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diff --git a/6672.txt b/6672.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29fc9ec --- /dev/null +++ b/6672.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6739 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Caesars, by Thomas de Quincey + +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: The Caesars + +Author: Thomas de Quincey + + +Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6672] +This file was first posted on January 12, 2003 +Last Updated: June 12, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAESARS *** + + + + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + +THE CAESARS. + +By Thomas De Quincey + + + + +THE CAESARS. + +The condition of the Roman Emperors has never yet been fully +appreciated; nor has it been sufficiently perceived in what respects it +was absolutely unique. There was but one Rome: no other city, as we are +satisfied by the collation of many facts, either of ancient or modern +times, has ever rivalled this astonishing metropolis in the grandeur +of magnitude; and not many--if we except the cities of Greece, none at +all--in the grandeur of architectural display. Speaking even of London, +we ought in all reason to say--the _Nation of London,_ and not the City +of London; but of Rome in her palmy days, nothing less could be said +in the naked severity of logic. A million and a half of souls--that +population, apart from any other distinctions, is _per se_ for London a +justifying ground for such a classification; _a fortiori_, then, will it +belong to a city which counted from one horn to the other of its mighty +suburbs not less than four millions of inhabitants [Footnote: Concerning +this question--once so fervidly debated, yet so unprofitably for the +final adjudication, and in some respects, we may add, so erroneously--on +a future occasion.] at the very least, as we resolutely maintain after +reviewing all that has been written on that much vexed theme, and very +probably half as many more. Republican Rome had her _prerogative_ tribe; +the earth has its _prerogative_ city; and that city was Rome. + +As was the city, such was its prince--mysterious, solitary, unique. Each +was to the other an adequate counterpart, each reciprocally that +perfect mirror which reflected, as it were _in alia materia,_ those +incommunicable attributes of grandeur, that under the same shape and +denomination never upon this earth were destined to be revived. Rome has +not been repeated; neither has Caesar. _Ubi Caesar, ibi Roma_--was a maxim +of Roman jurisprudence. And the same maxim may be translated into +a wider meaning; in which it becomes true also for our historical +experience. Caesar and Rome have flourished and expired together. The +illimitable attributes of the Roman prince, boundless and comprehensive +as the universal air,--like that also bright and apprehensible to the +most vagrant eye, yet in parts (and those not far removed) unfathomable +as outer darkness, (for no chamber in a dungeon could shroud in more +impenetrable concealment a deed of murder than the upper chambers of the +air,)--these attributes, so impressive to the imagination, and which all +the subtlety of the Roman [Footnote: Or even of modern wit; witness the +vain attempt of so many eminent sort, and illustrious _Antecessors_, to +explain in self-consistency the differing functions of the Roman +Caesar, and in what sense he was _legibus solutus_. The origin of this +difficulty we shall soon understand.] wit could as little fathom as the +fleets of Caesar could traverse the Polar basin, or unlock the gates +of the Pacific, are best symbolized, and find their most appropriate +exponent, in the illimitable city itself--that Rome, whose centre, the +Capitol, was immovable as Teneriffe or Atlas, but whose circumference +was shadowy, uncertain, restless, and advancing as the frontiers of +her all-conquering empire. It is false to say, that with Caesar came the +destruction of Roman greatness. Peace, hollow rhetoricians! Until Caesar +came, Rome was a minor; by him, she attained her majority, and fulfilled +her destiny. Caius Julius, you say, deflowered the virgin purity of her +civil liberties. Doubtless, then, Rome had risen immaculate from the +arms of Sylla and of Marius. But, if it were Caius Julius who deflowered +Rome, if under him she forfeited her dowery of civic purity, if to him +she first unloosed her maiden zone, then be it affirmed boldly--that she +reserved her greatest favors for the noblest of her wooers, and we may +plead the justification of Falconbridge for his mother's trangression +with the lion-hearted king--such a sin was self-ennobled. Did Julius +deflower Rome? Then, by that consummation, he caused her to fulfill the +functions of her nature; he compelled her to exchange the imperfect and +inchoate condition of a mere _faemina_ for the perfections of a _mulier_. +And, metaphor apart, we maintain that Rome lost no liberties by +the mighty Julius. That which in tendency, and by the spirit of +her institutions--that which, by her very corruptions and abuses +co-operating with her laws, Rome promised and involved in the germ--even +that, and nothing less or different, did Rome unfold and accomplish +under this Julian violence. The rape [if such it were] of Caesar, her +final Romulus, completed for Rome that which the rape under Romulus, her +earliest Caesar, had prosperously begun. And thus by one godlike man was +a nation-city matured; and from the everlasting and nameless [Footnote: +"_Nameless city_."--The true name of Rome it was a point of religion +to conceal; and, in fact, it was never revealed.] city was a man +produced--capable of taming her indomitable nature, and of forcing her +to immolate her wild virginity to the state best fitted for the destined +"Mother of empires." Peace, then, rhetoricians, false threnodists of +false liberty! hollow chanters over the ashes of a hollow republic! +Without Caesar, we affirm a thousand times that there would have been no +perfect Rome; and, but for Rome, there could have been no such man as +Caesar. + +Both then were immortal; each worthy of each. And the _Cui viget nihil +simile aut secundum_ of the poet, was as true of one as of the other. +For, if by comparison with Rome other cities were but villages, with +even more propriety it may be asserted, that after the Roman Caesars all +modern kings, kesars, or emperors, are mere phantoms of royalty. The +Caesar of Western Rome--he only of all earthly potentates, past or to +come, could be said to reign as a _monarch_, that is, as a solitary +king. He was not the greatest of princes, simply because there was +no other but himself. There were doubtless a few outlying rulers, of +unknown names and titles upon the margins of his empire, there were +tributary lieutenants and barbarous _reguli_, the obscure vassals of his +sceptre, whose homage was offered on the lowest step of his throne, and +scarcely known to him but as objects of disdain. But these feudatories +could no more break the unity of his empire, which embraced the whole +_oichomeni_;--the total habitable world as then known to geography, or +recognised by the muse of History--than at this day the British empire +on the sea can be brought into question or made conditional, because +some chief of Owyhee or Tongataboo should proclaim a momentary +independence of the British trident, or should even offer a transient +outrage to her sovereign flag. Such a _tempestas in matula_ might raise +a brief uproar in his little native archipelago, but too feeble to reach +the shores of Europe by an echo--or to ascend by so much as an infantine +_susurrus_ to the ears of the British Neptune. Parthia, it is true, +might pretend to the dignity of an empire. But her sovereigns, though +sitting in the seat of the great king, (_o basileus_,) were no longer +the rulers of a vast and polished nation. They were regarded as +barbarians--potent only by their standing army, not upon the larger +basis of civic strength; and, even under this limitation, they were +supposed to owe more to the circumstances of their position--their +climate, their remoteness, and their inaccessibility except through +arid and sultry deserts--than to intrinsic resources, such as could be +permanently relied on in a serious trial of strength between the two +powers. The kings of Parthia, therefore, were far enough from being +regarded in the light of antagonist forces to the majesty of Rome. And, +these withdrawn from the comparison, who else was there--what prince, +what king, what potentate of any denomination, to break the universal +calm, that through centuries continued to lave, as with the quiet +undulations of summer lakes, the sacred footsteps of the Caesarean +throne? The Byzantine court, which, merely as the inheritor of some +fragments from that august throne, was drunk with excess of pride, +surrounded itself with elaborate expressions of a grandeur beyond what +mortal eyes were supposed able to sustain. + +These fastidious, and sometimes fantastic ceremonies, originally devised +as the very extremities of anti-barbarism, were often themselves but too +nearly allied in spirit to the barbaresque in taste. In reality, some +parts of the Byzantine court ritual were arranged in the same spirit as +that of China or the Birman empire; or fashioned by anticipation, as one +might think, on the practice of that Oriental Cham, who daily proclaims +by sound of trumpet to the kings in the four corners of the earth--that +they, having dutifully awaited the close of _his_ dinner, may now with +his royal license go to their own. + +From such vestiges of _derivative_ grandeur, propagated to ages so +remote from itself, and sustained by manners so different from the +spirit of her own,--we may faintly measure the strength of the original +impulse given to the feelings of men by the _sacred_ majesty of the +Roman throne. How potent must that splendor have been, whose mere +reflection shot rays upon a distant crown, under another heaven, and +across the wilderness of fourteen centuries! Splendor, thus transmitted, +thus sustained, and thus imperishable, argues a transcendent in the +basis of radical power. Broad and deep must those foundations have +been laid, which could support an "arch of empire" rising to that giddy +altitude--an altitude which sufficed to bring it within the ken of +posterity to the sixtieth generation. + +Power is measured by resistance. Upon such a scale, if it were applied +with skill, the _relations_ of greatness in Rome to the greatest of all +that has gone before her, and has yet come after her, would first be +adequately revealed. The youngest reader will know that the grandest +forms in which the _collective_ might of the human race has manifested +itself, are the four monarchies. Four times have the distributive forces +of nations gathered themselves, under the strong compression of the +sword, into mighty aggregates--denominated _Universal Empires_, or +Monarchies. These are noticed in the Holy Scriptures; and it is upon +_their_ warrant that men have supposed no fifth monarchy or universal +empire possible in an earthly sense; but that, whenever such an empire +arises, it will have Christ for its head; in other words, that no fifth +_monarchia_ can take place until Christianity shall have swallowed up +all other forms of religion, and shall have gathered the whole family +of man into one fold under one all-conquering Shepherd. Hence [Footnote: +This we mention, because a great error has been sometimes committed +in exposing _their_ error, that consisted, not in supposing that for a +fifth time men were to be gathered under one sceptre, and that sceptre +wielded by Jesus Christ, but in supposing that this great era had then +arrived, or that with no deeper moral revolution men could be fitted for +that yoke.] the fanatics of 1650, who proclaimed Jesus for their king, +and who did sincerely anticipate his near advent in great power, +and under some personal manifestation, were usually styled +_Fifth-Monarchists_. + +However, waiving the question (interesting enough in itself)--Whether +upon earthly principles a fifth universal empire could by possibility +arise in the present condition of knowledge for man individually, and +of organization for man in general--this question waived, and confining +ourselves to the comparison of those four monarchies which actually have +existed,--of the Assyrian or earliest, we may remark, that it found +men in no state of cohesion. This cause, which came in aid of its first +foundation, would probably continue; and would diminish the _intensity_ +of the power in the same proportion as it promoted its _extension_. This +monarchy would be absolute only by the personal presence of the monarch; +elsewhere, from mere defect of organization, it would and must +betray the total imperfections of an elementary state, and of a first +experiment. More by the weakness inherent in such a constitution, than +by its own strength, did the Persian spear prevail against the Assyrian. +Two centuries revolved, seven or eight generations, when Alexander found +himself in the same position as Cyrus for building a third monarchy, +and aided by the selfsame vices of luxurious effeminacy in his enemy, +confronted with the self-same virtues of enterprise and hardihood in +his compatriot soldiers. The native Persians, in the earliest and very +limited import of that name, were a poor and hardy race of mountaineers. +So were the men of Macedon; and neither one tribe nor the other found +any adequate resistance in the luxurious occupants of Babylonia. We may +add, with respect to these two earliest monarchies, that the Assyrian +was undefined with regard to space, and the Persian fugitive with regard +to time. But for the third--the Grecian or Macedonian--we know that the +arts of civility, and of civil organization, had made great progress +before the Roman strength was measured against it. In Macedon, in +Achaia, in Syria, in Asia Minor, in Egypt,--every where the members +of this empire had begun to knit; the cohesion was far closer, the +development of their resources more complete; the resistance therefore +by many hundred degrees more formidable: consequently, by the fairest +inference, the power in that proportion greater which laid the +foundations of this last great monarchy. It is probable, indeed, both +_a priori_, and upon the evidence of various facts which have survived, +that each of the four great empires successively triumphed over an +antagonist, barbarous in comparison of itself, and each _by_ and through +that very superiority in the arts and policy of civilization. + +Rome, therefore, which came last in the succession, and swallowed up +the three great powers that had _seriatim_ cast the human race into one +mould, and had brought them under the unity of a single will, entered +by inheritance upon all that its predecessors in that career had +appropriated, but in a condition of far ampler development. Estimated +merely by longitude and latitude, the territory of the Roman empire was +the finest by much that has ever fallen under a single sceptre. Amongst +modern empires, doubtless, the Spanish of the sixteenth century, and the +British of the present, cannot but be admired as prodigious growths +out of so small a stem. In that view they will be endless monuments +in attestation of the marvels which are lodged in civilization. But +considered in and for itself, and with no reference to the proportion of +the creating forces, each of these empires has the great defect of being +disjointed, and even insusceptible of perfect union. It is in fact no +_vinculum_ of social organization which held them together, but the +ideal _vinculum_ of a common fealty, and of submission to the same +sceptre. This is not like the tie of manners, operative even where it is +not perceived, but like the distinctions of geography--existing to-day, +forgotten to-morrow--and abolished by a stroke of the pen, or a trick +of diplomacy. Russia, again, a mighty empire, as respects the simple +grandeur of magnitude, builds her power upon sterility. She has it in +her power to seduce an invading foe into vast circles of starvation, +of which the radii measure a thousand leagues. Frost and snow are +confederates of her strength. She is strong by her very weakness. But +Rome laid a belt about the Mediterranean of a thousand miles in breadth; +and within that zone she comprehended not only all the great cities of +the ancient world, but so perfectly did she lay the garden of the world +in every climate, and for every mode of natural wealth, within her own +ring-fence, that since that era no land, no part and parcel of the Roman +empire, has ever risen into strength and opulence, except where unusual +artificial industry has availed to counteract the tendencies of nature. +So entirely had Rome engrossed whatsoever was rich by the mere bounty of +native endowment. + +Vast, therefore, unexampled, immeasurable, was the basis of natural +power upon which the Roman throne reposed. The military force which +put Rome in possession of this inordinate power, was certainly in some +respects artificial; but the power itself was natural, and not subject +to the ebbs and flows which attend the commercial empires of our days, +(for all are in part commercial.) The depression, the reverses, of Rome, +were confined to one shape--famine; a terrific shape, doubtless, but one +which levies its penalty of suffering, not by elaborate processes that +do not exhaust their total cycle in less than long periods of years. +Fortunately for those who survive, no arrears of misery are allowed by +this scourge of ancient days; [Footnote: "_Of ancient days_."--For it +is remarkable, and it serves to mark an indubitable progress of mankind, +that, before the Christian era, famines were of frequent occurrence in +countries the most civilized; afterwards they became rare, and latterly +have entirely altered their character into occasional dearths.] the +total penalty is paid down at once. As respected the hand of man, Rome +slept for ages in absolute security. She could suffer only by the wrath +of Providence; and, so long as she continued to be Rome, for many a +generation she only of all the monarchies has feared no mortal hand +[Footnote: Unless that hand were her own armed against herself; upon +which topic there is a burst of noble eloquence in one of the ancient +Panegyrici, when haranguing the Emperor Theodosius: "Thou, Rome! that, +having once suffered by the madness of Cinna, and of the cruel Marius +raging from banishment, and of Sylla, that won his wreath of prosperity +from thy disasters, and of Caesar, compassionate to the dead, didst +shudder at every blast of the trumpet filled by the breath of civil +commotion,--thou, that, besides the wreck of thy soldiery perishing on +either side, didst bewail, amongst thy spectacles of domestic woe, the +luminaries of thy senate extinguished, the heads of thy consuls fixed +upon a halberd, weeping for ages over thy self-slaughtered Catos, thy +headless Ciceros (_truncosque Cicerones_), and unburied Pompeys;--to +whom the party madness of thy own children had wrought in every age +heavier woe than the Carthaginian thundering at thy gates, or the Gaul +admitted within thy walls; on whom OEmathia, more fatal than the day +of Allia,--Collina, more dismal than Cannae,--had inflicted such deep +memorials of wounds, that, from bitter experience of thy own valor, no +enemy was to thee so formidable as thyself;--thou, Rome! didst now for +the first time behold a civil war issuing in a hallowed prosperity, a +soldiery appeased, recovered Italy, and for thyself liberty established. +Now first in thy long annals thou didst rest from a civil war in such +a peace, that righteously, and with maternal tenderness, thou mightst +claim for it the honors of a civic triumph."] + + --"God and his Son except, + Created thing nought valued she nor shunned." + +That the possessor and wielder of such enormous power--power alike +admirable for its extent, for its intensity, and for its consecration +from all counterforces which could restrain it, or endanger it--should +be regarded as sharing in the attributes of supernatural beings, is no +more than might naturally be expected. All other known power in human +hands has either been extensive, but wanting in intensity--or intense, +but wanting in extent--or, thirdly, liable to permanent control and +hazard from some antagonist power commensurate with itself. But the +Roman power, in its centuries of grandeur, involved every mode of +strength, with absolute immunity from all kinds and degrees of weakness. +It ought not, therefore, to surprise us that the emperor, as the +depositary of this charmed power, should have been looked upon as a +_sacred_ person, and the imperial family considered a "_divina_ domus." +It is an error to regard this as excess of adulation, or as built +_originally_ upon hypocrisy. Undoubtedly the expressions of this +feeling are sometimes gross and overcharged, as we find them in the very +greatest of the Roman poets: for example, it shocks us to find a fine +writer in anticipating the future canonization of his patron, and his +instalment amongst the heavenly hosts, begging him to keep his distance +warily from this or that constellation, and to be cautious of throwing +his weight into either hemisphere, until the scale of proportions were +accurately adjusted. These doubtless are passages degrading alike to the +poet and his subject. But why? Not because they ascribe to the emperor a +sanctity which he had not in the minds of men universally, or which even +to the writer's feeling was exaggerated, but because it was expressed +coarsely, and as a _physical_ power: now, every thing physical is +measurable by weight, motion, and resistance; and is therefore +definite. But the very essence of whatsoever is supernatural lies in the +indefinite. That power, therefore, with which the minds of men invested +the emperor, was vulgarized by this coarse translation into the region +of physics. Else it is evident, that any power which, by standing above +all human control, occupies the next relation to superhuman modes +of authority, must be invested by all minds alike with some dim and +undefined relation to the sanctities of the next world. Thus, for +instance, the Pope, as the father of Catholic Christendom, could not +_but_ be viewed with awe by any Christian of deep feeling, as standing +in some relation to the true and unseen Father of the spiritual body. +Nay, considering that even false religions, as those of Pagan mythology, +have probably never been utterly stripped of all vestige of truth, but +that every such mode of error has perhaps been designed as a process, +and adapted by Providence to the case of those who were capable of +admitting no more perfect shape of truth; even the heads of such +superstitions (the Dalai Lama, for instance) may not unreasonably be +presumed as within the cognizance and special protection of Heaven. +Much more may this be supposed of him to whose care was confided the +weightier part of the human race; who had it in his power to promote +or to suspend the progress of human improvement; and of whom, and the +motions of whose will, the very prophets of Judea took cognizance. No +nation, and no king, was utterly divorced from the councils of God. +Palestine, as a central chamber of God's administration, stood in some +relation to all. It has been remarked, as a mysterious and significant +fact, that the founders of the great empires all had some connection, +more or less, with the temple of Jerusalem. Melancthon even observes +it in his Sketch of Universal History, as worthy of notice--that +Pompey died, as it were, within sight of that very temple which he +had polluted. Let us not suppose that Paganism, or Pagan nations, were +therefore excluded from the concern and tender interest of Heaven. They +also had their place allowed. And we may be sure that, amongst them, the +Roman emperor, as the great accountant for the happiness of more men, +and men more cultivated, than ever before were intrusted to the motions +of a single will, had a special, singular, and mysterious relation to +the secret counsels of Heaven. + +Even we, therefore, may lawfully attribute some sanctity to the Roman +emperor. That the Romans did so with absolute sincerity is certain. The +altars of the emperor had a twofold consecration; to violate them, was +the double crime of treason and heresy, In his appearances of state and +ceremony, the fire, the sacred fire _epompeue_ was carried in ceremonial +solemnity before him; and every other circumstance of divine worship +attended the emperor in his lifetime. [Footnote: The fact is, that the +emperor was more of a sacred and divine creature in his lifetime than +after his death. His consecrated character as a living ruler was a +truth; his canonization, a fiction of tenderness to his memory.] + +To this view of the imperial character and relations must be added one +single circumstance, which in some measure altered the whole for the +individual who happened to fill the office. The emperor _de facto_ +might be viewed under two aspects: there was the man, and there was +the office. In his office he was immortal and sacred: but as a question +might still be raised, by means of a mercenary army, as to the claims +of the particular individual who at any time filled the office, the very +sanctity and privilege of the character with which he was clothed might +actually be turned against himself; and here it is, at this point, that +the character of Roman emperor became truly and mysteriously awful. +Gibbon has taken notice of the extraordinary situation of a subject in +the Roman empire who should attempt to fly from the wrath of the crown. +Such was the ubiquity of the emperor that this was absolutely hopeless. +Except amongst pathless deserts or barbarous nomads, it was impossible +to find even a transient sanctuary from the imperial pursuit. If he went +down to the sea, there he met the emperor: if he took the wings of the +morning, and fled to the uttermost parts of the earth, there also was +the emperor or his lieutenants. But the same omnipresence of imperial +anger and retribution which withered the hopes of the poor humble +prisoner, met and confounded the emperor himself, when hurled from his +giddy elevation by some fortunate rival. All the kingdoms of the earth, +to one in that situation, became but so many wards of the same infinite +prison. Flight, if it were even successful for the moment, did but a +little retard his inevitable doom. And so evident was this, that hardly +in one instance did the fallen prince _attempt_ to fly; but passively +met the death which was inevitable, in the very spot where ruin had +overtaken him. Neither was it possible even for a merciful conqueror to +show mercy; for, in the presence of an army so mercenary and factious, +his own safety was but too deeply involved in the extermination of rival +pretenders to the crown. + +Such, amidst the sacred security and inviolability of the office, was +the hazardous tenure of the individual. Nor did his dangers always arise +from persons in the rank of competitors and rivals. Sometimes it menaced +him in quarters which his eye had never penetrated, and from enemies too +obscure to have reached his ear. By way of illustration we will cite a +case from the life of the Emperor Commodus, which is wild enough to have +furnished the plot of a romance--though as well authenticated as any +other passage in that reign. The story is narrated by Herodian, and the +circumstances are these: A slave of noble qualities, and of magnificent +person, having liberated himself from the degradations of bondage, +determined to avenge his own wrongs by inflicting continual terror upon +the town and neighborhood which had witnessed his humiliation. For this +purpose he resorted to the woody recesses of the province, (somewhere in +the modern Transylvania,) and, attracting to his wild encampment as many +fugitives as he could, by degrees he succeeded in forming and training a +very formidable troop of freebooters. Partly from the energy of his own +nature, and partly from the neglect and remissness of the provincial +magistrates, the robber captain rose from less to more, until he had +formed a little army, equal to the task of assaulting fortified cities. +In this stage of his adventures, he encountered and defeated several +of the imperial officers commanding large detachments of troops; and at +length grew of consequence sufficient to draw upon himself the emperor's +eye, and the honor of his personal displeasure. In high wrath and +disdain at the insults offered to his eagles by this fugitive slave, +Commodus fulminated against him such an edict as left him no hope of +much longer escaping with impunity. + +Public vengeance was now awakened; the imperial troops were marching +from every quarter upon the same centre; and the slave became sensible +that in a very short space of time he must be surrounded and destroyed. +In this desperate situation he took a desperate resolution: he assembled +his troops, laid before them his plan, concerted the various steps +for carrying it into effect, and then dismissed them as independent +wanderers. So ends the first chapter of the tale. + +The next opens in the passes of the Alps, whither by various routes, of +seven or eight hundred miles in extent, these men had threaded their +way in manifold disguises through the very midst of the emperor's camps. +According to this man's gigantic enterprise, in which the means were as +audacious as the purpose, the conspirators were to rendezvous, and first +to recognise each other at the gates of Rome. From the Danube to the +Tiber did this band of robbers severally pursue their perilous routes +through all the difficulties of the road and the jealousies of the +military stations, sustained by the mere thirst of vengeance--vengeance +against that mighty foe whom they knew only by his proclamations against +themselves. Every thing continued to prosper; the conspirators met under +the walls of Rome; the final details were arranged; and those also +would have prospered but for a trifling accident. The season was one of +general carnival at Rome; and, by the help of those disguises which +the license of this festal time allowed, the murderers were to have +penetrated as maskers to the emperor's retirement, when a casual word +or two awoke the suspicions of a sentinel. One of the conspirators was +arrested; under the terror and uncertainty of the moment, he made much +ampler discoveries than were expected of him; the other accomplices were +secured: and Commodus was delivered from the uplifted daggers of those +who had sought him by months of patient wanderings, pursued through all +the depths of the Illyrian forests, and the difficulties of the Alpine +passes. It is not easy to find words commensurate to the energetic +hardihood of a slave--who, by way of answer and reprisal to an edict +which consigned him to persecution and death, determines to cross Europe +in quest of its author, though no less a person than the master of the +world--to seek him out in the inner recesses of his capital city and +his private palace--and there to lodge a dagger in his heart, as the +adequate reply to the imperial sentence of proscription against himself. + +Such, amidst his superhuman grandeur and consecrated powers of the +Roman emperor's office, were the extraordinary perils which menaced +the individual, and the peculiar frailties of his condition. Nor is it +possible that these circumstances of violent opposition can be better +illustrated than in this tale of Herodian. Whilst the emperor's mighty +arms were stretched out to arrest some potentate in the heart of Asia, +a poor slave is silently and stealthily creeping round the base of the +Alps, with the purpose of winning his way as a murderer to the imperial +bedchamber; Caesar is watching some mighty rebel of the Orient, at a +distance of two thousand leagues, and he overlooks the dagger which is +at his own heart. In short, all the heights and the depths which +belong to man as aspirers, all the contrasts of glory and meanness, the +extremities of what is his highest and lowest in human possibility,--all +met in the situation of the Roman Caesars, and have combined to make them +the most interesting studies which history has furnished. + +This, as a general proposition, will be readily admitted. But meantime, +it is remarkable that no field has been less trodden than the private +memorials of those very Caesars; whilst at the same time it is equally +remarkable, in concurrence with that subject for wonder, that precisely +with the first of the Caesars commences the first page of what in modern +times we understand by anecdotes. Suetonius is the earliest writer in +that department of biography; so far as we know, he may be held first +to have devised it as a mode of history. The six writers, whose sketches +are collected under the general title of the _Augustan History_, +followed in the same track. Though full of entertainment, and of the +most curious researches, they are all of them entirely unknown, except +to a few elaborate scholars. We purpose to collect from these obscure, +but most interesting memorialists, a few sketches and biographical +portraits of these great princes, whose public life is sometimes known, +but very rarely any part of their private and personal history. We must +of course commence with the mighty founder of the Caesars. In his case +we cannot expect so much of absolute novelty as in that of those who +succeed. But if, in this first instance, we are forced to touch a little +upon old things, we shall confine ourselves as much as possible to those +which are susceptible of new aspects. For the whole gallery of those +who follow, we can undertake that the memorials which we shall bring +forward, may be looked upon as belonging pretty much to what has +hitherto been a sealed book. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +The character of the first Caesar has perhaps never been worse +appreciated than by him who in one sense described it best--that is, +with most force and eloquence wherever he really _did_ comprehend it. +This was Lucan, who has nowhere exhibited more brilliant rhetoric, nor +wandered more from the truth, than in the contrasted portraits of Caesar +and Pompey. The famous line, "_Nil actum reputans si quid superesset +agendum_," is a fine feature of the real character, finely expressed. +But if it had been Lucan's purpose (as possibly, with a view to Pompey's +benefit, in some respects it was) utterly and extravagantly to falsify +the character of the great Dictator, by no single trait could he more +effectually have fulfilled that purpose, nor in fewer words, than by +this expressive passage, "_Gaudensque viam fecisse ruina_." Such a trait +would be almost extravagant applied even to Marius, who (though in +many respects a perfect model of Roman grandeur, massy, columnar, +imperturbable, and more perhaps than any one man recorded in history +capable of justifying the bold illustration of that character in Horace, +"_Si fractus illabatur orbis, impavidum ferient ruinae_") had, however, a +ferocity in his character, and a touch of the devil in him, very +rarely united with the same tranquil intrepidity. But for Caesar, the +all-accomplished statesman, the splendid orator, the man of elegant +habits and polished taste, the patron of the fine arts in a degree +transcending all example of his own or the previous age, and as a man +of general literature so much beyond his contemporaries, except Cicero, +that he looked down even upon the brilliant Sylla as an illiterate +person,--to class such a man with the race of furious destroyers +exulting in the desolations they spread, is to err not by an individual +trait, but by the whole genus. The Attilas and the Tamerlanes, who +rejoice in avowing themselves the scourges of God, and the special +instruments of his wrath, have no one feature of affinity to the +polished and humane Caesar, and would as little have comprehended his +character, as he could have respected theirs. Even Cato, the unworthy +hero of Lucan, might have suggested to him a little more truth in this +instance, by a celebrated remark which he made on the characteristic +distinction of Caesar, in comparison with other revolutionary disturbers; +for, whereas others had attempted the overthrow of the state in a +continued paroxysm of fury, and in a state of mind resembling the lunacy +of intoxication, that Caesar, on the contrary, among that whole class of +civil disturbers, was the only one who had come to the task in a temper +of sobriety and moderation, (_unum accessisse sobrium ad rempublicam +delendam_.) + +In reality, Lucan did not think as he wrote. He had a purpose to serve; +and in an age when to act like a freeman was no longer possible, he +determined at least to write in that character. It is probable, also, +that he wrote with a vindictive or a malicious feeling towards Nero; +and, as the single means he had for gratifying _that_, resolved upon +sacrificing the grandeur of Caesar's character wherever it should be +found possible. Meantime, in spite of himself, Lucan for ever betrays +his lurking consciousness of the truth. Nor are there any testimonies +to Caesar's vast superiority more memorably pointed, than those which +are indirectly and involuntarily extorted from this Catonic poet, by the +course of his narration. Never, for example, was there within the same +compass of words, a more emphatic expression of Caesar's essential and +inseparable grandeur of thought, which could not be disguised or be +laid aside for an instant, than is found in the three casual +words--_Indocilis privata loqui_. The very mould, it seems, by Lucan's +confession, of his trivial conversation was regal; nor could he, even to +serve a purpose, abjure it for so much as a casual purpose. The acts of +Caesar speak also the same language; and as these are less susceptible of +a false coloring than the features of a general character, we find this +poet of liberty, in the midst of one continuous effort to distort +the truth, and to dress up two scenical heroes, forced by the mere +necessities of history into a reluctant homage to Caesar's supremacy of +moral grandeur. + +Of so great a man it must be interesting to know all the well attested +opinions which bear upon topics of universal interest to human nature; +as indeed no others stood much chance of preservation, unless it were +from as minute and curious a collector of _anecdotage_ as Suetonius. +And, first, it would be gratifying to know the opinion of Caesar, if he +had any peculiar to himself, on the great theme of Religion. It has been +held, indeed, that the constitution of his mind, and the general cast +of his character, indisposed him to religious thoughts. Nay, it has been +common to class him amongst deliberate atheists; and some well known +anecdotes are current in books, which illustrate his contempt for the +vulgar class of auguries. In this, however, he went no farther than +Cicero, and other great contemporaries, who assuredly were no atheists. +One mark perhaps of the wide interval which, in Caesar's age, had begun +to separate the Roman nobility from the hungry and venal populace who +were daily put up to sale, and bought by the highest bidder, manifested +itself in the increasing disdain for the tastes and ruling sympathies of +the lowest vulgar. No mob could be more abjectly servile than was that +of Rome to the superstition of portents, prodigies, and omens. Thus far, +in common with his order, and in this sense, Julius Caesar was naturally +a despiser of superstition. Mere strength of understanding would, +perhaps, have made him so in any age, and apart from the circumstances +of his personal history. This natural tendency in him would doubtless +receive a further bias in the same direction from the office of Pontifex +Maximus, which he held at an early stage of his public career. This +office, by letting him too much behind the curtain, and exposing too +entirely the base machinery of ropes and pulleys, which sustained the +miserable jugglery played off upon the popular credulity, impressed him +perhaps even unduly with contempt for those who could be its dupes. And +we may add--that Caesar was constitutionally, as well as by accident of +position, too much a man of the world, had too powerful a leaning to the +virtues of active life, was governed by too partial a sympathy with the +whole class of _active_ forces in human nature, as contradistinguished +from those which tend to contemplative purposes, under any +circumstances, to have become a profound believer, or a steadfast +reposer of his fears and anxieties, in religious influences. A man of +the world is but another designation for a man indisposed to religious +awe or contemplative enthusiasm. Still it is a doctrine which we +cherish--that grandeur of mind in any one department whatsoever, +supposing only that it exists in excess, disposes a man to some degree +of sympathy with all other grandeur, however alien in its quality +or different in its form. And upon this ground we presume the great +Dictator to have had an interest in religious themes by mere compulsion +of his own extraordinary elevation of mind, after making the fullest +allowance for the special quality of that mind, which did certainly, to +the whole extent of its characteristics, tend entirely to estrange him +from such themes. We find, accordingly, that though sincerely a despiser +of superstition, and with a frankness which must sometimes have been +hazardous in that age, Caesar was himself also superstitious. No man +could have been otherwise who lived and conversed with that generation +and people. But if superstitious, he was so after a mode of his own. +In his very infirmities Caesar manifested his greatness: his very +littlenesses were noble. + + "Nec licuit populis parvum te, Nile, videre." + +That he placed some confidence in dreams, for instance, is certain: +because, had he slighted them unreservedly, he would not have dwelt upon +them afterwards, or have troubled himself to recall their circumstances. +Here we trace his human weakness. Yet again we are reminded that it was +the weakness of Caesar; for the dreams were noble in their imagery, +and Caesarean (so to speak) in their tone of moral feeling. Thus, for +example, the night before he was assassinated, he dreamt at intervals +that he was soaring above the clouds on wings, and that he placed his +hand within the right hand of Jove. It would seem that perhaps some +obscure and half-formed image floated in his mind, of the eagle, as +the king of birds; secondly, as the tutelary emblem under which his +conquering legions had so often obeyed his voice; and, thirdly, as the +bird of Jove. To this triple relation of the bird his dream covertly +appears to point. And a singular coincidence appears between this dream +and a little anecdote brought down to us, as having actually occurred in +Rome about twenty-four hours before his death. A little bird, which by +some is represented as a very small kind of sparrow, but which, both to +the Greeks and the Romans, was known by a name implying a regal station +(probably from the ambitious courage which at times prompted it to +attack the eagle), was observed to direct its flight towards the +senate-house, consecrated by Pompey, whilst a crowd of other birds were +seen to hang upon its flight in close pursuit. What might be the object +of the chase, whether the little king himself, or a sprig of laurel +which he bore in his mouth, could not be determined. The whole train, +pursuers and pursued, continued their flight towards Pompey's hall. +Flight and pursuit were there alike arrested; the little king was +overtaken by his enemies, who fell upon him as so many conspirators, and +tore him limb from limb. + +If this anecdote were reported to Caesar, which is not at all improbable, +considering the earnestness with which his friends labored to dissuade +him from his purpose of meeting the senate on the approaching Ides of +March, it is very little to be doubted that it had a considerable effect +upon his feelings, and that, in fact, his own dream grew out of the +impression which it had made. This way of linking the two anecdotes, +as cause and effect, would also bring a third anecdote under the same +_nexus_. We are told that Calpurnia, the last wife of Caesar, dreamed +on the same night, and to the same ominous result. The circumstances +of _her_ dream are less striking, because less figurative; but on that +account its import was less open to doubt: she dreamed, in fact, that +after the roof of their mansion had fallen in, her husband was stabbed +in her bosom. Laying all these omens together, Caesar would have been +more or less than human had he continued utterly undepressed by them. +And if so much superstition as even this implies, must be taken to argue +some little weakness, on the other hand let it not be forgotten, that +this very weakness does but the more illustrate the unusual force of +mind, and the heroic will, which obstinately laid aside these concurring +prefigurations of impending destruction; concurring, we say, amongst +themselves--and concurring also with a prophecy of older date, which was +totally independent of them all. + +There is another and somewhat sublime story of the same class, which +belongs to the most interesting moment of Caesar's life; and those who +are disposed to explain all such tales upon physiological principles, +will find an easy solution of this, in particular, in the exhaustion +of body, and the intense anxiety which must have debilitated even Caesar +under the whole circumstances of the case. On the ever memorable night +when he had resolved to take the first step (and in such a case the +first step, as regarded the power of retreating, was also the final +step) which placed him in arms against the state, it happened that his +headquarters were at some distance from the little river Rubicon, which +formed the boundary of his province. With his usual caution, that no +news of his motions might run before himself, on this night Caesar gave +an entertainment to his friends, in the midst of which he slipped away +unobserved, and with a small retinue proceeded through the woods to the +point of the river at which he designed to cross. The night [Footnote: +It is an interesting circumstance in the habits of the ancient Romans, +that their journeys were pursued very much in the night-time, and by +torchlight. Cicero, in one of his letters, speaks of passing through +the towns of Italy by night, as a serviceable scheme for some political +purpose, either of avoiding too much to publish his motions, or of +evading the necessity (else perhaps not avoidable), of drawing out the +party sentiments of the magistrates in the circumstances of honor or +neglect with which they might choose to receive him. His words, however, +imply that the practice was by no means an uncommon one. And, indeed, +from some passages in writers of the Augustan era, it would seem that +this custom was not confined to people of distinction, but was familiar +to a class of travellers so low in rank as to be capable of abusing +their opportunities of concealment for the infliction of wanton injury +upon the woods and fences which bounded the margin, of the high-road. +Under the cloud of night and solitude, the mischief-loving traveller +was often in the habit of applying his torch to the withered boughs of +woods, or to artificial hedges; and extensive ravages by fire, such as +now happen, not unfrequently in the American woods, (but generally from +carelessness in scattering the glowing embers of a fire, or even the +ashes of a pipe,) were then occasionally the result of mere wantonness +of mischief. Ovid accordingly notices, as one amongst the familiar +images of daybreak, the half-burnt torch of the traveller; and, +apparently, from the position which it holds in his description, +where it is ranked with the most familiar of all circumstances in +all countries,--that of the rural laborer going out to his morning +tasks,--it must have been common indeed: + + "Semiustamque facem vigilata nocte viator + Ponet; et ad solitum rusticus ibit opus." + +This occurs in the _Fasti_;--elsewhere he notices it for its danger: + + "Ut facibus sepes ardent, cum forte viator + Vel nimis admovit, vel jam sub luce reliquit." + +He, however, we see, good-naturedly ascribes the danger to mere +carelessness, in bringing the torch too near to the hedge, or tossing +it away at daybreak. But Varro, a more matter-of-fact observer, does not +disguise the plain truth, that these disasters were often the product of +pure malicious frolic. For instance, in recommending a certain kind of +quickset fence, he insists upon it, as one of its advantages, that it +will not readily ignite under the torch of the mischievous wayfarer: +"Naturale sepimentum," says he, "quod obseri solet virgultis aut spinis, +_praetereuntis lascivi non metuet facem._" It is not easy to see the +origin or advantage of this practice of nocturnal travelling (which must +have considerably increased the hazards of a journey), excepting only in +the heats of summer. It is probable, however, that men of high rank +and public station may have introduced the practice by way of releasing +corporate bodies in large towns from the burdensome ceremonies of public +receptions; thus making a compromise between their own dignity and +the convenience of the provincial public. Once introduced, and the +arrangements upon the road for meeting the wants of travellers once +adapted to such a practice, it would easily become universal. It is, +however, very possible that mere horror of the heats of day-time may +have been the original ground for it. The ancients appear to have shrunk +from no hardship so trying and insufferable as that of heat. And in +relation to that subject, it is interesting to observe the way in which +the ordinary use of language has accommodated itself to that feeling. +Our northern way of expressing effeminacy is derived chiefly from the +hardships of cold. He that shrinks from the trials and rough experience +of real life in any department, is described by the contemptuous prefix +of _chimney-corner_, as if shrinking from the cold which he would +meet on coming out into the open air amongst his fellow-men. Thus, +a _chimney-corner_ politician, for a mere speculator or unpractical +dreamer. But the very same indolent habit of aerial speculation, which +courts no test of real life and practice, is described by the ancients +under the term _umbraticus_, or seeking the cool shade, and shrinking +from the heat. Thus, an _umbraticus doctor_ is one who has no practical +solidity in his teaching. The fatigue and hardship of real life, in +short, is represented by the ancients under the uniform image of heat, +and by the moderns under that of cold.] was stormy, and by the violence +of the wind all the torches of his escort were blown out, so that the +whole party lost their road, having probably at first intentionally +deviated from the main route, and wandered about through the whole +night, until the early dawn enabled them to recover their true course. +The light was still gray and uncertain, as Caesar and his retinue rode +down upon the banks of the fatal river--to cross which with arms in his +hands, since the further bank lay within the territory of the Republic, +_ipso facto_ proclaimed any Roman a rebel and a traitor. No man, the +firmest or the most obtuse, could be otherwise than deeply agitated, +when looking down upon this little brook--so insignificant in +itself, but invested by law with a sanctity so awful, and so dire a +consecration. The whole course of future history, and the fate of every +nation, would necessarily be determined by the irretrievable act of the +next half hour. + +In these moments, and with this spectacle before him, and contemplating +these immeasurable consequences consciously for the last time that +could allow him a retreat,--impressed also by the solemnity and deep +tranquillity of the silent dawn, whilst the exhaustion of his night +wanderings predisposed him to nervous irritation,--Caesar, we may be +sure, was profoundly agitated. The whole elements of the scene were +almost scenically disposed; the law of antagonism having perhaps never +been employed with so much effect: the little quiet brook presenting a +direct, antithesis to its grand political character; and the innocent +dawn, with its pure, untroubled repose, contrasting potently, to a +man of any intellectual sensibility, with the long chaos of bloodshed, +darkness, and anarchy, which was to take its rise from the apparently +trifling acts of this one morning. So prepared, we need not much wonder +at what followed. Caesar was yet lingering on the hither bank, when +suddenly, at a point not far distant from himself, an apparition was +descried in a sitting posture, and holding in its hand what seemed a +flute. This phantom was of unusual size, and of beauty more than human, +so far as its lineaments could be traced in the early dawn. What is +singular, however, in the story, on any hypothesis