threw themselves at his Feet from whom he first demanded Hostages which were presently given â—hen Corn Cattel and Sheep some say he commanded them not to use a Sword again but to expect the defence of the Roman Arms in case they were attack'd by any Enemy But this is so hard that I think it cannot be unless the Conquests of the Romans had been more extended and all Germany had been reduced into a Province However he severely punished such with the consent of those Roytelets themselves as continued to keep back any of the Spoil which they had taken upon the Roman Provinces and did not faithfully return it He accepted of a Draught of sixteen thousand Young and Fresh Men out of the Forces of these Barbarians which he dispersed into several Provinces of the Empire and inserted them into the Legions and into the Garrisons upon the Frontiers by about fifty or sixty in a Legion saying That though it is good for the Romans to serve themselves of the assistances of the Barbarians yet that assistance ought rather to be felt than seen So having settled the State of Gallia he sent the following Letter to the Senate Fathers of the Senate I Give thanks to the Immortal Gods that they have approved and justified your Judgements in your Choice of me all that broad and extended Country of Germany is subjugated Nine Kings of the several Nations have in the humblest manner cast themselves at my Feet Nay rather I should say it is at your Feet They all now Plow and Sow for you and they fight for you against the rest of your Enemies You will therefore appoint the Processions and Thanksgivings to the Gods as usual Four hundred thousand of the Enemy are slain and sixteen thousand others with their Arms are come into our Service Sixty Noble Cities are recovered out of the Slavery of the Enemy and all Gallia is entirely set at Liberty The Crowns of Gold which all the Cities of Gallia have presented me with upon this occasion I have remitted to you my Fathers to be by your Hands Consecrated to the most Excellent and most mighty Jupiter and the rest of the Immortal Gods and Goddesses All the Spoil which they had taken from us is retaken and a great deal more and better to it The Fields of Gallia are plowed with the Cattle of the Barbarians and the German Beasts yield their Captive Necks to our Yoaks All their Sheep graze now upon our Pasture and their Horse are with our Horse and our Barns are full with their Corn. What shall I say more If we have left the bare Soil perhaps it is all their Goods are all in our Possession We have been sometime thinking my Fathers to appoint a new President of Germany But we have deferred it as yet to another opportunity when the Divine Providence shall still further have prospered our Arms. From Gallia he went into Illyricum In his way to which he so secured and established the Peace of Rhaetia as not to leave the least suspiâ—ion of any Danger from thence In Illyriâ—um His Conquest of the Sarmatians he so severely beat the Sarmatians and others who had thrust themselves in there that â—e easily recovered all the Places and Spoil which they possessed without almost making more War He carried his Arms into Thrace and Daciaâ— where all that Gothick People affrighted with only the Fame of his Actions and seeing the antient Power of the Empire revived in him submitted to him and became his Friends Then he went into the East he took and slew in his way a Robber of great Power called Palfrurius which was a means of the recovery of all the Province of Isauris in the Lesser Asia to the Obedience of the Laws of the Romans He entred either by force or friendship into the Places possessed by the Barbarians in that Province and when he had done he said it was a Country in which it was easier to drive the Robbers that infested it from one place to another than to extirpate them and to rid the Country of them All the Avenues and Straights he gave to be enjoyed and inhabited by Veterans and Superannuated Soldiers under a Law that they should send their Sons to the War at the Age of Eighteen lest they take to be Robbers before they come to be Soldiers He reduced unto a peaceable subjection all His Eastern Expedition the parts of Pamphylia and the other Provinces adjoyning to Isauria and so followed his Journey into the East He Conquered the Blemmyae of whom he sent some Prisoners to Rome who were a wonderful Spectacle and an Admiration there to all the People The Cities of Coptos and Ptolemais in Egypt he took and delivered them from the Barbarian Yoak and adjoyned them to the Empire The Fame whereof wrought so upon the Persians that they sent Embassadours to him confessing the fears which they conceived of his Arms and desiring a Peace He received those Embassadours very proudly and sent them home with worse thoughts than they came He refused the Presents which they brought him from the King their Master and writ thereupon this Letter to Narseus the Governor of Armenia for the King of Persia ALL that you have will be mine I wonder therefore that you should think to gratifie me with such a Handful of things You may please to take to your self again what you so much delight in when we would have them we know how we ought to possess our selves of them This Letter was a matter of great Consternation to Narseus especially as it was accompanied with the News of the taking of the Cities of Coptos and Ptolemais from the Blemmyae and the putting those People to the Slaughter who before had made themselves a Terror to all their Neighbours After the Peace of Persia Probus returned again into Thrace where upon the Lands of the Roman Empire he planted one hundred thousand of the Bastarnae who all kept their Faith with him but others of the Barbarian Nations of whom he transplanted great numbers in like manner that is of the Gepidi the Grothungi and the Vandals all these broke their Faith and whilst Probus was imployed in the Wars with Saturninus and those who pretended to Usurp the Empire from him they rose and found a means to over-run almost all parts by Sea or Land to the trouble and the dishonour of the Roman Name till Probus at length by several turns set upon them overcame them and oppressed them and left to few of them the happiness of getting home in safety These were his Actions with the Barbarians His other Troubles were such as he suffered from the attempts of particular ambitious Subjects who were for setting themselves His intestine Troubles up for the Empire one of whom was Saturninus who usurped the Empire of the East and who engaged Probus in several Battels till Probus by his known Gallantry overcame him and with the same Conquest established such a
as he had inticed into his Service from thence All which he promised against his Mind and being conducted to an Interview with Trajan he threw himself upon the Ground and adored him He sent to the Senate of Rome his Embassadors to have the same Peace confirmed from them that he had made with Trajan The Embassadors were introduced into the Senate where they laid down their Arms upon the Ground and standing before the Senate with their Hands within their Fingers as if they were Captives they spoke in Terms of great Submission to the Senate who ratified the Peace and then they took up their Arms again Warhel the Capital City of Dacia received a Garrison of the Romans and the rest of the Countrey being served accordingly Trajan returned back to Italy He was received in Triumph and the Title Trajan ' s Triumph of the Conquerour of Dacia was given him and inserted into his Stile The Combats of the Gladiators in which he delighted and the diversions of the Stage in which Pylades was one that gained much of his Favour were celebrated for his Entertainment Though he was a Military Prince he took never the less Care of the Civil Policy and minded the Affairs of Peace and Justice In the Forum of Augustus or in the Portico of Livia or in other Places he many times assisted in Person at the Causes which were pleaded there In the mean time Decebalus could not persuade Decebalus renews the War himself to keep the Conditions of the Peace which he had made He proceeded to raise Men provide Arms entertain Deserters re-fortify his Castles and invite the Nations that were his Neighbours to joyn with him to whom he represented That if he was forsaken by them now their own Ruine was the next thing to follow It was easier and the safest way for them he said to preserve their Liberties by standing all by one another whilst they might for the Common Defence than it would be to do this after Decebalus was ruined which would open a Gap to the Enemy to devour them one by one Pursuant to this he began the War by falling upon such as had appear'd against him in the former War and by possessing himself of a part of the Countrey of the