contradict the Edicts of those about them but yet he moderated the matter in their Favour as much as possible and the Destruction was always the less where he came Galerius one day urging him on to be as violent upon it as his Brethren he published an Order for all Persons to depart his Court who would not sacrifice But such Christians as for fear and the advantage of staying in his Court complied he blamed and turned out of it and such as had chosen rather to depart than Sacrifice he re-called and retained them saying He could not doubt of their Fidelity to him who were so True to God There is this other Passage that shews the Goodness of Constantius not to be omitted Dioclesian had blamed very much his Negligence and reproached him with being a poor Prince because he had no Money in his Treasury Constantius desired the Envoys who had brought him that Message only to stay a little and they should see more of this matter In the mean time he signified his desire to all his States to furnish him with Money They filled his Coffers immediately and with a Zeal in which every one had an emulation to excel Then shewing to the Envoy of Dioclesian his Riches he said His Subjects Money was all at his Devotion but he never thought it safer than when they were the Keepers of his Treasury Galerius was by his Birth a Dacian of mean Parentage He was called Armentarius because at the first in his Youth he was but a Keeper of Cattel His Mother's Name was Romula from which he took an occasion to call the place of his Birth Romulianus and he pretended to say that his Mother when she conceived of him was impregnated by a Dragon He was of a tyrannical Disposition and much addicted to the Magicks He was particularly bloody upon the Christians of Nicomedia But coming to die by a Disease which consumed his Secret Parts and rotted out his Eyes and parted his Flesh from his Bones he was so sensible of the Hand of God in it that he countermanded the Persecution and begged the Prayers of the Christians unto God for him Whilst the moderate Constantius contented himself with the Administration of no more than Gallia Spain and Great Britain Galerius thought fit to create two Caesars the one to preside over Italy the other to go into the East who were his two Sister's Sons Flavius Valerius Severus and Galerius Maximin In which Promotion pretermitting Constantine the Son of Constantius by Helena who had all along served under him and Constantine together with his Resentments of that suspecting a Design against his Person he made his escape from him and fled into Great Britain to his Father who was arrived there out of Gallia in order to make War upon the Caledonians and the Picts His Father with Joy embraced him and by the Consent of all the Forces appointed and declared him his Successor and presently after that his Father dying at the City of York the Eighth of the Kalends of August in the Year Three Hundred and Six then commenced the Reign of the Emperor Constantine the Great Constantius was Emperor not much above one Year Galerius reigned about six and both had been before thirteen years Caesars They finished the vast Structure of the Baths of Dioclesian which was a Work from the beginning of seven years Galerius did a great deal of good to the Province of Pannonia by cutting down the Woods and converting them into Fields and by opening a Mouth for the Lake Pelso to fall into the Danube He created Licinius Emperor in Conjunction with him towards the end of his Reign and set him over Illyricum and Thrace being one who was his Country-man a Dacian and who had signalized himself well under him in the Wars of Persia And then Gallerius died in the manner which hath been said in the Year three hundred and eleven FINIS A CHRONOLOGY TO BOTH VOLUMES A CHRONOLOGY TO THE First Volume Ann. Christi  96 DOmitian kill'd Sept. 18. NERVA 97 COnspiracy of Calphurnius Crassus against him  Adopteth Trajan 98 Dies Jan. 27. TRAJAN Ann. Christi  100 THE Dacian War of five Years 103 His Bridge over the Danube 104 Arabia reduced by Palmas 105 Decebalus the King of Dacia kills himself 107 Death of Licinius Suras 108 The Parthian Expedition 111 Deposition of Parthamasyris from the Crown of Armenia 112 Armenia Mesopotamia Assyria conquered 114 Rebellion of the Jews  The Forum and Column of Trajan finished 115 Earthquake at Antioch 116 Trajan ' s Voyage on the Red-Sea  Revolt of his Conquests 117 Adopteth Hadrian  Dies Aug 10. HADRIAN Ann. Christi  118 PAlmas Celsus and others killed 119 He relinquishes the Conquests of Trajan 122 Adrianople built 123 Expedition into Great Britain 125 At Athens initiated in the Eleusinian Mysteries 126 Passeth into Africa 127 Again visiteth Athens 129 Erects a Tomb to his Horse 131 Death of Antinous 134 Sepulchrum Hadriani built 136 Adopteth Aelius Verus 137 Aelius Verus dies 138 Hadrian adopteth Antoninus Pius  Dies July 10. ANTONINUS PIUS Ann. Christi  A. C.  139 ADopteth Marcus Antoninus Feb. 25. 141 Repairs the Pons Sublicius at Rome  Death of his Wife Faustina 144 The Britains reduced by Lollius Urbicus 145 The Moors Germans Dacians and Alans reduced 147 Matches his Daughter to Marcus Antoninus  Apollonius the Philosopher of Chalcis invited to Rome 152 An Inundation of the Tyber 156 Attilius Titianus proscribed 161 Death March 6. Marcus Antoninus the Philosopher Ann. Christi  161 ASsociates Verus to him in the Empire  The Parthian War of five Years 162 Agricola sent into Great Britain 166 Commodus declared Caesar Octob. 