the Provinces of the Enemy The Persians then first began to submit to the Dominion of the Romans But because the Kings of Persia think it an Indignity for those that belong to them to be made Slaves he sent their Ransoms and the Prisoners were restored and the Money given either to such as had taken them Prisoners or else put into the Treasury After this noble Expedition he came to Rome where he received the honour of a Triumph He triumphs performed with great Magnificence and then he made this Speech to the Senate upon the occasion which I have taken out of the Journal of the Senate upon the seventh day of the Kalends of October Fathers of the Senate WE have vanquished the Persians and we have no need of any great Eloquence to recount the particulars to you You may please only to know what their Arms were and how well provided they came They came with seven Hundred Elephants and this is the first time that we have ever seen in the Field so great a Number and these carried Towers upon their backs full of Archers and Loads of Arrows Three Hundred of these we took Two Hundred more were killed upon the place and Eighteen we have brought hither with us Then they had Eighteen Hundred Chariots armed with cutting Scythes We could have brought with us of those Chariots Two Hundred whereof the Beasts were killed But however we thought fit to forbear that because it is an easie thing to make them ourselves We have cut in pieces an Army of a hundred and twenty thousand Horse and ten thousand Compleat Cuirassiers with whose Spoils we have armed our Men. We took a great number of the Persians Prisoners whom we have sold The Country of Mesopotamia betwixt the two Rivers of Tigris and Euphrates which had been so neglected by my Impure Prodecessour Heliogabalus we have Re-conquered and received into our Obedience We have put the most Potent King Artaxerxes as he is entituled but who is so in effect as well as by Name to flight The Country of Persia beheld him flying and in the same place where the Romans heretofore in the defeat of Crassus lost their Banners the Persians now have left us theirs You see Fathers of the Senate what we have Atchieved the Subject needs no Eloquence to adorn it The Army is come home Rich. None think their Pains too great that Conquer It is for you to appoint Publick Thanksgivings to be made upon this occasion to the end that we may not seem ungrateful to the Gods for the success of our Arms. The Acclamations of the Senate followed The Gods preserve our Emperor Alexander Conquerour of the Persians We Congratulate your Majesty your most great Victory your Majesty hath merited most truly the Name of Conqueror of the Persians and Parthians The Gods save you We behold your Trophies We see your Victory All thanks to our young Emperor the Father of his Country our Soveraign Pontiff By you we will hope for Victory over the Germans By you we will hope for Victory from all Parts Your Majesty takes the way to Conquer You Command the Soldiers The Senate is enriched The Army is enriched The People of Rome are enriched by your Majesty Then the Senate Adjourning he went from thence to the Capitol where having performed the Sacred Ceremonies and Dedicated to the Temple of Jupiter some Armour of the Persians to be hung up there he spoke to thi◠purpose to the People Citizens and Commons of Rome I Have overcome the Persians and my Ar 〈…〉 is returned Rich home with the Booty that 〈…〉 have made We promise to give you a Larg 〈…〉 and to Morrow we will give you the Gam 〈…〉 the Cirque on the occasion of our Conquests This is the account of this Expedition 〈…〉 I have found upon the Annals and 〈…〉 Works of many Historians And as for 〈…〉 some say on the contrary That He 〈…〉 trayed by a Slave and instead of Conquering Artaxerxes fled for fear of being Conquered himself or particularly what Herodian says That Artaxerxes lost his Army by Famine Cold and Sickness in which Opinion he is very singular I leave them to be contradicted by the Judgments of all such as have Read and are best acquainted with this History After all these things full of Glory accompanied by the Senate the Order of the Gentry and all the People through Crowds of Women and Children on all sides and above all the Soldiers Wives contemplating his Presence and his Meen and observing him as he passed with admiration He marched from the Capitol to the Palace on Foot followed by a Triumphal Chariot drawn by four Elephants He was so born up in the Hands of all People that he scarce finished this Space in four Hours and from all sides they cried how happy is Rome in such a Prince The following day was spent in the Games of the Cirque and the Diversions of the Stage And then he gave the Poor a Largess and Established Pensions for the maintenance of the Children of the Poor according to an Example of Antoninus Pius and in the Honour of his Mother Mammaea those Children were called the Children of Mammaea The Affairs of the Province of Mauritania His Successes by his Generals Tingitana in Barbary had been in the mean time very successful under Furius Celsus as were those of the Province of Illyricum under Varius Macrinus his Kinsman and those of Armenia under Junius Palmetus so that from all places they sent him Letters Crowned with Lawrels which being publickly Read to the Senate and the People he found himself adorned and saluted by all the Titles that could appertain to him Therefore as for Men that had behaved themselves so well in the Provinces committed unto their Government and yet had never been Consuls he appointed them the Honour of wearing the same Marks and Ornaments as those that had He put them into Estates if they were Poor and advanced in years and gave them Places in the College of the Priests He gave the Captives that he had made of divers Nations amongst his Friends unless they were of Royal Blood or of more than Ordinary Quality and then he Deputed them to the Services of War but in no great Posts The Lands of the Enemy which were Conquered upon the Frontiers were given by his consent amongst the Officers and Soldiers under a Condition that their Heirs after them should be obliged to take to Arms and that those Lands should never come to Persons of another Condition because he said that the thoughts that they were to defend their own Estates would make them fight more freely He furnished them with Cattle and Servants necessary for Tillage lest either through the want of Hands or the Old Age of the Possessors the said Places should come to be abandoned again which he thought would be a thing very shameful After these things forasmuch as he lived in a great love and esteem
choosing another Person Emperor whom when Gallienus could not pacifie in his favour he killed them all which was his way as he did at Byzantium As ill as his Affairs on all sides stood Gallienus prosecuted his Vanities He desired to be made a Citizen and President of Athens and to be admitted to all the Religious Rites of that place and to be made one of the number of the Areopagites This was a Contempt upon the People of Rome and the Honours which he enjoy'd from thence as if he valued it more to be an Areopagite and the Archon of Athens than to be the Roman Emperor It is true that both Hadrian and Marcus Antoninus had the curiosity to be initiated in the Eleusinian Rites But the Emperor Hadrian was when he did it in the height of his prosperity and the Emperor Antoninus did not affect it till after a firm Peace and both of them were so well seen in the Greek Learning that seldom were the learnedest Doctors there superiour to them His Skill in the Arts. in the judgment of the Great Men. It cannot be denied indeed but Gallienus was eminent in Oratory Poetry and all the Arts. He made an Epithalamium upon the Marriage of his Brother's Sons extempore which was better than a hundred others made at the same time by all the Greek and Latin Poets though they studied several days upon it and every one did his best to excel The Epithalamium of Gallienus was these three Lines Taking them by the Hands Ite ite O pueri pariter sudate Medullis Omnibus inter vos Non murmura vestra Columbae Brachia non Hederae non vincant oscula Conchae That is Go go young Pair and be your Mutual Loves Express'd in every Part and Pore As Doves In softest Murmurs speak your mighty Bliss Like Ivy Twine and close as Cockles Kiss I have not the time to adjoyn the rest of his Verses nor to speak of his Prose which made him shine both amongst the Poets and the Orators of his Age. But this is not the Matter It is one thing to be an Orator or a Poet and something else is expected in an Emperor One thing Gallienus did by the advice of his Brother Valerian and his Kinsman Lucillus which was extraordinary well done and was much commended When he heard of the Victories of Odenatus over the Persians and how he had reduced Nisibin and Charran and all the Country of Mesopotamia and was come before Ctesiphon the King of Persia put to flight his Great Men taken Prisoners and many of the Enemy killed Gallienus voluntarily divided the Empire to Odenatus and presented him with the Royal Style as his Brother and ordered Money to be coined in his Name with a Stamp of the Persians taken Prisoners This the Senate the City and People of all Ages took well Nor was Gallienus one that wanted Wit To give you an Instance or two of it A Instances of his Wit great Bull appearing upon the Sands of the Amphitheatre to be hunted and the Man that undertook it missing his blow at him Ten times Gallienus sent the Man a Crown or Garland which is a Reward for a Victory Every body wondred what was the matter and thinking it strange that such a baffled Sportsman should be Crowned he ordered it to be proclaimed by the Cryer It is a difficult thing not to Hit a Bull in Ten times A Merchant had sold to Gallienus's Lady false Glasses for true Jewels She when the Cheat was discover'd called to have the Man punished Gallienus ordered him to be thrown to a Lion to be devoured But instead of a Lion a Capon was let out upon him The People wondring at so ridiculous an appearance says Gallienus He committed a Cheat and be hath suffered a Cheat and so he dismissed the Man again Whilst Odenatus was taken up with the Persian War and Gallienus with his Follies the Scythians with a Fleet came and Plunder'd the City of Heraclia in Thrace and returned home with the Booty but by the way they were beaten in a Naval Fight and lost many of their Men also by a Wreck Then Odenatus was killed by the Treachery of a Kinsman of his own and his Son Herod was killed with him His other Sons Herenniaâ—us and Timolaus being very young their Mother Zenobia took upon her the Empire of their Father and long governed it Not effeminately nor with the expected weakness of her Sex She not only understood to reign better than Gallienus but she was such a Virago that many brave and prudent Emperors have come short of her After the death of Odenatus Gallienus undertook the War with Persia himself to revenge the Calamity of his Father This good Action came too late His General was Heraclianus who marching with an Army against the Persians the Palmyreni and others of the Easterâ—ings who were for the Empire of Zenobia met him and defeated him so that he lost all his Army again The Scythians in the mean time by the way of the Euxine and the Danube made Descents upon the Roman Territories and did very much mischief Gallienus sent against them Cleodamus and Athenaeus two Byzantines to repair the Towns and fortifie such Places as wanted it The Barbarians were met with about Pontus and defeated Venerianus defeated them also in a Sea-Fight in which he was killed himself Then they Ravaged the City of Cyziqua and other Places in Asia and afterwards all Achaia in which last the Athenians under the Command of Dexippus the Historian beat them and repulsed them Then they roved about the Countries of Epirus Mâ—cedonia and Baeotia As they were in Illyricum Gallienus with much ado rowz'd by the Publick Evils came against them and luckily slew a great number of them which put the rest to flight who insconsing themselves behind their Carts escaped by the Mountain Gessaces Martianus pursued them and had several Batteâ— with them afterwards with various success Such of them as reached home excited all their whole Country to a Rebellion against the Romans The ill Government of Gallienus continuing in a manner insupportable Martianus and Heraclianus entred into a Consultation about the disposing the Empire to another Claudius above others was pitched upon though he was not then present He was an extraordinary Man and so much in every bodies esteem that he seemed really to deserve the Empire and from him it is that the most Vigilant Caesar Constantius derives his Descent But inasmuch as they could not accomplish this design without the cutting off a Pest who with dancing after the Play and the Cirque and following his Pleasures let the State in the mean time go to ruin they contrived to draw him out into the Field pretending that Aureâ—lus betwixt whom and Gallienus a difference had happened since their Peace was coming against him to fight him and as he was in the Field they killed him He was killed some Gallienus slain say by the hand of
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
Name to be Engraved upon any of them but upon the Temple of Trajan He re-edified the Pantheon at Rome together with the Septa the Temple of Neptune a great many Religious Houses the Forum of Augustus and the Bagnio of Agrippa all which he Consecrated anew but still under their Proper and their Antient Names He built a Bridge over thâ— Tiber which he called by his own name together with a Sepulchre for himself near the Tiber. He translated the Temple of the Goddess Cybele from the place where it was to another He did the same to a Colossus which stood there where now is the Temple of the City This was a great and a laborious Task It was removed in the Posture in which it was standing being raised by the Architect Daetrianus four and twenty Elephants were Employed upon it After he had Re-consecrated this vast Coloss to the Sun which before was Consecrated to Nero whose Head was to it he proposed to build such another Monument to the honour of the Moon by the Hand of the Architect Apollodorus He was most extremely Affable and Courteous in his Discourses which he had with Persons of low degree and he hated such as should Envy him a Pleasure which was so sensible to him upon the pretence of maintaining the Gravity and Port of a Prince At Alexandria in the Academy he both proposed several Questions to be answered by the Professors and answered others which they proposed to him Marius Maximus says that he was in his own Nature Cruel but yet that he did many Pious and obliging things the reason whereof was his fear that he might otherwise have the same Fortune with that which befel Domitian Although he did not love Titles and Inscriptions upon his Works he however called several Cities even Carthage it self and a part of Athens together with a multitude of Aqueducts after his own name He was the first who Created the Officer called Advocatus Fisci that is Advocate of the Exchequer He had a happy Memory His Memory and Wit and admirable Parts He dictated all his own Speeches and answered to every thing himself There are several of his Jests being a very pleasant Man in Conversation Amongst the rest this is one an old Man in Gray Hairs having asked him something which he denyed him and coming to ask it again but with his Hair tinged first unto a youthful colour says he to him I have already denyed this thing to your Father He remembred Persons by their Names so very well without the help of a Prompter that though he had heard them but once he presently corrected any one that mistook them He remembred even the Names of all the old Soldiers whom he had disbanded The Books which he read though they were out of the common way and difficult he would repeat to you again almost entirely by heart At one and the same time he Writ Dictated hearken'd to Discourse and discoursed himself with his Ministers He retained in his mind all the Publick Affairs so well that no diligent Master of a Family better knows those of his own House He loved his Horses and Dogs to that degree that he built them Tombs and writ them Epitaphs He built a Town which he caâ—led Adrianotherae in a certain place in Moesia only because he had hunted with good Success there at what time he kill'd a Bear with his own hand He made an exact enquiry always into all things acted by the Presidents of the Provinces until he was satisfied in the Truth He suffered not his Servants whom he had Manumitted to Influence him nor to be thought to do so He said that it was the easiness of the Princes his Predecessours which had been the occasion always of the Vices of those Men. Therefore if any of his pretended to have gained an Interest in him he presently punished them We have an instance of this Nature in what he did particularly to one of them whom he saw out of a Window walking in the midst betwixt two Senatours It is severe and yet it comes something near to a piece of Raillery He sent one to him to give him a Box on the Ear and to tell him That it was not for him to walk betwixt two Senatours to whom he might still be reduced to be a Slave Of all Dishes of Meat his fancy was especially for an Oglio of Pheasants Brawn c. In his time a Famine a Plague and an Earthquake happen'd For all which he expiated the Gods by Sacrifices as much as it was possible and generously succoured the People and the Cities that were laid wast by them There was also an Inundation of the Tiber. He made several Cities free of Rome and to others he remitted their Tribute No great Expeditions happened under his Reign His Wars passed over almost in silence He was beloved by the Soldiers because he took always a great Care of them and was very bountiful to them The Parthians were his stedfast Friends because he delivered them from the Yoke which Trajan had imposed upon them He permitted the Armenians to have a King of their own whereas under Trajan they received a Roman Lieutenant He did not exact of the Mesopotamians the Tribute which was imposed upon them by Trajan The Countries of Albania and Iberia were very affectionate to him The Kings of the Bactrians sent their Ambassadors to him and humbly desired his Friendship He oftentimes himself appointed the Persons His Care of the Publick who should be the Guardians to minors He took Care of the publick Manners no less than he did of the Discipline of the Army He commanded the Senators and the Roman Gentlemen to appear always in Publick in Gowns Accordingly himself when in Italy went always in a Gown He received the Senators standing when they came to wait upon him at his Banquets He settled with the help of the Magistrates for that purpose the Expences beyond which no one should exceed in their Feasts which he reformed according to the antient Julian Law He forbad the Citizens to appear attended with so much heavy Equipages as they did coming out of the Country He suffered not the Baths to be opened before Two a Clock in the Afternoon unless it was for the Sick He was the first of the Emperors who took of the Knights and Gentlemen to serve him as his Secretaries He had a Compassion for such amongst them as were poor and he knew were of an innocent Life as much as on the other hand he hated a Man who was grown Rich by Craft He took great Care to observe the Holy Rites of the Religion of the Romans But as for others which were of Foreign Institution he slighted them He officiated in Person as High Priest He many times had Causes tried before him at Rome and in the Provinces admitting the Consuls the Praetors and some of the best Heads of the Senate to his assistance as his Council He
