Part IV._The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes)

All these cities were connected with each other, and with the

capital, by the public highways, which, issuing from the Forum of

Rome, traversed Italy, pervaded the provinces, and were

terminated only by the frontiers of the empire. If we carefully

trace the distance from the wall of Antoninus to Rome, and from

thence to Jerusalem, it will be found that the great chain of

communication, from the north-west to the south-east point of the

empire, was drawn out to the length of four thousand and eighty

Roman miles. 85 The public roads were accurately divided by

mile-stones, and ran in a direct line from one city to another,

with very little respect for the obstacles either of nature or

private property. Mountains were perforated, and bold arches

thrown over the broadest and most rapid streams. 86 The middle

part of the road was raised into a terrace which commanded the

adjacent country, consisted of several strata of sand, gravel,

and cement, and was paved with large stones, or, in some places

near the capital, with granite. 87 Such was the solid

construction of the Roman highways, whose firmness has not

entirely yielded to the effort of fifteen centuries. They united

the subjects of the most distant provinces by an easy and

familiar intercourse; but their primary object had been to

facilitate the marches of the legions; nor was any country

considered as completely subdued, till it had been rendered, in

all its parts, pervious to the arms and authority of the

conqueror. The advantage of receiving the earliest intelligence,

and of conveying their orders with celerity, induced the emperors

to establish, throughout their extensive dominions, the regular

institution of posts. 88 Houses were everywhere erected at the

distance only of five or six miles; each of them was constantly

provided with forty horses, and by the help of these relays, it

was easy to travel a hundred miles in a day along the Roman

roads. 89 891 The use of posts was allowed to those who claimed

it by an Imperial mandate; but though originally intended for the

public service, it was sometimes indulged to the business or

conveniency of private citizens. 90 Nor was the communication of

the Roman empire less free and open by sea than it was by land.

The provinces surrounded and enclosed the Mediterranean: and

Italy, in the shape of an immense promontory, advanced into the

midst of that great lake. The coasts of Italy are, in general,

destitute of safe harbors; but human industry had corrected the

deficiencies of nature; and the artificial port of Ostia, in

particular, situate at the mouth of the Tyber, and formed by the

emperor Claudius, was a useful monument of Roman greatness. 91

From this port, which was only sixteen miles from the capital, a

favorable breeze frequently carried vessels in seven days to the

columns of Hercules, and in nine or ten, to Alexandria in Egypt.

85 (return) [ The following Itinerary may serve to convey some

idea of the direction of the road, and of the distance between

the principal towns. I. From the wall of Antoninus to York, 222

Roman miles. II. London, 227. III. Rhutupiæ or Sandwich, 67. IV.

The navigation to Boulogne, 45. V. Rheims, 174. VI. Lyons, 330.

VII. Milan, 324. VIII. Rome, 426. IX. Brundusium, 360. X. The

navigation to Dyrrachium, 40. XI. Byzantium, 711. XII. Ancyra,

283. XIII. Tarsus, 301. XIV. Antioch, 141. XV. Tyre, 252. XVI.

Jerusalem, 168. In all 4080 Roman, or 3740 English miles. See the

Itineraries published by Wesseling, his annotations; Gale and

Stukeley for Britain, and M. d’Anville for Gaul and Italy.]

86 (return) [ Montfaucon, l’Antiquite Expliquee, (tom. 4, p. 2,

l. i. c. 5,) has described the bridges of Narni, Alcantara,

Nismes, &c.]

87 (return) [ Bergier, Histoire des grands Chemins de l’Empire

Romain, l. ii. c. l. l—28.]

88 (return) [ Procopius in Hist. Arcana, c. 30. Bergier, Hist.

des grands Chemins, l. iv. Codex Theodosian. l. viii. tit. v.

vol. ii. p. 506—563 with Godefroy’s learned commentary.]

89 (return) [ In the time of Theodosius, Cæsarius, a magistrate

of high rank, went post from Antioch to Constantinople. He began

his journey at night, was in Cappadocia (165 miles from Antioch)

the ensuing evening, and arrived at Constantinople the sixth day

about noon. The whole distance was 725 Roman, or 665 English

miles. See Libanius, Orat. xxii., and the Itineria, p. 572—581.

Note: A courier is mentioned in Walpole’s Travels, ii. 335, who

was to travel from Aleppo to Constantinople, more than 700 miles,

in eight days, an unusually short journey.—M.]

891 (return) [ Posts for the conveyance of intelligence were

established by Augustus. Suet. Aug. 49. The couriers travelled

with amazing speed. Blair on Roman Slavery, note, p. 261. It is

probable that the posts, from the time of Augustus, were confined

to the public service, and supplied by impressment Nerva, as it

appears from a coin of his reign, made an important change; “he

established posts upon all the public roads of Italy, and made

the service chargeable upon his own exchequer. Hadrian,

perceiving the advantage of this improvement, extended it to all

the provinces of the empire.” Cardwell on Coins, p. 220.—M.]

90 (return) [ Pliny, though a favorite and a minister, made an

apology for granting post-horses to his wife on the most urgent

business. Epist. x. 121, 122.]

91 (return) [ Bergier, Hist. des grands Chemins, l. iv. c. 49.]

92 (return) [ Plin. Hist. Natur. xix. i. [In Proœm.] * Note:

Pliny says Puteoli, which seems to have been the usual landing

place from the East. See the voyages of St. Paul, Acts xxviii.

13, and of Josephus, Vita, c. 3—M.]

Whatever evils either reason or declamation have imputed to

extensive empire, the power of Rome was attended with some

beneficial consequences to mankind; and the same freedom of

intercourse which extended the vices, diffused likewise the

improvements, of social life. In the more remote ages of

antiquity, the world was unequally divided. The East was in the

immemorial possession of arts and luxury; whilst the West was

inhabited by rude and warlike barbarians, who either disdained

agriculture, or to whom it was totally unknown. Under the

protection of an established government, the productions of

happier climates, and the industry of more civilized nations,

were gradually introduced into the western countries of Europe;

and the natives were encouraged, by an open and profitable

commerce, to multiply the former, as well as to improve the

latter. It would be almost impossible to enumerate all the

articles, either of the animal or the vegetable reign, which were

successively imported into Europe from Asia and Egypt: 93 but it

will not be unworthy of the dignity, and much less of the

utility, of an historical work, slightly to touch on a few of the

principal heads. 1. Almost all the flowers, the herbs, and the

fruits, that grow in our European gardens, are of foreign

extraction, which, in many cases, is betrayed even by their

names: the apple was a native of Italy, and when the Romans had

tasted the richer flavor of the apricot, the peach, the

pomegranate, the citron, and the orange, they contented

themselves with applying to all these new fruits the common

denomination of apple, discriminating them from each other by the

additional epithet of their country. 2. In the time of Homer, the

vine grew wild in the island of Sicily, and most probably in the

adjacent continent; but it was not improved by the skill, nor did

it afford a liquor grateful to the taste, of the savage

inhabitants. 94 A thousand years afterwards, Italy could boast,

that of the fourscore most generous and celebrated wines, more

than two thirds were produced from her soil. 95 The blessing was

soon communicated to the Narbonnese province of Gaul; but so

intense was the cold to the north of the Cevennes, that, in the

time of Strabo, it was thought impossible to ripen the grapes in

those parts of Gaul. 96 This difficulty, however, was gradually

vanquished; and there is some reason to believe, that the

vineyards of Burgundy are as old as the age of the Antonines. 97

3. The olive, in the western world, followed the progress of

peace, of which it was considered as the symbol. Two centuries

after the foundation of Rome, both Italy and Africa were

strangers to that useful plant: it was naturalized in those

countries; and at length carried into the heart of Spain and

Gaul. The timid errors of the ancients, that it required a

certain degree of heat, and could only flourish in the

neighborhood of the sea, were insensibly exploded by industry and

experience. 4. The cultivation of flax was transported from Egypt

to Gaul, and enriched the whole country, however it might

impoverish the particular lands on which it was sown. 99 5. The

use of artificial grasses became familiar to the farmers both of

Italy and the provinces, particularly the Lucerne, which derived

its name and origin from Media. 100 The assured supply of

wholesome and plentiful food for the cattle during winter,

multiplied the number of the docks and herds, which in their turn

contributed to the fertility of the soil. To all these

improvements may be added an assiduous attention to mines and

fisheries, which, by employing a multitude of laborious hands,

serve to increase the pleasures of the rich and the subsistence

of the poor. The elegant treatise of Columella describes the

advanced state of the Spanish husbandry under the reign of

Tiberius; and it may be observed, that those famines, which so

frequently afflicted the infant republic, were seldom or never

experienced by the extensive empire of Rome. The accidental

scarcity, in any single province, was immediately relieved by the

plenty of its more fortunate neighbors.

93 (return) [ It is not improbable that the Greeks and Phœnicians

introduced some new arts and productions into the neighborhood of

Marseilles and Gades.]

94 (return) [ See Homer, Odyss. l. ix. v. 358.]

95 (return) [ Plin. Hist. Natur. l. xiv.]

96 (return) [ Strab. Geograph. l. iv. p. 269. The intense cold of

a Gallic winter was almost proverbial among the ancients. * Note:

Strabo only says that the grape does not ripen. Attempts had been

made in the time of Augustus to naturalize the vine in the north

of Gaul; but the cold was too great. Diod. Sic. edit. Rhodom. p.

304.—W. Diodorus (lib. v. 26) gives a curious picture of the

Italian traders bartering, with the savages of Gaul, a cask of

wine for a slave.—M. —It appears from the newly discovered

treatise of Cicero de Republica, that there was a law of the

republic prohibiting the culture of the vine and olive beyond the

Alps, in order to keep up the value of those in Italy. Nos

justissimi homines, qui transalpinas gentes oleam et vitem serere

non sinimus, quo pluris sint nostra oliveta nostræque vineæ. Lib.

iii. 9. The restrictive law of Domitian was veiled under the

decent pretext of encouraging the cultivation of grain. Suet.

Dom. vii. It was repealed by Probus Vopis Strobus, 18.—M.]

97 (return) [ In the beginning of the fourth century, the orator

Eumenius (Panegyr. Veter. viii. 6, edit. Delphin.) speaks of the

vines in the territory of Autun, which were decayed through age,

and the first plantation of which was totally unknown. The Pagus

Arebrignus is supposed by M. d’Anville to be the district of

Beaune, celebrated, even at present for one of the first growths

of Burgundy. * Note: This is proved by a passage of Pliny the

Elder, where he speaks of a certain kind of grape (vitis picata.

vinum picatum) which grows naturally to the district of Vienne,

and had recently been transplanted into the country of the

Arverni, (Auvergne,) of the Helvii, (the Vivarias.) and the

Burgundy and Franche Compte. Pliny wrote A.D. 77. Hist. Nat. xiv.

1.— W.]

99 (return) [ Plin. Hist. Natur. l. xix.]

100 (return) [ See the agreeable Essays on Agriculture by Mr.

Harte, in which he has collected all that the ancients and

moderns have said of Lucerne.]

Agriculture is the foundation of manufactures; since the

productions of nature are the materials of art. Under the Roman

empire, the labor of an industrious and ingenious people was

variously, but incessantly, employed in the service of the rich.

In their dress, their table, their houses, and their furniture,

the favorites of fortune united every refinement of conveniency,

of elegance, and of splendor, whatever could soothe their pride

or gratify their sensuality. Such refinements, under the odious

name of luxury, have been severely arraigned by the moralists of

every age; and it might perhaps be more conducive to the virtue,

as well as happiness, of mankind, if all possessed the

necessaries, and none the superfluities, of life. But in the

present imperfect condition of society, luxury, though it may

proceed from vice or folly, seems to be the only means that can

correct the unequal distribution of property. The diligent

mechanic, and the skilful artist, who have obtained no share in

the division of the earth, receive a voluntary tax from the

possessors of land; and the latter are prompted, by a sense of

interest, to improve those estates, with whose produce they may

purchase additional pleasures. This operation, the particular

effects of which are felt in every society, acted with much more

diffusive energy in the Roman world. The provinces would soon

have been exhausted of their wealth, if the manufactures and

commerce of luxury had not insensibly restored to the industrious

subjects the sums which were exacted from them by the arms and

authority of Rome. As long as the circulation was confined within

the bounds of the empire, it impressed the political machine with

a new degree of activity, and its consequences, sometimes

beneficial, could never become pernicious.

