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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4250-h.zip b/4250-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5eecfe3 --- /dev/null +++ b/4250-h.zip diff --git a/4250-h/4250-h.htm b/4250-h/4250-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..71ef83d --- /dev/null +++ b/4250-h/4250-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3742 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Imperial Purple, by Edgar Saltus +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Imperial Purple, by Edgar Saltus + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Imperial Purple + +Author: Edgar Saltus + +Posting Date: July 9, 2009 [EBook #4250] +Release Date: July, 2003 +First Posted: December 19, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMPERIAL PURPLE *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +IMPERIAL PURPLE +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +EDGAR SALTUS +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">That Woman</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">Conjectural Rome</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">Fabulous Fields</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">The Pursuit of the Impossible</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">Nero</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">The House of Flavia</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">The Poison in the Purple</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">Faustine</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">The Agony</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THAT WOMAN +</H3> + +<P> +When the murder was done and the heralds shouted through the thick +streets the passing of Caesar, it was the passing of the republic they +announced, the foundation of Imperial Rome. +</P> + +<P> +There was a hush, then a riot which frightened a senate that frightened +the world. Caesar was adored. A man who could give millions away and +sup on dry bread was apt to conquer, not provinces alone, but hearts. +Besides, he had begun well and his people had done their best. The +House of Julia, to which he belonged, descended, he declared, from +Venus. The ancestry was less legendary than typical. Cinna drafted a +law giving him the right to marry as often as he chose. His mistresses +were queens. After the episodes in Gaul, when he entered Rome his +legions warned the citizens to have an eye on their wives. At seventeen +he fascinated pirates. A shipload of the latter had caught him and +demanded twenty talents ransom. "Too little," said the lad; "I will +give you fifty, and impale you too," which he did, jesting with them +meanwhile, reciting verses of his own composition, calling them +barbarians when they did not applaud, ordering them to be quiet when he +wished to sleep, captivating them by the effrontery of his assurance, +and, the ransom paid, slaughtering them as he had promised. +</P> + +<P> +Tall, slender, not handsome, but superb and therewith so perfectly sent +out that Cicero mistook him for a fop from whom the republic had +nothing to fear; splendidly lavish, exquisitely gracious, he was born +to charm, and his charm was such that it still subsists. Cato alone was +unenthralled. But Cato was never pleased; he laughed but once, and all +Rome turned out to see him; he belonged to an earlier day, to an +austerer, perhaps to a better one, and it may be that in "that woman," +as he called Caesar, his clearer vision discerned beneath the plumage +of the peacock, the beak and talons of the bird of prey. For they were +there, and needed only a vote of the senate to batten on nations of +which the senate had never heard. Loan him an army, and "that woman" +was to give geography such a twist that today whoso says Caesar says +history. +</P> + +<P> +Was it this that Cato saw, or may it be that one of the oracles which +had not ceased to speak had told him of that coming night when he was +to take his own life, fearful lest "that woman" should overwhelm him +with the magnificence of his forgiveness? Cato walks through history, +as he walked through the Forum, bare of foot—too severe to be simple, +too obstinate to be generous—the image of ancient Rome. +</P> + +<P> +In Caesar there was nothing of this. He was wholly modern; dissolute +enough for any epoch, but possessed of virtues that his contemporaries +could not spell. A slave tried to poison him. Suetonius says he merely +put the slave to death. The "merely" is to the point. Cato would have +tortured him first. After Pharsalus he forgave everyone. When severe, +it was to himself. It is true he turned over two million people into so +many dead flies, their legs in the air, creating, as Tacitus has it, a +solitude which he described as Peace; but what antitheses may not be +expected in a man who, before the first century was begun, divined the +fifth, and who in the Suevians—that terrible people beside whom no +nation could live—foresaw Attila! +</P> + +<P> +Save in battle his health was poor. He was epileptic, his strength +undermined by incessant debauches; yet let a nation fancying him months +away put on insurgent airs, and on that nation he descended as the +thunder does. In his campaigns time and again he overtook his own +messengers. A phantom in a ballad was not swifter than he. +Simultaneously his sword flashed in Germany, on the banks of the +Adriatic, in that Ultima Thule where the Britons lived. From the depths +of Gaul he dominated Rome, and therewith he was penetrating +impenetrable forests, trailing legions as a torch trails smoke, +erecting walls that a nation could not cross, turning soldiers into +marines, infantry into cavalry, building roads that are roads to-day, +fighting with one hand and writing an epic with the other, dictating +love-letters, chronicles, dramas; finding time to make a collection of +witticisms; overturning thrones while he decorated Greece; mingling +initiate into orgies of the Druids, and, as the cymbals clashed, +coquetting with those terrible virgins who awoke the tempest; not only +conquering, but captivating, transforming barbarians into soldiers and +those soldiers into senators, submitting three hundred nations and +ransacking Britannia for pearls for his mistresses' ears. +</P> + +<P> +Each epoch has its secret, and each epoch-maker his own. Caesar's +secret lay in the power he had of projecting a soul into the ranks of +an army, of making legions and their leader one. Disobedience only he +punished; anything else he forgave. After a victory his soldiery did +what they liked. He gave them arms, slaves to burnish them, women, +feasts, sleep. They were his comrades; he called them so; he wept at +the death of any of them, and when they were frightened, as they were +in Gaul before they met the Germans, and in Africa before they +encountered Juba, Caesar frightened them still more. He permitted no +questions, no making of wills. The cowards could hide where they liked; +his old guard, the Tenth, would do the work alone; or, threat still +more sinister, he would command a retreat. Ah, that, never! Fanaticism +returned, the legions begged to be punished. +</P> + +<P> +Michelet says he would like to have seen him crossing Gaul, bareheaded, +in the rain. It would have been as interesting, perhaps, to have +watched him beneath the shade of the velarium pleading the cause of +Masintha against the Numidian king. Before him was a crowd that covered +not the Forum alone, but the steps of the adjacent temples, the roofs +of the basilicas, the arches of Janus, one that extended remotely to +the black walls of the Curia Hostilia beyond. And there, on the +rostrum, a musician behind him supplying the la from a flute, the air +filled with gold motes, Caesar, his toga becomingly adjusted, a +jewelled hand extended, opened for the defence. Presently, when through +the exercise of that art of his which Cicero pronounced incomparable, +he felt that the sympathy of the audience was won, it would have been +interesting, indeed, to have heard him argue point after +point—clearly, brilliantly, wittily; insulting the plaintiff in poetic +terms; consigning him gracefully to the infernal regions; accentuating +a fictitious and harmonious anger; drying his forehead without +disarranging his hair; suffocating with the emotions he evoked; +displaying real tears, and with them a knowledge, not only of law, +rhetoric, philosophy, but of geometry, astronomy, ethics and the fine +arts; blinding his hearers with the coruscations of his erudition; +stirring them with his tongue, as with the point of a sword, until, as +though abruptly possessed by an access of fury, he seized the plaintiff +by the beard and sent him spinning like a leaf which the wind had +caught. +</P> + +<P> +It would have bored no one either to have assisted at his triumph when +he returned from Gaul, when he returned after Spain, after Pharsalus, +when he returned from Cleopatra's arms. +</P> + +<P> +On that day the Via Sacra was curtained with silk. To the blare of +twisted bugles there descended to it from the turning at the hill a +troop of musicians garmented in leather tunics, bonneted with lions' +heads. Behind them a hundred bulls, too fat to be troublesome, and +decked for death, bellowed musingly at the sacrifants, who, naked to +the waist, a long-handled hammer on the shoulder, maintained them with +colored cords. To the rumble of wide wheels and the thunder of +spectators the prodigious booty passed, and with it triumphs of war, +vistas of conquered countries, pictures of battles, lists of the +vanquished, symbols of cities that no longer were; a stretch of ivory +on which shone three words, each beginning with a V; images of gods +disturbed, the Rhine, the Rhone, the captive Ocean in massive gold; the +glitter of three thousand crowns offered to the dictator by the army +and allies of Rome. Then came the standards of the republic, a swarm of +eagles, the size of pigeons, in polished silver upheld by lances which +ensigns bore, preceding the six hundred senators who marched in a body, +their togas bordered with red, while to the din of incessant insults, +interminable files of prisoners passed, their wrists chained to iron +collars, which held their heads very straight, and to the rear a +litter, in which crouched the Vercingetorix of Gaul, a great moody +giant, his menacing eyes nearly hidden in the tangles of his tawny hair. +</P> + +<P> +When they had gone the street was alive with explosions of brass, +aflame with the burning red cloaks of laureled lictors making way for +the coming of Caesar. Four horses, harnessed abreast, their manes dyed, +their forelocks puffed, drew a high and wonderfully jewelled car; and +there, in the attributes and attitude of Jupiter Capitolinus, Caesar +sat, blinking his tired eyes. His face and arms were painted vermilion; +above the Tyrian purple of his toga, above the gold work and palms of +his tunic, there oscillated a little ball in which there were charms +against Envy. On his head a wreath concealed his increasing baldness; +along his left arm the sceptre lay; behind him a boy admonished him +noisily to remember he was man, while to the rear for miles and miles +there rang the laugh of trumpets, the click of castanets, the shouts of +dancers, the roar of the multitude, the tramp of legions, and the cry, +caught up and repeated, "Io! Triomphe!" +</P> + +<P> +Presently, in the temple of the god of gods, side by side with the +statue of Jupiter, Caesar found his own statue with "Caesar, demi-god," +at its base. The captive chiefs disappeared in the Tullianum, and a +herald called, "They have lived!" Through the squares jesters +circulated, polyglot and obscene; across the Tiber, in an artificial +lake, the flotilla of Egypt fought against that of Tyr; in the +amphitheatre there was a combat of soldiers, infantry against cavalry, +one that indemnified those that had not seen the massacres in Thessaly +and in Spain. There were public feasts, gifts to everyone. Tables were +set in the Forum, in the circuses and theatres. Falernian circulated in +amphorae, Chios in barrels. When the populace was gorged there were the +red feathers to enable it to gorge again. Of the Rome of Romulus there +was nothing left save the gaunt she-wolf, her wide lips curled at the +descendants of her nursling. +</P> + +<P> +Later, when in slippered feet Caesar wandered through those lovely +gardens of his that lay beyond the Tiber, it may be that he recalled a +dream which had come to him as a lad; one which concerned the +submission of his mother; one which had disturbed him until the +sooth-sayers said: "The mother you saw is the earth, and you will be +her master." And as the memory of the dream returned, perhaps with it +came the memory of the hour when as simple quaestor he had wept at +Gaddir before a statue that was there. Demi-god, yes; he was that. +More, even; he was dictator, but the dream was unfulfilled. There were +the depths of Hither Asia, the mysteries that lay beyond; there were +the glimmering plains of the Caucasus; there were the Vistula and the +Baltic; the diadems of Cyrus and of Alexander defying his ambition yet, +and what were triumphs and divinity to one who would own the world! +</P> + +<P> +It was this that preoccupied him. The immensity of his successes seemed +petty and Rome very small. Heretofore he had forgiven those who had +opposed him. Presently his attitude changed, and so subtly that it was +the more humiliating; it was not that he no longer forgave, he +disdained to punish. His contempt was absolute. The senate made his +office of pontifix maximus hereditary and accorded the title of +Imperator to his heirs. He snubbed the senate and the honors that it +brought. The senate was shocked. Composed of men whose fortunes he had +made, the senate was not only shocked, its education in ingratitude was +complete. Already there had been murmurs. Not content with disarranging +the calendar, outlining an empire, drafting a code while planning fresh +beauties, new theatres, bilingual libraries, larger temples, grander +gods, Caesar was at work in the markets, in the kitchens of the +gourmets, in the jewel-boxes of the virgins. Liberty, visibly, was +taking flight. Besides, the power concentrated in him might be so +pleasantly distributed. It was decided that Caesar was in the way. To +put him out of it a pretext was necessary. +</P> + +<P> +One day the senate assembled at his command. They were to sign a decree +creating him king. In order not to, Suetonius says, they killed him, +wounding each other in the effort, for Caesar fought like the demon +that he was, desisting only when he recognized Brutus, to whom, in +Greek, he muttered a reproach, and, draping his toga that he might fall +with decency, sank backward, his head covered, a few feet from the +bronze wolf that stood, its ears pointed at the letters S. P. Q. R. +which decorated a frieze of the Curia. +</P> + +<P> +Brutus turned to harangue the senate; it had fled. He went to the Forum +to address the people; there was no one. Rome was strangely empty. +Doors were barricaded, windows closed. Through the silent streets +gladiators prowled. Night came, and with it whispering groups. The +groups thickened, voices mounted. Caesar's will had been read. He had +left his gardens to the people, a gift to every citizen, his wealth and +power to his butchers. The body, which two slaves had removed, an arm +hanging from the litter, had never been as powerfully alive. Caesar +reigned then as never before. A mummer mouthed: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "I brought them life, they gave me death."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +And willingly would the mob have made Rome the funeral pyre of their +idol. In the sky a comet appeared. It was his soul on its way to +Olympus. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CONJECTURAL ROME +</H3> + +<P> +"I received Rome in brick; I shall leave it in marble," said Augustus, +who was fond of fine phrases, a trick he had caught from Vergil. And +when he looked from his home on the Palatine over the glitter of the +Forum and the glare of the Capitol to the new and wonderful precinct +which extended to the Field of Mars, there was a stretch of splendor +which sanctioned the boast. The city then was very vast. The tourist +might walk in it, as in the London of to-day, mile after mile, and at +whatever point he placed himself, Rome still lay beyond; a Rome quite +like London—one that was choked with mystery, with gold and curious +crime. +</P> + +<P> +But it was not all marble. There were green terraces and porphyry +porticoes that leaned to a river on which red galleys passed; there +were theatres in which a multitude could jeer at an emperor, and arenas +in which an emperor could watch a multitude die; there were bronze +doors and garden roofs, glancing villas and temples that defied the +sun; there were spacious streets, a Forum curtained with silk, the +glint and evocations of triumphal war, the splendor of a host of gods, +but it was not all marble; there were rents in the magnificence and +tatters in the laticlave of state. +</P> + +<P> +In the Subura, where at night women sat in high chairs, ogling the +passer with painted eyes, there was still plenty of brick; tall +tenements, soiled linen, the odor of Whitechapel and St. Giles. The +streets were noisy with match-peddlers, with vendors of cake and tripe +and coke; there were touts there too, altars to unimportant divinities, +lying Jews who dealt in old clothes, in obscene pictures and +unmentionable wares; at the crossings there were thimbleriggers, clowns +and jugglers, who made glass balls appear and disappear surprisingly; +there were doorways decorated with curious invitations, gossipy barber +shops, where, through the liberality of politicians, the scum of a +great city was shaved, curled and painted free; and there were public +houses, where vagabond slaves and sexless priests drank the mulled wine +of Crete, supped on the flesh of beasts slaughtered in the arena, or +watched the Syrian women twist to the click of castanets. +</P> + +<P> +Beyond were gray quadrangular buildings, the stomach of Rome, through +which, each noon, ediles passed, verifying the prices, the weights and +measures of the market men, examining the fish and meats, the enormous +cauliflowers that came from the suburbs, Veronese carrots, Arician +pears, stout thrushes, suckling pigs, eggs embedded in grass, oysters +from Baiae, boxes of onions and garlic mixed, mountains of poppies, +beans and fennel, destroying whatever had ceased to be fresh and taxing +that which was. +</P> + +<P> +On the Via Sacra were the shops frequented by ladies; bazaars where +silks and xylons were to be had, essences and unguents, travelling +boxes of scented wood, switches of yellow hair, useful drugs such as +hemlock, aconite, mandragora and cantharides; the last thing of Ovid's +and the improper little novels that came from Greece. +</P> + +<P> +On the Appian Way, through green afternoons and pink arcades, fashion +strolled. There wealth passed in its chariots, smart young men that +smelt of cinnamon instead of war, nobles, matrons, cocottes. +</P> + +<P> +At the other end of the city, beyond the menagerie of the Pantheon, was +the Field of Mars, an open-air gymnasium, where every form of exercise +was to be had, even to that simple promenade in which the Romans +delighted, and which in Caesar's camp so astonished the Verronians that +they thought the promenaders crazy and offered to lead them to their +tents. There was tennis for those who liked it; racquets, polo, +football, quoits, wrestling, everything apt to induce perspiration and +prepare for the hour when a gong of bronze announced the opening of the +baths—those wonderful baths, where the Roman, his slaves about him, +after passing through steam and water and the hands of the masseur, had +every hair plucked from his arms, legs and armpits; his flesh rubbed +down with nard, his limbs polished with pumice; and then, wrapped in a +scarlet robe, lined with fur, was sent home in a litter. "Strike them +in the face!" cried Caesar at Pharsalus, when the young patricians made +their charge; and the young patricians, who cared more for their looks +than they did for victory, turned and fled. +</P> + +<P> +It was to the Field of Mars that Agrippa came, to whom Rome owed the +Pantheon and the demand for a law which should inhibit the private +ownership of a masterpiece. There, too, his eunuchs about him, Mecaenas +lounged, companioned by Varus, by Horace and the mime Bathylle, all of +whom he was accustomed to invite to that lovely villa of his which +overlooked the blue Sabinian hills, and where suppers were given such +as those which Petronius has described so alertly and so well. +</P> + +<P> +In the hall like that of Mecaenas', one divided against itself, the +upper half containing the couches and tables, the other reserved for +the service and the entertainments that follow, the ceiling was met by +columns, the walls hidden by panels of gems. On a frieze twelve +pictures, surmounted by the signs of the zodiac, represented the dishes +of the different months. Beneath the bronze beds and silver tables +mosaics were set in imitation of food that had fallen and had not been +swept away. And there, in white ungirdled tunics, the head and neck +circled with coils of amaranth—the perfume of which in opening the +pores neutralizes the fumes of wine—the guests lay, fanned by boys, +whose curly hair they used for napkins. Under the supervision of +butlers the courses were served on platters so large that they covered +the tables; sows' breasts with Lybian truffles; dormice baked in +poppies and honey, peacock-tongues flavored with cinnamon; oysters +stewed in garum—a sauce made of the intestines of fish—sea-wolves +from the Baltic; sturgeons from Rhodes; fig-peckers from Samos; African +snails; pale beans in pink lard; and a yellow pig cooked after the +Troan fashion, from which, when carved, hot sausages fell and live +thrushes flew. Therewith was the mulsum, a cup made of white wine, +nard, roses, absinthe and honey; the delicate sweet wines of Greece; +and crusty Falernian of the year six hundred and thirty-two. As the +cups circulated, choirs entered, chanting sedately the last erotic +song; a clown danced on the top of a ladder, which he maintained +upright as he danced, telling meanwhile untellable stories to the +frieze; and host and guests, unvociferously, as good breeding dictates, +chatted through the pauses of the service; discussed the disadvantages +of death, the value of Noevian iambics, the disgrace of Ovid, banished +because of Livia's eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Such was the Rome of Augustus. "Caesar," cried a mime to him one day, +"do you know that it is important for you that the people should be +interested in Bathylle and in myself?" +</P> + +<P> +The mime was right. The sovereign of Rome was not the Caesar, nor yet +the aristocracy. The latter was dead. It had been banished by barbarian +senators, by barbarian gods; it had died twice, at Pharsalus, at +Philippi; it was the people that was sovereign, and it was important +that that sovereign should be amused—flattered, too, and fed. For +thirty years not a Roman of note had died in his bed; not one but had +kept by him a slave who should kill him when his hour had come; anarchy +had been continuous; but now Rome was at rest and its sovereign wished +to laugh. Made up of every nation and every vice, the universe was +ransacked for its entertainment. The mountain sent its lions, the +desert giraffes; there were boas from the jungles, bulls from the +plains, and hippopotami from the waters of the Nile. Into the arenas +patricians descended; in the amphitheatre there were criminals from +Gaul; in the Forum philosophers from Greece. On the stage, there were +tragedies, pantomimes and farce; there were races in the circus, and in +the sacred groves girls with the Orient in their eyes and slim waists +that swayed to the crotals. For the thirst of the sovereign there were +aqueducts, and for its hunger Africa, Egypt, Sicily contributed grain. +Syria unveiled her altars, Persia the mystery and magnificence of her +gods. +</P> + +<P> +Such was Rome. Augustus was less noteworthy; so unnecessary even that +every student must regret Actium, Antony's defeat, the passing of +Caesar's dream. For Antony was made for conquests; it was he who, +fortune favoring, might have given the world to Rome. A splendid, an +impudent bandit, first and foremost a soldier, calling himself a +descendant of Hercules whom he resembled; hailed at Ephesus as Bacchus, +in Egypt as Osiris; Asiatic in lavishness, and Teuton in his capacity +for drink; vomiting in the open Forum, and making and unmaking kings; +weaving with that viper of the Nile a romance which is history; passing +initiate into the inimitable life, it would have been curious to have +watched him that last night when the silence was stirred by the hum of +harps, the cries of bacchantes bearing his tutelary god back to the +Roman camp, while he said farewell to love, to empire and to life. +</P> + +<P> +Augustus resembled him not at all. He was a colorless monarch; an +emperor in everything but dignity, a prince in everything but grace; a +tactician, not a soldier; a superstitious braggart, afraid of nothing +but danger; seducing women to learn their husband's secrets; exiling +his daughter, not because she had lovers, but because she had other +lovers than himself; exiling Ovid because of Livia, who in the end +poisoned her prince, and adroitly, too; illiterate, blundering of +speech, and coarse of manner—a hypocrite and a comedian in one—so +guileful and yet so stupid that while a credulous moribund ordered the +gods to be thanked that Augustus survived him, the people publicly +applied to him an epithet which does not look well in print. +</P> + +<P> +After Philippi and the suicide of Brutus; after Actium and Antony's +death, for the first time in ages, the gates of the Temple of Janus +were closed. There was peace in the world; but it was the sword of +Caesar, not of Augustus, that brought the insurgents to book. At each +of the victories he was either asleep or ill. At the time of battle +there was always some god warning him to be careful. The battle won, he +was brave enough, considerate even. A father and son begged for mercy. +He promised forgiveness to the son on condition that he killed his +father. The son accepted and did the work; then he had the son +despatched. A prisoner begged but for a grave. "The vultures will see +to it," he answered. When at the head of Caesar's legions, he entered +Rome to avenge the latter's death, he announced beforehand that he +would imitate neither Caesar's moderation nor Sylla's cruelty. There +would be only a few proscriptions, and a price—and what a price, +liberty!—was placed on the heads of hundreds of senators and thousands +of knights. And these people, who had more slaves than they knew by +sight, slaves whom they tossed alive to fatten fish, slaves to whom +they affected never to speak, and who were crucified did they so much +as sneeze in their presence—at the feet of these slaves they rolled, +imploring them not to deliver them up. Now and then a slave was +merciful; Augustus never. +</P> + +<P> +Successes such as these made him ambitious. Having vanquished with the +sword, he tried the pen. "You may grant the freedom of the city to your +barbarians," said a wit to him one day, "but not to your solecisms." +Undeterred he began a tragedy entitled "Ajax," and discovering his +incompetence, gave it up. "And what has become of Ajax?" a parasite +asked. "Ajax threw himself on a sponge," replied Augustus, whose +father, it is to be regretted, did not do likewise. Nevertheless, it +were pleasant to have assisted at his funeral. +</P> + +<P> +A couch of ivory and gold, ten feet high, draped with purple, stood for +a week in the atrium of the palace. Within the couch, hidden from view, +the body of the emperor lay, ravaged by poison. Above was a statue, +recumbent, in wax, made after his image and dressed in imperial robes. +Near by a little slave with a big fan protected the statue from flies. +Each day physicians came, gazed at the closed wax mouth, and murmured, +"He is worse." In the vestibule was a pot of burning ilex, and +stretching out through the portals a branch of cypress warned the +pontiffs from the contamination of the sight of death. +</P> + +<P> +At high noon on the seventh day the funeral crossed the city. First +were the flaming torches; the statues of the House of Octavia; senators +in blue; knights in scarlet; magistrates; lictors; the pick of the +praetorian guard. Then, to the alternating choruses of boys and girls, +the rotting body passed down the Sacred Way. Behind it Tiberius in a +travelling-cloak, his hands unringed, marched meditating on the +curiosities of life, while to the rear there straggled a troop of +dancing satyrs, led by a mime dressed in resemblance of Augustus, whose +defects he caricatured, whose vices he parodied and on whom the surging +crowd closed in. +</P> + +<P> +On the Field of Mars the pyre had been erected, a great square +structure of resinous wood, the interior filled with coke and sawdust, +the exterior covered with illuminated cloths, on which, for base, a +tower rose, three storeys high. Into the first storey flowers and +perfumes were thrown, into the second the couch was raised, then a +torch was applied. +</P> + +<P> +As the smoke ascended an eagle shot from the summit, circled a moment, +and disappeared. For the sum of a million sesterces a senator swore +that with the eagle he had seen the emperor's soul. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +FABULOUS FIELDS +</H3> + +<P> +Mention Tiberius, and the name evokes a taciturn tyrant, devising in +the crypts of a palace infamies so monstrous that to describe them new +words were coined. +</P> + +<P> +In the Borghese collection Tiberius is rather good-looking than +otherwise, not an Antinous certainly, but manifestly a dreamer; one +whose eyes must have been almost feline in their abstraction, and in +the corners of whose mouth you detect pride, no doubt, but melancholy +as well. The pride was congenital, the melancholy was not. +</P> + +<P> +Under Tiberius there was quiet, a romancer wrote, and the phrase in its +significance passed into legend. During the dozen or more years that he +ruled in Rome, his common sense was obvious. The Tiber overflowed, the +senate looked for a remedy in the Sibyline Books. Tiberius set some +engineers to work. A citizen swore by Augustus and swore falsely. The +senate sought to punish him, not for perjury but for sacrilege. It is +for Augustus to punish, said Tiberius. The senate wanted to name a +month after him. Tiberius declined. "Supposing I were the thirteenth +Caesar, what would you do?" For years he reigned, popular and +acclaimed, caring the while nothing for popularity and less for pomp. +Sagacious, witty even, believing perhaps in little else than fate and +mathematics, yet maintaining the institutions of the land, striving +resolutely for the best, outwardly impassable and inwardly mobile, he +was a man and his patience had bounds. There were conspirators in the +atrium, there was death in the courtier's smile; and finding his +favorites false, his life threatened, danger at every turn, his +conception of rulership changed. Where moderation had been suddenly +there gleamed the axe. +</P> + +<P> +Tacitus, always dramatic, states that at the time terror devastated the +city. It so happened that under the republic there was a law against +whomso diminished the majesty of the people. The republic was a god, +one that had its temple, its priests, its altars. When the republic +succumbed, its divinity passed to the emperor; he became Jupiter's +peer, and, as such, possessed of a majesty which it was sacrilege to +slight. Consulted on the subject, Tiberius replied that the law must be +observed. Originally instituted in prevention of offences against the +public good, it was found to change into a crime, a word, a gesture or +a look. It was a crime to undress before a statue of Augustus, to +mention his name in the latrinae, to carry a coin with his image into a +lupanar. The punishment was death. Of the property of the accused, a +third went to the informer, the rest to the state. Then abruptly terror +stalked abroad. No one was safe except the obscure, and it was the +obscure that accused. Once an accused accused his accuser; the latter +went mad. There was but one refuge—the tomb. If the accused had time +to kill himself before he was tried, his property was safe from seizure +and his corpse from disgrace. Suicide became endemic in Rome. Never +among the rich were orgies as frenetic as then. There was a breathless +chase after delights, which the summons, "It is time to die," might at +any moment interrupt. +</P> + +<P> +Tiberius meanwhile had gone from Rome. It was then his legend began. He +was represented living at Capri in a collection of twelve villas, each +of which was dedicated to a particular form of lust, and there with the +paintings of Parrhasius for stimulant the satyr lounged. He was then an +old man; his life had been passed in public, his conduct unreproved. If +no one becomes suddenly base, it is rare for a man of seventy to become +abruptly vile. "Whoso," Sakya Muni announced—"whoso discovers that +grief comes from affection, will retire into the jungles and there +remain." Tiberius had made the discovery. The jungles he selected were +the gardens by the sea. And in those gardens, gossip represented him +devising new forms of old vice. On the subject every doubt is +permissible, and even otherwise, morality then existed in but one form, +one which the entire nation observed, wholly, absolutely; that form was +patriotism. Chastity was expected of the vestal, but of no one else. +The matrons had certain traditions to maintain, certain appearances to +preserve, but otherwise morality was unimagined and matrimony unpopular. +</P> + +<P> +When matrimony occurred, divorce was its natural consequence. +Incompatibility was sufficient cause. Cicero, who has given it to +history that the best women counted the years not numerically, but by +their different husbands, obtained a divorce on the ground that his +wife did not idolize him. +</P> + +<P> +Divorce was not obligatory. Matrimony was. According to a recent law +whoso at twenty-five was not married, whoso, divorced or widowed, did +not remarry, whoso, though married, was without children, was regarded +as a public enemy and declared incapable of inheriting or of serving +the state. To this law, one of Augustus' stupidities which presently +fell into disuse, only a technical observance was paid. Men married +just enough to gain a position or inherit a legacy; next day they got a +divorce. At the moment of need a child was adopted; the moment passed, +the child was disowned. But if the law had little value, at least it +shows the condition of things. Moreover, if in that condition Tiberius +participated, it was not because he did not differ from other men. +</P> + +<P> +"Ho sempre amato la solitaria vita," Petrarch, referring to himself, +declared, and Tiberius might have said the same thing. He was in love +with solitude; ill with efforts for the unattained; sick with the +ingratitude of man. Presently it was decided that he had lived long +enough. He was suffocated—beneath a mattress at that. Caesar had +dreamed of a universal monarchy of which he should be king; he was +murdered. That dream was also Antony's; he killed himself. Cato had +sought the restoration of the republic, and Brutus the attainment of +virtue; both committed suicide. Under the empire dreamers fared ill. +Tiberius was a dreamer. +</P> + +<P> +In a palace where a curious conception of the love of Atalanta and +Meleager was said to figure on the walls, there was a door on which was +a sign, imitated from one that overhung the Theban library of +Osymandias—Pharmacy of the Soul. It was there Tiberius dreamed. +</P> + +<P> +On the ivory shelves were the philtres of Parthenius, labelled De +Amatoriis Affectionibus, the Sybaris of Clitonymus, the Erotopaegnia of +Laevius, the maxims and instructions of Elephantis, the nine books of +Sappho. There also were the pathetic adventures of Odatis and +Zariadres, which Chares of Mitylene had given to the world; the +astonishing tales of that early Cinderella, Rhodopis; and with them +those romances of Ionian nights by Aristides of Milet, which Crassus +took with him when he set out to subdue the Parthians, and which; found +in the booty, were read aloud to the people that they might judge the +morals of a nation that pretended to rule the world. +</P> + +<P> +Whether such medicaments are serviceable to the soul is problematic. +Tiberius had other drugs on the ivory shelves—magic preparations that +transported him to fabulous fields. There was a work by Hecataesus, +with which he could visit Hyperborea, that land where happiness was a +birthright, inalienable at that; yet a happiness so sweet that it must +have been cloying; for the people who enjoyed it, and with it the +appanage of limitless life, killed themselves from sheer ennui. +Theopompus disclosed to him a stranger vista—a continent beyond the +ocean—one where there were immense cities, and where two rivers +flowed—the River of Pleasure and the River of Pain. With Iambulus he +discovered the Fortunate Isles, where there were men with elastic +bones, bifurcated tongues; men who never married, who worshipped the +sun, whose life was an uninterrupted delight, and who, when overtaken +by age, lay on a perfumed grass that produced a voluptuous death. +Evhemerus, a terrible atheist, whose Sacred History the early bishops +wielded against polytheism until they discovered it was double-edged, +took him to Panchaia, an island where incense grew; where property was +held in common; where there was but one law—Justice, yet a justice +different from our own, one which Hugo must have intercepted when he +made an entrancing yet enigmatical apparition exclaim: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Tu me crois la Justice, je suis la Pitie."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +And in this paradise there was a temple, and before it a column, about +which, in Panchaian characters, ran a history of ancient kings, who, to +the astonishment of the tourist, were found to be none other than the +gods whom the universe worshipped, and who in earlier days had +announced themselves divinities, the better to rule the hearts and +minds of man. +</P> + +<P> +With other guides Tiberius journeyed through lands where dreams come +true. Aristeas of Proconnesus led him among the Arimaspi, a curious +people who passed their lives fighting for gold with griffons in the +dark. With Isogonus he descended the valley of Ismaus, where wild men +were, whose feet turned inwards. In Albania he found a race with pink +eyes and white hair; in Sarmatia another that ate only on alternate +days. Agatharcides took him to Libya, and there introduced him to the +Psyllians, in whose bodies was a poison deadly to serpents, and who, to +test the fidelity of their wives, placed their children in the presence +of snakes; if the snakes fled they knew their wives were pure. Callias +took him further yet, to the home of the hermaphrodites; Nymphodorus +showed him a race of fascinators who used enchanted words. With +Apollonides he encountered women who killed with their eyes those on +whom they looked too long. Megasthenes guided him to the Astomians, +whose garments were the down of feathers, and who lived on the scent of +the rose. +</P> + +<P> +In his cups they all passed, confusedly, before him; the hermaphrodites +whispered to the rose-breathers the secrets of impossible love; the +griffons bore to him women with magical eyes; the Albanians danced with +elastic feet; he heard the shrill call of the Psyllians, luring the +serpents to death; the column of Panchaia unveiled its mysteries; the +Hyperboreans the reason of their fear of life, and on the wings of the +chimera he set out again in search of that continent which haunted +antiquity and which lay beyond the sea. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE PURSUIT OF THE IMPOSSIBLE +</H3> + +<P> +"Another Phaethon for the universe," Tiberius is reported to have +muttered, as he gazed at his nephew Caius, nicknamed Caligula, who was +to suffocate him with a mattress and rule in his stead. +</P> + +<P> +To rule is hardly the expression. There is no term in English to convey +that dominion over sea and sky which a Caesar possessed, and which +Caligula was the earliest to understand. Augustus was the first +magistrate of Rome, Tiberius the first citizen. Caligula was the first +emperor, but an emperor hallucinated by the enigma of his own grandeur, +a prince for whose sovereignty the world was too small. +</P> + +<P> +Each epoch has its secret, sometimes puerile, often perplexing; but in +its maker there is another and a more interesting one yet. Eliminate +Caligula, and Nero, Domitian, Commodus, Caracalla and Heliogabalus +would never have been. It was he who gave them both raison d'etre and +incentive. The lives of all of them are horrible, yet analyze the +horrible and you find the sublime. +</P> + +<P> +Fancy a peak piercing the heavens, shadowing the earth. It was on a +peak such as that the young emperors of old Rome balanced themselves, a +precipice on either side. Did they look below, a vertigo rose to meet +them; from above delirium came, while the horizon, though it hemmed the +limits of vision, could not mark the frontiers of their dream. In +addition there was the exaltation that altitudes produce. The valleys +have their imbeciles; it is from mountains the poet and madman come. +Caligula was both, sceptred at that; and with what a sceptre! One that +stretched from the Rhine to the Euphrates, dominated a hundred and +fifty million people; one that a mattress had given and a knife was to +take away; a sceptre that lashed the earth, threatened the sky, +beckoned planets and ravished the divinity of the divine. +</P> + +<P> +To wield such a sceptre securely requires grace, no doubt, majesty too, +but certainly strength; the latter Caligula possessed, but it was the +feverish strength of one who had fathomed the unfathomable, and who +sought to make its depths his own. Caligula was haunted by the +intangible. His sleep was a communion with Nature, with whom he +believed himself one. At times the Ocean talked to him; at others the +Earth had secrets which it wished to tell. Again there was some matter +of moment which he must mention to the day, and he would wander out in +the vast galleries of the palace and invoke the Dawn, bidding it come +and listen to his speech. The day was deaf, but there was the moon, and +he prayed her to descend and share his couch. Luna declined to be the +mistress of a mortal; to seduce her Caligula determined to become a god. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing was easier. An emperor had but to open his veins, and in an +hour he was a divinity. But the divinity which Caligula desired was not +of that kind. He wished to be a god, not on Olympus alone, but on earth +as well. He wished to be a palpable, tangible, living god; one that +mortals could see, which was more, he knew, than could be said of the +others. The mere wish was sufficient—Rome fell at his feet. The patent +of divinity was in the genuflections of a nation. At once he had a +temple, priests and flamens. Inexhaustible Greece was sacked again. The +statues of her gods, disembarked at Rome, were decapitated, and on them +the head of Caius shone. +</P> + +<P> +Heretofore his dress had not been Roman, nor, for that matter, the +dress of a man. On his wrists were bracelets; about his shoulders was a +mantle sewn with gems; beneath was a tunic, and on his feet were the +high white slippers that women wore. But when the god came the costume +changed. One day he was Apollo, the nimbus on his curls, the Graces at +his side; the next he was Mercury, wings at his heels, the caduceus in +his hand; again he was Venus. But it was as Jupiter Latialis, armed +with the thunderbolt and decorated with a great gold beard, that he +appeared at his best. +</P> + +<P> +The role was very real to him. After the fashion of Olympians he became +frankly incestuous, seducing vestals, his sisters too, and gaining in +boldness with each metamorphosis, he menaced the Capitoline Jove. +"Prove your power," he cried to him, "or fear my own!" He thundered at +him with machine-made thunder, with lightning that flashed from a pan. +"Kill me," he shouted, "or I will kill you!" Jove, unmoved, must have +moved his assailant, for presently Caligula lowered his voice, +whispered in the old god's ear, questioned him, meditated on his +answer, grew perplexed, violent again, and threatened to send him home. +</P> + +<P> +These interviews humanized him. He forgot the moon and mingled with +men, inviting them to die. The invitation being invariably accepted, he +became a connoisseur in death, an artist in blood, a ruler to whom +cruelty was not merely an aid to government but an individual pleasure, +and therewith such a perfect lover, such a charming host! +</P> + +<P> +"Dear heart," he murmured to his mistress Pryallis, as she lay one +night in his arms, "I think I will have you tortured that you may tell +me why I love you so." But of that the girl saw no need. She either +knew the reason or invented one, for presently he added: "And to think +that I have but a sign to make and that beautiful head of yours is +off!" Musings of this description were so humorous that one evening he +explained to guests whom he had startled with his laughter, that it was +amusing to reflect how easily he could have all of them killed. +</P> + +<P> +But even to a god life is not an unmixed delight. Caligula had his +troubles. About him there had settled a disturbing quiet. Rome was +hushed, the world was very still. There was not so much as an +earthquake. The reign of Augustus had been marked by the defeat of +Varus. Under Tiberius a falling amphitheatre had killed a multitude. +Caligula felt that through sheer felicity his own reign might be +forgot. A famine, a pest, an absolute defeat, a terrific +conflagration—any prodigious calamity that should sweep millions away +and stamp his own memory immutably on the chronicles of time, how +desirable it were! But there was nothing. The crops had never been more +abundant; apart from the arenas and the prisons, the health of the +empire was excellent; on the frontiers not so much as the rumor of an +insurrection could be heard, and Nero was yet to come. +</P> + +<P> +Perplexed, Caligula reflected, and presently from Baiae to Puzzoli, +over the waters of the bay, he galloped on horseback, the cuirass of +Alexander glittering on his breast. The intervening miles had been +spanned by a bridge of ships and on them a road had been built, one of +those roads for which the Romans were famous, a road like the Appian +Way, in earth and stone, bordered by inns, by pink arcades, green +retreats, forest reaches, the murmur of trickling streams. So many +ships were anchored there that through the unrepleted granaries the +fear of famine stalked. Caligula, meanwhile, his guests behind him, +made cavalry charges across the sea, or in a circus-chariot held the +ribbons, while four white horses, maddened by swaying lights, bore him +to the other shore. At night the entire coast was illuminated; the +bridge was one great festival, brilliant but brief. Caligula had +wearied of it all. At a signal the multitude of guests he had assembled +there were tossed into the sea. +</P> + +<P> +By way of a souvenir, Tiberius, whom he murdered, had left him the +immensity of his treasure. "I must be economical or Caesar," Caligula +reflected, and tipped a coachman a million, rained on the people a hail +of coin, bathed in essences, set before his guests loaves of silver, +gold omelettes, sausages of gems; sailed to the hum of harps on a ship +that had porticoes, gardens, baths, bowers, spangled sails and a +jewelled prow; removed a mountain, and put a palace where it had been; +filled in a valley and erected a temple on the top; supplied a horse +with a marble home, with ivory stalls, with furniture and slaves; +contemplated making him consul; made him a host instead, one that in +his own equine name invited the fashion of Rome to sup with Incitatus. +</P> + +<P> +In one year Tiberius' legacy, a sum that amounted to four hundred +million of our money, was spent. Caligula had achieved the impossible; +he was a bankrupt god, an emperor without a copper. But the very +splendor of that triumph demanded a climax. If Caligula hesitated, no +one knew it. On the morrow the palace of the Caesars was turned into a +lupanar, a little larger, a little handsomer than the others, but still +a brothel, one of which the inmates were matrons of Rome and the keeper +Jupiter Latialis. +</P> + +<P> +After that, seemingly, there was nothing save apotheosis. But Caligula, +in the nick of time, remembered the ocean. At the head of an army he +crossed Gaul, attacked it, and returned refreshed. Decidedly he had not +exhausted everything yet. He recalled Tiberius' policy, and abruptly +the world was filled again with accusers and accused. Gold poured in on +him, the earth paid him tribute. In a vast hall he danced naked on the +wealth of nations. Once more he was rich, richer than ever; there were +still illusions to be looted, other dreams to be pierced; yet, even as +he mused, conspirators were abroad. He loosed his pretorians. "Had Rome +but one head!" he muttered. "Let them FEEL themselves die," he cried to +his officers. "Let me be hated, but let me be feared." +</P> + +<P> +One day, as he was returning from the theatre, the dagger did its usual +work. Rome had lost a genius; in his place there came an ass. +</P> + +<P> +There is a verse in Greek to the effect that the blessed have children +in three months. Livia and Augustus were blessed in this pleasant +fashion. Three months after their marriage a child was born—a miracle +which surprised no one aware of their previous intimacy. The child +became a man, and the father of Claud, an imbecile whom the pretorians, +after Caligula's death, found in a closet, shaking with fright, and +whom for their own protection they made emperor in his stead. +</P> + +<P> +Caligula had been frankly adored; there was in him an originality, and +with it a grandeur and a mad magnificence that enthralled. Then, too, +he was young, and at his hours what the French call charmeur. If at +times he frightened, always he dazzled. Of course he was adored; the +prodigal emperors always were; so were their successors, the wicked +popes. Man was still too near to nature to be aware of shame, and +infantile enough to care to be surprised. In that was Caligula's charm; +he petted his people and surprised them too. Claud wearied. Between +them they assimilate every contradiction, and in their incoherences +explain that incomprehensible chaos which was Rome. Caligula jeered at +everybody; everybody jeered at Claud. +</P> + +<P> +The latter was a fantastic, vacillating, abstracted, cowardly tyrant, +issuing edicts in regard to the proper tarring of barrels, and +rendering absurd decrees; declaring himself to be of the opinion of +those who were right; falling asleep on the bench, and on awakening +announcing that he gave judgment in favor of those whose reasons were +the best; slapped in the face by an irritable plaintiff; held down by +main force when he wanted to leave; inviting to supper those whom he +had killed before breakfast; answering the mournful salute of the +gladiators with a grotesque Avete vos—"Be it well too with you," a +response, parenthetically, which the gladiators construed as a pardon +and refused to fight; dowering the alphabet with three new letters +which lasted no longer than he did; asserting that he would give +centennial games as often as he saw fit; an emperor whom no one obeyed, +whose eunuchs ruled in his stead, whose lackeys dispensed exiles, +death, consulates and crucifixions; whose valets insulted the senate, +insulted Rome, insulted the sovereign that ruled the world, whose +people shared his consort's couch; a slipshod drunkard in a tattered +gown—such was the imbecile that succeeded Caligula and had Messalina +for wife. +</P> + +<P> +It were curious to have seen that woman as Juvenal did, a veil over her +yellow wig, hunting adventures through the streets of Rome, while her +husband in the Forum censured the dissoluteness of citizens. And it +were curious, too, to understand whether it was her audacity or his +stupidity which left him the only man in Rome unacquainted with the +prodigious multiplicity and variety of her lovers. History has its +secrets, yet, in connection with Messalina, there is one that +historians have not taken the trouble to probe; to them she has been an +imperial strumpet. Messalina was not that. At heart she was probably no +better and no worse than any other lady of the land, but pathologically +she was an unbalanced person, who to-day would be put through a course +of treatment, instead of being put to death. When Claud at last +learned, not the truth, but that some of her lovers were conspiring to +get rid of him, he was not indignant; he was frightened. The +conspirators were promptly disposed of, Messalina with them. Suetonius +says that, a few days later, as he went in to supper, he asked why the +empress did not appear. +</P> + +<P> +Apart from the neurosis from which she suffered, were it possible to +find an excuse for her conduct, the excuse would be Claud. The purple +which made Caligula mad, made him an idiot; and when in course of time +he was served with a succulent poison, there must have been many +conjectures in Rome as to what the empire would next produce. +</P> + +<P> +The empire was extremely fecund, enormously vast. About Rome extended +an immense circle of provinces and cities that were wholly hers. +Without that circle was another, the sovereignty exercised over vassals +and allies; beyond that, beyond the Rhine on one side, were the +silenced Teutons; beyond the Euphrates on the other, the hazardous +Parthians, while remotely to the north there extended the enigmas of +barbarism; to the south, those semi-fabulous regions where geography +ceased to be. +</P> + +<P> +Little by little, through the patience of a people that felt itself +eternal, this immensity had been assimilated and fused. A few +fortresses and legions on the frontiers, a stretch of soldiery at any +spot an invasion might be feared; a little tact, a maternal solicitude, +and that was all. Rome governed unarmed, or perhaps it might be more +exact to say she did not govern at all; she was the mistress of a +federation of realms and republics that governed themselves, in whose +government she was content, and from whom she exacted little, tribute +merely, and obeisance to herself. Her strength was not in the sword; +the lioness roared rarely, often slept; it was the fear smaller beasts +had of her awakening that made them docile; once aroused those indolent +paws could do terrible work, and it was well not to excite them. When +the Jews threatened to revolt, Agrippa warned them: "Look at Rome; look +at her well; her arms are invisible, her troops are afar; she rules, +not by them, but by the certainty of her power. If you rebel, the +invisible sword will flash, and what can you do against Rome armed, +when Rome unarmed frightens the world?" +</P> + +<P> +The argument was pertinent and suggestive, but the secret of Rome's +ascendency consisted in the fact that where she conquered she dwelt. +Wherever the eagles pounced, Rome multiplied herself in miniature. In +the army was the nation, in the legion the city. Where it camped, +presto! a judgment seat and an altar. On the morrow there was a forum; +in a week there were paved avenues; in a fortnight, temples, porticoes; +in a month you felt yourself at home. Rome built with a magic that +startled as surely as the glint of her sword. Time and again the +nations whom Caesar encountered planned to eliminate his camp. When +they reached it the camp had vanished; in its place was a walled, +impregnable town. +</P> + +<P> +As the standards lowered before that town, the pomoerium was traced. +Within it the veteran found a home, without it a wife; and the family +established, the legion that had conquered the soil with the sword, +subsisted on it with the plow. Presently there were priests there, +aqueducts, baths, theatres and games, all the marvel of imperial +elegance and vice. When the aborigine wandered that way, his seduction +was swift. +</P> + +<P> +The enemy that submitted became a subject, not a slave. Rome commanded +only the free. If his goods were taxed, his goods remained his own, his +personal liberty untrammelled. His land had become part of a new +province, it is true, but provided he did not interest himself in such +matters as peace and war, not only was he free to manage his own +affairs, but that land, were it at the uttermost end of the earth, +might, in recompense of his fidelity, come to be regarded as within the +Italian territory; as such, sacred, inviolate, free from taxes, and he +a citizen of Rome, senator even, emperor! +</P> + +<P> +Conquest once solidified, the rest was easy. Tattered furs were +replaced by the tunic and uncouth idioms by the niceties of Latin +speech. In some cases, where the speech had been beaten in with the +hilt of the sword, the accent was apt to be rough, but a generation, +two at most, and there were sweethearts and swains quoting Horace in +the moonlight, naively unaware that only the verse of the Greeks could +pleasure the Roman ear. +</P> + +<P> +The principalities and kingdoms that of their own wish [a wish often +suggested, and not always amicably either] became allies of Rome and +mingled their freedom with hers, entered into an alliance whereby in +return for Rome's patronage and protection they agreed to have a proper +regard for the dignity of the Roman people and to have no other friends +or enemies than those that were Rome's—a formula exquisite in the +civility with which it exacted the renunciation of every inherent +right. A king wrote to the senate: "I have obeyed your deputy as I +would have obeyed a god." "And you have done wisely," the senate +answered, a reply which, in its terseness, tells all. +</P> + +<P> +Diplomacy and the plow, such were Rome's methods. As for herself she +fought, she did not till. Italy, devastated by the civil wars, was +uncultivated, cut up into vast unproductive estates. From one end to +the other there was barely a trace of agriculture, not a sign of +traffic. You met soldiers, cooks, petty tradesmen, gladiators, +philosophers, patricians, market gardeners, lazzaroni and millionaires; +the merchant and the farmer, never. Rome's resources were in distant +commercial centres, in taxes and tribute; her wealth had come of +pillage and exaction. Save her strength, she had nothing of her own. +Her religion, literature, art, philosophy, luxury and corruption, +everything had come from abroad. In Greece were her artists; in Africa, +Gaul and Spain, her agriculturists; in Asia her artisans. Her own +breasts were sterile. When she gave birth it was to a litter of +monsters, sometimes to a genius, by accident to a poet. She consumed, +she did not produce. It was because of that she fell. