way by Ravenna to deliver it first to the Emperor Maximus and yet he made such haste by change of Horses that he reached Rome in four days which was never known done before The two Emperors Balbinus and Gordianus with all the People were then assembled in the Theatre at the Publick Divertisements Immediately as the Express came into the Theatre before he could have the time to say any thing all the People cryed out with great Joy Maximin is Killed which was a grateful Hearing to the Emperors So the Company rose and every one went strait to the Temples and the Chappels to return their Thanks to the Gods From thence the Emperors went to the Senate which Assembled upon this Occasion as likewise did the People and after the Emperor Balbinus had read to the Senate the Letter which was arrived from Maximus the Senate passed this Decree as follows The Gods Pursue the Enemies of the People of Rome We return our Thanks to thee for the same O most Excellent Jupiter and to Thee O Holy Apollo We Thank the Emperor Maximus We Thank Your Majesties here present Balbinus and Gordianus We Decree Temples to the Honour of the Emperors the Gordiani deceased The Name of Maximin as it hath already been erased out of the Publick Monuments so now let it be erased out of our Thoughts and be forgotten for ever Let the Head of the Publick Enemy be thrown into the River and no Man Bury his Body He that threatned the Senate with Death and Bonds is Killed as he deserved We give our Thanks for it to your most Sacred Majesties Maximus Balbinus and Gordianus The Gods Preserve you We all wish you Victory over your Enemies We all desire the Return and Presence of Maximus The Gods Save Your Majesty Balbinus Your Majesties will be pleased to be the Consuls this Year After this Cupidius Celerimus said thus Having Erased the Name of the Maximins and Deified the Emperors the Gordiani we on the other hand Decree Triumphal Statues with Elephants to our present Princes Maximus Balbinus and Gordianus We Decree them Triumphal Chariots Statues on Horseback and Trophies upon the Subject of this Victory Then the Senate Adjourn'd The Emperors retired to the Palaces and Publick Sacrifices were appointed throughout all the City of Rome THE Life and Reign OF THE EMPEROR Maximin the Second TO THE EMPEROR Constantine the Great BY JULIUS CAPITOLINUS MAXIMIN the Second or the Younger and the Son of the foregoing was a Youth of that extraordinary Beauty that generally the Ladies of Wit were in Love with him some of them even wished themseves a part in his Caresses and to have Children by him He was so Tall that had he lived it is probable he would have reach'd the heighth of his Father But he dyed in the Flower of his Youth in his one and twentieth Year or as some say in his eighteenth He had learn'd the His Learning and Masters Greek and Latin Languages to a Perfection In the Greek his Master was Fabilius who hath several Epigrams in the Greek yet extant and particularly some that he made upon the Picture of his Scholar In the Latin he had the Grammarian Philemon Modestinus the Lawyer and Titianus the Orator The Father of which last was he who hath written a Chorography of the Provinces of the Roman Empire and was called the Ape of his Age because he Imitated all things He had a Greek Rhetoriâ—ian called Eugenius who was Famous in his time Junia Fadilla a Daughter of the Family of the Princes the Antonini was Contracted to him who afterwards was Married to Toxotius a Senator of the same Family who dyed after his Praetorship and hath written some Poems which we have at this day The Presents which were given to her by Maximin when he Contracted her are particularly recounted by Aelius Cordus A Locket of nine great Pearls a Head set with eleven Emeralds a Bracelet of four Jacynths Garments of Cloth of Gold and all the Ornaments of Princely Attire which were fit for a New Spouse As this Maximin was very Beautiful so he carried a Pride to the highest degree he kept himself Sitting when his Father as Cruel as he was many times rose to Persons of Honour that came to wait upon him He was of a gay Humour Drank little but loved good Eating especially of the wild Creatures of the Field the Wild Boar Duck Crane and the like were his constant Dishes Those of the Party of the Emperors Maximus Balbinus and Gordianus and particularly the Senators were willing to slander him because of his great Beauty Pretending that it was impossible that so charming a Gift of the Gods could be kept uncorrupt So also when he went about the Walls of Aquileia in Company with his Father to persuade that City to a Surrender All that they pretended to object against him was the matter of Uncleanness because of his tempting Beauty which however was very far from him He was so Proper in his Cloaths that no Lady in the World could be more He was extreamly Obsequious to such as were of his Father's Friends that is so far as to give them what was in his power and make them Largesses But when they paid their Reverences to him he received them in a manner which was again as high He gave them his Hand to kiss he suffered them to kiss his Knees and sometimes his Feet which his Father would never do who said The Gods forbid that any free-born Man should lay his Lips to my Feet Having mention'd his Father I desire to insert one pleasant Passage of him He was as I have observed before in his Life Eight Foot and almost a half high Therefore his Shoe or Royal Buskin was given by some to be seen publickly in a Religious House in a Grove which is betwixt the City Aquileia and a place called Arzia which Shoe it is certain is bigger by a Foot than the Measure of any other Man And hence it is become a Proverb to say of one who is of an extraordinary Height without much Wit Caliga Maximini i. e. He is the Print of Maximin He treads in his Shoe But I return to speak of the Son The Emperor Alexander Severus in a Letter to his Mother Mammaea appears to have had some thoughts of Matching this Maximin to his own Sister Theoclia The Letter was this Madam I Would propose to you to Marry your Daughter Theoclia to the younger Maximin did not his Father who is a Commander in our Forces and I assure you a very good one retain something in him that savours of the Barbarian I fear my Sister who is so acquainted with all the Politeness of the Grecian Education will not endure a Father in Law of that Nature Otherwise as for the Youth himself he is Beautiful and Ingenious and seems to be bred and polished to the Mode of the Grecians too This is what I think You may please to consider with
and Reign OF THE EMPEROR Gordianus the Second BY JULIUS CAPITOLINUS GORDIANUS the Second was the Son of the precedent Gordianus the Proconsul of Africa and was set up Emperor by the Africans and by the Senate of Rome at the same time and in conjunction with his Father He was one whose Ingenuity and Carriage of himself gave him as great a Reputation as did the Honour of his Birth by which he was related to the several Noble Families of the Scipio's that of Pompey the Great the Antoninusses and the Antonies His Mother was Fabia Orestilla a Great Grand-daughter of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus which was the reason that he was Registred in his Infancy by the Name of Antoninus Gordianus But yet Gordianus was the Name which adhered to him and which he was commonly called by He was his Father's first Child In his Studies he always followed the best and gravest Opinions He was very Handsome His Character when young of an extraordinary Memory and a kind and sweet Disposition insomuch that at School when a Child if he saw some of the Boys beaten he could not forbear to cry for them His Master was Serenus Sammonicus who extreamly loved him and bequeathed to him at his death a Library which consisted of Sixty two Thousand Books being the whole Library of another Serenus Sammonicus the Father who was put to death under the Emperor Caracalla The same of which Treasure of Learning extolled Gordianus to the Heavens and gave him a great Name amongst the Ingenious The Emperor Heliogabalus made him a Quaestor to whom he was known by being a young Man that loved Pleasure but yet without Scandal and without ever bearing part in the infamous Luxury of that Prince Alexander Severus made him a Praetor for the Affairs of the City of Rome He discharged himself so well and gained so great an Esteem that he presently after was made a Consul though his Father had come late to that Honour After which either in the time of the same Alexander Severus or in that of Maximin he was sent into Africa as Lieutenant to his Father the then Proconsul there where what Fortune befel him we have already recounted under the Life of his Father He loved Wine but he always had it Infused And in his advanc'd Age. either with Roses or Mastick or Wormwood or other things that pleased his Palate He eat very little He had dined and supped as it were in a moment Women he passionately loved It is said he kept two and twenty Concubines by all which he had three or four Children a-piece He was called the Priamus of his Age for the multitude of his Issue In Drollery instead of Priamus they many times called him a Priapus He spent his time betwixt the Gardens the Baths and the delightful Groves Nor did his Father Correct him but often said That he would one day die a Great Man For as freely as he lived he did not depart from that Vigor which was natural to him nor from the Virtues of Persons of Honour He was always amongst the most Illustrious Company and ready with the best of his Judgment to serve either the Publick or his Friend Therefore the Senate were very glad to Proclaim him Emperor together with his Father and placed the Publick Hopes in him He was just in his Dress beloved by his Domesticks and all that belong'd to him Aelius Cordus says that he never would consent to Marry But on the contrary we are told by Dexippus that Gordianus the Third was his Son who afterwards whilst he was a Youth was advanced to the Empire in conjunction with Maximus and Balbinus When his Father some time consulted an Astrologer about the Nativity of him it was answer'd they say That he would be both the Son and the Father of an Emperor and an Emperor himself Gordianus laughing at it as a Jest the Astrologer shew'd him his Horoscope and undertook to prove out of the Books of the Antient Masters of the Art of Astrology that what he said was true He told him the Day the Manner the Place of the Death of both the First and Second Gordianus and justified himself with the greatest obstinacy All which Gordianus the Elder reflecting upon when he saw himself an Emperor he even when there was no reason for him to be afraid of any thing spoke very often both of his own and his Son's Death and applied to his Son those Verses of Virgil Ostendent terris hunc tantum c. i. e. This Man will only to the World be shown lamenting his Condition that he was not long to live We have several Discourses and also Verses of Gordianus the Second extant which at this day are often remembred amongst his Friends They are not Great nor yet Mean but of a middle Character and such as bespeak him to have been an Ingenious Man of a Luxuriant Wit and negligent of the Parts that Nature gave him He was a great lover of Fruit and Herbs In his other Diet he was very sparing but he was always eating some New Fruit or other A great lover of all Cold things in the Summer he eat little else He was Gross and much inclined to be Fat and therefore he the rather chose this Diet to keep himself down This is what I have judged worthy to be remarked concerning the Second Gordianus For as for his domestick Pleasures and other petty things of no Observation which are with so little judgment recollected by Junius Cordus let any Person who is desirous to know them read him who tells you how many Coats and Cloaks every Prince had what Courtiers how many Servants the knowledge whereof signifies nothing Nor do I think that it is the part of an Historian to trouble himself but about things which it is either good to follow or good to avoid I shall only add a Passage which I find in Vulcatius Terentianus who hath writ a History of his Time He says that Gordianus the First was the Reverse of Augustus Caesar he spoke so like him and he resembled him so much in his Face and Stature That the Second Gordianus was very like Pompey the Great But as to this I know not what to say Because it is denied that Pompey was Fat or Gross And he further says That Gordianus the Third whose Statues we have now extant resembled the Asiatick Scipio This I thought was Remarkable and more for their Honour than to be wholly pass'd in silence THE A. Christi Ccxxxviii Life and Reign OF THE EMPEROR Gordianus the Third BY JULIUS CAPITOLINUS AFter the death of the two preceding Gordiani as on the one hand the Senate whom that News had struck with a great Consternation and put them very much in fear of Maximin elected out of the twenty Persons appointed for the defence of Italy Maximus and Clodius Balbinus to be Emperors so on the other the People and the Guards made it their Request that
was received but the manner thus Trajan sate as in a Council of War in the His Appearance before Trajan Camp After Parthamasiris had saluted him He took the Crown with which he came off of his Head and prostrated it at the Feet of Trajan and stood silent expecting when Trajan would return to him the Crown again The Soldiers seeing this set up an Huzza and Congratulated Trajan as is usual after a Victory For they cryed This was a Victory without a Battel an unbloody Victory to see a King of the House of the Arsacidae the Son of Pacorus and the Nephew of Chosroes King of Parthia stand before Trajan like a Captive without a Crown Parthamasiris amazed at the Noise and thinking that it was designed for an Affront to him and to his ruin turned himself about in a Passion to be gone But as he was so well surrounded that he could not he desired Not to be obliged to speak what he had to say in that Crowd So he was taken into the Tent of Trajan to whom there he offered the Propositions that he had to make but Trajan was not pleased to consent to them Then he threw himself in a Passion out of the Tent and was retiring through the Camp when Trajan sent for him back again and in the Council of War where he had received him at first he desired him to speak what he had to say Publickly in the hearing of the Company because Persons who were ignorant of what had passed betwixt them in Private should not suggest false Accounts of it and misrepresent it to the World Hearing this Parthamasiris could not contain himself longer but with a great Courage amongst other things said That he neither had been Conquered nor taken Prisoner He came thither His Speech in the Council of War voluntarily in confidence that no Injury would have been offered to him and that he should receive his Kingdom of Trajan as Tiridates did of Nero. Trajan answered him what he saw fitting and withal told him That Armenia should be no bodies Kingdom It belonged to the Romans and should receive a Roman Governour As for himself he gave him the liberty to go where he pleased So he sent Parthamasiris He is dismist together with the Parthians that came with him out of the Country under a Guard that he should speak with no one nor attempt no Novelties but all the Armenians that came with him he ordered to abide in their Proper Dwellings as being now his own Subjects Trajan secured the Country with convenient Garrisons and came from thence to the City of Rhoa in Mesopotamia where he saw Trajan ' s Congress with Abgarus King Abgarus whose