Chapter VI: Death Of Severus, Tyranny Of_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)

Marcinus.—Part I.

The Death Of Severus.—Tyranny Of Caracalla.—Usurpation Of

Macrinus.—Follies Of Elagabalus.—Virtues Of Alexander

Severus.—Licentiousness Of The Army.—General State Of The Roman

Finances.

The ascent to greatness, however steep and dangerous, may

entertain an active spirit with the consciousness and exercise of

its own powers: but the possession of a throne could never yet

afford a lasting satisfaction to an ambitious mind. This

melancholy truth was felt and acknowledged by Severus. Fortune

and merit had, from an humble station, elevated him to the first

place among mankind. “He had been all things,” as he said

himself, “and all was of little value.” 1 Distracted with the

care, not of acquiring, but of preserving an empire, oppressed

with age and infirmities, careless of fame, 2 and satiated with

power, all his prospects of life were closed. The desire of

perpetuating the greatness of his family was the only remaining

wish of his ambition and paternal tenderness.

1 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 71. “Omnia fui, et nihil expedit.”]

2 (return) [ Dion Cassius, l. lxxvi. p. 1284.]

Like most of the Africans, Severus was passionately addicted to

the vain studies of magic and divination, deeply versed in the

interpretation of dreams and omens, and perfectly acquainted with

the science of judicial astrology; which, in almost every age

except the present, has maintained its dominion over the mind of

man. He had lost his first wife, while he was governor of the

Lionnese Gaul. 3 In the choice of a second, he sought only to

connect himself with some favorite of fortune; and as soon as he

had discovered that the young lady of Emesa in Syria had _a royal

nativity_, he solicited and obtained her hand. 4 Julia Domna (for

that was her name) deserved all that the stars could promise her.

She possessed, even in advanced age, the attractions of beauty, 5

and united to a lively imagination a firmness of mind, and

strength of judgment, seldom bestowed on her sex. Her amiable

qualities never made any deep impression on the dark and jealous

temper of her husband; but in her son’s reign, she administered

the principal affairs of the empire, with a prudence that

supported his authority, and with a moderation that sometimes

corrected his wild extravagancies. 6 Julia applied herself to

letters and philosophy, with some success, and with the most

splendid reputation. She was the patroness of every art, and the

friend of every man of genius. 7 The grateful flattery of the

learned has celebrated her virtues; but, if we may credit the

scandal of ancient history, chastity was very far from being the

most conspicuous virtue of the empress Julia. 8

3 (return) [ About the year 186. M. de Tillemont is miserably

embarrassed with a passage of Dion, in which the empress

Faustina, who died in the year 175, is introduced as having

contributed to the marriage of Severus and Julia, (l. lxxiv. p.

1243.) The learned compiler forgot that Dion is relating not a

real fact, but a dream of Severus; and dreams are circumscribed

to no limits of time or space. Did M. de Tillemont imagine that

marriages were consummated in the temple of Venus at Rome? Hist.

des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 389. Note 6.]

4 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 65.]

5 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 5.]

6 (return) [ Dion Cassius, l. lxxvii. p. 1304, 1314.]

7 (return) [ See a dissertation of Menage, at the end of his

edition of Diogenes Lærtius, de Fœminis Philosophis.]

8 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxvi. p. 1285. Aurelius Victor.]

Two sons, Caracalla 9 and Geta, were the fruit of this marriage,

and the destined heirs of the empire. The fond hopes of the

father, and of the Roman world, were soon disappointed by these

vain youths, who displayed the indolent security of hereditary

princes; and a presumption that fortune would supply the place of

merit and application. Without any emulation of virtue or

talents, they discovered, almost from their infancy, a fixed and

implacable antipathy for each other.

9 (return) [ Bassianus was his first name, as it had been that of

his maternal grandfather. During his reign, he assumed the

appellation of Antoninus, which is employed by lawyers and

ancient historians. After his death, the public indignation

loaded him with the nicknames of Tarantus and Caracalla. The

first was borrowed from a celebrated Gladiator, the second from a

long Gallic gown which he distributed to the people of Rome.]

Their aversion, confirmed by years, and fomented by the arts of

their interested favorites, broke out in childish, and gradually

in more serious competitions; and, at length, divided the

theatre, the circus, and the court, into two factions, actuated

by the hopes and fears of their respective leaders. The prudent

emperor endeavored, by every expedient of advice and authority,

to allay this growing animosity. The unhappy discord of his sons

clouded all his prospects, and threatened to overturn a throne

raised with so much labor, cemented with so much blood, and

guarded with every defence of arms and treasure. With an

impartial hand he maintained between them an exact balance of

favor, conferred on both the rank of Augustus, with the revered

name of Antoninus; and for the first time the Roman world beheld

three emperors. 10 Yet even this equal conduct served only to

inflame the contest, whilst the fierce Caracalla asserted the

right of primogeniture, and the milder Geta courted the

affections of the people and the soldiers. In the anguish of a

disappointed father, Severus foretold that the weaker of his sons

would fall a sacrifice to the stronger; who, in his turn, would

be ruined by his own vices. 11

10 (return) [ The elevation of Caracalla is fixed by the accurate

M. de Tillemont to the year 198; the association of Geta to the

year 208.]

11 (return) [ Herodian, l. iii. p. 130. The lives of Caracalla

and Geta, in the Augustan History.]

In these circumstances the intelligence of a war in Britain, and

of an invasion of the province by the barbarians of the North,

was received with pleasure by Severus. Though the vigilance of

his lieutenants might have been sufficient to repel the distant

enemy, he resolved to embrace the honorable pretext of

withdrawing his sons from the luxury of Rome, which enervated

their minds and irritated their passions; and of inuring their

youth to the toils of war and government. Notwithstanding his

advanced age, (for he was above threescore,) and his gout, which

obliged him to be carried in a litter, he transported himself in

person into that remote island, attended by his two sons, his

whole court, and a formidable army. He immediately passed the

walls of Hadrian and Antoninus, and entered the enemy’s country,

with a design of completing the long attempted conquest of

Britain. He penetrated to the northern extremity of the island,

without meeting an enemy. But the concealed ambuscades of the

Caledonians, who hung unseen on the rear and flanks of his army,

the coldness of the climate and the severity of a winter march

across the hills and morasses of Scotland, are reported to have

cost the Romans above fifty thousand men. The Caledonians at

length yielded to the powerful and obstinate attack, sued for

peace, and surrendered a part of their arms, and a large tract of

territory. But their apparent submission lasted no longer than

the present terror. As soon as the Roman legions had retired,

they resumed their hostile independence. Their restless spirit

provoked Severus to send a new army into Caledonia, with the most

bloody orders, not to subdue, but to extirpate the natives. They

were saved by the death of their haughty enemy. 12

12 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxvi. p. 1280, &c. Herodian, l. iii. p.

132, &c.]

This Caledonian war, neither marked by decisive events, nor

attended with any important consequences, would ill deserve our

attention; but it is supposed, not without a considerable degree

of probability, that the invasion of Severus is connected with

the most shining period of the British history or fable. Fingal,

whose fame, with that of his heroes and bards, has been revived

in our language by a recent publication, is said to have

commanded the Caledonians in that memorable juncture, to have

eluded the power of Severus, and to have obtained a signal

victory on the banks of the Carun, in which the son of _the King

of the World_, Caracul, fled from his arms along the fields of

his pride. 13 Something of a doubtful mist still hangs over these

Highland traditions; nor can it be entirely dispelled by the most

ingenious researches of modern criticism; 14 but if we could,

with safety, indulge the pleasing supposition, that Fingal lived,

and that Ossian sung, the striking contrast of the situation and

manners of the contending nations might amuse a philosophic mind.

The parallel would be little to the advantage of the more

civilized people, if we compared the unrelenting revenge of

Severus with the generous clemency of Fingal; the timid and

brutal cruelty of Caracalla with the bravery, the tenderness, the

elegant genius of Ossian; the mercenary chiefs, who, from motives

of fear or interest, served under the imperial standard, with the

free-born warriors who started to arms at the voice of the king

of Morven; if, in a word, we contemplated the untutored

Caledonians, glowing with the warm virtues of nature, and the

degenerate Romans, polluted with the mean vices of wealth and

slavery.

13 (return) [ Ossian’s Poems, vol. i. p. 175.]

14 (return) [ That the Caracul of Ossian is the Caracalla of the

Roman History, is, perhaps, the only point of British antiquity

in which Mr. Macpherson and Mr. Whitaker are of the same opinion;

and yet the opinion is not without difficulty. In the Caledonian

war, the son of Severus was known only by the appellation of

Antoninus, and it may seem strange that the Highland bard should

describe him by a nickname, invented four years afterwards,

scarcely used by the Romans till after the death of that emperor,

and seldom employed by the most ancient historians. See Dion, l.

lxxvii. p. 1317. Hist. August. p. 89 Aurel. Victor. Euseb. in

Chron. ad ann. 214. Note: The historical authority of

Macpherson’s Ossian has not increased since Gibbon wrote. We may,

indeed, consider it exploded. Mr. Whitaker, in a letter to Gibbon

(Misc. Works, vol. ii. p. 100,) attempts, not very successfully,

to weaken this objection of the historian.—M.]

The declining health and last illness of Severus inflamed the

wild ambition and black passions of Caracalla’s soul. Impatient

of any delay or division of empire, he attempted, more than once,

to shorten the small remainder of his father’s days, and

endeavored, but without success, to excite a mutiny among the

troops. 15 The old emperor had often censured the misguided

lenity of Marcus, who, by a single act of justice, might have

saved the Romans from the tyranny of his worthless son. Placed in

the same situation, he experienced how easily the rigor of a

judge dissolves away in the tenderness of a parent. He

deliberated, he threatened, but he could not punish; and this

last and only instance of mercy was more fatal to the empire than

a long series of cruelty. 16 The disorder of his mind irritated

the pains of his body; he wished impatiently for death, and

hastened the instant of it by his impatience. He expired at York

in the sixty-fifth year of his life, and in the eighteenth of a

glorious and successful reign. In his last moments he recommended

concord to his sons, and his sons to the army. The salutary

advice never reached the heart, or even the understanding, of the

impetuous youths; but the more obedient troops, mindful of their

oath of allegiance, and of the authority of their deceased

master, resisted the solicitations of Caracalla, and proclaimed

both brothers emperors of Rome. The new princes soon left the

Caledonians in peace, returned to the capital, celebrated their

father’s funeral with divine honors, and were cheerfully

acknowledged as lawful sovereigns, by the senate, the people, and

the provinces. Some preeminence of rank seems to have been

allowed to the elder brother; but they both administered the

empire with equal and independent power. 17

15 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxvi. p. 1282. Hist. August. p. 71.

Aurel. Victor.]

16 (return) [Dion, l. lxxvi. p. 1283. Hist. August. p. 89]

17 (return) [Footnote 17: Dion, l. lxxvi. p. 1284. Herodian, l.

iii. p. 135.]

Such a divided form of government would have proved a source of

discord between the most affectionate brothers. It was impossible

that it could long subsist between two implacable enemies, who

neither desired nor could trust a reconciliation. It was visible

that one only could reign, and that the other must fall; and each

of them, judging of his rival’s designs by his own, guarded his

life with the most jealous vigilance from the repeated attacks of

poison or the sword. Their rapid journey through Gaul and Italy,

during which they never ate at the same table, or slept in the

same house, displayed to the provinces the odious spectacle of

fraternal discord. On their arrival at Rome, they immediately

divided the vast extent of the imperial palace. 18 No

communication was allowed between their apartments; the doors and

passages were diligently fortified, and guards posted and

relieved with the same strictness as in a besieged place. The

emperors met only in public, in the presence of their afflicted

mother; and each surrounded by a numerous train of armed

followers. Even on these occasions of ceremony, the dissimulation

of courts could ill disguise the rancor of their hearts. 19

18 (return) [ Mr. Hume is justly surprised at a passage of

Herodian, (l. iv. p. 139,) who, on this occasion, represents the

Imperial palace as equal in extent to the rest of Rome. The whole

region of the Palatine Mount, on which it was built, occupied, at

most, a circumference of eleven or twelve thousand feet, (see the

Notitia and Victor, in Nardini’s Roma Antica.) But we should

recollect that the opulent senators had almost surrounded the

city with their extensive gardens and suburb palaces, the

greatest part of which had been gradually confiscated by the

emperors. If Geta resided in the gardens that bore his name on

the Janiculum, and if Caracalla inhabited the gardens of Mæcenas

on the Esquiline, the rival brothers were separated from each

other by the distance of several miles; and yet the intermediate

space was filled by the Imperial gardens of Sallust, of Lucullus,

of Agrippa, of Domitian, of Caius, &c., all skirting round the

city, and all connected with each other, and with the palace, by

bridges thrown over the Tiber and the streets. But this

explanation of Herodian would require, though it ill deserves, a

particular dissertation, illustrated by a map of ancient Rome.