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NERO +</H3> + +<P> +"Save a monster, what can you expect from Agrippina and myself?" +</P> + +<P> +It was Domitius, Nero's father, who made this ingenious remark. He was +not a good man; he was not even good-looking, merely vicious and rich. +But his viciousness was benign beside that of Agrippina, who poisoned +him when Nero's birth ensured the heritage of his wealth. +</P> + +<P> +In all its galleries history has no other portrait such as hers. +Caligula's sister, his mistress as well, exiled by him and threatened +with death, her eyes dazzled and her nerves unstrung by the +impossibilities of that fabulous reign, it was not until Claud, her +uncle, recalled her and Messalina disappeared, that the empress awoke. +She too, she determined, would rule, and the jus osculi aiding, she +married out of hand that imbecile uncle of hers, on whose knee she had +played as a child. +</P> + +<P> +The day of the wedding a young patrician, expelled from the senate, +killed himself. Agrippina had accused him of something not nice, not +because he was guilty, nor yet because the possibility of the thing +shocked her, but because he was betrothed to Octavia, Claud's daughter, +who, Agrippina determined, should be Nero's wife. Presently Caligula's +widow, an old rival of her own, a lady who had thought she would like +to be empress twice, and whom Claud had eyed grotesquely, was +disencumbered of three million worth of emeralds, with which she +heightened her beauty, and told very civilly that it was time to die. +So, too, disappeared a Calpurina, a Lepida; women young, rich, +handsome, impure, and as such dangerous to Agrippina's peace of mind. +The legality of her crimes was so absolute that the mere ownership of +an enviable object was a cause for death. A senator had a villa which +pleased her; he was invited to die. Another had a pair of those odorous +murrhine vases, which Pompey had found in Armenia, and which on their +first appearance set Rome wild; he, too, was invited to die. +</P> + +<P> +But, though Agrippina dealt in death, she dealt in seductions too. +Rome, that had adored Caligula, promptly fell under his sister's sway. +There was a splendor in her eyes, which so many crimes had lit; in her +carriage there was such majesty, the pomp with which she surrounded +herself was so magnificent, that Rome, enthralled, applauded. Beyond, +on the Rhine, a city which is today Cologne, rose in honor of her +sovereignty. To her wishes the senate was subservient, to her +indiscretions blind. Claud, who meanwhile had been wholly sightless, +suddenly showed signs of discernment. A woman, charged with illicit +commerce, was brought to his tribunal. He condemned her, of course. "In +my case," he explained, "matrimony has not been successful, but the +fate that destined me to marry impure women destined me also to punish +them." It was then that Agrippina ordered of Locusta that famous stew +of poison and mushrooms, which Nero, in allusion to Claud's apotheosis, +called the food of the gods. The fate that destined Claud to marry +Agrippina destined her to kill him. +</P> + +<P> +It was under her care, between a barber and a ballerine, amid the +shamelessness of his stepfather's palace, where any day he could have +seen his mother beckon indolently to a centurion and pointing to some +lover who had ceased to please, make the gesture which signified Death, +that the young Enobarbus—Nero, as he subsequently called himself—was +trained for the throne. +</P> + +<P> +He had entered the world like a tiger cub, feet first; a circumstance +which is said to have disturbed his mother, and well it might. During +his adolescence that lady made herself feared. He was but seventeen +when the pretorians called upon him to rule the world; and at the time +an ingenuous lad, one who blushed like Lalage, very readily, +particularly at the title of Father of the Country, which the senate +was anxious to give him; endowed with excellent instincts, which he had +got no one knew whence; a trifle petit maitre, perhaps, perfuming the +soles of his feet, and careful about the arrangement of his yellow +curls, but withal generous, modest, sympathetic—in short, a flower in +a cesspool, a youth not over well-fitted to reign. But his mother was +there; as he developed so did his fear of her, to such proportions even +that he gave certain orders, and his mother was killed. That duel +between mother and son, terrible in its intensity and unnameable +horror, even the Borgias could not surpass. Tacitus has told it, +dramatically, as was his wont, but he told it in Latin, in which tongue +it had best remain. +</P> + +<P> +At that time the ingenuous lad had disappeared. The cub was full-grown. +Besides, he had tasted blood. Octavia, who with her brother, +Britannicus, and her sister, Antonia, had been his playmates; who was +almost his own sister; whose earliest memories interlinked with his, +and who had become his wife, had been put to death; not that she had +failed to please, but because a lady, Sabina Poppoea, who, Tacitus +says, lacked nothing except virtue, had declined to be his mistress. At +the time Sabina was married. But divorce was easy. Sabina got one at +the bar; Nero with the axe. The twain were then united. Nero seems to +have loved her greatly, a fact, as Suetonius puts it, which did not +prevent him from kicking her to death. Already he had poisoned +Britannicus, and with Octavia decapitated and Agrippina gone, of the +imperial house there remained but Antonia and himself. The latter he +invited to marry him; she declined. He invited her to die. He was then +alone, the last of his race. Monsters never engender. A thinker who +passed that way thought him right to have killed his mother; her crime +was in giving him birth. +</P> + +<P> +Therewith he was popular; more so even than Caligula, who was a poet, +and as such apart from the crowd, while Nero was frankly +canaille—well-meaning at that—which Caligula never was. During the +early years of his reign he could not do good enough. The gladiators +were not permitted to die; he would have no shedding of blood; the +smell of it was distasteful. He would listen to no denunciations; when +a decree of death was brought to him to sign, he regretted that he knew +how to write. Rome had never seen a gentler prince, nor yet one more +splendidly lavish. The people had not only the necessities of life, but +the luxuries, the superfluities, too. For days and days in the Forum +there was an incessant shower of tickets that were exchangeable, not +for bread or trivial sums, but for gems, pictures, slaves, fortunes, +ships, villas and estates. The creator of that shower was bound to be +adored. +</P> + +<P> +It was that, no doubt, which awoke him. A city like Rome, one that had +over a million inhabitants, could make a terrific noise, and when that +noise was applause, the recipient found it heady. Nero got drunk on +popularity, and heredity aiding where the prince had been emerged the +cad, a poseur that bored, a beast that disgusted, a caricature of the +impossible in a crimson frame. +</P> + +<P> +"What an artist the world is to lose!" he exclaimed as he died; and +artist he was, but in the Roman sense; one that enveloped in the same +contempt the musician, acrobat and actor. It was the artist that played +the flute while gladiators died and lovers embraced; it was the artist +that entertained the vulgar. +</P> + +<P> +As an artist Nero might have been a card. Fancy the attraction—an +emperor before the footlights; but fancy the boredom also. The joy at +the announcement of his first appearance was so great that thanks were +offered to the gods; and the verses he was to sing, graven in gold, +were dedicated to the Capitoline Jove. The joy was brief. The exits of +the theatre were closed. It was treason to attempt to leave. People +pretended to be dead in order to be carried out, and well they might. +The star was a fat man with a husky tenorino voice, who sang drunk and +half-naked to a protecting claque of ten thousand hands. +</P> + +<P> +But it was in the circus that Nero was at his best; there, no matter +though he were last in the race, it was to him the palm was awarded, or +rather it was he that awarded the palm to himself, and then quite +magnificently shouted, "Nero, Caesar, victor in the race, gives his +crown to the People of Rome!" +</P> + +<P> +On the stage he had no rivals, and by chance did one appear, he was +invited to die. In that respect he was artistically susceptible. When +he turned acrobat, the statues of former victors were tossed in the +latrinae. Yet, as competitors were needed, and moreover as he, singly, +could fill neither a stage nor a track, it was the nobility of Rome +that he ordered to appear with him. For that the nobility never forgave +him. On the other hand, the proletariat loved him the better. What +greater salve could it have than the sight of the conquerors of the +world entertaining the conquered, lords amusing their lackeys? +</P> + +<P> +Greece meanwhile sent him crowns and prayers; crowns for anticipated +victories, prayers that he would come and win them. Homage so delicate +was not to be disdained. Nero set forth, an army at his heels; a legion +of claquers, a phalanx of musicians, cohorts of comedians, and with +these for retinue, through sacred groves that Homer knew, through +intervales which Hesiod sang, through a year of festivals he wandered, +always victorious. It was he who conquered at Olympia; it was he who +conquered at Corinth. No one could withstand him. Alone in history he +won in every game, and with eighteen hundred crowns as trophies of war +he repeated Caesar's triumph. In a robe immaterial as a moonbeam, the +Olympian wreath on his curls, the Isthmian laurel in his hand, his army +behind him, the clown that was emperor entered Rome. Victims were +immolated as he passed, the Via Sacra was strewn with saffron, the day +was rent with acclaiming shouts. Throughout the empire sacrifices were +ordered. Old people that lived in the country fancied him, Philostratus +says, the conqueror of new nations, and sacrificed with delight. +</P> + +<P> +But if as artist he bored everybody, he was yet an admirable +impresario. The spectacles he gave were unique. At one which was held +in the Taurian amphitheatre it must have been delightful to assist. +Fancy eighty thousand people on ascending galleries, protected from the +sun by a canopy of spangled silk; an arena three acres large carpeted +with sand, cinnabar and borax, and in that arena death in every form, +on those galleries colossal delight. +</P> + +<P> +The lowest gallery, immediately above the arena, was a wide terrace +where the senate sat. There were the dignitaries of the empire, and +with them priests in their sacerdotal robes; vestals in linen, their +hair arranged in the six braids that were symbolic of virginity; swarms +of Oriental princes, rainbows of foreign ambassadors; and in the +centre, the imperial pulvinar, an enclosed pavilion, in which Nero +lounged, a mignon at his feet. +</P> + +<P> +In the gallery above were the necklaced knights, their tunics bordered +with the augusticlave, their deep-blue cloaks fastened to the shoulder; +and there, too, in their wide white togas, were the citizens of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +Still higher the people sat. In the topmost gallery were the women, and +in a separate enclosure a thousand musicians answered the cries of the +multitude with the blare and the laugh of brass. +</P> + +<P> +Beneath the terraces, behind the barred doors that punctuated the +marble wall which circled the arena, were Mauritian panthers that had +been entrapped with rotten meat; hippopotami from Sais, lured by the +smell of carrots into pits; the rhinoceros of Gaul, taken with the net; +lions, lassoed in the deserts; Lucanian bears, Spanish bulls; and, in +remoter dens, men, unarmed, that waited. +</P> + +<P> +By way of foretaste for better things, a handful of criminals, local +desperadoes, an impertinent slave, a machinist, who in a theatre the +night before had missed an effect—these, together with a negligent +usher, were tossed one after the other naked into the ring, and bound +to a scaffold that surmounted a miniature hill. At a signal the +scaffold fell, the hill crumbled, and from it a few hyenas issued, who +indolently devoured their prey. +</P> + +<P> +With this for prelude, the gods avenged and justice appeased, a +rhinoceros ambled that way, stimulated from behind by the point of a +spear; and in a moment the hyenas were disembowelled, their legs +quivering in the air. Throughout the arena other beasts, tied together +with long cords, quarrelled in couples; there was the bellow of bulls, +and the moan of leopards tearing at their flesh, a flight of stags, and +the long, clean spring of the panther. +</P> + +<P> +Presently the arena was cleared, the sand reraked and the Bestiarii +advanced—Sarmatians, nourished on mares' milk; Sicambrians, their hair +done up in chignons; horsemen from Thessaly, Ethiopian warriors, +Parthian archers, huntsmen from the steppes, their different idioms +uniting in a single cry—"Caesar, we salute you." The sunlight, +filtering through the spangled canopy, chequered their tunics with +burning spots, danced on their spears and helmets, dazzled the +spectators' eyes. From above descended the caresses of flutes; the air +was sweet with perfumes, alive with multicolored motes; the terraces +were parterres of blending hues, and into that splendor a hundred +lions, their tasselled tails sweeping the sand, entered obliquely. +</P> + +<P> +The mob of the Bestiarii had gone. In the middle of the arena, a band +of Ethiopians, armed with arrows, knives and spears, knelt, their oiled +black breasts uncovered. +</P> + +<P> +Leisurely the lions turned their huge, intrepid heads; to their jowls +wide creases came. There was a glitter of fangs, a shiver that moved +the mane, a flight of arrows, mounting murmurs; the crouch of beasts +preparing to spring, a deafening roar, and, abruptly, a tumultuous +mass, the suddenness of knives, the snap of bones, the cry of the +agonized, the fury of beasts transfixed, the shrieks of the mangled, a +combat hand to fang, from which lions fell back, their jaws torn +asunder, while others retreated, a black body swaying between their +terrible teeth, and, insensibly, a descending quiet. +</P> + +<P> +At once there was an eruption of bellowing elephants, painted and +trained for slaughter, that trampled on wounded and dead. At a call +from a keeper the elephants disappeared. There was a rush of mules and +slaves; the carcasses and corpses vanished, the toilet of the ring was +made; then came a plunge of bulls, mists of vapor about their long, +straight horns, their anxious eyes dilated. Beyond was a troop of +Thessalians. For a moment the bulls snorted, pawing the sand with their +fore-feet, as though trying to realize what they were doing there. Yet +instantly they seemed to know, and with lowered heads, they plunged on +the point of spears. But no matter, horses went down by the hundred; +and as the bulls tired of gorging the dead, they fought each other; +fought rancorously, fought until weariness overtook them, and the +surviving Thessalians leaped on their backs, twisted their horns, and +threw them down, a sword through their throbbing throats. +</P> + +<P> +Successively the arena was occupied by bears, by panthers, by dogs +trained for the chase, by hunters and hunted. But the episode of the +morning was a dash of wild elephants, attacked on either side; a moment +of sheer delight, in which the hunters were tossed up on the terraces, +tossed back again by the spectators, and trampled to death. +</P> + +<P> +With that for bouquet the first part of the performance was at an end. +By way of interlude, the ring was peopled with acrobats, who flew up in +the air like birds, formed pyramids together, on the top of which +little boys swung and smiled. There was a troop of trained lions, their +manes gilded, that walked on tight-ropes, wrote obscenities in Greek, +and danced to cymbals which one of them played. There were +geese-fights, wonderful combats between dwarfs and women; a chariot +race, in which bulls, painted white, held the reins, standing upright +while drawn at full speed; a chase of ostriches, and feats of haute +ecole on zebras from Madagascar. +</P> + +<P> +The interlude at an end, the sand was reraked, and preceded by the pomp +of lictors, interminable files of gladiators entered, holding their +knives to Nero that he might see that they were sharp. It was then the +eyes of the vestals lighted; artistic death was their chiefest joy, and +in a moment, when the spectacle began and the first gladiator fell, +above the din you could hear their cry "Hic habet!" and watch their +delicate thumbs reverse. +</P> + +<P> +There was no cowardice in that arena. If by chance any hesitation were +discernible, instantly there were hot irons, the sear of which +revivified courage at once. But that was rare. The gladiators fought +for applause, for liberty, for death; fought manfully, skilfully, +terribly, too, and received the point of the sword or the palm of the +victor, their expression unchanged, the face unmoved. Among them, some +provided with a net and prodigiously agile, pursued their adversaries +hither and thither, trying to entangle them first and kill them later. +Others, protected by oblong shields and armed with short, sharp swords, +fought hand-to-hand. There were still others, mailed horsemen, who +fought with the lance, and charioteers that dealt death from high +Briton cars. +</P> + +<P> +As a spectacle it was unique; one that the Romans, or more exactly, +their predecessors, the Etruscans, had devised to train their children +for war and allay the fear of blood. It had been serviceable, indeed, +and though the need of it had gone, still the institution endured, and +in enduring constituted the chief delight of the vestals and of Rome. +By means of it a bankrupt became consul and an emperor beloved. It had +stayed revolutions, it was the tax of the proletariat on the rich. +Silver and bread were for the individual, but these things were for the +crowd. +</P> + +<P> +During the pauses of the combats the dead were removed by men masked as +Mercury, god of hell; red irons, that others, masked as Charon, bore, +being first applied as safeguard against swoon or fraud. And when, to +the kisses of flutes, the last palm had been awarded, the last death +acclaimed, a ballet was given; that of Paris and Venus, which Apuleius +has described so well, and for afterpiece the romance of Pasipha? and +the bull. Then, as night descended, so did torches, too; the arena was +strewn with vermilion; tables were set, and to the incitement of +crotals, Lydians danced before the multitude, toasting the last act of +that wonderful day. +</P> + +<P> +It was with such magnificence that Nero showed the impresario's skill, +the politician's adroitness. Where the artist, which he claimed to be, +really appeared, was in the refurbishing of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +In spite of Augustus' boast, the city was not by any means of marble. +It was filled with crooked little streets, with the atrocities of the +Tarquins, with houses unsightly and perilous, with the moss and dust of +ages; it compared with Alexandria as London compares with Paris; it had +a splendor of its own, but a splendor that could be heightened. +</P> + +<P> +Whether the conflagration which occurred at that time was the result of +accident or design is uncertain and in any event immaterial. Tacitus +says that when it began Nero was at Antium, in which case he must have +hastened to return, for admitting that he did not originate the fire, +it is a matter of agreement that he collaborated in it. In quarters +where it showed symptoms of weakness it was by his orders coaxed to new +strength; colossal stone buildings, on which it had little effect, were +battered down with catapults. +</P> + +<P> +Fire is a perfect poet. No designer ever imagined the surprises it +creates, and when, at the end of the week, three-fourths of the city +was in ruins, the beauty that reigned there must have been sublime. +That it inspired Nero is presumable. The palace on the Palatine, which +Tiberius embellished and Caligula enlarged, had gone; in its place rose +another, aflame with gold. Before it Neropolis extended, a city of +triumphal arches, enchanted temples, royal dwellings, shimmering +porticoes, glittering roofs, and wide, hospitable streets. It was fair +to the eye, purely Greek; and on its heart, from the Circus Maximus to +the Forum's edge, the new and gigantic palace shone. Before it was a +lake, a part of which Vespasian drained and replaced with an +amphitheatre that covered eight acres. About that lake were separate +edifices that formed a city in themselves; between them and the palace, +a statue of Nero in gold and silver mounted precipitately a hundred and +twenty feet—a statue which it took twenty-four elephants to move. +About it were green savannahs, forest reaches, the call of bird and +deer, while in the distance, fronted by a stretch of columns a mile in +length, the palace stood—a palace so ineffably charming that on the +day of reckoning may it outbalance a few of his sins. Even the cellars +were frescoed. The baths were quite comfortable; you had waters salt or +sulphurous at will. The dining halls had ivory ceilings from which +flowers fell, and wainscots that changed at each service. The walls +were alive with the glisten of gems, with marbles rarer than jewels. In +one hall was a dome of sapphire, a floor of malachite, crystal columns +and red-gold walls. +</P> + +<P> +"At last," Nero murmured, "I am lodged like a man." +</P> + +<P> +No doubt. Yet in a mirror he would have seen a bloated beast in a +flowered gown, the hair done up in a chignon, the skin covered with +eruptions, the eyes circled and yellow; a woman who had hours when she +imitated a virgin at bay, others when she was wife, still others when +she expected to be a mother, and that woman, a senatorial patent of +divinity aiding, was god—Apollo's peer, imperator, chief of the army, +pontifix maximus, master of the world, with the incontestable right of +life and death over every being in the dominions. +</P> + +<P> +It had taken the fresh-faced lad who blushed so readily, just fourteen +years to effect that change. Did he regret it? And what should Nero +regret? Nothing, perhaps, save that at the moment when he declared +himself to be lodged like a man, he had not killed himself like one. +But of that he was incapable. Had he known what the future held, +possibly he might have imitated that apotheosis of vulgarity in which +Sardanapalus eclipsed himself, but never could he have died with the +good breeding and philosophy of Cato, for neither good breeding nor +philosophy was in him. Nero killed himself like a coward, yet that he +did kill himself, in no matter what fashion, is one of the few things +that can be said in his favor. +</P> + +<P> +Those days differed from ours. There were circumstances in which +suicide was regarded as the simplest of duties. Nero did his duty, but +not until he was forced to it, and even then not until he had been +asked several times whether it was so hard to die. The empire had +wearied of him. In Neropolis his popularity had gone as popularity ever +does; the conflagration had killed it. +</P> + +<P> +Even as he wandered, lyre in hand, a train of Lesbians and pederasts at +his heels, through those halls which had risen on the ruins, and which +inexhaustible Greece had furnished with a fresh crop of white +immortals, the world rebelled. Afar on the outskirts of civilization a +vassal, ashamed of his vassalage, declared war, not against Rome, but +against an emperor that played the flute. In Spain, in Gaul, the +legions were choosing other chiefs. The provinces, depleted by imperial +exactions, outwearied by the increasing number of accusers, whose +accusations impoverishing them served only to multiply the +prodigalities of their Caesar, revolted. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly Nero found himself alone. As the advancing rumor of rebellion +reached him, he thought of flight; there was no one that would +accompany him. He called to the pretorians; they would not hear. +Through the immensity of his palace he sought one friend. The doors +would not open. He returned to his apartment; the guards had gone. Then +terror seized him. He was afraid to die, afraid to live, afraid of his +solitude, afraid of Rome, afraid of himself; but what frightened him +most was that everyone had lost their fear of him. It was time to go, +and a slave aiding, he escaped in disguise from Rome, and killed +himself, reluctantly, in a hovel. +</P> + +<P> +"Qualis artifex pereo!" he is reported to have muttered. Say rather, +qualis maechus. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE HOUSE OF FLAVIA +</H3> + +<P> +It was in those days that the nebulous figure of Apollonius of Tyana +appeared and disappeared in Rome. His speech, a commingling of +puerility and charm, Philostratus has preserved. Rumor had preceded +him. It was said that he knew everything, save the caresses of women; +that he was familiar with all languages; with the speech of bird and +beast; with that of silence, for silence is a language too; that he had +prayed in the Temple of Jupiter Lycoeus, where men lost their shadows, +their lives as well; that he had undergone eighty initiations of +Mithra; that he had perplexed the magi; confuted the gymnosophists; +that he foretold the future, healed the sick, raised the dead; that +beyond the Himalayas he had encountered every species of ferocious +beast, except the tyrant, and that it was to see one that he had come +to Rome. +</P> + +<P> +Nero was quite free from prejudice. Apart from a doll which he +worshipped he had no superstitions. He had the plain man's dislike of +philosophy; Seneca had sickened him of it, perhaps; but he was +sensitive, not that he troubled himself particularly about any lies +that were told of him, but he did object to people who went about +telling the truth. In that respect he was not unique; we are all like +him, but he had ways of stilling the truth which were imperial and his +own. +</P> + +<P> +Promptly on Apollonius he loosed his bull-dog, Tigellin, prefect of +police. +</P> + +<P> +Tigellin caught him. "What have you with you?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Continence, Justice, Temperance, Strength and Patience," Apollonius +answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Your slaves, I suppose. Make out a list of them." +</P> + +<P> +Apollonius shook his head. "They are not my slaves; they are my +masters." +</P> + +<P> +"There is but one," Tigellin retorted—"Nero. Why do you not fear him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because the god that made him terrible made me without fear." +</P> + +<P> +"I will leave you your liberty," muttered the startled Tigellin, "but +you must give bail." +</P> + +<P> +"And who," asked Apollonius superbly, "would bail a man whom no one can +enchain?" Therewith he turned and disappeared. +</P> + +<P> +At that time Nero was in training to suffocate a lion in the arena. A +few days later he killed himself. Simultaneously there came news from +Syracuse. A woman of rank had given birth to a child with three heads. +Apollonius examined it. +</P> + +<P> +"There will be three emperors at once," he announced. "But their reign +will be shorter than that of kings on the stage." +</P> + +<P> +Within that year Galba, who was emperor for an instant, died at the +gates of Rome. Vitellius, after being emperor in little else than +dream, was butchered in the Forum; and Otho, in that fine antique +fashion, killed himself in Gaul. Apollonius meanwhile was in +Alexandria, predicting the purple to Vespasian, the rise of the House +of Flavia; invoking Jupiter in his protege's behalf; and presently, the +prediction accomplished, he was back in Rome, threatening Domitian, +warning him that the House of Flavia would fall. +</P> + +<P> +The atmosphere was then charged with the marvellous; the world was +filled with prodigies, with strange gods, beckoning chimeras and +credulous crowds. Belief in the supernatural was absolute; the occult +sciences, astrology, magic, divination, all had their adepts. In Greece +there were oracles at every turn, and with them prophets who taught the +art of adultery and how to construe the past. On the banks of the Rhine +there were girls who were regarded as divinities, and in Gaul were men +who were held wholly divine. +</P> + +<P> +Jerusalem too had her follies. There was Simon the Magician, founder of +gnosticism, father of every heresy, Messiah to the Jews, Jupiter to the +Gentiles—an impudent self-made god, who pretended to float in the air, +and called his mistress Minerva—a deification, parenthetically, which +was accepted by Nicholas, his successor, a deacon of the church, who +raised her to the eighth heaven as patron saint of lust. To him, as to +Simon, she was Ennoia, Prunikos, Helen of Troy. She had been Delilah, +Lucretia. She had prostituted herself to every nation; she had sung in +the by-ways, and hidden robbers in the vermin of her bed. But by Simon +she was rehabilitated. It was she, no doubt, of whom Caligula thought +when he beckoned to the moon. In Rome she had her statue, and near it +was one to Simon, the holy god. +</P> + +<P> +But of all manifestations of divinity the most patent was that which +haloed Vespasian. He expected it, Suetonius says, but it is doubtful if +any one else did. One night he dreamed that an era of prosperity was to +dawn for him and his when Nero lost a tooth. The next day he was shown +one which had been drawn from the emperor's mouth. But that was +nothing. Presently at Carmel the Syrian oracle assured him that he +would be successful in whatever he undertook. From Rome word came that, +while the armies of Vitellius and Otho were fighting, two eagles had +fought above them, and that the victor had been despatched by a third +eagle that had come from the East. In Alexandria Serapis whispered to +him. The entire menagerie of Egypt proclaimed him king. Apis bellowed, +Anubis barked. Isis visited him unveiled. The lame and the blind +pressed about him; he cured them with a touch. There could be no +reasonable doubt now; surely he was a god. On his shoulders Apollonius +threw the purple, and Vespasian set out for Rome. +</P> + +<P> +His antecedents were less propitious. The descendant of an obscure +centurion, he had been a veterinary surgeon; then, having got +Caligula's ear, he flattered it abominably. Caligula disposed of, he +flattered Claud, or what amounted to the same thing, Narcissus, Claud's +chamberlain. Through the influence of the latter he became a +lieutenant, fought on remote frontiers—fought well, too—so well even +that, Narcissus gone, he felt Agrippina watching him, and knowing the +jealousy of her eyes, prudently kept quiet until that lady did. +</P> + +<P> +With Nero he promenaded through Greece—sat at the Olympian games and +fell asleep when his emperor sang. Treason of that high +nature—sacrilege, rather, for Nero was then a god—might have been +overlooked, had it occurred but once, for Nero could be magnanimous +when he chose. But it always occurred. To Nero's tremolo invariably +came the accompaniment of Vespasian's snore. He was dreaming of that +tooth, no doubt. "I am not a soporific, am I?" Nero gnashed at him, and +sent the blasphemer away. +</P> + +<P> +For a while Vespasian lived in constant expectation of some civil +message inviting him to die. Finally it came, only he was invited to +die at the head of an army which Nero had projected against seditious +Jews. When he returned, leaving his son Titus to attend to Jerusalem, +it was as emperor. +</P> + +<P> +Only a moment before Vitellius had been disposed of. That curious +glutton, whom the Rhenish legions had chosen because of his coarse +familiarity, would willingly have fled had the soldiery let him. But +not at all; they wanted a prince of their own manufacture. They knew +nothing of Vespasian, cared less; and into the Capitol they chased the +latter's partisans, his son Domitian as well. The besieged defended +themselves with masterpieces, with sacred urns, the statues of gods, +the pedestals of divinities. Suddenly the Capitol was aflame. +Simultaneously Vespasian's advance guard beat at the gates. The +besiegers turned, the mob was with them, and together they fought, +first at the gates, then in the streets, in the Forum, retreating +always, but like lions, their face to the foe. The volatile mob, noting +the retreat, turned from combatant into spectator. Let the soldiers +fight; it was their duty, not theirs; and, as the struggle continued, +from roof and window they eyed it with that artistic delight which the +arena had developed, applauding the clever thrusts, abusing the +vanquished, robbing the dead, and therewith pillaging the wineshops, +crowding the lupanars. During the orgy, Vitellius was stabbed. The +Flavians had won the day, the empire was Vespasian's. +</P> + +<P> +The use he made of it was very modest. In spite of his manifest +divinity he had nothing in common with the Caesars that had gone +before; he had no dreams of the impossible, no desire to frighten +Jupiter or seduce the moon. He was a plain man, tall and ruddy, very +coarse in speech and thought, open-armed and close-fisted, slapping +senators on the back and keeping a sharp eye on the coppers; taxing the +latrinae, and declaring that money had no smell; yet still, in +comparison with Claud and Nero, almost the ideal; absolutely +uninteresting also, yet doing what good he could; effacing at once the +traces of the civil war, rebuilding the Capitol, calming the people, +protecting the provinces, restoring to Rome the gardens of Nero, +clipping the wings of the Palace of Gold, throwing open again the Via +Sacra, over which the Palace had spread; draining the lake that had +shimmered before it, and erecting the Colosseum in its place. +</P> + +<P> +In spite of Serapsis, Anubis and Isis, he had not the faintest odor of +myth about him; absolutely bourgeois, he lacked even that atmosphere of +burlesque that surrounded Claud; he was not even vicious. But he was a +soldier, a brave one; and if, with the acquired economy of a subaltern +who has been obliged to live on his pay, he kept his purse-strings +tight, they were loose enough if a friend were in need, and he paid no +one the compliment of a lie. He was projected sheer out of the +republic. The better part of his life had been passed under arms; the +delicate sensuality of Rome was foreign to him. It was there that +Domitian had lived. +</P> + +<P> +It were interesting to have watched that young man killing flies by the +hour, while he meditated on the atrocities he was to commit—atrocities +so numberless and needless that in the red halls of the Caesars he has +left a portrait which is unique. Slender, graceful, handsome, as were +all the young emperors of old Rome, his blue, troubled eyes took +pleasure, if at all, only in the sight of blood. +</P> + +<P> +In accordance with the fashion which Caligula and Nero had set, +Domitian's earliest manners were those of an urbane and gentle prince. +Later, when he made it his turn to rule, informers begged their bread +in exile. Where they are not punished, he announced, they are +encouraged. The sacrifices were so distressing to him that he forbade +the immolation of oxen. He was disinterested, too, refusing legacies +when the testator left nearer heirs, and therewith royally generous, +covering his suite with presents, and declaring that to him avarice of +all vices was the lowest and most vile. In short, you would have said +another adolescent Nero come to Rome; there was the same silken +sweetness of demeanor, the same ready blush, in addition to a zeal for +justice and equity which other young emperors had been too thoughtless +to show. +</P> + +<P> +His boyhood, too, had not been above reproach. The same things were +whispered about him that had been shouted at Augustus. Manifestly he +lacked not one of the qualities which go to the making of a model +prince. Vespasian alone had his doubts. +</P> + +<P> +"Mushrooms won't hurt you," he cried one day, as Domitian started at +the sight of a ragout a la Sardanapale, which he fancied, possibly, was +a la Locuste, "It is steel you should fear." +</P> + +<P> +At that time, with a father for emperor and a brother who was sacking +Jerusalem, Domitian had but one cause for anxiety, to wit—that the +empire might escape him. It was then he began his meditations over +holocausts of flies. For hours he secluded himself, occupied solely +with their slaughter. He treated them precisely as Titus treated the +Jews, enjoying the quiver of their legs, the little agonies of their +silent death. +</P> + +<P> +Tiberius had been in love with solitude, but never as he. Night after +night he wandered on the terraces of the palace, watching the red moon +wane white, companioned only by his dreams, those waking dreams that +poets and madmen share, that Pallas had him in her charge, that Psyche +was amorous of his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile he was a nobody, a young gentleman merely, who might have +moved in the best society, and who preferred the worst—his own. The +sudden elevation of Vespasian preoccupied him, and while he knew that +in the natural course of events his father would move to Olympus, yet +there was his brother Titus, on whose broad shoulders the mantle of +purple would fall. If the seditious Jews only knew their business! But +no. Forty years before a white apparition on the way to Golgotha had +cried to a handful of women, "The days are coming in which they shall +say to the mountains, 'Fall on us'; to the hills, 'Cover us.'" And the +days had come. A million of them had been butchered. From the country +they had fled to the city; from Acra they had climbed to Zion. When the +city burst into flames their blood put it out. Decidedly they did not +know their business. Titus, instead of being stabbed before Jerusalem's +walls, was marching in triumph to Rome. +</P> + +<P> +The procession that presently entered the gates was a stream of +splendor; crowns of rubies and gold; garments that glistened with gems; +gods on their sacred pedestals; prisoners; curious beasts; Jerusalem in +miniature; pictures of war; booty from the Temple, the veil, the +candelabra, the cups of gold and the Book of the Law. To the rear +rumbled the triumphal car, in which laurelled and mantled Titus stood, +Vespasian at his side; while, in the distance, on horseback, came +Domitian—a supernumerary, ignored by the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +When the prisoners disappeared in the Tullianum and a herald shouted, +"They have lived!" Domitian returned to the palace and hunted morosely +for flies. The excesses of the festival in which Rome was swooning then +had no delights for him. Presently the moon would rise, and then on the +deserted terrace perhaps he would bathe a little in her light, and +dream again of Pallas and of the possibilities of an emperor's sway, +but meanwhile those blue troubled eyes that Psyche was amorous of were +filled with envy and with hate. It was not that he begrudged Titus the +triumph. The man who had disposed of a million Jews deserved not one +triumph, but ten. It was the purple that haunted him. +</P> + +<P> +Domitian was then in the early twenties. The Temple of Peace was +ascending; the Temple of Janus was closed; the empire was at rest. Side +by side with Vespasian, Titus ruled. From the Euphrates came the rumor +of some vague revolt. Domitian thought he would like to quell it. He +was requested to keep quiet. It occurred to him that his father ought +to be ashamed of himself to reign so long. He was requested to vacate +his apartment. There were dumb plots in dark cellars, of which only the +echo of a whisper has descended to us, but which at the time were quite +loud enough to reach Vespasian's ears. Titus interceded. Domitian was +requested to behave. +</P> + +<P> +For a while he prowled in the moonlight. He had been too precipitate, +he decided, and to allay suspicion presently he went about in society, +mingling his hours with those of married women. Manifestly his ways had +mended. But Vespasian was uneasy. A comet had appeared. The doors of +the imperial mausoleum had opened of themselves, besides, he was not +well. The robust and hardy soldier, suddenly without tangible cause, +felt his strength give way. "It is nothing," his physician said; "a +slight attack of fever." Vespasian shook his head; he knew things of +which the physician was ignorant. "It is death," he answered, "and an +emperor should meet it standing." +</P> + +<P> +Titus' turn came next. A violent, headstrong, handsome, rapacious +prince, terribly prodigal, thoroughly Oriental, surrounded by dancers +and mignons, living in state with a queen for mistress, startling even +Rome with the uproar of his debauches—no sooner was Vespasian gone +than presto! the queen went home, the dancers disappeared, the +debauches ceased, and a ruler appeared who declared he had lost a day +that a good action had not marked; a ruler who could announce that no +one should leave his presence depressed. +</P> + +<P> +Though Vespasian had gone, his reign continued. Not long, it is true, +and punctuated by a spectacle of which Caligula, for all his poetry, +had not dreamed—the burial of Pompeii. But a reign which, while it +lasted, was fastidious and refined, and during which, again and again, +Titus, who commanded death and whom death obeyed, besought Domitian to +be to him a brother. +</P> + +<P> +Domitian had no such intention. He had a party behind him, one made up +of old Neronians, the army of the discontented, who wanted a change, +and greatly admired this charming young prince whose hours were passed +in killing flies and making love to married women. The pretorians too +had been seduced. Domitian could make captivating promises when he +chose. +</P> + +<P> +As a consequence Titus, like Vespasian, was uneasy, and with cause. +Dion Cassius, or rather that brute Xiphilin, his abbreviator, mentions +the fever that overtook him, the same his father had met. It was +mortal, of course, and the purple was Domitian's. +</P> + +<P> +For a year and a day thereafter you would have thought Titus still at +the helm. There was the same clemency, the same regard for justice, the +same refinement and fastidiousness. The morose young poet had developed +into a model monarch. The old Neronians were perplexed, irritated too; +they had expected other things. Domitian was merely feeling the way; +the hand that held the sceptre was not quite sure of its strength, and, +tentatively almost, this Prince of Virtue began to scrutinize the +morals of Rome. For the first time he noticed that the cocottes took +their airing in litters. But litters were not for them! That abuse he +put a stop to at once. A senator manifested an interest in +ballet-girls; he was disgraced. The vestals, to whose indiscretions no +one had paid much attention, learned the statutes of an archaic law, +and were buried alive. The early distaste for blood was diminishing. +Domitian had the purple, but it was not bright enough; he wanted it +red, and what Domitian wanted he got. Your god and master orders it, +was the formula he began to use when addressing the Senate and People +of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +To that the people were indifferent. The spectacles he gave in the +Flavian amphitheatre were too magnificently atrocious not to be a +compensation in full for any eccentricity in which he might indulge. +Besides, under Nero, Claud, Caligula, on en avait vu bien d'autres. And +at those spectacles where he presided, crowned with a tiara, on which +were the images of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, while grouped about him +the college of Flavian flamens wore tiaras that differed therefrom +merely in this, that they bore his image too, the people right royally +applauded their master and their god. +</P> + +<P> +And it was just as well they did; Domitian was quite capable of +ordering everybody into the arena. As yet, however, he had appeared +little different from any other prince. That Rome might understand that +there was a difference, and also in what that difference consisted, he +gave a supper. Everyone worth knowing was bidden, and, as is usual in +state functions, everyone that was bidden came. The supper hall was +draped with black; the ceiling, the walls, the floor, everything was +basaltic. The couches were black, the linen was black, the slaves were +black. Behind each guest was a broken column with his name on it. The +food was such as is prepared when death has come. The silence was that +of the tomb. The only audible voice was Domitian's. He was talking very +wittily and charmingly about murder, about proscriptions, the good +informers do, the utility of the headsman, the majesty of the law. The +guests, a trifle ill at ease, wished their host sweet dreams. "The same +to you," he answered, and deplored that they must go. +</P> + +<P> +On the morrow informers and headsmen were at work. Any pretext was +sufficient. Birth, wealth, fame, or the lack of them—anything +whatever—and there the culprit stood, charged not with treason to an +emperor, but with impiety to a god. On the judgment seat Domitian sat. +Before him the accused passed, and under his eyes they were questioned, +tortured, condemned and killed. At once their property passed into the +keeping of the prince. +</P> + +<P> +Of that he had need. The arena was expensive, but the drain was +elsewhere. A little before, a quarrelsome people, the Dacians, whom it +took a Trajan to subdue, had overrun the Danube, and were marching down +to Rome. Domitian set out to meet them. The Dacians retreated, not at +all because they were repulsed, but because Domitian thought it better +warfare to pay them to do so. On his return after that victory he +enjoyed a triumph as fair as that of Caesar. And each year since then +the emperor of Rome had paid tribute to a nation of mongrel oafs. +</P> + +<P> +Of course he needed money. The informers were there and he got it, and +with it that spectacle of torture and of blood which he needed too. +Curiously, his melancholy increased; his good looks had gone; Psyche +was no longer amorous of his eyes. Something else haunted him, +something he could not define; the past, perhaps, perhaps the future. +To his ears came strange sounds, the murmur of his own name, and +suddenly silence. Then, too, there always seemed to be something behind +him; something that when he turned disappeared. The room in which he +slept he had covered with a polished metal that reflected everything, +yet still the intangible was there. Once Pallas came in her chariot, +waved him farewell, and disappeared, borne by black horses across the +black night. +</P> + +<P> +The astrologers consulted had nothing pleasant to say. They knew, as +Domitian knew, that the end was near. So was theirs. To one of them, +who predicted his immediate death, he inquired, "What will your end +be?" "I," answered the astrologer—"I shall be torn by dogs." "To the +stake with him!" cried Domitian; "let him be burned alive!" Suetonius +says that a storm put out the flames, and dogs devoured the corpse. +Another astrologer predicted that Domitian would die before noon on the +morrow. In order to convince him of his error, Domitian ordered him to +be executed the subsequent night. Before noon on the morrow Domitian +was dead. +</P> + +<P> +Philostratus and Dion Cassius both unite in saying that at that hour +Apollonius was at Ephesus, preaching to the multitude. In the middle of +the sermon he hesitated, but in a moment he began anew. Again he +hesitated, his eyes half closed; then, suddenly he shouted, "Strike +him! Strike him once more!" And immediately to his startled audience he +related a scene that was occurring at Rome, the attack on Domitian, his +struggle with an assailant, his effort to tear out his eyes, the rush +of conspirators, and finally the fall of the emperor, pierced by seven +knives. +</P> + +<P> +The story may not be true, and yet if it were! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE POISON IN THE PURPLE +</H3> + +<P> +Rome never was healthy. The tramontana visited it then as now, fever, +too, and sudden death. To emperors it was fatal. Since Caesar a malaria +had battened on them all. Nerva escaped, but only through abdication. +The mantle that fell from Domitian's shoulders on to his was so +dangerous in its splendor, that, fearing the infection, he passed it to +Ulpius Trajanus, the lustre undimmed. +</P> + +<P> +Ulpius Trajanus, Trajan for brevity, a Spaniard by birth, a soldier by +choice; one who had fought against Parthian and Jew, who had triumphed +through Pannonia and made it his own; a general whose hair had whitened +on the field; a consul who had frightened nations, was afraid of the +sheen of that purple which dazzled, corroded and killed. He bore it, +indeed, but at arm's-length. He kept himself free from the subtlety of +its poison, from the microbes of Rome as well. +</P> + +<P> +He was in Cologne when Domitian died and Nerva accepted and renounced +the throne. It was a year before he ventured among the seven hills. +When he arrived you would have said another Augustus, not the real +Augustus, but the Augustus of legend, and the late Mr. Gibbon. When he +girt the new prefect of the pretorium with the immemorial sword, he +addressed him in copy-book phrases—"If I rule wisely, use it for me; +unwisely, against me." +</P> + +<P> +Rome listened open-mouthed. The change from Domitian's formula, "Your +god and master orders it," was too abrupt to be immediately understood. +Before it was grasped Trajan was off again; this time to the Danube and +beyond it, to Dacia and her fens. +</P> + +<P> +Many years later—a century or two, to be exact—a Persian satrap +loitered in a forum of Rome. "It is here," he declared, "I am tempted +to forget that man is mortal." +</P> + +<P> +He had passed beneath a triumphal arch; before him was a glittering +square, grandiose, yet severe; a stretch of temples and basilicas, in +which masterpieces felt at home—the Forum of Trajan, the compliment of +a nation to a prince. Dominating it was a column, in whose thick +spirals you read to-day the one reliable chronicle of the Dacian +campaign. Was not Gautier well advised when he said only art endures? +</P> + +<P> +There were other chronicles in plenty; there were the histories of +AElius Maurus, of Marius Maximus, and that of Spartian, but they are +lost. There is a page or two in the abbreviation which Xiphilin made of +Dion; Aurelius Victor has a little to add, so also has Eutropus, but, +practically speaking, there is, apart from that column, nothing save +conjecture. +</P> + +<P> +Campaigns are wearisome reading, but not the one that is pictured +there. You ask a curve a question, and in the next you find the reply. +There is a point, however, on which it is dumb—the origin of the war. +But if you wish to know the result, not the momentary and transient +result, but the sequel which futurity held, look at the ruins at that +column's base. +</P> + +<P> +The origin of the war was Domitian's diplomacy. The chieftain whom he +had made king, and who had been surprised enough at receiving a diadem +instead of the point of a sword, fancied, and not unreasonably, that +the annuity which Rome paid him was to continue forever. But Domitian, +though a god, was not otherwise immortal. When he died abruptly the +annuity ceased. The Dacian king sent word that he was surprised at the +delay, but he must have been far more so at the promptness with which +he got Trajan's reply. It was a blare of bugles, which he thought +forever dumb; a flight of eagles, which he thought were winged. +</P> + +<P> +In the spirals of the column you see the advancing army, the retreating +foe; then the Dacian dragon saluting the standards of Rome; peace +declared, and an army, whose very repose is menacing, standing there to +see that peace is kept. And was it? In the ascending spiral is the new +revolt, the attempt to assassinate Trajan, the capture of the +conspirators, the advance of the legions, the retreat of the Dacians, +burning their cities as they go, carrying their wounded and their women +with them, and at last pressing about a huge cauldron that is filled +with poison, fighting among themselves for a cup of the brew, and +rolling on the ground in the convulsions of death. Farther on is the +treasure of the king. To hide it he had turned a river from its source, +sunk the gold in a vault beneath, and killed the workmen that had +labored there. Beyond is the capture of the capital, the suicide of the +chief, a troop of soldiers driving captives and cattle before them, the +death of a nation and the end of war. +</P> + +<P> +The subsequent triumph does not appear on the column. It is said that +ten thousand beasts were slaughtered in the arenas, slaughtering, as +they fell, a thousand of their slaughterers. But the spectacle, however +fair, was not of a nature to detain Trajan long in Rome. The air there +had not improved in the least, and presently he was off again, this +time on the banks of the Euphrates, arguing with the Parthians, +avoiding danger in the only way he knew, by facing it. +</P> + +<P> +It was then that the sheen of the purple glowed. If lustreless at home, +it was royally red abroad. In a campaign that was little more than a +triumphant promenade he doubled the empire. To the world of Caesar he +added that of Alexander. Allies he turned into subjects, vassals into +slaves. Armenia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, were added to the realm. +Trajan's footstools were diadems. He had moved back one frontier, he +moved another. From Britain to the Indus, Rome was mistress of the +earth. Had Trajan been younger, China, whose very name was unknown, +would have yielded to him her corruption, her printing press, her +powder and her tea. +</P> + +<P> +That he would have enjoyed these things is not at all conjectural. He +was then an old man, but he was not a good one—at least not in the +sense we use the term to-day. He had habits which are regarded now less +as vices than perversions, but which at that time were taken as a +matter of course and accepted by everyone, even by the stoics, very +calmly, with a grain of Attic salt at that. Men were regarded as +virtuous when they were brave, when they were honest; the idea of using +the expression in its later sense occurred, if at all, in jest merely, +as a synonym for the eunuch. It was the matron and the vestal who were +supposed to be straight, and their straightness was wholly +supposititious. The ceremonies connected with the phallus, and those +observed in the worship of the Bona Dea, were of a nature that no +virtue could withstand. Every altar, Juvenal said, had its Clodius, and +even in Clodius' absence there were always those breaths of Sapphic +song that blew through Mitylene. +</P> + +<P> +It is just that absence of a quality which we regard as an added grace; +one, parenthetically, which dowered the world with a new conception of +beauty that makes it difficult to picture Rome. Modern ink has acquired +Nero's blush; it comes very readily, yet, however sensitive a writer +may be, once Roman history is before him, he may violate it if he +choose; he may even give it a child, but never can he make it +immaculate. He may skip, indeed, if he wish; and it is because he has +skipped so often that one fancies that Augustus was all right. The rain +of fire which fell on the cities that mirrored their towers in the +Bitter Sea, might just as well have fallen on him, on Vergil, too, on +Caligula, Claud, Nero, Otho, Vitellius, Titus, Domitian, and +particularly on Trajan. +</P> + +<P> +As lieutenant in the latter's triumphant promenade, was a nephew, +AElius Hadrianus, a young man for whom Trajan's wife is rumored to have +had more than a platonic affection, and who in younger days was +numbered among Trajan's mignons. During the progress of that promenade +Trajan fell ill. The command of the troops was left to Hadrian, and +Trajan started for Rome. On the way he died. In what manner is not +known; his wife, however, was with him, and it was in her hand that a +letter went to the senate stating that Trajan had adopted Hadrian as +his heir. Trajan had done nothing of the sort. The idea had indeed +occurred to him, but long since it had been abandoned. He had even +formally selected someone else, but his wife was with him, and her +lover commanded the troops. The lustre of the purple, always dazzling, +had fascinated Hadrian's eyes. Did he steal it? One may conjecture, yet +never know. In any event it was his, and he folded it very +magnificently about him. Still young, a trifle over thirty, handsome, +unusually accomplished, grand seigneur to his finger-tips, endowed with +a manner which is rumored to have been one of great charm, possessed of +the amplest appreciation of the elegancies of life, he had precisely +the figure which purple adorns. But, though the lustre had fascinated, +he too knew its spell; and presently he started off on a journey about +the world, which lasted fifteen years, and which, when ended, left the +world the richer for his passing, decorated with the monuments he had +strewn. Before that journey began, at the earliest rumor of Trajan's +death, the Euphrates and Tigris awoke, the cinders of Nineveh flamed. +The rivers and land that lay between knew that their conqueror had +gone. Hadrian knew it also, and knew too that, though he might occupy +the warrior's throne, he never could fill the warrior's place. To +Armenia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, freedom was restored. Dacia could have +had it for the asking. But over Dacia the toga had been thrown; it was +as Roman as Gaul. A corner of it is Roman still; the Roumanians are +there. But though Dacia was quiet, in its neighborhood the restless +Sarmatians prowled and threatened. Hadrian, who had already written a +book on tactics, knew at once how to act. Domitian's policy was before +him; he followed the precedent, and paid the Sarmatians to be still. It +requires little acumen to see that when Rome permitted herself to be +blackmailed the end was near. +</P> + +<P> +For the time being, however, there was peace, and in its interest +Hadrian set out on that unequalled journey over a land that was his. +Had fate relented, Trajan could have made a wider one still. But in +Trajan was the soldier merely, when he journeyed it was with the sword. +In Hadrian was the dilettante, the erudite too; he travelled not to +conquer, but to learn, to satisfy an insatiable curiosity, for +self-improvement, for glory too. Behind him was an army, not of +soldiers, but of masons, captained by architects, artists and +engineers. Did a site please him, there was a temple at once, or if not +that, then a bridge, an aqueduct, a library, a new fashion, sovereignty +even, but everywhere the spectacle of an emperor in flesh and blood. +For the first time the provinces were able to understand that a Caesar +was not necessarily a brute, a phantom and a god. +</P> + +<P> +It would have been interesting to have made one of that court of poets +and savants that surrounded him; to have dined with him in Paris, eaten +oysters in London; sat with him while he watched that wall go up before +the Scots, and then to have passed down again through a world still +young—a world beautiful, ornate, unutilitarian; a world to which +trams, advertisements and telegraph poles had not yet come; a world +that still had illusions, myths and mysteries; one in which religion +and poetry went hand in hand—a world without newspapers, hypocrisy and +cant. +</P> + +<P> +Hadrian, doubtless, enjoyed it. He was young enough to have enthusiasms +and to show them; he was one of the best read men of the day; he was +poet, painter, sculptor, musician, erudite and emperor in one. Of +course he enjoyed it. The world, over which he travelled, was his, not +by virtue of the purple alone, but because of his knowledge of it. The +prince is not necessarily cosmopolitan; the historian and antiquarian +are. Hadrian was an early Quinet, an earlier Champollion; always the +thinker, sometimes the cook. And to those in his suite it must have +been a sight very unique to see a Caesar who had published his volume +of erotic verse, just as any other young man might do; who had hunted +lions, not in the arena, but in Africa, make researches on the plain +where Troy had been, and a supreme of sow's breast, peacock, pheasant, +ham and boar, which he called Pentapharmarch, and which he offered as +he had his Catacriani—the erotic verse—as something original and nice. +</P> + +<P> +Insatiably inquisitive, verifying a history that he was preparing in +the lands which gave that history birth, he passed through Egypt and +Asia, questioning sphinxes, the cerements of kings, the arcana of the +temples; deciphering the sacred books, arguing with magi, interrogating +the stars. For the thinker, after the fashion of the hour, was +astrologer too, and one of the few anecdotes current concerning him is +in regard to a habit he had of drawing up on the 31st of December the +events of the coming year. After consulting the stars on that 31st of +December which occurred in the twenty-second year of his reign, he +prepared a calendar which extended only to the 10th of July. On that +day he died. +</P> + +<P> +The calendar does not seem to have been otherwise serviceable. It was +in Bithynia he found a shepherd whose appearance which, in its +perfection, was quite earthly, suggested neither heaven nor hell, but +some planet where the atmosphere differs from ours; where it is pink, +perhaps, or faintly ochre; where birth and death have forms higher than +here. +</P> + +<P> +Hadrian, captivated, led the lad in leash. The facts concerning that +episode have been so frequently given that the repetition is needless +here. Besides, the point is elsewhere. Presently the lad fell +overboard. Hadrian lost a valet, Rome an emperor, and Olympus a god. +But in attempting to deify the lost lackey, the grief of Hadrian was so +immediate, that it is permissible to fancy that the lad's death was not +one of those events which the emperor-astrologer noted beforehand on +his calendar. The lad was decently buried, the Nile gave up her dead, +and on the banks a fair city rose, one that had its temples, priests, +altars and shrines; a city that worshipped a star, and called that star +Antinous. Hadrian then could have congratulated himself. Even Caligula +would have envied him. He had done his worst; he had deified not a lad, +but a lust. And not for the moment alone. A half century later +Tertullian noted that the worship still endured, and subsequently the +Alexandrine Clement discovered consciences that Antinous had reproached. +</P> + +<P> +Antinous, deified, was presently forgot. A young Roman, wonderfully +beautiful, Dion says, yet singularly effeminate; a youth who could +barely carry a shield; who slept between rose-leaves and lilies; who +was an artist withal; a poet who had written lines that Martial might +have mistaken for his own, Cejonius Verus by name, succeeded the +Bithynian shepherd. Hadrian, who would have adopted Antinous, adopted +Verus in his stead. But Hadrian was not happy in his choice. Verus +died, and singularly enough, Hadrian selected as future emperor the one +ruler against whom history has not a reproach, Pius Antonin. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile the journey continued. The Thousand and One Nights were +realized then if ever. The beauty of the world was at its apogee, the +glory of Rome as well; and through secrets and marvels Hadrian +strolled, note-book in hand, his eyes unwearied, his curiosity +unsatiated still. To pleasure him the intervales took on a fairer glow; +cities decked themselves anew, the temples unveiled their mysteries; +and when he passed to the intervales liberty came; to the cities, +sovereignty; to the temples, shrines. The world rose to him as a woman +greets her lover. His travels were not fatigues; they were delights, in +which nations participated, and of which the memories endure as though +enchanted still. +</P> + +<P> +It would have been interesting, no doubt, to have dined with him in +Paris; to have quarried lions in their African fens; to have heard +archaic hymns ripple through the rushes of the Nile; to have lounged in +the Academe, to have scaled Parnassus, and sailed the AEgean Sea; but, +a history and an arm-chair aiding, the traveller has but to close his +eyes and the past returns. Without disturbing so much as a shirt-box, +he may repeat that promenade. Triremes have foundered; litters are out +of date; painted elephants are no more; the sky has changed, climates +with it; there are colors, as there are arts, that have gone from us +forever; there are desolate plains, where green and yellow was; the +shriek of steam where gods have strayed; advertisements in sacred +groves; Baedekers in ruins that never heard an atheist's voice; +solitudes where there were splendors; the snarl of jackals where once +were birds and bees—yet, history and the arm-chair aiding, it all +returns. Any traveller may follow in Hadrian's steps; he is stayed but +once—on the threshold of the Temple of Eleusis. It is there history +gropes, impotent and blind, and it is there the interest of that +journey culminated. +</P> + +<P> +Beyond the episode connected with Antinous, Hadrian's journey was +marked by another, one which occurred in Judaea. Both were infamous, no +doubt, but, what is more to the point, both mark the working of the +poison in the purple that he bore. +</P> + +<P> +Since Titus had gone, despairful Judaea had taken heart again. Hope in +that land was inextinguishable. The walls of Jerusalem were still +standing; in the Temple the offices continued. Though Rome remained, +there was Israel too. Passing that way one afternoon, Hadrian mused. +The city affected him; the site was superb. And as he mused it occurred +to him that Jerusalem was less harmonious to the ear than +Hadrianopolis; that the Temple occupied a position on which a Capitol +would look far better; in brief, that Jehovah might be advantageously +replaced by Jove. The army of masons that were ever at his heels were +set to work at once. They had received similar orders and performed +similar tasks so often that they could not fancy anyone would object. +The Jews did. They fought as they had never fought before; they fought +for three years against a Nebuchadnezzar who created torrents of blood +so abundant that stones were carried for miles, and who left corpses +enough to fertilize the land for a decade. The survivors were sold. +Those for whom no purchasers could be found had their heads amputated. +Jerusalem was razed to the ground. The site of the Temple was furrowed +by the plow, sown with salt, and in place of the City of David rose +AElia Capitolina, a miniature Rome, whose gates, save on one day in the +year, Jews were forbidden under penalty of death to pass, were +forbidden to look at, and over which were images of swine, pigs with +scornful snouts, the feet turned inward, the tail twisted like a lie. +</P> + +<P> +It was not honorable warfare, but it was effective; then, too, it was +Hadrianesque, the mad insult of a madman to a race as mad as he. The +purple had done its work. History has left the rise of this emperor +conjectural; his fall is written in blood. As he began he ended, a poet +and a beast. +</P> + +<P> +Presently he was in Rome. It was not homesickness that took him there; +he was far too cosmopolitan to suffer from any such malady as that. It +was the accumulations of a fifteen-year excursion through the +metropoles of art which demanded a gallery of their own. Another with +similar tastes and similar power might have ordered everything which +pleasured his eye to be carted to Rome, but in his quality of artifex +omnipotens Hadrian embellished and never sacked. There were painters +and sculptors enough in that army at his heels, and whatever appealed +to him was copied on the spot. So much was copied that a park of ten +square miles was just large enough to form the open-air museum which he +had designed, one which centuries of excavation have not exhausted yet. +</P> + +<P> +The museum became a mad-house. Hadrian was ill; tired in mind and body, +smitten with imperialia. It was then the young Verus died, leaving for +a wonder a child behind, and more wonderful still, Antonin was adopted. +Through Rome, meanwhile, terror stalked. Hadrian, in search of a remedy +against his increasing confusion of mind, his visible weakness of body, +turned from physicians to oracles; from them to magic, and then to +blood. He decimated the senate. Soldiers, freemen, citizens, anybody +and everybody were ordered off to death. He tried to kill himself and +failed; he tried again, wondering, no doubt, why he who commanded death +for others could not command it for himself. Presently he succeeded, +and Antonin—the pious Antonin, as the senate called him—marshalled +from cellars and crypts the senators and citizens whom Hadrian had +ordered to be destroyed. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +FAUSTINE +</H3> + +<P> +Anyone who has loitered a moment among the statues in the Salle des +Antonins at the Louvre will recall the bust of the Empress Faustina. It +stands near the entrance, coercing the idler to remove his hat; to stop +a moment, to gaze and dream. The face differs from that which Mr. +Swinburne has described. In the poise of the head, in the expression of +the lips, particularly in the features which, save the low brow, are +not of the Roman type, there is a commingling of just that loveliness +and melancholy which must have come to Psyche when she lost her god. In +the corners of the mouth, in the droop of the eyelids, in the moulding +of the chin, you may see that rarity—beauty and intellect in one—and +with it the heightening shadow of an eternal regret. Before her Marcus +Aurelius, her husband, stands, decked with the purple, with all the +splendor of the imperator, his beard in overlapping curls, his +questioning eyes dilated. Beyond is her daughter, Lucille, less fair +than the mother, a healthy girl of the dairymaid type. Near by is the +son, Commodus. Across the hall is Lucius Verus, the husband of Lucille; +in a corner, Antonin, Faustine's father, and, more remotely, his wife. +Together they form quite a family group, and to the average tourist +they must seem a thoroughly respectable lot. Antonin certainly was +respectable. He was the first emperor who declined to be a brute. +Referring to his wife he said that he would rather be with her in a +desert than without her in a palace; the speech, parenthetically, of a +man who, though he could have cited that little Greek princess, +Nausicaa, as a precedent, was too well-bred to permit so much as a +fringe of his household linen to flutter in public. Besides, at his +hours, he was a poet, and it is said that if a poet tell a lie twice he +will believe it. Antonin so often declared his wife to be a charming +person that in the end no doubt he thought so. She was not charming, +however, or if she were, her charm was not that of exclusiveness. +</P> + +<P> +It was in full sight of this lady's inconsequences that Faustine was +educated. Wherever she looked, the candors of her girlhood were +violated. The phallus then was omnipresent. Iamblicus, not the +novelist, but the philosopher, has much to say on the subject; as has +Arnobius in the Adversus gentes, and Lactance in the De falsa +religione. If Juvenal, Martial, Petronius, are more reticent, it is +because they were not Fathers of the Church, nor yet antiquarians. No +one among us exacts a description of a spire. The phallus was as common +to them, commoner even. It was on the coins, on the doors, in the +gardens. As a preservative against Envy it hung from children's necks. +On sun-dials and water clocks it marked the flight of time. The vestals +worshipped it. At weddings it was used in a manner which need not be +described. +</P> + +<P> +It was from such surroundings that Faustine stepped into the arms of +the severe and stately prince whom her father had chosen. That Marcus +Aurelius adored her is certain. His notebook shows it. A more +tender-hearted and perfect lover romance may show, but history cannot. +He must have been the quintessence of refinement, a thoroughbred to his +finger-tips; one for whom that purple mantle was too gaudy, and yet who +bore it, as he bore everything else, in that self-abnegatory spirit +which the higher reaches of philosophy bring. +</P> + +<P> +He was of that rare type that never complains and always consoles. +</P> + +<P> +After Antonin's death, his hours ceased to be his own. On the Euphrates +there was the wildest disorder. To the north new races were pushing +nations over the Danube and the Rhine. From the catacombs Christ was +emerging; from the Nile, Serapis. The empire was in disarray. Antonin +had provided his son-in-law with a coadjutor, Lucius Verus, the son of +Hadrian's mignon, a magnificent scoundrel; a tall, broad-shouldered +athlete, with a skin as fresh as a girl's and thick curly hair, which +he covered with a powder of gold; a viveur, whose suppers are famous +still; whose guests were given the slaves that served them, the plate +off which they had eaten, the cups from which they had drunk—cups of +gold, cups of silver, jewelled cups, cups from Alexandria, murrhine +vases filled with nard—cars and litters to go home with, mules with +silver trappings and negro muleteers. Capitolinus says that, while the +guests feasted, sometimes the magnificent Verus got drunk, and was +carried to bed in a coverlid, or else, the red feather aiding, turned +out and fought the watch. +</P> + +<P> +It was this splendid individual to whom Marcus Aurelius entrusted the +Euphrates. They had been brought up together, sharing each others +tutors, writing themes for the same instructor, both meanwhile +adolescently enamored of the fair Faustine. It was to Marcus she was +given, the empire as a dower; and when that dower passed into his +hands, he could think of nothing more equitable than to ask Verus to +share it with him. Verus was not stupid enough to refuse, and at the +hour when the Parthians turned ugly, he needed little urging to set out +for the East, dreaming, as he did so, of creating there an empire that +should be wholly his. +</P> + +<P> +At that time Faustine must have been at least twenty-eight, possibly +thirty. There were matrons who had not seen their fifteenth year, and +Faustine had been married young. Her daughter, Lucille, was nubile. +Presently Verus, or rather his lieutenants, succeeded, and the girl was +betrothed to him. There was a festival, of course, games in abundance, +and plenty of blood. +</P> + +<P> +It would have been interesting to have seen her that day, the iron ring +of betrothal on her finger, her brother, Commodus, staring at the +arrangement of her hair, her mother prettily perplexed, her father +signing orders which messengers brought and despatched while the sand +took on a deeper red, and Rome shrieked its delight. Yes, it would have +been interesting and typical of the hour. Her hair in the ten tresses +which were symbolic of a fiancee's innocence, must have amused that +brute of a brother of hers, and the iron ring on the fourth finger of +her left hand must have given Faustine food for thought; the vestals, +in their immaculate robes, must have gazed at her in curious, sisterly +ways, and because of her fresh beauty surely there were undertones of +applause. Should her father disappear she would make a gracious +imperatrix indeed. +</P> + +<P> +But, meanwhile, there was Faustine, and at sight of her legends of old +imperial days returned. She was not Messalina yet, but in the stables +there were jockeys whose sudden wealth surprised no one; in the arenas +there were gladiators that fought, not for liberty, nor for death, but +for the caresses of her eyes; in the side-scenes there were mimes who +spoke of her; there were senators who boasted in their cups, and in the +theatre Rome laughed colossally at the catchword of her amours. +</P> + +<P> +Marcus Aurelius then was occupied with affairs of state. In similar +circumstances so was Claud—Messalina's husband—so, too, was Antonin. +But Claud was an imbecile, Antonin a man of the world, while Marcus +Aurelius was a philosopher. When fate links a woman to any one of these +varieties of the husband, she is blessed indeed. Faustine was +particularly favored. +</P> + +<P> +The stately prince was not alone a philosopher—a calling, by the way, +which was common enough then, and has become commoner since—he was a +philosopher who believed in philosophy, a rarity then as now. The exact +trend of his thought is difficult to define. His note-book is filled +with hesitations; materialism had its allurements, so also had +pantheism; the advantages of the Pyrrhonic suspension of judgment were +clear to him too; according to the frame of mind in which he wrote, you +might fancy him an agnostic, again an akosmist, sometimes both, but +always the ethical result is the same. +</P> + +<P> +"Revenge yourself on your enemy by not resembling him. Forgive; forgive +always; die forgiving. Be indulgent to the wrong-doer; be compassionate +to him; tell him how he should act; speak to him without anger, without +sarcasm; speak to him affectionately. Besides, what do you know of his +wrong-doing? Are all his thoughts familiar to you? May there not be +something that justifies him? And you, are you entirely free from +reproach? Have you never done wrong? And if not, was it fear that +restrained you? Was it pride, or what?" +</P> + +<P> +In the synoptic gospels similar recommendations appear. Charity is the +New Testament told in a word. Christians read and forget it. But +Christians are not philosophers. The latter are charitable because they +regard evil as a part of the universal order of things, one which it is +idle to blame, yet permissible to rectify. +</P> + +<P> +From whatever source such a tenet springs, whether from materialism, +stoicism, pyrrhonism, epicureanism, atheism even, is of small matter; +it is a tenet which is honorable to the holder. This sceptred +misanthrope possessed it, and it was in that his wife was blessed. +Years later he died, forgiving her in silence, praising her aloud. +Claud, referring to Messalina, shouted through the Forum that the fate +which destined him to marry impure women destined him to punish them. +Marcus Aurelius said nothing. He did not know what fate destined him to +do, but he did know that philosophy taught him to forgive. +</P> + +<P> +It was this philosophy that first perplexed Faustine. She was restless, +frivolous, perhaps also a trifle depraved. Frivolous because all women +were, depraved because her mother was, and restless because of the +curiosity that inflammable imaginations share—in brief, a Roman +princess. Her husband differed from the Roman prince. His youth had not +been entirely circumspect; he, too, had his curiosities, but they were +satisfied, he had found that they stained. When he married he was +already the thinker; doubtless, he was tiresome; he could have had +little small-talk, and his hours of love-making must have been rare. +Presently the affairs of state engrossed him. Faustine was left to +herself; save a friend of her own sex, a woman can have no worse +companion. She, too, discovered she had curiosities. A gladiator passed +that way—then Rome; then Lesbos; then the Lampsacene. "You are my +husband's mistress," her daughter cried at her. "And you," the mother +answered, "are your brother's." Even in the aridity of a chronicle the +accusation and rejoinder are dramatic. Fancy what they must have been +when mother and daughter hissed them in each other's teeth. Whether the +argument continued is immaterial. Both could have claimed the sanction +of religion. In those days a sin was a prayer. Religion was then, as it +always had been, purely political. With the individual, with his +happiness or aspirations, it concerned itself not at all. It was the +prosperity of the empire, its peace and immortality, for which +sacrifices were made, and libations offered. The god of Rome was Rome, +and religion was patriotism. The antique virtues, courage in war, +moderation in peace, and honor at all times, were civic, not personal. +It was the state that had a soul, not the individual. Man was +ephemeral; it was the nation that endured. It was the permanence of its +grandeur that was important, nothing else. +</P> + +<P> +To ensure that permanence each citizen labored. As for the citizen, +death was near, and he hastened to live; before the roses could fade he +wreathed himself with them. Immortality to him was in his descendants, +the continuation of his name, respect to his ashes. Any other form of +future life was a speculation, infrequent at that. In anterior epochs +Fright had peopled Tartarus, but Fright had gone. The Elysian Fields +were vague, wearisome to contemplate; even metempsychosis had no +adherents. "After death," said Caesar, "there is nothing," and all the +world agreed with him. The hour, too, in which three thousand gods had +not a single atheist, had gone, never to return. Old faiths had +crumbled. None the less was Rome the abridgment of every superstition. +The gods of the conquered had always been part of her spoils. The +Pantheon had become a lupanar of divinities that presided over birth, +and whose rites were obscene; an abattoir of gods that presided over +death, and whose worship was gore. To please them was easy. Blood and +debauchery was all that was required. That the upper classes had no +faith in them at all goes without the need of telling; the atmosphere +of their atriums dripped with metaphysics. But of the atheism of the +upper classes the people knew nothing; they clung piously to a faith +which held a theological justification of every sin, and in the temples +fervent prayers were murmured, not for future happiness, for that was +unobtainable, nor yet for wisdom or virtue, for those things the gods +neither granted nor possessed; the prayers were that the gods would +favor the suppliant in his hatreds and in his lusts. +</P> + +<P> +Such was Rome when Verus returned to wed Lucille. Before his car the +phallus swung; behind it was the pest. A little before, the Tiber +overflowed. Presently, in addition to the pest, famine came. It was +patent to everyone that the gods were vexed. There was blasphemy +somewhere, and the Christians were tossed to the beasts. Faustine +watched them die. At first they were to her as other criminals, but +immediately a difference was discerned. They met death, not with grace, +perhaps, but with exaltation. They entered the arena as though it were +an enchanted garden, the color of the emerald, where dreams came true. +Faustine questioned. They were enemies of state, she was told. The +reply left her perplexed, and she questioned again. It was then her +eyes became inhabited by regret. The past she tried to put from her, +but remorse is physical; it declines to be dismissed. She would have +killed herself, but she no longer dared. Besides, in the future there +was light. In some ray of it she must have walked, for when at the foot +of Mount Taurus, in a little Cappadocian village, years later, she +died, it was at the sign of the cross. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE AGONY +</H3> + +<P> +The high virtues are not complaisant, it is the cad the canaille adore. +In spite of everything, Nero had been beloved by the masses. For years +there were roses on his tomb. Under Vespasian there was an impostor +whom Greece and Asia acclaimed in his name. The memory of his festivals +was unforgetable; regret for him refused to be stilled. He was more +than a god; he was a tradition. His second advent was confidently +expected; the Jews believed in his resurrection; to the Christian he +had never died, and suddenly he reappeared. +</P> + +<P> +Rome had declined to accept the old world tenet that the soul has its +avatars, yet, when Commodus sauntered from that distant sepulchre, into +which, poison aiding, he had placed his putative father, Rome felt that +the Egyptians were wiser than they looked; that the soul did migrate, +and that in the blue eyes of the young emperor Nero's spirit shone. +</P> + +<P> +Herodian, who has written very agreeably on the subject, describes him +as another Prince Charming. His hair, which was very fair, glistened +like gold in the sun; he was slender, not at all effeminate, +exceedingly graceful, exceedingly gracious; endowed with the promptest +blush, with the best intentions; studious of the interests of his +people; glad of advice, seeking it even; courteous and deferential to +the senate and his father's friends—in short, an adolescent Nero—a +trifle more guileful, however; already a parricide, a comedian as well; +one who in a moment would toss the mask aside and disclose the mongrel; +the offspring, not of an empress and an emperor, but the tiger-cub that +Faustine had got by a gladiator. +</P> + +<P> +The tender-hearted philosopher, who in a campaign against some fretful +Teutons, had taken Commodus with him, knew that he was not his son; +knew, too, when the agony seized him, from whose hand the agony came; +but in earlier life he had jotted in his notebook, "Forgive, forgive +always; die forgiving"; and, as he forgave the mother, so he forgave +the child, recommending him with his last breath to the army and to +Rome. +</P> + +<P> +As the people had loved Nero, so did the aristocracy love Marcus +Aurelius; his foster-father Antonin excepted, he was the only gentleman +that had sat on the throne. No wonder they loved him; and seeing this +early edition of the prince in the fairy tale emerge from the bogs of +Germany, his fair face haloed by the glisten and gold of his hair, +hearts went out to him; the wish of his putative father was ratified, +and the son of a gladiator was emperor of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +Lampridus—or Spartian was it? The title-page bears Lampridus' name, +but there is some doubt as to the authorship. However, whoever made the +abridgment of the life of Commodus which appears among the chronicles +of the Scriptores Historiae Augustae, says that before his birth +Faustine dreamed she had engendered a serpent. It is not impossible +that Faustine had been reading Ctzias, and had stumbled over his +account of the Martichoras, a serpent with a woman's face and the +talons of a bird of prey. For it was that she conceived. +</P> + +<P> +It would have been interesting to have seen that young man, the mask +removed, frightening the senate into calling Rome Commodia, and then in +a linen robe promenading in the attributes of a priest of Anubis +through a seraglio of six hundred girls and mignons embracing as he +passed. There was a spectacle, which Nero had not imagined. But Nero +was vieux jeu. Commodus outdid him, first in debauchery, then in the +arena. Nero had died while in training to kill a lion; Commodus did not +take the trouble to train. It was the lions that were trained, not he. +A skin on his shoulders, a club in his hand, he descended naked into +the ring, and there felled beasts and men. Then, acclaimed as Hercules, +he returned to the pulvina, and a mignon on one side, a mistress on the +other, ordered the guard to massacre the spectators and set fire to +Rome. After entering the arena six or seven hundred times, and there +vanquishing men whose eyes had been put out and whose legs were tied, +the colossal statue which Nero had made after his own image was +altered; to the top came the bust of Commodus, to the base this legend: +THE VICTOR OF TEN THOUSAND GLADIATORS, COMMODUS-HERCULES, IMPERATOR. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile conspirators were at work. Like Nero, Commodus could have +sought in vain for a friend. His life was attempted again and again; he +escaped, but never the plotters; only when they had gone there were +more. He knew he was doomed. There was the usual comet; the statue of +Hercules had perspired visibly; an owl had been caught above his +bedroom, and once he had wiped in his hair the hand which he had +plunged in the warm wound of a gladiator, dead at his feet. These omens +could mean but one thing. None the less, if he were doomed, so were +others. One day one of those miserable children that the emperors kept +about them found a tablet. It was as good as anything else to play +with; and, as the child tossed it through the hall, the one woman that +had loved Commodus caught it and read on it that she and all the +household were to die. Within an hour Commodus was killed. +</P> + +<P> +There is a page in Lampridus, which he quotes as coming from the lost +chronicles of Marius Maximus, and which contains the joy of the senate +at the news. It is too long for transcription, but as a bit of realism +it is unique. There is a shiver in every line. You hear the voices of +hundreds, drunk with fury, frenzied with delight; the fierce welcome +that greeted Pertinax—a slave's grandson, who was emperor for a +minute—the joy of hate assuaged. +</P> + +<P> +The delight of the senate was not shared by the pretorians. Pertinax +was promptly massacred; the throne was put up at auction; there were +two or three emperors at once, and presently the purple was seized by +Septimus Severus, a rigid, white-haired disciplinarian, who, in his +admiration for Marcus Aurelius, founded that second dynasty of the +Antonins with which antiquity may be said to end. +</P> + +<P> +When he had gone, his elder son, Bastian, renamed Aurelius Antonin, and +because of a cloak he had invented nicknamed Caracalla, bounded like a +panther on the throne. In a moment he was gnawing at his brother's +throat, and immediately there occurred a massacre such as Rome had +never seen. Xiphilin says the nights were not long enough to kill all +of the condemned. Twenty thousand people were slaughtered in twenty +hours. The streets were emptied, the theatres closed. +</P> + +<P> +The blood that ran then must have been in rillets too thin to slake +Caracalla's thirst, for simultaneously almost, he was in Gaul, in +Dacia—wherever there was prey. African by his father, Syrian on his +mother's side, Caracalla was not a panther merely; he was a herd of +them. He had the cruelty, the treachery and guile of a wilderness of +tiger-cats. No man, said a thinker, is wholly base. Caracalla was. He +had not a taste, not a vice, even, which was not washed and rewashed in +blood. In a moment of excitement Commodus set his guards on the +spectators in the amphitheatre; the damage was slight, for the +Colosseum was so constructed that in two minutes the eighty or ninety +thousand people which it held could escape. Caracalla had the exits +closed. Those who escaped were naked; to bribe the guards they were +forced to strip themselves to the skin. In the circus a vestal caught +his eye. He tried to violate her, and failing impotently, had her +buried alive. "Caracalla knows that I am a virgin, and knows why," the +girl cried as the earth swallowed her, but there was no one there to +aid. +</P> + +<P> +Such things show the trend of a temperament, though not, perhaps, its +force. Presently the latter was displayed. For years those arch-enemies +of Rome, the unconquerable Parthians, had been quiet; bound, too, by +treaties which held Rome's honor. Not Caracalla's, however; he had +none. An embassy went out to Artobane, the king. Caracalla wished a +bride, and what fairer one could he have than the child of the Parthian +monarch? Then, too, the embassy was charged to explain, the marriage of +Rome and Parthia would be the union of the Orient and the Occident, +peace by land and sea. Artobane hesitated, and with cause; but +Caracalla wooed so ardently that finally the king said yes. The news +went abroad. The Parthians, delighted, prepared to receive the emperor. +When Caracalla crossed the Tigris, the highroad that led to the capital +was strewn with sacrifices, with altars covered with flowers, with +welcomings of every kind. Caracalla was visibly pleased. Beyond the +gates of the capital, there was the king; he had advanced to greet his +son-in-law, and that the greeting might be effective, he had assembled +his nobles and his troops. The latter were armed with cymbals, with +hautbois, and with flutes; and as Caracalla and his army approached, +there was music, dancing and song; there were libations too, and as the +day was practically the wedding of East and West, there was not a +weapon to be seen—gala robes merely, brilliant and long. Caracalla +saluted the king, gave an order to an adjutant, and on the smiling +defenceless Parthians the Roman eagles pounced. Those who were not +killed were made prisoners of war. The next day Caracalla withdrew, +charged with booty, firing cities as he went. +</P> + +<P> +A little before, rumor reached him that a group of the citizens of +Alexandria had referred to him as a fratricide. After the adventure in +Parthia he bethought him of the city which Alexander had founded, and +of the temple of Serapis that was there. He wished to honor both, he +declared, and presently he was at the gates. The people were enchanted; +the avenues were strewn with flowers, lined with musicians. There were +illuminations, festivals, sacrifices, torrents of perfumes, and through +it all Caracalla passed, a legion at his heels. To see him, to +participate in the succession of prodigalities, the surrounding country +flocked there too. In recognition of the courtesy with which he was +received, Caracalla gave a banquet to the magnates and the clergy. +Before his guests could leave him they were killed. Through the streets +the legion was at work. Alexandria was turned into a cemetery. Herodian +states that the carnage was so great that the Nile was red to its mouth. +</P> + +<P> +In Rome at that time was a prefect, Macrin by name, who had dreamed the +purple would be his. He was a swarthy liar, and his promises were such +that the pretorians were willing that the dream should come true. +Emissaries were despatched, and Caracalla was stabbed. In his luggage +poison was found to the value of five million five hundred thousand +drachmae. What fresh turpitude he was devising no one knew, and the +discovery might serve as an epitaph, were it not that by his legions he +was adored. No one had abandoned to the army such booty as he. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, in a chapel at Emissa, a boy was dancing indolently to the +kiss of flutes. A handful of Caracalla's soldiers passed that way, and +thought him Bacchus. In his face was the enigmatic beauty of gods and +girls—the charm of the dissolute and the wayward heightened by the +divine. On his head was a diadem; his frail tunic was of purple and +gold, but the sleeves, after the Phoenician fashion, were wide, and he +was shod with a thin white leather that reached to the thighs. He was +fourteen, and priest of the Sun. The chapel was roomy and rich. There +was no statue—a black phallus merely, which had fallen from above, and +on which, if you looked closely, you could see the image of Elagabal, +the Sun. +</P> + +<P> +The rumor of his beauty brought other soldiers that way, and the lad, +feeling that Rome was there, ceased to dance, strolling through pauses +of the worship, a troop of galli at his heels, surveying the intruders +with querulous, feminine eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Presently a whisper filtered that the lad was Caracalla's son. There +were centurions there that remembered Semiamire, the lad's mother, very +well; they had often seen her, a superb creature with scorching eyes, +before whom fire had been carried as though she were empress. It was +she who had put it beyond Caracalla's power to violate that vestal when +he tried. She was his cousin; her life had been passed at court; it was +Macrin who had exiled her. And with the whisper filtered another—that +she was rich; that she had lumps of gold, which she would give gladly +to whomso aided in placing her Antonin on the throne. There were +gossips who said ill-natured things of this lady; who insinuated that +she had so many lovers that she herself could not tell who was the +father of her child; but the lumps of gold had a language of their own. +The disbanded army espoused the young priest's cause; there was a +skirmish, Macrin was killed, and Heliogabalus was emperor of Rome. +</P> + +<P> +"I would never have written the life of this Antonin Impurissimus," +said Lampridus, "were it not that he had predecessors." Even in Latin +the task was difficult. In English it is impossible. There are subjects +that permit of a hint, particularly if it be masked to the teeth, but +there are others that no art can drape. "The inexpressible does not +exist," Gautier remarked, when he finished a notorious romance, nor +does it; but even his pen would have balked had he tried it on +Heliogabalus. +</P> + +<P> +In his work on the Caesars, Suetonius drew breath but once—he called +Nero a monster. Subsequently he must have regretted having done so, not +because Nero was not a monster, but because it was sufficient to +display the beast without adding a descriptive placard. In that was +Suetonius' advantage; he could describe. Nowadays a writer may not, or +at least not Heliogabalus. It is not merely that he was depraved, for +all of that lot were; it was that he made depravity a pursuit; and, the +purple favoring, carried it not only beyond the limits of the +imaginable, but beyond the limits of the real. At the feet of that +painted boy, Elephantis and Parrhasius could have sat and learned a +lesson. Apart from that phase of his sovereignty, he was a little +Sardanapalus, an Asiatic mignon, who found himself great. +</P> + +<P> +It would have been curious to have seen him in that wonderful palace, +clothed like a Persian queen, insisting that he should be addressed as +Imperatrix, and quite living up to the title. It would not only be +interesting, it would give one an insight into just how much the Romans +could stand. It would have been curious, also, to have assisted at that +superb and poetic ceremonial, in which, having got Tanit from Carthage +as consort for Elagabal, he presided, girt with the pomp of church and +state, over the nuptials of the Sun and Moon. +</P> + +<P> +He had read Suetonius, and not an eccentricity of the Caesars escaped +him. He would not hunt flies by the hour, as Domitian had done, for +that would be mere imitation; but he could collect cobwebs, and he did, +by the ton. Caligula and Vitellius had been famous as hosts, but the +feasts that Heliogabalus gave outranked them for sheer splendor. From +panels in the ceiling such masses of flowers fell that guests were +smothered. Those that survived had set before them glass game and +sweets of crystal. The menu was embroidered on the table-cloth—not the +mere list of dishes, but pictures drawn with the needle of the dishes +themselves. And presently, after the little jest in glass had been +enjoyed, you were served with camel's heels; combs torn from living +cocks; platters of nightingale tongues; ostrich brains, prepared with +that garum sauce which the Sybarites invented, and of which the secret +is lost; therewith were peas and grains of gold; beans and amber +peppered with pearl dust; lentils and rubies; spiders in jelly; lion's +dung, served in pastry. The guests that wine overcame were carried to +bedrooms. When they awoke, there staring at them were tigers and +leopards—tame, of course; but some of the guests were stupid enough +not to know it, and died of fright. +</P> + +<P> +All this was of a nature to amuse a lad who had made the phallus the +chief object of worship; who had banished Jupiter, dismissed Isis; who, +over paths that were strewn with lilies, had himself, in the attributes +of Bacchus, drawn by tigers; by lions as Mother of the Gods; again, by +naked women, as Heliogabalus on his way to wed a vestal, and procure +for the empire a child that should be wholly divine. +</P> + +<P> +It amused Rome, too, and his prodigalities in the circus were such that +Lampridus admits that the people were glad he was emperor. Neither +Caligula nor Nero had been as lavish, and neither Caligula nor Nero as +cruel. The atrocities he committed, if less vast than those of +Caracalla's, were more acute. Domitian even was surpassed in the +tortures invented by a boy, so dainty that he never used the same +garments, the same shoes, the same jewels, the same woman twice. +</P> + +<P> +In spite of this, or perhaps precisely on that account, the usual +conspirators were at work, and one day this little painted girl, who +had prepared several devices for a unique and splendid suicide, was +taken unawares and tossed in the latrinae. +</P> + +<P> +In him the glow of the purple reached its apogee. Rome had been +watching a crescendo that had mounted with the years. Its culmination +was in that hermaphrodite. But the tension had been too +great—something snapped; there was nothing left—a procession of +colorless bandits merely, Thracians, Gauls, Pannonians, Dalmatians, +Goths, women even, with Attila for a climax and the refurbishing of the +world. +</P> + +<P> +Rome was still mistress, but she was growing very old. She had +conquered step by step. When one nation had fallen, she garrotted +another. To vanquish her, the earth had to produce not only new races, +but new creeds. The parturitions, as we know, were successful. Already +the blue, victorious eyes of Vandal and of Goth were peering down at +Rome; already they had whispered together, and over the hydromel had +drunk to her fall. The earth's new children fell upon her, not one by +one, but all at once, and presently the colossus tottered, startling +the universe with the uproar of her agony; calling to gods that had +vacated the skies; calling to Jupiter; calling to Isis; calling in +vain. Where the thunderbolt had gleamed, a crucifix stood. On the +shoulders of a prelate was the purple that had dazzled the world. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Imperial Purple, by Edgar Saltus + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMPERIAL PURPLE *** + +***** This file should be named 4250-h.htm or 4250-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/5/4250/ + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Imperial Purple + +Author: Edgar Saltus + +Posting Date: July 9, 2009 [EBook #4250] +Release Date: July, 2003 +First Posted: December 19, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMPERIAL PURPLE *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + +IMPERIAL PURPLE + + +By + +EDGAR SALTUS + + + + + +CONTENTS + + I. That Woman + II. Conjectural Rome + III. Fabulous Fields + IV. The Pursuit of the Impossible + V. Nero + VI. The House of Flavia + VII. The Poison in the Purple + VIII. Faustine + IX. The Agony + + + + +I + +THAT WOMAN + + +When the murder was done and the heralds shouted through the thick +streets the passing of Caesar, it was the passing of the republic they +announced, the foundation of Imperial Rome. + +There was a hush, then a riot which frightened a senate that frightened +the world. Caesar was adored. A man who could give millions away and +sup on dry bread was apt to conquer, not provinces alone, but hearts. +Besides, he had begun well and his people had done their best. The +House of Julia, to which he belonged, descended, he declared, from +Venus. The ancestry was less legendary than typical. Cinna drafted a +law giving him the right to marry as often as he chose. His mistresses +were queens. After the episodes in Gaul, when he entered Rome his +legions warned the citizens to have an eye on their wives. At seventeen +he fascinated pirates. A shipload of the latter had caught him and +demanded twenty talents ransom. "Too little," said the lad; "I will +give you fifty, and impale you too," which he did, jesting with them +meanwhile, reciting verses of his own composition, calling them +barbarians when they did not applaud, ordering them to be quiet when he +wished to sleep, captivating them by the effrontery of his assurance, +and, the ransom paid, slaughtering them as he had promised. + +Tall, slender, not handsome, but superb and therewith so perfectly sent +out that Cicero mistook him for a fop from whom the republic had +nothing to fear; splendidly lavish, exquisitely gracious, he was born +to charm, and his charm was such that it still subsists. Cato alone was +unenthralled. But Cato was never pleased; he laughed but once, and all +Rome turned out to see him; he belonged to an earlier day, to an +austerer, perhaps to a better one, and it may be that in "that woman," +as he called Caesar, his clearer vision discerned beneath the plumage +of the peacock, the beak and talons of the bird of prey. For they were +there, and needed only a vote of the senate to batten on nations of +which the senate had never heard. Loan him an army, and "that woman" +was to give geography such a twist that today whoso says Caesar says +history. + +Was it this that Cato saw, or may it be that one of the oracles which +had not ceased to speak had told him of that coming night when he was +to take his own life, fearful lest "that woman" should overwhelm him +with the magnificence of his forgiveness? Cato walks through history, +as he walked through the Forum, bare of foot--too severe to be simple, +too obstinate to be generous--the image of ancient Rome. + +In Caesar there was nothing of this. He was wholly modern; dissolute +enough for any epoch, but possessed of virtues that his contemporaries +could not spell. A slave tried to poison him. Suetonius says he merely +put the slave to death. The "merely" is to the point. Cato would have +tortured him first. After Pharsalus he forgave everyone. When severe, +it was to himself. It is true he turned over two million people into so +many dead flies, their legs in the air, creating, as Tacitus has it, a +solitude which he described as Peace; but what antitheses may not be +expected in a man who, before the first century was begun, divined the +fifth, and who in the Suevians--that terrible people beside whom no +nation could live--foresaw Attila! + +Save in battle his health was poor. He was epileptic, his strength +undermined by incessant debauches; yet let a nation fancying him months +away put on insurgent airs, and on that nation he descended as the +thunder does. In his campaigns time and again he overtook his own +messengers. A phantom in a ballad was not swifter than he. +Simultaneously his sword flashed in Germany, on the banks of the +Adriatic, in that Ultima Thule where the Britons lived. From the depths +of Gaul he dominated Rome, and therewith he was penetrating +impenetrable forests, trailing legions as a torch trails smoke, +erecting walls that a nation could not cross, turning soldiers into +marines, infantry into cavalry, building roads that are roads to-day, +fighting with one hand and writing an epic with the other, dictating +love-letters, chronicles, dramas; finding time to make a collection of +witticisms; overturning thrones while he decorated Greece; mingling +initiate into orgies of the Druids, and, as the cymbals clashed, +coquetting with those terrible virgins who awoke the tempest; not only +conquering, but captivating, transforming barbarians into soldiers and +those soldiers into senators, submitting three hundred nations and +ransacking Britannia for pearls for his mistresses' ears. + +Each epoch has its secret, and each epoch-maker his own. Caesar's +secret lay in the power he had of projecting a soul into the ranks of +an army, of making legions and their leader one. Disobedience only he +punished; anything else he forgave. After a victory his soldiery did +what they liked. He gave them arms, slaves to burnish them, women, +feasts, sleep. They were his comrades; he called them so; he wept at +the death of any of them, and when they were frightened, as they were +in Gaul before they met the Germans, and in Africa before they +encountered Juba, Caesar frightened them still more. He permitted no +questions, no making of wills. The cowards could hide where they liked; +his old guard, the Tenth, would do the work alone; or, threat still +more sinister, he would command a retreat. Ah, that, never! Fanaticism +returned, the legions begged to be punished. + +Michelet says he would like to have seen him crossing Gaul, bareheaded, +in the rain. It would have been as interesting, perhaps, to have +watched him beneath the shade of the velarium pleading the cause of +Masintha against the Numidian king. Before him was a crowd that covered +not the Forum alone, but the steps of the adjacent temples, the roofs +of the basilicas, the arches of Janus, one that extended remotely to +the black walls of the Curia Hostilia beyond. And there, on the +rostrum, a musician behind him supplying the la from a flute, the air +filled with gold motes, Caesar, his toga becomingly adjusted, a +jewelled hand extended, opened for the defence. Presently, when through +the exercise of that art of his which Cicero pronounced incomparable, +he felt that the sympathy of the audience was won, it would have been +interesting, indeed, to have heard him argue point after +point--clearly, brilliantly, wittily; insulting the plaintiff in poetic +terms; consigning him gracefully to the infernal regions; accentuating +a fictitious and harmonious anger; drying his forehead without +disarranging his hair; suffocating with the emotions he evoked; +displaying real tears, and with them a knowledge, not only of law, +rhetoric, philosophy, but of geometry, astronomy, ethics and the fine +arts; blinding his hearers with the coruscations of his erudition; +stirring them with his tongue, as with the point of a sword, until, as +though abruptly possessed by an access of fury, he seized the plaintiff +by the beard and sent him spinning like a leaf which the wind had +caught. + +It would have bored no one either to have assisted at his triumph when +he returned from Gaul, when he returned after Spain, after Pharsalus, +when he returned from Cleopatra's arms. + +On that day the Via Sacra was curtained with silk. To the blare of +twisted bugles there descended to it from the turning at the hill a +troop of musicians garmented in leather tunics, bonneted with lions' +heads. Behind them a hundred bulls, too fat to be troublesome, and +decked for death, bellowed musingly at the sacrifants, who, naked to +the waist, a long-handled hammer on the shoulder, maintained them with +colored cords. To the rumble of wide wheels and the thunder of +spectators the prodigious booty passed, and with it triumphs of war, +vistas of conquered countries, pictures of battles, lists of the +vanquished, symbols of cities that no longer were; a stretch of ivory +on which shone three words, each beginning with a V; images of gods +disturbed, the Rhine, the Rhone, the captive Ocean in massive gold; the +glitter of three thousand crowns offered to the dictator by the army +and allies of Rome. Then came the standards of the republic, a swarm of +eagles, the size of pigeons, in polished silver upheld by lances which +ensigns bore, preceding the six hundred senators who marched in a body, +their togas bordered with red, while to the din of incessant insults, +interminable files of prisoners passed, their wrists chained to iron +collars, which held their heads very straight, and to the rear a +litter, in which crouched the Vercingetorix of Gaul, a great moody +giant, his menacing eyes nearly hidden in the tangles of his tawny hair. + +When they had gone the street was alive with explosions of brass, +aflame with the burning red cloaks of laureled lictors making way for +the coming of Caesar. Four horses, harnessed abreast, their manes dyed, +their forelocks puffed, drew a high and wonderfully jewelled car; and +there, in the attributes and attitude of Jupiter Capitolinus, Caesar +sat, blinking his tired eyes. His face and arms were painted vermilion; +above the Tyrian purple of his toga, above the gold work and palms of +his tunic, there oscillated a little ball in which there were charms +against Envy. On his head a wreath concealed his increasing baldness; +along his left arm the sceptre lay; behind him a boy admonished him +noisily to remember he was man, while to the rear for miles and miles +there rang the laugh of trumpets, the click of castanets, the shouts of +dancers, the roar of the multitude, the tramp of legions, and the cry, +caught up and repeated, "Io! Triomphe!" + +Presently, in the temple of the god of gods, side by side with the +statue of Jupiter, Caesar found his own statue with "Caesar, demi-god," +at its base. The captive chiefs disappeared in the Tullianum, and a +herald called, "They have lived!" Through the squares jesters +circulated, polyglot and obscene; across the Tiber, in an artificial +lake, the flotilla of Egypt fought against that of Tyr; in the +amphitheatre there was a combat of soldiers, infantry against cavalry, +one that indemnified those that had not seen the massacres in Thessaly +and in Spain. There were public feasts, gifts to everyone. Tables were +set in the Forum, in the circuses and theatres. Falernian circulated in +amphorae, Chios in barrels. When the populace was gorged there were the +red feathers to enable it to gorge again. Of the Rome of Romulus there +was nothing left save the gaunt she-wolf, her wide lips curled at the +descendants of her nursling. + +Later, when in slippered feet Caesar wandered through those lovely +gardens of his that lay beyond the Tiber, it may be that he recalled a +dream which had come to him as a lad; one which concerned the +submission of his mother; one which had disturbed him until the +sooth-sayers said: "The mother you saw is the earth, and you will be +her master." And as the memory of the dream returned, perhaps with it +came the memory of the hour when as simple quaestor he had wept at +Gaddir before a statue that was there. Demi-god, yes; he was that. +More, even; he was dictator, but the dream was unfulfilled. There were +the depths of Hither Asia, the mysteries that lay beyond; there were +the glimmering plains of the Caucasus; there were the Vistula and the +Baltic; the diadems of Cyrus and of Alexander defying his ambition yet, +and what were triumphs and divinity to one who would own the world! + +It was this that preoccupied him. The immensity of his successes seemed +petty and Rome very small. Heretofore he had forgiven those who had +opposed him. Presently his attitude changed, and so subtly that it was +the more humiliating; it was not that he no longer forgave, he +disdained to punish. His contempt was absolute. The senate made his +office of pontifix maximus hereditary and accorded the title of +Imperator to his heirs. He snubbed the senate and the honors that it +brought. The senate was shocked. Composed of men whose fortunes he had +made, the senate was not only shocked, its education in ingratitude was +complete. Already there had been murmurs. Not content with disarranging +the calendar, outlining an empire, drafting a code while planning fresh +beauties, new theatres, bilingual libraries, larger temples, grander +gods, Caesar was at work in the markets, in the kitchens of the +gourmets, in the jewel-boxes of the virgins. Liberty, visibly, was +taking flight. Besides, the power concentrated in him might be so +pleasantly distributed. It was decided that Caesar was in the way. To +put him out of it a pretext was necessary. + +One day the senate assembled at his command. They were to sign a decree +creating him king. In order not to, Suetonius says, they killed him, +wounding each other in the effort, for Caesar fought like the demon +that he was, desisting only when he recognized Brutus, to whom, in +Greek, he muttered a reproach, and, draping his toga that he might fall +with decency, sank backward, his head covered, a few feet from the +bronze wolf that stood, its ears pointed at the letters S. P. Q. R. +which decorated a frieze of the Curia. + +Brutus turned to harangue the senate; it had fled. He went to the Forum +to address the people; there was no one. Rome was strangely empty. +Doors were barricaded, windows closed. Through the silent streets +gladiators prowled. Night came, and with it whispering groups. The +groups thickened, voices mounted. Caesar's will had been read. He had +left his gardens to the people, a gift to every citizen, his wealth and +power to his butchers. The body, which two slaves had removed, an arm +hanging from the litter, had never been as powerfully alive. Caesar +reigned then as never before. A mummer mouthed: + + "I brought them life, they gave me death." + +And willingly would the mob have made Rome the funeral pyre of their +idol. In the sky a comet appeared. It was his soul on its way to +Olympus. + + + + +II + +CONJECTURAL ROME + + +"I received Rome in brick; I shall leave it in marble," said Augustus, +who was fond of fine phrases, a trick he had caught from Vergil. And +when he looked from his home on the Palatine over the glitter of the +Forum and the glare of the Capitol to the new and wonderful precinct +which extended to the Field of Mars, there was a stretch of splendor +which sanctioned the boast. The city then was very vast. The tourist +might walk in it, as in the London of to-day, mile after mile, and at +whatever point he placed himself, Rome still lay beyond; a Rome quite +like London--one that was choked with mystery, with gold and curious +crime. + +But it was not all marble. There were green terraces and porphyry +porticoes that leaned to a river on which red galleys passed; there +were theatres in which a multitude could jeer at an emperor, and arenas +in which an emperor could watch a multitude die; there were bronze +doors and garden roofs, glancing villas and temples that defied the +sun; there were spacious streets, a Forum curtained with silk, the +glint and evocations of triumphal war, the splendor of a host of gods, +but it was not all marble; there were rents in the magnificence and +tatters in the laticlave of state. + +In the Subura, where at night women sat in high chairs, ogling the +passer with painted eyes, there was still plenty of brick; tall +tenements, soiled linen, the odor of Whitechapel and St. Giles. The +streets were noisy with match-peddlers, with vendors of cake and tripe +and coke; there were touts there too, altars to unimportant divinities, +lying Jews who dealt in old clothes, in obscene pictures and +unmentionable wares; at the crossings there were thimbleriggers, clowns +and jugglers, who made glass balls appear and disappear surprisingly; +there were doorways decorated with curious invitations, gossipy barber +shops, where, through the liberality of politicians, the scum of a +great city was shaved, curled and painted free; and there were public +houses, where vagabond slaves and sexless priests drank the mulled wine +of Crete, supped on the flesh of beasts slaughtered in the arena, or +watched the Syrian women twist to the click of castanets. + +Beyond were gray quadrangular buildings, the stomach of Rome, through +which, each noon, ediles passed, verifying the prices, the weights and +measures of the market men, examining the fish and meats, the enormous +cauliflowers that came from the suburbs, Veronese carrots, Arician +pears, stout thrushes, suckling pigs, eggs embedded in grass, oysters +from Baiae, boxes of onions and garlic mixed, mountains of poppies, +beans and fennel, destroying whatever had ceased to be fresh and taxing +that which was. + +On the Via Sacra were the shops frequented by ladies; bazaars where +silks and xylons were to be had, essences and unguents, travelling +boxes of scented wood, switches of yellow hair, useful drugs such as +hemlock, aconite, mandragora and cantharides; the last thing of Ovid's +and the improper little novels that came from Greece. + +On the Appian Way, through green afternoons and pink arcades, fashion +strolled. There wealth passed in its chariots, smart young men that +smelt of cinnamon instead of war, nobles, matrons, cocottes. + +At the other end of the city, beyond the menagerie of the Pantheon, was +the Field of Mars, an open-air gymnasium, where every form of exercise +was to be had, even to that simple promenade in which the Romans +delighted, and which in Caesar's camp so astonished the Verronians that +they thought the promenaders crazy and offered to lead them to their +tents. There was tennis for those who liked it; racquets, polo, +football, quoits, wrestling, everything apt to induce perspiration and +prepare for the hour when a gong of bronze announced the opening of the +baths--those wonderful baths, where the Roman, his slaves about him, +after passing through steam and water and the hands of the masseur, had +every hair plucked from his arms, legs and armpits; his flesh rubbed +down with nard, his limbs polished with pumice; and then, wrapped in a +scarlet robe, lined with fur, was sent home in a litter. "Strike them +in the face!" cried Caesar at Pharsalus, when the young patricians made +their charge; and the young patricians, who cared more for their looks +than they did for victory, turned and fled. + +It was to the Field of Mars that Agrippa came, to whom Rome owed the +Pantheon and the demand for a law which should inhibit the private +ownership of a masterpiece. There, too, his eunuchs about him, Mecaenas +lounged, companioned by Varus, by Horace and the mime Bathylle, all of +whom he was accustomed to invite to that lovely villa of his which +overlooked the blue Sabinian hills, and where suppers were given such +as those which Petronius has described so alertly and so well. + +In the hall like that of Mecaenas', one divided against itself, the +upper half containing the couches and tables, the other reserved for +the service and the entertainments that follow, the ceiling was met by +columns, the walls hidden by panels of gems. On a frieze twelve +pictures, surmounted by the signs of the zodiac, represented the dishes +of the different months. Beneath the bronze beds and silver tables +mosaics were set in imitation of food that had fallen and had not been +swept away. And there, in white ungirdled tunics, the head and neck +circled with coils of amaranth--the perfume of which in opening the +pores neutralizes the fumes of wine--the guests lay, fanned by boys, +whose curly hair they used for napkins. Under the supervision of +butlers the courses were served on platters so large that they covered +the tables; sows' breasts with Lybian truffles; dormice baked in +poppies and honey, peacock-tongues flavored with cinnamon; oysters +stewed in garum--a sauce made of the intestines of fish--sea-wolves +from the Baltic; sturgeons from Rhodes; fig-peckers from Samos; African +snails; pale beans in pink lard; and a yellow pig cooked after the +Troan fashion, from which, when carved, hot sausages fell and live +thrushes flew. Therewith was the mulsum, a cup made of white wine, +nard, roses, absinthe and honey; the delicate sweet wines of Greece; +and crusty Falernian of the year six hundred and thirty-two. As the +cups circulated, choirs entered, chanting sedately the last erotic +song; a clown danced on the top of a ladder, which he maintained +upright as he danced, telling meanwhile untellable stories to the +frieze; and host and guests, unvociferously, as good breeding dictates, +chatted through the pauses of the service; discussed the disadvantages +of death, the value of Noevian iambics, the disgrace of Ovid, banished +because of Livia's eyes. + +Such was the Rome of Augustus. "Caesar," cried a mime to him one day, +"do you know that it is important for you that the people should be +interested in Bathylle and in myself?" + +The mime was right. The sovereign of Rome was not the Caesar, nor yet +the aristocracy. The latter was dead. It had been banished by barbarian +senators, by barbarian gods; it had died twice, at Pharsalus, at +Philippi; it was the people that was sovereign, and it was important +that that sovereign should be amused--flattered, too, and fed. For +thirty years not a Roman of note had died in his bed; not one but had +kept by him a slave who should kill him when his hour had come; anarchy +had been continuous; but now Rome was at rest and its sovereign wished +to laugh. Made up of every nation and every vice, the universe was +ransacked for its entertainment. The mountain sent its lions, the +desert giraffes; there were boas from the jungles, bulls from the +plains, and hippopotami from the waters of the Nile. Into the arenas +patricians descended; in the amphitheatre there were criminals from +Gaul; in the Forum philosophers from Greece. On the stage, there were +tragedies, pantomimes and farce; there were races in the circus, and in +the sacred groves girls with the Orient in their eyes and slim waists +that swayed to the crotals. For the thirst of the sovereign there were +aqueducts, and for its hunger Africa, Egypt, Sicily contributed grain. +Syria unveiled her altars, Persia the mystery and magnificence of her +gods. + +Such was Rome. Augustus was less noteworthy; so unnecessary even that +every student must regret Actium, Antony's defeat, the passing of +Caesar's dream. For Antony was made for conquests; it was he who, +fortune favoring, might have given the world to Rome. A splendid, an +impudent bandit, first and foremost a soldier, calling himself a +descendant of Hercules whom he resembled; hailed at Ephesus as Bacchus, +in Egypt as Osiris; Asiatic in lavishness, and Teuton in his capacity +for drink; vomiting in the open Forum, and making and unmaking kings; +weaving with that viper of the Nile a romance which is history; passing +initiate into the inimitable life, it would have been curious to have +watched him that last night when the silence was stirred by the hum of +harps, the cries of bacchantes bearing his tutelary god back to the +Roman camp, while he said farewell to love, to empire and to life. + +Augustus resembled him not at all. He was a colorless monarch; an +emperor in everything but dignity, a prince in everything but grace; a +tactician, not a soldier; a superstitious braggart, afraid of nothing +but danger; seducing women to learn their husband's secrets; exiling +his daughter, not because she had lovers, but because she had other +lovers than himself; exiling Ovid because of Livia, who in the end +poisoned her prince, and adroitly, too; illiterate, blundering of +speech, and coarse of manner--a hypocrite and a comedian in one--so +guileful and yet so stupid that while a credulous moribund ordered the +gods to be thanked that Augustus survived him, the people publicly +applied to him an epithet which does not look well in print. + +After Philippi and the suicide of Brutus; after Actium and Antony's +death, for the first time in ages, the gates of the Temple of Janus +were closed. There was peace in the world; but it was the sword of +Caesar, not of Augustus, that brought the insurgents to book. At each +of the victories he was either asleep or ill. At the time of battle +there was always some god warning him to be careful. The battle won, he +was brave enough, considerate even. A father and son begged for mercy. +He promised forgiveness to the son on condition that he killed his +father. The son accepted and did the work; then he had the son +despatched. A prisoner begged but for a grave. "The vultures will see +to it," he answered. When at the head of Caesar's legions, he entered +Rome to avenge the latter's death, he announced beforehand that he +would imitate neither Caesar's moderation nor Sylla's cruelty. There +would be only a few proscriptions, and a price--and what a price, +liberty!