12. 168 A great Pestilence 169 The Marcomannick War  Death of Verus 174 Victory over the Quadi and Marcomanni 175 The Revolt of Cassius 176 M. Anton. passeth to Athens 177 Triumphs  Commodus declared his Associate in the Empire November 27. 178 Matches Commodus to Crispina 180 Death March 16. COMMODUS Ann. Christi  180 TRriumphs 181 The Ministry of Perennis 183 The Britains reduced by Ulpius Marcellus 184 Attempt of Pompeianus against the Life of Commodus  Lucilla Sister to Commodus put to death 185 The Baths of Commodus built 186 Perennis killed 187 The Ministry of Cleander 190 Cleander killed  Commodus putteth his own Head upon the Coloss of the Sun 192 Acteth Hercules  Death PERTINAX Ann. Christi  126 BORN 167 Defeateth the Germans under the Reign of M. Antoninus 193 His Death March 28. DIDIUS JULIANUS Ann. Christi  193 DEposed and killed June SEVERUS Ann. Christi  194 DEfeats and slays Pescennius Niger 196 Victories in the East  Declares Caracalla Caesar June 1. 198 Overcomes and kills Albinus  Declares Caracalla Emperor with him and Geta Caesar 200 His Expedition against Parthia 202 Edict as to the Christians and Jews 203 Marrieth Caracalla to Plautilla  Triumphs 205 Plautianus killed
Drank in Publick of the same Provision as they did that is Bacon Cheese and sower Wine mixt with Water after the Examples of Scipio Aemilianus Metellus and his Father Trajan Were his Commands harder upon them than ordinary he gave them Money or preferred them for their Encouragement He revived as much as it was possible the antient Military Discipline which through the Negligence of many Princes his Predecessors had been going to decay ever since the time of Augustus He settled the Order of the Offices and the Expences of the Army He suffered no one to be absent from the Camp without a just Cause The Tribunes of his Creation were such as whose Merits recommended them to him and not the Favour of the Soldiers He excited all to do their Duty by the Example that he set in himself He walked Twenty Miles together on Foot at the Head of them in his Arms. He put down the use of Arbors shady Walks Grotto's and Bowers in the Camp He was dressed many times in a very ordinary Coat without any thing of Gold to his Belt without Jewels to his Cloaths or Buckles and the Hilt of his Sword scarce of Ivory He visited the Soldiers when they were Sick in their little Huts He mark'd out the Camps He made none a Centurion who was not a strong Man and of good Repute Nor a Tribune unless he was of such an Age as by his Prudence and his Experience to be fit to support the Weight of that Command Neither did he permit the Tribunes to make the least unlawful Gain of the Soldiers nor any Persons to serve themselves of nice and delicate Things which were therefore wholly cashiered the Camp He examined their Arms and their Equipages whether Clean and Neat and amended them as he saw Occasion He considered what Age every one was of because he would have none to serve in the Field contrary to the antient Custom who was either too young to be of a proper Strength to bear Arms or too old and past it He took Care that his Soldiers were personally always known to him and he kept an Account how many of them precisely they were He gave himself the Trouble to examine into the State of the Magazines of Ammunition and Provisions and whether the Contributions of the Provinces were well paid and into the State of the Provinces that if any thing was amiss any where he might supply the Defect Particularly he desired to cut off all superfluous Expences and that his Officers should lay out their Money upon nothing that was of no use So having modelled his Army to his own Pleasure he next set upon an Expedition into Great Britain where as he corrected a great many Defaults so he was the first who made a Wall there that was His Wall in Britain Fourscore Miles in Length to serve for a Division betwixt the Barbarians and the Romans Septimius Clarus a Captain of the Guards and Suetonius Tranquillus Secretary of the Dispatches with others having conversed without his Leave a little more familiarly with the Empress Sabina than was well consistent with the Honour of the Court he turned them out and put others into their places And certainly he would as he said have discharged his very Empress as one that he conceived disagreable and ill humored had be been but as a private Person He was not only inquisitive into all that His Intelligence passed in his own Houshold but likewise into the Houses of his Neighbours insomuch that by his Spies he was told of all the secret Actions done amongst them whilst they in the mean time never suspected it nor knew any thing of it until himself discovered it Upon which occasion it will not be unpleasant to insert a Passage wherein we may certainly see what a Knowledge he had of a great many things as to his Neighbours A Person had received a Letter from his Wife in which she told him That he was so taken up with his Pleasures and the Baths that he made no Thoughts of returning again to her Arms. Hadrian was informed of this by his Spies so when that