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History  of  Rome 
and  the  Roman  people 

Victor  Duruy,  John  Pentland  Mahaffy 


>ilik()iy.Uk.ji:^itAttii 


ffJiii 


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HISTORY  OF  ROME 


AND 


THE  ROMAN  PEOPLE. 


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^ 


SEPTIMIUS    SEVERUS. 

(From  Prince  Torlonia's  Gallerj.) 


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HISTOKY  OF  ROME 


AND 


THE    ROMAN     PEOPLE, 

FROM  ITS  ORIGIN  TO  THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  CHRfSTrAN  EMI'IRE. 


BY 

VICTOR   DURUY, 

MEMBER  OF  THE  INSTITUTE.  EX-MINISTEU  OF  PUBLIC  IXSTIUCTION,  etc. 

EDITED  BY  THE  REV.  J.  P.  MAHAFFY, 

PROFESSOR     OF     ANCIENT     HISTORY,    TlMNirV     COLLKGE,     DUBLIN, 
AND  COMPILED  AND  ARRANGED  lU    IvICLLY  .-  CO. 


ILLUSTRATED    WITH    ABOUT    i>o(H)     HN(;I;AVING.^,     100    MAPS    AND    PLANJ!J,    AND 
NUMEROUS   OHROMO-LITHOG RAPES. 


VOLUME   VI.— Part  I. 
FROM  THE  ACCESSION   OF   COMMODUS   TO  THE  DEATH  OF  PHILIP. 

WITH  265  WOOD  ENGRAVINGS,  MAI',  AND  8  CHROMO-LITHOGKAPHS. 


LONDON: 

KLiAN  PAUL,  TRENCH  &  CO.,  1,  PATERNOSTER  SQUARE. 

1886. 


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K^  '^'^o 


i 


PRINTRD  BY  KELLY  St  CO.,  GATE  STREET,  LINCOLN'S    INN  VIELIM,  W.C.,  AMD  KINQSTON-OK-THAMES. 

[  The  rights  of  translation  and  reproduction  are  reserved."] 

COPTRIOHT  (1886)  BT  BSTES  A  LAURIAT. 


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PREFACE  TO  VOLUME  VI. 


In  bringing  this  long  labour  to  a  close,  I  am  bound  to  mention 
specially  the  care  and  ability  of  the  translators,  Mr.  Clarke  and 
Miss  Eipley,  who  have  become  so  expert  in  their  work  as  to 
relievo  me  of  most  of  an  editor's  trouble.  For  in  this  volume 
I  felt  it  undesirable  to  curtail  the  French  text,  as  has  been  done 
to  some  extent  in  Volume  V.  The  general  index,  which  was 
begun  as  a  translation,  very  soon  assumed  an  independent  character, 
and  will  be  found  adequate  for  all  practical  purposes;  indeed,  to 
catalogue  every  minute  fact  or  solitary  name  in  so  large  a  book 
would  require  an  additional  volume  of  print.  The  work  is  already 
voluminous  enough,  and  the  publishers  are  agreed  with  me  that 
the  death  of  Diocletian  is  the  proper  halting-place,  as  pagan  Rome 
may  be  said  to  have  no  history  after  that  date.  The  life  of 
Julian  is  a  retrograde  step  in  Christian  Rome  rather  than  a 
survival  of  paganism.  We  therefore  send  this  work  into  the 
world  to  take  its  place  as  the  most  complete  Roman  History  yet 
publislied  in  the  English  tongue,  and  not  likely  to  be  superseded 
in  our  day. 

J.  P.  MAHAFFY. 


TniNiTY  College,  Dcblix. 
August  y  1886, 


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ELEVENTH  PERIOD. 

THE  AFRICAN  AND  8YKIAN  PRINCES  (180-235  a.d.). 


CHAPTER  LXXXVIII. 


GOMKOBUS,  PEBTIHAX,  BIDHTS  JULIANUS,  AND  THE  WARS  OF 
SETEBUS  (180-211  AB.). 


I.— COMMODUS  (180-192). 

THE  31st  of  August  was  a  day  doubly  unlucky  for  the  Empire: 
it  was  the  birthday  of  Cetligula  and  of  Commodus.  In  the 
210  years  that  Rome  had  had  emperors^  the  latter  was  the  first 
"bom  in  the  purple,"  parphyrogenitus ;^  but  his  reign  was  not  of 
a  character  to  recommend  to  the  Romans  the  principle  of  hereditary 
succession.  He  was  not  yet  nineteen  when  Marcus  Aurelius  died.' 
His  father  had  given  him  the  best  of  masters,  but  an  ungrateful 
nature  rendered  their  cares  fruitless,  for  instance,  at  the  age  of 
twelve,  finding  his  bath  insufficiently  heated,  he  ordered  the  servant 
who  had  charge  of  it  to  be  thrown  into  the  furnace.  The  absolute 
power  which  he  inherited  at  so  early  an  age  completed  his  ruin, 
for  those  whom  an  old  author  calls  "the  court  instructors"'  quickly 


^  BorUy  that  is  to  say,  during  the  reign  of  his  father.  The  title  of  this  chapter  inust  not 
be  taken  strictly.  Commodus,  Pertinax,  and  Julianus  are  neither  African  nor  Syrian.  But  the 
former  does  not  deserve  being  ranked  with  the  Antonines,  and  the  two  latter,  who  reigned 
so  short  a  time,  are  connected  by  their  history  with  the  first  African  emperor. 

^  Marcus  Lucius  iElius  Aurelius  Commodus  Antoninus  was  bom  August  81st,  161,  and 
succeeded  Marcus  Aurelius  on  the  17th  of  March,  180.  For  the  history  of  his  reign  we  have 
only  the  shapeless  abridgment  of  Dion  by  Xiphilin  (book  Ixxii.),  the  first  book  of  Herodian, 
which  is  that  of  a  rhetorician,  and  the  confused  biography  of  Lampridius. 

'  .  .  .  .  qui  in  aula  irufitutores  habentur  (Lamp.,  Comm.,  1).  Dion,  who  knew  him 
VOL.   VI.  B 


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2  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235    A.D. 

obtained  control  over  this  feeble  intellect.  His  bust  and  medals 
represent  him  with  the  stupid  look  of  a  man  whose  mind  has  never 
been  crossed  by  one  worthy  thought.^  Combining  as  he  did 
timidity  and  cruelty,  he  exhibited  the  latter  trait  as  soon  as,  by 
a  word  or  a  look,  he  was  able  to  rid  himself  of  those  who  caused 
him  alarm. 

The  imperial  power  was  not  hereditary,  but  the  emperors  had 
always  wished   to   make   it   so,    and,   in   the   absence   of  any   great 
institutions  of  government,   this   was   inevitable.      The   sons   of  the 
emperors  in  their  cradles  were  surrounded  [as  they  now  are]  with 
titles  and  honours,    one  or  two   of  which   would  have  been,  to  a 
citizen,  the  reward  of  a  long  life  of  public   services.      At  the  age 
of  five  Commodus  was  made  Caesar;    at  the  age  of  fourteen,  member 
of  all  the   sacred   colleges  and  princeps  juventutis^  although  he  had 
not  yet  assumed  the  toga;  at  sixteen  he  was  consul,  imperator,  and 
invested  with  the  tribunitian  power.^      That  is  to  say,  he  had  all 
the  imperial  titles  with  the  exception  of  that  of  Augustus,  the  sign 
of  the  supreme  rank,  and  of  Pontifex  Maximus,   which  also  could 
not  at  that  time  be   shared.     Marcus   Aurelius  associated  his  son 
with  himself  in  the  triumph  over  the  Germans,  and  took  him   in 
178   upon   the   expedition    against    the   Marcomanni.      The  rumour 
was  current  that  the  imperial  sage  had   been   aided  "  in  restoring 
to  nature  the   elements   which   she   had  lent  him.''      Dion  Cassius 
accuses  the  physicians  of  Marcus  Aurelius  of  having  poisoned  him 
at  the  instigation  of  Commodus ;  but  Dion  was  a  contemporary,  and 
contemporaries  have  their  ears  ever  open  to  all  kinds  of  calumnies. 
Two   winters  passed   in   an   inclement   climate  were   dangerous    for 
this  man  of  the  South,  whose  enfeebled  constitution  made  him  old 
and  infirm  at   the  age  of  fifty-nine.      If  we   add  to  this  the  cares 
of  an  important  war,  and  the  plague  supervening,  we  are  not  com- 
pelled to  charge  Commodus  with  parricide,  whose  account,  moreover, 
is  long  enough  without  this  addition.     It  is  worthy  of  mention  that 


well,  says  of  bim,  however  (Ixxii.  1),  that  he  was  not  an  evil-disposed  person,  but  extremely 
timid,  and  so  simple-minded  that  he  became  the  slave  of  those  who  surroimded  him. 

*  See  the  two  busts  represented  in  vol.  v.  pp.  203,  206. 

*  According  to  the  inscription  on  his  tomb,  he  held,  at  the  close  of  the  year  102,  for  the 
eighteenth  time,  the  office  of  tribune.  (Orelli,  No.  887.)  He  had  been  made  tribune  for  the 
first  time  on  the  23rd  of  December,  176.  (Cohen,  Mid.  impir.).  Lampridius  says  that  in  183 
he  assumed  the  title  of  Pious,  senatu  ridente,  and  that  of  Felix  on  the  death  of  Perennis  in  185. 


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Commodus.     (Statue  of  Pentelic  Marble.     Vatican,  Braccto  Nuovq,  No.  8.) 

B2 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIBItJS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO   211    A.D.         5 

the  latter  dedicated  a  temple  to  his  father  with  priests,  Antonine 
flamens,  and  all  that  antiquity  had  prescribed  for  "consecrations."^ 
Later,  Commodus  did  not  consider  the  new  divinity  of  sufficient 
rank,  and  preferred  to  be  called  the  son  of  Jupiter  rather  than  of 
Marcus.* 

Commodus  assumed  power  without  opposition.  He  was  advised 
to  profit  by  the  exhausted  condition  of  the  barbarians  to  overthi-ow 
them  completely.  But  the  young  nobles,  wearied  by  these  obscure 
combats  in  the  Pannonian  marshes,  this  dull  life  in  wild  camps, 
under  hovels  of  mud  and  reeds,  reminded  him  of  the  marble  villas 
of  Tibur,  the  games  of  the  amphitheatre,  and  the  seductions  of  the 
Via  Sacra;  and  the  young  emperor  became  eager  to  go  back  to 
Bome,  to  enjoy  his  palaces,  his  wealth,  and  his  sovereign  authority. 
He  waited,  however,  until  his  father's  old  generals  had  renewed 
the  treaty  which  Marcus  Aurelius  had  already  imposed  upon  the 
barbarians.'  The  Marcomanni  and  the  Quadi  engaged  not  to 
approach  nearer  the  Danube  than  twenty  stadia,  to  give  up  their 
arms,  their  auxiliaries,*  their  captives,  the  deserters,  and  a  certain 
quantity  of  com,  which  tax  Commodus  afterwards  remitted.  They 
were  forbidden  to  attack  the  lazyges,  the  Burae,  and  the  Vandals. 
They  were  accustomed  to  hold  markets  which  were  frequented  by 
the  Boman  traders,  but  were  also  the  occasion  for  assemblages  of 
their  own  people,  when  plots  were  concerted  and  oaths  interchanged. 
These  markets  they  were  forbidden  to  hold  more  than  once  a 
month,  in  places  designated  by  the  Boman  authorities;  they  were 
watched  by  centurions,  and  forts  were  constructed  all  along  the 
river  to  prevent  smuggling.*  A  similar  treaty  was  concluded  with 
the  BursB. 

The  Empire  might  at  this  time  feel  that  its  sway  or  its  undis- 
puted influence  extended  through  the  entire  valley  of  the  Danube 
from  the  Black  Sea  to  Bohemia,  and  that  the  Carpathians,  with  the 
mountains  of  Moravia,  would  be  its  secure  barrier.  But  Commodus 
had  relinquished  the  former  right  of  making  annual  levies  among 
these   warlike   tribes,   that  is  to    say,    of   taking   away   their   best 

^  Capit.y  Ant<m,  phihs,,  18. 

*  Herod.,  i.  14. 

*  See  vol.  V.  p.  197. 

*  The  Quadi  surrendered  13,000 ;  the  Maroomanni,  not  as  maoy. 
'  Desjardins,  Monum.  Spigr,  du  musde  hongroiSf  No.  112. 


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6  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

warriors.  Moreover,  he  gave  back  to  them  all  the  fortresses  of 
which  they  had  been  deprived.^  From  the  summit  of  these  walls 
the  Romans  had  held  the  barbarians  in  check,  and  had  guaranteed 
the  security  of  the  colonists,  who,  under  the  shelter  of  the  Boman 


The  Empress  Crispina.     (Bust  of  the  Capitol,  Hall  of  the  Emperors,  No.  44.) 

swords,    would    have    made    of    these    lands    another    Dacia.      But 
Commodus  was  not  Trajan.^ 

This  was  the  last  time  he  appeared  at  the  head  of  the  troops. 
Happily  the  great  traditions  of  war  were  not  yet  lost,  and  there 
remained  to  Rome  generals  like  Marcellus,  Niger,  Pertinax,  Albinus, 
and  Septimius  Severus,  who  kept  strong  watch  upon  the  barbarians.^ 

^  Dion,  Ixxii.  2  and  3. 

'  Herodian  (i.  15),  speaks  of  large  sums  of  money  given  to  the  harharians  to  huy  peace. 

'  Dion  and  Lampridius  mention  some  few  victories  gained  over  the  barbarians  of  the 
Danube  by  Albinus  and  Niger,  in  182  and  184.  There  were  more  serious  engagements  in 
Britain  (184)  and  in  Africa  (187-190).    Cf.  Eckhel,  vii.  120  and  123. 


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COMMOBUS,    PEHTINAX,    DIDIU8   JUMANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO   211    A.D. 


He  returned  to  Kome  the   22nd   of   October,   180,  surrounded 
by   all   triumphal    pomp    in    honour  of  victories   that   he  had   not 
gained,   and    instead    of    placing  upon   his    chariot    the    image    of 
Marcus    Aurelius,    the    true    conqueror,    a 
handsome    and   favourite  slave   was    seated 
beside   Commodus.     Vice  returned  into  the 
imperial    palace,    where,    in    the    time    of 
Marcus  Aurelius,  virtue  had  dwelt. 

Leaving  the  care  of  public  affairs  to 
Perennis,  prefect  of  the  guards,^  Commodus 
took  no  thought  save  for  his  pleasures,  and 
a  part  of  the  Koman  aristocracy  did  like-      Crispiua  Augusta,  Wife  of 

rrn  T  1      1    •  -I    Commodua.    (Bronze  MedaUion.) 

Wise.    The  preceding  emperors  had  imposed 

severe  morals  on  the  court.  Men  now  made  amends  for  this  pro- 
longed restraint,  and  rushed  into  all  forms 
of  dissipation,  like  the  young  French 
nobles  after  the  hypocritical  austerities  of 
the  latter  years  of  Louis  XIV.  The 
ruler,  at  the  age  of  ardent  passions,  pro- 
pagated around  him  all  the  vices  which 
were  in  himself:  lately  it  had  been  the 
fashion  to  philosophize,  now  it  appeared 
good  taste  to  practise  every  kind  of 
profligacy.  It  is  said  that  the  two 
empresses  set  the  example.  One  of  them, 
Ciispina,  the  wife  of  Commodus,  was 
banished  to  Capri,  under  a  charge  of 
adultery,  and  afterwards  put  to  death; 
the  other,  Lucilla,  the  daughter  of  Marcus* 
Aurelius,  had  retained  imperial  honours  from  her  marriage  with 
the  emperor  Verus:  at  the  theatre  she  sat  with  the  emperor's 
family,  and  in  the  sti'eets  the  sacred  fire  was  carried  before  her.^ 


The  Empress  Lucilla,  Daughter  of 

Marcus  Aurelius  and  Wife  of 

Lucius  Verus.' 


^  Dion,  Ixxii.  9.  According  to  Herodian,  Commodus  reigned  wisely  up  to  the  time  of  the 
conspiracy  of  Lucilla,  which  is  placed  in  183.  But  this  is  probably  a  literary  reminiscence  of 
Nero's  early  reign. 

*  From  an  intaglio  in  the  Cabinet  de  France  (red  jasper,  12  mill im.  by  8).  The  name  of 
Proclus  abridged,  nPOBuV,  is  perhaps  that  of  the  engraver.  Cf.  Chabouillet,  op.  cit..  Supple- 
ment, No.  3,500. 

'  Amraianus  Marcellinus  and  Quintus  Curtius  say  that  the  kings  of  Persia  possessed  a 


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8  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

Her  father  had  compelled  her  to  espouse  in  second  nuptials  the  old 
and  respectable  Pompeianus,  whom  she,  it  is  said,  betrayed,  even 
including  her  own  son-in-law  in  the  number  of  her  lovers.  But 
LuciUa  is  perhaps  one  more  victim  of  those  calumnies  so  very 
current  in  Eome  at  that  time,  according  to  the  testimony  of 
Tertullian  who  heard  them.^  She  must  have  been  nearly  forty  at 
this  time,  an  age  which,  for  women  of  the  South,  is  no  longer  the 
period  of  beauty  or  of  transient  amours. 

The  writers  who  have  preserved  to  us  the  history  of  this 
reign  fill  it  with  monotonous  accounts  of  cruel  executions.  In  the 
whole  period  of  twelve  years  is  found  neither  a  good  measure  of 
government  nor  a  decree  for  the  improvement  of  laws;  nothing 
which  shows  any  care  for  the  public  interest ;  Commodus  did  not 
even  finish  the  constructions  which  his  father  had  begim.  Yet 
still  the  Empire  stands  by  its  own  weight,  mole  sua  stat  Traders 
buy  and  sell,  sailors  traverse  the  seas,  labourers  do  their  work, 
and  governors  keep  watch  over  the  provinces,  as  though  a  wise 
ruler  presided  over  the  destinies  of  the  Empire.  The  treasury 
still  furnishes  funds  to  assist  in  the  reconstruction  of  Nicomedia, 
destroyed  by  an  earthquake,^  to  construct  a  gymnasium  at  Antioch, 
diverse  monuments  at  Alexandria,  and  to  establish  at  Carthage  an 
African  fleet,  classis  Africana^  in  order  to  make  good  with  African 
com  the  deficiencies  in  the  Egyptian  supply  brought  into  Ostia.* 
Lastly,  the  soldiers  still  are  detailed  to  aid  in  public  works.  Those 
in  Dalmatia  restore  a  bridge  over  the  Cettina  that  had  been 
destroyed;  along  the  Danube  they  construct  fortified  posts  to  keep 
out  German  marauders.*     If  our  information  were  more  extensive  it 

fire  which  fell  from  heaven,  which  they  kept  alive  with  care,  and  had  it  borne  before  them 
on  expeditious  on  little  silver  altars,  surrounded  by  singing  magi.  The  usage  is  ancient,  for 
Herodotus  makes  mention  of  it.  The  emperors  adopted  this  oriental  custom  like  many  others, 
and  the  fire  became  a  symbol  of  their  majesty.  The  passage  of  Dion  Cassius  referred  to  shows 
that  this  custom  was  already  established  at  the  close  of  the  second  century. 

'  ApoL,  36. 

' .  .  .  .  wo>M  ixaplffaro  (Malalas,  Chronogr.y  xii.  p.  289,  ed.  of  Bonn).  Antioch  had 
bought  in  the  year  44  from  the  inhabitants  of  Elis,  for  a  term  of  ninety  Olympiads,  the  right 
of  celebrating  the  Olympic  Games,  and  expended  for  them  yearly  a  sum  amounting  to  nearly 
£40,000;  but  these  games  were  not  regularly  celebrated  at  Antioch  until  the  reign  of 
Commodus  (Gibbon,  chap.  xxii.). 

'  Lamp.,  Coram,,  37.  The  oldest  inscription  mentioning  the  classis  nova  Libyca  is  of  the 
time  of  Commodus.  (Becueil  de  la  Soc.  arcJUol,  of  Constantine,  1873,  p.  460.  See  Erm. 
Ferrero,  Inscr,  d'Afrique  relatives  d,  la  Flotte,  in  Bull.  Spigr.  de  la  Oaule,  August,  1882.) 

*  Or.-Henzen,  Nos.  5,272  and  5,487 :  .  .  .  .  clandestinos  latrunculorum  transittis. 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIU8   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO   211    A.D.         9 

would  show  US  the  same  labours  carried  on  everywhere.  What 
F^nelon  said  of  the  monarchy  of  Louis  XIV.,  that  the  old  machine 
continued  to  move  with  the  impulse  originally  given  it,  might  long 
be  said  of  the  Eoman  Empire. 

Disquieting  symptoms,  however,  are  seen  to  appear.  Under 
the  feeble  and  violent  hand  that  holds  the  reins  Roman  discipline 
is  relaxed  through  all  the  orders.^  In  the  city  riots  break  out ; 
seditions  announce  the  reign  of  the  soldiery;  disorders  springing 
up  around  the  temples,^  a  religious  war;  and  the  anarchy  which 
will  soon  threaten  the  very  existence  of  the  Empire  is  manifested 
by  the  insolent  success  of  a  bandit  pillaging  with  impunity  many 
provinces.  Lastly,  the  military  spirit  is  growing  feeble;  senators 
desert  those  offices  which  involve  actual  service.  One  of  them 
obtains  from  Commodus  an  exemption  from  military  duty.* 

On  the  frontier  there  is  no  important  war  during  these  twelve 
years.  A  Roman  garrison  permanently  established  on  the  Kour, 
in  a  fortress  built  in  that  remote  region  by  Vespasian,  kept  the 
people  of  the  Caucasus  quiet  and  protected  Armenia  against  them.* 
Niger  and  Albinus,  who  both  were  to  taste  imperial  power,*  and  to 
die  of  it,  seem  to  have  had  to  defend  Dacia  against  the  Sarmatians 
and  Gaul  against  the  Frisii.  In  Britain,  the  Caledonians  having 
broken  through  the  line  of  Roman  defences,  Marcellus,  a  soldier  of 
the  old  stamp,  drove  them  back  into  their  mountains;  some  similar 
outbreaks  in  Mauretania  were  repressed  with  equal  promptness. 

Commodus  heard  not  even  the  echo  of  these  remote  sounds  of 
war.  To  leave  the  care  of  public  affairs  to  his  praetorian  prefect, 
and  to  send  him  his  death  order  at  the  faintest  suspicion;  to  keep 
the  children  of  the  governors  as  hostages,  that  he  might  have 
nothing  to  fear  from  the  provinces;  and  to  make  himself  secure 
in  Rome  by  granting  all  possible  licence  to  the  praetorians — it  was 
to  this  that  he  had  reduced  the  science  of  government.  In  regard 
to  the  finances,  he  had  resumed  the  system  of  raising  money  out 
of  condemnations,  a  capital  sentence  bringing  with  it  always,  in 
accordance  with   the    oldest   Roman   laws,   the   confiscation    of    the 

*  Spartian,  Pescenn.,  Nig,,  10 :  Commodi  temporum  dissolutio. 
» See  p.  81,  n.  3. 

'  Orelli,  No.  5,003 ;  L.  Renier,  MSlanpes  d^Spigraphie,  pp.  12  and  20. 

*  Inscription  of  185.    {Journal  asiatique,  1869,  p.  103.) 
'  Tac,  Ann.,  vi.  20 :  .  .  .  .  degtutabis  imperium. 


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10  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235    A.D. 

property  of  the  condemned  person;  or,  as  in  the  year  188,  he 
announced  that  he  was  about  to  depart  on  a  long  journey,  and 
with  this  pretext  drew  from  the  public  treasury  whatever  money 
he  desired.  Having  taken  these  precautions  he  abandoned  himself 
quietly  to  his  passion  for  chariot  races,  hunts,  and  the  games  of 
the  amphitheatre. 

Each  of  the  tyrants  of  Home  had  his  favourite  folly  or 
dominant  vice.  Caligula  thought  himself  divine;  Nero,  an  incom- 
parable singer;    in   this   infamous   band,  Vitellius  was   the  Silenus, 


Commodus  on  Horseback  striking  a  Tigress  with  his  Javelin.* 

and  now  Commodus  is  to  be  the  gladiator.  Seven  hundred  and 
thirty-five  times  he  fought  in  the  arena;  and  these  combats  were 
ruinous  for  the  treasury,  which  paid  25,000  drachmae  for  each 
of  these  royal  performances;^  they  were  also  without  peril,  for 
every  an^angement  was  made  to  secure  that  his  imperial  majesty 
should  receive  no  harm  at  the  hands  of  the  victims,  nor  from 
teeth  or  claws  of  the  wild  beasts,  who  were  often  brought  out  in 
their  cages.  Always  surrounded  by  Moorish  or  Parthian  archers, 
Commodus  excelled  in  throwing  the  spear  or  javelin;  one  day 
100  bears  fell  by  his  hand.  At  each  of  these  easy  and  dis- 
graceful victories  the  senate  applauded  in  chorus :    "  Thou  art  the 

*  Intaglio,  45  mill,  hy  55.     {Cabinet  de  France,  No.  2,096.) 

^  This  was  to  be  paid  from  the  funds  appropriated  for  games,  but  that  sum  being  quickly 
exhausted,  the  expense  fell  upon  the  treasury.     (Dion,  Ixxii.  19.) 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO   211    A.D.       11 

master!      Thou   the   first  and   most   fortunate   of  men!      Thou   art 

conqueror  and  shalt  ever  be,  Amazonius  the  victorious !  '^     But  we 

know  to   what  a  sad  condition  the  descendants   of  the   men  who 

once  ruled  the   world  were  now   reduced — ^their   continual   terrors, 

their  shameful  sycophancy,  in  the  presence  of 

such  rulers!^      One    only,    Pompeianus,    the 

son-in-law    and    friend    of    Marcus    Aurelius, 

dared    to    protest    against    this    degradation, 

refusing    to    appear    in    the    amphitheatre   or 

even  in  the  senate.      Dion  declares  that   he 

had  never  seen  him  there  except  in  the  time 

of  Pertinax.     This  knight  of  Antioch  was  the 

Cato  of  his  time.     Old  Eome  still  gave  her     (^rz^o^kof'SpZt:) 

stamp  to  some  of  her  new  children. 

But  how  easy  for  a  young  prince  to  become  dizzy  from  this 
cloud  of  incense  1  The  senate  was  not  alone  in  exhausting  all  the 
vocabulary  of  servility ;  the  people,  the  army  all  do  the  same ;  and 

Commodus   could  hear  the   acclamations   of 

the  provinces  answering  back  those  of  Eome. 

The   young  men   of  Nepete    subscribed    to 

consecrate  a  monument  to  '*  Commodus  the 

Victorious.''     A  coin  of  Ephesus  gives  him, 

as  formerly   in   the    case    of  Hadrian,    the 

surname   of   Olympics,^  and    an   inscription 

calls  him    '^most  noble,    most   fortunate   of 

princes."     In  another   the   offering  is  made         ^bo  Koman  Ueicuies. 

to    ''the    Eoman    Hercules."      Accordingly  ^^'"'"^/comm^^^^^^ 

'^  the   god " '  respects   nothing   upon  earth ; 

he  deprives  the  months  of  their  names  to  give  them  others  of  his 

own  choosing;    he  even  changes  the  names  of  Eome  and  Jerusalem 

and   calls   them   Coloniee   Commodienses.      His  reign  is  the  Golden 

Age;    at  least,  so  his  imperial   letters   are   dated,  ex  sceculo   aureo^ 

and  his  birthday  is  to  be  celebrated  throughout  the  whole  Empire. 

But  the  festival  is  only  for  himself,  for  "on  that  day,"  Dion  tells 

us,   "we   senators,    our   wives   and   our   children,  must   each  of  us 

*  See  vol.  V.  p.  612,  under  what  a  reign  of  terror  the  senators  lived. 
'  For  Nepete,  see  Orelli,  No.  879 ;  for  Ephesus,  Eckhej,  vii.  p.  136. 

•  'EjfftXrfro  Kal  QiOQ  (Zonaras,  xii.  5).     Renier,  Inscr.  de  T Al^erie,  No.  4,403.     Orelli,  No.  886. 


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12  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

give  him  two  aurei,   and  the  decurions  of  all   the  cities  must  send 
him  five  denarii  apiece  "  (Ixxii.  16). 

His  greatest   ambition  was   to   resemble   the   son  of  Alcmena, 

who,  to  his  mind,  was  only  the  god  of  brute  strength.     There  was 

carried  before  him  in  the  streets  the  club  and  lion's  skin  of  the 

conqueror  of  the  hydra ;   in  the  amphitheatre  they 

were  laid  on  a  gilded  platform  and  sometimes  he 

\  used  them.      Dion  relates  that  having  collected  a 

I  great  number  of  maimed  and  infirm  persons  taken 

at  random  in  the  streets  of  Rome,  he  had  them 

costumed  to  represent  fabulous  monsters  with  long 

serpents'    tails,    and    gave   them   sponges   instead 

Two^Oxen?^"^^    ^f  stones  to   defend    themselves  with,   when    he 

BrKTc^'nlS)'  ^^^''^^^  t^^°^  ^*^  ^  «!"!>•    ^«  ^"'  imagined 
himself  repeating  the  exploits  of  Hercules,  and  a 

rumour  was  current  that  the  spectators  seemed  to  him  very  well 
adapted  to  fill  the  part  of  the  birds  of  Stymphalus,  and  that 
he  proposed  to  shoot  his  arrows  into  the  crowd  that  filled  the 
amphitheatre.  To  keep  this  threat  ever  before 
fbw^^^  the  minds  of  the  senators,  he  caused  to  be  placed 
AfiV^sy'ito^^l^  ^^  *^®  curia  a  statue  of  himself  as  Hercules,^ 
Ol^OCMoe  SjJ//  with  bow  strung  in  hand.  ''Never,"  says  the 
Ml^hi^d&if  historian,  who  was  the  witness  of  what  he  nar- 
rates,  ''did  he  appear  in  public  without  being 
Tiie  Golden  Age  under  stained  with  blood ; "  and  Lampridius  adds, 
"when  he  had  mortally  wounded  a  gladiator,  he 
plunged  his  hand  into  the  wound,  then  wiped  the  blood  off  on  his 
hair."     He  was  indeed  a  butcher. 

Again  we  have  an  insane  emperor,  in  whom  the  intoxication 
of  youth  and  power  takes  the  form  of  blood-madness.  Nero  was 
not  so  bad  as  he,  for  in  the  case  of  that  grotesque  artist  there 
was  at  least  a  spark  of  art,  and  his  Babylonian  entertainments,  in 

'  COL(oiiia)  L(ucia)  AN(touina)  (X)M(modiana)  P(ontifex)  M(aximu8)  TR(ibumtia) 
P(ote8ta8)  XV.,  IMP(erator)  VIII.,  COS(ul)  VI.  Reverse  of  a  great  bronze  of  Commodus. 
For  Jerusalem,  p.  53. 

'  The  Vatican  has  a  statue  of  Commodus  as  Hercules,  of  which  there  is  in  the  liouvre  a 
beautiful  copy  in  bronze. 

'  KOMOaOV  BAClAErONTOC  O  KOCMOC  EVTVXEI  NIKAIEON  {under  t?ie  rule  of  Commodus 
all  the  world  is  happy)^  legend  surrounded  by  a  wreath.     Reverse  of  a  bronze  coin  of  Nicaea. 


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Hercules,  kuown  as  the  Farnese,  found  at  Rome  in  the  Baths  of  Caracalla. 
(Museum  of  Naples.) 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO   211    A.D.       15 

all  their  infamy,  had  a  certain  grandeur.  The  instincts  of  Corn- 
modus  were  always  low,  and  his  pleasures  vulgar  or  hideous,  and 
it  is  this  which  gave  probability  to  the  current  story  that  his 
father  was  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  arena. 

The  populace  is  not  over  nice  in  the  choice  of  its  favourites; 
when  it  has  the  vote,  violent  declamations  are  its  delight;  when 
it  has  only  the  right  to. applaud,  skill  and  physical  force  are  what 
it  loves.  Accordingly  these  exploits  of  the  highway  on  the  part 
of  its  emperor  enchanted  the  Roman  crowd.  They  adored  this  man 
who  lavished  gold  upon  them  and  lived  in  the  amphitheatre;  who 
gave  them  another  spectacle,  the  terror  of  the  nobles,  and  from  time 
to  time  as  an  interlude  a  dead  body  to  drag  through  the  streets. 
But  the  aristocracy  were  indignant  at  being  made  to  tremble  under 
a  ruler  who  appeared  to  them  singularly  petty  in  comparison  with 
the  great  emperors  who  had  preceded  him.  In  the  senate  there 
existed  no  longer,  as  there  had  been  during  the  first  century,  either 
republican  rancours  or  patrician  desires  for  power.  Now  it  was 
perfectly  understood  how  necessary  to  the  Empire  was  a  true 
emperor;  how  much  vigilance,  skill,  and  firmness  in  the  supreme 
rank  was  needed  to  maintain,  with  the  greatness  of  the  Empire, 
the  security  of  the  individual  and  the  liberty  of  all.  These  senti- 
ments showed  themselves  later  when,  to  replace  the  last  of  the 
Antonines,  all  men  in  the  curia  agreed  to  place  the  imperial  purple 
upon  the  shoulders  of  a  freedwoman's  son.  From  the  third  year 
of  the  reign  of  Oommodus  a  conspiracy,  of  which  Lucilla  was  the 
soul,  began  in  the  palace  itself.  The  emperor  doubtless  kept  at  a 
distance  this  ambitious  woman,  who  was  jealous  of  the  empress 
as  her  superior  in  rank.  She  thought  that  by  putting  her  son- 
in-law,  or  Quadratus,  a  rich  young  senator  who  shared  in  her 
projects,  in  her  brother's  place,  she  should  obtain  a  larger  share  of 
power.  To  be  sure  of  success  she  intrusted  her  son-in-law,  who 
was  an  intimate  of  the  emperor,  with  the  striking  of  the  fatal 
blow.  As  Commodus  passed  through  a  dark  passage-way  which 
led  to  the  amphitheatre,  the  murderer  fell  upon  him  with  a 
poniard,  crying,  ^^  This  is  what  the  senate  sends  thee ! "  But  he 
was  disarmed  before  striking  the  blow  (183);  and  his  imprudent 
words  cost  many  senators  their  lives.  From  that  day  the  old 
friends   of  Marcus   Aurelius   appeared   to  his   son  no  longer  silent 


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16  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

censors,  but  enemies  whose  blows  he  must  prevent.  The  palmy 
days  of  the  informers  came  again,  and  murders  seemed  to  have  no 
end.  Lucilla,  her  son-in-law,  the  latter's  father,  Quadratus,  and 
many  others  perished.  One  of  the  praetorian  prefects,  Tan'utenius 
Paternus,  a  learned  lawyer  who  has  the  honour  of  being  placed 
among  the  jurisconsults  of  the  Pandects^  could  not  be  convicted  of 


Sextus  Quiutilius  Maximmj.* 

having  shared  in  the  conspiracy.  But  Perennis,  his  colleague, 
wished  to  be  sole  chief  of  the  guard.  He  caused  Paternus  to  be 
appointed  senator  to  remove  him  from  the  prefecture,  then  accused 
him  of  treason,  and  Paternus  was  condemned  together  with  the 
grandson  of  Hadrian's  great  jurisconsult.  The  latter,  Salvius 
Julianus,   was,   at   the   accession   of   Commodus,   in   command   of   a 

*  The  only  bust  known  of  any  of  the  victims  of  Commodus.  It  was  found  in  the  ruins  of 
the  villa  of  the  Quintilii,  on  the  Appian  Way.  Cf.  Henry  d'Escamps,  Descript.  des  marbres  du 
MtuSe  Campana,  etc.,  No.  101.     Paris,  1855, 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIU8   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO   211    A.D.       19 

lai^e  army,  and  much  beloved  by  his  troops;   he  had  not  desired 


Ruins  of  the  Villa  of  the  Quintilii  {JRoma  Vecchia.y 

to  dispute   the   Empire   with  the   son  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  but  he 

m.}   :  1.  '11 


B  E9 


Plan  of  the  Villa  of  the  Quintilii.^ 

might  have  done  it  had  he  chosen;  this  was  enough  to  render  him 
guilty,  since  he  was  esteemed  dangerous.      The  list  of  the  tyrant's 

^  From  Canina,  la  Prima  parte  della  via  Appia,  pi.  33. 

'A,  peristyle;   B,  vestibule;    C,  nymphsBum;    D,  temple   of  Hercules;    E,  hot  baths; 
F,  tomb  on  the  Appian  Way.     (Canina,  op.  ctt,  pL  32.) 

C2 


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20  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180    TO    235    A.D. 

victims  is  long;  Dion  assufes  us  that  of  all  who  had  enjoyed  dis- 
tinction in  the  State  during  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  three 
only,  under  Commodus,  escaped  with  their  lives.  Like  Caligula, 
he  often  took  a  man's  life  only  for  the  sake  of  taking  his  property 
and  relieving  his  own  financial  embarrassments;  many  women 
perished  on  account  of  their  wealth. 

The  fate  of  the  Quintilii  struck  the  imagination  of  con- 
temporaries, habituated  and  hardened  as  they  were  to  scenes  of 
murder :  they  were  two  brothers  of  Trojan  origin  famous  for  their 
wealth,  learning,  and  military  talents,  and  they  were  inseparable. 
The  emperors,  taking  pleasure  in  honouring  this  fraternal  friend- 
ship, had  caused  them  to  pass  through  the  career  of  public  duties 
together:  they  had  been  consuls,  heads  of  armies,  and  governors 
of  Achaia,  one  serving  as  lieutenant  to  the  other ;  they  both 
signed  the  same  despatches,  and  Marcus  Aurelius  sanctioned  this 
affectionate  illegality,  addressing  to  the  two  a  rescript  which  still 
exists  in  the  Digest  Commodus  also  united  them,  but  in  death.  ^ 
There  is  still  to  be  seen  on  the  Appian  Way  the  great  ruins  of 
their  palace,  called  in  the  Middle  Ages  Roma  Vecchia.  Dion  relates 
that,  in  order  to  escape,  the  son  of  one  of  them,  Condianus,  had 
caused  it  to  be  reported  that  he  was  dead.  Feigning  to  fall  from 
his  horse,  he  had  himself  brought  home  covered  with  blood,  and 
while  a  ram  was  burned  in  his  stead  on  the  funeral  pile,  he  con- 
cealed himself  and  made  his  escape.  Many  paid  with  their  lives 
for  their  resemblance  to  the  young  Quintilius.  After  the  death 
of  Commodus  a  pretended  Condianus  claimed  the  rich  inheritance. 
^^The  Claimant"  was  extremely  well-informed  in  the  history  of 
the  Quintilii  and  answered  all  questions  pertinently.  But  Pertinax, 
an  old  professor  of  grammar,  confused  the  claimant  by  addressing 
him  in  Greek;  whereupon  it  was  decided  that  a  man  who  was  ill- 
versed  in  the  language  of  Homer  could  not  be  a  Quintilius. 

During  the  war  in  Britain  Perennis  had  replaced  by  knights 
the  senators  in  command  of  the  legions  in  that  country.  The 
soldiers,  it  was  said,  were  offended  that  the  distinction  of  the 
military  grades  should  be  thus  impaired.  This  solicitude  in  the 
camps  of  Britain  for  the  honour  of  the  Conscript  Fathers  may  well 

^  Digest f  xxxviii.  2,  16,  §  4.     Do7nm  Quintiliorum  omnia  exatincta  (Lamp.,   Comm.  4). 
This  writer  gives  a  long  list  of  the  victims  of  Commodus. 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO    211    A.D.       21 

be  doubted.  Probably  there  were  other  motives  of  discontent. 
There  was  vague  report  of  a  great  sedition'  appeased  ^  by  Pertinax 
after  his  life  had  been  imperilled  by  it;  and  of  an  emperor,  Prisons, 
or  Pertinax  himself,  whom  the  legions  would  have  raised  to  power, 
but  who  refused  the  offer.  Fifteen  hundred  soldiers  were  sent 
to  bring  the  complaints  of  the  army  to  the  emperor;  Commodus, 
anxious  at  the  approach  of  deputies  so  numerous  that  they  might 
seem  to  bring  commands  rather  than  requests,  went  out  of  the 
city  to  meet  them.  "What  is  it,  comrades,"  he  said,  '^and  for 
what  do  you  come?"  They  rejoined  that  they  had  come  because 
Perennis  was  conspiring  against  him  and  had  the  design  of  making 
his  son  emperor.  Without  further  information  the  base  Commodus 
gave  up  his  faithful  general.^  He  was  beaten  with  rods,  then 
beheaded,  and  his  wife  and  sister  and  his  two  sons  were  put  to 
death  (185).  The  soldiers  had  unmade  a  minister;  ere  long  they 
were  to  make  and  unmake  emperors. 

It  is  not  clear  where  we  ought  to  place  the  singular  history 
of  Matemus;'  Herodian  relates  it  after  the  fall  of  Perennis.  This 
soldier  having  deserted  together  with  some  bold  comrades,  scoured 
the  country,  pillaging  the  villages.  His  troop,  with  a  regular 
military  organization  and  swelled  by  the  addition  of  bandits  and 
convicts  to  whom  he  opened  the  prison  doors,  grew  strong  enough 
to  attack  cities,  many  of  which  they  sacked  and  burned.  Matemus 
thus  ravaged  through  Spain  and  Gaul,  pillaging  and  burning,  and 
having  nothing  to  fear  from  the  municipal  militia,  which  through 
long  peace  had  fallen  into  inefficiency.  The  government  was  obliged 
to  decide  on  sending  regular  troops  against  him.  Matemus  was 
no  common  bandit;  he  resolved  to  attempt  a  great  achievement. 
Learning  that  preparations  were  on  foot  against  him,  he  divided 
his  band,  gave  his  men  orders  to  make  their  way  into  Italy  by 
unfrequented  routes,  and  directed  them  to  meet  him  at  Kome  on 
the  festival  of  the  Mother  of  the  Gods.      Upon  that  day  disguises 

*  Dion,  Ixxiii.  4,  and  Capit.,  Pertinax ^  3. 

^  This  is  the  testimony  of  Dion  (Ixxii.  12).  Herodian  (i.  24)  relates  the  story  difterently. 
Instead  of  the  soldiers  from  Britain  they  are  legionaries  of  Illyria,  and  he  says  that  a  begging 
philosopher  came  in  the  midst  of  a  fite  to  denounce  the  intrigues  of  the  prefect,  who  caused 
him  to  be  burned  alive. 

^  Dion  Oassius  does  not  mention  it,  but  Lampridius  speaks  uf  the  bellum  desertorum 
(Comm.,  16),  and  Spartian  (3%.,  3)  says  of  Niger  that  he  was  sent  ad  comprehendendos 
desertores  qui  irmumeri  Oallias  tunc  vexabant. 


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22  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYBIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

of  all  kinds  were  authorized.  Matemus  proposed  to  assume,  with 
some  of  his  men,  the  dress  of  the  praetorians,  and  thus  approaching 
the  emperor  to  slay  him  and  take  his  place.  Being  denounced  by 
a  fellow-conspirator,   he  was  put  to   death   with  all   of    his    band 

who  could  be  discovered. 

Nothing  authorizes  us  to  say 
that  this  audacious  enterprise  could 
not  have  been  successful.  In  a 
State  where  there  is  no  strong  and 
vital  institution  between  ambitious 
men  and  the  sovereign  power 
to  shelter  the  ruler  from  a  sur- 
prise, the  thrust  of  a  dagger  may 
suffice  to  change  a  dynasty.  These 
catastrophes  we  have  already  seen, 
and  many  more  are  yet  before  us 
in  the  history  of  Eome.  In  this 
regard  the  imperial  dignity  had  a 
certain  analogy  with  the  priesthood 
of  the  temple  of  the  Arician  Diana, 
whose  high-priest  was  bound  to 
slay  his  predecessor. 

The  freedman  Oleander,  a 
former  porter  who  had  become  the 
chamberlain  of  Commodus,  took  the 
place  of  Perennis  in  the  imperial 
favour.     This  man  had  retained  all 

-  the  vices    of    a    slave,    adding    to 

Diana  of  tbe  Vatican.  them    greed    for    gain.      He    sold 

(Museo  Chiaramonti,  No.  122.)  „  .  t    •     t   •  i     i      • 

offices,  provinces,  and  judicial  deci- 
sions ;  there  were  seen  in  one  week  several  prefects  of  the  guards, 
and  as  many  as  twenty-five  consuls  in  one  year.^  With  a  part  of 
this  money  he  bought  the  emperor's  mistresses,  and  even  the 
emperor  himself.  The  praetorians  were  soon  to  follow  this  example, 
but  it  was  the  supreme  power  itself  which  they  offered  for  sale. 
Governments  also  reap  that  which  they  sow. 

*  According  to  Lampridius ;  but  of  this  we  have  no  other  proof  than  his  word,  which  is 
uot  sufficient. 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANU8,    ETC.,    180   TO    211    A.D.       23 

Burrus,  the  brother-in-law  of  Commodus,  wished  to  enlighten 
the  emperor  upon  the  unworthy  conduct  of  his  favourite.  Oleander 
accused  him  of  aspiring  to  the  imperial  dignity,  and  obtained 
against  him  an  order  of  death,  which  was  extended  to  many 
senators.  He  then  took  for  himself  the  prefecture  of  police, 
consenting,  however,  to  share  it  with  two  colleagues. 

This  freedman,  who  has  been  called  the  minister  of  the  dagger, 
might  have  continued  with  impunity  to  decimate  the  nobles;  but 
he  allowed  the  populace  to  go  hungry,  and  they  were  the  cause 
of  his  downfall.  For  some  years  there  had  been  a  condition  of 
want;  the  price  of  com  rose  and  distributions  were  suspended. 
Commodus  wished  to  compel  the  traders  to  sell  at  a  lower  price; 
but  provisions  were  concealed  and  the  evil  increased.  An  immense 
fire,  like  that  in  Nero's  time,  and  an  epidemic  which  in  Rome 
alone  carried  off  2,000  persons  daily, ^  raised  the  public  exaspera- 
tion to  the  highest  pitch.  These  scourges  did  not  appear  the  result 
of  natural  causes  and  the  public  clamoured  for  a  victim.  It  was 
asserted  that  Oleander  had  hoarded  wheat.  We  know  the  fate  of 
those  thus  accused  by  the  populace  in  times  of  scarcity.  One  day 
in  the  circus  a  band  of  boys  rushed  into  the  arena  with  loud  out- 
cries, headed  by  a  virago  of  great  stature  and  fierce  aspect,  who 
doubtless  was  got  rid  of  in  the  tumult,  which  gave  the  foolish 
crowd  and  the  enemies  of  Oleander  the  occasion  to  say  that  some 
goddess  had  been  the  leader.  To  the  boys'  clamour  was  joined 
that  of  the  spectators ;  an  excitement  seized  upon  all ;  they 
abandoned  the  games  and  rushed  out  of  the  city  to  the  Quintilian 
palace  where  the  emperor  then  was.  To  stop  this  multitude 
Oleander  caused  them  to  be  charged  by  the  German  or  praetorian 
guard  ;  many  persons  were  killed,  many  others  wounded,  and  the 
great  rabble  turned  back  into  th#  city.  To  disperse  them  still 
more  utterly  the  cavalry  followed  them  into  the  streets.  Assailed 
by  a  shower  of  stones  and  tiles  from  the  house-tops,  attacked  by 
the  soldiers  of  the  urban  cohorts  who  made  common  cause  with 
the  people,  they  fell  back  in  disorder,  upon  which  the  crowd  again 
turned  in  the  direction   of   the   palace,   mingling   cries   of  death  to 

'  Another  had  occurred  in  182.  Cf.  Or.-HenzeD,  No.  5,489.  It  would  seem  that  the 
great  plague  which  had  ravaged  Rome  in  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius  left  hehind  it  centres 
of  contagion,  whence  it  again  appeared  from  time  to  time  under  Commodus. 


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24  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO    235   A.D. 

Oleander  with  expressions  of  affection  for  the  emperor.  A  con- 
cubine of  Commodus  made  known  to  him  the  riot  in  the  city,  the 
danger  that  might  threaten  himself,  and  the  means  of  avoiding  it. 
Commodus   caused   his   favourite   to  be   slain    and    threw    out    the 


Commodus.^ 

body  to  the  populace.  For  many  hours  the  crowd  bore  through 
the  city  on  the  point  of  a  spear  the  head  of  the  all-powerful 
minister,  and  dragged  the  headless  corpse  through  the  streets.  His 
son,  a  little  boy  brought  up  at  court,  had  his  brains  dashed  out 
on  the  pavement;  those  who  had  shared  the  fortune  of  the 
favourite,    shared   now   in    the    ignominy   of   his   death,    and,    after 

*  Marble  bust  found  at  Ostia.     (Vatican,  Braccio  nuovo.  No.  121.) 


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C0MM0DU8,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO    211    A.D.       25 

being  the  sport  of  the  rabble,  were  dragged  to  the  Gemonian 
stairs  (189).^ 

On   the   last  day  of   the   games   Commodus,  before   descending 
into    the    arena,    had    given    his    club    to    Pertinax.      Later,    men 
remembered    this,    and    saw    in    it    a    sign.      The    expiation    was 
drawing  near.     The  son  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  whom  his  biographer 
calls     ''more     cruel     than     Domitian,    more 
impure   than   Nero,"  was  a  wild  beast  who 
could  not  fail  some  day  to  be  stricken  down. 
Among  the  possessions  of  one  of  his  victims 
Commodus  had  found  a  woman  to  whom  he 
attached    himself    passionately,    making    her 
his  concubine.     This  union,  a  sort  of   mor- 
ganatic  marriage  recognized  by  the   Koman 
world,^  permitted   Marcia  to  receive   almost       ^        ,       , «,    . 

Commodus  and  Marcia. 

all  the  honours   due  to   an  empress.'     This  (Bronze  Medallion 

,  ,      ,  1    1 .1  in  the  Cabinet  de  France.) 

woman,  who  seems  to  have  possessed  uber- 

ality  of  mind  and  determination,  had  gained  an  immense  ascendancy 
over  the  weak  soul  of  the  imbecile  buffoon;  her  medals,  which 
perhaps  are  portraits,  reveal  a  strong  character,  and  we  have  seen 
with  what  energy  she  acted  in  the  affair  of  Oleander.  She  was  a 
Christian,*  in  so  far  as  this  was  possible  for  the  mistress  of  Com- 
modus;   at   least,   she  favoured   the   Christians,   who   owed   to   her 

^  Alarmed  by  this  riot,  Commodus  gave  some  care  to  the  provisioning  of  Rome,  as  is 
proved  by  many  medals  representing  him  as  Hercules,  his  right  foot  on  the  prow  of  a  vessel 
and  extending  his  hand  to  Africa,  who  is  holding  out  ears  of  com,  with  this  legend :  Providentice 
Augusta.  Of.  Cohen,  Camm.,  at  the  Nos.  212,  213,  719,  etc.  We  shall  see  that  Septimius 
Severus  kept  very  close  watch  over  this  supply. 

^  The  condition  of  concubine  had  not  all  the  civil  effects  of  juHte  nuptue,  but  it  did  not 
incur  the  disgrace  attached  to  illegitimate  connections  ....  nee  adulterium  per  concubinatum 
....  committitur,  nam,  quia  concubinatiu  per  leges  nomen  assumpsit,  extra  legis  poenam  est 
(Digest,  xxv.  7,  3,  §  1).  It  was  really  a  kind  of  marriage,  not  suppressed  until  the  time  of 
Leo  VI.,  the  Philosopher.  (Cf.  Accarias,  PrScis  de  droit  romain,  vol.  i.  pp.  193-5.)  It  is 
possible  the  children  followed,  as  in  the  morganatic  marriages  of  our  time,  the  condition  of  the 
mother,  and  were  not  subject  to  the  father,  patria  potestas.  The  name  of  concubine  had  no 
disgraoe  attached  to  it.  A  widow  inscribed  on  her  husband's  tomb,  concubina  et  Jueres. 
(Fabretti,  Inscr.,  p.  337.)  Jumentarius  furnishes  a  burying-place  for  his  brethren,  their  children 
et  uxoribus  concubinisque.  (Wilmanns,  330.)  Vespasian,  Antoninus,  and  Marcus  Aurelius  had 
had  concubines  before  this  time,  and  Constantius  Chlorus  and  Constantine  kept  up  the 
custom. 

'  All,  Herodian  says,  excepting  that  the  sacred  fire  was  not  carried  before  her.  Capitolinus 
{Max.jun.,  1)  gives  the  detail  of  the  costume  of  a  Roman  empress. 

*  .  .  .  .  iroXXd  re  vnkp  XpuTTiavdv  airovddfrai.     This  testimony  of  Dion  is  confirmed  by  the 


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26  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

the  tranquillity  which  they  enjoyed  during  this  reign.  But,  to 
keep  the  space  around  the  throne  vacant,  these  frenzied  tyrants 
end  by  turning  against  themselves  the  instruments  of  their  tyranny 
and  of  their  pleasures.  Marcia,  Eclectus  the  chamberlain,  Laetus 
the  prefect  of  the  guards,  all  felt  themselves  in  danger.  Is  it 
probable  that  Commodus  overheard  some  imprudent  words?  This 
is  not  known,  but  it  is  certain  that  he  believed  in  the  existence 
of  a  plot,  which  he  called  forth,  if  it  did  not  already  exist. 
Ilerodian  relates  in  perhaps  too  dramatic  a  manner  the  last  incident, 

which,   without    doubt,   did   but    decide   the 
day  of  execution. 

On  the  eve  of  the  Saturnalia  Com- 
modus formed  the  plan  of  going  to  pass  the 
night  in  a  school  of  gladiators,  whence  he' 
would  go  forth  in  the  morning  for  the 
day's  fete^  armed  from  head  to  foot,  and 
preceded  by  all  his  comrades  of  the  arena. 
Vainly  did  Marcia  and  those  about  him 
urge  him  most  strenuously  to  abandon  the 
unworthy  design ;  he  dismissed  them  angrily, 
^^j.^j^,  and  to  put  an  end  to  this  opposition  to  his 

will  he  wrote  upon  tablets  the  names  of 
the  new  victims  who  were  to  perish  on  the  following  night,  placing 
at  their  head  Marcia,  Laetus,  and  Eclectus.  When  he  left  his 
bed-room  to  go  to  the  bath  he  placed  these  tablets  under  his 
pillow.  A  child,  whose  sportive  ways  had  amused  the  emperor, 
and  who  had  the  range  of  the  palace,  entered  this  room,  discovered 
the  tablets,  and  took  them  away  for  a  plaything.  Marcia  met  him 
and  read  the  fatal  list;  in  all  haste  she  warned  those  whom 
Commodus  had  thus  assigned  to  her  as  accomplices.  They  deter- 
mined that,  after  the  bath,  she  should  present  to  the  emperor  a 
poisoned    draught ;    the    effect  was    merely    to    produce   vomiting ; 

Philosophumena  (ix.  12),  who  call  her  ipCKoQiOQ,  and  relate  that  she  sent  a  priest,  the  eunuch 
Hyacinth  us,  who  brought  her  up,  to  deliver  the  Christian  exiles  of  Sardinia.  The  measure 
seems  to  have  been  a  general  one.  "  Under  Commodus,"  says  Eusebius  {Hist.  eccL,  v.  21),  "  we 
enjoyed  a  profound  tranquillity."     (See  chap.  xc.  ad  Jin.) 

'  From  an  engraved  stone  (amethyst,  If^  mill,  by  14)  in  the  Cabinet  de  France.  M.  Charles 
Lenormant  recognized  Marcia  in  this  intaglio,  which  was  published  by  Mariette  under  the  name 
of  Sappho. 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANU8,    ETC.,    180   TO    211    A.D.       27 

upon  this  they  caused  him  to  be  strangled  by  a  young  and 
vigorous  athlete  (31st  December,  192).  His  body,  secretly  removed 
from  the  palace,  was  hastily  in- 
terred, and  news  was  spread  that 
Commodus  had  died  of  apoplexy. 
The  senate,  who  yesterday  offered 
incense  to  him,  now  pursued  his 
memory  with  all  maledictions;^ 
they  proposed  to  declare  him  a 
public  enemy  and  cast  his  body 
into  the  Tiber.  To  this  Pertinax 
objected,  but  his  statues  were 
thi'own  down  and  in  every  direc- 
tion were  dragged  through  the 
streets  those  figures  representing 
him  which  by  and  by  were  again 
restored,  especially  in  Africa, 
after  Severus  had  made  him  a 
god.  He  was  thirty-one  years 
of  age,  the  same  age  as  Nero ; 
Caracalla  was  killed  at  twenty- 
nine  ;  Caligula  at  twenty-eight ; 
Heliogabalus  still  younger,  at 
twenty-one,  Eeal  tjrrants  seldom 
grow  old. 

Commodus   has   against  him 
too   many   detestable    things    for  ^^^^'^'^  ^^'^ 

us    to    omit    the    one    good    thing     Young  Athlete.    (Statue  in  the  Museum  of 

that   can    be    said    of    him :    he  ^^ 

gave  peace  to  the  Christians  and  released  those  from  prison  whom 

his  father  had  incarcerated.^ 

'  The  long  enumeration  may  be  read  in  Lampridius  (18). 

^  See  chap.  xci.  §  1.  We  read  in  Eusebius  {Hist,  eccl.j  v.  21):  "  ApoUonius  was  accused 
by  a  minister  of  the  devil  in  a  time  when  this  was  not  permitted.  Perennis  sent  the  informer 
to  execution ;  but  he  also  referred  Apollonius  to  the  senate,  to  make  answer  on  the  subject 
of  his  faith,  and  the  latter,  refusing  to  abjure,  had  his  liead  cut  oflF,  because  it  was  forbidden  by 
law  to  release  Christians  who  had  been  accused,  unless  they  should  recant."  The  praetorian 
prefect  punishes  with  death  an  accuser  of  the  Christians,  which  must  have  intimidated  those 
who  might  have  felt  inclined  to  follow  his  example.  But  Apollonius  having  pubUcly  avowed 
his  faith,  he  appUes  in  the  case  the  rescript  of  Trajan.   Tbis  is  certainly  very  precise  jurisprudence. 


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28  THE   AFEICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

From  a  more  general  point  of  view,  liis  reign  commences  a 
new  period  in  the  history  of  the  Empire.  It  is  the  end  of  the 
good  days  and  the  beginning  of  the  days  of  misfortune.  One 
single  reign  had  sufficed  to  develop  the  fatal  germ  existing  within 
the  imperial  monarchy,  namely,  the  preponderating  power  of  the 
army.  This  evil  had  appeared  for  the  first  time  on  the  death  of 
Nero,  and  had  very  nearly  rent  the  Empire  in  pieces;  the  firm 
hand  of  Vespasian,  Trajan,  and  Hadrian  had  for  once  suppressed 
it.  It  broke  forth  anew  when  an  accident  of  birth  or  of  public 
tumult  brought  to  the  head  of  the  legions,  instead  of  renowned 
and  honoured  emperors,  a  gladiator,  such  as  Commodus,  or  a  feeble 
and  licentious  Syrian  like  Heliogabalus.  From  the  day  when  the 
soldier  saw  at  close  quarters  the  disgrace  of  his  rulers  -and  the 
base  adulation  of  the  senate,  the  power  of  the  government  and  of 
the  civil  law  gave  way. 

In  the  camps,  the  near  presence  of  the  enemy  kept  up  some- 
what of  the  early  discipline;  but  in  Rome,  amidst  the  seductions 
of  the  great  city,  the  praetorians  had  formed  many  habits  which 
implied  a  great  deal  of  licence.  Pertinax  alienated  them  when  he 
forbade  them  to  treat  the  citizens  insolently.  Commodus,  on  the 
other  hand,  whose  sole  defence  they  were  against  the  nobles  whom 
he  was  decimating,  gave  them  fatal  indulgence,  and  his  distrust  of 
the  aristocracy  obliged  him  to  give  the  preetorian  command  to  par- 
venmj  and  even  to  a  freedman.  These  generals  of  fortune,  in  their 
turn,  took  their  precautions  against  the  emperor.  They  sought  to 
make  sure  of  their  cohorts,  and  for  this  purpose,  made  them  up  of 
men  from  whom  they  could  ask  anything,  for  the  reason  that  they 
themselves  refused  them  nothing.  They  called  into  the  ranks, 
once  open  only  to  Italians,  then  to  the  bravest  provincials,  the 
very  barbarians :  the  chief  of  the  band  who  rushed  into  the 
palace  of  Pertinax  a  few  years  later  was  a  Tongrian.  Soldiers 
like  these  must  have  cared  far  less  for  the  honour  of  the  Roman 
name  than  for  the  fear  they  might  be  able  to  inspire.  Accordingly, 
the  Empire  still  stands  firm ;  but,  in  the  presence  of  a  senate 
whom  the  ruler  degrades  and  of  magistrates  who  have  become 
powerless,  a  turbulent  and  rapacious  soldiery  Avill  make,  for  the 
sake  of  gratifying  their  cupidity,  revolutions  which  will  ruin  the 
provinces   and   lay   open  the   frontiers  to   the  barbarians.     Military 


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COMMOblTS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180    TO    211    A.D.       29 

order  will  soon  supersede  civil  order.  The  Antonines  had  depended 
upon  the  senate,  their  successors  relied  upon  the  legions,  and  for 
a  century  all,  with  the  exception  of  three  only,  will  be  the  servants 
of  the  soldiers  rather  than  their  masters.  The  officers  in  their  turn 
will  bow  before  the  men  who  make  emperors;  and  so  it  will  come 
about  that  from  the  political  power  of  the  armies  will  follow  the 
ruin  of  discipline,  and  hence  the  ruin  of  the  great  military  institu- 
tion of  Augustus  and  of  Hadrian.^ 

II. — Pertinax  and  Didius  Julianus  (193). 

The  murderers  of  Commodus  made  haste  to  choose  an  emperor, 
Publius  Helvius  Pertinax,  an  old  general,  who  appeared  to  have 
preserved  to  advanced  life*  vigour  enough  to  make  men  feel  secure 
that,  after  the  excesses  of  youth,  the  Empire  would  not  now  suffer 
from  any  senile  feebleness.     Leetus  led  him  to  the  praetorian  camp. 

Famous  for  his  severity,  Pertinax  could  not  please  the  soldiery 
who  regretted  Commodus,  but  they  had  no  candidate  at  hand  for 
the  imperial  dignity,  so  that  between  the  ruler  who  could  no 
longer  do  anything  for  them  and  the  one  who  promised  them  a 
donativuniy  they  resigned  themselves  to  the  change  that  had  taken 
place.  As  for  the  populace,  they  had  applauded  Commodus  and 
they  now  hailed  Pertinax:   it  was  one   show  and  one  largess  more. 

In  the  case  of  Commodus  we  had  an  emperor's  son;  in  the 
case  of  Pertinax  we  see  the  rise  of  a  man  of  the  lower  ranks.  The 
son  of  a  freedman,  a  charcoal  dealer  at  Alba  Pompeia  in  Liguria, 
Pertinax  began  to  gain  a  livelihood  as  a  teacher  of  grammar;  not 
succeeding  very  well  at  this,  he  asked  and  obtained  the  rank  of 
centurion  through  the  favour  of  a  patron.  His  merit  raised  him 
rapidly  to  the  first  rank  in  the  army,  and  so  to  the  highest  in  the 
State.  He  became  prefect  of  a  cohort  in  Syria,  commander  of  a 
squadron  in  Britain,  and  in  Moesia,  commissioner  in  charge  of  the 
-^milian  road  to  superintend  the  distribution  of  alimentary  pen- 
sions;^ later,  he  was  chief  of  the  flotilla  of  the  Rhine,  collector  of 

*  "  At  this  epoch,"  says  Ilerodian  (ii.  24),  "  began  the  corruption  of  the  soldiers.  From 
this  time  they  showed  an  insatiable  and  shameful  cupidity,  and  the  greatest  contempt  for  the 
emperor." 

^  He  was  sixty-six  years  of  age.     (Zonaras,  xii.  7.) 

^  This  office  of  proc.  ad  alim.  filled  by  Pertinax,  which  we  find  indicated  in  many  inscrip- 


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30  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180    TO    235    A.D. 

tribute  in  Dacia  with  a  salary  of  200,000  sesterces,  legionary 
tribune,  senator,  proBtor,  legate  of  a  legion  which  distinguished 
itself  under  his  authority  in  Rhaetia  and  Noricum,  and,  lastly, 
consul,     llis  services  at  the  time  of  the  rebellion  of  Cassius  against 


The  Emperor  Pertinax.' 

Marcus  Aurelius  had  given  him  the  command  of  the  army  of  the 
Danube,  and  then  the  government  of  the  two  Moesias,  of  Dacia, 
and  of  Syria.  Thus,  at  the  age  of  fifty-four,  he  had  filled  a  variety 
of  public  offices  and  had  administered  four  consular  provinces.     His 

ti>n8  {e.g.,  Or.-Henzen,  Nos.  3,190,  3,814,  6,524,  and  No.  1,456  of  the  C.  I.  Z.,  vol.  iii.  p.  235, 
proc.  ad  alim.  per  Apul.  Calabr.,  Luc.  et  Bruttios,  for  a  contemporary  of  Alexander  Severus 
and  Gordian  III.),  proves  that  the  alimentary  institution  of  Trajan  was  still  in  full  vigour  as  lat€ 
as  the  middle  of  the  third  century ;  but  it  was  interrupted  under  Commodus  (Lamp.,  Comm., 
16),  and  Pertinax  found  arrears  of  nine  years  which  he  could  not  pay  (Capit.,  Vert.,  9). 

^  Colossal  marble  bust,  found  at  Pozzuoli.     (Museo  Campana.     H.  d'Escamps,  op.  dt.. 
No.  102.) 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180    TO    211    A.D.       31 

talents  do  not,  however,  appear  to  have  been  remarkable,  and  this 
rapid  advancement  proves  only  that  the  road  to  honour  was  open 
to  all  who  knew  how  to  pursue  it. 

He  had  not  seen  Rome  since  his  appointment  to  the  senate. 
When  he  returned  thither  he  was  re- 
proached with  having  gained  great  wealth 
in  his  various  employs.  He  had  not 
conceived  it  his  duty  to  ruin  himself 
in  the  public  service,  and  a  strict  economy 

"^  Coiu  of  Pertinax/ 

had   doubtless   sumced  to   bring    him   to 

fortune.^  We  may  mention  two  facts  to  his  honour:  he  kept  his 
mother  with  him  in  his  various  promotions,  and  on  erecting  some 
fine  buildings  in  his  native  city,  he  had  the  shop  of  his  father, 
the  charcoal  dealer,  inclosed  within  one  of  them. 

*  Perennis  caused  him  to  be  sent  into  exile;  but  Commodus  on 
that  prefect's    death    recalled   Pertinax    and    put 

him  at  the  head  of  the  turbulent  legions  of 
Britain.  Later  the  emperor  appointed  him  to 
watch  over  the  provisioning  of  the  city,  prcefectus 
frumenti  dandt,  gave  him  the  proconsulship  of 
Africa,'^  and,  as  the  highest  honour,  the  prefectui*e 
of  the  city.     By  nature  he  was  honest,  destitute         .^    .      ,      , 

•^  "^  '^  rertinax  laurel- 

of  ambitions,  and  somewhat  penurious,  as  is  the       crowned.    (Great 
case   with   those   who   have   made   their    fortunes 
slowly;  but  he  was  devoted  to  the  public  welfare,  and  would  have 
been  one  of  the  best  of  rulers   if   he   had  been  allowed  to  live,  or 
if  he  had  known  how  to  defend  himself. 

The  imperial  power  alarmed  him,  he  had  no  relish  for  it.*  In 
the  senate  he  offered  the  Empire  to  Pompeianus,  who  had  been 
the  patron  of   his  early  years  ;^    and  to  Glabrio,  who  was  reputed 

'  IMP.  CiES.  P.  HELV.  PERTIN.  AVG.  LaureUed  bead.  On  the  reverse :  AEQVIT. 
AVG.  TR.  P.  COS.  II.     Equity  standing,  holding  a  balance  and  a  cornucopia.     Gold  coin. 

■^  Herodian  (ii.  3)  says  that  he  was  poor.  His  mother  died  while  with  him  in  Lower 
Germany,  where  her  tomb  was  long  to  be  seen,     {\j6on  Renier,  M^L  d'ipigr.j  p.  272.) 

^  In  this  province  he  had,  according  to  Capitolinus  (4),  to  repress  many  seditions  caused 
vaticinationibus  earum  qiuB  de  templo  C<elestis  emergunt. 

*  Honniiase  ilium  imperium  epistola  docet.  Capitolinus,  who  speaks  of  this  letter,  unfor- 
tunately does  not  give  it  to  us,  the  more  so,  because  Julian  in  The  Casars  accuses  Pertinax  of 
having  been  "  the  accomplice,  at  least  in  thought,  in  the  conspiracy  whereby  the  son  of  Marcus 
perished." 

*  In  respect  to  Pompeianus,  cf.  L.  Renier,  Ittscr.  de  Troesmisy  p.  5. 


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32  THE    AFRICAN   AND    SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

to  be  the  descendant  of  JEneas ;  but  these  men  were  wise 
enough  to  decline  the  burdens  and  the  perils.  A  few  days  later 
another  senator  venturing  into  the  midst  of  the  praetorians,  the 
soldiers  wished  to  make  him  emperor.  Scarcely  escaping  from  their 
hands,  his  toga  torn ,  to  rags,  he  sheltered  himself  in  the  palace  of 
Pertinax,  and  more  surely  to  escape  the  imperial  power  fled  from 
the  city.  Disinterestedness  like  this  reveals  a  situation  full  of 
anxiety. 

Pertinax  refused  for  his  wife  the  title  of  Augusta  and  that 
of  CsBsar  for  his  son.  "  When  he  has  deserved  it,"  the  father  said, 
"it  will  be  time  enough  to  give  it  to  him."^  All  his  own  relations 
and  servants  remained  in  their  humble  condition ;  he  gave  up  his 
own  property  to  them,  and  remained  simple  in  his  habits  of  life. 
At  news  of  his  accession  his  compatriots  from  the  Ligurian  moun- 
tains, a  rapacious  race,  hastened  to  Rome  in  crowds  to  draw  ppofit 
from  this  fortune;  but  Pertinax  sent  them  away  as  they  came. 
He  had  the  same  duty  to  fulfil  that  had  devolved  upon  Vespasian, 
.namely,  to  restore  order  in  the  State,  in  the  magistracies  which 
had  suffered  from  so  many  arbitrary  appointments,^  in  the  finances 
ruined  by  mad  prodigality — in  the  treasury  he  had  found  only 
1,000,000  sesterces.'  To  procure  the  money  which  the  soldiers  and 
the  people  needed  he  sold  his  predecessor's  favourites  at  auction, 
the  accomplices  or  the  victims  of  his  debauchery,  quite  a  harem ; 
also  the  weapons  of  Commodus,  his  garments  of  silk  and  gold,  his 
valuable  furniture,  and  a  thousand  curiosities,  among  which  we 
note  carnages  with  a  movable  seat  which  turned  easily  in  all 
directions,  and  also  marked  the  hour  and  the  distance  passed  over. 
Pertinax  confiscated  the  property  of  the  buffoons,  made  the  freed- 
men  disgorge  their  ill-gotten  gains,  and  drove  out  of  the  palace  all 
useless  persons.  The  parasites  who,  under  Commodus,  lived  at  the 
emperor's   table   were  bitterly  exasperated  at  what  they  called  the 

*  At  Metz  an  inscription  has  been  found  giving  the  title  of  Augusta  to  the  emperor's 
mother  and  that  of  CsBsar  to  his  son.  (Renier,  MSI.  cCSpigr.)  These  provincials  believed  that 
things  had  gone  on  as  usual  at  Rome,  and  allowed  themselves  a  flattery  which  they  were  sure 
would  not  be  displeasing.  Inscriptions  bearing  the  name  even  of  Pertinax  are  rare.  One  has 
lately  been  discovered  in  Africa :  Divo  Helvio  Pertinaci ;  it  belongs  to  the  time  when  Severus 
colled  hia  ffither :  LHvo  Pertinaci  Aufftisti  patri.  • 

^  Under  Commodus  many  had  been  adlecti  inter  prtstorios.  He  obliged  them  to  take  rank 
after  those  who  had  really  acted  as  praetors.  (Capit.,  Pert,  6.)  He  doubtless  made  the  same 
regulation  in  respect  to  the  other  magistracies,  thus  restoring  order  in  the  senate. 


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COMMODXTS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO   211    A.D.       33 

meanness  of  the  new  emperor,  and  slandered  him  incessantly.  So 
immense  were  the  resources  of  the  Empire  at  this  time,  that  less 
than  three  months  of  strict  and  economical  administration  enabled 
Pertinax  to  fulfil  half  of  his  promises  to  the  praetorians,*  to  pay 
many  public  debts,  and  resume  the  works  of  public  utility  which 
had  been  suspended  under  Commodus.  He  suppressed  many  of  the 
hindrances  to  commerce;  he  exempted  from  taxes  for  ten  years 
those  who  should  cultivate  the  deserted  lands  of  Italy,  and  restored 
security  by  the  rehabilitation  of  the  victims  of  Commodus,  the 
recall  of  exiles,  the  condemnation  of  informers,  and  the  protection 
accorded  to  citizens  against  the  insolence  of  the  soldiery. 

But  this  order,  this  economy,  suited  neither  the  praetorians  nor 
the  populace.  Pertinax  had  ventured  to  forbid  the  former  to  cany 
weapons  in  the  streets,'^  or  to  be  insolent  towards  passers-by,  and 
had  said  to  them:  '^Many  disorders  have  appeared  in  our  age,  with 
your  aid  I  propose  to  correct  them;"  and  his  first  pass- word  had 
been :  militemus^  '^  let  us  be  soldiers."  In  these  words  the  soldiery 
had  discerned  an  intention  to  bring  them  back  to  the  early  discipline 
and  to  warlike  duties.  In  the  case  of  the  populace,  Pertinax  had 
suppressed  the  distribution  of  com  to  children  from  nine  years  old, 
a  measure  introduced  by  Trajan.  Lastly,  he  showed  himself  dis- 
inclined to  be  guided  by  Leetus,  who  regarded  this  distrust  as  a 
presage  of  disgrace,  and  from  that  time  began  intrigues  among  the 
praetorian  cohorts.  A  conspiracy  was  originated,  or  at  least,  Falco, 
an  ex-consul,  was  accused  of  aspiring  to  the  Empire ;  the  senate 
was  about  to  condemn  him  when  Pertinax  interposed  and  swore 
that  no  senator  should  be  put  to  death  during  his  reign.  A  slave 
having  accused  many  praetorians  of  complicity  in  the  designs  of 
Falco,  Laetus  caused  them  to  be  put  to  death,  throwing  upon  the 
prince  the  odium  of  the  execution.  Being  ill-paid  and  feeling 
themselves  objects  of  suspicion,  they  resolved  to  rid  themselves  of  a 
parsimonious  emperor  and  of  all  anxiety  for  their  own  lives.  Three 
hundred  repaii'ed  in  arms  to  the  palace ;  there  were  guards  enough 
there  to  drive  back  this  handful  of  insurgents;  but  all  the  ser- 
vants of  the  palace,  whom  Dion  calls  the  Caesarians,  ruined  by  the 
economy  of  their  master,  opened  the  gates  to  the  assassins.    Pertinax 

*  Promint  duodena  millia  nummum,  fed  dedit  $ena  (Capit.,  Pert.^  16). 
^  ,  ,  ,  .  fiijTt  vfXUitc  ^'rpav  fiird  x'^P^C  (Herod.,  ii.  4). 

Vr)L.   VI.  D 


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34  THE   AFRICAN   AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

believed  that  he  could  stop  them  by  going  out  to  meet  them 
unarmed.  The  sight  of  the  emperor  did  indeed  produce  an  effect 
upon  them.  Many  of  them  had  already  sheathed  their  swords, 
when  a  Tongrian  soldier  rushed  upon  the  emperor  and  wounded 
him.  Immediately  all  hesitation  was  at  an  end;  all  struck  at  him, 
and  his  head,  borne  on  a  spear,  was  carried  out  to  the  preBtorian 
camp.     He  had  reigned  eighty-seven  days  (28th  of  March,  193). 

There  was  in  Eome  at  this  time  a  senator  by  name  Julianus,^ 
of  great  wealth   and   noble    lineage,   for    he    was    descended    from 

Hadrian's  great  juiisconsult,  and  had 
been  brought  up  in  the  household  of 
Domitia  Lucilla,  the  mother  of  Marcus 
Aurelius.  He  was  a  man  of  small 
,  mind  and  puerile  vanity,  to  whom  life 
had  taught  nothing.  He  filled  how- 
ever not  discreditably  the  highest  offices 
in  the  State,  governed  many  provinces, 
defeated  some  German  tribes,  and  at  a 
time  of  life  which  should  have  been  for 
him  the  age  of  wisdom,  sixty  years, 
suffered  himself  to  be  dragged  to  the 
abyss  by  the  ambition  of  his  wife,  the 
haughty  Manlia  Scantilla,  who  was  eager 

Wife'^of  DraSuJianu^.'  *<>  Change  her    husband's    laticlave   for 

the  imperial  purple. 

Although  the  Empire  had  been  often  bought,  it  had  not  as 
yet  been  publicly  put  up  at  auction:  Eome  was  now  about  to 
witness  this  disgrace.  To  tranquillize  the  praetorians,  Pertinax  had 
sent  out  to  their  camp  his  father-in-law  Sulpicianus,  who  was  the 
prefect  of  Rome.  This  senator  again  was  one  of  those  common- 
place persons  who,  ignoring  the  obligations  of  power,  see  only  its 
glitter.  When  the  head  of  Pertinax  was  shown  to  him,  he  pro- 
posed instantly  to  buy  of  the  murderers  the  imperial  purple  which 
had  just  been  dipped  in  the  blood  of  his  son-in-law.  The  rumour 
of  this  spread  quickly,  and  Julianus  hastened  to  enter  the  lists 
as  his  rival.      Then  began   a   scene  without  name,   and  fortunately 

'  Marcus  Didius  Severus  Julianus.     (C.  /.  i.,  vol.  vi.  No.  1,401.) 
"  Bust  in  the  Capitol,  Hall  of  the  Emperors,  No.  47. 


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COMMODUS,    PEUTINAX,    DIDIU8   JULIANU8,    ETC.,    180   TO    211    A.D.       35 

without  parallel.  Julianas  was  on  the  top  of  the  wall  and  Sulpicianus 
was  in  the  camp;  and  the  two  bid  against  each  other.  Messengers 
passed  between  the  two,  saying :  "He  offers  so  much ;  what  will 
you  give?"  And,  "The  other  goes  higher;  will  you  go  higher 
still?"  They  went  as  far  as  5,000  drachmsB,  or  20,000  sesterces, 
and  the  offers  being  equal,  the  soldier  hesitated,  sure  to  get  more 
in  the  end  for  his  commodity;  finally,  Julianus  routed  his  adver- 
sary by  a  bold  advance  of  1,250  drachmae.  He  cried  the  sum 
from  the  top  of  the  wall;  he  counted  it  on  his  fingers,  that  those 
who  could  not  hear  might  see,  and  he  threw  down  to  them  his 
tablets  on  which  he  had  written  that  he  would  rehabilitate  the 
memory  of  Commodus,  while  Pertinax  would  unquestionably  be 
avenged  by  Sulpicianus.  The  latter  dared  not  go  further.  Each 
pr«torian  was  therefore  to  receive  by  this  bargain  about  £250. 
"  There  had  been  a  time  when  the  senate  had  proclaimed  the  sale 
of  a  piece  of  ground  which  was  part  of  the  territory  of  the  State: 
it  was  the  field  whereon  Hannibal  was  encamped."  ^  We  may 
well  find  this  scene  disgraceful;  but  we  must  admit  that  the 
donativumy  whose  origin  we  have  seen,  was  a  practice  from  which 
no  emperor  could  escape.  The  odious  feature  is  not  the  sum,  but 
the  auction.  Marcus  Aurelius  gave  almost  as  much,^  and  among 
nations  who  are  very  free,  who  are  even  very  proud,  men  buy  a 
portion  of  power,  if  not  from  the  praetorians — who,  happily,  no 
longer  exist:^ — at  least  from  the  electors. 

The  decision  being  made,  the  soldiers  brought  a  ladder  so  that 
the  purchaser  might  come  down  inside  the  camp  and  receive  the 
oaths  of  his  new  guards  and  also  the  imperial  insignia.  They 
caused  him  to  appoint  two  praetorian  prefects  chosen  by  them- 
selves, after  which  they  opened  the  gates,  and  with  standards 
displayed  and  in  order  of  battle  conducted  their  new  leader  to  the 
senate,  whom  they  presented  under  the  name  of  evil  omen,  Com-' 
modus.  They  took  the  precaution,  however,  to  make  him  swear 
that  he  woidd  bear  no  ill-will  towards  his  competitor.  It  was 
wise  not  to  discourage  those  who  might  be  tempted  to  renew  this 
shameful  traffic. 

^  Chateaubriand,  Etudes  historiqties. 

*  Twenty  thousand  sesterces.    See  vol.  v.  p.  109,  and  for  the  value  of  the  sesterce,  voP.  iv. 
p.  790,  n.  4.    Now  the  1,250  drachmae  of  Julittnus  are  only  5,000  sesterces  more. 

d2 


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36  THE    AFRICAN    AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

Ijlany  senators  trembled,  among  others  our  historian  Dion,  Avho 
had  often  had  occasion  to  sue  Julianus  in  court.  They  loved 
Pertinax  and  considered  his  successor  ridiculous.  They  were  also 
shocked  at  the  bargain  which  had  just  been  concluded.  But  all 
the  approaches  to  the  curia,  and  even  the  senate-house  itself,  were 
filled  with  soldiers.  The  senators  hastened  to  welcome  the  new 
emperor,  to  admire  his  foolish  speeches,  and  to  lavish  upon  him 
the  wonted  acclamations.  Julianus  finally  went  up  to  the  palace ; 
there  finding  the  supper  which  had  been  made  ready  for  Pertinax, 
he  ridiculed  the  simplicity  of  the  repast,  ordered  another  to  be 
prepared,,  and  played  with  dice  within  a  few  steps  of  the  spot 
where  lay  the  dead  body  of  his  predecessor;^  but,  from  the 
came  to  him  the  terrible  cares  of  a  disputed  authority, 
and  but  a  few  days  later  the  anguish  of  a  near 
and  inevitable  death. 

He  had  made  no  promises  to  the  people,  who 
were  wounded  in  their   dignity   by   this  offensive 
neglect.      When    he    presented    himself    on    the 
following    day   in   the   curia,   the    crowd  received 
Keverse  of  a  Coin  of  him  with  loud  outcrics.   Calling   him   usurper   and 

Julianus  bearing  the 

l^efrexidiRector orbiM.  parricidc.      He   took   matters    easily   at    first,    and 
age    ronze.  assurcd    them    that    he   would   give   them  monej. 

"We  will  have  none,"  they  cried,  filled  with  unwonted  dis- 
interestedness, ^'  we  will  not  accept  it."  Upon  this  he  ordered, 
the  troops  to  disperse  them,  and  many  were  wounded;  the  others 
fled  and  took  refuge  in  the  circus.  Dion  asserts  that  they  remained 
there  all  night  and  through  the  following  day,  invoking  the  gods, 
and — which  would  have  been  more  useful — the  military  leaders, 
especially  Pescennius  Niger,  or  the  Black,  who  was  at  this  time 
far  away  in  Syria.  They  were  let  alone,  and  the  feeble  riot 
subsided. 

Meanwhile  the  imperial  mint  coined  money  representing  the 
new  ruler  with  a  laurel  wreath  and  the  lying  inscription :  Rector 
orbis^  while  others  had  the  legend :  Concordia  militaris ;  but,  of 
the  world,  all  that  Julianus  possessed  was  merely  the  space  on 
which  stood  the  palace  in  which  he  had  just  taken  up  his  residence, 

*  Spartian  represents  him  as  frugal  and  thoughtful,  but  at  the  end  of  his  account  speals 
otherwise.     IleroJian  confirms  Dion,  whom  he  often  copies. 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS    JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180    TO    211    A.D.       37 

and   the   military   concord   existed   only   against   him.     The   legions 
of   the   frontiers   had  just  obtained  the  idea  of  what 
was  meant   by  the  election  of  an  emperor,  and  they 
did  not   propose   to   leave   to   the    praetorians   all   the 
advantages   of    this    profitable    traffic.      Very    strong 
armies,    each    consisting    of    three    legions,    occupied 
Britain,  Upper  Pannonia,^  and  Syria,  under  the  famous     (^^ricordmmiU- 
generals    Albinus,    Sevei-us,    and    Pescennius     Niger. 
When  news  came  that  within  three  months  two  emperors  had  been 
assassinated    and    that   a   third   had   bought    the 
Empii-e,  there  was  a  general  movement  of  disgust 
towards   the   senate   who   had   accepted    all    this. 
This    feeling    showed     itself     especially    in    the 
camps  of  the  Danube,  where  Pertinax  had  com- 
manded and  had  left  an  honourable  memory. 

Then  recurred   the   scenes    that    had    taken       Concordia  militarist 

(Keverse  of  a 

place  on  the  death  of  Nero.     Two  of  the  armies.    Large  Bronze  of  Didius, 
those   of   Pannonia    and   Syria,    proclaimed    their 
generals  (April,    193),    and   the   third  would  have   done   the   same 
had  not  Severus  skilfully  negotiated  with  Albinus. 
At  the   same  time   that   Severus    made    sure  of 
the  neutrality  of  the  army  in  Britain  he   gained 
the    assistance    of    the    legions    adjacent    to  his 
command,    so    that    in    a    few    days    he    found 
himself    possessor    of    nearly    half    the    military 
strength   of   the   Empire.^     His   cause,    therefore,    Didius  JuHanus,  laurel- 
was   already  gained  when  he  set  out  for  Eome,      ^°^"    ..  (  lonze. 
preceded  by   the   declaration   that   he   was   coming   to   avenge  Per- 
tinax.^     Secret    emissaries    had   withdrawn    his    children  from   the 

*  Spartian  (Sev.,  4),  Herodian  (ii.  33),  and  Borgliesi  (CEuvres  comply  v.  p.  368),  represent 
Severus  as  governor  of  both  Pannonias ;  but  Dion,  who  commanded  in  Upper  Pannonia,  gives 
him  only  this  province  and  speaks  of  but  three  legions  as  under  his  orders.  If  he  had  had  the 
two  Pannonias  he  would  have  had  four  legions. 

'  CONCORD.  MILIT.  Concord  standing  between  two  standards.  Reverse  of  a  gold  coin 
of  Didius  Julianus. 

^  "The  fourteen  legions  who  proclaimed  Septimius Severus,  and  to  whom  the  new  Augustus 
gave  the  donativum,  were  the  ten  legions  guarding  the  Danube  and  the  four  legions  on  the 
Rhine.'*  (Robert,  les  Legions  du  Ehin,  p.  46.)  M.  de  Celeuneer,  Essai  sur  la  vie  de  Severe^ 
counts  sixteen  legions.  Spartian  says  (Sev.j  5)  that  it  was' necessary  to  urge  Severus,  rejmgnans: 
He  doubtless  borrowed  this  woi-d  from  the  emperor's  autobiography. 

*  .  .  .  .  c.rcipiebatur  ab  omnibus  quasi  ultor   Vertinacis   (Spart.,   ibid.,  5;    cf.   Herod.,  ii. 


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38  THE   AFRICAN   ANli   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235   A.D. 

city  before  tbe  news  of  his  elevation  to  the  imperial  power  could 
reach  there. 

Julianus  caused  him  to  be  declared  a  public  enemy  by  the 
senate,  and  at  once  began  his  preparations;  labourers  were  set  at 
work  digging  a  moat  around  the  city;  the  gladiators  from  Capua 
were  called  in,  mere  bandits  on  whom  no  reliance  could  be  placed; 


Pescennius  Niger.     (Bust  of  the  Vatican,  HaU  of  Busts,  No.  292.) 

the  soldiers  from  the  fleet  at  Misenum  were  sent  for,  who  made 
themselves  ridiculous  by  their  awkwardness  in  handling  the  javelin ; 
and  the  elephants  of  the  circus  were  armed  for  war,  but  very 
unsuccessfully,  as  they  threw  off  the  towers  which  were  placed  on 
their  backs.  Julianus  even  caused  the  palace  to  be  barricaded,  in 
sign  of  the  desperate  resistance  he  would  make  to  the  enemy  even 
after  an  entrance  had  been  effected  into  the  city.  The  pra3torians 
ought  to  have  set  him  the  example,  but  they  were  rich,  habituated 

9, 10).  He  even  assumed  the  name  of  Pertinax,  which  we  find  on  many  of  his  inscriptions, 
Cf .  L.  Ronier,  Milant/es  d'cpirfr.,  pp.  180  e^  seq. 


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C0MM0DU8,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO   211    A.D.       39 

to  an  indolent   life,   and   to   pay  for   having  their   tasks    done   for 
them,  while  they  insulted  the  people,  whose  terror  they  were.^     As 
a  pledge  of  the  maintenance  of  his  alliance  with  them,  Julianas  put 
to  death  LsBtus  and  Marcia,  the  murderers  of  Commodus.     At  the 
same  time  he  consulted  the  magicians,  sacrificed  children  as  victims, 
and   despatched   assassins  to  Severus^  and  senators  to  entice  away 
his  troops,  and  the  praetorian  prefect  to  defend  Ravenna,  the  out- 
post where  the  fleet   of   the   Adriatic  was  stationed.     But  Severus 
was  on  his  guard,  and  advanced  rapidly.     Proclaimed  at  Carnuntum 
(near  Vienna)  on  the  13th  of  April,  he  was  obliged  to  employ  ten 
or  twelve  days  in  negotiating  with  the  legions  of  Upper  Germany 
and  in  putting  his  army  in  motion.      However,  he  arrived  in  the 
neighbourhood   of   the   capital   before   the  1st  of  June,  so  that  his 
troops   must  have    made  from  Vienna   to 
Rome  in  less  than  seven  weeks,  a  distance 
of  266  leagues,  or  six  leagues  and  a  half 
on    each    day's    march  without    intermis- 
sion.      This  rapid   march   of   a   numerous 

.11  1  .  .1  1  Coin  of  Didius  Juliauus.^ 

army   unexpectedly   advancing   through    a 

country  proves  the  abundance  of  provisions  that  agriculture  and 
commerce  could  bring  together  at  a  moment's  notice ;  it  proves 
also  the  good  condition  of  the  roads  and  the  subjection  of  the 
provinces,  that  is  to  say,  the  prosperity  and  calm  of  the  Empire 
during  the  storms  of  Rome.  Still  further,  it  shows  the  admirable 
discipline  in  which  Severus  held  his  legions,  that  he  could  lay 
upon  them  such  fatigues  without  exciting  a  murmur  of  dis- 
content. 

This  rapidity  check-mated  all  resistance.  Severus  crossed  the 
Alps,  the  Adige,  and  the  Po,  without  meeting  any  opposition,  and 
entered  Ravenna  before  the  arrival  in  that  city  of  the  prefect  who 
had  been  sent  from  Rome.  Thus  Julianus  saw  the  narrow  limits 
growing  even  narrower  in  which  it  was  permitted  to  him  to  live 
and  reign. 

The  last  news  overwhelmed  him.    Anxious,  irresolute,  he  sought 

•  Dion,  Ixxiii.  16 ;  Spart.,  Did.  Jul.,  5. 

- .  .  .  .  Aquilium  centurionem  notum  eadibtis  ducum  miserat  (Spart.,  Pescenn.  Nig,,  2). 
MMP.  C.ES.  M.  DID.  IVLIAN.  AVG.    Laurelled  head.    On  the  reverse:  REOTOR 
ORBIS.    Julianus  standing,  holding  a  globe.    Gold  coin. 


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40       THE  AFRICAN  AND  SYRIAN  PRINCES,  180  TO  235  A.D. 

advice,  but  the  senate  would  give  none;  he  offered  the  Empire  to 
Pompeianus,  who  replied:  "I  am  too  old,  and  my  sight  is  too 
weak."     Eeduced  to  the  miserable  hope  of  conciliating  his  formid- 


Septimiue  Severufl.* 

able  adversary  by  begging  for  his  life  and  a  share  of  the  power, 
he  formed  the  idea,  like  Vitellius,  of  sending  the  Vestals  to  meet 
Severus  and  naming  him  at  once  his  colleague.'^ 

The  Conscript  Fathers  hastened  this  time  to  defer  to  his  wish, 

^  Bust  of  marble  with  alabaster  chlamys  found  at  Rome  under  the  church  of  S.  Francis  of 
Assisi.     (Capitol,  Hall  of  the  Emperors,  No.  50.) 

■^  He  also  bestowed  all  honours  upon  the  maternal  grandfather  of  Severus.  (Dion,  Ixxiii.  17.) 


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llisUirv  of  Rome. 


I  1 


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C0MM0DU8,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO    211    A.D.      41 

and  he  sent  to  the  new  Augustus  the  senate's  decree  by  the  hand 
of  one  of  the  praetorian  prefects,  who  was  suspected  of  meditating 
assassination  under  a  show  of  friendliness.  But  the  decree  was 
scornfully  rejected  and  the  bearer  of  it  put  to  death. 

Meanwhile,  to  avoid  making  Kome  the  scene  of  a  sanguinary 
conflict,  as  in  the  time  of  Vespasian,  Severus  prepared  a  movement 
there  in  his  favouiC  He  wrote  to  the  magistrates ;  he  sent  edicts 
which  were  publicly  posted;  he  named  a  prefect  of  the  praetorian 
guard  whom  the  trembling  Julianus  acknowledged;  and  he  made 
known  to  the  praDtorians  that  he  would  pardon  them  if  they  would 
suiTcnder  the  murderers  of  Pertinax.  As  base  as  their  emperor, 
the  guards  at  once  seized  the  300  and  came  to  tell  the  consul 
Messala  that  their  commdes  were  in  chains.  This  was  the  end. 
''Immediately,"  says  Dion  Cassius,  *' Messala  called  us  together  and 
made  known  to  us  what  the  soldiers  had  done ;  upon  which  we 
decreed  the  death  of  Julianus  and  gave  the  imperial  power  to 
Severus  and  divine  honour  to  Pertinax."  Julianus  was  killed  in 
his  bed,  saying  only:  *'What  wrong  have  I  committed?"  (2nd 
June,  193).  He  had  held  the  Empire  sixty-six  days,^  and  did  not 
deserve  to  retain  it  longer.  It  was  already  too  much  that  he 
should  have  had  the  right  to  inscribe  his  name  on  the  list  of 
emperors.  History  must  in  its  turn  execute  justice  upon  these 
adventurers  who  wish  for  power  only  that  they  may  enjoy  it; 
ambition  without  talents  is  a  crime. 


III. — Severus;    Wars  against  Albinus,  Niger,  and  the 

Parthians. 

Once  more  we  have  a  real  man  upon  the  imperial  throne;  but, 
harsh  to  others  and  to  himself,  he  will  make  good  his  name  by  his 
inexorable  sternness,  an  administrator  of  justice  after  the  fashion  of 
Tiberius  and  Louis  XI. 

Since  the  extinction  of  the  family  of  the  Caesars  we  have  seen 
upon  the  throne  Italian,  Spanish,  and  Gallic  emperors ;  at  last  comes 
the   turn  of  the  African.      Lucius  Septimius  Sevenis  was   bom  at 

*  Dion,  Ixxii.  17.  Zonaras  (xii.  7)  says  sixty.  Aurelius  Victor,  Eutropius,  and  the 
Chronicle  of  Eusebius,  represent  him  as  killed  in  battle  at  the  Milvian  bridge,  which  proves 
great  lack  of  the  critical  faculty  on  the  part  of  these  historians. 


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42  THE   AFRICAN   AND    SYRIAN    PKINCLS,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

Leptis,  April  11th,  146,  in  a  family  which  had  long  been  decorated 
with  the  laticlave,  though  without  abandoning  the  province  where 
lay    their    property    and    their    influence   and   where   their   renown 

had  begun.  One  of  its 
members,  however,  had 
acquired  notoriety 
enough  at  Kome  in  the 
time  of  Domitian  to  be 
celebrated  by  Statins  in 
his  verses.^  But  this 
Severus,  quite  another 
man  from  ours,  is  called 
by  the  poet  ''the  gentle 
Septimius."  Until  his 
fourteenth  year  the 
future  emperor  remained 
in  Africa,  studying 
Greek  and  Latin  litera- 
ture without  forgetting 
his  native  speech,  whose 
accent  he  retained 
through  life,  so  that 
Kome  was  about  to  have 
an  emperor  speaking  the 
language  of  Hannibal.*^ 
Of  this  he  was  not  at 
all  ashamed ;   the  great 

Septimius  Severus  in  Cuirass.     (Statue  in  the  Museum  of      Carthaginian       WaS      his 

hero,  and  he  erected  a 
marble  statue  in  honour  of  him.  Very  credulous,  like  all  his 
contemporaries,  in  the  matter  of  presages,  he  was  also  very  resolute 
to  put  himself  in  a  condition  to  respond  to  the  advances  of  for- 
tune,^ which  is  the  best  way  of  making  dreams  come  true. 

^  Silv.,  iv.  5. 

^  Tzetzes,  CAtV.,  i.  27.  The  emperor's  sister  could  with  difficulty  speak  the  Latin  language, 
viz-  latine  loquens  (Sparl.,  Sev.,  15),  and  his  son  Oaracalla  caused  many  pictures  of  Hannibal  to 
be  made.     (Herod.,  iv.  8.) 

'  Chnnibus  sortibus  nactus  (Spart.,  Sev.y  2),  he  was  accused  during  the  reign  of  Commodus 
of  having  consulted  the  Chaldaeans  to  know  whether  he  should  succeed  to  the  Empire.   {Ibid.f  4.) 


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COMMODUS,    PEHTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANU8,    ETC.,    180   TO    211    A.D.      43 

At  Rome  he  studied  law  under  an  eminent  jurisconsult,  Q. 
SceBVola.  The  gravity  of  his  character  appeared  in  the  affection 
he  conceived  while  attending  this  famous  school  for  a  fellow- 
student,  who  was  destined  later  to  eclipse  the  master.  The  tie  of 
friendship  was  lifelong,  and  Papinian's  friendship  protects,  in  our 
minds,  the  memory  of  Severus.  Three  of  his  uncles  had  been 
consuls,  and  one  of  them  obtained  for  the  young  man  the  office  of 
quasstor  and  so  an  entrance  into  the  senate  (172).  The  career 
of  public  honours  was  thus  opened  to  him  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
seven;  but  we  shall  not  follow  him  in  it;  this  cursus  honorum  is 
already  familiar  to  us,  and  we  are  interested  only  in  the  ruler.  We 
need  only  nbtico  that  in  189  he  was  consul  suffectm  under  Commodus. 

While  Julianus  was  dying  in  Rome  Severus  was  approaching 
the  city.  The  senate  sent  out  a  hundred  of  its  members  to  meet 
him  at  Interamna,  twenty  leagues  from  Rome,  and  renew  to  him 
their  oaths  of  fidelity. 

He  received  them  surrounded  by  600  of  his .  most  faithful 
troops,  who  had  the  duty  of  keeping  watch  upon  suspicious  persons. 
Introduced  into  the  centre  of  this  menacing  band,  the  deputies 
were  obliged  to  submit  to  search  that  it  might  be  made  sure  that 
they  had  no  weapons.  After  this  affront  it  is  true  that  each  of 
them  received  a  present  of  eighty  pieces  of  gold  (nearly  £80), 
but  this  first  interview  between  the  senate  and  the  emperor  did 
not  inaugurate  a  reign  of  mutual  confidence;  and  it  will  be  shown 
that  the  rivals  of  Septimius  always  found  partisans  among  the 
Conscript  Fathers. 

The  murderers  of  Pertinax  had  been  already  beheaded;  the 
other  praetorians  Septimius  ordered  to  come  and  meet  him  at  a 
designated  place,  where  the  legions  of  lUyria  silently  surrounded 
them,  while  another  band  went  by  unfrequented  roads  to  take 
possession  of  the  real  citadel  of  imperial  Rome,  their  entrenched 
camp  between  the  Viminal  and  Colline  gates.  When  secure  of 
having  them  at  his  mercy,  he  ascends  his  tribunal ;  he  reproaches 
them  angrily  for  their  perfidy  towards  the  late  emperor,  then  orders 
them  to  lay  down  their  arms^  and  accoutrements,  even  to  their 
military  belts.     These   useless   soldiers,  just  now   so   vain  in   their 

*  That  is  to  say,  the  short  sword  which  they  wore  at  the  right  side;  their  fighting  arms 
they  had  left  in  the  camp,  in  the  armamentarium. 


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44  THE   AFRICAN    AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

splendid  array,  who  had  so  often  brought  terror  to  emperor  and 
senate  and  people,  were  thus  conquered  without  the  striking  of  a 
blow.  Degraded  amidst  the  derision  of  the  legionaries,  mocked  by 
the  people,  who  saw  these  formidable  giant-killei's  reduced  to  their 
mere  tunics,  they  escaped  as  best  they  could  to  places  of  refuge ; 
penalty  of  death  was  pronounced  against  any  who,  after  a  certain 
number  of  days,  should  be  found  within  the  hundredth  mile^stone 
from  Kome ;   and  some  took  their  own  lives  from  shame. 

The  praetorian  cohorts  were  disbanded.  But  Severus  quickly 
reconstituted  them  out  of  different  material.  Up  to  his  time  they 
had  been  recruited  chiefly  from  Italy ;  ^  he  decreed  that,  as  a 
reward  for  military  services,  picked  men  from  all  the  legions 
should  be  enrolled  there.  This  was  a  wise  measure;  the  guards 
of  modem  sovereigns  are  thus  composed.  Since,  for  more  than  a 
century,  the  provinces  had  given  emperors  to  Rome,  it  was  natuml 
that  they  should  also  furnish  praetorians.  Severus  employed  the 
new  cohorts  in  all  his  wars,  but  he  left  them  the  character  of  a 
permanent  garrison  of  Rome,  and  so  the  danger  remained  the  same. 
We  shall  see  whether  he  augmented  it,  indeed,  by  mising  the 
number  of  the  prsetorians  to  40,000. 

*'At  the  city^s  gates,''  says  Dion  Cassius,  "Severus  dismounted 
from  his  horse,  and  laid  aside  his  military  dress  before  entering 
Rome;  but  his  whole  army  followed  him  into  the  city.  It  was 
the  most  imposing  sight  I  ever  saw.  Throughout  the  city  were 
garlands  of  flowers  and  laurel-wreaths;  the  houses,  adorned  with 
hangings  of  different  colours,  were  resplendent  with  the  fire  of 
sacrifices  and  the  light  of  torches.  The  citizens,  clad  in  white, 
filled  the  air  with  acclamations,  and  the  soldiers  advanced  in 
martial  order,  as  if  at  a  triumph.  We  senators  headed  the  pro- 
cession, wearing  the  insignia  of  our  rank.''^ 

Meanwhile  emissaries  of  the  new  ruler,  scattered  through  the 
crowd,  related  all  the  signs  that  had  been  given  him  of  his 
approaching  honours.  Soldiers  are  fatalists,  and  have  need  to  be 
so;    Severus  firmly  believed  in  presages,  but  he  especially  wished 

'  Also  they  were  drawn  from  Spain,  Macedonia,  and  Noricum.     (Dion,  Ixxiv.  2.) 

^  Dion,  Ixxiv.  1.     This  writer,  of  more  value  for  this  reign  than  for  those  preceding  it, 

id  now  our  principal  authority.     Gibbon  has  yielded  too  much  to  the  temptation  of  employing 

Herodian's  rhetoric  in  adoniing  his  history. 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAXj    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180    TO    211    A.D.       45 

men  to  believe  in  those  which  were  favourable  to  himself.  In  his 
Memoirs^  which  are  lost  to  us,  he  related  with  complacency  the 
celestial  signs,  the  dreams  and  oracles  which  had  predicted  his 
fortune,  and  he  caused  them  to  be  represented  in  pictures  which 
he  exhibited  in  Kome,  in  order  to  show  the  world  that  the  gods 
themselves  had  announced,  and  therefore  had  decreed,  the  advent 
of  the  ne.w  imperial  dynasty. 

Dion  is  right  in  representing  to  us  the  entry  of  Severus  into 
Eome   as   a   triumph.      It   was    in   fact    the   definitive  victory  and 
this    time    the   open    victory    of    the   military   power;    but    to   the 
honour  of  Severus  it  was  a  victory  unaccom- 
panied   by  tears.      Only   a    small    number  of 
guilty  persons  had  perished.^ 

The  character  of  the  new  reign  was  soon 
revealed.  Vainly  did  Severus  show  himself 
very  civil  towards  the  senate,^  declare  that  he 
should  take  Marcus  Aurelius  and  Pertinax  for 
his  examples,  and  solemnly  promise  that  he  Funeral  Pile  of  Pertinax. 
would   never  put   to   death   a   member  of  the  ^^^ 

high  assembly;  the  licence  of  the  soldiery  proved  what  these  words 
were  worth.  Feeling  that  they  were  the  victors  of  the  day,  they 
treated  Eome  like  a  conquered  city.  They  established  themselves 
in  the  temples  and  palaces  and  porticoes  as  if  they  were  taverns, 
took  whatever  they  wanted,  and  when  called  upon  for  payment, 
drew  their  swords.  While  Severus,  surrounded  by  his  armed 
friends,  was  haranguing  the  Conscript  Fathers  in  the  curia,  the 
soldiers  with  shouts  and  threats  came  to  demand  from  the  senate 
10,000  sesterces  apiece.  This  was  what  the  soldiers  of  Octavius 
received,  and  the  army  now  felt  that  they  had  won  a  second  battle 
of  Actium  and  merited  a  like  recompense.      Much  as  Severus  had 

*  Spartian  says  {Sev.y  8)  that  the  friends  of  Julianas,  accused  in  the  senate  by  Severus, 
were  despoiled  of  their  estates  and  put  to  death.  Dion  says  only  :  tov^  fikv  x^^ovpyncavrag  r6 
Kara  rbv  UfpripaKa  tpyov  Qavdrtfi  klriftmat  (Ixxiv.  1),  and  speaks  of  no  further  executions  until 
those  of  the  civil  war.  It  was  probably  at  that  time  that  the  senator  Julius  Solon  perished. 
(Ibid.,  2.) 

*  Civil  he  almost  always  was,  at  least  in  words.  In  the  case  of  a  relatio  which  he  made 
later  to  the  senate,  on  a  question  of  civil  law,  he  said  :  cui  rei  obviam  ibitWy  pnfres  co7iscnpti\ 
si censtteritis  {Fragm,  Vatic,  jur.  Rom.  of  Cardinal  Mai,  No.  158).  llubner  {d(>  Senatus popu- 
lique  Romani  actis,  pp.  75  et  seq.)  gives  the  chronological  list  of  the  emperor's  communicat  ions 
to  the  senate. 


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46  THE   AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

already    given   them/   he  was  with  great  difficulty  able  to  content 
them  with  1,000  sesterces  apiece. 

A  few  days  later  funeral  honoui^s  were  paid  to  Pertinax. 
Sevcrus  had  ordered  a  shrine  to  be  erected  to  his  predecessor, 
that  he  should  have  a  statue  of  gold  in  the  circus,  and  that  in  all 


Pertinax  Deified.' 

prayers  and  oaths  his  name  should  be  invoked.  In  the  forum  an 
edifice  was  constructed  with  a  peristyle  adorned  with  ivory  and 
gold,  in  which  was  placed  the  image  of  Pertinax  a^ayed  in 
triumphal  robes  on  a  couch  covered  with  tapestry  of  pui-ple  and 
gold.  As  if  he  had  only  been  asleep,  a  handsome  young  slave 
kept  away   the  flies  from  the  waxen  face  with  a  fan  of  peacock's 

*  Spart.,  Sev.,  5. 

'  Statue  in  Pentelic  marble,  on  which  the  antique  head  is  set  on.     (Museum  of  the  Louvre ; 
Clarac,  No.  466.) 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180    TO    211    A.D.       47 

feathers.  ''The  emperor  and  we,  the  senators,  with  our  wives,  all 
arrayed  in  mourning  garments,  seated  ourselves  around  this  build- 
ing, the  women  under  the  porticoes,  we  in  the  open  space,  and  the 
procession    began    to    move.      First    were    carried    the    figures    of 


Processiou  of  the  Knights  at  an  Emperor's  Funeral.' 

Romans  venerated  since  the  earliest  times ;  then  followed  choirs 
of  boys  and  men  singing  a  funeral  hymn;  then  bronze  busts 
representing  all  the  conquered  peoples  in  their  national  costumes. 
Then  were  borne  the  busts  of  those  who  had  distinguished  them- 
selves by  their  discoveries,  then  the  standards  of  corporations,^  the 

^  Bas-relief  from  the  Antonine  column,  representing  the  pi'ocession  of  the  knights  at  the 
funeral  of  Antoninus.     (Vatican.) 

^  .  .  .  .  dvdpijv  .  .  .  .  olg  ri  tpyop  fi  kui  i^tvprifia  ri  Kai  iwirridivfia  Xafinpov  int'jrpaKTO  .... 
Kai  rd  iv  ry  iroKu  (Tvarfifiara  (Dion,  Ixxiv.  4).  This  singular  passage  will  be  noticed,  and  the 
presence  in  this  procession  of'  corporations  or  trades ;  these  two  phrases  confirm  what  we  have 
said  of  the  importance  of  the  humble  trades  at  Rome.  In  the  triumphs  of  Gallienus  and 
Aurelian  in  Rome,  in  the  entry  of  Gonstantine  into  Autun,  the  collegia,  preceded  by  their 
banners  ( vextlla), ^htid  their  place  in  the  procession.  (Hist.  Aug.,  Gail.,  8,  nnd  Aurel.,  34; 
Paneff j/rk'i  vetereSf  yiii.  R:  ....  omnium  signa  coUegioi^um.) 


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48  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

infantry,  the  cavalry,  the  horses  of  the  circus,  and  lastly,  a  gilded 
altar  adorned  with  ivory  and  precious  stones. 

^*  After  this  imposing  procession.  Sever  us  ascended  the  rostra 
and  read  a  eulogy  on  Pertinax,  which  we  repeatedly  interrupted 
with  our  acclamations.  At  its  close  we  repeated  our  applause 
mingled  with  sobs  and  groans.  The  magistrates  in  charge  then 
took  up  the  funeral  bed  and  gave  it  to  the  knights  to  carry  it 
into  the  Campus  Martins,  where  the  funeral  pile  had  been  prepared. 
Some  of  us  walked  in  advance;  some  smote  upon  their  breasts; 
others  sang  a  funereal  chant  to  the  sound  of  flutes ;  the  emperor 
came  last. 

"The  funeral  pile,  in  the  form  of  a  tower  of  three  stories, 
adorned  with  gold,  ivory,  and  statues,  bore  on  the  top  a  gilded 
car  driven  by  Pertinax.  The  bed  having  been  placed  upon  the 
funeral  pile  with  all  that  is  usually  placed  near  the  dead,  the 
emperor  and  the  relatives  of  Pertinax  kissed  the  waxen  image. 
Then  the  magistrates  with  their  insignia,  the  equestrian  order,  the 
cavalry  and  the  infantry  defiled  past  the  spot  {decursio) ;  then 
the  consuls  applied  the  fire,  and  an  eagle  escaping  from  the  flames 
rose  into  the .  skies.  Thus  Pertinax  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  the 
immortals."^ 

Dion  is  a  poor  ^vriter,  but  we  have  borrowed  from  him  this 
page  as  representing  the  customs  of  the  time.  We  remark  that  at 
imperial  funerals  the  senators  represented  the  hired  mourners  of 
humbler,  obsequies.  This  serious  people  were  gratified  with  cries 
and  gestures,  a  forced  expression  of  grief  or  joy,  even  when  neither 
the  grief  nor  the  joy  were  sincere;  and  their  descendants  love 
them  still. 

Of  the  new  emperor's  two  rivals,  Albinus  and  Niger,  one  had 
been  kept  inactive  by  deceitful  promises,  and  the  other,  at  the 
head  of  nine  legions  and  numerous  auxiliaries,  had  been  acknow- 
ledged by  all  of  Roman  Asia,  and  in  the  Greek  cities  was  already 
coining  money  with  Latin  legends  promising  him  victory  and 
eternity,  jEternitas  Augusta  and  Invicto  Impcratori?  He  had  even 
set  foot  in  Europe  by  the  occupation  of  Byzantium,  and  his  troops 
were  marching  upon  Perinthus. 

'  Dion,  Ixxiv.  4  nnd  6.    Cf.  the  account  given  by  Herodian  (iv.  3).  of  the  Mineral  of  Suverus. 
^  Eckhel,  vii.  p.  154,  and  Cohen,  iii.  pp.  213  and  217,  Nos.  1  and  "2!^, 


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PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANU8,    ETC.,    180   TO    211    A.T>.       49 

Eespect  for  adversaries  was  not  a  virtue  of  the  ancients;  the 
rival  emperors  insulted  each  other  like  Homeric  heroes  before  the 
combat.  ^'He  is  only  a  mountebank  of  Antioch,"  Severus  said 
of  his  rival.     But   in    reality   he  valued  the  other's  abilities  very 


Pescennius  Niger,  laurelled.  The  Aiifriistan  Eternity.*  The  Invincible  Emperor.^ 

(Gold  Coin.) 

highly,'   and   considered    him    a    formidable   adversary.      Niger,   in 

fact,   a    soldier    of    fortune,    had   passed    through    all    the    grades, 

meriting  the  praise  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  of  Commodus,  and  even  of 

Severus  himself.      He  was   a  vigilant   guardian  of  discipline.      On 

one   occasion  he  condemned   two   tribunes   to   be 

stoned  who   had   secured    some  profit  out  of  the 

commissariat   department,^   and    had   it  not  been 

for  the   entreaties   of   the   army   he   would  have 

beheaded   some   soldiers   who   had   stolen  a  fowl. 

On    another    occasion    his    legionaries    demanded 

wine.     "You  have  water,"  ho  said  to  them,  "is  ... 

^<eculo  fruyxfero. 

not  that  enough?"     Never   under   his   command     (Reverse  of  a  Large 

,.,.,  ,,,  .  ,  .,  «  ,        Bronze  of  Albinus.) 

did  the  soldiery  require  wood,  or  oil,  or  lorced 
labour  from  the  people  of  the  provinces.  In  Eome,  where  men 
remembered  that  he  was  an  Italian,  Niger  found  partisans,^  and  his 
affable  manners  had  made  him  popular  wherever  he  had  held 
command.  Dion  doubtless  ascribes  to  the  crowd  his  own  senti- 
ments and  those  of  a  portion  of  the  senate  when  he  shows  the 
people,  after  a  quarrel  with  the  soldiers  of  Julianus,  calling  Niger 

^  Reverse  of  a  denarius  of  Pescennius  Niger :  a  crescent  and  seven  stars. 

» Reverse  of  a  silver  coin  of  Pescennius  N iger ;  legend:  INVICTO  IMP.  TROPHAEA, 
suri'ounding  a  trophy. 

^  Spartian  (iW^.,  4  and  5)  asserts  that  during  an  illness  at  the  beginning  of  the  war, 
Severus  wished,  if  he  should  die,  to  have  Niger  for  his  successor,  and  that,  after  his  first 
successes,  he  offered  the  latter  iufum  exilium  si  ah  armis  recederet. 

*  See,  later,  the  letter  of  Severus  to  Celsus.  Spartian  also  gives  a  letter  from  Marcus 
Aurelius  very  honourable  to  Niger. 

*  "To  the  Fruitful  Age."    Felicity  standing,  holds  a  cadaceus  and  a  cornucopia. 

"  Spart.,  Nig. J  3 ;  ibid.,  2  :  ....  Roince  fautum  est  a  senatoribus.  His  father  had  been 
curator  at  Aquinum.     He  himself  had  begun  his  career  by  the  rank  of  centurion. 

VOL.  VI.  E 


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50  THE   AFRICAN    A>iD    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180    TO    235    A.D. 

to  the  aid  of  the  Republic.  In  any  case,  one  good  sword  was  of 
more  value  than  all  the  wishes  of  the  people-king,  and  if  they 
expressed  any  on  this  subject,  they  did  but  irritate  Sevei-us  with- 
out being  of  use  to  Niger.  Indolence  has  been  ascribed  to  the 
governor  of  Antioch  and  the  efEeminate  Syrian  provinces;  but  even 
before  his  rival  had  quitted  Rome,  the  prompt  and  well-judged 
measui-es  of  Niger  had  assured  to  him  Asia  and  Egypt,  had  opened 
Europe,  had  guaranteed  the  neutrality  of  the  Armenians,  the 
succour  of  the  princes  and  Arab  chiefs  of  Mesopo- 
tamia, and  even  alliances  beyond  the  Tigris.^  He 
had  not,  therefore,  in  the  delights  of  Daphne  for- 
gotten the   terrible   part   which  he    had    resolved   to 

play. 

^^fZ^^tnl^vae  Severus  had  directed  his   lieutenants  to  organize 

of  a  Coin  of  Sep-    resistance   in   Thrace,    Macedonia,   and  Greece,  and  a 

legion  sent  into  Africa  guarded  for  him  that  granary 
of  Rome.  However,  he  had  not  a  moment  to  lose ;  and  so,  thirty 
days  after  his  entrance  into  Rome,  he  left  it,  ''to  reduce  to  order 
the  Oriental  provinces."  He  left  behind  him  a  distrustful  senate, 
but  a  people  glutted  with  feasts  and  rejoicing  in  an  abundant 
harvest.'  For  more  than  a  month  his  troops  had  been  on  the 
march  towards  the  Propontis.-  They  arrived  in  time  to  save  Perin- 
thus,  and  drive  the  enemy  back  into  Byzantium,  which  was  at 
once    blockaded    by    Marius    Maximus/     Negotiations    opened    by 

*  The  Parthian  king  had  promised  aid;  the  king  of  Atra  had  sent  him  archers;  the 
Adiabenians  and  some  independent  tribes  had  declared  for  him.  (Spart.,  8ev.f  9;  Herod.,  iii.  1.) 

^  Gold  coin  ;  Liberality  bearing  a  tessera  and  a  conmcopia.     (Cohen,  iii.  253.) 
'  For  this  same  year,  193,  we  have  coins  of  Albinus  and  of  Niger  with  the  legend :  Saculo 
fruffifero,  Cererifi^tfera, 

*  Upon  the  question  whether  this  Marius  Maximus  should  be  identified  with  the  historian 
of  that  name  so  often  quoted  in  the  Augustan  History,  see  Borghesi,  vol.  v.  p.  476 ;  Henzen, 
5,502 ;  L.  Renipr,  Spon*s  ed.,  p.  397  ;  and,  for  the  opposite  opinion,  Budinger,  Untersuchungen 
zur  Rom.  Kaiserg.y  vol.  iii.  pp.  30-33.  The  lieutenant  of  Severus  commanded  with  the  tiile 
of  dwv  a  corps  drawn  from  the  legions  of  the  two  Mcesias.  This  title,  which  we  meet  for  the 
first  time  under  Hadrian,  a  title  which  iu  the  time  of  the  Gordians  made  part  of  the  oflicial 
hierarchy,  designates  not  an  imperial  legate  at  the  head  of  the  legions  of  his  government,  but  a 
general  intrusted  with  the  command  of  a  special  expedition,  but  with  no  other  imperium  than 
that  which  he  exercised  over  his  soldiers.  Of.  Borghesi,  vol.  v.  p.  462.  Under  Marcus 
Aurelius,  Candidus,  another  lieutenant  of  Severus,  had  been  propositus  copiarum.  (Orelli, 
No.  798,  and  vol.  iii.  p.  78.)  Two  other  inscriptions,  in  Gruter  (p.  389,  2),  and  in  Marini 
{Iseriz,  Alh.y  p.  50),  give  the  title  of  dux  to  Tib.  CI.  Candidus  and  to  L.  Fabius  Cilo  in  the 
time  of  Septimius  Severus.  No  earlier  mention  of  this  title  is  known.  (L.  Renier,  Spon's  ed.  of 
1858,  p.  299.     Cf.  Henzen,  Annaliy  vol.  xxii.  p.  40.)    The  principal  lieutenant  of  Niger  was  the 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO    211    A.I).       51 

Niger  having  failed,^  the  rest  of  the  army  crossed  the  Hellespont 
in  the  fleets  of  Kavenna  and  Misenum,  and  it  does  not  appear  that 
Niger  disputed  their  passage.  A  victory  was  gained  by  them  near 
Cyzicns,  and  then  a  second  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Nicaea,  in 
which  engagement  Niger  commanded  in  person. 

Five  centuries  earlier  Alexander  had  conquered  near  this  spot, 
making  himself  master  of  Asia  Minor.  The  double  defeat  of  Niger 
now  threw  him  back,  as  Darius  had  been  driven  after  the  battle 

of  the   Granicus,    across   the   Taurus.     In  

the  gorges  of  the  mountains  he  made 
entrenchments  at  the  Cilician  Gates,  which 
he  believed  would  be  impregnable;  but  a 
torrent,  swollen  by  a  violent  rain,  made 
a  breach  through  which  the  Illyrians 
entered.  In  a  third  action,  near  Issus, 
the  Asiatic  legions,  notwithstanding  the 
advantage  of  number  and  of  position,  could 
not  sustain  the  onset,  and  lost  20,000 
men.  Niger  fled  to  Antioch,  and  was 
proposing  to  seek  an  asylum  among  the 
Parthians  when  he  was  seized  and  be- 
headed. His  head,  carried  into  the  camp 
before  Byzantium,  was  exhibited  to  the  besieged,  but  the  sight  did 
not  intimidate  them  (194).  As  in  almost  all  engagments  between 
the  legions  of  Europe  and  Asia,  the  latter  were  conquered. 

Severus  seems  not  to  have  been  present  at  any  of  these 
engagements,  not  through  fear,  but  through  confidence  in  his 
generals,  and  doubtless  in  order  to  remain  within  reach  of  couriers 
from  Gaul  and  Italy  who  might  bring  him  news  of  some  storm 
gathering  in  the  west.^ 

proconsul  of  Asia,  Asellius  ^^milianus,  who  was  killed  at  Cyziciis.     (Dion,  Ixxiv.  6.     Cf. 
Waddington,  Ftutes  des  prov.  asiat.^  p.  245.) 

*  He  demanded  a  shai-e  of  the  Empire,  but  Severus  would  grant  nothing  except  tutum 
eanlium  (Spart.,  Ntff.,  5). 

*  Engraved  stone  (red  jasper,  31  mill,  by  22).  Cabinet  de  France^  No.  2,099.  In  the 
upper  part  an  altar;  in  the  midst  of  flames,  the  serpent  of  ^sculapius.  In  the  field,  two 
inscriptions,  thus  interpreted  by  Charles  Lenormant :  To  iEsculapius,  Julius  Sabinus,  diviner, 
has  consecrated  (this  stone),  for  the  health  of  the  Emperor  Caesar  Caius  Pescennius  Niger,  the 
Just.'*  The  intaglio  is,  therefore,  an  ex-voto.  Cf.  Trisor  de  Numisniatique,  Icon,  rom.,  pi.  xli. 
p.  75,  and  Chabouillet,  op.  cit.  pp.  272-8. 

'  He  seems  to  have  remained  for  some  time  at  Perinthus,  a  city  well  selected  under  the 

e2 


Pescennius  Niger.^ 


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52  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

Many  Eastern  cities  involved  themselves  in  this  civil  war,  for 
the  purpose  of  gratifying  those  local  feuds  and  inveterate  jealousies 
to  which  all  history  bears  witness.  Thus  Nicaea,  Laodicea,  Tyre, 
and  Samaria  took  sides  with  Severus,  because  Nicomedia,  Antioch, 
Berytus,  and  Jerusalem  had  declared  for  his  rival. 
In  Palestine  the  Jews  and  Samaritans  fought  with 
one  another  fiercely.  In  the  west  Albinus  found 
150,000  Britons,  Gauls,  and  Spaniards  to  follow  his 
fortunes,     while    others    followed     the     fortunes     of 

CoinoftheColony    geverUS. 
of  Laodicea/ 

Thus  it  happened  every  time  that  the  imperial 
authority  was  divided.  Without  Rome  and  a  unity  of  command 
the  world  would  have  fallen  back  into  chaos — a  trath  never  to  be 
lost  sight  of  in  Roman  history  and  the  justification  of  the  Roman 
Empire. 

Niger  being  overthrown   his  partisans  were   punished   and  his 
adversaries   rewarded,    after  the   customary   procedure    and    in    the 

spirit  of  all  ages.  Antioch,  which 
had  struck  coins  in  honour  of  the 
Asiatic  imperator,  lost  her  privi- 
leges and  her  title  of  metropolis, 
which  Laodicea  inherited  for  the 
Coin  of  Antioch,  entire  reign  of  Severus.^    This  city, 

intheNameofPescenniusNiger.^  rpyre,    Heliopolis    or    Baalbec,    and 

others  obtained  the  titles  of  colonies  with  the  jus  Italicum.^  Severus 
however  pardoned  the  Jews  who  had  declared  for  Niger  ;^  but 
Nablous  lost  its  citizenship,  while  Samaria  obtained  the  rank  and 
privileges  of  a  Roman  colony. 

circumstances,  whence  he  could  keep  watch  at  once  over  Europe  and  Asia.  Cf.  Eckhel,  ii.  41 ; 
iv.  440. 

*  SEP(timia)  COL.  LA\'D.  METRO(polis),  in  four  lines,  suiTOunded  with  a  wreath  of 
olive  leaves.    Reverse  of  a  bronze  coin  of  Laodicea  under  Geta. 

'  Eckhel,  iii.  200.  According  to  Malalas  {Chronogr.y  xii.  p.  204),  he  authorized  the 
inhabitants  of  Laodicea  to  take  his  name,  Septimius;  he  made  them  very  great  largesses, 
instituted  gratuifous  distributions,  vapktrx^v  avroiq  mnaviKu  xprjfiara  iroXXa,  constructed  in  their 
city  a  hippodrome,  a  cynegion,  hot  baths,  a  hexastoon,  and  gave  the  senatorial  laticlave,  a^iaQ 
ovyKXriTtKtoVf  to  all  of  their  most  notable  citizens  who  survived,  d^no^ariKots. 

'  AVTOK.  KAICAP  F.  HECKE.  NirPQ  A,  around  a  laurelled  head  of  P.  Niger.  On  the 
reverse :  HPONOIA  OEQN,  the  Providence  of  the  ffods,  and  an  eagle.     Silver  coin. 

*  Dq/est,\,lf),  1. 

^  PaUBstinis  pamam  remisit  (Spart.,  Sev.,  14).  Coins  exist  of  Crosaraa  and  Jerusalem 
bearing.the  name  of  Niger.     Cf.  de  Saulcy,  Numism.  de  la  terre  sainte. 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO    211    A.D.       53 

The  siege  of  Byzantium,  which  lasted  about  three  years,*  has 
remained  as  famous  in  history  as  those  of  Tyre  and  Carthage,  of 
Khodes   and  Jerusalem.     Dion   describes   the   massive  walls   of  the 
city,    its    towers    furnished   with   formidable    engines,    its    harbour 
closed  by  a  chain  and  also  made  secure  from  attack  by  the  current 
of    the    Bosphorus,    lastly,    its    ships    with   double    rudder  which, 
changing  direction  without  making  an  evolution,  fell  suddenly  upon 
the    Koman    galleys   from  which   they  had    appeared   to    flee,   and 
broke   their   beaks.      The   superiority   of   defensive   warfare  was   at 
that  time  so  great  that  this  city,  surrounded  by  a  numerous  army 
and  threatened  by  all  the  fleets  of  the  Empire,  could  not  be  taken 
by  assault.      It   was    necessary   to 
wait  until  famine  forced  these  brave 
men   to   lay  down   their  arms.      A 
great  number  perished   in  attempt 
at    escape    at    the    last;     the    re- 
mainder, having  fed  on  all  possible 

food,  even  to  human  flesh,  opened         ^'^  "^  ^nS^Nig^^^^^ 
the  gates.     The  chiefs  and  soldiers 

were  butchered,  the  walla  broken  down,  and  Byzantium,  reduced 
from  its  rank  of  a  free  city,  became  a  mere  village  in  the  territory 
of  Perinthus.  A  fellow-countryman  of  Dion,  the  engineer  Prisons, 
had  directed  this  gallant  defence.  He  was  like  the  rest  condemned 
to  death,  but  Severus  pardoned  him  to  attach  him  to  his  service. 

The  friends  of  the  claimant  shared  therefore  in  his  misfortunes, 
as  they  would  have  done  in  his  success.  Niger  would  not  have 
been  more  clement,  for  after  the  battle  of  Cyzicus  he  had 
ordered  his  Moorish  cavalry^  to  sack  the  cities  which  had  declared 
for  his  antagonist.  But  Scvcrus,  still  faithful  to  his  oath,  put  to 
death  no   man   of   senatorial  rank;^    they   were   despoiled  of  their 

*  From  the  middle  of  193  to  the  spring  of  196. 

*  IMP.  C^ES.  C.  PESC.  NIGER  lVS(tu8)  AVG.  surrounding  the  laurelled  head  of 
Pescennius  Niger.  On  the  reverse :  COL.  AEL.  CAP.  COMM(odiana)  P(ia)  F(elix).  The 
genius  of  ^lia  Capitolina  Commodiana  (Jerusalem)^  bearing  in  the  right  hand  H  human  head. 
Bronze  coin.  (De  Saulcy,  pi.  v.  fig.  7.)  Coins  of  Tarsus  and  ^gae,  in  Cilicia,  prove  that  these 
cities  also  took  the  name  of  Commodus. 

'  We  have  still  the  epitaph  of  a  Sidonian  killed  in  this  "  war  of  the  Moors."  Cf .  de  Saulcy, 
Deux  truer,  de  Senda. 

*  Twv  Bk  it)  ^ovXivrdiv  rwv  'Pwfiaitjy  duk  iTuvi  fttv  ovciva  (Dion,  Ixxiv.  8).  Spartian  (Sev.y 
9)  says  that  one  only  perished;  but  as  he  copies  without  criticism  the  information  which  his 
reading  furnished  him,  he  contradicts  himself  three  times  in  one  passage. 


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54  THE    AIRICAN    AiiD   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

possessions  and  banished  into  the  islands.  Others,  who  had  fur- 
nished money,  paid  a  fine  of  fourfold.  Dion  accuses  Severus  of 
having  revived  the  trade  of  the  informers  and  of  having  condemned 
the  innocent.  His  text,  which  is  extremely  mutilated  in  this 
place,  does  not  permit  us  to  discuss  this  fact,  which  indeed  would 


Septimius  Severus.     (Bust  found  at  Porto  d'Anzio;   Capitol,  Gallery,  No.  3.) 

not  have  surprised  a  people  habituated  by  long  usage  to  political 
vengeances.  But  another  conclusion  may  be  drawn  from  the  follow- 
ing incident.  Casisius  Clemens,  a  senator,  being  called  before  the 
tribunal  of  the  ruler,  said  in  his  defence :  ''I  neither  knew  you 
nor  Niger;  finding  myself  in  his  party,  I  yielded  to  necessity,  not 
for  the  purpose  of  fighting  against  you,  but  of  dispossessing  Julianus. 


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COMMODUS,    PEKTINAX,    DIDIUS   JUL1ANU8,    ElV.^    180    TO    211    A.D.       55 

I  therefore  was  pursuing  the  same  object  as  you.  If,  later,  I  did 
not  abandon  the  chief  whom  the  gods  had  given  me,  no  more 
would  you  have  wished  that  those  of  your  party  should  abandon 
you  and  go  over  to  your  rival.  Examine  the  matter  in  itself. 
Youi'  decision  against  me  will  be  a  decision  against  yourself  and 
your  own  friends,  for  posterity  will  •  say  that  you  have  made  it  a 
crime  in  us  to  have  acted  as  you  yourself  have  done."  Severus, 
admiring  his  courage,  deprived  him  of  but  one-fourth  of  his  pro- 
perty: a  partial  justice  which  appeared  a  great  indulgence.  During 
the  struggle  he  had  been  heard  to  say  that  he  would  pardon 
Niger  if  the  latter  would  anticipate  defeat  by  an  abdication;  and 
it  is  not  certain  that  he  would'  not  have  kept  his  word,  for  he 
contented  himself  after  the  victory  with  exiling  from  Eome  the 
wife  and  children  of  his  rival,  and  he  respected  the  statues  of 
Niger  and  their  ostentatious  inscriptions.  "  If  these  praises  be 
just,"  he  said  to  those  who  advised  him  to  efface  them,  "and  they 
are  so,  it  is  well  to  know  what  an  enemy  we  have  conquered." 
Lastly,  he  granted  an  amnesty  to  the  soldiers,  and  restored  to  their 
homes  a  great  number  of  them  who  had  taken  shelter  with  the 
Parthians.  Severus  was  not  therefore  always  the  pitiless  man  he 
is  represented  in  ordinary  history.  He  ended  by  even  granting 
favours  to  that  city  of  Byzantium  which  had  so  long  held  his 
fortune  in  check.  Its  site  was  too  remarkable  for  an  intelligent 
ruler  to  leave  it  long  in  ruins.^  He  aided  in  rebuilding  it,  erected 
baths,  a  temple  of  the  sun,  another  of  Artemis,  an  amphitheatre, 
a  hippodrome,  etc.,  being  scrupulous  to  buy,  says  an  old  writer, 
from  their  owners  the  houses  or  gardens  he  required  in  his  new 
buildings,^  He  granted  them  aid  from  the  army  treasury,  and 
permitted  the  city  to  tiike  the  name  of  his  son.  Up  to  the  time 
of  Caracalla's  death  Byzantium  was  called  the  Antonine  city.* 
The  stem  judge  of  the  allies  of  Niger  made  himself  the  benefactor 
of  subjects  returning  to  their  allegiance. 

^  .  .  .  .  situmque  loci  amoenum  contemplatua,  Byzantium  instauravit  (CAron.  AUjc.,  ad  ann. 
105,  and  Malalas,  xii.  p.  2i>J ,  edit,  of  Bonn). 

*  .  .  .  .  ayopiaat;  oUrtfiara  {ibid.).  Malalas  and  the  Chron.  of  Alexandna  perhaps  go  too 
far  in  one  direction ;  Dion  goes  equally  far  in  an  opposite  direction  when  he  affirms  (Ixxiv.  14) 
that  Severus  confiscated  the  lands  of  the  iuhabitAuts,  which  cannot  be  true,  since  Byzantium 
continued  to  exist  and  he  did  not  send  a  colony  to  it. 

'  ij  iroXif  'hvTi>jvivia  (Tlisychius  Miletni.s  in  C.  Mailer's  Frag.  Hist.  Gr<ec.,  vol.  iv.  p.  163, 


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56  THE   AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

Philostratus  ^  gives  another  proof  of  his  spirit  of  justice,  and 
it  was  a  citizen  of  Byzantium  who  profited  by  it.  The  siege  of 
the  city  was  still  in  progress  when  one  of  its  inhabitants,  a  famous 
actor,    merited   at  the   Amphictyonic    games    the    prize    for    tragic 

declamation.  The  judges 
dared  not  give  it  to  him, 
and  the  matter  was  reported 
to  Severus,  who  ordered 
the  prize  to  be  conferred. 
The  matter  is  a  trifle,  but 
among  the  ancients  an  act 
o     •  •    o  /I      re,         .  of    iustice    like    this    was 

Septimiue  Severus,  on  a  (^om  of  SmyrDu.-  J  m^i^xv^v.      *xxvv.      t-^xxo      r,  c*« 

not  of  common  occurrence. 
During   the   siege   of  Byzantium,    Seveinis    had    regulated    the 
affairs    of    Syria   and   punished   the  people    of    Osrhoene^    although 
they    boasted    of    having    murdered    the    fugitives    of    Issus    who 
had     taken      refuge     with     them. 
The  Empire  kept  up  a  few  garri- 
sons on   the    further    side    of    the 
Euphrates.      To   re-affirm   in   these 
countries    the    imperial     authority, 
tnmem^aS   ^^^^  ^^^  becu  somcwhat  impaired 
of  Victories  over   by   the    civil   War,    and    to  punish  ^,    «  „ 

the  Parthians,         •^  ,  '   ,  ^  No.  2.  Bronze 

Arabs,  and         the    allies    whOHl    Niger    had    found     struck  in  memory  of  the 
Adiabeuians.^        .  ^,  i    i    i  .      i      .  same  Victories.^ 

there,  the  emperor  led  his  legions 
into  Upper  Mesopotamia,  where,  since  the  great  expedition  of 
Cassius  in  165,  no  Roman  army  had  appeared;  and  he  sent  his 
,  generals  still  further,  who  easily  got  the  better  of  the  Arabs  and 
Adiabenians  on  the  two  banks  of  the  Tigris.  It  was  for  his 
interest  to  smother  the  noise  of  civil  war  by  the  resounding 
clamour  of  victories    gained    in   foreign  lands.      But    he  was    too 


*  Vita  Soph.,  ii.  27. 

*  AV.  KA.  CE.  CEOVHPOC  H.  (Autocrator  Caesar  Septimius  Severus  Pertinax).  Laurelled 
bust  of  Septimius  Severus.  On  the  reverse:  EUI  CTPA.  KA.  CTPATONEIKOV  CMVPI^AIQN 
(Under  the  St rategua  Claudius  Stratontcus,  coin  of  the  people  of  Smyrna).  Turreted  Cybele 
seated,  the  left  elbow  resting  on  the  tympanum,  holding  in  the  right  hand  two  figures  of 
Nemesis  ;  at  her  feet,  a  lion.     Bronze.     (Mionuet,  No.  1,342.) 

'  Captives  at  the  foot  of  a  ti-ophy,  with  the  legend:  PART.  ARAB.  PART.  xVDIAB. 
COS.  n  pp.    The  bronze  coin  has,  as  usual,  the  signature  of  the  senate:  S.C.    (Cohen,  No.  537.) 


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COMMODUS,    PBRTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    KlV.y    180   TO    211    A.D.      57 

prudent  to  go  far  into  those  remote  regions  until  he  had  regulated 

the  affairs  of  the  western  provinces.     He  himself  went  no  further 

than  Nisibis,   a  stronghold  which  the   Parthians  had   given  to  the 

Jews,  who  were  numerous   in  those  countries, 

and  it  had  been   carefully  fortified  by  them.^ 

Situated  on  the  lower  slopes  of  Mount  Masius, 

half-way     between     the     Euphrates     and     the 

Tigris,  Nisibis  was  destined  to   be  the  centre 

of  defence  for  this    region,    and   at   once   the 

bulwark  'of  Syria    and    of  Southern  Armenia 

against  the  Parthians  and  Persians. 

This    war    had    assumed    no    very    great 
proportions,^  and   whatever  Dion    may   say   of 
the   occupation   of  Nisibis,   "which  costs  more 
than  it  brings  in,"  the  poUcy  was  wise.     Thus        captive  Parthian, 
to    terminate    one    civil   war    on    the    eve    of   (i^a^-re^S'T^^V^"*^ 

niue  Column.) 

another  which  could  easily  be  foreseen  was  to 
act  as  a  ruler  should  who  has  interests  of  his  Empire  well  in  mind. 
Severus  was  still  in  Mesopotamia  in  the  spring  of  196,  whence 


Silver  Coin  giving 
Albiuufl  the  title  of  Augustus. 

(Cohen,  No.  42.)  Coin  of  Albinus  struck  at  Sidon.' 

news  of  the  surrender  of  Byzantium  reached  him.  This,  news 
decided  his  return  to  Europe,  whither,  besides,  he  was  recalled  by 
the  anxieties  which  Albinus  was  beginning  to  cause  him.  He 
had  adopted  the  latter  as  his   son,^  had  granted  him  the  title  of 

*  Sainte-Croix,  MSm,  mr  le  gouv.  des  Parthes,  p.  17. 

^  It  gave  Severus,  however,  the  four  salutations  as  imperator,  which  coins  and  inscriptions 
indicate  for  the  year  195. 

'  C.  KAQAIOO  AABEINOC  KAICA,  aroand  bare  head  of  Albinus.  On  the  reverse : 
CIAHTON.     Pallas  and  a  female  figure,  with  hands  clasped,  each  hojding  a  spear.     Bronze. 

*  This  at  least  is  to  be  inferred  from  the  name  of  Septimius  which  Albinus  assumed,  and 
the  custom  of  the  emperors  when  they  conferred  the  title  of  Caesar.  Hence  coins  were  struck 
in  honour  of  Albinus  at  Hippo  Libera,  Sidon,  and  Smyrna.      (Cohen,  vol.  iii.,  ad  fin.  Alb.) 


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58  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYUIAN    riilNCES,    180    TO    2'6o    A.D. 

Caesar,  ^  that  is  to  say,  of  heir-presumptive,  and  had  designated 
hiin  to  share  with  himself  the  consulship  of  the  next  year.  Coins 
were  struck  in  his  honour  with  this  title ;  statues  were  erected  to 
him,    and   sacrifices    offered    in    the    name   of    the    two    emperors.^ 

Before  setting  out  for  the  East 
the  emperor  had  written  to 
him:  "The  State  has  need  of 
a  person  like  yourself,  of  illus- 
trious birth  and  in  the  prime 
of  life.  I  am  old  and  suffer 
from  the  gout,  and  my  sons 
are  only  boys." '  But  for 
three  years  Albinus  had  been 
left  out  of  all  important  affairs. 
Severus  had  reserved  for  him- 
self alone,  even  in  respect  to 
the  smallest  matters,  the  pleni- 
tude of  the  imperial  power. 
It  is  possible  that  an  inscrip- 
tion relating  to  works  ordered 
by  him,  from  far.  off  in  Asia, 

Antique  Fragment  of  a  Statue  of  Clodiue  Albinus  ^   ^    obsCUPC    citv    of    Latium, 
(80-caLlea).  •'  ' 

may  not  be  genuine;*  but  we 
have  the  text  of  a  rescript  which  he  sent  from  the  shores  of  the 
Euphrates  to  Korae  touching  the  guardianship  of  the  property  of 
minors.^  Another  conqueror  took  pleasure  in  dating  his  decrees 
from  Warsaw  or  from  Moscow,   600  leagues  distant  from  his  own 


Eckhel  thinks  (vii.  165)  that,  if  he  had  obt^ed  this  name  of  Severus,  he  had  relinquished  it 
after  the  rupture  between  them ;  but  this  reason  does  not  seem  sufficient. 

^  According  to  Capitolinus  {Alb.,  2  and  6),  Commodus,  rendered  anxious  by  the  schemes 
of  Severus,  had  abeady  offered  that  title  to  Albinus,  which  the  latter,  foreseeing  the  approach- 
ing downfall  of  the  emperor,  and  saying  that  Commodus  was  seeking  companions  in  his  ruin, 
had  refused.  The  silence  of  Dion  and  of  other  writers  does  not  allow  us  to  accept  this  letter, 
which,  is,  moreover,  of  so  strange  a  character. 

^  For  instance,  the  taurobolus  of  Lyons  in  194.     (Or.-Henzen,  No.  6,032.) 
'  Herod.,  ii.  48.    Caracalla  was  bom  in  188 ;  Qeta  the  year  following. 

*  Spon,  MisceU.,  p.  270. 

*  Torso  of  Pentelic  marble  found  near  Civita  Vecchia.  The  cuirass  has  a  head  of  Medusa 
and  under  it  a  palladium,  as  if  to  say :  1  terrify  and  I  protect.  The  statue  (restored)  is  in  the 
Vatican  under  the  name  of  Clodius  Albinus. 

*  Digest^  xxvii.  0,  1.     It  was  read  in  the  senate  June  13th,  196 ;    others  are  dated  from 


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COMMODUS,    PEUTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180    TO    211    A.D.       59 

capital.  Albinus,  who  retained  only  useless  marks  of  honour,  saw  the 
sons  of  Severus  growing  older,  and  it  required  but  little  foresight 
to  understand  that  these  boys,  when  they  became  men,  would  be 
formidable  competitors  to  himself.  His  thiee  legions  of  Britain 
were  devoted  to  him ;  those  of  Gaul  and  Spain,'  which  alone  of 
all  the  armies  had  never  made  an  emperor,  must  have  been 
desirous  to  associate  themselves  with  the  fortune  of  a  new  ruler. 
At  Eome,  the  former  friends  of  Pescennius,  and  all  those  who 
were  distrustful  of  Severus,  turned  their  hopes  towards  Albinus. 
His  illustrious  bii'th  was  spoken  of ;  the  gentleness  of  this  Casar 
was  contrasted  with  the  harshness  of  the  Augustus;  it  was  believed 
that  under  him  the  senate  would  recover  its  authority,*  and  some 
of  the  most  important  of  the  senators  advised  him  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  difficulties  of  Severus  in  the  East  to  lay  hands  upon 
Rome  and  Italy.  The  letters  found  later  among  the  papers  of 
Albinus  reveal  these  secret  intrigues.  Medals  even  give  us  reason 
to  think  that  a  certain  number  of  the  Conscript  Fathers  went  to 
join  Albinus,  and  then  a  counter-senate  was  established,  as  formerly 


Viminacium  (Code,  iv.  10,  1),  and  from  Eboracam  {Code,  iii.  32,  1);  but  in  the  ctae  of  the 
latter  there  is  an  error,  either  as  to  the  date,  July  22nd,  206,  or  else  as  to  the  place  where  it  is 
said  to  have  been  issued. 

*  Borghesi  ((Euorei  completes,  iy.  266)  counts  thirty-three  legions,  in  the  reign  of  Severus, 
of  whom  four  were  in  Germany  and  one  in  Spain.  Which  side  these  five  legions  took  we  do 
not  know,  but  we  know  tliat  the  partisans  of  Albinus  were  numerous  in  Oaul  and  south  of  the 
Pyrenees,  since  after  the  battle  of  Lyons  there  were  stiU  disturbances  in  these  provinces,  and, 
according  to  Spartiau  {Sev,,  12),  Hispanorum  et  Gallointm  proceres  tnulH  ocdsi  sunt.  Severus 
must  in  the  banning  have  attached  to  his  party  the  legions  of  Upper  Germany,  adjacent  to 
his  own,  and  we  see  that  his  army  entered  Gaul  by  way  of  Germany.  But  we  cannot  doubt 
that  Albinus  early  began  to  intrigue  with  the  legions  of  Lower  Germany,  so  close  to  Britain, 
and  where  he  had  probably  been  in  command.  Of.  Roulez,  les  Ugats  des  provinc.  de  Belg,  et  de 
Oerm.  Infer.,  p.  44.  The  passage  of  Capltolinus  {Alb.,  1)  would  prove  that  the  legions  of  Gaiil, 
those,  at  least,  of  the  Lower  Rhine,  had  made  common  cause  with  the  army  of  Britain.  Two 
facts  are  certain :  Severus,  at  the  head  of  his  praetorian  guard  and  the  contingents  that  he  had 
been  able  to  obtain  from  the  twenty-seven  legions  stationed  in  the  countries  under  his  power, 
was  near  failing  in  the  struggle;  and  for  Albinus,  who  was  victorious  several  times,  to 
have  been  able  at  the  last  moment  to  put  his  rival  in  great  danger,  it  must  have  been  the 
case  that  he  had,  not  merely  tumultuous  levies  from  Gaul  and  Spain,  but  well-organized 
forces  in  considerable  number.  Dion  speaks  of  160,000  men  in  array  on  each  side.  The 
figures  given  by  the  ancient  authors  can  never  be  absolutely  accepted;  but  we  have  the  right 
to  conclude  from  what  Dion  says  that  the  forces  on  both  sides  were  equal,  and  that  they  were 
numerous. 

^  See  the  discourse,  so  republican  or  rather  so  senatorial,  attributed  by  Oapitolinus  (13)  to 
Albinus.  It  is  impossible  that  words  like  these  were  ever  spoken  before  an  army,  but  they 
have  been  ascribed  to  Albinus  on  account  of  his  well-known  sentiments  in  respect  to  the 
importance  of  the  senatorial  order. 


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60  THE   AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

had   been   done    by   Pompey  in  Greece   and   Scipio  in  Africa,  and 
as  later  Postumus  did  in  Gaul.^ 

Severus  could  not  be  unaware  of  these  dispositions  of  the 
Roman  nobles,  and  he  must  have  distrusted  them  for  many  years, 
although  Albinus  in  195  had  sent  him  large  sums  of  money  to  aid 
in  succouring  the  cities  ruined  by  Niger.  As  he  was  on  his  way 
back  to  Italy  through  the  valley  of  the  Danube,  there  reached  him, 

when  near  Viminacium,  news  from 

Britain  and  from  Rome  which 
decided  him  to  precipitate  the 
inevitable  rupture  :  ^  doubtless  the 
announcement  that  Albinus  had 
assumed  the  title  of  Augustus 
and  was  preparing  to  come  down 
into    Gaul.      Severus    had    just 

SeptimiusSeverusandhisEldestSonCuraealla.^    ^^^rg^d      victoriouS       from       tWO 

wars,  and  had  twice  traversed 
the  richest  provinces  of  the  Empire ;  he  had  given  his  soldiers 
military  fame  and  he  could  give  them  gold.  Therefore  he  had 
but  little  trouble  in  inducing  them  to  declare  Albinus  a  public 
enemy,  and  to  proclaim  his  own  son  Ca3sar  and  Princeps  Juventutis 
under  the  name  of  Aurelius  Antoninus.*  He  himself  had  already 
taken  the  designation  of  the  ^^son  of  Marcus  Aurelius."*  ^'At 
last  he  has  found  a  father,"  men  said,  hurt  at  this  victory  of  a 
parvenu.^     But  it  was  no  mere  taking  of  a  name.      The  act  must 


*'Cf.  Eckhel,  vii.  165,  and  Spart.,  Sev.,  11. 

*  Spartian  attributes  this  rupture  to  Albinus;  Dion,  to  Severus;  in  either  case,  it  was 
inevitable.  It  occurred  earlier  than  June  80th,  196,  for  we  have  a  rescript  of  that  date  signed 
Severus  and  Caracalla  {Code,  iv.  19, 1).  The  compilers  of  Justinian's  time  gave  Caracalla  tlie 
title  of  Augustus  in  it.  But  this  is  an  error  which  they  often  conmiitted  in  the  case  of  this 
prince.  We  must  u^e  with  prudence  the  dates  furnished  by  the  Pandects.  Eckhel  (vii.  387) 
says, speaking  of  these  laws  signed  by  the  emperors:  ....  harum  testimonia  quamsiiit  infirma, 
satis  compertum, 

'  Intaglio  of  27  mill,  by  40 ;  sardonyx  of  three  layers.  Cabinet  de  France,  No.  2,100. 
Severus  and  Aurelius  Antoninus  are  both  laurelled  and  wear  the  paludamentum.  This 
engraved  stone  merits,  both  by  the  beauty  of  the  material  and  the  excellence  of  the  workman- 
ship, to  be  placed  beside  the  cameo  representing  the  family  of  Severus.    See  later,  p.  69. 

*  Eckhel,  vii.  pp.  109  and  173 ;  Dion,  Ixxv.  7 ;  Spart.,  Sev.,  10.  At  this  time  first  appeared 
the  formula:  imperaSor  destinatus.    Cf.  L.  Renier,  Inscr.  d'AlgSrie,  No.  1,826. 

*  A  coin  of  the  year  195,  in  which  Severus  bears  the  title  of  the  son  of  Marcus  Aurelius, 
represents  him  holding  in  his  hand  a  victory  and  crowned  by  Rome.     (Cohen,  iii.  p.  298.) 

*  Dion,  Ixxvi.  9.  ' 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO   211    A.D.       Gl 

have  been  preceded  by  a  veritable  adoption  with  all  legal  forms, 
for  Severus  insisted  that  it  should  have  all  civil  consequences. 
Naturally  there  was  missing  at  the  ceremony  the  principal  actor, 
namely,  the  adoptive  father,  who  had  been  dead  for  fifteen  years. 
But  in  some  way   or  another    imperial   omnipotence   obviated  this 


Clodius  A 1  bin  us.' 

difficulty,  as  Galba  had  done  in  the  case  of  Piso,  whom  he 
adrogated^  without  curiate  assembly,  in  virtue  of  his  office  of 
Pontifex  Maximus,  and  as  Nerva  had  done  in  the  case  of  the 
absent  Trajan,  although  the  presence  and  the  consent  of  the  person 
adopted  were  necessary.      Severus  was  also  Pontifex  Maximus,  and 

^  Bust  in  the  Cain  pan  a  Museum,  found  in  the  Roman  Campagna.  (Henry  d'Escamps, 
Descr.  des  Marbres  du  Miisee  Campanay  No.  103.) 

^  In  respect  to  the  adoptio  and  adrogation  see  vol.  v.  p.  247.  After  the  time  of  Diocletian 
the  adrogatio  was  made  by  mere  imperial  rescript.     (Code,  vii.  48,  2.) 


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62  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

what  was  legal  in  the  case  of  a  person  absent  was  equally  so  in 
respect  to  one  who  was  dead.  Henceforth  in  the  inscriptions  of 
Severus,  above  all  his  other  titles  comes  his  descent  from  the 
Antonines,^  and  his  sepulchral  um  was  deposited  in  their  tomb. 

This  strange  conduct  had  a  double  motive.  Severus  designed 
to  draw  upon  his  family  the  splendour  of  the  most  illustrious  of 
the  imperial  dynasties,  the  famous  Antonines,  whom  poets  now 
raised  higher  than  the  very  gods;^  and  he  also  wished,  at  the 
same  stroke,  to  seize  upon  the  vast  estates  that  five  generations 
of  emperors,  following  each  other  in  hereditary  succession,  had 
bequeathed  to  Commodus.  On  the  death  of  this  emperor  an 
immense  fortune  had  passed  to  his  three  sisters,  and  Severus, 
rendered  anxious  by  such  great  wealth  in  the  hands  of  private 
individuals,  had  taken  part  of  it  at  once,  as  political  inheritor,  and 
he  proposed  to  secure  the  rest  proximately  as  civil  heir,  by  making 
himself  the  son  of  Aurelius.  Thus  in  a  day  the  poorest  of  the 
emperors  became  the  richest.* 

This  act  had  serious  results.  As  long  as  Severus  bore  only 
the  name  of  Pertinax,  which  was  dear  to  the  senate,  this  assembly, 
not  without  some  distrust,  •  allowed  events  to  take  their  course, 
without  attempting,  even  by  the  expression  of  a  wish,  to  modify 
them.  But  to  call  himself  the  brother  of  an  emperor  whom  the 
Conscript  Fathers  held  in  execration,  and  rehabilitate  his  accursed 
memory,  was  to  justify  his  acts  and  accept  also  as  an  inheritance 
his  hatred  towards  the  nobles.  From  that  day  fear  and  anger 
brooded  over  the  curia,  and  the  senate,  in  their  thoughts,  conspired 
for  Albinus. 

Was  the  rupture  preceded,  as  has  been  asserted,  by  an  attempt 

*  M,  Antonini  Pii  filius  Commodi  f rater  Antonini  Pit  nepos  Iladriant  pronepofi,  Trajam 
abnepos,  Nerwe  adnepos.  (L.  llenier,  Inscr,  dPAlff,,  No.  3^77.)  A  daughter  of  Marcus 
Aurelius,  Vibia  Aurelia  Sabina,  is  called  a  sister  of  Severus.  {Ibid.,  No.  2,718.)  There  has 
been  lately  discovered  at  Lamorici^re,  in  the  province  of  Oran,  an  inscription  in  which  Severus 
is  called  the  son  of  Marcus  Aurelius.     {Comptes  rendus  de  VAcad,  des  inscr.,  1882,  p.  06.) 

*  Lamp.,  Mucr.f  7. 

'  Up  to  the  time  of  his  consulship  he  had  had  in  Rome  only  a  very  small  house  and  a 
little  landed  property,  gttum  ades  brevUsitnas  habuisaet  et  unum  fundum.  (Spartian,  8ev,, 
4.)  The  successor  inherited  the  property  of  the  dead  emperor,  even  to  legacies  which,  though 
made,  had  not  yet  been  paid.  (Digest^  xxxvi.  56.)  In  this  way  the  Flavians  had  inherited 
the  Chersonesus,  the  property  of  the  first  Caesars.  (C  /.  X.,  iii.  726.)  To  manage  that 
great  fortune  Severus  instituted  a  procuratio  rerum  privatarum  which  became  permanent. 
(/Aid,  12.) 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO   211    A.D.       63 

at  assassination?^  All  men  at  that  time  held  that  a  dagger  thrust 
was  a  good  way  of  simplifying  a  diflSiciilt  question,  and  in  this 
respect  Severus  felt  like  every  one  else.  But  men  who  stood 
exposed  to  surprises  like  these  were  accustomed*  to  guard  themselves 
carefully,  and  the  procedure  attributed  to  the  emperor  was  so  easily 
to  be  discovered  that  we  may  doubt  if  he  employed  it.  Spartian 
and  Dion  make  no  mention  of  these  emissaries  sent  with  fictitious 
letters  and  poison  who,  according  to  the  confession  that  torture 
always  extorts,  were  to  attract  Albinus  to  a  secret  conference  and 
stab  him  there,  or  else  gain  over  his  cook  and  have  poison  mingled 
with  his  food.  The  British  Csesar  was  too  much  interested  in 
putting  in  circulation  rumours  of  this  kind  for  us  not  to  suspect 
their  authenticity. 

Severus  ordered  everything  for  the  approaching  campaign  with 
his  usual  promptitude.  Troops  hastened  to  guard  the  defiles  of 
the  A^ps,  while  the  bulk  of  his  forces,  still  ascending  the  valley  of 
the  Danube,  turned  the  mountains  on  the  north  and  entered  Gaul 
through  the  province  of  Upper  Germany.  He  himself  made  a 
rapid  journey  to  Eome,^  where  he  caused  the  senate  to  confirm 
the  army's  declaration  against  Albinus,  and  also  the  elevation  of 
Caracalla  to  the  rank  of  Caesar.  He  then  returned  to  take  com- 
mand in  person  of  his  forces,  who  were  advancing  divided  into  two 
corps.  A  deputation  sent  some  time  after  by  the  senate  found 
r.^aracalla  in  Upper  Pannonia,  where  his  father  had  left  him,  and 
Severus  in  Upper  Germany.' 

Dion  relates  a  curious  fact.  A  humble  grammarian  of  Rome, 
fired  with  martial  ardour,  suddenly  closed  his  school  and  betook 
himself  to  Gaul.  He  gave  out  that  he  was  a  senator  intrusted  by 
the  emperor  with  the  duty  of  levying  an  army;  he  raised  troops 
and  defeated  many  corps  of  the  army  of  Albinus.  Severus,  under 
the  idea  that  he  was  a  senator,  wrote  to  him  congratulating  him. 
Numerianus  scoured  the  country,  levied  contributions  on  hostile 
cities,  and  collected  over  17,000,000  drachmae,  which  he  sent  to 
the   emperor.      The   war  being   ended   he   presented   himself  before 

^  Capit.,  Alb.f  7,  and  Herod.,  iii. 
""  Eckhel,  vii.  176 ;  Cohen,  iii.  275. 

M..  Kenier,  Inscr.  d'Alf/.y  No.   1,826;    ^fel.  d'Spiffr.,  p.   10.3;    Ilenzen,   Bull,  de  VInst 
mrk^oL  1S58,  p.  83.     The  doputatioii  mentioned  in  thi.s  inscription  took  place  in  196. 


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64  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

Severus,  and  made  known  to  him  the  tnith.  He  was  offered 
whatever  he  desired,  but  he  even  refused  to  enter  the  senate,  and 
accepting  only  a  small  pension  went  to  live  in  the  country.  Here 
we  have  a  schoolmaster  who  was  at  once  a  philosopher  and  a  man 


Clodius  Albiniis.     (Bust  of  the  Capitol,  Hall  of  the  Emperors,  No.  49.) 

of   action ;    but   what   he   was   able  to  accomplish  shows  the  great 
disorder  of  the  times. 

If  we  may  believe  Dion,  300,000  men,  150,000  on  each  side, 
were  ready  to  join  battle  in  Gaul.  .Kome  with  melancholy  gaze 
followed  these  distant  events.  "While  the  world  was  shaken  by 
this  great  shock,"  says  the  historian,  ''we  remained  sad  and 
inactive.  The  people,  even  in  their  wonted  amusements,  manifested 
their  grief.  At  the  games  of  the  circus  I  saw  an  immense  multi- 
tude, but  they  paid  no  attention  to  the  races,  there  was  not  a  cry, 


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COMMODTTS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULTANU8,    ETC.,    180   TO   211    A.D.       65 

nor  a  word  of  encouragement  to  the  charioteers.  Suddenly  out  of 
the  great  silence,  one  voice  cried :  '  Peace,  for  the  safety  of  the 
people!'"  The  senate  and  the  city,  powerless  against  these  ambi- 
tious men,  asked  only  repose  imder  whichever  master.  It  was,  in 
a  different  form,  the  sentiment  of  Asinius  PoUio  before  the.  battle 
of  Actium :  "I  shall  be  the  spoil  of  the  victor.'' 

An  engagement  in  which  the  troops  of  Albinus  had  the 
advantage  over  the  lieutenant  of  Severus  preceded  the  main  action, 
which  took  place  on  the  banks 
of  the  Sa6ne  between  Lyons 
and  Tr^voux.  The  army  of 
Severus  coming  from  the  north- 
east faced  southward,  the  forces 
of  Albinus  were  drawn  up 
facing  the  north.  Since  his 
accession  to  the  throne  Severus 
had  directed  all  military  opera- 
tions from  a  distance,  but  this 
time  he  himself  led  his  troops 
to  the  attack,  for  all  his  for- 
tune was  staked  in  this  final 
encounter,  and  the  treason  that 
he  was  conscious  of  in  his  rear 
obliged  him  to  conquer  or 
perish.  He  did  indeed  risk  his 
life,  but  a  cavalry  charge  by 
Lsetus  decided  the  victory.  The 
conquerors  entered  Lugdunum  pursuing  the  fugitives.  Albinus, 
on  the  point  of  falling  into  their  hands,  made  an  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  kill  himself.  He  was  taken  before  Severus,  and  the 
latter  ordered  his  head  to  be  cut  off.  Severus  thus  remained 
undisputed  master  of  the  Eoman  world  (19th  February,  197). 
Herodian  well  says :  "  That  one  man  should  have  been  able  to 
destroy  three  competitors  already  in  possession  of  power;  that  he 
should  have  destroyed  one  of  these  in  his  palace  in  Eome,  the 
second  far  in  the  East,  the  third  far  in  the  West — this  is  a  success 
almost  unparalleled  in  history."  ^ 

'  Herod.,  iii.  23.     The  expedition  against  Albinus  occupied  the  latter  months  of  196  and 
VOL.  VI.  F 


L  TkuiOiMP.  Dal^ 

Lyons  and  its  Environs. 


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66  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180    TO    285    A.D. 

But  the  moment  when  Severus  attained  this  fame  is  also  that 
when  he  stained  his  name  with  blood. 

On  the  news  of  the  fii*st  successes  gained  by  Albinus,  the 
senate,  believing  the  emperor  ruined,  had  hastened  to  coin  a  silver 


Septimius  Severus.     (Bust  in  the  Museum  of  the  Louvre.; 

piece  bearing  the  name  of  the  new  Augustus  and  to  accord  honours 
to  his  brother  and  near  relatives.^  On  the  part  of  people  so 
circumspect  this  was  a  very  great  imprudence,  whicli  can  only  be 
explained  by  the  arrival  of  some  misleading  bulletin  from  Albinus. 
Severus    immediately    wrote    to     them     expressing    his    regret    at 

the  first  two  of  197.  Dion  gives  us  an  exact  date  for  the  middle  point  of  hostilities,  the 
incident  of  which  he  has  just  spoken  occurring  on  the  eve  of  the  Saturnalia,  that  is  to  say, 
December  16tb,  196. 

'  Spart.,  Sev.,  11 ;  Capit.,  Alb.,  9;  Cohen,  iii.  p.  227.     The  senate  could  only  coin  copper 
pieces ;  to  coin  silver  was  therefore  a  usurpation  on  their  part. 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    BIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO   211    A.D.       67 

becoming  aware  of  their  preference  for  Albinus.     He  had  liberally 
provided   for  the   city,  he  said ;    he  had  made  many  wars  for  the 
Republic,  and  by  Niger's  death  had  delivered  them   from   tyranny. 
He  then  reproached  them  for  their  ingratitude   towards  himself  in 
accepting  as   their   emperor  an   adventurer  from  Hadrumetum  who 
claimed   to   be   of   the  family  of  the  Ceionii.     From  this  man  they 
expected     consulships     and     com- 
mands, a  trickster   skilful   in   im- 
posture.     To   him   they  no  doubt 
proposed  to  offer  a  triumph  as  to 
an  illustrious  conqueror;    and   he 
ended  the  letter  with  expressions  of 
contempt  for  the  literary  claims  of 
his  rival.^     Before   subduing   him 
by  force  of  arms,  Severus  desired 
to  render   Albinus    an    object    of 
ridicule,     depriving    him    of    the 
ancestry  which  the   latter  claimed 
and  of  the  talents  for  which  others 
gave   him   credit — two    sources   of 
pride  which  he  himself  enjoyed. 

After     the    battle    of    Lyons 
came  a  still  more  terrible  message: 

the  head  of  Albinus  set  up  on  a  

spear  in  front  of  the  curia,  and  ^^^^^^^  (Vatican,  HoH  of  i^usts.) 
these  words,  concluding  a  threat- 
ening letter :  ^'  It  is  thus  that  I  treat  those  who  ofEend  me." 
Severus  himself  soon  appeared  in  the  senate  (June,  197).  "He 
commended  the  severities  of  Sylla,  Marius,  and  Augustus,  which 
had  saved  them,  and  blamed  the  moderation  of  Pompey  and  of 
Gaesar,  which  had  been  their  ruin."  He  then  apologized  for'Com- 
modus,   reproaching   the   senators   for   voting    the    latter   infamous,^ 


*  Capit.,  AUf.f  12.  It  is  a  question  whether  this  letter  is  authentic.  Dion  (Ixxv.  7)  speaits 
of  threatening  letters,  but  quotes  none ;  what  we  have  of  the  addresses  of  Severus  to  the  senate 
give  us  reason,  however,  to  accept  this  as  veritable. 

'  According  to  Dion,  we  may  believe  tliat  it  was  not  until  this  time  that  he  declared  the 
latter  dt'vuSf  ypuiKAQ  UiSov  rifidg;  an  inscription  of  the  year  196,  in  which  Severus  is  spoken  of 
as  "the  brother  of  the  divine  Commodus,"  proves  that  this  emperor's  apotheosis  preceded 
the  battle  of  Lyons.     In  assuming  the  position  of  son  to  Marcus  Aurclius,  at  least  from 

F  2 


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68  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

they  who  themselves  for  the  most  part  lived  in  a  more  infamous 
manner.  At  the  conclusion  of  his  address,  which  caused  the  senate 
great  alarm,*  a  capital  process  was  instituted  against  sixty-four 
senators  accused  of  complicity  in  the  designs  of  Albinus;  thirty- 
five,  proved  innocent,  resumed  their  seats,  and  Dion,  who  is  not 
friendly  to  Severus,  declares  that  the  emperor  behaved  towards  them 
as  if  they  had  never  given  him  cause  to  doubt  their  fidelity; 
twenty-nine  being  condemned  to  death  were  executed.^  Among 
this  number  was  that  Sulpicianus  whom  we  saw,  after  the  murder 
of  Pertinax,  chaflEering  for  the  Empire  and  kissing  the  hands 
stained  with  his  son-in-law's  blood.  Partisans  of  Niger  who  had 
been  spared  up  to  this  time  now  perished,  his  wife,  children,  and 
six  of  his  near  relatives:  Severus  settled  all  his  accounts  once 
for  all. 

Those  severities  find,  not  their  excuse,  but  their  explanation 
in  the  dangers  that  the  emperor  had  just  passed  through :  before 
him,  a  formidable  adversary  supported  by  the  forces  of  the  Western 
provinces;  behind  him,  in  Italy,  treason;  in  the  East,  a  Parthian 
invasion  and  a  militaiy  revolt,  that  of  the  Third  Legion  of  Cyren- 
aica,  which  from  its  camps  in  Arabia  could  again  set  Syria  in  a 
blaze  and  renew  Niger's  alliance  with  the  perpetual  enemy  of  the 
Empire.  This  legion  had  proclaimed  Albinus,^  and  in  default  of 
this  general  would  doubtless  have  put  forward  one  of  the  sons  of 
Niger ;  and  this  was  the  condemnation  of  the  rest  of  the  party. 
Doubtless  we  must  pity  the  victims  of  domestic  discords,  especially 
those  involved  by  the  fatality  of  birth.  But  if  we  had  a  little  less 
compassion  for  the  abettors  of  civil  wars  who  perish  by  the  con- 
queror's hand,  and  a  little  more  for  those  who  are  sacrificed  in 
these  wars  in  the  fulfilment  of  their  duty  as  soldiers,  we  should 
place  beside  those  twenty-nine  senators  executed  at  Kome  for 
having  played   at  the   terrible   game   of   revolution,    the   30,000  or 

the  year  105,  Severus  accepted  the  obligation  to  rehabilitate  the  memory  of  his  adoptive 
brother. 

'  MiXtffra  ^  ij/iac  IKtwXti^iv  (Dion,  Ixxv.  7). 

*  Dion,  Ixxv.  8.  Spartian  {Sev.,  13)  enumerates  forty-one  persons  Tvho  were  put  to 
death.  Severus  at  first  aUowed  the  wife  and  the  two  (?)  sons  of  Albinus  to  live,  but  later  put 
them  to  death.  According  to  law  and  custom  all  the  property  of  the  condemned  was  con- 
fiscated. We  find,  however,  a  Ceionius  Albinus  prefect  of  Rome  under  Valerian  ;  the  entire 
family  was  therefore  not  involved  in  the  ruin  of  him  who  was  defeated  at  Lyons. 

*  Spart.,  Sev,,  12. 


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COKMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO   211    A.D.       69 

40,000  corpses   of   Roman  legionaries  which  covered   the  Lyonnese 
plains.^ 

Proscriptions  were  made  in  the  Gallic  provinces  and  in  Spain. 
All  who  had  aided  Albinus  paid  with  life  or  fortune  for  the  crime 
of  not  being  able  to  foresee  which  side  would  be  victorious.  One 
of  these  proscribed  persons  begged  the  emperor  to  spare  him.  ^^If 
the  destiny  of  battle,  0  Ceesar,  had  been  against  you,"  this  man 
said,  "what  would  you  have  done  in   the  position  in  which  I  am 


The  Divme  House.     (Septiinius  Severus  and  his  Family.)* 

now?"  "I  should  have  resigned  myself,"  the  emperor  rejoined,  "to 
suffer  what  you  are  about  to  endure."  And  he  ordered  the  man's 
execution.  "To  destroy  factions,"  Severus  said,  "one  must  once  be 
cruel  in  order  after  that  to  be  merciful  for  the  rest  of  one's  life."' 
Isolated  cases  of  resistance^  there  were,  especially  in  the  Iberian 
peninsula,  whither  Severus  sent  one  of  his  best  generals,  Tib. 
Claudius  Candidus,  the  conqueror  of  Nicaea,  to  fight  "by  sea  and 
land  the   rebels    of    the   Citerior   province."*      Another  inscription 

*  .  .  .  .  AfA^orkputOiv  nvcLptOfiTjrwv  moovrutv  (Dion,  Ixxv.  7). 

'  Cabinet  de  France,  cameo,  No.  249,  sardonyx  of  three  layers,  61  mill,  by  101.  One  of  the 
most  valued  of  the  collection.  The  execution,  without  being  as  perfect  as  that  of  the  monu- 
ments of  the  first  CsBsars,  is  still  very  remarkable.  The  laurel  wreath  of  Caracalla  with  Geta's 
bare  head  fixes  the  date  of  this  cameo  between  the  years  198  and  209.  Severus  wears  the  paluda- 
mentum  and  the  radiated  crown ;  Julia  Dooma,  the  veil  and  diadem.  Of.  Chabouillet,  op.  cit.,  p.  42. 

»  Aur.  Victor,  Cae.,  20. 

*  MtUtipoet  Albinumfidem  ei  servantes  beUo  a  Severo  superati  sunt  (Spart.,  Sev.,  12). 
'  a  L  i.,  ii.  4,114. 


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70  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYllIAN    PBINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

Speaks    of    a    tribune    serving    in   the   expedition    undertaken   "to 
crush  the  Gallic  faction."^ 

Lyons  had  suffered  from  tlie  great  conflict  which  took  place 
outside  her.  walls ;  but  she  quickly  effaced  the  traces  of  this,  and 
made  haste  to  show  herself  faithful  to  the  conqueror.  Two  months 
and  a  half  after  the  battle  a  sacrifice  was  offered  there  for  "the 
safety  of  the  emperor,  of  his  son  the  Csesar,  first  designated 
emperor,  of  the  empress  Julia  Domna,  the  mother  of  the  camps, 
and  of  all  the  divine  house."      During  four  days  religion  displayed 

its  most  imposing  pomps  for  this 
solemnity,  which  sealed  the  recon- 
ciliation between  the  African 
dynasty  and  the  Gallic  nations.* 

In    Rome,    while    twenty-nine 

senatorial  families  wept    for    their 

Comof  Voiogesesiv.'  ^ead,  the  popukcc  and  the  soldiers 

kept  holiday.  The  latter  had  re- 
ceived large  gifts  of  money ;  the  former,  a  congiarium,  fetes^  and 
gladiatorial  shows,"*  to  compensate  them  for  not  having  enjoyed 
the  spectacle  of  so  many  thousands  of  Romans  butchered  in  the 
battles  of  the  civil  war. 

Severus  could  now  enjoy  repose.  The  Roman  world,  twice 
visited  and  pacified;  ^thd  Euphrates  and  Tigm  crossed ;  the  Rhine 
and  Danube  flowing  r  peacefully.-  beneath  Roman-  standards:  all 
things .  invited  thp  ruler  to  turn  his,  indefatigable  activity  towards 
the  labours  of  peace.  ;  But,  during  the  Gallic  war,  the.  king  of  the 
Parthians,  Vologeses  IV.,  had  invaded  ^  Mesopotamia  and.  besieged 
Nisibis,  which  a  general,  by  name  Lsetus,  had  valiantly  defended; 
and  the  revolt   of  the   legion   of  Arabia  proved  that  in  the   East 


'  C.  I.  L.y  iii.  4,037.  It  is  proper  to  say,  however,  that  the  date  of  this  inscription  cannot 
with  certainty  be  fixed  in  the  year  197. 

*  From  the  4th  to  the  7th  of  May,  107.  De  Boissieu,  Inscr,  de  Lyon,  p.  36.  Later,  after 
the  war  with  the  Parthians,  another  solemn  sacrifice  was  celebrated  by  the  order  and  at  the 
expense  of  the  general  assembly  of  Narbonensis,  pro  salute  dominorum  impp.  (Gruter,  xxix. 
12.)     In  respect  to  this  ceremony,  see  vol.  v.  pp.  703-4. 

'  Diademed  head  of  Vologeses  IV.  On  the  reverse,  BACIAE  OAAFACOV  AIKAIOV 
Eni*AN0V2  *IAEAAHN02  ASA  AHEAAAIOV  (of  the  year  464,  of  the  month  Apellseus.) 
Tetradrachm. 

*  Cohen,  iii.  259 :  Munificentia  Aug.  Severus  renewed  the  prohibition  for  women  to  fight 
as  gladiators.     (Dion,  Ixxv.  16.) 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO    211    A.D.       71 

the    fires    of    civil    war   were    not    yet    entirely    extinct.      Severus 
again   assumed   the   cuirass,    and   with    extreme   diligence   made   all 
his  preparations.      Before   withdrawing   to   so   great  a  distance   the 
piincipal  forces  of  the  Empire,^  he   recommended  to  his   lieutenants 
vigilance   upon  the   northern  frontiers,    authorizing   them    to    make 
prudent   concessions    for    the    sake    of    preventing    hostilities.     We 
know,  for  example,  that  Lupus,  one  of  his  ablest  generals,  arrested 
by  presents  distributed  among  the  chiefs  an  invasion  of  the  moun- 
taineers   of   Caledonia.      Having    taken    these    precautions   Severus 
embarked   on  board   the   fleet    at   Brundusium    and    sailed    to    the 
Syrian     coast ;    he    crossed    the    Euphrates    in    time 
to    gain    by    some    victory    his    tenth    salutation    as 
imperator,    before    the    close    of    the    year   197.^     A 
treaty   with  the   king    of    Armenia,    who    gave    him 
money  and  hostages,  permitted  him  to  advance  with-  Denarius  com- 
out  anxiety  as  to  his  rear.  S?®™?'^**!"?  ^^^ 

•'  ,  Tenth     Soluta- 

To  the  Romans  of  that  time  the  enemy  par  tion  of  Sevems 
excellence  was  the  Parthian.  The  heir  of  the  Arsacidas, 
the  successor  of  Cyrus  and  of  Alexander,  alone  in  the  known  world 
was  able  to  throw  a  shadow  upon  the  imperial  majesty  of  Rome. 
The  deserts  which  protected  this  people,  the  death  of  Crassus  and 
Antony's  vain  efforts,  even  the  ephemeral  successes  of  Trajan,  made 
the  Parthian  king  an  inconvenient  and  hated  neighbour.  To 
conquer  him  was  the  great  ambition  of  the  military  chiefs  of 
Rome.  We  have  often  explained  why  this  definitive  victory  was 
impossible.  Severus  resolved  at  least  to  inflict  a  rebuflf  upon  this 
great  Oriental  empire,  and  close  against  it  the  approaches  to  Syria 
by  rendering  the  passage  of  the  Tigris  difficult  for  the  Parthian 
army.  Vologeses  did  not  await  the  emperor,  but  his  generals 
engaged  with  the  Romans  several  times,  and  one  of  these  combats 
seems  to  have  been  a  decisiye  victory  for  the  latter.'  The  road 
to  Ctesiphon  was  open,  and  Severus  advanced. 

'  He  took  a  part  of  the  praetorians  (Dion  Ixxv.  10)  with  their  prefect,  C.  Fulviue 
Plautianus  (Orelli,  No.  934),  and  borrowed  detachments  from  the  armies  of  Europe  (Dion, 
Ixxv.  12,  and  C.LL,,  iii.  1,193),  and  from  Africa  (L.  Renier,  Imcr.  d'Alg.,  No.  1,182). 

*  Eckhel,  vii.  176 :  Pro/ectio  Aug. ;  Momms.,  Inacr.  Neap.,  No.  1,410.  In  respect  to  this 
war  Herodian  confuses  facts,  names,  dates,  and  geography. 

^  April,  198.  This  date  is  to  be  inferred  from  an  inscription  published  by  Renier,  Inter, 
(T^fy.,  No.  1,727. 


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72  THE  AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO    235   A.D. 

Obtaining  timber  from  a  forest  near  the  Euphrates,  he  'con- 
structed a  fleet  to  convey  his  heavy  baggage,  while  his  soldiers 
advanced  along  the  river  bank.  He  arrived  in  this  way  at 
Babylon  and  Seleucia,  no  longer  great  except  in  name,  and  seized 
the  royal  city  of  the  Parthians,  taking  away  100,000  captives. 
This  was  the  third  time  within  the  century  that  the  Romans  had 
entered  Ctesiphon. 

The  return   through  the  valley  of  the   Tigris  was  difficult   on 


The  Partbian  King  escaping  from  Ctesiphon.    (Bas-relief  from  the  Arch  of  Septimius  Sevems.) 

account  of  the  scarcity  of  provisions  and  forage.  Like  Trajan, 
Severus  besieged  the  stronghold  of  Atra^  (El-Hadhr),  whose  king 
had  made  an  alliance  with  Niger,  and  he  failed  as  did  his  illus- 
trious predecessor,  notwithstanding  the  machines  of  the  engineer 
Prisons.  In  the  midst  of  this  desert  it  was  impossible  for  the 
besieging  army   to   resort  to   a  blockade,  the  great  method  of  the 

'  A  few  days'  march  westward  of  the  Tigris.  Its  ruins  still  exist,  not,  however,  as  Herodian 
says,  on  the  top  of  a  high  hill.  There  are  only  low  hillocks  in  the  region  and  some  calcareous 
rocks.  Cf.  Layard's  Nineveh:  this  author  visited  El-Hadhr.  Dion  speaks  of  two  sieges  of 
Atra,  or  rather,  of  two  attacks  made  upon  the  town :  the  one,perhapSy  by  one  of  the  lieutenants 
of  Severus ;  the  other,  by  the  emperor  himself. 


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C0MM0DU8,    PEBTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO   211    A.D.       73 

ancients  for  the  reduction  of  a  city.  After  twenty  days  of  sharp 
attacks,  the  emperor  raised  the  siege  and  withdrew  through  Upper 
Mesopotamia  into  the  Syrian  provinces,  about  the  close  of  the  year 
198  or  the  beginning  of  the  following  year. 

During  this  siege,  in  which  the  army  endure^  great  hardships, 
there  was  an  instance  of   insubordination,    and  it  became  necessary 
to  make  an  example.      A  prsetorian  tribune   had   repeated  publicly 
and   doubtless    commented   upon   the   lines   which  Virgil   puts   into 
the  mouth  of  Drances,  the  partisan  of  peace  at  any  price:  "They 
take   no   account   of  us,   and   we    perish   for   the   ambition   of    one 
man."     Severus   had   caused  him  to  be  put  to  death,  and  possibly 
the  punishment  was  merited.     Military  men  who 
despair,    when    it    is    their    duty   to   hope   even 
against  all  hope,  ruin  the  cause  which  they  are 
set  to   defend  by   sowing  discouragement  in  the 
hearts  of  the  soldiers.     And  so  before  Atra,  the 
emperor,  fearing  that  his  army  would  no  longer 
obey    him,^    abandoned    a    last    attempt    which   g^^^^  y^^^^^^^  ^  vic- 
seemed  likely  to  be  successful.  ^^^y  '^^}\^^^<^  a^^ 

•^  ^  ^  crowned    bv    Rome. 

Was  it  at  this  time  that  Lsetus  perished?*  (Reverse  of  a  great 
At  the  battle  of  Lyons,  Laatus,  at  the  head  of 
the  cavalry,  had  not  charged  until  after  the  report  had  come  to 
him  that  the  emperor  was  mortally  wounded,  and  this  charge  had 
decided  the  victory.  Severus  being  dead,  and  Albinus  overthrown, 
Lcetus  would  have  taken  their  place;'  but  the  emperor  was  not 
dead ;  and  that  which  was  perhaps  an  intended  treason  became  the 
skilful  manoeuvre  of  a  great  captain.  Severus  believed  this,  or 
allowed  it  to  be  said.  Dion  asserts  that  being  unable  to  strike  at 
once  the  man  who  appeared  to  have  saved  him  he  bided  his  time, 
and  in  Mesopotamia  caused  Laetus  to  be  slain  in  a  camp  tumult.^ 
It  is  probable  that  there  was  neither  treachery  on  the  one  side  nor 
the  instigation   of  a  military  riot  on  the   other.      Dion  was   very 

*  .  .  .  .  rrjv  AiriiOiiav  riav  ffrparuar&v  (Dion,  Ixxv.  12). 

^  This  Lsetus  is  to  be  distinguished  from  the  defender  of  Nisibis,  who  was  in  that  city 
at  the  time  that  the  other  Laetus  was  in  Gaul. 

^  Dion,  Ixxv.  6.  Spartian  says  (Sev.,  11)  that  the  army,  believing  the  emperor  dead,  were 
ready  at  once  to  make  a  new  emperor. 

*  Dion,  Ixxv.  10.  This  author  contradicts  himself,  representing  Lsetus,  in  the  same 
sentence,  as  beloved  by  the  army,  and  then  tells  us  that  Severus  charged  them  with  the 
murder,  saying  that  they  had  conmiitted  it  irofxz  yvufuiv  aiftov. 


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74  THE   AFRICAN    AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

remote  from  the  spot  where  this  tragedy  took  place,  and  could 
only  give  currency  to  the  rumours  which  were  in  circulation  in 
Rome.  Now  two  things  in  this  narrative  are  absolutely  contrary 
to  the  known  chamcter  of  this  emperor:  the  long  hesitation  before 
striking  the  man  whose  death  he  had  resolved  on;  and  the 
dangerous  method  he  is  said  to  have  employed,  the  instigation  of 
a  camp  tumult,  which  no  man  can  be  sure  of  arresting  at  the 
desired  point.      Certain  it  is  that  Lsetus  was  killed  by  the  soldiers, 


Septimius  Severus  aud  his  Two  Sons/ 

and  we  know  that  disorders  of  this  kind  were  then  frequent  in 
the  army ;   he  doubtless  lost  his  life  in  endeavouring  to  allay  one. 

At  Ctesiphon  the  emperor  had  abandoned  all  the  spoils  to  the 
soldiery.  To  thank  their  chief  by  gratifying  his  paternal  affection, 
the  army  saluted  Bassianus  with  the  title  of  Augustus  and  pro- 
claimed Geta  Csesar.  To  the  former  Severus  gave  the  tribunitian 
power  (198).  Caracalla,  though  only  eleven  years  of  age,  was 
then  associated  in  the  Empire,  honours  which  were  premature  and 
fatal  to  their  object.      In  this  elective  empire  the  tendency  towards 

*  Cabinet  de  France,  cameo.  No.  250,  sardonyx  of  three  layers,  25  millim.  by  80.  Two 
victories,  each  standing  on  a  globe,  are  crowning  Caracalla  and  Geta.  The  emperor  is  holding 
the  hand  of  his  second  son  over  a  lighted  altar.    Below  it  a  half-effaced  inscription :  {vnip  Tt)v) 

NBIKHN  TON  KYPIQN For  the  victory  of  our  lords.     M.  Chabouillet  remarks  (pp.  laud., 

p.  437)  that  the  title  of  dominus  or  Kvpioq,  does  not  appear  on  Roman  coins  until  after  the 
time  of  Diocletian;  Caligula,  Domitian,  and  Trajan,  had  already  taken  it,  or  allowed  it  to  be 
ascribed  to  them,  and  it  is  frequent  in  inscriptions,  especially  dating  from  Severus  and  his 
sons. 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JUUANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO    211    A.D.       75 

heredity  was  irresistible.  The  father  always  yielded  to  this  natural 
sentiment,  and  his  will  was  always  accepted.  And  yet,  with  the 
one  exception  of  Titus,  the  hereditary  succession  had  given  Rome 
only  bad  rulers,  Caligula,  Domitian,  and  Commodus.  "The  desig- 
nated emperor "  would  soon  add  to  this  list  a  name  which  is  one 
of  the  most  odious  in  history.^ 

Notwithstanding  his   unsuccessful   attempt   upon  Atra,   Severus 

had  struck  really  a  heavy  blow  in  the  East.     The  fall  of  Ctesiphon 

had  resounded  even  in  the  most  distant  provinces,  and  everywhere 

was    extolled    the    great    conqueror    of    the    Parthians,    Parthicum 

Maximum.    The  Empire  had  not  been  materially  aggrandized,  which 

would  have  been  a  useless  thing ;    but 

a    salutary    terror    had    been    inspired 

among  those  who  had  been  accustomed 

to  break   over   its   frontiers,  and    these 

~  nations  were   reduced   to   quiet  for   the 

Pncator  orbis,^  ^         •    t_  i.  •  Fundator  pads.* 

next  eighteen  years  in  consequence. 
Severus  therefore  merits  the  title  that  he  received  of  propagator 
imperii.  Many  others  were  given  him,*  such  as  pacator  orbis, 
fundator  pacisj  etc.,  for  the  power  attested  by  such  constant  good 
fortune  had  excited  an  enthusiasm  at  once  servile  and  grateful. 
To  this  countless  inscriptions,  especially  in  the  African  and  Hellenic 
provinces,  bore  witness.  .Athens,  which  had  to  obtain  pardon  for 
not  having  been  able  to  foresee  the  success  of  the  future  emperor, 
signalized  herself  by  the  fervour  of  her  zeal,  and  numberless  cities 
offered  the  sacrifice  of  the  bull.* 

Through  his  wife,  Julia  Domua,  Severus  was  half  Syrian. 
Before  his  accession  to  the  Empire  he  had  commanded  the  Fourth 
Scythian  Legion  in  Syria  (182-184);    after  the  death  of  Niger  he 


^  Spartian  in  his  memoir  of  Severus  (20)  calls  the  attention  of  Diocletian  to  the  fact  that 
it  was  very  rarely  that  a  great  man  left  a  son  optimum  et  utilem  ....  aut  sine  Itberis  viri 
interieruntf  aut  tales  habuerunt  plerique,  ut  melius  fuerit  de  rebus  humanis  sine  posteritate 
discedere.  Diocletian,  however,  had  no  sons,  and  this  was  a  consolation  that  the  imperial 
historiographer  took  occasion  to  offer  him. 

^  Reverse  of  a  gold  coin  of  Severus.    The  legend  surrounds  the  radiate  head  of  the  sun. 

'  Severus  veiled,  holding  an  olive-hranch.     Reverse  of  a  gold  coin. 

*  C.  /.  Z.,  ii.  1 ,669. 1,670, 1,060,  etc.    Cf.  Cohen,  iii.  Nos.  118-122, 360-6,  610-12. 

*  Herzberg  {die  Gesch.  Oriechenl.  unter  der  Hen'sch.  der  Rom.),  who  collects  the  minutest 
details,  has  not  been  able  (vol.  ii.  pp.  421  et  seq.)  to  derive  anything  of  importance  from  these 
inscriptions.    See  also  Renier,  Imcr.  d'AJg.,  Nos.  2,150,  2,322,  2,374,  2,466,  etc. 


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76  THE   AFRICAN   AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

remained  there  more  than  two  years,  and  after  the  death  of 
Albinus  four  years  more.  He  therefore  well  understood  these 
countries  and  their  needs.  But  for  what  purpose  did  he  stay  there 
so  long,  especially  after  the  Parthian  war  was  at  an  end?  It  cer- 
tainly could  not  have  been  pleasure  which  detained  him  so  long 
in  the  Oriental  provinces.  Gratifications  of  the  senses  could  have 
had  no  hold   upon   such   a   man,    who   had   an   ambition   for   great 


A  Victory  sacrificiDg  the  Bull  of  the  Roman  Triumphs.     (Bas-relief  in  the  Louvre.) 

things  and  consequently  a  contempt  for  petty  ones.  His  biographer 
says,  speaking  of  one  of  the  provinces,  that  Severus  made  many 
regulations  there,  of  which  the  foolish  writer  does  not  give 
us  one.  We  may  be  sure  that  he  employed  his  leisure  in 
strengthening  discipline  among  the  legions,  in  fortifying  the  out- 
posts, in  establishing  order  in  the  land,  security  upon  the  highways, 
and  that  he  introduced  Eoman  civilization  into  these  provinces 
that  he  might  the  better  count  upon  their  fidlslity.  The  few 
facts    revealed    by     those     unexceptionable    witnesses,     coins    and 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULTANUS,    ETC.,    180    TO    211    A.D.       77 

medals,  permit   us   to   conjecture   those  which  official   history  hides 
from  us. 

First,    between    the   Euphrates    and    the   Tigris,    he    organized 
Mesopotamia  as  a  province.      He  gave  it  for  a  permanent  garrison 
two   legions   which  he  had  created  during  the  war,   the   First   and 
Third   Parthian,*    and   he   increased    the    power    of    these    military 
forces  by  multiplying  in  the  new  province  the  civil  Roman  element. 
Colonists   were    established   at   Nisibis,    the    central 
stronghold    of    the    country,     which    received    the 
emperor's  name,   Septimia  ;    at  Rhesoena,  where  the 
Third    Parthian     had     its     headquarters,     between 
Nisibis  and  Thapsacus,  at  the  great  passage  of  the 
Euphrates ;     at    Zaitha,    the    city    of    olive-trees,^ 

.,       .     ,  J.  .  ,    ,       *  ^..  .  ,       ,        Coin  of  Rhesaena.* 

situated  on  the  same  river  below  Circesium  and  at 

the  entrance  of  the  high  road  to  Palmyra.     The  Syrian  desert  had 

become  Quiritary  land. 

On  the  north-west  of  the  province  the  king  of  Osrhoene  had 
given  up  to  the  emperor  his  children  as  hostages,  and  had  furnished 
well-trained  archers  for  the  campaign  against  the  Parthians ;  V  o^ 
the  north  the  king  of  Armenia  had  been  supported  in  his  fidelity 
to  the  Empire;  on  th«  south  the  garrison  of  Zaitha  kept  the 
Arab  chiefs  in  obedience;  and  on  the  east  the  passage  of  the 
Tigris  was  secured  by  the  occupation  of  Nineveh,  where  Tmjan 
had  established  veterans,  and  where  Severus   must   have  left  some 

*  The  //.  Parthica  \7as  brought  back  into  Italy  by  Severus ;  it  had  its  headquarters  at 
Albanoy  where  have  been  found  its  cemetery  and  countless  inscriptions  due  to  it.  (Henzen, 
Annali,  1867,  pp.  37  et  seq.)  It  is  useless  to  try  to  distinguish  the  measures  adopted  by  Severus 
in  hia  first  and  in  his  second  residehce  in  Mesopotamia. 

*  Septimia  col.  Nisibis  (Dion,  Ixxv.  3 ;  Eckhel,  vii.  617).  Eckhel,  vii.  618.  Amm.  Marcell., 
xxiii.  5. 

'  Bronze  of  the  Emperor  Decius  making  mention  of  the  ///.  Parthica :  CEn(timia) 
PHCHINHCIQN  E  III  P,  around  a  temple,  beneath  which  a  river  or  water-god  is  swimming,  a 
personification  of  the  Chaboras,  the  city  being  situated  near  the  head  waters  of  this  aJfiuent 
of  the  Euphrates. 

*  Later  this  king  came  to  Rome,  between  the  years  203  and  208,  to  renew  his  promises  of 
fidelity.  Severus  received  him  there  with  great  display  (Dion,  Ixxix.  1(5).  In  respect  to  the 
Armenians,  Saint  Martin,  in  his  M&moires  sur  VAnnSme  (vol.  i.  p.  301),  speaks  of  an  invasion 
of  Khazars  who,  having  traversed  the  gorges  of  Derbend  in  the  Caucasus,  and  crossed  the 
Kour,  are  said  to  have  defeated  the  Armenians,  and  slain  their  king  Vologeses  or  Wagharsh, 
in  the  year  198  a.d.  These  events  explain  easily  enough  why  Severus  had  no  need  of  protect- 
ing himself  against  them  at  the  time  of  his  descent  upon  Ctesiphon.  Between  the  Parthians 
who  threatened  them  from  the  south-east,  and  the  barbarians  who  menaced  them  on  the 
north,  the  Roman  alliance  was  a  necessity  for  the  Armenians. 


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78  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

to  defend  this  outpost  of  the  Empire.^  He  had  therefore  firmly 
established  his  authority  between  the  two  rivers,  protected  by  the 
Armenian  mountains  and  defended  by  a  whole  system  of  fortresses 
and  colonies;  and  for  centuries  to  come  this  province  remained  the 
bulwark  of  the  Empire. 

After  the  death  of  Niger  he  had  united  Lycaonia  and  Isauria 
to  Cilicia,  in  order  to  constitute  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Syria  a 
great  province  to  protect  that  gate  to  the  East;^  for  contrary 
reasons  he  divided  the  province  of  Syria,  which  had  hitherto  given 
hopes  of  too  ambitious  range  to  those  placed  in  command  over  it: 
on  the  north,  Commagene  and  Hollow  Syria,  that  is  to  say,  the 
valley  through  which  the  Orontes  flows  to  Antioch  and  the  sea, 
making  itself  a  passage  between  the  Amanus  and  Mount  Lebanon; 
on  the  south  and  cast,  Phoenician  Syria,  including  all  the  sea-shore, 
and  on  the  eastern  slope  of  Lebanon,  into  the  very  midst  of  the 
desert,  Heliopolis,  Emcsa,  Damascus,  and  Palmyra.  The  two  roads 
which  led  into  Mesopotamia  crossing  the  Euphrates,  the  one  at 
Thapsacus,  the  other  at  Oircesium,  were  thus  guarded  by  two 
armies,'  and  they  were  well  guarded.  The  emperor  intrusted  the 
government  of  Coele-Syria  to  one  of  his  ablest  lieutenants,  Marius 
Maximus,  whom  Spartian  calls  "a  very  severe  general,"  and  there 
is  reason  to  suppose  that  Phoenician  Syria  was  given  in  charge  to 
some  other  experienced  captain.  After  the  battle  of  Issus  Severus 
had  chastised  Antioch  with  great  harshness,  for  the  reason  that 
severity  was  natural  to  him;  this  city,  however,  remained  the  most 
important  city  in  the  Roman  east,  and  he  was  too  great  a  ruler  to 
consult  his  personal  rancour  rather  than  the  interest  of  the  State, 
after  he  had  satisfied  justice,  or  what  he  regarded  as  justice. 
Antioch,  like  Byzantium,  therefore,  was  first  punished  and  after  that 
favoured.  On  his  return  from  Mesopotamia  he  stopped  in  the  old 
Syrian  metropolis,  not  for  the  purpose  of  enjoying  the  delights  of 
Daphne,  in  the  pleasure-haunted  shades  of  the  sanctuary  of  Apollo, 
but  to  efface  the  memory  of  his  former  severities.  There  he  gave 
his  eldest  son  the  toga  virilis  (201),  and  a  year  later  the  consulship, 

'  Upon  the  coiiis  of  Trajan's  reign  Nineveh  is  called  Colonia  Aiiguata.  Dion,  a  con- 
temporary of  Severus,  says  of  Nineveh  :  yf^uTspa  Itrri  koi  httoikoc  rmdv  vofiiZirai  (xxxvi.  6). 

^  Lebas  and  Waddington,  Voyage  archiol^  No.  1,480.  The  inscription  in  No.  616  shows 
these  two  provinces  united  to  Galatia. 

*  Under  Alexander  Severus  there  were  five  legions  in  Syria  and  in  Palestine. 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO    211    A.D.       79 

which    he    wished    to    share    with    Caracalla.      This    was    treating 
Antioch   as   a   capital.      These   solemnities   and   their   accompanying 


Plaques  of  Gold  of  the  Second  or  Third  Century,  found  in  Syria.    No.  1,  Dionysus; 
No.  2,  Silenus;    No.  3,  a  Box  in  which  the  Plaques  were  kept.^ 

festivities  had  their  eifect  in  bringing  the  frivolous  city  into 
friendly  relations  with  the  new  dynasty,  and  Severus  completed  the 
reconciliation  in  causing  magnificent  baths  to  be  built  at  Antioch.^ 

*  Cabinet  de  France.  Cf.  Gazette  archdoL,  1875,  pi.  2;  and  p.  513,  a  dissertation  by  Baron 
de  Witte. 

^  Chronicles  of  Eusebius  and  S.  Jerome,  ai  ann.  202,  and  Malalas,  p.  294,  in  the  Byzantine 
Chronicle. 


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BO  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

In  Phoenician  Syria  great  public  works  were  undertaken. 
Four  military  milestones,  which  have  been  found  on  the  road  from 
Sour  to  Sayda,  all  bearing  the  same  inscription,  dated  in  the  year 
198,  show  the  emperor's  lieutenant  putting  in  repair  the  roads  in 
this  province ;    the  name  of  Severus    engraved   upon   another   mile- 


Roman  Bridge  in  Syria  (at  Abu-el-as-Waad;   Syrian  coast)/ 

stone  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Laodicea  proves  that  the  same  orders 
had  been  given  in  respect  to  Syria  Prima.^ 

The  Syrian  region  sloping  down  to  the  Mediterranean  Sea  had 
long  been  in  possession  of  all  the  advantages  that  ancient  civiliza- 
tion could  bestow.  Alexander  and  his  successors  had  Hellenized 
these  populations  of  Punic  or  Aramaean  origin,  and  the  colonies 
that  Rome  had  established  there,  the  garrisons  maintained  there  by 
her,  had  introduced  her  language,   which  the  soldiers  were  obliged 

*  From  the  Album  de  voyat/c  dii  due  de  LuyneSy  pi.  7. 

*  C.  /.  Z.,  iii.  No.  203.     Waddington,  Inscr.  de  Syn'e,  1S38. 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180    TO    211    A.D.       81 

to  employ.*  Tyre,  which  had  been  burnt  by  Niger's  Moors,*  was 
repeopled  by  the  veterans  of  the  Third  Gallic  Tjegion,  and  obtained 
the  jus  Italicum.  Berytus,  where  dwelt  the  descendants  of  the 
legionaries  of  Augustus,  had  long 
enjoyed  this  right,  and  the  city 
contained  the  most  important 
school  of  Roman  law:  Papinian, 
Ulpian,  and  all  those  juriscon- 
sults whose  ^^  Judaisms''  have 
been  noted  in  the  Pandects^  were 
students  here.  Berytus  had  at 
first  declared  against  Severus. 
We  do  not  know  whether  the 
city  was  punished  for  this,  or 
whether  Papinian  appeased  the 
emperor's  anger.  At  any  rate, 
she  quickly  changed  her  atti- 
tude: an  inscription  of  the  year 
196  found  in  the  neighbourhood 
contains  the  expression  of  the 
city's  desire  for  the  safety  of 
Severus  and  Julia  Domna,  the 
mother  of  the  camps.* 

On  the  eastern  slope  of  the 
Lebanon  and  beyond  the  Jordan 
Rome  had  had  much  to  do. 
Before    Trajan's    time    Bataneea 

(Hauran)  and  Tmchonitis  (Ledja)        ^^^-^  ^^^^^^  ^,^  ^..,^  ^,  y^^.^^^^, 
were    the    same    that    they    are 

to-day,    wildernesses    traversed    by   savage    nomads.      Agrippa,    the 
Jewish   king,    said   to   them :     "  You  live  like  wild  beasts  in  their 


*  Upon  the  statue  of  Memnon  aU  proakynemata  of  soldiei's  or  officials  are  in  Latin ;  see 
Letronne,  Insa:  dtlgyptej  ii.  324. 

^  Herod.,  iii.  8. 

'  Waddington,  Inter,  de  Syrie,  1843.  Under  Caracalla,  the  Third  Gallic  Legion  cut 
through  rocks  (the  inscription  says  mountains)  which  obstructed  the  course  of  the  Lycus. 
(Ibid.,  1&45.) 

*  Statue  of  Luni  marble.  Museum  of  the  Capitol.  This  statue  has  been  preserved  with 
the  antique  head. 

vor..  vr.  (} 


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82  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

lairs."  ^  Trajan  and  Hadrian  had  introduced  order  and  life  into 
these  regions,  where  had  arisen  great  and  splendid  cities;  and 
Severus  carried  on  their  work.  Doubtless  he  also  visited  the 
province  of  Arabia,  where  a  Eoman  legion  had  not  long  before 
revolted.  The  name  of  Septimiani,  borne  by  the  decurions  of 
Bataneea,  connects  with  his  reign,  by  a  tie  which  unfortunately  we 
cannot  trace,  the  municipal  organization  of  this  region.  Euins  of 
cities  are  found  here  whose  inhabitants  had  the  language,  the 
measures,  calendar,  and  many  usages  belonging  to  Rome.^  An 
imperial  legate  wrote  to  these  Arabs,  into  whose  country  the 
modem  traveller  now  penetrates  only  at  the  risk  of  his  life,  as  he 
would  have  wiitten  to  the  magistrates  of  Spain  or  Gaul,  to 
guarantee  them  against  the  abuse  of  military  billet— a  proof  that 
on  this  remote  frontier  the  Roman  administration  showed  the  same 
care  as  in  the  oldest  provinces.'  At  Bostra,  the  capital  of  the 
province  of  Arabia,  legends  on  medals  in  Trajan's  time  were  Greek; 
a  few  years  after  Severus  they  were  Latin.^ 

It  is  uncertain  whether  the  forty-two  block-houses,  whose 
remains  are  counted  between  Damascus  and  Palmyra,  were  con- 
structed by  Severus  or.  by  Hadrian,  or  even  at  an  earlier  date/ 
We  only  know  that  Severus  kept  them  well-supplied  with  men  and 
provisions,   for  if   we   do   not  find   traces    of    him   in  any   certain 

*  l/juputKkvffavTfc  (Waddington,  op.  cit.,  2,329).  Cf.  Josephus,  A7U.  Jud.,  xiv.  15,  5,  and 
vol.  iii.  p.  626  of  this  work. 

^  Cf.  Herizen,  Bull,  de  Vlnst.  archSol.,  1867,  pp.  204  et  seq.  Waddington,  Inscr.  de  Si/rie, 
2,136  et  seq, 

^  "  If  any  soldier  or  traveller  forcibly  seeks  lodging  among  you,  write  me  to  obtain 
reparation.  You  owe  nothing  to  strangers,  and  since  you  have  a  caravanserai  (^tvwva)  to 
receive  them,  you  cannot  be  compelled  to  take  them  into  your  own  houses.  Post  this  letter  in 
some  public  place  in  your  city  where  it  m^y  easily  be  read  by  all  men,  so  that  none  can  plead 
ignorance  as  an  excuse."  (Waddington*,  Inscr.  de  Syrie,  2,  424.)  The  author  of  this  letter  is 
a  legate  of  Alexander  Severus. 

*  Waddington,  ibid.y  460. 

*  See  vol.  V.  p.  81  of  this  work.  According  to  Peutinger's  map  it  was  212  miles  from 
Damascus  to  Palmyra.  Porter  (Handbook  for  Syna)  reckons  it  forty  hours'  walk  from  one 
city  to  the  other.  MM.  de  Vogii^  and  Waddington  have  also  found  relay-stations  of  Roman 
soldiers  along  a  road  leading  from  Bostra  to  Palmyra  across  a  desolate  region.  Unfortunately 
the  graffiti  that  they  have  read  there  give  no  dates.  {Inscr,  de  Syrie,  522.)  In  the  African 
Sahara  the  same  precautions  were  taken ;  cf .  vol.  v.  p.  198  of  this  work,  and  Arch,  des  Missions, 
1877,  pp.  362  et  seq.  When  we  find  the  desert  everywhere  bordered  with  Roman  forts  it  is  easy 
to  understand  that  the  provinces  behind  them  must  have  enjoyed  a  prosperity  which  they  lost 
when  the  misfortunes  of  the  Empire  caused  that  vigilant  police  to  disappear.  An  inscription 
found  at  Palmyra  in  1882  proves  that  as  early  as  the  time  of  Augustus  tliat  city  was  in  some 
degree  dependent  upon  the  Romans.     {Bull,  de  Corr,  hellen.f  1882,  p.  439.) 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180    TO    211    A.D.       83 

manner  on  the  road  leading  to  Palmyra,  we  do  find  them  at 
Palmyra  itself.  This 
great  mart  of  the 
desert,  this  Syrian 
outpost  on  the  middle 
Euphrates,  had '  fur- 
nished Severus  with 
most  useful  succour 
in  his  expedition 
against  Babylon. 
Like  all  commercial 
cities,  Palmyra  was 
cosmopolitan.  Par- 
thians  and  Armenians 
and  Romans  were 
there,  also  Greeks 
and  a  Jewish  colony 
of  importance,  some 
of  whose  members 
rivalled  the  most  con- 
siderable native  Pal- 
myrenes  in  wealth.^ 
Accordingly,  like 
Alexandria,  the  city 
had  a  juridiciis  to 
settle  disputes  which 
might  arise  between 
foreigners.^  The 
family  of  the  Odainath 
already  held  the  first 
rank  in  Palmyra. 
One  of  them,  Hairan, 
doubtless  strategus  of 

,1  ',        •        .^        ,.  Palmyra.     Royal  Tomb. 

the   City  m  the  time 

of  the  Parthian  war,   so  ably  seconded  Severus  by  his   knowledge 

of    localities    and    by    the    supplies    that    he    was    able    to    furnish 

*  De  Vogiie,  Inscr.  sSmit.,  7,  16,  6o  ef  passim. 

^  AiKaiodoTiji.    Cf.  Waddington,  Inscr.  de  ^Si/rie,  2,606a. 

g2 


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84  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

to  the  legions,  that  the  emperor  permitted  him  to  assume  the  name 
of  Septimins,  which  from  that  time  became  the  gentilitium  of  the 
great  Pahnyrene  family.  In  the  same  way  Herod  the  Great  had 
been  authorized  by  Augustus  to  unite  himself  to  the  family  of  the 
Caesars  by  adding  to  his  own  names  that  of  Julius.  When  sixty 
years  later  an  Odainath,  who  had  assumed  the  title  of  "king  of 
kings,"  made  himself  the  protector  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  the 
East,  his  prsenomen  Septimius  recalled  the  time  when  his  pre- 
decessors were  but  the  clients  of  the  emperor  Severus. 

The  desert  cities  changed  their  conditions  as  the  Arab  sheiks 
changed  their  names:  the  Tadmor  of  Solomon's  time  was  at  this 
time  a  Roman  colony,  invested  with  the  privileges  of  the  jiis 
Italicum ;  it  had  duumvirs  (aTpar^yoi)^  sediles  (ayopauofioty  and 
assemblies  of  senate  and  people.  By  its  monuments  it  seems  of 
Greek  origin,  by  its  institutions  of  Roman.  It  even  had  its  dis- 
tributions: frumentary  tesserae  have  been  found  there,  and  tickets 
available  for  com  and  oil,^  and  among  its  citizens  were  Roman 
knights  and  senators.  Severus  had  already,  it  is  probable,  assigned 
to  it  for  a  garrison  that  body  of  cavalry  which  we  find  there  at  a 
later  period.* 

Then,  as  now,  the  wandering  Ambs  were  obliged  during  the 
summer  to  lead  their  flocks  to  the  springs  of  Palmyra  or  to  the 
pastures  of  Djebel-Hauran.*  By  strongly  occupying  these  points 
the  Romans  made  themselves  masters  of  the  desert,  and  preserved 
order  in*  it  better  than  has  ever  been  done  since. 

At  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  Hauran,  in  the  midst  of 
what  seems  an  accursed  region,  rises  a  volcanic  hill  at  whose  base 
is  a  Roman  camp  with  walls  over  six  feet  in  thickness,  flanked 
with  towers  and  protected  by  a  moat:  a  resolute  band  within  this 
fort  could  bid  defiance  to  all  the  Arabs  of  the  desert.  On  the 
summit  of  the  hill  an  outpost  kept  watch  over  this  vast  plain, 
where  are  seen  ruins  of  baths  and  of  houses.      "Before  us,"  says 

^  In  other  Greek  and  Syrian  cities  the  sediles  hore  the  ^ame  of  bishops,  lirhKoirot,  or 
supervisors. 

^  De  yogu6,  Inscr.  $6mit.y  16,  146-7,  and  Waddington,  Inacr.  de  Syrie,  2fi06a,  2,607, 
and  2,629. 

"  Waddington,  ibid,,  2,680. 

*  The  chiefs  of  these  nomads  were  called  ethnarchs,  strategi,  or  ol  dirb  tOpov^  vofidSutp.  Gf. 
Waddington,  op,  cit,,  p.  511.  Certain  of  these  tribes  retain  the  same  names  they  bore  eighteen 
centuries  ago.     {Ibid.,  p.  625,  No.  2,287.) 


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COMMOBUS,    PEBTINAX,    DIDIUS  JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO   211    A.D.      85 

M.  de  Vogu^,  "no  European  had  ever  disturbed  this  solitude."* 
But  the  Eomans  had  been  there,  and  they  had  brought  civilization 
and  security. 

Thus  a  regular  form  of  life  was  making  its  introduction  into 
these  desolate  solitudes.  Sheltered  by  fortified  posts  which  bordered 
"the  land  of  thirst,'^  cities  came  into  existence  in  the  valleys  to 
which  canals  brought  down  the  mountain  streams;'  a  municipal 
rule  was  developed  there,  and  inscriptions  speak  to  us  of  strategi 
and  decuriones  in  places  where  was  lately  heard  only  the  jackaPs 
howl.  Often  from  the  summit  of  a  mass  of  ruins  the  traveller 
sees  in  the  distance  great  blocks  of  basalt  placed 
regularly  and  framed  with  a  double  row  of  larger 
blocks  which  rise  above  the  surface.  It  is  a 
Roman  road  which,  after  the  passage  of  fifteen 
centuries,  makes  known  that  a  great  nation  has 
been  there.' 

Coin  of  Septimius 

At  countless  points  upon  this  Biblical  soil  we  Severus  struck  at 
find  the  Boman  imprint.  In  extreme  antiquity 
the  plateau  of  Baalbec  bore  a  sanctuary  of.  Baal,  the  great  god  of 
the  Semitic  tribes;  but  the  magnificent  ruins  now  to  be  seen  on 
that  spot  date  from  the  times  of  the  Antonines  and  Severus.*  We 
must  therefore  invert  the  words  of  Juvenal:  it  is  not  now  that 
the  Orontes  flows  into  the  Tiber;  in  the  second  century  and  at 
the  beginning  of  the  third  of  the  Christian  era,  the  Tiber  flows 
in  the  desert,  bearing  the  spirit  of  the  Empire  and  its  arts  even 
to  the  remote  city  of  Petra. 

Severus  had  followed  the  track  of  Trajan  as  far  as  Ctesiphon; 
he  also  followed  Hadrian's  track  in  Palestine  and  Egypt. 

*  La  tSk/rie  centrale,  by  M.  de  Vogii^. 

*  Waddington,  Inscr.  de  St/rie,  2,296  and  2,801,  U  vpovoiac  of  Corn.  Palraa.  The  first 
care  of  Corneliua  Palma,  the  conqueror  of  Arabia,  had  been  to  furnish  a  supply  of  water  to  the 
new  subjects  of  the  Empire.  In  pursuing  this  excellent  policy  in  Algeria  the  French  have  but 
followed  a  Roman  example. 

*  "  The  Roman  road  from  Bostn;  to  Damascus  still  exists,  almost  in  its  original  condition," 
says  M.  Waddington,  "and  the  remains  of  many  others  are  found  here  and  there  in  these 
regions."  The  Septimian  coins  are  very  abundant  in  all  these  provinces,  and  to  this  epoch 
belong  the  ruins  of  Heliopolis,  the  temple  of  Jupiter  having  been  built  by  Septimius  Severus 
and  the  temple  of  the  Sun  by  Hadrian  and  Antoninus.  The  latter  building  was  destroyed  by 
Theodosius.    (Rerme  archSoL,  April,  1877.) 

*  AAPIANH  IlETFA.     The  personified  city  seated  upon  a  rock.     Reverse  of  a  bronze  coin. 

*  See  vol.  V.  of  tliis  work,  pp.  79-81,  HO,  and  the  Syria  of  the  Present  Dayy  by  Dr. 
Lortet. 


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86  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

Palestine,  as  usual,  was  a  prey  to  disorders.  Dion  speaks  of  a 
certain  robber-chief  who  devastated  Judeea  and  was  able  to  baffle 
all  his  pursuers.  One  day  he  had  the  audacity  to  enter  the 
emperor's  camp,  and  to  converse  with  Severus  as  though  he  had 
been  a  tribune   of   the   Roman  army.      No  one  suspected  the  rash 


liuins  of  Ileliopolis  (Baalbec).     Temple  of  Jupiter. 

act,  and  the  chief,  who  probably  only  wished  to  maintain  his 
independence,  returned  in  safety  to  his  mountains.  This  fact,  the 
story  of  BuUas,  one  of  the  curious  legends  of  Italian  outlawry,^ 
the  history  of  Matemus,  who,  under  Commodus,  pillaged  the  entire 
country  of  Gaul,  and  of  Numerianus,  the  false  senator,  of  whose 
exploits  we  have  recently  made  mention,  show  what  rapid  progress 

*  See  vol.  V.  p.  41)0. 


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Interior  of  the  Hmall  Temple  at  FJaalbec. 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO    211    A.D.       89 

disorganization  was  making  in  this  great  body,  the  Empire,  as 
soon  as  Commodi  and  Juliani  succeeded  the  Trajans  and  Hadrians. 
To  maintain  order  in  so  many  countries  and  amid  populations  so 
diverse,  it  was  plainly  needful  that  factious  persons,  senatorial 
mischief-makers,  ambitious  chiefs,  or  highway-robbers,  should  feel 
that  there  rested  upon  them  the  hand  of  an  energetic  ruler,  a  man 
whose  conscience  would  not  be  disturbed  by  any  severity  however 
extreme.  One  of  the  Odainath  of  whom  we  have  just  now  spoken 
was  planning  a  revolt  and  had  intrigued  with  the  Persians. 
Rufinus,  the  Roman  general  in  command,  put  him  to  death,  and, 
being  summoned  before  the  emperor  on  complaint  of  the  son  of 
the  murdered  man,  made  reply :  '^  Would  to  the  gods  that  the 
emperor  would  authorize  me  to  rid  him  of  the  son  also ! "  ^  This 
justice  was  summary;  but  it  had  the  effect  of  preventing  a 
Persian  invasion.  Is  it  safe  to  say  that  we  ourselves  in  Algeria 
or  the  English  in  India  have  never  acted  in  a  similar  manner? 
The  Roman  emperors  not  infrequently  found  themselves  in  the 
presence  of  these  formidable  perils,  when  what  was  believed  to 
be  the  safety  of  the  State  appeared  the  supreme  law. 

Severus  was  one  of  those  men  who  are  ready  to  sacrifice 
everything  to  the  public  tranquillity.^  Unfortunately,  he  included 
the  Christians  among  the  disturbers  of  the  provinces.  The  Jews 
and  Samaritans  had  just  recommenced  in  Palestine  with  weapons  in 
their  hands  their  ancient  quarrel.  Whether  the  Christians  were 
involved  in  it  is  not  now  clear.  But  this  rumour  of  disturbances 
on  account  of  religious  opinions  irritated  the  emperor.  The  legions 
struck  a  few  blows,  and  tranquillity  was  restored  by  some  execu- 
tions. Later,  the  senate  saw  fit  to  give  these  measures  taken  in 
the  interest  of  public  order  the  importance  of  a  victory.  When 
the  emperor  declined  to  make  a  triumphal  entry  into  Rome  in 
honour  of  the  taking  of  Ctesiphon,  the  senators,  to  pay  his  son 
a  compliment  and  to  give  Rome  a  holiday,  decreed  to  Caracalla  a 
Jewish  triumph.  In  order  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  these  dis- 
orders, "  Severus,"  says  his  biographer,  "  made  many  regulations 
during  his  stay  in  Palestine."     Of  these  we  know  but  one,  renewed 

*  De  Vogii^,  la  Syrie  centrale,  p.  30.    This  took  place  in  the  reign  of  Severus,  between  241 
and  £51. 

'  FiUt  delendanim  f actionem  cupidus  {Amy.  Victor,  de  C<B8.,  20). 


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90  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYEIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

from  the  old  imperial  decree  which  forbade  the  rabbis  to  practise 
circumcision  upon  men  of  other  races  than  their  own/  and  forbade 
the  Christians  to  make  proselytes.  The  same  measure  was  applied 
to  both  religions,  not  with  the  design  of  destroying  them,  but  in 
order  to  prevent  them  from  extending  themselves.  Elsewhere  we 
shall  see  that  the  results  of  this  edict  differed  extremely  in  the 
two  cases. 

It  was  not  the  intention  of  Severus  that  these  Jews,  shut  up 
by  his  edict  within  their  religion  and  their  race,  should  be  like 
pariahs  amid  their  fellow-citizens;  he  permitted  them  to  aspire  to 
municipal  honours,  dispensing  them  from  obligations  which  were 
inconsistent  with  their  religion.^  But  national  sentiment  was 
stronger  than  the  law;  the  Jews  remained  isolated  until  the  time 
when  Constantino,  anxious  to  recruit  the  exhausted  senatorial  class, 
ordered  that  all  who  had  the  requisite  landed  property  should  be 
included  in  it.^  This  however  brought  in  but  few  recruits,  for  the 
Jews,  considering  themselves  as  strangers  and  sojourners  in  any 
land  save  Palestine,  bought  neither  land  nor  houses;  they  already 
had  their  preference  for  property  that  they  could  carry  with  them 
wherever  they  went. 

From  Palestine  Severus  went  into  Egypt,  a  fruitful  land  where 
the  race  was  as  prolific  as  vegetation,*  numbering  at  this  time  over 
8,000,000,  with  few  slaves,  for  agricultural  labour  was  carried  on 
then,  as  now,  by  fellahs  of  free  condition,  and  the  industrial  labour 
by  a  multitude  of  Greeks  and  Jews.  Life  was  not  painful  in 
Egypt,  except  in  the  quarries,  which  were  worked  only  by  con- 
victs, and  to  this  industry  the  emperor  caused  great  activity  to  be 
imparted.*  At  Mount  Casius,  Severus,  like  Hadrian,  offered  a 
funeral   sacrifice   at   Pompey's   tomb,  and  thence  went  up  the  Nile 

*  See  vol.  iv.  p.  728.  An  edict  of  persecution  against  the  Jews  never  was  issued : 
Judaorum  sectam  nulla  lege  prohibitam  satis  constat  (Constitution  of  Theodosius,  anno  398. 
Cod.  Theod.,  xvi.  8  and  9). 

"  Honor es  adipisci  permisit,  sed  et  necessitates  eis  imposuit  qtue  superstitionem  eorum  non 
Usderent  (Digest,  1.  2,  8,  §  8). 
»  Cod.  Theod.,  xvi.  8,  8. 

*  Josephus  {Bell,  Jud.,  ii.  16,  4)  reckons  the  population  at  8,700,000,  a  number  which,  a 
hundred  years  later,  was  even  larger.    Of.  Letronne,  Joum.  des  Savants,  1844,  p.  484. 

*  An  inscription  of  Septimius  Severus  in  Egypt  consecrated  the  discovery  near  Philie  of 
new  granite  quarries,  whence  were  obtained  "  large  and  numerous  columns."  Cf .  Letronne, 
Joum,  des  Savants,  1886,  p.  684 ;  C.  I.  L.,  iii.  75.  llie  quarries  of  Djebel  Fatereh  continued  to 
be  worked  up  to  the  time  of  Diocletian. 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    DIDIU8   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO   211    A.D.       91 

by  the  Pelusiac  mouth. ^  He  visited  with  interest  the  pyramids  of 
Ghizeh,  finer,  or  at  least  more  regular  at  that  time,  because  they 
had  still  their  facing  of  stone;  the  great  Sphinx  at  their  feet,  a 
mysterious  monument  already  damaged  by  the  many  centuries  which 
had  then  passed  over  it,  and  repaired  by  Severus ;  the  Serapeum 
of  Memphis,  which  led  to  the  tombs  of  Apis,  which  a  Frenchman, 
Mariette,  has  rediscovered;    the  Labyrinth,  the  marvels   of  Thebes 


LSi^>sf •  Xl r   •  .        '    ■^^■' r7^A'.^^^^^jK>^irM ^ 


The  Egyptian  Sphinx. 

and  of  Philee,  and  the  rest.  He  had  explained  to  him  the  hiero- 
glyphics which  it  was  still  the  custom  to  put  on  the  walls  of  the 
temples;^  and  his  name  has  been  read  by  Champollion  at  the  side 
of  sculptures  which  the  emperor  ordered  for  the  pronaos  of  the 
great  temple  of  Esne.'  Memnon  still  spoke,  but  it  was  for  the 
last  time.  In  an  excess  of  pious  zeal,  Severus  restored  as  we  now 
see  it  this  colossus,  broken  in  the  time  of  Augustus;  but  from  the 
day  when  the  statue  no   longer  offered  to  the  rising  sun  its  wide 

*  Letronne,  Inscr.  dPigypte,  vol.  ii.  pp.  487-618. 

'  The  last  known  hieroglyphic  inscription  is  an  offering  of  the  Emperor  Decius  ahout  the 
year  250;  but  Letronne  is  of  opinion  that  the  use  of  this  writing  continued  as  late  as  the  sixth 
century.  (Journ.  des  Savants,  1843,  p.  464.)  Inscriptions  exist  in  which  the  Greeks  call  them- 
selves engravers  of  hieroglyphics.     (Letronne,  Inscr.  cPigyptCf  vol.  ii.  p.  476.) 

^  Lettres  Sorites  cfigypte,  p.  ^. 


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92  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

cleft  of  unequal  surface,  impregnated  with  the  dews  of   night,  the 
god  ceased  to  utter  ''  his  divine  voice."  * 

'^Curious  in  respect  to  all  things  human  and  divine,  even  the 

most  secret,"   Severus   informed  himself  as   to   the  sources   of  the 


The  Temple  of  Isis  at  Philae. 

Nile,  to  which  the  Romans  approached  very  near.*  Dion  Cassius 
speaks  of  them  in  mentioning  this  journey  of  the  emperor,  of 
which  he  probably  heard  the  story,  and,  if  he  is  deceived  in 
placing  the  sources  of  the  river  at  the  extremity  of  the  Maure- 
tanian   Atlas,  he  says  nearly  the   truth  when  he   speaks   of  it  as 

*  See  vol.  V.  p.  ^,  and  the  famous  paper  by  Letronne  upon  the  statue  of  the  Pharaoh 
Ameii'otep,  who  lived  about  the  year  1680  B.C.  No  one  of  the  inscriptions  engraved  upon  this 
colossus  is  later  than  the  time  of  Severus. 

'  Mariette's  last  discoveries  at  Kamak  prove  that  the  Pharaohs  had  bequeathed  to  their 
successors  a  much  more  complete  knowledge  of  the  valley  of  the  Upper  Nile  than  was  believed. 
The  armies  of  Thothmes  III.  certainly  penetrated  as  far  as  Cape  Kas-Hafun,  south  of 
C^ape  Guardafui,  probably  even  in  the  interior  going  beyond  Khartoum,  and  Ptolemy  speaks 
of  three  great  equatorial  lakes.  However,  Amm.  Marcellinus  (xxii.  15)  declares  the  sources  of 
the  Nile  to  be  imdiscoverable :  .  .  .  .  postera  ignorahunt  atates.  Nubian  inscriptions  state 
that  the  Blemmyes  and  the  Axumites  wore  conquered  by  Severus. 


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COMMODUS,    PEUTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO    211    A.D.       93 

emerging  from  vast  marshes  which  lie  at  the  base  of  a  high  moun- 
tain covered  with  snow.^  Severus  had  the  intention  of  penetrating 
into  the  upper  valley  of  the  Nile,  but  a  pestilence  breaking  out  he 
relinquished  the  design  and  returned  down  the  river  to  Alexandria. 
Here  he  visited  the  tomb  of  Alexander,   the  Museum,  always  busy 


Pylons  of  the  Temple  of  Isis  nt  PhilaD.^ 

with  its  useless  labours,^  and  the  library  of  the  Serapeum,  one 
of  whose  courts  was  adorned  with  the  famous  Pompey's  Pillar. 
The  emperor  was  pleased  with  this  city,  or  thought  it  politic  to 
appear  so.  The  Alexandrians  had  taken  sides  with  Pescennius, 
and  inscribed  upon  their  gates:  "This  city  belongs  to  Niger,  our 
master."  When  Severus  appeared  they  said  to  him :  "  Wo  did 
indeed   write   this,    but  were   well    aware    that    thou  wert   Niger's 

*  Dion,  Ixxv.  18. 

^  See  vol.  V.  p.  87,  the  restoration  of  this  temple. 

'  See  vol.  V.  p.  89.  In  respect  to  the  nuff<e  difficiles  of  the  Museum,  cf.  Letronne,  In^cr, 
cC6gypte,  vol.  ii.  pp.  399-400,  the  inscription  of  that  pensioner  of  the  Museum  who  calls  him- 
self an  Homeric  poet  because  he  composed  centos  of  Homer's  verses. 


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94  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

master."  ^  The  emperor  asked  no  better  excuse  to  pardon  them. 
He  restored  to  them  the  senate  and  municipal  magistrates  of 
which  Augustus  had  deprived  them,  revised  their  laws,^  restricted 
to  voluntary  jurisdiction  the  functions  of  the  Roman  juridicm^  who 


The  Pharaoh  Amen'otep  III.  (Memnon).     (Basalt  Statue  in  the  British  Museum.) 

had  been  for  over  two  centuries  the  supreme  judge  in  Alexandria, 
and  to  mark  his  confidence  in  this  province  he  cancelled  the  rule 
established  by  the  first  emperor,  that  Egypt  should  have  for 
governor    only   a  prefect  of   the  equestrian  order ; '    and  finally  he 

»  Spart.,  8ev.,  17. 

*  Dion,  li.   17.     Also  Malalas  says  (xii.   p.   293) :   'Iv^ovX^ffnac  avroiq  vapafrxuiv  lii^aro 
aitTovQ, 

^  Chronic.  Alea;,,  ad  ann.  202, 


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COMMODUS,    PERTINAX,    LIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180    TO    211    A.D.       97 

gave   the   city  a   gymnasium  and  a  great  temple,  which  lie  called, 
like  the  temple  built  by  Agrippa  at  Kome,  the  Pantheon.^     Severus, 
like   Trajan   and   Hadrian,    was    a    great  builder,    and    monumental 
Egypt  was  not  likely  to  discourage  his  taste  for  magnificent   con- 
structions.    The  worship  of  Serapis,  whose  sanctuaries  he  had  every- 
where found,^  particularly  attracted   him.      He  was   impressed  with 
that  powerful  synthesis  of  different  doctrines  by  which  the  heathen 
essayed  to  satisfy  the  ideas  then  dominant  of  divine  unity  and  of 
salvation  by  the  god  ^' master  of  light  and  of  dark- 
ness,  of  life  and  death."      Macrobius   has   preserved 
this   reply   of  an   oracle   of  Serapis:     "Who   am   I? 
I  will  tell  you  what  I  am:    the  vault  of  heaven  is 
my   head;   the   sea,    my   breast;    the    region   of   the 
sky,    my    ears;    and   my   eye,   the   brilliant   torch  of  Serapis, 

the  sun,  which  sees  all  things."^  Serapis  represented  Septimius Severus 
therefore  the  god  in  whom  all  others  were  united;  atPtolemais 
combined  with  Isis,  "the  goddess  of  a  thousand 
names,"  he  was  the  fecundating  force  and  the  natui'e  which  con- 
ceives ;  also  he  was  the  god  who  gave  safety  in  heaven  and  earth. 
His  temples  were  thronged  with  pilgrims;  the  walls  of  them  were 
hidden  with  offerings^  and  all  men  talked  of  the  miraculous  cures 
that  he  wrought,  while  the  old  divinities  remained  silent  and 
gloomy  at  their  deserted  altars.  Severus  and  those  who  accom- 
panied him  seem  to  have  been  won  over  to  this  cult.*  Caracalla, 
at  least,  consecrated  to  Serapis  many  temples,  even  some  in  Eome, 
notably  near  the  Colosseum,  a  sanctuary  of  Isis  and  Serapis  which 
gave  its  name  to  that  region  of  the  city;*  and  when  Severus  built 
a  Pantheon    at   Alexandria  we   are    led    to    believe    that    he   was 


^  An  inscription  (Letronne,  ibid.,  p.  463)  shows  hira  also  repairing  the  pavement  of  a 
temple.  If  so  many  epigraphic  monuments  had  not  perished  we  should  certainly  have  had 
more  numerous  proofs  of  the  works  ordered  by  Severus  in  Egypt. 

^  The  rhetorician  Aristides  enumerates  forty-three  in  Egypt.  To  this  author  Serapis  is  the 
god  of  the  gods,  who  rules  the  land  and  sea,  light  and  darkness,  life  and  death. 

^  Satum.f  I.  XX.  17. 

*  JucuTidajn  sibi  peregnnationem  hanc  propter  religionem  del  Serapidis  ....  Severus  ipse 
postea  semper  ostendii  (Spart.,  Sev.,  17). 

^  The  third.  The  worship  of  Isis  had  been  surreptitiously  introduced  into  Rome  as  early 
as  the  time  of  the  Second  Punic  War  (Val.  Max.,  I.  ii.  3),  and  two  centuries  before  the 
Christian  era  Delphi  already  had  a  Serapeion,  which  the  French  School  of  Atliens  has  recently 
discovered.  {BiUl.  de  corr.  HelUn.y  188:?,  p.  306.)  In  respect  to  this  cult,  see  vol.  v.  p.  706  of 
this  work.     Commodus  was  a  fervent  worshipper  of  Isis.     (Lamp.,  Comm.,  0.) 

VOL.    VI.  H 


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98  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180    TO    235    A.D. 

influenced  by  an  idea  of  religious  syncretism,  in  giving  the  name 
of  all  the  gods  to  a  temple  which  in  his  mind  he  dedicated  to  the 
One  Divine  Principle.  Thus  took  shape  this  new  form  of  paganism 
which  we  have  seen  coming  into  existence  in  the  preceding  cen- 
tury, which  prepared  the  way  for  the  Jehovah  of  the  Mosaic 
religion  J 

Notwithstanding  his  interest  in  religions,  Severus  was  no  more 
favourable  to  theological  quarrels  in  Egypt  than  he  had  been  in 
Palestine.  He  removed  from  all  the  sanctuaries  the  books  contain- 
ing secret  doctrines,  those  which  kept  alive  organizations  that 
existed  in  secrecy  and  were  prolific  in  seditious  schemes.  These 
books  he  did  not  destroy,  but  he  shut  them  up  in  the  tomb  of 
Alexander,  so  that  no  person  should  read  them.  He  was  a  true 
Eoman,  one  of  those  statesmen  and  soldiers  who  had  no  affection 
for  matters  which  the  sword  can  never  settle  and  by  which  govern- 
ments are  for  ever  disturbed.  But  he  was  also  a  man  of  fine 
intelligence.  Among  these  books  there  is  one  which,  instead  of 
proscribing,  he  certainly  admired,  the  Book  of  the  Dead^  which  we 
find  with  the  mummies,  as  it  were  a  voice  from  beyond  the 
tomb.  Here  are  words  like  these:  ''When  that  divine  principle, 
intelligence,    enters  a  human  soul,   it  seeks  to  rescue  it  from  the 

tyranny  of  the  body  and  raise  it  to  its  own  elevation Often 

it  triumphs;  then  the  conquered  passions  become  virtues,  the  soul, 
set  free  from  its  bonds,  aspires  to  good,  and  divines  the  eternal 
splendours  through  the  veil  of  matter  which  obscures  its  vision. 

''When  a  man  dies  his  soul  appears  before  Osiris,  and  his 
actions  are  weighed  in  the  infallible  balance.  If  it  is  pronounced 
guilty,  it  is  given  over  to  the  tempests  and  storms  of  the  combined 
elements,  until  it  can  return  into  a  body,  which  in  its  turn  it 
tortures  and  overwhelms  with  evils  and  drives  into  crime  and 
madness."  That  is  to  say,  the  wicked  man  is  a  condemned  soul 
expiating  the  sins  of  a  former  existence. 

But  heaven  opens  to  the  soul  which  can  say  to  its  judge :  '^  I 

*  See  vol.  V.  pp.  690  et  seq.  Severus  had  already  erected  in  Byzantium  a  temple  and  a 
statue  to  the  Sun,  Deo  Zeuxippo.  Malalas,  Chronogr,^  xii.  p.  291.  Tertullian  (ApoL,  24)  says 
himself  to  the  Romans :  Nonne  conceditis  de  estimatione  communi  aliquem  esse  sublimiorem  et 
potentiorem  velut  principem  mundi  ....  imperium  sumnus  dominationis  esse  penes  unum.  We 
shall  see  in  the  time  of  Aurelian,  Const^mtine,  and  Julian,  the  increasing  popularity  of  t!ic 
"worship  of  the  Sun. 


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C0MM0DU8,    PERTINAX,    DIDIUS   JULIANUS,    ETC.,    180   TO   211   A.D.       99 

have  followed  what  is  right  and  spoken  the  truth;  no  man  can 
complain  of  me;  I  have  cherished  ray  parents;  I  have  been  the 
joy  of  my  brothers  and  the  delight  of  my  servants.  I  have  com- 
mitted no  crime  or  abominable  act.  No  labourer  has  exceeded  his 
day's  work  for  me.  I  have  done  the  slave  no  ill  turn  with  his 
master,  nor  driven  the  flock  away  from  its  pasturage;  I  have  com- 
mitted no  adultery.     I  am  pure  !     I  am  pure  !  " 

And  again:  "I  have  neither  lied  nor  done  evil,  and  I  have 
sowed  joy,  giving  bread  to  the  hungry,  and  water  to  the  thirsty, 
and  garments  to  the  naked." 

"Then  this  pure  soul  rises  through  the  unknown  heavens.  Its 
knowledge  increases,  its  strength  is  augmented,  it  passes  through 
the  heavenly  dwelling  and  tills  the  mystic  fields  of  Aalu.  At  last 
the  day  of  the  blessed  eternity  dawns  for  it ;  it  is  united  with  the 
flock  of  the  gods  in  adoration  of  the  Perfect  One;  it  sees  God 
face  to  face,  and  is  lost  in  Him."* 

That  which  ancient  Egypt  had  so  long  kept  for  herself  alone 
was  now  spreading  through  the  world.  This  country,  of  which 
Bossuet,  judging  by  external  appearances,  said  that  all  was  god 
there  save  God  himself,  was  teaching  divine  unity,  the  judgment 
of  the  dead,  and  eternal  blessedness  gained  by  merit  in  our 
earthly  life.  From  Memphis,  from  Jerusalem,  from  Palmyra,  from 
even  remoter  lands,  a  current  of  ideas  was  setting  which  had  a 
general  similarity,  and,  meeting  another  current  from  Athens  and 
Bome,  was  destined  to  blend  with  it.  Upon  these  united  streams 
was  to  sail,  first  discreetly  and  silently,  but  presently  under  full 
sail,  8.  Peter's  bark  bearing  the  triumphant  cross. 

'  M.  Maspero,  Retme  critique,  1872,  p.  388. 


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CHAPTER  LXXXIX. 

ftOVEENMENT  OF  SEPTIMIUS  SEVEEUS  (193-211  A.D.). 

I. — The  Court;  Plaijtianus  and  Julia  Domna. 

THE  East  being  pacified  and  organized,  Sevems  returned  to 
Italy  through  Asia  Minor  and  Thrace.  Like  Hadrian,  he 
was  in  no  haste  to  return  to  the  fetes  and  intrigues  of  the  capital. 
It  seemed  to  him  more  useful  to  inspect  the  frontier  of  the  Danube 
which  he  had  not  visited  for  nine  years,  and  to  visit  the  armies  of 
McBsia  and  Pannonia  to  which  he  owed  his  throne.  "Everywhere," 
says  Herodian,  ''he  introduced  order  throughout  the 
provinces."^  We  admit  the  assertion  as  well-founded; 
unhappily,  however,  we  have  not  the  facts  to  prove  it. 
In  the  middle  of  the  year  202  ^  Severus  at  last 
came  back  to  Eome.  It  W6is  the  tenth  year  of  his 
^'iieturn^o/^^  reign.  At  this  point  it  had  been  the  custom  to  renew 
Septimius      the  imperial  powers,  mcra  decennalia ;   but  this  fiction 

Severus  to  Rome  . 

{Adventus  had  been  long  since  given  up.  The  solemnity  was  but 
an  anniversary  celebrated  with  great  magnificence. 
Severus  on  this  occasion  added  a  largess  of  50,000,000  drachmae, 
which  was  distributed  at  the  rate  of  1,000  sesterces  apiece^  among 
the  praetorians  and  all  those  who  received  public  com.  The  ruler 
had  his  share :  an  arch  of  triumph,  which  is  still  in  existence,  was 
erected  in  his  honour  at  the  foot  of  the  Capitol.  Its  proportions 
are  fine,  but  the  extreme  amount  of.  carving,  which  seems  the  work 
of  artisans  rather  than  of  artists,  betrays  the  decline  of  decorative 

^  Herod.,  iii.  10. 

*  There  exists  in  the  Code  Cii.  58, 1)  an  edict  dated  at  Sirmium  the  18th  of  March,  202,  and 
in  Cohen  (iii.  234)  a  coin  ....  ADVENT.  AUG.,  struck  in  the  third  consulship  of  Severus. 
An  inscription  of  Lambesa  (L.  Renier,  Inscr,  d'Alp.,  69)  gives  ground  for  the  supposition  that 
in  203  Severus  went  t-o  Africa. 

'  The  emperor  and  his  two  sons  on  horseback,  lifting  the  right  hand.     (Gold  coin.) 

*  Dion,  Ixxvi.  1  :  this  largess  implies  200,(X)0  persons  to  receive  it.     See  vol.  v.  p.  524. 


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GOVERNMENT   OF   SEPTIMIUS   SEVERUS,    193   TO    211    A.D.  101 

art.  A  long  inscription  states  that  the  arch  was  constructed  in 
honour  of  the  emperor  *'  who  has  strengthened  the  State  and 
enlarged  the  Empire."  * 

Two   years    later    were   celebrated    the    Secular    games,   which 


Arch  of  Septimiiis  Severus  at  Rome. 

brought  new  gifts'  to  the  people  and  the  soldiers.  Heralds  wont 
through  the  city  and  throughout  Italy  proclaiming :  "  Come  to 
these  games,  which  you  will  never  see  again."  The  last  ones  had 
been  given  by  Domitian  in  the  year  88.  Three  generations  were 
allowed   to  pass  between    one  celebration   of   these   games   and   the 


^  .  .  .  .  nh   rem  puhlicam   restitutayn   imperiumque  populi  Romant  propagatum    (Orelli, 
No.  91-2). 

*  Joseplius,  ii.  7:  Herod.,  iii.  ^;  Colien.  iii.  pp.  2o4  and  273. 


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102  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   236   A.D. 

next.      That  in  the  time  of   Severus  was  the    eighth    which    the 
Eomans  had  observed. 

At  this  time  there  was  in  Rome  a  man  almost  as  powerful  as 

the  emperor  himself,  Plautianus,  the  prefect  of  the   city.      It  will 

_  be   remembered  that  Augustus  had  seemed  to  divide 

the  authority  into  two  parts,   giving  up  one  part  to 

the  senate  and  reserving   the   other  for  the  emperor; 

and   that  he   had    constituted    two    kinds    of    offices, 

those    belonging    to    the    senatorial    order    and    those 

SuTm  (ies^    belonging   to   the   equestrian  order.      At  the  head  of 

(Sacuiaria       tj^e  former  was  the  prefect  of  the  city;    at  the  head 

of  the   latter,    the   praetorian    prefect.      This   division 

of  authority  was  not  a  real  one ;    the  truth  quickly  appeared,  and 

the   emperor  was  politically  what  he  must  be  in  such  a  condition 

of    society,    the    sole    power.^      He   absorbed    by    degrees   into   his 

council,^   which    was    composed   of  senators,    jurisconsults,    and-  the 

heads  of  the  imperial  judiciary,  almost  all  the  legislative,  judicial, 

and    administrative    power    of    the    senate.      The    latter    retained 

scarcely  any  other  function  than  that   of   registering   the   decrees 

determined  on  by  the  council. 

The  official  who  had  especially  the  imperial  confidwice,  since 
he  held  the  emperor's  life  in  his  hands,  was  the  man  who  gained 
most  by  this  change.  In  the  beginning  the  prsetorian  prefect  had 
no  other  duty  than  that  of  protecting  the  emperor's  person,  who, 
to  this  end,  had  invested  him  with  military  jurisdiction  over  all 
the  troops  stationed  in  Italy.''  The  Greeks  called  him  Vthe  king's 
sword,"*  and  he  followed  close  behind  the  emperor  in  all  military 
expeditions.  This  '*  sword,"  however,  the  emperor  employed  for 
all  kinds  of  uses.  Was  it  necessaiy  to  arrest  a  guilty  person,  to 
kill  an  innocent  one,  or  merely  to  make  preliminary  investigations, 
the  praetorians  were   there.      They  and  their   chief  owed  the   ruler 

^  Severus  veiled,  standing,  sacrificing  at  an  altar;  opposite  the  emperor,  Caracalla,  stand- 
ing ;  behind  the  altar.  Concord ;  at  the  left,  a  flute  player ;  at  the  right,  a  woman  playing  the 
lyre.    (Gold  coin.) 

'  I  mean  to  say  that,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  he  inevitably  became  the  political  and 
military  head,  but  he  was  not  obliged  to  become  the  sole  administrator. 

'  See  vol.  iii.  p.  718,  and  vol.  v.  pp.  109  et  seq. 

*  Except  the  urban  cohorts,  which  were  under  the  orders  of  the  prafectus  urbi,  (Dion, 
Iii.  24.) 

*  rb  ^aaiXuov  5i0oc  (Phil.,  Vita  Apoll.,  vii.  16). 


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GOVBRNMENT   OF   SEPTIMIUS   SEVERU8,    193   TO   211    A.D.  103 

a  military  obedience  in  whatever  he  might  command.  The  criminal 
jurisdiction  of  the  prefect  was  extended  at  first  from  the  soldiers 
to  the  slaves,  and  by  degrees  invaded  all  classes.  He  who  origin- 
ally was  only  the  emperor's  sword  became  "the  sharer  in  his 
labours,  his  assistant,"^  and  in  many  cases  his  representative,  vice 
sacra  agens^  as  was  the  phrase  later.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
council,  and,  in  the  emperor's  absence,  its  presiding  ofl&cer;  he 
shared  in  the  decision  and  execution  of  all  affairs,  assisted  the 
emperor  in  determining  matters,  took  his  place  with  delegated 
power  even  in  the  civil  jurisdiction,  and  received  appeals  in  his 
stead.  Alexander  Severus  afterwards  gave  the  sanction  of  law  to 
the  prefect's  decisions.*  He  was,  therefore,  with  undetermined  (and, 
therefore,  unlimited)  power  a  sort  of  prime  minister,  supreme  judge, 
and  in  certain  respects  commander-in-chief  of  the  army,  for  he  filled 
the  ofl&ce  of  superintendent  of  military  stores,  inspector  of  arras  and 
arsenals,  and  of  adjutant-general  in  military  operations.^  The 
practice  of  composing  the  active  army  of  detachments  selected  from 
the  different  legions,  and  placing  at  the  head  of  these  bodies  of 
troops  daces  having  no  territorial  command,  had  given  occasion  for 
this  new  duty  of  the  preetcnian  prefects.  They  are  the  predecessors 
of  those  viziers  of  the  mdtan  who  hold  in  one  hand  the  emperor's 
signet  and  in  the  other  the  standard  of  the  Empire. 

Such  was  the  authority  possessed  by  Perennis  under  Com- 
modtts,  and  now  by  Plautianus  under  Severus.  As  it  was  but  a 
reflection  of  the  imperial  authority  it  is  proper  for  us  to  distrust 
the  accusations  vaguely  made  against  the  prefects  of  the  good 
reigns.  Eulers  mindful  of  the  public  welfare  might  have  per- 
mitted great  severities,  but  they  would  not  have  authorized  crimes. 
This    remark  is  particularly  necessary  in    judging    of    Plautianus. 


'  SocttiA  laborum  (Tac.,  Ann,,  iv.  2)  and  adjutor  imperii.  Pomponius,  in  the  time  of 
Hadrian,  compared  the  praetorian  prefect  to  the  trihuue  of  the  celeres  under  the  kings  and 
the  master  eqvxtam  under  the  dictators.  {Digest,  i.  2,  2,  §  19.)  Herodian  (v.  1)  quotes  a 
letter  of  Macrinus  to  the  senate,  in  which  it  is  said  that  this  office  was  very  near  the  sovereign 
power,  TTiQ  wpa^eiOQ  oh  vo\v  ri  i^owiac  tcai  ivvofUutQ  fiafrikucrjg  airohov^Q,  sunmied  up  by 
Lampridius  {Diad.,  7)  in  the  words,  secundum  imperii.  See  also  what  is  said  by  Charisius  in 
the  Digest  (i.  11)  and  by  Dion  Oxxv.  14). 