which would explain +it out of Caesar's individual condition, is, that others saw it as well +as he; both pastoral laborers, (who were present, probably, in the +character of guides,) and some of the sentinels stationed at the passage +of the river. These men fancied even that a strain of music issued +from this aerial flute. And some, both of the shepherds and the Roman +soldiers, who were bolder than the rest, advanced towards the figure. +Amongst this party, it happened that there were a few Roman trumpeters. +From one of these, the phantom, rising as they advanced nearer, suddenly +caught a trumpet, and blowing through it a blast of superhuman strength, +plunged into the Rubicon, passed to the other bank, and disappeared +in the dusky twilight of the dawn. Upon which Caesar exclaimed:--"It is +finished--the die is cast--let us follow whither the guiding portents +from Heaven, and the malice of our enemy, alike summon us to go." So +saying, he crossed the river with impetuosity; and, in a sudden rapture +of passionate and vindictive ambition, placed himself and his retinue +upon the Italian soil; and, as if by inspiration from Heaven, in +one moment involved himself and his followers in treason, raised +the standard of revolt, put his foot upon the neck of the invincible +republic which had humbled all the kings of the earth, and founded an +empire which was to last for a thousand and half a thousand years. In +what manner this spectral appearance was managed--whether Caesar were its +author, or its dupe--will remain unknown for ever. But undoubtedly this +was the first time that the advanced guard of a victorious army was +headed by an apparition; and we may conjecture that it will be the last. +[Footnote: According to Suetonius, the circumstances of this memorable +night were as follows:--As soon as the decisive intelligence was +received, that the intrigues of his enemies had prevailed at Rome, and +that the interposition of the popular magistrates (the tribunes) was +set aside, Caesar sent forward the troops, who were then at his +head-quarters, but in as private a manner as possible. He himself, by +way of masque, (_per dissimulationem_,) attended a public spectacle, +gave an audience to an architect who wished to lay before him a plan +for a school of gladiators which Caesar designed to build, and finally +presented himself at a banquet, which was very numerously attended. From +this, about sunset, he set forward in a carriage, drawn by mules, and +with a small escort (_modico comitatu_.) Losing his road, which was the +most private he could find (_occultissimum_), he quitted his carriage +and proceeded on foot. At dawn he met with a guide; after which followed +the above incidents.] + +In the mingled yarn of human life, tragedy is never far asunder from +farce; and it is amusing to retrace in immediate succession to this +incident of epic dignity, which has its only parallel by the way in the +case of Vasco de Gama, (according to the narrative of Camoens,) when met +and confronted by a sea phantom, whilst attempting to double the Cape +of Storms, (Cape of Good Hope,) a ludicrous passage, in which one +felicitous blunder did Caesar a better service than all the truths which +Greece and Rome could have furnished. In our own experience, we once +witnessed a blunder about as gross. The present Chancellor, in his first +electioneering contest with the Lowthers, upon some occasion where he +was recriminating upon the other party, and complaining that stratagems, +which _they_ might practise with impunity, were denied to him and his, +happened to point the moral of his complaint, by alleging the old adage, +that one man might steal a horse with more hope of indulgence than +another could look over the hedge. Whereupon, by benefit of the +universal mishearing in the outermost ring of the audience, it became +generally reported that Lord Lowther had once been engaged in an affair +of horse stealing; and that he, Henry Brougham, could (had he pleased) +have lodged an information against him, seeing that he was then looking +over the hedge. And this charge naturally won the more credit, because +it was notorious and past denying that his lordship was a capital +horseman, fond of horses, and much connected with the turf. To this +hour, therefore, amongst some worthy shepherds and others, it is a +received article of their creed, and (as they justly observe in northern +pronunciation,) a _sham_ful thing to be told, that Lord Lowther was +once a horse stealer, and that he escaped _lagging_ by reason of Harry +Brougham's pity for his tender years and hopeful looks. Not less was +the blunder which, on the banks of the Rubicon, befriended Caesar. +Immediately after crossing, he harangued the troops whom he had sent +forward, and others who there met him from the neighboring garrison +of Ariminium. The tribunes of the people, those great officers of the +democracy, corresponding by some of their functions to our House of +Commons, men personally, and by their position in the state, entirely in +his interest, and who, for his sake, had fled from home, there and then +he produced to the soldiery; thus identified his cause, and that of the +soldiers, with the cause of the people of Rome and of Roman liberty; and +perhaps with needless rhetoric attempted to conciliate those who were +by a thousand ties and by claims innumerable, his own already; for never +yet has it been found, that with the soldier, who, from youth upwards, +passes his life in camps, could the duties or the interests of citizens +survive those stronger and more personal relations connecting him with +his military superior. In the course of this harangue, Caesar often +raised his left hand with Demosthenic action, and once or twice he drew +off the ring, which every Roman gentleman--simply _as_ such--wore as the +inseparable adjunct and symbol of his rank. By this action he wished to +give emphasis to the accompanying words, in which he protested, that, +sooner than fail in satisfying and doing justice to any the least of +those who heard him and followed his fortunes, he would be content to +part with his own birthright, and to forego his dearest claims. This +was what he really said; but the outermost circle of his auditors, who +rather saw his gestures than distinctly heard his words, carried off +the notion, (which they were careful every where to disperse amongst the +legions afterwards associated with them in the same camps,) that Caesar +had vowed never to lay down his arms until he had obtained for every +man, the very meanest of those who heard him, the rank, privileges and +appointments of a Roman knight. Here was a piece of sovereign good luck. +Had he really made such a promise, Caesar might have found that he had +laid himself under very embarrassing obligations; but, as the case +stood, he had, through all his following campaigns, the total benefit of +such a promise, and yet could always absolve himself from the penalties +of responsibility which it imposed, by appealing to the evidence of +those who happened to stand in the first ranks of his audience. The +blunder was gross and palpable; and yet, with the unreflecting and +dull-witted soldier, it did him service greater than all the subtilties +of all the schools could have accomplished, and a service which +subsisted to the end of the war. + +Great as Caesar was by the benefit of his original nature, there can--be +no doubt that he, like others, owed something to circumstances; and +perhaps, amongst these which were most favorable to the premature +development of great self-dependence, we must reckon the early death +of his father. It is, or it is not, according to the nature of men, an +advantage to be orphaned at an early age. Perhaps utter orphanage is +rarely or never such: but to lose a father betimes profits a strong mind +greatly. To Caesar it was a prodigious benefit that he lost his father +when not much more than fifteen. Perhaps it was an advantage also to his +father that he died thus early. Had he stayed a year longer, he would +have seen himself despised, baffled, and made ridiculous. For where, let +us ask, in any age, was the father capable of adequately sustaining that +relation to the unique Caius Julius--to him, in the appropriate language +of Shakspeare, + + "The foremost man of all this world?" + +And, in this fine and Caesarean line, "this world" is to be understood +not of the order of co-existences merely, but also of the order of +successions; he was the foremost man not only of his contemporaries, but +also of men generally--of all that ever should come after him, or should +sit on thrones under the denominations of Czars, Kesars, or Caesars of +the Bosphorus and the Danube; of all in every age that should inherit +his supremacy of mind, or should subject to themselves the generations +of ordinary men by qualities analogous to his. Of this infinite +superiority some part must be ascribed to his early emancipation from +paternal control. There are very many cases in which, simply from +considerations of sex, a female cannot stand forward as the head of +a family, or as its suitable representative. If they are even ladies +paramount, and in situations of command, they are also women. The staff +of authority does not annihilate their sex; and scruples of female +delicacy interfere for ever to unnerve and emasculate in their hands the +sceptre however otherwise potent. Hence we see, in noble families, +the merest boys put forward to represent the family dignity, as fitter +supporters of that burden than their mature mothers. And of Caesar's +mother, though little is recorded, and that little incidentally, this +much at least, we learn--that, if she looked down upon him with maternal +pride and delight, she looked up to him with female ambition as the +re-edifier of her husband's honors, with reverence as to a column of +the Roman grandeur, and with fear and feminine anxieties as to one +whose aspiring spirit carried him but too prematurely into the fields +of adventurous honor. One slight and evanescent sketch of the relations +which subsisted between Caesar and his mother, caught from the wrecks of +time, is preserved both by Plutarch and Suetonius. We see in the +early dawn the young patrician standing upon the steps of his paternal +portico, his mother with her arms wreathed about his neck, looking up to +his noble countenance, sometimes drawing auguries of hope from features +so fitted for command, sometimes boding an early blight to promises so +prematurely magnificent. That she had something of her son's aspiring +character, or that he presumed so much in a mother of his, we learn from +the few words which survive of their conversation. He addressed to her +no language that could tranquillize her fears. On the contrary, to any +but a Roman mother his valedictory words, taken in connection with the +known determination of his character, were of a nature to consummate her +depression, as they tended to confirm the very worst of her fears. He +was then going to stand his chance in a popular election for an office +of dignity, and to launch himself upon the storms of the Campus Martius. +At that period, besides other and more ordinary dangers, the bands of +gladiators, kept in the pay of the more ambitious amongst the Roman +nobles, gave a popular tone of ferocity and of personal risk to the +course of such contests; and either to forestall the victory of an +antagonist, or to avenge their own defeat, it was not at all impossible +that a body of incensed competitors might intercept his final triumph +by assassination. For this danger, however, he had no leisure in his +thoughts of consolation; the sole danger which _he_ contemplated, or +supposed his mother to contemplate, was the danger of defeat, and for +that he reserved his consolations. He bade her fear nothing; for that +without doubt he would return with victory, and with the ensigns of the +dignity he sought, or would return a corpse. + +Early indeed did Caesar's trials commence; and it is probable, that, had +not the death of his father, by throwing him prematurely upon his +own resources, prematurely developed the masculine features of his +character, forcing him whilst yet a boy under the discipline of civil +conflict and the yoke of practical life, even _his_ energies would have +been insufficient to sustain them. His age is not exactly ascertained, +but it is past a doubt that he had not reached his twentieth year when +he had the hardihood to engage in a struggle with Sylla, then Dictator, +and exercising the immoderate powers of that office with the license +and the severity which history has made so memorable. He had neither +any distinct grounds of hope, nor any eminent example at that time, to +countenance him in this struggle--which yet he pushed on in the most +uncompromising style, and to the utmost verge of defiance. The subject +of the contrast gives it a further interest. It was the youthful wife +of the youthful Caesar who stood under the shadow of the great Dictator's +displeasure; not personally, but politically, on account of her +connections: and her it was, Cornelia, the daughter of a man who had +been four times consul, that Caesar was required to divorce: but +he spurned the haughty mandate, and carried his determination to a +triumphant issue, notwithstanding his life was at stake, and at one time +saved only by shifting his place of concealment every night; and this +young lady it was who afterwards became the mother of his only daughter. +Both mother and daughter, it is remarkable, perished prematurely, and at +critical periods of Caesar's life; for it is probable enough that these +irreparable wounds to Caesar's domestic affections threw him with more +exclusiveness of devotion upon the fascinations of glory and ambition +than might have happened under a happier condition of his private life. +That Caesar should have escaped destruction in this unequal contest with +an enemy then wielding the whole thunders of the state, is somewhat +surprising; and historians have sought their solution of the mystery in +the powerful intercessions of the vestal virgins, and several others +of high rank amongst the connections of his great house. These may have +done something; but it is due to Sylla, who had a sympathy with every +thing truly noble, to suppose him struck with powerful admiration +for the audacity of the young patrician, standing out in such severe +solitude among so many examples of timid concession; and that to this +magnanimous feeling in the Dictator, much of his indulgence was due. In +fact, according to some accounts, it was not Sylla, but the creatures +of Sylla (_adjutores_), who pursued Caesar. We know, at all events, that +Sylla formed a right estimate of Caesar's character, and that, from +the complexion of his conduct in this one instance, he drew his famous +prophecy of his future destiny; bidding his friends beware of that +slipshod boy, "for that in him lay couchant many a Marius." A grander +testimony to the awe which Caesar inspired, or from one who knew better +the qualities of that man by whom he measured him, cannot be imagined. + +It is not our intention, or consistent with our plan, to pursue this +great man through the whole circumstances of his romantic career; though +it is certain that many parts of his life require investigation much +keener than has ever been applied to them, and that many might easily be +placed in a new light. Indeed, the whole of this most momentous section +of ancient history ought to be recomposed with the critical scepticism +of a Niebuhr, and the same comprehensive collation of authorities. In +reality it is the hinge upon which turned the future destiny of the +whole earth, and having therefore a common relation to all modern +nations whatsoever, should naturally have been cultivated with the zeal +which belongs to a personal concern. In general, the anecdotes which +express most vividly the splendid character of the first Caesar, are +those which illustrate his defiance of danger in extremity,--the +prodigious energy and rapidity of his decisions and motions in the +field; the skill with which he penetrated the designs of his enemies, +and the exemplary speed with which he provided a remedy for disasters; +the extraordinary presence of mind which he showed in turning adverse +omens to his own advantage, as when, upon stumbling in coming on shore, +(which was esteemed a capital omen of evil,) he transfigured as it +were in one instant its whole meaning by exclaiming, "Thus do I take +possession of thee, oh Africa!" in that way giving to an accident the +semblance of a symbolic purpose; the grandeur of fortitude with which he +faced the whole extent of a calamity when palliation could do no good, +"non negando, minuendove, sed insuper amplificando, _ementiendoque_;" +as when, upon finding his soldiery alarmed at the approach of Juba, with +forces really great, but exaggerated by their terrors, he addressed them +in a military harangue to the following effect: "Know that within a few +days the king will come up with us, bringing with him sixty thousand +legionaries, thirty thousand cavalry, one hundred thousand light troops, +besides three hundred elephants. Such being the case, let me hear no +more of conjectures and opinions, for you have now my warrant for the +fact, whose information is past doubting. Therefore, be satisfied; +otherwise, I will put every man of you on board some crazy old fleet, +and whistle you down the tide--no matter under what winds, no matter +towards what shore." Finally, we might seek for the _characteristic_ +anecdotes of Caesar in his unexampled liberalities and contempt of money. +[Footnote: Middleton's Life of Cicero, which still continues to be the +most readable digest of these affairs, is feeble and contradictory. He +discovers that Caesar was no general! And the single merit which his work +was supposed to possess, viz. the better and more critical arrangement +of Cicero's Letters, in respect to their chronology, has of late years +been detected as a robbery from the celebrated Bellenden, of James the +First's time.] + +Upon this last topic it is the just remark of Casaubon, that some +instances of Caesar's munificence have been thought apocryphal, or to +rest upon false readings, simply from ignorance of the heroic scale upon +which the Roman splendors of that age proceeded. A forum which Caesar +built out of the products of his last campaign, by way of a present +to the Roman people, cost him--for the ground merely on which it +stood--nearly eight hundred thousand pounds. To the _citizens_ of Rome +(perhaps 300,000 persons) he presented, in one _congiary_, about two +guineas and a half a head. To his army, in one _donation_, upon the +termination of the civil war, he gave a sum which allowed about two +hundred pounds a man to the infantry, and four hundred to the cavalry. +It is true that the legionary troops were then much reduced by the sword +of the enemy, and by the tremendous hardships of their last campaigns. +In this, however, he did perhaps no more than repay a debt. For it is +an instance of military attachment, beyond all that Wallenstein or any +commander, the most beloved amongst his troops, has ever experienced, +that, on the breaking out of the civil war, not only did the centurions +of every legion severally maintain a horse soldier, but even the +privates volunteered to serve without pay--and (what might seem +impossible) without their daily rations. This was accomplished by +subscriptions amongst themselves, the more opulent undertaking for the +maintenance of the needy. Their disinterested love for Caesar appeared in +another and more difficult illustration: it was a traditionary anecdote +in Rome, that the majority of those amongst Caesar's troops, who had the +misfortune to fall into the enemy's hands, refused to accept their lives +under the condition of serving against _him_. + +In connection with this subject of his extraordinary munificence, +there is one aspect of Caesar's life which has suffered much from the +misrepresentations of historians, and that is--the vast pecuniary +embarrassments under which he labored, until the profits of war had +turned the scale even more prodigiously in his favor. At one time of his +life, when appointed to a foreign office, so numerous and so clamorous +were his creditors, that he could not have left Rome on his public +duties, had not Crassus come forward with assistance in money, or by +promises, to the amount of nearly two hundred thousand pounds. And at +another, he was accustomed to amuse himself with computing how much +money it would require to make him worth exactly nothing (_i. e._ simply +to clear him of debts); this, by one account, amounted to upwards of two +millions sterling. Now the error of historians has been--to represent +these debts as the original ground of his ambition and his revolutionary +projects, as though the desperate condition of his private affairs had +suggested a civil war to his calculations as the best or only mode of +redressing it. But, on the contrary, his debts were the product of +his ambition, and contracted from first to last in the service of his +political intrigues, for raising and maintaining a powerful body of +partisans, both in Rome and elsewhere. Whosoever indeed will take the +trouble to investigate the progress of Caesar's ambition, from such +materials as even yet remain, may satisfy himself that the scheme of +revolutionizing the Republic, and placing himself at its head, was no +growth of accident or circumstances; above all, that it did not arise +upon any so petty and indirect an occasion as that of his debts; but +that his debts were in their very first origin purely ministerial to his +ambition; and that his revolutionary plans were at all periods of his +life a direct and foremost object. In this there was in reality no want +of patriotism; it had become evident to every body that Rome, under its +present constitution, must fall; and the sole question was--by whom? +Even Pompey, not by nature of an aspiring turn, and prompted to his +ambitious course undoubtedly by circumstances and the friends who +besieged him, was in the habit of saying, "Sylla potuit, ego non +potero?" And the fact was, that if, from the death of Sylla, Rome +recovered some transient show of constitutional integrity, that happened +not by any lingering virtue that remained in her republican forms, but +entirely through the equilibrium and mechanical counterpoise of rival +factions. + +In a case, therefore, where no benefit of choice was allowed to Rome as +to the thing, but only as to the person--where a revolution was certain, +and the point left open to doubt simply by whom that revolution should +be accomplished--Caesar had (to say the least) the same right to enter +the arena in the character of candidate as could belong to any one of +his rivals. And that he _did_ enter that arena constructively, and by +secret design, from his very earliest manhood, may be gathered from +this--that he suffered no openings towards a revolution, provided they +had any hope in them, to escape his participation. It is familiarly +known that he was engaged pretty deeply in the conspiracy of Catiline, +[Footnote: Suetonius, speaking of this conspiracy, says, that Caesar was +_nominatos inter socios Catilinae_, which has been erroneously understood +to mean that he was _talked of_ as an accomplice; but in fact, as +Casaubon first pointed out, _nominatus_ is a technical term of the Roman +jurisprudence, and means that he was formally denounced.] and that he +incurred considerable risk on that occasion; but it is less known, and +has indeed escaped the notice of historians generally, that he was +a party to at least two other conspiracies. There was even a fourth, +meditated by Crassus, which Caesar so far encouraged as to undertake a +journey to Rome from a very distant quarter, merely with a view to such +chances as it might offer to him; but as it did not, upon examination, +seem to him a very promising scheme, he judged it best to look coldly +upon it, or not to embark in it by any personal co-operation. Upon these +and other facts we build our inference--that the scheme of a revolution +was the one great purpose of Caesar, from his first entrance upon public +life. Nor does it appear that he cared much by whom it was undertaken, +provided only there seemed to be any sufficient resources for carrying +it through, and for sustaining the first collision with the regular +forces of the existing government. He relied, it seems, on his own +personal superiority for raising him to the head of affairs eventually, +let who would take the nominal lead at first. To the same result, it +will be found, tended the vast stream of Caesar's liberalities. From the +senator downwards to the lowest _faex Romuli_, he had a hired body of +dependents, both in and out of Rome, equal in numbers to a nation. In +the provinces, and in distant kingdoms, he pursued the same schemes. +Every where he had a body of mercenary partisans; kings are known to +have taken his pay. And it is remarkable that even in his character of +commander in chief, where the number of legions allowed to him for the +accomplishment of his mission raised him for a number of years above all +fear of coercion or control, he persevered steadily in the same plan of +providing for the day when he might need assistance, not from the state, +but _against_ the state. For amongst the private anecdotes which came +to light under the researches made into his history after his death, was +this--that, soon after his first entrance upon his government in Gaul, +he had raised, equipped, disciplined, and maintained, from his own +private funds, a legion amounting, perhaps, to six or seven thousand +men, who were bound by no sacrament of military obedience to the state, +nor owed fealty to any auspices except those of Caesar. This legion, from +the fashion of their crested helmets, which resembled the crested heads +of a small bird of the lark species, received the popular name of +the _Alauda_ (or Lark) legion. And very singular it was that Cato, +or Marcellus, or some amongst those enemies of Caesar, who watched his +conduct during the period of his Gaulish command with the vigilance of +rancorous malice, should not have come to the knowledge of this fact; +in which case we may be sure that it would have been denounced to the +senate. + +Such, then, for its purpose and its uniform motive, was the sagacious +munificence of Caesar. Apart from this motive, and considered in and for +itself, and simply with a reference to the splendid forms which it often +assumed, this munificence would furnish the materials for a volume. The +public entertainments of Caesar, his spectacles and shows, his naumachiae, +and the pomps of his unrivalled triumphs, (the closing triumphs of the +Republic,) were severally the finest of their kind which had then been +brought forward. Sea-fights were exhibited upon the grandest scale, +according to every known variety of nautical equipment and mode of +conflict, upon a vast lake formed artificially for that express purpose. +Mimic land-fights were conducted, in which all the circumstances of real +war were so faithfully rehearsed, that even elephants "indorsed with +towers," twenty on each side, took part in the combat. Dramas +were represented in every known language, (_per omnium linguarum +histriones_.) And hence [that is, from the conciliatory feeling thus +expressed towards the various tribes of foreigners resident in +Rome] some have derived an explanation of what is else a mysterious +circumstance amongst the ceremonial observances at Caesar's funeral--that +all people of foreign nations then residing at Rome, distinguished +themselves by the conspicuous share which they took in the public +mourning; and that, beyond all other foreigners, the Jews for night +after night kept watch and ward about the emperor's grave. Never before, +according to traditions which lasted through several generations in +Rome, had there been so vast a conflux of the human race congregated to +any one centre, on any one attraction of business or of pleasure, as to +Rome, on occasion of these spectacles exhibited by Caesar. + +In our days, the greatest occasional gatherings of the human race are +in India, especially at the great fair of the _Hurdwar_, in the northern +part of Hindostan; a confluence of many millions is sometimes seen at +that spot, brought together under the mixed influences of devotion and +commercial business, and dispersed as rapidly as they had been convoked. +Some such spectacle of nations crowding upon nations, and some such +Babylonian confusion of dresses, complexions, languages, and jargons, +was then witnessed at Rome. Accommodations within doors, and under roofs +of houses, or of temples, was altogether impossible. Myriads encamped +along the streets, and along the high-roads in the vicinity of Rome. +Myriads of myriads lay stretched on the ground, without even the slight +protection of tents, in a vast circuit about the city. Multitudes of +men, even senators, and others of the highest rank, were trampled to +death in the crowds. And the whole family of man seemed at that time +gathered together at the bidding of the great Dictator. But these, or +any other themes connected with the public life of Caesar, we notice +only in those circumstances which have been overlooked, or partially +represented by historians. Let us now, in conclusion, bring forward, +from the obscurity in which they have hitherto lurked, the anecdotes +which describe the habits of his private life, his tastes, and personal +peculiarities. + +In person, he was tall, fair, and of limbs distinguished for their +elegant proportions and gracility. His eyes were black and piercing. +These circumstances continued to be long remembered, and no doubt were +constantly recalled to the eyes of all persons in the imperial palaces, +by pictures, busts, and statues; for we find the same description of his +personal appearance three centuries afterwards, in a work of the +Emperor Julian's. He was a most accomplished horseman, and a master +(_peritissimus_) in the use of arms. But, notwithstanding his skill in +horsemanship, it seems that, when he accompanied his army on marches, he +walked oftener than he rode; no doubt, with a view to the benefit of his +example, and to express that sympathy with his soldiers which gained him +their hearts so entirely. On other occasions, when travelling apart from +his army, he seems more frequently to have rode in a carriage than on +horseback. His purpose, in making this preference, must have been with +a view to the transport of luggage. The carriage which he generally +used was a _rheda_, a sort of gig, or rather curricle, for it was +a four-wheeled carriage, and adapted (as we find from the imperial +regulations for the public carriages, &c.) to the conveyance of about +half a ton. The mere personal baggage which Caesar carried with him, was +probably considerable, for he was a man of the most elegant habits, and +in all parts of his life sedulously attentive to elegance of personal +appearance. The length of journeys which he accomplished within a given +time, appears even to us at this day, and might well therefore appear to +his contemporaries, truly astonishing. A distance of one hundred miles +was no extraordinary day's journey for him in a _rheda_, such as we have +described it. So elegant were his habits, and so constant his demand +for the luxurious accommodations of polished life, as it then existed in +Rome, that he is said to have carried with him, as indispensable parts +of his personal baggage, the little lozenges and squares of ivory, and +other costly materials, which were wanted for the tessellated flooring +of his tent. Habits such as these will easily account for his travelling +in a carriage rather than on horseback. + +The courtesy and obliging disposition of Caesar were notorious, and both +were illustrated in some anecdotes which survived for generations +in Rome. Dining on one occasion at a table, where the servants had +inadvertently, for salad-oil, furnished some sort of coarse lamp-oil, +Caesar would not allow the rest of the company to point out the mistake +to their host, for fear of shocking him too much by exposing the +mistake. At another time, whilst halting at a little _cabaret_, when +one of his retinue was suddenly taken ill, Caesar resigned to his use +the sole bed which the house afforded. Incidents, as trifling as these, +express the urbanity of Caesar's nature; and, hence, one is the more +surprised to find the alienation of the senate charged, in no trifling +degree, upon a failure in point of courtesy. Caesar neglected to rise +from his seat, on their approaching him in a body with an address of +congratulation. It is said, and we can believe it, that he gave deeper +offence by this one defect in a matter of ceremonial observance, than +by all his substantial attacks upon their privileges. What we find it +difficult to believe, however, is not that result from the offence, but +the possibility of the offence itself, from one so little arrogant as +Caesar, and so entirely a man of the world. He was told of the disgust +which he had given, and we are bound to believe his apology, in which +he charged it upon sickness, which would not at the moment allow him to +maintain a standing attitude. Certainly the whole tenor of his life was +not courteous only, but kind; and, to his enemies, merciful in a +degree which implied so much more magnanimity than men in general could +understand, that by many it was put down to the account of weakness. + +Weakness, however, there was none in Caius Caesar; and, that there might +be none, it was fortunate that conspiracy should have cut him off in the +full vigor of his faculties, in the very meridian of his glory, and on +the brink of completing a series of gigantic achievements. Amongst these +are numbered--a digest of the entire body of laws, even then become +unwieldy and oppressive; the establishment of vast and comprehensive +public libraries, Greek as well as Latin; the chastisement of Dacia; the +conquest of Parthia; and the cutting a ship canal through the Isthmus +of Corinth. The reformation of the calendar he had already accomplished. +And of all his projects it may be said, that they were equally patriotic +in their purpose, and colossal in their proportions. + +As an orator, Caesar's merit was so eminent, that, according to the +general belief, had he found time to cultivate this department of +civil exertion, the precise supremacy of Cicero would have been made +questionable, or the honors would have been divided. Cicero himself +was of that opinion; and on different occasions applied the epithet +_Splendidus_ to Caesar, as though in some exclusive sense, or with a +peculiar emphasis, due to him. His taste was much simpler, chaster, and +disinclined to the _florid_ and ornamental, than that of Cicero. So far +he would, in that condition of the Roman culture and feeling, have been +less acceptable to the public; but, on the other hand, he would have +compensated this disadvantage by much more of natural and Demosthenic +fervor. + +In literature, the merits of Caesar are familiar to most readers. Under +the modest title of _Commentaries_, he meant to offer the records of his +Gallic and British campaigns, simply as notes, or memoranda, afterwards +to be worked up by regular historians; but, as Cicero observes, their +merit was such in the eyes of the discerning, that all judicious writers +shrank from the attempt to alter them. In another instance of his +literary labors, he showed a very just sense of true dignity. Rightly +conceiving that every thing patriotic was dignified, and that to +illustrate or polish his native language, was a service of real +patriotism, he composed a work on the grammar and orthoepy of the Latin +language. Cicero and himself were the only Romans of distinction in +that age, who applied themselves with true patriotism to the task of +purifying and ennobling their mother tongue. Both were aware of the +transcendent quality of the Grecian literature; but that splendor did +not depress their hopes of raising their own to something of the same +level. As respected the natural wealth of the two languages, it was +the private opinion of Cicero, that the Latin had the advantage; and if +Caesar did not accompany him to that length, he yet felt that it was but +the more necessary to draw forth any single advantage which it really +had. [Footnote: Caesar had the merit of being the first person to propose +the daily publication of the acts and votes of the senate. In the form +of public and official dispatches, he made also some useful innovations; +and it may be mentioned, for the curiosity of the incident, that the +cipher which he used in his correspondence, was the following very +simple one:--For every letter of the alphabet he substituted that which +stood fourth removed from it in the order of succession. Thus, for A, he +used D; for D, G, and so on.] + +Was Caesar, upon the whole, the greatest of men? Dr. Beattie once +observed, that if that question were left to be collected from the +suffrages already expressed in books, and scattered throughout the +literature of all nations, the scale would be found to have turned +prodigiously in Caesar's favor, as against any single competitor; and +there is no doubt whatsoever, that even amongst his own countrymen, and +his own contemporaries, the same verdict would have been returned, had +it been collected upon the famous principle of Themistocles, that _he_ +should be reputed the first, whom the greatest number of rival voices +had pronounced the second. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +The situation of the Second Caesar, at the crisis of the great Dictator's +assassination, was so hazardous and delicate, as to confer interest upon +a character not otherwise attractive. To many, we know it was positively +repulsive, and in the very highest degree. In particular, it is recorded +of Sir William Jones, that he regarded this emperor with feelings of +abhorrence so _personal_ and deadly, as to refuse him his customary +titular honors whenever he had occasion to mention him by name. Yet +it was the whole Roman people that conferred upon him his title of +_Augustus_. But Sir William, ascribing no force to the acts of a people +who had sunk so low as to exult in their chains, and to decorate with +honors the very instruments of their own vassalage, would not recognise +this popular creation, and spoke of him always by his family name +of Octavius. The flattery of the populace, by the way, must, in this +instance, have been doubly acceptable to the emperor, first, for what it +gave, and secondly, for what it concealed. Of his grand-uncle, the first +Caesar, a tradition survives--that of all the distinctions created in his +favor, either by the senate or the people, he put most value upon +the laurel crown which was voted to him after his last campaigns--a +beautiful and conspicuous memorial to every eye of his great public +acts, and at the same time an overshadowing veil of his one sole +personal defect. This laurel diadem at once proclaimed his civic +grandeur, and concealed his baldness, a defect which was more mortifying +to a Roman than it would be to ourselves, from the peculiar theory which +then prevailed as to its probable origin. A gratitude of the same mixed +quality must naturally have been felt by the Second Caesar for his title +of _Augustus_, which, whilst it illustrated his public character by +the highest expression of majesty, set apart and sequestrated to public +functions, had also the agreeable effect of withdrawing from the general +remembrance his obscure descent. For the Octavian house [_gens_] had +in neither of its branches risen to any great splendor of civic +distinction, and in his own, to little or none. The same titular +decoration, therefore, so offensive to the celebrated Whig, was, in the +eyes of Augustus, at once a trophy of public merit, a monument of public +gratitude, and an effectual obliteration of his own natal obscurity. + +But, if merely odious to men of Sir William's principles, to others the +character of Augustus, in relation to the circumstances which surrounded +him, was not without its appropriate interest. He was summoned in early +youth, and without warning, to face a crisis of tremendous hazard, being +at the same time himself a man of no very great constitutional courage; +perhaps he was even a coward. And this we say without meaning to adopt +as gospel truths all the party reproaches of Anthony. Certainly he was +utterly unfurnished by nature with those endowments which seemed to be +indispensable in a successor to the power of the great Dictator. But +exactly in these deficiencies, and in certain accidents unfavorable to +his ambition, lay his security. He had been adopted by his grand-uncle, +Julius. That adoption made him, to all intents and purposes of law, the +son of his great patron; and doubtless, in a short time, this adoption +would have been applied to more extensive uses, and as a station of +vantage for introducing him to the public favor. From the inheritance +of the Julian estates and family honors, he would have been trained to +mount, as from a stepping-stone, to the inheritance of the Julian power +and political station; and the Roman people would have been familiarized +to regard him in that character. But, luckily for himself, the +finishing, or ceremonial acts, were yet wanting in this process--the +political heirship was inchoate and imperfect. Tacitly understood, +indeed, it was; but, had it been formally proposed and ratified, there +cannot be a doubt that the young Octavius would have been pointed out +to the vengeance of the patriots, and included in the scheme of the +conspirators, as a fellow-victim with his nominal father; and would have +been cut off too suddenly to benefit by that reaction of popular +feeling which saved the partisans of the Dictator, by separating the +conspirators, and obliging them, without loss of time, to look to their +own safety. It was by this fortunate accident that the young heir and +adopted son of the first Caesar not only escaped assassination, but was +enabled to postpone indefinitely the final and military struggle for the +vacant seat of empire, and in the mean time to maintain a coequal rank +with the leaders in the state, by those arts and resources in which he +was superior to his competitors. His place in the favor of Caius Julius +was of power sufficient to give him a share in any triumvirate which +could be formed; but, wanting the formality of a regular introduction to +the people, and the ratification of their acceptance, that place was +not sufficient to raise him permanently into the perilous and invidious +station of absolute supremacy which he afterwards occupied. The +_felicity_ of Augustus was often vaunted by antiquity, (with whom +success was not so much a test of merit as itself a merit of the highest +quality,) and in no instance was this felicity more conspicuous than +in the first act of his entrance upon the political scene. No doubt +his friends and enemies alike thought of him, at the moment of Caesar's +assassination, as we now think of a young man heir-elect to some person +of immense wealth, cut off by a sudden death before he has had time to +ratify a will in execution of his purposes. Yet in fact the case was far +otherwise. Brought forward distinctly as the successor of Caesar's +power, had he even, by some favorable accident of absence from Rome, or +otherwise, escaped being involved in that great man's fate, he would at +all events have been thrown upon the instant necessity of defending his +supreme station by arms. To have left it unasserted, when once +solemnly created in his favor by a reversionary title, would have been +deliberately to resign it. This would have been a confession of weakness +liable to no disguise, and ruinous to any subsequent pretensions. Yet, +without preparation of means, with no development of resources nor +growth of circumstances, an appeal to arms would, in his case, have been +of very doubtful issue. His true weapons, for a long period, were the +arts of vigilance and dissimulation. Cultivating these, he was enabled +to prepare for a contest which, undertaken prematurely, must have ruined +him, and to raise himself to a station of even military pre-eminence +to those who naturally, and by circumstances, were originally every way +superior to himself. + +The qualities in which he really excelled, the gifts of intrigue, +patience, long-suffering, dissimulation, and tortuous fraud, were thus +brought into play, and allowed their full value. Such qualities +had every chance of prevailing in the long run, against the noble +carelessness and the impetuosity of the passionate Anthony--and they +_did_ prevail. Always on the watch to lay hold of those opportunities +which the generous negligence of his rival was but too frequently +throwing in his way--unless by the sudden reverses of war and the +accidents of battle, which as much as possible, and as long as possible, +he declined--there could be little question in any man's mind, that +eventually he would win his way to a solitary throne, by a policy so +full of caution and subtlety. He was sure to risk nothing which could be +had on easier terms; and nothing, unless for a great overbalance of gain +in prospect; to lose nothing which he had once gained; and in no case to +miss an advantage, or sacrifice an opportunity, by any consideration +of generosity. No modern insurance office but would have guaranteed an +event depending upon the final success of Augustus, on terms far below +those which they must in prudence have exacted from the fiery and +adventurous Anthony. Each was an ideal in his own class. But Augustus, +having finally triumphed, has met with more than justice from succeeding +ages. Even Lord Bacon says, that, by comparison with Julius Caesar, he +was "_non tam impar quam dispar_," surely a most extravagant encomium, +applied to whomsoever. On the other hand, Anthony, amongst the most +signal misfortunes of his life, might number it, that Cicero, the great +dispenser of immortality, in whose hands (more perhaps than in any one +man's of any age) were the vials of good and evil fame, should happen to +have been his bitter and persevering enemy. It is, however, some balance +to this, that Shakspeare had a just conception of the original grandeur +which lay beneath that wild tempestuous nature presented by Anthony to +the eye of the undiscriminating world. It is to the honor of Shakspeare, +that he should have been able to discern the true coloring of this most +original character, under the smoke and tarnish of antiquity. It is no +less to the honor of the great triumvir, that a strength of coloring +should survive in his character, capable of baffling the wrongs and +ravages of time. Neither is it to be thought strange that a character +should have been misunderstood and falsely appreciated for nearly +two thousand years. It happens not uncommonly, especially amongst an +unimaginative people like the Romans, that the characters of men are +ciphers and enigmas to their own age, and are first read and interpreted +by a far distant posterity. Stars are supposed to exist, whose light has +been travelling for many thousands of years without having yet reached +our system; and the eyes are yet unborn upon which their earliest +rays will fall. Men like Mark Anthony, with minds of chaotic +composition--light conflicting with darkness, proportions of colossal +grandeur disfigured by unsymmetrical arrangement, the angelic in close +neighborhood with the brutal--are first read in their true meaning by an +age learned in the philosophy of the human heart. Of this philosophy the +Romans had, by the necessities of education and domestic discipline not +less than by original constitution of mind, the very narrowest visual +range. In no literature whatsoever are so few tolerable notices to +be found of any great truths in Psychology. Nor could this have been +otherwise amongst a people who tried every thing by the standard +of _social_ value; never seeking for a canon of excellence, in man +considered abstractedly in and for himself, and as having an independent +value--but always and exclusively in man as a gregarious being, and +designed for social uses and functions. Not man in his own peculiar +nature, but man in his relations to other men, was the station from +which the Roman speculators took up their philosophy of human nature. +Tried by such standard, Mark Anthony would be found wanting. As a +citizen, he was irretrievably licentious, and therefore there needed +not the bitter personal feud, which circumstances had generated between +them, to account for the _acharnement_ with which Cicero pursued him. +Had Anthony been his friend even, or his near kinsman, Cicero must still +have been his public enemy. And not merely for his vices; for even +the grander features of his character, his towering ambition, his +magnanimity, and the fascinations of his popular qualities,--were +all, in the circumstances of those times, and in _his_ position, of a +tendency dangerously uncivic. + +So remarkable was the opposition, at all points, between the second +Caesar and his rival, that whereas Anthony even in his virtues seemed +dangerous to the state, Octavius gave a civic coloring to his most +indifferent actions, and, with a Machiavelian policy, observed a +scrupulous regard to the forms of the Republic, after every fragment +of the republican institutions, the privileges of the republican +magistrates, and the functions of the great popular officers, had been +absorbed into his own autocracy. Even in the most prosperous days of the +Roman State, when the democratic forces balanced, and were balanced +by, those of the aristocracy, it was far from being a general or common +praise, that a man was of a civic turn of mind, _animo civili_. Yet this +praise did Augustus affect, and in reality attain, at a time when the +very object of all civic feeling was absolutely extinct; so much are +men governed by words. Suetonius assures us, that many evidences were +current even to his times of this popular disposition (_civilitas_) in +the emperor; and that it survived every experience of servile adulation +in the Roman populace, and all the effects of long familiarity with +irresponsible power in himself. Such a moderation of feeling, we are +almost obliged to consider as a genuine and unaffected expression of his +real nature; for, as an artifice of policy, it had soon lost its uses. +And it is worthy of notice, that with the army he laid aside those +popular manners as soon as possible, addressing them as _milites_, not +(_according_ to his earlier practice) as _commilitones_. It concerned +his own security, to be jealous of encroachments on his power. But of +his rank, and the honors which accompanied it, he seems to have been +uniformly careless. Thus, he would never leave a town or enter it by +daylight, unless some higher rule of policy obliged him to do so; by +which means he evaded a ceremonial of public honor which was burdensome +to all the parties concerned in it. Sometimes, however, we find that +men, careless of honors in their own persons, are glad to see them +settling upon their family and immediate connections. But here again +Augustus showed the sincerity of his moderation. For upon one occasion, +when the whole audience in the Roman theatre had risen upon the entrance +of his two adopted sons, at that time not seventeen years old, he +was highly displeased, and even thought it necessary to publish +his displeasure in a separate edict. It is another, and a striking +illustration of his humility, that he willingly accepted of public +appointments, and sedulously discharged the duties attached to them, in +conjunction with colleagues who had been chosen with little regard to +his personal partialities. In the debates of the senate, he showed the +same equanimity; suffering himself patiently to be contradicted, and +even with circumstances of studied incivility. In the public elections, +he gave his vote like any private citizen; and, when he happened to be +a candidate himself, he canvassed the electors with the same earnestness +of personal application, as any other candidate with the least possible +title to public favor from present power or past services. But, perhaps +by no expressions of his civic spirit did Augustus so much conciliate +men's minds, as by the readiness with which he participated in their +social pleasures, and by the uniform severity with which he refused +to apply his influence in any way which could disturb the pure +administration of justice. The Roman juries (_judices_ they were +called), were very corrupt; and easily swayed to an unconscientious +verdict, by the appearance in court of any great man on behalf of one of +the parties interested: nor was such an interference with the course +of private justice any ways injurious to the great man's character. The +wrong which he promoted did but the more forcibly proclaim the warmth +and fidelity of his friendships. So much the more generally was the +uprightness of the emperor