Ceremony He passed him thro' the Colleges of the Priests according to the desire of the Senate He made him a second time Consul with himself when himself entred upon his fourth Consulship But at the same time that Marcus was possessed of these high Honours and assisted at all things which his Father did in order to be formed to the Government of the Empire he went passionately nevertheless to his Studies He married Faustina His wife and Relations by whom he had a Daughter Then the Tribunitian and the Proconsular Powers were given him and the right of a fifth Reference so that his Interest became so great that his Father never easily Promoted any one without him He was always the most dutiful to his Father that it was possible for any one to be howsoever some were willing to whisper Pius in the Ear with things against him particularly Valerius Omulus who one day taking notice of Calvilla the Mother of Marcus as she was at her Devotions in a Garden before an Image of Apollo says he to Pius That Lady there is now Praying for your death and for the Reign of her Son But this was altogether of no weight with him because he â—aw the great Probity of Marcus and with what Modesty he carried himself under the Honour of his Ascension to the degree of a Prince He was so careful to weigh all things well to preserve his Reputation that in his youthful years he always ordered his Servants to do nothing that was hard upon any body and sometimes when Estates were left to him he refused them if he could to give them to the next of the Family He lived three and twenty years together in the Court with his Father and yet he was every day beloved more and more and in all that time he was not absent from him above two nights Wherefore when Antoninus Pius came to dye he called his Ministers and his Friends about him and recommended to them all Marcus as his Successour in the Empire He gave the Tribune the Word which was Aequanimity and immediately he ordered the Golden Image of Fortune which stood in his Bedchamber to be translated into the Bed-chamber of Marcus After the death of Pius the Senate constraining He is created Emperor and Verus his Partner Marcus to take the Publick Government upon him he nominated Verus to be his Partner in the same declaring him Caesar and Emperor from which time they equally began to Reign together and were the first two Emperours who sate at once upon the Throne of Rome He called himself by the name of Marcus Antoninus and he called his Brother Emperour by the name of Verus Antoninus to whom he Contracted his Daughter Lucilla For an Act of goodness upon the occasion of this Conjunction they inlarged the Charity of their Predecessors for the Maintenance of the Children of poor Families and added other Pensions to them From the Senate after having finished their Affairs there they both went together to the Camp of the Guards where they promised the Soldiers a Bounty of twenty thousand Sesterces and to the Officers proportionably as usual upon the occasion of their joynt Reigns They made a magnificent Funeral for their Father whom they interred in the Sepulchre of Hadrian They proceeded to Consecrate him a God Each made an Oration in Publick in his Praise and having appointed him his Order of Priests out of the number of his Friends they distinguished them by calling them after the name of his Family Possessed thus of the Empire they both Their good Government comported themselves so well that none could complain of the loss of the gentle Reign of Pius Marullus the Satyrical Poet of that time had some flings at them but he passed unpunished They concluded the Funeral Obsequies of their Father with the Games of the Gladiatours In the mean time Marcus gave himself still to Philosophy and courted the love of the People But the felicity and the quiet of their Reigns was interrupted first by an Inundation of the Tyber which was very terrible It not only carried away several Buildings of the City and destroyed a great many Cattle but it produced a most grievous Famine which Calamities were moderated as much as possible by the Care and the Presence of Marcus and Verus Then the Parthian Several Wars begun War arose which Vologesus the King of that Country had been hatching under Pius but he did not Proclaim it till the Reign of Marcus and Verus at what time he attack'd Atidius Cornelianus the Lieutenant of Syria and put him to flight Also a War with the Britains was upon the point of kindling and the Catti had already made Incursions into Germany and Rhaetia So against the Britains Calphurnius Agricola was sent Against the Catti Aufidius Victorinus But to the Parthian War the Emperour Verus was appointed to go with the advice of the Senate whilst Marcus tarried at Rome where the Civil Affairs required the presence at least of one Emperour He accompanied Verus as far as to Capuâ— and honoured him with a Retinue of Great Men out of the Senate and Officers for his Court of all sorts to be both his Ministers and his Companions with him in the Expedition But no sooner was Marcus returned to Rome but he received advice that Verus was sick at Canosa in Naples He offered his Vows in the Senate for his Recovery and then went in all haste to see him there and being return'd to Rome the second time he next received an account that Verus was safely arrived in Syria where he passed his time in Sports and Hunting and lived at Antioch and the Village of Daphne in the greatest pleasure whilst his Generals carried on the Parthian War in which they had the Victory of the Enemy In the mean time Marcus was continually attent upon the Affairs of the State and seemed to take the Pleasures of his Brother as if he was indifferent to them or knew nothing of them He ordered and managed all things necessary for the War and yet lived the distance of Rome from it The Affairs of Armenia were prosperous Their Success and the City Teflis upon the Araxis was taken by Statius Priscus Hereupon both the Emperours were presented with the Title of Conquerours of the Armenians which Marcus in modesty first at refused but afterwards accepted They were both in like manner after the War was over presented with the Title of Conquerours of the Parthians and this also Marcus at first refused but afterwards accepted The Title of Pater Patriae or Father of his Country which had been offered to Marcus in the absence of Verus he deferred to meddle with till the return of Verus because he would not assume it but in Conjunction with him In the mean time having Contracted his Daughter Lucilla in Marriage to him he presented her richly and sent her into Syria in the midst of the War attended by his Sister
Let him give Judgment upon our Lives who leads such a one himself as nothing can be objected to it Valerian hath been a Censor from his Infancy Valerian hath all his Life been a Censor He is a Prudent a Modest a Grave Senator a Friend to the Good an Enemy to Rebellion an Enemy to all Vice and Wickedness We all Accept him to be our Censor We will all Observe him A Man of the First Quality Noble by Blood of a Correct Life and Singular Manners Eminent in his Learning and a perfect Model of Antiquity This was often repeated and then the Senate Adjourned When the Emperor Decius had received this Act which was sent to him from the Senate he assembled all those of his Court and amongst the rest he order'd Valerian to be called and after the Act of the Senate was read to the Company he made the following Speech to Valerian You are Happy Valerian in the Judgment Speech of the Emperor to him which all the Senate hath of you and in the share that you bear in their Hearts and Affections Receive the Office of being a Censor to the whole Roman World unto which they have appointed you and which you alone deserve to bear By this you are made a Judge of our Manners You will Judge who ought to abide in the Senate You will reduce the Equestrian Order unto its Antient State You will prescribe Bounds to the Revenues of all You will confirm the Tribute which is raised upon the People You will take an Account of all Offices in the Government You will have the Authority of making Laws of Judging of the Orders of the Soldiers and of having your Eyes upon the Conduct and the Employs of Arms. You will have the Power of carrying your Judgment to my own Court and to the Governours of the Provinces and the most Eminent Commanders in my Service Excepting only the Governour of the City of Rome the two Consuls for the Year the Chief Officer of the Sacrifices and the Mother of the Vestal Virgins provided that she keep her self Uncorrupt there is no Body nor no Cause but will fall under your Sentence And even those who are excepted will labour nevertheless to please you and to be agreeable in your sight The Reply which Valerian made to the Emperor was in this manner May it please Your most Excellent Majesty I beseech you not to tie me to such a necessity of Judging of the People the Soldiers the Senate and all the World indeed the Magistrates of the Provinces the Tribunes and the Generals These are things for which your Majesty possesses the Name of an Emperor the Censorship revolves upon your self a private Man cannot perform it I beg therefore that I may be excused from this Honour Neither my Life nor my Assurance makes me suitable for it The Times also are so repugnant that it is the Voice of Mankind to desire not to see a Censorship of a private Person of this Nature However Valerian acquitted himself in his Censorship with all Equity I could produce several other Instances of the Favour both of the Senate and the Emperors towards him if they were not things that are already generally known From whence I would only observe that it appears that when Valerian was afterwards called to the Empire it was not done by a Tumultuary concourse of the People nor by a Noise of the Soldiers but he was chosen justly for his Merits and as it were by the Unanimous Voice of Mankind in which if every Person in particular had been to be allowed the power of speaking his Opinion they would all have made choice of no other than Valerian After Valerian was upon the Throne no Man acted in the disposition of Commands and Offices better and more justly than he His Son Gallienus the Brother to Valerian the Second by another Venter was at the same time made Caesar at the request of the People In fine the fatal Overthrow of Valerian and his Captivity that followed it makes me almost asham'd to extol him so highly as he otherwise deserves For this Prince marching with a great Force against Persia and invading that Kingdom and being through the Conduct whether Treacherous or Unfortunate I know not of one of his Officers on whom he greatly relied brought into such Circumstances that no Force nor no Military Discipline could save him was Conquer'd and fell a Prisoner into the hands of Sapores King of Persia who swelled with the success of so glorious Victory not only proudly detained him contrary to the Honour of Arms but treated him in the Language of a vile and abject Slave and some say condemned him to the infamous Office of making his Back a Footstool to him to tread upon whenever he mounted his Horse However that is it is certain that several of the Neighbouring Kings who had assisted on the side of Sapores against Valerian in the War sent Letters afterwards of kind Intercession to Sapores on behalf of the Royal Prisoner whereof two or three were as follows To Sapores the King of Kings Belsotus sendeth Greeting IF I could think it possible that the Romans were to be totally at last Vanquished I should Congratulate you upon the Exalted manner in which you use your Victory But as they are a Nation who by the power of Fate and their own Virtue together are of an extraordinary Force in the World you will do well to have a care that your taking into Captivity the Old Emperor and that too by a Fraud does not redound to the Ill of you and your Posterity You may please to observe what great Nations the Romans have of Enemies made their own and Nations that have often had the advantage of beating them too It is certain we have heard how the Gauls beat them and set fire to their great City But yet the Gauls are now Slaves to the Romans What! Have not the Africans Beat them But yet the Africans now serve the Romans And not to instance in Examples which are of a great distance from us and therefore the less known Mithridates King of Pontus was once the Master of all Asia But yet Mithridates was Conquered and Asia is now certainly under the Obedience of the Romans If you will be advised by me embrace the Means of Peace which you have in your hands and restore Valerian to his Country again I Congratulate your Felicity provided this altogether that you know how to use it well Balerus the King of the Cadusii writ thus I Am glad that the Succours with which we furnished you are remitted to me again entire and safe as I have received them But I cannot wish you so much Joy of your carrying into Captivity that Great Prince Valerian as I should Congratulate you if he was Restored again The Romans are the most dangerous Enemies for being beaten Act therefore as it becomes you in Prudence nor let Fortune puff you up which hath deceived
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
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
all in a Distraction and without Miserable Effects of it help to fly to Whilst some were immediately killed and buried under the Ruins others were starved to death who were penned up in any void Spaces left by the Timber or betwixt Pillars and in Vaults After the Earthquake was ceased a Person who had the Courage to go presently upon the Ruins heard the Voice of a Woman crying Nor was she alone the sucking Infant was with her and she had kept both her Child and herself alive with her Milk They were digged up and saved and search was made for others But they found no body more alive besides one Child which was hanging upon the Breasts of its Mother and the Mother dead When they took the Dead up out of the Ruins it was so lamentable a sight that the living had no Hearts to rejoyce so much as for their own safety so great was the Calamity which then afflicted Antioch Trajan escaped through a Window out of the House where he was by the help of a Man who was extraordinarily Tall and who came and carried him off but not without some small Hurts As the Earthquake continued several days he kept himself all that time in the open Air in the Cirque The Mountain Lison was so shook that the Top of it bowed and burst and threatned to fall down upon the Town Other Mountains fell and great Waters started up where none was before and Streams that had flown before forsook their Course and vanished The Spring being returned Trajan carried Trajan proceeds in his Expedition his Arms into the Country of the Enemy He furnish'd himself with Boats for a Bridge to transport his Forces over the River Tigris from the Woods about the City of Nisibis because the Country upon the Banks of that River affords no Timber for that purpose The Boats were all brought from thence to the River upon Land-Carriages being built in that manner that they were to be taken asunder and joyned again into a Bridge at Pleasure Which was done and the Bridge was laid over the Tigris at the Foot of the Mountain Cardynus not without the great annoyance of the Enemy on the other side who were Posted to oppose it To give whom a Diversion whilst the Bridge was fitting with all speed as Trajan had Men and Boats in plenty he Armed out some Boats with Archers and other Soldiers and detached them against the Barbarians He detached others to be moving up and down as it were to try to Land in other places which so distracted the Barbarians and especially they were so surprized to see such a number of Shipping gotten together in a Country that is destitute of Wood that they gave way and the Roman Army passed the River The Roman Army landed in the Country of Adiabene which is a part of Assyria and Assyria was then under the Obedience of the King of Parthia They took all Adiabene and the Towns of Arbela and Gaugamela where Alexander the Great did heretofore overthrow Darius The Barbarians call it Atyria instead of Assyria changing the Letters ss into t. But as the Forces of the Parthians had been diminished in their Civil-Wars and still they were at Variance with one another there was such a scarcity of the Enemy to make Opposition to the March of the Romans that they came up to the City of Babylon Here Trajan beheld the Lake of Bitumen He comes to Babylon with which the famous Walls of Babylon were built It is a sort of a Slime so Clammy and so Strong that when it is mixt with Brick and Pebbles it makes a Wall that is stronger than any Stone and Iron it self He view'd the Mouth of it from whence proceeds such a noxious Stench that it kills all the Beasts and all the Birds that are brought within its reach And certainly did it arise much higher to disperse it self far and wide in the Air it would render the place Uninhabitable But it Circulates within it self and does not exceed its limits I have seen such another Lake as this at the City of Hierapolis in the Lesser Asia and I made an Experiment of it in Birds my self being in an Upper Apartment from whence I overlook'd it For it is shut up in a sort of a Cistern and above it is built a Convenience where you look down and see the fatal effects of this Stench in safety It kills every thing Living Men only excepted that have been Gelt I do not understand the reason of this But I speak the things that I have seen as I saw them and the things that I have heard as I heard them Trajan was once designing to make a Cutt for the River Euphrates upon which Babylon stands to fall into the Tigris that passing his Vessels by that Cut out of the First into the other River he might give himself a Bridge to March his Army over the Tigris to the Siege of Ctesiphon in Assyria But when he understood that the Bed of the Euphrates was much higher than the Bed of the Tigris he forbore that design lest the abundance of the Water running into the Lower Bed should render the Euphrates unnavigable So he mounted his Vessels upon Land-Carriages and brought them to the Tigris over the little Streight of Land which is betwixt the two Rivers and having passed his Army and taken the City of Ctesiphon from the Parthians he Ctesiphon taken was Confirm'd in the Title of the Conquerour of the Parthians and the Senate of Rome decreed that he should enjoy what Triumphs and what Festivals for the Honour of his Victories soever he pleased After he had taken Ctesiphon his Curiosity His Expedition to the Red Sea led him to go on Board his Fleet and Sail for the Red Sea which is a Branch of the Indian Ocean and called Erythraeum Mare that is the Red Sea from a King of the Name of Erythrus who was sometime very Powerful upon it He took in his way the Island of Messene which is in the Tigris the King whereof was Athambylus without any difficulty only the Winter the rapidity of the Tigris and the Tides of the Ocean were something dangerous The Town of Spasinum belonging to Athambylus received him well From thence he came upon the Ocean where informing himself in the Nature thereof and discovering a Ship that was bound to India he said Was I Young I would certainly make a Visit to the Indians He enquired much about them and their Actions and admired the Happiness of Alexander who had Conquered them and who had gone so much further than he He writ the same to the Senate But yet at the same time he was not able what he had already Conquered to keep The Senate decreed Honour done to him by the Senate several things in his Honour and amongst the rest that in relation to as many Nations as he pleased his Successes should be adorn'd with Triumphs For they were more