""  In  236.    Cf.  Cod€y  i.  26,  2. 

'  Hist,  Axig,,  Qord,,  28-29;  Trig.  Tyr,,  11.  Later  he  had  the  duty  of  levying  that  part  of 
the  public  tax  which  served  for  the  pay  and  support  of  the  army  (Zosimus,  ii.  32),  and  already 
punished  financial  agents  guilty  of  extortion  (Paulus,  Senten.,  v.  12,  6). 


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104  THE   AFRICAN   AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235   A.D. 

Of  low  birth,  but  like  Severus  an  African,  and  possibly  a  member 
of  the  emperor's  family,^  he  had  followed  the  latter  in  all  his 
wars  at  the  head  of  the  guards,  and  in  the  intervals  between  these 
expeditions  he  doubtless  returned  to  Eome,  where  the  emperor  had 
need   of  a   man   upon   whom  he  could  rely.     The  authority  of  the 


Plautilla,  Wife  of  Caracalla.    (Marble  Bust  in  the  Louvre.) 

office    therefore   was    increased    by   the    absolute    confidence   which 
the  emperor  reposed  in  him  who  at  this  time  held  it. 

On  one  occasion  Plautianus,  however,  narrowly  escaped  a 
fatal  disgrace.  The  order  had  been  given  to  throw  down  the 
statues  of  the  prefect  which  he  had  erected  to  himself  near  those 

'  His  name  was  Caius  Fulvius  Plautianus.  As  the  mother  of  Severus  was  Fulvia  Pia,  and 
his  grandfather,  Fulvius  Pius,  Reimar  (ad  Dion,  Ixxv.  14)  concludes  from  this  that  Plautianus 
belonged  to  the  imperial  family.  In  certain  inscriptions  it  is  said,  adfinuty  D.D.  N.N.  (C.  I.  Z., 
iii.  6,075;  v.  2,821);  in  others.  Auffff.  necesmrvts  et  comes  per  omnes  e.rpeditiones  eorum 
(C.  7.  Z.,  V.  1,074).  Another  inscription,  No.  226,  includes  him  in  "the  Divine  House,"  and 
his  name  follows  that  of  the  Augusti,  the  Ca?snr  Geta,  and  the  Empress  .Tnlia. 


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GOVERNMENT   OF   SEPTIMIUS   SEVERUS,    193   TO   211    A.D.  105 

of  the  imperial  family,  and  Severus  had  used  the  formidable  ex- 
pression, "public  enemy,"  which  had  been  caught  up  and  repeated. 
But  Plautianus  had  regained 

the    emperor's    favour,    and  ^"^ 

the  ruler,  so  severe  towards 
others,  seemed  to  make  it 
his  duty  to  dissipate  the 
memory  of  his  momentary 
displeasure  by  loading  the 
prefect  with  public  expres- 
sions of  regard.  An  orator 
having  said  in  the  senate : 
"Before  Severus  does  any 
harm  to  Plautianus  the  sky 
will  fall,"  the  emperor 
remarked  to  the  senators  at 
his  side  that  this  was  true. 
"  I  could  not  injure  Plau- 
tianus," he  said,  "and  I 
hope  not  to  survive  him."^ 
The  emperor  had  violated, 
in  favour  of  his  prefect,  a 
rule  established  by  Augustus, 
twice  appointing  Plautianus 
consul,^  and  with  the  design 
of  securing  his  son  an  ex- 
perienced guide,  had  made  / 
his  prefect  the  father-in-law  t         /o*  *     -   .i,  ai  ^  x-    i    \ 

^  Juno.     (Statue  in  the  Museum  of  Naples.) 

of    the    designate    emperor. 

Dion  relates  that  he  saw  the  dowry  of  Plautilla,  "the  new  Juno,"' 

carried   into   the   palace,    and   that   it   was   enough   for  fifty  kings' 

daughters. 

^  Dion,  Ltxv.  15  and  16. 

^  Plautianus  had  really  had  only  the  consular  ornaments,  but  Severus  counted  this  honour 
as  if  it  had  been  a  real  consulship.  (Dion,  Ixxv.  15;  C.  I.  Z.,  vi.  220.)  The  rule  of  Augustus 
had  already  been  violated :  Clemens,  under  Domitian  (Tac,  Hutt.^  iv.  Q^)y  and  Tatianus,  under 
Hadrian  (Spart.,  Hadr.y  8),  had  been  at  the  same  time  consuls  and  praetorian  prefects. 
Alexander  Severus  decided,  contrary  to  the  ordinance  of  Augustus,  that  the  praetorian  pre- 
fecture should  be  a  senatorial  office. 

^  Nta"Hpa  (Waddingtoii,  Fntttes  de  la  prov.  (fAsie  (p.  247). 


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106  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   236   A.D. 

Accordingly,  the  prefect  had  a  royal  retinue,  and  all  ranks  of 
men,  the  senate,  the  people,  and  the  army,  vied  with  each  other  in 
basely  flattering  him.  Though  it  was  no  longer  permitted  to  erect 
statues  to  him  of  equal  height  with  those  of  the  emperor  himself, 
men  called  him  the  cousin  of  the  emperor,  they  made  oath  by  his 
fortune,  and  they  prayed  for  him  in  the  temples  with  all  the 
more  fervour  because  he  seemed  in  no  need  of  their  prayers.  Did 
Plautianus  abuse  this  vast  power,  more  dangerous  in  the  hands  of 
the  minister  than  of  the  master?  Dion  accuses  him  of  many 
follies  and  of  every  crime,  without  giving  details,  or  else  giving 
them  too  exactly.  For  example,'  the  historian  declares  that  Plau- 
tianus had  stolen  "  the  horses  of  the  Sun,  animals  resembling 
tigers,  that  were  kept  on  an  island  in  the  Ked  Sea."  If  we  must 
explain  this,  it  might  be  said  that  tiger-horses  were  zebras.  But 
when  he  relates  that  Plautianus  snatched  from  their  homes  a 
hundred  Romans  of  free  condition,  married  men  and  fathers  of 
families,  and  submitted  them  to  mutilation  that  his  daughter  might 
have  a  train  .of  attendants  in  Oriental  style,  and  adds,  ''the  thing 
was  not  known  until  after  his  death,"  we  are  justified  in  saying 
that  Dion  allowed  himself  to  repeat  one  of  those  foolish  calumnies 
that  gather  about  great  men  in  their  fall.  Such  an  act  could  not 
have  been  accomplished  in  silence,  and  the  prefect  could  never 
with  impunity  have  outraged  by  this  crime  an  imperial  decree^ 
in  force  at  the  time,  or  the  public  indignation  which  would  have 
been  aroused  by  the  complaints  of  the  wives  and  children  of  the 
victims. 

His  great  wealth  caused  him  to  be  suspected  of  great  rapine, 
but  Severus,  who  had  seized  the  heritage  of  the  Antonines,  of 
Niger,  and  of  Albinus,  gave  a  large  share  to  Plautianus  in  the 
numerous  confiscations  of  the  reign.*  This  African  was  no  more 
reluctant  to  shed  blood  than  was  his  master.  After  the  victory 
at  Lyons  he  insisted  on  the  destruction  of  the  family  of  Niger, 

*  Dion,  Ixvii.  2.  See  vol.  iv.  p.  696.  Amro.  Marcellinus  points  out  that  this  law  was  still 
in  force  in  the  fourth  century,  and  he  esteems  it  very  useful,  receptissima  inclaruit  legr, 
(Dom.,  xviii.  4.) 

*  Elerod.,  iii.  10.  Plautianus  did  not  have,  as  has  been  asserted,  "  procurators  of  the 
private  domain,"  like  those  of  the  emperor,  scattered  through  t>je  provinces  to  administer  his 
estates.  The  procurator  ad  bona  Plautianij  whom  we  find  mentioned  in  the  inscriptions  (Or.- 
Henzen,  No.  6,920'',  is  a  procurator  ad  bona  damnatorum  (ibid.,  Nos.  3,190,  6,519). 


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GOVERNMENT   OF   SEPTIMIUS   SEVERU8,    193   TO    211    A.D.  107 

whom  Severus  had  at  first  spared.  Since  the  death  of  Albinns 
the  aristocracy  did  indeed  still  murmur  and  curse  the  new  power 
in  low  tones ;  but  it  had  not  the  energy  to  form  conspiracies ; 
Plautianus  feigned  or  believed  that  such  there  were,  and  victims 
fell.  It  is  not  easy  to  see  in  Severus  a  weak  ruler  closing  his 
eyes  to  crimes  committed  by  his  minister.  If  the  prefect  ordered 
unmerited  punishments,  the  responsibility  falls  back  upon  the 
emperor,  who,  made  suspicious  by  the  senate's  conduct  towards  the 
British  Caesar,  approved  of  everything. 

I  have  already  indicated  the  secret  of  this  favour,  it  was 
natural.  Severus,  whose  feeble  health  warned  him  to  take  thought 
for  the  morrow,  sought  to  secure  to  his  son  and  to  the  Empire 
the  assistance  of  a  man  capable  of  carrying  on  the  work  he 
had  himself  begun,  and  he  believed 
that  he  had  raised  this  man  so  high 
that  he  could  have  no  temptation  to 
seek  to  rise  higher.  It  was  a  reason- 
able plan,  but  passion  defeated  it.  ^  ,,^.    .^.     .„    . 

^       '  ^  .  Gold  Coin  of  Plautilla  Auffusta.   C>n 

The    excessive     prosperity    of     "  the         the    obverse    the    head    of    the 

„,    ,       111.  -r^i      i.  Auffusta;  on  the  reverse, Concord. 

vice-emperor"^  da^led  him.     Plautianus 

was  guilty  of  the  imprudence  of  estranging  the  empress  by  per- 
fidious insinuations  agsCinst  her  conduct,  and  offending  the  heir  to 
the  throne  by  the  affectation  of  a  paternal  affection  whose  ill-judged 
advice  exasperated  this  violent  youth.  The  marriage  of  Plautilla, 
which  seemed  to  consolidate  his  fortunes,  caused  their  downfall. 
It  is  possible  that  Julia  was  averse  to  this  union,  and  shared  her 
scHi's  feeling  against  this  favourite  whose  popularity  cast  into  the 
shade  this  enq^eror  of  fourteen,  who,  animated  with  equal  hatred 
against  father  and  daughter,  expelled  the  latter  from  his  bed  and 
the  former  from  his  house.  Dion  does  not  inform  us  on  this 
point;  but  he  says  that  the  young  Augusta,  prouder  of  her  father 
than  of  her  husband,  had  rendered  herself  intolerable  to  Caracalla, 
and  that  Plautianus,  extremely  exasperated  against  the  empress, 
tormented  her  in  a  thousand  ways.  These  domestic  quarrels 
brought  about  a  catastrophe. 

Severus    had    renewed    and     strengthened    the    laws    against 

'  "Oc  [^ovfjpoc]  ovTtoc  ahrtf  vvtUuv  iq  Truvra  Chtt   iiuXvov  fitv  iv  avroKparopoc  avrbv  ff  h^ 
iwapxov  fu)lpg>  tlvai  (Dion  Ixxv.  15). 


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108  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

adultery,  and  prosecutions  of  this  crime  were  innumerable  in  Eome.^ 
Plautianus  attempted  to  involve  Julia  in  accusations  of  this  nature, 
and  Dion  asserts,  which  appears  strange,  that  he  sought  testimony 
against  her  even  by  subjecting  women  of  rank  to  torture.      Incap- 


The  Empress  Julia  Domna.^ 

able  of  struggling  against  the  all-powerful  minister,  the  empress 
took  refuge  among  her  men  of  letters  and  philosophers;  but 
Caracalla  did  not  accept  the  vexations  of  his  mother  with  equal 
serenity,  and  his  hatred  of  Plautianus  redoubled. 

Severus,    alone   of    all   the   imperial    household,    supported    the 

*  Dion,  Ixxvi.  16.     Of.  in  the  Digest  (xlviii.  5,  2,  §  3)  two  edicts  of  Severus  on  this  subject. 

*  Statue  of  Pentelic  marble  found  at  l^ngnzzi  (Berenice),  on  the  coast  of  northern  Africa. 
Severus  was  a  native  of  this  region.     (Louvre.) 


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govi:rnment  of  SEPTIMUS  SEVERUS,    193  TO   211    A.D.  109 

praetorian  prefect.  Geta,  a  brother  of  the  emperor,  and  colleague 
with  Plautianus  in  the  consulship  of  the  year  203,  was  convinced 
that  the  latter  meditated  the  destruction  of  all  tlie  imperial  family, 
and  upon  his  death-bed  conjured  his  brother  to  save  himself.  The 
words  of  Geta  made  an  impression;  this  was  apparent  from  the 
funeral  honours  decreed  to  the  accuser  of  Plautianus,  and  Caracalla 
believed  the  moment  propitious  to  destroy  the  minister.  Three 
centui'ions  suborned  by  the  young  emperor  came  one  evening 
to  the  palace  to  declare  that  Plautianus  had  employed  them  to 
assassinate  Severus  and  his  son;  and  in  proof  of  this  produced  a 
written  order  to  that  e£Eect,  which  they  asserted  they  had  received 
from  the  prefect.  Severus,  amazed  but  not  convinced,  sent  for 
Plautianus.  At  the  door  of  the  palace  he  was  deprived  of  his 
guards  and  entered  the  imperial  presence  alone.  Severus  spoke  to 
him  gently :  ^'  Why  do  you  wish  to  destroy  us,''  he  said ;  "  who 
is  it  that  has  persuaded  you  to  this?"  Plautianus  denying  the 
charge  eagerly,  Caracalla  fell  upon  him,  tore  away  his  sword,  and 
struck  him  in  the  face,  crying  out:  "Yes,  you  have  sought  to 
murder  me."  He  would  have  slain  the  prefect  on  the  spot,  but 
his  father  prevented  it;  upon  this  the  youth  called  upon  a  lictor 
to  kill  Plautianus,  and,  being  Augustus,  his  word  was  law;  the 
lictor  obeyed.  The  body  of  Plautianus,  flung  out  from  the  palace, 
was  cast  into  a  lane,  where  it  lay  until  Severus  ordered  it  to  be 
interred  (23rd  January,  204).^ 

In  all  this  matter  the  emperor  plays  a  wretched  part. 
Through  paternal  affection  he  had  suffered  his  friend  to  be  mur- 
dered in  his  presence.  On  the  morrow  it  was  made  clear  to 
every    one    that    the   emperor   did    not    believe    in    the    pretended 

*  The  Chronicon  paschale  places  the  death  of  Plautianus  on  the  22nd  of  January,  203. 
But,  after  having  spoken  of  the  prosecution  of  Racius  Constans,  which  took  place  after  the 
return  of  Severus  to  Rome,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  year  202,  Dion  (Ixxv.  16)  says  that  Plautianus 
remained  in  favour  for  a  year  longer,  which  brings  us  to  the  middle  of  203.  An  Algerian 
inscription  (L.  Renier),  70)  shows  that  he  was  alive  August  22nd,  203.  To  conclude,  it 
appears  from  Dion  (Ixxvi.  3)  that  the  catastrophe  took  place  at  the  moment  when  the  last 
spectators  of  the  Palatine  games  were  leaving  the  palace.  These  games,  we  know,  began 
January  21st,  and  lasted  three  days  (Marquardt,  Handb.f  iv.  429-445).  This  gives  us  the 
23rd  of  January,  204,  as  the  date  of  the  tragedy.  The  story  of  Herodian  (iii.  11  and  12), 
which  supposes  a  real  plot  formed  by  Plautianus,  is  much  more  dramatic,  but  improbable.  It 
tells  the  story  as  put  in  circulation  by  Caracalla,  and  inscriptions  testify  to  its  currency  in 
the  provinces.  But  Dion  was  at  Rome  ;  he  heai-d  everything  ;  he  was  no  friend  to  the  prefect, 
and  would  not  have  failed  to  narrate  the  treason  of  Plautianus  had  he  believed  in  it. 


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110  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

conspiracy/  for,   instead  of  dwelling  on  the  prefect's  crime,  in  his 
address   to   the   senate,  he  had  recourse  to  the  usual  commonplaces 
of  philosophy,   deplored  human  weakness,  which  could   not   support 
too  great  elevation,  and  accused  himself  of  having  ruined  Plautianus 
by   loading  him   with   honours   and   tokens   of   affection.     It  being 
necessary,  however,  for  the  justification  of  the  murder  that  it  should 
appear  that  a  plot  had   been  dis- 
covered,   certain    of    the    prefect's 
most  devoted  friends  were  sent  to 
join  him  in  the  other  world.''     His 
daughter  and  his  son  were  banished 
to  Lipari,  where,  at  a  later  period, 
Caracalla  caused  them  to  be  slain.     [ 

It  is  not  certain  whether  it 
was  as  a  friend  of  Plautianus  that  \ 
Quintillus  was  put  to  death.  He 
was  a  man  of  high  birth,  and  one 
of  the  principal  senators,  but  he 
lived  in  the  countiy,  far  from 
public  affairs  and  intrigues.  He 
died  in  the  antique  manner.    Being 

condemned  upon  calumnious  deposi-  LaureUed  CaracaUa.« 

tions,   he    ordered    to    be    brought 

out  the  articles  he  had  long  before  prepared  for  his  interment,  and 
seeing  that  they  had  been  injured  by  time:  "How  is  this?"  he 
said.  "We  have  delayed  too  long."  He  burned  a  few  grains  of 
incense  on  the  altar  of  the  gods,  and  gave  himself  up  to  the 
executioner.  Other  senators  accused  of  various  unknown  crimes, 
were  convicted,  says  Dion,^  and  condemned.  But  the  crimes  of 
that  time  would  not  all  be  crimes  in  our  day,  as  is  shown  by 
the   following   instance,   which   exhibits   one    of    the    calamities    of 


*  .  .  .  .  8n  ou  vdw  <T<pi(Ti  (to  the  denouncers)  irtanvH  (Dion,  Ixxvi.  5). 

^  Dion  speaks  only  of  the  execution  of  Caecilius  Agricola,  and  the  exile  of  Coeranus  who, 
recalled  seven  years  later,  was  the  first  Egyptian  made  senator.  (Ixxvi.  5.)  Macrinus,  the 
future  emperor,  was  the  steward  of  Plautianus,  and  the  emperor  took  him  into  his  own  8er\'ice. 

'  Engraved  stone,  amethyst  of  12  mill,  by  9,  in  the  Cabinet  de  France. 

*  After  debate,  airokoytiaafikvovs  nai  akovruQ  (Ixxvi.  7).  Cincius  Severus,  who  perished 
under  accusation  of  wishing  to  poison  the  emperor  (Spart.,  Sev.j  13)  may  have  been  of  this 
number.     Spartian  speaks  of  him  as  an  innocent  man. 


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GOVERNMENT   OF   SEniMlUS   SEVERUS,    193   TO    211    A.D.  Ill 

tliat  form  of  government  and  social  organization.  Apronianns, 
governor  of  Asia,  was  accused  of  employing  the  resources  of  magic 
to  discover  if  the  fates  did  not  intend  for  him  the  imperial  power. 
The  thing  is  possible,  for  magic  was  the  mania  of  the  time. 
Legislation  held  it  in  such  fear  that  such  practices  were  made  a 
capital  crime,  and  Tertullian  esteems  it  only  just,  since  this  rash 
curiosity  supposes  in  all  cases  evil  designs.*  Apronianns  was  con- 
demned. The  interest  of  this  prosecution  is  not  in  its  result  for 
the  accused,  but  in  the  scene  that  Dion  relates.  "When  we  had 
read  all  the  proofs,  we  found  among  them  this  deposition  of  an 
eye-witness:  'I  saw  a  bald  senator  leaning  forward  in  order  to 
see.'  At  these  words  we  were  in  a  terrible  fright,  for  neither  the 
witness  nor  the  emperor  had  mentioned  the  name.  Fear  was 
extreme  among  the  senators  whose  heads  or  even  foreheads  were 
bald.  We  looked  about  us  with  anxiety,  and  we  said :  ^  It  is 
this  man;'  or,  ^It  is  that.'  I  will  not  deny  that  my  anxiety  was 
so  great  that  I  tried  with  my  hand  to  draw  my  hair  forward  over 
my  head.  The  person  reading,  however,  went  on  to  say  that  this 
senator  was  clad  in  the  prsBtexta.  All  eyes  then  turned  to  the 
sedile  Bsebius  Marcellinus,  who  was  completely  bald-headed.  He 
rose,  and  coming  forward,  he  said :  '  The  witness  will  of  course 
recognize  me  if  he  has  seen  me.'  The  informer  was  called  in,  and 
looked  about  for  some  time,  until  at  last  on  a  slight  hint  from 
some  one  he  pointed  out  Marcellinus.  Thus  convicted  of  being 
'the  bald  man  who  had  looked  on,'  he  was  led  out  of  the  senate 
and  decapitated  in  the  forum,  before  Severus  had  been  informed  of 
his  condemnation."^ 

If  he  had  known,  would  he  have  approved  it?  He  had  not 
designated  Marcellinus  in  the  papers  which  he  had  sent  in  to  the 
senate,  and  perhaps  he  would  have  remembered  that  he  himself, 
under  Commodus,  was  in  great  peril  by  reason  of  a  similar  accusation.* 

»  ApoL,  86. 

^  Dion,  Ixxvi.  8-9.  This  narrative,  which  I  have  been  obliged  to  abridge,  brings  to  light 
the  method  of  procedure :  it  shows  that  a  secret  written  inve^igation  was  first  made  b}* 
the  imperial  secretary  a  coffnitiontbus ;  that  the  report  contained  the  name  of  the  official  who 
had  directed  the  investigation,  the  names  of  the  witnesses,  the  results  of  the  inquirj-,  and  the 
statement  that  it  had  been  submitted  to  the  emperor  and  was  by  him  transmitted  to  the  senate. 
Cf.  Cuq,  le  MagUter  sacrarum  largitionum,  p.  124. 

'  Sent  by  Commodus  to  the  prefects  of  the  praetorian  guard,  he  was  acquitted  by  them. 
(Spart.,  Sev.f^.) 


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112  THE   AFRICAN    AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180    TO    235    A.D. 

But  what  we  have  to  observe  is  this  terror  in  the  senate ; 
this  joy  in  directing  towards  a  man  probably  innocent  the  blow 
suspended  over  the  heads  of  all ;  this  haste  in  causing  instant 
execution  to  follow  upon  the  sentence ;  this  depriving  the  accused 
of  all  the  guarantees  of  a  fair  justice,  and  the  coudemned  of  the 
benefit  of  that  law  of  Tiberius  requiring  a  delay  of  ten  days.  By 
this  we  see  that  more  fatal  than  the  despotism  of  the  Caesars  was 
the  base  servility  of  those  who  surrounded  the  i-uler,  and  who, 
not  making  use  of  existing  laws  to  restrain  him,  left  men  no  other 
resource  against  him  but  that  of  conspiracy. 

Were  there  Qonspiracies  under  Severus?  Certain  witnesses 
assert  that  there  were.  His  life  was  often  in  danger,  says 
Ammianus  Marcellinus,^  and  inscriptions  contain  thanks  to  the  gods 
for  having  protected  the  emperor  and  his  family  against  the  guilty 
machinations  of  the  enemies  of  the  State.  Ammianus  Marcellinus 
names  one  only  of  these  plots,  the  one  attributed  to  Plautianus, 
and  it  is  difficult  for  all  the  inscriptions  (one  of  which  is  dated 
208)  to  be  explained  as  referring  to  one  event.^  Defended  by  the 
devotion  of  his  praetorians  and  his  legions,  having  two  sons  grown 
to  manhood  whom  a  conspirator  must  also  strike  at  the  same  time 
with  their  father,  Severus  had  nothing  to  fear.  Between  the  death 
of  Plautianus  and  the  departure  of  the  emperor  for  Britain,  Dion 
mentions  no  other  condemnations  than  those  of  which  we  have 
just  spoken.  As  this  historian  does  not  believe  in  the  treason  of 
Plautianus,  and  mentions  no  others,  we  are  authorized  in  believing 
that  there  were  none,  and  that  this  source  of  the  greatest  iniquities 
was  dried  up. 

Severus,  however,  has  a  very  bad  name,  and  he  merits  it  by 
reason  of  the  executions  which  he  caused  to  follow  each  civil  war. 


*  xxix.  1.  He  mentions,  it  is  true,  but  one  (r.nd  that  a  questionable)  fact,  the  order  given 
by  Plautianus  to  a  centurion  to  assassinate  the  emperor. 

*  Gu^rin,  Voyage  arch^ol.  en  Tunisie,  vol.  ii.  p.  62 :  ,  .  .  .  ob  conservatam  eorum  salufem, 
detectis  insidiis  hosHum  publicorum.  Inscr.  of  the  year  208.  Another  (L.  Renier,  Imcr.  fTAlg., 
2,1(50),  which  seems  to  allude  to  some  plot  happily  discovered,  is  expressed  in  nearly  the  same 
words.  In  No.  5,497  of  Orelli,  we  read :  Qiu)d  ....  Domini  nostri  ....  susfulemnt  omneA 
parricidiales  insidiatores.  It  is  impossible  to  say  to  whom  Tertullian's  language  applies:  .... 
qui  nunc  scelestaritm  partium  socii  out  plausores  quotidie  revelantur,  post  inndemiam  parrici- 
danim  recematio  superstes  {Ap.j  So).  Do  these  remnants  of  "  parricidal  "  conspiracies  refer  to 
accomplices  of  Niger  and  Albinus,  or  other  guilty  persons  ?  In  any  case,  we  see  that  Tertullian 
has  no  compassion  for  these  victims  of  civil  wars  or  plots,  and  regards  them  as  criminals. 


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GOVERNMENT   OF   8EPTIMIU8   8EVERUS,    193   TO    211    A.D.  113 

and  the  condemnations  that  he  allowed  to  be  pronounced  in  virtue 
of  odious  laws — such,  however,  as  our  modern  world  has  also 
known.  But  if  we  examine  closely  the  vague  accusations  of 
writers  not  contemporary   with   Severus,    we    shall  no   longer    find 


Septimius  Severus.     (Bust  fouDd  at  Otricoli.     Vatican,  Hall  of  Busts,  No.  290.) 

that  gloomy  tyranny  which  the  name  of  this  emperor  suggests, 
Spartian,  for  example,  reproaches  him  with  many  murders  in  the 
interest  of  his  cupidity;  Dion,  on  the  contrary,  expressly  says  that 
"he    put    no    man   to   death   for   the   sake   of  money." ^      Another 

^  Ixxvi.  16 ;  but  he  reproaches  the  emperor  with  having  been  unscrupulous  in  respect  to 
methods  of  enriching  himself,  which  is  confirmed  by  no  known  fact,  save  his  insisting  on 
adoption  by  the  Antonines. 

VOL.  VI.  I 


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114  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

ancient  writer^  speaks  of  confiscations  only  ''in  case  of  the  wicked 
who  had  been  condemned,"  and  the  great  Christian  apologist  of 
that  day  considers  all  these  unhappy  wretches  as  justly  condemned. 
Have  we  not  besides  witnesses  more  credible  than  the  miserable 
scribes  of  Diocletian,^  men  who  by  the  mere  fact  that  they  worked 
with  Severus  testify  in  his  favour?  When  we  find  Paulus  and 
Xllpian  sitting  in  the  imperial  council'  and  Papinian  in  the  praetor- 
ship,  we  have  a  right  to  say  that  there  was  wisdom  in  the 
government  and  justice  in  the  administration. 

The  ruler  who  selected  such  servants  was  himself  as  good  a 
jurisconsult  as  he  was  an  able  general.  In  his  council  men  spoke 
freely :  Paulus  argued  learnedly  against  the  emperor,  and  when 
he  published  his  collection  of  the  imperial  decisions  he  criticized 
them  with  a  freedom  that  does  honour  both  to  the  councillor  and 
to  the  ruler.  By  common  accord  he  is  represented  as  simple  in  his 
dress,  sober  in  his  habits,  with  dignity  in  his  life,*  a  respect  for 
himself  and  for  his  rank.  While  legate  in  Africa  he  ordered  one 
of  his  fellow-citizens  of  Leptis,  who  had  embraced  him  in  the  open 
street,  to  be  beaten;  and  when  emperor  he  seems  to  have  so  lived 
that  he  could  prosecute  offences  against  morals  without  any  man 
having  groimd  to  reproach  him  for  being  less  indulgent  to  others 
than  to  himself.  There  have  been  made  against  him  no  charges, 
except  one  in  early  youth,  which  has  been  proved  false,*^  and 
another  of  later  date,  equally  unworthy  of  credence. 

He  permitted  no  influence  to  the  Csesarians,  that  is  to  say, 
his  freedmen  and  the  im^perial  household,  even  to  his  brother,  who 
expected  to  enjoy  a  large  share  of  power,  but  was  promptly  sent 
away  into  his  province  of  Dacia:    it  was  a  rare  case  of  prudence 

'  Zosimus^  i.  8 :  .  .  .  .  vfpi  rove  a^taprnvovrac  dirapairriTog,  etc. 

=*  Spartian  and  Oapitolinus  wrote  by  order  of  Diocletiau. 

^  Two  other  eminent  lawyers,  Tryphoniua  and  Arrius  Menauder,  were  also  members  of  the 
council.     (Digest,  xlix.  14,  60,  and  v.  4, 11,  2.) 

*  Spartian  says  {Sev.,  4)  that  during  his  grovemment  in  Lugdunensis,  Gallis  ob  sei^ritatem 
et  honorificentiam  et  ahstinentiam  tantum  quantum  nemo  dilectus  est.  The  same  writer  speaks 
of  an  accusation  of  adultery  made  against  him  and  judged  at  Rome  by  the  proconsul  Didius 
Julianus.  A  proconsul,  however,  could  not  judge  at  Rome,  and  the  error  on  one  point  throws 
doubt  upon  the  other. 

'  Hofner,  who  discusses  this  question  in  his  Untersuch,  zur  Oesch.  des  ....  Severus, 
pp.  4^-61,  says:  Die  ganze  Geschichte  wird  nichts  anderes  sein,  als  eine  gehdssige  Erfindung. 
t  ho  reasons  assiprned  by  him  and  M.  Roulez  seem  decisive.  Concerning  his  upright  character, 
see  Hist.  Aug.,  Tyi\  Trig.,  6. 


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GOVERNMENT   OF   SEPTIMIUS   SEVERUS,    193   TO   211    A.D.  115 

in  an  absolute  ruler,  and  was  the  more  valued  on  that  account. 
The  courtiers,  an  inevitable  evil,  had  no  chance  with  this  emperor, 
scornful  of  the  pomp  of  power,  who  rejected  most  of  the  honours 
which  the  senate  decreed  to  him,  saying :  ''  Have  in  your  hearts 
the  affection  for  me  that  you  parade  in  your  decrees."  After  his 
Parthian  campaign  he  refused  the  triumph  under  pretext  that  the 
gout  rendered  him  imable  to  sit  upright  in  the  chariot;  but  if  it 
were  a  question  of  inspecting  an  army  or  a  province  he  traversed 
the  whole  Empire.  He  was  insensible  to  the  evil  that  was  said  of 
him,  and  thus  could  see  and  act  with  calmness.  A  senator  whose 
biting  wit  had  m.ore  than  once  been  employed  against  the  ruler, 
dared  to  say  to  him^  when  Severus  caused  himself  to  be  inscribed 
in  the  family  of  the  Antonines:  ^*I  congratulate  you,  Ctesar,  on 
finding  a  father."  The  epigram  was  transparent,  but  Severus 
appeared  not  to  understand  it,  and  its  author  retained,  as  before, 
the  imperial  favour.  Another,  a  pitiless  satirist,  had  been  for  his 
sharp  tongue's  offences  held  under  arrest  in  his  palace,  somewhat 
as  in  France,  after  the  prosecution  of  an  editor  of  a  newspaper  for 
libel,  the  criminal  is  confined  in  a  private  asylum.  He  continued 
to  attack  all  men,  emperora  included.  Severus  commanded  him  to 
be  brought  into  the  imperial  presence  one  day,  and  swore  to  him 
that  he  would  cut  off  his  head.  "  You  can  cut  it  off  if  you 
choose,"  said  the  incorrigible  offender;  ^'but  I  swear  to  you  that 
so  long  as  it  remains  on  my  shoulders  neither  you  nor  I  can  be 
its  masters."  The  emperor  laughed,  and  the  mocker,  who  ridiculed 
himself  also,  was  set  at  liberty.^  Easy-tempered  towards  his 
adversaries  when  his  own  safety  and  public  order  did  not  require 
severity,  he  was  a  faithful  and  devoted  friend  towards  those  who 
had  gained  his  affection;  he  loaded  them  with  gifts  and  honours, 
cared  for  them  if  they  were  ill,  and  kept  a  supply  of  the  expensive 
remedies  that  Galen  prepared  for  him  to  distribute  among  them. 
He  thus  cured  Antipater,  his  secretary  for  Greek  letters,  the  son 
of  one  Piso,  and  the  matron  Arria.^  Conduct  such  as  this  does 
not  reveal  a  savage  disposition. 

*  Dion,  Ixxvi.  6,  0, 16,  and  Ixxvii.  10. 

'  Galen,  Theriaca,  vol.  xiv.  p.  218,  of  Kuhn*s  edition.  This  supply  of  remedies  found  in 
the  palace  after  Caracalla^s  death  gave  rise  to  suspicions.  The  drugs  wliich  were  believed  to 
be  poisonous  were  solemnly  burned,  and  Macrimis  regarded  the  son  of  Severus  as  a  poisoner. 

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116  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

All  his  time  was  devoted  to  the  public  service,  for  he  was 
anxious  to  neglect  nothing  which  was  necessary  to  the  success  of 
his  enterprises.^  Dion  gives  us  the  employ  of  his  day :  ^'  At 
daylight  he  began  his  work,  interrupting  it  only  to  take  a  walk, 
during  which  he  conversed  on  public  affairs  with  those  whom  he 
called  to  accompany  him.  The  hour  arriving  for  the  sitting  of  his 
tribunal,  he  went  thither,  unless  it  were  a  holiday,  and  remained 
until  noon.  He  allowed  to  the  parties  all  the  time  that  they  needed, 
and  to  us  who  sat  with  him  he  allowed  great  liberty  of  opinion. 
After  the  hearing  was  over  he  went  out  on  horseback  or  took 
exercise  in  some  other  form,  and  then  took  his  bath.  He  dined 
alone  or  with  his  sons,  then  slept  awhile,  causing  himself  to  be 
awakened  to  walk  accompanied  by  Greek  and  Latin  scholars.  In 
the  evening  he  took  a  second  bath,  and  supped  in  company  with 
those  who  chanced  to  be  present,  for  he  specially  invited  no  one, 
and  reserved  sumptuous  entertainments  for  days  when  he  could  not 
avoid  them."^  This  well-regulated  life  shows  a  man  who  must 
have  loved  order  in  everything. 

The  empress  was  worthy  of  him.  She  was  the  daughter  of 
Julius  Bassianus,  priest  of  the  Sun  at  Emesa,^  and  was  living  in 
that  city  at  the  time  when  Severus  commanded  a  legion  in  Syria, 
and  perhaps  the  recollection  of  her  beauty,  as  well  as  the  fact  that 
an  astrological  prediction  had  declared  that  she  was  to  be  a 
sovereign's  wife,  decided  him  to  ask  her  in  marriage.  There  is 
ascribed  to  her  an  adroitness  which,  in  her  masculine  intellect, 
was  allied  to  audacity.  It  is  she,  we  are  assured,  who  decided 
Severus  to  assume  the  purple.*  In  return,  he  showed  her  great 
respect.      He   took  her  with  him   on  his   expeditions,    and    as    he 

The  murderer  of  Geta's  20,000  partisans  had  no  need  of  this  discreet  method  of  being  rid  of 
his  adversaries ;  but  succeeding  govemmentfi  always  believe  that  the  dishonour  of  the  dead  is 
to  the  advantage  of  the  living. 

^  ImfitKrjg  fikv  irdvrutv  wv  irpa^ai  ijOtXtv  (Dion,  Ixxvi.  16).  Herodian  (iii.  32  and  43)  shows 
him  very  assiduous  in  his  public  duties. 

2  Dion,  Ixxvi.  17. 

•  She  was  bom  in  170,  in  modest  circumstances,  Ik  StjixoriKov  ykvovg  (Dion,  Ixxviii.  24). 
.  The  priesthood  of  Elagabalus  at  Emesa  was,  however,  hereditary,  and  its  high  priests  had  been 

called  kings  up  to  the  time  of  Vespasian  (Dion,  liv.  9).  Domitian  was  the  emperor  who  began 
the  imperial  coinage  at  Emesa.  Jamblichus,  a  neo-Platonic  philosopher  of  the  fourth  century, 
claimed  descent  from  this  royal  house. 

*  At  least  Capitolinus  {Alb.,  3)  says  of  Severus:  ....  illorum  (Albinus  and  Niger) 
utrumque  bello  oppresstsse,  maxime  prccihus  iwon's  adductus» 


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GOVERNMENT   OP    SEPTIMIUS    SEVERUS,    193    TO    211    A.D.  117 

allowed    himself    to    be    called   dominus    noster,    "  the   master,"    she 
called    herself   domna,    "  the    mistress,"  ^    and   the   further   title   was 


The  Empress  Julia  Pia  I>omna.     (Bust  found  at  Rome.     Vatican,  Rotunda,  No.  664.) 

given  her   ^'mother   of    the    camps,"   and    of    the    senate   and  the 
country,  and  even  the  whole  Roman  people.^ 

This  empress  has  had  in  history  the  sad  notoriety  of  being 
the  mother  of  Caracalla,  and  later  authors,  collecting  the  evil 
reports  current   among  this  people,   '^  whose   tongues  were   ever  in 

*  The  Romans  were  able  to  give  this  meaning  to  the  word  domna,  but,  according  to  Suidas 
(s.  V.  Ao/ivoc)  the  word  was  a  Syrian  proper  name,  and  everything  seems  to  confirm  this 
opinion  of  Suidas. 

*  Orelli,  No.  4,946,  and  L.  Renier,  Inscr.  d'Alg.y  passim.  Herzberg  {Oesch.  Ghriechenl,, 
vol.  ii.  p.  422)  shows  by  many  inscriptions  the  popularity  of  Julia  Domna  among  the  Greeks, 
who  honoured  her  as  "  a  new  Demeter."    In  respect  to  coins,  see  Cohen,  vol.  iii.  pp.  333  et  seq. 


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118  THE   AFRICAN    AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

revolt,"^   have   reproached  her   with   many   immoralities;    but  they 
also   accuse   her  of   conspiring   against   the   emperor.      Dion   speaks 
of    neither    accusation,    and    the    absurdity   of    the    second    throws 
doubt  upon   the   former,   even   though  it  were  not  considered   that 
her  elevated  mind,  her  four  children,^  and  her  rank  ought  to  have 
protected     her     from     going 
astray.      She  had  an  inquir- 
ing   mind,    directed    towards 
the   great   problems   of    life, 
for  she  was  ill-satisfied  with 
the  ideas  and  beliefs  at  that 

time    current     in    the    world.  Julia    Domna,     Mother 

-           -      _  Augusta,     Motlier    of 

In       the       palace       she       had  the  Senate,  Mother  of 

Julia  Domna,                     .,          i      v       i.   v                 'is  the  Countr\'.  (Reverse 

^'Mother  of  the  Camps."*     gathered  about  her    a   circle  ^f    ^    large    Bronze, 

of  intellectual  men  where  all  ^«^«°'  N^-  ^^-^ 
subjects  were  discussed,  and  whence  a  contemporary  perhaps  derived 
the  idea  of  his  Banquet  of  Learned  Men  [Deipno-sophistceY  She 
was  not  offended  to  be  called  Julia  the  Philosopher.*  There  is 
reason  to  believe  that  Diogenes  Laertius  dedicated  to  her  his 
history  of  Greek  philosophers,^  and  it  is  certain  that  she  employed 
Phi^ostratus  to  write  for  her  the  life  of  ApoUonius  Tyaneus,  to 
whom    the    son    of   Severus    consecrated    a    Iieroon?      All-powerful 


^  Tertullian,  ad  Nationesj  i.  17,  and  ApoL,  «35 :  Ipsos  QjuriteSf  ipsam  vemaculam  .... 
plebem  convenio,  an  alicui  Caesari  suo  parcat  ilia  lingua  Romana. 

'  Her  two  sons,  and  the  two  daughters  of  whom  we  know  nothing.  Eckhel,  vii.  195 :  .  .  .  . 
tulit  quoque  liberos  sexus  midiebris,  "whom  Severus  gave  in  marriage  after  he  became 
emperor."    (TiDemont,  vol.  iii.  p.  592.) 

'  .  .  .  .   Tov  mpi  (tbKkov  (Philostratus,  Vita  AjrolL,  i.  3) toXq  wtpl  rifv  'lovXiav 

ycwfilrpaic  n  cat  ^iXovo^otc  (Jbid.,  ii.  30). 

*  The  empress  veiled,  holding  a  patera  over  an  altar ;  in  front  of  her,  three  military 
standards.     (Cohen,  No.  176.) 

'  This  sort  of  work  was  of  ancient  Greek  origin ;  Plato  gave  an  example  of  them,  which 
Lucian  followed.  It  is  not  certain,  therefore,  that  Athenaeus  was  inspii-ed  by  what  passed  at 
the  court  of  Severus.  At  the  same  time,  among  the  guests  in  the  work  of  Athenaeus  are 
Ulpian  and  Galen,  two  intimates  of  the  imperial  palace,  and  the  entertainment  is  represented 
as  taking  place  in  Rome,  where  it  is  given  by  the  wealthy  Larensius. 

•  .  .  .  .  r»/c  0cXo(r60ou  *Iot;Xiac  (Philostratus,  ibid.f  ii.  30). 

'  The  book  was  dedicated  to  a  woman  who  greatly  admired  the  Academy,  but  the  dedica- 
tion, which  contained  her  name,  is  lost,  and  we  are  at  liberty  to  choose  between  Arria  and  the 
Empress  Julia. 

'*  Dion,  Ixxvii.  18.  Many  cities  in  Greece  and  Asia  had  already  made  a  divinity  of 
ApoUonius  (Philostratus,  Vita  Apoll.y  i.  5),  and  Aurelian  erected  altars  to  him  (Vopiscus,  Aur., 
24).     The  Christians  themselves  believed  in  his  miracles  and  in  the  oracles  given  by  his  statue ; 


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GOVERNMENT   OF   SEPTIMIUS    SEVEKUS,    103   TO    211    A.D.  119 

duiiDg  her  son^s  reign,    she    still    philosophized   while    ruling    the 
Empire,^  and  preserved  her  intellectual  tastes  until  her  death ;  and 
these  tastes   lingered   upon   the   Palatine    after    her    time:    a    half 
century    later    the    empress    Salonina    took 
pleasure  in  conversing  with  Plotinus. 

With  Julia  Domna  were  her  sister  and 
her  two  nieces,  also  famous  for  their  beauty : 
Julia  Maesa,  who  later  was  able  with  her 
own  hand  to  avenge  her  race  by  over- 
throwing an  emperor,  and  twice  caused  the 
purple  to  be  conferred  on  boys  whom  she 
had  selected ;  Julia  Soaemias,  who  is  repre- 
sented on  coins  as  the  Heavenly  Virgin,  ^^f^^ 
but  whom   Lampridius  accuses  of   mundane 

frailties,  a  reputation  due  perhaps  to  her  son  Elagabalus;  and 
third,  the  high-minded  Mameea,  doubly  mother  to  Alexander,  by 
blood  and  by  the  education  she  gave  this  young 
prince,  in  whom  men  delighted  to  recognize  a  new 
Marcus  Aurelius.  Deeply  interested  in  the  great 
movement  of  the  intellectual  world  of  her  time, 
Mamsea  desired,  when  she  heard  of  Origen,  to  know 
the  most  learned  Christian  of  his  time;  and  just  "^(qJ^^^S)' 
as  the  empress  ordered  to  be  written  for  her  the 
marvellous  history  of  that  Pythagorean  ascetic  called  in  those  days 
an  incarnation  of  the  god  Proteus,  ApoUonius  of  Tyana,  so  her 
niece  wished  to  leani  from  the  "man  of  brass "^  those  strange 
doctrines  which  led  men  rejoicing  to  martyrdom. 

Into  this  circle  of  superior  minds  we  have  the  right  to  intro- 
duce three  men  whose  names  posterity  never  mentions  but  with 
respect:  Papinian,  a  relative  of  Julia  Domna,  who  either  owed  to 
her  his  fortune  or  else  made  hers;^  Ulpiaii,  a  fellow-countryman 
of  the   illustrious   Syrian   ladies    of    the    imperial    household;    and 

this  is  explained  by  the  theory  of  demons.  See,  after  the  list  of  S.  Jerome*s  works,  the  twenty- 
sixth  question  and  its  answer. 

^  .  .  .  .  fterd  TovTtav  tri  i^iXoao^H  (Dion,  Ixxvii.  18). 

*  'AoafiavTioQ  (Eusebius,  Hist,  eccUs.,  vi.  14).  This  was  the  name  which  his  contemporaries 
gave  him.    In  respect  to  his  relations  with  Mamsea,  see  the  same  author  (ibid.,  vi.  21). 

^  ,  ,  ,  .  etfUt  cUigui  loquuntur,  ad  Jin.  (Spart.,  Car.,  8).  Papinian,  like  Juha,  was  a  Syrian, 
and  from  his  youth  one  of  the  emperor's  friends.  The  marriage  with  Julia  was  mttde  .... 
inierventu  amicottim  (Spart.,  Sev,,  3). 


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120  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO    235   A.D. 

Paulus,  who  together  with  Ulpian  was   a   member  of  the  supreme 

council.^  In  the  pre- 
sence of  the  empress, 
these  grave  personages 
forgot  the  courts  of 
law,  and  remembered 
only  what  of  their  pro- 
found learning  was 
suited  to  an  intellectual 
conversation.  Sometimes 
verses  of  Oppianus  were 
read  aloud,  which  the 
emperor  had  paid  for 
by  their  weight  in 
gold,*  or  those  which 
Gordian,  himself  after- 
wards an  emperor,  was 
writing  in  these  days 
to  extol  the  Antonine^ 
house,  in  which  the 
new  dynasty  sought  for 
its  ancestors.  Philo- 
stratus,  a  frequent 
visitor,  recited  in  the 
palace  his  HeroicoSj 
representing  Caracalla 
Julia  M^sa/  ^^    Achillcs;    ^Uan, 

famous  in  that  time 
for  the  sweetness  of  his  style  and  for  his  profound  piety,  doubt- 
less was  admitted  to  relate  some  of  his   Varia  Hutoria^  and  Galen, 

*  It  cannot  be  affirmed  that  Ulpian  and  Paulus  were  great  friends.  The  former  never 
quotes  the  latter,  and  Paulus  mentions  Ulpian  only  once  in  the  Digestf  xix.  1,  i.  43.  Fragments 
from  Ulpian,  however,  form  a  third  part  and  those  from  Paulus  a  sixth  part  of  the  PandecU, 

'  The  poem  on  the  chase  is  dedicated  to  Caracalla  .  .  .  .  rdv  fuyaXtt  fuyaK(ft  ^vrfivaro  Aofiva 
^ijiitpt^  (de  Venat,,  i.  4). 

'  In  thirty  books,  called  the  Antoniniad,  he  had  sung  of  Antoninus  and  Marcus  Aurelius. 
Capitolinus  says  {Gord.  tres,  3)  :  .  .  .  .  declamavit  audientibtis  etiam  imperatortbtts  suis. 

*  Statue  found  at  Rome  near  the  Porta  Gapena.     (Capitoline  Gallery,  No.  56.) 

^  The  empress  took  Philostratus  with  her  on  her  journeys,  ^lian  was  established  at 
Rome  permanently ;  and  his  reputation  of  writing  Greek  with  great  purity  gave  him  the  name 
of  MiXiyXuxrvoc,  which  must  have  opened  to  him  the  gates  of  the  Palatine,  where  Greek  was 


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GOVERNMENT   OF   SEPTIMIUS   SEVERUS,    193   TO    211    A.D.  121 

whose  noble  words  we  have  already  quoted,^  words  certainly  more 
than  once  repeated  in  the  imperial  circle,  discoursed  there  with 
charming  enthusiasm  on  science  and  philosophy,  especially  when  he 


JuHa  Soaemias  as  Venus.     (Statue  in  the  Vatican./ 

encountered  Serenus  Sammonicus,  one  of  Geta's  friends,  who  dipped 
into  medicine,  and  could  draw  many  curious  facts  from  the  62,000 
books  of  his  library.' 

more  in  favour  than  Latin.  Cf.  Lampridius,  Alex. :  .  .  .  .  nee  valde  amavit  Latinam 
facundiam  (B)  .  .  .  .  et  librum  in  mensa  et  legebat^  sed  Grace  magis  (34). 

'  Vol.  V.  p.  724. 

^  Marble  statue  found  at  Palestrina  (Praeneste)  on  the  site  of  the  forum.  The  hair  seems 
to  be  fitted  ,to  the  head  like  a  wig.  The  Amor  pla<ied  beside  the  Venus  is  stretched  upon  a 
dolphin.     {Museo  Pio  Clem.,  vol.  ii.  pi.  51.) 

■''  Sammonicus  wrote  in  vei-se  on  the  subject  of  medicine  and  dedicated  some  of  his  treatises 
to  Severus  and  Caracalla.  (Macrob.,  Saturn.,  III.  xvi.  6.)  Geta  read  his  books  assiduously, 
familiarissimos  hahuit.     (Spart.,  Geta,  5.) 


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122  THE   AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235    A.D. 

The   emperor  took   pleasure    in    these    intellectual    discussions, 
for   the   rude   soldier   loved   letters   and    desired   to   understand   all 

learning/  Before 
attaining  the  imperial 
dignity  he  had  passed 
in  the  schools  of 
Athens,  causa  studi- 
orunij  a  period  when 
he  was  in  disgrace  at 
Eome,^  and  Galen  tells 
us  that  the  emperor 
had  a  special  esteem 
for  a  great  lady  at 
Rome  ''because  she 
read  Plato."'  This 
Arria  must  also  have 
made  one  in  the  im- 
perial circle.  Was  it 
not  like  one  of  those 
Italian  courts  of  the 
fifteenth  century  where 
Plato  lived  again,  and 

Galen,  Physician  and  Philosopher.^  ^^®        greatest        ladlCS 

were  pleased  to  listen 
to  learned  dissertations  on  a  world  which  was  also  seeking  to 
regenerate  itself?  But  at  Florence  men  were  entering  into  full 
day,  while  in  the  Eome  of  Severus,  notwithstanding  equal  mental 
curiosity,  men  could  but  wander  in  the  midst  of  confusing  twilight. 

^  Philo8oph{(B  ac  dicendi  studiis  satis  deditus,  doctnn<B  quoque  nirrus  cupidus  (Spart.,  Sev., 
18  and  1) ;  .  .  .  .  cunctis  libcrallum  deditus  studiis  (Aur.  Vict.,  de  Cas.,  20).  Civilihus  studiis 
clarusfuit  et  littei'is  doctiis,  philosophicd  ad  plenum  adeptu^  (Eiitropius,  viii.  19). 

^  Spart.,  Sev.y  8.  He  took  pleasure  in  hearing  all  the  famous  sophists  of  the  time  (^Philo- 
stratus,  VitcB  Soph.,  ii.  27,  3). 

^  Galen's  Works,  vol.  xiv.  p.  218,  Kuhn's  ed. 

*  Visconti,  Icon,  grecq.,  vol.  i.  1st  part,  p.  108. 


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GOVERNMENT   OF    SEPTIMIUS   8EVERUS,    193   TO   211    A.D.  12eS 


II. — Legislation  and  Administration;  Papinian. 

A  ruler  is  judged  also  by  the  counsellors  he  selects.  I  have 
mentioned  Papinian  among  the  intimates  of  the  palace.  The  great 
jurisconsult  had  been  the  friend  of  Severus  since  the  youth  of 
both,  and  after  the  latter's  accession  to  the  Empire  ho  appointed 
Papinian  magister  libellorum}  This  office  obliged  the  Chief  Secre- 
tary to  settle  the  doubts  of  judges,  to  reply  to  questions  from 
governors,  and  to  attend  to  petitions  of  private  individuals.  The 
rescriptaj  in  such  cases  issued  frequently,  formed  exceptions  to 
the  common  law.  They  enlarged  previous  legislation,  and  inter- 
penetrated it  with  that  spirit  of  justice  which  we  have  seen  the 
jurisconsults  exhibit.  Those  of  Papmian  have  this  character 
especially.^  His  was  a  clear  and  sure  intelligence,  an  elevated 
mind  in  which  law  and  equity  were  combined,  and  he  was  an 
elegant  writer  whose  works  became  classic  and  were  text-books  in 
the  schools  of  law.*  The  code  published  two  centuries  later 
(439  A.D.)  by  two  Christian  emperors,  places  him  above  all  the 
other  Eoman  jurisconsults.^ 

After  the  death  of  Plautianus,  Severus  gave  to  Papinian  the 
office  of  praetorian  prefect,  reverting  at  the  same  time  to  the  often 
interrupted  but  very  ancient  custom  of  sheiring  this  very  gi-eat 
duty  between  two  or  even  three  pei'sons.^    This  usage,  contrary  to 

'  .  .  .  .  amicissimum  imperatori  (Spart.,  Car.,  8).    Digest,  xx.  5, 12  pr. 

'  See  Tol.  V.  p.  687.  Tertullian  {Apolog.,  4)  recognizes  this  openly  :  Nonne  ct  vos  quofidie, 
experimentU  illuminantidus  tenebras  antiquitatis,  totam  illam  veterem  et  sqtuilentein  silvam 
legum  novis  princtpalium  rescnptorum  et  edictorum  secunbua  rustatis  et  caditis.  This  is  the 
same  legislative  labour  which  England,  heir  of  the  Komans'  practical  sense^  is  carrying  on  in 
India^  where  she  prudently  waits,  before  making  laws,  until  interested  parties  claim  tlieir 
rights  and  experience  reveals  needs.  In  one  of  his  books,  for  instance,  Papinian  restrains  the 
testamentary  authority  of  the  father,  refusing  him  the  right  to  put  into  his  wiU  a  clause  qtiam 
senattu  aut  princeps  improbant  ....  nam  quae  facta  kedunt  pietatem,  e-visttmationem,  vere^ 
cundiam  nostram  et,  ut  generaliter  divenm,  contra  bonos  mores  fiunt  nee  facere  nos  posse 
credendum  est  {Digest,  xxviii.  7, 15).  Besides  Ulpian,  Paulus,  and  Marcian,  there  were  at  tins 
time  living,  Callistratus,  of  whose  works  ninety-nine  fragments  are  contained  in  the  Pandects, 
and  two  membei*s  of  the  council,  CI.  Tryphonius  and  Arrius  Menander,  who  also  contributed  to 
the  Pandects,  The  reign  of  Severus,  with  still  another  renowned  lawyer,  TertuUianus,  continues, 
therefore,  the  flourishing  period  of  Roman  jurisprudence. 

'  For  students  of  the  third  year,  "  Papinianists."  Spartian  (Sev.,  21)  calls  it  Juris  asylum 
et  doctrines  legalis  thesaurum. 

*  Cod,  Theod.,  i.  4,  lex  unica  de  responsis  prudentium, 

•  Herod.,  iii.  8.     In  the  reign  of  Caligula  we  find  two  praetorian  prefects  (Suet.,  Col., 


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124  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235    A.D. 

all   the   military  institutions  of   the   Empire,   was   required   by   the 
importance  of  the  office  and  the  vaiiety  of  talents  it  required. 

Papinian  had  for  colleague  a  soldier,  Meecius  Leetus;  and 
when  we  see  at  the  head  of  the  army  the  valiant  and  able  defender 
of  Nisibis,^  and  at  the  head  of  the  civil  administration  the  juris- 
consult of  whom  an  old  writer  says,  "his  love  for  justice  and  his 
understanding  of  it  were  equal,"  we  must  feel  sure  that  the  State 
was  well  served  by  these  two  men  who,  for  eight  years,  remained 
as  much  the  friends  as  the  ministers  of  the  emperor.  Unfortunately, 
we  have  but  little  information  in  respect  to  their  labours. 

The  legislative  work  of  Severus  was,  however,  consider- 
able :  the  fragments  of  his  rescripts  surpass  in  number  those  of 
his  most  active  predecessors.  "He  made  many  excellent  laws," 
says  Aurelius  Victor,  and  Tertullian  adds,  "useful  laws;"  for  he 
congratulates  the  emperor,  calling  him  "  the  most  conservative  of 
rulers,"^  on  having  reformed  the  Papian  Poppsean  Law,  "which 
was  almost  a  whole  code  in  itself."^  Unfortunately,  there  exists 
scarcely  anything  of  this  legislation,  and  most  of  the  rescripts  of 
Severus  which  are  left  to  us  are  merely  applications  of  early 
law  which  served  the  jurisconsults  in  defining  jurisprudence.*  In 
respect  to  the  history  of  Roman  legislation,  these  rescripts,  there- 
fore, have  little  importance;  but  they  have  much  in  reference  to 
political  history,  for  they  show  in  what  spirit  this  emperor  caused 
the  laws  to  be  executed,  and  this  spirit  is  one  of  benevolent  equity, 
which  we  are  bound  to  keep  in  remembrance:  henignissime  rescripsit^ 
says  a  jurisconsult.  He  himself  marked  this  character  of  his  admin- 
istration, when,  in  a  speech  which  he  caused  his  son  to  read  to 
the  senate,  he  called  upon  the  Conscript  Fathers  to  soften  the  rigour 

56),  and   also  two  in  the  time  of  Nero  (Plut.,  Oalba,  8;    Tac.,  Hist,  iv.  2)  and  under 
Antoninus. 

^  See  p.  70.  An  inscription  of  May  28th,  206,  shows  them  hoth  praetorian  prefects. 
(Or.-Henzen,  No.  5,603. ) 

*  Legum  conditor  longe  agtiabilium  (Aur.  Victor,  de  Ccbs.,  20).  Constantissimus  prtTicipum 
(Tert.,  Apoi,  i.  4). 

'  The  Christians  desired  the  suppression  of  this  law,  which  was  decreed  hy  Constantino 
(Code,  viii.  58, 1). 

*  Many  imperial  rescripts  may  be  compared  to  the  decrees  of  the  French  Court  of  Cassation, 
whose  dates  do  not  determine  the  date  of  the  legislative  provision  sanctioned  by  the  decree, 
nor  even  that  of  the  commencement  of  jurisprudence  in  respect  to  the  point  in  question,  but 
attest  that  this  provision  and  this  jurisprudence  were  in  force  at  the  period  where  history 
meets  them,  and  this  suffices  to  justify  our  citations. 


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GOVERNMENT   OF   SEPTIMIUS   SEVERU8,    193   TO   211    A.D.  12«5 

of  the  laws.^  If  a  man,  says  one  of  the  great  legal  authorities  of 
the  time,  be  accused  of  crimes  which  fall  under  two  different  penal 
ordinances,  one  milder,  the  other  more  severe,  it  is  the  former 
which  shall  be  applied  in  the  case.^     And  acts  corresponded  to  words. 

To  put  one's  treasures  in  a  secure  place,  it  was  the  custom  to 
deposit  them  in  a  temple,  and  a  theft  from  the  sacred  building 
brought  with  it  the  penalty  of  sacrilege ;  Severus  granted  only  the 
actio  furti  against  those  who,  without  touching  the  sacred  objects, 
had  carried  off  the  possessions  of  a  private  person.  At  the  same 
time  he  condemned  to  exile  the  son  of  a  senator  who  had  caused 
to  be  carried  into  a  temple  a  chest  in  which  a  man  was  con- 
cealed, in  the  intention  that  when  night  had  come  and  the  doors 
had  been  closed  the  latter  might  steal  at  leisure.* 

In  cases  of  treason  the  public  treasury  inherited  the  property 
either  present  or  future  of  the  condemned;  the  emperor  decided 
that  the  sons  of  the  criminal  should  retain  the  rights  which  their 
father  had  had  over  his  freedman;  and  this  was  esteemed  a 
great  indulgence.*  While  he  did  not  abolish  the  unjust,  but  pro- 
foundly Eoman,  law  of  confiscation,  at  least  he  modified  its  rigour, 
and  his  councillors  wrote,  in  all  cases,  that  the  fault  of  the  father 
should  not  fall  upon  the  son;  and  that  illegitimate  children,  those 
bom  of  adulterous  or  even  incestuous  connections,  should  not,  on 
account  of  the  stain  on  their  birth,  be  excluded  from  public 
honours.*  One  of  his  rescripts  established  a  new  mode  of  con- 
fiscation against  which  there  can  be  no  objection  made :  ^'  The 
husband,"  he  said,  ^^who  does  not  avenge  his  murdered  wife  shall 
lose  whatever  of  her  dowry  would  fall  to  him."^  He  condemned 
to  temporary  exile  the  woman  who,  by  practising  abortion,  deprived 
her  husband  of  the  hope  of  children.^ 

^  .  .  ,  ,  ut  aliquid  laxaret  (senatus)  ex  juris  rigore  {Digest^  xxiv.  1,  32  pr.).  It  was  on 
a  special  point,  namely,  of  gifts  between  married  persons ;  but  the  same  spirit  is  found  in  other 
rescripts.  In  one  of  Alexander  Severus  we  read :  qtuB  a  2).  Antonino,  patre  meo  et  qua  a  me 
rescripta  sunt,  cum  juris  et  cequitatis  rationibus  congnmnt  (Code,  ii.  1,  8). 

*  Mitior  lex  erit  seguenda  (Ulpian,  Digest,  xlviii.  19,  32). 
'  Digest,  xlviii.  13, 12. 

*  Digest,  xxxvii.  14,  4,  and  xlviii.  4,  9.  In  speaking  of  this  rescript  Marcian  uses  the 
expression :  benignissime  rescripsit. 

.  *  Digest,  1.  2,  2,  §  2  :   ne  patris  nota  filius  macularetur.     Ibid,,  1.  2,  6 :  non  impedienda 
dignitas  ejus  qui  nihil  admisit. 
«  Digest,  xlix.  14,  27. 
■^  Digest,  xlvii.  ii.  4. 


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126  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYKIAN    PIUNCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

To  sell  a  statue  of  the  emperor  or  to  strike  it  mth  a  stone 
was  a  crimen  majestaUs  which  had  cost  many  men  their  lives; 
he  authorized  the  sale  of  unconsecrated  statues,  and  admitted  the 
excuse  of  accident.^ 

No  sentence  was  to  be  pronounced  against  an  absent  man: 
equity  forbidding  that  a  judgment  should  be  given  until  both  sides 
had  been  heard.* 

If  the  accuser  should  desist,  he  was  forbidden  to  resume  his 
accusation.*  The  same  is  the  law  in  France  when  the  prosecuting 
officer  abandons  the  case. 

The  accused  person  should  be  brought  before  the  judge  of  the 
place  where  the  crime  had  been  committed;*  there  also  he  was  to 
suffer  the  penalty,^  so  that  the  witnesses  of  the  offence  might  also 
witness  the  expiation;  and  modem  law  makes  the  same  provision. 

In  the  case  of  banishment  the  penalty  existed  after  death,  and 
the  corpse  of  the  criminal  was  condemned  also  to  be  exiled  from 
the  paternal  tomb.  Severus  did  not  repeal  this  law,  but  he  fre- 
quently granted  a  dispensation  from  it.^ 

Wards  were  frequently  robbed  by  faithless  guardians,  and  he 
prohibited  the  latter  from  alienating  the  property  of  minors  without 
authorization  from  the  urban  preetor  or  the  governor.^  We  have 
similar  prohibitions. 

Let  us  also  remember  to  his  honour  the  rescript  which  allowed 
the  Jews  to  be  candidates  for  municipal  honours  without  renouncing 
their  religion. 

It  is  not  certain  that  Severus  greatly  ameliorated  the  condition 
of  slaves;  but  certainly  after  his  time  they  were  much  more  secure 
in  the  possession  of  the  advantages  they  had  already  obtained,  in 
consequence  of  the  application  which  he  made  in  certain  circum- 
stances of  provisions  favourable  to  them. 

*  Dtffest,  xlviii.  4,  6,  §  1 :  lapide  incerto. 

*  Digest^  xlviii.  17, 1.  Absence  did  not  prevent,  however,  a  favourable  verdict,  at  least  in 
some  cases.  Thus  the  praetor  could  declare  a  slave  free  to  whom  liberty  bad  been  given  by 
testament,  even  when  he  did  not  present  himself  to  claim  it.  Senatus-consultum  of  the  year 
182,  under  Commodus.     {Digest,  xl.  5,  28,  §  4.) 

3  Ibid.,  16, 15,  §  4. 

*  Digest,  xlviii.  2,  22. 

*  Digest,  xlix.  16,  3  pr. 

®  Digest,  xlviii.  24,  2 :  .  .  .  .  multis  petentibus  induUit. 

''  Digest,  xxvii.  9, 1.  This  important  matter  of  wardship  was  regulated  in  all  ita  details  by 
an  oratio  Seven,  read  in  the  senate  on  the  ides  of  June,  195. 


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GOVERNMENT   OF   SEPTIMIUS   SEVEIiUS,    193   TO   211    A.D.  127 

It  was  forbidden  to  a  master  to  set  on  foot  an  action  against 
his  freedman  by  reason  of  a  fault  which  the  latter  had  committed 
while  in  the  state  of  servitude ;  it  was  also  forbidden  to  all  to 
reproach  a  woman  with  the  wages  of  disgrace  which  she  had  been 
forced  to  earn  before  her  enfranchisement;  it  was  also  forbidden  to 
women  to  fight  in  the  arena.^ 

If  a  slave  owed  his  liberty  to  a  forged  codicillunij  he  should 
keep  his  freedom,  but  should  pay  twenty  solidi  to  the  heir:^  a 
decision  which  satisfied  at  the  same  time  both  law  and  equity, 
leaving  to  the  slave  the  benefit  of  a  lucky  error  and  compensating 
the  heir  for  the  diminution  of  his  inheritance. 

The  emperor  even  gave  access  to  public  office  to  the  children 
of  mixed  condition:  ^^Let  not  Titius,  the  son  of  a  free  woman  and 
a  father  yet  in  slavery,  from  attaining  the  decurionate  in  his  city."' 

A  man  condemned  was  said  to  be  servus  poence.  What  was  to 
be  the  condition  of  the  slave  sent  to  the  mines,  when  the  emperor^s 
pardon  took  him  thence?  The  condemned  man,  said  Severus,  was 
the  slave  of  the  penalty;  the  penalty  being  suppressed,  the  man 
is  free/  The  method  of  enfranchisement  is  curious:  a  capital 
sentence  resulting  in  giving  the  slave  his  liberty !  The  slave's 
penal  sentence  had,  it  was  considered,  placed  the  State  in  the 
master's  position  towards  him;  and  the  master  could  not  recover 
his  rights  by  the  fact  that  the  emperor  had  pardoned  the  servus 
poence.  This  was  a  rigorous  application  of  principles,  but  it  must 
be  that  these    principles    were    sometimes  violated,   and    that    the 

»  Digetty  iv.  4, 11 ;  iii.  2,  24 ;  Dion,  lxx¥.  16. 

'  Digest,  xl.  4,  47. 

»  Digesty  1.  2, 0  pr. 

*  Digest,  xlviii.  19,  8,  §  12.  This  rescript  belongs  to  the  reign  of  Caracalla,  who  in  his 
civil  laws  followed  out  the  spirit  of  his  father's  legislation.  Ulpian,  who  reports  this  rescript, 
adds:  rectissime  rescripsit.  Alexander  Severus  applied  the  same  principle  to  the  son,  who, 
under  similar  conditions,  was  set  free  from  the patria potestas  {(ole,  ix.  51,  6).  The  following 
are  also  rescripts  of  Caracalla:  The  slave  cannot  be  enfranchised  until  after  he  has  given 
account  of  his  stewardship  (Digest,  xl.  12,  34.  See  vol.  v.  of  tliis  work,  p.  308).  The  patron 
who  does  not  maintain  his  freedman  loses  his  rights  over  him  (Digest,  xxxvii.  14,  5,  §  1.  This 
rescript  is  possibly  of  the  reign  of  Alexander  Severus).  Banishment  involved  the  confiscation 
of  property.  Two  persons  about  to  be  exiled  asked  permission  to  levy  each  upon  his  and  her 
individual  property  which  was  about  to  be  taken  from  them  enough  to  secure,  the  mother  to 
the  son,  and  the  son  to  the  mother,  the  bare  necessaries  of  life,  ad  victum  necessaria.  "  I  cannot 
change  a  law,"  the  emperor  replied,  "but  your  request  is  a  pious  one;  it  shall  be  done  as  you 
desire.**  (Digest,  xlviii.  22,  16.)  He  condemned  to  he  beaten  with  rods  and  sent  into  exile  for 
three  years  those  who  pillaged  shipwrecked  persons.     {Digest,  xlvii.  9,  4,  etc.) 


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128  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

emperor  being  asked  for  his  opinion  on  the  subject,  confirmed  them 
anew. 

The  prefect   of  the   city  had  now  the    entire   criminal    juris- 
diction in  Eome  and  as  far  as  the  hundredth  mile,  excepting  over 


Septiraius  Severuw.     (Museum  of  the  Louvre.) 

senators,  who  were  amenable  to  the  senate.  Severus  ordered  him 
to  receive  the  complaints  of  slaves  against  their  cruel  or  profligate 
masters,  and  to  keep  watch  that  none  should  be  compelled  to  a 
life  of  shame.^ 

'  .  .  .  .  ofUdum  prof,  nrhi  datum  .  .  .  .  ut  mayictpia  tuontur,  ne  prostitunntur  (Diffe^f, 
i.  12,  If  §  S)  ....  lit  scrros  de  dominis  querentos  andint  si  SfPvitiam,  si  duritiayn,  st/ameiTij  qua 


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GOVERNMENT   OF   SEPTIMIUS   SEVERUS,    193   TO   211    A.D.  129 

There  were,  especially  in  the  army,  many  slaves  belonging  to 
several  masters  at  once.  Severus  decided  that  if  one  of  the  latter  ' 
enfranchised  the  common  slave,  the  co-proprietor  or  proprietors 
should  be  obliged  to  sell  to  him  their  share  at  a  price  fixed  by 
the  prsBtor,  so  that  the  freedman  might  thus  obtain  his  full  liberty. 
This  rule  lasted  until  the  time  of  Justinian.  Contrary  to  Hadrian's 
rescript,  he  did  not  allow  the  common  slaves  to  be  put  to  the 
torture  in  case  of  a  prosecution  of  one  of  the  masters;  and  calling 
to  mind  that  the  law  did  not  permit,  save  in  certain  defined  cases, 
confessions  against  the  master  to  be  extorted  from  the  slave  by 
torture,  he  added:  so  much  the  more  are  their  denunciations  of 
their  masters  not  to  be  received.^  This  principle  of  domestic  dis- 
cipline having  been  so  often  violated  under  bad  emperors,  we 
must  set  it  down  to  the  credit  of  Severus  that  he  made  its  legal 
authority  clear. 

In  fiscal  prosecutions  it  had  been  usual  to  compel  the  accused 
person  to  prove  that  his  fortune  had  been  legitimately  acquired; 
Severus  decided  that  it  was  the  business  of  the  informer  to  prove 
the  justice  of  his  accusation.  This  also  is  one  of  the  rules  of  our 
legislation.  Lastly,  he  uttered  this  principle,  that  whenever  there 
were  doubts  in  regard  to  the  meaning  of  the  law,  precedents  should 
be  examined,  or  custom,  which  in  such  case,  should  have  the  force 
of  law.  Local  custom,  therefore,  had  not  been  abolished  at  the 
beginning  of  the  third  century.^ 

Severus,  who  took  pleasure  in  directing  the  law  towards 
milder  constructions,  was  rigorous  towards  all  forms  of  disorder. 
He  augmented  the  severities  of  the  Julian  law  in  respect  to  cases 
of  adultery,  but  without  great  profit  to  public  morals,  which  cannot 
be  corrected  by  articles  of  a  code.'     But  neither  was  he  indulgent 

eos  premant ;  si  obsccemtatem  in  qua  eos  compulerent  vel  compellant  {ibid,).  The  slaye,  however, 
could  not  publicly  accuse  hia  master.  Severus  wished  to  constrain  the  latter  to  humanity,  while 
not  destroying  domestic  discipline  {Digest,  xlix.  14,  2,  §  6).  An  ordinance  of  Commodus  had 
decreed  that  the  enfranchised  person  who  did  not  come  to  the  help  of  his  patron  in  sickness  or 
destitution  should  be  given  back  into  slavery  (Digest,  xxv.  3,  6,  §  1).  In  article  12  of  the 
Digest,  book  i.,  Ulpian  gives  a  summary  of  the  letter  of  Severus,  which  is,  so  to  speak,  the 
constituant  charter  of  the  urban  prefecture. 

*  Code,  vii.  7, 1 ;  Digest,  idviii.  18, 17,  §  2 ;  ibid,y  §  8 :   Plurium  serimm  in  nullius  caput 
torgueri posse :  Code,  ix.  14, 1 ;  Digest,  xlviii.  18, 1,  §  16. 

^  Digest,  xlix.  14,  26 ;  ibid,,  i.  3,  38 ;  see  vol.  v.  of  this  work,  p.  826. 

'  When  he  became  consul,  Dion  found  3,000  accusations  entered  on  the  lists.    See  vol.  v. 
p.  644,  n.  1. 

VOL.  VI.  K 


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130  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

towards  his  own  interests:  he  rejected  any  legacy  where  the  simplest 
formality  had  been  omitted,  using  those  words  which  are  so  honour- 
able in  the  mouth  of  a  ruler  whom  the  constitution  exempts  from 
all  laws:  "It  is  true  that  I  am  above  the  laws;  but  it  is  with 
and  by  the  laws  that  I  desire  to  live."^ 

The  law  forbade  public  ofl&cers  to  take  a  wife,  or  even  suffer 
their  sons  to  marry,  in  the  province  where  they  were  on  duty. 
However,  marriages  of  this  class  had  taken  place.  To  prevent  all 
pressure  upon  provincial  families  by  reason  of  interested  marriages, 
Severus  decided  that  an  official  who  had  taken  to  wife  a  rich 
heiress  living  in  his  province  should  not  inherit  from  her.^ 

Billeting  of  military  and  civil  functionaries  was  a  burden  to 
the  provincials  and  often  there  was  much  abuse  under  this  head; 
Severus  therefore  recommended  the  governors  to  observe  the  rules 
strictly." 

Many  of  these  provisions  were  not  new;*  but  Severus  made 
them  his  own  by  repeating  them,  and  some  of  them  prove  that  the 
Roman  world  was  steadily  effecting  by  itself  the  greatest  social 
evolution  of  antiquity:  the  slave  ceasing  to  be  a  thing  and 
becoming  a  person. 

We  must  notice,  on  the  other  hand,  the  decline  of  the  muni- 
cipal rigime  which  was  now  beginning.  The  kind  of  heredity 
established  by  Augustus  in  respect  to  the  senate  at  Rome  had  by 
degrees  extended  itself  over  the  Empire.  Certain  sons  of  decurions, 
doubtless  in  limited  number,  prcetextati,  sat  in  the  local  senate, 
but  did  not  vote  until  after  their  twenty-fifth  year,  after  having 
occupied  some  public  office,  and  when  death  or  some  sentence  of 
punishment  had  made  a  vacancy.*  Paulus.  one  of  the  emperor^s 
council,  wrote  about  this  time:  "He  who  is  not  a  member  of  the 
curia  cannot  be  appointed  duumvir,  because  it  is  forbidden  to 
plebeians  to  aspire  to  the  honours  of  the  decurionate."  On  the 
other  hand,  his  eminent  contemporaries,  TJlpian  and  Papinian, 
admitted  that  a  man  of  the  people  might  arrive  at  the  senate,  not 

^  Licet  legibtu  soluti  sumuSf  attamen  legibus  vimmuB  (Inst.,  ii.  17,  §  8). 
'  Digest,  xxxiv.  9,  2,  §  1,  and  xxxiii.  2,  67,  63. 

•  Ibid,,  i.  16,  4,  procem, 

•  See  p.  114. 

•  At  Canusium,  in  223,  there  were   twenty-five  pratextati  to  a  hundred  decurions. 
(Papinian,  in  the  DipeH,  1.  2,  6,  §  1.) 


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GOVERNMENT   OF   SEPTIMIUS   SEVERL'S,    193   TO   211    A.D.  131 

by  the  lectio^  which  no  longer  made  the  quinquennial  duumvir,  but 
by  the  eooptatio.  But  for  these  authorities  also  the  sons  of  the 
decurions  formed  a  privileged  class.^  We  are  at  a  period  of  transi- 
tion, therefore,  when  the  early  liberties  were  becoming  effaced 
without  having  completely  disappeared.  The  curia  is  not  yet  closed 
to  new  men,  but  the  municipal  aristocracy  was  drawing  itself  closer 
and  the  movement  of  concentration  accelerated.  Already  Ulpian 
is  of  opinion  that  the  decurion  who  abandons  his  city  should  be 
brought  back  to  it  by  the  governor  of  the  province,  that  he  may 
fulfil  the  duties  which  are  incumbent  upon  him;^  and  Septimius 
Severus  proscribed  to  all  his  agents  to  act  with  extreme  circum- 
spection in  the  imposition  of  new  municipal  taxes;  and  to  his  pro- 
consuls and  legates  to  keep  rigorous  watch  over  public  works 
and  over  illegal  associations.'  "There  is  nothing  in  the  province,'^ 
said  the  councillor  of  Severus,  "which  cannot  be  executed  by 
the  governor."  *  Centi^alization  was  gaining  at  the  expense  of 
local  vitality.  But  later  we  shall  see  it  was  less  the  rulers 
who  encroached  than  the  tovms  which  made  the  encroachments 
necessary. 

As  we  read  all  these  rescripts,  and  there  are  many  others  of 
which  I  have  not  spoken,  we  are  forced  to  acknowledge  that  if 
Septimius  Severus  was  not  the  reformer  for  whom  the  Empire  had 
been  looking  since  the  death  of  Augustus,  he  was  at  least  a  ruler 
attentive  to  the  needs  of  the  time. 

Of  all  these  needs  the  most  imperious — after  the  horrible  con- 
fusion which  began  under  Commodus  and  continued  five  years 
after  his  reign  had  ceased — was  public  order.  To  have  done  with 
civil  wars,  with  military  revolts,  with  armed  brigandage,  and  to 
put  every   man  and   everything   in  the   proper  place,   required   no 


'  Digeit,  1.  2,  §  2,  and  7,  §§  2-7. 

*  Digest,  1.  2, 1.  Rescript  of  Sevenis  exist  forbiddiDgr  the  cities  to  lay  too  heavy  burdens 
on  the  rich ;  but  also  to  constrain  to  the  execution  of  their  promises  those  who  had  made  a 
formal  engagement  to  construct  some  work  of  public  utility  or  decoration  {Digest,  1.  12,  6,  §§  2 
and  3) ;  in  respect  to  the  recall  of  the  doctor  or  professor  cppointed  by  the  city  {Digest,  xxvii. 
1,  6,  §§  6,  0,  and  11) ;  concerning  the  age  requisite  for  municipal  office,  from  twenty-five  to 
fifty-five  yea^^  {Digest,  1.  2, 11) ;  in  regard  to  peculating  magistrates  {Digest,  iii.  5,  38) ;  on  the 
extent  of  the  responsibility  of  the  magistrates'  surety  {Coder  vi.  34,  1,  etc.)* 

'  Code,  iv.  62,  1 ;  Ulpian,  in  the  Digest,  i.  16,  7;  ibid.,  i.  12,  §  14,  and  Marcian,  ibid., 
xlvii.  22, 1. 

*  Nee  qtacquam  est  in  provincia  quod  non  per  ipsum  eapediatur  {Digest,  i.  16,  0,  1 ). 

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132  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

common  energy,  but  this  was  what  Se varus  accomplished.  "He 
corrected  many  abuses,'^  say  Spartian  and  Aurelius  Victor;^  "he 
was  terrible  to  the  wicked,"  says  Zosimus;  according  to  Herodian, 
he  re-established  order  in  the  provinces;  and  aU  agree  that  he  was 
unsparing  towards  governors  who  were  found  guilty,^  "since  he 
knew  that  the  great  robbers  produce  the  less."  ^  An  Egyptian  pre- 
fect, accused  of  counterfeiting,  suffered  the  penalties  prescribed  by 
the  old  Cornelian  law  de  falsis.  But  Severus  took  care  to  have 
rare  occasion  to  punish,  being  extremely  careful  to  choose  wisely, 
which  is  for  a  sovereign  the  art  par  excellence^  and  then  loading 
with  honours  those  who  fulfilled  their  duties  worthily.* 

Herodian,  and,  following  him,  modem  authors,  reproach  Severus 
with  a  relaxation  of  discipline,  a  strange  charge  against  a  man  like 
this.  It  arises  from  a  remark  brought  back  by  Dion*  from  Britain, 
but  very  possibly  fabricated  at  Rome.  On  his  death-bed  the 
emperor  is  reported  as  saying  to  his  sons:  "Enrich  your  soldiers 
and  you  can  defy  everything."  The  expression  is  brutal  in  form, 
and  that  very  brutality  has  made  it  famous.  But  who  overheard 
this  dangerous  confession  of  a  dying  man?  Besides,  the  words, 
like  many  other  pretended  historic  sayings,  have  a  certain  truth 
if  they  are  reduced  to  the  simple  terms  of  what  may  well  have 
been  the  emperor's  conviction:  "Keep  the  army  content,  that  it 
may  be  devoted  to  you  " — ^that  is  to  say,  pay  your  soldiers  well, 
and  honour  them,  for  they  are  the  one  power  in  the  State.  What 
he  thus  advised  he  had  himself  done,  giving  the  generals  immense 
estates;  the  prsetorian  tribunes  were  excused  from  acting  as  guardians 
even  in  the  case  of  their  comrades'  children;  the  veterans,  from 
personal  obligations  towards  their  city ;  ^  the  legionaries  received 
larger  pay,  a  ration  of  better  com,  more  frequent  largesses,  and  the 

'  ImplacabiUs  deUctu  (Spart.,  Sev»y  18) ne  parva  latrocinia  quidem  impunita 

patiebatur  (Aur.  Vict.,  de  Cos,,  20). 

*  AccusatosaprovincialibtisjudiceSfprobatis  relms,  graviter  punivit  (Spart.,  Sev,,  8). 

*  Aur.  Vict.,  de  C<bs.,  20. 

*  Digest,  xlviii.  10,  1,  §  4.     Ad  erigendos  indtutrios  guosgue  judicii  singularis  (Spart., 

ibid.,  18) homo  m  legendia  magistratibus  diligem  (Capit.,  Alb.,  3).     Strenuum  queingue 

pramiis  extolMmt  (Aur.  Vict.,  de  Caes.,  20). 

°  Herod.,  iii.  26 ;  Dion,  Ixxvi.  16 :  .  .  .  .  tclSi  Xeyirai  rotj;  -iraioiv  kliriiv.  Later  Alexander 
Severus  said :  Miles  non  timet,  nisi  vestitus,  armatus,  calceatus  ct  satuv  et  habevfi  aliquid  in 
zoniUa  (Lamp.,  Alex.,  62). 

*  Digest,  xxvii.  1, 9.  A  muneribus  qiup  non  patrimonii^  indicuntur  veterani  ....  perpetuo 
cvcusantur  {Digest,  1.  v.  7).     In  respect  to  the  munera,  see  vol.  v.  of  this  work,  p.  376. 


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GOVERNMENT   OF  JSEPTIMIUS   8EVERUS,    193   TO   211    A.D.  133 

right  of  wearing  a  gold  ring,  a  mark  of  honour  which  thereafter 
made  part  of  the  uniform.  The  depreciation  of  the  precious  metals 
and  the  need  of  attracting  the  Eoman  population  into  the  army 
made  these  measures  necessary.  We  modem  nations  act  in  the 
same  manner  in  respect  to  pay  and  rations  and  the  military  medal, 
without  thinking  that  we  corrupt  our  troops.  And  these  expenses 
did  not  exhaust  the  treasury,  for  the  finances  were  never  in  a  more 
flourishing  condition.^  Herodian  says  further  that  he  authorized  the 
legionaries  "to  dwell  with  their  wives." *^  This  was  a  measure  of 
morality.  Since  the  establishment  of  permanent  armies  it  had  been 
the  rule  that  the  soldier  should  not  marry.  ''The  law  does  not 
permit  it,"  says  Dion;  "to  certain  veterans  the  emperor  gives  the 
right  to  contract  legitimate  marriages,"  adds  Gains,'  designating  the 
soldiers  who  obtained  the  honourable  discharge.  In  the  beginning 
of  the  third  century  Tertullian  refers  to  this  principle.*  But  nature 
asserted  her  rights;  profligate  women  followed  the  armies,  and  in 
the  villages  which  by  degrees  gathered  about  the  encampments 
were  countless  families  which  the  law  did  not  recognize.*  The 
emperor,   who   had  increased   the   severity   of  the  penalties  against 

*  We  have  the  proof  of  this  in  the  immense  resources  which  were  allowed  to  remain  in 
money  (Herod.,  iii.  49,  and  Spart.,  Sev,,  12 :  Filiis  suis  ....  tantum  reliquit  quantum  nullus 
imperatorum),  and  in  supplies  of  all  sorts.  Severus  established  the  rule,  or  perhaps  renewed 
it,  following  Trajan  (Lamp.,  Eloff,,  20),  that  there  always  be  seven  years'  supply  of  com  in 
Rome ;  this  was  better  than  the  old  French  greniera  cPabondance,  but  in  an  economic  point  of 
view  it  was  a  very  bad  measure. 

*  yvvai^i  re  awouctlv  (iii.  8).  Marriage  is  permitted  in  the  English  army,  but  with 
restrictions  which  greatly  reduce  the  disadvantages  of  this  custom.  Those  designated  as 
"  non-commissioned  officers  holding  the  rank  of  first  or  second  dass  staff-sergeant,"  etc.,  may 
marry.  Among  the  non-commissioned  officers  three  out  of  four  or  five,  four  out  of  six  or 
seven,  six  out  of  ten,  according  to  the  grade,  and  among  the  soldiers  four  per  cent,  (formerly 
seven)  can  obtain  this  permission.  These  married  couples  have  a  right  to  a  furnished  room  in 
barracks;  the  wife  and  the  children  receive  half  and  quarter  rations;  or,  when  the  family 
does  not  accompany  its  head  into  the  colonies,  an  indemnity  of  sixpence  a  day  for  the  wife  and 
twopence  for  each  child.  (Circular  of  the  War  Office,  April  1st,  1871.)  These  expenses  of  pay 
and  lodging  are  possible  in  the  ease  of  a  small  army  like  the  English ;  but  they  would  have 
imposed  tremendous  burdens  upon  the  Roman  government,  and  the  more  since  the  authoriza- 
tion granted  by  Severus  did  not  contain  those  imjust  restrictions  which,  in  the  English  army, 
make  marriage  a  premium  reserved  for  only  one  soldier  out  of  twenty-five. 

'  Tac.,  Ann,,  xiv.  22 ;  Dion,  Ix.  24 ;  Inst,  i.  57.  The  veterans  of  the  legions  had  no  need 
of  this  authorization,  being  all  citizens,  but  it  was  necessary  for  the  veterans  of  the  auxiliary 
troops,  who  were  not  so. 

*  Exhort,  ad  Cast,  12. 

*  When  the  soldiers  in  the  camp  of  Emesa  rose  in  insurrection  against  Macrinus  they 
called  in  their  wives  and  children  from  the  adjacent  towns  to  shelter  them  behind  the  fortifica- 
tions of  the  camp.     Many  of  these  families  had  been  legitimated  by  Severus. 


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134  THE   AFKICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

adultery,  was  extremely  displeased  at  this  immorality.^  Domitian 
had  already  granted  to  the  veterans,  without  discharging  them,  the 
jm  connvML  The  soldiers  took  advantage  of  this  new  right  to 
establish  their  families  near  the  camps  and  to  live  with  them ; 
from  this  resulted  disadvantages  which  a  firm  hand  and  some  simple 
regulations  of  the  service  would  have  been  able  to  prevent.  Severus 
had  the  necessary  firmness,  but  his  successors  had  not,  and  the 
discipline  of  the  army  was  impaired. 

The  religious  observance  of  the  military  oath,  to  which  the 
armies  of  Trajan  and  Hadrian  were  still  faithful,  had  been  much 
weakened  at  the  accession  of  Severus.  We  have  seen  under 
Commodus  the  insurrection  of  the  legions  of  Britain;  upon  his 
death,  of  the  prsetorians;  and  later  of  all  the  armies.  Severus 
himself  in  the  beginning  had  to  subdue  in  his  own  camp  two 
seditions ;  in  Eome  a  third ;  ^  and  a  fourth  in  the  province  of 
Arabia.  He  restored  discipline  at  first  by  giving  the  example  of 
military  virtues;  at  Lyons  he  fought  as  a  common  soldier;  in 
Mesopotamia  the  army  suffered  with  thirst  and  would  not  drink 
the  foul  water  of  a  marsh :  in  sight  of  all  men  he  drank  a  great 
cupful  of  it.'  Then  he  would  not  allow  a  fault-finding  spirit  to 
make  its  way  among  the  troops:  a  tribune  of  the  pnetorian  cohorts 
expiated  by  death  some  cowardly  words.^  Finally,  he  banished 
disorder  and  indolence  from  the  camps.  More  than  one  governor, 
it  is  probable,  received  from  him  a  letter  similar  to  this  which  he 
one  day  sent  to  a  legate  in  Gaul :  "  Is  it  not  a  disgrace  that  we 
cannot  imitate  the  discipline  of  those  whom  we  have  conquered  ? 
Your   soldiers   roam   about   the   country,  and  your  tribxines  are  at 

the  bath  in  the  middle  of  the  day They  eat  in  taverns  and 

sleep  in  houses  of  debauchery.  They  spend  their  time  in  eating 
and  drinking  and  singing;   their  whole  occupation  is  gluttony  and 

^  The  wives  of  soldiers  who  had  accompanied  their  husbands,  absent  on  service  for  the 
State,  did  not  incur  foredusion  when  they  had  allowed  the  legal  delay  to  pass  before  entering 
on  a  temporary  action.  (Rescripts  of  the  year  227.  Codej  ii.  52, 1-2.)  At  this  date  the  legal 
condition  of  the  soldier's  wife  was  therefore  well-established,  and  the  rescript  of  Severus  was 
in  full  force. 

^  Spart.,  Sev.y  7  and  8.  On  the  day  after  his  entry  into  Rome,  at  the  Red  Rocks,  and  at 
Atra. 

'  Dion,  Ixxv.  2. 

*  See  p.  73.  He  condemned  to  exile  again  the  deserter  who  after  five  years  ventured  to 
return.    (Digest,  xlix.  16, 13,  §  6.) 


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GOVERNMENT   OF   SEPTIMIU8   8EVEEU8,    193   TO   211    A.D.  136 

drankenness.  Should  we  see  such  things  if  any  feeling  of  the 
ancient  discipline  prevailed?  Let  the  tribune  be  first  corrected  and 
then  the  soldiers.  So  long  as  you  fear  them  they  will  not  fear 
you.  Niger  must  have  taught  you  this:  for  the  soldier  to  be 
obedient  his  officers  must  be  worthy  of  respect."  ^ 

These  last  words  do  honour  to  the  man  who  spoke  thus  of 
Niger  after  having  conquered  him;  but,  in  the  presence  of  this 
letter,  what  becomes  of  the  charge  that  Severus  neglected  the 
discipline  of  the  army?  A  cowardly  or  indolent  ruler  may  let  the 
reins  hang  loosely;  but  never  did  a  general  whom  five  years  of 
war  had  placed  in  possession  of  the  supreme  power  fedl  that  dis- 
order in  the  camps  was  an  advantage  for  him,  and  Severus,  who 
so  energetically  maintained  civil  discipline,  must  have  been  least 
likely  of  all  men  to  feel  this.  An  ancient  writer^  expressly 
bears  him  witness  that  he  established  excellent  order  in  the  armies, 
and  Dion  proves  this  when  he  shows  that  the  troops  broke  into 
insurrection  against  Macrinus  when  the  latter  sought  to  enforce 
anew  the  military  regulations  of  the  first  African  emperor. 

Severus  increased  the  army  by  three  legions,  to  which  he  gave 
the  name  ParthicsB.  The  first  and  third  of  these  guarded  the  new 
province  of  Mesopotamia;  the  second,  composed,  no  doubt,  of  soldiers 
on  whose  fidelity  he  could  specially  rely,  was,  contrary  to  usage, 
brought  back  to  Italy  and  quartered  near  Albano,'  to  keep  per- 
petually before  the  Romans  the  memory  of  the  Eastern  victories, 
and  also  to  be  a  faithful  force  in  reserve  in  case  of  a  popular  riot 
or  some  praetorian  sedition.  Severus  could  certainly  rely  upon  his 
new  guard;  but  he  was  too  prudent  to  forget  the  part  this  corps 
had  played  in  the  recent  catastrophes,  which  brought  back  the 
recollection  of  earlier  ones.  The  second  Parthica  was  a  precaution 
against  the  possibility  of  a  surprise.  Herodian  says,  however,  that 
he  quadrupled  the  number  of  the  praetorians;  this  is  not  at  all 
probable,  and  could  not  have  been  done  without  seriously  disturb- 
ing the  whole  military  organization  of  the  Empire.  Dion  and 
Spartian  say  nothing  of  it,  and  we  shall  follow  their  example.* 


'  Spart.,  Nig.y  3. 

^  Zosimus,  i.  8 :  .  .  .  .  ^mQuq  inifuXwc  rd  ffrpardwfSa. 

*  Dion,  Iv.  24  ;  Henzen,  Annales  dc  Vlnst.  archeol.,  1867,  p.  73-88. 

*  The  author  har^liacussed  thifl  quMtion  in  the  Itetme  arekSol.  of  1877,  pp.  299  et  seq. 


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136  THE   AFRICAN   AND   8YEIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

Was  it  the  emperor  who  employed  Menander,   a  member  of 
his  council,   in  writing  four  books  de  Re  militari^^  that  is  to  say, 
preparing  a  sort  of  military  code?    We  can  at  least  believe  that 
he  encouraged  this  enterprise,  and  we  know  that  later  it  was  com- 
mon    to    speak    of 
^^the  regulations   of 
Severus  in  regard  to 
the  army.'*' 

In  the  number 
of  his  military 
measures  we  may 
count  the  division 
of  certain  of  the 
provinces  which 
were  too  large. 
Serious  wars  had 
lately  sprung  up  in 
Syria  and  in  Britain; 
he  divided  each  of 
these  coimtries  into 
two  commands;  he 
did  the  same  in 
Africa,  where 
Numidia,  comprised 
since  26  B.C.  in  the 
proconsular  province 
of  Africa,  formed 
finally  a  province  by 

The  Soptizouium.     (Restoration  by  Canioa.j  .,     , «  j 

At  Eome  the  emperor  kept  the  people  content  and  peaceable 
by  largesses  amounting  in  his  reign  to  the  sum  of  220,000,000 
denarii,  and  by  the  regularity  of  the  distributions.  In  his  time 
the  State  granaries  had  always  com   enough  for  seven  years  and 

*  This  work  of  Arriua  Menander  seems  to  have  been  more  important  than  those  of 
Patemus,  prepared  in  the  time  of  Commodus,  and  of  Maoer  under  Caracalla;  for  it  is  from 
Menander  that  the  PandecU  most  largely  borrow.    Cf.  Digest ,  xlix.  11. 

^  Dion,  IxxTiii.  28. 

^  See  the  Memoir  of  L.  Renier  upon  the  inscription  of  Velleius  Paterculus  in  the  Compter 
rendus  de  VAcad.  d'itucr.  for  1876,  p.  431,  and  Marqiiardt,  Handb.,  vol.  iv.  p.  310. 


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GOVERNMENT   OF   SEPTIMIUS   SEVERUS,    193   TO   211    A.D.  137 

oil   for  five.      He  built  a   great   temple  to  Bacchus   and   Hercules, 

hot  baths,  of  which  nothing  now  remains,   and  the  Septizonium,   a 

portico   with  seven  stories   of   columns   which   would  have   made   a 

vestibxile,  perhaps  magnificent,  certainly   singular,  to   the  palace  of 

the    Csesars,    on    the 

side    of    the    Appian 

Way,   if  the    augurs 

had  not  declared  that 

the    gods    forbade 

changing  the  entrance 

to  the  Palatine.     For 

himself  he  bxiilt  upon 

the     slopes     of     the 

Janiculum,  where  now 

stand  the    Corsini 

palace  and  the  Fame- 

sina,    a    villa    whose 

gardens  descended  to 

the   Tiber    and   went 

up  to  the  top  of  the 

hill.     A  gate  opened 

near  this  spot,  in  the 

wall  of  Aurelian,  still 

bears    its    name,   the 

porta    Settimania. 

Severus  also  repaired 

all  the  public  build- 

ings    which    had  ^  .      .,.   ^    ,.     •        ,t^      n    •    m 

^  Kiuns  of  the  Septizonium.     (rrom  Lanma.) 

suffered   injury, 

among  others,  the  Pantheon  of  Agrippa^  and  the  theatre  of  Ostia. 
Dion  is  of  opinion  that  the  emperor  expended  too  much  money  in 
these    works;    but    public    constructions    are    a    necessary    and    at 

^  Canina,  Storia  et  topogr.  di  Roma  ant,  vol.  v.,  Gli  edif.  di  Homa,  pi.  267.  As  late  as 
the  sixteenth  century  some  ruins  of  this  portico  were  in  existence  which  were  seen  by  Dup^rac 
and  designed  in  his  work,  deUe  Antichttd  di  Roma,  pi.  13.  Cf.  VAntichith  di  Roma,  by 
V.  Scamozzi,  1583,  pi.  23  and  24.  Some  of  the  columns  of  the  Septizonium  were  employed 
by  Sixtus  V.  in  the  Vatican.  Of.  Montfaucon,  VAntiquit4  expliquie  et  repr^sentSe  en  figures, 
vol.  V.  p.  122.  He  believes  that  the  structures  forming  the  immense  ruins  of  Rabbath-Ammon, 
on  the  sterile  plateau  of  Moab,  and  those  of  Er-Rabbah,  are  of  the  same  date. 

'  Pantheum  vetustate  corruptum  cum  omni  cultu  restituerit  (C.  I,  L,,  vi.  806). 


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138  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   236   A.D. 

times  an  honourable  expense,  and  the  economy  that  Severus  insisted 
upon  in  the  palace  permitted  him  to  spend  large  sums  for  use- 
ful purposes.  There  still  exist  some  inter- 
esting remains  of  the  little  arch  which  the 
traders  of  the  Forum  boarium  erected,  and  many 
fragments  have  been  found  of  a  plan  of  Rome, 
which  appears  to  have  been  engraved  on  tablets 
of  marble  in  this  reign;  the  whole  size  must 
have  been  over  300  square  mfetres.^ 

^ouveoir  of  the  Restoration  ,  »  t        i        t 

of  Agrippa's  Pantheon  in  The   provinoes  felt    the    benefits    of    this 

^  liberality.      We  have  seen  what  was  done  at 

Byzantium,  Antioch,  Alexandria,  and  thi-oughout  Egypt. 

In  Syria,  the  emperor  built  at  Baalbec  (Heliopolis)  the  temple 
of  Jupiter,   at  the  right   of   the   hillock  on  which   Antoninus  had 


Front.  13ack. 

Altar  found  in  1880  on  the  site  of  the  Theatre  of  Ostia,  rebuilt  by  Septimiue  Severus.^ 

erected  a  temple  of  the  Sun,  on  the  site  of  the  enormous  sanctuary 
built  there  by  the  Phoenicians  at  a  remote  period.  The  ornamenta- 
tion of  this  work  marks,  with  its  lavish  profusion,  as  does  the 
Septimian  arch  at  Eome,  the  decline  of  decorative  art.  The 
architects   of   that   time    had  no    longer   the   calm   serenity    of  the 

^  Jordan,  Forma  Urhis,  with  illustrations.     See  later  the  arch  of  the  Forum  boarium. 
*  From  an  engraved  stone  (transparent  amethyst)  found  at  Constantine.     {Gazette  archSol. 
of  1880,  p.  92.) 

'  Notizie  degli  scavi  di  Antichitd,  May,  1880,  and  April,  1881. 


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GOVERNMENT   OF   8EPTIMIU8   8BVEEU8,    193   TO   211   A.D.  139 

early  masters.  Their  imagination  had  run  wild,  and  they  tormented 
their  materials  as  the  philosophers  of  the  time  tormented  theirs. 
This  period,  which  loved  to  make  everything  colossal,  had  lost  the 
power  of  simplicity  together  with  the  feeling  of  true  greatness.  But, 
seen  from  a  distance,  what  a  magnificent  whole  is  formed  by  these 
vast  edifices  of  Heliopolis,  whose  mere  ruins  oppose  to  the  threat- 
ening grandeur  of  the  desert  an  image  of  the  prodigious  activity 
of  the  men  who  once  filled  these  solitudes  with  motion  and  noise 
and  wealth. 

"  Many  other  cities,"  his  biographer  adds,  ^^  owe  to  him 
remarkable  public  edifices."*  Carthage,  Utica,  and 
Leptis  Magna  received  from  him  the  jus  Italicum 
or  exemption  from  the  land-tax.^  The  last-named 
of  these  cities  was  his  native  place ;  he  probably 
did  not  fail  to  embellish  it,  but  no  trace  is  left 
of  any  such   works,'  nor   of   his  paternal    house,     j.  f    r  •    f 

which  the  city  had  carefully  preserved  and  which      Septimius  Severus, 

,    .  struck  at  Carthage. 

Justinian  caused  to  be  rebuilt.*     Severus  had  pro-       Cybeie  seated  on 

.jj  •xj.'L  X  J.  j«  *  lion.    Lanre  Bronze. 

vided  against  the  most  urgent  needs,  m  com- 
pelling, by  military  executions,  the  nomadic  tribes  who  desolated 
these  regions  to  respect  the  frontier.  In  gratitude  for  the  security 
thus  restored  to  it,  the  province  made  an  engagement,  whidi  it 
kept  up  to  the  time  of  Constantino,  to  furnish  to  Eome  every  year 
a  fixed  quantity  of  corn  and  oil.  "To  the  Africans,"  says  his 
biographer,  "  Severus  was  a  god."  The  arch  of  triumph  of 
Thevesta  (Tebessa),  finished  under  Caracalla  in  214,  had  been 
commenced  in  honour  of  his  father.* 

He  adopted  for  the  provinces  some  of  the  regulations  proposed 
by  Niger  to  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  made  certain  others  himself  which 
showed  his  care  to  prevent  even  the  smallest  abuses:  he  prohibited 
any  man,  taking  a  wife  in  a  province  where  he  held   office,  from 

'  Spart.,  Sev.f  2S.     Zoeimus  says  also :    "  He  adorned  a  great  number  of  cities,"  and 
Eutropius  (viii.  8) :  Afw/to  toto  Romano  orhe  reparant, 

*  Bigegty  1. 16,  8,  §  11.     We  have  seen  already  what  he  did  for  the  cities  of  Syria. 

*  The  coin  here  given  bears  the  legend :  Indulgentia  Augg.  in  Carth,    But  we  know  not 
in  memory  of  what  favour  granted  to  this  city  the  coin  was  struck.     (Eckhel,  vii.  p.  183.) 

*  Procop.,  de  AUdOf.  Justin,,  vi.  4. 

Inscriptions,  whose  number  increases  yearly,  proves  the  active  impulse  given  by  Severus 
to  public  works  in  Roman  Africa.  See  Renier's  Inscr.  (fAlg,,  and  many  numbers  of  the  Bull, 
de  oorr,  afr. 


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140  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

receiving  anything  from  her  by  will;^  he  forbade  the  soldier  to 
buy  property  in  the  district  where  he  was  in  service,  and  the 
governor  to  allow  military  or  civil  quarterings  to  become  a  burden 


lluins  of  the  Arch  of  Thevesta. 

to  the  provincials.^  Lastly,  he  completed  for  the  benefit  of  the 
cities  the  reorganization  of  the  imperial  post  which  Hadrian  had 
commenced.^  TJlpian  has  preserved  for  us  one  of  the  rescripts  in 
which  the   legislator  did    not  disdain    to    be    epigrammatic.      The 

'  Digest f  xxxiv.  9,  2,  §  1. 

'  Digest,  xlix.  16,  9;  ibid.,  xxxiv.  9,  2,  §  1 ;  xlix.  16,  9,  and  1,  16.  4  pr.:  .  .  .  .  wc  in 
hospitiis  prabendis  onerit  provinciam. 

'  Spart.,  Sev.,  4.  The  extent  of  the  reform  made  by  Severus  is  not  known.  Augustus  had 
organized  this  service,  veMculatio,  and  imposed  on  the  landowners  heavy  burdens,  from  which 
Nerva  exempted  Italy.  Trajan  developed  this  institution  and  corrected  the  abuses  which  had 
been  caused  by  too  easy  concession  of  rights  of  travelling.  The  assistance  furnished  by  the 
cities  remained,  however,  considerable,  although  it  appears  that  magistrates  using  the  curstis 
publicus  had  to  pay  something,  since  Hadrian  released  them  from  this,  ne  magistratus  hoc  onerc 
gravarentur  (Spart.,  Hadr,,  7).  Antoninus  introduced  some  relief,  and  Severus  granted  at 
the  expense  of  the  imperial  treasury  a  reduction  by  which  those  profited  who  had  the  duty  of 
collecting  these  taxes:  vehicularium  munus  a  privatis  ad  fiscum  traduxit  (Spart.,  Sev.^  14). 
But  after  his  time  the  whole  expense  fell  upon  the  municipalities. 


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GOVERNMENT   OF   SEPTIMIUS   SEVERUS,    193   TO    211    A.D.  141 

Roman  world  was  very  fond  of  presents;  many  and  forced  ones 
were  made  to  the  governors  under  the  Republic,  and  some  were 
still  offered  to  those  of  the  Empire.  Consulted  by  one  of  them 
on  this  subject,  Severus  replied  to  him:  ^'An  old  Greek  proverb 
says :  ^  Neither  everything,  nor  always,  nor  from  all ;  ^ "  and  the 
ruler  added:  "To  refuse  from  all  men  would  be  uncivil;  to  accept 
at  random  is  contemptible;  to  take  everything  would  be  avaricious."^ 
One  thing,  however,  was  worth  more  than  the  best  rescripts — 
good  governors — and  the  old  authors  all  acknowledge  that  he 
took  care  to  make  an  excellent  choice.  One  of  them,  the  pre- 
fect of  Egypt,  having  been  guilty  of  an  offence,  wAs  sent  into 
exile.^ 

The  soldiers,  meanwhile,  continued,  wherever  there  was, need, 
to  be  at  the  service  of  peaceful  labour,  but  without  letting  the 
sword  be  too  far  distant  from  the  pick  and  the  trowel.^ 

Accordingly  tranquillity  was  never  once  seriously  interrupted 
at  the  foot  of  the  Atlas,  nor  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  the 
Danube,  and  the  Tigris.  In  the  presence  of  this  vigilant  ruler, 
whose  hand  was  so  heavy,  the  barbarians  remained  in  a  timid 
repose.  Under  this  reign  we  find  soldiers  established  in  certain 
fixed  posts  in  all  the  provinces  to  hunt  down  the  bandits  of  the 
neighbourhood.*  Was  this  an  original  measure  of  this  emperor 
whom  his  biographer  calls  "the  enemy  of  robbers  in  all  places"?* 
The  long  impunity  of  brigands  in  Spain  and  Gaul  and  Syria,  even 
in  Italy  itself,  in  the  time  of  Commodus  and  during  the  period  of 
the  civil  wars,^  proves  that,  even  if  this  institution  was  anterior 
to  Severus,  it  had  fallen  greatly  into  disuse,  and  that  he  was 
obliged  to  reorganize  it.  This  ruler,  implacable  in  respect  to  dis- 
order, must  surely  have  desired  that  security  should  be  as  well- 
guarded  in  the  interior  as  on  the  frontiers.  In  view  of  rendering 
the   repression   more   energetic   and  more   prompt,   he   decided   that 

*  Digestf  i.  16,  6,  §  3 :  qiuim  rem  (xeniorum)  D.  Sev.  et  imp.  Ant,  elegantisaime  epistula 
sunt  moderatif  etc. 

^  Digest,  xlviii.  10, 1,  §  4. 

'  Cf .  Or.-Henzen,  006  in  Syria ;  037  in  Rhaetia ;  3,586  in  Lower  Germany ;  4,087  in 
Panuonia,  near  Buda;  6,701  in  Britain;  in  Africa,  the  via  Septimiana,  constructed  by  the 
Third  Augustan  legion.    (L.  Renier,  Itisct,  cCAlg.,  No.  4,361,  etc.) 

*  Tertull,  ApoL,  3 :  Latronibus  vestigandis  per  universas  promncias  militaris  statio  sortitur, 

*  .  .  .  .  latronum  vbique  hostis  (Sparfr.,  Sev.,  18). 
«  Digest,  i.  12,  1,  §  4;  xlviii.  10,  8;  xxii.  6,  §  1. 


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142  THE    AFRICAN   AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

the  prefect  of  the  city  should  have  cognizance  of  all  crimes 
committed  in  Italy,  with  power  to  sentence  to  the  mines  or  to 
deportation. 


III. — Sevebus  IN  Britain;  His  Death  (208-211  a.d.). 

To  remove  his  sons  from  the  dangers  of  Home,  Severus 
remained  there  but  seldom;  he  made  long  sojourns  in  his  Sabine 
and  Campanian  villas,  but  without  being  able  to  subjugate  these 
fiery  natui^es.  Geta,  as  well  as  Antoninus,  rushed  madly  into 
pleasure.  Both  fled  from  the  learned  society  with  which  their 
mother  surrounded  herself,  and  their  father's  grave  friends,  to  seek 
the  society  of  gladiators  and  the  charioteers  of  the  circus.  Even 
in  their  sports  they  hated  each  other  with  bitter  rivalry :  one  day, 
on  the  race-course,  they  disputed  so  hotly  for  victory  that  Anto- 
ninus was  flung  from  his  chariot  and  had  his  thigh  broken  in  the 
fall.  Severus  resumed  the  cuirass,  and  took  them  away  with  him 
into  Britain  (208).' 

There  were  no  perils  to  be  encountered  at  that  extremity 
of  the  Empire,  that  the  old  emperor,  gouty  and  inflrm,  should  be 
obliged  to  undertake  the  long  journey  and  to  remain  absent  for  so 
considerable  a  time.  Julia  Domna  and  Papinian  accompanied  the 
emperor.  There  was  not  a  single  battle  fought,  for  Fingal  and 
Ossian,  the  legendary  heroes,  did  not  emerge  from  their  rustic 
palace  of  Selma;  and  still  the  emperor  lost  many  troops  in  sur- 
prises, which  were  the  chief  warfare  of  these  savages.  But  their 
densely-wooded  hills,  over  which  an  army  could  advance  only  by 
cutting  its  way  with  an  axe,  their  marshes,  whose  yielding  soil 
required  a  whole  forest  to  be  thrown  into  it,  did  not  hinder  the 
heavily-armed  legions  from  reaching  the  extremity  of  the  island, 
where  these  men  of  the  south  beheld  with  amazement  days  that 
were  almost  without  intervening  night. 

Severus  remained  three  years  in  this  country,  where  the  ener- 
vating luxury  of  Italy  was  a  thing  unknown.  After  the  victory 
over  Albinus  he  had  divided  it  into  two  provinces,  that  the  action 
of   the   imperial   government   might   be   more    efficacious   there   and 

*  Coins  of  the  year  208  bear  the  legend :  PROF.  AVGG. 


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GOVERNMENT   OF    SEPTIMIU8   8EVERUS,    193    TO    211    A.D.  143 

the  influence  of  the  individual  governor  less  to  be  dreaded.     Geta, 

to  whom   the   dignity  of  Augustus   had   now   been   given   and   the 

tribunitian  power,   administered   the   southern   province.     Antoninus 

led  the   army   in   the   north   and 

negotiated   with  the   Caledonians, 

while     the     emperor,     established 

in  the  city  of  York,  superintended 

the    restoration     carried    forward 

by     his     soldiers     of     Hadrian's 

waU.^ 

In  210  the  submission  of 
the  barbarians  seeming  to  be 
secured  by  a  treaty  which  obliged 
them  to  yield  a  part  of  their 
territory,  he  added  to  the  titles 
given  by  his  victories  in  the 
East  that  of  Britannicus,  which 
Antoninus  also  took.  In  memory 
of  this  last  triumph  of  the 
African  conqueror,  the  senate 
caused  a  medal  to  be  struck 
representing  two  Caledonians 
bound  to  the  trunk  of  a  palm- 
tree. 

While  he  designedly  lingered 
at  this  extremity  of  the  Empire, 
the    loungers    of    Lake    Curtius^         ^  ,  .      rn  •     *u    »  77  3 

o  Get  a  m  a  Toga,  wearing  the  Bulla. 

imagined  news  at  will.  Some- 
times the  story  ran  that  a  barbarian  woman,  extremely  well- 
informed,  it  appears,  in  respect  to  Eoman  life,  had  given  a  lesson 
to  Julia  Domna,  contrasting  with  the  depmvity  of  the  Eoman  ladies 
the  far  too  virile  manners  of  the  women  of  Caledonia.  Now  it 
was   a   little   drama,    in   which  the  emperor  was  the  actor  and  the 

*  C.  /.  L.,  vii.  No.  912c,  and  pp.  99  et  seq.  See  vol.  v.  of  this  work,  p.  41.  Spartian  is  the 
first  author  who  speaks  of  a  wall  constructed  by  Severus  to  the  north  of  Hadrian's  wall,  an 
opinion  now  abandoned. 

*  A  little  grove  which  was  a  rendezvous  of  the  ardeliones  (Phsedrus,  II.  v.  1),  the 
"reporters"  of  the  time,  ....  garruli  ....  supra  Lacum  (Plautus,  Curcul.j  IV.  i.  16), 

*  Marble  statue  in  the  Grey  collection.     (Clarac,  Musde.  pi.  966,  No.  2,486a.) 


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144  THE   AFRICAN   AND   8YKIAN   PMNCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

soldiers  the  audience :  his  eldest  son  had  sought  to  gain  over  the 
troops;  the  sedition  being  reduced  to  order,  the  emperor  had 
caused  himself  to  be  borne  to  his  tribunal,  and  had  said  to  the 
mutinous  soldiers  who  now  implored  his  clemency:  "Do  you  see 
at  last  that  the  head  commands  and  not  the  feet?"^ 
They  represented  him  as  uttering  specious  platitudes, 
suited  to  a  monk  and  quite  out  of  place  in  the 
mouth  of  a  ruler  who  was  not  counting,  as  Charles  V. 
did,  on  the  compensations  of  the  other  world :  "I 
have  been  everything  and  nothing  is  of  value,"  or  Coinofseptimius 
these  words,  perhaps  more  truthful,  addressed  to  the  ^^^^tingThe^ 
urn   which  was   to   contain  his   ashes:     ''Thou   shalt     Bridge  over  the 

J  yne. 

hold   that   which  the  world  itself   has   not  been  able 

to  hold."     Some  related   that  to   make  an   end   of   cruel   suffering 

he    asked    for    poison,   but  it   was  refused  him;    others,   that  his 

eldest  son  had  endeavoured    to    persuade   the 

physicians     to     poison    him.      But    a     secret 

poisoning   does  not  afford  proper  tragic  effect. 

More     expert     story-tellers    showed    Caracalla 

riding  upon  horseback  behind  his  father  with 

drawn    sword    ready    to    kill    him;     the    old 

emperor,  warned  by  the  cries  of  horror  of  his  ^^ 

escort,  looks  around,  he  sees  the  naked  weapon,   coin  commemorative  of  tbe 

and    the    parricide    dares    not    complete    his      ^'^^^"^\|;^^^^^^^^ 

crime.      Then   we    have    contradictory    scenes 

such  as  the  declaimers  of  the  time  delighted  in:    in  one,  Severus, 

in   his  tent,   deliberates  with  his   prefects   whether  the   guilty   son 

shall   be   put  to   death;    in   another,   he   calls  for   Caracalla,    gives 

him  a  dagger,  and  says :    '^  Strike,  or  bid  Papinian  strike ;   he  will 

obey  you,  for  you  are  his  emperor." 

All   this   is  very  dramatic   and   highly   improbable.      Caracalla 
doubtless  showed  an  impatience  to  reign  which  obliged  the  emperor 

*  The  epigram  became  famous ;  we  meet  it  again  sixty-four  years  later  in  an  official 
document,  the  proclamation  of  the  emperor  Tacitus:  Acclamationes  senatus:  ....  Severus 
dixit y  caput  imperare,  rum  pedes. 

'  P.  M.  TR.  P.  XVI.  COS.  III.  PP.  Bridge  ended  on  each  side  by  a  tower  with  four 
columns ;  under  the  bridge,  a  vessel.     Gold  coin. 

«  VICT.  BRIT.  P.  M.  TR.  P.  XIX.  COS.  III.  PP.  SC.  Two  victories  placing  a  buckler  on 
a  palm-tree,  under  which  are  seated  two  captives.     Bronze.     (Cohen,  No.  644.) 


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GOVERNMENT   OF    SEPTIMIUS    SEVERUS,    193   TO    211    A.D.  145 

to    remind    him    that    the    true    master    was    "the    white-bearded 
king,"*   and  he  was  quite  capable  of  conceiving  the  designs  attri- 
buted to  him.      But,   if   he   held   them,    why   did  he   not   execute 
them?     Nothing  could  have  been  easier  for  the  man  who  in  Eome 
itself    murdered    another    emperor,   his   btother,   in    their    mother's 
arms.       At    sixty-six    years    of 
age,  Severus,  whom  a  distressing 
disease  had  long  undermined,  was 
at  his  life's   end,   and   Caracalla 
had  no  need  to  hasten  the  work 
of  destruction  which  nature  was 
accomplishing.       But    the    great 
idle     city     welcomed     whatever 
could  amuse  it ;  and  the  imagina- 
tion    easily     created     in     those 
remote  regions  tragic  adventures, 
which,  after  the  death  of   Gota, 
appeared     to     all     men     to     be 
realities. 

To  these  doubtful  legends 
we  shall  prefer  the  truly  im- 
perial words  of  the  old  emperor: 
"It  is  to  me  a  great  satisfaction 

to  leave  in  profound   peace   the  juiia  Domna.» 

Empire  which   I  found    a    prey 

to  dissensions  of  every  kind ; "  and  the  last  order  given  in  his 
dying  moments,  an  order  so  characteristic:  "Go,  see  if  there  is 
anything  to  be  done."  Chateaubriand  says  in  his  Ettides  historiques: 
"The  officer  of  the  guard  having  approached  to  obtain  the  counter- 
sign for  the  day  the  emperor  gave  him  this :  '  Let  us  work,'  and 
with  that  fell  into  eternal  rest."  (February  4th,  211  a.d.)  This 
adieu  to  life  of  the  valiant  soldier,  his  last  counsel  to  those  about 
him,  has  become  the  motto  of  humanity :    Laboremus. 


'  ....  incanaque  menta 

RegU  Homani  .... 

(Virgil,  ^neid,  vi.  810.) 

*  Cameo  in  agate  onyx  (two  layers)  hung  to  a  collar  found  in  1809  at  Naix  (Meuse),  the 
ancient  Nasium,  capital  of  the  Leuci. 

VOL..  VI.  L 


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146  THE   AFRICAN    AND   SYKIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

Severus  had  written  the  history  of  his  life,  and  it  was  doubt- 
less his  will  that,  after  the  example  of  the  Testament  of  Augustus, 
a  summary  of  it  should  be  engraved  on  marble.  At  least,  in  the 
time  of  Spartian,  it  was  to  be  read  upon  the  portico  built  by 
Caracalla. 

For  the  next  eighty  yeai-s  no  succeeding  emperor  died,  as  did 
Severus,  in  his  bed.  That  Severus  had  this  good  fortune  was  due 
to  great  wisdom  on  his  part,  and  to  the  State  it  was  a  great 
advantage;  for  this  reign  of  eighteen  years  ending  quietly  proves 
how  thoroughly  he  had  introduced  order  everywhere. 

He  was  lacking  in  gentleness,  a  quality  charming  in  the 
individual  but  often  tending  to  weakness  in  the  ruler.  When 
Julian  compai'es  the  Caesars  in  the  assembly  of  the  gods,  Silenus 
cries  out  at  sight  of  Severus:  "Of  that  man  I  shall  say  nothing; 
I  am  afraid  of  his  savage  and  inexorable  temper.''  Severe  on 
principle,  he  struck  heavy  blows,  so  that  he  might  not  have  to 
strike  often,^  and  in  his  autobiography,  which  the  old  writers  believed 
authentic,*  he  justified  his  severities.  But  these  heavy  blows  have 
resounded  so  far  that  posterity  still  hears  them,  and  Severus 
remains  the  man  of  his  name.'  Contemporaries  judged  differently,* 
and  he  was  greatly  lamented.  Let  us  read  his  history,  remembering 
that  the  principal  duty  of  an  emperor  of  that  century  was  to  secure 
order  to  100,000,000  men,  and  we  shall  say  of  him  more  truly 
even  than  it  was  said  of  Loxiis  XI.  of  France:  "All  things 
considered,  he  was  a  king." 

'  .  .  .  .  quo  deincepa  mitius  (Aur.  Vict.,  de  Cees.j  20). 

^  .  .  .  .  ahs  ae  textay  omatu  etfideparilms  compostdt  (Aur.  Vict.,  de  Ccbs.,  20). 

^  Imperator  vei'e  nominis  sui,  vere  Pertincur,  vere  Severus  (Spart.,  Sev.,  14). 

*  Judichmi  de  co  post  mortem  magnum  omnium  fuit  .  .  .  ,  ac  multumpost  mortem  amatus 
(ibid.,  19) ab  Afris  ut  deus  habetur  (ibid,,  13). 

*  Silver  coin,  withthe  legend  :  PROFECTIO  A  VG.     (Coben,  No.  343.) 


Septimius  Severus  on  Hoi'sebuck  holding  a  Lance.^ 


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CHAPTER  XC. 

THE  CHUECH  AT  THE  BB&INKIII&  OF  THE  THIRD  CBNTUaT. 

I. — General   Condition  of  Minds;    Tendency  to  Mysticism; 

The  Alexandeians. 

THE  third  century  is  the  heroic  age  of  the  Christian  society 
which  we  have  seen  forming  in  obscurity  and  gaining  growth 
in  silence.  At  this  period  it  possesses  all  its  means  of  action,  and 
the  mortal  struggle  begins  between  it  and  the  Empire.  The 
moment  has  come  then  to  measure  the  forces  of  the  two  combatants. 
We  are  acquainted  with  those  of  the  one,  the  State;  let  us  look 
at  those  of  the  other,  the  Church. 

In  the  preceding  volume*  we  have  shown  that  the  human 
mind  takes  different  directions  according  to  epochs,  and  that  it 
forms  as  it  were  great  currents  of  ideas,  in  which  flows  the  best 
of  the  national  life.^  The  lawyers  and  administrative  officers,  the 
architects  and  generals,  the  artists  and  moral  philosophers,  had 
been  the  strength  and  glory  of  Rome  in  the  second  century.  In 
the  third,  law  has  still  some  eminent  interpreters,  but  the  last 
representative  of  the  ancient  science,  Gtelen,  has  just  died  and  left 
no  successor.  Art,  and  letters  properly  so-called,  disappeared.  For 
twelve  centuries'  humanity  will  not  hear  again  that  hymn  of 
beauty  which  Greece  had  sung  so  long,  and  whose  echoes  had 
resounded    in  the   Kome   of  Lucretius,   Horace,   and  Tirgil.      The 

*  Vol.  v.,  the  beginning  of  the  chapter  entitled :  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Age." 
^  Hegel  has  said  in  his  Philosophie  de  rhistoire,  p.  9:  Jede  Zeit  hat  so  eigenthumltche  Umstdnde 
^ist  ein  so  individueller  Zustand,  doss  in  ihm  aus  ihm  selbst  enUchieden  werden  muss,  und  allein 
enUchieden  werden  kann.  It  is  a  law  of  history ;  and  to  be  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the 
special  character,  or  what  may  be  term^  the  dominant  tone  of  an  epoch,  is  the  first  requisite  of 
historical  criticism.  The  in/ltience  of  the  environment  is  so  great  upon  the  inteUectual  life  that 
there  can  be  no  just  judgment  of  men  and  things  except  by  replacing  them  in  their  enrironment. 
'  On  the  literary  poverty  of  the  third  century,  see  Teuflfel,  Geschichte  der  romischen 
Literature  pp.  835-876.  Of  science  there  is  no  longer  any  question ;  as  to  the  arts,  see  below, 
chap.  xcv.  §  5. 

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148  THE   AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO    236   A.D. 

new  spirit  proscribes  earthly  magnificence,  la  bellezza  del  mondo^ 
which  man  is  nevertheless  called  to  delight  in.  "Why  have  they 
fallen  ? "  was  the  doleful  cry  of  some  sacred  writers,  referring  to 
certain  heretics.  "Aristotle  and  Theophrastus  are  the  objects  of 
their  admiration;  Euclid  is  continually  in  their  hands.  They 
neglect  the  science  of  the  Church  for  the  study  of  geometry,  and, 
absorbed  in  measuring  the  earth,  they  lose  sight  of  heaven.^^* 
Another,  scofl&ng  at  the  man  who  was  esteemed  the  most  learned 
of  his  century,  Ptolemy,  wrote  with  reference  to  the  exact  sciences: 
"0  frivolous  labour,  which  sel-ves  only  to  inflate  the  soul  with 
pride  ! "  *  The  highest  eulogium  at  that  time  was  to  be  "  diligent 
in  divine  things."* 

This  is  the  language  heard  among  philosophers  as  well  as 
among  Christiaiis.  While  the  author  of  the  letter  to  Diognetus 
condemned  every  doctrine  which  had  not  for  its  object  the  invisible, 
Plotinus  wrote :  "  Why  does  not  man  arrive  at  the  truth  ? 
Because  the  soul  is  continually  drawn  away  from  the  perception 
of  divine  things  by  external  impressions."  And  it  was  his  desii'e 
that,  deaf  to  all  sounds  from  without,  it  should  hearken  only  to 
the  voice  from  on  high.*  Then  occurred  this  phenomenon,  unusual 
in  tlie  western  world:  men  become  oblivious  of  the  earth,  so 
long  the  object  of  their  love,  that  they  may  lift  their  heads 
toward  those  aerial  palaces  of  which  tlie  imagination  is  the  sole 
sovereign. 

The  sons  of  old  Italy,  a  sluggish  race,  would  not  have  had 
these  aspirations  after  the  unknown  which  are  an  honour  to  the 
human  mind;  but  Italy,  in  her  turn,  has  experienced  an  invasion 
more  terrible  tlian  that  of  Hannibal  and  of  the  Gauls : 

All  Egypt's  monsters  now  in  Rome  their  temple  find. 

The  men  and  the  beliefs  of  Asia  had  taken  possession  of  the 
land  where  formerly  simplicity  of  ideas  and  of  morals  prevailed. 
The  mind  of  the  Orient  dominated  that  of  Rome,  and  the  ardent 
soul  of  those  visionaries  from  the  banks  of  the  Orontes  and  of  the 

*  The  expression  is  Da  Vinci's. 

*  Eusebius,  Hist,  eccLf  v.  28. 

*  Philosoph.,  iv.  12. 

*  Eusebius,  Hist,  eccl,  v.  10. 

*  iKovfiv  ipBdyywv  rwv  dvw  {Enneads,  v.  12), 


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THE   CHURCH   AT  THE   BEGINNING   OF   THE   THIRD   CENTURY.         149 

Nile,  lacking  the  ballast  of  science,  roamed  at  will  throngh  the 
thousand  systems  of  abstract  thought  and  philosophy.  New  gods 
were  desired,  and  crowds  flocked  to  the  strange  worship  of  the 
Syrian  goddess  and  of  Sabazius,  or  to  the  monotheistic  religions  of 
Mithra  and  Serapis:  the  latter  having  a  remarkably  pure  moral 
doctrine,^  and  the  former  presenting  in  its  dogmas  and  its  cere- 
monies more  than  one  instance  of  agreement  with  Christianity.^ 

In    this   way,    and   along    every   channel,    the    current    of    the 


Mithra  sacrificing  the  J3ull  in  the  Orotto.' 

century  conducted  human  thought  towards  religious  questions: 
seductive  but  insoluble  problems,  some  of  which,  however,  must 
be  held  as  demonstrated,  even  when  a  demonstration  of  them 
is  impossible.  As  at  Athens  they  formerly  philosophized  at 
every  street  comer,  now  they  dogmatize  in  each  petty  village  of 
the  Empire.  It  is  the  fashion  to  appear  devout,  to  call  oneself 
pontiff  of  some  divinity,  and  the  municipal  curiae  are  full  of 
priests   hitherto   unknown   there.*     In  the   century   of   Pericles,   on 

*  See  above,  pp.  97  et  seq. 

^  Mithra  was  a  tnediator  between  the  supreme  deity  and  man,  a  representative  of  the  love 
of  the  creator  for  the  creature.  He  was  also  a  redeemer  who  purified  souls  and  remitted  sins. 
Hence  TertuUian  {de  Corona^  16)  attributed  to  a  device  of  the  evil  one  those  relations,  which  he 
could  not  help  recognizing,  between  this  ancient  Assyrian  religion  and  the  new  religion  of 
Christ.    See  vol.  v.  p.  761. 

^  Cabinet  de  France^  No.  2,031.  Intaglio  on  chalcedony,  ^  in.  by  ^  in.  Behind  the  bull 
is  a  priest,  wearing,  as  the  god  does,  a  Phrygian  cap  (tiara)  and  holding  two  inverted  torches. 
Above  the  principal  group,  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  prophetic  raven. 

*  This  is  seen  even  in  the  inscriptions.  Among  the  164  decurions  of  Canusium  in  223,  not 
a  priest  is  found,  while  of  the  seventy-one  names  of  the  Album  of  Thamugas,  in  the  following 


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If50  THE   AFRICAN   AND   sffilAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235   A.D. 

the  day  Avhen  the  ephebi  received  their  arms  from  the  State,  they 
took  this  oath:  ^*I  swear 
never  to  dishonour  these 
sacred  arms,  to  fight  for 
my  gods  and  my  hearth, 
either  alone  or  with  all, 
and  to  leave  behind  me 
my  country  not  impaired 
but  strengthened."  This 
heroic  oath  the  ephebi 
had  kept  at  Salamis  and 
Marathon,  when  they 
there  preserved  with  their 
liberty  the  civilization  of 
the  world.  In  the  third 
century  of  our  era  they 
still  took  this  oath,  but 
as  one  repeats  a  prayer 
in  an  unknown  tongue. 
The  Athenian  ephebeia 
was  now  merely  a  re- 
ligious college,  and  this 
transformation  had  cer- 
tainly been  effected  in 
the  numerous  cities 
which  had  possessed  the 
ephebic  institution.^    The       ^.      •     /i,        a.  .     •    ^    tti  n  n     ^ 

^  Serapis.     (Bronze  Statue  in  the  Florence  Gallery.) 

pythoness  of  Delphi  and 

the  prophetic  oaks  of  Dodona,  mute  in  Strabo's  time,  had  reco^^red 

century  (from  364  to  367),  we  count  two  sacerdotales,  thirty-six  flamens  for  life,  four  pontiffs, 
four  augurs,  that  is,  two-thirds  of  the  members  who  are  or  have  been  invested  with  religious 
functions.  Whatever  hypothesis  may  be  adopted  to  explain  the  presence  of  so  many 
priests  in  the  curia  of  Thamugas  (see  Ephem.  epigr,,  iii.  p.  82),  the  fact  will  still  remain 
that  the  greater  part  of  the  members  of  this  municipal  council  had  a  sacerdotal  character,  or 
were  indebted  to  the  priestly  office  which  they  had  filled  for  the  honour  of  being  inscribed  upon 
the  Album  after  the  duumviri  in  charge,  but  before  the  other  magistrates.  M.  Dumont  has 
established  the  same  fact  in  reference  to  Athens  {Uphebie  attiqae,  vol.  i.  p.  137);  it  was 
general.  See  in  the  PMlopatns,  included  in  the  works  of  Lucian,  the  ridiculous  characters  of 
which  are  caricatures  of  actual  persons. 

^  Alb.   Dumont,  JEphebie  attique,  vol.  i.  pp.  0,  36,  and  39;   and  Collignon,  de  Colleg. 
epkeborum. 


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THE    CHURCH    AT  THE    BEGINNING   m   THE   THIRD    CENTURY.  151 

thfeir  speech.^  Alexander  even,  the  personification  of  war,  had 
assumed  a  religious  character:  he  is  at  this  time  invoked  as  the 
beneficent  genius  who  rescues  from  witchcraft.^ 

This   turn  of   mind   is   seen   all  through  Roman  society.     The 
provincials,  who   had  replaced   in  the  senate   and  oflScial   positions 
the   sceptical   aristocracy   of   the   last   century  of   the  Republic  and 
the  early  days  of  the  Empire,   wished  to  believe  in 
something.      The    Syrian    princes    had    their    minds 
filled  with  religious  visions.      In   the   third   century 
the    emperors    added    to   their   titles   that   of   Pious, 
Pius:^   the  empresses  were  styled  the  "most  holy,"    ,,    .  .    ^ 

'  *  "^  ,  *^  Septimius  Severus 

sanctisstmce.   and  at   court  as  well   as   in   town,  the         the  Pious, 

I  C\.    U  C^    *      \ 

histories  of  Philostratus  and  of  -ffilian,  replete  with 
miracles,  and  the  marvellous  LiveB  of  ApoUonius  and  Pythagoras 
transformed  into  divine  incarnations,  found  readers/  They  were 
no  longer  content  witli  the  ebon  door  from  which  old  Homer,  half 
smiling,  caused  dreams,  sleep,  and  death  to  issue  forth:  they 
sought  for  that  dread  passage  in  order  to  rend  the  veil  which 
closed  it,  and  there  find  sometliing  other  than  the  monotonous 
pleasures  promised  by  the  Graeco-Roman  polytheism.  They  pre- 
tended  "to  penetrate   the   secrets  of  the  inmost  life  of  God,"  by 

*  Strabo,  vii.  p.  327,  and  Pausanias,  I.  xvii.  6. 

^  See,  in  the  reip^  of  Caracalla,  the  species  of  worship  of  which  Alexander  was  the  object, 
and  in  that  of  Elagabalus  ''  an  apparition  of  this  genius." 

'  In  the  case  of  Severus  and  the  princes  of  his  house,  it  was  a  proper  name  borrowed  from 
Antoninus  the  Pious,  or  more  properly  from  Gommodus,  whose  adopted  brother  Severus 
declared  himself  to  be.  Beginning  witlr  Macrinus,  it  is  a  qualification  which  aU  the  emperors 
of  the  third  century  assume.  An  inscription  of  Gallienus  (Orelli,  No.  1,007)  says  of  him :  cujw 
invieta  mrtus  solapietate  mperata  est.  Another  (1,014)  styles  him  sanctissimtis,  Julia  Maesa 
(Or.-Henzen,  No.  6,516,  and  Eckhel,  vii.  249),  and  the  wives  of  Gordian  III.  (Orelli,  No.  977), 
of  Philippus  (C.  /.  Z.,  lii.  3,718),  of  Gallienus  (Orelli,  No.  1,010),  are  sanctissima.  Victorina, 
mother  of  the  usurper  Victorinus,  is  called  piissima  {ibid,,  No.  1,017).  I  am  aware  that  sanctus 
in  classic  Latin  signifies  pure,  chaste,  inviolate ;  but  I  believe  that  in  the  third  century  the  idea 
of  sanctity  was  added.  The  imperial  house,  domus  diviria  (in  an  inscription  of  the  year  202, 
Wilmanns,  985),  affirmed  its  pagan  faith  the  more  in  proportion  as  that  was  attacked  by  the 
Christians.  The  word  sticer  will  become  synonymous  with  imperial,  and  will  soon  be  applied 
to  all  the  functions  which  devolve  on  a  prince.  The  cities  and  individuals  do  as  the  princes : 
the  curiae  of  Lyons  (Boissieu,  pp.  24,  80, 160),  of  Volcei  (Mommsen,  Liscr.  Neap.,  No.  218), 
etc.,  are  called  ordo  sanctissimus,  that  of  Brixia  (C.  /.  L.,  v.  4,192)  is  piissimus.  The  same 
qualifying  epithets  are  found  in  the  third  century  in  many  inscriptions  of  unimportant  persons, 
for  instance,  on  the  monumental  slabs  of  Carthage. 

*  The  Lives  of  Pythagoras,  by  Porphyry  and  lamblichus,  are  as  marvellous  as  that  of 
ApoUonius,  by  Philostratus.  They  were  not  written  as  yet,  but  the  legends  already  circulated 
overv  whore. 


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152  THE   AFBICAN   AND    SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   236   A.D. 

determining  his  nature,  his  attributes  and  will.  All  eminent  minds 
joined  in  the  quest  of  the  divine :  some  by  the  way  of  Chris- 
tianity, others  by  the  neo-platonic  school  in  which  the  philosophic 
effort  of  the  pagan  worid  had  resulted.  Thus,  under  the  passing 
breeze,  the  ears  of  the  ripening  harvest  bow  in  the  same  direction. 

This  condition  of  minds  is  susceptible  of  explanation.  After 
centuries  of  combat,  which  had  won  for  itself  the  earth  and  its 
wealth,  Roman  society  had  for  two  succeeding  centuries  feasted  in 
pleasures  and  become  surfeited  with  delights.  Seneca,  Epictetus, 
and  the  moralists  of  the  Antonine  epoch  have  pictured  it  to  us, 
wearied  with  the  long  travail  for  its  grandeurs  and  arriving  at 
satiety,  at  disdain  of  the  useful  and  the  real.  All  the  great 
motives  were  gone.  In  this  Empire,  too  vast  to  be  one's  country, 
the  lofty  sentiment  which  had  inspired  the  hearts  of  the  citizens 
of  former  times  had  now  no  sustenance :  hence  there  was  no 
patriotism  for  the  Empire.  Nor  was  there  any  political  life.  The 
grand  stream  of  poetry  which  Greece  had  poured  forth  to  the 
world  had  dried  up  in  traversing  the  Roman  wastes:  the  artists 
were  mechanics,  the  poets  arrangers  of  words;  the  Virgil  of  the 
time,  Oppianus  of  Syria,  sang  of  the  chase.^  Nothing  of  that 
which  only  a  century  before  constituted  the  fulness  of  life  now 
filled  the  void  of  their  souls.  This  people,  violent  when  in  action, 
sat  down  and  dreamed. 

Besides,  around  them  the  world  seemed  to  be  growing  old;* 
on  all  sides  the  horizon  will  soon  be  threatening:  without,  the 
barbarians  are  becoming  formidable;  .within,  continual  revolutions, 
of  which  Rome  will  no  longer  be  the  sole  theatre  and  victim; 
everywhere  the  economy  of  life  profoundly  disturbed  and  the  State 
foundering.  Confronted  by  such  misfortunes,  which  seemed  the 
penalty  of  its  past  happiness,  this  society  so  long  tranquil  and 
joyous  gave  itself  up  to  more  serious  thoughts:  it  had  the  anticipa- 
tion of  death  which  besets  old  age.  In  the  time  of  Septimius 
Severus,  without  reckoning  the  jurists,  pagans  and  Christians 
produce  only  philosophers   and   religious  writers  or  theurgists :    for 

*  A  writer  without  ta«te  or  originality^  who  must  not  be  confounded  with  another  writer 
of  the  same  name,  Oppianus  of  Cilicia,  author  of  the  Halieutica  or  marine  fishery,  who  lived 
under  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  whose  work,  in  3,606  Greek  verses,  is  one  of  our  best  didactic 
poems.     See  Bourquin,  la  Chasse  et  la  piche  dans  VantiquiUj  1878. 

*  This  is  an  expression  of  S.  Cyprian  to  Demetriuft,  aenuissejam  mundum. 


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THE   CHUECH   AT  THE   BEGINNING   OP  THE   THIRD   CENTURY.  153 

the  first,  Ammonius  Saccas,  Plotinus,  Porphyry,  with  the  subtle 
doctrines  discovered  by  them  in  that  higher  world  of  mind  which 
Plato  had  laid  open ;  for  the  second,  Tertullian,  Minucius  Felix, 
and  Cyprian  among  the  Latins,  Ireneeus,  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
and  Origen  among  the  Greeks — six  men  who,  in  other  times, 
would  have  been  the'  honour  of  profane  literature  and  who  have 
continued  to  be  the  glory  of  the  Church. 

Religion  as  a  sentiment  will  ever  elude  the  grasp  of  science, 
because  it  is  indestructible ;  besides,  the  two  do  not  pertain  to 
the  same  world,  and  do  not  proceed  in  the  same  manner  in  the 
formation  of  ideas.  But  science  may  inflict  incurable  wounds  on 
established  creeds;  the  Roman  society  not  possessing  it,  the 
supernatural  had  preserved  its  power,  and  a  religious  reaction  had 
swept  away  the  superficial  scepticism  of  the  philosophers,  as  would 
have  been  the  case  with  that  of  our  eighteenth  century  had  it  not 
found  an  auxiliary  in  "the  satanic  sciences."  From  Lucretius  to 
Lucian  many  had  doubted;  from  Athens  to  Alexandria,  from  Rome 
to  Jerusalem,  all  now  believe :  here,  in  the  God-man  of  the  Christian 
faith  or  in  the  hypostases  of  the  Alexandrians ;  there,  in  the  ancient 
deities  who  retained  their  place  in  the  sanctuaries,  or  in  the  new 
gods  which  the  East  was  continually  giving  to  the  Romans. 

Li  speaking  thus,  we  of  course  leave  out  of  account  the  crowd 
which  follows  without  thinking — that  which  Lucian  in  his  Jupiter 
Tragoedus  has  called  "the  vile  mob" — to  consider  those  who  think 
and  who,  even  under  the  tunic  of  the  slave,  conduct  themselves 
like  Epictetus  and  Blandina.  These  are  the  elect  souls  who  influ- 
ence others  and  by  whom  moral  revolutions  are  accomplished;  they 
are  consequently  those  who  must  be  studied. 

Those  who  are  styled  the  Aleicandrians  attempted  an  impossible 
compromise  between  religion  and  science;  between  the  spirit  of 
ancient  Greece  and  the  Oriental  spirit,  they  would  have  wished  to 
believe  and  to  know ;  commencing  with  dialectics,  which  can  furnish 
only  abstractions  incomprehensible  to  the  vulgar,  they  ended  with 
mysticism,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  midst  of  clouds,  where  the  multi- 
tude could  not  follow  them.  With  reference  to  the  great  question 
of  the  divine  unity,  for  instance,  they  arrived  at  an  abstract  and 
sterile  conception,  a  being  for  ever  separate  from  the  world.  While 
the  God   of   the  Christians   is   seen,  touched,   and  enters  into  dailv 


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154  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    285   A.D. 

communion  with  man,  their  god  is  Mdthout  form,  attributes,  or 
name;  he  is  the  unnameahle^  he  is  even  without  intelligence,  for 
intelligence,  which  supposes  a  division  between  the  subject  com- 
prehending and  the  object  comprehended,  would  forbid  admitting 
the  absolute  unity  of  being  in  itself.  "The  gods  are  impassive," 
says  Porphyry,  "and  cannot  be  turned  aside  by  invocations,  expia- 
tions, or  prayers,  ....  since  what  is  impassive  can  be  neither 
moved  nor  constrained."  This  was  the  god  of  Epicurus,  devoid 
of  hate,  without  love  and  without  power:  and,  it  must  also  be  said, 
that  of  Plato  in  the  Philehtis^  and  still  more  that  of  Aiistotle, 
dwelling  apart  from  the  world  which  he  ignores. 

As  the  Christian  has  the  Trinity,  three  persons  in  one 
God,  they  have  their  three  hypostases,  in  which  we  may  see  the 
absolute  principle  of  the  Eleatics,  the  demiourgos  of  Plato,  and  the 
god  of  Aristotle,  immovable  m^tor  of  the  world :  and  of  these  they 
essayed  to  form  a  divine  unity.^  But  that  which  is  profound  is 
obscure,  and  the  people  pay  no  regard  to  it.  This  Unity  which 
thinks  itself  without  producing,  this  Intelligence  which  comprehends 
the  world  and  does  not  make  it,  this  Movement  which  gives  life 
and  cannot  have  cognizance  of  it,  what  is  this,  in  its  effect  upon 
the  multitudes,  when  placed  by  the  side  of  Jehovah  whom  Moses 
saw  face  to  face,  of  the  Holy  Spirit  who  descends  in  tongues  of 
fire  upon  the  heads  of  the  apostles;  what  is  it,  above  all,  when 
compared  with  Christ  who  treads  the  rugged  pathways  of  life, 
enduring  all  the  miseries,  all  the  griefs  of  humanity;  who  at 
Golgotha  ransoms  it  with  his  blood;  who  in  the  garden  of  Joseph 
of  Arimathea  rends  the  stone  of  his  sepulchre  to  teach  men  that 
they,  like  him,  are  immortal  as  well  in  their  flesh  as  in  their 
spirit  ? 

Thus,  to  escape  the  anthropomorphism  which  had  been  the 
ruin  of  the  pagan  religions,  the  Alexandrians  had  suffered  themselves 

^  The  idea  of  the  Trinity  is  one  of  the  oldest  beliefs  of  humanity.  It  is  found  in  Eg^t,  in 
Chaldea,  among  the  Etruscans,  the  Scandinavians,  the  Germans,  and  strange  monuments 
exhibit  it  to  us  in  the  Gallic  triads.  This  myth  consisted  in  the  conception  of  a  god  unique  in 
his  essence,  without  being  unique  in  his  person.  ''  This  god,''  says  Maspero  (Histoire  ancienne 
despeuples  de  V Orient,  p.  28),  speaking  of  the  Egyptian  triad,  "  is  father,  simply  because  he  t^, 
and  the  power  of  his  nature  is  such  that  he  be^et^  eternally  without  ever  becoming  enfeebled  or 

exhausted He  is  at  once  the  father,  the  mother,  the  son.    Begotten  of  God,  bom  of 

God,  without  issuing  from  God,  these  three  persons  are  God  in  God,  and  so  far  from  dividing 
the  unity  of  the  divine  nature,  all  three  contribute  to  his  infinite  perfection.** 


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THE   CHURCH   AT  THE   BEGINNING   OF   THE   THIRD   CENTURY.  156 

to  be  led  by  dialectics  to  an  impei-soual  God,  having  no  relation 
with  the  earth.  But  it  had  indeed  been  necessary  that  from  this 
abode  of  the  absolute,  of  immobility  and  consequently  of  death, 
they  should  again  come  down  to  the  world  of  life;  and  they 
returned  with  allegories  and  symbols  to  produce  a  revival  of 
popularity  for  the  old  mythology,  which  had  lost  even  the  poetiy 
of  ruins. 

Their  moral  tone  is  elevated,  their  life  was  pure,  they  had 
restored  to  a  position  of  honoui  the  Pythagorean  abstemiousness, 
and  they  had  institutes  in  which  the  most  austere  rules  of  monastic 
observances  were  enforced.  ''  When  the  soul  came  forth  frOm  the 
hand  of  God,"  said  they,  "it  was  a  fall  which  must  be  redeemed 
by  holy  acts.  The  work  regarded  as  especially  pious  consists  in 
conquering  the  body,  the  principle  of  all  the  passions,  the  gross 
garment  in  which  the  soul  is  captive.  Let  it,  at  least  in  this 
prison,  lead  an  angelic  life,  pio9  ayyeKitco^  ii/  rw  aw/mrt.^^  "What 
matters  the  body  to  me  ? "  said  another :  "  it  is  my  soul  that  I 
shall  take  away  with  me  when  I  die."  S.  Paul  was  never  more 
harsh  towaids  the  body,  and  Origen,  who  committed  partial  suicide, 
repeated:  "Who  will  deliver  me  from  this  wretch?"  The  spirit 
of  struggle  against  the  flesh  is  the  same  on  both  sides. 

And  what  reward  did  the  Alexandrians  promise  themselves  for 
these  austerities  ?  Annihilation  in  the  infinite  Being.  "  To  die 
is  to  live,"  they  said  with  Plato.  But  this  life  of  an  unconscious 
particle  lost  in  the  great  All  was  real  death;  while  faith  gave  to 
the  Christian  the  certainty  of  personal  immortality.  Besides,  they 
possessed  neither  a  creed  having  the  authority  of  the  divine  word, 
nor  an  organization  to  preserve  and  extend  it,  nor  discipline  to 
maintain  its  authority.  They  had  a  philosophy  and  sought  the 
higher  knowledge  of  things;  they  had  not  a  religion,  a  faith,  an 
absolute  rule  of  conduct  and  a  promise  of  redemption.  Now  to 
move  and  hold  the  multitude  the  most  subtle  reasonings  are  useless; 
feeling  and  passion  are  required.  These  powerful  means  of  acting 
upon  souls  were  to  be  found  on  that  road  to  Calvary  marked 
with  the  sweat  of  blood ;  they  were  not  found  in  the  tranquil 
gardens  of  the  Academy.  This  is  why  humanity  deserted  one  of 
these  ways  for  the  other,  in  which,  nevertheless,  for  the  same 
reasons  some  will  long  continue  to  walk. 


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156  THE   AFRICAN   AND   STBIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.B. 

It  was  the  very  year  of  the  accession  of  Severus  that  Am- 
monius  Saccas,  or  the  porter,  opened  that  school  of  Alexandria 
which  for  two  centuries  disputed  with  Christianity  the  spiritual 
supremacy.  When  Plotinus  had  heard  him  he  exclaimed,  "This  is 
the  man  whom  I  have  been  seeking."  He  was  far  superior  to  him 
and  was  the  veritable  founder  of  that  school  at  once  rational  and 
mystical,  which,  combining  contrary  principles,  could  never  exert  the 
victorious  influence  of  a  simple  and  ardent  faith.  Being  eclectics, 
the  Alexandrians  accepted  everything  on  condition  of  interpreting 
all  things.  Priests,  philosophers,  and  poets  seemed  to  them  to 
murmur  the  same  thought  in  different  tongues,  and  this  broad 
comprehensiveness  rendered  them  at  the  same  time  superstitious  and 
sceptical.  Being  logicians,  they  placed  above  reason  the  dangerous 
faculty  of  illumination  or  ecstasy,  in  which  man  believes  he  partici- 
pates in  the  divine  intelligence  and  sees  that  which  reason  is  unable 
to  show.  Being  idealists,  with  their  God  inaccessible  and  solitary 
above  the  summits  of  human  thought,  they  became  pantheists  by 
their  system  of  emanations,  which  made  of  all  beings — ^bodies  or 
spirits — "  an  effluence  of  the  divine  substance,"  as  light  is  an 
irradiation  from  the  sun.  And  it  is  by  prayer,  by  love,  that  they 
lift  up  themselves  to  this  absolute,  incomprehensible,  ineffable  being, 
from  whom  everything  proceeds  and  to  whom  all  returns.  Faith, 
according  to  these  strange  dialecticians,  is  far  superior  to  all  human 
wisdom.  It  leads  to  theurgy,  and  that  to  supernatural  inspiration, 
to  ecstasy,  which  is  the  ideal  of  the  pagan  devotees,  because  "in 
ecstasy,"  said  Plotinus,  "man  possesses  all  good  and  lacks  nothing; 
he  feels  neither  pain  nor  death."  We  shall  find  the  same  words 
again  in  the  mouth  of  Tertullian,  and  the  same  sentiment  in  the 
martyrs.  The  Alexandrians  then  are  in  many  points  akin  to  the 
Christians.  8.  Augustine  has  recognized  this;  but  on  coming  out 
of  the  ecstasy  of  their  subtle  reasonings  the  former  fell  back  into 
bleak  allegories,  the  latter  into  living  reality. 

Porphyry,  the  successor  of  Plotinus,  formulating  the  Platonic 
doctrine  of  demons,  admits  souls  intermediate  between  the  Trinity 
and  man,  archmtes  representing  the  forces  of  nature,  angels,  divine 
messengers  bearing  to  heaven  our  prayers  and  bringing  down  gifts 
of  grace,  even  baleful  genii  who  impel  us  to  evil.  Later,  the 
school  will  pretend  to  become  a  Church :    lamblichus,  and  Proclus, 


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THE   CHURCH   AT   THE   BEGINNING    OF   THE   THIRD   CENTURY.         157 

who  will  style  himself  "the  priest  of  nature,"  will  be  visionaries 
or  thaumaturgists  performing  miracles,  and  a  rivalry  will  spring  up 
between  these  men  who  contend  for  the  world.  A  great  work  of 
Porphyry  against  Christianity  was  the  signal  of  the  war  to  the 
death  which  Diocletian  declared  against  it;  but  Constantine  burned 
the  books  of  the  philosopher/  and  Proclus  was  obliged  to  escape 
by  voluntary  exile  the  persecution  of  tBe  Christian  emperors. 

This  school,  which  is  called  that  of  Alexandria,   was  scattered 
over  the  entire  surface  of  the  Roman  world,  since  Plotinus  taught 


Christ  and  the  Twelve  Apostles.* 

in  Rome,  Porphyry  in  Sicily,  Amelius  in  Syria,  others  at  Ephesus, 
at  Pergamus,  and  at  Athens,  where  their  disciples  struggled  to  the 
last  moment  against  Christianity.  It  was  a  noble  effort  t)f  religious 
philosophy  and  its  adepts  deserve  respect  for  their  pure  morality. 
They  exhibit,  in  certain  respects,  what  we  shall  find  among  the 
Christians:  contempt  of  the  body  and  of  earth,  divine  love,  union 
with  God  by  ecstasy  and  all  the  mystic  ardour.  Singular  con- 
dition  of   souls,  which  is  the   moral   characteristic   of  that  age   of 

'  See,  in  the  Cod,  Jmt.j  i.  1,  3,  8,  a  constitution  of  the  year  449  which  condemns  aU 
books  contrary  to  the  doctrine  of  Nic«ea  and  Ephesus  to  be  burnt,  and  decrees  the  penalty  of 
death  against  those  who  preserve  or  read  them.  Justinian  {Nov,,  xlii.  1,  §  2)  renewed  these 
penalties,  and  this  abominable  legislation  lasted  fourteen  centuries.  The  triumph  of  the 
Mussulman  theologians  in  the  thirteenth  century  also  resulted  in  the  persecution  of  the  philo- 
sophers. The  progress  of  Arab  civilization  was  checked,  and  night  overspread  that  East, 
whence,  for  three  centuries,  had  gleamed  a  quickening  light  which  brought  back  life  to  the 
West.     (See  G.  Dugat,  Hist,  des  philosophes  et  des  thSologieng  musulmanSf  1878.) 

'  Martigny,  Diet,  des  AntiquiUs  chrStienneSj  p.  54.  Bottom  of  a  glass  bearing  this  legend : 
Petrus  cum  tuts  omnes  elares  (hilares)  pie  zeses  (a  Greek  word  taken  from  the  verb  ?aw,  to  live). 
This  mixture  of  the  two  languages  was  not  uncommon. 


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158  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO    235   A.D. 

the  world,  and  which  can  be  terminated  only  by  a  religious 
revolution !  But  it  is  not  to  the  profit  of  the  Alexandrians  that 
this  revolution  will  be  effected.  "You  bring  nothing  new,"  they 
sard  to  the  Christians,  '' unless  it  be  your  contempt  of  the  gods 
and  of  philosophy."  They  spoke  truly.  But  this  very  contempt 
was  that  which  was  to  assure  victory  to  the  members  of  the  new 
alliance,  to  the  redeemed  of  Christ.  Let  us  turn  then  to  these, 
since  the  future  is  theirs.^ 


II. — Transformation  of  the  Messianic  Idea. 

In  the  midst  of  the  confusion  of  systems  and  rites  Christianity 
had  already,  in  the  time  of  Severus,  made  for  itself  a  large  place. 
Bom  in  a  country  which  had  been  for  centuries  condemned  to 
every  misery,  it  proceeded  at  once  from  despair  and  from  hope. 
Since  the  captivity  the  Jews  had  always  awaited  the  mighty  hand 
which  should  restore  the  house  of  David.  But,  in  face  of  this 
Roman  Empire  which  was  for  them  impregnable,  the  Messianic 
idea  had  been  compelled  to  undergo  a  transformation.  Cursing  the 
present,  they  had  directed  their  gaze  into  the  future,  in  the  only 
direction  by  which,  as  it  now  seemed  to  them,  this  future  could 
arrive,  toward  the  heaven  which  would  raise  up  a  Messiah  saviour. 
The  conqueror  of  the  earth,  vainly  expected,  had  given  place 
to  the  conqueror  of  souls:  the  new  Jerusalem  became  a  celestial 
Jerusalem.  • 

The  masters  of  the  Roman  world  gained  nothing  by  the  trans- 
formation of  Jewish  ideas  into  Christian,  by  this  new  conception 
of  the  expected  Messiah.  The  prophets  had  announced  to  all  the 
mighty  that  they  should  fall  under  the  sword  of  Israel;  the  sibyl 
and  8.  John  condemned  them  to  perish,  with  their  gods  of  wood 
and  their  magnificent  luxury,  in  the  flames  kindled  by  the  wrath 
divine,  while  the  conquerors  of  demons  received  the  promise  of 
immortality.^  Yet,  in  a  political  point  of  view,  this  promise  dis- 
engaged  Christianity,  in  the   first   phase  of  its   existence,  from  all 


-  On  the  school  of  Alexandria^  see  the  two  learned  books  of  MM.  Simon  and  Vacherot,  and 
the  more  recent  one  of  Zeller,  die  Philosophie  der  Griechen  in  ihrer  geschichtlichen  Enticicklung, 

^  Lactantios  (IHv.  Ifntt.,  iii.  12)  terminates  his  search  for  the  sovereign  good  by  these 
words :  Id  vero  nihil  aliud  potest  esse  quam  immoHalitas» 


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THE   CHURCH    AT   THE    BEGINNING    OF   THE   THIRD    CENTURY.  159 

earthly  ambition.  It  seems  as  if  the  propagation  of  it,  with  its 
principles  of  human  equality  and  community  of  goods  among  the 
disinherited  classes,  must  have  introduced  the  spirit  of  revolt.  But 
by  a  fatal  exaggeration  of  the  doctrines  of  indifference,  taught  for 
two  centuries  by  all  the  philosophies,^  the  primitive  church  added 
to  its  fundamental  dogma  of  redemption  contempt  for  the  present 
life. 

Pre-occupied  with  heaven  and  the   rewards  in  reserve  for  his 


Jesus  between  two  Apostles  in  the  Attitude  of  Adoration." 

faith,  the  Christian  did  not  envy  the  prosperous  on  earth  their 
riches  and  their  enjoyments.  He  left  the  things  of  earth  as  he 
found  them,  because  existence  here  below  was  to  him  only  a  life 
of  trial,  the  earliest  termination  of  which  would  be  the  best,  while 
the  other,  that  beyond  the  tomb,  was  the  true  life  and  ardently 
desired.  "Let  him  fear  to  die  whom  hell  awaits,"  said  S.  Cyprian, 
"but  the  Christian  inhabiting  a  house  whose  walls  are  tottering 
and   whose   roof  is   trembling,  passenger   on  board  a  vessel   which 


^  Indifference  to  civic  duties  and  disdain  for  the  good  things  of  this  world  were  the  lessons 
given  by  the  new  Academy  and  Zeno,  by  Pyrrho  and  Epicurus.  "  Christianity  will  combine 
all  these  dislikes,  will  show  itself  still  more  disdainful  of  political  action,  will  preach  indiffer- 
ence with  greater  ardour,  will  crown  all  its  contempt  by  despising  the  very  philosophy  which 
had  already  taught  to  despise  all  the  rest,  and,  the  better  to  take  souls  captive  on  earth,  will 
offer  to  them  only  the  good  which  is  not  of  this  world."    (Martha,  Lticrkce,  p.  200.) 

*  After  a  sarcophagus  at  Aries  which  serves  as  altar-front  in  the  church  of  S.  Trophimus. 
Christ  seated  upon  a  scabellum,  his  head  surmounted  by  the  cruciforura  monogram,  is  giving 
the  law  (in  the  form  of  an  unrolled  volume)  to  the  two  apostles.  Cf.  E.  Le  Blant,  JtHiudes  mr 
Us  sarcophages  de  la  vitle  d Aries,  pi.  xxvii.  and  p.  44 


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160  THE   AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    236    A.D. 

the  waves  are  about  to  engulf,  why  should  he  not  bless  the  hand 
Avhich,  hastening  his  departure,  restores  him  to  heaven,  his  own 
country?"^  Christianity  did  not  change  then  the  conditions  of 
life,  but  it  changed  the  conditions  of  death;  and  this  new  solution 
of  the  terrible  problem  was  of  itself  the  greatest  of  revolutions. 

Despite  the  temptation  which  always  exists  to  demand  of  death 
its  secret,  the  ancients  had  contented  themselves  with  admitting, 
without  a  great  deal  of  metaphysics,  a  vague  existence  beyond 
the  grave.*  In  those  old  days  life  was  rude;  to  lose  it  was  often 
to  gain  rest  and  peace,  requiem  cetemam^  and  the  Church  repeats 
it  still.  It  is  the  time  when  Greece  represents  death  under  the 
form  of  a  beautiful  child  fallen  asleep,  whose  drooping  hand  held 
an  inverted  torch.  But  mind  becomes  developed;  conscience  is 
enlightened  and  projects  gleams  of  light  into  the  darkness  of  the 
tomb.  Thither  justice  is  made  to  descend,  which  society,  in 
becoming  civilized,  seeks  to  establish  upon  the  earth.  Kewards  for 
the  good  are  placed  there,  and  chastisements  for  the  wicked,  as 
is  the  case  in  the  Forum  before  the  preetor;  and  that  judgment 
of  the  dead  which  Homer  reserved  for  the  heroes  is  extended  to 
all  men.  The  city  of  shades  is  peopled,  enlarged,  and  civilized, 
like  the  city  of  men.  The  life  elysian  is  submitted  to  the  moral 
laws  of  recompense,  and  its  pleasures,  retraced  on  funeral  monu- 
ments, continue  those  of  the  life  on  earth.  It  is  to  this  point  of 
equality  between  the  two  existences  that  the  Graeco-Eoman  philo- 
sophy had  brought  the  eschatology  of  the  pagans. 

But  the  movement  once  begun  does  not  stop.  The  development 
of  religious  thought  pursues  its  course,  and  the  equilibrium  between 
the  two   existences  is  reversed:    heaven  prevails    over    earth,   the 

'  De  MortaUtaUy  25. 

^  To  the  present  day,  man  has  been  able  to  find  but  three  solutions  to  the  problem  of 
death.  The  soul,  the  vital  spark,  returns  and  loses  itself  in  the  centre  of  imiversal  life :  this  is 
the  Nirvdna  of  India  and  indifference  to  personal  existence ;  or  it  goes  to  enjoy  with  delight 
the  same  pleasures  which  it  has  made  yse  of  upon  earth :  this  is  the  love  of  physical  life,  the 
GrsBOO-Roman  and  Mussulmanic  solution ;  or  else,  in  an  eternal  rapture,  it  will  contemplate 
Qod  face  to  face :  this  is  divine  love,  but  also  a  sort  of  annihilation  in  God.  Science  fashions  a 
different  dream :  since  nothing  is  lost,  thought  must  subsist  as  force ;  separated  from  the  body, 
its  imperfect  organ,  it  will  endure,  and  intelligence  will  arrive  at  the  knowledge  of  all  things. 
This  will  be  for  humanity  that  which  takes  place  in  the  individual:  the  need  of  knowing 
succeeding  the  need  of  loving.  But  perfect  science  is  the  perfect  knowledge  of  the  true,  the 
good,  and  the  beautiful,  that  is,  of  God  himself,  and  unto  that  he  will  attain  in  the  higher 
life  who  shall  have  made  the  greatest  effort  to  approach  to  it  in  the  present  life. 


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THE    CHURCH    AT   THE    BEGINNING    OF   THE   THIRD    CENTURY.  161 

future  life  over  the  present — the  latter,  condemned  and  cursed ;  the 
former,    glorified    and    awaited 
with  impatience. 

After  having  sought  for 
God,  as  it  were  blindfold, 
in  the  religions  of  Greece, 
Phrygia,  Egypt,  and  Phoenicia, 
the  Bomans  had  seen  coming 
to  them  a  new  God  who  went 
to  the  hearts  of  the  refined 
and  the  afflicted.  There  were 
many  souls  whom  the  gross 
naturalism  of  the  official  reli- 
gion offended,  and  in  spite  of 
the  mitigation  of  servitude, 
slavery  was  still  to  this 
society  a  bleeding  wound  in 
its  side.  And  now,  behold 
hope  is  brought  to  these 
"  desperate  classes,"  as  Pliny 
calls  them.^  ....  But  not 
that  of  earth.  The  old  abode 
which  sunlight  and  life  once 
made  so  beautiful,  has  become 
the  vale  of  tears  which  the 
divine    vengeance   is    about   to 

r»n    -.11      1    A'  J  .1  Genius  of  Sleep  or  of  Death. ^ 

fill  With  lamentations;  and  the 

habitation   of  the   dead,   in  old   times  so  chill   and   sombre,   is   the 

celestial  Jerusalem,  radiant  with  youth,  brightness,  and  love,  where 

*  .  .  .  .  Colt  rura  ad  ergcutulis  pessimum  est  et  quidquid  agitur  a  desperantibus.  We  have 
seen  what  was  the  condition  of  the  humiliores,  and  for  the  immense  class  of  the  freedmen, 
the  constitution  of  Commodus.  (See  above,  p.  129.)  In  the  middle  of  the  third  century 
Origen  regarded  as  an  honour  to  Christianity  the  reproach  which  Celsus  and  the  pagan  of  the 
Octaviua  made  against  it,  of  recruiting  itself  among  men  of  low  condition.  •*  Yes,"  said  he, 
"we  go  to  all  those  disdained  by  philosophy— to  the  woman,  to  the  slave,  even  to  the  robber." 
In  doing  so  the  Christians  were  faithful  to  the  pure  doctrine  of  the  Master,  who  became  so 
great  only  because  he  loved  the  little  ones.  In  the  fourth  century  S.  Jerome  said  again: 
Eeclesia  Chrtsti  de  viliplebecula  congregata  est  {Opera,  iv.  289,  ed.  of  1693).  The  paintings  of 
the  catacombs  prove  the  very  humble  condition  of  the  artists  and  of  the  dead  who  had  ordered 
them, 

■  Oxford,  Marm.  Oj:on,,  pi.  15.    See  vol.  v.  p.  280,  the  Genius  of  Death  of  the  I^ouvre. 
VOL.  VI.  M 


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162  THE   AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    236   A.D. 

pious  souls  shall  dwell  eternally.  "The  sun  shall  be  darkened, 
and   the   moon   shall   not   give   her  light,    and   the   stars   shall   fall 

from  heaven They  shall   see   the   Son   of  Man   coming   in 

the  clouds  of  heaven  with  power  and  great  glory.  And  He  shall 
send  forth  His  angels  ....  and  they  shall  gather  together  His 
elect  from  the  four  winds,  from  one  end  of  heaven  to  the  other. 
....  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  this  generation  shall  not  pass  away 
till  all  tiiese  things  be  accomplished." 

The  generation  passed  and  the  earth  was  not  rent  asunder. 
But  the  sibyl  and  the  prophets  of  the  Apocalypse  constantly  renewed 
the  fearful  menace,  which  was  a  promise  of  endless  torments  for 
the  haughty  masters  of  the  earth  and  of  eternal  bliss  for  their 
victims.^  These  unfortunate  men,  says  a  writer  of  the  time, 
speaking  of  the  Christians,  fancying  to  themselves  that  they  are 
immortal,  despise  punishments  and  voluntarily  give  themselves  up 
to  death.-  The  love  of  heaven  led  them  to  hatred  of  earth;  they 
henceforth  had  before  their  eyes  only  God  and  Eternity,  with  their 
tremendous  majesty. 

The  true  character  of  the  revolution  which  took  place  in  the 
obscure  depths  of  "Roman  society  is  in  this  new  view  of  our  destiny 
much  more  than  in  moral  reform,  since  humanity  had  already,  as 
we  have  shown,*  been  put  in  possession  of  all  the  precepts  which 
serve  to  regulate  this  world's  existence.  Life  was  purified,  but 
became  gloomy  in  the  living  tomb,  where  those  confined  it  who 
pushed  this  revolution  to  its  logical  consequences,  and  the  Roman 
magistrates,  not  being  able  to  see  beyond  its  outward  manifesta- 
tions, found  in  them  the  two  things  which  form  the  grand  drama 
of  persecutions:  contempt  of  society  and  its  laws,  which  raised  up 
executioners,  and  love  of  death,  which  made  victims. 

The  hatred  of  the  fiesh  which  the  ancient  Jews  had  not 
known,  but  which  philosophy  taught,  this  aspiration  after  death, 
so  contrary  to  the  conception  which  paganism  had  formed   of   life, 


*  S.  Matthew,  xxiv.  29-84 ;  Origen,  Contra  CeUum,  vii.  9. 

*  Lucian,  PeregrinuSy  18.  See  in  vol.  v.  p.  215,  what  Marcus  Aurelius  said  of  the 
Christians.    Epictetus,  Qalen,  and  the  advocate  of  paganism  in  the  Octavius  say  the  same. 

*  In  vol.  V.  chap.  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Age."  M.  Reuss,  in  his  Histoire  de  la  thSologie 
chrStierme  au  sikde  apostolique,  says  very  justly  (p.  660) :  "  The  main  point  is  that  the  origin- 
ality of  the  Qospel  does  not  so  much  consist  in  the  novelty  of  certain  dogmas  or  of  certain 
moral  precepts  as  in  the  novelty  of  the  basis  which  it  gives  to  the  religious  life." 


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THE    CHURCH    AT   THE    BEGINNING    OF   THE    THIRD   CENTURY.  163 

could  not  have  been  produced  except  in  a  small  number  of 
stricken  and  suffering  souls.  But  the  heaven  resplendent  with 
light,  which  Christianity  opened  to  their  gaze;  its  teachings,  which 
addressed  themselves  to  the  noblest  instincts  of  the  conscience  ;  the 
penetrating  sweetness  of  the  parables  and  the  grand  poem  of  the 
Passion,  won  all  those  in  whom  were  found  the  two  most  potent 
faculties  of  our  being — sentiment  and  imagination.  And,  along 
with  these  allurements,  what  terrors  were  prepared  by  these  men 
whose  words  appropriated  the  terrible  beauty  of  the  prophetic 
singers  of  the  old  dispensation  or  the  apocalyptic  threatenings  of 
the  new ! — when  they  announced  the  speedy  coming  of  the  last 
days;  when  they  portrayed  empires  destroyed,  worlds  reduced  to 
dust,  the  trumpet  of  the  judgment  resounding  in  the  valley  of 
Jehoshaphat,  and  man  endowed  with  eternity,  either  for  happiness 
or  for  tortures ! 

Never  had  the  world  known  such  sanctions  of  moral  action,* 
and  they  were  produced  at  an  epoch  when  the  unvarying  order 
of  nature  was  regarded  as  the  plaything  of  angels  and  demons 
who  hovered  about  man,  scattering  his  pathway  with  temptations 
or  prodigies  which  he  beheld  with  the  eyes  of  a  spirit  dazzled  by 
faith  or  fear. 

Under  Diocletian  a  farce  was  played  entitled.  The  Testament 
of  the  Defunct  Jupiter ;  we  know  only  its  title,  but  a  poet  of  our 
day  has  represented  the  god,  who  had  so  long  made  heaven  and 
earth  quake  with  his  thunderbolts,  as  broken  down  with  age, 
decrepit,  yet  with  a  remnant  of  majesty,  and  banished  far  from 
mankind  on  a  desert  island,  where  he  tries  in  vain  to  warm  his 
shrunken  hands  before  a  pitiful  fire  of  briers  and  thorns.  The 
poet  and  the  philosopher,  who  know  how  to  estimate  the  grandeur 
of  the  fall,  have  at  least  a  word  of  compassion  for  the  outcasts  of 
heaven;  religions,  less  generous,  pursue  with  lively  hatred  those 
whom  they  have  conquered ;  they  take  from  them  their  power  for 
good  and  give  them  that  for  evil.  The  Christians  still  believed  in 
the  existence  of  the  gods  of  paganism  and  in  the  prodigies  per- 
formed in  their   temples;    but    they   transformed   these   masters   of 

*  The  Apocalypse  has  created  a  new  kind  of  oratory,  by  placing  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Christian  priest  the  terrors  of  hell  and  the  bliss  of  paradise.  Paganism  never  had  anything 
like  this. 

u2 


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164  THE   AFEICAN   AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D, 

the  old  world  into  demons  infuriated  for  the  destruction  of  the 
new.  To  conduct  this  war  against  humanity  they  gave  to  these 
fallen  divinities  a  chief  whom  no  one  had  as  yet  known,  except 
among  the  Chaldeans,  in  Persia,  and  to  some  extent  in  Judsea.^ 
Satan,  who  was  going  to  play  so  important  a  part  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  commenced  his  reign;  he  turned  to  evil  the  most  legitimate 
pleasures,  concealed  a  snare  in  all  the  magnificence  of  nature,  and 
spread  terror  over  the  earth,  now  become  his  kingdom.  That 
which  is  within  us — these  frailties  and  vices  which  an  energetic 
will  keeps  in  restraint,  which  a  vacillating  will  suffers  to  develop 
— this  was  made  external  and  the  universe  filled  with  malignant 
beings  who  were  really  but  part  of  ourselves.  Humanity  saw  its 
double^  and  trembled  before  it  ;  and  the  Christian  who  believed 
himself  surrounded  by  temptations  pernicious  to  his  safety,  said 
with  S.  John:  "He  that  hateth  his  life  in  this  world  shall  keep 
it  unto  life  eternal."^ 

This  doctrine  of  despair  is  as  living  as  that  of  hope,  because 
humanity  will  always  have  its  woes  and  its  diseased  minds  who 
can  see  only  the  sorrows  of  existence,  and  will  never  com- 
prehend a  Providence  which  permits  evil  to  fall  upon  the  innocent. 
For  many  centuries  the  votaries  of  Q^kyamuni  have  taught  in  the 
East  to  countless  multitudes  that  life  is  an  evil,  and  the  Alex- 
andrians had  just  repeated  that  one  ought  to  aspire  to  death  as 
to  deliverance.'  The  books  of  the  Jews  had  also  uttered  this 
melancholy  cry,  which  finds  response  in  one  of  the  chords  of  the 
human  soul :  "  All  is  vanity ; "  and  this  cry  has  found  echoes  in 
all  times:  in  the  Middle  Ages,  in  the  full  tide  of  the  century  of 
Louis  XIV.,  and  even  in  the  midst  of  our  clamorous  and  busy 
life.  We  have  the  poets  and  philosophers  of  malediction,  Leopardi 
and   Hartmann,*   at  the   same   time    that  *  the   Carthusians  and  the 

*  Satan  is  hardly  meDtioned  thrice  in  the  Old  Testament.  The  book  of  Wisdom,  in  which 
he  appears  in  his  true  character,  was  written  shortly  before  the  Christian  era  at  Alex&ndria. 
[This  is  not  true  in  the  case  of  Job. — EdJ] 

*  xii.  25.  These  words  are  still  according  to  the  spirit  of  the  Church  and  are  frequently 
repeated.    I  heard  them  recently  in  a  sermon. 

^  The  singular  analogies  which  exist  between  the  doctrine  of  Plotinus  and  the  Buddhist 
Nirvdna  have  frequently  been  points  out;  fortuitous  analogies  which  do  not  result  from 
imitation,  but  from  the  same  condition  of  spirits. 

*  Without  mentioning  Ren6,  Werther,  and  Manfred,  which  have  brought  into  fashion  a 
morbid  sadness  which  their  originators,  Chateaubriand,  Goethe,  and  Byron,  did  not  share.  I 
hardly  dare  mention  the  strange  sect  of  the  Russian  Skoptzi  which  proceeds  from  this  spirit. 


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THE   CHUECH   AT  THE   BEGINNING   OF   THE   THIRD   CENTURY.         165 

Trappists  represent  to  us,  under  a  religious  form,*  weariness  or 
ignorance  of  the  world,  the  spirit  of  hatred  towards  the  flesh,  and 
that  poetry  of  solitude  at  once  bitter  and  sweet.  To  them,  whether 
philosophers  or  recluses,  the  sombre  bride  is  always  beautiful,  and, 
from  contrary  reasons,  they  find  sweetness  in  death :  la  gentillezm 
del  morir. 

III. — ^The  Christian  Dogmas. 

However,  thoughts  like  these  do  violence  to  human  nature, 
and  though  the  Roman  Empire  might  extend  to  those  countries 
where  exertion  and  the  struggle  for  existence  easily  become  a 
source  of  suffering,  the  doctrine  of  rest  in  God  would  have  had, 
amongst  the  more  virile  populations  of  the  West,  only  a  transient 
duration,  if  the  beliefs  which  had  produced  it  had  not  been,  so 
to  speak,  incarnated  in  the  most  strongly  constituted  sacerdotal 
body  which  ever  existed.  With  a  marvellous  instinct  for  the 
government  of  souls,  and  by  means  of  a  labour  of  organization 
which  has  never  ceased,  the  Church  restrained  and  gave  stability 
to  that  faith  which,  without  her,  would  have  been  dispersed  and 
lost,  like  precious  perfume  which  evaporates. 

With  the  Platonic  theory  of  the  Xogos,  or  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
sent  by  Jesus  to  his  disciples,  the  revelation  could  continue  after 
the  disappearance  of  the  revealer.  In  proportion  then  as  life 
became  more  active  in .  the  Church,  she  prepared,  according  to 
the  times,  new  organs  for  new  functions,  to  ward  off  a  peril 
or  respond  to  a  demand.  This  is  the  condition  of  every  great  and 
powerful  system.  The  primitive  Church,  that  of  the  apostolic 
age,  had  become  transformed.  All  that  had  been  free  and  spon- 
taneous^  or  vague  and  fluctuating — doctrine,  hierarchy,  or  discipline 
— was  precisely  formulated  and  set  in  order  for  a  mighty 
endeavour.*      The    Catholics    refuse    to    recognize    this    progressive 

»  Vol.  V.  p.  786  et  $eq. :  S.  John,  xiv.  16,  26,  and  xvi.  13.  See  in  1  Cor,,  xiv.  26,  what 
liberty  S.  Paul  allowed  to  "  those  who  had  received  the  gift  of  teaching  or  of  revealing  the 
secret  things  of  God."  The  constitutions  of  the  Church  of  Alexandria  (Bunsen,  Christianity 
and  Mankind,  vol.  vi,  yet  say  (ii.  41):  cx<^/i£v  iravTig  to  irvivfia  rov  Gcov.  The  propagation  of 
the  faith  was  '*  by  the  living  word."  J.  Donaldson  ( The  Apostolical  Fathers,  vol.  i.  p.  60, 
1874),  commenting  on  the  words  of  Irenseus,  weU  says :  "  In  fact,  there  was  a  spoken  Christianity 
as  well  as  a  written  Christianity.    The  former  existed  before  the  latter."    And  he  attempts  to 


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166  THE   AFiUCAN   AND   SYRIAN   PEINCBS,    180   TO    235   A.D. 

revolution,  and  the  Protestants  condemn  it;  yet  it  is  by  this  that 
the  Church  has  endured.  What  are  the  longest  dynasties  of  kings 
and  emperors  by  the  side  of  the  succession  of  her  pontiffs,  and 
what  institution  has  lived  eighteen  centuries?  We  do  not  con- 
sider that  of  all  the  miracles  this  is  the  gi-eatest:  human  wisdom 
rearing  a  temple  in  which  the  noblest  minds  have  lived  so  long 
and  which  shelters  so  many  still. 

In  the  first  and  second  centuries  evangelical  liberty  was  very 
great  and  it  was  gradually  lost.*  Most  of  the  apologists  of  the 
epoch  of  the  Antonines  did  not  even  belong  to  the  clergy,  and 
Eusebius^  shows  that  for  a  long  time  there  were  volunteers  for  the 
faith  who  spread  abroad  the  glad  tidings  according  to  their  own 
inspiration.  From  this  resulted  diversities  which  at  an  early  date 
produced  what  the  constituted  Church  called  heresies. 

The  apostles  and  the  apostolic  Fathers  had  taught,  with  some 
discrepancies  which  are  lost  in  their  remoteness,  the  fundamental 
doctrine  of  the  divinity  of  Christ  and  consequently  a  revealed  law. 
This  law  was  recorded  in  numerous  accounts  of  the  life  of  Jesus, 
which  had  at  first  only  a  traditional  value.^  To  the  early  Fathers 
the  Holy  Scriptures  were  above  all  the  Pentateuch  and  the 
Prophets;  even  in  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  Papias,  bishop 

demonstrate  what  were  the  faith  and  the  free  constitution  of  the  Church  at  this  time  when  free 
speech  was  not  fettered  by  the  written  formula,  and  when  each  body  of  Christians  was 
independent  under  its  elders  and  inspectore, 

*  Letter  72  of  S.  Cyprian  to  S.  Stephen,  bishop  of  Rome,  closes  with  these  words :  Qua  m 
re  nee  nos  vim  cmquam  facimus  out  legem  damue,  qitando  habeat  in  Ecclesite  adm^nietratione 
voluntatis  sua  arbitrium  liberum  unusquisgue  praposituSf  rationem  actus  sui  Domino  redditurus. 

^  Hist,  eccl.f  iii.  37.  What  is  termed  the  Council  of  Jerusalem  (Acts,  chap,  xv.)  had  itself, 
on  some  important  points,  respected  the  liberty  of  the  faithful. 

^  Donaldson,  The  Apost,  etc.,  pp.  68,  107, 165,  234,  etc.  Origen  attests  (in  Matth.,  xii.  6) 
that  some  Christiana  did  not  find  the  divinity  of  Christ  clearly  expressed  in  the  Gospel  of 
S.  Matthew,  and  Photius,  in  hiB Bibliotheca,Cod.  126, addresses  the  same  reproach  to  S.  Clement 
of  Rome  for  his  epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  in  which  Jesus  is  nowhere  called  Qod,  but  the 
beloved  child  of  God,  the  high  priest,  the  head  of  souls.  The  pseudo  Hermas  speaks  in  the 
same  manner.  See  also  the  words  of  S.  Peter  (i.  2, 25),  which  are  not  contradicted  by  the  Acts 
(ii.  86).  Cf.  Clemens  Romanus,  Epist,,  ed.  Hilgenfeld,  1876,  after  the  manuscript  discovered 
the  year  before  at  Constantinople.  Eusebius  (Hist.  eccL,  iii.  34)  gives  the  date  of  Clement's 
death  as  a.d.  101.  The  idea  of  a  Messiah  was  exceedingly  Jewish,  that  of  a  God  become  man 
was  not  so,  and  it  is  quite  natural  that  in  the  early  times  it  should  have  entered  with  great 
difficulty  into  the  minds  of  the  Jews  converted  to  the  Gospel ;  this  was  the  case,  for  instance, 
with  Cerinthus,  the  famous  heresiarch,  whom  certain  accounts  place  in  communication  with 
8.  John.  S.  Ignatius,  dying  under  Trajan,  had  combated  the  Ebionites,  who  denied  the 
divinity  of  Jesus  (^Ep.  ad  Magn.,  7-8;  ad  PkHad.,  6-9),  and  the  Docet®,  who  rejected  his 
humanity  (Ep.  ad  Smym.,  1-5  j  ad  Trail.,  6-10). 


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THE   CHURCH   AT   THE    BEGINNING    OF   THE   THIRD    CENTURY.  167 

of  Hierapolis  in  Phrygia,  then  said  that  it  was  far  less  important 
to  consult  the  books  than  living  tradition."  But  before  the  end  of 
this  century  the  choice  between  all  these  accounts  was  made,  and 
the  apostolic  authority  had  been  recognized  in  the  three  synoptics 
into  which  the  oldest  writings  had  been  cast,^  and  in  the  Gospel 
of  S.  John,  though  composed  later  and  differing  from  the  three 
others  on  an  essential  point,  the  doctrine  of  the  Word.  This 
doctrine,  which  the  Alexandrian  Jew  Philo  had  brilliantly  enun- 
ciated, was  related  to  some  ancient  Egyptian  beliefs,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  certain  ideas  of  Plato.  By  giving  rise  in  philosophic 
minds  to  the  boldest  speculations,  it  was  destined  to  serve  as  a 
foudation  for  the  Christian  theology  which  made  of  the  Messiah 
the  incarnate  Wordj  while  the  synoptics  supplied  to  the  ordinary 
preaching,  to  attract  the  multitude,  the  tender  and  charming 
chaptei-s  of  the  parables,  or  the  sombre  and  sublime  one  of  the 
Passion.  The  Acts  and  the  Epistles  had  likewise  been  admitted, 
so  that  the  canon  of  the  Scriptures  was  nearly  determined,  though 
no   authority   had   as  yet   closed   or  promulgated  it.^     The  Church, 


*  .  .  .  .  r<l  irapd  Z^xnii  0<^v^c  xai  fuvovrnff  (Eusebius,  HiH,  eocl.,  iii.  80.  IrensBUS  (iii.  2) 
also  said  :  non  per  litteras  tradUam  veritatem,  sed  per  vioam  vocem.  According  to  Eusebius 
(ibid,),  Papias  could  only  have  known  and  employed  the  Qoepels  of  Mark  and  of  Matthew,  of 
which  he  speaks  with  great  liberty,  the  Apocalypse,  the  first  Epistle  of  Peter,  and  the  first  of 
John.  A  very  important  work  for  the  knowledge  of  the  canon  of  the  Scriptures  towards  the 
end  of  the  second  century  is  the  Fragment  caUed  that  of  Afuratori,  discovered  in  1840  at 
Milan.  [The  best  general  guide  \b  now  G.  Salmon's  Critical  Introduction  to  the  N.  T, 
J.  Murray,  1885.—^.] 

^  S.  Luke,  in  prooem.,  says  xoXXoc  iirtxiipnaav. 

'  I  do  not  need  to  investigate  as  to  when  and  how  the  canonical  books  were  prepared :  a 
multitude  of  learned  works  may  furnish  information  on  this  subject.  My  duty  is  to  show  what 
were  the  spirit  and  the  organization  of  the  Church  at  the  epoch  when  its  power  was  sufficiently 
great  to  enable  it  to  exert  an  influence  on  Roman  society  and  the  destinies  of  the  Empire. 
Now  this  epoch  corresponds  to  the  reign  of  Severus.  Under  Marcus  Aurelius,  Celsus  (Origen, 
Contra  CeU,,  ii.  27)  at  that  time  represented  the  Christians  as  continuaUy  occupied  in  correcting 
and  altering  their  Gospels,  ....  mutant  pervertuntgue,  and  Eusebius  {Hist.  eccL,  iv.  23,  and 
v.  28)  confirms  this  testimony.  Origen,  who  died  in  268,  in  fact  says  (Horn.  1,  m  Luc.): 
Multi  conati  sunt  scribere  Evanpelica,  but  he  adds,  sed  nan  omnes  recepti.  There  was  then,  in 
the  first  and  second  centuries,  a  great  work  of  editing,  co-ordinating,  and  eliminating,  which 
resulted  in  an  evangelical  canon.  At  the  time  of  TertuUian  (beginning  of  the  third  century), 
the  canon  was  fixed,  for  he  speaks  (ad  Marcionem,  iv.  2)  of  the  four  Gospels  "  of  the  apostles 
Matthew  and  John  "  and  the  "  apostolic  men  **  Luke  and  Mark,  as  forming  the  "  evangelical 
instrument"  accepted  in  his  time.  So  also  S.  Irenseus,  who  was  put  to  death  under  Severus 
(Adv.  hcer,f  iii.  11),  and  Clement  of  Alexandria,  who  died  under  Caracalla  or  Elagabalu>< 
(Strom.^  iii.  13) ;  but  both  quote  freely  from  the  Apocrypha ;  Origen  thinks  "  it  may  be  used 
with  discretion."  (Ilo9n.  26  in  Matth.,  23.)  The  author  of  the  Letters  of  S.  Ignatius  regards 
the  Gospel  of  the  Hebrews  as  an  authentic  text  (ad  Smym,,  3) ;  S.  Irenseus  mentions  also  the 


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168  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   285   A.D. 

therefore,  had  its  holy  book,  the  Now  Testament,  less  poetical  than 
the  Old,  but  far  superior  as  a  winner  of  souls. 

Finally,  Theophilus  of  Antioch  had  just  found  a  word  which 
is  not  in  the  Gospels,  the  word  Trinity,*  a  brief  and  clear  descrip- 
tion of  the  dogma  which  the  Council  of  Niccea  will  put  into  exact 
language  by  determining  the  relations  of  the  three  divine  persons;^ 


Nativity  of  Christ,  after  a  Marble  iii  the  Museum  of  the  Lateran. 
(EoUer,  lee  Catac,  de  Borne,  pi.  Ixvii.  No.  2.) 

and  8.  Ireneeus  wrote,  between  the  years  177  and  192,  the  Catholic 
profession  of  faith  in  almost  the  same  terms  that  we  read  in  the 
doctrinal  formulary  of  325.'  But  all  the  faithful  did  not  attach 
the  same  importance  to  these  obscure  dogmas.  In  the  fourth 
century,  Lactantius,  one  of  the  most  valiant  defenders  of  the 
Church,  understood  them  so  imperfectly  that  Pope  Gelasius  placed 
his  works  among  the  apocrypha;  later  still,  Gregory  Nazianzen 
will  show  what  uncertainty  existed  with  regard  to  the  Holy  Spirit.* 

Acte,  the  Epietlee,  and  the  Apocalypse,  S.  Justin^  half  a  century  earlier,  never  cites  the 
EpisUee  and  very  rarely  the  fourth  Gospel,  the  authenticity  of  which  was  still  under  discussion. 
Even  in  the  middle  of  the  third  century  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  does  not  know  who  is 
the  author  of  the  Apocalypse,  and  is  not  without  some  distrust  of  the  value  of  this  book. 
(Eusebius,  Hist,  eccles.,  vii.  25.)     "Peter,**  says  Origen  (ap.  Eusebius,  tWrf.,  vi.  26),  ** has  left 

but  one  epistle  which  is  generally  received John  has  also  left  one  very  short  epistle. 

...  As  to  the  Epistle  of  Paul  to  the  Hebrews,  my  belief  is  that  God  alone  knows  who  is  its 
author.**    The  authenticity  of  the  Pauline  epistles  to  Titus  and  Timothy  is  also  much  contested. 

*  Tpiac  (ad  Autolyc,,  ii.  16),  whidi  TertuUian  translated  by  the  I>atin  word  Trimtas  (cfc 
Pudicitia,  21). 

^  On  this  old  trinitarian  belief,  which  is  found  to  be  fundamental  in  the  Gospels,  particularly 
in  that  of  S.  John,  see  p.  154,  note.  Theophilus  was  bishop  of  Antioch  and  died  in  the  reign 
of  Gommodus. 

*  Adv,  JuBT.,  i.  10 ;  likewise  TertuUian  in  the  de  Pr€Mcr.,  IS,  and,  less  at  length,  in  the 
de  Velandis  Virg. 

*'  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Orat.,  xxxi.  Spiritus  sancH  negat  substantiam,  says  S.  Jerome 
(Epist.,  40),  with  reference  to  Lactantius,  and  he  adds  that  he  displays  more  power  to  combat 
error  than  to  establish  truth.     {Epist,  18,  ad  Paulin,) 


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THE   CHUECH   AT   THE   BEGINNING   OF   THE   THIRD   CENTURY.  169 

Thus,  at  the  epoch  where  we  take  up  the  history  of  the 
Chui'ch,  the  close  of  the  second  century,  Christian  theology  had 
made  a  brilliant  beginning;  it  was  Greek  genius  which  had  done 
this  by  the  mouth  of  Ignatius  and  Ireneeus,  of  Justin  and 
Athenagoras,    of   Tatian   and    Theophilus,    of   Melito   of    Sardis  and 


The  Agap»  (after  a  Bas-relief  of  the  Kircher  Museum).     (RoUer,  pi.  liv.  fig.  7.) 

ApoUinarius  of  Hierapolis;  and  other  Greeks,  Clement  and  Origen, 
will  develop  it  in  the  third,  in  the  great  school  of  Alexandria.' 

The  fraternal  agap8B  had  at  first  been  only  a  remembrance  of 
the  Last  Supper  and  a  transformation  of  the  great  feast  of  the 
Jews,  the  Passover,  at  which  the  paschal  lamb  was  eaten  in  com- 
memoration of  the  miraculous  exodus  of  the  Hebrews,  when  they 
escaped  from  the  bondage  of  Egypt.  The  increasing  number  of 
believers  changed  their  character ;  they  became  the  mystic  repast 
which  derived  its  name,  euxa/»«<rr/a,  from  the  acts  of  grace  pro- 
nounced in  the  benediction  of  the  cup  and  the  breaking  of  the 
bread.^  For  the  bloody  sacrifice  of  the  old  creed,  Christianity 
substituted  one  of  a  nature  wholly  spiritual,  like  itself,  and  which 
also  celebrated  a  deliverance,  that  of  souls. 

Sacrifice,  that  is  to  say,  the  gift  offered  to  the  gods  with  the 
view  of  gaining  their  favour,  had  been  the  basis  of  all  religions; 
and  the  costlier  the  ofEering  the  more  efficacious  was  to  be  the 
sacrifice.  Hence  the  immolation  of  human  victims.  Time  has 
softened    this    cruel    piety,    philosophers    have    condemned   it,    and 

*  To  Kar  'AXi^avSpuav  didaaKaXttov  (Eusehius,  ibid.,  v.  10). 

*  On  the  euchartstia  in  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  see  S.  Ireneeus,  Ado.  har.,  iv. 
18,  and  S.  Justin,  ApoL,  i.  65-67. 


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170  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRI^CE8,    180    TO    265   A.D. 

emperors  have  issued  edicts  against  it;  but  the  belief  in  the 
merits  of  sacrifice  has  not  ceased :  it  has  become  transformed  and 
purified.  The  pagan  god  received  the  oflfering  and  shared  it  with 
his  adorers;*  the  new  God  gave  himself  to  his  priests  and  followers. 
No  more  shedding  of  blood,  no  more  flame  consumiug  the  victim, 
no  more  smoke  veiling  the  face  divine.  The  gifts  of  the  heavenly 
Father  which  sustain  life  upon  the  earth,  the  bread,  the  water,  and 
the  wine,  became  symbols  of  the  communion  of  men  with  him. 
His  Spirit  was  incarnate  in  Jesus;  Jesus,  ascended  to  heaven, 
became  incarnate  in  the  bread  and  wine  consecrated  on  earth : 
/loc  est  corpus  meum^  hie  est  sanguis  meus.  This  was  at  first  only  a 
figure.*^  As  one  participated  in  idolatry  by  eating  the  flesh  of 
pagan  victims,  one  participated  in  the  new  religious  worship  by 
breaking  the  bread  and  drinking  the  cup.  But,  seeing  the  condition 
of  minds,  the  figure  must  very  soon  become  to  the  faithful  a 
reality.  At  the  middle  of  the  second  century  the  Eucharist  was 
already  ''the  sacrament  of  the  altar."'  If  they  were  far  from 
believing  in  transubstantiation,  they  already  admitted  consubstantia- 
tion,  and  the  mystic  sanctity  which  the  Lord's  Supper  had  acquired 
communicated  to  the  priest  who  offered  the  sacrifice  a  more  exalted 
dignity,  with  the  character  of  a  necessary  mediator  between  heaven 
and  earth. 

This  character  was  to  come  to  him  in  another  manner. 

Jesus  had  left  only  two  commands  to  the  apostles :  "  Preach 
the  Gospel  to  all  the  nations,  and  baptize  them.''  This  baptism, 
which  he  himself  had  desired  to  receive,  was  a  symbol  of  purifica- 
tion and  the  condition  of  salvation.*  In  early  times  it  pre-supposod 
on  the  part  of  the  one  who  presented  himself  for  it  a  personal 
adherence  given  after  receiving  instruction,  and  marked  by  the 
profession  of  the  Christian  faith.  Hence  it  was  administered  to 
adults  only :  the  catechumens  of  Alexandria  waited  three  years 
for  it.*  But  the  sacramental  idea  attached  especial  virtues  to 
it;    by   it  he  who   was  baptized   was    bom    again    in    the    spirit. 

'  In  ancient  Italy  the  repast  was  always  preceded  by  libations  to  the  Penates. 

*  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  (ii.  42,  and  xx.  7)  explain  the  words  of  Paul,  1  Cor.,  x.  10. 

^  Ignatius,  ad  Horn.,  7 ;  ad  Smym.f  7  ;  Justin,  ApoL,  i.  66,  and  Irenaeus,  op.  vtt.,  iv.  18, 
and  V.  2. 

*  John,  iii.  5. 

''  KaunviQ  r/Jc  '»'  Aiyvirrift  UKXtjaiai  (ii.  45,  ap.  Bunsen,  vol.  iv.  pp.  461  et  seq.). 


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THE   CHURCH   AT  THE   BEGINNING   OF   THE   THIRD    CENTURY.         173 

"Plunged  in  the  darkness  of  a  dense  night  and  drifting  at  random 
on  the  stormy  sea  of  the  time,  I  strayed  hither  and  thither,"  says 
S.  Cyprian,  "without  knowing  whither  to  direct  my  life.  Divine 
goodness    caused    me    to   be    bom   again  in   the    saving    water    of 

baptism At  once  a  serene  and  pure  light  was  shed  from  on 

high  upon  my  soul  and  I 
became  a  new  man."^  This 
efficacy  of  baptism  dispens- 
ing with  personal  adherence, 
children  were  admitted  to 
regeneration.  This  was  a 
noteworthy  innovation.  The 
Master  had  said:  Sinite  venire 
ad  me  parvulos ;  the  Church 
called  them  and  took  them. 
Its  action  was  extended  over 
the  beginnings  of  life,  as  it 
watched  over  the  approach  of 
death,  and  thus  it  was  enabled 

to    keep    or    recover,    in    the  Baptism.* 

turbulent  hours  of  youth,  those 

whom  it,  from  their  birth,  had  "enrolled  in  the  army  of  Christ, 
census  Dei?^^ 

On  coming  out  of  the  baptismal  font  the  neophyte  was 
clothed  with  a  white  robe,  symbol  of  innocence,  and  he  moistened 
his  lips  in  a  vessel  of  milk  and  honey,  the  sweet  and  pure  nourish- 
ment of  the  body  and  the  image  of  the  spiritual  food  which  the 
Church  distributed  to  all  its  members.* 


*  S.  Cyprian,  Ep.  ad  D<mat.  S.  Justin  (Apol.,  i.  61 )  had  spoken  of  this  new  birth  by 
baptism,  and  Origen  called  it  "the  principle  and  the  source  of  the  gifts  of  grace"  (in  Jiwinw.,  17). 

^  After  a  painting  in  the  crypt  of  Pope  Callistus.  (Roller,  op.  cit.,  pi.  xxiv.  fig.  4.  Cf. 
ilfid.,  vol.  i.  p.  131.) 

'  Tertullian,  de  BaptUmOf  17.  Baptism  was  habitually  administered  by  inmiersion  for 
those  in  health,  by  sprinkling  for  the  sick.  This  rite  was  also  the  foundation  of  the  cultus  of 
Mithra,  then  widely  extended,  and  it  "regenerated  for  eternity  "  him  who  received  it;  but  it 
was  a  baptism  of  blood,  givmg  rise  to  a  hideous  ceremony  (vol.  v.  p.  704),  which  was  to  keep 
away  women,  children,  and  all  sensitive  persons.  Another  baptism  of  blood,  that  of  the  Jews, 
continued  for  some  time  to  be  practised  by  the  Christian  Jews  also.  The  fifteen  bishops  of 
Jerusalem  down  to  the  destruction  of  the  t<emple  were  circumcised.  (Eusebius,  Hist.  eccL, 
iv.  5.) 

*  .  .  .  .  mellts  et  lactis  societatem  (Tertullian,  Adv.  Marcion.,  i.  14). 


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174  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

Jesus  had  said :  '^  Whosesoever  sins  ye  forgive,  they  are  for- 
given unto  them."  This  was  a  powerful  means  of  action  for  the 
government  of  souls  promised  to  the  new  priesthood.  At  first, 
the  penitent  "  made  unto  the  Lord  "  ^  the  avowal  of  his  fault  in  the 
presence  of  the  believers,  and  the  priests  determined  the  necessarj^ 
expiation.  But  it  was  inevitable  that  auricular  confession  should 
take  the  place  of  public  confession.  The  penitent  and  the  priest 
were  equally  interested  in  this  change,  for  the  first  being  only 
possible  in  the  case  of  grave  offences,  the  minor  ones  escaped  the 
action  of  the  Church.  With  the  second,  the  sinner,  especially 
women,^  avoided  the  shame  of  humiliation  before  all  the  people, 
and  the  priest  penetrated  into  the  private  life  of  the  penitent, 
which  permitted  him  to  direct  it  better  for  salvation.  If  the 
penitent,  in  a  dying  condition,  desired  to  be  reconciled  to  the 
fJhurch,  it  was  needful  that  the  priest  should  take  the  place  of 
the  assembly  of  the  brethren  at  his  bedside,  and  the  exception 
ended  by  becoming  the  rule.  However,  public  confession  was  not 
interdicted  until  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century;  but,  at  that 
moment,  auricular  confession,  the  dawning  of  which  we  see  in  the 
epoch  we  are  now  considering,^  will  long  since  have  acquired  the 
power  of  a  sacrament.  By  the  counsels  which  follow  the  con- 
fession, the  priest  will  assume  the  direction  of  the  life  of  the 
penitents;  he  will  teach  them  the  practice  of  justice  according 
to  the  Church,  and  by  the  power  to  bind  and  to  loose,  he  will 
make  saints  destined  to  sit  down  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  and 
the  damned  whom  Satan  and  his  tortures  await.  The  pagan 
mysteries,  too,  granted  salvation,  but  by  an  initiation  which  was 
not  repeated.  In  the  bosom  of  the  Church  the  initiation  is  per- 
petually renewed,  by  the  eucharistic  communion  which  restores  to 
a  state  of  purity,  by  the  religious  teaching  which  prepares  for  it, 
by   the   sacrament   of   penitence   which   brings  back   the   sinner    or 

*  .  .  .  .  Exomologesis  est  qua  delictum  domino  nostro  confitemur  (TertuUian,  de  Poenit., 
9).  It  is  the  public  confession  of  which  Matthew  speaks  (iii.  6),  Mark  (i.  5),  and  the  Acts, 
(xix.  18). 

*  S.  Irenaeus  {Adv.  Jusr.,  i.  3)  speaks  of  women  who  publicly  confessed  their  faults. 

^  Origen,  in  the  second  homily  upon  Psalms,  xxxvii.  19,  in  the  Homilia  2  in  Leoit.,  4,  and 
in  his  J)€  Orat.,  28,  is  already  more  explicit.  At  this  moment,  the  middle  of  the  third  century, 
the  two  mo  les  of  confession  co-exist,  but  the  confession  to  the  priest  is  already  more  customary 
than  the  c  )nfp8ftion  t-o  the  assembly.  Cf.  the  Octavim,  0,  10,  11,  12,  25,  26,  and  29,  and  the 
de  Lapsis.    As  to  the  laying  on  of  hands,  that  was  a  Jewish  custom. 


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THE    CHURCH    AT   THE    BEGINNING    OF   THE   THIRD    CENTURY.  175 

which  turns  away  for  ever  the  excommunicated,  banished  at  the 
same  time  from  the  Church  and  from  heaven. 

Another  sacrament  arose,  or  rather  an  ancient  usage  was  con- 
tinued after  its  transformation:  extreme  unction.^  This  again  is 
merely  a  prayer  of  the  priests  over  the  sick,  the  Jewish  usage  of 
anointing  with  oil  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  the  assertion  of 
faith  by  dying  persons.^ 

The   civil   law  does   not  favour   celibacy,  because  it  renders  a 


The  Ag-apae,  Symbol  of  the  Eucharistic  Communion '  (after  a  Marble  of  the  Lateran;. 

man  free  from  the  obligations  of  the  family,  and  because  the 
family  is  the  basis  of  society.  But  in  the  East,  and  even  in 
Greece,  certain  churches  or  philosophic  sects  recommend  it.  At 
the  period  of  the  ancient  fervour,  some  of  the  goddesses — Diana, 
Minerva,  Vesta,  and  the  Muses — ^had  repudiated  chaste  love,  and 
at  Athens  and  Rome,  and  among  the  Gauls,  the  holiest  prayers 
were  those  of  virgins.  The  apostles  and  the  early  Fathers  did 
not  impose  celibacy ;  there  was,  however,  a  tendency  towards  it. 
It   was   the   natural    consequence    of    a    doctrine   which  prescribed 

^  Origen,  Homilia  2  in  Leoit.,  2. 

'  James,  v.  14-15.  Among  the  Jews  perfumed  olive  oil  served  for  various  religious  uses 
{Oenesis,  xxviii.  18,  and  Rrodus,  xxx.  24-29)  and  for  the  anointing  of  higli-priests  and  kings, 
for  the  treatment  of  diseases  and  wounds  (Isaiah,  i.  6),  for  the  purification  of  lepers  (Lei^'f., 
xiv.  17). 

'  The  genius  which  occupies  the  left  is  foreign  to  the  eucharistic  supper.  He  supports  the 
frame  of  the  epitaph.     (Roller,  op.  cit.,  pi.  liv.  fig.  6.) 


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176  THE   AFRICAN   AND    SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235    A.D. 

mortifying   the   flesh   and   renunciation.*      Already   they   refused   to 
admit   to   the   episcopate   those   who   had   contracted  a  second  mar- 


The  Virgin." 

riage,  and  this  regulation  has  been  preserved  in  the  Greek  Church. 
In  order  to  hold  man  at  every  moment  of  his  life,  from  the  cradle 

^  We  find  in  the  early  centuries  numbers  of  bishops  who  are  married  but  live  in  celibacy. 
CaBcilius,  who  converted  S.  Cyprian,  commended  to  him  at  his  death  his  wife  and  children 
(Fleury,  Hist,  eccles.,  ii.  p.  173),  and  during  the  persecution  of  Dedus,  the  bishop  of  Nicopolis, 
in  Egypt,  fled  to  the  desert  **  with  his  wife."  (Eusebius,  SiH.  eccles,,  vi.  42.)  Some  of  the 
records  of  martyrs  relating  to  the  persecution  of  Diocletian  speak  of  married  bishops,  and  a  law 
of  357  (Cod.  Theod.,  xvi.  2,  14),  confirming  the  benefits  granted  by  Constantine  to  the  clergy, 
extended  them  to  their  wives  and  children,  mares  et  femitue.  The  CJhurch  recommended  con- 
tinence to  the  married  clergy.  (Council  of  Elvira,  83rd  canon ;  Council  of  Nicea,  Srd  canon.) 
See  in  Socrates,  Hist,  eccles.,  i.  11,  the  speech  of  S.  Paphnutiud.in  opposition  at  the  Council  of 
Nicsea.  The  same  writer  mentions  (v.  22),  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  married  bishops 
who  had  had  legitimate  children  after  their  ordination. 

^  After  a  fresco  of  the  subterranean  basilica  of  S.  Clement  at  Rome.  This  Virgin,  doubt- 
less of  the  eighth  century,  is  the  oldest  known  after  that  of  the  cemetery  of  Priscilla.  The 
basilica  of  S.  Clement,  between  the  Caelian  and  the  Esquiline,'  was  filled  up  in  the  twelfth 
century  for  the  construction  of  the  present  church,  and  has  only  been  excavated  in  our  day. 
The  Madonna  which  was  buried  there  has  consequently  suffered  no  retouching,  and,  with  its 
nimbus  of  gold  and  its  rich  drapery  overloaded  with  precious  jewels,  offers  us  an  authentic 
specimen  of  the  Byzantine  style.     (Holler,  op.  cit,  ii.  pi.  C.  and  p.  354.) 


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THE   CHURCH   AT  THE   BEGINNING   OP   THE   THIRD   CENTURY.  177 

to  the  tomb,  the  Church  will  make  a  sacrament  of  marriage, 
without  being  able  to  deprive  it  of  its  fundamental  character  of  a 
civil  contract/ 

The  Virgin,  who  occupies  so  great  a  place  in  the  Catholicism 
of  modem  times,  had  very  little  in  the  early  ages.  Mention  is 
made  of  her  with  respect,  but  no  worship  is  rendered  to  her. 
With  the  lapse  of  time  the  historic  person  will  become  a  sacred 
type.  This  will  not  be  the  case,  however,  until  the  second  oecu- 
menical council,  that  of  381,  which  will  place  her  name  in  the 
creed  to  which  the  Fathers  of  Niceea  had  not  admitted  it. 

The  dogma  of  the  communion  and  intercession  of  saints  will 
also  not  be  formulated  until  the  fourth  century.  "At  the  altar," 
8.  Augustine  says,  "we  do  not  make  mention  of  the  martyrs  in 
the  same  maimer  as  we  do  of  the  faithful  who  rest  in  peace.  We 
do  not  only  pray  for  them,  we  entreat  them  to  pray  for  us."*  But 
a  trace  of  it  exists  in  the  third,'  and  this  was  also  a  necessary 
consequence. 

Thus  was  formed  the  grand  epic  of  the  Christian  religion,  as 
some  old  klepht's  song  had  become  the  Iliad  of  Homer,  and  it 
was  destined  to  be  for  a  long  succession  of  centuries  the  consola- 
tion and  the  delight  of  souls.  But  the  new  poet  who  developed 
the  primitive  gift  was  the  Church,  or  rather  those  ardent  com- 
munities, those  nocturnal  assemblies,  whose  religious  wants  increased 
with  the  contagion  of  faith.  The  ignorant  led  on  the  doctors,  and 
they,  drawing  with  full  hands  from  the  triple  treasure  of  Biblical 
poetry,  Grecian  philosophy,  and  the  Gospel,  multiplied  the  dogmas, 
enriched  the  worship,  and  changed  all,  thinking  to  change 
nothing. 

^  Jesus  had  said  (Matt,  xxii.  80) :  ''In  the  resurrection  they  neither  marry  nor  are  given 
in  marriage,''  and  S.  Paul  accepted  mixed  unions  (1  Cor.f  vii.  12-26):  a  doctrine  which  a 
council  again  consecrated  in  314.  S.  Paul  (Ephes,,  v.  32)  calls  marriage  ftvfrHfpiov,  a  word 
which  has  been  too  freely  translated  "  sacrament.**  Among  the  Romans  marriage  was  a  civil 
contract,  indispensable  for  the  constitution  of  the  family,  the  reciprocal  rights  of  the  parties 
and  of  their  children,  and  the  conditions  of  which  the  Church  could  not  of  itself  change ;  but 
she  joined  to  it  her  prayers  and  her  benediction.  The  Council  of  Trent  (sess.  xziv.)  recognized 
that  in  marriage  the  sacrament  had  the  effect  to  sanctify  the  pre-existing  contract :  gratiam 
gucB  naturcUem  ilium  attiorem  perflceret  ....  cov^ugesque  sanctificaret. 

'  CoTfnmemoramMa  ,  .  .  .  ut  eUam  pro  eis  oremus,  sed  magU  ut  et  ipn  pro  nobis  {Tract, 
84  in  Evang,  8,  Joann.), 

'  S.  Cyprian,  Ep,  57,  ad  fintm.  The  doctrine  of  purgatory,  which  the  Evangelists  were 
ignorant  of  (8,  Luke,  xxvi.  26),  was  also  propounded  by  S.  Augustine. 

VOL,  VI.  N 


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178  THE   AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

The  ceremonies  became  more  varied,  the  liturgy,  or  the  regula- 
tions of  tha  worship,  had  not  the  unity  which  it  has  found  only 
in  our  day ;  but  each  church  prepared  its  own.^  S.  Clement,  in 
the  century  preceding,  had  spoken  of  it  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Corin- 
thians. This  bishop  of  the  city  which  was  the  mistress  of  the 
world,  this  EomanuSy  as  he  is  called,  had  also  previously  invoked 
discipline  by  comparing  the  Church  to  the  legions  of  Caesar  in 
which  the  chief  commands.'*  His  successors  will  end  by  inserting 
the  same  rules  of  absolute  obedience,  and  the  fruitful  liberty  of 
the  religious  life  of  the  early  ages,  without  which  nothing  would 
be  founded,  will  disappear,  but  to  the  gain  of  discipline,  without 
which  nothing  endures. 

At  the  end  of  the  second  century  the  dogmatic  work  of  the 
Church  was  so  far  advanced  that  Clement  of  Alexandria,  who 
wrote  under  the  reign  of  Severus,  sought  to  co-ordinate  its  parts 
into  a  scientific  system  constructed  with  the  ordinary  processes  of 
human  thought.  '^  Faith,"  said  he,  "  is  the  science  of  the  divine 
things  of  revelation;  but  science  should  furnish  the  demonstration 
of  the  things  of  faith."  And  he  composed  the  Stromata,  which 
without  being  written  with  the  rigorous  method  of  8.  Thomas,  are 
nevertheless  a  first  essay  of  Christian  philosophy.  Now  it  is  a 
sign  of  force  and  often  of  impending  victory  for  ideas,  when 
philosophy  takes  them  up  and  supplies  the  general  formula  for 
them. 

V. — The  Hierarchy  and  Discipline. 

While  the  Church  was  establishing  order  in  its  internal  life, 
it  had  been  led  by  the  very  nature  of  its  propaganda  to  adopt  for 
its  external  life  an  organization  to  which  the  strongest  political 
conceptions  have  never  approached. 

The  Christian  communities  of  the  earliest  days  did  not  possess 
any  more  disciplinary  institutions  than  they  had   sacraments;    each 

*  See  in  the  third  volume  of  the  AncUecta  Ante-Nicaana  of  Bunsen,  the  fragments  of  the 
most  ancient  liturgies.  The  first  which  it  cites  (p.  21)  was  used  at  Alexandria  in  the  time  of 
Origen ;  and  Bunsen  does  not  think  that  it  can  be  referred  back  further  than  the  middle  of  the 
second  century. 

^  KaravoTjetafUV  rodf  (TTpariVOfikvovQ  roif  riyovfikvotg  rifiwv  iirrdicrutQ  jrut  tUovrag  (S.  Clement, 
ad  Corinth.,  37). 


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THE   CHURCH    AT   THE    BEGINNIJJG   OF   THE   THIRD   CENTURY.  179 

one  organized  itself  after  its  own  will.      In   the   time    of   &•   Paul 

numbers  of  brethren   were   allowed  to  assume   an   office   or   a   title 

in  order  to  retain  a  greater  number  by  the  gratification  of  a  voiy 

human   sentiment,  the  wish  to   be   classed    apart.      We   know  how 

fond  the  fraternities,  the  cities,  and  the  whole  Roman  society  were 

of  this  hierarchal  order.^     **God,"  says  8.  Paul,  "hath  set  some  in 

the  Church,  first  apostles, 

secondly  prophets,  thirdly 

teachers,     then     miracles, 

then     gifts     of     healings, 

helps,  governments,  divers 

kinds  of  tongues."^     This 

strange     confusion     could 

not      last.       The      Greek 

cities     had     emV/roTro*     or 

overseers,  a  kind  of  eediles, 

whose   duties  the  Digest^ 

defines     as     *' those    who 

have  charge  of  the  bread 

and     food."        The     first 

Christian      communities 

-  ,  ,  The  Apostles  S.  Peter  and  S.  Paul.' 

seem    to    have     borrowed 

this  municipal  function  and  its  name/  At  their  head,  to  preside 
over  their  meetings,  they  placed  the  one  most  venerable  by  age  or 
sanctity,  the  elder,  the  irpea^vrepo^.  Gradually  the  overseer,  who 
had  the  principal  active  duties,  rose  above  the  elder,  who  possessed 
only  the  dignity,  or  rather,  the  two  functions  became  confounded, 
in  some  places  from  the  very  first  and  elsewhere  later.  8.  Paul 
had  overseers  or  elders  and  deacons  elected  in  all  the  churches 
which  he  instituted;    at  the   end   of  the  first   century  8.  Clement," 

'  Vol.  V.  chap.  Ixxxiii.  "  The  City." 
'  1  Cor,,  xii.  28. 
'  1.  4, 18,  §  7. 

*  After  a  gilded  glass  of  the  catacombs  (fourth  century).     (Roller,  pi.  Ixxix.  No.  6.) 

*  This  is  the  opinion  of  several  theologians,  and  it  is  probably  correct.  Cf.  Waddington, 
Inscr.  de  Syrie,  p.  474.  We  even  find  iiriaicowoi  in  the  Greek  fraternities  (see  Wescher,  Revue 
archSol.y  April,  1866).  The  episcopal  cross  is  similar  to  the  lituus  of  the  Roman  augur.  Has  it 
been  borrov^red  from  it,  or  does  it  come  from  the  shepherd's  crook  ?  From  both  doubtless,  but 
rather  from  the  latter. 

*  AcUy  XX.  17,  28 ;  Titus,  i.  5,  7 ;  1  Tim.,  iii.  2,  8;  S.  Clement,  ad  Cor.,  42 ;  Polycarp,  ad 
Philipp.,  6 ;  S.  Jerome,  Comment,  in  I'itum :  idem  est  presbyter  qui  et  episcopus  .... 

N2 


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180  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

in  the  middle  of  the  second,  8.  Polycarp^  and  S.  Justin,^  as  yet 
knew  only  these  two  orders;  but  the  number  of  the  believers 
increasing,  that  of  the  ministers  of  the  religion  augmented,  and 
differences  became  noted.  Besides,  it  was  necessary  to  oppose  to 
the  heresies  which  were  multiplying,  a  discipline,  that  is  to  say, 
a  concentration  of  authority.  In  the  time  of  Severus  the  important 
Christian  fraternities  had  a  bishop  representing  the  unity  of 
spiritual  government,  priests  for  the  religious  oflSces,  deacons  for 
the  service  of  the  temple ;  all  united  to  form  the  clergy  or  ^*  the 
side  of  the  Lord.'' 

These  offices  were  elective.  The  elders  chose  the  episcopus^ 
whom  they  presented  to  the  brethren,  and  whom  the  latter  con- 
firmed in  their  office  by  acclamation.  They  also  confirmed,  by  the 
raising  of  hands,  the  designation  of  priests  and  deacons  made  by 
the  bishop.  By  this  it  is  evident  that,  though  the  consent  of  the 
community  was  necessary,  the  real  election  depended  on  the  chief 
persons.  In  this  way,  order,  indispensable  to  regular  life,  replaced 
the  disorder  of  the  early  times.  The  same  necessities  which  had 
educed  from  the  multitude  of  evangelical  writings  the  canon  of  the 
Scriptures,  the  rule  of  faith,  had  insensibly  led  to  the  establish- 
ment in  the  midst  of  each  Christian  community  of  the  hierarchy 
or  administration,  as  it  will  afterwards  lead  to  the  constitution  of 
the  general  government  of  the  Church.  It  was  in  the  logic  of 
facts,  and  we  cannot  see  how  it  could  have  been  otherwise.  With- 
out this  discipline,  there  would  have  been  no  catholicity. 

As  tradition  plays  an  important  part  in  the  Church,  the  old 
bishops  were  supposed  to  transmit  it  to  the  new;  hence  the  con- 
secration of  the  bishop-elect  by  a  bishop  of  the  vicinity,  and  the 
gradual  formation  of  ecclesiastical  provinces.  "The  bishop,"  says 
the  fourth  c^on  of  the  Council  of  Nicaea,  "should  be  ordained  by 
three  bishops." 

One  of  the  oldest  rights  of  Home,  and  we  may  say  one 
most  dear  to  the  Eoman  population,  the  liberty  of  forming 
fraternities    and    societies,    favoured   the   first    organization    of   the 

*  Ad  Car.,  42. 

*  Ep,  ad  Philipp.,  5, 6.  In  the  Pastor  of  Hermas  there  is  also  no  trace  of  an  episcopate. 
Mention  is  indeed  found,  in  the  letters  of  8.  Ignatius,  of  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons ;  but  the 
different  texta  of  these  documents  give  rise  to  too  many  discussions  to  admit  of  producing  them 
as  unobjectionable  testimony. 


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THE   CHURCH   AT  THE   BEGINNING   OF   THE   THIRD   CENTURY.         181 

churches.^     By  taking  the  form  of  burial  associations,  the  Christians 
were  enabled  to    organize    under  the  protection  of  the    law,   into 
communities  having  the  character  of  a  civil  person,  that  is,  with 
the  right  to  receive  legacies  or  donations  or  the  monthly  contribu- 
tions   of    their    members.      The    Mosaic    law    had    assured  to   the 
Levites  the   tenth  of  all  the  products  of  the 
earth;   the  Eoman  usage   gave  a  new  force 
to  the  Hebrew  custom,   and,   as  the    syna- 
gogues of  the  whole   Empire  formerly  sent 
their  gifts  each  year  to  the  temple  of  Jeru- 
salem, the  believers  made  their  offering  to 
the  church  every  month.    Many,  S.  Cyprian, 
for  instance,  sold  their  property  and  remitted 
the  price  of  it  to  the  bishop.     That  of  Eome 
received     from     a    single    person     200,000 
sesterces,  and  that  of  Carthage  was  able  to 
employ  half  that    sum    for  the    ransom    of 
Christian    captives    carried    away    by    the 
Moors.'* 

Each  church  then  had  a  revenue  which    ABwhop.  (Martigny,  i>tc^ 

111.  .-.I  11  /«.        1  des  Ant.  chrSt.) 

enabled  it  to  aid  the  poor  and  the  afflicted, 

to  meet  the  expenses  of  worship  and  of  the  repasts  in  common, 
the  offapcPy  at  which  the  priests,  like  the  officers  of  the  pagan 
societies,  received  for  their  maintenance  a  double  portion ; '  even 
to  acquire  funds  to  establish  a  common  cemetery  and  to  hold 
meetings  there  at  night.^ 

^  The  right  of  asflociation  was,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Gains  (Digest,  xlyiii.  22,  4) 
formaUy  recognized  by  the  Twelve  Tables :  CollegiiSf  it  said,  potestatem  facit  Ux  (xii.  Tab.) 
pactianem  quam  veJmt  nbiferre  dum  ne  quid  ex  pvblica  lege  corrumpant.  See  vol.  v.  pp.  888  et 
seq.  Roman  society  had  so  great  a  liking  for  these  associations  that  it  formed  them  even  in  the 
camps,  in  spite  of  an  erpresi  inhibition  by  Severus. 

*  Tertullian,  de  Prater,,  80 ;  S.  Cyprian,  Ep.,  60.  His  letter.  No.  65,  and  that  of  Pope 
Cornelius,  ad  Fab.,  show  that  the  area  of  the  churches  began  to  have  considerable  resources. 
Even  at  this  time  some  of  the  bishops  misused  them.    Cf.  S.  Cyprian,  de  Lapns, 

'  On  the  duplicares,  see  vol.  v.  p.  402;  S.  Paul  had  recommended  this  custom  (1  Tim., 
y.  17-18),  and  Tertullian  {de  Jefun,,  17)  recalls  it :  duplex  honor  hinis  partibus  president' 
ibut  deputabatMr,  The  confessors  were  often  honoured  with  a  sacerdotal  gift.  (S.  Cyprian, 
Ep.,  84.)  The  agapa  and  the  Supper,  at  first  united,  mptaicbv  iiiTrvov  (1  Cor,,  xi.  20),  were 
separated  at  an  early  date.  At  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  S.  Monica  still  brought 
to  the  church  bread  and  wine,  after  the  African  custom.  S.  Ambrose  forbade  her 
doing  it. 

*  Tertullian,  Apol.,  3d-40.    Certain  slaves  even  claimed  that  with  these  funds  they  might 


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182  THE    AFlilCAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180    TO    235   A.D. 

The  cemetery  of  Callistus,  in  which  so  many  popes  were 
interred,  was  already  in  existence  at  Kome  along  the  Appian  Way, 
and  Alexander  Severus  adjudged  to  the  Christians  an  estate  which 
the  pagans  had  contested  with  them.  The  ecclesiastical  property 
commenced  then  to  be  constituted,  as  had  been  that  of  the  pagan 


The  Agapte/ 

temples,  by  donations.      At  this  moment  it  was  very  small,  but  it 
was  one  day  to  become  very  large. 

Later  on,  the  Church  will  again  make  use  of  the  convenient 
mould  of  the  imperial  administration,  and  will  be  able  to  fill  it. 
The  civitas  with  its  vast  territory  will  form  the  diocese,  and  the 
civil  metropolis  will  become  the  religious :  the  archbishop  will 
succeed  to  the  flamen  who  brought  to  the  altar  of  Rome  and 
Augustus  the  prayers  and  votive  offerings  of  the  entire  province ; 
finally,  the  basilica  will  serve  as   a   church,   and   we   yet  preserve 

purchase  their  freedom.     M^  ipavunrav  dirb  rov  koivov  iXivOipovoBai  (S.  Ignatius,  ad  Polyc.y  2) 
On  the  Christian  cemeteries  of  Rome,  see  the  fine  work  of  M.  de  Rossi,  Roma  sotterranea. 

^  After  a  painting  of  the  close  of  the  third  century  or  commencement  of  the  fourth,  in  the 
cemetery  of  Peter  and  Marcellinus  on  the  Via  Labicana.     (Th.  Roller,  op.  rif.,  pi.  liii.  fig.  1.) 


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Crypt  of  Popo  S.  Cornelius,  in  the  Cemetery  of  Callistiis  (Second  Century). 
(Roller,  ibid.,  pi.  xxx.  1.) 


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THE   CHURCH    AT   THE   BEGINNING   OF   THE   THIRD   CENTURY.  185 

in   thousands   of  places  the   Eoman   usage   of    keeping  the   women 
separate  from  the  men.^ 

The   societies  which  were  so  numerous   in  the  provinces  had 
preserved  the   GraBCo-Koman  notion   of    popular  power,   which   the 


Bafiilica  of  S.  Laurence  without  the  WaUs,  at  Rome. 

Empire  had  abandoned  in  fact  if  not  in  law — everything  was  done 
in  them  by  voting.  The  Church  followed  this  usage,  which  was  in 
the  apostolic  tradition,*  and  this  popular  election  was  termed  the 
voice   of   God,   vox  Dei}      Alexander    Severus    was    so    struck   by 

^  In  the  upper  galleries  of  the  basilicas  the  men  were  on  one  side,  the  women  on  the  other. 
(Pliny,  EpUt.,  vi.  33.) 

^  When  the  apostles  founded  the  first  ecclesiastical  office,  the  diaconate,  S.  Peter  said  to 
those  present  {ActSfy'i,  3) :  "Look  ye  out  therefore,  brethren,  from  among  you  seven  men  .  .  ." 
See  in  vol.  viii.  of  the  Histoire  eocUsuutique  of  Fleury,  the  Disciwrs  mr  Vhistoire  des  six 
premiers  sikcles  de  Vtlglisef  §§  v.  and  vi. 

'  ISmftvioKttaaofiQ  iKicKfielac  ir6<nig  (S.  Clement,  ad  Cor.,  44).  ^ri^tfi  rov  \aov  wavrSs  (S. 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  Orat,,  24).  See  the  election  of  Fabian  at  Rome,  under  Gordian  (Eusebius, 
Hist,  eccl.,  vi.  20),  and  that  of  Cyprian  at  Carthage.  Yet  at  the  end  of  the  second  century  the 
election  was  modified  and  the  powers  of  the  bishop  were  extended.  When  the  priest  Novatus 
appointed  a  deacon,  S.  Cyprian,  his  bishop,  accused  him  of  usurpation  (£!p.,  52).    As  in  the 


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186  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

the  advantages  of  this  system  that  he  for  a  moment  thought  of 
establishing  it  for  the  imperial  administration.^  In  the  civil  order 
the  election  ended  all,  at  least  unless  the  law  recognized  the  right 
of  the  prince  to  approve  or  reject;  in  the  (Tiurch  another  act 
intervened,  the  laying-on  of  hands,  which  transmitted  to  the  elect 
spiritual  powers.^  This  rite,  indispensable  in  order  that  the  election 
should  have  its  religious  effect,  must  have  from  the  time  of  its 
inception  reduced  the  vote  of  the  believers  to  a  simple  adherence 
given  by  them  to  the  choice  which  the  elders  had  prepared  and 
which  they  recommended. 

Another  essential  difference :  the  elections  in  the  civil  society 
were  annual;  those  of  the  Church  conferred  by  the  episcopal  con- 
secration a  permanent  character.  Thus  this  democratic  society  took 
upon  itself  an  aristocracy  which  changed  its  members  very  slowly; 
the  conservative  element  was  placed  above  the  varying  element, 
and  the  Church  had  the  chief  advantage  of  hereditary  govern- 
ments, duration,  without  possessing  its  inconveniencies :  one  great 
bishop  might  be  replaced  by  another  greater  than  he.  But  this 
aristocracy  did  not  enjoy  a  power  without  control.  As  the  duumvir 
was,  in  a  certain  measure,  dependent  on  the  curia,  the  bishop 
administered  with  the  council  of  the  priests,^  and  these  assisted 
him  in  deciding  the  questions  which  the  members  submitted  to 
him/ 

All  associations  which  are  formed  outside  of  public  duties  and 
against  them  are  compelled  to  constitute  themselves  judges  of 
their   own   members.      The   membership  of   the  Church,  those  who 

pagan  clergy,  certain  corporeal  defect*  excluded  from  the  priesthood.    See,  in  Socrates  (Hist, 
eccl.f  iv.  23),  the  story  of  the  monk  Ammon  who  cuts  off  one  ear  to  escape  the  episcopate. 
'  Lamp.,  Alex.  Sev.,  40. 

*  ActSf  xiv.  22 :  x<(f>oroi/^iravrEC  «  avroii  tear  lKK\r}<Tiav  irpKriivripovg,  and  ibid.f  vi.  6 ;  viii. 
17  ;  ix.  17.     The  imposition  of  hands  was  an  old  Jewish  usage. 

^  .  .  .  .  et  antequtam  diaboH  instinctu  Hudia  in  religione  fierent  ....  communi  pres- 
hyterorum  cormlio  ecclema  gvhemabantur.  Postquam  vero  unusqtUsque  eos  quos  baptizaverat 
8UOS  puteUxU  esse,  non  Christi,  in  toto  orbe  decretum  est  ut  unus  de  presbyteris  electus  super- 
poneretur  ceteris,  ad  quern  omnis  ecclesiee  cura  pertineret  et  schismatum  semina  toUerentur. 
(S.  Jerome,  ad  Tit.,  c.  1,  p.  694,  ed.  of  1737,  and  Ep.,  85,  or  101  in  the  edition  of  the  Bene- 
dictines, vol.  i\.  p.  803.)  He  there  describes  the  ancient  state  of  the  Church  at  Alexandria: 
....  Ale.vandri<pf  a  Marco  evanyelista  usque  ad  Ileradein  et  Dionj/sium  episcopos^  presbyteri 
semper  uniim  e.r  se  electum  in  crcelsiori  yradu  collocatum  episcopum  nominabantj  quonwdo  si 
exercitus  imperatorem  faciat.  These  words  are  confirmed  by  the  patriarch  Eutychius,  Ann., 
vol.  i.  p.  330. 

*  Constitut.  Apost.,  ii.  46. 


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THE   CHURCH   AT  THE   BEGINNING   OF   THE   THIRD   CENTURY.         187 

designated  the  officers  of  the  churches  and  received  the  confession 
of  the  penitent,  also  decided  who  should  be  saints,  without  all  the 
formalities  required  in  following  centuries  for  canonization.  The 
veneration  with  which  it  surrounded  the  tomb  where  reposed  the 
remains  of  its  heroes  was  afterwards  sufficient  to  obtain  admission 
to  the  register  of  martyrs.^ 

Between  the  primitive  churches  there  was  an  interchange  of 
counsels,  and  sometimes  "  a  mutual  and  salutary  admonition."  ^  If 
they  had  not  gone  further,  we  should  have  had  a  number  of 
Christian  communities,  which  would  not  have  composed  a  Chui-ch, 
just  as  a  multitude  of  republics  do  not  make  a  State.  But  with 
the  dogma  of  the  revealed  law  and  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  transmitted  "by  the  laying  on  of  hands,"  it  was  con- 
sequently necessary  that  the  apostles  should  be  considered  as 
having  conununicated  to  their  successors  "the  certain  grace  of  the 
truth."  These  were  accordingly  held  to  be  the  depositaries  of  the 
oral  tradition  which  granted  permission  to  interpret  and  extend 
written  tradition,  that  is,  to  preserve  in  the  bosom  of  the  Church 
a  principle  of  development,  as  do  those  constitutions  in  our  day 
which  declare  themselves  subject  to  revision,  or  those  governments 
in  which  legislative  action  is  continually  modifying  the  ancient 
order  in  accordance  with  new  requirements.  What  our  politicians 
call  reason  the  Church  calls  the  Holy  Spirit;  it  is  the  same  thing, 
with  this  difference,  the  one  counsels  and  the  other  commands. 

All  the  bishops  had  at  that  time  an  equal  right,'  and  they 
were  very  numerous,  because  every  community  desired  to  have  its 
own.  This  power  would  only  have  been  a  cause  of  division,  had 
not    the    necessity   of  concerted    action   and  mutual  understanding 

^  The  absence  of  this  canonization  is  one  of  the  arguments  employed  by  Pope  Benedict  XIV. 
((EupreSf  vi.  pp.  119-126)  in  refusing  to  Clement  of  Alexandria  the  title  of  saint. 

*  These  are  the  words  of  S.  Clement  (ad  Cor,,  56)  :  'H  vovOen}<rcc  f^v  wotov/uOa  iic  oXX^Xoi/c 
KaXi)  l<mv.  These  letters  touch  upon  all  kinds  of  subjects,  and  were  often  written  in  the  name 
of  the  entire  community,  without  the  intervention  of  an  elder  or  a  bishop ;  as,  for  instance,  the 
beautiful  letter  of  the  Christians  of  Lyons  to  their  brethren  in  Asia  Minor.    (See  vol.  v.  p.  226.) 

•  S.  Cyprian,  writing  to  Pope  Stephen  on  the  subject  of  the  bishops  of  Gallia  Narbonensis, 
says :  coepisoopi  nostri  (Ep.,  67) ;  and  in  his  letter  No.  72  we  read :  .  .  .  .  rum  legem  damus, 
quando  habeat  in  Ecclesus  administratione  voluntatis  stue  arbitrium  liberum  unusquisque  pree^ 
positus  rationem  actus  stU  Domino  redditurus.  See  also  the  words  used  by  S.  Cyprian  when 
inviting  the  Fathers  of  the  third  Council  of  Carthage  to  vote  with  absolute  freedom,  for  no  one 
of  them  thinks  of  being  an  episcopus  episcoporumf  and  is  not  inclined  to  impose  his  will  on  his 
colleagues,  words  which  certainly  were  an  allusion  to  the  pretensions  of  Stephen. 


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188  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

compelled  them  to  borrow  still  another  institution  from  the  Eoman 
society.  As  the  representatives  of  the  cities  assembled  in  the 
capital  of  the  province,  the  representatives  of  the  Christian  com- 
munities came  together  at  the  most  important  seat  of  the  religion; 
and  these  provincial  assemblies,  of  which  the  Empire  had  not 
known  how  to  take  advantage,^  made  the  fortune  of  the  Church. 
When  any  difficulty  arose,  the  bishops  assembled,  and  after  dis- 
cussion, decided  by  a  majority  of  the  votes  what  should  be  believed 
and  what  should  be  done.  Was  it  not  written  in  the  Gospel: 
''  For  where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  my  name, 
there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them"?  This  meant  that  the  decisions 
of  the  councils  were  inspired  by  the  Holy  Spirit.^  The  priests  and 
deacons,  admitted  along  with  the  bishops,*  gave  to  these  assemblies 
a  democratic  character,  which  is  a  great  power  for  those  who 
deliberate  upon  the  interests  of  a  newly-formed  society. 

This  institution,  destined  to  play  a  very  important  part, 
appeared  toward  the  close  of  the  second  century.  The  record  has 
been  preserved  of  only  two  assemblies  of  this  sort  before  the  time 
of  Severus,  and  of  two  others  during  his  reign,  unless  we  include 
those  of  the  year  196,  which  were  held  at  Kome,  in  Palestine,  in 
Pontus,  at  Corinth,  in  Mesopotamia,  etc.,^  to  fix  the  date  of 
Easter,  which  determined  the  epoch  of  many  Christian  festivals 
and  certain  religious  obligations.  In  the  following  generation 
8.  Cyprian  convoked  sixty  African  bishops  to  decree  measures  to 
be  taken  against  the  lapsi^  and  eighty-seven  to  decide  the  question 
of  the  baptism  of  heretics.*  This  new  and  superior  jurisdiction 
diminished  the  liberty  of  special  churches,  but  was  the  only  means 


*  See  vol.  iv.  pp.  43  et  seg.,  and  vol.  v.  p.  473. 

'  See  p.  166.  S.  Cyprian  writes  to  Pope  Cornelius  (Ep.f  64)  on  the  subject  of  the  council 
of  262 :  .  .  .  .  placuit  nobis,  sancto  Spiritu  suggerente,  Constantine  will  call  the  decisions  of 
the  synod  of  Aries :  ealeste  judicium,  and  will  add :  sacerdotum  judicium  ita  dfhet  haberi  ac  si 
ipse  Dammus  residens  judicet  (Hardouin,  Collect  ooncil,,  vol.  i.  p.  268).  Gregory  the  Great 
declared  the  authority  of  the  first  four  oecumenical  councils  equal  to  that  of  the  four  Gospels. 

'  Eusebius^  Hist,  eccl.,  vii.  30. 

*  See  rArt  de  verifier  les  dates,  and  Hefele,  ConciUengeschichte,  vol.  i.  pp.  69  et  seq.  It  is 
doubtless  to  these  synods  that  Tertullian  alludes  (de  J^'unOs,  13).  I  do  not  of  course  mention 
what  is  called  the  Council  of  Jerusalem,  between  the  years  60  and  62.  The  council  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Asia,  which  included  a  great  number  of  bishops,  differed  on  this  point  from  the 
opinion  of  Rome,  and  this  division  lasted  for  centuries.    (Fleury,  Hist,  eccl.,  vol.  i.  p.  618.) 

'  These  eighty-seven  bishops  belonged  to  proconsular  Africa,  Numidia,  and  Mauretania. 
This  council  appears  to  be  of  the  year  266. 


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THE   CHURCH   AT  THE   BEGINNING   OF   THE   THIRD   CENTURY.         189 

of  making  a  general  church.  In  the  fourth  century  the  Church 
will  progress  further  in  this  road,  which  led  to  unity  of  faith  and 
discipline;  it  will  institute  the  (Ecumenical  Councils,  which  will 
suppress  differences  between  the  provincial  councils,  as  they  had 
suppressed  differences  between  special  Christian  fraternities.^ 

Thus  the  Church  had  naturally,  by  the  conditions  of  its 
historical  development,  reached  the  point  where  it  took  upon  itself 
a  constitution  superior  to  that  of  pagan  society,  and  it  had  found 
the  chief  elements  of  this  in  the  remnant  of  the  liberties  which 
the  Empire  had  left  in  the  midst  of  the  towns  and  provinces. 
It  was  a  representative  democracy,  having  a  great  deal  of  vitality 
on  account  of  the  participation  of  the  people  in  affairs  of  common 
interest,  and  through  its  councils  great  power  of  cohesion.  The 
authority  of  the  episcopate,  which  increased  in  spite  of  local  resist- 
ance,* will  soon  augment  this  union. 

Certain  sees,  those  of  Alexandria,  of  Antioch,  and  of  Kome, 
enjoyed  a  special  consideration,  due  to  the  importance  of  the  cities 
where  they  were  established,  and  to  the  belief  that,  having  been 
founded  by  the  apostles,  tradition  had  in  those  localities  been  pre- 
served in  a  purer  form.  Eusebius,  in  his  Ecclesiastical  History^ 
gives  to  them  in  the  fourth  century  a  special  dignity  which  the 
Council  of  Nicaea  confirmed.  Although  as  yet  there  had  not  gone 
forth  from  the  Koman  Church  either  an  illustrious  theologian  or  any 
of  those  great  words  which  provoke  or  terminate  fiery  disputes,' 
they  must  naturally  have  been  led  to  recognize  a  primacy  of 
honour  in  the  bishop  of  the  capital  of  the  world,  in  the  see,  the 
only  one  in  all  the  West,  which  was  regarded  as  of  apostolic 
origin,  which  was  said  to  have  been  consecrated  by  the  blood  of 
Peter  and  of  Paul,  and  in  which  their  tombs  were  pointed  out. 
S.  Ignatius  of  Antioch,  under  Trajan,  in  his  letter  to  the  Christians 
of  Kome,  makes  no  allusion  to  the  special  power  of  their  bishop, 
and  if,   from   the   depths   of  their  prison,  the  confessors  of  Lyons 

'  The  term  CEcumeDical  Council  signifies  an  assemblage  of  the  bishops  of  the  whole 
habitable  earthy  but  for  a  long  while  the  limits  of  the  organized  Church  were  the  frontiers  of 
the  Empire. 

'  This  resistance  to  the  absorption  of  the  Church  by  the  bishop  was  doubtless  the  founda- 
tion of  the  struggles  of  FeUcissimus  against  Cyprian  and  of  Ilippolytus  against  Callistus. 

'  llie  Epistle  of  S.  Clement  to  the  Corinthians ^  and  the  Pastor,  said  to  be  by  Hermas, 
contain  nothing  dogmatic. 


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190  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

write  to  him  recommending  the  union  of  the  churches,  they  address 
the  same  recommendation  to  their  brethren  of  Asia:  words  of 
peace,  which  on  the  eve  of  suffering  the  martyrs  often  sent 
to  other  Christian  assemblies.  Towards  the  end  of  the  second 
century  the  inevitable  evolution  began.  The  transalpine  churches 
were  the  first  to  take  their  places  in  upholding  the  apostolic  see. 
S.  Ireneeus  recognized  in  it  a  certain  moral  superiority,^  while  at 
the  same  time  combating  the  opinion  of  the  bishop  of  Rome  in 
the  quarrel  which  he  maintained  with  the  churches  of  the  East. 
However,  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  first  half  of  the  third 
century,  notably  the  letters  of  Firmilianus  to  8.  Cyprian  against 
Pope  Stephen,^  of  the  bishop  of  Carthage  to  the  prelates  of  Numidia, 
and  those  of  the  bishops  who  vigorously  blamed  Pope  Victor  in 
the  affair  concerning  Easter,'  proves  that  no  doctrinal  pre-eminence 
was  as  yet  accorded  to  it.  Between  the  great  sees  there  are  grada- 
tions, but  no  subordination.  The  need  of  union  for  defence  will 
at  a  later  period  establish  a  disciplinary  hierarchy:  the  primacy 
of  honour  will  change  into  primacy  of  jurisdiction,  and  the  Pope^ 
will  have  an  empire  more  vast  than  that  of  the  emperors.  The 
centre  of  catholicity  cannot  be  elsewhere  than  at  the  tomb  of 
Christ    or    in    the     capital    of    the    world.      The    destruction    of 

*  .  .  .  .  propter  potiorem  prindpaUtateni  {Adv.  har.,  iii.  3).  S.  Cyprian  (EpisL,  55)  also 
calls  the  see  of  Rome,  Ecclesia  principalis.  Despite  the  famous  passage :  M  ravrg  ry  irhptf 
oUoSofArieij  fiov  rijv  UicKTiiyiavy  S.  Peter  did  not  enjoy  any  special  privilege  among  the  apostles. 
(Matt,  xvi.  18;  John,  xxi.  15-17.) 

^  Cyprian,  Epist.,  27,  55,  71.  Pirmilianus  was  bishop  of  Csesarea  in  Cappadocia ;  his 
vehement  letter  against  Stephen  touching  the  nullity  of  baptism  administered  by  heretics  or 
those  who  have  relapsed  into  error  is  found  ap»  Cypr,  Epist,  No.  75.  He  was  an  important 
personage  in  the  Eastern  Church:  Origen  sought  refuge  with  him  when  Bishop  Demetrius 
compelled  him  to  leave  Alexandria. 

'  wXriKTiKUTipov  KaOawTOfikvutv  rov  Bigropog  (Eusebius,  Hist.  eccL,  v.  24,  11).  If,  in  the 
affair  of  the  Novatians,  the  Pope  deposes  two  Italians,  it  is  as  metropolitan,  and  after  they  had 
been  condemned  by  a  synod  {ibid,,  vL  43). 

*  The  bishops,  even  the  clergy,  bore  this  title.  The  name  of  pope,  which  is  synonymous 
with  father,  was  not  attributed  exclusively  to  the  bishop  of  Rome  until  in  the  following 
centuries.  As  regards  universal  jurisdiction,  or,  as  ecclesiastical  writers  now  say,  primacy  of 
vigilance  and  inspection,  the  history  of  the  Church  in  the  third  century  does  not  warrant  the 
recognition  of  it  in  the  bishop  of  Rome,  and  a  long  time  will  yet  pass  before  it  is  found.  The 
emperors  Qratian,  Valentinian,  and  Theodosius,  having  desired  to  ^x  by  the  constitution  of  380 
(Cod,  Theod,,  xvi.  1,  2)  the  religion  of  their  people:  ctmctos  populos  .  ...  in  tali  volumus 
reliffione  versari,  give  them  as  a  rule  of  faith  that  of  the  bishops  of  Rome  and  of  Alexandria, 
who  are  thus  placed  in  the  same  rank.  The  constitution  of  421  (ibid.,  xvi.  2,  45)  records  that 
if,  in  lUyricum,  any  doubt  shall  arise  concerning  the  ancient  canons,  it  shall  be  referred  to  the 
bishop  of  the  city  of  Constantinople,  qua  veteris  Roma  prarogatipa  latatur. 


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THE    CHURCH    AT   THE    BKGTNNING    OF    THE   THIRD    CENTURY.  193 

Jerusalem  by  Titus  and  Hadrian  made  the  pontifical  fortune  of 
Rome. 

While  awaiting  this  supreme  achievement  of  the  hierarchy,  unity 
was  established,  thanks  to  the  constant  connection  of  the  Christian 
fraternities  among  themselves.  They  exchanged  the  letters  of  the 
bishops,  the  canons  of  councils,  and  the  churches  who  accepted 
them  were  by  that  act  alone  recognized  as  ''in  communion"  with 
those  who  had  sent  them.  Union  appearing  to  be  a  necessity  for 
salvation,  concessions  were  made  on  points  of  secondary  importance, 
so  as  to  avoid  divisions  which  would  have  rendered  them  exposed 
to  perils  greater  than  persecution;  hence  the  changes  which,  im- 
posed by  circumstances,  were  carried  into  effect,  were,  in  addition, 
the  logical  development  of  the  primitive  doctrine  and  discipline. 
Thus  the  Catholic  Church  was  formed  of  itself,  little  by  little, 
through  the  union  of  particular  churches.  About  the  middle  of  the 
third  century  a  man  of  authority  and  of  government,  S.  Cyprian, 
will  present  the  formulary  of  this  union  in  a  treatise  on  the  Unity 
of  the  Churchy  in  which  he  will  assert  that  the  Christian  societies 
ought  to  remain  in  communion  among  themselves  and  with  the 
apostolic  see,  which  is  the  centre  of  catholicity. 