Seat was there Abgarus had before sent Presents and Persons to him often to Complement him but sometimes for one sometimes for another reason that he pretended he had not as yet waited upon him himself as neither had Manos the Governour of the Arabia next adjoyning nor Sporaces the Governour of Arthemisia in Mesopotamia Now the Son of Abgarus Arbandes was a handsom charming Youth whom Trajan had seen and could not choose but love for his beauty By the persuasion of this Son and partly by the fear which Abgarus had of the presence of Trajan Abgarus met him at his coming to Rhoa and excusing himself to him Trajan received him very well and admitted him to his Friendship His handsome Son was indeed Apology enough for him He entertain'd Trajan at a Banquet in which he brought in his Son to dance before him after the Barbarian Mode The Senate of Rome among other things A new Title decreed him which they decreed in the honour of these Successes of their Prince gave him the Title of Optimus or the Best of Princes He always marched on foot at the Head of all his Army whom against every Expedition he Review'd and Furnished and sometimes marched them in one manner sometimes another If they crossed the Rivers on Foot so did he sometimes he told them a piece of false News and acted the part of a Spy amongst them to make them keep themselves the more carefully to their Duty and to be ready and intrepid against every thing He took the Cities of Nisibis and Ecbatana from the Parthians upon which he was Saluted by the Style of Conquerour of the Parthians by the Army But in none of all the Titles that he acquired did he delight so much as in that of the Best of Princes because this was a commendation rather of his own Nature and Virtues than of his Arms. Whilst he Wintered at the City of Antioch A great Earthquake in Syria a dreadful Earthquake happened which did a great deal of mischief to many Cities in that Country but Antioch was in a more particular manner afflicted with it There was at that time a great number of Soldiers and an extraordinary Concourse of others from all parts in the place either upon Business of Law or upon Embassies or Trade or Curiosity whereby it was so That there was no Nation nor no Province but what had a share in the Calamity and all the Roman World suffered in that one City This Earthquake was preceded by great Thunders and unusual Winds but yet no body suspected from thence the mischief which followed First a mighty Fore-runners thereof bellowing Noise was heard on a sudden from the Earth then followed a Shock which was was so violent that it made all the Earth Bounce and Swell The Houses Danced some immediately fell with the Toss and broke into pieces some reeled to and fro like a Ship in the Sea and took a compass on one side and the other and then fell And the noise of the cracking and bursting of the Timber the Brick and Stones together was most dismal A Dust was raised that it was impossible to see any one or speak or be heard to speak Many who were without their Houses suffered They were so tossed up and then down again as in a Precipice and struck against one another some were wounded some killed Trees were torn up from the Roots But of the rest who were overtaken within their Houses an infinite number perished a great many with the Houses falling upon their Heads a great many were suffocated under the Ruins Others who were held under the Wood and Stones so by any part of their Bodies that they could not possibly recover themselves were in the highest degree miserable they could not live and yet they could not soon expire If out of such an infinite number as were overtaken within their Houses several escaped with their lives yet they were generally hurt their Legs broken or their Arms or their Heads or they vomited Blood Pedo the Consul was one of these who died soon after In short there was no figure of Misery and Destruction but what was to be seen amongst these People GOD shook the Earth for many Days and Nights together The People were
of the Mountain Aetna from thence to view the Rising Sun how various they say it appears there in its Colours in the Nature of those of the Rainbow From Sicily he came home to Rome and from Rome he crossed the Sea again into Africa leaving many Marks of his Liberality upon the Provinces of that Country so that one may say that scarce never hath there been a Prince known to Travel over so much Land and with so much dispatch as he He had no sooner returned back to Rome out of Africa but he set upon a New Voyage into the East and took his way through Athens The Works which he had begun at Athens he now finished and dedicated amongst the rest the Temple and the Altar of Jupiter Olympius In Asia as he travelled he likewise Consecrated Temples there which abide as so many Memorials of his Name Whilst he was in Cappadocia he admitted a Number of the People of that Country into the Service of his Army He invited the Princes and the Kings of the Dominions where he came to joyn in Friendship with him Particularly he invited to his Friendship Chosroes the King of Parthia to whom he returned his Daughter that Trajan had formerly taken Captive promising the same as to a Chair of State which had been then likewise taken and carried away in that War He received those Kings when they came so generously and treated them in that manner that others who staid away upon the Account especially of Pharismanes who insolently slighted him might have an occasion to repent themselves As he traversed the Provinces he punished some Procurators and some Presidents of them for their Malversations so severely that they said he had a mind certainly to encourage Accusers to appear against them He had a great Displeasure against the People of Antioch wherefore it was in his Thoughts to separate Syria from Phoenicia that Antioch should not be said to be the Metropolis of so many Cities The Jews about this time broke into a War because they were forbidden to Circumcise themselves He went upon the Mountain Lison which is near Antioch in the Night for the Curiosity of observing from thence the Rising-Sun Jupiter was worshipped upon that Mountain to whom as Hadrian was Sacrificing there a violent Storm arose with Thunder and Lightning which blasted both the Victim and the Priest He traversed Arabia and came to the City of Pelusium or Belvais in Egypt The Tomb of Pompey which is at this City being decayed he rebuilt it with greater Magnificence As he was sailing upon the Nile his dear Antinous died for whom he wept with all the tenderness and the weakness of a Woman His Grief for Antinous weeping for her Husband There are several reports about that Youth Some say that he devoted himself a Sacrifice for Hadrian Others that he was what his Beauty might probably incite him to be and the too great Pleasure which Hadrian took in a Burdash However it was the Grecians at the desire of Hadrian made a God of him and we are told of Oracles which have been uttered by him but they are rather some supposed Compositions of Hadrian who was excellent at Verse and indeed at all sorts of the Belles Lettres For he had a great Hand at Arithmetick Geometry and Painting He understood Musick and played perfectly well upon many Instruments and Sung Loving his Pleasures so excessively as he did he could not but Compose many Poems of his Amours Together with which he was a Master in the matter of Arms had the Military Art in perfection and was skilled at the Weapons of the Gladiatours He was a Person equally Severe and Pleasant Affable and Grave Active and Considerate Close and Liberal Cruel and Merciful in all things ever various He enriched his Friends though they never did ask him any favour and to others upon their asking he denyed nothing But yet he was easie to give ear to every Tale which was but whispered concerning them And this was the occasion that almost all those whom either he had dearly loved or whom he had raised to the highest Honours were afterwards treated by him as Enemies His Severity and Injustice as was Tatianus Nepos and Septimius Clarus Thus also Eudaemon who had once been Privy to all his Counsels and his Confident in the very Affair of his aspiring to the Empire was reduced by him to extreme Beggery He constrained Polyaenus and Marcellus to murder themselves He made the most notorious defamatory Libels upon Heliodorus He suffered Tatianus under a pretence of his being in a Conspiracy against him to be Arraigned and Proscribed He persecuted Numidius Quadratus Catilius Severus and Turbo very grievously He put to death Servianus his Sisters Husband when he was in his Ninetieth Year only because he would be sure that he should not out-live him In fine he Persecuted without remission both his Servants and his Soldiers As ready as he was at his Compositions always in Prose and Verse and skilled in all the Liberal Arts he yet laught at the Publick Professors of the Arts and triumphed over them entered many times into Solemn Disputes with all of them together and with all the Philosophers only for the Glory of Composing better Books or better Verses than they He excepted once particularly against a Word which was used by Favorinus who modestly submitting himself to him in it but being blamed by his Friends for yielding the Cause so in a Word for which there was sufficient Authority to be produced out of good Authors Favorinus made a very pleasant Jest upon it Says he My Friends you are much mistaken if you do not allow me to believe him to be a Learneder Man than us all who is the Master of Thirty Legions So fond was he of his Glory as to this Talent that he writ his own Life and afterwards gave it to his Servants that were Scholars to publish it only under their Names Thus the Books under the name of Phlegon are Hadrians The Catachriani are his which are extremely obscure pieces in imitation of Antimachus The Poet Florus having written to him thus as follows Ego nolo Caesar esse Ambulare per Britannos Scythicas pati Pruinas That is I desire not to be Caesar To Ramble amongst the Britains And be starved with the Frosts of Scythia He answered him again thus Ego nolo Florus esse Ambulare per Tabernas Latitare per popinas Culices pati rotundos That is I desire not to be Florus To Ramble amongst the Taverns Skulk about the Eating-Houses And be stung to death with Gnats He took more delight in the Antient Writings His Learning than the Modern and was pleased with making Declamations He preferred Cato to Cicero Ennius to Virgil and Caelius to Salust the like Judgement he passed upon Homer and Plato He pretended to understand Judicial Astrology so very well that upon the Calends of January in the Evening he would constantly set
place and was â—illing to seem to mitigate what he had said but this was all one For in fine as we have already said Lucius Cejonius Commodus Verus Aelius Caesar for he was called by all these names died and was buried with all the Ceremonies observed at the Funerals of Princes Honour done him at his Funerals the only Royal honour which he ever had being those at his death Hadrian who regretted his death like a good Father was a long time afterwards dubious upon what he should do at last he Adopted Antoninus the Pious as he was called upon whom he imposed this condition that Antoninus should likewise Adopt Marcus and Verus and should Marry his Daughter not to Marcus but to Verus And this was one of the last things he spoke to He had been used to say that a Prince ought to dye sound of mind Then he grew worse and the Complication of his Maladies carried him off He had ordered large Statues to be set up in all parts to the honour of Aelius Verus Caesar in some Cities and Temples Also he admitted his Son whom he had obliged Antoninus to Adopt into the Royal Family as his own Grandson often saying Let the Empire have all that it can of Aelius Verus Verus the Son brought no small Lustre to the Imperial Family especially by his Clemency This is what I have thought fit to observe concerning Aelius Verus Caesar whom I would not omit because I have made it my resolution to write the History of all those who since Julius Caesar the Emperour have been either called Emperours or Caesars or have been Adopted into the Imperial Family and Consecrated the Sons or Kinsmen of Emperours by the name of Caesars In which though there is no necessity that obliges me to it as some think I shall satisfie at least my own Inclinations whatever I do as to others THE Life and Reign OF THE EMPEROR ANTONINUS the Prous Dedicated to the EMPEROR DIOCLESIAN By JULIUS CAPITOLINUS TItus Aurelius Fulvius Bononius Antoninus called the Pious derived his Origin by his Father's side from Nismes in Languedoc His Grandfather by his Father's side His Extraction was Titus Aurelius Fulvius who through several other Honours came to be twice a Consul and to be the Governour of the City of Rome His Father was Aurelius Fulvius who was also a Consul and a Person of great Virtue and Integrity His Mother was Arria Fadilla His Grandmother by his Mother's side Bojonia Procilla His Grandfather by the same side Arrius Antoninus who was twice Consul and a holy virtuous Man who instead of Congratulating compassionated Nerva to see him advanced to that difficult Station of a Prince His Wife's Father was Julius Lupus a Consul His Sister by the same Venter was Julia Fadilla His Wife was Annia Faustina by whom he had two Sons and two Daughter The eldest Daughter married Zamia Syllanus the yonger to Marcus Antoninus Antoninus Pius was born at a Seat near Lavinia in the Campagna di Roma upon the thirteenth of the Calends of October in the Consulships of Domitian and Cornelius Dolabella which was then the twelfth time of the Consulship of Domitian He was brought up at another Seat called Laurium upon the Aurelian way where he afterwards built a Palace which hath some remains of it standing at this day He passed his Infancy hetwixt his two Grandfathers sometimes with the one and sometimes the other and being very dutiful and observant to all his Relations several of them left their Estates to him which made him very Rich. He was handsome as to his Person full of His Personage and Conditions Wit of a sweet and courteous Behaviour a generous Countenance Easie Eloquent and of a polite Literature He was Sober a great lover of the Country and Agriculture Mild Bountiful not coveting other Men's Goods Discreet and all this without Vanity He was every thing which is commendable and may be very justly compared with Numa Pompilius according to the Opinion of most good Men. The Senate conferred upon him Why surnam'd the Pious the Title of the Pious either because he was used to lead by the Hand in their sight his decrepit Father-in-Law to and from the Senate tho' it would be rather an impious thing not to discharge such a Devoir than it is an Argument of great Piety to do it or because it was he who had preserved the lives of those whom Hadrian in his Frenzy had commanded to be murdered or because he decreed such infinite and unexpected Honours to Hadrian his Father after his death or because when Hadrian would have killed himself he hindred him from it with all the care he could or lastly because he was in his Nature a most mild Person and had done nothing that was disoblinging or Cruel in all his life He lent out his Money at the small Interest of four per Cent. to assist the Poor in their Occasions with that Fortune which he had He was a generous Questor splendid and noble when he was a Praetor and Consul in Conjunction with Catilius Severus He lived for the most part in the Country all the time he was a private man but wherever he was he was in great renown So that when Hadrian committed the Affairs of Italy unto the Administration of four Proconsuls he made a choice of him to be one of them to Govern in that part where he had the greatest Estate in which he equally consulted the Honour and the Repose of this great Person He received an Omen of his future Succession to the Empire in the time of this his Administration Omens of his Succession to the Empire For amongst the Acclamations which were made to him as he sat upon the Bench in the Court some cried Auguste Dii te servent The Gods save your Majestâ— Next he was made the Proconsul of Asia where he behaved himself so well that he alone out-did his Grandfather Arrius Antoninus the Equity of whose Government no Person had ever surpassed before In this Proconsulship he received another good Omen of his future Reign The Priests at the City of Tralles in Lydia who according to Custom saluted the Proconsuls upon their arrival there with an Ave Proconsul did not say Ave Proconsul to Antoninus but Ave Imperator Hail O Emperour At the City Ciziqua upon the Propontis a Crown which before stood upon the Head of an Image of a God was translated from thence and found upon a Statue of Antoninus His Statues throughout all the Country of Hetruria were covered with swarms of Bees As he went to Asia he lost his eldest Daughter His Wife they say ' was one that contracted a great many Censures by the too great Liberties which she allowd herself in her Life and Conversation which Antoninus dissembled as much as he could but not without some trouble to support her Credit After his Proconsulship he lived ordinarily at Rome where he was of the
