do not doubt but you are Happy The Authority of Creating the Emperor is returned to the Senate Together with which it is Decreed that all Appeals shall be made to the Governour of the City of Rome In the same manner they writ to the Cities of Antioch Aquileia Milan Alexandria Thessalonica Corinth and Athens These were the Publick Letters The following are Private ones from particular Senators to their Friends Autronius Tiberianus to Autronius Justus his Father wisheth Health My Good Father NOW it is for you to come to be present and give your Suffrage in the Senate its Authority being encreased to the degree of which it was in the former Times We now make our Princes Name and Constitute our Emperors Therefore pray be careful to recover your Health and come and bear a part with the Senate in its Antient Glory The Right of Creating the Proconsuls and ordering the Proconsular Provinces is remitted to us and the Appeals of all Magistrates and Officers are returned into the hands of the Governour of the City of Rome Claudius Capellianus to Cereius Maecianus his Uncle wisheth Health WHAT we have always so much wished for we have now gained good Sir The Senate is returned to its Antient State We make our Princes and dispose of the Governments of the Proconsular Provinces Thanks to the Roman Army They have shewn themselves truly Romans and have restored to us the Power which hath been ever our due Leave Baja and Pozzuoli and your Retreat there Come to the Town come to the Senate Rome Flourishes and so does the whole State We now appoint our Emperors We make our Princes We who have begun to make them can disallow them too A word to the Wise is enough It would be too long to adjoyn all the Letters of this kind which I have seen and read I only say this that all the Senators were so elated with Joy for the return of their Antient Power that in their Houses they all slew their Sacrifices and exposed their Images and cloathed themselves in White and Feasted as if they thought that the days of their happy Forefathers were revived upon them All the Murderers of Aurelian as well the better as the worse after Tacitus was settled in the Empire he made it his business to put to death notwithstanding the baseness of that Murder had been already revenged in the Execution of Mnestheus the chief contriver of it The Barbarians on the side of the Lake Maeotis in great numbers made an Eruption But Tacitus partly by force and other means obliged them to retire In fine the chief Glory of the Reign of Tacitus was in the manner of his Elevation For the time that he lived afterwards being so short what liberty had he for any thing that is Great So that what Cicero says That it is more for our Honour to have it told how a Man hath managed a Consulship than how he came by it it takes no place here Tacitus dyed in the sixth Month of his Reign some say of a Sickness some that he was killed by the Soldiers It is certain that he was oppressed with Factions and this work'd much upon his Mind and Spirits He was both Born and made Emperor in the Month of September For which reason he had a fancy to change the Name of that Month to his own His Brother Florianus succeeded him He scarce gave the People of Rome a Largess in all his six Months His Picture is drawn in five several Dresses upon a Table in the House of the Quintilii in a Gown in a Vest in Armour in a Cloak and in a Hunting Habit. The Presages of his Reign were these In the Temple of Sylvanus one in a Fit of Frenzy in which the Priests delivered their Oracles stretching out his Arms cryed with all his force The Purple of Tacitus The Purple of Tacitus seven Omens of his Reign and Death times A Vine which used to bring forth white Grapes the Year that he came to the Empire began to bring forth Purple colour'd Grapes several other such things changed to that Colour The Presages of his Death were That his Father's Sepulchre flew open of it self his Mother's Ghost appeared in the day-time both to him and to Florianus just as if she was Living All the Gods in the Oratory of his House whether by an Earthquake or some other accident fell down An Image of Apollo which he and Florianus Worshipped was found laid upon the Bed without any hand to put it there known These are things that a great many mention But I conclude this Life THE A. Christi CCLxxviii EMPEROR FLORIANVS By FLAVIUS VOPI 〈…〉 US THere is but little to be said of this Prince more than that being the Brother of the Emperor Tacitus he after his death seized upon the Empire not by the Authority of the Senate but of his own Motion as if the Empire was to go to him by Inheritance though at the same time he knew that his Brother was Conjured in the Senate that when he dyed he should not bequeath the Empire no not to his own Children Florianus had scarce held it two Months but Florianus slain he was killed at the City of Tarsus in Cilicia by his Soldiers hearing that Probus was set up and that all the Army had declared for him Indeed Probus was so great a Man in the matter of War that as the Army had chose him so the Senate wished for him and the People of Rome made open Acclamations to have him Florianus though he had otherwise much in him of the Temper of his Brother was very different from him in this Ambition and this Thirst for the Empire He was profuse besides which his Thrifty Brother blamed in him They both together reigned so short a time that they look almost like two Interrexes acting betwixt the Reigns of Aurelian and Probus Their Statues were set up at Terni in Ombria in Marble thirty Foot high and likewise their Sepulchres did sometime stand there â—pon their own Grounds but they were afterwards struck down with Thunder and Lightning and shattered to pieces I come in the next place to Probus a Prince Conspicuous at home and abroad and Commendation of Probus in whom are united all those great Excellencies which Aurelian Trajan Hadrian the Antonini Alexander Severus and Claudius divided amongst them He came to the Empire with the concurrent Judgment of all Men of goodness He governed it most happily He extinguished the Barbarian Nations in their Incursions together with divers Usurpers who would have set themselves up in his time He was worthy of his Name which the People would have imposed upon him if it had not been his own by his Birth Several say he was promised to the World in the Books of the Sibyls Had he longer lived he had left no Barbarians on the Earth This Tast of so great a Prince I give you here lest as we are dayly hourly
with equal bravery and success A Tribune one day having neglected to appoint the Guard he dragged His extreme Severity him alive and dead in a miserable Condition at a Cart's Tail all his march He revived the Punishment of Mezentius of tying the living to the dead for both to rot together Therefore it was said by the People in the Cirque in favour of his Son Diadumenus who was a very lovely Youth dignus cui pater haud Mezentius esset It was pity he had a Mezentius for his Father He shut up others betwixt four Walls till they died starving For Adultery he always tied the Parties body to body and burnt them together alive Servants that had run from their Masters he condemned to be made Gladiators of Unless Informers proved what they said he made it Capital to them if they did it they received a Reward in Money but he dismissed them with all their Infamy upon them He was not a little versed in the Knowledge of the Laws of the Romans insomuch that he made no scruple to supersede all the Rescripts of the antient Emperors to act according to Right and not according to Rescripts And it was a shame he said that the Wills of such as Commodus and Caracallus and others that were unworthy to be Emperors should be Laws when Trajan would not allow that a Rescript that is written perhaps in favour in one case should be made a precedent in another because things ought to be examined by the Rules of good Sense He was liberal in his allowances of Bread and Provisions to the Poor but sparing in giving Money Towards his Servants he was so severe and so cruel that they called him instead of Macrinus Macellinus from Macellum a Shambles because his House like a Shambles flowed with the Blood of the Servants that he killed He eat and drank very freely sometimes to excess in the Evenings If he had dined at any time more sparingly in his supper he would be very profuse He admitted the Men of Letters to his Table with whom talking he prolonged his Meals But as every one called to mind the baseness of his Birth and former Life and on the other hand observed his Cruelty which was excessive and the many horrid things that he did which the Soldiers especially very well knew they were not able longer to endure such a Nusance upon the Throne and so they resolved to rid themselves of him There was a Libel once made upon his A Libel upon him Son to this purpose I dreamt I saw a Youth of the Name of Antoninus who hath a Slave to his Father his Mother such a Whore she hath had a Hundred and ask'd a Hundred more From such a Father such a Mother let him be a Pius or a Marcus he cannot be a Verus Antoninus alluding to the Emperor of the Name of Verus but intending to to say that he cannot be a true but only a visionary and a Bastard Antoninus When Macrinus was told this he answered it in some Iambics which they say were very well done but we have them not because they perished with him in the Fray that he was kill'd in when all that he had was plundered by the Soldiers The manner of his Death was such as we have represented it before already that is his Army revolting and carrying all their Inclinations upon Antoninus Heliogabalus he fled and was afterwards taken and kill'd in a Village of Bithynia his Attendants all yielding or otherwise cut in pieces or dispersed in flight This made Heliogabalus famous because he appeared to have revenged the Death of his Father So he succeeded to the Empire and as he certainly disgraced it afterwards with Vices of Luxury Impurity Riot Pride and Cruelty and as he lived an unhappy Life so he met with the like tragical Death This is what I have discover'd concerning Macrinus out of a great many Historians that mention him I humbly present it to your Majesty O Dioclesian being assured that your Majesty takes a pleasure in viewing the Accounts of the Emperors of the antient Times THE Life and Reign OF THE EMPEROR Antoninus Diadumenus BY JULIUS CAPITOLINUS ANtoninus Diadumenus being but a Youth when the Army created him Emperor together with his Father after the Death of Antoninus Caracallus his Life affords us little that is remarkable more than the Account of his reception of the Name of Antoninus and the stupendious Omens that appeared to fore-tell his Reign and also that it was to continue but a short time For as to the first as soon as it was known amongst the Legions that the fatal Stroke was given to Antoninus Caracallus that which was a matter of great trouble to them all to observe was that they had not another Antoninus to succeed him as if they thought that the very Roman Empire was certainly to perish with that Name Macrinus hearing this and fearing by reason that there were several Relations of Antoninus Pius that were Captains in the Army lest the Army might cast their Inclinations upon some one or other of those for the Empire he immediately put himself at the Head of them with this Harangue You see here my Fellow Soldiers my self and my He is declared an Antoninus Son Diadumenus I am well advanced in years but my Son by the mercy of the Gods you will have long to be your Emperor I understand that there is remaining amongst you a great Affection for the Name of Antoninus Wherefore since for my own part according to the Condition of humane Frailty I have not much time left me to live I name this young Son an Antoninus with your Consents and wish you long to enjoy him They cried The Gods save the Emperor Macrinus The Gods save Antoninus Diadumenus We all beg that Antoninus Caracallus may be made a God Then most Excellent and most Powerful Jupiter preserve the Lives of Macrinus and Antoninus Thou knowest O Jupiter Macrinus is invincible Thou knowest O Jupiter Macrinus is inconquerable Having an Antoninus we have all things The Gods have given us an Autoninus Antoninus and his Father merit the Empire Macrinus replied My Fellow Soldiers we give you a Bounty of three pieces of Gold to each of you upon the occasion of our Accession to the Empire and for the Name of Antoninus five pieces of Gold more besides your ordinary Pay which shall be doubled to you The Gods grant that this may be done often for as much as we now give you this day we will repeat it to you every Fifth year of our Reigns His Speech to the Army After this Antoninus Diadumenus the young Emperor spoke to them in these words I thank you my Fellow Soldiers for the Honour of the Empire and of the name which you have given me for it is you that have thought my Father and me worthy to be the Emperors of Rome and to command the State to the Government whereof My