appreciated, who would neither tamper with +justice himself, nor countenance any motion in that direction, though it +were to serve his very dearest friend, either by his personal presence, +or by the use of his name. And, as if it had been a trifle merely to +forbear, and to show his regard to justice in this negative way, he even +allowed himself to be summoned as a witness on trials, and showed no +anger when his own evidence was overborne by stronger on the other side. +This disinterested love of justice, and an integrity, so rare in the +great men of Rome, could not but command the reverence of the people. +But their affection, doubtless, was more conciliated by the freedom with +which the emperor accepted invitations from all quarters, and shared +continually in the festal pleasures of his subjects. This practice, +however, he discontinued, or narrowed, as he advanced in years. +Suetonius, who, as a true anecdote-monger, would solve every thing, +and account for every change by some definite incident, charges this +alteration in the emperor's condescensions upon one particular party at +a wedding feast, where the crowd incommoded him much by their pressure +and heat. But, doubtless, it happened to Augustus as to other men; his +spirits failed, and his powers of supporting fatigue or bustle, as years +stole upon him. Changes, coming by insensible steps, and not willingly +acknowledged, for some time escape notice; until some sudden shock +reminds a man forcibly to do that which he has long meditated in an +irresolute way. The marriage banquet may have been the particular +occasion from which Augustus stepped into the habits of old age, but +certainly not the cause of so entire a revolution in his mode of living. + +It might seem to throw some doubt, if not upon the fact, yet at +least upon the sincerity, of his _civism_, that undoubtedly Augustus +cultivated his kingly connections with considerable anxiety. It may have +been upon motives merely political that he kept at Rome the children of +nearly all the kings then known as allies or vassals of the Roman power: +a curious fact, and not generally known. In his own palace were reared a +number of youthful princes; and they were educated jointly with his own +children. It is also upon record, that in many instances the fathers +of these princes spontaneously repaired to Rome, and there assuming +the Roman dress--as an expression of reverence to the majesty of the +omnipotent State--did personal 'suit and service' (_more clientum_) +to Augustus. It is an anecdote of not less curiosity, that a whole +'college' of kings subscribed money for a temple at Athens, to be +dedicated in the name of Augustus. Throughout his life, indeed, this +emperor paid a marked attention to all the royal houses then known to +Rome, as occupying the thrones upon the vast margin of the empire. It +is true that in part this attention might be interpreted as given +politically to so many lieutenants, wielding a remote or inaccessible +power for the benefit of Rome. And the children of these kings might be +regarded as hostages, ostensibly entertained for the sake of education, +but really as pledges for their parents' fidelity, and also with a view +to the large reversionary advantages which might be expected to arise +upon the basis of so early and affectionate a connection. But it is not +the less true, that, at one period of his life, Augustus did certainly +meditate some closer personal connection with the royal families of the +earth. He speculated, undoubtedly, on a marriage for himself with some +barbarous princess, and at one time designed his daughter Julia as a +wife for Cotiso, the king of the Getae. Superstition perhaps disturbed +the one scheme, and policy the other. He married, as is well known, for +his final wife, and the partner of his life through its whole triumphant +stage, Livia Drusilla; compelling her husband, Tiberius Nero, to divorce +her, notwithstanding she was then six months advanced in pregnancy. With +this lady, who was distinguished for her beauty, it is certain that +he was deeply in love; and that might be sufficient to account for the +marriage. It is equally certain, however, upon the concurring +evidence of independent writers, that this connection had an oracular +sanction--not to say, suggestion; a circumstance _which was long +remembered_, and was afterwards noticed by the Christian poet +Prudentius: + + "Idque Deum sortes et Apollinis antra dederunt + Consilium: nunquam melius nam caedere taedas + Responsum est, quam cum praegnans nova nupta jugatur." + +His daughter Julia had been promised by turns, and always upon reasons +of state, to a whole muster-roll of suitors; first of all, to a son of +Mark Anthony; secondly, to the barbarous king; thirdly, to her first +cousin--that Marcellus, the son of Octavia, only sister to Augustus, +whose early death, in the midst of great expectations, Virgil has so +beautifully introduced into the vision of Roman grandeurs as yet unborn, +which AEneas beholds in the shades; fourthly, she was promised (and this +time the promise was kept) to the fortunate soldier, Agrippa, whose low +birth was not permitted to obscure his military merits. By him she had +a family of children, upon whom, if upon any in this world, the wrath of +Providence seems to have rested; for, excepting one, and in spite of all +the favors that earth and heaven could unite to shower upon them, all +came to an early, a violent, and an infamous end. Fifthly, upon the +death of Agrippa, and again upon motives of policy, and in atrocious +contempt of all the ties that nature and the human heart and human laws +have hallowed, she was promised, (if that word may be applied to the +violent obtrusion upon a man's bed of one who was doubly a curse--first, +for what she brought, and, secondly, for what she took away,) and given +to Tiberius, the future emperor. Upon the whole, as far as we can at +this day make out the connection of a man's acts and purposes, which, +even to his own age, were never entirely cleared up, it is probable +that, so long as the triumvirate survived, and so long as the condition +of Roman power or intrigues, and the distribution of Roman influence, +were such as to leave a possibility that any new triumvirate should +arise--so long Augustus was secretly meditating a retreat for himself at +some barbarous court, against any sudden reverse of fortune, by means +of a domestic connection, which should give him the claim of a kinsman. +Such a court, however unable to make head against the collective power +of Rome, might yet present a front of resistance to any single partisan +who should happen to acquire a brief ascendancy; or, at the worst, as a +merely defensive power, might offer a retreat, secure in distance, +and difficult access; or might be available as a means of delay for +recovering from some else fatal defeat. It is certain that Augustus +viewed Egypt with jealousy as a province, which might be turned to +account in some such way by any aspiring insurgent. And it must have +often struck him as a remarkable circumstance, which by good luck had +turned out entirely to the advantage of his own family, but which might +as readily have had an opposite result, that the three decisive battles +of Pharsalia, of Thapsus, and of Munda, in which the empire of the world +was three times over staked as the prize, had severally brought upon the +defeated leaders a ruin which was total, absolute, and final. One hour +had seen the whole fabric of their aspiring fortunes demolished; and no +resource was left to them but either in suicide, (which, accordingly, +even Caesar had meditated at one stage of the battle of Munda, when it +seemed to be going against him,) or in the mercy of the victor. + +That a victor in a hundred fights should in his hundred-and-first, + +[Footnote: + + "The painful warrior, famoused for fight, + After a thousand victories once foil'd, + Is from the book of honor razed quite, + And all the rest forgot for which he toil'd." + _Shakespeare's Sonnets._] + +as in his first, risk the loss of that particular battle, is inseparable +from the condition of man, and the uncertainty of human means; but that +the loss of this one battle should be equally fatal and irrecoverable +with the loss of his first, that it should leave him with means no more +cemented, and resources no better matured for retarding his fall, and +throwing a long succession of hindrances in the way of his conqueror, +argues some essential defect of system. Under our modern policy, +military power--though it may be the growth of one man's life--soon +takes root; a succession of campaigns is required for its extirpation; +and it revolves backwards to its final extinction through all the +stages by which originally it grew. On the Roman system this was mainly +impossible from the solitariness of the Roman power; co-rival nations +who might balance the victorious party, there were absolutely none; and +all the underlings hastened to make their peace, whilst peace was yet +open to them, on the known terms of absolute treachery to their former +master, and instant surrender to the victor of the hour. For this +capital defect in the tenure of Roman power, no matter in whose hands +deposited, there was no absolute remedy. Many a sleepless night, during +the perilous game which he played with Anthony, must have familiarized +Octavius with that view of the risk, which to some extent was +inseparable from his position as the leader in such a struggle carried +on in such an empire. In this dilemma, struck with the extreme necessity +of applying some palliation to the case, we have no doubt that +Augustus would devise the scheme of laying some distant king under such +obligations to fidelity as would suffice to stand the first shock of +misfortune. Such a person would have power enough, of a direct military +kind, to face the storm at its outbreak. He would have power of another +kind in his distance. He would be sustained by the courage of hope, as +a kinsman having a contingent interest in a kinsman's prosperity. And, +finally, he would be sustained by the courage of despair, as one who +never could expect to be trusted by the opposite party. In the worst +case, such a prince would always offer a breathing time and a respite to +his friends, were it only by his remoteness, and if not the _means_ of +rallying, yet at least the _time_ for rallying, more especially as the +escape to his frontier would be easy to one who had long forecast it. We +can hardly doubt that Augustus meditated such schemes; that he laid them +aside only as his power began to cement and to knit together after the +battle of Actium; and that the memory and the prudential tradition of +this plan survived in the imperial family so long as itself survived. +Amongst other anecdotes of the same tendency, two are recorded of Nero, +the emperor in whom expired the line of the original Caesars, which +strengthen us in a belief of what is otherwise in itself so probable. +Nero, in his first distractions, upon receiving the fatal tidings of +the revolt in Gaul, when reviewing all possible plans of escape from +the impending danger, thought at intervals of throwing himself on the +protection of the barbarous King Vologesus. And twenty years afterwards, +when the Pseudo-Nero appeared, he found a strenuous champion and +protector in the king of the Parthians. Possibly, had an opportunity +offered for searching the Parthian chancery, some treaty would have been +found binding the kings of Parthia, from the age of Augustus through +some generations downwards, in requital of services there specified, or +of treasures lodged, to secure a perpetual asylum to the prosperity of +the Julian family. + +The cruelties of Augustus were perhaps equal in atrocity to any which +are recorded; and the equivocal apology for those acts (one which might +as well be used to aggravate as to palliate the case) is, that they were +not prompted by a ferocious nature, but by calculating policy. He once +actually slaughtered upon an altar, a large body of his prisoners; and +such was the contempt with which he was regarded by some of that number, +that, when led out to death, they saluted their other proscriber, +Anthony, with military honors, acknowledging merit even in an enemy, but +Augustus they passed with scornful silence, or with loud reproaches. +Too certainly no man has ever contended for empire with unsullied +conscience, or laid pure hands upon the ark of so magnificent a prize. +Every friend to Augustus must have wished that the twelve years of his +struggle might for ever be blotted out from human remembrance. During +the forty-two years of his prosperity and his triumph, being above fear, +he showed the natural lenity of his temper. + +That prosperity, in a public sense, has been rarely equalled; but far +different was his fate, and memorable was the contrast, within the +circuit of his own family. This lord of the universe groaned as often +as the ladies of his house, his daughter and grand-daughter, were +mentioned. The shame which he felt on their account, led him even +to unnatural designs, and to wishes not less so; for at one time he +entertained a plan for putting the elder Julia to death--and at another, +upon hearing that Phoebe (one of the female slaves in his household) had +hanged herself, he exclaimed audibly,--"Would that I had been the father +of Phoebe!" It must, however, be granted, that in this miserable affair +he behaved with very little of his usual discretion. In the first +paroxysms of his rage, on discovering his daughter's criminal conduct, +he made a communication of the whole to the senate. That body could do +nothing in such a matter, either by act or by suggestion; and in a short +time, as every body could have foreseen, he himself repented of his +own want of self-command. Upon the whole, it cannot be denied, that, +according to the remark of Jeremy Taylor, of all the men signally +decorated by history, Augustus Caesar is that one who exemplifies, in the +most emphatic terms, the mixed tenor of human life, and the equitable +distribution, even on this earth, of good and evil fortune. He +made himself master of the world, and against the most formidable +competitors; his power was absolute, from the rising to the setting +sun; and yet in his own house, where the peasant who does the humblest +chares, claims an undisputed authority, he was baffled, dishonored, and +made ridiculous. He was loved by nobody; and if, at the moment of his +death, he desired his friends to dismiss him from this world by the +common expression of scenical applause, (_vos plaudite!_) in that +valedictory injunction he expressed inadvertently the true value of his +own long life, which, in strict candor, may be pronounced one continued +series of histrionic efforts, and of excellent acting, adapted to +selfish ends. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +The three next emperors, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, were the last +princes who had any connection by blood [Footnote: And this was entirely +by the female side. The family descent of the first six Caesars is so +intricate, that it is rarely understood accurately; so that it may be +well to state it briefly. Augustus was grand nephew to Julius Caesar, +being the son of his sister's daughter. He was also, by adoption, the +_son_ of Julius. He himself had one child only, viz. the infamous Julia, +who was brought him by his second wife Scribonia; and through this +Julia it was that the three princes, who succeeded to Tiberius, claimed +relationship to Augustus. On that emperor's last marriage with Livia, he +adopted the two sons whom she had borne to her divorced husband. These +two noblemen, who stood in no degree of consanguinity whatever to +Augustus, were Tiberius and Drusus. Tiberius left no children; but +Drusus, the younger of the two brothers, by his marriage with the +younger Antonia, (daughter of Mark Anthony,) had the celebrated +Germanicus, and Claudius, (afterwards emperor.) Germanicus, though +adopted by his uncle Tiberius, and destined to the empire, died +prematurely. But, like Banquo, though he wore no crown, he left +descendants who did. For, by his marriage with Agrippina, a daughter of +Julia's by Agrippa, (and therefore grand-daughter of Augustus,) he had +a large family, of whom one son became the Emperor Caligula; and one +of the daughters, Agrippina the younger, by her marriage with a Roman +nobleman, became the mother of the Emperor Nero. Hence it appears that +Tiberius was uncle to Claudius, Claudius was uncle to Caligula, Caligula +was uncle to Nero. But it is observable, that Nero and Caligula stood +in another degree of consanguinity to each other through their +grandmothers, who were both daughters of Mark Anthony the triumvir; for +the elder Antonia married the grandfather of Nero; the younger Antonia +(as we have stated, above) married Drusus, the grandfather of Caligula; +and again, by these two ladies, they were connected not only with +each other, but also with the Julian house, for the two Antonias were +daughters of Mark Anthony by Octavia, sister to Augustus.] with the +Julian house. In Nero, the sixth emperor, expired the last of the +Caesars, who was such in reality. These three were also the first in +that long line of monsters, who, at different times, under the title of +Caesars, dishonored humanity more memorably, than was possible, except in +the cases of those (if any such can be named) who have abused the same +enormous powers in times of the same civility, and in defiance of the +same general illumination. But for them it is a fact, than some crimes, +which now stain the page of history, would have been accounted fabulous +dreams of impure romancers, taxing their extravagant imaginations to +create combinations of wickedness more hideous than civilized men would +tolerate, and more unnatural than the human heart could conceive. Let +us, by way of example, take a short chapter from the diabolic life of +Caligula: In what way did he treat his nearest and tenderest female +connections? His mother had been tortured and murdered by another tyrant +almost as fiendish as himself. She was happily removed from his cruelty. +Disdaining, however, to acknowledge any connection with the blood of +so obscure a man as Agrippa, he publicly gave out that his mother was +indeed the daughter of Julia, but by an incestuous commerce with her +father Augustus. His three sisters he debauched. One died, and her +he canonized; the other two he prostituted to the basest of his own +attendants. Of his wives, it would be hard to say whether they were +first sought and won with more circumstances of injury and outrage, or +dismissed with more insult and levity. The one whom he treated best, +and with most profession of love, and who commonly rode by his side, +equipped with spear and shield, to his military inspections and reviews +of the soldiery, though not particularly beautiful, was exhibited to +his friends at banquets in a state of absolute nudity. His motive for +treating her with so much kindness, was probably that she brought him +a daughter; and her he acknowledged as his own child, from the early +brutality with which she attacked the eyes and cheeks of other infants +who were presented to her as play-fellows. Hence it would appear that +he was aware of his own ferocity, and treated it as a jest. The levity, +indeed, which he mingled with his worst and most inhuman acts, and the +slightness of the occasions upon which he delighted to hang his most +memorable atrocities, aggravated their impression at the time, and must +have contributed greatly to sharpen the sword of vengeance. His palace +happened to be contiguous to the circus. Some seats, it seems, were open +indiscriminately to the public; consequently, the only way in which they +could be appropriated, was by taking possession of them as early as the +midnight preceding any great exhibitions. Once, when it happened that +his sleep was disturbed by such an occasion, he sent in soldiers to +eject them; and with orders so rigorous, as it appeared by the event, +that in this singular tumult, twenty Roman knights, and as many mothers +of families, were cudgelled to death upon the spot, to say nothing of +what the reporter calls "innumeram turbam ceteram." + +But this is a trifle to another anecdote reported by the same +authority:--On some occasion it happened that a dearth prevailed, either +generally of cattle, or of such cattle as were used for feeding the wild +beasts reserved for the bloody exhibitions of the amphitheatre. Food +could be had, and perhaps at no very exorbitant price, but on terms +somewhat higher than the ordinary market price. A slight excuse served +with Caligula for acts the most monstrous. Instantly repairing to the +public jails, and causing all the prisoners to pass in review before him +(_custodiarum seriem recognoscens_), he pointed to two bald-headed +men, and ordered that the whole file of intermediate persons should be +marched off to the dens of the wild beasts: "Tell them off," said he, +"from the bald man to the bald man." Yet these were prisoners committed, +not for punishment, but trial. Nor, had it been otherwise, were the +charges against them equal, but running through every gradation of +guilt. But the _elogia_ or records of their commitment, he would not so +much as look at. With such inordinate capacities for cruelty, we cannot +wonder that he should in his common conversation have deplored the +tameness and insipidity of his own times and reign, as likely to be +marked by no wide-spreading calamity." Augustus," said he, "was happy; +for in his reign occurred the slaughter of Varus and his legions. +Tiberius was happy; for in his occurred that glorious fall of the great +amphitheatre at Fidenae. But for me--alas! alas!" And then he would pray +earnestly for fire or slaughter--pestilence or famine. Famine indeed was +to some extent in his own power; and accordingly, as far as his courage +would carry him, he did occasionally try that mode of tragedy upon the +people of Rome, by shutting up the public granaries against them. As +he blended his mirth and a truculent sense of the humorous with his +cruelties, we cannot wonder that he should soon blend his cruelties with +his ordinary festivities, and that his daily banquets would soon become +insipid without them. Hence he required a daily supply of executions in +his own halls and banqueting rooms; nor was a dinner held to be complete +without such a dessert. Artists were sought out who had dexterity and +strength enough to do what Lucan somewhere calls _ensem rotare_, that +is, to cut off a human head with one whirl of the sword. Even this +became insipid, as wanting one main element of misery to the sufferer, +and an indispensable condiment to the jaded palate of the connoisseur, +viz., a lingering duration. As a pleasant variety, therefore, the +tormentors were introduced with their various instruments of torture; +and many a dismal tragedy in that mode of human suffering was conducted +in the sacred presence during the emperor's hours of amiable relaxation. + +The result of these horrid indulgences was exactly what we might +suppose, that even such scenes ceased to irritate the languid appetite, +and yet that without them life was not endurable. Jaded and exhausted as +the sense of pleasure had become in Caligula, still it could be roused +into any activity by nothing short of these murderous luxuries. Hence, +it seems, that he was continually tampering and dallying with the +thought of murder; and like the old Parisian jeweller Cardillac, in +Louis XIV.'s time, who was stung with a perpetual lust for murdering the +possessors of fine diamonds--not so much for the value of the prize (of +which he never hoped to make any use), as from an unconquerable desire +of precipitating himself into the difficulties and hazards of the +murder,--Caligula never failed to experience (and sometimes even to +acknowledge) a secret temptation to any murder which seemed either more +than usually abominable, or more than usually difficult. Thus, when +the two consuls were seated at his table, he burst out into sudden and +profuse laughter; and, upon their courteously requesting to know what +witty and admirable conceit might be the occasion of the imperial +mirth, he frankly owned to them, and doubtless he did not improve their +appetites by this confession, that in fact he was laughing, and that he +could not but laugh, (and then the monster laughed immoderately again,) +at the pleasant thought of seeing them both headless, and that with so +little trouble to himself, (_uno suo nutu_,) he could have both their +throats cut. No doubt he was continually balancing the arguments for and +against such little escapades; nor had any person a reason for security +in the extraordinary obligations, whether of hospitality or of religious +vows, which seemed to lay him under some peculiar restraints in that +case above all others; for such circumstances of peculiarity, by which +the murder would be stamped with unusual atrocity, were but the more +likely to make its fascinations irresistible. Hence he dallied with +the thoughts of murdering her whom he loved best, and indeed +exclusively--his wife Caesonia; and whilst fondling her, and toying +playfully with her polished throat, he was distracted (as he half +insinuated to her) between the desire of caressing it, which might be +often repeated, and that of cutting it, which could be gratified but +once. + +Nero (for as to Claudius, he came too late to the throne to indulge any +propensities of this nature with so little discretion) was but a variety +of the same species. He also was an amateur, and an enthusiastic amateur +of murder. But as this taste, in the most ingenious hands, is limited +and monotonous in its modes of manifestation, it would be tedious to run +through the long Suetonian roll-call of his peccadilloes in this way. +One only we shall cite, to illustrate the amorous delight with which he +pursued any murder which happened to be seasoned highly to his taste +by enormous atrocity, and by almost unconquerable difficulty. It would +really be pleasant, were it not for the revolting consideration of +the persons concerned, and their relation to each other, to watch the +tortuous pursuit of the hunter, and the doubles of the game, in this +obstinate chase. For certain reasons of state, as Nero attempted to +persuade himself, but in reality because no other crime had the same +attractions of unnatural horror about it, he resolved to murder his +mother Agrippina. This being settled, the next thing was to arrange +the mode and the tools. Naturally enough, according to the custom then +prevalent in Rome, he first attempted the thing by poison. The poison +failed: for Agrippina, anticipating tricks of this kind, had armed +her constitution against them, like Mithridates; and daily took potent +antidotes and prophylactics. Or else (which is more probable) the +emperor's agent in such purposes, fearing his sudden repentance and +remorse on first hearing of his mother's death, or possibly even +witnessing her agonies, had composed a poison of inferior strength. This +had certainly occurred in the case of Britannicus, who had thrown off +with ease the first dose administered to him by Nero. Upon which he +had summoned to his presence the woman employed in the affair, and +compelling her by threats to mingle a more powerful potion in his own +presence, had tried it successively upon different animals, until he +was satisfied with its effects; after which, immediately inviting +Britannicus to a banquet, he had finally dispatched him. On Agrippina, +however, no changes in the poison, whether of kind or strength, had +any effect; so that, after various trials, this mode of murder was +abandoned, and the emperor addressed himself to other plans. The first +of these was some curious mechanical device, by which a false ceiling +was to have been suspended by bolts above her bed; and in the middle +of the night, the bolt being suddenly drawn, a vast weight would have +descended with a ruinous destruction to all below. This scheme, however, +taking air from the indiscretion of some amongst the accomplices, +reached the ears of Agrippina; upon which the old lady looked about +her too sharply to leave much hope in that scheme: so _that_ also was +abandoned. Next, he conceived the idea of an artificial ship, which, at +the touch of a few springs, might fall to pieces in deep water. Such +a ship was prepared, and stationed at a suitable point. But the main +difficulty remained, which was to persuade the old lady to go on board. +Not that she knew in this case _who_ had been the ship-builder, for that +would have ruined all; but it seems that she took it ill to be hunted in +this murderous spirit, and was out of humor with her son; besides, that +any proposal coming from him, though previously indifferent to her, +would have instantly become suspected. To meet this difficulty, a sort +of reconciliation was proposed, and a very affectionate message sent, +which had the effect of throwing Agrippina off her guard, and seduced +her to Baiae for the purpose of joining the emperor's party at a great +banquet held in commemoration of a solemn festival. She came by water +in a sort of light frigate, and was to return in the same way. Meantime +Nero tampered with the commander of her vessel, and prevailed upon him +to wreck it. What was to be done? The great lady was anxious to +return to Rome, and no proper conveyance was at hand. Suddenly it +was suggested, as if by chance, that a ship of the emperor's, new and +properly equipped, was moored at a neighboring station. This was readily +accepted by Agrippina: the emperor accompanied her to the place of +embarkation, took a most tender leave of her, and saw her set sail. +It was necessary that the vessel should get into deep water before the +experiment could be made; and with the utmost agitation this pious son +awaited news of the result. Suddenly a messenger rushed breathless +into his presence, and horrified him by the joyful information that his +august mother had met with an alarming accident; but, by the blessing +of Heaven, had escaped safe and sound, and was now on her road to mingle +congratulations with her affectionate son. The ship, it seems, had done +its office; the mechanism had played admirably; but who can provide for +every thing? The old lady, it turned out, could swim like a duck; and +the whole result had been to refresh her with a little sea-bathing. Here +was worshipful intelligence. Could any man's temper be expected to stand +such continued sieges? Money, and trouble, and infinite contrivance, +wasted upon one old woman, who absolutely would not, upon any terms, be +murdered! Provoking it certainly was; and of a man like Nero it could +not be expected that he should any longer dissemble his disgust, or put +up with such repeated affronts. He rushed upon his simple congratulating +friend, swore that he had come to murder him, and as nobody could have +suborned him but Agrippina, he ordered her off to instant execution. +And, unquestionably, if people will not be murdered quietly and in a +civil way, they must expect that such forbearance is not to continue for +ever; and obviously have themselves only to blame for any harshness or +violence which they may have rendered necessary. + +It is singular, and shocking at the same time, to mention, that, for +this atrocity, Nero did absolutely receive solemn congratulations from +all orders of men. With such evidences of base servility in the public +mind, and of the utter corruption which they had sustained in their +elementary feelings, it is the less astonishing that he should have +made other experiments upon the public patience, which seem expressly +designed to try how much it would support. Whether he were really the +author of the desolating fire which consumed Rome for six [Footnote: +But a memorial stone, in its inscription, makes the time longer: "Quando +urbs per novem dies arsit Neronianis temporibus."] days and seven +nights, and drove the mass of the people into the tombs and sepulchres +for shelter, is yet a matter of some doubt. But one great presumption +against it, founded on its desperate imprudence, as attacking the people +in their primary comforts, is considerably weakened by the enormous +servility of the Romans in the case just stated: they who could +volunteer congratulations to a son for butchering his mother, (no matter +on what pretended suspicions,) might reasonably be supposed incapable of +any resistance which required courage even in a case of self-defence, +or of just revenge. The direct reasons, however, for implicating him in +this affair, seem at present insufficient. He was displeased, it seems, +with the irregularity and unsightliness of the antique buildings, +and also with the streets, as too narrow and winding, (_angustiis +flexurisque vicorum_.) But in this he did but express what was no +doubt the common judgment of all his contemporaries, who had seen the +beautiful cities of Greece and Asia Minor. The Rome of that time was +in many parts built of wood; and there is much probability that it must +have been a _picturesque_ city, and in parts almost grotesque. But it +is remarkable, and a fact which we have nowhere seen noticed, that the +ancients, whether Greeks or Romans, had no eye for the picturesque; nay, +that it was a sense utterly unawakened amongst them; and that the +very conception of the picturesque, as of a thing distinct from the +beautiful, is not once alluded to through the whole course of ancient +literature, nor would it have been intelligible to any ancient critic; +so that, whatever attraction for the eye might exist in the Rome of +that day, there is little doubt that it was of a kind to be felt only +by modern spectators. Mere dissatisfaction with its external appearance, +which must have been a pretty general sentiment, argued, therefore, no +necessary purpose of destroying it. Certainly it would be a weightier +ground of suspicion, if it were really true, that some of his agents +were detected on the premises of different senators in the act of +applying combustibles to their mansions. But this story wears a very +fabulous air. For why resort to the private dwellings of great men, +where any intruder was sure of attracting notice, when the same effect, +and with the same deadly results, might have been attained quietly and +secretly in so many of the humble Roman _coenacula_? + +The great loss on this memorable occasion was in the heraldic and +ancestral honors of the city. Historic Rome then went to wreck for +ever. Then perished the _domus priscorum ducum hostilibus adhuc spoliis +adornatae_; the "rostral" palace; the mansion of the Pompeys; the +Blenheims and the Strathfieldsays of the Scipios, the Marcelli, the +Paulli, and the Caesars; then perished the aged trophies from Carthage +and from Gaul; and, in short, as the historian sums up the lamentable +desolation, "_quidquid visendum atque memorabile ex antiquitate +duraverat_." And this of itself might lead one to suspect the emperor's +hand as the original agent; for by no one act was it possible so +entirely and so suddenly to wean the people from their old republican +recollections, and in one week to obliterate the memorials of their +popular forces, and the trophies of many ages. The old people of Rome +were gone; their characteristic dress even was gone; for already in the +time of Augustus they had laid aside the _toga_, and assumed the cheaper +and scantier _paenula_, so that the eye sought in vain for Virgil's + + "Romanes rerum dominos gentemque _togatam_." + +Why, then, after all the constituents of Roman grandeur had passed away, +should their historical trophies survive, recalling to them the scenes +of departed heroism, in which they had no personal property, and +suggesting to them vain hopes, which for them were never to be other +than chimeras? Even in that sense, therefore, and as a great depository +of heart-stirring historical remembrances, Rome was profitably +destroyed; and in any other sense, whether for health or for the +conveniences of polished life, or for architectural magnificence, +there never was a doubt that the Roman people gained infinitely by this +conflagration. For, like London, it arose from its ashes with a splendor +proportioned to its vast expansion of wealth and population; and marble +took the place of wood. For the moment, however, this event must have +been felt by the people as an overwhelming calamity. And it serves to +illustrate the passive endurance and timidity of the popular temper, and +to what extent it might be provoked with impunity, that in this state +of general irritation and effervescence, Nero absolutely forbade them +to meddle with the ruins of their own dwellings--taking that charge +upon himself, with a view to the vast wealth which he anticipated +from sifting the rubbish. And, as if that mode of plunder were not +sufficient, he exacted compulsory contributions to the rebuilding of the +city so indiscriminately, as to press heavily upon all men's finances; +and thus, in the public account which universally imputed the fire to +him, he was viewed as a twofold robber, who sought to heal one calamity +by the infliction of another and a greater. + +The monotony of wickedness and outrage becomes at length fatiguing +to the coarsest and most callous senses; and the historian, even, who +caters professedly for the taste which feeds upon the monstrous and the +hyperbolical, is glad at length to escape from the long evolution of +his insane atrocities, to the striking and truly scenical catastrophe of +retribution which overtook them, and avenged the wrongs of an insulted +world. Perhaps history contains no more impressive scenes than those in +which the justice of Providence at length arrested the monstrous career +of Nero. + +It was at Naples, and, by a remarkable fatality, on the very anniversary +of his mother's murder, that he received the first intelligence of the +revolt in Gaul under the Propraetor Vindex. This news for about a week he +treated with levity; and, like Henry VII. of England, who was nettled, +not so much at being proclaimed a rebel, as because he was described +under the slighting denomination of "one Henry Tidder or Tudor," he +complained bitterly that Vindex had mentioned him by his family name of +AEnobarbus, rather than his assumed one of Nero. But much more keenly he +resented the insulting description of himself as a "miserable harper," +appealing to all about him whether they had ever known a better, and +offering to stake the truth of all the other charges against himself +upon the accuracy of this in particular. So little even in this instance +was he alive to the true point of the insult; not thinking it any +disgrace that a Roman emperor should be chiefly known to the world in +the character of a harper, but only if he should happen to be a bad one. +Even in those days, however, imperfect as were the means of travelling, +rebellion moved somewhat too rapidly to allow any long interval of +security so light-minded as this. One courier followed upon the heels of +another, until he felt the necessity for leaving Naples; and he returned +to Rome, as the historian says, _praetrepidus_; by which word, however, +according to its genuine classical acceptation, we apprehend is not +meant that he was highly alarmed, but only that he was in a great hurry. +That he was not yet under any real alarm (for he trusted in certain +prophecies, which, like those made to the Scottish tyrant "kept the +promise to the ear, but broke it to the sense,") is pretty evident, +from his conduct on reaching the capitol. For, without any appeal to +the senate or the people, but sending out a few summonses to some men of +rank, he held a hasty council, which he speedily dismissed, and occupied +the rest of the day with experiments on certain musical instruments +of recent invention, in which the keys were moved by hydraulic +contrivances. He had come to Rome, it appeared, merely from a sense of +decorum. + +Suddenly, however, arrived news, which fell upon him with the force of a +thunderbolt, that the revolt had extended to the Spanish provinces, and +was headed by Galba. He fainted upon hearing this; and falling to the +ground, lay for a long time lifeless, as it seemed, and speechless. +Upon coming to himself again, he tore his robe, struck his forehead, and +exclaimed aloud--that for him all was over. In this agony of mind, +it strikes across the utter darkness of the scene with the sense of a +sudden and cheering flash, recalling to us the possible goodness and +fidelity of human nature--when we read that one humble creature adhered +to him, and, according to her slender means, gave him consolation during +these trying moments; this was the woman who had tended his infant +years; and she now recalled to his remembrance such instances of +former princes in adversity, as appeared fitted to sustain his drooping +spirits. It seems, however, that, according to the general course of +violent emotions, the rebound of high spirits was in proportion to +his first despondency. He omitted nothing of his usual luxury or +self-indulgence, and he even found spirits for going _incognito_ to the +theatre, where he took sufficient interest in the public performances, +to send a message to a favorite actor. At times, even in this hopeless +situation, his native ferocity returned upon him, and he was believed to +have framed plans for removing all his enemies at once--the leaders of +the rebellion, by appointing successors to their offices, and secretly +sending assassins to dispatch their persons; the senate, by poison at a +great banquet; the Gaulish provinces, by delivering them up for pillage +to the army; the city, by again setting it on fire, whilst, at the same +time, a vast number of wild beasts was to have been turned loose upon +the unarmed populace--for the double purpose of destroying them, and +of distracting their attention from the fire. But, as the mood of his +frenzy changed, these sanguinary schemes were abandoned, (not, however, +under any feelings of remorse, but from mere despair of effecting them,) +and on the same day, but after a luxurious dinner, the imperial monster +grew bland and pathetic in his ideas; he would proceed to the rebellious +army; he would present himself unarmed to their view; and would recall +them to their duty by the mere spectacle of his tears. Upon the pathos +with which he would weep he was resolved to rely entirely. And having +received the guilty to his mercy without distinction, upon the following +day he would unite _his_ joy with _their_ joy, and would chant hymns of +victory (_epinicia_)--"which by the way," said he, suddenly, breaking +off to his favorite pursuits, "it is necessary that I should immediately +compose." This caprice vanished like the rest; and he made an effort +to enlist the slaves and citizens into his service, and to raise by +extortion a large military chest. But in the midst of these vascillating +purposes fresh tidings surprised him--other armies had revolted, and the +rebellion was spreading contagiously. This consummation of his alarms +reached him at dinner; and the expressions of his angry fears took even +a scenical air; he tore the dispatches, upset the table, and dashed to +pieces upon the ground two crystal beakers--which had a high value +as works of art, even in the _Aurea Domus_, from the sculptures which +adorned them. + +He now prepared for flight; and, sending forward commissioners to +prepare the fleet at Ostia for his reception, he tampered with such +officers of the army as were at hand, to prevail upon them to accompany +his retreat. But all showed themselves indisposed to such schemes, and +some flatly refused. Upon which he turned to other counsels; sometimes +meditating a flight to the King of Parthia, or even to throw himself on +the mercy of Galba; sometimes inclining rather to the plan of venturing +into the forum in mourning apparel, begging pardon for his past +offences, and, as a last resource, entreating that he might receive the +appointment of Egyptian prefect. This plan, however, he hesitated to +adopt, from some apprehension that he should be torn to pieces in his +road to the forum; and, at all events, he concluded to postpone it +to the following day. Meantime events were now hurrying to their +catastrophe, which for ever anticipated that intention. His hours were +numbered, and the closing scene was at hand. + +In the middle of the night he was aroused from slumber with the +intelligence that the military guard, who did duty at the palace, had +all quited their posts. Upon this the unhappy prince leaped from +his couch, never again to taste the luxury of sleep, and dispatched +messengers to his friends. No answers were returned; and upon that he +went personally with a small retinue to their hotels. But he found their +doors every where closed; and all his importunities could not avail to +extort an answer. Sadly and slowly he returned to his own bedchamber; +but there again he found fresh instances of desertion, which had +occurred during his short absence; the pages of his bedchamber had +fled, carrying with them the coverlids of the imperial bed, which were +probably inwrought with gold, and even a golden box, in which Nero +had on the preceding day deposited poison prepared against the last +extremity. Wounded to the heart by this general desertion, and perhaps +by some special case of ingratitude, such as would probably enough be +signalized in the flight of his personal favorites, he called for +a gladiator of the household to come and dispatch him. But none +appearing,--"What!" said he, "have I neither friend nor foe?" And so +saying, he ran towards the Tiber, with the purpose of drowning himself. +But that paroxysm, like all the rest, proved transient; and he expressed +a wish for some hiding-place, or momentary asylum, in which he might +collect his unsettled spirits, and fortify his wandering resolution. +Such a retreat was offered to him by his _libertus_ Phaon, in his own +rural villa, about four miles distant from Rome. The offer was accepted; +and the emperor, without further preparation than that of throwing over +his person a short mantle of a dusky hue, and enveloping his head and +face in a handkerchief, mounted his horse, and left Rome with four +attendants. It was still night, but probably verging towards the early +dawn; and even at that hour the imperial party met some travellers on +their way to Rome (coming up, no doubt, [Footnote: At this early hour, +witnesses, sureties, &c., and all concerned in the law courts, came up +to Rome from villas, country towns, &c. But no ordinary call existed +to summon travellers in the opposite direction; which accounts for the +comment of the travellers on the errand of Nero and his attendants.] +on law business)--who said, as they passed, "These men are certainly +in chase of Nero." Two other incidents, of an interesting nature, are +recorded of this short but memorable ride; at one point of the road, +the shouts of the soldiery assailed their ears from the neighboring +encampment of Galba. They were probably then getting under arms for +their final march to take possession of the palace. At another point, an +accident occurred of a more unfortunate kind, but so natural and so well +circumstantiated, that it serves to verify the whole narrative; a dead +body was lying on the road, at which the emperor's horse started so +violently as nearly to dismount his rider, and under the difficulty +of the moment compelled him to withdraw the hand which held up the +handkerchief, and suddenly to expose his features. Precisely at this +critical moment it happened that an old half-pay officer passed, +recognised the emperor, and saluted him. Perhaps it was with some +purpose of applying a remedy to this unfortunate rencontre, that the +party dismounted at a point where several roads met, and turned their +horses adrift to graze at will amongst the furze and brambles. Their +own purpose was, to make their way to the back of the villa; but, +to accomplish that, it was necessary that they should first cross +a plantation of reeds, from the peculiar state of which they found +themselves obliged to cover successively each space upon which they +trode with parts of their dress, in order to gain any supportable +footing. In this way, and contending with such hardships, they reached +at length the postern side of the villa. Here we must suppose that +there was no regular ingress; for, after waiting until an entrance was +pierced, it seems that the emperor could avail himself of it in no more +dignified posture, than by creeping through the hole on his hands and +feet, (_quadrupes per angustias receptus_.) + +Now, then, after such anxiety, alarm, and hardship, Nero had reached a +quiet rural asylum. But for the unfortunate concurrence of his horse's +alarm with the passing of the soldier, he might perhaps have counted on +a respite of a day or two in this noiseless and obscure abode. But what +a habitation for him who was yet ruler of the world in the eye of law, +and even _de facto_ was so, had any fatal accident befallen his aged +competitor! The room in which (as the one most removed from notice and +suspicion) he had secreted himself, was a cella, or little sleeping +closet of a slave, furnished only with a miserable pallet and a coarse +rug. Here lay the founder and possessor of the Golden House, too happy +if he might hope for the peaceable possession even of this miserable +crypt. But that, he knew too well, was impossible. A rival pretender to +the empire was like the plague of fire--as dangerous in the shape of +a single spark left unextinguished, as in that of a prosperous +conflagration. But a few brief sands yet remained to run in the +emperor's hour-glass; much variety of degradation or suffering seemed +scarcely within the possibilities of his situation, or within the +compass of the time. Yet, as though Providence had decreed that +his humiliation should pass through every shape, and speak by every +expression which came home to his understanding, or was intelligible +to his senses, even in these few moments he was attacked by hunger and +thirst. No other bread could be obtained (or, perhaps, if the emperor's +presence were concealed from the household, it was not safe to raise +suspicion by calling for better) than that which was ordinarily given +to slaves, coarse, black, and, to a palate so luxurious, doubtless +disgusting. This accordingly he rejected; but a little tepid water +he drank. After which, with the haste of one who fears that he may be +prematurely interrupted, but otherwise, with all the reluctance which +we may imagine, and which his streaming tears proclaimed, he addressed +himself to the last labor in which he supposed himself to have any +interest on this earth--that of digging a grave. Measuring a space +adjusted to the proportions of his person, he inquired anxiously for +any loose fragments of marble, such as might suffice to line it. He +requested also to be furnished with wood and water, as the materials +for the last sepulchral rites. And these labors were accompanied, or +continually interrupted by tears and lamentations, or by passionate +ejaculations on the blindness of fortune, in suffering so divine an +artist to be thus violently snatched away, and on the calamitous fate of +musical science, which then stood on the brink of so dire an eclipse. In +these moments he was most truly in an _agony_, according to the original +meaning of that word; for the conflict was great between two master +principles of his nature: on the one hand, he clung with the weakness of +a girl to life, even in that miserable shape to which it had now sunk; +and like the poor malefactor, with whose last struggles Prior has so +atrociously amused himself, "he often took leave, but was loath to +depart." Yet, on the other hand, to resign his life very speedily, +seemed his only chance for escaping the contumelies, perhaps the +tortures, of his enemies; and, above all other considerations, for +making sure of a burial, and possibly of burial rites; to want which, in +the judgment of the ancients, was the last consummation of misery. Thus +occupied, and thus distracted--sternly attracted to the grave by his +creed, hideously repelled by infirmity of nature--he was suddenly +interrupted by a courier with letters for the master of the house; +letters, and from Rome! What was their import? That was soon +told--briefly that Nero was adjudged to be a public enemy by the senate, +and that official orders were issued for apprehending him, in order that +he might be brought to condign punishment according to the method of +ancient precedent. Ancient precedent! _more majorum!