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
Council to Hadrian and in all things upon which Hadrian consulted him he made appear the sweetness of his Sentiments and gave his Verdict always on the most mild and merciful side The occasion of his Adoption was thus His Adoption When Aelius Verus Caesar died whom Hadrian had Adopted in order to succeed in the Empire a day being appointed for the Senate to Assemble Antoninus came amongst the rest leading and supporting by the Hand his decrepit Father-in-Law which was so agreeable a sight that Hadrian some say Adopted him for that very reason But yet this could not be all because Antoninus was one who challenged his consideration upon other accounts For he had always executed his part in the Government very well and in his Proconsulship had approved himself a Person of great Fidelity and Ability Therefore when Hadrian had declared to the World that it was his intention to Adopt him he took a time to deliberate with himself whether he should consent to it or no. This Condition was imposed upon him that as Hadrian did Adopt him so he should Adopt Marcus Antoninus who was his Wife's Brother's Son and Lucius Verus who was afterwards called Verus Antoninus the Son of Aelius Verus Caesar who had been the first Adopted by Hadrian So Antoninus was Adopted upon the fifth of the Calends of March and having thanked Hadrian in the Senate for the great honour which he had done him he received the Proconsular and the Tribunitian Powers upon him as a Colleague in the Empire with his Father Then he presented the Soldiers and the People with a Largess upon this occasion he gâ—ve them besides what his Father Hadrian promised them He contributed a great deal towards the Works of Hadrian The Tribute which upon the occasion of his Adoption was presented him by Italy and the Provinces hâ— remitted wholly to the first and a Moiety of it to the latter and he was most religiously Observant of Hadrian all the time that they afterwards lived together When Hadrian died at Baiae Antotinus removed His Behaviour when Emperor his Reliques with all due Respect and Ceremony to Rome where he laid him in State in the Gardens of Domitian and though contrary to the general Opinion he caused him to be received as a God The Senate gave to Faustina who was the Consort of Antoninus the Title of Augusta which he permitted To himself they gave the Title of Pius he accepted it He accepted very freely the Statues which they likewise decreed to the honour of his deceased Father Mother Grandfathers and Brothers He accepted the Games of the Cirque which were appointed to Celebrate his Birth-day But other Honours which they offered him he refused He hung up a most magnificent Shield to the honour of Hadrian and appointed him his Priests He removed none of those out of their Places after he was Emperour who had been promoted by Hadrian He continued the same Persons Presidents and Governours seven or nine year 's together if they deserved it he was so little given to change He made many Wars by his Lieutenants He overcame the Britains by Lollius Urbicus who at the same time repulsed the Barbarians and built another Wall which was of Turf in that Country for a Partition betwixt the Roman-Britains and them He forced the Moors to sue to him for a Peace he Germans the Daci and several other Nations The Jews in their Rebellion were repressed by his Presidents and his Commanders He repressed the rebellious in Achaia and Aegypt and the Alani in their Attempts were constrained to contain themselves within due Bounds He ordered that his Receivers should proceed with all moderation in gathering the Tribute of the Provinces If they exceeded their proper limits he called them by his Authority to an account because he was never pleased with a Gain by which the Subject was oppressed He was always willing to hearken to the Complaints which were made against his Officers and his Receivers He moved the Senate for a full Indemnity for those whom Hadrian had in his Frenzy condemned to die because he said Hadrian himself had he lived would have done it He mixt the Grandeur and the Majesty of an Emperour with all the Civility of a Gentleman which the more added to his Grandeur His method as to Business was not to pass it through the Hands of others but to speak to the Party himself which disabled the Courtiers from amusing and cheating People out of their Money at any time with empty Pretences He paid as great a respect to the Senate when Emperour as he could wish when he was a Private Man it should receive from any other Prince The Title of Pater Patriae or Father of his Country which the Senate gave him but which he had declined to accept in the beginning he afterwards received with a great deal of thanks In the third Year of Honour done to his Reign he lost his Consort Faustina The Senate Consecrated her a Goddess They appointed her a Temple and Priestesses Games in her honour and Statues of Gold and Silver And Antoninus ordered that her Effigies should be carried in the Procession always to the Games of the Cirque He accepted the honour of having his own Statue set up in Gold which the Senate had decreed him He created Marcus Antoninus from a Quaestor a Consul at the Prayer of the Senate He created Annius Verus who was afterwards called Verus Antoninus a Quaestor before the due time by the Law He Enacted nothing neither concerning the Provinces nor any other Affairs without the advice of his Ministers and then he formed his Constitutions according to their Judgments He permitted himself to be seen by his Friends undressed and sometimes wore within his House Cloaths like any private Man So great was his Diligence and so entire his His Diligence and Moderation Application to Business that he took a Care of all Persons and all Things as particularly as tho' they were his own All the Provinces flourished under him He put down the Trade of Informers Never fewer Estates were confiscated The only Person proscribed was Attilius Tatianus who was convicted of a Design upon the Empire For Antoninus forbad the Senate to enquire into his Accomplices and continued his Kindness even to his Son always in all things It is true Priscianus died also for having favoured him But his Death was what he voluntarily committed upon himself and he suffered no more search to be made into that Conspiracy The Table of His Frugality Antoninus was such as to be Rich without Extravagance and Frugal without any unhandsomeness His own Servants furnished it His own Fowlers Fishers and Huntsmen He exposed the use of his own Bath to the People gratis and alter'd in nothing from the Customs of his private Life He subtracted Pensions from such as he saw did nothing for them to deserve them because he said It was most absurd and cruel to
had from a War of his own So they carried the Children of Marcus of either Sex in the Triumph with them even his Virgin-Daughters and they beheld the Games which were Celebrated upon the occasion with their triumphal Habits upon them Amongst other remarkable things of the Pity of Marcus it is not fit to forget this that he ordered Feather-beds to be spread under the Rope-dancers after an accidental fall of a Boy from the Rope which is the reason that we have a Custom of hanging a Net under them at this day Whilst the Parthian War was yet on Foot War with the Marcomanni another War kindled with the Marcomanni in Germany which was suspended a good while by the Art of the Officers upon the Frontiers that it should not trouble us till the Oriental War was over It was five years from the beginning of that War to the return of Verus At whose return Marcus declared to the Senate that as he had sometime before given them Intimations of a War in Germany so it was necessary that now both the Emperours in Person should repair to it Now the terrour of this Marcomannick War was so great that Marcus was obliged to send for Priests from all parts to dispatch the vast number of Sacrifices which were vowed and offered upon this occasion He Celebrated all the Sacred Foreign Rites that were ever seen at Rome and purged the City of Rome all manner of ways and Celebrated the Feasts of Lectisternia seven days together A Pestilence at the same time prevailed A great Plague which was so great that the dead were carried off in Carts and Wagons This obliged the two Princes to make strict Laws concerning Burials and Sepulchres in which they provided that it should not be at the Liberty of Persons to build their Sepulchres in what place they pleased which is still in force at this day Many thousands dyed of this Pestilence several of the Nobility whereof the most considerable had their Statues set up by Marcus Antoninus Who in his great Clemency took that care of the Common People that he ordered them to be buried upon his own Expence The Marcomanni and their Confederates being now actually in Arms and putting all things into Confusion the two Emperours arrayed in their Military Apparel set forward together upon the Expedition Their March had no small effect with it as soon as they came but as far as to Aquileia For the Kings of the Enemy for the most part not only retreated with their Men but put to death the Authors of their Insurrection The Quadi whose King was dead said that they would not confirm the Person his Successour who had been Created in his place till our Emperours approved him others sent Ambassadours to them to ask their Pardon for their disobedience so that Verus his Opinion who had set out much against his will in the beginning was for returning back to Rome especially having lost the Captain of the Guards Furius Victorinus and a part of the Army But Marcus believing that the Barbarians dissembled and that both their Retreat and the other things which they did were only out of a fear of being oppressed with the weight of so great a Force he declared himself to be for pursuing the War Therefore they marched on and crossed the Alpes having settled all things in order for the safety of Italy and Illyricum However Verus was urgent for going back to Rome to which Marcus at last consented and that the Senate should have notice given them of it by Letter But as they were afterwards upon the Road in the Coach together Verus was Death of Verus suddenly taken with an Apoplexy and died Marcus was so little affected for his part with those Pleasures which were the real Reason of Verus his desire to return to Rome that he both Read and hearkned to any one's Business and signed Orders whilst he hath been at the shews of the Cirque which made the People they say sometimes pass their Railleries upon him Geminas and Agaclytus two manumitted Servants of Verus had a great Influence over their Master But yet Marcus dissembled and even excused the Faults of Verus tho' they displeased him never so much He deified him after his Death He provided honourably for his Aunts and his Sisters He appointed a great many Sacrifices to his Honour He appointed his Priests and gave him all the other Respects which are paid to the Gods But as there is no Prince but is subject to the most outragious Censure Marcus was for all this represented as if he had either poysoned Verus by a Knife invenom'd on one side with which he cut a piece of a Sacrifice and gave Verus the invenomed part to eat whilst he reserved the sound to himself or at least that he killed him by his Physician Posidipâ—us by letting him Blood unseasonably After the Death of Verus Avidius Cassius revolted from Marcus Tho' Marcus was so indulging to Verus his Relations and all that belonged to him that he did them all the Honours that it was possible Commodus his Son Commodus declared Caesar as wicked and profligate as he was received from him the Title of Caesar the Dignity of the Priesthood the Title of Emperor a share â—n the Triumph with him and the Consulship At the same time the Father attended the Triumphal Chariot of the Son on Foot in the Cirque Now when Marcus reigned alone after the Death of Verus he was much more easie and more abundant in good Actions than he could be before because he was hindered with the Errours of his Brother He was one for his own Part of that Tranquillity of Mind that he never changed his Countenance either with Sorrow or Joy following exactly the Precepts of the Stoick Philosophy which he had learnt from all the best Masters and which he had diligently collected from all Parts Hadrian would have made him his immediate Successour had not his Minority theâ— hindred it Nevertheless he chose him for one whom he obliged Pius to adopt that a he was deserving of the Roman Empire iâ— should sooner or later certainly come to him So he treated the Provinces with a great deal of Moderation and Goodness and managed his Affairs happily against the Germans He went through with the Marcomannick War End of the Marcomannic War than which a greater hath not been known in any Age with a Bravery equally extraordinary as the Success and this at a time when a grievous Pestilence swept away many Thousands of the People and the Army The Marcomanni the Sarmatians the Vandals the Quadi being extinguished by him he delivered the Country of Pannonia out of its Servitude for which he triumphed at Rome and his Son Commodus with him whom he had created Caesar He had exhausted all his Coffers upon this War and because he could not persuade himself to command any thing from the Provinces to over-charge them he made an Auction
Soldiers and the Citizens because Severus whom they judged their Enemy approached to them with a puissant Army At the same time the Legions in Syria had set up Pescennius Niger Emperor whose Edicts therefore and whose Letters to the People or to the Senate Severus intercepted that they should not be read to the one or the other And as he judged very well that it concerned him to secure himself against him he sent Heraclius to take in the Country of Bithynia and Plautianus to make himself Master of the Children of Pescennius Niger Then coming up to the City of Rome before he made his entrance into it he ordered the old Guards there to appear before him without their Arms which they did and he held a Council of War upon them and surrounded them with Guards of his own Troops In fine as he made his publick Entrance into the City himself and his Soldiers all under their Arms he took his way strait up to the Capitol From the Capitol he proceeded in the same form to the Palace with the Banners which he had taken from the old Guards carried before him not flying but furled as in mourning All the City over did the Soldiers spread themselves and filled the Temples the Piazza's and the Houses of the Court like so many Inns. At their Discretion they took all things without Buying and threatned to plunder all the City so that certainly one may say the Entrance of Severus was odious and terrible The next day he came accompanied with his Friends and a great Guard of his armed Soldiers to the Senate where he gave the Senate an Account of his assumption of the Empire and complained that Didius Julianus had sent Men who were known Assassines to him to kill him He obliged them to pass an Act that it should be unlawful for the Emperor to put to death a Senator without taking the advice of the Senate But whilst he was there the Army that had brought him in demanded of the Senate seditiously ten thousand Sesterces after the example of those who had formerly brought in Augustus Caesar and had received that Sum. Severus would have repressed them but he could not without sweetning them with Money which sent them away pacified In the next place in honour of the Memory of Pertinax he solemnized a Royal Funeral for him in which he was represented by his Image and he Consecrated him a God and appointed his Priests He was willing to be called Pertinax himself till the complaints of his Friends made him abolish the name again as if it was ominous of a short Reign After this he rendred to every one what belonged to him and he married his two Daughters having endowed them well to Probus and Aetius To the former of whom he offered the Government of the City of Rome but he refused it and said That he thought it less to be the Governor of Rome than to be the Son in Law of a Prince He made both of them Consuls and gave them great Riches Another day he came to the Senate and made a Proscription of the Friends of Didius Julianus such as against whom there were Accusations brought and afterwards ordered them to be Executed He heard a great many Causes Pleaded before him He severely punished the Magistrates of the Provinces who stood accused by their People if he found the matter of their Accusations proved against them He looked so well after the affair of the Magazines of Corn which he found in a very low condition that when he died he left enough for seven years to come He took up an Expedition into the East to establish the State of Affairs there not speaking any thing as yet openly of Pescennius Niger only he immediately sent some Legions into Africa for fear that Niger should possess himself of Alexandria or Carthage by the way of Libya and Egypt and so afflict the People of Rome with a want of Corn. He left Domitius Dexter Governor of the City of Rome in the place of Bassus and within thirty days of his coming thither he set out from it again After His Expedition against Niger he had marched as far as to a place called Saxa Rubra he had an occasion to appease a great Sedition which was arisen in his Army upon the subject of their Encampments Here his Brother Geta met him whom he Commanded to do his Duty in what had been ordered him but Geta had been full when he came of other Hopes Here also the Children of Pescennius Niger were brought to him whom he received and entertained with the same Kindness as if they were his own He had sent a Legion to secure the Countries of Greece and Thrace against Niger But notwithstanding that Niger had already seized upon Byzantium and pretended to do the same to the City of Heraclia and having put to death a great many Persons of his Army because he suspected them Severus declared him together with Aemilianus the Proconsul of Asia an Enemy Niger invited Severus to agree to a Participation of the Empire but this was slighted Severus promised him if he pleased his Life in Safety But he would give no Quarter to Aemilianus who therefore being beaten soon after upon the Coasts of the Hellespont by the Captains of Severus fled first to Cyziqua and then to another City in which he was killed and the Troops of Niger were also put to the Niger defeated Rout by the same Severus with the News of this sent Letters to the Senate as though his Work was done He fought next in Person with Niger and killed him by the City of Cyziqua and ordered and slain his Head to be carried about upon a Spear whose Children after this whom he had hitherto received with the same kindness as his own and their Mother he banished Immediately he gave the Senate by Letter an account of his Victory and he put none to death of the Senators who had been of the side of Niger except only one He was angry with the City of Antioch because they had both made a mock of his Administration of things in the East and had furnished Niger with Provisions so he deprived them of many of their Privileges He deprived also the People of Sichem in Palestine of their Freedom of Rome because they had been a long time armed for the service of Niger He chastised several other Cities that had followed him and by the losses and damages which he made them suffer he left upon them the marks of his Resentments After this he did a great many things about Arabia He obliged the Parthians to yield to him and the People of the Country of Adiabene who were all in the same Interests with Pescennius Niger Wherefore at his return he was offered the honour of Triumph and was Entitled Conqueror of the Arabians Adiabenians and Parthians but the Triumph he refused lest it should be pretended that he triumphed a for Victory gained as it