But it is no easy task to confine luxury within the limits of an

empire. The most remote countries of the ancient world were

ransacked to supply the pomp and delicacy of Rome. The forests of

Scythia afforded some valuable furs. Amber was brought over land

from the shores of the Baltic to the Danube; and the barbarians

were astonished at the price which they received in exchange for

so useless a commodity. 101 There was a considerable demand for

Babylonian carpets, and other manufactures of the East; but the

most important and unpopular branch of foreign trade was carried

on with Arabia and India. Every year, about the time of the

summer solstice, a fleet of a hundred and twenty vessels sailed

from Myos-hormos, a port of Egypt, on the Red Sea. By the

periodical assistance of the monsoons, they traversed the ocean

in about forty days. The coast of Malabar, or the island of

Ceylon, 102 was the usual term of their navigation, and it was in

those markets that the merchants from the more remote countries

of Asia expected their arrival. The return of the fleet of Egypt

was fixed to the months of December or January; and as soon as

their rich cargo had been transported on the backs of camels,

from the Red Sea to the Nile, and had descended that river as far

as Alexandria, it was poured, without delay, into the capital of

the empire. 103 The objects of oriental traffic were splendid and

trifling; silk, a pound of which was esteemed not inferior in

value to a pound of gold; 104 precious stones, among which the

pearl claimed the first rank after the diamond; 105 and a variety

of aromatics, that were consumed in religious worship and the

pomp of funerals. The labor and risk of the voyage was rewarded

with almost incredible profit; but the profit was made upon Roman

subjects, and a few individuals were enriched at the expense of

the public. As the natives of Arabia and India were contented

with the productions and manufactures of their own country,

silver, on the side of the Romans, was the principal, if not the

only 1051 instrument of commerce. It was a complaint worthy of

the gravity of the senate, that, in the purchase of female

ornaments, the wealth of the state was irrecoverably given away

to foreign and hostile nations. 106 The annual loss is computed,

by a writer of an inquisitive but censorious temper, at upwards

of eight hundred thousand pounds sterling. 107 Such was the style

of discontent, brooding over the dark prospect of approaching

poverty. And yet, if we compare the proportion between gold and

silver, as it stood in the time of Pliny, and as it was fixed in

the reign of Constantine, we shall discover within that period a

very considerable increase. 108 There is not the least reason to

suppose that gold was become more scarce; it is therefore evident

that silver was grown more common; that whatever might be the

amount of the Indian and Arabian exports, they were far from

exhausting the wealth of the Roman world; and that the produce of

the mines abundantly supplied the demands of commerce.

101 (return) [ Tacit. Germania, c. 45. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxvii.

13. The latter observed, with some humor, that even fashion had

not yet found out the use of amber. Nero sent a Roman knight to

purchase great quantities on the spot where it was produced, the

coast of modern Prussia.]

102 (return) [ Called Taprobana by the Romans, and Serindib by

the Arabs. It was discovered under the reign of Claudius, and

gradually became the principal mart of the East.]

103 (return) [ Plin. Hist. Natur. l. vi. Strabo, l. xvii.]

104 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 224. A silk garment was

considered as an ornament to a woman, but as a disgrace to a

man.]

105 (return) [ The two great pearl fisheries were the same as at

present, Ormuz and Cape Comorin. As well as we can compare

ancient with modern geography, Rome was supplied with diamonds

from the mine of Jumelpur, in Bengal, which is described in the

Voyages de Tavernier, tom. ii. p. 281.]

1051 (return) [ Certainly not the only one. The Indians were not

so contented with regard to foreign productions. Arrian has a

long list of European wares, which they received in exchange for

their own; Italian and other wines, brass, tin, lead, coral,

chrysolith, storax, glass, dresses of one or many colors, zones,

&c. See Periplus Maris Erythræi in Hudson, Geogr. Min. i. p.

27.—W. The German translator observes that Gibbon has confined

the use of aromatics to religious worship and funerals. His error

seems the omission of other spices, of which the Romans must have

consumed great quantities in their cookery. Wenck, however,

admits that silver was the chief article of exchange.—M. In 1787,

a peasant (near Nellore in the Carnatic) struck, in digging, on

the remains of a Hindu temple; he found, also, a pot which

contained Roman coins and medals of the second century, mostly

Trajans, Adrians, and Faustinas, all of gold, many of them fresh

and beautiful, others defaced or perforated, as if they had been

worn as ornaments. (Asiatic Researches, ii. 19.)—M.]

106 (return) [ Tacit. Annal. iii. 53. In a speech of Tiberius.]

107 (return) [ Plin. Hist. Natur. xii. 18. In another place he

computes half that sum; Quingenties H. S. for India exclusive of

Arabia.]

108 (return) [ The proportion, which was 1 to 10, and 12 1/2,

rose to 14 2/5, the legal regulation of Constantine. See

Arbuthnot’s Tables of ancient Coins, c. 5.]

Notwithstanding the propensity of mankind to exalt the past, and

to depreciate the present, the tranquil and prosperous state of

the empire was warmly felt, and honestly confessed, by the

provincials as well as Romans. “They acknowledged that the true

principles of social life, laws, agriculture, and science, which

had been first invented by the wisdom of Athens, were now firmly

established by the power of Rome, under whose auspicious

influence the fiercest barbarians were united by an equal

government and common language. They affirm, that with the

improvement of arts, the human species were visibly multiplied.

They celebrate the increasing splendor of the cities, the

beautiful face of the country, cultivated and adorned like an

immense garden; and the long festival of peace which was enjoyed

by so many nations, forgetful of the ancient animosities, and

delivered from the apprehension of future danger.” 109 Whatever

suspicions may be suggested by the air of rhetoric and

declamation, which seems to prevail in these passages, the

substance of them is perfectly agreeable to historic truth.

109 (return) [ Among many other passages, see Pliny, (Hist.

Natur. iii. 5.) Aristides, (de Urbe Roma,) and Tertullian, (de

Anima, c. 30.)]

It was scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should

discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and

corruption. This long peace, and the uniform government of the

Romans, introduced a slow and secret poison into the vitals of

the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same

level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military

spirit evaporated. The natives of Europe were brave and robust.

Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Illyricum supplied the legions with

excellent soldiers, and constituted the real strength of the

monarchy. Their personal valor remained, but they no longer

possessed that public courage which is nourished by the love of

independence, the sense of national honor, the presence of

danger, and the habit of command. They received laws and

governors from the will of their sovereign, and trusted for their

defence to a mercenary army. The posterity of their boldest

leaders was contented with the rank of citizens and subjects. The

most aspiring spirits resorted to the court or standard of the

emperors; and the deserted provinces, deprived of political

strength or union, insensibly sunk into the languid indifference

of private life.

The love of letters, almost inseparable from peace and

refinement, was fashionable among the subjects of Hadrian and the

Antonines, who were themselves men of learning and curiosity. It

was diffused over the whole extent of their empire; the most

northern tribes of Britons had acquired a taste for rhetoric;

Homer as well as Virgil were transcribed and studied on the banks

of the Rhine and Danube; and the most liberal rewards sought out

the faintest glimmerings of literary merit. 110 The sciences of

physic and astronomy were successfully cultivated by the Greeks;

the observations of Ptolemy and the writings of Galen are studied

by those who have improved their discoveries and corrected their

errors; but if we except the inimitable Lucian, this age of

indolence passed away without having produced a single writer of

original genius, or who excelled in the arts of elegant

composition.1101 The authority of Plato and Aristotle, of Zeno

and Epicurus, still reigned in the schools; and their systems,

transmitted with blind deference from one generation of disciples

to another, precluded every generous attempt to exercise the

powers, or enlarge the limits, of the human mind. The beauties of

the poets and orators, instead of kindling a fire like their own,

inspired only cold and servile imitations: or if any ventured to

deviate from those models, they deviated at the same time from

good sense and propriety. On the revival of letters, the youthful

vigor of the imagination, after a long repose, national

emulation, a new religion, new languages, and a new world, called

forth the genius of Europe. But the provincials of Rome, trained

by a uniform artificial foreign education, were engaged in a very

unequal competition with those bold ancients, who, by expressing

their genuine feelings in their native tongue, had already

occupied every place of honor. The name of Poet was almost

forgotten; that of Orator was usurped by the sophists. A cloud of

critics, of compilers, of commentators, darkened the face of

learning, and the decline of genius was soon followed by the

corruption of taste.

110 (return) [ Herodes Atticus gave the sophist Polemo above

eight thousand pounds for three declamations. See Philostrat. l.

i. p. 538. The Antonines founded a school at Athens, in which

professors of grammar, rhetoric, politics, and the four great

sects of philosophy were maintained at the public expense for the

instruction of youth. The salary of a philosopher was ten

thousand drachmæ, between three and four hundred pounds a year.

Similar establishments were formed in the other great cities of

the empire. See Lucian in Eunuch. tom. ii. p. 352, edit. Reitz.

Philostrat. l. ii. p. 566. Hist. August. p. 21. Dion Cassius, l.

lxxi. p. 1195. Juvenal himself, in a morose satire, which in

every line betrays his own disappointment and envy, is obliged,

however, to say,—“—O Juvenes, circumspicit et stimulat vos.

Materiamque sibi Ducis indulgentia quærit.”—Satir. vii. 20. Note:

Vespasian first gave a salary to professors: he assigned to each

professor of rhetoric, Greek and Roman, centena sestertia.

(Sueton. in Vesp. 18). Hadrian and the Antonines, though still

liberal, were less profuse.—G. from W. Suetonius wrote annua

centena L. 807, 5, 10.—M.]

1101 (return) [ This judgment is rather severe: besides the

physicians, astronomers, and grammarians, among whom there were

some very distinguished men, there were still, under Hadrian,

Suetonius, Florus, Plutarch; under the Antonines, Arrian,

Pausanias, Appian, Marcus Aurelius himself, Sextus Empiricus, &c.

Jurisprudence gained much by the labors of Salvius Julianus,

Julius Celsus, Sex. Pomponius, Caius, and others.—G. from W. Yet

where, among these, is the writer of original genius, unless,

perhaps Plutarch? or even of a style really elegant?— M.]

The sublime Longinus, who, in somewhat a later period, and in the

court of a Syrian queen, preserved the spirit of ancient Athens,

observes and laments this degeneracy of his contemporaries, which

debased their sentiments, enervated their courage, and depressed

their talents. “In the same manner,” says he, “as some children

always remain pygmies, whose infant limbs have been too closely

confined, thus our tender minds, fettered by the prejudices and

habits of a just servitude, are unable to expand themselves, or

to attain that well-proportioned greatness which we admire in the

ancients; who, living under a popular government, wrote with the

same freedom as they acted.” 111 This diminutive stature of

mankind, if we pursue the metaphor, was daily sinking below the

old standard, and the Roman world was indeed peopled by a race of

pygmies; when the fierce giants of the north broke in, and mended

the puny breed. They restored a manly spirit of freedom; and

after the revolution of ten centuries, freedom became the happy

parent of taste and science.

111 (return) [ Longin. de Sublim. c. 44, p. 229, edit. Toll.

Here, too, we may say of Longinus, “his own example strengthens

all his laws.” Instead of proposing his sentiments with a manly

boldness, he insinuates them with the most guarded caution; puts

them into the mouth of a friend, and as far as we can collect

from a corrupted text, makes a show of refuting them himself.]

Chapter III: The Constitution In The Age Of The Antonines.—Part

Of The Constitution Of The Roman Empire, In The Age Of The Antonines.