the Emperor Commodus 〈…〉 preferred him by the Credit and the recoâ—mendation chiefly of that very Person as 〈…〉 things went at that time who afterwarâ— strangled Commodus After the Death of Commodus and the Death also of his Successor Pertinax Pescennius Niger set up for the Empire upon the Authority of the same Forces of Syria encouraged to it from Rome where Didius Julianus who had succeeded to Pertinax was so hated by the People that they publickly cursed him and threw Stones at him and prayed that the Gods would give them Niger to be their Prince and Niger to come to the Succour of the City Hereupon Julianus sent a Centurion with Orders to bring him the Head of Niger which was a very imprudent Fancy indeed as if it was such an easie matter for a single Centurion to make himself the Master of one who was at the Head of a puissant Army and could very well maintain himself With the same imprudence it was that he proposed to take off the Head of Severus after he had already been declared Emperor and to send a Man to command in his place For he had sent the known Assassine Aquilius a Centurion to him to kill him as if so powerful a General was so easily to be killed by a Centurion But yet all this was as Judicious as his pretending to prohibit Severus from the Empire by Law because himself was in the prior Possession of it In fine the Inclinations of the People towards He is belov'd by the People Pescennius Niger and their aversion to Julianus appeared sufficiently in this that whilst Julianus was Entertaining them with the Games of the Cirque even then they called upon the Name of Pescennius Niger and wished publickly for his coming to the Succour of the City Upon which occasion Julianus it is said pronounced these Words That if they had him he would not Reign long over them no more than himself But Severus he said might though he was the most of all to be hated by every body which in the event proved true Now in the time that Severus was the Lieutenant Befriended by Severus of the Province of Lugdunum in Gallia Pescennius Niger and he had contracted a very great Friendship with one another insomuch that the latter having acquitted himself in some Actions there with a great deal of Bravery and Honesty against the Enemy he rendred himself so perfectly agreeable to Severus that Severus recommended him to the Emperor Commodus and engaged for him as a Person that was necessary to be employed in the State And certainly he was a very good Soldier and understood the Discipline of War perfectly well He never suffered his Men to extort from their Quarters in the Provinces Wood or Oyl or any manner of Service He never made Gain to himself out of their Pay nor when he was a Tribune did he suffer the other Officers to do so And after he was set up to be Emperor he commanded two Tribunes who were guilty of making Advantages to themselves out of the Pay of their Soldiers to be stoned to Death A LETTER of Severus himself written to Ragonius Celsus the Governour of Gallia says thus of him IT is a miserable thing that we cannot imitate Letters in his Favoâ—r the Military Discipline of him whom we have overcome in the Field whereas your Men do nothing but ramble here and there the Tribunes are Bathing themselves at Noon day Dine nn Taverns and Lye in Inns Dance Drink and Sing and call this the only Rule that they have that they Drink without all Rule Certainly should these Things be if we had the least Vein of the Discipline of our Fore fathers in us First therefore correct the Tribunes and then you will amend the Soldiers who will no longer stand in fear of you if you are in fear of them You may know this by Pescennius Niger that the Soldiers will never be kept to their Duties unless the Tribunes and the Captains that are over them approve themselves before them good and virtuous Men. So much the Emperor Severus owned concerning his Rival Pescennius Niger of whom he had gotten the Victory The Emperor Marcus Antoninus hath a Letter to Cornelius Balbus concerning him which says thus YOU commend Pescennius to me I know him For your Predecessor told me that he was a brave Man of an honest Life and that he was worthy to be promoted to a higher Station So I have sent Letters which are to be read at the Head of the Troops wherein I have ordered him the command of a body of Three Hundred Armenians One Hundred Sarmatians and One Thousand of our own Men. It is for y 〈…〉 to tell them that it is not the Ambition â—f Pescennius because this is not consonant with o 〈…〉 Principles but it is his Valour and good Manners which hath raised him to that place that 〈…〉 Grandfather Hadrian and my great Grandfather Trajan did never bestow but upon Persons of whose Merits they were most assured The Emperor Commodus says thus of the same Person Pescennius I know he is a Valiant Man 〈…〉 have employed him Twice as a Tribune and iâ— a little time I will advance him to be a General as soon as the old Age of Aelius Corduenuâ— engages him to quit the Service of the State These were the Opinions of all Personâ— therefore about him Severus had often said he would give him his Life with all his heart if he would desist from his Enterprise Hâ— was made Consul by the Emperor Commodus who in that point gave him the precedencâ— even to Severus at which Severus was disobliged Severus says in his own Life that before that his Sons were come to be of an Age to succeed him he had intended when he was sick if he had died to appoint before all others Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus to be his Successors though afterwards they were both the one and the other his greatest Enemies But however this is an Argument of the good Opinion that once Severus had of Niger If we may believe Severus Pescennius Niger was a Man ambitious of Glory of a Life close and reserved and of an advanced Age when â—he invaded the Empire from which last Circumstance he takes the Liberty to blame him as if himself had come to the Empire much younger whereas he reigned but Eighteen Years or thereabouts and yet died at the Age of Eighty Nine At the same time that Severus sent Heraclius into Bithynia to secure that Country he sent Fulvius to go and get into his Custody the Children of Pescennius Niger who were then in the Flower of their Youth He took no notice at all of their Father to the Senate but immediately began an Expedition to compose the State of the East But withal he commanded some Legions into Africa to prevent that Niger should not possess himself of that Quarter and thereby afflict the People of Rome with a want
Macrinus and Julius Granianus of the latter of which there are Declamations now extant But in the Latin Learning his Proficiency was not over-great as it sufficiently appears by his Speeches which he made to the Senate and those others that he made to the Soldiers and to the People Nor did he very much love the Latin Eloquence But the learned Men in it he had a great esteem for and apprehended thir Pens for he was not willing that they should give him an ill report in their Writings therefore he thought them worthy to be By him upon all occasions and with every thing that he did publickly or privately if they had not been present at it he acquainted them himself and desired them to be informed carefully of the truth of all things and accordingly to represent them to the World He renounced the Title of Dominus that His Modesty and Moderation is Lord and ordered that they should write Letters to him as to a private Person reserving only the name of Emperor He refused the Jewels to his Shooes and his Cloaths which had been worn by Heliogabalus He went in a White Vestment as he is commonly Drawn and plain not Embroidered nor Fringed with Gold and of the Common Stuffs He carried himself so frankly with his Friends that he often obliged them to sit down by him and went to their Houses to their Entertainments without Ceremony and received them again continually to his own Table without a formal Invitation He was to be waited upon with as easie Access as a Senator whereas before in some other Reigns a Prince would not suffer himself to be seen He was Handsome His Personage as to his Person and well made as we see him at this day in his Pictures and Statues He had a Cavalier Meen and Stature his Strength answerable and he both knew his Vigour and took care to preserve it Some called him the Pious Alexander he was so amiable at least as a good and useful Prince all the Earth esteemed him He drew a Lot at the Temple of Fortune at the City of Palestrina in the time that Heliogabalus waited for his Life out of Virgil which was this Aen. 6. Siqua fata aspera rumpas Tu Marcellus eris Which was as much as to signifie That if he but escaped the present Danger that he was in he would be a glorious Emperor The occasion of his Name of Alexander Occasion of his Name was from hence In his Native City of Arca Caesarea in Phaenicia there was a Temple Dedicated to Alexander the Great whither upon the Festival of that Prince according to the Custom of the Country his Father and Mammaea his Mother went to assist at the usual Solemnities But by accident his Mother fell into Labour and was delivered of him in this Temple so she called him Alexander and the day of the Birth of Alexander the Son of Mammaea is the same with the day of the Death of Alexander the Great The Senate offered him the name of Antoninus But he refused it although he had an Affinity as well as Heliogabalus to the Emperor Antoninus Caracallus and an Affinity which was so much better than his as it was without the stain of his Bastardise For the Emperor Septimius Severus had Married a Noble Lady out of the East whose Horoscope as he had heard it was That she should be the Wife of a Prince though he was then but in a private Condition Which Lady 's Sister's Daughters were one of them the Mother of this Alexander and the other the Mother of Varius Heliogabalus So the two Sons were truely Cousin Germans to one another and equal upon that Foot in their Relation to Antoninus Caracallus But it was not only the name of Antoninus which he refused but the Senate by a Decree presented him the Title of Alexander the Great and he refused that also Now it will not be amiss here to subjoyn his Speech to the Senate in which he excuses his Acceptation of the one and the other Name Only in the first place I will report the Senate's Acclamations upon this occasion out of the Records of the City as I find them upon the Day but one before the Nones of March when the Senate being assembled in the Temple of Concord and Alexander at their repeated request dispensing at last with himself to repair to them though he knew that their Business was to treat of the Honours which they designed to give him they cried as he entred thus The Gods save our Innocent Augustus The Acclamations of the Senate Gods save the Emperor Alexander The Gods have given you to us The Gods preserve you The Gods have delivered you out of the Hands of the Impure The Gods Eternalize your Reign You suffered a great deal under the Impure Tyrant Impure and Obscene as he was you always regretted to see him The Gods have Rooted him up The Gods preserve your Majesty That Infamous Emperor hath justly been Condemned Under your Reign we are happy The State is happy to be subjected to you The Infamous Emperor hath been dragged for an Example That Luxurious Prince is justly punished The Profaner of all Honour hath been justly Punished The Immortal Gods give a long Life to your Majesty The Judgments of the Gods appear in your Elevation Here Alexander gave them thanks and then they went on again Antoninus Alexander the Gods save you Antoninus Aurelius the Gods preserve you Antoninus the Pious the Gods preserve you We beseech your Majesty to take the name of Antoninus To do that Honour to the good Emperors of that Name to be called an Antoninus Purifie the Name of the Antoninusses What Heliogabalus hath Deformed let your Majesty Purifie Re-establish the Honour of the Name of the Antoninusses Let the blood of the Antoninusses know it self again Antoninus Marcus hath been injured Let your Majesty Avenge him Avenge the injury done to Verus Antoninus Avenge the injury done to Antoninus Caracallus whose Fortitude at least was admirable Worse than ever was Commodus was Heliogabalus only who really was no Emperor nor an Antoninus nor a Citizen nor a Senator nor a Gentleman nor a Roman Health and Life attend your Majesty The Lives of the Antoninusses attend Alexander and let him Prosper Let him be called an Antoninus and let him Prosper Let Antoninus Consecrate again the Temples of the Antoninusses Let Antoninus surmount the Parthians and Persians Let a Sacred Person receive a Sacred Name The Gods preserve you In you Antoninus we have all things with you Antoninus we have all things After these Accclamations the Emperor took the Liberty to speak thus to them Fathers of the Senate THis is not the first of my Obligations to you I am to thank you for the Honour of my Name of Caesar which you gave me so long since and for my Life which you also have preserved I thank you as for the Empire so for the Style of Augustus