(Hume, Essay on Populousness of Ancient Nations.—M.)]

19 (return) [ Herodian, l. iv. p. 139]

This latent civil war already distracted the whole government,

when a scheme was suggested that seemed of mutual benefit to the

hostile brothers. It was proposed, that since it was impossible

to reconcile their minds, they should separate their interest,

and divide the empire between them. The conditions of the treaty

were already drawn with some accuracy. It was agreed that

Caracalla, as the elder brother should remain in possession of

Europe and the western Africa; and that he should relinquish the

sovereignty of Asia and Egypt to Geta, who might fix his

residence at Alexandria or Antioch, cities little inferior to

Rome itself in wealth and greatness; that numerous armies should

be constantly encamped on either side of the Thracian Bosphorus,

to guard the frontiers of the rival monarchies; and that the

senators of European extraction should acknowledge the sovereign

of Rome, whilst the natives of Asia followed the emperor of the

East. The tears of the empress Julia interrupted the negotiation,

the first idea of which had filled every Roman breast with

surprise and indignation. The mighty mass of conquest was so

intimately united by the hand of time and policy, that it

required the most forcible violence to rend it asunder. The

Romans had reason to dread, that the disjointed members would

soon be reduced by a civil war under the dominion of one master;

but if the separation was permanent, the division of the

provinces must terminate in the dissolution of an empire whose

unity had hitherto remained inviolate. 20

20 (return) [ Herodian, l. iv. p. 144.]

Had the treaty been carried into execution, the sovereign of

Europe might soon have been the conqueror of Asia; but Caracalla

obtained an easier, though a more guilty, victory. He artfully

listened to his mother’s entreaties, and consented to meet his

brother in her apartment, on terms of peace and reconciliation.

In the midst of their conversation, some centurions, who had

contrived to conceal themselves, rushed with drawn swords upon

the unfortunate Geta. His distracted mother strove to protect him

in her arms; but, in the unavailing struggle, she was wounded in

the hand, and covered with the blood of her younger son, while

she saw the elder animating and assisting 21 the fury of the

assassins. As soon as the deed was perpetrated, Caracalla, with

hasty steps, and horror in his countenance, ran towards the

Prætorian camp, as his only refuge, and threw himself on the

ground before the statues of the tutelar deities. 22 The soldiers

attempted to raise and comfort him. In broken and disordered

words he informed them of his imminent danger, and fortunate

escape; insinuating that he had prevented the designs of his

enemy, and declared his resolution to live and die with his

faithful troops. Geta had been the favorite of the soldiers; but

complaint was useless, revenge was dangerous, and they still

reverenced the son of Severus. Their discontent died away in idle

murmurs, and Caracalla soon convinced them of the justice of his

cause, by distributing in one lavish donative the accumulated

treasures of his father’s reign. 23 The real _sentiments_ of the

soldiers alone were of importance to his power or safety. Their

declaration in his favor commanded the dutiful _professions_ of

the senate. The obsequious assembly was always prepared to ratify

the decision of fortune; 231 but as Caracalla wished to assuage

the first emotions of public indignation, the name of Geta was

mentioned with decency, and he received the funeral honors of a

Roman emperor. 24 Posterity, in pity to his misfortune, has cast

a veil over his vices. We consider that young prince as the

innocent victim of his brother’s ambition, without recollecting

that he himself wanted power, rather than inclination, to

consummate the same attempts of revenge and murder. 241

21 (return) [ Caracalla consecrated, in the temple of Serapis,

the sword with which, as he boasted, he had slain his brother

Geta. Dion, l. lxxvii p. 1307.]

22 (return) [ Herodian, l. iv. p. 147. In every Roman camp there

was a small chapel near the head-quarters, in which the statues

of the tutelar deities were preserved and adored; and we may

remark that the eagles, and other military ensigns, were in the

first rank of these deities; an excellent institution, which

confirmed discipline by the sanction of religion. See Lipsius de

Militia Romana, iv. 5, v. 2.]

23 (return) [ Herodian, l. iv. p. 148. Dion, l. lxxvii. p. 1289.]

231 (return) [ The account of this transaction, in a new passage

of Dion, varies in some degree from this statement. It adds that

the next morning, in the senate, Antoninus requested their

indulgence, not because he had killed his brother, but because he

was hoarse, and could not address them. Mai. Fragm. p. 228.—M.]

24 (return) [ Geta was placed among the gods. Sit divus, dum non

sit vivus said his brother. Hist. August. p. 91. Some marks of

Geta’s consecration are still found upon medals.]

241 (return) [ The favorable judgment which history has given of

Geta is not founded solely on a feeling of pity; it is supported

by the testimony of contemporary historians: he was too fond of

the pleasures of the table, and showed great mistrust of his

brother; but he was humane, well instructed; he often endeavored

to mitigate the rigorous decrees of Severus and Caracalla. Herod

iv. 3. Spartian in Geta.—W.]

The crime went not unpunished. Neither business, nor pleasure,

nor flattery, could defend Caracalla from the stings of a guilty

conscience; and he confessed, in the anguish of a tortured mind,

that his disordered fancy often beheld the angry forms of his

father and his brother rising into life, to threaten and upbraid

him. 25 The consciousness of his crime should have induced him to

convince mankind, by the virtues of his reign, that the bloody

deed had been the involuntary effect of fatal necessity. But the

repentance of Caracalla only prompted him to remove from the

world whatever could remind him of his guilt, or recall the

memory of his murdered brother. On his return from the senate to

the palace, he found his mother in the company of several noble

matrons, weeping over the untimely fate of her younger son. The

jealous emperor threatened them with instant death; the sentence

was executed against Fadilla, the last remaining daughter of the

emperor Marcus; 251 and even the afflicted Julia was obliged to

silence her lamentations, to suppress her sighs, and to receive

the assassin with smiles of joy and approbation. It was computed

that, under the vague appellation of the friends of Geta, above

twenty thousand persons of both sexes suffered death. His guards

and freedmen, the ministers of his serious business, and the

companions of his looser hours, those who by his interest had

been promoted to any commands in the army or provinces, with the

long connected chain of their dependants, were included in the

proscription; which endeavored to reach every one who had

maintained the smallest correspondence with Geta, who lamented

his death, or who even mentioned his name. 26 Helvius Pertinax,

son to the prince of that name, lost his life by an unseasonable

witticism. 27 It was a sufficient crime of Thrasea Priscus to be

descended from a family in which the love of liberty seemed an

hereditary quality. 28 The particular causes of calumny and

suspicion were at length exhausted; and when a senator was

accused of being a secret enemy to the government, the emperor

was satisfied with the general proof that he was a man of

property and virtue. From this well-grounded principle he

frequently drew the most bloody inferences. 281

25 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxvii. p. 1307]

251 (return) [ The most valuable paragraph of dion, which the

industry of M. Manas recovered, relates to this daughter of

Marcus, executed by Caracalla. Her name, as appears from Fronto,

as well as from Dion, was Cornificia. When commanded to choose

the kind of death she was to suffer, she burst into womanish

tears; but remembering her father Marcus, she thus spoke:—“O my

hapless soul, (... animula,) now imprisoned in the body, burst

forth! be free! show them, however reluctant to believe it, that

thou art the daughter of Marcus.” She then laid aside all her

ornaments, and preparing herself for death, ordered her veins to

be opened. Mai. Fragm. Vatican ii p. 220.—M.]

26 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxvii. p. 1290. Herodian, l. iv. p. 150.

Dion (p. 2298) says, that the comic poets no longer durst employ

the name of Geta in their plays, and that the estates of those

who mentioned it in their testaments were confiscated.]

27 (return) [ Caracalla had assumed the names of several

conquered nations; Pertinax observed, that the name of Geticus

(he had obtained some advantage over the Goths, or Getæ) would be

a proper addition to Parthieus, Alemannicus, &c. Hist. August. p.

89.]

28 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxvii. p. 1291. He was probably descended

from Helvidius Priscus, and Thrasea Pætus, those patriots, whose

firm, but useless and unseasonable, virtue has been immortalized

by Tacitus. Note: M. Guizot is indignant at this “cold”

observation of Gibbon on the noble character of Thrasea; but he

admits that his virtue was useless to the public, and

unseasonable amidst the vices of his age.—M.]

281 (return) [ Caracalla reproached all those who demanded no

favors of him. “It is clear that if you make me no requests, you

do not trust me; if you do not trust me, you suspect me; if you

suspect me, you fear me; if you fear me, you hate me.” And

forthwith he condemned them as conspirators, a good specimen of

the sorites in a tyrant’s logic. See Fragm. Vatican p.—M.]

Chapter VI: Death Of Severus, Tyranny Of Caracalla, Usurpation Of

Marcinus.—Part II.

The execution of so many innocent citizens was bewailed by the

secret tears of their friends and families. The death of

Papinian, the Prætorian Præfect, was lamented as a public

calamity. 282 During the last seven years of Severus, he had

exercised the most important offices of the state, and, by his

salutary influence, guided the emperor’s steps in the paths of

justice and moderation. In full assurance of his virtue and

abilities, Severus, on his death-bed, had conjured him to watch

over the prosperity and union of the Imperial family. 29 The

honest labors of Papinian served only to inflame the hatred which

Caracalla had already conceived against his father’s minister.

After the murder of Geta, the Præfect was commanded to exert the

powers of his skill and eloquence in a studied apology for that

atrocious deed. The philosophic Seneca had condescended to

compose a similar epistle to the senate, in the name of the son

and assassin of Agrippina. 30 “That it was easier to commit than

to justify a parricide,” was the glorious reply of Papinian; 31

who did not hesitate between the loss of life and that of honor.

Such intrepid virtue, which had escaped pure and unsullied from

the intrigues of courts, the habits of business, and the arts of

his profession, reflects more lustre on the memory of Papinian,

than all his great employments, his numerous writings, and the

superior reputation as a lawyer, which he has preserved through

every age of the Roman jurisprudence. 32

282 (return) [ Papinian was no longer Prætorian Præfect.

Caracalla had deprived him of that office immediately after the

death of Severus. Such is the statement of Dion; and the

testimony of Spartian, who gives Papinian the Prætorian

præfecture till his death, is of little weight opposed to that of

a senator then living at Rome.—W.]

29 (return) [ It is said that Papinian was himself a relation of

the empress Julia.]

30 (return) [ Tacit. Annal. xiv. 2.]

31 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 88.]

32 (return) [ With regard to Papinian, see Heineccius’s Historia

Juris Roma ni, l. 330, &c.]

It had hitherto been the peculiar felicity of the Romans, and in

the worst of times the consolation, that the virtue of the

emperors was active, and their vice indolent. Augustus, Trajan,

Hadrian, and Marcus visited their extensive dominions in person,

and their progress was marked by acts of wisdom and beneficence.

The tyranny of Tiberius, Nero, and Domitian, who resided almost

constantly at Rome, or in the adjacent was confined to the

senatorial and equestrian orders. 33 But Caracalla was the common

enemy of mankind. He left the capital (and he never returned to

it) about a year after the murder of Geta. The rest of his reign

was spent in the several provinces of the empire, particularly

those of the East, and every province was by turns the scene of

his rapine and cruelty. The senators, compelled by fear to attend

his capricious motions, were obliged to provide daily

entertainments at an immense expense, which he abandoned with

contempt to his guards; and to erect, in every city, magnificent

palaces and theatres, which he either disdained to visit, or

ordered immediately thrown down. The most wealthy families were

ruined by partial fines and confiscations, and the great body of

his subjects oppressed by ingenious and aggravated taxes. 34 In

the midst of peace, and upon the slightest provocation, he issued

his commands, at Alexandria, in Egypt for a general massacre.