Jazyges which was upon the Danube towards Dacia Hereupon the Senate declared Decebalus again an Enemy and Trajan without committing the War to another went in Person to reduce him a second time He marched against him with an Army which Decebalus was in an ill Condition by fair Force to resist but by Deceit and Treachery he was within a Treachery of Decebalus defeated little of effecting that that he could not by his Arms. He sent Persons under the notion of Deserters into Moesia to assassine him as Trajan was always easie of access but then more particularly upon the Incidents of the War any one was admitted to speak to him That which disappointed this Design was one of the Conspirators was taken up on suspicion and put to the Torture who confessed the whole Plot. There was a Commander of a Legion in the Roman Army of great Skill and who had Longinus trapan'd often signalized himself in the Wars against Dacia called Longinus Decebalus found means by Treachery to get this Colonel into his hands and then sent to Trajan to tell him That upon Condition the Countrey as far as the Danube might be restored to him and that Trajan allowed him for the Charges of the War he courted his Friendship and would return Longinus again in safety To which Trajan answered in a manner that was to let him know that he neither made a small nor yet such a high Account of the Life of Longinus as to buy it too dear In the mean time whilst Decebalus was resolving with himself what more to do Longinus found means to procure a quantity of Poyson by the help of a Servant and he took it in the night and died Trajan built a Bridge over the Danube for Trajan ' s Bridge over the Danube which I know not how I can sufficiently admire him The other Works of his are very Magnificent but this is above them all It is a Bridge of Nineteen Arches all of square Stone the Heighth one Hundred and Fifty Foot above the Foundation the Breadth Sixty Foot and the Distance between each Arch one Hundred and Seventy Foot How shall I admire the Charge that this cost and which way also it was possible to Found it in a great River and a difficult Water which hath an ozy Gravel at the bottom when in the mean time there was no turning the Stream aside into another Chanel The River is in other places double and treble the breadth that it is here where this Bridge covers it Here it is at the straightest and therefore so much the more fit place for a Bridge but yet the Account that I have given makes it a pretty broad Passage here also But that which I would chiefly observe from the Breadth of the River in this and in other places is that the broader and the more spatious a Flood it is as it comes hither and the broader and the greater Compass that it challenges as it goes from hence so much the deeper and the more rapid must it be where it is streightned in its Course and this must make it the more difficult to cover it with a Bridge where it is so deep and so rapid Certainly the Greatness of the Soul of Trajan shews it self in this Work tho' it be of no use to us now nor passable The Peers are yet standing which look as if they were only built to shew That nothing is impossible to the Wit of Man The reason of Trajan's Building this Bridge was to pass his Forces with readiness to the Succour of the Romans on the other side of the Danube in case the Barbarians attack'd them at a time when the River was frozen up Hadrian fearing on the contrary that the Barbarians might sometime Force the Passage of this Bridge and give themselves an easie descent by it into the Country of Moesia demolished it and broke down the Arches Trajan passing his Army over the Danube by this Bridge made rather a safe than a quick War and with time and difficulty finished the Conquest of the Kingdom of Dacia He signalized his Conduct and his Gallantry His Personal Valour in many things himself The Soldiers by his Example were encouraged to contemn Dangers and acquit themselves with Honour Amongst the rest a Horseman who was very much wounded was brought out of a Fight to the Surgeon to be dress'd but perceiving that his Life was desperate and that his Wounds were uncurable he quitted the Tent again before his Spirits failed him and rejoyned the Battel and died fighting with great Bravery In fine Decebalus after his Capital City Decebalus kills himself was lost and his Country all taken and himself in danger to
than were known to them so much as by Name as they continually understood by his Accounts They set up in his Honor a Triumphal Arch in his own Forum and the Citizens prepared themselves to go a great way to meet him at his return to Rome But he never came thither nor was the End of his Actions suitable to his Beginnings because what he had Conquered he lost again In the time that he was Sailing for his Pleasure upon the Indian Ocean all his Conquests A general Revolt were chang'd and revolted and the Garrisons which he had left amongst them were either turned out or killed It was nothing but the Fame of the Indian Ocean which had drawn him thither together with his Honour for the Memory of Alexander the Great to whom he had sometime sacrificed in the House in which he dyed at Babylon But as he met with nothing worthy of that Fame Fables and Prospects of Ruins were his only Entertainments He was as yet on Board when the News was brought to him of the revolt of his Conquests against whom he dispatched Lucius and Maximus Maximus was deseated and killed Lucius acquitted himself very well and amongst other things recovered the City of Nisibis Storm'd Plundered and Burnt the City of Rhoa whilst Erycius Clarus and Julius Alexander took and burnt the City of Seleucia In the mean time fearing lest the Parthians of Ctesiphon should attempt something Trajan was willing to oblige them by giving them instead of a Roman Governour a King of their own He Assembled when Trajan gives a King to the Parthians he came to Ctesiphon all the Romans and all the Parthians that were there into a large Plain and raising himself upon a high Throne and glorying in the great Actions that he had done he appointed Parthamaspates King of the Parthians and put the Crown upon him Then he came into Arabia to Reduce Expedition against the Hagarens there the People called the Hagarens who had also Revolted Their Town is neither Great nor Rich but the Country adjoyning to it is for the most part a Desart without Water which it seldom hath and then it is naught without Wood and without Forage all which make it impossible for a great number of Men to lye long before it defended as it also is by the heats of the Sun to which it is exposed So it was neither taken by Trajan then nor by Severus afterwards though they both made Breaches in part of the Walls Trajan disguised himself and Headed a Body of Horse up to the Walls in Person but his Horse returned in an ill Condition to the Camp and himself escaped very narrowly For the Barbarians believing it was he by his Age and Presence shot at him and killed a Horseman that was next him It Thundered and Lightened Rainbows appeared in the Clouds Storms of Hail and Wind fell upon the Romans when they made their Attacks The Flyes rendred their Victuals and their Drink nauseous So Trajan raised the Siege and fell sick not long after About this time the Jews about Cyrene in Jewish Barbarity Africa Commanded by one Andrew whom they had set up over them committed great Slaughters upon both the Romans and Grecians They Eat their Flesh made themselves Garlands of their Guts washed themselves in their Blood and Cloathed themselves in their Skins They sawed many in Two from the Head with Saws They threw others to Wild Beasts They forced others to fight till they kill'd one another About two hundred and twenty thousand Persons were destroyed by this means They did the like in Egypt and in the Island of Cyprus under the Command of Artemion where two hundred and forty thousand Persons more were destroy'd For which reason it is that it is forbidden a Jew to set foot upon that Island even though by Storm he is driven upon it he is to be put to death At length they were reduced under Obedience Jews quell'd again as by others so particularly by Lucius who was sent against them by Trajan Trajan was resolved to have carried the War anew into Mesopotamia if his sickness increasing upon him had not obliged him to set Sail towards Italy and to commit to Publius Aelius Hadrian the Command of the Army in Syria And now all the Pains that had been taken and all the Dangers which had been run by the Romans in the Conquest of Armenia the greatest part of Mesopotamia and the Parthians became in vain for the Parthians turn'd off King Parthamespates of the appointment of Trajan and betook themselves to be Governed by their own Measures Trajan suspected in