take your Title of Great What have I yet done that is so If Alexander and Pompey were so called yet it was after the great Exploits of the one and the great Triumphs of the other Therefore speak no more of this my honoured Fathers and rather than suggest to me the Title of the Great believe me to be one of yourselves and you certainly are a magnificent Assembly After this they repeated the Acclamation The Gods save Aurelius Alexander our Augustus and so ended this matter There were several other things done in the Senate that day But when the House had risen the Emperor returned as it were in Triumph home with much more Honour upon him by refusing than if he had accepted of those supposed Names His Firmness to himself in it and the entire Gravity of his behaviour gave him a Reputation which every body was sensible of to observe that the whole Senate together was not able to over-persuade one young Man He discovered the same Vigour of mind in his Affairs with the Soldiers and a wonderful and singular Constancy in correcting their Insolencies so that although he could not be persuaded by all the solicitations of the Senate to receive either the Name of Antoninus or of Alexander the Great yet Why call'd Severus the Soldiers fixed upon him that of Alexander Severus and this not only conciliated him a great Respect in his own time but it will much redound to his Glory to all Posterity considering that it is derived purely from his own Bosom and it is what his intrinsick Merit and Courage directed them to give him He did not stick indeed to cashier whole Legions at a time for daring to mutiny nor to animadvert very severely upon the Soldiers that had committed any thing which but seemed to be unjust wherein he exceeded the Exactness and Boldness of all the Princes his predecessors since the formation of the Empire under Julius Caesar There were some Omens which from his Birth had presignified his future Reign which were these First the day of his Birth was the Omens of his future Reign same with the day of the Death of Alexander the Great in whose Temple his Mother was delivered of him and whose Name he therefore took from thence Then the same day that he was born a Pigeon's Egg of the colour of Purple was taken and by a good Woman presented to his Mother from whence the Soothsayers said That he would one day and it would be quickly too be an Emperor but not that he would reign long In the mean time whilst his Mother was delivered of him in the Temple a Picture of the Emperor Trajan which was hanging over the head of her Bed at home fell down into the Bed His Nurse was of the Name of Olympias and the Mother of Alexander the Great was of the same His Foster-Father was a Country-man of the Name of Philip and the Father of Alexander the Great was the same Upon the day that he was born they say there appeared a Star of the first magnitude in the Heavens all the day long over the City of Arca Caesarea and the Sun was crowned with a bright Circle about it whilst it pointed upon his Father's House A Laurel in his Father's Garden which was set by the side of a Peach in one year had over-topped the Peach The Peach being malum Persicum this those who pretended to Augury said was an Omen that he should one day Conquer the Persians The Night before his Mother was delivered of him she dreamt she should be brought to Bed of a little purple-coloured Dragon and his Father had dreamt at the same time that he was carried up to the Heavens upon the Wings of the Image of Victory which is in the House of the Senate at Rome He consulted when he was a Youth with a Soothsayer about his Fortune in the way of drawing Lots The first Lot which he drew said That the Empire of the Heavens the Earth and the Sea awaited him by which it was easie to understand that he should one day be Deified The second said That the Empire paramount awaited him which was plainly no other than the Empire of Rome Another Lot that he drew was these Verses of Virgil Aen. 6. Excudent alii spirantia mollius aera Tu regere imperio populos Romane memento Hae tibi erunt Artes pacique imponere morem Parcere subjectis debellare superbis That is That his Arts should be Government and the giving of Laws of War and Peace and that he should be the Minister of Mercy and Justice to the People There were several other signs of his future Grandeur besides all these He had a Fire and a Vivacity in his Eyes extraordinary He looked one down with it you could not hold your Eyes against his long His Mind discovered a Power of Divination in it very frequently so that he spoke of things to come as really they did He had a Memory so happy that none but Acholius hath said that he was once prompted or assisted in any thing Coming very young to the Empire he acted altogether in all things with the Advice of his Mother as if she had reigned in Conjunction with him And indeed shew was a good and pious Lady but covetous and loved to amass Money to a fault He began his Reign with a general purgation of all the Magistrates and Officers of the promotion of the impure Heliogabalus being Persons whom that Prince had preferred to the greatest Dignities out of the very Lees of Mankind He clear'd the State of them He purged the Senate and the Order of the Reforms the Government Gentry of them He purged the Tribes of the City He turned out all obscene and infamous Persons from all Places in the Court in which last he made such a Reform that retain'd not a Mouth but what was necessary Because an Emperor he said was an ill Steward of the People who out of their Bowels feeds a Company of unnecessary Mouths that are useless to the State He looked carefully after the Magazines of Provisions and the administration thereof to the Soldiers out of whose allowances if the Tribunes had made any unlawful Gain to themselves he punished it with Death As for Causes and Matters of Law he ordered them first to be well considered in all their Circumstances by his Ministers and his Council Learned in the Law whereof Ulpian was the Chief and when they had done he directed them to make a Report of their Judgments to him He moderated an infinite number of Laws concerning the Rights of the People and those of the Exchequer In which cases he always communicated them with twenty great Lawyers besides others who were wise and eloquent Men to the number of no less than fifty generally so that there were as many Votes to a Constitution of his as to an Act of the Senate These Persons spoke admirably well in his Councils every
Gordianuâ— the Third a Youth of about Eleven or some say Thirteen or as Junius Cordus says Sixteen Years of Age might be created and declared the Caesar that is the Person who should next succeed to the Empire who therefore accordingly was brought to the Senate and invested He is declar'd Emperor with that Quality with the usual Solemnity He was the Grandson of the Emperor Gordianus the First but whether by a Daughter as many say or by his Son Gordianus the Second who died with him in Africa as Dexippus thinks I cannot determine His Mother Educated him Maximus and Balbinus Reigned two Years and then were kill'd in a Mutiny of the Soldiers The two Maximins were extinct before So there remaining without any Competitor Gordianus the Third who had for the two years last past been honoured with the Quality of the Caesar the Soldiers the People Senate and all the Country with great Joy and Alacrity and with extraordinary demonstrations of their Affection agreed to proclaim him Emperor Loving him in Memory and for the Merits of his Grandfather Gordianus the First and of his Father or otherwise his Uncle Gordianus the Second who both of them took up Arms for the Senate and the People of Rome against Maximin and lost their lives in their service by the Fortune of that War It was look'd upon as a Sign That Gordianus the Third would not be a Prince of a long Reign that such a great Eclipse of the Sun happen'd about that time that the Day was turn'd into Night and you could see to do nothing without Candles He entertained the City of Rome with Sports and Pastimes upon his coming to the Empire not only the more to ingratiate himself with them but to make them also forget the Heats and Divisions which they had had amongst themselves Then an Insurrection commenc'd in Africa headed by Sabinianus in the Year when Venustus and Sabinus were the Consuls Gordianus Armed the President of Mauritania against that Revolter who besieged and reduced him to that extremity that all his Party left him and came and acknowledged their fault After this he commenced a War with Persia the Emperor himself which was his second Consulship and Pompeianus being then Consuls The young Emperor before he went to that War married His Father-in-Law the Daughter of Mysitheus who as he was a Person of great Erudition and rare Eloquence Gordianus thought him not unworthy to be admitted into his Alliance and presently he made him his Captain of the Guards This strengthen'd his Reign Himself was for his Age very Sage and very Advised but being also assisted with the Counsels of so excellent a Father-in-Law nothing was acted by him that was puerile or despisable nor was he made a Property of by the Eunuchs and Servants of the Court which he was but too much subject to be before this Match whilst he continued under the Regency of his Mother We have a Letter of his Father-in-Law written to him and another from him written to his Father-in-Law in which are contained great Marks of the Reformation of the Times by virtue of the Counsels of Mysitheus The Letters are these To my Lord and Emperor my Son Mysitheus his Father-in-Law and Captain of the Garuds IT is a Pleasure to me to observe the Alteration of the Times since every thing was bought and sold by the Eunuchs and such as pretended themselves to be Friends but were really the greatest Enemies to your Majesty I am glad that that Blot is removed from your Reign Your Majesty is your self also very glad of it which I am the more pleased to see because it shews that howsoever badly Affairs have been before managed the fault was not in you my Son Nor was it to your mind that the Commands in the Army were disposed of through the favour of the Eunuchs or that Persons were denied the Rewards due to their Services or that they were either saved for Money and Affection when they deserved to die or put to death when they deserved to live It was not by your fault that the Treasury was exhausted but all these things lie at the door of those who were continually Plotting and entring into Cabals to deceive you whereby they prevented the Access of Men of Virtue and Honesty to your Person prepossessing you against such and on the contrary insinuating others into your favour as vitious as themselves through whose and their own Methods together they made a Prey of you The Gods be thanked that your Majesty is sensible of all this and that you have taken it into your Consideration to Reform the State I am happy in being the Father-in-Law of so good a Prince A Prince who examines into and who will know all things and who hath banished from him those by whom before he was made an Auction of and sold to whosoever offered most The Emperor Gordianus to Mysitheus my Father and my Captain of the Guards BUT that the Almighty Gods continue to Protect the Roman Empire the Slaves the Eunuchs would ere this have even Ruined that and me I now see very well that Faelicio was not a fit Person for the Command of the Guards which I gave him nor Serapammo to be trusted with the Fourth Legion I am sensible not to reckon up all Particulars that I have done many things otherwise than in Prudence I ought and I thank the Gods that through your Insinuation who are entirely Just and True to me I understand my Error and that I know the things which have been before shut up from me Maurus imposed upon me and by a Confederacy with Gaudianus Reverendus and Montanus at his Witnesses to confirm what he said in order to win upon my belief he either commended or discommended Persons to me as he pleased My Father I would desire you to search into the Truth of things An Emperor is in a miserable Condition that hath the Truth hid from him For since he cannot walk abroad to examine what he would himself of necessity he must take up with such as he hears and what comes to him upon the Credit of others By these two Letters it is easie to see that this young Prince was much amended and rectified in his Conduct by the Advices of Mysitheus The Gravity and the Uprightness of that Man had such an influence upon him that he made Gordianus Famous who otherwise might have pass'd his time in great Obscurity without any thing but his Quality to recommend him to Posterity An Earthquake happened in the Reign of this Emperor so terrible that whole Cities with their People were swallowed up in it On which occasion a great many Sacrifices were celebrated in all Parts of Rome and generally all over the World The Books says Aelius Cordus of the Sibyls were consulted and all the Ceremonies being performed that seemed to be prescribed therein then this universal Calamity ceased After the Earthquake and in the time of the Consulships
it would be thought fit to depose him from the Empire again He spoke as much as he could to that purpose but after all the Faction of Philip prevailed and carried it so against him that they turned the Tables upon him and deposed Gordianus from the Empire He seeing that his Credit was not so great as Philip's demanded that at least the Power should be equal betwixt them This was denied Then he offered to content himself with retaining the Quality of the Caesar This was also denied Then he desired that they would not refuse him the Office of the Captain of the Guards But this was also denied His last Prayer was his Life and to serve Philip as a Commander in the Army Philip had almost consented to this who said nothing himself but directed his Party in all things by Nods and private Signs But when he considered with himself the Affection which the Senate and People of Rome together with all Africa and Syria and indeed all the Empire had for Gordianus as being of a Noble Family and both the Son and Grandson of an Emperor and one that had done great Services to the Empire in the Wars he thought that it might one day happen that the Army by some unforeseen Accident might take a fancy to re-inthrone him again because their present Animosity which was upon the occasion of their want of Provisions was but a Passion that might not last always and therefore he ordered him to be carried out of sight Gordianus crying as he went and to be disrobed of the Purple and killed which after a little hesitation was done accordingly after he had reigned six Years Thus by Blood and not by Right did the Emperor Philip raise himself In the mean time Argunthis King of Scythia ravaged the Kingdoms adjoyning to him unto which he was encouraged especially by the death of Mysitheus by whose Counsels the Empire had been so well governed before under Gordianus Philip willing to conceal his accession to the Empire by Blood sent Letters to Rome with a quite different Account in which he said that Gordianus was dead of a Sickness and that as for himself all the Army had elected him Emperor The Senate was easily to be deceived in the Truth of things at that distance They accepted and proclaim'd Philip Emperor and reposed the deceased Gordianus in the number of the Gods He was a handsome gay Character of Gordianus amiable Youth obliging to all of an agreeable Life and good Erudition he wanted nothing but Age for the Throne The People and the Senate loved him and so also did the Army before the Faction of Philip beyond any Prince that they had ever had yet All the Soldiers and the Senate says Cordus called him their Son and all the People called him their Darling Nor did Philip after he had killed him take away his Images or throw down his Statues or raze out his Name He always gave him the Title of a God amongst the very Party with whom he had confederated against him He seriously honoured him but not without mixing with his Worship a great deal of foreign Craft and Dissimulation The House of the Gordiani is standing at His Buildings this day It was very finely beautified by this last Prince Their Villa or Country-Seat is upon the Way that leads to Palestrina consisting of two hundred Pillars of four several Orders fifty of the Marble of Carysto in the Island of Negrepont fifty of the Claudian