The obvious definition of a monarchy seems to be that of a state,

in which a single person, by whatsoever name he may be

distinguished, is intrusted with the execution of the laws, the

management of the revenue, and the command of the army. But,

unless public liberty is protected by intrepid and vigilant

guardians, the authority of so formidable a magistrate will soon

degenerate into despotism. The influence of the clergy, in an age

of superstition, might be usefully employed to assert the rights

of mankind; but so intimate is the connection between the throne

and the altar, that the banner of the church has very seldom been

seen on the side of the people. 101 A martial nobility and

stubborn commons, possessed of arms, tenacious of property, and

collected into constitutional assemblies, form the only balance

capable of preserving a free constitution against enterprises of

an aspiring prince.

101 (return) [ Often enough in the ages of superstition, but not

in the interest of the people or the state, but in that of the

church to which all others were subordinate. Yet the power of the

pope has often been of great service in repressing the excesses

of sovereigns, and in softening manners.—W. The history of the

Italian republics proves the error of Gibbon, and the justice of

his German translator’s comment.—M.]

Every barrier of the Roman constitution had been levelled by the

vast ambition of the dictator; every fence had been extirpated by

the cruel hand of the triumvir. After the victory of Actium, the

fate of the Roman world depended on the will of Octavianus,

surnamed Cæsar, by his uncle’s adoption, and afterwards Augustus,

by the flattery of the senate. The conqueror was at the head of

forty-four veteran legions, 1 conscious of their own strength,

and of the weakness of the constitution, habituated, during

twenty years’ civil war, to every act of blood and violence, and

passionately devoted to the house of Cæsar, from whence alone

they had received, and expected the most lavish rewards. The

provinces, long oppressed by the ministers of the republic,

sighed for the government of a single person, who would be the

master, not the accomplice, of those petty tyrants. The people of

Rome, viewing, with a secret pleasure, the humiliation of the

aristocracy, demanded only bread and public shows; and were

supplied with both by the liberal hand of Augustus. The rich and

polite Italians, who had almost universally embraced the

philosophy of Epicurus, enjoyed the present blessings of ease and

tranquillity, and suffered not the pleasing dream to be

interrupted by the memory of their old tumultuous freedom. With

its power, the senate had lost its dignity; many of the most

noble families were extinct. The republicans of spirit and

ability had perished in the field of battle, or in the

proscription. The door of the assembly had been designedly left

open, for a mixed multitude of more than a thousand persons, who

reflected disgrace upon their rank, instead of deriving honor

from it. 2

1 (return) [ Orosius, vi. 18. * Note: Dion says twenty-five, (or

three,) (lv. 23.) The united triumvirs had but forty-three.

(Appian. Bell. Civ. iv. 3.) The testimony of Orosius is of little

value when more certain may be had.—W. But all the legions,

doubtless, submitted to Augustus after the battle of Actium.—M.]

2 (return) [ Julius Cæsar introduced soldiers, strangers, and

half-barbarians into the senate (Sueton. in Cæsar. c. 77, 80.)

The abuse became still more scandalous after his death.]

The reformation of the senate was one of the first steps in which

Augustus laid aside the tyrant, and professed himself the father

of his country. He was elected censor; and, in concert with his

faithful Agrippa, he examined the list of the senators, expelled

a few members, 201 whose vices or whose obstinacy required a

public example, persuaded near two hundred to prevent the shame

of an expulsion by a voluntary retreat, raised the qualification

of a senator to about ten thousand pounds, created a sufficient

number of patrician families, and accepted for himself the

honorable title of Prince of the Senate, 202 which had always

been bestowed, by the censors, on the citizen the most eminent

for his honors and services. 3 But whilst he thus restored the

dignity, he destroyed the independence, of the senate. The

principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost, when

the legislative power is nominated by the executive.

201 (return) [ Of these Dion and Suetonius knew nothing.—W. Dion

says the contrary.—M.]

202 (return) [ But Augustus, then Octavius, was censor, and in

virtue of that office, even according to the constitution of the

free republic, could reform the senate, expel unworthy members,

name the Princeps Senatus, &c. That was called, as is well known,

Senatum legere. It was customary, during the free republic, for

the censor to be named Princeps Senatus, (S. Liv. l. xxvii. c.

11, l. xl. c. 51;) and Dion expressly says, that this was done

according to ancient usage. He was empowered by a decree of the

senate to admit a number of families among the patricians.

Finally, the senate was not the legislative power.—W]

3 (return) [ Dion Cassius, l. liii. p. 693. Suetonius in August.

c. 35.]

Before an assembly thus modelled and prepared, Augustus

pronounced a studied oration, which displayed his patriotism, and

disguised his ambition. “He lamented, yet excused, his past

conduct. Filial piety had required at his hands the revenge of

his father’s murder; the humanity of his own nature had sometimes

given way to the stern laws of necessity, and to a forced

connection with two unworthy colleagues: as long as Antony lived,

the republic forbade him to abandon her to a degenerate Roman,

and a barbarian queen. He was now at liberty to satisfy his duty

and his inclination. He solemnly restored the senate and people

to all their ancient rights; and wished only to mingle with the

crowd of his fellow-citizens, and to share the blessings which he

had obtained for his country.” 4

4 (return) [ Dion (l. liii. p. 698) gives us a prolix and bombast

speech on this great occasion. I have borrowed from Suetonius and

Tacitus the general language of Augustus.]

It would require the pen of Tacitus (if Tacitus had assisted at

this assembly) to describe the various emotions of the senate,

those that were suppressed, and those that were affected. It was

dangerous to trust the sincerity of Augustus; to seem to distrust

it was still more dangerous. The respective advantages of

monarchy and a republic have often divided speculative inquirers;

the present greatness of the Roman state, the corruption of

manners, and the license of the soldiers, supplied new arguments

to the advocates of monarchy; and these general views of

government were again warped by the hopes and fears of each

individual. Amidst this confusion of sentiments, the answer of

the senate was unanimous and decisive. They refused to accept the

resignation of Augustus; they conjured him not to desert the

republic, which he had saved. After a decent resistance, the

crafty tyrant submitted to the orders of the senate; and

consented to receive the government of the provinces, and the

general command of the Roman armies, under the well-known names

of PROCONSUL and IMPERATOR. 5 But he would receive them only for

ten years. Even before the expiration of that period, he hope

that the wounds of civil discord would be completely healed, and

that the republic, restored to its pristine health and vigor,

would no longer require the dangerous interposition of so

extraordinary a magistrate. The memory of this comedy, repeated

several times during the life of Augustus, was preserved to the

last ages of the empire, by the peculiar pomp with which the

perpetual monarchs of Rome always solemnized the tenth years of

their reign. 6

5 (return) [ Imperator (from which we have derived Emperor)

signified under her republic no more than general, and was

emphatically bestowed by the soldiers, when on the field of

battle they proclaimed their victorious leader worthy of that

title. When the Roman emperors assumed it in that sense, they

placed it after their name, and marked how often they had taken

it.]

6 (return) [ Dion. l. liii. p. 703, &c.]

Without any violation of the principles of the constitution, the

general of the Roman armies might receive and exercise an

authority almost despotic over the soldiers, the enemies, and the

subjects of the republic. With regard to the soldiers, the

jealousy of freedom had, even from the earliest ages of Rome,

given way to the hopes of conquest, and a just sense of military

discipline. The dictator, or consul, had a right to command the

service of the Roman youth; and to punish an obstinate or

cowardly disobedience by the most severe and ignominious

penalties, by striking the offender out of the list of citizens,

by confiscating his property, and by selling his person into

slavery. 7 The most sacred rights of freedom, confirmed by the

Porcian and Sempronian laws, were suspended by the military

engagement. In his camp the general exercised an absolute power

of life and death; his jurisdiction was not confined by any forms

of trial, or rules of proceeding, and the execution of the

sentence was immediate and without appeal. 8 The choice of the

enemies of Rome was regularly decided by the legislative

authority. The most important resolutions of peace and war were

seriously debated in the senate, and solemnly ratified by the

people. But when the arms of the legions were carried to a great

distance from Italy, the general assumed the liberty of directing

them against whatever people, and in whatever manner, they judged

most advantageous for the public service. It was from the

success, not from the justice, of their enterprises, that they

expected the honors of a triumph. In the use of victory,

especially after they were no longer controlled by the

commissioners of the senate, they exercised the most unbounded

despotism. When Pompey commanded in the East, he rewarded his

soldiers and allies, dethroned princes, divided kingdoms, founded

colonies, and distributed the treasures of Mithridates. On his

return to Rome, he obtained, by a single act of the senate and

people, the universal ratification of all his proceedings. 9 Such

was the power over the soldiers, and over the enemies of Rome,

which was either granted to, or assumed by, the generals of the

republic. They were, at the same time, the governors, or rather

monarchs, of the conquered provinces, united the civil with the

military character, administered justice as well as the finances,

and exercised both the executive and legislative power of the

state.

7 (return) [ Livy Epitom. l. xiv. [c. 27.] Valer. Maxim. vi. 3.]

8 (return) [ See, in the viiith book of Livy, the conduct of

Manlius Torquatus and Papirius Cursor. They violated the laws of

nature and humanity, but they asserted those of military

discipline; and the people, who abhorred the action, was obliged

to respect the principle.]

9 (return) [ By the lavish but unconstrained suffrages of the

people, Pompey had obtained a military command scarcely inferior

to that of Augustus. Among the extraordinary acts of power

executed by the former we may remark the foundation of

twenty-nine cities, and the distribution of three or four

millions sterling to his troops. The ratification of his acts met

with some opposition and delays in the senate See Plutarch,

Appian, Dion Cassius, and the first book of the epistles to

Atticus.]

From what has already been observed in the first chapter of this

work, some notion may be formed of the armies and provinces thus

intrusted to the ruling hand of Augustus. But as it was

impossible that he could personally command the regions of so

many distant frontiers, he was indulged by the senate, as Pompey

had already been, in the permission of devolving the execution of

his great office on a sufficient number of lieutenants. In rank

and authority these officers seemed not inferior to the ancient

proconsuls; but their station was dependent and precarious. They

received and held their commissions at the will of a superior, to

whose auspicious influence the merit of their action was legally

attributed. 10 They were the representatives of the emperor. The

emperor alone was the general of the republic, and his

jurisdiction, civil as well as military, extended over all the

conquests of Rome. It was some satisfaction, however, to the

senate, that he always delegated his power to the members of

their body. The imperial lieutenants were of consular or

prætorian dignity; the legions were commanded by senators, and

the præfecture of Egypt was the only important trust committed to

a Roman knight.

10 (return) [ Under the commonwealth, a triumph could only be

claimed by the general, who was authorized to take the Auspices

in the name of the people. By an exact consequence, drawn from

this principle of policy and religion, the triumph was reserved

to the emperor; and his most successful lieutenants were

satisfied with some marks of distinction, which, under the name

of triumphal honors, were invented in their favor.]

Within six days after Augustus had been compelled to accept so

very liberal a grant, he resolved to gratify the pride of the

senate by an easy sacrifice. He represented to them, that they

had enlarged his powers, even beyond that degree which might be

required by the melancholy condition of the times. They had not

permitted him to refuse the laborious command of the armies and

the frontiers; but he must insist on being allowed to restore the

more peaceful and secure provinces to the mild administration of

the civil magistrate. In the division of the provinces, Augustus

provided for his own power and for the dignity of the republic.

The proconsuls of the senate, particularly those of Asia, Greece,

and Africa, enjoyed a more honorable character than the

lieutenants of the emperor, who commanded in Gaul or Syria. The

former were attended by lictors, the latter by soldiers. 105 A

law was passed, that wherever the emperor was present, his

extraordinary commission should supersede the ordinary

jurisdiction of the governor; a custom was introduced, that the

new conquests belonged to the imperial portion; and it was soon

discovered that the authority of the _Prince_, the favorite

epithet of Augustus, was the same in every part of the empire.

105 (return) [ This distinction is without foundation. The

lieutenants of the emperor, who were called Proprætors, whether

they had been prætors or consuls, were attended by six lictors;

those who had the right of the sword, (of life and death over the

soldiers.—M.) bore the military habit (paludamentum) and the

sword. The provincial governors commissioned by the senate, who,

whether they had been consuls or not, were called Pronconsuls,

had twelve lictors when they had been consuls, and six only when

they had but been prætors. The provinces of Africa and Asia were

only given to ex-consuls. See, on the Organization of the

Provinces, Dion, liii. 12, 16 Strabo, xvii 840.—W]

In return for this imaginary concession, Augustus obtained an

important privilege, which rendered him master of Rome and Italy.