"  The  primacy,"  he  says,  "  was  given  to  Peter  to  show  that 
there  is  but  one  Church,  but  the  apostles  were  what  Peter  was. 
The  episcopate  is  one,  and  all  the  bishops  are  pastors;  they  have 
but  one  flock.  The  Church  likewise  is  one,  and  it  is  diffused  by 
its  fruitfulness  into  seveml  persons."  The  chair  of  Rome  then  is 
in  his  eyes  the  sign  and  not  the  rule  of  the  unity,  which  was  to 
him  the  result  of  the  common  conciuTence  of  all  the  members. 
The  needs,  and  the  ideas  to  which  these  needs  gave  rise,  did  not 
at  that  time  require  a  greater  concentration  of  spiritual  authority. 

Of  all  these  new  things,  the  most  important  in  its  historical 
consequences  was  the  formation  of  a  class  of  men  not  before  in 
existence,  except  perhaps  in  the  interior  of  the  Hindostanee  penin- 
sula. By  the  celibacy  which  came  to  be  imposed  upon  him,  the 
Christian  priest  will  become  a  new  being  in  creation,  as,  by 
spiritual  consecration,  which  neither  civil  authority  nor  popular 
election  could  give,  he  becomes  a  man  apart  in  society.  But  the 
renunciation  of  the  conditions  of  human  nature  will  acquire  for 
him   a   special    force,    which    was    added    to    the    religious    power 

VOL.  VI.  o 


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194  THE   AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    236   A.D. 

that  assured  to  him  the  right  to  remit  sins  and  to  bring  down 
God  upon  the  earth  in  the  sacriflce  of  the  altar.  These  priests 
will  most  frequently  be  good  men,  of  an  angelio  purity,  and  with 
a  devotion  equal  to  any  sacrifice ;  but  sometimes  also  they  will  be 
men  of  pride  such  as  to  set  their  feet  on  the  necks  of  kings. 
Hence  they  will  become  formidable  to  civil  society,  because,  being 
placed  outside  of  it,  they  will  constitute  a  great  sacerdotal  body, 
which  will  desire,  and,  by  virtue  of  its  doctrines,  will  be  compelled 
to  seek  by  every  means  to  prevail  over  society. 

There  was  then  about  to  be  introduced  into  the  Western  world 
a  condition  that  was  the  opposite  of  what  Eome  had  known  and 
practised  for  ten  centuries:  the  separation  of  the  clergy  and  the 
laity,  of  the  Church  and  the  State.  In  the  Graeco-Koman  world 
the  union  of  the  believer  with  the  divinity  was  directly  realized : 
the  father  of  the  family  was  the  priest  of  its  gods.  The  Christian 
will  need  an  intermediate  to  enter  into  communion  with  hid.  This 
produces  a  diminution  of  the  individual  dignity  of  the  believer, 
while  the  authority  of  the  body  exclusively  devoted  to  religious 
service  is  singularly  increased  by  it.  Bound  to  the  priestly 
office  for  their  entire  existence,  by  their  faith  and  by  their 
interests,  since  they  live  by  the  altar,^  these  men  consecrated 
their  activity,  their  genius,  their  holiness,  and  sometimes  their  blood, 
to  the  aggrandisement  of  the  Church.  And  as  it  is  in  the  nature 
of  every  corporate  body  to  work  unremittingly  to  extend  its  influ- 
ence and  its  privileges,  the  establishment  of  the  clergy,  such  as  it 
has  been  now  described,  assured  to  the  Church  a  formidable  army, 
which  at  the  outset  prevented  it  from  perishing  and  afterwards 
rendered  it  victorious.  Never  did  praetorian  guard,  in  the  best 
sense  of  the  word,  render  to  his  prince  so  great  service  as  the 
Church  has  received  fi*om  the  sacerdotal  corps.  The  repository  of 
religious  doctrine  and  of  moral  truth,  it  has  defended  the  one 
according  to  the  times,  with  the  spirit  of  gentleness,  of  sacrifice, 
or  of  unpitying  hardness;  but  it  has  preserved  the  other  in  the 
darkest  days  of  history,  and  still  teaches  it. 

Thus    the   Church   developed    harmoniously    its    two-fold    life, 

^  A  Christian  community  of  Rojie,  which,  in  the  time  of  Pope  Zephyrinus  and  the 
emperor  Severus,  wished  to  have  its  especial  bishop,  assured  him  150  denarii  per  month. 
(Eusebius,  Hist,  eccl.f  v.  2t).) 


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THE   CHURCH   AT   THE   BEGINNING    OF   THE   THIRD    CENTURY.  195 

doctrinal  and  disciplinary.  One  thing  alone  diminished  in  it :  the 
virtue  of  the  miracle.  In  proportion  as  it  had  been  extended  to 
a  greater  number,  it  had  lost  that  power  which,  to  be  admitted, 
has  need  of  remoteness  in  time  and  space.  The  faith  of  the 
simple  had  filled  with  marvellous  deeds  the  history  of  the  early 
days.  S.  Irengeus  still  believed  "that  the  genuine  disciples  of 
Christ  could  deliver   those   possessed,  foretell   the   future,    heal   the 


Resurrection  of  the  Daughter  of  Jairus.^ 

sick  and  raise  the  dead."*  The  doctors  of  the  present  age  no 
longer  beheld  these  wonders,  while  still  believing  that  they  might 
see  them,  and  Origen  bears  witness  to  the  impairing  of  the  divine 
gift  when  he  only  dares  to  speak  of  "  the  vestiges  of  them  which 
exist  among  the  Christians.''  Let  a  half  century  pass,  and  we 
shall  hear  the  bishop  of  Caesarea  acknowledge  sadly  that  these  very 
vestiges  have  disappeared.* 

^  From  a  mutilated  sarcophagus.  Four  different  scenes  follow  in  succession  on  this  bas- 
relief.  1st,  on  the  left,  Moses  striking  the  rock ;  2nd,  adoration  of  Christ  by  four  persons, 
among  whom  two  are  weeping  and  veiling  their  faces ;  3rd,  the  resurrection  of  the  daughter  of 
the  chief  of  the  synagogue  of  Capernaum ;  4th,  Christ  st.anding  with  his  right  hand  raised. 
This  latter  part  is  incomplete.  (E.  Le  Blant,  J^tude  mr  les  sarcophagea  chr4tiens  antiques  de  la 
ville  (T Aries,  pi.  xvii.  and  p.  28.) 

^  Tertullian  (de  Speet,,  29)  recognized  also  in  Christians  the  power  to  drive  out  demons, 
to  perform  miraculous  cures,  and  to  receive  divine  revelations.  But  when  the  interlocutor  of 
S.  Theophilus  of  Antioch  demands  for  his  conversion  that  the  bishop  should  show  him  a  dead 
person  raised  to  life,  Theophilus  replies  to  him  (ad  Autolycum,  i.  8) :  "  Do  as  the  labourer  who 
sows  before  he  harvests,  as  the  voyager  and  the  sick  who  believe,  the  one  in  the  pilot  before 
arriving  in  port,  the  other  in  the  physician  before  recovering  his  health ; "  and  be  is  indeed 
right :  belief  in  miracles  requires  a  special  disposition  of  mind ;  a  man  believes  in  them,  not 
because  he  sees  them,  but  because  he  thinks  he  sees  them.  This  is  the  very  expression  of  the 
bishop :  "  It  is  necessary  to  believe  in  order  to  see." 

'  Origen,  Contra  Celsum,  i.  2 ;  Eusebiua,  Hist.  eccL,  v.  7. 

02 


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196  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

In  contrast  with  the  strong  organization  of  the  Church  should 
be  placed  the  weakness  of  the  imperial  clergy.  The  bishops,  chiefs 
of  Christian  communities,  are  judges  for  heaven,  judges  also  for 
earth,  for  the  brethren  acquire  the  habit  of  submitting  to  them  the 
differences  which  arise  between  them.  The  pagan  priests,  mere 
masters  of  ceremonies  in  the  religious  solemnities,  had  neither  vast 
domains  and  appropriate  revenues,  as  the  Church  will  possess  when 
it,  in  its  turn,  will  have  to  combat  innovators,  nor  jurisdiction 
which  might  give  them  subjects,  nor  public  teaching  which  would 
assure  them  believers;  and  paternal  authority,  by  closing  to  them 
the  interior  of  the  family,  kept  the  women  and  children  out  of 
their  influence.  The  old  clergy  was  therefore  incapable  of  con- 
tending with  the  new.  The  attack  was  admirably,  the  defence 
very  poorly,  conducted.  Shouts  of  the  populace  and  sentences  to 
death,  that  is,  acts  of  violence,  are  not  sufficient,  to  hinder  the 
expansion  of  a  religion  which,  born  of  the  spirit,  could  have  been 
arrested  or  restrained  only  by  the  spirit. 


V. — The  Heresies. 

Armed  with  its  canonical  books  and  its  ardent  faith,  sustained 
by  its  hierarchy,  and  fortified  by  its  discipline,  the  Church  marched 
on  slowly  but  surely  to  the  conquest  of  the  world.  To  the  anarchy 
of  doctrines  it  opposed  the  simplicity  of  its  dogma ;  to  the  freedom 
of  philosophy,  the  unity  of  its  spirit;  and  it  cast  out  of  its  fold 
those  who,  in  the  common  Credo^  sought  "to  make  their  selection."^ 

The  narratives  of  the  Gospels  and  the  doctrinal  exhortations,  of 
the  Epistles  had  sufficed  for  the  simple  men  whom  the  Church 
recruited  in  the  first  century.  But  when,  in  the  second,  the 
faith  reached  cultivated  minds,  these  desired  to  co-ordinate  their 
beliefs  and  solve  by  the  processes  of  the  schools  the  questions 
which  they  involved.  Then  was  produced,  in  the  solutions  of 
religious  problems,  the  same  diversity  that  we  have  elsewhere  seen 
in  philosophical  solutions.  Many  said,  like  the  Clement  of  the 
Christian   romance   of   the  Recognitions:    "I  am  sick  in  soul,"  and 

*  Heretic  signifies  in  Greek,  the  one  who  choose**. 


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THE   CHURCH   AT  THE   BEGINI^ING   OF   THE   THIEB   CENTURY.         197 

sought  by  the  most  diverse  ways  a  remedy  for  these  sufferings  of 
the  spirit,  which  are  the  most  agonizing. 

The  Christian  sects  indeed  drew  their  inspiration  from  the 
same  book,  but  this  book  admitted  of  a  thousand  different  inter- 
pretations, and  the  prophecy  of  Simeon  was  fulfilled:  "Behold,  this 
child  is  set  ...  .  for  a  sign  which  is  spoken  against."^  Even 
after  the  Council  of  Nicsea  S.  John  Chrysostom  will  say :  "  The 
mysteries  of  Scripture  are  like  the  pearls  which  fishermen  go  and 
search  for  in  the  depths  of  the  sea.  It  is  difficult  to  penetrate  its 
meaning,  still  more  difficult  for  all  to  comprehend  it  in  the  same 
manner.^^^  Infinite  was,  accordingly,  the  number  of  solutions  pro- 
posed, and  each  found  ready  to  accept  it  some  of  those  men 
whom  S.  James  describes  carried  about  with  every  wind  of  doctrine. 
There  were  few  great  Christian  communities  whose  bishop  was  not 
obliged  to  refuse  the  kiss  of  peace  to  men  who  presumed  to  discuss 
their  faith. 

The  author  of  the  Philosophumetia  enumerates  thirty-two 
heresies.^  "  Under  the  fire  of  persecution  they  swarmed,"  says 
Tertullian,  "like  scorpions  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile  under  the 
burning  rays  of  the  summer  sun."  We  must  leave  to  writers  of 
religious  history  the  study  of  these  subtle  discussions  and  of  these 
bold  and  rash  writers  who  have  expended  in  behalf  of  humanity 
so  much  intelligence  and  time  in  vainly  sounding  the  unfathomable. 
It  will  be  sufficient  for  us  to  say  that  two  principal  categories  of 
these  undisciplined  believers  have  been  made,  in  which  one  passes 
by  insensible  shades  from  almost  complete  orthodoxy  to  absolute 
contradiction  of  a  fundamental  dogma :  the  heretics  of  interpreta- 
tion^ who  changed  the  meaning  or  the  text  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
the  heretics  of  inspiration^  who  preached  another  law.  Even  in 
the  time  of  the  apostles,  Cerinthus  had  regarded  Jesus  as  a  man; 
a  little  later,  Ebion — or  at  leeist  the  Ebionites — had  held  him  to 
have  been  bom  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  granting  that  he  had  by  his 
virtue  merited  the  descending  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  him.  Those 
tenacious   doctrines,   found   in   the   second   century   in   the   singular 


'  S.  Luke,  ii.  34 :  Ecce  positus  est  ....  in  signum  rut  contradtcetur. 

*  I£o7n.  xiv.,  on  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis. 

*  In  the  fourth  century  S.  Epiphanius  will  reckon  sixty,  and  Themistius  say  that  the 
Greeks  have  three  hundred  different  opinions  on  the  divinity.     (Socrates,  Hist,  eccl.y  iv.  32.) 


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198  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

book  of  the  Recognitions  and  in  the  Pastor  of  Hermas,  had  just 
been  renewed  by  Artomon  and  Theodotus  of  Byzantium.  A  bishop 
of  Antioch,  Paul  of  Samosata,  will  soon  take  them  up  again,  and 
they  will  culminate  in  the  great  heresy  of  Arius.  Now,  to  deny 
the  divinity  of  Christ,  or,  like  the  Docetse,  to  reject  his  humanity, 
was  to  undermine  the  foundation  of  the  new  religious  edifice. 
Again,  it  was  shaken,  if,  with  Praxeas  and  Sabellius,  the  Son  was 
confounded  with  the  Father;  but  to  assume,  as  Montanus  did,  the 
character  of  prophet,  was  to  change  its  ordinances  and  expose  it 
to  aU  the  tempests  raised  by  the  zealous  mystics.  With  one  party, 
no  more  religion,  since  the  great  mystery  of  God  made  man  dis- 
appeared; with  the  other,  no  more  organization,  that  is,  no  more 
force  constantly  acting  in  the  same  direction,  since  the  spirit 
^'bloweth  where  it  listeth,"  consequently,  no  more  doctrinal  unity, 
no  more  Church  universal. 

This  latter  variety  of  heresy  was  especially  formidable,  because 
among  the  Christians  it  was  constantly  held  that  the  gift  of  pro- 
phecy, while  it  had  become  enfeebled,  had  not  ceased  in  the 
Church. 

It  had  been  said  to  the  apostles :  "I  will  pray  the  Father, 
and  he  shall  give  you  another  Comforter But  the  Com- 
forter, even  the  Holy  Spirit,  ....  shall  teach  you  all  things." 
The  newly-enlightened  drew  authority  from  these  words,  and  many 
believed  with  Tertullian  that  Montanus  received  the  inspiration 
promised  by  Jesus.  But  this  belief  in  special  revelations,  which 
destroyed  the  gospel  revelation  by  pretending  to  continue  it,  has 
given  and  still  gives  rise  to  the  most  dangerous  sects.  Marcion, 
by  opposing  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament,  had  already 
prepared  the  foundation  for  Manichaeism. 

In  the  midst  of  so  many  doctrines  the  Church  had  made  its 
choice  with  the  wonderful  spirit  of  order  and  government  which 
it  seems  to  have  acquired  from  those  who  persecuted  it.  Although 
it  had  as  yet  determined  only  the  grand  outline  of  the  temple 
which  it  was  to  rear,  it  had  already,  in  the  third  century,  its 
immovable  Capitoline  rock,  Capitolii  immobile  sazum^  against  which 
the  unceasing  waves  of  heresy  beat  in  vain.  Irenseus  had  just 
been  writing  against  the  Gnostics;  Tertullian  was  engaged  with 
the    Valentinians    and     the     Marcionites,     with    Hermogenes,    who 


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THE    CHURCH    AT   THE   BEGINNING    OF   THE    THIRD    CENTURY.  199 

maintained  the  eternity  of  matter,  with  Praxeas,  who  was  subverting 
the  dogma  of  the  Trinity.  The  bishop  of  Antioch  had  condemned 
Montanus;  that  of  Rome,  Theodotus  of  Byzantium,  and  Minucius 
were  arguing  against  the  pagans.*  The  Church  then  knew  what  it 
wanted,  and  its  sons  by  listening  to  her  believed  they  ^^rose  from 
the  profound  night  of  error  into  the  full  light  of  wisdom  and 
truth,"*  while  the  others,  the  philosophers,  or  ^^ those  who  selected 
their  part,"  acted  at  random.  Finally,  it  already  possessed  what 
paganism  never  had,  a  mighty  force  of  discipline.  By  all  tiiese 
things  its  victory  is  explained. 

Along  with  this  grandeur  the  Church  has  also  its  low  side:  in 
some  of  its  doctors,  a  spirit  of  pride  and  lack  of  discipline  which 
led  to  lamentable  falls  ;^  among  the  members,  vices  which  are  too 
strongly  planted  in  our  nature  to  be  always  stilled  by  faith,*  or 
the  hypocritical  profession  of  sanctity  in  order  to  profit  by  the 
alms  of  the  brethren ;  in  the  days  of  trial  which  are  to  come, 
numerous  apostasies,*  explained  by  the  enlisting  which  was  carried 
on  among  the  lower  classes    especially,^  in  which  were  found   so 

*  Minucius  Felix  was  a  lawyer  of  Rome.  In  his  Octavhu  he  essays  to  imitate  Cicero  and 
IHato ;  but;  with  the  exception  of  a  pleasing*  preamble,  his  pretended  dialogue  is  but  a  com- 
bination of  two  speeches :  in  the  one  he  makes  accusations  against  the  GhristianSy  in  the  other 
he  refutes  them,  and  nowhere  does  he  set  forth  the  dogma.  It  is  a  plea,  sometimes  violent, 
always  superficial,  but  written  with  a  certain  eleg^ance  of  style  and  composed  for  men  of 
letters. 

'  .  .  .  .  discuasa  caUginey  de  tenebrarum  pro/undo  in  lueem  sapientue  et  veritatis  emergere 
(Minucius,  Oct.y  1). 

^  Those  of  Tertullian,  Origen,  Tatian,  etc.  S.  Justin  and  S.  Irenseus  had  adopted  the 
doctrine  of  the  MiUenarians,  and  Clement  of  Alexandria  sometimes  borders  on  heresy. 

*  Origen  even  goes  so  far  as  to  say,  "  Certain  churches  are  changed  into  dens  of  thieves." 
{In  Matth,,  xvi.  8,  22 ;  xi.  9, 15.)  S.  Cyprian  accused  the  priest  Novatus  of  having  suffered  his 
father  to  die  of  hunger,  caused  his  wife  to  miscarry  by  his  brutalities,  and  committed,  after 
his  elevation  to  the  priesthood,  numerous  acts  of  fraud  and  rapine  {Ep.,  49),  accusations  which 
may  have  been  false,  but  which  show  that  the  Church  of  Carthage  was  as  much  disturbed  as 
that  of  Rome.  Cf.  Tertullian,  ad  Nat,  i.  5.  In  the  de  Jejun.,  17,  he  also  admits  that  there 
were  many  sources  of  danger  in  the  agapn,  the  abuses  of  which  S.  Paul  had  already  noticed 
(1  Cor.,  xi.  21-2),  and  which  are  recalled  by  S.  John  Chrysostom  (Horn,  27  in  1  Cor.,  xi.)  and 
S.  Augustine  (Bp.,  64).  See,  in  the  36th  canon  of  the  Council  of  Elvira  (about  a.d.  300)  the 
measures  taken  against  the  disorders  of  the  Christian  meetings  at  night. 

*  On  the  apostasies,  see  Le  Blant,  M&moire  sur  la  preparation  au  martyre,  in  the  M^.  de 
VAcad.  des  inscr.,  vol.  xxviii.  pp.  54-5,  the  de  Lapsis  of  S.  Cyprian,  and  his  letter  No.  30. 

^ .  .  .  ,  de  ultima  face  collectis  imperitioribua.  It  is  the  pagan  of  the  Ocfavius  who  speaks 
thus  (§  8),  and  Celsus  (i.  27  and  iii.  44)  had  already  said  :  "  They  know  how  to  win  only  tlie 
silly,  vile,  and  dull  souls,  slaves,  women,  and  children."  Further  on,  at  §  12,  Caecilius  repeats : 
Eccepars  vestrum  et  major  et  melior,  ut  dicitis,  egetis,  algetis,  ope,  re,  fame  laboratis,  and,  in  his 
reply  (§  31),  Octavius  contents  himself  with  saying :  "  We  are  not  the  dregs  of  the  people, 
because  we  refuse  your  honours  and  your  purple."    Then  he  adds,  §  36 :  qtiod  plerique  pauperes 


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200  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

many  men  ^4ions  in  peace,  timid  deer  in  time  of  conflict;''^  and 
finally,  in  the  very  bosom  of  the  clergy,  rivalries  and  quarrels 
which  led  to  schism  or  heresy.*  Born  the  same  day,  faith  and 
heresy  were  two  sisters,  hostile  and  inseparable:  the  one  followed 
the  other,  and  will  follow  it  to  eternity. 

There  was  a  third  and  impure  one,  theurgy,  which  insinuated 
itself  among  Christians  of  all  sects,  as  among  pagans  of  every 
cultus,  and  even  among  the  philosophers.  Miracles  were  every- 
where demanded,  and  there  was  no  lack  of  persons  who  pretended 
to  perform  them.  In  the  condition  of  minds  at  that  time  nervous 
diseases  must  have  been  frequent,  those  ''possessed"  numerous, 
tod  healers  easy  to  be  found:  convicted  charlatans  or  deceivers, 
whose  incantations  always  made  dupes,  and  who  bandied  about 
from  one  sect  to  another  the  charge  of  working  by  the  aid  of 
miracles.  Wp  have  seen  in  the  preceding  volume  the  miracles 
of  the  pagans;    the   Philosophufnena    show   that    they   appeared    to 

dicimur,  non  est  ir^famia  nostra ^  sed  gloria.  The  Church  indeed  gloried,  and  very  justly,  in 
seeking  out  the  little  ones:  among  the  martyrs  whom  it  most  honoured  were  Blandina  and  two 
women,  Felicitas  and  Potamienna,  who  suffered  punishment  under  Severus,  aU  three  of  whom 
wore  slaves.  The  first  martyr  of  Africa,  Namphonius,  or  more  properly,  Namphamo  (see 
L.  Renier,  M41,  d'Spiffr,,  pp.  277  et  seg.),  and  Evelpistus,  who  suffered  martyrdom  with  S.  Justin, 
were  of  the  same  condition.  Pope  Oallistus  (218-222)  had  been  the  slave  of  a  freedman 
{Philoscph.f  ix.  12) ;  and  thus  it  must  have  been  for  a  long  period,  for  in  the  higher  classes  the 
entirely  pagan  education  was  hostile  to  Christianity,  and  the  profession  of  Christian  faith 
rendered  it  necessary  to  break  with  society  and  its  honours.  Finally,  it  was  not  merely 
necessary  to  strip  "  the  old  man "  of  his  beliefs ;  it  was  also  required  to  take  from  him  his 
pleasures,  his  riches,  and  many,  like  the  rich  man  of  the  Gospel,  went  away  sorrowful,  when 
they  were  reminded  of  the  precept  of  Jesus  on  giving  up  their  goods  to  the  poor.  But  we  have 
seen  that,  from  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  the  Church  jJso  attracted  to  itself  some  great 
minds:  Aristides,  Justin,  Ireneeus,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Tertulliau,  Origen,  etc.,  and  the 
comparative  peace  which  it  enjoyed  during  the  first  half  of  the  third  century  gained  for  it 
several  conversions  in  grreat  families.    (Cyprian,  Epist,  80.) 

^  Tertullian,  de  Cor.,  i. 

^  See  the  Epistle  of  S.  Clement  to  the  Corinthians,  on  the  ''  impious  and  detestable ''  sedition 
which  had  broken  out  amongst  them ;  the  letters  of  S.  Cyprian  in  respect  to  Novatus  and 
Felicissima;  what  the  angels  in  the  vision  of  Satur  say  to  bishop  Optatus  {Acts  of  Saint 
Perpetua),  and  the  circumstances  which  brought  about  most  of  the  schisms  and  heresies.  Thus 
S.  Jerome  (de  Vir.  illustr.,  63)  affirms  that  it  was  the  jealousy  and  iU-conduct,  inuidia  et 
contumelue,  of  the  clergy  of  Rome  which  caused  the  fall  of  Tertullian.  He  shows  ''Rome 
convoking  its  senate  against  Origen  because  the  furious  dogs  who  were  barking  at  him  could 
not  endure  the  brilliancy  of  his  speech  and  his  knowledge."  (Rufinus,  Apol.  adv,  Hieron.,  ii.  20. 
Cf.  Eusebius,  Hist,  eccl.,  vi.  8.)  By  these  "  furious  dogs  "  S.  Jerome  meant  the  bishops  of 
Egypt  who  had  cut  off  the  great  doctor  from  their  communion.  Origen  himself  applied  to 
them  the  severe  words  of  Jeremiah  (iv.  2)  concerning  the  guides  of  the  people  who  were  so 
skilled  in  doing  evil.  (Fragment  of  a  letter  quoted  by  S.  Jerome,  adv.  Buf.)  This  evil  dated 
far  back.  S.  Paul  had  to  reprimand  the  Christians  of  Corinth  and  of  Crete ;  S.  James,  those 
who  exaggerated  the  Pauline  doctrine:  S.  John,  live  Nicolaitans. 


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THE  CHURCH  AT  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.    201 

continue,  but  that  those  of  the  Gnostics  were  in  competition  with 
them;  at  the  close  of  the  relation  of  the  practices  of  these  thauma- 
turgists  the  author  adds:  "That  is  the  way  to  deceive  the  simple- 
minded."^  By  this  account  the  whole  world,  pagans  and  Christians, 
might  have  merited  the  harsh  epithet,  for  faith  in  the  supernatural 
existed  everywhere,  and  in  the  Church  more  than  anywhere  else. 
So,  without  seeking  it,  without  wishing  it,  it  nourished  in  its 
bosom  "doers  of  marvellous  works," ^  and  among  these  inspii^ed 
persons  the  women  were  not  the  least  numerous. 

Christianity  has  always  had   a   special  tenderness  for  women : 


Bas-relief  of  a  Christian  Sarcophagus  representing  Miracles :  Daniel  and  the  Lions ; 
Jesus  changing  the  Water  into  Wine  and  raising  Lazarus.     In  the  centre,  a  Christian  in  the 
attitude  of  prayer.     (Marble  of  the  Cemetery  of  CaUistus.     Roller,  op,  cit,f  pi.  xlvii.  fig.  2.) 

this  is  just,  for  they  have  been  and  still  are  its  most  potent 
auxiliaries.  Their  lively  imagination,  their  delicate  nature,  so 
virginal  still'  in  the  wife  and  mother,  were  captivated  by  that 
belief  which  enjoined  charity  and  love ;  which  even,  by  the  legend 
of  Mary  Magdalene,  the  repentant  sinner,  went  so  far  as  favour 
and  pardon  for  those  who  had  loved  much. 

It  was  to  them  that  these  men  addressed  themselves  who  gained 
admission  into  houses,  "  silent  before  the  husband,  inexhaustible  in 
talk  with  the  matron."'  Celsus  and  the  pagan  of  the  Octuvms 
indicate  what  part  they  afterwards  bore  in  the  propagation  of 
Christianity.      The    mother    having    been    won    over    led    in    the 


'  Philos.,  iv.  4,  15:  vtiOu  roifi;  d^povas. 

^  The  signification  of  the  word  thauraaturgist  (Oavfiara  and  fp^fWf  from  the  root  ipy). 

"^  Orip-en,  Contra  Celsuniy  iii.  o."). 


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202  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

child,  then  the  father  and  the  entire  household.  The  story  of 
8.  Monica  converting  her  husband  and  her  son  is  very  old  and 
ever  new.  Hence  the  Church  assured  them  an  honoured  place. 
The  Epistles  speak  of  holy  women  filling  an  office  in  the  com- 
mimities,  a  testimony  which  Pliny  confirms ;  *  and  Lucian  shows 
them  carrying  into  prisons  food  for  Christian  captives.  If  the 
teaching  and  fulfilling  of  the  rites  was  forbidden  them,  Jesus  had 
given  to  them  the  good  part.  When  Martha  is  indignant  at  being 
excluded  from  the  priesthood,  Mary  replies  to  her  with  a  smile: 
*'Did  he  not  tell  us  that  our  weakness  would  be  saved  by  his 
might?"'  This  divine  power  which  raises  them  so  high  is 
love. 

But  love  is  a  matter  of  sentiment  much  more  than  of  reason. 
When  it  enters  into  a  heart  under  control  it  provokes  a  reasonable 
devotion  to  good  works,  otherwise  it  is  disorder.  By  their  nervous 
constitution,  women  are  predisposed  to  excitement;  some  gave  way 
to  it,  and  these  had  visions  or  prophesied. 

In  the  ecstasy  into  which  they  lapsed  after  long  fastings  and 
macerations,  they  saw  heaven  opened  and  conversed  with  angels. 
Tertullian  has  preserved  to  us  one  of  these  cases  of  psychological 
pathology :  "  One  of  our  sisters,"  says  he,  "  in  the  ecstasy  which 
the  Spirit  bestows  upon  her  in  the  very  midst  of  our  assemblies, 
has  the  grace  of  revelations;  she  sees  and  hears  holy  things,  reads 
what  is  in  the  heart  and  points  out  remedies  for  the  sick.  Let 
the  Scriptures,  a  psalm,  a  hqinily  be  read,  and  immediately  she 
has  a  vision.  One  day  when  I  had  discoursed  upon  the  soul,  she 
said  to  us,  among  other  things :  ^  I  have  seen  a  corporeal  soul, 
having  a  certain  form  and  a  consistency  such  that  it  might  have 
been  grasped;  it  was  shining,  of  an  aerial  colour,  with  a  human 
countenance.'"*  Tertullian  must  have  been  extremely  delighted 
with  a  vision  which  confirmed  his  doctrine  of  the  material  nature 
of  the  soul.  He  had  just  been  stating  it,  and  the  echo  of  the 
priest's  words,   instead  of  being  another  word,    became  a  vision: 


*  In  the  Pastor  of  Hermas  there  is  also  mention  of  deaconesses  charged  with  the  relations 
of  the  Christian  community  to  the  widows  and  orphans.    For  Pliny,  see  vol.  iv.  p.  815. 

'  ore  rb  &a9€vkQ  Sid  rov  iaxvpov  oiaOtietTm  (Const.,  i.  21,  ap,  Bunseo,  op.  eit,,  voL  vi.).    Of. 
De  Pressens^,  La  Vie  des  chritieru,  p.  77. 

•  De  Animaf  9. 


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THE   CHURCH   AT  THE   BEGINNING    OF   THE   THIRD   CENTURY.         203 

the  visionary  saw  what  she  had  just  heard^  and  there  is  not  a  day 
in  which  this  miracle  is  not  produced  in  certain  of  our  hospitals.* 

The  more  intense  the  religious  life  became,  the  more  sects 
multiplied.  From  time  to  time  the  confusion  penetrated  into  the 
bosom  even  of  the  greatest  churches,  because  the  effort  to  enhance 
the  importance  of  discipline  to  the  profit  of  the  episcopal  authority 
clashed  with  souls  at  the  same  time  religious  and  independent. 
We  know  by  the  letters  of  S.  Cyprian  what  disorders  existed  in 
the  Christian  band  at  Carthage.  All  those  in  revolt  axe  naturally 
represented  as  wretches,  it  is  the  lot  of  the  vanquished.  But  if 
we  knew  something  more  than  the  accusations  ^^  against  the  con- 
spiring priests,"  if  those  to  whom  the  bishop  imputes  so  many 
shameful  deeds  had  told  us  the  motives  of  their  conduct,  perhaps 
we  should  see  in  the  excommunicated,  instead  of  disturbers  and 
guilty  persons,  men  defending  the  liberty  of  their  church. 

This  struggle  between  two  principles,  one  of  which  was  soon 
to  stifle  the  other,  existed  at  Kome,  unknown  even  to  those  who 
maintained  it.  A  book  recently  discovered,  the  Philosophumena^^ 
written  by  a  bishop,  shows  irritating  discussions  in  this  church. 

The  slave  Callistus  had  been  ordered  by  his  master  to  found 
a  bank ;  he  was  unfortimate — the  author  says  dishonest — and  was 
sent  to  the  mill,  that  is,  to  the  hardest  labour.  The  brethren 
interfered;  he  recovered  his  liberty  and,  one  day,  outraged  the 
Jews  in  open  synagogue,  which  caused  him  to  be  condemned 
by  the  prefect  of  Eome  to  be  beaten  with  rods  and  sent  to  the 
mines  of  Sardinia  as  a  disturber  of  public  order*  When  Marcia, 
the  concubine  of  Commodus,  obtained  from  the  bishop  of  Eome 
the  names  of  the  Christians  banished  to  the  island,  in  order  to 
their  release,  Bishop  Victor  did  not  place  Callistus  on  the  list ; 
but  the  shrewd  man  won  over  the  messenger  of  the  empress,  who 
took  it   upon  himself  to   bring  him   away   with    the    others.      At 

^  It  is  not  merely  the  philosophers  who  ought  to-day  to  study  the  sciences  concerned 
with  life ;  the  historians  have  far  more  need  of  it,  for  physiology  has  played  an  important  part 
in  the  world  before  there  were  physiologists,  and  it  explains  many  facts  inexplicable  without 
it.     It  is  sad  to  say  it,  but  a  hospital  for  the  insane  is  also  itself  a  book  of  hietory. 

'  This  manuscript,  discovert  in  1840  and  published  for  the  first  time  in  1861  by  M.  Miller, 
has  been  attributed  to  Origen,  to  Caius,  a  Roman  priest,  to  TertuUian,  finally  to  Hippolytus, 
bishop  of  Portus  Romanus  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber.  This  latter  opinion  tends  to  prevail. 
The  author  is  an  adversary  of  Pope  Callistus,  which  renders  it  necessary,  without  rejecting  his 
narrative,  to  make  allowance  for  the  passion  which  he  displays  in  it. 


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204  THE   AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

Rome  Callistus  succeeded  in  getting  into  the  good  graces  of  Pope 
Zephyrinus,  ^'a  simple-minded  man,"  says  the  author,  '^very  avari- 
cious and  somewhat  venal,"  who  set  him  in  command  of  the  guard 
of  the  common  cemetery  of  the  Christians,*  then  in  charge  of  the 
distribution  of  alms  and  of  the  administration  of  the  church. 
In  these  duties,  which  brought  him  into  daily  contact  with  all  the 
faithful,  he  won  their  confidence.  The  community  was  very  much 
divided;  he  persuaded  each  faction  that  he  was  at  heart  with 
them,    and,   at  the   death   of  Zephyrinus,    he    was    elected    in    his 


Pope  Callistus  (after  a  Gilt  Glass).* 

place,  in  spite  of  his  unfavourable  antecedents  (a.d.  218  or  219). 
Immediately  the  disorders  in  discipline  and  the  confusion  in 
belief  increased.  Callistus  accused  several  orthodox  bishops .  of 
heresy,  while  he  himself  taught  that  the  Father  and  the  Son 
were  one  and  the  same  person.  To  multiply  the  number  of 
his  adherents,  he  admitted  married  men  to  the  priesthood;  to  the 
church,  sinners  unreconciled;  to  communion,  men  of  easy  morals, 
women  living  in  concubinage,  mothers  who  had  exposed  their 
infants.  "Let  the  tares  grow  with  the  wheat,"  said  he,  "the 
Church  has  for  its  symbol  the  Ark  of  Noah,  which  contained  clean 
and  unclean  animals."*     What  truth  is  there  in  these  accusations? 

'  Ccemeterium  Callisti,  discovered  by  M.  Rossi,  and  so  well-studied  by  him. 

*  Roller,  op.  cit.,  pi.  Ixxriii.  No  2. 

'  Philosoph.,  ix,  12.  The  reproaches  of  the  author  are  evidently  exaggerated;  but  on  the 
question  of  the  tToubles  at  Rome  his  testimony  is  confirmed  by  the  Pastor  of  Hermas:  vo$ 
tnfirmati  a  secularibus  negotiiit  tradidistts  vos  in  socordiam  (Visio,  iii.  2),  and  by  what  S.  Jerome 
says  of  the  conduct  of  the  Roman  clergy  with  regard  to  Tertullian.  Amm.  Marcellinus  relates 
(xxvii.  3),  at  an  epoch  when  discipline  was  far  better  established,  that  when  two  bishoTW  were 
disputing  for  the  see  of  Rome,  a  terrible  riot  broke  out,  after  which  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  dead  bodies  were  found  in  the  Sicinian  basilica. 


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THE   CHUECH   AT  THE   BEGINNING   OF   THE   THIRD   CENTURY.         207 

We  do  not  know.  The  author  of  the  Phihsophumena  evidently 
leans  toward  the  Montanists  and  an  indulgent  bishop  is  displeasing 
to  his  austere  character.  But  if  the  picture  be  overdrawn,  even 
if,  as  has  been  pretended  in  order  to  get  rid  of  a  vexatious  revela- 
tion, the  Callistus  of  the  PhUosophumena  is  not  that  of  the  Church, 
it  no  less  remains  that  Eome  had  at  this  epoch  its  revolts  against 
the  ecclesiastical  chief;  soon  they  will  make  an  antipope,  Novatian. 
Pope  Stephen  and  ih^  great  bishop  of  Carthage  will  exchange 
angry  letters,*  and  the  bishop  of  Csesarea  will  say  of  that  of  Eome: 
''His  soul  is  fickle,  uncertain,  and  cowardly."'  At  Alexandria, 
Demetrius,  jealous  of  Origen,  will  force  him  to  leave  that  city, 
and,  later,  its  communion;  later  still,  Paul  of  Samosata  will  be 
forced  to  leave  the  episcopal  throne  at  Antioch  under  accusation 
of  avarice,  bad  morals,  and  heresy.  The  Christian  fraternities 
then  were  not  always  the  seraphic  church  of  tradition;  they  were 
communities  composed  of  men,  some  of  whom  had  great  virtues, 
others  our  passions,  our  vices,  and  all  the  transports  of  feeling 
to  which  the  religious  spirit  very  easily  accommodates  itself  in 
certain  natures. 

From  the  time  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  Celsus  had  been  able  to 
pretend  that  the  divisions  were  already  such  among  Christians 
that  they  no  longer  had  anything  in  common  except  the  name; 
and  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  a  pagan  void  of  religious  passion,  who 
renders  homage  to  the  purity  of  the  Christian  faith,  says  in 
the  following  century:  "Wild  beasts  are  not  more  cruel  to  man 
than  is  the  rage  of  the  greater  part  of  the  Christians  against  the 
others."*  Pious  souls,  on  the  contrary,  have  drawn  from  these 
persistent  disorders  proof  that  the  new  religion  was  of  divine 
instituting,  because  a  human  work  could  not  have  survived  such 
ruptures.  We  can  only  say  that  they  were  inevitable.  Man  is 
found  again,  with  his  passions,  in  the  theologian  as  well  as  in  the 
philosopher,*  for  it  is   not  the   beliefs  nor  the   ideas  which   make 

*  Cyprian,  Epist,  75,  26,  and  26 :  .  .  .  .  turn  pudet  Stephanumy  Cyprianum  pseudochrisium 
et  pseudoapostolum  dicere.  The  Novatians,  a  rigid  sect  which  did  not  admit  of  reconciliation 
with  the  lapsi,  were  still  numerous  in  the  fifth  century.    (Socrates,  Hist  eccL,  iv.  28.) 

^  Id,,  ibid,,  78,  25 :  .  .  .  .  anima  lubrica,  mobilia  et  incerta.  The  bishops  of  Tarsus  and  of 
Alexandria  also  sided  with  Cyprian  against  Stephen  in  this  controversy. 

*  Origen,  Contra  Celsttm,  iii.  10  and  12,  and  Amm.  Marcellinus,  xxii.  5. 

*  This  is  almost  what  S.  Paul  said  to  the  Corinthians  (1  Cor.,  i.  4),  when  he  places  in 
opposition  in  the  Christian  the  spiritual  man  and  the  carnal  man. 


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208  THE   AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

the  violent  or  the  peaceful,  but  the  character,  the  habits  which 
education  has  formed,  and  the  institutions  to  which  one  has  con- 
formed his  life. 

*  Roller,  pi.  xc.  fig.  12.     This  lamp  bears  the  cruciform  monogram* 


Christian  Lamp  of  Bronze  (end  of  Fourth  Century)/ 


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CHAPTER  XCI. 

THE  PEESECTJTION  UNDEE  SEVEEU8. 

I. — Idea  of  the  State  among  the  Ancients;   Opposition  of  the 

Christians. 

THE  imperial  government  was  well  aware  of  the  powerful 
organization  of  the  Church,^  these  communities  corresponding 
with  one  another  from  one  end  of  the  Empire  to  the  other ;  these 
men  who,  without  money,  traversed  lands  and  seas,  who  everywhere 
saw,  at  their  approach,  doors  and  hearts  thrown  open;  who,  in 
short,  even  with  men  of  another  language,  at  a  sign  made  them- 
selves known  without  needing  to  be  understood.^  The  imperial 
government,  so  fearful  of  secret  societies,  found  an  immense  one 
extended  everywhere,  and  which  was  an  evident  peril,  for  it  was 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Stat^  another  active  State;  but  tolerance  was 
a  necessary  consequence  of  the  religious  organization  of  the 
Romans,  who  never  had  a  theocracy,  because  in  their  pontiffs  the 
civil  character  outbalanced  the  sacerdotal.  The  priests  of  Jupiter 
and  of  Mars  were  judges,  soldiers,  administrators;  and  they  had 
learned,  in  the  government  of  men,  that  the  law  touches  only  acts 
and  has  no  hold  on  the  thoughts.  In  the  midst  of  the  profound 
peace  which  Severus  guaranteed  to  the  Roman  world,  when  no 
apprehension  of  public  danger  excited  men's  minds,  the  sages  who 
conducted  the  affairs  of  State  did  not  think  of  proscribing  the  new 
religion,  while  yet  leaving  it  under  the  menace  of  Trajan's  rescript. 
This  rescript   it  was   impossible   to   repeal   so   long  as  the    Csesars 

*  Ulpian,  one  of  the  councillors  of  Severus,  had  collected  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  his 
treatise  de  Off.  proc.  all  the  edict«  relating  to  the  Christians.     (Lactantius,  Inst  div.,  V.  ii.  19.) 

^  All  ecclesiastical  history  testifies  to  the  activity  of  these  communications.  The  churches 
consult  one  another,  communicate  the  decisions  which  they  have  reached^  their  sufferings  and 
their  triumphs.  Even  the  writings  circulated  rapidly.  S.  Irenseus,  at  Lyons,  borrows  several 
passages  from  Theophilus  of  Antioch;  and  the  author  of  the  Philosophumena  at  Rome,  TertuUian 
at  Carthage,  copy  the  Lyounese  bishop. 

VOL.   VI.  P 


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210  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180    TO    235    A.D. 

retained  the  religion  of  their  fathers ;  for,  to  them,  the  title  of 
sovereign  pontiff  was  equivalent  to  the  oath  taken  by  our  kings, 
the  day  of  consecration,  to  preserve  the  orthodox  religion  and  not 
to  tolerate  heretics  within  their  States.^ 

This  partial  tolerance  assured  to  the  Church  only  an  uncertain 
peace,  for  the  best  of  the  pagans  resembled  the  historian  Dion 
Cassius,  a  timorous  spirit,  the  foe  of  all  violence,  who  yet  wanted 
the  Christians  to  be  punished,  because,  he  said,  innovators  in 
religion  were  of  necessity  innovators  in  politics,  who  urged  on 
citizens  to  revolt.^  From  time  to  time  a  popular  outbreak  made  a 
few  victims,  or  an  over-zealous  governor  applied  the  old  laws  of 
the  Empire.  Severus  at  first  manifested  toward  the  Christians 
only  great  indiflference,  for  he  saw  among  them  merely  "carders, 
fullers,  and  shoemakers," '  and  it  did  not  seem  to  him  that  an 
emperor  had  anything  to  fear  from  this  God  of  the  lower  classes. 
It  is  not  certain  that  he  sent  any  one,  before  the  year  202,  into 
exile  or  to  the  quarries  whence  Marcia,  under  Commodus,  had 
withdrawn  them,*  and  the  Christians  were  without  doubt  included 
in  the  favour  which  he  accorded  "to  the  sectaries  of  the  Jewish 
superstition,"  that  of  being  eligible  to  municipal  honours,  with 
release  from  obligations  contrary  to  their  beliefs.*^  Some  of  these 
were  to  be  seen  among  his  attendants.  Before  attaining  his 
grandeur,  one  of  them  had  healed  him  of  some  malady;  when  he 
had  become  emperor,  he  caused  search  to  be  everywhere  made  for 

*  Oath  of  Louis  XIII.  at  his  consecration :  .  .  .  .'  Outre  je  tascheroy  a  mon  pouvoir,  en  bonne 
foxfy  de  chasser  de  tna  juridiction  et  terres  de  ma  styStion  tous  hSrSftques  d&noncis  par  V£fflise 

{Le  CirSmonial  fran<^oiSy  by  Th^od.  Godefroy,  1649). 
»  Dion,  lii.  36. 
'  Origen,  Contra  Celsunif  iii.  65. 

*  After  having  enumerated  those  whom  the  Christian  communities  assisted,  the  poor,  the 
orphans,  the  old  servants,  and  tlie  shipwrecked,  TertulHan,  who  liowever  has  a  habit  of  exti-eme 
exaggeration,  adds :  et  si  qui  in  metallisy  et  si  qui  in  insulis  vel  in  custodiis^  e.r  causa  Dei  sectte 
{Ap.,  39).  We  have  seen  above,  p.  25,  that  Marcia  had  obtained  the  release  of  those  who  were 
in  the  mines  of  Sardinia,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  the  measure  may  not  have  been 
general. 

*  Digest,  L.  2,  3,  §  3.  This  interpretation  may  be  allowable  of  the  treatise  de  Idololatria, 
in  which  Tertullian  recites  what  "  the  Christian  magistrate  *'  ought  not  to  permit.  We  see  also, 
by  the  Acta  martyrumj  that  judges  sought  to  substitute  a  political  accusation  for  a  religious 
one,  demanding  of  the  Christians  brought  before  them  not:  "Are  you  Christians.^"  but, 
"Have  you  attended  unlawful  assemblies!^"  As  for  the  Jews,  their  teaching  was  public. 
....  Jud(Bi  palnm  lectitant,  vectigalis  libertas  vulgo  aditur  sabbatis  omnibus  (Tertullian, 
ApoL,  18),  and  the  government  saw  to  it  that  no  one  should  disturb  their  religious  service. 
(PMlosoph.y  ix.  12.)     They  received  this  right  from  Augustus.     (Josephus,  Ant.  Jud.,  xvi.  6, 2.) 


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THE   PERSECUTION    UNDER   SEVERU8.  211 

him,  and  established  him  at  the  palace/  Others  dwelt  there,  if 
the  celebrated  graffito  of  the  crucified  with  the  head  of  an  ass, 
found  lately  on  the  Palatine,  is,  as  is  likely,  of  this  time.  Besides, 
do  we  not  know  that  Caracalla  had  a  Christian  nurse,*-^  and  that 
one  day  he  was  so  enraged  because  one  of  his  playmates  had  been 


Graffito  of  Christ  crucified  with  an  Ass's  Head  (now  in  the  Kircher  Museum).' 

whipped  for  being  of  the  Jewish  or  Christian  religion,  that  he  for 
a  long  time  refused  to  see  those  who  had  beaten  him  ?*  When  we 
read  in  the  Digest  that  Severus  ordered  the  persons  accused  of 
holding  unlawful  assemblies  to  be  brought  before  the  city  prefect, 
we   may    conclude   from   this,    since   the    guarantees   of  justice    are 

'  Tertullian,  ad  Scap.,  4. 

^  Lacte  Christiano  educatus  (Tertullian,  ibid.). 

'  Christ  on  the  cross  is  looking  at  a  person  below  him  whose  arm  is  raised  in  the  attitude 
of  adoration.  Lower  down,  the  Greek  legend,  badly  engraved,  signifies:  "  Alexamenos  adores 
(his)  God."  Evidently  a  bit  of  irony  intended  for  a  comrade  in  service  in  the  palace  of  the 
CsBsars.  Near  this  graffito  these  words  have  been  found  engraved:  Alexamenos  fidelis.  Father 
Garucci,  who  published  this  caricature  in  1857,  believes  it  to  be  of  the  commencement  of  the 
third  century,  because  at  this  epoch  the  pagans  accused  their  opponents  of  adoring  an  ass*s 
head.  In  1882  a  fresco  was  discovered  at  Pompeii,  representing  a  parody  of  the  judgment  of 
Solomon,  doubtless  executed  for  some  householder  of  that  pleasure-loving  city  who  wished  to 
make  sport  of  the  Jews,  his  neighbours. 

*  Span.,  Caracalla,  1. 

P  2 


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212  THE   AFRICAN    AND    SYKIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

increased  in  proportion  to  the  higher  rank  of  the  judge,  that  the 
rescript  must  have  been  favourable  to  the  Christians:  the  old 
and  harsh  law  against  associations  was  about  to  be  tempered 
by  political  prudence.  The  same  prince  authorized  poor  people 
throughout  the  Empire  to  form  societies  with  monthly  assessments/ 
In  fact,  this  rescript  was  favourable  to  the  Christians,  and  we  have 
no  right  to  say  that  Severus  did  not  think  of  them  in  writing  it.^ 
But  the  emperor  disliked  uproar  of  any  sort,  and  the  religious 
disputes  occasioned  a  great  deal,  especially  when  Tertullian  joined 
in  them,  and  he  spent  his  life  thus.  This  son  of  a  centurion  was 
a  man  of  strife;  h6  made  attacks  in  his  own  defence  and  struck 
out  all  about  him,  hurling  invectives  at  once  at  the  pagans,  their 
magistrates,  their  gods,  *^  admitted  to  heaven  by  a  decree  of  the 
senate,"  and  at  those  of  his  brothers  whom  he  treated  as  heretics,' 
without  thinking  that  the  orthodox  were  reserving  the  same  lot 
for  himself.  In  a  recently  discovered  fragment  of  Clemens  Romanus 
is  found  this  prayer  to  God:  ^It  is  thou.  Almighty  King,  who 
hast  given  the  kingdom  to  our  sovereigns  that  we  might  be  in 
subjection  to  them.  Grant  them,  O  Lord,  health  and  peace,  that 
they  may  without  hindrance  exercise  the  power  which  thou  hast 
confided  unto  them  over  all  existence.  Direct,  0  Lord,  their  will 
according  to  right  and  in  conformity  with  what  is  agreeable  unto 
thee,  so  that,  using  authority  with  mildness,  they  may  find  thee 
favourable  .  .  .  ."  *  This  is  the  attitude  of  the  primitive  Christians, 
that  of  the  apostles  Paul  and  Peter,  that  also  of  a  bishop  of 
Rome  at  the  end  of  the  first  century,  and  of  Theophilus  of  Antioch 
in  the  middle  of  the  second.  How  different  these  holy  men  are 
from    the    fiery    doctor    of    Carthage    writing    in    his    treatise    de 

^  .  .  .  .  pemiittitur  tenuioribus  stipem  menstruam  ....  non  tantum  in  Urbe,  sed  et  in 
Italia  et  inprovindis  ....  divus  Severus  rescripsif  {Digest,  xlvii.  22, 1).  He  prohibited  them 
in  the  armies  (ibid,),  where  they  were  neyertheless  formed.    Cf.  L.  Kenier,  Inscr.  d'Alg.,  70. 

'^  Tertullian  attests  (ApoL,  89)  that  this  custom  of  furnishing  the  menstniam  stipem  existed 
among  the  Christians ;  they  had,  then,  taken  advantage  of  the  law  of  Severus.  Yet  he  says 
that  the  pretext  for  the  persecution  was  the  unlawful  assembling  (de  Jgun.,  13).  Severus,  who 
merely  proposed  to  check  the  propagation  of  the  new  religion,  may  only  have  struck  a  blow  at 
the  meetings  which  had  not  assumed  the  legal  character  of  the  burial  societies. 

^  He  refuses  to  them  the  right  of  discussion  and  treats  them  as  condemned  without  appeal. 
In  the  de  Prascr,  adv,  lueret.,  he  opposes  to  them  only  the  judicial  form  of  the  ordinance : 
"  You  have  in  your  behalf,"  he  said  to  them,  "  neither  time  nor-  possession,"  and  this  argument 
sufficed  for  him.  « 

*  \st  Clementine y  chap,  xxxvii. 


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THE   PERSECUTION    UNDER   SEVERU8.  213 

Idohlatria  a  veritable  declaration  of  war  against  pagan  society.  In 
another^  we  hear  this  repeated  cry  of  revolt:  *' It  is  our  busi- 
ness to  contend  against  the  institutions  of  the  ancients,  the  laws 
of  our  masters ; "  ^  and  this  moral  revolt  was  legitimate,  since  the 
imperial  government,  not  comprehending  the  sacred  rights  of  con- 
science, had  treated  godly  men  like  criminals.  As  to  the  life,  of 
the  Christians,  Tertullian  would  have  it  sad  and  sombre,  ever  in 
sackcloth  and  ashes,  in  prayers  and  tears.  "The  woman  who  does 
not  live  like  a  repentant  and  mourning  Eve  is  condemned  and 
already  dead.  Her  ornaments  are  the  trappings  of  her  burial."^ 
And  this  severity  corresponded  so  well  to  the  spirit  of  the  Church 
that  the  authority  of  the  priest  of  Carthage,  despite  his  fall,  was 
generally  recognized  in  it  and  continued  to  be  so.  "Give  me  the 
master,"  said  S.  Cyprian,  when  he  wanted  one  of  the  books  of 
the  celebrated  doctor,  da  mag%8trum^^  and  Bossuet,  who  has  often 
copied  him,  often  speaks  like  Cyprian. 

Minucius  Felix  has  neither  his  genius  nor  his  rudeness,  and 
is  even  more  bitter.  It  is  not  enough  for  him  to  make  a  laughing 
stock  of  the  gods  of  Eome;  he  tramples  under  foot  the  last  homage 
that  remains  to  her,  the  pride  in  her  memories.  S.  Clement 
recognized  Bome  as  his  country ;  speaking  of  her  he  said :  "  Our 
legions,  our  generals."  *  Minucius  is  a  Boman  no  longer ;  for  him, 
the  fortune  of  this  people  is  composed  of  iniquities,  its  history 
filled  with  crimes,  and  its  city  has  never  been  other  than  a  den 
of  bandits.*  With  less  wrath  and  as  much  disdain,  S.  Augustine 
says  of  the  glory  of  the  Bomans:  acceperunt  mercedem  suam^ 
vani  vanam. 

The  sentiments  of  Minucius  are  those  of  the  greater  number 
of  Christians.  Sanctus,  one  of  the  martyrs  of  Lyons,  is  asked  in 
the  midst  of  tortures,  his  name,  city,  and  country,  whether  he  is 
free   or  a  slave.     But  he  has  no  name,  he  has  no  country.      To 


'  Adverms  hac  nobis  negotium  est,  adversus  institutiones  m<yorum,  auctoritates  receptorum, 
leges  dominantiumf  argumentationes  prudentium  (ad  Nation.,  20). 

^  See  also  the  violent  outbursta  of  the  de  Corona,  11.  This  old  spirit  of  the  Church  should 
be  noted,  as  it  reappeared  as  soon  as  the  laity  began  to  withdraw  from  it. 

»  De  Cultu/em.,  i.  1. 

*  S,  Jerome,  de  Vir,  illustr. 

*  This  is  the  famous  t/fidv  so  long  contested  and  which  can  be  so  no  longer. 

*  Octavius,  26. 


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214  THE    AFKICIN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

everything  he  replies  but  one  word :  "  I  am  a  Christian ! "  It  is 
very  fine,  but  also  very  menacing.  Civis  Romanus  sum  !  cried  the 
Koman  of  ancient  days,  attesting  his  nobility  and  his  right.  The 
Stoic  was  still  a  citizen  of  the  world.  The  Christians  have  only 
one  city,  heaven;   they  know  no  other  country. 

Greece  and  her  glories,  which  are  those  of  the  human   mind, 
find    no    favour    with    them.      To    them,    Socrates    is    a    buffoon,' 


Scene  of  Persecution :  the  Accusation.^ 

Aristotle  a  wretch,^  and  they  pronounce  an  anathema  against  all 
the  great  philosophers.  What  a  difference  between  the  apologists 
of  the  first  age  and  those  of  the  second,  and,  in  the  space  of  half 
a  century,  from  Justin  to  Minucius  Felix,  from  Athenagoras  to 
TertuUian,  how  hatred  has  become  envenomed !  The  Church,  when 
it  was  mistress  of  the  world,  became  a  gi'eat  school  of  respect  and 
submission  to  law ;  it  was  not  so  then. 

^  Octavitu,  38 :  Seurra  Atticus. 

^  Freflco  of  the  cemetery  of  Callistus,  over  the  crypt  of  Pope  Eusehius.  Unique  example 
of  a  judgment  scene  in  primitive  Christian  iconography.  (Roller,  i.  pi.  xxvii.  No.  1,  and 
pp.  161-2.) 

^  Miserum  Aristotelem  (TertuUian,  dc  Preescr.,  7).  Clement  of  Alexandria,  on  tiie  con- 
trary, rendered  at  the  some  period  a  solemn  act  of  homage  to  Aristotle,  copying  him  in  his 
Ilypotyposes. 


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THE   PERSECUTION   UNDER   SEVERU8.  215 

To  these  maledictions  against  history  and  philosophy,  that  is, 
against  civilization,  were  added  menaces  against  the  Empire  and 
its  sacrilegious  Babylon.  The  sect  of  Montanists,  which  increased 
in  numbers  daily,  and  even,  if  we  may  believe  the  pagan  orator 
of  the  OctaviuSj  all  Christians,^  announced  at  Eome  its  impending 
destruction,  and  their  gloomy  prophecies  gave  occasion  to  the 
belief  that  they  would  willingly  hasten  that  ill-fated  hour.  "If  all 
others  thought  as  you  do,''  said  Celsus  to  them,  "the  world  would 
become  the  prey  of  the  barbarians,"^  and,  in  fact,  it  did  become 
so,  when  every  one  thought  as  they  did.  There  were  at  this  time, 
indeed,  in  Alexandria,  men  such  as  Panteenus,  Clement,  and  Origen, 
who,  sincere  admirers  of  the  ancient  philosophy,  would  have  desired 
to  "disengage  the  pearls  hidden  in  a  pernicious  alloy;"'  or,  as 
Origen  said,  "to  carry  off  the  gold  of  the  Egyptians  to  make  of 
it  sacred  vessels  for  the  altar."  ^  But  when  they  spoke  of  their 
contemporaries,  it  was  with  the  bitterness  of  Tertullian.  Cyprian, 
one  of  the  most  moderate  of  them,  wrote  in  the  midst  of  a  pesti- 
lence and  famine  to  the  proconsul  Demetrianus:  "If  I  have  not 
replied  to  your  barking  against  God,  it  is  that  I  may  not   expose 

our  sacred  truth  to  the  outrages  of  dogs  and  swine These 

scourges  are  the  divine  vengeance  which  strikes  the  hardened 
sinner.  What !  you  blaspheme  against  the  true  God,  you  perse- 
cute his  servants,  and  you  are  astonished  that  the  rain  does  not 
descend  upon  your  arid  plains,  that  the  springs  are  dried  up,  that 
the  hail  destroys  your  crops  and  the  poisoned  air  decimates  your 
population  ?  These  misfortunes  are  the  consequence  of  your 
iniquities ! "  ^  The  pagans  were  not  silenced,  and  all  the  more  cried 
out :  "  The  Christians  to  the  lions ! "  On  both  sides  passion  con- 
ceived gods  in  its  own  image,  angry  and  violent,  while  impassive 
nature,  pursuing  the  course  of  its  immutable  laws,  bore  fruitful 
clouds  to  one  locality  and  deadly  miasma  to  another. 

*  Oct.f  10.  The  Octavms  must  have  been  written  about  the  year  180,  and  the  treatise  of 
Celsus  is  probably  of  the  same  time. 

'  Contra  Cehum,  viii.  68.  In  speaking  thus  1  merely  wish  to  state  the  fact,  that  the 
Christians,  after  having  been  an  element  of  dissolution  to  the  pagan  empire,  did  not  understand 
how  to  save  the  Christian  empire  when  they  had  become  masters  of  it. 

*  Strom.y  r.  i.  §  17. 

*  Epist.  ad  Oregor,,  1,  30. 

*  Ad  Demetrianum,  8.  In  this  very  spirited  letter  against  pagan  society,  Cyprian  also 
announced  the  approaching  destruction  of  the  world. 


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216  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235   A.D. 

The  Eomans,  who  had  so  keen  a  relish  for  tragic  declamations, 
and  the  emperor  who  had  himself  made  them,  would  not  perhaps 
have  paid  much  attention  to  the  sombre  pictures  which  many 
Christians  unrolled  before  their  gaze,  if  the  new  doctrine  had  not, 
in  other  directions,  appeared  dangerous  to  them. 

S.  Paul  had  said:  ''Let  every  soul  be  in  subjection  to  the 
higher  powers;  for  there  is  no  power  but  of  God.''^  And  some  years 
later  Clemens  Eomanus  had  drawn  up  for  the  churches  a  prayer  in 
which  he  besought  God  to  give  to  the  emperors  health,  strength, 
and  security.'  But  the  spirit  of  submission  was  already  that  of 
only  a  part  of  the  believers.  Severus  was  a  soldier.  What  was 
he  to  think  of  men  who,  when  Celsus  reproached  them  for  abandon- 
ing the  Empire  when  assailed  by  the  barbarians,  replied:  "It  is 
true  that  we  do  not  bear  arms,  and  that  we  would  not,  though  the 
emperor  wished  to  compel  us;  we  have  another  camp  where  we 
combat  for  him  by  our  prayers."'  Being  a  jurist,  how  could  he 
regard  a  sect  in  which  it  was  taught  that  when  the  law  of  the 
Church  is  in  opposition  to  the  law  of  the.  State,  it  is  the  former 
which  must  be  obeyed,*  "because  faith  does  not  admit  the  allega- 
tion of  necessity."*  A  prince,  in  short,  and  the  necessary  conservator 
of  an  order  of  things  which  had  always  exacted  devotion  to  social 
obligations,  it  was  inevitable  that  he  should  seek  to  stay  the  pro- 
gress of  a  religion  whose  sectaries  lost  their  interest  in  public  duties. 

According  to  the  ideas  of  the  ancients,  whether  the  State  was 
represented  by  a  man,  a  senate,  or  a  popular  assembly,  in  a  famous 
citj  like  Athens  or  Eome,  or  in  the  most  obscure  municipality,  the 
citizen  owed  to  it  all  his  faculties,  his  valour  in  battles,  his  fortune 
in  public  necessities,  his  life  in  great  perils.  This  dependence  with 
regard  to  the  State,  much  the  opposite  of  our  ideas  of  individual 
liberty,  had  given  to  patriotism  an  energy  which  ours  has  lost ;  and 
this  is  why  we  do  not  comprehend,   or  comprehend  imperfectly,  so 


*  EoffianSf  xiii.  1 . 

'  11,  Clem.,  ad  Cor.,  59-72.     Ed.  Hilgeufeld. 

'  Origen,  Contra  Celmm,  viii.  73-74.  And  the  facto  accord  with  the  words.  The  recruiting 
officer  presento  to  the  proconsul  of  Africa  a  young  man  delivered  over  to  he  a  soldier ;  hut  the 
young  man  replies  that,  heing  a  Christian,  he  is  not  permitted  to  bear  arms.  For  this  refusal 
of  the  military  oath  he  was  executed.     (Ruinart,  Acta  sincerOf  p.  299,  ad  ann.  295  or  296.) 

*  Origen,  Contra  Celsum,  v.  37. 

*  Non  admittit  status  fidei  aUegationem  necessitatis  (Tertullian.  de  Cor.,  n.). 


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THE   PBK8BCUTI0N    UNDBR   SEVERUS.  217 

many  things  in  ancient  society.  Thus,  to  make  out,  in  the  perse- 
cutions, the  part  of  each,  executioners  and  victims,  we  must  take 
into  account  the  horror  which  these  men  inspired,  who  set  up  in 
opposition  to  their  common  country,  bequeathed  to  them  by  their 
ancestors,  another  which  they  had  themselves  invented.  "  Why," 
they  were  asked,  '^why  do  you  shun  municipal  office  where  the 
law  is  protected?"  '' Because,  in  each  one  of  your  cities,  we  have 
another  country  which  God  has  made  for  us,  and  it  is  to  the 
government  of  this  that  those  of  us  who  have  authority  by  word 
or  moral  character  should  be  attached.''^  Several  systems  of  philo- 
sophy, even  that  which  then  prevailed,  also  recommended  separa- 
tion from  the  world ;  but,  in  the  schools,  this  spirit  was  inoffensive, 
because  it  remained  a  matter  of  mere  psychological  curiosity. 

Many  other  things  still  further  scandalized  the  pagans.  Then, 
as  to-day,  large  families  were  honoured,  and  the  Eoman  law 
punished  celibacy.  Now  the  Gnostic  Christians,  almost  as  numerous 
as  the  orthodox,  cursed  the  flesh  as  the  principle  of  all  evil  and 
practised  celibate  asceticism.  Others,  regardless  even  of  the  con- 
ditions of  human  life,  placed  among  their  pious  books  treatises  "  on 
the  inconveniences  of  marriage."*  Some  dared  to  think  that  Adam 
would  have  done  far  better  to  have  remained  in  a  state  of  virgin 
purity,  and  God  to  have  found  another  means  of  placing  upon  the 
earth  the  adorers  of  his  power.'     One  of  them  went  so  far  as  to 


*  Scimtcs,  in  singtUis  civitatibiu,  aUam  esse  patriam  a  verho  Dei  consHtutam,  eos  ut 
Ecclesiam  recant  hortamur  qui  potentes  sermone  et  quorum  mores  sani  sunt  (Origen,  Contra 
Celsum,  viii.  76).  "  To-day  even,  in  every  country,  we  would  prosecute  any  association  pro- 
pagating certain  ideas  promulgated  by  Tertullian  in  chapter  Ixxxi.  of  the  de  Corona^  22  ** 
(De  la  Berge,  Tr(yany  p.  213). 

'  This  was  one  of  the  first  works  of  Tertullian,  and  S.  Jerome  recommended  the  reading  of 
it  to  Eustochia  {<id  Jovinian,,  i.  and  Epist,  18,  ad  Eustoch.),  Tertullian,  however,  did  not 
himself  profit  by  it,  for  he  married,  and  in  the  second  of  his  letters  to  his  wife  (ad  Uxorem,  ii. 
9)  he  draws  a  very  beautiful  picture  of  Christian  marriage.  But,  in  the  first,  he  represents 
marriage  to  be  unsuitable  for  believers,  and  makes  a  vow  of  continence.  The  Marcionitefi 
forbade  conjugal  union;  Tatian  condemned  it;  the  Valentinians,  Basilians,  Encratit^  or 
Continents  did  the  same ;  Origen  rendered  himself  incapable  of  it,  and  his  imitators  were  still 
numerous  enough  in  the  fourth  century  to  require  that  the  first  canon  of  the  Council  of  Nicffis 
should  prohibit  the  mutilation.  Other  Gnostic  secta  destroyed  marriage  by  community  of 
wives.  Clement  of  Alexandria,  a  contemporary  of  Tertullian,  but  a  genius  of  milder  character, 
combats,  in  book  iii.  of  the  Stromata,  all  these  excesses,  and  exalts  anew  the  sanctity  of  the 
married  state.  His  doctrine  has  remained  that  of  the  Church ;  but  the  Montanist  spirit,  which 
is  not  dead,  has  covered  the  world  with  convents. 

*  We  find  traces  of  these  singular  opinions  in  Justin,  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  and  S.  Augustine : 
Macarius  Magnes  maintained  that  Adam  made  no  use  of  marriage  until  after  his  sin. 


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218  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

write:  *^When  we  have  children,  we  desire  that  they  may  go 
before  us  into  the  presence  of  the  Lord."  Tertullian,  it  is  true, 
who  spoke  thus,  says  of  himself:  "I  do  not  dispute,  I  do  not  go 
to  war,  and  my  sole  care  is  to  exempt  myself  from  all  care."^ 
One  might,  on  the  contrary,  accept  this  thought  of  Montanus: 
"Man  is  a  lyre  which  the  Spirit  of  God  strikes,"'^  if  it  did  not 
expose    us   to    another   peril   by   the   annihilation  of   our  will   and 


A  Woman  at  Prayer  and  the  Good  Shepherd.     (Painting  of  the  Cemetery  of  SS.  Noreiis 
and  Achilleus.     Roller,  pi.  xlix.  fig.  1.) 

absolute    abandonment    to    Providence,    that    is,    to    the    hazard    of 
individual  inspirations  taken  for  revelations  from  on  high. 

The  eloquent  and  sombre  declamations  of  Tertullian  were  not 
the  rule  of  faith  of  all  the  believers.  There  were  certainly 
Christians  in  the  army,  in  municipal  oflfilces,  in  civil  functions,^ 
and  all  did  not  renounce  their  property  through  apprehension  of 
the  fate  of  Ananias,  or  give  up  commerce  and  industrial  pursuits 
for  fear  of  infringing   upon   the    prescribed    rules   of  the    Church 


*  Tertullian,  de  Pallio,  5. 

^  S.  Epiphanius,  Adv.  Jubv.,  48. 

^  They  were  there,  but  in  very  small  number.  The  famous  words  of  Tertullian,  *'  We 
till  the  cities,  the  camps,  the  senate"  (^/?o/.,  37),  are  contradicted  by  all  the  facts  and  testi- 
monies. (See  vol.  V.  p.  741.)  The  number  of  bishops  found  in  certain  countries  should 
not  mislead  us  in  regard  to  the  number  of  the  faithful.  "  Wherever  three  Clnistians  are 
united,"  says  Tertullian  (Exhort,  castit.j  7),  "  there  is  a  churcli,"  and  the  Coyintitutwns  of  the 
Church  of  Aleaandna,  i.  13  (ap.  Bunsen,  op.  cit.),  require  that  when  the  members  are  few  in 
number,  Idv  dXiyavdpia  vrrapxii  nal  fiiiirov  irXijBoi:  rvyx"*'**  ^****^  Svpafikvtov  }(njipiaa96ai  mpi  iTTKr- 
KOTov  .  .  .  ,  they  should  seek  the  attendance  of  three  judicious  men  sent  by  the  neighbouring 
churches. 


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THE    PERSECUTION    UNDER    8EVERUS.  219 

with  regard  to  lending  money  at  interest.^  Sorae  were  found,  who, 
penetrated  with  the  sweetness  of  the  Gospels,  forgot  the  God  of 
inexorable  vengeance,  and  saw  only  the  Good  Shepherd  bringing 
back  upon  his  shoulders  the  sheep  which  had  gone  astray.  Those 
were  the  neophytes  who  remembered  haying  been  fed  by  the 
Church  with  milk  and  honey  "at  their  entrance  into  the  land  of 
promise ; "  they  took  delight  in  life,  in  the  sunlight  and  the 
flowers,  in  friendship  and  love,  as  in  gifts  of  their  Heavenly 
Father;    and  they   were  the  most  numerous,  because   they   obeyed 


The  Good  Shepherd  and  the  Twelve  Apoetlea.' 

the  true  laws  of  our  nature,  against  which  no  general  revolt  is 
possible.  But  they  were  not  the  most  zealous.  Those  upon  whom 
had  been  poured  out  the  wine  of  wrath  and  the  intoxication  of 
death,  cried  out,  with  Minucius  Felix:  "It  is  no  longer  a  time 
to  adore  crosses,  but  to  bear  them ; "  ^  and  they  are  the  martyrs  of 
the  persecution  which  we  are  about  to  narrate. 

II. — Kesceipts  of  Trajan,  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  Severus. 

Sophocles,  in  his  Antigone^  had  already  shown  in  magnificent 
terms  the  opposition  which  may  be  found  between  civil  law  and 
natural  law,  "between  the  decrees  of  men  and  those  ever-living 
laws  which  no  hand  has  written,  but  which  the  gods  have  engi'aved 
on  the  hearts  of  all."  The  pious  young  girl  who  braves  "the 
lordly   menaces   of  a  tyrant,  so   as  not  to   incur  the  wrath  of  the 

^  Lending  at  interest  was  considered  usury  and  condemned  under  that  title. 

^  Bas-relief  found  near  the  church  of  S.  Lorenzo  fuori  Mura.  (Bosio,  p.  411,  and  Roller, 
pi.  xliii.  tig.  2.)  Tlie  Good  Shepherd  is  represented,  in  the  centre  and  at  the  two  extremities 
of  the  bas-relief,  taking  care  of  "  his  sheep." 

'  Oetavius,  12 :  jam  nan  adoramUs,  sed  subeunda  cruces. 


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220  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

immortals,'-  already  speaks  as  the  martyrs  are  going  to  speak;  and 
we  are  with  the  poet  when  he  nobly  reclaims  the  rights  of  con- 
science. But  if  the  inspired  psalmists  are  sometimes  prophets  of 
the  future,  the  prinjce  is  always  the  man  of  the  present,  and  it  is 
his  duty  to  compel  obedience  to  the  law  which  his  predecessors 
have  bequeathed  to  him,  and  the  execution  of  which  is  demanded 
of  him  by  society. 

TertulKan  claims  from  Severus  religious  liberty  :  "  It  is 
human  right,''  he  says,  ^'jvs  humanum^  that  each  one  may  worship 
whom  he  pleases,  and  it  is  contrary  to  religion  to  constrain  to 
religion."^  Beautiful  words,  pronounced  by  the  suffering  Church, 
which  the  victorious  Church  will  repudiate,  and  which  certain  sects 
of  modem  times  still  reject,  saying  to  their  opponents:  "We  claim 
liberty  in  the  name  of  your  principle;  we  refuse  it  to  you  by 
virtue  of  ours." 

Origen  also  is  indignant  that  the  Church  should  be  absorbed 
by  the  State,  and  he  is  right,  for  the  spiritual  tribunal  ought  to 
be  shielded  from  all  constraint;  but  some  day,  the  Papacy,  with 
as  little  wisdom  as  the  Empire,  will  seek  by  an  opposite  excess 
to  place  the  State  within  the  Church. 

Minucius  Felix  in  his  OctaviuSj  the  priest  of  Carthage  in  his 
Apology,  and  with  them  all  the  defenders  of  the  new  faith,  plead 
the  innocence  of  the  Christians;  they  are  thoroughly  right.  But 
none  of  them  understand  that  fatality  of  history  which  wills,  in 
religion  as  in  political  affairs,  that  what  exists  should  seek  to 
defend  itself,  and  that  an  old  society  should  repel  those  who  pre- 
tend to  change  its  morals,  its  ideas,  and  its  institutions.  To  the 
Komans,  conservators  of  the  ancient  social  order,  the  Christians 
were  dangerous  revolutionists;  in  their  acts  of  piety  they  beheld 
sacrilege;  in  their  faith,  the  ruin  of  the  official  worship  and  of 
the  political  organization  of  which  this  worship  was  an  essential 
element.^  Hence  the  argument  of  Tertullian  demanding  that  the 
ordinary  rules  of  justice  should  be  applied  to  the  Christians  falls 
through,  in  spite  of  the  eloquence  which  supports  it.  "  All 
crimes,"  says  he,   "are  imputed  to  them,  but  they  are  interrogated 

*  Ad  Scajml.f  2 :  Non  religionU  est  soger e  religionem, 

'  .  .  .  .  SacrUegii  et  majestatis  ret  convenimur  (Tertullian,  Apol.y  10).     He  recognizes 
further  on  that  the  emperors  could  not  be  at  the  same  time  et  ChrUtiani  et  OB$are8  {ibid.,  21). 


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THE   PERSECUTION    UNDER   SEVERUS.  221 

only  on  this  topic :  ^  Are  you  a  Christian  ? '  '  Yes.'  That  is  the 
whole  examination."^  And  while  torture  is  employed  to  compel 
ordinary  culprits  to  confess  their  crime,  with  the  Christian  it  is 
made  use  of  to  obtain  of  him  his  permission,  by  abjuring  his 
faith,  that  the  judge  may  declare  him  innocent.  Does  he  persist? 
a  more  complete  investigation  is  not  necessary.  The  usual  accusa- 
tions: adoration  of  an  ass^s  head,  murders  of  children,  the  flesh  of 
whom  was  eaten,  incestuous  orgies  in  the  shades  of  night,  all  that 
is  good  for  the  populace;  the  judge  does  not  consider  it.  In 
Christianity  he  sees  only  mystic  reveries  and  socialistic  doctrines ; 
in  the  Christian  only  a  public  enemy,  with  whom  it  is  enough  to 
establish  his  identity  before  throwing  him  to  the  beasts.  The 
Catholic  inquisition  will  not  require  any  more  to  send  one  of  the 
Albigenses  or  Protestants  to  the  stake.^ 

These  persecutions,  which  excite  our  horror,  appeared  to  people 
of  that  time  merely  questions  of  public  order.  Against  the 
Christians  Bom^  did  what  modem  governments  do  against  those 
who  attack  their  essential  principle,  but  it  did  so  with  the  processes 
of  a  time  when  penal  legislation  was  lavish  of  death.*  This  is 
why  extenuating  circumstances  should  be  admitted  in  favour  of 
those  who  ordered  them*  while  reserving  a  vigorous  condemnation 
against  the  ideas  and  institutions  which  rendered  these  iniquities 
possible.  There  is  another  duty  to  fulfil,  and  this  is,  to  distinguish 
among  the  persecutors  those  who  pelded  with  regret  and  in  a 
slight  measure  to  the  passions  of  the  times,  and  those  who,  sharing 
them,  mingled  cruelty  instead  of  indulgence  with  the  execution  of 
detestable  laws.      Severus    should   be   placed    among  the  first,   for 

*  Cor^fessio  nommis  non  exammatio  crimmis  (ibid,,  ApoL,  2). 

'  By  the  declaration  of  July  Ist,  1686,  Louis  XIV.  pronounced  the  penalty  of  death 
against  those  who  should  be  found  performing  religious  services  other  than  Catholic.  (Isambert. 
Coll,  des  anc,  lots  fran^.,  vol.  xx.  p.  6.>  Down  to  Louis  XVI.  Protestants  were  deprived  of 
civil  status,  and  in  our  century  there  have  been  cases  of  auto-^-fS  in  Spain.  As  to  sorcerers, 
unhappy  fools  whom  the  Church  considered  as  imps  of  Satan,  they  were  burned  by  thousands. 
In  a  corner  of  Franche-Comt^  there  were,  from  1606  to  1636,  one  hundred  executions  and  sixty 
banishments  for  deeds  of  sorcery.  (Hist,  de  Jussey,  by  I'Abb^  Coudriet,  p.  379.)  Under 
Louis  XV.  witches  were  also  burnt  (Maury,  Magie  et  astrol.,  p.  222) ;  and  only  a  few  years 
since  some  peasants  threw  into  a  furnace  an  old  woman  whom  they  believed  to  be  a  witch.  [On 
this  question,  see  the  interesting  chapter  in  Lecky's  Hist,  of  Rationalism,  —Ed,'] 

*  This  harshness  of  penal  laws  lasted  very  long.  In  the  eighteenth  century  they  contented 
themselves  with  burning  the  books,  but  in  the  Middle  Ages  they  burned  those  who  wrote  them. 
Richelieu,  even,  had  a  poor  poet  hung  who  bad  committed  the  crime  of  some  bad  verses  against 
the  government. 


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222  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180    TO    235    A.B. 

though  he  was  less  wise  than  Hadrian  he  was  more  so  than 
Diocletian. 

Trajan  had  made  a  State  crime  of  the  public  manifestation  of 
Christian  faith ;  ^  but  he  had  interdicted  the  seeking  for  this ; 
under  Marcus  Aurelius  we  find  a  decree  stating :  '^  He  who  by 
superstitious  practices  shall  affright  the  inconstant  soul  of  men 
shall  be  banished  to  an  island."^  This  rescript  did  not  designate 
the  Christians  by  name,  but  they  were  certainly  included  among 
those  whom  it  was  to  affect.  It  was  one  step  further  towards 
persecution.  In  202  Severus  took  a  third.  On  the  banks  of 
the  Nile  he  had  placed  under  lock  and  key  the  books  of  Egyptian 
theology,  and  while  crossing  Palestine  he  had  promulgated  an  edict 
which  prohibited  Christian  and  Jewish  propagandism. 

In  all  antiquity  religion  and  the  State  had  been  so  closely 
united  that  a  Roman  could  not  comprehend  the  one  without  the 
other.  It  had  been  the  same  at  Jerusalem ;  hence  Rome  had 
officially  permitted  the  religion  of  the  Jews,  by  recognizing,  in 
the  treaties  made  with  them,  their  nationality.  It  was  easy  then 
to  apply  to  them  the  rescript  of  Severus  and  to  hold  them 
confined  to  their  race,  the  more  so  as  they  but  seldom  sought 
to  escape  from  it.  But  the  Christians  formed  a  sect  and  not  a 
nation;  they  were  recruited  from  all  parts,  even  among  the  bar- 
barians. To  enter  into  communication  with  the  enemies  of  the 
Empire  was  already  a  very  grave  matter;  but  to  induce  citizens  to 
abandon  the  national  religion  seemed  treason,  and  the  government 
would  have  desired  to  stop  the  desertion  of  these  fugitives  from 
the  Roman  fatherland. 

The  edict,  however,  did  not  go  so  far  as  to  proscribe  the  exist- 
ing Christian  communities;  it  only  tended  to  prevent  the  extension 

*  See  vol.  iv.  p.  816.  Tertulliau  (Apol.y  2)  marks  very  correctly  the  character  of  this 
rescript :  .  .  .  .  inqutreitdos  quidem  non  esse,  oblatos  vero  puniri  oportety  and  one  fact,  placed  by 
Eusebius  {HiH.  ecd.,  v.  21)  under  the  reign  of  Commodus,  shows  this  jurisprudence  in  action. 
"Apollonius,  who  was  of  the  number  of  the  faithful,  was  accused  by  a  minister  of  Satan 
at  a  time  when  that  was  not  permitted.  Perennis  commanded  the  informer  to  be  executed ; 
but  he  referred  Apollonius,  in  his  turn,  to  the  senate,  and  the  latter,  having  refused  to  renounce 
his  faith,  had  his  head  cut  off,  because  it  was  forbidden  by  the  law  to  absolve  Christians  who 
had  been  accused,  unless  they  changed  their  opinions.*'  Thus  the  prefect  of  the  proetorium 
punished  with  death  an  accuser  of  the  Christians,  which  must  have  intimidated  those  who 
might  have  been  tempted  to  follow  his  example.  But  Apollonius  having,  no  doubt,  on  this 
occasion  publicly  manifested  his  faith,  he  apphed  to  him  the  rescript  of  Trajan. 

*  Digest,  xlviii.  19,  30. 


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THE    PERSECUTION    UNDER   SEVERUS.  223 

of  them.  Now  this  prohibition  was  contrary  to  one  of  the  most 
imperative  commands  of  the  evangelical  law:  ^^Go  and  teach  all 
nations."  It  would  have  put  a  stop  to  conversions,  and  it  gave 
authority  to  take  action  against  those  who  sought  to  make  them. 

Meanwhile  the  search  for  Christians  was  not  as  yet  com- 
manded, since  TertuUian  wrote  in  peace  his  books  which  are  so 
severe  towards  the  pagans,  and  since  the  priests  could  teach, 
heretics  discuss,  believers  come  publicly,  as  did  Origen,'  to  the 
aid  of  martyrs  in  prison,  assist  them  at  the  tribunal,  encourage 
them  even  in  the  amphitheatre,  and  finally,  since,  despite  the  very 
large  number  of  bishops,^  not  one  of  them  perishes,  and  men  left 
to  the  Christians  their  chiefs  and  their  doctors,  their  assemblies  and 
their  elections,  their  schools  of  catechumens  and  their  cemeteries,^ 
that   is  to   say,  their  organization  and  their  worship.      There  were 

^  Euflebius,  Hist,  eccl.,  vi.  3. 

^  In  the  single  province  of  Africa,  Cyprian  assembled  in  council  eighty-seven  bishops  (de 
Hareticis  baptizandia,  in  Cypr.  oper.,  p.  328),  and  when  he  suffered  martyrdom  in  258,  he  was 
the  first  African  bishop  who  sealed  his  faith  with  his  blood.  The  fiery  Tertullian  lived 
undisturbed  even  to  extreme  old  age,  tutqite  ad  decrepit  am  (Btatem  (S.  Jerome,  de  Vir.  illustr.^ 
63).  The  policy  of  the  persecution  called  that  of  Severus  was  not  to  attack  any  chief,  though 
they  were  very  easy  to  be  found.  However,  two  bishops  are  mentioned  who  must  have 
perished  at  that  time,  Zoticus,  bishop  of  Comaiia  in  Cappadocia,  and  Irenseus,  bishop  of  Lyons. 
Of  the  first,  Tillemont  makes  no  mention,  and  the  Pk>llandists  say  of  him  (July  2\%€) :  vbi  et 
quo  tempore  martyrium  fecerit  fateor  mihi  kactenus  incompertum  esse.  As  for  the  second, 
S.  Cyprian  and  Clement  of  Alexandria  do  not  refer  to  him,  though  he  was  the  most  prominent 
of  their  contemporaries  ;  and  Tertullian,  who  often  copies  him,  does  not  give  him  the  title  of 
martyr.  In  one  of  his  books  written  after  the  persecution  of  Severus,  quum  furor  Severi 
restinctus  fueraty  and  at  a  later  date  than  the  year  208  (cf.  Noesselt,  de  Vera  (state  script. 
Tertull.y  in  the  Tertullian  of  (Ehler,  vol.  iii.  pp.  540  and  605),  the  priest  of  Carthage  speaks  in 
the  same  phrase  of  S.  Justin,  whom  he  styles  martyr,  and  of  Irenaeus,  of  whom  he  merely  says 
that  he  was  omnium  doctrinarum  curiosissimus  explorator  {Adv.  Talent.,  5).  If  the  bishop  of 
Lyons  had  suffered  martyrdom  Tertullian  would  have  given  to  him  the  same  title  as  to  Justin. 
The  Bollandists  are  reduced  to  saying  (June  28th):  nihil  invenimus  de  S.  Iremeo  quod  eeset 
antiquitttte  aliqua  ....  spectabile.  The  records  of  his  mart.vrdom  do  not  in  fact  exist,  and 
Gregory  of  Tours  is  the  first  who  relates  it  (Gloria  Mart.,  50).  S.  Jerome,  in  the  de  Vir.  iUustr., 
terminates  the  chapter  which  he  devotes  to  Irenseus,  the  35th,  by  these  words,  which  necessarily 
call  for  mention  of  the  martyrdom  if  it  had  taken  place :  floruit  m,axime  sub  Commodo  principe. 
True,  he  says  of  him  in  his  commentary  in  Isaiam,  64 ;  Diligentissime  vir  apostolicus  scribit 
IreruBus  episcopus  Lugd.  et  martyr,  mtUtarum  origines  explicans  heereseon.  But,  on  the  one 
hand,  this  book  of  S.  Jerome  having  been  completed  after  411,  that  is,  two  centuries  after  the 
death  of  Irenaeus,  there  may  be  in  this  an  echo  of  the  improbable  legend  reported  by  Gregory 
of  Tours,  and  which  was  at  this  epoch  already  formed.  On  the  other  hand,  these  simple  woi-ds: 
et  WMrtyr,  may  be  a  gloss  slipped  into  the  text.  We  know  what  strange  liberties  were  taken 
by  the  copyists  of  manuscript  or  by  those  under  whom  they  laboured.  The  recent  discovery  of 
three  letters  of  S.  Ignatius  would  be  a  new  proof,  if  we  may  believe  Cureton,  in  his  Corpus 
Iynatia?ium  (Berlin,  1849). 

*  The  use  of  the  cemeteries  was  not  prohibited  to  the  Christians  until  ordered  by  an  edict 
of  \aleiion.     (Eusebius,  Hist.  eccL,  vii.  11,  and  S.  Cyprian,  Epist.,  83.) 


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224  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCEiS,    180    TO    235    A.D. 

executions  to  frighten  the  Church  and  to  put  a  stop  by  means  of 
teiTor  to  its  propagandism.  But  the  strokes  fell  only  on  the  insig- 
nificant and  the  slaves,  for  whom  they  gave  themselves  little  con- 
cern. The  victims  then  were  those  who  had  come  out  of  the 
lower  classes,  and  who  in  all  revolutions  are  the  most  active,  those 
who  by  their  own  acts  designate  themselves  to  the  judge  or  to 
the  mob  by  their  ardour  in  seeking  punishment,  or  who,  denounced 
to  the  magistrate  by  personal  enemies,  defended  themselves  in  such 
a  way  as  to  bring  them  under  the  penalty  of  the  law.  But  the 
vocation  of  martyrdom  is  never  the  lot  save  of  a  small  number, 
and  informing  in  cases  of  this  nature  had  its  dangers,  because  the 
delator  was  not  sure  that  the  accused  would  not  upset  the  accusa- 
tion with  the  single  word  they  demanded  of  him:  "No,  I  am  not 
a  Chiistian!''  Now  the  informer  who  did  not  prove  his  statement 
incurred  grave  responsibilities.^ 

The  edict  of  Severus  did  not  prescribe  any  search,  so  each 
governor  enforced  it  according  to  his  own  character.  He  of  Cappa- 
docia,  irritated  against  the  Christians  who  had  converted  his  wife, 
forced  several  of  them  by  violent  tortures  to  sacrifice  to  the  gods.^ 
Lyons  had  the  same  ardour  for  idolatry  which  it  displayed  later  in 
behalf  of  the  new  faith.  If  the  tradition  of  the  Church  were 
suflScient  to  dispense  with  all  historic  testimony,  S.  Ireneeus 
perished  there;  but  his  contemporaries,  Tertullian,  Clement  of 
Alexandria,  and  8.  Cyprian,  know  nothing  of  his  martyrdom.  The 
two  great  African  cities,  Carthage  and  Alexandria,  which  were  rivals 


^  An  individual  who  accused  Severus  of  magic  before  his  elevation  to  empire  was  crucified. 
Macrinus  caused  to  be  put  to  death  the  delafores,  si  non  probarent  (Capit.,  Macr.,  12),  and 
Gratian  will  renew  this  law :  the  delator  who  does  not  prove  his  accusation  well-fouuded  shaU 
suffer  the  penalty  which  would  have  been  inflicted  on  the  guilty.  {Cod.  Theod.,  ix.  1, 14.)  If 
the  charge  was  admitted  the  accuser  received  one  fourth  of  the  property  of  the  condemned ;  it 
was  therefore  a  business  at  once  lucrative  and  dangerous.  This  legal  responsibility  explains 
why  the  judges  should  have  refused  to  receive  mere  denunciations  by  letter,  and  required  the 
presence  of  the  delator,  (See  below,  pp.  237  et  aeq.)  The  letter  of  Marcus  Aurelius  which 
circulated  in  the  Christian  schools  of  the  time  of  Tertullian  is  absolutely  false,  but  the  punish- 
ment of  the  calumniator  which  it  inflicts :  ac^ecta  etiam  accusatoribtu  damnatione  et  quidem 
tetriore  {Apol,  5),  is  a  characteristic  feature  of  the  morab  of  the  age.  The  condemned 
Christians,  being  held  as  criminab  against  majesty,  had  their  goods  confiscated  (Eusebius, 
Hist  eccL,  vi.  2),  and  we  have  just  seen  that  a  part  of  them  reverted  to  the  delator. 
But  their  poverty  rendered  this  profit  insignificant.  Hence  the  most  usual  accuser  was 
the  populace,  who  by  their  clamours  and  sometimes  by  their  acts  of  violence  provoked  an 
execution. 

*  Alexander,  bishop  of  this  province,  was  imprisoned. 


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THE    PERSECUTION    UNDER    SEVERUS.  225 

in  magnificence,'  were  two  ardent  centres  of  religious  life.^    Directly 
the  edict  of  Severus  became  known  there,  they  gave  loose  reign  to 
their  pagan  fury,  and  the  magistrates,  formally  addressed  to  fulfil 
their  legal   duty,  yielded  to  the   popular  pressure.      Many   victims 
are   mentioned  for    Egypt,'    among 
whom  was   the    father   of    Origen. 
Yet,  at  Alexandria,   Bishop  Deme- 
trius,  and  the    master  of  Clement 
and  Origen,  despite   the   ardour  of 
his  zeal,  escaped;   it  was  the  same 
in  all  the  great  cities,  at  Carthage, 
Antioch,  Smyrna,  and  Kome.     The 
clergy    of    this    latter    city     were 
already    numerous,    and  there 
occurred,    even     at    this     moment, 
angry  divisions  among  them;    none 
of   their    members   appear  to   have 
been   disturbed:    Pope    Zephyrinus 

3   n  M*  J.  i_  u.xi_i^x'  The  City  of  Antioch  personified.* 

and  Callistus,  who  was  at  that  time  ^  ^ 

very  prominent,  certainly  were  not.  In  the  province  of  Africa, 
one  of  the  latest  evangelized,  it  is  almost  all  obscure  Christians 
who  perished. 

The  persecution  began  at  Carthage  in  consequence  of  a  riot; 
the  populace  wished  to  force  the  governor  to  close  the  cemeteries 
of  the  Christians/     Before  coming  to  that,  there  had  certainly  been 

^  Herod.,  vii.  6. 

'  See  above  (p.  31),  the  riots  caused  at  Carthage  by  the  priestesses  of  the  goddess  Csdiestis. 
As  for  Alexandria,  it  was  the  great  laboratory  of  ideas  and  beliefs. 

'  It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  Christianity  was  then  very  widely  spread  in  Egypt, 
outside  the  capital,  and  whether,  consequently,  the  persecution  made  many  martyrs  there. 
Down  to  Demetrius,  who  then  occupied  the  episcopal  chair  of  Alexandria,  all  Egypt  had  had 
but  a  single  bishop  (cf.  Eutychius,  Ann.,  i.  p.  354,  Pocock's  trans.),  while  the  province  of 
Africa,  evangelized  at  so  late  a  period  (Tillemont,  Mem.  eccUs.y  i.  p.  754),  reckoned  a  very  great 
number  of  them.  But  in  Alexandria  the  persecution  was  violent.  (Cf.  Eusebius,  Hist.  eccL, 
vi.  1  :  fiaXtfrra  iirXriOvtv  it^  'AXtKavSpiiag.) 

*  Engraved  stone  (cornelian,  ^f  ^7  tw  ^°-)  o^  *^®  Cabinet  de  France,  No.  1,749  of  the 
catalogue,  and  Collection  de  Luynes,  No.  98.  M.  Chabouillet  thinks  he  recognizes  the  emperor 
Alexander  Severus  in  the  warrior  who  is  crowning  the  city.  Bronze  coins  struck  at  Antioch 
during  the  reign  of  this  prince  bear  the  same  types.  See  in  vol.  iv.  p.  667,  the  Vatican  statue 
also  personifying  the  city  of  Antioch  [or  more  strictly,  the  fortune  of  the  citj.—JEd.]. 

*  In  remembrance  of  the  ten  plagues  of  Egypt,  ecclesiastical  writers  have  maintained  that 
the  Church  has  suffered  ten  persecutions.  They  reckon  four  anterior  to  Severus :  under  Nero 
(see  vol.  iv.  pp.  506  et  seq.),  Domitian  (ibid.j  p.  726),  Trajan  (ibid.,  pp.  816  et  seq.),  and  Marcus 

VOL.  VI.  Q 


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226  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235    A.D. 

acts  of  violence  in  the  streets,  and  the  more  the  Christians  gained 
assurance  by  their  increasing  number,^  the  more  intrepidity  and 
haughtiness  they  manifested  in  their  language  toward  the  pagans, 
the  more  hateful  their  adversaries  would  find  these  men  who  seemed 
to  desire  to  set  themselves  above  other  citizens  by  manifesting  con- 
tempt for  their  gods,  their  festivals,  and  their  pleasures.^  Thus, 
when  Rome  in  204  displayed  all  its  magnificence  to  celebrate 
the  Secular  Games,^  Tertullian  had  just  written,  with  His  usual 
vehemence,  a  book  against  all  spectacles. 

The   first  martyrs   of   Carthage  were   the  twelve   Scillitans,  in 
180,*  among  whom  were  several  women.      In  the  second  combat^ 

Aurelius  (vol.  v.  pp.  220  et  seq,) ;  that  of  Severus,  which  is  known  to  no  pagan  writer,  and  of 
which  Lactantius  does  not  speak,  is  counted  the  fifth  and  represent^  as  very  violent.  It  is 
strange  that  Dion  Oassius,  so  prolix  a  writer,  has  not  once  named  the  Christians,  and  that  in  all 
the  Auffustan  History j  several  editors  of  which  lived  under  Constantino,  we  find  barely  a  few 
words  about  thenL  Evidently  these  persecutions,  which  for  fifteen  centuries  have  disturbed 
the  human  conscience,  took  place  in  the  inferior  strata  of  society,  or  at  least  did  not  agitate  the 
surface,  and,  down  to  Decius,  were  only  local  police  measures  or  popular  excesses. 

*  We  know  the  exaggerations  of  Justin  {Dial  cum  Tryph.)^  of  S.  IrenaDus  {Adv.  lusr.f  i.  3), 
and  of  Tertullian  {ad  Soap.,  2,  and  Apol.j  37) :  they  are  famous.  The  Octavius  of  Minucius 
Felix,  written  toward  the  close  of  the  second  century,  exhibits  the  Christians  as  very  few  in 
number  and  very  obscure.  At  the  middle  of  the  century  following,  Origen,  comparing  them  to 
the  mass  of  the  pagans,  yet  said  :  ^  vvv  vrdw  dkiyoi  {Contra  Cels.,  viii.  69).  In  the  province 
most  easily  opened  to  Christianity,  in  Syria,  "no  Christian  catacomb  anterior  to  the  fourth 
century,  no  well-authenticated  Christian  monument  reared  before  the  peace  of  the  Church,  has 
up  to  the  present  time  been  discovered."  (De  Vogu6,  Inscr.  sSmitiques,  p.  55.)  Still,  it  is 
certain  that  the  number  of  the  Christians  increased  greatly  during  the  long  peace  which  they 
enjoyed  between  Severus  and  Decius. 

^  The  terms  of  reproach  applied  to  the  Christians  by  the  pagans  are  enumerated  in  the 
Octaviua  of  Minucius  Felix,  by  Caecilius,  the  advocate  of  paganism. 

'  There  were  two  kinds  of  Ludi  seeculares :  those  which  took  place  every  hundred  years  at 
the  anniversary  of  the  foundation  of  Rome,  and  which  had  been  celebrated  under  Claudius  in 
the  year  of  Rome  800,  under  Antoninus  in  the  year  900,  which  they  will  still  celebrate  under 
Philippus  in  the  year  1001 ;  and  those  which,  connected  with  a  great  event  of  which  we  have 
no  knowledge,  took  place  every  110  years :  thus,  under  Augustus  in  737 ;  under  Domitian,  who 
set  t^em  forward  six  years,  in  841 ;  under  Septimius  Severus,  who  re-established  the  regular 
order,  in  957. 

*  See  vol.  V.  p.  226.  I  have  placed  their  execution  at  this  date,  following  M.  It.  Renier, 
who  has  with  correct  judgment  recognized  the  consuls  of  a.d.  180,  Prasente  II  et  Condiano 
ooss.,  in  the  consuls  mentioned  in  the  Acta  and  whose  names  have  been  corrupted  by  the 
copyists.  What  is  said  by  Tertullian,  de  Corona  {initio),  concerning  the  long  peace  which 
the  Christians  enjoyed  in  Africa  before  a.d.  202,  justifies  our  opinion.  The  Scillitan  martyrs 
appear  to  have  been  the  first  in  Africa  (Ruinart,  Acta  sincera,  p.  34),  as  those  of  Lyons  were 
the  first  in  Gaul.  Sulpicius  Severus  (ii.  46)  says  in  reference  to  the  tardy  evangelization  of 
Gaul :  Seriw  trans  Alpes  Dei  reUyione  suscepta.  On  the  order  of  proceedings  followed  in  the 
trials  of  the  Christians,  see  the  learned  paper  by  M.  Le  Blant  in  the  MSm.  de  VAcad.  des  inscr., 
vol.  XXX.  part  second.  The  author  makes  a  distinction  between  the  Acta  or  transcriptions, 
more  or  less  exact,  of  the  judicial  examinations,  access  to  which  the  Christian  sometimes 
obtained  by  payment  of  money,  and  the  Passiones,  in  which  the  historical  foundation  is 


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THE   PERSECUTION   UNDER   REVERUS.  227 

which  took  place  the  tenth  year  of  the  reign  of  Severus  (202),^ 
the  slave  Felicitas  and  the  matron  Perpetua  also  perished^  with 
others  who  made  confession. 

Their  sacrifice  is  related  at  length  in  the  Martyrology^  in 
accounts  filled  with  miraculous  visions  and  heroic  deaths.  These 
soldiers  of  Christ  were  noble  combatants,  but  of  a  sort  as  yet 
unknown.  Before  giving  rise  to  monastic  orders,  to  all  the 
macerations  of  the  flesh,  and  to  heroic  acts  of  devotion  which  are 
still  exhibited,^  they  were  the  inspiration  of  martyrs.  Eead 
the  Acts  of  S.  Perpetua.  It  has  been  said  that  certain  pages  seem 
to  have  been  written  with  a  pen  plucked  from  an  angel's  wing,  so 
touching  is  the  poetry  found  in  them.  I  grant  it;  and  if  this 
death  was  not  courted,'  if,  dragged  against  her  will  before  the 
judge,  Perpetua  refused  to  conceal  her  faith,  it  is  the  sentiment  of 
duty  and  honour  which  animates  her,  and  her  courage  is  sublime. 
But,  as  a  historian  of  human  deeds,  I  must,  in  the  saint,  recognize 
also  the  woman  who  publicly  braves  the  laws  of  her  country,  and 
must  exhibit  the  mother  abandoning  her  child,  the  daughter  exposing 
her  aged  father  to  every  insult.  ^'Have  pity  on  my  white  locks," 
said  he  to  her,  ^'have  pity  on  thy  father.  Behold  thy  mother,  thy 
brothers,  thy  son,  who  cannot  live  without  thee.  Suffer  thy  pride, 
anijnosj  to  bend;  do  not  condemn  us  all  to  mortal  woes!"''  And 
he  kissed  her  hands,  he  threw  himself  at  her  feet.  But  she 
exclaimed:  '^Depart  from  me,  ye  workers  of  iniquity;  I  know 
you  not."  The  procurator  also  cried  out  to  her:  ^^ Spare  then  thy 
father,  spare  thy  son ! "  As  a  last  trial  he  caused  her  father  to 
be  beaten  with  rods  in  her  presence.  She  persisted,  and  it  is  her 
glory,  that  also  of  the  Church  which  knew  how  to  inspire  such 
sacrifices,  and  which  gathered  the  fruit  of  them.     But,  it  must  be 


burdened  with  marvellous  legends.  The  Acta  proconstdaria  of  S.  Cyprian  (see  in  chap,  xcvi.) 
and  the  passio  of  S.  Perpetua,  give  a  good  understanding  of  these  two  kinds  of  documents.  On 
the  sources  of  certain  martyrologies,  see  another  article  of  M.  Le  Blant,  1879. 

^  Eusebius,  Hist,  eccl.y  vi.  2. 

'  Missionaries  and  sisters  of  charity. 

'  It  must  have  been,  since  the  law  forbade  searching  for  Christians,  and  only  attacked  those 
who  offered  themselves  as  martyrs. 

*  Ne  universos  nos  extermines  (Ruinart,  Acta  sincera).  Iler  father  goes  away.  "  I  thank 
God,**  she  says,  "  that  I  have  been  several  days  without  seeing  my  father ;  his  absence  permits 
me  to  enjoy  a  little  rest."  {Ibid.)  S.  Irenseus  of  Sirmium  will  speak  in  the  same  way. 
(Ruinart^  Acta  sincera ,  i.  430  et  seq.) 

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228  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180    TO    235    A.D. 

said,  this  young  woman  who  went  to  her  death  crushing  the 
hearts  of  all  her  family  is  a  hero  of  a  peculiar  nature.  She  died 
for  herself  in  order  to  live  eternally:  true  heroes  die  for  others; 
the  sister  of  charity  does  so. 

Modem  theologians  continue  to  say:  "The  question  of  salvation 
is  a  personal  question,  and  it  matters  little  that  the  family  or  the 


Burial  Vaults  (Cubicula)^  with  Fresco  Paintiugs.^ 

city  be  broken  up  by  it;"^  as  if  the  city  and  the  family  were 
not  of  divine  institution,  since  they  are  a  necessity  of  our  nature. 
Christianity  loves  death;  it  adorns  it  like  a  bride  impatiently 
awaited;  it  calls  it  life:  Vivitj  it  writes  upon  the  tomb  of  its  own, 
he  lives  for  immortality.  The  more  tears  and  broken  hearts  there 
were  around  these  voluntary  victims,  the  more  meritorious  appeared 
the  sacrifice,  and  the  higher  the  martyr  seemed  to  mount  into  the 

*  Sepulchres  adjoiniDg  the  Jewish  catacombs  of  the  Fia  Appia.     (Roller,  op.  cit.y  pi.  iv. 
No.  2.) 

*  Abb^  Freppel,  Saint  Cyprienj  p.  53 


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THE   PERSECUTION    UNDER   SEVERU8.  229 

glory  of  God,  whence  he  would  protect  those  whom  he  left  behind 
him.  Heaven  and  earth  were  henceforth  but  one  city,  having  in 
the  saints  its  patrons,  and  in  its  divine  clientage  the  company  of 
the  faithful :  ^  a  beautiful  and  poetic  belief  which  again  found 
Jacob's  ladder  with  ^^  the  angels  of  the  Lord  ascending  and 
descending  upon  it."  So  each  community  was  happy  and  proud  of 
these  immolations.  Sometimes  friends  and  neighbours,  in  their 
fierce  piety,  exalted  the  ardour  of  the  martyrs.  They  repeated  to 
them  these  words  of  S.  Paul:  '*It  is  Jesus  Christ  who  suffers  in 
you ; "  ^  they  showed  them  all  the  celestial  army  present  at  their 
triumph  and  ready  to  receive  them  into  its  glory.  Origen  urges 
his  father  to  the  execution;^  Numidius,  ^'with  a  saintly  joy," 
beholds  his  wife  burning  on  the  pile;  the  mother  of  S.  Symphorian, 
her  son  going  to  death  ;  another,  her  husband  in  the  midst  of 
tortures,  cries  to  him :  ^^  Eaise  your  eyes  on  high,  and  you  shall 
see  him  for  whom  you  fight."  The  love  of  God  replaces  in  them 
all  the  affections  which  God  has  nevertheless  imposed  in  bestowing 
them  upon  us.  Heaven  is  opened  to  their  gaze;  of  the  earth  they 
see,  they  feel  nothing,  not  even  the  iron  claws  or  teeth  of  the 
lions  which  rend  their  flesh.^  Dragged  in  the  arena  by  a  mad 
bull,  Blandina  and  Perpetua  "converse  with  the  Lord,"  and,  when 
taken  up  bleeding,  ask  when  the  combat  will  begin.  A  divine 
frenzy  had  seized  upon  them.  Man  must  have  an  ideal;  it  is  the 
honour  of  Christianity  to  have  placed  it  so  high,  when  no  one 
around  retained  any.  It  was  also  perilous  to  place  it  so  far  from 
earth,  not  from  the  enjoyments  which  may  be  found  here,  but 
from  the  duties  which  we  are  here  required  to  fulfil. 

Mysticism,  ecstasy,  hallucination,  are  three  successive  rounds  of 
the  ladder  by  which  the  soul  mounts  to  God  and  becomes  lost  in 
him,  while  yet  remaining  attached  to  the  body.  During  this 
energetic  concentration  of  the  thought  upon  a  single  object,  the 
physical  sensibility  is  abolished  by  a  sort  of  temporary  paralysis 
of  the  nervous  system,  which  causes  the  disappearance  of  even  the 

'  The  expression  is  S.  Augustine's:  ....  tanguam  patronis  (de  Cura  pro  mortuiSf  19). 
An  inscription  calls  them  ....  aptid  Deum  advocati  (De  Rossi,  Boma  sotter.,  ii.  383). 
»  2  Cor.,  I  6. 

*  Eusebiufl,  Hist,  eccl.,  vi.  2.     In  his  treatise  ad  Martyres,  27,  Origen  shows  all  heaven 
contemplating  the  combat  and  the  victory  of  those  who  confessed. 

*  Nihil  cms  sentit  in  nervOf  cum  animus  in  cah  est  (TertulUan,  ad  Mart.,  2). 


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230  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

feeling  of  pain,  as  we  suppress  it  naturally  by  anaesthetics.  This 
condition,  to-day  well-known,  is,  in  the  language  of  the  Church, 
rapture;  in  the  language  of  the  world,  the  enthusiasm  which 
makes  the  strength  of  heroes:  that  of  Mucins  Scoevola  burning  his 
hand  in  the  fire  of  the  altar,  and  that  of  martyrs  smiling  at  the 
most    cruel    punishments.       ^'Look    us    well   in   the   face,"    said    a 


Vintnoff  Scenes  on  a  Sarct^i^hagiis  in  the  I^teran  Museum.     (IloUer,  pi.  xliv.  fig.  3.) 
Symbolical  representation  of  tlie  harvest  made  hy  the  Church  **  in  the  vineyard"  of  the  lx)rd. 


martyr  to  a  pagan  present  in  the  prison   at   his  last  repast,   "  look 
at  me  well,  to  recognize  me  at  the  last  judgment." 

This  ardent  faith,  these  tragic  spectacles,  were  not  good  for 
paganism.  Conscience  revolted  at  witnessing  such  deaths,  and 
men  who  had  come  to  these  scenes  as  to  some  pleasure,  went  away 
troubled  in  heart  and  asking  themselves:  ''What  is  then  this  faith 
which  gives  so  great  courage  and  so  much  hope?"  The  blood  of 
the  martyrs  was  the  seed  of  the  Church,'  ''and  the  Church,  like  a 

*  Tertullian,  .4;>o/.,  50. 


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THE    PERSBCmON   UNDER   8BVERU8.  233 

vine  whose  shoots  are  cut  back,  became  the  more  fruitful  for  it."*^ 
Oftentimes  even  the  magistrate  would  have  wished  to  dismiss  the 
devoted^  who  came  and  demanded  death  of  him  with  the  fervour 
of  a  Hindoo  throwing  himself  under  the  car  of  the  god  of  Jugger- 
naut.' He  required  only  one  word,  an  appearance  of  submission 
to  the  law.  "Since  you  believe  in  only  one  God,  sacrifice  to 
Jupiter  simply,"  said  one.  "  Swear  by  the  only  God,"  said 
another.^  They  refuse,  and  the  Church  encourages  them  in  their 
generous  obstinacy.  Tertullian,  Cyprian,  Origen,  even  drew  up 
manuals  for  the  preparation  for  martyrdom.*  The  passiones,  read  to 
the  church,  after  the  gospel,  were  another  preparation.  What  con- 
tagious ardour  was  awakened  in  these  assemblies,  when  they  were 
there  taught  that  the  martyr  became  "the  companion  of  Christ  in 
his  suffering,"*  or  when  the  deacon  read  the  letter  of  S.  Ignatius  to 
the  Eomans,  who  would  have  desired  to  save  him  from  execution: 
"I  write  to  you  living,  but  enamoured  of  death.^  I  am  afraid  of 
your  affection !  What  is  death  for  Christ  ?  A  beautiful  sunset 
preceding  the  radiant  dawn  of  a  divine  day.     I  am  God's  wheat; 

*  Explanation  of  the  engraving  on  p.  231. — At  the  top,  on  the  left,  Jesus  at  the  tomh  of 
Lazarus;  S.  Peter  and  the  cock  announcing  the  denial;  Moses  receiving  the  Law;  in  the 
medallion,  the  persons  huried  within ;  at  the  right,  the  sacrifice  of  Ahrahani,  and  Pilate  ready 
to  wash  his  hands.  At  the  bottom,  Moses  and  the  pillar  of  fire ;  Daniel  and  the  lions ;  Jesus 
opening  the  eyes  of  a  blind  man ;  Jesus  blessing  the  bread  and  fishes. 

» S.  Justin,  Dial,  cum  Ttyph.,  p.  337  (1636). 

*  Clement  of  Alexandria,  blaming  what  he  calls  a  brutal  impatience  for  death,  adds : 
"  Their  punishment  is  not  a  martyrdom,  but  a  suicide ;  they  are  like  the  Indian  gymnosophists 
who  light  their  own  funeral  pile  **  (Strom.,  iv.  4) ;  and  the  sixtieth  canon  of  the  Council  of 
Elvira  sanctioned  this  doctrine.  This  intensity  of  the  divine  love,  which  tends  to  absolute 
separation  from  the  world  and  union  with  God,  is  a  psychological  condition  which  is  also  found 
among  the  s&fis  of  Persia  and  elsewhere.  See  the  translation  of  the  Fruit  Garden  of  Sa'adi, 
by  Barbier  de  Meynard. 

*  Acta  S.  Tarachi  in  304 ;  S.  Philoi  in  302. 

*  Le  Blant,  op.  laud.,  p.  65.  The  fourth  book  of  the  Stromata  of  Clement  of  Alexandria  is 
another.  They  even  employed,  to  prepare  the  martyrs  for  the  torture,  prolonged  fastings, 
which  heightened  the  mystical  exaltation,  and  they  served  to  martyributi  incertis  a  bountiful 
feast,  ending  with  narcotic  or  intoxicating  draughts,  so  as  to  prevent  a  failure,  by  delivering  to 
the  executioner  only  an  inert  body  which  was  no  longer  sensible  to  pain  ....  Condito  mero, 
tanquam  antidoto  pramedicatum  if  a  enervastis  ut  paueis  ungtdi^  titiUatus  (hoc  enim  ehrietas 
sentiebat)  ....  responderc  non  potuerit  amplius,  atqite  ....  cum  singultus  et  ructus  solos 
haberet  ....  discessit  (Tertullian,  de  Jejunio,  12).  S.  Augustine  (Tractatus  xxvii.  on 
S.  John,  §  12)  makes  allusion  to  this  usage  ....  quia  bene  manducaverat  et  bene  biberat, 
tanquam  ilia  esca  saginatus  et  illo  calice  ebritts,  tormenta  non  sensit. 

®  Quid  gloridsitu  quam  coUegam  passionis  cum  Christo  factum  fidsse  f  (Letters  of  Con- 
fessors at  Rome  to  S.  Cyprian :  Cypr.,  Op.,  Ep.  31 .) 

^  *Ep&v  Tov  iivoOaviiv  (Ep.  ad  Rom.).    On  the  Letters  of  S.  Ignatius,  see  vol.  iv.  p.  819,  n.  1. 


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234  THE    AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

the   teeth    of  these  beasts  will  crush   me,    and  I  shall  become   the 
purified  bread  of  the  Lord.     Ah,  let  me  enjoy  my  lions ! "  ^ 

With  the  account  of  the  tortures  they  mingled  that  of  the 
visions  which  the  martyrs  had  had  in  the  exaltation  of  faith  and 
the  fever  of  the  last  day,  or  of  those  which  the  sacred  writers 
afforded  them  to  exhibit  the  promised  reward.  ^^We  suffered," 
said  Satur,  one  of  the  companions  of  Perpetua,  ^^and  we  forsook 
our  bodies.  Four  angels  bore  us  to  the  East,  towards  an  intense 
light.  Arriving  at  a  garden  where  rose  trees  tall  as  cypresses  were 
perpetually  strewing  the  earth  with  their  flowers,  we  approached  a 
place  the  walls  of  which  seemed  made  of  light.  At  the  gate  four 
angels  were  standing;  they  clad  us  in  robes  of  shining  white,  and 
when  we  had  entered,  we  heard  voices  repeating :  ^  Holy,  holy, 
holy ! '  In  the  midst  we  saw  as  it  were  a  man  seated ;  he  had 
\diite  hair  and  the  countenance  of  a  young  man.  The  angels 
raised  us  up  and  he  gave  us  the  kiss  of  peace,  and  the  four-and- 
twenty  elders  seated  at  his  side  said  unto  us:  ^Go  and  enjoy 
yourselves.'  And,  indeed,  we  experienced  more  delight  than  we 
ever  had  in  the  flesh."  Thus,  "the  joy  of  heaven  rose  out  of  the 
dismal  prison,  and  iite  crown  of  flowers  bloomed  above  the  bloody 
thorns."*  In  this  literature  of  martyrdom  which  no  people  had 
as  yet  known,  we  find  as  ever  the  same  inability  of  the  imagination 
to  picture  the  abode  of  the  blessed,  but  it  was  no  less  a  new 
realm  of  poetry,  and  oxalted  souls  asked  nothing  more. 

The  pagans  said  of  the  martyrs:  "They  are  fools."  Bossuet, 
taking  up  the  word  to  glorify  it,  celebrates  "the  extravagance 
of  Christianity,"  and  we  still  glorify  "the  foolishness  of  the 
cross." 

To  the  ostentatious  display  of  piety  and  courage  by  the  con- 
fessors, which  provoked  the  pagans  and  impelled  them  to  new 
act«  of  violence,  Clement  prefers  the  prudence,  which,  without 
cowardly  concessions,  avoids  peril;'  S.  Cyprian  invites  martyrdom, 
but   does  not  wish  to   hasten  to  meet  it ;  '^   S.  Peter  of  Alexandria 

*  'Ovaifiijv  rSfv  9r\p'nov  {ibid!).  It  cantiot  be  doubted  that,  in  tbe  narrative  of  tbe  theatrica!! 
suicide  of  Peregrinus,  Lucian  had  in  mind  the  martyrs  who  also  "  offered  themsehres  volun- 
tarily to  death." 

*  See,  m  addition,  the  fine  peroration  of  the  de  MortaUtate  of  S.  Cyprian. 

'  Strom,f  iv.  4, 17.    He  himself  retired  from  Alexandria  at  the  moment  of  persecution. 

*  See  S.  Cypr.,  Bp,,  88 :  Letter  to  the  Ulergy  and  the  People  of  Carthage, 


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THE    PERSECUTION    UNDER   SEVERU8.  235 

cveil  consents  that  his  life  should  be  ransomed  by  payment  of 
money, ^  and  the  letters  of  ransom  were  numerous.^  Besides,  Jesus 
himself  had  retired  at  the  approach  of  his  enemies,  ^'because  his 
hour  was  not  yet  come,''  and  he  had  said  to  his  disciples:  ''And 
when  they  persecute  you  in  this  city,  flee  into  the  next."  These 
words  have  become  the  doctrine  of  the  Church. 

We  admire  the  holy  enthusiasm  ''of  the  soldiers  of  Christ," 
these  sacrifices  which  are  the  highest  honour  of  human  nature, 
and  we  know  that  martyrs  make  causes  to  triumph.  History  must 
make  great  account  of  this  singular  condition  of  souls,  because  it 
explains  the  approaching  revolutions;  but  it  is  its  province  also  to 
note,  as  one  of  the  important  facts  in  human  annals,  the  rise,  in  the 
western  world,  of  a  new  spirit,  whose  influence  still  endures  and 
which  has  impelled  so  many  holy  men  to  break  with  the  duties  of 
social  life.  When  the  persecutions  shall  have  ceased,  this  exclusive 
love  of  heaven  will  continue  to  foment  disgust  with  earth,  and  will 
call  out  from  the  age  infinite  multitudes  of  men,  who,  by  remaining 
in  it,  would  have  aide^d  in   rendering  its   life   more   pure.      Before 

*  Paciscares  cum  delatore,  vel  ndlitef  velfurunculo  aliquo  prtesida  (TertnlliaD,  de  Fuga,  12). 
Communities  obtained  immunity  from  disturbance  by  payment  of  a  sum  of  money;  "in  which/' 
says  Peter  of  Alexandria  {Can.,  12),  "  they  have  displayed  more  attachment  to  Jesus  Christ 
than  to  their  money,  carrying  out  the  precept  of  Scripture :  '  The  ransom  of  a  man's  life  is  his 
riches.'"  {Vrov.,  xiii.  8 ;  cf.  Tillemont,  Hut.  des  JEmp.,  vol.  iii.  p.  104.)  He  says  in  addition  : 
Its  ffui  pecuniam  dederunt  ....  crimen  intendi  non  potest  {ibid.,  apud  Labbe,  Condi.,  vol.  i. 
p.  955 ;  cf .  Fleury,  Hist,  eccles.,  vol.  ii.  p.  61,  and  Le  Blant,  Polyeucte  et  le  z^le  tSmSraire,  in  the 
M&m.  de  VAcad.  des  inscr.,  vol.  xxviii.  2nd  part). 

*  "  The  bishops,**  says  Fleury  (ibid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  86),  "  approved  this  conduct.*'  Not  all,  but 
the  usage  was  certainly  common,  f or  Tertullian  with  his  customary  vigour  attacks  {de  ¥uga,  12) 
"  those  who  purchase  by  tribute  the  right  to  be  a  Christian,"  and  S.  Cypriao,  in  his  letter  to 
Antonianus,  bishop  of  Numidia,  enumerating  the  various  lapses,  finds  that  the  least  culpable  is 
that  of  the  Christian,  who,  having  had  occasion  to  procure  for  himself  a  letter  of  ransom,  goes 
to  the  magistrate,  or  sends  another  in  his  place,  and  says  to  him :  "  Being  a  Christian,  it  is  not 
permitted  to  me  to  sacrifice  unto  idols,  but  I  give  money  not  to  do  it."  Is  cui  libellus  acceptus 
est  dicit  ....  cum  orcasio  libelli  fuisset  oblata  .  ,  .  .  ad  m>agistratum  veni  ....  dare  me 
kocpr<^mium  ne  quod  non  licet  fadam  (Cypr.,  Ep.,  53,  ad  Ant. ;  edit.  Baluze).  He  often  speaks 
of  the  libellatici  (see  ibid.^  index,  at  this  word).  By  these  letters,  in  which  there  seems  to  have 
been  quite  a  traffic,  the  Christians  acknowledged  that  they  had  sacrificed  to  the  gods,  although 
they  had  not  done  so,  or  the  judge  declared  that  those  who  had  obtained  them  should  no  longer 
be  disturbed  (Lambert,  Rem.  sur  les  oeuvres  de  S.  Cyprien,  p.  353),  which  reminds  us  of  our 
cards  of  citizenship  during  the  Eeign  of  Terror.  In  both  cases,  tolerance  was  purchased  by 
payment  of  money.  This  was  not  a  tribute  similar  to  the  didrachma  of  the  Jews  under  the 
Romans,  and  the  haratch  of  the  Greeks  under  the  Mohammedans ;  the  government  had  imposed 
no  tax  on  the  Christians:  nihil  -nobis  Caesar  indixit  in  hunc  mx>dum  stipendiarice  sectce  (Ter- 
tullian, de  Fuga,  12).  It  was  an  extortion  of  the  magistrates,  at  which  the  government 
willingly  closed  its  eyes.  This  ransom,  being  in  fact  a  penalty,  appeared  to  satisfy  the  law  and 
dispense  with  shedding  the  blood  of  inoflFensive  men. 


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236  THE    AFRICAN   AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180    TO    235    A.D. 

Constantine,  this  spirit  makes  martyrs;  after  him,  it  will  make 
monks,  occupied  at  first  with  their  salvation,  afterwards  with  that 
of  others,  and  who  will  then  be  organized  in  powerful  communities 
in  the  bosom  of  civil  society,  to  lead  and  dominate  it.  Without 
the  monastic  institution,  which  grows  out  of  the  idea  which  the 
martyrs  followed,  Catholicism  would  not  have  become  a  persecutor 
in  its  turn ;  at  least  it  would  not  have  been  so  with  the  results 
which  the  monks  infused  into  persecution. 

To  the  survivors  of  exile,  of  prison,  of  tortures,  a  sanctity 
was  accorded  which  induced  some  to  usurp  episcopal  functions,  by 
giving  letters  of  communion  to  lapsiy  that  is,  to  brethren  who  had 
denied  their  faith.  There  were,  at  Carthage  and  Bome,  great 
debates  on  this  subject,  to  which  the  letters  of  S.  Cyprian  bear 
testimony.  It  was  the  commencement  of  a  poetical  and  dangerous 
doctrine,  that  of  indulgences,  founded  on  the  merits  of  saints. 

As  to  the  confessors  whom  the  magistrates  had  not  spared, 
their  death  being  for  the  faithful  a  matter  for  edification  and  just 
pride,  the  sacred  writers  of  after  ages  have  strangely  multiplied 
their  number.  The  murder,  for  instance,  of  the  9,000  Lyonese 
slaughtered  with  their  bishop,  S.  Irenseus,  by  the  legions  of 
Severus,  and  the  rivers  of  blood  which  flow  through  the  city,^  are 
a  legend  which  those  even  do  not  venture  to  accept  who  would 
be  most  disposed  to  swell  the  number  of  the  martyrs.  The  wise 
Tillemont  does  not  mention  them;  it  seems  to  be  no  better  assured 
that  Pope  Victor  suffered  martyrdom  at  Rome,'  that  Severus  put 
to  death  S.  Andeeolus  by  ordering  his  head  to  be  cleft  into  foiu- 
parts  by  a  wooden  sword,  and  the  manner  in  which  he  quotes  the 
Acts  of  8.  Felicitas  and  of  her  seven  sons,  indicates,  under  his 
prudent  reserve,  doubts  which  are  justified  by  the  strange  details 
given  by  the  sacred  writer.' 

The  friendship   which  unites  the  interlocutors  of  the  dialogue 

^  .  ,  .  ,  et  per  plateaa  flumtna  currerent  de  sanguine  (Gr^g.  de  Tours,  i.  27). 

'  Fleury  (HUU  eccl.,  i.  p.  522)  makes  him  die  a  natural  death,  and  this  is  the  conclusion  to 
be  drawn  from  chap.  xxiv.  of  S.  Jerome,  in  his  (2e  Vir,  illtutr.,  devoted  to  S.  Victor. 

*  Like  Tillemont,  M.  De  Rossi  places  the  martyrdom  of  S.  Felicitas  and  of  her  seven  sons 
under  Marcus  Aurelius.  M.  Aub6  (Hist  des  persSc.,  pp.  438  et  seq,)  combats  this  opinion ;  with 
the  utmost  rigour  he  would  consent  to  date  back  the  punishment  of  Felicitas  to  the  reign  of 
Severus.  But  the  reasons  which  he  gives  do  not  allow  him  to  accept  the  authenticity  of  these 
Acts,  I  reject  then  this  legend  from  the  reign  of  Severus,  as  M.  Aub^  has  rejected  it  from  the 
reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius. 


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THE   PERSECUTION   UNDER   SEVERU8.  237 

of  Minucius  shows  that  Christians  and  pagans  could  live  in  very 
good  understanding,  and  many  governors,  seeing,  like  Seneca's 
brother  and  Festus,  with  the  utmost  indifference  practices  which 
did  not  endanger  the  public  order,  favoured'  the  commerce  of  letters 
of  ransom.  Tertullian  cites  some  who,  gentle  by  nature  and  sceptics 
in  religion,  repudiated  the  obligation  to  put  innocent  beings  to 
death,  and  determined  to  go  back  to  Kome.  "without  a  spot  of 
blood  on  their  fasces.^  Asper  declared  openly  that  he  did  not  like 
that  kind  of  trials.  When  he  had  to  judge  a  Christian,  he  appeared 
to  make  him  put  the  questions,  and  was  satisfied  with  the  slightest 
word  and  set  him  free  without  compelling  him  to  offer  sacrifice. 
Severus  furnished  them  the  reply  which  permitted  the  judge  to 
discharge  them.  A  Christian  is  brought  before  Pudens  with  a 
letter  which  denounced  his  faith;  he  tears  up  the  letter^  sets  the 
captive  at  liberty,  and  declares  that  he  will  not  receive  an  accusa- 
tion except  when  the  accuser  shall  present  himself  at  his  tribunal, 
in  conformity  with  the  law.  Candidus  treated  them  as  embroiled 
in  some  quarrel,  and  sent  them  back  to  their  towns,  with  these 
words  :  "Go  and  arrange  your  disagreements  with  your  fellow- 
citizens.''  "Unhappy  men,"  said  another  to  them,  "if  you  want  to 
perish,  have  you  not  cords  and  precipices  enough?"  and  he  drives 
them  from  his  tribunal.  The  governor  of  Syria  opens  to  Peregrinus 
the  doors  of  the  prison,  "  knowing  him  to  be  foolish  enough  to  go 
to  death  through  vain-glory."^  One  day,  in  Africa,  where  Severus 
was  proconsular  legate,  the  populace  demanded  of  him  the  death  of 
several  Christians,  members  of  the  senate  of  Carthage;  he  resisted 
the  clamours  of  the  infuriated  mob,^  and,  when  emperor,  recalled 
Antipater,  a  governor  of  Bithynia,  who  appeared  to  him  too  ready 

*  Ad  Scapul.,  4.  A  Christian  magistrate,  Studius,  possessing  the  jtu  ffladii,  asked  S.  Am- 
brose if  it  was  contrary  to  the  faith  to  execute  the  guilty ;  the  saint  answered :  Scio  plerosqtie 
gentilium  glorian  solitos,  quod  tncruentam  de  administratione  provmcicUi  securim  revexerint 
(Epist,  XXV.  §  3). 

'  TertuUian,  ad  Scap.,  5.  Lucian,  Peregr,,  14.  This  is  the  person  who  burned  himself  at 
Olympia.  He  had  been  a  Christian,  and  at  that  time  regarded  as  a  confessor.  The  account  of 
Lucian  at  once  proves  the  fellowship  of  the  Christians  and  the  tolerance  of  the  magistrates,  who 
suffered  the  faithful  to  attend  their  imprisoned  brethren  day  and  night. 

^  Tertullian,  ibid.y  4,  and  Fleury,  Hist,  eccl,  vi.  32.  Tertullian  relates  (de  Cor.  Mil.,  i.)  that 
one  day,  as  by  order  of  the  emperor,  they  were  distributing  largesses  in  camp  to  the  soldiers, 
who,  according  to  custom,  came  to  receive  them  wearing  a  crown  of  laurel  on  their  heads,  one 
of  them  presented  himself  holding  his  crown  in  his  hand.  At  first  they  point  their  fingers  at 
him,  then  they  rail  at  him,  and  finally  grow  indignant.     The  clamour  reaches  the  tribune. 


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238  THE    AFRICAN    AND    iSYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

to  make  use  of  the  sword,^  very  probably  against  the  Christians. 
The  recall  of  a  governor  was  an  extreme  and  rare  measure;  this 
was  the  more  significant  as  this  Antipater  had  been  one  of  the 
ministers  of  the  piince.  Unfortunately,  Severus  could  not  see  or 
hear  everything,  and  the  law,  defied  by  Christians  eager  for  martyr- 
dom, or  too  scrupulously  obeyed  by  heartless  magistrates,  sent  to 
execution  men  whose  only  crime  was  praying  to  God  in  a  different 
way  from  their  persecutors. 

Certain  Jews  have  replied  to  the  maledictions  of  Christians: 
"You  hate  us  for  having  condemned  Jesus?  What  would  you  be 
if  we  had  not  condemned  him?"  We  might  also  repeat  the  words 
of  TertuUian  and  say :  "  Would  the  Christian  soil  have  possessed 
its  fruitfulness  iJ  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  had  not  irrigated  it?" 
Two  verities  which  do  not  efface  the  stain  imprinted  by  the  death 
of  the  just,  or  gather,  which  show  the  sad  necessities  imposed  on 
man  by  evil  institutions.  In  Judsea,  public  duties  and  religious 
power  were  in  the  same  hands.^  Pagan  Eome  also  suffered  from 
their  union,  the  Middle  Ages  from  their  rivalry;  in  one  case,  cruel 
persecutions;  in  the  other,  bloody  wars,  everywhere  and  always 
death  sown  broadcast  in  the  name  of  Him  who  made  life.  At  no 
one  of  these  epochs  did  they  know  the  liberty  of  conscience,  which 
separates  the  priesthood  and  the  empire  without  arming  the  one 
against  the  other.     Blessed  be  those  who  have  given  it  unto  us! 

"  Why  do  you  not  do  as  the  others  ?  "  said  he  to  the  soldier.  "  I  cannot,"  he  aiiswered,  "  I  am 
a  Christian.**  It  was  a  breach  of  discipline  and  a  refusal  of  obedience.  The  soldier  was  sent  to 
prison.  "  He  there  awaits,"  says  TertuUian,  "  the  largess  of  Christ,"  donativum  Christi.  Had 
tlie  persecution  been  violent,  this  heroic  bravado  would  have  been  immediately  punished  by  a 
military  execution.  Notice  that  the  Christians  of  Carthage  blamed  the  soldier,  but  that 
TertuUian  gives  his  approval  and  proposes  him  as  a  model. 

*  .  .  .  .  SoKag  Sk  IroinoTspov  xpri(r9at  ry  ^t'^et  rfjv  Apxv^  irapiKvOr]  (Philost.,  Vit.  Soph.,  ii.  24. 

*  According  to  Leviticus  (xxiv.  10),  the  blasphemer  is  stoned  and  all  the  people  take  part 
in  his  execution.    This  is  harsher  than  the  crimen  mc^estatis  of  the  Romans. 

'  RoUer,  pi.  xliii.  No.  3. 


The  Good  Shepherd  between  the  sheep  and  the  goats,  that  is,  between  the  good  and  the  wicked.' 


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CHAPTER  XCII. 

CARACAT.TiA,  MAdUBUB,  AND  ELA&ABALUS  (211-222  A.D.). 

I. — Caracaxla  (February  2,  211 — April   8,  217);  the   Right  of 
Citizenship  accorded  to  all  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Empire. 

SEVERUS   has   long   occupied   our   study;   he   deserved   it.      We 
shall  pass   rapidly    over    his   successors   until    we    again    find 
princes  and  events  worthy  to  arrest  our  attention. 
The  father  of  Caracalla  had  done  everything 
to  maintain  good  feeling  between  his  sons.     He 
recommended   it   to   them    by   wise   counsels,   by 
the    example    of    the    affectionate    union    which 
reigned  in  the   paternal   mansion,  and  he  urged 
the  senate  and  the  people  to  remind  the  young 
princes    repeatedly   of  the   necessity   of   it.      Each  year  there   was 
celebrated   throughout   the   Empire  ^'the   festival 
of  brotherly  love,''  Philadelphia  ;'^  the  senate,  by 
solemn  sacrifices,   besought   the  gods  to  maintain 
it,'    and    Severus    caused    medals    to    be    struck  ' 
which   represented    his   two   sons   about   to   clasp 
hands,    with   these   words    as    legend:     Perpetua 
Concordia.^      It    is    said    that    during    his     last 

^    X        XT-  XT-         j«  -L-  1      Concordia  Auffustorum.' 

illness    he    sent  to    them    the    discourse    which 

SaUust  places  in  the   mouth  of  Micipsa  dying,  in  order  to  exhort 

*  Coin  of  Perinthus  struck  under  Septimius  Severus,  with  the  legend,  (&IAAAEA<I>E1A 
IlEPlNeiQN  NEOKOPON,  around  the  urn  of  Games  placed  upon  a  table  and  bearing  the  word : 
nveiA,  the  Pythian  games.    Large  bronze. 

*  Especially  in  the  Hellenic  East.  Eckhel,  vii.  231;  Mionnet,  iv.  p.  128,  No.  179. 
M.  Dumont  (fyhibie  attiqtie,  vol.  i.  p.  299)  thinks  that  the  ^tXaSeXipeia  were  constituted  for 
Marcus  Aurelius  and  Verus,  perhaps  even  earlier. 

'  Dion,  Ixxvii.  1. 

*  Eckhel,  vii.  231.  A  bronze  of  Severus  has  also  for  a  legend:  Concordia  Auguatorum ; 
another  of  Geta  bears:  Concordia  aterruB;  this  was  the  official  mark. 

*  Oamcnlla  and  Geta  sacrificing  on  a  tripod.     Bronze  coin  of  Geta. 


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240  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

his  children  to  union.  He  himself  and  every  one  else  was  aware 
of  the  mistake  he  had  committed  in  styling  them  Augtisttis,  when 
the  one  had  not  over  the  other  the  ascendancy  of  age  and  authority 


Caracalla  in  Youth.* 

« 

that   Marcus   Aurelius   had   had   over  Verus.      These   equal  rights, 
granted^  to   young  men  hardly   out  of  their   childhood/  promised 

^  Bust  of  the  Campana  Museum ,  found  in  the  ruina  of  the  Circufi  Maximus.  (Henry 
d^EscampSy  op.  cit,  No.  106.) 

*  Except  that  of  sovereign  pontiff,  which  was  not  divisible.  As  to  the  rest,  from  the  first 
day  Caracalla  conducted  himself  as  if  he  alone  had  the  power  (Dion,  Ixxvii.  1),  and  Geta  barely 
enjoyed  the  imperial  honours. 

•  Caracalla,  bom  April  4th,  188,  had  not  yet  completed  his  twenty -third  year ;  Geta,  born 
May  27th,  189,  was  only  twenty-two.  The  name  CaracallOf  or  Caracallus  (Dion,  Ixxviii.  8), 
came  to  him  from  a  Gallic  garment,  a  sort  of  tunic  with  a  hood,  which  he  distjibuted  among 
the  common  people  of  Rome  and  to  his  soldiers,  the  carcicalle,  which  the  cenobites  of  Thebais 
afterwards  adopted  as  their  costume.  His  real  name  was  Bassianus.  Severus  substituted  for 
it  that  of  Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus,  which  the  coins  and  the  inscriptions  of  monuments  give 


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CARACALLA,  MACRINUS,  AND  EL  AG  AB  ALUS,  211  TO  222  A.D.    241 

the  Empire  a  tragedy;  it  occurred  after  a  few  months.  Herodian 
shows  them  at  Eome  dividing  between  them  the  soldiers  and  the 
palace,  of  which  they  make  two  fortresses,  where  they  fortified 
themselves,  the  one  against  the  other,  and  ending  by  proposing  to 
divide  the  Empire : 
Asia  to  Geta,  the  rest 
to  his  brother,  each 
with  one  half  of  the 
senate,  the  armies,  and 
the  fleets.  "But  will 
you  also  divide  your 
mother,"  said  Julia  to 
them.  Dion  is  not 
aware  of  any  such 
scheme,  the  announce- 
ment of  which  would 
have  produced  in  Rome, 
where  our  historian  was 
at  that  time,  a  pro- 
found sensation.  The 
idea  of  establishing  two 
Roman  Empires  could 
not  have  occurred  to 
the  politicians  of  that 
time,  but  it  is  curious 

that   it   should  have  ^^ 

originated  in  the  head 

„  1     i      •   •  1  OetSL  clothed  m  the  paludamentumJ 

of    a   rhetorician,    who, 

not  finding  the  history  of  the  family  of  Severus  sensational 
enough,  utilized  all  the  processes  of  the  schools  to  render  it  more 
dramatic  to  his  taste. 

Caracalla  made  use  of  more  simple  means.  One  day,  having 
enticed  his  brother  into  the  chamber  of  Julia,  under  pretext  of  a 
reconciliation,  he  slew  him  in  the  arms  of  their  mother,  who   was 

him.  He  was  appointed  Ccesar  m  196,  pontiff  in  197,  Augustus  in  198,  consul  at  sixteen,  in 
202.    In  the  inscriptions  his  name  is  usually  written  Aurellius.    Of.  C,  I.  X.,  iii.  p.  1,114. 

^  Museum  of  the  Louvre.  Bust  in  coraUite  marble,  found  at  Qabii  in  a  perfect  state  of 
preservation.  The  busts  of  Geta  are  very  rare,  Caracalla  having  commanded  that  the  statues 
of  his  brother  should  be  destroyed.    (^Monum,  Gab,,  No.  4,  and  Clarac,  No.  97.) 

VOL.  VI.  K 


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242  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

covered  with  blood  and  wounded,  he  then  hastened  to  the  camp  of 
the  preetorians  to  secure  a  place  of  safety  by  purchasing  that  venal 
band.  He  told  them  he  had  just  escaped  death  through  the  pro- 
tection of  his  gods,  and  a  large  donative  paid  them  the  price  of 
blood.  The  legion  of  Albano,  more  faithful  to  the  memory  of 
Severus,  for  some  time  closed  its  gates  to  the  murderer:  gold 
finally  opened  them  to  him. 

Since  the  victim  now  became  the  assassin,  Geta  was  declared 
a  public  enemy,  and  his  name  was  erased  from  all  the  monuments, 

even  from  the  Arch  of  Septimius  Severus, 
on  which  traces  of  it  are  yet  to  be  seen. 
It  was  a  crime  to  pronounce  his  name, 
even  in  the  comedies,  where  it  was 
customary  that  some  slave  should  bear  it 
always,  and  even  in  wills.  If  a  legacy 
had  been  made  to  an  old  servant  so 
named,  the  deceased  indeed  escaped  the 
wrath   of  Caracalla,   but   not  his   fortune. 

The  Arch  of  Septimius  Severus.         ,,,  r,,mi  iii 

which  was  confiscated.  They  would  have 
us  believe  what  Dion  relates  of  the  terrible  dreams  in  which  Geta 
appeared  to  him,  threatening,  with  sword  in  hand ;  in  which  he 
heard  his  father  cry  out  to  him:  "I  will  kill  thee  as  thou  hast 
killed  thy  brother ! "  But,  seeing  that  he  consecrated  in  the  temple 
of  Serapis  the  sword  which  had  served  him  for  the  accomplishment 
of  the  crime,  we  must  think  that  he  carried  this  remembrance  very 
lightly.     (February,  212.y 

To  the  senate,  Caracalla  justified  himself  by  citing  the  example 
of  Eomulus,  and  no  one  was  inclined  to  contradict  the  old  legend 
which  he  then  revived.  At  the  end  of  his  speech  he  declared 
that  he  recalled  all  those  in  exile.  It  was  a  promise  of  clemency; 
on  the  morrow  the  friends  of  Geta  perished  in  great  numbers.^  The 
soldiers  were  let  loose ;   in  slaying  they  found  pleasure  and  profit, 


'  The  apotheosis  of  Geta,  which  he  is  said  to  have  had  pronounced,  has  been  imagined  to 
furnish  occasion  to  make  the  play  upon  words :  sit  divtis  non  sit  vivus  (Spart.,  Oeta^  2).  No 
document  taken  from  inscriptions  or  coins  justifies  the  assertion  of  Spartian.  Of.  Eckhel,  yii. 
234.  As  to  the  interpretation  given  by  Mommsen,  of  inscription  No.  1,464  of  the  C  /.  Z., 
vol.  iii.,  I  do  not  think  it  well  founded. 

*  Dion  (Ixxvii.  4)  goes  so  far  as  to  speak  of  20,000  Caesarians  and  soldiers,  partisans  of 
Qeta,  who  are  reported  to  have  been  slaugrlitered  in  the  palace. 


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CAKACALLA,    MACEINUS,    AND    ELAGABALU8,    211    TO    222    A.D.         243 

for  they  pillaged  the  houses  of  those  condemned  and  even  of  those 
who  were  not.  From  the  house  of  Cilo,  formerly  prefect  of  Rome, 
whom  Caracalla  styled  his  father  and  whom  he  saved  from  their 
hands,  they  carried  off  gold,  silver-plate,  clothing,  and  furniture. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  terror  which  they  inspired,  they  took 
ransoms,  and  exacted  payment  for  blows  which  they  were  not  to 
stiike.  They  killed  in  behalf  of  the  emperor  and  also  on  their 
own  account.  Caracalla  must  have  abandoned  to  them  the  prefects 
of  the  praetorium.  One  of  them  was  Papinian,  whom  an  ancient 
writer  calls  "  the  asylum  of  law  and  the  treasury  of  juristic 
science,"  ^  and  whom  our  Cujas  regarded  as  ''  the 
greatest  of  the  jurisconsults  who  have  been  or 
who  will  ever  be.''  ^  It  is  said  that  he  had 
enraged  the  prince  by  refusing  to  dishonour  him- 
self, as  Seneca  had  done  under  Nero,  by  an  apology 
for  the  fratricide.  If  the  story  is  true,  and  there 
are  reasons  for  admitting  it,  it  was  well  to  end  ..Escuiapius  and  Teies- 
thus;  the  great  jurisconsult  was  himself  a  martyr  S^cTi'll^r 
to  duty.*  His  son  and  Pertinax's,  a  grandson  of  ™^  pp^c^)^  ^^^' 
Marcus  Aurelius,  a  daughter  of  that  prince,  who 
had  dared  to  weep  for  Geta,  a  nephew  of  Sever  us,  a  Thrasea,  etc., 
met  the  same  fate.  Dion  had  drawn  up  the  list  of  the  senatorial 
victims;  it  has  been  lost,  but  we  know  that  it  was  long:  the  first 
crime  necessarily  involved  many  others. 

With  the  emperor,  by  nature  base  and  wicked,  ''  who,"  says 
a  contemporary,  "  never  loved  any  one,"  "*  the  reign  of  Oommodus 
recommenced:  the  same  orgies  at  the  palace,  the  same  massacres 
of  men  and  wild  beasts  at  the  circus,  the  same  insults  to  the  senate, 
the  same  exactions  under  mjrriad  forms.  We  must  believe  that, 
like  so  many  other  emperors  who  came  into  power  young,  he  had 
intermittent  fits  of  insanity. 

We  know,  in  fact,  that  Caracalla  was  diseased  in  mind,  as  well 

'  Spart.,  Sev.,  21. 

*  In  procemio  ad  Qiusst.  Fapin. 

^  Spartian  {Car,,  8)  and  Aur.  Victor  (de  Ccbs.,  xx.)  reject  this  story,  saying  that  it  was  not 
among  the  duties  of  the  prefect  of  the  prsetorium  to  compose  a  discourse  for  the  emperor. 
Doubtless,  but  Papinian  was  a  relative  of  Qeta,  and,  besides,  enjoyed  a  high  reputation  ;  the 
apology  which  Caracalla  demanded  of  him  would  certainly  have  produced  a  great  effect  in  the 
interest  of  the  murderer. 

*  Dion.  Ixxvii.  11. 

r2 


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244  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180    TO    235    A.D. 

as  in  body  :  the  great  number  of  coins  of  his  which  are  in 
existence,  with  the  image  of  the  "healing"  gods,  attests  his  efforts 
to  rid  himself  of  some  secret  malady.^  He  loved  to  cause  fear, 
and  studied  to  give  himself  a  fierce  air,  which  his  busts  have  pre- 
served :    they   flattered  him  by  trembling  before  him.      A  consular 


Caracalla.     (Bust  of  the  Museum  of  Naples.)     [Evidently  a  diflFerent  person  from  the 

bust  on  p.  24i).—i:d.] 

having  said  to  him  that  he  resembled  at  all  times  a  man  in  a 
rage,  he  took  that  for  an  eulogium  and  sent  him  1,000,000 
sesterces.^  Before  the  senators  he  never  ceased  to  glorify  Sulla, 
so  harsh  towards  the  Conscript  Fathers  of  the  Republic,  or  extolled 
his  compatriot  Hannibal,  so  terrible  to  Rome.^  And  he  did  indeed 
make  them  really  tremble,  for  he  organized  a  vast  system  of  espion- 
age by  means  of  soldiers  charged  with  police  duties.     Through  fear 

*  Dion,  Ixxvii.  15 ;  Eckhel,  vii.  212  et  seq. 
'  Dion,  Ixxvii.  1 1 . 

•  Herod.,  iv.  14. 


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CARACALLA,    MACRINUS,    AND   ELAOABALUS,    211    TO    222   A.D.         245 

lest  a  subaltern,  by  some  inopportune  severity,  might  discourage 
their  zeal,  he  reserved  to  himself  the  cognizance  of  complaints  pre- 
ferred against  them,  and  the  judgment  of  the  disciplinary  penalties 
which  they  might  incur.  He  intended  to  protect  the  men  whom 
he  had  made  his  eyes  to  see  and  ears  to  hear,  even  when  there 
was  nothing  either  to  see  or  to  hear.*  Hence  every  one  found 
himself  at  the  mercy  of  these  agents  of  low  degree,  who  were 
assured  of  impunity,  from  whom  a  denunciation  cost  fortune  or  life. 
When  he  did  not  take  the  life  or  property  by  sentence  of 
death  or  of  confiscation,  he  ruined  by  capri- 
cious exactions.  "He  placed  us  imder  con- 
tribution,'^ relates  Dion,  '^  for  the  provisions 
which  he  distributed  to  the  soldiers  or  sold 
to  them,  like  a  tavern  keeper.  When  he  set 
out  from  Rome  we  had  to  prepare  for  him,  at 
our  expense,  sumptuous  lodgings  along  the 
route,    even    for    the    shortest    ioumeys,    and     The  Grand  Circufl,  on  a 

,  .  ^  "^  Largre  Bronze  of  Caracalla. 

sometimes  in  places  where  he  was  not  to  pass.  (SPQR.  optimo  prin- 
In  the  cities  where  it  was  supposed  he  would 
remain  some  time,  it  was  circuses  and  amphitheatres  that  we  were 
obliged  to  construct.  In  all  that,  he  had  but  one  purpose,  to  ruin 
us;  he  often  repeated:  ^No  one  but  myself  ought  to  have  money, 
so  that  I  may  give  it  to  my  soldiers.'  He  was  accustomed  to 
notify  us  that  he  would  at  daybreak  administer  justice  or  attend 
to  public  affairs,  and  he  kept  us  standing  until  after  mid-day, 
sometimes  even  until  night,  without  even  receiving  us  under  his 
vestibule."  And  while  the  "very  illustrious"  awaited  a  look,  a 
word  from  the  master,  he  was  conducting  chariots,  fighting  with 
gladiators,  getting  intoxicated,  or  mixing  wine  in  craters  to  send 
to  the  soldiers  of  his  guard  in  full  cups,  which  the  senators, 
parched  with  thirst  and  the  heat  of  the  sun,  could  not  even  detain 
on  their  passage.^  Sometimes,  adds  Dion,  he  administered  justice, 
and  Philostratus  reproduces  one  of  these  audiences,  which  assuredly 
lacks  gravity,  but  at  which  the  prince,  this  time,  at  least,  did  not 
lack  good  sense.* 

'  Dion,  Ixxvii.  17. 

'  Id.,  ibid. 

'  Vita  Soph.,  ii.  30.     The  Sophist  Philiscus  claimed,  by  virtue  of  being  a  professor  in  the 


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246  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235   A.D. 

The  debauchee  wished,  like  Domitian,  to  assume  the  character 
of  an  austere  reformer.  He  punished  adultery  with  death,  although 
the  law  did  not  exact  this  severity,  and  caused  four  vestal  virgins 
to  be  buried  alive,  whom  he  pretended  had  violated  their  vow. 
One  of  them,  whom  he  had  attempted  to  seduce,  cried  out  on  her 
way  to  punishment:  "Csesar  well  knows  that  I  am  still  a 
virgin."^ 

Tyranny  this  time  was  not  of  profit  to  the  provinces ;  they 
had  to  suffer  all  the  exactions:  crown  money  frequently  required, 
gratuitous  gifts,  new  imposts,  old  ones  augmented,  perhaps  the 
fabrication  of  base  money  to  pay  his  debts.^  He  doubled  the  fees 
for  manumissions,  legacies,  and  donations,  abolished  inheritances  ab 
intestate  and  the  immunities  granted  in  these  cases  to  near  relatives 
of  the  deceased ;  and  finally  he  declared  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Empire  citizens.^  Some  have  seen  in  this  rescript  a  grand  measure 
of  equity,  or,  at  any  rate,  the  completion  of  the  revolution  com- 
menced by  Caesar:  it  was  a  fiscal  expedient.  The  peregrini  con- 
tinued to  pay  their  former  contributione,  and  they  were  henceforth 
subject  to  the  tributes  which  had  been  for  the  cives  the  release 
from  tiie  land-tax  and  the  capitation.*   This  reform,  which  extended 

university  of  Athens,  vacationem  a  publicis  mtmenbus.  Oaracalla  terminated  the  discussion  by 
saying,  as  was  just:  Nolim  ob  breves  atque  miseras  oratiunculas  civitates  privare  munera 
praettturis,  rwv  Xtirovpyriaovnav.  But  another  day  he  did.  the  contrary,  granting  the  vacatio 
inunerum  to  Philostratus  of  Lemnos  for  a  dedamatiou.    (Ibid,) 

^  Dion,  who  reports  these  words,  yet  supposes  her  guilty.  (Ixxvii.  16.) 
'  There  certainly  were  great  monetary  changes  under  Oaracalla.  We  know  that  he  reduced 
the  aureus  from  « to i,  or  an  intrinsic  value  of  26'08  to  2256,  and  that  he  first  fabricated, 
in  enormous  quantities,  the  argenteus  Antoninianus,  debased  coin,  that  is,  of  copper  with  a 
mixture  of  silver.  The  Antoninianus,  which,  from  its  normal  weight  of  silver,  should  have 
been  worth  more  than  the  denarius,  about  lOd.,  soon  came  to  be  only  silvered  copper.  This 
falsification  doubtless  commenced  under  Oaracalla,  for  Dion  (ibid,,  14)  formally  accuses  this 
prince  of  having  issued  coins  of  silvered  lead  and  gilded  copper ;  several  medals,  which  give  to 
Alexander  Seveirus  the  title  of  restitutor  mon^xB,  indicate  a  reform  which  justifies  tbe  state- 
ment of  Dion.  There  is,  besides,  in  the  Oollectiou  of  Vienna,  a  plated  aureus  of  Oaracalla. 
(Ecihel,  i.  p.  115.)  The  obligation  to  pay  the  impost  in  gold  also  dates  probably  from  this 
time ;  at  least,  it  appears  established  under  Elagabalus.  (Hist.  Aug.,  Alejc.,  88.)  One-half 
upon  discharges  had  moreover  always  been  paid  in  this  manner,  awum  vicesimarittm  (Livy, 
xxvii.  10). 

•  In  orbe  Romano  qui  sunt,  ex  const,  imp.  Antonin.  dves  romani  effeeti  sunt  (Ulpian,  in  the 
Digest,  i.  5, 17 ;  Novell.  Justin.,  Ixxviii.  6). 

*  That  is  to  say,  one-twentieth  of  the  manumissions,  legacies,  and  donations.  Dion,  Ixxix. 
9,  and  this  work,  vol.  iii.  p.  743;  vol.  iv.  p.  14.  Nor  were  the  provincials  subjected  to  the 
requirements  of  the  laws  in  respect  to  their  inheritances ;  he  took  away  the  caduca  from  the 
public  treasury,  ararium,  to  assign  them  to  the^ci^,  er  treasury  of  the  prince :  Omnia  caduca 
fisco  vindicantur,  servatojure  antiquo  Hbtris  et  parentibus  (Ulpian,  Reg.,  xvii.  2). 


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CARACALLA,    MACRINU8,    AND    ELAGABALUS,    211    TO    222    A.D.         247 

to  all  the  provinces  the  benefit  of  the  Eoman  laws,  and  consequently 
the  right  of  appeal  to  the  emperor,  did  not  modify  the  ancient 
categories  of  cities:  free  cities,  federated,  Latin  colonies  and  those 
of  Italic  right,  etc.,  which  subsisted  long  after.  Caracalla  himself 
made  new  ones :  he  granted  the  jus  Italicum  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Antioch  and  Emesa.^  One  of  these  persistent  distinctions  was 
however  effaced:  he  admitted  Alexandrians  into  the  senate  of 
Rome,  which  had  up  to  that  time  been  closed  against  them. 

Nor  was  the  status  of  persons  modified  by  this  measure.  The 
condition  of  the  slave,  the  colonist,  the  freedman,  the  foreigner 
established  in  the  Empire  or  enrolled  in  its  auxiliary  troops, 
remained  the  same :  ^  there  were  merely  additional  imposts  and  a 
new  class  of  aliens.  But  a  numerous  class  of  citizens  gained  a 
great  deal  by  the  decree  of  Caracalla.  The  custom  of  gratuitous 
distributions  was  extended  to  all  the  cities  possessing  the  right  of 
Roman  citizenship.  They  had  held  it  in  honour  to  imitate  the 
charitable  institution  of  their  metropolis,  and  we  have  found,  even 
in  Palmyra,  which  became  an  Italic  colony,  tesserae  for  the  distri- 
bution of  grain.^  When  there  were  none  but  citizens  in  the 
Empire,  the  poor  of  the  provincial  cities  participated  in  the  benefit 
of  the  public  aid.  8.  Augustine  sees  only  this  result  of  the  edict, 
and  it  seems  to  him  a  very  happy  one.  "This  was,"  says  he,  "an 
excellent  and  very  humane  measure,  for  it  enabled  the  common 
people,  destitute  of  land,  to  obtain  supplies  furnished  by  the 
common  fimd."^  When  Maximin  took  possession  of  the  municipal 
funds,  it  is  noticed  that  he  seized  even  the  money  that  served  to 
pay  for  the  distributions  of  grain.*^ 

Some  of  these  jurisconsults  who  wrote:  "Food  must  be  given 
to  the  poor,"   doubtless  foresaw   that   the   decree   would  have  this 


>  Digest,  1.  15. 

^  Diocletian  gave  later,  in  208,  the  right  of  citizenship  to  sons  of  veterans  bom  of  foreign 
mothnTs,  pereffrini  juris  feminaSf  C.  I.  L.,  iii.  p.  900.  The  capitulated,  the  Junian  Latins,  those 
whom  a  condemnation  deprived  of  the  right  of  citizenship,  foreigners  established,  willingly  or 
by  force,  in  the  Empire  or  serving  in  its  troops,  perhaps  the  inhabitants  of  countries  united  to 
the  Empire  after  CaracaUa,  these  formed  a  new  class  of  aliens,  placed  between  the  cive^  and  the 
harbari,    Cf .  Accarias,  Pricis  de  droit  remain,  i.  p.  94,  and  Madvig,  Vtltat  romain,  p.  36. 

'  See  above,  p.  84,  the  proof  of  the  extension  of  this  custom. 

*  .  .  .  .  gratissime  atque  humanissi7n€  /actum  est,  ut  .  .  .  .  pleba  ilia,  qua  suos  agros  non 
Itoberet,  de  publico  viveret  (de  Civit.  Dei,  v.  17). 

^  Herod.,  vii.  3. 


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248  THE    AFRICAN   AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

merit ;  but  not  so  Caracalla,  though,  like   his  father,  he  was  very 
liberal   in  the  distribution  of  provisions.      The   determining  motive 
for  him  was  the  fiscal  reason,  for  his  need  of  money  was  extreme. 
The  immense  treasure  left  by  Severus  had  been  quickly  dissipated. 
"Nothing  more  remains  to  us,"  said  the  prudent  Julia  one  day  to 
him,   as    she   vainly    attempted   to   instil    a    little   order   into   these 
prodigalities    and    into  this   deranged   brain;    "just    or    unjust,    all 
our   revenues   are    exhausted." 
"Have  good  courage,   mother; 
so  long  as  we  have  this,  money 
shall  not  be   lacking;"   as  he 
spoke  he  patted  his  sword. 

His  own  was  not  to  be 
greatly  feared,  but  he  had  that 
of  his  soldiers.  Severus  had 
held  them  in  restraint:  his 
son  gave  them  loose  rein.  He 
put  in  practice  the  •  maxim 
attributed  to  his  father: 
"  Make  the  soldiers  content 
and  laugh  at  the  rest."  His 
innumerable  victims  had  left 
behind  them  relatives  and 
friends     who     might     avenge 

them.         All,      therefore,      were     Caracalla  crowned  with  Laurel  and  wearing  the 

hostile  to  him,  except  those  to  ^Egis.^ 

whom  he  said:  "It  is  for  you  that  I  reign;  my  treasures  are 
yours."  And  they  might  well  believe  it,  seeing  themselves  daily 
gorged  with  gold.  Their  yearly  pay  was  increased  seventy 
millions  of  drachmas,^  which  the  ordinary  revenues  of  the  State 
were  no  longer  sufficient  to  pay.  He  adopted  another  measure, 
disastrous  to  discipline.  The  legions  dwelt  in  camp  the  whole 
year  under  tents;  he  allowed  them  to  take  up  their  winter  quarters 
in    the    neighbouring    cities,^    which    they     treated     as     conquered 

^  Cameo  No.  251  of  the  Cabinet  de  France,  Sardonyx  of  three  layers,  1ft  in.  by  IJ. 
Portrait  bearing  very  slight  resemblance — [except  to  that  above,  p.  240. — Ed.']. 

*  Dion,  Ixxviii.  86 ;  of.  Ixxvii.  24,  where  the  figures  for  the  augmentation  of  the  aQ\a  rnt 
arpartiag  are  probably  inverted. 

>  Ixxviii.  8. 


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S  ^     0  (■      W.  K  k  \  N  P  K  n ,      .   H  I  I   I   I  I   P     'I       » 


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•    il'i  rs      (•!  >  " 


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PI    I 


KuuELi  DkL  D0S80  piiixit  Imp.  Fraillery.  Dambourgbz  chroinoUtfi 

TREASURE     FROM     TARSIS 

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CARACALLA,  MACRINUS,  AND  ELAGABALU8,  211  TO  222  A.D.    249 

countries,   ruining  their  hosts,  and  themselves  losing,  in  a  life   of 
debauchery,  what  warlike  qualities  remained  to  them. 

One  thing  which  the  mercenary  soldier,  without  a  country,  as 
the  Koman  soldier  had  now  become,  loves  as  much  as 
gold,  is  war,  that  intoxicating  game  of  life  and  death,  in 
which  he  always  hopes  to  win;  the  licence  of  an  army 
on  an   expedition  and  the   glutting  of  brutal  passions, 
disguised  by  a  halo  of  glory.      Caracalla  had  promised     Alexander 
to  lead  them  to  this  chase  of  men  and  booty:  "I  wish     Taiismauic 
to  end  life  in  war,"  said  he;  "it  is  a  fine  death; "^  and 
he  had  continually  on  his  lips  a  name  long  held  up  by  the  Greeks 
in  opposition  to  the  most  glorious  names  of  Rome,  that  of  Alex- 
ander.    At  the  epoch  of  Polybius,  his  compatriots  avenged 
themselves    for  their    recent    defeat    by    saying   to    the 
Romans:  "It  is  to  Fortune  that  you  owe  your  successes; 
Alexander  owed  his  to  his  genius."      Later,  they  again    Taiiamamc 
repeated :    "  The  Parthians,  whom  you  have  been  unable  gQ^^th'the 
to  vanquish,  were  but  the  smallest  of  the  peoples  sub-     i^*™^' 
jugated  by  him."      Thus  the  remembrance  of  the  hero       aaes- 
of  the  Hellenic  race  took  possession  of  the  mind  of  Csesar 
and  of  Trajan.      These    great  captains  would    have  been  glad  to 
repeat  his  conquests,   to   establish  their    legionaries    in    the    cities 
built  by  his  veterans  on  the  banks  of  the  Oxus, 
and  they  would  have  deemed  the  Roman  Empire 
complete    had    they    given    it    for    its    Eastern 
limit   that  of  the  Macedonian   empire.      But  as 
the    old  spirit  of    Rome    gave    way    before  the 
advancing  encroachments  of  Hellenism,  Alexander 
ceased  to  be  a  rival  and  became  a  fellow-citizen, 
whose    glory  now  formed    part  of  the    national 
glory.     He  was  raised  to  a  place  of  dignity:  he  Medal  of  Alexander  on  a 
came  to  be  a  god,  and  the  terrible  soldier  was  £?£^^^"S^ 
transformed  into  a  beneficent  genius  who  warded       Antiq.,^g.3U.) 
ofiE  disastrous   influences,    aK^UaKo^.     Medals   of    gold    and    silver, 
stamped  with  his  likeness,  served  as  talismans.      "They  protect," 
says  a  writer  of  the  Augustan  History ^^  "in  every  act  of  their  lives, 

'  Dion,  Ixxvii.  3. 
'  Tyr.  tng.,  14. 


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250  THE   AFRICAN    AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235   A.D. 

those  who  wear  them."  Caracalla  did  more:  he  pretended  that 
the  soul  of  the  hero  had  passed  into  his  own/  and  to  prove  it  he 
trained  war-elephants  and  organized  a  Macedonian  phalanx.'  The 
latter  creation,  however,  was  less  a  passion  for  imitation  than  the 
completion  of  a  reform  commenced  long  before.  Instead  of  regular 
armies  to  be  fought  with  scientific  tactics,  the  Komans  now  had  to 
repulse  the  impetuous  attacks  of  unorganized  barbarians  and  the 
fleet  cavaliers  of  Parthia.  Before  the  elephants  and  the  phalanx  of 
Pyrrhus '  they  had  abandoned  their  ancient  order  of  battle  in  close 
order  and  dense  columns.  Their  adversaries  changing,  they  resumed 
it,  so  that  the  individual  fury  might  break  against  an  impenetrable 
mass.  This  reform  had  begun  in  the  wars  in  Britain ;  *  later, 
Arrian*^  had  distinctly  established  the  principle  of  the  formation  in 
phalanx  of  eight  men  deep  without  interval,  with  a  ninth  line  of 
archers,  the  cavalry  and  military  engines  in  the  rear  and  on  the 
wings.     This  will  hereafter  be  the  disposition  of  the  legions. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  year  212  Caracalla  went  to  Gaul.  He 
caused  the  governor  of  Gallia  Narbonensis  to  be  put  to  death,  and 
disturbed  these  provinces  by  violating  we  know  not  what  rights  of 
cities,  perhaps  the  rights  of  those  who  refused  the  onerous  gift  of 
the  jui  civitaiis.  A  serious  malady,  and  doubtless  also  a  desire  to 
inspect  the  defences  of  the  Rhine,  detained  him  on  this  side  of  the 
Alps.  In  February,  213,  he  was  back  again  in  his  capital,^  which 
he  beheld  for  the  last  time. 

He  had  promised  his  soldiers  expeditions,  and  the  Empire  had 
need  to  strike  some  blow  in  the  direction  of  the  Danube  and  the 
Rhine,  where  were  forming  some  powerful  confederations,  which  we 
shall  study  later.  One  of  these,  that  of  the  Alemanni,  who  make 
their  appearance  then  for  the  first  time,  surprised  the  passage  of 
the  fortified  line  which  covered  the  offri  DecumateSj  and  a  large 
body  of  cavalry  bore  conflagration  and   death  into  this  outpost   of 

*  Dion,  Ixxvii.  7-8.     He  was  called  ^tKaXt^avSpdrarog. 

^  [Neither  of  which  ever  won  a  victory  for  Alexander. — Ed.'] 

^  This  change  was  anterior  to  Pyrrhus;  but  the  new  organization  was  consolidated  and 
improved  in  this  war.  See,  in  our  first  volume,  the  reforms  of  Camillus  and  the  creation  of  the 
legion. 

*  Under  Paulinus  and  Agricola.    (Tac.,  A^ric,,  35;  Dion,  Ixii.  8.) 

*  In  136,  Acies,  15. 

*  We  have  in  the  Code,  vii.  16,  2,  a  rescript  dated  from  Rome,  February  5lh,  213.  But 
there  may  be  an  error  in  this  date.     Cf.  Eckhel,  vii.  pp.  210,  211. 


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CARACALLA,  MACRINUS,  AND  ELAGABALUS,  211  TO  222  A.D.    251 

Italy  and  Gaul.  Before  the  end  of  213  ^  Caracalla  led  his  troops 
against  the  invaders  and  vanquished  them  on  the  banks  of  the 
Main,  where  their  women  renewed  the  acts  of  heroic  ferocity  which 
Plutarch  attributes  to  the  women  of  the  Cimbri,  unless  the  account 
of  Xiphilin  be  a  classical  reminiscence.  There  is  some  question 
about  other  successes  in  the  direction  of  Rhsetia.  The  Osrhoenian 
archers,  who  formed  pait  of  the  Koman  army,  had  the  honour  of 
the  campaign;  which  leads  us  to  suppose  that  the  enemy  were 
neither  very  numerous  nor  very  terrible.^  Meanwhile  the  report  of 
these  successes  resounded  afar:  peoples  established  at  the  mouths 
of  the  Elbe  and  on  the  North  Sea  sent 
deputations  to  the  emperor  to  request  his 
friendship  and  subsidies,  which  he  granted.' 

The  Alemanni,  rendered  prudent  by  their    "^^^^     ^-H.  J^ 
defeat,  kept  quiet  for  twenty  years.     Dion 

, ,  A    1       •  .t  CaracaUa  Germanicus.^ 

accuses  the  emperor  of  having  thus  pur- 
chased peace  from  the  Germans.  We  have  several  times  explained 
tiiat  it  was  good  policy  to  win  over  the  barbarian  chiefs  by  pre- 
sents, to  avoid  sudden  irruptions  and  the  useless  wars  which  they 
entailed.  There  is  then  no  occasion  to  blame  Caracalla  for  having 
pursued  this  course,  at  least  if  he  did  not  purchase  this  peace  too 
dearly.'  It  enabled  him  to  levy,  amongst  the  Alemanni,  auxiliary 
corps,  one  of  which  formed  his  body-guard.  We  should  even  be 
reduced  to  praising  his  conduct  towards  the  army,  if  we  did  not 
see  in  it  popularity-hunting  and  base  flattery.  He  shared  all  the 
fatigues  of  his  soldiers.  Was  it  necessary  to  excavate  a  ditch, 
build  a  bridge,  construct  a  roadway,  do  some  laborious  work:    he 

*  At  least  we  possess  coins  of  this  year,  on  which  he  bears  the  name  of  Germanicus.  (See 
above,  and  Eckhd,  vii.  210,  222.    Of.  Or.-Henzen,  No.  6,507.) 

^  These  archers,  who  were  unknown  to  the  ancient  legions,  assumed  daily  more  importance 
in  the  army,  where  a  certain  number  of  soldiers  of  this  kind  were  necessary,  for  General  De  Reffye 
has  demonstrated  that  an  arrow  still  has  good  effect  at  130  and  140  yards.  It  was  not  a 
weapon  with  which  a  battle  might  be  won,  but  it  was  a  missile  very  useful  at  a  certain  moment 
of  action. 

*  Dion,  Ixxvii.  14. 

*  ANTONINVS  PIVS  AVG.  GERM.,  around  the  head  of  Caracalla  wreathed  with  laurel. 
On  the  reverse,  Serapis  standmg,  and  the  legend  :  P.  M.  TR.  P.  XXI  COS.  IlII  PP.  Coin 
of  silver;  Cohen,  No.  143.  For  the  name  of  Antoninus  assumed  by  Caracalla,  see  above, 
p.  240,  n.  8. 

^  Macrinus,  his  murderer,  it  is  true,  accuses  him  of  liaving  dispensed  as  much  in  pensions 
to  the  barbarians  as  for  the  pay  of  the  army  ;  this  is  absurd.     (Dion,  Ixxviii.  17.) 


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252  THE   AFRICAN   AND    SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO    235   A.D. 

was  the  first  to  set  the  example.  He  had  the  commonest  dishes 
served  up  for  him,  eating  and  drinking  from  wooden  bowls ;  he 
shared  the  coarse  bread  of  the  troops ;  oftentimes  he  himself 
crushed  his  portion  of  wheat,  kneaded  the  dough  into  a  loaf  and 
placed  it  in  the  oven.  He  dressed  like  the  poorest  soldiers:  hence 
they  called  him  their  comrade,  and  he  was  extremely  proud  of  it. 
He  rarely  went  in   a   litter  or  on  horseback ;    he  carried  his  arms, 

and  sometimes  even  the 
ensigns  laden  with  orna- 
ments of  gold,  the  weight 
of  which  caused  the  most 
robust  centurions  to  sink 
under  it.^  Hadrian, 
marching  with  bared 
head  in  front  of  his 
legions,  was  a  general 
always  obeyed;  Caracalla, 
kneading  his  bread,  is 
grotesque  and  destroys 
discipline  by  losing  the 
respect  of  his  soldiers. 

They  tell  us  still  of 
barbarians  massacred  by 

A  Tempest  (after  the  Virgil  of  the  Vatican).  treason,      of     a     king      of 

the  Quadi  whom  he  caused  to  be  put  to  death,  of  a  war  which, 
according  to  the  wish  of  Tacitus,  he  kindled  between  the  Vandals 
and  the  Marcomanni,  of  successes  against  the  Sarmatians  in  Dacia 
and  against  the  Goths,  whose  name  then  appears  for  the  first  time.^ 
This  is  much  obscurity  about  all  this,  but  it  reveals  an  intention 
of  rendering  secure  the  northern  frontier  of  the  Empire.  "  After 
having  reorganized  the  army  of  the  Danube,"  says  Herodian,  "he 
passed  into  Thrace  and  there  made  numerous  regulations  for  the 
cities,"  as  he  had  already  done  in  Gaul,  and  as  he  was  about  to 
do   in  Asia.      What  the  regulations  were  we  have  no  knowledge; 

*  Herod.,  iv.  7.    Dion  agrees  with  him. 

'  They  were  scouts  preceding  the  body  of  the  Gothic  nation,  which  was  then  approaching 
from  the  Euxine,  but  had  not  yet  arrived,  unless  it  be  necessary  to  transform  these  Goths  of 
Caracalla  into  Get®  who  inhabited  both  sides  of  the  Danube.  Dion  (Izvii.  6)  gives  this  name 
to  the  unsubjected  Dacians. 


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CARACALLA,  MACRINUS,  AND  ELAGABALUS,  211  TO  222  A.D.    255 

but  the  fact  is  to  be  noted,  for,  having  doubtless  been  conceived 
in  a  spii-it  contrary  to  the  local  liberties,  they  must  have  hastened 
the  hour  when  these  liberties  disappeared. 

He  crossed  the  Hellespont,  nearly  perishing  in  a  tempest,  and 
repaired  to  Pergamus,  in  order  to  get  -^sculapius  to   heal  him  of 
his  secret  infirmity.     He  submitted  to  all  the  prescriptions  then  in 
use  for  wonderful  cures.     A  miracle  would  this  time  have  been  of 
importance  and  of  excellent  profit,  but  it  could  not  be  effected  by 
ordinary  procedures:    the  emperor  was  too  much   in  public.      The 
god   turned   a   deaf    ear    and   Caracalla    retained   his   disease.^     At 
Troy  he   crowned  with  flowers   the  tomb   of  Achilles  and  desired 
that   he  also   might  have  a   Patroclus.     His  freedman  Festus  was 
chosen  to  play  the  dangerous  part  of  friend 
to    the    hero.     The    new    Patroclus   in   fact 
died  some  days  aftei-wards,  which  gave  the 
prince  an  opportunity  to  repeat  the   funeral 
scenes    described    by    Homer:     Festus    had 
been  poisoned  for  this  performance. 

He    passed  the   winter  of  214-215    at 
Mcomedia,  where  Dion,  our  principal  guide 

for  this  history,  was   with  him.     The   Par-  ^g^\«  of  PergamuB,  wi^  the 
thians  were  then  wasting  in  internal  feuds  and  Teiesphorus. 

the  last  remnant  of  their  life:  the  occasion  was  propitious  for 
attacking  them.  He  arrogantly  reclaimed  from  them  two  refugees 
whom  they  immediately  gave  up,  and  this  docility  took  away 
for  the  moment  all  pretext  for  war.  Meanwhile  victories  were 
necessary  to  him.  The  king  of  Osrhoene  governed  his  country  for 
the  benefit  of  Kome.  Edessa,  its  principal  city,  situated  on  the 
route  of  caravans,  at  the  foot  of  a  cliff  which  bore  the  acropolis 
and  from  which  issued  an  abundant  supply  of  water,  was  and  still 
is  an  important  stategic  point,  the  centre  of  defence  for  Upper 
Mesopotamia.  This  king  had  entered  into  compromising  relations 
with  the  Persians:  what  these  were  is  not  known.  Along  this 
remote  frontier  friendships  were   fluctuating.     Caracalla  resolved  to 

*  At  this  visit,  Pergamus  at  least  gained  great  privileges,  which  Macrinus  revoked.  Texier 
has  found  in  all  Asia  Minor  the  ruins  of  only  two  amphitheatres,  at  Cyzicus  and  Pergamus, 
vol.  ii.  p.  227.  The  amphitheatre  at  Pergamus  is  very  small,  184  by  121  feet.  The  waters  of 
the  stream  which  flows  across  it  could  be  stopped  for  nautical  games,  crocodile  combats,  or 
nymphs  playing  on  marine  shells,  as  Martial  indicates,  de  Spectac.,  26. 


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256  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   236   A.D. 

suppress  this  tributary  state :  he  persuaded  the  king  to  come  and 
meet  him,  cast  him  into  prison,  and  made  a  Koman  colony  of  his 
capital.  The  affair  was  insignificant,  but  the  suppression  of  an 
oriental  king  always  occasioned  more  clamour  than  in  the  West, 
and  then  Abgarus  probably  had  a  well-filled  treasury.^  Caracalla 
employed  the  same  method  of  procedure  with  respect  to  the  king 
of  Armenia,  then  at  variance  with  his  son.  He  invited  them  to 
choose  him  as  arbiter,  and  when  they  had  come  he  treated  them  as 
he  had  the  king  of  Osrhoene.  But  the  Armenians  did  not  allow 
themselves  to  be  captured  so  easily  as  their  prince:  they  destroyed 
a  Roman  army  sent  against  them. 

The  senators,  whom  Caracalla  reproached  for  their  idleness, 
while  he  was  exposing  himself  in  their  behalf  to  fatigues  and 
dangers,  naturally  applauded  these  lofty  exploits.  The  surname 
Parthwm  was  decreed  to  him,  and  they  terminated  all  the  accla- 
mations in  his  honour  by  the  wish  that  his  reign  might  endure  a 
hundred  years.  He  did  not  feel  himself  to  be  less  odious,  and 
wrote  to  them  from  Antioch:  "I  know  that  my  exploits  are  dis- 
pleasing to  you ;  but  I  have  arms  and  soldiers.  So  I  am  not 
disturbed  by  what  you  think." 

In  Antioch,  he  had  come  in  search  of  pleasures;^  in  Alex- 
andria, where  he  arrived  at  the  end  of  the  autumn  of  215,'  he 
sought  for  vengeance.  The  Alexandrians,  a  frivolous  and  jeering 
race,  gave  to  Julia  the  surname  of  Jocasta,  the  incestuous  spouse 
of  her  son,  the  mother  of  two  hostile  brothers;  they  called  Cara- 
calla the  very  great  Getic,  maximus  Gettctis,  a  cutting  allusion  to 
an  exploit  which  had  not  been  accomplished  in  the  country  of 
the  Getse,  and  they  laughed  at  this  ugly  man,  undersized  and 
bald,  old  before  his  time,  who  pretended  to  act  the  great  heroes, 
Achilles    and    Alexander.       These    doings    were    reported    to    the 

*  This  suppression  did  not  last  long,  for  we  afterwards  find  kings  at  Edessa.  The  sup- 
pressed dynasties  sometimes  were  converted  into  Roman  functionaries.  A  descendant  of  Herod 
was  proconsul  of  Asia  about  135,  and  a  Julius  Antiochus,  of  the  royal  race  of  Commagene,  was 
consul  and  one  of  the  Arral  Brothers.  (Bull,  de  corr.  HelUn.,  1882,  p.  291.)  At  the  other 
extremity  of  the  Empire,  the  country  of  the  Gallimci  and  the  Asturians  was  separated,  in  216, 
from  Hispania  Citerior.  This  was  merely  a  dismemberment  of  a  province.  (C  /.  Z.,  vol.  ii. 
2,661.) 

*  Antiochenses  colonos  fecit  salvis  tributis  {Digest y  1.  16,  8,  §  5).  He  granted  to  them,  as 
also  to  the  Byzantines, ^tira  vetusta.    (Spart.,  Car.,  1.) 

»  Eckhel,  ui.  215. 


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CARACALLA,  MACRINUS,  AND  ELAGABALUS,  211  TO  222  A.D.    257 

emperor.  When  he  approached  the  cit)^  the  most  prominent 
citizens  went  forth  to  meet  him,  bearing  in  their  hands  the  sacred 
objects,  as  if  their  gods  wished  to  do  honour  to  the  new  god  who 
was  coming.  Caracalla  received  them  well,  and,  in  derision  of  the 
old  and  sacred  laws  of  hospitality,  he  made  them  sit  at  his  table, 
and  then,  at  the  termination  of  the  feast,  ordered  them  to  be  put 
to  death.     During  the  execution  the  soldiers  seized   their  arms  and 


CaraceJIa  as  a  W^arrior,*  Caracalla  as  an  Apple-seller.^ 

rushed  into  the  city.  The  squares,  the  principal  streets,  the  chief 
edifices,  were  occupied;  he  himself  took  his  station  in  the  temple 
of  Serapis  and  from  there  organized  the  massacre.  The  slaughter 
continued  through  many  days,  without  distinction  of  age,  condition, 
or  sex.  What  was  the  number  of  the  victims  ?  Immense,  for 
Alexandria  was  an  ant-hill  of  men  and  an  opulent  city,  where  the 
soldier  struck  at  random  and  pillaged  in  security.  The  temples 
even,  those  sacred  banks  in  which  private  persons  often  deposited 
their  riches,  were  not  spared.     The  carnage  ceased  only  when,  from 

*  Grotesque  statuettes  of  the  Museum  of  Avignon.     (Ch.  Lenormant,  Nouveaux  M&moires.) 
VOL.  VI.  S 


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258  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO    235   A.D. 

weariness   and   disgust,   the   sword   dropped   from   the   hand   of  the 
murderers,  sated  with  blood  and  booty. 

In    announcing    this    exploit    to    the    senate,    "  the    Ausonian 

monster"    said:     ''As   to   the   quantity   and   quality   of   those    who 

have  perished,  it  matters  little,  for  they  all  merited  the  same  fate/ 

The     public     conscience     was    perhaps    in    secret    indignant ;    but, 

oflScially,    the   senators   commemorated    this    new 

species    of    victory  by   a    coin    representing    the 

prince  trampling  Egypt  under  his  feet. 

Caracalla  then  resumed  his  ideas  of  conquest 
(216).      He  sent  to  demand  of   the  king  of  the 
Parthians  the  hand  of  his  daughter,  and  on  his 
CaracaUa  tramming    refusal,  crossod  the  Tigris,  captured  Arbela,  where 
i!^p  un  er  is   ee .    ^^  flxxug  to  the  winds  the  ashes  of  the  kings, 
and  ravaged    a    part   of    Media.      The   enemy,    astonished    at  this 
sudden    aggression,    had    offered    no    resist  mce.      After  this    easy 
success   the    emperor    returned    to    Mesopotamia    and 
went  into  winter-quarters  in  Edessa  to  consult  there 
the  oracle  of  the  god  Lunus;  but  while  he  was  seek- 
ing the  future  he   lost  the  present:    on   his   way   to 
CarrhsB   he   was   slain    by    one   of  those   men    whose 
ti^e  of  the  Victory   appetites  he  had  inordinately  aroused — a   soldier   dis- 
the  Parthians   Contented    at   not   having    been    appointed   centurion. 
thifa^MeLvima).   ^^^   occurrcd   April    8,    217,    whcu    he    was    barely 
01^^/217''^  '°   twenty-nine  years  old.^ 

The  Eomans  had  divinities  whom  they  called  ^Hhe 
Terrible,"  Birce,  avenging  powers  which  always  exist  for  princes, 
for  expiation  always  follows  great  crimes  and  ends  by  overtaking 
those  who  have  committed  them,  or  their  posterity. 

Julia  Domna  was  then  at  Antioch.  Up  to  the  last  hour  of  Cara- 
calla she  had  possessed  supreme  power,  but  she  had  also  endured 
supreme  anguish:  during  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  Eoman  world 

*  Dion,  Ixxvii.  22,  whom  I  follow  always  in  preference  to  Herodian. 

'  PM.  TR.  P.  XVIII  IMP.  Ill  COS.  nil  PP.  SO.  Caracalla  trampling  under  foot  a 
crocodile,  symbol  of  Egypt,  and  receiving  two  ears  of  corn  from  the  hands  of  Africa.  Large 
bronze.    Col)en,  No.  474. 

*  Zosimus  does  not  believe  that  Caracalla  was  killed  by  Macrinus :  "  The  author  of  his 
death,"  he  says,  "  was  never  known."  Herodian  (iv.  12)  gives  us  to  understand  that  there  was 
a  conspiracy  among  the  chiefs  of  the  army,  and  Spartian  affirms  it  (Carac,  6). 


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CARACALLA,    MACRINUS,    AND    ELAGABALUS,    211    TO    222    A.D.         259 


at  her  feet,  then  her  husband  dead,  one  of  her  sons  slaughtered, 
and  now  the  other  also  had  fallen 
under  the  blows  of  an  assassin,  in- 
volving in  his  downfall  the  ruin  of 
her  house.  Too  proud  to  submit  to 
the  condition  of  a  subject  under  some 
adventurer  whom  her  family  had 
raised  from  nothing,  and  to  become, 
after  so  much  grandeur,  the  object  of 
public  pity,  she  resolved  to  escape 
from  her  distress  like  a  Stoic  of 
ancient  days.  And,  besides,  she 
suffered  from  a  malady  perhaps  in- 
curable; death  was  approaching  her: 
she  went  to  meet  it,  and  allowed 
herself  to  die  of  starvation.^ 

Caracalla  had  constructed  at   Eome   a   portico   on   which   were 


/ 


/ 


The  God  Lunus.-' 


Caracalla  offering  to  Murs  a  Victory.^ 

engraved  the   exploits   of  his  father,  and  thormse  which   are,  after 

^  According  to  Herodian  (iv.  13)  she  killed  herself  through  despair  or  in  obedience  to  a 
secret  order. 

^  Gem  of  the  Vahinet  de  France,  No.  2,033. 

'  Gem  of  the  Cabinet  de  France,  Xo.  2,103.  (Agate,  ^^  in.  by  lyjg  in.)  Caracalla  seated, 
hall  nude  like   Jupiter,  holds   in  one  hand  a  horn  of  plenty  and  with  the  other  presents 

s  2 


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260  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO    236   A.D. 

the  Coliseum,  the  grandest  ruin  in  Eome  and  one  of  the  largest  in 
the  world.^  A  colonnade,  running  round  a  perimeter  of  4,750  feet, 
formed  an  inclosure  behind  which  extended  gardens  planted  with 
trees,  lawns,  and  flowers,  with  a  stadium  reserved  for  gymnastic 
games,  which  Koman  hygiene  prescribed  after  the  bath.  The 
thermse  themselves,  an  edifice  750  feet  long  by  500  in  width, 
inclosed  a  theatre,  halls  for  declamation  or  study,  courts  with 
porticos  for  a  promenade,  museums,  and  libraries;  finally,  an 
immense  reservoir  surrounded  with  1,600  seats  of  sculptured  marble, 
and  in  which  3,000  persons  could  bathe  at  once.     In  the  centre  of 


ThermiB  of  Caracalla.    (Restoration  by  Blouet. — £oole  des  Beaux-Arts.) 

this  colossal  construction  rose  the  cella  Soliaris^  covered  with  a 
flat  dome,  which  was  the  despair  of  the  architects  of  the  time 
and  is  still  the  astonishment  of  ours.*  Everywhere  the  choicest 
marbles,  the  most  beautiful  mosaics,  and  the  master-pieces  of  art. 
From  it  have  been  taken  the  Hercules  of  Glycon,  the  Flora,  and  the 
magnificent  group  of  Dirce,  known  under  the  name  of  the  Famese 
Bull.  A  single  column  of  these  thermse  has  appeared  sufl&cient  to 
decorate  the  square  della  Santa  Trinita  at  Florence,  and  the  Museum 
of  Naples  is  filled  with  sculptures  brought  from  these  ruins,  the 
last  and   supreme  effort   of   Eoman  art.       Spartian  thinks  that  the 


a  Victory  to  a  statue  of  Mars.  On  the  exergue :  MAR(ti)  VIC(tori).  (ChabouiUet,  op.  cit,, 
p.  274.) 

^  He  had  not  time  to  complete  these  thermie  ;  the  external  colonnade  was  constructed  by 
Elagabalus  and  completed  by  Alexander  Severus.  (Lampridius,  Heliog.,  17,  and  Alex.,  25.) 
On  the  thermsD  of  the  Romans,  see  vol.  iv.  p.  220. 

^  [It  has  been  shown  by  Mr.  Middleton,  in  his  Ancient  Rome  in  1886,  that  this  roof  was  no 
arch,  but  a  solid  mass  of  concrete,  cast  in  this  shape,  and  laid  on  like  a  metal  lid. — Ed.'] 


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Interior  of  a  Hall  of  the  Thenn»  of  Caracalla.     (Present  condition.) 


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CAEACALLA,    MACRINUS,    AND   ELAGABALUS,    211    TO    222   A.D.        263 

street  which  lead  to  the  Thermee  of  Caracalla,  constructed  by  this 
prince,  was  the  finest  in  Kome. 

In    Syria,   he   had   continued   the    labours    of    his    father;    at 


Fragment  of  Mosaic  from  the  Therms  of  Caracalla.    (^Casing  of  the  Upper  Story.) 

Baalbec,   the    great  vestibule    and  the   temenos    of    the    temple    of 
Jupiter  were  built  by  him. 

These  works  of  art  will  not  save  his  memory.  He  had  scarcely 
reigned  six  years,  and  this  short  time  had  been  sufficient  to  do 
irreparable  damage.     Under  Commodus,  Pertinax,  and  Julianus,  the 


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264  THE   AFRICAN   AND   8YKIAN   PBlNCES,    180   TO   235   A.B. 

soldiery  had  been  insolent;  under  Caracalla  it  actually  took  posses- 
sion of  the  Empire.  Accustomed  to  see  this  piince  defer  in  every- 
thing to  their  caprices,  they  desire  this  regime  which  was  so  profitable 


Flora,  called  the  Flora  Ftanese.     (Colossal  Statue  found  at  the  ThernuB  of  Caracalla.) 

to    endure,    and    to    succeed    in    this    they    determined    to   choose 
emperors   who  would  not  be  in  a  condition  to  change  it. 


II. — Macrinus  (April   12,  217 — June  8,  218);  Elagabalus  (June 

8,  218— March  11,  222). 

Macrinus  [Marcm  Opellius  Macrinus)  was  an  African,  like 
Severus,  and  a  native  of  Ccesarea^  the  Cherchell  of  the  French 
colony  in  Algiers.     He  was  of  humble  origin.     It  was  said  that  he 


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CARACALLA,  MACRINUS,  AND  ELAGABALUS,  211  TO  222  A.D.    266 

had  been  a  slave  and  a  gladiator;  we  know  that  he  was  procurator 
of  the  property  of  Plautianus,  and  that  he  barely  escaped  perishing 
with  him.  Severus  took  into  his  service  this  confidential  agent  of 
his  old  friend  and  made  him  superintendent  of  the  post-service  of 
the  Flaminian  Way.  Caracalla,  forgetting  who  had  been  his  first 
protector,  appointed  him  advocate  of  the  fiscus,  and  later,  prefect 
of  the  preetorium.  He  was  a  mild  and  just  man,  without  talent  or 
ambition,  who  never  would  have  dreamed  of  empire  had  not  a 
letter  denouncing  him  fallen  into  his  hands/  To  escape  certain 
death  he  caused  the  prince  to  be  slain,  and  his  accomplice  having 
been  instantly  massacred  by  the  guards,  the  part  which  he  had 
played  in  the  murder  was 
not  at  first  known.  He 
pretended  to  feel  great 
sorrow,  which  won  the 
soldiers;  on  the  fourth  day 
he  was  proclaimed  emperor, 
being  as  yet  only    a    mere 

knight.^     We  see  how  every-         Diadumenianus  Antoninus,  Ceesar  and  Prince  of 

thing    is   becoming  debased, 

eveji    the  imperial   dignity.      His   son   DiadumenzamiSj   then   in  his 

ninth  year,  became  Csesar  and  Prince  of  Youth  (April,  12,  217). 

The  new  emperor  did  not  dare  to  have  Caracalla  declared  a 
public  enemy.  His  ashes  were  borne  secretly  to  the  tomb  of  the 
Antonines,  and  that  his  images  might  disappear  quietly,  a  decree 
sent  to  the  mint  all  the  statues  of  silver  and  gold.  But  he  received 
divine  honours.  A  temple  and  pontiffs  were  consecrated  to  him. 
The  soldiers  did  not  agree  that  their  favourite  emperor  should  be 
deprived  of  an  apotheosis. 

'  Capitolinua  ia  very  much  opposed  to  him,  but  Dion,  his  contemporary,  says  too  much  in 
his  favour  out  of  hatred  to  Caracalla  (Ixxviii.  40).    Herodian  speaks  also  of  his  severity  (v.  2). 

^  Herodian  (v.  1)  and  Dion  (Ixxviii.  14).  He  had,  however,  received  the  consular  orna- 
ments (Dion,  ibid.f  13),  which  had  assured  him  the  title  of  clarisstmus.  (Or.-IIenzen,  5,512.) 
Of.  Lampridiua,  Ale.r.y  21. 

^  M.  OPEL.  ANTONINVS  DIADVMENIANVS  CJES.,  around  the  head  of  the  young 
prince.  On  the  reverse,  PRINC.  JWENTVTIS  S.C.,  Diadumenianus  standing,  holdiug  an 
ensign  and  a  sceptre.  At  his  left,  two  ensigns.  Lampridius  {Diad.,  2)  has  preserved  these 
words  of  Macrinus,  showing  that  to  the  ordinary  donativum  were  added  promotions,  which 
redoubled  the  interest  that  the  soldiers  had  in  multiplying  the  vacancies  of  the  throne  and  the 
imperial  adoptions  :  Hahete.  commilitones ,  pro  imperio  ternos,  pro  Antonini  nomine  aureos  quinos 
et  solitas  pro^twtionts,  sed  yeminatas , 


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266  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235   A.D. 

As  the  conqueror  of  Xiger  had  pretended  to  continue  the 
house  of  the  Antonines,  Macrinus  wished  to  attach  himself  to  the 
African  dynasty,  without  however  claiming  all  the  inheritance.  He 
assumed  the  name  of  Severus,  and  gave  to  Diadumenianus  that  of 
Antoninus,  which  his  victim  had  borne.  It  was  a  bit  of  flattery 
to  those  crowds  who  are  always  captivated  by  words  and  appear- 
ances: Horace  has  an  expression  like  this.^     For  the  rest,  Macrinus 

applied     himself     to     winning     everybody :     the 

senate  by  tokens  of  regard,  the  soldiers  with 
money,  the  people  by  the  suppression  of  recent 
imposts,  the  public  feeling  by  the  recall  of 
the  proscribed  and  the  punishment  of  delators; 
but  all  this  was  done  by  degrees,  and  nowhere 
was    felt   the   firm    hand   of  a    man   capable    of 

Apoiheosisof  Caraculla.'^    .  .         ,  .  .„ 

imposing  his  will. 
The  king   of  the  Parthians   had  invaded   Mesopotamia   with   a 
large  army.      Macrinus,  obliged  to  lead  against  him  troops  lacking 
—  discipline  and   ardoui-   for   this   war,    experienced 

repulses  which  the  enemy  were  not  able  however 
to  turn  into   defeats.      The   Komans,    masters   of 
the    cities    and    of    numerous   strong    castles,    in 
which  they  had  had  time  to  collect  all  the  pro- 
visions,   left   the    plain   to   the    enemy's   cavalry, 
Reverse  of  a  Coin  of      who   could  uot   subsist   there.      The  two  princes 
soon  wearied  of  a   struggle  in  which  neither  of 
them  was  heartily   engaged.      Macrinus,  besides,    was    in   haste   to 
return  to  Eome;  he  made  humble   proposals,  released  the  prisoners, 
and  gave    15,000,000  drachmas,    with   which   Artabanus  was   satis- 
fied.*    He  again  humiliated  himself  before  the  Armenians,   restored 
t#  their  king  Tiridates  his  mother,  whom  Caracalla  had  retained  in 
captivity,  the  lands  which  his  father  had  possessed  in  Cappadocia, 
and   probably   a   pension,  in   consideration   of  which   the   Armenian 
consented  to  receive  the  gold  crown  which  Macrinus  sent  him  as  a 

^  .  .  .  .  qui  stupet  in  titulis  et  imaginibus  (Sat.,  I.  vi.  17). 

'  CONSECRATIO.  S.C.      Caracalla  in  a  four-horse  chariot,  on  a  funeral  pile  of  three 
stories.     (Larfi^e  bronze  struck  after  the  death  of  Caracalla.     Cohen,  No.  396.) 

*  PONTIF.  MAX.  TR.  P.  II  COS.  PP.  S.  C.     Felicitaa  standing,  holding  a  caduceus  and 
ft  horn  of  plenty.     (Large  bronze.     Cohen,  No.  92.) 

*  Dion,  Ixxviii.  27. 


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CARACALLA,  MACRINUS,  AND  ELAGABALUS,  211  TO  222  A.D.    267 

sigu  of  sovereignty.  In  Dacia  hostages  were  also  restored  to  the 
barbarians.  Under  Caraeallaj  the  Empire  had  maintained,  at  least 
in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  the  proud  bearing  which  Severus  had 
given  it. 

The  success  of  the  Eoman  arms  was  not  the  less  celebrated  on 


DiadumeniaDus.'     (Bust  of  the  Capitol.) 

account  of  these  events.  The  coins  were  like  an  ofl&cial  journal  of 
the  time,  and  quite  as  um-eliable  as  certain  bulletins  of  victories ; 
one  of  them,  which  the  senate  ordered  to  be  struck,  bore  the  words: 
Victoria  Parthica? 

^  The  cuirass  aud  the  cloak  of  this  marble  bust  are  of  alabaster.    (Capitol,  flail  of  the 
Emperors,  No.  67.) 
»  Eckhel,  vii.  268. 


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268  THE   AFRICAN    AND    SYKIAN    l^KINCES,    180   TO   235   A.B. 

Yet  Macrinus  undertook  to  draw  closer  the  bonds  of  discipline, 
so    lax    under    Caracalla,   and   while    leaving   to  the    veterans   the 

increase  of  pay,  the  rewards 
and  exemptions  from  service 
which  had  been  lavished  upon 
them,  he  pretended  to  submit 
the  recruits  to  the  regulations 
of  Severus,^  and  treated  them 
all  with  extreme  severity.  A 
Aictor  might  have  done  this 
with  success;  a  half-conquered 
prince,  and  one  who  had  pur- 
chased a  peace,  was  incapable 
of  imposing  this  reform.  The 
war  had  called  many  troops 
into  Syria:  he  made  the  mis- 
take of  keeping  them  there. 
These  inactive  soldiers,  their 
minds  still  full  of  the  memories 
of  the  great  expeditions  of 
Severus,  began  to  reckon  up 
the  profits  that  had  accrued  to 
them  from  the  victories  of  the 
father  and  the  donatives  of 
the  son,  and  to  make  between 
^   what  was  and  what  had  been 

Macriuus.'*     (Statue  of  the  Vatican.)  ,,     ,  .  i  »  i     ,^        ^^ 

that  comparison  which  the  dis- 
affected always  turn  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  present.  Macrinus 
had  written  to  the  Conscript  Fathers  that  he  intended  to  do  nothing 
without   them,^  that    is  to   say,  that  he   was  going    to    restore    to 

^  DioD,  Ixxviii.  28.  According  to  Capitoliuus  {Macr.,  12),  he  condemned  adulterers  to  be 
humodf  junctis  corporihus:  fugitive  slaves  to  fight  as  gladiators;  delators,  if  they  failed  to 
prove  the  accusation,  forfeited  their  heads ;  if  they  proved  it,  they  were  branded  with  infamy 
after  having  received  the  sum  which  the  law  allowed  them ;  he  condemned  soldiers  to  the 
cross  or  had  other  servile  punishments  inflicted  upon  them ;  he  often  *'  decimated  "  them.  I 
doubt  whether  he  could  have  been  capable  of  so  much  energy.  Yet  Herodian  (v.  2)  confirms 
the  words  of  Capitolinus. 

'^  Statue  of  heroic  size  in  Greek  marble,  which  has  preserved  its  antique  head.  {Miueo 
Pio  Clem.y  vol.  iii.  pi.  12. ) 

*  In  the  letter  which  Macrinus  wrote  to  the  senate  to  announce  the  revolt  of  Elagabalus, 


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CARACALLA,    MACRINUS,    AND    ELAGABALUS,    211    TO    222    A.D.         269 

the  senate  the  eeutre  of  the  Empire,  which  the  last  prince  had 
placed  in  the  army.  This  should  have  been  done  and  nothing  said 
about  it;    especially   he  should  have  sent  back  to  their  respective 


Macrinus.     (Bust  of  the  Capitol,  HaU  of  the  Emperors,  No.  55.) 

garrisons  the  legions  which  were  useless  in  the  pacified  East,  and 
not  have  passed  his  life  in  Antioch  gazing  at  dancers  and  listening 
to  buffoons.  Soon  complaints  were  openly  made  in  the  camps,  of 
the  parsimony  of  the  new  prince,  of  this  lawyer  who  kept  the 
soldier    in    his   tent,    while    not    long   before   cities  had   been    his 

he  complained  of  the  insatiable  greed  of  the  soldiers  and  of  the  impossibility  of  his  being  able 
to  provide,  with  the  ordinary  revenues  of  the  State,  for  the  payment  of  the  soldiers'  wages,  at 
the  rate  to  which  Caracalla  had  raised  them. 


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270  THE   AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235   A.D. 

quarters.  They  spoke  of  the  millions  given  up  to  the  Parthians 
as  of  property  taken  from  the  legions,  and  they  went  so  far  as  to 
believe  that  the  murderer  of  the  prince  who  was  so  dear  to  the 
army  was  Macrinus. 

After  the   death   of  Julia  Domna,   Macrinus  had  relegated  to 
Emesa   the  sister  of  that  empress,  MsBsa,  with  her  two  daughters, 
Sosemias,    mother    of    Avitus    Bassianus,    so    notorious    under    the 
name   of   Elagabalus,    and    Mammoea,    whose    son,    born   in   an   old 
Canaanite  city  where  the  Yeuus  of  Libanus  was  adored,^  had  taken 
from  a  temple  of  that  city  consecrated  to  Alexander 
the   name   of    the    Macedonian    hero.     It    seems   that 
these  Syrian  women,   who  were  very   intelligent,  had  ' 
made    profitable   marriages    by   taking  husbands   who 
Julia Mseaa.      possesscd  fortunes    as   well    as   years;    at   least,    they 
both   were   already   widows  and  rich.     They  had  also 
made  skiKul  use   of  their   imperial  connections,   and,   in  217,  what 
remained  of  the  family  of  the   priest  Bassianus,   three  women  and 
two  children,^  were  now  united  near  the  temple  of  the  Sun.     This 
sanctuary,  in  great  veneration   throughout   all   Syria,    possessed  the 
right  of  asylum;'  it  afforded  shelter  for  their  wealth  and  their  persons. 
Macrinus,    a   timorous   usurper,    lacking   the   audacity   which   some- 
times renders  usurpation  successful,  left  in  the  hands  of  his  enemies 
all  this  gold— a  sure  means,  in  such  a  time,  to  bring  about  a  revo- 
lution.    Another  imprudence  was,  that  he  sent  a  legion  to  camp  in 
the  vicinity    of   this   treasure   to    which    Meesa   and   her    daughters 
had  the  key,  and   near  a  city  which,  owing  to  Caracalla  the  title 
and  privileges  of  an   Italic    colony,   venerated  his  memory  and  his 
race.** 

These  three  women,  without  counsellors,  without  support,  under- 
took from  the  remoteness  of  their  Syrian  city  to  t)verthrow  an 
emperor,  and  they  overthrew  him. 

They  had  consecrated  the  elder  of  the  childi-en  to  the  priest- 
hood of  the  god  of  Emesa,  hereditary  in  the  family  of  Bassianus ; 
they    had    him    circumcised,    in    conformity    with    the    custom    of 

*  Area  Casarea  or  Ccesarea  Libanis.    Cf.  Belley,  M6m.  de  fAcad,  des  inscr.,  vol.  xxxii. 
pp.  685  et  seq. 

^  Soaemias  had  had  a  second  son.     (Orelli,  Xo.  046,  and  Bceckh,  C.  I.  G.,  No.  6,627. ) 
^  Lamprid.,  Heliog.j  2. 

*  Digent,  1.  16, 1,  §  4. 


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CARACALLA,  MACRINU8,  AND  ELAGABALUS,  211  TO  222  A.D.    271 

the  country,  and  forbade  him,  to  eat  pork.  They  themselves  strove 
to  produce  an  effect  on  the  minds  of  the  people  by  an  affected 
or  sincere  devotion.  An  inscription  gives  to  Meesa  the  title  of 
"very  holy;"^  coins  of  Soaemias  represent  her  under  the  features 
of  the  Venus  Celestia,^  and  Mammeea,  through  religious  curiosity 
and  political  precaution,  had  entered  into  correspondence  with 
Origen.^  There  were  many  Christians  and  Jews  in  this  region, 
whom  these  advances  might  win,  without  alarming  the  pagans. 
Then,  as  to-day,  .these  sensual  and  impressionable  populations 
suffered  themselves  to  be  deceived  by  the  outward  appearance  of 
sanctity.  In  the  East,  marabouts  who  make  use  of  religion  for 
political  ends  are  of  all  times.  The  three  women 
caused  this  part  to  be  played  by  the  child  in 
whom  were  centred  their  affections  and  their 
hopes. 

Vartus  Avitus  Basstanus^  better  known  under 
the  name  of  his  god  Elagabalus,*  was  then  in  his 
fourteenth  year;*  he  had  that  plastic  beauty  which 
the  Greeks  reg^d  as  a  gift  from  the  gods ;  and  Eiagabaius,  on  n  Coin 
when  clad  in  a  robe  of  purple  embroidered  with 
gold,  his  head  encircled  with  a  crown  of  precious  stones  whose 
ii'idescence  sparkled  like  a  luminous  aureole  about  his  brow,  he 
ascended  to  the  temple  to  fulfil  the  sacred  rites,  the  crowd  believed 
they  beheld  a  child  of  destiny.  The  soldiers  encamped  in  the 
suburbs  of  the  city  often  came  to  this  renowned  sanctuary,  and, 
yet  more  than  the  others,  admired  and  loved  the  young  pontiff, 
whom  Severus  had  cradled  upon  his  knees.  Gradually  the  report 
spread  that  Elagabalus  was  more  nearly  connected  with  him  who 
had  been  the  real  emperor  of  the  soldiers.     Servants  of  the  palace 

*  Sanctissima  (Heuzen,  No.  5,515). 

*  Eckhel,  vii.  265.  See  above,  p.  121,  a  statue,  and  p.  122,  a  coin  of  Soaemias,  Venus 
Celestia. 

'  Eiisebius,  Hut.  /»cr/.,  vi.  21.  We  must  not  in  tliis  fact  see  a  leaning  towards  Christianity, 
for  all  the  coins  of  Mammaea  are  pagan. 

*  The  name  Elagabalus  is  never  found  on  coins,  any  more  than  that  of  Caligula  and  Cnra- 
ealla.  These  surnames  have  passed  into  history  from  the  mouth  of  the  people.  Ilis  official 
name  was  Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus. 

*  Jlerod.,  V.  3.  Lampridius  assigns  him  three  years  more  (and  the  same  to  Alexander 
Severus),  but  Dion  represents  him  as  being  yet  a  child,  iraidiov  (Ixxviii.  36  and  38),  and  makes 
him  die  at  18  (Ixxix.  20). 

*  Large  bronze,  the  reverse  of  which  we  have  given  in  vol.  iv.  p.  69- 


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272  THE   AFRICAN   AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   235    A.D. 

of  Emesa  said  he  was  the  son  of  Caracalla/  and  the  money- 
distributed,  the  promises  made  and  hopes  given,  easily  persuaded 
people  who  had  an  interest  in  being  persuaded.  For  the  success  of 
this  intrigue,  Maesa  sacrificed  her  gold,  Soeemias  her  honour;  but 
neither  of  them  cared  for  what  they  lost.  The  gold  of  Maesa  was 
placed  at  high  interest,  and  Soeemias  thought  that  the  mantle  of 
an  empress  would  cover  all.^  As  for  the  soldiers,  they  demanded 
nothing  more  to  give  to  an  eflEeminate  Syrian  the  Empire  of 
Augustus  and  Trajan. 

One  night  Elagabalus  repaired  to  the  camp  of  Emesa,  followed 
by  wagons  which  bore  the  ransom  of  the  Empire,  and  when  day 
dawned  he  was  proclaimed.  They  gave  to  him  the  names  of 
Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus  (May  16,  218):  a  last  tribute  to  those 
Antonines  whose  renown  even  then  was  magni- 
fied by  remoteness,  and  whom  the  poets  of  the 
time  ranked  above  the  gods.' 

A  prefect  of  the  preetorium,  XJlpius  Julianus, 
happened  to  be  in  the  vicinity,  with  a  troop 
of  Moorish  cavaliers  whom  he  believed  to  be 
devoted    to    Macrinus    their    compatriot.       He  ^  ^ 

hastened  to  the  camp  to  force   its   gates;   the  ^       ^     ^^^ 

attack,  feebly  conducted,  was  not  successful,  and  a  second  attempt 
met  the  same  fate.  So  much  was  not  needed  to  make  the  fidelity 
of  his  soldiers  waver.  When  they  heard  a  cubicularius  of  the  last 
prince  proclaim  in  the  name  of  the  new,  that  the  property  and 
the  rank  of  the  dead  man  should  belong  to  him  who  would  bring  to 
the  camp  of  Emesa  the  head  of  a  centurion  or  a  tribune;  when  they 
saw  their  comrades  display  from  the  top  of  the  wall  him  whom 
they  called  the  son  of  Caracalla  and  the  bags  of  Meesa's  gold, 
they  slew  their  officers,  and  the  ensigns  of  the  two  armies  united. 

On  a  first  report  of  the  prefect,  Macrinus  had  seen  in  this 
revolt  only  an  outbreak  of  women,  whom  he  would  easily  satisfy. 
Soon  a  messenger  from  the  camp  of  Emesa  arrived:  ^'I  bring  you 
the  head  of  Elagabalus,"  said  he,  and  flung  down  that  of  Julianus. 

'  He  assumed  this  title,  which  is  found  in  the  inscriptions :  divi  Severi  nepos,  dim  Antonini 
filius. 

'  Lampridius  (Heliog,,  2)  accuses  Sosemias  of  having  led  the  life  of  a  courtesan,  meretricis 
more  vixit, 

'  .  .  .  .  Antontnos  plurUfuisse  quam  deos  (Lamprid.,  Dtad.^  7). 


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CARACALLA,    MACRINXrS,    AND    ELAGABALUS,    211    TO    222    A.D.         273 

The  sight  of  this  bloody  trophy  which  the  rebels  had  sent  him, 
the  audacity  of  this  soldier,  who  profited  by  the  confusion  to  make 
his  escape,  caused  anxiety  in  the  heart  of  the  prince,  and  he  had 


Elagabalus.     (Bust  of  the  Capitol,  Hall  of  the  Emperors,  No.  57.) 

recourse  to  what  seemed  the  great  measure  of  safety  with  soldiers. 
That  he  might  have  occasion  to  promise  to  each  legionary  5,000 
drachmas,  of  which  1,000  to  be  paid  down,  he  conferred  the  title 
of  Augustus  on  his  son.    The  letter  which  announced  to  the  senate 

VOL.    VI.  T 


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274  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180    TO    235    A.D. 

this  elevatioiij  promised  to  the  Romans  a  congiary  of  150  drachmas 
per  head ;  from  which  we  see  that  a  soldier  was  then  esteemed  to 
to  be  worth  thirty-three  times  as  much  as  one  of  the  sovereign 
people.  He  also  re-established  all  the  military  regulations  of 
Caracalla. 

The  largesses  inspired  by  fear  came  too  late;  every  day 
deserters  made  their  way  from  all  points  of  Syria,  singly  or  in 
bands,  to  the  camp  of  Emesa;  the  legion  of  Albano,  which  was 
encamped  at  Apamea,  deserted  in  a  body,  so  that  the  army  of 
Elagabalus  became  strong  enough  to  go  in  pursuit  of  that  of 
Macrinus.  The  encoimter  took  place  on  the  confines  of  Syria  and 
Phoenicia;  the  eunuch  or  servant  of  Mammaea,  Gannys,  who  led 
the  soldiers  of  the  young  Ceesar,  happened  to  be  a  skilful  man  of 
war.  He  took  up  a  good  position,  and  Ma3sa,  Soaemias,  and  even 
Elagabalus,  cast  themselves  into  the  fray  to  inspire  their  troops. 
Macrinus,  on  the  contrary,  frightened  by  the  tumult  and  by  new 
defections,  fled,  leaving  his  praetorians  to  maintain  valiantly  the 
reputation  of  the  corps;  but  when  they  became  aware  of  the 
cowardice  of  their  chief  and  the  promise  of  Elagabalus,  that 
they  should  preserve  their  rank  and  honours,  they  laid  down  their 
arms,  and  the  high-priest  of  the  Sun  found  himself  master  of 
the  Roman  world.     This  occurred  June  8,  218.^ 

Macrinus  had  sent  in  advance  to  Antioch  an  announcement  of 
victory.  When  he  arrived  near  this  city  he  took  a  passport  of 
the  imperial  post,  cut  off  his  hair  and  beard,  and  in  disguise 
attempted  in  great  haste  to  reach  Byzantium  and  Europe.  All 
went  well  at  first,  and  he  had  crossed  Asia  Minor  without  oppo- 
sition, when  excess  of  fatigue  and  need  of  money  obliged  him  to 
stop  in  a  poor  cottage  in  the  outskirts  of  Chalcedon.  A  note 
written  by  him  to  an  agent  of  the  imperial  finances  to  obtain 
funds  led  to  his  recognition;  he  was  arrested  and  delivered  up 
to  the  soldiers  of  Elagabalus,  who  had  followed  him  from  Antioch. 
He  had  charged  trusty  messengers  to  conduct  his  son  to  the 
Parthians,  his  recent  allies.  Horsemen  overtook  the  child  before 
he   had  passed   the   Euphrates   and   slew  him.      The  news   of    his 

*  Is  it  in  remembrance  of  this  triumph  that  he  founded  in  Palestine,  on  the  site  of 
Emmaiis,  a  city  of  victory,  Nieopohs?  (Eusebius,  Chron.,  ad  ami.  224.)  He  made  Emesa  a 
colony  possessing  the  jus  Italicum.     {Diyesty  1.  15,  8,  §  C.) 


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CARACALLA,  MACRINUS,  AND  ELAGABALUS,  211  TO  222  A.D.    275 

death  reached  his  father  while  he  himself  was  being  brought  to 
the  conqueror.     He  threw  himself  from  the  top  of  his  chariot  and 


Kuins  of  Zana,  the  Ancieut  Diaiia  {Revue  archSoL,  ninth  volume). 

fi-actured  his  shoulder;   the   soldiers  finished  him.      He  was  fifty- 
four  years  old  and  had  not  reigned  fourteen  months. 

No  monument  of  him  is  known,  but  an  arch  of  triumph  still 
standing  in  French  Algeria,  at  Zana,  the  ancient  IHana^ 
was  raised  to  him  by  his  compatriots  of  Mauretania.^ 

He  had,  we  are  assured,  a  plan  of  making  a 
revision  of  the  imperial  rescripts,  which  were  most 
frequently  only  decisions  in  special  cases,  with  a 
view  to  preserving  only  those  which  were  of  a  general  .pjj^QQ^Q^E^j^gg 
character.  It  was  a  laudable  intention,  which  re- 
quired time  for  its  execution,  and  this  was  not  granted  him.^ 

The  god  of  Emesa  was  represented  by  a  black   stone,  which 

*  The  inscription  of  the  Arch  of  Zana  {Diana  Veteranorum),  constructed  directly  after  liis 
accession,  terms  him  constU  designatua.  Dion,  in  fact,  informs  us  that  Macrinus  was  not  willing, 
as  Plautianus  had  done  (see  p.  82),  to  reckon  the  consular  ornaments  which  he  had  obtained 
from  Caracalla  as  a  first  consulate.     (L.  Renier,  MH.  cPSptgr^y  pp.  185  et  seq.) 

*  Aureus  of  Uranius  Antonius  bearing  the  black  stone  richly  ornamented  and  surmounted 
by  a  crown  with  points. 

^  He  had  also  undertaken  to  continue  the  alimentary  foundations  established  by  Trajan 
and  the  Antonines.     (Lamprid.,  Diad.,  2.) 

T  2 


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27G  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYKIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

no  doubt  had  the  same  origin  as  the  black  stone  of  Mecca.  The 
terrestrial  influence  of  these  two  aerolites^  was  very  di£ferent,  for 
we  may  say  that  the  one  brought  down  from  sidereal  space  a 
grand  idea  of  religious  purity,  and  the  other  the  principle  of  all 
disorder.  The  Arabs  relate  that  when  creation  was  complete,  God 
summoned  the  angels  to  contemplate  the  work  emanating  from  his 
hands.  At  sight  of  it  the  choir  of  celestial  spirits  uttered  a  cry 
of  adoration:  "Allah!"  This  holy  word,  which  proclaimed 
the  unity   and   omnipotence   of   the   Creator,    God   shut  up   in   the 

heart  of  the  black  stone  which  Abraham 
deposited  in  the  Kaaba.  At  the  day  of 
judgment  it  will  open  to  disclose  to  view 
the  divine  formula  in  flaming  characters, 
and  to  give  testimony  in  behalf  of  those 
who  have  approached  it  with  pure  lips 
and  a  repentant  heart. 
^,     ,  ,    .     rii    •  .  J  This  legend  is  beautiful ;  it  transforms 

Llagabalus  in  a  Chariot  drawn  ^  ' 

by  Two  Women.''  an   act  of  vulgar  superstition  into  a  pro- 

fession of  moral  and  religious  faith.  The  stone  of  Emesa  had  more 
worldly  grandeur,  but  infinitely  less  of  virtue.  It  was  the  image 
of  the  Sun,  from  which  it  appeared  to  have  come;  and,  as  in  all 
religions,  the  sign  becomes  easily  confounded  with  the  thing  signi- 
fied, it  was  venerated  like  the  Sun  itself,  the  author  of  life,  the 
principle  of  fecundity  and  generation,  which  they  adored  by  acts 
analogous  to  those  which  it  accomplishes  in  the  bosom  of  nature.' 

Elagabalus  was  the  most  complete  representation  of  the  unclean 
side  of  this  naturalism.     Hitherto  the  tyrants  of  Eome  had  at  least 


*  ''  In  the  temple  ....  one  notices  a  great  stone,  rounded  at  the  base  and  pointed  at  the 
top,  of  conical  form  and  black  in  colour,  which  they  say  to  have  fallen  from  heaven."  (Herod., 
V.  5.) 

^  Cameo  of  the  Cabinet  de  France,  No.  253  (white  jasper,  1^  in.  by  ^  in.).  This  monu- 
ment answers  to  the  text  of  Lampridius :  junxit  et  qxvatemas  mulieres  ptUchernmaSf  et  binas  ad 
papillam,  vel  ternas  et  ampltus,  et  sic  vectatus  est :  sed  plernirngtie  nitdtis  quum  ilium  nudae 
traherent.  The  Greek  inscription :  Long  live  Epixenus  (from  liri^tvoQj  intruder),  leads  us  to 
think  that  this  cameo  is  a  monument  of  a  satirical  nature. 

'  Asia  was  full  of  these  conical  stones.  Venus  at  Paphos,  Gacion  at  Seleucia  (see  vol.  iv. 
p.  313)  and  at  Bosra,  were  thus  represented.  These  cones,  of  sidereal  origin,  symbolized  the 
generative  power:  the  two  mountains  named  Casius,near  Antioch  and  on  the  frontier  of  Egypt, 
owed  this  name  to  their  pyramidal  form.  (Of.  Mionnet,  S^leucide  et  Pi&rie,  Nos.  891  et  seq., 
which  give  bronzes  of  Trajan  representing  a  cone  in  a  tetrastyle  temple,  with  the  legend,  Zeus 
Kasios,  and  De  Vogii^,  Inser.  sSmitiqueSj  pp.  103-104.) 


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CAKAGALLA,  MACRINUS,  AND  ELAGABALUS,  211  TO  222  A.D.    277 

had  something  of  the  Koman  character.  In  the  son  of  Severus 
they  had  still  found  a  soldier,  the  son  of  Sosemias  was  a  pure 
Syrian,  in  whom  united  all  that  the  East  could  produce  of  lascivious 
and  shameful  vices.  His  tastes  turned  to  the  most  abominable 
life,  his  mind  to  the  wildest  aberrations.  Hence  he  has  ever 
remained  in  the  memory  of  men  as  the  symbol  of  enthroned 
infamy.  Three  things  had  produced  this  moral  monstrosity :  an 
impure  religion,  absolute  power,  and  his  youth. 

After  his  victory  Elagabalus  assumed  all  the  imperial  titles, 
without  awaiting  the  usual  decree  of  the  senate,  and  marched 
.rapidly  upon  Antioch,  which  purchased  exemption  from  pillage  by 
the  payment  of  500  drachmas  to  each  soldier.  From  there  were 
despatched  at  once  letters  to  the  Conscript  Fathers,  in  which  he 
agreed  to  govern  like  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  issued  sentences  of 
death  against  the  governors  who  had  been  slow  to  divine  his 
fortune,  against  senators  who  had  shown  too  much  zeal  in 
favour  of  Macrinus,  and  even  against  the  skilful  man  who  had 
won  for  him  the  battle  of  Antioch.^ 

Each  of  the  shocks  which  dethroned  an  emperor  was  succeeded 
by  disorder,  in  which  the  Empire  was  painfully  convulsed  imtil  a 
firm  hand  restored  itb  equilibrium.  The  legions  of  Macrinus,  sent 
to  their  cantonments,  pillaged  the  villages  along  their  route,  and  a 
great  number  of  persons  had  visions  of  the  imperial  purple.  They 
had  just  seen  a  simple  knight  come  to  imperial  power,  and  now 
a  child  was  mounting  to  it.  There  was  then  no  more  right  nor 
constitution,  no  more  senate  nor  Eoman  people,  no  more  puissant 
aristocracy  giving  to  Kome  its  Ceesars.  '^  At  the  death  of  Nero," 
says  Tacitus,  "  a  terrible  secret  had  been  revealed,  which  was 
that  emperors  might  be   made    outside    Rome."      At   the   accession 


'  Dion,  Ixxix.  3-4.  One  of  the  victims  of  Elagabalus,  Valerianus^  Paetus,  was  condemned 
**  because  he  had  had  portraits  of  himself  made  of  gold,  for  the  adornment  of  his  mistresses."  1 
point  out  this  fact  to  indicate  a  Roman  usage :  the  first  act  of  an  emperor  was  to  coin  gold 
pieces  with  his  likeness  upon  them.  To  encroach  on  this  right  was  a  crime  of  majesty.  PsBtus 
was  well  aware  of  this,  and  was  without  doubt  not  so  innocent  as  Dion  says :  "  lie  was  a 
(Jalatian,"  adds  the  historian;  **  they  accused  him  of  wishing  to  incite  a  rebellion  in  the 
neighbouring  province,  Cappadocia,  and  of  having  had  coins  struck  with  this  intent,  which  were 
the  cause  of  his  death."  This  is  the  way  all  the  usurpers  began  their  career.  Ammianus 
Marcellinus  (xxvi.  7)  relates  that  the  partisans  of  the  usurper  Procopius  brought  about  the 
defection  of  Illyria  by  circulating  there  pieces  with  hi.s  effigy,  as  proof  that  he  was  indeed  the 
legitimate  emperor. 


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278  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180    TO    236    A.D. 

of  Elagabalus,  another  was  taught  them,  which  is,  that  it  was 
not  necessary  to  be  elected  by  a  powerful  army,  but  that  a  few 
cohorts  and  shouts  of  the  populace  were  sufl&cient  to  determine  a 
revolution.  Hence  many  persons  fancied  that  with  a  little  audacity 
it  would  be  easy  to  force  the  gates  of  the  palace.  Two  legates  of 
legions,  even  a  son  of  a  centurion,  a  worker  in  wool,  and  others 
besides^  attempted  in  various  places  to  draw  away  soldiers  after 
them.  An  unknown  person  went  so  far  as  to  undertake  to  stir  up 
a  mutiny  among  the  crews  of  the  fleet  of  Cyzicus,  while  Elagabalus 
was  wintering  near  there  in  Nicomedia.  "So  many  worthless 
persons,"  says  the  historian  Cassius,  "  had  victoriously  trodden  the 
path  to  power,  that  it  had  become  smoothed  for  all  the  adventurei's 
who  dared  enter  upon  it."  The  era  of  the  thirty  tyrants  draws 
nigh. 

In  Mount  Taurus,  Elagabalus  had  consecrated  to  his  god  the 
temple  reared  by  Marcus  Aurelius  in  honour  of  Faustina,  and 
which  Caracalla  had  dedicated  to  his  own  divinity.  At  Nicomedia 
he  had  himself  painted  in  his  sacerdotal  costume :  the  picture 
was  placed  in  the  senate  at  Rome,  above  the  statue  of  Victory, 
and  each  senator  was  obliged,  before  taking  his  seat  in  the  curia, 
to  bum  incense  before  this  image.^  He  entered  Bome  wearing 
a  robe  of  purple  embroidered  with  gold,  a  necklace  of  pearls, 
his  cheeks  painted  with  vermilion,  and  the  lustre  of  his  eyes 
heightened,  like  those  of  an  Arab  woman,  by  rubbing  on  henna. 
Ma)sa  and  her  two  daughters  followed  him  there.  United  in 
devising  the  plot,  these  three  women  did  not  agree  in  obtaining 
the  advantages  of  the  results.  Maesa,  whose  political  ideas  had 
been  formed  in  the  school  of  Severus,  would  have  desired  decency 
in  conduct,  order  in  expenditure — inopportime  prudence,  to  which 
the  child,  intoxicated  with  power,  gave  no  heed.  Soeemias,  on  the 
contrary,  thought  that  Elagabalus,  being  master  of  things  human 
and  divine,  had  no  need  to  restrain  himself  in  anything.  Between 
these  two  women  a  division  of  power  was  effected  in  accordance 
with  the  taste  of  each.  Business  matters  were  irksome  to  the 
prince :  he  abandoned  them  to  his  prudent  grandmother,  on  con- 
dition that   she   should    not    annoy   him   in  his  pleasures,   and  he 

•  Kai  rtXXoi  di  TToWoi  aWoOi  (Dion,  Ixxix.  7). 
•"'  IJeiod.,  V.  1. 


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CARACALLA,    MACRIIS^S,    AND    ELAGABALUS,    211    TO    222    A.D.         279 

gave  her  a  seat  in  the  senate  near  the  consuls.  To  his  mother 
he  gave  the  presidency  of  a  senate  of  women/  which  was  charged 
with  the  duty  of  determining  for  the  matrons  their  costumes  and 
precedency,  the  quantity  of  gold  and  precious  stones  that  each 
might  wear  according 
to  her  condition,  the 
ornaments  of  litters 
and  carriages,  etc. :  a 
singular  pre-occupation 
with  etiquette  in  a 
court  of  upstarts  in 
which  the  prince  made 
a  display  of  all  the 
vices,  confounded  all 
ranks,  and  set  a 
charioteer  of  the  circus 
above  a  consular.  As 
to  the  mother  of  Alex- 
ander, she  kept  her- 
self in  retii'ement  and 
took  especial  care  to 
keep  her  son  with  her. 
The  emperor  was 
going  to  dishonour 
himself;  but  it  should 
be  recognized  that 
although  public  mor- 
ality was  odiously  out- 
raged,    the     State     did  statue  of  Victory.^ 

not    suffer  excessively 

from  this  deplorable  reign.'  The  executions  during  the  first  days, 
and  the  fidelity  of  the  legions  decisively  obtained  for  the  new 
government,  rendered  the  ambitious  prudent;  the  agitation  sub- 
sided,   and   since   the    Germans   remained    quiet   and   the   Parthians 

*  Lamprid.,  Ileliog,^  4. 

^  Museum  of  the  Louvre,  No.  435.  Statue  in  Greek  marble,  apparently  celebrating  two 
triumphs  by  the  two  crowns  which  she  holds,  one  placed  upon  her  head,  the  other  in  her 
right  hand.     A  trophy  is  under  her  feet. 

^  .   .   .   .  Kai  fiitdtv  fikya  kukuv  iifxiv  ^kpopra  (Dion,  Ixxix.  8). 


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280  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO   236   A.D. 

had  enough  to  do  to  avert  impending  ruin,  the  cities  of  the  frontier 

were  at  peace  like  those  of  the  interior. 

But  at  Rome,  what  exhibitions !     Gluttony  which  might  drive 

Vitellius  to  despair,  lewdness  such  as  to  put  Nero  to  the  blush, 
scenes  of  infamy  which  can  only  be  told  in 
Latin!  Elagabalus  had  entered  into  the  city 
costumed  like  a  priest  of  Phoenicia  or  a  satrap 
of  the  Medes,  bringing  with  him  his  shape- 
less god,  the  black  stone  of  Emesa,  which  he 
honoured  with  barbarous  songs,  lascivious  dances, 
and    immolations    of    children.^      He    made    of 

KJagabaiu8,iWof  the    it   the   Supreme   divinity    of    the    Empire.      All 

Sun-god    {Sacerd.    det  *■  *'  ^ 

SoUs  Eiagab.  s.  C),    Olympus  was  obliged  to  humiliate  itself  before 
this  intruder,  whom  he  solemnly  united  in  mar- 
riage with  the  Astarte   of  Carthage,  giving  to   these  deities  for  a 
bridal  escort  those  new  subjects  to  whom  for  centuries  the  Romans 
had   attributed   their   fortune,   and   who   consequently 
had  aided  them  in  acquiring  it.      Jupiter  Capitolinus 
was  reduced  to  the  position  of  courtier  to  the  Syrian 
idol,^  and  the  sovereign  pontiff  of  Bome   became  the 

The  Conical  Stoue   pricst   oi   the    SuU-god.^ 

on    a  *6hariIIt  Every  year,  says  Herodian,  he  conducted  his  god 

ii^7^B^lIZ,  i^to   a   magnificent   temple   which   he    had    built    for 

b7i)^^im^rtH\  ^^^  ^^  ^^^  ^*  *^^  suburbs  of  Rome.     The  idol  was 

Coin  of  Emesa;  placed  ou  a  chariot  sparkling  with  gold  and  precious 

stones,  drawn  by  six  white  horses.     No  one  rode  on 

it,   so  that  the  god  might   appear   to  direct  it  himself.      In  front, 

the  prince,  supported  by  two  guards,  drove  backwards  in  order  to 

keep  his  eyes  ever  fixed  on  the  holy  image!      Behind  were  bome 

the    statues    of    all    the    gods,    the    imperial    ornaments,    and    the 

precious   furnishings    of    the    palace;    the   garrison    of    Rome    and 

the  entire  populace  formed  the  escort,  bearing  torches  and  strewing 

the  way  with  flowers  and  wreaths.* 

Dion  relates   an   adventure   which  took   place   about  the  same 

'  Lamprid ,  Heliog.,  11. 

^  Omnes  deos  sui  dei  ministros  es/te  aiehat  (Lamprid.,  Heliog.y  7). 

'  Sacerdos  dei  solts  (Eckhel,  vii.  260)  ;  in  the  inscriptions,  he  joined  to  his  title  of  emperor 
that  of  priest  of  Elagabahis  (Henzen,  Nos.  5,514-5). 
*  Herod.,  v.  5. 


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CARACALLA,  MACEINU8,  AND  ELAGABALUS,  211  TO  222  A.D.    281 

time  near  the  place  where  he  himself  was  in  command :  ^^  On  the 
banks  of  the  Ister  appeared,  I  know  not  how,  a  genius  who 
resembled  in  countenance  Alexander  of  Macedon.  He  traversed 
MsBsia  and  Thrace,  after  the  manner  of  Bacchus,  accompanied  by 
400  men  armed  with  thyrsi  and  clad  in  goat  skins.  They  did  no 
harm,  and  everything  was  supplied  to  them,  lodging  and  provisions, 
at  the  expense  of  the  cities,  for  no  one  dared  oppose  him  in  word 
or  action — neither  chief,  nor  soldier,  nor  procurator,  nor  governor 
of  provinces;  and  it  was  in  open  daylight,  as  he  had  announced, 
that  he  advanced  in  procession  as  far  as  Byzantium.  From  there, 
having  reached  the  territory  of  Chalcedon,  he  performed  at  night 
certain  sacrifices,  hid  in  the  ground  a  wooden  horse,  and  then 
disappeared."  ^ 

These  populations,  stultified  by  gross  superstitions,  taking  for 
a  god  the  fanatic  or  the  adroit  swindler  who  lived  at  their  expense, 
aid  us  to  comprehend  that  other  grotesque  madman,  creating  a 
religious  revolution  at  Rome  in  favour  of  his  black  stone.  In  the 
preceding  chapter  we  have  seen  the  superior  men  of  this  age 
directing  their  thought  into  the  depths  of  heaven,  there  to  seek 
that  God  who  ever  keeps  from  view.  The  two  facts  which  we 
have  now  reported  show  the  imagination  of  the  simple-minded, 
princes  or  people,  haunted  by  the  same  phantoms.  The  genii,  the 
demons,  are  everywhere ;  every  religion  furnishes  them ;  and  the 
multitude,  not  knowing  which  to  listen  to,  confounds  them  in  a 
common  and  fearful  adoration.  It  is  the  popular  jumbling  together 
of  beliefs,  which  is  produced  after  its  fashion  on  a  lower  plane 
than  the  syncretism  of  the  philosophers. 

^^In  the  temple  of  his  god,  where  we  have  already  seen  all 
the  occupants  of  the  Grasco-Roman  Pantheon,  he  placed  also,"  says 
his  biographer,  ^Hhe  image  of  the  great  goddess,  the  Vestal  fire, 
the  Palladium,  the  sacred  bucklers;  he  desired  that  they  might 
there  fulfil  the  rites  of  the  Jews  and  the  Samaritans,  even  the 
ceremonies  of  Christianity,  so  that  the  priests  of  Elagabalus  might 
possess  the  secret  of  all  religions."^ 

This  secret  the  Christians  believed  that  they  possessed ;  and, 
seeing   them   oppose  to   this  religious   anarchy   the   unity   of    their 

'  Dion,  Ixxix.  18. 

^  Lamprid.,  Helioff.,  4. 


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282  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235   A.D. 

belief  and  the  discipline  of  their  churches,  we  have  a  presentiment 

that  the  hour  of  triumph 
is  coining  for  them.  The 
just  loathing  inspired  by  the 
high-priest  of  Emesa,  must 
not,  however,  prevent  our 
seeing  that  in  the  midst  of 
these  disgusting  festivals  an 
important  fact  lay  concealed. 
The  worship  of  the  black 
stone  did  not  accord  with 
the  Eoman  genius,  which 
the  Greeks  had  educated 
in  respect  to  the  plastic 
representation  of  the  gods ; 
but  the  monotheistic  idea 
which  this  stone  represented 
became  a  very  Roman  one. 
The  worship  of  the  Sun 
assumes  more  and  more 
importance,  for  it  was  of  all 
the  pagan  cults  the  most 
rational.  We  shall  see  that 
^  the  Sun  was  the  great  god 

Julia  Cornelia  Paula.     (Bust  in  Parian  Marble.         of  AureliaU   and  that   of    the 
Museum  of  the  Louvre.)  .  «       .<■  rm 

Constantme  family.  The 
most  miserable  of  the  emperors  accordingly  plays,  without  sus- 
pecting it,  a  part  in  the  religious  decomposition 
of  Eoman  society :  this  debauched  fool  had  also 
in  his  way  the  intoxication  of  the  divine.  He 
is  the  representative  of  that  confused  medley  of 
beliefs  from  which  the  faith  in  one  only  God  is 
beginning  to  disengage  itself.  This  confusion  will 
Julia  Aquiiia  Severa     be  fouud  in  the  mind  of  his  successor,  but  with 

AugLustaj    (after    a  ^  ^ 

Lar^e  Bronze  of  the     moral  purfty,  whilc   Elagabalus   seeks  and   takes 

from  it  only  that  which  may  excite    his  passions. 

For  his  idiotic  luxuriousness    and    his   infamous   debauches  we 

may  refer  to  Lampridius.     History  notes  these  turpitudes  or  follies; 


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CABACALLA,  MACEINUS,  AND  ELAGABALU8,  211  TO  222  A.D.    283 

it  does  not  delay  over  them.  We  need  only  say  that,  after  the 
example  of  Asiatic  monarchs  who  seek  their  ministers  in  the 
lowest  ranks  of  sdciety,  he  assigned  the  most  prominent  offices  of 
the  State  to  dancers  and  barbers,  when  he  did  not  sell  them  to  rich 


Aiinia  Faustiua. 

debauchees;  that  he  treated  the  senate  as  a  troop  of  slaves  in 
togas,  which  was  unhappily  the  truth;  that  his  palace  was  sanded 
with  gold  dust,  and  thdt  his  garments  of  silk  loaded  with  jewels 
were  never  worn  twice ;  that  he  filled  his  fish-ponds  with  rose- 
water,^  and  that  he  had  naval  engagements  represented  on  lakes  of 
wine;^  that  he  finally  dressed  as  a  woman,  painted  his  face, 
wrought    at    work    in    wool,    and    had    himself    styled    domina    or 

'  Bust  of  pavonazetto.     (Capitol,  Hall  of  the  Emperors,  No,  58.) 

^  Lamprid.,  Helioff.,  19.     During  the  banquets,  the  ceiling  opened  to  let  faU  upon  the 
guests  such  a  quantity  of  flowers  that  many  were  stifled  by  them. 
'Ibid.,  16,  2± 


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284  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180    TO    235    A.D. 

imperatrix^  the  emperor  being  at  that  time  the  son  of  a  cook 
or  some  vigorous  athlete.  In  less  than  four  years  he  espoused  foui- 
or  five  wives,  whom  he  repudiated  and  took  back  again.  The  first, 
Julia  Cornelia  Paula,  of  eminent  family,  retained  for  one  year  only 

her  title  and  honours; 
he  carried  ofiE  the  second, 
Julia  Aquilia  Severa,  from 
the  altar  of  Yesta,  an 
act  of  sacrilege  which 
made  even  the  Eomans 
of  that  time  tremble ;  the 
third,  Annia  Faustina, 
was  descended  from 
Marcus  Aurelius;  the 
memory  of  the  great 
emperor  only  protected 
her  a  few  weeks  against 
the  caprices  of  the  im- 
perial debauchee. 

Meanwhile,  Meesa 
saw  how  such  a  manner 
of  reigning  must  end. 
By  adroit  flattery  she 
induced  Elagabalus  to 
/  bestow  the  title  of  Ceesar 

Julia  Maesa.     (Bust  of  the  Capitol,  Hall  of  the  Emperors,     "nnon      his      COUsin     Alex- 
No.  59.)  " 

ander,  adopting  him  as 
his  son.  ^'  He  should  devote  himself,"  she  told  him,  "  to  the 
enjoyment  of  his  feasts,  to  his  sacred  orgies,  and  to  his  divine 
duties;  another  would  have  the  care  of  afiEairs."  This  other  was 
twelve  years  old,  and  the  adoptive  father  numbered  sixteen  years ; 
but  the  new  Ceesar  had  already  revealed  his  sweet  and  happy  dis- 
position, so  that  the  grandmother  and  his  mother  centred  in  him 
the  hope  of  their  house.  His  good  graces,  his  discretion,  the  strict 
masters  whom  he  had  about  him,  the  perils  which  it  was  known 
that  he  incurred,  and  the  secret  largesses  of  Mammsea  to  the 
praetorians,  obtained  for  him  a  popularity  at  which  Elagabalus 
became  incensed.     He  sought  various  means  to  put  him  out  of  the 


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CARACALLA,  MACRINUS,  AND  ELAGABALUS,  211  TO  222  A.l).    285 

way  quietly.  But  Mammaea  did  not  permit  her  son  to  taste  any 
beverage  or  any  dish  sent  by  the  emperor;  she  surrounded  him 
with  trusty  servants,  and  the  thoughtlessness  of  Elagabalus,  which 
allowed  any  one  to  penetrate  his  designs,  enabled  them  also  to 
prevent  them.  Finally,  one  day 
he  decided  on  an  overt  attack. 
He  sent  an  order  to  the  senators 
and  to  the  soldiers  to  take  from 
his  cousin  the  title  of  Caesar,  while 
at  the  same  time  murderers  were 
seeking  for  the  child  in  order  to 
slay  him.  This  order  provoked  a 
sedition  in  which  the  emperor 
narrowly  escaped  death.  He  was 
obliged  to  go  with  Alexander  to 
the  camp  of  the  praetorians,  who 
required  of  him  the  death  or  dis- 
missal of  his  minions,  commanded 
the  prince  to  change  his  mode  of 
life,  and  ordered  their  prefects  to 
see  to  it,  and  especially  to  prevent 
Alexander  from  imitating  his  cousin. 
One  might  think  them  French 
Cabochiens  of  1413  enjoining 
inorality  upon  the  Dauphin,  driving 
from  the  Hotel  Saint  Pol  musicians 

and     dancers     belated     too     far    into     Ela^abalus.     (Statue,  heroic  size.     Collec- 

the  night,  and  even  the  councillors  ^^^^  ^^^^^^-  Nr2;48T  a!)'  ""^'^  ^^*  '^^' 
who  were  displeasing  to  them,  and 

whom  they  conducted  to  Parliament  to  be  judged  or  slaughtered 
on  the  way  there.  There  is,  however,  this  difference:  in  1413 
Paris  was  in  a  revolution,  and  at  Eome,  in  221,  the  orders  given 
by  the  soldiery  to  the  prince  had  become  the  regular  procedure. 

On  the  first  of  January,  222,  the  two  children  were  to  go 
before  the  senate  to  take  possession  of  the  consular  dignities.  It 
required  all  the  urging  of  Maesa  and  the  threat  of  a  new  sedi- 
tion to  induce  Elagabalus  to  allow  himself  to  be  accompanied 
by    his    adopted    son.      But    he    absolutely    refused   to    fulfil   with 


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286  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

him,  at  the  Capitol,  the  customary  ceremonies.  Another  day  he 
circulated  a  report  of  the  death  of  Alexander,  in  order  to  judge, 
from  what  the  soldiers  might  do,  whether  he  might  put  him 
to  death  without  incurring  too  much  risk.  Secretly  informed  that 
the  young  prince  was  alive,  they  demanded  his  presence  among 
them  with  loud  shouts,  recalled  the  guard  which  they  sent  each 
morning  to  the  palace,  and  withdrew  to  their  camp.  The  trial 
resulted  badly.  Elagabalus  hastened  to  appease  them  by  show- 
ing to  them  the  Caesar.  His  mother  and  Mammaea  followed  him, 
each  exciting  the  soldiery  against  the  other.  Mammsea  at  last 
carried  the  day.  Violent  clamours  arose,  then  they  came  to  blows; 
the  friends,  the  ministers  of  Elagabalus,  Soaemias  herself,  were 
slaughtered*  The  effeminate  voluptuary,  whom  a  crumpled  rose- 
leaf  disturbed,  hid  himself  in  the  sinks  of  the  camp.  There  he 
was  put  to  death,  and  his  corpse,  dragged  through  the  streets, 
not  being  able  to  pass  through  the  outlet  of  a  sewer,  was  flung 
into  the  Tiber,  whither  the  god  of  Emesa  was  near  following  its 
pontifiE.  The  senate  consigned  his  memory  to  infamy,  and  history 
does  the  same.     This  was  on  March  11th,  222. 

His  cousin,  aged  thirteen  and  a  half  years,^  was  proclaimed 
Augustus  and  took  the  names  of  Marcus  Aurelius  Alexander,  to 
which  the  soldiers  added,  in  memory  of  him  whom  some  gave 
him  for  a  grandfather,  the  name  of  Severus.^ 

To  mark  distinctly  that  the  oriental  orgy  was  ended,  and  that 
the  ancient  deities  dispossessed  by  the  Syrian  idol  had  resumed 
their  sway,  Alexander  engraved  on  his  coins  fhe  title  of  priest  of 
Rome,  sacerdos  Urbis? 

*  Herodian  (t.  7)  says  that  he  was  Altering  on  his  twelfth  year  when  Ekgahalus  adopted 
him.     He  is  generally  assigned  three  years  more. 

'  Marcus  Aurelim  Severus  Aleaander  (Eckhel,  vii.  281).  I  have  mentioned  (vol.  v.  p.  622) 
the  session  of  the  senate  at  which  Alexander  declined  the  other  names  which  the  Fathers 
desired  to  confer  upon  him. 

»  Eckhel,  vii.  270. 


Julia  Suaeraias  Augusta. 


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CHA.PTER  XCIII. 

ALEXANDEE  SEVEEUS  (MAECH  11,  222— MAECH  19,  235  A.D.). 

I. — Reaction  against  the  Preceding  Reign;    MAMMiEA  and 
Ulpian  ;    THE  Council  of  the  Prince. 

ONCE  more  then,  by  the  grace  of  the  soldiers,  the  heritage  of 
Augustus  was  in  the  hands  of  two  women  and  a  child. 
What  vitality  there  was  in  this  Empire,  which,  fallen  under  the 
rule  of  women,  yet  remained  erect  and  imposing ! 

But    these    two    women    were    of    superior    minds.      We    are 
acquainted   with   the   skilful   prudence    of  Meesa    and 
the  elevated  spirit  of  the  mother  of  Alexander.     The 
latter,   by    a    well-ordered    education,    developed    the 
happy  disposition  of  this  gentle  and  pious  soul.     She 
placed  about    her    son    the   ablest  masters,   provided 
they  were  also  the  most  honourable,  and  she  taught  Augfusta],  Mother 
him  enough   of    literature   and  art  to   have    a    taste      ^  Sever^.^' 
and  respect  for  them;    not  enough  to  tempt  him   to      (Gold Coin.) 
bestow  upon  them  the  time  demanded  by  public  business.     It  will 
be    remarked    that    Alexander    expressed    himself    more    easily    in 
Greek   than  in  Latin.      This  invasion  of  Greek  into  higher  Roman 
society  is  a  sign  of  the  progress  accomplished  by  another  invasion, 
that   of   oriental   hellenism   and   Alexandrian   syncretism,    of    which 
this  prince  was  also  a  representative. 

"From  the  day  of  his  accession,"  says  Herodian,^  "he  was 
surrounded  with  all  the  pomp  of  sovereign  power ;  but  the  care 
of  the  Empire  was  left  to  the  two  princesses,  who  made  an  efiEort 
to  bring  back  good  morals  and  the  ancient  dignified  demeanour. 
They   chose   sixteen   senators,  the  most  eminent  for  experience  and 

'  vi.  i.     A  coin  of  222  bears  the   words,  Liheralitas  Aug.     This  was  the  resuming  of 
the  congtarium  granted,  ut  ?noris  eratj  stiscepfo  impen'o,  says  Eckhel. 


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288  THE   AFRICAN    AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

integrity  of  life,  to  form  the  ordinary  council  of  the  prince.* 
Nothing  was  carried  into  execution  without  their  advice.  The 
people,  the  army,  the  senate,  were  charmed  with  this  new  form 
of  government,  which  replaced  the  most  insolent  tyranny  by  a  sort 
of  aristocracy.'' 

I  do  not  know  whether  the  senate  was  as  satisfied  as  Herodian 
says  with  the  new  importance  given  to  this  consilium  principis. 
We  shall  refer  elsewhere  to  this  institution,  which  took  from  the 
ancient  masters  of  Rome  their  last  prerogatives. 

