallienus, the senate, with the em­peror's generous permission, decreed the tri­umphal ornaments to the memory of so virtuous a rebel ¹⁶³.

The lieutenants of Valerian were grateful to The causes of their rebellion. the father, whom they esteemed. They dis­dained to serve the luxurious indolence of his unworthy son. The throne of the Roman world was unsupported by any principle of loyalty; and treason, against such a prince, might easily be considered as patriotism to the state. Yet if we examine with candour the conduct of these [Page 448] usurpers, it will appear, that they were much oftener driven into rebellion by their fears, than urged to it by their ambition. They dreaded the cruel suspicions of Gallienus; they equally dreaded the capricious violence of their troops. If the dangerous favour of the army had im­prudently declared them deserving of the purple, they were marked for sure destruction; and even prudence would counsel them, to secure a short enjoyment of empire, and rather to try the for­tune of war, than to expect the hand of an exe­cutioner. When the clamour of the soldiers in­vested the reluctant victims with the ensigns of sovereign authority, they sometimes mourned in secret their approaching fate. ‘You have lost, said Saturninus, on the day of his elevation, you have lost a useful commander, and you have made a very wretched emperor ¹⁶⁴.’

The apprehensions of Saturninus were justified Their vio­lent deaths. by the repeated experience of revolutions. Of the nineteen tyrants who started up under the reign of Gallienus, there was not one who en­joyed a life of peace, or a natural death. As soon as they were invested with the bloody pur­ple, they inspired their adherents with the same fears and ambition which had occasioned their own revolt. Encompassed with domestic con­spiracy, military sedition, and civil war, they trembled on the edge of precipices, in which, after a longer or shorter term of anxiety, they were inevitably lost. These precarious monarchs [Page 449] received, however, such honours, as the flattery of their respective armies and provinces could bestow; but their claim, founded on rebellion, could never obtain the sanction of law or history. Italy, Rome, and the senate, constantly adhered to the cause of Gallienus, and he alone was con­sidered as the sovereign of the empire. That prince condescended indeed to acknowledge the victorious arms of Odenathus, who deserved the honourable distinction, by the respectful conduct which he always maintained towards the son of Valerian. With the general applause of the Ro­mans, and the consent of Gallienus, the senate conferred the title of Augustus on the brave Palmyrenian; and seemed to intrust him with the government of the East, which he already pos­sessed, in so independent a manner, that, like a private succession, he bequeathed it to his illus­trious widow Zenobia ¹⁶⁵.

The rapid and perpetual transitions from the Fatal con­sequences of these u­surpations. cottage to the throne, and from the throne to the grave, might have amused an indifferent philosopher; were it possible for a philosopher to remain indifferent amidst the general cala­mities of human kind. The election of these precarious emperors, their power and their death, were equally destructive to their subjects and ad­herents. The price of their fatal elevation was instantly discharged to the troops, by an immense donative, drawn from the bowels of the exhausted [Page 450] people. However virtuous was their character however pure their intentions, they found them­selves reduced to the hard necessity of supporting their usurpation by frequent acts of rapine and cruelty. When they fell, they involved armies and provinces in their fall. There is still extant a most savage mandate from Gallienus to one of his ministers, after the suppression of Ingenuus, who had assumed the purple in Illyricum. ‘It is not enough, says that soft but inhuman prince, that you exterminate such as have ap­peared in arms: the chance of battle might have served me as effectually. The male sex of every age must be extirpated; provided that, in the execution of the children and old men, you can contrive means to save our reputation. Let every one die who has dropt an expression, who has entertained a thought against me, against me, the son of Valerian, the father and brother of so many princes ¹⁶⁶. Remember that Ingenuus was made emperor: tear, kill, hew in pieces. I write to you with my own hand, and would inspire you with my own feelings ¹⁶⁷.’ Whilst the public forces of the state were dissipated in private quarrels, [Page 451] the defenceless provinces lay exposed to every invader. The bravest usurpers were compelled, by the perplexity of their situation, to conclude ignominious treaties with the common enemy, to purchase with oppressive tributes the neutrality or services of the barbarians, and to introduce hostile and independent nations into the heart of the Roman monarchy ¹⁶⁸.

Such were the barbarians, and such the tyrants, who, under the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, dismembered the provinces, and reduced the empire to the lowest pitch of disgrace and ruin, from whence it seemed impossible that it should ever emerge. As far as the barrenness of mate­rials would permit, we have attempted to trace, with order and perspicuity, the general events of that calamitous period. There still remain some particular facts; I. The disorders of Sicily; II. The tumults of Alexandria; and, III. The rebellion of the Isaurians, which may serve to reflect a strong light on the horrid picture.

I. Whenever numerous troops of banditti, Disorders of Sicily. multiplied by success and impunity, publicly defy, instead of eluding the justice of their country, we may safely infer, that the excessive weakness of the government is felt and abused by the lowest ranks of the community. The situation of Sicily preserved it from the barba­rians; nor could the disarmed province have supported an usurper. The sufferings of that [Page 452] once flourishing and still fertile island, were in­flicted by baser hands. A licentious crowd of slaves and peasants reigned for a while over the plundered country, and renewed the memory of the servile wars of more ancient times ¹⁶⁹. De­vastations, of which the husbandman was either the victim or the accomplice, must have ruined the agriculture of Sicily; and as the principal estates were the property of the opulent senators of Rome, who often enclosed within a farm the territory of an old republic, it is not improbable, that this private injury might affect the capital more deeply, than all the conquests of the Goths or the Persians.