However that is the Letters of his He is adopted Adoption came to him into Syria whereof he then was Lieutenant upon the Fifth of the Ides of August which Day he therefore commanded to be celebrated for a Festival for the same Upon the Third of the same Ides he received the News of the Death of Trajan he commanded that Day to be celebrated for the Festival of his accession to the Empire It had been many times before thought that Trajan's Design was to have left Neratius Priscus and not Hadrian his Successor because many of his Friends had agreed with him in Priscus to whom he sometimes also had said publickly If I die I recommend the Empire to you Others say That Trajan sometime had it in his Thought to die after the Example of Alexander of Macedonia without appointing any certain Successor Again others tell us That it was likewise in his Mind to have sent a Letter to the Senate to let them know that if he died they themselves should give a Prince to the Empire of Rome adding as from him some Names only out of which they were at their Liberty to chuse the Best Neither do we want those who have pretended that the Adoption of Hadrian was a Trick wrought by the Power of Plotina after Trajan was dead by suppositing a Person to speak the Thing for Trajan in a languishing Voice However it was Hadrian possessed himself And possest of the Empire of the Empire and falling in immediately with the usual Methods of Business he desired to secure and establish as much as possible the Peace of all Parts In the mean time the Nations which Trajan had Conquered had Revolted The Moors were making Incursions upon the Frontier Provinces the Sarmatae had declared Open War the Britains could not be contained under the Roman Power Egypt was disturbed with Seditions and Lycia and Palastine lifted up their Heads to a Rebellion Therefore as for all the Countries beyond the Euphrates and the Tigris Hadrian even relinquished these by the Example as he said of Cato who pronounced the Macedonians a Free People because they would not be kept in subjection And as he had observed that Parthamaspates the King of Parthia of the Appointment of Trajan was of no great Consideration amongst that People he removed him from thence to be the King over some other Neighbouring Nations He began his Reign in Clemency His Clemency whereunto he shew'd a great Regard by this Instance that having in some of the first Days of it had Notice given him by Tatianus by Letters of Three Persons whom he advised him that he should put them to Death who were Baebius Macer the Governour of the City in case he in the least opposed his Authority Laberius Maximus then in Banishment in an Island because he was suspected to aspire at the Empire and Frugi Crassus yet nevertheless he spared them all Three For altho' the Governour of the Island where Crassus was did execute him for an Escape which he would have made with a Design of fomenting New Disorders yet was that Execution a thing that was done without Hadrian's Command He doubled the usual Donative to the Soldiers for a good Presage to welcome in his Reign He took away the Government of Mauritania from Lusius Quietus â—nd dismiss'd him because he was one whâ— was suspected to aim also at the Empire and when Martius Turbo had finished the Reduction of the Jews he appointed him Governour of Mauritania and to go and repress the Commotions which were there He made a Journey out of Antioch to meet and receive with Respect the Ashes of Trajan as they were upon the Road under the Conduct of Tatianus Plotina and Mattidia And having imbarked them in a Vessel for Rome and being returned again into Antioch he constituted Catilius Severus Governour of Syria and then came himself to Rome by the way of Illyricum He first sent Letters which were very accurately Honour done to Trajan writ to the Senate to desire That they should make Trajan a God to which the Senate agreed unanimously and even voted a great many more Things of their own accord to his Honour than what Hadrian had mentioned to them At the same time Writing to the Senate he asked their Pardon That he had not submitted his Judgment to them in the Affair of his assuming the Empire the Occasion whereof had been this that he had been saluted Emperor by the Army in Haste because the State could not be without a Head to it The Senate voted him the same Triumph which was to have been given unto Trajan He refused it for himself but accepted it for the Image of Trajan to be carried in a Triumphal Chariot that that Incomparable Emperor should not be without the Honor which he so well merited no not though he was dead The Title of Pater Patriae or Father of his Country which was Twice offered him he declined because it had 〈…〉 n late in the Reign of Augustus e'er this Title had been assumed by that Prince He remitted to Italy all the Duties which they were to pay him upon his coming to the Crown and abated the same to the Provinces altho' it was very well known that at the same time the Treasury was streightened for Money Then receiving Advice of an Insurrection of the Sarmatae and the Roxolani he commanded his Troops into Moesia and went thither in Person after them He preferred Martius Turbo after he had administred the Government of Mauritania to the Presidentship of Pannonia and Dacia As to the Affair of the Roxolani he composed that by a Treaty and a Peace was established betwixt them and Hadrian He had sometime designed to appoint Nigrinus to be his Successor in the Empire but Nigrinus became guilty of a Conspiracy against A Conspiracy against him the Life of Hadrian which was to be executed as Hadrian assisted at the Sacrifices Lusius and many others were in the same Plot with him which Hadrian escaping hereupon Palmas at Terracina Celsus at Baiae Nigrinus at Faenza Lusius upon the Road by the Order of the Senate were all killed And because these Executions might be a means of creating an ill Opinion of him in the Minds of the People as if it had been tho' really it was not as he says by his Will but by the Will of the Senate that Four Persons all of Consular Dignity were sacrificed so all together Hadrian came presently to Rome committing Dacia unto the Government of Turbo whom to add to his Authority he had likewise honoured with the Title of the Praefecture of Egypt And at Rome he caressed the People to stifle the Apprehensions which were there of him with a double Largess upon his arrival His Bounty which was over and above a Bounty of three Pieces of Gold a head which had been divided amongst them in his absence before He acquitted himself before all the Senate of the Fact
suffer that a State should be pilled and gnawed by Persons who contribute nothing to it by their Service but live in Idleness He diminished the Pension of Mesomedes the Lyrick Poet of Crete He informed himself in the Accounts of all the Provinces and their Tribute perfectly well He gave his Daughter his Paternal Estate but yet so as to hold it of the Crown He sold such of the Furniture of the Palace and all Superfluities as had only served for the Luxury of former Emperors and lived by times according to the Season at his own private Seats He took no Journeys but to go to his own Lands in Campania because he said The Retinue of a Prince is always heavy upon the Country through which he passes let him be as sparing as he can Nevertheless his Authority was great amongst all Foreign Nations whilst he kept himself in repose at Rome the Heart and Centre as it were of the Empire where by his Expresses he easily received the News of all Parts He continued to give Largesses to the People and the Soldiers He made a charitable Establishment for the Maintenance of certain young Children whom he called by the Name of Faustina's Children in the memory of his Consort His Works at this day extant at Rome are these His publick Works a Temple to the Honour of Hadriun The Gracostadium after a Fire he rebuilt He repair'd the Amphitheatre the Sepulchre of Hadrian the Temple of Agrippa and the Bridge elsewhere call'd Pons Sublicius over the Tyber he repair'd the Light-Tower at the Port of Gajetta and the Harbour at Terracina as also the Bagnio at Ostia the Aqueduct at Antium and the Temples of Lavinia He furnished several Cities with Money either to make themselves New Works or to restore their Old He gave to Magistrates and to the Sâ—natours Money to inable them the better to discharge their Functions with Honour He refused the Inheritances which were left him where there were Children to enjoy the same He never turned a good Officer out of his Place to put in another Orphitus the Governour of the City desired leave to lay his down Gavius Maximus was Twenty Years together the Captain of the Guards under him a severe Man Succeeded afterwards by Tatius Maximus After whose Death he made Two Captains of the Guards who were Fabius Repentinus and Cornelius Victorius Some said That a Mistress of Antoninus was the cause of the Preferment of the first No Senatour was put to Death under this Prince Nay one who had confessed himself a Parricide and by the Laws of Nature deserved not to live was banished into a Desart Island rather than to execute him He relieved in a Famine the want of Corn Wine and Oyl amongst the People at the Expence of his own Coffers by buying those Commodities up and giving them to the People for nothing The Prodigies and the Calamities which Calamities in his Reign happen'd in his time were these the Famine we now mentioned then the Cirque fell into ruin an Earthquake destroyed the Towns of the Island of Rhodes and others in Asia which he rebuilt to admiration a Fire at Rome consumed Three Hundred and Forty great Houses which he rebuilt a Fire at the City Narbon in Languedoc another at Antioch another in the Forum at Carthage There was also an Inundation of the Tyber and a Blazing-Star appeared Prodigies A Boy was born with