From a secure post in the temple of Serapis, he viewed and

directed the slaughter of many thousand citizens, as well as

strangers, without distinguishing the number or the crime of the

sufferers; since as he coolly informed the senate, _all_ the

Alexandrians, those who had perished, and those who had escaped,

were alike guilty. 35

33 (return) [ Tiberius and Domitian never moved from the

neighborhood of Rome. Nero made a short journey into Greece. “Et

laudatorum Principum usus ex æquo, quamvis procul agentibus. Sævi

proximis ingruunt.” Tacit. Hist. iv. 74.]

34 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxvii. p. 1294.]

35 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxvii. p. 1307. Herodian, l. iv. p. 158.

The former represents it as a cruel massacre, the latter as a

perfidious one too. It seems probable that the Alexandrians has

irritated the tyrant by their railleries, and perhaps by their

tumults. * Note: After these massacres, Caracalla also deprived

the Alexandrians of their spectacles and public feasts; he

divided the city into two parts by a wall with towers at

intervals, to prevent the peaceful communications of the

citizens. Thus was treated the unhappy Alexandria, says Dion, by

the savage beast of Ausonia. This, in fact, was the epithet which

the oracle had applied to him; it is said, indeed, that he was

much pleased with the name and often boasted of it. Dion, lxxvii.

p. 1307.—G.]

The wise instructions of Severus never made any lasting

impression on the mind of his son, who, although not destitute of

imagination and eloquence, was equally devoid of judgment and

humanity. 36 One dangerous maxim, worthy of a tyrant, was

remembered and abused by Caracalla. “To secure the affections of

the army, and to esteem the rest of his subjects as of little

moment.” 37 But the liberality of the father had been restrained

by prudence, and his indulgence to the troops was tempered by

firmness and authority. The careless profusion of the son was the

policy of one reign, and the inevitable ruin both of the army and

of the empire. The vigor of the soldiers, instead of being

confirmed by the severe discipline of camps, melted away in the

luxury of cities. The excessive increase of their pay and

donatives 38 exhausted the state to enrich the military order,

whose modesty in peace, and service in war, is best secured by an

honorable poverty. The demeanor of Caracalla was haughty and full

of pride; but with the troops he forgot even the proper dignity

of his rank, encouraged their insolent familiarity, and,

neglecting the essential duties of a general, affected to imitate

the dress and manners of a common soldier.

36 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxvii. p. 1296.]

37 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxvi. p. 1284. Mr. Wotton (Hist. of Rome,

p. 330) suspects that this maxim was invented by Caracalla

himself, and attributed to his father.]

38 (return) [ Dion (l. lxxviii. p. 1343) informs us that the

extraordinary gifts of Caracalla to the army amounted annually to

seventy millions of drachmæ (about two millions three hundred and

fifty thousand pounds.) There is another passage in Dion,

concerning the military pay, infinitely curious, were it not

obscure, imperfect, and probably corrupt. The best sense seems to

be, that the Prætorian guards received twelve hundred and fifty

drachmæ, (forty pounds a year,) (Dion, l. lxxvii. p. 1307.) Under

the reign of Augustus, they were paid at the rate of two drachmæ,

or denarii, per day, 720 a year, (Tacit. Annal. i. 17.) Domitian,

who increased the soldiers’ pay one fourth, must have raised the

Prætorians to 960 drachmæ, (Gronoviue de Pecunia Veteri, l. iii.

c. 2.) These successive augmentations ruined the empire; for,

with the soldiers’ pay, their numbers too were increased. We have

seen the Prætorians alone increased from 10,000 to 50,000 men.

Note: Valois and Reimar have explained in a very simple and

probable manner this passage of Dion, which Gibbon seems to me

not to have understood. He ordered that the soldiers should

receive, as the reward of their services the Prætorians 1250

drachms, the other 5000 drachms. Valois thinks that the numbers

have been transposed, and that Caracalla added 5000 drachms to

the donations made to the Prætorians, 1250 to those of the

legionaries. The Prætorians, in fact, always received more than

the others. The error of Gibbon arose from his considering that

this referred to the annual pay of the soldiers, while it relates

to the sum they received as a reward for their services on their

discharge: donatives means recompense for service. Augustus had

settled that the Prætorians, after sixteen campaigns, should

receive 5000 drachms: the legionaries received only 3000 after

twenty years. Caracalla added 5000 drachms to the donative of the

Prætorians, 1250 to that of the legionaries. Gibbon appears to

have been mistaken both in confounding this donative on discharge

with the annual pay, and in not paying attention to the remark of

Valois on the transposition of the numbers in the text.—G]

It was impossible that such a character, and such conduct as that

of Caracalla, could inspire either love or esteem; but as long as

his vices were beneficial to the armies, he was secure from the

danger of rebellion. A secret conspiracy, provoked by his own

jealousy, was fatal to the tyrant. The Prætorian præfecture was

divided between two ministers. The military department was

intrusted to Adventus, an experienced rather than able soldier;

and the civil affairs were transacted by Opilius Macrinus, who,

by his dexterity in business, had raised himself, with a fair

character, to that high office. But his favor varied with the

caprice of the emperor, and his life might depend on the

slightest suspicion, or the most casual circumstance. Malice or

fanaticism had suggested to an African, deeply skilled in the

knowledge of futurity, a very dangerous prediction, that Macrinus

and his son were destined to reign over the empire. The report

was soon diffused through the province; and when the man was sent

in chains to Rome, he still asserted, in the presence of the

præfect of the city, the faith of his prophecy. That magistrate,

who had received the most pressing instructions to inform himself

of the _successors_ of Caracalla, immediately communicated the

examination of the African to the Imperial court, which at that

time resided in Syria. But, notwithstanding the diligence of the

public messengers, a friend of Macrinus found means to apprise

him of the approaching danger. The emperor received the letters

from Rome; and as he was then engaged in the conduct of a chariot

race, he delivered them unopened to the Prætorian Præfect,

directing him to despatch the ordinary affairs, and to report the

more important business that might be contained in them. Macrinus

read his fate, and resolved to prevent it. He inflamed the

discontents of some inferior officers, and employed the hand of

Martialis, a desperate soldier, who had been refused the rank of

centurion. The devotion of Caracalla prompted him to make a

pilgrimage from Edessa to the celebrated temple of the Moon at

Carrhæ. 381 He was attended by a body of cavalry: but having

stopped on the road for some necessary occasion, his guards

preserved a respectful distance, and Martialis, approaching his

person under a presence of duty, stabbed him with a dagger. The

bold assassin was instantly killed by a Scythian archer of the

Imperial guard. Such was the end of a monster whose life

disgraced human nature, and whose reign accused the patience of

the Romans. 39 The grateful soldiers forgot his vices, remembered

only his partial liberality, and obliged the senate to prostitute

their own dignity and that of religion, by granting him a place

among the gods. Whilst he was upon earth, Alexander the Great was

the only hero whom this god deemed worthy his admiration. He

assumed the name and ensigns of Alexander, formed a Macedonian

phalanx of guards, persecuted the disciples of Aristotle, and

displayed, with a puerile enthusiasm, the only sentiment by which

he discovered any regard for virtue or glory. We can easily

conceive, that after the battle of Narva, and the conquest of

Poland, Charles XII. (though he still wanted the more elegant

accomplishments of the son of Philip) might boast of having

rivalled his valor and magnanimity; but in no one action of his

life did Caracalla express the faintest resemblance of the

Macedonian hero, except in the murder of a great number of his

own and of his father’s friends. 40

381 (return) [ Carrhæ, now Harran, between Edessan and Nisibis,

famous for the defeat of Crassus—the Haran from whence Abraham

set out for the land of Canaan. This city has always been

remarkable for its attachment to Sabaism—G]

39 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxviii. p. 1312. Herodian, l. iv. p.

168.]

40 (return) [ The fondness of Caracalla for the name and ensigns

of Alexander is still preserved on the medals of that emperor.

See Spanheim, de Usu Numismatum, Dissertat. xii. Herodian (l. iv.

p. 154) had seen very ridiculous pictures, in which a figure was

drawn with one side of the face like Alexander, and the other

like Caracalla.]

After the extinction of the house of Severus, the Roman world

remained three days without a master. The choice of the army (for

the authority of a distant and feeble senate was little regarded)

hung in anxious suspense, as no candidate presented himself whose

distinguished birth and merit could engage their attachment and

unite their suffrages. The decisive weight of the Prætorian

guards elevated the hopes of their præfects, and these powerful

ministers began to assert their _legal_ claim to fill the vacancy

of the Imperial throne. Adventus, however, the senior præfect,

conscious of his age and infirmities, of his small reputation,

and his smaller abilities, resigned the dangerous honor to the

crafty ambition of his colleague Macrinus, whose well-dissembled

grief removed all suspicion of his being accessary to his

master’s death. 41 The troops neither loved nor esteemed his

character. They cast their eyes around in search of a competitor,

and at last yielded with reluctance to his promises of unbounded

liberality and indulgence. A short time after his accession, he

conferred on his son Diadumenianus, at the age of only ten years,

the Imperial title, and the popular name of Antoninus. The

beautiful figure of the youth, assisted by an additional

donative, for which the ceremony furnished a pretext, might

attract, it was hoped, the favor of the army, and secure the

doubtful throne of Macrinus.

41 (return) [ Herodian, l. iv. p. 169. Hist. August. p. 94.]

The authority of the new sovereign had been ratified by the

cheerful submission of the senate and provinces. They exulted in

their unexpected deliverance from a hated tyrant, and it seemed

of little consequence to examine into the virtues of the

successor of Caracalla. But as soon as the first transports of

joy and surprise had subsided, they began to scrutinize the

merits of Macrinus with a critical severity, and to arraign the

nasty choice of the army. It had hitherto been considered as a

fundamental maxim of the constitution, that the emperor must be

always chosen in the senate, and the sovereign power, no longer

exercised by the whole body, was always delegated to one of its

members. But Macrinus was not a senator. 42 The sudden elevation

of the Prætorian præfects betrayed the meanness of their origin;

and the equestrian order was still in possession of that great

office, which commanded with arbitrary sway the lives and

fortunes of the senate. A murmur of indignation was heard, that a

man, whose obscure 43 extraction had never been illustrated by

any signal service, should dare to invest himself with the

purple, instead of bestowing it on some distinguished senator,

equal in birth and dignity to the splendor of the Imperial

station. As soon as the character of Macrinus was surveyed by the

sharp eye of discontent, some vices, and many defects, were

easily discovered. The choice of his ministers was in many

instances justly censured, and the dissatisfied people, with

their usual candor, accused at once his indolent tameness and his

excessive severity. 44

42 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxxviii. p. 1350. Elagabalus reproached

his predecessor with daring to seat himself on the throne;

though, as Prætorian præfect, he could not have been admitted

into the senate after the voice of the crier had cleared the

house. The personal favor of Plautianus and Sejanus had broke

through the established rule. They rose, indeed, from the

equestrian order; but they preserved the præfecture, with the

rank of senator and even with the annulship.]

43 (return) [ He was a native of Cæsarea, in Numidia, and began

his fortune by serving in the household of Plautian, from whose

ruin he narrowly escaped. His enemies asserted that he was born a

slave, and had exercised, among other infamous professions, that

of Gladiator. The fashion of aspersing the birth and condition of

an adversary seems to have lasted from the time of the Greek

orators to the learned grammarians of the last age.]

44 (return) [ Both Dion and Herodian speak of the virtues and

vices of Macrinus with candor and impartiality; but the author of

his life, in the Augustan History, seems to have implicitly

copied some of the venal writers, employed by Elagabalus, to

blacken the memory of his predecessor.]

His rash ambition had climbed a height where it was difficult to

stand with firmness, and impossible to fall without instant

destruction. Trained in the arts of courts and the forms of civil

business, he trembled in the presence of the fierce and

undisciplined multitude, over whom he had assumed the command;

his military talents were despised, and his personal courage

suspected; a whisper that circulated in the camp, disclosed the

fatal secret of the conspiracy against the late emperor,

aggravated the guilt of murder by the baseness of hypocrisy, and

heightened contempt by detestation. To alienate the soldiers, and

to provoke inevitable ruin, the character of a reformer was only

wanting; and such was the peculiar hardship of his fate, that

Macrinus was compelled to exercise that invidious office. The

prodigality of Caracalla had left behind it a long train of ruin

and disorder; and if that worthless tyrant had been capable of

reflecting on the sure consequences of his own conduct, he would

perhaps have enjoyed the dark prospect of the distress and

calamities which he bequeathed to his successors.