Marble fifty of that of the City Synnada in Phrygia and fifty of that of Numidia all of the same measure There are three Galleries three hundred foot long The rest is suitable to the Work and the Baths such as no part of the World except Rome can parallel The Senate decreed this extraordinary privilege to the Family of the Gordiani that their Posterity if they pleased might for ever be exempted from Tutelages Embassies and all other publick Duties There are no Publick Buildings by this last Prince extant at Rome besides some Fountains and Baths The Baths he built not neither for publick but only private use He had begun to build a Royal Structure in the Field of Mars at the foot of the Mount consisting of two Galleries of a thousand foot length each and the distance of five hundred foot from one another the Interspace on either side to be adorned with Greens composed of Laurel Myrtle and Box and in the middle a Terrass of the length of the Galleries sustained with rows of small Pillars and having over head another stately Gallery of five hundred foot Besides this he with the direction of Mysitheus had designed to build a Summer Bath which should bear his own Name and also other Baths for the Winter for the use of this Place to render both the Greens the Galleries and the whole Work the more useful But all these things have since been in the occupation of private Persons and are now taken up in their Houses Gardens and Tenements There was at Rome in the time of this Emperor two and thirty Elephants whereof two and twenty were of his own sending thither the other ten were brought by the Emperor Alexander Severus Besides these there were ten Elks ten Tygres sixty tame Lions thirty tame Leopards ten Hyaena's a thousand couple of Gladiators who were maintained at the Charge of the Exchequer One Sea-Horse one Rhinoceros ten White and Wild Lions ten Camel-Panthers twenty Wild Asses forty Wild Horses and an innumerable company of other Beasts of divers kinds all which Gordianus had prepared to adorn his Persian Triumph But in this the Publick Wish had not its effect For they were by Philip given to be hunted and killed at the Secular Games and the Games of the Cirque when during the Consulship of himself and his Son he Celebrated the Anniversary of the Foundation of the City of Rome which was then arrived to its Thousandth Year That which is upon the Records concerning the Murderers of Julius Caesar is observed by Aelius Cordus to have happened now again to the Murderers of the Emperor Gordianus All those who embrued their hands in his Blood who it is said were Nine after the death of the two Philips came to kill themselves with the same Swords with which they had stabbed him This was therefore the Life and End of the three Princes of the Name of Gordianus The two first were killed in Africa the third upon the Borders of Persia where at the Castle of Circessum which is upon the Euphrates a Sepulchre was erected by the Soldiers for him with this Inscription written in both the Greek Latin Persian Hebrew and Aegyptian Languages that all the World might read and understand it To the Honour of the Inscription on his Tomb. Emperor Gordianus Conqueror of the Persians Conqueror of the Goths Conqueror of the Sarmatians Represser of the Tumults of the Romans Conqueror of the Germans but not the Conqueror of the Philips
of Rome with great Prudence and to the equal satisfaction of the Senate and the People They deferred very much to the Senate made excellent and Wise Laws sat in Person in Judicature and admirably ordered all the Military Affairs Maximus prepared all things for a War against the Parthians and Balbinus prepared himself for another against the Germans designing to leave the young Caesar Gordianus behind them at Rome But the discontented Soldiers in the mean time sought an opportunity to kill them but had not yet found any because they were so well guarded with a Body of Germans Some Differences there were betwixt Maximus Jealousies between the Emperors and Balbinus but they were secret and such as were rather to be guessed than seen Balbinus look'd upon Maximus as an Ignoble Man of no Birth and Maximus spurned at Balbinus again as a weak Man of no Policy This gave an occasion to the Soldiers that had Wit to understand that it was easie to kill two such Princes as could not agree betwixt themselves Whilst therefore a great many both of the Guards and the Courtiers were diverting themselves at the Publick Games abroad and the two Emperors were left alone in the Palace with only some Germans near them they Attacked them The Germans were at a particular part of the Palace waiting upon Balbinus The Storm fell upon Maximus who not finding any means to save himself without the succour of the Germans sent to Balbinus to desire him to send him a Guard Balbinus suspecting a Plot against himself out of an ambition of Maximus to Reign Sole Monarch delayed to send him any so long that whilst they stood in contradiction of one another upon that Subject the Soldiers came upon them both and stript them of their Royal Vestments and drew them by violence out of the Palace and abused them and cut them and were hurrying them through the City into the Camp when perceiving that the Germans advanced to relieve them they killed They are both slain them both and left them dead in the Streets At the same time they took the young Caesar Gordianus with them into the Camp whither they retired and proclaimed him Emperor as he was the only Person left at present to be so Triumphing and Insulting over the Senate and the People The Germans having nothing to do to Fight after their Masters were killed betook themselves to their own Quarter which they had without the City Thus died those two good Emperors in a manner unworthy of their Virtues and Actions for nothing was more Brave than Maximus and nothing more Sweet than Balbinus One may be certain of this from the Nature of the thing it self For when the Election is in their own power why should they make choice of ill Princes They were Men that had been exercised before in several employments of Honour and Power The one had been twice Consul the other the Governour of the City of Rome and both were of an advanced Age when they came to the Empire and were beloved by the Senate and though the People at the first apprehended the Reign of Maximus yet finding him more Gracious than they expected even those had begun to lay aside their Fears and to Love him also Maximus and Balbinus reigned one Year Maximin and his Son reigned two or as some say three Years The House of Balbinus is still to be seen at Rome a large and stately Building possessed by his Family to this day There is a great disagreement amongst the Greek and Latin Historians about the Names of Maximus and Pupienus which are indeed but two Names for the same Person But yet the Greek Historians as Herodotus and Dexippus whom I have followed never using the Name of Pupienus and the Latin Historians scarce ever using the Name of Maximus but what the one says was done by Maximus the other saying it was done by Pupienus and making Pupienus and Balbinus to be Emperors together instead of Maximus and Balbinus To avoid this distraction we are only to confide in the Account of Curius Fortunatianus where he tells us that as both the Names understand the same Person he was called Pupienus as by his own Name and Maximus as by the Name of his Father The Letter of Claudius Julianus the Consul at that time in which he Congratulates the Elevation of him and Balbinus to the Empire is directed to him by the Name of Pupienus which is this To their most Sacred and most Invincible Majesties Pupienus and Balbinus from Claudius Julianus YOur Majesties by the good Appointment of the most Excellent and most Mighty Jupiter and the Immortal Gods and by the Judgment of the Senate and the Consent of all Mankind having received the Empire to be by you protected against the Assaults of the wicked Maximin and to be Governed according to the Laws of the Romans though as yet your Majesties have not sent unto me your Advices yet I could no sooner read the Act of the Senate for that purpose which hath been transmitted to me by my Brother-Consul Celsus Aelianus but I must Congratulate the City of Rome for whose preservation you have been Elected I Congratulate the Senate to whom according to the judgment which they had of your Merits you have restored their Pristine Dignity I Congratulate the Country of Italy whose defence you in a particular manner undertake against the devastation of the Enemy I Congratulate the Provinces which the insatiable Avarice of ill Governours have rent and torn in pieces they are raised to some hopes of safety and do wait their deliverance from you I Congratulate also the Legions themselves and the Auxiliaries who from all Parts of the World have their Eyes upon you to Adore you and promise themselves from you a Reign worthy of the Roman Empire There is therefore no Language so Powerful there is no Eloquence so Happy there is no where that Wit that is so fruitful as to express sufficiently the Felicity of the Publick in you We may judge what Great things we are to expect from you by only the beginnings of your Reigns in which you have re-established the Roman Laws and the course of Justice which was before abolished You have made your selves Examples of Clemency which had been also forgotten and you have secured unto the Subject their Lives Liberties Customs and Properties These are things ti is not easie to recount much less is it to prosecute with that Dignity thâ—â— they deserve For how shall I express the sense of the Duties which we owe to you for your having preserved our Lives to us against the Cut-throats sent by the proud and bloody Maximin every where into the Provinces to revenge himself oâ— the whole Order of the Senate Especially weâ—â— may my Inferiour Parts fall below the Dignity of such a Subject when I cannot describe so much as the peculiar Joy of my own Mind to set those two Persons raised to be the Emperors of
Rome and the Princes of the whole Race of Mankind to whom and to whose Censures I have ever submitted my self and have religiously endeavoured to approve my Carriage and Actions And although I may take a great deal of confidence in the Testimonies which have been giveâ— given of me by the Princes the Predecessors to you yet it is the Gravity of your Judgments which will carry the greatest Weight with me and in which I shall choose to Glory The Gods long continue the Felicity of your Reigns to the Roman World As Scipio the Conqueror of Carthage it is said pray'd That the Gods would preserve the State in the Condition in which it then was because there could not be a better so when I reflect upon you and upon the Establishment which you have made of the Empire which was Tottering till you came unto it I can only pray that the Gods would preserve the same to you in that State wherein your selves have placed it Under these two Princes there was a War betwixt the Carpi and the People of Moesia About the same time commenced the War of the Scythians and the ruin of Istria Dexippus gives great Commendations of Balbinus he says that he resisted the Soldiers when he was killed with a Couragious Mind not fearing Death and that he was one who was well instructed in all things But as to Maximus he does not agree to the Characters which is given him by most other Grecian Historians A SUPPLEMENT OF THE EMPERORS FROM Gordianus the Third UNTO Valerian the First FRom the Death of Gordianus the Third unto the beginning of the Reign of Valerian it is accounted to be about Nine or at the most Ten Years In which short time these Fifteen following Princes of whom we have little left upon History besides their Names successively carried and lost the Empire of Rome I. Marcus The Senate upon the News of the Death of Gordianus immediately exerted their own Right and created Marcus Emperor according to Zonaras He was of their own Order a Venerable Person addicted to the study of Wisdom and Philosophy But he soon fell sick and died in the Palace at Rome II. Severus Hostilianus After Marcus the Senate by their Suffrages according to Zonaras also set up this Prince who likewise had the fortune to fall sick soon after and died III. Marcus Julius Philip the Father This was the Person who was the Author of the Murder of Gordianus the Third He associated his Son with him in the Empire His Wife was Marcia Otacilia Severa who it is thought was an occasion being her self instructed in the Christian Religion that her Husband was Favourable to the Christians IV. Marcus Julius Philip the Son He was otherwise called Caius Julius Saturninus Philippus But after his Assumption to the Empire by his Father he took the same Names with him They reigned together five some say six Years V. Jotapianus This Person set up himself for the Empire in Syria in the time of the Philips But was soon oppressed again and ended his Pretences with his Life VI. Marinus Some call him Publius Carvilius Marinus He was set Emperor up by the Legions in Garrison in Pannonia or Maesia at the same time that Jotapian made his Pretences in the East and was killed soon after VII Meslius Quintus Trajanus Decius the Father The Army in Illyricum advanced this Prince in opposition to the Philips He engaged the Emperor Philip the Father in a Battel at the City of Verona and slew him there Philip the Son was killed at Rome VIII Decius the Son He was called Quintus Herennius Etruscus Meslius Decius He reigned in conjunction with his Father IX Caius Valens Hostilianus Some Medals and Antient Inscriptions mention him and he is supposed to have set up himself against the Decii as did the two following But neither the Greek nor the Latin Historians are found to say any thing of him X. Lucius Priscus He was the President of Macedonia when he was set up to be Emperor against the Decii XI Valens Licinianus This is the same whom Trebellius Pollio makes the Nineteenth in his Catalogue and Account of the 30 Tyrants He had much of the Love of the People XII Caius Vibius Trebonianus Gallus the Father IMP. CAES. C VIBIVS TREBONIANVS GALVS AVG IMP. CAES. C. VIB. VOLVSIANVS AVG. IMP. CAES. AEMILLIANVS P. F. AVG. IMP. C. P. LIC. VALERIANVS AVG. IMP. C. P. LIC. GALLIENVS AVG. IMP. C. M. CASS. LAT. POSTVMVS AVG. P. 97. Vol. 11 XIII Vibius Volusianus his Son These two succeeded together to the Empire after the Decii with whom some joyn a Third namely XIV Hostilianus Perpenna He was preferred to the Empire by the Senate in the time that Gallus and his Son were Created by the Army XV. Caius Julius Aemilianus This Prince was Created by the Legions in Maesia and after the death of Gallus and his Son who were killed by their own Soldiers he reigned the space of three Months and governed the Empire with a deal of Prudence Then dying of a sickness he left it vacant to the Emperor Valerian In fine the History of these Princes and of the whole Interval from Gordianus the Third to Valerian is inveloped in so much Darkness that certainly it is very difficult to find any one place in which the Antient Writers are of any Agreement amongst themselves THE A. Christi CCLIV EMPEROR Valerian the First BY TREBELLIUS POLLIO VALERIAN was in the Province of Rhaetia when the Army set him up to be Emperor with the unanimous consent and approbation of the Senate and the People He was a Man of an Honourable Birth the Son of Valerius and he was one who in his time had passed through all the Gradual Offices and Honours of the State with great applause which paved the Way for him to the Throne To let you see the Esteem which the Publick Respect of the Senate to him had of his Merits and how well he stood in the opinion of the most Noble Senate at the time when he was chosen to be a Censor I will give you the Act of the Senate which passed for his Election Upon the sixth of the Kalends of November the Year in which the two Decii were the Consuls the Senate having received from those Princes Letters in which they left it to the Senate's Power to appoint a Person to the Place of a Censor met for the purpose in the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Motion being made and the Question put whom they should Choose instead of waiting to be asked their Votes severally according to the Custom they all cried with one Voice in the absence of Valerian who was then in the Field with the Emperors The Life of Valerian is a continued Censorship As his Manners are Better than all the World besides so let him be the Judge of the Manners of all the World Let him judge of the Crimes of the Senate who hath none of his own