Two Heads and a Woman was delivered of Five Boys at a Birth A Snake of a great Magnitude was seen in Arabia which had devoured one half of its own Body from the Tail A Pestilence in Arabia Four wild Lions in Arabia came tame to the hand and suffered themselves to be taken Pharasmanes the King of Iberia came to Rome Respect of foreign Princes to him to see Antoninus and paid him a greater Respect than he had done to Hadrian He constituted Pacorus King of the Lazi a People near Iberia He obliged the King of Parthia to withdraw his War against Armenia by only his Letter King Abgarus out of the East came to Rome to wait upon him induced by only the Authority of his Name He arbitrated Differences betwixt Kings and Kings The King of Parthia desired him to restore the Chair of State which had been carried away from that Kingdom by Trajan But this he refused He restored Rimethalces unto the Government of the Bosphorani upon the Maeotis after a hearing of the Affair betwixt the Procurator there and him He sent Succours by the Euxine Sea to the People of Olbiopolis upon the Nieper to assist them against the Tartars and he reduced the Tartars to give Hostages to the Olbiopolites for the performance of the Conditions of Peace No Emperor had ever that Authority as he amongst Foreign Nations He was always a Lover of Peace and often used that Sentence of Scipio That he had rather save one Subject than kill a Thousand of the Enemy The Senate had decreed that the Months of September and October should thenceforth be called Antoninus and Faustinus in Honour of him and his Consort But this Honour he refused He celebrated the Espousals of his Daughter Faustina with Marcus Antoninus so Nobly that he gave the Soldiers a great Bounty upon that occasion He created Verus Antoninus after his Questorship a Consul He sent for Apollonius the Stoick as far as from the City Chalcis in Syria to educate Marcus Antoninus and having invited him to the Court in order to deliver his Scholar to him and Apollonius making Answer That the Master was not to come to the Scholar but the Scholar to the Master he smiled and said As if it was easier for Apollonius to come His Candour from Chalcis to Rome than to come from his Lodgings to the Court The Avarice of which Philosopher he remarked by his acceptation of the Recompences which were promised him Amongst other Arguments of the Piety of Antoninus this is one that as Marcus Antoninus was weeping for the Death of one who had been his Educator and the Courtiers would have diverted him from it as an unsuitable Ostentation of the Kindness which he had for him he said to them Give him leave to be as he is a Man for neither Philosophy nor an Empire takes our Natural Affections from us The Officers of the Provinces in his time received from him not only great Presents but such as had not been Consuls he honoured with the Marks of those that had But if he found them guilty of Extortion and Bribery tho' he restored the Fortunes of Fathers unto the Children yet he did it under this Condition that the Children should restore to the Provinces all that their Fathers had unjustly stoln from thence He had all the Inclinations imaginable to Acts of Grace and Pardon In the publick Shews which he gave the People he produced Elephants Rhinocerots Crocodiles Sea-Horses Tygers and all sorts of Beasts from all Parts of the World He
them to take their Places in common with those that had Pertinax passed an Edict as to this to command that those who had never exercised the Office of a Praetor but had received that Honour only by the Creation of Commodus should give place to such as had been Praetors indeed which brought an odium from many upon him He ordered the publick Account of the His publick Ordinances Estates and the valuation of all Persons to be over-look'd and stated a new He ordered severe Punishments to be taken upon Persons that had informed against others falsly But yet he was not altogether so severe as his Predecessors with Relation to Persons of Quality who were brought before him for any Crime He made a Law for the first Will always to stand good until another that is Posterior to it is established and received in due Form in its stead He declared that as for himself he would never enter upon any Inheritance which either was devoted to him in Flattery or by any litigious Right or to the prejudice of the Lawful Heirs using these Words upon the same occasion It is better Fathers of the Senate that the Crown should be poor than that it should get never so much Riches by ill means and dishonourable Actions The Largesses to the Soldiers and the People which himself and also Commodus had promised them he paid But yet the Exchequer was so extremely low at his coming to the Crown that he declared he had not found in it above Ten Sestertiums so that this obliged him to exact some Payments which Commodus had imposed although he had before promised to remit them Lollianus Gentianus a Consul asking him therefore why he broke his Word he told him the Reason was Necessity He made an Auction of the Goods belonging to Commodus ordered his very Bardaccio's and Concubines to be sold excepting such of them as appeared to have been retained in the Court by him by violence And of those which were sold there were many that afterwards redeemed their Fortunes and under other Princes arrived as high as to be Senators The Buffoons and Jesters of Commodus such as were Men of obscene Names he sold and of the Money that he made of this Negotiation which was a great deal he gave a Bounty to the Soldiers He exacted also from the Servants of Commodus an Account of all things that their Master had lavishly given them to enrich them The most principal Things in the Auction Auction of Commodus ' s Goods of the Goods of Commodus were these Garments of Cloth of Gold Tunicks Cloaks Hanging-Coats Dalmaticks Fringed Vests Coats of Mail and others of other sorts Arms for the Exercises of the Gladiators enrich'd with Jewels and Gold vast Herculean Swords Collars for the Gladiators Vessels of fine Gold Ivory Silver and Citron Drinking-Vessels which were some of them of obscene Figures other Vessels belonging to the Arts of the Gladiators Chariots of a rare Invention with the Seats to turn so as either to decline the Sun or take in the Air as you please with other things to measure the Way and shew the Hour and whatever else was agreeable to the Pleasures of that Prince in all sorts of Vices As for such Servants as had been taken out of private Houses into the Court Pertinax restored back those to their proper Masters He reduced the Table and cut off all the prodigious Expences of Commodus He contented himself with a little and the Example of his Frugality was of great effect upon all things In fine he reduced the Expence of the Houshold of the Emperor to a Moiety of what it was accustomed to be before He appointed certain Recompences for the Soldiers that acquitted themselves with Honour The Debts that he contracted on the first occasions of his Reign he discharged He restored the Credit of the Exchequer He set a-part a Sum for Publick Works He gave Money for the Reparation of the High-ways He paid a great many Soldiers that had served well their Arrears He put the Exchequer in a word in a Condition to discharge its Debts But whereas there was due to the Alms-Children of Trajan's Establishment the Allowances of Nine Years he quite sunk that Debt which was severe and a great Reflection upon him It is true he was not exempt from the aspersion of Covetousness in the time he was a private Man He had oppressed with Usury his Neighbours upon the Lake di Sabatâ— and had turned them out of their Lands to extend further the Limits of his own He was called really a Money-monger and many have writ that he did sordid things in the Consular Provinces which he governed they say that he sold the Discharges from and the Commands in the Army His Parents had little or no Estate to leave him and no Inheritances fell to him from others yet he was grown a rich Man on a sudden He restored after he was Emperor to every one the Estates which were taken from them by Commodus but yet he exacted a Consideration for it He came constantly to the Senate and always reported some thing or other to them He shew'd himself always gracious to all those that came to pay their Reverences to him or ask him any Favour He discharged some from the Accusations of their Slaves and avenged the Death of others by crucifying their Accusers Whilst these things pased Falco the Consul formed a Design against him out of an Ambition to set up himself Pertinax complained in the Senate of it but however forgave him and begg'd his impunity of the Senate whereby Falco lived in Safety upon his Estate and his Son was his Heir when he died Many indeed said in his behalf that whatever Design there might have been amongst others to make him Emperor he knew nothing of it himself and that the Slaves who were his Accusers did him wrong and were corrupted and had not agreed in their Evidence But however it is a worse Faction than this was made against Pertinax by Laetus the Captain of the Guards and those to whom the Sanctimoniousness of this Prince was offensive For Laetus had repented himself of his Services in having advanced him to the Crown because he had reproved his Conduct in some things Nor were the Soldiers without their Resentments because Pertinax had put to death several in the Business of Falco upon the simple Deposition of one Slave Therefore a Party of Three Hundred Soldiers Pertinax slain of the Guards well equipped assaulted the Palace and killed him The same Day no Heart was found in the Sacrifice at which Pertinax had assisted and in another no Liver Therefore having intended to have gone that Day to the Athenaeum to hear the performances of a Poet but putting it off because of the ominousness of the Sacrifices the Guards that were to attend him had Orders to retire to their Camp whâ—n on a sudden they turned upon the Palace from whence it was not