--was placed on the heads of hundreds of senators and thousands +of knights. And these people, who had more slaves than they knew by +sight, slaves whom they tossed alive to fatten fish, slaves to whom +they affected never to speak, and who were crucified did they so much +as sneeze in their presence--at the feet of these slaves they rolled, +imploring them not to deliver them up. Now and then a slave was +merciful; Augustus never. + +Successes such as these made him ambitious. Having vanquished with the +sword, he tried the pen. "You may grant the freedom of the city to your +barbarians," said a wit to him one day, "but not to your solecisms." +Undeterred he began a tragedy entitled "Ajax," and discovering his +incompetence, gave it up. "And what has become of Ajax?" a parasite +asked. "Ajax threw himself on a sponge," replied Augustus, whose +father, it is to be regretted, did not do likewise. Nevertheless, it +were pleasant to have assisted at his funeral. + +A couch of ivory and gold, ten feet high, draped with purple, stood for +a week in the atrium of the palace. Within the couch, hidden from view, +the body of the emperor lay, ravaged by poison. Above was a statue, +recumbent, in wax, made after his image and dressed in imperial robes. +Near by a little slave with a big fan protected the statue from flies. +Each day physicians came, gazed at the closed wax mouth, and murmured, +"He is worse." In the vestibule was a pot of burning ilex, and +stretching out through the portals a branch of cypress warned the +pontiffs from the contamination of the sight of death. + +At high noon on the seventh day the funeral crossed the city. First +were the flaming torches; the statues of the House of Octavia; senators +in blue; knights in scarlet; magistrates; lictors; the pick of the +praetorian guard. Then, to the alternating choruses of boys and girls, +the rotting body passed down the Sacred Way. Behind it Tiberius in a +travelling-cloak, his hands unringed, marched meditating on the +curiosities of life, while to the rear there straggled a troop of +dancing satyrs, led by a mime dressed in resemblance of Augustus, whose +defects he caricatured, whose vices he parodied and on whom the surging +crowd closed in. + +On the Field of Mars the pyre had been erected, a great square +structure of resinous wood, the interior filled with coke and sawdust, +the exterior covered with illuminated cloths, on which, for base, a +tower rose, three storeys high. Into the first storey flowers and +perfumes were thrown, into the second the couch was raised, then a +torch was applied. + +As the smoke ascended an eagle shot from the summit, circled a moment, +and disappeared. For the sum of a million sesterces a senator swore +that with the eagle he had seen the emperor's soul. + + + + +III + +FABULOUS FIELDS + + +Mention Tiberius, and the name evokes a taciturn tyrant, devising in +the crypts of a palace infamies so monstrous that to describe them new +words were coined. + +In the Borghese collection Tiberius is rather good-looking than +otherwise, not an Antinous certainly, but manifestly a dreamer; one +whose eyes must have been almost feline in their abstraction, and in +the corners of whose mouth you detect pride, no doubt, but melancholy +as well. The pride was congenital, the melancholy was not. + +Under Tiberius there was quiet, a romancer wrote, and the phrase in its +significance passed into legend. During the dozen or more years that he +ruled in Rome, his common sense was obvious. The Tiber overflowed, the +senate looked for a remedy in the Sibyline Books. Tiberius set some +engineers to work. A citizen swore by Augustus and swore falsely. The +senate sought to punish him, not for perjury but for sacrilege. It is +for Augustus to punish, said Tiberius. The senate wanted to name a +month after him. Tiberius declined. "Supposing I were the thirteenth +Caesar, what would you do?" For years he reigned, popular and +acclaimed, caring the while nothing for popularity and less for pomp. +Sagacious, witty even, believing perhaps in little else than fate and +mathematics, yet maintaining the institutions of the land, striving +resolutely for the best, outwardly impassable and inwardly mobile, he +was a man and his patience had bounds. There were conspirators in the +atrium, there was death in the courtier's smile; and finding his +favorites false, his life threatened, danger at every turn, his +conception of rulership changed. Where moderation had been suddenly +there gleamed the axe. + +Tacitus, always dramatic, states that at the time terror devastated the +city. It so happened that under the republic there was a law against +whomso diminished the majesty of the people. The republic was a god, +one that had its temple, its priests, its altars. When the republic +succumbed, its divinity passed to the emperor; he became Jupiter's +peer, and, as such, possessed of a majesty which it was sacrilege to +slight. Consulted on the subject, Tiberius replied that the law must be +observed. Originally instituted in prevention of offences against the +public good, it was found to change into a crime, a word, a gesture or +a look. It was a crime to undress before a statue of Augustus, to +mention his name in the latrinae, to carry a coin with his image into a +lupanar. The punishment was death. Of the property of the accused, a +third went to the informer, the rest to the state. Then abruptly terror +stalked abroad. No one was safe except the obscure, and it was the +obscure that accused. Once an accused accused his accuser; the latter +went mad. There was but one refuge--the tomb. If the accused had time +to kill himself before he was tried, his property was safe from seizure +and his corpse from disgrace. Suicide became endemic in Rome. Never +among the rich were orgies as frenetic as then. There was a breathless +chase after delights, which the summons, "It is time to die," might at +any moment interrupt. + +Tiberius meanwhile had gone from Rome. It was then his legend began. He +was represented living at Capri in a collection of twelve villas, each +of which was dedicated to a particular form of lust, and there with the +paintings of Parrhasius for stimulant the satyr lounged. He was then an +old man; his life had been passed in public, his conduct unreproved. If +no one becomes suddenly base, it is rare for a man of seventy to become +abruptly vile. "Whoso," Sakya Muni announced--"whoso discovers that +grief comes from affection, will retire into the jungles and there +remain." Tiberius had made the discovery. The jungles he selected were +the gardens by the sea. And in those gardens, gossip represented him +devising new forms of old vice. On the subject every doubt is +permissible, and even otherwise, morality then existed in but one form, +one which the entire nation observed, wholly, absolutely; that form was +patriotism. Chastity was expected of the vestal, but of no one else. +The matrons had certain traditions to maintain, certain appearances to +preserve, but otherwise morality was unimagined and matrimony unpopular. + +When matrimony occurred, divorce was its natural consequence. +Incompatibility was sufficient cause. Cicero, who has given it to +history that the best women counted the years not numerically, but by +their different husbands, obtained a divorce on the ground that his +wife did not idolize him. + +Divorce was not obligatory. Matrimony was. According to a recent law +whoso at twenty-five was not married, whoso, divorced or widowed, did +not remarry, whoso, though married, was without children, was regarded +as a public enemy and declared incapable of inheriting or of serving +the state. To this law, one of Augustus' stupidities which presently +fell into disuse, only a technical observance was paid. Men married +just enough to gain a position or inherit a legacy; next day they got a +divorce. At the moment of need a child was adopted; the moment passed, +the child was disowned. But if the law had little value, at least it +shows the condition of things. Moreover, if in that condition Tiberius +participated, it was not because he did not differ from other men. + +"Ho sempre amato la solitaria vita," Petrarch, referring to himself, +declared, and Tiberius might have said the same thing. He was in love +with solitude; ill with efforts for the unattained; sick with the +ingratitude of man. Presently it was decided that he had lived long +enough. He was suffocated--beneath a mattress at that. Caesar had +dreamed of a universal monarchy of which he should be king; he was +murdered. That dream was also Antony's; he killed himself. Cato had +sought the restoration of the republic, and Brutus the attainment of +virtue; both committed suicide. Under the empire dreamers fared ill. +Tiberius was a dreamer. + +In a palace where a curious conception of the love of Atalanta and +Meleager was said to figure on the walls, there was a door on which was +a sign, imitated from one that overhung the Theban library of +Osymandias--Pharmacy of the Soul. It was there Tiberius dreamed. + +On the ivory shelves were the philtres of Parthenius, labelled De +Amatoriis Affectionibus, the Sybaris of Clitonymus, the Erotopaegnia of +Laevius, the maxims and instructions of Elephantis, the nine books of +Sappho. There also were the pathetic adventures of Odatis and +Zariadres, which Chares of Mitylene had given to the world; the +astonishing tales of that early Cinderella, Rhodopis; and with them +those romances of Ionian nights by Aristides of Milet, which Crassus +took with him when he set out to subdue the Parthians, and which; found +in the booty, were read aloud to the people that they might judge the +morals of a nation that pretended to rule the world. + +Whether such medicaments are serviceable to the soul is problematic. +Tiberius had other drugs on the ivory shelves--magic preparations that +transported him to fabulous fields. There was a work by Hecataesus, +with which he could visit Hyperborea, that land where happiness was a +birthright, inalienable at that; yet a happiness so sweet that it must +have been cloying; for the people who enjoyed it, and with it the +appanage of limitless life, killed themselves from sheer ennui. +Theopompus disclosed to him a stranger vista--a continent beyond the +ocean--one where there were immense cities, and where two rivers +flowed--the River of Pleasure and the River of Pain. With Iambulus he +discovered the Fortunate Isles, where there were men with elastic +bones, bifurcated tongues; men who never married, who worshipped the +sun, whose life was an uninterrupted delight, and who, when overtaken +by age, lay on a perfumed grass that produced a voluptuous death. +Evhemerus, a terrible atheist, whose Sacred History the early bishops +wielded against polytheism until they discovered it was double-edged, +took him to Panchaia, an island where incense grew; where property was +held in common; where there was but one law--Justice, yet a justice +different from our own, one which Hugo must have intercepted when he +made an entrancing yet enigmatical apparition exclaim: + + "Tu me crois la Justice, je suis la Pitie." + +And in this paradise there was a temple, and before it a column, about +which, in Panchaian characters, ran a history of ancient kings, who, to +the astonishment of the tourist, were found to be none other than the +gods whom the universe worshipped, and who in earlier days had +announced themselves divinities, the better to rule the hearts and +minds of man. + +With other guides Tiberius journeyed through lands where dreams come +true. Aristeas of Proconnesus led him among the Arimaspi, a curious +people who passed their lives fighting for gold with griffons in the +dark. With Isogonus he descended the valley of Ismaus, where wild men +were, whose feet turned inwards. In Albania he found a race with pink +eyes and white hair; in Sarmatia another that ate only on alternate +days. Agatharcides took him to Libya, and there introduced him to the +Psyllians, in whose bodies was a poison deadly to serpents, and who, to +test the fidelity of their wives, placed their children in the presence +of snakes; if the snakes fled they knew their wives were pure. Callias +took him further yet, to the home of the hermaphrodites; Nymphodorus +showed him a race of fascinators who used enchanted words. With +Apollonides he encountered women who killed with their eyes those on +whom they looked too long. Megasthenes guided him to the Astomians, +whose garments were the down of feathers, and who lived on the scent of +the rose. + +In his cups they all passed, confusedly, before him; the hermaphrodites +whispered to the rose-breathers the secrets of impossible love; the +griffons bore to him women with magical eyes; the Albanians danced with +elastic feet; he heard the shrill call of the Psyllians, luring the +serpents to death; the column of Panchaia unveiled its mysteries; the +Hyperboreans the reason of their fear of life, and on the wings of the +chimera he set out again in search of that continent which haunted +antiquity and which lay beyond the sea. + + + + +IV + +THE PURSUIT OF THE IMPOSSIBLE + + +"Another Phaethon for the universe," Tiberius is reported to have +muttered, as he gazed at his nephew Caius, nicknamed Caligula, who was +to suffocate him with a mattress and rule in his stead. + +To rule is hardly the expression. There is no term in English to convey +that dominion over sea and sky which a Caesar possessed, and which +Caligula was the earliest to understand. Augustus was the first +magistrate of Rome, Tiberius the first citizen. Caligula was the first +emperor, but an emperor hallucinated by the enigma of his own grandeur, +a prince for whose sovereignty the world was too small. + +Each epoch has its secret, sometimes puerile, often perplexing; but in +its maker there is another and a more interesting one yet. Eliminate +Caligula, and Nero, Domitian, Commodus, Caracalla and Heliogabalus +would never have been. It was he who gave them both raison d'etre and +incentive. The lives of all of them are horrible, yet analyze the +horrible and you find the sublime. + +Fancy a peak piercing the heavens, shadowing the earth. It was on a +peak such as that the young emperors of old Rome balanced themselves, a +precipice on either side. Did they look below, a vertigo rose to meet +them; from above delirium came, while the horizon, though it hemmed the +limits of vision, could not mark the frontiers of their dream. In +addition there was the exaltation that altitudes produce. The valleys +have their imbeciles; it is from mountains the poet and madman come. +Caligula was both, sceptred at that; and with what a sceptre! One that +stretched from the Rhine to the Euphrates, dominated a hundred and +fifty million people; one that a mattress had given and a knife was to +take away; a sceptre that lashed the earth, threatened the sky, +beckoned planets and ravished the divinity of the divine. + +To wield such a sceptre securely requires grace, no doubt, majesty too, +but certainly strength; the latter Caligula possessed, but it was the +feverish strength of one who had fathomed the unfathomable, and who +sought to make its depths his own. Caligula was haunted by the +intangible. His sleep was a communion with Nature, with whom he +believed himself one. At times the Ocean talked to him; at others the +Earth had secrets which it wished to tell. Again there was some matter +of moment which he must mention to the day, and he would wander out in +the vast galleries of the palace and invoke the Dawn, bidding it come +and listen to his speech. The day was deaf, but there was the moon, and +he prayed her to descend and share his couch. Luna declined to be the +mistress of a mortal; to seduce her Caligula determined to become a god. + +Nothing was easier. An emperor had but to open his veins, and in an +hour he was a divinity. But the divinity which Caligula desired was not +of that kind. He wished to be a god, not on Olympus alone, but on earth +as well. He wished to be a palpable, tangible, living god; one that +mortals could see, which was more, he knew, than could be said of the +others. The mere wish was sufficient--Rome fell at his feet. The patent +of divinity was in the genuflections of a nation. At once he had a +temple, priests and flamens. Inexhaustible Greece was sacked again. The +statues of her gods, disembarked at Rome, were decapitated, and on them +the head of Caius shone. + +Heretofore his dress had not been Roman, nor, for that matter, the +dress of a man. On his wrists were bracelets; about his shoulders was a +mantle sewn with gems; beneath was a tunic, and on his feet were the +high white slippers that women wore. But when the god came the costume +changed. One day he was Apollo, the nimbus on his curls, the Graces at +his side; the next he was Mercury, wings at his heels, the caduceus in +his hand; again he was Venus. But it was as Jupiter Latialis, armed +with the thunderbolt and decorated with a great gold beard, that he +appeared at his best. + +The role was very real to him. After the fashion of Olympians he became +frankly incestuous, seducing vestals, his sisters too, and gaining in +boldness with each metamorphosis, he menaced the Capitoline Jove. +"Prove your power," he cried to him, "or fear my own!" He thundered at +him with machine-made thunder, with lightning that flashed from a pan. +"Kill me," he shouted, "or I will kill you!" Jove, unmoved, must have +moved his assailant, for presently Caligula lowered his voice, +whispered in the old god's ear, questioned him, meditated on his +answer, grew perplexed, violent again, and threatened to send him home. + +These interviews humanized him. He forgot the moon and mingled with +men, inviting them to die. The invitation being invariably accepted, he +became a connoisseur in death, an artist in blood, a ruler to whom +cruelty was not merely an aid to government but an individual pleasure, +and therewith such a perfect lover, such a charming host! + +"Dear heart," he murmured to his mistress Pryallis, as she lay one +night in his arms, "I think I will have you tortured that you may tell +me why I love you so." But of that the girl saw no need. She either +knew the reason or invented one, for presently he added: "And to think +that I have but a sign to make and that beautiful head of yours is +off!" Musings of this description were so humorous that one evening he +explained to guests whom he had startled with his laughter, that it was +amusing to reflect how easily he could have all of them killed. + +But even to a god life is not an unmixed delight. Caligula had his +troubles. About him there had settled a disturbing quiet. Rome was +hushed, the world was very still. There was not so much as an +earthquake. The reign of Augustus had been marked by the defeat of +Varus. Under Tiberius a falling amphitheatre had killed a multitude. +Caligula felt that through sheer felicity his own reign might be +forgot. A famine, a pest, an absolute defeat, a terrific +conflagration--any prodigious calamity that should sweep millions away +and stamp his own memory immutably on the chronicles of time, how +desirable it were! But there was nothing. The crops had never been more +abundant; apart from the arenas and the prisons, the health of the +empire was excellent; on the frontiers not so much as the rumor of an +insurrection could be heard, and Nero was yet to come. + +Perplexed, Caligula reflected, and presently from Baiae to Puzzoli, +over the waters of the bay, he galloped on horseback, the cuirass of +Alexander glittering on his breast. The intervening miles had been +spanned by a bridge of ships and on them a road had been built, one of +those roads for which the Romans were famous, a road like the Appian +Way, in earth and stone, bordered by inns, by pink arcades, green +retreats, forest reaches, the murmur of trickling streams. So many +ships were anchored there that through the unrepleted granaries the +fear of famine stalked. Caligula, meanwhile, his guests behind him, +made cavalry charges across the sea, or in a circus-chariot held the +ribbons, while four white horses, maddened by swaying lights, bore him +to the other shore. At night the entire coast was illuminated; the +bridge was one great festival, brilliant but brief. Caligula had +wearied of it all. At a signal the multitude of guests he had assembled +there were tossed into the sea. + +By way of a souvenir, Tiberius, whom he murdered, had left him the +immensity of his treasure. "I must be economical or Caesar," Caligula +reflected, and tipped a coachman a million, rained on the people a hail +of coin, bathed in essences, set before his guests loaves of silver, +gold omelettes, sausages of gems; sailed to the hum of harps on a ship +that had porticoes, gardens, baths, bowers, spangled sails and a +jewelled prow; removed a mountain, and put a palace where it had been; +filled in a valley and erected a temple on the top; supplied a horse +with a marble home, with ivory stalls, with furniture and slaves; +contemplated making him consul; made him a host instead, one that in +his own equine name invited the fashion of Rome to sup with Incitatus. + +In one year Tiberius' legacy, a sum that amounted to four hundred +million of our money, was spent. Caligula had achieved the impossible; +he was a bankrupt god, an emperor without a copper. But the very +splendor of that triumph demanded a climax. If Caligula hesitated, no +one knew it. On the morrow the palace of the Caesars was turned into a +lupanar, a little larger, a little handsomer than the others, but still +a brothel, one of which the inmates were matrons of Rome and the keeper +Jupiter Latialis. + +After that, seemingly, there was nothing save apotheosis. But Caligula, +in the nick of time, remembered the ocean. At the head of an army he +crossed Gaul, attacked it, and returned refreshed. Decidedly he had not +exhausted everything yet. He recalled Tiberius' policy, and abruptly +the world was filled again with accusers and accused. Gold poured in on +him, the earth paid him tribute. In a vast hall he danced naked on the +wealth of nations. Once more he was rich, richer than ever; there were +still illusions to be looted, other dreams to be pierced; yet, even as +he mused, conspirators were abroad. He loosed his pretorians. "Had Rome +but one head!" he muttered. "Let them FEEL themselves die," he cried to +his officers. "Let me be hated, but let me be feared." + +One day, as he was returning from the theatre, the dagger did its usual +work. Rome had lost a genius; in his place there came an ass. + +There is a verse in Greek to the effect that the blessed have children +in three months. Livia and Augustus were blessed in this pleasant +fashion. Three months after their marriage a child was born--a miracle +which surprised no one aware of their previous intimacy. The child +became a man, and the father of Claud, an imbecile whom the pretorians, +after Caligula's death, found in a closet, shaking with fright, and +whom for their own protection they made emperor in his stead. + +Caligula had been frankly adored; there was in him an originality, and +with it a grandeur and a mad magnificence that enthralled. Then, too, +he was young, and at his hours what the French call charmeur. If at +times he frightened, always he dazzled. Of course he was adored; the +prodigal emperors always were; so were their successors, the wicked +popes. Man was still too near to nature to be aware of shame, and +infantile enough to care to be surprised. In that was Caligula's charm; +he petted his people and surprised them too. Claud wearied. Between +them they assimilate every contradiction, and in their incoherences +explain that incomprehensible chaos which was Rome. Caligula jeered at +everybody; everybody jeered at Claud. + +The latter was a fantastic, vacillating, abstracted, cowardly tyrant, +issuing edicts in regard to the proper tarring of barrels, and +rendering absurd decrees; declaring himself to be of the opinion of +those who were right; falling asleep on the bench, and on awakening +announcing that he gave judgment in favor of those whose reasons were +the best; slapped in the face by an irritable plaintiff; held down by +main force when he wanted to leave; inviting to supper those whom he +had killed before breakfast; answering the mournful salute of the +gladiators with a grotesque Avete vos--"Be it well too with you," a +response, parenthetically, which the gladiators construed as a pardon +and refused to fight; dowering the alphabet with three new letters +which lasted no longer than he did; asserting that he would give +centennial games as often as he saw fit; an emperor whom no one obeyed, +whose eunuchs ruled in his stead, whose lackeys dispensed exiles, +death, consulates and crucifixions; whose valets insulted the senate, +insulted Rome, insulted the sovereign that ruled the world, whose +people shared his consort's couch; a slipshod drunkard in a tattered +gown--such was the imbecile that succeeded Caligula and had Messalina +for wife. + +It were curious to have seen that woman as Juvenal did, a veil over her +yellow wig, hunting adventures through the streets of Rome, while her +husband in the Forum censured the dissoluteness of citizens. And it +were curious, too, to understand whether it was her audacity or his +stupidity which left him the only man in Rome unacquainted with the +prodigious multiplicity and variety of her lovers. History has its +secrets, yet, in connection with Messalina, there is one that +historians have not taken the trouble to probe; to them she has been an +imperial strumpet. Messalina was not that. At heart she was probably no +better and no worse than any other lady of the land, but pathologically +she was an unbalanced person, who to-day would be put through a course +of treatment, instead of being put to death. When Claud at last +learned, not the truth, but that some of her lovers were conspiring to +get rid of him, he was not indignant; he was frightened. The +conspirators were promptly disposed of, Messalina with them. Suetonius +says that, a few days later, as he went in to supper, he asked why the +empress did not appear. + +Apart from the neurosis from which she suffered, were it possible to +find an excuse for her conduct, the excuse would be Claud. The purple +which made Caligula mad, made him an idiot; and when in course of time +he was served with a succulent poison, there must have been many +conjectures in Rome as to what the empire would next produce. + +The empire was extremely fecund, enormously vast. About Rome extended +an immense circle of provinces and cities that were wholly hers. +Without that circle was another, the sovereignty exercised over vassals +and allies; beyond that, beyond the Rhine on one side, were the +silenced Teutons; beyond the Euphrates on the other, the hazardous +Parthians, while remotely to the north there extended the enigmas of +barbarism; to the south, those semi-fabulous regions where geography +ceased to be. + +Little by little, through the patience of a people that felt itself +eternal, this immensity had been assimilated and fused. A few +fortresses and legions on the frontiers, a stretch of soldiery at any +spot an invasion might be feared; a little tact, a maternal solicitude, +and that was all. Rome governed unarmed, or perhaps it might be more +exact to say she did not govern at all; she was the mistress of a +federation of realms and republics that governed themselves, in whose +government she was content, and from whom she exacted little, tribute +merely, and obeisance to herself. Her strength was not in the sword; +the lioness roared rarely, often slept; it was the fear smaller beasts +had of her awakening that made them docile; once aroused those indolent +paws could do terrible work, and it was well not to excite them. When +the Jews threatened to revolt, Agrippa warned them: "Look at Rome; look +at her well; her arms are invisible, her troops are afar; she rules, +not by them, but by the certainty of her power. If you rebel, the +invisible sword will flash, and what can you do against Rome armed, +when Rome unarmed frightens the world?" + +The argument was pertinent and suggestive, but the secret of Rome's +ascendency consisted in the fact that where she conquered she dwelt. +Wherever the eagles pounced, Rome multiplied herself in miniature. In +the army was the nation, in the legion the city. Where it camped, +presto! a judgment seat and an altar. On the morrow there was a forum; +in a week there were paved avenues; in a fortnight, temples, porticoes; +in a month you felt yourself at home. Rome built with a magic that +startled as surely as the glint of her sword. Time and again the +nations whom Caesar encountered planned to eliminate his camp. When +they reached it the camp had vanished; in its place was a walled, +impregnable town. + +As the standards lowered before that town, the pomoerium was traced. +Within it the veteran found a home, without it a wife; and the family +established, the legion that had conquered the soil with the sword, +subsisted on it with the plow. Presently there were priests there, +aqueducts, baths, theatres and games, all the marvel of imperial +elegance and vice. When the aborigine wandered that way, his seduction +was swift. + +The enemy that submitted became a subject, not a slave. Rome commanded +only the free. If his goods were taxed, his goods remained his own, his +personal liberty untrammelled. His land had become part of a new +province, it is true, but provided he did not interest himself in such +matters as peace and war, not only was he free to manage his own +affairs, but that land, were it at the uttermost end of the earth, +might, in recompense of his fidelity, come to be regarded as within the +Italian territory; as such, sacred, inviolate, free from taxes, and he +a citizen of Rome, senator even, emperor! + +Conquest once solidified, the rest was easy. Tattered furs were +replaced by the tunic and uncouth idioms by the niceties of Latin +speech. In some cases, where the speech had been beaten in with the +hilt of the sword, the accent was apt to be rough, but a generation, +two at most, and there were sweethearts and swains quoting Horace in +the moonlight, naively unaware that only the verse of the Greeks could +pleasure the Roman ear. + +The principalities and kingdoms that of their own wish [a wish often +suggested, and not always amicably either] became allies of Rome and +mingled their freedom with hers, entered into an alliance whereby in +return for Rome's patronage and protection they agreed to have a proper +regard for the dignity of the Roman people and to have no other friends +or enemies than those that were Rome's--a formula exquisite in the +civility with which it exacted the renunciation of every inherent +right. A king wrote to the senate: "I have obeyed your deputy as I +would have obeyed a god." "And you have done wisely," the senate +answered, a reply which, in its terseness, tells all. + +Diplomacy and the plow, such were Rome's methods. As for herself she +fought, she did not till. Italy, devastated by the civil wars, was +uncultivated, cut up into vast unproductive estates. From one end to +the other there was barely a trace of agriculture, not a sign of +traffic. You met soldiers, cooks, petty tradesmen, gladiators, +philosophers, patricians, market gardeners, lazzaroni and millionaires; +the merchant and the farmer, never. Rome's resources were in distant +commercial centres, in taxes and tribute; her wealth had come of +pillage and exaction. Save her strength, she had nothing of her own. +Her religion, literature, art, philosophy, luxury and corruption, +everything had come from abroad. In Greece were her artists; in Africa, +Gaul and Spain, her agriculturists; in Asia her artisans. Her own +breasts were sterile. When she gave birth it was to a litter of +monsters, sometimes to a genius, by accident to a poet. She consumed, +she did not produce. It was because of that she fell. + + + + +V + +NERO + + +"Save a monster, what can you expect from Agrippina and myself?" + +It was Domitius, Nero's father, who made this ingenious remark. He was +not a good man; he was not even good-looking, merely vicious and rich. +But his viciousness was benign beside that of Agrippina, who poisoned +him when Nero's birth ensured the heritage of his wealth. + +In all its galleries history has no other portrait such as hers. +Caligula's sister, his mistress as well, exiled by him and threatened +with death, her eyes dazzled and her nerves unstrung by the +impossibilities of that fabulous reign, it was not until Claud, her +uncle, recalled her and Messalina disappeared, that the empress awoke. +She too, she determined, would rule, and the jus osculi aiding, she +married out of hand that imbecile uncle of hers, on whose knee she had +played as a child. + +The day of the wedding a young patrician, expelled from the senate, +killed himself. Agrippina had accused him of something not nice, not +because he was guilty, nor yet because the possibility of the thing +shocked her, but because he was betrothed to Octavia, Claud's daughter, +who, Agrippina determined, should be Nero's wife. Presently Caligula's +widow, an old rival of her own, a lady who had thought she would like +to be empress twice, and whom Claud had eyed grotesquely, was +disencumbered of three million worth of emeralds, with which she +heightened her beauty, and told very civilly that it was time to die. +So, too, disappeared a Calpurina, a Lepida; women young, rich, +handsome, impure, and as such dangerous to Agrippina's peace of mind. +The legality of her crimes was so absolute that the mere ownership of +an enviable object was a cause for death. A senator had a villa which +pleased her; he was invited to die. Another had a pair of those odorous +murrhine vases, which Pompey had found in Armenia, and which on their +first appearance set Rome wild; he, too, was invited to die. + +But, though Agrippina dealt in death, she dealt in seductions too. +Rome, that had adored Caligula, promptly fell under his sister's sway. +There was a splendor in her eyes, which so many crimes had lit; in her +carriage there was such majesty, the pomp with which she surrounded +herself was so magnificent, that Rome, enthralled, applauded. Beyond, +on the Rhine, a city which is today Cologne, rose in honor of her +sovereignty. To her wishes the senate was subservient, to her +indiscretions blind. Claud, who meanwhile had been wholly sightless, +suddenly showed signs of discernment. A woman, charged with illicit +commerce, was brought to his tribunal. He condemned her, of course. "In +my case," he explained, "matrimony has not been successful, but the +fate that destined me to marry impure women destined me also to punish +them." It was then that Agrippina ordered of Locusta that famous stew +of poison and mushrooms, which Nero, in allusion to Claud's apotheosis, +called the food of the gods. The fate that destined Claud to marry +Agrippina destined her to kill him. + +It was under her care, between a barber and a ballerine, amid the +shamelessness of his stepfather's palace, where any day he could have +seen his mother beckon indolently to a centurion and pointing to some +lover who had ceased to please, make the gesture which signified Death, +that the young Enobarbus--Nero, as he subsequently called himself--was +trained for the throne. + +He had entered the world like a tiger cub, feet first; a circumstance +which is said to have disturbed his mother, and well it might. During +his adolescence that lady made herself feared. He was but seventeen +when the pretorians called upon him to rule the world; and at the time +an ingenuous lad, one who blushed like Lalage, very readily, +particularly at the title of Father of the Country, which the senate +was anxious to give him; endowed with excellent instincts, which he had +got no one knew whence; a trifle petit maitre, perhaps, perfuming the +soles of his feet, and careful about the arrangement of his yellow +curls, but withal generous, modest, sympathetic--in short, a flower in +a cesspool, a youth not over well-fitted to reign. But his mother was +there; as he developed so did his fear of her, to such proportions even +that he gave certain orders, and his mother was killed. That duel +between mother and son, terrible in its intensity and unnameable +horror, even the Borgias could not surpass. Tacitus has told it, +dramatically, as was his wont, but he told it in Latin, in which tongue +it had best remain. + +At that time the ingenuous lad had disappeared. The cub was full-grown. +Besides, he had tasted blood. Octavia, who with her brother, +Britannicus, and her sister, Antonia, had been his playmates; who was +almost his own sister; whose earliest memories interlinked with his, +and who had become his wife, had been put to death; not that she had +failed to please, but because a lady, Sabina Poppoea, who, Tacitus +says, lacked nothing except virtue, had declined to be his mistress. At +the time Sabina was married. But divorce was easy. Sabina got one at +the bar; Nero with the axe. The twain were then united. Nero seems to +have loved her greatly, a fact, as Suetonius puts it, which did not +prevent him from kicking her to death. Already he had poisoned +Britannicus, and with Octavia decapitated and Agrippina gone, of the +imperial house there remained but Antonia and himself. The latter he +invited to marry him; she declined. He invited her to die. He was then +alone, the last of his race. Monsters never engender. A thinker who +passed that way thought him right to have killed his mother; her crime +was in giving him birth. + +Therewith he was popular; more so even than Caligula, who was a poet, +and as such apart from the crowd, while Nero was frankly +canaille--well-meaning at that--which Caligula never was. During the +early years of his reign he could not do good enough. The gladiators +were not permitted to die; he would have no shedding of blood; the +smell of it was distasteful. He would listen to no denunciations; when +a decree of death was brought to him to sign, he regretted that he knew +how to write. Rome had never seen a gentler prince, nor yet one more +splendidly lavish. The people had not only the necessities of life, but +the luxuries, the superfluities, too. For days and days in the Forum +there was an incessant shower of tickets that were exchangeable, not +for bread or trivial sums, but for gems, pictures, slaves, fortunes, +ships, villas and estates. The creator of that shower was bound to be +adored. + +It was that, no doubt, which awoke him. A city like Rome, one that had +over a million inhabitants, could make a terrific noise, and when that +noise was applause, the recipient found it heady. Nero got drunk on +popularity, and heredity aiding where the prince had been emerged the +cad, a poseur that bored, a beast that disgusted, a caricature of the +impossible in a crimson frame. + +"What an artist the world is to lose!" he exclaimed as he died; and +artist he was, but in the Roman sense; one that enveloped in the same +contempt the musician, acrobat and actor. It was the artist that played +the flute while gladiators died and lovers embraced; it was the artist +that entertained the vulgar. + +As an artist Nero might have been a card. Fancy the attraction--an +emperor before the footlights; but fancy the boredom also. The joy at +the announcement of his first appearance was so great that thanks were +offered to the gods; and the verses he was to sing, graven in gold, +were dedicated to the Capitoline Jove. The joy was brief. The exits of +the theatre were closed. It was treason to attempt to leave. People +pretended to be dead in order to be carried out, and well they might. +The star was a fat man with a husky tenorino voice, who sang drunk and +half-naked to a protecting claque of ten thousand hands. + +But it was in the circus that Nero was at his best; there, no matter +though he were last in the race, it was to him the palm was awarded, or +rather it was he that awarded the palm to himself, and then quite +magnificently shouted, "Nero, Caesar, victor in the race, gives his +crown to the People of Rome!" + +On the stage he had no rivals, and by chance did one appear, he was +invited to die. In that respect he was artistically susceptible. When +he turned acrobat, the statues of former victors were tossed in the +latrinae. Yet, as competitors were needed, and moreover as he, singly, +could fill neither a stage nor a track, it was the nobility of Rome +that he ordered to appear with him. For that the nobility never forgave +him. On the other hand, the proletariat loved him the better. What +greater salve could it have than the sight of the conquerors of the +world entertaining the conquered, lords amusing their lackeys? + +Greece meanwhile sent him crowns and prayers; crowns for anticipated +victories, prayers that he would come and win them. Homage so delicate +was not to be disdained. Nero set forth, an army at his heels; a legion +of claquers, a phalanx of musicians, cohorts of comedians, and with +these for retinue, through sacred groves that Homer knew, through +intervales which Hesiod sang, through a year of festivals he wandered, +always victorious. It was he who conquered at Olympia; it was he who +conquered at Corinth. No one could withstand him. Alone in history he +won in every game, and with eighteen hundred crowns as trophies of war +he repeated Caesar's triumph. In a robe immaterial as a moonbeam, the +Olympian wreath on his curls, the Isthmian laurel in his hand, his army +behind him, the clown that was emperor entered Rome. Victims were +immolated as he passed, the Via Sacra was strewn with saffron, the day +was rent with acclaiming shouts. Throughout the empire sacrifices were +ordered. Old people that lived in the country fancied him, Philostratus +says, the conqueror of new nations, and sacrificed with delight. + +But if as artist he bored everybody, he was yet an admirable +impresario. The spectacles he gave were unique. At one which was held +in the Taurian amphitheatre it must have been delightful to assist. +Fancy eighty thousand people on ascending galleries, protected from the +sun by a canopy of spangled silk; an arena three acres large carpeted +with sand, cinnabar and borax, and in that arena death in every form, +on those galleries colossal delight. + +The lowest gallery, immediately above the arena, was a wide terrace +where the senate sat. There were the dignitaries of the empire, and +with them priests in their sacerdotal robes; vestals in linen, their +hair arranged in the six braids that were symbolic of virginity; swarms +of Oriental princes, rainbows of foreign ambassadors; and in the +centre, the imperial pulvinar, an enclosed pavilion, in which Nero +lounged, a mignon at his feet. + +In the gallery above were the necklaced knights, their tunics bordered +with the augusticlave, their deep-blue cloaks fastened to the shoulder; +and there, too, in their wide white togas, were the citizens of Rome. + +Still higher the people sat. In the topmost gallery were the women, and +in a separate enclosure a thousand musicians answered the cries of the +multitude with the blare and the laugh of brass. + +Beneath the terraces, behind the barred doors that punctuated the +marble wall which circled the arena, were Mauritian panthers that had +been entrapped with rotten meat; hippopotami from Sais, lured by the +smell of carrots into pits; the rhinoceros of Gaul, taken with the net; +lions, lassoed in the deserts; Lucanian bears, Spanish bulls; and, in +remoter dens, men, unarmed, that waited. + +By way of foretaste for better things, a handful of criminals, local +desperadoes, an impertinent slave, a machinist, who in a theatre the +night before had missed an effect--these, together with a negligent +usher, were tossed one after the other naked into the ring, and bound +to a scaffold that surmounted a miniature hill. At a signal the +scaffold fell, the hill crumbled, and from it a few hyenas issued, who +indolently devoured their prey. + +With this for prelude, the gods avenged and justice appeased, a +rhinoceros ambled that way, stimulated from behind by the point of a +spear; and in a moment the hyenas were disembowelled, their legs +quivering in the air. Throughout the arena other beasts, tied together +with long cords, quarrelled in couples; there was the bellow of bulls, +and the moan of leopards tearing at their flesh, a flight of stags, and +the long, clean spring of the panther. + +Presently the arena was cleared, the sand reraked and the Bestiarii +advanced--Sarmatians, nourished on mares' milk; Sicambrians, their hair +done up in chignons; horsemen from Thessaly, Ethiopian warriors, +Parthian archers, huntsmen from the steppes, their different idioms +uniting in a single cry--"Caesar, we salute you." The sunlight, +filtering through the spangled canopy, chequered their tunics with +burning spots, danced on their spears and helmets, dazzled the +spectators' eyes. From above descended the caresses of flutes; the air +was sweet with perfumes, alive with multicolored motes; the terraces +were parterres of blending hues, and into that splendor a hundred +lions, their tasselled tails sweeping the sand, entered obliquely. + +The mob of the Bestiarii had gone. In the middle of the arena, a band +of Ethiopians, armed with arrows, knives and spears, knelt, their oiled +black breasts uncovered. + +Leisurely the lions turned their huge, intrepid heads; to their jowls +wide creases came. There was a glitter of fangs, a shiver that moved +the mane, a flight of arrows, mounting murmurs; the crouch of beasts +preparing to spring, a deafening roar, and, abruptly, a tumultuous +mass, the suddenness of knives, the snap of bones, the cry of the +agonized, the fury of beasts transfixed, the shrieks of the mangled, a +combat hand to fang, from which lions fell back, their jaws torn +asunder, while others retreated, a black body swaying between their +terrible teeth, and, insensibly, a descending quiet. + +At once there was an eruption of bellowing elephants, painted and +trained for slaughter, that trampled on wounded and dead. At a call +from a keeper the elephants disappeared. There was a rush of mules and +slaves; the carcasses and corpses vanished, the toilet of the ring was +made; then came a plunge of bulls, mists of vapor about their long, +straight horns, their anxious eyes dilated. Beyond was a troop of +Thessalians. For a moment the bulls snorted, pawing the sand with their +fore-feet, as though trying to realize what they were doing there. Yet +instantly they seemed to know, and with lowered heads, they plunged on +the point of spears. But no matter, horses went down by the hundred; +and as the bulls tired of gorging the dead, they fought each other; +fought rancorously, fought until weariness overtook them, and the +surviving Thessalians leaped on their backs, twisted their horns, and +threw them down, a sword through their throbbing throats. + +Successively the arena was occupied by bears, by panthers, by dogs +trained for the chase, by hunters and hunted. But the episode of the +morning was a dash of wild elephants, attacked on either side; a moment +of sheer delight, in which the hunters were tossed up on the terraces, +tossed back again by the spectators, and trampled to death. + +With that for bouquet the first part of the performance was at an end. +By way of interlude, the ring was peopled with acrobats, who flew up in +the air like birds, formed pyramids together, on the top of which +little boys swung and smiled. There was a troop of trained lions, their +manes gilded, that walked on tight-ropes, wrote obscenities in Greek, +and danced to cymbals which one of them played. There were +geese-fights, wonderful combats between dwarfs and women; a chariot +race, in which bulls, painted white, held the reins, standing upright +while drawn at full speed; a chase of ostriches, and feats of haute +ecole on zebras from Madagascar. + +The interlude at an end, the sand was reraked, and preceded by the pomp +of lictors, interminable files of gladiators entered, holding their +knives to Nero that he might see that they were sharp. It was then the +eyes of the vestals lighted; artistic death was their chiefest joy, and +in a moment, when the spectacle began and the first gladiator fell, +above the din you could hear their cry "Hic habet!" and watch their +delicate thumbs reverse. + +There was no cowardice in that arena. If by chance any hesitation were +discernible, instantly there were hot irons, the sear of which +revivified courage at once. But that was rare. The gladiators fought +for applause, for liberty, for death; fought manfully, skilfully, +terribly, too, and received the point of the sword or the palm of the +victor, their expression unchanged, the face unmoved. Among them, some +provided with a net and prodigiously agile, pursued their adversaries +hither and thither, trying to entangle them first and kill them later. +Others, protected by oblong shields and armed with short, sharp swords, +fought hand-to-hand. There were still others, mailed horsemen, who +fought with the lance, and charioteers that dealt death from high +Briton cars. + +As a spectacle it was unique; one that the Romans, or more exactly, +their predecessors, the Etruscans, had devised to train their children +for war and allay the fear of blood. It had been serviceable, indeed, +and though the need of it had gone, still the institution endured, and +in enduring constituted the chief delight of the vestals and of Rome. +By means of it a bankrupt became consul and an emperor beloved. It had +stayed revolutions, it was the tax of the proletariat on the rich. +Silver and bread were for the individual, but these things were for the +crowd. + +During the pauses of the combats the dead were removed by men masked as +Mercury, god of hell; red irons, that others, masked as Charon, bore, +being first applied as safeguard against swoon or fraud. And when, to +the kisses of flutes, the last palm had been awarded, the last death +acclaimed, a ballet was given; that of Paris and Venus, which Apuleius +has described so well, and for afterpiece the romance of Pasipha? and +the bull. Then, as night descended, so did torches, too; the arena was +strewn with vermilion; tables were set, and to the incitement of +crotals, Lydians danced before the multitude, toasting the last act of +that wonderful day. + +It was with such magnificence that Nero showed the impresario's skill, +the politician's adroitness. Where the artist, which he claimed to be, +really appeared, was in the refurbishing of Rome. + +In spite of Augustus' boast, the city was not by any means of marble. +It was filled with crooked little streets, with the atrocities of the +Tarquins, with houses unsightly and perilous, with the moss and dust of +ages; it compared with Alexandria