at Rome The City of Emissa was nigh destroyed by the severity of Balista at this time and many of the Inhabitants killed with the Treasurer and such others of the Party of Quietus as had fled for shelter thither Odenatus ordered an Account of every thing that had passed to be faithfully sent to the Emperor Gallienus at Rome as if it was in his Cause that he had done what he did Gallienus was pleased with the security which accrued to him by the death of Macrianus and his Sons But the use that he made of it was Dissoluteness of Gallienus only to indulge his Lusts and Pleasures the more which he pursued without the least regard to the Condition of his Captive Father He gave the Publick the diversions of the Races of the Cirque Stage-plays the Games of Leaping Running and Wrestling a Chase of Wild Beasts and the Games of the Gladiators whereunto he invited the People to assist and be Merry as upon Days of the greatest Joy and Triumph However several could not but lament the Captivity of his Father but Gallienus gloried rather in it because his Father he said had lost his Crown by I know not what love of Virtue which he renounced and so he solaced himself above measure It was plain that he could not endure the Eye of his Father upon him and he thought himself happy that the Old Man with his Gravity was so far off removed About the same time Aemilian in Egypt Revolted and set up for himself as Emperor and seized upon the Granaries and the Magazines of that Country till several Towns there were almost laid under a Famine Against him Theodotus a General of Gallienus marched and fought him and took him and sent him alive to the Emperor his Master Gallienus still persisting in his Sports and his Luxury and no better looking after the Publick Weal than a Boy that is made a King in a Play of a Company of Boys The Gauls to whom it is Natural to be Light and a People that cannot contain themselves under Princes which are luxurious and which degenerate from that Roman Valour which did at first subject them called Posthumius to the Empire whereunto the Forces of that Province consented who were very sensible and accordingly complained of the slavery of Gallienus to his Lusts Against Posthumius marched Gallienus himself with a Body of Troops He besieged Posthumius in the City where he was But as he was viewing the Walls the Gauls distinguish'd him and gave him a Wound by the shot of an Arrow Posthumius reigned seven Years in Gallia and asserted that Country bravely against the Incursions of all the Barbarians round about The War betwixt Gallienus and him was long protracted through a number of Sieges and Battels Sometimes the one sometimes the other carried it insomuch that Gallienus was obliged by the difficulties which beset him to make a Peace with the pretended Emperor Aureolus for the better opportunity of opposing Posthumius To Many Commotitions and Wars these Mischiefs the Scythians invaded the Province of Bithynia in the Lesser Asia and destroyed whole Towns there They came up to the City of Nicomedia and burnt it and grievously laid it waste Besides which as if all the World conspired at once to afflict us in Sicily there arose as it were a servile War by the means of a company of Robbers that roved up and down and required a great deal of pains to suppress them All these things happened out of a Contempt of Gallienus because there is nothing which gives so much Boldness to the Wicked nor so much Hopes and Encouragement to the Good as when either on the one hand a Good Prince is feared or on the other a Dissolute Prince is despised Amongst so many Commotions and Wars an Earthquake in the Year when Gallienus and A dreadful Earthquake Faustinianus were the Consuls in a violent manner shook the Cities of Asia it shook Libya and the City of Rome and there was a Darkness for several days The roaring of the Earth from beneath was like the Voice of Thunder from above Many Fabricks were consumed in this Earthquake and their Inhabitants with them and others killed with the fright The Earth opened in abundance of places and salt Water came up into the Breaches and several Cities were covered with a Flood of Waters Above all it did the most mischief in Asia At the same time so great a Pestilence raged at Rome and in the Cities of Achaia that five thousand Persons died of it in one day So the Books of the Sibyls were Inspected and the Peace of the Gods begged and sought into and a Sacrifice was offered to Jupiter the Author of Health according as it was prescribed by the said Books of the Sibyls Fortune raged on all sides Here the Earth shook and trembled there it gaped and opened The many Misfortunes of the Times in other Parts a Pestilence laid us waste Valerian in the mean time a Captive Gallia distracted with the Wars of Posthumius and the Barbarians the East under the Empire of Odenatus Aureolus the Master of Illyricum and Aemilian the Master of Egypt Thrace taken up betwixt the Goths and Claudius who laid waste Macedonia and besieged Thessalonica No moderate degree of quiet had we on any side And all this in a great measure as I have said was yet occasioned by the Contempt in which Gallienus was with all the World which he drew upon himself by his excessive Luxury and not only that but he was a Man who besides if he was out of Danger was fit enough for all kind of Wickedness In Achaia Martianus with the Forces of Gallienus Engaged the Goths and obliged them to retire The Scythians who are another part of the Goths at the same time laid waste Asia and plundered and burnt the Temple of Diana at Ephesus the Fame of the Riches whereof is so well known to all the Earth It is a shame almost to say what Expressions what Jests came upon these occasions from the mouth of Gallienus when he was told of the Revolt and Troubles of this and the other Place Egypt it was told him was Revolted And what then says he cannot we be without the Flax of Egypt Asia it was told him was laid waste both by the Earthquakes and the Scythian Enemy What then says he cannot we be without Salt-petre When Galliá was lost to Posthumius he laughed and said Cannot the State be safe unless we have our Stuffs from Arras And so of all Parts of the World when he had lost them he Jested and was no more concerned than for his old Cloaths or the loss of any vile Slave And that nothing which is Ill should be wanting to his Times the City of Byzantium which is the Key of the Hellespont and famous for its Naval Powers was rendred totally desolate by the Soldiers of the same Gallienus that scarce any body was left alive in
Cecropius a Colonel of the Dalmatians who by his Address and Prudence had much assisted towards the pretensions of Claudius about Milan and his Brother Valerian was also killed with him at the same place whom though some deny to have been honoured with the Imperial Style and some make him a Caesar and some neither the one nor the other yet this is certain that after the Captivity of his Father we find in the publick Registers a Note of the Emperor Valerian ' s being a Consul which can only mean the Son Valerian The Soldiers fell into a great Mutiny upon the death of Gallienus and cried him up for an Useful Brave and Powerful Prince taken off only to serve private Interests But as it is the known way to appease Soldiers to give them Money and great Promises Martianus with the advice of others of the principal Officers having done this and given them upon the spot because they had Money enough at hand twenty pieces of Gold a Man they submitted and were satisfied to have Gallienus entred as a Tyrant upon the Publick Records And then Claudius a good and truly Venerable Person a lover of his Country and the Laws and dear to all of worth acceptable to the Senate and well known to the People took the Empire upon him In this manner lived and died Gallienus who was born to serve his Belly and his Lusts Character of Gallienus He spent Days and Nights in Drinking and Whoring without caring what became of all the State About thirty Persons in his time set up for Emperors to the dishonour of the Roman Name nay even Women-Revolte 〈…〉 His horrid Luxury Governed better than he In the Spring to tell you some of his miserable Devices he made himself Beds of Roses and Pomilions of Apple-Trees and all sorts of Fruits Grapes he preserved three Years He had Melons in the depth of Winter Sweet Wine all the Ye 〈…〉 long Green Figs and Apples fresh from t 〈…〉 Trees in Months which were out of their proper Season His Table Linen was always embroidered with Gold His Services of Gold set with Jewels The Powder for his H 〈…〉 was of Gold dust He often went abroad iâ— a Crown radiated like that of God At Româ— where the Emperors appear always in Gowns he wore a Purple Cloak with Buttons of Jewels set in Gold and a Purple Tunicâ— embroidered with Gold His Belt was beset with Jewels His Shoes were covered with Jewels He Eat in Publick The People h 〈…〉 softned and attracted to him by Largesses He invited the Ladies to the Feast of his Consulship who kissed his Hand and he presented them with four Pieces of Gold of his Coin Aâ— a great Philosopher Xenophon once said wheâ— he had lost his Son I knew that when I beg 〈…〉 him I begat a Mortal so said Gallienus wheâ— he heard that his Father was taken Prisoner I knew my Father was a Mortal For which Saying Annius Cornicula vainly commends his Constancy Going out and coming in he was often attended with Musick Voices and Instruments He Washed in the Summer six or seven times a day in the Winter twice or thrice He drank always in Vessels of Gold scorning Glass because he said nothing was commoner than it He changed his Wine every time he drank never at one Meal drank twice of the same His Mistresses often sat at the Table with him A second Table was always by of Jesters and all sorts of Mimicks When he removed to the Gardens wh 〈…〉 h bear his Name all the Houshold followed him who were admitted to Eat and Bath and Swim with him Women also young and old handsome or unhandsome were often admitted with whom he jested and diverted himself whilst the Empire every where went to ruine at the same time He was extremely Cruel however upon the Soldiers for sometimes he killed three or four thousand of them together in a day He ordered a vast great Coloss to be made of him in the form of that of the Sun which was begun but when he died it was left unfinished He designed to have placed it upon the Esquiline holding a Spear in the hollow of whose Shaft a Child might go up by steps to the top He had ordered a Chariot and Horses in imitation of those of the Sun to be made proportionable to this Statue and to be set upon a vast Basis But the Emperors Claudius and Aurelian who came after thought all this foolish He did also design to continue the Work of the Portico Flaminia as far as to Ponte Molle and to make it with four or five Orders of Pillars But it would be tedious to say more of him Let whoever desires to know any thing more go to Palfurius Sural who hath written a Journal of his Life I shall proceed to Saloninus Gallienus his Son And then I will say something in short of the Thirty pretended Emperors or Tyrants in particular who set up themselves against this Prince I must own I have here studiously pretermitted several things out of a respect to his Posterâ—â—y You know Sir very well what a War a Man many times raises against himself who writes of the Ancestors of another I do not doubt but you remember what Tully says in his Hortensius Gallienus with the time that he enjoy'd the Empire in conjunction with his Father reigned it is certain in all Fifteen Years that is Six Years in conjunction with Valerian who then was taken Prisoner and Ten afterwards in which he reigned by himself I mention this because some have said that Gallienus died in the Ninth or Tenth Year of his Reign By which if they mean the Years that he reigned alone after the Captivity of his Father it is true that he died in his Ninth Year But otherwise those Decennial Games which we have spoken of were celebrated by him in his Tenth Year And after them he overcame the Gotâ—â— or Scythians made a Peace with Odenatus and Aureolus fought against Post humius and Lolliâ—nus and did many other things some to his Honour but more to his eternal Shame he even Raked about the Taverns always in the Night and passed the greatest part of his time in the Debauched Company of Pimps Players and Poltrons Gallienus the Second BY TREBELLIUS POLLIO THIS Gallienus was the Son of Gallienus the First and the Grandson of the Emperor Valerian the First There is little to be said of him more than that he was Nobly born Educated like a Prince and at last killed not upon his own account but upon the account of his Father Some call him Saloninus Gallienus because he was born at the City of Salona in Dalmatia or because his Mother's Name was Cornelia Salonina Pipara the Daughter of a Barbarian King who whether she was the Wife or the Mistress of his Father it is certain that she was one that he extremely loved There is extant to this day in Rome a Statue which did