Papinian said that to accuse the Innocent who had been murdered was in the nature of another Murder But all this however does not very well agree Because it was not for the Captain of the Guards to form the Emperor's Speeches and then it is certain that Papinian was for no other reason killed but as he was a Fautor of Geta. As the Soldiers were hurrying him away to his Execution he said That he should be very imprudent who was the Captain of the Guards after him if he did not severely revenge the Cruelty that was shewn to his place Which was afterwards done For Macrinus his Successor was the Author of the Death of Bassianus and was afterwards himself made Emperor in the Camp whose Son Diadumenus was immediately new named Antoninus Diadumenus to gratify the Soldiers because the name of an Antoninus was so dear to them Bassianus Antoninus Caracallus lived Forty Three Years and reigned Six He was Nobly buried and left a Son who was afterwards called Varius Antoninus Heliogabalus the dear Name of Antoninus being so fixt in the Hearts of Men that it was no more to be removed than that of Augustus from the Person of the Emperor He was a Prince of ill manners and crueller than his too cruel Father He eat and drank freely but was hated by his Servants and by all the Men of the Sword only the Guards The Works which he left His publie Works behind him at Rome were the famous Baths of his own Name in which there is one Room so Curious that the Architects say it is altogether inimitable He left also a Portico of the Name of his Father representing the principal Actions of his Father's Life with his Wars and Triumphs He received the Name of Caracallus from a Garment so called which he first brought up and gave to the People of Rome for a Bounty He repaired the Via Nova which is below his Baths so well that you will scarce find a Street in Rome that is fairer than it He erected stately Temples in all places to the Honour of the Goddess Isis whose Sacrifices he celebrated with much greater Reverence than ever had been used before at Rome His Body was interred in the Sepulchre of the Antoninus's that the same place should receive his Reliques which had given him that Name It is now fit that I should relate how it is said that he came to marry his Mother-in-Law Julia she was very handsome and as she happen'd one day in negligence to discover her Body a little naked Ah Madam said he to â—er I would if I might Sir said she again If you please you can you are an Emperor and to give Laws to all the World and not take them from any He no sooner had understood the sense of those Words but his unbridled Passion led him to resolve upon the accomplishment of the Crime and so he really celebrated those Nuptials with her which His incestuous Marriage were in effect the same as to take to Wife his own Mother and to add Incest with his Mother to the Murder of his Brother It will not be improper here to remark a very picquant thing which was said of him As he had ascribed to himself the Titles in his stile of Germanicus Parthicus Arabicus and Alemannicus because of his Conquests over the Germans and those other Nations Helvius Pertinax the Son of the Emperor Pertinax smiling said His Majesty might be pleased to add Geticus Maximus In which word Geticus there is an equivocation with a double relation to Geta his Brother whom he had killed and with relation to the Goths called Getae whom he had overcome in some running Fights in his passage into the East The Death of Geta was prognosticated by several Prodigies as we shall shew by and by in his own Life which follows In the mean time we shall only observe farther that formerly when the Army had proposed Bassianus Antoninus to march at the Head of them in the place of Severus his Father who was so sick of the Gout that he could not well follow the War Severus was then for putting to death th 〈…〉 his Son Bassianus if the Captains of the Guards had not over-persuaded him against it On the contrary others say that the Captains of the Guards were for punishing Bassianus with Death but that his Father was against it because he was not willing that the foolish Rashness of a young Man should be resented so severely as for his own Father to kill him when the Soldiers rather were the great occasions of the Crime However it is this most cruel Prince Bassianus Antoninus Caracallus who in a word was a Parricide Incestuous an Enemy of his Father Mother and Brother was yet by Macrinus that killed him out of fear of the Soldiers and especially those of the Guards after his Death made a God A Temple was given him and an Order of Priests appointed to serve him Even the Temple of Faustina built by Marcus Antoninus at the Foot of the Mountain Taurus was re-dedicated to him and his Son Antoninus Heliogabalus translated the same again afterwards to either Jupiter Syrius or the Sun or himself but to which of the Three I cannot very well assert THE LIFE OF ANTONINVS GETA BY AELIUS SPARTIANUS Dedicated to the EMPEROR Constantine the Great IMP. CAES. P. SEPT GETA PIVS AVG. IMP. CAES. M. OPEL. SEV MACRINVS AVG M OPEL. ANTONINVS DIADVMENIANVS CAES IMP. CAES. MAVR ANTONINVS PIVS AVG. IMP. CAES. MAVR SEV ALEXANDER AVG. MAXIMINVS PIVS AVG. GERM. P. 318. Vol. 1. His other name of Geta was what he had from either his Father's Brother or from his Grandfather whose names were Geta. There were yet other reasons for the addition of that name of Antoninus to this of Geta. Severus would have had it to be a Rule that all Princes in the time to come should be Entitled Antonini in the same manner as they are Augusti Which was the effect of his great love to the Emperor Marcus Antoninus whose Son he was pleased to call himself and whose Wisdom and the Precepts of his Philosophy he always endeavoured to imitate And not only the effect of his love to that Prince who was an Antoninus but by Adoption but of his Love and Honour also to Antoninus Pius the Successour of Hadrian by reason that it was Antoninus Pius who had preferred him from a Practicer in the Law to be the Keeper of the Exchequer which was a happy Rise to him and which had opened him the way to those great Advantages that afterwards he came to attain unto who thought therefore that he could not borrow a name from any Prince better than from one whose Reign had been so happy nor a name more honourable than that that had already run through four Emperors Being skilful in the Doctrine of Astrology as many of the Africans generally are he said one day because he knew the Nativity of Geta I admire
Wife THE Blessing we have received my dear Wife is above all Estimation but perhaps you may think now that I speak of the Empire which is no such great matter Fortune bestows that upon unworthy Persons often I am made the Father of an Antoninus Thou art become the Mother of an Antoninus O happy we And Fortunate our House Now is our Reign happy and to be highly Renowned The Gods and particularly the good Goddess Juno whom you Worship grant that he may sustain worthily the merit of his Name and that I who am the Father of an Antoninus may also appear worthy of that Honour to all the World By this Letter we see how great an Honour he looked upon it to be that his Son was received by the Name of an Antoninus However this fine Son was killed together with his Father in the Fourteenth Month of their Reigns And it is to be observed that as young and as amiable as he was he was yet one that was very severe upon many Persons beyond his Age witness these two Letters following written to his Father and Mother which as they are Pieces contributing to this History so I have thought fit to insert them here The Emperor the Son to the Emperor his Father I Am apt to think Sir in consequence of my Love and Duty to you that you have not been sufficiently careful of your self in sparing the Accomplices of the intended Revolt whether it is because you hope that your Mercy will make them more your Friends for the future or because they are your old Acquaintants and that therefore you spare them For first of all as they are Persons that have been once exulcerated in their minds against you they can never love you again and then when old Friends forget themselves so as to turn Enemies they make the most cruel Enemies of all Men. To which add what the Army cries Si te nulla movet tantarum gloria rerum Virg. Aen. 4. 274. Ascanium surgentem spes haeredis Iuli Respice cui regnum Italiae Romanaque tellus Debetur If Thirst of Glory cannot push you on Yet pray regard the Fortune of your Son To whom Rome's Empire has been destin'd long You must put them to death if you would expect to live in Safety For if those be spared others will not fail to trouble you as much according to the natural viciousness of Mankind Now whether himself or Caelianus his Master in Rhetorick formed this Letter it shews what a severe young Man he would have been if he had lived The other LETTER to his Mother was this CErtainly my Father the Emperor neither loves you nor himself to spare as he does his Enemies Therefore pray endeavour that Arabianus Thuscus and Gellius be dispatched for fear lest if occasion serve them they do not suffer us to escape them so easily These Letters says Lollius Urbicus in the History that he hath made of his time being betrayed to the Soldiers by his Secretary did Diadumenus the greatest prejudice and cost him his Life For some of them considering that he was but a Youth had been at first for saving him after they had killed his Father But when these Letters were produced and He is slain by the Soldiers read then they killed him also and both their Heads were carried about upon the top of a Javelin Then all the Army agreed to set up Varius Antoninus Heliogabalus being the reputed Son of Bassianus Antoninus Caracallus They say he was a Priest of the God Heliogabalus that is in the Phoenician Language the Sun but certainly the most impure and the most dissolute Man upon Earth and by some Fate sent entirely to dishonour the Roman Empire As there are a great many things to be said of him I shall reserve my self to speak of him in his place THE A. Christi CCXIX. Life and Reign OF THE EMPEROR Varius Antoninus Heliogabalus Dedicated to the EMPEROR Constantine the Great BY AELIUS LAMPRIDIUS VArius Antoninus Heliogabalus passed his Life in a manner which was so very impure that I should eternally excuse my self from committing it to Writing nor should it be known by my hand that ever such a Person was the Emperor of Rome if we had not had a Caligula a Nero and a Vitellius upon the same Throne before him But as we see the same Earth produces as well Poysons as good Grain and is diversified with things which are some wholsome and some hurtful here Vipers and there other Creatures that are tame and good for the Life of Man the prudent Reader will easily make himself an amends for such prodigious Tyrants if he pleases but to read the Reigns of Augustus Vespasian Titus Trajan Hadrian Aâ—toninus Pius and Marcus Antoninus in opposition to them For by the comparison he will perceive the Judgments of the Romans upon the one and the other how that these latter reigned long and ended their days at last with natural Deaths But the others were murdered shamefully dragged branded as Tyrants their Names thought unworthy so much as to be mentioned or not to be mentioned without horror After the Death of Macrinus and his Son the Empire was conferred upon Varius Antoninus Heliogabalus for this reason especially becaused he was the reputed Son of Bassianus Antoninus Caracallus He had been Reason of his Names before a Priest either of Jupiter or the Sun and had taken to himself the Name of Antoninus not only for an Argument of his Birth but because he knew that that Name was so very dear to the World that even the Particide his Father was loved for its sake His other Name from his Grandfather Varia was Varius Then he called himself Heliogabalus from the Name of the God in the Phoenician Language whose Priest he was and when he came to the Empire he was declared an Antoninus and he was the last of the Roman Emperors of that Name His Mother was Semiamira to whom he was so devoted that he did nothing in the Government without her She in the mean time lived in the manner of an impudent Courtezan and pursued her lewdnesses of all sorts in the very Palace For as it was under that Character that formerly Antoninus Caracallus had had commerce with her so the promiscuous Issue her Son might very well also be called Varius if it had been only from thence who after his Father was killed fled it is said for fear of Macrinus into the Temple of the God Heliogabalus as into an Asylum and made his Priesthood there his Protection But thus much as to his Name that holy Name of Antoninus so polluted by this Man but which is however so venerated by you Most Sacred Constantine that your Majesty hath the greatest Honour in the World for the Emperors Antoninus Pius and Marcus Antoninus setting them before you no less than you do Constantius and Claudius for your Royal Imitation whereby you indeed adopt the Virtues of the Antients