_ And how was that? +eagerly demanded the emperor. He was answered--that the state criminal +in such cases was first stripped naked, then impaled as it were between +the prongs of a pitchfork, and in that condition scourged to death. +Horror-struck with this account, he drew forth two poniards, or short +swords, tried their edges, and then, in utter imbecility of purpose, +returned them to their scabbards, alleging that the destined moment had +not yet arrived. Then he called upon Sporus, the infamous partner in +his former excesses, to commence the funeral anthem. Others, again, he +besought to lead the way in dying, and to sustain him by the spectacle +of their example. But this purpose also he dismissed in the very moment +of utterance; and turning away despairingly, he apostrophized himself in +words reproachful or animating, now taxing his nature with infirmity of +purpose, now calling on himself by name, with adjurations to remember +his dignity, and to act worthy of his supreme station: _ou prepei +Neroni_, cried he, _ou prepeu naephein dei en tois toidaetois ale, eleire +seauton_--i.e. "Fie, fie, then Nero! such a season calls for perfect +self-possession. Up, then, and rouse thyself to action." + +Thus, and in similar efforts to master the weakness of his reluctant +nature--weakness which would extort pity from the severest minds, were +it not from the odious connection which in him it had with cruelty +the most merciless--did this unhappy prince, _jam non salutis spem sed +exitii solatium quaerens_, consume the flying moments, until at length +his ears caught the fatal sounds or echoes from a body of horsemen +riding up to the villa. These were the officers charged with his arrest; +and if he should fall into their hands alive, he knew that his last +chance was over for liberating himself, by a Roman death, from the +burthen of ignominious life, and from a lingering torture. He paused +from his restless motions, listened attentively, then repeated a line +from Homer-- + + Ippon m' ochupodon amphi chtupos ouata ballei + +(The resounding tread of swift-footed horses reverberates upon my +ears);--then under some momentary impulse of courage, gained perhaps by +figuring to himself the bloody populace rioting upon his mangled body, +yet even then needing the auxiliary hand and vicarious courage of his +private secretary, the feeble-hearted prince stabbed himself in the +throat. The wound, however, was not such as to cause instant death. He +was still breathing, and not quite speechless, when the centurion who +commanded the party entered the closet; and to this officer, who uttered +a few hollow words of encouragement, he was still able to make a brief +reply. But in the very effort of speaking he expired, and with an +expression of horror impressed upon his stiffened features, which +communicated a sympathetic horror to all beholders. + +Such was the too memorable tragedy which closed for ever the brilliant +line of the Julian family, and translated the august title of Caesar +from its original purpose as a proper name to that of an official +designation. It is the most striking instance upon record of a dramatic +and extreme vengeance overtaking extreme guilt; for, as Nero had +exhausted the utmost possibilities of crime, so it may be affirmed that +he drank off the cup of suffering to the very extremity of what his +peculiar nature allowed. And in no life of so short a duration, have +there ever been crowded equal extremities of gorgeous prosperity and +abject infamy. It may be added, as another striking illustration of the +rapid mutability and revolutionary excesses which belonged to what +has been properly called the Roman _stratocracy_ then disposing of +the world, that within no very great succession of weeks that same +victorious rebel, the Emperor Galba, at whose feet Nero had been +self-immolated, was laid a murdered corpse in the same identical cell +which had witnessed the lingering agonies of his unhappy victim. This +was the act of an emancipated slave, anxious, by a vindictive insult to +the remains of one prince, to place on record his gratitude to another. +"So runs the world away!" And in this striking way is retribution +sometimes dispensed. + +In the sixth Caesar terminated the Julian line. The three next princes in +the succession were personally uninteresting; and, with a slight +reserve in favor of Otho, whose motives for committing suicide (if truly +reported) argue great nobility of mind, [Footnote: We may add that the +unexampled public grief which followed the death of Otho, exceeding +even that which followed the death of Germanicus, and causing several +officers to commit suicide, implies some remarkable goodness in this +Prince, and a very unusual power of conciliating attachment.] were +even brutal in the tenor of their lives and monstrous; besides that the +extreme brevity of their several reigns (all three, taken conjunctly, +having held the supreme power for no more than twelve months and twenty +days) dismisses them from all effectual station or right to a separate +notice in the line of Caesars. Coming to the tenth in succession, +Vespasian, and his two sons, Titus and Domitian, who make up the list of +the twelve Caesars, as they are usually called, we find matter for +deeper political meditation and subjects of curious research. But +these emperors would be more properly classed with the five who succeed +them--Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines; after whom comes +the young ruffian, Commodus, another Caligula or Nero, from whose +short and infamous reign Gibbon takes up his tale of the decline of the +empire. And this classification would probably have prevailed, had +not the very curious work of Suetonius, whose own life and period of +observation determined the series and cycle of his subjects, led to a +different distribution. But as it is evident that, in the succession of +the first twelve Caesars, the six latter have no connection whatever by +descent, collaterally, or otherwise, with the six first, it would be a +more logical distribution to combine them according to the fortunes +of the state itself, and the succession of its prosperity through the +several stages of splendor, declension, revival, and final decay. Under +this arrangement, the first seventeen would belong to the first stage; +Commodus would open the second; Aurelian down to Constantine or Julian +would fill the third; and Jovian to Augustulus would bring up the +melancholy rear. Meantime it will be proper, after thus briefly throwing +our eyes over the monstrous atrocities of the early Caesars, to spend a +few lines in examining their origin, and the circumstances which favored +their growth. For a mere hunter after hidden or forgotten singularities; +a lover on their own account of all strange perversities and freaks +of nature, whether in action, taste, or opinion; for a collector and +amateur of misgrowths and abortions; for a Suetonius, in short, it may +be quite enough to state and to arrange his cabinet of specimens from +the marvellous in human nature. But certainly in modern times, any +historian, however little affecting the praise of a philosophic +investigator, would feel himself called upon to remove a little +the taint of the miraculous and preternatural which adheres to +such anecdotes, by entering into the psychological grounds of their +possibility; whether lying in any peculiarly vicious education, early +familiarity with bad models, corrupting associations, or other plausible +key to effects, which, taken separately, and out of their natural +connection with their explanatory causes, are apt rather to startle and +revolt the feelings of sober thinkers. Except, perhaps, in some chapters +of Italian history, as, for example, among the most profligate of the +Papal houses, and amongst some of the Florentine princes, we find hardly +any parallel to the atrocities of Caligula and Nero; nor indeed was +Tiberius much (if at all) behind them, though otherwise so wary and +cautious in his conduct. The same tenor of licentiousness beyond the +needs of the individual, the same craving after the marvellous and the +stupendous in guilt, is continually emerging in succeeding emperors--in +Vitellius, in Domitian, in Commodus, in Caracalla--every where, in +short, where it was not overruled by one of two causes, either by +original goodness of nature too powerful to be mastered by ordinary +seductions, (and in some cases removed from their influence by an +early apprenticeship to camps,) or by the terrors of an exemplary ruin +immediately preceding. For such a determinate tendency to the enormous +and the anomalous, sufficient causes must exist. What were they? + +In the first place, we may observe that the people of Rome in that +age were generally more corrupt by many degrees than has been usually +supposed possible. The effect of revolutionary times, to relax all modes +of moral obligation, and to unsettle the moral sense, has been well and +philosophically stated by Mr. Coleridge; but that would hardly account +for the utter licentiousness and depravity of Imperial Rome. Looking +back to Republican Rome, and considering the state of public morals but +fifty years before the emperors, we can with difficulty believe that +the descendants of a people so severe in their habits could thus rapidly +degenerate, and that a populace, once so hardy and masculine, should +assume the manners which we might expect in the debauchees of Daphne +(the infamous suburb of Antioch) or of Canopus, into which settled the +very lees and dregs of the vicious Alexandria. Such extreme changes +would falsify all that we know of human nature; we might _a priori_ +pronounce them impossible; and in fact, upon searching history, we find +other modes of solving the difficulty. In reality, the citizens of Rome +were at this time a new race, brought together from every quarter of +the world, but especially from Asia. So vast a proportion of the ancient +citizens had been cut off by the sword, and partly to conceal this waste +of population, but much more by way of cheaply requiting services, or of +showing favor, or of acquiring influence, slaves had been emancipated +in such great multitudes, and afterwards invested with all the rights +of citizens, that, in a single generation, Rome became almost transmuted +into a baser metal; the progeny of those whom the last generation had +purchased from the slave merchants. These people derived their stock +chiefly from Cappadocia, Pontus, &c., and the other populous regions of +Asia Minor; and hence the taint of Asiatic luxury and depravity, which +was so conspicuous to all the Romans of the old republican severity. +Juvenal is to be understood more literally than is sometimes supposed, +when he complains that long before his time the Orontes (that river +which washed the infamous capital of Syria) had mingled its impure +waters with those of the Tiber. And a little before him, Lucan speaks +with mere historic gravity when he says-- + + ------"Vivant Galataeque Syrique + Cappadoces, Gallique, extremique orbis Iberi, + Armenii, Cilices: _nam post civilia bella + Hic Populus Romanus erit_." + +[Footnote: Blackwell, in his Court of Augustus, vol. i. p. 382, when +noticing these lines upon occasion of the murder of Cicero, in the final +proscription under the last triumvirate, comments thus: "Those of the +greatest and truly Roman spirit had been murdered in the field by +Julius Caesar; the rest were now massacred in the city by his son and +successors; in their room came Syrians, Cappadocians, Phrygians, and +other enfranchised slaves from the conquered nations;"--"these in half +a century had sunk so low, that Tiberius pronounced her very senators to +be _homines ad sermtutem natos_, men born to be slaves."] + +Probably in the time of Nero, not one man in six was of pure Roman +descent. [Footnote: Suetonius indeed pretends that Augustus, personally +at least, struggled against this ruinous practice--thinking it a matter +of the highest moment, "Sincerum atque ab omni colluvione peregrini et +servilis sanguinis incorruptum servare populum." And Horace is ready +with his flatteries on the same topic, lib. 3, Od. 6. But the facts +are against them; for the question is not what Augustus did in his +own person, (which at most could not operate very widely except by the +example,) but what he permitted to be done. Now there was a practice +familiar to those times; that when a congiary or any other popular +liberality was announced, multitudes were enfranchised by avaricious +masters in order to make them capable of the bounty, (as citizens,) and +yet under the condition of transferring to their emancipators whatsoever +they should receive; _ina ton daemosios d domenon siton lambanontes +chata maena--pherosi tois dedochasi taen eleutherian_ says Dionysius of +Halicarnassus, in order that after receiving the corn given publicly +in every month, they might carry it to those who had bestowed upon them +their freedom. In a case, then, where an extensive practice of this +kind was exposed to Augustus, and publicly reproved by him, how did he +proceed? Did he reject the new-made citizens? No; he contented himself +with diminishing the proportion originally destined for each, so that +the same absolute sum being distributed among a number increased by the +whole amount of the new enrolments, of necessity the relative sum for +each separately was so much less. But this was a remedy applied only +to the pecuniary fraud as it would have affected himself. The permanent +mischief to the state went unredressed.] And the consequences were +suitable. Scarcely a family has come down to our knowledge that could +not in one generation enumerate a long catalogue of divorces within its +own contracted circle. Every man had married a series of wives; every +woman a series of husbands. Even in the palace of Augustus, who wished +to be viewed as an _exemplar_ or ideal model of domestic purity, every +principal member of his family was tainted in that way; himself in a +manner and a degree infamous even at that time. [Footnote: Part of the +story is well known, but not the whole. Tiberius Nero, a promising young +nobleman, had recently married a very splendid beauty. Unfortunately for +him, at the marriage of Octavia (sister to Augustus) with Mark Anthony, +he allowed his young wife, then about eighteen, to attend upon the +bride. Augustus was deeply and suddenly fascinated by her charms, and +without further scruple sent a message to Nero--intimating that he was +in love with his wife, and would thank him to resign her. The other, +thinking it vain, in those days of lawless proscription, to contest a +point of this nature with one who commanded twelve legions, obeyed the +requisition. Upon some motive, now unknown, he was persuaded even to +degrade himself farther; for he actually officiated at the marriage +in character of father, and gave away the young beauty to his rival, +although at that time six months advanced in pregnancy by himself. These +humiliating concessions were extorted from him, and yielded (probably +at the instigation of friends) in order to save his life. In the sequel +they had the very opposite result; for he died soon after, and it is +reasonably supposed of grief and mortification. At the marriage feast, +an incident occurred which threw the whole company into confusion: A +little boy, roving from couch to couch among the guests, came at length +to that in which Livia (the bride) was lying by the side of Augustus, +on which he cried out aloud,--"Lady, what are you doing here? You +are mistaken--this is not your husband--he is there," (pointing to +Tiberius,) "go, go--rise, lady, and recline beside _him_."] For the +first 400 years of Rome, not one divorce had been granted or asked, +although the statute which allowed of this indulgence had always been +in force. But in the age succeeding to the civil wars men and women +"married," says one author, "with a view to divorce, and divorced +in order to marry. Many of these changes happened within the year, +especially if the lady had a large fortune, which always went with her, +and procured her choice of transient husbands." And, "can one imagine," +asks the same writer, "that the fair one, who changed her husband every +quarter, strictly kept her matrimonial faith all the three months?" Thus +the very fountain of all the "household charities" and household +virtues was polluted. And after that we need little wonder at the +assassinations, poisonings, and forging of wills, which then laid waste +the domestic life of the Romans. + +2. A second source of the universal depravity was the growing inefficacy +of the public religion; and this arose from its disproportion and +inadequacy to the intellectual advances of the nation. _Religion_, in +its very etymology, has been held to imply a _religatio_, that is, a +reiterated or secondary obligation of morals; a sanction supplementary +to that of the conscience. Now, for a rude and uncultivated people, the +Pagan mythology might not be too gross to discharge the main functions +of a useful religion. So long as the understanding could submit to the +fables of the Pagan creed, so long it was possible that the hopes and +fears built upon that creed might be practically efficient on men's +lives and intentions. But when the foundation gave way, the whole +superstructure of necessity fell to the ground. Those who were obliged +to reject the ridiculous legends which invested the whole of their +Pantheon, together with the fabulous adjudgers of future punishments, +could not but dismiss the punishments, which were, in fact, as +laughable, and as obviously the fictions of human ingenuity, as their +dispensers. In short, the civilized part of the world in those days +lay in this dreadful condition; their intellect had far outgrown their +religion; the disproportions between the two were at length become +monstrous; and as yet no purer or more elevated faith was prepared +for their acceptance. The case was as shocking as if, with our present +intellectual needs, we should be unhappy enough to have no creed on +which to rest the burden of our final hopes and fears, of our moral +obligations, and of our consolations in misery, except the fairy +mythology of our nurses. The condition of a people so situated, of a +people under the calamity of having outgrown its religious faith, has +never been sufficiently considered. It is probable that such a +condition has never existed before or since that era of the world. The +consequences to Rome were--that the reasoning and disputatious part of +her population took refuge from the painful state of doubt in Atheism; +amongst the thoughtless and irreflective the consequences were chiefly +felt in their morals, which were thus sapped in their foundation. + +3. A third cause, which from the first had exercised a most baleful +influence upon the arts and upon literature in Rome, had by this time +matured its disastrous tendencies towards the extinction of the moral +sensibilities. This was the circus, and the whole machinery, form and +substance, of the Circensian shows. Why had tragedy no existence as a +part of the Roman literature? Because--and _that_ was a reason which +would have sufficed to stifle all the dramatic genius of Greece and +England--there was too much tragedy in the shape of gross reality, +almost daily before their eyes. The amphitheatre extinguished the +theatre. How was it possible that the fine and intellectual griefs of +the drama should win their way to hearts seared and rendered callous +by the continual exhibition of scenes the most hideous, in which human +blood was poured out like water, and a human life sacrificed at any +moment either to caprice in the populace, or to a strife of rivalry +between the _ayes_ and the _noes_, or as the penalty for any trifling +instance of awkwardness in the performer himself? Even the more innocent +exhibitions, in which brutes only were the sufferers, could not but be +mortal to all the finer sensibilities. Five thousand wild animals, torn +from their native abodes in the wilderness or forest, were often turned +out to be hunted, or for mutual slaughter, in the course of a single +exhibition of this nature; and it sometimes happened, (a fact which of +itself proclaims the course of the public propensities,) that the person +at whose expense the shows were exhibited, by way of paying special +court to the people and meriting their favor, in the way most +conspicuously open to him, issued orders that all, without a solitary +exception, should be slaughtered. He made it known, as the very highest +gratification which the case allowed, that (in the language of our +modern auctioneers) the whole, "without reserve," should perish before +their eyes. Even such spectacles must have hardened the heart, and +blunted the more delicate sensibilities; but these would soon cease to +stimulate the pampered and exhausted sense. From the combats of tigers +or leopards, in which the passions could only be gathered indirectly, +and by way of inference from the motions, the transition must have been +almost inevitable to those of men, whose nobler and more varied passions +spoke directly, and by the intelligible language of the eye, to human +spectators; and from the frequent contemplation of these authorized +murders, in which a whole people, women [Footnote: Augustus, indeed, +strove to exclude the women from one part of the circension spectacles; +and what was that? Simply from the sight of the _Athletae_, as being +naked. But that they should witness the pangs of the dying gladiators, +he deemed quite allowable. The smooth barbarian considered; that a +license of the first sort offended against decorum, whilst the other +violated only the sanctities of the human heart, and the whole sexual +character of women. It is our opinion, that to the brutalizing effect of +these exhibitions we are to ascribe not only the early extinction of the +Roman drama, but generally the inferiority of Rome to Greece in every +department of the fine arts. The fine temper of Roman sensibility, which +no culture could have brought to the level of the Grecian, was +thus dulled for _every_ application.] as much as men, and children +intermingled with both, looked on with leisurely indifference, with +anxious expectation, or with rapturous delight, whilst below them were +passing the direct sufferings of humanity, and not seldom its dying +pangs, it was impossible to expect a result different from that +which did in fact take place,--universal hardness of heart, obdurate +depravity, and a twofold degradation of human nature, which acted +simultaneously upon the two pillars of morality, (which are otherwise +not often assailed together,) of natural sensibility in the first place, +and, in the second, of conscientious principle. + +4. But these were circumstances which applied to the whole population +indiscriminately. Superadded to these, in the case of the emperor, and +affecting _him_ exclusively, was this prodigious disadvantage--that +ancient reverence for the immediate witnesses of his actions, and for +the people and senate who would under other circumstances have exercised +the old functions of the censor, was, as to the emperor, pretty nearly +obliterated. The very title of _imperator_, from which we have derived +our modern one of _emperor_, proclaims the nature of the government, and +the tenure of that office. It was purely a government by the sword, or +permanent _stratocracy_ having a movable head. Never was there a people +who inquired so impertinently as the Romans into the domestic conduct +of each private citizen. No rank escaped this jealous vigilance; and +private liberty, even in the most indifferent circumstances of taste or +expense, was sacrificed to this inquisitorial rigor of _surveillance_ +exercised on behalf of the State, sometimes by erroneous patriotism, too +often by malice in disguise. To this spirit the highest public officers +were obliged to bow; the consuls, not less than others. And even the +occasional dictator, if by law irresponsible, acted nevertheless as one +who knew that any change which depressed his party, might eventually +abrogate his privilege. For the first time in the person of an imperator +was seen a supreme autocrat, who had virtually and effectively all the +irresponsibility which the law assigned, and the origin of his office +presumed. Satisfied to know that he possessed such power, Augustus, +as much from natural taste as policy, was glad to dissemble it, and by +every means to withdraw it from public notice. But he had passed his +youth as citizen of a republic; and in the state of transition to +autocracy, in his office of triumvir, had experimentally known the +perils of rivalship, and the pains of foreign control, too feelingly +to provoke unnecessarily any sleeping embers of the republican spirit. +Tiberius, though familiar from his infancy with the servile homage of a +court, was yet modified by the popular temper of Augustus; and he came +late to the throne. Caligula was the first prince on whom the entire +effect of his political situation was allowed to operate; and the +natural results were seen--he was the first absolute monster. He must +early have seen the realities of his position, and from what quarter it +was that any cloud could arise to menace his security. To the senate or +people any respect which he might think proper to pay, must have been +imputed by all parties to the lingering superstitions of custom, to +involuntary habit, to court dissimulation, or to the decencies of +external form, and the prescriptive reverence of ancient names. But +neither senate nor people could enforce their claims, whatever they +might happen to be. Their sanction and ratifying vote might be worth +having, as consecrating what was already secure, and conciliating the +scruples of the weak to the absolute decision of the strong. But their +resistance, as an original movement, was so wholly without hope, that +they were never weak enough to threaten it. + +The army was the true successor to their places, being the _ultimate_ +depository of power. Yet, as the army was necessarily subdivided, as the +shifting circumstances upon every frontier were continually varying the +strength of the several divisions as to numbers and state of discipline, +one part might be balanced against the other by an imperator standing +in the centre of the whole. The rigor of the military _sacramentum_, or +oath of allegiance, made it dangerous to offer the first overtures to +rebellion; and the money, which the soldiers were continually depositing +in the bank, placed at the foot of their military standards, if +sometimes turned against the emperor, was also liable to be sequestrated +in his favor. There were then, in fact, two great forces in the +government acting in and by each other--the Stratocracy, and the +Autocracy. Each needed the other; each stood in awe of each. But, as +regarded all other forces in the empire, constitutional or irregular, +popular or senatorial, neither had any thing to fear. Under any ordinary +circumstances, therefore, considering the hazards of a rebellion, the +emperor was substantially liberated from all control. Vexations or +outrages upon the populace were not such to the army. It was but rarely +that the soldier participated in the emotions of the citizen. And thus, +being effectually without check, the most vicious of the Caesars went on +without fear, presuming upon the weakness of one part of his subjects, +and the indifference of the other, until he was tempted onwards to +atrocities, which armed against him the common feelings of human +nature, and all mankind, as it were, rose in a body with one voice, and +apparently with one heart, united by mere force of indignant sympathy, +to put him down, and "abate" him as a monster. But, until he brought +matters to this extremity, Caesar had no cause to fear. Nor was it at all +certain, in any one instance, where this exemplary chastisement overtook +him, that the apparent unanimity of the actors went further than the +_practical_ conclusion of "abating" the imperial nuisance, or that their +indignation had settled upon the same offences. In general the army +measured the guilt by the public scandal, rather than by its moral +atrocity; and Caesar suffered perhaps in every case, not so much because +he had violated his duties, as because he had dishonored his office. + +It is, therefore, in the total absence of the checks which have almost +universally existed to control other despots, under some indirect shape, +even where none was provided by the laws, that we must seek for the +main peculiarity affecting the condition of the Roman Caesar, which +peculiarity it was, superadded to the other three, that finally made +those three operative in their fullest extent. It is in the perfection +of the stratocracy that we must look for the key to the excesses of the +autocrat. Even in the bloody despotisms of the Barbary States, there has +always existed in the religious prejudices of the people, which could +not be violated with safety, one check more upon the caprices of the +despot than was found at Rome. Upon the whole, therefore, what affects +us on the first reading as a prodigy or anomaly in the frantic outrages +of the early Caesars--falls within the natural bounds of intelligible +human nature, when we state the case considerately. Surrounded by a +population which had not only gone through a most vicious and corrupting +discipline, and had been utterly ruined by the license of revolutionary +times, and the bloodiest proscriptions, but had even been extensively +changed in its very elements, and from the descendants of Romulus had +been transmuted into an Asiatic mob;--starting from this point, and +considering as the second feature of the case, that this transfigured +people, _morally_ so degenerate, were carried, however, by the progress +of civilization to a certain intellectual altitude, which the popular +religion had not strength to ascend--but from inherent disproportion +remained at the base of the general civilization, incapable of +accompanying the other elements in their advance;--thirdly, that this +polished condition of society, which should naturally with the evils of +a luxurious repose have counted upon its pacific benefits, had yet, by +means of its circus and its gladiatorial contests, applied a constant +irritation, and a system of provocations to the appetites for blood, +such as in all other nations are connected with the rudest stages of +society, and with the most barbarous modes of warfare, nor even in such +circumstances without many palliatives wanting to the spectators of the +circus;--combining these considerations, we have already a key to the +enormities and hideous excesses of the Roman Imperator. The hot blood +which excites, and the adventurous courage which accompanies, the +excesses of sanguinary warfare, presuppose a condition of the moral +nature not to be compared for malignity and baleful tendency to the +cool and cowardly spirit of amateurship, in which the Roman (perhaps +an effeminate Asiatic) sat looking down upon the bravest of men, +(Thracians, or other Europeans,) mangling each other for his recreation. +When, lastly, from such a population, and thus disciplined from +his nursery days, we suppose the case of one individual selected, +privileged, and raised to a conscious irresponsibility, except at +the bar of one extra-judicial tribunal, not easily irritated, and +notoriously to be propitiated by other means than those of upright +or impartial conduct, we lay together the elements of a situation too +trying for poor human nature, and fitted only to the faculties of an +angel or a demon; of an angel, if we suppose him to resist its +full temptations; of a demon, if we suppose him to use its total +opportunities. Thus interpreted and solved, Caligula and Nero become +ordinary men. + +But, finally, what if, after all, the worst of the Caesars, and those +in particular, were entitled to the benefit of a still shorter and more +conclusive apology? What if, in a true medical sense, they were insane? +It is certain that a vein of madness ran in the family; and anecdotes +are recorded of the three worst, which go far to establish it as a fact, +and others which would imply it as symptoms--preceding or accompanying. +As belonging to the former class, take the following story: At midnight +an elderly gentleman suddenly sends round a message to a select party +of noblemen, rouses them out of bed, and summons them instantly to his +palace. Trembling for their lives from the suddenness of the summons, +and from the unseasonable hour, and scarcely doubting that by +some anonymous _delator_ they have been implicated as parties to a +conspiracy, they hurry to the palace--are received in portentous silence +by the ushers and pages in attendance--are conducted to a saloon, where +(as in every where else) the silence of night prevails, united with the +silence of fear and whispering expectation. All are seated--all look at +each other in ominous anxiety. Which is accuser? Which is the accused? +On whom shall their suspicion settle--on whom their pity? All are +silent--almost speechless--and even the current of their thoughts is +frost-bound by fear. Suddenly the sound of a fiddle or a viol is caught +from a distance--it swells upon the ear--steps approach--and in +another moment in rushes the elderly gentleman, grave and gloomy as his +audience, but capering about in a frenzy of excitement. For half an +hour he continues to perform all possible evolutions of caprioles, +pirouettes, and other extravagant feats of activity, accompanying +himself on the fiddle; and, at length, not having once looked at +his guests, the elderly gentleman whirls out of the room in the same +transport of emotion with which he entered it; the panic-struck visitors +are requested by a slave to consider themselves as dismissed: they +retire; resume their couches:--the nocturnal pageant has "dislimned" and +vanished; and on the following morning, were it not for their concurring +testimonies, all would be disposed to take this interruption of their +sleep for one of its most fantastic dreams. The elderly gentleman, who +figured in this delirious _pas seul_--who was he? He was Tiberius Caesar, +king of kings, and lord of the terraqueous globe. Would a British jury +demand better evidence than this of a disturbed intellect in any formal +process _de lunatico inquirendo_? For Caligula, again, the evidence of +symptoms is still plainer. He knew his own defect; and purposed going +through a course of hellebore. Sleeplessness, one of the commonest +indications of lunacy, haunted him in an excess rarely recorded. +[Footnote: No fiction of romance presents so awful a picture of the +ideal tyrant as that of Caligula by Suetonius. His palace--radiant with +purple and gold, but murder every where lurking beneath flowers; his +smiles and echoing laughter--masking (yet hardly meant to mask) his +foul treachery of heart; his hideous and tumultuous dreams--his baffled +sleep--and his sleepless nights--compose the picture of an AEschylus. +What a master's sketch lies in these few lines: "Incitabatur insomnio +maxime; neque enim plus tribus horis nocturnis quiescebat; ac ne his +placida quiete, at pavida miris rerum imaginibus: ut qui inter ceteras +pelagi quondam speciem colloquentem secum videre visus sit. Ideoque +magna parte noctis, vigilse cubandique tsedio, nunc toro residens, nunc +per longissimas porticus vagus, invocare identidem atque exspectare +lucem consueverat:"--i. e., But, above all, he was tormented with +nervous irritation, by sleeplessness; for he enjoyed not more than three +hours of nocturnal repose; nor these even in pure untroubled rest, but +agitated by phantasmata of portentous augury; as, for example, upon +one occasion he fancied that he saw the sea, under some definite +impersonation, conversing with himself. Hence it was, and from this +incapacity of sleeping, and from weariness of lying awake, that he had +fallen into habits of ranging all the night long through the palace, +sometimes throwing himself on a couch, sometimes wandering along the +vast corridors, watching for the earliest dawn, and anxiously invoking +its approach.] The same, or similar facts, might be brought forward on +behalf of Nero. And thus these unfortunate princes, who have so long +(and with so little investigation of their cases) passed for monsters or +for demoniac counterfeits of men, would at length be brought back within +the fold of humanity, as objects rather of pity than of abhorrence, +would be reconciled to our indulgent feelings, and, at the same time, +made intelligible to our understandings. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +The five Caesars who succeeded immediately to the first twelve, were, in +as high a sense as their office allowed, patriots. Hadrian is perhaps +the first of all whom circumstances permitted to show his patriotism +without fear. It illustrates at one and the same moment a trait in this +emperor's character, and in the Roman habits, that he acquired +much reputation for hardiness by walking bareheaded. "Never, on any +occasion," says one of his memorialists (Dio,) "neither in summer heat +nor in winter's cold, did he cover his head; but, as well in the Celtic +snows as in Egyptian heats, he went about bareheaded." This anecdote +could not fail to win the especial admiration of Isaac Casaubon, who +lived in an age when men believed a hat no less indispensable to the +head, even within doors, than shoes or stockings to the feet. His +astonishment on the occasion is thus expressed: "Tantum est _hae +aschaesis_:" such and so mighty is the force of habit and daily use. And +then he goes on to ask--"Quis hodie nudum caput radiis solis, aut +omnia perurenti frigori, ausit exponere?" Yet we ourselves, and our +illustrious friend, Christopher North, have walked for twenty years +amongst our British lakes and mountains hatless, and amidst both snow +and rain, such as Romans did not often experience. We were naked, and +yet not ashamed. Nor in this are we altogether singular. But, says +Casaubon, the Romans went farther; for they walked about the streets +of Rome [Footnote: And hence we may the better estimate the trial to a +Roman's feelings in the personal deformity of baldness, connected with +the Roman theory of its cause, for the exposure of it was perpetual.] +bareheaded, and never assumed a hat or a cap, a _petasus_ or a +_galerus_, a Macedonian _causia_, or a _pileus_, whether Thessalian, +Arcadian, or Laconic, unless when they entered upon a journey. Nay, some +there were, as Masinissa and Julius Caesar, who declined even on such an +occasion to cover their heads. Perhaps in imitation of these celebrated +leaders, Hadrian adopted the same practice, but not with the same +result; for to him, either from age or constitution, this very custom +proved the original occasion of his last illness. + +Imitation, indeed, was a general principle of action with Hadrian, and +the key to much of his public conduct; and allowably enough, considering +the exemplary lives (in a public sense) of some who had preceded him, +and the singular anxiety with which he distinguished between the lights +and shadows of their examples. He imitated the great Dictator, Julius, +in his vigilance of inspection into the civil, not less than the martial +police of his times, shaping his new regulations to meet abuses as they +arose, and strenuously maintaining the old ones in vigorous operation. +As respected the army, this was matter of peculiar praise, because +peculiarly disinterested; for his foreign policy was pacific; [Footnote: +"Expeditiones sub eo," says Spartian, "graves nullae fuerunt. Bella etiam +silentio pene transacta." But he does not the less add, "A militibus, +propter curam exercitus nimiam, multum amatus est."] he made no new +conquests; and he retired from the old ones of Trajan, where they +could not have been maintained without disproportionate bloodshed, or +a jealousy beyond the value of the stake. In this point of his +administration he took Augustus for his model; as again in his care of +the army, in his occasional bounties, and in his paternal solicitude for +their comforts, he looked rather to the example of Julius. Him also he +imitated in his affability and in his ambitious courtesies; one instance +of which, as blending an artifice of political subtlety and simulation +with a remarkable exertion of memory, it may be well to mention. The +custom was, in canvassing the citizens of Rome, that the candidate +should address every voter by his name; it was a fiction of republican +etiquette, that every man participating in the political privileges of +the State must be personally known to public aspirants. But, as this +was supposed to be, in a literal sense, impossible to all men with the +ordinary endowments of memory, in order to reconcile the pretensions of +republican hauteur with the necessities of human weakness, a custom had +grown up of relying upon a class of men, called _nomenclators_, whose +express business and profession it was to make themselves acquainted +with the person and name of every citizen. One of these people +accompanied every candidate, and quietly whispered into his ear the +name of each voter as he came in sight. Few, indeed, were they who could +dispense with the services of such an assessor; for the office imposed +a twofold memory, that of names and of persons; and to estimate the +immensity of the effort, we must recollect that the number of voters +often far exceeded one quarter of a million. The very same trial of +memory he undertook with respect to his own army, in this instance +recalling the well known feat of Mithridates. And throughout his life he +did not once forget the face or name of any veteran soldier whom he ever +had occasion to notice, no matter under what remote climate, or under +what difference of circumstances. Wonderful is the effect upon soldiers +of such enduring and separate remembrance, which operates always as the +most touching kind of personal flattery, and which, in every age of the +world, since the social sensibilities of men have been much developed, +military commanders are found to have played upon as the most effectual +chord in the great system which they modulated; some few, by a rare +endowment of nature; others, as Napoleon Bonaparte, by elaborate +mimicries of pantomimic art. [Footnote: In the true spirit of Parisian +mummery, Bonaparte caused letters to be written from the War-office, +in his own name, to particular soldiers of high military reputation in +every brigade, (whose private history he had previously caused to be +investigated,) alluding circumstantially to the leading facts in their +personal or family career; a furlough accompanied this letter, and they +were requested to repair to Paris, where the emperor anxiously desired +to see them. Thus was the paternal interest expressed, which their +leader took in each man's fortunes; and the effect of every such letter, +it was not doubted, would diffuse itself through ten thousand other +men.] + +Other modes he had of winning affection from the army; in particular +that, so often practised before and since, of accommodating himself +to the strictest ritual of martial discipline and castrensian life. He +slept in the open air, or, if he used a tent (papilio), it was open at +the sides. He ate the ordinary rations of cheese, bacon, &c.; he used +no other drink than that composition of vinegar and water, known by the +name of _posca_, which formed the sole beverage allowed in the +Roman camps. He joined personally in the periodical exercises of the +army--those even which were trying to the most vigorous youth and +health: marching, for example, on stated occasions, twenty English miles +without intermission, in full armor and completely accoutred. Luxury of +every kind he not only interdicted to the soldier by severe ordinances, +himself enforcing their execution, but discountenanced it (though +elsewhere splendid and even gorgeous in his personal habits) by his +own continual example. In dress, for instance, he sternly banished +the purple and gold embroideries, the jewelled arms, and the floating +draperies so little in accordance with the-severe character of "_war +in procinct_" [Footnote: "_War in procinct_"--a phrase of Milton's +in Paradise Regained, which strikingly illustrates his love of Latin +phraseology; for unless to a scholar, previously acquainted with the +Latin phrase of _in procinctu_, it is so absolutely unintelligible as to +interrupt the current of the feeling.] Hardly would he allow himself +an ivory hilt to his sabre. The same severe proscription he extended to +every sort of furniture, or decorations of art, which sheltered even +in the bosom of camps those habits of effeminate luxury--so apt in all +great empires to steal by imperceptible steps from the voluptuous +palace to the soldier's tent--following in the equipage of great leading +officers, or of subalterns highly connected. There was at that time +a practice prevailing, in the great standing camps on the several +frontiers and at all the military stations, of renewing as much as +possible the image of distant Rome by the erection of long colonnades +and piazzas--single, double, or triple; of crypts, or subterranean +[Footnote: "_Crypts_"--these, which Spartian, in his life of Hadrian, +denominates simply _cryptae_, are the same which, in the Roman +jurisprudence, and in the architectural works of the Romans, yet +surviving, are termed _hypogaea deambulationes, i. e._ subterranean +parades. Vitruvius treats of this luxurious class of apartments in +connection with the Apothecae, and other repositories or store-rooms, +which were also in many cases under ground, for the same reason as our +ice-houses, wine-cellars, &c. He (and from him Pliny and Apollonaris +Sidonius), calls them _crypto-porticus_ (cloistral colonnades); and +Ulpian calls them _refugia_ (sanctuaries, or places of refuge); +St. Ambrose notices them under the name of _hypogaea_ and _umbrosa +penetralia_, as the resorts of voluptuaries: _Luxuriosorum est_, says +he, _hypogaea quaerere--captantium frigus aestivum_; and again he speaks of +_desidiosi qui ignava sub terris agant otia_.] saloons, (and sometimes +subterranean galleries and corridors,) for evading the sultry noontides +of July and August; of verdant cloisters or arcades, with roofs high +over-arched, constructed entirely out of flexile shrubs, box-myrtle, +and others, trained and trimmed in regular forms; besides endless other +applications of the _topiary_ [Footnote: "_The topiary art_"--so called, +as Salmasius thinks, from _ropaeion, a rope_; because the process of +construction was conducted chiefly by means of cords and strings. This +art was much practised in the 17th century; and Casaubon describes one, +which existed in his early days somewhere in the suburbs of Paris, on +so elaborate a scale, that it represented Troy besieged, with the +two hosts, their several leaders, and all other objects in their full +proportion.] art, which in those days (like the needlework of Miss +Linwood in ours), though no more than a mechanic craft, in some +measure realized the effects of a fine art by the perfect skill of its +execution. All these modes of luxury, with a policy that had the +more merit as it thwarted his own private inclinations, did Hadrian +peremptorily abolish; perhaps, amongst other more obvious purposes, +seeking to intercept the earliest buddings of those local attachments +which are as injurious to the martial character and the proper pursuits +of men whose vocation obliges them to consider themselves eternally +under marching orders, as they are propitious to all the best interests +of society in connection with the feelings of civic life. + +We dwell upon this prince not without reason in this particular; for, +amongst the Caesars, Hadrian stands forward in high relief as a reformer +of the army. Well and truly might it be said of him--that, _post Caesarem +Octavianum labantem disciplinam, incurid superiorum principum, ipse +retinuit_. Not content with the cleansings and purgations we have +mentioned, he placed upon a new footing the whole tenure, duties, and +pledges, of military offices. [Footnote: Very remarkable it is, and a +fact which speaks volumes as to the democratic constitution of the Roman +army, in the midst of that aristocracy which enveloped its parent state +in a civil sense, that although there was a name for a _common soldier_ +(or _sentinel_, as he was termed by our ancestors)--viz. _miles +gregarius_, or _miles manipularis_--there was none for an _officer_; +that is to say, each several rank of officers had a name; but there was +no generalization to express the idea of an officer abstracted from +its several species or classes.] It cannot much surprise us that this +department of the public service should gradually have gone to ruin or +decay. Under the senate and people, under the auspices of those awful +symbols--letters more significant and ominous than ever before had +troubled the eyes of man, except upon Belshazzar's wall--S.P.Q.R., +the officers of the Roman army had been kept true to their duties, and +vigilant by emulation and a healthy ambition. But, when the ripeness of +corruption had by dissolving the body of the State brought out of its +ashes a new mode of life, and had recast the aristocratic republic, by +aid of its democratic elements then suddenly victorious, into a pure +autocracy--whatever might be the advantages in other respects of this +great change, in one point it had certainly injured the public service, +by throwing the higher military appointments, all in fact which +conferred any authority, into the channels of court favor--and by +consequence into a mercenary disposal. Each successive emperor had been +too anxious for his own immediate security, to find leisure for the +remoter interests of the empire: all looked to the army, as it were, for +their own immediate security against competitors, without venturing to +tamper with its constitution, to risk popularity by reforming abuses, +to balance present interest against a remote one, or to cultivate the +public welfare at the hazard of their own: contented with obtaining +_that_, they left the internal arrangements of so formidable a body in +the state to which circumstances had brought it, and to which naturally +the views of all existing beneficiaries had gradually adjusted +themselves. What these might be, and to what further results they might +tend, was a matter of moment doubtless to the empire. But the empire +was strong; if its motive energy was decaying, its _vis inertia_ was +for ages enormous, and could stand up against assaults repeated for many +ages: whilst the emperor was in the beginning of his authority weak, and +pledged by instant interest, no less than by express promises, to the +support of that body whose favor had substantially supported himself. +Hadrian was the first who turned his attention effectually in that +direction; whether it were that he first was struck with the tendency +of the abuses, or that he valued the hazard less which he incurred in +correcting them, or that, having no successor of his own blood, he had a +less personal and affecting interest at stake in setting this hazard at +defiance. Hitherto, the highest regimental rank, that of tribune, had +been disposed of in two ways, either civilly upon popular favor and +election, or upon the express recommendation of the soldiery. This +custom had prevailed under the republic, and the force of habit had +availed to propagate that practice under a new mode of government. But +now were introduced new regulations: the tribune was selected for his +military qualities and experience: none was appointed to this important +office, "_nisi barba plena_" The centurion's truncheon, [Footnote: +_Vitis_: and it deserves to be mentioned, that this staff, or cudgel, +which was the official engine and cognizance of the Centurion's dignity, +was meant expressly to be used in caning or cudgelling the inferior +soldiers: "_propterea_ vitis in manum data," says Salmasius, +"_verberando scilicet militi qui deliquisset_." We are no patrons +of corporal chastisement, which, on the contrary, as the vilest of +degradations, we abominate. The soldier, who does not feel himself +dishonored by it, is already dishonored beyond hope or redemption. +But still let this degradation not be imputed to the English army +exclusively.] again, was given to no man, "_nisi robusto et bonae famae_." +The arms and military appointments (_supellectilis_) were revised; the +register of names was duly called over; and none suffered to remain +in the camps who was either above or below the military age. The same +vigilance and jealousy were extended to the great stationary stores and +repositories of biscuit, vinegar, and other equipments for the soldiery. +All things were in constant readiness in the capital and the provinces, +in the garrisons and camps, abroad and at home, to meet the outbreak +of a foreign war or a domestic sedition. Whatever were the service, it +could by no possibility find Hadrian unprepared. And he first, in fact, +of all the Caesars, restored to its ancient republican standard, as +reformed and perfected by Marius, the old martial discipline of the +Scipios and the Paulli--that discipline, to which, more than to any +physical superiority of her soldiery, Rome had been indebted for her +conquest of the earth; and which had inevitably decayed in the long +series of wars growing out of personal ambition. From the days of +Marius, every great leader had sacrificed