(479)
I. Domitian was born upon the ninth of the calends of November [24th
October] [795], when his father was consul elect, (being to enter upon
his office the month following,) in the sixth region of the city, at the
Pomegranate [796], in the house which he afterwards converted into a
temple of the Flavian family. He is said to have spent the time of his
youth in so much want and infamy, that he had not one piece of plate
belonging to him; and it is well known, that Clodius Pollio, a man of
pretorian rank, against whom there is a poem of Nero’s extant, entitled
Luscio, kept a note in his hand-writing, which he sometimes produced, in
which Domitian made an assignation with him for the foulest purposes.
Some, likewise, have said, that he prostituted himself to Nerva, who
succeeded him. In the war with Vitellius, he fled into the Capitol with
his uncle Sabinus, and a part of the troops they had in the city [797].
But the enemy breaking in, and the temple being set on fire, he hid
himself all night with the sacristan; and next morning, assuming the
disguise of a worshipper of Isis, and mixing with the priests of that
idle superstition, he got over the Tiber [798], with only one attendant,
to the house of a woman who was the mother of one of his school-fellows,
and lurked there so close, that, though the enemy, who were at his heels,
searched very strictly after him, they could not discover him. At last,
after the success of his party, appearing in public, and being
unanimously saluted by the title of Caesar, he assumed the office of
praetor of the City, with consular authority, but in fact had nothing but
the name; for the jurisdiction he transferred to his next colleague. He
used, however, his absolute (480) power so licentiously, that even then
he plainly discovered what sort of prince he was likely to prove. Not to
go into details, after he had made free with the wives of many men of
distinction, he took Domitia Longina from her husband, Aelias Lamia, and
married her; and in one day disposed of above twenty offices in the city
and the provinces; upon which Vespasian said several times, “he wondered
he did not send him a successor too.”
II. He likewise designed an expedition into Gaul and Germany [799],
without the least necessity for it, and contrary to the advice of all his
father’s friends; and this he did only with the view of equalling his
brother in military achievements and glory. But for this he was severely
reprimanded, and that he might the more effectually be reminded of his
age and position, was made to live with his father, and his litter had to
follow his father’s and brother’s carriage, as often as they went abroad;
but he attended them in their triumph for the conquest of Judaea [800],
mounted on a white horse. Of the six consulships which he held, only one
was ordinary; and that he obtained by the cession and interest of his
brother. He greatly affected a modest behaviour, and, above all, a taste
for poetry; insomuch, that he rehearsed his performances in public,
though it was an art he had formerly little cultivated, and which he
afterwards despised and abandoned. Devoted, however, as he was at this
time to poetical pursuits, yet when Vologesus, king of the Parthians,
desired succours against the Alani, with one of Vespasian’s sons to
command them, he laboured hard to procure for himself that appointment.
But the scheme proving abortive, he endeavoured by presents and promises
to engage other kings of the East to make a similar request. After his
father’s death, he was for some time in doubt, whether he should not
offer the soldiers a donative double to that of his brother, and made no
scruple of saying frequently, “that he had been left his partner in the
empire, but that his father’s will had been fraudulently set aside.”
From that time forward, he was constantly engaged in plots against his
brother, both publicly and privately; until, falling dangerously ill, he
ordered all his attendants to (481) leave him, under pretence of his
being dead, before he really was so; and, at his decease, paid him no
other honour than that of enrolling him amongst the gods; and he often,
both in speeches and edicts, carped at his memory by sneers and
insinuations.
III. In the beginning of his reign, he used to spend daily an hour by
himself in private, during which time he did nothing else but catch
flies, and stick them through the body with a sharp pin. When some one
therefore inquired, “whether any one was with the emperor,” it was
significantly answered by Vibius Crispus, “Not so much as a fly.” Soon
after his advancement, his wife Domitia, by whom he had a son in his
second consulship, and whom the year following he complimented with the
title of Augusta, being desperately in love with Paris, the actor, he put
her away; but within a short time afterwards, being unable to bear the
separation, he took her again, under pretence of complying with the
people’s importunity. During some time, there was in his administration
a strange mixture of virtue and vice, until at last his virtues
themselves degenerated into vices; being, as we may reasonably conjecture
concerning his character, inclined to avarice through want, and to
cruelty through fear.