The  Conscript  Fathers  gave  themselves  at  least  the  pleasure  of 
devoting  to  the  infernal  gods  the  prince  or  the  consul  who,  in  the 
future,  shoxdd  give  a  woman  a  seat  in  the  august  assembly.  No 
doubt  this  decree  of  the  senate  appeared  to  them  as  worthy  of 
memory  as  that  which  had  ordered  the  victorious  Pyrrhus  to  depart 
from  Italy.^ 

''They  made  haste,"  continues  the  historian,  ''to  restore  to 
their  sanctuaries  the  statues  of  the  gods  which  Elagabalus  had 
taken  away.  They  removed  from  their  .places  and  honours  the 
functionaries  who    had    obtained    them    unworthily,    and    intrusted 

duties   to   the   most   capable   citizens In   order  to  preserve 

the  prince  from  the  mistakes  which  might  be  caused  by  absolute 
authority,  the  ardour  of  youth,  or  by  some  of  the  vices  natural  to 
his  family,  Mammeea  scrupulously  guarded  the  entrance  to  the 
palace  and  allowed  no  man  to  gain  admission  whose  morals  were 
of  bad  repute.'- 

This  reaction  against  the  last  reign,  these  precautions  to  save 
the  new  from  the  same  excesses,  were  legitimate.  They  could  not 
do  this  better  than  by  the  government  of  aged  men  and  women, 
by  this  paternal  and  gentle  authority,  the  calm  and  somnolence 
of  which  were  calculated  to  protect  this  prince's  minority,  and  to 
enable  him  to  reach  full  age,  if  the  soldiers  consented  to  grant 
him  time  to  do  so. 

^  Lampridius  (Alex.f  15)  makes  the  number  twenty.  The  council  was  complemented,  in 
certain  circumstances,  by  adding  other  senators,  so  that  the  number  of  fifty  Conscript  Fathers, 
required  for  the  validity  of  a  decree,  might  be  attained.  This  council  also  made  nominations 
to  the  senate.  (Ibid.y  18.)  The  last  great  jurisconsults  of  Rome,  Florentinus,  Marcianus, 
Hermogenes,  Satuminus,  and  Modestinus,  numerous  fragments  of  wliose  writings  the  Pandects 
have  preserved  to  us,  had  seats  in  it,  in  company  with  Paulus  and  Ulpian. 

'  Lamprid.,  Heliog,^  Id.  Dating  from  the  time  of  Alexander  Severus  we  find  no  more 
senatus-consulta. 


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ALEXANDER    SEVERUS,    MARCH    11,    222,    TO    MARCH    19,    235    A.D.      289 

Into  the  imperial  council  Mammrea  had  called  her  compatriot 
Ulpian,  whom  she  appointed  prefect  of  the  preetorium,^  which  made 
him  the  second  per- 
sonage in  the  state. 
In  reality,  considering 
the  age  of  the  em- 
peror, Ulpian  was  the 
first,^  for  he  was  pre- 
sent at  the  audiences 
of  the  prince,  reported 
matters  to  him  with 
the  solutions  to  be 
given,  and  had  the 
conduct  of  the  whole 
government.  Under 
this  great  juriscon- 
sult,' justice  was  im- 
partial and  the  police 
service  vigilant. 
Those  who  speculated 
on  the  misery  of  the 
people,  the  venality 
of  a  judge,  or  the 
compliance  of  a  func- 
tionary had  to  render 

strict      account ;       but  Julia  Mammaea,  Mother  of  Alexander  Severus. 

no    one    lost     hi  a    li -Fp  f^^wt  of  Pentelican  Marble.     Museum  of  the  Louvre.) 

or  property  without  a  judgment  given  after  discussion  on  both 
sides.*  Many  honourable  rescripts  were  promulgated.  They  did 
not  introduce  any  modifications  into  the  law,  but  we  see  in 
them    the    provident    kindliness    which    is    characteristic    of    this 

*  He  appears  to  have  been  so  under  Elagabalus.  (Lamprid.,  Alex.,  26,  and  Aur.  Victor, 
de  Cas.,  26.) 

^  See,  for  the  powers  of  the  prefect  of  the  praBtorium,  p.  102. 

^  Of  the  numerous  works  of  Ulpian,  the  most  important  were  eighty-three  books  ad  Edictum, 
fifty-one  ad  Sabinum.  Numerous  fragments  remain  to  us  of  his  Liber  regularum  sin^ulans. 
The  extracts  from  these  various  treatises  form  a  third  of  the  Digest. 

*  This  is  the  assertion  of  Lampridius.  Yet  the  death  of  the  fatheiwn-law  of  Alexander, 
that  of  Turinus,  whom  he  caused  to  be  suffocated,  the  murder  of  several  of  his  councillors 
(Lamprid.,  Alex.,  67),  and  some  others,  were  nor  tlie  result  of  judicial  orders. 

VOL.    VI.  U 


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290  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180    TO    235    A.D. 

reign,^  and  which  we  have  also  previously  found  in  the  legislation 
of  the  Antonines  and  of  Severus.  Mention  is  even  made  in  them 
of  the  liberty  of  the  subject:  conditioned,  it  is  true,  by  their  good 
will  and  obedience.^ 

The  ability  of  these  wise  councillors  is  further  marked  by 
certain  details  of  administration,  some  of  which  were  of  real  import- 
ance. The  prefecture  of  the  preetorium  came  to  be  of  senatorial 
rank:  the  extension  of  the  judicial  cognizance  of  the  prefect,  who 
sometimes  had  to  sit  in  judgment  on  senators,  rendered  this  change 
necessary,  and  his  decisions  had  the  force  of  law  when  they  were 
not  contrary  to  existing  constitutions.^  With  Ulpian  this  office 
attained  the  zenith  of  its  power. 

Fourteen  curators,  all  of  consular  rank,  were  charged  with  the 
duty  of  deciding,  with  the  prefect  of  Kome,  all  affairs  concerning 
the  fourteen  districts  of  the  city.*  This  edict  furnished  a  municipal 
council  to  the  capital  of  the  Empire,  the  police  of  which  had 
hitherto  been  subject  to  the  sole  authority  of  the  prefect ;  in  addi- 
tion to  which  he  prescribed  that  the  resolutions,  to  be  valid, 
should  be  adopted  in  presence  of  all  the  members,  or  at  least  of 
a  majority  of  them.  This  council,  appointed  and  not  elected,  was 
none  the  less  for  Kome  a  guarantee  of  better  administration. 

The  assessors  of  the  presidents  were  entitled  to  fees,  which 
gave  them  the  character  of  public  functionaries,  but  increased  the 
expenditures  of  the  treasury;^  and  it  was  forbidden  to  the  pro- 
vincial governors,  as  well  as  to  the  persons  employed  about  them, 
to  engage  in  business  or  usury  in  the  countries  under  their  rule. 
We  have  seen*  what  wise  recommendations  Ulpian  made  to  them 
for  the  protection  of  the  common  people.  It  had  long  been  the 
custom  to  make  grants  of  lands  to  the  veterans :  he  established 
the  rule  that  officers  and  soldiers  put  in  possession  of  domains  on 
the    frontiers    might    transmit    them    to    their   children,    when   the 

^  For  instance:  ....  Cavetur  ut  si patronus  libertum  suum  non  aluerit,  jus patroni perdat 
(Digest f  xxxvii.  14,  5,  §  1). 

^  Digest,  xlix.  1,  25 :  .  .  .  .  tantum  miki  curce  est  eoinim,  qui  reguntur,  libertatis,  guantuin 
et  bona  voltmtatis  eorum  et  obedientice. 

»  Codey  i.  26,  2,  ann.  235. 

*  Lamprid.,  Alejc.,  32. 

*  Ibid.,  45.  Pescennius  Niger  had  already  wished  to  introduce  this  r^orm,  ne  consiliarii 
eos  gravarent  qutbus  assidebant  (Spart.,  Nig.,  7). 

«  Vol.  V.  p.  472. 


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The  Arch  of  the  Goldsmiths  at  Rome  (p.  293). 

U2 


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ALEXANDER   8EVERUS,    MARCH    11,    222,    TO    MARCH    19,    235    A.D.      293 

latter  followed  the  profession  of  arms;  otherwise  the  land  reverted 
to  the  imperial  treasury.^  These  were  military  benefices  and  the 
beginning  of  a  new  order  of  property. 

The  post  of  duxy  that  is,  of  chief  of  the  army,  without  terri- 
torial  command,   which  we    have    seen   originating 
under  Severus,  appears  to  become  a  regular  office.^ 

Finally,  the  government  constituted  what  may 
be   called   deposit  banks,^  and    he    organized    into 
corporations  the  trades  which  had  not  as  yet  taken 
that  form;    he  assigned  to  each  one  a  defensor ^  as      Moneta resHtuta: 
will  be  given  later  to  the  cities,*  and  he  established 
for  them  a  special  jurisdiction.      Some  were  very  rich,  that  of  the 
goldsmiths,  for  example,  who  erected  an  arch  to  Septimius  Severus. 
It  was  a  new  order  of  industry  produced  or  developed. 

II. — Gentleness,  Piety,  and  Weakness  of  Alexander  Severus. 

What  part  had  the  prince  in  these  measures?  With  an 
emperor  of  thirteen  the  councillors  must  have  retained  power  for 
a  long  period.  But  it  may  be  said  that  all  which  they  did  in  the 
interests  of  the  subjects  responded,  if  not  to  the  thought,  at  least 
to  the  heart  of  the  prince. 

The  biographer  of  Alexander  has  sought  to  make  of  this  reign 
what  Xenophon  had  made  of  that  of  Cyrus,  a  beautiful  morality^ 
and,  although  this  scribe  of  Constantine  had  not  yet  embraced  the 
religion  of  his  master,  he  has,  to  flatter  him,  represented  the  least 
pagan  emperor  as  half  Christian.  From  this  has  resulted  that 
Alexander  has  been  the  spoiled  child  of  history,  as  if,  on  coming 
out  of  the  corrupt  atmosphere  in  which  they  had  just  been 
living,  and  before  entering  the  bloody  gloom  of  the  age  following, 

*  Lamprid.,  Alex,^  57. 

*  Lamprid.,  ibid.,  51.  Capitolinus,  in  the  life  of  Gordian  III.,  also  speaks  of  duces 
honorati,  that  is^  honorary  dukes. 

'Lamprid.,  ibid.,  38.  Medals^  Moneta  restituta,  etc.,  attest  also  a  monetary  reform 
(Eckhel,  vii.  279) ;  but  the  explanations  of  Lampridius  on  this  subject  (39)  throw  no  light  on 
the  question. 

*  Lamprid.,  ibid,,  22  and  33.  This  drfensor  was  no  doubt  a  different  person  from  the 
patronus. 

'  MON.  RESTITVTA.  MonetA  standing,  holding  a  balance  and  a  horn  of  plenty. 
(Medium  bronze  of  Alexander  Severus.") 


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llislorv  ol  Home.  P^    I' 


EuuELi  DEL  Dosso  pinxit  Imp.  Frailiery.  Uambouroez  ciiroinolith 

GOLD     PLATE    CALLED    THE    PATERA     OF    RENNES 

(CAB1!«KT     DK      KRAlICk;) 


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294  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO   235   A.D. 

they  had  dwelt  with  complacency  upon  this  pleasing  figure,  which 
youth,  virtue,  and  misfortune  have  consecrated.  In  certain  respects 
this  good  fame  of  Alexander  is  legitimate.  After  the  saturnalia  of 
the  previous  reign  he  exhibits  an  emperor  pure  in  morals,  simple 
in  tastes,  and  who  made  his  life  a  public  example  more  efficacious 
than  all  legal  enactments.  One  feels  an  attachment  for  this 
amiable  prince  who  wished  the  public  crier  to  proclaim,  while 
criminals  were  being  chastised,  these  words  graven  on  the  front 
of  his  palace:  "Do  not  to  another  what  you  would  not  have  done 
to  yourself ; "  who  wrote  in  verse  the  lives  of  the  good  princes,^ 
and  each  day  went  into  his  lararium  to  pass  some  moments  before 
the  images  of  those  whom  he  called  the  benefactors  of  humanity, 
princes  or  philosophers,  founders  of  empires  or  religions;*^  who, 
finally,  constantly  read  over  the  Beptcblie  of  Plato,  the  treatise  de 
Officiis  of  Cicero,  and  the  Epistles  of  Horace,  to  adopt  from  these 
noble  books  his  rules  of  conduct.  Every  seventh  day  he  ascended 
to  the  Capitol  and  visited  the  temples  of  the  city,  without,  how- 
ever, making  rich  offerings  in  them,  thinking  with  Persius,  that 
the  worship  loved  by  the  gods  is  the  practice  of  virtue,  and  that 
they  have  no  need  of  gold: 

.  .  .  .  /n  Sanctis  quid  facit  aurumf 

But  he  was  liberal  to  the  poor,  to  his  friends,  and  to  those  of 
his  officers  who  had  well  fulfilled  their  duties. 

We  remember  the  grand  alimentary  institution  of  Trajan ;  he 
continued  and  extended  it,'  and  founded  another;  he  lent  money 
to  poor  families  that  they  might  buy  land,  and  required  of  them 
only  an  interest  of  three  per  cent.,  payable  from  the  product  of 
the  funds.^     He  often  even  made  a  gratuitous  gift  of  land,   slaves. 


*  .  .  .  .   Vit(u  prmcipum  bonorum  versibus  scripsit  (Lamprid.,  Alex.^  27). 

'  Lampridius,  who  supplies  this  information  {Alex.,  28),  adds  this  bit  of  detail :  "  He  did 
not  enter  into  his  oratory  unless  si  facultas  esset,  id  est,  si  non  cum  uxore  cuJbuissety  This  was 
a  general  rule  of  which  Ovid  had  already  spoken  (Fastis  ii.  329,  and  iv.  657).  The  Church 
inherited  this  custom.  "This  kind  of  abstinence,"  says  Abb6  Greppo,  "was  practised  in  the 
primitive  Church  prior  to  participation  in  the  holy  mysteries,  as  still  takes  place  in  the  churches  * 
of  the  East,  whose  ministers  are  not  constrained  to  celibacy."  (Trois  mSm.  d^Mst.  eccUs,, 
p.  280.)    The  Russian  peasant  observes  the  same  rule  the  day  preceding  the  Sabbath. 

*  Puellas  et  pueros  MamnuBanas  et  Mammaanos  instituit  (Lamprid.,  Alex.f  66).  A  coin 
of  Plautilla,  which  represents  a  woman  carrying  a  child,  shows  that  Severus  also  took  care  of 
this  institution.    (Eckhel,  vii.  226.) 

*  Lamprid.,  Alex.,  21.     As  to  imposts,  it  is  impossible  to  admit  with  Lampridius  that  he 


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llislorv  ot  Itoiue.  PI    H 


EuHbLi  DkL  Dosso  piiixit  Imp.  Fraillery.  Uamboi-rgez  ciiromoUth 

GOLD     PLATE    CALLED    THE    PATERA     OF    RENNES 

(GABlMkIT     DK      KRAJUCkl) 


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ALEXANDER    8EVERU8,    MARCH    11,    222,    TO    MARCH    19,    235    A.D.      295 

cattle,   and  implements  of  agriculture.      If  he   augmented  the   tax 
on   the   industries   of  luxury,  on   the   goldsmiths,'  gilders,   furriers, 
etc.,   he   diminished    the    other    imposts,    and    lamented    that  fiscal 
agents  were  a  necessary  evil.      He  granted  remissions  to  a  number 
of    cities,    on   condition   that  the    money   which  he    allowed    them 
should   serve   to  rebuild  their  ruined  edifices;    he  restored  at  his 
own  expense  many  ancient  bridges  and  constructed  new  ones.     And 
finally,  he  founded 
schools,    paid    pro- 
fessors,    pensioned 
pupUs,  and  recom- 
pensed   advocates 
who    took    nothing 
from  their  client:^ 
these      are     our 

scholarships  and  SaUufltU  Orbiana,  Second  Wife  of  Alexander  Severus.* 

our    judiciary    aid. 

For  himseK,  great  frugality  and  much  economy,  to  the  extent  of 
being  reduced  to  borrowing  silver  ware  and  slaves,  when  he  gave 
a  state  banquet ;  toward  all,  plebeians  or  senators,  even  towards 
his  own  domestics,  an  affability  which  in  the  emperor  did  not  let 
the  master  be  seen.     At  twenty  he  was  a  sage. 

This  wisdom,  which  was  not  the  fruit  of  experience  but  a  gift 

reduced  them  to  the  twentieth  of  what  Elagabalus  exacted.  On  the  payment  of  the  impost  in 
gold,  see  above,  p.  246. 

^  A  masterpiece  of  goldsmith's  work  of  this  epoch  is  a  cup  of  massive  gold,  discovered  in 
1774,  at  Rennes,  while  demolishing  a  house  of  the  metropolitan  chapter,  and  called  in  the 
Cabinet  de  France,  Patera  of  Rennes.  It  had  been  hidden  six  feet  under  ground  in  the  time  of 
Aurelian,  for  the  imperial  coins  most  recently  found  in  the  same  locality  were  of  Posthumus 
and  Aurelian.  It  is  composed  of  an  eniblema,  or  central  part,  and  a  border  adorned  with  sixteen 
aurei  of  emperors  and  empresses  from  Hadrian  to  Geta,  which  places  its  fabrication  at  the  time 
of  Severus.  The  etnblema  represents  a  challenge  between  Bacchus  and  Hercules ;  in  the  frieze 
which  surrounds  the  principal  subject  and  complements  its  thought,  Bacchus  triumphs  over 
Hercules.  The  decoration  is  completed  by  the  sixteen  gold  coins  encircled  with  wreaths  of 
acanthus  and  of  laurel.  This  cup,  stolen  from  the  Cabinet  de  France  in  1831,  was  found  intact, 
some  days  afterwards  under  an  arch  of  the  Pont  Marie.  We  give  it  in  an  extra  plate.  For 
further  details  see  Chabouillet,  Catalogue  ffSnSral,  pp.  357  et  seq.,  No.  2,537. 

'  Bhetoribus,  fframmaticis,  medicis,  antspicihus,  mathematicis,  mechanicis,  arcMtectte  salaria 
instituit,  et  auditoria  decrevit,  et  discipuXos  cum  annanis  pauperum  JUios  modo  inffenuos  dart 
juseit.  Etiam  in  provincOe  oratoribus  forensibtts  multum  dettdit,  plerisque  etiam  antionas  dedit, 
guos  constitisset  gratis  agere.    (Lamprid.,  Alex,,  44.) 

'  The  empress  Sallustia  Orbiana  wearing  a  diadem ;  on  the  reverse,  FECVNDITAS 
TEMPORVM.  Orbiana  seated;  before  her,  Fecundity  kneeling,  holding  a  horn  of  plenty  and 
carrying  two  children.     (Bronze  medallion.) 


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296  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN    PlUNt'ES,    180    TO    235    A.D. 

of  nature,  this  goodness  which  showed  itself  in  everything,  does 
honour  to  liie  man :  of  the  prince  other  things  are  demanded.  His 
filial  tenderness  was  weakness  when  he  did  not  dare  to  resist  his 
mother,  who,  troubled  by  so  many  catastrophes,  sought  in  heaping 
up  treasure  ^  a  guarantee  against  evil  days ;  as  if,  for  her  and  her 
son,  in  case  of  defeat,  there  was  any  other  refuge  than  death. 
This  weakness  even  becomes  odious  if,  as  Herodian  relates,  it 
allowed  Mammsea  to  drive  from  the  palace  his  young  bride,  who 
claimed  the  honours  of  an  augmta^  and  who  deserved  them;^  if 
he  suflEered  his  father-in-law  to  be  put  to  death  for  having  com- 
plained to  the  administrators  of  justice  of  the  time — the  soldiers  of 
the  preetorium — of  the  outrages  which  he  had  received  from  the 
empress.^ 

His  regret  at  not  being  able  to  abolish  all  the  imposts  is  the 
expression  of  a  woman,  or  of  a  courtier  of  the  rabble,  and  his 
love  for  the  Republic  of  Plato,  the  revelation  of  a  mind  which  the 
good  sense  of  Horace,  his  other  favourite,  did  not  preserve  from 
fair  illusions.  The  prohibiting  senators  from  investing  their  money, 
capitalists  from  lending  at  more  than  three  per  cent.,  those  whose 
consciences  were  disquieted  from  presenting  themselves  at  the 
imperial  receptions :  these  moralities,  proclaimed  by  the  herald  or 
aflftxed  to  edicts,  issued  from  a  good  disposition ;  but  how  was 
their  execution  to  be  assured  ?  The  regulations  about  costumes, 
to  distinguish  the  orders  of  citizens,  about  garments  for  summer 
and  winter,  for  fair  weather  and  rain,  were  other  puerilities,  of 
which  TJlpian  and  Paulus  surely  prescribed  very  little.  Before 
appointing  a  functionary,  he  published  his  name,  and  invited  the 
citizens,  in  case  the  candidate  of  the  prince  had  committed  some 
crime,  to  denounce  him,  adding,  however,  that  the  informer  would 
be  punished  with  death  if  he  did  not  furnish  proof  of  his  accusation. 
This  is  a  twofold  absurdity :  a  serious  government  is  bound  to  make 

^  See  on  this  subject  the  sarcasms  of  Julian  in  the  Ccesars. 

^  The  name  of  this  young  woman  is  not  known ;  but  after  having  repudiated  her,  Alex- 
ander re-married,  and  though  no  author  has  spoken  of  his  second  wife,  we  have  coins  of  hers 
and  an  inscription  in  which  she  is  named  with  the  title  of  augvsta :  Gncea  Seta  Herennia 
Sallustia  Barbia  Orbiana  Augusta.    See  Eckhel,  vii.  p.  284,  and  Corp.  Inscr.  Lat,  ii.  3,734. 

*  Others  accuse  the  father-in-law  of  a  conspiracy  against  his  son-in-law,  which  is  hardly 
probable.  The  catastrophe  was  doubtless  brought  about  by  a  woman's  quarrel.  The  young 
empress  may  have  had  the  lot  of  Plautilla,  without  deserving  it,  for  she  loved  her  husband 
tenderly,     (llerod.,  vi.  5  ;  Lamprid,,  Alcv.j  49.) 


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ALEXANDER    SEVERUS,    MARCH    11,    222,    TO    MARCH    19,    235    A.D.      297 

its  own  inquests,  and  no  one  was  tempted  to  respond  to  an  appeal 
which  had  so  terrible  a  penalty.  But  Alexander  Severus  wished 
to  transform  the  Empire  into  an  ideal  republic. 

Praise  is  still  lavished  on  the  pious  thought  which  led  him  to 
place,  in  his  lararium^  ApoUonius  of  Tyana  by  the  side  of  Jesus, 
Orpheus  beside  Abraham:  a  vague  religion  of  humanity,  the  con- 
fused aspirations  of  which  are,  however,  sufficient  for  some  choice 
souls.  8.  Augustine  also  knew  a  matron  who  had  constructed 
a  miniature  chapel  in  which  she  burned  incense  before  the  images 
of  Jesus  and  Paul,  of  Homer  and  Pythagoras.^  These  acts  of 
homage  to  sanctity  and  genius  honour  the  man,  but  it  was  not 
with  a  belief  so  simple  that  one  could  direct  people  eager  for  the 
marvellous. 

Like  the  prince  whose  name  and  virtues  he  possessed,  the 
young  emperor  would  have  been  in  private  life  the  foremost  of 
men ;  in  sovereign  power  he  was,  far  more  than  Marcus  Aurelius, 
inadequate.  This  is  because  the  government  of  human  things  is  a 
hard  task.  The  great  men  in  this  are  men  of  command,  those 
who  can  comprehend  and  are  of  strong  will.  These  qualities  were 
especially  necessary  in  a  state  such  as  the  Eoman  Empire,  and,  it 
must  be  acknowledged,  Alexander  Severus  did  not  possess  them. 
His  bust  in  the  Louvre,  with  its  weak  and  undecided  features, 
suggests  a  mild-mannered  person,  incapable  of  acting,  and  who 
seems  to  stare  without  seeing.  Julian,  in  the  Ccesars^  shows  him 
sitting  in  sadness  on  the  steps  leading  to  the  hall  where  the 
emperors  and  gods  are  going  to  banquet;  Silenus  mocks  at  him 
and  his  mother,  the  hoarder  of  treasure;  Justice  even  consents 
indeed  to  chastise  his  murderers,  but  she  turns  away  "from  the 
poor  fool,  the  great  simpleton,  who  in  a  comer  bewails  his 
misfortune ! '' 

For  several  years  the  soldiery,  satiated,  had  left  the  Empire 
at  peace.  But  to  preserve  discipline  among  these  coarse,  greedy, 
and  violent  men,  who  knew  their  strength  and  no  longer  knew  the 
Empire,  the  magistrates,  or  the  law,  would  have  required  a  prince 
who  might  impress  upon  them  a  respectful  fear  at  the  same  time 
with  obedience,  who  would  keep  them  in  harness,  glut  them  with 

*  LU>er  de  IlaresibuSf  iii.  7. 


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298  THE    AFRICAN   AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D* 

booty  and  glory,  that  is  to  say,  pride.  With  its  mighty  army  of 
mercenaries  the  Empire  was  condemned  to  have  no  more  great 
generals.  Severus  had  been  one :  Alexander  was  not.  So  the 
civil  order,  which  the  former  had  protected  against  his  soldiers, 
was  ruined  by  the  latter. 

It  is  said  that,  before  renouncing  philosophy  and  the  arts,  he 
had  consulted  the  Virgilian  lots,  and  that  the  poet-prophet  had 
responded  by  the  famous  lines: 

Excudent  alii  spirantia  mollius  (era, 

Tu  regere  imperio  poptUos,  Romane  memento. 

Lampridius  gives  to  his  hero  the  qualities  which  these  verses 
demand  for  the  exercise  of  the  sovereign  power ;  he  makes  of  him 
a  fierce  defender  of  the  ancient  discipline.  "The  soldiers,"  he 
says,  "called  him  Severus  on  account  of  his  excessive  sternness;"^ 
and  as  a  proof  he  shows  the  population  flocking  together  on  the 
passage  of  the  army,  who  "took  the  soldiers  for  senators,"^  seeing 
the  gravity  of  their  mien  and  the  wisdom  of  their  conduct;  or 
else  he  is  citing  certain  classic  reminiscences  which  the  prince 
utilized.  A  senator  known  for  his  peculations  comes  and  salutes 
him  at  the  curia;  Alexander  renews  against  him  the  apostrophe  of 
Cicero  to  Catiline :  0  teftnpora^  0  mores !  vivit^  immo  in  senatum 
venit !  A  legion  mutinies ;  he  hurls  at  it  the  words  of  Csesar : 
"Eetire,  Quirites."  Some  officers,  who  had  not  been  able  to 
restrain  their  soldiers,  were,  it  is  true,  put  to  death,  but  at  the  end 
of  a  month  the  culprit  legion  was  reinstated.  They  also  speak  of 
troops  decimated.  The  following  facts  do  not  permit  us  to  give  to 
this  reign  such  a  character  for  severity. 

A  quarrel  arose  in  Eome  between  the  civilians  and  the 
prsBtorians.  Both  sides  maintained  their  quarrel;^  but,  for  the 
populace  to  dare  to  affront  the  troops,  they  must  have  been 
driven  to  extremities  by  many  deeds  of  insolence,  and  we  know 
that  the  soldiers  were  not  sparing  of  them.  There  was  fighting 
for  three   days,   and   many   were   slain.      At    last,   the   praetorians, 

'  Lamprid.,  Alejc.y  25. 

^  .  .  .  .  ut  mm  mUites  sed  senator es  transire  dicer ea  (ihid.^  49). 

^  See  what  is  said  of  the  Roman  plebs,  in  the  appendix  to  Ik)ok  Ixxix.  of  Dion,  by  the 
anonymous  author  who  has  written  this  passage. 


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ALEXANDER   SEVERUS,    MARCH    11,    222,    TO    MARCH    19,    235    A.D.      299 

driven  from  the  streets,  set  fire  to  the  houses;  the  conflagration 
threatened  to  involve  the  whole  city  when  the  two  parties  con- 
sented to  desist.  It  is  not  known  what  part  the  government  had 
in  this  affair;  but  we  have  the  right  to  say  that  such  disorders 
occur  only  under  a  wavering  authority,  and  we  may  ask  ourselves 


Alexander  Severus.     (Bust  of  the  Vatican.) 

what  the  legionaries  of  the  provinces  did,  if  the  praetorians,  so 
affectionate  to  the  young  prince,  conducted  themselves  in  this 
manner  to  his  face. 

Mammaea  had  at  first  placed  at  the  head  of  the  praetorians 
two  tried  captains,  Flavianus  and  Chrestus ;  later  she  also  gave 
them   Ulpian  for   a   colleague.      These   men   of  war   did  not  relish 


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300  THE   AFRICAN    AND   SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

finding  in  the  prsetorium  lawyers  who,  bringing  there  the  regular 
habits  of  magistrates,  had  the  orders  executed.  The  new  prefect 
was  displeasing  to  the  cohorts  and  to  their  chiefs,  who  formed  a 
scheme  for  getting  rid  of  him.^  Ulpian  anticipated  them  by  killing 
the  two  prefects  and  their  accomplices.  This  tragedy  provoked 
another.  The  whole  corps  took  up  the  cause  of  the  victims,  and 
Ulpian  was  several  times  in  danger  of  death.  In  a  final  and 
formidable  riot  he  took  refuge  in  the  palace;  the  soldiers  forced 
its  gates  and  slew  him  at  the  feet  of  Alexander,  who  covered  him 
in  vain  with  his  imperial  purple.^  This  was  in  228.  One  might 
already  imagine  oneself  on  the  shores  of  the  Bosphorus  hearing 
janissaries  demand  the  head  of  a  vizir. 

A  certain  Epagathus,  an  old  confidential  agent  of  Caracalla 
and  Macrinus,  had  played  a  part  in  this  catastrophe  by  inciting 
the  soldiers  against  Ulpian.  He  was  only  a  freedman ;  but  they 
did  not  dare  to  punish  him  for  fear  of  exciting  a  new  revolt. 
He  was  charged  with  a  mission  to  Egypt,  then  recalled  under  a 
pretext  into  Crete,  where  the  executioner  awaited  him.^  This 
seraglio  justice  would  of  itself  prove  the  incurable  weakness  of 
this  government. 

The  following  account  of  Dion  is  another  indication  of  this. 
Our  historian  was  not  a  great  warrior,  he  ought  never  to  have 
adopted  strong  resolutions.  Yet  when  he  returned  from  his  govern- 
ment of  Pannonia  the  praetorians  found  that  he  had  there  shown 
himself  too  severe  in  discipline.  "They  demanded  my  pimish- 
ment,"  he  says,  "fearing  lest  they  should  be  submitted  to  a 
similar  rule."  Instead  of  paying  attention  to  their  complaints 
the  emperor  gave  me  the  consulate.-  But  the  irritation  of  the 
prsBtorians  made  him  fear  that,  seeing  me  with  the  insignia  of  this 
dignity,  they  might  kill  me,  and  he  ordered  me  to  spend  the 
remainder  of  my  t^rm  of  office  at  some  place  in  Italy,  outside 
Eome."^  The  prudent  consular  did  better:  finding  that  public  life 
was  becoming  too   difficult,   he    abandoned   Home,    Italy,    even   his 


*  Zosimus,  i.  II. 

^  .  .  .  .  quern  sctpe  a  militum  ira  objectu  purpura  sua  defendit  (Alexander),    (Lamprid., 
Aled\,bl.) 

^  Dion,  Ixxx.  2,  4. 

*  Id.,  Ixxx.  4  and  6 


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ALBXANDEE    SEVERUS,    MARCH    11,    222,    TO   MARCH    19,    235   A.D.      301 

great  book  of  history,  which  he  closed  at  this  last  narration,  and 
with  this  line  of  Homer: 

"But  Jove  beyond  the  encountering  arms^  the  dust,, 
The  carnage,  and  the  bloodshed  and  the  din 
Bore  Hector."  * 

Dion  had  nothing  in  common  with  Hector,  but  it  was  from  a 
bloody  conflict  that  he  likewise  retired. 

We  here  take  leave  of  a  colourless  writer,  a  man,  however, 
who,  having  studied  the  Kepublic  in  its  grandeur  and  its  decadence, 
the  Empire  under  Augustus  and  Nero,  Hadrian  and  Commodus, 
was  able  to  follow  the  logical  connection  of  this  history  unfolding 
across  the  centuries,  under  the  double  action  of  political  wisdom 
and  of  necessities  produced  by  circumstances.  If  we  inquire  what 
were  his  sentiments  in  the  matter  of  government,^  we  shall  see 
that,  in  spite  of  the  acts  of  cruelty  which  he  had  related,  in 
spite  of  those  which  he  himself  had  witnessed  and  well-nigh 
been  the  victim,  Dion  was  a  great  partisan  of  the  imperial 
monarchy.  When  the  emperor  was  a  bad  one,  they  longed  for  a 
change  of  prince,  they  did  not  desire  a  change  in  the  form  of 
government.  No  one  at  that  time  imagined  any  other,  and,  it 
must  also  be  admitted,  no  other  was  possible.  Dion  only  asks  of 
the  prince  that  he  should  be  on  good  terms  with  the  senate,  his 
council.  This  had  previously  been  the  wish  of  Tacitus,  and  it  had 
been  the  practice  of  the  Antonines.  Unfortunately,  since  Caracalla, 
and  more  so  every  day,  the  prince  and  the  consuls,  prefects  of  the 
praetorium  and  senators,  were  all  at  the  mercy  of  the  soldiers, 
and  the  characteristic  of  such  rule  is  frequency  of  riotous 
disturbances. 

Seditions,  indeed,  broke  out  everywhere ;  some  of  them,  says 
a  contemporary,  were  quite  formidable;^  and  it  was  necessary  to 
cashier  entire  legions;^  those  of  Mesopotamia  killed  their  chief. 
Flavins  Heracleo,  and  made  an  emperor,  who,  to  escape  from  them, 
threw  himself  into  the  Euphrates  and  was  drowned.  Another 
assumed  the  purple   in  Osrhoene.      A  third  tried  to  assume  it  at 

^  Iliad,  xi.  163.     (Bryant's  trans.) 
'*  Dion,  Hi.  13  etseq. 

•  Id.,  Ixxx.  3.     Cf.  Zosimus,  i.  12. 

*  Cf.  Lamprid.,  AUr.,  53,  64,  59;  Herod.,  vi.  4,  7;  Aur.  Victor,  de  Cas.,  xxiv.  3 ;  Dion, 
Ixxx.  4. 


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302  THE    AFRICAN    ANT)    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    236    A.D. 

Rome  even.  In  the  case  of  this  last,  the  emperor,  informed  of  it, 
invites  him  to  the  palace,  takes  him  to  the  senate,  to  the  army, 
overwhelms  him  with  matters  of  business  and  breaks  him  down 
with  fatigue.  After  a  few  days  the  ambitious  person  asks  leave 
to  return  to  his  house  and  his  obscurity. 

These  seditions  and  attempts  miscarry,  but  the  Empire  is 
agitated  by  them,  and  they  afford  encouragement  to  the  enemy. 
In  Mauretania  Tingitana,  on  the  frontier  of  Illyricum  and  that  of 
Armenia,  invaders  have  to  be  repelled  ;  the  Germans  sack  a  part 
of  Gaul,  and  the  Persians  claim  back  from  the  Empire  the  ancient 
provinces  of  Cyrus — Asia  as  far  as  the  Cyclades. 


III. — The  Sassanibs. 

Since  the  day  when  Arsan  the  Brave  had  revolted  against  the 
Seleucidae  470  years  ^  had  elapsed,  a  very  long  duration  for  an 
Oriental  dynasty.  The  Parthian  monarchy  had  extended  from 
the  Euphrates  to  the  Indus,  but  the  Arsacids,  men  of  shrewd- 
ness or  force  according  to  the  occasion,  had  nothing;  of  the  organiz- 
ing genius  of  Home.  They  neither  established  a  permanent,  and 
hence  regular  army,  nor  an  administration  binding  together  the 
diverse  elements  of  the  state  so  as  to  form  a  homogeneous  whole. 
They  suffered  to  exist  about  them  a  mighty  feudalism,^  the  cause 
of  constant  trouble,  and,  in  the  provinces,  populations  which,  having 
in  common  with  the  rest  of  the  Empire  nothing  except  the  tribute 
paid  to  the  great  king,  retained  their  customs,  their  national 
memories  and  chiefs;  that  is  to  say,  the  hope  and  the  means  of 
some  day  regaining  their  independence.  The  indignities  which 
Trajan,  Avidius  Cassius,  and  Septimius  Severus,  Caracalla  even,  had 
inflicted  upon  the  Parthian  monarchy,  had  destroyed  its  prestige, 
which  the  treaty  with  Macrinus  did  not  restore. 

In  the  mountains  of  Persis  lived  a  man  of  royal  blood,  Arde- 
shir  or  Artaxerxes,  regarded  as  a  descendant  of  Darius,  and  said 
to  be  son  or  gi'andson  of  Sassan,  whence  the  name  of  his  race,  the 

'  Or  476  according  to  other  reckonings.     Cf.  De  Sainte-Cix)ix,  M6m.  suf  le  gouvemement 
des  PartheSy  p.  30. 

^  Dion,  xli.  15 ;  Tac,  -4nw.,  xi.  10,  and  Heiod.,  vi.  12. 


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ALEXANDER    SEVERUS,    MARCH    11,    222,    TO    MARCH    19,    235    A.D.      303 

Sassaaids.^     Admitted  into  the  household  of  the  governor  of  Persis, 
he  attracted  notice  by  his   courage  and  address,  gained  the  favour 
of   the   people   at  the   same   time   as   that   of  his   master,   and,   the 
latter  having  been  dethroned,  he  slew  his  successor,  raised  a  revolt 
among   the    Persians,    as    Cyrus    had    formerly    done,    drew   in   the 
neighbouring  nations,  with  whom  he  had  by  anticipation  secured  a 
good  understanding,   and  vanquished  the  Parthians  in  three  battles. 
In    the    last    Artabanus    was    killed,    and    Ardeshir    assumed    the 
tiara    (226-227).      On     the     cliff     of 
Nakschi-Roustan,   in   the   environs   of 
Persepolis,  one  yet  sees  two  warriors 
engaged    in    strange    combat.      It  is 
Ardeshir   wresting    the    diadem   from 
his  rival.     By  consecrating  this  sou- 
venir near   the   ancient    sanctuary   of 
the  Achaemenids,  he  wished  to  testify 
before   all   eyes   that  his  victory  was 
the  restoration  of  the  ancient  empire 
of  Cyrus. 

Oriental  monarchies  are  instituted 
as  rapidly  as  they  decay.  In  a  few 
years  the  mountaineers  of  Persis  had 
come  back  into  the  capitals  of  the  first 
Achaemenids,   ^^and  all  the  kings  had 

put  on  the  sash  of  submission,  suspended  from  their  ears  the  ring  of 
servitude,  and  taken  upon  their  shoulders  the  harness  of  obedience.''^ 
As  successor  to  a  state  whose  springs  of  action  were  worn  out  by 
long  use,  Rome  now  beheld,  along  its  eastern  frontier,  an  empire 
abounding  in  warlike  zeal,  as  these  new  dominions  always  do. 

The  revolution  just  accomplished  was  religious  as  well  as 
political.  The  Arsacids,  subjected  to  the  influence  of  the  civiliza- 
tion which  Alexander  had  carried  into  Eastern  Asia,  had  become 
Hellenized.      They   delighted   in  the   customs   of   Greece,    spoke   its 

*  According  to  Sainte-Croix  {ibid.,  p.  22)  the  Persians  had  retained  their  national  chiefs, 
and  Ardeshir,  at  the  moment  of  revolt,  povemed  the  country  by  virtue  of  this  position. 

'  Artaxerxes  wears  the  round  tiara  adorned  with  the  symbol  in  the  form  of  a  caduceus, 
called  mahrou.  The  Pehlvi  legend  gives  tlie  name  of  tlie  prince.  (Cornelian,  cut  in  cabochon, 
1^  in.  high  by  -gjj  broad.     Gem  of  the  Cabinet  de  Fi-ancey  No.  1,339.) 

'  Mirkhond,  Hist,  des  Sassanides,  tr.  Sylvestre  de  Sacy,  p.  278. 


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304  THE   AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

language,  adored  some  of  its  gods,  had  the  dramas  of  the  great 
poets  of  Athens  represented  at  their  court,  ^  and  in  the  legends  on 
their  coins,  which  were  in  Greek,  they  adopted  among  other  titles 

that  of  Philhellenes.^  This  mental 
culture  disposed  them  to  toler- 
ance, and  Christianity  had  profited 
by  it  to  penetrate  into  their  pro- 
vinces. But  the  tributary 
nations    had    preserved    the    old 

Coin  of  Artaxerxes,  bearing  on  the  Reverse        worship    of    Mu,    Mazdeism  :     the 
a  Lighted  Pyre.'  ^  ' 

consecrated  fire  was  always  burn- 
ing on  the  pyreSj  and  the  magi  were  numerous.  They  served 
the  cause  of  him  who   was   announced   as  the  avenger  of  Ormuzd 

and  the  restorer  of  the  laws  of  Zoroaster. 
This  monotheistic  religion,  one  of  those 
which  do  most  honour  to  humanity, 
placed  below  the  infinite  being,  Ahoura- 
Mazda,  izeds  or  good  genii,  celestial 
spirits  and  ministers  of  the  will  of  the 
Most  High.  Hence  it  did  not  require 
many  expressions  of  flattery  to  induce 
the  magi  to  transform  a  powerful  and 
religious  king  into  a  visible  ized;  and 
Sapor  could  say,  without  wounding  any 
one:    "Do  you  not  know  that  I  am  of 

Onnuzd.«  *^^  ^^^   ^*  ^^  g^d«  ^  "  * 

In  return  for  the  assistance  which 
these  priests  gave  him,  Ardeshir  accorded  them  great  influence. 
'^  He  restored,"  says  a  Greek  historian,  '^the  magi  to  honour."* 
This  body  of  clergy,  again  restored  to  power,  will  make  intolerance 

»  See  vol.  iii.  p.  248. 

^  De  Sacy,  Mini,  sur  diverses  antiquiUs  de  la  Perse,  p.  44. 

'  At  the  right,  the  head  of  Artaxerxes,  with  the  tiara  bearing  the  star,  symbol  of  the  sun, 
and  the  legend :  *^  Tlie  Adorer  of  Ormuzd  .  .  .  . "  On  the  reverse,  a  pyre,  from  which  dart 
flames.     Legend  :  "  The  Divine  Artaxerxes."    Silver  coin. 

*  l)e  Sacy,  MSmoire,  etc.,  p.  86-41.  On  the  monotheistic  character  of  Mazdeism,  see  the 
articles  of  M.  Barth^lemy  Saint-Hilaire,  Journal  des  Savant*,  June  and  July,  1878. 

'  The  bust  of  Ormuzd,  surrounded  by  flames  and  placed  on  a  pyre.  Pehlvi  inscription. 
Annulary  seal.     (Intajflio  on  veined  agate,  1^  in.  diameter.     Cabinet  de  France,  No.  1,3.36.) 

"  'E5  Of'   Kai  vaai  UkpaaiQ  oi  Mdyoi  ^tti^o^oi  (Nic^ph.,  Hist.  eccL,  i.  p.  55,  ed.  of  1630); 


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ALEXANDER   SEVERU8,    MARCH    11,    222,    TO   MARCH    19,    235   A.D.      305 

the  political  law  of  the  Sassanids  and  will  let  persecution 
loose  against  the  Christians;  but  the  religious  and  national  zeal 
of  these  princes  will  also  give  to  the  new  dynasty  a  vitality  and 
renown  which  the  preceding  had  not  known.*  As  the  danger  to 
the  Koman  Empire  is  increasing  in  this  quarter,  it  will  be  com- 
pelled to  withdraw  its  forces  from  the  line  of  the  Ehine  and  the 
Danube,  in  order  to  fortify  that  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris; 
and  to  watch  this  new  enemy  from  a  nearer  point,  it  will  end  by 
displacing  the  centre  of  its  power,  by  removing  its  capital  from  the 
west  to  the  east. 

The  war  of  four  centuries  which  is  about  to  commence  between 
the  two  empires,  is  therefore  one  of  those  many  wars  which 
religious  zeal  has  kindled.  It  is  characterized  at  first,  with  regard 
to  both  nations,  by  a  return  to  memories  of  the  expedition  of 
Alexander:  on  one  side  admiration  and  confidence,  on  the  other 
hatred  and  maledictions.  We  have  seen  Caracalla  honouring  the 
memory  of  the  Macedonian  hero,  the  second  Severus  taking  his 
name,  and  the  legions  organizing  in  phalanx.  It  seemed  as  though 
the  shade  of  the  Greek  conqueror  was  going  to  march  before  the 
Eoman  army  to  guide  it  on  the  road  to  Ctesiphon.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  Tigris,  this  Alexander  whose  generous  soul  we  are 
wont  to  extol,  had  become  to  the  magi,  in  their  patriotic  and 
religious  lament,  "the  accursed ^^  who  slaughtered  the  nobles  and 
priests,  who  "burned  the  books  of  revelation,"  and  who  "is  burn- 
ing in  his  turn  in  eternal  flames."  Even  to  this  day  the  Parsees 
do  not  speak  of  "Iskender  Eoumi"  except  as  an  abominable  tyrant. 
"After  him,"  said  they,  "religion  was  brought  low  and  the  faithful 
into  oppression,  until  king  Ardeshir  had  re-established  the  true 
faith."  ^  These  conflicting  sentiments  announce  the  grandeur  of 
the  struggle. 

Agathias  (bk.  ii.  pp.  64-6)  thinks  the  same.     M.  de  Harlez  {Aoesta,  p.  xxxv.)  says  that  Ardeshir 
was  of  the  race  of  the  magi  and  himself  a  magus. 

*  On  their  coins  the  Sassanids  assume  the  title  of  "  servant  of  Ormuzd,"  and  on  the  reverse 
they  have  placed  "the  altar  of  fire,"  a  representation  and  title  which  are  found  on  the  medals 
of  the  Arsacids.     See  De  Sacy,  MSm.  sur  diveraes  antiq.  de  la  Perse f  pp.  171  et  seq. 

*  See  the  article  of  M.  James  Darmesteter,  la  lAgende  d^ Alexandre  chez  les  Perses,  in  vol. 
xxxv.  of  the  Bibliotheque  des  Ilautes-Etudes, 


VOL.   VI. 


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306  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 


IV. — Expeditions  against  the  Persians  and  the  Germans; 
Death  of  Alexander  Severus. 

Before  engaging  in  close  contest  with  the  great  empire  of  the 
West,  the  son  of  Sassan  turned  his  weapons  against  the  neigh- 
bouring populations  of  Koman  Mesopotamia.  He  attacked  the  city 
of  Atra,  the  camp  of  refuge  of  the  Scenite  Arabs,  against  which 
he  was  not  more  fortunate  than  Trajan  and  Severus,  and  he 
attempted  to  overthi-ow  the  Arsacids  of  Armenia,  who  from  the 
summits  of  their  mountains  and  inaccessible  fortresses  defied  inva- 
sion. These  expeditions  no  doubt  had  but  a  secondary  interest  to 
him,  at  least  this  two-fold  check  did  not  lessen  his  hopes,  and  in 
231  he  invaded  the  Koman  province. 

At  this  news  Alexander  and  his  pacific  councillors  wrote  to 
the  Persian  a  beautiful  letter,  full  of  the  most  edifying  advices. 
The  ravages  continued;  Nisibis  was  besieged  and  the  enemy's 
scouts  penetrated  as  far  as  Gappadocia.  ^^All  these  lands  belong 
to  me,"  said  Ardeshir,  and  it  seemed  as  if  he  was  going  to  take 
them.  There  was  no  alternative  at  Kome  but  to  resign  themselves 
to  war :  great  preparations  were  made,  and  from  each  province, 
from  each  army,  went  forth  detachments  who  directed  their  course 
toward  Syria.  Alexander  quitted  his  capital  in  tears,  but  firmly 
resolved  to  do  his  duty,  if  not  as  a  soldier,  at  least  as  an  emperor.* 
He  took  the  route  by  way  of  Illyria  and  Thrace,  collecting  soldiers 
on  his  march,  and  entered  Syria  with  a  large  army.  He  there 
found  the  troops  given  to  every  disorder  and  to  mutiny;  perhaps 
there  had  even  been  a  revolt,  if  the  proclamation  of  an  emperor 
by  the  army  of  Mesopotamia  may  be  referred  to  this  time.  On 
the  arrival  of  the  prince  and  reinforcements  sent  by  the  legions  of 
Pannonia  all  became  quiet.  A  phalanx  of  30,000  men  was 
organized  in  remembrance  of  successes  obtained  by  the  phalanx  of 
the  Macedonian  hero;  Alexander  even  wished  his  guard  to  have 
argyraspides,  or  shields  of  silver.  Four  hundred  Persians  magni- 
ficently dressed  and  armed  came  and  summoned  the  emperor  to 
evacuate   Asia ;    he   considered   the   demand   insolent,   and,   refusing 

^  Herodian  says  (vii.  2)  that  he  was  accused  of  indolence  and  timidity  in  war. 


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ALEXANDER   SEVERU8,    MARCH    11,    222,    TO   MARCH    19,    235    A.D.      307 

to  recognize  them  as  ambassadors,  he  shut  them  up  in  Phrygia, 
where  villages  and  lands  were  given  them,  and  then  entered  on 
the  campaign  in  232. 

At  this  point  accounts  differ.  According  to  a  contemporary, 
the  emperor  divided  his  forces 
into  three  corps:  the  first  took 
the  route  by  way  of  Armenia, 
a  country  in  alliance  with  the 
Eomans,  to  penetrate  into  the 
territory  of  the  Medes;  the  second 
by  the  desert,  to  reach  the  con- 
fluence of  the  Tigris  and  the 
Euphrates  and  directly  threaten 
Persia;  the  third  marched  right 
on  through  Upper  Mesopotamia, 
but  with  extreme  delay,  for 
which  they  accuse  Mammsea, 
who  feared  to  expose  her  son. 
The  army  of  the  north  amassed 
much  booty,  suffering  however 
considerable  losses  and  without 
obtaining  any  serious  result, 
because  this  route  could  not  con- 
duct them  to  the  vital  parts  of 
the  new  empire.  The  Persians 
opposed  slight  forces  to  this 
somewhat  remote  attack;  they 
concentrated  against  the  army 
of  the  south,  which  was  crushed, 
then  against  that  of  the  centre, 
which,  composed  in  great  part  of  soldiers  accustomed,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Danube  and  the  Ehine,  to  cold  and  dampness,  was  pro- 
strated by  the  dry  and  burning  heat  of  the  desert.  Under  this 
climate,   which   requires    sobriety,    ^^  the   lUyrians"   drank  and  ate 

*  Museum  of  the  Louvre.  Statue  in  Pentelican  raarble,  formerly  aasi^ed  to  Julia 
Soaemias.  The  antique  head  is  reproduced ;  the  attributes  of  Ceres  have  been  added  by  a 
modern  artist.  The  empresses  were  often  represented  in  the  character  of  Venus.  The  Museum 
of  Naples  possesses  a  hall  styled  that  of  the  Venuses,  which  are  portraits  rather  than  ideal 
figures. 

X  2 


Julia  Mammsea  as  Venus  Pudica.' 


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308  THE   AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,.  180    TO    235    A.D. 

as  in  Germany :  this  error  in  diet  decimated  them ;  the  mortality 
brought  on  the  plague,  and  it  became  necessary  to  fall  back  after 
a  few  successes  of  doubtful  value.  Alexander  himself  fell  sick 
from  fatigue  and  anxiety.  As  in  the  time  of  Antony,  the  retreat 
of  the  army  of  the  north  across  the  mountains  of  Armenia  was 
disastrous,  and  the  Koman  corpses  again  strewed  the  ways  of  this 
country  in  the  year  233.  But  they  made  no  account  of  the  dead. 
These  soldiers,  recruited  among  the  barbarians*  and  the  dregs  of 
the  Eoman  population,  left  behind  them  neither  relatives  nor  friends 


Dead  Persian  Warrior.     (Marble  of  the  Museum  of  Naples.) 

deploring  their  death,  and  it  was  easy  by  means  of  largesses  to 
persuade  the  survivors  that  they  had  just  completed  a  skilful  and 
victorious  campaign. 

In  truth,  neither  side  was  vanquished.  The  Persians  might 
congi'atulate  themselves  on  a  great  success,  but  Mesopotamia, 
guarded  by  the  fortresses  of  Severus,  was  not  encroached  upon,  not 
a  particle  of  Eoman  territory  was  conquered ;  and,  if  they  had 
exterminated  one  imperial  army,  if  they  had  stopped  the  advance 
of  another,  it  was  not  without  having  suffered  considerable  losses. 
So,  as  soon  as  the  danger  of  a  Eoman  invasion  had  disappeared, 
their  irregular  troops  dispersed,  each  carrying  home  his  bootyc 
Yet  the  Persians  had  not  attained   their  purpose,  and   the  Eomans 

*  The  army  which  Alexander  subsequently  led  into  Gaul  was  composed  of  barbarians : 
Omnis  apparatus  ....  potentissimus  quidem  per  Armenios  et  Otrhoenos  et  Parthos  ef  omnh 
generis  hominum  (\jfi\\i\i)riA.f  Alex. J  Q\),  Herodian  (vi.  17)  adds  that  inany  Moors  were  also 
found  in  it. 


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ALEXANDER   SEVERUS,    MARCH    11,    222,    TO   MARCH    19,    235   A.D.      309 

had  fulfilled  theirs.  So  far  from  being  conquered,  Roman  Asia  was 
delivered.  The  victory  unquestionably  remained  with  those  who 
had  obtained  the  result  which  they  desired..  But  the  two  empires 
had  come  into  collision  once  more  without  either  of  them  crushing 
the  other,  and  it  continued  so  until  a  new  element,  the  religious 
and  aggressive  fanaticism  of  the  Arabs,  changed  the  conditions  of 
the  struggle. 

The  second  account  is  a  song  of  triumph  for  the  Romans. 

Extract  from   the   acts   of   the  senate,  the   seventh   day  before 
the  kalends  of  October;    speech  of  the  prince: 

''  Conscript  Fathers,  we  have  vanquished  the  Persians.  A  long 
discourse  is  unnecessary ;  it  is  only  of  import- 
ance that  you  should  know  what  were  their 
forces  and  their  preparations.  They  had  700 
elephants  bearing  towers  filled  with  archers. 
We  have  captured  300  of  them;  200  were 
killed  on  the  spot;  we  have  led  hither  eighteen. 
They  had  1,000  chariots   armed  with  scythes ;    ^  .     ^ 

,  Coin    Commemorative    of 

we     might     have     brought     200     of     them,     the  the  Congiary  given  by 

--LJVi.  j-j  Alexander  Severus.* 

horses  of  which  have  perished,  but  we  did 
not  think  it  necessary^  because  it  would  have  been  easy  to  present 
others  to  you.  We  have  defeated  120,000  horsemen,  and  killed 
during  the  war  10,000  of  their  cataphracti.*  We  have  captured 
a  great  number  of  Persians,  whom  we  have  sold.  We  have 
reconquered  all  the  territory  which  is  between  the  two  rivers, 
Mesopotamia,  which  the  licentious  Elagabalus  had  allowed  to  be 
lost.  We  have  put  to  rout  this  king  Artaxerxes,  whom  his 
renown  and  his  forces  rendered  so  formidable;  and  the  land  of 
the  Persians  has  witnessed  his  flight,  abandoning  his  ensigns  in 
the  same  localities  where  we  had  once  lost  ours.  This,  Conscript 
Fathers,  is  what  we  have  done.  The  soldiers  come  back  rich; 
victory  makes  them  forget  their  fatigue ;  it  is  for  you  now  to 
decree  supplications  in  testimony  of  our  gratitude  to  the  gods." 
(September  25th,  233.) 


»LIBERALITAS  AVGVSTI  V  SO.  Alexander  seated  upon  a  stage;  behind,  the 
prefect  of  the  prsetorium  and  a  soldier ;  before,  Liberality ;  at  the  bottom,  a  citizen  mounting 
the  steps.     (Large  bronze.    Cohen,  No.  288.) 

*  Cavaliors  covered  with  defensive  armour  from  lioad  to  foot.    See  Amm.  Marcelliu.,  xvi.  10. 


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810  THE    AFRICAN    AND    SYRIAN    PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

On  the  morrow,  in  memory  of  this  grand  success,  a  congiary 
was  given  to  the  people  and  they  celebrated  the  Persian  games. 
The  eighteen  elephant^  which  were  displayed  there  led  them  to 
believe  in  the  300  which  they  pretended  to  have  captured.^  There 
could  then  be  no  doubt  of  it :  Kome  had  now  renewed  the  glory 
of  Severus  and  Trajan.^ 

Eome,  at  least,  had  an  interest  in  this  bulletin  of  victory 
being  credited.  Germany  was  uneasy.  Seeing  the  dismantling  of 
the  camps  which  barred  the  route  to  Gaul  and  to  lUyria,  the 
barbarians  had  found  the  occasion  propitious  for  renewing  their 
acts  of  brigandage.  Eor  a  long  while  the  line  of  the  Rhine  had 
ceased  to  be  threatened,  so  much  so,  that  in  place  of  the  eight 
legions  which  the  first  emperor  had  kept  in  this  quarter,  they  now 
retained  only  four.  It  had  therefore  been  easy  for  the  Germans 
to  pass  between  the  enfeebled  garrisons  and  extend  their  ravages 
into  Gaul.  Hence,  while  waiting  until  the  Illyrians  should  have 
returned  from  the  East,  it  was  well  to  have  their  return  preceded 
by  the  report  of  a  great  victory.  They  were  quite  certain  that  the 
words  pronounced  in  the  senate  would  resound  on  the  Ehine  border. 

Several  months  were  employed  in  reorganizing  the  forces  of 
the  West,  and  in  234  *  Alexander  set  out  for  Gaul.  After  reaching 
the  environs  of  Mayence  with  his  mother,  he   made   another  effort 

^  Perhaps  there  may  have  been  none  at  aU.  Lampridius  (67)  speaks  of  a  car  of  triumph 
drawn  by  four  elephants ;  the  medals  only  show  a  chariot  and  four  horses.  (Eckhel,  vii.  276.) 
On  his  side,  Ardeshir  attested  his  victory  to  his  subjects  by  causing  gold  coins  to  be  struck. 
The  emperors  permitted  neither  the  provinces  nor  their  allies  to  emit  gold  coin,  the  aurei  with 
the  emperor's  effigy  were  alone  in  circulation ;  the  Roman  merchants  could  accept  no  others, 
and  all  trade  was  conducted  with  these  coins.  Procopius  relates  that  Justinian  declai>ed  war 
against  the  Arabs  because  they  had  paid  the  tribute  in  pieces  of  gold  not  bearing  the  imperial 
likeness.  (De  Bello  Ooth.,  iii.  33 ;  Zonaras,  xiv.  22.)  In  the  interest  of  the  commercial  rela- 
tions of  their  subjects  the  Arsacids  had  been  obliged  to  submit  to  this  necessity,  and  had  not 
had  gold  money.  The  Sassanids  fabricated  it,  but  in  small  quantity.  (Mommsen,  Hist,  de  la 
monnaie  romaine,  tr.  Blacas,  p.  16.) 

'*  An  inscription  recently  deciphered  at  Kef  (Sicca  Veneria),  in  Tunis  (Bullet.  Sptgr.  de  la 
Gaule,  1883,  p.  8)  mentions  an  ofiPering  of  the  splendidissimiu  or  do  of  the  decurions,  Forttma 
Reduci  Aug,,  for  the  triumphal  return  of  Alexander  Severus.  This  inscription,  and  another  of 
Pesth,  leads  us  to  think  that  MammsBa  had  accompanied  her  son  into  the  East,  as  she  followed 
him  in  the  expedition  against  the  Germans ;  this  persistence  "  of  the  avaricious  mother  "  in 
remaining  always  at  the  side  of  the  prince  was  no  doubt  one  of  the  causes  of  the  catastrophe 
which  cost  both  of  them  their  lives. 

^  Profectio  Aug.  (Eckhel,  vii.  277).  Lampridius  {Alex.,  60)  pretends  that  a  Druidess  told 
him,  Gallico  sermone,  not  to  expect  victory  and  not  to  rely  on  his  soldiers.  The  Druids  had 
fallen  to  the  rank  of  sorcerers,  tilling  fortunes.  It  is  known  that  Aurelian  and  Diocletian 
consulted  them  to  know  the  future. 


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ALEXANDER    SEVERIS,    MARCH    11,    t22j    TO    MARCH    19,    235    A.D.      311 

to  avoid  war.  He  proposed  peace  to  the  Germans,  gold  and 
presents  of  all  kinds,  greatly  to  the  disaffection  of  his  soldiers, 
who  wanted  to  keep  this  gold  for  themselves.  In  the  army  there 
was  at  that  time  a  chief  named  Maximin,  who  had  been  bom  in 
the  most  barbarous  part  of  Thrace. 
At  first  a  shepherd,  he  had  become 
a  soldier,  and  by  his  lofty  stature 
and  strength  he  attracted  atten- 
tion, and  had  risen  from  grade  to 
grade  up  to  the  command  of  the 
new  levies,  whose  drilling  Alex- 
ander had  confided  to  him.  These 
recruits  were  for  the  most  part 
rough  and  coarse  Pannonians  like 
himself,  but  wholly  devoted  to  a 
man  who  possessed  their  qualities 
and  their  faults,  and  on  the  con- 
trary filled  with  contempt  for  the 
tranquil  virtues  of  the  emperor. 
Furthermore,  they  reckoned  that 
the  reign  of  Alexander  had  lasted 
long  enough,  that  the  recent  war 
had  exhausted  his  treasury,  the 
remainder  of  which  the  avarice  of 
Mammeea  kept  under  lock  and 
key;  that,  in  short,  there  would 
be  every  advantage  in  a  chance  of  ,       ,     .,  , 

,  Alexander  Severus. 

princes,    since   the   new   one  would 

pay  richly  for  his  dignity,  especially  if  they  should  choose  Maximin, 
who,  without  noble  birth  or  illustrious  record,  would  owe  every- 
thing entirely  to  them.  One  day  they  threw  a  purple  mantle  over 
his  shoulders  and  marched  in  arms  towards  the  imperial  residence. 
At  their  approach  Alexander  ordered  his  guards  to  go  and  appre- 
hend the  culprit ;  they  hesitate,  then  refuse,  and  allow  the 
assassins   to   enter,    who    put   to    death    the    son   and   the    mother,^ 

^  Statue  of  heroic  size,  in  Grecian  marble.     (Museum  of  Naples.) 

^  In  the  seventeenth  century  there  was  discovered  at  llome,  near  the  Porta  San  Giovanni 
Gate,  the  sarcophagus  of  Alexander  Severus  and  Mammaea.     (Cf.  below,  p.  313.)    The  ba«- 


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312  THE    APBICAN    AND    bYKIAN    PKINCES,    180    TO    235    A.D. 

or,  as  Herodian  says,  ''the  parsimonious  woman  and  the  pusil- 
lanimous child ; "  ^  some  accounts  make  him  die  a  cowardly  deatL 
(March  19th,  235.) 

Alexander  had  reigned  thirteen  years,  though  his  age  was 
only  twenty-six.'*  He  is  the  last  of  the  Syrian  princes.  If  among 
them  we  reckon  Severus,  on  account  of  the  influence  exercised 
over  him  by  Julia  Donma,  this  dynasty  had  ruled  the  Empii^e 
more  than  forty  years:  a  brief  space  of  time  which  was  marked 
by  great  events  and  bloody  tragedies,  but  during  which  completely 
disappeared  what  was  left  of  the  Koman  blood  and  spirit.  But  for 
the  jurisconsults,  who  preserved  the  especially  Koman  science,  the 
customs  and  beliefs  make  us  feel  in  the  midst  of  an  Asiatic 
monarchy.  The  Empire  is  inclining  to  the  Orient,  and  soon  will 
be  lost  in  it. 

The  respect  of  Alexander  for  Abraham  and  Jesus,  and  the 
ancient  relations  of  his  mother  with  Origen,  had  rendered  him 
favourable  to  the  Jews  and  the  Christians.'  The  latter  enjoyed 
during  his  reign  a  profound  peace  and  a  sort  of  legal  existence. 
In  a  contest  which  the  Church  of  Eome  had  with  some  inn-keepers 
in  the  matter  of  some  public  land,  he  pronounced  in  favour  of  the 
Christians:  "Better,"  said  he,  ''that  this  locality  should  become 
a  place  of  prayer  than  a  place  of  debauchery."  *  He  had  been 
stnick  with  the  manner  in  which  the  Church  proceeded  at  its 
sacerdotal  elections,  and  for  a  moment  thought  of  imitating   it  for 

reliefs  placed  above  the  figures  of  the  emperor  and  his  mother  represent :  the  dispute  of  Achilles 
and  Agamemnon;  the  imprisonment  of  Chryseis;  Achilles  preparing  to  avenge  the  death  of 
Patroclus ;  finally,  Priam  demanding  the  body  of  his  son.  This  sarcophagus,  which  we  give 
on  page  818,  contained  what  is  called  the  '*  Portland  Vase,"  in  blue  glass  with  white  orna- 
ments, now  in  the  British  Museum.    We  reproduce  it  in  an  extra  plate. 

*  Julian,  in  the  Ccesars,  repeats  this  judgment. 

^  Or  twenty-nine  years  and  some  months,  according  to  Lampridius.  There  are  doubts 
as  to  the  precise  date  of  his  death.  Eckhel  (vii.  282)  inclines  to  the  beginning  of  July.  To 
the  reign  of  Alexander  is  referred  an  inscription  of  the  Fratres  Arvales  describing  a  curious 
expiatory  sacrifice,  because  the  lightning  had  struck  down  some  trees  of  the  sacred  grove  of 
the  goddess  Dia.  Among  other  victims  immolated  ante  Casareum  genio  d,  n.  Severi  Ale,randn 
Auff.f  was  found  a  taurus  auratus;  item  dims  num.  XX  vei'verices  XX.  Thete  divi  are, 
from  another  inscription  of  the  year  183:  Augustus,  Julia  (Livia),  Claudius,  Poppaea, 
Vespasian,  Titus,  Nerva,  Trajan,  Hadrian,  Sabina,  Antoninus,  Faustina  the  Elder,  L.  Verus, 
Marcus  Aurelius,  Faustina  the  Younger,  and  since  Commodus,  Commodus  himself,  Per- 
tinax,  Severus,  and  Caracalla.  (Orelli,  No.  061,  after  Marini,  Atti  ,de'  fratelli  Arvalif-^X. 
43,  p.  167.) 

'  Lamprid.,  Ale:c.f  22. 

*  Ihid.f  49.     This  was  the  very  expression  of  the  Gospel :  domus  mea  domtis  orationis. 


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Uistory  ot  Home.  PI    111 


EuMELi  QtL  Dosso  piijxit  Imp.  Friillery.  Dammurgbi  chroinollth 

THE    PORTLAND     VASE 

ruUM  II     IH    TMK     ^AIICOPHAi;US    Of     ALCXiRftKR    fITCRUt 


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THE     PORTLAND      VASE 


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<5 


i 

■a 


QQ 


9* 


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ALEXANDER   SEVERUS,    MARCH    11,    222,    TO    MARCH    19,    235    A.D.      315 

the  functions  of  state. ^  Of  this  thought  there  only  remained,  as 
we  have  seen,  the  invitation  given  to  the  people  to  denounce  the 
faults  of  the  candidates  proposed  for  the  offices.  Lampridius 
pretends  that  Alexander  wanted  to  build  a  temple  to  Christ,  to 
enrol  him  in  the  ranks  of  the  gods,  and  that  the  priests  dissuaded 
him  from  it,  declaring,  on  the  faith  of  the  sacred  books,  that  if 
he  executed  this  project,  the  other  temples  would  be  abandoned.^ 
That  might  be  said  of  Constantine,  but  could  not  be  of  the  son 
of  Mamma^a,  the  Christians  at  that  time  not  being  sufficiently 
numerous  to  inspire  this  apprehension.  However,  they  profited  by 
the  tolemnce  of  Alexander  to  build  their  first 
churches,  which  are  shortly  afterwards  mentioned  by 
Origen.^ 

Of  Mammsea  they  have   also   made  a  Christian; 
a  singular  Christian,  this  empress  called  on  her  coins    ,,  .    ,  ^\ 

^  *  Corn  of  Mammaea 

the  beneficent  Juno,  to  whom  the  senate  decreed  an  in  the  Likeness 
apotheosis,  and  for  whom  they  instituted  a  festival 
which  the  pagans  celebrated  as  late  as  the  fourth  century !  *  Like 
her  son,  she  had  desired  to  become  acquainted  with  the  new 
faith,*  and  many  had  that  cmdosity.  Eusebius  relates  that  a 
governor  of  the  province  of  Arabia  requested  the  bishop  of  Alex- 
andria and  the  prefect  of  Egypt  to  send  Origen  to  him,  that  he 
might  confer  with  him  about  the  new  doctrine.^ 

The  reign  of  this  young  and  unfortunate  prince,  to  whom  in 
spite  of  his  weakness  we  must  accord  a  peculiar  regard,  was  then 
the  moment  when  the  past  and  the  future,  the  two  great  social 
forces,  could  come  together  without  mingling,  and  live  in  peace 
until  the  transformation  should  be  effected.^  In  fact,  a  compro- 
mise was  not  impossible  between  the  Empire,  now  become  disdainful 

^  Lamprid.,  Altx.t  45. 
^  Id.,  ibid.,  42. 

'  In  Matth.  Jwm.,  xxviii.  Origen  says  that  they  were  hurued,  prohably  during  the  reign  of 
Maximin. 

*  IVNO  CONSERVATRIX.  Juno  standing,  holding  a  patera  and  a  sceptre;  a  peacock  is 
at  her  feet.     Reverse  of  a  silver  coin. 

*  Lamprid.,  Alex.,  26.     AU  her  medals  are  pagan. 

*  Eusebius,  Hist,  eecl.,  vi.  21. 
'  Id.,  ibid.,  vi.  19. 

**  Zonaras  (xii.  16)  pretends  that  there  were  many  Christians  at  the  court  of  Alexander: 
^  .  .  .  iroXXot  Kara  rov  'AX.  oIkov  ii<Tav  rov  Xpiarbv  iirtyvcjKortg  9t6v.  Mangold,  do  Ecclesia 
prima va  pro  Catsaribus  ac  magistratibus  rom.  preces  fundetite,  1881,  thinks  that  in  the  first  two 


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316  THE   AFRICAN   AND   SYRIAN   PRINCES,    180   TO    235    A.D. 

of  its  old  divinities,  and  a  Christianity  which  would  have  been 
respectful  towards  the  established  order.  The  one  accepting 
religious  tolerance  as  its  rule  of  government,  the  other,  satisfied 
with  the  liberty  allowed  it,  continuing  peaceably  to  win  souls,  but 
not  gaining  power  by  violence;  making  conquest  of  the  world  by 
virtue  of  moral  truth  and  not  as  a  victorious  party  which  estab- 
lishes itself  by  force  in  the  positions  from  whence  it  has  dislodged 
its  adversaries.  Unhappily,  the  revolutions  of  this  world  are  not 
effected  with  this  wisdom.  The  spirit  of  TertuUian  has  replaced 
in  the  Church  that  of  Clement,  and  in  the  State  the  violent  will 
also  succeed  the  pacific.  On  both  sides,  force  will  be  employed  ; 
by  Diocletian,  in  the  name  of  the  gods ;  by  the  successors  of 
Constantino,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  the  Empire  will  be  shaken 
to  its  foundations. 

centuries  liturgical  prayers  for  the  emperors  and  magistrates  were  said  in  the  Christian 
communities. 

^  This  Medusa  is  carved  on  the  outside  of  the  famous  cup  of  Oriental  sardonyx,  known  as 
the  Tassa  Famese.  It  was  found  near  the  Castle  of  S.  Angelo  (Hadrian's  Tomb),  or  at  the 
Tiburtine  Villa,  and  is  now  in  the  Museum  of  Naples. 


Medusa,  or  JEgia,^ 


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TWELFTH  PERIOD. 

MILITAEY  ANAECHT  (235-268  a.d.).     BEGINNING  OF 

THE  DECLINE. 


CHAPTEE  XCIV. 

SE7EN  EKPEBOBS  IS  FOUBTEEN  TEABS  (235-249  A.D.). 

I. — Maximin  (235-238) ;    Qt)RDiAN  I.  and  Gordian  II. ;    Pupienus 

AND  Balbintjs  (238). 

AS  the  Eoman  aristocracy  and  the  provincial  nobles  abandoned 
military  service,  the  sons  of  barbarians  entered  it,  and, 
reaching  the  higher  grades,  disposed  of  the  troops  and  consequently 
of  the  Empire. 

Caius  Julius  Verus  Maximinus  by  his  father's  side  belonged 
to  the  Get©;  by  his  mother's,  to  the  Alani.  When  Severus,  on 
his  return  from  Asia  in  the  year  202,  traversed  Thrace,  he 
celebrated,  on  occasion  of  a  festival,  the  usual  military  games. 
Maximin,  whose  herculean  strength  had  made  him  famous  among 
his  comrades,  was  matched  against  some  of  the  emperor's  atten- 
dants, and  conquered  sixteen  of  them  in  succession.  This  prowess 
gained  him  the  honour  of  being  at  once  enlisted  in  the  army. 
Three  days  later,  seeing  the  emperor  pass  on  horseback  at  full 
gallop,  he  kept  pace  with  him  on  foot.  Severus  continued  the  race 
for  some  time,  then  proposed  to  him  to  take  part  in  a  wrestling 
match,  fatigued  as  he  was.  Immediately  Maximin  threw  seven  of 
the  most  active  soldiers  one  after  another,  and  upon  this  received 
the  gold  collar  and  was  admitted  to  the  guards.     This  new  Ajax, 


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318  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235    TO    268   A.D. 

who  was  as  brave  as  he  was  strong,  rose  rapidly  through  the 
grades,  but  would  serve  neither  under  Macrinus,  who  had  killed 
the  son  of  his  benefactor,  nor  under  Elagabalus,  whom  he  despised 
— two   praiseworthy  sentiments   which   should   be   set   down   to   his 


Maximin.^     (Museum  of  Naples.)  Maximus  (Son  of  Maximin).^ 

credit.  He  re-eniered  the  army  in  the  reign  of  Alexander,  who 
made  him  tribune  with  the  rank  of  senator.  The  rest  of  the  story 
is  well-known.  Disgusted  with  an  emperor  whom  his  mother  held 
in  leading-strings,  the  troops  were  e^ger  to  have  a  true  soldier  at 
their  head,  and  they  made  choice  of  the  man  who  possessed  all  the 
physical   qualities    of    one — strength,    agility,    and   dexterity.'^      His 

^  Heroic  stAtue,  the  antique  head  preserved.     (Luni  marble.) 

*  Statue  of  Greek  marble,  the  antique  head  restored. 

"  I  make  no  mention  of  the  extravagant  stories  of  his  strength  and  voracity.  They  are 
credible  only  on  the  supposition  that  Maximin  was  a  morbid  case  of  polyphagy,  of  which 
L^tourneau  gives  such  curious  instances  in  his  Physioloffie  des  passions. 


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SEVEN    EMPERORS    IN    FOURTEEN    YEARS,    235    TO    249    A.D.  319 

son  Maximus,  not  yet  twenty  years  of  age/  was  saluted  Caesar 
and  prince  of  the  Eoman  youth. 

The  extraordinary  fortune  to  which  Maximin  had  attained  did 
did  not  remove  from  his  mind  the 
consciousness  of  his  own  unworthi- 
ness,  and  placed  him  in  an  attitude 
of  hostility  towards  all  who  possessed 
what  he  had  never  had,  ancestors,  a 
name,    education,    and    wealth.      He      Maximus,  c^s^r^andi^m^ 

dared    not    appear    in    Kome.      This 

city  full  of  glorious  memories,  this  senate  of  which  he  was  not 
yet  an  actual  member,^  an  assembly 
remaining  still  the  shadow  of  a  great 
reality,  intimidated  the  barbarian.  The 
friends  and  councillors  of  Alexander,  all 
his  household,  and  among  this  number 
many  Christians,  were  at  once  put  to 
death;  soon  after  a  conspiracy,  real  or 
feigned,  cost  the  life  of  Magnus,  an  ex- 
consul,  and  of  several  other  persons.*  In 
the  army  were  many  troops  of  African 
and  Asiatic  origin,  Osrhoenian  and  Ar- 
menian archers.  Moors  armed  with  javelins, 
Parthians  who  had  fled  from  the  Persian 
dominion,  all  devoted  to  the  dynasty 
which  had  arisen  out  of  Leptis  and 
Emesa.      The    favourite     of    the     Panno- 

nians  and  the  murderer  of  Alexander  was  Germans  concealing  themselves 
doubly  odious  to  them ;  it  was  their  ISi^u^.';'^'^'  ^^^^^""^  ^^ 
desire  to  overthrow  him   and   proclaim  as 

emperor,  against  his  will,  an  ex-consul  whom  one  of  his  friends 
assassinated  through  spite  at  not  having  had  the  preference  himself. 
This    murder   disorganized    the    rebellion;    new    victims    fell,    and 

*  Maximus  was  killed  in  his  eighteenth  or  in  his  twenty-first  year.     (Capit.,  Mclv.,  1.) 

'^  MAXIMVS  (-^S.  GERM.,  around  the  bare  head  of  the  prince.  On  the  reverse, 
PRINC.  IVVENTVTIS.  Maximus  standing,  holding  a  wand  and  a  javelin;  behind,  two 
standards.     (Silver  coin.     Cohen,  No.  4.) 

^  Neque  ipse  senator  esset  (Eutrop.,  ix.  1 ). 

*  Oapitolinus  says,  four  thousand.     {Mar  ,  10.) 


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320  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235   TO    268   A.D. 

Maximin  made  haste  to  seek  sanction  for  his  power  by  gaining  a 
victory  over  the  Germans. 

These  barbarians  made  no  resistance  to  a  serious  attack. 
Abandoning  to  the  Romans  their  harvests  and  their  wooden  houses, 
which  were  burned,  they  took  refuge  in  the  depths  of  forests, 
whither  they  believed  the  legions  would  not  dare  to  follow  them, 
and  in  marshes  through  which  they  alone  knew  the  way.  Maxi- 
min, however,  pursued  them  into  these  retreats,  killed  a  consider- 
able number  of  them  and  sent  to  the  senate,  with  his  letters 
announcing  the  victory,  a  picture  representing  himself  as  fighting 
surrounded  by  enemies,  while  the  horse  upon  which  he  is  seated  is 

half  buried  in  the  mud.  He 
asserted  that  he  had  ravaged 
the  country  over  a  space  of 
400  miles.  Other  wars,  of 
which  we  have  no  particulars, 
gave  him  the  titles  of  Dacicus 
Muximinus  Germanicus.^  ^^d    Sarmaticus.      From    Sir. 

mium,  which  he  had  made  the 
centre  of  his  operations,  he  commanded  the  line  of  the  Carpathians, 
and  proposed  to  penetrate  as  far  as  the  northern  seas:  this  son  of 
the  Goths  was  desirous  of  crushing  that  barbarism  whence  he  had 
himself  emerged.^ 

A  design  like  this,  and  a  life  passed  in  the  camps  of  the 
Danube  in  rigorous  climates,  give  the  man  a  certain  savage 
grandeur.  But  the  senators  left  idle  in  the  curia,  the  languid 
dwellers  in  Rome,  Alexandria,  and  Antioch,  who,  from  the  recesses 
of  their  luxurious  villas  could  not  discern  the  perils  that  the 
north  concealed  in  its  mysterious  depths,  and  the  populace,  deprived 
of  their  wonted  pleasures,  were  indignant  at  the  affront  offered  to 
the  imperial  pui'ple.  Maximin  was  called  the  Cyclops,  the  Busiris, 
the  wild  beast;  men  openly  desired  his  death,  and  in  the  theatre 
verses  were  declaimed  like  these:  "The  elephant  is  huge,  but  men 
kill   him ;    the  lion   is   strong,   but    men    kill    him ;    the    tiger    is 


*  liEurelled  head  of  Maximin  On  the  reverse,  Maximin  and  his  son,  standing",  holding  a 
victory.     Between  them,  two  kneeling  captives.     (Large  bronze  of  the  Cabinet  de  France.) 

^  In  266  he  assumed  the  title  of  Germanicus  (Eckhel,  vii.  291).  His  victories  over  the 
Germans  belong  therefore  to  that  year. 


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SEVEN   EMPERORS   IN    FOURTEEN    YEARS,    235   TO   249   A.D.  321 

terrible,  but  men  kill  him.  Beware  of  all,  thou  who  fearest  none; 
for  what  one  alone  cannot  do,  many  together  can.''  The  rude 
soldier  gave  back  contempt  for  contempt  to  the  effeminate  revilers 
whose  hands  could  not  grasp  the  sword,  to  these  crowds  living  on 
charity  and  public  games,  who  had  never  seen  other  blood  flow 
than  that  of  gladiators,  while  the  emperor  replied  by  sentences  of 
death  to  those  who  insulted  him.  Notwithstanding  the  efforts  of 
the  empress,  who  strove  vainly  to  soften  this  savage  disposition,^ 
murders  and  confiscations  multiplied,  and  hatred  increased  against 
the  Thracian  who  dared  to  say  openly  that  an  Empire  like  this 
could  be  governed  only  by  the  most  uncompromising  severity. 

This  hatred  Maximin  discerned  everywhere,  even  amidst 
flatteries,  and  his  cruelty  only  increased  in  consequence.  Those 
even  who  had  aided  his  fortunes  became  guilty  of  having  known 
his  humble  beginnings,  and  he  caused  these  embarrassing  wit- 
nesses of  his  obscurity  to  disappear.  As  there  was  safety  for  him 
nowhere  except  with  the  army,  he  gorged  it  with  gold,  and  the 
public  treasury  not  furnishing  enough,  he  pillaged  cities  and 
temples,  coined  the  statues  of  the  gods  into  money  and  confiscated 
the  funds  destined  for  games  and  distributions;  citizens  were  slain 
while  endeavouring  to  defend  the  statues  of  their  divinities.  A 
catastrophe  was  becoming  inevitable,  and  an  eclipse  of  the  sun 
which  occurred  at  this  time  was  believed  to  announce  it. 

About  the  middle  of  February,  238,^  an  insurrection  of  peasants 
broke  out  in  Africa.  One  of  the  most  obnoxious  of  the  agents  of 
this  fiscal  tyranny,  the  procurator  of  the  province  of  Carthage,  had 
condemned  many  landowners  of  Thysdrus  to  fines  which  were 
ruinous  to  them.  They  applied  for  a  delay  of  three  days,  and 
employed   that   time  in  calling  in  from  the  adjacent  country  their 

^  Amm.  Marcellinus,  xiv.  1. 

'  This  period  presents  serious  chronological  difficulties,  which  have  been  removed  by  Eckhel 
(vii.  293-5),  and  by  Rorghesi  (Suir  imp.  Puptano,  in  his  Works,  v.  pp.  488  et  seq.),  and  especially 
by  L.  Renier.  In  the  latter^s  memoir  upon  the  inscriptions  of  the  Gordians,  he  establishes, 
moreover,  that  Gapellianus  was  in  command  in  Numidia,  and  not,  as  has  been  always  believed, 
in  Mtturetania;  that  the  Third  Augustan  legion  was  disbanded  aft-er  its  defeat;  that  the  true 
name  of  Balbinus  was  Decimus  Caelius  Galvinus  Balbinus  (no  inscription  had  given  it  until  that 
of  Bouhira,  recently  discovered) ;  that,  finally,  a  rescript  inserted  in  the  Code  (ii.  ID,  2)  proves 
that  Pupienus  and  Balbinus  were  dead  by  the  tenth  before  the  kalends  of  July  (June  22). 
In  the  reorganization  of  Africa  by  Gordian  III.  the  Numidian  lieutenancy  was  suppressed,  and 
Cffisarian  Mauretania  became,  and  remained  until  the  time  of  Valerian,  a  praetorian  province, 
governed  by  a  legate  who  commanded  the  entire  army  in  the  African  provinces. 

VOL.   VI.  y 


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322  MILITAKY    ANAKCHY,    2:io    TO    26H    A.D. 

husbandmen,  who  entered  the  city  by  night,  armed  with  clubs  and 
hatchets  concealed  under  their  clothing.  At  break  of  day  the  con- 
spirators with  this  band  attacked  the  dwelling  of  the  proconsul, 
killed  him,  and  then  hastening  to  the  dwelling  of  the  procurator, 
who  was  at  this  time  in  Thysdrus,  they  invested  him  with 
a    purple    robe,    and,    in    spite    of   his    reluctance,    proclaimed   him 


Thywinis  (El-Djem):    View  of  a  Circular  Gallery  in  the  Amphitheatre  or  Colofiseum. 

Augustus.  Gordian  was  the  person  of  highest  rank  in  the  Empire. 
He  was  said  to  be  a  descendant  of  the  Gracchi;  his  mother,  Ulpia 
Gordiana,  belonged  to  the  family  of  Trajan  ;  and  his  wife  was  the 
great-gmnddaughter  of  Antoninus  Pius.  He  was,  moreover,  a 
scholar,  a  poet,  and  a  man  of  integi'ity  ;  he  had  immense  wealth, 
but  he  was  eighty  years  of  age,  and  content  with  having  passed 
through  so   many  revolutions  Avithout   loss   of   life   or   fortune,  this 


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SEVEN   EMPERORS   IN    FOURTEEN    YEARS,    230    TO    249    A.D.  323 

assiduous  reader  of  Plato  and  Aristotle,  of  Cicero  and  Virgil,^ 
would  have  been  glad  to  end  his  days  peacefully.  But  the  choice 
was  not  allowed    him.      Moreover  to   touch  the    imperial    purple, 


The  Elder  Gordian.     (Bust  of  the  Capitol,  Hall  of  the  Emperors,  No.  64.) 

though   but  for  a   moment,  was   to   be   like   him   of   old  who   laid 
hand  upon  the  Ark,  his  life  must  be  the  penalty. 

Gordian  accepted,  and  Carthage,  which  had  not  seen  an 
emperor  since  Hadrian,  received  with  transport  the  new  Augustus. 
He   associated   with  himself    his    son,    who   had   been    one    of    his 

^  Gordian  had  composed  a  poetical  Anton  in  iad.  Capitolimis  thus  describes  one  of  his 
palaces:  "In  their  villa,  which  yet  stands  upon  the  Pranestine  road,  may  be  seen  a  tetrastyle 
temple  of  two  hundred  columns,  of  which  fifty  are  of  Carystian  marble,  fifty  of  Claudian,  and 
fifty  of  Numidian;  there  are  also  three  basilicas  a  hundred  feet  in  length,  and  thermae,  which 
are  sui'passed  in  beauty  only  by  those  of  Rome.*'  (Gord.,  82.)  "  VVliile  redile,  Gordian  gave 
at  his  own  expense  twelve  spectacles,  one  each  month,  where  gladiators  in  mimber  from  three 
hundred  to  a  thousand  were  engaged.  On  one  occasion  he  let  loose  in  the  amphitheatre  a 
hundred  wild  beasts  of  Libya;  another  time,  a  thousand  bears.  At  the  August  games  he  fur- 
nished to  the  populace  two  hundred  stags,  thirty  wild  horses,  ten  elands,  a  hundred  Cyprus 
bulls,  three  hundred  ostriches,  thirty  wild  asses,  a  hundred  and  fifty  wild  boaro,  two  bundled 
chamois,  and  two  hundred  deer."     {Ibid.,  3.) 

Y  2 


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324  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235   TO   268   A.D. 

lieutenants,  and  immediately  despatched  emissaries  to  Borne  with 
letters  for  the  consuls,  the  senate,  the  people,  and  the  prsetorians, 
and  assassins  to  destroy  the  praetorian  prefect,  the  pitiless  agent  of 
the  cruelties    of  Maximin.      They   also  were    to    spread  the  false 


The  Younger  Gordian.    (Bust  of  the  Capitol,  Hall  of  the  Empen^re,  No.  65.) 

rumour  that  the  emperor  had  been  murdered  in  camp  in  Pannonia. 
The  prefect  being  attacked  unawares  was  stabbed  in  his  own 
tribunal.  In  his  letter  to  the  senate  Gordian  declared  that  he 
would  submit  to  the  decision  of  that  august  assembly.  Since  the 
time  of  the  true  Antonines  the  Conscript  Fathers  had  not  heard 
language  like  this.     It  gave  them  courage,  and  without  waiting  to 


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SEVEN   EMPERORS    IN    FOURTEEN    YEAJIS,    235   TO   249   A.D.  325 

see  if  the  imperial  oflBces  were  really  vacant,  they  decreed  them 
to  the  two  Gordians,  father  and  son,  in  a  secret  session^  (March, 
238).  The  people  were,  for  once,  of  the  same  mind  with  the 
senate;  a  ruler  who  scorned  to  come  to  Eome  appeared  to  them 
false  to  all  his  duties.  They  rejoiced  therefore  at  the  report  of 
Maximin's  death,  and  welcomed  with  acclamations  the  emperor 
whom  the  Fathers  had  given  them.  The  revolution  would  have 
failed  of  its  chief  interest  if  it  had  been  on  paper  only;  a 
sanguinary  reaction  smote  the  officers  and  partisans  of  the  Thracian 
and  the  informers  who  had 


served  his  cruelty.      Under  ^™^R,g^^wr^,^r^ 

this  pretext   every  man  rid  |^   .       '•  ' '                  :, 

himself    of    an   enemy,   and  ||:'  ^  ...   H^IMTAVjIi 

debtors     murdered     their  [^^\              rwilMVi^l 

creditors.      The    prefect    of  |i^?-^..:'       ROMANQA 

the   city  perished  in  one  of  Vt/                   R6W^l^f^^ 

these  tumults.  ii'ii. 


Meanwhile     messengers 


S|^:^:^j^ 


^^^^-'^pj? 


had    been    sent    out    to    com-  Unique  InBcription  of  the  Elder  Oordian.» 

(Museum  of  Bordeaux.) 

municate    to    the    provinces 

the  impulse  which  had  begun  with  Eome  and  Carthago.  Their 
despatches,  written  in  the  name  of  the  senate  and  the  Roman 
people,  called  upon  the  nations  to  succour  the  common  country  and 
acknowledge  the  two  rulers  who  had  just  freed  the  world  of  a 
wild  beast.'  Maximin  at  first  ridiculed  those  new  "  Carthaginians,'' 
and  promised  his  soldiers  that  this  revolt  of  the  senate  should  give 
them  rich  booty.  There  was,  in  truth,  nothing  of  Hannibal  in  the 
Carthage  of  the  time,  and  when  the  Numidian  legate,  Capellianus, 
arrived  from  Lambesa  and  Thevestes  with  his  legion,  the  Third 
Augustan,  the  citizens  who  had  come  out  to  oppose  him  gave  way 
at  sight  of    the   Numidian   horse,   and    in    their    precipitate  flight 

*  For  a  senatus-consulfum  tacitum,  the  scribes  and  attendants,  all,  in  fact,  who  were  not 
senators,  went  out  of  the  curia,  and  the  members  of  the  senate  themselves  prepared  the  reports 
and  decrees. 

*  From  the  restoration  by  M.  Ch.  Robert,  in  vol.  iv.  of  Mimoires  de  la  SociiU  arcMolog. 
of  Bordeaux. 

'  The  letter  is  addressed :  proconsxdUmSf  prasidibuSy  leffatis,  ducibuSf  tribunis,  magistraUbuSj 
ac  singulis  civitatilms,  et  municipiis  et  oppidis  et  vicis  et  castellis.  (Capit.,  Moj:,,  15.)  The 
two  Maximins  were  at  the  same  time  declared  public  enemies,  and  a  reward  offered  to  any 
person  who  should  kill  them.     {Ibid.,  Hi.) 


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326  MILITAKY    ANARCHY,    235   TO    268   A.D. 

crushed  cue  another  in  the  gates  of  the  city.'  The  younger 
Gordian  was  slain  in  the  tumult,  and  his  aged  father  in  despair 
took  his  own  life;  the  two  had  reigned  a  few  days  over  a  month. 
This  news  struck  consternation  at  Eome.  Embarked  in  so  terrible 
an  enterprise  the  senate  could  not  fall  back;  it  was  compelled  to 
be  either  the  victim  or  the  executioner. 

Ideas   which   later   were    more   fully   developed  had   begun   at 


liuiii^i  of  the  Tomb  of  the  Gordiamj  (from  a  Tliotograph  by  Parker). 

this  time  to  germinate.  In  the  time  of  Caracalla  Herodian  had 
believed  that  a  division  of  the  Empii-e  was  possible.  In  the 
deliberation  which  took  place  after  the  arrival  of  the  news  from 
Afi-ica,  a  senator  proposed  the  appointment  of  two  emperors,  one  to 
remain  at  Eome  and  have  charge  of  civil  affairs,  the  other  to  be 
with  the  army  for  the  direction  of  military  operations.  This  was 
the   system  which  Diocletian   carried   out.     The   proposal  was  well 

*  Capitolinus  {Mcu\,  19)  «peaks,  however,  of  au  acerrima  jwyna. 


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SEVEN    EMPERORS   IN    FOURTEEN    YEARS,    235    TO    249    A.D.  327 

received,  and  the  senate  i)roclaimed  two  Angus ti^  Pupienus,^  a 
military  man,  and  Balbinus,  who  had  won  honour  in  the  civil 
career.  To  render  these  powers  absolutely  equal,  the  title  of 
Pontifex  Maximus,  which  had  never  before  been  shared,  was  given 
to  both,  and  the  two  Gordians  were  pronounced  dioL 

A  great  crowd  had  gathered  outside  the  Capitol  when  the 
senate  was  in  session. 
At  the  news  of  the  deci- 
sion a  violent  clamour 
was  raised,  especially 
against  Pupienus,  who 
as  governor  of  the  city 
had     severely     repressed 

those    infractions    of     the  The  Two  Gordiaus,  proclaimed  AVt.^ 

public     order     that     the 

lower  classes   so   willingly   commit   or   excuse.      Accordingly,   when 

the   new   emperors   with   their   suite   attempted   to   go   the  imperial 

palace,   they   were   driven    back    into   the    Capitol.      The   Gordians 

being  extremely  rich  had  many  adherents 

who   had   proposed   to  derive  advantage 

for   themselves   from    their    reign.      Of 

this    family    there     remained    a    boy — 

grandson    through    his    mother    of    the    ^    ^,     ^^^   ^, 

^  ^^  .       Gordian   III.   Caisar.     (Silver  Com 

proconsul  of  Africa  ^ — who  was  at  this  beariug  on  the  reverse  the  legend  : 
^.  .       T^  ^j  i.1.         1        i.-  i!        i^cJfflw  Augfj.    Cohen,  No.  73.) 

time   m  Eome.     Upon   the   elevation  of 

his  gi*andfather  and  uncle  the  senate  had  given  him  the  prsetorship 
and  the  title  of  Caesar,  although  he  was  but  twelve  years  of  age. 
After  the  African  disaster  men  were  in  request,  and  the  boy  was 
forgotten,  but  those  whose  interests  were  concerned  had  not  for- 
gotten him,    and   they   instigated   the   mob,    who   by  their  clamour 

VTheir  names  were :  M,  Clodius  Pupienus  Mcuvimus  and  Decimus  Ccelius  Balbinus.  The 
latter  claimed  descent  from  Balbus,  the  Spaniard,  the  friend  of  Pompey  and  Caesar. 

*  Medallion  of  bronze  struck  at  JEgud  in  Cilicia,  confirming  the  apotheosis  decreed  by  the 
senate  :  quos  umbo  senatus  augustos  appellavitj  et  postea  inter  divos  retulit.  On  the  obverse, 
the  laurelled  heads  of  the  two  Gordians  facing  each  other :  the  legend  (in  Greek)  :  The  Divine 
Gordiani,  the  venerable  Roman,  African,  Augusti.  On  the  reverse,  an  eagle  upon  an  altar, 
and  :  The  inhabitants  of  -iJIgae,  Severiani,  Hadriani,  the  neocoros  city  (having  a  temple  of  tlie. 
Augusti),  the  navavchia  (having  a  marine  arsenal),  in  the  year  of  ^^gm  284  (238  a.d.). 

'  An  Algerian  inscription  (L.  Reiiier,  No.  1,431)  calls  him  divi  Gordiani  nepos  et  did 
Gordiani  sororis  Jilius.     To  the  same  effect,  Herodian,  vii.  27. 


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328  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235   TO    268    A.D. 

forced  the   senate  to  renew  the  decree  naming  the  young  Gordian 
Csesar. 

So     Kome    had     three     emperors;     but     she    had    civil    war 


Balbinus.     (Bust  of  the  Capitol.) 

nevertheless.  Maximin  had  left  in  the  city  only  a  few  praetorian 
veterans,  and  this  soldiery,  whose  insolence  we  have  often  men- 
tioned, was  always  regarded  with  ill-will  by  the  nobles  and  the 
populace.  One  day  two  of  these  soldiers,  unarmed  and  as  spectators, 
entering  the  temple  where  the  Conscript  Fathers  were  deliberating, 


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BBVEN    BMPEEORS   IN   FOURTEEN   YEARS,    235   TO   249   A.D.  329 

passed  beyond  the  altar  of  Victory,  a  serious  breach  of  etiquette. 
To  this  they  added  some  insolent  demeanour,  or  possibly  some 
threatening  language  in  the  name  of  their  emperor:  the  exact 
offence  is  not  known;  but  an  exasperated  senator  stabbed  them 
both,  then  rushing  out  into  the  open  square  held  up  his  bloody 
dagger,  exclaiming  that  it  must  needs  be  that  these  enemies  of  the 


Maximin.    (Bust  in  the  Miuoum  of  the  Louvre.) 

senate  and  of  the  Boman  people  perish.  The  crowd  fell  upon  the 
praetorians  who  chanced  to  be  in  the  city  ;  many  were  killed,  and 
the  remainder  shut  themselves  into  their  camp,  which  the  gladiators 
belonging  to  the  nobles  vainly  sought  to  take  by  attack;  these 
old  soldiers  made  a  strong  resistance,  and  at  times  sallied  out  with 
great  slaughter  among  their  assailants.  To  restore  peace  Balbinus 
issued  edicts  and  entreaties,  but  he  was  driven  out  of  the  tumult 
with  sticks  and  stones,  but  without  intentional  injury.     The  ajffair 


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330  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    23o    TO    268    A.D. 

was  a  private  quan*el  between  town  and  camp,  of  a  kind  often 
seen  before  and  since  in  military  governments.  The  citizens  finally 
cut  off  the  water  supply  of  the  camp,  hoping  to  force  the  prcetorians 


Pupienufl.     (Bust  in  the  Museum  of  the  Louvre.) 

to  open  their  gates.  The  latter  did  indeed  open  them,  but  it  was 
to  fall  upon  the  mob  with  levelled  pikes,  and  pursue  them  into 
the  city,  where  the  combat  went  on.  Assailed  in  the  narrow 
streets  by  stones  hurled  down  upon  them  from  the  roofs,  the 
soldiers  set  fire  to  the  houses,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  conflagration 


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SEVEN    EMPERORS    IN    FOURTEEN    YEARS,    235   TO    249    A.D.  331 

soldiers  and  populace  became  reconciled,  while  uniting  to  plunder 
whatever  the  flames  had  spared.  A  great  part  of  the  city  was 
destroyed. 

Maximin  now  found  himself  in  the  position  in  which  Severus 
had  been  forty -five  years  before ;  but  he  did  not  show  the  prudence 
of  the  African  emperor,  and  his  army,  having  no  supplies  awaiting 
them  along  the  road,  advanced  slowly.  It  is  true  the  disposition 
of  the  provincials  was  no  longer  the  same;  the  inhabitants  fled  at 
the  approach  of  Maximin  and  his  barbarians,  and  the  cities  which 
he  entered  were  empty  of  men  and  provisions.^ 

The  senate  had  time  therefore  to  raise  troops  in  Italy,  to 
fortify  positions,  and  to  cut  the  roads.  The  fleet  of  Kavenna  had 
carried  off  or  destroyed  all  the  coast  vessels,  and  allowed  nothing 
to  arrive  by  way  of  the  Adriatic  for  the  army  of  Pannonia.^ 
Twenty  ex-consuls  had  divided  Italy  among  themselves,  to  make 
it  a  fortress  as  it  were,  and  from  Eavenna,  where  he  had  collected 
his  army,  Pupienus  directed  the  movements  of  all.  This  city,  the 
Venice  of  the  Eomans,  afforded  him  an  excellent  strategic  position. 
Thence  he  kept  guard  over  Upper  Italy  and  the  lower  course'  of 
its  two  great  rivers,  the  Po  and  the  Adige ;  his  fleet  kept  him  in 
communication  with  Aquileia,  and  he  covered  the  road  to  Home. 
The  Italians  cordially  aided  his  preparations;  they  felt  that  they 
were  about  to  fight  for  the  old  renown  of  Italy  against  a  fresh 
invasion  of  the  Cimbri.  The  gods  were  made  to  speak :  in  Aquileia 
the  auspices  declared  that  Belenus  promised  success.^  Moreover, 
good  news  came  in  from  the  provinces^  Most  of  tiiem  had  declared 
for  the  senate,  and  the  legions  which  remained  faithful,  especially 
those  of  the  Khine  where  Pupienus  had  been  in  command,  sent  him 
detachments  which  enabled  him  to  officer  a  considerable  number  of 
recruits.  In  Africa,  Capellianus,  after  his  victory  at  Carthage,  had 
pillaged  the  province  to  enrich  his  soldiers,  to  prepare  his  own  way 
to  the  imperial  power  if  Maximin  should  be  overthrown.*  But 
the  governor  of  Mauretania  defeated  and  killed  him ;  the  Third 
Augustan   legion   was   disbanded ;    its   name   was   effaced   from   the 

*  Sublatls  omnibus  quce  vicfum  prabere  possmt  (Capit.,  Max.,  21). 
^  Capit.,  Max,,  23. 

^  Id.,  ibid.,  22 ;  Herod.,  viii.  7. 

♦  Capit..  Max.,  19.     Cf.  L.  Renier,  Inscr.  d'Ahj.,  3,177. 


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332  MILITARY   ANAllCHY,    235   TO   208   A.D. 

monumeuts   it   had   erected,   and   the    troops    remaining   were    sent 
into  Khaitia/     Maximin,  therefore,  remained  isolated.* 

When  he  reached  the  banks  of  the  Isonzo,  the  toiTent,  swelled 
by  the  melting  of  the  snows,  rolled  broad  and  rapid,  and  the  fine 


SaroophaguB  of  a  Centurion  of  the  Third  Augustan  Legion.'    (Museum  of  the  Louvre.) 

stone  bridge  which  spanned  it  had  been  broken  down.  Here  the 
army  was  detained  for  several  days  while  rafts  were  constructed 
from  casks  and  planks  found  in  the  deserted  houses. 

On  the  opposite  side,  some  miles  distant  from  the  stream,  was 
Aquileia,    the    real    gateway   into    Italy    on    this    side.      Whether 


*  This  legion  was  reconstituted  about  the  year  253,  in  the  reign  of  Valerian,  whom  it, 
with  the  whole  RhaBtian  army,  had  aided  in  obtaining  the  imperial  power. 

'  .  .  .  .  orbem  terrarum  consensisse  in  odium  Mcuimini  (Capit.,  Max.,  23). 

'  White  marble,  found  among  the  tombs  along  the  Appian  Way.  It  represents  eleven 
Loves  forging  arms,  in  allusion  to  the  employment  of  the  centurion :  Blaera  Vitalis  7  (centurio) 
leg,  IIL  AVO,  B.  M,  M.  D.  [Bene  ilferenti  3fater  Dedit?].  (C.  /.  X.,  vol.  vi.  No.  3,645.) 
**  The  artists  of  the  Roman  epoch  were  accustomed  to  treat  religious  traditions  lightly,  and 
attribute  to  Loves  or  to  children  certain  occupations  which  in  reality  only  belong  to  grown 
men.  In  this  class  of  ideas  the  sarcophagus  under  consideration  is  one  of  the  most  instructive." 
fFrohner,  Notice,  etc.,  No.  341,  and  p.  321 ;  also  Henry  d'Escamps,  Descr.  des  marbres  du 
musSe  Camp.,  pi.  108.) 


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SEVEN    EMPERORS   IN    FOURTEEN    YEARS,    235   TO   249   A.D.  333 

Maximin  should  take  it,  or  whether  its  inhabitants  should  allow 
him  to  traverse  it  with  his  famished  hordes,  in  either  case  the 
greiat  and  wealthy  city  would  be  ruined.  Accordingly  these 
descendants  of  Boman  colonists  had  resolved  to  make  a  desperate 
resistance.  They  closed  the  gaps  in  their  walls,  amassed  immense 
quantities  of  provisions,  and  prepared  all  military  supplies.  The 
women,  copying  famous  examples,  had  given  their  hair  to  make 
rope,  an  act  consecrated  by  a  temple  built  in  Kome  to  the  Venus 
of  the  shaven  head.  Two  ex-consuls,  one  formerly  a  dtix  in  Moesia, 
and  a  very  able  soldier,  conducted  the  defence.  There  were  but 
few  troops  in  the  city,  but  all  the  inhabitants  enrolled  themselves 
as  a  garrison,  and  the  bravest  of  the  neighbouring  country  people 
had  thrown  themselves  into  the  place. 

They  were  able  to  defeat  all  designs  and  ^to  repel  all  attacks, 
and  set  on  fire  the  besieging  machines  employed  by  the  enemy. 
Maximin,  exasperated  by  these  repeated  defeats,  finally  put  to 
death  the  officers  who  had  so  unsuccessfully  conducted  his  affairs. 
Great  indignation  was  aroused  at  this  unjust  conduct;  provisions, 
moreover,  were  lacking,  the  army  saw  neither  supplies  nor  succour 
come  to  it,  the  whole  Empire  appeared  to  be  hostile,  and  the 
emperor  was  not  one  of  those  leaders  who  give  their  soldiers 
courage  to  fight  against  a  world. 

The  soldiers  of  the  Second  Parthica  were  the  most  uneasy. 
Their  wives  and  children  and  all  that  they  possessed  being  left  at 
Albano  was  at  the  mercy  of  their  adversaries.  To  save  them  the 
soldiers  murdered  Maximin  and  his  son.  This  emperor's  reign  had 
lasted  three  years  and  a  few  days  (238).* 

Upon  this  the  army  demanded  entrance  into  the  city,  but  the 
people  of  Aquileia  would  by  no  means  agree  to  this.  They  let 
down  provisions  from  their  walls,  requiring  pay  "for  the  same,  and 
also  opened  markets  at  their  gates,  and  the  strange  sight  was  seen 

*  Maximin  was  sixty-five  years  of  age  (Chron.  (VAlex.y  ad  arm.  238,  and  Zonaras,  Ann,, 
xii.  16).  The  ecclesiastical  writers  (Enseb.,  Hist,  ecel.,  vi.  28)  place  in  his  reign  a  persecution, 
which  they  call  the  sixth.  Sulpicius  Severus  has  no  knowledge  of  this ;  lie  speaks  only  {Hut, 
sacr.f  ii.  16)  of  a  few  priests  who  were  persecuted  ....  nonnuUarum  ecclesiarum  clericos 
vexdmt.  The  persecution  was  probably  limited  to  some  local  oppression.  In  Cappadocia,  for 
instance,  of  which  Firmilianus  was  bishop.  Cf.  Cyprian,  JSJ).  76:  erat  tranacundi  facuUas  eo 
quod  persecuHo  ilia  non  per  totum  mundum^  sed  hcalis  fuisset  .  .  ,  .  ut  per  Cappadociam 
et  Pontum :  and  the  Church  has  no  authentic  mart-yrs  in  this  reign.  Eusebius  mentions  not 
one. 


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334  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

of  the  besieged  supplying  the  besiegers  with  food.  Pupienus 
coming  in  all  haste  from  Eavenna  to  this  army  destitute  of  a 
chief,  received  their  oaths  of  fidelity  to  the  three  emperors  of 
Eome,  and  sent  the  troops  away  to  their  encampments,  after 
having,  as  was  fitting,  paid  them  liberally  in  gold  the  price  of 
blood. 

During  these   transactions   the   senate   had   lived  from  day   to 
day  in  all  the  anxieties  of  a  man  who  sees  the  knife  at  his  throat. 


Equestrian  Statue  of  an  Emperor  crowne<l  with  Laurel. 
(Giiattani,  1786,  aud  Clarac,  pi.  967,  No.  2,497.) 

Therefore  their  joy  was  as  extreme  as  had  been  their  terror,  and 
they  testified  it  by  the  vastness  of  their  display  of  gratitude  to  the 
gods  and  the  emperors;  to  the  former,  solemn  thanksgivings  and 
hecatombs  of  victims;  to  the  latter,  triumphs  without  a  combat, 
trophies,  triumphal  chariots,  gilded  equestrian  statues,  and,  by  way 
of  novelty,  statues  carried  by  elephants. 

When  the  noise  of  acclamations  had  ceased  and  the  flames 
of  sacrifice  were  extinguished,  Pupienus  calmly  examined  the 
situation,    and    found    it    still    full    of    dangers.      ''What    do    you 


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Heroic  Statue  of  Pupienus.     (Museum  of  tlie  Louvie.) 


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SEVEN   EMPERORS    IN    FOURTEEN    YEARS,    235    TO    249    A.D.  337 

expect  will  be   our  recompense  for  having. delivered  Rome   from  a 

monster?"    he   one    day  asked  his   colleague.      "The   love   of    the 

people,    the    senate,    and    the 

whole   human  race,"   Balbinus 

replied  with  simplicity.     "Our 

recompense   will   be,"   the  old 

general    said,    "  the   hatred   of 

the    soldiers."      And    he    saw 

the  real  consequence.  p^^^^^^  ^^^  ,^^  P^^^iic  Peace.^ 

The  two  emperors  at  first 
lived  on  terms  of  cordial  friendliness;   to  attest  their  harmony  they 
caused  coins  to  be  struck  representing  two  hands  clasped  with  the 
legend :    patres    senattiSj    amor    mutuits ;    also    this : 
,fides  mutua,^      But    Balbinus    regarded    with    con- 
tempt  the    obscure    birth   of   Pupienus,    the    latter 
despised  his  colleague's  weakness,   and   after  a  few 
days   distrust    sprang    up   between   them.      It  was 
difficult  for  the  combination  devised  by  the  senate   ,p^^  j^^^^^  ^j     ^ 
to  have  had  any  other  result,  and  this  result  was     with  the  Legend: 

^    ,  '^  '  .  PATRES   SENA- 

sure  to  bring  about  a  catastrophe.      The  prsetonans     Tus.  (Silver  Coin 

with  silent  hatred  endured  "the  senate's  emperors,"     °     "pienus.) 

and    their    hatred    increased  with  the    acclamations   wherewith  the 

Conscript  Fathers  saluted  these  men  chosen  by  the  supreme  council 

of  the   state.      They   feared 

lest  there  might  be  renewed 

against    themselves   the 

execution   made  by  Severus 

in  the  case  of  the  praetorians 

of  Julianus.     In  a  senatus- 

consultum   these  words   had 

,  .  1.1  -I  Large  Bronze  of  Balbinus.' 

been      imprudently      used : 

"Thus  act  those  rulers  who  have  been  chosen  by  wise  men;   thus 

perish  the  rulers  who  were  chosen  by  the   inexperienced."^     This 

» IMP.  CA.es.  PVPIEN(t«)  MAXIMVS  A.VG.,  around  the  laurelled  head  of  the 
emperor.    On  the  reverse,  PAX  PVBLICA  SC.  and  Peace,  seated.     (Large  bronze.) 

*  Eckhel,  vii.  305. 

*  IMP.  CAES  J)(ecimu8)  CAEL(tW)  BALBINVS  AVG.,  and  the  laurelled  head  of 
Balbinus.  On  the  reverse,  LIBERALITAS  AVGVSTORVM  SC.  Balbinus,  Pupienus,  and 
Gordian  III.  seated  on  a  platform.     Liberalitos  standing ;  a  citizen  ascending  the  steps. 

*  Herod.,  viii.  21. 

VOL.   VI.  Z 


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338  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235    TO    268   A.D. 

was  a  bravado,  and  the  soldiers  comprehended  it.  One  day  when 
scenic  representations  had  drawn  away  from  the  palace  a  large 
number  of  its  usual  guards  they  hastened  thither.  Pupienus 
desired  at  once  to  summon  the  German  guard;  Balbinus,  suspect- 
ing some  treachery  on  the  part  of  his  colleague,  refused  to  allow 
it  to  be  called  in.  While  the  two  emperors  were  disputing,  the 
praetorians  forced  the  gates,  seized  them  both,  and  dragged  them 
across  the  city  with  every  insult,  exclaiming:  *^Here  are  the 
emperors  of  the  senate  and  the  Roman  people ! "  ^  It  was  their 
intention  to  carry  their  prisoners  to  the  camp  to  put  them  to 
death  with  slow  tortures.  But  the  German  guard  approaching,  the 
preetoriana  murdered  the  emperors  at  once  and  left  their  dead 
bodies  in  the  open  street  (June,  238). 

Less  than  five  months  had  sufficed  for  the  triple  tragedy  of 
which  Rome,  Carthage,  and  the  camp  of  Aquileia  had  been  the 
theatre.  The  senatorial  restoration  had  lasted  just  long  enough  to 
give  the  soldiery  time  to  recover  from  the  surprise  this  audacious 
attempt  had  caused  them,  and  it  could  last  no  longer,  for  the  senate 
had  neither  material  nor  moral  force;  the  power  was  elsewhere. 
From  Commodus  to  Diocletian  the  soldiers  were  the  true  masters 
of  the  Empire,  and  the  evils  of  this  dominion  were  only  for  the 
moment  dispelled  when  the  army  had  at  its  head  chiefs  at  once 
able  and  strong,  like  Severus,  Aurelian,  and  Probus.  The  con- 
stitution of  the  Empire  required  for  prosperity  a  strong  hand  at 
the  helm,  but  nature  is  not  so  lavish  of  superior  men ;  and  human 
wisdom  had  not  by  good  institutions  supplied  what  nature  did  not 
furnish. 

'  With  the  reign  of  Pupienus  and  Balbinus  enda  the  work  of  Herodian,  which,  notwith- 
standing all  its  faults,  is  very  useful  for  this  epoch  so  poor  in  historians.  We  mention,  for  the 
year  238,  the  publication  of  the  book  by  Censorinus,  de  Die  natali.  About  this  time  also 
Commodianus,  the  most  ancient  of  the  Christian  poets,  wrote  his  Instructions^  eiglity  pieces 
of  barbarous  verse.  His  Carmen  apologeticum  is  of  the  year  249.  Gennadius  {de  Script, 
eccles.,  16)  says  of  this  author :  .  .  .  .  Scrtpsit,  mediocri  sermone  qiiasi  versu,  librum  adversus 
paganos,  Et  quia  parum  nostrarum  attigerat  litterarum,  magis  Ulorum  destruere  potuit 
dogmata  guam  nostra  firmare.  The  initial  letters  of  the  twenty-six  last  verses  form  these 
words :  Commodianus  mendicus  Christi.  Another  example  of  these  acrostics,  with  a  barbaric 
prosody  and  metre,  is  found  in  an  Algerian  inscription.     (L.  Renier,  No.  2,074.) 


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SEVEN    KMPERORS    IN    FOURTEEN    YEARS,    235    TO    249    A.D.  339 


II._GoRDiAN  III.  (238-244). 

Within  a  few  months  six  emperors  had  perished,  and  only  a 
boy  was  left,  Gordian  III.^  The  murderers  carried  him  away  with 
them  to  the  camp. 
They  had  made  him 
Ceesar  through  hatred 
of  Pupienus  and  Bal- 
binus ;  now  that  he 
was  left  alone  they  pro- 
claimed him  Augustus; 
a  ruler  twelve  or  thir- 
teen years  old  was  the 
chief  who  suited  them 
best.  Meanwhile  the 
Empire,  wearied  out 
with  so  many  tumults, 
rested  tranquil  for  a 
few  years.  There  is 
mentioned  only  an  in- 
surrection in  Africa, 
which  was  quickly  sup- 
pressed by  the  governor 
of  Ceesarian  Mauretania 
(240).'^  But  affairs  at 
court  went  badly.  Gor- 
dian    11.     had     had     as  ^G^ordiauIII.' 

many     as      twenty-two 

concubines;  to  guard  this  harem  he  had  adopted  the  Oriental 
method  of  employing  eunuchs,  and  his  nephew  came  into  possession 
of  this  dangerous  household.  Ill-defended  by  his  mother  against 
them  and  the  freedmen,  Gordian  allowed  them  to  be  masters  of 
the  palace  and  the  treasury,  which  they  plundered  at  will.     Their 

*  "  He  is  said  by  most  authorities  to  have  been  eleven  years  of  age,  but  some  consider  liim 
thirteen,  and  Junius  Cordus  believes  that  he  was  sixteen."     (Capit.,  Gord.y  22.) 
'  L.  Renier,  ln»cr,  cPAlg.,  99,  and  C.  I.  L.,  vol.  vi.  No.  1,090. 
^  Luni  marble.    Bust  in  the  Museum  of  the  Louvre. 

/  2 


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340  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235   TO    268   A.D. 

sway  lasted  till   241    or   242 ;    at  this  period  the  young  emperor 

married   Tranquillina,  the  daughter  of  Timesitheus,   and  appointed 

his  father-in-law  praetorian  prefect.^ 

This    Timesitheus,    who    had    filled    with    integrity    important 

financial  positions,  and  many  times  served  as  governor  of  a  province, 

vice  proesidis^  proved  to  be  a 
man,  and  he  thrust  back  into 
obscurity  those  who  ought  never 
to  have  emerged  thence.  One 
of  his  letters  to  Gordian  shows 
the  extent  of  the  evil  and  the 
vigour  of  the  remedy :  "To 
Augustus,  my  master  and  my 
son,  Timesitheus  his  father-in-law 
and  prefect  [greeting].  We  re- 
joice to  see  that  you  have  escaped 
from  the  disgrace  of  this  age  in 
which  eunuchs  and  men  whom 
you  regarded  as  friends  trafficked 
infamously  in  all  things.  Our 
rejoicing  is  the  greater  in  that 
you  yourself  applaud  this  for- 
tunate change,  which  proves  also, 
my  respected  son,  that  you  were 
not  to  blame  for  these  abuses. 
It  could  not  indeed  be  endured 
longer  that  eunuchs  should  dis- 
pose of  military  commands ;  that 

The  Empress  Tranquillinaa8  Ceres.  honourable      SCrvicCS      should      be 

(Statue  in  ^^^JJ^^^^^^^  |^®  ^^^^^         left  unrewarded  ;  that  the  caprice 

or  interest  of  a  few  men  should 
cause  the  innocent  to  perish  and  set  free  the  guilty;  that  the 
treasury  should  be  emptied  by  those  who  were  constantly  scheming 
to  prejudice  you  against  the  best  citizens,  who  were  bringing  the 
wicked  forward  and  driving  good  men  away,  and  trafficked  in 
the   very  words  that  they  themselves    ascribed  to  you.      Let  us, 

^  C,  Furivs  Sabtmus  Aquila  TimentJieus.    (Spon,  Antiq,  de  Lyon,  edition  of  1857,  p.  163.) 
See  his  cursus  Jwnorum  in  De  Boissieu's  Inttcr.  de  Lyoriy  p.  246. 


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SEVEN    EMPERORS    IN    FOURTEEN    YEARS,    235    TO    249    A.D.  341 

therefore,  thank  the  gods  who  have  given  you  the  will  to  heal  the 
woes  of  the  state.     It  is  pleasing  to  be  the  father-in-law  of  a  ruler 
who  is  willing  to  know  all,  and  drives  from  his  presence  the  men 
by  whom  he  himself  seemed  formerly  to  be  offered  for  public  sale." 
To    this    letter    Gordian    replied :     ^'  The    emperor    Gordianus 
Augustus  to   Timesitheus,  his   father  and   prefect.      If  the  mighty 
gods  were   not  protecting   the   Roman  Empire,  we  should   still  be, 
as  it  were,  exposed  for  sale  by  the  eunuchs,  themselves  bought  in 
the  public  markets.      I   at   last  understand   that   it   is  not  a  Felix 
whom   I   should   place   at   the   head   of   the   praBtorian   cohorts,  nor 
a  Serapammon    in    command    of    the    Fourth    legion,   and,   not  to 
enumerate   in   detail,   that  I  ought  not  to  have  done  many  things 
that   I   have  done.      But  I    render  thanks   to   the   gods  that  you, 
whose     fidelity     is     well 
known  to  me,  have  taught 
me  what  the   captivity  in 
which    I    was    held    had 
prevented  me  from  under- 
standing.     What  could   I 
do   when  Maurus  sold  the 

government,       and       when.  Coin  of  TranquiUina.* 

acting     in     concert     with 

Gaudianus,  Eeverendus,  and  Montanus,  he  praised  these  men  and 
blamed  those?  What  could  I  do  but  approve  what  he  had  told 
me,  it  being  also  confirmed  by  the  testimony  of  his  accomplices? 
In  truth,  my  dear  father,  an  emperor  is  very  unfortimate  when  the 
truth  is  concealed  from  him.  He  cannot  go  out  and  learn  it  for 
himself,  and  he  is  obliged  to  hear  what  he  is  told  and  to  decide 
according  to  the  information  men  bring  him." 

Timesitheus  was  not  only  renowned  for  his  eloquence  and 
integrity,  but  also,  when  the  occasion  required,  he  could  show 
himself  a  good  general.  He  caused  the  fortifications  of  cities  and 
frontiers  to  be  repaired,  and  collected  vast  quantities  of  provisions 
in  these  strongholds,  so  that  the  armies  could  be  supplied  from 
them  in  case  of  need.  The  posts  of  the  first  importance  were 
supplied  with   a   year's   stores   of   corn,  pork,  vinegar,  barley,  and 

*  SABINIA  TRANQVILLINA  AVG.,  surrounding  the  bu^  of  the  empress.    On  the 
reverse,  FELICITAS  TEMPORVM  SC.    Felicitas  standing. 


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342  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

straw ;  and  others  with  supplies  for  one  or  two  months.  He 
investigated  the  condition  of  the  arsenals  and  made  sui'e  that  the 
weapons  in  the  soldiers'  liands  were  in  good  order.     He  sent  away 


Provision  and  Baggage  Waggons.     (JJas-relief  of  the  Antonine  Column.) 

from  the  camps  all  useless  persons,  old  men  and  children,  who 
hindered  the  movements  of  the  troops  and  consumed  the  rations. 
Discipline   was    the    more    easily   maintained    because   he    watched 

with  the  utmost  vigilance  over 
the  needs  of  the  soldier,  and 
even  in  the  most  remote  marches 
secured  the  seasonable  arrival  of 
provisions.  He  also  revived  the 
old    usage    of    surrounding    the 

Coin  of  Shapur  or  Sapor  i.^  ^^^^    temporary    camps    with    a 

ditch;  and  as  he  visited  the 
outposts  often,  even  during  the  night,  he  kept  watch  upon  the 
conduct  of  all.  In  a  short  time  a  man  like  this,  able  and  devoted 
to  the  public  welfare,  restored  their  military  virtues  to  the  troops, 
and  the  army  again  became  the  formidable  weapon  that  it  had  so 
long  been. 

Of  this  the  Persians  became  aware.  Satisfied  or  exhausted  by 
the  first  collision  which  had  taken  place  in  the  reign  of  Alexander 
Severus,  they  had  remained  tranquil  until  about  the  close  of 
Maximin's  reign;  but  new  Asiatic  dynasties  do  not  at  once  abandon 

*  Bust  of  Sapor,  with  legend  :  The  worsliipper  of  Ormuzd.     On  the  reverse,  a  pyre  between 
two  standing  figures;  legend  :  Chupouri.     (Gold  coin.) 


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SEVEN    EMPERORS    IN    FOURTEEN    YEARS,    235   TO    249    A.D.  343 

the  tent  for  the  harem.     To  consolidate  their  power  they  have  need 

from  time  to  time  to  give  scope  for  the  warlike  ardour  which  gave 

them    tiieir    existence.      Ardeshir    again  tiireatened 

Armenia    and     the    Roman    provinces.     Upon    his 

death  in  240  he  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Shapur, 

or  Sapor,  who  for  a  third  of  a  century  (240-273) 

remained  the  indefatigable  enemy   of   the   Romans. 

This  monarch  directed  a  formidable  invasion  which 

penetrated  the  heart  of  Syria.     He  took  the  strong  Coin  commemorating 

^  .   .  AM  the  Crossing  of  the 

cities    of    Atra,   Nisibis,   and   Carrhee,    crossed    the     Hellespont  by  the 
Euphrates    and    menaced    Antioch.^      At    news    of         ^^^' 
this   Gordian    opened    the    temple    of    Janus    (241),'    a    ceremony 
which  seems   then  to  have  occurred  for  the  last  time,  and  with  a 


Sapor  I.*  Persian  Horseman.^ 

large    army    set    out    for    the    valley   of    the    Danube,   which   the 
Sarmatians   and    Goths   had   been    ravaging  for   four   years ;  *    the 

*  Mirkhond;  Hist  des  Sassanides,  French  translation  by  Sylvestre  de  Sacy,  p.  288. 

*  Reverse  of  a  medium  bronze  of  Gordian  III.  with  the  legend  Trqfectus  Aug.  Gordian  is 
seated  in  the  prow  of  a  praetorian  galley,  around  which  three  dolphins  are  swimming.  At  the 
present  day  shoals  of  porpoises  follow  vessels  in  the  Hellespont. 

*  Aur.  Victor,  C<b3.,  27. 

*  Engraved  stone  (sardonyx)  of  three  layers,  23  millim.  by  20.  Pehlevi  legend,  of  which 
four  letters  only  can  be  clearly  made  out.  Cf.  Mordtmann,  ZdUchrift  der  deutsch.  Morgen- 
Umdischen  Oesellschqft,  vol.  xviii.  pi.  vi.  4.     (Cabinet  de  France,  No.  1,344.) 

^  Intaglio  of  the  Sassanid  style.  Perforated  cone,  10  millim.  in  diameter.  (Cabinet  de 
France,  No.  1,377.) 

*  The  initium  belli  Scythici  dates  from  the  reigns  of  Maximin  and  Balbinus,  in  238.  (Capit., 
16.)    In  this  first  invasion  the  Goths  destroyed  Istria,  upon  the  Euxine. 


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344  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235   TO    268   A.D. 

Alani  had  even  reached  as  far  as  the  neighbourhood  of  Philip- 
popolis  in  Thrace,  where  they  defeated  a  Eoman  force.  The 
barbarians  could  not  make  any  stand  against  the  large  army  led 
by  Gordian,  which  drove  away  these  pillagers  as  it  passed  along.* 

In  242  the  emperor  crossed  the  Hellespont  and  made  his  way 
rapidly  to  the  Euphrates. 

The  Persian  cavalry  offered  no  better  resistance  than  the  Goths 
had  done,  but  the  history  of  these  engagements  is  lost.  We  have 
only  a  few  lines  in  a  despatch  from  the  emperor  to  the  senate: 
^' After  the  narrative  of  the  advantages  gained  by  our  advance, 
each  one  of  which  merits  the  honour  of  a  triumph,  we  have  broken 
the  yoke  already  placed  upon  the  neck  of  Antioch  and  have 
delivered  Syria  from  this  king  and  his  dominion.  We  have  restored 
CarrhsB  and  the  other  cities  to  the  Empire.  We  are  now  at  Nisibis 
and,  the  gods  favouring,  shall  soon  be  at  Ctesiphon,  if  they  pre- 
serve to  us  Timesitheus,  our  prefect  and  father,  who  plans  and 
conducts  everything.  To  him  we  owe  this  success,  and  shall  owe 
others  yet.  Therefore,  vote  supplications  to  the  gods  and  thanks 
to  Timesitheus.''  The  senate  decreed  to  the  emperor  a  quadriga  of 
elephants,  and  to  the  prefect  a  triumphal  chariot  drawn  by  four 
horses,  with  this  inscription:    ^^To  the  tutor  of  the  state." ^ 

Unfortunately,  not  long  after  the  wise  tutor  died,  carried  off 
by  disease  or  perhaps  by  poison  which  Philip  had  administered 
(243).  This  Philip  was  an  Arab  of  Trachonitis,^  son  of  a  robber 
chief  famous  in  that  country,  and  for  a  time  following  his  father's 
mode  of  life.  Enrolled  in  the  Eoman  army  he  rose  from  one  grade 
to  another  imtil  after  the  death  of  Timesitheus  he  was  made  its 
highest  officer.  Gordian  appointed  him  to  succeed  the  man  whom 
he  had  perhaps  murdered  as  praetorian  prefect,  and  the  operations 


^  .  .  .  .  delevitffugavit  cvpultt  atque  submovit  (Oapit.,  Qord.,  26).  On  the  tomb  of  Gordian 
are  engraved  the  words,  Victor  Gothorum,     (Ibid,,  34.) 

^  Capit.,  Gord.,  27.  An  inscription  recently  discovered  in  Algeria  gives  Gordian  seven 
imperatorial  salutations.     (Bull,  de  corresp.  afric,  1882,  p.  119.) 

^  His  name  was  M.  Julius  Philippus,  and  that  of  his  wife,  Marcia  Otacilia  Severa.  See 
L..Reuier,  Inscr.  d'Alff.,  No.  2,540.  According  to  Auxelius  Victor  (Ctss.,  28),  he  was  born  at 
Bostra,  which  is  said  to  have  been  called  from  him  Philippopolis.  Ecclesiastical  council 
distinguish  between  Bostra  and  Philippopolis,  which  is  said  to  have  been  built  on  the  ruins  of 
the  former  (Labbe,  Cone.,  vol.  viii.  pp.  644,  676).  M.  Waddington  has  discovered  the  ruins  of 
Philippopolis,  where  are  yet  to  be  seen  a  theatre,  an  aqueduct,  baths,  temples,  and  numerous 
public  edifices ;  but  the  wall  was  never  completed ;  Philip  had  not  time  to  finish  his  work. 


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SEVEN    EMPERORS    IN    FOURTEEN    YEARS,    235    TO    249    A.D.  345 

against  the  Persians  continued.  A  great  battle  gained  near  Kesaina 
on  the  Chabaras  had  opened  the  road  to  the  Persian  capital,  when 
suddenly  a  sedition  broke  out. 

The  new  prefect  had  fomented  it  by  intentionally  disorganizing 
the  service  his  pre- 
decessor had  so  well 
established.  Secret 
orders  led  the  supply 
trains  astray  and 
hindered  the  boats 
laden  with  provisions 
from  reaching  the 
camps.  When  Philip 
saw  discontent  spring- 
ing up  and  growing, 
he  employed  emis- 
saries to  go  about 
among  the  tents  and 
the  groups  of  soldiers 
and  complain  of  Gor- 
dian:  an  emperor  so 
young  was  incapable 
of  ruling  the  state 
and  commanding  the 
army ;  a  colleague 
ought  to  be  given 
him  who  would  take 

the  place   of  Timesi-  Philip  the  Elder.' 

theus.       The      army, 

impelled  by  famine,  placed  the  Empire  in  the  power  of  Philip,  and 
directed  that  he,  as  tutor,  should  rule  jointly  with  Gordian.* 

The  friends  of  the  young  emperor  could  not  deceive  themselves 
in  regard  to  this  division  of  authority  imposed  by  the  soldiers:  it 
was  a  master  set  over  him,  and  the  insolent  behaviour  of  Philip 
made  the  situation  perfectly  evident.  They  prepared  a  counter- 
revolution.     When  they  believed    themselves    sufficiently   in  force 

*  Bust  in  the  Louvre,  not  designated  with  certainty.     (Luni  marble.) 
'  Zosimus,  i.  18. 


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346  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

they  obtained  a  convocation  of  the  army,  as  if  it  were  a  deliberative 

assembly.     Gordian,  ascending  his  tribunal,  complained  before  them 

of  the   ingratitude   of  Philip,  whom   he   had,  he   said,  loaded  with 

favours,  and  he  asked  for  justice  from  the  soldiers,  that  is.  to  say, 

the  deposition  of  the  emperor  whom  they  had  appointed.     But  the 

opposing    party    were    victorious,    and    it    was    Gordian    who    was 

deposed.     Here  Capitolinus  places  a  scene  of  unworthy  supplications, 

in  which  Gordian  ignobly  descends  all  the  steps  of  power,  begging 

first  a  share  in  the  Empire,  then  the  rank  of  Csesar, 

or  the  title  of  praetorian  prefect,  lastly,  the  grade  of 

dux  and  his  life.     We  have  no  more  reason  to  believe 

in  this  young  man's    cowardice  .than    in    his    great 

courage ;    but  at  twenty   a   man   does  not  die  thus. 

Medal  com-      Gordian  was  killed  near  Zaitha,   the   city   of    olive- 

memorative  of  .  . 

Peace  with  the    trees,   where  his  assassin    erected    to   his   memory   a 

Peiraiaufl 

splendid  tomb,  which  a  century  later  was  yet  stand- 
ing."* Three  other  emperors.  Valerian,  Cams,  and  Julian,  were 
destined  to  die  in  these  deserts. 

Philip  wrote  to  the  senate  that  the  soldiers  had  chosen  him 
emperor  in  the  stead  of  Gordian,  deceased  by  natural  causes,  and 
the  senate  decreed  to  the  latter  apotheosis,  and  to  the  former  the 
imperial  titles.  The  Conscript  Fathers  consoled  themselves  for  their 
secret  grief  by  granting  to  all  the  surviving  members  of  this  ill- 
fated  family,  once  so  prosperous,  exemption  from  wardship,  legations, 
and  municipal  burdens  (munera).  This  was  all  that  they  had  it  in 
their  power  to  give  (February  or  March,  244). 


III.— Philip  (244). 

Instead  of  prosecuting  the  war  against  the  Persians,  discouraged 
as  they  were  by  their  defeat  at  Eesaina,  Philip  made  haste  to 
conclude  peace,  on  terms  advantageous  to   them,^  and   returned   to 

'  PAX  FUNDATA  CUM  PERSIS  :  reverse  of  a  silver  coin  of  PhUip  the  Elder. 

'  Amm.  Marcellin.y  xxiii.  5.  The  government  of  Gordian  III.  had  great  legislative 
activity;  the  Code  of  Justinian  mentions  240  ordinances  of  this  reign.  One  of  them  is 
important :  it  granted  to  soldiers  who  had  accepted,  unawares,  a  burdensome  inheritance,  the 
advantage  of  being  held  to  the  payment  of  the  debts  only  to  the  extent  of  the  assets  (Code, 
vi.  22).     Hence  the  institution  of  the  inventory. 

•"*  Eutropius,  ix.  2  ;  Zonaras,  xii.  18, 10. 


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SEVEN    EMPERORS    IN    FOURTEEN    YEARS,    2^5    TO    249    A.D.  347 

Antioch.     Eusebius,  who  is  disposed  to  represent  this  murderer  as 
a    Christian,    says   that  it  was    related    in   his    time^    that  Philip, 
wishing   with    the    empress    to    celebrate    Easter    in    Antioch,    the 
bishop,   S.   Babylas,   forbade    them   admission  to  the  church;   upon 
which  both  humiliated  themselves,  made  public  confession  of  their 
sins,  and  took  their  places  among  the  penitents.     These  rumours  in 
the     end     became 
accepted    truths,^ 
although  it  is  not 
easy    to    see   what 
interest  the  Church 
had     in     claiming 
such     a    proselyte. 
It    may     be     that 

this    Arab     had    in  Philip,  the  Empress  Otacilia,  aud  Philip  the  Son.^ 

his  youth  a  know- 
ledge of  the  Christian  religion;  that,  following  the  example  of 
MammaBa,  he  had  established  relations  with  Origen,*  and  it  is 
certain  that  during  his  reign,  as  during  that  of  Alexander,  the 
Christians  enjoyed  undisturbed  tranquillity;*  but  all  his  public 
conduct  was  that  of  a  pagan  emperor.  According  to  the  legend  of 
one  of  his  coins,  he  believed  that  his  accession  had  been  predicted 
by  Apollo,*  and   the  medals  of  Otacilia  Severa  bear  profane  types, 

*  'O  \6yos  Karix^i  (Eusebius,  Hist,  eed.,  vi.  84). 

'  S.  Chrysostom,  Orosius,  and  Zonaras  admitted  them,  and  S.  Jerome  says  of  Philip  (de 
Vir.  ill.):  qui  primus  de  regibus  rom.  christ.fidt.  But  these  authors  all  lived  or  wrote  aft^r 
the  penitence  of  Theodosius,  and  it  was  well  to  increase  the  authority  of  that  famous  example 
by  confirming  the  rumours  that  had  naturally  grown  up  among  the  believers  in  respect  to  the 
public  penitence  of  a  whole  imperial  family  whose  toleration  had  caused  them  to  be  suspected 
of  sharing  in  the  Christian  faith.  At  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  a  bishop,  when  that  bishop 
was  S.  Ambrose,  might  forbid  an  emperor  entrance  to  his  church  ;  a  century  and  a  half  earlier 
no  man  would  have  dared  to  do  it. 

^  CONCORDIA  AUGUSTORUM.  Busts  of  Philip  and  Otacilia,  and  of  their  son.  On 
the  reverse :  EX  ORACVLO  APOLLINIS  ;  a  round  temple  with  four  columns,  and  within  it 
a  stAtue  of  Apollo.     (Bronze  medallion.) 

*  Eusebius  {Hist,  eccl.,  vi.  33)  possessed  two  letters  written  by  Origen,  the  one  to  Philip, 
the  other  to  the  empress.  But  he  does  not  say  that  he  finds  there  the  proof  that  these  imperial 
persons  were  Christians. 

*  Except  at  Alexandria,  if  we  may  beheve  Eusebius  (vi.  41).  But  this  so-called  persecution 
was  probably  only  one  of  the  riots  so  common  in  that  city,  in  which  Christian  as  well  as  heathen 
perished. 

"  Ea:  oraculo  Apollinis  (Cohen,  iv.  p.  201,  No.  4;  see  above).  He  caused  Gordian  III. 
to  be  proclaimed  divus,  and  performed  all  the  pagan  rites  of  the  Secular  Games.      There 


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348  MILITAEY   ANAECHY,    235   TO    268   A.D. 

sacrilegious  honours  that  a  Christian  believer  would   have   refused. 

On  the  other  hand,  at  that  time  of  religious  confusion  many 
persons  were  uncertain  what  they  believed.  The 
rational  syncretism  of  the  Alexandrian  philosophers 
became  an  unreasoning  syncretism  in  many  minds. 
Thus  a  singular  monument,  though  of  much  later 
date,  represents  a  Saint  George  with  the  head  of  a 
sparrow-hawk,  that  is  to  say,  a  hero  of  Christian 
^^^orotadifa?^  l^g^^^  i^  confused  with  an  Egyptian  god  Horus.^ 
The  so-called  Christianity  of  MammsBa  and  Otacilia 

was  of  the  same  nature  and  even  more  vague  than  this. 

The  events  of  Philip's  reign  are  almost  unknown  to  us.     The 


S.  George  with  the  Head  of  a  Sparrow-Hawk.  Roman  with  tne  Head  of  a 

(Identified  with  Uorue.)  Sparrow-Hawk. 

Augustan  History  from  Gordian  III.  to  Valerian,  that  is  to  say, 
from  244  to  253,  is  lost,  and  to  fill  this  gap  we  have  only  the 
meagre  or  doubtful  summaries  of  Zosimus  and  Zonaras,  who  wrote, 

occurred  during  his  reign  a  riot  at  Alexandria  against  the  Christians,  which  was  arrested  only 

when  civil  war  made  a  diversion.     (Eusebius,  Hist.  eccL,  vi.  41.) 

'  IVNO  CONSERVATRIX.     Juno  veiled,  liolding  a  patera  and  a  sceptre.     (Denarius.) 
^  Cf.  Horus  et  S.  Georges,  Memoir  by  M.  Clermont-Ganneau  in  the  Revue  arcMol.y  1877. 


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SEVEN    EMPEKORS   IN    FOURTEEN    YEARS,    235   TO   249   A.D. 


349 


and  Prince  of  the 
Youth.  (Cohen, 
No.  28.) 


the   former  in   the   fifth  century,  the  latter  in  the  twelfth.      They 
speak  of  a  ceremony  which  stirred  all  Italy,  the  celebration  of  the 
Secular  Games  on  the  thousandth  anniversary  of  the   founding   of 
Rome  (248).*     To  do  honour  to  this  great  occasion  all  the  magni- 
ficence of  imperial  festivals  was  displayed,   and  the   enthusiasm   of 
the  nations   responded   to   the  pomp  of   the  ceremonial.      The   god 
Terminus    having    steadily    advanced    for    a    thousand    years,    the 
multitude  might  well  believe  that  he  was  not  now  about  to  recede. 
And,  in  considering  this  constant 
good  fortune  through  so  large  a 
space  in  the  duration  of  humanity, 
the  degenerate  sons  of  old  Rome 
allowed  their  poets  to  predict  for 
the   Empire   a   new   millennium. 
But  shouts  of  victory  were  about    t^^onf  c^? 

Coin  commemorating  the     tO  COase  :    a   SUCCCSSOr  of  AugUStuS 
Thousandth  Anniversary  , 

of  liome.   (Reverse  of  a    and    Trajan    was    ere    long    to 

Large  Bronze  of  Philip.)  .  ,  ,         ^i        t_i  £     ax. 

pensh  under   the  blows    oi    the 
Goths ;    another  was  to  be  a  captive  in  the  hands  of  Sapor ;    and 
already  he  had  been  born  who  was.  to  reduce  the  ancient  queen  of 
the  world  to  the  condition  of  a  mere  Italian  town. 

Philip's  son  (M.  Julius  Philippus)  was  but  seven  years  of 
age;  he  made  him  Csesar,  and  (in  247)  Augustus,  forgetting  the 
fate  of  those  imperial  boys  for  whom  the  purple  had  been  but  a 
shroud.  The  emperor  placed  all  his  kindred  in  positions  of  import- 
ance. His  brother  Prisons  commanded  the  army  of  Syria;  his 
father-in-law  (?),  Severianus,  that  of  Mcesia.  He  moreover  treated 
the  senators  with  respect,  and  seems  to  have  ruled  moderately, 
without  cruelties  or  confiscations.  However,  he  caused  the  palace 
of  Pompey,  the  property  of  the  Gordians,  who  had  much  embellished 
it,  to  come  into  the  possession  of  the  state.  The  CarpsB,  a  people 
of  Getic  origin,  probably  resident  on  the  banks  of  the  Pruth, 
had  come  down  into  the  lands  of  the  lower  Danube.  It  appears 
probable  that  Philip  went  in  person  to  expel  them  and  made  two 
campaigns  in  that  war  (245-6).*      Upon  his  return  to  Rome  the 


*  The  thousandth  year  of  Rome  began,  accepting  Varro's  calculation,  the  21st  of  April,  247. 
The  year  was  allowed  to  be  completed  before  the  games  were  celebrated.     (Eckhel,  Tii.  324.) 
"'*  Victoria  Carpica,  Carpifrtis  Mn.rim\iA,  leprends  on  two  of  his  coins  ;  another,  giving  him 


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350  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235   TO   268   A.D. 

news  arrived  that  the  Syrians,  exasperated  by  severities  of  Friscus, 
had    proclaimed    an    emperor,    lotapianus,    who    called    himself    a 


'.  C//APUI3. 


n 


The  Younger  Philip.     (Bust  found  at  Civita  Lavinia.     Capitol,  Hall  of  the  Emperors, 

No.  69.) 

descendant  of  Alexander,  and  that  some  rebels  in  MoBsia  had  pro- 
claimed another,  Marinus.^  Philip,  in  much  anxiety,  consulted  the 
senate.     Decius,  one  of  the  members  of  that  assembly,  who  knew 

the  title  Qernwrdcui  Maximus,  announces  some  victory  over  the  Germans.  (Cohen,  iv.  p.  202, 
No.  5.) 

*  We  have  imperial  coins  of  two  other  usurpers  who  cannot  be  placed,  Pacatianus  and 
Sponsianus.  The  workmanship  of  the  coins  indicates  the  time  of  Philip  or  Decius.  (Cohen, 
iv.  pp.  229,  231,  and  pi.  xi.) 


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SEVEN    EMPERORS    IN    FOURTEEN    YEARS,    2^5    TO    249    A.l>.  351 

the  value   of    the  new  Augusti,  announced  that   these  mock   kings 
would   not   be   able   to   maintain  themselves;    and  in  fact  they  fell 


Ruins  of  the  Thermae  of  the  Gordians.     (Photograph  by  Parker.) 

of  themselves.  Philip,  however,  believed  it  useful  to  send  to  the 
army  of  the  Danube  the  wise  advisee  who  had  so  well  understood 
the   turn  affairs  would  take.     Decius   long   resisted,   foreseeing  that 


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352  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

these  legions  who,  for  fourteen  years  had  made  no  seditious  move- 
ments, would  seize  the  first  pretext  to  give  themselves  the  pleasure 
and  profit   of  a  revolt,  and  so   it  proved;   Decius 
had   scarcely   entered   the   camp   when   the   soldiers 
saluted   him   emperor  in   spite   of   himself.      Those 
who   had  been   concerned    in    the    late    enterprise, 
whom   Decius  had  been    commissioned    to    punish, 
had  devised  this  new  scheme  by  which  they  would 
^*°  Philip,     ^^     ^*    ^^^®    ^^'^    themselves    from    chastisement   and 
^tb  the  Legend:     gecuro  a  donaUvum. 

Victoria  Carpica, 

Decius  wrote  to  his  master  that  as  soon  as  he 
should  have  returned  to  Eome  he  would  lay  aside  the  purple.  The 
emperor  did  not  credit  this  promise,  and  marched  against  the  army 
of  Pannonia;  an  engagement  took  place  neai*  Verona,^  and  he  was 
defeated  and  slain.  The  praetorians  left  at  Eome  murdered  his 
son  (249) :  the  boy  was  now  twelve  years  old,  and  had  never 
been  seen  to  smile.^ 

*  The  Chronicle  of  Alexandria  represents  him  as  forty-five  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  iiis 
death.    For  results  of  the  Gothic  invasion,  see  chap.  xcvi. 

?  Aur.  Victor,  C#?«.,  28.     This  tragedy  took  place  early  in  the  autumn. 


Reverse  of  a  Bronze  Medal  of  the  Two  Philips  and  Otacilia,  with  the  Legend : 

GERM(anici)  MAX(imi),  CARPICl  MAX(imi). 

Victory,  standing  in  a  Quadriga,  assists  Philip,  Otacilia,  and  their  Son  to  enter  it. 

(Cohen,  No.  6.) 


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HISTORY  OF  EOME 

AND 

THE    ROMAN    PEOPLE. 

FROM  ITS  ORIGIN  TO  TUK  t:STABLISllMENT  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN   EMPIRE, 

BY 

VICTOR   DURUY. 

MEMUEIi  OF  THE  INSTITUTE,  EX-MINISTER  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION,  etc. 

EDITED  BY  THE  REV.  J.  P.  MAHAFFY, 

PROFESSOR    OF    ANCIENT     HISTORY,    TRINITY     COLLEGE,    DUBLIN, 
AND  COMPILED  AND  ARRANGED  BY  KELLY  &  CO. 


ILLUSTRATED    WITH    ABOUT    2500    ENGRAVINGS,    100    MAPS    AND    PLANS,    AND 
NUMEROUS   CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHS. 


VOLUME   VI.— Part  II. 

FROM    THE    ACCESSION    OF   COMMODUS    TO    THE    DEATH   OF 

DIOCLETIAN. 

WITH  191  WOOD  ENGRAVINGS,  3  MAPS,  AND  2  CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHS. 


LONDON: 

KEGAN  PAUL,  TRENCH  &  CO.,  I,  PATERNOSTER  SQUARE. 

1886. 


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IMilXTKD  IIY   KEr.T.Y  &  CO.,   OATE  STREET,   MNCOLN'S   IKN   FIELDS,   W.C,   AND  KTSGSTON-OX-THAMRS. 

[  Thr  rif/hfs  of  translation  and  reproduction  are  reserved.'] 

COPYIUOIIT  (1886)  nv  ESTES  &  LaURIAT. 


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CHAPTEK  XCV. 

THE  EMPIEB  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OP  THE  THIRD  CENTURY. 

I. — The  Barbarians. 

THE  Koman  Empire,  extended  around  the  Mediterranean  Sea, 
included  the  most  favoured  regions  of  the  temperate  zone: 
fertile  lands  covered  with  rich  harvests,  and  beautiful  cities  in 
which  civilization  had  made  its  first  development.  Notwithstanding 
the  periodical  catastrophes  which  occuiTed  at  Eome  or  in  the 
camps,  this  region  was  a  vast  oasis  in  the  midst  of  the  triple 
barbarism  of  the  North,  the  South,  and  the  East.  For  the  moment, 
that  of  the  South  was  not  formidable.  The  desert  horsemen  were 
not  yet  dreaming  of  abandoning  the  date-trees  which  fed  them, 
and  the  wells  of  which  they  had  drunk  since  Abraham's  time,  for 
the  sake  of  disseminating  a  new  religion  through  the  world.  Only 
the  Blemyes,  from  time  to  time,  disturbed  Upper  Egypt,  and 
on  the  Arabian  coast  the  Saracens  began  to  attract  notice — witness 
the  foolish  history  related  by  the  Chronicle  of  Alexandria^  of  lions 
and  serpents  placed  along  their  frontier  to  deter  them  from 
crossing  it.^ 

In  the  East,  myriads  of  men  were  in  agitation,  formidable  in 
frontier  wars,  but  organized  into  great  states,  and  by  that  very 
circumstance  rendered  incapable  of  those  vast  migrations  which 
tread  cities  and  empires  under  foot. 

In  the  Northern  regions,  on  the  contrary,  that  great  movement 
westward  still  continued  which  had  begun  in  the  remotest  ages 
with  the  first  migration  of  the  Aryans.  Not  being  able  to  encroach 
upon  the  settled  inhabitants  of  Iran,  the  nomad  hordes  bore  north- 
ward, passed  through  the    Volkertkor,  'Hhe  gate  of  the  nations,"^ 

^  Amm.  Marcellinus  8ays(xxii.  15) :  ....  Scenitas  Arabas  quos  Saracenos  nunc  adpellamus, 
'  This  is  the  name  German  authors  give  to  the  plain  which  extends  from  the  last  slopes  of 
the  Ural  to  the  Caspian  Sea. 

VOL.  VI.  AA 


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354  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235   TO   268    A.D. 

and  crowded  the  great  Sarmatian  and  Germanic  plain  in  a  floating 
mass,  scantily  attached  to  the  soil,  a  pastoral  rather  than  an 
agricultural  people,  whom  an  old  writer  accuses  of  recognizing 
no  right  but  that  of  the  stronger,^  a  habit  which  has  existed 
in  all  times,  and  still  exists.  They  were  most  dangerous  neigh- 
bours. Notwithstanding  the  ungrateful  and  severe  climate,  these 
prolific  races  increased  rapidly,^  and  in  the  midst  of  their  poverty 
for  ever  turned  their  eyes  towards  the  countries  of  the  sun  and  of 
gold.  Thrice  already,  within  historic  times,  they  had  attempted 
to  enter  them. 

In  the  time  of  Marius,  while  300,000  Cimbri  and  Teutones 
ravaged  Gaul,  Spain,  and  Northern  Italy,  others  had  rushed  into 
the  Hellenic  peninsula,  and  had  devastated  it  from  the  Adriatic 
to  the  Black  Sea.^  When,  after  the  victory  of  Vercellse,  Marius 
had  set  upon  his  buckler  the  head  of  a  barbarian  with  protruding 
tongue,  it  was  to  signify  that  Eome  had  stifled  the  barbaric  world 
in  her  mighty  arms. 

But  forty  years  had  scarcely  passed  when  this  formidable 
enemy  reappeared  with  threatening  aspect :  120,000  warriors,  the 
vanguard  of  the  great  nation  of  the  Suevi,  and  430,000  XJsipetes, 
or  Tencteri,  undertook  the  conquest  of  Gaul.  They  were  already 
in  possession  of  its  eastern  portions,  when  Csesar  drove  the  former 
back  into  the  German  forests  and  exterminated  the  latter  between 
the  Khine  and  the  Mouse.  During  the  reign  of  Marcus  AurcHus 
an  immense  coalition  again  threw  even  Eome  itself  into  anxiety  ; 
the  Marcomanni  came  as  far  as  Aquileia,  and  the  emperor  was 
obliged  to  establish  himself  for  several  years  on  the  banks  of  the 
Danube  with  the  principal  forces  of  the  Empire. 

Thus  in  three  centuries  there  had  been  three  formidable 
attacks,  the  Cimbri,  Ariovistus,  and  the  Marcomanni,  and  in  the 
interval  between  the  great  invasions,  a  multitude  of  combats 
and  endless  alarms  along  the  Ehine  and  the  Danube.  This 
Northern  barbaric  world  was  like  a  sea  of  men,  whose  waves,  now 
violent,  now  feeble,  beat  incessantly  against  the  Eoman  entrench- 
ments. 

'  Jus  in  viribus  habet  (Pomp.  Mela). 

^  Scanzia  imula  offfctna  gentiiim  ant  cevte  reint  cmjina  natiomm  (.Tordanes,  4). 

»  See  vol.  ii.  pp.  4^3  ot  seq. 


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THE    EMPIRE    IN    THE    MIDDLE    OF    THE    TJIIKD    CENTURY.  OOO 

With  Ccesar,  Augustus,  and  Trajan,  Eome  had  taken  the 
offensive ;  she  had  crossed  the  Ehinc  and  the  Danube,  and  on 
the  one  hand  penetrated  as  far  as  the  Elbe,  where  she  could  not 
maintain  herself,  and  on  the  other  as  far  as  the  summit  of  the 
Carpathians,  across  conquered  Dacia.  But  the  Germans  could  not 
be  grasped ;  in  peace  as  well  as 
in  war  they  eluded  the  influence 
of  Eome.  From  the  contact  with 
an  ancient  civilization  they  had 
gained  nothing.  Ammiauus  Mar- 
cellinus  still  shows  them  in  the 
time  of  Julian  possessing  no  cities 
in  their  own  country,  and  afraid 
to  dwell  in  those  which  they  had 
conquered.  '^  A  walled  inclosure 
seemed  to  them  a  net  in  which 
men  were  caught,  and  the  city 
itself  a  tomb  where  people  were 
buried  alive.''  ^  One  of  their  great 
tribes,  the  Suevi  or  Suabians,  were 
called  "  the  wanderers."  ^  From 
deserters  and  prisoners  of  war  and 
Eoman  traders,  who  bought  from 
them  the  amber  of  the  Baltic  or 
the  long  fair  hair  of  their  women, 
they     asked     only     instruction     in 

making    their    attacks    more    formid-    vonn^    Dacian.      (England,   Maf-m.   Oxon, 

able.      Eome    found,    therefore,    in        pi.  20.  and  oiamr.^o^.  «>.,  pi.  k^^ 
this  vague  and   fugitive   world   no 

firm  points  where  she  could  establish  herself,  and  whence  she 
could  command  the  entire  country.  Accordingly,  after  some  vain 
attempts,  she  refused  to  entw  it  again.  Uer  policy  in  regard  to 
the  Germans  was  to  cover  with  fortresses  the  Eoman  bank  of  the 
two   great   rivers,  and   to   throw  across   this   defensive   line — which 


'  xvi.  2. 

*  Die  Schwehentfe  (Zeller,  Hut.  (V AlleTnagney  i.  p.  81).  Tacitus  represents  the  Germans  as 
saying  to  the  Ubii :  Postulamiis  a  vobify  muros  colonics ,  muntmcuta  serritii  (/eirahafif*  {Jliat., 
iv.  64;. 

AA  2 


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356  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

extended  uninterruptedly  from  the  North  Sea  to  the  Euxine — 
pensions  to  the  chiefs  to  win  these  warriors  to  peace,  many 
intrigues  in  order  to  divide  them,  and  a  little  gold  to  attract  their 
bravest  soldiers  into  the  service  of  the  Empire. 

These  precautions  sufficed  until  the  time  when  the  migration 
of  the  Goths  overthrew  Eastern  Germany,  and  brought  as  far  as 
the  Euxine  the  men  who  were  to  be  the  chief  agents  in  the 
destruction  of  the  old  world. 

The  Goths,  or  Good  Doers,  Gut  thind^  who  have  left  in  the 
Scandinavian  peninsula  their  name  and  the  traces  of  their  abode, 
had  quitted  it  at  an  unknown  but  recent  period,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  two  powerful  families,  the  Amalida^  (Amalungs)  and  Baltidae 
(Baltungs),  who  were  regarded  as  the  descendants  of  Odin  and 
of  Freya,  the  Venus  of  Northern  mythology.  ^  These  priest-kings, 
who,  however,  had  no  sacerdotal  character,  judges  of  the  people  in 
time  of  peace  and  military  leaders  in  war,  subjugated  the  Vandals, 
who  were  probably  also  of  the  same  race  with  themselves,^  and  a 
crowd  of  other  tribes  whom  they  incorporated  with  themselves  or 
drove  aside  either  to  the  south  or  west.  The  number  of  the  Goths 
increasing^  with  their  victories,  which  drew  to  them  all  adventurers 
eager  for  war  and  booty,  the  great  mass  of  the  nation  was  broken 
up  into  two  bodies :  one,  the  Goths  of  the  East,  or  Ostrogoths, 
under  Filimer,  crossed  the  Vistula,  and  subjugated  the  Sarmatians  as 
far  as  the  Euxine;  the  other,  the  Goths  of  the  West,  or  Visigoths, 
settled  around  the  mouths  of  the  Danube.  A  few  tribes  set  in 
motion  by  this  great  migration  went  still  further  westward  :  the 
Gepidee,  in  Transylvania,  where  the  Komans  now  held  only  the 
fortified  posts ;  the  Vandals  and  Heruli,  in  the  Moravian  Car- 
pathians ;  the  Longobardi,  in  the  upper  valley  of  the  Oder ;  the 
Burgundians,  in  those  of  the  Saale  and  the  Main.  It  is  possible 
even  that  some  of  these  tribes  reached  the  southern  frontier  soon 
enough  to  have  a  share  in  the  war  with  the  Marcomanni  in  th(» 
time  of  Marcus   Aurelius,  or   that  the  pressure  exercised  by  them 

•  *  "  TluB  BaltidaB,"  says  Jordanes  (20),  "  are,  after  the  AmalidaB,  the  noblest  of  tlie  Goths." 
The  Vandals  had  kings  of  the  family  of  the  Astingae  {id.,  22).  Ptolemy,  in  the  timo  of  the 
Ant-onines,  mentions  the  Goths  as  already  established  on  the  lower  Vistula.  The  place  vacated 
on  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  was  occupied  by  the  Slavs. 

*  Pliny,  Hist,  nat.^  iv.  14  ;  Procop.,  Bell.  Vand.,  i.  1. 

'  .  .  .  .  }faf/na  pojmli  nu7nerosttatc  cresce7ite  {.]oYdaueSj  4). 


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OS 

o 


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I- 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.      359 

upon  the  Germans  of  the  South  obliged  the  latter  to  seek  their 
fortunes  across  the  Danube. 

By  the  success  of  this  migration  the  Goths  found  themselves 
brought  into  the  neighbourhood  of  the  civilized  world.  The  rich 
pasture  lands  of  the  Black  Sea  fed  their  flocks ;  the  fertile  Ukraine 
gave  them  more  com  than  they  needed ;  the  Sarmatian  rivers  gave 
their  vessels  access  to  the  Euxine,  girt  by  a  belt  of  cities  full  of 
wealth  easily  to  be  captured ;  and  while  the  Carpathians,  which 
the  legions  had  never  yet  ventured  to  cross,  concealed  their  move- 
ments, they  had,  in  the  open  space  between  the  extremity  of  these 
mountains  and  the  sea,  a  gateway  always  giving  them  access  into 
the  Eoman  provinces.  They  remained,  therefore,  for  the  present 
tranquilly  and  fearlessly  multiplying  in  these  fruitful  regions,  whence 
their  warriors  could  almost  see  the  enormous  booty  in  store  for 
their  courage. 

Their  national  songs,  which  Jordanes  had  the  opportunity  of 
reading,  but  unfortunately  did  not  preserve  for  us,  related  their 
exploits.  They  boasted  of  having  subjected  the  Marcomanni  to 
tribute  and  the  chiefs  of  the  Quadi  to  obedience.  Their  rule, 
therefore,  or  their  influence,  extended  from  Bohemia  to  the  Tauric 
Chersonesus,  and  their  name  was  dreaded  far  and  near.  Their  first 
appearance  in  Eoman  history  is  in  the  year  216.  To  attach  to 
themselves  the  powerful  nation  whose  hand  was  so  heavy  upon 
their  ancient  enemies,  ^  the  Koraans  subsidized  the  Goths,  which 
did  not  prevent  the  Eoman  provinces  from  soon  having  cause  to 
dread  these  dangerous  neighbours.  While  the  body  of  the  nation 
remained  stationary,  some  adventurous  band  was  always  detaching 
itself,  and  at  its  own  risk  and  peril  crossing  the  Danube  or 
the  Euxine.  Did  the  Goths  essay,  like  the  Germans  in  Trajan's 
time,  to  enter  into  relations  with  the  great  Oriental  Empire?  We 
do  not  know;  but  when  Sapor  invaded  Eoman  Asia  they  fell  upon 
MoDsia.  As  early  as  238,  in  the  time  of  Pupienus  and  Balbinus, 
they  destroyed  an  important  city  in  this  province,  and  in  242 
Gordian  encountered  them  here,  where  they  had  probably  remained 
since  their  earlier  inroad.     He  killed  a  large  number  of  them,  and 


*  Jordanes,  16:  ...  .  Stib  cujus  satpe  dextra  Wandalw  jaeuit,  stetit  svb  pretio  Marco- 
fnanntm. 


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360  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235   TO   268   A.D. 

by  the  aid  of  money  ^  was  able  to  rid  himself  of  the  rest.  It  was 
but  for  a  short  time,  however;  they  had  learned  the  road  to  these 
rich  countries,  and  later  would  return  in  force  sufficient  to  destroy 
a  Koman  army  and  kill  an  emperor.  There  have  been  counted 
in  a  space  of  thirty  years  (238-269)  ten  important  invasions  made 
by  them;  and  they  rested  for  a  centuiy  (269-375)  only  after  they 
had  driven  the  Eoman  garrison  out  of  Dacia  Trajana. 

While  in  the  north-east  masses  of  men  accustomed  to  fight 
under  great  military  chiefs  pressed  heavily  upon  the  frontier,  about 
the  Upper  Danube,  the  Ehine,  and  the  Lower  Mein  the  barbarians 
were  organizing  in  a  manner  to  give  their  warlike  enterprises  that 
unity  of  action  which  they  had  hitherto  always  lacked. 

During  the  first  and  second  centuries  of  the  Christian  era 
history  knew  only  the  Germany  of  Tacitus;  in  the  third  that 
Germany  seems  suddenly  to  have  disappeared  and  another  appears. 
Under  the  double  pressure  of  Rome  and  the  Gothic  invasion  the 
Germans  had  felt  the  need  of  a  kind  of  union  among  their  tribes, 
not  however  going  so  far  as  to  establish  actual  confederations,  and 
the  Roman  frontiers  being  at  the  time  so  poorly  defended  their 
warriors  formed  the  'habit  of  making  inroads  into  these ,  provinces 
so  long  closed  against  them. 

At  the  epoch  where  we  now  are  nothing  is  said  of  the  social 
and  religious  organization  which  Tacitus  has  described,  nor  of  the 
tribes  known  to  him  :  we  hear  of  the  Alemanni,  the  Franks,  and 
the  Saxons ;  .  later  of  the  Thuringians  and  Bavarians,  designations 
at  once  ethnographic  and  geographic* 

^^The  Alemanni,"  says  Agathias,  ^^are  a  mixture  of  different 
peoples,  which  is  signified  by  their  name,  ^  the  men  of  all  races.' " 
But  the  Suevi  were  the  dominant  people,  and  gave  their  name  to 
the  Decumatian  lands,  henceforward  called  Suabia.  The  Franks 
were  also  "the  men  armed  with  the  framea^'^  or,  more  probably, 
"the  free  men,"'  that  is  to  say,  those  soldiers  of  the  Catti, 
Sicambri,  Bructeri,  Chamavi,  Tenctheri,  and  Ansivarii,  who,  without 

^  See  p.  279,  and  in  the  Excerpta  de  Legatumtbus  of  P.  Patricius,  Bonn  edit.,  i.  24,  the 
account  of  the  deputation  of  the  Oarpae  at  Menophylis. 

*  In  respect  to  this  new  groupmg  of  the  populations  of  Western  Germany,  see  Wietersheim, 
Gesckickte  der  Volkerwanderungj  vol.  i.  pp.  160-^9,  edit,  of  1881. 

^  Wacliter  (Glossarium  Germanicum)  derives  the  name  from  Warg,  Wrang,  exiled, 
banished,  vehich  does  not  correspond  with  the  idea  of  an  agglomeration  of  tribes. 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.      361 

the  general  participation  of  their  respective  tribes,  engaged  in 
war  under  individual  leaders.  The  Saxons,  ''the  men  of  the  long 
knife,"  seax^  recruited  their  bands  among  the  Chauci,  the  Frisii, 
the  Angrivarii,  and  what  remained  of  the  Cherusci. 

These  peoples  had  no  permanent  directing  council  or  sole 
chief,  although  all  the  tribes  belonging  to  one  group,  or  most  of 
them,  sometimes  united  to  wage  a  national  war.      More  frequently, 


Lines  of  Defence  of  the  Agri  Decumates. 

however,  there  were  formed  among  them  free  associations  of  warrior 
bands  acting  together  for  a  definite  purpose,  which  purpose  having 
been  accomplished  or  else  defeated  they  separated  again  to  reform 
after  a  time  for  some  new  enterprise.^  These  undisciplined  bands 
were  the  more  to  be  feared  because  Rome  could  have  with  them 
neither  real  peace  nor  open  war. 

As  the  aborigines  of  America  had   their   hunting  grounds,  so 
each  of  these  nations  had  its   territory   to  pillage :    the  Alemanni, 

'  G.  Waitz  (Deutsche  Verfassungsgeschichtey  i.  342)  says:  Ueberhaupt  weus  die  alt  ere  Zeit 
nichts  von  eigentlichen  Bundesverfassungen.  This  is  true ;  but  Sozomenus  (iii.  6)  shows  the 
Saxons  acting,  in  a  given  case,  as  a  nation,  and  Julian  was  obliged  to  encounter  at  Strasljurg 
seven  confederated  Aleman  kings  (Amra.  Marcelliuus,  xvi.  12 j.  But  seven  other  chiefs  of  the 
same  nation  held  aloof. 


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302  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

the  region  extending  from  the  Main  to  the  Alps  and  from  the 
Bohemian  Forest  to  the  Vosges,  that  is  to  say,  the  Roman  pro- 
vinces of  Upper  Germany  and  Rhietia ;  the  Franks,  those  of 
Lower  Germany  and  Belgica;  the  Saxons,  the  ocean  and  the 
British  Islands. 

Under  Caracalla  the  Alemanni  had  invaded  the  Decumatian 
lands ;  here  they  experienccjd  a  di  feat  which  drove  them  back 
and  kept  them  quiet  for  twenty  years.  Milestones 
have  been  found  in  this  region  bearing  the  names 
of  Elagabalus  and  Alexander,  a  proof  that  these 
emperors  were  obeyed  there.^ 

Under    Alexander    the    Franks    had  with   im- 
^  ^.    .  .      punity   scoured    the    whole    of    Gaul,    killing    and 

Coin  of  Maximin,        .         .  .  ?  o 

with  the  Legend :     pillaging    at    random,    until,    satiated    with    booty, 

Victoria  Qermanica}   ^_  ^  i      ^         ^i     •  .     i.«» 

they  returned  to  their  encampments,  mdifierent 
to  the  fate  of  their  companions  whom  they  had  left  along  the 
road.  Maximin  pursued  these  plunderers  into  the  depths  of  their 
forests,    and   believed    that    he    had    smitten    the    barbaric    world 

with  a  terrible  blow:  upon  his  coins  we 
read  the  legend,  Victoria  Germanieay  so 
often  imprinted  on  Roman  money,  and  never 
true  save  for  the  moment,  since  the  blow 
Victoria  Gennanica.   (Gold     was  always  struck  iuto  empty  space. 

In  the  middle  of  the  third  century, 
then,  Germany  organized  itself  for  an  attack:  in  the  East,  an 
innumerable  nation,  ruled  by  a  family  who  were  regarded  as 
favourites  of  the  gods,  and  who  were  able  to  prepare  enterprises 
carefully  and  judiciously  and  to  conduct  them  with  unanimity ;  in 
the  West,  warlike  confederations,  and  a  multitude  of  chiefs  inces- 
santly flinging  their  bands  at  the  Empire,  like  bandilleros  flinging 
their  lighted  darts  at  the  bull  in  the  arena.  Assailed  by  the 
contemptible  enemies  which  he  cannot  reach,  the  powerful  creature 

'  These  milestonefl  being  discovered  near  Baden-Baden,  while  others,  bearing  the  name  of 
Septimius  Severus,  were  found  much  further  to  the  East,  Wintersheim  (ii.  214)  concludes  from 
this  fact  that  the  Roman  frontier  had  already  been  pushed  back  in  the  West,  under  Elagabalus 
or  Alexander. 

*  Maximin  standing,  crowned  by  a  Victory.     (Medium  bronze.) 

»  MAXIMINVS  PIVS  AVG.  GERM.  Laurelled  bust  of  the  emperor.  On  the  reverse, 
a  standing  Victory  ;  at  her  feet,  a  German,  his  hands  tied  behind  his  back. 


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THE  empikl;  in  the  middle  ue  the  third  century.  303 

is  confused,  distracted,  he  roars  and  falls  to  the  ground.  8uch 
was  to  be  the  fall  of  the  Eoman  colossus;  but,  for  it,  the  fiesta 
del  toro  was  destined  to  last  two  centuries. 

The  danger  increased  then  all  along  the  northern  frontier.  All 
the  outposts  of  the  Empire  which  covered  the  main  position  are 
lost  or  will  shortly  be  so.  The  Decu- 
matian  lands  are  invaded;  Dacia  has 
now  but  a  few  scattered  garrisons  which 
will  be  recalled  by  Aurelian;  a  city 
which  up  to  this  time  had  been  as  the 

eye    and    hand    of    the    emperors    over      Scytbian  Coin,  struck  at  oibia. 
the  Scythian  world,    Olbia,^   which   the     {i^<^tionn,  numi^^o^^ 
Antonines  had  protected,   where  statues 

had  been  erected  in  honour  of  Caracalla,^  disappears  at  this  time 
from  history,  and  the  other  allies  of  Hadrian  at  the  mouths  of  the 
great  Sarmatian  rivers'  are  at  the  mercy  of  the  Goths.  Soon 
Rome  will  fall  back  behind  the  Danube,  and  even  the  great  river 


Head  Band  of  Gold,  with  a  Medallion  of  Commodus,  found  in  a  Tomb  in  the  Crimea. 

will  no  longer  protect  her,  for  already  Istriopolis,  an  important 
city  of  Dobroudja,  had  been  destroyed,  and  the  Alani  had  pene- 
trated into  the  valley  of  the  Ebro.  Whilst  the  barbaric  world 
made  this  step  forward,  Eoman  commerce  had  fallen  back;  her 
traders  no  longer  dared  venture  into  the  lands  of  the  North. 
Imperial  coins  found  in  these  regions  are,  with  a  single  exception, 
pieces  of  date  anterior  to  the  third  century/ 

»  Capit.,  Ant.y  9. 

'  Bceckh,  C.  I.  G.,  No.  2,091.     After  the  year  250  a.d.  we  hear  no  more  of  Olbia. 

'  See  vol.  V.  pp.  29  et  seq. 

*  Note  by  M.  de  Witte  to  the  Hist,  de  la  monn.  rom.j  vol.  iii.  p.  116.     He  ought,  however, 


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364  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235   TO    268   A.D. 

Upon  the  Black  Sea,  the  kings  of  the  Cimmerian  Bosphorus 
being  no  longer  able  to  do  police  duty  for  Rome,  piracy  reappeared. 
In  Asia,  the  national  and  religious  revolution  effected  by  the 
Sassanids  was  the  cause  of  another  danger,  and  these  threatening 
events  occurred  when  the  Roman  power  of  resistance  had  diminished. 
The  dark  days  were  beginning. 

II. — The  Roman  Army. 

It  has  been  a  common  remark  that  the  nations  included 
within  the  Roman  Empire  were  old,  that  life  had  exhausted  them, 
that  their  blood  was  impoverished,  and  that,  following  the  common 
law  of  living  things,  they  had  reached  the  stage  preceding  death. 
These  reasons,  furnished  by  the  convenient  doctrine  of  historic 
fatality,  could  never  have  appeared  very  satisfactory.  And  at  the 
present  day  it  is  absolutely  required  that  a  more  serious  exami- 
nation be  made  of  the  morbid  symptoms  which  erroi-s  produced 
and  wisdom  could  have  prevented. 

And  first  the  danger  appeared  so  great  on  the  frontiers  only 
by  reason  of  the  interior  situation. 

•  It  is  no  longer  Hannibal  at  the  gates  of  Rome :  the  enemy 
approaching  are  only  hordes  whom  the  ancient  Roman  legions 
would  have  driven  before  them  like  whipped  curs.  In  the  first 
century  a.d.  the  Marcomanni,  in  the  second  the  Dacians,  were  as 
formidable  as  the  Goths  were  now,  and  the  Germans  of  the  West 
had  been  as  desirous  as  were  the  Frankish  and  Alemannic  bands  to 
invade  Gaul  or  Italy.  They  were  at  that  time  arrested  because 
the  Roman  world  had,  together  with  an  army  worthy  of  itself, 
a  great  man  for  leader  who  ruled  twenty  years.  After  him 
another  for  an  equal  length  of  time  watched  over  the  Empire  and 
the  frontiers.  Under  the  mighty  hand  of  Trajan  and  of  Hadrian 
the  barbaric  world  bent  the  knee.  Severus  still  held  it  motionless 
and  timid.  But  children  had  succeeded  men,  fools  were  in  the 
place  of  the  wise,  reigns  of  a  few  days'  length  had  followed  those 
lasting  for  years;    a  policy  of   chance   had   taken   the   place   of  a 

to  say  also  that  the  base  coin  of  copper  and  silver  at  this  time  issued  by  the  imperial  mints 
could  be  forcibly  circulated  only  in  the  Empire.  Nations  outside  would  naturally  refuse  this 
token  money,  which  had  no  intrinsic  value.     (See  pp.  382  et  seq.) 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  TRIRD   CENTURY.      365 

policy  of  foresight.  Civil  and  military  institutions  are  all  relaxed; 
the  government  no  longer  governs,  and  the  state  totters  upon  its 
yielding  and  crumbling  base. 

Montesquieu  represents  the 
Eoman  Empire  at  this  time  as  a 
kind  of  irregular  republic,  some- 
what like  the  former  regency  of 
Algiers,  where  the  soldiery  at  will 
appointed  and  deposed  the  dey.  The 
remark  is  just:  the  Roman  people 
never  employing  its  electoral  right, 
and  the  senate,  which  was  powerless 
to  make  its  own  right  respected, 
having  suffered  the  pnetorians  to 
seize  its  prerogative,  the  armies  of 
the  frontiers  deprived  the  prae- 
torians of  the  lucrative  opportunity. 
This  appears  to  us  shameful, 
and  is  so;  but  it  was  inevitable 
that  the  military  power,  the  one 
thing  surviving  amid  the  ruins  of 
the  institutions  of  Augustus,  should 
dominate  all.  Contemporaries  were 
not  astonished  at  it.  For  centuries 
the  army  had  been  the  Roman 
people  under  arms :  this  remote 
souvenir  was  not  yet  completely 
effaced ;    and   even   made   up  as  it    .    •         11.01,0^^0 

'  ^  Legionary  Foot-Soldier,  Standard  BearerJ 

was,  the  army  which  defended  the 

Empire  was  the  only  body  which  appeared  worthy  of  representing 
it.  S.  Jerome  thought  thus,  for  he  compares  the  election  of  the 
bishop  by  the  priests  to  the  election  of  the  emperor  by  the  soldiers. 
But  unfortunately  the  new  army  is  very  different  from  the 
old.     It  was  the  legionary  infantry  that  conquered  the  world ;    but 

*  Found  at  Mayence,  and  preserved  in  the  museum  of  that  city.  On  the  left  shoulder 
Luccius  bears  a  helmet  with  lowered  visor;  a  long  and  a  short  sword  hang  at  his  belt ;  he  holds 
in  the  left  hand  his  bnckler,  and  in  the  other  the  standard  adorned  with  the  civic  crown.  Cf. 
Lindenschmit,  Tracht  und  Bexcaffnung  des  riimischen  Ileeres  wdhrend  der  Kaiserzeit,  etc.,  pi. 
iii.  fig.  1,  and  p.  10. 


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366  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

the  infantry  is  now  disdained,  and,  a  certain  sign  of  the  decline  in 
military  matters,  the  cavalry  gains  in  importance  daily.  It  always 
equals  the  infantry  in  number,  while  in  the  time  of  Polybius, 
by  a  contrary  excess,  the  legion  had  but  one  horseman  to  ten 
foot- soldiers.^  Commanders  of  cavalry  are  appointed :  Balista  under 
Macrinus,  Aureolus  under  Gallienus,  Aurelian  under  Claudius  II., 
Saturninus  under  Probus ;  and  this  title  gave  them  great  authority. 


Carts  for  Transportation  of  Baggage.     (Pompeii.) 

The  barbarians  served  chiefly  in  the  cavalry,  and  its  increase  shows 
how  the  foreign  element  was  increasing  in  the  Eoman  army. 

At  the  same  time  the  camp  became  embarrassed  with  an 
enormous  baggage  train.  A  letter  of  the  emperor  Valerian  shows 
what  the  commander  of  a  legion  required  annually  for  his  militar)^ 
household  :  715  bushels  of  com,  1,430  of  barley,  13  cwt.  of  pork, 
400  gallons  of  old  wine,  300  skins  for  tents,  etc.,^  without  counting 

*  Marquardt,  Handb.j  vol.  ii.  p.  584;  and  M&m.  de  VAcad.  des  truer,  et  belles-lettres ^  vol. 
XXV.  p.  473.  According  to  Gen.  Rogniat,  the  proportion  ought  to  be  one  in  six ;  according  to 
Napoieon,  one  in  four.  This  varies  according  to  the  character  of  the  country  where  the  war  is 
carried  on.    At  the  present  time  it  is  one  in  four  in  the  French  army.    (Budget  of  1877.) 

*  "We  have  intrusted  to  Claudius  the  tribuneship  of  the  Fifth  Martian  legion.  (It  will 
be  noticed  that  at  this  epoch  the  commanders  of  the  legions  were  only  tribunes.)  You  will 
give  to  him  out  of  our  private  treasure  for  his  annual  salary,  .3,000  modii  of  corn  (the  modiuf 
being  very  nearly  a  peck),  6,000  of  barley,  2,000  pounds  of  pork ;  3,500  sextarii  of  old  wine  (the 
sextarius  being  about  a  pint  and  a  half),  150  sextarii  of  good  oil,  600  of  oil  of  second  quality ; 
200  modii  of  salt,  160  pounds  of  wax  ^  a  sufficient  quantity  of  hay,  straw,  vinegar,  fruits,  and 
vegetables ;  300  skins  to  make  tents,  six  she-mules,  three  horses,  ten  camels,  and  nine  mules 
annually;  50  pounds  of  silver  ware  and  150  gold  philips  (aurei)  of  our  coinage  annually, 
and  at  the  new  year  160  trientes  (a  third  of  the  aureus).  You  will  give  him  eleven 
pounds  weight  of  pots  and  jars  for  wine,  eleven  more  of  kitchen  utensils;  two  red  military- 
tunics  annually,  two  silk-trimmed  cloaks,  two  clasps  of  gilded  silver,  one  of  gold  with  copper 
point,  a  shoulder-belt  of  gilded  silver,  a  ring  with  two  stones  weighing  an  ounce,  a  bracelet 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.      367 

the  pay,  which  was  25,000  sesterces  in  good  gold  pieces,^  at  a 
time  when  commerce  had  only  debased  coin  at  its  command.^  We 
see  further  what  burdensome  and  sometimes  singular  dues  they 
received  from  the  state,  and  can  estimate  also  what  crushing  burdens 
were  imposed  on  the  treasury  by  all  these  favours,  often  moreover 
doubled  and  trebled.  In  giving  to  Probus  the  office  of  governor 
of  the  East,  the  emperor  Tacitus  gave  him  advantages  five  times 
greater  than  the  usual  salary  of  this  office.  The  impedimenta  of 
the  officers  corresponded  doubtless  with  that  of  the  commander,  and 
it  is  easy  to  see  how  the  Eoman  army,  retarded  by  such  enormous 
baggage,  could  scarcely,  in  spite  of  their  numerous  cavalry,  ever 
come  up  with  an  active  enemy  who  arrived  suddenly  and  dis- 
appeared as  rapidly  as  he  came. 

In  this  army  there  were  also  a  crowd  of  useless  persons  who 
on  days  of  battle  were  not  present  in  the  ranks.  It  was  regarded 
as   a  useful  reform  when  Alexander   Severus  reduced  the  number 


seven  ounces  in  weight,  a  coUar  weighing  a  pound,  a  gilded  helmet,  two  bucklers  embossed  with 
gold,  a  cuirass  (which  he  will  return),  two  Herculean  lances,  two  short  javelins,  two  reaping- 
hooks,  four  others  for  hay,  a  cook  (whom  he  will  return),  two  of  the  most  beautiful  female 
captives,  a  white  garment  of  half  silk  and  another  of  Girba  purple,  an  uuder-timic  of 
Mauretanian  purple,  a  secretary  (whom  he  will  return),  an  architect  (whom  he  will  return), 
two  pairs  of  Cyprus  cushions  for  the  table,  two  under-tunics  without  borders,  two  sheets,  a  toga 
(which  he  will  return),  a  laticlave  (which  he  will  return),  two  footmen  who  will  be  always  at 
his  orders,  a  carpenter,  a  praetorian  steward,  a  water-carrier,  a  fisherman,  a  pastry-cook;  1,000 
pounds  of  wood  daily,  if  there  is  enough,  otherwise,  as  much  as  the  locality  can  furnish ;  four 
shovelfuls  of  charcoal  daily,  a  bath-man  and  the  wood  necessary  for  hot  baths,  failing  which,  he 
will  bo  obliged  to  employ  ther  public  thermaj.  You  will  furnish  at  your  discretion  other  things 
of  minor  importance ;  but  you  will  not  fix  their  value,  so  that  if  any  article  be  lacking,  he  could 
not  require  its  equivalent  in  money."  (Treb.  PoUio,  Claud.,  14.)  See  also  what  Valerian  ordered 
the  urban  prefect  to  furnish  daily  to  Aurelian  during  his  stay  in  Rome,  without  counting  what 
was  supplied  him  by  the  prefects  of  the  treasury  (Vopiscus,  Aur.,  9).  The  French  regulations 
furnish  a  general  of  division  for  campaign  rations :  2,465  kilos  of  pork,  175  of  rice,  48*75  of  salt, 
61*25  of  sugar,  46*75  of  coffee,  730  litres  of  wine.  This  allowance  is  for  a  year,  and  is  furnished 
3)0  daily  during  the  campaign,  and  in  time  of  peace  is  suspended.  But  the  Romans  made  no 
distinction  between  the  peace  and  war  footing,  so  that  the  enormous  allowances  enumerated 
above  were  permanent,  while  the  French  treasury  supports  this  expense  only  in  time  of  war. 
Under  Louis  XV.  the  French  army  had  enormous  baggage.  The  ordinance  of  March  9th,  1756, 
gave  each  lieutenant-general  thirty  horses,  and  each  colonel  fourt-een,  and  they  actually  had 
twice  that  number,  with  an  immense  train  of  carriages  and  waggons.  Consequently  these 
armies  could  not  move.     (See  the  Comte  de  ChiaorSy  by  Camille  Rousset,  pp.  182  et  seg.) 

*  .  .  .  .  ciyua  rmlitice  salarium,  in  auro  suscipe. 

'  Hist,  de  la  monn.  rom.,  iii.  143,  No.  1.  Probus  received  for  his  pay  as  tribune  only  100 
aurei,  and  the  remainder  in  denarii  and  sesterces;  but  the  total  amounted  to  28,000  sesterces 
instead  of  25,000,  the  3,000  sesterces  additioual  representing  the  difference  in  exchange,  or  what 
the  tribune  lost  in  receiving  part  of  his  pay  in  denarii  and  sesterces  instead  of  receiving  the 
whole  in  crold. 


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368  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235   TO   268   A.D. 

of  orderlies  to  ten  for  a  legate,  six  for  a  rfw^,  and  four  for  a 
tribune ;  a  proof  that  the  number  had  before  that  time  been  much 
larger,  and  it  doubtless  again  became  so  in  later  reigns,  these 
restrictive  ordinances  being  unpopular. 

Two  things  further  prevented  a  general  from  requiring  of  his 


Roman  Horseman,  found  at  Bonn  and  preserved  'm  the  Museum  of  that  City.     (Lindensohmit. 

op.  cit,,  pi.  vii.  No.  1.) 

troops  those  rapid  marches  which  had  so  many  times  enabled  the 
Roman  army  to  surprise  an  enemy  and  strike  decisive  blows.  The 
soldiers  had  been  accustomed  to  carry  with  them  provisions  for 
seventeen  days,  unless  they  were  in  an  enemy's  country.  Alex- 
ander relieved  his  legionaries  of  this  burden,  and  established  their 
camps  in  such  a  way  that  they  could  receive  their  provisions 
without  fatigue.  On  a  march  mules  and  camels  brought  them 
along,  but  in  this  case  another  train  was  required  to  supply   with 


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THE  EMPIRE  IX  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIKD  CENTURY.      369 

food  the  beasts  of  biu-den  and  their  drivers;  the  liae  of  impedimenta 
lengthened,  and  the  army  became  the  more  unwieldy.  Moreover 
the  order  of  battle  was  changed,  and  the  soldier's  arms  modified. 
As,  from  day  to  day,  the  number  of  barbarians  in  the  army 
increaseil,  it  had  become  necessary  to  abandon  the  earlier  organiza- 
tion of  the  legion,  which  required  a  mathematical  precision  in  the 
movements  and  much  skill  in  camp  labours.  The  quality  of  the 
soldier  deteriorating,  less  was  asked  from  individual  experience, 
more  from  collective  power.  Caracalla  had  organized  a  Macedonian 
phalanx,  and  Alexander  Severus  increased  it  to  30,000  men,  a 
dense  mass  difficult  to  break  into  but 
also  difficult  to  move,  and  in  which 
much  strength  was  wasted.  Lastly, 
these  soldiers,  so  desirous  to  live  com- 
fortably and  needing  so  many  things, 
found  the  weapons  of  the  republican 
legionaries  too  heavy  for  them ;  they 
required  a  smaller  buckler,  less  fatiguing 
to  their  enfeebled  arms,  and  the  cuirass 

and    helmet  of     iron     became    a    burden  Dromedary  carrying  Bagprage. 

.                       ,             J       1  (Bas-relief  from  the 

from    which  they     begged     the     emperor  Column  of  the  Emperor  Theodosiu^ 

r\     A.*         i.  T           xi_         1  at  Constantinople.) 

Grratian  to  relieve  them.*  ^ 

It  had  been  now  many  years  that  the  semestrial  tribunes  had 
only  nominally  fulfilled  the  law  requiring  of  them  a  period  of 
service  in  the  legions,  and  Roman  senators  would  not  tolerate  camp 
life.  One  of  them  had  obtained  from  Commodus  exemption  in  the 
matter  of  military  service;^  Caracalla  had  excused  them  all  from 
it,  and  Gallienus  forbade  it  to  them;^  and  an  old  author  is  sur- 
prised at  finding  a  young  man  of  good  family  in  the  service.* 
The  decurions  of  the  provincial  cities  demanded  the  same  privilege 
as  the  Roman  senators,  and  the  law,  sanctioning  this  inward 
desertion,   closed    the    army   against  them   for  ever/      It   was  the 


*  Vegetius,  i.  20.     The  phalanx  did  not  last. 

*  Borghesi,  (Euvres  comply  v.  311 ;  L.  Renier,  MSI.  d^ipigr.,  p.  18.     Alexander  Severus  had 
thought  of  making  a  similar  rule.     (Lamprid.,  Alex.^  45.) 

'  Aur.  Victor,  de  Ctss,,  33 :  .  .  .  .  ne  imperium  ad  optimos  nobilium  transferetury  smutum 
militia  vetuity  etiam  adire  exercitum, 

*  Id.,  Voter. y  32 :  .  .  .  .  quanquam  genere  satis  claro. 

*  Constitution  of  Diocletian,  in  the  Code  Just.y  xii.  34,  2,  and  maintained  hy  his  successors. 

VOL.  VI.  HR 


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370  MILITAUY    A^'ARC11Y,    2^6    TO    268    A.D. 

whole  aristocracy,  great  and  small,  which,  iu  an  empire  founded  by 
arms   aud   incapable    of   maintaining    itself    without   thoir   aid,    now 

refused  to  bear  them.  The 
effects  of  this  change  began 
to  appear  about  the  middle 
of  the  thii-d  century.  The 
sons  of  the  Roman  and 
provincial  senators,  who  had 
filled  the  great  military 
and  civil  offices,  were  re- 
placed in  the  army  by  men 
of  low  degree.  Some  of 
these  soldiers  of  fortune 
became  able  generals,  but 
for  the  most  part  they 
were  men  of  ignoble  ambi- 
tion, who,  destitute  of  the 
patriotic  pride  of  the  early 
consuls,  were  willing  to 
tear  the  Empire  into  thirty 
pieces  that  they  might  each 
for  an  instant  be  adorned 
with  a  rag  of  the  purple. 

The  separation  of  the 
civil  and  military  orders, 
whose  union  had  made  the 
fortune  of  the  Republic 
and  formed  the  great  ad- 
ministrations of  the  early 
Empire,^    is     still     further 

Leffionary  with  Helmet,  armed  with  the  1V/m?/i.-  i      i    i         .i  *•  n 

marked  by  the  creation  of 
a  new  grade,  that  of  dux^  or  commanding  general  who  at  the  same 
time  had  no  territorial  command  and  consequently  no  civil  interest^ 
to  protect.     This  measure,  which  is  seen  dawning  under  Septimius 


Cf.  Code  Theod.,  viii.  4,  2d,  anno  423,  and  Code  ,hist.,  x.  81.  55:   Si  quis  decurto  ausw*  fnerit 
uUam  affectare  militiam  .  ...  ad  conditionem  propriam  retrahatury  anno  436. 

'  See  vol.  V.  p.  516. 

^  Found  at  Wiesbaden  and  preserved  in  the  museum  of  that  city.    (Lindenschmit,  op.  cit.) 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.      371 

Severus,  and  has  become  established  in  a  general  maimer  in 
237  A.D.,^  was  useful,  for  it  has  endured  to  this  day,  but  with  the 
condition  that  the  high  military  posts  should  be  assigned  only  to 
men  worthy  of  holding  them,  and  that  it  should  never  open  the 
way  to  high  civil  office.  But  Macrinus  gave  to  two  freedmen 
the  government  of  Dacia  and  Pannonia,  and  to  a  former  spy,  who 
knew  not  how  to  read,'^  the  consulship  and  the  office  of  urban 
prefect.  A  few  years  later  a  msai  of  mixed  race,  Getan  and 
Alanian,  a  mere  soldier,  was  invested  with  the  purple  of '  Caesar, 
and  he  by  whom  this  emperor  was  overthrown  was  the  son  of 
a  blacksmith.* 

This  army  now  forbidden  to  the  noblesse  of  the  Empire,  and 
shortly  after  to  the  townspeople  of  the  cities,  was  recruited  from 
the  dregs  of  the  provincial  population.  In  the  time  of  Scptimius 
Severus  a  jurisconsult  could  say :  ^^  Formerly  the  military  service 
was  obligatory,  and  he  was  punished  with  death  who  did  not 
respond  to  the  call.  Now  we  have  abandoned  this  severity  because 
our  cohorts  are  recruited  from  volunteers."^  But  these  volunteers 
were  poor  wretches  who  had  neither  household  gods  nor  homes, 
like  those  vagabonds  with  whom  in  the  last  century  the  recruiting 
officers  of  the  French  army  filled  their  regiments,  where  they  became 
the  soldiers  of  Rossbach.  There  was  indeed  a  certain  conscription : 
every  city  was  required  to  furnish  a  definite  number  of  men  and 
horses,  and  this  was  a  tax  upon  property.  Both  were  obtained  as 
cheaply  as  possible  and  delivered  over  to  the  recruiting  officer, 
productio  tironum  et  equorum.  These  words  are  in  the  text  of  the 
law  under  the  head  of  municipal  obligations :  "  The  furnishing 
of  recruits,  horses,  and  other  animals  or  necessary  things  ....  is 
a  personal  obligation."* 

Besides  these  soldiers  taken  by  contract  were  others  who  were 
a  danger  to  the  state,  those  obtained  from  among  the  nations 
whom  the  army  had  to  combat.  Aurelius  Victor,  speaking  of  the 
legions  of  that  time,  writes :   "  The  soldiers !  the  barbarians,  I  had 

^  See  the  senatus-conBultum  sent  at  this  date  to  the  proconsuls  and  military  chiefs.    (Capit., 
Maximin,  15.) 

'  Dion,  Ixxviii.  14. 

^  Pupienus  was,  it  is  said,  the  son  of  a  blacksmith  or  a  wheelwright. 

*  Arrius  Menander,  Digest,  xlix.  16,  4,  §  10. 

^  Arcadius  Charisius,  in  the  Digest ,  1.  4, 18,  §  13. 

BB  2 


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372  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235    TO    268   A.D. 

almost  said."  ^  When  Am^elian  was  intrusted  with  the  defence  of 
Thrace  the  emperor  gave  him  a  legion,  but  also  300  Itureean 
archers,  600  Armenians,  150  Arabs,  200  Saracens,  400  men  of 
Mesopotamia,  800  cataphracati  (men  clad  in  mail),  who  were  to 
come  from  the  same  region ;  and,  to  show  him  that  he  could  count 
on  capable  subordinates.  Valerian  wrote  him :  "  You  will  have 
with  you  Hartomund,  Haldegast,  Hildemund,  and  Cariovix"^ — all 
Germans.  At  the  battle  of  Emesa  in  272,  one  of  the  best 
generals  in  the  army,  Pompeianus,'  was  a  Frank.  Many  others 
conceal  for  us  their  barbaric  origin  under  Roman  names.  These 
Lembazii,  Eiparenses,  Castriani,  and  Dacisci,  who  at  that  time 
formed  the  entire  garrison  of  Eome,  were  not  all  men  of  the  old 
provinces.^  The  Eoman  army  then  was  composed,  in  the  different 
ages  of  its  history,  in  the  following  manner :  first  of  citizens, 
then  of  Italians,  then  of  provincials,  and  now  the  barbarians  are 
entering :    it  is  a  descending  scale. 

Following  the  able  policy  of  the  republican  senate,  the 
emperors,  in  concluding  a  tTcaty  with  the  Goths  or  Vandals, 
stipulated  that  the  children  of  the  barbarians  should  be  given  up 
as  hostages,  and  received  them,  both  boys  and  girls,  into  the 
noblest  houses  in  Rome.  The  boys  were  educated  like  the  Roman 
youth,  and  the  girls  were  married  to  Roman  officers  in  the 
intention  that  these  wives  would  keep  their  husbands  informed 
as  to  what  might  be  going  on  over  the  frontier.  Hunila  was 
of  royal  blood  among  the  Goths :  Aurelian  gave  her  a  hand- 
some dowry  and  married  her  to  Bonosus,  one  of  his  generals, 
a  valiant  boon-companion  who  in  a  battle  of  ciips  defeated 
all  the  barbarians,  and  plucked  from  them  their  most  secret 
thoughts.* 

Certainly  there  is  no  heroism  in  military  virtues  like  these ; 
but  there  was  not  a  hero  left  under  the  standards.      In  the  time 


^  Aur.  Victor,  de  C<ss.,  37 :  militibus  ac  j>€Bne  harbaris.  After  defeating  an  army  of 
Goths,  Claudius  II.  selected  a  number  to  fill  the  gaps  in  his  cohorts.  Ten  ^ears  later  Probus 
incorporated  16,000  Germans  into  his  legions;  all  the  emperors  did  the  same.  Under  Theodosius 
barbarians  were  more  numerous  than  Romans  in  the  Roman  army. 

^  Vopiscus,  Atir.j  11. 

'  S.  Jerome,  Chron.  ad  ann.  272. 

*  Vopiscus,  Aur.,  3d. 

'Id.,  Hon.,  14. 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.      373 

of  Alexander  Severus  the  Syrian  legions  declined  to  fight  with  the 

Persians,^  and  at  Trebizond 

and     Chalcedon,      Romans 

more    numerous    than    the 

Goths    fled    before    them.* 

Finally,  from  amidst  these 

men   who  had   nothing    of 

the   Eoman    soldier   except 

his     costume,     went      out 

deserters    carrying   over  to 

the    enemy    the    secret    of 

Eoman  tactics,  drilling  the 

enemy's  troops,  forging  his 

weapons,  building  his  ships, 

even   constructing  for  him 

engines   of  war  wherewith 

to  attack  fortresses:   at  the 

siege   of   Philippopolis    the 

Goths    made    use     of     all 

the     engineering     contriv- 

ances  known  to  the  Eomans 

at  that  time.*     Implacable 

as    traitors    are    to    those 

whom  they  have  betrayed, 

they     incited     invasions, 

showed  the  way,  and  took 

the    lead    in    the    pillage, 

while     their     comrades 

remaining     under     the 

.       J      J  11  1  Ituraean  Archer.     (Museum  of  Mayence.)  * 

standards  made  and  unmade 

emperors.     It  was  a  deserter  who  in  259  guided  the  Goths  in  the 


*  Dion,  Ixxx.  4.     He  adds  that  they  were  disposed  to  go  over  to  the  enemy. 

^  See,  in  Zosimus,  the  invasion  of  Asia  Minor  by  the  Goths  and  Scythians  in  the  time  of 
Valerian.  Jordanes  says  (16)  of  deserting  legionaries  in  the  time  of  Decins  and  of  Philip: 
....  nUlites  ad  regis  Qothorum  auxilium  confugenmt,  A  multitude  of  the  soldiers  of  Niger 
had  gone  over  to  the  Parthians,  and  to  leave  the  door  open  for  their  return,  Severus  had 
modified  the  terrible  penalties  denounced  by  law  against  deserters. 

*  See  Dexippos,  No,  2,  in  vol.  iii.  p.  678,  of  the  Fragmenta  kistoricum  Oracorum  (Didot). 

*  The  inscription  is  as  follows:  Monimus  Jerombali  iiilius)  mil(c*)  coh(or^)  I  Ituraeor(Mm) 


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374  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

conquest  of  Bithynia,  and  it  was  perhaps  a  military  sedition  which 
gave  up  to  the  Persians  the  emperor  Valerian.^ 

Thus  we  see  the  standard  is  lowered  among  the  soldiers  no 
less  than  among  the  officers,  and  consequently  in  the  government. 
And  whose  is  the  fault?  It  is  the  fault  of  the  citizens  of  every 
rank,  who  will  no  longer  endure  the  military  service,  and  of  the 
rulers,  who  know  not  how  to  compel  them  to  it.  We  have  already 
remarked  that  the  appearance  of  superior  military  organization 
always  marks  the  advent  of  a  new  dominion,  for  the  reason  that 
the  army  in  many  respects  sums  up  in  itself  the  civilization  of  a 
people.  The  empires  of  Persia  and  of  Athens,  of  Thebes  and  of 
Macedon,  of  Carthage  and  of  Eome,  succeed  each  other  in  the 
order  of  the  improvements  made  in  military  institutions.  At  the 
period  with  which  we  are  now  occupied  these  improvements  had 
reached  a  limit  which  could  be  passed  only  by  the  aid  of  sciences 
unknown  to  antiquity,  and  centuries  must  elapse  before  these  new 
sciences  were  discovered.  The  Greek  genius,  which  was  above 
all  speculative,  had  been  able  to  create  mathematics  and  astronomy, 
and  to  begin  mechanics  and  natural  history;  but  mathematics  alone 
have  not — as  chemistry  and  physics  have — the  virtue  of  leading 
man  to  the  control  of  the  material  world;  and  these  poets,  these 
philosophers,  these  artists,  who  made  the  civilization  of  the  old 
world,  were  not  able  to  arm  it  with  forces  conquered  from  nature. 
To  protect  itself  against  the  barbarians  the  Roman  world  had, 
therefore,  means  scarcely,  if  at  all,  superior  to  those  which  the 
barbarians  employed.  When,  by  the  pensions  which  the  imperial 
government  paid,  and  by  the  commerce  carried  on  in  time  of  peace 
with  the  Eoman  traders,  by  the  booty  snatched  from  the  provinces, 
and  by  the  lessons  which  deserters  taught  them,  the  Goths,  the 
Alemanni,  and  the  Franks  had  procured  themselves  the  necessary 
resources  for  the  development  of  their  metallurgic  industries,  they 
were  able  to  give  themselves  an  armament  almost  as  formidable 
as  that  of  the  Romans.  They  had  the  superiority  of  courage, 
and  their  religion,  like  that  which  Mahomet  gave  the  barbarians 
of    the    south,    inspired    them    with    a    martial    ardour  which   the 

anr\(orum)  L.  8tip(endioruni)  XVI   h(tc)  8{ittts)  e{8t).    Monument  found   at   Mayence.     Of. 
Lindenscbmit,  Trachtj  etc.,  pi.  v.  No.  3,  and  p.  22. 
^  Zonaras,  xii.  23. 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.      375 

Romans  no  longer  possessed.  On  the  field  of  battle  the  legions 
had  the  advantage  of  discipline,  of  a  better  arrangement,  and  of 
traditions  of  military  art  which  were  not  wholly  lost,  and  this 
superiority  would  have  secured  to  the  Empire  constant  victories  if 
these  legions,  which  for  two  centuries  had  been  the  strength  of 
the  state  and  the  confidence  of  the  Caesars,  had  not  now  become 
the  scourge  of  the  former  and  the  terror  of  the  latter.  Accordingly, 
the  chief  care  of  the  emperors  now  to  come  will  be  to  put  an 
end  to  barrack-revolts  by  a  violent  reaction  against  the  military 
order.  To  save  themselves  from  the  continual  attacks  of  the 
soldiery  they  will  effect  an  administrative  revolution  which  will 
appear  to  give  themselves  more  security,  but  will  not  increase  the 
safety  of  the  Empire  ;  they  will  divide  the  army  in  order  to  huvc^ 
less  reason  to  fear  it,  and  will  make  it  up  of  barbarians  in  thci 
hope  that  these  foreigners  will  be  more  docile. 


III. — The  Administration. 

In  the  age  preceding  the  nobles  were  the  governing  class ; 
a  regular  and  slow  ascending  movement  replaced  the  Eoman  aristo- 
cracy, which  was  becoming  exhausted,  by  the  provincial  aristocracy, 
full  of  life  and  experience.  The  latter  obtained  seats  in  the  senate 
in  proportion  as  its  members,  by  their  services  in  the  cities  and 
the  legions,  earned  the  attention  of  the  emperor;  and  the  sons 
of  these  senators,  before  succeeding  their  fathers  in  the  curiae, 
were  prepared  for  their  high  office  by  an  excellent  administrative 
education.  Eevolutions  had  now  changed  this  favourable  condition 
of  affairs. 

Enfeebled  by  the  institution  of  Hadrian's  consilium  principis^ 
and  despoiled  of  its  last  powers  by  the  imperial  council  of 
Alexander  Severus,  the  senate  had  nothing  to  do  in  the  state,  and 
it  mattered  little  that  Caracalla  called  Egyptians  and  Palmyrenes^ 
to  sit  with  the  Conscript  Fathers  ;  Elagabalus,  Alexander  Severus, 
and   Philip,    Syrians    and    Arabs,^   and    Maximin,    Thracians.      The 


'  De  Vogii'S  Inscr.  aramSenne^  de  Pahnyve,  Nos.  20-22. 

^  Zosimus  (i.  19)  says  that  Philip  plaood  all  his  relatives  in  the  higher  offices,  and  Philip 
was  the  son  of  a  Bedouin,  a  robber-chief. 


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376  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235   TO    268   A.D. 

higher  grades  in  the  army,  the  really  important  offices  in  the 
state,  even  the  imperial  dignity,  being  the  prey  of  soldiers  of 
fortune,  the  senate  and  the  public  offices  were  filled  with  the 
friends  of  the  emperor,  who  selected  them  from  the  places  where 
he  himself  had  lived.  From  this  it  resulted  that  the  recruiting 
for  the  administration,  as  well  as  for  the  army,  was  made  in  the 
lower  strata  of  the  population,  that  the  worth  of  the  men  who 
influenced  public  affairs  grew  less,  and  that  life  everywhere  fell 
to  a  lower  standard. 

The  moyement  of  concentration  which  had  taken  place  in 
Rome  in  the  last  centuries  of  the  Eepublic  went  on  in  the  pro- 
vincial cities.  The  number  of  the  humiliores  increased,  that  of  the 
honestiores  diminished ;  and  in  the  provincial  cities  are  seen  only 
two  classes,  the  decurions  and  the  common  people.  The  latter  lost 
their  last  rights,  even  the  comitia  falling  into  desuetude;  almost 
everywhere  the  curia,  instead  of  the  popular  assembly,  was  the 
electoral  body,^  and  the  office  of  decurion  had  become  hereditary.* 

But  the  elections  had  become  very  onerous  to  the  persons 
elected.  In  Pliny's  time  to  enter  a  municipal  senate  did  not 
involve  great  expense;  at  the  period  of  which  we  are  now  speaking 
a  perpetual  flamen  paid  82,000  sesterces  for  his  office;^  of  this 
he  expended  30,000  for  a  statue  to  adorn  the  city;  20,000  for  the 
required  gift  to  the  decurions,  and  he  promised  the  people  scenic 
games  with  a  distribution  of  money.  Prodigalities  like  these  were 
possible  to  the  rich  only;  consequently  it  was  inevitable  that  many 
should  seek  in  their  office  the  means  of  indemnifying  themselves, 
as  the  republican  proconsuls  used  to  repair,  in  a  year  of  provincial 
government,  their  fortunes,  ruined  by  an  election  in  the  forum. 
The  Empire  had  put  an  end  to  this  colossal  plundering,  and  it  was 
obliged   also   to   arrest  those   of    the    municipal   Yerreses.*     But  to 

*  Africa  still  held  electoral  comitia  in  the  time  of  Constantine  (Code  Theod.yjxi,  15, 1),  and 
Julian,  in  the  Misopogorif  speaks  in  the  case  of  Antioch  of  senators  elected  by  the  people,  and 
later  of  municipal  judges  who  had  no  regard  for  justice. 

"  See  in  the  Digest^  1.  2,  the  section  de  Filits  decurionum. 

'  This  amount  was  paid  into  the  municipal  treasury  ob  honorem  flaminii.  (L.  Renier,  Bull, 
d^  VAcad.  des  truer.,  June,  1878 ;  inscription  of  the  time  of  Elagabalus,  recently  found  at 
Philippeville.)    This,  it  is  true,  is  an  individual  instance. 

*  The  extortions  of  the  municipal  mafnstrates  were  of  very  early  date.  Cicero  (ad  Att,, 
vi.  2)  avers  that  he  had  made  those  of  Cilicia  restore  their  ill-gotten  gains,  and  he  adds  that 
these  restitutions  permitted  the  province  to  pay  the  arrears  of  its  taxes. 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.      377 

succeed   in   this,   the  home   government   was   obliged   to  administer 
the  provinces,  which  formerly  it  had  been  contented  with  ruling. 

The  time  of  the  family  of  the  Severi  is  that  of  the  most 
renowned  jurisconsults  of  Kome.  Now  these  incomparable  logicians 
sought,  on  their  part,  to  establish  everywhere  and  in  all  cases  the 
idea  of  the  rights  of  the  state,  which  had  been  so  extensive  in 
the  early  republics.  Obeying  their  influence  as  well  as  the  social 
necessity  of  which  we  have  just  spoken,  the  emperors  encroached 
upon  the  municipal  liberties,  and  this  ever-increasing  interference 
of  their  agents,  which  the  citizens  themselves  solicited  or  abetted, 
undermined  and  destroyed  the  vitality  of  the  municipal  rule. 
The .  finances  of  the  cities  are  now  in  the  hands  of  trustees 
acting  in  the  emperor's  name;  the  irenarchs  appointed  to  maintain 
public  order  have  need  of  the  consent  of  his  representative  before 
entering  upon  their  office;^  new  taxes  are  levied,  public  works 
are  executed  only  with  the  authorization  of  the  governor,  who 
annuls  the  decisions  of  the  local  senate  when  they  are  displeasing 
to  him,  ambitiosa  decreta^  and  the  elections  are  made  under  his 
good  pleasure  when  he  does  not  appoint  the  candidates  directly 
himself.^  The  duumvirs  act  as  judges  only  in  cases  where  a  small 
sum  was  involved,  and  the  practice  of  appeal  to  the  Eoman  magis- 
trate will  have  soon  reduced  the  duumviral  jurisdiction  to  nothing 
more  than  the  equivalent  of  a  French  justice  de  paix?  Accordingly, 
municipal  honours  losing  their  dignity,  the  obligations  they  imposed 
were  the  more  onerous,  and,  through  different  reasons,  pagans  and 
Christians  alike  avoided  them.  But  the  government,  already  seek- 
ing to  render  the  decurions  responsible  for  the  payment  of  the 
land-tax,*  watches  carefully  to   see   that   the   provincial   senates  be 

'  .  .  .  .  cum  a  prcBiide  ex  inguisitione  digatur  {^Digest j  1.  8,  9,  §  7).  See  {ibid.,  xxii.  1,  33) 
the  rights  which  Ulpian  attributes  to  the  pr€eses  in  respect  to  the  financial  administration  of 
the  city :  .  .  .  .  qui  discipUruB  pudlica  et  corrigendis  moribus  praficitur  (ibid.,  1.  4, 18,  §  7). 
....  a  decurionibus,  jvdicio  praendum  ....  nominentur  (Code,  x.  75).  An  ordinance  of 
Alexander  Severus  gives  the  governor  of  a  province  the  right  to  annul  the  election  of  a  decurion 
elected  by  persons  unfriendly  to  the  latter  for  the  purpose  of  imposing  ruinous  expenses  upon 
him. 

*  Digest,  xlix.  4,  §§  3-4.  "When  he  writes  to  the  senate,"  says  Ulpian,  "  ut  Oaium  Setum 
creent  magistratum,  it  is  advice  rather  than  command."  But  the  advice  was  as  potent  as  an 
order. 

*  Thejttstice  de  pair  decides  debts  not  above  100  francs. 

*  Many  sentences  in  the  Digest  show  this  tendency  from  the  beginning  of  the  third  century, 
but  it  is  not  until  the  time  of  Constantine  that  we  find  this  system  completely  established.    For 


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378  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

kept  full;  any  one  seeking  to  escape  this  duty  by  taking  refuge 
in  another  city  is  brought  back/  or,  if  he  cannot  be  found,  his 
property  is  confiscated  for  the  use  of  the  curia,  A  criminal 
sentence  did  not  free  a  man  from  the  duty  of  service  as  decurion; 
on  the  expiration  of  his  term  of  punishment  he  returned  into  thfe 
municipal  senate.'  When  it  was  a  question  of  receipts  the  treasury 
had  no  scruples. 

The  government,  which  with  one  hand  chained  the  refractory 
to  municipal  honoui's,  with  the  other  threw  back  privileged  persons 
into  the  taxable,  because  it  was  essential  for  the  government  to 
secure  its  share  in  the  net  revenue  of  the  cities.*  In  the  time  of 
their  prosperity  these  cities  had  multiplied  exemptions  from  the 
munera^  of  which  the  burden,  in  the  general  impoverishment, 
had  fallen  heavily  upon  the  other  •inhabitants.  The  number  of 
physicians,  rhetoricians,  and  grammarians  enjoying  immunity  was 
reduced,*  and  the  citizen  who  had  been  exempted  from  the  munera 
because  of  his  poverty  was  subjected  to  them,  notwithstanding  his 
age,  if  fortune  came  to  him  late  in  life.*  We  see  that  the 
government  tried  its  best  to  find  functionaries  for  the  cities  and 
resources  to  fill  their  treasuries :  a  care  beneath  which  was  con- 
cealed the  very  legitimate  desire  of  protecting  public  order  and 
securing  the  payment  of  the  state-tax.  But  this  self-interested 
solicitude  obliged  the  government  to  intervene  daily  more  and 
more  in  municipal  affairs.     The  two  centuries  of  the  early  Empire 

the  municipal  organization  of  the  first  century,  see  in  vol.  v.  of  this  work  the  whole  of  §  2 
of  chap.  Ixxziii.y  and  for  the  first  attempt  upon  the  liberties  of  cities,  p.  130  of  this  volume. 

'  Ulpian,  in  the  Digest ^  1.  2, 1.  From  this  time  the  great  anxiety  of  the  government  is  to 
retain  the  rich  in  the  cities.  At  an  earlier  period  the  number  of  decurions  in  the  Italian  cities 
was  100  in  each ;  we  have  seen  (vol.  iv.  p.  810 ;  vol.  v.  pp.  331  et  seq.)  that  this  number  was 
often  exceeded.  The  register  of  Thamagas  contained  seventy-two  names,  and  mentions  only 
the  priests  and  magistrates.  Julian  {Misopogon)  compelled  all  the  rich  men  of  Antioch  to  enter 
the  curia  in  that  city,  and  many  of  his  predecessors  had  probably  done  the  same.  The  minimum 
of  fortune  required  for  a  seat  in  the  curia  had  been  placed  very  low :  it  was  twenty-five  jw^cra 
(Code  Theod.,  xii.  1,  36, anno  342),  or  300  solidt  (aurei),  about  £180  {Nov.  Valent,  III.  iii.  §  4). 
Thia  Novella,  which  is  of  the  year  439,  gives  this  as  a  very  early  ^gure,  secundum  Vetera  statuta 

^  Digest,  1.  2,  2,  1  and  3 ;  Code,  x.  37,  1 :  Curiales  jubemus  ne  civitates  fugiant  .... 
fundum  ....  scientes  fisco  esse  sociandum. 

^  Code,  iv.  61,  15.  In  this  constitution  Theodosius  and  Valentinian  II.  affirm  that  thev 
confirm  an  ancient  custom,  jt^rwca  institutio.  It  is  proper  to  say  that  the  levy  for  the  state 
being  made  only  after  all  the  public  services  of  the  city  had  been  provided  for,  the  two- thirds 
reserved  for  the  state  from  the  net  revenue  must  have  been  a  very  small  sum. 

*  See  vol.  V.  p.  403. 

'  Digest,  1.  5,  6,  prooem. 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.      379 

showed  a  just  balance  between  the  power  of  the  state  and  the 
liberty  of  the  cities;  while  this  equilibrium  lasted  the  public 
prosperity  was  maintained ;  when  the  former  was  overthrown  the 
latter  perished,  and  the  moment  of   that  disaster  was  near  at  hand. 

The  government  was  not  alone  guilty  of  this  administrative 
invasion,  which  would  have  been  so  salutary  had  it  been  kept 
within  limits. 

To  understand  the  slow  evolution  which  led  the  central  power 
to  keep  so  strict  a  wateh  over  the  cities  in  which  narrow  and 
jealous  oligarchies  had  been  formed,  we  must  remember  how,  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  most  of  the  communes  came  to  an  end.  Their 
inhabitants  also  allowed  to  grow  up  in  their  midst  a  bourgeois 
aristocracy,  like  that  of  the  Roman  decurions,  which  perpetuated 
itself  in  the  public  offices  and. made  the  financial  resources  of  the 
city  serve  its  private  ends.  Abuses  necessitated  the  intervention 
of  the  suzerain,  and,  as  a  consequence,  the  suppression  of  the 
municipal  charters.  At  the  two  epochs  the  same  result  followed 
from  similar  causes.  It  is  not  that  history  repeats  itself,  but  there 
are  analogies  which  make  ancient  facts  intelligible  in  the  light 
reflected  from  more  recent  events.  In  seeing  how  our  fathers  lost 
their  communal  franchises  we  understand  better  how  those  of  the 
Romans  were  lost.^  In  all  times  communities  have  cared  little 
for  their  rights  when  their  interests  were  in  danger:  .... 
neque  populus  ademptum  jus  questm  est.  To  put  a  stop  te 
certain  disorders  arising  from  liberty,  an  administrative  guardian- 
ship  became    necessary,   which,    exaggerating    its    legitimate    rofe, 

'  This  is  seen  in  the  Middle  Ages  in  countless  instances ;  M.  Giiy  gives  yet  another  instance 
in  the  history  of  the  commune  of  St.  Omer.  "  The  provosts  had  appropriated  to  themselves 
a  part  of  the  city ;  they  were  accused  of  maladministration  and  were  suspected  of  falsehood 
and  cheating  in  their  accounts;  the  public  were  exasperated  at  seeing  the  municipal  offices 
perpetuated  in  an  aristocracy  composed  of  a  few  families,  whose  members,  being  successively 
provosts,  passed  the  city*s  accounts  from  hand  to  hand,  and  treated  the  municipal  finances  as 
their  private  inheritance.  In  1306  the  commune  accused  the  town  magistrates  'after  the 
accustomed  way '  before  the  high  and  noble  Madame  d*Artoys  de  Bourgogne  as  their 'rfrot^ 
juge!""  This  is  still  done  in  our  time.  "In  Ireland,  before  1848,  there  were  seventy-one 
municipal  corporations  completely  independent.  The  officers  of  these  corporations  went  so  far 
as  to  appoint  one  another.  The  corporations  of  Trim  and  Kells  alienated  their  territory  to  allow 
two  or  three  of  the  members  of  the  corporation  to  buy  it  at  a  nominal  price.  That  of  Naas 
adjudged  to  one  of  its  members  for  a  price  of  twelve  pounds  sterling  lands  which  were  worth 
a  hundred ;  that  of  Drogheda  decided  that  the  poor^fund  shoidd  be  exclusively  expended  for  the 
profit  of  the  members  of  the  corporation  and  their  families."  (Arth.  Desjardins,  de  V Alienation 
des  biem  de  VEtat  et  dee  communes,  p.  34.) 


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380  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    236    TO    268   A.D. 

soon  made  dead  bodies   of    these    cities   which   were   once    so    full 
of  life. 

Another  evil  arose:  in  undertaking  to  think  and  act  for  aU, 
the  imperial  government  singularly  retarded  the  transaction  of 
public  business.  A  government  may  be  remote,  an  administration 
must  be  close  at  hand,  and  when  a  government  administers  an 
immense  empire  it  necessarily  administers  it  ill.  All  moves 
slowly,  decisions  are  founded  upon  documents,  far  from  the  parties 
interested,  and  out  of  sight  of  things  themselves  which  sometimes 
speak  so  eloquently.  A  document  of  the  year  114  shows  that 
at  the  gates  of  Eome,  under  Trajan,  it  already  took  ten  months 
for  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  Cserites  to  give  a  signature.^  When 
this  force,  which  suppressed  all  others  by  stifling  the  local  life, 
falls  into  incapable  hands,  it  must  be,  in  its  turn,  as  it 
were,  suppressed  by  revolutions.  The  emperor  having  become  the 
universal  administrative  officer,  what,  under  the  Thirty  Tyrants, 
will  become  of  the  administration?  To  put  this  question  is  to 
show  what  deadly  languor  must  in  those  unhappy  times  invade 
the  social  body! 

The  emperors  worthy  the  name  had  taken  pride  in  executing 
great  public  works — ^roads,  bridges,  monumelits  of  all  kinds;  when 
they  did  not  do  this  themselves,  they  incited  the  people  of  the 
provinces  to  these  undertakings,  and  gave  them  the  assistance  of 
cohorts  and  legions  in  the  wotk.  But  the  armies  now  fight  with 
each  other,  and  the  rulers  who  assume  this  purple,  which  is  dabbled 
with  blood  every  six  months,  can  think  of  nothing  beyond  the 
anxiety  of  protecting  their  own  Uves.  The  Empire,  abandoned 
to  itself,  suspends  all  work  of  repair  or  construction,  and  bridges 
become  ruinous  and  military  roads  fall  into  dilapidation.  With 
this  the  troops  which  had  maintained  general  security  in  the 
interior  are  withdrawn  to  swell  the  numbers  of  those  who  are 
concerned  with  politics  and  not  with  the  public  safety.  And 
so  free-booters  re-appear,  the  roads  become  insecure,  traffic  is 
interrupted,  and  destitution  extends. 

Although  an  edict  of  Caracalla  had  subjected  the  provinces  to 
new  taxes,  the  country  ravaged  by  the  barbarians  or  possessed  by 

^  See  the  letter  of  the  decurions  of  Cflere,  ap.  Egger,  Historiens  d'Au^fuste,  p.  390,  and 
Orelli,  No.  3,787. 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.      381 

usurpers  sent  to  Eome  but  insuflBcient  supplies  of  money;  and  yet 
the  need  increased  daily.  The  wasting  of  the  public  revenues  by 
rulers  of  a  day,  the  lavish  gifts  bestowed  upon  those  soldiers  of 
fortune  who  had  no  personal  means,  but  must  be  expensively 
maintained  in  order  to  secure  a  continuance  of  their  doubtful 
fidelity ;  lastly,  a  scarcity  of  money  produced  by  the  continual 
exportation  of  the  precious  metals  into  countries  where  the  Empire 
bought  much  while  selling  nothing :  all  these  causes  of  poverty 
compelled  recourse  to  the  most  disastrous  measures  of  bankrupt 
governments.  Formerly  the  high  offices  of  the  state  were  held 
by  rich  senators  who  met  a   portion   of  their  expenses  from  their 


Games  of  the  Circus.     (From  a  Mosaic  of  1  Barcelona.) 

own  private  means,  but  now  the  emperor  must  find  the  money 
for  everything.  When  Aurelian,  the  son  of  a  poor  freedman,  is 
made  consul.  Valerian  writes  to  the  prefect  of  the  treasury:  "On 
account  of  ^  his  poverty  you  will,  give  him,  for  the  games  of  the 
circus  which  he  must  furnish  for  the  people,  300  pieces  of  gold, 
3,000  of  silver,  ten  tunics  of  silk,  fifty  of  Egyptian  linen,  four 
Cyprus  table  cloths,  ten  African  carpets,  ten  Mauretanian  coverlets, 
100  swine,  100  sheep;  you  will  cause  a  public  banquet  to  be 
served  to  the  knights  and  senators,  and  you  will  furnish  for  the 
sacrifice  two  great  and  two  small  victims." 

Later  we  shall  read  of  largesses  made  by  Gallienus  to  Claudius ; 
others  obtained  from  the  emperor  lands  which  did  not  belong  to 
him.  All  who  assumed  the  purple  in  these  days  perished  by  a 
violent  death ;  after  the  defeat,  their  partisans  were  despoiled ; 
and  as  each  province  had  its  usurper,  each  was  exposed  to 
numberless  confiscations.     The  conqueror  not  being  able  to  pay  his 


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882  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    236    TO    268    A.D. 

friends  with  gold,  paid  them  with  confiscated  property.  Claudius 
Gothicus   had   received   some.     After  his   accession   a  woman   came 

to    claim    the    possessions    of    which    she    had    been 

deprived  by  Gallienus  for  the  profit  of  his  lieutenant. 
i  ^'You  have  wronged  me,"  she  said;  but  the  emperor 

\  answered:    '^No;  as  a  subject  I  had  no  concern  with 

the  execution  of  the  laws;    now,   as  the  ruler,   it  is 

ciaudmToothicufl,  nay  duty  to  attend  to  it,  and  I  give  you  back  your 

Laurelled.  (Gold  jands."      To  put  a  stop  to  this  shameful   method  of 

obtaining  wealth,  Claudius  forbade  any  one  to  solicit 
another's  property,  to  denounce  as  guilty  the  innocent  for  the  sake 
of  obtaining  their  possessions.  This  edict  was  added  to  the  many 
others  in  the  archives  which  like  it  were  well-meant,  and,  like  it 
also,  without  durable  effect. 

ly. — Decline  in  Industry,  Commerce,  and  the  Arts; 
Depopulation  of  the  Empire. 

The  recruiting  of  the  labouring  classes  went  on,  like  that  of  the 
administration  and  of  the  army,  under  conditions  which  constantly 
grew  more  and  more  unfavourable.  We  may  represent  the  Roman 
Empire  as  formed  of  a  series  of  concentric  zones  extended  around 
the  Mediterranean  Sea.  Those  nearest  to  this  sea,  having  been  for 
the  longest  time  centres  of  civilization,  were  the  most  enlightened 
and  the  wealthiest;  in  proportion  as  we  advance  inland  in  every 
direction  we  approach  the  barbaric  world.  Eome  at  first  obtained 
her  slaves  from  the  first  zone  which  conquest  gave  her.  She 
took  them  from  southern  Italy,  Sicily,  Greece,  Greek  Asia,  and 
Carthaginian  Africa:  150,000  Epirotes  were  sold  at  one  time  by 
Paulus  ^milius.  These  slaves,  corrupt  frequently,  but  intelligent 
and  active,  furnished  the  numerous  freedmen  who  became  at  Rome 
architects  or  physicians,  teachers  or  artists,  and  the  friends  and 
boon  companions  of  the  nobles.  This  zone  being  subjugated  and 
reduced  to  peace,  war  no  longer  obtained  captives  in  it,  and  it 
became  necessary  to  seek  working  people  in  the  second  zone,  and 
afterwards  in  the  third.  The  great  slave  markets  thus  fell  back 
with  the  frontiers.  The  concession  of  citizenship  to  the  entire 
Empire   fixed   them   there,    and   the   barbarians   who   furnished   the 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.      383 

supply  sold  the  ruder  prisoners  whom  they  themselves  had  made 
captive  in  the  heart  of  the  barbaric  world.  Claudius,  Aurelian,  and 
Probus  brought  in  such  captives  without  number,  filling  the  great 
estates  with  labourers  incapable  or  dangerous,  under  whose  hands 
the  earth  soon  ceased  to  give  other  than  the  most  meagre  harvests.* 
The  progressive  steps  of  the  Roman  decline  are  marked  by  the 
constantly  lowered  social  level ;  it  is  thus  that  the  Athenian 
republic  was  ruined,  and  the  great  Roman  Empire  was  to  perish  by 
the  same  causes. 

Agriculture  suffered  from  an  evil  of  long  standing.  To  the 
political  concentration  going  on  in  the  city  and  in  the  state  had 
corresponded  a  concentration  of  fortunes  and  estates,'^  or  rather  the 
second  fact  had  been  the  cause  of  the  first,  and  free  labour  was 
disappearing  from  the  country.  During  thirty  years  of  invasion 
and  civil  war,  agriculture  must  support,  beside  the  usual  burdens, 
innumerable  requisitions  and  incessant  devastations.  Under  so  many 
disasters  which  extensive  landowners  alone  could  resist  the  petty 
proprietors  succumbed.  They  abandoned  their  hereditary  acres  to 
become  colonists,  to  take  as  soldiers  their  share  in  the  immense 
pillage,  or  to  seek  in  the  cities  higher  wages  and  a  life  which 
they  believed  would  be  less  severe.  In  Diocletian's  edict,  the 
labourer,  the  shepherd,  the  muleteer  are  paid  but  a  third  as  much 
as  the  joiner,  the  mason,  and  the  workers  at  trades  in  general; 
so  that  there  came  about  an  unfortunate  circumstance  which  other 
ages  have  seen  also:  the  urban  population  increasing  at  the  expense 
of  the  rural  population.  Only  one  class  had  gained  in  numbers, 
the  proletariat  of  the  cities  and  of  the  country,  where  the  colonists 
were  beginning  to  establish  serfdom.* 

Agriculture  loves  the  free  labourer,  and  she  had  them  no 
longer ;  to  be  richly  productive  she  has  need  of  the  expendi- 
ture  of   capital,   and   if  we   except    a    few    great   proprietors,    this 

^  PapiniaDy  fifty  years  before  the  period  with  which  we  are  now  coDcemed^  fixed  the  legal 
price  of  slaves  at  20  aurei,  or  600  denarii  (Digest f  iv.  4,  31).  We  may  conclude  from  this  that 
slaves  were  becoming  scarce  and  consequently  dear,  for  this  price  is  high  (see  vol.  ii.  p.  806, 
n.  3),  whereas  the  inferior  quality  of  the  slaves  of  that  time  ought  to  have  lowered  the  price. 

*  We  have  seen,  under  Nero,  that  six  landowners  divided  among  themselves  the  whole 
province  of  Africa  (Pliny,  Hist,  nat.,  xviii.  6).  In  the  time  of  Nerva,  Frontinus  says  further: 
"  In  Africa  private  estates  are  as  large  as  the  whole  territory  of  cities'*  {Gromatici  veter^-p.  58). 
Under  Theodosius  is  found  the  same  condition  of  things. 

*  In  respect  to  the  coloni,  see  vol.  v.  pp.  81 1  et  seq. 


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384  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235   TO    268    A.D. 

community  had   none   in  reserve ;   hence   the   ground   returned   but 
small  harvests  and  famine  was  always  threatening. 

Industry  of  every  kind 
found   itself  no   better  o£P. 
The  workshops,  filled  with 
the   ignorant    and   despised 
lowest  class,  produced  poor 
work,    and    the   system   of 
corporations  destroyed  com- 
petition.   Certain  industries 
whose  existence  the  govern- 
ment   made   it  a   point    to 
protect  had    been  in   good 
time    constituted   as   mono- 
polies,  and  it   is   said  that 
Alexander    Severus    would 
have  been  glad  to  give  all 
the     trades    a    corporative 
organization,^   which  more- 
over    private      individuals 
took   of    their  own  choice. 
Everywhere     traders     and 
mechanics    formed    associa- 
tions:   the  bakers  of  Eome 
and  Ostia,  boatmen  of  the 
Saone   and   of    the   Bhone, 
mariners  of  the  Seine,  ship- 
carpenters,   ship-brokers, 
measurers     of     com,     and 
the    like ;     all    those    who 
As  Kbraiu  of  Latium.  laboured   with   their  ha^ds 

sought  security  in  union 
and  fortune  in  the  privileges  which  they  secured  from  the  authority 
or  obtained  for  themselves  by  closing  the  common  market  against 
their  rivals.* 

^  Vol.  V.  pp.  388  et  seq.,  and  p.  293  of  this  volume. 

*  See  vol.  V.  p.  562,  u.  3,  the  privileges  accorded  to  the  traders  and  labourers  connected 
with  the  mine  of  Aljustrel. 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.      385 

Manufacturing  industiy  was  still  further  slackened  by  the 
lessened  demands  of  trade,  hampered  as  it  now  was  by  revolutions, 
by  the  cessation  of  public  works,  by  the  increase  of  taxation,  and 
also  by  piracy  and  robbery  on  the  highways  springing  up  again, 
against  which  the  emperors  no  longer  made  war,  so  occupied  were 
they  with  their  own  private  quarrels. 
And  it  suffered  perhaps  most  of  all  from 
an  extremely  bad  monetary  system. 

The   amount   of    silver   and   gold   in 
circulation   in  the  Empire  was   diminish- 
ing, less  on  account  of   the  mines  being     ^'"''i%t  ye^r'K 
exhausted  than  by  reason  of  the  difficulty 

of  obtaining   their  products.      This  work,  which  had  been   so  well 
carried  on   under  the  early  Empire,  required,   in  order  to  be  kept 
up  actively  with  the  processes  at  that  time  employed,  an  energetic 
discipline ;     and    for    the    existence    of 
such  a  discipline  there  was  needed  for 
the     Empire     the     strong     and     stable 
government  which   it    no    longer    had.^ 
When,    in    the    reign    of    Valens,    the 

Goths  invaded  Thrace,  all  the  miners  Copper  Coin  of  the  Third  Century 
fled  to  the  barbarians.  A  scarcity  of  ^i^,,^rr^  SA^'S" 
the  precious  metals  produced  disastrous      ^^ .  r.^s^  ,,^^  J^  ^^^^^  ?^ 

^  ^  trovneme  Steele,     No.  266,  pi.  xvi.) 

consequences.      The    Kepublic    had    at 

first  known  but  one  coin,  the  bronze  as;  after  the  Punic  Wars 
sUver  became  the  monetary  standard  (the  sesterce  and  the  denarius). 
The  early  Empire  had  the  gold  piece  (aureus),  and  for  200  years 
gold  was  the  chief  circulating  medium,  and  with  it  silver,  for 
copper  does  not   seem  to  have  been  in   use,  none  being  found   in 


^  Hirschfeld,  die  Berpwerke,  pp.  72-91,  and  Flach,  Table  d^Afjustrel  Under  the  Republic 
and  in  the  first  century  of  the  Empire  the  mines  of  precious  metals  and  the  quarries  of  marble 
which  belonged  to  the  state  were  farmed  out  like  the  other  revenues.  In  the  second  century 
they  were  placed  under  the  supreme  direction  of  a  procurator  Casaris,  assisted  by  numerous 
subordinates  for  superintendence  or  direct  management,  jwroAafore*.  When  anarchy  invaded 
the  government  it  also  took  possession  of  the  mines,  whence  slaves  and  criminals  constantly 
made  their  escape.  Observe  that  the  procurator  was  often  one  of  the  emperor's  freedmen,  and 
that  centurions,  serving,  like  our  discharged  soldiers,  in  many  civil  occupations,  sometimes  had 
the  superintendence  of  the  works;  thus,  for  the  marbles  of  Synnada,  in  Phrygia,  a  centurion 
had  charge  of  the  ceesura  or  cutting.  {^Melanges  de  V£cole  franq,  de  Home,  August,  1882, 
p.  291.) 

VOL.   VI.  CO 


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386  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235   TO    268   A.D. 

the  treasures  buried  at  that  time.  We  have  elsewhere  explained^ 
that  the  great  republican  fortimes  took  more  than  a  century  to 
disappear.  Public  and  private  wealth  held  out  under  the  Anto- 
nines.  But  in  the  third  century  both  were  seriously  impaired. 
Of  this  there  is  twofold  proof:  the  coins  were  debased,  and  in 
the  buried  money  of  that  time  pieces  of  gold 
become  more  and  more  rare,  and  there  is  a 
great  quantity  of  copper.  The  aurei  foimd  have 
OoidCoin  of  the  Third  different  Weight,  and  we  are  obliged  to  conclude 
Century  A.D.:C.  Post-   t]^t     losiug    its    character    of    a    standard,    the 

umiia  (ilfid.,    pi.  xvi.  j.      ^  i  .  o         u  x   j 

No.  251).  Providence   aureus  Came  to  be  only  a  piece  of  gold  accepted 
in    trade   for   its   weight,    so    that    traffic    retro- 
graded until  the  time  when  buyer  and  seller  needed  to  be  furnished 
with  scales.' 

This  would  have   been   merely  an   annoyance   and   a  waste  of 
time;  the  monetary  alterations  were  a  cause  of  perpetual  deceptions 

and  even  of  ruin  to  persons  engaged  in 
financial  transactions.  The  sesterce  was 
the  unit  under  the  Empire,  a  coin  equal 
in  value  to  a  quarter  of  a  denarius  or 
one-himdredth  of  an  aureus.     Now  the 

Denarius  of  Nero.  .,  ,  .        -     .  .      .        .        .       .i 

Silver  denanus  bemg  nmety-six  to  the 
pound  in  the  first  years  of  Nero's  reign,  and  almost  of  pure 
metal,  contained  in  the  time  of  Alexander  Severus  fifty  or  sixty 
per  cent,  of  alloy,  and  from  a  value  of  about  eightpence  had  fallen 
to  about  threepence-halfpenny.*  To  this  depreciation  of  silver 
naturally  corresponded  an  augmentation  in  the  value  of  gold.  The 
state  believed  it  wise  to  take  advantage  of  these  circumstances 
and   accept  only  aurei   in  payment  of  taxes.*     It   was  the    act   of 

>  Vol.  V.  pp.  566  et  seq. 

*  Quinarius  of  gold  or  9emis,  the  half  of  an  aureus.  The  quinarius  of  silver  (or  lialf 
denarius)  was  so  called  because  it  had  the  value  of  five  ases.  Denarii^  says  Varro,  qtiod  dmos 
<Br%s  valebant,  quinarii,  quod  quinos, 

'  In  the  fourth  century  the  treasury  required,  to  prevent  frauds,  that  the  tax-gatherers 
should  pay  their  receipts  in  ingots. 

*  Two  silver  pieces  of  Decius,  identical  in  appearance,  are  worth,  the  one  fi vepence,  the 
other  threepence  (Mommsen,  Hist  de  ha  monnaie  romainey  vol.  iii.  p.  85,  n.  1).  Accordingly, 
treasury  orders  did  not,  as  we  have  seen  (p.  366,  n.  2),  bear  the  definite  figures,  so  much  money, 
like  the  25,000  sesterces  which  were  originally  the  pay  of  the  leprionary  tribune,  but  an  indication 
of  the  different  kinds  of  money  which,  put  together,  woukl  come  to  about  the  same  sum. 

*  See  on  that  point,  p.  246,  n.  2. 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.      387 

a  fraudulent  bankrupt,   such  as   it   would   be   to   refuse   to   receive 

into   the   public   treasuries   bank-notes  issued  by  the  state   at  their 

fair  value.      Or,    if    a   word    less    harsh   be   preferred,    it   was   an 

increase  of  taxation,  such  as  has   recently  occurred  in  great  states 

where,  the  paper  money  being  below  par,  it  has  been  decided  that 

custom   dues   be   paid   in   gold.      The   tax-payer,  for 

example,   who   owed  100  sesterces   could   not  pay  it 

as  before  with  twenty-five  denarii,  worth  to  him  in 

his   daily  transactions   less   than   eight   shillings;    ho  \ 

must   deliver    to    the   tax-gatherer  an  aureus,   which 

was   worth   much   more   than   that.      After   the   year 

or/?'i  •  J.   '      3  A.  J.         A.  J      Antoninianus  of 

256    silver    com    contained    not    over    twenty,    and         Claudius 
sometimes  only  five  per  cent,  of  pure  metal.      Under   ^'"'SviS'*^^ 
Claudius  Gothicus,  the  Antoninianus,  the  silver  coin 
most   common    in   circulation,    was   a  mixture    of    copper,   tin,    and 
lead,  with  a  whitish  coating,  which  gave  the  pieces  when  new  an 
appearance  of  silver.     But  instead  of  a  precious  metal,  the  possessor 
of  this  piece  of  money  had  only  an  alloy  of  copper:  it  was  nothing 
more    than    a   token.^      The    same    govern- 
ment which  condemned  the  counterfeiter  to 
the   wild    beasts,^    gave   a  forced   currency 
to   the    false    coin    which    it    put    in    cir- 
culation, and  punished  with  banishment  or 
death  those  who  refused  to  receive  it,'  on        "^^"^carSr'*"' ""^ 
the  ground  that  the  emperor's  image  upon 

the  piece  was  competent  to  give  it  the  value  that  it  pleased  him 
to  assign  to  it. 

The  intrinsic  value  of  the  aureus  was  reduced,  like  that  of  the 
silver  denarius :  Ceesar  made  forty  to  the  pound,  Caracalla,  fifty, 
Constantino,  seventy-two ;  and  at  the  same  time  the  amount  of  pure 
metal  employed  decreased  and  the  quantity  of  alloy  increased:  in 
the  first  century,  -009 ;  in  the  second,  -062 ;  in  the  third,  still  more.^ 

*  From  Claudius  II.  to  Diocletian  there  are  only  very  few  coins  which  contain  any  silver 
at  all  (Eckhel,  vii.  475).  This  author  remarks  that  from  the  time  of  Claudius  all  the  cities 
except  Alexandria  and  three  cities  of  Pisidia — Antioch,  Seleucia,  and  Sagalassos— had  lost  the 
right  of  coining  money. 

^  Ulpian,  in  the  Digest,  xlviii.  10,  8. 
»  Paul.,  Sent.  Recept.,  v.  25,  1. 

*  Lenormant,  la  Monnaie  dans  V Antiquity,  i.  202.    In  respect  to  the  distinction  between  coins 

CC  2 


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388  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235    TO    2G8    A.D. 

The  Empire,  therefore,   was  in  a  condition  like  that  of  France 

in  her  most  evil  days,  about 
the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
century ;  and  we  can  truth- 
fully say  that  from  the  reign 
of  Gallienus  to  the  middle  of 
that  of  Diocletian  the  mone- 
tary system  of  the  Eomans 
was  a  permanent  bankruptcy.^ 
Under  the  infliction  of  these 
constant  perturbations  of  the 
monetary  standard,  discouraging 
to  both  the  producer  and  the 
trader,  labour  diminished,  and 
we  have  seen  that  from  other 
causes  the  production  lost  in 
quality  as  well  as  quantity. 

In  the  region  of  intel- 
lectual and  artistic  production 
the  decline  was  even  more 
manifest. 

The  religion  of  the 
beautiful  disappeared  with  the 
gods  who  had  inspired  it,  and 
dragged  with  it  in  its  ruin 
art,  which  always  corresponds 
„       ^  „  with     the     mental     condition. 

Faun  of  Romq  antico. 
(Statue  found  at  Hadrian's  Villa.     Vatican,  becaUSC     in     Order     tO     produCC 

Museo  Pio-Clementino f  C Ahmet,  No.  433.)  ,,  i        ..  •  ^        -i 

its  work  it  requires  to  be 
solicited  by  the  public  taste.  It  had  besides  a  formidable  enemy. 
In    its    first    age   Christianity   was    iconoclastic;    it    anathematized 


or  pieces  circulating  in  trade ;  commemorative  medals,  like  the  immense  gold  piece  of  Eucra- 
tidas  (voL  iii.,  coloured  plate  facing  p.  282) ;  the  imperial  medallions  employed  as  presents  to 
great  personages  at  the  epoch  of  military  gift^,  and  often  worn  around  the  neck  on  a  collar  as 
a  decoration ;  the  pieces  made  for  religious  offerings  or  for  prizes  at  certain  sacred  games ;  those 
worn  as  talismans,  theatrical  tessera?,  tokens,  and  the  like,  see  Lenorraant,  vol.  i.,  Introduction 
The  custom  of  women  wearing  coins  ahout  the  neck  or  set  as  ornaments  is  very  ancient. 

*  Mommsen,  Hitt.  de  la  mormate  rom.,  vol.  iii.  p.  144,  and  Lenormant,  ibid.,  vol.  i.  pp.  172 
and  184. 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.      389 

pagan  art,  it  forbade  its  believers  to  cultivate  it,  and,  wherever 
possible,  it  destroyed  the  statues  of  the  gods.  The  bishop  of 
CsDsarea  in  the  fourth  century  would  not  allow  the  figure  of  Christ 
to   be   represented,   and   the   rude   frescoes   of  the   catacombs  show 


Conical  Stones  representing  Melkarth-Baal,  the  Phoenician  Hercules.' 

what  painting  became  in  Christian  hands.  Art.,  which  was  so 
useless  to  the  new  faith,  was  no  more  serviceable  to  the  old. 
What  could  art  do  with  the  black  stone  of  Elagabalus,  the  conical 
deities  of  Syrians,  even  with  the  Ephesian  Diana  of  the  fifty 
breasts,*  or  with   the    Olympians   made   objects   of  caricature,   like 

'  Stones  found  at  Malta,  of  which  one  is  in  the  Museum  of  the  Louvre.  The  Phoenician 
Hercules  was  represented  in  his  sanctuary,  in  Tyre,  by  two  columns  of  gold  and  emerald.  The 
two  cones  of  Malta  bear  the  same  inscription  in  Phoenician  and  Qreek ;  it  is  a  dedication  made 
by  two  brothers  to  Melkarth-Baal,  "  the  king  of  the  city.**  (Communication  of  M.  Ph.  Berger.) 
In  respect  to  conical  stones,  see  above,  p.  276,  n.  3. 

*  See  vol.  iv.  p.  23.  And  yet  the  Greeks  had  succeeded  in  giving  to  this  deformed  object 
all  the  beauty  that  it  could  have. 


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390  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235   TO    268    A.D. 

the  beautiful  Ganymede  represented  at  the  feasts  of  Isis  by  a 
monkey?^  How  could  men  have  exhibited  in  marble  or  in  bronze 
the  hypostases  of  the   neo-Platonists  and  the   confused  abstractions 

of  the  Gnostics?  From  the 
temple  and  the  forum,  art 
had  fallen  to  the  boudoir. 
It  at  first  maintained  itself 
by  the  imitation  of  ancient 
work ;  but  this  imitation 
becoming  more  feeble  as  the 
models  became  more  remote, 
no  man  knew  how  to  produce 
anything  that  was  not  dull 
and  affected.  The  inspiration 
being  lost  nothing  remained 
except  a  handicraft,  and  the 
unworthy  successors  of  the 
masters  produced  by  contract 
for  an  impoverished  and 
coarse  community  which  had 
lost  relish  for  the  elegance 
of  earlier  days.  Compare  the 
busts     of     this    period    with 

Ganymede  as  an  Ape,  on  a  Lamp  in  the  Museum       ^J^^      statues      of       the       earlv 
of  the  Louvre.  •' 

Empire,^  or  the  sculptures  of 
the  Arch  of  Constantine  with  those  of  the  Antonine  age,  even  the 
pretty  trifles,  the  exquisite  vases,  the  graceful  furniture  of  Pompeii 
with  the  ceramics  and  the  heavy  ornamentation  of  the  end  of 
the  third  centuiy,  and  it  will  be  apparent  that  barbarism  is 
approaching.^ 

'  Apulfius,  Metamorphoses f  xi. 

^  Eckhel  (vol.  vii.  458)  says  of  the  bronze  coins  of  Postumus,  Victorinus,  and  Tetricus: 
Ultimam  plenque  barbariem  redolent,  sic  ut  non  in  provincta  ....  sed  Sarmatas  inter 
Gothosque  ....  percussi  videri possint.  Many  others  of  these  emperors  are  coins  of  the  early 
Empire  re-minted.  (De  Witte,  Revue  numism.,  vi.  1861.)  At  the  same  time,  M.  de  Witte  has 
published  many  fine  bronze  coins  of  Postumus,  and  the  difference  is  explained  by  the  diversity 
of  mints.  That  of  Lyons  especially,  which  belonged  to  the  Gallic  emperor,  had  traditions 
and  artists  enabling  it  to  still  issue  fine  coins,  and  we  shall  see  them  until  the  close  of  the 
century. 

^  See,  in  the  Congres  arclieologique  de  France,  vol.  xlvii,  1881 ,  pp.  220-239,  the  remarks  of 
Dr.  Plicque  upon  the  Gallo-Roman  pottery  made  at  Lezoux  (Puy-de-D6me). 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.      391 

Stern  preachers  of  philosophy  and  religion  had  driven  laughter 
away,  while   public  calamities   had  put  an  end    to    happiness,    and 
art,  which  is  the  joy  of  life,  no 
longer  knew   how  to  adorn  it: 
the  sadness  of  the  Middle  Ages 
was  beginning. 