Niger Afterwards he received Plauâ—ianus into favour again and banished his Enemies who entred the City as it were in Triumph and went up to the Capitol and yet in Process of time for all that he killed him He gave the Man's or the Roman Gown to Geta his youngest Son and married his Eldest to a Daughter of Plautianus He made them both Consuls but Geta his own Brother he killed Then the Parthian War came on upon his going to which he first treated the People with the Games of the Gladiators and gave them a Largess But still he put to death several Persons whether for real or pretended Causes whilst these things past Some because they Rallied upon him others because they held their Tongues and said nothing Some because they had said He was an Emperor that had not his name for nothing A right Pertinax a right Severus As for the Parthian War certainly it was The Parthian Expedition generally said that Severus affected it out of a desire of Glory rather than that he was carried upon it by any necessity He imbarked his Army at the Port of Brindisi from whence continuing on his Journey he came into Syria where he prepared himself to make Waâ— upon the Parthians in their own Country after he had driven them out of their Footings iâ— this Together with which by the advice oâ— Plautianus he hunted after the Reliques of thâ— Faction of Pescennius Niger and slew theâ— without Mercy Others he slew pretendinâ— that they had consulted the Astrologers anâ— the Diviners concerning his death Particâ—larly he suspected every one that was but proper to make an Emperor of Whilst his Sons were yet little which was the time for Men to try their Fortunes either he heard that it was said by them or he imagined that they said so But yet as to some who were murdered he excused himself and denied that it had been done by his order and particularly Marius Maximus says he did it in the Case of Laetus His own Sister making him a Visit from the Town of Napoli di Barbaria where he was born had brought her Son along with her and as she was one that was scarce able to speak the Latin Tongue she made the Emperor blush for her very much who gave her several rich Presents and made her Son a Senator but when that was done he ordered her to go back to her own Country again and take her Son with her who soon after died The Summer being over because in those Parts the Winter is the best Season for War he entred into the Kingdom of Parthia and obliging the Enemy to give way to him he marched forward and set himself down before Ctesiphon which he took But as his Soldiers had lived but upon the Roots of the Herbs which they found whereby they had contracted great sicknesses and particularly the Flux which hindered their Marches he satisfied himself with the Conquest which he had made having killed a great number of the Enemy and put to slight their King which gained him the Title of Conqueror of the Parthians His eldest Son the Caesar Bassionus Antoninus of thirteen years of Age was upon this occasion by the Army proclaimed a Partner in the Empire with his Father and his younger Son Geta Antoninus was declared at the same time Caesar Wherefore Severus gave to the Army a very large Donative and all the Booty of the Town of Ctesiphon according to their desire which they were become the Masters of From thence he returned a Conqueror into Syria The Senate offered him the Honor of a Triumph which he refused Refuses a Triumph beâ—â—â—se he could not sit in the Chariot by reason of the Gout which afflicted him But he permitted his Son to receive it in his Place to whom the Senate had decreed a Triumph in relation to the successes over the Jews For all things had passed well in Syria as well as Parthia under the Conduct of Severus In fine being come to Antioch he granted to his eldest Son the Roman Gowâ— and appointed him to be Consul with himself Accordingly they both entred upon their Consulships in Syria After which having gratified the Army with a Bounty upon that Subject they took their way to Alexandria In this Expedition he made a great many Laws to Establish the Rights of the People of Palestine He forbad Men to turn Jews under a great penalty and he made the like Ordinances as to the Christians He granted to the City of Alexandria the Privilege of a Senate besides which he changed their Laws in several things He was much pleased with his Voyage into these Parts to see the Worship of the God Serapis and because of the singular strangness of the Animals and places which he saw here He viewed Memphis and Memnon the Pyramids and the Labyrinth with great Care and great Satisfaction It would be too tedious to pursue the Life of this Prince in Matters of a lesser Note Therefore his diminishing the Power of the Pretorian Guards at Rome after Julianus was conquered and killed and his consecrating Pertinax a God contrary to the Will of the Soldiers were bold and great Actions He seems to have deserved the Name of Pertinax which once he assumed not so much for his Affection to Pertinax the Emperor as for the austerity of his manners and his own pertinaciousness in what he did As one of the Enemy who was taken had cast himself humbly at his Feet and said to him Sir what would your self have done in my place He not at all softened with so prudent an Expression commanded him to be killed without remorse He was bent upon utterly extirpating the Parties that were against him and almost from no place did he come off less than Conqueror He conquered Abgarus the King of Persia His other Successes The Arabians yielded themselves under his Obedience He made the Adiabeni Tributary to him He fortified Great Britain which is the greatest Ornament of his Reign with a Trench drawn cross the Island from the one Ocean to the other from whence he received the Title of Conqueror of the Britains He put his Native Country of Tripoli into a Condition of the greatest Security and a lasting Peace by subduing those most Warlike Nations which lie all about it for which the Tripolines in return presented him with Oyl and Corn every Year in abundance and gave for that purpose some fruitful Fields for ever to the People of Rome As he was of a Temper to be implacable towards such as transgressed their Duty so on the other hand he was of a singular good Judgment in making Choice of Persons to serve him who were Men of Fidelity He was much addicted to the Studies of Philosophy and Eloquence and had a desire to know the rest of the Sciences He was a mortal hater of Robbers He writ his own Life himself faithfully as he was a private Man and as he Emperor in which however
he excuses as much as he can the Fault of his Cruelty The Senate gave this Judgment upon him that either he ought never to have been born or he ought never to die Because he seemed at once to be too Cruel to keep and too useful to lose In the mean time as to his Affairs within his His Wife suspected own Family he was not so very Prudent For the Virtue of his Wise Julia was much to be suspected She was also an Accomplice in a Conspiracy that was form'd against him yet he spared her and kept her with him Whilst he lay lame of the Gout in his Feet which retarded the Operations of the War which the Army bore impatiently they had nominated his Son Bassianus to march as Emperor at the Head of them Severus immediately upon this called a Council of War to which causing himself to be taken up and carried and placed upon the Tribunal and having cited to it all the Tribunes Centurions Captains and the principal Officers of the Army that had been the Authors of that Action together with his Son he demanded of them all Whether they were returned to their Duty who all except his Son whom he had pardoned prostrating themselves before him for mercy says he I hope now you are satisfied it is the Head that rules and not the Feet Another very remarkable Expression of his is being one whom Fortune had raised from a low Birth by several degrees to the Empire with the Assistance of Letters and the Knowledge that he had acquired in Arms says he I have been all things and all 's worth nothing He died at York in Great Britain in an advanced His Deaht Age and the Eighteenth Year of his Reign of a very violent Malady the Gout after having subdued the Nations which were troublesome to the Repose of that Country He left Two Sons Antoninus Bassianus and Geta to which latter he gave the same Name of Antoninus in Honour of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus He was interred in the Sepulchre of Marcus Antoninus for whom of all the Emperors he had that Honour and held his Memory so dear that he consecrated even his Son Commodus Antoninus a God and thought that for the future the Name of Antoninus ought to be inseparable from the Person of the Emperor as well as that of Augustus for ever The Senate his Children and those of his Family joyned to make a magnificent Funeral for him and he was likewise enrolled in the Number of the Gods The publick Works of his that are extant are chiefly these the Septizonium his Baths and his Jani The Judgment that was passed upon him after his Death was so much the more to his Honour as his Son and those Princes that came after proved unfortunate to the State when all things were abandoned into the Hands of Robbers that made a Prey of all the Grandeur and the Riches of the Romans He was so little curious of fine Cloaths that his Vest had scarce any Studs of Purple upon it and over that he wore a loose shagged Coat He eat little and loved above all things the Pease Beans and Pulse of his own Native Country he sometimes drank pretty freely often quite abstained from flesh He was handsome as to his Person big with His Personage a long Beard his Hair naturally curl'd of an awful Countenance a sweet Voice but something of an African Tone with it to the last After his Death he was more beloved than ever he had been during his Life because People then had ceased to envy him and because they were out of the fear of his Cruelty I remember I have read in Aelius Maurus the manumitted Servant of Phlegon of Tralles that this Prince when he died rejoyced infinitely that he left behind him two Sons of the Name of Antoninus to succeed in the Empire and to be of equal Power with one another after the Example of the Emperor Antoninus Pius who was succeeded at once by Marcus Antoninus and Verus Antoninus who yet being the Sons of that Prince but by Adoption it pleased Severus so much the more to think that his two Sons were his own and derived of his own Blood that is Bassianus Antoninus whom he had by his first Wife and Geta Antoninus whom he had by Julia. But he was much mistaken in his good hopes as to them both The untimely Murder of the one and the Vices of the other equally deprived the State of reaping any Good by them And really when I have sometime reflected upon this I have with astonishment observed may it please your Majesty O Dioclesian that seldom any of the great Men have ever left a good and an useful Son behind them But either they have died all without Issue or if they have had Children their Children have been such that it had been better for their Glory to have left none at all To begin with Romulus he left the World no Children nor Numa Pompilius who were of any Service to the State What shall I say of Camillus Had he any Children like himself What had Scipio What had the Cato's who were all such great Men What shall I say of Homer Demosthenes Virgil Salust Terence Plautus and so many other excellent Persons What shall I say of Caesar What shall I say of Tully but that it had been much better that he had left no Children neither What shall I say of Augustus himself who had not a good even adoptive Son though he had all the World to chuse out of Trajan was also mistaken in the Choice that he made of his own Country man and one of his own Blood But to omit any more adoptive Sons for the sake of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Antoninus who were Two such Divinities What had been happier than Marcus Antoninus if he had not left Commodus his Heir what more Glorious than Septimius Severus if he had never begotten Bassianus who murdered his Brother for a Crime maliciously invented by himself and then charged it upon him who married his Mother-in-Law who was as good as an own Mother to him and in whose Arms he had before killed her Son his Brother who killed Papinian that Sanctuary that Treasure of all the Doctrine of the Laws only because he would not justify so cruel a Fratricide Therefore in comparison with this Son Severus the Father though he was in all Respects a hard or rather a cruel Prince was accounted Pious and worthy of the Consecration of a God who as he lay on his Death-Bed sent they say to this his Son that Divine Oration in Salust of the King Micipsa to his Children But it was so quite lost upon Bassianus Antoninus that he lived long in the hatred of the People to whom although he gave a Bounty of those Coats called Caracalla from whence himself hath the Name of Caracallus and though he built those Baths of his Name which are very Magnificent yet that Holy
and Venerable Stile of Antoninus became much the less beloved for his sake He as we are told built besides the Portico which is at Rome with very great Splendor in which there are represented the memorable Exploits of Severus his Father The Signs fore-running the Death of the Signs fore-running his Death Emperor Septimius Severus were these He dreamt that he was carried up to Heaven in a Chariot drawn by four Eagles and enrich'd with precious Stones and I know not what large humane Form flying before him that as he was elevated in the Air he display'd the Numbers Eighty Nine beyond which Age precisely he did not live for he was already old when he came to the Empire Then that he continued a long time alone and destitute of help in a great Circle by himself till at last fearing to fall to Earth again he saw himself called by Jupiter and placed amongst the Antoninusses One day whilst the Games of the Cirque were celebrating as there were three Figures of Victory with Palms in their hands placed according to Custom upon the Platform where the Emperor's Throne is that in the middle bearing a Globe on which was inscribed the Name of Severus was blown down with a blast of Wind to the Ground and there lay The other which was inscribed with the Name of Geta fell and was broken to pieces but that which was inscribed with the Name of Bassianus stood but with much ado and lost its Palm-branch in the Wind. After he had finished his Wall or Trench in Great Britain and was returning to the next Garrison victorious having hereby assured the Peace of that Country for ever he was thinking in his mind what sort of Omen he should meet with upon it a Black-moor who was of the Number of his Soldiers and who was a famous Droll always ready to make some pleasant piece of Rallery presents himself before him with a Crown in his hand made of Cypress Severus in anger commanded him immediately to retire out of his sight being sensibly touched with the double ill Omen of his Hew and the Matter of his Crown In the mean time said the Man Your Majesty hath been all Things and conquered all Things noâ— be a God Being afterwards returned to the City of York and going to discharge his Devotion he was conducted by a mistake of an Augur into a Temple of Bellona and next the Beasts which were presented to him to Sacrifice were black But he refusing to Sacrifice in that colour retired to the Palace and the same black Victims being left neglected by the Priests went after him as far as to the Gates of the Palace In a great many Cities there are Works His public Works which he ordered to be done which are excellent but particularly at Rome all the publick Edifices which were decaying by old Age and the course of time he restored and which was a great Action in him without scarce ever inscribing his own Name upon one of them but every where continuing upon them the Names of their antient Founders At his Death he left in the publick Stores Corn to serve for Seven Years to come at the rate of expending Seventy Five Thousand Modii a day whereof each Modius was a Peck and half And for Oyl he left such a Quantity as was sufficient not only for the City of Rome but all Italy upon occasion for Five Years They say that his last Words were these I found the State when I received it every where in Disturbance I leave it in Peace even to the Britains Old and Lame as I am I leave the Empire firm to my Sons if they are good But in a feeble Condition for them if they are bad The last Watch-word which he ordered to be given to the Tribune was Laboremus let us take Pains as that of Pertinax the first day that he was admitted to the Empire was Militemus let us fight He had designed a second Royal Image of Fortune to be made and added to that which always stands in the Emperor's Chambers and is used to accompany them in all Places where they go he desired to leave of those most sacred Figures to each of his Sons one But when he found himself pressed with the approaching hour of his Death it is said he ordered that that Image of Fortune which there was should be carried alternatively into the Chambers of his Two Sons but Bassianus Antoninus slighted that Order even before he had killed his Brother His Body was brought from Great Britain to Rome where it was received with the greatest Reverence of all the Provinces though some say it was only his Ashes which were brought to Rome reposed in a little Urn of Gold which was interred in the Sepulchre of the Antoninusses and that the Body was burnt upon the place where he died When he built the Septizonium he had no other Design in it but to make appear the Magnificence of his Work to the Eyes of those who particularly should come out of his Native Country of Africa and if he had not been prevented it is supposed he would have made a stately Intrado from thence to the Palace Royal as afterward the Emperor Alexander Severus would have done but that the Soothsayers prohibited him for Reasons in their Art THE A Christi CXCIV LIFE OF PESCENNIUS NIGER Dedicated to the EMPEROR DIOCLESIAN BY AELIUS SPARTIANUS IT is a difficult thing and such as we rarely see done to publish to the World a just Account of Persons who die under the Notion of Rebels and Usurpers by being Conquered and because they are concluded â—o by another Person 's Victory All the Circumstances of such are scarce ever fully expressed in the Monuments and the Annals of the Antients for that which is great of them and to their Honours is either generally depraved and turned another way or it is suppressed Neither is there so much Care taken to seek into the things that concern their Origine and their Lives as to recount their Ends. For when they have brought them to that and told the War in which they were overcome and how they suffer'd for the boldness of their Attempts they persuade themselves they have said enough about them Thus Pesceâ—nius His Extraction Niger was as some say born of very ordinary as others of honourable Parents that is the latter say that his Father was An 〈…〉 Fuscus his Mother Lampridia his Grandfather the Curator of the Town of Aquino according to which his Family was of the Equestrian Order but yet this is a thing which 〈…〉 this day others will dispute His Instruction in Letters was but indifferent no more thaâ— was his Estate His manner of Life was moderate his Temper hot enough but particularly of an unbridled Passion to Liberty Hâ— was a long time a Centurion and afterward through several other Commands in the Waâ— came to be the General of the Forces 〈…〉 Syria unto which