about as the Fanatick Priests of that Goddess do amongst whom he officiated every thing that those Priests do so did he till at length he stole off the Venerable Image of the Mother of the Gods and reposed it in the Sacristy of his own God He Celebrated the Feasts of Adonis with all the Mourning and the Tossing the Body which is used in the worship of that God in Syria He imitated Venus weeping and bewailing his loss which was but a presage from himself of his own approaching ruin All the Gods he said were the Servants of his God to whom some were his Chamberlains some his Ushers and others were destin'd to serve him in all sorts of Offices He endeavoured to possess himself of the Statue of the Goddess Diana being the same Sacred Statue which Orestes had stoln out of her Temple in Scythia Taurica and had afterwards reposed it in another Temple Dedicated to her at the City of Laodicea in Asia The same Orestes built a City of his own Name Oresta upon the Bank of the Hebrus in the Country of Thrace which the Emperor Hadrian ordered to be re-called Hadrianople from himself about the time that he City of Adrianople was in his Frenzy when he commanded so many Senators to be killed whom Antoninus on the contrary saving and afterwards bringing them into the Senate when every body had thought them dead he very well deserved to be Entitled as he was the Pious Antoninus And some allay it gave to that Frenzy of Hadrians at that time to tell him That whilst his Majesty was giving his Name to a City it was to be feared that some mad House should take it up Antoninus Heliogabalus offered Sacrifices to Cruel Idolatry his God of young and pretty Boys that were Gentlemens Sons whom he Kidnapped for the purpose over all the Country of Italy and whose Fathers and Mothers were yet living The reason of his choice of such as whose Fathers and Mothers were yet living I cannot understand unless it was this to make the Trouble of their loss so much the more sensible as it reached to both their Parents and that their deaths should be accompanied in the Ears of his God with á more general Lamentation He had all sorts of the Diviners Magicians and Priests of the East with him daily employed in the bloody Works of his Religion in which he encouraged them on thanking the Gods that he was so well supplied with the peculiar Friends as he called them and Servants of theirs and then he pryed himself into the Entrails of the murdered Children and discussed the Victims according to the Rites of the Country from whence this Service came The Largess with which he Caressed the People when he entred upon his Consulship was not little pieces of Money of Gold or Silver cast amongst them nor a Collation of Fruits Wines and the like but he gave them Fat Oxen Camels and Asses to divide amongst them and Slaves to serve them This he said was great and becoming an Emperor and for the Honour of Heliogabalus his God He was very severe upon the memory of Opilius Macrinus but yet worse against his Son for assuming the name of Antoninus he called him a Pretended a Spurious Antoninus and he could not endure to hear him welâ— spoken of nay he obliged some Persons that writ his Life to Slander him with things thaâ— were horrid and intolerable He set up a Publick Bath in the Court which he exposed to the free use of all the World the design whereof was only to see what Men were the besâ— Provided for his use and to take them to himself for those were the Creatures in the World the most in Vogue with him and great Care was used to find them out abouâ— all the Town insomuch as out of the very Water-men In the mean time the Persons who discovered his Practises the most to the World werâ— such especially as had born him Company iâ— the Exercises of his Lusts and had been wearied with his Men that were so Potent anâ— so filthily Hung. His death was a thing begun first to be thought of amongst those of h 〈…〉 own Family Neither could the Soldiers endure to see such a Pest upon the Throne and therefore they all turned their inclinations upon Alexander his Cousin German whom the Senate as it was said had Created Caesar at the death of Macrinus Aurelius Zoticus Magirus His filthiness with Magirus was a very great Favourite unto Heliogabalus All the Principal Officers of the Court respected him as if Magirus was the Husband and Heliogabalus the Wife Magirus the Master and Heliogabalus the Mistress But the Master did so abuse the Tye of the Familiarity which he had with this Mistress that he made a Practise by it of really cheating out of their Money all the World at once Some he threatned some he promised took Money of all and coming out from Heliogabalus His way was Sir I told the Emperor this of you I heard him say this of you to another This will be done about you to a third And yet all false as all these sort of Men do who when admitted to too great a Familiarity with Princes make no scruple to Sacrifice the Reputation of them to their own advantages Let the Princes themselves be bad or good it is the same for so long as either through their Folly or their Innocence they do not perceive the Cheat it is Meat and Drink and Honour and Riches to such as pursue it Heliogabalus perfectly Married this Man and lay with him as his Bride and his word was Vigorously Magirus not bating him so much as the time that Magirus was sick of a Dose that had been palmed upon him by an angry Rival Then he askt the Philosophers and the gravest Persons about him whether they in their Youths had not done the same thing Which he expressed in the lewdest words for he never spared for those and acted the Postures upon his Fingers without any sense of Shame to be seen and heard by all the Company He made his infranchised Slaves the Presidents Lieutenants and Proconsuls of the Provinces The Commands in the Army and all Places of Honour he polluted with baseborn and profligate Men. When he kept the Feast of the Vintage to which he had invited several of the Nobility and Gentry and the Company being repos'd began impudently His hâ—rrid Immodesty to ask first the Gravest of them one after another Was be ready for the Exercises of Venus They blushing at the Question he cryed He Blushes that 's enough his silence gives consent and then he told them of his own Performances and how he was ready to do all things for his part without seeking a Veil for his Modesty The Graver Men blushing still and saying nothing because either their Age or their Honour refuted such Stuff he proceeded to apply his Discourses to the young Fry to whom he uttered all
in Gallia Encamped not far from some Town there whether it was that Maximin set the Soldiers upon him as some say or whether it was the disaffected Tribunes amongst the Gauls whom Alexander Severus Disbanded for he Disbanded whole Legions there with the same severity as before he had done in the East I know not but a Party of Soldiers broke in on a sudden upon him and killed both him and his Mother and Maximin was immediately proclaimed Emperor The Age of Alexander Severus who was otherwise an excellent Prince was one thing that might be liable to create in some measure a Contempt of him Maximin who never was any thing but a He is proclaim'd Emperor Soldier and had not yet been a Senator was Proclaimed Emperor by the Army without any Decree of the Senate and his Son of whom hereafter was given him to be his Colleague Now Maximin was always so Wise that he not only Commanded his Soldiers by his Authority but he made them love him very much by the Rewards and Advantages that he gave them He never injured them in their Pay He never Mustered Smiths or any sort of Artisans as others do in his Army He often took them to Hunt with him But together with these Vertues he was so Cruel that he was called by all the Names of His Cruelty a Cyclops a Busyris a Sciron a Phalaris a Typhon and a Gyges The Senate dreaded him so that their Wives and Children made Prayers in the Temples in publick and in private that he might never see the City of Rome They had heard how in his method of Reforming the Discipline of the Army some he Crucified some he stuffed into the Bodies of Beasts newly killed some he cast alive to Wild Beasts some he Cudgel'd to death and all this without distinction of the Quality of the Person They feared he would pretend to Reform the State the same way which yet is not a Course for a Prince to take who designs to be Loved But it was Maximin's Persuasion that the Empire was not to be held by him without Cruelty He suspected that the Nobility would contemn his Low and Barbarian Birth He remembred that he had been slighted at Rome formerly even by the Servants of some of the Nobility who would not admit him to see them And as the Consciousness of an Ignoble Mind is of strange Effect he thought that as many as were privy to his Base Original would use him accordingly still All such therefore he Killed and amongst those some that had been his Friends and had given him often several things in Charity and Pity to the poor Condition he was in at his first coming to Rome Never was any thing on the Earth crueller than he He thought himself almost Immortal he scarce thought he could be Killed he confided so much upon his Strength and the Magnitude of his Body and his Parts But as an Epigram said which was made upon him in relation to this He that cannot be killed by one is to be killed by many As Great as an Elephant is an Elephant is to be Killed As Strong as a Lion is a Lion is to be Killed As Strong as a Tyger is a Tyger is to be Killed So he that does not fear to be killed by One Man let him have a care however of a Number This Epigram was repeated by a Mimick in his presence from the Stage But being repeated in Greek which was a Language which he who was a Thracian and a Barbarian did not understand and not being told the true meaning of it it pass'd upon him He retained no Persons of the Nobility about him He Reigned like another Spartacus or an Athenion with a Court as it were of Mobb All the Ministers of Alexander Severus he put to Death after several ways He envied the Designs of that Prince and his Disposition of things and the Suspicion which he had of every one who had served or loved him provoked Maximin to be more and more Cruel This being his way to Live and Reign like a Fury he was made yet far more Cruel and Inhumane by a Conspiracy against him of one A Conspiracy against him Magnus a Consul who with a number of Soldiers and Centurions had laid a design to Kill him and to Translate the Empire upon himself The Manner that they pretended to take to do it was this Maximin having made a Bridge to pass the River into Germany the Conspirators who were to accompany him after he was Landed were to break the Bridge and Kill him and cry he was killed by an Ambuscade of the Enemy In the mean time Magnus should take upon him the Empire It is true Maximin as he perfectly understood the matter of War was fond of that War against the Germans He knew his being a good Soldier was the occasion that he was made Emperor and he was ambitious to keep up the Reputation which he had and to outshine particularly the Glory of the late Prince whom he had Murdered He kept his Men daily to their Exercises when he was Emperor as he did when he was a Tribune He put himself in Arms at the Head of them and with his Hand and the movements of his Body taught them a great many things But whether or no that Plot of Magnus to Kill him was real or whether it was a Fiction of Maximin's own for an opportunity to increase the matter of his Cruelty I cannot say However it was he put to Death above four thousand Men upon it and was not satisfied neither with all that Blood He put them all to Death without Informer without Accuser appearing against them without Tryal without any Defence of themselves and all their Estates he Confiscated The Emperor Alexander Severus had taken into his Army a Body of Auxiliaries of Parthians Mesopotamians and others out of the East who being excellent Archers he judged would be of great Use in the War against the Germans These Archers upon the Death of that The Revolt of the Auxiliaries Prince whom they very much loved Revolted from Maximin because they would not be persuaded but that Maximin had been the Author of this Murder They set up Titus Quartinus who was a Captain of their own to be their General and their Emperor They put upon him the Purple and adorned him with all the State of a Person in such a Place Titus complyed with them in it but it was against his Will But being afterwards killed in his Tent as he lay asleep by one of his own Men called Macedon who envied him only because he was Preferred before him and his Head being brought to Maximin this Defection ceased and Maximin at first gave Thanks to Macedon for the Service which he had done him but afterwards he hated him as a Traytor and put him to Death Still this Defection served to increase the Tyranny of Maximin as a Beast when he is Wounded frets and rages so