In the management of this necessary reformation, Macrinus

proceeded with a cautious prudence, which would have restored

health and vigor to the Roman army in an easy and almost

imperceptible manner. To the soldiers already engaged in the

service, he was constrained to leave the dangerous privileges and

extravagant pay given by Caracalla; but the new recruits were

received on the more moderate though liberal establishment of

Severus, and gradually formed to modesty and obedience. 45 One

fatal error destroyed the salutary effects of this judicious

plan. The numerous army, assembled in the East by the late

emperor, instead of being immediately dispersed by Macrinus

through the several provinces, was suffered to remain united in

Syria, during the winter that followed his elevation. In the

luxurious idleness of their quarters, the troops viewed their

strength and numbers, communicated their complaints, and revolved

in their minds the advantages of another revolution. The

veterans, instead of being flattered by the advantageous

distinction, were alarmed by the first steps of the emperor,

which they considered as the presage of his future intentions.

The recruits, with sullen reluctance, entered on a service, whose

labors were increased while its rewards were diminished by a

covetous and unwarlike sovereign. The murmurs of the army swelled

with impunity into seditious clamors; and the partial mutinies

betrayed a spirit of discontent and disaffection that waited only

for the slightest occasion to break out on every side into a

general rebellion. To minds thus disposed, the occasion soon

presented itself.

45 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxxiii. p. 1336. The sense of the author

is as the intention of the emperor; but Mr. Wotton has mistaken

both, by understanding the distinction, not of veterans and

recruits, but of old and new legions. History of Rome, p. 347.]

The empress Julia had experienced all the vicissitudes of

fortune. From an humble station she had been raised to greatness,

only to taste the superior bitterness of an exalted rank. She was

doomed to weep over the death of one of her sons, and over the

life of the other. The cruel fate of Caracalla, though her good

sense must have long taught her to expect it, awakened the

feelings of a mother and of an empress. Notwithstanding the

respectful civility expressed by the usurper towards the widow of

Severus, she descended with a painful struggle into the condition

of a subject, and soon withdrew herself, by a voluntary death,

from the anxious and humiliating dependence. 46 461 Julia Mæsa,

her sister, was ordered to leave the court and Antioch. She

retired to Emesa with an immense fortune, the fruit of twenty

years’ favor accompanied by her two daughters, Soæmias and Mamæ,

each of whom was a widow, and each had an only son. Bassianus,

462 for that was the name of the son of Soæmias, was consecrated

to the honorable ministry of high priest of the Sun; and this

holy vocation, embraced either from prudence or superstition,

contributed to raise the Syrian youth to the empire of Rome. A

numerous body of troops was stationed at Emesa; and as the severe

discipline of Macrinus had constrained them to pass the winter

encamped, they were eager to revenge the cruelty of such

unaccustomed hardships. The soldiers, who resorted in crowds to

the temple of the Sun, beheld with veneration and delight the

elegant dress and figure of the young pontiff; they recognized,

or they thought that they recognized, the features of Caracalla,

whose memory they now adored. The artful Mæsa saw and cherished

their rising partiality, and readily sacrificing her daughter’s

reputation to the fortune of her grandson, she insinuated that

Bassianus was the natural son of their murdered sovereign. The

sums distributed by her emissaries with a lavish hand silenced

every objection, and the profusion sufficiently proved the

affinity, or at least the resemblance, of Bassianus with the

great original. The young Antoninus (for he had assumed and

polluted that respectable name) was declared emperor by the

troops of Emesa, asserted his hereditary right, and called aloud

on the armies to follow the standard of a young and liberal

prince, who had taken up arms to revenge his father’s death and

the oppression of the military order. 47

46 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxviii. p. 1330. The abridgment of

Xiphilin, though less particular, is in this place clearer than

the original.]

461 (return) [ As soon as this princess heard of the death of

Caracalla, she wished to starve herself to death: the respect

shown to her by Macrinus, in making no change in her attendants

or her court, induced her to prolong her life. But it appears, as

far as the mutilated text of Dion and the imperfect epitome of

Xiphilin permit us to judge, that she conceived projects of

ambition, and endeavored to raise herself to the empire. She

wished to tread in the steps of Semiramis and Nitocris, whose

country bordered on her own. Macrinus sent her an order

immediately to leave Antioch, and to retire wherever she chose.

She returned to her former purpose, and starved herself to

death.—G.]

462 (return) [ He inherited this name from his great-grandfather

of the mother’s side, Bassianus, father of Julia Mæsa, his

grandmother, and of Julia Domna, wife of Severus. Victor (in his

epitome) is perhaps the only historian who has given the key to

this genealogy, when speaking of Caracalla. His Bassianus ex avi

materni nomine dictus. Caracalla, Elagabalus, and Alexander

Seyerus, bore successively this name.—G.]

47 (return) [ According to Lampridius, (Hist. August. p. 135,)

Alexander Severus lived twenty-nine years three months and seven

days. As he was killed March 19, 235, he was born December 12,

205 and was consequently about this time thirteen years old, as

his elder cousin might be about seventeen. This computation suits

much better the history of the young princes than that of

Herodian, (l. v. p. 181,) who represents them as three years

younger; whilst, by an opposite error of chronology, he lengthens

the reign of Elagabalus two years beyond its real duration. For

the particulars of the conspiracy, see Dion, l. lxxviii. p. 1339.

Herodian, l. v. p. 184.]

Whilst a conspiracy of women and eunuchs was concerted with

prudence, and conducted with rapid vigor, Macrinus, who, by a

decisive motion, might have crushed his infant enemy, floated

between the opposite extremes of terror and security, which alike

fixed him inactive at Antioch. A spirit of rebellion diffused

itself through all the camps and garrisons of Syria, successive

detachments murdered their officers, 48 and joined the party of

the rebels; and the tardy restitution of military pay and

privileges was imputed to the acknowledged weakness of Macrinus.

At length he marched out of Antioch, to meet the increasing and

zealous army of the young pretender. His own troops seemed to

take the field with faintness and reluctance; but, in the heat of

the battle, 49 the Prætorian guards, almost by an involuntary

impulse, asserted the superiority of their valor and discipline.

The rebel ranks were broken; when the mother and grandmother of

the Syrian prince, who, according to their eastern custom, had

attended the army, threw themselves from their covered chariots,

and, by exciting the compassion of the soldiers, endeavored to

animate their drooping courage. Antoninus himself, who, in the

rest of his life, never acted like a man, in this important

crisis of his fate, approved himself a hero, mounted his horse,

and, at the head of his rallied troops, charged sword in hand

among the thickest of the enemy; whilst the eunuch Gannys, 491

whose occupations had been confined to female cares and the soft

luxury of Asia, displayed the talents of an able and experienced

general. The battle still raged with doubtful violence, and

Macrinus might have obtained the victory, had he not betrayed his

own cause by a shameful and precipitate flight. His cowardice

served only to protract his life a few days, and to stamp

deserved ignominy on his misfortunes. It is scarcely necessary to

add, that his son Diadumenianus was involved in the same fate.

As soon as the stubborn Prætorians could be convinced that they

fought for a prince who had basely deserted them, they

surrendered to the conqueror: the contending parties of the Roman

army, mingling tears of joy and tenderness, united under the

banners of the imagined son of Caracalla, and the East

acknowledged with pleasure the first emperor of Asiatic

extraction.

48 (return) [ By a most dangerous proclamation of the pretended

Antoninus, every soldier who brought in his officer’s head became

entitled to his private estate, as well as to his military

commission.]

49 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxviii. p. 1345. Herodian, l. v. p. 186.

The battle was fought near the village of Immæ, about

two-and-twenty miles from Antioch.]

491 (return) [ Gannys was not a eunuch. Dion, p. 1355.—W]

The letters of Macrinus had condescended to inform the senate of

the slight disturbance occasioned by an impostor in Syria, and a

decree immediately passed, declaring the rebel and his family

public enemies; with a promise of pardon, however, to such of his

deluded adherents as should merit it by an immediate return to

their duty. During the twenty days that elapsed from the

declaration of the victory of Antoninus (for in so short an

interval was the fate of the Roman world decided,) the capital

and the provinces, more especially those of the East, were

distracted with hopes and fears, agitated with tumult, and

stained with a useless effusion of civil blood, since whosoever

of the rivals prevailed in Syria must reign over the empire. The

specious letters in which the young conqueror announced his

victory to the obedient senate were filled with professions of

virtue and moderation; the shining examples of Marcus and

Augustus, he should ever consider as the great rule of his

administration; and he affected to dwell with pride on the

striking resemblance of his own age and fortunes with those of

Augustus, who in the earliest youth had revenged, by a successful

war, the murder of his father. By adopting the style of Marcus

Aurelius Antoninus, son of Antoninus and grandson of Severus, he

tacitly asserted his hereditary claim to the empire; but, by

assuming the tribunitian and proconsular powers before they had

been conferred on him by a decree of the senate, he offended the

delicacy of Roman prejudice. This new and injudicious violation

of the constitution was probably dictated either by the ignorance

of his Syrian courtiers, or the fierce disdain of his military

followers. 50

50 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxix. p. 1353.]

As the attention of the new emperor was diverted by the most

trifling amusements, he wasted many months in his luxurious

progress from Syria to Italy, passed at Nicomedia his first

winter after his victory, and deferred till the ensuing summer

his triumphal entry into the capital. A faithful picture,

however, which preceded his arrival, and was placed by his

immediate order over the altar of Victory in the senate house,

conveyed to the Romans the just but unworthy resemblance of his

person and manners. He was drawn in his sacerdotal robes of silk

and gold, after the loose flowing fashion of the Medes and

Phœnicians; his head was covered with a lofty tiara, his numerous

collars and bracelets were adorned with gems of an inestimable

value. His eyebrows were tinged with black, and his cheeks

painted with an artificial red and white. 51 The grave senators

confessed with a sigh, that, after having long experienced the

stern tyranny of their own countrymen, Rome was at length humbled

beneath the effeminate luxury of Oriental despotism.

51 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxix. p. 1363. Herodian, l. v. p. 189.]

The Sun was worshipped at Emesa, under the name of Elagabalus, 52

and under the form of a black conical stone, which, as it was

universally believed, had fallen from heaven on that sacred

place. To this protecting deity, Antoninus, not without some

reason, ascribed his elevation to the throne. The display of

superstitious gratitude was the only serious business of his

reign. The triumph of the god of Emesa over all the religions of

the earth, was the great object of his zeal and vanity; and the

appellation of Elagabalus (for he presumed as pontiff and

favorite to adopt that sacred name) was dearer to him than all

the titles of Imperial greatness. In a solemn procession through

the streets of Rome, the way was strewed with gold dust; the

black stone, set in precious gems, was placed on a chariot drawn

by six milk-white horses richly caparisoned. The pious emperor

held the reins, and, supported by his ministers, moved slowly

backwards, that he might perpetually enjoy the felicity of the

divine presence. In a magnificent temple raised on the Palatine

Mount, the sacrifices of the god Elagabalus were celebrated with

every circumstance of cost and solemnity. The richest wines, the

most extraordinary victims, and the rarest aromatics, were

profusely consumed on his altar. Around the altar, a chorus of

Syrian damsels performed their lascivious dances to the sound of

barbarian music, whilst the gravest personages of the state and

army, clothed in long Phœnician tunics, officiated in the meanest

functions, with affected zeal and secret indignation. 53

52 (return) [ This name is derived by the learned from two Syrian

words, Ela a God, and Gabal, to form, the forming or plastic god,

a proper, and even happy epithet for the sun. Wotton’s History of

Rome, p. 378 Note: The name of Elagabalus has been disfigured in

various ways. Herodian calls him; Lampridius, and the more modern

writers, make him Heliogabalus. Dion calls him Elegabalus; but

Elegabalus was the true name, as it appears on the medals.