By a dangerous exception to the ancient maxims, he was authorized

to preserve his military command, supported by a numerous body of

guards, even in time of peace, and in the heart of the capital.

His command, indeed, was confined to those citizens who were

engaged in the service by the military oath; but such was the

propensity of the Romans to servitude, that the oath was

voluntarily taken by the magistrates, the senators, and the

equestrian order, till the homage of flattery was insensibly

converted into an annual and solemn protestation of fidelity.

Although Augustus considered a military force as the firmest

foundation, he wisely rejected it, as a very odious instrument of

government. It was more agreeable to his temper, as well as to

his policy, to reign under the venerable names of ancient

magistracy, and artfully to collect, in his own person, all the

scattered rays of civil jurisdiction. With this view, he

permitted the senate to confer upon him, for his life, the powers

of the consular 11 and tribunitian offices, 12 which were, in the

same manner, continued to all his successors. The consuls had

succeeded to the kings of Rome, and represented the dignity of

the state. They superintended the ceremonies of religion, levied

and commanded the legions, gave audience to foreign ambassadors,

and presided in the assemblies both of the senate and people. The

general control of the finances was intrusted to their care; and

though they seldom had leisure to administer justice in person,

they were considered as the supreme guardians of law, equity, and

the public peace. Such was their ordinary jurisdiction; but

whenever the senate empowered the first magistrate to consult the

safety of the commonwealth, he was raised by that decree above

the laws, and exercised, in the defence of liberty, a temporary

despotism. 13 The character of the tribunes was, in every

respect, different from that of the consuls. The appearance of

the former was modest and humble; but their persons were sacred

and inviolable. Their force was suited rather for opposition than

for action. They were instituted to defend the oppressed, to

pardon offences, to arraign the enemies of the people, and, when

they judged it necessary, to stop, by a single word, the whole

machine of government. As long as the republic subsisted, the

dangerous influence, which either the consul or the tribune might

derive from their respective jurisdiction, was diminished by

several important restrictions. Their authority expired with the

year in which they were elected; the former office was divided

between two, the latter among ten persons; and, as both in their

private and public interest they were averse to each other, their

mutual conflicts contributed, for the most part, to strengthen

rather than to destroy the balance of the constitution. 131 But

when the consular and tribunitian powers were united, when they

were vested for life in a single person, when the general of the

army was, at the same time, the minister of the senate and the

representative of the Roman people, it was impossible to resist

the exercise, nor was it easy to define the limits, of his

imperial prerogative.

11 (return) [ Cicero (de Legibus, iii. 3) gives the consular

office the name of egia potestas; and Polybius (l. vi. c. 3)

observes three powers in the Roman constitution. The monarchical

was represented and exercised by the consuls.]

12 (return) [ As the tribunitian power (distinct from the annual

office) was first invented by the dictator Cæsar, (Dion, l. xliv.

p. 384,) we may easily conceive, that it was given as a reward

for having so nobly asserted, by arms, the sacred rights of the

tribunes and people. See his own Commentaries, de Bell. Civil. l.

i.]

13 (return) [ Augustus exercised nine annual consulships without

interruption. He then most artfully refused the magistracy, as

well as the dictatorship, absented himself from Rome, and waited

till the fatal effects of tumult and faction forced the senate to

invest him with a perpetual consulship. Augustus, as well as his

successors, affected, however, to conceal so invidious a title.]

131 (return) [ The note of M. Guizot on the tribunitian power

applies to the French translation rather than to the original.

The former has, maintenir la balance toujours egale, which

implies much more than Gibbon’s general expression. The note

belongs rather to the history of the Republic than that of the

Empire.—M]

To these accumulated honors, the policy of Augustus soon added

the splendid as well as important dignities of supreme pontiff,

and of censor. By the former he acquired the management of the

religion, and by the latter a legal inspection over the manners

and fortunes, of the Roman people. If so many distinct and

independent powers did not exactly unite with each other, the

complaisance of the senate was prepared to supply every

deficiency by the most ample and extraordinary concessions. The

emperors, as the first ministers of the republic, were exempted

from the obligation and penalty of many inconvenient laws: they

were authorized to convoke the senate, to make several motions in

the same day, to recommend candidates for the honors of the

state, to enlarge the bounds of the city, to employ the revenue

at their discretion, to declare peace and war, to ratify

treaties; and by a most comprehensive clause, they were empowered

to execute whatsoever they should judge advantageous to the

empire, and agreeable to the majesty of things private or public,

human of divine. 14

14 (return) [ See a fragment of a Decree of the Senate,

conferring on the emperor Vespasian all the powers granted to his

predecessors, Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius. This curious and

important monument is published in Gruter’s Inscriptions, No.

ccxlii. * Note: It is also in the editions of Tacitus by Ryck,

(Annal. p. 420, 421,) and Ernesti, (Excurs. ad lib. iv. 6;) but

this fragment contains so many inconsistencies, both in matter

and form, that its authenticity may be doubted—W.]

When all the various powers of executive government were

committed to the _Imperial magistrate_, the ordinary magistrates

of the commonwealth languished in obscurity, without vigor, and

almost without business. The names and forms of the ancient

administration were preserved by Augustus with the most anxious

care. The usual number of consuls, prætors, and tribunes, 15 were

annually invested with their respective ensigns of office, and

continued to discharge some of their least important functions.

Those honors still attracted the vain ambition of the Romans; and

the emperors themselves, though invested for life with the powers

of the consulship, frequently aspired to the title of that annual

dignity, which they condescended to share with the most

illustrious of their fellow-citizens. 16 In the election of these

magistrates, the people, during the reign of Augustus, were

permitted to expose all the inconveniences of a wild democracy.

That artful prince, instead of discovering the least symptom of

impatience, humbly solicited their suffrages for himself or his

friends, and scrupulously practised all the duties of an ordinary

candidate. 17 But we may venture to ascribe to his councils the

first measure of the succeeding reign, by which the elections

were transferred to the senate. 18 The assemblies of the people

were forever abolished, and the emperors were delivered from a

dangerous multitude, who, without restoring liberty, might have

disturbed, and perhaps endangered, the established government.

15 (return) [ Two consuls were created on the Calends of January;

but in the course of the year others were substituted in their

places, till the annual number seems to have amounted to no less

than twelve. The prætors were usually sixteen or eighteen,

(Lipsius in Excurs. D. ad Tacit. Annal. l. i.) I have not

mentioned the Ædiles or Quæstors Officers of the police or

revenue easily adapt themselves to any form of government. In the

time of Nero, the tribunes legally possessed the right of

intercession, though it might be dangerous to exercise it (Tacit.

Annal. xvi. 26.) In the time of Trajan, it was doubtful whether

the tribuneship was an office or a name, (Plin. Epist. i. 23.)]

16 (return) [ The tyrants themselves were ambitious of the

consulship. The virtuous princes were moderate in the pursuit,

and exact in the discharge of it. Trajan revived the ancient

oath, and swore before the consul’s tribunal that he would

observe the laws, (Plin. Panegyric c. 64.)]

17 (return) [ Quoties Magistratuum Comitiis interesset. Tribus

cum candidatis suis circunbat: supplicabatque more solemni.

Ferebat et ipse suffragium in tribubus, ut unus e populo.

Suetonius in August c. 56.]

18 (return) [ Tum primum Comitia e campo ad patres translata

sunt. Tacit. Annal. i. 15. The word primum seems to allude to

some faint and unsuccessful efforts which were made towards

restoring them to the people. Note: The emperor Caligula made the

attempt: he rest red the Comitia to the people, but, in a short

time, took them away again. Suet. in Caio. c. 16. Dion. lix. 9,

20. Nevertheless, at the time of Dion, they preserved still the

form of the Comitia. Dion. lviii. 20.—W.]

By declaring themselves the protectors of the people, Marius and

Cæsar had subverted the constitution of their country. But as

soon as the senate had been humbled and disarmed, such an

assembly, consisting of five or six hundred persons, was found a

much more tractable and useful instrument of dominion. It was on

the dignity of the senate that Augustus and his successors

founded their new empire; and they affected, on every occasion,

to adopt the language and principles of Patricians. In the

administration of their own powers, they frequently consulted the

great national council, and _seemed_ to refer to its decision the

most important concerns of peace and war. Rome, Italy, and the

internal provinces, were subject to the immediate jurisdiction of

the senate. With regard to civil objects, it was the supreme

court of appeal; with regard to criminal matters, a tribunal,

constituted for the trial of all offences that were committed by

men in any public station, or that affected the peace and majesty

of the Roman people. The exercise of the judicial power became

the most frequent and serious occupation of the senate; and the

important causes that were pleaded before them afforded a last

refuge to the spirit of ancient eloquence. As a council of state,

and as a court of justice, the senate possessed very considerable

prerogatives; but in its legislative capacity, in which it was

supposed virtually to represent the people, the rights of

sovereignty were acknowledged to reside in that assembly. Every

power was derived from their authority, every law was ratified by

their sanction. Their regular meetings were held on three stated

days in every month, the Calends, the Nones, and the Ides. The

debates were conducted with decent freedom; and the emperors

themselves, who gloried in the name of senators, sat, voted, and

divided with their equals. To resume, in a few words, the system

of the Imperial government; as it was instituted by Augustus, and

maintained by those princes who understood their own interest and

that of the people, it may be defined an absolute monarchy

disguised by the forms of a commonwealth. The masters of the

Roman world surrounded their throne with darkness, concealed

their irresistible strength, and humbly professed themselves the

accountable ministers of the senate, whose supreme decrees they

dictated and obeyed. 19

19 (return) [Dion Cassius (l. liii. p. 703—714) has given a very

loose and partial sketch of the Imperial system. To illustrate

and often to correct him, I have meditated Tacitus, examined

Suetonius, and consulted the following moderns: the Abbé de la

Bleterie, in the Memoires de l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom.

xix. xxi. xxiv. xxv. xxvii. Beaufort Republique Romaine, tom. i.

p. 255—275. The Dissertations of Noodt and Gronovius de lege

Regia, printed at Leyden, in the year 1731 Gravina de Imperio

Romano, p. 479—544 of his Opuscula. Maffei, Verona Illustrata, p.

i. p. 245, &c.]

The face of the court corresponded with the forms of the

administration. The emperors, if we except those tyrants whose

capricious folly violated every law of nature and decency,

disdained that pomp and ceremony which might offend their

countrymen, but could add nothing to their real power. In all the

offices of life, they affected to confound themselves with their

subjects, and maintained with them an equal intercourse of visits

and entertainments. Their habit, their palace, their table, were

suited only to the rank of an opulent senator. Their family,

however numerous or splendid, was composed entirely of their

domestic slaves and freedmen. 20 Augustus or Trajan would have

blushed at employing the meanest of the Romans in those menial

offices, which, in the household and bedchamber of a limited

monarch, are so eagerly solicited by the proudest nobles of

Britain.

20 (return) [ A weak prince will always be governed by his

domestics. The power of slaves aggravated the shame of the

Romans; and the senate paid court to a Pallas or a Narcissus.

There is a chance that a modern favorite may be a gentleman.]