his own mind that he was poisoned but others say that he had been used every year to void Blood downward and that this Evacuation had stopped that he had a Dead Palsie upon him and was insensible in a part of his Body and that he was all over Dropsical He came as far as to the City Iclenos which is otherwise called Trajanople Death of Trajan from him in Cilicia in the Lesser Asia and there immediately dyed having Reigned nineteen Years six Months and fifteen Days Dio Cass lib. 67. HE had been Consul in Conjunction with Acilius Glabrio in the Reign of Domitian and then received some Omens of his future Reign Dio Cass lib. 69. HE was a Native of the same Town in Spain with Hadrian whose Guardian he was and to whom he married his Niece He dyed without Children and his Ashes were interred in the Column of his own Work Eutrop. Cassiodor Victor THE Town in Spain at which Trajan was born was Old Sevil in the Lower Andaluzia He lived sixty three Years nine Months and four Days He was Proclaim'd Emperor at Cologne in Germany The Height of his Column was one hundred and forty or one hundred forty and four Feet The Younger Pliny born at the City of Comâ— in the Dutchy of Milan who was a famous Orator and Historian flourished in his time who has left us a Panegyric on this Emperor pronounc'd by him the first day of his Consulship THE A. Christi CXVIII Life and Reign OF THE EMPEROR Publius Aelius Hadrian Written by AELIUS SPARTIANUS And Addressed to the EMPEROR DIOCLESIAN IF we take the Original of the Emperor His Extraction Hadrian at the highest it is to be derived from the Antient People of the Marca d' Ancona and particularly from the Town of Adria in Italy which was the Place which his Ancestors were of before they removed into Spain where as himself says in the Account which he writes of his own Life they settled in Sevilla la Viegia or Old Sevile in the times of the Scipio's His more immediate Descent was from that Family in Spain Aelius Hadrian Afer was his Father who was Cousin-German to the Emperor Trajan His Mother was Domitia Paulina who was Originally of Cadiz His Sister Paulina married Servianus His Wife was Sabina and his great Grand-father's Grand-father
Marullinus was the first of the Family who was a Senator of the City of Rome He was born at Rome upon the Nineth of the Calends of February in the Year when Vespasian and Titus were the Consuls which was then the Seventh time of the Consulship of the first and the Fifth of that of the other In the Tenth Year of his Age he lost his Father and received for his Guardians his Kinsman Ulpius Trajan who had been then a Praetor and afterwards arrived to be Emperor together with Caelius Tatianus a Roman Gentleman In his Fifteenth Year after having finished His Studies his Greek unto which his Genius inclined him in that manner that by some he was called by the Name of the Little Grecian he went into Spain where he entred immediately into the Army and was eager of exercising himself in Hunting almost to a Fault Trajan re-called him out of that Country unto Rome again where he lived with him as his Son and it was not long before he was put into the Commission of the Decemviri He was removed from thence to be the Tribune or Colonel of the Second Auxiliary Legion After that he was translated into the Lower Moesia which was about the latter end of the Reign of Domitian In Moesia he was informed by an Astrologer of the same Presages concerning him thing as to his future Succession to the Empire which he had heard that his great Uncle Aelius Hadrian who also was skill'd in the Doctrine of Nativities had sometime before predicted concerning him He was sent out of Moesia at the time that Trajan was adopted by Nerva with the Congratulations of the Army to the Emperor upon the Subject of that Adoption Nerva translated him into the Upper Germany from whence he hastned upon the News of the Death of Nerva to be the first who should bring it unto Trajan And His Diligence altho' he was by Servianus his Sister's Husband who had endeavoured to possess Trajan against him by telling him of his Expences and his Debts not only a long time detain'd but furnished also with a Carriage that broke by the way on purpose to stop his haste He nevertheless prosecuted his Journey afterwards on Foot with that diligence that he came up to Trajan before the Express which the same Servianus dispatched upon the same occasion And Trajan continued to love him but yet he was not without those Enemies who represented him to that Prince who was a Lover of Boys to be as it were his Rival iâ— that sort of Pleasure And because he was solicitous in this Conjuncture to know what the Inclination of Trajan towards him was as to his Adopting him to succeed in the Empire he consulted his Fortune by Lots in which he was answered in certain Verses out of Virgil that favoured his desire Others say That he received a Lot of the same nature out of the Verses of the Sibyls But that which was a greater Presage to him still than all this of the Empire unto which he should succeed was an Answer which he received from an Oracle of Jupiter Nicephorus which Apollonius Syrus the Platonist hath set down in his Works In fine by the interposition of Suras in his Favour he easily attained unto a higher Degree than ever of Favour with Trajan whose Niece by his Sister's side he married which was a Match that was encouraged by Plotina and consented unto by Trajan as Marius Maximus says at least in some measure He was a Questor in the Year when Trajan He is made Questor and Articuleius were the Consuls which was then the Fourth time of the Consulship of Trajan In this Office being to recite in the Senate an Harangue made by the Emperor to them and being laught at for his ill pronunciation of it he set himself upon the Study of the Latin in that manner that he acquired himself at length the greatest Skill and Eloquence in that Language After his Questorship he was made the Clerk to the Senate Next he waited upon Trajan to the War against Dacia at which time how intimate he was with him may be seen by this that he says himself That he indulged to Drinking out of Obedience to the Pleasure and Methods of Trajan and this gained him yet greater Favours from him He was made a Tribune of the People in And Tribune the Year of the Second Consulships of Candidus and Quadratus In this Magistracy it was an Omen he says to him of a perpetual Tribunitian Power that is of the Crown that in wearing the Paenulae a sort of Hanging-Coat as the Tribunes of the People were used to do in time of Rain but the Emperors of that Age never that Garment had slipped off from him In the second Expedition against Dacia Trajan gave him the Command of the First Legion of the Name of Minervia and took him along with him He distinguish'd himself there by a great many fine Actions insomuch that Trajan presented him with the same Diamond that himself had been before presented with by Nerva which served farther to raise his Hopes He was a Praetor under the second Consulships of Suranus and Servianus at the same time he received from Trajan Forty Thousand Sesterces towards the Charges of the publick Games with which he treated the People After this being made the Pro-Praetor of the Lower Pannonia he bridled the Sarmatae disciplined the Army and restrained the Procurators of the Province from exceeding as they did the just Limits of their Power for these Services he was made a Consul In which Magistracy as soon as it And Consul was understood from Suras that he was to be adopted by Trajan he was accordingly respected by all who desired to preserve the Favour of their Prince After the Death of Suras his Interest with Trajan did still increase because he succeeded into the Office of Suras to write his Prince's Speeches and his Letters as his Secretary besides all which he had the Favour of Plotina by whose means he was appointed the Lieutenant of Syria in the time of the Expedition against Parthia The Persons with whom he at this time entertained His Friendships a Friendship were Sossius Pappus and Pletorius Nepos of the Order of the Senators and Tatianus who was before his Guardian and Martius Livianus Turbo of that of the Gentlemen Palmas and Celsus had been always his Enemies But now those two being faln into Disgrace upon a Suspicion of a Design to usurp the Empire This facilitated the Business of Hadrian's Adoption so that being through the Favour of Plotina created a Consul a second time he indeed conceived within himself entire Assurances of that Happiness It was the Opinion of many that he had to this end corrupted also the Servants of Trajan and had made very much of the Boys who were Trajan's Paramours and had furnished them with Oyntments and Washes in the time that he was conversant about the Court.