(Eckhel. de Doct. num. vet. t. vii. p. 250.) As to its etymology,

that which Gibbon adduces is given by Bochart, Chan. ii. 5; but

Salmasius, on better grounds. (not. in Lamprid. in Elagab.,)

derives the name of Elagabalus from the idol of that god,

represented by Herodian and the medals in the form of a mountain,

(gibel in Hebrew,) or great stone cut to a point, with marks

which represent the sun. As it was not permitted, at Hierapolis,

in Syria, to make statues of the sun and moon, because, it was

said, they are themselves sufficiently visible, the sun was

represented at Emesa in the form of a great stone, which, as it

appeared, had fallen from heaven. Spanheim, Cæsar. notes, p.

46.—G. The name of Elagabalus, in “nummis rarius legetur.”

Rasche, Lex. Univ. Ref. Numm. Rasche quotes two.—M]

53 (return) [ Herodian, l. v. p. 190.]

Chapter VI: Death Of Severus, Tyranny Of Caracalla, Usurpation Of

Marcinus.—Part III.

To this temple, as to the common centre of religious worship, the

Imperial fanatic attempted to remove the Ancilia, the Palladium,

54 and all the sacred pledges of the faith of Numa. A crowd of

inferior deities attended in various stations the majesty of the

god of Emesa; but his court was still imperfect, till a female of

distinguished rank was admitted to his bed. Pallas had been first

chosen for his consort; but as it was dreaded lest her warlike

terrors might affright the soft delicacy of a Syrian deity, the

Moon, adored by the Africans under the name of Astarte, was

deemed a more suitable companion for the Sun. Her image, with the

rich offerings of her temple as a marriage portion, was

transported with solemn pomp from Carthage to Rome, and the day

of these mystic nuptials was a general festival in the capital

and throughout the empire. 55

54 (return) [ He broke into the sanctuary of Vesta, and carried

away a statue, which he supposed to be the palladium; but the

vestals boasted that, by a pious fraud, they had imposed a

counterfeit image on the profane intruder. Hist. August., p.

103.]

55 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxix. p. 1360. Herodian, l. v. p. 193.

The subjects of the empire were obliged to make liberal presents

to the new married couple; and whatever they had promised during

the life of Elagabalus was carefully exacted under the

administration of Mamæa.]

A rational voluptuary adheres with invariable respect to the

temperate dictates of nature, and improves the gratifications of

sense by social intercourse, endearing connections, and the soft

coloring of taste and the imagination. But Elagabalus, (I speak

of the emperor of that name,) corrupted by his youth, his

country, and his fortune, abandoned himself to the grossest

pleasures with ungoverned fury, and soon found disgust and

satiety in the midst of his enjoyments. The inflammatory powers

of art were summoned to his aid: the confused multitude of women,

of wines, and of dishes, and the studied variety of attitude and

sauces, served to revive his languid appetites. New terms and new

inventions in these sciences, the only ones cultivated and

patronized by the monarch, 56 signalized his reign, and

transmitted his infamy to succeeding times. A capricious

prodigality supplied the want of taste and elegance; and whilst

Elagabalus lavished away the treasures of his people in the

wildest extravagance, his own voice and that of his flatterers

applauded a spirit of magnificence unknown to the tameness of his

predecessors. To confound the order of seasons and climates, 57

to sport with the passions and prejudices of his subjects, and to

subvert every law of nature and decency, were in the number of

his most delicious amusements. A long train of concubines, and a

rapid succession of wives, among whom was a vestal virgin,

ravished by force from her sacred asylum, 58 were insufficient to

satisfy the impotence of his passions. The master of the Roman

world affected to copy the dress and manners of the female sex,

preferred the distaff to the sceptre, and dishonored the

principal dignities of the empire by distributing them among his

numerous lovers; one of whom was publicly invested with the title

and authority of the emperor’s, or, as he more properly styled

himself, of the empress’s husband. 59

56 (return) [ The invention of a new sauce was liberally

rewarded; but if it was not relished, the inventor was confined

to eat of nothing else till he had discovered another more

agreeable to the Imperial palate Hist. August. p. 111.]

57 (return) [ He never would eat sea-fish except at a great

distance from the sea; he then would distribute vast quantities

of the rarest sorts, brought at an immense expense, to the

peasants of the inland country. Hist. August. p. 109.]

58 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxix. p. 1358. Herodian, l. v. p. 192.]

59 (return) [ Hierocles enjoyed that honor; but he would have

been supplanted by one Zoticus, had he not contrived, by a

potion, to enervate the powers of his rival, who, being found on

trial unequal to his reputation, was driven with ignominy from

the palace. Dion, l. lxxix. p. 1363, 1364. A dancer was made

præfect of the city, a charioteer præfect of the watch, a barber

præfect of the provisions. These three ministers, with many

inferior officers, were all recommended enormitate membrorum.

Hist. August. p. 105.]

It may seem probable, the vices and follies of Elagabalus have

been adorned by fancy, and blackened by prejudice. 60 Yet,

confining ourselves to the public scenes displayed before the

Roman people, and attested by grave and contemporary historians,

their inexpressible infamy surpasses that of any other age or

country. The license of an eastern monarch is secluded from the

eye of curiosity by the inaccessible walls of his seraglio. The

sentiments of honor and gallantry have introduced a refinement of

pleasure, a regard for decency, and a respect for the public

opinion, into the modern courts of Europe; 601 but the corrupt

and opulent nobles of Rome gratified every vice that could be

collected from the mighty conflux of nations and manners. Secure

of impunity, careless of censure, they lived without restraint in

the patient and humble society of their slaves and parasites. The

emperor, in his turn, viewing every rank of his subjects with the

same contemptuous indifference, asserted without control his

sovereign privilege of lust and luxury.

60 (return) [ Even the credulous compiler of his life, in the

Augustan History (p. 111) is inclined to suspect that his vices

may have been exaggerated.]

601 (return) [ Wenck has justly observed that Gibbon should have

reckoned the influence of Christianity in this great change. In

the most savage times, and the most corrupt courts, since the

introduction of Christianity there have been no Neros or

Domitians, no Commodus or Elagabalus.—M.]

The most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn in others

the same disorders which they allow in themselves; and can

readily discover some nice difference of age, character, or

station, to justify the partial distinction. The licentious

soldiers, who had raised to the throne the dissolute son of

Caracalla, blushed at their ignominious choice, and turned with

disgust from that monster, to contemplate with pleasure the

opening virtues of his cousin Alexander, the son of Mamæa. The

crafty Mæsa, sensible that her grandson Elagabalus must

inevitably destroy himself by his own vices, had provided another

and surer support of her family. Embracing a favorable moment of

fondness and devotion, she had persuaded the young emperor to

adopt Alexander, and to invest him with the title of Cæsar, that

his own divine occupations might be no longer interrupted by the

care of the earth. In the second rank that amiable prince soon

acquired the affections of the public, and excited the tyrant’s

jealousy, who resolved to terminate the dangerous competition,

either by corrupting the manners, or by taking away the life, of

his rival. His arts proved unsuccessful; his vain designs were

constantly discovered by his own loquacious folly, and

disappointed by those virtuous and faithful servants whom the

prudence of Mamæa had placed about the person of her son. In a

hasty sally of passion, Elagabalus resolved to execute by force

what he had been unable to compass by fraud, and by a despotic

sentence degraded his cousin from the rank and honors of Cæsar.

The message was received in the senate with silence, and in the

camp with fury. The Prætorian guards swore to protect Alexander,

and to revenge the dishonored majesty of the throne. The tears

and promises of the trembling Elagabalus, who only begged them to

spare his life, and to leave him in the possession of his beloved

Hierocles, diverted their just indignation; and they contented

themselves with empowering their præfects to watch over the

safety of Alexander, and the conduct of the emperor. 61

61 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxix. p. 1365. Herodian, l. v. p.

195—201. Hist. August. p. 105. The last of the three historians

seems to have followed the best authors in his account of the

revolution.]

It was impossible that such a reconciliation should last, or that

even the mean soul of Elagabalus could hold an empire on such

humiliating terms of dependence. He soon attempted, by a

dangerous experiment, to try the temper of the soldiers. The

report of the death of Alexander, and the natural suspicion that

he had been murdered, inflamed their passions into fury, and the

tempest of the camp could only be appeased by the presence and

authority of the popular youth. Provoked at this new instance of

their affection for his cousin, and their contempt for his

person, the emperor ventured to punish some of the leaders of the

mutiny. His unseasonable severity proved instantly fatal to his

minions, his mother, and himself. Elagabalus was massacred by the

indignant Prætorians, his mutilated corpse dragged through the

streets of the city, and thrown into the Tiber. His memory was

branded with eternal infamy by the senate; the justice of whose

decree has been ratified by posterity. 62

62 (return) [ The æra of the death of Elagabalus, and of the

accession of Alexander, has employed the learning and ingenuity

of Pagi, Tillemont, Valsecchi, Vignoli, and Torre, bishop of

Adria. The question is most assuredly intricate; but I still

adhere to the authority of Dion, the truth of whose calculations

is undeniable, and the purity of whose text is justified by the

agreement of Xiphilin, Zonaras, and Cedrenus. Elagabalus reigned

three years nine months and four days, from his victory over

Macrinus, and was killed March 10, 222. But what shall we reply

to the medals, undoubtedly genuine, which reckon the fifth year

of his tribunitian power? We shall reply, with the learned

Valsecchi, that the usurpation of Macrinus was annihilated, and

that the son of Caracalla dated his reign from his father’s

death? After resolving this great difficulty, the smaller knots

of this question may be easily untied, or cut asunder. Note: This

opinion of Valsecchi has been triumphantly contested by Eckhel,

who has shown the impossibility of reconciling it with the medals

of Elagabalus, and has given the most satisfactory explanation of

the five tribunates of that emperor. He ascended the throne and

received the tribunitian power the 16th of May, in the year of

Rome 971; and on the 1st January of the next year, 972, he began

a new tribunate, according to the custom established by preceding

emperors. During the years 972, 973, 974, he enjoyed the

tribunate, and commenced his fifth in the year 975, during which

he was killed on the 10th March. Eckhel de Doct. Num. viii. 430

&c.—G.]

In the room of Elagabalus, his cousin Alexander was raised to the

throne by the Prætorian guards. His relation to the family of

Severus, whose name he assumed, was the same as that of his

predecessor; his virtue and his danger had already endeared him

to the Romans, and the eager liberality of the senate conferred

upon him, in one day, the various titles and powers of the

Imperial dignity. 63 But as Alexander was a modest and dutiful

youth, of only seventeen years of age, the reins of government

were in the hands of two women, of his mother, Mamæa, and of

Mæsa, his grandmother. After the death of the latter, who

survived but a short time the elevation of Alexander, Mamæa

remained the sole regent of her son and of the empire.

63 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 114. By this unusual

precipitation, the senate meant to confound the hopes of

pretenders, and prevent the factions of the armies.]

In every age and country, the wiser, or at least the stronger, of

the two sexes, has usurped the powers of the state, and confined

the other to the cares and pleasures of domestic life. In

hereditary monarchies, however, and especially in those of modern

Europe, the gallant spirit of chivalry, and the law of

succession, have accustomed us to allow a singular exception; and

a woman is often acknowledged the absolute sovereign of a great

kingdom, in which she would be deemed incapable of exercising the

smallest employment, civil or military. But as the Roman emperors

were still considered as the generals and magistrates of the

republic, their wives and mothers, although distinguished by the

name of Augusta, were never associated to their personal honors;

and a female reign would have appeared an inexpiable prodigy in

the eyes of those primitive Romans, who married without love, or

loved without delicacy and respect. 64 The haughty Agrippina

aspired, indeed, to share the honors of the empire which she had

conferred on her son; but her mad ambition, detested by every

citizen who felt for the dignity of Rome, was disappointed by the

artful firmness of Seneca and Burrhus. 65 The good sense, or the

indifference, of succeeding princes, restrained them from

offending the prejudices of their subjects; and it was reserved

for the profligate Elagabalus to discharge the acts of the senate

with the name of his mother Soæmias, who was placed by the side

of the consuls, and subscribed, as a regular member, the decrees

of the legislative assembly. Her more prudent sister, Mamæa,

declined the useless and odious prerogative, and a solemn law was

enacted, excluding women forever from the senate, and devoting to

the infernal gods the head of the wretch by whom this sanction

should be violated. 66 The substance, not the pageantry, of power

was the object of Mamæa’s manly ambition. She maintained an

absolute and lasting empire over the mind of her son, and in his

affection the mother could not brook a rival. Alexander, with her

consent, married the daughter of a patrician; but his respect for

his father-in-law, and love for the empress, were inconsistent

with the tenderness of interest of Mamæa. The patrician was

executed on the ready accusation of treason, and the wife of

Alexander driven with ignominy from the palace, and banished into

Africa. 67

64 (return) [ Metellus Numidicus, the censor, acknowledged to the

Roman people, in a public oration, that had kind nature allowed

us to exist without the help of women, we should be delivered

from a very troublesome companion; and he could recommend

matrimony only as the sacrifice of private pleasure to public

duty. Aulus Gellius, i. 6.]