and Reign OF THE EMPEROR Gordianus the Second BY JULIUS CAPITOLINUS GORDIANUS the Second was the Son of the precedent Gordianus the Proconsul of Africa and was set up Emperor by the Africans and by the Senate of Rome at the same time and in conjunction with his Father He was one whose Ingenuity and Carriage of himself gave him as great a Reputation as did the Honour of his Birth by which he was related to the several Noble Families of the Scipio's that of Pompey the Great the Antoninusses and the Antonies His Mother was Fabia Orestilla a Great Grand-daughter of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus which was the reason that he was Registred in his Infancy by the Name of Antoninus Gordianus But yet Gordianus was the Name which adhered to him and which he was commonly called by He was his Father's first Child In his Studies he always followed the best and gravest Opinions He was very Handsome His Character when young of an extraordinary Memory and a kind and sweet Disposition insomuch that at School when a Child if he saw some of the Boys beaten he could not forbear to cry for them His Master was Serenus Sammonicus who extreamly loved him and bequeathed to him at his death a Library which consisted of Sixty two Thousand Books being the whole Library of another Serenus Sammonicus the Father who was put to death under the Emperor Caracalla The same of which Treasure of Learning extolled Gordianus to the Heavens and gave him a great Name amongst the Ingenious The Emperor Heliogabalus made him a Quaestor to whom he was known by being a young Man that loved Pleasure but yet without Scandal and without ever bearing part in the infamous Luxury of that Prince Alexander Severus made him a Praetor for the Affairs of the City of Rome He discharged himself so well and gained so great an Esteem that he presently after was made a Consul though his Father had come late to that Honour After which either in the time of the same Alexander Severus or in that of Maximin he was sent into Africa as Lieutenant to his Father the then Proconsul there where what Fortune befel him we have already recounted under the Life of his Father He loved Wine but he always had it Infused And in his advanc'd Age. either with Roses or Mastick or Wormwood or other things that pleased his Palate He eat very little He had dined and supped as it were in a moment Women he passionately loved It is said he kept two and twenty Concubines by all which he had three or four Children a-piece He was called the Priamus of his Age for the multitude of his Issue In Drollery instead of Priamus they many times called him a Priapus He spent his time betwixt the Gardens the Baths and the delightful Groves Nor did his Father Correct him but often said That he would one day die a Great Man For as freely as he lived he did not depart from that Vigor which was natural to him nor from the Virtues of Persons of Honour He was always amongst the most Illustrious Company and ready with the best of his Judgment to serve either the Publick or his Friend Therefore the Senate were very glad to Proclaim him Emperor together with his Father and placed the Publick Hopes in him He was just in his Dress beloved by his Domesticks and all that belong'd to him Aelius Cordus says that he never would consent to Marry But on the contrary we are told by Dexippus that Gordianus the Third was his Son who afterwards whilst he was a Youth was advanced to the Empire in conjunction with Maximus and Balbinus When his Father some time consulted an Astrologer about the Nativity of him it was answer'd they say That he would be both the Son and the Father of an Emperor and an Emperor himself Gordianus laughing at it as a Jest the Astrologer shew'd him his Horoscope and undertook to prove out of the Books of the Antient Masters of the Art of Astrology that what he said was true He told him the Day the Manner the Place of the Death of both the First and Second Gordianus and justified himself with the greatest obstinacy All which Gordianus the Elder reflecting upon when he saw himself an Emperor he even when there was no reason for him to be afraid of any thing spoke very often both of his own and his Son's Death and applied to his Son those Verses of Virgil Ostendent terris hunc tantum c. i. e. This Man will only to the World be shown lamenting his Condition that he was not long to live We have several Discourses and also Verses of Gordianus the Second extant which at this day are often remembred amongst his Friends They are not Great nor yet Mean but of a middle Character and such as bespeak him to have been an Ingenious Man of a Luxuriant Wit and negligent of the Parts that Nature gave him He was a great lover of Fruit and Herbs In his other Diet he was very sparing but he was always eating some New Fruit or other A great lover of all Cold things in the Summer he eat little else He was Gross and much inclined to be Fat and therefore he the rather chose this Diet to keep himself down This is what I have judged worthy to be remarked concerning the Second Gordianus For as for his domestick Pleasures and other petty things of no Observation which are with so little judgment recollected by Junius Cordus let any Person who is desirous to know them read him who tells you how many Coats and Cloaks every Prince had what Courtiers how many Servants the knowledge whereof signifies nothing Nor do I think that it is the part of an Historian to trouble himself but about things which it is either good to follow or good to avoid I shall only add a Passage which I find in Vulcatius Terentianus who hath writ a History of his Time He says that Gordianus the First was the Reverse of Augustus Caesar he spoke so like him and he resembled him so much in his Face and Stature That the Second Gordianus was very like Pompey the Great But as to this I know not what to say Because it is denied that Pompey was Fat or Gross And he further says That Gordianus the Third whose Statues we have now extant resembled the Asiatick Scipio This I thought was Remarkable and more for their Honour than to be wholly pass'd in silence THE A. Christi Ccxxxviii Life and Reign OF THE EMPEROR Gordianus the Third BY JULIUS CAPITOLINUS AFter the death of the two preceding Gordiani as on the one hand the Senate whom that News had struck with a great Consternation and put them very much in fear of Maximin elected out of the twenty Persons appointed for the defence of Italy Maximus and Clodius Balbinus to be Emperors so on the other the People and the Guards made it their Request that
Gordianuâ— the Third a Youth of about Eleven or some say Thirteen or as Junius Cordus says Sixteen Years of Age might be created and declared the Caesar that is the Person who should next succeed to the Empire who therefore accordingly was brought to the Senate and invested He is declar'd Emperor with that Quality with the usual Solemnity He was the Grandson of the Emperor Gordianus the First but whether by a Daughter as many say or by his Son Gordianus the Second who died with him in Africa as Dexippus thinks I cannot determine His Mother Educated him Maximus and Balbinus Reigned two Years and then were kill'd in a Mutiny of the Soldiers The two Maximins were extinct before So there remaining without any Competitor Gordianus the Third who had for the two years last past been honoured with the Quality of the Caesar the Soldiers the People Senate and all the Country with great Joy and Alacrity and with extraordinary demonstrations of their Affection agreed to proclaim him Emperor Loving him in Memory and for the Merits of his Grandfather Gordianus the First and of his Father or otherwise his Uncle Gordianus the Second who both of them took up Arms for the Senate and the People of Rome against Maximin and lost their lives in their service by the Fortune of that War It was look'd upon as a Sign That Gordianus the Third would not be a Prince of a long Reign that such a great Eclipse of the Sun happen'd about that time that the Day was turn'd into Night and you could see to do nothing without Candles He entertained the City of Rome with Sports and Pastimes upon his coming to the Empire not only the more to ingratiate himself with them but to make them also forget the Heats and Divisions which they had had amongst themselves Then an Insurrection commenc'd in Africa headed by Sabinianus in the Year when Venustus and Sabinus were the Consuls Gordianus Armed the President of Mauritania against that Revolter who besieged and reduced him to that extremity that all his Party left him and came and acknowledged their fault After this he commenced a War with Persia the Emperor himself which was his second Consulship and Pompeianus being then Consuls The young Emperor before he went to that War married His Father-in-Law the Daughter of Mysitheus who as he was a Person of great Erudition and rare Eloquence Gordianus thought him not unworthy to be admitted into his Alliance and presently he made him his Captain of the Guards This strengthen'd his Reign Himself was for his Age very Sage and very Advised but being also assisted with the Counsels of so excellent a Father-in-Law nothing was acted by him that was puerile or despisable nor was he made a Property of by the Eunuchs and Servants of the Court which he was but too much subject to be before this Match whilst he continued under the Regency of his Mother We have a Letter of his Father-in-Law written to him and another from him written to his Father-in-Law in which are contained great Marks of the Reformation of the Times by virtue of the Counsels of Mysitheus The Letters are these To my Lord and Emperor my Son Mysitheus his Father-in-Law and Captain of the Garuds IT is a Pleasure to me to observe the Alteration of the