his Death he ordered Servianus who was Ninety Years old as I said to be kill'd only because he should not out-live him and as he imagined gain the Empire Many others for pretended Offences he ordered likewise to be so served but Antoninus preserved them Dying he spoke these Verses Animula vagula blandula Hospes comesque corporis Quae nunc abibis in loca Pallidula rigida nudula Nec ut soles dabis jocos That is My little fluttering flattering Soul My Body's constant Guest and Mate To what gloomy Place dost go Pale and numm'd and stript of all No more to jest as thou hast wont He was the Author of some Greek Verses of this sort which were not much better He lived Seventy Two Years Five Months and Seventeen Days and reigned Twenty One Years and Eleven Months He was tall and well His Personage made as to his Person his Hair naturally Curling a long Beard which covered some Spots which he had upon his Face and of a robust Constitution He rid and walked very well exercised himself constantly at Arms and the Javelin often hunted and hath kill'd a Lion with his own hand his Friends hunted in Company with him At his Banquets he had the divertisements of Tragedies Comedies Dancing Musicians Rehearsers and Poets He built a House at the City of Tivoli which was an extraordinary Structure and gave the Names of the Lycaeum Academia Prytanaeum Canopus Paecile and Tempe which are the most Famous Names of Places abroad together with others of the Provinces unto the several Parts of it and that he might leave nothing undone to adorn it he represented in another Part in Painting the Infernal Regions The Signs which fore-shew'd his Death were these As he was in his Prayers His Death fore-shewed on the last Anniversary of his Birth recommending Antoninus his Son to the Gods the Lappet of his Robe which he threw over his Head slipt down of it self and left him uncovered A Ring which had his Effigies cut upon it fell in like manner of it self off his Finger The Day before that there came one I know not who scrieking and crying into the Senate none of the Senate understood what he said but yet Hadrian was moved at him as if he had said something concerning his Death Speaking to the Senate instead of post filii mei mortem after the Death of my Son which he intended to say he said post mortem meam after my Death He dreamt that he had asked and had obtained of his Father a Potion to make him sleep Another time that he was oppressed by a Lion After his Death a great many Persons spoke very hard things against him The Senate would have made void his Acts neither had he been deifyed but that Antoninus begged it who not only did this but built a Temple to him at Pozzulo and instituted in his Honour Games to be celebrated every Five Years and appointed him his Priests and Fraternities with all other things belonging to the Service of a God Upon which account it was as many think at least and as I have already intimated that the Title of the Pious was given to Antoninus THE LIFE OF Aelius Verus Caesar BY AELIUS SPARTIANUS TO THE EMPEROR DIOCLESIAN AELIUS SPARTIANUS his Slave wisheth Health AS it is my Design Sir humbly to lay at the Feet of your Majesty who are the greatest of so many Princes an Account not only of those who have sate upon the Roman Throne before you as I have already done in the Princes from Julius Caesar down unto Hadrina but of those also who either have been honoured with the Title of Caesars or upon any other Account have had the Reputation to be proposed for the Crown although they did not afterwards succeed to it I cannot omit here the Life especially of Aelius Verus Caesar who was incorporated into the Royal Family by the adoption of Hadrian but enjoy'd the Name only of a Caesar and did not live to be Emperor And because there is but little to be said of him and the Preface ought not to be long in a such small Narration as this I immediately proceed Cejonius Commodus or as he is otherwise called Aelius Verus was adopted by Hadrian when the Maladies of that Prince increasing upon him with his Age pressed him to appoint his Successour after his return from his many Travels about the World His Life affords us nothing that is more memorable than this to wit His Quality as a Caesar given him not by a last Will and Testament as formerly it The signification of Caesar had descended nor yet was it given him in the manner in which the Adoption of Trajan was by Nerva but so as in our time Maximianus and Constantius have been created Caesars by your Majesty that is to signify they are as it were the Princes of the Blood and the appointed Heirs of the Empire And because it may be fit that something here should be said concerning the Name of Caesar the Opinion of the most Learned about it is That he who was the first called so was either called Caesar from an Elephant which in the Language of the Moors is called Caesa which he bravely slew in the Field or because his Mother dying in her Labour with him he was Ventre Caeso natus cut out of her Belly or because he was born cum magna Caesarie with much Hair upon his Head or because oculis Caesiis viguerit he had Grey Eyes which were bright and vigorous to a Miracle However it is it was certainly a happy Necessity that was the occasion of a Name so famous which is like to be as Eterternal as the World The person of whom we at present speak receiv'd it in virtue of his Adoption by Hadrian His Father was Cejonius Commodus whom others call Verus others Lucius Aurelius others Annius All his His Ancestors his Wife Ancestours were Persons of good Quality whose Original for the most part was out of the Country of Hetruria or the City Faenza Of which Family we shall have an occasion to speak more fully hereafter in the Life of Lucius Aurelius Cejonius Commodus Verus Antoninus the Son of this Verus whom Antoninus the Pious was commanded to Adopt For in that Life will be contained every thing which concerns the Stem of this House as it gives an account of a Prince who hath a great many more things to be said of him than this here So Aelius Verus being Adopted by Hadrian â—n â—he time as I have said that he was very weak and was necessarily to think of a Successour and being presently made a Praetor â—pon it and appointed to be the President of Pannonia he was in the next place Created Consul and in regard that he was the Person design'd for the Empire he was appointed to be Consul a second time A Largess was given to the People upon the occasion of his Adoption and three thousand
and both the Bodies of the one and the other were dragged about the Streets without any regard to humanity He put to death the Son of Papinian who but three days before had treated the City with a magnificent Shew upon his entrance into the Office of a Questor An infinite Number of others were killed upon the same days who had favoured the side of Geta. The Servants that had waited upon him In all places and in the very Baths were there Massacres committed upon some as they were at their Suppers amongst whom was Sammonicus Severus who is known by his many Learned Books Chilo who was twice Captain of the Guards and Consul was in the greatest danger for only having advised the two Brothers to an agreement with one another For the Soldiers had stript him and were hurrying him away to the Execution when further Orders came to spare him He put to death Helvius Pertinax for no other reason but because he was the Son of an Emperor He never ceased to kill upon some occasion or other those who had been his Brother's Friends He frequently and proudly inveighed both against the Senate and the People not forbearing to value himself one day because he was another Sylla Then he went into Gallia whither he was no sooner come than he put to death the Proconsul of the Narbonnoise He made such a havock and such a