to the necessities of courting +favor from the troops, as much as was possible of the hardships +incident to actual service, and as much as he dared of the once rigorous +discipline. Hadrian first found himself in circumstances, or was the +first who had courage enough to decline a momentary interest in favor +of a greater in reversion; and a personal object which was transient, in +favor of a state one continually revolving. + +For a prince, with no children of his own, it is in any case a task +of peculiar delicacy to select a successor. In the Roman empire the +difficulties were much aggravated. The interests of the State were, in +the first place, to be consulted; for a mighty burthen of responsibility +rested upon the emperor in the most personal sense. Duties of every +kind fell to his station, which, from the peculiar constitution of the +government, and from circumstances rooted in the very origin of the +imperatorial office, could not be devolved upon a council. Council there +was none, nor could be recognised as such in the State machinery. The +emperor, himself a sacred and sequestered creature, might be supposed to +enjoy the secret tutelage of the Supreme Deity; but a council, composed +of subordinate and responsible agents, could _not_. Again, the auspices +of the emperor, and his edicts, apart even from any celestial or +supernatural inspiration, simply as emanations of his own divine +character, had a value and a consecration which could never belong +to those of a council--or to those even which had been sullied by the +breath of any less august reviser. The emperor, therefore, or--as with +a view to his solitary and unique character we ought to call him--in +the original irrepresentable term, the imperator, could not delegate +his duties, or execute them in any avowed form by proxies or +representatives. He was himself the great fountain of law--of honor--of +preferment--of civil and political regulations. He was the fountain also +of good and evil fame. He was the great chancellor, or supreme dispenser +of equity to all climates, nations, languages, of his mighty dominions, +which connected the turbaned races of the Orient, and those who sat +in the gates of the rising sun, with the islands of the West, and the +unfathomed depths of the mysterious Scandinavia. He was the universal +guardian of the public and private interests which composed the great +edifice of the social system as then existing amongst his subjects. +Above all, and out of his own private purse, he supported the heraldries +of his dominions--the peerage, senatorial or praetorian, and the great +gentry or chivalry of the Equites. These were classes who would have +been dishonored by the censorship of a less august comptroller. And, for +the classes below these,--by how much they were lower and more remote +from his ocular superintendence,--by so much the more were they linked +to him in a connection of absolute dependence. Caesar it was who provided +their daily food, Caesar who provided their pleasures and relaxations. +He chartered the fleets which brought grain to the Tiber--he bespoke the +Sardinian granaries whilst yet unformed--and the harvests of the Nile +whilst yet unsown. Not the connection between a mother and her unborn +infant is more intimate and vital, than that which subsisted between the +mighty populace of the Roman capital and their paternal emperor. They +drew their nutriment from him; they lived and were happy by sympathy +with the motions of his will; to him also the arts, the knowledge, +and the literature of the empire looked for support. To him the armies +looked for their laurels, and the eagles in every clime turned their +aspiring eyes, waiting to bend their flight according to the signal of +his Jovian nod. And all these vast functions and ministrations arose +partly as a natural effect, but partly also they were a cause of the +emperor's own divinity. He was capable of services so exalted, because +he also was held a god, and had his own altars, his own incense, his own +worship and priests. And that was the cause, and that was the result of +his bearing, on his own shoulders, a burthen so mighty and Atlantean. + +Yet, if in this view it was needful to have a man of talent, on the +other hand there was reason to dread a man of talents too adventurous, +too aspiring, or too intriguing. His situation, as Caesar, or Crown +Prince, flung into his hands a power of fomenting conspiracies, and of +concealing them until the very moment of explosion, which made him an +object of almost exclusive terror to his principal, the Caesar Augustus. +His situation again, as an heir voluntarily adopted, made him the +proper object of public affection and caresses, which became peculiarly +embarrassing to one who had, perhaps, soon found reasons for suspecting, +fearing, and hating him beyond all other men. + +The young nobleman, whom Hadrian adopted by his earliest choice, was +Lucius Aurelius Verus, the son of Cejonius Commodus. These names were +borne also by the son; but, after his adoption into the AElian family, +he was generally known by the appellation of AElius Verus. The scandal of +those times imputed his adoption to the worst motives. "_Adriano_," says +one author, ("_ut malevoli loquuntur_) _acceptior forma quam moribus_" +And thus much undoubtedly there is to countenance so shocking an +insinuation, that very little is recorded of the young prince but such +anecdotes as illustrate his excessive luxury and effeminate dedication +to pleasure. Still it is our private opinion, that Hadrian's real +motives have been misrepresented; that he sought in the young man's +extraordinary beauty--[for he was, says Spartian, _pulchritudinis +regiae_]--a plausible pretext that should be sufficient to explain and +to countenance his preference, whilst under this provisional adoption +he was enabled to postpone the definitive choice of an imperator +elect, until his own more advanced age might diminish the motives for +intriguing against himself. It was, therefore, a mere _ad interim_ +adoption; for it is certain, however we may choose to explain that fact, +that Hadrian foresaw and calculated on the early death of AElius. This +prophetic knowledge may have been grounded on a private familiarity with +some constitutional infirmity affecting his daily health, or with some +habits of life incompatible with longevity, or with both combined. It +is pretended that this distinguished mark of favor was conferred in +fulfilment of a direct contract on the emperor's part, as the price of +favors such as the Latin reader will easily understand from the strong +expression of Spartian above cited. But it is far more probable that +Hadrian relied on this admirable beauty, and allowed it so much weight, +as the readiest and most intelligible justification to the multitude, +of a choice which thus offered to their homage a public favorite--and +to the nobility, of so invidious a preference, which placed one of their +own number far above the level of his natural rivals. The necessities +of the moment were thus satisfied without present or future danger;--as +respected the future, he knew or believed that Verus was marked out for +early death; and would often say, in a strain of compliment somewhat +disproportionate, applying to him the Virgilian lines on the hopeful and +lamented Marcellus, + + "Ostendent terris hunc tantum fata, neque ultra + Esse sinent." + +And, at the same time, to countenance the belief that he had been +disappointed, he would affect to sigh, exclaiming--"Ah! that I should +thus fruitlessly have squandered a sum of three [Footnote: In the +original _ter millies_, which is not much above two millions and 150 +thousand pounds sterling; but it must be remembered that one third as +much, in addition to this popular largess, had been given to the army.] +millions sterling!" for so much had been distributed in largesses to the +people and the army on the occasion of his inauguration. Meantime, as +respected the present, the qualities of the young man were amply fitted +to sustain a Roman popularity; for, in addition to his extreme and +statuesque beauty of person, he was (in the report of one who did not +wish to color his character advantageously) "_memor families suce, +comptus, decorus, oris venerandi, eloquentice, celsioris, versufacilis, +in republica etiam non inutilis_." Even as a military officer, he had +a respectable [Footnote:--"nam bene gesti rebus, vel potius feliciter, +etsi nori summi--medii tamen obtinuit ducis famam."] character; as an +orator he was more than respectable; and in other qualifications less +interesting to the populace, he had that happy mediocrity of merit which +was best fitted for his delicate and difficult situation--sufficient to +do credit to the emperor's preference--sufficient to sustain the popular +regard, but not brilliant enough to throw his patron into the shade. +For the rest, his vices were of a nature not greatly or necessarily to +interfere with his public duties, and emphatically such as met with the +readiest indulgence from the Roman laxity of morals. Some few instances, +indeed, are noticed of cruelty; but there is reason to think that it was +merely by accident, and as an indirect result of other purposes, that he +ever allowed himself in such manifestations of irresponsible power--not +as gratifying any harsh impulses of his native character. The most +remarkable neglect of humanity with which he has been taxed, occurred +in the treatment of his couriers; these were the bearers of news and +official dispatches, at that time fulfilling the functions of the modern +post; and it must be remembered that as yet they were not slaves, (as +afterwards by the reformation of Alexander Severus,) but free citizens. +They had been already dressed in a particular livery or uniform, and +possibly they might wear some symbolical badges of their profession; +but the new Caesar chose to dress them altogether in character as winged +Cupids, affixing literal wings to their shoulders, and facetiously +distinguishing them by the names of the four cardinal winds, (Boreas, +Aquilo, Notus, &c.) and others as levanters or hurricanes, (Circius, +&c.) Thus far he did no more than indulge a blameless fancy; but in +his anxiety that his runners should emulate their patron winds, and +do credit to the names which he had assigned them, he is said to have +exacted a degree of speed inconsistent with any merciful regard for +their bodily powers.[Footnote: This, however, is a point in which royal +personages claim an old prescriptive right to be unreasonable in their +exactions and some, even amongst the most humane of Christian princes, +have erred as flagrantly as AElius Verus. George IV., we have understood, +was generally escorted from Balkeith to Holyrood at a rate of twenty-two +miles an hour. And of his father, the truly kind and paternal king, it +is recorded by Miss Hawkins, (daughter of Sir J. Hawkins, the biographer +of Johnson, &c.) that families who happened to have a son, brother, +lover, &c. in the particular regiment of cavalry which furnished the +escort for the day, used to suffer as much anxiety for the result as +on the eve of a great battle.] But these were, after all, perhaps, mere +improvements of malice upon some solitary incident. The true stain upon +his memory, and one which is open to no doubt whatever, is excessive and +extravagant luxury--excessive in degree, extravagant and even +ludicrous in its forms. For example, he constructed a sort of bed or +sofa--protected from insects by an awning of network composed of lilies, +delicately fabricated into the proper meshes, &c., and the couches +composed wholly of rose-leaves; and even of these, not without an +exquisite preparation; for the white parts of the leaves, as coarser +and harsher to the touch, (possibly, also, as less odorous,) were +scrupulously rejected. Here he lay indolently stretched amongst favorite +ladies, + + "And like a naked Indian slept himself away." + +He had also tables composed of the same delicate material--prepared and +purified in the same elaborate way--and to these were adapted seats in +the fashion of sofas (_accubationes_,) corresponding in their materials, +and in their mode of preparation. He was also an expert performer, and +even an original inventor, in the art of cookery; and one dish of his +discovery, which, from its four component parts, obtained the name +of _tetrapharmacum_, was so far from owing its celebrity to its royal +birth, that it maintained its place on Hadrian's table to the time +of his death. These, however, were mere fopperies or pardonable +extravagancies in one so young and so exalted; "quae, etsi non decora," +as the historian observes, "non tamen ad perniciem publicam prompta +sunt." A graver mode of licentiousness appeared in his connections with +women. He made no secret of his lawless amours; and to his own wife, +on her expostulating with him on his aberrations in this respect, he +replied--that "_wife_" was a designation of rank and official dignity, +not of tenderness and affection, or implying any claim of love on either +side; upon which distinction he begged that she would mind her own +affairs, and leave him to pursue such as he might himself be involved in +by his sensibility to female charms. + +However, he and all his errors, his "regal beauty," his princely pomps, +and his authorized hopes, were suddenly swallowed up by the inexorable +grave; and he would have passed away like an exhalation, and leaving no +remembrance of himself more durable than his own beds of rose-leaves, +and his reticulated canopies of lilies, had it not been that Hadrian +filled the world with images of his perfect fawn-like beauty in the +shape of colossal statues, and raised temples even to his memory in +various cities. This Caesar, therefore, dying thus prematurely, never +tasted of empire; and his name would have had but a doubtful title to +a place in the imperatorial roll, had it not been recalled to a second +chance for the sacred honors in the person of his son--whom it was the +pleasure of Hadrian, by way of testifying his affection for the father, +to associate in the order of succession with the philosophic Marcus +Aurelius Antoninus. This fact, and the certainty that to the second +Julius Verus he gave his own daughter in marriage, rather than to his +associate Caesar Marcus Aurelius, make it evident that his regret for the +elder Verus was unaffected and deep; and they overthrow effectually the +common report of historians--that he repented of his earliest choice, as +of one that had been disappointed not by the decrees of fate, but by the +violent defect of merits in its object. On the contrary, he prefaced his +inauguration of this junior Caesar by the following tender words--Let us +confound the rapine of the grave, and let the empire possess amongst her +rulers a second AElius Verus. + +"_Diis aliter visum est:_" the blood of the AElian family was not +privileged to ascend or aspire: it gravitated violently to extinction; +and this junior Verus is supposed to have been as much indebted to his +assessor on the throne for shielding his obscure vices, and drawing over +his defects the ample draperies of the imperatorial robe, as he was to +Hadrian, his grandfather by fiction of law, for his adoption into the +reigning family, and his consecration as one of the Caesars. He, says one +historian, shed no ray of light or illustration upon the imperial house, +except by one solitary quality. This bears a harsh sound; but it has the +effect of a sudden redemption for his memory, when we learn--that this +solitary quality, in virtue of which he claimed a natural affinity to +the sacred house, and challenged a natural interest in the purple, was +the very princely one of--a merciful disposition. + +The two Antonines fix an era in the imperial history; for they were both +eminent models of wise and good rulers; and some would say, that they +fixed a crisis; for with their successor commenced, in the popular +belief, the decline of the empire. That at least is the doctrine of +Gibbon; but perhaps it would not be found altogether able to sustain +itself against a closer and philosophic examination of the true elements +involved in the idea of declension as applied to political bodies. Be +that as it may, however, and waiving any interest which might happen to +invest the Antonines as the last princes who kept up the empire to its +original level, both of them had enough of merit to challenge a separate +notice in their personal characters, and apart from the accidents of +their position. + +The elder of the two, who is usually distinguished by the title of +_Pius_, is thus described by one of his biographers:--"He was externally +of remarkable beauty; eminent for his moral character, full of benign +dispositions, noble, with a countenance of a most gentle expression, +intellectually of singular endowments, possessing an elegant style of +eloquence, distinguished for his literature, generally temperate, +an earnest lover of agricultural pursuits, mild in his deportment, +bountiful in the use of his own, but a stern respecter of the rights of +others; and, finally, he was all this without ostentation, and with a +constant regard to the proportions of cases, and to the demands of time +and place." His bounty displayed itself in a way, which may be worth +mentioning, as at once illustrating the age, and the prudence with which +he controlled the most generous of his impulses:--"_Finus trientarium_," +says the historian, "_hoc est minimis usuris exercuit, ut patrimonio +suo plurimos adjuvaret_." The meaning of which is this:--in Rome, the +customary interest for money was what was called _centesimae usurae_; that +is, the hundredth part, or one per cent. But, as this expressed not the +annual, but the _monthly_ interest, the true rate was, in fact, twelve +per cent.; and that is the meaning of _centesimae usurae_. Nor could money +be obtained any where on better terms than these; and, moreover, this +one per cent, was exacted rigorously as the monthly day came round, no +arrears being suffered to lie over. Under these circumstances, it was +a prodigious service to lend money at a diminished rate, and one which +furnished many men with the means of saving themselves from ruin. +Pius then, by way of extending his aid as far as possible, reduced the +monthly rate of his loans to one-third per cent., which made the annual +interest the very moderate one of four per cent. The channels, which +public spirit had as yet opened to the beneficence of the opulent, were +few indeed: charity and munificence languished, or they were abused, +or they were inefficiently directed, simply through defects in the +structure of society. Social organization, for its large development, +demanded the agency of newspapers, (together with many other forms +of assistance from the press,) of banks, of public carriages on an +extensive scale, besides infinite other inventions or establishments not +yet created--which support and powerfully react upon that same progress +of society which originally gave birth to themselves. All things +considered, in the Rome of that day, where all munificence confined +itself to the direct largesses of a few leading necessaries of life,--a +great step was taken, and the best step, in this lending of money at a +low interest, towards a more refined and beneficial mode of charity. + +In his public character, he was perhaps the most patriotic of Roman +emperors, and the purest from all taint of corrupt or indirect ends. +Peculation, embezzlement, or misapplication of the public funds, were +universally corrected: provincial oppressors were exposed and defeated: +the taxes and tributes were diminished; and the public expenses +were thrown as much as possible upon the public estates, and in some +instances upon his own private estates. So far, indeed, did Pius stretch +his sympathy with the poorer classes of his subjects, that on this +account chiefly he resided permanently in the capital--alleging in +excuse, partly that he thus stationed himself in the very centre of his +mighty empire, to which all couriers could come by the shortest radii, +but chiefly that he thus spared the provincialists those burthens which +must else have alighted upon them; "for," said he, "even the slenderest +retinue of a Roman emperor is burthensome to the whole line of its +progress." His tenderness and consideration, indeed, were extended to +all classes, and all relations, of his subjects; even to those who stood +in the shadow of his public displeasure as State delinquents, or as the +most atrocious criminals. To the children of great treasury defaulters, +he returned the confiscated estates of their fathers, deducting only +what might repair the public loss. And so resolutely did he refuse to +shed the blood of any in the senatorial order, to whom he conceived +himself more especially bound in paternal ties, that even a parricide, +whom the laws would not suffer to live, was simply exposed upon a desert +island. + +Little indeed did Pius want of being a perfect Christian, in heart and +in practice. Yet all this display of goodness and merciful indulgence, +nay, all his munificence, would have availed him little with the people +at large, had he neglected to furnish shows and exhibitions in the arena +of suitable magnificence. Luckily for his reputation, he exceeded the +general standard of imperial splendor not less as the patron of the +amphitheatre than in his more important functions. It is recorded of +him--that in one _missio_ he sent forward on the arena a hundred lions. +Nor was he less distinguished by the rarity of the wild animals which +he exhibited than by their number. There were elephants, there were +crocodiles, there were hippopotami at one time upon the stage: there was +also the rhinoceros, and the still rarer _crocuta_ or _corocotta_, with +a few _strepsikerotes_. Some of these were matched in duels, some in +general battles with tigers; in fact, there was no species of wild +animal throughout the deserts and sandy Zaarras of Africa, the infinite +_steppes_ of Asia, or the lawny recesses and dim forests of then +sylvan Europe, [Footnote: And not impossibly of America; for it must +be remembered that, when we speak of this quarter of the earth as yet +undiscovered, we mean--to ourselves of the western climates; since as +respects the eastern quarters of Asia, doubtless America was known +there familiarly enough; and the high bounties of imperial Rome on rare +animals, would sometimes perhaps propagate their influence even to those +regions.] no species known to natural history, (and some even of which +naturalists have lost sight,) which the Emperor Pius did not produce +to his Roman subjects on his ceremonious pomps. And in another point he +carried his splendors to a point which set the seal to his liberality. +In the phrase of modern auctioneers, he gave up the wild beasts to +slaughter "without reserve." It was the custom, in ordinary cases, so +far to consider the enormous cost of these far-fetched rarities as to +preserve for future occasions those which escaped the arrows of the +populace, or survived the bloody combats in which they were engaged. +Thus, out of the overflowings of one great exhibition, would be found +materials for another. But Pius would not allow of these reservations. +All were given up unreservedly to the savage purposes of the spectators; +land and sea were ransacked; the sanctuaries of the torrid zone were +violated; columns of the army were put in motion--and all for the +transient effect of crowning an extra hour with hecatombs of forest +blood, each separate minute of which had cost a king's ransom. + +Yet these displays were alien to the nature of Pius; and, even through +the tyranny of custom, he had been so little changed, that to the last +he continued to turn aside, as often as the public ritual of his duty +allowed him, from these fierce spectacles to the gentler amusements of +fishing and hunting. His taste and his affections naturally carried him +to all domestic pleasures of a quiet nature. A walk in a shrubbery or +along a piazza, enlivened with the conversation of a friend or two, +pleased him better than all the court festivals; and among festivals, +or anniversary celebrations, he preferred those which, like the +harvest-home or feast of the vintagers, whilst they sanctioned a total +carelessness and dismissal of public anxieties, were at the same time +colored by the innocent gaiety which belongs to rural and to primitive +manners. In person this emperor was tall and dignified (_statura elevata +decorus;_) but latterly he stooped; to remedy which defect, that he +might discharge his public part with the more decorum, he wore stays. +[Footnote: In default of whalebone, one is curious to know of what they +were made:--thin tablets of the linden-tree, it appears, were the best +materials which the Augustus of that day could command.] Of his other +personal habits little is recorded, except that, early in the morning, +and just before receiving the compliments of his friends and dependents, +(_salutatores_,) or what in modern phrase would be called his _levee_, +he took a little plain bread, (_panem siccum comedit_,) that is, bread +without condiments or accompaniments of any kind, by way of breakfast. +In no meal has luxury advanced more upon the model of the ancients than +in this: the dinners (_caenae_) of the Romans were even more luxurious, +and a thousand times more costly, than our own; but their breakfasts +were scandalously meagre; and, with many men, breakfast was no professed +meal at all. Galen tells us that a little bread, and at most a little +seasoning of oil, honey, or dried fruits, was the utmost breakfast which +men generally allowed themselves: some indeed drank wine after it, but +this was far from being a common practice. [Footnote: There is, however, +a good deal of delusion prevalent on such subjects. In some English +cavalry regiments, the custom is for the privates to take only one meal +a day, which of course is dinner; and by some curious experiments it +has appeared that such a mode of life is the healthiest. But at the same +time, we have ascertained that the quantity of porter or substantial ale +drunk in these regiments does virtually allow many meals, by comparison +with the washy tea breakfasts of most Englishmen.] + +The Emperor Pius died in his seventieth year. The immediate occasion of +his death was--not breakfast nor _caena_, but something of the kind. He +had received a present of Alpine cheese, and he ordered some for supper. +The trap for his life was baited with toasted cheese. There is no reason +to think that he ate immoderately; but that night he was seized with +indigestion. Delirium followed; during which it is singular that his +mind teemed with a class of imagery and of passions the most remote +(as it might have been thought) from the voluntary occupations of his +thoughts. He raved about the State, and about those kings with whom he +was displeased; nor were his thoughts one moment removed from the public +service. Yet he was the least ambitious of princes, and his reign was +emphatically said to be bloodless. Finding his fever increase, he +became sensible that he was dying; and he ordered the golden statue of +Prosperity, a household symbol of empire, to be transferred from his +own bedroom to that of his successor. Once again, however, for the last +time, he gave the word to the officer of the guard; and, soon after, +turning away his face to the wall against which his bed was placed, +he passed out of life in the very gentlest sleep, "_quasi dormiret, +spiritum reddidit_;" or, as a Greek author expresses it, _kat iso hypno +to malakotato_. He was one of those few Roman emperors whom posterity +truly honored with the title of _anaimatos_ (or bloodless;) _solusque +omnium prope principum prorsus sine civili sanguine et hostili vixit_. +In the whole tenor of his life and character he was thought to resemble +Numa. And Pausanias, after remarking on his title of _Eusebaes_ (or +Pius), upon the meaning and origin of which there are several different +hypotheses, closes with this memorable tribute to his paternal +qualities--_doxae de emae, kai to onoma to te Kyros pheroito an tos +presbyteros, Pater anthropon kalemenos_: _but, in my opinion, he should +also bear the name of Cyrus the elder--being hailed as Father of the +Human Race_. + +A thoughtful Roman would have been apt to exclaim, _This is too good +to last_, upon finding so admirable a ruler succeeded by one still more +admirable in the person of Marcus Aurelius. From the first dawn of his +infancy this prince indicated, by his grave deportment, the philosophic +character of his mind; and at eleven years of age he professed himself a +formal devotee of philosophy in its strictest form,--assuming the garb, +and submitting to its most ascetic ordinances. In particular, he slept +upon the ground, and in other respects he practised a style of living +the most simple and remote from the habits of rich men [or, in his +own words, _tho lithon chatha taen diaitan, chai porro taes pleousiachaes +hagogaes_]; though it is true that he himself ascribes this simplicity of +life to the influence of his mother, and not to the premature assumption +of the stoical character. He pushed his austerities indeed to excess; +for Dio mentions that in his boyish days he was reduced to great +weakness by exercises too severe, and a diet of too little nutriment. In +fact, his whole heart was set upon philosophic attainments, and perhaps +upon philosophic glory. All the great philosophers of his own time, +whether Stoic or Peripatetic, and amongst them Sextus of Cheronaea, a +nephew of Plutarch, were retained as his instructors. There was none +whom he did not enrich; and as many as were fitted by birth and manners +to fill important situations, he raised to the highest offices in the +State. Philosophy, however, did not so much absorb his affections, but +that he found time to cultivate the fine arts, (painting he both studied +and practised,) and such gymnastic exercises as he held consistent with +his public dignity. Wrestling, hunting, fowling, playing at cricket +(_pila_), he admired and patronized by personal participation. He tried +his powers even as a runner. But with these tasks, and entering so +critically, both as a connoisseur and as a practising amateur, into such +trials of skill, so little did he relish the very same spectacles, when +connected with the cruel exhibitions of the circus and amphitheatre, +that it was not without some friendly violence on the part of those who +could venture on such a liberty, nor even thus, perhaps, without the +necessities of his official station, that he would be persuaded to visit +either one or the other.[Footnote: So much improvement had Christianity +already accomplished in the feelings of men since the time of Augustus. +That prince, in whose reign the founder of this ennobling religion was +born, had delighted so much and indulged so freely in the spectacles of +the amphitheatre, that Maecenas summoned him reproachfully to leave them, +saying, "Surge tandem, carnifex." + +It is the remark of Capitoline, that "gladiatoria spectacula omnifariam +temperavit; temperavit etiam scenicas donationes;"--he controlled in +every possible way the gladiatorial spectacles; he controlled also the +rates of allowance to the stage performers. In these latter reforms, +which simply restrained the exorbitant salaries of a class dedicated to +the public pleasures, and unprofitable to the state, Marcus may have +had no farther view than that which is usually connected with sumptuary +laws. But in the restraints upon the gladiators, it is impossible to +believe that his highest purpose was not that of elevating human nature, +and preparing the way for still higher regulations. As little can it +be believed that this lofty conception, and the sense of a degradation +entailed upon human nature itself, in the spectacle of human beings +matched against each other like brute beasts, and pouring out their +blood upon the arena as a libation to the caprices of a mob, could +have been derived from any other source than the contagion of Christian +standards and Christian sentiments, then beginning to pervade and +ventilate the atmosphere of society in its higher and philosophic +regions. Christianity, without expressly affirming, every where +indirectly supposes and presumes the infinite value and dignity of man +as a creature, exclusively concerned in a vast and mysterious economy +of restoration to a state of moral beauty and power in some former age +mysteriously forfeited. Equally interested in its benefits, joint heirs +of its promises, all men, of every color, language, and rank, Gentile +or Jew, were here first represented as in one sense (and that the most +important) equal; in the eye of this religion, they were, by necessity +of logic, equal, as equal participators in the ruin and the restoration. +Here first, in any available sense, was communicated to the standard of +human nature a vast and sudden elevation; and reasonable enough it is to +suppose, that some obscure sense of this, some sympathy with the great +changes for man then beginning to operate, would first of all reach the +inquisitive students of philosophy, and chiefly those in high stations, +who cultivated an intercourse with all the men of original genius +throughout the civilized world. The Emperor Hadrian had already taken +a solitary step in the improvement of human nature; and not, we may +believe, without some sub-conscious influence received directly or +indirectly from Christianity. So again, with respect to Marcus, it is +hardly conceivable that he, a prince so indulgent and popular, could +have thwarted, and violently gainsaid, a primary impulse of the Roman +populace, without some adequate motive; and none _could_ be adequate +which was not built upon some new and exalted views of human nature, +with which these gladiatorial sacrifices were altogether at war. The +reforms which Marcus introduced into these "crudelissima spectacula," +all having the common purpose of limiting their extent, were three. +First, he set bounds to the extreme cost of these exhibitions; and +this restriction of the cost covertly operated as a restriction of the +practice. Secondly,--and this ordinance took effect whenever he was +personally present, if not oftener,--he commanded, on great occasions, +that these displays should be bloodless. Dion Cassius notices this fact +in the following words:--"The Emperor Marcus was so far from taking +delight in spectacles of bloodshed, that even the gladiators in Rome +could not obtain his inspection of their contests, unless, like the +wrestlers, they contended without imminent risk; for he never allowed +them the use of sharpened weapons, but universally they fought before +him with weapons previously blunted." Thirdly, he repealed the old and +uniform regulation, which secured to the gladiators a perpetual immunity +from military service. This necessarily diminished their available +amount. Being now liable to serve their country usefully in the field +of battle, whilst the concurrent limitation of the expenses in this +direction prevented any proportionate increase of their numbers, they +were so much the less disposable in aid of the public luxury. His +fatherly care of all classes, and the universal benignity with which he +attempted to raise the abject estimate and condition of even the lowest +_Pariars_ in his vast empire, appears in another little anecdote, +relating to a class of men equally with the gladiators given up to the +service of luxury in a haughty and cruel populace. Attending one day at +an exhibition of rope-dancing, one of the performers (a boy) fell and +hurt himself; from which time the paternal emperor would never allow the +rope-dancers to perform without mattrasses or feather-beds spread +below, to mitigate the violence of their falls.] In this he meditated no +reflection upon his father by adoption, the Emperor Pius, (who also, for +aught we know, might secretly revolt from a species of amusement which, +as the prescriptive test of munificence in the popular estimate, it +was necessary to support;) on the contrary, he obeyed him with the +punctiliousness of a Roman obedience; he watched the very motions of his +countenance; and he waited so continually upon his pleasure, that for +three-and-twenty years which they lived together, he is recorded to +have slept out of his father's palace only for two nights. This rigor +of filial duty illustrates a feature of Roman life; for such was the +sanctity of law, that a father created by legal fiction was in all +respects treated with the same veneration and affection, as a father +who claimed upon the most unquestioned footing of natural right. Such, +however, is the universal baseness of courts, that even this scrupulous +and minute attention to his duties, did not protect Marcus from the +injurious insinuations of whisperers. There were not wanting persons who +endeavored to turn to account the general circumstances in the situation +of the Caesar, which pointed him out to the jealousy of the emperor. But +these being no more than what adhere necessarily to the case of every +heir _as_ such, and meeting fortunately with no more proneness to +suspicion in the temper of the Augustus than they did with countenance +in the conduct of the Caesar, made so little impression, that at length +these malicious efforts died away, from mere defect of encouragement. + +The most interesting political crisis in the reign of Marcus was the war +in Germany with the Marcomanni, concurrently with pestilence in Rome. +The agitation of the public mind was intense; and prophets arose, as +since under corresponding circumstances in Christian countries, who +announced the approaching dissolution of the world. The purse of Marcus +was open, as usual, to the distresses of his subjects. But it was +chiefly for the expense of funerals that his aid was claimed. In this +way he alleviated the domestic calamities of his capital, or expressed +his sympathy with the sufferers, where alleviation was beyond his power; +whilst, by the energy of his movements and his personal presence on the +Danube, he soon dissipated those anxieties of Rome which pointed in a +foreign direction. The war, however, had been a dreadful one, and had +excited such just fears in the most experienced heads of the State, +that, happening in its outbreak to coincide with a Parthian war, it +was skilfully protracted until the entire thunders of Rome, and the +undivided energies of her supreme captains, could be concentrated upon +this single point. Both [Footnote: Marcus had been associated, as Caesar +and as emperor, with the son of the late beautiful Verus, who is usually +mentioned by the same name.] emperors left Rome, and crossed the Alps; +the war was thrown back upon its native seats--Austria and the modern +Hungary: great battles were fought and won; and peace, with consequent +relief and restoration to liberty, was reconquered for many friendly +nations, who had suffered under the ravages of the Marcomanni, the +Sarmatians, the Quadi, and the Vandals; whilst some of the hostile +people were nearly obliterated from the map, and their names blotted out +from the memory of men. + +Since the days of Gaul as an independent power, no war had so much +alarmed the people of Rome; and their fear was justified by the +difficulties and prodigious efforts which accompanied its suppression. +The public treasury was exhausted; loans were an engine of fiscal +policy, not then understood or perhaps practicable; and great distress +was at hand for the State. In these circumstances, Marcus adopted a wise +(though it was then esteemed a violent or desperate) remedy. Time and +excessive luxury had accumulated in the imperial palaces and villas +vast repositories of apparel, furniture, jewels, pictures, and household +utensils, valuable alike for the materials and the workmanship. Many of +these articles were consecrated, by color or otherwise, to the use of +the _sacred_ household; and to have been found in possession of them, or +with the materials for making them, would have entailed the penalties of +treason. All these stores were now brought out to open day, and put +up to public sale by auction, free license being first granted to the +bidders, whoever they might be, to use, or otherwise to exercise the +fullest rights of property upon all they bought. The auction lasted for +two months. Every man was guaranteed in the peaceable ownership of his +purchases. And afterwards, when the public distress had passed over, +a still further indulgence was extended to the purchasers. Notice was +given--that all who were dissatisfied with their purchases, or who for +other means might wish to recover their cost, would receive back the +purchase-money, upon returning the articles. Dinner-services of gold and +crystal, murrhine vases, and even his wife's wardrobe of silken robes +interwoven with gold, all these, and countless other articles were +accordingly returned, and the full auction prices paid back; or were +_not_ returned, and no displeasure shown to those who publicly displayed +them as their own. Having gone so far, overruled by the necessities of +the public service, in breaking down those legal barriers by which +a peculiar dress, furniture, equipage, &c., were appropriated to the +imperial house, as distinguished from the very highest of the noble +houses, Marcus had a sufficient pretext for extending indefinitely +the effect of the dispensation then granted. Articles purchased at the +auction bore no characteristic marks to distinguish them from others of +the same form and texture: so that a license to use any one article +of the _sacred_ pattern, became necessarily a general license for all +others which resembled them. And thus, without abrogating the prejudices +which protected the imperial precedency, a body of sumptuary laws--the +most ruinous to the progress of manufacturing skill, [Footnote: Because +the most effectual extinguishers of all ambition applied in that +direction; since the very excellence of any particular fabric was +the surest pledge of its virtual suppression by means of its legal +restriction (which followed inevitably) to the use of the imperial +house.] which has ever been devised--were silently suspended. One or two +aspiring families might be offended by these innovations, which meantime +gave the pleasures of enjoyment to thousands, and of hope to millions. + +But these, though very noticeable relaxations of the existing +prerogative, were, as respected the temper which dictated them, no +more than everyday manifestations of the emperor's perpetual benignity. +Fortunately for Marcus, the indestructible privilege of the _divina +domus_ exalted it so unapproachably beyond all competition, that no +possible remissions of aulic rigor could ever be misinterpreted; fear +there could be none, lest such paternal indulgences should lose their +effect and acceptation as pure condescensions. They could neither +injure their author, who was otherwise charmed and consecrated, from +disrespect; nor could they suffer injury themselves by misconstruction, +or seem other than sincere, coming from a prince whose entire life +was one long series of acts expressing the same affable spirit. Such, +indeed, was the effect of this uninterrupted benevolence in the emperor, +that at length all men, according to their several ages, hailed him as +their father, son, or brother. And when he died, in the sixty-first +year of his life (the 18th of his reign), he was lamented with a +corresponding peculiarity in the public ceremonial, such, for instance, +as the studied interfusion of the senatorial body with the populace, +expressive of the levelling power of a true and comprehensive grief; a +peculiarity for which no precedent was found, and which never afterwards +became a precedent for similar honors to the best of his successors. + +But malice has the divine privilege of ubiquity; and therefore it was +that even this great model of private and public virtue did not escape +the foulest libels: he was twice accused of murder; once on the person +of a gladiator, with whom the empress is said to have fallen in love; +and again, upon his associate in the empire, who died in reality of an +apoplectic seizure, on his return from the German campaign. Neither +of these atrocious fictions ever gained the least hold of the public +attention, so entirely were they put down by the _prima facie_ evidence +of facts, and of the emperor's notorious character. In fact his faults, +if he had any in his public life, were entirely those of too much +indulgence. In a few cases of enormous guilt, it is recorded that +he showed himself inexorable. But, generally speaking, he was far +otherwise; and, in particular, he carried his indulgence to his wife's +vices to an excess which drew upon him the satirical notice of the +stage. + +The gladiators, and still more the sailors of that age, were constantly +to be seen playing naked, and Faustina was shameless enough to take her +station in places which gave her the advantages of a leisurely review; +and she actually selected favorites from both classes on the ground of +a personal inspection. With others of greater rank she is said even +to have been surprised by her husband; in particular with one called +Tertullus, at dinner. [Footnote: Upon which some _mimographus_ built an +occasional notice of the scandal then floating on the public breath +in the following terms: One of the actors having asked "_Who was the +adulterous paramour?