II. The foundation of Alexandria was a noble Tumults of Alex­andria. design, at once conceived and executed by the son of Philip. The beautiful and regular form of that great city, second only to Rome itself, comprehended a circumference of fifteen miles ¹⁷⁰; it was peopled by three hundred thousand free inhabitants, besides at least an equal number of slaves ¹⁷¹. The lucrative trade of Arabia and India flowed through the port of Alexandria to the capital and provinces of the empire. Idleness was unknown. Some were employed in blowing of glass, others in weaving of linen, others again manufacturing the papyrus. Either sex, and every age, was engaged in the pursuits of indus­try, nor did even the blind or the lame want [Page 453] occupations suited to their condition ¹⁷². But the people of Alexandria, a various mixture of na­tions, united the vanity and inconstancy of the Greeks, with the superstition and obstinacy of the Egyptians. The most trifling occasion, a tran­sient scarcity of flesh or lentils, the neglect of an accustomed salutation, a mistake of precedency in the public baths, or even a religious dispute ¹⁷³, were at any time sufficient to kindle a sedition among that vast multitude, whose resentments were furious and implacable ¹⁷⁴. After the cap­tivity of Valerian and the insolence of his son had relaxed the authority of the laws, the Alexan­drians abandoned themselves to the ungoverned rage of their passions, and their unhappy country was the theatre of a civil war, which continued (with a few short and suspicious truces) above twelve years ¹⁷⁵. All intercourse was cut off be­tween the several quarters of the afflicted city, every street was polluted with blood, every build­ing of strength converted into a citadel; nor did the tumults subside, till a considerable part of Alexandria was irretrievably ruined. The spa­cious and magnificent district of Bruchion, with its palaces and musaeum, the residence of the [Page 454] kings and philosophers of Egypt, is described above a century afterwards, as already reduced to its present state of dreary solitude ¹⁷⁶.

III. The obscure rebellion of Trebellianus, Rebellion of the Isaurians. who assumed the purple in Isauria, a petty pro­vince of Asia Minor, was attended with strange and memorable consequences. The pageant of royalty was soon destroyed by an officer of Gal­lienus; but his followers; despairing of mercy, resolved to shake off their allegiance, not only to the emperor, but to the empire, and suddenly returned to the savage manners, from which they had never perfectly been reclaimed. Their crag­gy rocks, a branch of the wide-extended Taurus, protected their inaccessible retreat. The tillage of some fertile vallies ¹⁷⁷ supplied them with necessaries, and a habit of rapine with the luxu­ries of life. In the heart of the Roman mo­narchy, the Isaurians long continued a nation of wild barbarians. Succeeding princes, unable to reduce them to obedience either by arms or po­licy, were compelled to acknowledge their weak­ness, by surrounding the hostile and indepen­dent spot, with a strong chain of fortifications ¹⁷⁸, which often proved insufficient to restrain the incursions of these domestic foes. The Isau­rians, gradually extending their territory to the sea-coast, subdued the western and mountainous part of Cilicia, formerly the nest of those daring [Page 455] pirates, against whom the republic had once been obliged to exert its utmost force, under the conduct of the great Pompey ¹⁷⁹.

Our habits of thinking so fondly connect the Famine and pesti­lence. order of the universe with the fate of man, that this gloomy period of history has been decorated with inundations, earthquakes, uncommon me­teors, preternatural darkness, and a crowd of prodigies fictitious or exaggerated ¹⁸⁰. But a long and general famine was a calamity of a more serious kind. It was the inevitable consequence of rapine and oppression, which extirpated the produce of the present, and the hope of future harvests. Famine is almost always followed by epidemical diseases, the effect of scanty and un­wholesome food. Other causes must however have contributed to the furious plague, which, from the year two hundred and fifty, to the year two hundred and sixty-five, raged without inter­ruption in every province, every city, and almost every family, of the Roman empire. During some time five thousand persons died daily in Rome; and many towns, that had escaped the hands of the barbarians, were entirely depopu­lated ¹⁸¹.

We have the knowledge of a very curious cir­cumstance, Diminu­tion of the human species. of some use perhaps in the melan­choly [Page 456] calculation of human calamities. An ex­act register was kept at Alexandria, of all the citizens entitled to receive the distribution of corn. It was found, that the ancient number of those comprised between the ages of forty and seventy, had been equal to the whole sum of claimants, from fourteen to fourscore years of age, who remained alive after the reign of Gal­lienus ¹⁸². Applying this authentic fact to the most correct tables of mortality, it evidently proves, that above half the people of Alexan­dria had perished; and could we venture to ex­tend the analogy to the other provinces, we might suspect, that war, pestilence, and famine, had consumed, in a few years, the moiety of the human species ¹⁸³.