confusion amongst the Magistrates of this Province that he was as much hated as the most outragious Tyrant ever was Sometimes nevertheless he would disguise his sanguinary and cruel Nature and pretend to be gracious He did a great many things here against the Rights of the Country and the People And then he was taken with a great sickness and yet he was afterwards very Cruel to those who even recovered him Next His Dacian Expedition he prepared himself for an Expedition into the East and so came into Dacia He new great Numbers of the Barbarians about the Country of Rhaetia encouraging on his Soldiers and gratifying them with his Bounty as if they were the Soldiers of a Sylla He suffered not himself to be called indeed by the Name of any God as Commodus was whom they called a Hercules because of his killing a Lyon and other Wild Beasts But having received a Victory over the Germans he called himself Germanicus without any regard to the nearness of that Name to Germanus that is his own Brother whom he had killed And had he he said overcome the Lucani he would have been called Lucanicus although it is a word which in another Sense signifies an Action of Dishonour He put to death such as had but made Water in the place where stand the Statues or the Images of the Emperor or had taken off the Crowns from the Heads of any Images to place them elsewhere or used Amulets about their Necks for Charms against Quartan and Tertian Agues He took his way by Throce in company with the Captain of the Guards and thence crossing the Sea into Asia his Sail-yard broke and he was in danger to be wreckt had he not gotten into the Pinnace and so was taken into a stout Vessel where the Admiral was that convoy'd him He often with his Sword in His Strength hand hath stood a Combate with Wild-Boars Once he fought a Lyon of which he gloried much in his Letters which he sent to his Friends and boasted that he was arrived to the Power of Hercules Coming into Asia he applied himself to the matter of the War with the Armenians and Parthians in which he appointed a General to command who was of the same Kidney with himself He went to Alexandria where assembling His Barbarities in Egypt the People together in the Schools he made a sharp Speech to them and commanded a draught of the stoutest Men to be made out of them for Recruits as he pretended for his Forces But when this was done he put them all to the Sword after the Example of Ptolemy Euergetes the Eighth of that Name King of Egypt who had practised the like Barbarity At the same time upon a signal given to his Soldiers they fell every one upon his own Host and murdered him and committed a vast slaughter throughout the City of Alexandria Afterwards he marched against the Parthians by the Borders of the People called Cadusii and the Country of Babylon and coming to a tumultuary Engagement with them he let loose amongst them Wild Beasts after which he sent his Dispatches about it to the Senate to the end to obtain the Title of Conqueror of the Parthians as if he had gotten never so great a Victory He was preparing himself for another Campaign when going from the City of Rhea in Mesopotamia where he wintered to Heren or Charan to assist at the Worship of the Moon and by the way alighting from his Horse to make Water he was stabbed the same moment upon the Eighth of the Ides of April being his Birth-Day and the Festival of Cybele by a Conspiracy which was laid for the purpose by Macrinus the Captain of the Guards who invaded the Empire after him Those who were privy to the same besides were Nemesianus and his Brother Apollinaris and Rhaetianus who commanded the second Legion nor was the design unknown to Martius Agrippa the Admiral nor to a great many other principal Officers who had been brought into it by the instigation especially of one Martial a Centurion He was killed in the midway betwixt the Cities of Rhea and Heren where he had an occasion to alight as I said from his Horse The Guards were of the number of the Conspirators and so as the Quirry lifted him up to his Horse again he struck him into the Body with a Dagger Now concerning the Death of Papinian I Papinian ' s Death know very well that it is variously represented by a great many as if they did not know the real cause it However I think fit to publish what to me seems to be the Truth rather than I will be silent upon the Murder of so great a Person Papinian it is said was one in very great Favour with the Emperor Septimius Severus to whom some add that he was somewhat akin by his second Wife Therefore Severus had recommended unto him the Care of his two Sons whom accordingly he exhorted to a good Agreement with one another and so interposed against the Murder of Geta. But for this he together with the rest who were Favourers of Geta was killed by the express Order of Bassianus who as some further add had desired Papinian to extenuate for him to the Senate and the People the death of Geta. But Papinian answered That it was not so easie to excuse a Murder as it was to commit it They say also that Papinian did decline to dictate the Speech in which Bassianus was to inveigh against his Brother to the end to render his own Cause the better in killing him and that
Father will take the Care not to be wanting and it shall be my best endeavours not to be wanting to the Glory of the name of Antoninus I am sensible it is a name in which the Emperors Pius Marcus and Verus have gone before me who were Persons to whom it is a difficult thing to answer worthily I can only say I will do all that is in my power and in the mean time upon the joynt occasion of my Reign and my Name I promise you the same as my most honoured Father hath done who hath but considered you at you deserve The Greek Historian Herodian hath omitted these passages and speaks Diadumenus under no higher a quality than a Caesar However after this Harangue a Coin was stamped at Antioch in the name of Antoninus Diadumenus the other which was to be in the name of Macrinus was deferred till they had the express Orders of the Senate to whom Letters were sent to acquaint them with what was past and with the New Antoninus who desired their approbation And whether it was as some say because their hatred to Antoninus Caracallus made them willing to have any other Emperor rather than him they accepted of this Change freely Had Macrinus lived he intended to have given to the People of Rome a Present of some Vestments after the example of the Donation of Caracallus and also to establish a Charity for the maintenace of the Children of some Poor Families whom he intended to call by the name of his Son to the end as his own Words in the Edict are to render so much the more agreeable and more recommendable the glory of the name of Antoninus At the same time he says that he wishes that he was present with the People of Rome that his Son their new Antoninus might with his own hand distribute a Largess of Corn amongst them In the next place he ordered the Colours and the Standards of the Antoninusses to be put up in the Camp He erected the Statues of Antoninus Bassianus Caracallus in Gold and Silver and Celebrated a Festival of seven days for the Honour of the name of Antoninus Antoninus Diadumenus was certainly one of His Personage the beautifullest Youths in the World He was pretty tall with bright yellow Hair black Eyes and a pretty long Nose his Chin perfectly handsome and a grace to his whole Face a full kissing Lip and then he was naturally Stout and proper in his Exercises When first he was dress'd in the Imperial Robes of Scarlet and Purple and the other Military Ensigns of the Empire he shined like a Star or as one newly dropt from Heaven and every body loved him for the Charms of his Beauty In the next place as to the Omens which prognosticated Omens of his Reign