We  must  make  allowance 
however  for  the  barbarians. 
The  fear  of  invasion  had 
obliged  the  cities,  which  had 
remained  open  during  "  the 
Koman  peace,''  to  shut  them- 
selves up  within  walls;  and 
to  build  these  walls  they  had 
in  many  places  already  de- 
stroyed the  buildings  that  more 
fortunate  generations  had 
erected.  At  Tours,  at  Orleans, 
at  Angers,  at  Bordeaux,  at 
Saintes,  at  Narbonne,  at  Reims, 
at  Poitiers,  and  in  many  other 
cities  of  Gaul  we  find  in  the 
old  walls  fragments  of  columns 
or  entablatures,  monumental 
stones,  and  inscriptions.  Themi- 
stocles  did  this  in  Athens,  but 
Pericles  and  Phidias  came  after 
him,  while  after  the  great  archi- 
tects   of    the   Antonines    there 

were   only   masons.^  Candelabrum  of  Hadrian's  Villa  (Marble);  on  the 

^,         ^       ,      -  Base,  Jupiter  (the  other  Sides  represent  Juno 

ine     (ireek    language    was       and   Minerva).     (Vatican,  GaUery   of  Statues, 

still     written     with     elegance:        ^' 

Oppianus  of  Cilicia  and  Babrius  (if  Babrius  belongs  to  the  third 
century)  are  two  good  versifiers,  almost  two  poets;  the  name 
of  Longinus  is   always  mentioned  with   respect;    and   Photius,    in 

*  De  Caumont,  Cours  d^Ant.  num.,  8th  part,  passim :  Batissier,  Histoire  de  VArt  mmivr 
mental :  Revue  arMol,  November,  1877,  p.  361 ;  and  M^moires  de  la  SocUti  archSol  de  Bordeaux, 
16&),  pp.  63  et  seq. 


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392  MILITAEY   ANARCHY,    235   TO   268   A.D. 

a  transport  of  generosity,  places  the  historian  Dexippos  beside 
Thucydides;  we  certainly  shall  not  give  the  same  honour  either 
to  Dion  Cassius  or  Herodian,  both  of  whom,  however,  have 
frequently  been  useful  to  us.      jElian  and   Philosti-atus    must    both 


CaDdelabrum  from  Diomede's  House  at  Pompeii. 

be  censured  for  their  simple-minded  credulity;  Diogenes  Laertius 
and  Athenaeus,  by  the  precious  information  which  we  owe  them, 
and  Origen,  by  his  vigorous  mind,  announce  the  splendour  which 
the  Greek  fathers  of  the  subsequent  century  will  cast  over  the 
Church.  The  Eoman  world  was  turning  more  and  more  towards 
the  East;    there  is  life  nowhere  else  at  this  time. 


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THE   EMPIRE    IN    THE    MIDDLE    OF   THE   THIBD   CENTURY.  393 

As  for  Latin  literature,  it  was  absolute  nullity.  There  were 
still  men  of  letters,  for  there  always  must  be  in  a  civilized  society; 
but  the  writers  of  the  time  saw  only  the  lesser  sides  of  things  : 
they  take  anecdote  for  history,  rhetoric  for  eloquence,  verification 
for  poetry.^  The  union  once  so  fruitful  between  the  genius  of 
Bome  and  that  of  Athens  no  longer  exists,  and  this  divorce  of  the 
two  literatures  is  a  sign  foretelling  the  approaching  separation 
between  the  two  empires.^  The  Latin  mind  grows  visibly  weaker, 
except  in  the  Church,  where  Cyprian  at  Carthage  is  the  precursor 
of  Augustine  at  Hippo. 

Meanwhile  the  Christians  have  also  their  share  in  the  decliuiB 
of  the  Empire.  A  haU  century  of  tranquillity  had  singularly 
increased  their  number;  but  although  life,  which  was  enfeebled 
in  the  pagan  world,  was  ardent  in  their  communities,  they  were 
for  the  state  a  cause  of  weakness  rather  than  strength.  The  Eoman 
law  punished  celibacy ;  they  honoured  it.  The  great  development 
of  the  monastic  system  comes  in  the  following  century,  but  many 
believers  already  shunned  marriage,  which  their  clergy,  as  a 
rule,  avoided.'  They  lived  by  themselves,  avoiding  all  intercourse 
with  the  heathen,  except  in  cases  of  absolute  necessity,  and  abhori'ed 
the  sacrilegious  festivals  of  the  latter.  Being  foreigners  in  the 
cities  whose  honours  they  rejected,  they  were  the  same  in  the 
Empire,  which  they  refused  to  defend  with  weapons,*  and  without 
displeasure  they  saw  the  approach  of  the  barbarians.  On  the  way 
to  execution  8.  Marianus  exclaimed  :  "  God  will  avenge  the  blood 
of  the  righteous.  I  hear,  I  see  the  white  horsemen  coming ! " 
and   Commodianus   depicted   in   barbaric   verse  the  Goths  marching 

'  We  must,  however,  regret  the  Memoirs  of  Septimius  Severus  and  also  perhaps  the  History 
of  Marius  Maximus,  often  quoted  by  the  compilers  of  the  Aitgvstan  History,  although  Vopiscus 
(Firmus,  1)  says  of  this  writer:  Horno  omnium  verbosissimits,  qui  et  mythistoricis  se  voluminibus 
implicavit,  and  some  other  chroniclers  of  whom  we  know  scarcely  more  than  the  names.  There 
remain  three  verses  written  by  the  Emperor  Gallienus,  a  fragment  of  an  epithalium  which  he 
composed  for  the  marriage  of  one  of  his  nephews.  Censorinus  wrote  his  treatise  de  Die  natali 
in  239.  Two  other  grammarians,  "Nonius  Marcellus  and  Festus,  are  sometimes  said  to  belong  to 
the  third  century.  The  two  versifiers,  Nemesianus  and  Calpumius,  come  at  the  close  of  the 
century,  and  cannot  be  placed  in  the  list  of  true  poets  j  Calpumius  is  a  very  skilful  maker  of 
verses. 

*  In  the  fourth  century  the  eastern  bishops  and  most  illustrious  doctors  of  the  Church  were 
ignorant  of  Latin. 

'  See  on  this  subject,  pp.  217  c^  seq. 

*  See  p.  212  of  this  volume,  and  also  what  ^  said  by  JEXiwR  Aristides  (vol.  ii.  p.  402,  ed. 
Dindorf)  of  Christians  who  are  unwilling  to  participate  in  the  affairs  of  the  city. 


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394  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235    TO    268   A.D. 

upon  Rome  with  "  the  destroyer  king,"  *  to  bring  to  nought  the 
enemies  of  the  saints  and  to  put  the  senate  under  the  yoke. 
Marianus  and  ^*  Christ's  beggar  "  were  right  in  announcing  to  the 
persecutors  an  approaching  expiation,  but  others  were  wrong  in 
making  themselves  the  instruments  of  it.  In  Pontus,  the  Christians 
united  with  the  Goths  in  pillaging  the  heathen,  overthrowing  the 
idols  and  burning  the  temples ;  ^  consequently  the  emperors  at  last 
taking  alarm,  sought  to  extirpate  by  sword  and  fire  that  refractory 
element  which  the  menaces  of  the  law  and  judicial  executions  had 
not  been  able  to  hold  in  check.  Then  terror  was  to  brood  over 
the  nations,  the  purest  blood  was  to  flow,  and  a  civil  war  was  to 
be  added  to  the  foreign  war. 

This  civil  war  has  the  character  of  wars  among  savages.  The 
western  provinces  have  already  witnessed  scenes  as  terrible  as 
those  of  the  American  frontier,  when  the  savages  swoop  down  upon 
it,  scalping  the  men,  carrying  ofp  the  women,  and  leaving  the 
buildings  a  mass  of  smoking  ruins.  As  guides  to  the  richest 
dwellings  and  the  best-concealed  treasures,  the  invaders  found  the 
slaves  of  barbaric  origin,  who  regarded  them  as  liberators.  In 
Thrace  and  Greece  and  Asia  Minor  there  was  also  bloodshed  and 
devastation,  and  long  trains  of  captives  whom  the  barbarians, 
when  wearied  with  expeditions  and  satisfied  with  plunder,  carried 
away  with  them  to  their  encampments  in  the  North.  At  each  new 
invasion  the  ravages  extended  further ;   first  by  land,   then  by  sea. 

*  Commod.  episc.  Afric,  Carmen  apoloffeticum,  in  the  Spicilegium  Solesinmse  of  Dom  Pitra, 
i,  p.  43.  Commodianus  calls  the  Gothic  king  Apoleon,  from  a7roAXv/u,  to  ruin,  to  destroy  "  Ue 
marches  upon  Rome,**  says  this  old  author, "  with  thousands  of  Gentiles  and  ....  makes  captive 
the  vanquished.  Many  senators  shall  with  them  weep  m  chains.  .  .  .  Meanwhile  these  Gentiles 
will  everywhere  cherish  the  Christians  and,  rejoicing,  seek  them  out  as  brethren  ....**  (verses 
800-815).  From  verse  801  on,  the  Cai^men  is  believed  to  have  been  written  at  the  exact  time 
with  which  we  are  now  occupied,  before  the  persecution  of  Decius,  in  238.  TertuUian,  in  his 
ApoL^  37,  addressed  to  the  Roman  magistrates,  calls  upon  them  to  regard  it  as  a  merit  in  the 
Christians  that  they  did  not  favour  the  attacks  of  the  Mauretanians  upon  Hadrian,  of  the 
Marcomanni  upon  Marcus  Aurelius,  of  the  Parthians  upon  Severus,  which  proves  that  in  his 
heart  the  idea  of  aiding  the  enemies  of  the  Empire  was  not  repugnant  to  him.  Two  centuries 
later,  Salvienus,  in  his  Qvbem.  Dct,  still  extolled,  in  the  midst  of  the  calamities  of  an  invasion, 
"the  virtues  of  the  barbarians  who  repulse  all  those  infamous  practices  which  the  Romans 
permit.  Vice,  which  is  with  them  the  exception,  is  the  rule  among  us.**  This  is  the  same 
spirit  which,  in  the  first  century,  led  S.  John  to  condemn  "  the  great  whore.**  See  pp.  211-8 
of  this  volume. 

=*  See  the  fifth  canon  of  S.  Gregory  Thaumaturgus  in  Routh,  Reltquio!  sacra,  iii.  262,  who 
adds:  Ista  Barbarorum  incursio  gramssimis  inter  chrtsttanos  perpetrandis  delictis  occasionem 
prabuit. 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.      395 

The  Goths  were  soon  to  construct  vessels  and  carry  devastation 
along  all  the  coasts.  '*  Hordes  of  Scythians,"  says  Ammianns 
Marcellinus,    **  crossing   with   2,000   vessels  the   Bosphorus  and  the 

Propontis,  devastated  the  shores  of  the  -^gean  Sea All  the 

cities  of  Pamphylia  suffered  the  horror  of  a  siege ;  Anchialos  was 
taken ;  many  islands  were  ravaged,  and  a  multitude  of  enemies  for 
a  long  time  surrounded  Cyzicus  and  Thessalonica.  Fire  was  carried 
through  all  Macedon ;  Epirus,  Thessaly,  and  Greece  suffered  in- 
vasion." ^  The  rich  cities  bordering  the  sea  of  the  Cyclades  were 
obliged  to  rebuild  their  walls,  which  two  centuries  of  peace  had 
suffered  to  fall  into  decay,  the  Athenians  to  resume  their  weapons, 
grown  rusty  since  the  time  of  Sylla,  and  the  Peloponnesians  to  bar 
their  isthmus  with  a  wall.^  Everywhere  were  contests  -and  blood- 
shed. At  Philippopolis  a  hundred  thousand  dead  bodies,  it  was 
said,  lay  beneath  the  ruins.  The  provinces  unvisited  by  the 
Franks  and  Goths  had  other  plunderers ;  in  Sicily  freebooters 
became  so  numerous  that  the  island,  once  so  favoured,  seemed 
ravaged  by  a  new  Servile  war. 

Man,  directing  his  strength  against  himself,  suspended  the 
struggle  against  the  powers  of  nature,  which  resumed  their  sway, 
and  declared  it  with  a  cruel  energy.  From  the  accumulated  ruins, 
the  untilled  ground,  and  the  undrained  waters  emerged  contagion. 
The  empire  was  like  a  great  body  in  dissolution,  exhaling  deadly 
miasma.  For  twelve  years  (250-262)  there  was  constantly  a 
pestilence  in  the  provinces ;  at  one  time  in  Eome  and  Achaia, 
5,000  persons  died  daily ;  at  Alexandria  there  was  not  a  house 
without  its  dead,  and  the  army  of  Valerian  was  reduced  by 
sickness  before  encountering  the  archers  of  Sapor. 

To  these  scourges  was  added  another.  The  volcanic  region, 
which  extends  in  two  directions  from  the  Alps  of  Friuli  across 
Italy  and  Sicily  to  Africa,  and  from  the  Adriatic  to  the  ^gean 
Sea  and  the  coasts  of  Syria,  resumed  their  activity.  The  earth  was 
shaken,  and  gave  forth  dull  rumbling  sounds ;  the  sky  was  black 
for  many  days  ;  chasms  yawned  in  the  ground ;  and  the  sea, 
hurling   tremendous  waves   upon   the   shore,  destroyed   many  cities. 

'  xxxi.  5.     The  picture  which  Zosimus  (i.  28)  traces  of  these  devastations  is  even  more 
ffloomy. 

^  Zosimus,  i.  29:  the  SyncelluSf  i.  716  (Bonn  ed.);  Zonaras,  xii.  22. 


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396  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235   TO    268   A.D. 

It  seemed  as  if  the  threats  uttered  by  the  Christians  concerning 
the  end  of  the  world  were  about  to  be  fulfilled.  The  Sibylline 
books  being  consulted,  ordered  a  sacrifice  to  Jupiter  Salutaris} 

A  document,  preserved  by  Eusebius,  sums  up  in  brief  and 
terrible  words  the  situation  of  the  Empire.  In  the  capital  of 
Egypt  the  number  of  persons  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and 
eighty,  inscribed  during  the  reign  of  G^Uienus  on  the  registers  of 
the  alimentary  institution,  did  not  exceed  the  number  of  the  men 
from  forty  to  seventy  who  formerly  had  shared  in  these  distribu- 
tions.^ Alexandria  therefore  had  at  this  time  lost  more  than  one 
half  of  her  population,  and  if  such  were  the  case  in  a  city  which 
had  never  seen  a  barbarian,^  what  must  have  been  the  condition  of 
the  provinces  where  they  made  so  many  victims  ?  It  would  not  be 
going  too  far  to  say  that  in  the  space  of  twenty  years  that  portion 
of  the  human  race  contained  within  the  limits  of  the  Empire,  and 
formerly  so  prosperous,  had  diminished  by  one  half.  Such  was 
one  of  the  effects  of  governmental  anarchy  and  of  the  appearance 
of  the  Germanic  race  in  the  Greeco-Eoman  world. 

We  have  admired  the  early  Empire  promoting  order,  security, 
and  labour,  the  chief  function  of  government  in  all  ages,  and  its 
excTLse  in  periods  of  absolute  power,  and  we  have  repeated  the 
words  of  gratitude  that  its  subjects  at  that  time  so  often  uttered. 
It  is  now  our  duty  to  show  these  same  subjects  disaffected  towards 
rulers  who  knew  not  how  to  defend  them,  and  who  so  often  ill- 
used  them.  Kome  is  no  longer  the  sovereign  goddess  in  whom 
all  confide.  Each  province  desires  to  have  its  own  emperor;  even 
dynasties  of  Gallic  and  Syrian  origin  appear.  That  is  what  a 
haK  century  of  revolutions  has  made  of  the  flourishing  empire  of 
the  Antonines  and  Severus.  In  states  where  the  ruler  is  every- 
thing and  institutions  are  nothing,  decline  may  rapidly  succeed 
greatness,  for  though  we  may  not  say  that  there  are  providential 
men,  there   are  necessary   men.     Let   Trajan,    Hadrian,    or   Severus 

^  Treb.  Pollio,  OaU.,  4  and  6. 

*  Hist.  eccL,  vii.  21,  from  a  letter  of  Dionysios,  the  bishop  of  Alexandria.  In  France,  out 
of  every  million  of  inhabitants,  there  are  789,659  between  the  ages  of  18  and  80,  and  267,662 
between  the  ages  of  40  and  70.    The  proportion  between  these  two  numbers  is  2*96  to  1. 

'  Egypt  had  suffered  no  invasion,  but  had  been  for  twelve  years  agitated  with  sanguinary 
tumults,  which  the  carelessness  of  the  general  government  had  allowed  to  break  out  in  many 
other  places.     (Euseb.,  ibid,,  and  Amm.  Marcellinus,  xxii.  16.) 


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THE  EMPIRE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.      397 

be  at  the  head  of  the  government,  and  a  hundred  million  Eomans 
live  in  quiet  and  prosperity  ;  let  these  men  be  replaced  by  those 
who  are  incapable  of  ruling,  and  disorder  is  in  the  armies  and  the 
barbarians  are  in  the  provinces.  Civilization  advances  not  by 
means  of  the  masses,  but  by  means  of  sufperior  men  ;  when  nature 
formed  no  more  men  of  that  stamp,  civilization  fell  away. 


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CHAPTER   XCVI. 

FROM  TEE  ACCESSION  OF  DECIUS  TO  THE  DEATH  OP  &ALLIENTIS  (249-268). 
PARTIAL  INVASIONS  THROUGHOUT  THE  EMPIRE. 

I. — Decius   (249-251   a.d.);     Goths   and    Christians. 

CME8SIUS   QUINTUS   TRAJANUS   DECIUS  was  bom   of   a 
■     Roman  family,  living  in  the  village  of  Bubalia  near  Sirmium  : 
in  the  year  201,  according  to  Aurelius  Victor;  in  191,  according  to 

the  Chronicle  of  Alex- 
andria, He  heads  the 
long  list  of  lUjrrian 
emperors,  many  of 
whom  were  destined  to 
do  the  state  great  ser- 
vice. They  were  not 
men   of  brilliant  quali- 

Etru^ilJa,  Wife  of  Decius.      ^^         ^^    ^w    ^ero    of  ,« ^^'''^"  Ai^^^^'ir'"   ^ 

(Bronze  MedaUion.)  '  J  (Bronze  31edallion.) 

accurate      minds      and 
energetic   character,   as  might   be   expected   from   natives   of    those 
poor  and  warlike  provinces. 

Decius  was  of  humble  origin,  and  rose  to  distinction  through 
his  military  career.^  The  old  authors  praise^  him  very  highly, 
but  his  reign  does  not  justify  their  eulogiums;  it  was  extremely 
short,  and  the  history  of  it  is  singularly  confused  and  contains 
many  contradictions.  Three  facte,  however,  are  distinct,  and  they 
suffice:  a  war  against  the  Goths;  the  re-establishment  of  the 
censorship,  which  indicates  a  return  towards  ancient  customs ;    and, 

'  Militifp  gradu  ad  impenum  (Aur.  Victor,  Cep/t.^  29). 
'•'  Especially  Zosiiniis  (i.  21-28)  and  Aur.  Victor  (20). 


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PBOM    THE    ACCESSION    OF    DECIUS   TO    THE    DEATH    OF    G  ALLIEN  US.       399 

as  a   result   of   this,    a  persecution    against   Christianity,  the   great 
novelty  of  the  times. 

After  his  victory  near  Verona  (September,  249y  Decius  went 
to    Rome    with    his    son,    Quintus    Herennius 
Etruscus,    whom  he   had  named   CsBsar;^    but 
he  was  almost  immediately  forced   to   leave   it 
to  repel  an  invasion  of  the  Goths. 

Confiding  in  the  successes  he  had  obtained 
in  Thrace  over  these  barbarians,  Gordian  III. 
put  an  end  to  the  annual  subsidy  promised  to 
this  nation.  At  least,  Jordanes"  relates  that  ^ThTE^^Sru'el^S" 
king  Ostrogotha  complained  of  this,  and  that 
he  crossed  the  Danube  with  30,000  of  his  people  to  ravage  Mcesia. 
Other  barbarians  joined  him ;  Roman  soldiers 
even  came  to  have  a  share  in  the  plunder, 
and  the  mountaineers  of  the  Haemus,  upon 
whom  civilization  had  had  but  little  effect, 
doubtless  furnished  the  invaders  with  guides 
and  auxiliaries.  The  great  city  of  Marciano- 
polis  (to  the  west  of  Varna)  escaped  by  the 
payment  of  a  ransom.^  ("oinof  Odessus.   The  God 

"^    "^  standing,    at    the    lieft, 

When     the     Goths     returned    with    rich       holding    a  Cornucopia 
spoils,    the   Gepidee    attempted   to  .plunder  the 
plunderers ;    a   Uot   engagement    took    place,    in   which   the    former 
were   victorious.      These    events    took    place   during    the    reign   of 

^  We  have  a  rescript  of  his,  dated  October  16th,  249,  in  the  Code,  x.  16,  3,  and,  according 
to  Eckhel,  Philip  was  still  living  on  the  29th  of  August  of  that  year. 

^  Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  342.  Aurelius  Victor  (29)  says  that  the  Caesar  was  immediately  sent  in 
Illyrios.  Decius  had  a  second  son,  0.  Valena  Hostilianus  Messius  Quintus,  who  was  also  made 
CflDsar  and  Prince  of  the  Youth. 

'In  respect  to  the  pensions  paid  the  Goths  since  the  time  of  Alexander  Severus,  see 
Tillemont,  iii.  216.  Jordanes,  in  his  History  of  the  Goths,  gives  an  abstract  of  a  great  work, 
now  lost,  by  Cassiodorus,  the  favourite  minister  of  Theodoric.  In  respect  to  the  Gothic  war, 
see  Wietersheim,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii.,  where  he  discusses  the  contradictory  narratives  of  Jordanes, 
Zosimus,  Zonaras,  and  Aur.  Victor.  These  details,  however,  lose  all  their  interest  in  presence 
of  the  too  certain  fact  of  the  defeat  of  the  Roman  army  and  the  death  of  Decius. 

*  Post  longam  obsidionem,  accepto  prcemio  ditatus  Geta  recessit  (Jordanes,  17). 

*  The  Greek  colonies  of  the  coast  of  Thrace,  far  from  changing  the  condition  of  the  country*, 
had  undergone  the  influence  of  the  barbarians,  their  neighbours,  who  had  modified  the  manners, 
the  forms  of  worship,  and  even  the  language  of  these  Greeks.  An  inscription  of  the  year  2'M 
shows,  at  Gdessus,  the  Thracian  god,  Derziparos,  and  upon  early  coins  of  that  city  the  great 
god  of  the  Odessians  was  Eurza.  (Revue  archSoL,  March,  1878,  p.  114;  cf.  Dumont,  Inscr.  de 
Thrace.) 


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400  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235   TO    268   A.D. 

Philip.  The  invasion  had  been  so  disastrous  for  Mcesia  that  the 
monetary  series  of  the  Pontic  cities  stops  with  this  emperor;  they 
had  no  more  gold  left  to  coin. 

In  the  reign  of  Decius,  Kniva,  the  successor  of  Ostrogotha, 
made  a  still  more  formidable  invasion;  he  divided  his  forces  into 
two  bodies,  sent  -one  to  ravage  the  part  of  Mcesia  which  the 
Eoman  troops  had  abandoned  in  order  to  concentrate  themselves  in 
the  strongholds,  and  with  the  other,  which  amounted  to  70,000 
men,  he  attacked  Ad  Novas^  an  important  city  on  the  Danube. 
Eepulsed  by  the  future  emperor,  Gallus,  at  that  time  dux  (duke) 
in  Moesia,  he   attempted   to   surprise   Nicopolis,    which    Trajan   had 

built  in  memory  of 
his  Dacian  victories. 
But  the  Gothic  leader 
encountered  an  army 
which  Decius  had 
collected  at  that 
point.  Unable  to 
force    the    lines,   the 

Quinarius  of  Bronze  of  Trajan  Decius,  equal  in  value  to  barbarian      with      the 

Two  Sesterces. 

audacity  of  an  Indian 
marauder,  left  the  emperor  in  his  camp,  and  advanced  into  the 
Heemus,  of  which  the  passes  were  entirely  unguarded ;  he  came 
down  upon  the  great  city  of  Philippopolis,  without  keeping  open 
a  line  of  retreat.^  Decius  followed  him  over  mountain  paths, 
where  the  Eoman  army,  both  men  and  horses,  suffered  severely. 
The  emperor  had  reached  Bercea,  sixty  miles  eastward  from 
Philippopolis,  and  believed  himself  to  be  still  far  distant  from 
the  Goths,  when  Kniva,  falling  upon  him  unawares,  made  great 
slaughter  among  the  imperial  troops.  Decius  had  only  time  to 
escape  across  the  HeBmus,  While  the  emperor  was  reforming  an 
army  from  the  garrisons  of  fortresses,  Kniva  seized  upon  Philippo- 
polis by  the  connivance  of  Prisons,  the  governor  of  Macedon,  who 
seems  to  have  assumed  the  purple.*  The  barbarian  king  then 
returned  into  Mcesia,  to  deposit  in  a  safe  place  across  the  Danube 

*  This  is  the  same  movement  which  gave  the  Russians  the  victory  in  the  late  war. 

*  Aur.  Victor  (29)  represents  the  Goths  as  entering  Macedonia,  where,  according  to  this 
author,  they  instigated  the  usurpation  of  Priscus. 


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FROM   THE    ACCESSION   OF    DECIUS   TO   THE    DEATH    OF   GALLIENUS.       401 

the  fruits  of  this  fortunate  campaign.  On  his  way  he  encountered 
the  emperor,  who  sought  to  avenge  the  Empire  by  re-capturing 
from  the  Goths  their  booty  and  theii*  captives,  among  whom  were 
several  persons  of  rank.  The  treason  of  Gallus  caused  him  to 
lose  a  second  battle,  in  which  he  perished  with  his  son,  and  not 
even  his  dead  body  was  recovered  (November,  251).^ 

This  was  the  first  emperor  who  fell  under  the  enemy's  sword 
within  Koman  territory.  Consequently  this  disaster  carried  terror 
through  the  provinces  and  joy  and  hope  into  the  barbaric  world; 
it  was  the  terrible  prologue  to  the  great  drama  which  was  not  to 
end  until  the  day  when  the  German  race,  after  covering  with 
blood  and  ruins  all  Koman  Europe  and  a  part  of  the  East,  installed 
one  of  the  Heruli  in  the  palace  of  Augustus  and  Trajan. 

Two  great  faults  and  one  blunder  had  been  committed  by 
Decius  during  his  veiy  short  reign.  Notwithstanding  his  experi- 
ence he  neither  knew  how  to  prepare  for  a  Gothic  war  nor  to 
carry  it  on  sagaciously,  and  the  result  was  the  devastation  of  two 
provinces  and  his  own  death.  As  he  would  have  had  the  credit 
of  a  victory,  so  he  must  bear  the  blame  of  a  defeat.  His  second 
fault  was  the  persecution  of  the  Christians.  His  blunder  exhibits 
a  political  simplicity  astonishing  in  a  man  of  his  time ;  he 
re-established  the  censorship,  fallen  into  disuse  since  the  days  of 
Claudius  and  Domitian,  and  the  senate  invested  Valerian  with  the 
office.  "  Undertake  the  censorship  of  the  world,"  the  emperor 
said  to  him ;  "  determine  who  shall  remain  in  the  senate  and 
restore  to  the  equestrian  order  its  renown;  take  charge  of  the 
census  and  the  levying  of  taxes ;  make  the  laws,  and  appoint  to 
the  high  military  offices.  Your  supervision  will  extend  as  far  as 
the  imperial  palace  and  over  all  magistrates,  with  the  exception 
of  the  urban  prefect,  the  consuls,  the  rex  aacrorum^  and  the  chief 
vestal." 

If  Trebellius  Pollio^  really  read  these  words  in  the  public  acts 
of  the  reign,  it  was  a  temporary  colleague  that  Decius  gave 
himself,  a  sort  of  interrex  whom  he  left  behind  him  in  the  capital. 


*  Before  Kniva'8  invasion,  it  would  appear  that  Decius  gained  some  victories  in  Dacia,  for 
an  inscription  calls  him  restitutor  Daciainim  (OreUi,  991 ),  and  against  the  Germans,  victona 
Germanica  (Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  344-5),  but  there  is  no  trace  of  this  in  the  histories. 

*  ValerianuSj  1. 

VOL.   VI.  DD 


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402  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

at  a  raoinent  Avhen  he  aud  his  son  were  about  to  depart  for  a 
dangerous  Avar.^  We  can  even  discern  in  this  measure  a  new 
manifestation  of  the  idea  that  it  was  wise  to  divide  the  imperial 
power  among  several  persons,  to  have,  as  in  the  time  of  Pupienus 
and  Balbinus,  one  emperor  in  the  city  and  another  in  the  army. 

The  censorship  had  wisely  been  suffered  to  fall  into  disuse, 
for  it  was  an  institution  which,  though  useful  in  a  little  city, 
must  necessarily  be  impracticable  in  a  great  state.  But  if  it  was 
impossible  to  restore  the  past,  it  appeared  practicable  to  proscribe 
certain  things  in  the  present;  and  Valerian,  who  by  no  means 
brought  back  the  manners  of  early  Eome,  made  in  the  name  of 
Decius,  and  later  in  his  own  name,  a  bitter  war  against  the  new 
creeds. 

The  Christian  ideal  was  higher  than  that  of  Marcus  Aurelius, 
but  it  was  less  disinterested.  The  sage  who  chanced  to  be  an 
emperor  asked  for  nothing  in  return  for  his  obedience  to  duty ; 
and  hence  but  few  have  followed  him.  The  Chiistian,  on  the 
contrary,  made  his  bargain  with  God,  as  the  pagan  world  had 
bargained  with  Jupiter.  In  return  for  their  piety,  the  latter 
desired  earthly  good ;  in  return  for  his,  the  former  felt  himself 
secure  of  eternal  blessedness.  His  religion,  therefore,  possessed 
a  powerful  attraction  for  those  spirits  who  were  not  resigned  to 
submit  to  the  universal  law  of  creation :  after  life,  death,  and 
the  secret  of  the  tomb  left  to  God.  To  the  divine  hopes  which 
she  held  but,  the  Church  added  words  and  deeds  of  gentleness. 
In  the  midst  of  an  aristocratic  community,  extremely  harsh  towards 
the  lowly,  she  taught  the  equality  of  all  men,  great  and  small, 
Roman  and  barbarian,  in  the  presence  of  the  divine  law,  and  pro- 
mised to  ''  the  servants  of  God,"  whether  slaves  or  senators,  tiie 
same  rewards.  Her  spirit  of  universal  love^  her  care  for  the  sick 
and  poor,  the  new  virtues  that  she  required,  in  the  place  of  those 
that  the  Eomans  had  lost  in  losing  the  dignity  of  citizenship,^  had 
gained  her  many  hearts. 

But,  while  the  niKnber  of  believers  was  increasing,  the  virtue 
of  the  early  days  seemed  to  decay.  If  we  may  accept  the  words 
of  S.   Cyprian,  we  must  believe  that  the  peace,  which  the  Church 

^  Zonaras  (xii.  22)  even  makes  Valerian  the  colleague  of  Decius. 
^  Vol.  i.  p.  148,  and  vol.  v.  pp.  413  et  seq. 


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FROM   THE    ACCESSION   OF   DECIUS   TO   THE   DEATH    OF   GALLIENU8.       403 

had  now  enjoyed  for  forty  years,  had  been  fatal  to  discipline  and 
morals ;  that  piety  was  dead  in  the  priests,  integrity  in  the 
ministers,  charity  in  the  believers,  and  that  all  the  vices  of  the 
pagan  world  had  invaded  the  members  of  Jesus  Christ.  Instead 
of  assisting  the  poor,  they  fraudulently  possessed  themselves  of 
lands  and  heritages,  and  increased  their  revenues  by  usury. ^     '^  We 


S.  Cyprian  and  S.  Laurence  on  a  Gilded  Glass  of  the  Catacombs.     (Roller, 
op.  cit.f  pi.  Ixxviii.  No.  7.) 

devour  one  another,"  says  a  second  contemporary;  "and  our  sins 
have  raised  a  wall  between  God  and  us.  Haman  insults  us ; 
Esther,  with  all  the  righteous,  is  in  confusion,  for  all  the 
virgins  have  suffered  their  lamps  to  go  out;  they  are  asleep,  and 
the  door  is  shut.  When  the  Son  of  Man  cometh,  shall  he  find 
faith  on  the  earth?  The  Word  has  his  fan  in  his  hand  that  he 
may  cleanse  his  floor."  ^  Like  all  pulpit  orators,  S.  Cyprian  ex- 
aggerates.    His  picture  ''of  the  fall"  is  too  dark,  as  his  apologies 

*  De  Lapsisj  passim. 

^  S.  Pionius,  priest  in  Smyrna  and  martyr  in  250.  {Ap.  BoUandists,  February  Ist,  p.  45.) 
Reference  to  the  parable  of  the  wise  and  the  foolish  virgins :  an  omnino  normitavet'unt  omnes 
virgines  et  dormierunt  ....     (/rf.,  ibid.) 

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404  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235   TO    268    A.D. 

are  too  brilliant  in  colour.  S.  Cyprian  wrote  in  the  midst  of  a 
persecution ;  since  God  had  permitted  it,  its  justice  must  be 
proved,  and  the  irregularities  of  the  Christians  became  necessary 
to  explain  the  divine  chastisement.  Events  really  had  a  more 
natural  cause.  Since  the  time  of  the  short  persecution  under 
Sever  us,*  heroism  had  not  been  called  out ;  there  had  followed  a 
relaxed  enthusiasm,  and  consequently  a  less  rigorous  life.  But 
the  hatred  between  Christians  and  pagans  remained  unabated,  and 
the  latter,  seeing  so  many  woes  fall  upon  the  Empire,  invasions 
of  barbarians,  a  destructive  pestilence,  and  endless  revolutions, 
believed  the  gods  offended  by  the  impunity  allowed  to  those  who 
blasphemed  them.  The  government  also  became  uneasy  at  the 
presence  of  this  enemy,  which,  under  penalty  of  destruction,  the 
pagan  state  must  either  assimilate  or  destroy.  Decius,  a  harsh 
and  narrow-minded  ruler,  who,  in  his  love  of  the  past,  believed 
himself  able  to  resuscitate  the  dead,  restore  to  the  senate  its  power 
and  to  Jupiter  his  thunderbolts,  undertook  to  avenge  his  gods.  He 
promulgated  an  edict,  which  was  posted  in  all  the  cities,  ordering 
search  to  be  made  for  all  Christians,  and  punishment  to  be  in- 
flicted upon  them.  A  war  of  extermination  began.  It  appeared 
at  first  to  succeed,  because  even  more  skill  than  cruelty  was 
employed  in  it.  All  the  efforts  of  the  proconsuls  were  directed 
towards  obtaining  acts  of  apostasy.  ^^  Tortures,"  says  S.  Cyprian, 
"  were  continuous ;  they  were  not  planned  to  give  the  crown,  but 
to  exhaust  the  power  of  endurance."  *  Accordingly  apostasies  were 
numerous.  "To  save  his  life,  the  son  gave  up  the  father,  the 
father  denounced  the  son." — "At  Carthage  the  greater  number 
of  the  brethren  deserted  at  the  first  threats  of  the  enemy.  They 
did  not  wait  to  be  questioned,  but  to  preserve  the  wealth  which 
held  their  souls  captive,  they  hastened  voluntarily  to  sacrifice  to 
the  idols;  they  implored  the  magistrates  to  receive  them  on  the 
instant  to  bum  the  impure  incense,  and  not  to  put  off  until  the 
morrow  that  which  was  to  make  their  eternal  ruin  sure."  At 
Alexandria   the    same    scenes   took   place,    and  at  Smyrna,   Rome, 

*  Origen  (Contra  Celsum,  iii.)  says  that,  until  the  time  of  the  great  persecution  under 
Decius,  there  was  but  "  a  very  small  number,  easy  to  count,"  of  Christians  put  to  death. 

*  S.  Cyprian,  Ep.,  8,  52,  53,  and  his  de  Lapsis:  Euseb.,  Hist  eccl,  vi.  39,  41 ;  Gregory  of 
Nyssa,  in  his  Life  of  Gregory  Thaumaturgus :  Tillemont,  iii.  326-345. 


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The  Emperor  Decius.     (Statue  of  the  Capitol.) 


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FROM    THE   ACCESSION    OF   DECIU8   TO   THE    DEATH    OF   GALLIENUS.       407 

and  throughout  the  Empire.  Even  bishops  were  seen  leading 
their  entire  congregations  into  apostasy.  Trophimus  of  Aries  him- 
self accompanied  the  Christians  to  pagan  altars.  Others,  with 
money,  bought  toleration :  the  libellatici  were  very  numerous. 
These  weaknesses  are  in  human  nature,  and  we  have  no  cause  to 
wonder  that  Christianity,  as  it  extended,  lost  something  of  its 
early  virtue. 

However,  the  persecution  of  Decius  seems  not  to  have  been  as 
severe  as  has  been  asserted.^  A  sentence  of  death  was  not  always 
the  inevitable  sentence.  Some  were  despoiled  of  their  goods; 
others  were  thrown  into  prison  :  Babylas  of  Antioch  and  Alexander 
of  Jerusalem,  of  very  advanced  age,  could  not  support  the  rigours 
of  imprisonment,  and  died  in  consequence.  The  most  formidable, 
because  at  that  time  the  most  famous,  of  the  Christians,  Origen, 
was  loaded  with  chains  and  threatened  with  the  stake,  but  '^  the 
man  of  steel"  betrayed  no  weakness.  The  torturers  were  wearied 
sooner  than  their  victim;  he  was  set  at  liberty  and  lived  four 
years  longer.^ 

As  the  persecution  had  been  publicly  announced  many  had 
time  to  escape.  The  most  conspicuous  leaders,  Cyprian  of  Carthage, 
Dionysius  of  Alexandria,  and  Gregory  Thaumaturgus  escaped  the 
peril,  quitting  their  episcopal  cities  to  live  in  some  adjacent  retreat 
whence  they  could  communicate  with  the  faithful.  It  must  have 
been  easy  for  many  others  to  place  themselves  in  shelter.  Of 
these  fugitives  some  went  among  the  barbarians,  others  took  refuge 
in  the  desert. 

The  martyrologies  enumerate  in  this  period  a  considerable 
number  of  martyrs ;  but  serious  authors  dare  not  guarantee  the 
authenticity  of  these  Acts^  filled  with  anachronisms  and  marvellous 
legends,   like  that  of  the   Seven   Sleepers   of    Ephesus,  who   being 

^  Except  in  Egypt,  where  there  was  doubtless  a  governor  particularly  bitter  against  the 
Christians.  In  Alexandria,  a  popular  riot  had  cost  the  lives  of  several  of  them  before  the 
arrival  of  the  edict  of  Decius.  (Euseb.,  Hist,  eccl,  vi.  41.)  '  After  the  publication  of  the  edict 
there  were  many  apostasies  and  a  certain  number  of  martjn^.  However,  Dionysius,  bishop  of 
Alexandria  at  this  time,  mentions  as  martyred  after  the  edict  but  nine  men  and  four  women. 
{Ibid.)    There  must  have  been  more. 

^  Origen,  who  was  called  \\iafiavTioQ  (Euseb.,  Hist,  eccl,  vi.  14),  was  at  that  time  sixty-five 
years  of  age.  He  had  recently  written  (between  245  and  240)  bis  great  work  against  Celsus, 
the  \6yoQ  aXtjBi^c-  S.  Cyprian  says  of  the  African  confessors :  Nee  cessistis  suppliciis^  sed  vobis 
potius  supplicia  cesserunt  (Ep.,  10). 


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408  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

shut  up  in  a  cave,  and  walled  in,  emerged,  living,  two  centuries 
after.  We  should  ,not,  however,  fall  into  the  opposite  extreme, 
concluding  from  these  pious  frauds  that  there  were  very  few  con- 
demnations to  death.  The  edict  of  Decius  reveals  an  intention  on 
the  part  of  the  imperial  government  to  strike  a  heavy  blow ;  ^  a 
few  of  the  leaders  of  the  Church,  bishops  or  doctors,  perished, 
and,  as  always,  the  common  people  and  the  slaves.  The  most 
illustrious  victims  were  S.  Saturninus,  first  bishop  of  Toulouse, 
Pionius,  priest  in  Smyrna,  who,  by  his  sacrifice,  made  up  for  the 
apostasy  of  his  bishop,''  and"  Fabian,  bishop  of  Eome,  whose  see 
remained  vacant  a  year  and  a  half.  Pionius  was  crucified,  and 
with  him  a  Marcionite,  so  the  heretics  had  their  martyrs  also.  If 
they  had  told  us  their  story,  they  would  have  added  glorious 
chapters  to  the  great  and  terrible  epic  of  persecution  which  has 
kept  burning  in  men's  minds  across  the  centuries  the  flame  of 
self-devotion,  and  still  incites  to  noble  sacrifices. 

The  storm  let  loose  upon  the  Church  by  him  whom  Lactantius 
calls  "the  accursed  beast,"  lasted  in  reality  but  a  few  months. 
At  the  end  of  the  year  250  peace  had  been  almost  entirely 
restored  to  the  Christian  believers,  and  before  the  death  of  Decius 
all  the  imprisoned  confessors  were  set  free.^  The  emperor  had 
quite  other  work  to  do  than  torturing  these  inoffensive  men  on 
account  of  their  belief.  Kniva  and  his  Goths  compelled  him  to 
occupy  himself  less  with  his  gods  than  with  the  Empire,  and  he 
left  his  undertaking  incomplete.  The  persecution  had  been  no 
more  successful  than  the  censorship  of  morals;  but  the  latter  had 
been  but  a  harmless  whim,  while  the  former  had  caused  tears  and 
blood  to  be  shed,  and  their  trace  still  rests  upon  the  persecutor's 
name. 

*  S.  Cyprian  (JEp.,  62)  speaks  of  the  hatred  of  Decius  towards  the  bishops.  See,  in  the 
Life  of  Qregory  Thaumataryusj  the  severity  of  the  orders  sent  to  the  governors  to  bring  back 
the  Christians  ry  tG^v  datfiSviav  \arpdtf  ....  0oCi^  re  xai  rj  rutv  aiKifffAardv  avayicy. 

^  A  fugitive  slave  perished  with  him. 

*  If  the  Acts  of  S.  Acacius'  are  authentic  (Bollandists,  March  10th).  Decius  himself 
ordered  the  release  of  that  bishop. 


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FROM    THE    ACCE6J510N    OF   DECIUS   TO    THE    HEATH    OF    GALLIENUS.       401) 


11. — KaVAGES   OF   THE    BARBARIANS    IN   THE    EmPIRE  ;     VaLERIAN  ; 

Persecution  of  the  Christians  (251-260). 

In  the  critical  position  where  the  army  stood  after  the  defeat 
and  death  of  Decius,  it  had   neither  time  nor  disposition  to  await 


Treb.  Gallus.     (Bust  of  the  Capitol,  Hall  of  the  Emperors,  No.  73.) 

a    decision   of  the   senate.     Gallus   easily  obtained  the  purple  from 
his    legions.^      In    order    to    free    himself    from    the    suspicion    of 

^  G.  Vibius  Trebonianus  Gallus,  bom  in  206,  according  to  Aur.  Victor,  and  in  104,  accord- 
ing to  the  Alexandrian  Chronicle.     He  was  perhaps  an  African,  a  native  of  the  island  of  Meninx. 


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410  MILITART   ANARCHY,    235   TO   268   A.D. 

betraying  his  emperor,  he  took  for  colleague  Ilostilianus,  the 
second  son  of  Decius,  and  he  caused  his  own  son  Volusianus, 
whom  he  made  Ctesar,^  to  marry  the  sister  of  the  second  Augustus. 
Not  long  after,   however,   the   later   died    or   was   killed.      A   dis- 


Volusianus,  Son  of  Treb.  Oallus.     (Buat  of  the  Capitol,  HaU  of  the  Emperors.) 

graceful  treaty  had  permitted  the  Goths  to  recross  the  Danube 
unmolested,  taking  with  them  their  booty  and  their  captives,  and 
the  promise  of  an  annual  subsidy  in  gold.  But  they  had  found 
the  Empire  so  rich  and  at  the  same  time  so  feeble,  that  it  was  to 
be   expected  that   either   Kniva  or  other  chiefs  woidd   soon  return. 

'  Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  365.     After  the  death  of   Hostilianus,  his  brother-in-law  was  made 
Auffustus  (ibid.,  566),  and  reigned  from  November,  251,  to  February,  264. 


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FROM   THE   ACCESSION    OF   DECIUS   TO    THK    DEATH    OF    GALLIENUS.       411 

There  was,  in  fact,  talk  of  new  encounters  in  Pannonia,  which  the 
governor  jiEmilianus,  a  Mauretanian,  knew  how  to  turn  to  bis  own 
advantage.  These  slight  successes  encouraged  his  troops,  whose 
military  pride  had  been  wounded  by  the  treaty  of  Gallus  with  the 
Goths.  The  distribution  among  the  soldiers  of  the  money  sent 
for  the  Gothic  tribute  completed  the  conquest,  and  the  troops 
proclaimed  their  general.^  Pestilence  and  famine  desolated  the  pro- 
vinces without  interrupting  the  effeminate  life  Gallus  was  leading 
at  Kome,  and  the  people  held   him   responsible  for  these  disasters. 


ilostilianus,  Volusianus,  Son  of  GaUus,  Trebonius  Gullus, 

Second  Son  of  Decius.'       wearing  a  Radiated  Crown. ^  Laurel  crowned. 

(Aureus.)  (Bronze  Medallion.) 

jEmilianus  penetrated  unopposed  into  Italy,*  as  far  as  the  city  of 
Temi,  where  he  met  his  opponent.  A  promise  of  money  to  the 
troops  of  Gallus  decided  the  defection.  The  emperor  was  killed 
with  his  son  (February,  254),  and  the  victor  had  a  few  days  of 
royalty. 

This  vain  person'*  promised  the  senate  to  renew  the  glory  of 
the  great  reigns,  to  leave  to  the  Conscript  Fathers  the  administra- 
tion of  the  state,  while,  he  himself  undertaking  the  hardships 
of  war,  would  go  and  drive  out  the  barbarians  from  the  north 
and  east;  already  he  allowed  himself  to  be  represented  on  medals 
with  the  attributes  of  Hercules  the  Victorious  and  Mars  the 
Avenger. 

Even  before  the  death  of  Gallus,  Valerian,  whom  this  emperor 


*  About  the  close  of  Au^st,  253.     (Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  371.) 

^  Catus  VALENS  HOTILtawM*  (sic)  MEStW  QVINTVS  No^tVw  Caesar.     (Large  bronze.) 
'  IMFerator  CjEsar  Caius  VIBiW  VOLVSIANO*  (sic)  AYQustus.    (Gold  coin.) 

*  About  the  end  of  258.     In  this  case  of  difficult  chronology  we  follow  Eckhel,  who  has 
learnedly  discussed  the  grounds  for  it. 

*  M.  iEmilius  ^milianus.    (Or.-IIenzen,  No.  5,542.) 


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412 


MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235   TO    2t}S   A.D. 


.^milianus     as 


had  employed  to  bring  to  his  succour  the  legions  of  Gaul  and 
Germany,  had  been  by  them  (253)  decorated  with  the  purple  in 
Rhaetia.  Rome  had,  therefore,  three  emperors  at  once.  The  disaster 
of  Temi  removed  one  of  these.  Valerian  had  no  need  to  fight 
against  the  other.  The  soldiers  of  his  opponent,  feeling  them- 
selves the  weaker  party,  and  possibly  offended  at  the  advances 
made  by  their  emperor  to  the  senate,  sent  to  the 
new  Augustus  the  head  of  ^milianus.  The  unfor- 
tunate man  had  been  murdered  near  Spoletum ;  he 
had  reigned  not  quite  three  months.* 

We   find   in   this   year  a  prefect   of  Rome   who 
Mar8.  (>iAiifl  had   the   title   of   comes  doniesticarum^  a  new  designa- 
Tori.)     (SUver  tiou,  and  destined   to   be  very  conspicuous.     Already 
^*"*^  we   have   seen   ditces  and   prcesidentes ;    at  the   great 

council  of  war  held  in  Byzantium,  in  258,  the  emperor  will  be 
surrounded  by  them.  Also  the  amicus  principis  (the  emperor's 
counsellor)  becomes  a  functionary;  one  Clarus  was  made  prefect 
of   Illyria  and  the   Gallic  provinces,   and    during    the    reign    now 

beginning  there  were  to  be,  as  it  were,  two 
empires,  that  of  the  East,  where  Valerian 
was  waging  war,  and  that  of  the  West,  over 
which  his  son  Gallienus  ruled  as  Augustus. 
The  elements  of  the  approaching  reform  were 
in  preparation. 

We  are  about  to  enter  upon  the  period 
known  in  history  as  that  of  the  Thirty 
Tyrants,  that  is  to  say,  of  the  most  horrible 
confusion.  We  shall  pass  quickly  over  it, 
as  in  some  dangerous  or  malarial  locality  the 
traveller  hastens  his  steps. 

The  disorder  existing  in  the  state  appears  in  the  narratives 
which  describe  it.  Even  the  chronology  is  uncertain,  for  this 
reason,  that  the  emperors  succeed  each  other  too  quickly  for  each 
to  have  time  to  issue  the  coins  which  fix  our  dates.  The  one 
thing  plainly  visible  is  that  the  whole  barbarian  world  fell  upon 
the  Empire :    the  Franks  overran   Gaul ;    the  Alemanni  crossed  the 


I>aurelled  Head  of  Valerian 
(IMP.  C.  P.  Lie. 
VALERIANUS  AUG.). 
(Large  Bronze.) 


'  Eutropius  says  that  he  was  killed  tertio  itiense. 


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FROM   THK    ACCESSION    OF    DECIUS   TO    THE    DEATH    OF    OALLIENUS.       413 

Ehine ;    the   Goths    or    Scythians,    the    Danube    and   Euxine ;    the 
Persians,  the  Tigi-is  and  Euphrates. 

Valerian  was  an  upright  man,  who  had  with  good  reason  been 
made  the  censor  of  others  because  he  had  always  been  his  own 
censor;  a  man  very  well  worthy  of  the  second  rank,  but  not  of 
the  first.^  He  endeavoured  to 
relieve  the  public  distress ;  he 
listened  Mdllingly  to  advice,  and 
advanced  men  of  worth.  Claudius, 
Aureolus,  Postumus,  Ingenuus, 
Aurelian,  were  all  distinguished  by 

1  .  J      -D     I.  J      J.        i.1  •      Valerian  and  hiB  Son    Gallienus,  wearing 

him,      and      ProbUS      owed      to      this       the  Radiate  Crowns.    (Quatemio  of  Cop- 

emperor    his    first    honours.^      But     P«^  ^Uoy.) 
the  conduct  of  affairs  required   at  a  period   of   such  extreme  dis- 
order something  more  than  good   intentions:    there  was  needed  a 
clear  and  active   mind,   much   firmness   and   perseverance,  none   of 
which  qualities  Valerian  possessed.      Moreover,   he  - 

came  to  power  too  late;  old  age  is  the  time  for 
repose,  and  not  that  for  duties  which  require 
energy  both  of  mind  and  body.^ 

To  oppose  Gallus,  jEmilianus  had  brought  into 
Italy    the    best    troops    from    Pannonia,    while    to   Qaiiienus  on  Horee- 
assist    the    former    Valerian    had    led    thither    the   ^*^^^^  ^""^^'"'^  ,^«^» 

an  Enemy. 

flower  of  the  Khenish  legions.  The  barbarians, 
who  had  not  failed  to  observe  this  weakening  of  the  garrisons  of 
the  frontier,  attempted  a  new  assault.  Valerian  had  the  wisdom 
to  see  that  alone  he  could  not  possibly  repel  so  many  threats. 
Instead,  however,  of  taking  as  his  colleague  one  of  the  many 
valiant  and  experienced  generals  at  this  time  in  the  Roman  army, 
he  chose  his  son  Gallienus,  who  was  too  young  to  possess 
authority,  and  too  effeminate  to  employ  it  well  if  he  had  had  it.'^ 
Father  and  son  divided  tiie  defence.     Valerian  undertook  the  East, 

^  p.  Licinius  Valerianus  waa  of  an  old  family,  and  at  this  time  sixty-three  years  of  age. 
lie  had  held  office  as  tribune  for  the  first  time  while  Gallus  was  yet  living,  in  the  year  263. 

^  Treb.  Pollio,  Tyr.  trig.,  20;  Vopiscus,  Aur.,  8,  9,  11-15  ;  Prob.,  3-5. 

'  Zoaimus  is  very  severe  upon  Valerian  (i.  36). 

^  Reverse  of  a  silver  medallion  with  the  legend  :  VIRTVS  GALLIEni'. 

^  All  the  coins  of  Publius  Licinius  Egnatius  Gallienus  give  him  the  title  of  Augustus;  not 
one  that  of  Csesar. 


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414 


MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 


Gallienus  the  West  (255);    we   shall  see  that  both  were  incapable 
at  their  imperial  trade. 

Gallienus  was  still  entirely  devoted  to  pleasure,  and  passed 
his  time  in  amusements  of  all  kinds.^  His  father  had  but  little 
confidence  in  this  boy,^  and  yet  dared  not  give  him,  as  counsellor 
and  guide,  Aurelian,  whose  severity  seemed  to  the  old  emperor  too 
great  for  the  time  and  especially  too  great  for  his  son.     He  placed 

him  in  charge  of  Postumus, 


The  Straits  of  Hercules. 


a  skilful  soldier,  appoint- 
ing the  latter  dux  of  the 
Rhenish  frontier  and 
governor  of  Gaul.  Although 
the  Eomans  still  possessed 
their  strongholds  along  the 
Rhine,  the  Frankish 
marauders  could  always  find 
somewhere  on  the  exten- 
sive frontier  an  ill-guarded 
point  through  which  their 
bands  could  slip  into  the 
province.  When  they  had  once  crossed  the  line  of  the  castra.^ 
they  were  in  the  presence  of  disarmed  populations  who  trembled 
at  the  sight  of  these  yellow-haired  warriors  whose  weapons  never 
missed  their  mark;  and  the  invaders  went  on  across  rivers  and 
over  mountains  for  the  pleasure  of  seeing,  of  slaying,  and  of 
setting  on  fire  the  villas  and  cities.  The  Pyrenees  did  not  arrest 
them,  nor  the  Straits  of  Hercules;  and  the  Moors  with  terror  saw 
these  sons  of  another  world,  whose  destructive  instincts  would  later 
be  revealed  to  them  by  the  Vandals.  Among  the  Spanish  towns 
pillaged  or  destroyed  by  the  Franks,  Eusebius  names  the  great 
city   of   Tarragona,*   in   which   160   years   did  not   suffice  to  efface 

^  Never  had  entertainments  been  more  numerous  than  in  the  reign  of  Valerian  and  Gallienus. 
(Eckhel,  vol.  iv.  422.) 

*  Puer.  The  word  is  in  a  letter  quoted  by  Vopiscua  (Aur,,  0),  of  which  the  authenticity 
has  been  called  in  question,  though  upon  insufficient  grounds.  It  is  true  that  Aurelius  Victor 
makes  Gallienus  thirty-five  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  his  accession  to  the  Empire. 

'  They  seem  to  have  come  Into  Gaul  by  the  valley  of  the  Moselle,  where  have  been  found 
many  coins  of  this  period  which  doubtless  were  buried  at  their  approach. 

*  Eusebius  places  the  taking  of  Tarragona  by  the  Franks  in  the  year  263.  According  to 
Orosius  (vii.  22)  they  remained  a  dozen  years  in  Spain  (256-268). 


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FROM   THE   ACCESSION    OF   DECIUS   TO   THE    DEATH    OF    GALLIENUS.       415 

the  traces  of  this  devastation.  Ilerda,  in  the  time  of  Ausonius,  was 
only  a  heap  of  ruins ;  ^  and  in  the  fifth  century  Orosius  speaks  of 
many  Spanish  cities  in  ruins.  If,  as  we  said  in  relating  the  reign 
of  Augustus,  the  Empire  had  been  able  to  give  the  provincial 
assemblies  a  serious  existence,  and  the  municipal  militia  of  the 
first  century'  had  endured  until  the  third,  Spain  could  easily  have 
repelled  this  handful  of  invaders.  It  was  the  isolation  of  the 
cities  which  prevented  them  from  organizing  for  the 
common  defence. 

Gallienus    cared    little    for    these    disasters:     the 
Spanish  and  African  sun,  the  civilization — whose  contact 
is  deadly  to  the  barbarians  when   they  are  not  strong 
enough  to   destrpy   it — ^would   soon   get   the   better  of    ^^^^^^"®  7he 
these    bold    marauders.      He    contented    himself    with       Main  and  the 

Rhine.  (Com 

detaining  the  bulk  of  the  nation  on  the  Ehine  by  of  Copper 
many  small  combats,  and  finally,  by  the  means  so 
often  employed,  that  of  buying  over  a  barbarian  chief  who  should 
guard  the  frontiers  for  him ;  after  which  he  assumed  the  name 
of  Germanicus  and  caused  himself  to  be  represented  on  coins  as 
the  conqueror  of  two  rivers,  the  Main  and  the  Ehine,  of  which 
the  one  protected  Gaul  against  the  Germans  and  the  other  opened 
Germany  to  a  Eoman  invasion.*  Aurelian  distinguished  himself 
in  these  laborious  campaigns.  He  destroyed  a  Frankish  corps 
near  Mayence,  and  three  lines  of  a  song  of  his  soldiers  have  been 
preserved : 

Milley  millej  mille,  mille,  mtlle  deeollavimus, 
Mille  Sarmatas,  mille  Francos  oceidimtts, 
Mille,  mille,  mille,  mille,  mille  Persas  qucarimtts.* 

In  258  an  insurrection  of  the  legions  of  Pannonia  called 
Gallienus  into  that  province;  it  had  hardly  been  repressed  when 
the  Alemanni,  not  finding  it  possible  to  get  through  into  Gaul, 
whose  frontier  was  well   guarded   by   Postumus,   threw   themselves 

*  At  the  end  of  the  fourth  century.     {JSp.,  xxv.  5,  3.) 
^  Vol.  iv.  pp.  44  et  seq. 

"  Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  385,  390-91.     Postumus  issued  similar  coins.     {Tbid.,  447.) 

*  Vopiscus,  Aur.,  6.  The  date  of  this  event  is  uncertain.  Tillemont  places  it  too  early,  in 
242,  for  Valerian's  letter  to  the  urban  prefect  (ibid.,  9),  in  which  the  emperor  calls  him  liberator 
Illy  rid,  Galliarum  restitutor,  and  makes  allusion  to  the  important  services  which  had  lately 
brought  Aurelinn  into  notice,  was  written  in  257. 


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410 


MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 


Reverse  of  a  Gold 

Medallion  of  Gallienus, 

fouDd  at  Monaco 

in  1879.' 


upon  Italy  and  advanced  as  far  as  Eavenna.  In  the  time  of 
Aurelian  they  made  their  boast  that  40,000  of  their  cavalry  had 
watered  their  horses  at  the  river  Po,  and  ravaged  a  large  part  of 
the  peninsula.^  It  was  the  first  time  since  the 
Cimbri  that  the  Germans  touched,  otherwise  than 
as  captives,  the  sacred  soil  of  old  Italy.  The 
Alps  then  were  no  longer  an  insurmountable 
barrier,  and  the  fear  of  the  Gallic  "tumults," 
which  four  victorious  centuries  had  dissipated, 
broke  out  afresh.  Eome  was  in  alarm.  In  the 
absence*  of  the  emperors,  the  senate  levied  troops 
and  armed  the  citizens :  it  was  the  first  worthy 
act  done  by  them  for  many  years.  The  Alemanni,  doubtless  less 
numerous^  than  they  afterwards  represented  themselves  to  be,  and 
already  laden  with  booty,  made  a  disorderly  retreat 
towards  the  Alps.  Gallienus  had  time  to  arrive 
from  Pannonia,  and  he  defeated  some  detachments 
near  Milan  (258  or  259).  In  the  hope  of  prevent- 
ing the  return  of  similar  incursions,  he  employed 
upon  the  Danube  the  policy  which  had  seemed  to 
succeed  upon  the  Ehine,  that  of  alliances  bought 
by  gifts  or  honours;  he  married  the  daughter  of  a 
king  of  the  Marcomanni,  Pipa  by  name,  and  seated  her  beside 
the  empress  Cornelia  Salonina.  The  fair-haired  German  became 
the  emperor's  favourite  and  supreme  in  the  palace,  where 
Salonina  consoled  hei^self  with  empty  honours  and  philosophizing 
with  the  chief   of  the  new  Alexandrian  school.^ 


Reverse  of  a  Coin 

of  Salonina, 
with  the  liegend, 
AUG.  IN  PACE/ 


'  Dexippos,  Excerpt  a  de  Legal,,  iu  the  Scriptores  Histon'ce  ByzantiruB ;  Orosius,  vii.  22. 

*  P.  M.  TR.  P.  VIII.  coy.  nil.  P.  P.  The  emperor,  wearing  the  praet^xta,  holding  a  wand 
in  the  left  hand  and  a  patera  in  the  right,  sacrifices  at  a  lights  altar.  Cf.  Mowat,  Trhor  de 
Monaco,  p.  9.  This  medallion  is  regarded  with  great  doubt  by  M.  Muret  on  account  of  the 
contradiction  existing  between  COS.  III.  on  the  reverse  and  COS.  V.  on  the  face. 

*  Zonaraa  says  300,000,  but  he  adds  that  Gallienus  defeated  them  with  10,000  men. 

*  The  empress  Salonina,  seated,  holding  a  sceptre  and  an  olive  branch.  (Coin  of  copper 
alloy.) 

*  Pipa,  notwithstanding  the  affection  of  Gallienus,  remained  only  a  concubine.  There  is 
neither  medal  nor  inscription  bearing  her  name,  while  Salonina  is  always  called  Augusta.  On 
the  coins  of  Gallienus  are  seen  the  heads  of  the  husband  and  wife.  There  exists  a  coin  of 
Salonina  with  the  Christian  legend,  in  pace.  I  do  not,  however,  believe  that  Salonina  decisively 
entered  the  Church,  where  she  would  not  have  been  received  without  a  conspicuous  repudiation 
of  heathen  rites,  and  the  empress  who  built  a  temple  to  Segetia,  the  goddess  of  Harvests, 
certainly  never  made  that  abjuration.     But,  inquisitive  in  respect  to  the  ideas  current  in  her 


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FROM   THE   ACCESSION   OF   DECIUS   TO   THE   DEATH   OF   GALLIENUS.       417 

Without  doubt  an  important  law  of  Gallienus  is  due  to  the 
invasion  of  the  Aleraanni.  The  warlike  zeal  lately  shown  by 
the   senate  disturbed   him.     A  rescript   prohibited   to  the  Conscript 

Fathers  military    service,  

and  they  were  forbidden 
to  appear  in  an  army  or 
in  a  camp.*  In  a  pre- 
ceding chapter  we  have 
seen  the  results  of  this 
decision. 

The  Marcomanni  and 
the  Goths,  with  their 
allies  the  Carpae,  the 
Boranae,  and  the  Bur- 
gundii,  inflicted  upon 
Illyria,  Macedonia, 
Thrace,  and  Greece  the 
woes  that  the  Franks 
caused  G^aul  to  suffer, 
and  the  Alemanni,  Italy. 
All  these  provinces  were 
desolated  by  devastations, 
murders,  and  a  multitude 
of  small  combats,  of 
which   we    know  neither 

^,  ,  ^,         ,   ,  The  Empress  Salonina.     (Museum  of  the  Capitol.) 

the   place   nor   the    date, 

but  in  which  the  generals  gained  reputation  and  the  selfish  affec- 
tion of  a  few  soldiers,  and  later  the  dangerous  honour  of  being 
elected  to  the  Empire  by  this  soldiery :  a  formidable  favour  which 
was  equivalent  to  a  death-sentence  with  brief  respite.  One  of 
these   generals,   Aurelian,   was  to   keep  the    purple  for    five   years 


time,  and  troubled  by  the  disasters  of  the  Empire  and  her  own  domestic  unbappiness,  doubtless 
the  friend  of  Plotinus  aspired  to  the  peace  which  Christianity  and  the  Neoplatonists  promised 
after  death.  Her  husband^  who  promulgated  the  first  edict  of  toleration  in  favour  of  the 
Christians^  is  believed  to  have  given  this  high  testimony  to  the  empress,  who  perhaps 
inclined  him  to  benevolence  towards  the  adherents  of  the  new  faith.  See  the  M4moire  of  M.  de 
Witte  9ur  VimpSratrice  Sahnine,  1852. 

^  Aur.  Victor,  33 ;  cf.  id.,  27.     From  that  time  forward  the  prafectus  lei/ionis  took  the 
place  of  legionary  legate. 

VOL.  VI.  EE 


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418  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    266    TO    2G8    A.D. 

and  to  be  a  great  ruler :  *  in  a  letter  of  257  to  the  urban  prefect, 
Valerian  calls  him  the  liberator  of  lUyria,  who  has  cleared  the 
province  of  barbarians.  For  their  food  these  hordes  drove  along 
an  immense  number  of  cattle ;  Aurelian  took  so  many  from  them 
that   he    was   able    to   distribute    among   several    Thracian    towns    a 


Roman  Auxiliary  on  Horseback  killing  an  Enemy.     (Monument  found  near 
Mayence.     Lindenschniit,  op.  cit.^  pi.  vii.  No.  3.) 

great  number  of  oxen  and  horses.  He  even  sent  to  Rome  for  one 
of  Valerian's  villas,  500  choice  slaves,  2,000  cows,  2,000  mares, 
10,000  sheep,  and  15,000  goats.* 

As  the  circle  of  barbarism  which  enveloped  the  Empire  was 
closing  in  on  every  side,  Asia,  as  well  as  Europe,  had  its  invasions. 

The  garrisons  of  the  Boman  posts,  established,  as  we  have  seen, 
along  the  southern  shores  of  the  Euxine  as  far  as  Sebastopolis,'  at 

*  Another,  Valens,  who  was  to  be  emperor  for  a  very  brief  time,  appears  to  hay©  compelled 
the  Gauls  to  raise  the  siege  of  Tbessalonica.  At  least,  in  Amm.  Marcellinus  (xxi.  16),  he  has 
the  surname  of  Thessalonicus. 

^  Vopiscus,  Aur.,  10. 

'  See  vol.  V.  pp.  25  et  seq. 


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FROM   THE   ACCESSION    OP   DBCIU8   TO   THE   DEATH    OF    GALLIENUS.       419 


the  foot  of  the  Caucasus,  had  been  reduced  in  order  to  furnish 
soldiers  for  the  continual  revolutions  of  the  Empire,  and  seditions, 
\vhich  the  Antonines  would  have  prevented,  placed  the  kingdom 
of    the   Bosphorus    at    the    mercy   of    its    new    neighbours.*      The 


Cimmerian  Bosphorus:   Jewels  found  in  the  Tomb  of  a  Priestess  of  ('ybele.' 

Cimmerians  gave  up  their  vessels  to  the  Goths,  the  Alans,  the 
Heruli,  and  these  extemporized  pirates  were  carried  across  ^'the 
inhospitable  sea"  by  the  sailors  of  the  Bosphorus  as  far  as 
the  Asiatic  coasts.  They  seized  upon  Pityus,  and  then  the  great 
city    of    Trebizond,    in   which    thi'ee    centuries    of    prosperity    had 

'  The  kings  of  the  Bosphorus  put  on  their  coins  the  eflfigy  of  the  reigning  emperor  :  Decius, 
Gallus,  Volusianus,  Hostilianus,  ^milianus,  Gallienus,  Odenathus^  Probus,  and  so  on.  Of. 
Eckhel,  vol.  iii.  p.  306,  and  Gary,  Hist,  des  rots  du  Bospk.j^^.  76-8.  But  these  kings  were  now 
at  the  mercy  of  the  barbarians,  their  neighbours.  Accordingly,  a  gap  of  several  years  in  the 
coins  of  Rhascuporifi  IV.  announces  the  troubles  by  which  a  barbarian  usurper,  Ininthimevus, 
profited.  PhareanseSy  who  seems  to  have  reigned  but  a  short  time  about  the  year  253,  )ias  also 
a  name  of  doubtful  aspect.  A  Rhascuporis  VII.  reigned  from  264  to  266,  and  probably  longer. 
{Trisor  de  numism.f  p.  63.) 

'  See,  vol.  ii.  p.  804,  a  pendant  found  in  the  same  tomb. 

EE  2 


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420  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    230   TO    208    A.D. 

heaped   up   immense   wealth,    which   a   numerous   garrison   was  not 
able  to  protect.* 

The  rumour  of  this  important  capture  fired  the  ardour  of  the 
Goths  of  the  Danube.  They  forced  their  Eoman  prisoners  to 
construct   boats,    in   which   they   sailed    along   the   coast   while   the 


Island  and  Sanctuary  of  Apollo,  in  the  Uhyndacus.*     (Present  Condition.) 

main  body  of  the  army  of  invasion  traversed  all  Thrace  undis- 
turbed, and  arriving  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Byzantium  found 
along  the  shore  a  great  multitude  of  fishermen,  who  consented  to 


Island  and  Sanctuary  of  Apollo,  in  the  Rhyndacus.'     (Restoration  by  Guillaiime.) 

lend  their  little  boats,  without  doubt  for  the  sake  of  sharing  in 
the  plunder.  ^'  From  Chalcedon  to  the  temple  at  the  entrance 
of  the  Thracian  Bosphorus,"  there  were  forces  more  considerable 
than  those  of  the  barbarians ;  but  the  Komans,  seized  with  terror, 
fled,  and  the  Goths  entered  Chalcedon,  Nicomedia,  the  future 
capital  of  Diocletian,   Nicsea,   Cius,  Apamea,  Prusa,  and  ApoUonia, 

*  There  were  two  expeditions:  the  first,  which  failed,  probably  in  256;  the  second  and 
successful  attempt,  in  257.     (Zosimus,  i.  32-3.) 

*  Lebas  and  Waddington,  Voyafje  archSol.  en  Orbce  et  en  Asie  Min.  •  Architecture,  pL  1 
and  2. 


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FROM   THE   ACCESSION   OF   DECIUS   TO   THE   DEATH   OP   GALLIENUS.       421 

which  its  temple  of  Apollo  did  not  protect,  built  upon  an  island 
in  a  charming  lake  formed  and  traversed  by  the  Ehyndacus. 
Cyzicus  escaped  because  the  invaders  could  not  cross  the  swollen 
river.  All  Bithynia  was  sacked,  and  the  Roman  legions  nowhere 
dared  to  make  a  stand  against  the  enemy.  The  people  fled  in 
inexpressible  alarm,  and  many  of  these  unhappy  creatures,  among 
whom  we  are  forced  to  enumerate  some  of  the  Christians,  took 
advantage  of  this  immense  disorganization  to  pillage  in  their  turn 
(early  in  the  year  258).  The  poor  Jacquerie  of  France  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  yielding  in  the  presence  of  similar  disasters  to  a 
savage  despair,  said :  "  The  devil  is  unchained ;  let  us  do  the 
worst  we  can."  Three  centuries  later,  by  the  ruins  they  left 
behind  them,  the  road  the  Goths  traversed  could  be  made  out. 
"They  carried  back  into  their  country  immense  booty,"  says 
Zosimus,  "and  they  gave  great  honours  to  Chiysogonos,  who  had 
advised  this  expedition."^ 

The  preceding  year  Valerian  had  held  at  Byzantium  a  great 
council  of  war,  in  presence  of  the  officers  of  the  palace  and  of  the 
army.  We  have  the  order  of  precedence  in  this  assembly,  and 
give  it  to  show  the  new  dignities  that  were  coming  into  existence. 
At  the  right  of  the  emperor  were  seated  one  of  the  consuls,  the 
praetorian  prefect,  and  the  governor  of  the  East;  on  his  left,  the 
dtuc  of  the  Scythian  frontier,  the  Egyptian  prefect,  the  dux  of 
the  Oriental  frontier,  the  prefect  of  the  eastern  annona,  the  duces 
of  lUyricum  and  Thrace,  and  lastly  the  dux  of  the  Rhsetian 
border.  The  foolish  chronicler  who  had  the  opportunity  to  read 
the  report  of  this  session  does  not  make  known  to  us  the  serious 
deliberations  which  filled  it;  he  contents  himself  with  saying  that 
Valerian  decreed,  on  this  occasion,  extraordinary  commendation  to 
Aurelian  for  recent  victories  in  Illyria  over  Gothic  and  Sarmatian 
bands.*'' 

Where  was   the   conqueror   of    the   Franks  and   Goths  at   the 

*  Jordanes  {de  Chthorum  gestis,  20)  says  that  the  Goths  burned  Ilium  and  the  temple  of 
Diuna  at  Ephesus ;  he  adds  that  in  his  time  (the  sixth  century)  there  were  still  to  be  seen  at 
Ghalcedon  the  ruins  that  they  had  caused.  Zosimus  (i.  36)  does  not  say  who  this  Chrysogonos 
waSy  but  it  is  apparent  that  these  barbarians  were  not  too  barbarous  to  take  advantage  of 
traitors  and  collect  the  information  necessary  to  the  success  of  their  expeditions. 

*  Vopiscus,  Aur^y  16.  Valerian  gave  him  at  this  time  not  the  consulship,  as  Vopiacus  says, 
but  the  consular  ornaments.  Inscriptions  and  coins  prove  that  Aurelian  was  consul  for  the 
first  time  in  271.    See  Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  p.  479. 


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422  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

time  of  the  disasters  which  have  just  been  described?  Doubtless 
at  Antioch  with  Valerian.  This  emperor  did  nothing  to  prevent 
or  arrest  the  misfortunes  from  which  Bithynia  suffered.  He 
merely  sent  a  general  to  Byzantium  to  guard  that  important  point. 
But  the  Goths  had  not  as  yet  formed  the  design  of  establishing 
themselves  permanently  in  the  Empire,  and  their  retreat  was  doubt- 
less caused  less  by  the  approach  of  the  emperor,  who  advanced 
into  Cappadocia,  than  by  the  desire  to  place  in  safety  before  the 
stormy  season^  the  booty  with  which  their  vessels  were  loaded,  a 
booty  whose  magnitude  and  value  surpassed 
all  their  expectations.^ 

The   Gothic    invasion   was    probably   con- 
nected  with    another    invasion    which    seemed 
likely  to  drive  the  Eomans  out   of  Asia,  that 
of  Sapor.     At  least  we  see  that  the  barbarians 
.    ,,  .  made  their  attack  first   upon  the  cities  where 

Keverse  of  a  Cum  ^     ^ 

of  Valerian,  struck  at       the   roads   from   Armenia    came    in,    of   which 
Antioch,  in  Caria.'  ^        -r\       * 

country  the  Persians  were  taking  possession, 
and  in  occupying  Cappadocia  Valerian  seems  to  have  had  the 
design  of  placing  himself  between  the  two  allies. 

If  it  be   said    that    this   is   ascribing    to    the    barbarians    too 
extensive  combinations,  we  must  remember   the   embassies  sent  by 
the  Dacians  to   the  Arsacids  in  the   time  of   Trajan.     The  Amales 
required  no  great  efforts  of  political  intelligence  to  understand  and* 
follow  the  traditions  of  Decebalus.^ 

Sapor  had   assassinated   Chosroes,'^   the   king   of  Armenia,   and 

^  The  ancientfi  were  reluctant  to  venture  upon  the  Euzine  earlier  than  May  or  later  than 
September. 

'  Sozomenus  (Hist,  eccl.,  ii.  6)  and  Philostorges  (Hist,  eccl.,  ii.  5)  say  that  among  the 
captives  were  priests  who  converted  multitudes  of  barbarians  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  and 
the  Danube.  The  work  of  conversion  was  possibly  beginning  among  the  Goths  at  this  period ; 
in  325  a  bishop  from  this  nation  sat  in  the  council  of  Nicaea;  but  in  western  Germany  there 
were  no  Christians,  before  Clovis,  among  the  Franks,  whom  Sozomenus  seems  to  designate,  and 
the  conversion  of  the  Alemanni  took  place  later. 

'  ANTIOXEQN.  Bridge  over  the  Meander ;  underneath,  a  couchant  river  and  an  equestrian 
statue.    (Bronze.) 

*  Vol.  iv.  p.  824.  Pliny  arrested  in  Bithynia  an  emissary  from  Decebalus  to  Ohosroes.  In 
the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  the  powerful  league  of  the  Marcomanni  was  formed  in  166, 
shortly  after  the  great  successes  of  Vologeses  in  Armenia  and  over  the  Syrian  legions. 

'  Tiridates,  the  son  of  Chosroes,  was  saved  by  the  satraps  and  sent  to  Rome,  and,  in  287, 
Diocletian  placed  him  upon  the  throne  of  his  fathers.  (Moses  Chorenes,  Hist.  Armenuica, 
ii.  60-75.) 


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FROM   THE    ACCESSION    OF    DECIU8   TO   THE    DEATH    OF    GALLIENUS.       423 

had    placed    one    of    his    own     partisans     upon    the    throne.      For 
more    than    a    quarter    of    a    century     this     country    was    like    a 
Persian    province,    to    the    great    grief   of   its   inhabitants,    for    the 
Persians  persecuted  all   those   who  followed    the   national  customs, 
destroying  all  buildings  of   a  sacred  character,  temples  of  the  Sun 
and   Moon;   and   the   sacred   fire    of    Ormuzd    burning   upon   altars 
constantly   was   a   reminder  of    the  triumph  of 
a   hostile   race   and   a   foreign   religion.      Thus 
another  bulwark   of    the   Empire,    and   one   of 
its  best,  was  destroyed. 

The  possession  of  Armenia  by  the  Per- 
sians in  fact  rendered  easy  their  conquest  of 
Mesopotamia,  where  Sapor  took  the  fortified 
to^v^ls  Nisibis  and  Carrhee.  The  situation, 
therefore,  was  very  threatening,  and  the  blame 
of  it  was  due  to  those  who,  in  less  than 
forty    years,    had    instigated    or    effected    ten  Saporl' 

military  revolutions. 

The  Eomans,  remaining  masters  of  Edessa,  barred  to  the 
Persian  army  one  of  the  roads  into  Asia  Minor,  and  the  Cilician 
GatQS,  without  doubt  well  guarded,  at  that  time  closed  the  other. 
Sapor,  with  his  ineflBcient  infantry,^  was  not  able  to  force  a  passage 
through  the  mountains,  and  he  could  not  hinder  a  Roman  army 
from  coming  down  into  Syria ;  Valerian,  indeed,  entered  Antioch 
without  fighting.  The  appearance  of  the  Goths  in  Bithynia  obliged 
him  to  return  into  Asia  Minor,  '^  where,*'  says  Zosimus,  ^'he  did 
nothing  save  vex  the  people  as  he  passed  through."  The  retreat 
of  the  barbarians  permitted  him  at  last  to  leave  Cappadocia  and 
march  upon  Edessa,  which,  for  many  years  blockaded,  still  held 
out.  But  his  troops  had  suffered  greatly  from  pestilence;  and  a 
defeat  which  he  experienced,  together  with  the  clamours  of  the 
army,  decided  him  to  negotiate.  Sapor  refusing  to  receive  envoys 
from  the  emperor,  the  latter  requested  a  personal  interview,  repeat- 
ing the  error  of  Crassus.  When  the  astute  barbarian  saw  the 
emperor  come  to  him  weakly  protected,  he   caused   Valerian   to   be 

^  Bust  of  the  king  wearing  the  diadem  and  placed  on  a  lion's  head  surmounted  by  two 
wings.     Intaglio  on  sardonyx  (20  millim.  by  18;.     {Cabinet  de  France^  No.  1,847.) 
*  In  respect  to  the  Persian  infantry,  see  Amm.  Marcellinus,  xxiii.  6. 


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424  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    236   TO    268    A.D. 

seized  by  the  Persian  cavalry  and  made  prisoner  (260).^  This 
captivity  lasted  six  years,  accompanied  by  shameful  ill-treatment, 
and  after  Valerian's  death,^  his  skin,  tanned,  stuffed,  and  coloured 
red,  was  hung  from  the  roof  of  the  most  important  temple  in 
Persia,  where  it  remained  for  several  centuries.^  The  rocks  of 
Nakeh-Koustem  and  of  Schahpiir  retained  the  story  of  this  great 
Koman  humiliation,  and  the  horsemen  there  seen  treading  legionaries 
under  their  horses'  feet  perhaps  gave  rise  to  the  legend  of  Sapor 
using  the  Eoman  emperor  as  a  horse-block  to  mount  by.* 

Sapor  took  advantage  of  the  consternation  which  this  event 
caused  in  the  Roman  army  to  endeavour  to  seize  the  Empire  as 
well  as  the  emperor.  Guided  by  the  traitor  Cyriades,  he  pene- 
trated into  Syria.  One  day  as  the  inhabitants  of  Antioch  were 
witnessing  a  performance  in  the  theatre,  one  of  them  cried  out. 
suddenly :  "  I  am  dreaming  or  the  Persians  are  upon  us ! "  A 
few  moments  later  arrows  began  to  fall  amongst  the  crowd,  and 
the  city  was  pitilessly  sacked/  Terror  again  seized  upon  all  these 
provinces.  It  was  asserted  that  Emesa  had  been  saved  by  its 
divinity.^  No  doubt  the  great  mass  of  the  Persian  forces  was  in 
the  northern  part  of  the  province,  and  only  a  detachment,  easily  to 
be  resisted,  was  sent  to  the  holy  city;  or  indeed  Sapor,  through 
policy,  respected  a  temple  venerated  by  all  the  nations  in  this 
region. 

All    the   attention   of    the   Persians    was   now  turned   towards 
Asia   Minor ;    that    being    conquered,   the    rest  would    fall.     They 

^  This  is  the  account  given  by  Zosimus  (i.  3).  Zonaras  speaks  of  a  battle  and  a  defeat.  He 
adds  that  there  was  a  tradition  of  a  mutiny  in  the  Homan  army,  which  had  caused  Valerian  to 
seek  refuge  with  Sapor,  vpbg  rbv  "Zax^pnv  Kark^vytv. 

'  Agathias  even  says  that  he  was  flayed  alive. 

'  W^hat  is  legend  and  what  is  truth  in  this  story  ?  It  is  not  easy  to  say.  A  letter  from 
Constantine  to  Sapor  II.,  quoted  by  Eusebius  (Life  of  Const.,  iv.  11),  and  the  words  of  Galerius 
to  Narses,  related  by  Peter  Patricius  {Excerpta  de  Legat.,  in  the  Byzantine),  attest  that  Valerian 
certainly  suffered  tJie  most  humiliating  of  captivities ;  it  lasted,  according  to  the  Chronicle  of 
Alexandria,  until  269.  But  Treb.  Pollio  {Tyr,  trig.,  14)  places  the  death  of  Valerian  before 
that  of  Odenathus,  consequently  in  266 ;  .  .  .  .  iratum  fuisse  reipublica  Deum  credo,  qui, 
interfecto  Valeriana,  noluit  Odenatum  reservari. 

*  The  bas-relief  of  Darabgerd  shows  Sapor  treading  under  his  horse's  feet  a  prostrate  man, 
on  whose  head  seems  to  be  a  fragment  of  a  laurel  wreath.  (Flandin,  Perse  ancienne,  pi.  xxxiii.) 
But  this  was  a  symbol  of  victory  much  in  use  among  the  Persians,  and  we  are  not  to  conclude 
that  this  sculpture  represents  a  real  action. 

*  Am.  Marcellinus  (xxiii.  6)  places  this  in  the  reign  of  Gallienus,  that  is,  after  the  captivity 
of  Vabrian. 

*  John  Malnlns. 


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FROM   THE   ACCESSION    OF   DECIUS   TO   THE   DEATH   OF   GALLIENUS.       427 

crossed  unopposed  the  passes  of  Cilicia,  took  the  great  city  of 
Tarsus,  and  besieged  CaBsarea,  the  capital  of  Cappadocia,  which 
is  believed  to  have  had  at  this  time  a  population  of  400,000  in- 
habitants. The  city  held  out  for  a  long  time,  until  a  prisoner, 
being  put  to  the  torture,  revealed  a  weak  point  in  the  defences, 
through  which  the  besiegers  by  night  entered  the  place.  They 
had  been  ordered  to  seize  the  brave  Demosthenes  who  had  directed 
the  defence,  but  he  cut  his  way  through  on  horseback,  killing 
many  of  the  enemy,  and  made  his  escape.^  Two  years  earlier  than 
this  the  Persians'  would  have  been  able  from  Cappadocia  to  reach 
the  Goths,  masters  of  Bithynia.  But  the  barbarians  of  the  south 
had  not  even  need  of  aid  from  the  barbarians  of  the  north  to 
reach  the  Propontis  and  the  sea  of  the  Cyclades.  Terror  went 
before  them.  "  They  might  easily,"  says  Zosimus,  "  have  made 
themselves  masters  of  the  whole  of  Asia,  if  they  had  not  been  in 
haste  to  enjoy  their  victory  at  home  and  to  carry  ofE  their 
booty."  ^  After  their  departure  the  Syrians  took  revenge  upon 
the  traitor  Cyriades,^  who  had  assumed  the  title  of  Augustus,  and 
burned  him  alive. 

It  is  said  that  when  Sapor  announced  his  victory  to  all  the 
neighbouring  or  allied  nations,  the  latter,  terrified  at  so  great  a 
triumph,  concealed  their  fears  under  the  counsels  of  philosophic 
moderation,  'which  they  sent  back  in  reply.*  The  son  of  Valerian 
had  no  need  of  the  consolations  of  wisdom  to  appease  a  grief 
which  he  did  not  feel.  "I  knew,"  he  said,  "that  my  father  was 
mortal;  besides,  he  has  fallen  like  a  brave  man,"  and  considering 
him  as  already  dead,  Gallienus  apotheosized  him.  Possibly  these 
words  might  have  been  pardoned  to  a  son  who  had  followed  them 
by  energetic  acts  to  avenge  his  father  and  the  Empire;  but  this 
feigned  stoicism  was  only  unfilial  cowardice. 

The  reign  of  Valerian  is  marked  by  the  most  cruel  persecution 
that  the  Church  had  yet  endured.  When  the  pagan  inhabitants  of 
the  Empire  beheld  barbarians   threatening   the  very  heart  of   Italy 


'  Zonaras,  xii.  23. 

^  Amm.  Marcellinus  (xxiii.  6)  also  speaks  of  this  precipitate  departure. 
^  Or  Mariades.    Cf.  Fragm,  hist.  Grtec,  vol.  iv.  p.  192  (Didot). 

*  These  letters  must  he  fahrications,  however,  for  the  Persian  archives  certainly  were  not 
OT)en  to  the  writers  of  the  Atigustan  History. 


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428  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    236   TO    268   A.D. 

and  ravagmg  two-thirds  of  the  provinces,  their  anger  was  turned 
against  this  foreign  people  living  among  them,  indifferent  to  their 
griefs,  and  refusing  to  take  arms  against  the  public  enemy.  As 
if  entering  reluctantly  upon  the  career  of  persecution,  the  emperors 
in  their  first  letters  simply  forbade  the  assembling  together  of 
Christians  and  their  entrance  into  cemeteries;  they  required  no  one 
to  renounce  the  worship  of  Christ,  but  required  all  to  conform  to 
the  Roman  cult,  which  was,  however,  equivalent  to  apostasy ;  and, 
finally,  they  as  yet  punished  the  contumacious  with  exile  only. 
The  Acts  of  Cyprian  exhibit  this  first  phase  of  persecution,  which 
does  not  seem  to  have  struck  outside  of  the  clergy. 

"  In  the  fourth  consulship  of  the  emperor  Valerianus  and  the 
third  of  Gallienus,  the  third  day  before  the  kalends  of  September 
(30th  August,  257),  in  the  audience  hall  at  Carthage,  the  proconsul 
Patemus  said  to  the  bishop  Cyprian :  '  The  most  sacred  emperors 
Valerianus  and  Gallienus  have  deigned  to  address  letters  to  me, 
in  which  they  order  all  persons  not  professing  the  Roman  religion 
to  observe  without  delay  all  its  ceremonies.  I  have  therefore 
summoned  you  to  ascertain  your  intentions;  what  answer  have 
you  to  make  ?  ^  The  bishop  Cyprian  replied :  ^  I  am  a  Christian 
and  a  bishop.  I  know  no  other  god  than  the  one  true  God  who 
made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea  and  all  that  in  them  is.  This 
God  we  Christians  serve,  to  Him  we  pray  night  and  day,  for 
ourselves  and  for  all  men,  and  especially  for  the  safety  of  the 
emperors.'  The  proconsul  said:  ^Do  you  persist  in  this  resolu- 
tion?' The  bishop  Cyprian  replied:  ^The  good  will  that  has 
once  known  God  never  changes.'  The  proconsul  Patemus  said : 
^You  may  prepare  then  to  go  into  exile  in  the  city  of  Curubis: 
so  Valerianus  and  Gallienus  conunand.'  The  bishop  Cyprian  replied : 
'  I  am  ready  to  go.'  The  proconsul  Patemus  said :  '  The  orders 
which  I  have  received  concern  not  only  bishops  but  also  priests. 
I  wish,  therefore,  to  know  the  names  of  the  priests  dwelling  in 
this  city.'  The  bishop  Cyprian  replied :  ^  Well  and  wisely  have 
your  laws  prohibited  giving  information :  I  therefore  cannot  make 
known  to  you  or  give  up  to  you  those  of  whom  you  speak ;  you 
wilt  find  them  in  the  cities  where  they  dwell.'  The  proconsul 
Patemus  said :  ^  It  is  my  will  that  they  appear  before  me  to-day 
in  this  place.'      Cyprian  answered :   ^  The  rules  of  our  order  forbid 


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FROM   THE   ACCESSION   OF   DECIUS   TO   THE   DEATH   OF   GALLIENUS.       429 

them  to  surrender  themselves,  and  in  this  you  cannot  blame  their 
conduct;  but  seek  for  them  and  you  will  find  them.'  The  pro- 
consul   Patemus    said :     ^  Fear  not,    I   will    find    them.'      And    he 


Gallienus.     (Bust  of  the  Capitol,  Hall  of  the  Emperors,  No.  76.) 

added :  ^  The  emperors  also  forbid  meetings  in  any  place  what- 
soever, and  the  entering  of  cemeteries.  Whoever  shall  violate 
this  wise  prohibition  will  be  punished  with  death.'  The  bishop 
Cyprian  :  ^  Do  whatever  is  commanded  you.' "  ^ 

*  Freppel,  Saint  Cypi-ien,  pp.  477-8,  from  the  proconsular  reports  of  the  martyrdom  of 
S.  Cyprian.  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  also  suffered  exile  only  into  the  Libyan  desert, 
three  days*  journey  from  Paraetonium.    (Euseb.,  Hist.  cccL,  yii.  11.)     Interrogated. by  the  prefect 


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430  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    236    TO    268   A.D. 

The  successor  of  Patemus  removed  the  sentence  of  exile 
decreed  against  Cyprian,  and  suflEered  him  to  reside  at  the  gates 
of  Carthage  in  a  house  which  belonged  to  the  bishop.  But  the 
calamities  of  the  Empire  increased.  Emperors  who  could  not  aid 
themselves  believed  that  they  might  obtain  the  assistance  of 
Heaven  by  avenging  their  gods.  In  the  middle  of  the  year  258 
Valerian  sent  to  the  senate  the  following  rescript: 

"  Bishops,  priests,  and  deacons  shall  be  punished  with  death  ; 
senators,  officers,  and  knights  degraded  and  deprived  of  their  goods. 
If  they  persist,  death.  Women  of  honourable  birth  shall  be 
banished.  Freedmen  of  the  palace  shall  be  sent  as  slaves  to  the 
emperor's  domains."  ^ 

We  will  further  give  the  last  interrogation  of  S.  Cyprian, 
showing  the  general  method  of  procedure  against  the  martjnrs. 

''  The  proconsul  Galerius  Maximus  said  to  Cyprian :  '  You 
are  Thascius  Cyprianus  ? '  The  bishop  answered :  ^  I  am.'  The 
proconsul  said:  'You  are  the  bishop  of  these  sacrilegious  per- 
sons ? '  'I  am.'  *  The  most  sacred  emperors  have  ordered  you  to 
sacrifice  to  the  gods.'  'I  shall  not  do  so.'  'Reflect  upon  your 
conduct.'  '  Do  what  you  are  ordered ;  in  a  thing  so  right,  I 
have  no  occasion  to  deliberate.'  Galerius  Maximus,  after  taking 
the  advice  of  his  council,  expressed  himself  as  follows :  '  You 
have  long  held  sacrilegious  opinions;  you  have  brought  many  men 
into  this  impious  conspiracy,  thus  placing  yourselves  in  hostility 
towards  the  gods  of  Rome  and  the  laws  of  religion;  and  the 
pious  and  most  sacred  emperors  Valerianus  and  Gallienus,  Augusti, 
and  the  very  illustrious  Valerianus  Ceesar,  have  not  been  able  to 
bring  you  back  to  the  observance  of  their  religious  ceremonies. 
For  this  reason  you,  being  the  author  of  the  most  infamous  crimes, 
and  the  standard-bearer  of  the  sect,  shall  serve  as  an  example  to 
those   whom   you   have   led   astray  by  your  criminal   machinations; 


of  Egypt,  he  had  made  S.  Paul's  famous  reply  (Acts,  v.  29),  which  Polycrates  of  Ephesus  had 
also  repeated  (Hist  eccLy  v.  24),  and  hy  which  the  social  bond  may  always  be  broken :  "  We 
must  obey  God  rather  than  men,"  that  is  to  say,  a  man's  own  ideas,  which  he  believes  to  come 
from  divine  revelation  or  inspiration  rather  than  the  common  law.  In  the  case  of  the  Christians 
the  state  was  in  the  wrong,  and  their  resistance  was  legitimate,  but  the  formula  was  dangerous, 
for  it  has  not  always  been  employed  to  protect  rights  of  conscience  only,  which  ought  to  be 
protected. 

'  S.  Cyprian,  Ep.y  ^2,  ad  Successum.     The  edict  of  Valerian  is  given  there. 


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FKOM   THE    ACCESSION    OF   DECIUS   TO   THE    DEATH    OF    GALLIENUS.       431 

your  blood  shall  be  the  sanction  of  the  law.'  Having  said  this, 
he  took  his  tablets  and  wrote  the  sentence  which  he  had  uttered 
aloud :  '  We  condemn  Thascius  Cyprianuis  to  be  beheaded.'  The 
bishop  said  :  '  God  be  praised ! '  "  ^  The  guards  then  led  him  away. 
Arriving  at  the  place  of  execution,  Cyprian  took  off  his  outer 
garment,  knelt  and  prayed  some  time.  Then  he  gave  his  dalmatic 
to  the  deacons,  bandaged  his  own  eyes,  and  directed  his  followers 
after  his  death  to  give  to  the  executioner  twenty-five  gold  pieces. 


Pope  Sijrtius  and  the  Deacon  Laurence,  on  a  Gilded  Glass  from  the  Catacombs.* 

The  brethren  held  strips  of  cloth  around  him  to  collect  the 
martyr's  blood.  The  executioner  trembled  when  he  struck  the 
mortal  blow.  All  the  pagans  must  have  trembled  also  when  they 
witnessed  these  triumphant  deaths  (14th  September,  258). 

Cyprian  was  among  the  favoured  ones :  his  was  the  easiest 
death ;  others  were  burned  alive,  like  the  bishop  of  Tarragona,  or 
thi'own  to  the  wild  beasts.  Eome  paid  largely  the  debt  of  blood. 
Pope  Sixtus  II.  was  one  of  the  first  to  perish.  Being  surprised 
in    the    catacombs   while    celebrating   the    holy   mysteries,    he    was 

*  Freppel,  Saint  Cyprien,  pp.  400-1,  from  the  proconsular  reports. 

^  Roller,  op.  cit.,  pi.  Ixxvii.  No.  2.     Upon  the  legend,  PIE  ZESES,  see  above,  p.  167. 


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432  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235   TO    268   AJ). 

beheaded;  and  his  deacon  S.  Laurence  was  burned  at  a  slow  fire. 
Wherever  Christian  communities  existed,  many  priests,  deacons, 
believers,  and  even  women,  perished.  Novatian,  who  brought  into 
the  Church  all  the  severity  of  his  earlier  master,  the  Stoic  Zeno, 
was  one  of  the  victims,  and  possibly  also  S.  Dionysius,  who  evange- 
lized the  north  of  Gaul,  and  Polyeuctes,  whom  Comeille  has  made 
famous.^ 

The  Empire  was  tearing  itself  with  its  own  hands,  as  if  for 
its  ruin,  famine,  pestilence,  and  the  barbarians  who  seemed  to  the 
Christians  ^^to  be  let  loose  by  God  for  this  day  of  wrath,"  ^  were 
not  enough. 

Gallienus  had  one  merit :  he  understood  that  this  persecution 
was  imjust  as  well  as  useless,  and  as  soon  as  he  was  sole  master 
he  ordered  that  their  cemeteries,  their  possessions,  and  the  freedom 
of  their  worship  should  be  restored  to  the  Christians  (260).'  This 
was  one  war  the  less  in  the  Empire.  Unhappily,  many  others  still 
remained. 

At  the  time  when  the  imprudence  of  Yalerian  had  given  Syria 
over  to  the  Persians  there  were  in  the  East  two  men  famous  for 
their  military  talent:  Macrianus,  the  principal  lieutenant  of  the 
captive  emperor,  and  Balista,  who  had  formerly  held  the  office  of 
prsBtorian  prefect.  They  collected  the  remnant  of  the  army  of 
Edessa,  and  sought  at  Samosata,  in  the  narrow  angle  foimed  by 
Mount  Amanus  and  the  Euphrates,  a  retreat  which  it  would  be 
easy  to  defend.*  By  slow  degrees  courage  returned  to  the  Eomans. 
Balista  reached  the  coasts  of  the  sea  of  Cyprus,  collected  a  flotilla 
on  which  he  embarked  a  few  soldiers,  and  made  successful  descents 
here  and  there  in  Cilicia.  As  the  Persians,  in  the  pride  of  their 
victory,  disdained  all  prudence,  he  frequently  surprised  their  detach- 
ments and  killed  many. 

But  the  best  assistance  came  from  a  side  whence  the  Empire 


'  For  details  of  this  persecution,  see  Tillemont,  iii.  pp.  415-440.  The  Acts  of  the  martyixlom 
of  S.  Dionysius,  compiled  in  the  seventh  or  eighth  century,  are  not  authentic. 

*  Orosius,  vii.  22. 

*  Euseb.,  Hist,  eccl.,  vii.  13.  Gallienus  seems  to  »have  been  a  man  of  gentle  temper. 
A  dealer  having  sold  false  gems  to  the  Empress  Salonina,  he  condemned  him  to  be  eaten  by 
a  lion,  and  let  loose  against  him  a  capon.  Everybody  laughed,  and  the  emperor  cried :  "  Wo 
have  deceived  the  deceiver  I "    (Hist  Aug.  Gall.y  12.) 

*  Fragm.  hist  OrtBc,  vol.  iv.  p.  193  (Didot). 


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FROM   THE    ACCESSION    OF   DECIUS   TO   THE    DEATH    OF   GALLIENUS.       433 

expected  nothing.     We  have   frequently  spoken  in   this  history  of 
Palmyra,  its  riches,   its  numerous  population,  and  of  a  family  who 
had   taken  the   first  rank   there,   the   Odenathi.'      The   Palmyrenes, 
for  their   commerce,    had   need   of    the   friendship   of   Sapor.     They 
sent  him   ambassadors   with   rich   presents  to   solicit    his    goodwill. 
The   king  threw  the  gifts  into  the   river,  tore   up  the   letters  that 
the   envoys  had  given  him,  and  demanded  an  absolute  submission.^ 
Palmyra  had   at  this  time  as  chief  or  prince  of  its  senate  an  able 
and    determined    man,    very    rich    and    very    influential,    Septimius 
Odenathus.     In   critical    periods    superior   men  naturally   take   their 
place.     Odenathus  persuaded  his  countrymen 
that  there  was  no  answer  but  war  to  insults 
which   were   a   distinct   threat   against   their 
independence,   and  he  made  preparations  for 
it  in  a  suitable  manner.     The  caravans  had 
made   Palmyra's   fortune.      To    guide   them, 
the   city   had   been    obliged    to   employ   the 
Arabs   of   the   Syrian   desert,  who   all,  from 
the  Orontes   to  the   Pasitigris,    were   in  her 
interests.      Odenathus  reminded   their  sheiks 

of    the    destruction    of    Atra,     the    Arab    city,  Odenathus,  Husband  of  Zenobia. 

by   Sapor ;    he    convinced    them    that    their  ^^^  ^"^' 

liberty  and  their  wealth  would  be  lost  if  the  haughty  king  should 
drive  the  Romans  out  of  Asia.  The  Arab  of  the  present  day  has 
two  passions,  religion  and  traffic.  Mahomet  had  not  yet  given 
them  the  former,  but  the  latter  had  been  extraordinarily  fostered 
by  the  profits  which  thq  interchange  of  commodities  between  the 
two  empires  left  in  the  hands  of  the  carriers.  They  gathered  in 
crowds  around  the  ''prince  of  Palmyra,"  and  we  shall  see  them 
establish  an  Arab  empire  for  the  first  time. 

Palmyra  had  a  permanent  Roman  gairison,  and  this  detach- 
ment serv^ed  as  a  nucleus  for  the  new  army.  The  Roman  fugitives 
scattered  throughout  Syria  rallied  about  it,  and  Odenathus  added 
his  Arabs.     The  successes  of  Balista  had  compromised  the  situation 


*  Vol.  V.  p.  76,  and  in  tbe  present  volume,  pp.  81  et  seq.    In  April,  268,  Odenatbus  bad 
already  received  tbe  consular  ornaments.     (Wadding-ton,  Inscr.  de  Syriey  No.  2,60:?.) 
'  Peter  Patricias,  Excerpt  a  de  Legat.,  2. 
^  Engraved  stone  in  tbe  Cabinet  de  France  (15  millim.  by  13),  No.  1,399. 

VOL.  VI.  FF 


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434  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235    TO    268   A.D. 

of  the  Persians  in  Syria,  tlieir  line  of  retreat  was  threatened  on 
the  south  by  the  armaments  of  Palmyra  and  on"  the  north  by  the 
garrison    of    Edessa,    which   the   troops   of   Samosata   had    probably 

joined    at    this    time,    and    upon 

this  too  Eoman  soil  they  began 
to  be  uneasy.  Sapor  led  them 
back  towards  the  Euphrates, 
leaving  behind  him  many  of  his 
own  troops,  surprised  by  a  sudden 
attack  of  Odenathus.  Arriving 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  river 
the  Persians  congratulated  one 
another,  believing  they  were  safe; 
but  they  were  obliged  still  further, 
says  Zonaras,  to  buy  their  pas- 
sage, by  giving  up  to  the  army 
of  Edessa  all  that  was  left  to 
them  of  Syrian  gold.^  In  these 
deserts  avalanches  of  men  ap- 
peared. Drawn  by  the  lure  of 
carnage  and  booty,  the  nomads 
rushed  thither  from  all  quarters 
of  the  horizon,  and  powerful 
armies  emerged  from  the  waste. 
Odenathus,  whom  Balista  had 
now  joined,  found  himself  strong 
enough  to  undertake  the  conquest 

''''''Verj^ytZs:::^^^''''''      «f  Mesopotamia,   and    to    venture 

on  following  in  the  track  of 
Trajan  and  Septimius  Severus '  as  far  as  Ctesiphon  itself.  In  a 
battle  he  captured  part  of  the  treasures  and  some  of  the  wives  of 
Sapor.  This  was  the  sharp  reply  of  the  Palmyrenes  to  the  great 
king. 

^  Peter  Patricias,  Rrcerpta  de  Lcfjat.,  10. 

'^  Cabinet  de  France,  No.  2,880.  This  monument  of  Persian  art,  under  the  Sassanids,  is 
ornamented  with  two  groups  of  lions,  separated  by  the  sacred  tree,  Horn.  The  figures  are  in 
repoiif!sd  on  a  gold  ground.  This  vase  had  a  handle,  which  is  now  missing.  (?f.  ChabouiUet, 
oj).  tit.,  p.  467,  and  Lenormant,  in  vol.  iii.  of  the  Miisee  cCarcheol.  of  Fathers  Martin  and  Cahier. 

'  Eutro)>iu8,  ix.  10,  11 ;  Malalas,  xii.  p.  227 ;  Zonaras,  xii.  23. 


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FROM   THE    ACCESSION    OP   DECIUS   TO   THE    DEATH    OF   GALLIENUS.       435 

Odenathus  had  not  been  able  to  set  Valerian  at  liberty,  but 
he  sent  captive  satraps  to  Eome,  and  Gallienus,  forgetting  his 
father,  celebrated  with  a  triumph  this  victory  which  the  legions 
had  permitted  the  Bedouins  to  gain  for  them. 

From  this  expedition  Odenathus  returned  too  great  to  remain 
longer  a  private  individual.  The  Arabs  proclaimed  him  king,  and 
Gallienus,  to  attach  to  himself  so  useful  a  servant,  appointed  him 
chief  of  the  imperial  forces  in  that  part  of  the  East,  avrokparwpj  or 
imperator  (beginning  of  262).  Later,  after  further  services,  he 
gave  Odenathus  the  title  of  Augustus,  and  the  son  of  the  clients 
of  Severus  took  rank  among  the  emperors  of  Eome.^ 


III. — The  Provincial  Emperors  (249-268);   Gallienus. 

Those  who  have  been  called,  in  imitation  of  Athens,  the 
Thirty  Tyrants,  were  neither  thirty  nor  tyrants.  From  the  cap- 
tivity of  Valerian  to  the  death  of  his  son^  we  count  eighteen 
generals  who  were  proclaimed  emperor' 
by  their  troops,  as  had  been  all  sine^ 
the  Antonines,  and  they  lacked  only  suc- 
cess to  take  their  place  legally  among 
the  masters  of  the  Eoman  world.  One 
only,  Calpumius  Piso,  was  of  the  highest 

rank;*  another,  Tetricus,  of  senatorial  dignity;  the  rest  of  obscure 
origin.  Moreover  these  so-called  usurpers  were  neither  worse  nor 
better  than  the  emperors  raised  to  the  official  list;  many  mani- 
fested  ability   and   did    service;    all   finally   were   as  legitimate  as 

*  M.  de  Vogii^  (Inscr.  «^.,pp.  29  et  seq.)  does  not  believe  that  Odenathus  ever  had  the  title 
of  Augustus.  But,  as  M.  Waddington  remarks  {Inscr.  de  Syrie^  p.  601),  "  at  Palmyra  it  was 
not  of  particular  importance  to  translate  exactly  the  names  of  Roman  dignities,"  and  as  Zenobia 
is  called  in  an  inscription  aitaariif  or  Augitsta,  it  would  appear  that  this  title  was  given  her  as 
widow  of  a  attaaroc. 

*  We  shall  have  twenty-nine  Caesars,  or  Augusti,  murdered  in  less  than  twelve  years  if  we 
include  sons  of  emperors  to  whom  their  fathers  gave  the  purple. 

*  IMP.  C.  TETRICVS  PIVS  AVG.  and  the  laurelled  head  of  the  emperor.  On  the 
reverse :  VIRTVS  AVG. ;  Tetricus,  in  a  military  costume,  standing ;  at  his  feet  a  captive. 
(Gold  coin  in  the  British  Museum.  Of.  de  Witte,  op.  laud.  TETRICUS  the  Elder,  pi.  xl. 
No.  162.) 

*  At  least,  he  was  so  considered,  but  it  cannot  be  proved  that  he  was  of  that  illustrious 
family  of  Pisos  whom  Horace  calls  Pompilius  sanguis  (Ars  poet.^  202),  because  they  claimed 
descent  from  Kuma.    Nor  is  it  even  certain  that  Piso  assumed  the  purple. 

FF  2 


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436  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    285    TO    268    A.D. 

was   Septimius   Severus.      The   Empire,    that   is   to   say,    union    for 
the   common   defence,  seemed  no  longer  to  exist,  since  one  of   the 

emperors  was  captive  in  Ctesiphon, 
the  other  wholly  lost  in  pleasure,,  and 
the  barbarians  overrunning  the  pro- 
vinces at  their  will.  Under  stress 
^.  -  ^      .        „  .  of    necessity,    patriotism    re-awakened. 

Coin  of  Pacatiauug,  Emperor  in  .  j     i_ 

Pannonia  or  in  Rhsetia.^  and     siuCC    nothing    COUld    be    CXpectcd 

from  Kome,  men  looked  to  themselves  for  their  preservation.     The 

legions  formed  the  per- 
manent garrison  of  the 
provinces,  and  remained 
very  long  in  the  same 
places,  for  example,  the 
Third  Augustan  occupied 
Kumidia  for  three  cen- 
turies. From  this  resulted 
intimate  relations  between 
the  army  and  the  country. 
The  soldier  married  there, 
the  legion  •was  recruited 
thence,  and  the  troops 
borrowed  the  manners  and 
beliefs  of  the  region  in 
which  they  lived.  We 
have  had  occasion  more 
than  once  to  show  that 
the  differences  between  the 
armies  of  Gaul  and  of 
Syria  corresponded  to  the 
Young  «XrX^ri  of 'L'SS    ^""""^      differences  between  the  two 

countries.  By  degrees 
these  multiplied  bonds  had  made  the  legionaries,  as  it  were,  the 
representatives  of  those  whom  it  was  their  duty  to  protect,  and 
during   the   eclipse  of  the  universal  Empire  the  provincial  interest 

'  IMP.  TI.  CL.  MAR.  PAC  ATI  ANUS  AUG.  and  the  radiate  head  of  the  provincial 
emperor.  On  the  reverse:  ROMAE  AETERN.  AN(no)  MlLh(esimo)  ET  PRIMO  (tlie  year 
1001  of  Rome,  248  a.d.)  ;  in  the  centre,  Rome  seated.     (Silver  coin.) 


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FROM   THE    ACCESSION    OF    DECIUS   TO   THE    DEATH    OF    GALLIENUS.       437 

personified   itself    in    provincial    emperors.      Almost   simultaneously 
Gaul,    lUyria,    Moesia,    Pannonia,    Greece,   and  Thessaly  proclaimed 


Triumphal  Arch  of  Gallienus  at  Rome. 

their  respective  governors,  and  the  provinces  were  so  much  in 
sympathy  with  the  soldiers  that  they  shared  their  fortunes.  In 
a   province   where   Gallienus   had   been    able    to   overthrow   one  of 


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438  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235   TO    268    A.D. 

his  rivals,  civilians  suffered  as  much  as  soldiers ;  the  legions  were 
decimated,  but  the  cities  were  as  full  of  carnage  as  were  the 
camps.^ 

The  most  remarkable  of  these  emperors  is  Postumus.^  He 
was  a  man  of  low  condition,^  but  of  great  cowage,  and  extremely 
popular  in  the  Gallic  provinces  where  he  was  born,  and  of  which 

he  had  been  the  protector.  When  Qallienus 
quitted  the  country  in  258  he  left  his  son 
Saloninus  at  Cologne,  with  the  title  of 
Csesar,  under  the  care  not  of  Postumus,  the 
governor  of  Gaul,  but  under  that  of  the 
tribune  Silvanus,  and  Postumus  was  wounded 
at  this  mark  of  distrust.  On  one  occa- 
sion, when  the  latter  had  divided  among 
Saloninus  Caesar.  the    troops    a    rich    booty    recaptured    from 

the  Franks,  Silvanus  claimed  the  spoils  as 
belonging  to  the  Caesar.  When  Postumus  made  known  this  order, 
the  soldiers,  rather  than  give  back  what  they  had  received,  tore 
from  their  standai'ds  the  effigies  of  Gallienus  and  Saloninus,  and 
proclaimed  their  general  (258).  He  led  them  to  Cologne,  obtained 
the  surrender,  after  a  long  siege,  of  the  Caesar  and  his  adviser, 
and  put  them  both  to  death.'*  The  nations  and  armies  of  the 
Gallic  provinces,  Britain,  and  Spain  took  oath  to  the  new  Augustus.* 
It  was  not  the  establishment  of  a  Gallic,  Spanish,  or  British 
Empire :    no   one  at  this  time   thought   of    breaking    with    Eome ; 

*  Treb.  PoUio,  Tyr,  trig.,  8.  This  awakening  of  provincial  patriotism  is  manifested  by  two 
things:  many  cities,  in  Gaul,  for  example,  abandon  in  the  thii-d  century  their  Roman  name  to 
take  that  of  their  own  people,  and  when  the  emperors  dismember  a  former  government  to  form 
new  provinces,  they  usually  give  the  latter  the  limits  that  these  territories  had  in  the  time  of 
their  independence. 

'  M.  Cassianius  Latinius  Postumus  (C.  /.  Z.,  ii.  No.  4,943). 
'  Obscurissime  natus  (Eutrop.,  ix.  9). 

*  Eckhel  (vol.  vii.  pp.  391  and  438)  places  the  surrender  of  Cologne  in  259.  The  Avgu8ta7i 
History  {Tyr,  trig.,  3)  represents  Postumus  as  having  a  son  whom  Valerian  had  appointed 
tribune  of  the  Vocontii,  and  whom  his  father  had  taken  as  colleague  ;  but,  although  we  possess 
a  great  quantity  of  medals  of  Postumus,  no  one  of  them  gives  us  ground  to  believe  that  this 
son,  who  had  only  literary  tastes,  was  made  Csesar  and  afterwards  Augustus,  and  the  adoption 
of  Victorinus  confirms  these  doubts.  (Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  447,  and  de  Witte,  Revue  de  numism , 
vol.  iv.  1869.) 

*  Br^quigny,  Hist  de  Post.,  p.  356,  in  vol.  xxx.  of  the  MSm.  de  VAcad.  des  inscr.  This 
opinion  rests,  it  is  true,  upon  two  doubtful  readings  of  legends  on  coins,  which  appear  to  belong 
to  another  period ;  but  probability  favours  it.     (Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  442.) 


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FROM   THE   ACCESSION    OF   DECIUS   TO   THE   DEATH    OF    GALLIENUS.       439 

it   Avas   only   breaking   with    Gallienus,    and    for   protection    uniting 

together  under  a  famous  soldier.     Treves  was  his  capital ;    here  he 

gathered   a   senate   which  decreed   him   all   the   titles   attributed   to 

emperors  on  the  banks 

of    the    Tiber;      but, 

upon    his    coins,     the 

sole    history    of     him 

which    we     have,'    he 

preserved     the     image 

of    the    Eternal    City, 

Roma  sterna. 

Under    the    purple      ^^  ^^  Postumus,  bearing  on  the  Reverse,  Rome  Eternal.^ 

he    kept    his    military 

tunic.     He  prevented  the  Alemanni  from  entering  Gaul,  drove  back 

the  Franks  by  constructing  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine  strong 

forts   commanding   the   fords,  and  his  fleet   freed   the 

British   waters   from   Saxon   pirates.      On   one   of  his 

medals,    Neptuno    reduci    indicates    that    he    led    this 

expedition  in  person;^    another  attests  his   efforts  to 

free   from   pestilence   the   troops    and    the   provinces.'* 

Successes  of  which  we  know  nothing  gave  him  those  NEFTUNO  re- 

imperatorial   salutations   unknown   on   coins   since   the    of   a  CoiJ^of 

time  of  Caracalla,  and  the  surname  Germanicus  Maxi-    PosufmusO^^  ^^ 

miLS.^     Coins   of   the   year  262  give   him   these   titles 

for  the  fifth  time,  and  represent,   some  of  them,    a  Victory  croAvii- 

ing   the   Gallic   emperor,  and   others   a   trophy  raised  between  two 

prostrate  captives.     After  making  his  power  felt  among  the  Franks 

he  sought  to  draw  them  into  an  alliance;  an  auxiliary  corps  which 

he   recruited   among    them  gave  him  soldiers  and  also   a   pledge  of 

the  fidelity  of  these  people. 

The   usurper  therefore   fulfilled   all   the   duties  of  a  legitimate 
prince ;  security  reigned  in  the  provinces,  and  commerce  re-appeared 

*  M.  de  Witte  has  collected  them  in  a  learned  volume.    The  senate  of  Postumus,  like  the 
Roman  senate,  struck  hronze  coins  with  the  stamp  SO. 

'  Gold  coin,  in  an  open  setting  and  loop.     Cf .  de  Witte,  op.  cit.,  pi.  xvii.  No.  265. 
3  Mionnet,ii.  61,68. 

*  Salus  exercitits  (ibid.,  64). 

*  The  figure  V.  following  this  title  appears  to  Eckhel  (vol.  vii.  p.  439)  to  signify  a  fifth 
victory  gained  over  the  Germans.     Another  coin  confirming  this  one  bears  (MP.  V. 


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440  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

on  the  roads  and  rivers.^  To  show  whence  came  this  security, 
Postumus  caused  the  Rhine  to  be  represented  tranquilly  leaning 
upon  his  urn,  with  the  symbols  of  peace,  an  anchor,  a  reed,  and 
following  with  his  gaze  the  peaceful  cuiTent  of  his  stream.  The 
legend  was  expressive .    Salics  provinciarmn? 

In  262  Postumus  celebrated  the  fifth  year  of 
his  reign.  Originally  this  solemnity  had  occurred 
only  at  the  deceimalia;  but  at  the  period  of  which 
we  write  a  ruler  esteemed  himself  fortunate  if  he 
had  lived  half  that  time,  and  five  years  was  the 
grande  cevi  spatium  which  an  emperor  rarely  exceeded. 

Another    distinguished    general,     Ingenuus,     had    been     made 
eiiii)eror  by  the  troops  of  Pannonia   (258),^   and   the   population  of 

that  province  had  pronounced  with 
ardour  in  favour  of  the  man  who  had 
many  times  repulsed  or  driven  into  the 
Danube  the  Goths  and  Sarmatians. 
Gallienus,  however,   defeated   him   near 

Coin  of  MacriaDus.^  ^'^^^   ^J  ^   ^^^^"^^   manoeuvre   of   one 

of  the  imperial  lieutenants,  Aureolus, 
who  with  a  furious  cavalry  charge  broke  the  enemy's  line.  In- 
genuus killed  himself,  or  caused  his  attendant  to  kill  him.  The 
province  was  deluged  with  blood ;  ^  it  remembered  this  cruelty,  and 
we  shall  see  that  Pannonia  soon  made  a  new  emperor,  Regalianus. 
For  the  moment  Gallienus,  conqueror  of  the  rebels  of  Pan- 
nonia and  also  of  the  Alemanni  whom  he  .  had  just  now  driven 
out   of   Italy,    seemed   in   a  position   to   wage   successful   war   with 


'  This  is  probably  the  meaning  of  the  two  medals  which  bear  the  unusual  legends:  Mercurio 
feltci  and  Minerva  fautruv.    (Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  p.  445.) 

^  The  bronzes  of  Postumus  are  very  defective,  but  his  gold  pieces  equal  tlie  finest  of  the 
preceding  emperors,  and  his  silver  coins  still  contain  a  little  pure  metal,  while  those  of  Gallienus 
have  none  whatever.  To  judge  by  the  pieces  found  in  collections  of  buried  money  of  this  date, 
it  appears  that  QaUic  coin  was  not  received  in  Italy  nor  the  coins  of  Gallienus  in  Gaul. 
(Mommsen,  Hist,  de  la  Monn.  rom.,  vol.  ii.  p.  124.) 

'  The  Ehine  seated,  leaning  upon  an  urn  and  laying  one  hand  on  a  vessel.  Reverse  of 
a  copper  coin  of  Postumus,  with  the  legend :  SALUS  PROVINCIARUM. 

*  Cf.  Fragm.  hist  Grac,  vol.  iv.  p.  194  (Didot).  It  is  possible  that  this  revolt  of  Ingenuus 
was  anterior  to  the  Alemannic  invasion  of  Italy. 

*  IMP.  C.  FVL.  MACRIANVS  P.  F.  AVG.  Radiate  head  of  the  emperor.  On  the 
reverse :  MARTI  PROPVGNATORI  and  the  god  Mars.    (Coin  of  copper  alloy.) 

*  See  the  letter  of  Gallienus  to  Vehanus  Celer.     (Treb.  Pollio,  Ingen.) 


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FROM    THE    ACCESSION    OF    DECIUS   TO    THE    DEATH    OF    GALLIENUS.       441 

Postumus ;   but  bad  news  came  from  Asia ;  Valerian  was  a  captive, 
and   Balista   had   induced   Maori  anus   to   assume   the   purple.      This 
Macrianus/   a  soldier   of   fortune,   had  risen  from  the  lowest  ranks 
in  the  army  to  the  first  positions  of  the  state.     His  marriage  and 
the    liberality   of   Valerian,    who    trusted    him,    had 
made  him  rich  enough  to  be  able  out  of  his  private 
fortune   to   pay   on   the   spot   the   donativum    to    the 
troops.       He   is   represented   by  ecclesiastical  writers 
as  having  employed  magical  arts  to  induce  Valerian 
to   undertake   the   great    persecution    of    258.      The    Macriamis.  (^Goid 
emperor   was   impelled   thereto    by   reasons   no   more 
valid,  but  in  his  eyes  more  serious.      Pagan  authors,  on  their  part, 
reproach  him  with  having  urged  his  master  to  that  fatal  conference 
whence  the  emperor  never  returned.      These  accusa- 
tions, which  emerge  from    obscurity,    should   be   left 
there.     Moreover,    this    man    is    not    important,    and 
his  reign   was   very   brief.      He  required,  as   a  con- 
dition of  accepting  the   Empire,    that   his    two    sons, 
Macrianus    and    Quietus,    should    be    made   Augusti.  Quietus.    (Medium 
Egypt  acknowledged  him  (260  or  2G1).  ^"^""^'^ 

Through  the  energy  of  Odenathus  the  East  was  delivered 
from  the  Persians ;  but  it  was  needful  to  restore  tranquillity  to 
men's  minds,  discipline  to  the  army,  and  a  sense  of  security  to  the 
population.  The  task  was  one  which  might  occupy  a  ruler  during 
many  years.  Macrianus  never  thought  of  it  at  all;  his  design  was 
to  extend  his  power  rather  than  to  consolidate  it.  Leaving  Quietus 
and  Balista  in  Asia,  he  crossed  over  into  Europe  with  his  other 
son,  Macrianus,  and  30,000  men  to  overthrow  Gallienus.  He  sent 
before  him  one  of  his  generals,  Piso,  who  was  to  rid  liim  of  Valens, 
the  proconsul  of  Achaia,  whose  talents  the  newly-made  emperor 
dreaded.  Valens,  feeling  himself  menaced,  assumed  the  purple  in 
Greece  :  it  is  said  that  Piso  did  the  same  in  Thessaly,'^  where  he 
took  refuge ;  but  these  two  aspirants  had  but  few  troops,  and 
probably   but  little   money,    and   they   were   to   be   placed  between 

'  Fulvius  Macrianus.  See  in  Treb.  PoUio  ( Tyr,  trig.y  12)  the  curious  appeal  of  Balista  to 
Macrianus. 

^  The  eulogium  upon  Piso,  pronounced  by  the  prince  of  the  senate,  and  the  senatus-consultum 
which  decreed  him  a  triumphal  statue  (Treb.  Pollio,  Tyr.  trig.,  20),  prevent  us  from  believing 
that  Piso  assumed  the  purple. 


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442  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235   TO    268    A.D. 

the  two  immense  armies  of  Macrianus  and  GhiUienus  ;  their  soldiers, 
therefore,  killed  them.* 

Aureolus  had  been  rewarded  for  his  services  in  defeating 
Ingenuus  by  the  post  of  Master  of  the  Cavalry  and  the  government 
of  the  lUyrian  provinces.  He  was  the  son  of  a  Dacian  shepherd: 
a  new  proof  that  the  highest  grades  were  recruited  from  a  very 
low  stratum.  Being  sent  to  arrest  the  Syrian  invasion,  ht3  was 
easily  successful ;  a  part  of  the  army  came  over  to  him,  and 
Macrianus  perished  with  his  son.^  Thus  the  situation  became 
simpler. 

At  the  news    of   this    success,    Odenathus 
besieged    in    Emesa    Quietus,    the    second    son 
of   Macrianus,   put   him   to    death,  and  shortly 
after   caused    the    assassination    of   Balista,  the 
only  man    who   could   be   an   obstacle  to  him- 
self.'     The   Palmyrene    remained    sole    master 
of     the     Eoman     East,     and     Gallienus     and 
Postumus  divided  between  them  the  West. 
These  domestic  strifes  were  not  adapted  to  arrest  the  incursions 
of  the  Goths  and  Sarmatians  in  Thrace  and  Asia.     On  the  coast  of 
Asia   Minor   they   burned   the   famous   temple    of    Ephesus,    which, 
with  its  twenty-seven  columns    of   precious    marble,  each  sixty  feet 
high,   the  sculptures  of  Scopas,  and  the  gifts  of  kings  and  nations 
heaped  up  within  its  walls,    was  esteemed   one   of  the  wonders  of 
the  world.*     In  Moesia  they  took  Nicopolis,  which  had  arrested  the 
advance  of  Kniva,  and  in  Macedon  they  besieged  Thessalonica,  the 
key   to   that   province.      Their   bands,    increased   by  escaped  slaves, 
many   of   whom   were   of   barbaric   origin,    went  as   far  as   Greece, 
where    they    found    small    plunder    and    many    mountains,    which 


*  It  is  possible  that  Piso  was  killed  by  the  emissaries  or  by  the  troops  of  Valens,  who 
assumed  the  surname  of  Thessalicus.     (Ibid.) 

'  In  the  ninth  year  of  the  reign  of  Gallienus,  that  is  to  say,  before  the  29th  of  August,  262, 
probably  at  the  close  of  261. 

'  According  to  other  accounts,  Odenathus  spared  Balista,  who  lived  in  retirement  on  an 
estate  which  he  possessed  near  Daphne. 

*  E*ECliiN.  The  stAtue  of  Diana  within  the  temple.  (Reverse  of  a  large  bronze  of 
Hadrian.) 

*  The  temple  was  425  feet  long  and  220  wide.  (Pliny,  Hist,  fiat.,  xxxvi.  21.)  The  Roman 
foot  wa.«»  11*655  inches.  [Cf.  now  the  remarkable  explorations  and  restoration  of  this  temple  in 
Mr.  Wood  8  Ephesiuf.—Ed.'] 


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FROM   THE    ACCESSION    OF   DECIUS   TO    THE    DEATH    OF   GALLIENUS.       443 

rendered  resistance  easy,  and  they  appear  to  have  suffered  a  defeat 
there.^  Jordanes  speaks  of  the  childish  delight  of  the  Goths  when 
they  found  themselves  at  the  foot  of  the  Balkans,  near  the  hot 
springs  of  Anchialos  (262-3).^ 

Byzantium,  the  bulwark   of  the  Empire  in  these  regions,  had 
a    numerous    garrison,   which,    without   doubt   on   account   of   some 
delay    in    receiving  pay,    revolted   and   pillaged   the 
city,     Gallienus  hastened  thither,  and,  as  his  custom 
was,  showed  himself  very  severe  in  his  punishment. 
He  remained   there   some   months   to   intimidate  the 
barbarians   who   had  reappeared  in  Cappadocia,   and 
to    restore    the    provinces    to    order,    rebuilding  the    Reverse  of  a  Coin 
fortifications   of  many   of    the  cities.     At  the  same 
time  he  carried  on  negotiations  with  Odenathus,  which  resulted  in 
his  accepting  the  Arab  chief  as  his  colleague  in  the  Empire  (264). 
On  his  return   to    Eome   he    celebrated  with  all  the 
magnificence  that  the  precarious   state  of  his  finances 
permitted  the  tenth  year  of  his  sad  reign. 

In  the  spring  of  264  he  at  last  prepared  to 
avenge  his  son  and  recover  the  Gallic  provinces.*  It 
is  said*  that  he  proposed  to  Postumus  to  decide  their  Victorinus wear- 

■^     ^  ,  mg  the  Radiate 

quarrel  by  single  combat;  to  which  the  Gallic  em-  Crown.  (Coin of 
peror  replied  that  he  was  not  a  gladiator.  Aureolus  ^^^^^  ^^' 
commanded  the  troops  of  Gallienus ;  he  either  would  not,  or  could 
not,  take  advantage  of  a  victory  of  some  importance  to  overwhelm 
Postumus,  and  the  war  was  protracted.  Notwithstanding  the  defec- 
tion of  a  general  of  the  Italian  Caesar,  Victorinus,^  who  with  several 
legions  went  over  to  the  side  of  the  Gallic  Csesar,  and  was  by 
the    latter    associated  with  himself  in  the  imperial  power  (265y 

'  Treb.  PolHo,  Oall.,  6. 

*  The  aqtue  cali'fcB  were  fifteen  miles  to  the  north  of  this  city,  which  stood  on  the  shore 
of  the  Black  Sea,  and  they  had  a  great  reputation,  inter  reliqua  totius  mundi  thermorum 
tnnumerabilium  loca  omnino  preecipue  ad  samtcttem  infirmorum  efficacissimee  (Jordanes,  20). 

^  LEG.  XXX.  VLP(ta)  VIP  (sextum  pia)  VI  F  {sextum  fiddU),  Neptune  standing. 
(Copper  alloy.) 

^  Eckhel  (vol.  vii.  p.  23S)  believes  that  there  had  been  hostilities  between  Gallienus  and 
Postumus  since  the  year  260. 

*  Fragm,  hist.  Qrac,  vol.  iv.  p.  194. 

^  At  least  the  coins  of  Victorinus  bear  the  names  of  legions  that  are  known  to  have  been  in 
the  army  of  Gallienus.     (Cf.  Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  pp.  402  and  451.) 

'  This  is  the  well-authorized  opinion  of  M.  de  Witte,  Reviie  de  num.,  new  series,  vol.  vi.  1861. 


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444  MILITABY   ANARCHY,    235   TO    268   A.D. 

Postumus  was  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  a  fortified  town,  where 
the  imperial  troops  besieged  him.  Gallienus  was  wounded  with 
an    arrow    during    the    siege,    and   the   wound,    together  with   his 

disgust  at  the  pro- 
longed duration  of  the 
war,  decided  him  to 
leave  his  expedition 
incomplete.  He  came 
back  into  Italy,  leav- 
ing Aureolus  to  guard 
the  Alpine  passes,  a 
precaution  which 
proves  that  the  ex- 
pedition    into     Gaul 

Postumus,    how- 
ever,  half  victorious,  half  vanquished,  lost  in  this  war  the  prestige 
he  had  obtained   in  his  successful  encounters  with   the  barbarians. 
A   competitor,   Laelianus,'  appeared  against  him;   he 
defeated  this  general,  but  havmg  refused  his  troops 
the    pillage   of    Mayence,   the  principal   seat   of  the 
rebellion,  a  tumult  broke  out,  in  which  he  and  his 
son  were  killed  (267).    The  Germans  took  advantage 
^   ,.  ,   of    these    disturbances    to   recommence    their   preda- 

Laelianuji  crowned 

with  Laurel.  (Gold  tory   expeditions,    and    burned    several   Gallic   cities. 
^  Laelianus,    respited    by     the     death    of     Postumus, 

obtained  some  advantages  over  them,  attested  by  his  coins,*  and 
rebuilt  the  forts  on  the  right  bank  which  they  had  destroyed. 
The  soldiers,  disgusted  by  the  labours  which  he  required  of  them, 
murdered  him. 

Victorinus  had  doubtless  instigated  this  tragedy,  which  relieved 
him  from  a  competitor ;  but  another  immediately  came  forward, 
Marius,   formerly   a   blacksmith.     The   Augtistan   History  assigns  to 

^  Gold  medallion  in  an  open  setting.  (Collection  of  the  Hague ;  J .  de  Witte,  Recherches,  etc., 
pi.  xxvi.  No.  24.) 

"  INDVLGENTIA  AVG(t«fa).    The  emperor  standing,  assisting  a  kneeling  figure  to  rise. 

'  Revue  de  num,,  vol.  iv.  1869. 

*  Cohen,  v.  60.  One  coin  of  Laelianus  represents  Spain,  where  he  certainly  never  waa  in 
command,  hut  he  included  it  in  his  government.    (Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  p.  449.) 


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FROM    THE   ACCESSION    OF   DECIUS   TO   THE    DEATH    OF    GALLIENUS.       445 

this  person  only  three  *days'  reign,  in  order  to  say  that  on  the  first 

day  he  was   made  emperor,  on  the  second  he  reigned,  and  on  the 

third  he  was  dethroned.     It  is  probable, 

however,    that    the    time   was    somewhat 

longer;    an   old  comrade  whose  hand  he 

would   not    touch,     struck    him    with    a 

sword    which,    as    the    story    went,    they 

T     J     A  J    .        j.r       1  Coin  of  Marius.'* 

had  forged  together/ 

The  former  colleague  of  Postumus,  Victorinus,*  had  remained 
during  these  catastrophes  the 
emperor  of  the  Gallic  pro- 
vinces. He  was  bom  of  a 
rich  family,  and  one  of  his 
kindred,  Tetricus,  governed 
Aquitaine.  These  ties  of 
relationship  consolidated  his 
power,  making  him  a  national 
ruler  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Gauls;  and  he  appeared  so 
formidable  to  Gallienus  that 
the  latter,  instead  of  attack- 
ing him  in  Gaul,  feared  lest 
he  should  come  to  seek  the 
empire  of  Italy  as  well. 
But  habits  of  the  grossest 
debauchery     tarnished      the  _     _  .,   .    ^ 

•^         ,         ,  The  Emperor  Marius.* 

merits     of    Victorinus,     and 

he  was  assassinated  at   Cologne   by  one   of    his   own   officers  whose 

wife  he  had  outraged  (268)/ 

The    true  ruler    duiing    this    reign    had    been  Victorina,    the 

*  We  have  coins  and  inscriptions  of  his  which  compel  us  to  helieve  that  his  reign  w%8  not 
80  short.  De  Boze  {MSm.  de  Vacad.,  xxvi.  512)  gives  him  a  reign  of  four  or  five  months,  from 
September  or  October,  267,  to  January  or  February,  268. 

*  IMP.  C.  MARIVS  AVG.,  around  the  radiate  head  of  the  Gallic  emperor.  On  the  reverse, 
SAEC(w/0  FELICITAS,  and  Felicity  standing.     (Coin  of  copper  alloy.) 

*  Marcus  Piavonius  Victorinus  (Or.-Henzen,  No.  5,548 ;  Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  p.  450). 

*  Engraved  stone  of  the  Cabinet  de  France  (20  millimetres  by  17),  No.  2,106  of  the 
Catalogue. 

*  In  the  beginning  of  this  year,  and  again  in  March,  the  senate  begs  Claudius  to  overthrov^ 
Tetricus.    Coins  of  Victorinus  have  lately  been  found  in  England. 


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446  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

emperor's  mother,  a  woman  of  masculine  courage,  the  Zenobia  of 
the  West,  who,  by  her  largesses,  exercised  great  influence  over  the 
army.  The  soldiers  called  her  the  ''  mother  of  the  camps,"  and  a 
medal  (the  authenticity, 
however,  is  doubtful) 
gives  her  the  title  of 
empress.  If  she  did 
not  take  it,  she  at  least 
disposed  of  it,  causing 
the  army  to  acknow- 
ledge Tetricus  her  kins- 
man,^ a  prudent  man, 
whose  shoulders  the 
purple  galled,  and  who 
wished  to  keep  at  a 
distance  from  camps, 
where  rulers  were  made 
and  unmade  so  quickly. 
He  established  himself 
at  Bordeaux  under  the 
protection  of  the  goddess 
Tutela;  and  we  leave 
him,  therefore,  tranquilly 
awaiting  Aurelian  and 
the    termination    of    an 

imperial  power  which  he  Altar  of  Tutel«  foundVt  Bordeaux.^ 

had  not  desired. 

A  Dacian,  Regalianus,  believed  to  be  a  descendant  of  the 
famous  Decebalus,  had  the  government  of  Pannonia  and  Moesia. 
He  had  shown  himself  an  able  general,  and  could  boast  of  several 
victories  over  the  Sarmatians.  This  was  enough  to  determine  soldiers 
and.  provincials  to  make  emperor  a  man  who  gave  to  the  former 
booty   and   to   the  latter   security,   especially  while  the  memory  of 

*  C.  Pius  Esuvius  Tetricus  (Borghesi,  vol.  vii.  page  430,  n.  4).  He  was  proclaimed  at 
Bordeaux  before  March,  268.  De  Witte,  Reime  de  nttmism.y  vol.  vi.  1861,  and  Recherches  sur 
les  empereurs  qui  out  riyn6  dans  les  Oaules  au  troisieme  Steele. 

*  This  p^'destal  doubtless  bore  a  statue  of  Tutela;  the  personified  protecting  power  of  the 
crods,  a  divinity  much  honoured  at  Bordeaux.  The  inscription  is  of  the  year  224.  Cf.  Ch. 
Robert,  Cidte  de  Tutela,  in  the  Mimoii-es  de  la  Soc.  arch,  de  Bordeaux. 


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PROM   THE'  ACCESSION    OF    DECIUS   TO    THE    DEATH    OF    GALLIENUS.       447 

the  cruelties  of   Gallienus  in  that   province  were  still  fresh   in   the 

minds  of   all.      Eegalianus  was  therefore  invested  with  the  purple. 

This   was   a   reconstruction   of    the   Pannonian    kingdom,    after    the 

manner    in    which    the    Gallic    and    Oriental     kingdoms    had    been 

re-established,  and  for  the  same  reasons,  namely,  the  defence  of  the 

territory    committed    to    the    worthiest, 

because    the    ofl&cial    emperor    failed    to 

make  it  secure.     Eegalianus  came  to  a 

violent    end,    according    to   some,    by    a 

revolt  among  his  own  people  ;  ^  according 

to  others  by  an  attack  from  Gallienus.  ^^"^  ^^  Regaiianus.' 

Seeing  the  Empire  thus  parcelled  out,   there  was   no   man   too 
insignificant    not    to    desire    to    have    his    share.       Of    Antoninus, 
Memor,  and  Cecrops,  we  know  only  the  names;    of   Satuminus  we 
have   only   this    saying    to   his    soldiers :    *^  Comrades,    you    lose    a 
good  general,  and  you  make  a  worthless  emperor ;  "  of  Celsus,   this 
anecdote,   that    his   partisans   not   finding    the   purple  mantle  indis- 
pensable   for   the   consecration    of    an    emperor, 
covered  him   with  the  robe  of  the  dea  ccelestis 
of  Carthage.     The  great  goddess  was  scandalized 
no    doubt   at   this   impiety,   for    he  was    killed 
almost  immediately.      His  body  was  thrown   to 
the   dogs,   which   devoured   it,    and   his  picture 
nailed  to  the  cross  on  which  criminals  suffered, 
that  the  infamy  of  this  unfortunate  man  might      .Emiiianus  Laurelled. 
be  made  eternal  who  had  reigned  seven  days. 

JEmilianus,  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  enjoyed  his  ephemeral 
dignity  a  little  while  longer,  until  Gallienus,  who  had  need  of  the 
Egyptian  wheat,  sent  against  him  Theodotus,  whose  services  and 
fidelity  had  already  been  proved  in  Gaul.  Being  defeated  and 
taken  prisoner,  ^milianus  was  strangled  in  his  dungeon.  Still 
further  among  the  number  of  usurpers  we  find  one  Trebellianus, 
a  chief  of  those  Isaurian  mountaineers  whom  Rome  had  never 
civilized  or   disciplined.      A    bandit   by  trade,    a    pirate,    he   took 


'  Treb.  Pollio,  Tyr.  trig.,  10. 

■^  IMP.  C.  P.  C.  REGALIANVS  AVG. ;  radiate  head  of  Regalianiis.  On  tlie  roverso : 
LTBER(a)L(tOAS  AVG.;  Liberty  standing,  holding  a  freedman's  cap  and  a  sceptre.  (Silver 
coin.) 


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448  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

advantage  of  the  universal  disorganization  to  extend  his  predatory 
expeditions.  A  brother  of  Theodotus  defeated  and  slew  him. 
This     is     the     perpetually     recurring     termination     of     all     these 

narratives.  Local 
patriotism  was  keen 
enough  for  men  to  yield 
to  the  desire  of  having 
a  national  chief;  it  was 
not  pefscvering  enough 
long  to  support  these 
provincial  emperors, 
who,  owing  their  eleva- 
tion to  disorder  and 
public  calamity,  became 
in  their  turn  its  victims. 
Kevolts  continued  be- 
cause they  had  begun, 
and  men  killed  because 
they  had  killed. 

One  alone  of  these 
parvenus  so  quickly 
overthrown  interests  us 
— the  king  of  Palmyra, 
founder  of  a  half  Arab 
state,  who,   if  he  could 

^miliauuB  before  his  Axxiession  (Probable).^  have       established       his 

power,  would  have 
changed  the  face  of  the  East.  For  this,  it  was  needful  that 
Odenathus  should  live,  but,  like  all  the  rest,  he  was  assassinated. 
We  shall  again  refer  to  this  murder  and  to  this  kingdom  in  the 
history  of  Aurelian. 

What  was  Gallienus  doing  in  the  midst  of  these  catastrophes? 
One  of  the  old  authors  loads  him  with  all  maledictions ;  ^  another 
represents  him  working  diligently  to  overcome  the  public  misfortunes.^ 

^  Bust  of  the  Museum  of  Lyons.     (Comarmond,  Descr.  des  Antiqites,  etc.,  pi.  9,  No.  152.) 
'  Treb.  Pollio,  in  the  Augustan  History.      This  author  wrote  in  the  time  of   the  Caesar 

Constantius,  a  descendant  of   Claudius  II.  (Gall.,  14),  and  Claudius   caused  the  murder  of 

Gallienus.     Pollio,  therefore,  regarded  Gallienus  as  a  criminal. 
3  Zosimus,  i.  30-46. 


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FROM   THE   ACCESSION   OF   DKCIU8   TO   THE   DEATH   OF   GALLIENU8.      449 

When  news  came  of  the  defection  of  the  Qanls  and  of  Egypt, 
Pollio  represents  him  as  saying :  '^  Can  we  not  live,  then,  without 
Egyptian  linen  and  tapestry?"  At  the  same  time,  he  was  not 
destitute  of  courage;  he  loved  poetry,  eloquence,  the  arts;  and  he 
was  on  the  point  of  giving  Plotinus,  at  the  request  of  the  empress 
Salonina,  a  district  in  Campania  (to  be  called  Platonopolis),  that 
the  philosopher  might  try  the  experiment  of  Plato's  Eepublic.  But 
of  what  value  are  these  mental  endowments,  the  splendid  and 
beautiful  adornment  of  more  prosperous  reigns  ?  At  such  a  time 
as  this  the  Empire  needed,  not  a  maker  of  Greek  and  Latin 
verses,  but  a  soldier.  Gbllienus  might  have  reigned  as  Aurelian, 
Probus,  and  Diocletian  were  to  reign.  K  he  did  not  do  this,  it 
was  because  of  his  incapacity,  and  we  may  leave  him  with  his 
poor  reputation. 

In  267,  Aureolus,  once  a  Dacian  shepherd,^  but  a  brave 
soldier,  the  conqueror  of  Macrianus  in  Thrace,  and  the  adversary 
of  Postumus  in  Gaul,  was  left  to  guard  with  an  army  the  passes 
of  the  western  Alps  against  Victorinus,  while  Gallienus  went  to 
drive  out  of  lUyria  the  barbarians  who  had  unexpectedly  appeared 
there.  These  invaders  came  from  afar;  from  the  sea  of  Azof 
had  come  500  vessels,  in  which  no  strength  was  wasted,  for  they 
carried  a  multitude  of  warriors,^  who  at  sea  were  rowers  and 
on  land  were  fighting  men.  They  crossed  the  Bosphorus,  the 
Propontis,  and  the  Hellespont,  killing  and  pillaging.  When  Mithri- 
dates  besieged  Cyzicus,  four  centuries  earlier,  that  city  had  three 
arsenals  filled  with  weapons,  grain,  machines  of  war,  and,  in  its 
harbour,  200  galleys.  Notwithstanding  the  many  formidable  warn- 
ings given  these  populations  within  the  last  thirty  years,  the 
Goths  found  no  preparations  for  defence.  They  pillaged  the  city, 
and  Lemnos  and  Scyros  shared  the  same  fate.  The  Peloponnesus 
and  Epirus  were  ravaged,  and  one  of  their  bands  surprised  Athens, 
whence  the  population  fled.  A  monk  of  the  twelfth  century  relates 
that  the  Goths  having  collected  in  a  heap  all  the  books  found  in 
the    city,  were   about   to   give   to   the   flames  these  products   of    a 


^  Zoiiaras,  xii.  24. 

'  Qibbon  says  15,000,  taking  for  authority  a  text  of  Strabo,  which  allows  from  twenty-five 
to  thirty  men  as  a  crew  for  the  vessels  of  the  Euxine.  But  we  have  no  proof  that,  three 
centuries  later  than  Strabo,  these  vessels  were  no  larger. 

VOL.  VI.  GG 


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450  MILITARY   ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

civilization  which  they  despised,  when  one  of  their  chiefs  deterred 
them:  '^Let  us  leave  to  the  Greeks,"  he  said,  'Hhese  books  which 
render  them  so  effeminate  and  un warlike."  Montaigne^  repeats 
this  whim  of  the  monk,  and  Rousseau  quotes  it  after  him.  An 
Athenian,  however,  proved  to  them  that  a  man  could  be  both 
a  scholar  and  a  soldier :  Cleodemos,  says  Zonaras,  rallied  the 
fugitives,  armed  a  few  vessels,  and  killed  a  great  number  of 
marauders;  the  rest  fled.^  Zonaras  is  wrong  as  to  the  author 
of  this  bold  stroke:  the  last  of  the  Athenian  heroes  was  the 
historian  Dexippos.  The  city  having  been  taken  by  surprise,  2,000 
Athenians  took  shelter  on  a  wooded  hill,  and  there  resisted  all 
attacks.  Other  Greeks  gathered  in  this  "camp  of  refuge;"  successful 
sorties  were  made,  and  some  imperial  galleys  coming  up,  destroyed 
the  vessels  of  the  barbarians.  The  latter  were  unmindful  of  the 
disaster,  and  made  their  way  overland  to  their  companions,  who 
were  pillaging  the  Peloponnesus  and  Boeotia ;  they  entered  Acamania 
by  way  of  Epirus,  and  formed  the  bold  designs  of  returning  home 
through  lUyricum.  This  was  the  invasion  which  Gallienus  set  out 
to  repel.  He  destroyed  some  of  their  bands,  bought  over  others, 
and  made  one  of  their  chiefs  consul.  We  are  tempted  to  believe 
that  he  put  the  consular  toga  upon  the  shoulders  of  this  Herulan 
with  the  same  feelings  that  we  experience  in  giving  a  plumed  hat 
to  some  negro  king  on  the  African  coast.  But  the  son-in-law  of 
the  Marcomanni,  who  was  so  much  under  the  influence  of  Pipa, 
his  young  barbaric  wife,^  wished  to  give  this  ceremony  all  possible 
official  grandeur,  and  the  fact  is  more  important  than  it  at  first 
appears.  We  know  already  that  the  barbarians,  admitted  into  the 
auxiliary  troops,  and  then  made  citizens,  now  filled  the  legions. 
We  now  see  them  pass,  without  change,  from  barbarism  to  the 
consulship.  The  invasion  was  going  on  in  the  lower  ranks ;  it 
will  be  seen  also  in  the  upper,^  and  in  consequence  of  this  slow 
but    continuous    infiltration    it    was    really   completed    on    the    day 


^  EssaiSf  i.  24.  This  was  the  classic  souvenir  of  the  words  quoted  by  Cicero  in  the  De 
Senectutej  13,  in  speaking  of  the  doctrines  of  Epicurus. 

^  Zonaras,  xii.  26. 

'  .  .  .  .  quam  is  perdite  dilexent.  To  please  her  lie  covered  his  black  locks  with  gold 
powder,  and  would  have  his  friends  do  the  same.  Gallienus  cum  suis  semper  Jlavo  crinem 
condit  (Treb.  Pollio,  Salon.  OalL,  3). 

*  See,  p.  372,  what  lieutenants  Valerian  g-ave  to  Aurelian. 


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FRO^r   THE   ACCESSION   OF   DECIUS  TO   THE   DEATH   OF   GALLIENUS.       451 

when  it  appears  to  begin  with  the  furious  attack  of  405.  For  this 
reason  all  will  go  on  declining  for  two  centuries  in  this  empire, 
still  Koman  on  the  surface,  but  in  reality  more  and  more  per- 
meated every  day  with  Germanic  elements.^ 

While  Gallienus  was  fighting  in  lUyria,  Aureolus  found  the 
occasion  propitious  to  stir  up  revolt  in  Italy  and  seize  upon  Rome. 
The  emperor  defeated  him  at  Pontirolo  (Pons  Aureoli)  upon  the 
Adda,  and  held  him  besieged  in  Milan.  But  in  the  imperial  camp, 
Aurelian,  Heraclius,  and  Claudius,  the  most  important  generals 
in  the  army,  conspired  again  the  violent  and  feeble  ruler  under 
whom  the  Empire  had  fallen  so  low.  One  day,  when  at  the  news 
of  a  sortie  attempted  by  Aureolus,  Gallienus  had  flung  himself 
unarmed  upon  a  horse,  a  conspirator  pierced  him  with  an  arrow 
(March  22,  268).  His  brother  Valerianus  was  also  killed ;  this 
young  man  was  of  amiable  character  and  brilliant  talents,  and 
dying  at  an  age  when  many  hopes  centred  in  him,  left  a  much- 
loved  memory.  Claudius  had  ordered  his  death  for  reasons  of 
state ;  but  he  erected  to  him  a  monument  on  which  these  words 
were  engraven,  wherein  we  seem  to  read  a  half-stifled  regret : 
Valerianm^  imperator? 

We  have  had  opportunity  to  remark  that  the  entire  defence 
in  this  reign  stops  at  the  Danube  and  the  Rhine;  this  signifies 
that  the  Decumatian  lands  and  Dacia,  where  the  early  Empire  kept 
barbarism  in  check,  were  lost.'  Nor  were  the  Roman  troops  able 
any  longer  to  guard  the  line  of  the  two  rivers,  which  armed  bands 
incessantly  crossed  in  the  intervals  of  the  great  invasions,  so  that 
disquietude  prevailed  everywhere.  It  was  a  condition  similar  to 
that  of  France  at  the  time  of  the  Norman  incursions.  Con- 
sequently (as  later  was  done  in  the  beginning  of  feudal  times  and 

*  A  medal  of  this  year  commemorates  a  naval  victory  over  the  Goths,  who,  retumiug  from 
Asia  laden  with  spoils,  were  scattered  by  a  tempest  upon  the  Euxine  and  later  by  a  Koman 
flotilla.    (Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  p.  3J)4,  and  Treb.  PoUio,  Gail,,  12.) 

*  Treb.  Pollio,  Valeriani  duo,  8.  He  was  the  son  of  Valerian's  second  wife.  Eckhel 
(vol.  vii.  pp.  427-435)  believes  that  he  was  neither  Caesar  nor  Augustus,  notwithstanding  the 
positive  assertion  of  Trebellius  Pollio.  The  word  imperator  would  be  then  merely  the  military 
title;  but  this  title  had  for  many  years  been  given  only  t^  sovereigns.  Zonaras  says  that 
a  second  son  of  Gallienus  was  put  to  death  by  order  of  the  senate. 

*  Aur.  Victor,  Eutropius,  and  Orosius  (vii.  22)  place  the  loss  of  Dacia  in  this  reign.  The 
series  qf  coins  of  Odessus  (near  Varna),  which  begin  with  Trajan  and  end  with  Salouina,  the 
wife  of  Galhenus,  prove  that  this  part  of  Moesia  (where  the  Goths  had  destroyed  Istria)  was  in 
process  of  being  detached  from  the  Empire. 

GG  2 


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452  MILITARY    ANARCHY,    235    TO    268    A.D. 

for  the  same  reasons)  the  provinces  were  covered  with  fortified 
castles,  and  the  walls  of  cities  were  made  strong  again.  Gallienus 
rebuilt  those  of  Verona,  the  gate  of  Italy,^  and  employed  two 
Byzantine  engineei*s  to  fortify  the  towns  of  Moesia ;  ^  Claudius  II. 
later  reconstructed  the  walls  of  Nicsea ;  *  Aurelian  and  Probus 
undoubtedly  continued  these  defensive  works ;  and,  as  the  bar- 
barians penetrated  far  into  the  provinces,  the  cities  of  the  interior, 
as  well  as  those  of  the  frontiers,  surrounded  themselves  with 
ramparts.*  The  emperors  of  the  first  two  centuries  of  the 
Christian  era  had  not  required  so  much  prudence,  for  the  reason 
that  they  had  made  the  Empire  one  great  city,  peaceful  and 
industrious,  only  needing  to  be  protected  by  outposts,  which  good 
discipline  rendered  perfectly  inaccessible.  The  two  periods  are 
characterized  by  their  monuments;  in  one,  the  works  of  peace, 
strength,  and  security ;  in  the  other,  the  works  of  war,  weakness, 
and  alarm. 

*  Accordingly  Verona  took  his  name  :  Colonia  Augusta  Verona  Nova  Gallieniana,  inscrip- 
tion over  the  gate  of  Verona,  now  called  de^  Borsari,     (C.  I.  L.,  v.  3,329.) 

*  Treb.  Pollio,  (?a//.,  1 3 :  ....  instaurandis  urhihiAS  muniendisque  prafecit.  One  of  tliese 
engineers  was  named  AthensDus,  and  we  have,  from  an  author  of  this  name,  in  the  Mathe^natici 
veteres,  1693,  a  treatise  on  machines  of  war. 

^  Letroune,  Jownal  des  Savants,  1827. 

*  See  above,  p.  391. 


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THIRTEENTH   PERIOD. 

THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPEROES  :    THE    EMPIRE 
STRENGTHENED. 


CHAPTER    XCVII. 

CLAUDIUS  AND  AUEEIIAN  (268-275  A.D.). 

I, — Claudius  II.   (268-270);    The  First  Invasion   Repulsed. 

THE  conspirators  of  the  camp  of  Milan  resembled  in  nothing  the 
preetorians  who  had  formerly  put  the  Empire  up  to  auction. 
They  were  valiant  soldiers,  determined  to  put  an  end  to  the  dis- 
grace of  Rome  by  the  re-establishment  of  discipline  and  a  vigorous 
prosecution  of  the  war  against  the  barbarians.  They  selected  for 
emperor  the  man  who  seemed  to  them  most  experienced,  and  who 
was  the  most  conspicuous,  Claudius  the  Dalmatian.*  The  flatterers 
of  Constantius  Chlorus,  his  grand-nephew,  gave  him  for  ancestor 
the  Trojan  Dardanus;  but  he  had  made  his  own  rank.  Decius 
had  declared  him  indispensable  to  the  state;  Valerian  held  him  in 
high  esteem,  and  Gallienus  dreaded  his  judgment. 

Under  Valerian,  Claudius  had  held  the  government  of  lUyricum 
and  the  command  of  the  troops  posted  from  the  Alps  to  the 
Euxine,  with  the  appointment  of  prefect  of  Egypt,  the  honours 
of    the    proconsul   of    Africa,    and   a   suite    as    numerous    as    that 

^  Marcus  Aurelius  Claudius.  Trebdllius  Pollio  {in  Claudio^  ?)  gives  him  the  nomen 
gentilicium  of  Flavius,  which  passed  to  all  his  posterity.  Zosimus  and  Zonaras  say  that  he 
was  a  member  of  the  conspiracy,  and  this  is  doubtless  the  fact,  although  Julian,  his  kinsman, 
denies  it.  He  had  two  brothers,  Quiutillus,  of  whom  we  shall  speak  later,  and  Crispus,  whose 
daughter  Claudia,  mairitd  to  Eutropius,  was  the  mother  of  Constantius  Chlorus. 


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454 


TflE   ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS:    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 


of  the  emperor ;  ^  in  which  we  see  that  the  luxury  of  Oriental 
courts  had  invaded  that  of  Rome,  and  was  transforming,  even  in 
these  times  of  disaster,  the  simple  comttattis  of  the  early  proconsuls 
into  a  royal  state  ruinous  to  the  public  finances.  The  weakness 
of  Gallienus  irritated  him;  something  of  this  came  to  the  emperor's 
ears,   who   made   haste   to   write   to   one   of    his    officers   a   humble 

letter,  in  which  is  revealed  the  miser- 
able condition  of  these  Augusti,  who 
knew  neither  how  to  command  nor 
how  to  make  themselves  obeyed: 

"I  learn  with  the  deepest  regret 
by  your  report  that  Claudius,  our  kins- 
man and  friend,  is  greatly  offended 
with  me  on  account  of  rumours, 
mostly  untrue,  which  have  been 
brought  him.  I  beg  you,  my  dear 
Venustus,  if  you  are  willing  to  show 
me  your  devotion,  that  you  will  employ 
Gratus  and  Herennianus  to  appease 
him.  But  let  it  all  be  done  secretly,  least  the  Dacian  soldiers, 
already  discontented,  should  proceed  to  some  dangerous  extremity. 
I  send  him  presents;  get  him  to  receive  them  courteously;  but 
let  him  not  suspect  that  I  know  his  sentiments  towards  me,  for 
if  he  believed  me  to  have  cause  of  resentment  against  him  he 
might  take  violent  action."^ 


Gold  Bracelet  adorned  with  a  Coin 
of  Claudius  Gothicus.' 


*  Salarii  quantum  habet  JEgypti  prtB/ectura,  tantum  vestium  quantum  proconsulattU 
Africano  detulimus,  tantum  argenti  quantum  accipit  curator  Illyrici  (Treb.  Pollio,  Claud., 
16). 

'  Cabinet  of  Vienna.  Cf.  Arneth,  Ocld  und  Silb.,  pi.  vi.  11.  This  bracelet  (about  twice 
the  size  of  the  figure)  bears  four  coins  enchased :  Marcus  Aurelius,  Caracalla,  Gordian  III.,  and 
Claudius  II.,  and  proves,  like  the  collar  of  Naix  and  many  aurei  which  we  have  abeady  given, 
the  taste  of  the  Romans  for  jewels  of  this  kind. 

•  These  gifts,  which  the  emperor  enumerates  in  his  lett-er,  were  as  follows :  "  Two  cups  of 
three  pounds  weight,  adorned  with  precious  stones ;  two  gold  cups  of  three  pounds,  enriched 
with  gems;  a  basin  of  chased  silver  of  twenty  pounds;  a  silver  dish  with  chasing  of  vine  leaves 
of  thirty  pounds ;  another  great  silver  dish  with  ivy  leaves  of  twenty-three  pounds ;  a  silver 
basin  of  twenty  pounds  weight,  whereon  is  engraved  a  fish ;  two  silver  pitchers  inlaid  with  gold 
of  six  pounds  weight,  and  some  small  silver  vases,  weighing  collectively  twenty-five  pounds ; 
ten  Egyptian  cups  of  divers  workmanship ;  two  cloaks  of  brilliant  colour  with  purple  borders ; 
sixteen  garments  of  various  kinds ;  a  white  tunic,  half  silk;  a  linen  garment  with  silk  bands 
embroidered  with  gold,  of  the  weight  of  three  ounces;  three  pairs  of  our  boots  of  Persian  leather; 
ten  Dalmatian  belts;  a  Uardaniau  chlamys  in  the  form  of  a  mantle;  an  lUyrian  cloak  for  bad 


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CLAUDIUS   AND   AURELIAN,    268   TO    276    A.D.  455 

Gallienus  hoped  to  pay  his  ransom  in  this  way ;  but  pro- 
bably Claudius  only  despised  him  the  more  for  it.  When  the 
conspirators  had  proclaimed  him  emperor,  the  soldiers  showed  some 
discontent,  in  order  to  make  their  price  higher.  Twenty  pieces  of 
gold  distributed  to  each  man  removed  all  scruples.  They  declared 
Gallienus  a  tyrant ;  and  the  senate,  with  more  genuine  eagerness, 
did  the  same.  They  ordered  off  to  the  Gemonise  the  servants  of 
the  man  who  disliked  any  trace  of  patriotism  in  the  senators,^  and 
it  is  related  that  in  the  curia  itself  one  of  the  officers  of  the 
treasury  had  his  eyes  put  out,^  a  shameful  cruelty,  announcing 
the  degenerate  days  of  the  later  Empire.  Claudius  put  a  stop  to 
these  executions,  and  the  Conscript  Fathers,  repenting,  placed 
Gallienus  among  the  divi^  which  was  equivalent  to  the  mainten- 
ance of  his  acts. 

When  they  heard  of  the  election  of  Claudius  they  confirmed 
it  by  those  repeated  acclamations  which  seem  to  us  so  contrary  to 
senatorial  gravity,  but  were  at  that  time  a  surprise  to  no  one : 
"Augustus  Claudius,  the  gods  grant  you  to  our  prayers  (repeated 
sixty  times) ;  Claudius  Augustus,  it  is  you,  or  a  raler  resembling 
you,  whom  wo  have  ever  desired  (forty  times);  Claudius  Augustus, 
the  wishes  of  the  state  call  you  to  the  throne  (forty  times); 
Claudius  Augustus,  you  are  the  model  of  brothers,  fathers,  friends, 
senators,  and  rulers  (eighty  times) ;  Claudius  Augustus,  deliver  us 
from  Aureolus  (five  times);  Claudius  Augustus,  deliver  us  from  the 
Palmyrenes  (five  times) ;  Claudius  Augustus,  deliver  us  from 
Zenobia  and  Victorina  (seven  times) ;  Claudius  Augustus,  may 
Tetricus  be  nought  (seven  times)."  ^ 

Claudius,  in  fact,  found  himself  in  the  presence  of  three 
adversaries.  With  better  judgment  than  the  senate  possessed,  he 
neglected  two  of  them  who  were  far  away  at  the  extremities  of 
the  Empire,  rapidly  disposed  of  the  third,  whom  a  judgment  of  the 
soldiers  condemned  to  death,  and  occupied  himself  with  preparing 
for  a  great  war  against  the  barbarians.     "The  matter  of  Tetricus," 

w€dtlier;  an  over-garment  with  a  hood ;  two  furred  hooda;  four  pieces  of  Phoenician  stuffs; 
150  gold  Valerians  and  300  trientes  saloninienses" 

'  See  p.  335. 

*  .  .  .  .  patronogue  fisci  in  cwiatti  perducto  effossos  oculos  pependisse  satis  constat  ( Aur. 
Victor,  Cas.,  33). 

»  Treb.  l\aiio,  Claud.,  4. 


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456  THE   ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  I    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED, 

he  said  to  the  senate,  "  concerns  myself  only,  that  of  the  Goths  is 
of  importance  to  the  state."  ^ 

For  the  last  thirty  years  these  barbarians  had  been  ravaging 
the  Eoman  frontiers;  when  booty  became  rare,  they  formed  the 
idea  of  establishing  themselves  as  a  nation  in  the  interior  of  the 
Empire,  whose  climate  they  knew  to  be  milder  than  that  of 
the  Scythian  plains,  where  extremes  of  cold  and  heat  made  life 
hard.  Messengers  were  sent  from  the  banks  of  the  Dniester  to 
those  of  the  Morava  (March);  councils  were  held  among  the 
Tervingee  or  Eastern  Goths,  among  the  GepideB,  the  Heruli,  the 
Peucinii,  and  a  vast  coalition  was  formed  to  second  the  invasion 
of  the  Eastern  Goths  by  a  series  of  attacks  upon  the  middle 
Danube.  The  Scordisci,  of  Celtic  origin,  entered  the  league;  the 
Alemanni  and  their  neighbours,  the  Juthungi,*  doubtless  informed 
as  to  these  projects,  promised  themselves  to  derive  advantage  from 
them  in  their  raids  into  the  rich  valley  of  the  Po.  They  even 
were  the  first  to  be  ready ;  and,  without  waiting  for  their  allies, 
they  rushed  through  the  defiles  of  the  Alps,  which  they  had  often 
before  traversed,  and  came  down  in  the  year  268  upon  the  shores 
of  the  Lago  di  Garda  (Benacus).  Claudius  met  them  there  with 
an  army  which  he  had  already  been  able  to  discipline  thoroughly 
to  his  authority,  and  half  of  the  barbarians  fell  under  the  sword 
of  the  legionaries.  It  was  a  good  omen  for  the  more  serious 
strife  to  come. 

During  the  winter  of  268  the  hatchet  rung  incessantly 
through  the  Sarmatian  forests ;  the  felled  trees  were  I'olled  to  the 
river  banks,  and  in  the  spring  these  streams  were  covered  with 
2,000  vessels,'  whereon  tried  warriors  were  embarked.  The  horde 
itself,   consisting  of    320,000   fighting    men,*  not   to    mention    the 


'  He,  however,  took  some  precautions  to  close  Italy  against  the  Gallic  emperor,  and 
to  threaten  his  provinces.  An  inscription  recently  discovered  at  Grenohle  gives  Claudius 
the  title  of  Oermanicus  MaximuSf  which  he  took  after  bis  victories  over  the  Alemanni,  and 
reveals  a  fact  unknown  to  the  historians,  namely,  his  making  ready  for  a  campaign  against 
Tetricus.  This  inscription  is  engraved  at  the  base  of  a  statue  raised  to  Claudius  by  an  army 
corps  posted  in  Narbonensis,  in  which  were  some  of  the  imperial  guard,  protectores,  and  whose 
commander  was  the  perfectissimtUf  Julius  Placidianus,  prefect  of  the  watch.  (L.  Renier,  in 
the  Comptes  rendus  de  VAcad,  des  inscr»  et  belles-httres,  July  18th,  1879.) 

'  Amra.  Marcellinus  (xvii.  6)  says  of  the  Juthungi :  Alamannorum  pars, 

»  Zosimus  (i.  42)  says  6,000. 

*  This  is  the  statement  of  Claudius  in  his  letter  to  the  senate. 


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CLAUDIUS   AND    AURELIAN,    268   TO    275   A.D.  457 

women   and  childi'en   and   slaves,    set   out   on   its    march   westward 
with   innumerable   flocks/   and   great  wagons  which  were   made   to 


Roman  Trooper  treading  a  German  under  his  Horse^s  Feet.^ 

serve    as    protection    to    their    camps.^      The   army   and    the    fleet 

*  The  harbarians  were  accustomed  to  be  followed  by  their  flocks  to  secure  their  subsistence. 
We  read  in  the  Aiu/ustan  History  that,  under  Valerian,  that  is  to  say,  before  the  great  invasion, 
Aurelian  took  from  some  bands  in  Thrace  oxen  and  horses  enough  to  supply  the  province,  and 
that  he  was  able  also  to  send  to  one  of  the  emperor's  villas  2,000  cows,  1,000  mares,  10,000 
sheep,  and  15,000  goats.  This  was  the  booty  to  be  obtained  from  the  barbarians.  Accordingly, 
Treb.  Pollio  ( Claud.,  9)  exclaims,  after  the  emperor's  great  victory :  Quid  bourn  harbarorum 
nostri  videre  majores,  quid  oviunif  quid  et^j^irum  f 

^  Monument  found  near  Zahlbach.  (Museum  of  Mayeuce.)  The  barbarian  is  recognizable 
by  his  long  hair  and  his  curved  sword.     (L.  Stracke,  op.  cit.,  p.  59.) 

•  This  use  was  so  well  known  to  the  Romans  that  they  invented  a  new  word  to  express 


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458  THE   ILLIKIAN   EMPERORS:    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

followed  the  coast,  keeping  at  some  distance  from  it,  the  former 
to  avoid  the  marshes  which  the  sluggish  rivers  in  this  region  leave 
at  their  mouths,  the  latter  on  account  of  the  shoals  which  the 
alluvial  deposits  form  to  a  considerable  distance.'  The  Danube 
was  crossed  by  aid  of  the  vessels,  and  a  few  days'  march  brought 
the  Goths  in  sight  of  Tomi.  Preceding  invasions  had  made  clear 
to  all  the  cities  in  this  region  the  necessity  of  reconstructing 
their  walls  and  putting  themselves  in  a  state  of  defence.  Tomi 
closed  its  gates;  the  inhabitants  manned  their  walls,  and  the  Goths 
were  not  in  a  condition  to  effect  a  breach.     Being  unable  to  delay 

in    these    plains    of    the   Dobroudja, 

where  it  is  so  difficult  to   live,  they 

set   out   towards   the   Balkans   in  the 

direction    of   Marcianopolis  (18   miles 

eastward  of  Varna).      This  city,  built 

by  Trajan,  was  worthy  of  its  founder, 

and    stood    firm    against   all    attacks. 

The   barbarians   then    conceived    a    skilful   design:    they   separated, 

and  the   fleet   sailed   towards   the  Propontis,   threatened   Byzantium 

and  Cyzicus,   and  then,  notwithstanding  a  tempest  which  cost  it  a 

great  loss   of    men    and   vessels,   reached   the  peninsula    of  Athos, 

where   those   embarked   on   the   vessels    again    separated.      Part   of 

them  besieged  Cassandrea,  the  ancient  Potidsea,  and  the  great  city 

of  Thessalonica,  to  open  a  way  into  Macedon.     The  others  ravaged 

Greece,  the  Cyclades,  Crete,  Ehodes,  Cyprus,  and  the  storm,  losing 

its   strength   as   it  went   on,  at   last   died  away   on   the   shores   of 

Pamphylia. 

While  the  noise  of  these  raids  kept  in  the  south  of  the 
Empire  the  Eoman  forces  which  were  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  iEgean  Sea,  the  principal  attack  was  made  on  the  north : 
the    Goths    traversed    Moesia    and    arrived    in    the   valley    of    the 

it ...  .  facta  carragine  (Treb.  PoUio,  Gall.y  13,  and  Amm.  Marcellinus,  xxxi.  7).  The  Goths 
before  the  battle  of  Adrianople,  Attila  after  the  battle  of  Chalons,  inclosed  themselves  within 
a  wall  made  of  their  wagons,  and  the  emigrants  upon  the  plains  in  the  territories  of  the  United 
States  do  the  same  at  this  day. 

*  Whatever  may  have  been  the' number  of  vessels,  the  fleet  could  not  have  carried  the  entire 
army,  and  the  history  of  this  invasion  is  incomprehensible,  unless  we  admit  that  there  was  both 
a  land  and  sea  force. 

*  Bust  of  Tomi.  On  the  reverse :  TOMI  TIMO  and  an  eagle  within  an  dak  wreath. 
(Bronze  coin.) 


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CLAUDIUS   AND    AURELIAN,    268   TO    275  :a..D.  459 

Margus  (the   Morava   of    the   south),  being    well    aware   that   they 
could  not  establish  themselves  peacefully  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
Danube   until  after  they  had  destroyed  the  imperial  army.     Never, 
since  the  Gauls  and  Hannibal,  had  Eome  been  in  so  great  danger. 
Claudius  wrote  to  the  senate :     ''I  must  tell  you  the   truth.  Con- 
script Fathers :    300,000  barbarians  have  invaded  Eoman  territory. 
If   I   am   successful,  you  will  acknowledge  that  we  have  deserved 
well  of  our  country.     If   I   am   not  victorious,   remember  whom  I 
follow.      The  state  is  exhausted,  and  we  fight  after  Valerian,  after 
Ingenuus,     after    Eegalianus,     after     La^lianus,    after 
Postumus,  after  Celsus,  after  many  others  whom  the 
contempt   inspired   by   Gallienus    detached    from    the 
state.     We  are  deficient  in  bucklers  and  swords  and 
lavelins.     Tetricus  is  master  of  the  Gallic  and  Spanish     .     ,     „    , 

•^         .  .  1       -n.        .  Quintillus,  Brother 

provinces,  which  are  the  strength  of  the  Empire,  and,     of  Claudius  ll. 

T  1  I    .  'j_  1  n  •  (Small  Bronze.) 

I  am  ashamed  to  say  it,   our  archers  are  all  serving 

under  Zenobia.     Whatever  little  we  may  do,  our  successes  will  be 

as  great  as  you  have  a  right  to  expect."  ^ 

Claudius  acted  with  discretion.  He  did  not  advance  directly 
upon  this  enormous  mass.  Leaving  his  brother  Quintillus  at  the 
head  of  a  considerable  army  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Aquileia,  to 
keep  secure  this  gat<3  into  Italy,  he  himself  traversed  lUyria, 
entered  Macedon  by  the  pass  of  Scupi,  and  halted  in  the  upper 
valley  of  the  Axius.  He  thus  placed  himself  between  the  fleet 
of  the  Goths  and  their  land  army.  Protected  against  the  latter  by 
Mount  Orbelos,  he  could  by  the  Axius,  which  falls  into  the 
extremity  of  the  Thermaic  gulf,  keep  watch  over  that  side.  If 
the  siege-machines,  which  the  barbarians  had  caused  to  be  con- 
structed by  Eoman  fugitives,  should  overcome  the  resistance  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Thessalonica,  the  emperor  was  able  to  hinder  the 
victors  from  passing  over  into  Macedon  and  effecting  a  junction 
with  their  brethren.  This  position  permitted  him  therefore  to 
wait  his  time  for  striking  a  decisive  blow. 

But  the  Goths  were  not  able  to  storm  a  well-defended  city, 
and  they  had   not  the   patience   to  reduce   it  by  famine.^      At  the 

*  Treb.  Pollio,  Claud.,  7. 

'  To  preserve  the  memory  of  the  brave  resistance  made  by  Thessalonica,  a  bronze  medal 
was  struck  in  honour  of  the  god  Cabirus,  Deo  Cabiro,  the  protecting  divinity  of  the  city,  who 


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460  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

news  of  the  approach  of  Claudius  they  marched  boldly  to  meet  him ; 
Aurelian,  whom  the  emperor  had  appointed  chief  of  the  cavalry, 
arrested  them  by  an  engagement  in  which  the  Dalmatian  horse  dis- 
tinguished themselves.  Three  thousand  Goths  were  killed,  many 
more   were    taken   prisoners,   and    Claudius,  now  set  free   to   move 


Goths  (Men,  Women,  and  Children)  led  into  Slavery.^ 

northward  by  the  discomfiture  of  the  southern  enemy,  went  across 
the  mountains  in  search  of  the  great  army  in  the  valley  of  the 
Margus.  The  battle  took  place  near  Nai'ssus  (Nissa) ;  it  was  long 
and  sanguinary.  A  corps,  which  was  able  to  advance  through  an 
unguarded  road,  turned  the  enemy's  flank,  and  fell  upon  their  rear. 
This  movement  was  fatal  to  the  barbarians:  50,000  remained  upon 
field    (269),^    and    the    others,    cut   off    from    the    valley    of    the 

doubtless  came  thither  from  Samothrace,  the  sanctuary  of  the  Cabiri.  (Cf.  Eckhel,  vol.  vii. 
p.  472.) 

*  Bas-relief  from  a  sarcophagus  of  the  third  century.     (Vatican.) 

^  We  have  medals  of  Claudius  of  this  year  which  represent  him  with  the  radiate  crown. 
(Cf.  Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  p.  471.) 


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CLAUDIUS   AND    AURELIAN,    268    TO    270    A.D.  4G1 

Danube,  foil  in  scattered  bands  upon  Macedon  and  Thrace.  The 
legions  separated  to  pursue  them  ;  the  war  was  broken  into  frag- 
ments, and  it  became  impossible  to  repeat  the  blow  struck  at 
Naissus.  From  time  to  time  the  barbarians  halted  behind  the 
wall   of   their  wagons,    a   movable   fortification,    whence   more   than 


Roman  Auxiliary  Horseman.     (Museum  of  Mayence.) 

once  they  made  successful  sorties  against  those  of  the  Eomans 
who  ventured  in  too  small  force  into  their  neighbourhood.  Never- 
theless, wasted  by  continual  attacks,  by  hunger,  and  by  disease, 
they  perished  in  multitudes.  A  somewhat  numerous  troop  suc- 
ceeded in  taking  refuge  in  the  Balkans.  The  Eomans  followed 
them  thither,  and  occupied  all  means  of  egress  from  the  mountain, 
where  during  the  severe  winter  provisions  were  lacking,  and  to 
complete  their  destruction  Claudius  entered  the  defiles  and  put 
them  to  the  sword  (270). 


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462  THE    ILLYUIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

The  emperor  prepared  his  bulletin  of  victory  with  an  emphasis 

not  unpardonable  :    *'  We  have  destroyed  120,000  Goths,   and  sunk 

2,000   vessels.      The   water   of    the   river   is    concealed    under    the 

bucklers  that  it  bears  along  w4th  it,  the  banks  under  broken  swords 

and  lances,  the  fields  under  the  bones  of  the  dead.     The  roads  are  all 

choked  with  the  enormous  baggage  they  have  left  behind  them.''  ^ 

The  imperial  fleet  had  also  been  successful  in  destroying  what 

remained  of  the  vessels  that  had  come  from  the  Dniester;^  so  that, 

of  this  vast  multitude,  but  very  few  returned  to  the 

regions  they  had  left  a  year  before  so  full  of  hope 

I  and  courage.     Those  who  had  not  perished  were  sent 

to   cultivate   as   slaves   or   colonists   the   lands   of   the 

conquerors,   and  their  wives   were   distributed  among 

Reverse  of  a  Coin  *^®    Eoman    soldicrs.      A    certain    number    of    their 

of  Claudius  II.,  youug  men  were    enrolled  in  the  cohorts,  and   others 

beariDff:   IV-    •^  ^  ' 

VENTVSAVG.  sent  to  Eome  to  fight  in  the  amphitheatres.  The 
capital  doubtless  was  not'  the  only  city  honoured 
with  "  a  present  of  gladiators."  Claudius  would  naturally  grant 
the  same  favour  to  many ;  all  Italy  might  see  serving  its  pleasures 
those  Goths  who,  during  an  entire  generation,  had  inspired  it  with 
so  much  alarm.* 

This  immense  drain  upon  the  Gothic  nation  was  to  secure  a 
century  of  repose  to  Moesia.*  But  the  ruler  who  had  repulsed  this 
first  and  formidable  invasion  fell  amid  his  triumph.  A  pestilence 
had  aided  him  in  setting  free  the  provinces,  but  it  carried  him 
off  at  Sirmium  (April,  270).  He  was  but  fifty-four,  and  his 
strong  maturity  promised  the  Empire  a  reparatory  reign,  for  he 
loved  justice,  he  desired  discipline,  and  he  was  of  those  who  knew 
how  to  maintain  it.  In  the  midst  of  the  ambitious  surnames 
which   so   many  emperors   have   received — some  for  real,  but  more 

*  Epistola  ad  Jun.  Brocchum  Illyricum  tuentem  (Treb.  PoUio,  Claud.,  8). 
^  Zonaras,  xii.  26. 

*  This  coin,  with  the  effigy  of  Hercules,  makes  allusion  to  the  green  old  age  of  the  euiperoi', 
us  Virgil  says  (^neid,  vi.  304) : 

Jam  senior,  sed  cruda  deo  viridisque  senectus, 

*  Treb.  Pollio(C/rtMrf.,8-9) :  .  .  .  impleta  barharis  serins  Romanrp  provineia :  /actus  colonus 
e.v  OothOf  nee  ulla  fuit  regio  quce  Gothum  servum  non  kaberct.  Ho  speaks  also  of  immense 
droves  of  oxen  and  sheep  and  eguarum  quas/ama  nobilitat  Celticarum.     (Cf.  Zosimus,  i.  46.) 

*  .  .  .  jmln  per  lonr/a  sffcula  siluerunt  immobiles  (Amm.  Marcellinus,  xxxi.  5). 


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CLAUDIUS    AND    AURELIAN,    268   TO    275    A.D.  463 

for  problematic  victories — ^history  should  give  most  honourable 
mention  to  that  of  Claudius  Gothicus.  The  nations  long  remem- 
bered hira.  Under  Constantino,  Eumenes  still  said:  "Why  did  he 
not  longer  remain  the  protector  of  men  and  become  later  the 
companion  of  the  gods  ?  "  ^ 

At  news  of  the  death  of  Claudius  the  legions  of 
Aquileia   proclaimed    his    brother,  M.  Aurelius   Quin- 
tillus,  whom  the  senate  hastened  to  recognize.      The 
soldiers    of    Pannonia,    however,    had    made    a    better 
choice  in  naming  Aurelian,^  whom,  according  to  some 
accounts,  Claudius  himself  had   designated  as  his  succcessor.      Such 
was  the  fame  of  this  general  that  his  rival  did   not   even   attempt 
to  contend   against   him.     After  a  reign  of  three  weeks,  according 
to  some,   of   several   months   according   to   others,'*  Quintillus   killed 
himself,    or  was   put   to   death   by   soldiers  whom   his   severity  had 
incensed. 


II.— AuRELiAN  (270-275).^ 

"After  the  ceremonies  of  the  festival  of  Cybele,"  says  Vopiscus, 
"the  prefect  of  the  city,  Junius  Tiberianus,  took  me  in  his  chariot 
from  the  Palatine  to  the  gardens  of  Varus,  and  we  talked,  among 
other  things,  of  the  history  of  the  emperors.  When  we  came  to 
the  temple  of  the  Sun  dedicated  by  Aurelian,  Tiberianus,  who  was 
attached  to  the  family  of  this  emperor,  asked  me  if  any  one  had 
written  his  life :  '  Certain  Greeks  have  done  it,'  I  said ;  ^  but  no 
Latins.'  '  What ! '  exclaimed  this  upright  man,^  '  a  Thersites,  a 
Sinon,  and  all  the  monsters  of  antiquity  are  known  to  us,  posterity 
will  also  know  them,  and  Aurelian,  this  valiant  emperor  who  has 
restored  its  world  to  Eome,  will  be  to  our  descendants  a  stranger! 

'  Panegyr.  Constantini,  2. 

^  This  is  the  statement  of  Zonaras;  Zosimus  does  not  give  Aurelian  the  imperial  dignity 
until  after  the  death  of  Quintillus. 

'  IMP.  C.  M.  AYR.  CL.  QVINTILLVS  AVG.  around  the  radiate  head  of  the  Augustus. 
(Bronze  coin.) 

*  This  is  the  statement  of  Zosimu'*.  The  number  of  coins  of  Quintillus  that  we  possess 
(Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  p.  478;  Cohen,  vol.  v.  pp.  112-120)  compel  us  to  adopt  the  second  opinion, 
which,  moreover,  agrees  better  with  the  early  facts  of  Aurelian^s  reign. 

*  L.  Domitius  Aurclianus. 

"  Vopiscus  says  (Aur.,  1)  sanctus,  using  the  word  in  its  ancient  sense. 


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404  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

Meanwhile  we  have  his  Ephemerides  in  which  he  ordered  to  be 
registered  his  acts  day  by  day.*  I  will  cause  these  books,  which 
are  in  the  Flpian  library,  to  be  given  you,  that  you  may  represent 

Aurelian  as  he  really  was.' " 

These  were  rich  materials 
which  the  highest  magistrate  of 
Rome  offered  to  the  historian. 
Vopiscus,  a  man  of  small  mind 
and  little  literary  skill,  knew 
not  how  to  avail  himself  of  them. 
But  the  official  documents  which 
he  drew  from  the  archives  are 
in  many  ways  interesting ;  we 
have  used  some  of  them  already 
and  shall  use  others  hereafter. 

Claudius  had  destroyed  the 
great    Gothic    army,    with    the 
exception    of    some    few   bands 
which    had   found    shelter    here 
and    there     among    the    moun- 
tains,  and   later  reappeared   for 
a  moment  in  the  neighbourhood 
of     Anchialos     and     Nicopolis, 
where  the  country  people  proved 
strong  enough  to  disperse  them.^ 
But,  following  the  plan  marked 
out,    there    was    to    be    a    second    invasion    from    Pannonia ;     the 
Vandals,    the    Juthungi,    and   the    Alemanni   were   in    motion.      To 
aiTest    these    new    assailants,    Claudius   had   turned    northward    and 

^  Ephemeridas  ....  lUfris  linteis  (ibid.).  The  scene  related  in  this  passage  has  been  placed 
about  291,  or  sixteen  years  after  the  death  of  Aurelian.  Junius  Tiberianus  in  this  year  held 
his  second  consulship,  but  not  the  urban  prefecture.  Many  passag^es  in  chaps,  xlii.  and  xliii. 
prove  that  Vopiscus  wrot«  his  book  after  the  accession  of  Constantius  Chlorus  (306).  The 
father  of  Vopiscus  had  been  among  the  intimate  friends  of  Diocletian,  and  we  have  seen  that 
the  son  was  the  companion  of  the  urban  prefect.  These  relations  with  the  highest  society  in 
Rome  placed  him  in  a  position  to  take  advantage  of  the  reminiscences  of  Aurelian*s  early 
companions  in  arms  ;  but  his  feeble  literary  merit  proves  that  this  society  was  not  very  exacting, 
in  respect  to  mental  gifts. 

''  This  fact  explains  certain  medals  of  Quintillus. 

'  li^iman  work  of  the  first  century,  found  near  Abbeville.  (Mnrble  in  the  Cabinet  de 
France f  No.  2,UlH.) 


Bust  of  Cybele.' 


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CLAUDIUS   AND    AURELIAN,    268   TO    275    A.D.  465 

encamped  his  troops  at  Sirmium,  a  strong  place  not  far  from  the 
point  where  the  Save  falls  into  the  Danube,  and  the  defensive 
centre  of  the  entire  region. 

Aurelian  was  at  this  spot  when  the  death  of  Claudius  gave 
him  the  Empire.  He  was  bom  in  214,^  in  the  environs  of 
Sirmium,  the  son  of  a  colonist  of  the  senator  Aurelius,  whose  name, 
according  to  usage,  had  been  assumed  by  his  freedman,  and  the 
latter  had  charge  of  a  little  farm  belonging  to  his  patron.^  His 
mother  had  been  a  priestess  of  the  Sun  in  the  village  where  she 
dwelt,  and  he  always  preserved  a  special  veneration  for  that 
divinity.  We  know  his  courage,  his  exploits,  and  the  high  offices 
which  he  had  filled.  Loaded  with  honours  by  Valerian,  he  had 
been,  at  the  suggestion  of  that  emperor,  adopted  as  son  or  son-in- 
law  by  Ulpius  Crinitus,  one  of  the  great  personages  of  the  Empire, 
who  claimed  to  belong  to  the  family  of  Trajan ;  and  the  son  of  a 
Pannonian  peasant  became  the  heir  to  the  household  gods,  the 
name,  and  the  wealth  of  the  moat  illustrious  house  in  Rome.^ 

Very  severe  as  to  discipline,  very  exacting  for  the  service, 
Aurelian  however  exercised  great  sway  over  the  troops,  for  the 
reason  that  they  had  often  seen  their  general  fighting  like  a 
common  soldier,  a  circumstance  which,  in  the  ancient  wars,  added 
gieat  prestige  to  a  chief.  There  was  talk  of  many  enemies  whom 
he  had  slain,  and  he  was  known  in  the  camps  as  "  the  iron-handed 
Aurelian."*  Being  the  bravest,  it  was  permitted  him  to  be  the 
most  severe.  A  soldier  had  offered  insult  to  the  wife  of  the  man 
with  whom  he  was  quartered:  Aurelian  ordered  him  to  be  bound 

^  Malalas  (xii.  p.  301)  makes  him  sixty-one  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  his  death,  and 
consequently  bom  in  214 ;  Tillemont  and  Wietersheim  place  his  birth  in  212.  The  Alexandrian 
Chronicle  makes  him  seventy-five  at  his  death ;  but  the  facts  of  his  reign,  medals,  and  other 
considerations  do  not  permit  us  to  attribute  to  him  this  advanced  age. 

*  ColonuSf  says  the  author  of  the  Epitome^  35. 

'  Vopiscus  speaks,  following  documents  which  he  gives  as  official,  of  a  formal  adoption ; 
but  as  Aurelian  did  not  take  the  name  of  Ulpius  Crinitus,  which  he  would  have  done  according 
to  usage  had  he  been  adopted,  we  feel  obliged  to  doubt  the  authenticity  of  the  act.  On  the 
other  hand,  both  inscriptions  (Orelli,  Nos.  1,032  and  5,662)  and  coins  (Hk;khel,  vol.  vii.  p.  487) 
give  him  as  a  wife  Ulpia  Severina.  If  this  Ulpia  was  the  daughter  of  Crinitus,  the  marriage 
would  have  secured  to  Aurelian  the  same  advantages  as  an  adoption,  while  had  he  been  the 
adopted  son  of  Ulpius  Crinitus  he  could  not  have  married  her  who  had  thus  become  legally  his 
sister.  Many  ancient  rules  had,  however,  fallen  into  desuetude,  and  it  is  possible  that  both  the 
adoption  and  the  marriage  did  take  place. 

^  This  is  rather  a  mediaeval  equivalent  than  an  exact  translation  of  the  Latin :  manu  ad 
ferrum  (Aur.,  6),  "  Aurelian,  sword  in  hand." 

VOL.  VI.  HH 


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466  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPEEORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

between  two  trees  bent  together,  which  tore  him  asunder  as  they 
sprung  back  into  their  place.  On  one  occasion  he  wrote  to  an 
officer :  "If  you  desire  to  be  a  tribune,  if  you  wish  even  to  live, 
restrain  the  soldier.  Let  no  man  steal  a  fowl  or  a  sheep,  or  so 
much  as  a  bunch  of  grapes,  or  demand  oil,  salt,  or  wood.  Each 
must  be  content  with  his  rations:  what  the  state  provides  is  enough; 
booty  must  be  taken  from  the  enemy,  and  must  not  cost  tears  to 
the  provinces.  See  to  it  that  weapons,  clothing,  and  shoes  are 
always  in  good  condition ;  the  pack-horses  well  groomed,  the 
company's  mule^  cared  for  by  each  soldier  in  his  turn,  and  all  the 
forage  used,  so  that  none  be  sold.  See  that  the  soldiers  be  attended 
gi-atuitously  by  the  surgeons,  and  prevent  them  from  wasting  their 
money  in  taverns  or  upon  soothsayers;  require  them  to  conduct 
themselves  decently  in  quarters,  and  let  brawlers  be  beaten." 
Septimius  Severus  had  been  wont  to  speak  thus,  and  this  firmness 
had  given  him  an  illustrious  reign ;  it  had  the  same  results  in  the 
case  of  Aurelian. 

Like  the  great  African,  Aurelian  was  a  man  of  strict  morality 
and  disdainful  of  pleasure;  like  him  also,  Aurelian  did  not  hasten 
to  receive  the  foolish  acclamations  of  the  senate.  He  defeated  the 
Juthungi  who  threatened  Ehaetia,  and  regulated  the  affairs  of  this 
frontier,  which  occupied  several  months.  When  he  at  last  made 
the  journey  to  Eome,  he  spoke  haughtily  in  the  senate:  "I  have 
gold  for  my  friends,"  he  said;  "and  I  have  steel  for  my  foes."^ 
It  will  soon  be  seen  that  these  foes  were  not  always  on  the  frontiers. 
To  have  no  cause  to-  fear  in  Italy  the  old  troops  of  Quintillus,  he 
had  returned  from  Pannonia  well  attended.  The  Juthungi  and 
Vandals  deemed  the  occasion  propitious  to  invade  that  province. 
Aurelian  returned  thither  in  all  haste,  sending  before  him  the 
order  to  collect  the  grain  and  cattle  within  the  fortresses.  The 
shock  was  severe,  and  the  victory  indecisive.  When  night  came, 
however,  the  enemy  fell  back ;  and  Aurelian  was  able  to  cut  off 
their  route  to  the  Danube.  Menaced  by  famine  in  a  desolated 
country,  the  barbarians  opened  negotiations.  Their  envoys  concealed 
fear  under  a  show  of   arrogance,  and  the  emperor  postponed  their 

^  Mulum  centufiatum,  tbe  ordinance  mule. 

*  There  exists  uncertainty  in  regard  to  the  order  of  events  in  the  first  months  of  Aurelian's 
reign.     I  have  followed  the  account  which  seems  to  harmonize  best  "with  the  known  facts. 


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CLAUDIUS    AND    AURELIAN,    268    TO    276    A.D.  4G7 

audience  until  the  following  day.  He  then  received  them  seated 
upon  his  tribunal  surrounded  by  a  threatening  military  display ; 
on  each  side,  liis  principal  officers  on  horseback  :   behind  him,  the 


Aureliau.     (Bust  of  the  Vatican,  Braccio  Nuovo,  No.  122.) 

golden  eagles  of  the  legions,  the  effigies  of  the  emperors,  the 
silver  pikes  which  bore  in  gilt  letters  the  names  of  the  different 
corps;  then  the  army,  as  if  ready  to  engage,  ranged  in  a  semi- 
circle  upon   an   eminence   which   brought   it  into   full  view.^     Less 

'  "a  St)  av^navra  avarirafispa  irpov^aiviTo  ....  (DexippoS|  Fragm,  hist,  Orac,  iii,  p.  682 ; 
Peter  Patricius,  Excerpta  de  legationibtis,  p.  126). 

HH  2 


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468  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

skilful  in  concealing  their  feelings  than  were  the  Indians  of  North 
America,  the   Juthungi   stood     for  awhile   abashed  in  the   presence 
of    this  imposing   spectacle ;    but   their  audacity   soon   returned   to 
them :    ''  We    do    not    ask    peace   as   those    who   have    been    con- 
quered,"   said   their    interpreter,    '^but    as    former    friends    of    the 
Romans,  and   as  men  wha  know   that   a  battle   lost  by  a   surprise 
may  be  followed  by  a  Wctory.     Our   nation  alone  numbers  40,000 
cavalry    and    twice    as    many   foot;    and    Italy,    which    we    have 
almost    completely   overrun,    knows   well   our   valour.      In    alliance 
with  us  you  will  have  no  enemy  to  fear;    give   us,    therefore,  the 
usual  presents,  the  subsidies  that  we  were  receiving  before  the  war, 
and   let   peace  be   made."     Dexippos,    who   relates   the   scene,    is  a 
contemporary,    but    he    puts    in    the    mouth    of    Aurelian    a    very 
lengthy  reply;    we  shall   give  only  the   concluding  words:    ''Since 
you  have  violated  the  treaties  and  pillaged  our  territory,  you  have 
no  right  to  ask  any  favours,   and   it  is  your  place  to   accept  the 
conqueror's  law.     You  know   what  became   of  the   300,000   Goths 
who  invaded   the  Empire;    the   same  fate  awaits  you.      It  is   my 
intention  to  cross  the  Danube  and  punish  you  in  your  own  homes 
for  your  broken  faith."      The   Juthungi,  at   last   intimidated,   pro- 
mised  to   return    into   their  country.      A  te^  months    later  came 
another    invasion   of    the   Vandals    and    the   Jazyges,    and    another 
victory  on  the  part  of  Aurelian,  who,  to  render  their  retreat  more 
speedy,  gave  them  provisions.     They  gave  up  as  hostages  the  sons 
of  their  chiefs,  and  2,000  cavaliers,  who  were  included  among  the 
auxiliaries  of  the  legions.^     Aurelian,  making  a  sacrifice  on  his  part 
which    must    have    cost    his    pride    a   pang,    although   it   cost   the 
Empire  nothing,   ceded  Dacia  to  them,  offering  lands  on  the  south 
of  the  Danube  to  those  Roman  colonists  who  wore  unwilling  longer 
to  remain  in  the  province.     This  relinquishment  was  necessary,  for 
Dacia,  overrun  from  both  sides  and  invaded  to  its  very  centre,  was 
no  longer  tenable.     If  there  yet  remained  Romans  in  the  province, 
and    there    were    enough    certainly    to    fonn    a    brave    and    noble 
population,    there    remained    no    Roman    administration    except    in 
Transylvania,   where   a  few   cohorts    defended    doubtless    the    gold 

^  Five  hundred,  who  had  spread  themselves  abroad  in  order  to  plunder,  were  massacred  by 
the  commandant  of  the  auxiliaries,  and  the  Vandal  king  had  their  chief  shot  by  his  bowmen. 


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CLAUDIUS    AND    AURELIAN,    268    TO    275    A.D.  469 

mines  of  that  country,  which  had  been  worked  by  the  Komans  for 
a  century  and  a  half.  To  produce  the  impression  that  nothing  had 
been  lost  a  new  Dacia  was  constructed  out  of  a  part  of  Moesia, 
and  the  name  of  Trajan's  conquest  remained  on  the  official  list  of 


Uouiaii  Cavalier.     (Museum  of  Naples.) 

the  provinces.  But,  instead  of  the  Dacia  of  the  mountains,  a 
fortress  which  would  have  been  impregnable  if  it  had  been  possible 
to  close  its  ^ates  on  the  lower  Danube,  it  was  the  Dacia  of  the 
shore,  Dacia  Eipefisis^^  which  no  longer  protected  anything.  At 
last   the  god  Terminus  fell  back.      For  a  victor  the  condition  was 

*  Between  Upper  and  Lower  Moesia.  It  was  at  first  called  Dacia  Aureliani  (Vopiscus, 
Aur.fSd)]  it  was  afterwards  divided  into  Dacia  Ripensis,  with  the  capital  Ratiaria  (Arzar 
Palanka),  and  Dacia  Mediterranea,  with  the  capital  SardicA  (Triaditza).  Dexippos  does  not 
mention  (at  least  in  the  fragments  which  remain  to  us)  the  abandonment  of  Dacia,  and  the 
narrative  of  Eutropius  (ix.  15)  gives  us  no  means  of  fixing  the  dat«  of  this  event,  which  comes 
naturally  after  the  double  treaty  with  the  Juthungi  and  the  Vandals. 


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470  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    I'HE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

hard;  Aurelian  seems  to  have  felt  the  need  of  protecting  himself 
by  the  consent  of  his  troops,  as  representatives  of  the  Eoman 
people.  At  least  he  consulted  the  army  on  the  question  of  peace 
with  the  Vandals/  and  the  withdrawal  of  the  Dacian  garrisons 
must  have  been  the  tacitly  accepted  consequence  of  the  terms  of 
a  treaty  which  the  army  approved.  In  the  state  of  the  Empire 
and  of  the  barbaric  world  the  Danube  appeared  to  be  the  best 
frontier,  and  the  great  successes  of  Claudius,  and  those  even  of 
Aurelian,  prove  that  if  the  river  by  no  means  forbade  invaders 
a  passage,  it  at  least  made  their  return  difficult. 

We  shall  not,  as  easily  as  the  emperor,  say  adieu  to  this 
valiant  Eoman  population  of  Trajan  Dacia.  Worthy  of  its  origin, 
and  of  him  who  gave  it  its  first  cities,  it  played  in  the  Carpathians 
the  role  of  Pelagius  and  his  companions  in  the  Asturias;  braving 
all  invasions  from  the  height  of  this  impregnable  fortress ;  regaining 
foot  by  foot,  as  the  waves  retreated  towards  the  west  and  south, 
the  lost  ground,  and  reconstituting,  after  sixteen  centuries  of 
fighting,  a  new  Italy,  Tzarea  Roumanesca^  whose  advent  into  the 
rank  of  free  nations  is  saluted  by  all  the  peoples  of  the  Latin 
race.^ 

Aurelian  had  resigned  himself  to  this  blot  upon  his  name  on 
account  of  a  fresh  invasion  of  Italy  by  the  Alemanni  and 
Juthungi.  In  the  hope  of  exterminating  the  horde  or  capturing  it 
wholly,  he  proposed  to  imitate  the  plan  of  Claudius  at  Naissus, 
namely,  to  have  an  attack  made  from  the  front  upon  the  invaders 
by  the  larger  part  of  the  Eoman  army  in  the  plain  of  the  Po,  while 
he  himself,  the  prsetorians,  and  auxiliaries,  should  cut  off  their 
retreat.  This  division  of  the  forces  occasioned  a  disaster.  The 
barbarians  emerging  in  the  evening  from  dense  woods  in  which 
they  had  concealed  themselves,  surprised  near  Placentia  the  Eomans, 
who  were  not  keeping  careful  watch.  Many  of  the  legionaries 
perished,  and  a  part  of  Cisalpine  Gaul  fell  a  prey  to  the  most 
frightful   devastation.      From   the   Alps   to   the   Straits   of    Messina 

^  Dexippos  (Fragm.  hist.  Graec.j  vol.  iii.  p.  685) :  .  .  .  .  ipofUvov  paatXkwg,  o  n  atpiai  irfpi  rutv 
vapovriav  \<fov  ilvai  Sokh. 

^  I  cannot  accept  the  opinion  of  Roesler  (Dacier  nnd  Kmniinenj  ^Vien,  1866),  which  makes 
the  VVallachians  return  into  Dacia  in  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  any  more  than 
that  which  maintains  that  among  these  millions  of  men  who  speak  a  language  of  Latin  derira- 
tion  there  are  not  numerous  descendants  of  Trajan's  colonists. 


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CLAUDIUS   AND    AURELIAN,    268    TO    275    A.D.  471 

there  was  a  moment  of  terror  as  lately  there  had  been  in  the 
peninsula  of  the  Balkans  at  the  approach  of  the  great  Gothic 
army. 

To  calm  these  teiTors  recourse  was  had  to  religious  expiations. 
Aurelian,  who  knew  what  good  use  could  be  made,  in  leading  the 
crowd,  of  the  intervention  of  the  gods  and  all  the  paraphernalia  of 
old  superstitions,  wrote  to  the  senate  the  following  letter,  which 
the  urban  prsetor  read  aloud  in  the  curia:  ^'I  am  surprised,  revered 
Fathers,  that  you  have  so  long  delayed  to  open  the  Sibylline 
books ;  you  conduct  yourselves  like  men  met  in  a  church  of  Chris- 
tians rather  than  in  a  temple  of  the  gods.  Act,  now  at  least,  and 
by  the  sacredness  of  pontiffs  and  the  solemnities  of  religion,  aid 
the  ruler  who  is  in  a  position  of  such  difficulty.  It  is  never  a 
disgrace  to  have  the  assistance  of  the  gods  in  con- 
quering an  enemy.  It  is  thus  that  our  ancestors 
undertook  and  terminated  so  many  wars." 

Before  the  arrival  of  this  letter  a  similar  pro- 
position had   been   made    in    the    senate,    but    the 
sceptical  and  the  emperor's  courtiers  had  turned  it     Aurelian  crown  d 
into  ridicule,  averring  that  Aurelian  stood  in  need        with  Laure). 

.  ,  (Gold  Coin. ) 

of  no  supernatural  assistance.  The  imperial  mes- 
sage, however,  changed  these  sentiments,  and  the  first  senator  who 
was  called  upon  by  the  consul  in  charge  reproached  the  Conscript 
Fathers  with  being  so  inconsiderate  in  regard  to  the  safety  of  the 
state,  and  so  slow  in  having  recourse  to  the  books  of  destiny  and 
taking  advantage  of  the  favours  of  Apollo.^  ''Go  then,"  he  said, 
''holy  pontiffs,  you  who  are  pure,  irreproachable,  and  sacred;  go 
in  sacred  attire  and  in  a  pious  frame  of  mind;  go  up  to  the 
temple  and  prepare  there  seats  wreathed  with  laurel;  open  with 
your  respected  hands  the  books  of  religion ;  seek  therein  the  eternal 
destinies  of  the  state ;  teach  to  children  whose  parents  are  living 
the  hymn  which  they  are  to  sing.  We  will  decide  upon  the 
expense  necessary  for  this  ceremony;  we  will  order  the  prepara- 
tions for  the  sacrifices  and  fix  the  day  for  the  lustration  of  the 
fields."^    (Session  of  January  10th,  271.) 

The   city  was   solemnly   purified,    sacred   hymns   were   sung,  a 

'  The  Sibylline  oracles  were  believed  to  have  been  inspired  by  Apollo. 
^  Vopibcus,  Aur.j  19. 


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472  THE    ILLYEIAN    EMPERORS:    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

procession  went  through  the  streets;  lastly,  sacrifices  were  offered 
in  places  indicated  by  the  sacred  books  to  prevent  the  barbarians 
from  passing  over  them.^  Vopiscus  does  not  say  that  these  expia- 
tions were  human  sacrifices;  but  Aurelian  had  offered  captives  of 
every  nation,^  and  this  could  have  been  no  other  than  the  ancient 
custom  of  burying  alive   men  whose   offended   shades  would  arrest 

the  march  of  their  com- 
patriots. 

At  the  same  time 
that  Aurelian  took  mea- 
sures to  propitiate  the 
gods,  he  also  prepared 
his  campaign  against 
the  barbarians.  The 
latter,  who  entered 
upon  wai'  rather  for  the 
sake  of  plunder  than 
of  gaining  territory, 
had  divided  in  order 
to  extend  their  depre- 
dations. They  seem 
to  have  advanced  as 
far  as  the  Metaurus, 
which  would  announce 
an  intention  of  march- 
ing upon  Rome,  the 
Hercules  killing  Diomedes.'  supreme  ambition  of  all 

these  marauders.  At  least,  there  exists  an  inscription*  in  which 
the  cities  of  Pesaro  and  Fano  return  thanks  to  ^'Hercules 
Augustus,  colleague  of  the  invincible  Aurelian,"  doubtless  for  some 
exploit  of  war  achieved  in  their  neighbourhood.  Aurelian  pursued 
these  bands,  destroying  them  one  after  another ;  near  Pa  via  he 
encountered  the  main  body  of  the  barbarian  army,  and  inflicted 
upon  it  a  great  defeat.     And  again  of  these  invaders  but  few  ever 

*  In  certis  loeis  sacrifida  fierent  qtue  barbari  travuire  nonpossent  (Vopiscus,  Aur.j  18). 

*  .  .  .  .  cujualibet  gentis  captos  (ibid.,  20). 

'  Enfjrraved  stone  of  the  Cabinet  de  France  (cornelian  of  19  millim.  by  16),  No.  1,771  of 
the  Catalogue. 

*  Orelli,  Nos.  1,031  and  1,536. 


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CLAUDIUS   AND    AURELIAN,    268    TO    275    A.D.  473 

again  beheld  the  paternal  hut  concealed  in  the  vast  forests  of  the 
Neckar  and  the  Main. 

What  went  on  at  Eome  during  this  campaign  ?  No  doubt 
there  was  much  ridicule  of  the  Pannonian  who  suffered  the 
sovereign  people  to  experience  so  great  anxiety.  It  is  possible 
that  his  statues  may  have  been  overthrown,  and  some  of  his 
people  or  his  soldiers  slain.      Certain  it   is  there  were  great  riots, 


Remains  of  Aurelian  s  Wall.     (From  a  Photograph  by  Parker.) 

for  Vopiscus  speaks  of  violent  seditions.^  The  valiant  soldier  who 
had  passed  his  life  fighting  for  the  Empire  regarded  this  tumult 
as  treasonable,  and  severely  punished  those  who  were  guilty,  and 
even  senators  were  put  to  death.^ 

Long  ago,  Rome,  in  the  security  which  her  fortune  and  her 
sway  gave  her,  had  gone  beyond  her  boundaries,  and  the  wall  of 
Servius  was  disappearing  under  the  houses  and  gardens  which 
covered  the  vast  embankment  and  the  base  of  the  agger?  The 
enemy  approaching,  Aurelian  resolved  to  return  to  the  precautions 

*  Romam  petit  vitidicta  cupidus,  quam  seditwnum  asperitas  suggei'ebat  (Vopiscus,  Aur.j  18 
and  21  ;  cf.  Amm.  Marcellinas,  xxx.  8). 

'  Zosimus  speaks  of  conspiracies  and  of  conspirators  justly  punished,  among  whom  he 
mentions  three  senators. 

'  Accordingly  Zosimus  says  (i.  19)  of  the  Rome  of  that  day  that  it  was  .ir*ix«<Troc. 


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474  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

of  earlier  days.  It  was  a  humiliating  but  necessary  avowal.  He 
gave  Rome  a  second  wall  outside  of  the  first,  which  was  completed 
by  Probus ;  this  was  about  eleven  miles  in  circumference  (271).^ 
This  new  line  of  fortifications  is  further  marked  by  the  wall  of 
Honorius,  so  called  because  of  the  repairs  made  by  that  emperor. 

The  barbarians  being  repulsed,  and  Rome  placed  in  safety 
from  a  sudden  attack,  Aurelian  turned  his  attention  to  the  two 
competitors  who  kept  the  eastern  and  western  parts  of  the  Empire 
outside  of  his  control,  Zenobia  and  Tetricus.  The  latter  was  the 
nearer,  but  he  appeared  the  less  dangerous  of  the  two,  and 
Aurelian  had  private  reasons  for  feeling  no  dread  of  him ;  ^  the 
emperor  therefore  made  his  first  attack  upon  the  queen  of 
Palmyra. 

Odenathus,  victorious  over  Sapor,  whose  capital  he  had  twice 
insulted  by  planting  his  arrows  in  the  gates  of  Ctesiphon,  had 
been  invested  by  Gallienus  with  the  command  of  all  the  Roman 
forces  in  the  East,  and  had  even  been  associated  in  the  Empire. 
He  was  making  ready  to  deliver  Asia  Minor  from  the  Goths, 
when,  in  266-7,  he  fell  a  victim  to  one  of  those  tragedies  so 
frequent  in  the  royal  houses  of  the  East.'  One  day,  in  a  royal 
hunt,  his  nephew  Maeonios  shot  the  first  arrow  and  killed  the 
game.  It  was  contrary  to  etiquette,  which  reserved  this  to  the 
king,  and  Odenathus  angrily  reproved  the  young  man.  Meeonios 
paid  no  attention  to  the  reproof.  Ambition  to  be  considered  the 
most  skilful  hunter  in  the  desert  took  away  all  prudence  from 
him;  twice  again  his  arrows  anticipated  those  of  the  king.  The 
insult  was  public;  Odenathus  deprived  him  of  his  horse,  which 
was  equivalent  to  depriving  him  of  his  rank,  and  when  the 
violent  youth  broke  forth  in  threats  he  caused  him  to  be  thrown 
into  prison.  Being  set  free  at  the  entreaty  of  Herodes,  the  king's 
eldest   son,   the   Arab   cherished    in   his  heart    a    bitter  animosity. 


'  I  follow  Piale*8  correction  (delle  Mura  Aureliane),  which,  in  the  text  of  Vopiscus  {^Aur.y 
31)),  guinquaginta  prope  mtllia,  understands  pedum  and  not  passuum;  60,000  Koman  feet 
making  about  eleven  miles. 

^  Eckhel  (vol.  vii.  p.  456)  thinks  even  that  the  negotiation  of  which  we  shall  shortly  speak 
had  been  begun  under  Claudius.  Coins  exist  in  which  are  represented  Claudius  and  Tetricus, 
one  on  either  side.     (De  Boze,  M6m.  de  VAcad.  des  inscr.,  vol.  xxvi.  p.  515.) 

^  The  date  of  the  death  of  Odenathus  is  determined  by  the  Alexandrian  coins;  it  occurred 
between  the  29th  of  August,  266,  and  the  28tb  of  August,  267. 


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CLAUDIUS   AND    AURELIAN,    268   TO    275    A.D.  475 

and,    with    the    aid    of    some    accomplices,    assassinated,    during    a 
banquet,  both  Odenathus  and  Herodes.^ 

Zenobia  had  shared  in  the  power  and  in  the   labours   of  her 
husband.^     She    claimed    descent    from    the    Macedonian    kings    of 
Egypt,    which    made    her    the    woman    of    highest    rank    in    the 
East;    she  was   called   also   the   most   beautiful,   and   she   was  the 
most  virtuous.^     Ambition  and  love  of  fame  had  stifled  in  her  the 
vices  which   the  harem   nourishes.      She  knew    all    the    languages 
spoken  from   Palmyra  to  Athens  and  from    Athens    to    Memphis, 
even  Latin ;  *   she  read   Homer  and   Plato  ;    with   Longinus — whose 
claims  as  author  of  the   treatise  en  the  Sublime  are 
questionable,    but  who    knew  how  to   die    bravely — 
she   discussed   questions   of  philosophy  and  literature, 
with  the    famous    archbishop   of   Antioch,   Paulus  of 
Samosata,  questions   of  theology ;   and    she   gave  her 
two    elder    sons    such    able    instructors    that    it   was  Zenobia,  Queen  of 

Palmyra,  wear- 

said  of  one  of  them,  Timolaos,  that  had  he  lived  ing  the  Diadem. 
longer  he  would  have  placed  his  name  with  those  of 
the  great  Latin  orators.  The  desert  had,  like  Athens  and  Eome, 
its  academy  of  learned  men;  but  Palmyra  had  not  all  the  tastes 
of  the  western  world,  for  we  find  there  no  trace  of  those  amphi- 
theatres which  all  truly  Eoman  cities  made  haste  to  build. 

Zenobia  accompanied  her  husband  in  war  and  the  chase ;  she 
aided  him  in  conquering  the  Persians  and  essayed  without  him  to 
conquer  Egypt.  Some  accuse  her  of  having  been  in  the  conspiracy 
which  cost  the  Caesar  of  Palmyra  his  life;  but  we  have  reason 
to  doubt  this.  She  had  a  son  by  a  former  marriage,  to  whom 
Herodes  barred  the  way  to  power,  and  whom  the  latter's  death 
would  make  heir  to  the  kingdom.  Doubtless  the  mother  thought 
of  this :  it  may  be  she  hoped  for  it ;  but  to  share  in  a  plot  against 
Odenathus  would   have  been  to  conspire  against  herself.     Maeonios 

'  Zcnarae,  xii.  24. 

^  M.  de  Vogu6  (Inscr.  s&m.,  p.  29)  translates  the  Semitic  name  of  Zenobia,  Batzebinah,  by 
mercatoris  filia.  But  it  may  also  be  said  that  Zenobia  is  a  Greek  name,  which  the  queen 
asfcumed  on  account  of  her  kinship  with  the  Zenobios,  who  were  very  numerous  at  Palmyra, 
and  also  to  Ratify  her  Greek  subjects. 

*  Treb.  Pollio,  Tyr.  trig,,  20. 

*  Ihid.j  30.  This  author  adds  that  Zenobia  had  read  a  history  of  Rome  written  in  Greek, 
rloubtleas  that  of  Dion  Cassius,  and  that  she  had  composed  an  abstract  of  the  history  of 
Alexander  and  of  the  East. 


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476  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  I    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

had  assassinated  his  uncle  through  revenge,   and  with   the  design 

of  taking   his    place,    not    of   leaving   it   to  Zenobia ;    neither    had 

it  been  necessary   to   urge  him  to   rid   himself   of   Herodes,    whom 

Odenathus  had  associated  with  himself  in  the  supreme  power  ;^  the 

first  crime  had  made  the  second  necessary,  and  we  admit  that  the 

young  prince's    step-mother    must    have    seen    without  regret  this 

death,    which    freed   her   son    from    a    rival.     The    tragedy    being 

accomplished,    she  aroused   against   the   murderer  the   very   soldiers 

who  had  proclaimed  him  king,  and  who  now,  doubtless  for  a  little 

money,  laid    his   head   at  Zenobia's  feet,  after  which   they  saluted 

her  eldest  son,  Waballath,  with  the  title  of  Augustus 

and  the  two  others  as  Ceesar.^      She  presented   them 

to   the   people   and   to  the  army  clad   in  the  Eoman 

purple,    while   she   kept  for   herself    the    real   power 

with   the   title   basilissa^    queen,    equivalent    doubtless 

Wabaiiath       fn    the    miuds    of    the   Palmyrenes    to    the    title    of 

Augustus,  Son  of  "^ 

Zenobia.  augtista. 

In  the  midst  of  the  confusion  which  had  pre- 
vailed for  nearly  forty  years,  no  one  was  surprised  at  all  these 
Caesars  emerging  from  an  Arab  city.  But  what  did  seem  strange 
was  this — ^to  see  these  children  of  the  desert  who  had  always  held 
women  in  subjection,  thus  quietly  accepting  the  sway  of  this 
firm  and  gentle  hand.  The  East,  it  is  true,  had  so  many  goddesses 
reigning  in  heaven  that  it  might  easily,  without  too  great  a  sacri- 
fice, allow  women  to  reign  upon  earth,'^  and  its  legends  always 
spoke  of  Semiramis,  the  mighty  sovereign  of  Babylon;  of  Dido, 
the  renowned  Carthaginian;  and  of  that  Queen  of  Sheba  who 
had  wished  to  look  upon  the  glory  of  Solomon,  the  founder  of 
Tadmor.  Zenobia  took  pleasure  in  remembering  Cleopatra,  whom 
she  equalled  in  beauty  and  in  power,  but  whose  masculine  resolu- 
tion  at   the   last  hour   she   did  not,   perhaps,  possess.*     Her  court 

*  Treb.  Pollio,  Tyr.  trig.,  14,  16. 

'  The  Latin  legend  of  the  coins  of  Wabaiiath  is  V.  C.  R.  I.  D.  R.,  which  M.  de  Sallet  reads: 
vir  constdaris,  rex,  tmperator,  dux  Homanorum.  At  Palmyra  he  did,  in  fact,  bear  the  title  of 
king,  and  in  Lower  E^^pt  was  called  fiaaCKtvQ,  king.  In  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign  (August  29th, 
270,  to  August  28th,  271)  he  took  the  title  of  Augustus. 

'  The  great  goddess  of  Byblos  was  considered  superior  in  power  to  the  male  gods,  her 
father  and  brothers,  for  example.  (Hal^vy,  Inscr.  de  Byblos,  a  paper  read  before  the  Academy 
of  Inscriptions  [Paris],  May  3rd,  1878.) 

*  Treb.  Pollio,  Tyr.  trig.,  30.     We  sny  perhaps,  for  Cleopatra  had  the  opportunity  for 


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CLAUDIUS   AND    AURELIAN,    268    TO    275    A.D.  477 

was  modelled  after  that  of  the  emperors,  with  Oriental  adulations 
borrowed  from  Pei^sia,  which  Diocletian  later  imitated,  and  the 
diadem  which  he  assumed.  With  bare  arms  and  helmetod  head 
she  harangued  her  troops  in  a  loud  and  musical  \'oice,  going  along 
with  them,  usually 
on  horseback,  but 
sometimes  even  on 
foot,  and  shared  in 
the  prolonged  ban- 
quetings  of  her 
generals,  though 
never  forgetting  her 
rank  and  dignity. 
Aurelian  does  her 
justice  :  ''  Those  who 
say,"  he  writes, 
"  that  I  have  only 
conquered  a  woman, 
have  no  idea  what 
this  woman  was,  how 
wise  in  council,  reso- 
lute in  carrying  out 
her  plans,  firm  with 
her  soldiers,  and, 
according  to  the 
situation,  peaceable 
or   severe.      Through 

her     aid     Odenathus  Zenobia» 

conquered     the    Per- 
sians, and  through  fear  of  her  arms,  the  Arabs,  the  Saracens,  and 
the  Armenians  have  been  kept  in  tranquillity."*^ 

Zenobia  was  a  formidable  advei^sary.  She  had  formed  the 
design  of  adding  to  her  territory  in  the  East  two  countries  which 
would  be  its  outposts  and  bulwarks:    Egypt,   whither   she   sent  an 

suicide,  which  Zenobia,   who  was  very  carefully  guarded,  probably  did    not    have.      (See 
later.) 

*  Bust  of  the  Vatican.     (Museo  Clriaramonti,  No.  263.) 

"  Treb.  Pollio,  Tyr.  trig.,  .30. 


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478  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

army  wliich  seized  Alexandria,  and  Asia  Minor,  whose  peoples 
''knew  not  how  to  say  no,"  accejited  lier  sway.  The  Bithynians 
alone  refused,  and  this  refusal  compromised  the  whole  plan ;  for 
Bithynia,  lying  between  the  Propcmtis  and  the  Bosphorus,  was 
the  great  highway  for  armies  passing  from  Europe  into  Asia,  and 
this  highway  nanained  open  to  Aurelian. 

The  Egyptian  affair  l)(»gan  brilliantly.  The  historian  Zosimus 
speaks  of  an  army  of  70,000  men  which  seized  upon  the  country,  or 

at  least  upon  the  northern  provinces. 
A  general  of  the  name  of  Probus' 
had  been  sent  against  the  pirates, 
who,  taking  advantage  of  the  disorders 
produced  by  the  great  Gothic  invasion, 
WaballathaDdAurehuu.^  ^cre  HOW  infesting  the  coasts  of  Asia 

Minor  and  Syria;  he  landed  with 
what  troops  he  had  in  the  Delta,  where  the  Palmyrenes  had  left 
only  a  garrison  of  5,000  men,  increased  his  small  ai-my  by  some 
volunteers,  and  would  have  got  the  better  of  Zenobia's  troops, 
when  he  was  surprised  near  Memphis.  Falling  into  the  enemy's 
hands  he  took  his  own  life,^  and  the  queen  remained  mistress  of 
Lower  Egypt. 

Alexandrian  coins  bear  the  heads  of  Aurelian  and  Zenobia's 
son,  as  if  they  had  been  colleagues,  and  the  latest  of  them,  be- 
longing to  the  seventh  year  of  the  reign  of  Waballath,  show  that 
this  situation  lasted  till  into  the  year  272/ 

»  Or  ProbatuM  (Treb.  Pollio,  Claud.,  11). 

»  VABALATHVS  V.  C.  H.  IM.  D.  R.,  and  the  laureUed  bead  of  Zenobia's  son.  On  the 
reverse:  IMP.  C.  AVRELIANVS  AVG.,  and  the  radiate  head  of  Aurelian.     (Bronze  coin.) 

^  .  .  .  .  ptiffnant  ....  teniere  ut  ptfiie  caperetur  (Vopiscus,  iVo6.,  0).  Zonaras  says  even 
that  he  was  taken  ....  Ziyvoftav  ....  Upoiop  ikovvav  (xii.  27).  According  to  M.  de  Sallet 
(die  Fiirsten  von  Palmura,  p.  44),  Pro  bus  was  an  usurper  who  attempted  to  seize  Egypt  while 
Claudius  was  fighting  against  the  Goths;  Zenobia  overthrew  him,  after  which  the  Egyptians 
acknowledged  tlie  authority  of  the  imperator  Romanus,  that  is  to  say,  Waballath  swearing 
fidelity  to  the  Roman  Augustus,  Claudius.  In  respect  to  this  individual  we  have  followed  the 
story  of  Zosimus,  who  seems  to  have  been  well-informed  as  to  the  affairs  of  the  Palmyrenes. 
(See  Waddington,  Inscr,  de  Syrie,  595.) 

*  Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  p.  496.  So  long  as  Zenobia  ruled  Egypt  in  the  name  of  Claudius,  the 
name  of  this  emperor  appears  alone  on  the  Alexandrian  coins;  upon  the  death  of  Claudius  she 
caused  to  be  struck,  in  Alexandria,  coins  bearing  the  ^f^gy  of  Aurelian  and  that  of  Waballath, 
and  also  others  with  the  head  of  Aurelian  alone.  After  the  rupture,  in  271-2,  the  head  of 
Aurelian  disappears  from  the  Alexandrian  coins,  and  the  name  of  Waballath  is  followed  by 
the  title  attuaro^j  Augustus.     (De  VogU6,  op,  cit.,  p.  32.) 


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CLAUDIUS   AND   AURELIAN,    268   TO   276   A.D.  481 

In  the  spring  of  this  year  Aurelian  left  Italy  with  a  numerous 
army  for  the  purpose  of  regulating  the  affairs  of  Asia.  On  the 
way  he  set  free  Illyria,  Thrace,  and  Moesia  from  the  Gothic  bands 
who  still  lingered  there  or  had  returned  thither ;  he  pursued  one 
of  them  across  the  Danube,  and  compelled  them  to  give  him  as 
hostages  a  number  of  young  girls  of  noble  family,  whom  he  placed 
at  Perinthus.  He  wrote  to  the  legate  of  Thrace  to  furnish  for 
their  maintenance  a  certain  sum,  but  to  keep  them  in  com- 
munities of  seven,  so  that  the  expense  to  the  state  should  be  less 
while  the  young  girls  should  be  able  to  live  in  comfort.  We  have 
seen  ^  how  these  hostages  served  the  imperial  policy  :  one  of  them, 
we  are  told,  married  a  Eoman  general,  and  doubtless  others  did 
the  same,  and  the  emperor  furnished  the  dowry. 

In  Bithynia  Aurelian  was  welcomed  as  a  liberator;  hostilities 
began  with  the  Gblatians,  where  it  was  necessary  to  take  Ancyra 
by  storm.  One  of  the  chief  cities  of  Cappadocia,  Tyana,  which 
covered  the  Cilician  pass  into  Mount  Taurus,  would  have  made  a 
long  resistance  if  one  of  its  richest  citizens  had  not  indicated  an 
ill-fortified  and  ill-guarded  point.  Aurelian  put  the  traitor  to 
death,  without,  however,  confiscating  his  property,  a  virtue  rare 
among  the  monarchs  of  that  time.  The  soldiers  expected  to 
plunder  this  wealthy  city,  but  Aurelian  forbade  them  to  do  it. 
ApoUonius  of  Tyana  still  had  his  admirers;  the  biographer  of 
Aurelian  is  one  of  them,  and  he  maintains  that  an  apparition 
of  the  hero  prevented  the  emperor  from  destroying  that  city. 
Policy  counselled  this  moderation,  and  Aurelian  understood  that  in 
those  troublous  times  indulgence  was  due  to  those  who  did  not 
know  on  which  side  the  right  lay  and  where  obedience  was  due.^ 
When  he  gave  out  that  ApoUonius  had  prohibited  the  sack  of  his 
native  city,  the  soldiery,  who  might  have  refused  obedience  to 
their  emperor,  dared  not  refuse  it  to  "the  divine  man,"  and  a 
well-told  lie  saved  a  great  city. 

The  passes  of  the  Taurus  were  not  at  all  guarded/  and  the 

»  p.  372. 

*  See  later  the  amnesty  that  he  grranted. 

'  The  TauruB,  or  BtUghar^Dagh,  has,  on  this  side,  peaks  which  rise  to  a  height  of  11,500 

feet,  but  the  pass  is  only  3,170  feet.    Thence,  by  way  of  Adana  and  Mopsuesta,  Aurelian  could 

reach  the  road  which  crossed  a  spur  of  the  Amanus  {Pyl€B  Amantdes),  then  turn  at  Alexandretta 

to  the  point  where  the  Amanus,  which  runs  paraUel  to  the  ooast  at  a  height  of  about  6,560  feet, 

VOL.  VI.  U 


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482  TlIE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

legions  came  down  into  Cilicia,  tunied  the  Gulf  of  Issus,  and 
arriving  at  the  Syrian  Gates  saw  beneath  them  the  Lake  of 
Antioch,   the   city   itself   luxuriously  reposing   on   the  bank   of   the 


The  Passes  of  Mount  Amanus. 

Orontes,  and  Daphne,  the  sanctuary  of  licentious  rites.  Zenobia 
was  there  with  a  portion  of  her  cavalry.  An  actioii,  which  does 
not  seem   to  have  been  very  sanguinary,^  gave   the   city    into  the 

leaves  between  it  and  the  sea  only  those  two  famous  defiles  called  the  Cilician  and  the  Syrian 
Gates,  at  2,626  and  2,950  feet  above  the  sea.  (See  in  the  Bulletin  de  la  Soc.  de  Giogr.y  January, 
1878,  the  map  of  Messrs.  Favre  and  Mandrot.) 

*  .  .  .  hrevi  apud  Dafnem  certamine  ( Vopiscus,  Aur.f  2t5).     Zosimus  (i.  51 )  represents  it  as 
more  severe ;  but  it  was  mily  a  cavalry  engagement  and  a  skirmish  of  outposts. 


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CLAUDIUS   AND    AURELIAN,    268   TO    276    A.D.  483 

power  of  the  Romans ;  .they  entered  it,  while  the  Palmyrenes  fell 
back  towards  Chaleis.  Anrelian  continued  his  system  of  clemency. 
Many  inhabitants  of  Antioch,  fearing  that  they  should  be  treated 
as  partisans  of  the  'queen,  had  escaped  from  the  city  with  the 
Arab  army,  but  a  proclamation  guaranteed  them  life  and  property, 
and  almost  all  returned. 

In  another  affair  which  has  been  made  very  conspicuous  he 
showed  the  same  spirit  of  conciliation.  Paul  of  Samosata  enjoyed 
at  Antioch  both  the  office  of  bishop  and  that  of  procurator  duce- 
nariuSy  or  steward  of  Zenobia^s  finances.  The  city  contained  many 
Jews  and  Christians;  among  the  latter  were  men  who,  while 
accepting  the  Gospel,  rejected  the  divinity  of  Christ,  or  at  least 
understood  it  otherwise  than  the  Church  did.  According  to  them, 
Jesus  was  but  a  man  in  whom  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  Loffos^ 
resided  as  formerly  in  Moses  and  the  Prophets.^  They  recognized 
the  union  of  the  Divine  Word  with  humanity  in  Christ,  and 
acknowledged  that  he  deserved  to  be  called  God.  But  this  attempt 
at  a  rational  explanation  ruined  the  doctrine  of  God  made  man,  and 
diminished  the  religious  fruitfulness  of  Christianity.  Paul  thought 
as  they  did.  In  264  his  faith  had  already  become  an  object  of 
suspicion ;  at  the  same  time  a  numerous  synod  of  bishops,  priests, 
and  deacons,  assembled  to  examine  into  his  views,  had  found  them 
not  heretical.  Five  years  later  his  adversaries  convoked  another 
assembly,  whither  came  seventy-six  bishops,  and  he  was  cut  off 
from  the  Church.  A  synodal  letter  addressed  "to  the  bishops  of 
Rome  and  Alexandria,  to  all  the  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons 
forming  the  Church  under  the  heavens,"  announced  to  them  the 
deposition  of  the  bishop  of  Antioch.  Paul,  supported  by  Zenobia, 
however,  did  not  relinquish  the  'episcopal  throne.  The  case  was 
brought  before  Aurelian,  who,  with  a  good  sense  which  we  must 
admire,  refused  to  give  a  decision,  and  still  less  to  call  to  mind 
in  these  circumstances  that  there  existed  imperial  edicts  against 
the  Christians.  "  These  concern  bishops,"  he  said ;  "  let  him 
retain  the  episcopal  palace  with  whom  the  bishops  of  Rome  and 
Italy  are  in  fellowship."  The  brother  of  Seneca,  the  tribune  at 
Jerusalem,  had  also  made  answer  on  the  subject  of  S.  Paul,  accused 

^  At  the  same  time  admitting  his  miraculous  birth,  Ik  vap9ivov.      (S.  A  than.,   Contra 
Apoilin.f  i.  3.) 

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484  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

by  the  Jews :  "  I  am  not  a  judge  of  these  matters."  ^  The  brave 
and  honest  soldier  whose  history  we  write  had  discovered  for 
himself  this  admirable  truth,  which  so  many  emperors  have  despised 
and  still  despise.^  He  at  once  reaped  the  fruit  of  it.  The  bishop's 
friends  had  been,  like  Paul  himself,  the  queen's  partisans;  Aurelian 
punished  them  indii'ectly,  and  at  the  same  time  he  conciliated  the 
Christian  community,  numerous  in  that  great  city. 

An  attempt  has  been  made  to  see  in  the  response  of  the 
emperor  an  acknowledgment  of  the  primacy  of  the  Koman  See.  It 
was  natural  that  Aurelian,  having  to  decide  a  point  of  doctrine 
between  Christians,  should  address  himself  to  the  metropolitan 
bishops,  and  should  constitute  the  heads  of  the  Christian  com- 
munities of  Italy  arbitrators  of  the  dispute,  without  attaching  other 
importance  to  the  affair.  His  judgment,  nevertheless,  constituted 
an  extremely  useful  precedent  for  the  pontifical  authority. 

Affairs  being  regulated  at  Antioch,  Aurelian  set  out  in  pur- 
suit of  the  enemy.  He  came  up  with  their  rear-guard  not  far 
from  Chalcis,  and  dislodged  it  from  a  height  where  it  had  been 
posted.  The  Palmyrenes  made  no  further  halt  till  they  came 
under  the  walls  of  Emesa ;  here  Zenobia  had  gathered  70,000 
men,  resting  on  a  securely  fortified  place,  and  having  in  front  of 
them  a  wide  plain  suited  for  cavalry  movements.  The  battle  this 
time  was  desperate.  In  the  one  army,  the  ancient  renown  of 
Rome,  in  the  other,  the  new  fame  of  Palmyra,  fired  the  hearts 
of  all.  For  a  moment  Aurelian  had  reason  to  fear  that  his 
soldiers  might  give  way  before  the  shock;  his  cavalry  was  almost 
destroyed,  but  a  vigorous  charge,  which  he  led  in  person  against 
the  centre  of  the  too  extended  line  of  the  enemy,  decided  the 
victory.  It  had  been  so  dearly  bought,  however,  that  the  Romans 
were  not  in  a  condition  to  pursue  the  vanquished.  In  the  heat  of 
the  combat  Aurelian  had  vowed  a  temple  to  the  Sun,  and  it  was 
related  afterwards  that  the  god  himself  had  been  seen  in  the  midst 
of  the  legions,  restoring  their  disordered  lines.  The  Sun  was  the 
great  divinity  of   Palmyra,  he  had  therefore  abandoned  his  people; 

*  See  vol.  iv.  p.  67.  • 

'  Euseb.,  Hist.  eccL,  vii.  27  and  29.  The  synodal  letter  is  quoted  by  Eusebius.  It  contains, 
as  was  customary,  many  recriminations,  true  or  false,  against  the  bishop  on  the  subject  of  his 
morals,  llefele  {Conciliengeschichtey  vol.  i.  109-117)  enumerates  three  synods  of  Antioch  on 
this  affair,  but  he  is  unable  to  give  the  date  of  the  second,  and  we  do  not  mention  it. 


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CLAUDIUS   AND   AURELIAN,    268   TO    275    A.D.  487 

but  the  gods  are  always  on  the  side  of  the  heavy  battalions,  and, 
with  a  sentiment  made  up  both  of  pride  and  humility,  the  victors 
took  pleasure  in  transforming  into  divine  assistance  the  aid  which 
they  had  found  in  their  own  courage  J 

In  a  council  of  war  held  by  Zenobia  at  Emesa  it  had  been 
decided  to  fall  back  upon  Palmyra.  It  was  confidently  believed 
that  the  heavy  Eoman  array  could  not  traverse  ^'the  thirsty  land," 
or  at  least  that  it  would  live  there  with  difficulty,  exposed  as  it 
would  be  to  attacks  from  the  nomads.  The  "  Syrian  robbers,"  as 
Vopiscus  calls  them,  did,  in  fact,  much  harm  to  the  Romans,  but 
did  not  hinder  them  from  arriving  before  the  desert  capital.  It 
was  surrounded  by  a  deep  moat  and  a  wall  covered  with  innumer- 
able machines  of  war,  which  sent  off  an  incessant  shower  of  arrows, 
darts,  and  flames.*^  The  emperor  had  not  expected  a  defence  so 
determined.  On  arriving  in  sight  of  the  city,  he  wrote  to  the 
queen:  "Aurelian,  emperor  of  the  Eoman  world,  and  conqueror 
of  the  East,  to  Zenobia  and  those  who  are  engaged  in  her  cause. 
You  ought  to  have  done  willingly  that  which  I  order  in  this  letter. 
I  command  you  to  suiTender,  and  I  promise  to  spare  your  lives. 
You,  Zenobia,  will  withdraw  with  your  family  into  a  place  which 
I  shall  indicate  to  you,  by  the  advice  of  the  honourable  senate. 
You  will  surrender  to  the  Roman  treasury  all  that  you  possess  of 
precious  stones,  gold,  silver,  silk,  horses,  and  camels.  The 
Palmyrenes  will  preserve  their  rights."^ 

The  reply  was  no  less  proud :  "  Zenobia,  queen  of  the  East. 
No  person  has  ever  dared  to  demand  what  your  letter  asks.  You 
wish  me  to  surrender  myself,  as  if  you  did  not  know  that  queen 
Cleopatra  preferred  to  die  rather  than  owe  her  life  to  a  master.  I 
am  momentarily  expecting  assistance  from  the  Persians ;  the  Saracens 
and  Armenians  are  on  my  side.  The  Syrian  robbers  have  defeated 
your  army,  Aurelian;  what  then  will  be  the  case  when  we  have 
received  the  reinforcements  which  are  coming  to  us  from  all  sides? 
You  will  then  cease  this  proud  tone  with  which  you  demand  my 
submission,  as  if  your  arms  were  everywhere  victorious."'* 


'  See  in  Zosimus  (i.  67-8)  the  numerous  oracles  made  to  speak  in  all  the  temples  of  Syria. 
^  Doubtless  employing  the  bitumen  with  which  the  region  abounds. 
'  Vopiscus,  Atir.,  26. 
*  Ibid.,  '21. 


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488  THE   ILLTRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

After  this  interchange  of  haughty  language   it   only  remained 
to   storm   the   city  or  to   reduce   it  by  famine.     The  Roman   army 
invested   the  place.      Zenobia    counted   on   Persia,    but   Persia  had 
changed   rulers   three   times   in  as  many  years,  amidst  conspiracies 
of  the   nobles  and  religious  quarrels  agitating  the  people.      Sapor, 
the   conqueror  of  Valerian,  had  died  in  271.     His  son  Hormisdas, 
devoted    to    peace,    reigned    fourteen    months,    and    his    successor, 
Bahram  Varanes,  less   than   four   years.     Of   Hormisdas   is  related 
an  anecdote  worthy   of   the   Arabian  Nights.      Being   suspected  of 
entering    into    some    conspiracy    with   the    satraps,    who   were  dis- 
contented at  the  protracted  dura- 
tion    of     Sapor^s    reign     (thirty 
years),    the    prince    cut    off    his 
hand   and   sent   it    to  his  father 
as    a    sign    of    his    fidelity.      It 
was   contrary   to   custom    that    a 

Coin  of  Bahram  or  Varahranl.^  P^^S^^      "^      "^7     ^^y      mutUated 

should  succeed  to  the  throne, 
but  Sapor,  to  honour  his  son's  heroism,  bequeathed  to  him  the  royal 
authority.  This  legend  has  preserved  to  us  the  memory  of  Hor- 
misdas: at  Kam  Hoormuz,  which  he  built,  the  Persians  still  show 
an  orange  tree  which  is  said  to  have  been  planted  by  him,  and 
is  an  object  of  veneration  to  them.^ 

Bahram  was  on  the  Persian  throne  when  Aurelian  appeared 
before  Palmyra.  But  the  kingdom  was  agitated  by  the  preaching 
of  Manes,  who  sought  to  blend  in  one  the  religions  of  Christ  and 
of  Zoroaster.  The  people,  and  even  the  court,  were  divided 
between  the  old  and  the  new  doctrines.  Sapor  had  banished  the 
sectary;  Hormisdas  favoured  him.  The  magi,  anxious  for  their 
authority,  succeeded  in  re-establishing  their  influence  over  the  mind 
of  Bahram,  who  condemned  Manes  to  be  flayed  alive,  and  was 
shortly  after  himself  assassinated  by  a  partisan  of  the  reformer. 
This  double  tragedy  came  later  than  the  siege  of  Palmyra;  but 
these   domestic   dissensions   explain  the   reserved   attitude   of    those 

*  Legend :  The  worshipper  of  Ormuzdf  the  excellent  VarahraUj  king  of  kingSf  of  Iran  and 
Turan,  celestial  genn  of  the  gods,  around  the  head  of  the  king.  On  the  reverse:  The  divine 
Varahran :  in  the  centre,  a  pyre ;  on  the  left,  Varahran,  standing ;  at  the  right,  another  figure. 
(Silver  coin.) 

"  Malcolm,  Histoid  of  Persia,  vol.  i.  p.  100. 


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CLAUDIUS   AND   AURELIAN,    268   TO    275    A.D.  489 

who  had  but  recently  held  a  Roman  emperor  in  captivity.  They 
contented  themselves  with  sending  some  slight  reinforcements  to 
Palmyra,  which  were,  however,  intercepted  on  the  way.  In  respect 
to  Armenia,  we  have  already  indicated  the  reasons  which  made 
the  friendship  of  Rome  indispensable;  as  for  the  Arabs  and  the 
Saracens,  they  were  either  bought  or  intimidated,  and  but  little 
gold  and  little  strength  was  needed  for  either. 

Zenobia,    then,    stood  alone.      When  she  knew  that  she  could 
no  longer  count  on  those  whom  she  believed  her  allies,  and  when 


liuins  of  the  Temple  of  Diaua  at  Palmjra. 

she  saw  her  provisions  rapidly  decreasing,  she  resolved  to  escape 
to  the  Persians  and  endeavour  to  persuade  them  to  make  a  vigorous 
eflPort  while  her  warriors  still  held  out.  Mounted  on  a  rapid 
dromedaiy,  she  made  her  way  to  the  Euphrates,  and  was  nearly  at 
its  bank  when  the  horsemen  who  had  been  sent  in  her  pursuit 
came  up  with  her.  This  sad  news  caused  great  confusion  in 
Palmyra.  Some  were  disposed  to  prolong  the  defence,  but  the 
larger  number  threw  down  their  arms  and  opened  the  gates. 
Aurelian  made  no  change  in  the  terms  he  had  offered  at  first ; 
he  treated  the  city  with  mildness,  left  it  in  undisturbed  possession 
of  its  rights,  and  contented  himself  with  taking  the  treasures  of 
Zenobia. 


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490  THE    ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

Returning  to  Emesa,  where,  from  the  resources  of  a  rich 
province  the  troops  could  compensate  themselves  for  the  privations 
they  had  lately  suffered,  the  emperor  constituted  a  tribunal  to 
judge  Zenobia  and  her  ministers.  In  her  first  interview  with 
Aurelian,    she   asserted    herself  as   proudly   as   ever.     ''  How   dared 


Gate  of  Zeiiobia's  Palace.     (Actual  Conditiou.; 

you,"  he  said,  "  insult  the  majesty  of  the  Roman  emperors  ? " 
And  she  replied :  "I  acknowledge  you  as  an  emperor,  since  you 
are  able  to  conquer ;  but  the  Gallieni,  the  Aureoli,  and  the 
rest,  were  not  emperors.''  The  compliment  was  not  excessive.  It 
is  said,  however,  that  before  the  tribunal  she  basely  threw  upon 
her  councillors  the  responsibility  of  the  war.  This  is  probably  a 
calumny  of  the  victors  or  a  clever  invention  of  Aurelian.  The 
soldiers  were   eager  for  blood,    and  he   had  detei-mined   not   to  put 


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CLAUDIUS    AND    AUKELIAN,    268    TO    275    A.D.  491 

the  queen  to  death,  for  he  proposed  to  have  this  second  Cleopatra 
as  an  ornament  to  his  triumph.  The  judges  made  it  their  plan 
to  find  only  the  ministers  guilty,  and  these  persons  were  put  to 
death,  among  them  Longinus,  who  met  his  fate  with  the  serenity 
of  a  sage  (273). 

The  fall  of  the  queen  of  the  East  produced  a  great  im- 
pression; and  the  desertion  of  all  her  allies  proved  the  fear  which 
the  resuscitated  Empire  inspired.  Aurelian  therefore  had  quitted 
Syria   with   a    mind  freed  from    anxiety,    and  had   traversed   Asia 


Kuiiis  of  the  Temple  of  the  Sun  at  Palmyra. 

Minor,  and  even  a  portion  of  Thrace,  when  the  news  came  to  him 
that  the  Palmyrenes  were  again  in  arms,  that  the  Roman  garrison 
and  its  commander  Sandarion  had  been  murdered,  and  that,  finally, 
one  Antiochus  had  been  proclaimed  emperor.^  Palmyra  had  not 
been  willing  to  submit  to  falling  back  from  her  rank  as  an 
imperial  city  to  the  condition  of  a  mere  trading  mart.  She  had 
for  a  moment  drunk  of  the  cup  of  grandeur,  and  was  intoxicated 
by  it  still,  and  in  her  dreams  there  returned  perpetually  the. 
image  of  her  caravan  leaders  made  Roman  Csesars.  The  act  of 
folly  which  she  had  just  now  committed  was  cruelly  expiated. 
Aurelian's  anger  was  terrible ;  his  severity  in  Rome  had  been 
already  manifested,  and  at  Palmyra,  as  he  had  been  more  clement, 

^  Vopiscus,  Aur.,  81  :  cf.  Zosinms,  i.  60-61. 


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492  THK    ILLYKIAN    EMPKROKS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

he  was  now  even  more  pitiless.  We  know  nothing  of  the  expedi- 
tion to  which  he  committed  his  vengeance,  but  a  letter  shows  that 
it  was,  as  it  were,  the  execution  of  an  entire  people.  ''  Aurelian 
Augustus  to  Ceionius  Bassus.  Let  the  soldiers  use  theii-  swords  no 
longer:    enough   Palmyrenes  have  been  killed.     We  have  not  even 

spared  mothers ;  we  have 
slain  children  and  old  men, 
and  put  to  death  the  in- 
habitants of  the  country. 
To  whom  shall  we  noAv 
leave  the  country  and  the 
city  ?  It  is  proper  to  spare 
the  few  who  remain,  and 
believe  them  corrected  by 
the  sight  of  so  much  punish- 
ment. I  desire  that  the 
temple  of  the  Sun,  pillaged 
by  the  eagle-bearer  of  the 
tenth  legion,  by  the  standard- 
bearers,  by  the  dragon- 
bearer,^  and  by  the  trum- 
peters, be  restored  as  it  was. 
You  have  in  the  treasures 
— '-  -  of    Zenobia   300   pounds 

UwiS*oMrT;ijaTcoiun.n.,  ^'^^8^*  ^^    g^^^ ;    you  have 

also  1,800  pounds  of   silver, 

obtained   from   the   possessions   of    the    Palmyrenes,    and   you   have 

also  the  royal  jewels.     Employ  all  this  in  the  ornamentation  of  the 

temple;    you  will  thus  do  a  thing  agreeable  to  the  immortal  gods 

and  to  me.     I  will  write  to  the  senate  to  send  a  pontiff  to  make 

the  dedication  of  the  temple."^ 

Palmyra   never   rose   after   this    blow.     The   families  who  had 

made   her  fortune  doubtless  perished   in  the   massacre,  and  of  the 


'  The  soldier  who  bore  the  standard  representing"  a  drap^on's  head,  terminated  by  a  red 
streamer,  which  in  the  wind  resembled  the  tortuous  folds  of  the  serpent.  Cf.  Treb.  PoUio, 
Gall.y  8,  and  Amm.  Marcellinus,  xvi.  12:  ...  .  purpureum  signum  draconis  ,mmmitati  hastrt 
lonffioris  aptatum.    It  seems  to  have  resembled  a  Chinese  flag. 

'^  Vopiscus,  Aur.f  31. 


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CLAUDIUS    AND    AURELIAN,    268    TO    275    A.D.  493 

inhabitants  who  survived  none  were  able  to  take  their  place. 
Commerce  became  used  to  other  routes ;  the  sand  invaded  this 
depopulated  oasis,  and  for  ten  centuries  the  world  knew  not  even 
the  place  where  the  queen  of  the  East  had  built  her  palaces  of 
marble ;  but  a  spring  which  still  flows  has  preserved,  perhaps, 
through  the  ages  the  name  of  him  who  made  this  vast  desolation.^ 
After    the    tragedy    of    Emesa,    Aurelian    had    hastened    his 


Ruins  of  the  Palace  of  Zenobia. 

return  to  Europe  without  stopping  in  Egypt,  whence  a  man  as 
valiant  as  himself  had  expelled  the  Palmyrenes.  Believing  this 
country  pacified,  he  had  not  thought  it  advisable  to  appear  there ; 
but  when  it  was  understood  that  he  was  on  his  way  to  Gaul,  a 
merchant  enriched  by  traffic  in  the  papyrus  of  Egypt  and  the 
commodities  of  India,  Firmus,  a  Greek,  whom  the  political  fortunes 
of  the  sheiks  of  Palmyra  had  dazzled,  undertook  to  play  their  rdle. 
He  secured  the  aid  of  Blemyes  and  of  the  Saracens,  stirred  up 
Alexandria,  ever  ready  for  riots,  and  detained  the  com- bearing 
fleet,  which  was  a  serious  matter.  Ho  had  assumed  the  purple  at 
the   moment   when   Palmyra   revolted,  whence  it  may  be  concluded 

*  The  Ain  Oumus^  to  be  seen  near  Palmyra.  It  has  been  conjectured  that  Oumus  is  an 
altered  abbreviation  of  Aurelianus.  {Recit,  fie  Fat  alia  Snyerjh.i,  discovered  by  Luinartine, 
Voyage  en  Orient,  ii.  '582.) 