Person came to him to desire the leave of him to retire Home Hadrian gave him a gentle Rub of his Baths and his Pleasures Sir says the Gentleman Hath my Wife written the same to your Majesty that she hath written to me Indeed this Inquisitiveness was thought to be a very great Fault in Hadrian all the Amours of the Sparks and the Secret Adulteries of the married Ladies he took the Pains to pry into but which was worse he did not keep the Counsel when he had done of his greatest Friends After having settled the Affairs of Great Britain he crossed over into Gallia where he received Advice of a Sedition in Alexandria in Egypt arisen about their God Apis who having been brought to Light anew after many Years that he had been lost the Dispute in what City he ought to be plac'd created strange Disorders amongst the People because all of them earnestly contended to have him At Nismes in Languedoc he built a Temple to the Honour of Plotina which was an admirable Work Then he went into Spain and passed He arrives in Spain the Winter at Tarragona where at his proper Charge he re-edified the Temple of Augustus and having Assembled all the States of Spain together at Tarragona he consulted with them with great Prudence and Dexterity in the Politicks considering their Divisions about the raising of Levies amongst them At Tarragona he escaped a very great Danger and in a manner which was not inglorious As he was walking in a Garden a Servant belonging to the Master of the House where he was ran upon him furiously with a drawn Sword to kill him Hadrian closed with the Man and took him Prisoner and delivered him to the Custody of the Guards who were flocking in to his Assistance But when it was plainly seen that the Man was Mad he sent him to the Physicians to be cured and took no more Notice of the Matter In many Places where the Barbarians are not separated from the Romans by Rivers but only by Land-marks he made Walls of Earth supported by Stakes and strengthened with Pallisadoes for a Partition betwixt them He appointed a King over the Germans he suppressed the Commotions of the Moors so that he merited the Honour from the Senate to have Sacrifices and Solemn Prayers offered for him The Parthians did but make a meen or single Motion towards a War but it was composed again by one Conference with Hadrian After this he came by Sea along the Coast Several other of his Voyages c. of Asia and the Islands unto the Province of Achaia where he was initiated in the Eleusinian Rites after the Examples of Hercules and King Philip. He was very generous to the Athenians and presided at their Games He sailed from thence to Sicily where he had the Curiosity to visit the top
time that did every thing Whom he would he put to Death others he plundered He subverted all the Laws and whatever he took he put it into his own Pocket As for Commodus he first ravished and then killed his Sister His Incests Lucilla He violated in like manner the rest of his own Sisters and lay with a Cousin-German of his Fathers and gave the Names of his Mother and of his own Wife to one of his Concubines which Lady he afterwards taking great with another Man he turned her off banished her and then killed her Yet he hath other times commanded his own Concubines to be enjoyed by others in his sight nor was he without the most scandalous use of Boys He corrupted himself with both the Sexes in every part of his Body even to his Mouth Claudius Pompeianus whose Son had gone into the Chamber to him with the Poinyard was set upon as if it were by Thieves at this time and killed Many other Senators were without Law or Judgment upon them executed and some rich Ladies Others in the Provinces were for their Riches first falsly accused then plundered or killed And if they wanted a Crime to fasten upon them it was enough to say that they had refused to assign the Inheritance of their Estates to the Emperor The Affairs of Sarmatia about this time passed very well which Perennis attributed to the Conduct of his Son there when indeed the Honour of it was due to the other Commanders But at last this Perennis who was Perennis slain so Omnipotent in the Government having displaced some Senatours to put in others who were of the Equestrian Order to command in the Army that served in the War in Great Britain and the thing being remonstrated against by their Deputies he was on a sudden declared an Enemy of the Army and delivered up to be torn in pieces by the Soldiers and Cleander one of the Officers of the Bed-Chamber was appointed to succeed in his place Then after the Death of Perennis and his Son who was also killed Commodus rescinded several of his Acts as if they had not been done by his Order and as if he was re-establishing all things in their first Estate But he could not hold on this shew and pretence of Repentance above Thirty Days committing worse things afterwards by the Ministry of Cleander than he had before by Cleander succeeds in his Ministry that of Perennis It was in his Ministry only that Cleander had succeeded to Perennis For as for his Place of Captain of the Guards Niger had that and possessed it they say but six hours For the Captains of the Guards were changed daily and hourly Commodus carrying himself in every thing now worse than he had done before Martius Quartus