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
wherever they were and assembling them all together in some publick House he made an Harangue to them in the Phrase of my Fellow Soldiers as it was a General speaking to his Army and then he treated upon the Questions with them concerning the several sorts of Postures and infamous Pleasures Next he had the like Conference with all the Pimps and lascivious Catamites old and young that were to be gotten from all Parts he dressed himself in the Habit of a Lady being to meet these with his Breasts bare and having concluded his Speech to them he promised them for their Encouragement as if they were so many old Soldiers that had well served in his Cause a Donative of three pieces of Gold each desiring them to pray to the Gods to make him happy in the good encrease of their Company He commanded his Servants upon a piece of Work which is sufficiently ridiculous and yet he did it with promises to them of a Reward for their care and pains in it which was this that they should bring him a thousand pound weight of Spiders He had gotten together at length by this means no less than ten times that weight from whence he said it was easie to make a Judgment of the Greatness of the City of Rome He sent the Servants of his Kitchin to some with Vessels supposed to be full of Provision that he had presented them with but when they were opened they were found full of Frogs Scorpions Serpents and Flies Dining or supping he had continually Chariot-Races run before the Rooms and Galleries where he was in which he obliged old Men and some of the most honourable too to mount the Box for the greater diversion He ordered ten thousand Mice one thousand Weasels and another thousand of Rats to be gathered together and shewn to him at once He often tantalized his poor Retainers with Mock-Dinners done all in Glass or Wax or Ivory or Earthen Ware upon their Tables and their Napkins they had Services curiously represented in Paintings all which did not hinder them but they might starve for Hunger and yet none dared to complain of the excellency of the Feast but washed and went away as if they had dined never so well He commanded that out of the publick Stores of Corn which Trajan and Severus had amassed for the Service of the People of Rome for seven Years at a certain Rate of so much a Year there should the allowances of two Years be given to the Whores Pimps and Catamites about the Town the first Year to go to as many of them as lived within the second to as many of them as lived without the Walls of the City He had sometimes four great Dogs to draw his Chariot as well after he was Emperor as before when he was at his private Seat in the Country He appeared at other times in publick drawn by four great Stags at other times by Lions and then he caused himself to be called the Mother of the Gods Sometimes Tygers and then he named himself Bacchus whose Chariot is drawn by Tygers and at the same time he habited himself as those Deities are represented whom he imitated He had at Rome of the little Dragons of Egypt as also Sea-horses a Crocodile a Rhinocerot and of all the strange Beasts of Egypt that were capable to be transported Ostriches were often a part of his Bill of Fare He once entertained the principal Persons of the City upon Seats all made of Saffron which was wonderful and to complement them he said It was but Grass in comparison to what they deserved He passed the Actions of the Day in the Night and those of the Night in the Day esteeming this as necessary a part of Luxury as any thing In the Evening he rose and received the Complements of the Court for that Day when it was Morning he went to Bed again He daily presented his Favourites with something or other of importance He suffered no one scarce to go from him but he made him a Present as if it was of a thing only that he had found and that he did not value it so much as to keep it himself His Coaches and his Chariots were gilt and His extreme Prâ—digality all covered with Jewels he scorned such as were but silver'd over or done with Ivory or Brass He sometimes caused his Chariot to be drawn by naked young and very handsome Girls two or three or four or more of a Front and as they were all naked so for the most part was he He had also this Custom to invite to his Banquets eight old Men all with bald Heads eight others blind of one Eye eight others lame of the Gout eight others that were Deaf eight Blacks eight others that were so fat that their Table could scarce hold them and then his Fancy was to make himself and the Court merry with them all round All the silver Plate that was served at his Banquets and all the drinking Cups and Side-board Vessels he gave away frankly amongst the Company and did this often Then as a matter of great importance he proposed it to the Company to invent every one some new Rules about Pickles and Sawces and fine Eating they did so and he whose Invention was pleasing to his Palate received for it a great Reward in a Garment of Silk which at that time was a Rarity and held in great Honour But he whose Invention had displeased him he desired him to eat only always of that Dish till he should find a better out He was always placed himself in a Seat in the midst of Flowers and precious Odours He loved nothing but what he was told was very dear Because he said the greatness of the Price raiseth the Appetite He was a perfect Monsieur-Ragou in his House as also a Perfumer a Vintner and a Pimp and caused himself to be drawn in Pictures accordingly At one Supper he hath had the Heads of six hundred Ostriches for the sake only of the Brains Sometimes his Banquet was in this manner He had two and twenty Services of all sorts of Viands whose Names at each Service which was made in the order of the Letters of the Alphabet began all with one and the same Letter Then betwixt every Service they washed and after that every Man betook himself to his Mistress he and his Friends and they were to swear that it was not without an accomplish'd Pleasure Another time his Banquet was in this manner he ordered each Service to be made ready at the House of a several Friend and as one lived by the Capitol another upon Mount Palatine another at a third place another upon Mount Caelius and another on the other side of the Tyber the Company all went to every one's House to eat each Service in order and then washing at each Service and enjoying their Mistresses the whole day was scarce time enough for them to finish one Feast Some say that he built Baths
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
of the Senate and the People they were unwilling to let him go to the War against the Germans although they all hoped for Victory from his Arms. Gallia was at this time incessantly ravaged by the Incursiosn of that People which was a matter of great trouble to the State and to himself and that which yet encreased their resentments was that after the reduction of the Country of Mesopotamia and the defeat of the Forces of so great a People as the Persians the Nation of the Germans should now menace the Heads of the State which yet had been always subject to Emperors that had not Reigned with so much Glory So he enterprised this Voyage by great Marches and all the Soldiery were very much pleased with it But yet meeting again in Gallia with some Mutinous Legions which he rejected and the Gauls being of a Temper to be hot and fierce and often troublesome to their Emperors they could not find themselves disposed to support a Treatment which was so severe especially after so soft a Reign as that of Heliogabalus And whether that it was they or Maximin that had set Assassines upon him he was killed at a Village called Cecil in the Province of Bretagn not by a consent of all but by a party of Soldiers who took their opportunity to do it when he had few Persons about him At the same time they inveigh'd outragiously against him and against his Mother as a Covetous Woman earnest to amass Riches and by whose Counsel he had acted in all things He Reigned thirteen years and nine days and had lived twenty nine years three months and seven days And his Mother Mammaea was killed with him The Signs that fore ran his death were Omens of his Death these Upon the Anniversary of his Birth-day as he assisted at the Sacrifice the Beast which was the Victim betook itself to its feet and would have escaped in its blood and rushing into the Company where the Emperor was it left some of its blood upon his Robes A large and old Laurel at a certain place where he passed to the War dyed on a sudden Three Figtrees to which his Tent had been fastened and which were of those sort that they call the Alexandrian Figs dyed also on a sudden A Woman that was a Druid cried after him in her Language You may go but never hope for Victory nor trust to your Army He began an Harangue that he made to his Soldiers before he went to seek the Enemy with these fatal words The Emperor Heliogabalus having been killed But all these things however he mightily despised and putting himself upon his March to meet the Enemy he was killed at the Place above mentioned He had Dined that day as it was his Custom to do Publickly and had eaten of the common Bread and Provisions of the Army nor when his Tent was searched and ransackt was there any thing extraordinary found in it After Dinner as he had reposed himself to Sleep a little which was about the hour of One a Spy of the Conspirators that belonged to the Guards had entred into his Tent and had found him awake but every body else asleep and the Emperor seeing him said What is the matter my Friend any News of the Enemy The Man withdrew to his Confederates and spurred them on to the Enterprise by the excellency of the Opportunity which offered itself So a great number of them immediately broke in and cutting off every one they found they came to the Emperor and struck him several times through the Body of which he died instantly Some say that there was not a word spoken but only the Soldiers cryed to him Away with you Be gone Maximin who succeeded him and who carried on the War against the Enemy served himself for that purpose of all the Military Preparations of this Prince Amongst the rest especially of all the Auxiliaries of the Armenians Mesopotamians Parthians and others out of the East because being excellent Archers none were of greater use against the Germans than they His contempt of Death had shown itself not only in that fierceness with which he had always humbled the Soldiers but also in this That when Thrasybulus an Astrologer who was his particular Favourite had told him that his Fate was to dye by the Sword of the Barbarians he was glad of it in the Opinion which he had that he was like to dye in the Field of Battel which he thought a death worthy of an Emperor Then he argued upon it and observed what excellent Men in all times have died Violent Deaths in which number he recounted the Great Alexander of his own name Pompey Julius Caesar Demosthenes Cicero and other famous Personages so that he desired no greater Honour than to die in the Field of Battel He believed that it would make him comparable to the Gods But he mistook the Prediction for he died not in the Field of Battel although it was in the time of a War and yet died by the Sword of a Barbarian For that Spy who had first broken into his Tent was a German and one that killed him The rest of the Army were sensibly touched at his death and revenged it upon the Authors of it and the People of Rome all the Senate and all the Provinces never resented any thing worse Nor were they less astonished when they heard that he was succeeded in the Empire by Maximin and his Son Wherein all the World judged very well the hard necessity of his Destiny because they saw a Man raised to his place who was of no Birth nor Breeding and whose gross Rusticity gave them an occasion to apprehend all things The Senate Consecrated him a God and a Monument was Erected to his Memory in Gallia whilst his Body was interred in a most Noble Sepulchre at Rome His Priests were appointed as likewise his Festival which is at this day Celebrated with great Devotion But some pretend to say that the occasion of his Murther was because by his Mother's advice he was for quitting the War against the Germans and for returning out of Vanity with her again into the East But to say the truth I take this to be nothing but a Fiction of the Creatures of Maximin to the end that it should not be thought that so very good an Emperor had been killed by their Friend contrary to the Laws of God and Man Hitherto the Empire of the People of Rome hath had for the most part Princes whose Reigns have been in their duration something considerable But after Alexander Severus arose many who as they had hastily rusht in so they were as hastily one after another driven away from the Throne again For some Reigned half a year some a year others perhaps reached to two years but three is the most till we come to those Princes who far extended the bounds of the Empire I would say Aurelian and those that follow of whose Lives as much
much the more for it He pass'd into Germany with all his Army The Moors Parthians Mesopotamians and all those that Alexander Severus had mustered out of the Countries of the East marched with him For being Light and the best Archers none were of greater Use against the Germans than they The Preparations of Alexander Severus for this War had been great But yet Maximin added such things to them as rendred them much more Puissant and more Formidable He passed the Rhine and entring into Germany His Expedition against the Germans he Burnt the Villages of the Enemy for three or four hundred Miles about He drove their Cattel killed great numbers of the Barbarians took innumerable others Prisoners and made his Army Rich with Plunder He had certainly reduced all the Country of Germany under the Obedience of the Romans but that the Germans betook themselves to Swim the Rivers and the Lakes and to seek their shelter in the Woods He did a great deal with his own Hand He had indeed been cut off in a Lake in which his Horse stuck fast and the Enemy surrounded him but that his Men came timely up to his Rescue It was a piece of his Barbarian Temerity to think that an Emperor ought always to Fight with his own Hand He maintain'd a sort of a Naval Fight in the Lake and killed several So Germany being conquer'd he wrote an Account of it to the Senate and People of Rome to this Purpose It is impossible Fathers of the Senate to express all that we have done For 400 Miles about we have Burnt the Villages of the Germans driven away their Cattel taken Prisoners and slain all that opposed us We maintained a Fight in a Lake We had penetrated their Woods but that the depth of their Lakes permitted us no passage over to them Together with this he ordered Pictures of this War as it was to be drawn and laid before the Senate that they might read as well as hear his Exploits Which Pictures after his death the Senate commanded to be taken down and burnt Indeed he hated the Senate in his heart because he imagined that they despised him In all his other Engagements which were many he came off always Conqueror and took great Booties and many Prisoners He says in another Letter which he sent to the Senate thus In so short a time Fathers of the Senate I have Fought more Battels than any of the Antients ever did I have brought away as much Booty from the Enemy's Country into our own as exceeds all manner of Expectation And so many Captives that the Dominions of the Empire are scarce sufficient to hold them From Germany he came to the City Sirmium He designs upon Sclavonia in Sclavonia intending to make War upon the Sarmatae and very ambitious he was to reduce the Northern Parts as far as to the Ocean unto the Obedience of the Roman Empire Which if he had lived he would have done says Herodian who favours him out of a Prejudice it is to be thought to Alexander Severus But when the People of Rome were no longer able to support his Cruelty because he revived the Practises of the Informers and false Accusers Counterfeited Plots to kill the Innocent Condemned all that came before him without Mercy made Beggars of the richest Men and raised himself Money upon others Ruins put to Death divers who had been Consuls and Great Commanders without cause sent for them from the utmost Bounds of the Empire in a Barbarous manner to appear before him kept others in Prison and omitted nothing in fine that seemed to flatter his Cruel Inclinations they resolved to A universal Revolt Revolt And not the Romans only but the Forces that were in Africa because he was so Cruel upon the Soldiers Conspired in their Opinions with the Romans and made a great and a sudden Revolt in which they set up Gordianus to be Emperor who was the Proconsul of Africa and a Person of much Worth in this manner There was a Receiver of the Exchequer in Libya who in favour of Maximin to raise him the more Money grievously Exacted upon every body till the People of the Country and some of the Soldiers fell upon him and killed him in spight of the Opposition of his Party which defended him and which stood up for the Honour and the Interests of Maximin The Proconsul of Africa at this time was Gordianus a Man advanced in Years but of very great Worth and Virtue which made him to be beloved and one who had been put into that Command by the Emperor Alexander Severus with the Concurrence of the Senate Now the Party that had killed that Receiver of the Exchequer to Maximin could not think themselves in safety after what they had done unless they proceeded to some further Measures which might give a New Turn to the Face of Affairs So they came to Gordianus to constitute him Gordian forc'd to accept the Empire Emperor He threw himself upon the ground and refused it with all the Aversion and Earnestness in the World They drew their Swords upon him and presented all their Arms against him to kill him unless he complyed with them upon the place and not only him but his Son after him and all his House Then he Consented He accepted the Purple and was Proclaimed he and his Son together as his Colleague at the Town of Thysdrus From thence he came to Carthage attended with a Body of Guards and all the Pomp of a Prince He sent an Account from Carthage of what had passed to Rome to the Senate who received his Letters with Joy and acknowledg'd and Proclaim'd him and his Son Emperors of Rome All the Delators that had Pimp'd to Maximin and all his Friends particularly Vitalianus the Captain of the Guards were hereupon put to death and Sabinus the Governour of the City of Rome was knocked on the head in the Streets The Senate at the same time openly and publickly declared Maximin and his Son Enemies They sent Letters into all the Provinces to call upon them to Assist to the Common Safety and the Publick Liberty Which Letters were generally received well some few Towns continued in their Fidelity to Maximin and betrayed the Orders and Persons that were sent to them In all others the Friends Magistrates Commanders Tribunes and Soldiers of Maximin followed the Fate of his other Friends at Rome The Senate's Letter to the Provinces was this To all Proconsuls Presidents Lieutenants Commanders The Senates Letter Tribunes Magistrates and to all Cities Free Towns Towns Villages and Castles The Senate and People of Rome whose Deliverance from the Tyranny of the most Cruel Maximin is Commenced by the Princes the Gordiani wish Health and the same Safety with themselves By the Favour of the Gods we have obtained Gordianus a Person of the greatest Merit and Virtue a Senator and a Proconsul to be our Soveraign We have Proclaimed him And not
