Read the eight books of the _History_ of Herodian.[552] Beginning
from the death of Marcus Aurelius, he relates how his son Commodus,
who succeeded him, having shown himself utterly degenerate and
completely under the influence of flatterers, was put to death by
his concubine Marcia as the result of a plot by Laetus and Eclectus.
He was succeeded by Pertinax, an old man of high character; but
the praetorian guards, who hated virtue, slew him in the palace.
Julian, who obtained the throne by bribing the praetorians, was soon
afterwards put to death by them. Niger,[553] who appears to have been
an estimable man, was declared emperor, while Julian was still alive.
Severus,[554] keen witted, astute, and resolute in the presence
of dangers, having defeated and put to death his rival, ascended
the throne, and removed all who resisted him by open violence
or ensnaring craft. He treated his subjects with the greatest
haughtiness. He died of illness[555] while waging war against the
Britons. Antoninus,[556] the elder of his two sons, having made a
treaty with them, returned to Italy. He unwillingly accepted his
brother Geta as his partner in the empire, and soon afterwards
murdered him in his mother’s arms. Eager to surpass all in vice and
cruelty, he fell a victim in Syria to a plot set on foot by Macrinus,
who was himself threatened with death by the emperor and was anxious
to prevent it. Macrinus, an old man, dilatory and lacking in
self-control, but in other respects a worthy person, became emperor
after the death of Antoninus. Moesa, the sister of Julia, had two
daughters, Soaemis and Mamaea; the former had a son named Bassianus,
the latter a son named Alexinus, both reputed sons of Antoninus.
The army, on some slight pretext, proclaimed Bassianus[557] emperor
in the camp, and bestowed upon him the name of Antoninus. Macrinus,
defeated in battle, fled from the borders of Phoenicia and Syria and
retired to Chalcedon, intending to make his way from there to Rome;
but he was intercepted by the emissaries of Antoninus, who cut off
his head and carried it back with them.
Antoninus, as long as he followed the counsel of his mother,
ruled with moderation, adopted Alexinus--whose name he changed to
Alexander[558]--as his son, and created him Caesar. But after he fell
under the influence of flatterers, there was no excess of vice and
intemperance of which he was not guilty. His attempted plot against
Alexander was frustrated by the soldiers, and when he decided to
punish them, they put him to death. Alexander, the son of Mamaea,
reigned fourteen years to the best of his ability with goodness and
clemency and without bloodshed; but owing, it is said, to the avarice
and meanness of his mother, they were both put to death, and Maximin
was proclaimed emperor.
Maximin, a brutal and oppressive tyrant, a man of enormous stature
and extremely cruel, reigned nearly three years. The soldiers in
Africa revolted and slew the governor, a man of like character
appointed by Maximin, and elected the proconsul Gordian (a man eighty
years of age) emperor against his will. Rome joyfully accepted his
election, deprived Maximin of all his honours, and at the same
time declared the proconsul’s son, Gordian, joint-emperor with
his father. While Maximin was preparing for war, Gordian, who had
occupied Carthage together with his son, seeing that his position was
desperate, hanged himself; his son was defeated by Maximin, and fell
on the field of battle. The Romans, deeply grieved at their death,
hating and at the same time fearing Maximin, proclaimed Balbinus and
Maximus emperors at Rome. The soldiers created a disturbance and
demanded that Gordian, the grandson of the elder Gordian, and his
daughter’s son, quite a boy, should be associated with them in the
empire. While Maximus was advancing against Maximin, the latter was
murdered by his own soldiers, his head was taken to Maximus, and
thence to Rome. Soon afterwards, the soldiers again revolted, dragged
Maximus and Balbinus from the palace and, after inflicting every
insult upon them, put them to death and bestowed the throne upon
Gordian alone, now about thirteen years of age. Here the eighth book
ends.
The writer’s style is clear, brilliant, and agreeable; his diction
avoids extremes, being neither too much given to atticism, which
violates the natural charm of ordinary language, nor so careless as
to degenerate into meanness to the sacrifice of all the rules of art.
He does not take a pride in what is superfluous, nor does he omit
anything that is necessary; in a word, he is inferior to few in all
the good qualities of an historian.
C
Read several of the _Declamations_ of the emperor Hadrian,[559]
distinguished by moderation of style, and not disagreeable to read.