as London compares with Paris; it had +a splendor of its own, but a splendor that could be heightened. + +Whether the conflagration which occurred at that time was the result of +accident or design is uncertain and in any event immaterial. Tacitus +says that when it began Nero was at Antium, in which case he must have +hastened to return, for admitting that he did not originate the fire, +it is a matter of agreement that he collaborated in it. In quarters +where it showed symptoms of weakness it was by his orders coaxed to new +strength; colossal stone buildings, on which it had little effect, were +battered down with catapults. + +Fire is a perfect poet. No designer ever imagined the surprises it +creates, and when, at the end of the week, three-fourths of the city +was in ruins, the beauty that reigned there must have been sublime. +That it inspired Nero is presumable. The palace on the Palatine, which +Tiberius embellished and Caligula enlarged, had gone; in its place rose +another, aflame with gold. Before it Neropolis extended, a city of +triumphal arches, enchanted temples, royal dwellings, shimmering +porticoes, glittering roofs, and wide, hospitable streets. It was fair +to the eye, purely Greek; and on its heart, from the Circus Maximus to +the Forum's edge, the new and gigantic palace shone. Before it was a +lake, a part of which Vespasian drained and replaced with an +amphitheatre that covered eight acres. About that lake were separate +edifices that formed a city in themselves; between them and the palace, +a statue of Nero in gold and silver mounted precipitately a hundred and +twenty feet--a statue which it took twenty-four elephants to move. +About it were green savannahs, forest reaches, the call of bird and +deer, while in the distance, fronted by a stretch of columns a mile in +length, the palace stood--a palace so ineffably charming that on the +day of reckoning may it outbalance a few of his sins. Even the cellars +were frescoed. The baths were quite comfortable; you had waters salt or +sulphurous at will. The dining halls had ivory ceilings from which +flowers fell, and wainscots that changed at each service. The walls +were alive with the glisten of gems, with marbles rarer than jewels. In +one hall was a dome of sapphire, a floor of malachite, crystal columns +and red-gold walls. + +"At last," Nero murmured, "I am lodged like a man." + +No doubt. Yet in a mirror he would have seen a bloated beast in a +flowered gown, the hair done up in a chignon, the skin covered with +eruptions, the eyes circled and yellow; a woman who had hours when she +imitated a virgin at bay, others when she was wife, still others when +she expected to be a mother, and that woman, a senatorial patent of +divinity aiding, was god--Apollo's peer, imperator, chief of the army, +pontifix maximus, master of the world, with the incontestable right of +life and death over every being in the dominions. + +It had taken the fresh-faced lad who blushed so readily, just fourteen +years to effect that change. Did he regret it? And what should Nero +regret? Nothing, perhaps, save that at the moment when he declared +himself to be lodged like a man, he had not killed himself like one. +But of that he was incapable. Had he known what the future held, +possibly he might have imitated that apotheosis of vulgarity in which +Sardanapalus eclipsed himself, but never could he have died with the +good breeding and philosophy of Cato, for neither good breeding nor +philosophy was in him. Nero killed himself like a coward, yet that he +did kill himself, in no matter what fashion, is one of the few things +that can be said in his favor. + +Those days differed from ours. There were circumstances in which +suicide was regarded as the simplest of duties. Nero did his duty, but +not until he was forced to it, and even then not until he had been +asked several times whether it was so hard to die. The empire had +wearied of him. In Neropolis his popularity had gone as popularity ever +does; the conflagration had killed it. + +Even as he wandered, lyre in hand, a train of Lesbians and pederasts at +his heels, through those halls which had risen on the ruins, and which +inexhaustible Greece had furnished with a fresh crop of white +immortals, the world rebelled. Afar on the outskirts of civilization a +vassal, ashamed of his vassalage, declared war, not against Rome, but +against an emperor that played the flute. In Spain, in Gaul, the +legions were choosing other chiefs. The provinces, depleted by imperial +exactions, outwearied by the increasing number of accusers, whose +accusations impoverishing them served only to multiply the +prodigalities of their Caesar, revolted. + +Suddenly Nero found himself alone. As the advancing rumor of rebellion +reached him, he thought of flight; there was no one that would +accompany him. He called to the pretorians; they would not hear. +Through the immensity of his palace he sought one friend. The doors +would not open. He returned to his apartment; the guards had gone. Then +terror seized him. He was afraid to die, afraid to live, afraid of his +solitude, afraid of Rome, afraid of himself; but what frightened him +most was that everyone had lost their fear of him. It was time to go, +and a slave aiding, he escaped in disguise from Rome, and killed +himself, reluctantly, in a hovel. + +"Qualis artifex pereo!" he is reported to have muttered. Say rather, +qualis maechus. + + + + +VI + +THE HOUSE OF FLAVIA + + +It was in those days that the nebulous figure of Apollonius of Tyana +appeared and disappeared in Rome. His speech, a commingling of +puerility and charm, Philostratus has preserved. Rumor had preceded +him. It was said that he knew everything, save the caresses of women; +that he was familiar with all languages; with the speech of bird and +beast; with that of silence, for silence is a language too; that he had +prayed in the Temple of Jupiter Lycoeus, where men lost their shadows, +their lives as well; that he had undergone eighty initiations of +Mithra; that he had perplexed the magi; confuted the gymnosophists; +that he foretold the future, healed the sick, raised the dead; that +beyond the Himalayas he had encountered every species of ferocious +beast, except the tyrant, and that it was to see one that he had come +to Rome. + +Nero was quite free from prejudice. Apart from a doll which he +worshipped he had no superstitions. He had the plain man's dislike of +philosophy; Seneca had sickened him of it, perhaps; but he was +sensitive, not that he troubled himself particularly about any lies +that were told of him, but he did object to people who went about +telling the truth. In that respect he was not unique; we are all like +him, but he had ways of stilling the truth which were imperial and his +own. + +Promptly on Apollonius he loosed his bull-dog, Tigellin, prefect of +police. + +Tigellin caught him. "What have you with you?" he asked. + +"Continence, Justice, Temperance, Strength and Patience," Apollonius +answered. + +"Your slaves, I suppose. Make out a list of them." + +Apollonius shook his head. "They are not my slaves; they are my +masters." + +"There is but one," Tigellin retorted--"Nero. Why do you not fear him?" + +"Because the god that made him terrible made me without fear." + +"I will leave you your liberty," muttered the startled Tigellin, "but +you must give bail." + +"And who," asked Apollonius superbly, "would bail a man whom no one can +enchain?" Therewith he turned and disappeared. + +At that time Nero was in training to suffocate a lion in the arena. A +few days later he killed himself. Simultaneously there came news from +Syracuse. A woman of rank had given birth to a child with three heads. +Apollonius examined it. + +"There will be three emperors at once," he announced. "But their reign +will be shorter than that of kings on the stage." + +Within that year Galba, who was emperor for an instant, died at the +gates of Rome. Vitellius, after being emperor in little else than +dream, was butchered in the Forum; and Otho, in that fine antique +fashion, killed himself in Gaul. Apollonius meanwhile was in +Alexandria, predicting the purple to Vespasian, the rise of the House +of Flavia; invoking Jupiter in his protege's behalf; and presently, the +prediction accomplished, he was back in Rome, threatening Domitian, +warning him that the House of Flavia would fall. + +The atmosphere was then charged with the marvellous; the world was +filled with prodigies, with strange gods, beckoning chimeras and +credulous crowds. Belief in the supernatural was absolute; the occult +sciences, astrology, magic, divination, all had their adepts. In Greece +there were oracles at every turn, and with them prophets who taught the +art of adultery and how to construe the past. On the banks of the Rhine +there were girls who were regarded as divinities, and in Gaul were men +who were held wholly divine. + +Jerusalem too had her follies. There was Simon the Magician, founder of +gnosticism, father of every heresy, Messiah to the Jews, Jupiter to the +Gentiles--an impudent self-made god, who pretended to float in the air, +and called his mistress Minerva--a deification, parenthetically, which +was accepted by Nicholas, his successor, a deacon of the church, who +raised her to the eighth heaven as patron saint of lust. To him, as to +Simon, she was Ennoia, Prunikos, Helen of Troy. She had been Delilah, +Lucretia. She had prostituted herself to every nation; she had sung in +the by-ways, and hidden robbers in the vermin of her bed. But by Simon +she was rehabilitated. It was she, no doubt, of whom Caligula thought +when he beckoned to the moon. In Rome she had her statue, and near it +was one to Simon, the holy god. + +But of all manifestations of divinity the most patent was that which +haloed Vespasian. He expected it, Suetonius says, but it is doubtful if +any one else did. One night he dreamed that an era of prosperity was to +dawn for him and his when Nero lost a tooth. The next day he was shown +one which had been drawn from the emperor's mouth. But that was +nothing. Presently at Carmel the Syrian oracle assured him that he +would be successful in whatever he undertook. From Rome word came that, +while the armies of Vitellius and Otho were fighting, two eagles had +fought above them, and that the victor had been despatched by a third +eagle that had come from the East. In Alexandria Serapis whispered to +him. The entire menagerie of Egypt proclaimed him king. Apis bellowed, +Anubis barked. Isis visited him unveiled. The lame and the blind +pressed about him; he cured them with a touch. There could be no +reasonable doubt now; surely he was a god. On his shoulders Apollonius +threw the purple, and Vespasian set out for Rome. + +His antecedents were less propitious. The descendant of an obscure +centurion, he had been a veterinary surgeon; then, having got +Caligula's ear, he flattered it abominably. Caligula disposed of, he +flattered Claud, or what amounted to the same thing, Narcissus, Claud's +chamberlain. Through the influence of the latter he became a +lieutenant, fought on remote frontiers--fought well, too--so well even +that, Narcissus gone, he felt Agrippina watching him, and knowing the +jealousy of her eyes, prudently kept quiet until that lady did. + +With Nero he promenaded through Greece--sat at the Olympian games and +fell asleep when his emperor sang. Treason of that high +nature--sacrilege, rather, for Nero was then a god--might have been +overlooked, had it occurred but once, for Nero could be magnanimous +when he chose. But it always occurred. To Nero's tremolo invariably +came the accompaniment of Vespasian's snore. He was dreaming of that +tooth, no doubt. "I am not a soporific, am I?" Nero gnashed at him, and +sent the blasphemer away. + +For a while Vespasian lived in constant expectation of some civil +message inviting him to die. Finally it came, only he was invited to +die at the head of an army which Nero had projected against seditious +Jews. When he returned, leaving his son Titus to attend to Jerusalem, +it was as emperor. + +Only a moment before Vitellius had been disposed of. That curious +glutton, whom the Rhenish legions had chosen because of his coarse +familiarity, would willingly have fled had the soldiery let him. But +not at all; they wanted a prince of their own manufacture. They knew +nothing of Vespasian, cared less; and into the Capitol they chased the +latter's partisans, his son Domitian as well. The besieged defended +themselves with masterpieces, with sacred urns, the statues of gods, +the pedestals of divinities. Suddenly the Capitol was aflame. +Simultaneously Vespasian's advance guard beat at the gates. The +besiegers turned, the mob was with them, and together they fought, +first at the gates, then in the streets, in the Forum, retreating +always, but like lions, their face to the foe. The volatile mob, noting +the retreat, turned from combatant into spectator. Let the soldiers +fight; it was their duty, not theirs; and, as the struggle continued, +from roof and window they eyed it with that artistic delight which the +arena had developed, applauding the clever thrusts, abusing the +vanquished, robbing the dead, and therewith pillaging the wineshops, +crowding the lupanars. During the orgy, Vitellius was stabbed. The +Flavians had won the day, the empire was Vespasian's. + +The use he made of it was very modest. In spite of his manifest +divinity he had nothing in common with the Caesars that had gone +before; he had no dreams of the impossible, no desire to frighten +Jupiter or seduce the moon. He was a plain man, tall and ruddy, very +coarse in speech and thought, open-armed and close-fisted, slapping +senators on the back and keeping a sharp eye on the coppers; taxing the +latrinae, and declaring that money had no smell; yet still, in +comparison with Claud and Nero, almost the ideal; absolutely +uninteresting also, yet doing what good he could; effacing at once the +traces of the civil war, rebuilding the Capitol, calming the people, +protecting the provinces, restoring to Rome the gardens of Nero, +clipping the wings of the Palace of Gold, throwing open again the Via +Sacra, over which the Palace had spread; draining the lake that had +shimmered before it, and erecting the Colosseum in its place. + +In spite of Serapsis, Anubis and Isis, he had not the faintest odor of +myth about him; absolutely bourgeois, he lacked even that atmosphere of +burlesque that surrounded Claud; he was not even vicious. But he was a +soldier, a brave one; and if, with the acquired economy of a subaltern +who has been obliged to live on his pay, he kept his purse-strings +tight, they were loose enough if a friend were in need, and he paid no +one the compliment of a lie. He was projected sheer out of the +republic. The better part of his life had been passed under arms; the +delicate sensuality of Rome was foreign to him. It was there that +Domitian had lived. + +It were interesting to have watched that young man killing flies by the +hour, while he meditated on the atrocities he was to commit--atrocities +so numberless and needless that in the red halls of the Caesars he has +left a portrait which is unique. Slender, graceful, handsome, as were +all the young emperors of old Rome, his blue, troubled eyes took +pleasure, if at all, only in the sight of blood. + +In accordance with the fashion which Caligula and Nero had set, +Domitian's earliest manners were those of an urbane and gentle prince. +Later, when he made it his turn to rule, informers begged their bread +in exile. Where they are not punished, he announced, they are +encouraged. The sacrifices were so distressing to him that he forbade +the immolation of oxen. He was disinterested, too, refusing legacies +when the testator left nearer heirs, and therewith royally generous, +covering his suite with presents, and declaring that to him avarice of +all vices was the lowest and most vile. In short, you would have said +another adolescent Nero come to Rome; there was the same silken +sweetness of demeanor, the same ready blush, in addition to a zeal for +justice and equity which other young emperors had been too thoughtless +to show. + +His boyhood, too, had not been above reproach. The same things were +whispered about him that had been shouted at Augustus. Manifestly he +lacked not one of the qualities which go to the making of a model +prince. Vespasian alone had his doubts. + +"Mushrooms won't hurt you," he cried one day, as Domitian started at +the sight of a ragout a la Sardanapale, which he fancied, possibly, was +a la Locuste, "It is steel you should fear." + +At that time, with a father for emperor and a brother who was sacking +Jerusalem, Domitian had but one cause for anxiety, to wit--that the +empire might escape him. It was then he began his meditations over +holocausts of flies. For hours he secluded himself, occupied solely +with their slaughter. He treated them precisely as Titus treated the +Jews, enjoying the quiver of their legs, the little agonies of their +silent death. + +Tiberius had been in love with solitude, but never as he. Night after +night he wandered on the terraces of the palace, watching the red moon +wane white, companioned only by his dreams, those waking dreams that +poets and madmen share, that Pallas had him in her charge, that Psyche +was amorous of his eyes. + +Meanwhile he was a nobody, a young gentleman merely, who might have +moved in the best society, and who preferred the worst--his own. The +sudden elevation of Vespasian preoccupied him, and while he knew that +in the natural course of events his father would move to Olympus, yet +there was his brother Titus, on whose broad shoulders the mantle of +purple would fall. If the seditious Jews only knew their business! But +no. Forty years before a white apparition on the way to Golgotha had +cried to a handful of women, "The days are coming in which they shall +say to the mountains, 'Fall on us'; to the hills, 'Cover us.'" And the +days had come. A million of them had been butchered. From the country +they had fled to the city; from Acra they had climbed to Zion. When the +city burst into flames their blood put it out. Decidedly they did not +know their business. Titus, instead of being stabbed before Jerusalem's +walls, was marching in triumph to Rome. + +The procession that presently entered the gates was a stream of +splendor; crowns of rubies and gold; garments that glistened with gems; +gods on their sacred pedestals; prisoners; curious beasts; Jerusalem in +miniature; pictures of war; booty from the Temple, the veil, the +candelabra, the cups of gold and the Book of the Law. To the rear +rumbled the triumphal car, in which laurelled and mantled Titus stood, +Vespasian at his side; while, in the distance, on horseback, came +Domitian--a supernumerary, ignored by the crowd. + +When the prisoners disappeared in the Tullianum and a herald shouted, +"They have lived!" Domitian returned to the palace and hunted morosely +for flies. The excesses of the festival in which Rome was swooning then +had no delights for him. Presently the moon would rise, and then on the +deserted terrace perhaps he would bathe a little in her light, and +dream again of Pallas and of the possibilities of an emperor's sway, +but meanwhile those blue troubled eyes that Psyche was amorous of were +filled with envy and with hate. It was not that he begrudged Titus the +triumph. The man who had disposed of a million Jews deserved not one +triumph, but ten. It was the purple that haunted him. + +Domitian was then in the early twenties. The Temple of Peace was +ascending; the Temple of Janus was closed; the empire was at rest. Side +by side with Vespasian, Titus ruled. From the Euphrates came the rumor +of some vague revolt. Domitian thought he would like to quell it. He +was requested to keep quiet. It occurred to him that his father ought +to be ashamed of himself to reign so long. He was requested to vacate +his apartment. There were dumb plots in dark cellars, of which only the +echo of a whisper has descended to us, but which at the time were quite +loud enough to reach Vespasian's ears. Titus interceded. Domitian was +requested to behave. + +For a while he prowled in the moonlight. He had been too precipitate, +he decided, and to allay suspicion presently he went about in society, +mingling his hours with those of married women. Manifestly his ways had +mended. But Vespasian was uneasy. A comet had appeared. The doors of +the imperial mausoleum had opened of themselves, besides, he was not +well. The robust and hardy soldier, suddenly without tangible cause, +felt his strength give way. "It is nothing," his physician said; "a +slight attack of fever." Vespasian shook his head; he knew things of +which the physician was ignorant. "It is death," he answered, "and an +emperor should meet it standing." + +Titus' turn came next. A violent, headstrong, handsome, rapacious +prince, terribly prodigal, thoroughly Oriental, surrounded by dancers +and mignons, living in state with a queen for mistress, startling even +Rome with the uproar of his debauches--no sooner was Vespasian gone +than presto! the queen went home, the dancers disappeared, the +debauches ceased, and a ruler appeared who declared he had lost a day +that a good action had not marked; a ruler who could announce that no +one should leave his presence depressed. + +Though Vespasian had gone, his reign continued. Not long, it is true, +and punctuated by a spectacle of which Caligula, for all his poetry, +had not dreamed--the burial of Pompeii. But a reign which, while it +lasted, was fastidious and refined, and during which, again and again, +Titus, who commanded death and whom death obeyed, besought Domitian to +be to him a brother. + +Domitian had no such intention. He had a party behind him, one made up +of old Neronians, the army of the discontented, who wanted a change, +and greatly admired this charming young prince whose hours were passed +in killing flies and making love to married women. The pretorians too +had been seduced. Domitian could make captivating promises when he +chose. + +As a consequence Titus, like Vespasian, was uneasy, and with cause. +Dion Cassius, or rather that brute Xiphilin, his abbreviator, mentions +the fever that overtook him, the same his father had met. It was +mortal, of course, and the purple was Domitian's. + +For a year and a day thereafter you would have thought Titus still at +the helm. There was the same clemency, the same regard for justice, the +same refinement and fastidiousness. The morose young poet had developed +into a model monarch. The old Neronians were perplexed, irritated too; +they had expected other things. Domitian was merely feeling the way; +the hand that held the sceptre was not quite sure of its strength, and, +tentatively almost, this Prince of Virtue began to scrutinize the +morals of Rome. For the first time he noticed that the cocottes took +their airing in litters. But litters were not for them! That abuse he +put a stop to at once. A senator manifested an interest in +ballet-girls; he was disgraced. The vestals, to whose indiscretions no +one had paid much attention, learned the statutes of an archaic law, +and were buried alive. The early distaste for blood was diminishing. +Domitian had the purple, but it was not bright enough; he wanted it +red, and what Domitian wanted he got. Your god and master orders it, +was the formula he began to use when addressing the Senate and People +of Rome. + +To that the people were indifferent. The spectacles he gave in the +Flavian amphitheatre were too magnificently atrocious not to be a +compensation in full for any eccentricity in which he might indulge. +Besides, under Nero, Claud, Caligula, on en avait vu bien d'autres. And +at those spectacles where he presided, crowned with a tiara, on which +were the images of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, while grouped about him +the college of Flavian flamens wore tiaras that differed therefrom +merely in this, that they bore his image too, the people right royally +applauded their master and their god. + +And it was just as well they did; Domitian was quite capable of +ordering everybody into the arena. As yet, however, he had appeared +little different from any other prince. That Rome might understand that +there was a difference, and also in what that difference consisted, he +gave a supper. Everyone worth knowing was bidden, and, as is usual in +state functions, everyone that was bidden came. The supper hall was +draped with black; the ceiling, the walls, the floor, everything was +basaltic. The couches were black, the linen was black, the slaves were +black. Behind each guest was a broken column with his name on it. The +food was such as is prepared when death has come. The silence was that +of the tomb. The only audible voice was Domitian's. He was talking very +wittily and charmingly about murder, about proscriptions, the good +informers do, the utility of the headsman, the majesty of the law. The +guests, a trifle ill at ease, wished their host sweet dreams. "The same +to you," he answered, and deplored that they must go. + +On the morrow informers and headsmen were at work. Any pretext was +sufficient. Birth, wealth, fame, or the lack of them--anything +whatever--and there the culprit stood, charged not with treason to an +emperor, but with impiety to a god. On the judgment seat Domitian sat. +Before him the accused passed, and under his eyes they were questioned, +tortured, condemned and killed. At once their property passed into the +keeping of the prince. + +Of that he had need. The arena was expensive, but the drain was +elsewhere. A little before, a quarrelsome people, the Dacians, whom it +took a Trajan to subdue, had overrun the Danube, and were marching down +to Rome. Domitian set out to meet them. The Dacians retreated, not at +all because they were repulsed, but because Domitian thought it better +warfare to pay them to do so. On his return after that victory he +enjoyed a triumph as fair as that of Caesar. And each year since then +the emperor of Rome had paid tribute to a nation of mongrel oafs. + +Of course he needed money. The informers were there and he got it, and +with it that spectacle of torture and of blood which he needed too. +Curiously, his melancholy increased; his good looks had gone; Psyche +was no longer amorous of his eyes. Something else haunted him, +something he could not define; the past, perhaps, perhaps the future. +To his ears came strange sounds, the murmur of his own name, and +suddenly silence. Then, too, there always seemed to be something behind +him; something that when he turned disappeared. The room in which he +slept he had covered with a polished metal that reflected everything, +yet still the intangible was there. Once Pallas came in her chariot, +waved him farewell, and disappeared, borne by black horses across the +black night. + +The astrologers consulted had nothing pleasant to say. They knew, as +Domitian knew, that the end was near. So was theirs. To one of them, +who predicted his immediate death, he inquired, "What will your end +be?" "I," answered the astrologer--"I shall be torn by dogs." "To the +stake with him!" cried Domitian; "let him be burned alive!" Suetonius +says that a storm put out the flames, and dogs devoured the corpse. +Another astrologer predicted that Domitian would die before noon on the +morrow. In order to convince him of his error, Domitian ordered him to +be executed the subsequent night. Before noon on the morrow Domitian +was dead. + +Philostratus and Dion Cassius both unite in saying that at that hour +Apollonius was at Ephesus, preaching to the multitude. In the middle of +the sermon he hesitated, but in a moment he began anew. Again he +hesitated, his eyes half closed; then, suddenly he shouted, "Strike +him! Strike him once more!" And immediately to his startled audience he +related a scene that was occurring at Rome, the attack on Domitian, his +struggle with an assailant, his effort to tear out his eyes, the rush +of conspirators, and finally the fall of the emperor, pierced by seven +knives. + +The story may not be true, and yet if it were! + + + + +VII + +THE POISON IN THE PURPLE + + +Rome never was healthy. The tramontana visited it then as now, fever, +too, and sudden death. To emperors it was fatal. Since Caesar a malaria +had battened on them all. Nerva escaped, but only through abdication. +The mantle that fell from Domitian's shoulders on to his was so +dangerous in its splendor, that, fearing the infection, he passed it to +Ulpius Trajanus, the lustre undimmed. + +Ulpius Trajanus, Trajan for brevity, a Spaniard by birth, a soldier by +choice; one who had fought against Parthian and Jew, who had triumphed +through Pannonia and made it his own; a general whose hair had whitened +on the field; a consul who had frightened nations, was afraid of the +sheen of that purple which dazzled, corroded and killed. He bore it, +indeed, but at arm's-length. He kept himself free from the subtlety of +its poison, from the microbes of Rome as well. + +He was in Cologne when Domitian died and Nerva accepted and renounced +the throne. It was a year before he ventured among the seven hills. +When he arrived you would have said another Augustus, not the real +Augustus, but the Augustus of legend, and the late Mr. Gibbon. When he +girt the new prefect of the pretorium with the immemorial sword, he +addressed him in copy-book phrases--"If I rule wisely, use it for me; +unwisely, against me." + +Rome listened open-mouthed. The change from Domitian's formula, "Your +god and master orders it," was too abrupt to be immediately understood. +Before it was grasped Trajan was off again; this time to the Danube and +beyond it, to Dacia and her fens. + +Many years later--a century or two, to be exact--a Persian satrap +loitered in a forum of Rome. "It is here," he declared, "I am tempted +to forget that man is mortal." + +He had passed beneath a triumphal arch; before him was a glittering +square, grandiose, yet severe; a stretch of temples and basilicas, in +which masterpieces felt at home--the Forum of Trajan, the compliment of +a nation to a prince. Dominating it was a column, in whose thick +spirals you read to-day the one reliable chronicle of the Dacian +campaign. Was not Gautier well advised when he said only art endures? + +There were other chronicles in plenty; there were the histories of +AElius Maurus, of Marius Maximus, and that of Spartian, but they are +lost. There is a page or two in the abbreviation which Xiphilin made of +Dion; Aurelius Victor has a little to add, so also has Eutropus, but, +practically speaking, there is, apart from that column, nothing save +conjecture. + +Campaigns are wearisome reading, but not the one that is pictured +there. You ask a curve a question, and in the next you find the reply. +There is a point, however, on which it is dumb--the origin of the war. +But if you wish to know the result, not the momentary and transient +result, but the sequel which futurity held, look at the ruins at that +column's base. + +The origin of the war was Domitian's diplomacy. The chieftain whom he +had made king, and who had been surprised enough at receiving a diadem +instead of the point of a sword, fancied, and not unreasonably, that +the annuity which Rome paid him was to continue forever. But Domitian, +though a god, was not otherwise immortal. When he died abruptly the +annuity ceased. The Dacian king sent word that he was surprised at the +delay, but he must have been far more so at the promptness with which +he got Trajan's reply. It was a blare of bugles, which he thought +forever dumb; a flight of eagles, which he thought were winged. + +In the spirals of the column you see the advancing army, the retreating +foe; then the Dacian dragon saluting the standards of Rome; peace +declared, and an army, whose very repose is menacing, standing there to +see that peace is kept. And was it? In the ascending spiral is the new +revolt, the attempt to assassinate Trajan, the capture of the +conspirators, the advance of the legions, the retreat of the Dacians, +burning their cities as they go, carrying their wounded and their women +with them, and at last pressing about a huge cauldron that is filled +with poison, fighting among themselves for a cup of the brew, and +rolling on the ground in the convulsions of death. Farther on is the +treasure of the king. To hide it he had turned a river from its source, +sunk the gold in a vault beneath, and killed the workmen that had +labored there. Beyond is the capture of the capital, the suicide of the +chief, a troop of soldiers driving captives and cattle before them, the +death of a nation and the end of war. + +The subsequent triumph does not appear on the column. It is said that +ten thousand beasts were slaughtered in the arenas, slaughtering, as +they fell, a thousand of their slaughterers. But the spectacle, however +fair, was not of a nature to detain Trajan long in Rome. The air there +had not improved in the least, and presently he was off again, this +time on the banks of the Euphrates, arguing with the Parthians, +avoiding danger in the only way he knew, by facing it. + +It was then that the sheen of the purple glowed. If lustreless at home, +it was royally red abroad. In a campaign that was little more than a +triumphant promenade he doubled the empire. To the world of Caesar he +added that of Alexander. Allies he turned into subjects, vassals into +slaves. Armenia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, were added to the realm. +Trajan's footstools were diadems. He had moved back one frontier, he +moved another. From Britain to the Indus, Rome was mistress of the +earth. Had Trajan been younger, China, whose very name was unknown, +would have yielded to him her corruption, her printing press, her +powder and her tea. + +That he would have enjoyed these things is not at all conjectural. He +was then an old man, but he was not a good one--at least not in the +sense we use the term to-day. He had habits which are regarded now less +as vices than perversions, but which at that time were taken as a +matter of course and accepted by everyone, even by the stoics, very +calmly, with a grain of Attic salt at that. Men were regarded as +virtuous when they were brave, when they were honest; the idea of using +the expression in its later sense occurred, if at all, in jest merely, +as a synonym for the eunuch. It was the matron and the vestal who were +supposed to be straight, and their straightness was wholly +supposititious. The ceremonies connected with the phallus, and those +observed in the worship of the Bona Dea, were of a nature that no +virtue could withstand. Every altar, Juvenal said, had its Clodius, and +even in Clodius' absence there were always those breaths of Sapphic +song that blew through Mitylene. + +It is just that absence of a quality which we regard as an added grace; +one, parenthetically, which dowered the world with a new conception of +beauty that makes it difficult to picture Rome. Modern ink has acquired +Nero's blush; it comes very readily, yet, however sensitive a writer +may be, once Roman history is before him, he may violate it if he +choose; he may even give it a child, but never can he make it +immaculate. He may skip, indeed, if he wish; and it is because he has +skipped so often that one fancies that Augustus was all right. The rain +of fire which fell on the cities that mirrored their towers in the +Bitter Sea, might just as well have fallen on him, on Vergil, too, on +Caligula, Claud, Nero, Otho, Vitellius, Titus, Domitian, and +particularly on Trajan. + +As lieutenant in the latter's triumphant promenade, was a nephew, +AElius Hadrianus, a young man for whom Trajan's wife is rumored to have +had more than a platonic affection, and who in younger days was +numbered among Trajan's mignons. During the progress of that promenade +Trajan fell ill. The command of the troops was left to Hadrian, and +Trajan started for Rome. On the way he died. In what manner is not +known; his wife, however, was with him, and it was in her hand that a +letter went to the senate stating that Trajan had adopted Hadrian as +his heir. Trajan had done nothing of the sort. The idea had indeed +occurred to him, but long since it had been abandoned. He had even +formally selected someone else, but his wife was with him, and her +lover commanded the troops. The lustre of the purple, always dazzling, +had fascinated Hadrian's eyes. Did he steal it? One may conjecture, yet +never know. In any event it was his, and he folded it very +magnificently about him. Still young, a trifle over thirty, handsome, +unusually accomplished, grand seigneur to his finger-tips, endowed with +a manner which is rumored to have been one of great charm, possessed of +the amplest appreciation of the elegancies of life, he had precisely +the figure which purple adorns. But, though the lustre had fascinated, +he too knew its spell; and presently he started off on a journey about +the world, which lasted fifteen years, and which, when ended, left the +world the richer for his passing, decorated with the monuments he had +strewn. Before that journey began, at the earliest rumor of Trajan's +death, the Euphrates and Tigris awoke, the cinders of Nineveh flamed. +The rivers and land that lay between knew that their conqueror had +gone. Hadrian knew it also, and knew too that, though he might occupy +the warrior's throne, he never could fill the warrior's place. To +Armenia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, freedom was restored. Dacia could have +had it for the asking. But over Dacia the toga had been thrown; it was +as Roman as Gaul. A corner of it is Roman still; the Roumanians are +there. But though Dacia was quiet, in its neighborhood the restless +Sarmatians prowled and threatened. Hadrian, who had already written a +book on tactics, knew at once how to act. Domitian's policy was before +him; he followed the precedent, and paid the Sarmatians to be still. It +requires little acumen to see that when Rome permitted herself to be +blackmailed the end was near. + +For the time being, however, there was peace, and in its interest +Hadrian set out on that unequalled journey over a land that was his. +Had fate relented, Trajan could have made a wider one still. But in +Trajan was the soldier merely, when he journeyed it was with the sword. +In Hadrian was the dilettante, the erudite too; he travelled not to +conquer, but to learn, to satisfy an insatiable curiosity, for +self-improvement, for glory too. Behind him was an army, not of +soldiers, but of masons, captained by architects, artists and +engineers. Did a site please him, there was a temple at once, or if not +that, then a bridge, an aqueduct, a library, a new fashion, sovereignty +even, but everywhere the spectacle of an emperor in flesh and blood. +For the first time the provinces were able to understand that a Caesar +was not necessarily a brute, a phantom and a god. + +It would have been interesting to have made one of that court of poets +and savants that surrounded him; to have dined with him in Paris, eaten +oysters in London; sat with him while he watched that wall go up before +the Scots, and then to have passed down again through a world still +young--a world beautiful, ornate, unutilitarian; a world to which +trams, advertisements and telegraph poles had not yet come; a world +that still had illusions, myths and mysteries; one in which religion +and poetry went hand in hand--a world without newspapers, hypocrisy and +cant. + +Hadrian, doubtless, enjoyed it. He was young enough to have enthusiasms +and to show them; he was one of the best read men of the day; he was +poet, painter, sculptor, musician, erudite and emperor in one. Of +course he enjoyed it. The world, over which he travelled, was his, not +by virtue of the purple alone, but because of his knowledge of it. The +prince is not necessarily cosmopolitan; the historian and antiquarian +are. Hadrian was an early Quinet, an earlier Champollion; always the +thinker, sometimes the cook. And to those in his suite it must have +been a sight very unique to see a Caesar who had published his volume +of erotic verse, just as any other young man might do; who had hunted +lions, not in the arena, but in Africa, make researches on the plain +where Troy had been, and a supreme of sow's breast, peacock, pheasant, +ham and boar, which he called Pentapharmarch, and which he offered as +he had his Catacriani--the erotic verse--as something original and nice. + +Insatiably inquisitive, verifying a history that he was preparing in +the lands which gave that history birth, he passed through Egypt and +Asia, questioning sphinxes, the cerements of kings, the arcana of the +temples; deciphering the sacred books, arguing with magi, interrogating +the stars. For the thinker, after the fashion of the hour, was +astrologer too, and one of the few anecdotes current concerning him is +in regard to a habit he had of drawing up on the 31st of December the +events of the coming year. After consulting the stars on that 31st of +December which occurred in the twenty-second year of his reign, he +prepared a calendar which extended only to the 10th of July. On that +day he died. + +The calendar does not seem to have been otherwise serviceable. It was +in Bithynia he found a shepherd whose appearance which, in its +perfection, was quite earthly, suggested neither heaven nor hell, but +some planet where the atmosphere differs from ours; where it is pink, +perhaps, or faintly ochre; where birth and death have forms higher than +here. + +Hadrian, captivated, led the lad in leash. The facts concerning that +episode have been so frequently given that the repetition is needless +here. Besides, the point is elsewhere. Presently the lad fell +overboard. Hadrian lost a valet, Rome an emperor, and Olympus a god. +But in attempting to deify the lost lackey, the grief of Hadrian was so +immediate, that it is permissible to fancy that the lad's death was not +one of those events which the emperor-astrologer noted beforehand on +his calendar. The lad was decently buried, the Nile gave up her dead, +and on the banks a fair city rose, one that had its temples, priests, +altars and shrines; a city that worshipped a star, and called that star +Antinous. Hadrian then could have congratulated himself. Even Caligula +would have envied him. He had done his worst; he had deified not a lad, +but a lust. And not for the moment alone. A half century later +Tertullian noted that the worship still endured, and subsequently the +Alexandrine Clement discovered consciences that Antinous had reproached. + +Antinous, deified, was presently forgot. A young Roman, wonderfully +beautiful, Dion says, yet singularly effeminate; a youth who could +barely carry a shield; who slept between rose-leaves and lilies; who +was an artist withal; a poet who had written lines that Martial might +have mistaken for his own, Cejonius Verus by name, succeeded the +Bithynian shepherd. Hadrian, who would have adopted Antinous, adopted +Verus in his stead. But Hadrian was not happy in his choice. Verus +died, and singularly enough, Hadrian selected as future emperor the one +ruler against whom history has not a reproach, Pius Antonin. + +Meanwhile the journey continued. The Thousand and One Nights were +realized then if ever. The beauty of the world was at its apogee, the +glory of Rome as well; and through secrets and marvels Hadrian +strolled, note-book in hand, his eyes unwearied, his curiosity +unsatiated still. To pleasure him the intervales took on a fairer glow; +cities decked themselves anew, the temples unveiled their mysteries; +and when he passed to the intervales liberty came; to the cities, +sovereignty; to the temples, shrines. The world rose to him as a woman +greets her lover. His travels were not fatigues; they were delights, in +which nations participated, and of which the memories endure as though +enchanted still. + +It would have been interesting, no doubt, to have dined with him in +Paris; to have quarried lions in their African fens; to have heard +archaic hymns ripple through the rushes of the Nile; to have lounged in +the Academe, to have scaled Parnassus, and sailed the AEgean Sea; but, +a history and an arm-chair aiding, the traveller has but to close his +eyes and the past returns. Without disturbing so much as a shirt-box, +he may repeat that promenade. Triremes have foundered; litters are out +of date; painted elephants are no more; the sky has changed, climates +with it; there are colors, as there are arts, that have gone from us +forever; there are desolate plains, where green and yellow was; the +shriek of steam where gods have strayed; advertisements in sacred +groves; Baedekers in ruins that never heard an atheist's voice; +solitudes where there were splendors; the snarl of jackals where once +were birds and bees--yet, history and the arm-chair aiding, it all +returns. Any traveller may follow in Hadrian's steps; he is stayed but +once--on the threshold of the Temple of Eleusis. It is there history +gropes, impotent and blind, and it is there the interest of that +journey culminated. + +Beyond the episode connected with Antinous, Hadrian's journey was +marked by another, one which occurred in Judaea. Both were infamous, no +doubt, but, what is more to the point, both mark the working of the +poison in the purple that he bore. + +Since Titus had gone, despairful Judaea had taken heart again. Hope in +that land was inextinguishable. The walls of Jerusalem were still +standing; in the Temple the offices continued. Though Rome remained, +there was Israel too. Passing that way one afternoon, Hadrian mused. +The city affected him; the site was superb. And as he mused it occurred +to him that Jerusalem was less harmonious to the ear than +Hadrianopolis; that the Temple occupied a position on which a Capitol +would look far better; in brief, that Jehovah might be advantageously +replaced by Jove. The army of masons that were ever at his heels were +set to work at once. They had received similar orders and performed +similar tasks so often that they could not fancy anyone would object. +The Jews did. They fought as they had never fought before; they fought +for three years against a Nebuchadnezzar who created torrents of blood +so abundant that stones were carried for miles, and who left corpses +enough to fertilize the land for a decade. The survivors were sold. +Those for whom no purchasers could be found had their heads amputated. +Jerusalem was razed to the ground. The site of the Temple was furrowed +by the plow, sown with salt, and in place of the City of David rose +AElia Capitolina, a miniature Rome, whose gates, save on one day in the +year, Jews were forbidden under penalty of death to pass, were +forbidden to look at, and over which were images of swine, pigs with +scornful snouts, the feet turned inward, the tail twisted like a lie. + +It was not honorable warfare, but it was effective; then, too, it was +Hadrianesque, the mad insult of a madman to a race as mad as he. The +purple had done its work. History has left the rise of this emperor +conjectural; his fall is written in blood. As he began he ended, a poet +and a beast. + +Presently he was in Rome. It was not homesickness that took him there; +he was far too cosmopolitan to suffer from any such malady as that. It +was the accumulations of a fifteen-year excursion through the +metropoles of art which demanded a gallery of their own. Another with +similar tastes and similar power might have ordered everything which +pleasured his eye to be carted to Rome, but in his quality of artifex +omnipotens Hadrian embellished and never sacked. There were painters +and sculptors enough in that army at his heels, and whatever appealed +to him was copied on the spot. So much was copied that a park of ten +square miles was just large enough to form the open-air museum which he +had designed, one which centuries of excavation have not exhausted yet. + +The museum became a mad-house. Hadrian was ill; tired in mind and body, +smitten with imperialia. It was then the young Verus died, leaving for +a wonder a child behind, and more wonderful still, Antonin was adopted. +Through Rome, meanwhile, terror stalked. Hadrian, in search of a remedy +against his increasing confusion of mind, his visible weakness of body, +turned from physicians to oracles; from them to magic, and then to +blood. He decimated the senate. Soldiers, freemen, citizens, anybody +and everybody were ordered off to death. He tried to kill himself and +failed; he tried again, wondering, no doubt, why he who commanded death +for others could not command it for himself. Presently he succeeded, +and Antonin--the pious Antonin, as the senate called him--marshalled +from cellars and crypts the senators and citizens whom Hadrian had +ordered to be destroyed. + + + + +VIII + +FAUSTINE + + +Anyone who has loitered a moment among the statues in the Salle des +Antonins at the Louvre will recall the bust of the Empress Faustina. It +stands near the entrance, coercing the idler to remove his hat; to stop +a moment, to gaze and dream. The face differs from that which Mr. +Swinburne has described. In the poise of the head, in the expression of +the lips, particularly in the features which, save the low brow, are +not of the Roman type, there is a commingling of just that loveliness +and melancholy which must have come to Psyche when she lost her god. In +the corners of the mouth, in the droop of the eyelids, in the moulding +of the chin, you may see that rarity--beauty and intellect in one--and +with it the heightening shadow of an eternal regret. Before her Marcus +Aurelius, her husband, stands, decked with the purple, with all the +splendor of the imperator, his beard in overlapping curls, his +questioning eyes dilated. Beyond is her daughter, Lucille, less fair +than the mother, a healthy girl of the dairymaid type. Near by is the +son, Commodus. Across the hall is Lucius Verus, the husband of Lucille; +in a corner, Antonin, Faustine's father, and, more remotely, his wife. +Together they form quite a family group, and to the average tourist +they must seem a thoroughly respectable lot. Antonin certainly was +respectable. He was the first emperor who declined to be a brute. +Referring to his wife he said that he would rather be with her in a +desert than without her in a palace; the speech, parenthetically, of a +man who, though he could have cited that little Greek princess, +Nausicaa, as a precedent, was too well-bred to permit so much as a +fringe of his household linen to flutter in public. Besides, at his +hours, he was a poet, and it is said that if a poet tell a lie twice he +will believe it. Antonin so often declared his wife to be a charming +person that in the end no doubt he thought so. She was not charming, +however, or if she were, her charm was not that of exclusiveness. + +It was in full sight of this lady's inconsequences that Faustine was +educated. Wherever she looked, the candors of her girlhood were +violated. The phallus then was omnipresent. Iamblicus, not the +novelist, but the philosopher, has much to say on the subject; as has +Arnobius in the Adversus gentes, and Lactance in the De falsa +religione. If Juvenal, Martial, Petronius, are more reticent, it is +because they were not Fathers of the Church, nor yet antiquarians. No +one among us exacts a description of a spire. The phallus was as common +to them, commoner even. It was on the coins, on the doors, in the +gardens. As a preservative against Envy it hung from children's necks. +On sun-dials and water clocks it marked the flight of time. The vestals +worshipped it. At weddings it was used in a manner which need not be +described. + +It was from such surroundings that Faustine stepped into the arms of +the severe and stately prince whom her father had chosen. That Marcus +Aurelius adored her is certain. His notebook shows it. A more +tender-hearted and perfect lover romance may show, but history cannot. +He must have been the quintessence of refinement, a thoroughbred to his +finger-tips; one for whom that purple mantle was too gaudy, and yet who +bore it, as he bore everything else, in that self-abnegatory spirit +which the higher reaches of philosophy bring. + +He was of that rare type that never complains and always consoles. + +After Antonin's death, his hours ceased to be his own. On the Euphrates +there was the wildest disorder. To the north new races were pushing +nations over the Danube and the Rhine. From the catacombs Christ was +emerging; from the Nile, Serapis. The empire was in disarray. Antonin +had provided his son-in-law with a coadjutor, Lucius Verus, the son of +Hadrian's mignon, a magnificent scoundrel; a tall, broad-shouldered +athlete, with a skin as fresh as a girl's and thick curly hair, which +he covered with a powder of gold; a viveur, whose suppers are famous +still; whose guests were given the slaves that served them, the plate +off which they had eaten, the cups from which they had drunk--cups of +gold, cups of silver, jewelled cups, cups from Alexandria, murrhine +vases filled with nard--cars and litters to go home with, mules with +silver trappings and negro muleteers. Capitolinus says that, while the +guests feasted, sometimes the magnificent Verus got drunk, and was +carried to bed in a coverlid, or else, the red feather aiding, turned +out and fought the watch. + +It was this splendid individual to whom Marcus Aurelius entrusted the +Euphrates. They had been brought up together, sharing each others +tutors, writing themes for the same instructor, both meanwhile +adolescently enamored of the fair Faustine. It was to Marcus she was +given, the empire as a dower; and when that dower passed into his +hands, he could think of nothing more equitable than to ask Verus to +share it with him. Verus was not stupid enough to refuse, and at the +hour when the Parthians turned ugly, he needed little urging to set out +for the East, dreaming, as he did so, of creating there an empire that +should be wholly his. + +At that time Faustine must have been at least twenty-eight, possibly +thirty. There were matrons who had not seen their fifteenth year, and +Faustine had been married young. Her daughter, Lucille, was nubile. +Presently Verus, or rather his lieutenants, succeeded, and the girl was +betrothed to him. There was a festival, of course, games in abundance, +and plenty of blood. + +It would have been interesting to have seen her that day, the iron ring +of betrothal on her finger, her brother, Commodus, staring at the +arrangement of her hair, her mother prettily perplexed, her father +signing orders which messengers brought and despatched while the sand +took on a deeper red, and Rome shrieked its delight. Yes, it would have +been interesting and typical of the hour. Her hair in the ten tresses +which were symbolic of a fiancee's innocence, must have amused that +brute of a brother of hers, and the iron ring on the fourth finger of +her left hand must have given Faustine food for thought; the vestals, +in their immaculate robes, must have gazed at her in curious, sisterly +ways, and because of her fresh beauty surely there were undertones of +applause. Should her father disappear she would make a gracious +imperatrix indeed. + +But, meanwhile, there was Faustine, and at sight of her legends of old +imperial days returned. She was not Messalina yet, but in the stables +there were jockeys whose sudden wealth surprised no one; in the arenas +there were gladiators that fought, not for liberty, nor for death, but +for the caresses of her eyes; in the side-scenes there were mimes who +spoke of her; there were senators who boasted in their cups, and in the +theatre Rome laughed colossally at the catchword of her amours. + +Marcus Aurelius then was occupied with affairs of state. In similar +circumstances so was Claud--Messalina's husband--so, too, was Antonin. +But Claud was an imbecile, Antonin a man of the world, while Marcus +Aurelius was a philosopher. When fate links a woman to any one of these +varieties of the husband, she is blessed indeed. Faustine was +particularly favored. + +The stately prince was not alone a philosopher--a calling, by the way, +which was common enough then, and has become commoner since--he was a +philosopher who believed in philosophy, a rarity then as now. The exact +trend of his thought is difficult to define. His note-book is filled +with hesitations; materialism had its allurements, so also had +pantheism; the advantages of the Pyrrhonic suspension of judgment were +clear to him too; according to the frame of mind in which he wrote, you +might fancy him an agnostic, again an akosmist, sometimes both, but +always the ethical result is the same. + +"Revenge yourself on your enemy by not resembling him. Forgive; forgive +always; die forgiving. Be indulgent to the wrong-doer; be compassionate +to him; tell him how he should act; speak to him without anger, without +sarcasm; speak to him affectionately. Besides, what do you know of his +wrong-doing? Are all his thoughts familiar to you? May there not be +something that justifies him? And you, are you entirely free from +reproach? Have you never done wrong? And if not, was it fear that +restrained you? Was it pride, or what?" + +In the synoptic gospels similar recommendations appear. Charity is the +New Testament told in a word. Christians read and forget it. But +Christians are not philosophers. The latter are charitable because they +regard evil as a part of the universal order of things, one which it is +idle to blame, yet permissible to rectify. + +From whatever source such a tenet springs, whether from materialism, +stoicism, pyrrhonism, epicureanism, atheism even, is of small matter; +it is a tenet which is honorable to the holder. This sceptred +misanthrope possessed it, and it was in that his wife was blessed. +Years later he died, forgiving her in silence, praising her aloud. +Claud, referring to Messalina, shouted through the Forum that the fate +which destined him to marry impure women destined him to punish them. +Marcus Aurelius said nothing. He did not know what fate destined him to +do, but he did know that philosophy taught him to forgive. + +It was this philosophy that first perplexed Faustine. She was restless, +frivolous, perhaps also a trifle depraved. Frivolous because all women +were, depraved because her mother was, and restless because of the +curiosity that inflammable imaginations share--in brief, a Roman +princess. Her husband differed from the Roman prince. His youth had not +been entirely circumspect; he, too, had his curiosities, but they were +satisfied, he had found that they stained. When he married he was +already the thinker; doubtless, he was tiresome; he could have had +little small-talk, and his hours of love-making must have been rare. +Presently the affairs of state engrossed him. Faustine was left to +herself; save a friend of her own sex, a woman can have no worse +companion. She, too, discovered she had curiosities. A gladiator passed +that way--then Rome; then Lesbos; then the Lampsacene. "You are my +husband's mistress," her daughter cried at her. "And you," the mother +answered, "are your brother's." Even in the aridity of a chronicle the +accusation and rejoinder are dramatic. Fancy what they must have been +when mother and daughter hissed them in each other's teeth. Whether the +argument continued is immaterial. Both could have claimed the sanction +of religion. In those days a sin was a prayer. Religion was then, as it +always had been, purely political. With the individual, with his +happiness