IV. He frequently entertained the people with most magnificent and
costly shows, not only in the amphitheatre, but the circus; where,
besides the usual races with chariots drawn by two or four horses
a-breast, he exhibited the representation of an engagement between both
horse and foot, and a sea-fight in the amphitheatre. The people were
also entertained with the chase of wild beasts and the combat of
gladiators, even in the night-time, by torch-light. Nor did men only
fight in these spectacles, but women also. He constantly attended at the
games given by the quaestors, which had been disused for some time, but
were revived by him; and upon those occasions, always gave the people the
liberty of demanding two pair of gladiators out of his own school, who
appeared last in court uniforms. Whenever he attended the shows of
gladiators, there stood at his feet a little boy dressed in scarlet, with
a prodigiously small head, with whom he used to talk very much, and
sometimes seriously. We are assured, that he was (482) overheard asking
him, “if he knew for what reason he had in the late appointment, made
Metius Rufus governor of Egypt?” He presented the people with naval
fights, performed by fleets almost as numerous as those usually employed
in real engagements; making a vast lake near the Tiber [801], and
building seats round it. And he witnessed them himself during a very
heavy rain. He likewise celebrated the Secular games [802], reckoning
not from the year in which they had been exhibited by Claudius, but from
the time of Augustus’s celebration of them. In these, upon the day of
the Circensian sports, in order to have a hundred races performed, he
reduced each course from seven rounds to five. He likewise instituted,
in honour of Jupiter Capitolinus, a solemn contest in music to be
performed every five years; besides horse-racing and gymnastic exercises,
with more prizes than are at present allowed. There was also a public
performance in elocution, both Greek and Latin and besides the musicians
who sung to the harp, there were others who played concerted pieces or
solos, without vocal accompaniment. Young girls also ran races in the
Stadium, at which he presided in his sandals, dressed in a purple robe,
made after the Grecian fashion, and wearing upon his head a golden crown
bearing the effigies of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva; with the flamen of
Jupiter, and the college of priests sitting by his side in the same
dress; excepting only that their crowns had also his own image on them.
He celebrated also upon the Alban mount every year the festival of
Minerva, for whom he had appointed a college of priests, out of which
were chosen by lot persons to preside as governors over the college; who
were obliged to entertain the people with extraordinary chases of
wild-beasts, and stage-plays, besides contests for prizes in oratory and
poetry. He thrice bestowed upon the people a largess of three hundred
sesterces each man; and, at a public show of gladiators, a very plentiful
feast. At the festival of the Seven Hills [803], he distributed large
hampers of provisions (483) to the senatorian and equestrian orders, and
small baskets to the common people, and encouraged them to eat by setting
them the example. The day after, he scattered among the people a variety
of cakes and other delicacies to be scrambled for; and on the greater
part of them falling amidst the seats of the crowd, he ordered five
hundred tickets to be thrown into each range of benches belonging to the
senatorian and equestrian orders.
V. He rebuilt many noble edifices which had been destroyed by fire, and
amongst them the Capitol, which had been burnt down a second time [804];
but all the inscriptions were in his own name, without the least mention
of the original founders. He likewise erected a new temple in the
Capitol to Jupiter Custos, and a forum, which is now called Nerva’s
[805], as also the temple of the Flavian family [806], a stadium [807],
an odeum [808], and a naumachia [809]; out of the stone dug from which,
the sides of the Circus Maximus, which had been burnt down, were rebuilt.
VI. He undertook several expeditions, some from choice, and some from
necessity. That against the Catti [810] was unprovoked, but that against
the Sarmatians was necessary; an entire legion, with its commander,
having been cut off by them. He sent two expeditions against the
Dacians; the first upon the defeat of Oppius Sabinus, a man of consular
rank; and (484) the other, upon that of Cornelius Fuscus, prefect of the
pretorian cohorts, to whom he had entrusted the conduct of that war.
After several battles with the Catti and Daci, he celebrated a double
triumph. But for his successes against the Sarmatians, he only bore in
procession the laurel crown to Jupiter Capitolinus. The civil war, begun
by Lucius Antonius, governor of Upper Germany, he quelled, without being
obliged to be personally present at it, with remarkable good fortune.