_" receives for answer, _Tullus_. Who? he asks +again; and again for three times running he is answered, _Tullus_. But +asking a fourth time, the rejoinder is, Jam dixi _ter Tullus_.] But to +all remonstrances on this subject, Marcus is reported to have replied, +"_Si uxorem dimittimus, reddamus et dotem;_" meaning that, having +received his right of succession to the empire simply by his adoption +into the family of Pius, his wife's father, gratitude and filial duty +obliged him to view any dishonors emanating from his wife's conduct as +joint legacies with the splendors inherited from their common father; in +short, that he was not at liberty to separate the rose from its +thorns. However, the facts are not sufficiently known to warrant us in +criticising very severely his behavior on so trying an occasion. + +It would be too much for human frailty, that absolutely no stain should +remain upon his memory. Possibly the best use which can be made of such +a fact is, in the way of consolation to any unhappy man, whom his wife +may too liberally have endowed with honors of this kind, by reminding +him that he shares this distinction with the great philosophic emperor. +The reflection upon this story by one of his biographers is this--"Such +is the force of daily life in a good ruler, so great the power of his +sanctity, gentleness, and piety, that no breath of slander or invidious +suggestion from an acquaintance can avail to sully his memory. In short, +to Antonine, immutable as the heavens in the tenor of his own life, +and in the manifestations of his own moral temper, and who was not by +possibility liable to any impulse or 'shadow of turning' from another +man's suggestion, it was not eventually an injury that he was dishonored +by some of his connections; on him, invulnerable in his own character, +neither a harlot for his wife, nor a gladiator for his son, could +inflict a wound. Then as now, oh sacred lord Diocletian, he was reputed +a god; not as others are reputed, but specially and in a peculiar +sense, and with a privilege to such worship from all men as you yourself +addressed to him--who often breathe a wish to Heaven, that you were or +could be such in life and merciful disposition as was Marcus Aurelius." + +What this encomiast says in a rhetorical tone was literally true. Marcus +was raised to divine honors, or canonized [Footnote: In reality, if by +_divus_ and _divine honors_ we understand a saint or spiritualized +being having a right of intercession with the Supreme Deity, and by his +temple, &c., if we understand a shrine attended by a priest to direct +the prayers of his devotees, there is no such wide chasm between this +pagan superstition and the adoration of saints in the Romish church, as +at first sight appears. The fault is purely in the names: _divus_ and +_templum_ are words too undistinguishing and generic.] (as in Christian +phrase we might express it.) That was a matter of course; and, +considering with whom he shared such honors, they are of little +account in expressing the grief and veneration which followed him. A +circumstance more characteristic, in the record of those observances +which attested the public feeling, is this--that he who at that time had +no bust, picture, or statue of Marcus in his house, was looked upon as a +profane and irreligious man. Finally, to do him honor not by testimonies +of men's opinions in his favor, but by facts of his own life and +conduct, one memorable trophy there is amongst the moral distinctions +of the philosophic Caesar, utterly unnoticed hitherto by historians, but +which will hereafter obtain a conspicuous place in any perfect record of +the steps by which civilization has advanced, and human nature has been +exalted. It is this: Marcus Aurelius was the first great military +leader (and his civil office as supreme interpreter and creator of +law consecrated his example) who allowed rights indefeasible--rights +uncancelled by his misfortune in the field, to the prisoner of war. +Others had been merciful and variously indulgent, upon their own +discretion, and upon a random impulse to some, or possibly to all of +their prisoners; but this was either in submission to the usage of that +particular war, or to special self-interest, or at most to individual +good feeling. None had allowed a prisoner to challenge any forbearance +as of right. But Marcus Aurelius first resolutely maintained that +certain indestructible rights adhered to every soldier, simply as a man, +which rights, capture by the sword, or any other accident of war, could +do nothing to shake or to diminish. We have noticed other instances in +which Marcus Aurelius labored, at the risk of his popularity, to elevate +the condition of human nature. But those, though equally expressing the +goodness and loftiness of his nature, were by accident directed to a +perishable institution, which time has swept away, and along with +it therefore his reformations. Here, however, is an immortal act of +goodness built upon an immortal basis; for so long as armies congregate, +and the sword is the arbiter of international quarrels, so long it will +deserve to be had in remembrance, that the first man who set limits to +the empire of wrong, and first translated within the jurisdiction +of man's moral nature that state of war which had heretofore been +consigned, by principle no less than by practice, to anarchy, animal +violence, and brute force, was also the first philosopher who sat upon a +throne. + +In this, and in his universal spirit of forgiveness, we cannot but +acknowledge a Christian by anticipation; nor can we hesitate to believe, +that through one or other of his many philosophic friends, [Footnote: +Not long after this, Alexander Severus meditated a temple to Christ; +upon which design Lampridius observes,--_Quod et Hadrianus cogitasse +fertur;_ and, as Lampridius was himself a pagan, we believe him to have +been right in his report, in spite of all which has been written by +Casaubon and others, who maintain that these imperfect temples of +Hadrian were left void of all images or idols,--not in respect to +the Christian practice, but because he designed them eventually to be +dedicated to himself. However, be this as it may, thus much appears on +the face of the story,--that Christ and Christianity had by that time +begun to challenge the imperial attention; and of this there is an +indirect indication, as it has been interpreted, even in the memoir +of Marcus himself. The passage is this: "Fama fuit sane quod sub +philosophorum specie quidam rempublicam vexarent et privates." The +_philosophi_, here mentioned by Capitoline, are by some supposed to be +the Christians; and for many reasons we believe it; and we understand +the molestations of the public services and of private individuals, +here charged upon them, as a very natural reference to the Christian +doctrines falsely understood. There is, by the way, a fine remark upon +Christianity, made by an infidel philosopher of Germany, which suggests +a remarkable feature in the merits of Marcus Aurelius. There were, as +this German philosopher used to observe, two schemes of thinking amongst +the ancients, which severally fulfilled the two functions of a sound +philosophy, as respected the moral nature of man. One of these +schemes presented us with a just ideal of moral excellence, a standard +sufficiently exalted: this was the Stoic philosophy; and thus far its +pretensions were unexceptionable and perfect. But unfortunately, whilst +contemplating this pure ideal of man as he ought to be, the Stoic +totally forgot the frail nature of man as he is; and by refusing all +compromises and all condescensions to human infirmity, this philosophy +of the Porch presented to us a brilliant prize and object for our +efforts, but placed on an inaccessible height. + +On the other hand, there was a very different philosophy at the very +antagonist pole,--not blinding itself by abstractions too elevated, +submitting to what it finds, bending to the absolute facts and realities +of man's nature, and affably adapting itself to human imperfections. +This was the philosophy of Epicurus; and undoubtedly, as a beginning, +and for the elementary purpose of conciliating the affections of the +pupil, it was well devised; but here the misfortune was, that the ideal, +or _maximum perfectionis_, attainable by human nature, was pitched so +low, that the humility of its condescensions and the excellence of its +means were all to no purpose, as leading to nothing further. One mode +presented a splendid end, but insulated, and with no means fitted to +a human aspirant for communicating with its splendors; the other, an +excellent road, but leading to no worthy or proportionate end. Yet +these, as regarded morals, were the best and ultimate achievements of +the pagan world. Now Christianity, said he, is the synthesis of whatever +is separately excellent in either. It will abate as little as the +haughtiest Stoicism of the ideal which it contemplates as the first +postulate of true morality; the absolute holiness and purity which it +demands are as much raised above the poor performances of actual man, +as the absolute wisdom and impeccability of the Stoic. Yet, unlike the +Stoic scheme, Christianity is aware of the necessity, and provides for +it, that the means of appropriating this ideal perfection should be +such as are consistent with the nature of a most erring and imperfect +creature. Its motion is _towards_ the divine, but _by_ and _through_ the +human. In fact, it offers the Stoic humanized in his scheme of means, +and the Epicurean exalted in his final objects. Nor is it possible to +conceive a practicable scheme of morals which should not rest upon such +a synthesis of the two elements as the Christian scheme presents; nor +any other mode of fulfilling that demand than, such a one as is there +first brought forward, viz., a double or Janus nature, which stands in +an equivocal relation,--to the divine nature by his actual perfections, +to the human nature by his participation in the same animal frailties +and capacities of fleshly temptation. No other vinculum could bind the +two postulates together, of an absolute perfection in the end proposed, +and yet of utter imperfection in the means for attaining it. + +Such was the outline of this famous tribute by an unbelieving +philosopher to the merits of Christianity as a scheme of moral +discipline. Now, it must be remembered that Marcus Aurelius was by +profession a Stoic; and that generally, as a theoretical philosopher, +but still more as a Stoic philosopher, he might be supposed incapable of +descending from these airy altitudes of speculation to the true needs, +infirmities, and capacities of human nature. Yet strange it is, that he, +of all the good emperors, was the most thoroughly human and practical. +In evidence of which, one body of records is amply sufficient, which +is, the very extensive and wise reforms which he, beyond all the Caesars, +executed in the existing laws. To all the exigencies of the times, and +to all the new necessities developed by the progress of society, he +adjusted the old laws, or supplied new ones. The same praise, therefore, +belongs to him, which the German philosopher conceded to Christianity, +of reconciling the austerest ideal with the practical; and hence another +argument for presuming him half baptized into the new faith.] whose +attention Christianity was by that time powerful to attract, some reflex +images of Christian doctrines--some half-conscious perception of its +perfect beauty--had flashed upon his mind. And when we view him from +this distant age, as heading that shining array, the Howards and the +Wilberforces, who have since then in a practical sense hearkened to +the sighs of "all prisoners and captives"--we are ready to suppose +him addressed by the great Founder of Christianity, in the words of +Scripture, "_Verily, I say unto thee, Thou art not far from the kingdom +of heaven._" + +As a supplement to the reign of Marcus Aurelius, we ought to notice the +rise of one great rebel, the sole civil disturber of his time, in +Syria. This was Avidius Cassius, whose descent from Cassius (the noted +conspirator against the great Dictator, Julius) seems to have suggested +to him a wandering idea, and at length a formal purpose of restoring +the ancient republic. Avidius was the commander-in-chief of the Oriental +army, whose head-quarters were then fixed at Antioch. His native +disposition, which inclined him to cruelty, and his political views, +made him, from his first entrance upon office, a severe disciplinarian. +The well known enormities of the neighboring Daphne gave him ample +opportunities for the exercise of his harsh propensities in reforming +the dissolute soldiery. He amputated heads, arms, feet, and hams: he +turned out his mutilated victims, as walking spectacles of warning; he +burned them; he smoked them to death; and, in one instance, he crucified +a detachment of his army, together with their centurions, for having, +unauthorized, gained a splendid victory, and captured a large booty +on the Danube. Upon this the soldiers mutinied against him, in mere +indignation at his tyranny. However, he prosecuted his purpose, and +prevailed, by his bold contempt of the danger which menaced him. From +the abuses in the army, he proceeded to attack the abuses of the civil +administration. But as these were protected by the example of the great +proconsular lieutenants and provincial governors, policy obliged him +to confine himself to verbal expressions of anger; until at length, +sensible that this impotent railing did but expose him to contempt, +he resolved to arm himself with the powers of radical reform, by open +rebellion. His ultimate purpose was the restoration of the ancient +republic, or, (as he himself expresses it in an interesting letter, +which yet survives,) "_ut in antiquum statum publica forma reddatur_;" +_i.e._ that the constitution should be restored to its original +condition. And this must be effected by military violence and the aid of +the executioner--or, in his own words, _multis gladiis, multis elogiis_, +(by innumerable sabres, by innumerable records of condemnation.) Against +this man Marcus was warned by his imperial colleague Lucius Verus, in +a very remarkable letter. After expressing his suspicions of him +generally, the writer goes on to say--"I would you had him closely +watched. For he is a general disliker of us and of our doings; he is +gathering together an enormous treasure, and he makes an open jest of +our literary pursuits. You, for instance, he calls a philosophizing old +woman, and me a dissolute buffoon and scamp. Consider what you would +have done. For my part, I bear the fellow no ill will; but again, I say, +take care that he does not do a mischief to yourself, or your children." + +The answer of Marcus is noble and characteristic: "I have read your +letter, and I will confess to you I think it more scrupulously timid +than becomes an emperor, and timid in a way unsuited to the spirit of +our times. Consider this--if the empire is destined to Cassius by the +decrees of Providence, in that case it will not be in our power to +put him to death, however much we may desire to do so. You know your +great-grandfather's saying,--No prince ever killed his own heir--no man, +that is, ever yet prevailed against one whom Providence had marked out +as his successor. On the other hand, if Providence opposes him, then, +without any cruelty on our part, he will spontaneously fall into some +snare spread for him by destiny. Besides, we cannot treat a man as under +impeachment whom nobody impeaches, and whom, by your own confession, +the soldiers love. Then again, in cases of high treason, even those +criminals who are convicted upon the clearest evidence, yet, as +friendless and deserted persons contending against the powerful, and +matched against those who are armed with the whole authority of the +State, seem to suffer some wrong. You remember what your grandfather +said--Wretched, indeed, is the fate of princes, who then first obtain +credit in any charges of conspiracy which they allege--when they happen +to seal the validity of their charges against the plotters, by falling +martyrs to the plot. Domitian it was, in fact, who first uttered this +truth; but I choose rather to place it under the authority of Hadrian, +because the sayings of tyrants, even when they are true and happy, carry +less weight with them than naturally they ought. For Cassius, then, let +him keep his present temper and inclinations; and the more so--being (as +he is) a good General--austere in his discipline, brave, and one whom +the State cannot afford to lose. For as to what you insinuate--that +I ought to provide for my children's interests, by putting this +man judicially out of the way, very frankly I say to you--Perish my +children, if Avidius shall deserve more attachment than they, and if it +shall prove salutary to the State that Cassius should live rather than +the children of Marcus." + +This letter affords a singular illustration of fatalism, such certainly +as we might expect in a Stoic, but carried even to a Turkish excess; and +not theoretically professed only, but practically acted upon in a case +of capital hazard. _That no prince ever killed his own successor_, i.e., +that it was vain for a prince to put conspirators to death, because, by +the very possibility of doing so, a demonstration is obtained that such +conspirators had never been destined to prosper, is as condensed and +striking an expression of fatalism as ever has been devised. The rest +of the letter is truly noble, and breathes the very soul of careless +magnanimity reposing upon conscious innocence. Meantime, Cassius +increased in power and influence: his army had become a most formidable +engine of his ambition through its restored discipline; and his own +authority was sevenfold greater, because he had himself created that +discipline in the face of unequalled temptations hourly renewed and +rooted in the very centre of his head-quarters. "Daphne, by Orontes," a +suburb of Antioch, was infamous for its seductions; and _Daphnic luxury_ +had become proverbial for expressing an excess of voluptuousness, +such as other places could not rival by mere defect of means, and +preparations elaborate enough to sustain it in all its varieties of +mode, or to conceal it from public notice. In the very purlieus of +this great nest, or sty of sensuality, within sight and touch of its +pollutions, did he keep his army fiercely reined up, daring and defying +them, as it were, to taste of the banquet whose very odor they inhaled. + +Thus provided with the means, and improved instruments, for executing +his purposes, he broke out into open rebellion; and, though hostile to +the _principatus_, or personal supremacy of one man, he did not feel +his republican purism at all wounded by the style and title of +_Imperator_,--that being a military term, and a mere titular honor, +which had co-existed with the severest forms of republicanism. +_Imperator_, then, he was saluted and proclaimed; and doubtless the +writer of the warning letter from Syria would now declare that the +sequel had justified the fears which Marcus had thought so unbecoming to +a Roman emperor. But again Marcus would have said, "Let us wait for the +sequel of the sequel," and that would have justified him. It is often +found by experience that men, who have learned to reverence a person +in authority chiefly by his offices of correction applied to their own +aberrations,--who have known and feared him, in short, in his character +of reformer,--will be more than usually inclined to desert him on his +first movement in the direction of wrong. Their obedience being founded +on fear, and fear being never wholly disconnected from hatred, they +naturally seize with eagerness upon the first lawful pretext for +disobedience; the luxury of revenge is, in such a case, too potent,--a +meritorious disobedience too novel a temptation,--to have a chance of +being rejected. Never, indeed, does erring human nature look more +abject than in the person of a severe exactor of duty, who has immolated +thousands to the wrath of offended law, suddenly himself becoming a +capital offender, a glozing tempter in search of accomplices, and in +that character at once standing before the meanest of his own dependents +as a self-deposed officer, liable to any man's arrest, and, _ipso +facto_, a suppliant for his own mercy. The stern and haughty Cassius, +who had so often tightened the cords of discipline until they threatened +to snap asunder, now found, experimentally, the bitterness of these +obvious truths. The trembling sentinel now looked insolently in his +face; the cowering legionary, with whom "to hear was to obey," now mused +or even bandied words upon his orders; the great lieutenants of his +office, who stood next to his own person in authority, were preparing +for revolt, open or secret, as circumstances should prescribe; not the +accuser only, but the very avenger, was upon his steps; Nemesis, that +Nemesis who once so closely adhered to the name and fortunes of the +lawful Caesar, turning against every one of his assassins the edge of his +own assassinating sword, was already at his heels; and in the midst of a +sudden prosperity, and its accompanying shouts of gratulation, he heard +the sullen knells of approaching death. Antioch, it was true, the +great Roman capital of the Orient, bore him, for certain motives of +self-interest, peculiar good-will. But there was no city of the world in +which the Roman Caesar did not reckon many liege-men and partisans. +And the very hands, which dressed his altars and crowned his Praetorian +pavilion, might not improbably in that same hour put an edge upon +the sabre which was to avenge the injuries of the too indulgent and +long-suffering Antoninus. Meantime, to give a color of patriotism to +his treason, Cassius alleged public motives; in a letter, which he wrote +after assuming the purple, he says: "Wretched empire, miserable state, +which endures these hungry blood-suckers battening on her vitals!--A +worthy man, doubtless, is Marcus; who, in his eagerness to be reputed +clement, suffers those to live whose conduct he himself abhors. Where is +that L. Cassius, whose name I vainly inherit? Where is that Marcus,--not +Aurelius, mark you, but Cato Censorius? Where the good old discipline +of ancestral times, long since indeed disused, but now not so much +as looked after in our aspirations? Marcus Antoninus is a scholar; he +enacts the philosopher; and he tries conclusions upon the four elements, +and upon the nature of the soul; and he discourses learnedly upon +the _Honestum_; and concerning the _Summum Bonum_ he is unanswerable. +Meanwhile, is he learned in the interests of the State? Can he argue +a point upon the public economy? You see what a host of sabres is +required, what a host of impeachments, sentences, executions, before the +commonwealth can reassume its ancient integrity! What! shall I esteem +as proconsuls, as governors, those who for that end only deem themselves +invested with lieutenancies or great senatorial appointments, that they +may gorge themselves with the provincial luxuries and wealth? No doubt +you heard in what way our friend the philosopher gave the place +of praetorian prefect to one who but three days before was a +bankrupt,--insolvent, by G--, and a beggar. Be not you content: that +same gentleman is now as rich as a prefect should be; and has been so, +I tell you, any time these three days. And how, I pray you, how--how, my +good sir? How but out of the bowels of the provinces, and the marrow of +their bones? But no matter, let them be rich; let them be blood-suckers; +so much, God willing, shall they regorge into the treasury of the +empire. Let but Heaven smile upon our party, and the Cassiani shall +return to the republic its old impersonal supremacy." + +But Heaven did _not_ smile; nor did man. Rome heard with bitter +indignation of this old traitor's ingratitude, and his false mask of +republican civism. Excepting Marcus Aurelius himself, not one man +but thirsted for revenge. And that was soon obtained. He and all his +supporters, one after the other, rapidly fell (as Marcus had predicted) +into snares laid by the officers who continued true to their allegiance. +Except the family and household of Cassius, there remained in a short +time none for the vengeance of the senate, or for the mercy of the +emperor. In _them_ centred the last arrears of hope and fear, of +chastisement or pardon, depending upon this memorable revolt. And about +the disposal of their persons arose the final question to which the +case gave birth. The letters yet remain in which the several parties +interested gave utterance to the passions which possessed them. +Faustina, the Empress, urged her husband with feminine violence to adopt +against his prisoners comprehensive acts of vengeance. "Noli parcere +hominibus," says she, "qui tibi non pepercerunt; et nec mihi nec filiis +nostris parcerent, si vicissent." And elsewhere she irritates his wrath +against the army as accomplices for the time, and as a body of men +"qui, nisi opprimuntur, opprimunt." We may be sure of the result. After +commending her zeal for her own family, he says, "Ego vero et ejus +liberis parcam, et genero, et uxori; et ad senatum scribam ne aut +proscriptio gravior sit, aut poena crudelior;" adding that, had his +counsels prevailed, not even Cassius himself should have perished. As +to his relatives, "Why," he asks, "should I speak of pardon to them, +who indeed have done no wrong, and are blameless even in purpose?" +Accordingly, his letter of intercession to the senate protests, that, +so far from asking for further victims to the crime of Avidius Cassius, +would to God he could call back from the dead many of those who had +fallen! With immense applause, and with turbulent acclamations, the +senate granted all his requests "in consideration of his philosophy, +of his long-suffering, of his learning and accomplishments, of his +nobility, of his innocence." And until a monster arose who delighted in +the blood of the guiltless, it is recorded that the posterity of Avidius +Cassius lived in security, and were admitted to honors and public +distinctions by favor of him, whose life and empire that memorable +traitor had sought to undermine under the favor of his guileless +master's too confiding magnanimity. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +The Roman empire, and the Roman emperors, it might naturally be supposed +by one who had not as yet traversed that tremendous chapter in the +history of man, would be likely to present a separate and almost equal +interest. The empire, in the first place, as the most magnificent +monument of human power which our planet has beheld, must for that +single reason, even though its records were otherwise of little +interest, fix upon itself the very keenest gaze from all succeeding +ages to the end of time. To trace the fortunes and revolutions of that +unrivalled monarchy over which the Roman eagle brooded, to follow the +dilapidations of that aerial arch, which silently and steadily through +seven centuries ascended under the colossal architecture of the children +of Romulus, to watch the unweaving of the golden arras, and step by +step to see paralysis stealing over the once perfect cohesion of the +republican creations,--cannot but insure a severe, though +melancholy delight. On its own separate account, the decline of this +throne-shattering power must and will engage the foremost place amongst +all historical reviews. The "dislimning" and unmoulding of some mighty +pageantry in the heavens has its own appropriate grandeurs, no less +than the gathering of its cloudy pomps. The going down of the sun +is contemplated with no less awe than his rising. Nor is any thing +portentous in its growth, which is not also portentous in the steps and +"moments" of its decay. Hence, in the second place, we might presume a +commensurate interest in the characters and fortunes of the successive +emperors. If the empire challenged our first survey, the next would seem +due to the Caesars who guided its course; to the great ones who retarded, +and to the bad ones who precipitated, its ruin. + +Such might be the natural expectation of an inexperienced reader. But +it is _not_ so. The Caesars, throughout their long line, are not +interesting, neither personally in themselves, nor derivatively from the +tragic events to which their history is attached. Their whole interest +lies in their situation--in the unapproachable altitude of their +thrones. But, considered with a reference to their human qualities, +scarcely one in the whole series can be viewed with a human interest +apart from the circumstances of his position. "Pass like shadows, so +depart!" The reason for this defect of all personal variety of interest +in these enormous potentates, must be sought in the constitution of +their power and the very necessities of their office. Even the greatest +among them, those who by way of distinction were called _the Great_, +as Constantine and Theodosius, were not great, for they were not +magnanimous; nor could they be so under _their_ tenure of power, which +made it a duty to be suspicious, and, by fastening upon all varieties of +original temper one dire necessity of bloodshed, extinguished under +this monotonous cloud of cruel jealousy and everlasting panic every +characteristic feature of genial human nature, that would else have +emerged through so long a train of princes. There is a remarkable story +told of Agrippina, that, upon some occasion, when a wizard announced +to her, as truths which he had read in the heavens, the two fatal +necessities impending over her son,--one that he should ascend to +empire, the other that he should murder herself, she replied in +these stern and memorable words--_Occidat, dum imperet_. Upon which a +continental writer comments thus: "Never before or since have three such +words issued from the lips of woman; and in truth, one knows not which +most to abominate or to admire--the aspiring princess, or the loving +mother. Meantime, in these few words lies naked to the day, in its whole +hideous deformity, the very essence of Romanism and the imperatorial +power, and one might here consider the mother of Nero as the +impersonation of that monstrous condition." + +This is true: _Occidat dum imperet_, was the watchword and very +cognizance of the Roman imperator. But almost equally it was his +watchword--_Occidatur dum imperet_. Doing or suffering, the Caesars were +almost equally involved in bloodshed; very few that were not murderers, +and nearly all were themselves murdered. + +The empire, then, must be regarded as the primary object of our +interest; and it is in this way only that any secondary interest arises +for the emperors. Now, with respect to the empire, the first question +which presents itself is,--Whence, that is, from what causes and from +what era, we are to date its decline? Gibbon, as we all know, dates it +from the reign of Commodus; but certainly upon no sufficient, or even +plausible grounds. Our own opinion we shall state boldly: the empire +itself, from the very era of its establishment, was one long decline of +the Roman power. A vast monarchy had been created and consolidated by +the all-conquering instincts of a republic--cradled and nursed in wars, +and essentially warlike by means of all its institutions [Footnote: +Amongst these institutions, none appear to us so remarkable, or fitted +to accomplish so prodigious a circle of purposes belonging to the +highest state policy, as the Roman method of colonization. Colonies +were, in effect, the great engine of Roman conquest; and the following +are among a few of the great ends to which they were applied. First +of all, how came it that the early armies of Rome served, and served +cheerfully, without pay? Simply because all who were victorious knew +that they would receive their arrears in the fullest and amplest +form upon their final discharge, viz. in the shape of a colonial +estate--large enough to rear a family in comfort, and seated in the +midst of similar allotments, distributed to their old comrades in arms. +These lands were already, perhaps, in high cultivation, being often +taken from conquered tribes; but, if not, the new occupants could rely +for aid of every sort, for social intercourse, and for all the offices +of good neighborhood upon the surrounding proprietors--who were sure to +be persons in the same circumstances as themselves, and draughted from +the same legion. For be it remembered, that in the primitive ages +of Rome, concerning which it is that we are now speaking, entire +legions--privates and officers--were transferred in one body to the new +colony. "Antiquitus," says the learned Goesius, "deducebantur integral +legiones, quibus parta victoria." Neither was there much waiting for +this honorary gift. In later ages, it is true, when such resources were +less plentiful, and when regular pay was given to the soldiery, it +was the veteran only who obtained this splendid provision; but in the +earlier times, a single fortunate campaign not seldom dismissed the +young recruit to a life of ease and honor. "Multis legionibus," says +Hyginus, "contigit bellum feliciter transigere, et ad laboriosam +agriculturae requiem _primo tyrocinii gradu_ pervenire. Nam cum signis +et aquila et primis ordinibus et tribunis deducebantur." Tacitus also +notices this organization of the early colonies, and adds the reason +of it, and its happy effect, when contrasting it with the vicious +arrangements of the colonizing system in his own days. "Olim," says he, +"universae legiones deducebantur cum tribunis et centurionibus, et +sui cujusque ordinis militibus, _ut consensu et charitate rempublicam +efficerent_." _Secondly_, not only were the troops in this way paid at +a time when the public purse was unequal to the expenditure of war--but +this pay, being contingent on the successful issue of the war, added +the strength of self-interest to that of patriotism in stimulating the +soldier to extraordinary efforts. Thirdly, not only did the soldier in +this way reap his pay, but also he reaped a reward, (and that besides a +trophy and perpetual monument of his public services,) so munificent as +to constitute a permanent provision for a family; and accordingly he +was now encouraged, nay, enjoined, to marry. For here was an hereditary +landed estate equal to the liberal maintenance of a family. And thus did +a simple people, obeying its instinct of conquest, not only discover, in +its earliest days, the subtle principle of Machiavel--_Let war support +war_; but (which is far more than Machiavel's view) they made each +present war support many future wars--by making it support a new offset +from the population, bound to the mother city by indissoluble ties of +privilege and civic duties; and in many other ways they made every +war, by and through the colonizing system to which it gave occasion, +serviceable to future aggrandizement. War, managed in this way, and +with these results, became to Rome what commerce or rural industry is +to other countries, viz. the only hopeful and general way for making +a fortune. _Fourthly_, by means of colonies it was that Rome delivered +herself from her surplus population. Prosperous and well-governed, the +Roman citizens of each generation outnumbered those of the generation +preceding. But the colonies provided outlets for these continual +accessions of people, and absorbed them faster than they could arise. +[Footnote: And in this way we must explain the fact--that, in the many +successive numerations of the people continually noticed by Livy and +others, we do not find that sort of multiplication which we might have +looked for in a state so ably governed. The truth is, that the continual +surpluses had been carried off by the colonizing drain, before they +could become noticeable or troublesome.] And thus the great original +sin of modern states, that heel of Achilles in which they are all +vulnerable, and which (generally speaking) becomes more oppressive to +the public prosperity as that prosperity happens to be greater (for in +poor states and under despotic governments, this evil does not exist), +that flagrant infirmity of our own country, for which no statesman +has devised any commensurate remedy, was to ancient Rome a perpetual +foundation and well-head of public strength and enlarged resources. +With us of modern times, when population greatly outruns the demand for +labor, whether it be under the stimulus of upright government, and just +laws, justly administered, in combination with the manufacturing system +(as in England,) or (as in Ireland) under the stimulus of idle habits, +cheap subsistence, and a low standard of comfort--we think it much if we +can keep down insurrection by the bayonet and the sabre. _Lucro ponamus_ +is our cry, if we can effect even thus much; whereas Rome, in her +simplest and pastoral days, converted this menacing danger and standing +opprobrium of modern statesmanship to her own immense benefit. Not +satisfied merely to have neutralized it, she drew from it the vital +resources of her martial aggrandizement. For, _Fifthly_, these colonies +were in two ways made the corner-stones of her martial policy: 1st, They +were looked to as nurseries of their armies; during one generation the +original colonists, already trained to military habits, were themselves +disposable for this purpose on any great emergency; these men +transmitted heroic traditions to their posterity; and, at all events, a +more robust population was always at hand in agricultural colonies +than could be had in the metropolis. Cato the elder, and all the early +writers, notice the quality of such levies as being far superior to +those drawn from a population of sedentary habits. 2dly, The Italian +colonies, one and all, performed the functions which in our day are +assigned to garrisoned towns and frontier fortresses. In the earliest +times they discharged a still more critical service, by sometimes +entirely displacing a hostile population, and more often by dividing it +and breaking its unity. In cases of desperate resistance to the Roman +arms, marked by frequent infraction of treaties, it was usual to remove +the offending population to a safer situation, separated from Rome by +the Tiber; sometimes entirely to disperse and scatter it. But, where +these extremities were not called for by expediency or the Roman maxims +of justice, it was judged sufficient to _interpolate_, as it were, +the hostile people by colonizations from Rome, which were completely +organized [Footnote: That is indeed involved in the technical term +of _Deductio_; for unless the ceremonies, religious and political, of +inauguration and organization, were duly complied with, the colony +was not entitled to be considered as _deducta_--that is, solemnly and +ceremonially transplanted from the metropolis.] for mutual aid, having +officers of all ranks dispersed amongst them, and for overawing the +growth of insurrectionary movements amongst their neighbors. Acting on +this system, the Roman colonies in some measure resembled the _English +Pale_, as existing at one era in Ireland. This mode of service, it is +true, became obsolete in process of time, concurrently with the dangers +which it was shaped to meet; for the whole of Italy proper, together +with that part of Italy called Cisalpine Gaul, was at length reduced +to unity and obedience by the almighty republic. But in forwarding that +great end, and indispensable condition towards all foreign warfare, no +one military engine in the whole armory of Rome availed so much as +her Italian colonies. The other use of these colonies, as frontier +garrisons, or, at any rate, as interposing between a foreign enemy and +the gates of Rome, they continued to perform long after their earlier +uses had passed away; and Cicero himself notices their value in this +view. "Colonias," says he [_Orat. in Rullum_], "sic idoneis in locis +contra suspicionem periculi collocarunt, ut esse non oppida Italiae sed +_propugnacula_ imperii viderentur." _Finally_, the colonies were the +best means of promoting tillage, and the culture of vineyards. And +though this service, as regarded the Italian colonies, was greatly +defeated in succeeding times by the ruinous largesses of corn +[_frumentationes_], and other vices of the Roman policy after the vast +revolution effected by universal luxury, it is not the less true that, +left to themselves and their natural tendency, the Roman colonies would +have yielded this last benefit as certainly as any other. Large volumes +exist, illustrated by the learning of Rigaltius, Salmatius, and Goesius, +upon the mere technical arrangements of the Roman colonies. And whose +libraries might be written on these same colonies considered as engines +of exquisite state policy.] and by the habits of the people. This +monarchy had been of too slow a growth--too gradual, and too much +according to the regular stages of nature herself in its development, to +have any chance of being other than well cemented; the cohesion of its +parts was intense; seven centuries of growth demand one or two at least +for palpable decay; and it is only for harlequin empires like that of +Napoleon, run up with the rapidity of pantomime, to fall asunder under +the instant reaction of a few false moves in politics, or a single +unfortunate campaign. Hence it was, and from the prudence of Augustus +acting through a very long reign, sustained at no very distant interval +by the personal inspection and revisions of Hadrian, that for some time +the Roman power seemed to be stationary. What else could be expected? +The mere strength of the impetus derived from the republican +institutions, could not but propagate itself, and cause even a motion +in advance, for some time after those institutions had themselves given +way. And besides the military institutions survived all others; and the +army continued very much the same in its discipline and composition, +long after Rome and all its civic institutions had bent before an utter +revolution. It was very possible even that emperors should have arisen +with martial propensities, and talents capable of masking, for many +years, by specious but transitory conquests, the causes that were +silently sapping the foundations of Roman supremacy; and thus by +accidents of personal character and taste, an empire might even have +expanded itself in appearance, which, by all its permanent and real +tendencies, was even then shrinking within narrower limits, and +travelling downwards to dissolution. In reality, one such emperor there +was. Trajan, whether by martial inclinations, or (as is supposed by +some) by dissatisfaction with his own position at Rome, when brought +into more immediate connection with the senate, was driven into needless +war; and he achieved conquests in the direction of Dacia as well as +Parthia. But that these conquests were not substantial,--that they were +connected by no true cement of cohesion with the existing empire, is +evident from the rapidity with which they were abandoned. In the next +reign, the empire had already recoiled within its former limits; and +in two reigns further on, under Marcus Antoninus, though a prince of +elevated character and warlike in his policy, we find such concessions +of territory made to the Marcomanni and others, as indicate too plainly +the shrinking energies of a waning empire. In reality, if we consider +the polar opposition, in point of interest and situation, between the +great officers of the republic and the Augustus or Caesar of the empire, +we cannot fail to see the immense effect which that difference must have +had upon the permanent spirit of conquest. Caesar was either adopted +or elected to a situation of infinite luxury and enjoyment. He had +no interests to secure by fighting in person: and he had a powerful +interest in preventing others from fighting; since in that way only he +could raise up competitors to himself, and dangerous seducers of the +army. A consul, on the other hand, or great lieutenant of the senate, +had nothing to enjoy or to hope for, when his term of office should have +expired, unless according to his success in creating military fame and +influence for himself. Those Caesars who fought whilst the empire was or +seemed to be stationary, as Trajan, did so from personal taste. Those +who fought in after centuries, when the decay became apparent, and +dangers drew nearer, as Aurelian, did so from the necessities of fear; +and under neither impulse were they likely to make durable conquests. +The spirit of conquest having therefore departed at the very time +when conquest would have become more difficult even to the republican +energies, both from remoteness of ground and from the martial character +of the chief nations which stood beyond the frontier,--it was a matter +of necessity that with the republican institutions should expire the +whole principle of territorial aggrandizement; and that, if the empire +seemed to be stationary for some time after its establishment by Julius, +and its final settlement by Augustus, this was through no strength of +its own, or inherent in its own constitution, but through the continued +action of that strength which it had inherited from the republic. In a +philosophical sense, therefore, it may be affirmed, that the empire of +the Caesars was _always_ in decline; ceasing to go forward, it could not +do other than retrograde; and even the first _appearances_ of decline +can, with no propriety, be referred to the reign of Commodus. His vices +exposed him to public contempt and assassination; but neither one +nor the other had any effect upon the strength of the empire. Here, +therefore, is one just subject of complaint against Gibbon, that he has +dated the declension of the Roman power from a commencement arbitrarily +assumed; another, and a heavier, is, that he has failed to notice the +steps and separate indications of decline as they arose,--the moments +(to speak in the language of dynamics) through which the decline +travelled onwards to its consummation. It is also a grievous offence +as regards the true purposes of history,--and one which, in a complete +exposition of the imperial history, we should have a right to insist +on,--that Gibbon brings forward only such facts as allow of a scenical +treatment, and seems every where, by the glancing style of his +allusions, to presuppose an acquaintance with that very history which +he undertakes to deliver. Our immediate purpose, however, is simply +to characterize the office of emperor, and to notice such events and +changes as operated for evil, and for a final effect of decay, upon +the Caesars or their empire. As the best means of realizing it, we shall +rapidly review the history of both, promising that we confine ourselves +to the true Caesars, and the true empire, of the West. + +The first overt act of weakness,--the first expression of conscious +declension, as regarded the foreign enemies of Rome, occurred in the +reign of Hadrian; for it is a very different thing to forbear making +conquests, and to renounce them when made. It is possible, however, that +the cession then made of Mesopotamia and Armenia, however sure to be +interpreted into the language of fear by the enemy, did not imply any +such principle in this emperor. He was of a civic and paternal spirit, +and anxious for the substantial welfare of the empire rather than its +ostentatious glory. The internal administration of affairs had very much +gone into neglect since the times of Augustus; and Hadrian was perhaps +right in supposing that he could effect more public good by an extensive +progress through the empire, and by a personal correction of abuses, +than by any military enterprise. It is, besides, asserted, that he +received an indemnity in money for the provinces beyond the Euphratus. +But still it remains true, that in his reign the God Terminus made his +first retrograde motion; and this emperor became naturally an object of +public obloquy at Rome, and his name fell under the superstitious ban of +a fatal tradition connected with the foundation of the capitol. The two +Antonines, Titus and Marcus, who came next in succession, were truly +good and patriotic princes; perhaps the only princes in the whole series +who combined the virtues of private and of public life. In their reigns +the frontier line was maintained in its integrity, and at the expense +of some severe fighting under Marcus, who was a strenuous general at +the same time that he was a severe student. It is, however, true, as we +observed above, that, by allowing a settlement within the Roman +frontier to a barbarous people, Marcus Aurelius raised the first ominous +precedent in favor of those Gothic, Vandal, and Frankish hives, who +were as yet hidden behind a cloud of years. Homes had been obtained by +Trans-Danubian barbarians upon the sacred territory of Rome and Caesar: +that fact remained upon tradition; whilst the terms upon which they had +been obtained, how much or how little connected with fear, necessarily +became liable to doubt and to oblivion. Here we pause to remark, that +the first twelve Caesars, together with Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the +two Antonines, making seventeen emperors, compose the first of four +nearly equal groups, who occupied the throne in succession until +the extinction of the Western Empire. And at this point be it +observed,--that is, at the termination of the first group,--we take +leave of all genuine virtue. In no one of the succeeding princes, if we +except Alexander Severus, do we meet with any goodness of heart, or even +amiableness of manners. The best of the future emperors, in a public +sense, were harsh and repulsive in private character. + +The second group, as we have classed them, terminating with Philip the +Arab, commences with Commodus. This unworthy prince, although the son of +the excellent Marcus Antoninus, turned out a monster of debauchery. +At the moment of his father's death, he was present in person at the +head-quarters of the army on the Danube, and of necessity partook +in many of their hardships. This it was which furnished his evil +counsellors with their sole argument for urging his departure to the +capital. A council having been convened, the faction of court sycophants +pressed upon his attention the inclemency of the climate, contrasting it +with the genial skies and sunny fields of Italy; and the season, which +happened to be winter, gave strength to their representations. What! +would the emperor be content for ever to hew out the frozen water with +an axe before he could assuage his thirst? And, again, the total want of +fruit-trees--did that recommend their present station as a fit one for +the imperial court? Commodus, ashamed to found his objections to the +station upon grounds so unsoldierly as these, affected to be moved by +political reasons: some great senatorial house might take advantage of +his distance from home,--might seize the palace, fortify it, and raise +levies in Italy capable of sustaining its pretensions to the throne. +These arguments were combated by Pompeianus, who, besides his personal +weight as an officer, had married the eldest sister of the young +emperor. Shame prevailed for the present with Commodus, and he dismissed +the council with an assurance that he would think farther of it. The +sequel was easy to foresee. Orders were soon issued for the departure of +the court to Rome, and the task of managing the barbarians of Dacia, was +delegated to lieutenants. The system upon which these officers executed +their commission was a mixed one of terror and persuasion. Some they +defeated in battle; and these were the majority; for Herodian says, +_pleizous ton barbaron haplois echeirosanto_: Others they bribed into +peace by large sums of money. And no doubt this last article in the +policy of Commodus was that which led Gibbon to assign to this reign the +first rudiments of the Roman declension. But it should be remembered, +that, virtually, this policy was but the further prosecution of that +which had already been adopted by Marcus Aurelius. Concessions and +temperaments of any sort or degree showed that the Pannonian frontier +was in too formidable a condition to be treated with uncompromising +rigor. To _hamerimnon onoumenos_, purchasing an immunity from all +further anxiety, Commodus (as the historian expresses it) _panta edidou +ta aitoumena_--conceded all demands whatever. His journey to Rome was +one continued festival: and the whole population of Rome turned out +to welcome him. At this period he was undoubtedly the darling of the +people: his personal beauty was splendid; and he was connected by blood +with some of the greatest nobility. Over this flattering scene of hope +and triumph clouds soon gathered: with the mob, indeed, there is reason +to think that he continued a favorite to the last; but the respectable +part of the citizens were speedily disgusted with his self-degradation, +and came to hate him even more than ever or by any class he had been +loved. The Roman pride never shows itself more conspicuously throughout +all history, than in the alienation of heart which inevitably followed +any great and continued outrages upon his own majesty, committed by +their emperor. Cruelties the most atrocious, acts of vengeance the most +bloody, fratricide, parricide, all were viewed with more toleration than +oblivion of his own inviolable sanctity. Hence we imagine the wrath +with which Rome would behold Commodus, under the eyes of four hundred +thousand spectators, making himself a party to the contests of +gladiators. In his earlier exhibitions as an archer, it is possible that +his matchless dexterity, and his unerring eye, would avail to mitigate +the censures: but when the Roman Imperator actually descended to +the arena in the garb and equipments of a servile prize-fighter, and +personally engaged in combat with such antagonists, having previously +submitted to their training and discipline--the public indignation +rose a to height, which spoke aloud the language of encouragement to +conspiracy and treason. These were not wanting: three memorable plots +against his life were defeated; one of them (that of Maternus, the +robber) accompanied with romantic circumstances, [Footnote: On this +occasion we may notice that the final execution of the vengeance +projected by Maternus, was reserved for a public festival, exactly +corresponding to the modern _carnival_; and from an expression used by +Herodian, it is plain that masquerading had been an ancient practice +in Rome.] which we have narrated in an earlier paper of this series. +Another was set on foot by his eldest sister, Lucilla; nor did her close +relationship protect her from capital punishment. In that instance, +the immediate agent of her purposes, Quintianus, a young man, of signal +resolution and daring, who had attempted to stab the emperor at the +entrance of the amphitheatre, though baffled in his purpose, uttered a +word which rang continually in the ears of Commodus, and poisoned +his peace of mind for ever. His vengeance, perhaps, was thus more +effectually accomplished than if he had at once dismissed his victim +from life. "The senate," he had said, "sends thee this through me:" and +henceforward the senate was the object of unslumbering suspicions to the +emperor. Yet the public suspicions settled upon a different quarter; and +a very memorable scene must have pointed his own in the same direction, +supposing that he had previously been blind to his danger. On a day +of great solemnity, when Rome had assembled her myriads in the +amphitheatre, just at the very moment when the nobles, the magistrates, +the priests, all, in short, that was venerable or consecrated in the +State, with the Imperator in their centre, had taken their seats, and +were waiting for the opening of the shows, a stranger, in the robe of +a philosopher, bearing a staff in his hand, (which also was the +professional ensign [Footnote: See Casaubon's notes upon Theophrastus.] +of a philosopher,) stepped forward, and, by the waving of his hand, +challenged the attention of Commodus. Deep silence ensued: upon which, +in a few words, ominous to the ear as the handwriting on the wall to the +eye of Belshazzar, the stranger unfolded to Commodus the instant peril +which menaced both his life and his throne, from his great servant +Perennius. What personal purpose of benefit to himself this stranger +might have connected with his public warning, or by whom he might have +been suborned, was never discovered; for he was instantly arrested by +the agents of the great officer whom he had denounced, dragged away to +punishment, and put to a cruel death. Commodus dissembled his panic for +the present; but soon after, having received undeniable proofs (as is +alleged) of the treason imputed to Perennius, in the shape of a +coin which had been struck by his son, he caused the father to be +assassinated; and, on the same day, by means of forged letters, before +this news could reach the son, who commanded the Illyrian armies, he +lured him also to destruction, under the belief that he was obeying the +summons of his father to a private interview on the Italian frontier. +So perished those enemies, if enemies they really were. But to these +tragedies succeeded others far more comprehensive in their mischief, and +in more continuous succession than is recorded upon any other page of +universal history. Rome was ravaged by a pestilence--by a famine--by +riots amounting to a civil war--by a dreadful massacre of the unarmed +mob--by shocks of earthquake--and, finally, by a fire which consumed +the national bank, [Footnote: Viz. the Temple of Peace; at that time the +most magnificent edifice in Rome. Temples, it is well known, were the +places used in ancient times as banks of deposit. For this function +they were admirably fitted by their inviolable sanctity.] and the most +sumptuous buildings of the city. To these horrors, with a rapidity +characteristic of the Roman depravity, and possible only under the most +extensive demoralization of the public mind, succeeded festivals of +gorgeous pomp, and amphitheatrical exhibitions, upon a scale of grandeur +absolutely unparalleled by all former attempts. Then were beheld, and +familiarized to the eyes of the Roman mob--to children--and to women, +animals as yet known to us, says Herodian, only in pictures. Whatever +strange or rare animal could be drawn from the depths of India, from +Siam and Pegu, or from the unvisited nooks of Ethiopia, were now brought +together as subjects for the archery of the universal lord. [Footnote: +What a prodigious opportunity for the zoologist!