Times since every thing was bought and sold by the Eunuchs and such as pretended themselves to be Friends but were really the greatest Enemies to your Majesty I am glad that that Blot is removed from your Reign Your Majesty is your self also very glad of it which I am the more pleased to see because it shews that howsoever badly Affairs have been before managed the fault was not in you my Son Nor was it to your mind that the Commands in the Army were disposed of through the favour of the Eunuchs or that Persons were denied the Rewards due to their Services or that they were either saved for Money and Affection when they deserved to die or put to death when they deserved to live It was not by your fault that the Treasury was exhausted but all these things lie at the door of those who were continually Plotting and entring into Cabals to deceive you whereby they prevented the Access of Men of Virtue and Honesty to your Person prepossessing you against such and on the contrary insinuating others into your favour as vitious as themselves through whose and their own Methods together they made a Prey of you The Gods be thanked that your Majesty is sensible of all this and that you have taken it into your Consideration to Reform the State I am happy in being the Father-in-Law of so good a Prince A Prince who examines into and who will know all things and who hath banished from him those by whom before he was made an Auction of and sold to whosoever offered most The Emperor Gordianus to Mysitheus my Father and my Captain of the Guards BUT that the Almighty Gods continue to Protect the Roman Empire the Slaves the Eunuchs would ere this have even Ruined that and me I now see very well that Faelicio was not a fit Person for the Command of the Guards which I gave him nor Serapammo to be trusted with the Fourth Legion I am sensible not to reckon up all Particulars that I have done many things otherwise than in Prudence I ought and I thank the Gods that through your Insinuation who are entirely Just and True to me I understand my Error and that I know the things which have been before shut up from me Maurus imposed upon me and by a Confederacy with Gaudianus Reverendus and Montanus at his Witnesses to confirm what he said in order to win upon my belief he either commended or discommended Persons to me as he pleased My Father I would desire you to search into the Truth of things An Emperor is in a miserable Condition that hath the Truth hid from him For since he cannot walk abroad to examine what he would himself of necessity he must take up with such as he hears and what comes to him upon the Credit of others By these two Letters it is easie to see that this young Prince was much amended and rectified in his Conduct by the Advices of Mysitheus The Gravity and the Uprightness of that Man had such an influence upon him that he made Gordianus Famous who otherwise might have pass'd his time in great Obscurity without any thing but his Quality to recommend him to Posterity An Earthquake happened in the Reign of this Emperor so terrible that whole Cities with their People were swallowed up in it On which occasion a great many Sacrifices were celebrated in all Parts of Rome and generally all over the World The Books says Aelius Cordus of the Sibyls were consulted and all the Ceremonies being performed that seemed to be prescribed therein then this universal Calamity ceased After the Earthquake and in the time of the Consulships
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
Zenobia the Queen of the East to the Emperor Aurelian NO Man ever before you desired what you do by a Letter Bravery is the way to effect whatever is to be done in War You propose my Surrender as if you can be ignorant that the Queen Cleopatra chose her Death rather than to live in whatever Quality under Augustus The Succours of the Persians are on their March to us We expect them daily The Saracens are for us The Armenians are for us The Syrian Robbers have beaten your Army Aurelian already What then will become of you when that Force arrives which is expected by us from all parts Doubtless you will change your Countenance and lay aside that Pride with which you now so absolutely Command me to Surrender as of you were the Conqueror of the Universe Zenobia Dictated this Letter herself in the Syriack Language Nicomachus says that he Translated it out of that Language into the Greek the other Letter of Aurelian was sent in the Greek Aurelian did not Blush when he read Zenobia's Letter but he was Angry and immediately ordered his Army and his Officers upon a General Assault He left nothing undone to reduce her that could be thought upon by a brave Man He Intercepted the Succours which were sent to her from the Persians The Saracen and the Armenian Troops he Beat and partly by his Address and partly by the force of his Arms he brought them over to his own side After many Fights with great difficulty he overcame this most Potent Lady at last who was making her escape upon Dromedaries into Persia when Aurelian sent a Party of Horse after her and took her Prisoner This Victory gave Aurelian the Possession of all the East He had at once Zenobia the Persians the Armenians and the Saracens his Prisoners in which he did not a little Pride himself And then it was that all those fine The Spoils of Zenobia Vestments beset with Jewels which we see in the Temple of the Sun at Rome those Persian Banners with Dragons those Persian Tiara's and a sort of Purple so fine that the like hath never been since seen in the Roman Empire were all taken by Aurelian You may remember that there was in the Temple of the most excellent and most high Jupiter in the Capitol a little Cloak of so very fine a Purple that when the Matrons and Aurelian himself in Person compared with it the Purples which he and they wore it lookt with so Divine a Light that theirs were but like Ashes to it Aurelian and afterwards the Emperors Probus and Dioclesian especially the latter with great care sent into Persia Dyers on purpose to find out how this Purple was made But they could not do it It is an Indian Vermilion they say that Dyes it when it is well prepared But to the Purpose Zenobia being taken all the Army called for Justice upon her Aurelian thought it unhandsome to kill a Woman He put to death several that had been her Abettors in beginning making and continuing the War but for her he reserved her to adorn his Triumph and to make her a Spectacle to the Eyes of the People of Rome Amongst the rest whom he killed the Philosopher Cassius Longinus was much to be lamented He had been Zenobia's Master to teach her Greek that which provoked Aurelian to cut him off was because he knew that it was by his Counsel that Zenobia had dictated that haughty Letter in the Syriack which hath been mentioned here above The Peace of the East being Established Aurelian returned a Conqueror to Europe He gained a Victory in his passage over the Carpi for which the Senate in his absence would have given him the Title of Carpicus but it being a word of an ill and a diminutive sound in comparison with those other of Gothicus Sarmaticus Armeniacus Parthicus and Adiabenicus which denoted him Conqueror of the Goths Sarmatians Armenians Parthians and part of the Assyrians he rejected the Title of Carpicus and immediately sent the Senate word that they might as well call him Carpisculus as Carpicus for he liked the one no better than the other Carpisculus is Latin for a ssort of a Slipper It is rare and a hard thing for the Syrians to keep their Faith No sooner was Aurelian imployed about the Affairs of Europe but the Palmyreni who were so very lately and so The Palmyreni rebel and are severely handled well Beaten broke out into another Rebellion They killed Sandarion whom he had left Governour of Palmyra and six hundred Archers that were in Garrison with him designing to set up one Achilleus a Kinsman of Zenobia for the Empire anew But Aurelian was not so engaged but immediately upon the news he quitted Europe and returned to Palmyra again where he punished them shall I say as they deserved or rather to an excess How severely he used them he confesses himself in this Letter The Emperor Aurelian to Cerronius Bassus WE have had enough of the Blood of the Palmyreni you shall forbid the Soldiers to draw their Swords upon them more We have not spared Women nor Infants nor the Aged nor the Peasants So few as are left will I believe take warning by such a general Correction We must spare those or to whom shall we leave the Town and Country to be Cultivated The Temple of the Sun which is in that Town and which the Officers and others of the third Legion plundered I would have to be restored to the same condition in which it was You will have three hundred pound of Gold out of the Coffers of Zenobia and the weight of 1800 pound of Silver and amongst the Booty the Jewels and Precious Stones of the Queen Out of all these therefore let the Temple be well adorned in which you will do a most grateful service both to the Immortal Gods and me and my self will write to the Senate to desire them to send a Priest to Dedicate the said Temple This Letter shews how fully he had satiated his Cruelty upon them Securer now therefore of the State of the East than ever he returned the second time back to Europe and with his accustomed Bravery he defeated all the Parties of his European Enemies that came in his way He was very active about the Affairs of Thrace and the Publick Good when one Firmus arose in Egypt Firmus quell'd who not setting himself up as an Emperor pretended to make that Province rather a Free-State Aurelian made no delay to oppose this evil Nor did his wonted Success abandon him For he presently recovered Egypt again Gallia continued as yet in its Revolt from the Empire and in the Hands of Tetricus which Aurelian as he was naturally Fierce and full of Designs not being able with Patience to bear he turned his Head to the side of the West where Tetricus weary of Commanding Tetricus yields a Vitious and an Insolent Army yielded both himself and his Army