was Captain of the Guards five Days the rest that followed after him were either retained or put to Death at the Pleasure of Cleander by whose Authority manumitted Slaves were brought into the Senate and made Patricians We had then Five and Twenty Consuls in One Year which was never known before The Governments of all the Provinces were sold For Cleander made a Sale of every thing for Money He re-called what Exiles he pleased and put them into Offices and rescinded the Acts of the Courts He prevailed so much over the Weakness of Commodus that when Byrrhus who was Commodus's Sister's Husband took the Liberty to blame his Ministry and to tell Commodus what had been done he made no more but charged him with High-Treason in Revenge for it upon which he put him to Death and many others with him who had stood in the Defence of him Amongst the rest was Aebutianus the Captain of the Guards in whose place Cleander himself succeeded in Conjunction with Two others of his own nomination which was the first time that there were Three Captains of the Guards together and one of those was a late Slave made free But at length Cleander also met with that end that his Life deserved For having by Treachery and upon false Accusations condemned and put to Death Arrius Antoninus the Proconsul of Asia in favour of Atallus at which the People were so incensed that Commodus could not sustain the Envy that it had brought upon him he was delivered up as a Sacrifice to the People and Apolaustus Cleander slain and others of his Creatures about the Court were killed with him Amongst other things that he had done he gave himself the Liberty to use his Master 's own Concubines by whom he had Children who after his Death were killed together with their Mothers His Successours were Julianius and Regillus who were afterwards also killed by Commodus The same Fate befel Servilius and Duillius with all that belonged to them Then he killed Antius Lupus Petronius Mamertinus Suras and Antoninus who was his Sisterâ—s Son by Mamertinus Then he put to Death six others at once who had all been Consuls to wit Allius Fuscus Celius Felix Luceius Torquatus Lartius Euripianus Valerius Bassianus and Pactumeius Magnus together with all those that belonged to them In Asia he put to Death Sulpitius Crassus the Proconsul Julius Proculus and Claudius Lucanus a Consul He put to Death Faustina Annia his Father 's Cousin-German in Achaia and an infinite Number of others He had marked out Fourteen others ready for the Slaughter then when his own time came and when the Roman Empire with all its Power was no longer able to sustain his Weight Now whilst these things past the Senate in secret Derision of him upon his making his Mother's Gallant a Consul called him the Commodus flatter'd by the Senate Pious Commodus and when he had cut off Perennis they called him the Happy Commodus So this Pious this Happy Commodus to add to the many Murders that he had committed daily as if he was a New Sylla contrived and invented a Plot upon himself for an occasion still of Murdering more By flattery they stiled him likewise Conquerour of the Britains when the Britains would have set up an Emperor against him They called him the Roman Hercules because he had slain Wild Beasts in the Amphitheatre at Lavinia which was a common Exploit with him He arrived to that degree of Vanity that he would have the City of Rome to be called the Colony of Commodus which was a thing that he was put upon amidst his Gallantries with Martia his Mistress He drove in Person the Chariots in the Races in the Cirque He appeared in publick in a Dalmatick which is an effeminate Habit and gave the Signal to the Chariots to start When he signified his Pleasure to the Senate about New Naming the City of Rome Colonia Commodiana they pretended not only willingly to accept the Proposition but called by derision their own Assembly the House of Commodus and him nothing less than a Hercules and a God He once pretended that he would make a Voyage into Africa but it was for no other end
and Venerable Stile of Antoninus became much the less beloved for his sake He as we are told built besides the Portico which is at Rome with very great Splendor in which there are represented the memorable Exploits of Severus his Father The Signs fore-running the Death of the Signs fore-running his Death Emperor Septimius Severus were these He dreamt that he was carried up to Heaven in a Chariot drawn by four Eagles and enrich'd with precious Stones and I know not what large humane Form flying before him that as he was elevated in the Air he display'd the Numbers Eighty Nine beyond which Age precisely he did not live for he was already old when he came to the Empire Then that he continued a long time alone and destitute of help in a great Circle by himself till at last fearing to fall to Earth again he saw himself called by Jupiter and placed amongst the Antoninusses One day whilst the Games of the Cirque were celebrating as there were three Figures of Victory with Palms in their hands placed according to Custom upon the Platform where the Emperor's Throne is that in the middle bearing a Globe on which was inscribed the Name of Severus was blown down with a blast of Wind to the Ground and there lay The other which was inscribed with the