this Venerable Empire of the Romans had received its last period then As for all other things the Lives of both Posthumius and Lollianus are obscure Being not Persons of any great matter of Quality they are chiefly noted for their Personal Bravery 5. VICTORINVS AFter the death of the Posthumii and Lollianus in Gallia Victorinus remained the sole Emperor there who being a great Soldier had been before chosen by Posthumius to be his Colleague when the Emperor Gallienus with a great Force came against him from Italy In which War assisted with the succours of the Germans Posthumius and Victorinus together fought several Battels with the Forces of Gallienus but at last received a defeat Victorinus was one that gave himself very much to corrupt the Soldiers and other Men's Wives which proved his destruction A Clerk to a Troop whose Wife he had debauched with a Party that he made killed him at the City of Cologne and his Son a Youth who was just before created a Caesar was killed with him Setting aside this one Vice Victorinus was a very brave and an excellent Emperor by many commended Julius Aterianus hath written this Character of him I know no one that ought to be preferred before Victorinus who reigned in Gallia sometime after Junius Posthumius Neither did Trajan excel him in Bravery nor M. Antoninus in Clemency nor Nerva in Gravity nor Vespasian in his Care of the Publick Money nor Pertinax or Severus in Military Discipline But then his Lust and his extream passion for the Pleasures of Women undid all so again that People have not dared to record his Virtues because of that Vice for which he justly deserved the end that he had He was the Son of Victorina or Victoria who was called The Mother of the Camp and who was the Person that excited one after another Posthumius Lollianus her Son and Grandson Victorinus and after them Marius and Tetricus to assume the Empire of Gallia 6. Victorinus Junior VICTORINUS the Son was declared Caesar by his Father and by his Grandmother Victoria but about an hour before his Father was killed and himself was killed with him There is a small Sepulchre of them about Cologne in Marble extant which hath this Inscription Here lye the Two Victorini Pretended Emperors of Gallia 7. MARIVS MARIUS whom Victoria put up after the death of Victorinus reign'd but three days and was originally a Smith What Tully says of a Consul who enjoyed that Office no longer than six hours one afternoon We have had a Consul says he so severe and so strict that no Man during his Magistracy either dined or supped or slept one might also say the like as to this Emperor He was created one day appeared to Reign the next and was killed upon the Third Not but that he was a stout Man and one that had passed through the several degrees of Command in the Army before he came to this He was the strongest in the Hand and Fingers of any one that hath been almost ever known His Veins were more like strong Cords or Ropes about his Fingers With one Finger he would hurt as much as if you had a blow given with a Cudgel or a Hammer Some say he would only set his fore finger against a Cart and stop it coming Betwixt two Fingers he bruised to pieces hard Stones A Soldier killed him upon some disgust who had formerly been a Work-man with him in his Forge as he struck the Man said to him This Sword is of your own making I will give you his Speech which he made to the Army after he was declared Emperor I Know my Fellow Soldiers that my former Trade of a Smith of which all you yourselves are Witnesses may be objected against me But let any Man say what he will I desire always to have to do with good Iron rather then to spend my days as Gallienus does in Wine Flowers Mistresses and the Taverns so unworthily of his Father and his Quality Let them tell me of my old Trade so long as I can reduce Foreign Nations with the effects of it and make all the Almains the Germans and their Neighbours know that the Romans are a People indeed of Iron and their Swords to be the most dreaded of all things In the mean time I would desire you Gentlemen to observe that you have made a Man your Prince who never knew how to handle any thing but a Sword Which I therefore take notice of to you because I know that Gallienus that Pest hath nothing to oppose to me but this 8. INGENVVS IN the Year of the Consulship of Fuscus and Bassus whilst Gallienus lived the Life we have already so often mentioned with his Whores Players and Pimps and depraved the good Parts which he had by nature in him in a continued Luxury Ingenuus who was then the Governour of Pannonia was by the concurrence of that Province and the Legions which were in Moesia created Emperor And it was very well for the publick Good because it was a time that the Sarmatians were so pressing that there was a necessity of a vigorous Prince to oppose them and remedy the publick Misery However Gallienus as he was quick fierce furious vehement and cruel when necessity required as well as profligate and lewd came against Ingenuus and in a Battel overcame him and killed him After which he raged severely against all as well Soldiers as Citizens of Moesia He left no one without a share of his Cruelty and in several Towns he killed the whole Male Sex so that they had not a Man-Child left alive amongst them See the following Orders to Celer Verianus The EMPEROR Gallienus to Verianus IT is not enough to satisfie me if you kill only such as were in Arms who exposed their Lives of themselves to the Fortune of the Battel and might have been killed there All the Male Sex is to be killed old and young Whoever hath but wished ill to me is to be killed Whoever hath spoken ill against me against me the Son of Valerian and the Father and Brother to Princes let him be killed Ingenuus an Emperor Cut Kill Slay You see my Mind I write this with my own Hand do you it as I would my self Ingennus was a very brave and serviceable Man and also beloved by the Soldiers which wonderfully raises the Courage of such as have an Ambition to Command Some have said that he escaped out of the Fight and afterwards killed himself rather than to fall into the cruel Hands of Gallienus 9. REGILLIANVS BY the publick Destiny it was so in the time of Gallienus that every one who could started up an Emperor Thus Regillianus in Illyricum where he commanded was advanced by the Assistance of those Moesian Legions who had served before on the side of Ingenuus and upon whose Families after the Defeat Gallienus had exercised an incredible Cruelty The Story of the manner of the elevation of Regillianus is pleasant and
Title of the Alexandrian Emperor But as he was preparing for an Expedition into India Gallienus sent Theodotus against him who took him and sent him Prisoner to Rome where he was Strangled in the Prison according to an Antient Custom of putting Captives to death Gallienus would have after this made Egypt a Proconsular Province and given it to Theodotus but the Priests prohibited him pretending an Inscription upon a golden Column at Memphis in Egypt in Letters saying that Egypt would then be a Free People when the Romans attempted to Govern it by Consuls and therefore the Rods of the Consuls were never to enter into Alexandria Cicero against Gabinius mentions the same Notion in his time I find it also in Proculus the Learned Grammarian who is of great Authority when he speaks of Foreign Countries So that when Herennius Celsus your Kinsman the present Praefect of Egypt not contented with the Honour which he hath desired lately to be made a Consul he was answered that he asked a thing that was not to be granted because it was contrary to an observation of the Empire 22. SATVRNINVS SAturninus was made a Commander by the Emperor Valerian and continued so with great Applause in the Reign of Gallienus till no longer being able to endure the Dissoluteness of that latter Prince and the neglect of his Government the Army set him up to be Emperor He was a Man of singular Prudence and great Gravity beloved by all and very well known for his Victories over the Barbarians The same day that the Soldiers put upon him the Purple he told them in a Speech Gentlemen you have lost a good Captain to make of him an ill Prince He did several things in his Reign which were Brave but being severe as to the Discipline of the Soldiers the same that had raised him killed him 23. TETRICVS AFter Victorinus and his Son were killed in Gallia their Mother Victoria persuaded Tetricus a Senator who then exercised the Office of a President in Gallia and was her Relation to take upon him the Empire there Accordingly she caused him to be Proclaim'd and his Son to be Entitled the Caesar Tetricus Reigned long and performed several things happily but being beaten at last by the Emperor Aurelian and unwilling to give himself further trouble with a perverse and an insolent Army which he had to Command he voluntarily yielded to Aurelian Aurelian not being one overmuch inclined to Lenity led him in a solemn Triumph at the same time when he led in Triumph Zenobia the Wife of Odenatus and her two Sons Herennianus and Timolaus But being sensible that this was very severe to be done to a Roman Senator and one who had been a Consul and President of Gallia he made him after he had thus Triumphed over him the Governour of all the Campagna Abruzzo Puglia Lucania Calabria Hetruria Ombria and generally all the Provinces of Italy he suffered him not only to live but to live in the greatest Splendour and oftentimes called him by the name of either his Colleague or his Companion in Arms or Emperor 24. Tetricus Junior THIS Youth the Son of the other having been declared Caesar by the Lady Victoria was led in Triumph by Aurelian in Company with his Father He enjoyed afterwards all the Honours of a Senatour and his Estate untouched and left the same to his Posterity My Grandfather hath said that he was acquainted with him very well and that no Man was more esteem'd either by Aurelian or the following Princes than he The House of the Tetrici is extant at this day and a very fair one upon the Mount Caelius betwixt two Groves over against a Temple of Isiâ— You have in it in Mosaick Work a draught of the Emperor Aurelian holding out to each of these two over whom he Triumphed a Senatorian Robe to signifie his investing them again in that Dignity and they holding out to him a Sceptre and Crown as the acknowledgements of his Victory At the Dedication of which Piece they say that Aurelian did them the Honour to be present at their Entertainment at their humble Request 25. TREBELLIAN I Am almost ashamed to recount so many several Upstart Emperors that all appeared under the single Reign of Gallienus and were occasioned by his own fault his Luxury deserving no other than to be confronted with them and yet his Cruelty was such that one might very well be afraid to do so too Trebellian amongst the rest was made a Prince in the Province of Isauria by the Isaurians themselves Some called him an Arch-Robber but he gave himself the Title of an Emperor and ordered a Medal to be made of him as such and appointed his Court in the Castle of the City Isaura He maintained his Empire for some time by the help of the Mountains and the Fastnesses in which he took refuge But being by Causisoleus an Egyptian the General of Gallienus and the Brother of Theodotus who had before taken Aemilian Prisoner drawn down into the open Field where he could not avoid the Combat he was overcome and killed Yet could not the Isaurians for fear of the Cruelty of Gallienus be prevailed with afterwards upon any terms of Kindness and Humanity to submit They have ever since remained as Barbarians their Country though in the Heart of the Roman Empire is so shut up and stands as it were a Boundary against it defended by its own Natural Limits more than by its Men who in truth are neither skilled in Arms nor Brave nor Virtuous nor Wise and Prudent But yet they are secure in only this that they live in places inaccessible 26. HERENNIAN ODenatus the Prince of the Palmyreni in Syria and sometime Emperor of the East left at his death his Wife Zenobia and two Sons Herennianus and Timolaus who being very young Zenobia in their names assumed and governed the Empire of their Father longer than it was for the Honour of the Roman Name to endure in a Woman She Arrayed those Children in the Purple Habit of the Roman Emperors and brought them with her to the Head of her Army and to the Assemblies of the People whither she often went and Harangued them like a Man She was the Dido the Semiramis the Cleopatra of her Age. It is a thing uncertain what the end was of these her two Sons whether they were killed by Aurelian or whether they died their own deaths But there are of the Posterity of Zenobia living at Rome in Honour at this day 27. TIMOLAVS THE Account of Timolaus is I suppose the same with that of Herennian his Brother Only in one thing he is distinguished from him which was his great Ardour for the Roman Studies which Timolaus so readily imbibed that he might have made it is said one of the greatest Orators in his time 28. CELSVS WHilst the parts of Gallia Thrace Illyricum Pontus and the East were taken up and Cantoned into separate Empires by the several Pretenders
Books and examine what is the eternal will of the Fates and we on our parts shall not be wanting to perform the Sacrifices and observe the Solemnity which the Gods require of us The rest of the Senators in ordor being askt their Opinions they all some one way some another declared their Consent that the Books of the Sibyls should be consulted and The Books of the Sibyls Consulted the Act past for the Purpose Then to the Capitol they went the said Books were examined some Verses out of them were pitched upon then the City of Rome was Purged by Sacrifice a Procession was made round the City and the Suburbs the Verses were Sung and all the Ceremony whatever that was required was accordingly performed Now the Letter of Aurelian to the Senate in which he put them upon the Consulting the same Books was this I Admire my good Fathers that you have so long hesitated about opening the Books of the Sibyls as if it was a matter that was referred rather to a Congregation of Christians who are the Enemies of our Religion and our Gods than to Persons Zealous as you are for the Honour of the one and the other I would desire you to set the Priests immediately and religiously about it that with the solemn Ceremonies and Rites which shall there appear to be appointed you may assist your Prince now labouring under great difficulties Let the Books be inspected and what things are therein required to be done let them be done For my part I shall spare for no Costs The Captives that I have of any Nation and any of the Animals of the noblest kind belonging to me I freely offer for Sacrifices It is no lessening to a Victory to be assisted in it by the Gods In the times of our Ancestors divers Wars have been begun and ended in this manner I have writ to the Keeper of the Exchequer to disburse whatever the Charge is You may command thence what Money you think fit and I am glad to find that the Coffers are well provided That which was the occasion of all this concern for inspecting the Books of the Sibyls was Aurelian had suffered a great defeat from the Enemy at Piacenza and had it not been that after the examination of the said Books and the performance of the Sacrifices by them required the Divine Aid interposed to Confound and Affright the Barbarians with Visions Spectres and Prodigies which gave Aurelian at length the advantage over them the Victory in this War might have been lost to the Romans and even the Empire in danger to be so too For the Barbarians by the means of the Woods and the Fastnesses into which they threw themselves were otherwise too subtil for us and did so annoy us upon occasion that we should not have reduced them upon the single strength of our Arms. After the Marcommanick War was ended Aurelian came to Rome full of Anger and Revenge as he was naturally Fierce of himself for the Seditions which had there been raised in his absence Though he was otherwise a good Prince he suffered his Passions to transport him beyond measure and to punish some things Cruelly which might have been treated with a gentler Hand He not only put to His exterme Severity death the Authors of those Seditions but also some noble Senators against whom appeared but one vile and wretched Witness when the matter of the Crime objected was of so slight a Nature that a milder Prince would have contemned it In fine the fame of his Reign which had been hitherto great and had justly gained him many Friends was obscured and wounded by the marks of his excessive Severity He began to be feared rather than loved Some said they hated him rather than wish'd his Prosperity others said that he was indeed a good Physician but his Medicines were the bitterest in the World After these things therefore fearing again the mischiefs might be revived which happened in the time of Gallienus he with the Advice of the Senate extended and new fortified the Walls of the City of Rome He did not then extend the Territories of the City without the Walls but he did afterwards