65 (return) [ Tacit. Annal. xiii. 5.]

66 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 102, 107.]

67 (return) [ Dion, l. lxxx. p. 1369. Herodian, l. vi. p. 206.

Hist. August. p. 131. Herodian represents the patrician as

innocent. The Augustian History, on the authority of Dexippus,

condemns him, as guilty of a conspiracy against the life of

Alexander. It is impossible to pronounce between them; but Dion

is an irreproachable witness of the jealousy and cruelty of Mamæa

towards the young empress, whose hard fate Alexander lamented,

but durst not oppose.]

Notwithstanding this act of jealous cruelty, as well as some

instances of avarice, with which Mamæa is charged, the general

tenor of her administration was equally for the benefit of her

son and of the empire. With the approbation of the senate, she

chose sixteen of the wisest and most virtuous senators as a

perpetual council of state, before whom every public business of

moment was debated and determined. The celebrated Ulpian, equally

distinguished by his knowledge of, and his respect for, the laws

of Rome, was at their head; and the prudent firmness of this

aristocracy restored order and authority to the government. As

soon as they had purged the city from foreign superstition and

luxury, the remains of the capricious tyranny of Elagabalus, they

applied themselves to remove his worthless creatures from every

department of the public administration, and to supply their

places with men of virtue and ability. Learning, and the love of

justice, became the only recommendations for civil offices;

valor, and the love of discipline, the only qualifications for

military employments. 68

68 (return) [ Herodian, l. vi. p. 203. Hist. August. p. 119. The

latter insinuates, that when any law was to be passed, the

council was assisted by a number of able lawyers and experienced

senators, whose opinions were separately given, and taken down in

writing.]

But the most important care of Mamæa and her wise counsellors,

was to form the character of the young emperor, on whose personal

qualities the happiness or misery of the Roman world must

ultimately depend. The fortunate soil assisted, and even

prevented, the hand of cultivation. An excellent understanding

soon convinced Alexander of the advantages of virtue, the

pleasure of knowledge, and the necessity of labor. A natural

mildness and moderation of temper preserved him from the assaults

of passion, and the allurements of vice. His unalterable regard

for his mother, and his esteem for the wise Ulpian, guarded his

unexperienced youth from the poison of flattery. 581

581 (return) [ Alexander received into his chapel all the

religions which prevailed in the empire; he admitted Jesus

Christ, Abraham, Orpheus, Apollonius of Tyana, &c. It was almost

certain that his mother Mamæa had instructed him in the morality

of Christianity. Historians in general agree in calling her a

Christian; there is reason to believe that she had begun to have

a taste for the principles of Christianity. (See Tillemont,

Alexander Severus) Gibbon has not noticed this circumstance; he

appears to have wished to lower the character of this empress; he

has throughout followed the narrative of Herodian, who, by the

acknowledgment of Capitolinus himself, detested Alexander.

Without believing the exaggerated praises of Lampridius, he ought

not to have followed the unjust severity of Herodian, and, above

all, not to have forgotten to say that the virtuous Alexander

Severus had insured to the Jews the preservation of their

privileges, and permitted the exercise of Christianity. Hist.

Aug. p. 121. The Christians had established their worship in a

public place, of which the victuallers (cauponarii) claimed, not

the property, but possession by custom. Alexander answered, that

it was better that the place should be used for the service of

God, in any form, than for victuallers.—G. I have scrupled to

omit this note, as it contains some points worthy of notice; but

it is very unjust to Gibbon, who mentions almost all the

circumstances, which he is accused of omitting, in another, and,

according to his plan, a better place, and, perhaps, in stronger

terms than M. Guizot. See Chap. xvi.— M.]

The simple journal of his ordinary occupations exhibits a

pleasing picture of an accomplished emperor, 69 and, with some

allowance for the difference of manners, might well deserve the

imitation of modern princes. Alexander rose early: the first

moments of the day were consecrated to private devotion, and his

domestic chapel was filled with the images of those heroes, who,

by improving or reforming human life, had deserved the grateful

reverence of posterity. But as he deemed the service of mankind

the most acceptable worship of the gods, the greatest part of his

morning hours was employed in his council, where he discussed

public affairs, and determined private causes, with a patience

and discretion above his years. The dryness of business was

relieved by the charms of literature; and a portion of time was

always set apart for his favorite studies of poetry, history, and

philosophy. The works of Virgil and Horace, the republics of

Plato and Cicero, formed his taste, enlarged his understanding,

and gave him the noblest ideas of man and government. The

exercises of the body succeeded to those of the mind; and

Alexander, who was tall, active, and robust, surpassed most of

his equals in the gymnastic arts. Refreshed by the use of the

bath and a slight dinner, he resumed, with new vigor, the

business of the day; and, till the hour of supper, the principal

meal of the Romans, he was attended by his secretaries, with whom

he read and answered the multitude of letters, memorials, and

petitions, that must have been addressed to the master of the

greatest part of the world. His table was served with the most

frugal simplicity, and whenever he was at liberty to consult his

own inclination, the company consisted of a few select friends,

men of learning and virtue, amongst whom Ulpian was constantly

invited. Their conversation was familiar and instructive; and the

pauses were occasionally enlivened by the recital of some

pleasing composition, which supplied the place of the dancers,

comedians, and even gladiators, so frequently summoned to the

tables of the rich and luxurious Romans. 70 The dress of

Alexander was plain and modest, his demeanor courteous and

affable: at the proper hours his palace was open to all his

subjects, but the voice of a crier was heard, as in the

Eleusinian mysteries, pronouncing the same salutary admonition:

“Let none enter these holy walls, unless he is conscious of a

pure and innocent mind.” 71

69 (return) [ See his life in the Augustan History. The

undistinguishing compiler has buried these interesting anecdotes

under a load of trivial unmeaning circumstances.]

70 (return) [ See the 13th Satire of Juvenal.]

71 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 119.]

Such a uniform tenor of life, which left not a moment for vice or

folly, is a better proof of the wisdom and justice of Alexander’s

government, than all the trifling details preserved in the

compilation of Lampridius. Since the accession of Commodus, the

Roman world had experienced, during the term of forty years, the

successive and various vices of four tyrants. From the death of

Elagabalus, it enjoyed an auspicious calm of thirteen years. 711

The provinces, relieved from the oppressive taxes invented by

Caracalla and his pretended son, flourished in peace and

prosperity, under the administration of magistrates who were

convinced by experience that to deserve the love of the subjects

was their best and only method of obtaining the favor of their

sovereign. While some gentle restraints were imposed on the

innocent luxury of the Roman people, the price of provisions and

the interest of money, were reduced by the paternal care of

Alexander, whose prudent liberality, without distressing the

industrious, supplied the wants and amusements of the populace.

The dignity, the freedom, the authority of the senate was

restored; and every virtuous senator might approach the person of

the emperor without a fear and without a blush.

711 (return) [ Wenck observes that Gibbon, enchanted with the

virtue of Alexander has heightened, particularly in this

sentence, its effect on the state of the world. His own account,

which follows, of the insurrections and foreign wars, is not in

harmony with this beautiful picture.—M.]

The name of Antoninus, ennobled by the virtues of Pius and

Marcus, had been communicated by adoption to the dissolute Verus,

and by descent to the cruel Commodus. It became the honorable

appellation of the sons of Severus, was bestowed on young

Diadumenianus, and at length prostituted to the infamy of the

high priest of Emesa. Alexander, though pressed by the studied,

and, perhaps, sincere importunity of the senate, nobly refused

the borrowed lustre of a name; whilst in his whole conduct he

labored to restore the glories and felicity of the age of the

genuine Antonines. 72

72 (return) [ See, in the Hist. August. p. 116, 117, the whole

contest between Alexander and the senate, extracted from the

journals of that assembly. It happened on the sixth of March,

probably of the year 223, when the Romans had enjoyed, almost a

twelvemonth, the blessings of his reign. Before the appellation

of Antoninus was offered him as a title of honor, the senate

waited to see whether Alexander would not assume it as a family

name.]

In the civil administration of Alexander, wisdom was enforced by

power, and the people, sensible of the public felicity, repaid

their benefactor with their love and gratitude. There still

remained a greater, a more necessary, but a more difficult

enterprise; the reformation of the military order, whose interest

and temper, confirmed by long impunity, rendered them impatient

of the restraints of discipline, and careless of the blessings of

public tranquillity. In the execution of his design, the emperor

affected to display his love, and to conceal his fear of the

army. The most rigid economy in every other branch of the

administration supplied a fund of gold and silver for the

ordinary pay and the extraordinary rewards of the troops. In

their marches he relaxed the severe obligation of carrying

seventeen days’ provision on their shoulders. Ample magazines

were formed along the public roads, and as soon as they entered

the enemy’s country, a numerous train of mules and camels waited

on their haughty laziness. As Alexander despaired of correcting

the luxury of his soldiers, he attempted, at least, to direct it

to objects of martial pomp and ornament, fine horses, splendid

armor, and shields enriched with silver and gold. He shared

whatever fatigues he was obliged to impose, visited, in person,

the sick and wounded, preserved an exact register of their

services and his own gratitude, and expressed on every occasion,

the warmest regard for a body of men, whose welfare, as he

affected to declare, was so closely connected with that of the

state. 73 By the most gentle arts he labored to inspire the

fierce multitude with a sense of duty, and to restore at least a

faint image of that discipline to which the Romans owed their

empire over so many other nations, as warlike and more powerful

than themselves. But his prudence was vain, his courage fatal,

and the attempt towards a reformation served only to inflame the

ills it was meant to cure.

73 (return) [ It was a favorite saying of the emperor’s Se

milites magis servare, quam seipsum, quod salus publica in his

esset. Hist. Aug. p. 130.]

The Prætorian guards were attached to the youth of Alexander.

They loved him as a tender pupil, whom they had saved from a

tyrant’s fury, and placed on the Imperial throne. That amiable

prince was sensible of the obligation; but as his gratitude was

restrained within the limits of reason and justice, they soon

were more dissatisfied with the virtues of Alexander, than they

had ever been with the vices of Elagabalus. Their præfect, the

wise Ulpian, was the friend of the laws and of the people; he was

considered as the enemy of the soldiers, and to his pernicious

counsels every scheme of reformation was imputed. Some trifling

accident blew up their discontent into a furious mutiny; and the

civil war raged, during three days, in Rome, whilst the life of

that excellent minister was defended by the grateful people.

Terrified, at length, by the sight of some houses in flames, and

by the threats of a general conflagration, the people yielded

with a sigh, and left the virtuous but unfortunate Ulpian to his

fate. He was pursued into the Imperial palace, and massacred at

the feet of his master, who vainly strove to cover him with the

purple, and to obtain his pardon from the inexorable soldiers.

731 Such was the deplorable weakness of government, that the

emperor was unable to revenge his murdered friend and his

insulted dignity, without stooping to the arts of patience and

dissimulation. Epagathus, the principal leader of the mutiny, was

removed from Rome, by the honorable employment of præfect of

Egypt: from that high rank he was gently degraded to the

government of Crete; and when at length, his popularity among the

guards was effaced by time and absence, Alexander ventured to

inflict the tardy but deserved punishment of his crimes. 74 Under

the reign of a just and virtuous prince, the tyranny of the army

threatened with instant death his most faithful ministers, who

were suspected of an intention to correct their intolerable

disorders. The historian Dion Cassius had commanded the Pannonian

legions with the spirit of ancient discipline. Their brethren of

Rome, embracing the common cause of military license, demanded

the head of the reformer. Alexander, however, instead of yielding

to their seditious clamors, showed a just sense of his merit and

services, by appointing him his colleague in the consulship, and

defraying from his own treasury the expense of that vain dignity:

but as was justly apprehended, that if the soldiers beheld him

with the ensigns of his office, they would revenge the insult in

his blood, the nominal first magistrate of the state retired, by

the emperor’s advice, from the city, and spent the greatest part

of his consulship at his villas in Campania. 75 751

731 (return) [ Gibbon has confounded two events altogether

different— the quarrel of the people with the Prætorians, which

lasted three days, and the assassination of Ulpian by the latter.