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494  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

that  the  two  movemejits  were  concerted.^  Aurelian  had  no  diffi- 
culty in  confining  the  usurper  within  one  of  the  four  quarters  of 
Alexandria,  the  Bruchium,  which  was  separated  by  a  wall  from  the 
rest  of  the  city,  and  where  Caesar  so  long  braved  all  the  forces  of 
Egypt.  There  stood  the  palace  of  the  Ptolemies,  the  museum, 
which  a  long  portico,  made  of  the  most  precious  marble,  connected 
with  the  royal  residence,  and  the  palace  of  the  Csesars,  built  in 
the  place  where  once  stood  the  two  obelisks  called  Cleopatra's 
Needles.^  Aurelian  did  not  undertake  to  storm  this  peculiar 
position ;  but  famine  eventually  delivered  Firmus  into  his  hands, 
and  he  caused  the  rebel  to  be  crucified.  He  then  dismantled  the 
Bruchium,  the  palace  of  the  kings,  and  all  that  could  serve  as 
protection  in  case  of  a  new  disturbance — so  he  sought  not  to  leave 
the  provisioning  of  Eome  at  the  mercy  of  this  seditious  city.^ 
This  time  at  least  his  anger  was  directed  towards  the  city  itself 
rather  than  its  inhabitants;^  but  he  augmented  by  one-twelfth 
the  frumentary  tax  of  Egypt,  and  laid  upon  the  country  a  new 
annual  tribute,  namely,  the  sending  to  Kome  of  a  certain  quantity 
of  glass,  papyrus,  linen,  hemp,  and  other  products  of  the  country.* 
Zenobia  being  a  captive,  ''  the  robber  Firmus "  having  been 
crucified,  and  the  populace  of  Alexandria  restrained  by  a  Eoman 
garrison,  order  began  to  be  restored  throughout  the  East,  which 
had  twice  within  a  few  months  been  ovennin  by  a  great  and 
victorious. army.  From  eveiy  side  came  in  embassies,  protestations 
of  friendship,    and   presents,    among    other  things,    as   a   gift  from 

*  The  Au^^tem  History  does  not  say  this,  but  the  narrative  of  Vopiscus  is  extremely 
confosed.  I  give  what  is  probable,  but  not  certain.  A  few  words  in  the  letter  of  Aurelian  to 
the  senate  and  the  Roman  people  after  the  defeat  of  Firmus  would  lead  us  to  suppose  that  the 
subjection  of  Egypt  had  been  preceded  by  that  of  the  Gauls :  .  .  .  .  pacato  toto  orbe  terrarum 
(Vopiscus,  Firm.,  5) ;  but  other  information  furnished  by  the  Auguttan  History,  by  Zosimus 
(i.  61),  by  medals,  and  by  the  course  of  events,  is  contrary  to  this  view.  There  are  coins  of  the 
fifth  year  of  the  reign  of  Tetricus,  that  is  to  say,  272-3. 

^  In  respect  to  this  temple  of  the  Caesars,  constructed  in  the  time  of  Augustus,  see  Bull,  de 
corresp,  hellSn.,  1878,  p.  175. 

^  Amm.  Marcellinus,  xxii.  16.  See  vol.  v.  p.  621,  the  letter  written  by  Aurelian  to  the 
senate  and  the  Roman  people  after  the  fall  of  Firmus. 

*  He  permitted  the  women  and  children  and  the  old  men  to  go  out  of  the  Bruchium.  At 
least,  Eusebius  (Hist,  eccl.,  vii.  32)  relates  this  fact  on  the  authority  of  Anatolius,  an  eye-witness, 
who  later  was  the  bishop  of  Laodicea,  but  he  does  not  name  Aurelian,  and  as  he  represents 
Anatolius  as  after  this  attending  the  Council  of  Antioch,  held  to  examine  Paul  of  Samosata,  we 
perhaps  ought  to  plaoe  this  event  in  the  time  of  Claudius,  when  Probus  expelled  the  Palmyrenes 
from  Alexandria  and  the  Delta. 

'  Vopiscus,  Atir.,  44. 


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CLAUDIUS   AND   AURELTAN,    268   TO   275    A.D.  495 

•  the  king  of  Persia,  a  purple  mantle  which  seems  to  have  been  the 
predecessor  of  our  Indian  cashmeres.^  Nothing  therefore  detained 
Aurelian  longer  in  this  part  of  the  Empire,  and  he  was  at  liberty 
to  turn  his  attention  at  last  towards  the  Western  provinces,  where 
Tetricus  had  been  reigning  for  more  than  five  years.^ 

Victorina,  '*  the  mother  of  the  camps,"  was  dead,*  and  her 
resolute  soul  no  longer  sustained  the  courage  of  the  gentle  senator 
whom  she  had  made  emperor  of  Gaul.  Established  at  Bordeaux, 
so  that  he  need  not  be  disturbed  by  the  noise  on  the  frontier  and 
the  outcries  of  the  legions,  he  waited  till  Aurelian  should  come  to 
relieve  him  of  his  imperial  functions.  Medals  represent  him  wear- 
ing, not  the  cuirass,  but  the  toga,  and  bearing  in  one  hand  a 
sceptre  and  in  the  other  a  cornucopia.  When,  in  receiving  their 
pay  the  soldiers  beheld  the  emperor  represented  on  the  coin  with 
the  attributes  of  peace  and  a  legend  signifying  that  moderation  in 
success  makes  a  ruler  great,  they  must  have  considered  this  peaceful 
personage  as  unworthy  to  have  the  command  of  men.  They  retained 
him,  however;  their  pride  was  gratified  in  maintaining  this  QtiUic 
empire  which  they  had  created.  They  and  their  chiefs  had  their 
entire  lives  and  all  their  interests  in  these  provinces,  and  they  said 
to  each  other  that  Tetricus  would  never  disturb  their  tranquil 
existence  by  leading  them  to  the  opposite  end  of  the  Empire  to 
fight  with  Persians  or  Blemyes.  Moreover,  Gaul  was  their  domain 
also;  they  conducted  themselves  as  masters  there  with  all  the 
insolence  of  a  soldiery  commanding  its  officers.  To  resist  their 
demands,  Autun  closed  its  gates;  they  besieged  the  city  for  seven 
months,  and  Tetricus  made  no  attempt  to  end  this  strange  war. 
Claudius,  to  whom  Autun  appealed,  was  too  much  occupied  by  the 
Goths  to  listen  to  these  far  off  complaints ;  the  unhappy  city  was 
sacked,*   and   many   of  its   citizens   perished   (269).      One   of   them 

*  Vopiflcus,  Aur.,  29. 

^See  de  Boze,  Tetricus,' in  the  MSm.  de  VAcad,  des  tnscr.,  vol.  xxvi.  pp.  515  et  seq. 
Numerous  medals  of  this  emperor  bear  the  words :  vhertas,  latitta,  f elicit  as  publica,  and  mile- 
stones prove  that  he  repaired  the  roads  in  Gaul  in  order  to  facilitate  commerce. 

^  Certain  accounts  represent  her  as  having  been  put  to  death  by  Tetricus,  which  is  im- 
probable. He  instituted  solemn  funeral  ceremonies  in  her  honour  and  decreed  her  apotheosis, 
eansecratio, 

*  Eumenes  {Pan.  vety  vii.  4:  Gratiarum  actio  Consfantiyio,  and  pro  Restaur,  scholis,  14) 
represents  certahi  Bagaudes  or  iu.su rgent  peasants  as, mingled  with  these  soldiers,  latrocinium 
Bagaiidiofp  rebellionis. 


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496 


THE   ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 


fled  as  far  as  to  the  foot  of  the  Pyrenees,  to  Tarbes,  "which  the 
Adour  travei'ses,  and  it  hears  afar  the  roar  of  angry  Ocean;''  the 
fugitive  married  there,  and  was  the  ancestor  of  the  poet  Ausonius, 
one  of  the  last  literary  reputations  of  the  Empire.^  Other  cities 
were  of  the  same  mind  with  Autun ;  an  inscription  at  Barcelona 
attests  the  fidelity  of  this  city  to  Claudius  and  to  the  Empire.^ 

The    selfish    devotion    of    the    Gallic    legions    did    not   at  all 
re-assure  their  emperor.     We  have  reason  to  believe  that  he  sought 


Elephants  attached  to  a  Chariot  and  bearing  a  Tower.^ 

the  confidence  of  Claudius  by  secret  messages,^  and  we  know  that, 
quoting  Virgil,  he  wrote  to  Aurelian :  ^^  Invincible  hero,  deliver  me 
from  these  miscreants."^  An  understanding  was  readily  estab- 
lished between  two  men,  one  of  whom  had  no  wish  for  a  colleague, 
while  the  other  was  eager  to  be  again  a  subject.  When  the  armies 
met  near  ChS,lons-sur-Mame,  Tetricus  communicated  his  order  of 
battle  to  Aurelian,  and  at  the  moment  when  the  action  began, 
deserted  his  troops,  who   at   once  disbanded.^      The  whole  Empire 

*  Auflon.,  Parent,,  4.    The  poet  states  this  flight  as  occurring  under  Victorinus. 
'Orelli,  No.  1,020. 

^  Engraved  stone.     (La  Chausse,  Recueil,  etc.,  ii.  pi.  129.) 

*  See  p.  474. 

*  Eripe  me  his,  invicte,  malis  (words  of  Palinurus  in  the  j^neid,  vi.  265). 
^  Aiir.  Victor,  de  Cm,,  85. 


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CLAUDIUS   AND    AURELIAN,    :i68   TO    275    A.D. 


497 


was  united  again  under  a  single  chief  (274);    it  was  now  twenty- 
one  J  ears  since  this  had  been  the  situation. 

Aurelian  celebrated  the  great  event  by  a  triumph,  where  ho 
assayed  to  surpass  in  magnificence  those  ancient  solemnities  which 
Rome  had  not  for  a  long  time  seen.^  Slowly  there  passed  under 
the  eyes  of  the  dazzled  crowd  the  innumerable  wreaths  of  gold 
offered  by  the  Roman  cities;  twenty  elephants  and  giraffes,  tamed 
animals;  the  chariot  of  a  Gothic  king  drawn  by  foiu-  stags,  that 
of  the  queen  of  Palmyra  made  of  chased  gold  and  silver  and 
gleaming  with  a  thousand  gems;  pictures  representing  the  battles 
won,   the    cities    taken,    and   representations   of   conquered   nations. 

Then  followed  the  senate,  the 

magistrates,   and   the   pontiffs; 

the  people  in  white  togas,  and 

the    colleges    or    corporations, 

preceded  by  their  banners ;  the 

army  with  its  standards;    the 
The  Elder  Tetricua  cataphractarU  with  their  heavy 
Tonw'ri^^'      armour,  and  the  soldiers  with 

(Gold  Com,)         ^,      .      '      ...^  ,  .  The  Younger  Tetricus.- 

their  military  decorations; 
lastly,  800  pair  of  gladiators,  followed  by  the  crowd  of  captives  of 
all  nations  adjacent  to  the  Empire,  some  in  chains,  others  bearing 
the  captured  spoils,  and  among  them  women  of  Gothic  race  who 
had  been  taken  fighting  among  their  fathers  and  husbands.  But  all 
eyes  were  fixed  upon  Tetricus  and  his  son,  who  walked  clad  in 
the  scarlet  chlamys  and  wearing  the  Gallic  braccee,  that  all  might 
recognize  the  emperors  of  Gtiul.  Zenobia  followed  them  laden  with 
precious  stones,  a  gold  chain  on  her  feet,  another  on  her  hands, 
a  third  about  her  neck;  and,  as  a  last  insult,  it  was  a  Persian 
buffoon  who  held  up  these  chains — whose  weight  would  have 
overwhelmed  her — to  recall  to  the  fallen  queen  in  what  a  vain 
hope  she  had  trusted.  Aurelian  brutally  enjoyed  his  victory. 
More  clement,  however,  than  Marius  and  Csesar,  he  did  not  make 


'  Orosius  (vii.  9)  eDumerates,  from  Romulus  to  Vespasian,  320  triumphs,  and  Pitiscus 
(Lexic.  Antf  s.  v.  Triumphus)  has  made  out  only  thirty  from  Vespasian  to  Belisarius,  w)io 
celebrated  the  last  of  them. 

*  0.  PIVS  ESVVIVS  TETRICVS  CAES.  Bust  of  the  young  Tetricus,  bare-headed,  from 
a  bronze  medallion  found  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhone  at  Andancette,  the  ancient  Figlin(f, 
V^Museum  of  Grenoble.     J.  de  Witte,  op.  cit.j  pi.  xiv.  No.  4.) 

VOL.    VI.  ^  KK 


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498  THE    ILLYttlAN    EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

the  fatal  sign  upon  the  road  as  he  went  up  to  the  Capitol, 
which  would  have  been  the  order  to  conduct  the  captives  to  the 
TuUianum,  whither  Jugurtha  had  preceded  Vercingetorix.^ 

Thfe  pageant  being  ended,  he  gave  back  to  Tetricus  his 
honours,  bestowed  upon  him  a  palace  on  the  Caelian  Mount,  and 
appointed  him  governor  of  Lucania,^  telling  him  it  was  better  to 
rule  an  Italian  province  than  to  reign  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Alps,  which  the  ex-Augustus  did  not  contradict.  The  emperor 
often  called  Tetricus  his  colleague,  sometimes  his  comrade-in-arms, 
and  even  imperator,  and  these  distinctions  authorized  the  senate 
after  the  death  of  Aurelian  to  place  Tetricus  among  the  divi? 
Vercingetorix  ended  otherwise;    but  he  had  lived  differently. 

To  Zenobia  Aurelian  also  gave  a  villa  near  Tibur,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  that  of  Hadrian.  She  lived  there  like  a  Eoman 
lady  of  rank ;  her  daughters  married  into  the  most  illustrious 
houses,  and  200  years  later  some  of  the  nobles  of  Eome  called 
themselves  descendants  of  the  queen  of  Palmyra ;  among  them  we 
know  of  one  who  was  a  contemporary  of  S.  Ambrose,  S.  Zenobius, 
bishop  of  Florence.* 

The  triumph  had  been  the  festival  of  the  ruler ;  later  the 
people  had  theirs :  scenic  representations,  great  hunts,  mock  sea- 
fights,  combats  between  gladiators,  and  gratuitous  distributions. 
Aurelian  decided  that,  for  the  future,  citizens  should  receive  every 
day  a  loaf  of  wheat  bread  and  a  piece  of  pork.  All  distributions 
were  increased  by  an  ounce*  that  is  to  say,  a  twelfth.  He  even 
formed  the  design  of  buying  lands  in  Etruria  and  establishing  a 
vast  vineyard,  so  that  he  could  give  the  people  a  measure  of  wine, 

^  It  has  been  asserted  that  the  arch  of  triumph  whose  remains  are  seen  at  Besau9on  was 
erected  on  occasion  of  this  pageant. 

*  Treb.  PoUio  {Tyr,  trig.,  23)  says  " of  all  peninsular  Italy."  It  is  probable  that  we  ought 
to  read  corrector  Itali€B  regumis  Lucania,  as  in  the  case  of  Postumius  Titianus,  consul  in  301 , 
who  was  corrector  Italun  regumis  Transpadana  {C.  I.  L.,  vi.  1,418,  1,419).  Borghesi  ((Euvres, 
ii.  416)  formed  out  of  the  eleven  regiones  of  Augustus  in  Italy  eight  provinces,  which  Diocletian 
retained. 

*  This  at  least  seems  to  be  inferable  from  the  coins  of  Tetricus  bearing  the  word  corisecratio. 
(Cohen,  v.  171.)  Of.  de  Boze,  Hist,  de  THricus,  in  the  M&m.  de  VAcad.  des  truer.,  vol.  xxvi. 
p.  521.    Eckhel  (vol.  vii.  p.  467)  differs  from  this  opinion. 

*  Zosimus  mentions  only  a  son  of  Zenobia,  brought  with  her  to  Rome,  but  does  not  give 
his  name,  and  says  that  the  other  captives  were  drowned  in  the  Bosphorus.  What  was  the  end 
of  AVaballath  is  not  known.  Eckhel  (vol.  vii.  p.  4t»3)  supposes  ihat  Aurelian  gave  him  a 
principality  in  Syria. 


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CLAUDIUS   AND   AURELIAN,    268   TO    275    A.D.  499 

as  be  did  a  measure  of  oil,  daily.  A  counsellor,  wiser  than  the 
emperor,  opposed  this  project.  "After  this,"  said  the  praetorian 
prefect,  "  we  should  be  obliged  to  give  them  also  chickens  and 
geese."  Aurelian  yielded,  but  he  caused  the  treasury  to  offer 
wine  at  reduced  price,  a  measure  of  political  economy  almost 
equally   objectionable.      After  food,    clothes:    he   distributed   tunics 


Gladiators  on  Horseback.     (Pompeii.) 

of  African  linen,  and  long  strips  of  cloth,  "which  they  might  use 
in  the  circus,  waving  them  to  indicate  their  approbation."  ^ 

We  have  to  remark  here  that  these  largesses  to  the  populace 
were  not  an  act  of  base  adulation  to  win  their  favour.  The 
strength  of  Aurelian  lay  in  the  armies ;  it  did  not  depend  upon 
Rome,  and  in  spite  of  his  liberality  towards  the  Eomans  he  was 
very  indifferent  as  to  their  good  or  ill  will. 

At  Emesa  Aurelian  had  come  upon  his  mother's  god,  and  he 
had  attributed  his  victory  to  the  Sun.  The  extravagances  of  Elaga- 
balus  had  not  brought  this  divinity  into  disfavour ;  it  was  held 
in   great   honour,    and   this   was   natural,    for,    as   the   pagan   world 

'  ,  .  .  .  quibus  uteretur  pojmlus  ad  favoreni  (Vopisciis,  Aur.^Al).  Formerly  it  had  been 
a  comer  of  the  toga  that  was  waved  in  sign  of  applpuse.  After  Aurelian's  time  the  distribution 
of  mere  corn  was  certainly  resumed.  Theodoric  gave  120,000  modii  annually.  Cf.  Hirschfeld, 
pp.  20-21. 

KK  2 


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500  THE    ILLYIUAN    EMPERORS  I    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

was  tending  more  and  more  to  a  belief  in  the  divine  unity,  the 
Sun,  shedding  light,  heat,  and  life  through  all  natiu'e,  seemed 
the  author  of  these  gifts.^  Aurelian  had  offered  stately  sacrifices 
to  the  Sun  in  Emesa,  and  he  created  at  Eome  a  new  priest- 
hood in  the  honour  of  this  deity,^  building  a  temple  which  was 
esteemed  by  contemporaries  the  most  splendid  in  Eome,   and  was  so 

especially  on  accoimt  of 
the  vast  wealth  deposited 
in  it,  a  great  quantity  of 
gems  and  15,000  poimds 
weight  of  gold ;  but  for 
fear  of  the  jealousy  of 
the  other  gods,  Aurelian 
offered  gifts  in  the 
temple  of  each. 

So    many    prodigali- 
ties, not  to  speak  of  the 
money    given    to    the 
people   and   the    soldiers, 
or    of    the    expense    for 
the  fortifications  of  Eome, 
for  the   cleansing   of  the 
Tiber,   for  the   quays 
which  he   constructed   at 
certain  points  along  the  river,  for  the  construction  of  thermae  along 
the  right  bank,  for  that  of  a   forum  at  Ostia,  for  the  increase  of 
the  flotilla  bringing  to  Eome  the  com  of  the  frumentary  provinces, 
compel  us  to  admit  that  the  successful  wars  which  he  had  carried 
on  placed  great  resources  in  his  hands.     Historians  tell  us  only  of 
the  pillage  of  Palmyra ;  but  Alexandria  must  have  furnished  large 
booty,  Antioch,  Ancyra,  Tyana,  the    cities   of    Syria,  at  that  time 
so  prosperous,  large  ransoms;   and  Gaul,  like  Egypt,  certainly  paid 
for  its  return  into  the  Empire  by  an  increase  in  the  taxes. 

^  This  was  PlinVs  faith  {Hist,  nat.,  ii.  4),  a  philosopher  who  did  not  believe  m  many 
things. 

^  Vopiscus,  Aur,,  35. 

'  Marble  medallion  representing  in  relief  the  masque  of  the  Sun,  according  to  the  type  of 
the  Rhodian  coins.  (Roman  Sculpture  in  the  Museum  of  the  Louvre;  Frohner,  Notice  de  la 
sculpt,  ant. J  etc..  No.  421.) 


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CLAUDIUS   AND    AUHELIAN,    2G8   TO    275    A.D.  501 

Aureliaii's   economy   procured   him   other   resources.      He   lived 
simply,   and  required  this  of  the  persons  around  him.     He  obliged 
his  slaves  to  keep  the  modest  habits  they  had  before 
his   accession,    and   the    empress    to    superintend    the 
affairs  of  the  palace ;    he  refused  her  a  silk  mantle 
because   at   this   time    that    material   was   vrorth   its 
weight  in  gold ;    and  he  made   his   friends  presents 
which  gave  them  comfort  but  not  wealth,  that  envy       xhe  Empress 
might  not   be   excited   against   them.^      He    himself    ^'"^ Siii!^"  ""^ 
never  had  a  silver  vase  weighing  over  thirty  pounds; 
the  gods  came  into  possession  of  the  presents  that  were  made  him : 
all  the  magnificent    objects   displayed   at   his  triumph  were   carried 


Silver  Vase  from  the  llildesheim  Treasure.     (Reproduction  in  the  Museum  of  Cluny.) 

into  the  temples,  as  in  the  old  days  of  republican  virtue,   to   servo 
as  resources  in  case  of  extreme  peril. 

Sumptuaiy  laws  were  a  Roman  malady,  and  Aurelian  did  not 
fail  to  establish  many.'  Thus,  to  guard  against  a  scarcity  of  the 
precious    metals,    he    forbade    the    use   of    gold    on    furniture    and 

'  .  .  .  .  divitianim  inindiam  patrimonii  moderatione  vitarent  (Vopiscus,  Aur.f  45). 
'^  SEVEHINA  AUG(u8ta).     Diademed  bust  of  the  empress  placed  on  a  crescent.     (Coin 
of  copper  alloy,  Antoninianua  of  the  weij^ht  of  4,05.) 

'  Vopiscus,  Aur.y  45-H.   Cf.  Lamprid.,  Elagabalwt,  4.    He  limited  the  number  of  eunuchs,  etc. 


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502 


THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 


fj^cimients.  His  biographer  goes  so  far  as  to  assert  that  he  renewed 
the  women's  senate  to  whom  Elagabalus  had  given 
the  duty  of  regulating  the  matrons'  toilettes,  a 
puorility  which  this  soldier  would  never  have  copied 
from  the  effeminate  Syrian.  But  he  had  displayed 
gi'eat  pomp  in  religious  solenmities,  appearing 
Aureiiaii'  crowncd   and    in   garments   covered   with   gold  and 

precious    stones.      This    Oriental    luxury     was    the 
fashion  of  the  day,    reappearing   even  in   the  works   of  art  whose 

decline  it  marks,  and 
Diocletian  carried  it 
much  further.  These  two 
emperors  believed  they 
should  be  more  respected 
if  an  imposing  ceremo- 
nial marked  more  plainly 
to  the  eye  the  distance 
between  the  subject  and 
the  ruler. 

This  luxury,  often 
I'cgarded  as  necessary, 
and  really  so  in  a  cer- 
tain social  condition,  has 
never  been  able  to  pro- 
tect any  others  than 
those  who  protected 
themselves  by  their 
personal  valour,  or  whom 
the  faith  of  nations 
enveloped  with  a  sure 
though  invisible  protec- 
tion.     From    this    point 

iMghtiug  Hero  found  near  Vieiine,  in  Dauphin^.'  «        .  *  i«  ii 

of   View,    Aurelian   could 
have    done  without   it,    for   he   had   the   people   and   the   troops   on 


'  DEO  ET  DOMINO  NATO  AVRELIANO.  Radiate  head  of  the  emperor.  (Small 
bronze.) 

=»  (iazctte  arch^ol.,  1876.  Clarac  {.}fm^e  de  sculpt.,  pi.  826,  No.  2,083  B)  has  given  this 
btutiio  thu  niui]0  of  Di'ipholjui^. 


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CLAUDIUS    AND    AUKELIAN,    268    TO    275    A.D.  503 

his  side ;  but  an  absolute  ruler  is  never  secure  against  conspiracies, 
and  one  was  shortly  to  be  formed  among  those  immediately  about 
him. 

The  magnificent  entertainment  which  he  had  just  given  the 
Romans  preceded  his  death  by  only  a  few  months. 

He  employed  this  time  in  consolidating  the  work  of  restoration 
which  he   had   pursued   so  vigorously  for  the  five  years  preceding. 
A  sedition  in  Gaul  called  him  into  that  country.^     It  is  not  known 
what   he   did   there.      We   hear  of    a   success   of   Probus   over   the 
Franks,    near  the   mouths   of   the   Rhine,    and   of   a  victory  gained 
over    the    Alemanni    near  Vindonissa    (Windisch)    by    Constantius 
Chlorus,    on  the   day  when   his   son   Constantino  was   bom.     Later 
traditions   attribute    to    him   the    reconstruction    of 
Dijon  and  of  Genabum,  which  seems  to  have  taken 
his   name,    Civitas  Aurelianorum.      These    were    two 
important     positions    for    commerce    and    war:    at 
Orleans,  the  geographic  centre  of  Gaul,  ended  the 
principal  military  roads  of  the  country,  and   Dijon    ,. 

xvGVGrsc   or    &  \Join 

was   the   great   station   between  the   valley   of    the     (Small  Bronze)  of 

Tfci  Ti  ni^»  TT-  1       Aurelian,  bearing 

Rhone   and  that   of  the   Seine.      Forum  Julu  and        the  Legend: 

.,        ^.  .  ,     ,  .  ,  GENIUS    ILLYR. 

the    Viennese    province    owed    him    perhaps    some 

favour;    inscriptions    found    there    celebrate    the    Kestorer    of    the 

World. 

Aurelian  doubtless  revisited  the  banks  of  the  Ehine,  the 
theatre  of  his  earliest  successes ;  then  he  repaired  to  the  Upper 
Danube,  for  we  find  him  afterwards  in  Vindelicia  and  lUyricum. 
He  wished  personally  to  inspect  this  frontier  lately  so  disturbed, 
and  where  it  was  well  from  time  to  time  to  exhibit  the  imperial 
crown,  especially  when  it  was  worn  by  a  conqueror.  Aurelian 
had  the  intention  of  doing  more  than  this,  and  was  about  to  go 
as  far  Ctesiphon  for  the  purpose  of  visiting  upon  the  allies  of 
Zenobia  the  injuries  they  had  done  the  Empire,  but  he  was  stopped 
by  a  conspiracy  before  reaching  Byzantium. 

Ecclesiastical  authors  assert  that  divine  justice  put  a  stop  to 
his   evil   designs   against   the   Church.^     The   emperor's   conduct   in 

'  Zonaras,  xii.  27. 

^  Euseb.,  Hist.  eccL,  vii.  80,  and  Zonaras,  xii.  27.     In  book  viii.  chap,  iv.,  Eupcbiu.s  sjivs 
that,  from  the  time  of  Decius  and  Valerian  until  the  last  years  of  Diocletian,  tlie  devil  slept, 


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504  THE   ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS:    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED." 

the  affair  of  Paul  of  Samosata,  the  peace  which  the  Christians 
enjoyed  during  his  reign,  forbid  us  to  believe  that  he  was  pro- 
posing to  undertake  a  persecution,  and  to  explain  his  death  it  is 
not  necessary  to  employ  a  method  which  in  all  ages  has  been 
used  to  explain  sudden  catastrophes.  Following  the  example  of 
Septimius  Severus,  whom  he  seems  to  have  taken  for  a  model,  he 
maintained  discipline  in  the  administration  as  well  as  in  the  army; 
he  kept  watch  over  the  imperial  agents  in  the  provinces,  and 
punished  extortioners  rigorously,  even  going  so  far  as  to  put  them 
to  death  by  crucifixion.  Having  cause  for  displeasure  against  one 
of  his  secretaries,  Mnestheus,  he  threatened  him  with  chastisement. 
The  freedman  knew  that  the  emperor  spoke  no  idle  words;  he 
counterfeited  Aurelian's  handwriting,  prepared  a  list  of  persons 
known  to  be  out  of  favour,  placing  his  own  name  on  the  list  to 
make  it  the  more  credible,  and  exhibited  the  list  to  the  persons 
whose  names  were  on  it  as  an  order  of  death  which  he  had 
discovered  and  seized.  To  escape  from  the  punishment  which 
they  believed  impending  over  them,  these  persons  conspired  and 
assassinated  Aurelian  (January  or  March,  275).  He  was  but  sixty- 
one  years  of  age,  and  had  reigned  five  years. 

During  the  reign  of  Aurelian  there  was  a  sedition  of  a  peculiar 
character.  We  have  seen^  how  greatly  in  these  times  the  gold 
and  silver  coins  had  been  altered.  The  master  of  the  Koman 
mints,  Felicissimus,  had  formed  the  idea  of  sharing  in  the  profits 
which  the  emperors  believed  they  were  making  by  this  scandalous 
operation.  Very  little  gold  and  silver  was  furnished  him  for  the 
coin  he  had  to  make;  he  put  into  it  even  less,  and  doubtless 
associated  with  himself  as  sharers  in  the  profits  those  who  were 
employed  under  him.  Otherwise  it  is  difficult  to  understand  why  a 
sedition  should  have  broken  out  when  Aurelian  sought  to  bring  this 
abuse  to  an  end.^     The   revolt  was  formidable;   the   manufacturers 


and  Sulpicius  Severus,  who  lived  in  Gaul,  has  no  knowledge  of  the  great  persecution  which  has 
been  placed  in  Aurelian^s  reign. 

'  pp.  586  et  seq. 

^  .  .  .  .  nwnet<B  opifices  qui,  quum,  auctore  Fdicissimo  rationally  nuimnanam  notani 
corrosissentf  pcence  metu  bellum  fecerant  (Aur.  Victor,  Cc5«.,  35).  Cf.  Vopiscus,  Aur.,  38.  The 
procurator  monetcB  of  equestrian  rank  commanded  a  whole  army  of  workmen.  Upon  this 
organization,  see  M4m.  de  VAcad.  dee  inscr.,  vol.  ix.  p.  218 :  Fr.  Lenormant,  La  Monnaic  danc 
VAntifiuitif  i.  251 ;  and  Cuq,  the  Examinator  per  Italiam,  p.  36. 


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CLAUDIUS   AND   AURELIAN,    268   TO   275   A.D.  505 

interested  in  the  trade  in  precious  metals,  the  silversmiths  and 
goldsmiths,  the  bankers  and  all  who  handled  silver,  threatened 
with  reforms  which  were  likely  to  unsettle  the  market,  appear 
to  have  made  common  cause  with  the  employh  of  the  mint,  and 
the  people,  as  usual,  took  part  in  the  quarrel,  through  hatred  of 
the  police.  A  battle  actually  took  place  in  Kome,  on  the  Cselian 
hill,  and  7,000  soldiera  perished  in  it,  which  implies  great  carnage 
among  the  rebels. 

We  are  very  ignorant  in  respect  to  this  affair.^  Was  the 
senate  concerned  in  it?  Possibly,  for  old  authors  mention  the 
execution  of  many  senators  without  telling  us  the  cause  of  it,  and 
the  senate  lost  on  that  occasion  the  right  it  had  possessed  since 
the  time  of  Augustus  to  coin  bronze  money.  At  least  we  find  no 
longer,  after  the  reign  of  Aurelian,  the  letters  B.C.  on  coins — a 
proof  that  the  senatorial  mints  were  united  after  this  time  to  those 
of  the  emperor.^  The  biographer  of  Aurelian  adds  that  the  emperor 
afterwards  coined  better  money  and  withdrew  the  false  from 
circulation.  Aurelian  had  not  time  to  carry  to  completion  this 
double  work,  which  Tacitus  took  up  after  him,'  and  to  which 
their  successors  devoted  much  care,  without  completing  it  until  the 
reigns  of  Diocletian  and  Constantino. 

These  measures  prove  the  resolution  of  Aurelian  to  introduce 
order  everywhere.  The  same  spirit  manifests  itself  in  other  act-s. 
He  ordered  to  be  burned  in  Trajan's  forum,  as  Hadrian  had  done 
before  him,  the  registers  containing  the  accounts  of  the  debtors  of 
the  state — ^bad  debts,  and  for  the  most  part  irrecoverable,  but 
holding  over  a  number  of  private  individuals  the  perpetual  fear  of 
a  judicial  execution.  The  lodging  of  information  against  those 
violating  the  fiscal  laws  was  forbidden.  The  quadruplatores^  always 
so  numerous  at  Kome,  did  not  disappear  at  once,  but  their  odious 

^  The  letter  of  Aurelian  to  the  Boman  people,  after  the  defeat  of  Firmus  (see  vol.  y.  p.  521) 
gives  reason  to  suppose  that  the  senate,  the  knights,  the  people,  and  the  prsBtorians  were  not 
harmonious  among  themselves,  since  the  emperor  recommends  concord  to  them  alL 

^  The  tnumviri  monetales  disappeared  at  the  same  time ;  the  last  known,  with  certain  date, 
was  consul  in  225.    (Wilmanns,  1,211.) 

'  .  .  .  .  cavit  (Tacitus)  tU  si  qtds  argento  publics  privatimgue  <B9  misciUsset,  si  quis  auro 
ar/;entum,  si  quis  ari  plumbum,  eapitale  csset  cum  bonorum  proscr^ione  (Vopiscus,  Toe.,  9). 
From  this  attempt  resulted  a  little  more  regularity  in  the  coinage.  The  Antoniniani  of 
Aurelian,  of  Tacitus,  and  of  Claudius  II.  are  somewliat  more  valuable  than  those  of  their 
predecessors.     Cf.  Mommsen,  Geschichte  den  rom,  Miinz.,  iii.  p,  96, 


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506  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

trade  ceased  to  be  encouraged.  It  cannot  be  that  to  fill  his  treasury 
the  author  of  these  measures  could  have  put  to  death  senators 
guilty  only  of  wealth. 

Notwithstanding,  Aurelian  is  accused  of  cruelty,  and  in  the 
fourth  century  this  reproach  already  rested  upon  his  memory. 
Assuredly  he  was  not  a  mild  ruler ;  but  the  times  were  not  suited  for 
mild  government,  and  in  a  monarch  responsible  for  the  tranquillity 
of  an  empire,  indulgence  towards  the  guilty  was  treason  towards 
the  innocent.  To  confirm  the  reproaches  made  against  him,  we 
need  to  have  the  names  and  number  of  the  victims,  the  motives  or 
the  pretexts  of  their  condemnation ;  for  we  have  learned  in  the 
course  of  this  history,  from  more  than  one  instance,  how  little 
remains  of  these  vague  and  often  contradictory  accusations  when 
examined  narrowly.  Vopiscus,  who  had  conversed  with  contem- 
poraries of  the  emperor  whose  memoir  he  writes,  dares  not  affirm 
anything.  ^'  It  is  said,"  he  relates,  "  that  to  rid  himself  of  many 
senators  he  imputed  to  them  designs  of  revolt ; "  but  according  to 
John  of  Antioch  and  Suidas  some  men  of  rank  were  condemned  on 
the  revelations  of-  Zenobia,  which  gives  us  reason  to  think  that 
during  the  war  in  the  East  plots  had  been  formed  at  Home,  as  in 
the  time  of  Severus  during  the  war  in  Gaul.^  One  fact  justifies 
our  hesitations.  It  is  certain  that  a  catastroph^  took  place  in  the 
imperial  family,  one  member  of  it  being  condemned  to  death.  Who 
was  this  person?  Some  say  the  niece  and  others  the  nephew  of 
Aurelian;  a  third  party  maintains  that  both  perished,  and  still 
others  assert  that  the  person  condemned  was  the  daughter-in-law 
of  the  emperor.*  If  this  last  story  be  the  true  one,  it  would  seem 
that  Aurelian,  by  this  execution,  vindicated  the  honour  of  his 
house.  In  any  case,  it  was  a  domestic  tragedy,  of  which  the  cause 
must  have  been  serious,  Aurelian  not  being  one  of  those  madmen 
who,  for  a  caprice,  stain  their  household  with  blood. 

Titus  is  not  our  ideal  of  a  ruler,  and  we  shall  therefore  not 
reproach  Aurelian  with  having  chastised  offenders  like  the  accom- 
plices of  Felicissimus,  or  promoters  of  revolution  like  those  who 
doubtless    intrigued  with    Zenobia.      We    shall    commend  him  for 

*  We  have  also  seen  that  Zosimus  speaks  of  many  plots,  admitting  their  existence. 
'  Suidas,  8.  V.  Aurel.     But  another  difficulty  arises,  for,  according  to  V^opiscus,  A.ureliaii 
had  no  other  children  than  one  daughter. 


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CLAUDIUS   AND   AURELIAN,    268   TO    275    A.D.  507 

having  given  up  his  freedmen  and  slaves  to  the  ordinary  judge 
when  they  were  guilty,  for  the  imperial  household  must  be 
always  held  strictly  in  hand,  that  they  should  not  pursue  the 
numerous  means  of  doing  harm  which  came  within  their  reach; 
and  we  shall  accept  the  judgment  of  the  Emperor  Julian,  who  was 
not  inclined  to  be  favourable  towards  a  ruler  whose  glory  eclipsed 
that  of  Claudius,  the  head  of  his  own  house.  In  the  Ccesars^ 
when  Aurelian  appears  before  the  Olympian  areopagus  to  be 
judged,  the  Sun  takes  up  his  defence:  "The  accused,"  he  says  to 
the  gods,  "is  even  with  Justice,  or  you  have  forgotten  my  oracle 
of  Delphi:  one  ought  to  suffer  the  woes  one  has  caused  others  to 
endure."  ^ 

This  judgment  seems  even  too  severe ;  for,  at  the  side  of 
the  strict  right,  Aurelian  often  placed  clemency  for  those  who 
had  gone  astray.  We  have  seen  him  accord  pardon  to  all  the 
inhabitants  of  Antioch  and  to  the  Palmyrenes ;  we  have  seen  that 
even  after  the  second  revolt  he  put  a  stop  to  the  massacre;  and  at 
Alexandria  he  allowed  part  of  those  who  were  besieged  to  go  out 
from  the  Bruchium,*  although  their  departure  must  have  permitted 
the  resistance  to  be  prolonged.  His  conduct  in  respect  to  Tetricus, 
Zenobia,  and  Antiochus'  contrasts  with  that  of  his  predecessors, 
and  he  contradicted  Eoman  customs  even  more  evidently  when  he 
proclaimed  an  amnesty  for  political  offences.*  It  was  a  worthy 
completion  of  the  restoration  of  the  Empire  thus  to  efface  the 
traces  of  twenty  years  of  civil  wars,  during  which  many  more 
persons  had  been  unfortunate  than  criminal. 

^  Vopiscus  says  nearly  the  same  thing  (Aur.,  37) :  Aurelianus  fuit  princeps  necesmrius  nuxgu 
quam  bonus. 

^  See  p.  494,  n.  4,  which  explains  that  this  trait  of  clemency  was  not  perhaps  Aurelian's. 

*  Antiochus  is  that  Palmyrene  Caesar  "  wliom  he  sent  away,"  says  Zosimus,  "  not  deigning 
to  punish." 

'  Amnestia  sub  eo  delictorujn  jntblicorum  decreta  est  (Vopiscus,  Aur.y  39). 


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CHAPTEK    XCVIII. 

TACITUS,  PE0BU8,  AND  CAEU8  (275-284  AD.). 

I. — An  Attempt  at  a  Senatorial  Restoration;   Tacitus  and 
Florianus  (25th  September,  275,  to  July,  276). 

THE  death  of  Am^elian  was  followed  by  a  strange  situation:  for 
six  months  the  Empire  remained  without  a  head.  He  had 
restored  order  with  so  vigorous  a  hand  that  all  things  went  on  as 
if  he  were  still  alive :  the  magistrates  remained  in  the  exercise  of 
their  functions ;  the  people  in  their  respective  occupations ;  and, 
strangest  of  all,  the  army  in  a  state  of  subordination.  This  peace 
during  u  long  interregnum — ^the  first  and  only  one  that  the  Empire 
ever  knew — speaks  more  in  praise  of  Aurelian  than  all  our  eulogies. 
At  last  men  recognized  in  him  the  restorer  of  the  Empire,  the 
ruler  who  had  put  an  end  to  usurpations,  had  pacified  the  pro- 
vinces, had  given  back  their  military  honour  to  the  legions  and  to 
Rome  its  grandeur.  There  was  for  the  moment  something  like  a 
new  birth  of  public  spirit  and  patriotism.  The  army,  ashamed 
that  it  had  not  been  able  to  preserve  its  illustrious  chief  from  a 
vulgar  conspiracy,  punished  itself  by  refusing  to  exercise  the  right 
which  seemed  to  have  become  its  recognized  prerogative,  namely, 
that  of  electing  an  emperor,  and  the  senate  received  with  amaze- 
ment the  following  communication :  *  ^'  The  brave  and  fortunate 
legions  to  the  senat-e  and  people  of  Rome.  The  crime  of  one  man 
and  the  incdnsiderateness  of  many  have  deprived  us  of  our  late 
emperor  Aurelian ;  you,  whose  paternal  cares  direct  the  state, 
honoured  men,  deign  to  place  this  emperor  among  the  number  of 
the  gods,  and  to  designate  the  successor  whom  you  judge  most 
worthy  of  the  imperial  purple;  none  of  those  whose  crime  or  whose 
misfortime  has  caused  our  loss  shall  reign  over  us." 

'  By  letter  (Vopiscus,  Aur,,  41),  or  by  a  deputation  from  the  army  (Aut.  Victor). 


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TACITUS,    PROBUS,    AND    CARUS,    275    TO    284   A.D.  509 

The  Conscript  Father  to  whom  his  rank  gave  the  right  of 
expressing  his  opinion  first,  an  old  ex-consnl  by  name  Tacitus,^ 
believed  to  be  a  descendant  of  the  great  historian,  proposed  to 
gratify  the  wish  of  the  legions  in  respect  to  the  honours  to  be 
decreed  to  the  dead  emperor,  and  Aurelian  was  deified  upon 
the  spot;  but  in  the  matter  of  the  second  request,  the  prudent 
senator  knew  that  to  yield  to  it  would  be  dangerous  for  the  man 
whom  the  senate  should  choose,  perhaps  even'  for  the  senate  itself, 
since  the  soldiers  would  not  long  maintain  this  attitude  of  repent- 
ance and  humility.  The  choice  was  therefore  sent  back  again  to 
the  army,  but  the  latter  persisted  in  its  determination — a  way  of 
commanding  under  a  new  form. 

A  few  patriotic  generals — to  whom,  moreover,  the  number  of 
imperial  deaths  in  so  few  years  made  it  evident  that  the  purple 
was  likely  to  change  quickly  into  a  shroud — ^had  been  the  deter- 
mining agents  in  this  conduct  of  the  army,  and  now  made  the 
soldiery  persevere  in  it.  The  senators  were  even  less  covetous 
of  this  perilous  honour.  The  one  among  them  who  was  moat 
likely  to  be  chosen,  by  reason  of  his  name,  his  honours,  and  his 
fortune  ^ — Tacitus — had  taken  shelter,  after  the  session  of  the 
senate,  in  one  of  his  villas  in  Campania.  The  consul's  order 
convoking  the  assembly  for  the  25th  of  September  drew  him 
reluctantly  thence.  In  his  address  the  consul  Gordianus  spoke 
with  some  discreet  doubt  of  the  persevering  moderation  of  the 
soldiers :  "  Let  us  give  a  leader  to  the  armies,"  he  said ;  and  he 
prudently  added :  "  Either  they  will  accept  him  whom  you  have 
chosen  or  they  will  name  another."  He  then  called  attention  to 
the  barbaric  world,  which  lay  around  the  Empire,  making  new 
efforts  to  break  into  it ;  Persia,  so  lately  threatened  by  Aurelian, 
perhaps  meditating  an  attack  ;  the  Syrians,  a  fickle  race,  ready  to 
guide  her  squadrons  across  the  provinces ;  the  Egyptian  and  Illyrian 
frontiers  endangered;  the  Rhine  crossed  by  the  Franks,  and  once 
flourishing  Gallic  cities  now  in  ashes.     ^'We  need  an  emperor,"  he 


*  Upon  coins  and  inscriptions  he  is  caUed  M.  Claudius  Tacitus. 

*  It  seems  impossible  to  accept  the  statement  in  the  Augustan  History  with  respect  to  the 
fortune  of  Tacitus,  quod  hahuit  in  reditibusy  sestertium  bis  milies  octingenties  {Tac.y  10) ;  but  we 
are  not  able  to  substitute  another.  It  is  certain,  from  what  afterwards  occurred,  that  this 
fortune  was  immense. 


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510  THE   ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

exclaimed;  and  turning  to  Tacitus,  with  all  the  other  senators,  he 
added:  ''It  is  you  whom  we  require."  Vainly  did  the  old  man 
of  seventy-five  plead  his  age,  his  enfeebled  health,  and  his  pacific 
tastes.  ''  You  need  a  soldier,"  he  said,  ''  and  you  choose  me,  who 
am  hardly  able  to  fill  the  peaceful  office  of  senator;  the  very 
unanimity  of  your  choice  will  be  fatal  to  me."  But  the  senators 
would  not  listen  to  him ;  acclamations  twenty  or  thirty  times 
repeated  hailed  him  emperor;  and  the  report  of  this  session  of  the 
senate,  which,  to  some,  seemed  to  open  a  new  era,  was  written 
according  to  custom  on  an  ivory  tablet,  which  the  new  Augustus 
signed,  his  soul  filled  with  sad  presentiments.^ 

No  doubt  it  was  an  error  to  give  the  Empire  a  chief  like 
this;  and  since,  as  a  result  of  the  decree  of  Qallienus,^.  there 
could  be  found  in  the  senate  no  bold  soldier,  it  would  have 
been  the  proper  course  to  seek  one  in  the  armies.  Probus, 
Carus,  Diocletian,  had  none  of  them  been  concerned  at  all  in 
the  murder  of  Aurelian,  and  the  army  would  have  been  grateful 
to  have  its  momentary  disinterestedness  applauded  without  such 
action  on  the  part  of  the  senate  as  must  cause  the  soldiery 
immediately  to  repent  of  it.  The  choice  of  an  eminent  soldier 
made  by  the  senate  would  have  been  to  seal,  at  least  for  a  time, 
a  reconciliation  between  the  civil  and  the  military  orders.  But, 
living  as  they  did,  remote  from  public  affairs,  in  their  idle 
grandeur  and  their  gilded  servitude,  the  senators  had  lost  their 
grasp  of  the  actual  world,  and  no  man  reminded  them  of  the  day 
— ^which  many  among  them  had  seen,  however — when  the  soldiers 
dragged  to  the  GemonisB  Maximus  and  Balbinus,  and  shouted : 
"  These  are  the  senate's  emperors ! "  At  first  rendered  anxious  and 
uneasy  by  the  political  role  which  fell  to  them  again,  they  had 
ended  by  resuming  their  old  illusions,  and  they  abandoned  them- 
selves to  the  puerile  delight  of  again  grasping  a  power  which 
they  were  incapable  of  retaining. 

The  ex-consul  next  in  rank  to  Tacitus,  Falconius  Nicomachus, 
reminded  the  senate  of  the  woes  that  Rome  had  suffered  under  too 
youthful   rulers,  which  was  at  once  a   truth  and   a  flattery;   then 


^  VopJ8ciw  ( Tac.f  5)  read  tbie  report  in  the  Ulpion  library. 
'  See  pp.  337. 


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TACITUS,    PROBUS,    AND    CAKUS,    275    TO    284    A.D.  511 

addressing  himself  to  Tacitus,  whoso  sons  were  only  boys,  Falconius 
besought  him,  if  the  fates  should  soon  snatch  hira  from  the  state, 
to  choose  a  successor,  not  from  his  own  family,  but  from  outside, 
^*for  the  reason  that  it  would  not  be  right  to  dispose  of  the 
Empire  as  of  a  private  estate."  Falconius  meant  to  say  that  the 
electoral  power  should  remain  with  the  senate,  and  the  general 
opinion  was  with  him.  Loud  cries  of  assent  were  heard  from  all 
parts  of  the  senate. 

The  Conscript  Fathers  were  enraptured  at  the  turn  events 
had  taken.  In  the  excess  of  his  joy  and 
of  his  hopes,  one  of  them  wrote  to  a  less 
enthusiastic  colleague  :  ^'  Emerge  from  your 
indolence  ;  come  forth  from  your  retreat  at 
Baise  or  Puteoli.  Give  yourself  back  to  the 
city,  the  senate.  Kome  flourishes,  and  with 
Eome,  the  whole  state.  Let  us  give  a 
thousand  thanks  to  the  army,  which  is  a 
truly  Eoman  army.  One  just  authority, 
that  object  of  all  our  desires,  is  at  last  re-  ^^' ^^XiTe  mSK^^^ 
established.     We  receive  appeals,  we  appoint 

emperors,  we  make  kings.  Can  we  not  also  unmake  them?  You 
understand  me  without  further  speech;  to  the  wise,  a  word  is 
enough."  ^  This  word  was  repeated  by  all  the  writer's  colleagues. 
'^  I  shall  rule  with  and  through  you,"  Tacitus  had  said.  When  he 
asked  the  consulship  for  his  brother  Florianus,  it  was  objected  that 
the  list  was  full,  and  he  contented  himself  with  replying :  '^  The 
senate  knows  well  what  ruler  it  has  made."  Emperor  though 
he  was,  the  feeble  old  man  was  really  to  the  senate  only  its  first 
member,  and  it  was  said  openly  that  the  true  ruler  was  now  the 
senate  itself.^ 

Official  letters  made  known  this  restoration  of  the  Roman 
Republic  to  the  chief  cities  of  the  Empire :  Milan,  Aquileia, 
Athens,  Corinth,  Thessalonica,  Antioch,  Alexandria,  Carthage,  and 
Treves.  Two  of  these  we  have;  the  following  is  the  one  addressed 
to  the  capital  of  Roman  Africa : 

''  The  honourable  senate  of  Rome  to  the  decurions  of  Carthage : 

'  Vopiscus,  Tac,  6  and  7  ;   Flor.y  6. 

^  .  .  .  .  ip/t7i})i  snia t urn  principem  factum  (Vopisnis.  Tar.,  12). 


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512  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

"  Peace  and  happiness,  security  and  prosperity  to  the  Kepublic 
and  to  the  Boman  world. 

"  We  have  recovered  the  right  of  conferring  the  imperial 
authority,  of  appointing  the  ruler,  the  Augustus  •  it  is  to  us, 
therefore,  that  you  will  submit  affairs  of  importance.  Appeals  from 
proconsular  decisions  and  from  all  the  tribunals  of  the  Empire  will 
be  laid  before  the  urban  prefect.  Your  own  authority  is  restored 
to  its  former  condition,  since  in  recovering  its  own  rights  the  first 
body  of  the  Republic  protects  the  rights  of  others."  And  men 
clothed  themselves  in  holiday  attire  and  immolated  white  victims 
to  thank  the  gods  for  the  return  of  the  ancient  liberty ;  ^  medals 
were  struck  whereon  it  was  promised  to  this  emperor,  who  already 
had  one  foot  in  the  grave,  that  in  due  time  the  decennalia'^  should 
be  celebrated  for  him.  Alas !  the  election  of  Tacitus,  these  ostenta- 
tious messages,  and  these  vain  promises  were  the  last  political  act 
of  the  Roman  Republic. 

The  prsetorians,  the  people,  and  the  armies  accepted  the 
emperor  chosen  by  Rome's  former  masters,'  and  the  inhabitants  of 
the  Empire  swore  fidelity  to  him.  All  things  seemed  to  go  well. 
But  the  Alani,  seeing  the  Empire  without  a  leader  and  defenceless, 
had  invaded  Asia  Minor,  whither  the  Goths,  encamped  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Palus  MsBotis,  followed  them.  Tacitus  was  obliged 
to  journey  in  hast^  to  the  scene  of  action.  In  Thrace  he 
presented  himself  before  Aurelian's  aimy,  which  must  have  been 
astonished  to  see  this  feeble  old  man  in  the  place  where  they 
had  seen  so  long  the  martial  figure  of  the  iron-handed  hero. 
Accordingly  the  praetorian  prefect  essayed  by  humble  words  to 
prevent  discontent.  "  Most  virtuous  comrades,"*  he  said,  '^  you  have 
asked  the  senate  to  give  you  an  emperor ;  the  very  illustrious 
assembly  has  obeyed  your  will  and  command.  It  is  not  fitting  for 
me  to  say  more  in  the  presence  of  the  emperor  who  will  watch 
over  us.  Listen  to  him  with  the  respect  that  he  merits."  Tacitus 
in  his  turn  was  extremely  modest;    he  feigned  to  consider  himself 

*  .  .  .  .  antiquitatem  stbi  redditam  (Vopiscus,  Flor,y  6). 

*  Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  p.  498. 

'  In  addressing  the  pretorians,  Tacitus  said :  sanctissimi  milite^s,  and  in  speaking  to 
the  plebeians  he  called  them  sacratissimi  Quirifes.  Oriental  bombast  extended  to  all  men. 
Modem  Italy  has  preserved  something  of  it  to  this  day.   . 

*  Sanctissimi  commilitones  (Vopiscus,  Tac,  8). 


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TACITUS,    PROBUS,    AND    CARU8,    275   TO    284    A.D.  513 

the  choice  of  the  soldiers,  and  spoke  in  fitting  terms  on  the  subject 
of  his  age,  which  did  not  permit  him  to  imitate  the  great  exploits 
of  his  predecessors,  but  would  inspire  him  with  wise  counsels. 
'' Trajan  also  was  an  old  man  when  he  came  to  the  Empire,  and 
was  called  to  it  by  the  choice  of  one  individual.  To-day  it  is 
first  by  you,  most  virtuous  comrades,  by  you,  who  know  how  to 
judge  the  worth  of  a  ruler,  and  in  the  second  place  by  the  senate, 
that  I  have  been  judged  worthy  of  this  title."  It  was  imprudent 
to  evoke  in  the  midst  of  these  troops  the  grand  figure  of  the  con- 
queror of  the  Dacians,  the  Germans,  and  the  Parthian  Empire ; 
but  the  liberal  donativum  which  Tacitus  paid  with  his  own  money 
made  the  address  seem  eloquent. 

The  barbarians  made  pretence  that  they  had  been  summoned 
by  the  late  emperor  under  the  title  of  auxiliaries  to  give  help 
against  Persia.  Not  receiving  the  pay  promised  for  an  expedition 
which  had  not  been  made,  they  paid  themselves  with  their  own 
hands  by  the  pillage  of  Pontus,  Galatia,  and  Cappadocia.  Bold 
predatory  bands  penetrated  even  into  Cilicia  before  Aurelian  had 
been  many  months  dead.  What  never-ceasing  vigilance  was  needful 
to  keep  in  check  those  innumerable  free-booters  who  prowled  around 
the  Empire,  and,  under  Gallienus,  had  learned  all  the  roads  that 
led  into  it !  Tacitus  negotiated,  paid,  and  sent  home  a  part  of 
these  barbarians.  Others  fell  under  the  sword  of  his  soldiers.  But 
the  latter  were  becoming  weary  of  their  good  conduct.  They 
murdered  one  of  the  emperor's  kindred  whom  Tacitus  had  intrusted 
with  the  government  of  Syria,  and  after  that,  to  escape  punish- 
ment, the  emperor  himself.  A  six  months'  reign,  and  a  colossal 
fortune  dissipated  in  gratifications  to  the  soldiery  or  abandoned  to 
the  state,^  were  what  the  senate's  election  had  procured  for  Tacitus 
and  his  family. 

He  was  a  man  of  upright  character  and  religious  mind :  never 
did  he  omit  to  have  served  in  his  house  the  meat  of  the  sacrifices, 
a  sort  of  communion  with  the  god  to  whom  the  sacrifice  had  been 
offered.  He  punished  some  of  the  assassins  of  his  predecessor, 
and  it  cannot  be  denied  that  his  intentions  were  of  the  best.  His 
biographer  attributes  to  him  many  statutes,  an  easy  thing ;   but  he 


Patrimonium  suum  publteavtf  (Vopiscus,  TVic,  10). 
VOL.  vr.  LL 


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514  THF    ILLYRIAN    EMPKRORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

had   neither   the   ability   nor   had   he   the   time   to   bring   out   good 

results  to  the  state.     We  owe  him,  however,  very  special  gratitude : 

he   caused   the   works   of   Tacitus    to    be    placed   in   all   the   public 

libraries   and   ordered   that   every  year   ten   copies   of   them   should 

be  made.     In  multiplying   thus   the   copies   of  the  Annals  and  the 

-  Histories  he   increased   our   chance    that   they 

should   be   preserved;    and  while  we  are  not 

able   to   say   that   the   one    manuscript   which 

has  kept  this  great  writer's  work  alive  is  due 

to  these  copies,  it  may  certainly  be  the  truth 

that   without   them    we   should   have   lost   the 

tragic  history  of  the  Caesars.* 

Tacitus  had  appointed  as  preetorian  prefect 

crowned  with  Laurel.        his  brother,    M.    Aunius    Flonauus,    and    the 

ronze       a  ion.)        jgtfer  uow  causcd  the  purple  to  be  given  him 

by  his  soldiers,  themselves  desirous  not  to  leave  the  senate  time  to 

make  a  second  choice.     But  the  army  of  the  East  had  at  this  time 

as  leader  a  valiant   captain  whose   services  had  always   outrun   his 

honours.      At  the  news   that  Tacitus  was 

dead  the  troops  of  Probus  proclaimed  their 

general    emperor,    and   those   of   Florianus 

rid  themselves  at  Tarsus  of  the  man  they 

I  had  just  chosen  (beginning  of  July,  276). 

'  He     had     reigned    three    months.      Upon 

their  estate  near  Interamna  was  raised  to 

the  two  brothers   a   cenotaph   and   statues 

thirty    feet    high.      Doubtless    to    console 

The  Emperor  Probus,  their  descendants,  whom  these  nine  months 

'^''^"Si^iSSdXn.f"'*''''  "*  tl»e  imperial   dignity  had  deprived   of 

their  family  chiefs  and  reduced  to  in- 
digence, some  friend  of  the  senate  put  in  circulation  this  prophecy, 
which  Vopiscus  hands  down  to  us :  ''In  a  thousand  years,  a 
mighty  prince  of  the  blood  of  Tacitus,  after  a  glorious  reign,  will 
give  back  to  the  Conscript  Fathers  their  authority,  and,  a  true  son 
of  early  Rome,  will  live  submissive  to  the  good  old  customs  of 
the  country."     "  I  do  not  anticipate,"  says  Vopiscus  modestly,  "  that 

*  There  exist  two  manuscripts,  the  Medicei,  each  giving  us  a  portion  of  liis  works,  so  that 
we  depend  on  one  MS.  for  all  tliat  we  liave. 


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TACITUS,    PROBUS,    AND    CARUS,    275    TO    284    A.D.  515 

my  book  will  live  long  enough  for  men  to  read  this  prediction  at 
the  time  when  it  will  either  be  seen  fulfilled  or  will  be  relegated 
to  its  place  among  fables."  Vopiscus  was  deceived  :  his  book  has 
lived  much  longer,  without  much  deserving  it ;  but  the  avenger 
of  the  senate  never  appeared.^ 


II. — Probus  (July,  276,  to  Sefiember  or  October,  282). 

The  reigns  of  Tacitus  and  Florianus  had  been  only  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  interregnum.  The  real  successor  of  Aurelian  was 
one  of  his  compatriots  and  his  best  comrade  in  arms,  M.  Aurelius 
Probus.*^  We  already  know  him:  two  letters  of 
Valerian,  drawn  from  the  imperial  archives,  show^ 
with  what  esteem  he  had  been  able  to  inspire  this 
emperor,  a  relative  of  whom  Probus  had  with  his 
own    hand    rescued    when    about   to   be   carried   into 

Rgvgits©  01  ft  Com 

captivity  by  the  Quadi:  ''In  accordance  with  the  of  Probus,  of  the 
opinion  I  have  always  had  of  young  Probus,  and  \\^^if^co\nB  and 
the  testimony  of  the  most  honourable  citizens,  who  ^®*^*?^QmQi;^ 
call  him  the  man  of  his  name,  I  have  appointed  him  avg.  (Small 
tribune,  contrary  to  the  ordinance  of  the  divine 
Hadrian,'  and  have  intrusted  to  him  six  cohorts  of  Saracens,  the 
Gallic  auxiliaries,  and  the  Persian  cavalry  brought  to  us  by  the 
Syrian  Artabasses."  Aurelian  and  Tacitus  had  like  confidence 
in  him.  The  first  wrote  to  him:  ''To  show  you  in  what  esteem 
I  hold  your  merits,  I  intrust  to  you  my  Tenth  legion,  which  I 
myself  received  from  Claudius.  By  a  sort  of  happy  accident  this 
corps  has  never  had  for  leaders  others  than  future  emperors;"  and 
the  second:  "The  senate  has  appointed  me  emperor;  but  know 
this,   that  the   greater  part   of    the    burden   will    rest    upon    your 

*  I  have  followed  the  rendering  some  have  given  to  the  words  tcUis  Mstoria,  but  without 
certainty  whether  it  be  not  to  the  prediction  itself  that  they  apply  rather  than  to  the  book  of 
Vopiflcufl.     It  is,  however,  unimportant. 

'  Probus  was  bom  at  Sirmium.  (Vopiscus,  Prob.f  3.)  Aurelius  Victor  (^.,87)  makes  him 
a  Dalmatian.  His  father  was  a  centurion,  and  later  a  tribune.  One  of  his  coins  bears  the 
words  Oriffini  Aug.,  with  the  she-wolf,  Lupa  gemellos  lactans,  whence  it  may  be  inferred  that 
he  claimed  to  be  of  Roman  origin.     (Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  p.  506.) 

'  The  one  which  prohibited  the  appointment  of  too  youthful  tribunes,  sine  barba.  Some 
sentences  from  the  two  letters  of  Valerian  are  here  put  together  (Vopiscus,  Prob.,  4).  The 
second  contains  the  enumeration,  always  curious  and  significant,  of  the  payments  granted. 

LL  2 


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516  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

shoulders.  We  all  know  your  worth.  Aid  us  then  in  our  times 
of  need.  I  have  given  you  the  command  of  the  army  in  the 
East,^  I  have  increased  your  emoluments  five-fold,^  doubled  your 
military  decorations,  and  you  will  share  the  consulship  of  the 
coming  year." 

Probus  did  not  desire  the  Empire.  "You  make  a  mistake," 
he  said  to  the  soldiers  who  saluted  him,  "for  I  shall  never  flatter 
you."  He  said  the  same  to  the  praetorian  prefect  of  Florianus, 
whom  he  did  not  remove  from  office.  "  I  have  not  wished  for 
this  title,  and  it  is  contrary  to  my  desire  that  it  is  given  me. 
But  I  am  not  at  liberty  to  refuse  the  burden  which  the  army  lays 
upon  me:  it  is  now  a  question  of  fulfilling  my  duty  well."  He 
was  in  the  prime  of  life,  forty-four  years  of  age,  and  to  his 
military  abilities  he  joined  uncommon  good  sense,  which  preserved 
him  from  being  dazzled  by  his  imperial  destiny.  The  events 
which  followed  the  death  of  Aurelian  show  that  a  reaction  against 
the  military  saturnalia  had  begun  in  the  minds  of  the  generals 
themselves."  Probus  was  one  of  those  who  felt  most  keenly  the 
necessity  of  raising  the  civil  order,  depressed  since  the  time  of 
Caracalla  by  the  outrageous  conduct  of  the  soldiery.  The  proof  of 
this  is  in  his  letter  where,  while  notifying  the  senate  of  his 
accession,  he  appears  to  await  from  it  the  conferring  of  authority. 
"  In  choosing  one  of  your  own  number.  Conscript  Fathers,"  he 
wrote,  "  to  succeed  the  emperor  Aui-elian,  you  acted  in  conformity 
with  your  usual  rectitude  and  wisdom;  for  you  are  the  lawful 
rulers  of  the  world,  and  the  authority  which  has  come  to  you 
from  your  ancestors  will  be  transmitted  by  you  to  your  posterity. 
Would  to  the  gods  that  Florianus,  instead  of  seizing  upon  his 
brother's  purple,  had  waited  imtil  your  sovereign  will  had  decided 
either  in  his  favour  or  for  some  one  else !  The  legions  have  done 
well  to  punish  his  rashness;  they  have  offered  me  the  title  of 
Augustus,  but  I  submit  to  your  clemency  my  claims  and  my  services." 

This   letter  does  honour  to  the  statecraft  of  this  soldier.      He 

*  Decreto  totius  Orientis  dticatu  (Vopiscus,  Prob.f  7). 

'  Salanum.  According  to  a  letter  of  Valerian  (id,,  Prob.,  4),  the  solarium  would  include 
all  the  material  advantages  attached  to  the  grade  and  probably  also  the  pay. 

^  It  is  perhaps  another  sign  of  this  same  reaction  in  men's  minds  that  the  name  of  Marcus 
Aurelius  was  home  by  most  of  the  emperors  after  Claudius  Gothicus.  Notwithstanding  his 
wars,  Marcus  Aurt?liu8  was  eminently  the  reprpsentativp  of  civil  order. 


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TACITUS,    PROBUS,    AND    CAKUS,    275    TO    284    A.D.  517 

knew  the  weakness  of  the  senate  and  knew  well  that  he  had 
nothing  to  fear  from  it;  but  this  decrepit  body  had  still  the 
gmndeur  of  ancient  memories,  and  Probus  deemed  it  wise  to  give 
back  in  the  eyes  of  the  soldiery  some  splendour  to  this  overclouded 
majesty,  that  the  army  might  be  made  to  believe  that  outside  of 
them,  and  above  them,  there  existed,  if  not  a  power,  at  least  a 
right. 

It  is  needless  to  say 
with  what  acclamations 
the  senators  welcomed 
this  letter.  Probus 
was  likened  to  Alex- 
ander and  to  Trajan ; 
he  was  endowed  with 
all  the  virtues  of  the 
Antonines,  all  the  talents 
of  Claudius  and  Aurelian, 
and  he  merited  these 
eulogies.  What  joy 
again  when  a  second 
message  announced  that 
the  senate  was  to  receive 
appeals,  to  appoint  pro- 
consuls and  their  legates, 
and  finally,  which  W8is 
a  more  important  thing, 

that     it    was     to     confirm  Probus.     (Marble  Bust;,  Aluseuui  of  Napk^, 

,-  .  .11  •  No.  82  of  the  Catalogue.) 

the     imperial     decrees! 

The  claims  of  the  Conscript  Fathers  had  never  gone  so  far  as 
that;  Probus  granted  them  more  than  they  themselves  had  wished 
to  take  upon  Aurelian's  death,  and  the  senatorial  restoration  seemed 
complete.  In  reality  no  change  at  all  was  made.  The  emperor 
employed  towards  the  venerable  assembly  gentle  words  instead  of 
a  displeased  mien ;  the  Fathers  no  longer  trembled ;  they  seemed 
more  active  in  their  curule  chairs  and  they  praised  in  good  faith 
the  unselfishness  of  the  new  emperor.  Probus  asked  nothing 
better,  and  he  did  not  feel  that  he  paid  too  dearly  for  this 
harmony  at  the  cost  of  a  few  marks  of  deference.     The  reality  of 


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518  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  I    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

power   remained,    where   the   public  weal  demanded   that   it   should 

be,   in  his  hands,  and  we   shall   see   that 
he  used  it  well. 

Aurelian  being  dead,  the  barbarians 
had  fallen  upon  Cfaid  and  had  devastated 
many  Gtellic  cities.*  Probus  went  thither 
with  a  large  army.  While  his  generals 
were  driving  back  the  Franks  into  the 
marshes  of  Batavia  and  Frisia,  he  himself 
forced  the  Alemanni  across  the  Rhine, 
pursued  them  into  the  valley  of  the 
Neckar  and  over  the  slopes  of  the  Suabicn 
Alps,  retaking  their  spoils  and  the  cap- 
tives they  were  carrying  away.  In  the 
hope  of  closing  the  road  against  new 
incursions,  he  constructed  an  earthwork 
covering  the  Decumatian  lands  from 
Ratisbon  to  Mayence,  that  is  to  say, 
from  the  Danube  to  the  Rhine.^  Like 
Marius  and  Hadrian  he  believed  that  to 
occupy  the  soldiers  was  the  best  means 
of  preserving  discipline;  he  caused  them 
to  construct  or  repair  a  stone  wall 
having  great  towers  at  regular  intervals, 
an  excellent  precaution  if  a  valiant  army 
were  always  posted  behind  this  rampart, 
ready  to  repulse  assailants  wherever  they 

^  might   attempt   to   break   through,'  but  a 

useless  measure  when  the  Empire,  assailed 

"^tTorieTTX^'o^;  S:  on  all  Bides,  was  able  to  leave  there  only 
Alemanni  (P),  found  at  Merten,  detachments  too  feeble  to  guard  this  im- 

near  Metz.    (Restoration  from  .  . 

the  Eevue  arehioL)  mcusc   line.     The  Wall,  in  fact,  crumbled 

under  the  feet   of   the   invaders,    like   that   of  Hadrian   in   Britain 

'  Vopiacus,  Prob.:  in  chap.  xv.  it  is  said  seventy;  in  cbap.  xiii.,  sixty.  Vopiscus  adds 
thut  Probus  destroyed  400,000  barbarians;  I  am  disposed  to  read  quadraginta  instead  of 
quadringentis.  These  400,000  men  killed  would  suppose  a  more  formidable  invasion  than  that 
of  the  Goths  in  the  time  of  Claudius  II.,  and  nothinj^  indicates  that  this  was  so. 

''  On  the  subject  of  these  works,  see  vol.  iv.  p.  707,  and  the  map  on  p.  361. 

*  At  the  present  day  the  republic  of   Buenos  Ayrcs  adopts  the  same  method  of  defence 


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TACITUS,    PROBUS,    AND    CARUS,    275   IX)    284    A.D.  519 

beneath  the  advancing  Plots;  but  as  late  as  the  Middle  Ages 
the  Suablan  peasant,  building  his  hovel  with  the  stones  taken 
from  these  ruins,  was  amazed  at  the  grandeur  of  the  work, 
crossing  valleys  and  passing  over  lilll-tops,  and  attributed  Its  con- 
struction to  demons,  and  It  has  always  been  called  the  Devil's 
Wall 

These  gigantic  works,  and  the  presence  of  the  emperor  and 
his  army.  Intimidated  the  barbarians;  nine  tribes  sought  for  peace, 
and  gave  hostages  and  com,  cattle  and  horses,  their  sole  wealth. 
Probus  received  Into  his  army  16,000  of  their  warriors,  scattering 
them  through  the  legions  in  small  bands  that  they  might  be  a 
power  and  not  a  danger,  and  he  expressed  this  in  words:  "They 
must  be  felt,  not  seen"  (277).  Thus  the  Empire,  on  the  side 
of  the  Rhine,  again  assumed  a  vigorous  defensive. 

The  following  year  Probus  visited  Bhsetla,  lUyricum,  and 
Mcesia,  where  the  Alemannl,  the  Burgundlans,  the  Vandals,  the 
Sarmatians,  and  the  Goths  had  re-appeared;  he  drove  out  these 
unimportant  bands,  and  once  more  restored  security  to  these  coun- 
tries where  for  the  last  forty  years  life  had  been  so  perilous.  On 
the  middle  or  lower  Danube,  he  encountered  a  German  nation,  the 
Lygians,  whom  Tacitus  represents  as  having  a  frightful  aspect, 
which  in  the  hand-to-hand  fights  of  ancient  war  might  well 
intimidate  the  adversary :  "  They  blacken  their  shields,  their  bodies, 
their  faces,  and  choose  the  darkest  night  to  make  their  attack. 
The  surprise,  the  horror  produced  by  darkness,  the  mere  aspect  of 
this  terrific  host  which  seems  to  have  emerged  from  the  infernal 
regions,  chill  with  fear  the  bravest  heart,  for  in  battle  it  is  always 
the  eyes  which  are  conquered  first."  ^  These  black  warriors  did 
not,  however,  prevail  against  Roman  discipline.  From  the  time  of 
this  collision  their  name  disappears  from  history,  as  if  they  had 
been  utterly  destroyed.  Probus  had  promised  his  soldiers  a  piecfe 
of  gold  for  each  head  of  an  enemy  brought  to  him.  In  the  case 
of  the  prisoners  taken  from  all  these  barbarous  tribes,  he  gave 
them  lands  in  Britain,  where  they  proved  faithful  to  him. 


ajfainst  the  Indians  of  the  pampas,  and  China  has  done  the  same  for  centuries  with  her  great 
wall.  These  lines  of  defence  do  not  always  prevent  incursions,  but  they  embarrass,  the  return 
of  the  invaders. 

'  Tac,  Oef-mania,  43. 


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520  THE   ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

After  having   appeased   in  Thraoe   the   disturbances  caused  by 
the    barbarous    tribes    of    this    country,    whom    the    Gra^co-Koman 
civilization    had    not    yet    been   able   to   transform   into   inoffensive 
labourers,  he  passed  over  into  Afcia  Minor  (279),  and  put  an  end  to 
the  exploits  of  Palfurius,  a  famous  brigand,  and  especially  to  those 
of  the  Isaurians,  inveterate  free-booters  who  pillaged   on  land  and 
sea,  and  had  up  to  this  time  been  able  to  resist  the  Boman  power. 
Probus  organized  an  expedition  against  them,  penetrated  into  their 
mountains,  searched  through  all  their  valleys,  and  when  he  with- 
drew left  behind  a  force  of  veterans.^     These  he  established  in  the 
principal   haunt   of   the   bandits,    and    he   distributed    lands    among 
them   on   condition  that  their   sons,   on  attaining 
the  age  of  eighteen,  should  serve  in  the  legions. 
This    was    like    instituting    military    fiefs.       He 
probably  imposed  like  conditions  on  the  captives 
whom  he  had  transported  into  Britain.     Severus 
had   set   an   example   of   this   sort    of    tenure   of 
land,  and  the  usage  increased. 
Coin  of  Bahram  II.  In  Syria,  Probus  received  a  Persian  embassy. 

or  Vararahnes.^  _    _  __  _         _      _  .  ,        .  «^,-      ,      , 

Bahram  II.,  who  had  reigned  smce  275,  had 
had  time  to  learn  the  value  of  the  legions  led  by  a  brave  and  able 
chief.  He  begged  for  the  friendship  of  Probus,  and  sent  him 
presents,  which  the  emperor  scornfully  refused.  "I  am  surprised," 
Probus  made  answer,  ''that  you  send  me  so  little,  when  all  that 
you  have  will  one  day  belong  to  me.  Keep  it  until  it  suits  my 
convenience  to  come  and  take  it."  This  was  bluster;  but  it  was 
suited  to  the  Oriental  taste,  and  the  condition  of  the  Eoman  for- 
tresses in  Mesopotamia  and  menacing*  preparations  which  were 
going  forward  decided  Bahram  not  to  resent  this  insolence,  and 
it  even  appears  that  a  treaty  was  concluded  between  the  two 
empires.* 

Did   the   emperor   then  proceed  into  Egypt,   or  did  he  charge 

*  Zosimus,  i.  60-70.  This  author  relates  at  leDgth  tie  desperate  resistance  made  by  Lydios, 
one  of  the  Isaurian  chiefs,  at  Cremna,  in  Pisidia. 

'  Busts  of  Vararahnes  or  Bahram  II.  and  the  queen,  with  the  legend  :  The  worshipper  of 
Ormuzd,  the  excellent  Vararalme8,king  of  the  kings  of  Iran  and  Turan,  germ  of  the  gods.  The 
reverse  bears:  The  divine  Vararahnes,  and  a  pyre  between  two  figures.     (Silver  coin.) 

^  A  coin  of  Probus  bears  on  the  reverse :  Eaercitus  Persicus,     (Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  p.  504.) 

*  Facta  pace  cum  Persts  (Vopiscus,  Prob.,  18). 


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TACITUS,    PROBUS,    AND   CABUS,    275   TO   284   A.D.  521 

one  of  his  lieuteuants  to  call  to  account — for  assistance  rendered 
some  years  before  to  Firmns — Coptos,  Ptolemais,  and  the  Blemyes? 
This  we  do  not  know,  but  Rome  shortly  beheld  in  her  streets 
negro  captives  who  had  been  taken  on  the  borders  of  Ethiopia. 

Probus  had  now  completed,  like  Aurelian,  Severus,  and 
Hadrian,  the  review  of  the  frontiers,  those  of  Africa  excepted, 
where  all  was  tranquil.  This  had  become  a  periodical  necessity, 
since  the  barbaric  world  was  astir  and  always  ready  to  fall  upon 
the  provinces. 

The  emperor  was  recalled  into  Thrace  to  effect  an  important 
work.  The  invasions  and  battles  which  for  haK  a  century  had 
been  incessant  along  the  whole  line  of  the  Danube  had  made  many 
parts  of  these  provinces  desolate.  Probus  resolved  to  call  in  the 
barbarians  and  give  them  lands,  cattle,  and  farming  implements. 
He  had  already  transported  Lygians  and  Vandals  into  Britain,  and 
had  advised  the  Alemanni  to  settle  in  the  Decumatian  lands.  The 
hostility  of  the  Goths  of  Dacia  towards  the  Bastamee,  who  occupied 
the  eastern  Carpathians,  gave  him  the  occasion  to  call  into  the 
Empire  this  latter  tribe,  the  remnant  of  that  great  mass  of  Gallic 
nations  whom  we  have  seen,  in  the  time  of  Alexander  and  Perseus, 
established  in  the  valley  of  the  Danube. 

A  hundred  thousand  Bastamae  with  their  wives  and  children 
came  down  into  Thrace,  where,  happy  at  escaping  from  their 
enemies,  they  moulded  themselves  rapidly  enough  to  this  new  life. 
Rome  rejoiced.  "For  us  the  barbarians  labour,'-  it  was  said; 
"  for  us  they  sow."  ^  The  same  attempt  was  made  in  the  case  of 
the  Gepidae,  the  Guthunges  (Goths),  and  the  Prankish  prisoners. 
It  was  a  dangerous  system,  for  to  fill  the  provinces  with  foreign 
elements  was  equivalent  to  making  the  barbarians  the  warders  at 
the  gates  of  the  Empire ;  the  peaceful  invasion  which  the  emperor 
himseU  organized,  far  from  hindering  the  other  which  was  made 
with  violence  a  century  later,  facilitated  it.  Ancient  Rome  had 
had  a  different  policy :  she  Latinized  conquered  regions ;  Probus 
Germanized  Roman  provinces.^ 

These  barbarians  introduced  into  the  provinces  did  not  always 
accept   their   exile.     The  Gepidae   and   the   Guthunges   preferred   to 

'  Bai'bari  vobis  arant,  vobis  serunt  (Vopiscus,  Prob.y  16). 
'  See  pp.  364  et  seq.  the  paragrapli  relative  to  the  army. 


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522  THE   ILLYETAN   EMPERORS;    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

continue  in  Thrace  their  nomadic  life;  they  ranged  through  the 
cultivated  lands  and  committed  such  ravages  that  it  became  neces- 
sary to  kill  a  great  number  and  adopt  rigorous  measures  against 
the  rest.  The  Franks  did  better  still :  relegated  to  the  lands 
about  the  Euxine  they  seized  some  vessels,  says  Zosimus/  crossed 
the  Bosphorus,  and  having  ravaged  along  their  way  the  coasts  of 
Asia  Minor  and  Greece,  they  passed  through  the  Straits  of  Hercules, 
and  coasting  Spain  and  Gaul  came  round  to  the  mouths  of  the 
Rhine,  whei^e  they  related  to  their  amazed  fellow-countrymen  how 
they  had  with  impunity  traversed  the  whole  of  the  great  Empire. 
This  was  a  fatal  revelation,  too  well  understood  by  the  Frisians 
and  Saxons,  who  from  that  time  began  to  ravage  with  their 
piracies  the  coasts  of  the  western  provinces.  Other  dangers  were 
to  be  feared  from  the  barbarians  destined  for  the  games  of  the 
circus.  These  men  who  were  so  ready  to  shed  their  blood  did 
not  take  kindly  to  the  trade  of  amusing  the  populace.  Probus 
had  reserved  a  large  number  of  them  for  the  shows  he  was  obliged 
to  furnish  to  the  city  after  his  victories,  but  they  broke  their 
chains,  and  a  serious  combat  was  necessary  before  they  could  be 
subdued. 

About  this  time  the  turbulent  population  of  Alexandria  pro- 
claimed as  emperor  Satuminus,  an  able  general  valued  by  Aurelian 
and  Probus,  but  of  volatile  mind  and  restless  disposition,  like  that 
Gallic  race,  says  the  historian,  whence  he  sprang.^  At  first  he 
suffered  the  populace  to  play  at  making  an  emperor;  then,  seized 
with  fear,  he  fled  into  Palestine  to  escape  this  dangerous  honour, 
and,  lastly,  believing  that  there  was  no  longer  safety  for  him  in  a 
private  station,  he  took  off  a  purple  veil  from  a  statue  of  Venus 
and  made  himself  an  imperial  mantle  of  it.  But  he  said,  weeping, 
to  the  soldiers  who  dragged  him  to  this  honour:  "Alas,  how  useful 
a  citizen  is  lost  to  the  state !  I  have  restored  the  Gallic  provinces, 
I  have  taken  Africa  from  the  Moors,  and  I  have  pacified  Spain. 
To  what  profit  is  it  all?  In  one  day  I  lose  all  that  I  have 
gained.  In  calling  me  to  the  imperial  power  you  sentence  me 
to  death."     Probus  would  willingly  have  spared  him;    the  emperor 

M.  71. 

''....  oriundo  fuit  GalhtSj  ex  yente  kominum  inf]uiet{,<r,i7na  ef  avida  semper  vel/aciondi 
principu  vel  imperii  (Vopiscus,  Hatuni.y  7).     Zosimus  and  Zonaras  coiiftiider  him  a  Moor. 


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TACITUS,    PBOBUS,    AND   CARUS,    275   TO    284    A.D.  523 

wrote  friendly  letters  to  Satuminus  with  promises  of  pardon ;  but 
the  soldiers  who  hoped  to  profit  by  his  promotion  compelled  him 
to  persevere  in  his  usurpation.  On  the  arrival  of  the  imperial 
troops  he  sought  shelter  in  a  fortress,  but  was  captured  and  put 
to  death. 

At  Lyons  a  similar  occurrence  took  place.  Since  the  time 
that  the  armies  had  resumed  obedience  under  the  strong  hand  of 
their  new  leaders,  the  populace  of  the  great  cities  had  seemed  to 
inherit  the  former's  turbulence.  The  Lyonnese  proclaimed  Pro- 
culus,  a  rude  and  coarse  man  whom  Probus  had  but  to  touch 
with  his  finger  to  overthrow.  Bonosus,  another  old  soldier, 
revolted  to  escape  the  responsibility  of  a  fault;  he  had  suffered 
the  Germans  to  biun  the  Roman  flotilla  on  the  Ehine,  of  which 
he  had  been  left  in  charge.  Defeated  by  the  imperial  troops  with 
the  aid  of  the  Gterman  auxiliaries,  he  attached  a  rope  to  a  tree 
and  strangled  himself.  His  body  was  an  object  of  derision: 
"This  is  not  a  man  hanging  here,"  it  was  said;  '•but  only  a 
slcin  of  wine;"^  and  this  funeral  oration  was  merited.  Probus 
had  spared  the  family  of  Proculus,  and  he  did  the  same  in 
the  case  of  Bonosus,  granting  to  Hunila  his  wife  a  pension 
for   life. 

Still  further  an  attempt  at  revolt  was  made  in  Britain.  A 
friend  of  the  emperor  had  persuaded  him  to  give  the  government 
of  this  province  to  some  individual  whose  name  has  not  been  pre- 
served; learning  that  the  fidelity  of  his  proUgS  was  wavering, 
and  fearing  to  be  regarded  as  his  accomplice,  the  emperor's  friend 
feigned  to  have  fallen  into  disgrace  at  court,  exiled  himself  into 
Britain,  and  being  cordially  welcomed  by  the  governor  assassinated 
him. 

All  these  attempts  had  failed  miserably ;  none  the  less,  how- 
ever, were  they  a  dangerous  symptom.  The  bad  instincts,  which 
had  for  a  moment  given  way  before  a  feeling  of  the  public 
disasters,  were  re-awakening.  Probus  owed  his  elevation  to  war; 
he  wished,  however,  to  occupy  himself  only  with  works  of  public 
utility,  and  condemned  his  soldiers  to  this.  The  troops  were  not 
unwilling  to  be  employed  in  repairing  military  roads  and  rebuilding 

'  Vopiscus,  Bonos. J  16.     He  was  a  Breton  of  Spanish  origin  and  his  mother  a  Gaul.     His 
father  had  heen  a  schoolmaster.     In  respect  to  his  habits  of  intoxication,  see  above,  p.  372. 


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524  THE    ILLYKIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

fortifications  which  had  been  destroyed,  as  their  predecessors  had 
so  often  done;  but  Probus  would  have  them  construct  temples  and 
porticos,  regulate  the  course  of  rivers,  and  drain  marshes,  break 
up  the  ground  and  plant  the  vine  in  Gaul,  Pannonia,  and  Moesia, 
where  these  vineyards,  longer  of  life  than  the  Empire,  still  exist ; 
and  there  was  current  a  dangerous  saying  of  his:  ''The  day  will 
come  when  Eome  will  no  longer  need  an  army."  Our  sympathy 
is  due  to  this  gallant  soldier  who  did  not  underrate  the  share  of 
the  civil  order  in  an  established  community;  who,  in  the  midst 
of  arms,  was  mindful  of  the  labours  of  peace  and  employed  his 
legions  therein.  He  was  yet  young,^  beloved  of  the  senate,  feared 
by  the  barbarians,  and  had  he  lived  would  have  secured  prosperous 
days  to  the  Empire;  but  he  was  not  suffered  to  live.  The  Boman 
army  was  composed  of  too  rough  material  for  ideas  of  devotion  to 
the  public  weal  taking  any  other  form  than  that  of  courage  in 
battles  to  be  comprehensible  to  these  men  who  were  in  no  respect 
Romans.  One  summer  day,  in  a  torrid  heat  which  rendered 
fatigue  greater  and  the  mind  more  excitable,  the  soldiers  employed 
in  draining  a  marsh  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Sirmium  threw  down 
their  implements,  seized  their  swords,  and  forcing  an  entrance  into 
a  tower  where  Probus  was  overlooking  the  work,  they  murdered 
him^  (September  or  October,  282).  The  deed  being  done,  they 
wept  over  the  man  whom  they  had  just  killed,  and  upon  his  tomb 
were  inscribed  these  words:  ''Here  lies  the  emperor  Probus,  a 
truly  upright  man,  who  conquered  all  barbarous  nations  and  all 
tyrants."^  Carus,  whom  he  had  loaded  with  honours,  avenged  his 
death  upon  the  murderers. 


^  Fifty  years  of  age.    (Orelli,  No.  1,104.) 

*  This  tower  was  ^^rotected  with  iron,  turris  ferrata^  whence  it  may  be  inferred  that 
murmurs  had  already  been  heard,  and  that  Probus  had  guarded  against  a  surprise.  Zonaras 
represents  this  murder  as  preceded  by  a  revolt  of  other  troops  who  had  constrained  Carus  to 
assume  the  purple  and  march  upon  Italy.  Cf.  Vopiscus,  Proh.^  21 ;  Aur.  Victor,  37  ;  Eutropius, 
ix.  17 ;  Orosius,  vii.  :^4;  the  Syncellus,  etc.  The  authority  of  all  these  writers  not  being  great, 
I  adopt  that  version  of  the  story  which  seems  to  me  most  probable. 

*  The  coins  of  Probus  have  for  their  legend :  Bono  imp.  C.  Probo,  an  epithet  rare  upon 
imperial  coins.  An  inscription  (Wilmanns,  1,048)  bears  the  following:  pietate  jmtitia 
fortitudine  et  plane  omnium  virtutum  principi  vero  Ootkico  veroque  Oermanico  ac  victoriarum 
omnium  nominibus  inlustri,  M^  Aur.  Probo.  Mommsen  concludes,  from  the  words  vero  Oothico 
veroque  Oermanico,  that  Probus  had  refused  these  two  titles.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  general 
character  of  the  inscription  gives  another  meaning  to  these  words.  The  people  of  Valentia,  in 
engraving  these  words,  wish  to  contrast  the  important  victories  of  Probus  over  the  Goths  and 


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TACITUS,    PROBUS,    AND    CARirS,    275   TO    284    A.D.  525 

We  add  one  title  more  to  those  which  Aurelian  and  Probus 
owe  to  the  esteem  of  history:  these  valiant  emperors  created  the 
great  military  school  whence  emerged  Carus,  Diocletian,  his  three 
colleagues,  Constantine,  Licinius,  and  the  generals  who  for  more 
than  a  half-centurj^  protected  the  frontiers  from  invasion. 


III. — Carus  (September,  282,  to  December,  283);  Carinus  and 
NuMERiANUs  (December,  283,  to  April,  285), 

M.  Aurelius   Carus  was    also    an    Illyrian,^   but  he   had   been 
brought  up  in  the  capital,   called  himself  a  Roman,  and  had  filled 
military   and    civil    offices,    the    proconsulship   of   Cilicia,    and    the 
prsBtorian  prefecture.      He  was  therefore  a  senator; 
but   he   had   less    consideration   for  the  senate  than 
Probus,   and   contented  himself  with  announcing   to 
that  body  his  accession,  and  congratulating  them  that 
their  emperor  was  this  time  one  of  their  own  order. 

He  had  two  sons  of  very  different  characters  ^^^j^  ^^  Caius.^ 
and  tastes:  Carinus,  violent  and  profligate;  and 
Numerianus,  of  gentle  manners  and  cultivated  mind.  If  we  may 
believe  the  flatteries  of  the  senate,  who  caused  a  statue  to  be 
erected  to  him  in  the  TJlpian  library,^  the  latter  was  a  great  orator, 
and  his  verses  were  compared  with  those  of  the  most  famous  poet 
of  his  time,  Nemesianus.  The  new  emperor  appointed  his  two  sons 
Csesars,  and  sharing  the  Empire  with  Carinus  gave  him,  perhaps 
not  without  hesitation,  the  government  of  the  western  provinces. 
It  is  at  least  asserted  that  the  emperor  soon  repented  of  this  act, 
and  sought  to  withdraw  the  authority  from  his  son  in  order  to 
bestow  it  upon  Constantius  Chlorus.^  He  himself,  resuming  the 
project    formed    by    Probus    of    striking    a    heavy   blow   at   Persia, 

Germans  with  the  pretended  succenses  of  so  many  other  emperors  who  were  anything  but  real 
conquerors. 

*  At  least  bom  in  Illyria ;  one  of  his  historians  represents  him  as  the  son  of  a  Carthaginian, 
Pcsnis  parentibiu  (Vopiscus,  Carus,  4)  ;  Zonaras  calls  him  a  Gaul. 

*  DEO  ET  DOMINO  OARO  INVIC.  AVG.     Radiate  busts;  facing  each  other,  the  Sun 
and  Carus.    (Small  bronze.) 

'  This  statue  bore  the  following  inscription :  Kumcriano  Ctesari  oratori  temporibus  mis 
potentisstmo  (Vopiscus,  Num.f  12). 

*  Vopiscus.  Carin.,  16. 


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526  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

the   hereditary   enemy,    directed    his    steps    towards   the   East,    fol- 
lowed  by   a   formidable   army ;     his   second    son    accompanied   him 

(January,  283). 

At  the  news  of  the 
death  of  Probus  the  Quadi 
had  crossed  the  Danube  and 
overrun  the  whole  of  Pan- 
nonia.*  Cams  killed  16,000 
of  them,  and  took  a  large 
number  of  prisoners,  among 
them  many  women. 

He  then  advanced 
rapidly  into  Mesopotamia. 
Bahram  II.,  whose  principal 
army  was  at  that  time 
employed  at  the  opposite 
extremity  of  his  Empire, 
essayed  by  a  humble  em- 
bassy   to    avert   the   storm. 

Garus  crawned  with  Laurel.-  ^rm  ^i  •       i 

When  the  envoys  arrived 
in  the  camp  they  were  conducted  into  the  presence  of  an  old  man 

who,  seated  on  the  ground 
and  clad  in  a  simple  wool- 
len tunic,  wa&  eating  some 
peas  cooked  with  a  little 
salt  meat.  This  old  man 
said  to  them  that  he  was 
the  emperor,  and  that  if  the 

Coin  commemorative  of  Victories  over  the  Quadi.3         Persians    did     not     acknOW- 

ledge  the  majesty  of  Kome 
he  would  make  their  country  as  bare  as  his  head,  upon  which, 
removing  his  cap,  he  showed  it  to  them  perfectly  bald.     ''Are  you 

^  EutropiuB  (ix.  6)  places  the  Quadi  in  the  eastern  Carpathians ;  but  this  must  be  an  error, 
for  we  have  always  found  them  in  the  vicinity  of  tlie  Marcomanui. 

*  Intaglio  of  the  Cabinet  de  France  (nicolo,  14  millim.  by  12),  No.  2,106  of  the  Catalogue; 
not  a  likeness:  Cams  was  older  and  bald,  if  the  words  attributed  to  liim  are  authentic. 

^  IMP.  NUMERIANUS  P.  F.  AVG.  LaureUed  bust,  holding  a  spear  and  a  globe.  On 
the  reverse :  TRIVNF.  VQU ADOR. ;  Carinus  and  Numerianus  in  a  quadriga.  (Bronze  medallion, 
Cohen,  No.  19.)     But  neither  the  father  nor  the  elder  son  were  ever  to  return  to  Rome,  and  of 


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TACITUS,    PKOBUS,    AND    CARLS,    275   TO    284    A.D. 


527 


hungry?"  he  then  said;  ''if  you  are,  eat  from  this  dish;  other- 
wise, you  may  go."^  A  victory  gave  him  the  road  to  Seleucia, 
and  he  entered  that  region  without  difficulty ;  he  crossed  the 
Tigris,  took  Ctesiphon,  and  was  making  ready  to  execute  his 
threats,  when  one  day  during  a  storm  his  tent  was  seen  to  be  in 
flames.  Aper,  his  praetorian  prefect,  declared  it  to  have  been  set 
on  fire  by  a  flash  of  lightning,  which  had  also  killed  the  emperor. 
The  lightning  was  pi-obably  not  the  real  culprit.  Cams  was  a 
hard  master,  and  his  soldiers  and  officers,  fatigued  by  this  summer 
campaign  under  a  burning  sun,  saw 
themselves  with  alarm  dragged  away  by 
him  into  the  heart  of  Asia.  A  prophecy 
was  put  in  circulation  that  no  Eoman 
emperor  could  go  beyond  Ctesiphon,  and 
some  one  took  advantage  of  the  storm 
to  strike  the  blow.  The  oracle  was  ful- 
filled, and  the  flames  concealed  all  traces 
of  the  crime  (end  of  December,  283). 
The  emperor's  secretary  wrote  to  the 
urban  prefect :  "  Our  beloved  emperor 
Carus  was  ill  in  his  bed,  when  a  furious 
storm  burst  over  the  camp.  The  sky 
became  so  darkened  that  we  could  not  distinguish  each  other,  and 
in  the  general  confusion  incessant  peals  of  thunder  prevented  our 
being  awsire  of  what  was  going  on.  Immediately  after  a  very 
heavy  burst  of  thunder  the  outcry  was  raised  that  the  emperor 
was  no  more;  it  appeared  that,  in  the  transports  of  their  grief, 
the  household  officers  had  set  on  fire  the  imperial  tent,  whence 
has  arisen  a  report  that  the  emperor  had  been  killed  by  lightning ; 
but,  so  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  investigate  the  matter, 
we  believe  that  his  death  was  caused  by  the  illness  from  which 
he  was  suffering."^ 


Bahram  II.  (Vararahnes).^ 


this  triumph,  all  that  was  ever  seen  were  the  coins  which  bore  its  emblems.  (Eckhel,  vol.  viL 
p.  512.) 

*  These  words  have  been  also  attributed  to  Probus. 

'  Intaglio  of  the  Cabinet  de  France  (sardonyx  of  15  millim.  by  11),  No.  1,357  of  the 
Catalogue.  Under  the  Xo.  1,350  the  same  collection  possesses  an  intaglio  cut  on  both  sides; 
the  reverse  of  the  head  of  Bahrain  II.  is  a  lion  surmounted  by  a  scorpion. 

^  Vopiscus,  Car.,  H. 


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528  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

Numerianus  inherited  the  title  of  Augustus,  which  his  brother 
Carinus  also  assumed  at  Eome,  and  the  array,  abandoning  its  con- 
quests, fell  back  into  the  provinces.  The  young  emperor,  a  man 
of  gentle  and  contemplative  nature,  preferred  to  dream  over  his 
verses   rather   than   to   add   new  exploits  to  those  achieved  by  his 


M.  Aur.  Carimis.     (Bust  of  the  Capitol,  Hall  of  the  Emperors,  No.  79.) 

father.  His  constitution  was  delicate;  he  had  not  been  able  to 
endure  the  fatigues  of  this  expedition,  and  the  sun  and  the  burn- 
ing sands  of  the  desert  had  brought  on  an  affection  of  the  eyes 
which  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  live  in  darkness.  He  never 
left  his  tent  except  concealed  in  a  litter,  and  the  soldiers  became 
accustomed    to    not    seeing    him.      Thus    slowly   the   army   crossed 


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TACITUS,    PROBUS,    AND   CARUS,    275   TO    284    A.D.  529 

Mesopotamia,  the  Syrian  provinces,  and  Asia  Minor.  The  pr^torian 
prefect,  Aper,  father-in-law  of  Xumerianus,  was  in  command.  At 
the  beginning  of  September  they  reached  the  shores  of  the  Bos- 
phoms.  A  part  of  the  army  had  already  crossed  the  straits  when 
a  rumour  was  put  in  circulation  that  Xumerianus  was  dead.  The 
soldiers  rushed  to  the  emperor's  tent,  and  found  there  a  dead  body 
from  which  life  had  departed  some  days  before.  This  secret  kept 
so  long  directed  suspicion  upon  the  man  whose  duty  it  had  been  to 
reveal  it  instantly;  the  soldiers  surrounded  Aper,  accused  him  of 
being  his  son-in-law's  murderer,  loaded  him  with  chains,  and  the 
generals,  assembled  at  Chalcedon  on  the  Asiatic  side,  formed  them- 
selves into  a  tribunal  to  judge  the  murderer  whose  crime  no  man 
doubted.  Before  the  decision,  they  chose  one  of  their  number  as 
chief ;  he  was  the  son  of  a  f reedman  and  himself  a  soldier  of 
fortune,  the  captain  of  the  household  troops,^  Diodes  by  name, 
a  man  who  must  have  been  an  honoured  soldier,  since  without 
canvassing  or  the  intervention  of  the  soldieiy  he  was  the  choice 
of  his  companions  in  arms.  He  ascended  the  tribunal,  and  swore 
by  the  Sun,  the  divinity  who  sees  all  things,  even  the  secret 
thoughts  of  men,  that  he  had  in  no  way  been  concerned  in  the 
murder  nor  had  desired  the  imperial  power;  then  turning  towards 
Aper  he  exclaimed :  '*  This  man  is  the  assassin ; "  and  plunged 
his  sword  into  the  prefect's  heart,  as  the  priest  immolates  the 
victim  devoted  to  the  infernal  gods.  As  supreme  judge  he  had  pro- 
nounced sentence;  as  soldier  he  executed  it  (17th  September,  284). 

*  Damestieos  regens  {id.,  Xumer.,  13).  The  domestici,  who  are  mentioned  as  early  as  the 
time  of  Caracalla,  were  companies  of  the  hodyguard :  their  captains  naturally  took  the  rank  and 
authority  given  them  hy  the  confidence  of  the  emperor,  whose  life  was  in  their  hands.  An 
inscription  found  at  Nicoraedia  mentions  a  bodyguard  of  protectors,  protectores  divini  lateris^ 
under  Aurelian.  (C  /.  i.,  iii.  327.)  Another  mentions  an  officer  of  this  guard  who  was  consul 
in  261.  (IVrrot,  La  Galatie,  etc.,  voL  i.p.  6.)  In  an  inscription  of  the  time  of  Claudius  II.  the 
protectores  are  mentioned.    (Bull,  ^piffr,,  No.  1,  p.  6.) 


VOL.  VI.  MM 


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CHAPTER  XCIX. 

DIOCLETIAN:  WARS  AND  ADMINISTRATION. 

I. — Diocletian  and  Maximian,  or  the  Dyarchy  (284-293). 

DIOCLES,   who  after  his  accession   gave  to   his   Greek  name   a 
Roman  and  more  sonorous  form,   Diocletianus/  was  a  Dalma- 
tian from  the  environs  of  Scutari,  whose  father  had  been  a  slave. 

Entering    the    service   at   an    early   age,   he 

attracted  the  notice  of  his  superior   officers, 

less   by   brilliant   achievements   than  by  his 

acut^   and   penetrating    mind,    which   always 

found  the  wisest  measure  to  adopt  and  the 

best   means   of    carrying   it  into   execution.^ 

At    the    time    of    the    death    of    Claudius 

Gothicus,    Diocletian   was   twenty-five    years 

Diocletian.'  ^^^'  ^^  ^8^  perfectly  suited  to  profit  by  the 

lessons    of    the    great    military    school    of 

Aurelius   and   Probus/      In  these   stormy   times    advancement  was 

rapid;    he    rose   quickly   to   the   higher   grades    in   the   army,   was 

made   consul   suffectus^  governor   of   Moosia   and   commander  of  the 

palace  guard,  a  post  of  confidence  which  gave  him  very  high  rank. 

To   set   in   circulation   the   report   that   in   taking  the  life  of  Aper 

he   had   executed   a   decree    of    heaven,    Diocletian   related    that    a 

druidess  of  Tongres  in  Belgium  had  promised  him  that  he  should 

be  emperor  after  he  had   killed   a  wild   boar.      '^From   that  day," 

^  His  Dame  in  inscriptions  is  C.  (or  M.)  Aurelius  Valerius  Diocletianus.  (Wilmanns,  769 
and  824.)  He  was  born  in  245  at  Doclea,  in  Dalmatia,  near  Podgoritza,  below  Montenegro,  and 
was  but  thirty-nine  at  the  time  of  his  accession. 

'^  Aur.  Victor,  who  lived  not  long  after  Diocletian,  filling  high  offices  under  Julian,  says 
that  the  former  was  chosen  oh  gaptentianiy  and  calls  him  magnus  vir  (CiBs.,  39). 

MMP.  C(a)sar)  C(aius)  VAL(erius)  DIOCLETIANUS  P(iufl)  F(elix)  AUG(u8tU8). 
Laurelled  bust  with  cuirass  and  aegis.     (Bronze  medallion.) 

*  .  .  .  .  imimque  bona?  mt'lifuc  quanta  his  Aureliani Probiqtie  tTistitutw  fuit  (Aur.  Victor,.^). 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS    AND    ADMINISTRATION.  531 

he  said,  "I  sought  the  wild  boar  everywhere,  and  I  have  killed 
many,  but  other  men  have  eaten  them."  Aurelian,  indeed,  and 
then  Probus,  Tacitus,  and  Carus  ascended  the  throne,  and  still 
Diocletian  remained  in  the  ranks.  On  the  17th  of  September,  284, 
the  designated  wild  boar^  fell  at  last  beneath  his  blows,  and  the 
son  of  the  Dalmatian  slave  became  the  emperor  of  Rome. 

The  rare  documents  which  we  possess  in  relation  to  Diocletian 
do  not  give  those  inner  details  which  permit   us   to  penetrate  into 


Chase  of  the  Wild  Boar.^ 

the  genius  of  the  man.  However,  notwithstanding  gaps  and 
obscurities,  it  is  clearly  to  be  seen  that  he  was  something  more 
than  a  soldier  of  fortune.  But  he  did  not  come  from  one  of 
those  rich  and  intellectual  communities  in  which  the  Antonines 
had  learned  the  elegancies  of  the  Eoman  world.  Accordingly,  not 
possessing  their  natural  or  acquired  distinction  as  a  means  to  keep 
the  crowd  at  a  distance,  he  surrounded  himself  with  a  cold  and 
solemn  ceremonial,  regulated  by  the  strictest  etiquette.  In  the 
arts  his  taste  inclined  to  the  massive  constructions,  the  heavy 
ornamentation  of  periods  of  natural  decline ;    and   while   Hadrian's 

^  Aperia  the  Latin  word  sip^ifying  wild  boar.  It  has  been  believed  that,  by  this  precipitate 
murder,  Diocletian  intended  to  prevent  compromising  revelations,  since  he,  as  commander  of  the 
bodyguard  must  have  known  what  was  taking  place  in  the  tent  of  Numerianus.  But  as  father- 
in-law  of  the  emperor,  as  well  as  prtetorian  prefect,  Aper  had  a  superior  authority  which  would 
have  permitted  him  to  send  away  all  persons  who  might  have  prevented  the  carrying  out  of  liis 


^  Bas-relief  from  a  sarcophagus  found  at  Salona,  the  subject  of  which  is  regarded  as  on 
allusion  to  the  murder  of  Aper. 

MM  2 


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632  THE    ILLYRIAX    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHE^•£D. 

villa  at  Tivoli  has  preserved  to  us  a  grtnit  number  of  masterpieces, 
from  the  palace  of  Diocletian  at  Salona,  an  enormous  mass  of 
marble,  granite,  and  porphyry,  not  one  work  of  art  has  come 
do\m  to  us. 

He  seems  to  have  had  more  appreciation  of  literature.  We 
know  that  he  gave  to  Nicomedia  a  school  of  higher  instruction,  to 
which  he  called  Lactantius,  the  most  eloquent  rhetorician  of  his 
time;*  that  he  excused  students,  up  to  their  twenty-fifth  year, 
from  municipal  burdens ;  -  that  he  took  as  his  model  the  philo- 
sopher Marcus  Aurelius,^  a  greater  man  than  himself,  but  not  so 
great  a  ruler;  that  finally  he  caused  biographies  of  the  emperors 
to  be  written.^  Unfortunately  th(>  lessons  that  he  learned  from 
history,  while  revealing  to  him  tlie  points  truly  important  for 
an  administration,  did  not  teach  him  gentleness.  He  showed 
himself  pitiless  towards  armed  insurrections,  and  even  towards 
those  that  were  not  armed,  and  if  he  had  in  his  retirement  much 
practical  philosophy,  he  appeared  never  to  have  had  a  very  lively 
interest  in  intellectual  mattei's ;  at  Salona  his  garden  was  far  more 
attractive  to  him  than  were  his  books.  His  religion  was  that  of 
the  peasant :  for  his  infirmities,  a  healing  deity,  ^sculapius ;  for 
his  fortunes,  a  protecting  deity,  Jupiter,  and  the  voice  of  the 
Oracles,  listened  to  more  attentively  in  certain  cases  than  the 
utterance  of  human  wisdom. 

But  he  possessed  the  qualities  which  make  the  ruler :  a 
knowledge  of  men,  a  comprehension  of  the  needs  of  the  state, 
and  the  firm  resolve  to  give   incessantly   his  thoughts  and  himself 

*  Lactaii.,  Die.  Inst,  v.  2,  and  S.  Jerome,  de  Vir.  iUmtr.,  80:  ...  .  Amobii  disciptdtis, 
sub  Diocletiano  principe  accitus  cum  Flavio  grammatico.  Another  writer,  Hierocles,  wa«  vicar 
of  the  diocese  of  Bithynia. 

'....«<  studiis  non  avocantur  (Code  Just.,  x.  40, 1).  See  in  the  reign  of  Valentinian  I. 
an  ordinance  concerning  the  schools  of  Rome.  I>iocletian  also  said :  artem  geometrits  discere, 
atgue  exercere publice  interest  (Code  Just.,  ix.  14,  2). 

'  Augustan  History,  Marc,  Ant.,  19.  He  blamed  the  savage  temper  of  Maximian, 
asperitatem,  and  said  of  Aurelian  that  he  was  better  suited  to  be  a  general  than  to  be  an 
emperor  {ibid.,  Aurel.,  43).  I^actantius  {de  Morte pers.)  speaks  of  his  moderation:  .  .  .  hanc 
moderationem  tenere  conatus  est. 

*  A  part  of  the  Augustan  History.  Cf.  TeuflPel,  Geschichte  der  rom.  Literatur,  No.  388. 
Capitolinus  says  to  him  (in  Macn'no,  15,  ad  Jin.):  ....  qu<e  de  plurimis  collecta  Serenitati 
Tua  .....  detulimusy  quia  te  cupidum  reterum  imperatorum  esse  perspeximus.  The  saying  of 
Diocletian  that  "  the  best  of  rulers  is  in  danger  of  being  sold  by  his  courtiers,**  seems  to  have 
been  borrowed  from  letters  exchanged  between  Mnesitheus  and  Oordian  III.  (Hist.  Aug., 
Gordiamis  III.,  24-25. ) 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS    AND    ADMINISTRATION.  e533 

to  the  cares  of  government.    We  might  suppose  that  this  creator  of 
the  Byzantine  court  was  an  effeminate   person,  but   he   manifested, 


Gate  of  the  Palace  of  Diocletiau,  called  the  Uoldeii  Gate,  at  Salouu. 

in  respect  to  provinces,  frontiers,  and  armies,  all  the  masculine 
energy  of  a  Hadrian.  Like  that  indefatigable  traveller  he  was 
incessantly  on  the  road  throughout  the  Empire.      He  weighed  his 


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534  THE    ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

plans  carefully,  determined  them  long  in  advance,  in  order  to 
secure  their  success,  and  executed  with  energy  what  prudence  had 
prepared.  His  bust  in  the  capitol  shows  plainly  this  patient 
tenacity.      By   the   broad   square   forehead,    the   cold    and    tranquil 

face,  we  recognize  a 
man  master  of  him- 
self, which  is  the 
first  condition  for 
becoming  master  of 
others. 

Lactantius  accuses 
him  of  cowardice  and 
of  avarice,  strange  re- 
proaches to  address  to 
the  soldier  who  had 
gained  his  promotion 
on  fields  of  battle, 
and  to  the  economical 
ruler  who  was  the 
most  ostentatious  of 
emperors  only  because 
he  believed  this 
ostentation  necessary 
to  the  new  monarchy 
he  was  founding. 
Nor  do  we  more 
willingly  agree  with 
Lampridius  when  he 
calls   Diocletian  "the 

.Esculapius.     (Marble  in  the  Museum  at  Naples.)  ^^*^^^   ^*   *^^   ^^^^^^ 

Age,"  ^  for  the  fourth 
century  has  no  right  to  this  title.  The  history  of  his  reign  which, 
with  but  a  brief  exception,  gave  to  the  Eoman  world  a  long  period 
of  domestic  peace,  and  to  the  Empire  forty  years  of  security,  will 
make  us  know  him  better  than  the  words  of  doubtful  veracity 
spoken  by  his  enemies  or  by  his  flatterers. 

'  Aufj.  Hist.,  Uelioy.,  04. 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS   AND    ADMINISTRATION.  535 

The  man  chosen  by  the  Eastern  army  had  a  dangerous  com- 
petitor in  Carinus,  who,  proud  of  a  brilliant  success  over  the 
Jazyges,  had  no  idea  of  abandoning  his  paternal  inheritance.  But 
detested  by  the  senate^ — a  thing,  it  is  true,  of  but  little  importance, 
— Carinus  was  despised  for  his  sensuality  by  the  rough  comrades- 
in-arms  of  the  later  emperors,  and  he  was  also  dreaded  by  the 
soldiers  on  account  of  his  cruelty,  and  this  disaffection  of  the  army 
was  serious  for  an  aspirant  to  the  throne  who  had  to  encounter  a 
competitor. 

On  both  sides  many  months  were  employed  in  making  ready 
for  the  struggle.  Carinus  first  overcame 
Julian,  governor  of  Venetia,  who  had 
assumed  the  purple,  and  he  gained  also 
some  partial  advantages  over  the  ad- 
vanced-guard of  Diocletian.     In  March  or 

A       ••!     r»or     .1  •  I    o  1      •   •  Coin  of  tbe  Usurper  Julian.^ 

April,  285,  the  armies  met  for  a  decisive 

engagement  at  Margus  on  the  Morawa,  not  far  from  the  confluence 

of  that  river  with  the  Danube  of  Europe.     As  always,  the  Asiatic 

legions  gave  way  before  the  onset  of  the  legions   of  Europe ;   but 

Carinus  was  killed  by  one  of  his  own  officers  whose  wife  he  had 

outraged.' 

This  murder  seems  to  have  been  a  deliverance  for  every  one. 
On  the  conqueror^s  part  there  were  no  confiscations,  no  exiles:  each 
man  retained  his  office,  even  the  urban  and  praetorian  prefects,  and 
Diocletian  took  one  of  them  for  his  colleague  in  the  consulship. 
It  is  probable  an  agreement  had  been  entered  into  before  the 
battle,  and  that  the  officers  of  the  Western  emperor  had  sold  him 
to  his  competitor.  Eutropius  says  that  Carinus  was  betrayed  or  at 
least  abandoned.*  In  these  days  when  Kome  had  only  mercenaries 
for  soldiers,  the  best  of  all  war-engines  was  a  well-filled  treasury. 

This  great  commotion  had  unsettled  the  Empire,  encouraged 
the  barbarians,    and   diminished    the    subject   nations   whom   Rome 

*  Carinas  had  one  day  said  to  the  Roman  populace  that  the  wealth  of  the  aristocracy 
belonged  to  them,  for  the  reason  that  they  were  the  true  Roman  people.    (Hist.  Aug.,  Carinus y  1 .) 

^  IMP.  C.  JUL! ANUS  P(iu8)  F(elix)  AVG(u8tus)  and  the  laurelled  bust  of  Julian.  On 
the  reverse :  LIBERTAS  PVBLICA,  surrounding  figure  of  Liberty.     (Gold  coin.) 

^  Suorum  ictu  interUt  qttod  libidine  impatiensy  militarium  nuptas  affectabat  .  .  .  sese  ulti 
««n<  (Aur.  Victor,  39). 

*  ix.  20. 


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536  THE    ILLYKIAN    EMPEBORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

protected  badly  and  ruined  by  her  exactions.  The  taxes  were  heavy 
in  themselves,  and  increased  because  of  the  exhaustion  of  the 
sources  of  production.^  What  has  been  said^  of  the  hardships  which 
oppressed  trade,  commerce,  and  agriculture,  of  the  disappearance  of 
petty  landowners,  and  the  desolation  of  the  country,  even  in  its 
•most  fertile  regions,  makes  it  comprehensible  how  in  the  midst  of 
these  populations  driven  wild  by  suffering,  Gallias  efferatas  injurm^ 
insurrections  should  have  broken  out.  That  of  the  Bagaudae*  was 
for  the  moment  formidable.  Fugitive  slaves,  husbandmen  oppressed 
by  their  masters,  vagrant  peasants,  insolvent  debtors,  became  free- 
booters and  at  last  formed  an  army,  which  gave  itself  two  Caesars, 
^lianus  and  Amandus  (285).  We  have  coins  struck  for  these 
peasant-emperors;*  on  the  reverse  of  one  is  the  word:  Spe^.  Using 
every  variety  of  weapons,  they  flung  themselves  with  the  ardour 
of  savage  instincts  when  unchained  upon  the  villages  and  unwalled 
cities,  ravaging,  burning,  and  killing.^  Autun,  lately  the  pride  of 
Gaul,  was  a  second  time  devastated.^  Brigand  chiefs  are  often 
popular  favourites,  the  war  they  make  upon  the  rich  seeming  to 
the  poor  but  legitimate  reprisal.  The  Bagaudee  remain  in  the 
memory  of  the  people  as  defenders  of  the  unfortunate.  A  tradition 
which  took  shape  in  the  following  centuries  even  represents  this 
outbreak  as  a  Christian  insurrection.  It  would  be  no  cause  for 
surprise  if  some  Christians  were  among  them,  as  there  were  some 
in  the  Gothic  bands  which  had  ravaged  Asia  Minor.  Were  they 
not   also   sufferers   from   oppression,    and   might-  not    the    spirit    of 

^  Caesar  required  from  the  Gauls  only  40,000,000  sesterces  (about  £'400,000).  This  was  a 
tax  which  the  conqueror  knew  it  for  his  advantage  to  render  light.  Augustus,  after  reorganizing 
the  pacified  Empire,  had  required  from  Gaul  nearly  the  same  tribute  as  from  Egypt,  12,500 
talents  (Veil.  Paterc,  ii.  39,  and  Strabo,  XVII.  i.  13)  or  nearly  £2,800,000.  Savigny  believes 
that  in  the  time  of  Const  an  tine  the  tribute  had  quintupled.     (Marquardt,  Handb.,  ii.  2^*8.) 

»  p.  382. 

•  Paneg.  reteres,  vi.  ^^,  edit,  of  1676.  The  word  efferatas  signifies  literally  "  rendered  wild 
or  savage." 

*  According  to  Ducange,  in  the  Celtic  bagad  signifies  a  band.  Gallic  peasants  had  already 
mingled  in  the  tumults  of  the  soldiery  in  the  time  of  Tetricus.  (Eumenes,  Paneg.  veter,,  vii.  4, 
and  Pro  rest,  scholis,  14.)  For  twenty  years  (254-274)  Gaul  had  been  a  prey  to  the  devastations 
of  the  barbarians  and  to  civil  war. 

*  But  these  coins  are  either  counterfeit  or  else  re-minted. 

•  .  .  .  .  hostem  barbarum  suoimm  cultorum  rusticus  vastator  imitatus  est  ( Faneg.  reter., 
ii.  4).  Was  it  to  conceal  from  these  plunderers  the  wealth  of  the  temple  of  Mercury  that  the 
treasure  of  Bernay  was  then  buried  ?  See  many  objects  of  this  collection,  vol.  ii.  p.  226 ;  vol.  v. 
p.  426,  and  the  index. 

•^  Ibid.,  iv.  4. 


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DIOCXETIAN  :    WARS   AND    ADMINISTHATION.  637 

vengeance,  which  was  forbidden  to  the  saints,  justly  arni  against  a 
world  which  crushed  them  those  who  had  more  wrath  than  resigna- 


Diocletian.     (Bust  of  the  Capitol,  Hall  of  the  Emperors,  No.  80. ) 

tion?*      While   Xorthem   Gaul   was    in   a  blaze,    the   Saxons   were 
scouring   the   North  Sea   and   the   British  Channel   and   devastating 

'  In  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  Christianity  counted  in  Gaul  only  the  small  but 
fervent  community  of  Lyons.  The  ^eat  mission,  orjjanized  a  century  later,  founded  churches 
in  Aries.  Narhonne,  Toulouse,  Limoges,  Clermont,  Tours,  and  Paris,  which  prosperrd  after  the 
edict  of  toleration  issued  by  Gallienus  in  260.     In  respect  to  the  tardy  evangelization  of  the 


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538  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMI'IEE    STRENGTHENED. 

the  coasts;  the  Franks  were  astir  along  the  Ehine,  other  Germans 
on  the  Danube,  the  Moors  in  Africa,  the  Persians  behind  the 
Tigris:  all  the  line  of  the  frontiers  was  threatened  and  the 
Empire  shaken  to  its  foundations.  Diocletian  spent  twelve  years 
in  securing  the  colossus  upon  its  base. 

He  had  seen  the  most  valiant  emperors,  men  who  had  saved 
the  state,  murdered  by  their  soldiers,  and  others  fall  victims  to 
the  machinations  of  their  generals.  Insurrections  of  the  soldiery, 
treasonable  designs  on  the  part  of  ambitious  men,  and  attacks  from 
without  were  the  triple  peril  which  must  be  averted.  If  to  arrive 
at  the  sovereign  power  there  was  only  one  man  to  overthrow, 
many  would  still  make  the  attempt;  but  it  would  be  difficult  to 
destroy  two  emperors  at  the  same  moment,  and  this  difficulty  would 
be  likely  to  cause  the  disaffected  to  hesitate.  In  the  interests  of 
the  Empire  and  of  himself,  Diocletian,  therefore,  had  need  of  a 
colleague  who,  having  no  further  ambition  himself,  would  assist 
the  emperor  in  controlling  that  of  other  men,  at  the  same  time 
that  he  should  keep  the  barbarians  in  check.  From  the  first 
century  of  the  Empire  this  necessity  had  been  recognized.  Piso 
had  been  adopted  by  Galba,  Trajan  by  Nerva;  in  the  time 
of  Marcus  Aurelius,  Severus,  the  Gordians,  Valerian,  and  Carus,^ 
there  had  been  several  emperors  at  the  same  time,  and  the 
history  of  the  Thirty  Tyrants,  which  Diocletian  studied,  had  shown 
him  that  the  enfeebled  Empire  was  exposed  to  too  many  dangers 
for  one  hand  to  be  able  to  ward  off  all  the  blows.  This  was 
the  solution  of  the  future,  the  one  imposed  by  geography,  which 
is  a  mighty  force ;  by  the  natural  division  of  the  Empire  into 
two  halves,  the  one  Greek,  the  other  Latin;  and  lastly  by  the 
weakness  of  a  state  which,  being  no  longer  able  to  conquer,  was 
reduced  to  self-defence.  Surrounded  by  barbarians,  whom  she  had 
not  in  the  days  of  her  strength  cared  to  subjugate  and  civilize, 
Eome  was  now,  as  it  were,  a  prey  in  the  midst  of  devouring 
wolves.      The   time  had   come,   therefore,   to    organize    a    vigorous 

Gallic  provinces,  see  the  publications  of  the  Abb6  de  Meissas,  who  boldly  combats  the  wild 
assertions  of  the  legendary  school. 

*  When  Oarus  appointed  his  two  sons  Caesars,  and  intrusted  to  the  elder  the  government  of 
the  Western  provinces  while  he  took  the  younger  with  him  into  the  East,  he  was  already 
following  the  system  of  Diocletian,  with  this  advantage  to  the  latter,  that,  having  no  son,  he 
was  able  to  cliooae  his  Caesars  from  among  his  ablest  officers. 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS    AND    ADMINISTRATION.  639 

defensive,   making,   by  a  division  of  the  power,  the  imperial  action 
present    and    effective    in    all    the    provinces.      As    to    the    rebel 
legionaries  and  the  usurping  generals,   it  would  probably  be   easier 
to   prevent   their  revolts   by  serving  the 
cause  of  the  most  ambitious  or  most  able 
among  them. 

Diocletian  had  that  clear  view  of 
the  public  needs  which  in  politics  denotes 
the  superior  man.  On  the  first  day  of 
Maj'^,  285,  he  invested  with  the  purple, 
not  one  of  his  own  kindred,  but  a  com- 
rade in  arms,  Maximian;  and  on  this 
occasion  he  himself  took  a  new  name,  Di(Kietian  w^ J^^^^^^^^ 
Jovius,     which     may    be    translated    as 

"devoted  to  Jupiter."  He  specially  adored  this  divinity  whose 
name  was  the  beginning  of  his  own;^  he  placed  the  figure  of 
Jupiter  upon  his  coins,  and  the  statue  of 
the  god  upon  the  column  before  which 
he  presently  invested  Galerius  with  the 
imperial  insignia;  he  built  him  a  temple 
in  the  palace  of  Salona,  and  made  it 
his  study  to  appear  in  public  ceremonies 
with  the  calm  majesty  of  the  father  of 
gods  and  men.  To  Maximian,  whom  he 
adopted  as  his  son,'   he   gave   the   name 

o  -rr  T  •  n   .1  •   .  Maxiinittn  Hercules/ 

01  Herculius,  in  memory  of  the  assistance 

afforded  by  the  son  of  Alcmene  to  his  divine  father  during 
the  war  of  the  giants.^  These  appellations  were  well  chosen  to 
characterize   the   role   destined   for  each   of  the   two  men :   the  one 


'  lOVIO  DIOCLETIANO  AUG.     (Bronze  medallion.) 

*  Dios  is  the  genitive  of  Zeus,  the  Greek  Jupiter.  Diocletian  probably  regaixled  tliis 
accidental  circumstance  as  a  sign,  pledging  him  to  the  worship  of  the  grxl. 

'  This  adoption  seems  to  be  proved  by  tlie  names  M.  Aurelius  Valerius  assumed  by 
Maximian.    fWilmanns,  769, 1,060,  1,062.) 

MIERCULIO  MAXIMIANO  AUG.  Maximian  and  Hercules  seated;  between  them, 
a  Victory.     Reverse  of  the  same  medallion.    (Cohen,  No.  105.) 

*  Eatlem  au.rtln  opportunitate,  qua,  tuns  Hercules  Jovem  vestrum  quondam  Terrigenarum 
hello  laborantem  ma(jna  vidorice  parte,  juvit  {Paneg.y  ii.  4).  The  inlmbitants  of  Fano  and 
Pisaurum  had  already  made  Hercules  the  companion  and  colleague  of  Aurelian  :  Uerculi 
Auyusto  consorti  Domini  nostri  Aureliani  (Orelli,  No.  1,081). 


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540  THE   ILLYEIAN   EMPBB0B8  :    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

to  be  the  ruling  thought,  the  other  the  executing  strength. 
Maximian  was  not  proclaimed  Augustus;  his  title  of  Caesar  marked 
a  subordinate  rank,  and  the  surname  which  he  had  accepted 
pledged  him  to  filial  obedience. 

From  the  time  of  Claudius  II.,  lUyricum,  the  region  of  the 
Empire  where  most  fighting  was  required,  had  held  the  right  to 
provide  emperors,^  as  Spain,  Gaul,  Africa,  and  Syria  had  done  in 
their  turn.  Maximian  was  the  son  of  a  Pannonian  colonist  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Sirmium,  a  brave  soldier  and  experienced  general, 
but  of  coarse  manners  and  uncultivated  mind,  to  the  degree  that 
he,  who  recaptui'ed  Carthage,  knew  nothing  of  Hannibal,  of  Scipio, 
or  of  Zama;  he  felt  himself  the  inferior  of  Diocletian,  and  was  not 
irritated  at  this  consciousness.  The  Augustus  had  chosen,  there- 
fore, not  so  much  a  colleague  as  a  docile  lieutenant. 

Cams  had  taken  Ctesiphon,  but  the  Persians  had  quickly 
recovered  possession  of  it,  so  that  Rome  only  scored  an  additional 
victory  but  not  an  enemy  the  less.  Retained  by  the  hostile 
attitude  of  the  Persians,  Diocletian  despatched  the  Csesar  to  Gaul 
to  restore  order  there  and  give  security  to  the  western  frontiers. 
The  Seine  and  the  Mame  at  their  junction  form  a  peninsula  which 
the  BagaudeB  had  cut  with  deep  trenches  (Saint-Maur-les-Foss^s) : 
this  was  their  fortress  and  camp  of  refuge;  there  they  collected 
their  booty  and  they  believed  themselves  secure  against  attack. 
But  their  bands,  undisciplined  and  poorly  armed,  could  not  stand 
before  the  legions ;  in  a  few  weeks  this  Jacquerie,  shut  up  in  its 
camp  of  Saint-Maur,  was  smothered  there.^ 

The  pacification  of  Gaul  gave  to  the  Caesar  the  title  of 
Augustus  (286).*  Diocletian  had  not  ventured  to  incur  the  risk 
that  the  victorious  army,  giving  to  their  leader  the  supreme  title, 
should  make  of  him  a  rebel.  But  to  this  elevation  he  added  the 
condition  that  Maximian  Hercules  should  lay  aside  the  purple 
whenever  he  himseU  should  set  the  example,  and  a  solemn  oath 
on  the  altar  of  Jupiter  consecrated  this  engagement.'* 

*  Italia  ....  gentium  domina  glorite  vetustate,  sed  Pannonia  virtute  (Paneg.y  i.  2)  .  .  .  . 
in  quHms  provinciis  omnis  vita  militia  est  (ib.f  iii.). 

^  Paneg.  veteres,  ii.  8 :  .  .  .  .  levibus  praliis  agrestes  domuit  (Eutrop.,  ix.  20). 
^  A  rescript  of  June  21  st,  286,  gives  him  that  title.    As  Augustus,  he  became  "  the  brother 
of  Diocletian  "  (Wilmanns,  739),  a  title  which  modern  sovereigns  interchange  with  each  other. 

*  This  pledge  is  mentioned  twice,  in  307  and  in  310,  by  the  autliors  of  the  Paneg,  veter,^ 


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DIOCLETIAN  !    WARS   AND   ADMINISTRATION.  541 

As  Csesar,  the  new  Augustus  had  been  abeady  in  possession 
of  the  tribunitian  and  proeonsulai*  authority,  he  now  received  the 
title  of  Pontifex  Maximus,  which  had  been  shared  but  once  before, 
namely,  by  Pupienus  and  Balbinus.  He  had  his  own  praetorian 
prefect,  his  army,  his  treasury ;  and  he  promulgated  decrees  which 
were  valid  everywhere,  although  he  was  intrusted  only  with  the 
administration  of  the  Western  provinces.  The  unity  of  command 
was  secured  by  the  deference  that  Maximian  had  promised  to  his 
colleague;  it  was  manifested  to  all  eyes  by  the  unity  in  legislation, 
all  edicts  being  issued  in  the  name  of  the  two  emperors,  and  by 
that  of  the  coinage,  which  was  the  same  from  the  banks  of  the 
Euphrates  to  the  Ehine.  Inscriptions  commemorative  of  public 
works  executed  by  either  bore  the  names  of  both;^  in  a  word, 
the  administration  was  divided,  but  the  government  was  not, 
Diocletian  alone  holding  the  reins.^  In  public  documents  his  name 
preceded  that  of  Maximian,  as  later  Constantius  was  always  men- 
tioned before  Galerius.  This  unvarying  order  proves  that,  in  the 
system  of  Diocletian,  a  certain  pre-eminence  was  reserved  to  the 
first  Augustus. 

For  'the  expedition  against  the  Bagaudse,  the  posts  on  the 
Ehine  had  been  stripped  of  their  garrisons;  the  Germans  took 
advantage  of  this  situation,  and  the  Heruli  and  Chaviones  on  the 
north,^  and  the  Burgundians  and  Alemanni  on  the  south,  crossed 
the  river.  But  they  arrived  too  late;  Maximian  had  brought  his 
troops  back  to  Mayence,  and  from  this  strong  position  he  kept 
watch  on  the  movements  of  the  barbarians.  The  Burgundians 
and  Alemanni  seemed  too  numerous  for  him  to  attack  in  front, 
and  he  allowed  them  to  advance  into  the  desolated  provinces,  where 
famine    and   disease   soon   reduced   their   numbers,    and  when  their 


vi.  9 :  ....  consilii  olim  inter  vos  placiti  constantia  et  pietate  fraternal  and  vii.  15 :  ....  ilium 
in  CapitoUni  Jovis  temph  jurasse.  It  is  al8o  referred  to  by  Eusebius  in  his  Life  of  Canstantinef 
book  i.  chap,  xviii.  Tlie  fact  is  certain,  therefore,  though  not  the  dat^.  It  seems  to  me 
probable  that  it  occurred  on  the  day  when  Maximian  could  refuse  nothing  to  the  man  who 
invested  him  with  the  supi*eme  rank. 

'  Orelli,  Nos.  1.0oi>,  1,054. 

*  Otitis  nutu  omnia  ffubeimabantw  (Aur.  Victor). 

'  The  Chaviones  originally  occupied  Northern  Holstein.  The  great  movement  of  the 
Germanic  tribes  towards  the  souths  of  which  ^ve  have  already  spoken  (pp.  356  et  seg,),  had 
brought  to  the  Rhine  the  Chaviones,  the  Heruli,  and  some  Burgundians,  the  main  body  of  the 
latter  nation  having  stopped  in  the  valley  of  tlie  Snale. 


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542  THE    ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

diminished  bands  came  again  within  his  reach  he  easily  got  the 
better  of  them.  The  Heiuli,  less  dangerous,  had  been  arrested  on 
their  fii-st  advance  and  driven  back  across  the  river.  These  were 
far  from  glorious  victories,  but  men  cared  little  what  devastation 
the  barbarians  might  have  made;  the  Roman  dignity  at  that  time 
was  satisfied  when  the  emperor  could  say:  ''The  enemy  is  no 
longer  within  the  limits  of  the  Empire." 

Treves  had  become  the  Eome  of  the  Gallic  provinces.     It  had 
a  palace  for  the  emperor,  arsenals  and  workshops  for  the  armies,  a 


Gluss  Cup  found  at  Treves,  representiug  tbe  Great  Circus.^ 

circus  and  a  forum  for  the  people.  On  the  first  of  January,  288, 
a  public  ceremony  had  attracted  thither  vast  crowds:  Maximian 
for  the  second  time  assumed  the  consular  dignity.  According  to 
custom  he  was  about  to  address  the  assembly,  when  a  cry  was 
heard  from  the  ramparts :  "  The  barbarians  are  at  the  gates !  '^ 
The  emperor  threw  off  the  consular  toga,  put  on  his  cuirass  and 
hastened  to  meet  the  foe.  It  proved  to  be  some  German  horsemen 
who  had  made  their  way  between  the  outposts  and  were  on  a 
plundering  expedition.^     Such  was  life  upon  this  frontier. 

To   give   chase   to   the   Saxon   and  Prankish   pirates  who  were 
ravaging   the   coasts   of   Britain  and  Gaul,   Maximian  had  collected 

*  Wilmowpki,  ArchcPoL  Frettnde  in  Trier  und  Umgefjend^  1873,  p.  18,  pi.  ii.,  and  Friihner, 
La  Verrerie  avtique,  Descript.  of  the  Coll.  Charvet,  1870,  p.  96. 

^  Or  some  Alemannic  band  astray  after  the  late  invasion  who  had  escaped  the  soldiers  of 
Maximiiin.     {Paneg.,  ii.  0.) 


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Ruins  of  Hot  Baths  in  a  Roman  Villa,  discovered  in  1811  at  Bognor,  in  Sussex  (England). 
(Ijyson's  Reliquue  Bntannue  Eomana,  pi.  xxv.  vol.  iii.) 


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>[  >      •  £    .    '11 


•-  %  r  •   o  •     ./  'J  ^  A  1  C    P  A  V  F  V  ^"  \  r 


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n 


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Uistorv  ot  Rome.  PI    V. 


Elmeli  dkl  Dosso  pinxit  Imp.  Fraillery.  Dammoroex  chromollth 

FRAGMENTS   OF   MOSAIC    PAVEMENT 

FOUND     IN    1811     IN     rilE    BATU    OP   A     ROMAN     VILLA     AT     SOU  MO  H,     Si's  SEX 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS   AND   ADMINISTRATION.  545 

at  Boulogne    under   Carausius,    the   Menapian,    a  fleet   designed   to 
close   the   straits.      This   Carausius,    once   a   galley   slave,    had    not 
improved  in  character  with  his   advance   in  fortune;    he   made  his 
plan  to   plunder    the    freebooters   who   were   his   compatriots.      He 
suffered  them  to  pass  freely,  but  on  their  return  th6y  were  detained 
and  compelled  to  share  their  booty  with  the  admiral. 
He   in  this   manner  collected  money  enough  to  buy 
his    oflBicers    and    crews,    and  when    Maximian    pro- 
nounced   against    him    sentence    of    death    no    man 
could    be    found    to    execute    it.      Carausius   placed   ^^:^  ^^  Carausius 

himself   out   of   reach  by    going    over    into    Britain,     !!i!^ii?!l.^g®°i- 
,  ,  J     ©       ©  J      VIRTVS    CAR- 

where  he  corrupted  the  troops  and  caused  himself  to     AVSi.    (Cohen, 

be  proclaimed  Augustus  (287).     With  a  remarkable 

appreciation    of    the    resources    offered    by    the    possession    of    the 

island,  he  organized  a  powerful  marine,  which  caused  his  standard 

to  be  respected  as  far  as  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  and  his  alliance 

with  the  Saxons  and  Franks  secured  him  soldiers  and  sailors.    Many 

cities   on  the   Gallic    sea-coast    preserved    their    old    and  profitable 

commercial  intercourse  with  Britain,  and  Boulogne   even  remained 

in  his  hands.     Carausius  therefore  was  master  of  his 

island  and   of  the   sea,   and  Maximian   could    effect 

nothing  against  him.     The  emperor,  however,   made 

an  attempt  to   dispute  both  with  him ;    a  fleet  was 

constructed  at  the  mouths   of  the  Gallic  rivers,  and 

on  the  festival  of  the  Palilia  (2l8t  of  April,  289)   ^^^^^  ciocie- 

the    official    panegyrist  ^    celebrated    in    Treves    the      <^an,  and  Maxi- 

*  ''  mian  Hercules. 

approaching  fall  of  ''the  chief  of  the  pirates."  The 
details  of  the  conflict  are  not  in  our  possession,  but  we  know  that 
the  brigand  chief  came  out  of  it  a  legitimate  emperor,  in  virtue  of 
a  treaty  which  admitted  his  title  of  Augustus  and  left  to  him  the 
kingdom  of  which  he  had  taken  possession  (290).  The  British 
mints  issued  coins  with  the  figure  of  Hercules,  "  preserver  of  the 
three  Augusti;''  and  others  bear  the  words:  ** Carausius  and  his 
brothers." 

This    treaty    was    a    confession    of    impotence,   but  Diocletian 

^  He  is  known  as  Mamertinus,  but  the  name  Is  not  given  by  the  older  manuscripts. 
^  CARAUSIUS  ET  FRATRES  SUI.    Radiate  head  of  Carausius,  with  the  bare  heads  of 
Diocletian  and  Maximian  Hercules.     (Small  bronze.) 

VOL.   VI.  NN 


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646  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

considered  it  as  an  armistice  necessary  until  more  propitious  days 
should  come.  He  was  not  willing  that  Maximian  should  divert 
his  attention  and  his  troops  from  Germany ;  he  himself  had  been 
obliged  to  go  into  Syria,  in  order  to  keep  watch  upon  Egypt, 
where  tui-bulent  Alexandria  was  causing  anxiety,  and  upon  the 
Pei-sians,  whose  courage  had  been  revived  by  the  death  of  Cams. 
The  prolonged  sojourn  of  the  emperor  and  an  army  so  near  the 
Persian  frontier,  together  with  a  civil  war  caused  by  a  competitor 
for  the  throne,  decided  king  Bahram  to  avoid  all  disagreements 
with  the  Romans.  His  envoys  came  to  meet  Diocletian  as  the 
emperor  drew  near  the  Euphrates,  bringing  presents  from  their 
master  and  soliciting  his  friendship. 

Diocletian  for  the  moment  asked  nothing  more,  preoccupied  as 
he  was  with  an  affair  more  important  for  the  security  of  the 
Empire  than  any  new  victory  over  cavalry  impossible  to  capture. 
For  the  last  twenty-seven  years  Armenia  had  been  a  Persian  pro- 
vince, and  since  the  time  of  Augustus,  even  since  that  of  Pompey, 
the  traditional  policy  of  Rome  had  been  to  retain  this  countrj^ 
under  her  influence.  An  heir  to  the  Ai*menian  crown,  Tiridates, 
was  now  living  at  the  imperial  court,  and  by  his  amiable  deport- 
ment had  gained  the  regard  of  the  most  important  men ;  also  by 
his  courage,  his  strength,  and  skill  in  martial  exercise,  the  esteem 
and  respect  of  the  soldiers.  This  prince  was  an  invaluable  instru- 
ment for  the  execution  of  a  design  suggested  to  the  mind  of 
Diocletian  by  the  anarchy  prevailing  in  Persia.  Given  up  to  all 
the  woes  of  a  foreign  dominion,  Armenia  had  been  wounded  in 
her  religion  and  in  her  patriotism;  the  statues  of  her  kings  had 
been  thrown  down,  the  objects  of  her  worship  profaned,  and  her 
nobles  excluded  from  public  ofl&ce.  A  violent  hatred  brooded  in 
the  hearts  of  all.^  Eveiything  was  ready  for  a  revolution,  and  the 
domestic  troubles  of  Persia  rendered  success  probable.  Tiridates 
set  out,  with  the  instructions  and  good  wishes  of  Diocletian,  but 
without  ostensible  assistance.  This  was,  in  fact,  not  needed,  and 
would  moreover  have  been  a  violation  of  the  promised  friendship 
lately  granted  to  king  Bahram.  As  soon  as  the  new  claimant 
appeared  defections  occurred  in  every  direction.     Tiridates  ascended 

*  See  p.  42l>. 


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DIOCLETIAN  I    WARS   AND   ADMINISTRATION.  547 

the  throne  of  his  fathers  and  henceforth  held  in  the  interest  of 
Eonie  that  great  fortress  of  Armenia  which  protected  against  the 
Persians   Asia   Minor   and   a    part   of   the    Syrian   provinces   (287). 

This  bloodless  victory, 
gained  by  statecraft,  was 
an  important  success.  To 
avoid  all  complaints  on  the 
part  of  the  Persian  king, 
Diocletian  had  quitted  Syria 
before  the  departure  of 
Tiridates  on  this  expedition. 
A  rescript  shows  him  to 
have  been  in  Thrace  in  the 
middle  of  October,  286;^ 
he  then  went  into  Pannonia, 
which  was  ravaged  by 
Sarmatian  bands,  and  into 
Bhsetia,  where  it  was  needful 
to  show  the  eagles.  Follow- 
ing the  example  of  the 
great  emperors  he  visited 
the  frontiers,  to  restore 
security  with  the  restoi:^tion 

of  respect  for  the  name   of  Maximian.^ 

Eome;    and   everywhere    he 

repaired  the  line  of  defences  which  had  been  trodden  down  under 
the  feet  of  the  barbarians.^ 

Maximian   had   come   from    Gaul    to    meet    his    colleague;    in 
their    conference    doubtless    were    concerted    the    measures    against 


*  MommseD,  Ueber  die  Zeitfolge  der  tn  den  Rechtshiichem  enthaltenen  Verordnungen  Diode- 
tianSf  in  the  Journal  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  of  Berlin,  1860,  pp.  349-447.  TiUemont  had 
already  begun  this  work  in  his  learned  history,  and  Godefroy  has  given  a  chronology  of  the 
laws  of  the  Theodosian  Code,  vol.  i.  pp.  6-214,  edit,  of  1737. 

^  Half  figure  of  marble ;  fragment  of  an  armed  statue  found  in  the  capital  of  Carinthia. 
(Clarac,  Mus^e  de  sculpt,  pi.  980,  No.  2,526.) 

'  .  .  .  .  Omnia  qua  priorum  lade  conciderant  ....  resurgentia,  tot  urbes  diu  silvis  obsitas 
....  instaurari  mcenibus  ....  castra  toto  Rheni  et  Istri  et  Euphratis  limite  restituta 
(Eumenes,  Paneg.  veter.,  iv.  18).  Suidas  (s.  v.  i<rxaTia)  speaks  in  the  same  way  :  u  ^wKXtTiavtn: 
\6yov  TTOiovfiivos  tiHv  frpayfidrutv,  tpfiOtj  dfiv  iwdfittnv  dpKovaats  iKdffrtjp  laxartdv  oxvputjai  ku'i 
^poiipia  7roui<rai. 

NN  2 


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548  THE   ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

Carausius  which  that  skilful  usurper  was  so  well  able  to  defeat  the 
following  year.  The  rare  and  confused  documents  of  this  period 
do  not  enable  us  to  reconstruct  its  life ;  ^  we  are  reduced  to 
gathering  up  in  the  panegyrics  or  the  political  pamphlets,  two  very 
muddy  springs,  a  few  isolated  facts,  without  being  able  to  establish 
between  them  that  connection  of  cause  and  effect  which  forms  the 
solid  texture  of  history.  The  rescripts  of  the  emperors  show  indeed 
the  cities  where  they  were  at  the  time,  but  give  no  hint  of  the 
interests  which  had  called  them  thither;  these  interests  can  only  be 
conjectured  by  placing  beside  the  dates  inscribed  on  these  decrees 
the  legend  of  some  coin,  or  a  word  let  fall  by  the  poor  writers  of 
the  time.  Thus  we  find  in  February,  291,  Maximian  at  Kheims,  at 
Treves,  and  in  the  country  of  the  Nervii,  where,  carrying  out  the 
disastrous  policy  of  Augustus  and  Tiberius,  he  established  Frankish 
prisoners  as  colonists.^  In  January,  290,  Diocletian  is  at  Sirmium, 
in  February  at  Adrianopolis,  in  April  at  Byzantium,  in  May  at 
Antioch.  He  expels  from  Syria  the  Saracens  who  have  come  in  ta 
pillage,  and  we  find  him  again  at  Sirmium  in  the  middle  of  July. 
This  was  like  the  activity  of  Caesar.^  It  has  not  been  usual  to 
recognize  this  diligence  and  this  laborious  life  in  the  emperor  who 
established  that  severe  etiquette  whose  supreme  expression  came  to 
be  the  immovable  majesty  of  the  Byzantine  emperors. 

The  occurrences  which  recalled  Diocletian  in  so  great  haste 
to  the  shores  of  the  Danube,  where  he  remained  till  the  close  of 
this  year  290,  were  the  great  national  movements  then  agitating 
Germany.  Sanguinary  encounters  were  taking  place :  the  Goths 
were  falling  upon  those  of  the  Burgundians  who  had  followed  them 
in  the  East,  the  Taifales  and  the  Thervinges  upon  the  GepidsB  and 
the  Vandals;*  it  was  impossible  to  say  what  might  arise  out  of 
this  confusion — possibly  a  new  invasion.  But  the  emperors  guarded 
the  frontier  and  nothing  x3ould  pass. 


*  Aurelius  Victor,  Eutropius,  and  Zonaras  give  each  of  them  but  a  few  lines  to  Diocletian, 
and  scarcely  more  can  be  extracted  from  the  bad  rhetoric  of  the  panegyrists  or  the  eloquent 
invectives  of  Lactantius.    What  Zosimus  says  of  Diocletian  has  been  lost. 

*  Also,  possibly,  Sarmatian.  Ausonius,  in  his  poem  on  the  Moselle,  speaks  of  Sarmatian 
colonies  established  near  Treves. 

'  .  .  .  .  ilium  modo  Syria  videratjam  Pannonia  sitsceperat  {Paneg,  veter.j  iii.  4). 

*  Paneg.  veter.y  iii.  16  and  17 :  Ruunt  omnes  in  sanguinem  suum  populi  ....  obstinat^eque 
feritatis  pcenas,  mine  ttponte  persohmnt. 


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VcO-TI. 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS   AND   ADMINISTRATION.  549 


II. — The  Tetrarcht. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  year  291  the  two  Augusti  crossed 
the  Alps  in  the  middle  of  winter  to  have  another  conference  at 
Milan.*  Diocletian  was  meditating  a  reorganization  of  the  state. 
The  division  of  power  made  in  286  was  only  partially  successful, 
because  the  part  assigned  to  each  emperor  was  still  too  great 
for  the  action  of  the  government  to  be  everywhere  prompt  and 
effectual.  Dangers  were  increasing.  In .  the  East,  the  pacific 
Bahram  was  about  to  die,  and  the  Persians  to  become  once  more 
a  source  of  danger.  In  the  North,  the  barbaric  world  was  pushing 
forward  its  turbulent  tribes  towards  the  Ehine  and  the  Danube. 
The  Chemavi  and  the  Frisones  had  seized  upon  ^  Batavia  at  the 
mouths  of  the  Ehine,  a  tract  half  land,  half  sea,  a  domain 
divided  with  less  certainty  between  the  Germans  and  the  Empire. 
At  this  time  all  the  shore  of  the  North  sea,  from  the  Mouse  to 
Jutland,  was  bordered  with  a  population  who  sailed  the  seas  in 
search  of  Gallic  merchant  vessels.  In  the  interior  extensive  pro- 
vinces were  becoming  detached  from  the  Empire.  Egypt  was 
about  to  proclaim  an  emperor,  Britain  had  already^  done  it,  which 
signified  that  both  countries  were  aspiring  to  independence;  and 
the  Moors  of  Africa  were  claiming  their  liberty,  sword  in  hand. 
Diocletian  considered  it  wise  to  complete  his  political  system;  he 
decided  that  the  two  Augusti  should  take  to  themselves,  under  the 
title  of  Csesars,  two  lieutenants,  their  necessary  heirs.  It  was  his 
hope  that  the  Empire  would  thus  be  better  guarded,  the  ambition 
of  subalterns  more  certainly  controlled,  and  the  grave  question  of 
the  succession  settled,  without  giving  opportunity  in  future  for  the 
soldiers  to  intervene  with  their  caprices  and  their  demands.  The 
first  day  of  March,  293,  Constantius  and  Galerius  were  proclaimed 
CsBsars.^ 

Theoretically  this  conception  was  a  happy  one ;  with  Diocletian 
it  could  succeed,  thanks  to  the  authority  which  his  wisdom,  proved 
by  ten  years  of  firm  and  successful  rule,  gave  him^  and  it  is  with 

*  The  memory  of  this  occasion  was  consecrated  by  coins  bearing  the  words :  Concordia  Augg, 

*  Orelli,  No.  467,  and  C.  I.  X.,  voL  ii.  No.  1,439.    The  two  Caesars  were  designated  consuls 
for  the  year  294,  and  must  have  been  so  from  the  first  year  which  followed  their  elevation. 


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550  THE   ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

good  reason  that  contemporaries  have  praised  the  harmony  which 
he  knew  how  to  maintain  among  princes  of  characters  so  different. 
But  in  this  system  he  did  not  take  into  account  the  rivalries 
which  would  inevitably  break  out  after  his  time  from  the  impatient 

ambition  of  the  Caesars 
and  the  mutual  jealousy 
of  the  Augusti  who  would 
succeed  the  founders  of 
this  tetrarchy.  This  plan 
had  the  fate  of  so  many 
other  projects  inspired 
by  political  sagacity,  but 
sure  to  fail  through 
passion  or  contrary  cir- 
cumstances. However, 
when  we  add  to  this 
reform  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  government 
that  which  Diocletian  also 
made  in  the  administra- 
tion, we  shall  be  obliged 
to  recognize  in  this  ruler 
a  very  high  order  of 
intellect  and  to  place 
him  in  the  first  rank  of 
Constantius  ^i^ioru^^  (Bust  o^  Ui^Capitoi,  Hall  of  the     Roman     emperoTs.      The 

name  of  Charlemagne  has 
remained  great,  although  his  work  also  failed;  it  is  true  that  it 
lasted  for  a  longer  time.^ 

Galerius  was  a  Dacian  who  had  been  a  shepherd  in  his  youth, 

^  Charlemagne  pursued  the  same  plan  as  did  Diocletian,  in  giving  three  of  his  sons  the  title 
of  kings,  while  holding  them  subject  to  his  superior  will.  At  the  division  of  817  the  sons  of 
Louis  le  D^bonnaire  were  similarly  placed.  Charlemagne  also  organized  his  army  on  the 
Roman  principle,  that  the  military  service  was  a  charge  on  property.  Again,  like  the  Romans, 
he  laid  the  keeping  up  of  roads  and  bridges  upon  the  adjacent  landowners,  who  were  bound, 
moreover,  to  furnish  subsistence  for  the  emperor  or  his  agents  when  passing  over  their  lands. 
One  of  the  injunctions  of  Charlemagne  to  his  counts  in  respect  to  their  fiscal  vigilance  is 
a  sentence  from  two  of  Justinian's  novellrp.  (viii.  8,  and  xvii.  1),  and  his  bishops  were  like 
Constantine's,  public  functionaries.  How  many  Roman  institutions  we  find  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
if  we  examine  them  closelv  1 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS   AND   ADMINISTRATION. 


051 


and  whose  family,  fleeing  before  the  invasion  of  the  Carpae,  had 
taken  refuge  near  Sardica  (Sophia)  in  the  Dacia  of  Aurelian.  From 
a  shepherd  he  became  a  soldier.  He  was  another  Maximian,  rude 
and  coarse,  but  like  him  again  obedient  and  faithful;  illiterate  but 
not  without  courage ;  of  violent  and  cruel  nature ;  good  in  a 
secondary  position  if  held  there,  but  detestable  when  in  the  highest 
rank.^  With  Constantius,  on  the  contrary,  reappeared  qualities  that 
had  been  long  unknown  in  the  emperors:  gentle  and  elegant 
manners,  a  cultivated  mind,  an  amiable  character,  and,  a  thing 
always  of   impoiiance    in    the    midst    of    these    parvenus,    a   noble 


GAL.  VALERIA 
AUGUSTA,  Daughter 

of  Diocletian 

and  Wife  of  Galerius. 

(Silver  Coin.) 


FL.  MAX.  THEO- 
DORA AUG., 
Second  Wife  of 

Constantius 

Chlorus.     (Small 

Bronze.) 


CONSTANTiU6 

ET  MAXI- 
MLINUS    AUG. 
Laurelled  Heads. 
(Medium  Bronze.) 


lineage,  his  mother  being  a  niece  of  Claudius  Gothicus  and  his 
father  descended  from  an  old  Macedonian  family.  Under  Aurelian 
he  had  distinguished  himself  by  defeating  the  Alemanni  near 
Windisch  (274),  and  Carus,  it  is  said,  had  thought  of  adopting 
him.  The  pallor  of  his  countenance  had  caused  him  to  be  called 
by  the  Greeks  Chlorus,  or  the  Yellow,  and  to  attach  themselves 
to  his  race,  all  the  emperors,  down  to  Theodosius,  took  his  family 
name,  Flavins,"  as  Severus  and  his  successors  had  taken  those  of 
the  Antonines.  Being  appointed  Csesar  before  Galerius,  Constantius 
was  to  succeed  that  one  of  the  two  Augusti  who  should  first  quit 
the  world  or  the  political  stage. 

Constantius  and  Galerius  were  married.      They  now  repudiated 
their    wives,    of    whom    one,    Helena,    who    had    been    united    to 

'  Church  writers  have  accumulated  all  forms  of  accusation  against  Galerius.  According  to 
them  he  was  made  up  entirely  of  vices  and  cruelties.  Eutropius  speaks  otherwise  of  him  :  vir 
et  probe  inoratus  et  egregius  in  re  militari  (x.  2).  As  administrator,  the  Empire  owed  him 
a  new  province,  Valeria,  which  he  formed  in  Pannonia  by  turning  a  forest  into  cultivated  land 
and  causing  the  Danube  to  flow  into  Lake  Polso.     (Aur.  Victor,  Ctes.y  40.) 

^  The  usurper  Maximus  gave  this  gentilicium  to  his  son  Victor  (Wilmann8,824).  Eugenius 
took  it,  and  Valentinian  III.  again  bore  it  (iWrf.,  645). 


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552  THE    ILLTRIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

Constantins  by  that  marriage  of  the  second  order  which  the 
Eomans  called  concubinage,^  has  remained  famous  as  the  mother 
of  Constantino  and  a  zealous  Christian.  After  this  sacrifice  made 
to  policy,  the  Csesars  married  the  daughters  of  the  two  Augusti: 
Galerius,  the  daughter  of  Diocletian,  whose  lieutenant  he  was; 
Constantius,  the  daughter  of  Maximian,  under  whose  orders  he 
was  placed.  Each  was  subordinated  to  the  emperor,  whose  faults 
he  balanced  or  whose  virtues  he  complemented  by  opposite  merits; 
warlike  energy  was  joined  with  wisdom,  mildness  with  strength. 
Diocletian  took  with  him  the  youth  Constantino,  then  nineteen 
years  of  age.  It  was  as  a  pledge  of  the  father's  fidelity,  a  need- 
less precaution  in  the  case  of  such  a  man  as  Constantius,  but  one 
long  practised  at  the  imperial  court.^ 

Diocletian  had  reserved   to   himself  the   administration  of  the 


^  ZosimuSy  OrosiuSy  and  the  Alexandrian  Chronicle  affinn  this;  S.  Ambrose  implies  it; 
the  Benedictines,  his  editors,  admit  it  (note  to  the  Opera  S.  Anibroeii,  toI.  ii.  p.  1,210) ;  and 
we  find  no  weight  in  the  objections  which  Tillemont  draws  from  the  virtuous  character  of 
Constantius  Chlorus,  and  Gibbon  from  the  condition  of  illegitimacy  which  would  have  prevented 
Constontine  from  being  his  father's  heir.  It  has  been  already  explained  (p.  25,  n.  2)  that  there 
was  no  disgrace  attached  to  marriages  of  this  kind.  Many  reasons  gave  cause  for  them,  among 
others,  the  inferior  condition  of  the  woman,  and  we  know  that  Helena  was  an  innkeeper's 
daughter,  etabularia,  says  S.  Ambrose.  Oonstantine  had  also,  before  his  elevation,  a  concubine, 
Minervina,  who  was  the  mother  of  Crispus  (Zosimus,  ii.  20;  the  author  of  the  Epitome,  41,  and 
Zonaras,  xiii.  2).  Concubinage  was  a  real  marriage,  conjugium  inaquale,  says  Theodosius ;  licita 
conmetudOf  says  Justinian ;  and  it  was  as  well  accepted  by  the  legists  and  by  the  Church  as  is 
in  our  days  the  morganatic  marriage  of  the  Germans.  The  bishop  of  SeyiUe,  S.  Isidore,  wrote : 
Christiano  non  duas  simul  habere  lidtum  est,  aut  lutorem,  aut  certe  loco  tixoris  concubinam;  and 
the  Fathers  of  the  first  Council  of  Toledo,  in  400,  think  the  same  in  their  seventeenth  canon : 
yitt  non  habet  uxorem  et  pro  uxore  concubinam  ?iabet  a  communione  non  repellatur.  Similar 
decisions  were  made  by  the  Councils  of  Mayeuce,  815,  and  of  Tibur,  895.  The  condition  of  the 
children  of  these  unions  was  not  in  civil  law  the  same  with  that  of  children  bom  of  full  legal 
mavriages.  Thus  Libanius,  in  his  twelfth  discourse,  asserts  that  the  brothers  of  Constantine, 
bom  of  Theodora,  had  more  right  than  he  to  the  Empire,  which  would  confirm  Gibbon's  opinion. 
But  Constantius  Chloms  and  Constantine  did  not  feel  themselves  bound  by  these  ancient  rules. 
Each  of  them  had  a  son  grown  to  manhood,  capable  of  succeeding  his  father  and  meanwhile  of 
being  useful  to  him,  and  also  children  of  a  second  marriage  who  were  still  very  young.  The 
eldest  was  useful — ^necessary,  even ;  the  others  were  not  so ;  and  the  omnipotence  of  the  two 
Augusti  sanctioned  all.  Constantine,  so  severe  on  "  imequal  marriages  "  (law  of  337,  Code  Just., 
V.  27, 1),  made  a  law  giving  all  the  rights  of  legitimate  children  to  those  bom  while  their 
parents  were  living  in  concubinage,  if  the  latter  should  afterwards  contrwstjusta  nupOa  (Und., 
V.  27,  5).  It  would  seem  as  if  this  law,  whose  date  is  unknown,  may  have  been  suggested  to 
Constantine  by  the  memory  of  his  mother  and  of  bis  first  wife. 

^  When  Mazentius  demanded  of  the  viceroy  of  Africa  that  the  latter  should  give  him  his 
son  as  a  hostage,  he  refused  to  do  it  (Zosimus,  ii.  12).  Aur.  Victor  says  of  Galerius  that 
he  detained  Constantine  at  his  court,  ad  vtcem  obsidis  {C<bs,,  40).  Commodus  retained  at  Rome 
the  sons  of  the  govemors  of  provinces  (Herodian,  iii.  4).  Before  the  news  of  his  proclamation 
as  emperor  arrived  at  Rome,  Severus  caused  his  children  to  be  removed  from  the  city. 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WAE8   AND  ADMINISTRATION.  553 

East,  with  Egypt,  Libya,  the  islands,  and  Thrace;  Galerius  was 
to  take  charge  of  the  Danubian  provinces  and  lUyricum,  with 
Macedon,  Greece,  and  Crete.  In  the  West,  Maximian  had  the 
government  of  Italy,  Africa,  and  Spain,  and  Constantius  had  Gaul 
and  Britain.^ 

The  CsBsars,  being  invested  with  the  tribunitian  power  ^  and 
the  military  imperium^  were  treated  as  regal  personages,  and  wore 
the  diadem;'  their  names  were  often  placed  with  those  of  the 
Augusti  at  the  head  of  edicts,  but  they  issued  none  by  their  own 
authority;  and  in  the  case  of  an  ordinance  made  for  a  part  of  the 
Empire  governed  by  a  Csesar,  the  act  bore  indeed  with  the  names 
of  the  two  Augusti  that  of  the  CaBsar  concerned  in  its  execution, 
but  never  the  name  of  the  other  CsBsar.  The  legislative  power 
remained  undivided  between  the  two  Augusti,  as  it  had  been 
between  Severus  and  Caracalla  and  between  Valerian  and  Gallienus; 
or  rather,  it  was  entirely  in  the  hands  of  him  who  was  the  soul 
of  this  government,  Diocletian.*  The  Augusti  entered  the  OaBsarian 
provinces  at  their  pleasure,  and  exercised  in  this  a  supreme 
authority.  Thus,  in  the  absence  of  the  Gallic  Csesar,  Maximian 
guarded  the  Ehenish  frontier,  and  Diocletian  in  residing  at  Sirmium 
was  not*  outside  his  imperial  domain;  most  of  his  rescripts  are 
dated  from  Illyricum  or  from  Thrace.  The  CsBsar  received  orders 
and  even  reprimands  from  the  Augustus.  We  shall  see  that 
Diocletian  called  Galerius  into  the  East  after  a  defeat  which  the 
latter  had  suffered,  and  treated  him  with  the  severity  of  early 
times.*  It  seems  as  if  there  reappeared,  under  other  names  and 
with  a  great  difference  in  the  duration  of  the  authority,  the  ancient 
dictator  and  his  master  of  the  horse. 

Each  one  of  the  four  rulers  selected  a  capital.  The  two 
Ceesars  established  themselves  on  the  frontier:  Galerius  at  Sirmium, 
the  central  point  of  defence  in  the  middle  valley  of  the  Danube; 
Constantius    by  turns  at  Treves   or  at  York,   to  protect   Gaul  or 

^  Lactantius  {de  Mortepers,,  8)  gives  Spain  to  Maximian ;  referring  to  the  persecution  by 
Diocletian,  he  says  further  (chap,  xvi.) :  Vexabatur  universa  terra,  prater  OalHas,  where 
Constantine  was  in  command.    Tingitanian  Mauretania  formed  part  of  the  district  of  Spain. 

'  Wilmanns,  1,061,  and  Paneg.  veter,,  v.  1  :  .  .  .  .  cum  apud  rnqje^tatem  tuam  divina 
virtutum  vestrarum  miraciUa  prcedicarim.    The  Csesars  were  called  nobilissimi, 

*  Euseb.,  Life  of  Ccnstantine,  i.  18. 

*  .  .  .  .  Valerium  ut  parentem  sttspiciebant  (Aur.  Victor,  89). 

*  Under  Constantius  the  Caesars,  Gallus  and  Julian,  were  merely  lieutenants  of  the  emperor. 


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554  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMFEKORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

Britain.  The  two  August!  placed  themselves  in  the  second  line  : 
Maximian  at  Milan/  behind  the  Alps,  but  having  within  reach  the 
Germans  who  were  making  an  attempt  to  establish  themselves  in 
RhaBtia    and    the    upper   valley   of    the    Rhine ;   and   Diocletian   at 


Koman  Gate,  called  the  Black  Gate,  at  Treves. 

Nicomedia,  on  the  shore  of  the  Sea  of  Marmora,  whence  he  kept 
watch  at  once  upon  the  Tigris,  the  lower  Danube,  and  the  Euxine, 
by  way  of  which  so  many  dangerous  invasions  had  come  in.  At 
the  same  time  no  one  of  them  confined  himself  to  the  city  which 

'  Here  Maximian  built  a  palace  and  baths,  of  which  there  remain  the  sixteen  columns 
which  decorate  San  Lorenzo.  The  church  itself,  of  octagonal  form  and  surmounted  with 
a  cupola,  like  the  so-called  temple  of  Jupiter  at  Salona,  seems  also  to  have  been  one  of  the 
great  halls  of  the  palace  or  of  the  thermae  of  Maximian  mentioned  by  Ausonius  in  his  little 
poem,  0;v\  nobilium  urbium. 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS    AND    ADMINISTRATION.  557 

he  had  made  his  chief  residence ;  incessantly  they  were  in  motion 
along  the  frontier,  which  was  well  guarded;  and  if  the  barbarians 
did  not  fall  back,  at  least  they  no  longer  advanced. 

Constantius  had  orders  to  resume  against  Carausius  the 
expedition  which  had  failed  in  289.  The  treaty  signed  after  the 
Eoman  defeat  had  been  violated 
by  the  usurper's  alliance  with 
the  Franks,  to  whom  he  pro- 
mised the  islands  of  the  Batavi 
and  all  the  coast  as  far  as  the 
river  Schelde;  the  plundering  of 
the  Gallic  coast  had  doubtless 
been  recommenced.^  Carausius 
had  a  garrison  at  Boulogne  and 
a  squadron  in  the  harbour ;  Con- 
stantius closed  the  port  by  a 
dyke,  and  both  garrison  and 
vessels  were  obliged  to  surrender. 
Before  attempting  a  descent  into 
Britain  he  made  an  expedition 
against  the  Franks,  pursuing 
them  into  their  marshes  between 

the  Wahal,  the  Ehine,  and  Lake  ^ 

Flevo,  a  submerged  territory  easy 
to   defend,    but  badly    defended,  ^    .- 

however,   by  the  barbarians.'     He      Roman  Vase  founc^^the  Neighbourhood  of 

drove   them  back  into  Germany, 

and  distributed  his  numerous  captives  under  the  title  of  colonists 
through  certain  portions  of  the  territory  of  Amiens,  Beauvais, 
Troyes,  and  Langres,  which  had  been  laid  waste  by  the  Bagaudee.'* 
Carausius  was  assassinated  in  293  by  his  praetorian  prefect 
AUectus,  who  took  his  place  and  kept  it  three  years;  but  the 
new  master    of   Britain   had   neither  the   talent  nor  the   authority 

'  .  .  .  .  bellum  qtwd  cunctis  provinciis  videbatur  (Pan.  vet.j  v.  7). 

J*  This  bronze  vase  is  part  of  the  collection  of  M.  Danicourt  of  P^ronne.  We  give  it  in  its 
actual  size. 

'  Ilia  regio  ....  terra  non  est  {Pan.  vet,,  v.  8). 

*  As  late  as  the  seventh  century  there  existed,  near  Langres,  a  pagu8  Chamnviorum, 
(Gu^rard,  Diri/tions  territoriales  rf<»  la  Gaule.) 


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558  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  I    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

of  ^^the  arch-pirate.'*^  The  preetorian  prefect,  Asclepiodotus,  having 
collected  a  fleet  off  the  mouth  of  the  Seine,  crossed  unseen  one 
foggy  day  and  landed  in  the  southern  part  of  the  island.  To 
increase  the  determination  of  his  soldiers  the  Roman  burnt  his 
vessels.  AUectus  was  awaiting  in  the  Isle  of  Wight  the  attack  of 
Constantius,  who  had  another  fleet  at  Boulogne.  Rendered  anxious 
by  the  descent  of  the  prefect,  he  hastened  in  disorder  to  meet  him, 
was  defeated  and  killed;  and  when  Constantius  arrived  on  the  coast 
of  Kent  the  population,  happy  to  be  rid  of  these  emperors,  who 
for  ten  years  had  isolated  them  from  the  rest  of  the 
Empire,  welcomed  him  as  a  saviour  (296). 

The  city  of  London  was  already  the  chief  market 

of  England,  and  the  barbarian  auxiliaries  of  Allectus 

had  hastened  thither  in  order  to  pillage.     A  part  of 

Crowned  witii     Constautius's   fleet,    astray   m   the   fog,    had   got   into 

the  Thames;  carried  by  the  tide  these  vessels  arrived 

before  the  city  in  season  to  save  it,  a  service  which  the  inhabitants 

recognized  with  gratitude.^ 

Maximian  had  quitted  Milan,  his  usual  residence,  and  had 
come  to  exhibit  to  the  barbarians,  in  the  absence  of  Constantius, 
the  imperial  purple,  that  he  might  remove  from  them  all  inclina- 
tion to  take  advantage  of  the  departure  of  the  troops  and  fall  upon 
Gaul.  The  expedition  being  ended  he  set  out  for  Africa,  and  the 
Csesar  returned  to  keep  in  his  turn  the  guard  over  the  Rhine. 
This  vigilance  could  not  be  for  a  moment  slackened,  for  the 
Alemanni  never  resisted  the  temptation  to  make  a  raid  into  the 
Gallic  provinces.  In  301  they  crossed  the  Rhine,  the  111,  and 
the  Vosges  mountains,  and  very  nearly  captured  Constantius  him- 
self near  Langres.  He  had  been  wounded  and  had  only  time  to 
have  himself  drawn  up  with  ropes  to  the  top  of  the  rampart.^ 
Some  troops  were  in  the  neighbourhood  who,  hastening  up,  chased 
away  these  marauders ;  Eutropius  represents  them  as  an  immense 
army,  speaking  of  60,000  killed  and  an  enormous  number  of 
prisoners.  Eusebius  reduces  the  number  of  the  slain  to  6,000, 
which  is  still  large.      The  captives  were  given  up,  under  the  title 

^  .  .  .  .  archipiratam  satelles  occidit  (Pan.  vet.,  v.  12). 

'  Ibid.,  V.  17. 

'  Eiitropiuft,  ix.  23. 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS   AND    ADMINISTRATION.  559 

of  colonists  or  Lceti^  to  the  Lingones  and  Treveri  owning  land. 
They  thus  occupied,  with  the  consent  of  the  Empire,  the  left  bank 
of  the  Rhine,  where,  except  in  the  cities,  they  caused  the  German 
race  and  speech  to  predominate.^  Eumenes  saw  some  of  them 
come  as  far  Treves  and  even  Autun,  "accompanied  by  their  wives 
and  children,  sad,  desperate,  or  wildly  shaking  their  chains ;  but 
by  degrees  they  grew  milder,  cultivated  the  soil  which  they  once 
ravaged,  or,  at  the  call  of  the  generals,  they  eagerly  resumed  their 
weapons,  bent  to  the  centurion's  discipline,  and  were  willing  to  fight 
and  die  for  those  who  had  torn  them  from  the  paternal  forests." 

This  Eumenes,  whose  works  we  have,  was  the  friend  and 
secretary  of  Constantius :  an  unsuccessful  rival  of  Cicero,  he  wrote 
panegyrics,  where  rhetoric  and  hyperbole  have  more  place  than 
eloquence  and  truth.  Some  interesting  details,  however,  are  found 
in  his  writings  concerning  the  schools  of  Autun.  (Constantius 
caused  this  city  to  rise  from  its  ruins;  he  rebuilt  its  baths, 
temples,  and  the  aqueduct  which  brought  abundant  water;  he  also 
strove  to  reconstruct  the  moral  city,  restoring  life  and  distinction 
to  its  schools,  whither  formerly  the  Gallic  youth  flocked  in  crowds, 
and  he  wrote  to  Eumenes,  putting  him  in  charge  of  these  schools, 
a  letter  which  does  him  great  honour :  "  Our  Gauls  deserve  from  us 
that  we  should  take  care  of  their  children,  and  what  better  could  we 
oflEer  them  than  knowledge,  the  only  thing  that  fortune  can  neither 
give  nor  take  away?  Accordingly  we  have  determined  to  place  you 
at  the  head  of  these  schools,  to  which  we  desire  to  restore  all  their 
former  distinction.  You  will  there  direct  the  mind  of  youth  towards 
the  study  of  better  living.  Do  not  fear  that  in  accepting  you  will 
derogate  from  the  honours  you  have  already  acquired.  That  you 
may  understand  that  our  esteem  for  you  is  proportioned  to  your 
merits,  your  salaiy  will  be  600,000  sesterces,  paid  by  the  state."  ^ 

'  The  Notitia  dignitatum  (ii.  119-122)  indicates  an  extensive  distribution  of  the  Laeti 
through  Gaul,  and  only  there.  These  Lseti,  who  have  given  rise  to  so  many  discussions,  did  not 
belong  to  any  one  German  tribe ;  they  were  either  captives  whom  the  Empire  established  upon 
deserted  territory,  or  German  adventurers  who  had  solicited  lands  in  return  for  military  service. 
Gu^rard  says  in  the  Polyptique  d'lrminon  (i.  p.  254):  "I  have  no  doubt  that  the  name  L€eti 
had  the  signification  of  aiuvilia  in  the  language  of  the  nations  of  Germany.  The  word  lid  or  led 
has  preserved  this  meaning  in  the  most  ancient  monuments  of  the  northern  languages." 

^  Pan.  vet. J  iv.  14.  In  376.  at  Treves,  the  professor  of  eloquence,  rhetor,  received  thirty 
rations:  triffinta  annoTiwt:  the  fframynaticus  LntinvA  twenty  ;  the  yrammaticm  Grcpcm  twelve, 
n  qui  difjmtA  reperiri potuprit.     (Code  TheoL,  xiii.  o,  11.) 


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560  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

We  must  place  it  to  the  credit  of  this  emperor  that,  in  the  days 
of  the  Eoman  decline,  he  had  a  taste  for  noble  objects,  and 
bestowed  magnificent  recompenses  upon  those  who  kept  alive  the 
last  embers  of  the  sacred  fire,  now  so  nearly  extinct. 

Eumenes  was  worthy  of  his  master;  he  employed  his  600,000 
sesterces  in  the  reconsti'uction  of  the  schools,  and  they  were  opened 
with  great  public  ceremonial.  The  governor  of  the  province  pre- 
sided at  the  festival,  and  Eumenes  made  his  finest  oration.  Words 
of  sincere  emotion  are  found  in  this  address,  and  even  of  eloquence, 
when  he  exclaims,  for  example,  pointing  out  to  the  governor's 
notice  the  distant  ruins  of  the  gymnasium  which  is  about  to  be 
rebuilt:  "You  have  seen  on  the  walls  of  these  porticos  the  earth 
represented  with  its  nations,  its  cities  and  rivers,  with  its  con- 
tinents that  the  ocean  enwraps  like  a  girdle,  that  it  separates  from 
one  another,  or  that  it  cleaves  with  its  impetuous  waves.  In  the 
presence  of  these  pictures  we  shall  explain  the  world,  and  relate 
the  history  of  our  invincible  princes.  When  the  messengers  of 
victory  come  to  tell  us  that  our  emperors  are  visiting  arid  Libya, 
or  Persia  with  the  twin  rivers,  or  the  shores  of  the  Nile  or  of 
the  Ehine,  we  shall  say  to  the  youth  gathered  about  us:  *Do  you 
see  this  region  ?  This  is  Egypt,  chastized  by  Diocletian  and  now 
reposing  after  its  tumults.  Here  is  Carthage  and  Africa,  where 
Maximian  exterminated  the  revolted  Moors.  This  land  is  Batavia ; 
this  island  Britain,  with  its  gloomy  forests,  rearing  its  rough  head 
above  the  waves,  these  Constantius  holds  under  his  powerful  hand. 
Yonder,  Galerius  treads  under  foot  the  bows  and  quivers  of  the 
Persians/  It  is  a  pleasure  to  study  a  representation  of  the  world 
where  there  is  nothing  which  does  not  belong  to  ourselves."^  We 
have  been  accustomed  to  believe  that  our  own  age  invented  "object 
lessons ; "  but  the  Eomans  already  had  the  idea  2,000  years  ago.^ 

The   expedition    into  Africa    of  which  Eumenes    speaks    took 


*  Pro  restaurandis  scholis,  20. 

*  Ibid.,  20 :  .  .  .  .  qiw  inantfestitis  oculis  diicementur  gtus  difficilius  percipiunfur  auditu. 
Horace  bad  already  said  the  same  thing  in  his  Ar»  Poetica,  180;  Varro  (de  Re  nut.)  speaks  of 
a  picture  representing  in  pariete  pictam  ItaUam :  Propertius,  iv.  3,  37 :  .  .  .  .  e  tabula  pictos 
ediscere  mundos.  This  was,  says  Florus,  at  the  beginning  of  his  History,  a  common  usage, 
practised  from  the  time  of  Alexander,  adds  -^lianus  (ffutt.  Var.,  iii.  28),  and  Agrippa  did  but 
follow  it.  Erat  autem,  says  Pliny  {Ep.^  viii.  14),  antiguifus  xnstitutum  ut  a  mqjoribus  natu  non 
auribus  modo,  venim  etiam  ontlU  disceremus. 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS   AND    ADMINISTRATION.  561 

place  in  297.  Five  powerful  Moorish  nations  had  taken  up  arms. 
"  They  were,"  say  the  writers  of  the  time,  ^^  the  most  savage  of 
the  African  races."  Like  the  tribes  of  the  Sahara,  always  ready 
for  a  raid  upon  the  Algerine  oases,  these  Moors  had  often  burned 
the  farms  of  the  African  colonists.  One  of  Diocletian's  lieutenants 
had  already  several  times  encountered  them.^  In  293  they  recom- 
menced their  incursions,  and  threw  the  whole  province  into  a  state 
of  uneasiness,  which  a  usurper,  Julian  (?)  by  name,  profited  by  to 
assume  the  purple  in  Carthage.  This  usurpation  rendered  the 
situation  so  serious  that  the  Augustus  of  the  Western  provinces 
felt  it  necessary  to  show  himself  in  Africa.  After  defeats,  con- 
cerning which  we  have  no  details,  Julian  died  by  his  own  hand ; 
the  conquered  Moors  were  pursued  into  the  most  inaccessible 
retreats  in  the  Atlas,  and  the  captives  made  among  them  were 
transported  into  the  provinces.  To  stifle  the  last  embers  of  this 
fire,  for  a  moment  formidable,  Maximian  remained  in  Africa  till 
the  middle  of  the  year  298. 

These  successes  of  the  Cassar  and  the  Augustus  of  the  Western 
provinces  were  matched  by  those  of  Galerius  upon  the  Middle 
Danube,  which  river  he  had  in  charge.  The  lazyges  were 
defeated  and  a  part  of  the  nation  of  the  Carpee  transported  into 
Pannonia  (295). 

Some  years  later,  in  299,  the  Sarmatians  and  the  Bastamas 
were  also  constrained  to  emigrate  to  the  right  bank  of  the  Danube.^ 
This  system,  begun  in  the  first  days  of  the  Empire,  was  then 
always  carried  out;  Constantine,  Valens,  and  Theodosius  in  turn 
continued  it,  and  the  frontier  provinces  were  thus  peopled  with 
secret  enemies  ^o  were  to  begin  by  diiving  out  the  Roman 
civilization,  and  afterwards  to  open  the  gates  to  other  invaders. 
The  emperors  believed  their  power  eternal — they  expected  to  have 
time  to  Eomanize  these  foreign  colonists;  but  it  was  the  barbarians 
who,  from  the  Schelde  to  the  Save,  Germanized  the  zone  of 
colonization  that  was  given  up  to  them  and  peopled  with  Slavs  the 
peninsula  of  the  Balkans. 

Diocletian    had    remained    during    these    years    in    Pannonia, 

'  Bulletin  de  correspondance  a/ricatnef  January,  1882,  p.  16. 

'  Ingentes  captivorum  copias  in  Romania  fintbus  locaverunt  (Eutrop.,  ix.  26).     Even  the 
bodyguarJ  of  the  emperors  was  formed  of-  barbarians.     (Lactantius,  de  Mortepers.,  38.) 
VOL.  VI.  00 


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562  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

Moesia,  and  Thrace,  visiting  the  defences  of  t\ie  Danube,^  inspiring 
salutary  fear  among  the  barbarians  who  bordered  its  left  bank, 
and  notwithstanding  this  prolonged  stay  on  the  extreme  frontier, 
remaining  in  a  sense  present  at  all  points  of  the  Empire  by  the 
attention  he  gave  to  its  wants.  A  multitude  of  rescripts  dated 
from  these  regions  show  his  legislative  activity.^  Under  the 
powerful  influence  of  this  great  prince  the  Empire  revived,  security 
was  restored  to  the  provinces,  and  for  this  vast  body,  including 
all  the  civilized  life  of  the  world,  it  was  enough  to  bring  back 
prosperity  that  a  strong  hand  kept  the  barbarians  at  bay  and  the 

soldiers  submissive. 

There  was  a  country,  however, 
in  which  prosperity  did  not  again 
revive :  turbulent  Egypt.  In  the 
capital  of  that  country  seethed  an 
immense  population   of   men  of  all 

Coin  ar' Domiiius  Domitianub  Achilieus.^  ,.^.  i      n  -xi  j 

races,  conditions,  and  faiths,  and 
under  that  burning  sun  men  readily  became  hot-headed.  Wor- 
shippers of  Serapis,  of  Jehovah  or  of  -Jesus,  sceptics  and  illuminati^ 
philosophers  in  search  of  the  absolute,  and  neophytes  who  believed 
they  had  found  it,  all  detested  and. despised  one  another.  Hatred 
brought  about  riots  and  riots  became  revolt;  as  soon  as  one  man 
had  struck  all  came  to  blows;  the  streets  were  full  of  dead  bodies, 
and  in  the  harbour  the  sea  was  red  with  blood.  "  There  is  not 
a  Christian,"  says  the  bishop  Dionysius,  ^'who  is  not  involved  on 
one  side  or  the  other."  On  Easter  day  the  church  stood  empty, 
for  all  men  were  at  the  barricades.  The  murders  of  which  the 
bishop  speaks  were  in  the  reign  of  Gallienus;  but  the  spirit  of 
revolt  still  possessed  the  great  city.  We  have  seen  Aurelian  and 
Probus    obliged    to   visit    Alexandria    to    overthrow   usurpers,    and 

*  Idacius  places  at  this  time  the  construction  of  the  strongholds  in  the  country  of  the 
Sarmatians,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Danube,  and  inscriptions  mention  the  reconstruction,  by 
Diocletian  and  Maximian,  of  cities  in  Switzerland,  Africa,  etc.  The  oration  of  Eumenes, ^^ro 
restaurandis  scholis,  testifies  to  the  immense  works  at  that  time  going  on  for  the  fortification  of 
the  frontiers  along  the  Rhine,  the  Danube,  and  the  Euphrates.  From  the  Notitia  have  been 
counted  103  strongholds  or  fortified  positions  in  the  Eastern  Empire. 

^  Letter  from  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  quoted  by  Eusebius,  vii.  21. 

'  IMP.  CL.  DOMITIVS  DOxMITIANVS  AVG.,  surrounding  a  wreathed  head  of  the 
usurper.  On  the  reverse:  GEN  10  POPULI  KOMANI  ALE, around  the  Genius  of  the  liomau 
people.     (Bronze  coin.) 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS   AND   ADMINISTRATION.  563 

under  the  reign  of  Diocletian,  Achilleus   even  ventured   to  assume 
the  purple  there.  ^ 

This  rebellion  was  a  misfortune  for  Rome,  as  it  hindered  its 
provisioning ;  but  it  was  not  a  peril  to  the  Empire,  since  no 
dangerous  enemy  could  come  from  Egypt.  The  emperors,  no  longer 
residing  in  their  ancient  capital,  heard  not  the  starving  cries  of  its 
populace,  who  demanded  indeed  panem  et  circenseSj  but  made  no 
riots.  The  insurrection  breaking  out  in  Alexandiia  did  not  turn 
them  away  then  from  the  -more  important  cares  which  detained 
them  upon  the  northern  frontier.  This  region  being  pacified, 
Diocletian  directed  his  route  towards  Egypt,  arriving  there  in  the 
middle  of  the  year  295.  Alexandria  held  out  against  all  his  efforts 
for  eight  months,  he  only  entered  the  city  after  having  cut  the 
aqueducts  which  brought  the  water  of  the  Canopic  branch.  To 
put  an  end  to  these  perpetual  revolts,  which  were  a  dangerous 
example,  he  gave  the  city  up  to  a  military  execution ;  it  was 
sacked,  and  blood  flowed  in  torrents.  Coptos  and  Busiris  had  the 
same  fate.^  The  country  was  then  reorganized.  Eutropius,  who 
lived  nearly  a  century  later,  says  that  this  reorganization,  of  which 
he  does  not  give  the  particulars,  was  in  existence  still  in  his  time.^ 
Like  Augustus,  Diocletian  respected  the  Egyptian  religion;  but  in 
that  land  of  prodigies  and  credulity  books  of  occult  science  were 
everywhere  in  circulation,  and  these  the  emperor  caused  to  be 
seized  and  burned.^  He  did  another  service  to  Egypt  by  protecting 
it  against  the  Blemyes,  who  plundered  the  caravans  coming 
from  ports  of  the  Eed  Sea  and  infested  the  Thebaid  with  their 
brigandage.     Instead  of  wasting  his  time  and  strength  in  tracking 


*  Eutrop.,ix.  22 ;  Aur.  Victor.  Cos,,  39.  On  the  authority  of  a  medal,  Tillemont  represents 
Ihis  Achilleus  as  reigning  six  years.  But  Diocletian  was  not  the  man  to  have  allowed  an 
insurrection  to  exist  for  so  long  a  time  that  could  possibly  be  suppressed,  and  Eckhel  (vol.  iv. 
p.  96)  declares  this  medal  false. 

'  Malalas  Cxii.  p.  309)  relates  one  of  those  stories  so  dear  to  the  Oriental  mind :  Diocletian 
had  given  orders  to  kill  until  the  blood  should  come  to  his  horse's  knees;  but  the  horse  having 
stumbled  over  a  corpse,  got  up  with  his  knees  bloody.  It  was  a  sign  sent  by  the  gods ;  the 
emperor  comprehended  it  and  stopped  the  massacre. 

'  ix.  23:  .  .  .  .  ordinavit^provide  multa  ....  qtue  ad  nostram  ^^tatem  manent. 

*  "Egypt  was  the  headquarters  of  the  occult  sciences,  to  which  sciences  the  Chaldseans 
seem.to  have  added  nothing  except  horoscopy  and  prophecy,  founded  on  an  examination  of  the 
skies"  (Revillout,  Revue  igyptol.y  \.  p.  147).  Diocletian  prohibited  throughout  the  Empire 
divination  by  astrological  diagrams,  are  mathematica  damnabilis  est  et  interdicta  omnino  (Code 
Just.,  ix.  18,  2). 

OO  2 


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564  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  I    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

them  in  their  deserts,  he  called  in  the  little  garrisons  scattered 
through  Lower  Nubia,  between  the  First  and  Second  Cataracts, 
where  they  were  too  feeble  to  hinder  anything.  It  was  a  move- 
ment of  falling  back ;  but  the  Empire  in  concentrating  made  itself 
stronger.  A  numerous  garrison  occupied  the  island  of  Philae  and 
entrenched  themselves  strongly  there ;  another  was  posted  on  an 
inner   line,   at  Maximianopolis,   which  had  been  built  on  the  ruins 


Sacred  Kgyptian  Barque  carrying  a  Shrine.     (Perrot's  A^icient  Art-) 

of  Coptos;  a  wall,  connected  Avith  the  defences  of  the  island, 
barred  the  whole  valley,  and  remains  of  this  wall  are  still  to  be 
seen.  Not  to  neglect  any  means  of  making  this  frontier  secure, 
he  negotiated  with  the  Blemyes,  who  for  an  annual  subsidy 
agreed  no  longer  to  molest  Egyptian  commerce.  The  agreement 
was  consecrated  by  religious  ceremonies  in  the  temple  of  Isis.  The 
Blemyes  were  fervent  worshippers  of  the  Egyptian  goddess;  they 
claimed  free  access  to  her  temple,  and  the  renewal  of  the  old  law 
w^hich  authorized  their  priests^  to  come  annually  to  the  island  and 

^  Letronne,  Mcmoires  pour  Vhistoire  du  christiaiiisme  en  igypte,  etc.,  pp.  74  et  seg. 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS   AND    ADMINISTRATION.  565 

carry  away  her  image  to  keep  it  for  a  certain  time  in  their 
country.  In  an  in- 
scription which  appears 
to  be  of  the.  time  of 
the  Antonines  we 
read:  ''Upon  the  Nile 
I  have  seen  the  rapid 
barques  bringing  back 
the  sacred  temples 
from  the  land  of  the 
Ethiopians."  These 
temples  were  coffei-s, 
most  frequently  gilded, 
which  contained  a 
statuette  of  Isis.  Dio- 
cletian would  never 
have  consented  to  let 
a  Latin  divinity  make 
excursions  after  this 
fashion;  but  the  su- 
preme pontiff  of  Eome 
did  not  concern  himself 
with  regard  to  the 
adventures  of  Isis,  and 
since  the  Blemyes 
attached  importance  to 
these  pilgrimages,  he 
deemed  it  wise  to 
allow  them.  -  ^  ^  3.^"^^" 

He  had  written  his       — v-^/^  ^^"^ 
name  in  blood  on  the   .^^^]i'^r''\x'£i/  '/^^  '' 

walls    of    Alexandria        "7    l^i^  ^Z- 

but  he   reorganized    f    \.  -  ^•^^---  ,. 
method    of    relief    for  "^  "  *        ^"'^^^^ 

iv  .1  I      .T_  Poiiipey's  Pillar  at  Alexandria. 

the    poor;^     and    the 

fickle-minded   city   saw   without    displeasure    the    prefect   Pompeius 

'  It  had  already  long  existed  there.     See  p.  396.     Procopius  {lliscoria  --1/ca/ia, chap,  xxvi.) 


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566  THE   ILLYRl.VN   EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

erect  a  column  surmounted  with  the  statue  of  Diocletian,  with  an 
inscription  in  honour  of  '^  the  invincible  emperor."  The  statue 
exists  no  longer,  and  the  column  still  standing  near  the  harbour 
does  not  even  bear  the  name  of  Diocletian,  ''the  tutelary  Genius 
of  Alexandria ; "  it  has  long  been  believed  a  monument  of  him 
who  was  defeated  at  Pharsalia,  and  is  called  to  this  day  "Pompey's 
Pillar." ' 

In  294  Narses,  second  son  of  the  peace-loving  Bahram,  had 
assumed  in  Ctesiphon  the  diadem  of  Persia.  He  was  a  valiant 
prince,  who  occupied  himself  in  re-awakening  the  martial  ardour 
of  his  people ;  Diocletian  was  at  the  time  in  the  interior  of  Egypt 
and  Galerius  in  Pannonia,  and  the  Persian  judged  it  a  favourable 
moment  to  j^ttack  Armenia,  where  he  drove  out  the  protege  of  the 
Romans,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  296  he  crossed  the 
Tigris  with  a  numerous  army.  Narses  remembered  the  prosperity 
of  Sapor  and  he  hoped  to  emulate  it,  even  to  excel  it,  and  to 
maintain  it  for  a  longer  time.'^  Warned  by  the  blow  struck  at 
Tiridates,  Diocletian  had  already  called  into  Syria  the  Ceesar  of 
the  Oriental  provinces,  and  himself  was  approaching  Palestine,  but 
slowly,  as  suited  a  monarch  whose  calm  majesty  was  never  dis- 
turbed by  impetuous  movements. 

Did  Galerius  know  how  and  why  Crassus  had  perished? 
Without  calumniating  him,  it  may  be  doubted  if  he  did;  but 
the  defeat  of  Valerian  was  recent  enough  to  have  been  clearly  in 
his  mind,  and  it  afforded  him  no  lesson.  He  crossed  the  Euphrates 
and  led  his  legions  into  that  plain  of  Carrhse  where  the  sand  but 
scantily  concealed  so  many  Roman  bones.  The  scenes  of  former 
times  were  repeated ;  his  cavalry  could  not  resist  the  shock  of  the 
cataphractarii,  and  his  heavy  infantry,  overcome  by  heat  .and  by 
thirst,  blinded  by  the  dust,  in  the  midst  of  the  rapid  squadrons 
sweeping  around  it,  experienced  the  fate  of  the  legionaries  of 
Crassus.  It  is  said  that  Tiridates  escaped  only  by  swimming 
across  the  Euphrates,  weighed  down  as  he  was  with  his  armour. 
Galerius   also   escaped  with  his  life   and  the   shattered   remnant  of 

speaks  of  2,000,000  modimni,  equal  to  12,000,000  modii.  dispensed  at  this  time.  Cf.  Chron. 
of  Alexandria,  ad  ann.  302. 

'  C.I.  G^.,  4,681. 

^  Ad  oceupandum  Onentem  magnis  copiU  inhiahat  (Lactnutius,  de  Morte  pers.,  9). 
Concerning  Sapor,  see  above,  pp.  423  et  seq. 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WAUS    AND    ADMINISTRATION.  567 

his  army.  Just  outside  of  Antioch  he  met  Diocletian,  who  received 
the  defeated  general  with  a  severe  countenance,  and  refused  to  let 
him  enter  the  imperial  chariot.  The  spectacle  was  seen  of  the 
haughty  Ccesar  clad  in  his  purple  mantle,  and  with  shame  upon 
his  brow,  walking  on  foot  for  the  space  of  a  mile  before  the  chariot 
of  the  angry  Augustus.^ 

Diocletian  rapidly  collected  the  troops  from  the  camps  on  the 


A  Cataphractarius.     (^From  Trajan's  Column.) 

Danube,  enrolled  barbarians  in  the  army,  especially  Goths,-  and 
re-formed  the  Syrian  army,  which  seems  to  have  been  very  strongly 
constituted.  He  divided  it  into  two  corps:  with  one  he  took  up 
a  position  on  the  Euphrates,  to  defend  the  fords  in  case  of  need  ; 
he  put  Galerius  at  the  head  of  the  other,  tracing  out  for  him  the 
plan  of  a  campaign  in  which  the  military  experience  of  the  former 
lieutenant  of  Probus  appeared  manifest.  He  directed  the  CiDsar  to 
take,  in  the  favourable  season,  the  route  formerly  followed  by 
Antony  across  the  Armenian  mountains,  and  gave  him  for  a  guide 

'  A  mm.  Marcollinus,  xiv.  11. 
-  Joixlanej*,  21. 


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568  THE   ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  :   THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

in  this  country  the  expelled  king  Tiridates.     At  their  approach  the 
people  rose  to  meet  them ;    provisions    and    information    came    in 
abimdantly  to  the  camp;    the  legions  had  all  the  advantages  which 
the  complicity  of  the  inhabitants  gives  to  an  invading  army.      The 
Persians   came   to   meet  them   on  this  unfavourable  battle-ground ; 
and  filled  with  confidence   by  reason  of  their  recent  victory,  kept 
so   careless  a  watch  that  Galerius  with  two  horsemen  was   able  to 
come    into,  their  very   camp    in    reconnoitring    the    position.      By 
a  vigorous    night    attack,    he    created    a    panic    among    them    and 
made   great  slaughter.      Narses,    who   was   wounded,    escaped  with 
the  greatest  difficulty,  but  the  wives  and  children 
of  the  Persian  king  were  captured,  together  with 
the  treasure  heaped  up  in  the  royal  tents  (297). 
Since  Alexander's  victory  at  Issus,  six  centuries 
before,  the  Oriental  barbaric  world  had  suffered 
no  such  affront. 
Coin  of  Narses,  Son  At   the   news   of  this  brilliant  success  Dio- 

cletian entered  Mesopotamia  and  joined  Galerius 
at  Nisibis.  The  Csesar  talked  of  repeating  Alexander's  expedition. 
The  Macedonian  conqueror  had  not  been  guilty  of  too  great  rash- 
ness when  he  hurled  the  mass  of  his  army  upon  the  empire  of 
Darius  and  plunged  into  the  remote  East  to  the  banks  of  Indus,  for 
he  had  nothing  to  fear  from  the  nations  he  left  behind  him.  But 
the  Romans,  who  on  the  west  and  south  and  north  had  an  immense 
frontier  line  always  threatened,  were  not  in  a  position  to  imitate 
this  dangerous  enterprise.  Diocletian  calmed  the  too  impetuous 
ardour  of  Galerius,  and  the  Augustus  displayed  towards  the 
captives  that  had  been  taken  a  consideration  not  at  all  usual  at 
that  time.  When  Narses,  won  by  this  conduct,  made  overtures  of 
peace,  Diocletian  received  them  cordially.  The  first  condition 
claimed  by  the  Romans  was  however  rejected.^  They  wished  the 
Persians  to  agree  to  have  all  commerce  with  the  Empire  pass 
through  Nisibis,  doubtless  in  order  to  simplify  the  service  of  the 
imperial  custom-house,  and  to  concentrate  the  relations  between  the 

*  Bust  of  the  priuce  and  a  lej^end  signifying  "  the  worshipper  of  Ormuzd,  the  ezoellent 
Narses,  king,  celestial  germ  of  the  gods."     (Silver  coin.) 

*  In  the  l^vc3rpta  de  legationibtiSj  edit,  of  Bonn,  p.  134,  are  to  he  found  curious  details  in 
respect  to  these  negotiations,  preserved  to  us  by  Peter  Patricius.  He  lived  in  the  time  of 
Justinian,  but  was  able  to  examine  the  archives.     Cf.  Fragm.  Histor,  Griscor.,  iv.  188. 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS   AND   ADMINISTRATION.  669 

two  countries  at  a  single  point  easily  to  be  watched.*  Narses 
refused  to  agree  to  this  and  the  project  was  abandoned;  but  he 
admitted  the  Eoman  possession  of  northern  Mesopotamia,  whose 
limit  on  the  south  seemed  to  admit  of  being  marked  by  the  fortified 
city  of  Circesium,  near  the  confluence  of  the  Chaboras  with  the 
Euphrates,  and  by  Singara,  at  the  base  of  a  mountain  in  an  arid 
region,  which  rendered  an  attack  diflicult,  but  also  difficult  the 
bringing  of  any  succour.  Nineveh  on  the  Tigris,  where  for  two 
centuries  a  Koman  colony  had  maintained  itself  in  some  unknown 
way,'*  marks  perhaps  the  eastern  extremity  of  this  line.  In  the 
upper  valley  of  the  Tigris  the  Persians  yielded  five  Armenian  pro- 
vinces which  had  been  conquered  by  Sapor  I.,  and  these  in  the 
hands  of  Eome  were  now  to  be  used  to  cover  a  part  of  Armenia 
and  Asia  Minor  against  the  Persians.'  Tiridat^s  recovered  his 
kingdom,  increased  by  a  part  of  Media  Atropatene,  and  the  princes 
of  Iberia  in  the  basin  of  the  Kour  relinquished  their  allegiance  to 
Persia  and  accepted  the  supremacy  of  Eome  (297).  This  treaty 
was  a  brilliant  success,  worth  far  more  than  the  recapture  by 
Augustus  of  the  standards  of  Crassus,  for  it  gave  the  Empire  as 
allies  the  nations  living  near  the  Caspian  and  the  Caucasus,  at  the 
same  time  that  the  Roman  garrisons  were  establishing  themselves 
in  the  mountainous  region  situated  on  the  north  of  Mesopotamia, 

^  These  questions  of  import  dues  had  so  great  a  financial  and  political  importance  for  the 
Empire  that  a  schedule  of  duties,  recently  found  at  Palmyra  (De  Vogii^,  session  of  the  Acad, 
des  truer,  of  June  Ist,  1883),  shows  that  as  early  as  the  reign  of  Tiberius  the  Romans  had 
interposed  in  that  city  for  the  drawing  up  of  a  tariff  of  which  they  doubtless  shared  with  the 
Palmy renes  the  products.  (Cf.  Code  JusLj  iv.  61, 13.)  The  Roman  domination  having  crossed 
the  Euphrates,  Diocletian  desired  to  have  Nisibis  occupy  the  position  that  Paknyra  had  held, 
that  of  being  the  desert  mart  between  the  two  empires. 

'  See  on  this  point  p.  74.  Nineveh  was  still  a  great  city  in  the  time  of  Amm.  Marcellinus 
(xviii.  6),  and  this  author  calls  it  the  capital  of  Adiabeue.  Its  inhabitants,  like  the  Greeks  of 
Seleucia,  had  doubtless  a  sort  of  municipal  independence,  which  permitted  them  to  incline 
towards  whichever  of  the  two  empires  seemed  for  the  moment  the  more  formidable.  The 
Persians  traversed  it  freely  in  869. 

*  Uncertainty  exists  respecting  the  names  of  these  five  provinces,  which  Peter  Patricius 
and  Anmi.  Marcellinus  (xxv.  7)  give  differently :  Zabdicene,  Corduene,  Arsacene,  Intelene,  and 
Sophene,  according  to  the  former;  Zabdicene,  Corduene,  Arsacene,  Moxoene,  and  Rehimine, 
according  to  the  latter.  We  are  not  able  even  to  assign  to  them  all  a  well-determined 
geographical  position.  It  is  enough  to  know,  however,  that  they  are  all  north  of  Nineveh,  in 
the  upper  basin  of  the  Tigris  and  on  its  eastern  shore  in  the  Kurdistan  of  modem  times. 
During  the  reign  of  Julian,  Corduene  had  for  governor  a  Persian  satrap  of  Roman  name, 
Jovianus,  a  man  secretly  in  sympathy  with  the  imperialists.  (Amm.  Marcellinus,  xviii.  6.) 
The  occupation  of  Corduene  by  the  Persians  was  merely  de  facto ,  doubtless  acquired  in  the 
reign  of  Constantius,  for  this  province  was  expressly  ceded  by  Jovian  in  the  treaty  of  368. 


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570  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

whereby  every  attack  upon  Asia  Minor  and  Syria  could  be  aiTested 
on  its  advance  or  defeated  by  a  flank  movement.  The  victory  of 
Galerius  and  Diocletian's  statesmanship  bestowed  upon  Koman  Asia 
a  peace  that  numerous  fortresses,'  built  along  the  easteni  frontier, 
maintained  for  forty  years/  The  Augustus  had  well  deserved  the 
honour  of  a  triumph;  the  senate  decreed  it  to  him,  but  he  waited 
six  years  to  celebrate  it  at  Eome. 

III. — Administrative  Keorganization  and  Legislation. 

It  is  in  fable  only  that  Minerva  springs  full-armed  from  the 
brain  of  Jupiter.  In  history,  political  creations  are  prepared  by 
the  travail  of  ages,  and  these  only  are  lasting. 

More  than  one  emperor  before  Diocletian 
had  felt  the  necessity  of  taking  a  colleague, 
of  dividing  the  great  administrations,  even  of 
sharing  the  Empire  itself,^  and  enfeebling  the 
prsetorians;  more  than  one  had  allowed  him- 
self to  be  called  lord  or  goS,®  and  the  coins 
of  Trajan  and  of  Antoninus  Pius  represent 
Large  Bronze  of  Antoninus,  them    with    the    radiate    crown.      The    sacred 

representing  liim  with  his       ^ 

Head  crowned  with  Rays  nimbus,  which  was   assumcd   by  the  Christian 

and  a  Nimbus.*  _  ^         ^  •        i  •  « 

emperors,  does  not  yet  appear  m  the  coins  oi 
Trajan,  and  we  also  see  it  around  the  head  of  the  fabulous  bird 
which  in  Egypt  was  believed  to  spring  from  its  own  ashes;  but 
those  of  Antoninus  already  give  him  this  symbol  of  immortality. 
The  nations  were  displeased  neither  at  these  titles  nor  these  crowns, 
for    the    state    religion    made   it  a   duty   for    them    to    adore    the 

^  Malalas  says  that  the  line  of  fortresses  constructed  by  Diocletian  extended  from  Egypt  to 
Persia.    See  also  Suidas,  s.  v.  iaxanay  and  Amm.  Marcellinus,  xxiii.  6. 

*  Vespasian  had  set  the  example  of  these  divisions  of  provinces.  In  the  time  of  CaracaUa 
and  Geta  a  division  of  the  imperial  authority  had  been  under  consideration.  See  vol.  iv.  p.  670, 
and  p.  241  of  the  present  volume. 

*  Caligula  had  assumed  to  be  both ;  Com  modus  had  caused  himself  to  be  called  god :  .  .  .  . 
UcLkiXro  Koi  9i6q  (Zonaras,  xii.  5).  The  decurions  of  Barcelona  declared  themselves  devoti  numini 
majeHatiqtie  Claudii  Oothici  (Orelli,  No.  1,020).  The  same  words  were  used  in  respect  to 
Aurelian  by  one  of  the  legions  (ibid,.  No.  1,024).  Medals  of  Aurelian  and  of  Carus,  struck 
during  their  lifetime,  gave  them  the  titles  of  de^is  and  dominus.     (Eckhel,  vol.  vii.  pp.  508-9.) 

*  See  W.  Madden,  The  Numismatic  Chronicle^  vol.  xviii.  p.  9  (1878).  A  cameo  represents 
Severus,  also  with  the  radiate  crown,  and  Gallienus  wore  it :  .  .  .  .  radiatus  gape  processit 
{Hist.  Aug.  Gall.,  16),  and  Aurelian  did  the  same. 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS    AND    ADMINISTRATION.  571 

emperor  living,  and  they  were  accustomed  to  erect  temples  to  their 
dead  emperors. 

A  century  and  a  half  before  Diocletian,  Hadrian  had  made 
his  council  the  principal  machinery  of  government;  and  Caracalla 
and  Gratian  had  separated  the  civil  functions  from  the  military 
in  not  permitting  the  presence  of  a  senator  in  the  army.^  The 
offices  of  comes^  corrector^  and  dux  were  very  ancient;  in  the  third 
century  a.d.  we  find  the  magister  militum  and  the  praetorian  prefect 
had  long  had  the  administration  of  justice  and  finance.  The 
system  of  grants  of  land  made  to  the  soldiers  with  the  condition 
of   military  service  was   an   old   republican   institution,  the   colonia, 


Coins  of  Trajan,  representing,  on  tbe  Revenie,  the  Phoenix  crowned  with  the  Nimbus. 

preserved  by  Augustus,  possibly  regulated  by  Alexander  Severus; 
and  two  of  the  dangers  which  were  to  end  by  destroying  the 
Empire,  namely,  the  Germanization  of  the  frontier  provinces  and 
that  of  the  army,  had  begun  with  him.  Caesar  had  Germans  in 
his  army  in  Gaul,  and  Tacitus  shows  around  the  first  emperors 
and  in  the  auxiliary  corps  of  the  legions  foreigners  of  every 
nation.^ 

A  pride  in  titles  was  extremely  ancient  at  Eome:  we  have 
seen  the  rigorous  classification  made  by  Augustus.  From  the  first 
days  of  the  Empire  it  was  required  to  salute  the  senators  as 
clarissmi;  the  knights  of  noble  family  were  illustreSj  and  under 
Marcus  Aurelius  the  etninentissimi  and  the  perfectissimi  had  privi- 
leges which  lasted  for  three  generations.  A  procurator  under 
Commodus  is  called  egregius.  Those  of  Severus  all  bore  this  title, 
and  from  the  third  century  or  even  earlier  there  existed  a  sort  of 
heredity  for  the  curiaks.  The  nomenclature  for  the  hierarchy  was 
already  formed.^ 

'  Lampridius  says  of  Alexander  Severus,  24 :  provincias  legatorias  prepsid tales  plunmas 
fecit,  l^orgbesi  ((Euvres,  vol.  iii.  p.  377;  vol.  v.  pp.  307  and  405)  thinks  that  from  this  time 
forwai-d  the  presses  had  the  civil  administration,  the  dtur  the  military  command. 

^  Tac,  Aim.,  i.  17 ;  Hist.,  i.  46. 

^  Divo  Marco  placuit  eminent Us^itnoruvi  quidem  nee   non   etiam  perf.  ciroi^m   icyr/ue  ad 


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672  THE   ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

Language,  manners,  and  the  necessities  of  defence  had  prepared 
the  separation  of  the  Roman  world  into  two  Empires.  Asia  had 
repeatedly  had  governors  who  were  invested  with  full  powers: 
Agrippa  and  C.  Csesar  under  Augustus,  Germanicus  under  Tiberius, 
Corbulo  under  Nero ;  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  Valerian,  and  Carus 
had  relinquished  to  a  colleague  half  of  the  provinces. 

For  many  years  the  Conscript  Fathers  had  been  entirely  with- 
out authority,  and  all  the  power  had  remained  with  the  imperial 
chancery.  The  revival  of  the  senate  in  the  time  of  the  Gordians 
and  of  Probus  had  been  but  the  last  flicker  of  energy  in  a  body 
whence  life  was  departing;  all  things  were  now  done  in  the  offices 
of  the  sacred  palace,^  for  the  reason  that  there  was  the  only  force 
which  could  set  in  motion  the  vast  machine.  Finally,  the 
industrial  corporations  and  the  agricultural  colonization  had  made 
the  beginning  of  a  profound  change  in  the  world  of  labour. 

Diocletian  therefore  did  not  create  in  all  its  parts  a  new 
political  and  social  edifice ;  in  reality  what  he  accomplished  was  a 
great  administrative  reform.  But  .the  republican  exterior  so  care* 
fully  maintained  by  Augustus,  preserved  by  many  of  the  succeeding 
emperors,  and  restored  again  by  Carus,  was  now  thrown  off;  the 
master  was  no  longer  concealed,  el  rey  nettoy  and  the  autocratic 
republic  of  Augustus  assumed  its  final  aspect,  that  of  an  Oriental 
monarchy.^ 

We  have  already  spoken  of  the  most  important  of  the  measures 
of  Diocletian,  the  establishment  of  the  tetrarchy.  To  prevent  revo- 
lutions, by  securing  the  regular  succession  to  the  Empire  dependent 
upon  the  choice  of  the  living  emperor;  to  defeat  the  intrigues  of 
the  ambitious  and  the  riots  of  the  soldiery,  by  dividing  the 
commands,  the  armies,  and  the  public  treasure — such  had  been  his 
theoretic   conception.      His  method   of    execution  was  to   give  the 

pronepotes  Itberos  plebeiorum  pcenis  vel  qucBstionibus  non  svhjici,  A  dishoDourable  actioD,  violati 
pudoris  macula,  arrested,  however,  the  transmission  of  this  privilege  which  Ulpian  reoog^i^es, 
decurionibus  etfiliU  eorum  (Code,  ix.  41 ;  cf.  C.  /.  L.,  vol.  i.  1,086,  and  vol.  vi.  1,603).  The  use 
of  these  exaggerated  epithets  went  very  low.  In  an  inscription  of  the  time  of  Alexander 
Severus,  an  iron  mine  is  called  splendidissimtts,     (Rev.  Spigr,  du  midi  de  la  France,  No.  257.) 

*  Hirschfeld,  Edmische  Verwaltungsgeschichte.  We  have  seen,  in  the  reign  of  Hadrian  and 
in  chap.  xcv.  §  8,  the  beginning  of  the  slow  evolution  which  transformed  the  monarchy  of 
Augustus  into  an  autocratic  and  Oriental  despotism. 

'  Eutropius  (ix.  2Q)  says:  imperio  Romano  regue  consuetudinU  formam  magii  guam 
JRomana  liber  tat  is  inve^vit. 


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Tol.VL 


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DIOCLETIAN  I    WARS   AND   ADMINISTRATION.  573 

Empire,  divided  equally,  two  Augusti,  one  being  superior  to  the 
other,  and  two  Ceesars,  who,  subordinate  to  the  Augusti  during 
the  lifetime  of  the  latter,  should  succeed  them  on  their  deaths. 
This  form  of  government  was  an  important  innovation,  inasmuch  as 
Diocletian  was  making  a  rule  of  what  had  been  hitherto  only  a 
temporary  accident,  and  because,  instead  of  emperors  reigning 
together  in  Eome — where  their  action,  not  being  divided,  might 
prove  conflicting — each  of  the  Augusti  and  Caesars  had  permanently 
provinces  to  govern  and  barbarians  to  hold  in  check. 

After  the  division  of  the  Empire  and  the  imperial  power,  came 
that  of  the  provinces.^  The  republic  had  not  greatly  changed  the 
frontiers  of  the  nations ;  its  domain  was  divided  only  into  fourteen 
governments;  and  at  the  accession  of  Hadrian  there  were  forty- 
five.  This  increase  was  due  to  the  conquests  of  Augustus,  Claudius, 
and  Trajan,  but  especially  to  the  dismemberment  of  the  early 
provinces.  Since  the  time  of  Vespasian  the  emperors  had  been 
aware  that  commands  extending  over  regions  as  vast  as  kingdoms 
gave  rise  to  ambitious  desires  and  dangerous  temptations.  More 
than  any  one  of  his  predecessors  Diocletian  had  felt  this  peril; 
and  as  he  had  divided  the  Empire,  in  order  the  better  to  defend 
it,  so  he  increased  the  number  of  provincial  divisions  in  order  to 
rule  it  more  successfully.  At  the  time  of  his  accession  there  were 
fifty-seven  provinces;  during  his  reign  the  number  was  increased 
to  ninety-six,   forming  thirty-seven    new   governments,^   and   these 

^  Aur.  Victor,  40;  Lactantius,  de  Morte  pers,,  chap.  vii. :  .  .  .  »provvncu8  infnata  concisa, 
multi  presides  etplura  ojfieia  singtUis  regionibus  ac  jxBnejmn  cimtatifms  incnbare,item  rationales 
mtdti  et  vicarii  prafectof'um.  In  Egypt  were  created  the  provinces  -^gyptus  Jovia  and  ^Eg. 
Herculia ;  in  Moesia  and  in  Pannonia  the  provinces  Margensis  (in  honour  of  the  victory  gained 
hy  Diocletian  at  Margum)  and  Valeria  (named  from  tlie  emperor's  daughter) ;  in  Britain,  Flavia 
Csesariensis  (in  honour  of  Constantius  Chlorus) ;  and  many  others  in  Asia  Minor. 

*  The  Nbtitia  Jtynii^a^m, prepared  about  the  year  400, gives  120  provinces;  a  list  of  386(P) 
comprises  only  113 ;  another,  of  369(?),  gives  104.  The  list  given  by  Mommsen  in  the  Memoirs 
of  the  Berlin  Academy  for  1862,  p.  489,  from  a  manuscript  of  Verona,  probably  dates  from  the 
year  297.  It  enumerates  ninety-six  provinces,  distributed  in  twelve  districts,  as  follows:  1,  the 
East  (comprising  Egypt,  Syria,  and  Mesopotamia) ;  2,  Pontus  (the  northern  and  eastern  portions 
of  Asia  Minor) ;  3,  Asia  (the  western  part  of  Asia  Minor,  with  the  islands) ;  4,  Thrace  (between 
the  Rhodope,  the  Lower  Danube,  and  the  sea) ;  5,  Moesia  (between  the  Middle  Danube  and 
Thrace);  6,  Pannonia  (the  western  part  of  Ulyricum);  7,  Italy;  8,  Africa;  9,  Spain  (with 
Mauretania  Tingitania) ;  10,  Viennensis  (Narbonensis  and  Aquitania ;  later,  the  district  of  the 
Seven  Provinces) ;  11,  Gaul ;  12,  Britain.  If  it  be  true  that  the  memoir  in  which  Emil  Euhn 
(1877)  disputes  the  value  of  this  document  has  been  justly  combated  by  Czwalina  (1881), 
there  remain,  however,  doubts  in  respect  to  certain  provinces  inscribed  in  the  list  of  Verona, 
the  formation  of  which  appears  to  date  from  the  second  half  of  the  fourth  century.     See 


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574  THE    ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  I    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

last  figures  justify  the  words  of  Lactantius:  provincice  in  frusta 
cfmcisw,  but  does  not  justify  the  malevolent  intention  which 
dictated  it,  since  the  measure  was  excellent.  Diocletian  groupf^d 
these  ninety-six  provinces  into  twelve  diceceses  or  districts,  each 
governed  by  a  vicarim^  or  vicegerent,  who  had  a  surveillance  over 
the  consuls,  correctoreB^  and  presidents  or  judges  sent  into  the  pro- 
vinces. Two  or  three  countries,  by  reason  of  their  ancient  renown 
— Carthaginian  Africa,  Greece,  and  Asia — were  governed  by  pro- 
consuls, who  were  amenable  directly  to  the  emperor.^  Thus  we 
find,  at  the  head,  the  Augusti ;  below  them  the  Csesars ;  lower  yet, 
the  vicarii ;  and  lastly,  the  presidents.  This  political  construction, 
where  the  upper  strata  rested  with  all  their  weight  upon  the  lower, 
seemed  capable  of  resisting  attacks  from  without  and  suppressing 
any  domestic  disturbances.  For  more  safety,  the  military  order 
was  rigorously  separated  from  the  civil,  and  the  governors  of 
provinces,  whose  promotion  depended  upon  their  services,  were 
reduced  to  juridical  and  administrative  functions. 

Originally  the  provinces  had  been  divided  between  the  senate 
and  the  emperor;  as  late  as  the  reigns  of  Tacitus  and  Probus  we 
have  seen  what  the  claims  of  the  Conscript  Fathers  were  in  this 
matter.  In  the  new  organization  all  the  provinces  were  dependent 
upon  the  emperor ;  and  the  extent  of  many  of  them  being  reduced, 
the  surveillance  of  the  governors  was  more  efficacious,  justice  more 
prompt,    matters    were    examined    at    closer    range,    and   decisions 

C.  Julian,  Be  la  ESfonne  provinciate  attridu^  a  DiocUtien,  {Revue  hist,  vol.  xix.  2nd  part, 
pp.  331  et  seq.) 

*  The  words  dicecesis  and  corrector  were  not  new.  The  dioecesis  was  originally  a  financial 
or  juridical  subdivision  of  the  province  (Or.-IIenzen,  No.  6,498 ;  Mommsen,  Inscr.  Neap.,  1,433). 
Diocletian,  on  the  contrary,  united  several  provinces  to  form  a  diwcesis.  Under  Caracalla 
we  find  an  electtis  ad  cor  riff  endum  statum  Italia,  The  juridici  of  Marcus  Aurelius  became 
correctores ;  under  Aurelian,  Tetricus  was  corrector  Lucani<p.  Of.  E.  Desjardins,  Revue  arch^oL, 
1873, 2nd  part,  p.  67.  It  has  already  been  remarked  that  each  supreme  magistrate  had  his  corps 
of  subordinates,  o^ctMm,  which  did  not  change  with  their  chief:  ....  ofliciales  perpetui  sunt 
(Paulus,  Sent.,  ii.  1,  6;  cf.  Code  TMod,,  xi.  30,  69).  They  kept  the  official  books,  and  could 
remind  the  judge  of  the  statute  in  case  he  had  forgotten  it  {Code  Theod,,  xi.  40,  15). 

^  Bocking,  Not,  diyn.,  i.  167,  and  ii.  148.  Macer  had  said,  as  early  as  the  time  of  Alexander 
Severus  {Digest,  i.  18,  1)  :  prasidis  nomen  generale  est  eoque  et  proconsules  et  legati  Ctesaris  et 
omnes  provincias  regentes  ....  prtesides  appellantur.  In  the  fourth  century  the  name  of 
judices  prevailed— a  natural  change,  since  the  suppression  of  the  formulary  method  of  procedure 
singularly  enhanced  the  judicial  role  of  the  presidents.  The  Antonines  had  given  currency  to 
the  idea  that  the  principal  function  of  a  governor  was  to  enunciate  the  law.  The  juridici  of 
Italy  dato  from  Mnrciis  Aurelius,  and  und-r  Hadrian  and  Antonine  there  had  been  these  officers 
in  the  provinces. 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS   AND    ADMINISTRATION.  575 

reached  more  quickly.*  Severe  regulations  established  the  responsi- 
bility of  these  officers.  ''  He  bound  them  fast,"  says  Aurelius 
Victor,  "by  the  most  just  laws."^ 

An  inscription  of  the  time  of  Diocletian,  that  of  Caelius 
Satuminus,  proves  that  there  was  always  practised  the  essentially 
Koman  custom  of  causing  the  public  servants  to  fill  the  most 
diverse  offices,  and  to  leave  them  but  a  short  time  in  each.  Satur- 
ninus  held  twenty,  from  the  office  of  advocate  of  the  treasury  to 
that  of  praetorian  prefect — all  of  the  civil  order ;  by  which  we  see 
that  the  rule  established  by  Augustus,  and  maintained  as  late 
as  the  time  of  Severus  and  the  Gordians,  requiring  militarj^ 
service  in  the  cavalry,  was  no  longer  observed.^  An  absolute  ruler 
likes  to  take  his  servants  from  every  station,  even  the  lowest. 
These  functionaries,  not  eminent  by  birth,  consoled  themselves  with 
the  pomp  of  titles:  humble  offices  had  become  sacred  magistracies, 
stipendia  cognitionum  sacrarum  aut  palatii  magisterial    The  separation 


*  The  ordinary  procedure  in  a  civil  matter,  \hQJure  ordinario  agere,  that  the  Republic  and 
the  Early  Empire  had  practised,  had  given  place  gradually  to  the  cogniUo  extra  ordinem.  An 
ordinance  of  294  authorizes  the  presidents  to  appoint  judges  only  when  they  themselves 
were  absolutely  prevented  by  other  duties  from  fulfilling  this  office.  The  judices pedanet  being 
appointed,  pronounced  sentence  independently  of  the  president,  who  had  cognizance  of  these 
affairs  only  upon  appeal  of  the  parties.  {CodeJuxt.,  iii.  8, 2.)  To  prevent  these  governors  from 
acting  in  any  instance  without  due  deliberation,  Diocletian  forbade  their  revoking  sentences 
once  rendered  in  criminal  cases,  so  that  their  negligence  might  become  known  to  the  emperor 
if  an  appeal  brought  the  case  before  him.  {Ibid.,  ix.  47, 16.)  Every  Roman  magistrate  had  his 
council,  composed  of  men  whom  he  called  together  to  aid  him  with  their  advice,  lliis  duty 
was  an  onerous  one ;  it  took  time  and  caused  expense,  and  sometimes  exposed  to  ill  will. 
Diocletian  forbade  the  presidents  to  compel  any  man's  services  as  assessor :  they  were  to  hv. 
allured  to  this  office  spe prtsmiorum  atque  konorificentia  {Code,  i.  51,  i.). 

^  Officia,  vincta  legibus  aquissimis  (Cos.,  39). 

'  L.  Fabius  Cilo  Septimius,  who  was  consul  under  Commodus  and  Severus  (C  /.  L., 
1,408-1,410),  also  filled  twenty  different  offices;  but  in  his  case  the  rule  of  military  service  w&^ 
observed,  as  it  was  also  for  the  father-in-law  of  Gordian  III.,  Timesitheus,  who  made  his 
entrance  upon  public  life  as  prefect  of  an  auxiUary  cohort.  {AntiquitSs  de  la  mile  de  Lyon, 
p.  162,  edit,  of  1867.) 

*  Eumenes,  Pro  rest,  scholis,  5,  and  C.  I.  L.,  vol.  vi.  No.  1,704.  We  give  the  curfiLs 
honornm  of  Septimius  and  of  Satuminus,  who,  with  a  century  between,  both  arrived  at  tlu* 
highest  positions,  the  one  by  services  rendered  in  all  kinds  of  civil  and  military  offices,  the 
other  without  ever  leaving  the  civil  career.  The  two  inscriptions,  therefore,  well  indicate  the 
difference  in  the  times. 

Inscription  of   Septimius  (C.   /.  L.,  vol.  vi.   1,408,  and  Wilmanns,   1,202-1^02  h)  :— 

I.  Decemvir  slitibus.  2.  Tnbun.  milit.  leg.  XI  Claudia.  3.  Quasi,  prov.  Cretce  et  Cyren. 
4.  Trihun.  pleb.  5.  Leg.  pro  prat.  prov.  Narbon.  6.  Prat,  urban.  7.  iSodalis  HadrianaJ. 
8.  Leg.  Aug.  leg.  XVI  Flav.  Firma.    9.  ProcoA.  prov.  Narbon.     10.  Pra/.  ararii  militaris. 

II.  Cos  (suff.  anno  193).  12.  Leg,  Augg.  pr.  pr.  prov.  Galat.  13.  Prapositus  re.riilatiomhvr 
Perinthi  pergentibus.     14.  Leg.  pr.pr.  provinc.  Ponti  et  Bitkyn.     16.  I)u.r  ve.ri/lat.per  Italiam. 


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576  THE   ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

between  the  civil  and  military  functions,  commenced  long  before 
this  time,  was  so  rigorously  kept  up  by  Diocletian,  that  the  military 
service,  long  since  prohibited  to  the  imperial  nobility,^  was  still 
further  denied  to  the  municipal  aristocracy.  He  closed  the  legions 
against  the  decurions,  their  sons,  and  all  those  persons  who  by  their 
fortune  were  eligible  to  municipal  offices.^  The  army  was  recruited 
among  the  barbarians,  and  there  remained  no  more  military  spirit 
among  this  people  who  by  it  had  once  achieved  such  great  things. 
We  shall  later  show  in  its  entirety  the  so-called  "  divine 
hierarchy,"  but  we  must  first  speak  of  an  important  novelty,  the 
formation  of  an  Asiatic  court  which  was  to  crowd  that  dwelling 
which  the  Nervas  and  Trajans  called  "the  public  palace."  Dio- 
cletian was  an  admirer  of  the  Oriental  world,  its  royal  customs 
pleased  him,  and  he  copied  its  stately  ceremonial.  He  replaced 
by  vestments  of  silk  and  gold  the  military  tunic,  over  which  his 
predecessors  had  merely  thrown  a  scarlet  mantle;  upon  his  forehead 
he  wore  the  royal  diadem  which  Aurelian  had  already  assumed, 
and  his  purple  slippers  were  studded  with  precious  stones.  To  the 
imperator,  whom  all  men,  soldiers  and  citizens,  might  freely  salute, 
succeeded  the  king-god,  hidden  in  mysterious  shadow,  in  the 
depths  of  a  palace  whose  approaches  were  guarded  by  a  crowd 
of  eunuchs  and  officers.  Whosoever  obtained  from  the  magister 
officiorum  an  imperial  audience  was  led  to  it  by  a  master  of  cere- 
monies and  introduced  by  the  admisszonales  invitatores.  Crossing  the 
threshold  guarded  by  thirty  mutes,  he  fell  prostrate  and  adored 
"the  sacred  countenance,"  scarcely  daring  to  lift  his  eyes  to  this 
motionless  and  dreadful  majesty.'     Those  even  to  whom  their  rank 

16.  Leg,  pr,  pr,  provinc.  Pannon.  sup.  17.  Our,  Minicia  (porticus),  R,  P,  Nioomedensium, 
Interamnatium,  NarUum  item  Graviscanorum,     18.  Pra/ectus  Urbi.     19.  Cos,  II  (anno  204). 

Inscription  of  0.  Caelius  Saturninus  (C,  I.  Z.,  vol.  vi.  1,705) : — 1.  Fisci  advocatus  per 
Itaiiam,  2.  Sexagenarius  studiof^m  adjutor,  3.  Sexagenarius  a  consiliis  sacris,  4.  Ducenarius 
a  consiliis  {sacris),  5.  Magister  libellorum,  6.  Magister  studiorum,  7,  Vicarius  a  consiliis 
sacris,  8,  Magister  censuum.  0.  Rationalis  vicarius  per  Oallias,  10.  HationaUs  privata, 
11.  Vicarius  sumnue  rei  rationum,  12.  PrtB/ectus  annonce  Urbis,  13.  Examinator  per  Itaiiam. 
14.  Vicarius  prafectorum  prcetorio  bis,  in  urbe  Homa  et  per  Mysias,  16.  Judex  sacrarum 
cognitionum,  16.  Vicarius  prcefecturce  Urbis.  17.  Come*  domini  nostri  Constantini  Victoris 
Augusti,    18,  Allectus  petitu  senatus  inter  coTisulares.    19.  Prafectus  pratorio, 

>  See  p.  370. 

*  .  .  .  .  Omnibus  infraudem  civilium  munerum  (Code  Just.,  xii.  34,  2). 

'  Amm.  MarceUinus,  xv.  5,  §  8 :  admissionum  magistrum.  Bockin^,  Not.  dign,,  i.  237,  and 
ii.  305.  The  Magister  officiorum  commanded  the  countless  personnel  of  the  palace  and  of  the 
manufactures  of  arms.     His  duties  explain  his  insignia. 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    AVARS    AND    ADMINISTRATION.  577 

gave  daily  adinittaiice  were  subjected  to  this  servile  ceremonial.^ 
All  became  sacred,  the  palace  of  the  emperor  as  well  as  his  person, 
his  words  and  his  acts.  Never  in  our  European  world  had  man 
so  much  encroached  upon  divinity. 

It  was  not  for  the  gratification  of  a  puerile  vanity  that 
Diocletian  placed  himself  outside  the  pale  of  common  life,  and 
condemned  himself  to  an  ostentatious  ennui.  The  man  who  had 
said  that  the  best  monarch,  the  most  prudent,  the  wisest,  always 
is  in  danger  of  being  sold  by  his  courtiers,^  was  not  ignorant  of 
the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  a  free  communication  between 
the  sovereign  and  the  subjects;  but  he  believed  that  there  would 
be  fewer  revolutions  in  the  state  when  there  should  be  more 
respect  for  the  ruler;  that  imperial  majesty  would  be  more  imposing 
in  the  twilight  where  he  proposed  to  keep  it;  that  a  servility  of 
words  and  attitudes  would  guarantee  in  the  interests  of  public 
tranquillity  a  servility  in  men's  minds;  that,  finally,  obedience 
would  be  better  secured  by  a  pomp  of  ceremonies  and  the  severe 
forms  of  authority.  It  was  a  calculation  which  might  indeed  be 
true  for  old  dynasties,  the  object  of  public  homage,  and  for  a 
clergy  speaking  in  the  name  of  heaven;  but  it  was  false  as 
made  by  those  who  demanded  of  oflicial  etiquette  a  force  that 
historic  circumstances  did  not  give  it.  Diocletian,  rising  from 
so  low  to  so  high  a  condition,  had  experience  enough  to  know 
what  these  outside  shows  were  worth,  what  a  burden  this  sump- 
tuous court,  imitated  by  the  other  Augustus  and  by  the  Csesars, 
would  impose  upon  the  treasury;  what  a  deleterious  effect  it 
would  exercise  on  the  already  effeminate .  minds  of  men,  in  a 
time  which  demanded  all  possible  effort  to  make  them  more 
virile.  But  ihe  servility  of  the  Asiatic  races  and  of  an  Empire 
in  its  decline  made  him  believe  in  the  happy  effects  of  this 
stately  <)eremoiiial. 

Diocletian  destroyed  the  fiction  of  a  delegation  of  authority  by 
the  people  to  the  emperor.  He  was  unwilling  to  retain  any  of 
the  former  powers,  the  citizens,  the  senate,  the  army ;  and  from  the 

*  .  .  .  .  quibus  aditum  vestri  dabant  ordines  di(jnitatis :  et  ,  .  .  .  admissis  qui  Macros  vultus 
adoraturi  erant  {Pan.,  iii.  II).  See  Eutrop.,  ix.  26.  The  title  of  dominm  is  not,  however, 
found  on  the  coins  of  Diocletian  (Eckhel,  vol.  viii.  p.  U),  but  he  allowed  it  to  be  given  him : 
Dominum  dicipasstu,  says  Aur.  Victor  (CW.,  3U),  parentem  eyit. 

^  Vopi.scu8,  Aur,,  43. 

VOL.  VI.  IP 


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578  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

authority  which  his  generals  had  given  him  he  constructed  a  sort 
of  divine  right  which  he  communicated  freely  to  his  colleague  and 
to  the  successors  chosen  by  himself  alone.  The  sovereignty  had 
again  changed  hands.  From  the  forum  and  the  curia  it  had  passed 
into  the  camps;  now  it  was  held  within  the  palace.^  The  court  of 
Diocletian  was  an  importation  into  the  European  world  of  customs 
to  which  certain  modem  royalties  have  fallen  heir.  It  created 
that  factitious  social  condition  in  which  the  mind  grows  fine  and 
acute,  and  politeness  and  elegance  give  the  most  charming  exterior; 
but  in  which  manners  too  often  become  corrupt  and  characters 
degraded — where  life  is  made  up  of  flatteries,  of  secret  treasons, 
and  of  beggary.  Under  Diocletian  none  of  these  evils  appeared, 
for  the  reason  that  he  imposed  upon  his  courtiers  a  respect  for  the 
law  as  well  as  for  himself ;  but  after  him  were  opened  '^  those 
voracious  mouths"*  whereby  Constantine  suffered  his  people  to  be 
preyed  upon,  and  the  splendours  of  Constantinople  were  to  ruin 
the  finances  of  the  Empire,  as  later  the  magnificent  follies  of  the 
old  Bourbon  monarchy  exhausted  the  resources  of  France. 

In  presence  of  these  innovations  the  ancient  things  languished 
or  died.  Rome  ceased  to  be  the  capital  of  the  world ;  nothing 
went  into  it,  and  all  things  went  out  from  it — ^all  affairs  of  import- 
ance, gay  and  noisy  life,  barrack  riots,  palace  tragedies.  To  the 
eye  the  stage  remained  nearly  as  Augustus  had  constructed  it.  If 
there  were  no  longer  emperors  on  the  Palatine,  there  were  always 
consuls  in  their  curule  chairs,  senators  under  their  laticlaves,  an 
assembly  of  the  dead,  in  a  city  which  was  entering  upon  its  new 
role^  that  of  the  greatest  museum  in  the  world. 

There  was  no  place  at  all  for  Oriental  kings  in  a  city  filled 
with  memories  of  the  senatorial  Republic  and  the  popular  Empire. 
The  liberty  of  speech,  the  habits  of  familiarity  with  their  rulers 
that  the  people  had  kept,  would  have  been  grave  infractions  of 
the  etiquette  of  the  new  court.  At  the  time  of  the  conference 
of  Milan,    ^'Rome,"   says  the  Panegyrist,  with  his   customary  bad 


^  The  author  of  the  Actio  gratiarum  Julio  says  that  the  comitia  of  Rome  were  now  in  the 
hreast  of  the  emperor:  .  ...  in  sacrt pectoris  comitio  {Pan.  vet.,  xi.  15),  an  awkward  imitation 
of  the  words  of  Plautus  in  Epidtcus,  i.  2,  which  are  at  least  witty :  jam  senafum  conijocabo  in 
corde  consiliorum. 

^  Amra.  Marcellinus.  xvi.  8. 


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Ilistorv  ot  Iloiiie.  PI.  IV 


EuHCLi  DEL  Dosso  piiixJt  [mp.  Fraillery.  OAMBouRr.sx  chroinolitli. 


CONSULAR     DIPTYCH     OF     FLAVIUS     FELIX 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS   AND   ADMINISTRATION.  579 

taste,  ^^Eome  looked  from  her  hill- tops  endeavouring  to  catch  a 
glimpse  of  her  emperors  in  the  distance."  ^  But  she  saw  nothing 
coming.  The  Augusti  remained  occupied  with  the  affairs  of  the 
Empire,  and,  paying  no  attention  to  Rome,  returned  .to  protect 
the  frontiers. 

Diocletian  had  received  the  purple  in  Nicomedia,  at  the  hands 
of  his  comrades  in  arms;  he  kept  it  without  asking  from  the 
senate  a  confirmation  of  his  titles.  Incessantly  he  made  laws:  we 
have  1,200  of  his  rescripts,  and  not  one  of  them  was  prepared  by 
the  assembly  which  had  been  the  great  council  of  the  Empire. 
Up  to  this  time  the  senate  had  appeared  to  make  the  consular 
elections:  it  was  a  pure  formality,  but  precious,  nevertheless,  to 
the  vanity  of  a  body  of  men  who  were  not  at  all  exacting. 
Diocletian  now  took  the  appointment  of  consols  into  his  own 
hands.^  Thus  to  drop  the  veil  which  hid  the  nothingness  of  its 
authority  was  a  public  insult;  the  senate  were  justly  incensed; 
there  followed  imprudent  words,  possibly  conspiracies^  certainly 
executions.  Diocletian  did  not  pay  these  senile  ebullitions  the 
honour  to  concern  himself  personally  with  them;  he  gave  the 
matter  in  charge  to  Maximian,  well  suited  to  such  a  duty.' 

^  .  .  .  .  c  specttlts  snorum  montium  prospicere  conata  {Pan.  vet.,  iii.  12). 

^  The  coloured  plate  represents  a  consular  diptych,  that  of  Flavins  Felix, "  a  very  illustrious 
man,  comes  and  magUter  of  the  two  military  services,  patrician  and  consul  ordtfiaritts,"  who  was 
consul  of  the  West  in  428.  There  exists  only  one  more  ancient  diptych,  that  of  Probus,  consul 
in  406,  under  Honorius. 

The  consul  standing,  in  his  place  in  the  theatre,  holds  the  long  consular  sceptre 
surmounted  by  a  globe,  which  bears  the  busts  of  the  reigning  emperors,  Valentinian  III.  and 
Theodosius  II.  The  inscription  is  as  follows :  FL(avii)  FELICIS  V(iri)  C(laris8imi)  COM(itis) 
AC  MAG(istri). 

This  diptych  was  long  preserved  entire  in  the  abbey  of  Saint  Junien  de  Limoges.  The 
panel  here  given  was  brought  in  1808  to  the  Cabinet  of  Medals  in  Paris.  The  otlier  is  lost, 
but  we  know  it  from  the  publications  of  Mabillon,  Annales  ordints  Benedictini ;  of  Banduri, 
Imperium  orientate;  of  Gori,  Thesattnu  veterum  diptychorumf  i.  p.  120.  Ch.  Lenormant  has 
also  reproduced  it  in  the  Tr4sor  de  7iumum.  et  de  glyptique.  The  consular  diptychs  were  double 
tablets  of  ivory  which  the  consuls  distributed  to  the  senators  on  taking  office.  Justinianus, 
consul  of  the  East  in  521,  inscribed  upon  his  diptych : 

Munera  parva  quidem  pretio,  sed  honoribus  alma, 
Patribua  tsta  meis  offero  consul  ego. 

This  is  the  use  of  the  consular  diptychs  perfectly  indicated.  A  law  of  the  Theodosian  Code, 
made  in  384  under  Valentinian  II.  and  Tlieodosius,  grants  to  the  consuls  exclusively  the  right 
of  distributing  these  ivory  diptychs:  exceptis  consultbus  ordinariis  nulliproraus  alteri  diptycha 
ex  chore  dandi  faeuitas  sit.  See  Chabouillet,  Revue  des  SociStSs  savantes,  5th  series,  vol.  vi. 
1873. 

*  Lactantius,  de  Morte  pers.,  8 :  .  .  .  .  Non  deerant  locupletissimi  senatores  qui  subui-natis 
indiciis  a^ectasse  imperium  dicerentur  (Auv.  Victor,  39). 

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580  THE    ILLYRIAX    EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

The  praetorian  prefect,  the  man  once  called  ''the  king's 
sword,"  remained  a  person  of  importance,  but  he  ceased  to  be 
dangerous.  His  military  authority  was  almost  suppressed  by  the 
formation  -of  four  distinct  armies ;  by  the  regular  and  no  longer 
accidental  appointment  of  magistri  militwn^  who  left  the  prefect 
only  the  care  of  the  commissariat  and  the  pay;^  lastly,  by  the 
suppression  of  the  corps  of  frumentarii^  which  gave  him  absolute 
power  over  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  the  principal  men  of  the 
provinces.  In  the  Early  Empire  it  was  not  considered  wise  to 
multiply  the  administrative  personnel^  and  yet  many  functionaries 
were  necessary  for  the  conduct  of  public  affairs,  and  particulai'ly 
for  the  maintenance  of  public  order,  which,  necessary  in  every 
civilized  country,  is  pre-eminently  so  in  a  monarchical  coimtry. 
The  army  fulfilled  this  duty.  From  the  first  days  of  the  Empire 
it  had  furnished  officers  to  protect  the  interests  of  Kome  in  the 
free  cities,  for  instance  Byzantium,  or  among  turbulent  allies 
like  the  Batavi  and  the  Moors;  later  it  furnished  soldiers  and 
centurions  who  were  retained  at  Rome,  frumentariij  under  the 
authority  of  the  praetorian  prefect.  After  being  trained  for  their 
new  trade  they  were  sent  into  the  provinces  to  see  and  hear, 
and  afterwards  tell  what  they  had  ascertained.  By  their  reports 
the  frumentarii  often  gave  cause  for  accusations  even  against  the 
governors  of  provinces.^  Hence  their  odious  reputation,  and  the 
joy  caused  by  their  suppression.  With  his  new  administrative 
system,  Diocletian  had  no  longer  need  of  this  vast  system  of 
espionage   which   had    given  the  praetorian   prefects   so  formidable 

*  Under  Coustantine,  who  made  them  exclusively  civil  functionaries,  there  were  four 
praetorian  prefects  j  the  opinion  of  Zosimus  (ii.  32)  seems  most  correct,  that  there  were  but  two 
under  Diocletian,  as  there  were  but  two  Augusti.  The  prefect  Asclepiodotus,  who  aided  Con- 
st antius  against  Allectus,  was  probably  Maximian's  praetorian  prefect,  and  still  held  the  early 
military  position  attached  to  this  office.  As  to  the  magistn,  they  bad  existed  from  time  to 
time  during  the  third  century ;  thus  Aurelian,  under  Valerian  and  Claudius,  held  the  'inilitiai 
maffistenum,  either  for  command  or  inspection  of  camps  and  fortresses  (Hist.  Aug,  Aur.,  9, 
11,  and  17).  An  officer  like  this  was  too  useful  for  Diocletian  not  to  have  made  it  a  per- 
manent position.  (Lactantius,  de  Morfe  pers.,  7.)  The  exact  duties  we  do  not  know;  it 
was  doubtless  a  great  service  of  inspection  and  command,  which  received  from  Constantine 
its  definite  form  when  he  instituted  two  inagistri  militum,  one  for  the  infantry',  the  other  for 
the  cavalry. 

^  M.  L.  Renier  has  thus  explained  the  character  of  the  frumentani,  contrary  to  the  opinion 
which  represented  tliem  as  officers  employed  in  the  commissariat.  We  know  that  centurions 
were  employed  in  mines  and  quarries  as  superintendents  of  the  works.  With  the  Uomaus  the 
army  was  useful  for  all  purposes. 


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DIOCLETIAN  I    WAHS   AND    ADMINI8THATI0N.  583 

a  weapon.^  He  attached  so  much  importance  to  having  it  known 
that  all  could  rely  upon  the  justice  of  the  emperou  that,  in  the 
rescript  entitled:  ^^ Concerning  those  who,  through  fear  of  the 
judge,  have  not  dared  to  appeal,"  he  says:  "If  thou  hast  not 
appealed  from  the  sentence  pronounced  against  thee  it  is  because 
thou  hast  accepted  it,  for  in  our  sacred  court  thou  hadst  nothing 
to  fear."^ 

As  for  the  praetorians,  their  number  was  gradually  diminished 
by  sending  malcontents  into  the  legions,  and  the  haughty  band 
which  had  made  and  unmade  so  many  emperors,  descended  without 
resistance  to  the  condition  of  a  guard  of  city  watch,  as  this  senate, 
which  had  governed  the  world,  was  reduced  to  being  only  the 
municipal  council  of  Rome.  And  thus  the  two  ancient  powers,  so 
long  enemies,  were  perishing  together.  The  strength  of  the  urban 
cohorts,  who  were  under  the  command  of  the  prefect  of  the  city, 
was  also  reduced.^ 

The  Augusti  substituted  for  their  body-guard  of  praetorians 
two  battalions  levied  in  the  Ulyrian  provinces.  These  soldiers 
took  the  names  of  the  emperors,  being  called  the  Jovian  and  the 
Herculean,  and,  proud  of  being  fellow-countrymen  of  their  masters, 
they  exhibited  towards  them  absolut^e  fidelity/ 

The  Dalmatian,  who  cared  so  little  about  the  people  whom 
his  predecessors  had  courted,   desired  to  let  the  Romans  behold  in 


*  Constant ine  re-established  this  police  service,  intrusting  it  to  Offentes  in  rebus. 

*  Code  Just,  y\i.  67,  1. 

.  '  Imntinuto  pratoriarum  cohorttum  atque  in  aimiis  vulgi  numero  ( Aur.  Victor,  Cess.,  39 ;. 
Lactantius,  de  Morte  pers.,  13).  After  his  victory  over  Maxentius,  Constantino  suppressed  the 
praetorians,  whose  name  thenceforward  is  lost  to  history.  From  the  middle  of  the  third  century, 
the  emperors,  always  absent  from  Rome,  and  always  distrustful  of  the  praetorians,  had  given 
themselves  a  private  guard,  composed  of  two  corps,  infantry  and  cavalry,  who  were  called 
domestici  and  protectores. 

*  Zosimus,  iii.  30.  In  respect  to  what  may  be  called  the  line,  Diocletian  doubtless  began 
that  dismemberment  of  the  legions  which  Constantine  systematically  continued.  In  the  time 
of  Hyginus  the  legion  was  still  composed  of  6,000  men ;  but  Diocletian,  having  constructed 
many  castles  and  fortresses  along  the  line  of  the  frontiers,  wished,  no  doubt,  to  have  them 
guarded  by  small  bodies  of  troops,  which  should  have,  nevertheless,  their  complement  both  of 
men  and  munitions.  P'or  this  service  the  legion  was  too  numerous,  and  it  became  necessary  to 
reduce  it.  From  his  reign  on,  the  word  schola  takes  the  signification  of  a  detachment  of 
soldiers,  a  sense  in  which  we  find  it  both  in  the  Code  and  in  Amm.  Marcellinus.  It  woidd 
seem  that  Hyginus  wrote  his  book,  de  MunitionUms  castroruMy  in  the  beginning  of  the  third 
century ;  it  is,  therefore,  useless  to  us  for  the  period  of  the  tetrarchy ;  that  of  Veget ius,  Epitome 
rei  militaris,  composed  between  384  and  395,  does  not  distinguish  times,  so  that  neither  does  it 
give  us  the  military  organization  of  Diocletian. 


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584  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

their  city  a  monument  of  his  ostentation ;  and  he  caused  to  be 
built  on  the  Viminal,  with  a  disdainful  magnificence,  baths  more 
extensive  than  those  of  Titus  and  Caracalla.* 

Eome  was  now  but  an  ordinary  city ;  Italy  but  a  province. 
Up  to  this  time  she  had  been  required  to  furnish  only  the  pro- 
visions necessary  for  the  palace  and  for  the  troops  stationed  in 
the  capital  or  in  the  peninsula,  Italia  annonarta.  Diocletian  sub- 
jected her  to  the  land-tax,  which  since  the  time  of  ALUgustus  she 
had  never  paid.  He  thus  effaced  a  privilege  offensive  to  the 
rest  of  the  Empire  rather  than  created  any  considerable  financial 
advantage,  for  the  tax  was  moderate  at  first.  The  country  adjacent 
to  Rome  as  far  as  a  hundred  miles  from  the  walls,  urbicarta  regio, 
remained  exempt  from  the  contributions  to  which  the  rest  of 
annonary  Italy  was  subjected.^ 

The  consilium^  already  reconstructed  by  Hadrian,  became  the 
consistortum  sacrum^  a  sort  of  council  of  state,  composed  of  the  prin- 
cipal persons  of  the  Empire,  and  filling,  in  the  administration,  the 
place  vacated  by  the  senate.  It  deliberated  in  the  presence  of  the 
emperor  upon  subjects  which  he  laid  before  it;'  this  council  assisted 
him  in  the  exercise  of  his  judicial  functions,  and  a  part  or  all  of 
the  members  accompanied  him  in  his  journeys  and  in  his  residences 
at  Nicomedia,  Antioch,  and  Sirmium,  Finally,  we  see  that  he  made 
a  reform  in  the  general  maintenance  of  order  throughout  the  Empire. 