The deification of the emperors 21 is the only instance in which

they departed from their accustomed prudence and modesty. The

Asiatic Greeks were the first inventors, the successors of

Alexander the first objects, of this servile and impious mode of

adulation. 211 It was easily transferred from the kings to the

governors of Asia; and the Roman magistrates very frequently were

adored as provincial deities, with the pomp of altars and

temples, of festivals and sacrifices. 22 It was natural that the

emperors should not refuse what the proconsuls had accepted; and

the divine honors which both the one and the other received from

the provinces, attested rather the despotism than the servitude

of Rome. But the conquerors soon imitated the vanquished nations

in the arts of flattery; and the imperious spirit of the first

Cæsar too easily consented to assume, during his lifetime, a

place among the tutelar deities of Rome. The milder temper of his

successor declined so dangerous an ambition, which was never

afterwards revived, except by the madness of Caligula and

Domitian. Augustus permitted indeed some of the provincial cities

to erect temples to his honor, on condition that they should

associate the worship of Rome with that of the sovereign; he

tolerated private superstition, of which he might be the object;

23 but he contented himself with being revered by the senate and

the people in his human character, and wisely left to his

successor the care of his public deification. A regular custom

was introduced, that on the decease of every emperor who had

neither lived nor died like a tyrant, the senate by a solemn

decree should place him in the number of the gods: and the

ceremonies of his apotheosis were blended with those of his

funeral. 231 This legal, and, as it should seem, injudicious

profanation, so abhorrent to our stricter principles, was

received with a very faint murmur, 24 by the easy nature of

Polytheism; but it was received as an institution, not of

religion, but of policy. We should disgrace the virtues of the

Antonines by comparing them with the vices of Hercules or

Jupiter. Even the characters of Cæsar or Augustus were far

superior to those of the popular deities. But it was the

misfortune of the former to live in an enlightened age, and their

actions were too faithfully recorded to admit of such a mixture

of fable and mystery, as the devotion of the vulgar requires. As

soon as their divinity was established by law, it sunk into

oblivion, without contributing either to their own fame, or to

the dignity of succeeding princes.

21 (return) [ See a treatise of Vandale de Consecratione

Principium. It would be easier for me to copy, than it has been

to verify, the quotations of that learned Dutchman.]

211 (return) [ This is inaccurate. The successors of Alexander

were not the first deified sovereigns; the Egyptians had deified

and worshipped many of their kings; the Olympus of the Greeks was

peopled with divinities who had reigned on earth; finally,

Romulus himself had received the honors of an apotheosis (Tit.

Liv. i. 16) a long time before Alexander and his successors. It

is also an inaccuracy to confound the honors offered in the

provinces to the Roman governors, by temples and altars, with the

true apotheosis of the emperors; it was not a religious worship,

for it had neither priests nor sacrifices. Augustus was severely

blamed for having permitted himself to be worshipped as a god in

the provinces, (Tac. Ann. i. 10: ) he would not have incurred

that blame if he had only done what the governors were accustomed

to do.—G. from W. M. Guizot has been guilty of a still greater

inaccuracy in confounding the deification of the living with the

apotheosis of the dead emperors. The nature of the king-worship

of Egypt is still very obscure; the hero-worship of the Greeks

very different from the adoration of the “præsens numen” in the

reigning sovereign.—M.]

22 (return) [ See a dissertation of the Abbé Mongault in the

first volume of the Academy of Inscriptions.]

23 (return) [ Jurandasque tuum per nomen ponimus aras, says

Horace to the emperor himself, and Horace was well acquainted

with the court of Augustus. Note: The good princes were not those

who alone obtained the honors of an apotheosis: it was conferred

on many tyrants. See an excellent treatise of Schæpflin, de

Consecratione Imperatorum Romanorum, in his Commentationes

historicæ et criticæ. Bale, 1741, p. 184.—W.]

231 (return) [ The curious satire in the works of Seneca, is the

strongest remonstrance of profaned religion.—M.]

24 (return) [ See Cicero in Philippic. i. 6. Julian in Cæsaribus.

Inque Deum templis jurabit Roma per umbras, is the indignant

expression of Lucan; but it is a patriotic rather than a devout

indignation.]

In the consideration of the Imperial government, we have

frequently mentioned the artful founder, under his well-known

title of Augustus, which was not, however, conferred upon him

till the edifice was almost completed. The obscure name of

Octavianus he derived from a mean family, in the little town of

Aricia. 241 It was stained with the blood of the proscription;

and he was desirous, had it been possible, to erase all memory of

his former life. The illustrious surname of Cæsar he had assumed,

as the adopted son of the dictator: but he had too much good

sense, either to hope to be confounded, or to wish to be compared

with that extraordinary man. It was proposed in the senate to

dignify their minister with a new appellation; and after a

serious discussion, that of Augustus was chosen, among several

others, as being the most expressive of the character of peace

and sanctity, which he uniformly affected. 25 _Augustus_ was

therefore a personal, _Cæsar_ a family distinction. The former

should naturally have expired with the prince on whom it was

bestowed; and however the latter was diffused by adoption and

female alliance, Nero was the last prince who could allege any

hereditary claim to the honors of the Julian line. But, at the

time of his death, the practice of a century had inseparably

connected those appellations with the Imperial dignity, and they

have been preserved by a long succession of emperors, Romans,

Greeks, Franks, and Germans, from the fall of the republic to the

present time. A distinction was, however, soon introduced. The

sacred title of Augustus was always reserved for the monarch,

whilst the name of Cæsar was more freely communicated to his

relations; and, from the reign of Hadrian, at least, was

appropriated to the second person in the state, who was

considered as the presumptive heir of the empire. 251

241 (return) [ Octavius was not of an obscure family, but of a

considerable one of the equestrian order. His father, C.

Octavius, who possessed great property, had been prætor, governor

of Macedonia, adorned with the title of Imperator, and was on the

point of becoming consul when he died. His mother Attia, was

daughter of M. Attius Balbus, who had also been prætor. M.

Anthony reproached Octavius with having been born in Aricia,

which, nevertheless, was a considerable municipal city: he was

vigorously refuted by Cicero. Philip. iii. c. 6.—W. Gibbon

probably meant that the family had but recently emerged into

notice.—M.]

25 (return) [ Dion. Cassius, l. liii. p. 710, with the curious

Annotations of Reimar.]

251 (return) [ The princes who by their birth or their adoption

belonged to the family of the Cæsars, took the name of Cæsar.

After the death of Nero, this name designated the Imperial

dignity itself, and afterwards the appointed successor. The time

at which it was employed in the latter sense, cannot be fixed

with certainty. Bach (Hist. Jurisprud. Rom. 304) affirms from

Tacitus, H. i. 15, and Suetonius, Galba, 17, that Galba conferred

on Piso Lucinianus the title of Cæsar, and from that time the

term had this meaning: but these two historians simply say that

he appointed Piso his successor, and do not mention the word

Cæsar. Aurelius Victor (in Traj. 348, ed. Artzen) says that

Hadrian first received this title on his adoption; but as the

adoption of Hadrian is still doubtful, and besides this, as

Trajan, on his death-bed, was not likely to have created a new

title for his successor, it is more probable that Ælius Verus was

the first who was called Cæsar when adopted by Hadrian. Spart. in

Ælio Vero, 102.—W.]

Chapter III: The Constitution In The Age Of The Antonines.—Part

II.

The tender respect of Augustus for a free constitution which he

had destroyed, can only be explained by an attentive

consideration of the character of that subtle tyrant. A cool

head, an unfeeling heart, and a cowardly disposition, prompted

him at the age of nineteen to assume the mask of hypocrisy, which

he never afterwards laid aside. With the same hand, and probably

with the same temper, he signed the proscription of Cicero, and

the pardon of Cinna. His virtues, and even his vices, were

artificial; and according to the various dictates of his

interest, he was at first the enemy, and at last the father, of

the Roman world. 26 When he framed the artful system of the

Imperial authority, his moderation was inspired by his fears. He

wished to deceive the people by an image of civil liberty, and

the armies by an image of civil government.

26 (return) [ As Octavianus advanced to the banquet of the

Cæsars, his color changed like that of the chameleon; pale at

first, then red, afterwards black, he at last assumed the mild

livery of Venus and the Graces, (Cæsars, p. 309.) This image,

employed by Julian in his ingenious fiction, is just and elegant;

but when he considers this change of character as real and

ascribes it to the power of philosophy, he does too much honor to

philosophy and to Octavianus.]

I. The death of Cæsar was ever before his eyes. He had lavished

wealth and honors on his adherents; but the most favored friends

of his uncle were in the number of the conspirators. The fidelity

of the legions might defend his authority against open rebellion;

but their vigilance could not secure his person from the dagger

of a determined republican; and the Romans, who revered the

memory of Brutus, 27 would applaud the imitation of his virtue.

Cæsar had provoked his fate, as much as by the ostentation of his

power, as by his power itself. The consul or the tribune might

have reigned in peace. The title of king had armed the Romans

against his life. Augustus was sensible that mankind is governed

by names; nor was he deceived in his expectation, that the senate

and people would submit to slavery, provided they were

respectfully assured that they still enjoyed their ancient

freedom. A feeble senate and enervated people cheerfully

acquiesced in the pleasing illusion, as long as it was supported

by the virtue, or even by the prudence, of the successors of

Augustus. It was a motive of self-preservation, not a principle

of liberty, that animated the conspirators against Caligula,

Nero, and Domitian. They attacked the person of the tyrant,

without aiming their blow at the authority of the emperor.

27 (return) [ Two centuries after the establishment of monarchy,

the emperor Marcus Antoninus recommends the character of Brutus

as a perfect model of Roman virtue. * Note: In a very ingenious

essay, Gibbon has ventured to call in question the preeminent

virtue of Brutus. Misc Works, iv. 95.—M.]

There appears, indeed, _one_ memorable occasion, in which the

senate, after seventy years of patience, made an ineffectual

attempt to re-assume its long-forgotten rights. When the throne

was vacant by the murder of Caligula, the consuls convoked that

assembly in the Capitol, condemned the memory of the Cæsars, gave

the watchword _liberty_ to the few cohorts who faintly adhered to

their standard, and during eight-and-forty hours acted as the

independent chiefs of a free commonwealth. But while they

deliberated, the prætorian guards had resolved. The stupid

Claudius, brother of Germanicus, was already in their camp,

invested with the Imperial purple, and prepared to support his

election by arms. The dream of liberty was at an end; and the

senate awoke to all the horrors of inevitable servitude. Deserted

by the people, and threatened by a military force, that feeble

assembly was compelled to ratify the choice of the prætorians,

and to embrace the benefit of an amnesty, which Claudius had the

prudence to offer, and the generosity to observe. 28

28 (return) [ It is much to be regretted that we have lost the

part of Tacitus which treated of that transaction. We are forced

to content ourselves with the popular rumors of Josephus, and the

imperfect hints of Dion and Suetonius.]

II. The insolence of the armies inspired Augustus with fears of a

still more alarming nature. The despair of the citizens could

only attempt, what the power of the soldiers was, at any time,

able to execute. How precarious was his own authority over men

whom he had taught to violate every social duty! He had heard

their seditious clamors; he dreaded their calmer moments of

reflection. One revolution had been purchased by immense rewards;

but a second revolution might double those rewards. The troops

professed the fondest attachment to the house of Cæsar; but the

attachments of the multitude are capricious and inconstant.

Augustus summoned to his aid whatever remained in those fierce

minds of Roman prejudices; enforced the rigor of discipline by

the sanction of law; and, interposing the majesty of the senate

between the emperor and the army, boldly claimed their

allegiance, as the first magistrate of the republic.

During a long period of two hundred and twenty years from the

establishment of this artful system to the death of Commodus, the

dangers inherent to a military government were, in a great

measure, suspended. The soldiers were seldom roused to that fatal

sense of their own strength, and of the weakness of the civil

authority, which was, before and afterwards, productive of such

dreadful calamities. Caligula and Domitian were assassinated in

their palace by their own domestics: 281 the convulsions which

agitated Rome on the death of the former, were confined to the

walls of the city. But Nero involved the whole empire in his

ruin. In the space of eighteen months, four princes perished by

the sword; and the Roman world was shaken by the fury of the

contending armies. Excepting only this short, though violent

eruption of military license, the two centuries from Augustus 29

to Commodus passed away unstained with civil blood, and

undisturbed by revolutions. The emperor was elected by _the

authority of the senate_, and _the consent of the soldiers_. 30

The legions respected their oath of fidelity; and it requires a

minute inspection of the Roman annals to discover three

inconsiderable rebellions, which were all suppressed in a few

months, and without even the hazard of a battle. 31

281 (return) [ Caligula perished by a conspiracy formed by the

officers of the prætorian troops, and Domitian would not,

perhaps, have been assassinated without the participation of the

two chiefs of that guard in his death.—W.]