Dion relates first the death of Ulpian, afterwards, reverting

back according to a manner which is usual with him, he says that

during the life of Ulpian, there had been a war of three days

between the Prætorians and the people. But Ulpian was not the

cause. Dion says, on the contrary, that it was occasioned by some

unimportant circumstance; whilst he assigns a weighty reason for

the murder of Ulpian, the judgment by which that Prætorian

præfect had condemned his predecessors, Chrestus and Flavian, to

death, whom the soldiers wished to revenge. Zosimus (l. 1, c.

xi.) attributes this sentence to Mamæra; but, even then, the

troops might have imputed it to Ulpian, who had reaped all the

advantage and was otherwise odious to them.—W.]

74 (return) [ Though the author of the life of Alexander (Hist.

August. p. 182) mentions the sedition raised against Ulpian by

the soldiers, he conceals the catastrophe, as it might discover a

weakness in the administration of his hero. From this designed

omission, we may judge of the weight and candor of that author.]

75 (return) [ For an account of Ulpian’s fate and his own danger,

see the mutilated conclusion of Dion’s History, l. lxxx. p.

1371.]

751 (return) [ Dion possessed no estates in Campania, and was not

rich. He only says that the emperor advised him to reside, during

his consulate, in some place out of Rome; that he returned to

Rome after the end of his consulate, and had an interview with

the emperor in Campania. He asked and obtained leave to pass the

rest of his life in his native city, (Nice, in Bithynia: ) it was

there that he finished his history, which closes with his second

consulship.—W.]

Chapter VI: Death Of Severus, Tyranny Of Caracalla, Usurpation Of

Marcinus.—Part IV.

The lenity of the emperor confirmed the insolence of the troops;

the legions imitated the example of the guards, and defended

their prerogative of licentiousness with the same furious

obstinacy. The administration of Alexander was an unavailing

struggle against the corruption of his age. In llyricum, in

Mauritania, in Armenia, in Mesopotamia, in Germany, fresh

mutinies perpetually broke out; his officers were murdered, his

authority was insulted, and his life at last sacrificed to the

fierce discontents of the army. 76 One particular fact well

deserves to be recorded, as it illustrates the manners of the

troops, and exhibits a singular instance of their return to a

sense of duty and obedience. Whilst the emperor lay at Antioch,

in his Persian expedition, the particulars of which we shall

hereafter relate, the punishment of some soldiers, who had been

discovered in the baths of women, excited a sedition in the

legion to which they belonged. Alexander ascended his tribunal,

and with a modest firmness represented to the armed multitude the

absolute necessity, as well as his inflexible resolution, of

correcting the vices introduced by his impure predecessor, and of

maintaining the discipline, which could not be relaxed without

the ruin of the Roman name and empire. Their clamors interrupted

his mild expostulation. “Reserve your shout,” said the undaunted

emperor, “till you take the field against the Persians, the

Germans, and the Sarmatians. Be silent in the presence of your

sovereign and benefactor, who bestows upon you the corn, the

clothing, and the money of the provinces. Be silent, or I shall

no longer style you solders, but _citizens_, 77 if those indeed

who disclaim the laws of Rome deserve to be ranked among the

meanest of the people.” His menaces inflamed the fury of the

legion, and their brandished arms already threatened his person.

“Your courage,” resumed the intrepid Alexander, “would be more

nobly displayed in the field of battle; _me_ you may destroy, you

cannot intimidate; and the severe justice of the republic would

punish your crime and revenge my death.” The legion still

persisted in clamorous sedition, when the emperor pronounced,

with a loud voice, the decisive sentence, “_Citizens!_ lay down

your arms, and depart in peace to your respective habitations.”

The tempest was instantly appeased: the soldiers, filled with

grief and shame, silently confessed the justice of their

punishment, and the power of discipline, yielded up their arms

and military ensigns, and retired in confusion, not to their

camp, but to the several inns of the city. Alexander enjoyed,

during thirty days, the edifying spectacle of their repentance;

nor did he restore them to their former rank in the army, till he

had punished with death those tribunes whose connivance had

occasioned the mutiny. The grateful legion served the emperor

whilst living, and revenged him when dead. 78

76 (return) [ Annot. Reimar. ad Dion Cassius, l. lxxx. p. 1369.]

77 (return) [ Julius Cæsar had appeased a sedition with the same

word, Quirites; which, thus opposed to soldiers, was used in a

sense of contempt, and reduced the offenders to the less

honorable condition of mere citizens. Tacit. Annal. i. 43.]

78 (return) [ Hist. August. p. 132.]

The resolutions of the multitude generally depend on a moment;

and the caprice of passion might equally determine the seditious

legion to lay down their arms at the emperor’s feet, or to plunge

them into his breast. Perhaps, if this singular transaction had

been investigated by the penetration of a philosopher, we should

discover the secret causes which on that occasion authorized the

boldness of the prince, and commanded the obedience of the

troops; and perhaps, if it had been related by a judicious

historian, we should find this action, worthy of Cæsar himself,

reduced nearer to the level of probability and the common

standard of the character of Alexander Severus. The abilities of

that amiable prince seem to have been inadequate to the

difficulties of his situation, the firmness of his conduct

inferior to the purity of his intentions. His virtues, as well as

the vices of Elagabalus, contracted a tincture of weakness and

effeminacy from the soft climate of Syria, of which he was a

native; though he blushed at his foreign origin, and listened

with a vain complacency to the flattering genealogists, who

derived his race from the ancient stock of Roman nobility. 79 The

pride and avarice of his mother cast a shade on the glories of

his reign; and by exacting from his riper years the same dutiful

obedience which she had justly claimed from his unexperienced

youth, Mamæa exposed to public ridicule both her son’s character

and her own. 80 The fatigues of the Persian war irritated the

military discontent; the unsuccessful event 801 degraded the

reputation of the emperor as a general, and even as a soldier.

Every cause prepared, and every circumstance hastened, a

revolution, which distracted the Roman empire with a long series

of intestine calamities.

79 (return) [ From the Metelli. Hist. August. p. 119. The choice

was judicious. In one short period of twelve years, the Metelli

could reckon seven consulships and five triumphs. See Velleius

Paterculus, ii. 11, and the Fasti.]

80 (return) [ The life of Alexander, in the Augustan History, is

the mere idea of a perfect prince, an awkward imitation of the

Cyropædia. The account of his reign, as given by Herodian, is

rational and moderate, consistent with the general history of the

age; and, in some of the most invidious particulars, confirmed by

the decisive fragments of Dion. Yet from a very paltry prejudice,

the greater number of our modern writers abuse Herodian, and copy

the Augustan History. See Mess de Tillemont and Wotton. From the

opposite prejudice, the emperor Julian (in Cæsarib. p. 315)

dwells with a visible satisfaction on the effeminate weakness of

the Syrian, and the ridiculous avarice of his mother.]

801 (return) [ Historians are divided as to the success of the

campaign against the Persians; Herodian alone speaks of defeat.

Lampridius, Eutropius, Victor, and others, say that it was very

glorious to Alexander; that he beat Artaxerxes in a great battle,

and repelled him from the frontiers of the empire. This much is

certain, that Alexander, on his return to Rome, (Lamp. Hist. Aug.

c. 56, 133, 134,) received the honors of a triumph, and that he

said, in his oration to the people. Quirites, vicimus Persas,

milites divites reduximus, vobis congiarium pollicemur, cras

ludos circenses Persicos donabimus. Alexander, says Eckhel, had

too much modesty and wisdom to permit himself to receive honors

which ought only to be the reward of victory, if he had not

deserved them; he would have contented himself with dissembling

his losses. Eckhel, Doct. Num. vet. vii. 276. The medals

represent him as in triumph; one, among others, displays him

crowned by Victory between two rivers, the Euphrates and the

Tigris. P. M. TR. P. xii. Cos. iii. PP. Imperator paludatus D.

hastam. S. parazonium, stat inter duos fluvios humi jacentes, et

ab accedente retro Victoria coronatur. Æ. max. mod. (Mus. Reg.

Gall.) Although Gibbon treats this question more in detail when

he speaks of the Persian monarchy, I have thought fit to place

here what contradicts his opinion.—G]

The dissolute tyranny of Commodus, the civil wars occasioned by

his death, and the new maxims of policy introduced by the house

of Severus, had all contributed to increase the dangerous power

of the army, and to obliterate the faint image of laws and

liberty that was still impressed on the minds of the Romans. The

internal change, which undermined the foundations of the empire,

we have endeavored to explain with some degree of order and

perspicuity. The personal characters of the emperors, their

victories, laws, follies, and fortunes, can interest us no

farther than as they are connected with the general history of

the Decline and Fall of the monarchy. Our constant attention to

that great object will not suffer us to overlook a most important

edict of Antoninus Caracalla, which communicated to all the free

inhabitants of the empire the name and privileges of Roman

citizens. His unbounded liberality flowed not, however, from the

sentiments of a generous mind; it was the sordid result of

avarice, and will naturally be illustrated by some observations

on the finances of that state, from the victorious ages of the

commonwealth to the reign of Alexander Severus.

The siege of Veii in Tuscany, the first considerable enterprise

of the Romans, was protracted to the tenth year, much less by the

strength of the place than by the unskilfulness of the besiegers.

The unaccustomed hardships of so many winter campaigns, at the

distance of near twenty miles from home, 81 required more than

common encouragements; and the senate wisely prevented the

clamors of the people, by the institution of a regular pay for

the soldiers, which was levied by a general tribute, assessed

according to an equitable proportion on the property of the

citizens. 82 During more than two hundred years after the

conquest of Veii, the victories of the republic added less to the

wealth than to the power of Rome. The states of Italy paid their

tribute in military service only, and the vast force, both by sea

and land, which was exerted in the Punic wars, was maintained at

the expense of the Romans themselves. That high-spirited people

(such is often the generous enthusiasm of freedom) cheerfully

submitted to the most excessive but voluntary burdens, in the

just confidence that they should speedily enjoy the rich harvest

of their labors. Their expectations were not disappointed. In the

course of a few years, the riches of Syracuse, of Carthage, of

Macedonia, and of Asia, were brought in triumph to Rome. The

treasures of Perseus alone amounted to near two millions

sterling, and the Roman people, the sovereign of so many nations,

was forever delivered from the weight of taxes. 83 The increasing

revenue of the provinces was found sufficient to defray the

ordinary establishment of war and government, and the superfluous

mass of gold and silver was deposited in the temple of Saturn,

and reserved for any unforeseen emergency of the state. 84

81 (return) [ According to the more accurate Dionysius, the city

itself was only a hundred stadia, or twelve miles and a half,

from Rome, though some out-posts might be advanced farther on the

side of Etruria. Nardini, in a professed treatise, has combated

the popular opinion and the authority of two popes, and has

removed Veii from Civita Castellana, to a little spot called

Isola, in the midway between Rome and the Lake Bracianno. * Note:

See the interesting account of the site and ruins of Veii in Sir

W Gell’s topography of Rome and its Vicinity. v. ii. p. 303.—M.]

82 (return) [ See the 4th and 5th books of Livy. In the Roman

census, property, power, and taxation were commensurate with each

other.]

83 (return) [ Plin. Hist. Natur. l. xxxiii. c. 3. Cicero de

Offic. ii. 22. Plutarch, P. Æmil. p. 275.]

84 (return) [ See a fine description of this accumulated wealth

of ages in Phars. l. iii. v. 155, &c.]