Name of Geta fell and was broken to pieces but that which was inscribed with the Name of Bassianus stood but with much ado and lost its Palm-branch in the Wind. After he had finished his Wall or Trench in Great Britain and was returning to the next Garrison victorious having hereby assured the Peace of that Country for ever he was thinking in his mind what sort of Omen he should meet with upon it a Black-moor who was of the Number of his Soldiers and who was a famous Droll always ready to make some pleasant piece of Rallery presents himself before him with a Crown in his hand made of Cypress Severus in anger commanded him immediately to retire out of his sight being sensibly touched with the double ill Omen of his Hew and the Matter of his Crown In the mean time said the Man Your Majesty hath been all Things and conquered all Things noâ— be a God Being afterwards returned to the City of York and going to discharge his Devotion he was conducted by a mistake of an Augur into a Temple of Bellona and next the Beasts which were presented to him to Sacrifice were black But he refusing to Sacrifice in that colour retired to the Palace and the same black Victims being left neglected by the Priests went after him as far as to the Gates of the Palace In a great many Cities there are Works His public Works which he ordered to be done which are excellent but particularly at Rome all the publick Edifices which were decaying by old Age and the course of time he restored and which was a great Action in him without scarce ever inscribing his own Name upon one of them but every where continuing upon them the Names of their antient Founders At his Death he left in the publick Stores Corn to serve for Seven Years to come at the rate of expending Seventy Five Thousand Modii a day whereof each Modius was a Peck and half And for Oyl he left such a Quantity as was sufficient not only for the City of Rome but all Italy upon occasion for Five Years They say that his last Words were these I found the State when I received it every where in Disturbance I leave it in Peace even to the Britains Old and Lame as I am I leave the Empire firm to my Sons if they are good But in a feeble Condition for them if they are bad The last Watch-word which he ordered to be given to the Tribune was Laboremus let us take Pains as that of Pertinax the first day that he was admitted to the Empire was Militemus let us fight He had designed a second Royal Image of Fortune to be made and added to that which always stands in the Emperor's Chambers and is used to accompany them in all Places where they go he desired to leave of those most sacred Figures to each of his Sons one But when he found himself pressed with the approaching hour of his Death it is said he ordered that that Image of Fortune which there was should be carried alternatively into the Chambers of his Two Sons but Bassianus Antoninus slighted that Order even before he had killed his Brother His Body was brought from Great Britain to Rome where it was received with the greatest Reverence of all the Provinces though some say it was only his Ashes which were brought to Rome reposed in a little Urn of Gold which was interred in the Sepulchre of the Antoninusses and that the Body was burnt upon the place where he died When he built the Septizonium he had no other Design in it but to make appear the Magnificence of his Work to the Eyes of those who particularly should come out of his Native Country of Africa and if he had not been prevented it is supposed he would have made a stately Intrado from thence to the Palace Royal as afterward the Emperor Alexander Severus would have done but that the Soothsayers prohibited him for Reasons in their Art THE A Christi CXCIV LIFE OF PESCENNIUS NIGER Dedicated to the EMPEROR DIOCLESIAN BY AELIUS SPARTIANUS IT is a difficult thing and such as we rarely see done to publish to the World a just Account of Persons who die under the Notion of Rebels and Usurpers by being Conquered and because they are concluded â—o by another Person 's Victory All the Circumstances of such are scarce ever fully expressed in the Monuments and the Annals of the Antients for that which is great of them and to their Honours is either generally depraved and turned another way or it is suppressed Neither is there so much Care taken to seek into the things that concern their Origine and their Lives as to recount their Ends. For when they have brought them to that and told the War in which they were overcome and how they suffer'd for the boldness of their Attempts they persuade themselves they have said enough about them Thus Pesceâ—nius His Extraction Niger was as some say born of very ordinary as others of honourable Parents that is the latter say that his Father was An 〈…〉 Fuscus his Mother Lampridia his Grandfather the Curator of the Town of Aquino according to which his Family was of the Equestrian Order but yet this is a thing which 〈…〉 this day others will dispute His Instruction in Letters was but indifferent no more thaâ— was his Estate His manner of Life was moderate his Temper hot enough but particularly of an unbridled Passion to Liberty Hâ— was a long time a Centurion and afterward through several other Commands in the Waâ— came to be the General of the Forces 〈…〉 Syria unto which