his Reign they are indeed stupendous The day that he was born his Father over-seeing and examining the Purple Robes of the Emperor in his Office had ordered some of them to be brought where his Son Diadumenus was born in two Hours after And as some Children that are born have a skin upon their Heads in the nature of a Coif being a natural sort of a Cover upon the Head which is afterwards taken away by the Midwives Diadumenus instead of this had a perfect Diadem in the place of it which was a thin but strong Flesh made of a great many Veins and Fibres like the strings of a Bow from whence he was called at first Diadematus but as he grew up he was called by the Name of Diadumenus from his Grandfather by the side of his Mother and there is not much difference betwixt the one Name and the other At a House of his Father 's in the Country twelve Lambs were kidded all of a Wool of the colour of Purple except one which was of divers Colours The same day that he was born an Eagle came and dropt a Ring-Dove into his Cradle as he slept and retired without doing him any hurt Other Doves from whence the Soothsayers prognosticated great Riches and Honour came and made their Nests in his Father's House As he was one day walking in the Fields an Eagle came and took from off his Head his Cap and afterwards dropt it upon the Head of a Statue of an Emperor He was born not only upon the same day of the Month but in the same hour and almost under the same Constellations as was the Emperor Antoninus Pius Therefore the Astrologers said That he would be both the Son of an Emperor and an Emperor himself A Woman who was of his Kindred observing that he was born upon the Birth-day of that Prince cried Let him be called an Antoninus But Macrinus was afraid to do that because it was an Imperial Name which none of his Family had ever had and he thought it was safer to let it alone especially the Report being already put about of the greatness of his Birth Another Omen that still more particularly deserves our observation is this as Diadumenus was in his Cradle in a Garden a Lyon that had broken loose and was very fierce came and lick'd him and left him without offering him the least violence but yet meeting his Nurse he fell upon her and bit her so cruelly that she died This is what hath seemed to me to be worthy of memory concerning Antoninus Diadumenus whose Life I had even intermixt with the Actions of his Father but that my Honour for the Princes of his Name obliged me to Great Honours paid to the Name Antoninus such a particular Account of him And certainly it was a Name so amiable to these times that it seems as if he who was not call'd an Antoninus was not fit to be Emperor There is a Letter of Opilius Macrinus in which he declares that he glories not so much of his elevation to the Empire whereof he was the second Person in rank before as Captain of the Guards as of being the Father of a Son of the Name of Antoninus which at that time was so Famous that not any Name of the Gods themselves was more Therefore said one It is a thing void of all Reason and unsuitable to the Dignity of Commodus to covet as he did the Name of Hercules as if that of Antoninus was not Honour enough For would he be a God he could never more eminently be so than as he was an Emperor of so excellent a Name I mention this in this place only to shew how highly the Antoninusses were valued to have their Names set above the very Gods And yet all this was wrought by only the Charms of three Princes of that Name whose Wisdom whose Goodness and whose Piety consecrated them for ever to Posterity that is Wisdom in the Person of Marcus Antoninus Goodness in his Brother Verus and Piety in the first of the three Antoninus Pius I come now to the Letter which I mention'd of Opilius Macrinus Opilius Macrinus to Nonia Celsa his
about as the Fanatick Priests of that Goddess do amongst whom he officiated every thing that those Priests do so did he till at length he stole off the Venerable Image of the Mother of the Gods and reposed it in the Sacristy of his own God He Celebrated the Feasts of Adonis with all the Mourning and the Tossing the Body which is used in the worship of that God in Syria He imitated Venus weeping and bewailing his loss which was but a presage from himself of his own approaching ruin All the Gods he said were the Servants of his God to whom some were his Chamberlains some his Ushers and others were destin'd to serve him in all sorts of Offices He endeavoured to possess himself of the Statue of the Goddess Diana being the same Sacred Statue which Orestes had stoln out of her Temple in Scythia Taurica and had afterwards reposed it in another Temple Dedicated to her at the City of Laodicea in Asia The same Orestes built a City of his own Name Oresta upon the Bank of the Hebrus in the Country of Thrace which the Emperor Hadrian ordered to be re-called Hadrianople from himself about the time that he City of Adrianople was in his Frenzy when he commanded so many Senators to be killed whom Antoninus on the contrary saving and afterwards bringing them into the Senate when every body had thought them dead he very well deserved to be Entitled as he was the Pious Antoninus And some allay it gave to that Frenzy of Hadrians at that time to tell him That whilst his Majesty was giving his Name to a City it was to be feared that some mad House should take it up Antoninus Heliogabalus offered Sacrifices to Cruel Idolatry his God of young and pretty Boys that were Gentlemens Sons whom he Kidnapped for the purpose over all the Country of Italy and whose Fathers and Mothers were yet living The reason of his choice of such as whose Fathers and Mothers were yet living I cannot understand unless it was this to make the Trouble of their loss so much the more sensible as it reached to both their Parents and that their deaths should be accompanied in the Ears of his God with á more general Lamentation He had all sorts of the Diviners Magicians and Priests of the East with him daily employed in the bloody Works of his Religion in which he encouraged them on thanking the Gods that he was so well supplied with the peculiar Friends as he called them and Servants of theirs and then he pryed himself into the Entrails of the murdered Children and discussed the Victims according to the Rites of the Country from whence this Service came The Largess with which he Caressed the People when he entred upon his Consulship was not little pieces of Money of Gold or Silver cast amongst them nor a Collation of Fruits Wines and the like but he gave them Fat Oxen Camels and Asses to divide amongst them and Slaves to serve them This he said was great and becoming an Emperor and for the Honour of Heliogabalus his God He was very severe upon the memory of Opilius Macrinus but yet worse against his Son for assuming the name of Antoninus he called him a Pretended a Spurious Antoninus and he could not endure to hear him welâ— spoken of nay he obliged some Persons that writ his Life to Slander him with things thaâ— were horrid and intolerable He set up a Publick Bath in the Court which he exposed to the free use of all the World the design whereof was only to see what Men were the besâ— Provided for his use and to take them to himself for those were the Creatures in the World the most in Vogue with him and great Care was used to find them out abouâ— all the Town insomuch as out of the very Water-men In the mean time the Persons who discovered his Practises the most to the World werâ— such especially as had born him Company iâ— the Exercises of his Lusts and had been wearied with his Men that were so Potent anâ— so filthily Hung. His death was a thing begun first to be thought of amongst those of h 〈…〉 own Family Neither could the Soldiers endure to see such a Pest upon the Throne and