For, at the very moment of joining battle, the Rhine suddenly thawing,
the troops of the barbarians which were ready to join L. Antonius, were
prevented from crossing the river. Of this victory he had notice by some
presages, before the messengers who brought the news of it arrived. For
upon the very day the battle was fought, a splendid eagle spread its
wings round his statue at Rome, making most joyful cries. And shortly
after, a rumour became common, that Antonius was slain; nay, many
positively affirmed, that they saw his head brought to the city.
VII. He made many innovations in common practices. He abolished the
Sportula [811], and revived the old practice of regular suppers. To the
four former parties in the Circensian games, he added two new, who were
gold and scarlet. He prohibited the players from acting in the theatre,
but permitted them the practice of their art in private houses. He
forbad the castration of males; and reduced the price of the eunuchs who
were still left in the hands of the dealers in slaves. On the occasion
of a great abundance of wine, accompanied by a scarcity of corn,
supposing that the tillage of the ground was neglected for the sake of
attending too much to the cultivation of vineyards, he published a
proclamation forbidding the planting of any new vines in Italy, and
ordering the vines in the provinces to be cut down, nowhere permitting
more than one half of them to remain [812]. But he did not persist in
the execution of this project. Some of the greatest offices he conferred
upon his freedmen and soldiers. He forbad two legions to be quartered in
the same camp, and more than a thousand sesterces to be deposited by any
soldier with the standards; because it was thought that Lucius Antonius
had been encouraged in his late project by the large sum deposited in the
military chest by the two legions which he had in the same
winter-quarters. He made an addition to the soldiers’ pay, of three
gold pieces a year.
VIII. In the administration of justice he was diligent and assiduous;
and frequently sat in the Forum out of course, to cancel the judgments of
the court of The One Hundred, which had been procured through favour, or
interest. He occasionally cautioned the judges of the court of recovery
to beware of being too ready to admit claims for freedom brought before
them. He set a mark of infamy upon judges who were convicted of taking
bribes, as well as upon their assessors. He likewise instigated the
tribunes of the people to prosecute a corrupt aedile for extortion, and
to desire the senate to appoint judges for his trial. He likewise took
such effectual care in punishing magistrates of the city, and governors
of provinces, guilty of malversation, that they never were at any time
more moderate or more just. Most of these, since his reign, we have seen
prosecuted for crimes of various kinds. Having taken upon himself the
reformation of the public manners, he restrained the licence of the
populace in sitting promiscuously with the knights in the theatre.
Scandalous libels, published to defame persons of rank, of either sex, he
suppressed, and inflicted upon their authors a mark of infamy. He
expelled a man of quaestorian rank from the senate, for practising
mimicry and dancing. He debarred infamous women the use of litters; as
also the right of receiving legacies, or inheriting estates. He struck
out of the list of judges a Roman knight for taking again his wife whom
he had divorced and prosecuted for adultery. He condemned several men of
the senatorian and equestrian orders, upon the Scantinian law [813]. The
lewdness of the Vestal Virgins, which had been overlooked by his father
and brother, he punished severely, but in different ways; viz. offences
committed before his reign, with death, and those since its commencement,
according to ancient custom. For to the two sisters called Ocellatae, he
gave liberty to choose the mode of death which they preferred, and
banished (486) their paramours. But Cornelia, the president of the
Vestals, who had formerly been acquitted upon a charge of incontinence,
being a long time after again prosecuted and condemned, he ordered to be
buried alive; and her gallants to be whipped to death with rods in the
Comitium; excepting only a man of praetorian rank, to whom, because he
confessed the fact, while the case was dubious, and it was not
established against him, though the witnesses had been put to the
torture, he granted the favour of banishment. And to preserve pure and
undefiled the reverence due to the gods, he ordered the soldiers to
demolish a tomb, which one of his freedmen had erected for his son out of
the stones designed for the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and to sink in
the sea the bones and relics buried in it.
IX. Upon his first succeeding to power, he felt such an abhorrence for
the shedding of blood, that, before his father’s arrival in Rome, calling
to mind the verse of Virgil,