because this was a priviledge allowed to no Prince to do but who by his Conquests had added to the Roman Empire as did the Emperors Augustus Trajan Nero under which last particularly the Pontus Potemoniacus and the Cottian Alpes were subjected to the Obedience of the Romans Having finished what concerned the security and state of the City and of the Civil Affairs he set out from thence upon an Expedition against the Palmyreni in Syria where the Lady Zenobia in the Right of her two Sons Herennianus and Timolaus being Infants and in Succession to Odenatus her Husband Reigned as Queen of the East and maintained the Revolt of those parts against the Empire In his way in the Countries of Thrace and Illyricum he fought several considerable Battels with the Reliques of the Goths and the Barbarians of whom he slew five thousand on the other side of the Danube with Cannabaudes their Prince He passed by the way of Byzantium over into Bithynia in the Lesser Asia which Province upon his arrival voluntarily cast off the Yoak of the Palmyreni and yielded it self to him Many as well of his Expressions as Actions are great and famous It is not possible nor would I be willing to recount them all here because it would be tedious But yet some few may be touched upon which may serve to beget a better understanding of his Virtues and Manners Coming to the City of Tyana in Cappadocia which he found shut against him he said in a Passion I will not leave a Dog in this place This made his Soldiers storm it the more violently in hopes of the Booty till one Heraclammon who was the Governour of it afraid that he should be killed amongst the rest and thinking that he had no other way to save himself betrayed his Trust and suffered the Town to be taken by Treachery Now Aurelian did immediately two things worthy of a Princely mind in the one of which he shew'd an example of his Severity and in the Examples of his Severity and Mercy other of Mercy The first is he put to death Heraclammon for betraying his Country Then when the Soldiers desired the total destruction of the Town according to his saying that he would not leave a Dog in it by which they understood that they should have all the Plunder of it It is true said he I have said I would not leave a Dog in this Town and so kill all the Dogs but he saved the People and forbad the Plunder which was a great Action and it was followed by as great a one of the Army because they were as much pleased with the Wit of their Prince as if he had given them really the Riches of the City Concerning Heraclammon Aurelian writ this Letter The Emperor Aurelian to Mallius
and every moment subject to the stroak of Fate I may dye before I can present you with his whole life which I shall the less care now if I do because I have satisfied my Ambition and my great Desire thus far to honour his Memory THE A. Christi CCLXXiX Life and Reign OF THE EMPEROR PROBUS By FLAVIUS VOPISCUS IMP. â— PROBVS AVG. DIVO CARO PIO CARINVS NOBIL CAES. IMP. C. NVMERIANVS AVG. IMP. DIOCLETIANVS P. AVG. P. 272. Vol. 11 Without further Preface then this great and famous Prince Probus who hath scarce his equal in the Roman History was born at the City of Sirmish in Sclavonia or the Lower Pannonia Probus ' s Birth-place and Parentage His Father was not of so good Quality as his Mother was His Estate was indifferent Affinity not great however as well in his private Life as after he was Emperor he made his Noble Actions speak for him Some say his Father's name was Maximus who after he had served very well in the Office of a Centurion rise to be a Tribune and died in Egypt leaving a Wife a Daughter and this Son There is one Greek Author who says that Probus was a Relation of the Emperor Claudius who was a most Excellent and most Noble Prince which may perhaps be the more Credited because I find in the Journal of Turdulus Gallicanus that after his death he was buried by Claudia who was the Daughter of Crispus who was the Brother of Claudius But I leave this to the Reader Probus signalized himself so in his Youth and was so agreeable in his Person and Manners How esteem'd by Valerian that the Emperor Valerian early conferred upon him a Legion when he was in a manner Beardless The same Emperor in a Letter to Gallienus proposes him to the imitation of all the Youth by which by the way one may take notice that no Man becomes very great in his Age but who lays down a good Foundation for it in his first years and then gathers within himself those Seeds which afterwards produce the Fruit of Great Actions The Emperor Valerian the Father to the Emperor Gallienus the Son HAving always had a good Opinion of Probus as young as he is I have made him a Tribune following therein both my own Judgement and that of all others who say he is worthy of his Name that is as Probus is his Name so Probity is his Nature and Character I have given him the Command of Six Cohorts of the Saracens together with the Troops of the Auxiliary Gauls and that Body of Persians which Artabasse thâ— Syrian hath submitted to us I desire you my dearest Son that as I would have this Youth tâ— be the Example for all Young Persons to imitate you would take that care of him and receive him with that respect which his Virtues his Merits and the Splendour of his Natural Partâ— do deserve The Emperor Valerian to Mulvius Gallicanus the Captain of the Guards YOU may wonder perhaps That I have made a Beardless Youth a Tribune contrary to the Constitution of the Emperor Hadrian But you will soon Cease to do so if you consider what a truly deserving Youth Probus is I never think of him but I compare together his Name and his Qualities they do so justifie one another If it had not been his name he might have been entitled Probus because of the Probity of his Temper and Actions You will therefore order that there be given him being but of an indifferent Fortune to make up the Occasions of his Station two Russet Tunicks two French Robes with Clasps two Linen Jerkins one Vessel of Silver of ten pound weight Ingraved one hundred Antonine's in Gold one thousand Aurelian's in Silver and ten thousand Philips in Brass And for his ordinary Pension ten Pound of Beef ten Pound of Pork ten Pound of the Flesh of the Goat a Pullet every two days one Quart of Oil every two days ten Quarts of Old Wine every day with Salt Herbs and Wood as much as he wants You shall withal order him the same Quarters as to the Tribunes of the Standing Legions In the War against the Sarmatae in which he was a Tribune he passed the Danube and acted with so much bravery so many things that he was publickly in a Council of War presented with four Spears two Crowns in the form of a Trench being of that sort Praemiums given him which are given to such as first enter the Enemies Camp one Civick Crown four Standards two Bracelets of Gold 〈…〉 â—n of Gold and one Piece of Plate of 〈…〉 weight of five Pound The Civick Crown was given him because he retook out of the Hands of the Quadi a Noble Youth called Valerius Flaccinus who was a Relation of the Emperor Valerian These Praemiums were all delivered to him by Valerian hims 〈…〉 who at the same time raised him to the Command of the Third Legion with this Elogium My well beloved Probus THough it may seem Early in respect of your Age that I prefer you to a Command in the Standing Forces of the Empire yet in respect of the Actions done by you I may rather be thought to have made it later than I ought Receive therefore into your Trust the Third Noble Legion which I have never given before but to a Person of more years and my self was in Gray Hairs when I first was preferred to it But Age is a thing I have no reason to wait for in you whose Bravery is so shining and your Manners so Charming I have ordered three Suits of Cloaths to be given you doubled your Pay and appointed your Standard-Bearer It would be too long a Work to run through the several Actions of this Great Man in the Reigns of Valerian Gallienus Aurelian and Claudius whilst he was yet in a private Capacity How often he Scaled the Walls entred the Enemies Trenches how many of them he hath killed Hand to Hand what Presents he received from the Princes his Masters and how he laboured by his Service to promote the good of the State A Letter of Gallienus speaks thus of him The Emperor Gallienus to the Tribunes of the Forces of the Province of Illyricum ALthough the Fatal Necessity of the Persian War hath concluded my Father a Prisoner in the Hands of the Enemy yet I have a Kinsman Aurelius Probus in whose Services I can confide with security That never to be named Tyrant had never usurped upon the Empire if Probus had been Present Wherefore I desire you all to obey the Counsels of a Man who is approved by the Judgement of both my Father and the Senate Now though Gallienus was a soft Prince which may seem to lessen the Authority of what he says yet it cannot be denied but let a Prince be never so soft he will not however trust himself but to one whom he knows to be very well qualified to serve him But though we should set aside the
That His Ability at Drinking certainly he was born not to say to Live but particularly to live to Drink That Emperor however long had him in esteem because of his experience in the matter of War And when any Embassadors arrived from the Barbarian Nations of what Parts soever it was the business of Bonosus to drink with them till in their drink he discover'd out of them many times their secrets For Bonosus let him drink to what excess he would was never concerned But on the contrary as Onesimus says in his Life of Probus he was even the more prudent and more discreet for drinking Withal he had this particular Quality with him that as much as he drank it passed from him again It never was any burden to his Stomach or his Belly or his Bladder It happening one time that the Germans had burnt the Shipping which the Romans used upon the River Rhine Bonosus to avoid the punishment which he feared for his Neglect in that matter set up himself Emperor He supported himself with that Quality longer than it was well to be expected He engaged His Defeat and Death the Emperor Probus in a severe Battel but being overcome he Hanged himself and they Jested upon him and said It is a Hogshead and not a Man that hangs here He left two Sons and a Wife The Sons Probus forgave The Wife he was very obliging to and allowed her a Pension to her death For besides that she was a Woman as my Grandfather hath said of Wit and of singular Merit she was a Princess of the Royal Blood of the Goths and one whom the Emperor Aurelian had purposely married to Bonosus that through her and him he might the better penetrate into all the Affairs of the Goths I will give you here a Letter of Aurelian written to the Lieutenant of Thrace concerning that Marriage and the Presents which Aurelian gave upon this occasion The Emperor Aurelian to Gallio Avitus Greeting I Writ to you in my last to Assemble the Persons of Quality of the Goths at the City of Heracla for whom I have order'd an Entertainment For I have a mind that Hunila shall be Married to Bonosus You shall present the Bride with all things according to the underwritten Order and you shall Celebrate the Nuptials out of the Publick Money The Presents were Fine Gowns of a Violet Colour of Silk one of Silk embroider'd with Gold Two fine Smocks and all such other things as are proper for a Lady of Quality You shall give her one hundred Philips in Gold One thousand Antonines in Silver and Ten thousand Sesterces in Brass This is what I remember that I have read as to Bonosus I might have omitted all these four last Persons and perhaps no body would have missed them But because I would not be wanting in any thing to my Trust I have taken the care of intimating as much as I have been able to learn concerning these also The remaining Princes are Carus Numerianus and Carinus For as for Dioclesian and those that follow it is fit that they should be Represented by a better Pen than mine THE A. Christi Cclxxxiii Life and Reign OF THE EMPEROR CARUS BY FLAVIUS VOPISCUS HOW the Power of Fate reigns over the Commonwealth of Rome and sometimes raises it to the greatest heighth and then humbles it again and throws it down as much the other way the Death of the Emperor Probus is a sufficicient demonstration Probus had succeeded to the Empire after Aurelian by the joynt Voice of the Senate and the People and whilst the Laws and the Government were lodged in so just a Hand we seemed secure considering that we had now enjoyed a few good Reigns together of a continued Series of Happiness to relieve the State after all the different Calamities and after so many changes of Fortune with which it had been tossed and varied in the course of time in that manner that it hath suffered almost all the Events which are incident to any Man by the Mortality of his Nature But by a fatal Passion of the Soldiers this so acceptable Emperor Probus was cut off whose loss was so great that we were no less struck at it than a Man in a Fire or in a Shipwrack and the Publick was reduced to that despair as that every one feared the Succession of some Domitian Vitellius or Nero in his place It is natural at any time rather to have Fears than Hopes from the manners of an uncertain Prince But especially well might a People do so whose Wounds were yet green and who not long since had had one of their Emperors Valerian carried into Captivity another Gallienus given up to Luxury and about Thirty pretended Princes in the mean time starting up and rending the Empire in Pieces by a Civil War according as every one challenged the Sovereignty to himself If we take a view of the Changes which the Commonwealth of Rome hath suffered from the Foundation of the City we shall find that never any People hath flourished more by good Fortune nor yet laboured under worse Romulus to begin with him our true Father Various Fortune of Rome under different Princes who as I may say begat founded constituted and confirmed this State had the singular Happiness above all other Founders to leave a perfect City Numa afterwards added Triumphs to this City by his victorious Arms and at the same time strengthened it with Laws of Religion So we flourished to the time of Tarquin the proud and then a Storm fell upon us occasioned by the arbitrary Vices of that King which we revenged but it was not without much hazarding our own Ruine From thence we passed and increased to the War of the Gauls when we were over-run with a Flood of the Enemy the City of Rome excepting only the Capitol taken and we suffered well nigh more hurt now than we ever enjoyed good since our very Foundation However our Commonwealth recovered itself from this Blow but yet it was so plagued with the Carthaginian Wars and the Terror of King Pyrrhus that it could not be at any rest for its miserable Fears At length we conquered Carthage and extended our Empire far beyond the Seas the Sense of which Felicity was extenuated to us by our Social Discords and our Civil Wars under which we spent our time unto Augustus Caesar who repaired the State for us anew if we may call that yet a Reparation which was wrought at the Expence of our Liberty However it is although we were sometime troubled at home amongst foreign Nations our Name flourished and after several ill Emperors that afflicted us the State lifted up its Head again under Vespasian The Happiness of Titus was no sooner enjoyed than lost to whom succeeded the cruel Domitian whose Wounds went deep Under Nerva and Trajan and so to Marcus Antoninus our Condition was better than ordinary but then came the mad and cruel Commodus and excepting