History has never, perhaps, suffered a greater or more

irreparable injury than in the loss of the curious register 841

bequeathed by Augustus to the senate, in which that experienced

prince so accurately balanced the revenues and expenses of the

Roman empire. 85 Deprived of this clear and comprehensive

estimate, we are reduced to collect a few imperfect hints from

such of the ancients as have accidentally turned aside from the

splendid to the more useful parts of history. We are informed

that, by the conquests of Pompey, the tributes of Asia were

raised from fifty to one hundred and thirty-five millions of

drachms; or about four millions and a half sterling. 86 861 Under

the last and most indolent of the Ptolemies, the revenue of Egypt

is said to have amounted to twelve thousand five hundred talents;

a sum equivalent to more than two millions and a half of our

money, but which was afterwards considerably improved by the more

exact economy of the Romans, and the increase of the trade of

Æthiopia and India. 87 Gaul was enriched by rapine, as Egypt was

by commerce, and the tributes of those two great provinces have

been compared as nearly equal to each other in value. 88 The ten

thousand Euboic or Phœnician talents, about four millions

sterling, 89 which vanquished Carthage was condemned to pay

within the term of fifty years, were a slight acknowledgment of

the superiority of Rome, 90 and cannot bear the least proportion

with the taxes afterwards raised both on the lands and on the

persons of the inhabitants, when the fertile coast of Africa was

reduced into a province. 91

841 (return) [ See Rationarium imperii. Compare besides Tacitus,

Suet. Aug. c. ult. Dion, p. 832. Other emperors kept and

published similar registers. See a dissertation of Dr. Wolle, de

Rationario imperii Rom. Leipsig, 1773. The last book of Appian

also contained the statistics of the Roman empire, but it is

lost.—W.]

85 (return) [ Tacit. in Annal. i. ll. It seems to have existed in

the time of Appian.]

86 (return) [ Plutarch, in Pompeio, p. 642.]

861 (return) [ Wenck contests the accuracy of Gibbon’s version of

Plutarch, and supposes that Pompey only raised the revenue from

50,000,000 to 85,000,000 of drachms; but the text of Plutarch

seems clearly to mean that his conquests added 85,000,000 to the

ordinary revenue. Wenck adds, “Plutarch says in another part,

that Antony made Asia pay, at one time, 200,000 talents, that is

to say, 38,875,000 L. sterling.” But Appian explains this by

saying that it was the revenue of ten years, which brings the

annual revenue, at the time of Antony, to 3,875,000 L.

sterling.—M.]

87 (return) [ Strabo, l. xvii. p. 798.]

88 (return) [ Velleius Paterculus, l. ii. c. 39. He seems to give

the preference to the revenue of Gaul.]

89 (return) [ The Euboic, the Phœnician, and the Alexandrian

talents were double in weight to the Attic. See Hooper on ancient

weights and measures, p. iv. c. 5. It is very probable that the

same talent was carried from Tyre to Carthage.]

90 (return) [ Polyb. l. xv. c. 2.]

91 (return) [ Appian in Punicis, p. 84.]

Spain, by a very singular fatality, was the Peru and Mexico of

the old world. The discovery of the rich western continent by the

Phœnicians, and the oppression of the simple natives, who were

compelled to labor in their own mines for the benefit of

strangers, form an exact type of the more recent history of

Spanish America. 92 The Phœnicians were acquainted only with the

sea-coast of Spain; avarice, as well as ambition, carried the

arms of Rome and Carthage into the heart of the country, and

almost every part of the soil was found pregnant with copper,

silver, and gold. 921 Mention is made of a mine near Carthagena

which yielded every day twenty-five thousand drachmns of silver,

or about three hundred thousand pounds a year. 93 Twenty thousand

pound weight of gold was annually received from the provinces of

Asturia, Gallicia, and Lusitania. 94

92 (return) [ Diodorus Siculus, l. 5. Oadiz was built by the

Phœnicians a little more than a thousand years before Christ. See

Vell. Pa ter. i.2.]

921 (return) [ Compare Heeren’s Researches vol. i. part ii. p.]

93 (return) [ Strabo, l. iii. p. 148.]

94 (return) [ Plin. Hist. Natur. l. xxxiii. c. 3. He mentions

likewise a silver mine in Dalmatia, that yielded every day fifty

pounds to the state.] We want both leisure and materials to

pursue this curious inquiry through the many potent states that

were annihilated in the Roman empire. Some notion, however, may

be formed of the revenue of the provinces where considerable

wealth had been deposited by nature, or collected by man, if we

observe the severe attention that was directed to the abodes of

solitude and sterility. Augustus once received a petition from

the inhabitants of Gyarus, humbly praying that they might be

relieved from one third of their excessive impositions. Their

whole tax amounted indeed to no more than one hundred and fifty

drachms, or about five pounds: but Gyarus was a little island, or

rather a rock, of the Ægean Sea, destitute of fresh water and

every necessary of life, and inhabited only by a few wretched

fishermen. 95

95 (return) [ Strabo, l. x. p. 485. Tacit. Annal. iu. 69, and iv.

30. See Tournefort (Voyages au Levant, Lettre viii.) a very

lively picture of the actual misery of Gyarus.]

From the faint glimmerings of such doubtful and scattered lights,

we should be inclined to believe, 1st, That (with every fair

allowance for the differences of times and circumstances) the

general income of the Roman provinces could seldom amount to less

than fifteen or twenty millions of our money; 96 and, 2dly, That

so ample a revenue must have been fully adequate to all the

expenses of the moderate government instituted by Augustus, whose

court was the modest family of a private senator, and whose

military establishment was calculated for the defence of the

frontiers, without any aspiring views of conquest, or any serious

apprehension of a foreign invasion.

96 (return) [ Lipsius de magnitudine Romana (l. ii. c. 3)

computes the revenue at one hundred and fifty millions of gold

crowns; but his whole book, though learned and ingenious, betrays

a very heated imagination. Note: If Justus Lipsius has

exaggerated the revenue of the Roman empire Gibbon, on the other

hand, has underrated it. He fixes it at fifteen or twenty

millions of our money. But if we take only, on a moderate

calculation, the taxes in the provinces which he has already

cited, they will amount, considering the augmentations made by

Augustus, to nearly that sum. There remain also the provinces of

Italy, of Rhætia, of Noricum, Pannonia, and Greece, &c., &c. Let

us pay attention, besides, to the prodigious expenditure of some

emperors, (Suet. Vesp. 16;) we shall see that such a revenue

could not be sufficient. The authors of the Universal History,

part xii., assign forty millions sterling as the sum to about

which the public revenue might amount.—G. from W.]

Notwithstanding the seeming probability of both these

conclusions, the latter of them at least is positively disowned

by the language and conduct of Augustus. It is not easy to

determine whether, on this occasion, he acted as the common

father of the Roman world, or as the oppressor of liberty;

whether he wished to relieve the provinces, or to impoverish the

senate and the equestrian order. But no sooner had he assumed the

reins of government, than he frequently intimated the

insufficiency of the tributes, and the necessity of throwing an

equitable proportion of the public burden upon Rome and Italy.

961 In the prosecution of this unpopular design, he advanced,

however, by cautious and well-weighed steps. The introduction of

customs was followed by the establishment of an excise, and the

scheme of taxation was completed by an artful assessment on the

real and personal property of the Roman citizens, who had been

exempted from any kind of contribution above a century and a

half.

961 (return) [ It is not astonishing that Augustus held this

language. The senate declared also under Nero, that the state

could not exist without the imposts as well augmented as founded

by Augustus. Tac. Ann. xiii. 50. After the abolition of the

different tributes paid by Italy, an abolition which took place

A. U. 646, 694, and 695, the state derived no revenues from that

great country, but the twentieth part of the manumissions,

(vicesima manumissionum,) and Ciero laments this in many places,

particularly in his epistles to ii. 15.—G. from W.]

I. In a great empire like that of Rome, a natural balance of

money must have gradually established itself. It has been already

observed, that as the wealth of the provinces was attracted to

the capital by the strong hand of conquest and power, so a

considerable part of it was restored to the industrious provinces

by the gentle influence of commerce and arts. In the reign of

Augustus and his successors, duties were imposed on every kind of

merchandise, which through a thousand channels flowed to the

great centre of opulence and luxury; and in whatsoever manner the

law was expressed, it was the Roman purchaser, and not the

provincial merchant, who paid the tax. 97 The rate of the customs

varied from the eighth to the fortieth part of the value of the

commodity; and we have a right to suppose that the variation was

directed by the unalterable maxims of policy; that a higher duty

was fixed on the articles of luxury than on those of necessity,

and that the productions raised or manufactured by the labor of

the subjects of the empire were treated with more indulgence than

was shown to the pernicious, or at least the unpopular, commerce

of Arabia and India. 98 There is still extant a long but

imperfect catalogue of eastern commodities, which about the time

of Alexander Severus were subject to the payment of duties;

cinnamon, myrrh, pepper, ginger, and the whole tribe of

aromatics; a great variety of precious stones, among which the

diamond was the most remarkable for its price, and the emerald

for its beauty; 99 Parthian and Babylonian leather, cottons,

silks, both raw and manufactured, ebony ivory, and eunuchs. 100

We may observe that the use and value of those effeminate slaves

gradually rose with the decline of the empire.

97 (return) [ Tacit. Annal. xiii. 31. * Note: The customs

(portoria) existed in the times of the ancient kings of Rome.

They were suppressed in Italy, A. U. 694, by the Prætor, Cecilius

Matellus Nepos. Augustus only reestablished them. See note

above.—W.]

98 (return) [See Pliny, (Hist. Natur. l. vi. c. 23, lxii. c. 18.)

His observation that the Indian commodities were sold at Rome at

a hundred times their original price, may give us some notion of

the produce of the customs, since that original price amounted to

more than eight hundred thousand pounds.]

99 (return) [ The ancients were unacquainted with the art of

cutting diamonds.]

100 (return) [ M. Bouchaud, in his treatise de l’Impot chez les

Romains, has transcribed this catalogue from the Digest, and

attempts to illustrate it by a very prolix commentary. * Note: In

the Pandects, l. 39, t. 14, de Publican. Compare Cicero in

Verrem. c. 72—74.—W.]

II. The excise, introduced by Augustus after the civil wars, was

extremely moderate, but it was general. It seldom exceeded one

_per cent_.; but it comprehended whatever was sold in the markets

or by public auction, from the most considerable purchases of

lands and houses, to those minute objects which can only derive a

value from their infinite multitude and daily consumption. Such a

tax, as it affects the body of the people, has ever been the

occasion of clamor and discontent. An emperor well acquainted

with the wants and resources of the state was obliged to declare,

by a public edict, that the support of the army depended in a

great measure on the produce of the excise. 101

101 (return) [ Tacit. Annal. i. 78. Two years afterwards, the

reduction of the poor kingdom of Cappadocia gave Tiberius a

pretence for diminishing the excise of one half, but the relief

was of very short duration.]

III. When Augustus resolved to establish a permanent military

force for the defence of his government against foreign and

domestic enemies, he instituted a peculiar treasury for the pay

of the soldiers, the rewards of the veterans, and the

extra-ordinary expenses of war. The ample revenue of the excise,

though peculiarly appropriated to those uses, was found

inadequate. To supply the deficiency, the emperor suggested a new

tax of five per cent. on all legacies and inheritances. But the

nobles of Rome were more tenacious of property than of freedom.

Their indignant murmurs were received by Augustus with his usual

temper. He candidly referred the whole business to the senate,

and exhorted them to provide for the public service by some other

expedient of a less odious nature. They were divided and

perplexed. He insinuated to them, that their obstinacy would

oblige him to _propose_ a general land tax and capitation. They

acquiesced in silence. 102 The new imposition on legacies and

inheritances was, however, mitigated by some restrictions. It did

not take place unless the object was of a certain value, most

probably of fifty or a hundred pieces of gold; 103 nor could it

be exacted from the nearest of kin on the father’s side. 104 When

the rights of nature and poverty were thus secured, it seemed

reasonable, that a stranger, or a distant relation, who acquired

an unexpected accession of fortune, should cheerfully resign a

twentieth part of it, for the benefit of the state. 105

102 (return) [ Dion Cassius, l. lv. p. 794, l. lvi. p. 825. Note:

Dion neither mentions this proposition nor the capitation. He

only says that the emperor imposed a tax upon landed property,

and sent every where men employed to make a survey, without

fixing how much, and for how much each was to pay. The senators

then preferred giving the tax on legacies and inheritances.—W.]

103 (return) [ The sum is only fixed by conjecture.]

104 (return) [ As the Roman law subsisted for many ages, the

Cognati, or relations on the mother’s side, were not called to

the succession. This harsh institution was gradually undermined

by humanity, and finally abolished by Justinian.]

105 (return) [ Plin. Panegyric. c. 37.]

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) · 第 4 / 79 章