We  mention,  in  passing,  the  completion  of  the  judicial  evolu- 
tion which  had  been  going  on  since  the  beginning  of  the  Empire : 
the  cognitio  extra  ordinem^  substituted  for  the  formulary  procedure ; 
in  criminal  cases  the  inqumtio  or  information,  formerly  the  part  of 
the  accuser,  now  made  officially  by  the  magistrate ;  in  civil  cases, 
the  twofold  prosecution,  first  before  the  praetor,  in  jure^  and  then 
before  the  judge,  in  judi^io^  replaced  by  the  single  suit  before  the 
judge,   a  state  functionary.*      The  judicial  system  of  the  Republic, 

*  There  were  many  other  buildings  erected  bv  Diocletian  at  Rome,  at  Antioch  (Malalas, 
xii.  p.  306),  at  Nicomedia,  etc.  Cf.  Orelli,  Nos.  1,047,  1,052,  l,a54,  1,055,  1,056,  etc.,  and 
Lactantius,  de  Morte  pers.,  7.  An  inscription  very  recently  discovered  shows  an  African  city, 
which  the  rebels  had  destroyed,  rebuilt  by  Diocletian  and  Maxim i an. 

'  Aur.  Victor,  39.     Cf.  I^actantius,  de  Morte  pers.,  23. 

^  ImpjK  Diocl.  et  Mn.vim.  A  A.,  in  coiuititorio  dixenmt  (Code,  ix.  47,  12).  The  members  of 
the  council  received  as  salary  60,000,  1(K),000,  and  200,000  sesterces,  as  we  know  from  the 
inscription  of  Satuminus. 

*  Tlie  pwetor  had  the  jwi^dicf to,  that  is  to  say,  the  rijfht  to  jfrant  or  refuse  an  action.     The 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS    AND    ADAIIM^jTKATION.  587 

which  Augustus  preserved,  was  entirely  unsuited  to  the  new 
imperial  monarchy.  Formerly  the  magistrate  did  not  intervene  in 
the  case  except  by  the  judicis  datio ;  henceforth,  he  was  to  concern 
himself  with  it  at  every  stage;  and  the  judges  being,  as  public 
functionaries,  the  delegates  of  the  emperor,  the  sovereign  might 
revise  their  sentences,  either  dii^ectly  or  by  the  vice  sacra  judicantesj 
who  would  make  in  his  name  a  second  trial,  of  which  he  would 
accept  or  reverse  the  decisions.  All  civil  and  criminal  justice 
thus  came  to  be  in  the  emperor's  own  hands ;  and  thence  it 
followed  that  when  the  venality  of  the  last  century  of  the  Eepublic 
re-appeared  in  the  Later  Empire,  justice  as  well  as  the  administm- 
tion  was  polluted  by  it,  the  two  being  then  blended.^ 

The  municipal  law  of  Csesar  had  ordered  for  Italy  a  quin- 
quennial census.  To  accomplish  this  for  the  entire  Empire  was 
difficult;  accordingly,  in  the  time  of  Ulpian,  it  took  place  only 
every  ten  years.  The  minute  description  that  Ulpian  has  left  us 
of  it  proves  what  scrupulous  care  the  Romans  employed  in  making 
an  equitable  apportionment  of  the  taxes.^  At  the  expiration  of 
each  decennial  period  a  new  valuation  of  land  was  made,  on  the 
declaration  of  the  owners,  subject  to  correction  by  the  censitor. 
Lactantius  speaks  of  this  necessary  revision  in  terms  of  alarm 
which  have  misled  later  writers ;  it  has  been  thought  that  Lactantius 
revealed  outrageous  exactions,  commenced  by  Diocletian  and  con- 
tinued by  Galerius,*  when  in  reality  only  one  of  the  most  ancient 

action  being  allowed,  he  named  judges  who  were  specially  appointed  for  each  case.  These 
judges  had  the  cognitioy  or  first  inquiry,  and  could  be  readily  challenged  and  set  aside.  When 
they  were^  not  select-ed  exclusively  from  one  of  the  great  political  bodies  (as  they  were  in  the 
last  century  of  the  Republic),  citizens  possessed  guarantees  against  the  interested  sentences  of 
magistrates  and  against  arbitrary  action  on  the  part  of  government.  The  law  of  Diocletian, 
which  is  of  the  year  294,  is  found  in  the  Code  of  Jvstinianf  iii.  3,  2. 

*  In  respect  to  this  change,  see  above,  p.  574,  and  Puchta,  Instit,  vol.  ii.  p.  261,  §  182 ; 
Walter,  §  743;  Bethmann-Hollweg,  iii.  104,  and  Cuq,  Le  Magiater  sacrarum  cognitiormmj  or 
chief  of  department,  who  made  the  preliminary  investigation  of  matters  submitted  to  the 
emperor.  The  right  of  appeal  to  the  sovereign  had,  since  the  time  of  Augustus,  modified  the 
judicial  organization  of  the  Republic.  The  reorganization  of  the  imperial  council  by  Hadrian, 
who  made  it  into  a  high  court  of  judicature,  had  prepared  the  way  for  the  reform  accomplished 
by  Diocletian.    The  emperor  was  then  the  source  of  all  justice. 

*  Digest,  1.  15,  4. 

'  Agri  glebatim  metiebantur :  vites  et  arbores  numerahantur :  animalia  omnu  generis 
scribehantur :  hominum  capita  notabantur  {de  Morte  pers.y  23).  The  Theodosian  Code  (ix.  42, 7) 
shows  the  regularity  of  the  work  which  had  been  done  ever  since  the  time  of  Augustus  and 
before  him:  ....  (/uod  spatitim  et  qtwd  sit  nm's  ingeninm;  quid  aut  cultum  sit  aut  colatur: 
quid  in  vineis,  olivis,  aratoriis, pascuis,  silvisfuerit  imeutum. 


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588  THE    ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

customs  of  the  imperial  administration  should  be  recognized  here. 
Diocletian,  who  multiplied  offices  and  lined  all  the  frontiers  with 
defensive  works,  must  have  been  obliged  to  create  means  for  so 
many  expenses.  Taxes  certainly  were  increased;  perhaps  it  was  he 
who  made  general  the  tax  of  twelve  and  a  half  per  cent,  formerly 
levied  on  articles  of  luxury^  alone;  and  if  he  abolished  the  five 
per  cent,  on  inheritances  and  on  enfranchisements,  of  which  we  find 
no  trace  after  his  time,^  he  increased  the  tax  of  one  per  cent,  upon 
sales,  which  is  later  mentioned  as  a  very  heavy  burden;^  but  the 
re-establishment  of  t)rder  and  industry  prevented  the  weight  of 
public  expenses  from  being  very  much  felt ;  Aurelius  Victor  had 
already  shown  us  that  under  Diocletian  they  were  easily  borne. 

A  document  recently  discovered  attributes  to  this  emperor  a 
curious  simplification  in  the  administration  of  the  finances.* 

Like  Augustus  he  divided  the  lands  into  various  categories : 
vineyards,  olive-yards  (two  classes),  corn-lands  (three  classes),  and 
meadows,  which  were  taxed  in  proportion  to  their  supposed  pro- 
ductiveness. To  render  the  collection  more  easy,  he  formed  a 
taxable  unit,  jugum  or  caput^  including  lands  of  different  character 
and  unequal  extent,  which  taken  together  had  the  same  value, 
100,000  sesterces  or  1,000  aurei  (£600),  owed  the  state  an  'equal 
sum.*  Thus  five  jugera  of  vineyards  or  twenty  jugei^a  of  arable 
land  of  the  first  quality  made  a  caput.  Forty  jugera  of  second 
quality  and  sixty  of  third  were  required;  225  olive-trees  in  full 
bearing,  or  460  mountain  olive-trees,  in  monte^  to  constitute  a  like 
taxable  unit.  The  jugum  or  caput  was  therefore  not  a  mathematical 
but   a  taxable   unit.^     Every  financial   district   comprised   a   certain 

'  C'orftf /tt*^.,  iv.  61,  7:  ....  octams  more  solito  constihUas.xmdi&T  Oratian.  We  have 
seen  Diocletian  much  occupied  during  the  negotiations  with  Persia  by  the  question  of  the 
portorinm.  The  enormous  duties  paid  at  Palmyra  (above,  p.  569,  n.  1)  show  that  the  tax  of 
12i  per  cent,  could  not  have  been  a  maximum  established  only  in  certain  places. 

*  An  inscription  of  Gruter  does  indeed  place,  under  Valens,  a  procurator  XX  htred.y  but 
this  inscription  is  doubly  auspicious,  both  by  the  manner  in  which  it  is  composed  and  from  the 
writer,  Panvinio,  who  gives  it.  Orelli  (i.  p.  59)  says  of  him :  (Juhia  omnino  hnud  raro  ejuJi 
est  fides. 

*  Cassiodorus,  Variarum,  iv.  19. 

*  Tlie  Syrisches  Rechtsbiich,  published  ])y  Bruns  in  1HS(). 

*  Xov.  MajorJf  vii.  16;  Nov.  Valent.f  iii.  5,  §  4;  CaseioHorus,  Variorum^  ii.  .S7.  The 
taxable  unit  had  not  evervwhere  the  same  name,  nor,  perhaps,  the  same  extent:  in  Africa  it 
was  the  centuria:  in  Italy,  the  milium;  and  it  is  said  in  the  Thtodosian  Code  (xi.  20,  6) :  .  .  .  . 
five  quo  alio  rurmine  nuncupantnr, 

*  Mommsen,  ap.  Hermes,  iii.  430,  and  Mni-qunrdt,  ii.  :219.     Every  proprietor  gave  personally 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS    AND    ADMINISTRATION.  589 

number  of  them,  and  this  number  determined  the  amount  due  from 
the  whole  district.  According  to  the  needs  of  the  government  the 
sum  of  the  whole  tax  was  raised  or  lowered  (indicebatj  whence 
indiction),  as  in  France  the  percentages  are  added  or  taken  off. 
When  government  consented  to  make  a  reduction  in  the  case  of 
a  proprietor  or  of  a  city,  the  number  of  capita  were  diminished 
which  were  ascribed  to  the  city  or  the  man  in  the  registers  of 
the  census.^  Hence  the  request  inspired  by  the  classic  souvenir 
of  the  labours  of  Hercules :  ''  Regard  us  as  Geryones ;  and  the 
tribute,  the  monster;    that  I  may  live,  cut  off  three  heads." *^ 

The  sum  imposed  by  the  state  upon  the  financial  district  was 
made  known  to  the  decurions  of  the  city,  who  apportioned  the 
tax  among  the  possessoreSy  collected  it,  and  gave  over  to  the  agents 
of  the  treasury  the  sum  demanded  by  the  emperor.  If  there  was 
any  deficit,  it  was  made  good  from  the  property  of  the  decurions; 
that  is  to  say,  they  were  held  responsible  for  the  tax.*  The  citizens 
are  always  so,  since  the  deficits  in  the  budgets  can  be  made  up 
only  by  them;  but  among  the  modems,  it  is  the  entire  mass  of 
tax-payers  who  make  the  sum  complete;  under  the  Empire  it  was 
a  particular  class,  and  the  responsibility  ended  by  crushing  it. 

Notwithstanding   these   precautions   the   taxes  did    not    always 

to  the  imperial  officer,  censitor,  in  the  presence  of  the  other  tax-payers  who  were  interested  in 
his  declaration  (jprofesgio)  being  truthful,  the  amount  of  his  fortune,  as  is  done  in  England  in 
the  income  tax.  Omnia  ipse,  qui  deferty  cBstimet  {Digest,  1.  15,  4).  If  required,  discussion 
followed,  and  a  false  declaration  entailed  confiscation.  This  is  stated  in  the  Theodosian  Code 
(vi.  2,  2)  in  the  case  of  senators,  and  was  still  more  likely  to  exist  with  others.  The  census, 
originally  quinquennial,  later  decennial,  appears  to  have  been  made,  after  312,  at  intervals  of 
fifteen  years,  which  gave  origin  to  the  method  of  reckoning  by  indictione, 

^  Thus  the  territory  of  Autun  contained  32,000  jugera,  which  Constantine  reduced  to 
25,000.  (Pa7i.  vet.,  viii.  11.^  Julian  diminished  in  Gaul  the  tax  for  each  caput  from  15  to  7 
aurei.  (Amm.  Marcellinus,  xvi.  5, 14.)  The  Theodosian  Code  (vi.  20, 6)  speaks  of  capita  relevata 
vel  adarata  levius.  The  basis  of  the  caput  served  even  in  the  matter  of  furnishing  supplies  by 
the  possessores :  in  Thrace,  twenty  capita ;  in  Scythia  and  Moesia,  thirty ;  in  Egypt,  in  the  East, 
in  Asia,  and  Pontus,  thirty-three  {?)  collectively  are  required  to  furnish  a  military  garment. 
(Hist.  Aug.,  Gordian,  iii.  28,  and  Theodosian  Code,  vii.  6,  3.) 

^  Gen/ones  nos  esse  puta,  monstrumque  trihutum  ; 

Hie  capita,  ut  vivam,  tu  mihi  toUe  tria. 

(Sid.  Apollin.,  Carm.,  xiii.  19.) 

^  .  .  .  .  decaproti  et  icosaproti  ....  pro  omnibus  defunctorum  fiscalia  detrimenta  resarciunt 
{Digest,  1.  4,  i.  §  1 ;  3,  §  10;  18,  §  26).  The  latter  law  (18,  §§  1-30)  should  be  read  in  all  its 
details  in  order  to  understand  the  extent  of  the  munera  civilia.  The  lists  of  the  apportionment 
were  preserved  in  the  tabularium  of  each  city  by  the  tabularii  citntatum  (  Theodosian  Code,  xi. 
2S,  3)  :  several  of  these  are  in  existence ;  for  example,  that  of  the  Volceii,  in  the  couutry  of  the 
Lucanianfi,  for  the  year  323.     (Mommsen,  Tn/tcr,  Xeap.,  No.  216.) 


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590  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  I    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

come  in  readily,  for  the  reason  that,  since  the  Romans  raised 
their  principal  public  revenue  from  real  estate,  this  was  over- 
whelmed by  the  burdens  laid  upon  it.  Accordingly  there  were 
insolvent  jjosi^r'S'SOfrs^  ruined  curiales^^  proprietors  who  in  order  the 
better  to  sell  their  land  had  kept  back  the  payment  of  the  arrears 


The  Labours  of  Hercules.^ 

with  which  the  property  was  burdened,  not  paying  it  at  all — a 
dead  loss  to  the  treasury,  since  they  possessed  nothing  else  with 
which  to  answer  to  the  treasury  for  their  debt.'  Thus  arrears 
accumulated,  reliqua^  for  recovery  of  which  the  advocate  of  the 
treasury  instituted  proceedings,  usually  upon  information  given  by 
a  delator^   whose  trade  was  encouraged  by  a  premium   of  a  fourtb 

'  The  curiales  were  doubly  responsible :  first,  towards  the  state,  as  members  of  the 
committee  of  ten  or  of  twenty  {decemprimt\  decaproti,  icMaproti),  or  simply  as  curiales  required 
to  collect  the  tax  (Papinian,  in  the  Digest j  1.  i.  17,  §  7) ;  second,  towards  the  city  as  magistrates, 
financial  or  administrative  (Ulpian  in  the  Digest,  1.  2,  2,  §  8).  In  each  case  their  fortunes  were 
at  stake,  and  it  so  often  happened  that  they  lost  it  in  the  public  service,  that  it  was  establislied 
that  in  such  cases  the  city  owed  them  support.     {Digest^  1.  2,  8.) 

*  Bas-relief  from  a  sarcophagus  of  the  Borghesi  villa.  Under  the  principal  design  is 
represented  the  chase  of  the  leopard,  the  wild  boar,  and  the  wild  bull.  Upon  the  other  side  of 
the  same  sarcophagus  are  represented  other  exploits  of  Hercules  and  similar  hunting  scenes. 
In  vol.  V.  p.  399,  we  have  already  given  a  sarcophagus,  called  a  cinerary  urn,  on  which  are 
represented  subjects  of  the  same  kind. 

*  Constantine  renewed  in  319  {Theodosiaji  Code,  xi.  3,  1)  the  prohibition  long  ago  made 
against  bargains  of  this  kind  (Digest,  1.  IT). .")). 


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DIOCLKTIAK  :    AVAKS   AND    ADMINISTRATION. 


591 


part  of  the  sums  recovered,  quadruplator.  From  time  to  time  policy 
dictated  to  the  emperor  the  relinquishment  of  these  arrears. 
This  was  done  by  Domitian, 
Trajan,  Hadrian,  Antoninus, 
Marcus  Aurelius,  and  Aurelian; 
and  later,  by  Constantine.^ 
There  is  no  mention  in  any 
document  of  a  like  measure 
adopted  by  Diocletian;  but  the 
relief  granted  by  Constantino 
in  310  embraces  only  the 
reliqua  of  the  five  years  pre- 
ceding;^ which  gives  ground 
to  suppose  that  his  great  pre- 
decessor had  left  none. 

Diocletian  confirmed  all 
the  privileges  which  had  been 
accorded  in  preceding  reigns  to 
the  decurions  *  and  the  authority 
of  the  municipal  laws,  from 
which  the  governors  were  not 
allowed  to  derogate;*  he  even 
exempted  from  the  capitation 
tax  the  artisans  in  cities,  plehs 
urbanaj  for  the  small  landed 
possessions  they  might  hold  in 
the  country/  But  pre-occupied 
as  were  his  predecessors  with 
securing  the  performance  of  all  public  duties  in  the  cities,  he  took 
care  not  to  let  the  possessores  withdraw  from  these  cares,^  making, 
however,  the  obligation  of  the  munera  personalia  cease  for  them  at 


Small  Trades :  a  Cutler's  Shop. 
(From  a  Ba^relief .) 


Field  Labourers  surrounding  a  Ploughsbaie. 
(Engi-aved  Stone ;  Caylus,  v.  pi.  83,  6.) 


'  Hadrian  remitted  £8,000,000. 

'  Paneg,  vet.,  viii.  13. 

3  Code  Theod,,  ix.  41, 11,  and  47, 12;  x.  31,  4,  and  42,  3. 

*  Ibid.,  viii.  49, 1 :  xi.  29,  4. 

*  IMd.y  xiii.  10,  2.  The  words  of  this  rescript  addressed  to  the  presidents  of  Lyeia  and 
Pnmphylia:  sicut  in  orientalUms  provinciis  ohservfUur,  show  that  the  immunity  granted 
l)y  Diocletian  had  been  abolished  in  the  provinces  of  Galerius.  (Lactantius,  23.)  In  313 
Constantine  and  Licinius  re-established  it  throughout  the  entire  Empire. 

«  Theor?.  CW^.  X.  41,6  10. 


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592  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPEHOU^i  :    THE    EMPIRE    .STRENGTHENED. 

the  age  of  fifty-fiveJ     That  he  never  ac^corded  exemption  from  the 

capitation  tax  to  the  rural  popu- 
lation was  due  to  the  fact  that 
this  favour  would  have  been 
profitable  only  to  the  great  land- 
owners who  were  responsible  to 
the  treasury  for  theii*  coloni;^ 
the  peasants  therefore  remained 
subject  to  the  capitation,  to  the 
annona,  and  to  the  compulsory 
labour  and  the  furnishing  of 
extra  supplies ;  but  the  ordinance 
Ne  rusticuniy  ad  ullum  obsequium 
devocentur^  protected  them  against 
all  other  dues  or  taxes;  and 
when  the  cities  made  an  attempt 
to   throw   off    upon    the   country 

^^      ,^^ ,,^,^^^  the    superindictions,    under    pre- 

^     tence    that    they    were    tributes 

Library  of  the  Later  Empire.     rFrom  Onrnicci,         ,  ,.  i  x  -lt  i.    j    j* 

^toria  deir  arte  crist.)  extra  ordinem^  ne  estauiisnea  dis- 

tinctly   that    these    were    to    be 
paid  by  the  possessores^     Finally, 
^  by  another  ordinance,  he  declared 

ij^         that   the   colonist    who   had   ful- 
\  ^^      filled   the   terras   of   his   contract 
J  \      should  not    be    held    responsible 
for   the   debts    of    his    landlord/ 
We   have   seen   the  formation  of 
a  new   social   condition,   that    of 
the  colonist;  we  now  see  another 
,,.  .r    a     *Tir  division     made     among    the     in- 

Lhangev  or  V  eriner  of  Money.  ^ 

(From  a  Painted  (Mas«.)  habitants     of    the    Empire :     the 

urbani   exempt    from    capitation  ;    the   rustkani,  w^ho  pay  it.     These 

'  Thootl.  CodCy  40.  \\.     Tlie  e\>Mnption  was  valid  only  si  inopia  civium  non  est  (ibid.f  2). 

-'  I  hid.,  xr.  i.  4. 

^  Ibid.,  xi.  54.  !.     An   ordinanre,  ujidated,  but   si«rned  with   tlie  names  of   Diocletian  and 
Maxiinian. 

^  Ibid.,  x.  41.  10:  .  .   .  .  tfU(i:nhtff:iidem  ca  ] atrinunni  muuera  esffe  cotutet. 
"  I  hid.,  iv.  10.  :^.,  ff/nto  -JM'k 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS   AND    ADMINISTRATION.  593 

divisions  announce  the  approach  of  the  mediaeval  period,  the  time, 
that  is  to  say,  of  inequality  and  rural  distress. 

In  aholishing  the  capitation  tax  for  the  plebs  urbana^  Diocletian 
favoured  the  lesser  industries.  He  attempted  to  assist  legitimate 
traflRc  by  two  other  measures,  the  one  excellent,  the  other  bad:  a 
monetary  reform  which  Constantine  was  later  to  complete,  and  the 
establishment  of  a  maximum  price  for  articles  of  daily  use.  We 
have  seen  what  evils  were  caused  by  the  monetary  crisis  of  the 
second  half  of  the  third  century.  Under  the  idea  that  to  give  to 
a  piece  of  metal  whatever  value  they  liked,  it  sufficed  to '  engrave 
the  emperor's  name  upon  it,  the  Eoman  government  had  ended  by 
putting  in  circulation  pieces  of  silver  and  gold  which  contained 
neither  silver  nor  gold.  But  when  the  buyer  offered  to  a  dealer, 
in  exchange  for  what  the  latter  had  to  sell,  a  piece  of  copper 
coated  with  tin,  it  was  natural  that  the  trader  should  require 
before  parting  with  his  merchandise  a  large  amount  of  this  copper, 
whatever  might  be  the  designation  which  the  authorities  had 
attached  to  the  piece.  Very  high  prices  resulted  therefore  from 
the  depreciation  of  the  currency,  and  the  whole  state  was  disturbed 
by  a  false  economic  idea.  Diocletian  easily  sa\j  the  cause  of  this 
evil;  but  he  thought  he  could  remedy  it  by  an  act  of  supreme 
power.  "  All  men  know,"  he  says,  in  the  preface  to  his  edict, 
"  that  articles  of  traffic  and  objects  of  daily  use  have  attained 
exorbitant  prices,  four  or  eight  times  their  true  value,  or  even 
more  than  that;  so  that,  through  the  avarice  of  monopolists,  the 
provisioning  of  our  armies  becomes  impossible.  We  have  therefore 
determined  to  fix,  not  the  price  of  these  articles,  which  would  be 
unjust,  but  the  maximum  which  in  each  case  they  will  not  be 
allowed  to  exceed."  Many  fragments  of  this  edict  remain  to  us; 
the  following  are  some  of  the  items : 

2  s.  d. 

Rye  (per  bushel) 6    3 

Oats         „  3    0 

Common  Wine  (per  quart)        .        .  0  10 

„       Oil  „  13 

Pork  (per  lb.)   .        .        .   ' 0  10 

Beef        „  0  10 

Mutton  and  Goat  (per  lb.) 0    6^ 

liard,  first  quality       „ 11 

A  Pair  of  Chickens 3    0 

„         Ducks 2    0 

VOL.  VI.  QQ 


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594  THB   ILLTRIAN    EMPBRORS  :    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

£  s.  d. 

A  Hare 7  5 

A  Rabbit 2  0 

Oysters  (a  hundred) 5  0 

ERgs              „               5  0 

Field  Labourer's  Wages  (and  food)  a  day 13 

Mason  or  Carpenter's  Wages  (and  food)  a  day 2  6 

House  Painter's                „               „             „ 3  8 

Decorative  Painter's        „               „             „  7  5 

Shepherd's                        „               „             ,, 10 

Barber's  „       (per  person) IJ 

Reading  Master's            „       (per  month,  one  pupil)       ....  26 

Arithmetic   ,,                  f,                n                 „          .        .        .        .  3  9 

Writing       „                  „                »>                  »»              ....  2  6 

Grammar     „                  „                n                 „          ....  10  0 

To  the  Rhetorician  or  Sophist       „                 „              ....  12  5 

„       Lawyer  for  an  Inquiry 10  0 

To  the  Lawyer  for  obtaining  a  Judgment 2    9  8 

„        Bath  Attendant  (per  bather) l\ 

Nailless  Shoes  of  Muleteer  or  Peasant 6  0 

Horse's  Bridle  with  Bit 5  0 

An  Oilskin 5  0 

Hire  of  an  Oilskin  (per  day) IJ 

Pack-saddle  for  a  Mule  or  Camel 17  4 

,,           „    an  Ass 12  5 

Woman's  Boxwood  Comb 8J 

"As  a  whole  these  prices  differ  but  little  from  city  prices 
in  our  own  time;*  the  deamess  of  common  wine  is  perhaps  the 
thing  most  noteworthy,  the  more  so  since  wine  was  abundant 
in  all  the  provinces  of  the  Empire;  possibly  it  paid  to  the 
treasury  a  high  tax,  comprised  in  the  duty  on  sales."  ^ 

We  have  not  the  right  to  reproach  Diocletian  severely  for  the 
economic  fault  he  committed,  for  fifteen  centuries  later  the  Con- 
vention in  France  again  established  by  law  a  maximum  of  prices. 
The  event  showed  that  no  human  will  could  prevail  in  matters 
like  these  against  the  force  of  circumstances.  The  dealers,  required 
to  sell  at  a  lower  price  than  they  had  paid,  concealed  their  com- 
modities; the  difficulty  increased,  street  brawls  followed,  in  which 
blood  was  shed,  and  it  became  necessary  to  let  the  law  drop  into 
disuse.' 

But  that  which  the  edict  could  not  effect  by  order,  the 
monetary  reform,  which  took  place  between  296  and  301,  did  by 
degrees.     Diocletian  coined  argentei^  of  which  ninety-six  were  made 

'  Waddington,  l^dU,  de  DiocUtien  Stablissant  le  maximum  dam  Pempire  romain,  p.  6. 
■  Lactantios,  7.    The  edict  de  Pretiis  is  of  the  year  301. 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS   AND   ADMINISTRATION. 


595 


to   the  pound,  their  weight  averaging  3*40  gr. ;  ^    and  aurei  60  to 

the    pound,    weighing    therefore    5*42    gr.,    which    gave    them    an 

intrinsic    value    of    about    14s.    2^d. ;  ^ 

lastly,  denarii  of  copper,  or  follis^  worth 

4th    of    an   aureuSj   or  06-2    o.^      This 

last  figure  is  unfortunately  uncertain;^ 

it  is  therefore  proper  to   exercise   dis-    diocletianvs  avg.,  Laurelled 

...  X    ^      4.U         •  1.  Head.  Felix  ADVENT(us)AVGG. 

CretlOn  in  respect    to   the   view  we    have       nN.;    Africa  holding  a  Standard 

just  given,   wherein  values    are    stated      B^onze-f^'^^*'"^'^'^'   ^^^'"'" 

on  the  scale  of  the  worth  of  the  copper 

denarii^    06*2    c.      But  if  this  list  does   not   give  veritable   prices, 

it    is    at    least    interesting,   as    it    shows    relative   values    existing 

between  different 
commodities,  and 
in  the  remunera- 
tion of  services. 
As  to  the  effect 
produced   by    the   ArgmteMotDio- 

IMP.    C.    DIOCLETIANVS    P.    F.    AVG.,  monetarv     reform,  cletian,  marked 

LaureUed  Head.      On  the  Reverse:   GENIO  ^^^^^^     reiorm,  witli  the  Legal 

POPVLI    ROMAN  I    ALE;    Genius  of    the  it  was   inevitable:  Wuin.ber^^yJ. 

Roman  People.    (Medium  Bronze.)                               ,^         •        ,   ..  within  a  wreath. 

as  the  circulation 
of  good   money  increased,   prices  fell   back   to   their   natural  level. 
We  have  abeady  called  attention  to  the  legislative  activity  of 

*  They  were  caUed  milliarii  (juKiapyriftiov)  because  it  took  a  thousand  of  them  to  equal  in 
value  a  pound  of  gold,  which  shows  us  that  at  this  time  silver  was  to  gold  as  1  to  11. 

*  We  have  seeu  that  Csesar  made  40  aurei  from  the  pound  of  bullion ;  Constantine  made 
72,  weighing  each  4*55  gr.  This  piece,  called  solidtu,  was  not  again  changed  until  the  fall  of 
the  Byzantine  empire.  It  is  an  ordinance  of  the  year  367  which  gives  72  aurei  to  the  pound ; 
that  of  the  year  325  ( Theod.  Code,  xii.  7, 1)  says  there  shall  be  7  solidi  to  the  ounce  of  gold,  or 
84  to  the  pound  {uncia  =  A  of  the  libra) ;  but  it  was  long  ago  proposed  to  read  hi  this  text  8ex 
instead  of  septem.  A  kilogram  of  pure  gold  being  worth  to-day  £133  158.  8d.,  a  Roman  pound 
of  327  grammes  of  gold  represents  about  £44,  which  gives  the  solidus  an  intrinsic  value  of  a 
little  over  12s.  Like  the  aureus  the  solidus  always  bore  the  effigy  of  the  reigning  emperor,  and 
this  usage  still  lasts.  Procopius  (Bell,  Ooth.,  iii.  33)  says  that  a  piece  of  gold  bearing  any 
other  than  the  emperor's  head  would  not  be  received  in  trade,  nor  even  have  currency  among 
the  barbarians. 

'  In  reckoning,  the/o//w,  or  purse,  represented  125  milliarii^  or  two  purses  were  equivalent 
to  the  ancient  sestertium  (1,000  sesterces).  Throughout  the  Levant,  men  still  compute  by 
purses,  and  the  purse  is  equal  to  £4  128. 

*  Mommsen  reckons  ihefolUs  equal  to  Id.,  while  Waddington  to  about  Jd.  By  weight  and 
chemical  analysis  we  are  able  to  determine  exactly  what  quantity  of  pure  metal  is  found  in  a 
coin,  and  what  is  the  present  value  of  that  metal.  But  it  is  almost  impossible  for  us  to  know 
its  relative  value  in  antiquity,  that  is  to  say,  what  debt  could  be  paid,  or  what  merchandise 

QQ2 


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596  THE   ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

Diocletian.  The  Codes  have  preserved  1,200  of  his  rescripts. 
Most  of  these  are  administrative  ordinances,  established  to  regulate 
the  movements  of  the  great  machine  which  he  had  set  at  work. 
Those  which  concern  civil  legislation  are  often  merely  the  repetition 
of  earlier  provisions,  but  to  revive  good  measures  and  to  restore 
legal  force  to  them  is  a  merit  in  itself.  In  these  acts  elevated 
sentiments  bear  sway,  and  that  spirit  of  justice  which  marked  the 
decisions  of  the  Autonines.     He  will  not  allow  the  child  to  refuse 

support  to  those  who  gave  him  life,  the  son 
to  be  called  to  testify  against  the  father, 
the  slave  against  his  master,  brother  against 
brother,  a  ward  against  bis  guardian.  A 
Coin  of  Diocletian.  father  complained  that  his  son  had  plotted 

against  him.  "You  have  the  right  to 
demand  justice,"  the  emperor  said,  "if  the  sentiments  that  you 
ought  to  feel  for  your  son  do  not  restrain  you ; "  *  and  he 
declares  that  a  son  can  neither  be  sold  nor  given  in  pledge  by 
his  father.* 

He  repeats  that  the  tenant  (colontis)  is  not  liable  for  the  debts 
of  his  landlord,'  and  charges  the  judges  to  remind  lawyers  of  the 
law,*  and  even  to  supply  what  may  be  lacking  in  the  pleas,  si 
quid  minvs  fuerit  dictum. 

Like  Ulpian  he  disapproved  of  the  use  of  torture,  and  would 
have  the  judge  resort  to  this  means  of  obtaining  the  truth  only 
after  everything  else  had  been  tried;*  and  if  he  called  mathe- 
matics applied  to  astrology  a  damnable  art,  he  declared  geometers 
useful  servants  of  the  state.*  His  justice  was  alike  for  all ;  he 
repulsed  the  solicitations  made  to  his  superior  authority  by  those 
who  sought  to  free  themselves  from  a  legal  obligation.     "We  are 


purchased  with  such  a  piece.  Another  thing  disturbs  our  calculations :  the  interest  in  those 
days  was  12  per  cent.,  sometimes,  in  traffic,  24  per  cent.,  the  rate  at  whicli  in  prosperous  times 
the  banker  Jucundus  of  Pompeii  lent  money. 

*  Code  Just,,  viii.  47,  6;  ibid,,  iv.  20,  6;  Und,,  ix,  1, 13 ;  ilnd.,  ix.  1, 17  :  Iniquum  et  Umge 
a  $ecult  nostri  beatitudine  es$e  credimus:  ibid,,  ix.  1, 14. 

"  Ibid,,  iv.  43, 1  and  2. 
» Ibid,,  iv.  10. 

*  Ibid,,  ii.  11, 1,  under  the  heading :  Ut  qua  desunt  advocatia  par fium  judex  suppleat. 

*  Ibid,,  ix.  41, 8 :  Hoc  ratione  universi provinciales  nostri ffuctum  ingenita  nobis  benevoientu^ 
consequentur. 

«  Ibid,,  ix.  18,  2. 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS   AND    ADMINISTRATION.  597 

not  accustomed,"  he  wrote,  "to  grant  one  man  an  advantage  which 
may  be  harmful  to  others."  ^  And,  on  another  occasion :  '^  An 
imperial  rescript  cannot  undo  that  which  has  been  done  according 
to  the  law-"" 

Under  this  emperor,  who  had  spent  so  large  a  part  of  his  life 
in  camps,  the  soldier  was  not  allowed  to  lift  his  head  and  his  voice 
too  high.  To  selfish  demands  made  from  the  army,  Diocletian 
answered :  "  It  is  not  befitting  the  gravity  of  the  soldier."  ^ 
Certain  of  the  troops  assuming  to  retain  as  slaves  some  Eoman 
citizens  who  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  and  whom 
they  had  set  free:  "The  captives,"  Diocletian  wrote,  "will  be 
restored  to  all  their  former  rights;  for  they  have  not  been  taken, 
but  recovered;  our  soldiers  are  not  their  masters,  but  their 
defenders  only."* 

The  preambles  to  his  edicts  are  highly  moral.  One  reproaches 
men  with  their  avarice;  another  recalls  to  mind  that  it  is  the 
gods  who  have  given  Eome  her  prosperity,  and  that  they  will 
preserve  it  only  so  long  as  the  Eomans  lead  a  virtuous  and  devout 
life.*  These  are  but  commonplaces,  in  which  the  most  profligate 
rulers  have  sometimes  taken  delight,  but  nothing  comes  to  us 
against  this  emperor's  personal  morals,  and  we  know  by  his  laws 
that  he  proscribed  profligacy.^ 

There  remain  many  edicts  issued  by  Diocletian  to  defend  the 
person  and  property  of  his  subjects,  to  prevent  frauds  in  trade, 
to  protect  the  unwary,  the  minor,  the  slave,  even  the  debtor, 
whom  he  would  not  keep  in  servitude,'  in  a  word,  to  regulate 
all  things  throughout  his  vast  Empire  according  to  justice  and 
humanity.^ 

It  was  to  be  feared  that  the  division  of  the  Empire  might 
destroy  the  unity  of  legislation  and  of  jurisprudence.  To  facilitate 
the  work  of   the  tribunals,  Diocletian   caused  a  compilation   of  the 

'  Code  Just.f  viii.  49,  4. 

^  Ibid.f  V.  3,  9.    See  p.  676,  n.  1,  the  precautions  taken  by  him  to  increase  the  guarantees 
of  honest  justice. 
»  Ibid,.,  iv.  52,  4. 

*  Ibid.,  viii.  61, 12, 

•  Code  Oreg,,  v.  de  Nuptiis. 

•  Code  Just,  iii.  28, 19;  viii.  51,  7,  and  the  numerous  fragments  of  Ik)ok  ix.  9,  19-28. 

'  Ibid.,  iv.  10, 12 :  Ob  ces  alienum  servire  liberos  crcditoribus,jura  compelli  non  patiuntur, 

*  Naudet,  les  ChangemenU  dans  P administration  de  V empire,  pp.  365-371. 


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598  THE   ILLYRIAN   EMPER0R8  :    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

imperial  laws  to  be  prepared  by  one  of  his  jurisconsults.'  The 
Gregorian  Code  is  believed  to  have  begun  with  an  ordinance  of 
Hadrian ;  it  is  also  with  this  emperor,  his  precursor  in  great 
administrative  reforms,  that  Diocletian  caused  the  Atigttstan  History 
to  be  comrpenced.*  He  desired  to  place  before  the  eyes  of  his 
subjects  the  political  and  constitutional  life  of  the  Empire  during 
the  last  two  centuries,  and  this  idea  had  at  once  the  grandeur  and 
the  utility  which  characterize  all  the  acts  of  his  government,  one 
alone  excepted,  whose  gloomy  history  it  remains  for  us  to  relate. 

Lactantius  reproaches  the  founder  of  the  tetrarchy  with  his 
buildings,'  but  Trajan  and  Hadrian  erected  a  great  number;  with 
the  ostentation  of  his  surroundings,  a  splendour  really  useless,  which 
he  made  the  mistake  of  believing  necessary;  finally,  with  the 
expense  required  for  the  maintenance  of  four  courts,  and  the 
increase  of  the  administrative  staff.*  But  the  well-being  of  a 
state  is  not  measured  by  the  taxes  that  it  pays.  Very  small 
taxes  are  heavy  in  distracted  countries,  and  heavy  ones  are  light 
to  a  prosperous  people.  Now  in  Diocletian's  lifetime  his  expendi- 
tures had  already  caused  much  security,*  and  they  would  have 
occasioned  more  if  his  system  had  endured;    for  all  the  productive 

'  The  Oregorian  Code  was  followed  by  the  Code  of  Hermogenianus ;  both  of  them  have 
come  down  to  us  in  a  merely  fragmentary  condition.  The  most  ancient  ordinance  given  in 
the  former  is  of  the  year  196;  the  most  recent  of  296  (?).  But  since  the  Oregorian  Code 
served  as  a  basis  to  the  Code  of  Justinian,  which  was  a  collection  of  the  imperial  ordinances 
•since  the  time  of  Hadrian,  it  has  been  thought  the  ordinances  contained  in  the  former  com- 
menced with  that  emperor.  The  Codex  Hermogenianue  contains,  in  the  Corpus  juris  of  Hienel, 
only  the  ordinances  of  Diocletian  and  Maximian.  The  Theodosian  Code,  prepared  in  the  reign 
of  Theodosius  11.,  who  ordered  a  collection  of  all  the  edicts  and  ordinances  which  had  been  in 
force  since  the  accession  of  Oonstantine,  was  published  in  438.  Of.  Hugo,  Hist,  du  droit  rom,, 
vol.  ii.  p.  206. 

*  Of  the  six  compilers  of  the  Augustan  History,  three  wrote  in  the  reign  of  Diocletian : 
Vulcatius  Gallicanus,  Trebellius  Pollio,  and  Spartianus ;  the  other  three,  Flavius  Vopiscus, 
^lius  Lampridius,  and  Julius  Capitolinus,  were  also  contemporaries  of  Diocletian,  but  do  not 
appear  to  have  published  their  works  until  some  time  in  the  reign  of  Oonstantine.  These 
writers  are  entirely  destitute  of  talent ;  but  without  them  we  should  know  almost  nothing  of 
the  period  extending  from  117  to  284.  We  therefore  owe  gratitude  to  Diocletian,  who 
stimulated  this  twofold  work  of  codification  and  of  history. 

•  In  §  7,  de  Morte  pers.,  written  about  the  year  313.  Diocletian  erected  palaces  and 
basilicas,  baths  and  porticos,  but  he  also  repaired  the  fortifications  of  the  frontiers  and  rebuilt 
many  ruined  cities.  See  on  this  subject,  passim.  Preuss,  Kaiser  Diocletian,  pp.  117-120,  gives 
the  long  list  of  his  public  works. 

*  This  augmentation  of  taxes  was,  according  to  Aurelius  Victor,  easily  endured :  .  .  .  . 
Pensionibus  inducta  lex  nova  qua  sane  illorum  temporum  modestia  tolerabilis,  in  perniciem 
processit  (Qss.,  39). 

•  CtUtura  duplicatur  ....  ubi  silvafuere,  jam  seges  est  (Pan.  vet.,  iii.  15). 


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DIOCLETIAN  :    WARS   AND   ADMINISTRATION,  599 

forces  developing  themselves  in  the  midst  of  peace,  the  Empire 
would  have  seen  the  return  of  the  prosperity  which  characterized 
the  age  of  the  Antonines.  It  was  great  during  the  twenty  years 
of  this  emperor's  reign;  contemporaries  attest  this,  even  Lactantius, 
who  extols  "the  supreme  felicity  of  this  period,"  and  the  bishop 
of  CfiBsarea,  who  exclaims :  "  How  flourishing  was  the  Empire  at 
that  time !  Its  power  increased  daily,  and  it  enjoyed  an  unbroken 
peace."  ^ 

Peace !  this  word  sums  -up  the  whole ;  Diocletian  had  been 
able  to  secure  it,  and  it  might  have  been  preserved  by  his 
successors,  if,  remaining  faithful  to  his  system,  they  had,  after  the 
example  of  the  four  first  rulers,  formed,  "as  it  were,  a  musical 
choir  gathered  around  the  leader  who  regulated  the  movement  and 
the  measure."^ 

*  Tamdm  summafeHcUate  regnavitf  quamdiu  manus  sucujustorum  sanguine  non  inqumaret 
(Lactan.,  de  Morte  pers.,  9;  Euseb.,  Hist,  eocl.,  yiii.  13;  see  also  many  passages  of  Aur. 
Victor,  Cos,,  89).  Burckbardt  {die  Zeit  Constantim)  discusses  the  passionate  accusations  of 
Lactantius,  and  leaves  none  of  them  standing ;  he  concludes  thus  (p.  64) :  Ueberhaupt  mockte 
seine  Regienmg,  AUes  in  AUem  genammen,  erne  der  besten  tmd  wohhooUendsten  gewesen  setn, 
welche  das  Reich  je  gehabt  hat  Sobaid  man  den  Bltckfrei  halt  van  dem  schrecklichen  Bilde  der 
Chtistenverfolgung  und  von  den  Entstellungen  tmd  Uebertreibungen  bei  Lactantius,  so  nehmen  die 
Ziige  des  grossen  FUrsten  einem  ganz  andem  Ausdruck  an, 

*  "  Diocletian,"  says  Julian  in  the  C<BsarSy  "  presents  himself  at  the  banquet  of  the  gods, 
accompanied  by  the  two  Maximians  and  Gonstantius,  my  ancestor.  Although  they  hold  each 
other  by  the  hand  they  do  not  come  forward  in  line ;  they  make,  as  it  were,  a  musical  chorus 
surrounding  Diocletian ;  they  would  wish  to  precede  him  as  his  guards,  but  he  prevents  them 

because  he  desires  to  attribute  to  himself  no  honour  above  hb  colleagues After  these 

four,  who  together  formed  so  beautiful  a  harmony  .  .  .  ." 


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CHAPTER  C. 

THE   EEA  OF  THE  MAETTE8   (303-311    A.D.). 

I. — The  Edicts  of  Pbesbcution  (303). 

THE  persecution  which,  commencing  under  Diocletian,  continued 
for  six  years  after  his  time,  was  a  terrible  one.  It  has  been 
attributed  to  the  enmity  of  an  old  woman,^  to  the  cruelty  of 
Galerius,  and  to  the  enfeebled  mind  of  an  ageing  emperor.  It 
was,  on  the  contrary,  a  well-planned  measure  of  government,  a 
campaign  conducted  with  remarkable  ability,  but  it  was  also  the 
application  of  a  policy  doubly  evil,  in  that  it  died  blood  unjustly 
and  that  it  did  not  attain  its  end;  upon  Diocletian,  who  believed 
it  necessary,  the  responsibility  for  it  must  rest. 

This  Dalmatian,  the  son  of  a  slave,  was  worthy  of  the  old 
Roman  stock;  he  was  a  man  of  authority  and  of  cool  determina- 
tion, who  decided  only  after  mature  reflection,  and  whose  faith  in 
the  old  cult  had  not  been  shaken  by  the  religious  novelties  brought 
to  Eome  from  the  East.  He  persecuted  the  Christians  for  the 
reason  that  he  believed  them  dangerous  to  the  state  religion,  to 
military  discipline,  and  to  social  order.  At  the  beginning  of  an 
edict  against  the  Manichaeans,  he  says  the  same  that  nine  centuries 
later  the  Boman  Catholic  Church  was  to  say,  in  other  words, 
against  the  Albigensian  Manicheeans:  "The  gods  have  determined 
what  is  just  and  true ;  the  best  men  have,  by  counsel  and  action, 
demonstrated  and  firmly  established  this.  It  is  not  therefore  per- 
mitted to  go  counter  to  this  divine  and  human  wisdom,  and  to 
assume  that  a  new  religion  may  be  better  than  the  old ;  it  is 
the  greatest  of  crimes  to  wish  to  change  the  institutions  of  our 
ancestors."  ^      These   are   the  views   of  the  high  pontiff  of  Eome ; 

*  The  mother  of  Galerius,  a  zealous  pagan,  whom  Lactantius  calls  ....  deorum  nwntium 
cultrir. 

"^  Preamble  to  the  edict  de  Mnleficm  et  Manichteifi  {Gregor.  Code,  xiv.  4).    These  were  the 


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THE   PERSECUTION    UNDER   DIOCLETIAN,    303   TO    305   A.D.  601 

the  emperor,  the  statesman,  did  not  at  first  conform  his  conduct  at 
all  to  them.  He  had  respected  the  edict  of  Gallienus  favouring  the 
Churches,  and  had  suffered  the  Christians  to  make  their  way  every- 
where, into  the  army,  into  the  court.  Eusebius  names  many  who 
were  living  near  the  emperors  and  on  terms  of  friendship  with 
them,  who  were  making  proselytes  even  in  the  very  family  of 
Diocletian,  whose  wife  and  daughter  seem  to  have  been  gained 
over  to  the  faith ;  and  he  writes :  "  It  is  difficult  to  tell  in  what 
high  esteem  our  doctrine  is  held,  and  how  great  is  the  liberty 
which  we  enjoy.  The  emperors  gave  the  government  of  the  pro- 
vinces to  many  of  the  believers  without  requiring  them  to  sacrifice 
to  the  gods.  They  permitted  their  officers  publicly,  and  accom- 
panied by  their  wives,  their  children,  and  their  slaves,  to  fulfil  the 
duties  of  religion  even  in  the  presence  of  the  emperors  themselves. 
The  bishops  were  honoured  and  churches  were  built  in  all  the? 
cities."  ^ 

Mazarin  said  of  the  French  Protestants  of  his  time :  "  This 
little  flock  browses  upon  pernicious  weeds,  but  it  does  not  go 
astray."  At  this  epoch  of  his  reign  Diocletian  had  the  same 
opinion  in  respect  to  the  Christians.  A  singular  phrase  in  an 
edict  of  311  aids  us  to  understand  this  involuntary  respect  for  the 
Crucified.  Galerius,  in  granting  peace  to  the  Christians,  says: 
"Our  indulgence  lays  you  under  obligation  to  pray  to  your  God 
for  our  health  and  for  the  prosperity  of  the  Empire."  Galerius 
manifestly  believed  that  Jesus  was  a  god,  and  that,  like  Apollo  or 
Jupiter,   he   could  do  men  good   or  harm.     With  the   doctrine  of 

views  of  enthusiastic  pagans  and  short-sighted  statesmen.  The  idea  that  the  prosperity  of  the 
Empire  depended  upon  an  assiduous  worship  of  the  gods^  was  in  the  mind  of  the  emperor  and 
m  the  minds  of  many  of  his  subjects.  Vopiscus  (in  Caro^  9)  promises  Galerius  and  Diocletian 
the  most  brilliant  triumphs,  «t  a  nostris  non  deseratur  promisstu  nuTJunum  favor. 

*  Hist.  eccL,  viii.  6 :  "  Dorotheus  and  Gorgonus,  raised  to  high  office,  were  loved  of  the 
emperors  as  if  they  had  been  their  own  children.''  Lucian,  chief  of  the  eunuchs,  had  relations 
with  the  bishop  of  Alexandria,  llieonas,  who  wrote  thus  to  him :  Quanto  ....  ipsis  Chris- 
tianis,  velut  fidelioribus,  vitam  et  corpus  suum  curandum  credidit  (Diodetianus),  tqnto  decet  vos 
soUicitiores  esse  .  .  ,  .  ut  per  id  plurimum  Christi  nomen  glorificetur.  In  the  same  letter 
Theonas  speaks  of  the  peace  per  bonum  principem  ecclesiis  concessa.  (Routh,  Beliq.  saer.,  iii. 
439.)  This  letter,  the  passage  of  Eusebius  which  has  just  been  quoted,  and  the  whole  history 
of  the  reign  of  Diocletian,  prevent  us  from  admitting  the  opinion,  supported  by  various  Koman 
Catholic  writers,  that  there  was  an  official  persecution  in  the  first  years  of  this  reign.  Official, 
I  have  said,  because  there  may  have  been  isolated  condemnations,  pronounced  for  assumed 
crimes  against  the  common  law.  In  respect  to  Christians  who  were  friends  of  the  emperor, 
see  Le  Blant,  Suppl.  aux  Actes  de  Buinart,  p.  76. 


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602  THE   ILLTRIAN   EMPER0B8  :    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

the  laifiove^y  all  is  explained.  In  that  time  of  philosophic  and 
religions  confusion,  pagans  and  Christians  belieyed  in  demons:  the 
evil  ones  were  the  opponents'  gods;  the  good,  those  whom  the 
individual  himself  adored,  and  all  men  accepted  the  miracles 
attributed  to  both  classes.  Diocletian  certainly  held  this  opinion, 
and  continued  to  hold  it  so  long  as  toleration  did  not  seem  to  be 
dangerous. 

To  prevent  revolutions,  to  render  hopeless  the  intrigues  of 
ambitious  men  and  the  insurrections  of  the  soldiery,  and  to  condemn 
to  tranquillity  and  apprehension  the  enemies  outside,  such  had  been 
the  object  of  his  reign;  and  up  to  this  time  all  had  yielded  to  his 
prudence  and  his  arms.  But  within  a  grave  difficulty  reniained 
which  was  increasing  every  day.  For  forty  years  the  Christians 
had  enjoyed  freedom  of  worship,  and  their  courage  had  increased 
with  their  numbers.  They  might  be  heard  passionately  accusing 
the  whole  human  race  of  having  lived  in  mental  darkness,  save  in 
one  remote  comer  of  the  world.  Nothing  had  as  yet  impaired  the 
Roman  idea  of  the  family :  the  domestic  worship  was  always  per- 
formed on  the  hearthstone  of  the  parental  abode,  or  at  the  tombs 
of  their  ancestors,  and  now  these  beloved  dead  were  condemned 
to  eternal  flames.  At  a  time  when  the  state,  accepted  as  a 
divine  existence,  claimed  the  right  of  governing  men's  consciences 
as  well  as  their  outward  acts,  the  Christians  were  in  revolt  against 
the  gods,  and  nearly  so  against  the  constituted  authorities.  "Who 
are  you  ? "  Galerius  said  to  them ;  "  a  turbulent  Jewish  sect, 
which  has  denied  the  God  of  its  fathers,  and  then  attacked  the 
gods  of  the  Empire;  which  has  made  laws  for  itself  according 
to  its  own  caprice,  and  gathers  in  seditious  assemblies,"  *  And, 
in  truth,  they  formed  in  the  midst  of  the  sickly  and  disordered 
pagan  world  a  state  full  of  life  and  hope,  for  this  new  republic 
had  what  the  old  had  long  since  ceased  to  possess:  its  popular 
assemblies,  its  elections,  its  leaders  ehosen  by  common  consent, 
and  in  its  councils  that  representative  system  whose  force  had 
never    been    brought    to    bear    in    the    Empire.      Upon    whatever 

*  These  are  the  terms  of  the  edict  of  311.  Euseb.,  Hist,  eocL,  viii.  17 ;  and  Lactantius,  34 : 
Volueramus  .  .  .  ,  juxta  leges  veteres  et  publicam  disciplinam,  Bomanomm  cuncta  eonrigere 
atque  id  providere,  ut  etiam  Christianif  qid  parentum  iuorum  religuerant  sectam,  ad  bonas 
mentes  redirent. 


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THE   PEE8ECUTI0N   UNDER   DIOCLETIAN,    303   TO   305   A.D.  603 

point  in  the  provinces  the  emperors  turned  their  eyes,  they  beheld 
communities  of  men  at  once  enthusiastic  and  disciplined,  docile 
at  the  voice  of  their  pastors,  sometimes  rebellious  against  that 
of  the  magistrates,  having  other  manners  and  another  spirit 
from  that  possessed  by  their  fellow-citizens,  strangers  in  the 
midst  of  their  native  country,  indifferent  to  her  and  to  her  fate. 
Certainly  it  was  a  peril  for  the  pagan  state,  and  for  the  social 
order  which  the  state  represented.  In  the  administrative  and  in  the 
official  world  there  were  many  who  regretted  that  the  misfortunes 
of  the  time,  the  captivity  of  Valerian,  the  weakness  of  his  son, 
had  not  permitted  the  extirpation  from  the  social  body  of  this 
hostile  element  which  undermined  it,  and  certain  incidents  seemed 
to  justify  this  feeling  on  the  part  of  those  blind  adherents  of  a 
perishing  past. 

Eusebius  speaks  of  a  great  agitation  of  the  Churches  about 
this  time.  Was  it  perhaps  a  revival  of  the  old  Montanist  spirit? 
Were  some  hot-headed  disciples  of  Tertullian^  declaring  that  the 
camp-life  was  incompatible  with  the  Christian  life?  This  we  do 
not  know.  The  soldiers  were  not  volunteers;  the  service  was 
obligatory,  and  once  enlisted  the  soldier  must  remain  in  the  camps 
for  many  long  years.  The  tedium  of  barrack-life,  the  anxieties  of 
conscience,  brought  many  of  them  to  regard  it  as  impiety  to  serve 
idolatrous  rulers  and  as  a  sacrilege  to  share  in  national  festivals 
which  the  army  celebrated  with  military  pomp.  It  is  probable  that 
through  the  different  corps  the  Christians  lived  separately,  forming 
conciliabula  which  excited  suspicion ;  that  in  the  cities  secret  visits 
to  Christian  communities  were  detected  which  had  the  air  of  being 
intrigues  leading  to  plots.  The  Acts  of  St.  Victor  give  this  last 
motive  as  the  cause  of  that  martyr^s  condemnation. 

The  bishop  of  Csesarea  was  the  contemporary  of  the  events 
which  he  relates,  and  his  testimony  is  to  be  received  when  he  has 
no  interest  in  altering  the  fact.  Now  his  words  authorize  us  to 
believe  that  there  were  in  the  army  excesses  of  zeal,  and  for  the 
sake  of  religion  violations  of  the  military  law;  that  Christians 
refused  to  be  enrolled,  which  was  desertion;    that  they  refused  to 

^  See  the  de  Corona  milit.  of  Tertullian,  and  what  he  says  in  chap.  xi. :  Credimusne  kumanum 
sacramentum  divmo  superduci  Ucere  f  **  Is  it  to  be  believed  that  the  pledge  to  the  emperor 
can  be  placed  higher  than  the  pledge  to  God  ?  *' 


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604  THE   ILLTRIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

fulfil  certain  services  commanded  them,  which  was  a  disobedience ; 
or  certain  obligations  resting  upon  every  soldier  as  such,  like  the 
carrying  of  particular  standards,  etc.  The  Acts  of  the  martyrs 
confirm  this  interpretation. 

At  Theveste,  a  citizen  who,  by  the  amount  of  his  land-tax, 
was  bound  to  furnish  a  soldier,  led  to  the  proconsul  his  son  Maxi- 
milian, whom  the  recruiting  officer  had  accepted  as  good  for  the 
service.  Upon  the  order  to  place  himself  under  the  measure  that 
his  height  might  be  marked,  Maximilian  replied  that,  being  a 
Christian,  he  could  not  be  a  soldier.  The  magistrate  paid  no 
attention  to  this,  but  caused  him  to  be  measured;  then  ordered 
that  the  cord  should  be  put  around  his  neck  to  which  was 
suspended  the  leaden  tablet  which  bore  the  description  of  each 
soldier.  ^^I  shall  break  it,"  Maximilian  exclaimed,  "and  never 
wear  anything  but  the  token  of  my  only  master  Jesus  Christ." 
The  procoDsul  explained  to  him  that  he  could,  as  so  many  others 
had  done,  freely  fulfil  all  his  religious  duties ;  but  the  Montanist 
persisted  and  was  put  to  death  for  the  refusal  of  the  military  oath. 
The  sentence  makes  no  reference  to  the  Christian  faith.^  A  little 
later,  in  this  same  Africa  where  Tertullian  had  lauded  desertion 
from  the  army  and  had  urged  to  martyrdom,^  at  Tingis,  on 
one  occasion  when  the  garrison  were  celebrating  the  birthday  of 
Maximian,  the  centurion  Marcellus  threw  down  at  the  feet  of  the 
soldiers  his  vine-branch,  his  military  belt,  and  his  weapons,  saying : 
"I  will  no  longer  serve  your  emperors,  and  I  despise  their  gods 
of  wood  and  stone."  Instead  of  silently  taking  advantage  of  what 
the  government  at  that  time  allowed,  liberty  of  conscience,  or  even 
his  dismissal  from  the  army,  he  insult^^d,  in  the  midst  of  a  solemn 
ceremony,  both  the  state  religion  and  the  emperors;  this  was  a 
public  provocation  which  could  not  be  tolerated,  and  he  was  put 
to  death.^  The  law  commanded  this  pimishment,  and  Marcellus 
had  sought  it. 

The  government  at  last  began  to  notice  these  acts  of  disorder. 

*  Extract  from  the  official  Acts :  ut  a  notartis  excepta :  ....  in  sacro  condtatu  Chris- 
tiard  sunt  et  militant  (Ruinart,  Acta  dncera,  p.  299).  This  took  place  in  the  year  205 
or  296. 

''See  above,  chap,  xci  Tertullian  says,  in  the  de  Fuga,  9:  SjnrituB  omnes  pane  ad 
niartyrium  e.vkot'tatur. 

*  Acta  sincera,  p.  302.     The  date  is  uncertain  ;  it  may  have  been  298. 


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THE   PERSECUTION    UNDER   DIOCLETIAN,    303   TO    305   A.D.  607 

It  had  need,  both  for  itself  and  for  the  Empire,  to  be  sure  of  its 
troops,  and  it  was  not  so  with  soldiers  who  proposed  to  limit  their 
obedience.  A  purifying  of  the  army  was  resolved  on;  those  who 
declared  their  religious  faith  incompatible  with  their  presence  under 
the  standards  were  discharged. 

"  Many,"  says  Eusebius,^  "  left  the  service.  A  general  having 
given  his  soldiers  the  choice  of  renouncing  their  religion  or  their 
military  grade,  they  preferred  to  confess  the  name  of  Jesus  and 
part  with  their  worldly  advantages." 

This  consideration  for  soldiers  who  refused  to  submit  to  the 
common  rule  was  not  habitual  with  the  Eomans.^  Galerius  was 
indignant  at  it;  he  saw  in  it  the  loss  of  discipline,  in  which  he 
was  right;  and  it  would  have  been  satisfactory  to  him  to  use 
against  all  Christians  the  means  of  intimidation  employed  against 
those  in  the  army. 

Although  Diocletian  had  shown  in  Egypt  that  he  did  not 
hesitate  in  shedding  blood  when  it  was  a  question  of  chastising 
rebels,  he  hesitated  to  strike  those  who  were  not  in  open  opposition 
to  the  law.  He  hoped  that  an  execution  now  and  then,  in  virtue 
of  military  law,  would  suflBce  to  repress  everywhere  the  extremes 
of  religious  zeal.  But  now  civil  society,  in  its  turn,  becomes 
unsettled,  and  the  great  administrative  instrument  of  the  Empire, 
the  municipal  system,  begins  to  work  badly  and  threatens  to 
become  useless.  The  Christian  is  no  more  willing  to  be  a  citizen 
than  a  soldier.*  He  refuses  the  office  of  duumvir,  even  of  decurion, 
because  of  the  pagan  observances  these  offices  impose ;  he  divides 
or  distributes  his  property  that  he  may  no  longer  possess  the 
twenty-five  jugera  which  condemn  him  to  the  curia,  and  the 
Christian   emperors  later  were   compelled   to   take   severe   measures 


'  Hut.  eocl,,  viii.  1  and  4.  The  measure  was  general,  datis  ad  proposttoa  litteris,  says 
Lactantius  (de  Morte  pers.,  10) ;  and  -he  adds :  nee  amplius  quidguam  contra  legem  aut 
reUgumem  Dei  fecit. 

■  The  edict  was  not  formally  obeyed  everywhere.  The  Acts  of  SS.  Julius,  Nicander,  and 
MarciaUy  show  soldiers  put  to  death  for  having  refused  to  bum,  along  with  their  comrades,  a 
grain  of  incense  upon  the  altar,  on  receiving  the  largess  given  by  Galerius  on  occasion  of  the 
tenth  anniversary  of  his  accession.  Generals  accustomed  to  punish  severely  all  disobedience 
had  felt  themselves,  in  condemning  these  soldiers,  to  be  acting  in  accordance  with  the  military 
law. 

' ''  Public  affairs  are  not  our  affairs.'*  Nee  vUa  magis  res  aUena  quam  publica  (Tertullian, 
ApoL,  38). 


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608  THE   ILLTRIAN    EMPERORS  I    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

against  those  "  who  serve  the  Church,  rather  than  the  senate ;  "  ^ 
such  is  the  penury  of  the  honestiores  that  Diocletian  permits  the 
duties  of  the  decurionate  to  be  imposed  upon  freedmen,  and  even 
upon  persons  who  have  been  branded  as  infamous.^ 

At  this  time  also,  between  philosophers  and  Christians,  and 
between  differing  sects,  disputes  recommence  or  continue,  and  the 
air  is  full  of  clamour.  From  Persia,  that  perpetual  enemy  of 
the  Empire,  comes  a  new  sect,  the  Manichaeans.  Formed  at  the 
expense  of  the  doctrines  of  Zoroaster  and  of  Jesus,  it  agitates 
men's  minds  in  the  border  provinces  of  the  two  Empires,,  and 
as  usual  the  magistrates  accuse  it  of  a  thousand  crimes  which 
S.  Epiphanes  relates,  turning  against  these  sectaries  the  accusa- 
tion of  scandalous  mysteries  with  which  the  Christians  had  long 
been  pursued.'  In  Egypt  Meletius  makes  a  schism;^  Hierax 
begins  another.  In  Africa  the  language  exchanged  between  the 
bishops  at  the  Council  of  Cirta  (305)  shows  the  violence  of  some  of 
these  men  of  peace,  and  announces  that  of  the  Donatists,  who  a 
few  years  later  covered  the  province  with  blood  and  ruins.  Por- 
phyry, or  a  Neo-Platonist  of  his  school,  composes  at  this  time  his 
treatise  against  the  Christians,  which  doctors  and  bishops  combat 
with  sharp  refutations.*  A  famous  rhetorician,  Amobius,  attacks 
the  Church  which  later  he  was  to  defend,  and  a  great  functionary 
of   the   Empire,    Hierocles,   viceregent  of  the  district  of  Bithynia, 


'  Curiales  gut  ecclesiis  malunt  servire  guam  curiis  ( Code  Theod.,  xii.  104, 116). 

*  Infantes  person<e  ....  curialium  vel  civilium  munerum  vacationem  mm  habent  (Code 
Theod.,  X.  66  and  57). 

'  Before  becoming  an  orthodox  Christian,  S.  Augustine  had  been  for  nine  years  a  Mani- 
chaean,  which  leads  us  to  believe  there  could  be  no  immorality  in  this  cult.  The  ordinance  of 
Diocletian  says :  ,  .  ,  .  de  Persica  adversaria  nobis  gente  ....  multa  facinora  committere, 
populos  quietos  turhare  (Code  Grey.,  xiv.  4).  The  chiefs  of  the  sect  shall  be  burned  with  their 
books;  the  tidherenta  of  low  estate  docapitated ;  the  honestiores  sent  to  the  mines.  The  date  of 
the  rescript  is  uncertain. 

*  "Separating  himself  from  Peter,  his  metropolitan,  and  the  other  bishops, he  published 
calumnies  against  them."    (Fleury,  Hist.  eccL,  viii.  24  [about  301].) 

*  Lactantius  mentions  a  philosopher  who,  in  303,  wrote  at  Nicomedia  three  books  against 
the  Cliristians.  It  has  been  questioned  that  this  philosopher  was  Porphyry,  because  the  author 
of  the  DiviruB  institutiones  (v.  2)  speaks  of  his  disorderly  life.  But  Lactantius  never  hesitates 
to  calumniate  his  adversaries,  and  we  know  from  S.  Augustine  {Civ.  Dei,  x.  32)  that  Porphyry- 
was  still  living  at  the  time  of  the  persecution.  At  least  it  is  established  by  the  words  of 
Lactantius  that  a  philosopher  wrote  at  Nicomedia  even  against  the  Christians  at  the  moment 
of  the  promulgation  of  the  edict,  whicli  suffices  for  our  statement.  Some  critics  place  the 
composition  of  Porphyry's  book  between  tlie  years  290  and  300.  S.  Methodius  combated  it  in 
a  poem  of  ten  thousand  lines.     (S.  Jerome,  de  Viris  ill.,  83.)     Eusebius  also  refuted  it. 


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THE    PERSECUTION    UNDER   DIOCLETIAN,    303   TO   305   A.D.  609 

mingles  in  the  fray.  The  latter  publishes  his  Philalethes^^  "  the 
Friend  of  Trtith,"  setting  over  against  the  miracles  of  Jesus  those 
of  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  *'who,  however,"  he  says,  "was  not  made 
a  god  for  that."  And  it  is  not  questions  of  dogma  which  are  in 
dispute;  to  such  the  people  would  not  care  to  listen.  Porphyry, 
with  murderous  accusation,  shows  the  plague  ravaging  cities,  and 
^sculapius  failing  to  drive  it  away,  because  he  himself  has  fled 
far  from  the  abominations  of  the  Christian  faith.^  To  the  strifes 
of  doctors  corresponds  that  of  the  crowd.  Some  exclaim  that  the 
gods  of  Olympus  are  demons,  and  assume  to  themselves  the  power 
of  driving  them  out;  others  dread  this  satanic  power,  and  imagine 
that  the  sign  of  the  cross  will  hinder  sacrifices  from  being  com- 
pleted.^ No  man  ever  saw  the  gods  flee  away  or  the  flame  upon 
the  altar  go  out  at  a  Christian's  gesture;  but  the  pagan  world 
believed  them  capable  of  every  crime,  and  reviled  them  while 
waiting  to  be  allowed  to  drag  them  into  the  arena. 

The  Christians  fight  among  themselves  also.  "The  liberty 
which  we  enjoyed,"  says  Eusebius,  "had  caused  the  relaxation  of 
discipline.  The  war  began  among  ourselves  by  violent  language ; 
bishops  against  bishops,  people  against  people.  When  the  evil  had 
reached  its  height,  divine  justice  raised  its  arm  to  punish  us. 
The  believers  who  followed  the  profession  of  arms  were  the  first 
to  be  persecuted.  After  this  warning  from  the  Lord,  instead  of 
seeking  to  propitiate  him,  we  added  crimes  to  crimes;  our  pastors, 
despising  the  divine  rules,  disputed  bitterly  with  each  other  and 
strove  for  the  highest  rank.  Then,  according  to  the  word  of 
Jeremiah,  the  Lord  from  Heaven  overthrew  the  glory  of  Israel."^ 

*  AtLSUS  est  libros  suos  nefarios  ac  Dei  hastes  ^iXaXtfiug  annotare  (Lactantius,  Div.  inst.j  v. 
2,  and  what  remains  to  us  of  the  treatise  of  Eusebius  against  Hierocles). 

'  Euseb.^  Prcep.  Ev.,  v.  1 ;  Lactantius,  Div.  inst.,  iv.  27. 

^  Lactantius,  de  Morte  pers,,  10 :  cum  adstiterint  immolantt  imposuerunt  frontibus  suis 
immortale  signum,  quo  facto  fugatis  (kemontbus,  sacra  turhata  sunt  Prudentius  also  relates 
that  the  sacrifices  of  Julian  were  disturbed  by  the  presence  of  a  Christian.  "  On  occasions  of 
temptation  the  Christians  add  to  the  sign  of  the  cross  the  blowing  to  drive  away  the  demon." 
( Fleury,  les  Mceurs  des  chrStiens,  p.  63.) 

*  Hist,  ecclf  viii.  1.  These  sad  quarrels  continued  throughout  the  persecution.  Eusebius 
breaks  oflf  in  his  account  of  the  martyrs  in  Palestine  to  say  again :  "  I  will  not  speak  of  the 
ambition  of  some  men,  of  their  rash  and  unlawful  laying-on  of  hands,  of  the  differences  and 
disputes  of  the  martyrs  themselves,  of  the  divisions  by  which  they  tore  the  members  yet 
remaining  to  the  Church."  See  TiUemont,  M&m,  eccl.,  vol.  v.  pp.  98, 100,  and  103,  in  respect 
to  the  disorders  at  Rome ;  the  canons  of  the  Council  of  Elvira  for  those  which  it  was  necessary 
to  repress  in  Spain ;  the  acts,  first  scandalous,  later  abominable,  of  the  African  circoncelliones : 

VOL.   VI.  RR 


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610  THE    ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

It  was  in  the  East   that  religious   animosities  were   the   most 

bitter,  and  from  February,  299,  to  the  beginning  of  the  year  302, 

Diocletian  resided  there  almost  constantly.^      When  in  the  autumn 

of  this  latter  year  he  returned  to  Nicomedia,  his   mind  was   made 

^^  up   that   it  would  be  necessary  to   put  an   end   to 

these    agitations    and    bring   back  tranquillity   into 

I    civil  society,  as  he  had  brought  it  back  into   the 

legions  and  into  the  provinces.      Galerius  had  long 

been  of  this  opinion.     But  what  means  should  be 

adopted?     During  the  entire  winter  the  two  rulers 

Coin  of  Nicomedia.-      _.  ,     ,.  mi  •  -r       i        • 

discussed  this  terrible  question.      Lactantms  asserts 

that  Diocletian  would  have  been  content  with  prohibiting  the  army 

and    the    palace    to    the    Christians,   that    is    to    say,    military  and 

administrative   duties;    that   finally  he  laid   the   matter  before  the 

consistory,  and   that   this   council   gave   their  opinion  as  the  same 

with  that    of   Galerius.      The    measures  with   which 

Diocletian  would  have  been  willing  to  stop  would  not 

have   been   more   severe    than  those   which   excluded 

from    public    office    and    the    liberal    professions    the 

Protestants  of  France  up  to  the  time  of  the  Eevolu- 

Didyrajtan       tiou   and   the   Roman   Catholics    in    England    to   our 

^ of  Miletus.^  ^"*  ^^^^   *™^-      ^^*  the   obstinate   conservatives   of   the 

day  made  every  effort  to  force  the  Augustus  into  the 

most  sanguinary  road.     The  contradictory  feelings  of  the  statesman 

and   the   pagan    which   fought  within  him   threw   this   strong  soul 

into    a    trouble    whence    he    sought    escape    by   asking    advice    of 

heaven.      He   decided   that   the   question  should  be  laid  before  the 

oracle  of  the  Didymoean  Apollo  at  Miletus.^     Apollo  could  have  no 

indulgence   for  those  who   ruined    his    priests   and   blasphemed   his 

the  wretched  intrigues  attributed  by  S.  Athanasius  to  the  Eusebians;  the  denunciations  sent 
in  to  Constantine  in  325  by  the  bishops  against  several  of  their  brethren  (Rufinus,  i.  2),  etc., 
and  we  shall  be  convinced  that  along  with  great  virtues  the  Christian  communities  had  many 
weaknesses,  which  is  very  human,  and  that  it  will  not  do  always  to  accept  the  Church  of  the 
legends  as  the  real  Church  of  history. 

'  So  we  infer  fi-om  the  date  of  many  rescripts.     (Mommsen,  Zei'f/.,  p.  444.) 

'  NIKOMHAEUN  AlC  NEQKOPQV.  Love  fleeing  from  a  kneeling  Psyche.  (Reverse  of  a 
bronze  of  Maximus.) 

'  AIAVMEVC  MFAHCIiiN.  The  god  standing,  holding  a  bow  and  a  small  figure  of  a  stag. 
(Reverse  of  a  bronze  of  Claudius.) 

*  Lactantius,  f/fi  Morte  pers.,  11. 


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THE   PERSECUTION   UNDER   DIOCLETIAN,    303   TO   305   A.D. 


611 


name;  the  oracle  made  reply  that  the  enemies  of  the  gods  must 
be  destroyed.  The  Christians  therefore  appeared  to  be  condemned 
both  by  human  and  divine  wisdom. 

If  we  may  believe  Lactantius,  Galerius  proposed  to  have  those 
who  refused  to  sacrifice  burned  alive.  Diocletian  hoped  to  attain 
the  suppression  of  the  Church  without  bloodshed.  The  resolution 
he  was  about  to  take  was  a  very  serious  one,  and  he  asked  the 
pontiffs  to  designate  a  propitious  day  for  its  execution.  They 
indicated  the  festival  of  the  Terminalia  (23rd  February,  303)  as 
the  day  on  which  the  accursed  sect  should  be  brought  to  an  end. 


Bas-relief  from  the  Temple  of  the  Didymeean  Apollo  at  Miletus.    (Texier,  Descr,  de 
VAsie  Mineure,  pi.  140,  fig.  2.) 

At  daybreak  the  praetorian  prefect,  accompanied  by  duceSj  tribunes, 
and  soldiers,  presented  himself  before  the  church  in  Nicomedia, 
forced  an  entrance,  and  seizing  the  sacred  objects  committed  them 
to  the  flames.  He  would  have  set  fire  to  the  buildings,  but  Dio- 
cletian, who  from  the  roof  of  the  palace  surveyed  what  was  done, 
fearing  that  a  fire  might  spread  among  the  adjacent  buildings, 
ordered  the  temple  to  be  demolished.  On  the  following  day 
appeared  the  first  edict  of  persecution:  the  Christian  churches  were 
to  be  destroyed,  the  religious  books  burned,  and  the  sacred  places 
and  cemeteries  confiscated.^  Those  who  refused  to  sacrifice  were 
to  be  branded  with  infamy,  of  whatever  rank  they  were,  declared, 
incapable  of  filling  any  public  office,  and  in  case  of  condemnation 
for  any  crime  subjected  to  the  penalties  denounced  against  the 
humiliores.  All  judicial  proceedings  would  be  authorized  against 
them,    while    they    could    institute    none    against    others ;  ^     their 

^  De  Ros^i,  i^oma  sotterr.,  ii.  p.  viii.  and  378.    Constantinei  in  his  turn,  ordered  the  hooks 
of  Porphyry  to  he  burned. 

'  To  leave  to  the  Christians  no  way  of  eluding  the  law,  arts  in  secretan'is  et  pro  tribunali 
posita,  ut  iitiffa tores  prius  sacrifcarent  (Lactantius,  15). 

RR  2 


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612  THE    ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

assemblies  were  prohibited ;  he  who  was  already  placed  by  his 
condition  among  the  humiliores  was  made  a  slave  of  the  treasury/ 
and  the  Christian  slave  could  never  be  enfranchised.  This  first 
edict  did  not  go  so  far  as  that  issued  by  Valerian;  it  did  not 
order  the  death  of  the  Christians,  but  it  made  of  them  a  people  of 
pariahs.      Measures  nearly  similar  to  these  were  adopted  upon  the 

revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes : 
a  double  iniquity  which  was  the 
consequence  and  has  remained  the 
condemnation  of  state  religions. 

Violence  calls  for  violence. 
Diocletian  would  have  been  glad 
to  have  escaped  shedding  blood, 
but  it  was  to  flow  in  torrents. 
An  indignant  Christian  tore 
down  the  edict  and  destroyed 
it  with  loud  reproaches  against 
the  Augustus  and  the  Caesar: 
''These  are  their  bulletins  of 
victory  over  the  Goths  and  Sar- 
matians!"     he    cried    ironically. 

Mutilated  Sutue.  found  in  the  '^^  P^''*'''  ^^^  ^   '^"^"^"^^   ^^* 

Ruins  of  the  Temple  of  the  Didymsdan  Apollo.    waS     a     crime     of     higrh     treason, 
(Texrer,t»irf.,fig.3.)  '^  ,     ^,  i.  j 

and  the  man  was  biimed  on  a 
fire  of  charcoal.^  Soon  after  this  a  fire  broke  out  in  the  palace, 
and  fifteen  days  later  a  second  fire  occurred  near  the  rooms 
occupied  by  the  emperor.  It  is  difficult  to  impute  this  double  fire 
to  chance.  Lactantius  makes  Galerius  responsible  for  it,  who  then 
threw  the  blame  upon  the  Christians  in  order  to  exasperate  Dio- 
cletian, and  Eusebius  makes  Constantino  relate  to  the  Fathers  at 
the  Council  of  Niceea  that  he  had  seen  a  thunderbolt,  the  instru- 
ment  of  divine   justice    fall   upon   the   palace   and   set   it   on  fire.^ 

'  Euseb.,  Mart,  de  Pal,  1,  and  the  Actea  of  S.  Theodosius  of  Ancyra.  (Bollandists, 
May  18th.) 

*  Legitime  coctus,  says  Lactantius,  that  is,  burned  according  to  the  established  rules  {de 
Mortepers.,  13).  It  is  remarkable  that  the  first  edict  was  not  promulgated  in  Syria  till  fifty 
days  later,  and  in  Africa  after  four  months.  With  his  habitual  prudence,  Diocletian  waited  to 
see  the  efiFect«  of  the  blow  he  had  struck  at  Nicomedia. 

'  Orat.  ad  S.  Coet.,  xxv.  According  to  this  passage,  the  damage  done  by  the  fire  must 
have  been  very  considerable. 


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THE   PERSECUTION   UNDER   DIOCLETIAN,    303   TO    305   A.D.  613 

But  the  Constantine  of  Eusebius  often  saw,  between  heaven  and 
earth,  things  that  no  other  person  ever  witnessed.  It  was  more 
natural  to  accuse  the  Christians,  and  the  life  of  the  emperors 
appeared  threatened  by  an  extensive  conspiracy.  If  this  danger 
was  really  imaginary,  they  had  at  least  reason  to  dread  the 
revenge  of  individuals,  and  the  Christians  were  now  so  numerous 
that  there  were  to  be  found  among  them,  beside  resigned  victims, 


Fragmente  of  the  Entablature  of  the  Temple  of  the  Didymaan  Apollo.*    (Louvre.) 

men  of  war  who  would  not  submit  to  injustice.  Galerius  was  no 
longer  safe  in  Nicomedia,  and  he  quitted  the  city.  Left  alone 
in  the  palace,  Diocletian,  who  also  felt  himself  surrounded  by 
assassins,  ordered  a  severe  search  to  be  made,  and  all  those  who 
could  be  suspected  of  being  adherents  to  the  new  faith  to  be 
required  to  sacrifice.  The  wife  and  daughter  of  the  emperor,  who 
seem  to  have  been  reluctant,  set  the  example;  others  followed; 
but  certain  slaves,  freedmen,  and  eunuchs  refused,  and  this  refusal 
appeared  to  convict  them  as  authors  or  accomplices  in  the  recent 
crime,  and  they  were  cruelly  put  to  death.  The  investigation  was 
pursued  outside  of  the  palace,  and  suspicion  produced  culprits;  the 

'  See  in  vol.  iii.  p.  695,  the  bases  of  the  columns  of  this  temple,  and,  in  vol.  v.  p.  71,  a  view 
uf  its  ruins. 


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614  THE   ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS:    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

bishop  of  Nicomedia  was  beheaded,  and   many  persons  of  humble 
condition  were  burned  or  thrown  into  the  sea. 

At  Nicomedia,  the  Christians  sufiEered  as  incendiaries;  in  the 
provinces,  they  were  accused  as  rebels.  It  appears  certainly  that 
to  the  exasperation  caused  at  certain  points  by  the  destruction  of 
the  churches,  may  be  attributed  two  insurrections  which — a  thing 
unknown  in  twenty  years — ^broke  out,  one  at  Antioch,  the  other 
in  the  Melitene  on  the  upper  Euphrates.  Nothing  is  known  of 
the  latter,  which  might  have  become  dangerous  owing  to  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Armenia,  where  Christianity,  preached  by  B.  Gregory 
Illuminator,  was  at  that  time  making  great  progress.^  As  to  the 
revolt  in  Syria,  Libanius  represents  it,  eighty  years  later,  as  a 
foolish  freak  of  the  soldiers.^  But  the  leader  of  these  soldiers  had 
assumed  the  purple,  and  the  magistrates  of  Antioch  and  of  Seleucia 
with  many  of  the  inhabitants  were  put  to  death.  If  the  Christians 
had  not  been  in  some  way  concerned  in  these  movements,  Eusebius 
would  not  have  mentioned  them,  especially  he  would  not  have 
indicated  them  as  the  cause  which  determined  Diocletian  to  issue 
a  new  and  more  severe  edict.*  In  the  eyes  of  the  emperor  this 
had  been  an  attempt  to  transfer  the  Empire  to  the  Christians; 
and  it  was  an  attempt  by  no  means  absurd,  since,  though  unsuc- 
cessful in  303,  it.  did  in  fact  succeed  eight  years  later.  In  the 
last  year  of  the  persecution,  the  governor  of  Palestine,  hearing  a 
martyr  speak  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  formed  the  idea  that 
the  Christians  proposed  to  build  a  city  and  fortify  themselves 
in  it  against  the  Romans.  This  governor  is  ridiculous,  but  his 
apprehension  was  not  so ;  for  he  naturally  believed  that  the 
persecuted,  whose  ardour  to  meet  death  he  could  not  understand, 
would  seize  any  method  of  escaping  from  persecution. 

A  century  earlier  they  aspired  to  heaven  only;  but  their 
strength  increasing  with  their  numbers,  they  began  to  concern 
themselves  with  the  affairs  of  earth.     Sagacious  as  he  always  was, 

^  Simeon  Metapbrastes  relates  the  story  of  the  thirty-three  Christians  martyred  at 
Melitene,  but  Tillemont  (M4m,  eccl.,  v.  171)  does  not  believe  that  these  Acts  are  trust- 
worthy. If  they  have  historic  foundation,  we  must  still  see  in  them,  according  to  their 
ovm  details,  an  execution  for  refusal  of  military  service  and  for  blows  and  wounds  inflicted 
on  the  recruiting  officers. 

'  Disc.f  xiv. 

^  Euseb.,  Mart,  de  Pal.,  ii. 


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THE   PEKSECUTION   UNDER   DIOCLETIAN,    303   TO   305   A.D.  617 

Diocletian  was  aware  of  the  evolution  which  went  on  unconsciously 
in  the  minds  of  many,  but  was  revealed  to  him  by  the  fire  in  the 
palace  and  the  two  revolts  breaking  out  amidst  the  profound  calm 
of  the  Empire.  For  twenty  years  this  emperor,  who  placed  the 
interests  of  order  above  everything  else,  had  constrained  his  gods 
and.  their  priests  to  toleration ;  from  the  moment  when  he  believed 
the  public  peace  in  danger  he  sought  to  save  it  by  energetic 
measures,  still,  if  possible,  without  bloodshed.  He  bethought  him- 
self of  an  old  law  of  the  Empire  which  permitted  him  to  punish, 
without  leaving  them  the  resource  of  an  appeal,  those  who  were 
regarded  as  seditionum  concitatores  vel  duc^  factionum ;  ^  and  against 
the  insurrection,  or  the  propaganda  that  he  dreaded,  he  took  the 
clergy  as  hostages.  His  second  edict  ordered  the  arrest  of  bishops, 
priests,  and  deacons,  who  should  refuse  to  deliver  up  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  By  demolishing  the  churches  he  prevented  the  Christians 
from  holding  their  assemblies  and  celebrating  their  religious  rites; 
by  depriving  these  communities  of  their  pastors,  he  hoped  that,  left 
without  direction  or  discipline,  these  societies  would  dissolve  or 
would  cease  to  be  dangerous;  lastly,  by  the  destruction  of  their 
sacred  books,  he  expected  to  put  a  stop  to  teaching,  and  by  all 
these  methods  to  extinguish  the  faith.^  In  the  moral  condition  of 
the  world  these  measures  must  have  remained  powerless;  the  future 
belonged  to  Christianity,  and  against  it  two  emperors  will  waste 
their  strength. 

The  two  edicts  of  the  year  303  did  not  mention  the  death 
penalty;  Diocletian  had  counted  upon  their  comminatory  effect.* 
The  Christians,  at  that  time  numbering  several  millions,  could  not 
be  all  punished,  but  the  emperor  hoped  to  intimidate  all,  to  cause 
apostasies  among  the  leaders,  and  easily  bring  back  the  frightened 
crowd  into   the  temples  of  the  gods.      The  Acts  of  S.  Romanus, 

»  Digest,  XLIX.  i.  16. 

*  An  edict  of  Constantino  (Euseb.,  TAfe  of  Const,^  ii.  30-34)  gives  liberty  to  Christians 
detained  in  islands,  qnarries,  or  mines;  restores  their  property  to  those  who,  without  being 
curiales  by  birth,  had  been  addieti  cunce^  which  had  placed  their  fortune  at  the  disposal  of  the 
municipal  administrations;  and  gives  back  their  grades,  or  the  honesta  mis/fto,  to  officers  and 
soldiers  who  had  been  expelled  from  the  army,  their  honours  to  those  who  had  been  branded 
with  infamy,  their  condition  of  free-bom  to  those  who  had  been  made  slaves,  etc.  This  edict 
completes  our  knowledge  of  the  penalties  pronounced  against  the  Christians. 

^  See  the  Acts  of  S.  Hilary  (BoUandists,  March  16th) :  .  .  .  .  ut  ipso  tormentatOf  universi 
^U8  corrigantur  exemph,    (I^  Blant,  op,  cit.y  p.  42.) 


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618  THE   ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

though  mingled  with  legend,  prove  that  Galerius  even  dared  not 
pronounce  a  death  sentence.  He  was  himself  at  Antioch  when 
Romanus  was  condemned  to  be  burned  alive,  less  perhaps  on 
account  of  his  generous  persistance  in  confessing  his  faith  than 
for  words  which  his  judge  considered  acts  of  treason;  for  example, 
these:  '^Christ  alone  is  my  king."  The  authorities  dared  not 
proceed  to  execution  without  the  order  of  Galerius,  and  the  Csesar 
did  not  give  the  order.^  At  Carthage  the  same  hesitation  was 
manifested,  not  in  torturing,  but  in  taking  life.  The  proconsul 
permits  S.  Satuminus  to  proclaim  his  faith  openly,  and  makes  this 
no  ground  of  accusation;  but  he  asks  whether  Saturninus  has  taken 
part  in  assemblies  contrary  to  the  imperial  law,  and  whether  he 
has  kept  books  of  magic.^  The  saint  replies  with  this  sentence 
which  has  been  ever  since  the  Church's  teaching:  '' First  of  all 
we  must  obey  God."  The  Christians  refused  therefore  to  submit 
to  the  laws  of  exterior  order.  That  these  laws  were  bad  no  man 
doubts;  but  the  revolt  against  them  was  none  the  less  a  revolt 
against  the  established  government;  and  still  the  proconsul,  after 
having  put  the  accused  to  the  torture  in  the  hope  of  obtaining 
from  them  a  word  which  will  permit  him  to  set  them  free,  sends 
them  to  the  public  prison,  and  there  he  leaves  them.*  On  the 
subject  of  these  Acta^  we  shall  remark  further  that  the  magistrate 
carefully  separates  the  question  of  religion  from  that  of  public 
order.  When  the  brethren  cry  out  to  him:  *^We  axe  Christians!" 
he  replies :  "  That  is  not  what  I  ask  you ; "  and  the  sole  question 
that  he  puts  to  them  is  this:  "Have  you  been  at  the  assembly?" 
or  ''Have  you  in  your  possession  forbidden  books ?"^  These 
gatherings  having  been  prohibited  by  the  sovereign  power,  fell 
under  the  action  of  the  old  laws  against  secret  societies,  and  the 
EvangeU    which    propagated    the    faith,    and    the    Passiones    which 

^  Eiiseh.,  Mart,  de  Palest.,  2.  The  same  happened  in  the  case  of  Alpheus  and  Zacclieus: 
XpKTTov  paffiXsa  'lri<Tovv  (ibid.,  1).  Procopius,  being  called  upon  to  bum  incense  in  honour  of 
the  four  rulers,  replies  with  a  line  of  Homer:  "It  is  not  good  to  have  so  many  masters; 
we  desire  but  one."  The  judge  considers  these  words  an  insult  to  the  emperors,  a  revolt 
against  the  government,  and  orders  the  punishment  of  treason.  (Euseb.,  ibid.)  Many  of 
the  judges  made  the  attempt  to  transform  the  prosecutions  a^^ainst  the  Christians  into  political 
prosecutions. 

^  KuumrtjActa  sine,  p.  387;  Acta  SS.  Saturniniy  Dativiy  etc.,  §  12. 

^  Bollandists,  February  11th,  §§  7  and  16. 

*  Kuiiiart,  Acta  sine,  p.  367. 


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THE    PERSECUTION    UNDER    DIOCLETIAN,    3():i    TO    305    A.D.  619 

extolled  it,  seemed  to  the  pagans  to  have  the  character  of  books 
of  magic,  which  were  proscribed.^ 

Meanwhile   the   imprisonment   of    the    priests   did   not   produce 
the   expected   effect;    a   third   edict   ordered   the   setting  at  liberty 
of  those  who   would    sacrifice,    and    the    constraining    of    the    rest 
by   all  possible   means   to   abandon   their   faith.^      The   govcniment 
had  been  able  legally  to  prohibit 
assemblies  which  it  believed  dan- 
gerous,   and    to    require    of    its 
functionaries     that     they     should 
sacrifice     to     the     gods     of    the 
Empire;  but  it  had  not  the  right 
to    impose    this    obligation    upon 
all  Christians.     Drawn  on  by  the 
fatal  progression  of  a  bad  design, 
the    intelligent    but    severe    man 
who    ruled     at    Nicomedia    was 
about  to    make    his    reign,   until 
then  peaceful  and  renowned,  the 
era  of  the  martyrs. 

As  is  the  case  in  all  times  of 
persecution  there  were  governors 
who,  averse  to  violence,  closed 
their  eyes,  or  contented  them- 
selves with  an  apparent   submis- 

sion.  The  bishop  of  Carthage,  '"'''''' '':^riXi^im^^j!:^' "'"""'' 
Mensurius,   had  left  only   a    few 

heretical  treatises  in  his  church;  these  the  proconsul  seized,  and 
when  he  was  informed  where  the  sacred  books  were  concealed,  he 
refused  to  make  search  for  them.  All  the  churches  also  were  not 
demolished;  several  of  them  were  only  closed,  and  some  even 
were  allowed  to  remain  open.^ 

*  Prudentiufl  {Perut.,  i.  76)  says  that  many  of  the  Acta  of  the  martyrs  were  at  that  time 
destroyed.    We  have  seen  Diocletian  in  Egypt  burn  books  of  occult  science. 

*  Euseb.,  Hist  eccL,  viii.  6. 

'  This  antique  head,  now  lost,  was  drawn  by  Peyssonuel  at  the  time  of  his  journey  in  1745. 
The  unpublished  MS.  of  this  journey  is  in  the  library  of  the  Institute  of  France,  whence  we 
have  taken  the  above  sketch. 

*  Tillemont,  Mdm.  eccl.,  vol.  v.  pp.  20,  37,  etc. 


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620  THE   ILLYEIAN   EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE   STRENGTHENED. 

In  other  places  much  ingenuity  was  used  in  finding  ways  for 
the  Christians  to  satisfy  the  law  against  their  own  consent.  "A 
man,"  says  Eusebius,  "being  dragged  to  the  altar  and  constrained 
to  touch  the  abominable  viands,  was  set  free  as  if  .he  had  willingly 
sacrificed.  Another  had  held  out  his  hand  towards  the  box  con- 
taining incense,  but  had  taken  none  from  it;  and  the  pagans  cried 
out  that  he  had  sacrificed  to  the  gods.  The  former,  half  dead 
from  the  blows  he  had  received,  was  cast  in  with  the  renegades; 
the  latter  vainly  protested  that  he  had  not  done  what  was  required 
of  him,  they  stopped  his  mouth  by  force,  so  eager  were  these 
wretches  to  have  it  believed  that  they  had  succeeded  in  their 
attempts.''*  Elsewhere  the  judge  said  to  the  Christian:  ''Sacrifice 
to  whom  you  will,  even  to  your  own  God;"*^  and  to  make  those 
present  believe  that  a  Christian  had  yielded,  drinking  the  wine  of 
libations,  there  was  offered  him  water  in  a  red  glass.^  ^'  I  have 
seen,"  Lactantius  further  says,  "governors  boasting  of  never  having 
pronounced  a  single  death  sentence,  and  proud  of  having  conquered 
the  Christians."  *  It  was  not^  that  persecution  always  oflEended 
their  consciences;  for  their  reputation  of  skill  one  apostasy  was 
worth  more  than  ten  condemnations.  The  Donatus  to  whom  Lac- 
tantius dedicated  his  book,  de  Morte  persecutorum^  was  nine  times 
put  to  the  torture,  never  in  a  manner  to  be  fatal,  but  always 
with  such  cruelty  that  there  was  reason  to  expect  recantation.  In 
many  Acta  we  even  read  of  money  offered  and  honours  promised 
in  return  for  an  abjuration.* 

When,  on  occasion  of  the  festivals  which  celebrated  the 
twentieth  year  of  his  reign,  Diocletian,  according  to  custom,  pro- 
claimed an  amnesty,^  the  prison  doors,  opened  for  all  ordinary 
convicts,  remained  closed  upon  the  Christians.  He  had  put  the 
clergy  in  confinement  through  fear  of  an  insurrection,  and  as  he  still 
retained  that  fear,  he  kept  his  captives.      By  the  two   first  edicts 

'  Euseb.,  Mart,  de  Pal.,  1.  However,  in  oert«in  places  there  existed  a  strong  antipathy: 
not  only  did  men  crowd  the  scene  of  execution  as  a  spectacle,  but  they  pillaged  the  goods  of 
the  prisoners  and  fugitives.     {Actes  de  S.  TJUodule  cf^myre,  Bollandists,  May  18th.) 

*  BolkndLstfi,  March  3rd  and  July  14th. 

'  Derenbourg,  Hist,  de  la  Palestine^  p.  422. 

*  Div,  ins  tit,  f  v.  11. 

*  L^op.  Delisle,  Note  sur  un  manuscrit  de  Prudence,  p.  6.  Of.  Edm.  le  Blant,  Supplement 
to  the  Actes  of  Ruinart,  p.  35. 

"  Euseb.,  Mart,  de  Pal,  2.     This  is  the  aholitio  generalis  of  the  Code  Just,y  ix.  43. 


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THE   PERSECUTION    UNDER   DIOCLETIAN,    303   TO    305   A.D.  621 

the  Christians  had  been  degraded  from  civil  honours,  deprived  of 
the  protection  of  the  laws,  and  declared  criminals  if  they  did  not 
surrender  their  sacred  writings  or  if  they  continued  to  hold  their 
meetings.'  The  third  had  directed  the  employment  of  all  means 
to  obtain  conversions,  without  however  authorizing  in  the  first 
phase  of  the  persecution  the  extreme  penalty.  There  were  execu- 
tions for   offences   regarded   as   crimes    against    the    common    law: 


Fragment  of  a  Glass  Disc,  representing^  the  Commemoration  of  the  Twentieth 
Year  of   Diocletian's  Reign.* 

insults  to  the  gods,  to  the  emperors,  secret  assemblies  or  forbidden 
meetings;  and,  as  it  were  not  possible  that  an  angry  policy  like 
this  should  be  everywhere  conducted  with  moderation,  privations 
and  tortures  had  caused  many  captives  to  perish  in  prison.  Many, 
also,  under  the  weight  of  moral  and  physical  sufEerings,  had  yielded 
to  weakness.  The  lapsi  who  sacrificed,  the  traditores  who  gave  up 
the   sacred  books,  the  timid  who  concealed   their  faith,'  had   been 

^  Euplius,  a  deacon,  was  beheaded  at  Catana,  August  12thy  304,  for  having,  contrary  to  the 
edicts,  called  together  the  Christian  community;  likewise  Philip  of  Heracleia  in  Thrace,  the 
martyrs  of  Abitina  in  Africa,  S.  Saturn inus,  etc. 

^  BiUletin  de  la  commission  archSologigue  de  Home,  tenth  year.  No.  3,  pi.  xx.  (July  to 
September,  1882). 

'  The  canons  of  the  Council  of  Elvira,  held  in  305,  show  that  many  believers  had  concealed 
their  faith,  had  filled  the  offices  of  duumvir,  flamen,  and  sacrificer,  had  given  money  for  pagan 
festivals,  for  spectacles,  and  games ;  the  Council  even  gives  them  permission,  if  they  fear  to  be 
denounced  by  their  slaves,  to  keep  idols  in  their  houses,  on  condition  of  paying  them  no  worship, 
etc.  This  is  not  contradictory  to  what  has  been  said  above  of  the  decline  of  the  municipal 
system  through  the  unwillingness  of  Christians  to  accept  office.  The  penances  imposed  by  the 
Council  of  Elvira  are  evidently  addressed  to  certain  rich  men  who  have  commuted  with  their 
consciences  in  order  to  preserve  their  wealth,  and  these  capitulations  occur  in  all  ages  of  the 
world.  The  heresy  of  the  Donatists  began  in  311,  wlien  Donatus  attacked  the  election  to  the 
see  of  Carthage  of  Caecilianus,  who  had  been  ordained  by  a  bishop  traditor. 


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622  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

numerous  and  became,  after  the  persecution  had  ceased,  a  subject 
of  violent  dissensions  in  the  Church.  At  Antioch,  a  great  city 
whose  inhabitants  were  half  of  them  Christians,  Romanus  was  the 
only  person  left  in  prison.* 

It  seemed  then  that  one  more  blow  would  suffice  to  beat  down 
this  Church  whose  pillars  were  tottering,  and  to  bring  back  the 
whole  Empire  to  the  old  faith.  Maximian  and  Galerius  thought 
so,  and  when  in  304  the  long  and  serious  illness  of  Diocletian  left 
them  masters  of  the  government,  they  revived  in  all  its  original 
vigour  the  last  edict  of  Valerian.  The  Acta  of  S.  Sabinus,  of 
which  the  authenticity  is  doubtful,^  relate  that  when  Maximian  was 
present  at  the  games  of  the  circus  at  Rome,  all  the  people  cried 
out,  "  Let  the  Christians  die ! "  and  that  the  emperor  caused  it 
to  be  proposed  to  the  senate  by  the  preetorian  or  urban  prefect 
that  a  decree  should  be  prepared  condemning  the  Christians  to 
sacrifice  or  die.'  This  is  improbable  on  the  face  of  it,  the  aban- 
doning to  the  senate  of  a  legislation  so  important  being  contrary 
to  all  that  the  history  of  the  time  teaches  us.  We  should  therefore 
reject  this  decree  mentioned  in  Acta  of  such  doubtful  authenticity 
were  it  not  that  Eusebius  speaks  of  imperial  letters  ordering  all 
men  to  be  present  at  the  sacrifices  and  take  part  in  them.*  Maxi- 
mian must  therefore  have  written  them,  or  Galerius  caused  them 
to  be  signed  by  the  second  Augustus,  in  a  moment  of  excitement, 
and  the  crime  of  Christianizing  was  again  inscribed  in  the  laws. 
Thus  war,  unchained  by  the  three  wild  beasts,  as  Laotantius  says, 
raged  with  fury. 

The  persecution  was  destined  to  last  eight  years.  What  part, 
in  this  tragic  history,  belongs  to  Diocletian?  We  have  seen  his 
repugnance  to  extreme  measures.  The  hatred  of  the  Christians  did 
not  concern  itself  with  him;  it  is  Galerius  whom  they  have 
pursued  vdth  their  maledictions.  We  must  also  remember  that  the 
just  horror  inspired  by  these  cruelties  has  deceived  the  world  in 
respect  to  the  number  of  victims.  Palestine  was  full  of  Christians, 
but  in  the  year  304  ten  only  perished,  of  whom  six  came  of  their 

'  Mopoi;  says  Eusebius  {Mart,  de  PaL^  2). 
^  Tillemont,  iWm.  eccl.^  vol.  v.  pp.  41.auil  003. 
•'  Ap.  Surius,  December  Slst. 
*  Euseb.,  Mart,  de  Pal.,  3. 


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THE    PERSECUTION    UNDER   DIOCLETIAN,    303   TO    305    A.D.  623 

own  accord  to  the  executioner.^  Italy  and  Spain  had  few;  at 
least,  in  those  countries  the  Acta  are  rare,  and  mostly  of  doubtful 
authenticity,-'  and  we  see  that  the  Koman  believers  wishing  to 
obtain  relics  went  at  that  time  to  seek  them  in  the  East.  Illyricum, 
too  near  the  barbarians  to  possess  great  cities  given  up  like 
Antioch  and  Alexandria  to  theological  quarrels,  occupied  itself  first 
of  all  with  its  terrestrial  safety.  It  had  few  bishoprics,  and  the 
martyrs  given  to  it  are  few  in  number;  one  only  became  popular, 
S.  Irenseus  of  Sirmium.^  In  Britain  and  in  Gaul,  Constantius 
Chlorus  contented  himself  with  destroying  a  few  churches:  '^He 
did  not  destroy  the  temple  built  up  to  God  in  the  hearts  of  the 
faithful."*  In  Egypt  and  in  the  Oriental  provinces,  the  martyrs 
executed,  and  still  more  the  confessors  sent  to  the  mines  after 
cruel  tortures,  were  very  numerous.*  But  one  thing  is  singular : 
in  the  chapter  in  which  Eusebius  relates  the  glorious  deaths  of 
the  ^^ pastors  of  the  Church"  during  all  the  persecution,  he  names 
only  nine  bishops.^  But  the  imperial  government  knew  them  all ; 
they  were  the  heads  of  the  Churches,  and  according  to  the  system 
of  Diocletian  the  head  was  to  be  struck;  but  we  have  seen  that 
he  did  not  wish  to  strike  mortal  blows. 

It  does  not  seem  even  that  the  administration  made  search 
after  the  Christians,  inquisiUo ;  otherwise  it  would  have  been 
necessary  to  employ  one  part  of  the  Empire  in  exterminating   the 

^  During  the  eight  years  that  the  persecution  lasted,  Eusebius,  who  was  on  the  spot  and 
has  written  the  history  of  it,  enumerates,  in  Palestine  only,  eighty  martyrs.  From  this  number 
Gibbon  estimates  that  there  may  have  been,  throughout  the  entire  Empire,  2,000  martyrs  in 
the  eight  years,  a  sad  and  monstrous  number,  certainly,  for  one  single  victim  would  have  been 
too  much  ;  but  every  estimate  must  be  uncertain. 

^  Tillemont,  Mim,  eccL,  vol.  v.  pp.  41,  58,  74,  etc.  The  most  celebrated  of  the  Spanish 
martyrs  of  that  time  was  S.  Vincent,  whose  Acta  are  a  legend  filled  with  miracles.  The  famous 
inscriptions  of  Clunia  are  ranged  by  lliibner  (C  1.  L.,  vol.  ii.  No.  233)  among  the  apocrypha, 
and  are  in  their  right  place. 

^  BoUandists,  March  25th.  For  the  Passio  SS.  IV  coronatoi'um  (Gurius,  November  8th), 
see  Ilunzicker,  Zur  Chiistenverf.f  p.  262,  and  de  Ilossi,  Bull,  di  archeol.  ctnst.,  §§3  and  4, 
No.  11. 

*  Lactantius,  de  Morte  pera.,  16.  Eusebius  {J^ife  of  Const,,  i.  17)  maintains  even,  very 
mistakenly,  that  mass  was  celebrated  in  his  palace  at  Treves. 

^  Cedrenus  {Hist.,^.  467)  mentions  an  edict  ordering  the  right  eye  of  condemned  Christians 
to  be  plucked  out.  We  cannot  tell  whether  this  was  an  official  order  or  a  practice  of  certain 
judges.  Eusebius  often  speaks  of  this  punishment  and  of  the  burning  of  one  of  .the  tendons 
of  the  foot  in  the  case  of  Christians  sent  to  the  mines  by  Maximin. 

^  Hist,  cccl.^  viii.  13.  Sixteen  hjid  ah-eady  occupied  in  succession  the  see  of  Alexandria; 
the  last  one  only  died  by  martyrdom  in  311. 


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624  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    TETE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

other.  Moreover  the  search  was  needless,  for  most  accounts  speak 
of  the  Christians  giving  themselves  up.  This  one  overthrows  an 
altars  of  the  gods ;  that  one  bums  a  temple  of  Cybele ;  another 
goes  straight  up  to  the  governor,  who  is  offering  a  sacrifice,  and 
plucks  the  incense  from  his  hands ;  another  insults  him  by  word 
and  act.  "  They  were,"  says  S.  Augustine,  ''  arrpws  of  God  shot 
by  the  saints  at  the  faces  of  the  oppressors."  ^  Then  there  was 
seen  something  like  an  epidemic  of  religious  suicides.  Contrary 
to  the  Church's  teaching,  which  disapproves  of  men  by  voluntary 
acts  of  imprudence  or  provocation  rushing  to  meet  their  martjrrdom, 
the  Acta  show  a  multitude  of  Christians  eager  to  exchange  their 
mortal  life  for  the  blessedness  promised  by  the  Scriptures.^  And 
we  must  also  say  with  a  bishop  of  the  time,^  among  these  saints 
of  the  eleventh  hour  were  found — a  thing  less  strange  than  it 
appears — men  who  speculated  upon  torture,  hoping  doubtless  that 
it  would  not  be  carried  to  the  fatal  point:  others,  ruined  with 
debts,  to  finish  gloriously  a  worthless  life;  others,  to  live  in  prison 
on  the  charity  of  the  Christian  society;  still  others,  incapable  of 
a  high  spirituality,  to  gain  salvation  by  a  last  effort  of  bodily 
endurance.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  how  many  admirable  instances 
of  devotion  and  stoical  deaths !     As  we  read  some  of  the  answers 

^  S.  Augustine,  in  Psalm,  xxxix.  §  16  j  Euseb.,  MaH.  d6  Pal.j  4  and  5:  \6yotQ  rt  rat  tpyot^-. 
Of.  BoUandists,  February  7th,  S.  Theodore  of  Amasia. 

Martyr  .... 

In/remuit  usque  tyranm  ocuios 
Sputajadt. 

(Prudentiufl,  Pensteph.,  iii.,  S.  Eulal.,  126-128.) 
Cf.  I^e  Blaut,  SupjiUment  atur  Actes  de  Ruinart,  p.  33. 

^  Like  the  three  Cilician  martyrs,  Tarachus,  Probus,  and  Andronicus  (Tilleraont,  M^n. 
eccl.y  vol.  V.  p.  285),  and  a  crowd  of  others.  Sulpicius  Severus  {Hist, sacra,  ii.  46)  says:  " They 
ran  to  meet  these  glorious  combats,  and  men  sought  for  death  more  eagerly  than  now  cupidity 
seeks  for  bishoprics."  On  the  question  of  voluntary  martyrdom,  and  on  the  means  employed, 
on  the  other  hand,  to  urge  to  his  death  a  brother  disinclined  to  it,  see  p.  232. 

^  See  the  letter  of  Mensurius,  bishop  of  Carthage  {ap.  S.  Augustine,  vol.  ix.  p.  568).  who 
was  anxious  that  those  who  voluntarily  provoked  punishment  should  not  be  reckoned  as  martyrs: 
....  quidam  facinorosi  et  fisci  debitores  qui,  occasione  persecutionis,  vel  carere  vellent  onerosa 
muUis  debitiit  vita,  vel  puryare  se  piUareiit,  et  quasi  abluere  facinora  sua,  vel  certe  adquirere 
pecuniam  et  in  custodia  deliciis  per/inii  de  obsequio  Christianorum.  Thus  did  the  Peregrinus  of 
Lucian.  There  is  also  mention  in  the  Acta  of  S.  Theodoret,  ap.  Ruinart,  of  debtors  seeking 
death  to  escape  the  severity  of  the  treasury  or  of  their  creditors.  Cf.  Le  Blant,  Suppl.  aiu 
Actes  de  Ruinart,  pp.  105  et  seq.  The  fate  of  insolvent  debtors  was  so  cruel  that  Constantino  wtis 
obliged  to  moderate  it,  but  long  after  him,  even,  Valentinian  I.  put  to  death  insolvent  debtors  to 
the  public  treasury  (Amm.  Marcellinus,  xxvii.  7).  I  have  mentioned  (p.  233,  n.  5)  the  banquets 
and  the  intoxicating  liquora  by  which  the  courage  of  certain  irresolute  martyrs  was  stimulated. 


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THE  PERSECUTION  UNDER  DIOCLETIAN,  303  TO  305  A.D.     625 

given  at  the  trial,  we  seem  to  hear  the  songs  of  a  virginal  purity 
already  far  above  the  level  of  earth.^ 

Political  history  does  not  record  all  the  acts  of  courage  in  a 
battle,  and  of  the  soldiers  who  die  for  their  country  she  preserves 
only  the  memory  of  their  victory.  Neither  is  it  within  her  pro- 
vince to  relate  those  triumphant  deaths  which  have  been  the 
strength  and  are  the  honour  of  the  Church.  This  duty  belongs  to 
religious  histoiy,  which  must  determine  what  deed^  are  to  be 
remembered,  a  long  and  difficult  work,  begun  long  since  and  not 
yet  ended.  We  refer  the  reader  therefore  to  the  hagiographers  for 
the  story  of  those  heroic  and  horrible  scenes  where  human  wicked- 
ness exerted  itself  to  discover  new  methods  of  causing  the  flesh 
to  cry  out,  and  in  which  the  victims  suffered  for  the  noblest  of 
causes,  liberty  of  conscience.  Like  the  sufferers  by  persecution, 
Diocletian  also  was  to  endure  his  pain;  this  man,  so  sagacious, 
who  near  the  close  of  his  reign  thus  lost  his  wisdom,  was  to 
behold  from  the  retirement  of  his  palace  at  Salona  the  death  of 
his  gods  and  the  triumph  of  Christ.^ 


II. — Abdication  and  Death  of  Diocletian  (305-313). 

At  the  close  of  the  year  303  the  two  Augusti  were  approach- 
ing the  twentieth  year  of  their  reign,  and  they  had  taken  together 
at  the  altar  of  their  gods  a  pledge  to  mark  this  anniversary  by 
a  deed  which  has  been  imitated  but  once,  at  which  posterity  is 
amazed,  and  which,  in  the  interests  of  the  Roman  world,  it  would 
have  been  better  not  to  have  done.  In  the  spring  of  303  Dio- 
cletian quitted  Nicomedia  and  travelled  slowly  through  Thrace  and 
the  Danubian  provinces  towards  Italy.  He  had  at  last  decided  to 
visit  that  Rome  which  he  had  never  seen  since  his  accession,  and 
to  celebrate  at  one  and  the  same  time  the  festival  of  the  Sacra 
Vicennalia^   and    the    triumph  which   the    senate    had    long   before 

'  For  instance^  that  of  S.  Theodora  of  Alexandria. 

^  The  Christians  followed  him  in  later  ages  with  their  maledictions,  as  was  their  right ; 
and,  so  far  as  the  persecution  was  concerned,  it  was  justice.  A  historian  of  this  emperor, 
Casagrandi  (Diocleziano,  p.  368,  No.  1)  has  even  put  this  question:  Qimle  >  statu  la  inano  che 
dalle  storie  di  Aminiaiio  e  Zosimo  sfrappava  le  pagini  dedicate  a  Dioclezt'ano  f  Chi  ha  dvtti-utta 
la  mta  che  di  lid  /tcn'AMf  H  sito  segretano  Eusteyiio  ? 

VOL.  VI.  SS 


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626  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENBD. 

decreed  to  the  two  emperors.^  But  as  he  did  not  love  an  unwhole- 
some popularity,  and  was  not  of  the  number  who  stoop  to  obtain 
or  to  keep  power,  he  proposed  to  make  but  an  official  and  brief 
visit  to  the  old  capital  of  the  world.  On  the  twentieth  of 
November  he  entered  the  city  with  Maximian  in  a  chariot  drawn 
by  four  elephants,  as  a  memorial  of  his  Asiatic  victories.  Behind 
him  were  borne  figures  representing  the  king  of  Persia  whom  he 
had  conquered,  the  wives  and  children  of  the  latter  captured  in 
the  camp  at  Narses,  all  arrayed  in  the  purple  robe  embroidered 
with  pearls ;  then  came  the  trophies  recalling  the  successes  gained 
over  the  nations  adjacent  to  the  frontiers.  According  to  the  custom 
on  these  anniversaries  he  granted  an  amnesty  which  opened  tiie 
prison  doors  to  all,  the  Christians  excepted,  and  gave  lai^esses  in 
all  the  great  cities.  The  people  of  Rome  had  their  large  share 
in  this:  a  congiarium  of  310,000,000  denarii,  or  1,500  denarii 
apiece,  if  they  at  this  time  numbered  200,000.^  Games  and 
combats  of  animals  were  the  necessary  accompaniment  of  these 
ceremonies,  and  they  were  accordingly  given  by  Diocletian,  but 
seem  to  have  been  lacking  in  magnificence.  In  the  hunts,  few 
animals  were  killed ;  in  the  amphitheatre,  few  gladiators.  The 
people  cried  out  against  the  niggardliness  of  the  emperor;  they 
murmured  still  more  when  they  heard  reported  this  saying  of 
Diocletian's,  which  made  parsimony  the  ride :  "In  presence  of 
the  censor  there  should  be  moderation."  At  bottom  this  captious 
crowd  displeased  the  ruler,  who  cared  much  more  for  the  needs  of 
the  Empire  than  for  those  of  the  populace  of  Kome ;  ^  content  with 
having  flimg  them  gold,  he  scorned  to  take  pains   to  amuse   them. 

^  A  learned  numismatist,  M.  L^paulle,  in  his  Note  sur  V Atelier  monitaire  de  Ly<mj 
1883,  announces,  from  three  denarii  in  bis  collection,  found  in  1880,  a  fact  which  is  nowhere 
mentioned,  namely,  the  celebration  of  the  Secular  Games  by  Diocletian  about  fifty  years  later 
than  those  of  the  emperor  Philip.  The  authority  of  the  coins  is  great,  but  the  silence  of 
historians  on  this  important  fact  is  very  singular,  especially  of  Zosimus,  who  speaks  at  great 
length  of  the  Secular  Games,  and  knows  nothing  of  those  of  Diocletian,  although  in  speaking  of 
them  he  mentions  this  emperor. 

*  It  is  more  probable  that  this  sum  of  310,000,000  denarii  (Mommsen,  op.  cit.,  p.  648) 
represents  the  entire  amount  granted  by  Diocletian  to  the  great  cities  of  the  Empire,  vdffy  ry 
'Pojfiaiiav  iro\iTH(f,  says  Malalas  (Chron.,  xii.  p.  300,  ad  ann,  302).  The  Alexcmdrian  Chronicle 
mentions  also,  p.  514,  for  this  same  year  a  distribution  in  Alexandria  of  parUs  eastrensis.  The 
triumph  of  Diocletian  was  not,  as  it  has  been  said  to  be,  the  last  triumph  ever  witnessed  in 
Rome.  Constantius  celebrated  one  in  357  and  Honorius  another,  after  tlie  victory  of  Stilicho 
over  Alaric. 

^  Cum  libertatem  populi  Romani  ferre  non  poterat  (Lactantius,  17). 


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THE   PERSECUTION   UNDER    DIOCLETIAN,    303   TO   305    A.D.  627 

This  disdain  of  his  is  comprehensible  when  we  read  what  Ammianus 
Marcellinus  has  to  say  of  the  frivolity  of  these  men,  wholly  absorbed 
in  their  sanguinary  amusements,  or  shaking  the  folds  of  their  togas 
to  call  attention  to  the  fringe  of  the  border  and  the  curious  tissue 
of  tunics,  embroidered  with  figures  of  animals.* 

The  senators  were  treated  with  no  greater  consideration.  The 
ceremony  of  the  installation  of  the  consuls  was  approaching;  it 
was  for  the  senate  and  the  city  a  festival  in  which  the  emperors 
formerly  shared,  but  Diocletian  did  not  attend  it. 
On  the  18th  of  December'^  he  left  Kome,  which 
had  not  been  able  to  detain  him  for  an  entire 
month,  and  visited  Kavenna,  where  he  took  posses- 
sion for  the  ninth  time  of  the  consular  office 
(304).  This  triumph  and  these  festivals,  which 
had  now  brought  to  men's  minds  all  the  successes        TheRepoeeof 

«...  o         ^'  .1       ,         theAugusti,QUIES 

01  his  reign,  were  a  matter  of  policy  with  the  avgg.  (Medium 
skilled  statesman.  As  his  mind  was  made  up 
to  seeking,  in  the  retirement  he  had  long  before  made  ready,  that 
which  contemporaries  have  called  the  repose  of  the  Augusti,  quies 
Augmtorum^^  but  which  was  for  him  the  putting  in  practice  of  a 
deep  design,  he  had  elected  to  retire  from  the  world  after  having 
given  this  brilliant  manifestation  which  was  to  immortalize  his  fame. 

From  Kavenna  he  went  to  Aquileia  and  Istria,  doubtless  went 
as  far  as  Salona  to  make  sure  that  all  things  were  ready  for  his 
reception,*  and  returned  to  Nicomedia  in  the  middle  of  304.  From 
this  city  is  dated  one  of  his  last  rescripts,  on  the  28th  of  August 
of  that  year. 

Diocletian  had  been  seriously  indisposed  during  this  journey. 
But  he  was  not  yet  sixty  years  old;  he  had  a  robust  constitution, 
and,  with  his  habitual  tenacity  of  purpose,  he  returned  to  the  city 
where  he  had  assumed  the  purple,  and  where  he  proposed   to   lay 

*  xiv.  6. 

^  Lactantius,  17.  It  is  probable  that,  before  leaving  Rome,  he  caused  Maximian  to  renew 
in  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Oapitolinus  the  engagement  to  abdicate  at  the  same  time  with  himself. 
(Pan,  vet,  vii.  15.) 

*  Pan.  vet,  vi.  11,  and  Eckhel,  vol.  viii.  p.  14. 

*  Conjecture  authorized  by  the  words  of  Lactantius,  17 :  per  eircuitum  rip€B  IttriccB 
Nicomediam  venit.  Diocletian,  in  feeble  health  and  habituated  to  eastern  climates,  was  likely 
in  January,  304,  to  avoid  the  valley  of  the  Danube,  through  which  certain  authorities  represent 
him  as  passing,  a  region  subject  to  cold  so  excessive  that  the  mighty  river  is  sometimes  frozen. 

SS2 


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628  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

it  off.  His  illness  increased  during  the  winter ;  all  the  gods, 
assailed  with  prayers  for  the  recovery  of  him  who  had  protected 
them,  remained  deaf  to  these  supplications.  On  the  15th  of 
December  he  had  a  fainting  fit,  the  palace  was  in  tears,  and  a 
rumour  of  his  death  spread  through  the  city.  When  this  report 
was  contradicted  many  refused  to  believe  that  he  was  still  alive, 
thinking  that  it  was  designed  to  conceal  the  truth  imtil  Galerius 
should  arrive,  lest  there  might  be  an  outbreak  among  the  soldiery. 
The  emperor  did  not  appeal"  again  in  public  until  the  Kalends  of 
March.  ''He  could  scarcely  be  recognized,"  says  Lactantius,  "so 
greatly  had  he  changed;  and,  if  he  had  recovered  his  health,  his 
mind  had  become  so  impaired  that  he  never  again  had  his  reason 
but  for  more  than  a  few  moments  at  a  time.''^  But  Lactantius, 
his  enemy,  takes  pleasure  in  showing  the  persecutor  of  the  Chris- 
tians deprived  of  his  dignity  as  a  man  by  the  divine  justice,  of 
his  imperial  crown  by  the  Caesar  whom  he  had  himself  made,  and 
the  entire  edifice  he  had  so  laboriously  erected  falling  into  ruins 
over  his  head.  The  historian  has  seen  in  the  secret  apartments 
of  the  palace,  Diocletian  groaning,  with  tear-stained  face;  he  has 
heard  the  hard  words  and  threats  of  Galerius,  and  the  humble 
answers  of  the  old  emperor,  a  rhetorical  embellishment  which 
obliging  writers  have  taken  for  an  historic  scene.^  This  abdication 
which  Galerius  is  supposed  to  have  extorted  from  a  feeble  and 
iiTCsolute  old  man,  was  one  of  the  conditions  of  existence  of  the 
new  political  system  which  reserved  power  for  the  prime  of  man- 
hood. This  Diocletian  himself  affirmed  on  the  day  when  he 
ordered  the  sons  of  the  Caesars  to  be  only  additional  soldiers  in 
the  imperial  army;  and  the  keenest  joy  that  this  valiant  mind 
could  have  anticipated  for  his  latter  days  must  have  been  to  behold 
his   great   institution   subsisting  without   him.      He   had   succeeded 

*  Lactantius,  17 :  Demens  enimf actus  esty  it  a  ut  certis  horis  insanirctf  certis  resiputceret. 

"  To  render  this  scene  less  improbable,  Lactantius  had  shown  Galerius  since  the  year  297 
inflated  with  pride  on  account  of  his  victory  over  Narses,  and  exclaiming:  Quousque  Casarf 
"  How  long  must  I  remain  Caesar  ?  "  The  skilful  rhetorician  is  mindful  of  the  rule  of  his  art, 
that  great  effects  must  be  prepared  for  long  in  advance.  But  he  refutes  himself  when  he  says, 
later,  in  chap,  xxvi.,  that  Galerius  was  determined  also  to  abdicate  after  his  Vtcennalta,  showing 
that  abdication  after  twenty  years  of  rule  waa  to  be  regarded  as  the  principle  of  the  new 
government.  Aurelius  Victor  know^  nothing  of  any  enfeeblement  of  Diocletian :  "  He 
renounced  the  cares  of  government,"  says  this  author,  "  being  in  full  vigour  of  body  and  mind, 
valentior  curam  reipublicep  abjecitJ' 


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THE   PERSECUTION    UNDER   DIOCLETIAN,    303   TO    305    A.D.  629 

in  preventing  military  usurpations  by  giving  himself  colleagues 
who  acknowledged  his  superior  authority.  Moreover,  to  secure  in 
the  future  the  peaceable  transmission  of  the  supreme  power,  he  had 
resolved  to  limit  for  himself  its  exercise  to  a  period  of  twenty 
years,  both  in  order  to  give  by  his  own  example  an  obligation  of 
unselfishness  to  future  Augusti,  and  to  calm  the  impatience  of  new 
Caesars  by  showing  them  that  the  hour  of  sovereignty  would  come 
for  them  also.  Thus  was  to  be  made  secure  the  system  which  had 
been  the  great  work  of  his  life ;  succession  according  to  merit 
taking  the  place  of  the  principle  of  heredity  or  the  accident  of 
military  favour.  We  have  two  decisive  proofs  that  such  was  really 
his  intention:  the  care  that  he  had  taken  during  nine 
years  in  the  construction  of  his  palace  at  Salona,  in 
a  remote  comer  of  the  world  far  from  all  public  life 
and  business;  and  the  fact  that  he  had  so  carefully 
obtained  from  the  ambitious  Maximian  the  promise  to 
abdicate  at  the  same  time  with  himself.  Upon  a  coin  De^iny  ^fatis 
struck  on  occasion  of  the  abdication,   these  words  are  vkjtricibus. 

(Reverse  of 

to  be  read:  "To  the  victorious  Fates."    For  the  pagans,    a  Gold  Coin  of 
fatality  was  the  supreme  will  of  Jupiter,  "  Master  of 
Destiny,"  and  human  wisdom  was  an  inspiration  from  the  god.     The 
resolution  of  the  two  emperors  was   therefore   attributed  to  Jupiter 
himself,  Fatis  Victricibm^^  and  in  retiring  they  obeyed  the  divine  will. 

When,  in  the  month  of  December,  303,  Diocletian  had  cele- 
brated at  Eome  his  Vicennalia^  he  was  in  his  twentieth  year  of 
imperial  power,  which  was  not  completed  until  the  17th  September, 
304.  The  time  that  he  had  fixed  for  his  abdication  had  then 
come,  but  he  waited  some  months  longer  to  allow  Maximian  to 
begin  the  year  in  which,  twenty  years  earlier,  he  had  been  made 
Csesar.  By  this  voluntary  delay  he  did  not  overpass  the  limit  he 
had  marked  for  himself,  while  he  attained  that  when  he  could 
claim  from  his  colleague  the  fulfilment  of  his  promise. 

The  Empire  at  this  time  was  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  profound 
peace,  which  to  the  imperial  ear  was  not  disturbed  by  the  far-off 
cries   of  martyred  Christians.     In  the   interior,  no  disorder;    from 

^  Eckhel,  vol.  viii.  p.  6.  An  inscription  found  at  Carlsburg  (C.  /.  X.,  vol.  iii.  No.  1,090) 
calls  Jupiter,  divinarum  humanat'umqtte  rerum  rector  fatorumque  arbiter,  Cf.  Pausanias,  v.  15, 
in  respect  to  Jupiter  fioipayknjg. 


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630  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  I    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

without,  no  threat  of  danger.  In  face  of  this  so  well  ordered 
government,  and  of  these  so  well  guarded  frontiers,  ambitious  men 
held  their  peace,  and  the  barbarians  remained  in  an  attitude  of 
respect  and  fear.  Nothing  therefore  prevented  Diocletian  from 
making  the  experiment,  so  formidable  in  an  absolute  monarchy,  of 
the  transmission  of  the  supreme  authority. 

Three  miles  distant  from  Nicomedia,  upon  a  low 
hill  overlooking  the  city,  stood  a  column  surmounted 
by   a   statue   of  Jupiter.      It  was   on   this  spot   that 
Diocletian   had   given  to  Galerius  the   purple   of   the 
Csesars.     Hither  the   old   emperor  caused  his  throne 
Severus  II.,      to  be  brought,  and  came  to  sit  upon  it  for  the  last 
AUGUSTUS,     time.     The  nobility  of  the  Empire,  the  officers  of  the 
"*'       palace,   and    the    representatives    of    all    the    legions 
having  been  assembled  in  their   order  aroimd  him,   he   arose   and 
annoimced  his   resolution.      His   strength,  he  said,  was  decreasing, 
and,  after  so  many  labours,  repose  was  needful  to   him;    he  gave 
back  to  the  god  whose  image  glittered  above  his  head  that  which 
the  god  had  given  him,  and  he  transmitted  the  Empire  to  yoimger 
men,  to  the  late  Cassars,  whose  places  would  thence- 
forward be  filled  by  the  experienced  generals  Severus 
and  Maximin  Daza.    The  latter,  a  nephew  of  Galerius, 
was  present.     Diocletian  summoned  him,   and  taking 
Maximin  Daza     ^®  ^®  ^^'^  purple   mantle  laid  it   upon  the  young 
»rH*V!?rH^;Tc.     man's  shoulders.      On  the  same  day,  May  1st,   305, 

MAXIMINUS  ,  J7  J  7  J 

p.  F.  AVG.      Severus  was  proclaimed   Caesar    at   Milan    by    Maxi- 
mian,  and  Diocletian,   now   "  Diodes "  again,   quitted 
Nicomedia  to  seek  the  seclusion  of  his  palace  at  Salona.^ 

It  was  a  grand  and  beautiful  scene.  This  emperor  who,  not 
like  Charles  V.  in  the  decline  of  his  power,  but  in  full  prosperity 
and  as  yet  far  short  of  the  limit  of  his  life,  abandons  the  imperial 
power  that  he  may  so  give  a  solemn  sanction  to  a  political  system, 
was  a  man   of  distinguished   ability.      "After  him,"   says   an   old 

^  .  .  .  .  et  iterum  Diocles  foetus  (Lactantius,  19).  This  remark  of  Lactantius  is  not  more 
truthful,  however,  than  many  other  things  that  he  says.  Diocles,  on  the  contrary,  remained 
Diocletian,  with  possession  of  all  imperial  honours.  Coins  struck  after  the  abdication  represent 
him  as  crowned,  and  have  the  legend :  Domino  nostro  DiocletianOj  beatissimo  seniori  Augusto. 
On  others  is  the  following :  ^terno  Augusto^  or  Providentia  deorum,  quies  augusta.  Maximian 
withdrew  into  Lucania. 


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THB   PERSECUTION    UNDER    DIOCLETIAN,    303   TO    306    A.D.  631 

historian,    "the    decline    of    the    Empire    began,    and    by   degrees 
barbarism  gained  upon  it."  ^ 

On  the  shore  of  one  of  those  beautiful  bays  with  which  the 
Adriatic  indents  the  Dalmatian  coast,  where  the  calm  water  is 
protected  by  islands  from  the  angry  waves  of  the  open  sea,  now 
stands  the  town  of  Spalato,^  which  once  was  almost  completely 
occupied  by  the  palace  of  Diocletian.  On  one  side  was  the  sea 
with  its  changing  aspects;  on  the  other,  wooded  hills,  vineyards, 
and  villages;  and  the  air  was  always  sweet  and  fresh,  except  in 
the  burning  heats  of  summer.  In  this  favoured  spot  Diocletian 
had  erected  the  sumptuous  edifice  wherein  he  proposed  to  end  his 
days  near  the  scenes  of  his  youth.  The  vast  structure  covered  a 
surface  of  more  than  eight  acres.  Its  exterior  wall,  defended  at 
the  four  comers  by  huge  quadrangular  towers,  gave  admittance, 
under  fortified  gateways  known  as  the  Gates  of  Gold,  of  Iron,  of 
Brass,  and  of  the  Sea,  to  four  streets  bordered  by  colonnades  of 
red  granite.  The  old  soldier  had  designed  his  palace  after  the 
likeness  of  his  Empire.  Seen  from  without  it  was  a  camp  and  a 
fortress.  But  the  interior  told  of  its  imperial  occupant:  baths, 
a  forum,  halls  of  reception  and  council,  barracks  for  the  guard, 
and  two  temples  for  his  favourite  divinities:  jEsculapius  (?)  and 
Jupiter  (?).  The  latter  temple,  octagonal  without  and  circular 
within,  with  arches  resting  on  the  columns  instead  of  the  architrave 
placed  directly  upon  capitals,  was  a  prelude  to  the  Byzantine  archi- 
tecture.* A  thick  wall,  rising  from  the  sea,  supported  an  open 
gallery  590  feet  in  length,  the  roof  resting  on  fifty  columns :  an 
incomparable  loggia^  whence  the  view  extended  beyond  the  islands 
over  the  open   sea,  at  that  time   crowded  with  vessels.     By  great 

*  ZosimuSy  ii.  7 :  .  .  .  .  (iap^aptaBHaa  [ij  *Pa>/uila»v  ipx*l]' 

^  Spalato,  corruption  of  Salome  palatium.  The  stone,  almost  as  beautiful  as  marble,  of 
which  the  palace  was  built,  was  obtained  from  the  quarries  of  Tragurium.  Much  porphyry 
also  and  Egyptian  granite  was  employed  in  the  edifice. 

'  M.  A.  Choisy,  the  learned  author  of  L^Art  de  bdtir  chez  les  Byzantim,  says  very  well, 
p.  152 :  "  It  has  been  customary  to  date  the  Byzantine  architecture  from  the  fourth  century. 
According  to  the  accredited  opinion,  Justinian  waA  its  originator  and  S.  Sophia  its  first  example. 
In  fact,  no  style  of  architecture  ever  comes  into  existence  thus  at  a  fixed  date  and  with 
a  masterpiece  as  its  first  work.**  The  author  mentions,  as  examples  of  the  beginnings  of 
Byzantine  art  in  the  Empire,  two  tanks  at  Constantinople,  constructed  in  the  time  of 
Constant ine,  the  palace  of  Spalato,  etc.,  and  he  very  justly  finds  its  origin  in  Assyria: 
"  Byzantine  art,**  he  says,  "  existed  from  the  Roman  epoch  beside  the  official  architecture,  and 
waited  only  the  decline  of  classic  traditions  to  make  itself  conspicuous." 


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632  THE   ILLYRIAN   EMPERORS:    THE   EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

underground  passages  opening  on  this  side,  supplies  were  brought 
into  the  palace,  and  quietly  distributed.  In  the  neighbourhood  was 
a  hunting  park ;  but  where  was  the  famous  garden  which  Diocletian 
cultivated  with  his  own  hands,  and  from  which  he  wrote  to 
Maximian,  who  was  begging  him  to  resume  the  purple :  "If  you 
coidd  see  the  fine  vegetables  I  am  cultivating  here,  you  would 
never  speak  to  me  again  of   such  wearisome  tasks."     The  place  is 


luterior  View  of  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  at  Salona.     (From  tlie  Atlas  of  Cassas.) 

unknown  to  us ;    but  the  answer  lives  in  histoiy,  and  men  weaiy 
of  public  life  delight  to  quote  it. 

This  dwelling  was  not  that  of  a  philosopher ;  but  Diocletian 
was  not  inclined  to  philosophize.  He  had  done  a  political  action 
which  implies  an  uncommon  grandeur  of  soul;  and  the  sacrifice 
being  made,  it  pleased  him  to  preserve  as  a  private  individual  all 
the  magnificence  of  imperial  station.  The  temple  of  Jupiter, 
so-called,  received  the  daylight  only  through  the  door  of  entrance, 
and  it  is  a  very  small   building;    scholars  have  been  disposed   to 


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THE    PERSECUTION    UNDER    DIOCLETIAN,    303   TO    305    A.D.  635 

think  that  it  was  a  tomb.  At  the  summit  of  power  Diocletian  had 
prepared  a  stately  shelter  for  his  old  age;  it  is  quite  probable 
that,  while  in  retirement,  he  constructed  for  his  last  home  a 
sumptuous  tomb.^ 

The  emperor  passed  eight  years  at  Salona,   respected  by  those 
whose   fortxme   he   had   made.      An    inscription    of    the    year    305 
calls  him    "the   father   of  the   emperors."     When   his  baths   were 
inaugurated    at    Rome    his    name    was    left    to    the 
colossal  edifice;^    and  on  coins  of  this  period  he  is 
called  "the  eldest  of  the  Augusti,"  Augustus  senior} 
Galerius  consulted  him   in  respect   to   the   elevation 
of   Licinius,   and   in   310    Eumenes   extolled    in    the 
presence  of  Constantino  the  great  emperor  who  was       augusta 
suiTounded  by  the  veneration  of  the  new  masters  of     Daughter  of  Dio- 

*'  cletian  and 

the  world/  But  he  saw  the  ambitions  that  he  had  wife  of  Galerius. 
restrained  break  out  anew;  civil  wars  and  murders 
of  emperors  succeed  one  another;  Christianity  obtain  a  legal  recog- 
nition: his  wife  the  empress  Prisca,  and  his  daughter  Valeria,  the 
widow  of  Galerius,  despoiled  of  their  possessions  and  confined 
in  a  place  of  exile.^  These  blows,  falling  upon  the  emperor, 
the  husband,  and  the  father,  were  not  enough  for  the  hate  of 
the  Christians.  They  depicted  him  as  steeped  in  insults  and 
trembling  for  his  life.  Constantino  throws  down  his  statues,  has  his 
name   effaced  from  the   public   edifices,*  and  writes   him   menacing 

*  For  a  temple,  the  edifice  is  remarkably  small,  42^  feet  in  diameter,  69  in  height.  The 
columos  are  but  23  feet  high,  but  are  surmounted  with  a  heavy  entablature  and  a  second  oi*der 
of  pillars  11^  feet  in  height.  On  the  other  hand,  tombs  were  never  placed  so  near  dwellings; 
but  Diocletian  perhaps  was  desirous  to  place  his  own  within  the  fortifications  of  his  palace. 
Lanza  places  the  tomb  in  the  t«mple  of  .^culapius. 

*  C.  I.  L,f  vol.  vi.  1,130:  ....  Seniores  Au^usti  patres  imperatorum  et  CcBsarum, 
'  Eckhel,  vol.  viii.  p.  14. 

*  Divinum  ilium  virum  ....  qiiem  vestra  tantorum  principum  colunt  obsequia  privatum, 
....  muUo  jugo  fultu^  imperio  et  vestro  tegitur  latus  umAraculo  (Pan.  vet,  vii.  15). 

'  The  two  empresses  were  decapitated,  by  order  of  Licinius,  early  in  the  year  315,  and  their 
bodies  thrown  into  the  sea.  A  son  of  Galerius,  Candidianus,  whom  Valeria  had  brought  up 
tenderly,  was  at  the  same  time  put  to  death. 

^  StatutB  revellebantur  (Lactantius,  42).  Const«ntine,  he  says,  caused  to  be  destroyed  the 
paintings  in  which  the  two  Augusti  are  represented  together,  overthrew  those  of  their  images 
where  the  statue  of  Diocletian  formed  a  group  with  Mazimian's,  and  effaced  the  inscriptions 
which  were  common  to  the  two.  This  posthumous  proscription  was  addressed  to  Maximian, 
whom  Constantine  had  caused  to  be  murdered.  As  for  the  mutilation  of  the  inscriptions 
peculiar  to  Diocletian  (\j.  Renier,  Inscr.  d^Alg.,  108;  C,  L  Z.,  vol.  ii.  1,439;  and  Wilmanns, 
769a,  1,060),  we  must  see  in  this  an  act  of  rage  on  the  part  of  the  Christian  populations, 


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636  THE    ILLYRIAN    EMPERORS  :    THE    EMPIRE    STRENGTHENED. 

letters;^  Maximin  makes  no  reply  when  Diocletian  begs,  with 
humble  messages,  that  his  daughter  be  restored  to  him;  and  the 
last  days  of  this  mighty  monarch  are  so  sad  that  he  poisons  himself 
or  dies  by  voluntary  starvation.  The  Christians  will  have  the 
eternal  damnation  of  their  persecutor  begin  in  this  present  world. 
Since  no  man  killed  him,  it  must  needs  be  that  he  kill  himself  in 
the  midst  of  all  the  anguish  of  despair.     Thus  justice  would  be  done. 

The  scene  is  dramatic,  and  the  legend  that  it 
embodies  lives  yet;  but  Eusebius,  a  contemporary 
and  an  enemy,  and  Eutropius,  an  indifferent  person, 
have  no  knowledge  of  these  sad  horrors.  The 
latter  represents  him  as  growing  old  in  honoured 
tranquillity;  the  former  only  tells  of  a  long  illness 
"the  Eldest  of  the    which,  in  the  end,  earned  him  ofE.^ 

^      ^'  In  an  ordinance  published   a  few  days  before 

the  death  of  Dioeletian,  Constantine  still  calls  him:  "Our  lord 
and  father,"^  and,  lastly,  he  permits  the  senate  to  decree  him 
apotheosis,  although  the  ex-emperor  at  Salona  was  no  more  than  a 
private  individual.*  The  senators,  protectors  of  the  state  religion 
of  Eome,  took  pleasure  in  protesting  against  the  victory  of  the 
Christians  by  causing  their  persecutor  to  be  enrolled  among  the 
gods.  But  the  act  could  not  be  done  without  ccmsent  of  the  reign- 
ing emperor;  it  was  therefore  by  the  will  of  Constantine  that 
Diocletian  was   apotheosized;^    upon   earth   honours  to  his  memory 

avenging  themselves  upon  their  persecutor,  rather  than  the  execution  of  an  order  from 
government. 

'  Constantine  is  said  to  have  endeavoured  to  compel  him  to  attend  the  conference  at  Milan 
in  «U3,  and,  on  the  old  man's  refusal,  to  have  written  a  letter  which  decided  him  to  take  his  own 
life.  The  senate  is  said  to  have  condemned  him  to  death,  etc.  Cf.  TiUemont,  Hist,  desi 
empereurs,  vol.  iv.  p.  54. 

'  Praclaro  otto  senuit  (Eutrop.,  ix.  28;  Euseh.,  Hist,  eccl.y  viii.  17). 

'D(omino)  N(ostro)  DIOC^LETIANO  BEATISSIMO  SENIORI  AUG(u8to).  The 
reverse:    PROVIDEXTIA  DEORUM  QUIES  AUG.     (Medium  bronze.) 

*  Theod.  Code,  xiii.  10,  2;  edict  of  the  Kalends  of  June,  313.  Diocletian,  not  being  called 
divuSj  was  yet  living  at  that  date.  It  may  be  inferred  from  Lactantius  {de  Morte  pert.,  35-45) 
that  he  died  before  Maximin  (July,  313),  consequently  a  few  days  after  the  dat«  of  the  edict. 

*  Contigit  ei  nt,  quum privatus  obisset,  inter  Divo/t  re/erretur  (Eutrop.,  ix.  2S). 

"  Under  the  Christian  emperors  the  word  divus  was  retained  to  designate  the  dead  empemr. 
The  reign  of  Diocletian  has  given  rise  to  many  discussions  which  it  would  be  out  of  place 
to  repeat  here ;  they  will  be  found  in  various  special  works,  of  which  some  are  excellent  : 
Ilun/icker,  in  the  Untersvch.  zur  riim.  Kaisergesch.  of  Max  Biidiuger,  vol.  ii.  pp.  115-284,  1866; 
Preu.  s.  Kaiser  Diocletian^  1869;  Casagrandi,  Diocleziano,  1876;  Mason,  The  Persecution  of 
Diocletian,  1^76;  Coen,  VAbdicazione  di  Diocl.,  1877;  Morosi,  fAbdic.  delV  imp.  Diocl.,  1880; 


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THE    PERSECUTION    UNDER    DIOCLETIAN,    303   TO    305    A.D.  637 

were  not  lacking:  his  tomb  remained  always  covered  with  the 
imperial  mantle.^ 

The  conqueror  of  Actium  gave  the  Empire  its  first  form, 
namely,  absolute  power  concealed  under  a  republican  exterior,  with 
liberal  institutions  of  the  cities  and  provinces.  Diocletian  undertook 
to  abolish  whatever  remained  of  the  government  of  the  Csesars,  in 
order  to  establish  in  its  stead  a  skilfully  organized  monarchy  whose 
agents  should  be  everywhere  present.  The  union  which  could  not 
be  made  between  low  and  high  by  means  of  free  institutions,  was  to 
be  made  between  high  and  low  by  administrative  ties  which  would 
enwrap  the  whole  Empire,  and  were  destined  to  keep  a  portion  of 
it  standing  for  ten  centuries.  We  have  seen  how  much  ancient 
material  was  employed  in  the  construction  of  the  new  edifice;  it 
is  always  so.  In  public  affairs  the  successful  innovators  are  those 
who  organize  well,  rather  than  those  who  invent,  for  the  present, 
in  order  to  stand  securely,  must  begin  by  resting  upon  the  past. 

The  close  of  the  reign  of  Diocletian  is  the  natural  end  of 
the  History  of  Ancient  Rome.  The  confusion  which  followed  his 
death  is  but  the  prelude  to  the  advent  of  Constantine,  and  with 
him  of  a  new  capital,  a  new  state  religion,  and  a  new  order  of 
things — in  fact,  of  Christian  and  Mediaeval  Europe. 

Burckhardt,  Die  Zeit  Constantins  des  Grossen,  1880.  For  a  part  of  the  chronology  of  this 
reign  there  exists  a  learned  paper  of  Mommsen's,  Ueber  die  Zeitfolge  der  Verordnungen 
DiocletianSf  which  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  quote. 

'  Amm.  Marcellinus  relates  (xvi.  8)  that  a  certain  Danus  was,  under  Constantius,  accused 
of  treason  for  having  taken  away  from  Dioclnt  ian's  tomb  a  purple  covering,  velameti  purpureum. 


Temple  of  Rome.     (Bronze  Coin.) 


END   OF   VOL.    VI. 


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ALPHABmCAl  INDEXES. 


I.— COINS  AND  GEMS. 


Pago 

^iniliauus  laurelled       ....  447 

—  OS  Mars  ....  412 
-.iilsculapius  and  Telesphorus  .  .  .  243 
Agrippa's   Pantheon    (souvenir  of    the 

restoration  of)         ....  138 
Albinus  (coin  of),  struck  at  Sidon          .  67 
Alexander  (medal  of),  on  a  sword-belt 
and    serving  for  a  talis- 
man      .        .        .        .  249 

—  (talismanic  medal  in  silver 

with  the  name  of)     .        .  249 

—  the  Great,  talismanic  medal 

in  gold  ....  249 

—  Severus  (coin    commemora- 
tive of  the  congiary  given  by)     .        .  309 

AUectus  crowned  with  laurel      .        .  658 

Antioch  (city  of),  personified         .        .  225 

— -      (coin  of)        ...        .  62 

Antoninianus  of  Claudius  Qothicus        .  387 

Antoninus  (large  bronze  of)       .        .  670 
ApoUonius  of  Tyana      .        •        .        .119 

ArtaxerzesI 303 

—  (coin  of)  .  .  ,  .  304 
As  Libralis  of  Latium        .        .  384 

Augustan  eternity 49 

Augusti  (the  repose  of  the)        .        .  627 
Augustus  (silver  coin  giving  Albinus  the 

title  of) 67 

Aurelian  (small  bronze)      .        .        .  602 

—  crowned  with  laurel        .        .471 

—  (reverse    of    a    coin)    (small 
bronze) 603 

Bahram  II.  (Varahraues)  (intaglio)       .  627 

— -                   —           (coin  of)      .  620 

—  or  Varahran  I.  (coin  of)   .        .  488 
Balbinus  (large  bronze  of) .        .        .  337 

Caracalla  (apotheosis  of)        .        .        .  266 

—  (argent^us  minutulus  of)     .  887 
VOL.  VI. 


Page 
Caracalla  crowned  with  laurel  and  weai^ 

ing  the  a3gis  (cameo)  .        .  248 

—  laurelled  (engraved  stone)  .  110 

—  Germanicus     ....  251 

—  offering  to  Mars  a  Victory  .  259 

—  trampling  Egypt    under    his 
feet 258 

Carausius  (coin  of )     .        .        .        .  645 

—  Diocletian,     and     Maximian 
Hercules 645 

Carus  (coin  of) 626 

—    crowned  with  laurel     .        .        .  626 

Claudius  Gothicus  laurelled        .        .  382 

—  II.  (reverse  of  a  coin  of)          .  462 
Coin  conmieniorative  of  the  victory  of 

Caracalla  over  the  Parthians  .        .  268 
Commodus    on    horseback,    striking    a 

tigress  with  his  javelin .  10 

—  the  Olympian       .        .        .11 

—  and  Marcia       ...  25 
Concordia  Augustorum  ....  239 

—  militaris    ....  37 

—  —       (reverse  of  a  large 
bronze) 37 

Constantius  et  Maximianus  Aug.  651 

Copper  coin  of  the  third  century  a.d.    .  386 

Crispina  Augusta       ....  7 

Denarius  commemorating  the  tenth  salu- 
tation of  Severus  as  imperator    .        .  71 
Diadumenianus  Antoninus          .        .  265 
Didius  Julianus  (coin  of)        .        .        .39 
—       laurel-crowned .        .  37 

Didymffian  Apollo 610 

Diocletian 630 

—  (argenteus  of)        .        .        .  695 

—  (coin  of)     .        .        .        .  696 

—  the  eldest  of  the  Augusti       .  636 

—  with  the  name  of  Jovius    .  539 
Diodetianvs  Avg.  (laurelled  head)        .  695 

TT 


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ALPHABETICAL   INDEXES. 


Divine  house  (the)  (cameo) 
Domitius  Calvinus  (deuarius  of)     . 
—        Domitiauus  Achilleus . 

Elagabalua,  on  a  coiu  of  Trallea 

—  (conical  stone  of)     . 

—  in  a  chariot  drawn  by  two 

women     .... 

—  priest  of  the  sun-god 
attached  to  a  chariot  and 


Elephants 

bearing  a  tower  . 
Emesa  (the  god  of) 


I'^phesus  (the  temple  of) 
Etruscilla,  wife  of  Becius 


Page 

60 

385 

562 

271 
280 

276 
280 

496 
272 
275 
442 
308 


Field  labourers  surrounding  a  plough- 
share (engraved  stone)    .         .         .  501 
Fl.  Max.  Theodora  Aug.  (small  bronze)  551 
Fundator  pacis 75 

Gal.  Valeria  Augusta  ^silver  coin)         .  551 

Gallienus  (reverse  of  a  coin  of)  .        .  443 

—  (reverse  of  a  gold  coin  of)       .  416 

—  conquering  the  Main  and  the 

Rhine      ....  415 

—  on  horseback  .  .  .  .413 
Gold  coin  of  the  third  century  a.d.  .  386 
Golden  age  under  Commodus  .  .  12 
Gordians  (the  two)  ....  327 
Gordian  IIL  (Caesar)  ....  327 
Grand  circus  (the),  on  a  large  bronze  of 

Caracalla         .        .        .        .        .  245 

Hellespont    (coin    commemorating    the 

crossing  of  the,  by  the  emperor)  343 

Hercules  (the  Roman)        .        .        .  11 

—  killing  Diomedes  .  .  .  472 
Herennius  Etruscus,  eon  of  the  emperor 

Decius 300 

Hostilianus 411 

Imp.  C.  Diocletianvs  P.  F.  Avg.,  laurelled 

head 505 

Invincible  emperor  (the)        ...  40 

Jerusalem  (coin  of)     ...        .  53 

Julia  Aquilia  Severa  Augusta        .        .  282 

—  Domna  (cameo)          .        .        .  145 

—  —     mother  Augusta,  etc.,  etc.  1 18 

—  —      mother  of  the  camps      .  118 

—  Mamica  (gold  coin)        .        .        .110 

—  Mammaea  Augusta    .        .        .  2<S7 

—  Mjesa 270 

—  Soasmios  Augusta  .  .  .  286 
Julian  (coin  of  the  usurper)  .  .  .  535 
Julianus  (reverse  of  a  coin  of)     .         .  36 


LaolianuB  crowned  with  laurel 
Laodicea  (coin  of  the  colony  of) 
Liberalitas  Aiu/usta 
Lucilla  (the  empress) . 
liunus  (the  god)     . 


Pag* 

444 

52 

50 

7 

250 


M.  Aunius  Florianus  crowned  with  laurel  514 

Macrianus,  the  Younger     .        .        .  441 

—  (coin  of)  ...  .  440 
Macrinus  (coin  of)  ...  266 
Mammtea  in  the  likeness  of  Juno  (coin  of)  315 
Marcia  (engraved  stone)  ...  26 
Marius  (coin  of)          ....  445 

—  (the  emperor)  (engraved  stone)  .  445 
Maximian  Hercules  ....  530 
Maximin  (coin  of)          ....  362 

—  Daza,  laurelled  ...  630 
Maximinus  Germanicus  .  .  .  320 
Maximus,  Caesar  and  Prince  of  the  Youth  310 

Medusa,  or  ^gis 316 

Mithra  sacrificing  the  bull  in  the  grotto 

(intaglio) 149 

Moneta  restitutu 203 

Narses,  son  of  Bahram  II.  (coin  of)    .  568 

Neptuno  Reduci 430 

Nero  (denarius  of)      .        .        .        .  886 
Nicomedia  (coin  of)        .        .        ,        .610 

Odenathus,  husband  of  Zenobia  .        .  433 

Odessus  (coin  of) 300 

Ormuzd 304 

Otacilia  (reverse  of  a  coin  of)         .        .  348 

Pacatianus  (coin  of)   .        .        .        .  436 

Pacator  orbts 76 

Pergomus  (coin  of)     .        .        .        .  255 

Persian  horseman 343 

Persians  (medal  commemorative  of  peace 

with  the) 346 

Pertinax  (coin) 81 

—  laurel-crowned     ...  31 

—  (funeral  pile  of)  .  .  .  45 
Pescennius  Niger  (engraved  stone)     .  51 

—  —    laurelled     ...  40 

Philadelphia 230 

Philip  (coin  of  the  Elder)      ...  352 

—  the  son  (aureus  of )  .        .        .  340 

—  ,  the  empress  Otacilia,  and  Philip 

the  son 347 

Philips  (the  two)  and  Otacilia  (coiu  of)  352 

Plautilla  Augusta  (gold  coin  of)         .  107 

Postumus  (coin  of)         ....  430 

Priest  (veiled)  driving  two  oxen         .  12 
Probus  (reverse  of  a  coin  of )  .        .        .515 

—  (the  emperor)  .  .  .  514 
Pupienus  and  the  public  peace       .        .  337 


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641 


Page 
Quodi  (coin  commemorative  of  Yictories 

over  the) 526 

Quietus 441 

Quiotillus  (bronze  coin)      .        .        .  463 

—  brother  of  Claudius  11.  .        .  459 

Reffalianus  (coin  of)   .        .        .  447 

Uhesaona  (coin  of) 77 

Rhine  (the) 440 

Rome  (coin  commemoratin-,'-  the  thou- 
sandth anniversary  of)        .        .        .  340 

Sceculo /ruffifero 40 

Sallustia  Orbiana 295 

Salonina  (reverse  of  a  coin  of)    .        .  416 

Saloninus  CsBsar 438 

Sapor  1 423 

—  (engraved  stone)  ....  343 

Scythian  coin 363 

Secular  games  (memorial  of  the)            .  102 

Septimius  Soverus,  on  a  coin  of  Smyraa  56 

—  —       (coin  of),  struck  at 

Petra  ...  85 

—  —       (coin  of),  represent- 

ing the  bridge  over 

the  Tyue .         .  144 

—  —       (reverse    of   a    coin 

struck  at  Carthage)  130 

—  —       (the  arch  of)     .         ,  242 

—  —       on  horseback         .  146 
—        the  Pious          .         .  151 

—  —       and    his    eldest  son 

Caracalla  (intaglio)  60 

—  —       and  his  two  sons  74 
Serapis       ......  97 

Severina  (the  empress)  ....  501 

Severus  in  Britain  (coin  commemorative 

of  the  victories  of)      .        .  144 

—  holding  a  Victory  in  his  hand   .  73 

—  II.  (gold  coin)        ...  630 
Shapur  or  Sapor  I.  (coin  of)  .        .        .  342 


Pa?c 

Soaemias  (gold  coin  of)       .         .        .  122 
Souvenir  of  the   return    of  Septimius 

Severus  to  Home         .         .         .         .100 

Sun  (the)  (medallion)          ...  500 

Tacitus  (the  emperor)  laurelled      .         .511 

Temple  of  Rome  (bronze  coin)    .         .  637 

Tetricus  ^coin  of) 435 

—  the  Elder  on  horseback          .  497 

—  the  Younger     ....  407 

Tomi  (coin  of) 458 

Two   hands  clasped,   with   the    legend 

Patres  senattcs 837 

Trajan  (coins  of)         .        .        .        .  571 

—  Becius 398 

—  —      (quinarius  of  bronze  of)  400 

Tranquillina 341 

Trebonius  Gallus 411 

Valeria  Augusta         ....  635 
Valerian  (laurelled  head  of)  .        •        .412 

—  (reverse  of  a  coin  of),  struck  at 

Antioch  in  Caria      .         .  422 

—  and  his  son  Gallienus,  wearing 

the  radiate  crowns      ....  413 

Victoria  Gennanica  (coin)          .        .  362 
Victories  over  the  Parthians,  etc.  (bronze 

struck  in  memory  of)            .  56 

—  over  the  Parthians,  etc.  (gold 
coin  commemorative  of ) .        .        .  56 

Victorinus  crowned  with   laurel   (gold 

medallion)        .        .        .  444 

—  (reverse  of  a  gold  coin  of)  444 

—  wearing  the  radiate  crown  443 
Victorious  destiny  ....  629 
Vologeses  IV.  (coin  of)  .  .  .  .  70 
Volusianus 411 

Waballath  and  Aurelian        .        .        .  478 

-^         Augustus,  sou  of  Zenobia .  476 


Zenobia,  queen  of  Palmyra 


475 


II.— MAPS  AND   ENGRAVINGS. 


uiSmilianus  before  his  accession 

^Esculapius         .... 

AgapsD  (the) 182 

—  —    after  a  bas-relief  of  the 

Kircher  museum        .         1G9 

—  —    symbol  of  the  euc!inri;?tic 
communion 175 


Page  Pago 

.    448      Agri  Decumates  (lines  of  defence  of  the)  361 

534      Albinus  .        .        .        .        .        .67 

Alexander  Severus      .        .        .        .  311 

—             —       (bust)       ...  299 
Altar  found  in  1880  on  the  site  of  the 

theatre  of  Odtia     .         .         .  133 

—    of  Tutela  found  at  Bordeaux        .  446 

XT  2 


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642 


ALPUAfiETICAL   INDEXES. 


Pago 

Amen'otep  III.  (Memuon)  ...  94 

Ancyra  (Angora) 470 

Annia  FauBtiiia 2d3 

Apollo  (island  and  sanctuary  of),  in  the 

Uhyndacus  (present  condition)  420 
(island  and  sanctuary  of),  in  the 

Uhyndacus  (restoration)      .  420 

Apostles  (the) 171 

—         —  (vase  of  the  fourth  century)  191 

Arch  of  the  goldsmiths  at  liome  (the)  291 

Aurelian 467 

Aurelian's  wall  (remains  of)  .        .        .  473 


Baalbec  (interior  of  the  small  temple 
at) 

Balbinus 

Baptism 

Basilica  of  S.  Laurence    without 
Walls,  at  Rome      .        .        • 

Bishop  (a) 

Bracelet  (gold)  .... 

Burial  vaults  .... 


the 


87 
328 
173 

185 
181 
454 

228 

204 


Callistus  (Pope) 

Candelabrum  from  Diomede*s  house  at 
Pompeii 
—  of  Hadrian's  villa 

Captive  Parthian 

Caracalla  (bust  of  the  museum  of  Naples) 

—  as  an  apple-seller 

—  as  a  warrior    . 

—  in  youth 

—  (fragment  of  mosaic  from  the 

therm®  of)  . 

—  (interior    of    a    hall   of    the 

therm®  of)       .        .        . 

—  (therm®  of)    . 
Carpathian  mountains  (view  of  the)   . 
Carts  for  transportation  of  baggage 
Cataphractarius  (a)     . 
Changer  or  verifier  of  money . 
Chase  of  the  wild  boar 
Christ  crucified  with  an  as8*s  head  (jjraf- 

fitoot) 211 

—  and  the  twelve  apostles    .        .        157 
Christian  sarcophagus  representing  mira- 
cles (bas-relief  of  a)    . 

Cimmerian  Bosphorus 

Clodius  Albinus  (bust  of  the  Capitol)     . 

—  —        (antique  fragment  of  a 

statue  of) 

—  —       (bust  in  the  Campana 
museum) 61 

Column  commemorative  of  the  victories 
of  Probus  over  the  Alomanni .        .        518 

Commodus 24 

—         (statue  of  Pent«lic  marble)  3 


392 
391 
57 
244 
257 
257 
240 

263 

261 
260 
357 
366 
567 
592 
531 


201 

419 

64 

58 


Conical  stones  representing    Melkartli- 

Baal,  the  Phceniciau  Hercules 
Constant ius  Chlorus 
Crispina  (the  empress) 
Crypt  of  Popo  S.  Cornelius     . 
Cutler's  shop       .... 
Cybele  (bust  of)     . 


P*ef 

389 
550 
6 
183 
591 
464 


Dacian  (young)  ...                  .  355 

Decius  (the  emperor)      ....  405 

Diadumenianus 267 

Diana  of  the  Vatican      ....  22 

—    (ruins  of  the  temple  of),  at  Palmyra  489 
Didymasan  Apollo  (bas-relief  from  the 

temple  of  the)    .  611 

—  —      (fragments     of    the 
entablature  of  the  temple  of  the)    .  613 

Diocletian  (bust) 537 

—  (gftte  of  the  palace  of)       .  533 

—  (ruins  of  the  baths  of)  681  and  585 
Dragon  bearer  (the)  ....  492 
Dromedary  carrying  baggage                   .  369 

Elagabalus  (bust  of  the  Capitol)         .  273 

—  (statue,  heroic  size)  .  .  285 
Equestrian     statue     of    the    emperor 

crowned  with  laurel        ...  334 

Faun  of  Romo  Anttco     ....  388 
Fighting  hero  found  near  Vienue,  in 

Dauphin6 502 

Flora,  called  the  Flora  Famese      .        .  264 

Galen,  physician  and  philosopher  122 

QaUienus 429 

—  (triumphal  arch  of)  .  .  437 
Games  of  the  circus  ....  381 
Ganymede  as  an  ape  ....  390 
Genius  of  Sleep  or  of  Death  .  .  .101 
Germans  concealing  themselves  among 

rushes     ......  319 

Geta  clothed  in  the  paludamentum        .  241 

—  in  a  ^a 1-^ 

Gladiators  on  horseback         .        .        .499 
Glass  cup  found  at  Treves,  representing 

the  great  circus      ...  542 

—  disc  (fragment  of  a)       .        .        .  621 
Good  Shepherd  (the)  .        ...  238 

—  —     and    the    twelve 

apostles 219 

Gordian,  the  Elder     ....  323 

—  —      (unique  inscription  of)  325 

—  the  Younger    ....  324 

—  Ill 339 

Gordians  (ruins  of  the  tomb  of  the)        .  326 
Goths  (men,  women,  and  children)  led 

into  slavery ^ 


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643 


Pago 


Head  band  of  gold,  with  a  medallion  of 

Oommodus 363 

Heliopolis  (Baalbec)  (ruins  of)    .        .  86 

Hercules,  known  as  the  Famese     .  13 

—       (the  labours  of )   ...  590 


Isis  (the  temple  of) 
—  (pylons  of  the  temple  of) 
Itursean  archer 


92 

03 

373 


Jesus  between  two  apostles  in  the  atti- 
tude of  adoration    ....  159 
Julia  Cornelia  Paula       ....  282 

—  Domna  (the  empress)         .        .  108 

—  —     the  wife  of  Severus  .        .  81 

—  Mtimmsca,  mother   of   Alexander 

Severus         ,        .  289 

—  —         as  Venus  Pudica .        .  307 

—  M;e8a 120 

—  — 284 

—  Pia  Domna  (the  empress)  .        .  117 

—  Soaomias  as  Venus         .        .        .121 

Juno 105 

Jupiter  (interior  view  of  the  temple  of)  632 

Lamp  of  bronze  (Christian)    .        .        .  208 

Jjegionary  foot-soldier,  standard  bearer  365 

—        with  helmet       ...  370 

Library  of  the  lat^r  empire    .        .        .  592 

Luxor  (principal  fa9ade  of  the  temple  of)  95 

Lyons  and  its  environs       ...  65 

Macrinus  (bust  of  the  Capitol)        .        .  269 

—  (stAtue  of  the  Vatican)        .  268 

Manlia  Scantilla 34 

Marble  head  found  in  the  ruins  of  the 

palace  of  Diocletian  at  Nicomedia  .  619 

M.  Aur.  Carinus 528 

Maximian 547 

Maximin 318 

—  (bust  in  the  museum  of  the 
Louvre) 329 

MaximuA 318 

Milan  (the  sixteen  antique  columns  of 

San  Lorenzo  at)  .  .  .  .  565 
Minerva  (principal  fa9ade  of  the  temple 

of) 606 

Mount  Amanus  (the  passes  of)  .  .  432 
Mutilated  statue  found  in  the  ruins  of 

the  temple  of  the  Didymaean  Apollo  .  612 


Nativity  of  Clirist 
Noah*8  ark 


163 
.    205 

Palmyra  (royal  t^mb)         ...  Bi5 

Parthian     king     (the)    escaping    from 
Ctesiphon 72 


Page 

Pergamus  (ruins  of  the  basilica  of)      .  253 

Persian  warrior  (dead)  ....  308 

Pertinax  deified 46 

—  (the  emperor) ....  80 
Pescennius  Niger  ....  38 
Philip,  the  EWer 345 

—  the  Younger    ....  860 

PUum 897 

Plaques  of  ^Id  of  the  second  or  third 

century,  found  in  Syria  ...  79 

Plautilla,  wife  of  Caracalla    .        .        .  104 

Pompey's  pillar  at  Alexandria  .  .  565 
Pope  Sixtus  and  the  Deacon  Laurence, 

on  a  gilded  glass  from  the  catacombs  .  481 

Probus 517 

Procession  of  the  knights  at  an  emperor^s 

funeral 47 

Provision  and  baggage  waggons .        .  342 

Pupienus 330 

—  (heroic  statue  of)         .        .  335 

Quintilii  (plan  of  the  villa  of  the)  .        .  19 

—  (restoration  of  the  villa  of  the)  17 

—  (ruins  of  the  villa  of  the)      .  19 

Resurrection  of  the  daughter  of  J  aims  .  195 
Roman  (young),  supposed  to  be  Salo- 

ninus 486 

—  with  the   head  of  a  sparrow- 

hawk     348 

—  auxiliary  horseman         ,        ,  461 

—  —        on  horseback  killing  an 

enemy     .        .        .418 

—  bridge  in  Syria       ...  80 

—  cavalier 469 

—  horseman,  found  at  Bonn        .  368 

—  trooper  treading  a  German  under 

his  horse's  feet        .        .        .457 

—  villa  (ruins  of  hot  baths  in  a) .  543 

Sacred    Egyptian    barque    carrying   a 

shrine 564 

S.  Cyprian  and  S.  Laurence  on  a  gilded 

glass  of  the  catacombs     .        .        .  403 
S.  George  with  the  head  of  a  sparrow- 
hawk 348 

S.  Peter  and  S.  Paul  (the  apostles)     .  179 

Salonina  (the  empress)  ....  417 
Sarcophagus  of  Alexander  Severus  and 

Mammsea      .        .        .  313 

—  of  a  centurion  of  the  Third 

Augustan  legion         .  332 

—  in     alto-relievo,    of     the 
museum  of  the  I^teran      .        .        .  281 

Scene  of  persecution :  the  accusation  .  214 

Seleucia  (ruins  of) 615 

Septimius  Severus      .        .        .  Frontispiece 


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ALPHABETICAL    INDEXl:::^. 


Page 

Septimius  Severus  (bust)       .        .        .113 

—  —       (bust  in  the  museum 

of  the  Louvre)  06  and  1 28 

—  —       (bust  found  at  Porto 

d*Auzio)         .        .      54 

—  —       (bust  found  at  Rome)      40 

—  —       in  cuirass        .        .  42 

—  —       (arch  of)    .         .         .101 
Scptizonium  (ruins  of  the ) .        .  '      .        137 

—         (the)  (restoration)      .        .136 

Serapis 150 

Sextus  Quintiiius  Maximus    .        .        .16 

Spalato 633 

Sphinx  (the  Egyptian)        ...  91 

Straits  of  Hercules  (1  he)        .        .        .    414 

Tempest  (a) 252 

Temple  of  the  Sun  at  Palmyra  (ruii'.s 

of  the)       .        .    491 

—  —        at  Rome    .        .        485 
Thermae    of    the    Gordians    (ruins    of 

the) 351 

Thevesta  (ruins  of  the  arch  of)   .        .  140 

Thysdrus  (El-l)jem)       ....  322 

Tranquillina  (the  empress)  as  Cores        .  340 

Treb.  Gallus 400 


Fag« 
Treves  (Roman  gate,  called   Iho  Black 

gate,  at) 554 

Valerian  prostrate  before  Sopor  .         .  425 
Vase  (Roman)  found  in  the  neifjhbour- 

hood  of  Amiens         .         .         .  557 
'  —    (silver)     from     the     Hildcsbcim 

Treasure .         .         .  501 

—        —         of  Persian  workmaiisliip  434 

Victory  (statue  of)          ....  279 

—      (a)  sacrificing  the  bull  of   the 

Roman  triumphs     ....  76 

Vintage  scenes  on  a  sarcophagus  in  the 

Lateran  museum         ....  230 

Virgin  (the)        .        .        .         .         .  176 
Volusianus,  son  of  Treb.  Gallus       .         .410 


Woman   (a)   at  prayer  nnl   the    Good 
Shepherd 

Young  athlete 


Zana  (ruins  of)   . 

Zenobia 

(niins  of  the  palace  of). 
Ze4iobia's  palace  (gate  of) 


218 

27 

275 
477 
403 
490 


ITT.— COLOUEED  MAPS  AND  TTATES.* 

Page 

1.  Map  of  the  Roman  Empire  for  the  reigns  of  Septiraius  Severus,  Caracalla,  and 

Gordianlll 40 

2.  Map  for  the  Gothic  Invasio:^s  in  the  time  of  Decius,  Claudius  IT.,. and  Valerian          .  458 

3.  The  Tetrarchate ♦ 548 

4.  Provincial  Divisions  of  the  Empire  under  Diocletian 572 


1.  Treasure  from  Tarsus.    Gold  coins  of  Alexander,  Philip  II.,  and  Hercules,  engraved 

during  the  reign  of  Alexander  Severus 248 

2.  Gold  plate  called  the  Patera  of  Rennes.     (Cabinet  de  France.) 294 

3.  The  Portland  Vase  (found  in  the  sarcophagus  of  Alexander  Severus)    ....  312 

4.  Fragments  of  mosaic  pavement  (found  in  1811  in  the  bath  of  a  Roman  villa  at  Rognor, 

Sussex) 544 

5.  Consular  diptych  of  Flavius  Felix 578 


^  Opposite  the  pages  indicated. 


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TABLE  OF  COiNTENTS. 

VOLUME  VI. 


ELEVENTH  PERIOD, 

The  Afiucan  and  Syrian  PRmcp:s  (180-23/5  a.d.). 

Cfl  AFTER  LXXXVIII. 

CoMMODus,  Pkrtinax,  Didius  Julianus,  and  the  Waks  of  Severus  (180-211  A.T>.). 

Papc 

I.  Commodufl  (180-102) 1 

II.  Pertinax  and  Didius  Julianus  (193) 29 

III.  Severus;  wars  against  Albinus,  Nifjer,  and  the  Parthians /      41 


CHAPTER  LXXXIX. 

OOVEIINMBXT  OP  SrPTIMIUS   SEYERUa   (193-211    A.D.). 

I.  ITie  court ;  Plautianus  and  Julia  Domna 100 

II.  Legislation  and  admin isf ration;  Papiniau 123 

III.  Severus  in  Britain;  his  death  (208  211) 142 


CHAPTER  XC. 

Tub  CnuucH  at  the  Bkgtnxing  op  the  Thihd  Cextuhy. 

I.  General  condition  of  minds ;  tendency  to  mysticism ;  the  Alexandrians      .        .        .147 

II.  Transformation  of  the  Messianic  idea 158 

III.  The  Christian  dogmas 166 

IV.  The  hierarchy  and  discipline 178 

V.  The  heresies 196 


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646  TABLE   OF  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XCI. 
The  Pehsbcution  under  Sbybrus. 

I.  Idea  of  the  Stat«  among  the  ancients;  opposition  of  the  Christians   ....    200 
II.  Rescripts  of  Trajan^  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  Severus 219 


CHAPTER  XCII. 

Cabacalla,  Macbinus,  and  Elagabalus  (211-222  a.d.). 

I.  Caracalla  (February  2nd,  211,  to  April  8lh,  217) ;  the  right  of  citizenship  accorded  to 

all  the  inhabitants  of  the  Empire 239 

II.  Macrinus  (April  12th,  217,  to  June  8th,  218);  Elagabalus  (June  8th,  218,  to  March 

11th,  222) 264 


CHAPTER  XCIII. 

Ai^xANDEB  Sevkbus  (Mabch  IIth,  222  TO  March  IOth,  235  a.d.). 

I.  Reaction  against  the  preceding  reign ;  Mammaea  and  Ulpian ;  the  council  of  the  Prince  287 

11.  Gentleness,  piety,  and  weakness  of  Alexander  Severus 203 

III.  The  Sassanids 302 

IV.  Expeditions  against  the  Persians  and  the  Germans ;  death  of  Alexander  Severus       .  3UC 


TWELFTH   PERIOD. 
Military  Anarchy  (235-268  a.d.).    Beginning  of  the  Decline. 

CHAPTER  XCIV. 
Srvbn  Empebobs  in  Foubtkkn  Ykabs  (2^5-249  a.d.). 

I.  Maximin  (235-238) ;  Gordian  I.  and  Gordian  II. ;  Piipicnns  and  Balbicus  (2.3.^)         .    817 

n.  Gordian  III.  (238^214) .330 

ni.  Philip  (244) 346 


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TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  647 

CHAPTER  XCV. 

The  Eicpibe  in  the  Middle  op  the  Third  Century. 

Page 

I.  The  barbarians 363 

II.  Tlie  Roman  army 364 

m.  Tlie  administration 376 

IV.  Decline  in  industry,  commerce,  and  1  be  arts;  depopulation  of  the  Empire  .        382 


CHAFfER  XCVI. 

From  the  Accession  op  Decius  to  the  Death  op  QAtLiENUS  (249-268  a.d.);  Partial 
Invasions  throughout  the  Empire. 

I.  Decius  (249-251),  Goths,  and  Cliristians 398 

II.  Ravages  of  the  barbarians  in  the  Empire ;  Valerian ;  persecution  of  the  Christians 

(251-260) 409 

in.  The  provincial  emperors  (249-268) ;  Gallienus 436 


THIRTEENTH  PERIOD. 
The  Illyrian  Emperors:  The  Empire  Strengthened. 

CHAPTER  XCVII. 
Claudius  and  Aurrlian  (268-276  a.d.). 

I.  Claudius  II.  (263-270)  ;  the  first  invasion  repulsed 463 

[I.  Aurelian  (270-276) 463 


CHAPTER  XCVIir. 
Tacitus,  Probus,  and  Carus  (276-284  a.d.). 

I.  An  attempt  at  a  senatorial  restoration;  Tacitus  and  Florianus  (26th  September,  275, 

to  July,  276) 608 

II.  Probus  (July,  276,  to  September  or  October,  282) 516 

III.  Carus  (September,  282,  to  December,  283) ;  Carinus  and  Numerianus  (December,  283, 

to  April,  285) 595 


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648  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XCIX. 
Diocletian:  Wars  and  Administhation. 

I.  Diocletian  and  Maximiau,  or  the  Djarcby  (284-293) 5S0 

II.  The  tetrarcby .  .  ....         549 

III.  Administrative  reorganization  and  legislation     ....  .         .     570 


CHAPTER  C. 

The  Erajop  thr  Martyrs  (303-311  a.d.). 

I.  The  edicts  of  persecution  (303) 600 

II.  Abdication  and  death  of  Diocletian  (305-313) 625 


ALPHABETICAL  TABLES. 

I.  Coins  and  gems 639 

II.  Maps  and  engravings 641 

ril.  Coloured  maps  and  plates ,         .  644 

Table  of  Contents  of  Sixth  Vohime 645 


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GENERAL  INDEX  TO  THE  WHOLE  WORK. 


Page 
Aljascantns  .  .  v.  533 
Abdora     socked     by      the 

Uomans       .        .        .    ii.  99 
Al>*?ara    (perhnps    a    title 
Hither    than    a    proper 
name),  king  of  Osrhoeno 

Aborigines,  or  Casci         .  I.  xci 

—  their  king  Janus  .        .  i.  2 
Abrupolis,  Thrace,  spoiled 

by  Ferseiis  .         .         .    ii.  87 
Abruzzi  (Mounts),  fertility 

I.  XXV.  xeviii.  ciii 
A1)«onteei8m  conilmLted  by 

Crpsar     .        .        .      iii.  654 
Aby«lo8,  commerce  of,  ii.  18,  23, 

"i.  595 
Abyss,  or  Vythos,  torrent 

in  Mount  Olympus.       ii.  105 
Academy  (the),  philosophic 

school,  ii.  232, 234, 658,  V.  680 
Acamanians  and  Acarnania 
'.  379.  507.  ii.  18,  44.  49.  97, 
99.  129 
Acm    Larentia,    nurse    of 

liomulus         .        .        •  i.  5 
Accensi    (the),    or    super- 
numeraries .        .        .  i.  121 
Accius,  dramatic  author,  ii.  268 
Acco  ....     iii.  179 
Acerwe,  Etruscan  town  in 
the  Campagna,  i.  55,  68,  327, 
567,  622 
Achaia,  Roman  province,  ii.  167, 
191,  611,  624,  633,  803, 
iii.  569.  W.  2 
Achaian,  league,  ii.  12,  16,  34, 
46,  50,  80,  97,  130 

—  war  with  Nabis    .        ii.  29 
Achaians,  defeated  iy  Mum- 

raiua    .        .        .        .  ii.  203 

—  expelled  from  Italy  by 
Cato       .        .        .      ii.  367 

Achaios,    satrap    who    re- 
volted against  Antiochns 
the  Great    .        .        •  ii.  5,  7 
Acheloiis  (the),  i.508  n.i,  iii. 565 
Acheron  (the) .        .        .•>.  273 
Achillas,  Egyptian  general 

iii.  324,  325 


Pa?€ 
Achilles,  Roman,  Dentatus.i.  215 
Achnulina,  a  part  of  8ym- 

cnso  .  .  i.  639, 644 
Achulla,    a    town    in    the 

region  of  Syrtis  .  iii,  615 

Aeies  of  the  Ktruscans,  i.  140 
Acilia(a  law;,  Derepetundis 

ii.  318 

—  mother  of  Lucan  .  iv.  524 
Ac  i  I  ins,  Glabrio  .  ii.  49,  62 
Acisculum  (the) .  .  i.  74 
A  era,  low  part  of  Jerusalem 

iv.  635 
Acraea  (Juno)  .        .        .  ii.  312 
Acrocoraunian  (Mounts),  iii.  300 
Acrocorinthus   (the),  occu- 
pietl  by  the  M.-iccdonians 

ii.  22,  138 

—  Flamininus    evacuates 

it  after  Oynosccphalfe .  ii.  40 
Acron,  king   of   thx)  Ca>ni- 

nates .  .  .  .  i.  1 1 
Acta  legitima  .  .  i.  124 
Acto  liberated  by  Nero,  iv.  403, 

477 
Actian  (games)  .  .iii.  539 
Actium,  iii.  536-539,  iv.  50,  71, 

73.  231 
Adana  .  .  .11.  800 
Adherbal,   son   of  Micipsa 

ii.  454,  461,  488 

—  victory  of  Drepanum,  i.  488 
Adiabene,  iii.  646,  iv.  492,  vi.  56 
Adiatorix,  Galatian  chief, iii. 593 
Adige     .         .         .   I.  VI.  Ixxiv 

—  invasion   of   the  Cim- 
brians    .         .         .       ii.  502 

Administration  in  the  pro- 
vinces under  the  Republic 

ii.  163-201,  610-657 

—  under  Augustus  .     iv.  2-95 

—  under  Titerius  .  iv.  315 

—  under  Domitian  .      iv.  701 

—  in  third  century       .vi.  375 

—  under  Diocletian,  vi.  573  seg 
Adonis  .  .  .  i.  453,  454 
Adoption,  i.  93,  iii.  425,  v.  212. 

247,  vi.  56 
Adramyttium,  free  town  of 

ii.  61,  667 


Adriatic  (the)    .         .  I.  viii.  xii 

—  commerce  of  .  .  i.  198 
Adrogation  .  iii.  710,  v.  248 
Aduatuca,  nowTongro?,  iii.  149, 

170 
Adultery        .         .         .  ii.  229 

—  lawsofSylla       .     ii.  719, 

iii.  756,  V.  260 
Advocates    (legislation     of 

Claudius  as  to)  .  .  iv.  406 
Adys  (victory  of  Regulus).  i.  481 
ifibuti.i  (law)  .  .  ii.  275 
iKI)utlus,    master    of     the 

horse.  .  .  .  i-  57 
i^Miles     instituted     (their 

office)     .         .     i.  167.  v.  361 

JKdm  (the),  ii.  487,  iii.  130,  136. 

1 74,  202 

iEgion   .         .         .     ii.  19,  196 

A^Vm  (family)  consulates,  ii.  376 

—  Fufta  (law)  .         .        ii.  370 

—  Sentia  (law)  .  .iii.  734 
MWan  .  .  ii.  217,  v.  713 
iElianum  (jus),  i.  293,  ii,  27^. 

iv.  205 
jElianus  (Plautius  Sylvan- 

U8),govemor  of  Moesia,  iv.  668 
il?liu.s  (pons),  Newcastle,  v.  37 
^milian(gons),i.5,ii.376,587.735 

—  wife  of  Glabrio,  and  of 
Pompey .        .         .       ii.  735 

—  way  .  .  .  ii.  72 
iEmilius  (M.Lepidus),  consul 

i.  137.  ii.  329 

—  (Mamercus)  .  .  ii.  575 
^naria  (isbind),  now  Ischia 

i».  592.  595 
.^nos, garrisoned  by  Philip,  ii.  77 
iEquians,  aarly  enemies  of 
Rome         .     i.  186,  193,  214 

—  conquer  Rome  .         .   i.  237 

—  attack  Roman  territory 

i.  240,  352.  353 

.^uicolae  (the) .         .         i.  173 

iErarii  (the),  i.  7^,  308, 401,  48^. 

551,  564,  ii.  292,  337,  789 

iEranum  (the),  i.  420,  ii.  117. 

177.  313.  iii.  722,  iv.  13,473. 

659,  V.  557.  vi.  9 

iErarius    .        .        .        i.  308 


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650 


GENERAL   INDEX. 


.£8oulapiu8        .        .       V.  714 
.aSs  grave        .         ,         .     i.  15 

—  hordearium.        .        i.  121 

—  rude        .        ,        .  i.  127 

—  Hignatnm  .  ,  i.  127 
A^rnia,  Samnite  cit^,  I.  Ixviii. 

4«,  ".  556,  559 
MsuIa  .  .  .  .1.  402 
JE!tn&  .  .  .  ii.  619 
.£tolian8,  ii.  8  m^.,  44, 45, 62, 129 
Afer  (Domitiuji),  prator  in 
25,  consul  in  39,  cele- 
brated orator  .  iii.  347,  489 
Afmnius,  comic  poot      .  ii.  264 

—  Italian  general  during 

the  Social  war   .    ii.  ^54,  560 
-  one  of  Pompey'a  lieu- 
tenants .         .         iii.  48, 307 
Africa,   ii.   134-148,   70^,   826, 
iii*  599>  iv*  ^>  08,  102, 
V.  321.  448 

—  circumnavigation  of,  v,  477, 

658 

—  com  .    ii.  302,  309,  V.  454 

—  marblds   .       ii.  225,  v.  454 

—  native  fauna        .       ii.  228 

—  horses      ,         .         .v.  454 

—  woods  ,  .  V.  454 
African  emperors  .  y'u  i  acq 
Agiithocles,  tyrant  of  Sicily 

i.  371.  380,  443»  465,  480 
Agor  Peregnuus     .         .   1.  391 

—  Publicus,  i.   169,   170,  282, 

ii.  402,  426,  458 

—  Tomanus,  i.   118,    168,    184 

^^Pf  390 
Aggenus  Urbicus  (quoted)  i.  170 
Agger  (the)  .  i.  36,  iv.  222 
Agnationisjus,  i.i44,2i8,v.  271 
Agnomen  (the)  .  .  ii.  445 
Agon  Cnpitolinus  .  .iy.  699 
Agrarian  laws,  I.  cxxy.  l6S  $eq 

—  of  Licinius  .         .        i.  300 

—  of  Hortensius  .     i.  305-307 

—  of  the  Gracchii,  ii.  396-445 

—  of  M.  Philippus  .       ii.  515 

—  of  Stiturninus  .         .  ii.  517 

—  of  Rullus     .         .        iii.  18 

—  of  Flavins        .        .  iii.  52 

—  of  Caesar  .  .  iii.  55 
Agricola(Cai us  Julius),  iv.  648, 

700,  702,  70S,  V.  173 

—  under  Scverus  .  vi.  1 10  n 
Agriculture,  i.  2,  140,  150,  303, 

ii.  302,  306,  315.  544,  iii.  369. 

652,  iv.  485, 698, V.  599,  vi.  383 
Agrigentum,   i.  470,  473,  476, 

478,  482,  ii.    144,  394,  615, 

iv.  217 

Agrippa  (Menenius)  .        i.  165 

—  (M.  Vipsanius)         .iii.  424 

—  accuses  Cassius    .      iii.  444 

—  drives     Antony     from 
Rome         .        .         iii.  488 

—  conqueror  at  Mylae,  iii.  506 

—  at  Actium  and  after,  iii.  535 

—  suppressed  the  risings 

in  (hial .         .  .      iii.  678 

—  in  Spain  .  .         .  iv.  59 

—  in  the  East.  iv.  121 

—  his  position  at  Rome 

.     iii.  656,  678,  708,  743 


Page 
Agrippa    (Bl     Vipsanius) 
marries  Julia      .         .iv.  136 

—  public  works        .    iii.  656, 

iv.  109,  III,  112,  169 

—  water  supply    .        .  v.  529 

—  Jewish   king,   iv.   91,  3W, 

35?.  394.  623 

—  son  of  the  former,iv.6i5, 623 
Agrippina,    wife    of    Ger- 

manicus  ,     i v.  286, 305,  311, 

.     .        .  ^'»  H7'  358 

—  daughter  of  Germani- 
cus,  mother  of  Nero,  iv.  446, 

448,  464,  468,  477.  478 
Agylla,  or  Caere.  .  I.  xHv 
Anala  (Servius),  master  of 

horse .         .         .         .  i.  237 
Ahenobarbus    (Cn.     Domi- 
tius),  consul  in  122       ii.  443 
-  father-in-law   of  Cato, 
consul  in  87   .         .       ii.  487 

—  -  consul  in  32,  iii.  464,  477, 

489 

—  son  of  the  latter,  consul 

in  16      .        .         .      iv.  107 

—  son  of  the  latter  and 
father  of  Nero    .         .iv.  457 

Aix,victory  of  Marius,ii.489, 498 
Ajax,   prince    of    Olba    in 

Cilicia  and  high  pri:3t,  iii.  589 
Akaba  .  .  .  v.  122 
Alabanda  .  .  .  ii.  100 
Alani         ,  vi.  363, 512 

Alauda    (Lark),    name    of 

legion  .  .  iii.  296, 422 
Alba  Longa        .    I.  clxi.  27,  57 

—  Ligurian  city  .  ii.  745 
Alban  (hills)  volcanoes,  I.  xxxi 
Albanians  brnten  by  Pom- 

pey        ,         ,         ,       ii.  827 

—  by  Canidius     .         iii.  514 

—  allies  of  Hadrian  against 
the  Alani        .         .         v.  42 

Albano  (lake  of)  .  I.  xiii.  xxiii 
Albans  (the),  established  at 

Mount  Ccelius  .  .  i.  21 
Albinus  (Aulus  Posturoius) 

ii.  258 
-—  (Sp.  Postumius)        .  ii.  464 

—  (ClodiusCeionius),com- 
petitor  with  Severus,  vi.37, 48 

Albiola,  Porto  Secco  .  I.  xix 
Album,  list  of  senate,  v.  365,  3*0 

—  bill  of  announcements,  V.  369 
Albunea,  Sibyl  .  I.  cxxix 
Alcantara,    bridge    on    the 

Tagus  .  .  .  iv.  801 
Alcon  of  Saguntum  .  i.  575 
Alemanni  .  vi.  360,  362,  416, 
.  5'8.  558 
Aleria,  capital  of  Corsica,  i.  477 
Alesia  .  .  iii.  194,  206 
Alexander  Jannseus         .  ii.  829 

—  the  Great  (1)       .       vi.  148 

—  C«sar  before  his  6tatue,iii.  6 

—  his   hca<l  engraved  on 

the  seal  of  Augustus,  iii.  700 

—  on  talisman         ,      vi.  249 

—  reappearance  of       .  vi.  281 

—  king  of  Epirus(2)     .  i.  330 

—  Severus  (222-235)  ^op- 
ted by  Elagabalui       vi.  281 


Page 
Alexander     Severus      pro- 
claimed Augustus    .     vi.  286 

—  reaction  against  the  pre- 
ceding reign ;  influence 
of  his  motner  Julia  and 

of  Ulpian    .        .         .vi.  283 

—  gentleness,  piety,  and 
weakness  of  Alexander,  \'i.  293 

—  riots  in  Rome  between 
the  citizens  and  the  prae- 
torians .         .         .      vi.  298 

—  revolution  in  Persia, 
arrival  of  the  Sassanids,  vi.302 

—  expedition  against  Per- 
sia     .        .        .        .vi.  306 

—  expedition  against  the 
Germans         .         .      vi.  310 

—  death  of  .         .         .vi.  311 

—  sarcophagus  of,  and  his 
mother,  found  in  Rome 

vi.  311  n 
~  son  of  Antony  and  Cleo- 
patra .        .        .         iii.  522 
Alexandria,  Caesar's  war,  iii.  322- 
32S 

—  under  Antony     .      iii.  522 

—  under  Octavius  iii.  544 

—  laws  of  Augustus,  iii.  602  seq 

—  Vespasian  proclaimed 
there  .        .        ,        .iv.  591 

—  sojourn  of  Hadrian       v.  86 

—  of  Severus  ,         ,        vi.  90 

—  of  Caracalla    .        .  vi.  256 

—  occupied  by  Zenobia,  vi.  494 

—  by  Firmus  and  Satumi- 
nus        .        .        .      vi.  494 

—  by  Aurelian     .         .vi.  494 

—  the  Jews     .         .      iv.  642 

—  municipal  rule.        .  v.  344 

—  library         ,         .iii.  325 

—  school  of.         .   vi.  155-158 

—  in  Troad,  fi-eo  town  .  li.  61 
Algidus    (the),   a   volcanic 

peninsula  .  .  I.  xci 
Alimentary*  institutions,  v.  181 
Aliso,  fortress  at  the  source 

of  the  Lippe,  iv.  114, 126,  131 
A  Ilia  (the),   defeat  of  the 

Romans      .         .         .  i.  256 
Allied  and  tributary  coun- 
tries under  Augustus,  iii.  619, 
65c 
Allies  (cities  and  peoples^, 
organization  .  ii.  187 

—  exactions  against,  ii.  542  seq., 

549.  574 
Allobroges  (the),  i.  ^63, 581, 582, 
ii.  487.  iii.  27,  63,  133 
Alphabet  (Latin),  Claudius 

desired  to  complete       iv.  399 

Alps  (mountains)    .      I.  i.  viii. 

ii.  482-504 

—  inclosed  in  the  Empire 

iii.  558 

—  organization  of  this 
frontier  .    iv.  85,  95,  106  $eq 

—  passage  of  by  Hannibal 

i.  578-585 

—  by  Hasdrubal       ,        i.  667 

—  by    barbarians     under 
Marcus  Aurelius    •       v.  190 
-  by  Diocletian  .         .vi.  549 


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GENERAL   INDEX. 


651 


Page 
Alps,   trophy  of  Augustus 

on  Mnritime  .         .        iv.  52 

Alsium,  Etrusciin  town,  I.  xliv 

402,  490  n 

Altnr  of  Peace,  on  money 

struck  in  memory  of  the 

victories  of  Corbulo    .  iv.  45 

—  of  Lyons,  or  altar  of 
Rome  and  of  Augustus,  iv.  153 

Altars  (domestic)  .  .1.  04 
Alteration  of  manners,ii.2i9-232 
Aluntium,  municipality  in 

Sicily  .         .         .  ii.  620 

A  man  us,  mountain  between 

Cilicia  and  Syria     .     ii.  800, 
iii.  623,  iv.  827 
Amasia,  town  in  Fontus,  ii.  644 
Ambarvalia  and  Amburbalia 

i.  Ill 
Ambassadors  declaring  war, 

Ligurian  custom     .        .  I.  1 

—  treatment  at  Rome  of 
foreign   .        .        .        ii.  94 

Amber,  yellow,  from  Baltic 

I.  Ixxvi.  441,  iv.  85 
Ambiani  .  .  .  iii.  146 
Ambiori,  chief  of  Eburones 

iii.  170,  178,  205 
Ambra,  waivcry  .  .  ii.  499 
Ambracia,  town  in  Epirns,  ii.  62, 
109,  226,  266 
Ambrones  (the),  ii.  490, 497,  502 
Ambulances  (military)  .  v.  546 
Ambustus  (Fabius),  father- 
in-law  of  LiciniusStolo,  i.  280 
Amilcar     .        .        i.  477,  478 

—  -  Rirca,  i.489,495»522,525.528 
Amisus,  town  in  Fontus,  ii.  187, 

642,  813,  834,  837,  V.  328 
Amitemum,  I.xci.  xcix.  362,  594 
Ammon  (Jupiter),  ii.  639,  iv.  32 

—  (oases  of),  or  Syouah, 
commercial  route    .        iv.  90 

Ammonius  Saccas,  founder 

of  school  of  Alexandria,  v.  726 
Amor,  secret  name  of  Rome,  i.  6 
Amphiaraiis  .  .  .  ii.  339 
Amphictyonic  (council  and 

games)   .        .         .        iv.  65 
Amphictyons  (of  Delphi),  ii.  195 
Amphipolis,     Rome,     and 
Ferseus       .         .  ii.  113,  115 

—  second  town  of  Macedon 

iii.  564 
Amphitheatres,  ii.  157,228,4^2, 
iii.  679,  iv.  215,  V.  604,  610 
Ampurias .  .  .  ii.  486 
Amra,  the  noble,  brave  .  I.  Iii 
Amycos,king  of  theBebryces 

ii.  684 
Amynander,    king    of    the 

Athamani  .  ii.  J2,  38,  45 
Amyntas,  king  of  Galatia,  iii.  623 
Anarchy  in  the  Empire,  vi.  436 
Anagnia,  city  of  the  Hemici 

I.  xciv 
Ananians  (the),GhiuH8h  tribe 
in    Italy,   overcome   the 
Etruscans       .        .      I.  cxix 
Ananias,  high  priest  at  Jeru- 
salem in  the  time  of  S.  • 
Faul  .        .        .        .  V.  340 


Page 
Ananke,  divinity        .  i.  79 

Ananus,  high  priest  of  Jeru- 

wilem  during  the  siege  by 

Titus .         .         .         .iv.  630 
Anaxilaos,  tyrant  of  Rhe- 

gium      .         .         .1.  Ixxviii 
Ancliarius,  praetor,  killed  by 

Marianists  .         .         .  ii.  604 

Ancilia,  or  shields  of  Mars,  i.  102 

Ancona      .  I.  Ivi.  cxii.,  ii.  675, 

iii.  278,  iv.  796 

Ancus    Martins    (640-616), 

fourth  king  of  Rome,  I.  cxlii 
28-29 
Ancyra  (monument  of),  or 

will  of  Augustus         .  iv.  150 
Andriscos,   natural  son  of 

Ferseus  .        ii.  132,  141 

Andronicus  (Livius),  Latin 

poet  before  Ennius,  i.  534, 539, 
667,  ii.  387,  iv.  237 
Andros  (war  of  Antiochus) ; 

success    of    the    Roman 

fleet  there  .        .        .    ii.  50 
Aneroestus,  king  of  Gesatae 

i.  512,  514 
Angeroma,  secret  name  of 

Kome     .        .        .        .  i.  6 
Angitia,  sister  of  Circe  .     I.  ci 

Anicetus,  murdererof Agrip- 

^ina  ...         IV.  477 
Anicius,  conqueror  of  Illyria 

ii.  107,  113,  117,  122,  281 

—  (Q.  ),of  Fraeneste,  curule 
aedile     .        .        .        i.  313 

Animals  sacrificed  at  fune- 
rals   .        .        .        .  Y.  279 

Anio,  affluent  of  the  Tiber 
I.  XXX.  xcii.   185,   192,  558, 
651,  ii.  634,  686 

—  Novus,  aqueduct .       ii.  361 

—  Vetus,  aqueduct       .  ii.  361 
Anna  Ferenna,  Roman  god- 
dess      .        .        .        i.  165 

Annalis,  or  Villia  (law), 
fixing  the  age  for  office,  ii.  365 

Annals  of  the  pontiffs,  or 
Annales  Maximi .     i.  61,  103 

Annius,  Roman  praetor      i.  322 

—  (C),  praetor  sent  against 
Sertorius     .        .  ii.  705,  750 

—  (Q.),      accomplice     of 
Catiline  .        .       iii.  24 

—  Florianus  (emperor),  vi.  514 
Annona,     distribution     of 

corn  to  the  people  in  time 
of  famine    .         .        .  i.  191 

—  regular  distribution  at 
half-price        .       ii.  425,  424 

—  laws  of  Satuminus,  ii.  518 

—  of  Brusus       .        .    ii.  529 

—  Sylla  suppresses  them,  ii.713 

—  Lepidus  restores  them,  ii.781 

—  Cato  increases  them,  iii.  38 

—  Clodins    makes    them 
gratuitous      .        .       iii.  66 

—  rule  of  Caesar  .         iii.  367 

—  of  Augustus,  iii.  737,  741, 

V.  523,  524 

—  (praefect  of),  i.  237,  ii.  782, 

iii.  716 


Pago 
Annona,  see  Distribution 
Annua  (lex),  or  pralorinn 

edict  .  .  .  .  ii.  275 
Anteeus  (the  giant)  .  ii.  750 

Antobrogius       .         .      iii.  143 
Anteius    (F.),    victim    of 

Nero  .  .  .  iv.  530 
Antemme  .        .     i.  119  n 

Antemnati     conquered    by 

Romulus  .         .      I.  ii 

Antenor,  Trojan  chief,  I.  ex.  62 
Anthedon,  massacre  of  Jews 

iv.  626 
Antiates  .  .  i.  191, 329 
Antibes  .        .  ii.  164,  486 

—  ancient  stone  .  iii.  88 
Anti-Cato  (the) .  .  iii.  358 
Antiganids  (the),  golden  cu^s 

of  the  kings  of  Macedon,  il  121 
Antigonia,  defeat  of  Fhilip 

at      .        .        .        .     ii.  31 
Antigonus,  Jewish  prince  of 
the  family  of  the  Macca- 
bees       .        .        .      ii.  829 

—  Gonatas,  king  of  Mace- 
donia, at  war  with  Fyr- 
rhus  .        .        .        .    i.  382 

Antinopolis        .         .         v.  93 
Antinous,  favourite  of  Ha- 
drian .        .        .      V.  91,  93 
Antioch     .        .        .       ii.  188 

—  declared  a  free  town  by 
Pompey    .        .        .    ii.  837 

—  bv  Caesar     .        .      iii.  332 

—  almost  as  large  as  Alex- 
andria        .        .         iii.  598 

—  massacre  of  the  Jews,  iv.  62J 

—  earthc^uake  .        .      iv.  828 

—  Hadrian  at       .        v.  6,  75 

—  Marcus  Aurelius  at     y.  204 

—  chastised  by  Septimius 
Soverus  .        .        vi.  7^ 

—  afterwards  favoured    vi.  79 

—  taken  by  Sapor        .  vi.424 

—  Aurelian  at  .      vi.  482 

—  bishops  of   .     iv.  819,  828, 

vi.  483 

—  nches  of  .         iii.  598 

—  effeminate  manners      iii.  6, 

V.  568,  617 

—  dancing  girls       .       v.  606 

—  Olympic  games        .     vi.  8 

—  in  Fisidia    .        .       v.  592 
Antiochus  II.,  Theos,    his 

favourite,  deified         .ii.  211 

—  III. ,  his  success  in  the 
East       ...  ii.  5 

—  alliance  with  Fhilip  of 
Macedon  .        .        .  ii.  29 

—  his  preparations  against 
Rome     .        .  ii.  37,  42 

—  defeat  at  Thermopylae,  ii.  45 

—  at  Magnesia         .        ii.  Jo 

—  his  death  .        .    ii.  82 

—  IV.,    Epiphanes,   king 

of  Syria  .        .  ii.  87,  93 

—  arrested  by  Fopillius,  ii.  125 

—  v.,  Eupator     .        .  ii.  I59 

—  VIII.,   Gryphus,   king 

of  Syria         .        .       ii.  640 

—  Xm.,  king  of  Syria, 
robbed  by  Verres,  ii.620,  827 


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652 


GBKBRAL   INDEX. 


Page 
Antiochus  I.  of  Commagene 
sends  succour  to  Pompiiy 

iii.  297 

—  gives  up  Samosate  to 
the  Parthinns  .      iii.  514 

—  IV.,  king  of  Comma- 
ffene,  sends  auxiliaries  to 
Titus  .        .  iv.  667 

—  his  kingdom  reduced  to 

a  province  bjr  Vespasian, iv.667 

—  chief  of  revolted  Sici- 
lian slaves      .         .      ii.  393 

Anti{)ater  (Cselius),  his- 
torian        .        .        .  ii.  380 

Antipholos,  strategus  of 
Thebes  .         .         .    ii.  ^-40 

Anti-Senate  (of  Sulpicius)  ii.586 

Antissa  in  the  isle  of  Lemnos 
destroyed   .         .         .  ii.  126 

Antistia,  wife  of  Tiberius 
Gracchus        .        .       ii.  399 

Antistius,  praetor  in  hither 
Spain  .        .        .    iii.  7 

—  le^to  of  Augustus 
a^mst  the  Asturians     iv.  59 

Antium,  the  Pontine 
marshes,         .        .        I.  xxv 

—  port  of  the  Volsci      I.  xcvi 

—  worship  of  Fortune  .     i.  79 

—  Coriolanus  retires  there 

i.  191 

—  war  with  Rome  .        i.  265 

—  military  colony        .  ii.  294 

—  villa  of  Lucretius, ii.  330, 625 
~  of  Nero        .         .      iv.  506 

—  subteri'anean  structures 

V.  592 
Antonia,    wife  of   Drusns 

iii.  684,  iv.  348 

—  sister  of  Britannicus,  iv.451 

—  (the  tower),  at  Jeru- 
salem .         .         .  ii.  178 

Antonianus  Rufus,  epitaph 
of  wife  .  V.  635 

—  bishop  of  Numidia  vi.  382 
Antonines  .  .  iv.  734 
Antonine's  column  .  .  v.  196 
Antoniniad,  poem  of   0^ 

pianus        .        .  vi.  120 

Antoninianus    (argenteus), 

money  .  .  .  vi.  387 
Antoninus  Pius         v.  144,  170 

—  his  family  .         .       v.  143 

—  his  character,  v.  142, 145,147 

—  his  journey  to  the 
East  .        .        .        .  V.  145 

—  defensive  wars    .       v.  153 

—  wall  in  Britain         .v.  154 

—  administration    .        v.  150 

—  punishment  of  adultery 

V.  150 

—  laws  of  slaves       v.  294  seq 

—  Judaism  .         .  v.  157 

—  toleration  of  Christians 

V.  155 

—  Faustinians  v.  168-210 

—  public  works    .         .  v.  151 

—  gifts  to  rhetors,  v.  151,  404 

—  at  his  death  he  leaves  in 
the  treasury  30  millions,  v.  301 

—  adopts  Marcus  Aurelius 

V.  168 


Pago 
Antoninus  Dimlumonianus, 
son  of  Macrinus       .     vi.  265 

—  (Arrius),  forefather  of 
Antonine     .         .         .  v.  146 

Antonius  (C),  brother  of 
the  triumvir,  governor 
under   Cajsar   in    Illyria 

iii.  286,  289 

—  Hybrida,  former  lieu- 
tenant of  Sylla  in  Greece 

is  accused  by  Caesar         iii,  5 

—  expelled  from  the 
senate    .         .         .        iii.  18 

—  colleague  of  Cicero  in 
consulate,  he  attacks 
Catiline       .         .         .  iii.  33 

—  governor  of  Macedonia, 
he  is  exiled  for  his 
exactions  .      iii.  33,  34  n 

—  (Marcus),  orato-.  con- 
sul in  99,  ii.  2-4.  318,  520, 

526,  656,  678.  795 
Antony,  see  Marc  Antony 
Antyllius,  killed  by  the  par- 
tisans of  C.  Gracchus   ii.  436 
Antyllus,    son    of   Antony 

iii.  499.  543 
Anubis,  Egyptian  divinity, 

ii.  268,  V.  221 
Anxur  .      i.  241,  244,  252,  326 
Aosta  (valley  of)        .       ii.  484 
Aoiis  (the)      .  1.  637,  ii.  31,  99 
Apamea  (Pliny  ),ii.i77,835,iv.8o7 
Apelaurus  (Mjount)  .         .  ii.  19 
Apellicon  of  Teos,    philo- 
sopher,      library      with 
manuscripts  of  Aristotle, 
.brought  back  by   Sylla 

ii.  633,  660 

Apennines  (the)       I.  xi.  xxvii 

xxxvi.  1.  xc.    cxxxviii.    401, 

ii.  555.  iii.  392 
Apex  (the)  .  I.  cxlii.  98,  103 
Aphrodite.  .  i.  85,  ii.  717 
Apicius,  ii.224,  iv.357,v. 582-603 
A  pi  on  (Ptolemy),  king   of 

Cyrenaica  .         .         .  ii.  481 

Apis  tombs         .         .  v.  84 

Apollinarian  games         .   i.  554 

Apollo,   I.   xlvi.   cxi.   554,  555, 

ii.  241.  254,  271,  659 

—  Diocletian  consults  the 
oracle  of         .         .      vi.  532 

—  amulet     .         .         .  ii.  606 
ApoUodorus,  engineer      iv.  204 

—  builds    the    bridge  on 

the  Danube         .         .iv.  759 

—  column  of  Trajan,      iv.  775 

—  arch  .        .         .        iv.  793 

—  the  forum  of  Trajan,  iv.  795 

—  a  light  artillery,  v.  22,  660 

—  legend  concerning  his 
death.        .        .        .  v.  117 

Apollonia  of  Cyrenaica,  iii.  614 

—  of  Epirus  or  Illyria,  i.  507, 

637.  ii.  30,  33»  49.  97,  624, 
iii.  396,  565 

—  of  the  Ilhyndacus  .    vi.  415 
.Apollonius    Rhodius,    epic 

poet       .         .         .       ii.  20S 

—  of  Tyana,  iv.  514, 642,v.  1 19. 

686,  vi.  118,  297,  609 


Puge 

Appeal  (the),  iotercessio, 
right  of  intercession  of 
magistrates         ,         .  v.  360 

—  provocatio  .         .         i.  223 
-  right  of,  for  citizens,  i.  415 

Appia-Aoua,  aqueduct    .  ii.  361 

Appian  Way,  I.  xxxii.  151,  309 

n.  2,  311,  401,404*  545»  651 

Appius,  consul  in  471,  i.  163,  176 

--  accused  by  the  tribunes, 

he  kills  himself       .         i.  178 

—  elected   consul   in  451 

and  decemvir      .         .   i.  213 

—  seizes  Virginia  by  one 

of  his  clients  .         .         i.  215 

—  established  equality  in 
civil  rights.        .         .  i.  22^ 

—  kills  himself  in  prison,  i.  220 

—  Claudius  Capcus,  orator, 
jurisconsult,  poet   .        i.  308 

—  censor  in  312  .     i.  314,  353 

—  his  share  in  the  Sanmite 
war     .  .  i.  358 

—  his  reply  to  Cineas,  i.  377 

—  Appinn  way     .     i.  404,  545 

—  CUudius  Caudex,  consul 

i.  264 

—  defeats  the  Carthagin- 
ians and  Syracusians  .    i.  468 

—  ClaudiusPulcher,consul 
in  249,  defeated  at  Dre- 
panum   .         .         .        i.  487 

—  Claudius,  takes  as  son- 
in-law  the  Canipnnian 
Pacuvius  Calavius,  who 
gives  his  daughter  to  the 
Roman  censor  Livius  .  i.  668 

—  ClaudiusPulcher.consul 

in  212,  siege  of  Capua,  i.  651 

—  Claudius  Pulcher,consul 
in  143,  fails  in  contest 
with  Scipio  for  the  cen- 
sorship, 149    .         .      ii.  379 

—  obtains  it  in  136,  his 
campaign  in  the  Al^  .  ii.  483 

—  father-in-law  of  Tibe- 
rius Gracchus,  ii.  399**402, 413 

—  CUiudiusPulcher,  consul 
in  79,  governor  of  Mace- 
donia ....  ii.  806 

—  ClaudiusPulcher.consul 
ill  54»  governor  of  Cilicia 
in  53,  in  which  Cicero 
succeeds  him  .         .       ii.  625 

—  his  impertinences  to- 
wards Cicero,  vide  Clodius 

ii.  637 
Apron  ian    decree    of     the 

senate  .  iv.  794,  v.  406 
Apronianus,    governor    of 

Asia  .  .  .  vi.  Ill 
Apuans,  the  Ligurian  tribe,  I.  1 
Apuleia,  wife  of  Lepidus,  ii.  737, 

747 
Apuleiiis,  native  of  Madaura 
in  Africa,  his  works,  v.  650, 
696.  717 

—  the  golden  ass      .        v.  733 
Apulia,  vast  Ingoon.         .  I.  xxv 

—  burnt  plain  .         .         .  I.  ci 

—  winter  pasture .         .    I.  ciii 

—  Gaulish  incursions,i.26i,264 


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GENEBAL   INDEX. 


653 


Pago 

Apulia,  war  of  Pjrrhus,  i.  375, 

400 

—  Social  war  .  ii.  550 
Aqua  Ferentina  .  .  i.  41 
Aqufe  (Baden-Baden) .      iv.  745 

—  Sextiae  (Aix),  ii.  487,  498, 

iii.  141 
Aquarii  (the) .  .  .v.  529 
Aqueducts.        .  I.  xx 

—  of  Appius  Claudius,  i.  311, 

312 

—  of  Pontius  Pilate  at 
Jerusalem  .        .  ii.  177  n.  5 

—  of  Chelves  in  Spain,  ii.  764 

—  of  Carthage         .        i.  438 

—  worksof  Augustus,iv.57,22i 

—  of  Claudius.         .      iv.  408 

—  of  Vespasian    .         .iv.  652 

—  of  Trajan    .         ,      iv.  796 

—  of  Hadrian       .       v.  62,  67 

—  slaves  proposed  as  guards 
for  the  .         .         .       ii.  312 

—  revenue  produced  by,  ii.  170 

—  (subterranean),  Aqua 
Appia,  Aqua  Marcia^qua 
Vetus     .         ,         .       ii.  361 

Aquileia        .  I.  xxv.  521,  ii.  73 

—  colony.        .        .iii.  560 

—  a  hundred  thousand 
inhabitants.        .        .v.  195 

—  taken  by  Maximin,  vi.  332 

—  port  for  arming  a  divi- 
sion of  the  Adriatic  fleet, v.  554 

Aquilian  law  (Damni  in- 
juriae  actio)         .         .  v.  299 

Acjuilius  (ManiusJ,  consul 
in  ^  129,  oi;^niZ6s  the 
Asiatic  province,  accused 
of  exactions   .        .      ii.  429 

—  trial,  ii.  318,  513.653,655 
Aquillia  (viaj.  .  .  1.  405 
Aquilonia,    defeat    of   the 

Samnites        .  i.  360,  363 

Aquincum  (Buda),  Roman 

post  .  .  .  .  V.  29 
Aquinura  (Aquino),colony,  i.  401 
Aquitaine,      campaign     of 

Crassos .         .         .      iii.  150 

—  pacified  by  Agrippa,  iii.  558 

—  furnishes  light  infantry 

to  the  Roman  army      iii.  557 

—  its  limits  extended  to 
the  Loire    .        .        .  iv.  51 

Arab  kingdom  of  Odenathus 

Arabia,  commerce  .    iv.  12,  7^, 
V.  464.  5^ 

—  merchant  route        .   iv.  86 

—  caravans  by  Petra         v.  78 

—  by  Palmjrra.         .      vi.  433 

—  importations  to  Rome 

iv.  76 

—  perfumes .         ,        .  iv.  86 

—  conquered  by  Cornelias 
Plalma    .         .         .      iv.  776 

—  its  organization        .    v.  82 

—  Petrea,  Roman  mer- 
chants in        .         .        iv.  76 

—  Felix  .  .  .iv.  102 
Arabs,      repressed      under 

Severus       .        .         .    vi.  77 

—  in  the  Roman  army,    vi.  68 


Pogo 
Arabs     (Naliatean),     their 
kingdom     .         .  iii.  649 

—  burn  the  fleet  of  Cleo- 
patra     .         .         .        iv.  67 

—  expedition  of  Qallus,  iv.  102 
Arcesilas,    sceptical    philo- 
sopher       .         .         .  ii.  216 

Archagathos,  first  doctor  at 
Rome    .        .        .        i.  547 

Archelaus,  lieutenant  of 
Mithridates         .  ii.  656,  670 

—  son  of  Herod,  brother 

of  Herod  Antipos         .iv.  100 

—  son  of  high  priest  of 
Comana,  Antony  makes 
kin^  of  Cappadocia,  iii.  622 

—  Tiberius  pleads  for,  iv.  273 
Arches  (triumphal),  iv.220,v.439 
Archcstratus,  his  "  Gastro- 

nomia"  translated  hj 
Ennius  .        .         .       ii.  206 

Archiatri,  palatini,  popu- 
laris,  vide  Doctors 

Archimedes  defends  Syra- 
cuse      .        .         'J*  643 

—  his  tomb  .  .  .  ii.  210 
Archimime,  at  funerals,  v.  277 
Architecture,  Etruscan,  I.  Ixxxii. 

Ixxxvii 

—  Roman,  utilitarian  cha- 
racter, I.  XX.  99,  iv.  204,  227 

Arcnthias,  son  of  Mithra- 

dates  .  .  ii.  656,  659 
Aidea,  capital  of  Rutuli,  I.  xcii 

—  besieged  by  Tarquin  .   i.  46 

—  help  Rome  against  the 
Gauls     .        .        .        i.  258 

—  ancient  paintings  .  i.  138 
Ardennes,  the  god  Arduin,iii.  105 
Ardeshir,  king  of  Persia,  vi.  303. 

343 

Arena  at  Nismes  commenced 

by  Hadrian  (?),  finished 

by  Antonine  .        .v.  46,  1 53 

Arenas,  vide  Amphitheatres 

Aretas,  Arabian  chief,  seizes 

on  Ccelesyria  .  ii.  640,  830 
Arevaci  (the),  of  Numantia,ii.i5i 
Argentarii,  the  bankers,  i.  548, 

li.  430 
Argentarius  (mons)  .  ii.  746 
Argentei,  money  struek  by 

Diocletian  .  .  vi.  647 
Ariarathes    TV.,    kingj    of 

Cappodocia.        .      11.  42,  58 

—  lA.,  a  rojral  fancy,  iii.  622 
Aricia,  legend  of  Herdonius,  i.41 

—  defeat  of  Etruscans     i.  183 

—  struggle  with  Ardea,  i.  231 

—  receives  civic  rights  and 
suffrage.  .        i.  326 

—  temple  of  Diana,  I.  cxxvi. 

cxxxiv 
Ariminum,  mercantile  port, 

iv.  78 
Ariobazanes    I.,    king    of 
Cappadocia,  ii.  527,  554,  581, 
647 

—  Pompey  increases  king- 
dom      .         .         .       ii.  836 

—  III.,  debtors     ii.  6^2,  647, 

649.  6s I,  672 


Pag« 
Arioliazancs  III.  sends  aid 
to  Pompey      .         .      iii.  297 

—  restored  to  his  kingdom 

ii'.  333 

—  killed  by  Cassius.     iii.  470 

—  the    M^e,    C.    Caesar 
^ives  him  Armenia      .  iv.  140 

Anoristus  defeats  the 
iEdui     .         .         .      iii.  130 

—  war  with  C«sar        iii.  138 
Aristsenus,  Achainn,  bought 

by  Rome    .       ii.  40,  80,  130 
Aristides,  rhetor,  statue  at 
Alexandria     .        .         v.  69 

—  high  priest  of  provrace 

of  Asia       .        .     V.  67  n.  5 

—  mystic        .        .       v.  702 

—  praises  Roman  rule,  v.  417 
Aristion    defends    Athens 

against  Sylla      .  ii.  656,  660 
Aristo,  Tynan,  emissary  of 

Hannibal  at  Carthage  .    ii.  45 
Aristobulus,    Jewish    king 

ii.  828,  830 
Aristodes,  rhetor  of   Per- 

^mus   .        .        .         V.  68 
Aristocracy       in      ancient 

Italian  society,  I.  Ixxi.  Ixxxii. 
cxxiii.  cxxiv.  cxxvi  ii 

—  revolution  in  510,  i.  152, 155 

—  new,  ii.  291,  297,  314,  325, 
329,  370,  430.  5H.  522,  532 

—  restored    under    Sylla 

ii.  707,  720 

—  a    monied,  formed   by 
Augustus,  iii.  727  teg.,  iv.  249 

—  Tiberius  and  Domitian 
oppress  .         .      iv.  718,  724 

—  failure  of  ancient,  iv.  587, 718 

—  renewed  from  provinces 

iv.  648,  737 

—  new  noblesse    .    v.  375.  506 

—  aristocratic  character  of 
Roman  towns         .       v.  369 

—  excluded  from  active 
functions    .        .  vi.  375,  381 

Aristodemus,  tyrant  of 
Cumae    .        .        .  i.  37 

Ariston  (Titius),  private 
virtues       .        .        .v.  627 

Aristonicus,  son  of  Eumenes 

ii.  161 

Aristotle  .  ii.  212,  217, 233,  391 

—  Sylla  brings  manu- 
scripts of    .    11.  633  n.  5,  660 

Aristoxenus,  materialist,  ii.  211 
Arles,seat  of  annual  assembly 

of  the  Seven  Provinces,  iv.  238 

Armenia  under  Tigranes,  ii.  642, 

643,  649,  805 

—  campaigns  of  LucuUus 

ii.  807,  814 

—  occupation  by  Pompey's 
troops         .        .       ii.  825 

—  king  Artavasdes  I.  of- 
fers to  assist  Crassus,  iii.  234 

—  Antony,  campaigns   in 

iii.  516-528 

—  gives  his  son  Alexander 
the  title  of  king  of       iii.  522 

—  strategic  importance,iii.646, 

iv.  98,  121 


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GENERAL   INDEX. 


Page 
Armenia,  expedition  of  Ti» 
berius,  crowiw  Tigrauos,  iv.  98 

—  of  CaiQs  Cffisar    .      iv.  121 

—  of  Germanicus  iv.  302 

—  of  Vitellius      .  iv.  363 

—  abandoned  to  the  Par- 
thians  by  Caligula .      iv.  389 

--  recovered  by  Claudius 

iv.  430 

—  conquered  by  Corbulo 

iv.  491 

—  Trajan     .        .  iv.  824 

—  Hadrian  abandons        .  v.  7 

—  again  under  Roman  in- 
fluence        .        .        .  v.  172 

—  dependent  on  Sapor,  vi.  417 

—  under.Diocletian  . 

-:-  Christianity  in  vi.  614 

Armorica      ,        .        .  iii.  153 
Armourers         .  iv.  82  n.  4 

Army  under  Servios    ^  .  i.  120 

"-  p«y    .        .        /      i.  243 

—  reform  of  Camillus  .  i.  265 

—  penalties      .         .       i.  290 

—  proletariat  excluded,  i.  301 

—  organization  in  third 
century  b.c.        .    i.  419,  433 

—  Marius  modifies  system 

of  recruiting  .         .       ii.  472 

—  the  arms  and^rder  of 
battle  .         .         .  i.  495 

—  ceases  to  be  a  civil 
duty       ,        .        .       ii.  495 

—  armies  belong  not  to 
Republic,  but  to  the 
generals      .         .  iii.  664 

—  Augustus  creates  the 
standing  army        .      ii.  720, 

iv.  71,253-257 

—  the    pnetonan     ^;uard 

"•  173.  495 

—  military  rules  of  Clau- 
dius   ...  iv.  409 

—  of  Domitian         .      iv.  699 

—  of  Hadrian      .        y.  15-20 

—  the  army  in  the  second 
century  a.d.  .    v.  556,  vi.  28 

—  under  Severus  .    vi.  135  «e^ 

—  in  third  century,  vi.  364-375 
Amo  .        .1.  XX.  XXXV 

—  Etmscan    canal,    from 

I.  Ixxiv.  xcv 
Arnobius,  rhetor,  converted 

▼».  599 
Arpi,  i.  617,  629,  632,  635,  686 
Arpinum,      birthplace    of 
Cicero    .        .        .       ii.  447 

—  possessions  in  Gaul    ii.  169 

—  obtains  right  of  suffrage 

li.  287 

—  country  of  Marius,  ii.  445, 

472,  5>6,  697 
Arras  .  iii.  146,  v.  425,  vi.  449 
Arretium,  Samnite  war,  i.  347, 

.  T.    .  .354 

—  second  Funic  war,  i.  592-3, 

it.  686   ! 
Arria,  wife  of  Ptetus,    iv.  436, 
480  ! 

—  daughter  of  same  name 
marries  Thrasca,  iv.  480,  v.  629 

—  female  philosopher,  vi.  115 


Page 
Arrian  of  Nicomedia,  lieu- 
tenant of  Hadrian  .       v.  112 

—  circumnavigat08£uxine,v.4O 

—  his  Enchiridion        .  v.  658 
A  mint  i  us  (L.),  consul  a.d. 

6;  his  accusers  punished 

iv.  354 

—  cannot  enter  on  his 
government  in  Spain 
which  he  administers  by 
legates  .        .        .      iv.  361 

Arsa  (C.  Terentilius),  tri- 
bune .        .  i.  202 

Arsaces  VI.,  king  of  Par- 
thia,  conqueror  and 
legislator        .         .      iii.  233 

—  XI.,  king  of  Parthia 
sends  ambassador  to  Sylla 

ii.  581 
Arsacids,  kings  of  Parthia, 
their  power        .iii.  232,  647 

—  princes  at  Rome        iv.  366 

—  Hellenised,     overcome 

by  Sassanids       .        .vi.  302 
Arsia  (the  forest  of)  .  i.  52 

Arsinoe,  sister  of  Cleopatra, 

^    ^      ^    »».325.363 

—  one  of  the  five  great 
towns  of  Cyrenaica  .     ii.  481, 

iii.  164 
Art,  forei^  importation  to 
Riome,  1.    138,   140,  ii.    209, 
282 

—  encouraged  by  Augustus 

^  V  . .         "V  524 

—  <;arthaginian       .        1.  452 

—  Christian,  grafted  on 
ancient  art .      v.  745,  vi.  389 

—  Etruscan,  L  xlv.  Iviii.  Ixx. 

Ixxx.  Ixxxiv.  Ixxxvii.  138 

—  Greek  .  i.  546,  ii.  209,  210 

—  Roman        .        .        i.  545 

—  in  time  of  Augustus,  iv.  196, 

204 

—  under  Vespasian       .iv.  658 

—  under  Domitian  .      iv.  69J 

—  under  the  Antonines,  v.  90, 

660 

—  at  Rome  .        .        .v.  661 

—  at  Pompeii  .        .      iv.  661 

—  golden  house  of  Nero,iv.  512 

—  in  the  Roman  villas,  v.  620, 

624 

—  ffmndeur  .        .        .vi.  135 

—  decays  in  third  century 
A-D.        .        vi.  382,  385.  388 

Artabanus  III.,  Parthian 
king,  weakness  of  his 
Empire  .         iii.  648,  iv.  304 

—  tries  to  conquer  Armenia 

iv.  366 

—  IV.,  treaty  with  Mac- 
rinus  .        .        .        .vi.  266 

—  conauered  and  killed  by 
Anleshir         .         .      vi.  303 

Artiivasdes  I.,  king  of  Ar- 
menia, ally  of  Crassus,  iii.  234 
--  of  Antony        .         iii.  521 
-  falls  away    .         .      iii.  51S 
taken  in  treachery     iii.  521 

—  murdered  after  Actium 

by  order  of  Cleopatra,  iii.  542 


Page 
Artavasdes,  king  of  Media 

Atropat*ne  .  iii.  646 

Artaxata,  besieged  by  Lucul- 

lus.         .         .  .        ii.  820 

—  burned  by  Corbulo     iv.  492 

—  taken  by  Priscus  under 
Marcus  Aureli  us.  .v.  176 

Artaxerxes,    or    Ardeshir, 
first  Sassanid  king .       vi.  302 

—  war     with     Alexander 
Severus .         .         .       vi.  306 

—  menaces  Armenia      .vi.  343 
Artemis,    temple     on     the 

Aventine,   vide  Diana,  i.  133 

Arthitauros,  Illyrian  chief, 

ally  of  Rome,  killed   by 

Perseus       .        .         .     i.  87 

Aruns,  son  of  Tarquin,  i.  37,  52, 

50,  ifc,  183 

Aruspic^  .        .    1.  Ixxx.  Ixxxi 

—  under  Tarquin  the  elder,  i.30 

—  in  common  life    .  i.  96,  100 

—  for  rulers.        .         .  ii.  174 

—  lose  credit,  ii.  237,  267,  370 
Arvales  (the  brothers),  i.  97,  99, 

103,  136,  293,  iii.  748 

—  alwa^rs  patricians    like 
the  Salii .        .         i.  297  n.  2 

Arverni,  first  war   against 
Rome .        .        .         .  ii.  487 

—  second,  iii.  123, 137,  180,  202 

—  temple  of  Mercury    .  vi.  21 
As,  monetary  unit     .         .i.  xx 

—  weight  '  .         .         .1.  121 

—  money.         .  i.  208 

—  reduction  of  weight,  i.  497, 

630 
Asander,   king  of  Pontus, 
murderer    of  Pliarnaces, 
son  of  Mitliridates  .     iii.  334 
Ascalis,  king  of  Marusians 

."•  750 
Asclepiades    of    Bithynia, 

famous  doctor  at  Rome,  iv.  198 
Asconiiis,  expedition  against 

the  Seordisci  .  .  ii.  164 
Asculani  (the),  in  Social  war 

v-  552.  572 

Asculum,  m  Apulia,  1.  378,  381, 
405, 452,  ii.  550,  561, 563,  570, 

575,  724 
Ascuris,    maish    in    Mace- 
donia .        .      ii.  102 
Asellio,  prsetor  .        .      ii.  585 

—  (Sempronius),  historian 

ii.  379 

Asia,  Roman  province,  ii.  167, 

196,  644,  672 

—  worship  of  conical  stones 

vi.  389 
Asia  Minor,  reorganized  b^ 
Pompey  .        .        .       ii.  816 

—  under  Augustus,  iii.  583,599, 

687 

—  Gallic  colonies     .  ^     iii.  89 

—  commerce     .        .  iv.  71,  74 

—  the  barbarians  in,vi.424, 427 
Asiaticas,  freedmah,  cruci- 
fied .  iv.  464,  644 

—  L.  Scipio     .        .  ii.  55  teg 

—  native  of  Vienne  in  Gaul 
and  twice  consul      .     ▼.  42S 


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Page 
Asiaticos,     candidnte      for 
Empire  afUT  murder  of 
Cahgula  .         .     iv.  395,  397 

—  death  .  .  iv.  437 
Asinius  Pollio  .  iii.  442,  488 
Assomblios  (municipal),  iv.  46, 

V.  349,  351 

—  (provincial),   ii.    194,    201, 
iv.   43.  48.  238,  240.  V.   59, 

473.  474 

—  (public)  among  Italians 

I.  cxxyii.  73,  329 

Assidui   .  .  i.  121,  401 

Assif]^tion  of  land,  i.  168,  278, 

ii.  414 

Assistance  of  the  weak  and 

poor        .        .        V.  183, 638 

—  see  Clients,    Charities 
Alimentary  Associations 

V.  392 
Astarte,  Syrian  goddess,  i.  436, 

44».  479.  V.  702 
Astrology  and  astrologers, ii. 225 

—  treatise  on,  by  Nigidius 

iv.  196 

—  increased      popularity 
about  second  century,  v.  222, 

712 
Astures  remain  independent 

ii.  155,  181 

—  conquered  by  Augustus 

•     iii.  554.  iv.  59 
Asturia,    town   and   river, 
Latin  defeat  on  banks  of 

i.  325 

—  Augustus  and  .  iv.  145 
Asturica  (Astorga),  military 

post        .        .         .        iv.  58 

Asturiones,  name  of  prize 
horses  .        .        .   iv.  83 

Asylum  of  Romulus    .    i.  11,  76 

Ataeinus  (Varro),  epic  poet, 
bom  at  Narbonne    .     iii.  556 

Atcgua,  S(mnish  stronghold 
taken  by  Csesar   .      iii.  375  n 

A  to  i  us,  tribune,  impreca- 
tions against  Cni8su««,  iii.  228 

Atella,  town  of  Campania 
I.  Ixviii.  327,  617,  657,  ii.  169 

Atollanae,  original  comedies 
of  Campania,  i. 533-54 i,ii. 264, 
iv.  296 

At-(?rnia,  law  to  regulate 
fines,  penal  system  highly 
developed,  i. -204-208,  ii.  317, 

▼•  335.  344 
Aternius,  consul  divides  the 

Avontino  lands  i.  207 

Atcmus  (the)  .         .  ii.  550 

Athanmnes  sack  Thessaly,   ii.  30 

—  allies  of  liomc,  ii.  32-38,  46, 

50,  75.  97.  iii.  5^5 
Athenaeus,  brother  of  Attains 

ii.  334 
Athenio,    rising    of    slavee 

ii.  384.  510-513 
Athcns,ally  of  Kome  against 
Philip     .  .        i.  637 

—  its  decline  .    ii.  18 

—  besieged  by  Philip         ii.  28 

—  liomo  surrenders  Paros 
and  Dol(>s  to  ii  ii.  39 

VOL.    VL 


Page 
Athen.s,  federal  town    .    ii.  187 

—  lioman  exactions        ii.  377, 

624,  633 

—  surrenders  to  Mithri- 
dates   .  .        .  ii.  656 

—  besieged  and  taken  l)y 
Sylla       .         .       ii.  657,  664 

—  Antony  winters  in      iii.  498 

—  gamw  given  by  Antony 

iii.  524 

—  Octavia  at    .        .      iii.  513 

—  Antony  and  Cleopatra 

iii.  531 

-  Hadrian  at  v.  59,  70 

—  Hadrian  archon  at         v.  59 

—  Marcus  Aurelius  at     v.  205 

—  the  Areopagus  and  pul)- 
lic  assembly  under  the 
Empire  .  v.  341,  352 

~  as  a  centre  of  philo- 
sophy iii.  565.  V.  447 

—  Its  schools        .  iii.  566 

—  young  Romans  fre- 
quent, Brutus  takes 
lessons  from  Theom- 
nestusand  Cratippus,  iii.  464 

—  Cicero  at  .         .  ii.  787 

—  Hadrian  builds  a  now 

V.  59.  67 

—  Panhollenion        ,         v.  64 

-  Olympieion      .         .    v.  65 

—  statues  r>f  Brutus  and 
Cassius,  beside  chose  of 
Harmodius  and  Aristo- 
giton  .  iii.  465 

—  invasion  of  barbarians 

vi.  449 

Athletes  (combats  of),  ii.  280, 
iii.  742 

Atia,  mother  of  Octaivius,  iii.  422 

Atilia  (law),right  of  Roman 
prsetor  to  appoint  a  guard- 
ian to  those  who  had  none 

ii.  176,  223 

Atilian  (plebiscite),  con- 
cerning the  legionary 
tribunes      .         .         .   i.  293 

Atilius,  consul  killed  at  the 
Imttle  of  Lake  Telamon,  i.  513 

Atina,  Volscian  town  colon- 
ized i.  354,  401 

Atinian  (law),  constituting 
tribunes  as  semitors  .     ii.  415 

Atinius,  tribune  of  people 
after  murder  of  Tiberius 
Gracchus  .       ii.  414 

Atlantic,  commerce  of  Car- 
thage in      .         .         .  ii.  449 
tides  astonish  Romans,i  i .  1 52 

Atlas,  revolt  of  Tacfarinas 

iv.  306 

—  Suetonius  Paulinus 
crosses   .         .         .       iv.  433 

—  military  posis  .    v.  39 
Atra,  stronghold  in  Mesopo- 
tamia  (now    El-IIadrh), 
Trajan  before  iv.  831 

—  sends  archers  to  Sopti- 
mius  Severus  .         vi.  48 

—  besieged  in  vain  by 
Severus        .  .  vi.  72 

—  sedition  at  .         .         vi.  73 


Page 
Atra  besieged  by  Aideshir, 
son  of  Hassan        .  vi.  303 

—  taken  and  destroyed  b^ 
Sapor      .        .        .      VI.  343 

Atratini  (the)  .  i.  156 

Atratinus      (Sempronius), 

agnirian  law  of        .        i.  171 
Atrax,  stronghold  in  Thes- 
saly,  withstands   Flami- 
ninus       .        .        .        ii.  33 
Atrebates        .         .  iii.  146,  147 
Atrectus    (price    of    books 
from),  bookseller  at  Rome 

iv.  77 
Atria,  ancient  Adria        I.  Ixxvi 

—  -  pirates  .        i.  330 
Atrium  (the),  of  Etruscan 

origin  I.  Ixxxi 

Libertatis,        library 
founded  by  Asinius  Pollio 

iii.  409,  iv.  186,  210 
Atropatene  (Media)        .  ii.  816. 
Attn      (Quinctius),      poet, 
author  of  Togatw  come- 
dies, die<l  at  Rome  78  o.r. 

ii.  264 
Attalids  (the)  .  ii.  160,  161 

.\ttalus  I.,  king  of  Perga- 
mos         .  i.  556,  637,  li.  4,  20 

—  threatened  by  Philip  of 
Macodon  .        .    ii.  24 

—  Sulpicius  sells  him 
i^ina  for  30  talents,  ii.  604 

—  fl.   king   of   Pei^amos 

ii.  125,  159 
quarrels  with  Bithyuia 

ii.  160 
oflfers    £1,000    for    a 
picture    .         .         .       ii.  281 

—  IIL,  erucl  and  mad, 
Rome  seizes  his  inherit- 
ance .         .         .  ii.  161 

—  prince  of  the  race 
of  Pylfemenes  ;  Pompey 
leaves  him  a  share  of 
Paphlagonia  ii.  834 

Attica,  cradle  of  the  civili- 
zation of  the  world         i.  438 

—  ravaged  by  the  Acarna- 
nians       .  .        ii.  18 

—  devastations  of  Philip,  i.  28 

—  condemned  to  furnish 
100,000  bushels  of  com,  i.  330 

—  Roman  exactions       .  i.  625 

—  Hadrian  at  .        .         v.  59 
Atticus,  friend  of  Cicero  and 

of  all  parties  iii.  441 

—  refuses  public  offices,  iv.  7 
in  Epirus  iii.  683 

—  employs  slaves  as  copy- 
ists .         .        .   ii.  310  n 

—  (Herodes),  celebrated 
rhetor  and  priest .        .    v.  63 

—  treasure  found  by  his 
father      .  iv.  739 

—  had  been  pupil  of  Polc- 
mon     .         .        .         .     V.  67 

—  aqueduct  built  by  him 

in  part  .  v.  71 

—  his  liberality  at  Athen8,v.376 

—  appointed  consul  in  the 
year  145      •  •  ▼•  5^7 

UU 


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656 


GEXEBAL    INDEX. 


P»ge 
AuctoritAf  Patrum,  right  of 
the  senate  or  the  patri- 
cian curiae  to  authorize  the 
presentation  of  a  law,  i.  154, 
166 

—  according  to  the  laws  of 
Pabliiia  Philo,  the  senate 
must  give  previous  appro- 
bation to  law      .  .   I.  291,  292 

Auftdianus  Pontius  kills  his 

daughter      .        .        .  ii.  263 

Auildius  writes  in  Greek,  li.  374 

Auftdus  (the)      .        i.  608,  668 

Augurs    (art    of),    among 

Etruscans,    L     Ixxi.    Ixxxii. 

cxxii.  czlii 

—  Sabellians  .  .  i.  6 
"  at  Rome,  i.  15,  30,  34,  43, 
loi,   115,  384,  ii.  267,  290, 

370,  7>9 

—  are  of  political  use      ii.  290 

—  are  accused  in  216,  of 
pious  frauds,  by  a  tribune 

i.  594 

—  the  law  Ognlnia  (300), 
increases  number  from 
four  to  nine,  of  whom 
five  must  be  plebeians,  i.  293 

Augusta  Vindelicorum    .  iv.  108 

—  Prsetoria  (Aosta)      .   iv.  57 

—  Taurinorum  (Turin)     iv.  54 

—  -  Vagienorum  (Salnces),  iv.  54 
Angustal  worship.iv.  24,  27, 26(S, 

V.  372 
Aiigustals  (the),  priests  of 
the  altar  of  Rome  and  of 
the  Augusti     .    iv.  19,  v.  365 
Augustan  history   .        .  vi.  598 
Augustiniani       .        .      iv.  503 
Augustus  (the  second  trium- 
virate),  Octavius  arrives 
at  Rome  after  the  death 
of  Cfesar  .        .         .     iii.  422 

—  repulsed  by  Antony,  iii.  426 

—  collects  an  army   .     iii.  432 

—  Cicero  nominates  him 
propraetor    .         .         iii.  436 

—  battle  of  Modena  (27th 
April,  43)        .        .     iii,  440 

—  he  marches  on  Rome 
and  is  named  consul,  iii.  444 

—  he  treats  with  Lepidus 
and  Antony .        .        iii.  445 

—  second  triumvirate,  iii.  446 

—  proscriptions        .     iii.  446 

—  battle  of  Philippi,iii.47i-478 

—  Octavius  takes  posses- 
sion of  Gaul     .    iii.  478-492 

—  treaty  of  Brundisium,iii.492 

—  treaty  of  Misenum,  iii.  495 

—  interview  of  Tarentum 

iii.  499 

—  battle  of  Naulochus  and 
flight  of  Sextus  Pom- 
peius  (36)        .        .     iii.  506 

—  deposition  of  Lepidus,iii. 5 10 

—  duumvirate  of  Octavius 
and  Antony  (36-30),  iii.  511 

—  his  moderation     .      iii.  ^12 

—  vigilance  of  his  adminis- 
tration        .        .         iii.  513 

—  rupture  with  Antony,iii.526 


Page 
Augustus,  battle  of  Actium 
(2nd  September,  31  ),iii.  536  seg 

—  return  of  Octavius  to 
Italy       .        .        .      iii.  541 

—  OctaviusatAlexandna,iii.543 

—  interview  with  Cleo- 
patra  .        .  iii.  545 

—  condition  of  provinces 

iii.  548-562 

—  name  of,  given     .     iii.  699 
Augustus's    ^ministration 

at  Rome  and  in  Italy, 
classification  of  persons, 
senators  .        .        .     iii.  69^ 

—  sons  of  senators       .  iii.  728 

—  knights        .        .     iii.  730 

—  burghers  .         .         iii.  731 

—  people  .        .        .     iii.  732 

—  nierarchy  of  magistracy 

"»•  734 

—  decunons  and  augus- 
tales,  honestiores  and 
humiliores  .         .  iii.  735,  736 

—  public  distributions,  iii.  737 

—  games  .         .        .     iii.  741 
--  beautifying  of  Rome,  iii.  742 

—  police        .        .         iii.  744 

—  encouragements  to  work 

J".  745 

—  religious  reform  .     iii.  746 

—  efforts  to  improve  society 

iii.  755.  760 

—  law  deMaritandis  ordi- 
nibus  completed  by  the 
law  Papia  Popp»a  .     iii.  757 

—  carmen  seeculare  (17B.C.) 

iii.  759 

—  divides  Italy  into  eleven 
regions  and  disarms  the 
population  .        .        .iii.  761 

—  he  rebuilds  Perusia,  iii.  765 

—  Italian  votes         .     iii.  766 
Augustuses    administration 

of  provinces,  divides  pro- 
vinces with  the  "senate 
(27  B.C.)       .        .        .    iv.  2 

—  payment  of  governors 
and  long  duration  of  func- 
tions      .        .        .         iv.  7 

—  their  dependence  on  the 
emperor       .        .         iv.  8,  9 

—  money  reform       .  iv.  10-14 

—  roads        .        .        .  iv.  15 

—  posts    .        .        .        iv.  16 

—  religious  organization 

iv.  18-24 

—  Druids  .        .  iv.  28 

—  belief  in  Manes,  Genii, 
Divi        .         .        .  iv.  34, 38 

—  organization  of  various 
provinces  by  Augustus, 
Gaul  (27  B.C.),  iv.  44,  50  seq 

—  assembly  of  Lyons,  iv.  44,  53 

—  Spain  and  Mauretania 
(26-24  B.C.)         .       iv.  59-63 

—  Sicily  and  Greece  (22- 

21  B.C.)  .        .        .        iv.  64 

—  East         .        .      iv.  63, 64 

—  Egypt.        .        .iv.  68,  71 

—  general  measures      .   iv.  69 

—  -  commerce,  general  pro- 
sperity   .        .        .  iv.  72,  91 


Augustus,  organizatroD   of 
frontiers      .         .   iv.  95,  133 

—  private  life  .         .      iii.  711 

—  lo«8  of  friends  .  iv.  112,  135 

—  (last  years  of),  and  the 
succession  to  the  £ropire, 
the  imperial  family  in  the 
year  8  A.n.  .         .  iv.  135 

—  though  not  formally 
establishing  heredity, pre- 
pares it  by  his  adoptions 

iv.  136 

—  favour  of  Lo&nd  C.Csesar 

iv.  138 

—  condemnation  of  Julia 

(2  B.C.)    .        .         .      iv.  139 

—  death  of  L.  and  C.  Caesar 

(3  and  4  B.C.)        .  iv.  140 

—  adopts  Agrippa  Pos- 
tumus  and  Tiberias  (13 
A.D.)        .        .         .      iv.  141 

—  his  death  (14  a,d.),  iv.  146 

—  his  funeral  and  apo- 
theosis      .        .    iv.  147-153 

—  letters  and  arts,  monu- 
ments, architecture,  etc. 

iv.  168-232 

—  his  work  and  its  political 
results,  senate,  people, 
society    .        .       iv.  229-268 

—  genealogical  table  of  his 
family     .  .      iv.  134 

—  (will  of)  .  .  iv.  1^4-168 
Aulerci-Eburovices  (the),  iii.  155 
Auletes  (Ptolemy)  .  .  iii.  57 
A  ulularia, comedy  of  Plautus 

".  349 
Aurelian    distinguished    as 
general  against  barbarians 

vi.  400 

—  his  accession         .      vi.  453 

—  his  origin  .        .         vi.  465 

—  his  manner  .        .      vi.  466 

—  treats  with  barbarians, vi467 

—  yields  Dacia     .         vi.  468 

—  invasion  of  Allemanni 
and  Jutes  .      vi.  470 

—  wall  of     .        .         vi.  473 

—  various  wars        vi.  474-480 

—  laws     .        .        .      vi.  501 

—  his  death  .        .         vi.  504 

—  sedition    during    reign 

of    .  .      vi.  504 

—  character .  .  vi.  506 
Aurelian  way  i.  405,  ii.  72 
Aureus  of  Csesar,  standard 

of  value       .  .         iii.  395 

--  under  Nero  .  .      iv.  519 

—  falsification  in  third 
century  vi.  386 

Aurum  coronarium,  golden 
crown  of  victory  offered 
to  proconsuls       .        .  ii.  227 

—  become  the  coronary 
gold  of  emperors     .      ii.  333 

—  vicesimarium  reserved 
for  unforeseen  necessities 

i.  661,  ii.  313 
Aurunci  (the) .        I.  xciii.  xcvii 

—  wars  with  Rome,  i.  274-318, 

321,  324,  327,  342 
Ausar,  or  Serchio       .        .  J.  I 


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GKNKUAL   INDEX. 