all the three and therefore both the Senate and Balbinus his Brother who was a more easie Man committed the War against Maximin to him He went Balbinus tarried at Rome where there arose intestine Broils and domestick Seditions in a manner that was more violent than Balbinus was able to suppress till the Soldiers of the Guards cut in pieces several of the People Gallicanus and Mecaenas were particularly killed in this Fray and a great part of the City was burnt Maximin was well refreshed to hear of the death of Gordianus and his Son and of the Victory of Capellianus But when again he received the further News of the Act of the Senate for the constituting Maximus Balbinus and Gordianus Emperors he concluded that the Hatred of the Senate to him was Perpetual and that they did all really make him a publick Enemy so he was the more violent to advance his Expedition into Italy He crossed the Alps and came to Hemona a City which anciently stood in the way to Aquileia Some say he found this City empty and deserted which he was pleased to see as if it was that they had all ceded to the Power of his Arm. However it was when he came to Encamp on the Plain he could not find Provisions to recruit his Army For the People of the Country according to the Advices that were sent them had every where driven their Cattel and their Provisions and retired within the Town on purpose that Maximin and his Army should perish for want of Provisions This incensed his Army against him They did not think to be starved in Italy but to be mightily refreshed after their Journey over the Alps. They began first to murmur within themselves then to speak some things openly which he pretending to revenge upon them they Mutined still more but deferred to discover it till a convenient time which presented it self not long after He advanced to the City of Aquileia who shut their Gates against Maximus besieges Aquielia him and were resolved to defend themselves under the Conduct of Menophilus and Crispinus two Officers of the Order of the Consuls who were sent to them from the Senate He offered them Propositions whereon to Surrender To which the People had well nigh consented but that Menophilus and his Partner withstood them and said That they were assured of Conquering Maximin because Apollo the Tutelar God of the Place had discovered as much to them by his Soothsayers Hence the Party of Maximin after they were defeated took occasion to say That it was Apollo who fought against them and the Victory which was obtained was not a Victory of Maximus nor of the Senate but it was a Victory of the Gods At least they pretended to say this for themselves because they were ashamed indeed that so weak and so ill-provided a Place had held it out against so strong an Army Maximin passed the River upon a Bridge of Boats and began to lay close Siege to it This Service was hot on both sides Maximin and his Son went round the Walls as near as possible and sometimes encouraged on their Men sometimes made Overtures to those in the Town But all did them no great good Both his Son and he had many Reproaches thrown upon them because of the Beauty of the one and the Cruelty of the other At length thinking that it was the Laziness of his Officers which was the cause that the Siege was protracted he put some of those to death at a time when he the least should have done it because it made his Army the more dissatisfied with him In the mean time his Army was in a great want of Provisions For the Senate had sent Orders to all the Provinces and to the Governours of the Ports that they should suffer no Convoys to pass to him They had also sent Praetors and Quaestors to all Towns to keep strong Guards and to dispose all manner of things to his prejudice So that he who was the Besieger suffered the distress of Persons besieged And it was said that all the World conspired to hate him His Soldiers seeing this and fearing what might be the Consequences of it whose Wives and Children were assembled together upon the Mountain Albano not far off they took their opportunity when they were at leisure from Action and whilst Maximin and his Both the Maximins slain Son were reposed in their Tent about Noon to fall upon them and kill them Their Heads they fix'd upon Spears and shew'd them to the Garrison of Aquileia The Statues and Images that were of Maximin in the Camp were immediately defaced and taken down the Captain of the Guards to him killed with others of his particular Friends and the Heads of both the Father and the Son were sent to Rome This was the End of the two Maximins An End just upon the Father who deserved it for his Cruelty as much as it was severe upon the Son who was a good Prince All the Provinces received the News with great joy But the Barbarians regreted his loss His Army submitted whereof such as were declared publick Enemies were put to death the rest were received by the Town of Aquileia A great Convoy of Provisions was sent to them into their Camp which was almost starving and the next day they all took the Oath of Fidelity to Maximus Balbinus and Gordianus Adored Three new Emperors before their Images and acknowledged the two late Gordiani as Gods who had lost their Lives in the Cause against Maximin It is not easie to express the great Joy that appeared as the Head of Maximin was carried through the Country of Italy to Rome Every body was glad to run to meet it The Emperor Maximus was then at Ravenna where he had raised himself some Auxiliary Troops of the Germans and was making Preparations for the War But as soon as he received the News that the Maximins were both killed and that their Army had yielded and sworn Fidelity to him and his Colleagues he dismissed those Troops and immediately writ Letters of the Victory to Rome where it produced such an Universal Joy that every body repaired to the Altars Temples the Chappels and the Religious Houses to give Thanks unto the Gods for it The Emperor Balbinus who was by nature a Timerous Man and who trembled when he but heard the Name of Maximin offered a Sacrifice of an hundred Beasts and ordered the same to be repeated through all the Cities of Italy Then Maximus returned to Rome Coming to the Senate he Congratulated to them the Success of his Expedition and made a Speech After which he Balbinus and Gordianus went together to the Court attended with all the usual Acclamations of Joy and Victory It is fit to know what a Decree the Senate passed upon this and what a Day it was with the People at Rome when the News arrived of the Death of Maximin The Express sent with it from Aquileia took his
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
have given Speech of Mauricius to the Africans us this necessary occasion of providing for our selves against that furious Creature Maximin For since we have killed his Receiver who was just such another as himself there is no safety for us unless we set up a New Emperor We have here a most Noble Person who is our Proconsul together with his Son a Consul his Lieutenant They were both of them threatned with Death by that Villain of a Receiver If therefore you will agree with me we will Constitute them our Emperors and Array them with the Purple and the Ornaments of the Empire according to the Laws of the Romans The Audience answer'd It is Just It is Just The Gods save the Emperor Gordianus We Welcome His Majesty to the Empire Be You Gordianus our Emperor and your Son Reign with you Having done this they went in haste to the Town of Thysdrus where Gordianus was They found the Venerable Old Gentleman reposed upon the Bed they told him the Resolution that had brought them thither and presented him with the Purple He threw himself upon the ground and refused it with all the earnestness in the World They took him up from the ground and at last when there was no possible remedy for it nor no other way to avoid the Peril which was undoubtedly Great from the Party of Maximin he suffered He is declar'd Emperor himself to be proclaimed Emperor Now he was of the Age of Eighty Years and had been the Governour of many Provinces in his time and his Actions had ever recommended him so to the People of Rome that he was lookt upon as one that altogether deserved the Empire After he was Declared his Party cast down the Statues of Maximin broke in pieces his Images and by common consent erased his Name out of the Publick Monuments But upon Gordianus they conferred the Title of Gordianus Africanus not only because he began his Reign in Africa but upon the account of his Relation to the Family of the Scipio's Some likewise surname both him and his Son Antonini others Antonii However that is after their Elevation at the Town of Thysdrus they came from thence to Carthage attended with all Princely Pomp. Gordianus the Son who before was the Lieutenant to his Father was appointed to be the Prince that should take the Field and be the General of the War An Embassy was dispatched to the Senate at Rome with Letters to give an Account of all this which Letters were very well received by the Senate whose President at that time was Valerian who was afterwards himself Emperor Private Letters also were sent to their Friends who were Men of Power and Quality to invite them to approve the African Revolution and to make themselves more their Friends by contributing their assistances to maintain it The Senate received the News of the setting Which is approv'd by the Senate up of two such Emperors against Maximin with so great satisfaction that they not only approved of what was done but made a choice of twenty Persons out of themselves amongst whom to divide the Country of Italy in order to defend it in the behalf of the Gordiani Of which number was Maximus and Balbinus who after the death of the same Gordiani in Africa succeeded to the Empire by the Authority of the Senate In the mean time an Embassy from Maximin arrived at Rome with the promises of an Abolition of what was pass'd to his prejudice But the Embassy of the Gordiani prevailed above it from which all the Good was to be expected that any one could desire It promised the Soldiers a great Bounty and the People Lands and Largesses It was a great deal more credited than that of Maximin so that the Senate proceeded thereupon to cut off Vitalianus who was the Captain of the Guards to Maximin at Rome For Vitalianus was his Creature and had already shewn himself of such another cruel Disposition as his Master the further effects whereof they dreaded and it is commonly said That the Method taken to do this was contrived for the greater privacy thus The Quaestor and some Soldiers with him who were Bold Men were sent to Vitalianus Vitalianus slain with Letters pretended to be arrived for him from Maximin The Letters were sealed as it were with Maximin's Signet Having deliver'd them they told him that they had some things to speak to him in private He took them from the Company into a long Gallery where as his Eyes were upon the Letters in his Hand and as he was expecting to hear what they had to say further they killed him and then persuaded the rest of the Guards that it was done by the Order of Maximin himself It is fit that I should give you the Decree of the Senate for Constituting the two Gordiani Emperors and the denouncing Maximin an Enemy An Extraordinary Assembly of the Senate being called the Consul attended with the Praetors Aediles and Tribunes of the People came to the House The Governour of the City of Rome was not with them He absented himself for Reasons he knew best And as he was a Favourer of the Maximins it was a kindness to the Cause of the Gordiani that he did so The Consul opened the Session with this Speech Fathers of the Senate The two Gordiani the Father and the Son who have both of them been Consuls and the one your Proconsul of Africa the other your Lieutenant are by a great Attempt of the Africans declared Emperors there Let us now therefore Thank the Town of Thysdrus and return our Thanks to our Beloved People of Carthage that they have thus delivered us from that Cruel Beast that Savage Beast Maximin What are you afraid of Gentlemen What look you about for What would you stagger at This is the thing you have always wish'd for Maximin is an Enemy Let the Gods immediately take him off and give us to know with joy the Prudence and the Felicity of Gordianus the Father and the Constancy and Virtue of the Son After this he read their Letters to them which were sent to the Senate and to himself Then followed these Acclamations of the Senate We give Thanks unto you O ye Gods Perfect the Deliverance of us from our Enemies which you have begun We all adjudge Maximin an Enemy We devote Maximin and his Son to the Region of Hell We declare the Gordiani our Emperors We acknowledge the Gordiani our Soveraigns The Gods Preserve the Emperors who are elected out of the Senate Let us enjoy our Noble Emperors as Conquerors Let us have the Presence of our Emperors at Rome with us Whoever kills the Publick Enemies he shall receive a Reward Junius Cordus calls this a Tacit Decree of the Senate but what that means I must explain in short for we have no Example amongst A â—acit Dcree â—at us of it at this day Only as when your Majesty calls your Chief Ministers into
they conferred the Office of Governour of the City of Rome upon Vectius Sabinus who was a Grave Person suitable to the Temper of Maximus and they made Pinarius Valens the Captain of the Guards Before I speak more of their other Actions I will give you some Account of their Manners and Families which is done before me indeed by Junius Cordus and by Curius Fortunatianus The first suffers nothing to escape him so that many times he takes in things that are Vile and not Handsome The latter hath gone through all this History and hath amassed together several things which are not to be found elsewhere But he is so short that he only touches upon them I shall not follow the Method of the one or the other but rather that of the Histories of Suetonius Tranquillus and Valerius Marcellinus Maximus's Father was one out of the lowest Extraction of Maximus Rank of the People a Coach-maker or as some say a Blacksmith whose Wife 's Name was Prima by whom he had four other Boys and four Girls that all of them died young When Maximus was born an Eagle they say dropt into the Chamber where he was through some Passage several pieces of raw Flesh which no body daring to meddle with or touch out of a scruple of Religion the Eagle came and took it away again and carried it into the next Chappel which was dedicated to Jupiter Praestes This at that time seemed to be a thing of no consequence but his coming afterwards to the Empire shew'd that it was not done without a cause and that it was an Omen of his Reign He passed all his Infancy in the House of his Uncle Pinarius his Father's Brother whom he raised to the Dignity of the Captain of the Guards as soon as he was made Emperor He employed his time to the study of Grammar but not much to Rhetorick for his inclination was always to Arms and the severe discipline of War At length he came to be a Tribune in the Army and Commanded several Legions and after that was made a Praetor His Charges at his entrance into his Praetorship were born by Pescennia Marcellina who had adopted him and maintain'd him as her own Son Next he was made the Proconsul of Bithynia from Bithynia he was removed to Greece and from thence in the third place to be the Proconsul of the Province of Gallia Narbonensis He was sent in the Quality of Lieutenant-General into Illyricum where he beat the Sarmatae From thence he was commanded to the Rhine where he managed things very happily against the Germans Then he was made the Governour of the City of Rome in which place he acquitted himself with a great deal of Prudence Ingenuity and Exactness Therefore the Senate though he was one of a Novel Family which without extraordinary Merits must have prevented their Favour did not forbear to confer the Empire upon him confessing as did all the World that at time there was no Person in the Senate more fit to sustain the Name and Dignity of a Prince than he As to his Person and his Manners which Person and Manners of Maximus are Circumstances tho' of the lesser moment into which People generally delight to enquire he was one that Eat much but Drank very little and Venery he extraordinary rarely used Always of a severe Carriage at home and abroad a very grave Look and a hard Face so that they epitheted him Maximus the Trist He was Tall Strong and Healthy in Body one of no great Complaisance but Just and never guilty to the last of Inhumanity or Unmercifulness towards any He always forgave when he was asked nor was he ever Angry but where it became him so to be He addicted himself to no Parties he was stedfast in his own Judgment and would never so much trust to the Sentiments of others as to his own The Senate loved him the better for all this and the People feared him Those latter knew the weight of his Censure being a Subject and they thought that the same rigour would but increase upon him being a Prince Balbinus was a Man of a very Noble Race Character of Balbinus had been twice Consul and the Governour of a multitude of Provinces He had been the Governour of Asia and Africa and Bithynia and Galatia and Pontus and Thrace and Gallia and had headed sometimes Armies But to say the truth his Excellency lay not so much in the Military as in the Civil Affairs His Goodness his Integrity and his Modesty gained him a great deal of love His Family was very Antient and as he said derived from Balbus Cornelius Theophanes who was made Free of the City of Rome by Pompey the Great and who was a Man of the first Note in his own Country and also a writer of History Balbinus was as Tall as Maximus and Handsome he loved his Pleasures extremely in which he had a great Estate to assist him for he was left Rich by his Ancestors and he had added to that Stock much by being made the Heir to several of his Friends He was famous for his Eloquence a very good Poet at a sudden and an extempore Verse He loved Wine Women and good Eating was proper in his Dress and in fine wanted nothing to render him commendable to the People The Senate no less loved him This as to the general Characters of Maximus and Balbinus whom some as Salust compares Cato and Caesar so some think ought to be compared in this manner That as Maximus was severe Balbinus was sweet As the one was Firm and Constant the other was Good The one gave away nothing the other abounded in all things and was as generous to all the World with them Maximus and Balbinus being possessed with all the other Royal Honours and Ensigns of the Empire that is having received the Tribunitian Power the Proconsular Power and the Soveraign Pontificate upon them the Title of Fathers of the Country was likewise added to them They entertain'd the People with the diversions of the Stage the Games of the Cirque and the Combats of the Gladiators and then Maximus after the dispatching his Vows in the Capitol was sent to the War against Maximin with a great Army the Guards continuing with Balbinus still at Rome I may here take an occasion to say in a word from whence the Custom comes That when the Emperors are going to a War they first entertain the People with the Combats of Gladiators and the Chase of Beasts Some will have it That it is an antient sort of a Sacrifice to Nemesis the Goddess of Fortune to satiate her with Roman Blood in the beginning that she may have the less thereof to require in the Engagements with the Enemy But that which I take to be the truest and the most probable Account of it is That the sight of Fights Blood Arms and naked Men engaging each other should harden them against they met the Enemy and