29 (return) [ Augustus restored the ancient severity of

discipline. After the civil wars, he dropped the endearing name

of Fellow-Soldiers, and called them only Soldiers, (Sueton. in

August. c. 25.) See the use Tiberius made of the Senate in the

mutiny of the Pannonian legions, (Tacit. Annal. i.)]

30 (return) [ These words seem to have been the constitutional

language. See Tacit. Annal. xiii. 4. * Note: This panegyric on

the soldiery is rather too liberal. Claudius was obliged to

purchase their consent to his coronation: the presents which he

made, and those which the prætorians received on other occasions,

considerably embarrassed the finances. Moreover, this formidable

guard favored, in general, the cruelties of the tyrants. The

distant revolts were more frequent than Gibbon thinks: already,

under Tiberius, the legions of Germany would have seditiously

constrained Germanicus to assume the Imperial purple. On the

revolt of Claudius Civilis, under Vespasian, the legions of Gaul

murdered their general, and offered their assistance to the Gauls

who were in insurrection. Julius Sabinus made himself be

proclaimed emperor, &c. The wars, the merit, and the severe

discipline of Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines,

established, for some time, a greater degree of subordination.—W]

31 (return) [ The first was Camillus Scribonianus, who took up

arms in Dalmatia against Claudius, and was deserted by his own

troops in five days, the second, L. Antonius, in Germany, who

rebelled against Domitian; and the third, Avidius Cassius, in the

reign of M. Antoninus. The two last reigned but a few months, and

were cut off by their own adherents. We may observe, that both

Camillus and Cassius colored their ambition with the design of

restoring the republic; a task, said Cassius peculiarly reserved

for his name and family.]

In elective monarchies, the vacancy of the throne is a moment big

with danger and mischief. The Roman emperors, desirous to spare

the legions that interval of suspense, and the temptation of an

irregular choice, invested their designed successor with so large

a share of present power, as should enable him, after their

decease, to assume the remainder, without suffering the empire to

perceive the change of masters. Thus Augustus, after all his

fairer prospects had been snatched from him by untimely deaths,

rested his last hopes on Tiberius, obtained for his adopted son

the censorial and tribunitian powers, and dictated a law, by

which the future prince was invested with an authority equal to

his own, over the provinces and the armies. 32 Thus Vespasian

subdued the generous mind of his eldest son. Titus was adored by

the eastern legions, which, under his command, had recently

achieved the conquest of Judæa. His power was dreaded, and, as

his virtues were clouded by the intemperance of youth, his

designs were suspected. Instead of listening to such unworthy

suspicions, the prudent monarch associated Titus to the full

powers of the Imperial dignity; and the grateful son ever

approved himself the humble and faithful minister of so indulgent

a father. 33

32 (return) [ Velleius Paterculus, l. ii. c. 121. Sueton. in

Tiber. c. 26.]

33 (return) [ Sueton. in Tit. c. 6. Plin. in Præfat. Hist.

Natur.]

The good sense of Vespasian engaged him indeed to embrace every

measure that might confirm his recent and precarious elevation.

The military oath, and the fidelity of the troops, had been

consecrated, by the habits of a hundred years, to the name and

family of the Cæsars; and although that family had been continued

only by the fictitious rite of adoption, the Romans still

revered, in the person of Nero, the grandson of Germanicus, and

the lineal successor of Augustus. It was not without reluctance

and remorse, that the prætorian guards had been persuaded to

abandon the cause of the tyrant. 34 The rapid downfall of Galba,

Otho, and Vitellus, taught the armies to consider the emperors as

the creatures of _their_ will, and the instruments of _their_

license. The birth of Vespasian was mean: his grandfather had

been a private soldier, his father a petty officer of the

revenue; 35 his own merit had raised him, in an advanced age, to

the empire; but his merit was rather useful than shining, and his

virtues were disgraced by a strict and even sordid parsimony.

Such a prince consulted his true interest by the association of a

son, whose more splendid and amiable character might turn the

public attention from the obscure origin, to the future glories,

of the Flavian house. Under the mild administration of Titus, the

Roman world enjoyed a transient felicity, and his beloved memory

served to protect, above fifteen years, the vices of his brother

Domitian.

34 (return) [ This idea is frequently and strongly inculcated by

Tacitus. See Hist. i. 5, 16, ii. 76.]

35 (return) [ The emperor Vespasian, with his usual good sense,

laughed at the genealogists, who deduced his family from Flavius,

the founder of Reate, (his native country,) and one of the

companions of Hercules Suet in Vespasian, c. 12.]

Nerva had scarcely accepted the purple from the assassins of

Domitian, before he discovered that his feeble age was unable to

stem the torrent of public disorders, which had multiplied under

the long tyranny of his predecessor. His mild disposition was

respected by the good; but the degenerate Romans required a more

vigorous character, whose justice should strike terror into the

guilty. Though he had several relations, he fixed his choice on a

stranger. He adopted Trajan, then about forty years of age, and

who commanded a powerful army in the Lower Germany; and

immediately, by a decree of the senate, declared him his

colleague and successor in the empire. 36 It is sincerely to be

lamented, that whilst we are fatigued with the disgustful

relation of Nero’s crimes and follies, we are reduced to collect

the actions of Trajan from the glimmerings of an abridgment, or

the doubtful light of a panegyric. There remains, however, one

panegyric far removed beyond the suspicion of flattery. Above two

hundred and fifty years after the death of Trajan, the senate, in

pouring out the customary acclamations on the accession of a new

emperor, wished that he might surpass the felicity of Augustus,

and the virtue of Trajan. 37

36 (return) [ Dion, l. lxviii. p. 1121. Plin. Secund. in

Panegyric.]

37 (return) [ Felicior Augusto, Melior Trajano. Eutrop. viii. 5.]

We may readily believe, that the father of his country hesitated

whether he ought to intrust the various and doubtful character of

his kinsman Hadrian with sovereign power. In his last moments the

arts of the empress Plotina either fixed the irresolution of

Trajan, or boldly supposed a fictitious adoption; 38 the truth of

which could not be safely disputed, and Hadrian was peaceably

acknowledged as his lawful successor. Under his reign, as has

been already mentioned, the empire flourished in peace and

prosperity. He encouraged the arts, reformed the laws, asserted

military discipline, and visited all his provinces in person. His

vast and active genius was equally suited to the most enlarged

views, and the minute details of civil policy. But the ruling

passions of his soul were curiosity and vanity. As they

prevailed, and as they were attracted by different objects,

Hadrian was, by turns, an excellent prince, a ridiculous sophist,

and a jealous tyrant. The general tenor of his conduct deserved

praise for its equity and moderation. Yet in the first days of

his reign, he put to death four consular senators, his personal

enemies, and men who had been judged worthy of empire; and the

tediousness of a painful illness rendered him, at last, peevish

and cruel. The senate doubted whether they should pronounce him a

god or a tyrant; and the honors decreed to his memory were

granted to the prayers of the pious Antoninus. 39

38 (return) [ Dion (l. lxix. p. 1249) affirms the whole to have

been a fiction, on the authority of his father, who, being

governor of the province where Trajan died, had very good

opportunities of sifting this mysterious transaction. Yet Dodwell

(Prælect. Camden. xvii.) has maintained that Hadrian was called

to the certain hope of the empire, during the lifetime of

Trajan.]

39 (return) [ Dion, (l. lxx. p. 1171.) Aurel. Victor.]

The caprice of Hadrian influenced his choice of a successor.

After revolving in his mind several men of distinguished merit,

whom he esteemed and hated, he adopted Ælius Verus a gay and

voluptuous nobleman, recommended by uncommon beauty to the lover

of Antinous. 40 But whilst Hadrian was delighting himself with

his own applause, and the acclamations of the soldiers, whose

consent had been secured by an immense donative, the new Cæsar 41

was ravished from his embraces by an untimely death. He left only

one son. Hadrian commended the boy to the gratitude of the

Antonines. He was adopted by Pius; and, on the accession of

Marcus, was invested with an equal share of sovereign power.

Among the many vices of this younger Verus, he possessed one

virtue; a dutiful reverence for his wiser colleague, to whom he

willingly abandoned the ruder cares of empire. The philosophic

emperor dissembled his follies, lamented his early death, and

cast a decent veil over his memory.

40 (return) [ The deification of Antinous, his medals, his

statues, temples, city, oracles, and constellation, are well

known, and still dishonor the memory of Hadrian. Yet we may

remark, that of the first fifteen emperors, Claudius was the only

one whose taste in love was entirely correct. For the honors of

Antinous, see Spanheim, Commentaire sui les Cæsars de Julien, p.

80.]

41 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 13. Aurelius Victor in Epitom.]

As soon as Hadrian’s passion was either gratified or

disappointed, he resolved to deserve the thanks of posterity, by

placing the most exalted merit on the Roman throne. His

discerning eye easily discovered a senator about fifty years of

age, blameless in all the offices of life; and a youth of about

seventeen, whose riper years opened a fair prospect of every

virtue: the elder of these was declared the son and successor of

Hadrian, on condition, however, that he himself should

immediately adopt the younger. The two Antonines (for it is of

them that we are now speaking,) governed the Roman world

forty-two years, with the same invariable spirit of wisdom and

virtue. Although Pius had two sons, 42 he preferred the welfare

of Rome to the interest of his family, gave his daughter

Faustina, in marriage to young Marcus, obtained from the senate

the tribunitian and proconsular powers, and, with a noble

disdain, or rather ignorance of jealousy, associated him to all

the labors of government. Marcus, on the other hand, revered the

character of his benefactor, loved him as a parent, obeyed him as

his sovereign, 43 and, after he was no more, regulated his own

administration by the example and maxims of his predecessor.

Their united reigns are possibly the only period of history in

which the happiness of a great people was the sole object of

government.

42 (return) [ Without the help of medals and inscriptions, we

should be ignorant of this fact, so honorable to the memory of

Pius. Note: Gibbon attributes to Antoninus Pius a merit which he

either did not possess, or was not in a situation to display.

1. He was adopted only on the condition that he would adopt, in

his turn, Marcus Aurelius and L. Verus.

2. His two sons died children, and one of them, M. Galerius,

alone, appears to have survived, for a few years, his father’s

coronation. Gibbon is also mistaken when he says (note 42) that

“without the help of medals and inscriptions, we should be

ignorant that Antoninus had two sons.” Capitolinus says

expressly, (c. 1,) Filii mares duo, duæ-fœminæ; we only owe their

names to the medals. Pagi. Cont. Baron, i. 33, edit Paris.—W.]

43 (return) [ During the twenty-three years of Pius’s reign,

Marcus was only two nights absent from the palace, and even those

were at different times. Hist. August. p. 25.]

Titus Antoninus Pius has been justly denominated a second Numa.

The same love of religion, justice, and peace, was the

distinguishing characteristic of both princes. But the situation

of the latter opened a much larger field for the exercise of

those virtues. Numa could only prevent a few neighboring villages

from plundering each other’s harvests. Antoninus diffused order

and tranquillity over the greatest part of the earth. His reign

is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials

for history; which is, indeed, little more than the register of

the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. In private life,

he was an amiable, as well as a good man. The native simplicity

of his virtue was a stranger to vanity or affectation. He enjoyed

with moderation the conveniences of his fortune, and the innocent

pleasures of society; 44 and the benevolence of his soul

displayed itself in a cheerful serenity of temper.

44 (return) [ He was fond of the theatre, and not insensible to

the charms of the fair sex. Marcus Antoninus, i. 16. Hist.

August. p. 20, 21. Julian in Cæsar.]