or aspirations, it concerned itself not at all. It was the +prosperity of the empire, its peace and immortality, for which +sacrifices were made, and libations offered. The god of Rome was Rome, +and religion was patriotism. The antique virtues, courage in war, +moderation in peace, and honor at all times, were civic, not personal. +It was the state that had a soul, not the individual. Man was +ephemeral; it was the nation that endured. It was the permanence of its +grandeur that was important, nothing else. + +To ensure that permanence each citizen labored. As for the citizen, +death was near, and he hastened to live; before the roses could fade he +wreathed himself with them. Immortality to him was in his descendants, +the continuation of his name, respect to his ashes. Any other form of +future life was a speculation, infrequent at that. In anterior epochs +Fright had peopled Tartarus, but Fright had gone. The Elysian Fields +were vague, wearisome to contemplate; even metempsychosis had no +adherents. "After death," said Caesar, "there is nothing," and all the +world agreed with him. The hour, too, in which three thousand gods had +not a single atheist, had gone, never to return. Old faiths had +crumbled. None the less was Rome the abridgment of every superstition. +The gods of the conquered had always been part of her spoils. The +Pantheon had become a lupanar of divinities that presided over birth, +and whose rites were obscene; an abattoir of gods that presided over +death, and whose worship was gore. To please them was easy. Blood and +debauchery was all that was required. That the upper classes had no +faith in them at all goes without the need of telling; the atmosphere +of their atriums dripped with metaphysics. But of the atheism of the +upper classes the people knew nothing; they clung piously to a faith +which held a theological justification of every sin, and in the temples +fervent prayers were murmured, not for future happiness, for that was +unobtainable, nor yet for wisdom or virtue, for those things the gods +neither granted nor possessed; the prayers were that the gods would +favor the suppliant in his hatreds and in his lusts. + +Such was Rome when Verus returned to wed Lucille. Before his car the +phallus swung; behind it was the pest. A little before, the Tiber +overflowed. Presently, in addition to the pest, famine came. It was +patent to everyone that the gods were vexed. There was blasphemy +somewhere, and the Christians were tossed to the beasts. Faustine +watched them die. At first they were to her as other criminals, but +immediately a difference was discerned. They met death, not with grace, +perhaps, but with exaltation. They entered the arena as though it were +an enchanted garden, the color of the emerald, where dreams came true. +Faustine questioned. They were enemies of state, she was told. The +reply left her perplexed, and she questioned again. It was then her +eyes became inhabited by regret. The past she tried to put from her, +but remorse is physical; it declines to be dismissed. She would have +killed herself, but she no longer dared. Besides, in the future there +was light. In some ray of it she must have walked, for when at the foot +of Mount Taurus, in a little Cappadocian village, years later, she +died, it was at the sign of the cross. + + + + +IX + +THE AGONY + + +The high virtues are not complaisant, it is the cad the canaille adore. +In spite of everything, Nero had been beloved by the masses. For years +there were roses on his tomb. Under Vespasian there was an impostor +whom Greece and Asia acclaimed in his name. The memory of his festivals +was unforgetable; regret for him refused to be stilled. He was more +than a god; he was a tradition. His second advent was confidently +expected; the Jews believed in his resurrection; to the Christian he +had never died, and suddenly he reappeared. + +Rome had declined to accept the old world tenet that the soul has its +avatars, yet, when Commodus sauntered from that distant sepulchre, into +which, poison aiding, he had placed his putative father, Rome felt that +the Egyptians were wiser than they looked; that the soul did migrate, +and that in the blue eyes of the young emperor Nero's spirit shone. + +Herodian, who has written very agreeably on the subject, describes him +as another Prince Charming. His hair, which was very fair, glistened +like gold in the sun; he was slender, not at all effeminate, +exceedingly graceful, exceedingly gracious; endowed with the promptest +blush, with the best intentions; studious of the interests of his +people; glad of advice, seeking it even; courteous and deferential to +the senate and his father's friends--in short, an adolescent Nero--a +trifle more guileful, however; already a parricide, a comedian as well; +one who in a moment would toss the mask aside and disclose the mongrel; +the offspring, not of an empress and an emperor, but the tiger-cub that +Faustine had got by a gladiator. + +The tender-hearted philosopher, who in a campaign against some fretful +Teutons, had taken Commodus with him, knew that he was not his son; +knew, too, when the agony seized him, from whose hand the agony came; +but in earlier life he had jotted in his notebook, "Forgive, forgive +always; die forgiving"; and, as he forgave the mother, so he forgave +the child, recommending him with his last breath to the army and to +Rome. + +As the people had loved Nero, so did the aristocracy love Marcus +Aurelius; his foster-father Antonin excepted, he was the only gentleman +that had sat on the throne. No wonder they loved him; and seeing this +early edition of the prince in the fairy tale emerge from the bogs of +Germany, his fair face haloed by the glisten and gold of his hair, +hearts went out to him; the wish of his putative father was ratified, +and the son of a gladiator was emperor of Rome. + +Lampridus--or Spartian was it? The title-page bears Lampridus' name, +but there is some doubt as to the authorship. However, whoever made the +abridgment of the life of Commodus which appears among the chronicles +of the Scriptores Historiae Augustae, says that before his birth +Faustine dreamed she had engendered a serpent. It is not impossible +that Faustine had been reading Ctzias, and had stumbled over his +account of the Martichoras, a serpent with a woman's face and the +talons of a bird of prey. For it was that she conceived. + +It would have been interesting to have seen that young man, the mask +removed, frightening the senate into calling Rome Commodia, and then in +a linen robe promenading in the attributes of a priest of Anubis +through a seraglio of six hundred girls and mignons embracing as he +passed. There was a spectacle, which Nero had not imagined. But Nero +was vieux jeu. Commodus outdid him, first in debauchery, then in the +arena. Nero had died while in training to kill a lion; Commodus did not +take the trouble to train. It was the lions that were trained, not he. +A skin on his shoulders, a club in his hand, he descended naked into +the ring, and there felled beasts and men. Then, acclaimed as Hercules, +he returned to the pulvina, and a mignon on one side, a mistress on the +other, ordered the guard to massacre the spectators and set fire to +Rome. After entering the arena six or seven hundred times, and there +vanquishing men whose eyes had been put out and whose legs were tied, +the colossal statue which Nero had made after his own image was +altered; to the top came the bust of Commodus, to the base this legend: +THE VICTOR OF TEN THOUSAND GLADIATORS, COMMODUS-HERCULES, IMPERATOR. + +Meanwhile conspirators were at work. Like Nero, Commodus could have +sought in vain for a friend. His life was attempted again and again; he +escaped, but never the plotters; only when they had gone there were +more. He knew he was doomed. There was the usual comet; the statue of +Hercules had perspired visibly; an owl had been caught above his +bedroom, and once he had wiped in his hair the hand which he had +plunged in the warm wound of a gladiator, dead at his feet. These omens +could mean but one thing. None the less, if he were doomed, so were +others. One day one of those miserable children that the emperors kept +about them found a tablet. It was as good as anything else to play +with; and, as the child tossed it through the hall, the one woman that +had loved Commodus caught it and read on it that she and all the +household were to die. Within an hour Commodus was killed. + +There is a page in Lampridus, which he quotes as coming from the lost +chronicles of Marius Maximus, and which contains the joy of the senate +at the news. It is too long for transcription, but as a bit of realism +it is unique. There is a shiver in every line. You hear the voices of +hundreds, drunk with fury, frenzied with delight; the fierce welcome +that greeted Pertinax--a slave's grandson, who was emperor for a +minute--the joy of hate assuaged. + +The delight of the senate was not shared by the pretorians. Pertinax +was promptly massacred; the throne was put up at auction; there were +two or three emperors at once, and presently the purple was seized by +Septimus Severus, a rigid, white-haired disciplinarian, who, in his +admiration for Marcus Aurelius, founded that second dynasty of the +Antonins with which antiquity may be said to end. + +When he had gone, his elder son, Bastian, renamed Aurelius Antonin, and +because of a cloak he had invented nicknamed Caracalla, bounded like a +panther on the throne. In a moment he was gnawing at his brother's +throat, and immediately there occurred a massacre such as Rome had +never seen. Xiphilin says the nights were not long enough to kill all +of the condemned. Twenty thousand people were slaughtered in twenty +hours. The streets were emptied, the theatres closed. + +The blood that ran then must have been in rillets too thin to slake +Caracalla's thirst, for simultaneously almost, he was in Gaul, in +Dacia--wherever there was prey. African by his father, Syrian on his +mother's side, Caracalla was not a panther merely; he was a herd of +them. He had the cruelty, the treachery and guile of a wilderness of +tiger-cats. No man, said a thinker, is wholly base. Caracalla was. He +had not a taste, not a vice, even, which was not washed and rewashed in +blood. In a moment of excitement Commodus set his guards on the +spectators in the amphitheatre; the damage was slight, for the +Colosseum was so constructed that in two minutes the eighty or ninety +thousand people which it held could escape. Caracalla had the exits +closed. Those who escaped were naked; to bribe the guards they were +forced to strip themselves to the skin. In the circus a vestal caught +his eye. He tried to violate her, and failing impotently, had her +buried alive. "Caracalla knows that I am a virgin, and knows why," the +girl cried as the earth swallowed her, but there was no one there to +aid. + +Such things show the trend of a temperament, though not, perhaps, its +force. Presently the latter was displayed. For years those arch-enemies +of Rome, the unconquerable Parthians, had been quiet; bound, too, by +treaties which held Rome's honor. Not Caracalla's, however; he had +none. An embassy went out to Artobane, the king. Caracalla wished a +bride, and what fairer one could he have than the child of the Parthian +monarch? Then, too, the embassy was charged to explain, the marriage of +Rome and Parthia would be the union of the Orient and the Occident, +peace by land and sea. Artobane hesitated, and with cause; but +Caracalla wooed so ardently that finally the king said yes. The news +went abroad. The Parthians, delighted, prepared to receive the emperor. +When Caracalla crossed the Tigris, the highroad that led to the capital +was strewn with sacrifices, with altars covered with flowers, with +welcomings of every kind. Caracalla was visibly pleased. Beyond the +gates of the capital, there was the king; he had advanced to greet his +son-in-law, and that the greeting might be effective, he had assembled +his nobles and his troops. The latter were armed with cymbals, with +hautbois, and with flutes; and as Caracalla and his army approached, +there was music, dancing and song; there were libations too, and as the +day was practically the wedding of East and West, there was not a +weapon to be seen--gala robes merely, brilliant and long. Caracalla +saluted the king, gave an order to an adjutant, and on the smiling +defenceless Parthians the Roman eagles pounced. Those who were not +killed were made prisoners of war. The next day Caracalla withdrew, +charged with booty, firing cities as he went. + +A little before, rumor reached him that a group of the citizens of +Alexandria had referred to him as a fratricide. After the adventure in +Parthia he bethought him of the city which Alexander had founded, and +of the temple of Serapis that was there. He wished to honor both, he +declared, and presently he was at the gates. The people were enchanted; +the avenues were strewn with flowers, lined with musicians. There were +illuminations, festivals, sacrifices, torrents of perfumes, and through +it all Caracalla passed, a legion at his heels. To see him, to +participate in the succession of prodigalities, the surrounding country +flocked there too. In recognition of the courtesy with which he was +received, Caracalla gave a banquet to the magnates and the clergy. +Before his guests could leave him they were killed. Through the streets +the legion was at work. Alexandria was turned into a cemetery. Herodian +states that the carnage was so great that the Nile was red to its mouth. + +In Rome at that time was a prefect, Macrin by name, who had dreamed the +purple would be his. He was a swarthy liar, and his promises were such +that the pretorians were willing that the dream should come true. +Emissaries were despatched, and Caracalla was stabbed. In his luggage +poison was found to the value of five million five hundred thousand +drachmae. What fresh turpitude he was devising no one knew, and the +discovery might serve as an epitaph, were it not that by his legions he +was adored. No one had abandoned to the army such booty as he. + +Meanwhile, in a chapel at Emissa, a boy was dancing indolently to the +kiss of flutes. A handful of Caracalla's soldiers passed that way, and +thought him Bacchus. In his face was the enigmatic beauty of gods and +girls--the charm of the dissolute and the wayward heightened by the +divine. On his head was a diadem; his frail tunic was of purple and +gold, but the sleeves, after the Phoenician fashion, were wide, and he +was shod with a thin white leather that reached to the thighs. He was +fourteen, and priest of the Sun. The chapel was roomy and rich. There +was no statue--a black phallus merely, which had fallen from above, and +on which, if you looked closely, you could see the image of Elagabal, +the Sun. + +The rumor of his beauty brought other soldiers that way, and the lad, +feeling that Rome was there, ceased to dance, strolling through pauses +of the worship, a troop of galli at his heels, surveying the intruders +with querulous, feminine eyes. + +Presently a whisper filtered that the lad was Caracalla's son. There +were centurions there that remembered Semiamire, the lad's mother, very +well; they had often seen her, a superb creature with scorching eyes, +before whom fire had been carried as though she were empress. It was +she who had put it beyond Caracalla's power to violate that vestal when +he tried. She was his cousin; her life had been passed at court; it was +Macrin who had exiled her. And with the whisper filtered another--that +she was rich; that she had lumps of gold, which she would give gladly +to whomso aided in placing her Antonin on the throne. There were +gossips who said ill-natured things of this lady; who insinuated that +she had so many lovers that she herself could not tell who was the +father of her child; but the lumps of gold had a language of their own. +The disbanded army espoused the young priest's cause; there was a +skirmish, Macrin was killed, and Heliogabalus was emperor of Rome. + +"I would never have written the life of this Antonin Impurissimus," +said Lampridus, "were it not that he had predecessors." Even in Latin +the task was difficult. In English it is impossible. There are subjects +that permit of a hint, particularly if it be masked to the teeth, but +there are others that no art can drape. "The inexpressible does not +exist," Gautier remarked, when he finished a notorious romance, nor +does it; but even his pen would have balked had he tried it on +Heliogabalus. + +In his work on the Caesars, Suetonius drew breath but once--he called +Nero a monster. Subsequently he must have regretted having done so, not +because Nero was not a monster, but because it was sufficient to +display the beast without adding a descriptive placard. In that was +Suetonius' advantage; he could describe. Nowadays a writer may not, or +at least not Heliogabalus. It is not merely that he was depraved, for +all of that lot were; it was that he made depravity a pursuit; and, the +purple favoring, carried it not only beyond the limits of the +imaginable, but beyond the limits of the real. At the feet of that +painted boy, Elephantis and Parrhasius could have sat and learned a +lesson. Apart from that phase of his sovereignty, he was a little +Sardanapalus, an Asiatic mignon, who found himself great. + +It would have been curious to have seen him in that wonderful palace, +clothed like a Persian queen, insisting that he should be addressed as +Imperatrix, and quite living up to the title. It would not only be +interesting, it would give one an insight into just how much the Romans +could stand. It would have been curious, also, to have assisted at that +superb and poetic ceremonial, in which, having got Tanit from Carthage +as consort for Elagabal, he presided, girt with the pomp of church and +state, over the nuptials of the Sun and Moon. + +He had read Suetonius, and not an eccentricity of the Caesars escaped +him. He would not hunt flies by the hour, as Domitian had done, for +that would be mere imitation; but he could collect cobwebs, and he did, +by the ton. Caligula and Vitellius had been famous as hosts, but the +feasts that Heliogabalus gave outranked them for sheer splendor. From +panels in the ceiling such masses of flowers fell that guests were +smothered. Those that survived had set before them glass game and +sweets of crystal. The menu was embroidered on the table-cloth--not the +mere list of dishes, but pictures drawn with the needle of the dishes +themselves. And presently, after the little jest in glass had been +enjoyed, you were served with camel's heels; combs torn from living +cocks; platters of nightingale tongues; ostrich brains, prepared with +that garum sauce which the Sybarites invented, and of which the secret +is lost; therewith were peas and grains of gold; beans and amber +peppered with pearl dust; lentils and rubies; spiders in jelly; lion's +dung, served in pastry. The guests that wine overcame were carried to +bedrooms. When they awoke, there staring at them were tigers and +leopards--tame, of course; but some of the guests were stupid enough +not to know it, and died of fright. + +All this was of a nature to amuse a lad who had made the phallus the +chief object of worship; who had banished Jupiter, dismissed Isis; who, +over paths that were strewn with lilies, had himself, in the attributes +of Bacchus, drawn by tigers; by lions as Mother of the Gods; again, by +naked women, as Heliogabalus on his way to wed a vestal, and procure +for the empire a child that should be wholly divine. + +It amused Rome, too, and his prodigalities in the circus were such that +Lampridus admits that the people were glad he was emperor. Neither +Caligula nor Nero had been as lavish, and neither Caligula nor Nero as +cruel. The atrocities he committed, if less vast than those of +Caracalla's, were more acute. Domitian even was surpassed in the +tortures invented by a boy, so dainty that he never used the same +garments, the same shoes, the same jewels, the same woman twice. + +In spite of this, or perhaps precisely on that account, the usual +conspirators were at work, and one day this little painted girl, who +had prepared several devices for a unique and splendid suicide, was +taken unawares and tossed in the latrinae. + +In him the glow of the purple reached its apogee. Rome had been +watching a crescendo that had mounted with the years. Its culmination +was in that hermaphrodite. But the tension had been too +great--something snapped; there was nothing left--a procession of +colorless bandits merely, Thracians, Gauls, Pannonians, Dalmatians, +Goths, women even, with Attila for a climax and the refurbishing of the +world. + +Rome was still mistress, but she was growing very old. She had +conquered step by step. When one nation had fallen, she garrotted +another. To vanquish her, the earth had to produce not only new races, +but new creeds. The parturitions, as we know, were successful. Already +the blue, victorious eyes of Vandal and of Goth were peering down at +Rome; already they had whispered together, and over the hydromel had +drunk to her fall. The earth's new children fell upon her, not one by +one, but all at once, and presently the colossus tottered, startling +the universe with the uproar of her agony; calling to gods that had +vacated the skies; calling to Jupiter; calling to Isis; calling in +vain. Where the thunderbolt had gleamed, a crucifix stood. On the +shoulders of a prelate was the purple that had dazzled the world. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Imperial Purple, by Edgar Saltus + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMPERIAL PURPLE *** + +***** This file should be named 4250.txt or 4250.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/5/4250/ + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Caesar was adored. A man who could give +millions away and sup on dry bread was apt to conquer, not +provinces alone, but hearts. Besides, he had begun well and his +people had done their best. The House of Julia, to which he +belonged, descended, he declared, from Venus. The ancestry was +less legendary than typical. Cinna drafted a law giving him the +right to marry as often as he chose. His mistresses were queens. +After the episodes in Gaul, when he entered Rome his legions +warned the citizens to have an eye on their wives. At seventeen he +fascinated pirates. A shipload of the latter had caught him and +demanded twenty talents ransom. "Too little," said the lad; "I +will give you fifty, and impale you too," which he did, jesting +with them meanwhile, reciting verses of his own composition, +calling them barbarians when they did not applaud, ordering them +to be quiet when he wished to sleep, captivating them by the +effrontery of his assurance, and, the ransom paid, slaughtering +them as he had promised. + +Tall, slender, not handsome, but superb and therewith so perfectly +sent out that Cicero mistook him for a fop from whom the republic +had nothing to fear; splendidly lavish, exquisitely gracious, he +was born to charm, and his charm was such that it still subsists. +Cato alone was unenthralled. But Cato was never pleased; he +laughed but once, and all Rome turned out to see him; he belonged +to an earlier day, to an austerer, perhaps to a better one, and it +may be that in "that woman," as he called Cassar, his clearer +vision discerned beneath the plumage of the peacock, the beak and +talons of the bird of prey. For they were there, and needed only a +vote of the senate to batten on nations of which the senate had +never heard. Loan him an army, and "that woman" was to give +geography such a twist that today whoso says Caesar says history. + +Was it this that Cato saw, or may it be that one of the oracles +which had not ceased to speak had told him of that coming night +when he was to take his own life, fearful lest "that woman" should +overwhelm him with the magnificence of his forgiveness? Cato walks +through history, as he walked through the Forum, bare of foot--too +severe to be simple, too obstinate to be generous--the image of +ancient Rome. + +In Caesar there was nothing of this. He was wholly modern; +dissolute enough for any epoch, but possessed of virtues that his +contemporaries could not spell. A slave tried to poison him. +Suetonius says he merely put the slave to death. The "merely" is +to the point. Cato would have tortured him first. After Pharsalus +he forgave everyone. When severe, it was to himself. It is true he +turned over two million people into so many dead flies, their legs +in the air, creating, as Tacitus has it, a solitude which he +described as Peace; but what antitheses may not be expected in a +man who, before the first century was begun, divined the fifth, +and who in the Suevians--that terrible people beside whom no +nation could live--foresaw Attila! + +Save in battle his health was poor. He was epileptic, his strength +undermined by incessant debauches; yet let a nation fancying him +months away put on insurgent airs, and on that nation he descended +as the thunder does. In his campaigns time and again he overtook +his own messengers. A phantom in a ballad was not swifter than he. +Simultaneously his sword flashed in Germany, on the banks of the +Adriatic, in that Ultima Thule where the Britons lived. From the +depths of Gaul he dominated Rome, and therewith he was penetrating +impenetrable forests, trailing legions as a torch trails smoke, +erecting walls that a nation could not cross, turning soldiers +into marines, infantry into cavalry, building roads that are roads +to-day, fighting with one hand and writing an epic with the other, +dictating love-letters, chronicles, dramas; finding time to make a +collection of witticisms; overturning thrones while he decorated +Greece; mingling initiate into orgies of the Druids, and, as the +cymbals clashed, coquetting with those terrible virgins who awoke +the tempest; not only conquering, but captivating, transforming +barbarians into soldiers and those soldiers into senators, +submitting three hundred nations and ransacking Britannia for +pearls for his mistresses' ears. + +Each epoch has its secret, and each epoch-maker his own. Caesar's +secret lay in the power he had of projecting a soul into the ranks +of an army, of making legions and their leader one. Disobedience +only he punished; anything else he forgave. After a victory his +soldiery did what they liked. He gave them arms, slaves to burnish +them, women, feasts, sleep. They were his comrades; he called them +so; he wept at the death of any of them, and when they were +frightened, as they were in Gaul before they met the Germans, and +in Africa before they encountered Juba, Caesar frightened them +still more. He permitted no questions, no making of wills. The +cowards could hide where they liked; his old guard, the Tenth, +would do the work alone; or, threat still more sinister, he would +command a retreat. Ah, that, never! Fanaticism returned, the +legions begged to be punished. + +Michelet says he would like to have seen him crossing Gaul, +bareheaded, in the rain. It would have been as interesting, +perhaps, to have watched him beneath the shade of the velarium +pleading the cause of Masintha against the Numidian king. Before +him was a crowd that covered not the Forum alone, but the steps of +the adjacent temples, the roofs of the basilicas, the arches of +Janus, one that extended remotely to the black walls of the Curia +Hostilia beyond. And there, on the rostrum, a musician behind him +supplying the la from a flute, the air filled with gold motes, +Caesar, his toga becomingly adjusted, a jewelled hand extended, +opened for the defence. Presently, when through the exercise of +that art of his which Cicero pronounced incomparable, he felt that +the sympathy of the audience was won, it would have been +interesting, indeed, to have heard him argue point after point-- +clearly, brilliantly, wittily; insulting the plaintiff in poetic +terms; consigning him gracefully to the infernal regions; +accentuating a fictitious and harmonious anger; drying his +forehead without disarranging his hair; suffocating with the +emotions he evoked; displaying real tears, and with them a +knowledge, not only of law, rhetoric, philosophy, but of geometry, +astronomy, ethics and the fine arts; blinding his hearers with the +coruscations of his erudition; stirring them with his tongue, as +with the point of a sword, until, as though abruptly possessed by +an access of fury, he seized the plaintiff by the beard and sent +him spinning like a leaf which the wind had caught. + +It would have bored no one either to have assisted at his triumph +when he returned from Gaul, when he returned after Spain, after +Pharsalus, when he returned from Cleopatra's arms. + +On that day the Via Sacra was curtained with silk. To the blare of +twisted bugles there descended to it from the turning at the hill +a troop of musicians garmented in leather tunics, bonneted with +lions' heads. Behind them a hundred bulls, too fat to be +troublesome, and decked for death, bellowed musingly at the +sacrifants, who, naked to the waist, a long-handled hammer on the +shoulder, maintained them with colored cords. To the rumble of +wide wheels and the thunder of spectators the prodigious booty +passed, and with it triumphs of war, vistas of conquered +countries, pictures of battles, lists of the vanquished, symbols +of cities that no longer were; a stretch of ivory on which shone +three words, each beginning with a V; images of gods disturbed, +the Rhine, the Rhone, the captive Ocean in massive gold; the +glitter of three thousand crowns offered to the dictator by the +army and allies of Rome. Then came the standards of the republic, +a swarm of eagles, the size of pigeons, in polished silver upheld +by lances which ensigns bore, preceding the six hundred senators +who marched in a body, their togas bordered with red, while to the +din of incessant insults, interminable files of prisoners passed, +their wrists chained to iron collars, which held their heads very +straight, and to the rear a litter, in which crouched the +Vercingetorix of Gaul, a great moody giant, his menacing eyes +nearly hidden in the tangles of his tawny hair. + +When they had gone the street was alive with explosions of brass, +aflame with the burning red cloaks of laureled lictors making way +for the coming of Caesar. Four horses, harnessed abreast, their +manes dyed, their forelocks puffed, drew a high and wonderfully +jewelled car; and there, in the attributes and attitude of Jupiter +Capitolinus, Caesar sat, blinking his tired eyes. His face and +arms were painted vermilion; above the Tyrian purple of his toga, +above the gold work and palms of his tunic, there oscillated a +little ball in which there were charms against Envy. On his head a +wreath concealed his increasing baldness; along his left arm the +sceptre lay; behind him a boy admonished him noisily to remember +he was man, while to the rear for miles and miles there rang the +laugh of trumpets, the click of castanets, the shouts of dancers, +the roar of the multitude, the tramp of legions, and the cry, +caught up and repeated, "Io! Triomphe!" + +Presently, in the temple of the god of gods, side by side with the +statue of Jupiter, Caesar found his own statue with "Caesar, demi- +god," at its base. The captive chiefs disappeared in the +Tullianum, and a herald called, "They have lived!" Through the +squares jesters circulated, polyglot and obscene; across the +Tiber, in an artificial lake, the flotilla of Egypt fought against +that of Tyr; in the amphitheatre there was a combat of soldiers, +infantry against cavalry, one that indemnified those that had not +seen the massacres in Thessaly and in Spain. There were public +feasts, gifts to everyone. Tables were set in the Forum, in the +circuses and theatres. Falernian circulated in amphorae, Chios in +barrels. When the populace was gorged there were the red feathers +to enable it to gorge again. Of the Rome of Romulus there was +nothing left save the gaunt she-wolf, her wide lips curled at the +descendants of her nursling. + +Later, when in slippered feet Caesar wandered through those lovely +gardens of his that lay beyond the Tiber, it may be that he +recalled a dream which had come to him as a lad; one which +concerned the submission of his mother; one which had disturbed +him until the sooth-sayers said: "The mother you saw is the earth, +and you will be her master." And as the memory of the dream +returned, perhaps with it came the memory of the hour when as +simple quaestor he had wept at Gaddir before a statue that was +there. Demi-god, yes; he was that. More, even; he was dictator, +but the dream was unfulfilled. There were the depths of Hither +Asia, the mysteries that lay beyond; there were the glimmering +plains of the Caucasus; there were the Vistula and the Baltic; the +diadems of Cyrus and of Alexander defying his ambition yet, and +what were triumphs and divinity to one who would own the world! + +It was this that preoccupied him. The immensity of his successes +seemed petty and Rome very small. Heretofore he had forgiven those +who had opposed him. Presently his attitude changed, and so subtly +that it was the more humiliating; it was not that he no longer +forgave, he disdained to punish. His contempt was absolute. The +senate made his office of pontifix maximus hereditary and accorded +the title of Imperator to his heirs. He snubbed the senate and the +honors that it brought. The senate was shocked. Composed of men +whose fortunes he had made, the senate was not only shocked, its +education in ingratitude was complete. Already there had been +murmurs. Not content with disarranging the calendar, outlining an +empire, drafting a code while planning fresh beauties, new +theatres, bilingual libraries, larger temples, grander gods, +Caesar was at work in the markets, in the kitchens of the +gourmets, in the jewel-boxes of the virgins. Liberty, visibly, was +taking flight. Besides, the power concentrated in him might be so +pleasantly distributed. It was decided that Caesar was in the way. +To put him out of it a pretext was necessary. + +One day the senate assembled at his command. They were to sign a +decree creating him king. In order not to, Suetonius says, they +killed him, wounding each other in the effort, for Caesar fought +like the demon that he was, desisting only when he recognized +Brutus, to whom, in Greek, he muttered a reproach, and, draping +his toga that he might fall with decency, sank backward, his head +covered, a few feet from the bronze wolf that stood, its ears +pointed at the letters S. P. Q. R. which decorated a frieze of the +Curia. + +Brutus turned to harangue the senate; it had fled. He went to the +Forum to address the people; there was no one. Rome was strangely +empty. Doors were barricaded, windows closed. Through the silent +streets gladiators prowled. Night came, and with it whispering +groups. The groups thickened, voices mounted. Caesar's will had +been read. He had left his gardens to the people, a gift to every +citizen, his wealth and power to his butchers. The body, which two +slaves had removed, an arm hanging from the litter, had never been +as powerfully alive. Caesar reigned then as never before. A mummer +mouthed: + + "I brought them life, they gave me death." + +And willingly would the mob have made Rome the funeral pyre of +their idol. In the sky a comet appeared. It was his soul on its +way to Olympus. + + + + + +II + +CONJECTURAL ROME + + +"I received Rome in brick; I shall leave it in marble," said +Augustus, who was fond of fine phrases, a trick he had caught from +Vergil. And when he looked from his home on the Palatine over the +glitter of the Forum and the glare of the Capitol to the new and +wonderful precinct which extended to the Field of Mars, there was +a stretch of splendor which sanctioned the boast. The city then +was very vast. The tourist might walk in it, as in the London of +to-day, mile after mile, and at whatever point he placed himself, +Rome still lay beyond; a Rome quite like London--one that was +choked with mystery, with gold and curious crime. + +But it was not all marble. There were green terraces and porphyry +porticoes that leaned to a river on which red galleys passed; +there were theatres in which a multitude could jeer at an emperor, +and arenas in which an emperor could watch a multitude die; there +were bronze doors and garden roofs, glancing villas and temples +that defied the sun; there were spacious streets, a Forum +curtained with silk, the glint and evocations of triumphal war, +the splendor of a host of gods, but it was not all marble; there +were rents in the magnificence and tatters in the laticlave of +state. + +In the Subura, where at night women sat in high chairs, ogling the +passer with painted eyes, there was still plenty of brick; tall +tenements, soiled linen, the odor of Whitechapel and St. Giles. +The streets were noisy with match-peddlers, with vendors of cake +and tripe and coke; there were touts there too, altars to +unimportant divinities, lying Jews who dealt in old clothes, in +obscene pictures and unmentionable wares; at the crossings there +were thimbleriggers, clowns and jugglers, who made glass balls +appear and disappear surprisingly; there were doorways decorated +with curious invitations, gossipy barber shops, where, through the +liberality of politicians, the scum of a great city was shaved, +curled and painted free; and there were public houses, where +vagabond slaves and sexless priests drank the mulled wine of +Crete, supped on the flesh of beasts slaughtered in the arena, or +watched the Syrian women twist to the click of castanets. + +Beyond were gray quadrangular buildings, the stomach of Rome, +through which, each noon, ediles passed, verifying the prices, the +weights and measures of the market men, examining the fish and +meats, the enormous cauliflowers that came from the suburbs, +Veronese carrots, Arician pears, stout thrushes, suckling pigs, +eggs embedded in grass, oysters from Baiae, boxes of onions and +garlic mixed, mountains of poppies, beans and fennel, destroying +whatever had ceased to be fresh and taxing that which was. + +On the Via Sacra were the shops frequented by ladies; bazaars +where silks and xylons were to be had, essences and unguents, +travelling boxes of scented wood, switches of yellow hair, useful +drugs such as hemlock, aconite, mandragora and cantharides; the +last thing of Ovid's and the improper little novels that came from +Greece. + +On the Appian Way, through green afternoons and pink arcades, +fashion strolled. There wealth passed in its chariots, smart young +men that smelt of cinnamon instead of war, nobles, matrons, +cocottes. + +At the other end of the city, beyond the menagerie of the +Pantheon, was the Field of Mars, an open-air gymnasium, where +every form of exercise was to be had, even to that simple +promenade in which the Romans delighted, and which in Caesar's +camp so astonished the Verronians that they thought the +promenaders crazy and offered to lead them to their tents. There +was tennis for those who liked it; racquets, polo, football, +quoits, wrestling, everything apt to induce perspiration and +prepare for the hour when a gong of bronze announced the opening +of the baths--those wonderful baths, where the Roman, his slaves +about him, after pasing through steam and water and the hands of +the masseur, had every hair plucked from his arms, legs and +armpits; his flesh rubbed down with nard, his limbs polished with +pumice; and then, wrapped in a scarlet robe, lined with fur, was +sent home in a litter. "Strike them in the face!" cried Caesar at +Pharsalus, when the young patricians made their charge; and the +young patricians, who cared more for their looks than they did for +victory, turned and fled. + +It was to the Field of Mars that Agrippa came, to whom Rome owed +the Pantheon and the demand for a law which should inhibit the +private ownership of a masterpiece. There, too, his eunuchs about +him, Mecaenas lounged, companioned by Varus, by Horace and the +mime Bathylle, all of whom he was accustomed to invite to that +lovely villa of his which overlooked the blue Sabinian hills, and +where suppers were given such as those which Petronius has +described so alertly and so well. + +In the hall like that of Mecaenas', one divided against itself, +the upper half containing the couches and tables, the other +reserved for the service and the entertainments that follow, the +ceiling was met by columns, the walls hidden by panels of gems. On +a frieze twelve pictures, surmounted by the signs of the zodiac, +represented the dishes of the different months. Beneath the bronze +beds and silver tables mosaics were set in imitation of food that +had fallen and had not been swept away. And there, in white +ungirdled tunics, the head and neck circled with coils of +amaranth--the perfume of which in opening the pores neutralizes +the fumes of wine--the guests lay, fanned by boys, whose curly +hair they used for napkins. Under the supervision of butlers the +courses were served on platters so large that they covered the +tables; sows' breasts with Lybian truffles; dormice baked in +poppies and honey, peacock-tongues flavored with cinnamon; oysters +stewed in garum--a sauce made of the intestines of fish--sea- +wolves from the Baltic; sturgeons from Rhodes; fig-peckers from +Samos; African snails; pale beans in pink lard; and a yellow pig +cooked after the Troan fashion, from which, when carved, hot +sausages fell and live thrushes flew. Therewith was the mulsum, a +cup made of white wine, nard, roses, absinthe and honey; the +delicate sweet wines of Greece; and crusty Falernian of the year +six hundred and thirty-two. As the cups circulated, choirs +entered, chanting sedately the last erotic song; a clown danced on +the top of a ladder, which he maintained upright as he danced, +telling meanwhile untellable stories to the frieze; and host and +guests, unvociferously, as good breeding dictates, chatted through +the pauses of the service; discussed the disadvantages of death, +the value of Noevian iambics, the disgrace of Ovid, banished +because of Livia's eyes. + +Such was the Rome of Augustus. "Caesar," cried a mime to him one +day, "do you know that it is important for you that the people +should be interested in Bathylle and in myself?" + +The mime was right. The sovereign of Rome was not the Caesar, nor +yet the aristocracy. The latter was dead. It had been banished by +barbarian senators, by barbarian gods; it had died twice, at +Pharsalus, at Philippi; it was the people that was sovereign, and +it was important that that sovereign should be amused--flattered, +too, and fed. For thirty years not a Roman of note had died in his +bed; not one but had kept by him a slave who should kill him when +his hour had come; anarchy had been continuous; but now Rome was +at rest and its sovereign wished to laugh. Made up of every nation +and every vice, the universe was ransacked for its entertainment. +The mountain sent its lions, the desert giraffes; there were boas +from the jungles, bulls from the plains, and hippopotami from the +waters of the Nile. Into the arenas patricians descended; in the +amphitheatre there were criminals from Gaul; in the Forum +philosophers from Greece. On the stage, there were tragedies, +pantomimes and farce; there were races in the circus, and in the +sacred groves girls with the Orient in their eyes and slim waists +that swayed to the crotals. For the thirst of the sovereign there +were aqueducts, and for its hunger Africa, Egypt, Sicily +contributed grain. Syria unveiled her altars, Persia the mystery +and magnificence of her gods. + +Such was Rome. Augustus was less noteworthy; so unnecessary even +that every student must regret Actium, Antony's defeat, the +passing of Caesar's dream. For Antony was made for conquests; it +was he who, fortune favoring, might have given the world to Rome. +A splendid, an impudent bandit, first and foremost a soldier, +calling himself a descendant of Hercules whom he resembled; hailed +at Ephesus as Bacchus, in Egypt as Osiris; Asiatic in lavishness, +and Teuton in his capacity for drink; vomiting in the open Forum, +and making and unmaking kings; weaving with that viper of the Nile +a romance which is history; passing initiate into the inimitable +life, it would have been curious to have watched him that last +night when the silence was stirred by the hum of harps, the cries +of bacchantes bearing his tutelary god back to the Roman camp, +while he said farewell to love, to empire and to life. + +Augustus resembled him not at all. He was a colorless monarch; an +emperor in everything but dignity, a prince in everything but +grace; a tactician, not a soldier; a superstitious braggart, +afraid of nothing but danger; seducing women to learn their +husband's secrets; exiling his daughter, not because she had +lovers, but because she had other lovers than himself; exiling +Ovid because of Livia, who in the end poisoned her prince, and +adroitly, too; illiterate, blundering of speech, and coarse of +manner--a hypocrite and a comedian in one--so guileful and yet so +stupid that while a credulous moribund ordered the gods to be +thanked that Augustus survived him, the people publicly applied to +him an epithet which does not look well in print. + +After Philippi and the suicide of Brutus; after Actium and +Antony's death, for the first time in ages, the gates of the +Temple of Janus were closed. There was peace in the world; but it +was the sword of Caesar, not of Augustus, that brought the +insurgents to book. At each of the victories he was either asleep +or ill. At the time of battle there was always some god warning +him to be careful. The battle won, he was brave enough, +considerate even. A father and son begged for mercy. He promised +forgiveness to the son on condition that he killed his father. The +son accepted and did the work; then he had the son despatched. A +prisoner begged but for a grave. "The vultures will see to it," he +answered. When at the head of Caesar's legions, he entered Rome to +avenge the latter's death, he announced beforehand that he would +imitate neither Caesar's moderation nor Sylla's cruelty. There +would be only a few proscriptions, and a price--and what a price, +liberty!--was placed on the heads of hundreds of senators and +thousands of knights. And these people, who had more slaves than +they knew by sight, slaves whom they tossed alive to fatten fish, +slaves to whom they affected never to speak, and who were +crucified did they so much as sneeze in their presence--at the +feet of these slaves they rolled, imploring them not to deliver +them up. Now and then a slave was merciful; Augustus never. + +Successes such as these made him ambitious. Having vanquished with +the sword, he tried the pen. "You may grant the freedom of the +city to your barbarians," said a wit to him one day, "but not to +your solecisms." Undeterred he began a tragedy entitled "Ajax," +and discovering his incompetence, gave it up. "And what has become +of Ajax?" a parasite asked. "Ajax threw himself on a sponge," +replied Augustus, whose father, it is to be regretted, did not do +likewise. Nevertheless, it were pleasant to have assisted at his +funeral. + +A couch of ivory and gold, ten feet high, draped with purple, +stood for a week in the atrium of the palace. Within the couch, +hidden from view, the body of the emperor lay, ravaged by poison. +Above was a statue, recumbent, in wax, made after his image and +dressed in imperial robes. Near by a little slave with a big fan +protected the statue from flies. Each day physicians came, gazed +at the closed wax mouth, and murmured, "He is worse." In the +vestibule was a pot of burning ilex, and stretching out through +the portals a branch of cypress warned the pontiffs from the +contamination of the sight of death. + +At high noon on the seventh day the funeral crossed the city. +First were the flaming torches; the statues of the House of +Octavia; senators in blue; knights in scarlet; magistrates; +lictors; the pick of the praetorian guard. Then, to the +alternating choruses of boys and girls, the rotting body passed +down the Sacred Way. Behind it Tiberius in a travelling-cloak, his +hands unringed, marched meditating on the curiosities of life, +while to the rear there straggled a troop of dancing satyrs, led +by a mime dressed in resemblance of Augustus, whose defects he +caricatured, whose vices he parodied and on whom the surging crowd +closed in. + +On the Field of Mars the pyre had been erected, a great square +structure of resinous wood, the interior filled with coke and +sawdust, the exterior covered with illuminated cloths, on which, +for base, a tower rose, three storeys high. Into the first storey +flowers and perfumes were thrown, into the second the couch was +raised, then a torch was applied. + +As the smoke ascended an eagle shot from the summit, circled a +moment, and disappeared. For the sum of a million sesterces a +senator swore that with the eagle he had seen the emperor's soul. + + + + + +III + +FABULOUS FIELDS + + +Mention Tiberius, and the name evokes a taciturn tyrant, devising +in the crypts of a palace infamies so monstrous that to describe +them new words were coined. + +In the Borghese collection Tiberius is rather good-looking than +otherwise, not an Antinous certainly, but manifestly a dreamer; +one whose eyes must have been almost feline in their abstraction, +and in the corners of whose mouth you detect pride, no doubt, but +melancholy as well. The pride was congenital, the melancholy was +not. + +Under Tiberius there was quiet, a romancer wrote, and the phrase +in its significance passed into legend. During the dozen or more +years that he ruled in Rome, his common sense was obvious. The +Tiber overflowed, the senate looked for a remedy in the Sibyline +Books. Tiberius set some engineers to work. A citizen swore by +Augustus and swore falsely. The senate sought to punish him, not +for perjury but for sacrilege. It is for Augustus to punish, said +Tiberius. The senate wanted to name a month after him. Tiberius +declined. "Supposing I were the thirteenth Caesar, what would you +do?" For years he reigned, popular and acclaimed, caring the while +nothing for popularity and less for pomp. Sagacious, witty even, +believing perhaps in little else than fate and mathematics, yet +maintaining the institutions of the land, striving resolutely for +the best, outwardly impassable and inwardly mobile, he was a man +and his patience had bounds. There were conspirators in the +atrium, there was death in the courtier's smile; and finding his +favorites false, his life threatened, danger at every turn, his +conception of rulership changed. Where moderation had been +suddenly there gleamed the axe. + +Tacitus, always dramatic, states that at the time terror +devastated the city. It so happened that under the republic there +was a law against whomso diminished the majesty of the people. The +republic was a god, one that had its temple, its priests, its +altars. When the republic succumbed, its divinity passed to the +emperor; he became Jupiter's peer, and, as such, possessed of a +majesty which it was sacrilege to slight. Consulted on the +subject, Tiberius replied that the law must be observed. +Originally instituted in prevention of offences against the public +good, it was found to change into a crime, a word, a gesture or a +look. It was a crime to undress before a statue of Augustus, to +mention his name in the latrinae, to carry a coin with his image +into a lupanar. The punishment was death. Of the property of the +accused, a third went to the informer, the rest to the state. Then +abruptly terror stalked abroad. No one was safe except the +obscure, and it was the obscure that accused. Once an accused +accused his accuser; the latter went mad. There was but one +refuge--the tomb. If the accused had time to kill himself before +he was tried, his property was safe from seizure and his corpse +from disgrace. Suicide became endemic in Rome. Never among the +rich were orgies as frenetic as then. There was a breathless chase +after delights, which the summons, "It is time to die," might at +any moment interrupt. + +Tiberius meanwhile had gone from Rome. It was then his legend +began. He was represented living at Capri in a collection of +twelve villas, each of which was dedicated to a particular form of +lust, and there with the paintings of Parrhasius for stimulant the +satyr lounged. He was then an old man; his life had been passed in +public, his conduct unreproved. If no one becomes suddenly base, +it is rare for a man of seventy to become abruptly vile. "Whoso," +Sakya Muni announced--"whoso discovers that grief comes from +affection, will retire into the jungles and there remain." +Tiberius had made the discovery. The jungles he selected were the +gardens by the sea. And in those gardens, gossip represented him +devising new forms of old vice. On the subject every doubt is +permissible, and even otherwise, morality then existed in but one +form, one which the entire nation observed, wholly, absolutely; +that form was patriotism. Chastity was expected of the vestal, but +of no one else. The matrons had certain traditions to maintain, +certain appearances to preserve, but otherwise morality was +unimagined and matrimony unpopular. + +When matrimony occurred, divorce was its natural consequence. +Incompatibility was sufficient cause. Cicero, who has given it to +history that the best women counted the years not numerically, but +by their different husbands, obtained a divorce on the ground that +his wife did not idolize him. + +Divorce was not obligatory. Matrimony was. According to a recent +law whoso at twenty-five was not married, whoso, divorced or +widowed, did not remarry, whoso, though married, was without +children, was regarded as a public enemy and declared incapable of +inheriting or of serving the state. To this law, one of Augustus' +stupidities which presently fell into disuse, only a technical +observance was paid. Men married just enough to gain a position or +inherit a legacy; next day they got a divorce. At the moment of +need a child was adopted; the moment passed, the child was +disowned. But if the law had little value, at least it shows the +condition of things. Moreover, if in that condition Tiberius +participated, it was not because he did not differ from other men. + +"Ho sempre amato la solitaria vita," Petrarch, referring to +himself, declared, and Tiberius might have said the same thing. He +was in love with solitude; ill with efforts for the unattained; +sick with the ingratitude of man. Presently it was decided that he +had lived long enough. He was suffocated--beneath a mattress at +that. Caesar had dreamed of a universal monarchy of which he +should be king; he was murdered. That dream was also Antony's; he +killed himself. Cato had sought the restoration of the republic, +and Brutus the attainment of virtue; both committed suicide. Under +the empire dreamers fared ill. Tiberius was a dreamer. + +In a palace where a curious conception of the love of Atalanta and +Meleager was said to figure on the walls, there was a door on +which was a sign, imitated from one that overhung the Theban +library of Osymandias--Pharmacy of the Soul. It was there Tiberius +dreamed. + +On the ivory shelves were the philtres of Parthenius, labelled De +Amatoriis Affectionibus, the Sybaris of Clitonymus, the +Erotopaegnia of Laevius, the maxims and instructions of +Elephantis, the nine books of Sappho. There also were the pathetic +adventures of Odatis and Zariadres, which Chares of Mitylene had +given to the world; the astonishing tales of that early +Cinderella, Rhodopis; and with them those romances of Ionian +nights by Aristides of Milet, which Crassus took with him when he +set out to subdue the Parthians, and which; found in the booty, +were read aloud to the people that they might judge the morals of +a nation that pretended to rule the world. + +Whether such medicaments are serviceable to the soul is +problematic. Tiberius had other drugs on the ivory shelves--magic +preparations that transported him to fabulous fields. There was a +work by Hecataesus, with which he could visit Hyperborea, that +land where happiness was a birthright, inalienable at that; yet a +happiness so sweet that it must have been cloying; for the people +who enjoyed it, and with it the appanage of limitless life, killed +themselves from sheer ennui. Theopompus disclosed to him a +stranger vista--a continent beyond the ocean--one where there were +immense cities, and where two rivers flowed--the River of Pleasure +and the River of Pain. With Iambulus he discovered the Fortunate +Isles, where there were men with elastic bones, bifurcated +tongues; men who never married, who worshipped the sun, whose life +was an uninterrupted delight, and who, when overtaken by age, lay +on a perfumed grass that produced a voluptuous death. Evhemerus, a +terrible atheist, whose Sacred History the early bishops wielded +against polytheism until they discovered it was double-edged, took +him to Panchaia, an island where incense grew; where property was +held in common; where there was but one law--Justice, yet a +justice different from our own, one which Hugo must have +intercepted when he made an entrancing yet enigmatical apparition +exclaim: + + "Tu me crois la Justice, je suis la Pitie." + +And in this paradise there was a temple, and before it a column, +about which, in Panchaian characters, ran a history of ancient +kings, who, to the astonishment of the tourist, were found to be +none other than the gods whom the universe worshipped, and who in +earlier days had announced themselves divinities, the better to +rule the hearts and minds of man. + +With other guides Tiberius journeyed through lands where dreams +come true. Aristeas of Proconnesus led him among the Arimaspi, a +curious people who passed their lives fighting for gold with +griffons in the dark. With Isogonus he descended the valley of +Ismaus, where wild men were, whose feet turned inwards. In Albania +he found a race with pink eyes and white hair; in Sarmatia another +that ate only on alternate days. Agatharcides took him to Libya, +and there introduced him to the Psyllians, in whose bodies was a +poison deadly to serpents, and who, to test the fidelity of their +wives, placed their children in the presence of snakes; if the +snakes fled they knew their wives were pure. Callias took him +further yet, to the home of the hermaphrodites; Nymphodorus showed +him a race of fascinators who used enchanted words. With +Apollonides he encountered women who killed with their eyes those +on whom they looked too long. Megasthenes guided him to the +Astomians, whose garments were the down of feathers, and who lived +on the scent of the rose. + +In his cups they all passed, confusedly, before him; the +hermaphrodites whispered to the rose-breathers the secrets of +impossible love; the griffons bore to him women with magical eyes; +the Albanians danced with elastic feet; he heard the shrill call +of the Psyllians, luring the serpents to death; the column of +Panchaia unveiled its mysteries; the Hyperboreans the reason of +their fear of life, and on the wings of the chimera he set out +again in search of that continent which haunted antiquity and +which lay beyond the sea. + + + + + +IV + +THE PURSUIT OF THE IMPOSSIBLE + + +"Another Phaethon for the universe," Tiberius is reported to have +muttered, as he