--And considering +that these shows prevailed, for 500 years, during all which period the +amphitheatre gave bounties, as it were, to the hunter and the fowler of +every climate, and that, by means of a stimulus so constantly applied, +scarcely any animal, the shyest, rarest, fiercest, escaped the demands +of the arena,--no one fact so much illustrates the inertia of the public +mind in those days, and the indifference to all scientific pursuits, as +that no annotator should have risen to Pliny the elder--no rival to the +immortal tutor of Alexander.] Invitations (and the invitations of kings +are commands) had been scattered on this occasion profusely; not, as +heretofore, to individuals or to families--but, as was in proportion +to the occasion where an emperor was the chief performer, to nations. +People were summoned by circles of longitude and latitude to come +and see _theasumenoi ha mae proteron maete heormkesun maete +aekaekoeisun_--things that eye had not seen nor ear heard of] the +specious miracles of nature brought together from arctic and from tropic +deserts, putting forth their strength, their speed, or their beauty, and +glorifying by their deaths the matchless hand of the Roman king. +There was beheld the lion from Bilidulgerid, and the leopard from +Hindostan--the rein-deer from polar latitudes--the antelope from the +Zaara--and the leigh, or gigantic stag, from Britain. Thither came the +buffalo and the bison, the white bull of Northumberland and Galloway, +the unicorn from the regions of Nepaul or Thibet, the rhinoceros and +the river-horse from Senegal, with the elephant of Ceylon or Siam. The +ostrich and the cameleopard, the wild ass and the zebra, the chamois and +the ibex of Angora,--all brought their tributes of beauty or deformity +to these vast aceldamas of Rome: their savage voices ascended in +tumultuous uproar to the chambers of the capitol: a million of +spectators sat round them: standing in the centre was a single +statuesque figure--the imperial sagittary, beautiful as an Antinous, and +majestic as a Jupiter, whose hand was so steady and whose eye so true, +that he was never known to miss, and who, in this accomplishment at +least, was so absolute in his excellence, that, as we are assured by a +writer not disposed to flatter him, the very foremost of the Parthian +archers and of the Mauritanian lancers [_Parthyaion oi toxichaes +hachribentes, chai Mauresion oi hachontixein harizoi_] were not able +to contend with him. Juvenal, in a well known passage upon the +disproportionate endings of illustrious careers, drawing one of his +examples from Marius, says, that he ought, for his own glory, and to +make his end correspondent to his life, to have died at the moment when +he descended from his triumphal chariot at the portals of the capitol. +And of Commodus, in like manner, it may be affirmed, that, had he +died in the exercise of his peculiar art, with a hecatomb of victims +rendering homage to his miraculous skill, by the regularity of the files +which they presented, as they lay stretched out dying or dead upon the +arena,--he would have left a splendid and a characteristic impression +of himself upon that nation of spectators who had witnessed his +performance. He was the noblest artist in his own profession that the +world had seen--in archery he was the Robin Hood of Rome; he was in the +very meridian of his youth; and he was the most beautiful man of his +own times _Ton chath eauton hathropon challei euprepestatos_. He would +therefore have looked the part admirably of the dying gladiator; and he +would have died in his natural vocation. But it was ordered otherwise; +his death was destined to private malice, and to an ignoble hand. And +much obscurity still rests upon the motives of the assassins, though its +circumstances are reported with unusual minuteness of detail. One +thing is evident, that the public and patriotic motives assigned by the +perpetrators as the remote causes of their conspiracy, cannot have been +the true ones. The grave historian may sum up his character of Commodus +by saying that, however richly endowed with natural gifts, he abused +them all to bad purposes; that he derogated from his noble ancestors, +and disavowed the obligations of his illustrious name; and, as the +climax of his offences, that he dishonored the purple--_aischrois +epitaedeumasin_--by the baseness of his pursuits. All that is true, and +more than that. But these considerations were not of a nature to +affect his parasitical attendants very nearly or keenly. Yet the story +runs--that Marcia, his privileged mistress, deeply affected by the +anticipation of some further outrages upon his high dignity which he +was then meditating, had carried the importunity of her deprecations too +far; that the irritated emperor had consequently inscribed her name, in +company with others, (whom he had reason to tax with the same offence, +or whom he suspected of similar sentiments,) in his little black book, +or pocket souvenir of death; that this book, being left under the +cushion of a sofa, had been conveyed into the hands of Marcia by a +little pet boy, called Philo-Commodus, who was caressed equally by the +emperor and by Marcia; that she had immediately called to her aid, and +to the participation of her plot, those who participated in her danger; +and that the proximity of their own intended fate had prescribed to them +an immediate attempt; the circumstances of which were these. At mid-day +the emperor was accustomed to bathe, and at the same time to take +refreshments. On this occasion, Marcia, agreeably to her custom, +presented him with a goblet of wine, medicated with poison. Of this +wine, having just returned from the fatigues of the chase, Commodus +drank freely, and almost immediately fell into heavy slumbers; from +which, however, he was soon aroused by deadly sickness. That was a case +which the conspirators had not taken into their calculations; and they +now began to fear that the violent vomiting which succeeded might throw +off the poison. There was no time to be lost; and the barbarous Marcia, +who had so often slept in the arms of the young emperor, was the person +to propose that he should now be strangled. A young gladiator, named +Narcissus, was therefore introduced into the room; what passed is not +known circumstantially; but, as the emperor was young and athletic, +though off his guard at the moment, and under the disadvantage +of sickness, and as he had himself been regularly trained in the +gladiatorial discipline, there can be little doubt that the vile +assassin would meet with a desperate resistance. And thus, after all, +there is good reason to think that the emperor resigned his life in the +character of a dying gladiator. [Footnote: It is worthy of notice, that, +under any suspension of the imperatorial power or office, the senate +was the body to whom the Roman mind even yet continued to turn. In this +case, both to color their crime with a show of public motives, and to +interest this great body in their own favor by associating them in their +own dangers, the conspirators pretended to have found a long roll of +senatorial names included in the same page of condemnation with their +own. A manifest fabrication!] + +So perished the eldest and sole surviving son of the great Marcus +Antoninus; and the crown passed into the momentary possession of two old +men, who reigned in succession each for a few weeks. The first of +these was Pertinax, an upright man, a good officer, and an unseasonable +reformer; unseasonable for those times, but more so for himself. Laetus, +the ringleader in the assassination of Commodus, had been at that time +the praetorian prefect--an office which a German writer considers as best +represented to modern ideas by the Turkish post of grand vizier. +Needing a protector at this moment, he naturally fixed his eyes upon +Pertinax--as then holding the powerful command of city prefect (or +governor of Rome.) Him therefore he recommended to the soldiery--that +is, to the praetorian cohorts. The soldiery had no particular objection +to the old general, if he and they could agree upon terms; his age being +doubtless appreciated as a first-rate recommendation, in a case where it +insured a speedy renewal of the lucrative bargain. + +The only demur arose with Pertinax himself: he had been leader of the +troops in Britain, then superintendent of the police in Rome, thirdly +proconsul in Africa, and finally consul and governor of Rome. In these +great official stations he stood near enough to the throne to observe +the dangers with which it was surrounded; and it is asserted that he +declined the offered dignity. But it is added, that, finding the choice +allowed him lay between immediate death [Footnote: Historians have +failed to remark the contradiction between this statement and +the allegation that Laetus selected Pertinax for the throne on a +consideration of his ability to protect the assassins of Commodus.] and +acceptance, he closed with the proposals of the praetorian cohorts, at +the rate of about ninety-six pounds per man; which largess he paid by +bringing to sale the rich furniture of the last emperor. The danger +which usually threatened a Roman Caesar in such cases was--lest he should +not be able to fulfill his contract. But in the case of Pertinax the +danger began from the moment when he _had_ fulfilled it. Conceiving +himself to be now released from his dependency, he commenced his +reforms, civil as well as military, with a zeal which alarmed all those +who had an interest in maintaining the old abuses. To two great factions +he thus made himself especially obnoxious--to the praetorian cohorts, +and to the courtiers under the last reign. The connecting link between +these two parties was Laetus, who belonged personally to the last, and +still retained his influence with the first. Possibly his fears +were alarmed; but, at all events, his cupidity was not satisfied. He +conceived himself to have been ill rewarded; and, immediately resorting +to the same weapons which he had used against Commodus, he stimulated +the praetorian guards to murder the emperor. Three hundred of them +pressed into the palace: Pertinax attempted to harangue them, and to +vindicate himself; but not being able to obtain a hearing, he folded his +robe about his head, called upon Jove the Avenger, and was immediately +dispatched. + +The throne was again empty after a reign of about eighty days; and now +came the memorable scandal of putting up the empire to auction. There +were two bidders, Sulpicianus and Didius Julianus. The first, however, +at that time governor of Rome, lay under a weight of suspicion, being +the father-in-law of Pertinax, and likely enough to exact vengeance for +his murder. He was besides outbid by Julianus. Sulpician offered about +one hundred and sixty pounds a man to the guards; his rival offered two +hundred, and assured them besides of immediate payment; "for," said +he, "I have the money at home, without needing to raise it from the +possessions of the crown." Upon this the empire was knocked down to the +highest bidder. So shocking, however, was this arrangement to the +Roman pride, that the guards durst not leave their new creation without +military protection. The resentment of an unarmed mob, however, soon +ceased to be of foremost importance; this resentment extended rapidly +to all the frontiers of the empire, where the armies felt that the +praetorian cohorts had no exclusive title to give away the throne, and +their leaders felt, that, in a contest of this nature, their own claims +were incomparably superior to those of the present occupant. Three great +candidates therefore started forward--Septimius Severus, who commanded +the armies in Illyria, Pescennius Niger in Syria, and Albinus in +Britain. Severus, as the nearest to Rome, marched and possessed himself +of that city. Vengeance followed upon all parties concerned in the late +murder. Julianus, unable to complete his bargain, had already been put +to death, as a deprecatory offering to the approaching army. Severus +himself inflicted death upon Laetus, and dismissed the praetorian +cohorts. Thence marching against his Syrian rival, Niger, who had +formerly been his friend, and who was not wanting in military skill, he +overthrew him in three great battles. Niger fled to Antioch, the seat +of his late government, and was there decapitated. Meantime Albinus, the +British commander-in-chief, had already been won over by the title of +Caesar, or adopted heir to the new Augustus. But the hollowness of this +bribe soon became apparent, and the two competitors met to decide their +pretensions at Lyons. In the great battle which followed, Severus fell +from his horse, and was at first supposed to be dead. But recovering, he +defeated his rival, who immediately committed suicide. Severus displayed +his ferocious temper sufficiently by sending the head of Albinus to +Rome. Other expressions of his natural character soon followed: he +suspected strongly that Albinus had been favored by the senate; forty of +that body, with their wives and children, were immediately sacrificed to +his wrath; but he never forgave the rest, nor endured to live upon terms +of amity amongst them. Quitting Rome in disgust, he employed himself +first in making war upon the Parthians, who had naturally, from +situation, befriended his Syrian rival. Their capital cities he +overthrew; and afterwards, by way of employing his armies, made war +in Britain. At the city of York he died; and to his two sons, Geta and +Caracalla, he bequeathed, as his dying advice, a maxim of policy, which +sufficiently indicates the situation of the empire at that period; it +was this--"To enrich the soldiery at any price, and to regard the rest +of their subjects as so many ciphers." But, as a critical historian +remarks, this was a shortsighted and self-destroying policy; since in +no way is the subsistence of the soldier made more insecure, than by +diminishing the general security of rights and property to those who are +not soldiers, from whom, after all, the funds must be sought, by +which the soldier himself is to be paid and nourished. The two sons +of Severus, whose bitter enmity is so memorably put on record by their +actions, travelled simultaneously to Rome; but so mistrustful of each +other, that at every stage the two princes took up their quarters at +different houses. Geta has obtained the sympathy of historians, because +he happened to be the victim; but there is reason to think, that each +of the brothers was conspiring against the other. The weak credulity, +rather than the conscious innocence, of Geta, led to the catastrophe; he +presented himself at a meeting with his brother in the presence of their +common mother, and was murdered by Caracalla in his mother's arms. He +was, however, avenged; the horrors of that tragedy, and remorse for the +twenty thousand murders which had followed, never forsook the guilty +Caracalla. Quitting Rome, but pursued into every region by the bloody +image of his brother, the emperor henceforward led a wandering life at +the head of his legions; but never was there a better illustration of +the poet's maxim, that + + 'Remorse is as the mind in which it grows: + If _that_ be gentle,' &c. + +For the remorse of Caracalla put on no shape of repentance. On the +contrary, he carried anger and oppression wherever he moved; and +protected himself from plots only by living in the very centre of a +nomadic camp. Six years had passed away in this manner, when a mere +accident led to his assassination. For the sake of security, the office +of praetorian prefect had been divided between two commissioners, one +for military affairs, the other for civil. The latter of these two +officers was Opilius Macrinus. This man has, by some historians, been +supposed to have harbored no bad intentions; but, unfortunately, an +astrologer had foretold that he was destined to the throne. The prophet +was laid in irons at Rome, and letters were dispatched to Caracalla, +apprizing him of the case. These letters, as yet unopened, were +transferred by the emperor, then occupied in witnessing a race, to +Macrinus, who thus became acquainted with the whole grounds of suspicion +against himself,--grounds which, to the jealousy of the emperor, he +well knew would appear substantial proofs. Upon this he resolved to +anticipate the emperor in the work of murder. The head-quarters were +then at Edessa; and upon his instigation, a disappointed centurion, +named Martialis, animated also by revenge for the death of his brother, +undertook to assassinate Caracalla. An opportunity soon offered, on +a visit which the prince made to the celebrated temple of the moon at +Carrhae. The attempt was successful: the emperor perished; but Martialis +paid the penalty of his crime in the same hour, being shot by a Scythian +archer of the body-guard. + +Macrinus, after three days' interregnum, being elected emperor, began +his reign by purchasing a peace from the Parthians. What the empire +chiefly needed at this moment, is evident from the next step taken by +this emperor. He labored to restore the ancient discipline of the armies +in all its rigor. He was aware of the risk he ran in this attempt; and +that he _was_ so, is the best evidence of the strong necessity which +existed for reform. Perhaps, however, he might have surmounted his +difficulties and dangers, had he met with no competitor round whose +person the military malcontents could rally. But such a competitor soon +arose; and, to the astonishment of all the world, in the person of a +Syrian. The Emperor Severus, on losing his first wife, had resolved to +strengthen the pretensions of his family by a second marriage with some +lady having a regal "genesis," that is, whose horoscope promised a regal +destiny. Julia Domna, a native of Syria, offered him this dowry, and she +became the mother of Geta. A sister of this Julia, called Moesa, +had, through two different daughters, two grandsons--Heliogabalus and +Alexander Severus. The mutineers of the army rallied round the first of +these; a battle was fought; and Macrinus, with his son Diadumenianus, +whom he had adopted to the succession, were captured and put to death. +Heliogabalus succeeded, and reigned in the monstrous manner which has +rendered his name infamous in history. In what way, however, he lost the +affections of the army, has never been explained. His mother, Sooemias, +the eldest daughter of Moesa, had represented herself as the concubine +of Caracalla; and Heliogabalus, being thus accredited as the son of that +emperor, whose memory was dear to the soldiery, had enjoyed the full +benefit of that descent, nor can it be readily explained how he came to +lose it. + +Here, in fact, we meet with an instance of that dilemma which is so +constantly occurring in the history of the Caesars. If a prince is by +temperament disposed to severity of manners, and naturally seeks to +impress his own spirit upon the composition and discipline of the army, +we are sure to find that he was cut off in his attempts by private +assassination or by public rebellion. On the other hand, if he wallows +in sensuality, and is careless about all discipline, civil or military, +we then find as commonly that he loses the esteem and affections of +the army to some rival of severer habits. And in the midst of such +oscillations, and with examples of such contradictory interpretation, we +cannot wonder that the Roman princes did not oftener take warning by the +misfortunes of their predecessors. In the present instance, Alexander, +the cousin of Heliogabalus, without intrigues of his own, and simply (as +it appears) by the purity and sobriety of his conduct, had alienated +the affections of the army from the reigning prince. Either jealousy or +prudence had led Heliogabalus to make an attempt upon his rival's life; +and this attempt had nearly cost him his own through the mutiny which +it caused. In a second uproar, produced by some fresh intrigues of the +emperor against his cousin, the soldiers became unmanageable, and they +refused to pause until they had massacred Heliogabalus, together with +his mother, and raised his cousin Alexander to the throne. + +The reforms of this prince, who reigned under the name of Alexander +Severus, were extensive and searching; not only in his court, which he +purged of all notorious abuses, but throughout the economy of the army. +He cashiered, upon one occasion, an entire legion: he restored, as far +as he was able, the ancient discipline; and, above all, he liberated +the provinces from military spoliation. "Let the soldier," said he, "be +contented with his pay; and whatever more he wants, let him obtain it +by victory from the enemy, not by pillage from his fellow-subject." But +whatever might be the value or extent of his reforms in the marching +regiments, Alexander could not succeed in binding the praetorian guards +to his yoke. Under the guardianship of his mother Mammaea, the conduct of +state affairs had been submitted to a council of sixteen persons, at +the head of which stood the celebrated Ulpian. To this minister the +praetorians imputed the reforms, and perhaps the whole spirit of reform; +for they pursued him with a vengeance which is else hardly to be +explained. Many days was Ulpian protected by the citizens of Rome, until +the whole city was threatened with conflagration; he then fled to the +palace of the young emperor, who in vain attempted to save him from his +pursuers under the shelter of the imperial purple. Ulpian was murdered +before his eyes; nor was it found possible to punish the ringleader +in this foul conspiracy, until he had been removed by something like +treachery to a remote government. + +Meantime, a great revolution and change of dynasty had been effected in +Parthia; the line of the Arsacidae was terminated; the Parthian empire +was at an end; and the sceptre of Persia was restored under the new race +of the Sassanides. Artaxerxes, the first prince of this race, sent an +embassy of four hundred select knights, enjoining the Roman emperor to +content himself with Europe, and to leave Asia to the Persians. In the +event of a refusal, the ambassadors were instructed to offer a defiance +to the Roman prince. Upon such an insult, Alexander could not do less, +with either safety or dignity, than prepare for war. It is probable, +indeed, that, by this expedition, which drew off the minds of the +soldiery from brooding upon the reforms which offended them, the life +of Alexander was prolonged. But the expedition itself was mismanaged, +or was unfortunate. This result, however, does not seem chargeable upon +Alexander. All the preparations were admirable on the march, and up to +the enemy's frontier. The invasion it was, which, in a strategic sense, +seems to have been ill combined. Three armies were to have entered +Persia simultaneously: one of these, which was destined to act on a +flank of the general line, entangled itself in the marshy grounds near +Babylon, and was cut off by the archery of an enemy whom it could +not reach. The other wing, acting upon ground impracticable for the +manoeuvres of the Persian cavalry, and supported by Chosroes the king +of Armenia, gave great trouble to Artaxerxes, and, with adequate support +from the other armies, would doubtless have been victorious. But the +central army, under the conduct of Alexander in person, discouraged by +the destruction of one entire wing, remained stationary in Mesopotamia +throughout the summer, and, at the close of the campaign, was withdrawn +to Antioch, _re infecta_. It has been observed that great mystery hangs +over the operations and issue of this short war. Thus much, however, is +evident, that nothing but the previous exhaustion of the Persian king +saved the Roman armies from signal discomfiture; and even thus there is +no ground for claiming a victory (as most historians do) to the Roman +arms. Any termination of the Persian war, however, whether glorious or +not, was likely to be personally injurious to Alexander, by allowing +leisure to the soldiery for recurring to their grievances. Sensible, no +doubt, of this, Alexander was gratified by the occasion which then arose +for repressing the hostile movements of the Germans. He led his army off +upon this expedition; but their temper was gloomy and threatening; and +at length, after reaching the seat of war, at Mentz, an open mutiny +broke out under the guidance of Maximin, which terminated in the murder +of the emperor and his mother. By Herodian the discontents of the army +are referred to the ill management of the Persian campaign, and the +unpromising commencement of the new war in Germany. But it seems +probable that a dissolute and wicked army, like that of Alexander, had +not murmured under the too little, but the too much of military service; +not the buying a truce with gold seems to have offended them, but the +having led them at all upon an enterprise of danger and hardship. + +Maximin succeeded, whose feats of strength, when he first courted the +notice of the Emperor Severus, have been described by Gibbon. He was +at that period a Thracian peasant; since then he had risen gradually +to high offices; but, according to historians, he retained his Thracian +brutality to the last. That may have been true; but one remark must be +made upon this occasion: Maximin was especially opposed to the senate; +and, wherever that was the case, no justice was done to an emperor. Why +it was that Maximin would not ask for the confirmation of his +election from the senate, has never been explained; it is said that he +anticipated a rejection. But, on the other hand, it seems probable that +the senate supposed its sanction to be despised. Nothing, apparently, +but this reciprocal reserve in making approaches to each other, was +the cause of all the bloodshed which followed. The two Gordians, who +commanded in Africa, were set up by the senate against the new emperor; +and the consternation of that body must have been great, when these +champions were immediately overthrown and killed. They did not, however, +despair: substituting the two governors of Rome, Pupienus and Balbinus, +and associating to them the younger Gordian, they resolved to make a +stand; for the severities of Maximin had by this time manifested that +it was a contest of extermination. Meantime, Maximin had broken up from +Sirmium, the capital of Pannonia, and had advanced to Aquileia,--that +famous fortress, which in every invasion of Italy was the first object +of attack. The senate had set a price upon his head; but there was every +probability that he would have triumphed, had he not disgusted his army +by immoderate severities. It was, however, but reasonable that those, +who would not support the strict but equitable discipline of the mild +Alexander, should suffer under the barbarous and capricious rigor of +Maximin. That rigor was his ruin: sunk and degraded as the senate was, +and now but the shadow of a mighty name, it was found on this occasion +to have long arms when supported by the frenzy of its opponent. Whatever +might be the real weakness of this body, the rude soldiers yet felt a +blind traditionary veneration for its sanction, when prompting them as +patriots to an act which their own multiplied provocations had but too +much recommended to their passions. A party entered the tent of Maximin, +and dispatched him with the same unpitying haste which he had shown +under similar circumstances to the gentle-minded Alexander. Aquileia +opened her gates immediately, and thus made it evident that the war had +been personal to Maximin. + +A scene followed within a short time which is in the highest degree +interesting. The senate, in creating two emperors at once (for the boy +Gordian was probably associated to them only by way of masking their +experiment), had made it evident that their purpose was to restore the +republic and its two consuls. This was their meaning; and the experiment +had now been twice repeated. The army saw through it: as to the double +number of emperors, _that_ was of little consequence, farther than as +it expressed their intention, viz. by bringing back the consular +government, to restore the power of the senate, and to abrogate that of +the army. The praetorian troops, who were the most deeply interested in +preventing this revolution, watched their opportunity, and attacked the +two emperors in the palace. The deadly feud, which had already arisen +between them, led each to suppose himself under assault from the other. +The mistake was not of long duration. Carried into the streets of Rome, +they were both put to death, and treated with monstrous indignities. The +young Gordian was adopted by the soldiery. It seems odd that even thus +far the guards should sanction the choice of the senate, having the +purposes which they had; but perhaps Gordian had recommended himself to +their favor in a degree which might outweigh what they considered +the original vice of his appointment, and his youth promised them +an immediate impunity. This prince, however, like so many of his +predecessors, soon came to an unhappy end. Under the guardianship of the +upright Misitheus, for a time he prospered; and preparations were made +upon a great scale for the energetic administration of a Persian war. +But Misitheus died, perhaps by poison, in the course of the campaign; +and to him succeeded, as praetorian prefect, an Arabian officer, called +Philip. The innocent boy, left without friends, was soon removed by +murder; and a monument was afterwards erected to his memory, at the +junction of the Aboras and the Euphrates. Great obscurity, however, +clouds this part of history; nor is it so much as known in what way the +Persian war was conducted or terminated. + +Philip, having made himself emperor, celebrated, upon his arrival in +Rome, the secular games, in the year 247 of the Christian era--that +being the completion of a thousand years from the foundation of Rome. +But Nemesis was already on his steps. An insurrection had broken out +amongst the legions stationed in Moesia; and they had raised to the +purple some officer of low rank. Philip, having occasion to notice this +affair in the senate, received for answer from Decius, that probably the +pseudo-imperator would prove a mere evanescent phantom. This conjecture +was confirmed; and Philip in consequence conceived a high opinion of +Decius, whom (as the insurrection still continued) he judged to be the +fittest man for appeasing it. Decius accordingly went, armed with the +proper authority. But on his arrival, he found himself compelled by the +insurgent army to choose between empire and death. Thus constrained, he +yielded to the wishes of the troops; and then hastening with a veteran +army into Italy, he fought the battle of Verona, where Philip was +defeated and killed, whilst the son of Philip was murdered at Rome by +the praetorian guards. + +With Philip ends, according to our distribution, the second series of +the Caesars, comprehending Commodus, Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Septimius +Severus, Caracalla, and Geta, Macrinus, Heliogabalus, Alexander Severus, +Maximin, the two Gordians, Pupienus and Balbinus, the third Gordian, and +Philip the Arab. + +In looking back at this series of Caesars, we are horror-struck at the +blood-stained picture. Well might a foreign writer, in reviewing the +same succession, declare, that it is like passing into a new world when +the transition is made from this chapter of the human history to that of +modern Europe. From Commodus to Decius are sixteen names, which, spread +through a space of 59 years, assign to each Caesar a reign of less than +four years. And Casaubon remarks, that, in one period of 160 years, +there were 70 persons who assumed the Roman purple; which gives to +each not much more than two years. On the other hand, in the history of +France, we find that, through a period of 1200 years, there have been +no more than 64 kings: upon an average, therefore, each king appears to +have enjoyed a reign of nearly nineteen years. This vast difference +in security is due to two great principles,--that of primogeniture as +between son and son, and of hereditary succession as between a son and +every other pretender. Well may we hail the principle of hereditary +right as realizing the praise of Burke applied to chivalry, viz., that +it is "the cheap defence of nations;" for the security which is thus +obtained, be it recollected, does not regard a small succession of +princes, but the whole rights and interests of social man: since the +contests for the rights of belligerent rivals do not respect themselves +only, but very often spread ruin and proscription amongst all orders +of men. The principle of hereditary succession, says one writer, had it +been a discovery of any one individual, would deserve to be considered +as the very greatest ever made; and he adds acutely, in answer to the +obvious, but shallow objection to it (viz. its apparent assumption of +equal ability for reigning in father and son for ever), that it is like +the Copernican system of the heavenly bodies,--contradictory to our +sense and first impressions, but true notwithstanding. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +To return, however, to our sketch of the Caesars--at the head of the +third series we place Decius. He came to the throne at a moment of great +public embarrassment. The Goths were now beginning to press southwards +upon the empire. Dacia they had ravaged for some time; "and here," says +a German writer, "observe the shortsightedness of the Emperor Trajan." +Had he left the Dacians in possession of their independence, they would, +under their native kings, have made head against the Goths. But, being +compelled to assume the character of Roman citizens, they had lost their +warlike qualities. From Dacia the Goths had descended upon Moesia; and, +passing the Danube, they laid siege to Marcianopolis, a city built by +Trajan in honor of his sister. The inhabitants paid a heavy ransom for +their town; and the Goths were persuaded for the present to return home. +But sooner than was expected, they returned to Moesia, under their king, +Kniva; and they were already engaged in the siege of Nicopolis, when +Decius came in sight at the head of the Roman army. The Goths retired, +but it was to Thrace; and, in the conquest of Philippopolis, they found +an ample indemnity for their forced retreat and disappointment. Decius +pursued, but the king of the Goths turned suddenly upon him; the emperor +was obliged to fly; the Roman camp was plundered; Philippopolis was +taken by storm; and its whole population, reputed at more than a hundred +thousand souls, destroyed. + +Such was the first great irruption of the barbarians into the Roman +territory: and panic was diffused on the wings of the winds over the +whole empire. Decius, however, was firm, and made prodigious efforts to +restore the balance of power to its ancient condition. For the moment he +had some partial successes. He cut off several detachments of Goths, on +their road to reinforce the enemy; and he strengthened the fortresses +and garrisons of the Danube. But his last success was the means of his +total ruin. He came up with the Goths at Forum Terebronii, and, having +surrounded their position, their destruction seemed inevitable. A great +battle ensued, and a mighty victory to the Goths. Nothing is now known +of the circumstances, except that the third line of the Romans was +entangled inextricably in a morass (as had happened in the Persian +expedition of Alexander). Decius perished on this occasion--nor was it +possible to find his dead body. This great defeat naturally raised the +authority of the senate, in the same proportion as it depressed that of +the army; and by the will of that body, Hostilianus, a son of Decius, +was raised to the empire; and ostensibly on account of his youth, but +really with a view to their standing policy of restoring the consulate, +and the whole machinery of the republic, Gallus, an experienced +commander, was associated in the empire. But no skill or experience +could avail to retrieve the sinking power of Rome upon the Illyrian, +frontier. The Roman army was disorganized, panic-stricken, reduced to +skeleton battalions. Without an army, what could be done? And thus it +may really have been no blame to Gallus, that he made a treaty with the +Goths more degrading than any previous act in the long annals of Rome. +By the terms of this infamous bargain, they were allowed to carry off an +immense booty, amongst which was a long roll of distinguished prisoners; +and Caesar himself it was--not any lieutenant or agent that might have +been afterwards disavowed--who volunteered to purchase their future +absence by an annual tribute. The very army which had brought their +emperor into the necessity of submitting to such abject concessions, +were the first to be offended with this natural result of their own +failures. Gallus was already ruined in public opinion, when further +accumulations arose to his disgrace. It was now supposed to have been +discovered, that the late dreadful defeat of Forum Terebronii was due to +his bad advice; and, as the young Hostilianus happened to die about this +time of a contagious disorder, Gallus was charged with his murder. +Even a ray of prosperity, which just now gleamed upon the Roman arms, +aggravated the disgrace of Gallus, and was instantly made the handle of +his ruin. AEmilianus, the governor of Moesia and Pannonia, inflicted some +check or defeat upon the Goths; and in the enthusiasm of sudden pride, +upon an occasion which contrasted so advantageously for himself with the +military conduct of Decius and Gallus, the soldiers of his own legion +raised AEmilianus to the purple. No time was to be lost. Summoned by +the troops, AEmilianus marched into Italy; and no sooner had he made his +appearance there, than the praetorian guards murdered the Emperor Gallus +and his son Volusianus, by way of confirming the election of AEmilianus. +The new emperor offered to secure the frontiers, both in the east and +on the Danube, from the incursions of the barbarians. This offer may +be regarded as thrown out for the conciliation of all classes in the +empire. But to the senate in particular he addressed a message, which +forcibly illustrates the political position of that body in those times. +AEmilianus proposed to resign the whole civil administration into the +hands of the senate, reserving to himself only the unenviable burthen of +the military interests. His hope was, that in this way making himself in +part the creation of the senate, he might strengthen his title against +competitors at Rome, whilst the entire military administration going on +under his own eyes, exclusively directed to that one object, would give +him some chance of defeating the hasty and tumultuary competitions +so apt to arise amongst the legions upon the frontier. We notice the +transaction chiefly as indicating the anomalous situation of the senate. +Without power in a proper sense, or no more, however, than the +indirect power of wealth, that ancient body retained an immense +_auctoritas_--that is, an influence built upon ancient reputation, +which, in their case, had the strength of a religious superstition in +all Italian minds. This influence the senators exerted with effect, +whenever the course of events had happened to reduce the power of the +army. And never did they make a more continuous and sustained effort for +retrieving their ancient power and place, together with the whole system +of the republic, than during the period at which we are now arrived. +From the time of Maximin, in fact, to the accession of Aurelian, the +senate perpetually interposed their credit and authority, like some +_Deus ex machina_ in the dramatic art. And if this one fact were +all that had survived of the public annals at this period, we might +sufficiently collect the situation of the two other parties in the +empire--the army and the imperator; the weakness and precarious tenure +of the one, and the anarchy of the other. And hence it is that we can +explain the hatred borne to the senate by vigorous emperors, such as +Aurelian, succeeding to a long course of weak and troubled reigns. Such +an emperor presumed in the senate, and not without reason, that same +spirit of domineering interference as ready to manifest itself, upon any +opportunity offered, against himself, which, in his earlier days, he +had witnessed so repeatedly in successful operation upon the fates and +prospects of others. + +The situation indeed of the world--that is to say, of that great +centre of civilization, which, running round the Mediterranean in one +continuous belt of great breadth, still composed the Roman Empire, was +at this time most profoundly interesting. The crisis had arrived. In the +East, a new dynasty (the Sassanides) had remoulded ancient elements +into a new form, and breathed a new life into an empire, which else was +gradually becoming crazy from age, and which, at any rate, by losing +its unity, must have lost its vigor as an offensive power. Parthia was +languishing and drooping as an anti-Roman state, when the last of the +Arsacidae expired. A perfect _Palingenesis_ was wrought by the restorer +of the Persian empire, which pretty nearly re-occupied (and gloried in +re-occupying) the very area that had once composed the empire of Cyrus. +Even this _Palingenesis_ might have terminated in a divided empire: +vigor might have been restored, but in the shape of a polyarchy, (such +as the Saxons established in England,) rather than a monarchy; and in +reality, at one moment that appeared to be a probable event. Now, had +this been the course of the revolution, an alliance with one of these +kingdoms would have tended to balance the hostility of another (as was +in fact the case when Alexander Severus saved himself from the Persian +power by a momentary alliance with Armenia.) But all the elements of +disorder had in that quarter re-combined themselves into severe unity: +and thus was Rome, upon her eastern frontier, laid open to a new power +of juvenile activity and vigor, just at the period when the languor of +the decaying Parthian had allowed the Roman discipline to fall into +a corresponding declension. Such was the condition of Rome upon her +oriental frontier. [Footnote: And it is a striking illustration of the +extent to which the revolution had gone, that, previously to the Persian +expedition of the last Gordian, Antioch, the Roman capital of Syria, +had been occupied by the enemy.] On the northern, it was much worse. +Precisely at the crisis of a great revolution in Asia, which demanded in +that quarter more than the total strength of the empire, and threatened +to demand it for ages to come, did the Goths, under their earliest +denomination of _Getae_ with many other associate tribes, begin to push +with their horns against the northern gates of the empire: the whole +line of the Danube, and, pretty nearly about the same time, of the +Rhine, (upon which the tribes from Swabia, Bavaria, and Franconia, were +beginning to descend,) now became insecure; and these two rivers ceased +in effect to be the barriers of Rome. Taking a middle point of time +between the Parthian revolution and the fatal overthrow of Forum +Terebronii, we may fix upon the reign of Philip the Arab, [who +naturalized himself in Rome by the appellation of Marcus Julius,] as +the epoch from which the Roman empire, already sapped and undermined by +changes from within, began to give way, and to dilapidate from without. +And this reign dates itself in the series by those ever-memorable +secular or jubilee games, which celebrated the completion of the +thousandth year from the foundation of Rome. [Footnote: This Arab +emperor reigned about five years; and the jubilee celebration occurred +in his second year. Another circumstance gives importance to the +Arabian, that, according to one tradition, he was the first Christian +emperor. If so, it is singular that one of the bitterest persecutors of +Christianity should have been his immediate successor--Decius.] + +Resuming our sketch of the Imperial history, we may remark the natural +embarrassment which must have possessed the senate, when two candidates +for the purple were equally earnest in appealing to them, and their +deliberate choice, as the best foundation for a valid election. Scarcely +had the ground been cleared for AEmilianus, by the murder of Gallus and +his son, when Valerian, a Roman senator, of such eminent merit, and +confessedly so much the foremost noble in all the qualities essential to +the very delicate and comprehensive functions of a Censor, [Footnote: +It has proved a most difficult problem, in the hands of all speculators +upon the imperial history, to fathom the purposes, or throw any light +upon the purposes, of the Emperor Decius, in attempting the revival +of the ancient but necessarily obsolete office of a public censorship. +Either it was an act of pure verbal pedantry, or a mere titular +decoration of honor, (as if a modern prince should create a person +Arch-Grand-Elector, with no objects assigned to his electing faculty,) +or else, if it really meant to revive the old duties of the censorship, +and to assign the very same field for the exercise of those duties, it +must be viewed as the very grossest practical anachronism that has ever +been committed. We mean by an anachronism, in common usage, that sort of +blunder when a man ascribes to one age the habits, customs, or generally +the characteristics of another. This, however, may be a mere lapse +of memory, as to a matter of fact, and implying nothing at all +discreditable to the understanding, but only that a man has shifted the +boundaries of chronology a little this way or that; as if, for example, +a writer should speak of printed books as existing at the day of +Agincourt, or of artillery as existing in the first Crusade, here would +be an error, but a venial one. A far worse kind of anachronism, though +rarely noticed as such, is where a writer ascribes sentiments and modes +of thought incapable of co-existing with the sort or the degree of +civilization then attained, or otherwise incompatible with the structure +of society in the age or the country assigned. For instance, in +Southey's Don Roderick there is a cast of sentiment in the Gothic +king's remorse and contrition of heart, which has struck many readers as +utterly unsuitable to the social and moral development of that age, +and redolent of modern methodism. This, however, we mention only as an +illustration, without wishing to hazard an opinion upon the justice +of that criticism. But even such an anachronism is less startling and +extravagant when it is confined to an ideal representation of things, +than where it is practically embodied and brought into play amongst the +realities of life. What would be thought of a man who should attempt, in +1833, to revive the ancient office of _Fool_, as it existed down to +the reign, suppose, of our Henry VIII. in England? Yet the error of the +Emperor Decius was far greater, if he did in sincerity and good faith +believe that the Rome of his times was amenable to that license of +unlimited correction, and of interference with private affairs, which +republican freedom and simplicity had once conceded to the censor. In +reality, the ancient censor, in some parts of his office, was neither +more nor less than a compendious legislator. Acts of attainder, divorce +bills, &c., illustrate the case in England; they are cases of law, +modified to meet the case of an individual; and the censor, having a +sort of equity jurisdiction, was intrusted with discretionary powers +for reviewing, revising, and amending, _pro re nata_, whatever in the +private life of a Roman citizen seemed, to his experienced eye, alien +to the simplicity of an austere republic; whatever seemed vicious +or capable of becoming vicious, according to their rude notions of +political economy; and, generally, whatever touched the interests of +the commonwealth, though not falling within the general province +of legislation, either because it might appear undignified in its +circumstances, or too narrow in its range of operation for a public +anxiety, or because considerations of delicacy and prudence might +render it unfit for a public scrutiny. Take one case, drawn from actual +experience, as an illustration: A Roman nobleman, under one of the early +emperors, had thought fit, by way of increasing his income, to retire +into rural lodgings, or into some small villa, whilst his splendid +mansion in Rome was let to a rich tenant. That a man, who wore the +_laticlave_, (which in practical effect of splendor we may consider +equal to the ribbon and star of a modern order,) should descend to such +a degrading method of raising money, was felt as a scandal to the whole +nobility. [Footnote: This feeling still exists in France. "One winter," +says the author of _The English Army in France_, vol. ii. p. 106-7, +"our commanding officer's wife formed the project of hiring the chateau +during the absence of the owner; but a more profound insult could not +have been offered to a Chevalier de St. Louis. Hire his house! What +could these people take him for? A sordid wretch who would stoop to make +money by such means? They ought to be ashamed of themselves. He could +never respect an Englishman again." "And yet," adds the writer, "this +gentleman (had an officer been billeted there) would have _sold_ him a +bottle of wine out of his cellar, or a billet of wood from his stack, +or an egg from his hen-house, at a profit of fifty per cent., not only +without scruple, but upon no other terms. It was as common as ordering +wine at a tavern, to call the servant of any man's establishment where +we happened to be quartered, and demand an account of the cellar, as +well as the price of the wine we selected!" This feeling existed, and +perhaps to the same extent, two centuries ago, in England. Not only did +the aristocracy think it a degradation to act the part of landlord with +respect to their own houses, but also, except in select cases, to +act that of tenant. Thus, the first Lord Brooke, (the famous Fulke +Greville,) writing to inform his next neighbor, a woman of rank, that +the house she occupied had been purchased by a London citizen, confesses +his fears that he shall in consequence lose so valuable a neighbor; for, +doubtless, he adds, your ladyship will not remain as tenant to "such a +fellow." And yet the man had notoriously held the office of Lord Mayor, +which made him, for the time, _Right Honorable_. The Italians of this +day make no scruple to let off the whole, or even part, of their fine +mansions to strangers.] + +Yet what could be done? To have interfered with his conduct by an +express law, would be to infringe the sacred rights of property, and +to say, in effect, that a man should not do what he would with his own. +This would have been a remedy far worse than the evil to which it was +applied; nor could it have been possible so to shape the principle of +a law, as not to make it far more comprehensive than was desired. The +senator's trespass was in a matter of decorum; but the law would have +trespassed on the first principles of justice. Here, then, was a case +within the proper jurisdiction of the censor; he took notice, in his +public report, of the senator's error; or probably, before coming to +that extremity, he admonished him privately on the subject. Just as, in +England, had there been such an officer, he would have reproved those +men of rank who mounted the coach-box, who extended a public patronage +to the "fancy," or who rode their own horses at a race. Such a reproof, +however, unless it were made practically operative, and were powerfully +supported by the whole body of the aristocracy, would recoil upon its +author as a piece of impertinence, and would soon be resented as an +unwarrantable liberty taken with private rights; the censor would be +kicked, or challenged to private combat, according to the taste of the +parties aggrieved. The office is clearly in this dilemma: if the censor +is supported by the state, then he combines in his own person both +legislative and executive functions, and possesses a power which is +frightfully irresponsible; if, on the other hand, he is left to such +support as he can find in the prevailing spirit of manners, and the old +traditionary veneration for his sacred character, he stands very much +in the situation of a priesthood, which has great power or none at all, +according to the condition of a country in moral and religious feeling, +coupled with the more or less primitive state of manners. How, then, +with any rational prospect of success, could Decius attempt the revival +of an office depending so entirely on moral supports, in an age when +all those supports were withdrawn? The prevailing spirit of manners was +hardly fitted to sustain even a toleration of such an office; and as to +the traditionary veneration for the sacred character, from long disuse +of its practical functions, that probably was altogether extinct. If +these considerations are plain and intelligible even to us, by the men +of that day they must have been felt with a degree of force that could +leave no room for doubt or speculation on the matter. How was it, then, +that the emperor only should have been blind to such general light? + +In the absence of all other, even plausible, solutions of this +difficulty, we shall state our own theory of the matter. Decius, as is +evident from his fierce persecution of the Christians, was not disposed +to treat Christianity with indifference, under any form which it might +assume, or however masked. Yet there were quarters in which it lurked +not liable to the ordinary modes of attack. Christianity was creeping up +with inaudible steps into high places,--nay, into the very highest. The +immediate predecessor of Decius upon the throne, Philip the Arab, was +known to be a disciple of the new faith; and amongst the nobles of Rome, +through the females and the slaves, that faith had spread its roots in +every direction. Some secrecy, however, attached to the profession of a +religion so often proscribed. Who should presume to tear away the mask +which prudence or timidity had taken up? A _delator_, or professional +informer, was an infamous character. To deal with the noble and +illustrious, the descendants of the Marcelli and the Gracchi, there must +be nothing less than a great state officer, supported by the censor +and the senate, having an unlimited privilege of scrutiny and censure, +authorized to inflict the brand of infamy for offences not challenged +by express law, and yet emanating from an elder institution, familiar +to the days of reputed liberty. Such an officer was the censor; and such +were the antichristian purposes of Decius in his revival.] that Decius +had revived that office expressly in his behalf, entered Italy at the +head of the army from Gaul. He had been summoned to his aid by the late +emperor, Gallus; but, arriving too late for his support, he determined +to avenge him. Both AEmilianus and Valerian recognised the authority of +the senate, and professed to act under that