657 


Page 

Aasones  (the)     .      I.  xciii.  328 

AutAritns,  Gaulish  chief,  i.  525 

Anthority  (paternal),  dim  in- 

ished  by  the  Antonines,  v.  185, 

237.  244 
Antroniufl,    accomplice    of 

Catiline  .        .        .       iii.  22 

Auxiliaries     .     i.  423,  426,  433, 

ii.  184  n.  I,  187  n.  7,  iii.  730 

n.  6,  iv.  256,  V.  545 

AnziFiain,  voting  power  of 

tribunes       .        .        .  i.  165 
Avaricum  (Bourges),  iii.  183, 186 
Aventine,    Cacus  killed  by 
Hercules  at.  i.  3. 6,  7, 29, 37, 79 

—  retreat  of  the  people  to 

i.  165,  204,  207 

—  temple  of  Juno      .     i.  248, 

".  38?.  439 
Avernus  (the  lake)   .  I.  xiy.  cxi 

—  formation  of  rort  Julii 
by  the  junction  of  the 
lakes  Avernus  and  Lu- 
crinus  .        .      iii.  499 

Avienns  (C),  legionary  tri- 
bune dismissed  by  Cmsar 
on  account  of  his  heavy 
baggage  iii.  345 

Axia,  or  Castel  d'Asso,  L  Ixxxvii 
Axieros,   Axiokersa,    Axio- 
kersas,  Gabeiri  of  Samo- 
thrace     ...       I.  xlvi 
Axios  (the)      .        .        .v.  443 
Axum  (obelisk  of),  memorial 
of    victories  of  Ptolemy 
£vergetes        .        .     iii.  649 
Axumites,  Abvssinian  people 
near  Babef  Mandeb,  lar^ 
commerce    .        .         iii.  649 

Baalboc,  v.  76,  78,  478,  vi.  85, 
263 
Baal-Hammon  .  i.  444 

Babylonia  (tissues  from),  iv.  86 
Bacchs  of  Euripides        iii.  236 
Bacchanals   at   Homo,  first 
religious  p<!rsecution,  ii.  249, 

253 
Bacchides,  comedy  of  Plaatus 

ii.  239 
Bacchus  (mysteries)        .  ii.  246 

—  country  of  Bossi,  sacreil 

to .  .  .  .  iv.  114 
Bactriana  (embassy  from), 

to  Augustus  .  .  iv.  98 
Baden-l&den    founded    by 

Trajan  .  .  .  iv.  745 
Badajoz,      formerly      Pax 

Auf^usta  .  iv.  61 

Bsecula  .        .        .   i.  682,  683 

Batica      ,        i.  569,  676,  68c. 

iii.  553.  iv.  60 

—  commerce  ii.  69  n.,  157 

—  Sertorius  in,  ii.  749,  iv.  57-60 

—  gold  mines .         .        iv.  83 
Bsetis'  or  Guadalquivir,  i.   677, 

682,  ii.  45,  iii.  372,  iv.  549 
Bagradas        .  iii.  289, 353 

Baise  .         .         L  xxvii.  iv.  477 
Balbilla  .  .v.  464 

Balbinus,  emperor,  vi.   327-338 
Balbus  (L.  Corn. )  .         iii.  389 


barians  ^267) 
—  under  Tacitus 


Page 
Balbus.  triumph  of    .      iv.  489 
Balearic     Isles    (Carthage 
conquers)        .         i.  448, 451 

—  (Rome  conquers)  ii.  156 
Balista  .  .  .  iii.  200 
Baltea  gold  mines  .  ii.  484 
Barbarians  (struggle    with 

Gallic)    .         ii.  490, 492,  597 

—  in  time  of  Augustus,  iii.  550 

—  invade      frontiers       of 
Khine  and  Danube        iv.  106 

—  further  incursions      iv.  1 14 

—  wars  with  Vespasian,  iv.  604- 

613 

—  on  Danube      .        .  iv.  704 

—  advances   in  Illyricum 

—  barbarian  women  mar- 
ried to  Romans      .       vi.  372 

—  barbarians      begin    to 
ravage  the  Empire,  vi.  394,409 

—  further  inroads,  vi.  412,  417 

—  in  Asia  .        .     vi.  418,  422 
-  fresh    arrival    of  bar- 

vi.  449,  456 
vi.  513 

—  under  Probus,vi.  518  jr«g.,  538 
Barbaric  world,  middle  of 

third  century    .     vi.  353  «r^., 

372,  373.  395 

—  overwhelms  the  Empire 

vi.  412 

Barbatus  (Horatius)        .     i.  20 

Barca,  Cyrenaic  town,   ii.  481, 

614,680 

—  Amilcar,  see  Hamilcar 
Barcas  (the)   i.   529.   571,  680 
Barigazzo,  hot  spring     .  I.  xiv 
BasiHca      >         •         .      iv.  218 
Basilus    (Minucius),    mur- 
derer of  Caesar    .  iii.  402 

Basques  (the)  .  .  ii.  449 
Bassano,      ancient      Ii\cus 

Vadimonius  .  i.  348,  367 
Ba.ssianu8,  see  Elngalialus 

—  priestof  the  sun,  father- 
in-law  of  Severus  vi.  116 

Bassus  (Cscilius).  partisan 
of  Pompey      .         .      iii.  371 

Bastarnie,  carried  captive 
by  Philip      .       ii.  83,86,94 

—  Pi*obu»        establishes 
100,000  of  them  in  Thrace 

vi.  521,  561 
Batavia  under  Augustus  .  iv.  6 
Batavians,  Vespasian's  war 
with  .         .         .    iv.  604-613 

—  Hadrian  .  .  v.  47 
Baths  .  .  .  •  V.  591 
Bato,  Dalmatian  chief,  his 

reply  to  Tiberius  iv.  126 

Batuatus,  vide  Lentulus  and 

gladiators  .  .  .  ii.  772 
Bebryces  .  .  .  i.  579 
Bojah  .  .  .  ii.  467  n 
Belg»  join  the  Cimbri,  ii.  492 

—  campaign  of  Caesar,  iii.  83, 

144,  630 

—  of  Vespasian  iv.  606 
Belgica  .  •  .iii.  205 
Bclis,  god  of  the  Volca?  ii.  493 
BcUianus,  praetor    .  ii.  794 


Pa^ 
Bellona,  croddess        .  I.  cxxxiv 

—  temple  at  Rome,  i.  108,  ii.  93 

—  ceremonies  .  .  i.  630 
Bellovaci,  iii.  145,  182,  202,  205, 

258 
Bellovesus   establishes  the 
Insubrians    between   the 
Po  and  the  Adda        .  I.  cxix 

—  defeats  the  Ligures  iii.  87 
Bellutus  Sicinius  .  i.  164 
Beneventum   .         .         .      I.  ci 

—  fcJnmnite  defeat    .         i.  377 

—  Pyrrhus  at       .        •  i.  381 

—  colony         .        .        i.  379 

—  defeat  of  Hanno.  i.  632  seq 

—  after  the  wars  of  Ma- 
rius  and  Sylla    .  ii.  170,  702 

Benevolent  institutions,  v.  388 
Berbers,    ancient    Libyans 

i.  447»  V.  461 
Berenice,  Jewish  queen,  iv.  672 

—  (Bengaza),      Cyrenaic 
town  .         .      ii.  481,  iii.  614 

Bernard    (S.),    roads    over 

pass  .  .  .  iv.  57 
Berytus  in  Syria,  iv.  109,  vi.  81 
Besan^on  (Vesontio),  iii.  138,140 
Bessae,    people    of    Thrace 

iii.  465,  iv.  107,  114 
Bestia     (L.      Calpumius), 
tribune  in  121,  consul  in 
III,  bought  by  Ju^^urtha 

li.  462,  463 

—  accomplice  of  Catiline,  iii.  27 
Betting  ...  v.  569 
Beuvrny  (the  mountains  of) 

iii.  136 

B^ziers    .        .        .         iii.  126 

Bibracte     .         .iii.  136,  202 

Bibuius  (aedile)       .        .  iii.  13 

~  consul         iii.  54,  56,  57,  60 

—  ailmiml  of  Pompey,  iii.  303 
Biforno,  Italian  river  .  I.  xxiii 
Bilbilis,  probably  the  Salo.ii. 769 
Bisaltcs,  people  of  Thmce,  ii.i  13 
Biscay  .  .  .  iv.  57,  58 
Bisellium,  seat  of  honour,  v.  368 
Bitliynia  (Prusias,  king  of) 

ii.  29,  50,  60 

—  Nicomedes  II.,  kino;  of 

ii.  554,  647,  806,  821,  837 

—  Nicomedes  III.  .        ii.  649 

—  ceded  to  the  senate  by 
Nicomedes  III.    .        .  ii.  805 

—  Roman  province,  iii. 589, v. 72 

—  sacked  by  Goths  .  vi.  421 
Bituitus,  king  of  Arverni 

ii.  487,  iii.  124,  129 
Bituriges  (the),  iii.  124,  187,203 
Blandina,  martyr  .    v.  228 

Black  buskin,  worn  by  sons 

of  senators  .  .  iii.  72S 
Blemmyes  .  .iii.  649,  vi.  563 
Blosias  of  Cumae,  master  of 

Tiberius  Gracchus  .  ii.  402 
Boadicea  .  .  iv.  498 
Boarium  .  .  .  i.  512 
Bocchar,      lieutenant      of 

Syphax  .  .  .  i.  689 
Bocchus,  king'of  Mauretania 

ii-  473.  477.  479  5^4.  iii-  343. 
361 

UU2 


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GENKUAL   INDEX. 


Page 
Bflpotia,  war  with  Antiochus 

ii.  49 

—  with  Perseus       .   ii.  86,  99 

—  after  Pydna     .         .  ii.  129 

—  clifferoncowithAthen8,ii.233 

—  Piso's  exactions  in      ii.  619 

—  war  with    Mithridatee 

ii.  657,  668 

—  -  amphictyonic  council,  iv.  64 
Bcpotian   (the),  comedy   of 

Plautus       .         .  ii.  262 

Boii  (the),  of  Italy,  I.  xxxviii. 

367.  510.  513.  579.  580,  $81 

-  their  emigration  from 

Italy       .        .         .        ii.  70 

—  of  Gaul    .  iii.  137 
Boiorix,  king  of  Cimbri,  ii.  505 
Bola,  Roman  colony        .   i.  252 
Bologna  (Bononia),   drain- 
age of  marshes  I.  xxy 

—  Etruscan  tombs        .  I.  Ixiii 

—  Greek  memorials,  I.  cix.  399 
Bolsena,  lake  of  .  I.  xxiii.  666 
Bomilcar,  war  of  Jugurtha 

ii.  464 
Bona  Dea  (mysteries  of),  iii.  42 
Bona  (Hippo  Regius)  .  ii.  467 
Bonjem   (wells  of),  station 

for  caravans    .  iv.  103 

Bonus  Eventus,  divinity,  I.  cxxx 
Books  at  Rome   .  iv.  77 

Bordeaux,  commerce,  iv.79,v.426 
Borvo,  Gaulish  divinity,  iii.  106 
Bosphorus  (Cimmerian),  ii.  643 
seq.,  805,  832,  iii.  643-644, 
iv.  66,  109,  V.  477 

—  of  Thrace     .  ii.  824 

IVwtra V.  81 

lioviiinum,  i.  344, 347, 356,  ii.574 
BovillsB,  i.  165,  184,  290,  iv.  147 
Bmcciano  (lake  of)  .  I.  xiv 
Brachyllas  aKsa.ssinated,  ii.  40,84 
Bronnus,   title    of  Gaulish 

chief    .  .    i.  254,  258 

Brenner  pass,    invasion   of 

Cimbri  .  ...  ii.  502 
Brenta  (the),  commerce  of 

P}idua  .  .  I.  Ii.  353 
Bribery  of  judges  .  .  iii.  44 
—  Cfesar's  laws  concerning 

vi.  58 

—  by  consuls.  iii.  240 
Bridal  ceremonies         .      v.  254 
Britain,  Claudius's  expedi- 
tion to                 .        .  iv.  420 

--  conquest       .  iv.  422 

—  Caractacus  iv.  423 

—  under  Nero  .        .      iv.  497 

—  under  Vespasian         iv.  669 

—  under  Domitian  iv.  708 

—  Agricola  in  .  iv.  708 

—  Hadrian  in  (122)  v.  47 

—  Picts     overrun     under 
Marcus  Aurelias     v.  172,420 

—  Britain  Latinizeil     .     v.  421 

—  under  Commodus     vi.  9,  20 

—  Scverus  in  -  .  vi.  142 

—  Portinax    .         .  vi.  30 
Probus            .     vi.  519,  523 

—  CarausiuH  .         .       .  vi.  545 

—  wars  of  Ca'sar,  iii.  124,  153, 

162,  166 


Page 
Britain  (30  B.C.)  iii.  630 

—  time  of  Augustus     .   iv.  81 

—  in  time  of  iladrian       v.  47 

—  of  Commodus  vi.  20 
Britannicus,  son  of  Claudius 

iv.  448  seq,,  466 

Brundusium       .        i.  637f  650, 

ii.  49.  077 

—  Antony  lays  siege  to,  iii.  492 

—  Crassus  embarks  at,  iii.  231, 

282,  296 

Bruttii  .        .         .    i.  364,  617  I 

Bruttium,  i.  646,  659,  675,  687, 

ii.  2,  iii-  506 

Brutus(Decimus  Junius), iii.  153, 

292.  403.  421,  44» 

—  (Junius)  .    \.  ^seq 

—  tribune    .  .  i.  167 
~  succeeds  C»pio  in  com- 
mand in  Spain,  and  first 
sees  the  Atlantic     .     ii.  152 

—  ( Marcus  Juni  U8),i  i  i .  399,  400 

—  after  Capwr's  death,  iii.  421, 

—  in  Athens   .        .        iii.  464 

—  Pompeians  flock  to  him 

in  Greece  .         .         .iii.  465 

—  at  Xanthus  .      iii.  469 

—  conquers  Rhodes,  Pata- 

ra,  Laodiceaand  Tarsus.iii.  470 

—  in  Macedonia  .         .  iii.  471 

—  battle  of  Philippi,  iii- 47'  «"'/ 

—  deaith  .  .  iii.  476 
Bubukas  (Junius),  i.  347,  381 
Buildings  at  Rome  .  iv.  210 
Burial  ^customs  of)      v.  272  scq 

—  societies  .  v  392 
Burrus,  tutor  and  minister 

of  Nero  iv.  458,  466,  499 
Bygo'is,  nymph  who  taught 

the      augurs      art      to 

Etruscans  .        I.  Ixxi 

Byrebistas,  iii.  391,  636,  iv.  712 
Byzantium  .         .        .        ii.  18 

-  siege  of    .        .  vi.  53 

—  beautified  by  Severus,  vi.  55 

—  Valerian  at    .         .    vi.  421 

—  -  Gallienus   .        .        vi.  443 

Cabeiri  .         .1.  xlvi 

Cadurci .         ...  iii.  202 

Cflecilia  Metelbi .  .  ii.  700 
CH>cilius,  poet  from  Gaul,  ii.  263 
CaE<rina,  general  (69  a.d.),  iv.  593 
Cieles  Vibenna  .  .  i.  118 
Ctelius,  friend  of  Cicero,  iii.  335 
Ca'pio  commands  in  Spain,  ii.  1 52 

—  consul,     plunders     the 
treasure  of  the  Volca>,  ii.  493 

Ca?re  (truce  with)  .  .  i.  273 
Ca»rites  (rights  of)  .  i.  327 
Caesar  (Caius  Julius)  .  iii.  i 

—  pontiff      .         .         .    iii.  3 

—  personal  characteristics 
contrasted  with  Napoleon 

i".  3.  4 

—  early  history        ."    iii.  5,  6 
--  rivalry  with  Ponipcy  .  iii.  9 

—  magnificent  gifts  to  the 
city     .         .         .         .  iii.  14 

—  judges    the    murderers 

do  Sicarii.s       .         .        iii.  15 


Page 
Ca>sar  (Caius  Julins),   high 
pontiff         .         .         •  iii.  16 

—  praetor         .         .        iii.  17 

—  Cicero  tries  to  compro- 
mise him        .         .         iii.  32 

~  policy  with  respect  to 
Pompey      .         .  .  iii.  39 

—  declared  suspended  from 
his  functions  by  senate,  iii.  40 

—  licentious  life       .         iii.  43 

—  sets  out  for  Spain      .  iii.  44 
--  relieves  the  taxation  of 

Spain  (61  B.C.)        .         iii.  50 

—  returns  to  Rome        .  iii.  51 

—  position  as  popular 
leader    .         .         .        iii-  53 

—  the  triumvirate  with 
Pompey  and  Crapsus,   iii.  53 

—  consul  (59  B.C.)         .  iii.  54 

—  his  laws  de  Provinciis 
ordinandisand  dc  Pocuniis 
ropetundis  •  iii.  58 

—  made  governor  of  lUyria 
and  Cisalpine  Gaul      .  iii.  62 

—  commands  four  legions 
and  third  province       .   iii.  62 

—  arrangements  before  set- 
ting out .         .  jii.  64,  65,  66 

—  his  account  of  Gaul, iii.  97  ^9 

—  sets  out  for  Gallia  Nar- 
Ixmoiisis  (Mar.  58  B.C.).  iii.  132 

—  defeats  M^\n       .      iii.   134 

—  returns  to  Italy  for  five 
legions  .  iii.  135 

—  war    with    Ariovistus 

iii.  i^Sseq 

—  victory  at  Aisne  .      iii.  144 

—  battle  with  Atrel>atcs 
and  Nervi . .  iii.  147 

—  generous  treatment,iii.  148  n 

—  third  campaign  iii.  150 

—  plan  of  the  campaign 
arranged  by      .         .   iii.  153 

—  conquers  the  Veneti,  iii.  155 

—  his  treatment  of  his 
army  .  iii.  157 

—  fourth  campaign  .     iii.  158 

—  defeats  the  (lermans  on 

the  Rhine   .         .  iii.  160 

—  builds  a  bridge  across 
the  Rhine         .         .    iii.  161 

—  determines  to  visit 
Britain  .     .         .  iu-  162,  163 

—  returns  to  Gaul  iii.  164 

—  in  Illyria,  subdues  the 
Treviri,  prepares  to  in- 
vade Britain  iii.  16^ 

—  results  .      iii.  167,  168 

—  relieves  Q.   Cicero    iii.  174 

—  winters  in  Gaul    .   .  iii.  178 

—  continued  war  .  iii.  179 

—  seventh  campaign      iii.  180 

—  defends  Narl>oncnsis,  iii.  183 

—  war  with  Vercingetorix 

iii.  184 

—  besieges  Gergovia .     iii.  188 

—  goes  north        .  iii.  191 

—  siege  of  Alesia  iii-  1 95 

—  siege  works      .  iii.  195 

—  final  conquest  of  Gaul,iii.20i 

—  submission  of  Vercinge- 
torix  iii.  201,  202 


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Ol^NEUAL   INDEX. 


659 


Pajfc 
Caesar  (Caius  Julius),  eighth 
campaign     .         .  iii.  202 

—  war  with  Carnutes,  iii.  204 

—  with  Bellovaci      .      iii.  205 

—  siogo  of  Uxellodunum 

(51  B.C.)      .         .         iii.  208 

—  resultsof  Gallic  war,  iii.  209 

—  character  of        iii.  211,  212 

—  jealousy  of  Roman  nobles 

iii.  222,  223 

—  at  Lucca      .         .      iii.  224 

—  estranged  from  Pompey 

iii.  227 

—  proconsulship  continued 

iii.  228 

—  relations  with  Cicoro,iii.  241 
~  rupture  with  Pompoy,iii.244 

—  hatred  of  the  nobles  and 
causes         .         .iii.  246,  250 

—  exception  to  consular 
liiw  in  favour  of  .    iii.  251 

—  insulted  by  Marcollus,iii.253 

—  action  of  the  nobles 
against  .         '       iii.  254,  256 

—  crossestbo  AIp8(50B.c.) 

iii.  259 

—  two  legions  recalled,  iii.  261 

—  laws  in  favour  of  .     iii.  261 

—  struggles  regarding  con- 
sulship .         .         iii.  262  seq 

—  position  (49 and  50  b.c.),  iii. 

268,  270 

—  causes  of  his  supremacy 

iii.  271  seq^  notes 
crosses  Rubicon      .    iii.  274 

-  efforts  at  conciliation,  iii. 277 

—  struggle  with  Pompoy 

iii.  278  set/ 
--  returns  to  Rome  .      iii.  285 

—  seizes  the  treasure  in  the 
temple  of  Saturn  .         iii. 

—  threatened     rising     in 

Gaul       .         .         .      iii. 

"  besieges  Marseilles,  iii 

~  enters  Spain      .  iii 

—  his  works  in  Spain,  iii.  292 

—  treatment  of  Mjirseiilcs, 
founds  Frejus  .      iii.  293 

—  proclaimed  dictator,  iii.  294 

—  preparations  against 
Pompey  .  iii 

—  embarks  with  seven 
legions  (49  B.C.)      .      iii 

—  plan  of  warfare  at 
Mount  Petra,  Napoleon's 
criticism  of         .  iii.  304 

—  sufferings  of  his  army 

at  Dyrracnium  iii.  305 

—  marches  i  n  to  Thossdy,  iii.  306 

—  buttle  of  Phnrsaliji,iii.309,3i2 

—  at  Alexandria    .  iii.  322  itf.f/ 

—  defeats  the  Egyptians.iii.327 

—  goes  to  the  Eiust  .      iii.  331 

-  in  Asia  Minor  .  iii.  332-334 

—  returns    to    Rome   (47 
B.C.)    .  •       .         .      iii. 

—  second  time  dictator,  iii. 

—  doings  at  Rome   .      iii. 

—  in  Africa .         .  iii. 

—  war  against  Pompeian 
generals  .         iii.  342  seq 

—  battle  of  Thapsus,     iii.  351 


286 

286 
287 
288 


298 
299 


335 
341 


Paffo 
Cawar    (Caius    Julius)    at 
Rome(46B.c.)        .       iii.  361 

—  honours    bestowwl    on 

iii.  ^61  srq 

-  festivities  .  iii.  364 
--  proclaims  an  amnesty, iii. 367 

-  reforms  and  regulations 

iii.  366-369 

—  fixes  the  calendar  .     iii.  370 

—  war  in  Spain    .  iii.  372 

—  last  battle  at  Munda,  iii.  375 

—  deified  .      iii.  376 

—  return  to  Rome,  triumph 

iii-  379 

—  clemency  of      .  iii.  380 

—  perpetual    dictatorship 

iii.  381 

—  friendship  for  Cicero,  iii.  383 

—  creates  jiatricians       iii.  384 

—  buildings  at  Rome,  iii.  387 
~  municijial  laws,  iii.  387,  388 

—  title  of  king  iii.  390 

—  thoughts  of  an  Eastern 
campaign  iii.  391  seq 

—  laws  iii.  392 

—  library  iii.  395 

—  monetary     and    other 
reforms       .         .         .iii.  395 

—  conspirators      .  iii.  397-402 

—  wjimings  .      iii.  405 

—  his  assassination  (44  b.c  ) 

iii.  402 

—  estimate  of  his  policy,  iii.406 

—  funeral  iii.  417 

—  excitement     over     his 
corpse    .         .         .      iii.  418 

—  comet  .  iii.  419 
mourned    for    by   con- 
quered nations  iii.  420 

-  his  acts   confirmed    by 
senate  iii.  421 

—  apotheosis  confirmed  by 
triumvirs  iii.  463 

Cu?sarion,  son  of  Cajsar  and 
Cleopatra  ■  iii.  545  n 

Cajso  opposes  Terentilius 
Arsa    ...  i.  202 

Caius  Antonius  .     iii.  286,  297 

CuiiLs  adopted  as  successor 
by  Augustus        .         iv.   105 

—  sent  into  the  East      iv.   121 
Calabria  during  HannibaPs 

wars     .         .         .  i.  675 

Caligula  (Caius  Ciesar),  son 
of  Germanicus,  bom  a.d. 
12,  senate  appoint  him 
empei*or  .  .     iv.  370 

—  happy  commeneementof 
his  reign      .         .         iv.  371 

—  his  excesses  destroy  his 
health  .         .     iv.  372 

-  cruelties   .         .  iv.  373-375 

—  profanity      .      iv.  376-378 

—  extravagances   .         iv.  381 

—  his  military  expedition 

iv.  382 

—  to  Britain     .         .     iv.  383 
-  auction  at  Lyons        iv.  385 

—  vices  and  follies,  iv.  386-390 
-murdered  (a.d.   41)  iv.  391 

Calistus  (cemetery  of  S.),  vi.  182 
Calendars  .         .         i.   142 


Callicratos  ii.  130,  131 

Calpurnius  Piso  proposes  to 
establish  permanent  tri- 
bunal   .         .  ii.  31S 

—  suppresses  Servile  wir 

ii.  395 
Camarino,  Sicilian   city,  i.  478, 
488 
Camilli,  children  attending 

priests  .     i.  109 

Camillas  at  siege  of  Veii,   i.  247 

—  exiled .         .         •      .  i'  252 

—  dictator  .         .         .     i.  258 

—  history  of,  probably  in- 

.  correct  .  .         .         i.  261 

-  second  founder  of  Rome 

i.  264 

—  victories  of      .         .     i.  265 

—  again      conquers      the 
Gauls     .         .         .         i.  268 

—  builds   temple   of   Con- 
cord .  .         .1.  282 

—  died  of  plague  i.  287 
Camps  ^choice  of )  .  i.  426  acq 
Campania,  I.  xcvii.  322,359,  364, 

ii.  2 
Camulogonus,  chief  opposed 

to  Csesar  iii.  19^ 

Canal   to    Terracina    made 

by  Augustus  iv.  78 

Cannas  (Uittle  of)      •     i.  608  seq 
CanopUH,    street    in    Alex- 
andria V.  86 
Candace-,  queen  of  Ethiopia 

iv.  102 
Cantabri, barbarians  hi  Spain 

iii-  554 
Capena  i.  25,  318,  321 

Capitol,  temple  of        .       i.  131 

—  Gauls  attack  .  i.  257 
--  Manlius  saves  i.  258 

—  -  fortification  improved,  i.  278 

—  burnt  .  ii.  678 

—  rebuilt  by  Sjjrlla  and 
Catulus  .  .  li.  740,  iii.  39 

—  burnt  .          iv#  599 

—  burnt  under  Titus      iv.  676 
restoration  of  Domitian 

iv.  694 

—  literary  contest  of  the 

V.  654 

Capitoline  hill    .  .  i.  i 

Capitolinus(Q.),  con.<ml  .  i.  193 

Cappadocia  ii.  647,  649 

■  under  Augustus        iii.  621, 

iv.  493 

—  Hadrian,  in  ▼•  73i  173 
Capsa,  African  town  .  ii.  474 
Capua  deserts  to  ITannibal,  i.  617 

—  siege  of         i.  625,  635,  648 

—  yields     .         .•        .     i.  656 
'  •  Pompey  retires  to  before 

Caesar  iii.  276 

Caracttlla.son  of  Severus.vi.  143, 

'45 

—  Christian  nurse    .  vi.  211 

—  youth       .         .  vi.  239 

—  his  brother  Geta  .  vi.  241 

—  murders  .  vi.  243 

-  terrible  character  .  vi.  244 

-  increases  the  pay  of 
soldiers    .                  .  vi.  248 


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GENERAL    INDEX. 


Pase 
CAracalla     imitates     Alex- 
ander     .         .         .      vi.  250 

-  expedition  to  Gaal     vi.  250 
"  against  Alemanni       vi.  251 

-  at  Pergamus     .  vi.  255 

-  winters*  at  Nicomedin,yi.  255 
Alexandria   .         .     vi.  256 

-  majwacre    .         .         vi.  257 

-  in  Asia,  his  death  (a.d. 
217)  .         .     vi.  258 

—  his  works  at  Rome     vi.  259 
-  thermse      .         .         vi.  260 

-- divine  honours      .     vi.  265 
Canictacus,  British  chief,  iv.  421 
captive  to  liome    .     iv.  423 
Caravan  route  through  iSa- 

hara     .         .         .  iv.  90,  103 
Carbo  (Papirius)  .     ii.  413.  490, 
675,  681 
Cariuus     and    Numerianus 
(283),  emperors  together 

vi.  528 

—  -  opposed    to    Diocletian 

vi   535 
Caristiae,  festival  of  the  dead 

Camac  (monuments  at)    iii.  114 
Oarneades,    Greek    philoso- 
pher at  Rome         .         ii.  234 

—  his  influence  on  the 
thought  of  lionie  .         ii.  235 

Carnutes,  Gallic  tribe  .    iii.  204 
Camivora  .         .         ii.  452 

Carthape       .         .         .      I.  cvi 

—  first  treaty  with.  i.  132 

—  attack  on  Sicily       •    i.  198 

—  sends  eml)assy  with  con- 
f^^ratulations  after  Samnite 
war   .  .         .     i.  321 

—  increasing  strength  of 

i-?7i.38o,  435 
--  commercial  policy  .     i.  443 

—  use  of  mercenaries        i.  450 

—  -  constitution  .        i.  453,458 

—  treaties  with  Rome       i.  461 

—  Regulus  attacks      i.  479  seq 

—  terms  of  peace  between, 
end  Rome  (241)  .     i.  495 

—  loss  of  Sicily  and  naval 
supremacy      .         .         i.  498 

—  conquest  after  first  Pu- 
nic war .         .  i.  521,  529 

—  mercenaries  threaten    i.  522 

—  sends  reinforcements  to 
Hannibal        .         .         i.  621 

—  assists  Hannibal  to  re- 
conquer Sicily    .         .    i.  643 

—  Hannibal  returns  to, 
after  Zama    .         .        i.  693 

—  terms  of  peace  with 
Scipio        .         .         .     i.  694 

—  condition  after  Zama,  ii.  139 

—  parties  in  .         .         ii.  141 

—  treatment  by  Rome    ii.  142 

—  siege      .         .         .     ii.  143 

—  destruction  of     .         ii.  144 

—  contributions  of,  to  civi- 
lization    .         .         .     ii.  147 

—  in  possession  of  Rome,ii.  164, 

202 
— -  revival  of  .         iii.  616 

—  trade  with  Rome    .      iv.  89 


P»«e  • 
I  Carthage    assisted    by    M.  I 

Aurelius        .        .         v.  183  \ 
I     -~  persecution    of    Chris- 
I       tians         .         .         .    vi.  225 
•   Carthagena,  in  Spain,  i.  680,  685 
Carthalo  ...  i.  488 

I   Car  us   (M.   Aurelius),   em- 
l)cror  (282),  his  sons      vi.  525 

—  war  with  Persia      .    vi.  526 

—  death.         .         .       vi.  527 
Casilinum,  siege  by  Hanni- 
bal.        .  i.  622,  625 

Caspian  Soa,  route  of  com- 
merce with  Asia      .      iii.  643 
Cassius  (Spurius)    .     i.  168,  171 

—  treaty  with  thirty  Latin 
towns     .         .         .         i.  189 

—  consul     (89)     engaged 
against    Mithridates     ii.  653 

aeq.,  iii.  236,  321 

—  general,  in  Thessaly,  iii.  308, 

...   32i 

—  in  Asia      .         .         iii.  442 

—  at  Philippi     .         .    iii.  475 

—  Longinus,  chief  of  con- 
spirators   against    Caesar 

"«•  399 
"  interview   with  Antony 
and  Brutus  at  Lanuvium 

iii.  421 

—  (Avidius),  general  under 

M.  Aurelius      .         •     v.  173 

—  his  Elastem  campaign,  V.  176 

—  revolt        .         .  V.  197,  201 

—  death   ...       v.  203 
!  Cast-^r  and  Pollux      .         i.  55 

Catacombs    and    Christian 

symbols     .  v.  739,  745,  747  n 
Catiline    .         ii.  696,  734,  iii.  9 

—  plot  to  murder  consuls,  iii.  1 1 

—  acquitted    •         .         iii.  12 

—  conspiracy  spread  widely 

iii.  21,  22,  23 

—  discovered,     he     leaves 
Rome  .         .      iii.  25, 26 

—  fate  of  the  conspirators 

iii-  32 

—  death  of,  near  Pistoia,  iii.  34 

—  estimate   of    the    con- 
spiracy .         .         .         iii-  34 

Cato,  commanding  in  Spain,  ii.69 
--  incites    Rome    against 
Carthage  •         .         .     ii.  140 

—  resists    the    decay    of 
manners        .         .         ii.  341 

—  early  history  .       ii.  342  teq 

—  in  Sicily    .         .  ii.  343 

—  quarrel  with  Scipio     ii.  344 

—  praetor  of  Sardinia      ii.  345 

—  reforms  .      ii.  346,  350 

—  continued  struggle  with 
Scipio.         .         .    ii.  350-359 

—  becomes  censor        .    ii.  359 

—  further  reforms    ii.  360-368 
-- his  demoralization      ii-  371 

—  failure  of  his  efforts    ii.  374 

—  .       ii.  734,  iii.  338,  340 

—  death  of  .         .     iii.  352  seq 

—  (Porcius)      .         .       ii.  484 
-  the  younger,  iii.31, 36,  59, 65 

—  sent  to  Cyprus    iii.  69,  219, 

240,  244 


Catti,  barbarian  tnbe  .  iv.  113 
Catullus  .  .  .  iii.  222 
Catuliw  ii.  733,  iii.  39 

Caudium  .         .         .  i.  339 

Caudino  Forks  .  .  i.  340 
Cecilia  Metelhi.  tomb  iv.  215 
Celtiberians        .  ii.  66 

Celt«  .  .  ii.  490,  see  Gaul 
Celsus,  doctor  of  Augustan 

age        .  iv.  170,  196 

Ccnomnni,  Gallic  tribe       i.  510 

Censors  appointed      .         i.  233 

^  -  tenure  of  oflSce        .     i.  312 

Censorship    suppressed    by 

Sylla  .  .  .  ii.  713 
Centuries  .  i.  119,  ii.  425  M7 
Census  under  Augustus  .  iv.  lO 
Cerialis,     Roman     general 

against  Batavi  .  iv.  609  feq 
Ceres,  goddess  of  the  lower 

world     .         .         .  i.  81 

Ceylon.communication  with 

V-  477 
Chaereas,  murderer  of  Cali- 
gula, hnids  a  republican 
movement  .         .  iv.  392, 395 
Chalcis  destroyed       .       ii.  135 
Charicles,      physician      to 

Tiberius      .         .  iv.  364 

Charities,  v.  402  seq.,  520,  639 
Chersonesus,  Greek  tombs 

at  .  .  .  .  ii.  64 
Child  life  at  Rome,  v.  236,  240 
China  (Seres)       iii.  550,  551  n 

—  possible  irado  with,  v.  478 
Chiusi        .         .         .  L  Ixxxiii 

—  best  Etruscan  pottery 
found  at     .         .1.  Ixxxix 

Chosroes  .  .  .  vi.  422 
Christ,  birth .         .  iv.  121 

—  death .         .         .      iv.  368 

—  trial         .         .         .  V.  339 
Christianity  and  imperial- 
ism       .         .        .iii.  549 

~  -  reaches  Rome  .  iv.  420 

—  at  Rome,  iv.  505,  507,  510 

V.  736 

—  its  teaching         .        v.  737 

—  catacombs  and  symbol- 
ism    .         .  .V.  739 

—  number  of  converts     v.  741 

—  missionaries         .       v.  743 

—  preparation  in  previous 
practice  or  belief         .  v.  744 

—  Christian  empress, Mar- 

cia      .        .        .        .  vi.  25 

—  tolerated  under  Com- 
modus   .  .        vi.  27 

—  Christian  Church  at 
beginning  of  third  cen- 
tury .        .    vi.  147-153,  >58 

—  the  doctrine  of  immor- 
tality     .        .        .     vi.  162 

—  the  Gospels         .      vi.  167 

—  spread  of,  in  third  cen- 
tury .        .        .  vi.  393 

—  decline  of  purity  of 
morals   .         .         .      vi.  403 

—  during  Diocletian's  per- 
secution     .         .  vi.  622 

Christians  accused  of  burn- 
ing Rome  .      iv.  506 


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661 


Page 
Christians  in  court  of  Nero 

iv.  508 

—  persecQtion  under  Nero 

iv.  511,  512 

—  causes  of  •         iv.  512,  513 

—  depart  during  siege  of 
Jerusalem       .  iv.  627 

—  persecution  under  Domi- 
tian    ...  iv.  725 

—  letter  of  Pliny  relating 

to .        .         .        iv.  815-819 

—  treatment  of,  by  Trajan 

iv.  820 

—  by  Hadrian,  v.  1 18,  120,  121 

—  under  Antoninus  Pius 

V.  155  seq 

—  persecution  under  M. 
Aurelius     .         .  v.  184,  213 

—  religion,  spread  of      v.  220 

—  misrepresentations      v.  222 

—  persecutions   at   Lyons 

V.  226 

—  treatment  under  Alex- 
ander Severus  vi.  312 

—  persecuted    by   Decius 

vi.  401,  407 

—  by  Valerian      .         .  vi.  427 

—  conciliated  by  Aurelian 

vi.  484 

—  persecution  of  Diocle- 
tian       .         .         .      vi.  600 

—  refuse  military  service 

vi.  604 

—  heroism       .        .      vi.  625 

—  art  .    V.  745,  747  and  notes 
Church  (the  Christian),  vi.  147 

—  opposed  to  secular  learn- 
ing    .         .  vi.  148 

—  Tertullian,  Minucius 
Felix,  Cyprian,  Irensus, 
Clement  of  Alexandria, 
Origen   .         .         .      vi.  153 

—  dogmas  of  the    vi.  165-177 

—  the  canon  of  the  Scrip- 
ture       .         .         .      vi.  167 

—  eucharist.         .  vi.  169 

—  baptism       .         .      vi.  170 

—  confession        .  vi.  174 

—  extreme  unction  .      vi.  175 

—  marriage.         .  vi.  175 

—  the  Virgin  .         .      vi.  177 

—  intercession  of  sain ts,vi.  177 

—  Christian  hierarchy,  vi.  179 

—  -  revenue    .         .  vi.  181 

—  elections      .         .      vi.  186 
--  tradition .         .  vi.  187 

—  councils       .        .      vi.  188 

—  authority  of  bishop  of 
Rome  not  recognized,  vi.  189, 

190 

—  title  of  Pope  general,  vi.  190 

—  union       .         •  vi.  193 

—  priests         .        .      vi.  193 

—  miracles  .         .  vi.  195,  200 

—  heresies       .        vi.  197-208 

—  and  State,  vi.  209,  212-217 

—  view  of  heathen  learn- 
ing    .        .  vi.  214 

—  celibacy  in  the      .     vi.  218 

—  rescripts  of  Trajan,  M. 
Aurelius,    and    Severus 

vi.  219  ieq 


Page 
Church  (the  Christian),  per- 
secutions in  Egypt   and 
Carthage   .         .    vi.  225-238 

—  evils  m        .         .      vi.  406 

—  persecution  of  Diocle- 
tian   .        .         .  vi.  600-623 

—  Christian    heretics    at 
Antioch   .      vi.  483,  608,  609 

Cicero      serving       during 
Social  war    .  ii.  571 

—  governor  of  Cilicia    ii.  625, 

696  seq.,  734 

—  goes  to  Athens       .     ii.  787 

—  attack  on  Verres  in  de- 
fence of  Sicily    .     ii.  787-789 

—  upholds  liberty  .  iii.  3 

—  speeches  on    proposed 
law  of  Rnllns    .         .iii.  20 

—  discovers  Catiline's  con- 
spiracy .         .         .iii.  24, 25 

—  special  honours  granted 

to  him        .         .         .  iii.  28 

—  results    of  his  consul- 
ship       .         .         .       iii.  35 

—  accused    of    taking    a 
bribe  ....  iii.  36 

—  defends  Murena  against 
Cato      .         .    iii.  38, 60,  65 

—  exile  iii.  66,  68 

—  robbed  by  Clodius     iii-  213 

—  recall  demanded        iii.  214 

—  returns  to  Rome,  iii.  215,241 

—  pro  Milone  .         .      iii.  248 

—  at  Ravenna  .  iii.  251 

—  returns    from      Cilicia 

iii.  258,  276,  290,  338 

—  conduct    after   Csesar's 
murder,  iii.  414, 416, 422,  431 

—  Philippics  .       iii.  431,  434 

—  his    share     in    public 
affairs        .         .  iii.  437,  441 

—  his  death  by    proscrip- 
tion      .         .       iii.  451,  452 

—  his      character       esti- 
mated       .         .  iii.  455 

—  (Quintus)      .      iii.  171,  237 

—  (younger)  .  iii.  465 
Cilicia  ii.  795,  835,  iii.  589 
Cimbri        .         .         .     ii.  483 

—  in  Gaul     .         .  ii.  490 

—  manners    and    customs 

ii.  49».492 

—  turn  back  from  Spain  to 
attack  Italy    .       li.  497,  502^ 

—  opposed  by  Catulus    ii.  503 

—  defeated  by  Marius  at 
Vercellae     .         .  ii.  506 

— under  Augustus  .  iii.  630 
Cimmerian  Bosphorus       ii.  643 

—  com  from  .  ii.  644,  iv.  109 
Cincinnatus,i.  194^^.,  203,  236 
Cinna,  ii.  600, 601,  604,  607, 674 

—  conspires  against  Au- 
gustus       .         .         .  iv.  142 

Circe  (Monte  Circello)      I. 

viii.  xcv 
Circei        .         .         i.  190,  252 

—  revolt  of  .  .  i.  265 
Circus  .  .  .V.  606,  610 
Circuses  at  Rome        .      iv.  219 

--  under  Domitian  .  iv.  693 
Cirta  .  ii.  458,  474,  iii.  616 


Page 
Cities  of  ancient  Italy,  I.  cxxvii 
Citizens  pleno  jure     .         i.  397 

—  sine  suffrHgio  .     i.  397 
Citizenship  .         .      ii.  536-545 

—  given  to  Italians,  ii.  576,  600 

—  granted  by  Carbo        ii.  675 

—  now  acquired       .       v.  234 
City    includes    and      rules 

family  .         .    i.  144 

—  the      .         .         V.  318-348 

—  the  interior  of  the,  its 
assemblies  and  magis- 
trates ...  V.  348 

—  its  religious  services,  v.  365 
- '  aristocratic  character  of 

Roman     .        .         .v.  369 

—  liberality    of     citizens 

V.  380,  381 

—  cities,  clients  of  Roman 
patrons        .  v.  385,  386 

—  colleges  .         .     V.  388 

—  schools  and  professors,  v.402 

—  public  instruction        v.  404 

—  medical  matters,  v.  404-408 

—  charitable    institutions 

V.  408,  409,  412 
Civilis,  leader  in  the  war  of 

the  Batavi     iv.  604,  608,  610 
Civil  courts  under  Augustus 

iii.  722 
Civil  rights  .  .v.  235 

Civil  war  (first  year  of)  (83) 

ii.  674 

—  generals  engaged  in    ii.  677 

—  progress  of  war  in  Italy 

ii.  678  Hq 

—  second  year  of  (82), 
mercenaries  engaged  to 
fight     .         .         .         ii.  680 

—  Sylla  triumphant  .     ii.  689 

—  results  of  the  war  on  the 
public  mind  .        .         ii.  706 

Civita     Vecchia    built    by 

Trajan     .         ^        .     iv.  796 
Cloelia     .         .         *        •    '•  55 
Cleander  (freedman)  takes 
the  place  of  Perennis  at 
Commodus's  court   .       vi.  22 

—  is  put  to  death  owing 

to  a  riot       .         .  vi.  23 

Claudia  (^ens)  .  i.  308 

—  Til>eriu8,  member  of,  iv.  270 

—  Quinta .         .         .       i.  557 
Claudius  (M.)      .         .       i.  215 

—  -  (P.),  censor  during  first 
Punic  war    .         .  i.  487 

—  Glicia  .         .         .       i.  488 

—  emperor  (41  a.d.)      iv.  391 

—  -  brother  of  Germanicus, 
emperor  .         .         .     iv.  394 

•     genealogy  .         .    iv.  399  n 

—  founds  Claudian  college 

at  Alexandria   .  iv.  399  n 

—  unhappy  existence,  lite- 
rary pursuits  iv.  399 

—  ruled  by  four  freedraen 

iv.  401,402 

—  reforms .        .      iv.  402-405 

—  want  of  dignity.        iv.  403 

—  civil  legislation,  iv.  405-408 

—  public  works         .     iv.  408 

—  conquers  Britain         iv.  422 


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GENERAL    INDEX. 


Page 
Claudius    (P.),     provincial 
ware  iv.  417-433 

—  attempts  to  assassinate 
him  iv.  435 
-  revolutionary  attempts 
against     .         .         .     iv.  436 

his  marriages     .         iv.  437 

—  Messalina       .       iv.  435  Keq 

—  his  children,  Octavia  and 
Britannicus  .         .         iv.  443 

—  marries  Agrippina.     iv.  446 

—  poisoned  by  Agrippina 

iv.  450 

—  apotheosized       .         iv.  452 

—  (M.  Aur.),  the  Dacian, 
elected  emperor        .     vi.  455 

—  opposes  Gothic  invasion 

vi.  459 

—  victory  over  Goths  v<.  462 
Clement  (S.)  .  .  vi.  178 
Cltx)iiymus,    Spartan    king 

i.  353 
Cleopatra,  queen  of  Egypt 

iii.  314 

—  meets  Csesar .         .iii.  324 

—  declared  queen    iii.  327.  466 

—  meets  Antony  at  Tarsus 

iii.  485 

—  renewed  connection  with 
Antony     .         .     iii.  515,  522 

—  her  children       .         iii.  522 

—  at  Bamos       .         .     iii.  531 

—  at  Actium .         .  iii.  536  fsq 

—  returns  to  Egypt  .     iii.  542 

—  correspondence  with  Oc- 
tavius  .  .        iii.  543 

—  death  of  Antony    .     iii.  544 

—  interview  with  Octavius 

iii.  545 

—  her  death  .  iii.  545,  601 
Clients         .         .     i.  70,  72,  75 

—  position  changed  by  Ser- 
vius  Tullus  .      i.  124,  ii.  449, 

.    V.  383,  384 

—  (cities  as)  .  .v.  385 
Clientship  corresponded  to 

mediaeval  feudalism,  I.  cxxiii 

—  laws  concerning  .  i.  218 
Cloaca  Maxima  built  by  Tar- 

quin  the  Proud  i.  132 

Clodius,  prsetor,  opposed  to 
gladiators  .  ii.  774,  iii.  40 

—  trial  of       .         .    iii.  43,  66 

—  laws  of  .      iii.  66,  212,  218, 

220,  243 
Clusium  .  .  .  i.  178,  254 
Clypca  .         .       i.  480, 482 

Coemptio    vel    cohabitatio, 
form  of  ordinary  marriage 

i.  I45»  V.  253 
Cognatio  .         .         .         v.  271 
Coinage   regulated  by  Ser- 
vius  .         .     i.  127 

—  re-established       .         i.  '53 

—  under  patrician  consuls 

i.  208 

—  right  of   .         .    i.  392,  394 

—  debased         .    i.  497,  ii.  608 

—  increased  .         .  i.  548 

—  again  regulatetl         .  ii.  609 
right    of,    in     oriental 

provinces  .   v.  468,  474 


Page 
Coinage  debased    in   third 

century   .  .  •    vi.  386 

Coliseum  built  by  Vespasian 

iv.  652 

—  dedication         .  iv.  674 

—  of  Thyadrus  .  v.  448 
Collatinus  .  i.  46 
Colleges  .         .         .V.  388,  396 

—  military  v.  401 
Cologne  (Colonia  Agrippina) 

founded  .  iv.  426,  448 

Coloni  (the)         .  v.  311  *!*y 

Colonies     i.  302,  304,  34b,  362, 

3^7'  374 

—  principle  of,  i.  387,  398.  401 

—  contrasted  with,  of  Car- 
thage i.  447,  520 

—  in  Italy      .  ii.  5^6 

—  under  Csesar.         .     iii.  367, 

—  under  Augustus  iii.  762 
Columella  of  Gades  .  iv.  489 
Comes  domesticoTuni,   new 

title  .  .  .  vi.  412 
Comet  appearing  on  death 

of  Csesar  .  .  iii.  419  and  n 
Comites  .  .  .  .  i.  72 
Comitia    .        .        .  i.  416 

—  reoiganized    .        .      ii.  370 

—  under  Augustus  iii.  709  n 
Comitium  .  .  .  i.  72 
Commerce,  i.  133,  509,  551,  ii.  2 

—  forbidden  to  nobles    ii.  329 

—  contempt    for     money 
gained  in    .  .  ii.  337 

—  in  slaves      .         .       ii.  388 

—  in    time   of    Augustus 

iv.  72,  76 

—  in  com    .        .    iv.  408-412 

—  account  of  bas-relief  de- 
scribing merchant  ships 

iv.  412  n 

—  increase  in  .         .       v.  475 

—  results  of,  on  civiliza- 
tion  .  .     V.481,  568 

—  decline  in  vi.  363,  388  se^ 
Commodus,  son  of  Marcus 

Aurelius  and  Faustina,  v.  207 

—  succeeds  his  father  (180 
A.D.)       .         .      V.  210,  vi.  I 

—  early  character  vi.  2 

—  generals    under,       his 
military  expedition    .      vi.  6 

—  vicious  lite  .         .  vi.  7 

—  empress    Crispina   and 
empress  Lucilla  .         .     vi.  7 

—  public     works    under- 
taken vi.  8 

—  disorders  at  home  and 
abroad         .         .         .   vi.    9 

—  as  gladiator  .        vi.  10 

—  attempted  assassination 

vi.  15 

—  plots   .  .        vi.  16 

—  Matemus  .    vi.  21 

—  Cleander  favourite, vi.  22, 24 

—  bread  riots  .         .         vi.  23 

—  Marcia  .   vi.  25 

—  death  of      .         .        vi.  27 

—  indulgence      towards 
Christians  .  .  vi.  27 

—  increase  of  power  of  the 
army  in  this  reign    .       vi.  28 


Pwe 
Concubinage  .  .  .v.  203 
Concubines,   legal    position 

of,  under  Anton ines        vi.  25 
Confarreatio,    solemn   mar- 
riage      .         .         .        i.  145 

—  restricted  to  full  citizens 

^-  254 
Consilium  plebis     .         .   i.  174 

—  of  Augustus  and  Hadrian 

V.  104,  105 
~  sacrum,  established  under 
Diocletian       .  vi.  584 

Constantine  accompanies 
Diocletian   .         .  vi.  552 

Constantius  appointed  to 
assist  Diocletian  and 
Mhximian  .       vi.  549 

—  surnamed  Chlorus      vi.  551 

—  in  Britain        .         .  vi.  553 
Consularis,  now  officer  ap- 
pointed over  provinces  by 
Augustus       .  iii.  717 

Consuls  first  established       i.  50 

—  plebeian  consuls  ap^- 
pointed  .  .  i.  281 

—  duties  .  i.  287, 413 

—  ex-consuls  employed  in 
provinces  .  .  ii.  171 

—  succeed  kings        .        i.  152 

—  their  office  and  power 

i.  >53«V 
~  rights  of  sacrifice     .    i.  233 

—  position  of,  under  new 
constitution    .         .         i.  234 

—  appointed  to  control  t  he 
sea      .         .         .         .  ii.  798 

Consulship  confined  to  a 
few  families   . .  ii.  325 

Contio,  free  assembly  in 
which  legislative  mea- 
sures were  discussed    .    i.  292 

Contract  (methods  of)         i.  149 

Corbulo,  war  in  Armenia 
(60  A.n.)  iv.  492 

—  death       .  iv.  540 

—  victories   in   Germany 

i V.  424 
Corinth     .         .         .         ii.  15 

—  gulf  of     .         .         .    ii.  63 

—  taken  and  burnt  by 
Rome     .         .         .        ii.  135 

Coriolanus      .         .       i.  190  teq 

—  withdraws  to  Antium,  i.  191 
Corn  (importation  of)  .  iv.  485 
Cornelia,  mother  of  Gracchi 

ii.  398,  422,  440 

—  Pompey's  wife,  iii.  313,  318 
Cornelian  law  (abrogation 

of)      .         .         .  .  iii.  16 

Cornelius  .         .         .  i-  318 

—  Palma,  general  of 
Trajan,  bis  Eastern  ex- 
peditions iv.  775 

Corsica, Carthaginian  settle- 
ment .  .    i.  467,  505 

—  honey  of      .         .        i.  506 

—  revolt  of  (about  181)  ii.  73 
Cortinellai  mountain  .  i.  327 
Cortona.  .  .  i.  347 
Cossacks  .  .  .  V.  22 
Counts  (ccmites),  origin  of 

name  .         .         .         .      v.  7 


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Page 
Crassus  .       ii.  778 

—  rivalry  with  Pompey,  ii.  786, 

iii.  40 

—  triumvirute,  iii.  53,  150,  156 

—  proconsul .        .  iii.  228 

-  against  Parthians     iii.  229, 

230 

-  his  journey .         .      iii.  232 

-  conduct  of  war  in  Par- 
thia    .  .  iii.  234 

-  his  son  .      iii.  235,  236 

-  and    his    escort    mas- 
sacred (53  B.C.)       .      iii.  236 

Crassus,  conspirator  against 
Nerva  .  iv.  740 

—  death  .  .  .  iv.  761 
Cremera  (fortress  on  the)  i.  197 
Cremona,  battle  of  (69  a.d.) 

iv.  594 
Crete  .  .  .  .  n.  63 
- '  refuge  of  pirates  .  ii.  797, 
iii.  579 
Crimea  (Roman  colony  in)  v.  23 
Crimen  perduellionis  iv.  336 
Cnminal  iustice         .        i.  418 

—  jurisdiction  under  Au- 
gustus iii.  725 

-  jurisprudence  .  v.  337 
Critolaos,  Greek  philosopher 

at  Rome  .         .  ii.  234 

Crixus  .       ii.  773 

Crocodiles  at  games  .  iii.  741 
Crotona  ...  I.  cxv 
Crucifixion  of  deserters      i.  695 

-  of  rebels  .  .  .  ii.  781 
Cucumclla  of  Vulci  .  I.  Ixxxiii 
Cultivation  of  foreign  plants 

V.  581,  582 
Cumae  .  .  i.  183,  240,  621 
Curia         ...       v.  353 

-  chairman  of  .  .v.  356 
Curio  against  Juba,  king  of 

Numidia  .  .  iii.  289 
Curator  (duties  of).  .  v.  364 
Custos  urbis       .         .  i.  73 

Cybcle        brought       from 

Phrygia  .         .   i.  556 

Cyclopean  walls  .       I.  xlix 

Cynics  at  Rome  .  .  v.  671 
CynoscephalsD  (battle  of),  ii.  36 
Cyrene,  ally    of  Rome    in 

Africa    .  ii.  451,  481 

Cyronaica  .  ii.  481 

—  and  Roman  Africa  under 
Augustus       iii.  609,  613,  650 

—  -  trade  .  .  .  iv.  90 
Cyprian  (S.),  persecution  at 

Carthage  .  .  vi.  428,  430 
Cyprus       .         .         iii.  69, 219 

Dacians  under  Augustus,  iii.  636 

-  under  Domitian,  iv.  710-714 

-  under  Trajan     .    iv.  751  seq 

—  finally  subdued      .     iv.  762 

—  under  Hadrian  .  v.  27,  436 
Dalmatia  subdued  .  .  ii.  163 
Danube    (barbarians    over- 

fiow  the  valley  of  the),  ii.  490, 

iii.  63,  391,  558 

fleet  on        .         .      iii.  719 

—  frontier   attacked,  iv.    106, 

114.116,303,  704 


Pafire 
Danube,  Trajan       .  iv.  751 

—  Iron  Gates  .         .      iv.  755 

—  frontier,  Hadrian  and,  v.  21 
Dead  Sea  visited  by  Hadrian,v.83 
Death  and  funerals  (customs 

concerning) .  v.  272  seq 

Debts  resulting  from  wars 
called  for  new  legislation 

i.  278,  290,  294 

—  laws  of  Licinius  to  re- 
lieve   .  .  i.  305 

—  abolition  of,  proposed,  i.  306 
Debtors  (law  of)     .    i.  161,  294 

—  exclusion  from  curia  of 

ii.  582,  713 

—  set  free  by  Augustus  iv.  9 
Decebalus,  Dacian  opposed 

to  Trajan  .        .    iv.  759,  761 
Decemvirs  and  civil  equality 
(451-449)      .  i.  201-221 

—  names  and  duties  of  first 

i.  213 
Decius  Mns,military  tribune 

i-3>9 

—  receives  military  honours 
for  victories  over  the  Sam- 
nites       .         .         .        i.  320 

—  consul  .  i.  322,  358 
Decius  (emperor)      .       vi.  352 

—  birth  in  Hlyria  (a.d.  201) 

vi.  398 

—  war  with  Goths,  vi.  399, 400 

—  killed  by  Goths  .      vi.  401 

—  persecution  of  Christians 

vi.  401,  407,  408 
Decline   in  industry,  com- 
merce and  arts  in  third 
century    .  .     vi.  382 

Decurise  .        .    i.  68 

Dedication     (form    of)    to 

infernal  gods  i.  324,  378 

Dedititii      .        .        .        i.  395 
Deiotarus        .  iii.  333,  334 

Delphi  (Tarquin  inquires  Ht),i.44 

—  consulted  after  Cannse 

i.  614.  ii.  40 

—  Perseus,  king  of  Mace- 
don,  at  .  ii.  87 

—  Roman  road  to  .        .  ii.  88 

—  Paulus  iEmilius  visits 

ii.  "3.  >35 
Demetrius  obtains    Pharos 
and  Hlyria  i.  508,  636 

—  son  of  Philip  V.  ii.  79,  83 
Democracy,  growth   of,   i.  315, 

560,  503 

Deiitatus  (Sicinius),  i.  204,  211, 

215 

—  (Curius)  .  i.  382 
Depopulation  after  Samnite 

wars  .      i.  361 

-  of  the  country  .  ii.  417 
Deportatio  (sentence  of),  iv.145  n 
Desert      (great    cities    of 

Eastern)    .  .     v.  78 

Diana,  goddess  .  i.  78 

—  sanctuary  on  the  Aven- 
tine  I.  79,  125 

-  (temple  of)  at  Ephesus,  v.  70 
Dictatorship  created  i.  162 

office    jiml    powers     of 
dictator        .         .  i.  162,  163 


Page 
Dies  nefasti       .         .         i.  173 
Diocletian,     emperor    (284 
A.D.)  .         .         .  vi.  529 

—  son  of  Dalmatian  slave, vi.  530 

—  character  of  vi.  531 

—  appreciation  of  litera- 
ture; superstition      .  vi.  532 

—  travels      .         .        vi.  533 

—  insurrections  under,  vi.  536 

—  barbarians'  wars  with 

vi.  538-544 

—  invests  Maximian  as 
assistant  emperor      .  vi.  539 

—  in  Syria      .  vi.  546 

—  in  Persia        .   vi.  546,  567 

—  in  Thrace   .  vi.  547 

—  barbarians  in  Germany 
call  him  to  the  Danube,vi 

—  crosses  the  Alps,  ap- 
points with  Maximian 
two  lieutenants,  with 
title  of  Caesars  .        •  vi 

—  divisicyi  of  power,   vi 

—  defence  of  the  Empire,vi.  556 

—  in  Egypt .         .vi.  563,  564 

-  victory  vi.  568 

—  terms  of  treaty       .  vi.  569 

—  peace  in  Asia  vi.  570 

—  administrative  organi- 
zation and    legislation 

vi.  570  seq 

—  imperial  power 

—  provinces    . 

-  state  ceremonial 
--  changes  in  Rome 


548 


549 
553 


VI.  572 

vi.  573 
vi.  576 

vi.  578- 
580,  584 
vi.  584 
vi.  587 
vi.  588 
vi. 


—  consilium  sacrum 

—  census 

—  finance   . 

—  taxation 

—  industry  and  trade .  vi.  593 

—  prices  of  food      .       vi.  593 

—  sumptuary  laws      .  vi.  594 
~  laws   .         .         .       vi.  596 

—  Augustan  History  .  vi.-598 

—  peace  in  the  Empire,  vi.  599 

—  persecution    of    Chris- 
tians ...  vi.  600 

—  in  the  East  (302  a.d.) 

vi.  610 

—  in  obedience  to  an  oracle 
persecutes  the  Christians 

vi.  611 

—  retaliation  .  vi.  612 

—  sacred  books  destroyed 

by  .         .         .       vi.  619 

~-  returns  to  Rome  (303) 

vi.  625,  626 

—  goes  to  Nicomedia  .  vi.  627 

—  illness         .  vi.  628 

—  resigns  the  purple  .  vi.  630 
~  his  palace  at  Spalato.vi.  631 

—  his  life  there    .  vi.  634,  635 

—  his  death     .  vi.  636 
Diogenes  the  Stoic  at  Rome 

ii.  234 

Dion  Cassiuri,  quoted     .  vi.  300 

Chrysostom,  iv.  722,  v.  673, 

686 

Dioseorides,    engraver    of 

^cius  under  Augustus,  iv.  200 
Discipline  in  military  life,  i.  429 


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GENERAL   INDEX. 


Page 
Distribution  of  corn     .  ii.  423, 

443.  446,  5  >  7.  529.737 

—  by  Ixjpidiis     .         .    ii.  781 

—  by  C.  Cotttt  .    ii.  782,  784  n 

—  ceasas  .         .        ii.  798 

—  under  Cato     .       iii.  38,  67 

—  by  Caesiir,  iii.  286,  294,  364 

—  by  Augustus,  iii.  737,  ir.  75 

—  by  Tiberius  .  iv.  296 

—  by  Nei-va    .         .       iv.  740 

—  supervised  by  sediles,  v.  361, 

520 

—  under  Soverus         .  vi.  136 
—  under  Aurelian    .       vi.  498 

Dis  Pater,    god    of    lower 

world  .         .         .     i.  81 

Divitiacus,  Oallic  chief,  ap- 
peals to  Rome  for  support 

iii.  131,  165 
Divorce,  i.  146,  ii.  277,v.265,  270 
Dodona  (sanctuary  of)  ii.  1 1 
Dogs  used  to  hunt  men  .  i.  506 
Dolabella,  war  with  Senones 

i.  367 

—  pwetor  of  Cilicia  .       ii.  61 1 

—  iii.  289,  336,  396,  431,  466 
Dolls  .  .  .  .V.  259 
Dolmens  in  Gaul  .  iii.  112 
Domestic  life  in  early  days 

i.  141-147 

—  under  the  Empire,  v.  632  seg 

—  among  the  poor      .    v.  634 

—  servants  .  v.  598 
Domitian  during  Vespasian's 

reign  (a.d.  81-96)    .     iv.  645 

—  emperor  and  wise  ad- 
ministration in  early 
years         .         .         .  iv.  692 

—  compared  with  Nero,  i  v.  692, 

693 

—  his  restoration  of  the 
city  and  his  palace    .  iv.  694 

—  administration  of  jus- 
tice .         .         .         .  iv.  695 

—  severity  to  vestals     iv.  696 

—  laws  against  immor- 
ality    .         .         .       iv.  697 

—  the  army        .         .  iv.  699 

—  encouragement  of  let- 
ters .         .         .         .  iv.  699 

—  notable  men  of  his 
time.         .         .         .  iv.  699 

—  wars  .        iv.  702,  712,  714 

—  cruelties  during  last 
years     .  .       iv.  716 

—  superstition    .         .  iv.  720 

—  informers  .         .       iv.  721 

—  miserable  life  of      .  iv.  724 

—  public  works       .       iv.  725 

—  persecution  of  Chris- 
tians doubtful         iv.  725-729 

—  evil  omens       .         •  iv.  730 

—  murder  of   .         .       iv.  731 

—  estimate  of  his  charac- 
ter        .         .         .       iv.  732 

Domitius  Ahenobarbus  .iii.  223 

—  candidate  for  consul- 
ship ....  iii.  227 

—  conquered  by  Caesar  and 
pardoned        «         .iii.  282 

—  consul         .         .       iii.  523 

—  Calvinus     iii.  325,  475,  492 


rage 
Domna,  see  Julia 
Donation  first   granted   to 

troops    on    accession    of 

Ckudius  iv.  390,  v.  6 

Donaliva  .  .  .  ii.  124 
Dorians  in  Italy  .  I.  cxii 
Doiylaus,  general  of  Mith- 

ridates .  .  .  ii.  668 
Dowry.  .  ii.  298,  v.  252 

Drepanum    (battle    of),   in 

Sicily  .  .  .  i.  486 
Di*ess  under  the  Empire    v.  586 

—  artificial  hair,  &c.,  fa- 
brics in  use    .         v.  587,  589 

Druids  .         .  iii.  105,  121,  558, 
iv.  28,  324 

—  under  Claudius        .  iv.  420 

—  under  Nero.  iv.  498 

—  under  Anton  ines  .  v.  427 
Drusus  (Livius),  tribune,  his 

policy    .        .         .        ii.  527 

—  his  reform       .    ii.  529,  532 

—  attacks  the  senate       ii.  532 

—  death     .         .     ii.  534, 550 

—  stepson  of  Augustus,  iv.  105, 

107,  112  seg..  119,  303 

—  tribune       .        .       iv.  317 

—  -  death  by  poison,  iv.  330,  358 
Duillius  (naval  victory  of),  i.  475 

—  -  column  of  .  .  i.  477 
Duumvirate  of  Octavius  and 

Antony  (36-30)  •  iii-  311 
Duumviri  perduellionis  i.  73 
Duumvirs,  v.  357,  358,  359.  360 
Dumnorix  .  .  .  iii.  165 
Dwelling  houses      .  v.  589,  595 

—  compared  with  modern 

V-  59^598,  603 
Dyrrachium,    Epirote  har- 
bour, ii.  670,  iii.  284, 299,  304, 

305 

—  firutus  at       .        .iii.  465 

Earthquake,   i.  287,  iv.  70, 486- 
488,  680,  vi.  395 
Eastern      frontier      under 
Augustus  .         .  iii.  643 

—  commerce  .  .  .  v.  81 
Eburones,  Gallic  tribe  iii.  202 
Ecnomus  (battle  of)  .  i.  479 
Economy  in  domestic  life,  i.  143 
Edictum  prsetorium  .  i.  286 
Education, time  of  Nero  (a.d. 

68)   .        .       iv.  461,  V.  664, 

—  .  .  .  V.  241 
Egypt,  condition  of  (about 

200  B.C.)  .         .         .       ii.  6 
~  subsidies  for  Macedon- 
ian war        .         .        .  ii.  47 

—  under  Epiphanes    .     ii.  82 

—  under  Roman  guardian- 
ship   .         .         .         ii.   164 

—  attached  to  Rome      ii.  451 

—  wealth  of    .  .         .    iii.   14 

—  under  Ptolemy  Auletes 

iii.  218 

—  Caesar's  war  in  .  iii.  322  seg 

—  as       province      under 
Augustus        .         .iii.  599 

—  population        .         iii.  602 

—  its  revenues  belonged  to 
the  emperors'  fiscua     iii.  603 


rage 
Egypt,    condition     of     in- 
habitant* .  .  iii.  604 

—  decay  of  losming  nn<i 
religion  .       iii.   605,  606 

—  Augustus's     policy    in 

IV.  68,  71 

—  ancient  trade  with  In- 
dia and  China  .         .     iv.  87 

—  Trajan's  works  in      iv.  800 

—  Hadrian  visits     .  v.  84 

—  condition  of    .         v.  S6,  92 

—  statue  of  Memnon,  v.  94,  95, 

464 

—  under    the    Antonines 

V.  464 

—  Severus  in  .         .         v.  90 

—  persecution  of  Chris- 
tians .         .V.  225 

—  decay  of     .         .       vi.  562 
Elagabalus  (Varins  Avitus 

Bassianus)  .         .  vi.  271 

—  emperor,  official  name 
Marcus  Aurelius  Anto- 
ninus .         .         .         vi.  272 

—  his  vicious  nature,  vi.276  seg 

—  battle  of  Antioch      vi.  274 

—  profanity      .         .     vi.  278 

—  his  grandmother  Msesa 

vi.  278 

—  his  luxury         ,        vi.  283 

—  his  wives       .         .    vi.  284 

—  adoption  of  Alexander 

vi.  284 

—  murder  (a.d.  222)     vi.  286 
Election    to   the  assembly 

V.  350 

Elephants      .    i.  37^,  376,  378 
— Lucanian  oxen    .  1.  382,436, 

473.483.484.^3 

—  in  Caesar's  show    .  iii.  364, 

Eloquence  cultivated        ii.  274 

—  boys  trained  to  .         iv.  273 

—  new  forms  under  the 
Empire   .         .         .v.  655 

Emesa  (god  of)  black  stone 
compared  with  that  of 
Mecca  vi.  276  p  ,  280 

Emperor,  his  office  and 
power     .         .  V.  500  seq 

—  his  family        .         .  v.  502 

—  his  styles     .         .      v.  503 

—  three  together  .  vi.  328,  337 
Empire  of  Rome,  its  foun- 
dation and  extent,  &c.  iii.  584 

—  subject  races     .         iii.  550 

—  its  beneficent  work    iii.  552 

—  foundation  of     .        iii.  686 

—  privileges  attached    to 

iii.  699,  700,  702 

—  new  offices   under  the 

iii.  715,  716 

—  threatened  dissolution 
under  Nero  (a.d.  68)  iv.  553 

—  struggle  for,  after 
Nero's  death  .         .       iv.  563 

—  degradation  of  the  .  iv.  587 

—  financial  position  under 
Vespasian     .         .        iv.  659 

—  hereditary  succession, 
soldiers*  election       .    iv.  733, 

V.  211 


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Empire  of  Rome  to  be  re- 
garded BH  an  aggregation 
of  republican   communi- 
ties       ..        .        V.  347 

—  rights  of       .         .V.  362 

—  respect  for  laws  of  the 

V.  402,  500 

—  general  results  00  civi- 
lization     .  .  V.  748 

—  four  great   revolutions 

V.  7487750 

—  degradation  vi.  1 1 

—  sold  at  auction       vi.  34  seq 

—  under  Severus  becomes 
the  spoil  of  the  army      vi.  45 

—  disunion  under  the       vi.  52 
-  degratlation  under  rule 

of  Syrian  princes  .        vi.  312 

—  decline  logins        .    vi.  317 
— in  middle  of  third  cen- 
tury    .         .         .        vi.  353 

—  the  barbarians  on  the 
frontiers  .        .        .   vi.  363 

—  ceases  from  great  pub- 
lic works      .        .        vi.  380 

—  evidences  of  continued 
decline     .         .         .  383-396 

—  of  East  and  West  first 
distinguished  (258  a.u.  ),vi.  41 2 

—  anarchy  in  the    .       vi.  436 

—  fresh  inroads  of  bar- 
barians and  continued 
gradual  decline    .         vi.  451 

—  reunited  under  Aure- 
lian         .         .         .     vi.  497 

—  no  head  for  six  months 

vi.  508 

—  later,  begins  under  Dic^ 
cletian      .         .         .    vi.  530 

—  forty  years  of  security 
under  Diocletian  .         vi.  534 

—  organized  defence  .    vi.  556 

—  close  of  the  reign  of 
Diocletian     .         .         vi.  629 

Endowments  for  children 
by  Nerva  .         .         .    iv.  740 

—  by  Trajan  .         .        iv.  789 
Entremont  (strange  monu- 
ment at)        .         .         ii.  486 

Enna,  sacred  city  .  .  i.  478 
Ennius,  poet  .  .  ii.  353 
Ephesus        .        .        .      ii.  50 

—  Manlius  at.  .  ii.  59 

—  under  Augustus,  iii.594,iv.86 

—  temple  of       .       v.  70,  183 

—  burnt  by  Goths  .  vi.  442 
Epictetus  iv.  722,  v.  657,  672 
Epicurus  .  .  .  ii.  214 
Epirus  (Alexander  the  Mo- 

lossian,  king  of)  attacks 
Italy      .        .    i.  329,  iii.  564 

Epitaphs        .        .    v.  635,  636 

Eporedia,  military  post  to 
protect  North  ItfiJy  from 
barbarians      .        .       ii.  484 

Equality  of  classes  during 
Samnite  war      .        .     1. 413 

Equestrian  order  receive 
judicial  authority  .        ii.  426 

—  results    .         .         .   ii.  430 

—  reversed       ii.  585,  587,  712 

—  rights  restored        .    ii.  787 


Page 
Equites  degraded  i.  483 

Ercte  (Mount)        .         .     i.  489 
Eryx  (town  of)  .         .  i.  489  seq 
Escutcheons  used  by  patri- 
cians     .         .         .        .  i.  69 
Eskualdunacs,  name  given  to 
themselves     by     Iberian 
tribes  in  Gaul    .         .    iii.  82 
Essenes       .         .         .   iv.  626  n 
Ethiopian  invasion  of  Egypt 

IV.  102 
Etruria,    discovery    of    re- 
mains in         .         .1.  XX vi 

—  early  influence  on  Rome 

I.  xxxvii 

—  position  among  Italian 
peoples  .         .         .1.  Hi.  scq 

—  origin  mysterious     .  I.  Iviii 

—  peculiarities  of  writing 

I.  Ixii.  59 

—  supposed  origin     .      I.  Ixlv 

—  mixed  with  Pelasgians 

I.  Ixvii 

—  art  s  of      .         .     I.  Ixx.  seq 

—  navigation     .         .    L  Ixxvi 

—  coin.s  of      .         .       r.  Ixxvii 

—  union     with    Carthage 

I.  Ixxvii 

—  rivalry     with     Greece 

I.  Ixxriii 

—  enemies  of     .         .1.  Ixxix 

—  becomes     province     of 
Rome  .         .         .         I.  Ixxx 

—  religion  of      I.  Ixxxi.  cxxxv 

—  metal  work    .  I.  Ixxxvii.  seq 
"  -  augury  in  .         .1.  cxxxviii 

—  superstitious    character 

of  Etruscans      .      I.  cxxxviii 

—  conquered  by  Tarquin,  i.  33 

—  influence      on      Rome 
under  the  kings    .  i*  134 

—  attacks     Rome    under 
Porsenna  .         .        i.  179  w^ 

—  flute  player  from     .     i.  342 

—  defeat  at  Lake  Vadimon 

»'  349 

—  coalition  with  Senones 

i.  364 

—  final  defeat  of  .         .1.  368 
--  faithful    to     Rome    in 

second  Punic  war    .        i.  625 

—  assists  Scipio    .         .  i.  687 

—  in  Social  war  takes  the 
side  of  the  allies      .        <•  554 

—  in  Civil  war  joins  Sylla 

i.  680 

—  perished    by    proscrip- 
tion of  Sylla      .         .     i.  702 

—  Lepidus  in  .         i.  743,  745 
Eucratidas,  king  of  Parthia 

iii.  232 
Eumenes,  king  of  Pergamus 

ii.  80,  88 

—  attempted  assassination 

of        .         .     ii.  89,  107,  125 

—  secretary  of  Constantius 

vi.  559 
Eunus,  slave  in  Sicily,  h&ids 

an  insurrection  .         .  ii.  393 
Euphrates,  iii.  231, 234,  237,  646 

—  fl'eet  on         .         .      iii.  719 
disturbanceson,  iv.  I2i,v.84 


Page 
Eusebius  .  vi.  613,  620 

Euxine,  fleet  posted  by  Au- 
gustus in  .     iii.  719 

—  circumnavigated  under 
Hadrian       .         .         .v.  40 

Exile  as  punishment  .  ii.  634 
Extortion     of    pro-consuls 

ii.  32S,  330,  334,  339 

Fabia  (gens)      .       i.  68,  1 72  seq 

—  destruction  of  .  .  i.  197 
Fabii,  companions  of  Remus,  i.  6 
Fabius,  consul  .         .  i.  172 

—  Ambustus     i.  243,  254,  257 
-Rullianus     .         i.  335»  344 

—  Gur^es     .         .         .1.  361 

—  Maximus    chosen    dic- 
tator, i.   598,  603,  604,  613, 

626,  629,  687,  692 
-  bi-other  of  Scipio  -^mi- 
lianus       .         .         .    ii.  487 

—  surnamed  Allobrogicus 

ii.  489 
Fabri,  or  engineering  corps 

in  the  army  .  .  .v.  542 
Fabricius     .         .         .       i.  378 

—  victories  in  Ital^  i.  381 
Faesula)  .  .  .  ii.  739,  740 
Fairs  at  Rome  .  .•  iv.  77 
Falarica,  a  javelin  .  ,  i.  573 
Falemum  .  .  .  i.  324 
Families   (large)   rewarded 

by  Caesar  .         .  iii.  368,  369 
Family  (the),basis-of  Roman 
rights         .        .  L  cxxiii.  68 

—  (the),   at  Rome  under 
Empire,  v.  233,  236,  246,  270, 

310,  3><^»  375.  632,  633 
Famine  .  .  .  ii.  782 
Farces  .  .  .  .  i.  538 
Farming,  respect  for  .  i.  141 
Father  (each)  supreme  pon- 
tiff in  his  own  house  .  i.  102 

—  absolute  authority  of,  i.  143, 

217 

—  under  the  Empire  .  v.  233 
Father's  power  .  v.  237,  245 
Fasces  .  .  i.  153, 336 
Faun  us,  syh'an  god  .  .  i.  81 
Faustina,  empress  of  Marcus 

Aurelius  .  .  v.  200,  209 
Faustulus,  fost«r  father  of 

Romulus  and  Remus  i.  5,  6 
Federal  towns  .         .  i.  395 

Feralia,  festival  of  the  dead,  i.  90 
Ferentinum  .         .      I.  xeiv 

Festivals  .  .  i.  533,  v.  283 
Fetiales  (college  of),  i.  108,  256, 

^    .  .       339..  356 

Fetish  stone  of  Antibes      iii.  88 
Fezzan,  great  caravan  sta- 
tion        .         .         .     iv.  103 
Fidenae,  between  Rome  and 

Etruria  .  .  .  i.  241 
Field  of  Mars  .  .  i.  420 
Filial  respect,  Roman  cha- 
racteristic .  .  .  i.  191 
Fimbria  .  .  ii.  804, 807 
Finances  in  second  cent.  v.  557 
Fines  as  punishments  .  v.  359 
Fire  at  Rome  (a.d.  64),  iv.  505, 
676 


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GENERAL    INDEX. 


Page 
Fiiv  ftt  Rome  under  Corn- 
mod  us        .         .         .    vi.  23 

—  the  sacred,  carried  be- 
fore the  kings  of  Persia, 
and  at  Rome  in  the  days 

of  Commodus.         .  vi.  7 

Fiscus,  origin  of  term     .  i.  137 

—  or  private  chest  of 
Augustus         .       iii.  699,  758 

Fishponds  .  .  .v.  581 
Flamen,  Flaminica  .  •  i.  14S 
Flaminian  Way  .         .      i.  404 

—  Augustus   repairs      iii.  762 
Flaminius  i.  S93.  59^ 

—  Titus  Quinctius,  consul 

.."•3' 

—  victories  in  Macedon,  ii. 33,35 

—  returns  to  Rome        .  ii.  38 

—  engaged  against  Antio- 
chus     .         .         .     ii.  46,  79 

Flats  (early  habit  of  living 

in)  .  .  .  .1.  204 
Flavins.         .         .         .    i.  293 

—  ScsBvinus     .         .       iv.  523 

—  associated  with  Appius 

—  vows  temple  to  Concord 

i-  313 
Flute  players  from  Etruria 

i.  140 
Food  (prices  of),  under  Dio- 
cletian .  .  .  vi.  593 
Fors  Fortuna  (temple  of)  i.  361 
"  Augustiis  restores  iii.  749 
Fortifications  (walls)  v.  30-37 
Fortuna,  goddess    .         .      i.  79 

—  sanctuaries  at  Praenesto 
and  Antium    .         .  i.  79 

Fortunate      Islands  and 

Canaries      .         .  .   iv.  89 

Forum                         i.  132,  175 

—  Gallorum          .  iii.  439 

—  built  bv  Ciesar     .      iv.  209 
Fossce  Mjirianae,  canal  made 

by  Marius  .  .  ii.  495 

Fmnco  (the  dioceses  of), cor- 
respond  to    the    Roman 
cities      ...       V.  358 
Franks,  vi.  360,  362, 414,  5^2,53^ 
Freedmen,  i.  308,  ii.  313,  v.  233 

—  time  of  Claudius,  iv.  400, 

402 

—  time  of  Nero,  iy.  474,  v.  304, 

532 
Freedom  (judicial),  now  at^ 

tained  and  lost  v.  234,  236 
Fregellae,  destruction  of,  ii.  420 
Frejus  founded  by  Caesar,  iii.  293 

—  Antony  at        .         .iii.  442 

—  Augustus's  fleet  at     iii.  719 
Fronto,  teacher  of  Marcus 

Aurelius  .  v.  1 70,  202,  633 
Frumentationes,  distribu- 
tions of  corn  ii.  124,  iv.  740 
Fulvia,  wife  of  Antony,  iii.  433, 
485,  490,  492 
Fulvius  Flaccus,  triumvir,  ii.  413 
Functionaries    and     offices 

under  the  Empire  .  v.  528 
Funeral  of  Augustus,  iv.  1 50  seq 

—  Parentalia,  funeral  fes- 
tival      .         .  iv.  396,  V.  285 


Page 

Funerals  (customs  at),i.  220,  531, 

658,  659,  686,  ii.  561,  V.  272- 

284 

Furius     (L.),    accused     by 

tribunes      .  •   '•  '75 

Future  life  (belief  in),  I.  cxxxvi 

—  growth  of  belief  in,  v.  723  seq 

—  -  indications  of  presenti- 
ment of,  in  paganism    v.  729 

Gabii.  .  .  .  i.  326 
Gabinian  law .  .  .  ii.  803 
Gabinius,  tribune    .         .  ii.  798 

—  Caesar  supports      iii.  7,  213 

—  sells  Egypt  .  iii.  238 
Gades,  last  Punic  possession 

in  Spain           .  i.  683 

Gsesates,  Gallic  tribe  i.  511 

Galat«e  in  Asia  Minor  iii.    89 

-  under  Augustus  iii.  622 
Galatians(war  against)  (192- 

188)        ..         .  ii.    41 

—  character  of  people  ii.    57 

—  defeated  .       ii.    58 
-  terms  of  peace  ii.  60 

Galba     .  .  iv.  550,  559 

—  early  life      .         .      iv.  560 

—  election  to  the  Empire 

iv.  562 

—  rigoroiis  measures      iv.  563 

—  appoints  Piso  his  heir,  i v.  565 

—  Otho  opposes  him       iv.  567 

—  -  struggles  for  Empire, iv. 

567.  568 

—  murder  of  iv.  569 
Galen,phy8ician,v.659,vi.  122, 147 
Gulerius  appointed  to  assist 

Diocletian  and  Maximian 
in  government  .     vi.  549,  613 
Galilee  (Herod,  governor  of) 

"^-  331 

Gallia  Narbonensis,  iii.  132,  150 

~  in  time  of  Augustus,  iii.  555 

Gallic  coins  .     iii.  126 

—  war .         .         .         iii.  121 

—  preliminaries       iii.  130-132 

—  -  heroes  .  iii.  207  seq 
Gallienus,  son  of  Valerian, 

undertakes  the  West  (255) 

vi.  414 

—  war  with  Postumus  in 
Qnul  vi.  443,  448 

— against  the  barbarians  in 
Greece    .         .         .      vi.  450 

—  death  .  .  vi.  451 
Gallus    (^lius)    expe<lition 

into  Arabia  .      iv.  102 

—  elegiac  poet       .  iv.  1 70 

—  (Cestius),    governor    of 
Syria  (a.d.  66)         .      iv.  626 

—  emperor  (a.d.  251)     vi.  409 

—  death  .  .  .  vi.  41 1 
Games  (origin  of)     .         .  i.  542 

—  -  used  to  brilic  the  people 

ii.  324 

—  in  Caesar's  triumph    iii.  3O5 

—  under  Tiberius     .      iii.  296 

—  in  pi-ovinces       .  iv.  472 

—  Nero's .         .  iv.  482 

—  public,  v.  524 .sc^.,6o8,vi.  10 1 
Gardens  .  .  .  v.  601 
Gargano  (Monte)    .         .     I.  xi 


Page 
Gaul  (Cisalpine)         i.  585,  606 

-  Hasdrubal  in,  i.683,  ii.  3, 45 

-  submission  of    .     ii.  70,  490 

—  assists  Rome   in  Social 
war     ...  ii.  562 

sends     mercenaries    to 
Civil  war        .  ii.  680 

—  governed      by     Junius 
Brutus         .         .  ii.  738 

—  Catulus  sent  to,   ii.  739,  778 

—  Metellus  in  .         .       iii.  33 

—  Capsar  governor,  iii.  62,  556 
trade  iv.  78,81,82 

—  (Transalpine)  ii.  164 
"  war  in  .  ii.  483 
"  invaded  by  Cimbri     ii.  492 

—  traversed    and     confis- 
cated by  Pompey        .  ii.  758 

—  Augustus's   administra- 
tion and  reforms       iv.  50-59 

—  public    professors    first 
appointed       .         .        iv.  58 

--  Drusus  in     .         .      iv.  112 

—  Augustus's  second  visit 

to      .         .         .         .    iv.  50 

—  third  visit  of  Augustus 

to  .  .         .      iv.  115 

—  fourth  visit       .  iv.  118 

—  under  Vespasian         iv.  669 

—  under  Marcus  Aurelius 

V.  172,  420,  421 

—  thoroughly    Romanized 

V.  426 

—  under  Aurelian  vi.  495 
Gauls  in  Italy    .        I.  cviii.  seq 

—  early  appearance,  I.  cxix. 

fvq.,  252 

—  capture  of  Rome  by,i.  254  seq 

—  second  invasion  .  i.  267 

—  truce  of  forty  years     i.  273 

—  reappear  .         .         .1.  273 

—  advance  to  Apulia,i.274,  352 

—  coalition    with    Italicn 
nations,  i.  344.353*354.357  ^'V 

—  in  Sicily  .  .  .  i.  473 
-■  in  Lombardv  i.  510 

—  wars  with  liomo     i.  511  *'/ 

—  in  Hannibal's  ar my, i. 596,61 1 

—  before  Caesar  iii.  Sg  fcq 

—  as  described  by  Diodorus 
Siculns  .        .         .  iii.  90,97 
-  by  tStrabo  iii.  91 

—  dress    .  .        iii.  91 

—  dwellings.         .  iii.  92 

—  fortresses  (oppida)       iii.  93 

—  weapons  and  tools       iii.  94 

—  articles  from  lake  dwell- 
ings        .         .         .        iii.  95 

—  personal  ornaments     iii.  99 

—  warfare    .         .    iii.  100  seq 

—  funerals  .iii.  103 

—  social  condition,  iii.  113,  123 

—  religion     .         .  iii".  105 

—  Druids         .         .iii.  106 

-  superstition       .  iii.  108 

-  belief  in  immortality,iii.  109 

—  use  of  metals  .  iii.  1 13 
-—  condition  at  the  time  of 

Caesar  .         .         .    ii'.  123  seq 

—  courage  in  war      .      iii.  186 

—  condition  under  Augus- 
tus      .         .         .    iii.  555  seq 


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GENERAL   INDEX. 


667 


Page 

Oaub,  Augustus  visits        iv.  50 

-  his  admiuistration,  iv.  51-58 

—  distinguished  authors  at 

'    Rome      .         .         .     iv.  489 

—  rising     under     Vindex 
(a.d.  68)      .  iv.  549 

—  distinguished  in  litera- 
ture under  the  Ant-onines 

V.  427,  428 
Oaurus,  battle  of  Mount,  i.  317 
Gollius  Ignatius        .  i.  357 

(iolon  of  Syracuse  .     i.  627 

(icneva  (Caesar  at)  ii>-  '33 

(lens     .         .         .         .       i.  68 

—  tutelar  gods  of    .         .  i.  84 

—  patrician  .         .        i.  8 

—  -  copied  by  plebeians      i.  218 

-  Claudii  .         .         .  iii.  243 
(lenucian  law  i.  334 

Gorgovia      .         .     iii.  181,  188 
Germanicus        iv.  133,  141,  282 

—  victories    in    Germany 

iv.  287 
-  proposal    to    alter  the 
frontier  in  Germany      iv.  288 

—  triumph  .  iv.  302 
--  sent  to  the  E:u*t,  iv.  303,  305 
~  at  Athens      .         .     iv.  305 

—  poisoned    .         .         iv.  309 

—  doubts  as  to  the  crime 

iv.  310  n 
~  funeral  .         .         .    iv.  311 

—  (family  of)  iv.  311 

—  destruction  of  the  family 

of,  by  Tiberius  .    iv.  346,  358 

Germans,  ii.  490,  491,  iii.  63.  138, 

160,  630,  631,  iv.  106-133 

~    guards  of  Caligula,  iv.  382, 

391 
-- dismissed  by  Gall  Ml     iv.  564 

—  under  Domitian     .     iv.  707 

—  under  M.  Aurelius       v.  185 

—  war    under    Alexander 
Soverus    .  .     vi.  311 

—  under  Maximin  .  vi.  319 
Gcta,  son  of  Sevorus  .  vi.  241 
Gcla?  .  .  .  iii.  391 
Ghosts  (belief  in)  .  v.  730  seq 
Giraffe,  first  at  Kome  iii.  365 
Girls  (riices  for)  at  Romo,  iv.  693 
Gisco,    go\"ernor    of    Lily- 

ba}um         .         .         .     i.  522 

Gladiators  at  funerals     .    I.  cv. 

543.  ii.  324,  772,  V.  380. 

610,  615 

—  exhibited  by   Catiline, 
senate  interferes       .      iii.  13 

—  regulations  concerning, 

by  Tiberius,  iv.  296, v.  380,381 

—  emperors  as  .  v.  615.  616 
(iliuliatorial    shows    under 

Domitian        .         .      iv.  693 
Glass  made  at  Rome     .       iv.  78 

—  brought     from     Sidon 

iv.  87,  197  n 

—  iridescent,      time       of 
Hadrian     .  .    v.  134 

Glaucia  associated  with 
Marius  and  Saturninus  in 
triumvirate       .         .     ii.  516 

—  killed  .  .  ii.  521 
Gnostics      .         .         .V.  734 


Page 
Gods  of  ancient  Italy  con- 
trasted with  Greek  gotis 

I.  cxxx.  seq 

—  often  connected  by  their 
worship  towns  of  the  same 
origin    .  .1.  cxxxiv 

—  (public)     .         .         .    i.  77 

—  Janus,  Jovis,  Saturn, 
Minerva,  Mars,  Quirinus, 
Vesta,  Vulcan  •  i-  77 

—  Diana,  Juno    .  i.  78 

—  Fortuna     .  i.  79 

—  -  Tellus,  Terra  Mater, 
Ceres,  Dis  Pater,  Bona 
Dea  or  Maia,  Faunus, 
Sylvanus,  Pales    .         .     i.  81 

—  Rumina,  Rubigo,  Vcr- 
tumnus,  Pomona, Feronia, 
Flora,  Venus,  Liber,  Her- 
cules, Tiberinus    .         .  i.  82 

—  (domestic)     .         .    i.  84-88 

—  of  the  dead,  Lemures, 
Manes,  and  LarvsB  i.  88 

—  required  beautiful 
priests.  i.  109 

—  of  Ktruria  at  Rome      i.  113 
~  statues  of,  made  in  wood 

and  clay  .         .     i.  140 

-  new,  honoured  at  Rome 

i.  557  «<'^ 

-  Mens,  a  new  deity        i.  605 

—  Neptune  and  Araphi- 
trite  received  as,at  Rorae,ii.i67 

—  of  Gauls  .         .         .  iii.  105 

—  three-headed  god  of 
Gaul      .         .         .  iv.  31 

Gold  (increase  of)   in    Italy 
under  Augustus        .     iii.  690 

—  under  the  Empire  .  v.  576 
Golden  hou.se  of  Nero  .  iv.  516 
Gordian,    his     origin     and 

character  vi.  322 

—  proclaimed  emperor 
(A.D.  238)        .         .       vi.  323 

—  death     .         .  vi.  326 

—  father    and    son    pro- 
claimed divi  .         vi.  327 
—    (younger).       emperor 
jointly  with  Pupienus and 
mlbinus  .         .         .     vi.  328 

—  reigns  alone        .         vi.  339 

—  Timesitheus,  praetorian 
prefect  .     vi.  340 

—  war  with  Sapor  vi.  344 

—  detith  of  Timesitheus, 
Philip  succeeds  him      vi.  344 

—  murdered  (a.d.  344)  vi.  346 
Gorgon  (Etruscan)  .  1.  Ixxvi 
Gospels  (the)  .  .  vi.  167 
Goths,  advance  of  the        v.  206, 

vi.  Zp^seq 

—  ten  invasions  by .         vi.  360 

—  against  Decius  vi.  399 

—  -  disgraceful  treaty  with 

vi.  410 

—  invasions  of         vi.  420,  456 

—  defeated  by  Claudius  vi.  462 

—  under  Probus  .  vi .  52 1 
Governors  of  provinces,office 

and  power  ii.  173,  I76«?^ 

Gracchus  (Semproniu.s)      i.  626, 

630.  649,  ii.  69.  73 


Gracchus  (Tiberius) 


Page 

".  >5> 
396  seq 
-  early   years,    marriage, 
quaestor  m  Spain       .      ii.  399 

—  tribune  of  the  people,  ii.  401 

—  leads  the  democratic 
movement,  laws  proposed 

by         .         .         .     ii.  403  seq 

—  disturbance  at  Rome,  ii.  406 

—  appointed  with  two 
others  to  redistribute  the 
land  .         .      ii.  407 

~  difference  with  senate,  ii.  408 

—  discontent  of  people    ii.  409 

—  disturbances  increase,  ii.  41 1 

—  death         .         .  ii.  412 

—  (Caius),  quiestor    .      ii.  419 

—  charact^sr  .         .  ii.  ^20 

—  proposes  new  laws       ii.  423 

—  his  projects  .  .      ii.  423 

—  his  reforms        .  ii.  426, 432 

—  opposition  of  nobles    ii.  433 

—  conducts  a  colony  to 
Carthage  .      ii.  436 

—  popularity  fails.  ii.  436 

—  outbreak  in  Rome      ii.  437 

—  his  death  .  .  ii.  439 
Gnpckwyl  (vase  of)  .  iii.  124 
Grain   tnulc-  regulated    by 

Claudius  .         iv.  403 

Greece,  condition  of,  at  time 
of  war  with  Pyrrhus       i.  370 

—  influence  on  civilization 

i.438 

—  visited  by  Roman  depu- 
ties .         .         .       i.  508 

—  influence  on  literature 

i-  533 

—  condition  of,  alH)ut  200 
B.C.      .         .         .        ii.  8  wy 

—  state  of  marine  in  .        ii.  19 

—  decay  of  ii.  20  seq 

—  liberty  of,  declared  by 
Rome      .         .         .        ii.  38 

—  conquest  by  Rome  ac- 
complished .  ii-  '35 

—  sympathizes  with  Mith- 
ridates     .         .         .      ii.  656 

—  as  Roman  province,  time 

of  Augustus  .        iii.  562 

—  depopulation       ii.  565,  572 

—  decay  under  the  Anto- 
nines       ...      v.  443 

—  influence  in  matters  of 
intellect       .         .  v.  468 

—  threatened  by  barbarians 

V.  193 
Greek  language  lately  spoken 

I.  cviii 

~  education  at  Rome,  li.  238 

.      seq.,  258,  374 

—  movement  against       ii.  527 

—  navigation  .        iv.  74 

—  settlements  in  ancient 
Gaul    ...         .  iii.  84 

—  physicians  at  Rome     iv.  198 

—  teachers  v.  445  seq 

—  islands,  condition  of, 
under  Augustus     iii.  576-580 

—  cities  of  Thrace  and  the 
Euxine         .         .        iii.  580 

—  and  Roman  science     iv.  196 


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GENERAL    INDEX. 


V%ge   I 
Greeks  in  Italj    .  I.  cviii 

— '  dates  of  settlement        I.  cix 

—  rapid  growth      .  I.  cxv 

—  contrasted  with  lioman 
conquest .         .         .       i.  386 

—  (Campanian)      .  i.  334,  364  \ 
Greenhouses         .  v.  580 
Guilds  of  handicraft«men,v.  389. 

394.396 

Hadrian,  emperor       .     y.  1  seq 

—  personal  chnracteristics, 
early  career  .      v.  2 

—  connection  with  Trajan 
and  Plotina    .        .        .  t.  3 

—  succeeds  Trajan  (117 
A.D.),  withdraws  from 
newl^-acqnired  Eastern 
provinces    .         .         .      v.  5 

—  senate  .         .        v.  6,  7 

—  conspiracy  against,  y.  8,9, 10 

—  his  journeys    .         .    v.  1 1 

—  system  of  goreming 
the  provinces  .         v.  12 

—  examination  of  his 
poliejr  .         .        V.  13,  14 

—  military  affairs,  v.  15,  18,  20 

—  frontiers      .         .  v.  21 
--  Danube    .         .         .    v.  22 

—  colonies  in  Mcesia,  v.  23,  24 

-  Punnonia  and  Khsetiu,  v  29 

—  Hadrian's  fortifications 
and  walls        .         .    v.  30  seg 

great  wall  in  Britain,v. 30-37 

—  military  post  in  Africa,  V.  39 
'    spread  of  Roman  life,  v.  42 

further    provincial  jour- 
neys. Western  Gau!  (a.d. 
121)   .         .         .         .    ▼.  45 

—  works  at  Nimes  .  v.  45 

—  at  Cologne,  Batavia, 
Britain,  great  wall .  v.  47 

Spain       .         .         .    V.  48 

—  two  journeys  to  Africa,  v.  49 

—  his  fortifications  there,  v.  50 
"  rcLurns  to  Rome  (120), 

visits  the  East  (122-125). 

in  Greece        .         .         ^'53 

—  Sicily       .         .         .    V.  54 

—  love  of  the  picturesque,  v.  54 

—  returns  to  Rome  .         v.  54 

—  renewed  journeys     v.  57-95 

—  various  public  works,  v.  58 

—  hisworksatAthen8,v.  S9^9 

—  in  the  East  .   v.  67  seq 

—  at  Ephesus       .         .    v.  70 

—  sportsnum   .         .         v.  75 

—  visits  Damascus  and 
great  Eastern  cities,  v.  74-^1 

—  Dead  Sea  .        .    v.  82 

—  Petra  .         .  v.  84 

—  visits  Egypt     .      v.  84,  85 

—  hisfavounte,Antinous,v.  91 

—  inscriptions  on  colossus 

of  Memnon  .         .    v.  91 

—  his  Empress  Sabina     v.  92 

-  offices  held  by  .  v.  95 
muuicipal  government,  v.  96 
returns  to  Italy,  great 

buildings  .  .  .  v.  96 
his  villa  (123-124)        v.  98 

—  administration     .  v.  loow^y 


PftJTP 

Hadrian,  peace  and  security 

of  the  Empire  .         .  v.  101 

—  laws  oiKlified  .        v.  102 

—  treasury  .  .         .  v.  103 

—  reforms       .  v.  104,  106 

—  life  at  Rome  .         .  v.  108 

—  detractors    .  .        v.  113 

—  toleration        towards 
Christians  .         .    v.  1 18-121 

—  choice  of  successor,  v.   129 

—  death  of  Verus,  chooses 
Antonine        .         .       v.  134 

—  death        .         .         .v.  136 

—  review  of  reign    .        v.  141 
Hamilcar    causes    disturb- 
ance in  Cisalpine  Gaul,  ii.  29 

—  banished  .  ii.  41,  70 
Hannibal,     son     of    Gisco 

J.  473.  476 

—  son  of  Hasdrulial,  early 
training  .         .        i.  570 

—  character  given  by  Livy 

i.  571 

—  besieges   Saguntum,  i.   572  ; 

—  -  prepares  to  invade  Italy 
through  Gaul      .         .  i.  577 

—  readies  the  Rhone       i.  579 
crosses  the  Alps  .        i.  581 

"  in  Cisalpine  Gaul        i«  5^5 

—  at  Thrasimene  .         .  i.  597 

—  -  repulsed  at  Spoleto      i.  597 
--  in  Apulia    .         .        i.  603 

—  at  Cannae  .      i.  607  seq 

—  at  Capua,  plot  to  murder 

i.  619 

—  blockades  Casilinum,  i.  625 

—  surrounded    at    Capua 

i.  626  seg 

—  attacks  Rome       .        i.  651 
-  great  efforts  to  oppose 

i.  661  srg.,  667 

—  battle  of  Metaurus       i.  671 

—  cruelty  in  Italy         .   i.  686 

—  recalled  t-o  Carthage,  i.  691 

—  -  desires  peace        .        i.  692 
--at  Zama  .         .         .  i.  692 

—  policy  after  his  return 

to  Cartilage    .         .         ii.  41 

—  surrender  demanded  by 
Rome     .         .         .         ii.  42 

—  assists  Antiochus         ii.  43 

—  at  Ephesus       .      ii.  44,  80 

—  death .         .         .         ii.  82 
Hanno,  Carthaginian,  i.465, 468, 

522,  525,  621 

—  brother  of  Hannil)al,  i.  578, 

683 

Hasdrubal  (Barca),  i.  483,  484, 

570.  577.  662,  667,  672,  676, 

682 

—  Gisa  (683)        .         .  ii.  142 

—  son  of  llanno       i.  483,  484 

—  son-in-law  of   Amilcar 
Barcas,  conquest  of  Spain 

by       .        .        .    i.  528, 570 

—  treaty  with  Rome     .  i.  572 

—  brother    of    Hannibal, 
left  in  Spain    .        .        i.  577 

—  struggle       with       the 
Scipios  .         .         .  i.  621 

—  Italian  expedition,!. 631,  672 

—  son  of  Gisco         i.  683,  689 


.Page 

Hasdrubal, the  antelope,8ent 
to  Rome  after  Zama        i.  695 
"  last   defender  of   Car- 
thage .        .        .        .  ii.  147 

Carthaginian  officer  dis- 
tinguished at  Canme       i.  608 
Hastati        .        .        .       i.  423 
Hat  worn  by  freedmen  at 

funerals  .         .  v.  274 

Hearth  gods  and  worship,!. 86  Afg 
Helena,  wife  of  Constantius, 

mother  of  Constantino,  vi.  552 
Hellenic  influence(early),i.6o,i36 

—  about  200  B.C.  .  "•  '3 
Hellenism  at  Rome»ii.203  $eg.2$i 

—  under  the  Empire,  v.  657,658 
Helvetii     established       in 

Switzerland  and  Suabia 

ii.  490,  iii.  63 

—  invite  Caesar  to  authorixe 
national  assembly,  iii.  121,131 

—  war  concluded  (137)  v.  357 
Heraclea  .  .  .  i.  377 
Heracleion  (siege  of)  .  ii.  105 
Herculaneum,    earthquakes 

at     .         .         .         .  iv.  655 

—  destruction  (79 a.d.),  iv.  681 
Hercules  (Tyrian),  legends 

of,    refer    to  Phoenician 
influence  in  Gaul    .       iii-  83 

—  Commodus  as  .        .  vi.  12 

—  statue  of  (Famese)  vi.  13 
Herdonius  .  .  .  i.  203 
Herennius,  supposed  friend 

of  Plato      .        .        .  i.  338 

—  Pontius,  son  of  .  i.  361 
Heresies  in   the  Christian 

Church  .  vi.  196,  197,  208 
Kemicans,  i.  171,  187,  243,  351 
Herod,  tetrarchof  Galilee,iii.5i5 

—  king  of  Syria,  iii.  624,  vi.  84 
Hiempsal,    joint    king    of 

Nuniidia  .  .  .  ii.  458 
Hiero  II.,  tyrant  of  Syracuse 

i.  465,  603 
Hieroglyphics,    disuse    of 

iii.  605  n.,  vi.  91 
High  roads  (seven)  .  .  i.  405 
Hirailco  .  .  i.  486, 488 
Hindoos  .         iii.  551 

Hippopotamus  first  seen  at 

Rome,time  of  Augustus,iii.69i 
Hispania  Ulterior  .  .  iii.  50 
History  of  Rome  learnt  from 

Greek  sources.  .  i.  61-63 
Holidays     suppressed     b^     • 

Augustus  .         .        .  iii.  745 

—  (public)  .  .  V.  526 
Honey .  .  .  iv.  75,  85 
Hope  (temple  raised  to)  i.  186 
Horace,   legionary   tribune 

iii.  465,  490,  531,  672,  747, 

iv.  172-175 

Horatii  and  Curiatii  .     i.  20-27 

Horatius  Cocles     .         •      i.  55 

Horses,  famous,  from  Spain 

iv.  85 

—  from  Greece     .         .  iv.  85 

—  much  valued.         .      v.  597 

—  of    the    sun,   probably 
zebras        .         .         .  vi.  106 

Hortensius.  orator    .      iii.  219 


Digitized  by 


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GENERAL   INDEX. 


669 


Pago 
Hospitality  .  .  .  i.  143 
Hostilius  (A.)  commands 
army  against  Perseus  of 
Maoedon  .  .  ii.  99 
Husband,  rights  over  wife,  i.  145 
Hymn  of  Fratres  Arvales,  i.  136 
Hyrcanus  II.,  king  of  Judea 

iij.  331 

Janus,  traditional  king    i.  i,  12 

—  temple  of        .        .      i.  19 

—  chief  god     .         .  i.  77 

—  festival  of       .         .    i.  143 

—  temple  closed      .         i.  510 

—  temple    closed    second 
time  (693)       .  iv.  64 

—  reopened  on  account  of 
barb^ian  invasion     .   iv.  107 

—  temple    of,    closed   for 
third  time  by  Augustus 

iv.  121 

—  closed  by  Nero    .       iv.  543 

—  closed  by  Ves|)asian,  iv.  652 
lapodes  subdued,  li.  163,  iii.  560 
Iberians  attacked  by  Pom- 

pey  .  ii.  826,  iii.  81,  552 
Icilian  law  .  .  i.  207  n 
Icilius  (Sp.),  tribune  .  i.  204 
Jenisalem      ,         .         .  iv.  629 

—  siege  of      .        iv.  632,  633 

—  temple  of,  burned  (a.d. 

70)    ....  iv.  637 

—  end  of  siege  of    .       iv.  638 

—  takes  the  name  of  MWa 
Capitol ina         .        .    v.  126 

Jews         .         .         .        ii.  829 

—  massacre   under   Pom- 
poy  .         .         ii.  831,  iii.  231 

fight  for  Caesar    .         .iii,  326 

—  Caesar  gives  them   the 
civitas    .         .         .      iii.  394 

—  mourn  for  Caesar's  mur- 
der   ....  iii.  420 

—  under  Antony      .     iii.  514 

—  under  Herod   .         .  iii.  624 

—  privileges  granted  to,  iii.  625 

—  their  diffusion      .      iii.  626 

—  Greek    ideas   and    lan- 
guage among     .         .  iii.  628 

—  ordered  to  leave  Rome 

by  Tiberius     .         .       iv.  319 

—  number    of,    in    Rome 

iv.  507  n 

—  Vespasian  against     iv.  589, 

614 

—  massacres  of    .        .  iv.  625 

—  murder  Greeks   in  re- 
taliation        .        .      iv.  626 

—  bravery  of      .         .  iv.  633 

—  after     dispersion      by 
Titus     .        .        .V.  76,  122 

—  persecution  under 
Hadrian     .         .     v.  121, 497 

—  under  Sevorus,vi.  89,  90,  126 
Ignatius  (S.),  martyrdom,  iv.  819 
Hi  pa  (victory  of  Scipio  at),  i.  683 
Ilium    destroyed   by   Fim- 
bria .         .         .         .    ii.  671 

lUyrin,  i,  507  seq.,  i.  637,  ii.  163 

—  C»s*vr.  governor  of  .  iii.  61 

—  condition  under  Augus- 
tus       .         .  iii.  j6o,  vi.  540 


Page 
Illyricum,   condition  under 
the  Antonines        .        v.  433 

—  natives  exterminated  by 
invading  barbarians   .    v.  434 

—  Pliny  s  account  .        v.  435 
Immortality  (opinions  con- 
cerning)      .        V.  723,  725 

—  teachers  of        .        v.  732, 

vi.  151, 160 
Imperator,    title    of,    con- 
ferred on  Augustus  .  iii.  692, 
698 
Imperial  government,  or^ 

nization  by  Augustus,  iii.  691 
Impenum  .  .  iii.  251  n 
India  .        .         iv.  loi,  v.  477 

—  importations  from       v.  587 
Indigitamenta,  gods  presid- 
ing over  human  life  and 
circumstances   .        I.  cxxxiii 

Industries  under  the   Em- 

Sire    .         .        .        .V.  601 
ustry,   national   charac- 
teristic   .        .        .      i.  141 

—  decline  of,  in  third  cen- 
tury   .        .         .  vi.  382-385 

—  under  Diocletian  .  vi.  593 
Indutiomarus,  chief  of  Tre- 

viri,     conspires     against 
Caesar  .        .     iii.  170 

Inequality     of     law      fop 
Romans       and       other 
Italians    .        .        ii.  557  aeg 
Inexpiable  war .        .  i.  527 

Informers  .  iv.  336,  473,  721 
Ingenui  .  .  .  .1-73 
Ingenuus,  emperor  .  vi.  440 
Insubri,  Gallic  tribe  i.  510,  579 
582,  ii.  72 
Interest  (laws  to  regulate),  i.  305 
Josephus  .  .  iv.  508, 627 
Jovis  or  Jupiter        .         .    i.  77 

—  Tonans  (altar  to)         i.  167, 

iii.  751 

—  Jupiter  Praedator  .  ii.  633 
Ireland  visited   by   Italian 

traders  .  .  .  iv.  74 
Iron  gates  of  Danube  .  iv.  75^ 
Irrigjition  by  Arabs       .      v.  70 

—  of  Africa  .  .  v.  462 
Iris  (temple  of),  at  Rome,  ii.  243 
Istria  subdued  .  .  ii.  163 
Ionian  origin  of  two  towns 

in  Magna  Grsecia      .      I.  exv 
Italian  States  (government 
of)        .         .         .         ii.  536 

—  exempt   from   military 
service      .        .        .v.  540 

—  ambassadors  to  Alexan- 
der at  Babylon  i.  337 

Italica,  colony  founded  by 

Scipio  .  .  i.  684,  ii.  157 
Italy  (geography  of)  .   I.  i.-xxx 

—  climate    .        .  I.  xxvii 

—  ancient  population,I.xxxviii.- 

Iviii 

—  organization  of  .  i.  389 

—  condition       of,      after 
second  Punic  war    .     li.  i  seq 

—  word    first     used    by 
Scipio  iEmilianus       .     i.  417 

—  products     ,         .  iv.  76  I 


Page 
Italy  and  the  Roman  people 
under  Augustus         .  iii.  651 

—  decline  of  a^culture,iii.  652 
--  causes  of  depopulation 

iii.  652 

—  growth  of  peaceful 
manners    .         .         .iii.  672 

—  under  the  Antonines,  v.  437 

—  causes  of  decay,  v.  442,  444 
Juba  .  iii.  338,  340,  352 
Judsea  (Brutus's  treatment 

of)        .        .        .        iii.  470 
--  death  of  Herod,  reign 
of  Archelaos    .         .     iv.  100 

—  change  in  form  of  gov- 
ernment     .        .  iv.  100 

—  Agrippa  in    .         .     iv.  109 

—  birth  of  Jesus  Christ,  iv.  121 

—  death  of  Jesus  Christ,iv.  368 

—  Caligula  orders  that  his 
image  shall  be  erected  in 
the  Temple  in         .      iv.  377 

—  war  in  (a.d.  66)         iv.  514 

—  condition  of,  in  time  of 
Vespasian         .      iv.  615-620 

—  Roman  government  of 

iv.  620,  621 

—  war  breaks  out  in,  iv.  623, 

625,  628,  630 

—  Capta    .        .        .     iv.  639 

—  impostors.         .  v.  125 

—  insurrection  under  Ha- 
drian        .         .        V.  125  seq 

—  under  Severus   .        .  vi.  89 
Judo^es        .         .        i.  225,  286 
Judicia  divided,  ii.  445,  529,  532 
Jiigera,  allotment  by  agra- 
rian law      .         .         .  i.  302 

Jugurtha,  king  of  Numidia 

ii.  449,  454 

—  Scipio's  judgment  of,  ii.  454 

—  inherits  a  third  of  the 
kingdom  of  Numidia  .  ii.  454 

—  murders  Hiempsal, 
bribes  the  Roman  em- 
bassy, makes  war  on  Ad- 
herbal  .         .         .         ii.  458 

--  quarrel  with  Rome  be- 
gins ....     ii.  462 

—  summoned  to  Rome    ii.  463 

—  causes  Massiva  to  be 
assassinated .         .         ii.  464 

—  defeat  of  Roman  army 

ii.  446 

—  defeated  by  C.  Metellus 

ii.  467 

—  retires  to  Thala      .    ii.  473 

—  surprised  at  Mulucha,  ii.  477 

—  capture       .        .        ii.  479 

—  dies  by  starvation  at 
Rome         .        .         .    ii.  481 

Julia  Domna.wife  of  Severus 

vi.  81,  116,  117  «jj7.,  258 

—  Maesa  and  Julia  Soaemias 

vi.  119,  270,  272,  278 

—  wife  of  Pompey         iii.  227 
Julian  law  to  protect    tri- 
bunes        .         .     1.  177,  203 

—  (90B.C.),  ii»566,iii.59,vi.  129 
Julianus  buys  the  Empire 

▼1.  34,  35 

—  revolt  of  the  army  .     vi.  37 


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670 


OENIiHAL    INDEX. 


Paffe 
Julianas  namos  Soverus  his 
coUeagtie         .  n.  40 

murder    .  .  vi.  41 

—  (Salviufi),  lawyer  under 
CommoduB     .  v\.  16 

Julius  Caesar  bom  100  b.c, 
Sylla  comman<ltt  him  to 
repudiati)  his  wife  (see 
Cfltsar)   .         .        ii.  091,  734 

—  consul  (B.C.  90)  ii.  555 

—  death  .  ii.  572,  582 
Junius  Pullus  .  i.  487 
Juno,  Joyino,  mater  ref^na,  i.  78 

—  sanctuary  at  Lanurium.i.  78 

—  at  Veii  .    i.  248 

—  Soepita  i.  326 
Jurisconsults  under  the  Em- 
pire   .                          .V.  666 

Jurisprudence    .    i.  532,  iv.  171 

—  under  Hadrian     .        v.  106 

—  in  the  city        .   v.  337,  661 

—  at  Rome  ii.  275 
Jus  civile               i.  563,  ii.  544 

—  civitatis       ii.  536,  543,  566 

—  connubii       .  ii.  544 

—  eentium  .        i.  563,  ii.  544 

—  Flarianum.  see  Flavius 

—  Italicum,  given  to 
Asiatic  towns  vi.  52,  84 

—  imaginum    .         .  i.  69,  155 
"  Latii  ii.  470  n.,  57C 

—  Quiritium  i.  147,  393 
Justin     ...  V.  156 

—  (S.),  martyr,  his  Apology 

V.  224,  225 
Justitium  .  .  .  ii.  586 
Juvenal .         .       iv.  699,  v.  648 

King  (office  of)  .       i.  72,  73  «7 

—  changes  in  constitution 
and  religion  under  three 
last     .  .  i.  113,  134 

—  crown  and  purple  mantle 
worn  by  .  i.  152 

Knights     .        .         .         i.  73 

—  annual  review  .         .  i.  314 

—  privileges  re-established 

ii.  783 

—  under  Augustus.iii.  669,  730 

—  under  Hadrian,  v.  104,  105, 

Kniva,  Gothic  king    .      vi.  410 

labienus,  lieutenant  under 

Caesar,  iii.16,174,  182,277,375 
Id\bour  question  at  Rome,  iv.  74 
Jjabourers  (of)  on  country 

estates  .         .v.  312 

I^torius,  tribune  i.  176,  201 
lifpvinus    marches    against 

Pyrrhus .  .  .  i.  376 
livgidse,    the    race    extinct 

(B.C.  30)  .  .  .  iii.  599 
r^ke  Fucinus  .      iv.  412 

—  drained  by  Claudius,  iv.  415 

—  murder  of  19,000  men,iv>4io 
Lrfind  (division  of)  .  I.  cxxv.  seq 

—  distribution  of,  ii.  402,  423 

—  in  Africa  .  ii.  462  n 
Ijangobardi  .  iv.  424 
Lanuvium  (revolt  of),  i.  265,  326 

—  college  of       .         .V.  392 


Lares 
—  under  Augustus 


im- 

.  i.  202 
i.  127 
commissioners 


i.84«fy 
Iii.  751. 
iv.  20 
lArinum  (defeat  of  Minucius 

at)        ...         i.  605 
Larva .  •       i-  93 

I^ticlavc,  sign  of  senatorial 

dignity     .  .  iii.  422 

Lrttin  war  .    i.  316-329 

—  language        .  i.  531,  v.  466 

-  rood  .  i.  651,  652,  ii.  702 
Latium  (migmtionof  heroes 

to)      .         .  .1.4 

—  wars  of  Rome  with,  i.  316, 

321 

Law  (Roman),  general  sur- 
vey of,  time  of  Augustus 

iv.  204,  209 

—  of  treason  and  informers 

iv.  336.  473 

—  of  legacies,  under  Au- 
gustus and  Claudius  .   iv.  406 

Laws  of  property  ii.  278 

—  (Roman),  gradual 
provement  of 

—  of  Serviua 
■^  three 

sent  to  search  for  Greek,  i.  2 12 

—  regulating  offices      .  i.  290 

—  of  Cains  Gracchus  .     ii.  424 

—  of  Ctesar,  de  Provinciis 
ordinandis  and  de  Pecu- 
niis  repetundis,  iii,  58,  387  seq 

—  de  Sacerdotiis  .  iii.  389 
Lebanon  (Severus  at) .  vi.  81 
Lectistemium  (ceremony  of) 

i.  287, 334,  559,  598  and  n 
Legal    forms    (importance 

attached  to)        .        .   i.  149 

Legal  changes,  from  133  to  79, 

ii.  316  seq 

—  under  Severus  vi.  123-130 
Legates  in  provinces,  ii.  178  stq 
Legion    (Roman)    creation 

of)  .         .         .       ii.  265 

— -  plebeian  tribunes  ad- 
mitted .  ii.  293 

—  serarii  excluded    .       ii.  308 

—  during  the  Samnite  war 

ii.  318 

—  constitution      .         .  ii.  422 

—  opposed  to  Macedonian 
phalanx  .         .         .         ii.  35 

—  difficulty  in  recruiting.ii.291 

—  proletarii  admitted  by 
Marius        .  .   .  ii.  472 

—  occupied  in  engineering 
work  by  Marius  ii.  495 

—  punishment  by    C%sar 

iii.  294 

—  dismissal  of  loth  legion 

iii.  338 

—  Alaudarum  iii.  394 

—  constitution  of  the,  in 
second  century  v.  541 

Lentulus,   called    Batuatus 

ii.  772,  iii.  27.  28 

—  threatens  CsBsar,  iii.  267,  319 
Lepidus .         .         .         .  ii.  737 

—  sent  to  Narbonensis,  ii.  740, 

74?,  745 

—  son  of,  put  to  death  ii.  745 


licpidus,  wife  of     .         .  ii.  746 
--   his  death      .         .       ii.  747 
'  left  in  chaige  of  Rome 
by  Csesar     .  iii.  286 

—  aft«r  Cesar's  death,  iii.  415, 

434 

—  takes  command  of  Nar- 
bonensis      and      Hither 

I       Spain  iii.  446 

—  after  Philippi  .         iii.  478 

—  besie^  Lilybieum    iii.  501 

—  Messina,  iii.  509,  510,  708, 

i^.  354 
Iieprosy  in  Hannibal's  army 

}•  597 
!  Leptis  towB  in  K.  Africa,  ii.  451 
Lerida    .  iii.  350 

Leucopetra  (l>attle  of)      iii.  135 
Lexovii,  Gallic  trilte        iii.  155 
Lex     Ogulnia,     admitting 
plebeians  to  sacred  offices 

i.  293 
Lex   Papiria    Poptolia,  for- 
bidding slavery  for  debt 

i-  307 

Libers  legationes       .         i.  539 

Libraries  at  Rome  .         .iv.  219 

I   Library   of   the    Ptolemies 

'       burnt  .  iii.  325 

—  at  Alexandria  .  iii.  522 
'  —  founded  by  Octavia,  iii.  755 
I     —  of  Augustus  destroyed 

iv.  676 

—  in    private  houses,   v.   591, 

654 

j  Libyans     .  .      iii.  618 

Licmia-Pompeia     .  iii.  228 

Licinian  laws  .         i.  282 

—  confirmed         .       290,  302 

—  influence  of  .  411,  ii.  402 
i   Licinius  Stolo,  reformer,  i.  280, 

I  300 

1     —  Macer,  tribune       .     ii.  783 

—  Crassus  succeeds  Tiberius 

'       Gracchus  as  triumvir,  ii.  413 

—  governor  of  Sicily,   ii.  615 

—  plunders    the   province 

I  ii.  619,  620 

!     "  known  as  Verros,  ii.  622,  782 

'  Lictore  .         .        i.  158,  ii.  173 

j   Lighthouses        ,         .        iv.  91 

Ligurians,  i.  510,  ii.  45t  72,  486 

Lilybaum,  i.  478,  486,  687,  695 

Lions  in  Cuesar's  shows,  iii.  365 

Li  pari  islands  .   i.  467,  483 

Liris  river  .         i.  190 

Literature  (early  forms  of) 

at  Rome      .         .         .   i.  135 

—  slow  development  of    i.  532 

—  Greek  influence  on    .  ii.  257 

—  general  view  of  ii.  259 

—  encouraged  under  Au- 
gustus iii.  754 

—  under  Antonines  .       v.  645 

—  decline       from      early 
vigour         .         .         .V.  646 

—  general  estimate  of  the 
period     ...       v.  654 

—  literary  societies  formed 

V.  664 

—  decay  of,  in  third  cen- 
tury      .  vi.  391,  393 


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GENERAL  INDEX. 


671 


Livia       .        .        .        iii.  682 
Livy    .        .        .     iv.  183,  186 
Locusta,  employed  to  poison 
Emperor  Claudius,!?.  450*467 

—  banished  bj  Gralba  iy.  563 
Logicians  at  Borne  .  vi.  377 
Lollius's  death  .  ir.  100 
Lombaidy  (fertility  of)  i.  509 
Londinium  on  the  Tamesis 

iv.  498 
London  in  time  of  Diocletian 

yi.  558 
Longinus  .  .  vi.  475, 491 
Lotteries  derived  from  Nero 

iv.  518 
Lucan,   poet,  iv.  489,  523,  527, 

V.  648 
Lucanians  .  L  cvi.  a^.,  ii.  2 
Lucca,  conference  at  (b.c. 

56)  .  .  .  iii.  221 
Lnceres,  Roman  tribe,  i.  167,117 
Luceria  .  .  •  i.  338 
LuciliuSy  poet  .  .  ii.  263 
Lucilla,  empress,  wife  of  Q. 
Verus        .        .        .      vi.  7 

—  her  conspiracy  .  vi.  15 
Lucius  Antonius,  iii.  486, 488  seq 

—  son  of  Julia,  adopted 

by  Augustus      .        .  iv.  105 

Lucrotia       .        .        .      i.  49 

Lucrotius.        .        ii.  269,  273 

Lucullus,  sent  to  Sicily  to 

put  down  the  rising  of 

slaves    .        .        ii.  510,  733 

—  commands  war  against 
Mithridates       .        .  ii.  807 

—  proconsul  of  Cilicia    ii.  808 
~  defeats  Mithridates,  ii.  812 

—  atEphesus .        .       ii.  815 

—  war  with  Tigranes     ii.  816 

—  victory  .        .        .    ii.  819 

—  besieges  Artaxata  and 
Nisibis,  recalled    .        ii.  820 

—  luxurious  life  at  Rome,  ii.823 

—  triumph  granted,  iii.  44,  57 
Lucumons,  hereditary  patri- 
cians of  Etruria    .  L  Izx 

Lupercalia  •  .  .  i.  no 
Lusitanians  .  .  ii.  65-69 
Lustrum  .  .  .  i.  120 
Lutetia,  Roman  Paris  iii.  178 
Luxury,  growth  of,  ii.  298,  304, 
346 

—  increase  of  .        .       ii.  223 

—  under  the  Empire, v.  567,603 
Lycus  (battle  of)  defeat  of 

Mithridates  by  Pompey,  ii.825 
Lyons  (foundation  of)origin 
of  name    .        .        .     iv.  53 

—  sides  with  Nero  .       iv.  422 

—  persecution  of  Christians 

V.  226  seq 

—  battle  of  Lyons,  under 
Sevorus,     and      results 

vi.  53,  65,  67,  70 

Maccabees         .  ii.  828,  iii.  515 
Macedonian  war  (first).       i.  636 

—  war  (second)      .        .  ii.  28 

—  termination  and  rosultA 

ii.  36  seq 

—  war  (third)  .    ii.  75,  85  seq 

VOL.  VI. 


Paire 
Macedonian   war,    Marcius 
commands  in      .         .  ii.  102 

—  as  Roman  province  iii.  562 
Machines  of  w«ir  .  .  i.  643 
Macrinus  (Marcus  Opelius), 

origin  .         .         .vi.  264 

—  emperor  (a.d.  217),  vi.  265 

—  war  with  rarthia,  dis- 
cipline of  his  soldiers,  vi.  268 

—  death  .  .  .  vi.  275 
Maecenas    .     iii.  540,  667,  674, 

iv.  169,  195 
Maecia,   new  tribe  formed 

from  conquered  Latins,  i.  326 
Msenian  law  to  suppress  the 

power  of  the  curiae  .  i.  293 
Magic,  penalty  against     iv.  324 

—  at  Rome  under  M. 
Aurelius      .        .         .v.  222 

Magicians  .  iii.  748,  vi.  1 1 1 

Magister  equitum       .         i.  73 
Magistrates,  corrupt  prac- 
tices .        .         .  ii.  622,  624 

—  their  extravagances  paid 
for  by  the  provinces  they 
ruled      .        .         .      ii.  631 

—  powerlessness  duriuj^ 
Gallic  war .        .  iii.  214 

—  Pompey's  law      .     iii.  249 

—  new,  appointed  by  Au- 
gustus   .        .         .     iii.  715 

—  changes  under  Nero,  iv.  474 

—  review  of  position  of,  v.  331, 

—  guarantees  .  v.  366,  369 
Magius,  citizen    of   Capua 

i.  618 
Magna  Grecia        .     i.  603,  612 

—  condition  under  Augus- 
tus       .        .       iii.  575,  655 

Magnesia,  battle  of  .  ii.  56 

Ma^o,  general  under  Han- 
nibal .        .        .    i.  577,  683 

—  death  .  .  .  i.  691 
Maia,  or  Bona  Dea,  Mater 

magna         .  .    i.  81 

Majestas  (crime  of)     .        iii.  2 
Malaria  ...  ii.  315 

—  attacks  Gauls  .  .  i.  259 
Malta,  trade  in  woven  goods 

from  Phcenician  times    iv.  78 
Mamsea,  learned  lady,  time 
•of  Severus      .  vi.  119 

—  corresponds  with  Ori- 

gen  .        .         .         .  vi.  271' 

—  mother  of  Alexander 
Severus,  supposed  to  be  a 
Christian       .         .      vi.  313 

Mamerius    ^milius,    ple- 
beian dictator      .        .  i.  237 
Mamertinos,  Samnite  horse- 
men .        .       L  cv.  381, 465 
Mamertinum  (prison)      iii.  33  n 
Mamilius,  dictator  of  Tus- 

culum .        .         .         .  i.  203 
Mancipation,  customs  con- 
cerning       .        .         .  i.  149 
Mancipium  .         .      v.  311 

Manicnpeans     .  vi.  600,  60S 

Manilius  (see  Gabinius)        iii.  7 

—  author,  of  Augustan  a^e 

IV.  170 


Pago 
Manlius  (C),  accused    by 
tribunes      .        .         .  i.  175 

—  saves  the  Capitol  .       i.  258 

—  (Marcus),  story  of     .  i.  279 

—  dictator    .        .        .  i.  288 

—  action  of  his  son  .       i.  288 

—  (Imperiosus);       consul 
during  Latin  war .        .  i.  322 

—  triumph  .       i.  324 

—  victory  over  Latins,  i.  325 

—  ^see  Vulso)  .  .  ii.  57 
Manlius  (A.),  commissioner 

sent  to  Greece  in  search 
of  good  laws    .  i.  212 

Manners  and    customs    in 
ancient  Rome  .        .       i.  135 

—  private      .        .  i.  140 

—  marriage  i.  14J,  218 

—  durinjo;  Samnite  war    1.  410 

—  deterioration  of .  ii.  1 18 

—  rapid    decay    in,     and 
morals    .  ii.  205^.,  219,  231 

—  domestic   .        .  ii.  255,  281 

—  strife  between  old  and 
new  .        .      ii.  341 

—  decay  gradual    .         ii.  375 

—  attempt  to  reform  under 
Augustus     .         .       .  iv.  258 

—  Tiberius        .        .     iv.  316 

—  and  morals   under  the 
Empire        .        .  v.  565,  579 

—  softening  of  .  .v.  638 
Manufactures    (decline  of), 

in  third  century  .  vi.  385 
Marboduus,    a    Marcoman, 

visits  Rome  .  .  iv.  122 
Marc  Antony,    iii.  231,  266,  268 

—  given  command  of  troops 

in  Italy   .  .iii.  286 

—  at  Apollonia      .         fii.  303 

—  atPharsalia  .         .     iii.  310 

—  master  of  horse  to  Caesar 

i».  336 

—  consul        .        .        iii.  396 

—  after  Caesar's  assassina^ 
tion         .       iii.  414,  417,  421 

—  profits  by  Cae3ar*s  death 

iii.  421,422 

—  repulses  Octavius  .    iii.  426 

—  opposition  at  Rome     iii.  42S 

—  accusation  of  Cicero   iii.  432 

—  sets  out  for  Gaul        iii.  433 

—  defeated  by  Octavius  at 
Castel  Franco        .        iii.  440 

—  at  the  head  of  23  legions 

iii.  443 

—  commands  the  two  pro- 
vinces of  Gaul  .     iii.  446, 465 

—  at  Philippi  .  iii.  472  seq 

—  in  Greece  and  in  Asia, 
luxurious  life        .         iii.  478 

—  cruel  taxation      iii.  481, 482 

—  goes  to  Alexandna  with 
Cleopatra         .        .    iii.  485 

—  called  b^  Parthian  inva- 
sion to  Asia  Minor         iii.  491 

—  at  Athens  .         .        iii.  492 

—  treaty  of  Brundusium,iiL492 

—  marriage  with  Octavia 

.iii.  493 

—  peace  concluded  at  Miso- 
num         .        .        .    iii.  496 

XX 


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672 


GENERAL   INDEX. 


Pnge 
Marc    Antony,    broach    of 
treaty  .         .         iii.  497 

—  meeting  with  Oetavius 

at  Tarentum         .         iii.  499 

—  master  of  the  East      iii.  511 

—  at  Athens      .         .    iii.  514 

—  Jews  .         .         iii.  515 

—  war  in  Parthia      iii.  ^i6heq 

—  rejoins  Cleopatra  .     iii.  519 

—  forbids  Octavia  to  join 
him      .        .        .        iii.  521 

—  his  will  .        .iii.  532 

—  winters  at  Patras  (32-ji ) 

iii.  534 

—  his  fleet     .        .        iii.  534 

—  battle  of  Actium,  iii.  536  seq 

—  Antony's  flight      .    iii.  538 

—  his  death   .        .        iii.  544 
Marcellus,   i.  516,  614, 639,  644, 

657,  659 

—  consul  (B.C.  52)     .    iii.  252 

—  insults  Caesar     .        iii.  253 
Marcia(gens)      .         .       i.  190 

—  concubine  of  Commodus 

vL  25 

—  a  Christian  .         .        vi.  25 

—  has  him  murdered        vi.  20 
Marcius    Rex,    expedition 

against  barbarians  ii.  484 

Marcomanni,  war  with  .  v.  191 
Marcus  Antonius,  orator,  ii.  604 

—  Aurelius     adopted    by 
Antoninus  Pius  (a.  D.  121) 

VI.  168 

—  Spanish  origin,  austere 
youth      ...      V.  169 

—  wars  threatening  v.  172 

—  campaign    in   the  East 
under  Cassius        .         v.  176 

—  treatment  of  senate      v.  1 78 

—  administration  inltaly,v.i79 

—  laws  and  institutions  v.  180, 

182 

—  human  legislation,  v.  183,201 

—  terrible  pestilence         v.  183 

—  Christians  persecuted  v.  184 

—  philosophy  of         .      v.  185 

—  German  invasion  v.  186 

—  with  Verus  oppose  inva- 
sion     ...         V.  191 

second  expedition,  gladi- 
ators in  the  army      .     v.  192 

—  want  of  money   .         v.  194 

—  no  details  of  the  war    v.  195 

—  against  the  Parthians  v.  197 

—  revolt  of  Cassius    .      v.  198 

—  at  Antioch  .         v.  204 

—  at  Alexandria,  at  Athens 

V.  205 

—  returns   to   Rome,   tri- 
umph      ...      V.  205 

—  fresh    disturbance      in 
Pannonia  (a.d.  178)     .  v.  206 

—  death  at   Vienna  (a.d. 
180)       ...       v.  207 

—  Faustina.        .    v.  207,  216 

—  examination      of      his 
philosophy    .         .        v.  214 

—  his  "  Meditations  "     v.  215 

seq.,  679,  680,  723 

—  Lopidus  conspires  to  kill 
OctaviuB  .        .        .    iii.  667 


Page 
Maremma  .  .  .1.  xxv 
Marian  party  return  to  Rome 

after  Sylla*8  death  .       ii.  738 
Maritime  operations  of  Rome 

(260-255),  vi.  474 

—  disaster  .         .        .  vi.  482 

—  success  of  ^ine .       vi.  495 

—  affairs  according  to  Livy 

Marius,  his  early  career    11.  445 

—  tribune,  tries  to  im- 
prove the  voting,  elected 
praetor    .        .        .      ii.  446 

—  accused  and  acquitted, 
in  Spain,  marriage,  in 
Africa        .  .    ii.  449 

—  lieutenant  to  Metellus,ii.  469 

—  consul  .        .       ii.  472 

—  conducts    war    against 
Jogurtha        .        .    ii.  474 

—  surprises  garrison  of 
Molucha        .        .        ii.  477 

—  captures  Jugurtha  and 
divides  his  kii^om  .    ii.  479 

—  carries  Jugurtha  to 
Rome   .         .         .         ii.  480 

—  second  time  consul     ii.  483 

—  sent  to  guard  the  Alp8,ii.  494 

—  his  treatment  of  the 
legionaries       .         .     ii.  495 

—  -  continued  in  his  consul- 
ship three  years    .         ii.  497 

—  battle  at  Aix .      ii.  4^500 

—  consul,  fifth  time        ii.  502 

—  recalled  to  oppose  the 
invasion  of  the  Cimbri,  ii.  504 

—  defeats  them  at  Ver- 
cellae        .         .        .     ii.  505 

—  pride  of     .        .        ii.  507 

—  uses  bribery  .         .     ii.  516 

—  becomes  triumvir       ii.  517 

—  decline  of  popularity,  ii.  522 

—  goes  to  Mithridates,  ii.  526, 

549,  556 

—  Social  war         .         ii.  561 

—  commands    the    whole 
consular  army       .     ii.  564 

—  he  retires  .         .         ii.  565 

—  rivaby  with  Sylla  .     ii.  580 

—  flight  from  Rome  ii.  ^91  seq 

—  Plutarch's  account    ii.  591- 

600 

—  return  to  Rome        .  ii.  602 

—  orders  a  massacre  of  his 
foes  at  Rome    .  ii.  604 

—  death         .         .         ii.  606 
Marius,  the  younger      .  ii.  680 

—  commands  the  defence 

of  Latiuih  in  Civil  war,  ii.  681  . 

—  defeat  at  Praeneste  .  ii.  682 

—  defeat  add  death .       ii.  688 

—  blacksmith,  emperor,  vi.  444 
Marriage  between  patricians 

and  plebeians  made  legal 

i.  232 

—  different  forms  of  .     i.  551 

—  laxness  concerning      ii.  277 

—  Metellud  concerning,  ii.  293 

—  Augustus,  laws  relating 

to        .         .         .   iii.  756  seq 

—  under  Empire        .      v.  236 

—  ceremony  of  betrothal,  v.  252 


Fage 
Marriage,  ring  used  was  un- 
lucky   ...        V.  252 

—  dowry      .         .         .v.  252 

—  co-emptio     .         .      v.  253 

—  confaneatio      .        .  v.  254 

—  poets'  account  of  .      v.  264 

—  of  soldiers        .        •▼•550 

—  of  second     .         .      v.  267 

—  Roman    idea   of,  very 
hiffh  .        .         .        .  V.  267 

—  dignity  of  the  matron 

V.  259-268 
Mars,  public  God     .        .  i.  77 

—  Augustus'  temple  of,  iii.  750 
MarseiUes,  ii.  164,  553,  iv.  333, 

V.  422 

—  assists  Scipio .         .     i.  676 

—  greatest  commercial  city 

of  the  West .         .  ii.  485  teq 

—  Greek  origin  .         .    iii.  84 

—  revolts  from  Csesar,  iii.  282 

—  in  time  of  Augustus,  iii.  555 

—  its  schools  .  .  iii.  555 
Marsi  .  .  I.  c.  353,  3J5 
Martial,  asthor        .        iv.  A89 

Martius    Rutilus,   dictator 

i.  273,  289 
Martyrdom  of  S.  Ignatius 
and  S.  Simeon  .         .  iv.  819 

—  under  Antoninus  Pius 

V.  155  «^ 
Martyrs  at  Lyons      .        v.  230 

—  in  Africa  and  Sicily,  v.  230 

—  at  Carthage  (180  A.  D.^ 

vi.  220,  234 
Masinissa,  ally  of  Hannibal 

i.  683,  684 

—  defeated  by  Syphax,  i.  689, 

ii.  37,  83,  93,  125,  140 
Mastama,    Etruscan  name 

of  Servius  Tullus  .  i.  118 
Masters  and  slaves  v.  294-309 
Matemus,  rebellion   under 

Commodus        .         .     vi.  21 
Mauretania    .     ii.  451,  iii.  616 
Mausoleum  of  Augustus,  iv.  216 
Maximian     appointed    co- 
adjutor with  Diocletian 

vi.  539.  541,  547,  558 
Maximin     (Caius      Julius 
Verus)  emperor  (235-238) 
origin       .        .         .  vi-  317 

—  war  with  Germans,   vi.  379 

—  other  wars .         .       vi.  320 

—  contempt  for,  at  Rome 

vi.  320 

—  Gordian     proclaimed 
emperor    .        .         .  vi.  323 

—  retu]^ns  to  Italy  .       vi.  331 

—  murdered  .  .  vi.  333 
May  (calendar  for  jnonth  of) 

i.  142 

Mayence,  fortifications  of, 
by  Augustus    .       iv.  116-118 

Measurement  of  the  Pro- 
vinces under  Augustus, iv.9, 10 

Meat  used  in  sacrifice  eaten 
as  a  religious  observance 

vii.513 

Medical  instruction  and 
assistance   .        .v.  404,  40S 


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GENERAL   INDEX. 


673 


PAg« 

Mediterranean  Sea    .        .    i.  i 

—  Romans  first  commence 
conquest  beyond,ii.  483,  iii.323 

Memmius  .  .  -  ii.  462  ieq 
Momnon,  statue  of,  v.  91,  92,  93 
vi.  92 
Memphis,  time  of  Hadrian,  v.  88 
Menapii,  Grallic  tribe  .  iii.  178 
Menenius  Agrippa,  popular 
advocate    .        .     i.  165,  173 

—  accused  of  treason  i.  174 
Menhirs,  Gallic  monuments 

iii.  117 
Menu  of  dinner  of  Lentulus 

V.583 

—  of  Pliny  .  .  .V.  585 
Mercantile  parts  .  .  iv.  78 
Mercenaries  i.  420,  ii.  20,  405 
Merchandise      of      Roman 

world  under  Augustus  iv. 72,90 
Messalina,wife  of  Claudius  iv.435 

—  her  vices       .        iv.  438  »q 

—  death  .  .  iv.  445 
Messiah,  expectation  of  iii.  629 

and  n 
Messina,  sie^e  of         .       i.  46S 

—  besieged  by  Lopidus,  iii.  509 
Mesopotamia  oi^anized  as 

a  province  by  Severus  vi.  77 
Metapontum,  Achaean  colony 

I.  cxv 

Metaurus,  battle  of  i.  671,  686, 

ii.  2 

Metelli  .        .        .     i.  412 

Metellus   .  .     i.  483  aeq 

—  Maccdonicus  .      ii.  152,  437 

—  (Q.  Cfficilius),  consul  in 
Africa  against  Jugurtha 

ii.  467  8eq 

—  besieges  Thala    .        ii.  473 

—  is  superseded  by  Marius 

"•  473 

—  opposes  Manus  in  Rome 

ii.  518,  603 

—  praetor  joins  Sylla,ii.677,  686 

—  opposed  to  Sertorius  in 
Spain    .         .         .        ii.  753 

—  war  against  pirates  in 
Crete         .        .        .    ii.  797 

—  proposes  to  recall  Pom- 
pey  from  Asia    •        .    iii.  39 

—  declared  suspended  b^ 
Senate  .        .         .         iii.  49 

Micipsa  .  .  ii.  453, 454 
Middle  class,  decline  of  ii.  291 
Miletus,    second     city    of 

Roman  Asia         .        iii.  594 
Military  history  from  the 
death  of  Tarquin  t.o  the 
Decemvirs  (495-45 1 )  i .  1 79. 1 98 

—  from  448  to  389  .  i.  240, 262 
Military     regulations     ex- 
acted from  patricians  by 
Valerius  Corva^j      .        1.  290 

—  life.        .        .        .     i.  319 

—  discipline    .        .         i.  336 

—  population      .        .     i.  390 

—  organization      -  .        i.  419 

—  service    .        .      i.  420, 453 

—  sedition       .         .        i.  684 

—  recruiting  difficult  .    ii.  291 

—  population  •        .       ii.  293 


Military  morality      ii.  294,  467 

—  degradation  of  con- 
quered general        .        ii.  494 

—  expenses  foil  upon  the 
Italian  allies,  while  the^ 
were  excluded  from  mili- 
tary glory         .        ,    ii.  541 

—  order  of  march    ,      iii.  146 

—  position  of  sons  of 
senators    .        .        .  iii.  726 

—  matters  under  Hadrian 

v.  14  seq 

—  under  Antonines     .     v.  538 

—  education  .        .  v.  542 

—  great  work  executed  by 
the  soldiers       .        .     v.  543 

—  marriage  of  soldiers  per- 
mitted  by  Severus         vi.  133 

Military  service  under  Ser- 
vius  TuUus,  i.  37,  1 19,  120  seq.y 

^-  350 

—  service    oblicator^,  v.   544 

—  religious  and  sanitary 
service  and  ambulance 
pay        .        .         .       V.  546 

—  oath         .      V.  547,  VI.  134 

—  life     .        .        .       V.  548 

—  discipline  .        .  v.  549 

—  rewards       .  v.  549 

—  marriage .         .         .  v.  550 

—  discharge  .       v.  550 

—  pensions  .  .v.  550 

—  pay  increased  by  Cara- 
calla  .         .         .  vi.  248 

—  anarchy       .         vi.  317  teq 

—  affairs      .         .  vi.  364-375 

—  anarchy  in  the  Empire 

▼i-  435-447 
Mile  stones  used  by  Cains 
Gracchus        .        .       ii.  424 

—  Augustus        .        .      iv.  16 
Milo  tribune,  iii.  214,  217,  242 

Minerva,  public  god        .     1.  77 
Mines  under  the  Empire 

V.  577 
Mining   by  Phcenicians  in 
Spain  .         .      iii.  5C4 

—  of  Spaniards    .        .  iv.  85 

—  in  Transylvania    .     iv.  763, 

vi.  385 
Minucius  .  .  i.  598, 605 
Misenum,  fleet  of  Augustus 

at       .         .      iii.  719,  vi.  51 
Mishna,     composition     of, 

V.  123,  126 
Mithras,  Persian  sun  god, 

worshippers  at  Rome,  iv.  420 
Mithridates    VI.,  king    of 

Pontus        .         .  ii.  525, 561 

—  invited  to  join  in  Social 
war        .        .        .       ii.  574 

—  war  with  Rome,  Marius 
appointed  to  the  com- 
mand .         .         .  ii.  587 

—  heads  insurrection 
against  Rome  .       ii.  639 

—  sumamed  "  The  Great " 

ii.  641 

—  early  life  and  character 

ii.  641 

—  extensive  conquests,  ii.  643  f 


Pwre 
Mithridates  VI.  establishes 
a  nav^    .         .       ii.  644, 651 

—  policy  in  Asia  Minor,  ii.  647 

—  conquers  Scythians,  ii.  648 

—  extent  of  kingdom,  ii.  649 

—  unites  barbarians  against 
Rome  .         .  ii.  651 

—  war  declared        .      ii.  653 

—  victory    .         .  ii.  653 

—  massacre  of  Romans,  ii.  654 

—  marriage  with  Monima 

ii.  655 

—  defeated  at  Chaeronoa 

ii.  666 

—  oppression  in  Asia,  ii.  667 

—  submits  to  Sylla,  ii.  672,  705 

—  offers  to  assist  Sertorius 
against  Pompey     .       ii.  776 

—  again  assumes  the  offen- 
sive       .         .         .       ii.  784 

—  assisted  by  pirates,  ii.  791 

—  renewed  war  with  Rome 

ii.  804 

—  defeated  by  Lucullus,  ii.  812 

—  second  defeat  at  Cabira, 

his  wives    .         .         .  ii.  814 

—  renewed      war      with 
Pompey  .       ii.  832 

—  death       .        .  ii.  833 

—  body  sent  to  Pompey,  ii.  834 

—  the   Pergamean  prince 

ii.  326 

—  kingdom  of  Pharnnces 
given  to      .        .         .  ii.  334 

Moesia  under  Hadrian,  v.  22  sea 

—  under  Antonines  .  v.  430 
Money   .         .         .      iv.  14,  76 

—  counterfeit,  coined  for 
Indian  trade  .         .        iv.  88 

Monied  class  arises,  ii.  337,  340 
Monuments  at  graves     .  v.  279 
Morals    as    described     in 
literature        .         .       v.  617 

—  in  provinces  .  .  v.  624 
Mosaics  .  .  .  iv.  204 
Mothers  ,         .         .v.  236 

—  position  of  .         .v.  250 

—  of  three  children  inde- 
pendent     .         .         .V.  269 

Mucius  ScsQvola .        .         i.  55 
Mulcta,   a   fine,  origin   of 

term  .  .  .  .  i.  137 
Mulucha  or  Malva,  fortress 

in  N.  Africa  .  ii.  474,  477 
Mummins,    consul,    carries 

works  of  art  from  Greece 

ii.  137 

Munda  (battle  of)  .         iii.  375 

Municipal  institutions,  v.  319, 

413.  vi.  130 

—  ^vemment  under  Ha- 
dnan .        .        .        .    v.  96 

Municipia.        .        .        i.  393 
Murderers  of  Caesar,  iii.  413  uq., 

438 
Murena,  propraetor  in  Asia, 
commands  against  (83),ii.  804 

—  defeated  .  .  ii.  805 
Murzes,  king    of    Paphla- 

gonia  .  .  .  "•  58 
Music  and  musicians  .  ii.  281 
Mylae,  sea  fight  at  iii.  506 

XX  2 


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674 


GENERAL   INDEX. 


Myonnosus  (bftttle  of) 
—  results     . 


Pace 
Ji.  54 

ii.  55 


Nabis  .  .  .  .  ii.  39 
Nsevins,  poet  ii.  263 

—  attAcks  Scipio  .  ii.  550,  356 
Names  (Koman) .  .  li.  445  n 
Naples   .  .         .    i.  621 

—  faithful    to    Kome    in 
Social  war,  ii.  559,  iii.  656,659 

Najpoleon  III.,  "  Life  of 
Csesar"       .         .     iii.  134  n 

Nar,  river  .         .        .        i.  354 

NarboMartios  (NarbonneJ, 
fortress  in  South  Gaul,  ii.  489, 
758,  iii.  284,  555.  iv.  24 

Navbonensis  (insurrection 
of)  .         .  ii.  639,  756 

—  Lepidus  commands,  iii.  446, 

iv.  51 

—  sides    \7ith     Vespasian 
against  Vitellius  iv.  595 

Narnia  .  .  .  .  i.  354 
Narses,  king  of  Persia  .  vi.  566 
Nasica  opposed  to  T.  Grac- 
chus .  .  vi.  412, 414 
Nations  on  northern  fron- 
tier under  Augustus  .  iii.  629 
Naturalism,     worship      of 

trees,  &c.    .        .        .     i.  94 
Naturalization  v.  235,  236 

Naval  fi^ht  at  Naulochus,  iii.  506 
Navigation  .  .  iv.  73,  91 
Navius,  au^ur .  ,  *  '•  3^ 
Navy    .    IV.  133,  342,  474,  482 

—  losses  in     .  iv.  491 

—  destruction  during  first 
Punic  war         .        .   iv.  497 

—  kept  in  Spain  by  senate 

iv.  757 
Nemi    (T/ike),  *' Mirror  of 

Diana"  .         .         1.  xiv 

Nero  (C.  Claudius),  consul 
207  B.C.,  opposes  Hanni- 
bal   .        .        .       i.  665  seq 

—  son  of  Germanicus     iv.  344 

—  (emperor),8on  of  Agrip- 
pina  and  Ahenobarbus 

iv.  446,  448 

—  proclaimed  emperor,  iv.  45 1 

—  succession  (a.d.  68)  iv.  457 

—  early  influences    .     iv.  458 

—  his  tutor,   Seneca,  iv.  458, 

461,  463 

—  his  mother,  Agrippina 

IV.  464  seq 

—  his  brother,  Britannicus 

iv.  466 

—  disgrace  of  Agrippina,iv.469 

—  useful  reforms,  iv.  470,  472 

—  murders  and  orgies,  iv.  476, 

504 

—  murder  of  Agrippina.iv.  478, 

479 

—  whims       .         iv.  481,  482 

—  Neronian  games    .    iv.  482 

—  condition  of  Rome  and 
provinces    .        .         iv.  484 

—  military  events  of  his 
reign      .         .        iv.  491-499 

—  death  of  Burrus  and  re- 
tirement of  Seneca,  i  v.  499,  500 


Page 
Nero  divorces  Octavia   .  iv.  500 

—  public  musical  perform- 
ances   .        .         .        iv.  503 

—  accused  of  burning 
Rome       .        .        .    iv.  505 

—  persecutes  Christians,iv.  5 1 1 

—  persecutes  philosophers 

iv.  514 

—  rebuilds  Rome,  his 
palace .         .        .         iv.  516 

—  his  extravagance    .    iv.  517 

—  his  means  of  gaining 
money,  debases  the  coin- 
age .        .         .        .    iv.  519 

—  robs  the  sanctuaries,  iv.  519 

—  taxation  and  sumptuary 
laws     .        .         .         iv.  520 

—  conspiracies  against  iv.  522 

—  cruelties   and  murders 

iv.  S26  8eq 

—  visits  the  Olympic 
games.         .         .         iv.  544 

—  brings  statues  from 
Greece     .        .        .     iv.  546 

—  growing  discontent  at 
Rome ...  iv.  547 

—  revolt   of   Gaul   under 

V index    .         .        iv.  549  seq 

—  flight  of    .         .         iv.  555 

—  his  death       .     iv.  556,  557 

—  Pliny's  verdict        .  iv.  557 

—  Anti-christ  .  iv.  558 
Nerva  .        .        .     iv.  734,  738 

—  praetorians  murmur  at 

his  election  .        .         iv.  738 

—  mild  administration,  iv.  739 

—  conspiracy   of   Crassus 

iv.  741 

—  weakness  of        .  iv.  741  seq 

—  adoption  of  Trajan  .  iv.  742 
Nervii  .  iii.  146,  170,  171,  202 
New  nobility  .        .         .v.  505 

—  germs  of  corruption,  v.  508 
Nic«a,  in  Bithynia  .  iii.  595 
Nicomedes  .  .  ii.  554, 647 
Nicomedia,  iii.   595,  v.  72,  183 

—  destroyed  by  earthquiUie 
and  restored  .        .        .  vi.  8 

—  Diocletian  received  the 
purple  at  .        .        .  vi.  579 

—  persecution  at     .       vi.  614 

—  Diocletian   returns   to 

vi.  627 
Nicopolis  founded  by  Au- 
gustus in  memory  of  Ac- 
tium       .        .        .      iii.  540 
Niger,  rival  of  Severus,  vi.  45 

—  defeated  at  Nicsea,  vi.  J  I,  78 
Nile  (statue  of)  .     iii.  690 

—  sources  of  river,  v.  464,  vi.  92 
Nimes.  Phoenician  origin,  iii.  84 

—  (Hadrian's  works  at),  v.  45, 

357.  422 
Nineveh  (Severus  at)       .  vi.  78 
Nobles,  their  attitude  in  the 
time  of  Gracchi       .       ii.  443 

—  under  Nerva  iv.  740 
Nomadic  tribes  of  Asia  and 

Africa,  time  of  Augustus 

iii.  649 
Norba  (cyclopoan  walls  of) 

ii.  681,  688 


Norbanos  commands  army 


P««e 


opposing  Brutus 
Norchia  (tombs  at). 
Norieum    . 
—  trade  in  iron 


111.  471 

iii.  63,  558 
iv.  85, 108, 
V.  29 
iii.  649 


Nubians 

Nuceria   (codqneflt  of)    hj 
FabiuB  ...        I.  350 

—  contest  of  Nueeriaps 
and  Pompoians    .  iv.  486 

Numa    PompiliuB,    second 
king      .        .         .  i.  15 

—  disciple  of  Pythagoras,  i.  15 

—  inspired  by  Egeria,  he 
arranged  religious  cere- 
monies       .         .         .     i.  15 

—  fixed  boundaries  of  land,  i.  19 
Numantia,  ii.  154,  401,  iii  ^52 
Numidia  (rival  kings  of),   i.  6£f, 

iL  449 

—  ancient  remains,  ii.  450,451, 

480 
Numidians    in    Hannibnl's 
army,  i.   580,  589,  596,  597, 
608,  651,  690 

—  in  Social  war        .      ii.  562 

—  a^iinst  Caesar  .  iii.  344 
Numidicus  .  .  ii.  525 
Nundinae  .  .  i.  141,  294 
Nurses,    their    position  in 

the  Roman  family  .        v.  240 
Nymphaeum,  near  Smyrna,  v.  70 

Oaths  (important    position 
of)  ...        i.  148- 

—  of    personal     devotion 

i.  347.  358 

—  sacred  nature  of  L  412 

—  legionary         .     i.  422,  429 

—  military  .  .  v.  547 
Obsidional  crown,  highest 

military  honour  .    i.  320 

Octavia    .         iii.  493,  499,  520 

—  wife  of  Nero,  iv.  476, 481,500 
Octavius,  tribune  opposed  to 

Tiberius  Gracchus    ii.  406  ffq 
Octavius  (see  August  us) 
Odenathus  of  Palmyra, vi.  433,4  \  I 

—  becomes  master  of  the 
East         .        .     vi.  442, 448 

Officers  under  the  Empire,  v.  528 

—  tabellarii  .        ,         .v.  529 

—  aquarii        .         .        v.  529 

—  frcedmen      .        .       v.  531 

—  secretaries       .         .  v.  534 
Olympia  spared  in    Mace- 
donian war     .        .       ii.  135 

Olympus  (M.),  battles  on, 

between     Harcius     and 

Perseus     .        .      ii.  102  ^e^ 

Omens,  i.  263,  357,  367,  487.553- 

594,  666, 692,  ii.  410 

Oppian  law       .        .         ii.  346 

Oracles  i.  611,  688,  vi.  611 

Orange  on  the  Rhone   .     ii.  493 

—  great  defeat  of  Romans 
there      .        .        .       ii.  494 

—  arch  to  commemorate 
victory  of  Tiberius        iv.  323 

Orchomenus,  battle  between 
Sylla  and  Mithridates  il  670 


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OENBBAL   INDEX. 


675 


Page 
Order  of  battle  .  i.  425  seq 
Organization    of    provinces 

see  j[Augnstus) 
Organization     of     Empire 

under  Augustus  (see  Au- 


Or^etorix,  Gallic  chief    iii.  132 
Onental  religions  at  Rome 

y.  700,  vi.  148,  500 
Oriugis,  battle  of  .  .  i.  683 
Ortygia  (island  of)  .  i.  639 

Oscans  and  Sabellians,  I.  xc.  seq., 

323 
Ostia,  saltworks,  i.  273, 606, 614 

—  harbour  constructed  by 
Claudius    .        .        .  iy.  408 

—  Trajan  enlarges  .  iv.  800 
Osuna  (laws  of)  .  v.  356,  359 
Otho,     his     wife      Sabina 

Poppsea     .        .        ,  iy.  476 

—  opposes  Galba      .      iy.  567 

—  succeeds  Galba        .  iy.  571 

—  disaffection  of  the  pro- 
vinces  .        •    .   i^-  574. 578 

—  marches  against  the 
rebels        .         .        .  iy.  580 

—  death  of  (April,  a.d.  69) 

iv.  581 
Ovid      .      iii.  749,  iv.  142,  170 
Ovinian  plebii}citum,openin|f 
senate  to  plebeians         1.  292 

Bidua,      success      against 

Lacedaemonians  .  .  i.  353 
Paestum  .  L  cxx.  329,  iii.  659 
Paganism  (decline  of) .  v.  221 
Painting  (ancient),  at  Ardea 

and  Caere  .  .  .  i.  138 
Palseopolis,  Greek  colony,  i.  334 
Palatine  Hill  .  .  i.  8, 65 
Pales,  god  of  the  farm  .  i.  81 
Palilia  .  .  .  i.  no 
Palladium  .  .  .  i.  105 
Palmyra,  v.  75,  78,  80,  378, 
vi.  83-85 

—  Odenathus  prepares  for 
war  with  Sapor,  king  of 
Persia    .        .        .      vi.  433 

—  made  king  there         vi.  435 

—  given  title  of  "  Au- 
gustus '*  .        .      vi.  43J 

—  siege  of,  by  Aurelinn,  vi.  4S8 

—  defeat  and  second  re- 
bellion       .        .  vi.  491 

—  city  ruined  .  .  vi.  492 
Paludamentum,      military 

robe  .  .         .  i.  594 

Pannonia,  iiL  558,  iv.  114,494 
V.  28,  vi.  415 
Pannonians  .  iii.  63,  iv.  742 
Panormus,  i.  477,  482,  486,  489 
Pantheon  of  Agrippa .  iv.  213 
Paphlagonia  .  .  iii.  5S6 
Papinian,  friend  of  Sovorus 

vi.  43,81, 114, 1 19,123  «fg.,243 
Papirius    .        .         i.  257,  306 

—  dictator,  i.  335, 339, 347, 360 

—  Carbo,  triumvir        .  ii.  413 

—  Carbo,  consul,  opposed 

to  invasion  of  Cimbri,  ii.  490 

—  consul  .  .  ii.  675 
Parentalia      .        .         iv.  396 


Pago 
Parisades,    king   of    Cim- 

merian  Bosphorus  .  ii.  643 
Parisii,  first  mentioned  by 

Csesar         .         .  iii.  178 

Partliia,  ii.  837,  iii.  232,  iv.  494 

—  Homan  routes  to      .    v.  74 

—  war  under  M.  Aurelius 

V.  177 

—  Caracalla    .        .      vi.  258 

—  Macrinus         .  vi.  266 

—  campaign  of  Trajan  in 

iv.  824 
Parthians      (Crassus    sent 
against)  .        .      iii.  229,  232 

—  defeat  Crassus        .  iii.  236 

—  invade  Asia  Minor,  iii.  491 

—  Antony's  war  ,         iii.  515 

—  send  embassy  after 
Antony's  death       .      iii.  686 

—  under  Augustus  iv.  121 
Parties  in  Italian  cities*,  i.  341 
Paterfamilias  (power  of),  i.  217 
Paternity  (laws  of),  y.  237  seq. , 

244 
Patemus  rTarruteniusVlaw- 
yer  unaer  Commoaus,  vi.  16 

—  condemned  .  .  vi.  16 
Patria  potestas  .  i.  106,  v.  246 
Patricians       .        .       I.  cxxiii 

—  and  clients,  i.  67,69,  71,  72, 

154 

—  priests  of  their  fomilies 
and  clients,  new  patri- 
cians ma<le   by  Tarquin 

i.  116 

—  consuls         .        i.  152,  155 

—  families  (extiiiction  of) 

J.  157.  412 

—  appoint  sediles  and  prae- 
tors Co  balance  the  ple- 
beian advance  in  power,  i.  285 

—  (increased  power  of),  ii.  285 

—  createtl  by  Julius  Caesar 

iii.  384 

—  (new),made  by  Claudius  ' 

^     .    .  .      *^-  435 

Patriotism.        .        1.  147,  410 

—  during  second  Punic 
war    .        .         .    i.  630,  661 

—  decline  of  .  ii.  271,  315 
Pjitrons  and  freetlmen,  v.  y)6  seq 
Paul(S.)  .         iv.  508,  510,513 

—  his  trial  .  .  v.  340 
Paulina,  wife  of  Seneca,  iv.  526 
Paulus  -ffimilius      .  i.  607,  oio 

—  consul.        .         .      ii.  105 

—  commands  in  Mncodo- 
nian  war  ii.  107  seq 

—  agreement  with  Mace- 
don         .  *        .       ii.  116 

—  triumph    .  .          ii.  1 18 

—  death  .  .         .      ii.  122 

—  culture  .          ii.  375 

—  .  .  .  .  vi.  120 
Pausanias  .  .  v.  57,  117 
Pax  romana  .  .  ii.  201 
Pearls  worn  by  matrons    iv.  77 

—  great  price  of,  iv.  87,  v.  587 
Pecus         .         .         .        i.  169 

—  pecunia  .  .  i.  169 
Pedum  .  .  .  i.  326 
Pelasgiaus      .         .         .    1.  xl 


Page 
Peligni       .         .         .         .  I.  c 

—  husbandry  and  agricul- 
ture of  .        .        .  I.  ci 

Pelusium  in  Egypt  iii.  324 

Penal  laws  concerning  Ho- 
nestiores  and  Humiliorcs 

iii.  464,  V.  388 
Penates  .  .  i.  84,  86  seq 
People  (the  Roman)  v.  519 

—  public  aid  of .         .v.  520 

—  distributions    .   v.  522,  524 

—  public  games        .       v.  524 

—  open  free .         .  v.  525 

—  pleasures  of  the— Blues 
and  Greens .         .  v.  527 

Perennis,    praefect    of    the 
guards  under  Commodus 

vi.  7 

—  his  policy    .  vi.  16,  20 

—  deatn        .        .         »  vi.  21 

—  exiles  Pertinak     .       vi.  31 
Pergamus       .        .    ii.  53,  158 

—  becomes  a  Roman  pro- 
vince .         .     ii.  162,  iii.  595 

Perpema    .        .       ii.  755,  770 
Perpetua    (S.),    martyr  of 

Carthage         .        .     vi.  227 
Persecution   of    Christians 

vi.  219  seq.f  238 
Perseus,  son  and  successor 

of  Philip  V.    .         .        ii.  84 

—  incites  Greeks  against 
Rome     .        .        .  ii.  86  j^ 

—  defeats  Romans  in  first 
battle     .        .        .        ii.  98 

—  defeated  at  Pydna      ii.  H2 

—  surrenders        .  ii.  113 

—  death  .        .        .      ii.  122 
Persia    (war    with)    under 

Alexander  Severus,  vi.  306^7., 
3428eq 

—  under  Valerian,  vi.  422  seq 

—  treatment  by  Probus,  vi.  520 

—  Cams  .         .        •     vi.  $25 

—  Diocletian         .         vi.  568 
Pertinax(Publius  Helvius), 

general  under  Commodus 

vi.  9,  21 

—  chosen     emperor,   low 
origin     .         .         .       vi.  29 

—  early  services    .      vi.  30,  31 

—  simple  life   .         .       vi.  32 

—  murder    .         .        .  vi.  34 

—  deified  .         .       vi.  46 
Perugia .        .         .        .  i.  347 
Perusia  (war  in  476),   de- 
struction of    .        .     iii.  489 

Pestilence  under  M.  Aure- 
lius   .        .        .         .v.  183 

—  under  Commodus        vi.  23 

—  in  third  century  .       vi.  395 
Petra    .         .         .  iii.  649 

—  position  and  condition 
under  Trajan,  iv.  776,  v.  75,  84 

Phaedrus,  poet  .         .       iv.  170 
Phalanx       .         .       ii.  5  n.,  30 

—  oi^anized      by     Cara- 
calla      .        .         .      vi.  369 

Pharnaccs,  son  of  Mithri- 

dates     .         .       iii.  331.  334 
Pharos .         .         .  iii.  326 

Pharsalia  (battle  of),  iii.  309-312 


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676 


GBN^RAL   INDEX* 


Page 
Philip  V.  qi  Mocedon  pro- 
poses to  assist  Hannibal,  i.627, 
636,  637,  ii.  22  seq 

—  allies  himself  with  An- 
tiuchus  III.  and  Prusias,  ii.  29 

—  Sulpiciiis  sent  against,  ii.  30 

—  truce  of,  with  Flami- 
ninus     .        .         .         ii.  34 

—  defeated  at  Cynosce- 
phalse.         .        .        .  ii.  36 

—  term  of  treaty  with 
Rome    .        .     ii.  35,  37,  55 

—  third  Macedonian  war 
with  .  .        .  ii.  75 

—  founds  Philippopolis,  ii.  78 

—  death .         .         .         ii.  84 

—  (the  Arabian),  minister 
of  and  joint  emperor  with 
Gordian  II.    .        .      yi.  344 

—  emperor  .         .     vi.  347  seg 

—  events  of  his  reign 
little  known  .         .       vi.  348 

r—  great  celebration  of 
secular  games    .         .  vi.  349 

—  (Younger) .  .  vi.  349 
Philippi  (battle  of)  iii.  471  seq 
Philippus,     freedman      of 

Pompey  .  .  .  iii.  319 
Philo  of  Alexandria  .  v.  721 
Philopoemen         .  ii.  80 

—  death  .  ii.  82 
Philosophers  persecuted  by 

Nero     .        .        .       iv.  514 

—  (Greek),  expelled  from 
Rome  by  order  of  senate 

ii.  236,  238 

—  used  as  teachers      .  ii.  239 

—  at  siege  of  Athens      ii.  660 

—  at  Rome  under  the 
Empire    .         .        v.  664  seq 

—  time  of  Hadrian,  public 
preaching,  dress,  &c,  v.  119 

—  their  position  and  in- 
fluence .        .        .V.  682  seq 

—  eflPorts  to  satisfy  reli- 
gious difficulties        .    V.  715 

Philo80phy(sketch  of  Greek), 

ii.  212-217 

—  taught  at  Rome  by  three 
Greek  philosophers        ii.  234 

—  under  Vespasian  at 
Rome        .         .         .  iv.  663 

Philostratus     .         .        vi.  120 
Phlegon,   freedman  of  Ha- 
drian, historian     .  V.  117 
Phoenicia  as  a  Roman  pro- 
vince under  Augustus,  iii.  597 

—  commerce  with  .  iv.  87 
Phcenicians  ...       i.  438 

—  their  colonies     .  i.  440 

—  trade     .        .        .      i.  441 

—  in  Gaul  . .  . .  iii.  83,  84 
Phraates     .        .     iii.  518,687, 

iv.  97 
Phrygians        .        .        iii.  586 
Physicians  at  Rome  under 
Augustus  .         .     iv.  197 

—  under  Antonines     v.  402  seq 

—  examination  of       .      v.  404 

—  practice      .         .  v.  405 

—  public  support        .      v.  406 

—  of  army     .  v.  40O 


Page 
Picentines .  .  .  .  L  c 
Piety  .        .  i.  148 

Pirates,  i.   506,  508,  662,  ii.    19 

—  in  Spain      ii.  757,  766,  784 

—  war  with  .        .  ii.  791 

—  their       number      and 
wealth      .         .         .     ii.  793 

—  defeat  of  Antonius,  ii.   797 

—  defeated  by  Pompey,  ii.  803 
Piraeus  besieged  by  SyUa,  ii.  661 
Piso,  consul,  li.  799,  iii.  i,  12,213 

—  under  Tiberius,  iv.  298,  308, 

^        314,315.354 

—  emperor  for  four  days 

iy.  570 

—  conspires  againstNero,iv.522 
Placentia  .        .  i.  590 

—  besieged  by  Hasdrubal,i.  667 
Plague  i.  287, 31 1,  644,  ii.  253 
Plautian-Papirian  law     ii.  57c, 


87 


Plautianus,  prsefect  of  city 
under  Severus       .        vi.  lOi 

—  his  power      .        .     vi.  106 

—  disgrace  and  murder,  vi.  109 
Plautilla,  daughter  of  Plau- 
tianus .         .        .        vi.  107 

Plautius  commands  expedi- 
tion against  Britain      iv.  421 

—  iElianus,   governor    of 
Moesia  under  Hadrian       v.  25 

Plautus       .        .        .      ii.  260 

—  attacks  Scipio  ii.  350,  352 
Play  actors  expielled     .      ii.  443 

—  by  Tiberius  .  iv.  331 
Plebeians  (position  of)         i.  74 

—  condition  improved  by 
Servius  Tullus    .         .  1.  119 

—  marriage  of ,  i.  146,  155,233 

—  political  position     i.  155  «^ 

—  struggles  with  patricians 

i.  163-165,174 

—  progress  towards  equality 

i.  201,222 

—  admitted  to  curule  offices 

i-  235 

—  admitted    to    consular 
office        .        .        .      i.  281 

—  appointed  decemvirs    i.  281 
— ^^mitted  to  all  offices 

i.  282,291,412 

—  become  debased  ii.  285 
Plebiscita  given  force  of  law 

i.  227 

—  made  binding  on  all     i.  291 
Pliny,  naturalist,  at  Vesu- 
vius     .        .     iv.  681,  V.  651 

—  (Younger's)  letters     iv.  807 

seq.,  V.  626,  640,  641,  651 
Plotina  (empress),  wife   of 

Trajan  .  .  iv.  748,  v.  3 
Plots    against   the  Empire 

under  Augustus    .        iii.  668 

—  against  Hadrian  .  v.  8 
Ploughing  .  .  i.  141 
Plutarch  v.  1 1 7,  657,680,  726 
Po  (valley  of)       .        i.  367,  5^5 

—  (river)    I.  xviii.  seq.,  ii.  73, 

484,  504 
Poetelian  law  against   can- 
vassing   .        .         .       i.  286 
Poison  and  poisoners    .      v.  618 


Pkge 
Political     organization    of 
ancient  Italians      L  cxxii.  seq 

—  and  social  life  (changes 
in)        .        .    ii.  285  stq.f^i6 

—  liberty  (idea  of)  foreign 

to  Romans        .        .    iii.  409 

—  rights        .         .  v.  235 
Polybius   .        .         .        i.  421 

—  Achaon,     hostage     in 
Italy  .         .         .    ii.  131 

Polycarp(S.)  .  v.  161,  162 
Polygonal  masonry  .  i  137 
PoHMerium  .  i.  7,  389,  iii.  701, 
748,  iv.  655 
Pompeian  army  (comman- 
ders of)        .         .         iii.  338 

—  after      Thapsus      dis- 
perse    .        .         .     iii.  352 

Pompeianus,    husband     of 
Lucilla       .         .         vi.  8,  II 

—  offered  the  Empire  by 
Pertinax        .         .         vi  31 

Pompeii,partial  destruction 
of(A.D.  63).         .         iv.  486 

—  destruction  by  eruption 

of  Vesuvius      .       iv.  676-682 

—  houses     at,    described 

iv.  685-691 

—  elections  at        .  v.  330 

—  private  dwellings   .     v.  595 
Pompeius  Strabo      ii.  556,  561, 

563,  569 
Pompey  the  Great,  son  of 
Strabo    .       ii.  678,  686,  734 

—  estimate  of  his  charac- 
ter      .        .         ii.  734,735 

—  head    of     aristocratic 
party  .         .  ii.  747 

—  sent    to    assist      Me- 
tellus  in  Spain        .       ii.  758 

—  reaches  by  new  route, 
confiscates  in  Gaul       .  ii.  758 

—  defeated  by  Sertorius,  ii.  759 

—  joins  Metellus      .      ii.  764 

—  complains  to  senate  of 
poverty        .        .  ii.  766 

—  retreats  into  Gaul      ii.  769 

—  treatment  of  Perpema 

il  770 

—  settlement  of  Spain,  ii.  771 

—  Pampeluna  called  after 
him.         .        .         .     ii.  771 

—  parallel     with     Napo- 
leon    .        .        .         ii.  785 

—  triumph    and    consul- 
ship        .        .         .     ii.  785 

—  takes   up  the   popular 
side      .         .        .         ii.  786 

—  natural   incapacity  for 
popularity         .       ii.  y^  seq 

—  commands  war  against 
pirates    .         .         .     ii.  799 

—  terminates  it  in  ninety 
days     .         .         .         il.  803 

—  takes      command      in 
Asia         .        .        .     ii.  823 

—  victories  in  Asia,  ii.  826,  827 

—  visits  Jerusalem  and  the 
temple  .         .         ii.  831 

—  war  in  Cimmerian  Bos- 
phorus     .         .         .     ii.  832 

—  defeats  Mithridates,  ii.  833 


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GENERAL   INDEX. 


G77 


Page 
Porapey     the     Great     re- 
orguiiizeB  Anterior  A8ia,ii.  S34 

—  diyision  of  territory  ii.  836 

—  founds   and    repeoples 
cities       .        .        .     ii.  837 

—  Caemr's      policy       to- 
wards .        .        .  iii.  39 

—  returns  to  Italy  iii.  44 

—  spoils    shown    at    his 
triumph        .         .         iii.  47 

—  discredited  by  senate,  iii.  48 

—  he  takes  up  the  part  of 
demagogue       .         .     iii.  49 

—  triumvirate    iii.  53,  61,  213 

—  during  Gallic  war,iii.2i4,2i7 

—  unpopularity  (b.c.   55) 

iii.  221,  225 

—  mode  governor  of  Spain 
and  Africa      .         .iii.  227 

—  at  Borne   .         .         iii.  237 

—  games,  theatre      .     iii.  238 

—  rupture  with  Csesar,  iii.  244 

—  sole  consul        .         iii.  245 

—  marriage      .         .iii.  247 

—  new  laws  .        .        iii.  248 

—  enmity  to  Ciesar      iii.  250, 

251 

—  given     command      of 
Italian  troops  .     iii.  266,  267 

—  opposed  to  (Jsesar      iii.  274 

—  retires  with  senate  to 
Capua         .         .         iii.  276 

—  determines  to  retire  to 
the  East  .        .     iii.  281 

—  sails  .         .        iii.  284 

—  preparations       against 
Caesar      .         .      iii.  296-304 

—  follows     Ceesar     into 
Thessaly      .        .         iii.  307 

—  battle  of  Pharsalia,  iii.  309- 

312 

—  flight  .         .         .     iii.  313 

—  in  Egypt  .        .        iii.  314 

—  murdered     by     Septi- 
mius       ..        .         .     iii.  318 

—  character .         .         iii.  320 

—  Hadrian      erects      his 
monument        .        .       v.  84 

—  Sextus  (son  of  the  former) 

iii.  42i»43>»  492,  495»497. 
505,  506 

—  Cnseus  (the  Younger) 

iii.  339,  375 
Pompey's  pillar,  erected  by 

prsBfect  tompeius         vi.  566 
Pomponius    Mela,   geogra- 
pher    .        .        .        iv.  489 
Pontiffs  (election  of)         ii.  515 

—  in  the  municipia  .  v.  365 
Pontine  marshes,  i.  190,  iv.  799 
Pontius    Herennius,    Sam- 

nite  general      .         .      i.  338 

—  passed  under  yoke   by 
Publilius       .        .         I.  340 

Pontus   under  Mithridates 
(see  Mithridates)      .     ii.  642 

—  destruction,  under  Pom- 
pey       .         .         .         ii.  837 

PoppSBU,  wife  of  Nero      iv.  476- 
481,  502,  508,  529 
Popillius  (M.),   consul,  his 
treatment  by  the  senate,  ii.  90 


Page 
Poplicola  (honours  decreed 

to)        .        .        .  i.  167 

Popular  assembly .         .     i.  158 

—  concilium  plebis  .  i.  161 
Porsenna      .        .        i.  55,  179 

—  conquers      Rome    and 
attacks  Latium        .        i.  183 

Portia,  wife  of  Brutus,  iii.403  seq 
Porticoes  .  .  iv.  219 
Posen  (Etruscan  coins  found 

at)  ...  I.  Ixxvi 
Post  (imperial)  system     iv.  803 

—  under  Severus  .  vi.  140 
Posts  .  .  .V.  482,  529 
Postumius  (Sp.),  sent  to  find 

good  laws  .  .  i.  212 
Postumus  emperor  (258),  vi.  438 

—  proclaimed  in  Gaul,  vi.  439, 

444 
Pottery  (Etruscan)  I.  Ixzxviii 
Practical  nature  of  Eoman 

genius      .    ^    .         .       i.  140 

Prseneste,    i.  139,  266,  268,  270, 

326,  352,  391,  622,  681,  688 

Praetorian  guards,  iii.  725,  iv.  559 

—  pay         .        .         .V.  551 

—  fleets  .        .  iv.  554  seq 

—  increase  of  power  under 
Commodus         .        .    vi.  28 

—  murder  of  Pertinax     vi.  34 

—  reconstituted  by  Seve- 
rus     .        .        .   vi.  44,  100 

—  riot       .        .      vi.  329, 583 

—  prefect      .        .         vi.  123 

—  under  Diocletian  vi.  580 
Praetors     .        .        .        i.  U2 

—  patrician         .        .    i.  286 

—  peregrinus,  i.  286, 563, ii.  278 

—  office  as  lawgiver,  i.  286,  287 

—  sent,   into    province  of 
Sicily  ...        .  i.  501 

—  in  the  provinces .        ii.  171 

—  increased  in  number  by 
Sylla         .        .        .    ii.  710 

—  oppression  of  Spain,  iii.  554 
Prayers  for    the  emperor 

first  commanded  .  iii.  709 

Prefectures         .  .      i.  393 

Prefectus  annonae    .  iii.  716 

—  vigilum,    night  police 
under  Augustus  .     iii.  715 

Pretoxtati        .        .  v.  353 

Priests        .         .  i.  103  seq 

--  supported  by  State     i.  no 

—  chosen  from  patricians,  i.  155 
Primogeniture  (rights  of), 

unknown  at  Bome,I.cxxiii.  147 
Principes  .  »  .  i.  423 
Prisoners  of  war  slain  in 

the  public  shows,  v.  610,  613 
Prisons  .  .  .  v.  338 
Priveniates  .  .  i.  270 
Privernuni  .  .  .  i.  326 
Privy  council  of  Augustus 

and  Hadrian .  .  v.  104 
Probus,      emperor,      early 

history      .         .         .  vi.  515 

—  his  character       .       vi.  516 
:—  respect  for  senate       vi .  517 

—  wars  with  barbarians  in 
Gaul  .         .         .  vi.  518 

—  great  wall  .         .       vi.  518 


Pago 
Probus  in  Asia  Minor      vi.  1520 

—  review  of  frontiers    vi.  521 

—  brings  in  colonics  of 
barbarians        .         .   vi.  521 

—  Saturninus        .        vi.  522 

—  public  works .         .  vi.  524 

—  murdered  .  ,  vi.  524 
Proconsulate  .  .  .  i.  334 
Procurators  in  provinces,  v.  474 
Proletariate  excluded  from 

bearing  arms    .         .      i.  301 

—  constant  source  of  dis- 
turbance    .        .         .  i.  301 

—  excluded  from  army,  ii.  292 

—  admitted  by  Marius,  ii.  309, 

iii.  19,  iv.  253 
Propertius,  elegiac  poet,  iv.  170 
Property  (laws  of)  .  v.  235 
Prophetesses    among     the 

Germans  .  .  .  iv.  608 
Propontis  (commercial  cities 

of  the)  .  .  .  ii.  18 
Proscription,  ii.  589, 605, 67 1,679 

—  by  Sylla  .         .  ii.  690,  700 

—  in  provinces         .      ii.  703 

—  under  second  trium- 
virate   .         .      iii.  447, 462 

Province,  meaning  of  wortl, 
Sicily  declared,  i.  501  and  n 

—  legislation  for  .  .  i.  501 
Provinces  (organization  of) 

ii.  163 

—  list  of,  under  Republic,ii.  1 67 

—  governors  of,  their 
power  and  duties,  ii.  17 $  seq 

—  legatee  and  quaestors  of 

ii.  178 

—  taxation  of  .         .      ii.  183 

—  miserable  condition,  ii.  610 

—  plunder  of        .  ii.  612, 622 

—  Cicero  on  state  of,  ii.  626 

—  no  law  to  protect,   ii.  634 

—  insurrection  of,  headed 

by  Mithridates .         .    ii.  639 

—  morality  of        .        ii.  640 

—  proscription  under  Sylla, 

ii.  70^  seq 

—  taxation         .         .    ii.  705 

—  usurious  loans   .         .  iii.  i 

—  (condition  of)  at  the 
time  of  foundation  of  the 
Empire   -         .    iii.  548,  618 

—  organization  of,  under 
Augustus      .         .  iv.  95 

—  Capsar's  legislation  for,  iii.  58 

—  under  Augustus  (see 
Augustus) 

—  under  Tiberius,  iv.  298,  302, 

307 

—  under  Claudius,  iv.  417,  433 

—  under  Nero    .    iv.  471,  488 

—  begin  to  send  dis- 
tinguished men  to  Rome 
as  authors    and    officers, 

iv.  489,  490 

—  impoverished  by  Nero's 
extortion        ..       .     iv.  541 

—  confusion  during  strug- 
gle after  Nero's  death,  iv.  580, 

•    5»* 

—  prominence  of  economic 

questions    .         .         .iv.  734 


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GENERAL   INDEX. 


Pftge 
Provinces  of  Arabia  formed 
under  Trajan    .    iv.  774,  803 

—  under  Hadrian     .  v.  23  acy 
— -Marcus  Aurelius       .  y.  204 

—  criminal  jurisdiction  in 

V.  337 

—  prosperity  of  the,  under 
the  Antonines .         .     ▼.417 

—  increase  of  provincial 
territx>ry  from  time  of 
Augustus    .        .         .  V.  419 

—  of  Africa     .         v.  448  aeq 

—  of  Asia  Minor  .        .  v.  465 

—  administration  of,under 
the  Antonines      .  v.  470 

—  provincial  assemblies,  v.  473 

—  prosperity  shown  by 
the  buildings,  &c.  v.  474 

—  higher  morality  in    v.  624, 

637 

—  government  under  Sev- 
erus  .         .         .  vi.  139,  141 

—  under  Caiacalla's  ty- 
ranny   .        .        .      vi.  246 

—  at  peace,  under  Elaga- 
balus         .        .        .  vi.  279 

—  under  Diocletian,  vi.  573  «y 
Provincial  assemblies,  ii.  194M9 

—  cities,  classes  of,  ii.  186  seq 

193 

—  plundered  by  Koman 
governors         .      ii.  613, 619 

Provincials,  their  obliga- 
tions  to  Rome        .       ii.  182 

Prusias,  king  of  Bithynia, 
submits  to  Rome  .        ii.  124 

Ptolemies  (policy  of  the),ii.  6  ieq 

Ptolemy,  Dionysus,  brother 
of  Cleopatra        .         iii.  324 

—  Auletes       iii.  218,  231,  238 

—  Philadelphus         .      i.  380 

—  geographer  in  time  of 
Claudius,  iv.  433,  v.  117,  960 

Pablic  buildings,  theatres, 

amphitheatres,  &c.      .  v.  604 
Public  festivals      .     i.   1 10,  Bcq 

—  Lupercalia,  Ambarvalia 

i.  "2,533 
Public  instruction      .       v.  404 

—  examination  of  teachers,  404 
Public  -works  (control  of),  ii.  338 
Publilian  law     ,        ♦        !•  1 77 

—  confirmed  .  .  i.  294 
Publilius    Philo,    plebeian, 

praetor  and  proconsul,    i.  292, 
334,  339 

—  victory  over  Latins      i.  325 

—  Volero,  tribune  .  •  i-  I7S 
Punic  wars         .        i.  435»  696 

—  operations  in  Sicily 
dunng  first .         .         .  i.  464 

—  maritime  operations 
during  .    i.  474,  495 

—  treaty  at  close  of  first,  i.  495 

—  second  Punic  war     .  i.  566 

—  condition  of  parties  in 
year  216         .         .        i.  625 

—  operations  in  Spain 
during  second  Punic  war,i.676 

—  debt  of  second  Punic 
war  cleared  off .        .        ii.  2 

—  the  third  Punic  war,  ii.  141 


Page 
Pupienns      (M.      Clodius 
Pupienus  Maximus),  pro- 
cUimed  emp)eror  jointly 
witJi  Balbinus        .      vi.  327 

—  murdered  .  .  vi.  338 
Purification  of  infants  .  v.  238 
Puteal  •  .  .  i.  139 
Pydna  (battle  of)  fought  by 

Paulus  ^milius     .  ^     L  110 

—  remains  at  i.  \\ I  and  n 
Pyrrhus  (280.272)  war  with 

>.  370 

—  called  in  by  Tarentines,  i.  374 

—  first  victory.         .         i.  376 

—  besieges  Asculum      .  i.  378 

—  warned  by  Fabrieius  of 
treachery       .         .        i.  380 

—  crosses  into  Sicily    .   i.  380 

—  death .        .        .        i.  382 

Quacli  .  V.  191,  vi.  515 

Quadratus,   first   Christian 

apologist  .  •*  .  V.  119 
Quadriremes  .  .  .v.  555 
Qusestiones  perpetuse .       ii.  586 

—  renewed  by  SylU  .  ii.  717 
Quffistors  (office  or)    .         i.  73 

—  in  provinces   .     ii.  178  m^., 

▼.  357 
Qosestorship      .  i*  235 

—  number  increased  .  i.  238 
Quinctia  (gens) .  .  i.  193 
Quinquennalis  •  .  .v.  353 
Quinouireme  (Carthaginian), 

model  of  Roman  war  ship 

1.  474 
Quinquiremes  •  .  v.  ^55 
Quintilian  .  iv.  489,  v.  654 
Quintilii,    companions    of 

Romulus     .        •        .      i.  6 

—  .  .  .  .  vi.  20 
Quintillns  (death  of)  .  vi.  iio 
Quirina,  new  tribe  formed 

in  .  .  .  vL  241,  i.  498 
Quirinal  .        .    i.  257 

Quirinus,  Sabine  god  wor- 
shipped at  Rome    .        •  i*  77 
Quirites        .        .      i.  389, 393 

Races  at  Rome  .  .  iv.  693 
Ramnenses,  Roman  tribe,i.67,i  17 
Ravenna  (Cicero  at)         iii.  251 

—  Ceesar  at  .        .        iii.  266 

—  fleet  of  Augustus  at,  iii.  719 

—  of  Tiberius    .        .  iv.  327, 

vi.  51,416,  627 
Reforms  of  Sylla     .         ii.  707 

—  failure  of  ,  .  iii.  I 
Regia  (Lex)  .  .  .v.  212 
Regillus  (battle  of  Lake)  i.  189 
Regulus    (Atilius),    consul 

i.  479,  480 

—  heroic  death  .  .  i.  484 
Religion     .        .         .  i.  77, 112 

—  twofold    in    cliaracter, 
public  and  private        .  i.  lOO 

—  State  control  of,i407,4i  7,552 

—  in  the  provinces   .      ii.  178 

—  decline  of.         .  ii.  210,  23? 

—  (Oriental)  at  Rome     ii.  240 

—  three  phases  of  Roman,ii.256 

—  encouraged  by  Sylla   ii.  718 


Pkg« 

Religion  under  Augustus, iii. 746, 

iv.  15-25,  259 

—  under  Vespasian     .     iv.  651 

—  under  the  Empire  v.  690 
— T  decay  of  the  old,  v.  693, 694, 

.    .  ^7 

—  invasion  of  Oriental,  v.  700, 

70a 

—  worship  of  Hithra  and 
Cybele  ...         v.  703 

—  evil  practices  .         .    v.  709 

—  ritnaiism    .         .         v.  711 

—  belief  in  magic  and  other 
superstitions      .         .    v.  712 

—  of  Epictetus,  divine 
unity.        .         .         .V.  719 

—  efforts  of  the  philoso- 
phers to  satisfy  difiRcnl- 
ties  in     .        *         .v.  715 

—  future  life        .         .  v.  72 j 

—  nature  of  the  aoul       v.  728 

—  at  beginning  of  third 
century,  vi.  148, 149  seq.^  165 

—  Christian  dpgmaSfVi.  16^-179 

—  Church  organization,  vi.  181 

—  pagan,  under  Elaga- 
balus.        .        .         .  vi.  281 

—  under  Alexander  Severu8,vi. 

297 

—  under  Valerian         ,  vi.  428 

—  (foreign  at  Rome)       v.  222 

—  of  the  Stat«  .         .      v.  346 

—  toleration  at  Rome  iv.  727 
Remancipatio  .  .  v.  253 
liemi,  GalHc  tribe  iii.  174,  204 
Remus  .  .  .  .  i.  5-7 
Republic,  attempts  to  re- 
constitute, causes  of 
failure   .        .         .  iii.  I,  252 

—  restored  under  Em- 
peror Tacitus     .         .  vi.  511 

Republicans  at  Philippi,  iii.  473 

—  after  Brutus's  death, iii.  487 

—  party  censes        .       iii.  668 

—  restoration  (attempt  at) 

iv.  391.  561 
Rescripts  of  Trajan,  Marcus 
Aurelius,  and  Severos  vi.  219 

—  of  Diocletian  .  vi.  596 
Revenues   of   the    Empire 

under  Augustus         .  iii.  722 
Rhsetians      subdued       by 
Augustus   .        •         .  iv.  108 

—  under  Hadrian  .  v.  29 
Rhegium  faithful  to  Rome,i.625 
Rhetoric  encouraged,  v.  655,  665 
Rhetoricians  paid  as  teachers 

V.  403 
Rhino  (barbarians  on  the\  iii.  63 

—  Caesar  builds  a  briage 
across  .        .     iii.  161  n 

—  second  bridge .        .  iii.  I79 

—  Trajan        ...        iv.  744 

—  the  frontier  of,  Roman 
conquest    .        •        .  iii.  636 

—  legions(flotilla  attached 
to).        .         .  iii.  719,  iv. 58 

—  frontier  attacked  by 
barbarians.        .         .  iv.  106 

—  Augustus  visits  .       iv.  iij 

—  fortifies.        .         .  iv.  iio 


Digitized  by 


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GBN££AL  INDEX. 


679 


Page 
Rhine  frontier,  time  of  Nero 

iv.  496 

—  war  of  Vespasian  on  the 

iv.  606 
Rhinoceros,  first  at  Rome 

iii.  691 
Rhodes  joins  Rome  in  Syrian 
war  .        .        .        <      iL  48 

—  fleet  of       .        .  ii.  60 
^  offers  to  mediate  in  third 

Macedonian  war       .    it  105 

—  makes     overtures     to 
Rome   .        .        ii.  126,  164 

—  withstands  Mithridates 

ii.  655,  686 

—  conqaered  by  Brutns,  iii.  469 
Rhone   .        •       L  579,  ii.  493 

—  Jiarius  occupies     .  ii.  494, 

iii.  132 
Ring  used  in  marriage      v.  252 
Riot     under     Commodus, 
caused   by  scarcity   and 
plague,  against  Oleander 

vi.  23,  24 
Roads  to  CKsalpine  Gaul,  iii.  278 
Roman  majesty   •        4     i.  235 

—  character  .        .         i.  412 

—  policy  in  provinces     ii.  185 

—  army,  changes  in,iL  49^  aeq.t 

VI.  304 

—  people  under  Augustus 

iii.  660 

—  roads     .        .       iv.  15  aeq 

—  remains  in  Transylvania 

iv.  765 

—  walls.        .     V.  30,  vi.  518 

—  civilization  (spread  of), v.  42 

—  Africa    .        ,      v.  461  aeq 

—  Asia  .        .        •      iii.  589 

—  <oo  cities  of   .  iii.  594 

—  building  materials,    iv.  221 

—  society  during  first  two 
centuries   Christian    era 

V.  233-413, 643 

—  army,!.  421,  iii.  729,  vi.  364 

—  change  in  its  force  and 
character     .         vi.  365-375 

Rome   (geographical  posi- 
tion  01)       .       .        .      I.  V 

—  soil      ...       I.  XXX 

—  geological  strata       .  I.  xxx 

xxxvi 

—  early   human    remains 

I.  xxxvi 

—  connection  with  Oscans 
and  Sabellians    •'     I.  xci.  seq 

—  religion       .        ,     I.  cxxiv 

—  together  with  property 
was  the  basis  of  Roman 
aristocracy  .        .  I.  cxxvi.  seq 

—  religious     organization 

L  cxxviii.  9eq 

—  under  the  kings  (753- 
510),  formation  of  people,  i.  i 

—  meaning  of  name    »         i.  I 

—  size  under  kings  .        .  i.  37 

—  constitution  during  the 
regal  period       ,        .  i.  59-76 

—  history  (sources  of),  i.  59-63 

—  probable  oriffin  of    i.  63-67 
-^religion   and  religious 

institutions  .       t     i.  77-112 


Page 
Rome  (^wth  of),   under 
late  kings         .      i.  113,  131 

—  towns  subject  to,  under 
Tarquin        .        •        •!•  133 

—  architecture  in       .      i.  137 

—  review  of  general  con- 
dition under  the  kings    i.  151 

—  under  the  patrician  con- 
suls (509-367  B.C.J,  i.  153-262 

—  increase  of  territory  by- 
conquest  .        .         .1. 252 

—  attacked  by  Gauls      .  i.  257 

—  and  sacked    .        .      i.  261 

—  rebuilding         .        .  i.  263 

—  capture  by  Gauls  men- 
tioned by  Aristotle  .      i.  263 

—  slow  growth  of  do- 
minion       .        .        .  i.  387 

—  treatment  of  conquered 
towns  in  Italy .        .      i.  393 

—  constitution      .        .  i.  412 

—  virtue  (ideal  of)    .      i.  484- 

—  losses  of,  lb  first  Punic 
war     .        .        .        .  i.  497 

—  increase  of  territory,  i.  507  seq 

—  increase  of  wealth .      i.  530 

—  consternation  at  Hanni- 
bal's victories      •        .  L  598 

—  measures  at,after  Cannae 

i.  613 

—  strength  reduced  hj 
Punic  wars      .        .      1.  615 

—  attempt  -  to  revenge  the 
ruin  of  Capua  by  burning 

1.657 

—  depopulation  during 
second  Punic  war         .  1.661 

—  assisted  by  various 
Italian  nations  against 
Hannibal         .         .      i.  687 

—  conquest  of  the  world 

by      .        .        .        .     ii.  I 

—  penetrates  to  the  East,  iL  25 

—  second  war  with  IKUce- 
don         .        .        «       ii.  28 

—  war  with  Syria .        .  ii.  41 

—  third  Macedonian  war,ii.  75- 

"23 

—  conquest  of  Spain  and 
influence  there    .    ii.  149.158 

—  extent  of  dominion,  ii.  164 

—  political  changes  in,  ii.  285. 

291 

—  in  the  time  of  Tiberius 
Gracchus    .        .    ■    .  ii.  400 

—  alarmed  by  northern 
barbarians      .         .      ii.  483 

—  defeated  in  Gaul    .    ii.  493 

—  condition  of,  at  the 
opening  of  the  second 
Servile  war  (103-91)      ii.  508 

—  concentration  of  Italian 
aristocracy  at      .     ii.  536  seq 

—  citizen  of,  value  of  title 

..       ,  .    ^    .H.  S36«9 

—  position  of,  in  Social  war 

ii.  553 

—  terror  at      .        .      11.  561 

—  advantage  of  her  geo- 
graphical position    .     ii.  561 

—  unsuccetisfuldttring  first 
year       ,        ,        .      ii.  569 


Page 
Rome  (results  of  Social  war 

—  insurrection  of  slaves.ii.  600, 

601 

—  massacres  and  outrages 
by  command  of  Marius 

ii.  604-606 

—  reforms  under  Sylla 

ii.  710  seq 

—  involved  in  wars  (79  to 
70)         .        .        .      ii.  765 

—  revolution  under  Spar- 
tacus      .        .•        .      ii.  772 

—  under  Macer  • .  ii.  784 

—  conquests  in  Asia  Minor 
under  LucuUus  and  Pom- 
pey         .        .        ii.  804-838 

—  internal  condition,  67 
B.C.         .        .         .  iii.  I  seq 

—  criminal  classes  in        iii.  9 

—  troubles  at,up  to  forma- 
tion of  first  triumvirate,  ii.  35 

—  Caesar's  view  of  the 
duties  of         .         .       iii.  58 

—  affairs  at, during  Csosar's 
proconsulate    .     iiL  210-270 

—  corruption  at       .     iii.  238 

—  causes  tending  towards 
monarchy       .        ,     iii.  271 

—  monarchy  at     .        iii.  360 

—  games     .        .  iii.  365 

—  state  of,  after  Caesar*s 
murder    .     iii.  415,  418,  419 

—  condition  of  (b.c.  45-36) 

iii.  459  seq 

—  improvements  under 
Augustus    .  •     .        iiL  523 

—  poverty        .        .     iii.  653 

—  absenteeism  at .         iii.  654 

—  growth  of  the  city,  iii.  655 

—  population  .        .     iii.  656 

—  condition  oi  society  at 

iii.  668  seq 

—  beautified  by  Augustus 

iii.  742 

—  tradesmen  at        .       iv.  77 

—  buildings  in      .         iv.  219 

—  materifld    for  building 

iv.  221,  225 

—  peaceful  condition  of 
city  in  reign  of  Nero,  iv.  483 

—  literary  condition,  iv.  489, 

490 

—  provincials  beg^n  to  be 
important  at  .        iv.  489  seq 

—  destructive  fire  (a.  d.  64) 


IV.  505 
.     IV.  516 


—  city  rebuilt  . 

—  disturbances     between 
Vitellius  and   Vespasian 


iv.  559,  600 
by  Ve! 


—  city  beautified  1  ^ 
pasian    .  .      iv.  652 

—  city  destroyed  by-  con- 
flagration      .        .     iv.  676 

—  restoration    by   Domi- 
tian    .        .        .         iv.  694 

—  the  city  in  Roman  life 

V.  319 
— its   magistrates,    jurifr- 
prudence,  &c.  .       v.  340 

—  garrison  of  v.  554 


Digitized  by 


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680 


GENERAL   INDEX. 


Pagw 
Rome  (life  at),  under  the 
Empire     .       v.  5^  5^7.,  579 

—  plague  and  fire  under 
Commodus      .        .       vi.  23 

—  buildings  of  Caracalla 

vi.  259 

—  seandals  under  Elaga- 
balus      .        .        .     yi.  280 

—  alarmed  by  the   incur- 
sions of  barlxirians  .     vi.  416 

.  —  wall  of  Aurelian        vi.  473 

—  under  Diocletian, vi.  578, 627 
Romulus  .        .  i.  5,  12,  64 

—  work  of    .        .        .    i.  76 

—  staff  of,  found      .       i.  263 
Rostra   .        .        .1  327,  353 

—  head  placed  above,  i.  589, 

604,  605 
Roumania,  modem  Dacia, 

iv.  764 

—  colonised  by  Trajan,  iv.  763, 

765 
Rufinus,  conquest  of  Sam- 

nium  .  .  .  i.  381 
Rullus  (agrarian  laws  of),  iii.  18 
Ruspina,  African  port  iii.  343 
Rutilus  (Marcus)        .       i.  347 

Sabina   Poppeea,    wife    of 
Otho  and  Nero        ,     iv.  476 

—  empress    of    Hadrian, 

V.  92,  133 
Sabine  women  (rape  of)  i.  1 1 
Sabines  .        .  L  zciz.  184 

—  war  with,  i.  214,  240,  355 
Sabinus,  general  in  GteJlic. 

war         .        .        .     iii.  156 

—  and  Eponina  (story  of) 

iv.  612 
Sacerdotal  colleges .     i  100  aeq 

—  filled  vacancies  by  co- 
option     .        .  i.  109,  ii.  712 

—  functions  ,  .  v.  366 
Sacred  mount  .       i.  217 

—  spring  .  .  i.  602 
Sacrifices    ,  .        L  xcix.  38 

—  at  funerals  .        .  v.  279 
Safety    (augury  of),  cere- 
mony     .  .        ,     iii.  691 

Saguntum,  colony  of  Ardea 

I.  zciii 

—  besieged  by  Hannibal,  i.  572 

—  defence  and  capture,  i.  575 

—  engagement  of  Pompey 
and  Sertorius      .    ii.  764  seg 

Saint  Acheul  (Gallic  re- 
mains at)  .  .  iii.  94 
Salassi  (barbarian  tfibe)  ii.  484 
Sales  (customs  at)  .  .  i.  149 
Sallust  .  .  .  iii.  361 
Salonina  (empress),  wife  of 

Gallienus   .        .  vi.  416 

Salvius  leads  the  slaves  in 
Sicily    .         .         .       ii.  510 

—  Julianus,     jurisconsult 
under  Hadrian        .       v.  102 

Samarobriva,  Caesar  winters 

at  .  .  ,  iii.  178 
Sambre  (battle  of)  .  iii.  148 
Samnites  .         .         ,1.  ci.  seg 

—  first  war  .         .      i.  316  seq 

—  character  of  country,  i.  317 


Page 
Samnites,  allies  of  Rome,  i.  322 

—  second  war  (326-312)  i.  32S 

—  third  war,  i.  344,  353,  ii.  681 

—  destroyed  by  Sylla,  ii.  702 
Sapor  succeeds  Ardeshir  in 

I^ersia         .         .  vi.  343 

—  war  with  Rome,  vi.  344,  423 

—  sacks  Antioch      .      vi.  424 

—  at  war  with  Palmyra,  vl  434 
Saracens  begin  to  be  noticed 

vi.  353 

Sardinia,  L  476  teq.,  505,  526, 

ii.  420,  iv.  78 

—  Le^idus  in       .  ii.  746 

—  grain  from  .  .  ii.  798 
Satan  ...  vi.  164 
Saturn,  god  who   protects 

the  grain        .        .  i.  77 

Satummus,  tribune,  ii.  516,  520 

—  with  Glaucia  seizes  the 
Capitol.         .        ii.  521,  c86 

Satyncon,  of  Petronius     v.  018 
Saxons,  origin  of  name      vi.  361 
— -  aggressive  .        vi.  537 

Scaptia,  new  tribe  formed  of 

conquered  Latins  .  i.  326 
Scapula,  Pompeian    leader 

"i.  375 

Scaurus  ^M.  ^milius),  sent 

to  settle  dispute  between 

JugurthaandAdherbal,ii.  461 

Scepticism  (growth  of),ii.  236  seq 

Schools    ,        .        .         V.  404 

—  of  medicine  v.  406,  vi.  560 
Science  at  Rome  ii.  217, 282 

—  study  of        .        V.  658-661 

—  and  art  undgr  Augustus 

iv.  I9g 
Scipio  Barbatus  i.  356, 358 

—  defeated  in  naval  action 

i.483 
-(P.).     .        .i.579.586wy 

—  slain  in  Spain  .  i.  649 
■—  (Cneius)  m  Spain,  I  676  seq 
—■  (P.  C),  in  Africa        i.  684 

—  treatment  of  mutiny    i.  685 

—  consul       .         .  i.  685 

—  in  Sicily       .         .      i.  688 

—  lands  in  Africa  .  i.  692 

—  returns    victorious    to 
Lilybffium        .        .       i  695 

—  triumphal      progress 
through  Italy       .  i.  695 

—  receives  name  of  Afri- 
canus      .        .     i.  696,  ii.  43 

~(L.)         .         .      ii.  55.HO 

—  opposed  to  Cato,  ii.  350  seq 

—  in  Asia        .         .       ii.  353 

—  iEmilianus       .  ii.  143 

—  besieges  Carthage      ii.  144 

—  in  Spain       .       ii.  151, 154 

—  waning  popularity      ii.  353 

—  campaign  m  Asia       ii.  353 

—  refuses  to  account  for 
treasure  received      .     ii.  354 

—  found  guilty  of  pecula- 
tion    .         .        .         ii.  355 

—  return  to  favour,  ii.  355,  357 

—  last  days       .        .     ii.  358 

—  epitaphs    .         .  ii.  358, 359 

—  friendship  with   Poly- 
bius     .         .        .         ii.  377 


Page 
Scipio  iEmilianus  esteemed 
by  Cato  .         .        ii.  37^ 

—  elected  censor        .      ii.  379 
—  his  great  qualities,  ii.  380  «?y 

—  condemns  the  action  of 

T.  Gracchus  .  ii.  416 

—  death    .  •       .         .      ii.  419 

—  (Metellus),      Pompey's 
father-in-law,  iiL  267,340,352 

—  general  of  Pompey    iii.  307 
Scbrdisci, barbarian  tribe,  ii.  484, 

iv.  114 
Scribonianus  rebels  against 

Claudius  .  .  iv.  436 
Scythians  and  Sarmatians 

under  Augustus  .  iii.  62S 
Secular  games  to  celebrate 

1 000th    anniversary     at 

Rome  .  .  .  vi.  349 
Segesta,  ally   of   Carthage 

i.  468,  476 
Segobriges,  tribe  in  Gaul,  iii.  87 
Seianus  (-Mius),minister  of 

Tiberius      .        .  iv.  329,  343 

—  growing    unpopularity 

iv.  346 

—  made  a  demi-god .      iv.  348 

—  Tiberius*s  treatment,  iv.  349 

—  his  murder  .        .      iv.  351 
Seleucidse    (kingdom     of), 

condition  about  200  b.c.  ii.  4 
Sempronian  family  .  ii.  397 
Sempronius  .  i.  589,  598,  603 
Senate       .      "  .         .         .  i.  72 

—  authority  of     .    i.  i54»  3«> 

—  members.    .        .        i.  157 

—  action  of  ,on  accession  of 
plebeians  to  curule  office 

i.  291,414,  606 

—  power  of,  ii.  48,254,  3 17,3^2 

—  senators  degraded     .  ii.  443 

—  venality       .        .       ij.  520 

—  Drusus  attacks         .  ii.  533 

—  reproached  by  Philippus 

ii.  744 

—  grants  amnesty  to  fol- 
lowers of  Lepidus   .       ii.  747 

—  authority  of    ' .         iii.  254 

—  irregular     proceedings 
against  Csesar         .     iii.  268 

—  punishment   of   expul- 
sion   .        .        .         iii.  I,  2 

—  punishment    of    Cati- 
line's conspiracy    .  iii.  29,  32 

—  retires  to  Capua  with 
Pompey      .         .         iii;  276 

—  position  under  Caesar, iii.  383 

—  in  time  of  Augustas,  iii.  668- 

672,  693,  727,  iv.  251 

—  under  Tiberius.         iv.  280 

—  opposed  to  Claudius,  iv.  393- 

395 

—  provincial     aristocracy 
admitted  to,  by  Claudius 

iv.  435 

—  under  Vespasian  .      iv.  650 

—  under  Domitian       .  iv.  723 

—  protected  by  the  Anto- 
nines     .       " .        .      iv.  739 

—  protection  renewed  by 
Trajan        .         .         .  iv.  744 

—  renewed  by  Hadrian,  v.  6, 109 


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0£MEBAL   INDEX. 


681 


Page 
Senate,  duties  and  office  of 
new        ...      V.  509 

—  itsiK>mp  .        .         .V.  510 

—  servility      .        v.  512,  513 

—  as  school  for  adminis- 
trators       .        •        .V.  514 

—  Sevems's  treatment     vi.  67 

—  Macrinns    .        .      vi.  268 

—  Julia  Mcesa  granted  a 
seat  in        •        .        .  vi.  279 

—  of  women,  its  duties,  vL  279 

—  under  Elagabalus.      vi.  283 

—  under    Melximin,    and 
anarchy      .        .  vi.  334,  338 

—  asked  to  choose  a  suc- 
cessor to  Aurelian  .      vi.  508 

—  under  Tacitus  .         vi.  511 

—  honoured  by  Probus,  vi.  517 
Senatus  consultum,  ii.  93,  95, 

320,  iii.  132,  135 
Seneca,    philosopher,  tutor 
to  Nero,  son  of  Agrippina 

iv.  448,  458 

—  contrasted  with  Cicero 

iv.  459.  475.  489*  522,  526 

—  on  slavery,  v.  640,  oj8,  674 
Senones   .     1.  254,  2^6,  lii.  178 

—  second  invasion,  1.  267,  511 
Septimius  murders  Pompey 

iii.  318 
Sequani  .  iii.  I30m^.,I34 
Serapis  (temple  of)  at  Rome 

ii.  243 
Serica  or  China  .  iv.  77,  434 
Serpent  charming       .  L  ci 

Sertorius  in  Spain,  ii.  738,  747 

—  leader  of  Marian  party 

ii.  748 

—  review      of     previous 
caieor         .         .    ii.  748-753 

—  position  in  Spain,  ii.  754  seg 

—  education  of  Spaniaids 

by  .        .        .       ii.  756 

—  defeats  Pompey        .  ii.  759 

—  negotiates  with  Mith- 
ridates  .        .        .       ii.  766 

—  escape  at  Bilbilis     .  ii.  769 

—  retreat  of  Pompey  and 
Motellus         .        .       ii.  769 

—  assassinated  .  .  ii.  770 
Servile  war        .         .       ii.  393 

—  suppressed  in  Sicily  by 
Calpumius  Piso  .        .  ii.  395 

—  (second)  .  ii.  508,  514 
Servilius  .  i.  175,  ii.  513,  796 
Servius   Tullus,  sixth  king 

(578-534)     ..        .  .i.35 

—  great  wall        ,         .  1.  36 

—  reforms       .        ,  i.  117 

—  war  with  Veientines  i.  1 18 

—  raises  the  plebeians  i.  1 19 

—  institutes  festivals  i.  1 19 

—  institutes  the  lustrum 

i.  120 

—  political  reforms      .  i.  123 

—  laws     .        .        .      i.  127 

—  increase  of  territo^    i.  131 

—  improvements  in  Kome 

i.  132 

—  treaties    .        .        •  i-  133 

—  Greek  versions  of  his 
history    .         .         .      i.  133 


Page 
Severus  (Septimius),  general 
under  Commodus  .         vi.  37 

—  opposes  Julianus   .      vi.  38 

—  emperor    .        .  vi.  41 

—  African  origin        .     vL  42 

—  the  military  power, 
triumphs  in .         .         vi.  45 

—  honours  Pertinaz  .      vi.  47 

—  his  rivals,  Albinus  and 
Niger  ...  vi.  48 

—  expedition  to  the  East,  vi.50 

—  victory  over  Nicer       vi.  51 

—  disunion  in  the  Empiro,vi.52 

—  siege  of  Byzantium     vi.  53 

—  restoration  of  Byzan- 
tium       .        .        .      vi.  55 

—  his  justice .        .  vi,  56 

—  further  Eastern  con- 
quests     .        •        .      vi.  56 

—  return  to  Europe         vi.  57 

—  adoption  of  Albinus    vi.  57 

—  trouble  with  Albinus,  vi.  58 

seg 

—  adopts  M.  Aurelius  as 

his  father     .        .  vi.  61 

—  senate  turns  against  him 

vi.  62 

—  war  in  Gaul   .         .     vi.  64 

—  victory  over  Albinus,  vi.  65 

—  battle  of  Lyons .         vi.  65 

—  treatment  of  senate     vi.  67 

—  expedition  aniinst  Volo- 
geses  IV.,  of  Parthia     vi.  71 

—  siege  of  Atra     .  vi.  73 

—  his  children  .         .      vi.  74 

—  results  of  Eastern  cam- 
paign .        .      vi.  75,  78,  86 

—  inscriptions       .  vi.  75 

—  Mesopotamia        .      vi.  77 

—  Antioch     .        .  vi.  79 

—  his  wife,  Julia  Domna 

vi.  81 

—  in  Palestine  .        .      vi.  88 

—  in  Eg^t  .         .     vi.  9099 

—  the  Danube  frontier, 
returns  to  Rome  (a.d. 
202)         .        .        .    vi.  100 

—  arch  of  triumph        vi.  100 

—  his  prsefect  Plautianus 

vi.  101-109 

—  tyranny    .        .        vi.  113 

—  his  character        vL  114  seq 

—  his  wife        .        .    vi.  no 

—  persons  of  note  his 
friends,  vi.  119,  120-122,  124 

—  legislative  work,  vi.  124-130 

—  moral  and  military 
reforms   .        .         .    vi.  135 

—  buildings  .         vi.  137,  138 

—  his  journeys,  his  sons 

vi.  142 

—  he  visits  Britain    .    vi.  142 

—  his  old  age  and  death 
(A.D.  211)    .        .        vi.  145 

—  estimate  of  his  charac- 
ter and  rule     .        .    vi.  146 

—  treatment  of  Christians 

vi.  210 
Seville,  founded  under  Au- 
gustus .        .        .         iv.  60 
Sextius  (L. ),  reformer     .  i.  280 
Sibyl  of  CumsB       i.  43,  45,  115 


Page 

Sibylline  books,  i.  512,  554,602, 

ii.  253,  678,  lii.  239 

—  Sylla  renews    .  >••  7*9 

—  Augustus  ^r6serves,  iii.  747 
Sicily    (condition    of),    at 

time  of  war    with  Pyr- 
rhus   .        .        .    i.  371,  380 

—  first  Punic  war         .  i.  464 

—  war  carried  back  to,    i  482 

—  condition  of  .        .      i.  492 

—  lost  to  Carthage       .  i.  498 

—  declared  Roman  pro- 
vince .        .  i.  501,  606 

—  in  Social  war  .    ii.  562 

—  plundered  by  Rome,  ii.  615 

—  granary  of  Rome,  i.    502, 

638jj(^.,645 

—  rising  of  slaves  in,  li.  509 

—  Lepidus's  lieutenant, 
Perperna,  in        .        .ii.  746 

—  grain  ships  from,  fail,  ii.798 

—  receives  the  Jus  Latii 

^        }''•  394 

—  condition    under    Au- 

fustus  .      iii.  575,  iv.  64,  78 
icini  .        .   i.  322,  327 

Si  la  (forest  of),  refuge  of 
slaves     .        .         .         L  xi 

—  last  retreat  of  Hannibul^Lxii 

—  supplied  Roman  timber 

I.  xii.  ii.  576 
Silanus,  lieutenant  of  Scipio 

i.  683 
Silins,  lover  of  Messalina,iv.  441 

—  Italicus  .  .  .V.  646 
Silk,  value  at  Rome  in  time 

of  Caesar  iii.  365,  iv.  87 

Sixtus  (Pope)  martyred,  vi.  432 
Slavery  declined  under  in- 
fluence of  philosophy,  v.  640 

—  Seneca  and  D.  Chrysos- 
tom  on      .        .        .V.  673 

Slaves  for  debt        .        .  i.  305 

—  ii.  306,  310,  312,  386,  387 

—  immense  number  of,  ii.  386, 

389 

—  cruelty  to      .       ii.  390  seq 

—  revolt  of,  in  Sicily,  ii.  393 

—  picture  of.        .         ii.  509 

—  freed  and  enlisted  by 
Pompsedius  Silo  in  the 
Social  war        .        .     ii.  574 

—  exported  from  Gaul,  iiL  126, 

643 

—  war  under  Spartacus,  ii.  773 

seq 

—  of  Epirus  esteemed,  iii.  565 

—  under  the  Empire, v.  245,600 

—  under  Severus     .      vi.  126 

—  in  third  century      .  vi.  382 

—  legislation  for,  under 
Nero      .         .        .      iv.  473 

—  from  Cappadocia     .     v.  73 

—  relations  with  masters, 

V.  294  se^' 

—  improvement  in  their 
position      «        .  V.  298, 640 

—  freed  by  will  .  v.  642 
Smyrna,  Hadrian  visits, V.  68,183 
Sosemias  .  .  .  vi.  270 
Social  war,  its  causes,  ii.  536-549 

—  peculiar  character,  ii.  SS^seq 


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682 


GENEBAL  INDEX. 


Page 
Sodal  war,  strength  of  op- 
posing parties     ,        .  ii.  552 

—  generals      .        .       ii.  554 

—  two   consuls  defeated, 
alarm  at  Rome   .        .  ii.  561 

—  second  year  (89)  .       ii.  569 

—  peace  restoroid  .  ii.  572 

—  terrible  results  .  iL  576 
Societies        .        .        .v.  389 

—  under  supervision       v.  390 

—  literary  .  .  v.  654 
Socii  or  Federals  .  .  i.  397 
Sophists  under  Hadrian,  v.  115 
Sophonisba,    daughter    of 

Hasdrubiil  .        i.  690 

Sora,  garrison  in  valley  of 

Liris  ,        .         .        .   i.  316 
Spain   conquered   by    Car- 
thago    .        .        .        i.528 

—  second  Punic  war  in,  i.  572 

—  Hannibal  in     .        .  i.  578 

—  many  tribes  in,  join 
Rome    .        .        i.  606,  627 

—  operations  under  the 
Scipios  in  .        .1.  676  seq 

—  sedition  in  .        ,        i.  684 

—  condition  of,  about 
200  B.C.      .        .        .     ii.  3 

—  second  conquest  of       ii.  65 

—  from  178  to  153  B.C.,  ii.  150 

—  becomes  Romanized,  il  157 

-^  barbarians  enter.       ii.  494 

—  Sertorius  in  command 

of      .        .        .        .  ii.  738 

—  impoverished  and  dis- 
contented .        .        .  ii.  770 

—  treatment  by  Pompe^ 

il.  771 

—  war  in  (b.c.  45)  .      iii.  370 

—  review  of  its  condition 

iii-  371.  372 

—  at   time    of   Augustus 

,    .     .  "»•  552-555.  iv.  59 

—  admiration  of  Rome,  iv.  61 

—  merchandise    .      iv.  82,  85 

—  revolt  against  Nero 
(A.D.  68)        .        .      iv.  551 

—  imder  Vespasian        iv.  069 

—  under  the  Anton ines,  v.  420 

—  chief  Roman  cities  of,  v.  429 

—  distinguished  natives,  v.  430 

—  invaded  by  Franks,  vi.  415 
Spaniards    (distinguished), 

at  Rome,  time  of  Nero,  iv.  489 
Sparta  (condition  of)  about 

200  B.C  .  .  ii.  15,  44 
Spartacus,a  Thracian,elected 

with   two    others    chief 

of  the  gladiators    .        ii.  773 

—  calls  100,000  slaves  to 
liberty,  opposed  by  Gel- 
lius  and  Crassus  .  ii.  778 

—  deceived  by  pirates,  ii.  779 

—  struggle  with  Crassus, 
death    •        ,         .       ii.  780 

Spinning        .        .      i.  46,  141 
Spoleto  repulses  Hannibal 

'•  597 
Sportulae  ...  v.  382 
Spurius  Mtelius      .         .  i.  236 

—  Carvilius     .  L  616 


Statins  .V.  646 

Statue  (first),  at  Rome,    L    37 

—  of  Jupiter  modelled  bv 
the  Etruscan  Turrian us,  I.  115 

—  adapted    by     Romans 
from  neighbours      .      L  139 

—  of  Juno  carried   from 
Veil  .         .         .         .  i.  248 

—  of  Marcius  in  forum,  i.  351 

—  of  Jupiter  on  Capito- 
line  hill      .         .         .   i.  361 

—  from  Ambraia  brought 

to  Rome         .        .        ii.  65 

—  of  Jupiter  at  Olympia 

ii.  115 
Statues  brought  from  Greece 
to  Rome     .        .         .  ii.  137 

—  plundered  from  Sicily 

il.  622 

—  brought  from  Greece,  ii.  742 
Sti^ula,  origin  of  term,  ii.  iiq 
Stoicism  .        .  V.  213  w^.,  668 

—  its  teaching  approaches 
Christianity        .         .  v.  675 

Stoics  at  Rome,  iv.  515, 536  «^., 
V.  675 
Stola,  matron's  mantle,  i.  145,267 
Strabo,  geographer  .  iv.  170 
Strenae,  origin  of  ^trennes,  i.  143 
Suessa,  modem  Sessa  .  i.  327 
Suessiones,     defeated     b^ 

Csesar  .  .  .  iii.  146 
Suessula  (victory  of)  during 

Samnitowar        .  1.  321 

Suetonius,    general    under 

Nero,  iv.  499,  656,  v.  117.  653 
Suevi,  barbarian  tribe       iii.  63 

—  described  by  Caesar,  iii.  137, 

158.  630,  iv.  113,  vi.  360 
Suffrage  under  Aujfustu8,iii.  767 
Suicioe  at  battle  of  Philippi 

iii.  475 

—  epidemic  under  Tiberius 

iv.  356 

—  under  Claudius,  iv.  435,  437 

—  defended  by  Stoics  v.  216 
Sulpicius     sent    with    two 

other   commissioners    in 
search  of  good  laws        i.  212 

—  Galba  (consul  200  B.C.) 

-  sent  against  Philip  V.     ii.  29 

—  (tribune  88  B.C.),  ii.  582,  586 

—  killed        .        .         ii.  $89 

—  his  sch  emes  brought  for-     * 
ward  again      .        .      ii.  600 

Sumptuary  ktws,  ii.  444,  iii.  368, 
iv.  520 

—  of  Aurelian  .  vl  502 
Sun  worship  introduced  by 

Elagabalus  at  Rome    vi.  282, 

500 

Sundials     .         .      .ii.  261,282 

Superstitions   .      h  96  seg.^  143 

'  -  in  time  of  distress       i.  287, 

5>6,  555.  649»  ii-  4".  iii-  747 
-  attacked  by  Tiberius,  iv.  320 
Suzo        ...  iv.  55 

Sybaris       .         .         .      L  cxii 
Sylla,    his    character    con- 
trasted with  Marias's    ii.  477 

—  in  Social  war     .         ii.  564 

—  rivalry  with  Marius   il  580 


li.  720 
ii.  721* 
ii.  721 


Sylla,    his   action    in    the 
East       .        .        .       ii.  581 

—  appointed  to  command 
against  Mithridates       ii.  581 

—  marches  against  Rome 

ii.  589 

—  disturbances  in  Rome,  ii.590 

—  conduct  in  the  East  (92) 

ii.  649 

—  besieges  Athens    .      ii.  658 

—  campaign  in  Greece,ii.659  feq 

—  victory  at  Orchomenus 

iL  670 

—  receives  submission  of 
Mithridates  •  ii.  672 

—  return  of,  to  Greece,  ii.  674 

—  lands  at   Brundusium 

ii.  677 

—  his  cause  that  of  aris- 
tocracy  .        .         .      ii.  678 

—  victory  at  Praenesto    ii.  682 

—  enters  Rome      •  ii.  683 

—  dictatorship .         .      ii.  690 

—  proscriptions,ii.  691  seq.^  700 

—  reforms  and  laws        ii.  707 

—  absolute  power  .  ii.  708 

—  encourages  religion     ii.  718 

—  abdication  of  (79) . 

—  his  wife  Metella 

—  second  marriage 

—  death  and  funeral,! i.  722-725 

—  estimate  of  his  work,  ii.  727- 

7?i.  733 

—  work  undone,  ii.  790,  liL  243 
Sylvanus,  rural  god  .  i.  81 
Sylvia  .  .  .  i.4,139 
Syphax,  king  of  Numidia,  i.  684, 

689,695 
Syracuse,  besieged  by  Car- 
thage ...  i.  380 

—  Hiero  IL,  kin^  of  .      i.  465 

—  Theocritus  living  in,  i.  469, 

487 

—  Gelon,  i.627,638,639,ii.5io, 

iv.  487 
Syria   (war   against,    192- 

188)        ..        .        ii.  41 
—naval  engagement  with 
Rome  .        .        .         .  ii-  54 

—  terms    of    peace    with 
Rome      .         .        .        ii.  56 

—  under  Augustus         iii.  597 

—  formed  into  a  province 

ii.  8^6 

—  prosperity  iv.  100,  vi.  00 
Syrti8(the)  .  ii.  481,  iii.  614 
Syrus,  dramatic  writer     iv.  190 

Table  (luxury  of  the),  under 
the  Empire  .        .  v.  580-582 

Tacfarinas  .        .         .    iv.  368 

Tacita  (worship  of),  recom- 
mended by  Numa         ;  .  i-  20 

Tacitus    .         .        .       iii.  621 

—  account  of  Germans,  iii.  633 

iv.  269 

—  on  Tiberius      .     iv.  327  seq 

—  his  history  fai Is, i v.  646,699, 

v.  652,  vi.  514 

—  (emperor)      .        .  vi.  510 

—  his  character  and  rule 

vi.  513 


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GENERAL  INDEX. 


683 


Tagefl,  a  dwarf  who  taught 

wisdom  to  Etniria  .  I.  Ixxi 
Tanaquil,  wife  of  Tarquin 

i.  30-35 
Tarentme  pirates  .  i.  342 
Tarontura      .        .     i.  368,  373 

—  conquest  of,  i.  380,  647-650 
Tarpeian  hill     .        .       i.  131 

—  rock       .        .      i.  215-220 

—  Hanlius  cast  from  .    i.  279 

—  S  jlla  orders  a  slave  to 
be  cast  from,  for  treachery 

ii.  589,  676 
Tarouin  the  Elder  (616-578) 

fifth  king .  .  .  i.  29-3J 
Tarquinii,  war  with  .  i.  268 
Tarqninios  Supcrbus.fourth 

king  (534-510)  •         .     i.  40 

—  wars    .        .         .         i.  41 

—  colonies   .  .         .    i.  42 

—  death  .        .         .        i.  57 

—  political  action  .  i.  128 
Tarraconensis        (Ulterior 

Spain  is  called)  .  iv.  60 
Tarragona  taken  by  Franks 

iy.  414 
T^urini,  Gallic  tribe  .  1.513 
Tauromenium,  situation  of 

i.  502-639 
Taxation  of  the  provinces 
ii.  183,  191,  338,  389,  iv.  471 

—  of  matrons  by  second 
Triumvirate     .        .  iii.  460 

Taxes  under  the  Empire, 

—  laud  tax    .        .         v.  559 

—  capitation      .        .    v.  560 

—  on  legacies.  v.  560 

—  on  domain  lands    .    v.  560 

—  indirect      .        .        v.  561 

—  coronary  gold,  payments 

in  kind     .        .        .v.  562 

—  under  Diocletian       vi.  588 

—  land,  chief   source  of 
revenue.        .        .        i.  278 

^  under  Augustus .      iiL  721 

—  under  Nero  .  .  iv.  471 
Taxilos,  ally  of  Mithridates 

ii.  665 
Tcanum  capital  qf  Samnites 

—  given    up    after   first 
S:imnite  war .        .        i.  321 

Tell  (the)  .  iv.  306,  v.  462 
Tellus,  god  of  lower  world,  i.  81 
Tempe,  vale  of  .  .  ii.  loi 
Temples  built  by  Etruscans 

under  Greek  mfiuence  i.  I15 
Ten  tables,  laws  of  .  i.  213 
Tergeste  .  .  .  iii.  560 
Terence,  poot  i.  265,  35J,  379, 
li.  033 
Terentia,  wife  of  Clodius,  iii.  43 
Torentilius  Arsa,bill  of,  i.201,21 1 
Torni,  cascade  of  .  i.  363 
Terracina     .        .        .1.  243 

—  garrison  at .  .  i.  316 
Terra    Mater,    goddess   of 

lower  world  .  .  i.  81 
Tortullian  .  v.  753,  vi.  202-212 
Testudo  .  .  .  ii.  105 
Toutobokh,    king  of   Tou- 

tonos         .        .     ii.  502,  505 


Teutonee  .  ,  11.  48 j,  497 
Thapsus,  battle  of  .  iii.  350 
Theatroe        .         .        .v.  605 

—  the  shows  .  ,  v.  600 
Thebes  destroyed  .  .  ii.  135 
Theft,  severe  punishment  of 

i.  219 
Theocritus  .  ,  i  469 
Thermae,  at  Rome .        .  iv.  220 

—  of  Caracalla  .  vi.  260 
Thermopylte,  battle  of  .  ii.  49 
Thessalonica  .  .  iii.  564 
Thirty  tyrants,   period    of 

vi.  412 
Thrace  .        .        .    ii.  6^9,  784 

—  under  Augustus  .       iii.  621 

—  taken  by  barbarians,  iv.  1 14, 

306,  322,  V.  436 

—  Probus  in  .  .  vi.  520 
Thrasai,  victim  of  Nero  iv.  533 
Thurium,  battle  of  .  ii.  666 
ThusnoUla       brought      to 

Rome  .  .  .  iv.  302 
Tiber,  quays  built      i.  131,  273 

—  overflow  of  banks  .      i.  287 

—  regulated  by  Augustus 

iii.  744 

—  bed  deepened  by  Clau- 
dius    .        .        .        iv.  412 

Tiberius,  son  of  Livia,iv.  105-107 

—  in  Germany      .        iv.  122 

—  first  declares  the  danger 
which  threatens  from 
barbarians,  defends  Ger- 
many     .        ,        .     iv.  133 

—  his  services        .        iv.  145 

—  reign  of        .        .     iv.  269 

—  chM^cter  in   early  life 

iv.  270-274 

—  first  measures    .        iv.  279 

—  military  revolts  iv.  281-287 

—  his  government  at 
Rome      .        .         .     iv.  291 

—  in  provinces      .         iv.  298 

—  domestic  troubles  .     iv.  301 

—  poisoning  of  Ger- 
manicus       .        .        iv.  307 

—  doubts  as  to  crime    iv.  310 

—  rewards  .the  family  of 
Germanicus     .        .     iv.  315 

—  administration  of       iv.  315 

—  morals,  supervision  of,  iv.  310 

—  suppression  of  Jews,  iv.  319 

—  administration  of  jus- 
tice     .        .        .        iv.  320 

—  economy       .        .     iv.  321 

—  revolts  in  provinces  iv.  322 

—  in  Africa  .         .        iv.  325 

—  death  of  Drusus    .     iv.  330 

—  change     in     character 

of        .        .        .        iv.  335 

—  severities  of .      iv.  340-342 

—  he  leaves  Rome  for 
Capri  .        .        .         iv.  342 

—  imprisons  Agrippina,  iv.  344 

—  causes  Sejanus  to  be 
murdered         .        .     iv.  351 

—  cruelties    .        .        iv.  352 

—  doubts  regarding  the 
atrocities  of  Capri     iv.  355  n 

—  administration  during 
closing  years  .        iv.  359  eeg 


Page 
Tiberius,  death  of     iv.  364-367 

—  not  apotheosiscd,  or 
placed  on  official  list  of 
emperors  by  senate  .     iv.  370 

—  Gemellus,  grandson  of 
emperor  Tiberius .         iv.  370 

Tibullus,  elegiac  poet .  iv.  170 
Tibur    .  .        .  i.  326,  352 

—  sanctuary     .        ,      i.  391 
Ticinus,  battle  of  .     i.  J89,  327 
Tigranes,  ally   of   Mithri- 
dates      •        .        ii.  642  seg 

—  death  ii.  650,  805,  816 

—  struggle  with  Lucullus 

ii.  817 

—  with  Pompey     .        ii  82 i 

—  of  Armenia  .  .  iv.  98 
Timesitheus,    minister    of 

Gordian  II.    .        .      vi.  341 

—  wise  administration,  vi.  342 

—  honours  and  death  (a.d. 

^.243)  .  .  .  vi.  344 
Titienses,  Ronmn  tnbe,  i.  67,117 
Titus,  son  of  Vespasian    iv.  589 

—  undertakes  reduction  of 
Jerusalem    .        .         iv.  592 

—  on  death  of  Vespasian 
becomes  emperor     .    iv.  670 

—  Berenice   .         .     iv.  672  n 

—  generosity  iv.  672-675,  679 

—  death   .        .        .     iv.  679 

—  Jewish  legend  .  iv.  680 
Toga  prsetexta    .        .       i.  594 

—  virilis,  assumption  of,  v.  242 

—  festivities  on  the  occa- 
sion    ...         V.  379 

Toilet,  articles   for  ladies' 

V.  573  n 
Tombs         .        .      V.  282, 635 

—  Etruscan,  I.  Ixxxiii.  Ixxxvii 

—  customs  concerning,  i.  88,  89 
Torquatus,  origin  of  word,  i.  268 
Toulouse  .  .  iii.  555 
Toys  .  .  .  .  V.  241 
Trade  at  Rome        .  iv.  77 

—  under  the  Antonines,  v.  475, 

477 

—  possibly  with  China  v.  478 

—  custom  house  dues      v.  479 

—  results  of,  extended,  v.  481 
Traditional  kings  of  Latium 

I  2  8eq 
Trajan,  governor,  of  Upper 
Germany    under   Domi- 
tian    .         .        .  iv.  704,  710 

—  adopted  by  Nerva  .   iv.  742 

—  birth  and  early  offices 

iv.  743 

—  elected  emperor  (a.  p. 
98-1 17),  first  measures,  iv.  744 

—  his  works  on  the  Rhino, 

iv.  745 

—  military  successes,  iv.  745, 

746 

—  returns  to  Rome  (99), 
simplicity  of  life,  iv.  740,  751 

—  Dacian  war    .        .  iv.  751 

—  works  on  the  Danube,iv.755 

—  great  roads         .       iv.  756 

—  conduct  of  war       .  iv.  757 

—  victory  over  Decebalus 

iv.  758 


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684 


GENERAL   INDEX. 


Page 
Trajan,   second  war    (a.d. 
105),  bridge  over  Danube 

iv.  760  D 

—  final  conquest  of  Da- 
cians     .        •        .       iv.  762 

—  column    .        .  iv.  766,  775 

—  general, Cornelius  Palma 

...  .  .  '^-  775 

—  administration  of,  iv.  770, 

—  establishes  secret  ballot 

iv.  780 

—  character        .        .  iv.  782 

—  financial  matters        iv.  789 

—  benevolent  measures.iv.  789, 

794 

—  public  works      iv.  795,  804 

—  builds     Ancona  and 
Civita  Vecchia      ,  iv.  796 

—  sanitary  works  .  iv.  796 

—  in  Egypt    .        .  iv.  800 

—  bridges  .     .    ,    .  .  iv.  800 

—  embellishments  in  the 
provinces       .         ,       iv.  800 

—  immense  number  of  his 
works        .        .         .  iv.  804 

—  correspondence  of  Pliny 
and       .        .        .       iv.  807 

^  letters  concemin^Chris- 
tians  .        .    IV.  815, 818 

—  treatment  of  Christians 

iv.  819 

—  his  expedition  against 
the  Partnians  (a.  D.  113) 

iv.  824 

—  conquest  of  Armenia,  iv.827 

—  at    Antioch,   Mesoj>o- 
tamia    .        .        .       iv.  828 

—  enters    Babylon    (a.d. 
116).        .        .        .  iv.  829 

—  disturbances     in     the 
West    .        .        .       iv.  832 

—  review  of  his  reign,  iv.  833, 

834 

—  bridge  over  Danube,  v.  27 
Trasimene  (battle  of)      .  i.  595 
Travelling  under  the  Em- 
pire .         .         .V.  482, 489 

—  dangers  to  travellers,  v.  489 
Trebia  (battle  of)  .  .  i.  591 
Trebonian    law    excluding 

patricians   from  the  tri- 
bunate .        .        .        i.  232 
Trerus,  river  .         .    i.  189 

Treveri,    tribe    famed    for 
horsemanship  in  Oaul,iii.  147, 
259,  iv.  608 
Trevi  (fountain  of),  water 
brought    to    Rome    by 
Agrippa    .        .         .  iii.  743 
Triarii  (the)    .         .  i.  349,  423 
Tribes  of  Rome,  i.  67  scg.f  119 

—  new  formed        .         i.  270 

—  thirty  five,  i.  386,  498,  iii. 

56,  V.  519,  520 
Tribune  of  the  celeres,  first 
magistrate    in    the    city 
after  the  king  .         .        i.  73 

—  duties  of  .         .        .  i.  120 

—  office  of        .         .       i.  159 

—  appointment  of  Brutus 
andSicinius        .         .  i.  165 


Page 
Tribune,  important  results 
of  tribunate    .        .        i.  166 

—  ^owth  of  power,  i.  178,  238 

—  increase  of  number   .  i.  204 

—  Camillus,  tribune  seven 
times  .        .        .  i.  266,  415 

—  office  held  by  persons 

of  high  rank   ,        .     ii.  287 

—  murder  of  the  tribune 
Octavius    .        ,        .  ii.  407 

—  loss    of    rights    under 
Sylla     .        .        .       ii.  711 

—  proposed  restoration,  ii.  783 

—  Licinius  Macer  on     ,  ii.  784 

—  Pompey    restores    the 
rights  of  tribuneship  <  ii.  790 

Tribuni    majores  and  Tri- 

buni  minores  .  .iii.  729 
Tripoli  .  .  .  .V.  463 
Triremes  ...  v.  555 
Triumphal  ceremonies,  i.  519,  li. 
iiSseq 
Triumvirate  of  Pompejr, 
Csesar,  and  Crassus      .  iii.  53 

—  second  (b.c.  43-36),  iii.  440, 

460 

—  renewed  friendship,  iii.  496 
Triumviri  capitales  .  .  i.  295 
Trojan    origin    of    Rome 

(rise  of  the  myth  of)  .  i.  63 
Tullia  .  .  .  i.  39>  40 
Tullianum  prison  .  iii.  33  n. 
TuUius,  chief  of  VolscianSyi.  191 
TuUus  Hostilius  (673-640), 

third  king  .         .         i.  20-28 

—  legend    of    Livy  con-  • 
ceming  .         .        .    i.  21-27 

—  military  institutions,  i.  113 
Tumuli  ...  I.  Ixxxiv 
Tusculum  .  i.  184,  326,  iii.  451 
Tutela  (legend  of)  .  i.  207 
Twelve  Tables  (laws  of),  i.  217 

—  characteristicc  of,i.223,ii.277 
Tyras,  Roman  colony  at  the 

mouth  of  Dniester  .  v.  23 
Tyre  .  .  .  iii.  599,  vi.  81 
Tyrrhenians  .        .        .1.  xliii 

—  pirates  of  .  .  i.  342 
Tyrrhenian  Sea      .         .    i.  506 

Ulpian    .  vi.  120,  283,  300 

Umbrians  .    i.  211  m^.,  625 

—  resist  Scipio  .  i.  687 
Unelli,  Gallic  tribe  .  iii.  155 
Usury     .    1143,144,160.2^, 

306.  307 

—  in  provinces  .         .      ii.  631 

—  limited  hy  Lucullus  ii.  815 
Utica    i.  560,  687,  690,  ii.   142, 

iii.  340 
Uxellodunun?,    la^t    Gallic 
town  to  resist  Csesar    iii.  208 

Vaccaei  .  .  .  ii.  69,  151 
Vadimonius  (lacus)  i.  348,  367 
"  Vae  victis  "    .        .  i.  261 

Vaga,  tracing  station  ii.  467 
Valeria,  wife  of  Coriolanus,  i.  191 
Valerian  law  confirmed      i.  294 

—  way      .         .         .       i.  404 

—  emperor      vi.  411,  413,  424 

—  persecutions        vi.  427,  441 


Piiee 
Valerius  (consulship  of)     i.  158 

—  opposes  Appius     .       i.  214 

—  (M.),  combat  with  a 
Gaul    ...  i.  273 

—  sumamed  Corvus,  i.  274  se^., 

290,  3i8»  320,  347.  355 

—  consul ,        .         .        i.  51 

—  (Procillus)         .        iii.  141 

—  (Flaccus)    ii.  343,  3C9,  668, 

670,  671,  674 

—  (Meesala),  friend  of  Au^ 

Sustus    .        .         .     iii.  717 
ens,  legate  of   German 
legion .        .         .         iv.  574 
Vanquished  (treatment  of) 

i.  326,  362 

—  at  Capua      ,        .     iv.  656 

—  enemies  (treatment  of) 

>.  389.  396,ii.  36,  75»«>.305 

—  pillage  of .  .  ii.  334  seq 
Varian  law  .  iL  582, 580 
Varinius      (prstor)      sent 

against  the  gladiators 
under  Spartacus    .        ii.  774 

Varius,  author  of  the  Au- 
gustan age      .         .     iv.  170 

Varro  (consul  216  B.c.),i.  607,615 

—  on  agriculture       .    iii.  746 

—  estimate  of  iv.  186-189 
Varus     ...         iv.  128 

—  defeat  and  death   .     iv.  132 

—  eagles  recovered  iv.  424 
Vatinian  plebiscitum  gives 

Csesar  command  in  Gaul 
and  Dlyria  .        •    iii.  61,  63 
Veii    .        .        .  i.  38,  187 

—  war  against  (B.a  482),i.  197, 

241.243 

—  capture  of         .     i.  244  scq 

—  proposal  that  Romans 
should  migrate  there      i.  263 

Velaria,  screen  from  the  sun 

in  the  theatre  .         .      ii.  743 
Velina,  tribe  of        .  i.  498 

Velinus  Mons      .         .       i.  36? 
Velites    .        .        .  i.  423 

Velitrae  (revolt  of)      .       i.  265 

—  conquest  .  .  i.  320 
Veneti  attack  Gauls        .  i.  258 

—  powerful  G^lic  tribe,  iii.  153 

—  their  ships  .        .     iii.  153 

—  defeated  by  Romans,  iii.  155 
Venetia  .  .  .  i.  353,  510 
Ventidius,    general    under 

Antony  .  .  iii.  491,  514 
Venus  Erycina  (temple  of) 

i.  478,  488 
VercellsB  (battle  of),  Cimbri 

defeated  at  .        .  ii.  50^ 

Vercingetorix,  Gallic  leader 

iii.  180 
—  his    military    talents 

iii.  182  teg 

—  operations  against  Caesar 

iii.  196 

—  his  end         .         .     iii.  202 
Vcrgasivellaun        •         iii.  201 
Verginius  Rufus  .     iv.  552 
Verres  (C.   Licinius),  mal- 
practices of         .    ii.  622  leg 

—  death  of,  by  proscrip- 
tion        .  .     iii.  450 


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GENERAL  INDEX. 


685 


Pasre 
Vepulamium        .        .      iv.  498 
Verus  (L.  Ceionius  Commo- 
dus),  chosen  to  succeed 
Hadrian       .        .        .  v.  129 

—  sent  to  Pannonia,  death 
before  Hadrian        .       v.  134 

—  (brother  of  above),  v.  171, 

173 

Vesta,  public  god    .        .     i.  77 

—  worship     restored     by 
Augustus        .        .     iii.  751 

Vestals   .        i.  4,  104-107,  117 

—  punishment  of  .   i.  327,  614 

—  honoured  by  Augustus 

"i.  753 

—  DoHiitian's  severity,  iv.  696, 

vi.  246,  284 
Vesontium  (battle  of)      iv.  549 
Vespasian, .  his  honesty  as 
collector  of  taxes,  review 
of  his  life       .         .      iv.  588 

—  commands  three  legions 
against  Jews      .  iv.  589 

—  Josephus's  prophecy,  iv.  591 

—  proclaimed  emperor  in 
Alexandria  (^.d.  69),  iv.  591 

—  struggle  with  Vitellius 

^iv.  594.  595 

—  emperor  (a.d.  09),  ^Yfir 
with  Batavi  .        .       iv.  604 

—  peace  restored  .  iv.  614 

—  Jewish  war        iv.  614,  632 

—  at  Home      .  iv.  641  seq 

—  wars  and  peace    .     iv.  644 

—  his  character    .  iv.  646 

—  encourages  good  men,  iv.648 

—  renewal  of  Koman  nobi- 
lity       .        .        ,       iv.  649 

—  his  justice       .  iv.  650 

—  tries  to  restore  religion 

iv.  651 

—  buildings    .        iv.  652-655 

—  accused  of  parsimony,iv.  656 

—  administration  of  finance 

iv.  660 

—  endowment    of   litera- 
ture and  art        .  iv.  661 

—  care  of  allied  and  sub- 
ject nations    .,        .      iv.  666 

—  -  his  foreign  policy,  iv.  668 

—  liis  deiith         .  iv.  670 

—  work  in  Africa     .       v.  452 
Vesuvius  (Mount)       .       L  xiv 

—  battle  at  .        .        .  i.  323 

—  occupied  by  gladiators 

ii.  773 
Vetera  Castra         .  iv.  606 

Vettius  heads  a  Servile  in- 
surrection      .        .       ii.  509 
Veturia,  mother  of  Corio- 

lanus      .        .        .        i.  191 
Via  Egnatia,  military  road 

,ii'\3°7,  470,  565.  576 
Vibeuna  (C8Bles)  .  .  i.  118 
Viccsima  lieredi latum  iii.  722 
iv.  12 
Victorina,  mother  of  Victo- 
rians .  .  .  vi.  446 
Victorinus,  Gallic  emperor 

^i*  445 
Vienna  (Vindobona)  .       v.  434 


Villa 


1.  141,  143 


Page 
Vindalium,     great     battle 

with  Gallic  tribes        .  ii.  487 
Vindox   (Julius),  leads  re- 
volt against  Nero   .      iv.  549 
Vindicius  .        .         .  i.  51 

Virgil     expatriated    from 
l&ntua    .        .         .   iii.  490 

—  poems        .        .       iii.  745 

—  death  (19  B.C.)  iv.  105,  169, 

„.    .  .  '75-183 

Virginia      .        .        .  1. 215 

Vir^inius         .        .  .  i.  215 

Vinathus  in  Spain   .  ii.  151 

Viromandui      opposed  to 

Caesar      .        .        .  iii.  147 

Vitellius,  rival  of  Otho,  iv.  572, 

•  578 

—  emperor        .        .    iv.  582 

—  character  and  acts,  iv.  584- 

586 

—  opposes  Vespasian      iv.  592 

—  abdication         .  iv.  597,  598 

—  continued  fighting,  iv.  598, 


599 
.  iv.  603 


—  death 
Vitrified  buildings  in  Gaul 

iii.  127 
Vitruvius    on   architecture 

iv.  170,  196 
Volaterrae .         .        ii.  687, 689 
Volcse  Tectosagi,  barbarians 
in  Gaul      .        .        .    ii.  493 

—  defeated  by  Marius  ii.  496 
Volcanic  eruptions  .  vi.  395 
Volcanoes  (active  £uropean) 

only  found  in  Italy  .  I.  xiii 
Volero  .  .  .  .  i.  201 
Vologeses       .         .         .  iv.  491 

—  iV.,  king  of  Parthia  vi.  70 
Volsci  •  .  .1.  xcv.  8eg 
Volscians,  war  with,  i.  163,  186 

—  couquent  of  .        .        i.  190 

—  attacks  on  Roman  terri- 
tory  .         .        .         .    i.  240 

—  finally  destroyed  .  i.  270 
Voltumna  (temple  of),  meet- 

in^-pliice     of     Etruscan 
chiefs      ...      I.  Ixix 
Volusenus    sent  to  explore 

Britain  by  Caesar  .  iii.  163 
Vulcan  .  .  .  i.  77 
Vulcanal  .  .  .  i.  78 
Vulci  (tomb  at)  .  i.  118 

Vulciates         .        .        .  i.  367 
Vulso  (Manlius),  consul     i.  479 

—  in  Gtilatia    .        .        ii.  57 

—  concludes   Asiatic   war 

ii.  62,  64 

Wall  of  Romulus  .  .  i.  10 
Walls  as  fortifications  .      v.  30 

—  useless  when  not  de- 
fended.        .        .        vi.  518 

Water  supply      .        .      v.  604 

Wealth  (increase  of),  ii.  225  seg., 

346 

—  of  Romans  under  the 
Empiro  compared  with 
that  of  modern    nations 

,    ,  V. ';7i,  578 

—  decline  of,  in  third 
century     .         .        .   vi.  386 


Weapons      .        .        1.  423  seq 

—  changes  made  by  Marius 

"•  495 

—  used  by  Sylla  .  ii.  666 
Wedding  customs .  .  v.  254 
Weights      and      measures 

under  supervision  in  time 
of  Augustus .        .         iv.  75 

—  used  in  trade .        .    v.  480 
Wheat  for  distribution  sup- 
plied by  frumentary  pro- 
vinces   .        .        .      iii.  738 

—  scarcity     under   Com- 
modus       .        .        .     vi.  23 

Widowers  and  widows  .  v.  263 
Wills  .  .  V.  284.  387, 642 
Wine  .  iv.  76,  85,  87,  v.  585 
Winter  (hostilities  during),i.  247 
Women  (position  of)  in 
early  Rome       .        .     i.  144 

—  could  not,except  Vestals, 
bequeath  property  .        i.  145 

—  their  extravagance  lim- 
ited    .        .        .  ii.  ^46  seq 

—  appear  in  politics       iii.  43 

—  place  in  society  from 

79  to  30  B.C.     .        .iii.  222 

—  deputation  of,  wait  on 
triumvirate  .         .       iii.  460 

—  (notable)at  Rome  under 
Augustus .         .        .iii.  682 

—  position  in  Rome      iii.  755 

—  as  portrayed  by  Vircil 

,     .  .  »^-  "79 

—  practising  as  physicians 

iv.  198 

—  Hadrian's  law  concern- 
ing .        .        .        .V.  107 

—  the   condition  of  mar- 
ried    .        .        .V.  259-271 

—  morals  .        .        .v.  629 

—  virtues  and  learning  of 

V.  630,  631 
Worship  of  emperors  and 

others  .  .  .  iv.  38 
Writing    in  ancient  Italy 

(use  of) .        .        .  i.  59 

Xanthippus,  the  Lacedaemo- 
nian .        .        .        .    i.  481 
Xanthos  conquered  by  Brutus 

iii.  469 


York,  Eboracum 


V.  47 


Zama  (battle  of)        .  i.  6^  seq 

—  importance  of  .         .1.  696 

—  Jugurtha  at  .  i.  468 
Zealots  .  iv.  62 j,  629,  631 
Zenobia,  queen  of  Palmyra 

vi.  474 

—  her  origin,  beauty,  and 
learning    .        ,        .  vi.  475 

—  her  court   .        .      vi.  477 

—  her  wars        .     vi.  478-484 

—  correspondence      with 
Aurelian  .       vi.  487 

—  defence  of  Palmyra,  vi.  488 

—  escape  .        .        .  vi.  489 

—  in  Aurelian's  triumph,vi.497 

—  after  life  .  .  vi.  498 
Zeugitana     .        .         .  ii.  451 


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