gazed at his nephew Caius, nicknamed Caligula, who +was to suffocate him with a mattress and rule in his stead. + +To rule is hardly the expression. There is no term in English to +convey that dominion over sea and sky which a Caesar possessed, +and which Caligula was the earliest to understand. Augustus was +the first magistrate of Rome, Tiberius the first citizen. Caligula +was the first emperor, but an emperor hallucinated by the enigma +of his own grandeur, a prince for whose sovereignty the world was +too small. + +Each epoch has its secret, sometimes puerile, often perplexing; +but in its maker there is another and a more interesting one yet. +Eliminate Caligula, and Nero, Domitian, Commodus, Caracalla and +Heliogabalus would never have been. It was he who gave them both +raison d'etre and incentive. The lives of all of them are +horrible, yet analyze the horrible and you find the sublime. + +Fancy a peak piercing the heavens, shadowing the earth. It was on +a peak such as that the young emperors of old Rome balanced +themselves, a precipice on either side. Did they look below, a +vertigo rose to meet them; from above delirium came, while the +horizon, though it hemmed the limits of vision, could not mark the +frontiers of their dream. In addition there was the exaltation +that altitudes produce. The valleys have their imbeciles; it is +from mountains the poet and madman come. Caligula was both, +sceptred at that; and with what a sceptre! One that stretched from +the Rhine to the Euphrates, dominated a hundred and fifty million +people; one that a mattress had given and a knife was to take +away; a sceptre that lashed the earth, threatened the sky, +beckoned planets and ravished the divinity of the divine. + +To wield such a sceptre securely requires grace, no doubt, majesty +too, but certainly strength; the latter Caligula possessed, but it +was the feverish strength of one who had fathomed the +unfathomable, and who sought to make its depths his own. Caligula +was haunted by the intangible. His sleep was a communion with +Nature, with whom he believed himself one. At times the Ocean +talked to him; at others the Earth had secrets which it wished to +tell. Again there was some matter of moment which he must mention +to the day, and he would wander out in the vast galleries of the +palace and invoke the Dawn, bidding it come and listen to his +speech. The day was deaf, but there was the moon, and he prayed +her to descend and share his couch. Luna declined to be the +mistress of a mortal; to seduce her Caligula determined to become +a god. + +Nothing was easier. An emperor had but to open his veins, and in +an hour he was a divinity. But the divinity which Caligula desired +was not of that kind. He wished to be a god, not on Olympus alone, +but on earth as well. He wished to be a palpable, tangible, living +god; one that mortals could see, which was more, he knew, than +could be said of the others. The mere wish was sufficient--Rome +fell at his feet. The patent of divinity was in the genuflections +of a nation. At once he had a temple, priests and flamens. +Inexhaustible Greece was sacked again. The statues of her gods, +disembarked at Rome, were decapitated, and on them the head of +Caius shone. + +Heretofore his dress had not been Roman, nor, for that matter, the +dress of a man. On his wrists were bracelets; about his shoulders +was a mantle sewn with gems; beneath was a tunic, and on his feet +were the high white slippers that women wore. But when the god +came the costume changed. One day he was Apollo, the nimbus on his +curls, the Graces at his side; the next he was Mercury, wings at +his heels, the caduceus in his hand; again he was Venus. But it +was as Jupiter Latialis, armed with the thunderbolt and decorated +with a great gold beard, that he appeared at his best. + +The role was very real to him. After the fashion of Olympians he +became frankly incestuous, seducing vestals, his sisters too, and +gaining in boldness with each metamorphosis, he menaced the +Capitoline Jove. "Prove your power," he cried to him, "or fear my +own!" He thundered at him with machine-made thunder, with +lightning that flashed from a pan. "Kill me," he shouted, "or I +will kill you!" Jove, unmoved, must have moved his assailant, for +presently Caligula lowered his voice, whispered in the old god's +ear, questioned him, meditated on his answer, grew perplexed, +violent again, and threatened to send him home. + +These interviews humanized him. He forgot the moon and mingled +with men, inviting them to die. The invitation being invariably +accepted, he became a connoisseur in death, an artist in blood, a +ruler to whom cruelty was not merely an aid to government but an +individual pleasure, and therewith such a perfect lover, such a +charming host! + +"Dear heart," he murmured to his mistress Pryallis, as she lay one +night in his arms, "I think I will have you tortured that you may +tell me why I love you so." But of that the girl saw no need. She +either knew the reason or invented one, for presently he added: +"And to think that I have but a sign to make and that beautiful +head of yours is off!" Musings of this description were so +humorous that one evening he explained to guests whom he had +startled with his laughter, that it was amusing to reflect how +easily he could have all of them killed. + +But even to a god life is not an unmixed delight. Caligula had his +troubles. About him there had settled a disturbing quiet. Rome was +hushed, the world was very still. There was not so much as an +earthquake. The reign of Augustus had been marked by the defeat of +Varus. Under Tiberius a falling amphitheatre had killed a +multitude. Caligula felt that through sheer felicity his own reign +might be forgot. A famine, a pest, an absolute defeat, a terrific +conflagration--any prodigious calamity that should sweep millions +away and stamp his own memory immutably on the chronicles of time, +how desirable it were! But there was nothing. The crops had never +been more abundant; apart from the arenas and the prisons, the +health of the empire was excellent; on the frontiers not so much +as the rumor of an insurrection could be heard, and Nero was yet +to come. + +Perplexed, Caligula reflected, and presently from Baiae to +Puzzoli, over the waters of the bay, he galloped on horseback, the +cuirass of Alexander glittering on his breast. The intervening +miles had been spanned by a bridge of ships and on them a road had +been built, one of those roads for which the Romans were famous, a +road like the Appian Way, in earth and stone, bordered by inns, by +pink arcades, green retreats, forest reaches, the murmur of +trickling streams. So many ships were anchored there that through +the unrepleted granaries the fear of famine stalked. Caligula, +meanwhile, his guests behind him, made cavalry charges across the +sea, or in a circus-chariot held the ribbons, while four white +horses, maddened by swaying lights, bore him to the other shore. +At night the entire coast was illuminated; the bridge was one +great festival, brilliant but brief. Caligula had wearied of it +all. At a signal the multitude of guests he had assembled there +were tossed into the sea. + +By way of a souvenir, Tiberius, whom he murdered, had left him the +immensity of his treasure. "I must be economical or Caesar," +Caligula reflected, and tipped a coachman a million, rained on the +people a hail of coin, bathed in essences, set before his guests +loaves of silver, gold omelettes, sausages of gems; sailed to the +hum of harps on a ship that had porticoes, gardens, baths, bowers, +spangled sails and a jewelled prow; removed a mountain, and put a +palace where it had been; filled in a valley and erected a temple +on the top; supplied a horse with a marble home, with ivory +stalls, with furniture and slaves; contemplated making him consul; +made him a host instead, one that in his own equine name invited +the fashion of Rome to sup with Incitatus. + +In one year Tiberius' legacy, a sum that amounted to four hundred +million of our money, was spent. Caligula had achieved the +impossible; he was a bankrupt god, an emperor without a copper. +But the very splendor of that triumph demanded a climax. If +Caligula hesitated, no one knew it. On the morrow the palace of +the Caesars was turned into a lupanar, a little larger, a little +handsomer than the others, but still a brothel, one of which the +inmates were matrons of Rome and the keeper Jupiter Latialis. + +After that, seemingly, there was nothing save apotheosis. But +Caligula, in the nick of time, remembered the ocean. At the head +of an army he crossed Gaul, attacked it, and returned refreshed. +Decidedly he had not exhausted everything yet. He recalled +Tiberius' policy, and abruptly the world was filled again with +accusers and accused. Gold poured in on him, the earth paid him +tribute. In a vast hall he danced naked on the wealth of nations. +Once more he was rich, richer than ever; there were still +illusions to be looted, other dreams to be pierced; yet, even as +he mused, conspirators were abroad. He loosed his pretorians. "Had +Rome but one head!" he muttered. "Let them FEEL themselves die," +he cried to his officers. "Let me be hated, but let me be feared." + +One day, as he was returning from the theatre, the dagger did its +usual work. Rome had lost a genius; in his place there came an +ass. + +There is a verse in Greek to the effect that the blessed have +children in three months. Livia and Augustus were blessed in this +pleasant fashion. Three months after their marriage a child was +born--a miracle which surprised no one aware of their previous +intimacy. The child became a man, and the father of Claud, an +imbecile whom the pretorians, after Caligula's death, found in a +closet, shaking with fright, and whom for their own protection +they made emperor in his stead. + +Caligula had been frankly adored; there was in him an originality, +and with it a grandeur and a mad magnificence that enthralled. +Then, too, he was young, and at his hours what the French call +charmeur. If at times he frightened, always he dazzled. Of course +he was adored; the prodigal emperors always were; so were their +successors, the wicked popes. Man was still too near to nature to +be aware of shame, and infantile enough to care to be surprised. +In that was Caligula's charm; he petted his people and surprised +them too. Claud wearied. Between them they assimilate every +contradiction, and in their incoherences explain that +incomprehensible chaos which was Rome. Caligula jeered at +everybody; everybody jeered at Claud. + +The latter was a fantastic, vacillating, abstracted, cowardly +tyrant, issuing edicts in regard to the proper tarring of barrels, +and rendering absurd decrees; declaring himself to be of the +opinion of those who were right; falling asleep on the bench, and +on awakening announcing that he gave judgment in favor of those +whose reasons were the best; slapped in the face by an irritable +plaintiff; held down by main force when he wanted to leave; +inviting to supper those whom he had killed before breakfast; +answering the mournful salute of the gladiators with a grotesque +Avete vos--"Be it well too with you," a response, parenthetically, +which the gladiators construed as a pardon and refused to fight; +dowering the alphabet with three new letters which lasted no +longer than he did; asserting that he would give centennial games +as often as he saw fit; an emperor whom no one obeyed, whose +eunuchs ruled in his stead, whose lackeys dispensed exiles, death, +consulates and crucifixions; whose valets insulted the senate, +insulted Rome, insulted the sovereign that ruled the world, whose +people shared his consort's couch; a slipshod drunkard in a +tattered gown--such was the imbecile that succeeded Caligula and +had Messalina for wife. + +It were curious to have seen that woman as Juvenal did, a veil +over her yellow wig, hunting adventures through the streets of +Rome, while her husband in the Forum censured the dissoluteness of +citizens. And it were curious, too, to understand whether it was +her audacity or his stupidity which left him the only man in Rome +unacquainted with the prodigious multiplicity and variety of her +lovers. History has its secrets, yet, in connection with +Messalina, there is one that historians have not taken the trouble +to probe; to them she has been an imperial strumpet. Messalina was +not that. At heart she was probably no better and no worse than +any other lady of the land, but pathologically she was an +unbalanced person, who to-day would be put through a course of +treatment, instead of being put to death. When Claud at last +learned, not the truth, but that some of her lovers were +conspiring to get rid of him, he was not indignant; he was +frightened. The conspirators were promptly disposed of, Messalina +with them. Suetonius says that, a few days later, as he went in to +supper, he asked why the empress did not appear. + +Apart from the neurosis from which she suffered, were it possible +to find an excuse for her conduct, the excuse would be Claud. The +purple which made Caligula mad, made him an idiot; and when in +course of time he was served with a succulent poison, there must +have been many conjectures in Rome as to what the empire would +next produce. + +The empire was extremely fecund, enormously vast. About Rome +extended an immense circle of provinces and cities that were +wholly hers. Without that circle was another, the sovereignty +exercised over vassals and allies; beyond that, beyond the Rhine +on one side, were the silenced Teutons; beyond the Euphrates on +the other, the hazardous Parthians, while remotely to the north +there extended the enigmas of barbarism; to the south, those semi- +fabulous regions where geography ceased to be. + +Little by little, through the patience of a people that felt +itself eternal, this immensity had been assimilated and fused. A +few fortresses and legions on the frontiers, a stretch of soldiery +at any spot an invasion might be feared; a little tact, a maternal +solicitude, and that was all. Rome governed unarmed, or perhaps it +might be more exact to say she did not govern at all; she was the +mistress of a federation of realms and republics that governed +themselves, in whose government she was content, and from whom she +exacted little, tribute merely, and obeisance to herself. Her +strength was not in the sword; the lioness roared rarely, often +slept; it was the fear smaller beasts had of her awakening that +made them docile; once aroused those indolent paws could do +terrible work, and it was well not to excite them. When the Jews +threatened to revolt, Agrippa warned them: "Look at Rome; look at +her well; her arms are invisible, her troops are afar; she rules, +not by them, but by the certainty of her power. If you rebel, the +invisible sword will flash, and what can you do against Rome +armed, when Rome unarmed frightens the world?" + +The argument was pertinent and suggestive, but the secret of +Rome's ascendency consisted in the fact that where she conquered +she dwelt. Wherever the eagles pounced, Rome multiplied herself in +miniature. In the army was the nation, in the legion the city. +Where it camped, presto! a judgment seat and an altar. On the +morrow there was a forum; in a week there were paved avenues; in a +fortnight, temples, porticoes; in a month you felt yourself at +home. Rome built with a magic that startled as surely as the glint +of her sword. Time and again the nations whom Caesar encountered +planned to eliminate his camp. When they reached it the camp had +vanished; in its place was a walled, impregnable town. + +As the standards lowered before that town, the pomoerium was +traced. Within it the veteran found a home, without it a wife; and +the family established, the legion that had conquered the soil +with the sword, subsisted on it with the plow. Presently there +were priests there, aqueducts, baths, theatres and games, all the +marvel of imperial elegance and vice. When the aborigine wandered +that way, his seduction was swift. + +The enemy that submitted became a subject, not a slave. Rome +commanded only the free. If his goods were taxed, his goods +remained his own, his personal liberty untrammelled. His land had +become part of a new province, it is true, but provided he did not +interest himself in such matters as peace and war, not only was he +free to manage his own affairs, but that land, were it at the +uttermost end of the earth, might, in recompense of his fidelity, +come to be regarded as within the Italian territory; as such, +sacred, inviolate, free from taxes, and he a citizen of Rome, +senator even, emperor! + +Conquest once solidified, the rest was easy. Tattered furs were +replaced by the tunic and uncouth idioms by the niceties of Latin +speech. In some cases, where the speech had been beaten in with +the hilt of the sword, the accent was apt to be rough, but a +generation, two at most, and there were sweethearts and swains +quoting Horace in the moonlight, naively unaware that only the +verse of the Greeks could pleasure the Roman ear. + +The principalities and kingdoms that of their own wish [a wish +often suggested, and not always amicably either] became allies of +Rome and mingled their freedom with hers, entered into an alliance +whereby in return for Rome's patronage and protection they agreed +to have a proper regard for the dignity of the Roman people and to +have no other friends or enemies than those that were Rome's--a +formula exquisite in the civility with which it exacted the +renunciation of every inherent right. A king wrote to the senate: +"I have obeyed your deputy as I would have obeyed a god." "And you +have done wisely," the senate answered, a reply which, in its +terseness, tells all. + +Diplomacy and the plow, such were Rome's methods. As for herself +she fought, she did not till. Italy, devastated by the civil wars, +was uncultivated, cut up into vast unproductive estates. From one +end to the other there was barely a trace of agriculture, not a +sign of traffic. You met soldiers, cooks, petty tradesmen, +gladiators, philosophers, patricians, market gardeners, lazzaroni +and millionaires; the merchant and the farmer, never. Rome's +resources were in distant commercial centres, in taxes and +tribute; her wealth had come of pillage and exaction. Save her +strength, she had nothing of her own. Her religion, literature, +art, philosophy, luxury and corruption, everything had come from +abroad. In Greece were her artists; in Africa, Gaul and Spain, her +agriculturists; in Asia her artisans. Her own breasts were +sterile. When she gave birth it was to a litter of monsters, +sometimes to a genius, by accident to a poet. She consumed, she +did not produce. It was because of that she fell. + + + + + +V + +NERO + + +"Save a monster, what can you expect from Agrippina and myself?" + +It was Domitius, Nero's father, who made this ingenious remark. He +was not a good man; he was not even good-looking, merely vicious +and rich. But his viciousness was benign beside that of Agrippina, +who poisoned him when Nero's birth ensured the heritage of his +wealth. + +In all its galleries history has no other portrait such as hers. +Caligula's sister, his mistress as well, exiled by him and +threatened with death, her eyes dazzled and her nerves unstrung by +the impossibilities of that fabulous reign, it was not until +Claud, her uncle, recalled her and Messalina disappeared, that the +empress awoke. She too, she determined, would rule, and the jus +osculi aiding, she married out of hand that imbecile uncle of +hers, on whose knee she had played as a child. + +The day of the wedding a young patrician, expelled from the +senate, killed himself. Agrippina had accused him of something not +nice, not because he was guilty, nor yet because the possibility +of the thing shocked her, but because he was betrothed to Octavia, +Claud's daughter, who, Agrippina determined, should be Nero's +wife. Presently Caligula's widow, an old rival of her own, a lady +who had thought she would like to be empress twice, and whom Claud +had eyed grotesquely, was disencumbered of three million worth of +emeralds, with which she heightened her beauty, and told very +civilly that it was time to die. So, too, disappeared a Calpurina, +a Lepida; women young, rich, handsome, impure, and as such +dangerous to Agrippina's peace of mind. The legality of her crimes +was so absolute that the mere ownership of an enviable object was +a cause for death. A senator had a villa which pleased her; he was +invited to die. Another had a pair of those odorous murrhine +vases, which Pompey had found in Armenia, and which on their first +appearance set Rome wild; he, too, was invited to die. + +But, though Agrippina dealt in death, she dealt in seductions too. +Rome, that had adored Caligula, promptly fell under his sister's +sway. There was a splendor in her eyes, which so many crimes had +lit; in her carriage there was such majesty, the pomp with which +she surrounded herself was so magnificent, that Rome, enthralled, +applauded. Beyond, on the Rhine, a city which is today Cologne, +rose in honor of her sovereignty. To her wishes the senate was +subservient, to her indiscretions blind. Claud, who meanwhile had +been wholly sightless, suddenly showed signs of discernment. A +woman, charged with illicit commerce, was brought to his tribunal. +He condemned her, of course. "In my case," he explained, +"matrimony has not been successful, but the fate that destined me +to marry impure women destined me also to punish them." It was +then that Agrippina ordered of Locusta that famous stew of poison +and mushrooms, which Nero, in allusion to Claud's apotheosis, +called the food of the gods. The fate that destined Claud to marry +Agrippina destined her to kill him. + +It was under her care, between a barber and a ballerine, amid the +shamelessness of his stepfather's palace, where any day he could +have seen his mother beckon indolently to a centurion and pointing +to some lover who had ceased to please, make the gesture which +signified Death, that the young Enobarbus--Nero, as he +subsequently called himself--was trained for the throne. + +He had entered the world like a tiger cub, feet first; a +circumstance which is said to have disturbed his mother, and well +it might. During his adolescence that lady made herself feared. He +was but seventeen when the pretorians called upon him to rule the +world; and at the time an ingenuous lad, one who blushed like +Lalage, very readily, particularly at the title of Father of the +Country, which the senate was anxious to give him; endowed with +excellent instincts, which he had got no one knew whence; a trifle +petit maitre, perhaps, perfuming the soles of his feet, and +careful about the arrangement of his yellow curls, but withal +generous, modest, sympathetic--in short, a flower in a cesspool, a +youth not over well-fitted to reign. But his mother was there; as +he developed so did his fear of her, to such proportions even that +he gave certain orders, and his mother was killed. That duel +between mother and son, terrible in its intensity and unnameable +horror, even the Borgias could not surpass. Tacitus has told it, +dramatically, as was his wont, but he told it in Latin, in which +tongue it had best remain. + +At that time the ingenuous lad had disappeared. The cub was full- +grown. Besides, he had tasted blood. Octavia, who with her +brother, Britannicus, and her sister, Antonia, had been his +playmates; who was almost his own sister; whose earliest memories +interlinked with his, and who had become his wife, had been put to +death; not that she had failed to please, but because a lady, +Sabina Poppoea, who, Tacitus says, lacked nothing except virtue, +had declined to be his mistress. At the time Sabina was married. +But divorce was easy. Sabina got one at the bar; Nero with the +axe. The twain were then united. Nero seems to have loved her +greatly, a fact, as Suetonius puts it, which did not prevent him +from kicking her to death. Already he had poisoned Britannicus, +and with Octavia decapitated and Agrippina gone, of the imperial +house there remained but Antonia and himself. The latter he +invited to marry him; she declined. He invited her to die. He was +then alone, the last of his race. Monsters never engender. A +thinker who passed that way thought him right to have killed his +mother; her crime was in giving him birth. + +Therewith he was popular; more so even than Caligula, who was a +poet, and as such apart from the crowd, while Nero was frankly +canaille--well-meaning at that--which Caligula never was. During +the early years of his reign he could not do good enough. The +gladiators were not permitted to die; he would have no shedding of +blood; the smell of it was distasteful. He would listen to no +denunciations; when a decree of death was brought to him to sign, +he regretted that he knew how to write. Rome had never seen a +gentler prince, nor yet one more splendidly lavish. The people had +not only the necessities of life, but the luxuries, the +superfluities, too. For days and days in the Forum there was an +incessant shower of tickets that were exchangeable, not for bread +or trivial sums, but for gems, pictures, slaves, fortunes, ships, +villas and estates. The creator of that shower was bound to be +adored. + +It was that, no doubt, which awoke him. A city like Rome, one that +had over a million inhabitants, could make a terrific noise, and +when that noise was applause, the recipient found it heady. Nero +got drunk on popularity, and heredity aiding where the prince had +been emerged the cad, a poseur that bored, a beast that disgusted, +a caricature of the impossible in a crimson frame. + +"What an artist the world is to lose!" he exclaimed as he died; +and artist he was, but in the Roman sense; one that enveloped in +the same contempt the musician, acrobat and actor. It was the +artist that played the flute while gladiators died and lovers +embraced; it was the artist that entertained the vulgar. + +As an artist Nero might have been a card. Fancy the attraction--an +emperor before the footlights; but fancy the boredom also. The joy +at the announcement of his first appearance was so great that +thanks were offered to the gods; and the verses he was to sing, +graven in gold, were dedicated to the Capitoline Jove. The joy was +brief. The exits of the theatre were closed. It was treason to +attempt to leave. People pretended to be dead in order to be +carried out, and well they might. The star was a fat man with a +husky tenorino voice, who sang drunk and half-naked to a +protecting claque of ten thousand hands. + +But it was in the circus that Nero was at his best; there, no +matter though he were last in the race, it was to him the palm was +awarded, or rather it was he that awarded the palm to himself, and +then quite magnificently shouted, "Nero, Caesar, victor in the +race, gives his crown to the People of Rome!" + +On the stage he had no rivals, and by chance did one appear, he +was invited to die. In that respect he was artistically +susceptible. When he turned acrobat, the statues of former victors +were tossed in the latrinae. Yet, as competitors were needed, and +moreover as he, singly, could fill neither a stage nor a track, it +was the nobility of Rome that he ordered to appear with him. For +that the nobility never forgave him. On the other hand, the +proletariat loved him the better. What greater salve could it have +than the sight of the conquerors of the world entertaining the +conquered, lords amusing their lackeys? + +Greece meanwhile sent him crowns and prayers; crowns for +anticipated victories, prayers that he would come and win them. +Homage so delicate was not to be disdained. Nero set forth, an +army at his heels; a legion of claquers, a phalanx of musicians, +cohorts of comedians, and with these for retinue, through sacred +groves that Homer knew, through intervales which Hesiod sang, +through a year of festivals he wandered, always victorious. It was +he who conquered at Olympia; it was he who conquered at Corinth. +No one could withstand him. Alone in history he won in every game, +and with eighteen hundred crowns as trophies of war he repeated +Caesar's triumph. In a robe immaterial as a moonbeam, the Olympian +wreath on his curls, the Isthmian laurel in his hand, his army +behind him, the clown that was emperor entered Rome. Victims were +immolated as he passed, the Via Sacra was strewn with saffron, the +day was rent with acclaiming shouts. Throughout the empire +sacrifices were ordered. Old people that lived in the country +fancied him, Philostratus says, the conqueror of new nations, and +sacrificed with delight. + +But if as artist he bored everybody, he was yet an admirable +impresario. The spectacles he gave were unique. At one which was +held in the Taurian amphitheatre it must have been delightful to +assist. Fancy eighty thousand people on ascending galleries, +protected from the sun by a canopy of spangled silk; an arena +three acres large carpeted with sand, cinnabar and borax, and in +that arena death in every form, on those galleries colossal +delight. + +The lowest gallery, immediately above the arena, was a wide +terrace where the senate sat. There were the dignitaries of the +empire, and with them priests in their sacerdotal robes; vestals +in linen, their hair arranged in the six braids that were symbolic +of virginity; swarms of Oriental princes, rainbows of foreign +ambassadors; and in the centre, the imperial pulvinar, an enclosed +pavilion, in which Nero lounged, a mignon at his feet. + +In the gallery above were the necklaced knights, their tunics +bordered with the augusticlave, their deep-blue cloaks fastened to +the shoulder; and there, too, in their wide white togas, were the +citizens of Rome. + +Still higher the people sat. In the topmost gallery were the +women, and in a separate enclosure a thousand musicians answered +the cries of the multitude with the blare and the laugh of brass. + +Beneath the terraces, behind the barred doors that punctuated the +marble wall which circled the arena, were Mauritian panthers that +had been entrapped with rotten meat; hippopotami from Sais, lured +by the smell of carrots into pits; the rhinoceros of Gaul, taken +with the net; lions, lassoed in the deserts; Lucanian bears, +Spanish bulls; and, in remoter dens, men, unarmed, that waited. + +By way of foretaste for better things, a handful of criminals, +local desperadoes, an impertinent slave, a machinist, who in a +theatre the night before had missed an effect--these, together +with a negligent usher, were tossed one after the other naked into +the ring, and bound to a scaffold that surmounted a miniature +hill. At a signal the scaffold fell, the hill crumbled, and from +it a few hyenas issued, who indolently devoured their prey. + +With this for prelude, the gods avenged and justice appeased, a +rhinoceros ambled that way, stimulated from behind by the point of +a spear; and in a moment the hyenas were disembowelled, their legs +quivering in the air. Throughout the arena other beasts, tied +together with long cords, quarrelled in couples; there was the +bellow of bulls, and the moan of leopards tearing at their flesh, +a flight of stags, and the long, clean spring of the panther. + +Presently the arena was cleared, the sand reraked and the +Bestiarii advanced--Sarmatians, nourished on mares' milk; +Sicambrians, their hair done up in chignons; horsemen from +Thessaly, Ethiopian warriors, Parthian archers, huntsmen from the +steppes, their different idioms uniting in a single cry--"Caesar, +we salute you." The sunlight, filtering through the spangled +canopy, chequered their tunics with burning spots, danced on their +spears and helmets, dazzled the spectators' eyes. From above +descended the caresses of flutes; the air was sweet with perfumes, +alive with multicolored motes; the terraces were parterres of +blending hues, and into that splendor a hundred lions, their +tasselled tails sweeping the sand, entered obliquely. + +The mob of the Bestiarii had gone. In the middle of the arena, a +band of Ethiopians, armed with arrows, knives and spears, knelt, +their oiled black breasts uncovered. + +Leisurely the lions turned their huge, intrepid heads; to their +jowls wide creases came. There was a glitter of fangs, a shiver +that moved the mane, a flight of arrows, mounting murmurs; the +crouch of beasts preparing to spring, a deafening roar, and, +abruptly, a tumultuous mass, the suddenness of knives, the snap of +bones, the cry of the agonized, the fury of beasts transfixed, the +shrieks of the mangled, a combat hand to fang, from which lions +fell back, their jaws torn asunder, while others retreated, a +black body swaying between their terrible teeth, and, insensibly, +a descending quiet. + +At once there was an eruption of bellowing elephants, painted and +trained for slaughter, that trampled on wounded and dead. At a +call from a keeper the elephants disappeared. There was a rush of +mules and slaves; the carcasses and corpses vanished, the toilet +of the ring was made; then came a plunge of bulls, mists of vapor +about their long, straight horns, their anxious eyes dilated. +Beyond was a troop of Thessalians. For a moment the bulls snorted, +pawing the sand with their fore-feet, as though trying to realize +what they were doing there. Yet instantly they seemed to know, and +with lowered heads, they plunged on the point of spears. But no +matter, horses went down by the hundred; and as the bulls tired of +gorging the dead, they fought each other; fought rancorously, +fought until weariness overtook them, and the surviving +Thessalians leaped on their backs, twisted their horns, and threw +them down, a sword through their throbbing throats. + +Successively the arena was occupied by bears, by panthers, by dogs +trained for the chase, by hunters and hunted. But the episode of +the morning was a dash of wild elephants, attacked on either side; +a moment of sheer delight, in which the hunters were tossed up on +the terraces, tossed back again by the spectators, and trampled to +death. + +With that for bouquet the first part of the performance was at an +end. By way of interlude, the ring was peopled with acrobats, who +flew up in the air like birds, formed pyramids together, on the +top of which little boys swung and smiled. There was a troop of +trained lions, their manes gilded, that walked on tight-ropes, +wrote obscenities in Greek, and danced to cymbals which one of +them played. There were geese-fights, wonderful combats between +dwarfs and women; a chariot race, in which bulls, painted white, +held the reins, standing upright while drawn at full speed; a +chase of ostriches, and feats of haute ecole on zebras from +Madagascar. + +The interlude at an end, the sand was reraked, and preceded by the +pomp of lictors, interminable files of gladiators entered, holding +their knives to Nero that he might see that they were sharp. It +was then the eyes of the vestals lighted; artistic death was their +chiefest joy, and in a moment, when the spectacle began and the +first gladiator fell, above the din you could hear their cry "Hic +habet!" and watch their delicate thumbs reverse. + +There was no cowardice in that arena. If by chance any hesitation +were discernible, instantly there were hot irons, the sear of +which revivified courage at once. But that was rare. The +gladiators fought for applause, for liberty, for death; fought +manfully, skilfully, terribly, too, and received the point of the +sword or the palm of the victor, their expression unchanged, the +face unmoved. Among them, some provided with a net and +prodigiously agile, pursued their adversaries hither and thither, +trying to entangle them first and kill them later. Others, +protected by oblong shields and armed with short, sharp swords, +fought hand-to-hand. There were still others, mailed horsemen, who +fought with the lance, and charioteers that dealt death from high +Briton cars. + +As a spectacle it was unique; one that the Romans, or more +exactly, their predecessors, the Etruscans, had devised to train +their children for war and allay the fear of blood. It had been +serviceable, indeed, and though the need of it had gone, still the +institution endured, and in enduring constituted the chief delight +of the vestals and of Rome. By means of it a bankrupt became +consul and an emperor beloved. It had stayed revolutions, it was +the tax of the proletariat on the rich. Silver and bread were for +the individual, but these things were for the crowd. + +During the pauses of the combats the dead were removed by men +masked as Mercury, god of hell; red irons, that others, masked as +Charon, bore, being first applied as safeguard against swoon or +fraud. And when, to the kisses of flutes, the last palm had been +awarded, the last death acclaimed, a ballet was given; that of +Paris and Venus, which Apuleius has described so well, and for +afterpiece the romance of Pasipha? and the bull. Then, as night +descended, so did torches, too; the arena was strewn with +vermilion; tables were set, and to the incitement of crotals, +Lydians danced before the multitude, toasting the last act of that +wonderful day. + +It was with such magnificence that Nero showed the impresario's +skill, the politician's adroitness. Where the artist, which he +claimed to be, really appeared, was in the refurbishing of Rome. + +In spite of Augustus' boast, the city was not by any means of +marble. It was filled with crooked little streets, with the +atrocities of the Tarquins, with houses unsightly and perilous, +with the moss and dust of ages; it compared with Alexandria as +London compares with Paris; it had a splendor of its own, but a +splendor that could be heightened. + +Whether the conflagration which occurred at that time was the +result of accident or design is uncertain and in any event +immaterial. Tacitus says that when it began Nero was at Antium, in +which case he must have hastened to return, for admitting that he +did not originate the fire, it is a matter of agreement that he +collaborated in it. In quarters where it showed symptoms of +weakness it was by his orders coaxed to new strength; colossal +stone buildings, on which it had little effect, were battered down +with catapults. + +Fire is a perfect poet. No designer ever imagined the surprises it +creates, and when, at the end of the week, three-fourths of the +city was in ruins, the beauty that reigned there must have been +sublime. That it inspired Nero is presumable. The palace on the +Palatine, which Tiberius embellished and Caligula enlarged, had +gone; in its place rose another, aflame with gold. Before it +Neropolis extended, a city of triumphal arches, enchanted temples, +royal dwellings, shimmering porticoes, glittering roofs, and wide, +hospitable streets. It was fair to the eye, purely Greek; and on +its heart, from the Circus Maximus to the Forum's edge, the new +and gigantic palace shone. Before it was a lake, a part of which +Vespasian drained and replaced with an amphitheatre that covered +eight acres. About that lake were separate edifices that formed a +city in themselves; between them and the palace, a statue of Nero +in gold and silver mounted precipitately a hundred and twenty +feet--a statue which it took twenty-four elephants to move. About +it were green savannahs, forest reaches, the call of bird and +deer, while in the distance, fronted by a stretch of columns a +mile in length, the palace stood--a palace so ineffably charming +that on the day of reckoning may it outbalance a few of his sins. +Even the cellars were frescoed. The baths were quite comfortable; +you had waters salt or sulphurous at will. The dining halls had +ivory ceilings from which flowers fell, and wainscots that changed +at each service. The walls were alive with the glisten of gems, +with marbles rarer than jewels. In one hall was a dome of +sapphire, a floor of malachite, crystal columns and red-gold +walls. + +"At last," Nero murmured, "I am lodged like a man." + +No doubt. Yet in a mirror he would have seen a bloated beast in a +flowered gown, the hair done up in a chignon, the skin covered +with eruptions, the eyes circled and yellow; a woman who had hours +when she imitated a virgin at bay, others when she was wife, still +others when she expected to be a mother, and that woman, a +senatorial patent of divinity aiding, was god--Apollo's peer, +imperator, chief of the army, pontifix maximus, master of the +world, with the incontestable right of life and death over every +being in the dominions. + +It had taken the fresh-faced lad who blushed so readily, just +fourteen years to effect that change. Did he regret it? And what +should Nero regret? Nothing, perhaps, save that at the moment when +he declared himself to be lodged like a man, he had not killed +himself like one. But of that he was incapable. Had he known what +the future held, possibly he might have imitated that apotheosis +of vulgarity in which Sardanapalus eclipsed himself, but never +could he have died with the good breeding and philosophy of Cato, +for neither good breeding nor philosophy was in him. Nero killed +himself like a coward, yet that he did kill himself, in no matter +what fashion, is one of the few things that can be said in his +favor. + +Those days differed from ours. There were circumstances in which +suicide was regarded as the simplest of duties. Nero did his duty, +but not until he was forced to it, and even then not until he had +been asked several times whether it was so hard to die. The empire +had wearied of him. In Neropolis his popularity had gone as +popularity ever does; the conflagration had killed it. + +Even as he wandered, lyre in hand, a train of Lesbians and +pederasts at his heels, through those halls which had risen on the +ruins, and which inexhaustible Greece had furnished with a fresh +crop of white immortals, the world rebelled. Afar on the outskirts +of civilization a vassal, ashamed of his vassalage, declared war, +not against Rome, but against an emperor that played the flute. In +Spain, in Gaul, the legions were choosing other chiefs. The +provinces, depleted by imperial exactions, outwearied by the +increasing number of accusers, whose accusations impoverishing +them served only to multiply the prodigalities of their Caesar, +revolted. + +Suddenly Nero found himself alone. As the advancing rumor of +rebellion reached him, he thought of flight; there was no one that +would accompany him. He called to the pretorians; they would not +hear. Through the immensity of his palace he sought one friend. +The doors would not open. He returned to his apartment; the guards +had gone. Then terror seized him. He was afraid to die, afraid to +live, afraid of his solitude, afraid of Rome, afraid of himself; +but what frightened him most was that everyone had lost their fear +of him. It was time to go, and a slave aiding, he escaped in +disguise from Rome, and killed himself, reluctantly, in a hovel. + +"Qualis artifex pereo!" he is reported to have muttered. Say +rather, qualis maechus. + + + + + +VI + +THE HOUSE OF FLAVIA + + +It was in those days that the nebulous figure of Apollonius of +Tyana appeared and disappeared in Rome. His speech, a commingling +of puerility and charm, Philostratus has preserved. Rumor had +preceded him. It was said that he knew everything, save the +caresses of women; that he was familiar with all languages; with +the speech of bird and beast; with that of silence, for silence is +a language too; that he had prayed in the Temple of Jupiter +Lycoeus, where men lost their shadows, their lives as well; that +he had undergone eighty initiations of Mithra; that he had +perplexed the magi; confuted the gymnosophists; that he foretold +the future, healed the sick, raised the dead; that beyond the +Himalayas he had encountered every species of ferocious beast, +except the tyrant, and that it was to see one that he had come to +Rome. + +Nero was quite free from prejudice. Apart from a doll which he +worshipped he had no superstitions. He had the plain man's dislike +of philosophy; Seneca had sickened him of it, perhaps; but he was +sensitive, not that he troubled himself particularly about any +lies that were told of him, but he did object to people who went +about telling the truth. In that respect he was not unique; we are +all like him, but he had ways of stilling the truth which were +imperial and his own. + +Promptly on Apollonius he loosed his bull-dog, Tigellin, prefect +of police. + +Tigellin caught him. "What have you with you?" he asked. + +"Continence, Justice, Temperance, Strength and Patience," +Apollonius answered. + +"Your slaves, I suppose. Make out a list of them." + +Apollonius shook his head. "They are not my slaves; they are my +masters." + +"There is but one," Tigellin retorted--"Nero. Why do you not fear +him?" + +"Because the god that made him terrible made me without fear." + +"I will leave you your liberty," muttered the startled Tigellin, +"but you must give bail." + +"And who," asked Apollonius superbly, "would bail a man whom no +one can enchain?" Therewith he turned and disappeared. + +At that time Nero was in training to suffocate a lion in the +arena. A few days later he killed himself. Simultaneously there +came news from Syracuse. A woman of rank had given birth to a +child with three heads. Apollonius examined it. + +"There will be three emperors at once," he announced. "But their +reign will be shorter than that of kings on the stage." + +Within that year Galba, who was emperor for an instant, died at +the gates of Rome. Vitellius, after being emperor in little else +than dream, was butchered in the Forum; and Otho, in that fine +antique fashion, killed himself in Gaul. Apollonius meanwhile was +in Alexandria, predicting the purple to Vespasian, the rise of the +House of Flavia; invoking Jupiter in his protege's behalf; and +presently, the prediction accomplished, he was back in Rome, +threatening Domitian, warning him that the House of Flavia would +fall. + +The atmosphere was then charged with the marvellous; the world was +filled with prodigies, with strange gods, beckoning chimeras and +credulous crowds. Belief in the supernatural was absolute; the +occult sciences, astrology, magic, divination, all had their +adepts. In Greece there were oracles at every turn, and with them +prophets who taught the art of adultery and how to construe the +past. On the banks of the Rhine there were girls who were regarded +as divinities, and in Gaul were men who were held wholly divine. + +Jerusalem too had her follies. There was Simon the Magician, +founder of gnosticism, father of every heresy, Messiah to the +Jews, Jupiter to the Gentiles--an impudent self-made god, who +pretended to float in the air, and called his mistress Minerva--a +deification, parenthetically, which was accepted by Nicholas, his +successor, a deacon of the church, who raised her to the eighth +heaven as patron saint of lust. To him, as to Simon, she was +Ennoia, Prunikos, Helen of Troy. She had been Delilah, Lucretia. +She had prostituted herself to every nation; she had sung in the +by-ways, and hidden robbers in the vermin of her bed. But by Simon +she was rehabilitated. It was she, no doubt, of whom Caligula +thought when he beckoned to the moon. In Rome she had her statue, +and near it was one to Simon, the holy god. + +But of all manifestations of divinity the most patent was that +which haloed Vespasian. He expected it, Suetonius says, but it is +doubtful if any one else did. One night he dreamed that an era of +prosperity was to dawn for him and his when Nero lost a tooth. The +next day he was shown one which had been drawn from the emperor's +mouth. But that was nothing. Presently at Carmel the Syrian oracle +assured him that he would be successful in whatever he undertook. +From Rome word came that, while the armies of Vitellius and Otho +were fighting, two eagles had fought above them, and that the +victor had been despatched by a third eagle that had come from the +East. In Alexandria Serapis whispered to him. The entire menagerie +of Egypt proclaimed him king. Apis bellowed, Anubis barked. Isis +visited him unveiled. The lame and the blind pressed about him; he +cured them with a touch. There could be no reasonable doubt now; +surely he was a god. On his shoulders Apollonius threw the purple, +and Vespasian set out for Rome. + +His antecedents were less propitious. The descendant of an obscure +centurion, he had been a veterinary surgeon; then, having got +Caligula's ear, he flattered it abominably. Caligula disposed of, +he flattered Claud, or what amounted to the same thing, Narcissus, +Claud's chamberlain. Through the influence of the latter he became +a lieutenant, fought on remote frontiers--fought well, too--so +well even that, Narcissus gone, he felt Agrippina watching him, +and knowing the jealousy of her eyes, prudently kept quiet until +that lady did. + +With Nero he promenaded through Greece--sat at the Olympian games +and fell asleep when his emperor sang. Treason of that high +nature--sacrilege, rather, for Nero was then a god--might have +been overlooked, had it occurred but once, for Nero could be +magnanimous when he chose. But it always occurred. To Nero's +tremolo invariably came the accompaniment of Vespasian's snore. He +was dreaming of that tooth, no doubt. "I am not a soporific, am +I?" Nero gnashed at him, and sent the blasphemer away. + +For a while Vespasian lived in constant expectation of some civil +message inviting him to die. Finally it came, only he was invited +to die at the head of an army which Nero had projected against +seditious Jews. When he returned, leaving his son Titus to attend +to Jerusalem, it was as emperor. + +Only a moment before Vitellius had been disposed of. That curious +glutton, whom the Rhenish legions had chosen because of his coarse +familiarity, would willingly have fled had the soldiery let him. +But not at all; they wanted a prince of their own manufacture. +They knew nothing of Vespasian, cared less; and into the Capitol +they chased the latter's partisans, his son Domitian as well. The +besieged defended themselves with masterpieces, with sacred urns, +the statues of gods, the pedestals of divinities. Suddenly the +Capitol was aflame. Simultaneously Vespasian's advance guard beat +at the gates. The besiegers turned, the mob was with them, and +together they fought, first at the gates, then in the streets, in +the Forum, retreating always, but like lions, their face to the +foe. The volatile mob, noting the retreat, turned from combatant +into spectator. Let the soldiers fight; it was their duty, not +theirs; and, as the struggle continued, from roof and window they +eyed it with that artistic delight which the arena had developed, +applauding the clever thrusts, abusing the vanquished, robbing the +dead, and therewith pillaging the wineshops, crowding the +lupanars. During the orgy, Vitellius was stabbed. The Flavians had +won the day, the empire was Vespasian's. + +The use he made of it was very modest. In spite of his manifest +divinity he had nothing in common with the Caesars that had gone +before; he had no dreams of the impossible, no desire to frighten +Jupiter or seduce the moon. He was a plain man, tall and ruddy, +very coarse in speech and thought, open-armed and close-fisted, +slapping senators on the back and keeping a sharp eye on the +coppers; taxing the latrinae, and declaring that money had no +smell; yet still, in comparison with Claud and Nero, almost the +ideal; absolutely uninteresting also, yet doing what good he +could; effacing at once the traces of the civil war, rebuilding +the Capitol, calming the people, protecting the provinces, +restoring to Rome the gardens of Nero, clipping the wings of the +Palace of Gold, throwing open again the Via Sacra, over which the +Palace had spread; draining the lake that had shimmered before it, +and erecting the Colosseum in its place. + +In spite of Serapsis, Anubis and Isis, he had not the faintest +odor of myth about him; absolutely bourgeois, he lacked even that +atmosphere of burlesque that surrounded Claud; he was not even +vicious. But he was a soldier, a brave one; and if, with the +acquired economy of a subaltern who has been obliged to live on +his pay, he kept his purse-strings tight, they were loose enough +if a friend were in need, and he paid no one the compliment of a +lie. He was projected sheer out of the republic. The better part +of his life had been passed under arms; the delicate sensuality of +Rome was foreign to him. It was there that Domitian had lived. + +It were interesting to have watched that young man killing flies +by the hour, while he meditated on the atrocities he was to +commit--atrocities so numberless and needless that in the red +halls of the Caesars he has left a portrait which is unique. +Slender, graceful, handsome, as were all the young emperors of old +Rome, his blue, troubled eyes took pleasure, if at all, only in +the sight of blood. + +In accordance with the fashion which Caligula and Nero had set, +Domitian's earliest manners were those of an urbane and gentle +prince. Later, when he made it his turn to rule, informers begged +their bread in exile. Where they are not punished, he announced, +they are encouraged. The sacrifices were so distressing to him +that he forbade the immolation of oxen. He was disinterested, too, +refusing legacies when the testator left nearer heirs, and +therewith royally generous, covering his suite with presents, and +declaring that to him avarice of all vices was the lowest and most +vile. In short, you would have said another adolescent Nero come +to Rome; there was the same silken sweetness of demeanor, the same +ready blush, in addition to a zeal for justice and equity which +other young emperors had been too thoughtless to show. + +His boyhood, too, had not been above reproach. The same things +were whispered about him that had been shouted at Augustus. +Manifestly he lacked not one of the qualities which go to the +making of a model prince. Vespasian alone had his doubts. + +"Mushrooms won't hurt you," he cried one day, as Domitian started +at the sight of a ragout a la Sardanapale, which he fancied, +possibly, was a la Locuste, "It is steel you should fear." + +At that time, with a father for emperor and a brother who was +sacking Jerusalem, Domitian had but one cause for anxiety, to wit +--that the empire might escape him. It was then he began his +meditations over holocausts of flies. For hours he secluded +himself, occupied solely with their slaughter. He treated them +precisely as Titus treated the Jews, enjoying the quiver of their +legs, the little agonies of their silent death. + +Tiberius had been in love with solitude, but never as he. Night +after night he wandered on the terraces of the palace, watching +the red moon wane white, companioned only by his dreams, those +waking dreams that poets and madmen share, that Pallas had him in +her charge, that Psyche was amorous of his eyes. + +Meanwhile he was a nobody, a young gentleman merely, who might +have moved in the best society, and who preferred the worst--his +own. The sudden elevation of Vespasian preoccupied him, and while +he knew that in the natural course of events his father would move +to Olympus, yet there was his brother Titus, on whose broad +shoulders the mantle of purple would fall. If the seditious Jews +only knew their business! But no. Forty years before a white +apparition on the way to Golgotha had cried to a handful of women, +"The days are coming in which they shall say to the mountains, +'Fall on us'; to the hills, 'Cover us.'" And the days had come. A +million of them had been butchered. From the country they had fled +to the city; from Acra they had climbed to Zion. When the city +burst into flames their blood put it out. Decidedly they did not +know their business. Titus, instead of being stabbed before +Jerusalem's walls, was marching in triumph to Rome. + +The procession that presently entered the gates was a stream of +splendor; crowns of rubies and gold; garments that glistened with +gems; gods on their sacred pedestals; prisoners; curious beasts; +Jerusalem in miniature; pictures of war; booty from the Temple, +the veil, the candelabra, the cups of gold and the Book of the +Law. To the rear rumbled the triumphal car, in which laurelled and +mantled Titus stood, Vespasian at his side; while, in the +distance, on horseback, came Domitian--a supernumerary, ignored by +the crowd. + +When the prisoners disappeared in the Tullianum and a herald +shouted, "They have lived!" Domitian returned to the palace and +hunted morosely for flies. The excesses of the festival in which +Rome was swooning then had no delights for him. Presently the moon +would rise, and then on the deserted terrace perhaps he would +bathe a little in her light, and dream again of Pallas and of the +possibilities of an emperor's sway, but meanwhile those blue +troubled eyes that Psyche was amorous of were filled with envy and +with hate. It was not that he begrudged Titus the triumph. The man +who had disposed of a million Jews deserved not one triumph, but +ten. It was the purple that haunted him. + +Domitian was then in the early twenties. The Temple of Peace was +ascending; the Temple of Janus was closed; the empire was at rest. +Side by side with Vespasian, Titus ruled. From the Euphrates came +the rumor of some vague revolt. Domitian thought he would like to +quell it. He was requested to keep quiet. It occurred to him that +his father ought to be ashamed of himself to reign so long. He was +requested to vacate his apartment. There were dumb plots in dark +cellars, of which only the echo of a whisper has descended to us, +but which at the time were quite loud enough to reach Vespasian's +ears. Titus interceded. Domitian was requested to behave. + +For a while he prowled in the moonlight. He had been too +precipitate, he decided, and to allay suspicion presently he went +about in society, mingling his hours with those of married women. +Manifestly his ways had mended. But Vespasian was uneasy. A comet +had appeared. The doors of the imperial mausoleum had opened of +themselves, besides, he was not well. The robust and hardy +soldier, suddenly without tangible cause, felt his strength give +way. "It is nothing," his physician said; "a slight attack of +fever." Vespasian shook his head; he knew things of which the +physician was ignorant. "It is death," he answered, "and an +emperor should meet it standing." + +Titus' turn came next. A violent, headstrong, handsome, rapacious +prince, terribly prodigal, thoroughly Oriental, surrounded by +dancers and mignons, living in state with a queen for mistress, +startling even Rome with the uproar of his debauches--no sooner +was Vespasian gone than presto! the queen went home, the dancers +disappeared, the debauches ceased, and a ruler appeared who +declared he had lost a day that a good action had not marked; a +ruler who could announce that no one should leave his presence +depressed. + +Though Vespasian had gone, his reign continued. Not long, it is +true, and punctuated by a spectacle of which Caligula, for all his +poetry, had not dreamed--the burial of Pompeii. But a reign which, +while it lasted, was fastidious and refined, and during which, +again and again, Titus, who commanded death and whom death obeyed, +besought Domitian to be to him a brother. + +Domitian had no such intention. He had a party behind him, one +made up of old Neronians, the army of the discontented, who wanted +a