therefore they all turned their inclinations upon Alexander his Cousin German whom the Senate as it was said had Created Caesar at the death of Macrinus Aurelius Zoticus Magirus His filthiness with Magirus was a very great Favourite unto Heliogabalus All the Principal Officers of the Court respected him as if Magirus was the Husband and Heliogabalus the Wife Magirus the Master and Heliogabalus the Mistress But the Master did so abuse the Tye of the Familiarity which he had with this Mistress that he made a Practise by it of really cheating out of their Money all the World at once Some he threatned some he promised took Money of all and coming out from Heliogabalus His way was Sir I told the Emperor this of you I heard him say this of you to another This will be done about you to a third And yet all false as all these sort of Men do who when admitted to too great a Familiarity with Princes make no scruple to Sacrifice the Reputation of them to their own advantages Let the Princes themselves be bad or good it is the same for so long as either through their Folly or their Innocence they do not perceive the Cheat it is Meat and Drink and Honour and Riches to such as pursue it Heliogabalus perfectly Married this Man and lay with him as his Bride and his word was Vigorously Magirus not bating him so much as the time that Magirus was sick of a Dose that had been palmed upon him by an angry Rival Then he askt the Philosophers and the gravest Persons about him whether they in their Youths had not done the same thing Which he expressed in the lewdest words for he never spared for those and acted the Postures upon his Fingers without any sense of Shame to be seen and heard by all the Company He made his infranchised Slaves the Presidents Lieutenants and Proconsuls of the Provinces The Commands in the Army and all Places of Honour he polluted with baseborn and profligate Men. When he kept the Feast of the Vintage to which he had invited several of the Nobility and Gentry and the Company being repos'd began impudently His hâ—rrid Immodesty to ask first the Gravest of them one after another Was be ready for the Exercises of Venus They blushing at the Question he cryed He Blushes that 's enough his silence gives consent and then he told them of his own Performances and how he was ready to do all things for his part without seeking a Veil for his Modesty The Graver Men blushing still and saying nothing because either their Age or their Honour refuted such Stuff he proceeded to apply his Discourses to the young Fry to whom he uttered all
in the presence of the Emperors themselves He was very Magnificent in his Quaestorship The Year that he was Aedile he Entertained the People of Rome at his own expence Twelve times with the Publick Shews that is once every Month and sometimes he presented five hundred couple of Gladiators at a Shew never less than one hundred and fifty He had a hundred Wild Beasts of Africa Hunted in one day another a thousand Bears his sixth day is very Memorable There were two hundred stout Stags Hunted by Britains thirty Wild Horses a hundred Wild Sheep ten Elks a hundred Cyprian Bulls three hundred Red Barbary Ostriches thirty Wild Asses one hundred and fifty Boars two hundred Wild Goats and two hundred Deer All these he gave in One which was his sixth day to be Hunted taken and divided amongst the People There is a Painting of it yet to be seen in the House where he lived of the Great Pompey which House was his and his Father's and his Grandfather's before him but since confiscated in the time of the Emperor Philip. In his Praetorship he acquitted himself Nobly After which he was Consul the first time in conjunction with the Emperor Antoninus Caracallus the second time in conjunction with the Emperor Alexander Severus He had two Children a Son who was a Consul and afterwards his Colleague in the Empire who was killed in the Battel in Africa near Carthage and a Daughter called Maecia Faustina who married Junius Balbus who was also a Consul In his Consulships he was the most Famous of all of his time insomuch that the Emperor Caracallus envied him and admired sometimes his Robes sometimes his Shews extreamly He was the first Private Man of the Romans that had a Consular Tunick and Gown Embroidered with Palm-leaves and other Devices in Gold of his own Because before the Emperors themselves when Consuls received those Robes upon solemn Occasions either out of the Capitol where they were reposited from time to time or out of the Wardrobe of the Court He gave by the Emperor's leave ten Sicilian Chariot-Horses and ten others bought out of Cappadocia to be Run in the Cirque So that he rendred himself dear to the Populace who are always affected with these things Aelius Cordus says that in all the Cities of Campania Hetruria Flaminia Ombria and the Picenum he diverted the People with the Sports of the Stage and other Divertisements upon his own Charges for four days together He writ in Prose the Praises of all the Princes before him of the Name of Antoninus which Name he so loved that when he entred his Son into the Publick Register before the Keeper of the Exchequer according to the Roman Law it is certain he called him Antoninus Gordianus After his Consulship he was chosen the Proconsul Made Proconsul of Africa of Africa with the consent of all who wished well to the Honour of the Reign of Alexander Severus in that Country That Prince hath a Letter extant in which he returns his Thanks to the Senate for making choice of so Deserving a Person for that Employment You could not do any thing says he Fathers of the Senate which is more Grateful and more Pleasing to me than your making Choice of Gordianus to be the Proconsul of Africa A Man of Honour and Gallantry Eloquent Just Continent Good and so he goes on This shews how Great a Man he then was When therefore he came into Africa the People Loved him as they never did any Proconsul before Some called him a Scipio some a Cato some a Mutius Scaevola a Rutilius and a C. Laelius One day particularly says Juâ—ius Cordus as he was Reading in publick to them an Order from the Emperor his Master which began with these words Since the Proconsulship of the two Scipio's the People took the Hint from thence to cry A New Scipio a True Scipio is the Proconsul Gordianus All Happiness to Him And several such Acclamations as these he heard frequently He was as to his Person of a Roman Height His Person and Character with comely gray Hairs and a stately Visage rather ruddy than fair a good full Face his Eyes Mouth and Brow carried a Majesty He was pretty big in the Body As to his Actions he was so Moderate that you can say nothing that he ever did passionately or immodestly or to any manner of excess He loved his Son and Grandson his Daughter and his Grand-daughter very entirely and according to all the Rules of Duty He deferred so much to his Wife's Father Annius Severus that as if he was in the Quality of a begotten Son to him he never presumed to Bath in the same Water with him nor before he was a Praetor to sit down in his presence When he was Consul he either dwelt with him always in his House or if he was at his own he went to wait upon him Morning or Night daily He Drank little and Eat less was proper in his Cloaths loved Bathing so that in Summer he Bathed four or five timeâ— a day and twice in the Winter he Slept very much If he dined any time abroad with hiâ— Friends he made no scruple to fall asleep upon the Couches which any body might seâ— was natural to him and not caused by any Ebriety or Luxury Yet did not this good Life procure him â— happy End and Death He who was in thâ— conduct of himself so Venerable and was always entertaining himself sweetly with Platâ— Aristotle Tully Virgil and the rest of the Antients suffered an Exit that was very