The virtue of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was of severer and more

laborious kind. 45 It was the well-earned harvest of many a

learned conference, of many a patient lecture, and many a

midnight lucubration. At the age of twelve years he embraced the

rigid system of the Stoics, which taught him to submit his body

to his mind, his passions to his reason; to consider virtue as

the only good, vice as the only evil, all things external as

things indifferent. 46 His meditations, composed in the tumult of

the camp, are still extant; and he even condescended to give

lessons of philosophy, in a more public manner than was perhaps

consistent with the modesty of sage, or the dignity of an

emperor. 47 But his life was the noblest commentary on the

precepts of Zeno. He was severe to himself, indulgent to the

imperfections of others, just and beneficent to all mankind. He

regretted that Avidius Cassius, who excited a rebellion in Syria,

had disappointed him, by a voluntary death, 471 of the pleasure

of converting an enemy into a friend;; and he justified the

sincerity of that sentiment, by moderating the zeal of the senate

against the adherents of the traitor. 48 War he detested, as the

disgrace and calamity of human nature; 481 but when the necessity

of a just defence called upon him to take up arms, he readily

exposed his person to eight winter campaigns, on the frozen banks

of the Danube, the severity of which was at last fatal to the

weakness of his constitution. His memory was revered by a

grateful posterity, and above a century after his death, many

persons preserved the image of Marcus Antoninus among those of

their household gods. 49

45 (return) [ The enemies of Marcus charged him with hypocrisy,

and with a want of that simplicity which distinguished Pius and

even Verus. (Hist. August. 6, 34.) This suspicions, unjust as it

was, may serve to account for the superior applause bestowed upon

personal qualifications, in preference to the social virtues.

Even Marcus Antoninus has been called a hypocrite; but the

wildest scepticism never insinuated that Cæsar might probably be

a coward, or Tully a fool. Wit and valor are qualifications more

easily ascertained than humanity or the love of justice.]

46 (return) [ Tacitus has characterized, in a few words, the

principles of the portico: Doctores sapientiæ secutus est, qui

sola bona quæ honesta, main tantum quæ turpia; potentiam,

nobilitatem, æteraque extra... bonis neque malis adnumerant.

Tacit. Hist. iv. 5.]

47 (return) [ Before he went on the second expedition against the

Germans, he read lectures of philosophy to the Roman people,

during three days. He had already done the same in the cities of

Greece and Asia. Hist. August. in Cassio, c. 3.]

471 (return) [ Cassius was murdered by his own partisans. Vulcat.

Gallic. in Cassio, c. 7. Dion, lxxi. c. 27.—W.]

48 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxi. p. 1190. Hist. August. in Avid.

Cassio. Note: See one of the newly discovered passages of Dion

Cassius. Marcus wrote to the senate, who urged the execution of

the partisans of Cassius, in these words: “I entreat and beseech

you to preserve my reign unstained by senatorial blood. None of

your order must perish either by your desire or mine.” Mai.

Fragm. Vatican. ii. p. 224.—M.]

481 (return) [ Marcus would not accept the services of any of the

barbarian allies who crowded to his standard in the war against

Avidius Cassius. “Barbarians,” he said, with wise but vain

sagacity, “must not become acquainted with the dissensions of the

Roman people.” Mai. Fragm Vatican l. 224.—M.]

49 (return) [ Hist. August. in Marc. Antonin. c. 18.]

If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the

world, during which the condition of the human race was most

happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that

which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of

Commodus. The vast extent of the Roman empire was governed by

absolute power, under the guidance of virtue and wisdom. The

armies were restrained by the firm but gentle hand of four

successive emperors, whose characters and authority commanded

involuntary respect. The forms of the civil administration were

carefully preserved by Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines,

who delighted in the image of liberty, and were pleased with

considering themselves as the accountable ministers of the laws.

Such princes deserved the honor of restoring the republic, had

the Romans of their days been capable of enjoying a rational

freedom.

The labors of these monarchs were overpaid by the immense reward

that inseparably waited on their success; by the honest pride of

virtue, and by the exquisite delight of beholding the general

happiness of which they were the authors. A just but melancholy

reflection imbittered, however, the noblest of human enjoyments.

They must often have recollected the instability of a happiness

which depended on the character of single man. The fatal moment

was perhaps approaching, when some licentious youth, or some

jealous tyrant, would abuse, to the destruction, that absolute

power, which they had exerted for the benefit of their people.

The ideal restraints of the senate and the laws might serve to

display the virtues, but could never correct the vices, of the

emperor. The military force was a blind and irresistible

instrument of oppression; and the corruption of Roman manners

would always supply flatterers eager to applaud, and ministers

prepared to serve, the fear or the avarice, the lust or the

cruelty, of their master. These gloomy apprehensions had been

already justified by the experience of the Romans. The annals of

the emperors exhibit a strong and various picture of human

nature, which we should vainly seek among the mixed and doubtful

characters of modern history. In the conduct of those monarchs we

may trace the utmost lines of vice and virtue; the most exalted

perfection, and the meanest degeneracy of our own species. The

golden age of Trajan and the Antonines had been preceded by an

age of iron. It is almost superfluous to enumerate the unworthy

successors of Augustus. Their unparalleled vices, and the

splendid theatre on which they were acted, have saved them from

oblivion. The dark, unrelenting Tiberius, the furious Caligula,

the feeble Claudius, the profligate and cruel Nero, the beastly

Vitellius, 50 and the timid, inhuman Domitian, are condemned to

everlasting infamy. During fourscore years (excepting only the

short and doubtful respite of Vespasian’s reign) 51 Rome groaned

beneath an unremitting tyranny, which exterminated the ancient

families of the republic, and was fatal to almost every virtue

and every talent that arose in that unhappy period.

50 (return) [ Vitellius consumed in mere eating at least six

millions of our money in about seven months. It is not easy to

express his vices with dignity, or even decency. Tacitus fairly

calls him a hog, but it is by substituting for a coarse word a

very fine image. “At Vitellius, umbraculis hortorum abditus, ut

ignava animalia, quibus si cibum suggeras, jacent torpentque,

præterita, instantia, futura, pari oblivione dimiserat. Atque

illum nemore Aricino desidem et marcentum,” &c. Tacit. Hist. iii.

36, ii. 95. Sueton. in Vitell. c. 13. Dion. Cassius, l xv. p.

1062.]

51 (return) [ The execution of Helvidius Priscus, and of the

virtuous Eponina, disgraced the reign of Vespasian.]

Under the reign of these monsters, the slavery of the Romans was

accompanied with two peculiar circumstances, the one occasioned

by their former liberty, the other by their extensive conquests,

which rendered their condition more completely wretched than that

of the victims of tyranny in any other age or country. From these

causes were derived, 1. The exquisite sensibility of the

sufferers; and, 2. The impossibility of escaping from the hand of

the oppressor.

I. When Persia was governed by the descendants of Sefi, a race of

princes whose wanton cruelty often stained their divan, their

table, and their bed, with the blood of their favorites, there is

a saying recorded of a young nobleman, that he never departed

from the sultan’s presence, without satisfying himself whether

his head was still on his shoulders. The experience of every day

might almost justify the scepticism of Rustan. 52 Yet the fatal

sword, suspended above him by a single thread, seems not to have

disturbed the slumbers, or interrupted the tranquillity, of the

Persian. The monarch’s frown, he well knew, could level him with

the dust; but the stroke of lightning or apoplexy might be

equally fatal; and it was the part of a wise man to forget the

inevitable calamities of human life in the enjoyment of the

fleeting hour. He was dignified with the appellation of the

king’s slave; had, perhaps, been purchased from obscure parents,

in a country which he had never known; and was trained up from

his infancy in the severe discipline of the seraglio. 53 His

name, his wealth, his honors, were the gift of a master, who

might, without injustice, resume what he had bestowed. Rustan’s

knowledge, if he possessed any, could only serve to confirm his

habits by prejudices. His language afforded not words for any

form of government, except absolute monarchy. The history of the

East informed him, that such had ever been the condition of

mankind. 54 The Koran, and the interpreters of that divine book,

inculcated to him, that the sultan was the descendant of the

prophet, and the vicegerent of heaven; that patience was the

first virtue of a Mussulman, and unlimited obedience the great

duty of a subject.

52 (return) [ Voyage de Chardin en Perse, vol. iii. p. 293.]

53 (return) [ The practice of raising slaves to the great offices

of state is still more common among the Turks than among the

Persians. The miserable countries of Georgia and Circassia supply

rulers to the greatest part of the East.]

54 (return) [ Chardin says, that European travellers have

diffused among the Persians some ideas of the freedom and

mildness of our governments. They have done them a very ill

office.]

The minds of the Romans were very differently prepared for

slavery. Oppressed beneath the weight of their own corruption and

of military violence, they for a long while preserved the

sentiments, or at least the ideas, of their free-born ancestors.

The education of Helvidius and Thrasea, of Tacitus and Pliny, was

the same as that of Cato and Cicero. From Grecian philosophy,

they had imbibed the justest and most liberal notions of the

dignity of human nature, and the origin of civil society. The

history of their own country had taught them to revere a free, a

virtuous, and a victorious commonwealth; to abhor the successful

crimes of Cæsar and Augustus; and inwardly to despise those

tyrants whom they adored with the most abject flattery. As

magistrates and senators they were admitted into the great

council, which had once dictated laws to the earth, whose

authority was so often prostituted to the vilest purposes of

tyranny. Tiberius, and those emperors who adopted his maxims,

attempted to disguise their murders by the formalities of

justice, and perhaps enjoyed a secret pleasure in rendering the

senate their accomplice as well as their victim. By this

assembly, the last of the Romans were condemned for imaginary

crimes and real virtues. Their infamous accusers assumed the

language of independent patriots, who arraigned a dangerous

citizen before the tribunal of his country; and the public

service was rewarded by riches and honors. 55 The servile judges

professed to assert the majesty of the commonwealth, violated in

the person of its first magistrate, 56 whose clemency they most

applauded when they trembled the most at his inexorable and

impending cruelty. 57 The tyrant beheld their baseness with just

contempt, and encountered their secret sentiments of detestation

with sincere and avowed hatred for the whole body of the senate.

55 (return) [ They alleged the example of Scipio and Cato,

(Tacit. Annal. iii. 66.) Marcellus Epirus and Crispus Vibius had

acquired two millions and a half under Nero. Their wealth, which

aggravated their crimes, protected them under Vespasian. See

Tacit. Hist. iv. 43. Dialog. de Orator. c. 8. For one accusation,

Regulus, the just object of Pliny’s satire, received from the

senate the consular ornaments, and a present of sixty thousand

pounds.]

56 (return) [ The crime of majesty was formerly a treasonable

offence against the Roman people. As tribunes of the people,

Augustus and Tiberius applied tit to their own persons, and

extended it to an infinite latitude. Note: It was Tiberius, not

Augustus, who first took in this sense the words crimen læsæ

majestatis. Bachii Trajanus, 27. —W.]

57 (return) [ After the virtuous and unfortunate widow of

Germanicus had been put to death, Tiberius received the thanks of

the senate for his clemency. she had not been publicly strangled;

nor was the body drawn with a hook to the Gemoniæ, where those of

common male factors were exposed. See Tacit. Annal. vi. 25.

Sueton. in Tiberio c. 53.]

II. The division of Europe into a number of independent states,

connected, however, with each other by the general resemblance of

religion, language, and manners, is productive of the most

beneficial consequences to the liberty of mankind. A modern

tyrant, who should find no resistance either in his own breast,

or in his people, would soon experience a gentle restraint from

the example of his equals, the dread of present censure, the

advice of his allies, and the apprehension of his enemies. The

object of his displeasure, escaping from the narrow limits of his

dominions, would easily obtain, in a happier climate, a secure

refuge, a new fortune adequate to his merit, the freedom of

complaint, and perhaps the means of revenge. But the empire of

the Romans filled the world, and when the empire fell into the

hands of a single person, the world became a safe and dreary

prison for his enemies. The slave of Imperial despotism, whether

he was condemned to drag his gilded chain in rome and the senate,

or to were out a life of exile on the barren rock of Seriphus, or

the frozen bank of the Danube, expected his fate in silent

despair. 58 To resist was fatal, and it was impossible to fly. On

every side he was encompassed with a vast extent of sea and land,

which he could never hope to traverse without being discovered,

seized, and restored to his irritated master. Beyond the

frontiers, his anxious view could discover nothing, except the

ocean, inhospitable deserts, hostile tribes of barbarians, of

fierce manners and unknown language, or dependent kings, who

would gladly purchase the emperor’s protection by the sacrifice

of an obnoxious fugitive. 59 “Wherever you are,” said Cicero to

the exiled Marcellus, “remember that you are equally within the

power of the conqueror.” 60

58 (return) [ Seriphus was a small rocky island in the Ægean Sea,

the inhabitants of which were despised for their ignorance and

obscurity. The place of Ovid’s exile is well known, by his just,

but unmanly lamentations. It should seem, that he only received

an order to leave rome in so many days, and to transport himself

to Tomi. Guards and jailers were unnecessary.]