change, and greatly admired this charming young prince whose +hours were passed in killing flies and making love to married +women. The pretorians too had been seduced. Domitian could make +captivating promises when he chose. + +As a consequence Titus, like Vespasian, was uneasy, and with +cause. Dion Cassius, or rather that brute Xiphilin, his +abbreviator, mentions the fever that overtook him, the same his +father had met. It was mortal, of course, and the purple was +Domitian's. + +For a year and a day thereafter you would have thought Titus still +at the helm. There was the same clemency, the same regard for +justice, the same refinement and fastidiousness. The morose young +poet had developed into a model monarch. The old Neronians were +perplexed, irritated too; they had expected other things. Domitian +was merely feeling the way; the hand that held the sceptre was not +quite sure of its strength, and, tentatively almost, this Prince +of Virtue began to scrutinize the morals of Rome. For the first +time he noticed that the cocottes took their airing in litters. +But litters were not for them! That abuse he put a stop to at +once. A senator manifested an interest in ballet-girls; he was +disgraced. The vestals, to whose indiscretions no one had paid +much attention, learned the statutes of an archaic law, and were +buried alive. The early distaste for blood was diminishing. +Domitian had the purple, but it was not bright enough; he wanted +it red, and what Domitian wanted he got. Your god and master +orders it, was the formula he began to use when addressing the +Senate and People of Rome. + +To that the people were indifferent. The spectacles he gave in the +Flavian amphitheatre were too magnificently atrocious not to be a +compensation in full for any eccentricity in which he might +indulge. Besides, under Nero, Claud, Caligula, on en avait vu bien +d'autres. And at those spectacles where he presided, crowned with +a tiara, on which were the images of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, +while grouped about him the college of Flavian flamens wore tiaras +that differed therefrom merely in this, that they bore his image +too, the people right royally applauded their master and their +god. + +And it was just as well they did; Domitian was quite capable of +ordering everybody into the arena. As yet, however, he had +appeared little different from any other prince. That Rome might +understand that there was a difference, and also in what that +difference consisted, he gave a supper. Everyone worth knowing was +bidden, and, as is usual in state functions, everyone that was +bidden came. The supper hall was draped with black; the ceiling, +the walls, the floor, everything was basaltic. The couches were +black, the linen was black, the slaves were black. Behind each +guest was a broken column with his name on it. The food was such +as is prepared when death has come. The silence was that of the +tomb. The only audible voice was Domitian's. He was talking very +wittily and charmingly about murder, about proscriptions, the good +informers do, the utility of the headsman, the majesty of the law. +The guests, a trifle ill at ease, wished their host sweet dreams. +"The same to you," he answered, and deplored that they must go. + +On the morrow informers and headsmen were at work. Any pretext was +sufficient. Birth, wealth, fame, or the lack of them--anything +whatever--and there the culprit stood, charged not with treason to +an emperor, but with impiety to a god. On the judgment seat +Domitian sat. Before him the accused passed, and under his eyes +they were questioned, tortured, condemned and killed. At once +their property passed into the keeping of the prince. + +Of that he had need. The arena was expensive, but the drain was +elsewhere. A little before, a quarrelsome people, the Dacians, +whom it took a Trajan to subdue, had overrun the Danube, and were +marching down to Rome. Domitian set out to meet them. The Dacians +retreated, not at all because they were repulsed, but because +Domitian thought it better warfare to pay them to do so. On his +return after that victory he enjoyed a triumph as fair as that of +Caesar. And each year since then the emperor of Rome had paid +tribute to a nation of mongrel oafs. + +Of course he needed money. The informers were there and he got it, +and with it that spectacle of torture and of blood which he needed +too. Curiously, his melancholy increased; his good looks had gone; +Psyche was no longer amorous of his eyes. Something else haunted +him, something he could not define; the past, perhaps, perhaps the +future. To his ears came strange sounds, the murmur of his own +name, and suddenly silence. Then, too, there always seemed to be +something behind him; something that when he turned disappeared. +The room in which he slept he had covered with a polished metal +that reflected everything, yet still the intangible was there. +Once Pallas came in her chariot, waved him farewell, and +disappeared, borne by black horses across the black night. + +The astrologers consulted had nothing pleasant to say. They knew, +as Domitian knew, that the end was near. So was theirs. To one of +them, who predicted his immediate death, he inquired, "What will +your end be?" "I," answered the astrologer--"I shall be torn by +dogs." "To the stake with him!" cried Domitian; "let him be burned +alive!" Suetonius says that a storm put out the flames, and dogs +devoured the corpse. Another astrologer predicted that Domitian +would die before noon on the morrow. In order to convince him of +his error, Domitian ordered him to be executed the subsequent +night. Before noon on the morrow Domitian was dead. + +Philostratus and Dion Cassius both unite in saying that at that +hour Apollonius was at Ephesus, preaching to the multitude. In the +middle of the sermon he hesitated, but in a moment he began anew. +Again he hesitated, his eyes half closed; then, suddenly he +shouted, "Strike him! Strike him once more!" And immediately to +his startled audience he related a scene that was occurring at +Rome, the attack on Domitian, his struggle with an assailant, his +effort to tear out his eyes, the rush of conspirators, and finally +the fall of the emperor, pierced by seven knives. + +The story may not be true, and yet if it were! + + + + + +VII + +THE POISON IN THE PURPLE + + +Rome never was healthy. The tramontana visited it then as now, +fever, too, and sudden death. To emperors it was fatal. Since +Caesar a malaria had battened on them all. Nerva escaped, but only +through abdication. The mantle that fell from Domitian's shoulders +on to his was so dangerous in its splendor, that, fearing the +infection, he passed it to Ulpius Trajanus, the lustre undimmed. + +Ulpius Trajanus, Trajan for brevity, a Spaniard by birth, a +soldier by choice; one who had fought against Parthian and Jew, +who had triumphed through Pannonia and made it his own; a general +whose hair had whitened on the field; a consul who had frightened +nations, was afraid of the sheen of that purple which dazzled, +corroded and killed. He bore it, indeed, but at arm's-length. He +kept himself free from the subtlety of its poison, from the +microbes of Rome as well. + +He was in Cologne when Domitian died and Nerva accepted and +renounced the throne. It was a year before he ventured among the +seven hills. When he arrived you would have said another Augustus, +not the real Augustus, but the Augustus of legend, and the late +Mr. Gibbon. When he girt the new prefect of the pretorium with the +immemorial sword, he addressed him in copy-book phrases--"If I +rule wisely, use it for me; unwisely, against me." + +Rome listened open-mouthed. The change from Domitian's formula, +"Your god and master orders it," was too abrupt to be immediately +understood. Before it was grasped Trajan was off again; this time +to the Danube and beyond it, to Dacia and her fens. + +Many years later--a century or two, to be exact--a Persian satrap +loitered in a forum of Rome. "It is here," he declared, "I am +tempted to forget that man is mortal." + +He had passed beneath a triumphal arch; before him was a +glittering square, grandiose, yet severe; a stretch of temples and +basilicas, in which masterpieces felt at home--the Forum of +Trajan, the compliment of a nation to a prince. Dominating it was +a column, in whose thick spirals you read to-day the one reliable +chronicle of the Dacian campaign. Was not Gautier well advised +when he said only art endures? + +There were other chronicles in plenty; there were the histories of +AElius Maurus, of Marius Maximus, and that of Spartian, but they +are lost. There is a page or two in the abbreviation which +Xiphilin made of Dion; Aurelius Victor has a little to add, so +also has Eutropus, but, practically speaking, there is, apart from +that column, nothing save conjecture. + +Campaigns are wearisome reading, but not the one that is pictured +there. You ask a curve a question, and in the next you find the +reply. There is a point, however, on which it is dumb--the origin +of the war. But if you wish to know the result, not the momentary +and transient result, but the sequel which futurity held, look at +the ruins at that column's base. + +The origin of the war was Domitian's diplomacy. The chieftain whom +he had made king, and who had been surprised enough at receiving a +diadem instead of the point of a sword, fancied, and not +unreasonably, that the annuity which Rome paid him was to continue +forever. But Domitian, though a god, was not otherwise immortal. +When he died abruptly the annuity ceased. The Dacian king sent +word that he was surprised at the delay, but he must have been far +more so at the promptness with which he got Trajan's reply. It was +a blare of bugles, which he thought forever dumb; a flight of +eagles, which he thought were winged. + +In the spirals of the column you see the advancing army, the +retreating foe; then the Dacian dragon saluting the standards of +Rome; peace declared, and an army, whose very repose is menacing, +standing there to see that peace is kept. And was it? In the +ascending spiral is the new revolt, the attempt to assassinate +Trajan, the capture of the conspirators, the advance of the +legions, the retreat of the Dacians, burning their cities as they +go, carrying their wounded and their women with them, and at last +pressing about a huge cauldron that is filled with poison, +fighting among themselves for a cup of the brew, and rolling on +the ground in the convulsions of death. Farther on is the treasure +of the king. To hide it he had turned a river from its source, +sunk the gold in a vault beneath, and killed the workmen that had +labored there. Beyond is the capture of the capital, the suicide +of the chief, a troop of soldiers driving captives and cattle +before them, the death of a nation and the end of war. + +The subsequent triumph does not appear on the column. It is said +that ten thousand beasts were slaughtered in the arenas, +slaughtering, as they fell, a thousand of their slaughterers. But +the spectacle, however fair, was not of a nature to detain Trajan +long in Rome. The air there had not improved in the least, and +presently he was off again, this time on the banks of the +Euphrates, arguing with the Parthians, avoiding danger in the only +way he knew, by facing it. + +It was then that the sheen of the purple glowed. If lustreless at +home, it was royally red abroad. In a campaign that was little +more than a triumphant promenade he doubled the empire. To the +world of Caesar he added that of Alexander. Allies he turned into +subjects, vassals into slaves. Armenia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, were +added to the realm. Trajan's footstools were diadems. He had moved +back one frontier, he moved another. From Britain to the Indus, +Rome was mistress of the earth. Had Trajan been younger, China, +whose very name was unknown, would have yielded to him her +corruption, her printing press, her powder and her tea. + +That he would have enjoyed these things is not at all conjectural. +He was then an old man, but he was not a good one--at least not in +the sense we use the term to-day. He had habits which are regarded +now less as vices than perversions, but which at that time were +taken as a matter of course and accepted by everyone, even by the +stoics, very calmly, with a grain of Attic salt at that. Men were +regarded as virtuous when they were brave, when they were honest; +the idea of using the expression in its later sense occurred, if +at all, in jest merely, as a synonym for the eunuch. It was the +matron and the vestal who were supposed to be straight, and their +straightness was wholly supposititious. The ceremonies connected +with the phallus, and those observed in the worship of the Bona +Dea, were of a nature that no virtue could withstand. Every altar, +Juvenal said, had its Clodius, and even in Clodius' absence there +were always those breaths of Sapphic song that blew through +Mitylene. + +It is just that absence of a quality which we regard as an added +grace; one, parenthetically, which dowered the world with a new +conception of beauty that makes it difficult to picture Rome. +Modern ink has acquired Nero's blush; it comes very readily, yet, +however sensitive a writer may be, once Roman history is before +him, he may violate it if he choose; he may even give it a child, +but never can he make it immaculate. He may skip, indeed, if he +wish; and it is because he has skipped so often that one fancies +that Augustus was all right. The rain of fire which fell on the +cities that mirrored their towers in the Bitter Sea, might just as +well have fallen on him, on Vergil, too, on Caligula, Claud, Nero, +Otho, Vitellius, Titus, Domitian, and particularly on Trajan. + +As lieutenant in the latter's triumphant promenade, was a nephew, +AElius Hadrianus, a young man for whom Trajan's wife is rumored to +have had more than a platonic affection, and who in younger days +was numbered among Trajan's mignons. During the progress of that +promenade Trajan fell ill. The command of the troops was left to +Hadrian, and Trajan started for Rome. On the way he died. In what +manner is not known; his wife, however, was with him, and it was +in her hand that a letter went to the senate stating that Trajan +had adopted Hadrian as his heir. Trajan had done nothing of the +sort. The idea had indeed occurred to him, but long since it had +been abandoned. He had even formally selected someone else, but +his wife was with him, and her lover commanded the troops. The +lustre of the purple, always dazzling, had fascinated Hadrian's +eyes. Did he steal it? One may conjecture, yet never know. In any +event it was his, and he folded it very magnificently about him. +Still young, a trifle over thirty, handsome, unusually +accomplished, grand seigneur to his finger-tips, endowed with a +manner which is rumored to have been one of great charm, possessed +of the amplest appreciation of the elegancies of life, he had +precisely the figure which purple adorns. But, though the lustre +had fascinated, he too knew its spell; and presently he started +off on a journey about the world, which lasted fifteen years, and +which, when ended, left the world the richer for his passing, +decorated with the monuments he had strewn. Before that journey +began, at the earliest rumor of Trajan's death, the Euphrates and +Tigris awoke, the cinders of Nineveh flamed. The rivers and land +that lay between knew that their conqueror had gone. Hadrian knew +it also, and knew too that, though he might occupy the warrior's +throne, he never could fill the warrior's place. To Armenia, +Mesopotamia, Assyria, freedom was restored. Dacia could have had +it for the asking. But over Dacia the toga had been thrown; it was +as Roman as Gaul. A corner of it is Roman still; the Roumanians +are there. But though Dacia was quiet, in its neighborhood the +restless Sarmatians prowled and threatened. Hadrian, who had +already written a book on tactics, knew at once how to act. +Domitian's policy was before him; he followed the precedent, and +paid the Sarmatians to be still. It requires little acumen to see +that when Rome permitted herself to be blackmailed the end was +near. + +For the time being, however, there was peace, and in its interest +Hadrian set out on that unequalled journey over a land that was +his. Had fate relented, Trajan could have made a wider one still. +But in Trajan was the soldier merely, when he journeyed it was +with the sword. In Hadrian was the dilettante, the erudite too; he +travelled not to conquer, but to learn, to satisfy an insatiable +curiosity, for self-improvement, for glory too. Behind him was an +army, not of soldiers, but of masons, captained by architects, +artists and engineers. Did a site please him, there was a temple +at once, or if not that, then a bridge, an aqueduct, a library, a +new fashion, sovereignty even, but everywhere the spectacle of an +emperor in flesh and blood. For the first time the provinces were +able to understand that a Caesar was not necessarily a brute, a +phantom and a god. + +It would have been interesting to have made one of that court of +poets and savants that surrounded him; to have dined with him in +Paris, eaten oysters in London; sat with him while he watched that +wall go up before the Scots, and then to have passed down again +through a world still young--a world beautiful, ornate, +unutilitarian; a world to which trams, advertisements and +telegraph poles had not yet come; a world that still had +illusions, myths and mysteries; one in which religion and poetry +went hand in hand--a world without newspapers, hypocrisy and cant. + +Hadrian, doubtless, enjoyed it. He was young enough to have +enthusiasms and to show them; he was one of the best read men of +the day; he was poet, painter, sculptor, musician, erudite and +emperor in one. Of course he enjoyed it. The world, over which he +travelled, was his, not by virtue of the purple alone, but because +of his knowledge of it. The prince is not necessarily +cosmopolitan; the historian and antiquarian are. Hadrian was an +early Quinet, an earlier Champollion; always the thinker, +sometimes the cook. And to those in his suite it must have been a +sight very unique to see a Caesar who had published his volume of +erotic verse, just as any other young man might do; who had hunted +lions, not in the arena, but in Africa, make researches on the +plain where Troy had been, and a supreme of sow's breast, peacock, +pheasant, ham and boar, which he called Pentapharmarch, and which +he offered as he had his Catacriani--the erotic verse--as +something original and nice. + +Insatiably inquisitive, verifying a history that he was preparing +in the lands which gave that history birth, he passed through +Egypt and Asia, questioning sphinxes, the cerements of kings, the +arcana of the temples; deciphering the sacred books, arguing with +magi, interrogating the stars. For the thinker, after the fashion +of the hour, was astrologer too, and one of the few anecdotes +current concerning him is in regard to a habit he had of drawing +up on the 31st of December the events of the coming year. After +consulting the stars on that 31st of December which occurred in +the twenty-second year of his reign, he prepared a calendar which +extended only to the 10th of July. On that day he died. + +The calendar does not seem to have been otherwise serviceable. It +was in Bithynia he found a shepherd whose appearance which, in its +perfection, was quite earthly, suggested neither heaven nor hell, +but some planet where the atmosphere differs from ours; where it +is pink, perhaps, or faintly ochre; where birth and death have +forms higher than here. + +Hadrian, captivated, led the lad in leash. The facts concerning +that episode have been so frequently given that the repetition is +needless here. Besides, the point is elsewhere. Presently the lad +fell overboard. Hadrian lost a valet, Rome an emperor, and Olympus +a god. But in attempting to deify the lost lackey, the grief of +Hadrian was so immediate, that it is permissible to fancy that the +lad's death was not one of those events which the emperor- +astrologer noted beforehand on his calendar. The lad was decently +buried, the Nile gave up her dead, and on the banks a fair city +rose, one that had its temples, priests, altars and shrines; a +city that worshipped a star, and called that star Antinous. +Hadrian then could have congratulated himself. Even Caligula would +have envied him. He had done his worst; he had deified not a lad, +but a lust. And not for the moment alone. A half century later +Tertullian noted that the worship still endured, and subsequently +the Alexandrine Clement discovered consciences that Antinous had +reproached. + +Antinous, deified, was presently forgot. A young Roman, +wonderfully beautiful, Dion says, yet singularly effeminate; a +youth who could barely carry a shield; who slept between rose- +leaves and lilies; who was an artist withal; a poet who had +written lines that Martial might have mistaken for his own, +Cejonius Verus by name, succeeded the Bithynian shepherd. Hadrian, +who would have adopted Antinous, adopted Verus in his stead. But +Hadrian was not happy in his choice. Verus died, and singularly +enough, Hadrian selected as future emperor the one ruler against +whom history has not a reproach, Pius Antonin. + +Meanwhile the journey continued. The Thousand and One Nights were +realized then if ever. The beauty of the world was at its apogee, +the glory of Rome as well; and through secrets and marvels Hadrian +strolled, note-book in hand, his eyes unwearied, his curiosity +unsatiated still. To pleasure him the intervales took on a fairer +glow; cities decked themselves anew, the temples unveiled their +mysteries; and when he passed to the intervales liberty came; to +the cities, sovereignty; to the temples, shrines. The world rose +to him as a woman greets her lover. His travels were not fatigues; +they were delights, in which nations participated, and of which +the memories endure as though enchanted still. + +It would have been interesting, no doubt, to have dined with him +in Paris; to have quarried lions in their African fens; to have +heard archaic hymns ripple through the rushes of the Nile; to have +lounged in the Academe, to have scaled Parnassus, and sailed the +AEgean Sea; but, a history and an arm-chair aiding, the traveller +has but to close his eyes and the past returns. Without disturbing +so much as a shirt-box, he may repeat that promenade. Triremes +have foundered; litters are out of date; painted elephants are no +more; the sky has changed, climates with it; there are colors, as +there are arts, that have gone from us forever; there are desolate +plains, where green and yellow was; the shriek of steam where gods +have strayed; advertisements in sacred groves; Baedekers in ruins +that never heard an atheist's voice; solitudes where there were +splendors; the snarl of jackals where once were birds and bees-- +yet, history and the arm-chair aiding, it all returns. Any +traveller may follow in Hadrian's steps; he is stayed but once-- +on the threshold of the Temple of Eleusis. It is there history +gropes, impotent and blind, and it is there the interest of that +journey culminated. + +Beyond the episode connected with Antinous, Hadrian's journey was +marked by another, one which occurred in Judaea. Both were +infamous, no doubt, but, what is more to the point, both mark the +working of the poison in the purple that he bore. + +Since Titus had gone, despairful Judaea had taken heart again. +Hope in that land was inextinguishable. The walls of Jerusalem +were still standing; in the Temple the offices continued. Though +Rome remained, there was Israel too. Passing that way one +afternoon, Hadrian mused. The city affected him; the site was +superb. And as he mused it occurred to him that Jerusalem was less +harmonious to the ear than Hadrianopolis; that the Temple occupied +a position on which a Capitol would look far better; in brief, +that Jehovah might be advantageously replaced by Jove. The army of +masons that were ever at his heels were set to work at once. They +had received similar orders and performed similar tasks so often +that they could not fancy anyone would object. The Jews did. They +fought as they had never fought before; they fought for three +years against a Nebuchadnezzar who created torrents of blood so +abundant that stones were carried for miles, and who left corpses +enough to fertilize the land for a decade. The survivors were +sold. Those for whom no purchasers could be found had their heads +amputated. Jerusalem was razed to the ground. The site of the +Temple was furrowed by the plow, sown with salt, and in place of +the City of David rose AElia Capitolina, a miniature Rome, whose +gates, save on one day in the year, Jews were forbidden under +penalty of death to pass, were forbidden to look at, and over +which were images of swine, pigs with scornful snouts, the feet +turned inward, the tail twisted like a lie. + +It was not honorable warfare, but it was effective; then, too, it +was Hadrianesque, the mad insult of a madman to a race as mad as +he. The purple had done its work. History has left the rise of +this emperor conjectural; his fall is written in blood. As he +began he ended, a poet and a beast. + +Presently he was in Rome. It was not homesickness that took him +there; he was far too cosmopolitan to suffer from any such malady +as that. It was the accumulations of a fifteen-year excursion +through the metropoles of art which demanded a gallery of their +own. Another with similar tastes and similar power might have +ordered everything which pleasured his eye to be carted to Rome, +but in his quality of artifex omnipotens Hadrian embellished and +never sacked. There were painters and sculptors enough in that +army at his heels, and whatever appealed to him was copied on the +spot. So much was copied that a park of ten square miles was just +large enough to form the open-air museum which he had designed, +one which centuries of excavation have not exhausted yet. + +The museum became a mad-house. Hadrian was ill; tired in mind and +body, smitten with imperialia. It was then the young Verus died, +leaving for a wonder a child behind, and more wonderful still, +Antonin was adopted. Through Rome, meanwhile, terror stalked. +Hadrian, in search of a remedy against his increasing confusion of +mind, his visible weakness of body, turned from physicians to +oracles; from them to magic, and then to blood. He decimated the +senate. Soldiers, freemen, citizens, anybody and everybody were +ordered off to death. He tried to kill himself and failed; he +tried again, wondering, no doubt, why he who commanded death for +others could not command it for himself. Presently he succeeded, +and Antonin--the pious Antonin, as the senate called him-- +marshalled from cellars and crypts the senators and citizens whom +Hadrian had ordered to be destroyed. + + + + + +VIII + +FAUSTINE + + +Anyone who has loitered a moment among the statues in the Salle +des Antonins at the Louvre will recall the bust of the Empress +Faustina. It stands near the entrance, coercing the idler to +remove his hat; to stop a moment, to gaze and dream. The face +differs from that which Mr. Swinburne has described. In the poise +of the head, in the expression of the lips, particularly in the +features which, save the low brow, are not of the Roman type, +there is a commingling of just that loveliness and melancholy +which must have come to Psyche when she lost her god. In the +corners of the mouth, in the droop of the eyelids, in the moulding +of the chin, you may see that rarity--beauty and intellect in one +--and with it the heightening shadow of an eternal regret. Before +her Marcus Aurelius, her husband, stands, decked with the purple, +with all the splendor of the imperator, his beard in overlapping +curls, his questioning eyes dilated. Beyond is her daughter, +Lucille, less fair than the mother, a healthy girl of the +dairymaid type. Near by is the son, Commodus. Across the hall is +Lucius Verus, the husband of Lucille; in a corner, Antonin, +Faustine's father, and, more remotely, his wife. Together they +form quite a family group, and to the average tourist they must +seem a thoroughly respectable lot. Antonin certainly was +respectable. He was the first emperor who declined to be a brute. +Referring to his wife he said that he would rather be with her in +a desert than without her in a palace; the speech, +parenthetically, of a man who, though he could have cited that +little Greek princess, Nausicaa, as a precedent, was too well-bred +to permit so much as a fringe of his household linen to flutter in +public. Besides, at his hours, he was a poet, and it is said that +if a poet tell a lie twice he will believe it. Antonin so often +declared his wife to be a charming person that in the end no doubt +he thought so. She was not charming, however, or if she were, her +charm was not that of exclusiveness. + +It was in full sight of this lady's inconsequences that Faustine +was educated. Wherever she looked, the candors of her girlhood +were violated. The phallus then was omnipresent. Iamblicus, not +the novelist, but the philosopher, has much to say on the subject; +as has Arnobius in the Adversus gentes, and Lactance in the De +falsa religione. If Juvenal, Martial, Petronius, are more +reticent, it is because they were not Fathers of the Church, nor +yet antiquarians. No one among us exacts a description of a spire. +The phallus was as common to them, commoner even. It was on the +coins, on the doors, in the gardens. As a preservative against +Envy it hung from children's necks. On sun-dials and water clocks +it marked the flight of time. The vestals worshipped it. At +weddings it was used in a manner which need not be described. + +It was from such surroundings that Faustine stepped into the arms +of the severe and stately prince whom her father had chosen. That +Marcus Aurelius adored her is certain. His notebook shows it. A +more tender-hearted and perfect lover romance may show, but +history cannot. He must have been the quintessence of refinement, +a thoroughbred to his finger-tips; one for whom that purple mantle +was too gaudy, and yet who bore it, as he bore everything else, in +that self-abnegatory spirit which the higher reaches of philosophy +bring. + +He was of that rare type that never complains and always consoles. + +After Antonin's death, his hours ceased to be his own. On the +Euphrates there was the wildest disorder. To the north new races +were pushing nations over the Danube and the Rhine. From the +catacombs Christ was emerging; from the Nile, Serapis. The empire +was in disarray. Antonin had provided his son-in-law with a +coadjutor, Lucius Verus, the son of Hadrian's mignon, a +magnificent scoundrel; a tall, broad-shouldered athlete, with a +skin as fresh as a girl's and thick curly hair, which he covered +with a powder of gold; a viveur, whose suppers are famous still; +whose guests were given the slaves that served them, the plate off +which they had eaten, the cups from which they had drunk--cups of +gold, cups of silver, jewelled cups, cups from Alexandria, +murrhine vases filled with nard--cars and litters to go home with, +mules with silver trappings and negro muleteers. Capitolinus says +that, while the guests feasted, sometimes the magnificent Verus +got drunk, and was carried to bed in a coverlid, or else, the red +feather aiding, turned out and fought the watch. + +It was this splendid individual to whom Marcus Aurelius entrusted +the Euphrates. They had been brought up together, sharing each +others tutors, writing themes for the same instructor, both +meanwhile adolescently enamored of the fair Faustine. It was to +Marcus she was given, the empire as a dower; and when that dower +passed into his hands, he could think of nothing more equitable +than to ask Verus to share it with him. Verus was not stupid +enough to refuse, and at the hour when the Parthians turned ugly, +he needed little urging to set out for the East, dreaming, as he +did so, of creating there an empire that should be wholly his. + +At that time Faustine must have been at least twenty-eight, +possibly thirty. There were matrons who had not seen their +fifteenth year, and Faustine had been married young. Her daughter, +Lucille, was nubile. Presently Verus, or rather his lieutenants, +succeeded, and the girl was betrothed to him. There was a +festival, of course, games in abundance, and plenty of blood. + +It would have been interesting to have seen her that day, the iron +ring of betrothal on her finger, her brother, Commodus, staring at +the arrangement of her hair, her mother prettily perplexed, her +father signing orders which messengers brought and despatched +while the sand took on a deeper red, and Rome shrieked its +delight. Yes, it would have been interesting and typical of the +hour. Her hair in the ten tresses which were symbolic of a +fiancee's innocence, must have amused that brute of a brother of +hers, and the iron ring on the fourth finger of her left hand must +have given Faustine food for thought; the vestals, in their +immaculate robes, must have gazed at her in curious, sisterly +ways, and because of her fresh beauty surely there were undertones +of applause. Should her father disappear she would make a gracious +imperatrix indeed. + +But, meanwhile, there was Faustine, and at sight of her legends of +old imperial days returned. She was not Messalina yet, but in the +stables there were jockeys whose sudden wealth surprised no one; +in the arenas there were gladiators that fought, not for liberty, +nor for death, but for the caresses of her eyes; in the side- +scenes there were mimes who spoke of her; there were senators who +boasted in their cups, and in the theatre Rome laughed colossally +at the catchword of her amours. + +Marcus Aurelius then was occupied with affairs of state. In +similar circumstances so was Claud--Messalina's husband--so, too, +was Antonin. But Claud was an imbecile, Antonin a man of the +world, while Marcus Aurelius was a philosopher. When fate links a +woman to any one of these varieties of the husband, she is blessed +indeed. Faustine was particularly favored. + +The stately prince was not alone a philosopher--a calling, by the +way, which was common enough then, and has become commoner since-- +he was a philosopher who believed in philosophy, a rarity then as +now. The exact trend of his thought is difficult to define. His +note-book is filled with hesitations; materialism had its +allurements, so also had pantheism; the advantages of the +Pyrrhonic suspension of judgment were clear to him too; according +to the frame of mind in which he wrote, you might fancy him an +agnostic, again an akosmist, sometimes both, but always the +ethical result is the same. + +"Revenge yourself on your enemy by not resembling him. Forgive; +forgive always; die forgiving. Be indulgent to the wrong-doer; be +compassionate to him; tell him how he should act; speak to him +without anger, without sarcasm; speak to him affectionately. +Besides, what do you know of his wrong-doing? Are all his thoughts +familiar to you? May there not be something that justifies him? +And you, are you entirely free from reproach? Have you never done +wrong? And if not, was it fear that restrained you? Was it pride, +or what?" + +In the synoptic gospels similar recommendations appear. Charity is +the New Testament told in a word. Christians read and forget it. +But Christians are not philosophers. The latter are charitable +because they regard evil as a part of the universal order of +things, one which it is idle to blame, yet permissible to rectify. + +From whatever source such a tenet springs, whether from +materialism, stoicism, pyrrhonism, epicureanism, atheism even, is +of small matter; it is a tenet which is honorable to the holder. +This sceptred misanthrope possessed it, and it was in that his +wife was blessed. Years later he died, forgiving her in silence, +praising her aloud. Claud, referring to Messalina, shouted through +the Forum that the fate which destined him to marry impure women +destined him to punish them. Marcus Aurelius said nothing. He did +not know what fate destined him to do, but he did know that +philosophy taught him to forgive. + +It was this philosophy that first perplexed Faustine. She was +restless, frivolous, perhaps also a trifle depraved. Frivolous +because all women were, depraved because her mother was, and +restless because of the curiosity that inflammable imaginations +share--in brief, a Roman princess. Her husband differed from the +Roman prince. His youth had not been entirely circumspect; he, +too, had his curiosities, but they were satisfied, he had found +that they stained. When he married he was already the thinker; +doubtless, he was tiresome; he could have had little small-talk, +and his hours of love-making must have been rare. Presently the +affairs of state engrossed him. Faustine was left to herself; save +a friend of her own sex, a woman can have no worse companion. She, +too, discovered she had curiosities. A gladiator passed that way-- +then Rome; then Lesbos; then the Lampsacene. "You are my husband's +mistress," her daughter cried at her. "And you," the mother +answered, "are your brother's." Even in the aridity of a chronicle +the accusation and rejoinder are dramatic. Fancy what they must +have been when mother and daughter hissed them in each other's +teeth. Whether the argument continued is immaterial. Both could +have claimed the sanction of religion. In those days a sin was a +prayer. Religion was then, as it always had been, purely +political. With the individual, with his happiness or aspirations, +it concerned itself not at all. It was the prosperity of the +empire, its peace and immortality, for which sacrifices were made, +and libations offered. The god of Rome was Rome, and religion was +patriotism. The antique virtues, courage in war, moderation in +peace, and honor at all times, were civic, not personal. It was +the state that had a soul, not the individual. Man was ephemeral; +it was the nation that endured. It was the permanence of its +grandeur that was important, nothing else. + +To ensure that permanence each citizen labored. As for the +citizen, death was near, and he hastened to live; before the roses +could fade he wreathed himself with them. Immortality to him was +in his descendants, the continuation of his name, respect to his +ashes. Any other form of future life was a speculation, infrequent +at that. In anterior epochs Fright had peopled Tartarus, but +Fright had gone. The Elysian Fields were vague, wearisome to +contemplate; even metempsychosis had no adherents. "After death," +said Caesar, "there is nothing," and all the world agreed with +him. The hour, too, in which three thousand gods had not a single +atheist, had gone, never to return. Old faiths had crumbled. None +the less was Rome the abridgment of every superstition. The gods +of the conquered had always been part of her spoils. The Pantheon +had become a lupanar of divinities that presided over birth, and +whose rites were obscene; an abattoir of gods that presided over +death, and whose worship was gore. To please them was easy. Blood +and debauchery was all that was required. That the upper classes +had no faith in them at all goes without the need of telling; the +atmosphere of their atriums dripped with metaphysics. But of the +atheism of the upper classes the people knew nothing; they clung +piously to a faith which held a theological justification of every +sin, and in the temples fervent prayers were murmured, not for +future happiness, for that was unobtainable, nor yet for wisdom or +virtue, for those things the gods neither granted nor possessed; +the prayers were that the gods would favor the suppliant in his +hatreds and in his lusts. + +Such was Rome when Verus returned to wed Lucille. Before his car +the phallus swung; behind it was the pest. A little before, the +Tiber overflowed. Presently, in addition to the pest, famine came. +It was patent to everyone that the gods were vexed. There was +blasphemy somewhere, and the Christians were tossed to the beasts. +Faustine watched them die. At first they were to her as other +criminals, but immediately a difference was discerned. They met +death, not with grace, perhaps, but with exaltation. They entered +the arena as though it were an enchanted garden, the color of the +emerald, where dreams came true. Faustine questioned. They were +enemies of state, she was told. The reply left her perplexed, and +she questioned again. It was then her eyes became inhabited by +regret. The past she tried to put from her, but remorse is +physical; it declines to be dismissed. She would have killed +herself, but she no longer dared. Besides, in the future there was +light. In some ray of it she must have walked, for when at the +foot of Mount Taurus, in a little Cappadocian village, years +later, she died, it was at the sign of the cross. + + + + + +IX + +THE AGONY + + +The high virtues are not complaisant, it is the cad the canaille +adore. In spite of everything, Nero had been beloved by the +masses. For years there were roses on his tomb. Under Vespasian +there was an impostor whom Greece and Asia acclaimed in his name. +The memory of his festivals was unforgetable; regret for him +refused to be stilled. He was more than a god; he was a tradition. +His second advent was confidently expected; the Jews believed in +his resurrection; to the Christian he had never died, and suddenly +he reappeared. + +Rome had declined to accept the old world tenet that the soul has +its avatars, yet, when Commodus sauntered from that distant +sepulchre, into which, poison aiding, he had placed his putative +father, Rome felt that the Egyptians were wiser than they looked; +that the soul did migrate, and that in the blue eyes of the young +emperor Nero's spirit shone. + +Herodian, who has written very agreeably on the subject, describes +him as another Prince Charming. His hair, which was very fair, +glistened like gold in the sun; he was slender, not at all +effeminate, exceedingly graceful, exceedingly gracious; endowed +with the promptest blush, with the best intentions; studious of +the interests of his people; glad of advice, seeking it even; +courteous and deferential to the senate and his father's friends-- +in short, an adolescent Nero--a trifle more guileful, however; +already a parricide, a comedian as well; one who in a moment would +toss the mask aside and disclose the mongrel; the offspring, not +of an empress and an emperor, but the tiger-cub that Faustine had +got by a gladiator. + +The tender-hearted philosopher, who in a campaign against some +fretful Teutons, had taken Commodus with him, knew that he was not +his son; knew, too, when the agony seized him, from whose hand the +agony came; but in earlier life he had jotted in his notebook, +"Forgive, forgive always; die forgiving"; and, as he forgave the +mother, so he forgave the child, recommending him with his last +breath to the army and to Rome. + +As the people had loved Nero, so did the aristocracy love Marcus +Aurelius; his foster-father Antonin excepted, he was the only +gentleman that had sat on the throne. No wonder they loved him; +and seeing this early edition of the prince in the fairy tale +emerge from the bogs of Germany, his fair face haloed by the +glisten and gold of his hair, hearts went out to him; the wish of +his putative father was ratified, and the son of a gladiator was +emperor of Rome. + +Lampridus--or Spartian was it? The title-page bears Lampridus' +name, but there is some doubt as to the authorship. However, +whoever made the abridgment of the life of Commodus which appears +among the chronicles of the Scriptores Historiae Augustae, says +that before his birth Faustine dreamed she had engendered a +serpent. It is not impossible that Faustine had been reading +Ctzias, and had stumbled over his account of the Martichoras, a +serpent with a woman's face and the talons of a bird of prey. For +it was that she conceived. + +It would have been interesting to have seen that young man, the +mask removed, frightening the senate into calling Rome Commodia, +and then in a linen robe promenading in the attributes of a priest +of Anubis through a seraglio of six hundred girls and mignons +embracing as he passed. There was a spectacle, which Nero had not +imagined. But Nero was vieux jeu. Commodus outdid him, first in +debauchery, then in the arena. Nero had died while in training to +kill a lion; Commodus did not take the trouble to train. It was +the lions that were trained, not he. A skin on his shoulders, a +club in his hand, he descended naked into the ring, and there +felled beasts and men. Then, acclaimed as Hercules, he returned to +the pulvina, and a mignon on one side, a mistress on the other, +ordered the guard to massacre the spectators and set fire to Rome. +After entering the arena six or seven hundred times, and there +vanquishing men whose eyes had been put out and whose legs were +tied, the colossal statue which Nero had made after his own image +was altered; to the top came the bust of Commodus, to the base +this legend: THE VICTOR OF TEN THOUSAND GLADIATORS, COMMODUS- +HERCULES, IMPERATOR. + +Meanwhile conspirators were at work. Like Nero, Commodus could +have sought in vain for a friend. His life was attempted again and +again; he escaped, but never the plotters; only when they had gone +there were more. He knew he was doomed. There was the usual comet; +the statue of Hercules had perspired visibly; an owl had been +caught above his bedroom, and once he had wiped in his hair the +hand which he had plunged in the warm wound of a gladiator, dead +at his feet. These omens could mean but one thing. None the less, +if he were doomed, so were others. One day one of those miserable +children that the emperors kept about them found a tablet. It was +as good as anything else to play with; and, as the child tossed it +through the hall, the one woman that had loved Commodus caught it +and read on it that she and all the household were to die. Within +an hour Commodus was killed. + +There is a page in Lampridus, which he quotes as coming from the +lost chronicles of Marius Maximus, and which contains the joy of +the senate at the news. It is too long for transcription, but as a +bit of realism it is unique. There is a shiver in every line. You +hear the voices of hundreds, drunk with fury, frenzied with +delight; the fierce welcome that greeted Pertinax--a slave's +grandson, who was emperor for a minute--the joy of hate assuaged. + +The delight of the senate was not shared by the pretorians. +Pertinax was promptly massacred; the throne was put up at auction; +there were two or three emperors at once, and presently the purple +was seized by Septimus Severus, a rigid, white-haired +disciplinarian, who, in his admiration for Marcus Aurelius, +founded that second dynasty of the Antonins with which antiquity +may be said to end. + +When he had gone, his elder son, Bastian, renamed Aurelius +Antonin, and because of a cloak he had invented nicknamed +Caracalla, bounded like a panther on the throne. In a moment he +was gnawing at his brother's throat, and immediately there +occurred a massacre such as Rome had never seen. Xiphilin says the +nights were not long enough to kill all of the condemned. Twenty +thousand people were slaughtered in twenty hours. The streets were +emptied, the theatres closed. + +The blood that ran then must have been in rillets too thin to +slake Caracalla's thirst, for simultaneously almost, he was in +Gaul, in Dacia--wherever there was prey. African by his father, +Syrian on his mother's side, Caracalla was not a panther merely; +he was a herd of them. He had the cruelty, the treachery and guile +of a wilderness of tiger-cats. No man, said a thinker, is wholly +base. Caracalla was. He had not a taste, not a vice, even, which +was not washed and rewashed in blood. In a moment of excitement +Commodus set his guards on the spectators in the amphitheatre; the +damage was slight, for the Colosseum was so constructed that in +two minutes the eighty or ninety thousand people which it held +could escape. Caracalla had the exits closed. Those who escaped +were naked; to bribe the guards they were forced to strip +themselves to the skin. In the circus a vestal caught his eye. He +tried to violate her, and failing impotently, had her buried +alive. "Caracalla knows that I am a virgin, and knows why," the +girl cried as the earth swallowed her, but there was no one there +to aid. + +Such things show the trend of a temperament, though not, perhaps, +its force. Presently the latter was displayed. For years those +arch-enemies of Rome, the unconquerable Parthians, had been quiet; +bound, too, by treaties which held Rome's honor. Not Caracalla's, +however; he had none. An embassy went out to Artobane, the king. +Caracalla wished a bride, and what fairer one could he have than +the child of the Parthian monarch? Then, too, the embassy was +charged to explain, the marriage of Rome and Parthia would be the +union of the Orient and the Occident, peace by land and sea. +Artobane hesitated, and with cause; but Caracalla wooed so +ardently that finally the king said yes. The news went abroad. The +Parthians, delighted, prepared to receive the emperor. When +Caracalla crossed the Tigris, the highroad that led to the capital +was strewn with sacrifices, with altars covered with flowers, with +welcomings of every kind. Caracalla was visibly pleased. Beyond +the gates of the capital, there was the king; he had advanced to +greet his son-in-law, and that the greeting might be effective, he +had assembled his nobles and his troops. The latter were armed +with cymbals, with hautbois, and with flutes; and as Caracalla and +his army approached, there was music, dancing and song; there were +libations too, and as the day was practically the wedding of East +and West, there was not a weapon to be seen--gala robes merely, +brilliant and long. Caracalla saluted the king, gave an order to +an adjutant, and on the smiling defenceless Parthians the Roman +eagles pounced. Those who were not killed were made prisoners of +war. The next day Caracalla withdrew, charged with booty, firing +cities as he went. + +A little before, rumor reached him that a group of the citizens of +Alexandria had referred to him as a fratricide. After the +adventure in Parthia he bethought him of the city which Alexander +had founded, and of the temple of Serapis that was there. He +wished to honor both, he declared, and presently he was at the +gates. The people were enchanted; the avenues were strewn with +flowers, lined with musicians. There were illuminations, +festivals, sacrifices, torrents of perfumes, and through it all +Caracalla passed, a legion at his heels. To see him, to +participate in the succession of prodigalities, the surrounding +country flocked there too. In recognition of the courtesy with +which he was received, Caracalla gave a banquet to the magnates +and the clergy. Before his guests could leave him they were +killed. Through the streets the legion was at work. Alexandria was +turned into a cemetery. Herodian states that the carnage was so +great that the Nile was red to its mouth. + +In Rome at that time was a prefect, Macrin by name, who had +dreamed the purple would be his. He was a swarthy liar, and his +promises were such that the pretorians were willing that the dream +should come true. Emissaries were despatched, and Caracalla was +stabbed. In his luggage poison was found to the value of five +million five hundred thousand drachmae. What fresh turpitude he +was devising no one knew, and the discovery might serve as an +epitaph, were it not that by his legions he was adored. No one had +abandoned to the army such booty as he. + +Meanwhile, in a chapel at Emissa, a boy was dancing indolently to +the kiss of flutes. A handful of Caracalla's soldiers passed that +way, and thought him Bacchus. In his face was the enigmatic beauty +of gods and girls--the charm of the dissolute and the wayward +heightened by the divine. On his head was a diadem; his frail +tunic was of purple and gold, but the sleeves, after the +Phoenician fashion, were wide, and he was shod with a thin white +leather that reached to the thighs. He was fourteen, and priest of +the Sun. The chapel was roomy and rich. There was no statue--a +black phallus merely, which had fallen from above, and on which, +if you looked closely, you could see the image of Elagabal, the +Sun. + +The rumor of his beauty brought other soldiers that way, and the +lad, feeling that Rome was there, ceased to dance, strolling +through pauses of the worship, a troop of galli at his heels, +surveying the intruders with querulous, feminine eyes. + +Presently a whisper filtered that the lad was Caracalla's son. +There were centurions there that remembered Semiamire, the lad's +mother, very well; they had often seen her, a superb creature with +scorching eyes, before whom fire had been carried as though she +were empress. It was she who had put it beyond Caracalla's power +to violate that vestal when he tried. She was his cousin; her life +had been passed at court; it was Macrin who had exiled her. And +with the whisper filtered another--that she was rich; that she had +lumps of gold, which she would give gladly to whomso aided in +placing her Antonin on the throne. There were gossips who said +ill-natured things of this lady; who insinuated that she had so +many lovers that she herself could not tell who was the father of +her child; but the lumps of gold had a language of their own. The +disbanded army espoused the young priest's cause; there was a +skirmish, Macrin was killed, and Heliogabalus was emperor of Rome. + +"I would never have written the life of this Antonin +Impurissimus," said Lampridus, "were it not that he had +predecessors." Even in Latin the task was difficult. In English it +is impossible. There are subjects that permit of a hint, +particularly if it be masked to the teeth, but there are others +that no art can drape. "The inexpressible does not exist," Gautier +remarked, when he finished a notorious romance, nor does it; but +even his pen would have balked had he tried it on Heliogabalus. + +In his work on the Caesars, Suetonius drew breath but once--he +called Nero a monster. Subsequently he must have regretted having +done so, not because Nero was not a monster, but because it was +sufficient to display the beast without adding a descriptive +placard. In that was Suetonius' advantage; he could describe. +Nowadays a writer may not, or at least not Heliogabalus. It is not +merely that he was depraved, for all of that lot were; it was that +he made depravity a pursuit; and, the purple favoring, carried it +not only beyond the limits of the imaginable, but beyond the +limits of the real. At the feet of that painted boy, Elephantis +and Parrhasius could have sat and learned a lesson. Apart from +that phase of his sovereignty, he was a little Sardanapalus, an +Asiatic mignon, who found himself great. + +It would have been curious to have seen him in that wonderful +palace, clothed like a Persian queen, insisting that he should be +addressed as Imperatrix, and quite living up to the title. It +would not only be interesting, it would give one an insight into +just how much the Romans could stand. It would have been curious, +also, to have assisted at that superb and poetic ceremonial, in +which, having got Tanit from Carthage as consort for Elagabal, he +presided, girt with the pomp of church and state, over the +nuptials of the Sun and Moon. + +He had read Suetonius, and not an eccentricity of the Caesars +escaped him. He would not hunt flies by the hour, as Domitian had +done, for that would be mere imitation; but he could collect +cobwebs, and he did, by the ton. Caligula and Vitellius had been +famous as hosts, but the feasts that Heliogabalus gave outranked +them for sheer splendor. From panels in the ceiling such masses of +flowers fell that guests were smothered. Those that survived had +set before them glass game and sweets of crystal. The menu was +embroidered on the table-cloth--not the mere list of dishes, but +pictures drawn with the needle of the dishes themselves. And +presently, after the little jest in glass had been enjoyed, you +were served with camel's heels; combs torn from living cocks; +platters of nightingale tongues; ostrich brains, prepared with +that garum sauce which the Sybarites invented, and of which the +secret is lost; therewith were peas and grains of gold; beans and +amber peppered with pearl dust; lentils and rubies; spiders in +jelly; lion's dung, served in pastry. The guests that wine +overcame were carried to bedrooms. When they awoke, there staring +at them were tigers and leopards--tame, of course; but some of the +guests were stupid enough not to know it, and died of fright. + +All this was of a nature to amuse a lad who had made the phallus +the chief object of worship; who had banished Jupiter, dismissed +Isis; who, over paths that were strewn with lilies, had himself, +in the attributes of Bacchus, drawn by tigers; by lions as Mother +of the Gods; again, by naked women, as Heliogabalus on his way to +wed a vestal, and procure for the empire a child that should be +wholly divine. + +It amused Rome, too, and his prodigalities in the circus were such +that Lampridus admits that the people were glad he was emperor. +Neither Caligula nor Nero had been as lavish, and neither Caligula +nor Nero as cruel. The atrocities he committed, if less vast than +those of Caracalla's, were more acute. Domitian even was surpassed +in the tortures invented by a boy, so dainty that he never used +the same garments, the same shoes, the same jewels, the same woman +twice. + +In spite of this, or perhaps precisely on that account, the usual +conspirators were at work, and one day this little painted girl, +who had prepared several devices for a unique and splendid +suicide, was taken unawares and tossed in the latrinae. + +In him the glow of the purple reached its apogee. Rome had been +watching a crescendo that had mounted with the years. Its +culmination was in that hermaphrodite. But the tension had been +too great--something snapped; there was nothing left--a procession +of colorless bandits merely, Thracians, Gauls, Pannonians, +Dalmatians, Goths, women even, with Attila for a climax and the +refurbishing of the world. + +Rome was still mistress, but she was growing very old. She had +conquered step by step. When one nation had fallen, she garrotted +another. To vanquish her, the earth had to produce not only new +races, but new creeds. The parturitions, as we know, were +successful. Already the blue, victorious eyes of Vandal and of +Goth were peering down at Rome; already they had whispered +together, and over the hydromel had drunk to her fall. The earth's +new children fell upon her, not one by one, but all at once, and +presently the colossus tottered, startling the universe with the +uproar of her agony; calling to gods that had vacated the skies; +calling to Jupiter; calling to Isis; calling in vain. Where the +thunderbolt had gleamed, a crucifix stood. On the shoulders of a +prelate was the purple that had dazzled the world. + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Imperial Purple +by Edgar Saltus + diff --git a/old/purpl10.zip b/old/purpl10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..70ff24b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/purpl10.zip |