accustom them not to be afraid nor to shrink at all at Death and Wounds The Guards tarrying as I said at Rome whilst Maximus went to the War against Maximin there happened such a violent Sedition betwixt the People and them that it A Mutinâ— at Rome came to a War within the Bowels of the City The greatest part whereof was set on fire the Temples prophaned the Streets all of them polluted with Blood and Balbinus with his utmost Lenity was not able to pacifie them to do which he appeared in publick in Person But he was in danger to be knock'd down with a Stone some say that he received a blow with a Club and he could never have quieted them if he had not thought upon producing the young Caesar Gordianus whom he took dress'd in his Purple and set him upon the Shoulders of one that was very tall and exposed him to them who seeing him both the People and the Soldiers were so appeased that for his sake they all returned again to their former Amity For never was one of his Years so much beloved as he in Memory particularly of his Father and his Grandfather who had laid down their Lives in the defence of the People of Rome against Maximin in Africk A great Instance of the Gratitude of the Romans As Maximus set forwards for the War the Senate dispatched into all parts of the Country of Italy Consuls Praetors Quaestors Aediles and Tribunes to see that every City was provided with Corn Arms Walls and Fortifications to give Maximin at every turn a Check and to fatigue him with Sieges one after another They ordered all the Provisions to be reaped and to be brought out of the Fields into the fortified Towns that the Publick Enemy should find nothing whereupon to subsist They sent Orders into all the Provinces to forbid all Persons to Assist him under the penalty of being treated as Enemies In the mean time another Mutiny happened at Rome betwixt the City and Guards The Emperor Balbinus published his Edicts to suppress them but without effect The Guards betook themselves to their Camp The People began to besiege them there Nor was this Mutiny in which Thieves and Robbers mixed with the rest to steal and plunder what they could to the ruin of the City and the loss of a great deal of Riches quieted till the People had gone so far as to cut Aquaeducts that carried the Water to the Camp Whilst these things passed at Rome the Emperor Maximus was at the City of Ravenna making great preparations for the War against Maximin whom he very much apprehended and often said that he went to fight not against a Man but against a Cyclops But Maximin was so defeated of his Designs before the City of Aquileia that his own Men killed him and both the Heads of him and his Son were brought to Ravenna to Maximus who sent them from thence to Rome The Zeal of the People of Aquileia for the Cause of the Romans in this Siege was remarkable They shaved off the Womens Hair in their necessity to make Strings with it for their Bows The Emperor Balbinus was so overjoy'd at the Victory who had dreaded the very thoughts of Maximin before that as soon as his Head was brought to Rome he offered a Hecatomb to the Gods which is a Sacrifice in this manner A hundred Altars made of Turf are set up Offering of a Hecatomb all in a place Upon these Altars are killed a hundred Swine or a hundred Sheep If it is an Imperial Sacrifice the Victims are a hundred Lions or a hundred Eagles and such like A Custom which many Emperors have Celebrated and it formerly was in use amongst the Grecians to appease the Gods in time especially of a Pestilence This being over Balbinus in the next place with great joy expected the return of his Brother-Emperor from Ravenna with his Army and Forces entire which had had no occasion to strike a blow For the People of Aquileia and only a few Soldiers with them under the Command of Crispinus and Menophilus who had been sent thither from the Senate had prevented their Work and defeated the Enemy without them Maximus took his way from Ravenna first to Aquileia to see that he left all the Country safe as far as to the Alps and if there were any Reliques of the Barbarians remaining who had favoured Maximin to reduce them In the mean time the Senate deputed twenty of their Body to wit four of the Order of the Consuls eight Praetors and eight Quaestors whose Names are set down by Cordus to Complement Maximus and to present him with the Crowns as also an Act in which they had decreed to set up his Statues on Horseback in Gold The Emperor Balbinus was disgusted at this and said that Maximus had been put to less trouble than he who had extinguish'd the fire of a great intestine War at home whilst Maximus enjoy'd himself in quiet at Ravenna But tho' this was true the readiness of Maximus to serve the State in Person in this War was so well accepted that the Victory received was totally imputed to him and yet it was got before he so much as knew any thing of it The Army of Maximin after his death surrendring themselves to Maximus he received them and marched with great Pomp and a numerous Retinue to Rome He often said to that Army that as for what was past it ought to be forgotten and he presented them a great Donative and sent their Auxiliaries every one home But as when Soldiers have once their minds possessed with a hatred it is a hard matter to govern them These Men repented that they had lost an Emperor who was of their own Election now to be reduced under the Command of those who were of the Election of the Senate They discover'd as much in their very Looks and sometimes in Words But when they also heard the reflecting Acclamations of the Senate upon them for having adhered so to Maximin they became the bitterer against Maximus and Balbinus and every day bethought themselves of setting up some other Persons for the Empire if occasion served As Maximus entred into the City of Rome Reception of Maximus at Rome Balbinus the Senate and the People came out to meet him reflecting upon the Soldiers of the Party of Maximin in their Publick Acclamations From thence they conducted him into the Senate where after some other things of course it was said See the Happiness of Princes that are chosen by the Wisdom of the Senate and on the other hand see the Fate of those that are chosen by Fools Now the Army were they that had first set up Maximin as the Senate were they who had chosen Maximus and Balbinus The Soldiers could not hear this without being more incensed against the Senate especially because the Senate pretended as it were to have got a Triumph over them Maximus and Balbinus governed in the City
it There is no Antient Family to be found now there to represent the Nobility and the Antiquity of its former People but what perhaps hath sprung from some Person or other who escaped the slaughter by being at that time absent on his business or in the service of the War After the Peace with Aureolus Gallienus with the assistance of him and Claudius as his General who was afterwards Emperor and who is the Head of the Family of Constantius the Caesar began the War afresh against Posthumius in Gallia Posthumius was assisted with many succours from the Celtae and the Franks and being joined by Victorinus whom he had made Partner with him in his pretended Empire he marched to the Battel against Gallienus They fought several times with variety of success on both sides The Victory at last Posthumius defeated fell to Gallienus who it is to be owned had sudden Valour which came hot upon him when he was in a Choler and well provoked In this Choler he went next to revenge himself of Byzantium where he did not expect to be received within the Walls But upon Conditions he was The day after he first disarmed and then put all the Garrison and Town in cold blood to the Sword contrary to his Faith and the Promises that he had made them About the same time the Scythians in Asia were beaten by the Valour and the Conduct of the Roman Commanders there and obliged to retire from their Incursions Winged with these Successes Gallienus flew Gallienus his return to Rome with great speed to Rome and Convocating the Senate he Instituted and Celebrated his Decennial Games the Pomp and the Pleasures whereof were as Exquisite as they were New He went to the Capitol in a Procession of the Senators in their Robes the Gentry the Soldiers clad in White all the People Slaves a very great many and Women marching before with Wax Tapers and Lamps in their hands These were preceded by a hundred white Oxen yoaked two and two with their Horns gilt and Cloths of Silk thrown over their Backs of divers Colours which made a great Show In like manner marched two hundred pure white Lambs Ten Elephants that were then at Rome One thousand two hundred Gladiators pompously dressed in Cloaths embroider'd with Gold such as the Ladies of Quality wear Two hundred tam'd Wild Beasts of several kinds very finely adorned Chariots full of Mimicks and all sorts of Players Pugils fighting but not with true but counterfeit Weapons Drolls playing the Anticks and others imitating the Gestures and Looks of the Cyclops which was wonderful All the Streets resounded with Acclamations and the Plays and the Noise In the midst amongst the Senators marched Gallienus himself in a Triumphal Gown and Tunick accompanied with all the Priests in their Robes There were five hundred Spears of Gold born on each side one hundred Standards the Standards of the Colleges of the Priests the Arms and Ensigns of the Temples and all the Legions Then went also separate Bodies of Men representing Captives of Vanquish'd Nations as Goths Sarmatians Franks and Persians to the number of no less than two hundred in a Body And with this Pomp did Gallienus vainly think to elude and put upon the People of Rome who nevertheless seeing through the disguise one Man favoured Posthumius another Regillianus another Aureolus another Aemilian and another Saturninus as they fancied Great lamentation was made for the Captivity of Valerian the Father and it was admired that his own Son should leave him so unrevenged when strangers and foreign Potentates had been ready to vindicate him But nothing of this moved Gallienus his heart was stupified with his Pleasures All his discourse to those that were about him was What have we for Dinner What are the Diversions that are prepared to day What will be the Play to morrow What are the Races to be run in the Cirque The Procession being over and the Hecatombs being offered to the Gods Gallienus returned to the Court where there was an Entertainment which when finished he appointed the other days for the publick Pastimes One thing I must not omit and that is an unlucky Jest which was made upon the Procession Amongst the pretended Captives which were ridiculously led in Triumph there was a Body of supposed Persians As this Body was marching some Drolls that had a mind to be pleasant came in amongst them and sought and look'd all about and viewed every ones Face and wondred and were very inquisitive till at last they were asked what they would have and what was it they wanted Say they we would see the Emperor's Father This coming to the ears of Gallienus no regard either to his Father or to Pity or his own shame could prevail with him but he ordered the Men to be burnt The People resented their deaths beyond expectation very ill and the Soldiers worse who were so troubled that they reveng'd it upon Gallienus himself not long after In the Year that Gallienus and Saturninus Success of Oednatus against the Persians were the Consuls Odenatus King of the Palmyreni in Syria whose Valiant Actions spoke him worthy to be the Emperor of all the East as indeed he was and so he declared himself because Gallienus minded either nothing or only his Luxuries and his Follies took up the War against Persia to revenge the Captivity of Valerian which was so little regarded by Gallienus his Son He presently possessed himself of the Cities of Nisibis and Charrae by the Surrender of the Inhabitants who blamed Gallienus for his Neglect Yet was not Odenatus wanting in his Respect to Gallienus neither He sent the Great Men of the Persians whom he took Prisoners to Rome to him to give him the opportunity of insulting over their Misery in their turn which he did in a Triumph though the Victory was not his own but Odenatus's and still he mentioned nothing of his Father nor upon the report which came of his Death but which proved afterwards false did he Deifie him till he was constrained to it Odenatus advanced to the City of Ctesiphon and besieged it with a multitude of the Persians therein He laid all the Country about waste and killed innumerable of the Enemy All the Great Men of the Persians out of all the Provinces flew to this Siege for the common defence They Fought Fortune was a long time various and the Victory hard in getting But however it fell at last on the side of Odenatus who as he had no other end in the War but to deliver Valerian so he daily pushed for it but the Circumstances of Places in a strange Country incumbred the good Prince with great difficulties Whilst these things passed in Persia the Scythians broke in into Cappadocia which they Ravaged and having made themselves Masters of some Towns after the War was a long time doubtful they withdrew from thence into Bithynia Therefore the Soldiers were at this time for
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
there for her support near the Palace of Hadrian and the same carries her name at this day 30. VICTORINA VIctorina or Victoria or Vitruvia was another Lady who is to be remembred here as she was one who was encouraged to her Enterprizes by the ill manners of Gallienus She set up both her Son and her Grandson Victorinus to be Emperors in Gallia who were afterwards killed by the Soldiers She set up Posthumius she set up Lollius she set up Marius there who were all first declared Emperors by the Soldiers and then after some time that they reigned more or less killed At last she set up Tetricus because she would never forbear to carry on the Masculine part which she had begun In Tetricus's time she was either killed or taken off by a Natural Death She gave herself the Title of the Mother of the Camp She had Money both in Brass Silver and Gold Coyned for her at the City of Trier whereof there are pieces extant at this day I have now finished the number and given you Sir the best account I can out of the secret Paths of History which I have traced on purpose for them of these thirty Tyrants You may please to accept of it and take my Pains in good part It is not so Eloquently as it is faithfully writ Because it is not fine Language which I pretend to but the matter of Fact And what I write I dictate to my Servant with that haste that if you should ask me any thing I have scarce a breathing time left me to answer you in There were two other Persons in other Reigns of this stamp the one in the time of Maximin the other in the Reign of Claudius whom as an Appendix I shall think fit to produce here to bring up the Rear of the rest and so I shall close this point of History 1. Titus Quartinus TItus as both Dexippus Herodian and all Historians write was a Tribune of the Moors whom Maximin had dismist from his Service Some say he voluntarily set himself up Emperor for fear of his life afterwards from Maximin others that the Armenian Archers in Maximin's Service having been disobliged compelled Titus against his will to take upon him that Post However it is he was a Man of the first Note for his laudable Services to the State both at home and abroad But his Reign was but little happy to him He reigned six Months and then after the discovery of the intended Defection of Magnus was killed by his own Soldiers His Wife was Calphurnia a Holy and Venerable Woman of the Family of the Piso's a Priestess but once married and adored by our Ancestors amongst the best of her Sex Her Statue is that which we have yet in the Temple of Venus of Stone gilt She wore in her time Unions such as Cleopatra was said to wear and she had a Charger of twenty Pound weight of Silver whereon was Ingraved the History of her Family This might be too much perhaps to mention if it did not naturally come in my way 2. CENSORINVS THE next is Censorinus a Man who was very much a Soldier and of an Antient stamp of Honour in the Senate He had been twice a Consul twice a Captain of the Guards thrice the Governor of the City of Rome four times a Proconsul thrice the Lieutenant of a Province with Consular power twice a Propraetor four times an Aedile thrice a Questor besides two extraordinary Commissions which he had into Persia and Sarmatia In the Persian War in the time of the Emperor Valerian he received a Wound of which he halted in one Foot After all these Honours as he lived an old Man upon his Estate he was taken out by the Soldiers and made Emperor which was under the Reign of the Emperor Claudius Those who jested upon him called him also a Claudius because of his halting from Claudico to Halt In seven days afterwards from his Elevation the same Persons that had raised him killed him they thought he was too strict and of too severe a Discipline for them His Sepulchre stands about the City of Bologna where in great Letters are written upon it all his Honours concluding with this Happy in every thing but an Emperor His Family who are yet Extant and famous by the name of the Censorini betook themselves out of a disgust to Rome and the Publick Affairs some to the Country of Thrace and some into Bithynia They have a sine House belonging to them in Rome adjoyning to that of the Flavian Family It was the House of Titus the Eleventh Emperor of the Romans they say formerly in his time So now I proceed to the Emperor Claudius with whom I shall joyn his Brother Quintillus and some few things that relate to that Excellent and Noble Family But whatever I shall say of the Life of Claudius it must be expected beforehand to fall short of the Merits of so great a Prince SALON VALERIANVS CAES. DIVO CLAVDIO GOTHICO IMP. CAES. QVINTILLVS AVG. IMP. AVRELIANVS AVG. IMP. C. M. CL. TACITVS P. F. AVG. IMP. C. M. AN. FLORIANVS P. F. AVG. P. 175. Vol. 11 THE A. Christi CCLXIX Life and Reign OF THE EMPEROR CLAUDIUS Dedicated to the EMPEROR Constantine the Great By TREBELLIUS POLLIO IAM happily come to the Emperor Claudius whose History I shall endeavour to write with the greater care because of his Relation to Constantius the Caesar Nor can I refuse this piece of Service to the Memory of so great a Prince For since I have already given my self the trouble of writing upon those Tumultuary Reigns and such Petty Kings as the Thirty foregoing and upon the Actions also of Zenobia and Victorina two Women the Condition of Affairs under the Emperor Gallienus coming to that pass that even the Women as well as Men Usurped upon him It would be a Crime in me to choose to be silent of a Prince who was Great Uncle to Constantius the Caesar and who by his Bravery overcame the Goths and put an end to the publick Calamities of the State who though not himself the Author of the Design against Gallienus yet for the Publick Good was made an Instrument of our deliverance from that Prodigy of an Emperor and had he lived long upon the Throne he had revived to us by his Virtues his Counsels and his Conduct the Scipios and the Camillus and all those Noble Romans of Antient Times His Reign was short But yet the same would have been thought of it though he had attained to the greatest Age. Every thing in him was Admirable every thing in him was Conspicuous and to be preferred even before the most Triumphant Actions of the Antients He had the Bravery of Trajan the Piety of Antoninus the Moderation of Augustus and the Excellencies of all the Great Princes in that manner that instead of taking an Example by others had those Princes never been his single Example had been enough for all the World