differenâ— from his deserts As he remain'd the Proconsul of Africa in the time of the Cruel and Violent Maximin after the decease of his first Master the Emperor Alexander Severus the Senatâ— sent his Son to him into that Province in thâ— Quality of a Lieutenant to assist him Noâ— there was a Receiver of Maximin's who wâ— Barbarous upon a great many of the People oâ— the Country beyond even what Maximin himself would have suffered Some he Proscribed others he put to death enterprizing many things beyond his Commission till at length the Proconsul and the Lieutenant took it upon them to reprove him He nevertheless pursuing his Courses and threatning with death Persons of the Nobility and of Consular Dignity and the Africans not being able to endure such unwonted and outragious Injuries they first of all joyning some of the Soldiers to them killed this Receiver Then they began to think what they should do next to secure the repose of the Country and their own Lives against the Party of Maximin And it being the time that Maximin had rendered himself odious unto all the World one Mauricius a Captain of Note amongst the Africans and a Gentleman of good Birth assembled a Party of them together upon his own Grounds near the City Thysdrus and putting himself at the head of them he Harangued them thus Gentlemen and Fellow-Citizens I thank the immortal Gods that they
times You remember that of Virgil Aen. 6. Incanaque menta Regis Romani Or The Hoary Head of a King of the Romans This was repeated ten times Who Governs better than a Man of Years This was repeated ten times We make you an Emperor not a Soldier This was repeated twenty times Give the Word only and the Soldiers will Fight it out This was repeated thirty times You are Prudent and you have a good Brother living with you This was repeated ten times It is the Head that Governs and not the Feet said the Emperor Septimius Severus This was repeated thirty times We choose you for your Parts of Mind and not of Body This was repeated twenty times The Gods save you our Emperor Tacitus Then they went to take the Suffrages of each Senator in particular The next to Tacitus was Moecius Falconius Nicomachus who was of the degree of a Consul He being ask'd his Opinion discoursed the Senate in these words Fathers of the Senate This most Noble House hath ever rightly and prudently consulted the Good of the State Nor is there any Nation upon the Earth from whom one ought to expect a greater share of solid Wisdom than from you But yet I must say That of all the Instances of your Wisdom there never was a Determination pass'd by you more Grave and more Judicious than what hath been done in this present Assembly We have chosen a Person of an advanced Age to be our Prince and one who may consult the Good of us all as a Father Nothing from him that is immature that is unadvised that is ill is to be feared We may promise our selves a Reign of all Sobriety all Gravity and as the State would in a manner have it For he knows what a Prince he hath always wished to himself to have and he cannot give us a different one in his own Person from what he hath desired to find in another Certainly if we will reflect upon those Prodigies of ill Princes of the Antient Times I mean the Nero's the Heliogabalus's and the Commodus's it will appear that their Crimes were not more the Vices of the Men than the Vices of their Age. The Gods defend us from having Boys to be our Sovereigns and Children to be called the Fathers of our Country who must have Masters to hold their Hands when they Sign their Orders and will be invited to make Persons Consuls by the Sugar-plumbs and the Cakes and every Childish Pleasure that is given them What Reason I pray is there to have an Emperor who does not know how to take the care of his Reputation who does not understand what a State is that fears his Educator is Commanded by his Nurse and lies under the Magisterial Lash and Terror of the Hands of his Master What Consuls what Commanders what Magistrates is he like to give us when as to the Lives Merits Ages Families and Actions of the Persons whom he prefers truly be understands nothing at all of them But why am I here drawn to bestow Gentlemen so many words upon this subject Let us rather Congratulate the choice which we have made of a Prince who is a Man of Years than to iterate those things that have been beyond measure deplorable to the Persons that have suffered under them I give therefore my repeated Thanks to the Immortal Gods for this Choice I offer the same likewise in the Name of the whole State And to you Tacitus our Emperor I turn my self to beg of you to beseech you to intreat you generously in the behalf of our Common Country that if it shall be the Will of the Fates that you die whilst your own Sons are yet but young you would not make those Children Heirs after you of the Roman Empire nor in such a nature leave this State this Senate and the People of Rome as if the first was no more than your Villa and we all your Tenants and your Slaves Consider very well and imitate the Examples of Nerva Trajan and Hadrian It is a great honour in a dying Prince to love his Country more than his Issue Tacitus was extreamly moved and the whole Senate struck with this Speech and presently they cryed We All All say the same and so the House rose They went from thence unto the Field of Mars where Tacitus having placed himself upon the Tribunal Aelius Cesetianus the Governour of the City spoke thus to a General Assembly there met of all the People Gentlemen-Soldiers and you the good Citizens and Commons of Rome You have here the Prince whom by the consent of all the Roman Armies the Senate hath made choice of to fill the Throne The most Noble Tacitus I say who as he hath hitherto assisted by his Suffrages to the good of the Senate so he is now chosen to do the same by his Command and Consultations The People cryed All Happiness to the Emperor Tacitus The Gods save your Majesty and the like as usual It is not here to be omitted what several have writ That Tacitus was in his absence and whilst he was in the Campagna nam'd to be Emperor which I cannot deny to be in some His unwillingness to assume the Empire measure true For as soon as the Rumour had broken out that he was the Person intended to be Elected he retired from the Town and went and kept himself two Months at Bajae But they fetched him from thence again and he was present at this Act of the Senate as altogether a private Person and really did decline his Elevation For that no body may think that I have rashly given Credit to the Testimony of any either Greek or Latin Writer as to this Matter there is in the Ulpian Library in the Sixth Apartment a Book in Tables of Ivory in which this Act of the Senate is registred at large subscribed by Tacitus himself in his own hand It was a long time a Custom to Register such Acts as concerned the Crown upon Tables of Ivory From the Assembly of the People Tacitus next went to the Camp of the Guards where having taken his Place upon a High Tribunal Maesius Gallicanus the Captain of the Guards directed himself to the Soldiers in these words My very good Fellow-Soldiers The Senate hath given you the Prince whom you desired That most Noble House hath readily comply'd with the Will of the Camp It is not for me to say more to you in the presence of the Emperor himself Therefore hear him who is our Master attentively whilst he speaks to you Then Tacitus spoke thus When Trajan came to the Empire it is true he was pretty well in Years and he was appointed by only one Person neither But as for my self in the first place you my excellent Fellow Soldiers who know what Princes you do approve of and in the next the most Honourable the Senate hath adjudged me to this Place It shall be my care I will make it my endeavour and my