sanction; but it was +the soldiery who cut the knot, as usual, by the sword. AEmilianus was +encamped at Spoleto; but as the enemy drew near, his soldiers, shrinking +no doubt from a contest with veteran troops, made their peace by +murdering the new emperor, and Valerian was elected in his stead. This +prince was already an old man at the time of his election; but he +lived long enough to look back upon the day of his inauguration as the +blackest in his life. Memorable were the calamities which fell upon +himself, and upon the empire, during his reign. He began by associating +to himself his son Gallienus; partly, perhaps, for his own relief, +partly to indulge the senate in their steady plan of dividing the +imperial authority. The two emperors undertook the military defence of +the empire, Gallienus proceeding to the German frontier, Valerian to +the eastern. Under Gallienus, the Franks began first to make themselves +heard of. Breaking into Gaul they passed through that country and Spain; +captured Tarragona in their route; crossed over to Africa, and conquered +Mauritania. At the same time, the Alemanni, who had been in motion since +the time of Caracalla, broke into Lombardy, across the Rhaetian Alps. +The senate, left without aid from either emperor, were obliged to make +preparations for the common defence against this host of barbarians. +Luckily, the very magnitude of the enemy's success, by overloading him +with booty, made it his interest to retire without fighting; and the +degraded senate, hanging upon the traces of their retiring footsteps, +without fighting, or daring to fight, claimed the honors of a victory. +Even then, however, they did more than was agreeable to the jealousies +of Gallienus, who, by an edict, publicly rebuked their presumption, and +forbade them in future to appear amongst the legions, or to exercise any +military functions. He himself, meanwhile, could devise no better way of +providing for the public security, than by marrying the daughter of his +chief enemy, the king of the Marcomanni. On this side of Europe, the +barbarians were thus quieted for the present; but the Goths of the +Ukraine, in three marauding expeditions of unprecedented violence, +ravaged the wealthy regions of Asia Minor, as well as the islands of the +Archipelago; and at length, under the guidance of deserters, landed in +the port of the Pyraeus. Advancing from this point, after sacking Athens +and the chief cities of Greece, they marched upon Epirus, and began +to threaten Italy. But the defection at this crisis of a conspicuous +chieftain, and the burden of their booty, made these wild marauders +anxious to provide for a safe retreat; the imperial commanders in Moesia +listened eagerly to their offers: and it set the seal to the dishonors +of the state, that, after having traversed so vast a range of territory +almost without resistance, these blood-stained brigands were now +suffered to retire under the very guardianship of those whom they had +just visited with military execution. + +Such were the terms upon which the Emperor Gallienus purchased a brief +respite from his haughty enemies. For the moment, however, he _did_ +enjoy security. Far otherwise was the destiny of his unhappy father. +Sapor now ruled in Persia; the throne of Armenia had vainly striven to +maintain its independency against his armies, and the daggers of his +hired assassins. This revolution, which so much enfeebled the Roman +means of war, exactly in that proportion increased the necessity for it. +War, and that instantly, seemed to offer the only chance for maintaining +the Roman name or existence in Asia, Carrhae and Nisibis, the two potent +fortresses in Mesopotamia, had fallen; and the Persian arms were +now triumphant on both banks of the Euphrates. Valerian was not of a +character to look with indifference upon such a scene, terminated by +such a prospect; prudence and temerity, fear and confidence, all spoke +a common language in this great emergency; and Valerian marched towards +the Euphrates with a fixed purpose of driving the enemy beyond that +river. By whose mismanagement the records of history do not enable us +to say, some think of Macrianus, the praetorian prefect, some of Valerian +himself, but doubtless by the treachery of guides co-operating with +errors in the general, the Roman army was entangled in marshy grounds; +partial actions followed, and skirmishes of cavalry, in which the Romans +became direfully aware of their situation; retreat was cut off, to +advance was impossible; and to fight was now found to be without hope. +In these circumstances they offered to capitulate. But the haughty Sapor +would hear of nothing but unconditional surrender; and to that course +the unhappy emperor submitted. Various traditions [Footnote: Some of +these traditions have been preserved, which represent Sapor as using his +imperial captive for his stepping-stone, or _anabathrum_, in mounting +his horse. Others go farther, and pretend that Sapor actually flayed his +unhappy prisoner whilst yet alive. The temptation to these stories was +perhaps found in the craving for the marvellous, and in the desire to +make the contrast more striking between the two extremes in Valerian's +life.] have been preserved by history concerning the fate of Valerian: +all agree that he died in misery and captivity; but some have +circumstantiated this general statement by features of excessive misery +and degradation, which possibly were added afterwards by scenical +romancers, in order to heighten the interest of the tale, or by ethical +writers, in order to point and strengthen the moral. Gallienus now ruled +alone, except as regarded the restless efforts of insurgents, thirty +of whom are said to have arisen in his single reign. This, however, is +probably an exaggeration. Nineteen such rebels are mentioned by name; of +whom the chief were Calpurnius Piso, a Roman senator; Tetricus, a man +of rank who claimed a descent from Pompey, Crassus, and even from +Numa Pompilius, and maintained himself some time in Gaul and Spain; +Trebellianus, who founded a republic of robbers in Isauria which +survived himself by centuries; and Odenathus, the Syrian. Others were +mere _Terra filii,_ or adventurers, who flourished and decayed in a few +days or weeks, of whom the most remarkable was a working armorer +named Marius. Not one of the whole number eventually prospered, except +Odenathus; and he, though originally a rebel, yet, in consideration of +services performed against Persia, was suffered to retain his power, +and to transmit his kingdom of Palmyra to his widow Zenobia. He was even +complimented with the title of Augustus. All the rest perished. Their +rise, however, and local prosperity at so many different points of the +empire, showed the distracted condition of the state, and its internal +weakness. That again proclaimed its external peril. No other cause had +called forth this diffusive spirit of insurrection than the general +consciousness, so fatally warranted, of the debility which had +emasculated the government, and its incompetency to deal vigorously with +the public enemies. [Footnote: And this incompetency was _permanently_ +increased by rebellions that were brief and fugitive: for each insurgent +almost necessarily maintained himself for the moment by spoliations and +robberies which left lasting effects behind them; and too often he was +tempted to ally himself with some foreign enemy amongst the barbarians, +and perhaps to introduce him into the heart of the empire.] The very +granaries of Rome, Sicily and Egypt, were the seats of continued +distractions; in Alexandria, the second city of the empire, there was +even a civil war which lasted for twelve years. Weakness, dissension, +and misery were spread like a cloud over the whole face of the empire. + +The last of the rebels who directed his rebellion personally against +Gallienus was Aureolus. Passing the Rhaetian Alps, this leader sought out +and defied the emperor. He was defeated, and retreated upon Milan; but +Gallienus, in pursuing him, was lured into an ambuscade, and perished +from the wound inflicted by an archer. With his dying breath he is said +to have recommended Claudius to the favor of the senate; and at all +events Claudius it was who succeeded. Scarcely was the new emperor +installed, before he was summoned to a trial not only arduous in itself, +but terrific by the very name of the enemy. The Goths of the Ukraine, +in a new armament of six thousand vessels, had again descended by the +Bosphorus into the south, and had sat down before Thessalonica, +the capitol of Macedonia. Claudius marched against them with the +determination to vindicate the Roman name and honor: "Know," said he, +writing to the senate, "that 320,000 Goths have set foot upon the Roman +soil. Should I conquer them, your gratitude will be my reward. Should +I fall, do not forget who it is that I have succeeded; and that the +republic is exhausted." No sooner did the Goths hear of his approach, +than, with transports of ferocious joy, they gave up the siege, and +hurried to annihilate the last pillar of the empire. The mighty battle +which ensued, neither party seeking to evade it, took place at Naissus. +At one time the legions were giving way, when suddenly, by some happy +manoeuvre of the emperor, a Roman corps found its way to the rear of the +enemy. The Goths gave way, and their defeat was total. According to +most accounts they left 50,000 dead upon the field. The campaign still +lingered, however, at other points, until at last the emperor succeeded +in driving back the relics of the Gothic host into the fastnesses of +the Balkan; and there the greater part of them died of hunger and +pestilence. These great services performed, within two years from his +accession to the throne, by the rarest of fates the Emperor Claudius +died in his bed at Sirmium, the capitol of Pannonia. His brother +Quintilius who had a great command at Aquileia, immediately assumed +the purple; but his usurpation lasted only seventeen days, for the last +emperor, with a single eye to the public good, had recommended Aurelian +as his successor, guided by his personal knowledge of that general's +strategic qualities. The army of the Danube confirmed the appointment; +and Quintilius committed suicide. Aurelian was of the same harsh and +forbidding character as the Emperor Severus: he had, however, the +qualities demanded by the times; energetic and not amiable princes were +required by the exigences of the state. The hydra-headed Goths were +again in the field on the Illyrian quarter: Italy itself was invaded by +the Alemanni; and Tetricus, the rebel, still survived as a monument of +the weakness of Gallienus. All these enemies were speedily repressed, or +vanquished, by Aurelian. But it marks the real declension of the empire, +a declension which no personal vigor in the emperor was now sufficient +to disguise, that, even in the midst of victory, Aurelian found it +necessary to make a formal surrender, by treaty, of that Dacia which +Trajan had united with so much ostentation to the empire. Europe was +now again in repose; and Aurelian found himself at liberty to apply his +powers as a reorganizer and restorer to the East. In that quarter of the +world a marvellous revolution had occurred. The little oasis of Palmyra, +from a Roman colony, had grown into the leading province of a great +empire. This island of the desert, together with Syria and Egypt, formed +an independent monarchy under the sceptre of Zenobia. [Footnote: Zenobia +is complimented by all historians for her magnanimity; but with no +foundation in truth. Her first salutation to Aurelian was a specimen +of abject flattery; and her last _public_ words were evidences of the +basest treachery in giving up her generals, and her chief counsellor +Longinus, to the vengeance of the ungenerous enemy.] After two battles +lost in Syria, Zenobia retreated to Palmyra. With great difficulty +Aurelian pursued her; and with still greater difficulty he pressed the +siege of Palmyra. Zenobia looked for relief from Persia; but at that +moment Sapor died, and the Queen of Palmyra fled upon a dromedary, +but was pursued and captured. Palmyra surrendered and was spared; but +unfortunately, with a folly which marks the haughty spirit of the place +unfitted to brook submission, scarcely had the conquering army retired +when a tumult arose, and the Roman garrison was slaughtered. Little +knowledge could those have had of Aurelian's character, who tempted him +to acts but too welcome to his cruel nature by such an outrage as this. +The news overtook the emperor on the Hellespont. Instantly, without +pause, "like Ate hot from hell," Aurelian retraced his steps--reached +the guilty city--and consigned it, with all its population, to that +utter destruction from which it has never since arisen. The energetic +administration of Aurelian had now restored the empire--not to its lost +vigor, that was impossible--but to a condition of repose. That was a +condition more agreeable to the empire than to the emperor. Peace was +hateful to Aurelian; and he sought for war, where it could seldom be +sought in vain, upon the Persian frontier. But he was not destined +to reach the Euphrates; and it is worthy of notice, as a providential +ordinance, that his own unmerciful nature was the ultimate cause of his +fate. Anticipating the emperor's severity in punishing some errors of +his own, Mucassor, a general officer in whom Aurelian placed especial +confidence, assassinated him between Byzantium and Heraclea. An +interregnum of eight months succeeded, during which there occurred a +contest of a memorable nature. Some historians have described it as +strange and surprising. To us, on the contrary, it seems that no contest +could be more natural. Heretofore the great strife had been in what way +to secure the reversion or possession of that great dignity; whereas now +the rivalship lay in declining it. But surely such a competition had +in it, under the circumstances of the empire, little that can justly +surprise us. Always a post of danger, and so regularly closed by +assassination, that in a course of two centuries there are hardly to be +found three or four cases of exception, the imperatorial dignity had +now become burdened with a public responsibility which exacted great +military talents, and imposed a perpetual and personal activity. +Formerly, if the emperor knew himself to be surrounded with assassins, +he might at least make his throne, so long as he enjoyed it, the couch +of a voluptuary. The "_ave imperator!_" was then the summons, if to +the supremacy in passive danger, so also to the supremacy in power, and +honor, and enjoyment. But now it was a summons to never-ending +tumults and alarms; an injunction to that sort of vigilance without +intermission, which, even from the poor sentinel, is exacted only when +on duty. Not Rome, but the frontier; not the _aurea domus,_ but a camp, +was the imperial residence. Power and rank, whilst in that residence, +could be had in no larger measure by Caesar _as_ Caesar, than by the +same individual as a military commander-in-chief; and, as to enjoyment, +_that_ for the Roman imperator was now extinct. Rest there could be none +for him. Battle was the tenure by which he held his office; and beyond +the range of his trumpet's blare, his sceptre was a broken reed. The +office of Caesar at this time resembled the situation (as it is sometimes +described in romances) of a knight who has achieved the favor of some +capricious lady, with the present possession of her castle and ample +domains, but which he holds under the known and accepted condition +of meeting all challenges whatsoever offered at the gate by wandering +strangers, and also of jousting at any moment with each and all amongst +the inmates of the castle, as often as a wish may arise to benefit by +the chances in disputing his supremacy. + +It is a circumstance, moreover, to be noticed in the aspect of the +Roman monarchy at this period, that the pressure of the evils we are +now considering, applied to this particular age of the empire beyond +all others, as being an age of transition from a greater to an inferior +power. Had the power been either greater or conspicuously less, in that +proportion would the pressure have been easier, or none at all. Being +greater, for example, the danger would have been repelled to a distance +so great that mere remoteness would have disarmed its terrors, or +otherwise it would have been violently overawed. Being less, on the +other hand, and less in an eminent degree, it would have disposed all +parties, as it did at an after period, to regular and formal compromises +in the shape of fixed annual tributes. At present the policy of the +barbarians along the vast line of the northern frontier, was, to +tease and irritate the provinces which they were not entirely able, +or prudentially unwilling, to dismember. Yet, as the almost +annual irruptions were at every instant ready to be converted into +_coup-de-mains_ upon Aquileia--upon Verona--or even upon Rome itself, +unless vigorously curbed at the outset,--each emperor at this period +found himself under the necessity of standing in the attitude of a +champion or propugnator on the frontier line of his territory--ready +for all comers--and with a pretty certain prospect of having one pitched +battle at the least to fight in every successive summer. There were +nations abroad at this epoch in Europe who did not migrate occasionally, +or occasionally project themselves upon the civilized portion of the +globe, but who made it their steady regular occupation to do so, and +lived for no other purpose. For seven hundred years the Roman Republic +might be styled a republic militant: for about one century further it +was an empire triumphant; and now, long retrograde, it had reached that +point at which again, but in a different sense, it might be styled an +empire militant. Originally it had militated for glory and power; now +its militancy was for mere existence. War was again the trade of Rome, +as it had been once before: but in that earlier period war had been its +highest glory now it was its dire necessity. + +Under this analysis of the Roman condition, need we wonder, with +the crowd of unreflecting historians, that the senate, at the era of +Aurelian's death, should dispute amongst each other--not, as once, for +the possession of the sacred purple, but for the luxury and safety of +declining it? The sad pre-eminence was finally imposed upon Tacitus, a +senator who traced his descent from the historian of that name, who had +reached an age of seventy--five years, and who possessed a fortune of +three millions sterling. Vainly did the agitated old senator open his +lips to decline the perilous honor; five hundred voices insisted upon +the necessity of his compliance; and thus, as a foreign writer observes, +was the descendant of him, whose glory it had been to signalize himself +as the hater of despotism, under the absolute necessity of becoming, in +his own person, a despot. + +The aged senator then was compelled to be emperor, and forced, in spite +of his vehement reluctance, to quit the comforts of a palace, which he +was never to revisit, for the hardships of a distant camp. His first +act was strikingly illustrative of the Roman condition, as we have just +described it. Aurelian had attempted to disarm one set of enemies by +turning the current of their fury upon another. The Alani were in search +of plunder, and strongly disposed to obtain it from Roman provinces. +"But no," said Aurelian; "if you do that, I shall unchain my legions +upon you. Be better advised: keep those excellent dispositions of mind, +and that admirable taste for plunder, until you come whither I will +conduct you. Then discharge your fury, and welcome; besides which, I +will pay you wages for your immediate abstinence; and on the other side +the Euphrates you shall pay yourselves." Such was the outline of the +contract; and the Alans had accordingly held themselves in readiness +to accompany Aurelian from Europe to his meditated Persian campaign. +Meantime, that emperor had perished by treason; and the Alani were still +waiting for his successor on the throne to complete his engagements with +themselves, as being of necessity the successor also to his wars and to +his responsibilities. It happened, from the state of the empire, as +we have sketched it above, that Tacitus really _did_ succeed to the +military plans of Aurelian. The Persian expedition was ordained to go +forward; and Tacitus began, as a preliminary step in that expedition, to +look about for his good allies the barbarians. Where might they be, +and how employed? Naturally, they had long been weary of waiting. The +Persian booty might be good after _its_ kind; but it was far away; and, +_en attendant_, Roman booty was doubtless good after _its_ kind. And +so, throughout the provinces of Cappadocia, Pontus, &c., far as the eye +could stretch, nothing was to be seen but cities and villages in flames. +The Roman army hungered and thirsted to be unmuzzled and slipped upon +these false friends. But this, for the present, Tacitus would not +allow. He began by punctually fulfilling all the terms of Aurelian's +contract,--a measure which barbarians inevitably construed into the +language of fear. But then came the retribution. Having satisfied public +justice, the emperor now thought of vengeance: he unchained his legions: +a brief space of time sufficed for a long course of vengeance: and +through every outlet of Asia Minor the Alani fled from the wrath of the +Roman soldier. Here, however, terminated the military labors of Tacitus: +he died at Tyana in Cappadocia, as some say, from the effects of +the climate of the Caucasus, co-operating with irritations from the +insolence of the soldiery; but, as Zosimus and Zonaras expressly assure +us, under the murderous hands of his own troops. His brother Florianus +at first usurped the purple, by the aid of the Illyrian army; but the +choice of other armies, afterwards confirmed by the senate, settled upon +Probus, a general already celebrated under Aurelian. The two competitors +drew near to each other for the usual decision by the sword, when the +dastardly supporters of Florian offered up their chosen prince as a +sacrifice to his antagonist. Probus, settled in his seat, addressed +himself to the regular business of those times,--to the reduction +of insurgent provinces, and the liberation of others from hostile +molestations. Isauria and Egypt he visited in the character of a +conqueror, Gaul in the character of a deliverer. From the Gaulish +provinces he chased in succession the Franks, the Burgundians, and the +Lygians. He pursued the intruders far into their German thickets; and +nine of the native German princes came spontaneously into his camp, +subscribed such conditions as he thought fit to dictate, and complied +with his requisitions of tribute in horses and provisions. This, +however, is a delusive gleam of Roman energy, little corresponding +with the true condition of the Roman power, and entirely due to the +_personal_ qualities of Probus. Probus himself showed his sense of the +true state of affairs, by carrying a stone wall, of considerable height, +from the Danube to the Neckar. He made various attempts also to effect +a better distribution of barbarous tribes, by dislocating their +settlements, and making extensive translations of their clans, according +to the circumstances of those times. These arrangements, however, +suggested often by short-sighted views, and carried into effect by mere +violence, were sometimes defeated visibly at the time, and, doubtless, +in very few cases accomplished the ends proposed. In one instance, where +a party of Franks had been transported into the Asiatic province of +Pontus, as a column of defence against the intrusive Alans, being +determined to revisit their own country, they swam the Hellespont, +landed on the coasts of Asia Minor and of Greece, plundered Syracuse, +steered for the Straits of Gibraltar, sailed along the shores of Spain +and Gaul, passing finally through the English Channel and the German +Ocean, right onwards to the Frisic and Batavian coasts, where they +exultingly rejoined their exulting friends. Meantime, all the energy +and military skill of Probus could not save him from the competition of +various rivals. Indeed, it must then have been felt, as by us who look +back on those times it is now felt, that, amidst so continued a series +of brief reigns, interrupted by murders, scarcely any idea could arise +answering to our modern ideas of treason and usurpation. For the ideas +of fealty and allegiance, as to a sacred and anointed monarch, could +have no time to take root. Candidates for the purple must have been +viewed rather as military rivals than as traitors to the reigning +Caesar. And hence one reason for the slight resistance which was often +experienced by the seducers of armies. Probus, however, as accident in +his case ordered it, subdued all his personal opponents,--Saturninus in +the East, Proculus and Bonoses in Gaul. For these victories he triumphed +in the year 281. But his last hour was even then at hand. One point of +his military discipline, which he brought back from elder days, was, +to suffer no idleness in his camps. He it was who, by military labor, +transferred to Gaul and to Hungary the Italian vine, to the great +indignation of the Italian monopolist. The culture of vineyards, the +laying of military roads, the draining of marshes, and similar labors, +perpetually employed the hands of his stubborn and contumacious troops. +On some work of this nature the army happened to be employed near +Sirmium, and Probus was looking on from a tower, when a sudden frenzy of +disobedience seized upon the men: a party of the mutineers ran up to the +emperor, and with a hundred wounds laid him instantly dead. We are told +by some writers that the army was immediately seized with remorse for +its own act; which, if truly reported, rather tends to confirm the +image, otherwise impressed upon us, of the relations between the army +and Caesar as pretty closely corresponding with those between some fierce +wild beast and its keeper; the keeper, if not uniformly vigilant as an +Argus, is continually liable to fall a sacrifice to the wild instincts +of the brute, mastering at intervals the reverence and fear under which +it has been habitually trained. In this case, both the murdering impulse +and the remorse seem alike the effects of a brute instinct, and to have +arisen under no guidance of rational purpose or reflection. The person +who profited by this murder was Carus, the captain of the guard, a +man of advanced years, and a soldier, both by experience and by his +propensities. He was proclaimed emperor by the army; and on this +occasion there was no further reference to the senate, than by a dry +statement of the facts for its information. Troubling himself little +about the approbation of a body not likely in any way to affect his +purposes (which were purely martial, and adapted to the tumultuous +state of the empire), Carus made immediate preparations for pursuing the +Persian expedition,--so long promised, and so often interrupted. Having +provided for the security of the Illyrian frontier by a bloody victory +over the Sarmatians, of whom we now hear for the first time, Carus +advanced towards the Euphrates; and from the summit of a mountain +he pointed the eyes of his eager army upon the rich provinces of the +Persian empire. Varanes, the successor of Artaxerxes, vainly endeavored +to negotiate a peace. From some unknown cause, the Persian armies were +not at this juncture disposable against Carus: it has been conjectured +by some writers that they were engaged in an Indian war. Carus, it is +certain, met with little resistance. He insisted on having the Roman +supremacy acknowledged as a preliminary to any treaty; and, having +threatened to make Persia as bare as his own skull, he is supposed +to have kept his word with regard to Mesopotamia. The great cities of +Ctesiphon and Seleucia he took; and vast expectations were formed at +Rome of the events which stood next in succession, when, on Christmas +day, 283, a sudden and mysterious end overtook Carus and his victorious +advance. The story transmitted to Rome was, that a great storm, and +a sudden darkness, had surprised the camp of Carus; that the emperor, +previously ill, and reposing in his tent, was obscured from sight; that +at length a cry had arisen,--"The emperor is dead!" and that, at the +same moment, the imperial tent had taken fire. The fire was traced +to the confusion of his attendants; and this confusion was imputed by +themselves to grief for their master's death. In all this it is easy +to read pretty circumstantially a murder committed on the emperor by +corrupted servants, and an attempt afterwards to conceal the indications +of murder by the ravages of fire. The report propagated through the +army, and at that time received with credit, was, that Carus had +been struck by lightning: and that omen, according to the Roman +interpretation, implied a necessity of retiring from the expedition. So +that, apparently, the whole was a bloody intrigue, set on foot for the +purpose of counteracting the emperor's resolution to prosecute the war. +His son Numerian succeeded to the rank of emperor by the choice of the +army. But the mysterious faction of murderers were still at work. After +eight months' march from the Tigris to the Thracian Bosphorus, the army +halted at Chalcedon. At this point of time a report arose suddenly, +that the Emperor Numerian was dead. The impatience of the soldiery would +brook no uncertainty: they rushed to the spot; satisfied themselves of +the fact; and, loudly denouncing as the murderer Aper, the captain of +the guard, committed him to custody, and assigned to Dioclesian, whom +at the same time they invested with the supreme power, the duty of +investigating the case. Dioclesian acquitted himself of this task in +a very summary way, by passing his sword through the captain before he +could say a word in his defence. It seems that Dioclesian, having been +promised the empire by a prophetess as soon as he should have killed a +wild boar [Aper], was anxious to realize the omen. The whole proceeding +has been taxed with injustice so manifest, as not even to seek a +disguise. Meantime, it should be remembered that, _first,_ Aper, as +the captain of the guard, was answerable for the emperor's safety; +_secondly,_ that his anxiety to profit by the emperor's murder was a +sure sign that he had participated in that act; and, _thirdly,_ that the +assent of the soldiery to the open and public act of Dioclesian, implies +a conviction on their part of Aper's guilt. Here let us pause, having +now arrived at the fourth and last group of the Caesars, to notice the +changes which had been wrought by time, co-operating with political +events, in the very nature and constitution of the imperial office. + +If it should unfortunately happen, that the palace of the Vatican, with +its thirteen thousand [Footnote: "_Thirteen thousand chambers_."--The +number of the chambers in this prodigious palace is usually estimated +at that amount. But Lady Miller, who made particular inquiries on +this subject, ascertained that the total amount, including cellars and +closets, capable of receiving a bed, was fifteen thousand.] chambers, +were to take fire--for a considerable space of time the fire would be +retarded by the mere enormity of extent which it would have to traverse. +But there would come at length a critical moment, at which the maximum +of the retarding effect having been attained, the bulk and volume of the +flaming mass would thenceforward assist the flames in the rapidity of +their progress. Such was the effect upon the declension of the Roman +empire from the vast extent of its territory. For a very long period +that very extent, which finally became the overwhelming cause of its +ruin, served to retard and to disguise it. A small encroachment, made +at any one point upon the integrity of the empire, was neither much +regarded at Rome, nor perhaps in and for itself much deserved to be +regarded. But a very narrow belt of encroachments, made upon almost +every part of so enormous a circumference, was sufficient of itself +to compose something of an antagonist force. And to these external +dilapidations, we must add the far more important dilapidations from +within, affecting all the institutions of the State, and all the forces, +whether moral or political, which had originally raised it or maintained +it. Causes which had been latent in the public arrangements ever since +the time of Augustus, and had been silently preying upon its vitals, had +now reached a height which would no longer brook concealment. The fire +which had smouldered through generations had broken out at length +into an open conflagration. Uproar and disorder, and the anarchy of a +superannuated empire, strong only to punish and impotent to defend, were +at this time convulsing the provinces in every point of the compass. +Rome herself had been menaced repeatedly. And a still more awful +indication of the coming storm had been felt far to the south of Rome. +One long wave of the great German deluge had stretched beyond the +Pyrenees and the Pillars of Hercules, to the very soil of ancient +Carthage. Victorious banners were already floating on the margin of the +Great Desert, and they were not the banners of Caesar. Some vigorous hand +was demanded at this moment, or else the funeral knell of Rome was on +the point of sounding. Indeed, there is every reason to believe that, +had the imbecile Carinus (the brother of Numerian) succeeded to the +command of the Roman armies at this time, or any other than Dioclesian, +the empire of the west would have fallen to pieces within the next ten +years. + +Dioclesian was doubtless that man of iron whom the times demanded; and +a foreign writer has gone so far as to class him amongst the greatest +of men, if he were not even himself the greatest. But the position of +Dioclesian was remarkable beyond all precedent, and was alone sufficient +to prevent his being the greatest of men, by making it necessary that +he should be the most selfish. For the case stood thus: If Rome were in +danger, much more so was Caesar. If the condition of the empire were such +that hardly any energy or any foresight was adequate to its defence, for +the emperor, on the other hand, there was scarcely a possibility that +he should escape destruction. The chances were in an overbalance against +the empire; but for the emperor there was no chance at all. He shared in +all the hazards of the empire; and had others so peculiarly pointed +at himself, that his assassination was now become as much a matter of +certain calculation, as seed-time or harvest, summer or winter, or any +other revolution of the seasons. The problem, therefore, for Dioclesian +was a double one,--so to provide for the defence and maintenance of +the empire, as simultaneously (and, if possible, through the very same +institution) to provide for the personal security of Caesar. This problem +he solved, in some imperfect degree, by the only expedient perhaps open +to him in that despotism, and in those times. But it is remarkable, +that, by the revolution which he effected, the office of Roman Imperator +was completely altered, and Caesar became henceforwards an Oriental +Sultan or Padishah. Augustus, when moulding for his future purposes +the form and constitution of that supremacy which he had obtained by +inheritance and by arms, proceeded with so much caution and prudence, +that even the style and title of his office was discussed in council as +a matter of the first moment. The principle of his policy was to absorb +into his own functions all those offices which conferred any real power +to balance or to control his own. For this reason he appropriated the +tribunitian power; because that was a popular and representative office, +which, as occasions arose, would have given some opening to democratic +influences. But the consular office he left untouched; because all its +power was transferred to the imperator, by the entire command of +the army, and by the new organization of the provincial governments. +[Footnote: In no point of his policy was the cunning or the sagacity +of Augustus so much displayed, as in his treaty of partition with the +senate, which settled the distribution of the provinces, and their +future administration. Seeming to take upon himself all the trouble +and hazard, he did in effect appropriate all the power, and left to the +senate little more than trophies of show and ornament. As a first step, +all the greater provinces, as Spain and Gaul, were subdivided into +many smaller ones. This done, Augustus proposed that the senate should +preside over the administration of those amongst them which were +peaceably settled, and which paid a regular tribute; whilst all those +which were the seats of danger,--either as being exposed to hostile +inroads, or to internal commotions,--all, therefore, in fact, _which +could justify the keeping up of a military force,_ he assigned to +himself. In virtue of this arrangement, the senate possessed in Africa +those provinces which had been formed out of Carthage, Cyrene, and the +kingdom of Numidia; in Europe, the richest and most quiet part of +Spain _(Hispania Baetica),_ with the large islands of Sicily, Sardinia, +Corsica, and Crete, and some districts of Greece; in Asia, the kingdoms +of Pontus and Bithynia, with that part of Asia Minor technically called +Asia; whilst, for his own share, Augustus retained Gaul, Syria, the +chief part of Spain, and Egypt, the granary of Rome; finally, all the +military posts on the Euphrates, on the Danube, or the Rhine. + +Yet even the showy concessions here made to the senate were defeated +by another political institution, settled at the same time. It had +been agreed that the governors of provinces should be appointed by the +emperor and the senate jointly. But within the senatorian jurisdiction, +these governors, with the title of _Proconsuls,_ were to have no +military power whatsoever; and the appointments were good only for a +single year. Whereas, in the imperatorial provinces, where the governor +bore the title of _Propraetor,_ there was provision made for a military +establishment; and as to duration, the office was regulated entirely by +the emperor's pleasure. One other ordinance, on the same head, riveted +the vassalage of the senate. Hitherto, a great source of the senate's +power had been found in the uncontrolled management of the provincial +revenues; but at this time, Augustus so arranged that branch of +the administration, that, throughout the senatorian or proconsular +provinces, all taxes were immediately paid into the _ararium_, or +treasury of the state; whilst the whole revenues of the propraetorian +(or imperatorial) provinces, from this time forward, flowed into the +_fiscus_, or private treasure of the individual emperor.] And in all +the rest of his arrangements, Augustus had proceeded on the principle +of leaving as many openings to civic influences, and impressing upon all +his institutions as much of the old Roman character, as was compatible +with the real and substantial supremacy established in the person of the +emperor. Neither is it at all certain, as regarded even this aspect of +the imperatorial office, that Augustus had the purpose, or so much as +the wish, to annihilate all collateral power, and to invest the chief +magistrate with absolute irresponsibility. For himself, as called upon +to restore a shattered government, and out of the anarchy of civil wars +to recombine the elements of power into some shape better fitted for +duration (and, by consequence, for insuring peace and protection to the +world) than the extinct republic, it might be reasonable to seek such an +irresponsibility. But, as regarded his successors, considering the great +pains he took to discourage all manifestations of princely arrogance, +and to develop, by education and example, the civic virtues of +patriotism and affability in their whole bearing towards the people +of Rome, there is reason to presume that he wished to remove them +from popular control, without, therefore, removing them from popular +influence. + +Hence it was, and from this original precedent of Augustus, aided by the +constitution which he had given to the office of imperator, that up +to the era of Dioclesian, no prince had dared utterly to neglect the +senate, or the people of Rome. He might hate the senate, like Severus, +or Aurelian; he might even meditate their extermination, like the brutal +Maximin. But this arose from any cause rather than from contempt. He +hated them precisely because he feared them, or because he paid them an +involuntary tribute of superstitious reverence, or because the malice of +a tyrant interpreted into a sort of treason the rival influence of the +senate over the minds of men. But, before Dioclesian, the undervaluing +of the senate, or the harshest treatment of that body, had arisen from +views which were _personal_ to the individual Caesar. It was now made +to arise from the very constitution of the office, and the mode of the +appointment. To defend the empire, it was the opinion of Dioclesian +that a single emperor was not sufficient. And it struck him, at the same +time, that by the very institution of a plurality of emperors, which +was now destined to secure the integrity of the empire, ample provision +might be made for the personal security of each emperor. He carried his +plan into immediate execution, by appointing an associate to his own +rank of Augustus in the person of Maximian--an experienced general; +whilst each of them in effect multiplied his own office still farther +by severally appointing a Caesar, or hereditary prince. And thus the +very same partition of the public authority, by means of a duality of +emperors, to which the senate had often resorted of late, as the best +means of restoring their own republican aristocracy, was now adopted by +Dioclesian as the simplest engine for overthrowing finally the power of +either senate or army to interfere with the elective privilege. This he +endeavored to centre in the existing emperors; and, at the same moment, +to discourage treason or usurpation generally, whether in the party +choosing or the party chosen, by securing to each emperor, in the case +of his own assassination, an avenger in the person of his surviving +associate, as also in the persons of the two Caesars, or adopted heirs +and lieutenants. The associate emperor, Maximian, together with the +two Caesars--Galerius appointed by himself, and Constantius Chlorus by +Maximian--were all bound to himself by ties of gratitude; all owing +their stations ultimately to his own favor. And these ties he endeavored +to strengthen by other ties of affinity; each of the Augusti having +given his daughter in marriage to his own adopted Caesar. And thus it +seemed scarcely possible that a usurpation should be successful against +so firm a league of friends and relations. + +The direct purposes of Dioclesian were but imperfectly attained; the +internal peace of the empire lasted only during his own reign; and with +his abdication of the empire commenced the bloodiest civil wars which +had desolated the world since the contests of the great triumvirate. +But the collateral blow, which he meditated against the authority of +the senate, was entirely successful. Never again had the senate any real +influence on the fate of the world. And with the power of the senate +expired concurrently the weight and influence of Rome. Dioclesian is +supposed never to have seen Rome, except on the single occasion when +he entered it for the ceremonial purpose of a triumph. Even for that +purpose it ceased to be a city of resort; for Dioclesian's was the final +triumph. And, lastly, even as the chief city of the empire for business +or for pleasure, it ceased to claim the homage of mankind; the Caesar +was already born whose destiny it was to cashier the metropolis of the +world, and to appoint her successor. This also may be regarded in +effect as the ordinance of Dioclesian; for he, by his long residence +at Nicomedia, expressed his opinion pretty plainly, that Rome was not +central enough to perform the functions of a capital to so vast an +empire; that this was one cause of the declension now become so visible +in the forces of the state; and that some city, not very far from the +Hellespont or the Aegean Sea, would be a capital better adapted by +position to the exigencies of the times. + +But the revolutions effected by Dioclesian did not stop here. The +simplicity of its republican origin had so far affected the external +character and expression of the imperial office, that in the midst +of luxury the most unbounded, and spite of all other corruptions, +a majestic plainness of manners, deportment, and dress, had still +continued from generation to generation, characteristic of the Roman +imperator in his intercourse with his subjects. All this was now +changed; and for the Roman was substituted the Persian dress, the +Persian style of household, a Persian court, and Persian manners, A +diadem, or tiara beset with pearls, now encircled the temples of the +Roman Augustus; his sandals were studded with pearls, as in the Persian +court; and the other parts of his dress were in harmony with these. The +prince was instructed no longer to make himself familiar to the eyes +of men. He sequestered himself from his subjects in the recesses of his +palace. None, who sought him, could any longer gain easy admission +to his presence. It was a point of his new duties to be difficult of +access; and they who were at length admitted to an audience, found him +surrounded by eunuchs, and were expected to make their approaches by +genuflexions, by servile "adorations," and by real acts of worship as to +a visible god. + +It is strange that a ritual of court ceremonies, so elaborate and +artificial as this, should first have been introduced by a soldier, and +a warlike soldier like Dioclesian. This, however, is in part explained +by his education and long residence in Eastern countries. + +But the same eastern training fell to the lot of Constantine, who was in +effect his successor; [Footnote: On the abdication of Dioclesian and +of Maximian, Galerius and Constantius succeeded as the new Augusti. But +Galerius, as the more immediate representative of Dioclesian, thought +himself entitled to appoint both Caesars,--the Daza (or Maximus) in +Syria, Severus in Italy. Meantime, Constantine, the son of Constantius, +with difficulty obtaining permission from Galerius, paid a visit to his +father; upon whose death, which followed soon after, Constantine came +forward as a Caesar, under the appointment of his father. Galerius +submitted with a bad grace; but Maxentius, a reputed son of Maximian, +was roused by emulation with Constantine to assume the purple; and +being joined by his father, they jointly attacked and destroyed Severus. +Galerius, to revenge the death of his own Caesar, advanced towards Rome; +but being compelled to a disastrous retreat, he resorted to the measure +of associating another emperor with himself, as a balance to his new +enemies. This was Licinius; and thus, at one time, there were six +emperors, either as Augusti or as Caesars. Galerius, however, dying, all +the rest were in succession destroyed by Constantine.] and the Oriental +tone and standard established by these two emperors, though disturbed a +little by the plain and military bearing of Julian, and one or two +more emperors of the same breeding, finally re-established itself with +undisputed sway in the Byzantine court. + +Meantime the institutions of Dioclesian, if they had destroyed Rome and +the senate as influences upon the course of public affairs, and if they +had destroyed the Roman features of the Caesars, do, notwithstanding, +appear to have attained one of their purposes, in limiting the extent +of imperial murders. Travelling through the brief list of the remaining +Caesars, we perceive a little more security for life; and hence the +successions are less rapid. Constantine, who (like Aaron's rod) had +swallowed up all his competitors _seriatim,_ left the empire to his +three sons; and the last of these most unwillingly to Julian. That +prince's Persian expedition, so much resembling in rashness and +presumption the Russian campaign of Napoleon, though so much below it in +the scale of its tragic results, led to the short reign of Jovian, (or +Jovinian,) which lasted only seven months. Upon his death succeeded the +house of Valentinian, [Footnote: Valentinian the First, who admitted his +brother Valens to a partnership in the empire, had, by his first +wife, an elder son, Gratian, who reigned and associated with himself +Theodosius, commonly called the Great. By his second wife he had +Valentinian the Second, who, upon the death of his brother Gratian, +was allowed to share the empire by Theodosius. Theodosius, by his first +wife, had two sons,--Arcadius, who afterwards reigned in the east, and +Honorius, whose western reign was so much illustrated by Stilicho. By +a second wife, daughter to Valentinian the First, Theodosius had +a daughter, (half-sister, therefore, to Honorius,) whose son was +Valentinian the Third.] in whose descendant, of the third generation, +the empire, properly speaking, expired. For the seven shadows who +succeeded, from Avitus and Majorian to Julius Nepos and Romulus +Augustulus, were in no proper sense Roman emperors,--they were not +even emperors of the West,--but had a limited kingdom in the Italian +peninsula. Valentinian the Third was, as we have said, the last emperor +of the West. + +But, in a fuller and ampler sense, recurring to what we have said of +Dioclesian and the tenor of his great revolutions, we may affirm that +Probus and Carus were the final representatives of the majesty of Rome: +for they reigned over the whole empire, not yet incapable of sustaining +its own unity; and in them were still preserved, not yet obliterated by +oriental effeminacy, those majestic features which reflected republican +consuls, and, through them, the senate and people of Rome. That, which +had offended Dioclesian in the condition of the Roman emperors, was +the grandest feature of their dignity. It is true that the peril of +the office had become intolerable; each Caesar submitted to his sad +inauguration with a certainty, liable even to hardly any disguise from +the delusions of youthful hope, that for him, within the boundless +empire which he governed, there was no coast of safety, no shelter +from the storm, no retreat, except the grave, from the dagger of the +assassin. Gibbon has described the hopeless condition of one who should +attempt to fly from the wrath of the almost omnipresent emperor. But +this dire impossibility of escape was in the end dreadfully retaliated +upon the emperor; persecutors and traitors were found every where: and +the vindictive or the ambitious subject found himself as omnipresent +as the jealous or the offended emperor. The crown of the Caesars was +therefore a crown of thorns; and it must be admitted, that never in +this world have rank and power been purchased at so awful a cost +in tranquillity and peace of mind. The steps of Caesar's throne were +absolutely saturated with the blood of those who had possessed it: +and so inexorable was that murderous fate which overhung that gloomy +eminence, that at length it demanded the spirit of martyrdom in him +who ventured to ascend it. In these circumstances, some change was +imperatively demanded. Human nature was no longer equal to the terrors +which it was summoned to face. But the changes of Dioclesian transmuted +that golden sceptre into a base oriental alloy. They left nothing behind +of what had so much challenged the veneration of man: for it was in the +union of republican simplicity with the irresponsibility of illimitable +power, it was in the antagonism between the merely human and +approachable condition of Caesar as a man, and his divine supremacy as +a potentate and king of kings--that the secret lay of his unrivalled +grandeur. This perished utterly under the reforming hands of Dioclesian. +Caesar only it was that could be permitted to extinguish Caesar: and a +Roman imperator it was who, by remodelling, did in effect abolish, +by exorcising from its foul terrors, did in effect disenchant of its +sanctity, that imperatorial dignity, which having once perished, could +have no second existence, and which was undoubtedly the sublimest +incarnation of power, and a monument the mightiest of greatness built by +human hands, which upon this planet has been suffered to appear. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Caesars, by Thomas de Quincey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAESARS *** + +***** This file should be named 6672.txt or 6672.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/6/6/7/6672/ + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +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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