59 (return) [ Under Tiberius, a Roman knight attempted to fly to

the Parthians. He was stopped in the straits of Sicily; but so

little danger did there appear in the example, that the most

jealous of tyrants disdained to punish it. Tacit. Annal. vi. 14.]

60 (return) [ Cicero ad Familiares, iv. 7.]

Chapter IV: The Cruelty, Follies And Murder Of Commodus.—Part I.

The Cruelty, Follies, And Murder Of Commodus—Election Of Pertinax—His

Attempts To Reform The State—His Assassination By The Prætorian Guards.

The mildness of Marcus, which the rigid discipline of the Stoics

was unable to eradicate, formed, at the same time, the most

amiable, and the only defective part of his character. His

excellent understanding was often deceived by the unsuspecting

goodness of his heart. Artful men, who study the passions of

princes, and conceal their own, approached his person in the

disguise of philosophic sanctity, and acquired riches and honors

by affecting to despise them. 1 His excessive indulgence to his

brother, 105 his wife, and his son, exceeded the bounds of

private virtue, and became a public injury, by the example and

consequences of their vices.

1 (return) [ See the complaints of Avidius Cassius, Hist. August.

p. 45. These are, it is true, the complaints of faction; but even

faction exaggerates, rather than invents.]

105 (return) [ His brother by adoption, and his colleague, L.

Verus. Marcus Aurelius had no other brother.—W.]

Faustina, the daughter of Pius and the wife of Marcus, has been

as much celebrated for her gallantries as for her beauty. The

grave simplicity of the philosopher was ill calculated to engage

her wanton levity, or to fix that unbounded passion for variety,

which often discovered personal merit in the meanest of mankind.

2 The Cupid of the ancients was, in general, a very sensual

deity; and the amours of an empress, as they exact on her side

the plainest advances, are seldom susceptible of much sentimental

delicacy. Marcus was the only man in the empire who seemed

ignorant or insensible of the irregularities of Faustina; which,

according to the prejudices of every age, reflected some disgrace

on the injured husband. He promoted several of her lovers to

posts of honor and profit, 3 and during a connection of thirty

years, invariably gave her proofs of the most tender confidence,

and of a respect which ended not with her life. In his

Meditations, he thanks the gods, who had bestowed on him a wife

so faithful, so gentle, and of such a wonderful simplicity of

manners. 4 The obsequious senate, at his earnest request,

declared her a goddess. She was represented in her temples, with

the attributes of Juno, Venus, and Ceres; and it was decreed,

that, on the day of their nuptials, the youth of either sex

should pay their vows before the altar of their chaste patroness.

2 (return) [ Faustinam satis constat apud Cajetam conditiones

sibi et nauticas et gladiatorias, elegisse. Hist. August. p. 30.

Lampridius explains the sort of merit which Faustina chose, and

the conditions which she exacted. Hist. August. p. 102.]

3 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 34.]

4 (return) [ Meditat. l. i. The world has laughed at the

credulity of Marcus but Madam Dacier assures us, (and we may

credit a lady,) that the husband will always be deceived, if the

wife condescends to dissemble.]

5 (return) [Footnote 5: Dion Cassius, l. lxxi. [c. 31,] p. 1195.

Hist. August. p. 33. Commentaire de Spanheim sur les Cæsars de

Julien, p. 289. The deification of Faustina is the only defect

which Julian’s criticism is able to discover in the

all-accomplished character of Marcus.]

The monstrous vices of the son have cast a shade on the purity of

the father’s virtues. It has been objected to Marcus, that he

sacrificed the happiness of millions to a fond partiality for a

worthless boy; and that he chose a successor in his own family,

rather than in the republic. Nothing however, was neglected by

the anxious father, and by the men of virtue and learning whom he

summoned to his assistance, to expand the narrow mind of young

Commodus, to correct his growing vices, and to render him worthy

of the throne for which he was designed. But the power of

instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy

dispositions where it is almost superfluous. The distasteful

lesson of a grave philosopher was, in a moment, obliterated by

the whisper of a profligate favorite; and Marcus himself blasted

the fruits of this labored education, by admitting his son, at

the age of fourteen or fifteen, to a full participation of the

Imperial power. He lived but four years afterwards: but he lived

long enough to repent a rash measure, which raised the impetuous

youth above the restraint of reason and authority.

Most of the crimes which disturb the internal peace of society,

are produced by the restraints which the necessary but unequal

laws of property have imposed on the appetites of mankind, by

confining to a few the possession of those objects that are

coveted by many. Of all our passions and appetites, the love of

power is of the most imperious and unsociable nature, since the

pride of one man requires the submission of the multitude. In the

tumult of civil discord, the laws of society lose their force,

and their place is seldom supplied by those of humanity. The

ardor of contention, the pride of victory, the despair of

success, the memory of past injuries, and the fear of future

dangers, all contribute to inflame the mind, and to silence the

voice of pity. From such motives almost every page of history has

been stained with civil blood; but these motives will not account

for the unprovoked cruelties of Commodus, who had nothing to wish

and every thing to enjoy. The beloved son of Marcus succeeded to

his father, amidst the acclamations of the senate and armies; 6

and when he ascended the throne, the happy youth saw round him

neither competitor to remove, nor enemies to punish. In this

calm, elevated station, it was surely natural that he should

prefer the love of mankind to their detestation, the mild glories

of his five predecessors to the ignominious fate of Nero and

Domitian.

6 (return) [ Commodus was the first _Porphyrogenitus_, (born

since his father’s accession to the throne.) By a new strain of

flattery, the Egyptian medals date by the years of his life; as

if they were synonymous to those of his reign. Tillemont, Hist.

des Empereurs, tom. ii. p. 752.]

Yet Commodus was not, as he has been represented, a tiger born

with an insatiate thirst of human blood, and capable, from his

infancy, of the most inhuman actions. 7 Nature had formed him of

a weak rather than a wicked disposition. His simplicity and

timidity rendered him the slave of his attendants, who gradually

corrupted his mind. His cruelty, which at first obeyed the

dictates of others, degenerated into habit, and at length became

the ruling passion of his soul. 8

7 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 46.]

8 (return) [ Dion Cassius, l. lxxii. p. 1203.]

Upon the death of his father, Commodus found himself embarrassed

with the command of a great army, and the conduct of a difficult

war against the Quadi and Marcomanni. 9 The servile and

profligate youths whom Marcus had banished, soon regained their

station and influence about the new emperor. They exaggerated the

hardships and dangers of a campaign in the wild countries beyond

the Danube; and they assured the indolent prince that the terror

of his name, and the arms of his lieutenants, would be sufficient

to complete the conquest of the dismayed barbarians, or to impose

such conditions as were more advantageous than any conquest. By a

dexterous application to his sensual appetites, they compared the

tranquillity, the splendor, the refined pleasures of Rome, with

the tumult of a Pannonian camp, which afforded neither leisure

nor materials for luxury. 10 Commodus listened to the pleasing

advice; but whilst he hesitated between his own inclination and

the awe which he still retained for his father’s counsellors, the

summer insensibly elapsed, and his triumphal entry into the

capital was deferred till the autumn. His graceful person, 11

popular address, and imagined virtues, attracted the public

favor; the honorable peace which he had recently granted to the

barbarians, diffused a universal joy; 12 his impatience to

revisit Rome was fondly ascribed to the love of his country; and

his dissolute course of amusements was faintly condemned in a

prince of nineteen years of age.

9 (return) [ According to Tertullian, (Apolog. c. 25,) he died at

Sirmium. But the situation of Vindobona, or Vienna, where both

the Victors place his death, is better adapted to the operations

of the war against the Marcomanni and Quadi.]

10 (return) [ Herodian, l. i. p. 12.]

11 (return) [ Herodian, l. i. p. 16.]

12 (return) [ This universal joy is well described (from the

medals as well as historians) by Mr. Wotton, Hist. of Rome, p.

192, 193.] During the three first years of his reign, the forms,

and even the spirit, of the old administration, were maintained

by those faithful counsellors, to whom Marcus had recommended his

son, and for whose wisdom and integrity Commodus still

entertained a reluctant esteem. The young prince and his

profligate favorites revelled in all the license of sovereign

power; but his hands were yet unstained with blood; and he had

even displayed a generosity of sentiment, which might perhaps

have ripened into solid virtue. 13 A fatal incident decided his

fluctuating character.

13 (return) [ Manilius, the confidential secretary of Avidius

Cassius, was discovered after he had lain concealed several

years. The emperor nobly relieved the public anxiety by refusing

to see him, and burning his papers without opening them. Dion

Cassius, l. lxxii. p. 1209.]

One evening, as the emperor was returning to the palace, through

a dark and narrow portico in the amphitheatre, 14 an assassin,

who waited his passage, rushed upon him with a drawn sword,

loudly exclaiming, “_The senate sends you this_.” The menace

prevented the deed; the assassin was seized by the guards, and

immediately revealed the authors of the conspiracy. It had been

formed, not in the state, but within the walls of the palace.

Lucilla, the emperor’s sister, and widow of Lucius Verus,

impatient of the second rank, and jealous of the reigning

empress, had armed the murderer against her brother’s life. She

had not ventured to communicate the black design to her second

husband, Claudius Pompeiarus, a senator of distinguished merit

and unshaken loyalty; but among the crowd of her lovers (for she

imitated the manners of Faustina) she found men of desperate

fortunes and wild ambition, who were prepared to serve her more

violent, as well as her tender passions. The conspirators

experienced the rigor of justice, and the abandoned princess was

punished, first with exile, and afterwards with death. 15

14 (return) [See Maffei degli Amphitheatri, p. 126.]

15 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxi. p. 1205 Herodian, l. i. p. 16 Hist.

August p. 46.]

But the words of the assassin sunk deep into the mind of

Commodus, and left an indelible impression of fear and hatred

against the whole body of the senate. 151 Those whom he had

dreaded as importunate ministers, he now suspected as secret

enemies. The Delators, a race of men discouraged, and almost

extinguished, under the former reigns, again became formidable,

as soon as they discovered that the emperor was desirous of

finding disaffection and treason in the senate. That assembly,

whom Marcus had ever considered as the great council of the

nation, was composed of the most distinguished of the Romans; and

distinction of every kind soon became criminal. The possession of

wealth stimulated the diligence of the informers; rigid virtue

implied a tacit censure of the irregularities of Commodus;

important services implied a dangerous superiority of merit; and

the friendship of the father always insured the aversion of the

son. Suspicion was equivalent to proof; trial to condemnation.

The execution of a considerable senator was attended with the

death of all who might lament or revenge his fate; and when

Commodus had once tasted human blood, he became incapable of pity

or remorse.

151 (return) [ The conspirators were senators, even the assassin

himself. Herod. 81.—G.]

Of these innocent victims of tyranny, none died more lamented

than the two brothers of the Quintilian family, Maximus and

Condianus; whose fraternal love has saved their names from

oblivion, and endeared their memory to posterity. Their studies

and their occupations, their pursuits and their pleasures, were

still the same. In the enjoyment of a great estate, they never

admitted the idea of a separate interest: some fragments are now

extant of a treatise which they composed in common; 152 and in

every action of life it was observed that their two bodies were

animated by one soul. The Antonines, who valued their virtues,

and delighted in their union, raised them, in the same year, to

the consulship; and Marcus afterwards intrusted to their joint

care the civil administration of Greece, and a great military

command, in which they obtained a signal victory over the

Germans. The kind cruelty of Commodus united them in death. 16

152 (return) [ This work was on agriculture, and is often quoted

by later writers. See P. Needham, Proleg. ad Geoponic. Camb.

1704.—W.]

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