Chilo I Have taken Tyana and suffered the Man to be killed by whose as it were good Office I did it I could not love such a Traitour I willingly let the Soldiers kill him because how could he be faithful to me who spared not to betray his own Country He is the only one of all the Besieged who hath been so used I cannot deny but he was Rich. But yet I have given his Estate to his Children that none shall pretend to say that it was to get his Money I killed him The City of Tyana was taken in this manner Heraclammon betrayed to Aurelian a private place where there was a Natural rising of the Ground by which he might mount the Walls undiscovered Aurelian did so and his Purple distinguishing him to be the Emperor to the Army without and the People within and the People within seeing him upon the Walls and concluding the Town was taken as if the whole Army was with him they were so surprised that they said no more but yielded I ought not here to omit a thing which is to the Honour of the memory of the Venerable Apollonius who was a Native of the City of Tyana Aurelian it is said was seriously sometime thinking and speaking about destroying the place entirely by Fire and Sword But as he was going to his Tent that wise Man of so known Fame and Authority an Antient Philosopher and a true Friend of the Gods Apollonius Tyanaeus who is himself to be highly Apparition of Apollonius Tyanaeus Celebrated as a God appeared suddenly to him in the Form in which his Image is in the Temples at this day and spoke to him these words Aurelian Why should you think of Murdering my poor Countrymen If you would Reign in Glory abstain Aurelian from the blood of the Innocent Aurelian be merciful if you would Conquer and live your self Aurelian knew the Visage of the Venerable Philosopher again because he had seen it before in several Temples He was very much struck at it and immediately he returned to a better mind about his Treatment of the Town and promised to erect a Temple to Apollonius and to set up his Image and Statues This account is what I have received from grave Men and I have also often Read the same my self in the Books of the Ulpian Library to which I give the more Credit because I have a great respect for the Majesty of Apollonius than whom what Man hath there ever been more Holy Venerable Illustrious and Divine He raised the Dead to Life again He wrought many things beyond the power of Mankind and his Discourses were suitable to his Actions which if any Person pleases to know more particularly let him Read the Greek Books that are written of his Life My self if I live and if the favour of Apollonius will assist me in it will give the World some short account at least of the Actions of so great a Person not that they want the benefit of my Labour but that things which are really to be admired may be made universally known and famous After the taking of Tyana Aurelian marched towards Antioch proposing to all that submitted to him Indemnity for what was past At the Village of Daphne which is near Antioch he gave the Enemy a little Blow and so came to that City It is supposed the Precepts of the Venerable Apollonius had made an impression upon him for he used his Victory here with great Humanity and Clemency The next Battel was a General one and for no less than the Empire It was fought at the City of Emissa in Phaenicia against the Queen Zenobia and Zabdas her General Aurelian's Horse were spent and ready to run when some Divine Form suddenly appearing to them and encouraging them on to the Charge they took the Example of the Foot who all the while stood firm till at last they put both Zenobia and Zabdas to flight and obtained Zenobia ' s Army defeated a most accomplisht Victory Emissa readily yielded to the Conqueror who no sooner entred into it but he repaired to the Temple of Heliogabalus or the Sun to acquit himself of his Vows and Devotions according to his Duty But as he was there the same Divine Form appeared again to him which he had seen assisting him in the Battel Wherefore he there founded Temples and made great Oblations He Founded also a Temple to the Sun at Rome of extraordinary Magnificence whereof we shall have an occasion to speak hereafter Then he bent his Course against the City of Palmyra the Capitol of the Country of the People of the same name where Zenobia resided that with the taking of it he might put an end to his Labours in this part of the World The Syrian Robbers annoyed his Army often in his March and did him much mischief But in the Siege of Palmyra his Person was so far in danger that he received a slight Shot of an Arrow And the hot Work that he met with is very plainly confessed by himself in a Letter to Mucapor thus THose at Rome deride my Expedition and cry I make War against a Woman as if I had to do with none but Zenobia and that she opposed me upon her own Strength But the case is the same as if the War was with a Man and Feminine Fear and sense of her Demerits makes her besides so desperate that she is by far the worst of Enemies It canot be expressed what Showers of Arrows Darts and Stones she sends us and how prepared she is for her defence here There is no part of the Wall that is not planted with two or three Batterers She throws Fire at us out of her Engines In fine she Fights not like a Woman but with the Audacity of a Man in Despair However I trust that the Gods who never have been wanting to our Endeavours will still assist the Roman Empire At length Aurelian fatigued and weary of so troublesome a Siege sent a Letter into the Town to Zenobia to require her to surrender and he promised her her life The Letter was this Aurelian the Emperor of the Roman World and the Protector of the East to Zenobia and those in Arms with her THAT which I require you now to do by my Letter you ought assuredly to have done of your own Motion I order you to Surrender and I promise you your Lives with impunity You Zenobia and your Children shall only be obliged to lead your Lives there where I with the advice of the most Noble Senate shall place you Your Jewels Silver Gold Silks Horses and Camels must be disposed of to the Exchequer at Rome The People of this Country of Palmyra shall be preserved in their Rights Zenobia receiving this Letter wrote him Haughty mind of Zenobia back an Answer which was more Haughty and more Proud indeed than the Condition of her Fortune required But I suppose it might â—e to amuse him Her Letter was this
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
sooner did the Aegyptians see him afterwards in Power in the time of Probus but they cryed We make Saturninus Emperor The Gods save your Majesty It is true he prudently retired presently from Alexandria again and went into Palestina But finding there that it was not safe for him to live after this in the Quality of a private Man he suffered the Soldiers that were about him to put upon him the Purple and adore him as Emperor The Purple was a Cloak taken off for the purpose of a Statue of Venus My Grandfather was in the Company when he was Adored I have often heard him speak of it Saturninus he said wept and expressed himself thus If I may speak it without Arrogance the Government hath lost an useful Subject It is certain I have re-established Gallia I have recivered Africa out of the possession of the Moors I have appeased Spain But what 's this It is all lost and the Merit of it will be abolished by this one Honour which you unhappily affect to give me The Company that was about him animating him on to the Enterprize he said You know not my Friends what a troublesome thing it is to be a Prince Drawn Swords by nothing but a Hair hang over our Heads every where Poniards and Darts threaten us Our Guards our Companions themselves are fear'd by us We eat not our Meat with pleasure and we are forced to Wars and Arms many times contrary to our Judgments Whatever one 's Age is to be sure it meets with Reproaches upon the Throne Is a Man Old he is disabled and past Service Is he Young he is Wild and Rash What shall I say of Probus who is so universally Amiable For whilst you make me Rival to him to whom I willingly Cede and whose Officer I desire rather to be you draw me into a necessity of Destruction I shall have only this Comfort that I cannot perish alone This says M. Salvidienus was truly his Speech Indeed he was one who had no small knowledge of Letters He had studied Rhetorick in Africa and at Rome he had frequented the publick Academies To be short I see some are mistaken about him to think that he was the Saturninus who pretended to the Empire in the time of Gallienus whereas this was altogether another Person This Saturninus was set up in the time of Probus and killed against almost the inclinations of that Prince For Probus writ several kind Letters to him and promised him his Pardon But the Soldiers who were about him would not give him leave to hearken to those Offers So the Party of Probus which was sent against him besieged Saturninus slain him in some Castle in which he was and killed him in the Action It would be tedious to descend to all the particulars of his Stature his Person his Shape his Eating and Drinking which others may that please trouble themselves about though the Example of them scarce signifies any thing But I shall proceed to the following Account of Proculus and Bonosus PROCULUS PROCVLUS was a Native of the City of Albenga in the Republick of Genoa amongst the Maritime Alpes of a Gentleman's His Extraction and Wealth Family but as well himself as his Ancestors were great Robbers so that what with the Cattel the Slaves and such things as he had gotten by that means he was very Rich. It is said that at that time that he took upon him the Empire he Armed two thousand of his own Slaves He had a Virago to his Wife who precipitated him into the Madness of putting up for the Empire Her Name was at first Viturgia afterwards she was called Sampson They had a Son called Herennianus to whom if Proculus could have supported himself in his Enterprize but five Years he said he would have secured the Empire after him It cannot be denied but that Proculus was an extraordinary and a very brave Man and had always passed his Life under Arms. He had Commanded in the Quality of a Tribune over several Legions and had done Actions of great Valour Not to omit a pleasant Passage which he glories in in the following Letter which I had rather give you in his own words than represent it my self Proculus to Maetianus his Kinsman wisheth Health I Have taken Captive out of the Country of Sarmatia one hundred Virgins Ten of which I lay with in one Night To the best of my power in fifteen days I have made Women of them all This is a Ridiculous Action you see and extremely Libidinous and yet he glories in it and reckons as a fine thing what was otherwise his Crime However being notwithstanding his Wickedness and his Lewdness a considerable Officer and one that acquitted himself always with great Courage the Colony of Lyons in France who had been severely Treated by the Emperor Aurelian and were very much afraid again of Probus soliciting him to it he set himself up to be Emperor Onesimus says which I do not remember that I have read in any one else That he was made Emperor in Raillery as it were first at a Game of Chess For being one day at an Entertainment at Play at Chess in which he went out King ten times one of the Company who wanted not Wit saluted him upon it as Emperor and said The Gods save your Majesty And setching him a piece of Purple put it upon him and then Adored him This gave occasion to the Company that was privy to it to joyn with him and they went next to gain the Army and so set up for the Empire Proculus was not a little serviceable to the Gauls For though he never fought but in the way of the Brigundages which he continually committed he gained himself and them some glory over the Germans Probus coming against him and ready to drive him almost out of the World he desired to take Refuge in the assistance of the Frank from whom he pretended to derive his Original But as it is familiar with the Franks to break their Faith and make no more than a Jest of it they betrayed him and so Probus He is slain overcame him and slew him His Posterity are at this time living at Albenga who in raillery will often say that they neither like being Robbers nor Princes So much concerning Proculus BONOSUS BONOSUS was of a House of Spain His Extraction but Born in Britain His Mother a Gaulese or a French Woman His Father either a Professor in Rhetorick as he the Son said or as I have found from others a Grammarian who dying when this his Son was very young his Mother who was a Woman of Wit educated him and taught him something of Letters He served as a Soldier first in the Foot and afterwards in the Horse He rose to be a Centurion then to be a Tribune and at last to be the General on the Frontier of Rhaetia No Man ever drank like Bonosus The Emperor Aurelian said often of him
in the Reign of Septimius Severus the State received no good from all its Princes from thence unto Severus the Son of Mammaea It would be tedious to recount all the following History Valerian was cast out of a Capacity of being enjoyed Gallienus afflicted us fifteen Years Fortune who loves variety and is almost always an Enemy to Virtue envied Claudius a long Reign â—nd thus Aurelian thus Tacitus thus Probus were â—ut off and destroyed that we may see there â—s nothing so grateful to Fortune as to turn â—hings of the most publick Nature and Consequence variously upside down But why do I complain of these Matters â—ere and delay my self upon such inconstanâ—ies of the times I come to the Empâ—ror Carus who was a Prince as I may say of a middle Character but rather to be placed â—mong the Good than the ill ones and he â—ould have been much better if he had not â—eft such an Heir as Carinus The Country of the Nativity of Carus is Birth-place of Carus uncertain 〈…〉 ambiguously reported by a great many that â— cannot be precise to determine on whose 〈…〉 de the Truth lies Onesimus who hath writâ—en the Life of Probus very carefully says 〈…〉 at he was both born and brought up to Letters at Rome but that his Parents were of the Province of Illyricum Fabius Cyrillianus who hath taken no less Pains about the History of the times of Carus Numerianus and Carinus says that he was not born at Rome but in Illyricum and not there of Illyrian but of Carthaginian Parents Now I remember I have seen in some Journal that he was a Milanese born but by his Grandfather incorporated into the City of Aquileia Himself it cannot be denied pretended as if he was of Roman Blood as the following Letter shews which when he was a Proconsul he writ to his Lieutenant re-minding him of his Duty Marcus Aurelius Carus the Proconsul of Cilicia to Junius his Lieutenant OUR Ancestors the great Men amongst the Romans have observed a Custom in the creating their Lieutenants to give the World a Specimen of their own Manners by those of whom they make Choice to act under them in the Service of the Government But yet if this Custom had not been I had done no otherwise than I have in my Choice of you At the same time I have observed this Custom too unless you deceive me You will please to take care that you do not make us different from our Roman Ancestors His Speech which he first sent to the Senate after he was created Emperor signifies the same thing A part if it was thus IT may be a Matter of some Joy to you Fathers of the Senate that one out of your own Order and also of your own Original is preferred to be Emperor It shall not be by my means that Strangers and Foreigners shall make better Princes than those who are chosen out of you Through the several degrees of Offices in the Army and the Civil List this Person came as the Titles upon his Statues shew to be the Captain of the Guards to the Emperor Probus in which Post he gained himself so much the Hearts of the Soldiers that after Probus was killed they thought him the Man the most worthy of the Succession Not that I am insensible that several have suspected that Probus was killed by an Intrigue of Carus But as Carus did constantly and severely revenge â—he Death of that Prince so neither the Manners of Carus nor the Obligations which were â—aid upon him by his Master will suffer me to give Credit to such a Suspicion The Honours which Probus did him and the Opinion which he had of him you may read in this Letter to the Senate The Emperor Probus to his entirely beloved Senate wisheth Health AMongst other things he says happy would it be for our Empire if we had many more such Persons to execute the publick Offices as Carus is or as a great many also of you I desire that his Statue if you please may be set up on Horseback to the Honour of a Man who is comparable to the Antients and also that a House may be built for him at the publick Charge the Marble whereof shall be provided by me It is fit that we should so reward the Integrity of such a Person And so he goes on In short not to multiply things of lesser moment and such as are to be found elsewhere as soon as Carus had entred upon the Empire he with the Consent of all the Army prosecuted the Design of the Persian War which had been enterprised by Probus To his two Sons Numerianus and Carinus he gave the Title and Power of Caesars the latter of which he sent with chosen Persons to the Government of Gallia The former who was a very sweet and ingenious Youth he took along with himself He often afterwards repented of sending Carinus into Gallia and he would much rather have sent Numerianus only he was not of an Age sufficient because it is a place which especially requires a steady Governour for he was displeased with the Manners of Carinus and complains of him in a Letter to the Captain of the Guards insomuch that he really had it sometimes in his mind what Onesimus says to depose him for his ill deserts from his Caesarean Dignity again Carus served himself of the great Preparations and all the Force of Probus for the Wars which he had before him He dispatched first in great part that with the Sarmatians and then marching against the Persians without any opposition he took the Country of Mesopotamia and came as far as to the City of Ctesiphon whilst the Persians were engaged at home with their domestick Seditions This gave him the Title of Conquerour of the Persians He was in himself greedy of Glory but his Captain of the Guards spurred him further on to it seeking the Destruction both of him and his Son because he coveted to succeed in the Empire after them So being for extending the progress of his Arms even beyond Ctesiphon he marched and died presently after some say of Sickness others Death of Carus that he was struck dead with Thunder and Lightning It is true that at that time there arose on a sudden such a vast Tempest with dreadful Lightning and more dreadful Thunder that several were almost killed with only the Fright But as for the real manner of the Death of Carus the Letter following of Junius Calphurnius one of his Secretaries written to the Governour of the City of Rome gives this Account of it AS Carus says he our truly dear Prince lay sick in his Tent on a sudden there arose such a Hurricane and a Strom that all things darkened and we could not discern one another Then followed Thunder and Lightning like the continued falling of fiery Meteors from Heaven which astonished us so that we did not know what we did nor where we were However on a