that now disquiet the State with Civil-War would have Cultivated the Fields or followed Navigation or sought their Employs in the Arts and no more blood shed Ye good Gods in what hath the Roman State offended you so that have taken from us such an Excellent Prince We now run upon Civil-Wars and Arm Brother against Brother and the Son against the Father but well have our Emperors done to Consecrate Probus a God and set up his Image in the Temples and to Celebrate him in the Procession to the Games of the Cirque The Posterity of Probus to avoid Odium or His Posterity withdraw from Rome Envy retired from Rome and Publick Business and placed themselves about the City Verona and the Lakes di Garda and Como and those parts I cannot omit to observe that when an Image of Probus at Verona was so struck with Lightning that the Robe in which he was done changed its Colour the Soothsayers answered thereupon that those of his Family should be all of them one day of great Note in the Senate and come to be raised unto the highest Honours which may perhaps hereafter be but we see nothing of it as yet The Senate received the News of the death of Probus with great displeasure and so did the People But when they heard of the Succession of Carus in his place who though he was a good Man was far distant however from the Merits of Probus and had a Son beside Carinus that had always lived ill both the Senate and the People were struck with a horrour because they apprehended the humour of the Father a little but his wicked Heir much worse This is what we have met with and have thought worthy to be committed to future Memory concerning Probus It remains that we give next a short but a distinct account of Firmus Saturninus Bonosus and Proculus Because it was not fit to mix those four Pretenders to the Empire together with the account of this good Prince Afterwards if my Life serves me I may undertake the History of Carus and his Son FIRMUS IT is very seldom I know that we find that any particular Account is given of such Petit Emperors as Usurping that Name have set up themselves in vain against the Received Prince in some parts or other of the Roman Empire The most that is done is to touch lightly upon them in a word en Passant after the manner with which Suetonius Tranquillus contents himself who is a very Correct and very Candid Writer in relation to Antonius and Vindex Nor do I admire at this in such an Historian as Suetonius to whom it was familiar to love Brevity But why Marius Maximus who is the most Verbose of all Men and who hath not forborn to embarass himself with tedious Accounts of things and to descend even to Fictions and Fables to fill up his History why he hath not been more particular than he is in his Descriptions of Avidius Cassius Claudius Albinus and Pescennius Niger who pretended to the Empire the first against the Emperor Marcus Antoninus the others against Septimius Severus I do not understand On the contrary Trebellius Pollio hath thought fit to be so diligent and so careful in his Collections as to those Princes whether Good or Bad undertaken by him that he hath laid together a separate History of Thirty Pretenders to the Empire who set up themselves in or much about the Times of the Emperors Gallienus and Valerian And in imitation of his Example since I have already passed through the Trouble of the Reigns of Aurelian Tacitus Florianus and that great and singular Prince Probus I am very willing before I proceed to those of Carus Numerian and Carinus who succeeded the next to the Empire not to omit to say something of Firmus Saturninus Proculus and Bonosus who set up themselves in the time of the Emperors Probus and Aurelian You know my dear Bassus what a Dispute we lately had with one who is a great lover of History that is M. Fonteius when he said that Firmus who possessed himself of Aegypt in the time of Aurelian was a Robber and not a Prince Against which I together with me Rufus Celsus Cejonius Julianus Fabius Sosianus and Severus Archontius affirmed that Firmus did both actually wear the Purple as a Prince and had a Coin stamped in his Name whereof some Pieces were produced and also by the Grecian and the Aegyptian Writings it appears that in the Edicts which he published he is remarked by the Title of Emperor The only Reason which Fonteius had to offer against this was That Aurelian did not say in his Edict speaking of Firmus that he had killed a Tyrant or a Pseudo Emperor but that he had deliver'd the State of a Robber As if it could be expected that so Renowned a Prince as Aurelian should have given him any better Name Or as if all great Princes did not call those Robbers who Invade their Crowns and are beaten besides in the Attempt Not but that I remember very well that in the Life of Aurelian I have represented Firmus as one who did not pretend to the Purple as an Emperor For I must confess that when I writ that it was because I had not then the knowledge of all the things concerning him which I have attained to since But to be short Firmus was a Native of the City of Seleucia Several Grecian Writers do give him to another place indeed but that is a mistake into which they are led by this that there are three at the same time of the same Name of Firmus whereof one was the Governour of Aegypt the other a Proconsul and a General on the Frontiers of Africa But this Firmus was a Friend and an Associate of the Lady Zenobia for whom he with the assistance of the Aegyptians took the City of Alexandria and was at length happily defeated by Aurelian and the wonted bravery of that Prince There are many things reported of the Riches of this Firmus It is said that he had the Walls Vast Wealth of Firmus of his House Wainscoted with Squares of Glass fastned by Bitumen and other Medicaments He was the Master of so much of the Manufacture of Paper that he often publickly said he could maintain an entire Army out of only Paper and Glue He entertained a great Friendship with the Blemmyae and the Saracens He sent Ships of Merchandize oftentimes into India He had two Elephant's Teeth ten Foot long with which and two others added to them Aurelian who took them designed to make a Chair wherein to place a Statue of Jupiter in Gold covered with Jewels and a Robe of State and illustrated with Inscriptions Which Statue was to be set up in the Temple of the Sun and to be entitled Jupiter the giver of Good Counsel But Carinus afterwards possessing himself of those Teeth made a Present of them to a certain Lady who used them for the Feet of a Bed
going to meet the Enemy commanded the usual Sacrifices to be offered to the Gods the whole Army to be purged and all the Soldiers to burn Incense which this Legion being Christians refusing they were decimated once that is every tenth Man drawn out and put to death But this could not alter their Principles They were decimated a second time but neither so were they to be removed from their Religion Then they were surrounded by the Army and all slain in their own Camp at a Place called Agaunum in Gallia whither they were retired the distance of eight Miles from the Camp of Maximian but assuring him that excusing them their Religion they were always ready to return unto his Camp again and to Act as bravely as any against the Enemy It was by the Hands and Labours of the Christian Soldiers that Maximian raised those immense Structures of the Baths of Dioclesian at Rome the Baths of his own Name at Carthage the Palace at Aquileia and the Amphitheatre at Verona For he condemned them to any the most servile Offices As he assisted upon the fifteenth of the Kalends of May in the Year 301. at the Games of the Cirque the Populace who knew very well that they could not do any thing to oblige him more cryed Let the Christians be cut off and repeated it twelve times May it please your Majesty let there be no Christians They repeated this ten times Therefore Eugenius Hermogenianus the Captain of the Guards proposed the Matter to the Senate who resolving it in the Affirmative Maximian issued out his Rescript for their Excision directed to Venustianus the day before the Kalends of May. In the next place came out the General Edict of Dioclesian to Abolish the Assemblies of the Christians in all places wheresoever they were to raze their Churches to the ground to burn their Scriptures to secure their Ecclesiasticks to deprive them of all Honours Offices and Liberties and by all the means imaginable to force them to comply to the Worship of the Gods Infinite Numbers upon this in all Parts perished In Aegypt alone 140000 were Martyred and 700000 Banished Columns were set up over all the Roman Empire in the Names of Dioclesian and Maximian and sometimes Dioclesian and Galerius vainly boasting that they had extinguished the Christian Name Whereas on the contrary they had propagated it and confirmed it For the Blood of the Martyrs was the Seed of the Church and the Christians surmounted all this with a Virtue never to be forgotten never to be expressed Dioclesian himself lived to know that his Enterprize was impracticable He fell into a Melancholy quitted the Purple which others have so dearly bought Created Galerius at Nicomedia Emperor in his stead and retired for his own part to the City of Salona in Dalmatia where after a Private Life of 9 Years Death of Dioclesian he died some say he Poisoned himself and the Romans consecrated him a God He had reigned 20 Years and lived to the Age of 68. Maximian at the perswasion of Dioclesian concurred with him in this his last unprecedented Action They both Abdicated the Empire in a day Maximian created in his stead Constantius Emperor at Milan and went and lived a Private Life in the Province of Lucania Maximian and resumes till the Romans perswaded him to resume his Dignity again in order to determine a great Quarrel that was arisen betwixt Maxentius his Son and Severus the Kinsman of Galerius Maximian endeavour'd in like manner to have perswaded Dioclesian to have resumed his former Dignity again also But Dioclesian detested it and said I wish you could see my Gardens that I have Planted with my own hand at Salona you would never have thought this a thing to be proposed to me However Maximian put himself at the Head of an Army and went to the Siege of Ravenna and getting Severus by Treachery within his Power he slew him whose Body was interred afterwards in the Sepulchre of Gallienus upon the Appian Way 9 Miles from Rome Quitting the Army when this Work was done because he was not overwelcome to Command it longer he visited Dioclesian at Salona and then went into Gallia where he matched his Daughter Fausta unto the Emperor Constantine the Son of Constantius by Helena who had succeeded to the Powers of his Father But yet as he was at Treves it was found that he practised his Arts upon the Soldiers with a design if he could to expel Constantine and possess himself of the Empire a-new Constantine was advertised of it by Fausta and pursuing him as far as to Marseilles he besieged him took him and ordered him to be Strangled and his Body was interred at His Death Milan He had reigned 18 Years and lived to the Age of 60. He was born at Sirmish in Sclavonia of mean Parents His Wife was Eutropia a Syrian Woman by whom he had Issue Maxentius and Fausta He was a very Rough Stern and Barbarian-like Man but a great Soldier and a faithful Friend to Dioclesian and one that had been his old Companion in Arms. And he was Incontinent and Treacherous THE A. Christi CCCIV. Lives and Reigns OF THE EMPERORS Flavius Constantius Chlorus AND Galerius Maximianus Armentarius BY J. BERNARD THERE is the less to be spoken of these two Princes in this place because a great part of their Actions hath been represented already in the Account of the Emperors fore-going under whom they served and who advanced them successively to the Dignity first of Caesars and then of Emperors Therefore I shall only here take notice that at the same time that they were created Caesars they were obliged to put away their Wives to whom they were already married and to re-marry for a Tye of Affinity into the Families of Dioclesian and Maximian Constantius dismissed himself from Helena by whom he had had Constantine who was afterwards the Emperor Constantine the Great and he remarried to Theodora who was Daughter-in-Law to Maximian In like manner Galerius re-married to Valeria who was the Daughter of Dioclesian but she did not live long with him and to consecrate her Memory to futurity after her Death her Father imposed her Name on a part of Pannonia which he called the Province of Valeria and also he gave her Name to a City situated upon the Banks of the Danube Constantius was the Son of a Daughter of Crispus who was the Brother of the Emperor Claudius He was created the Caesar properly to Maximian to whom he succeeded in the Government of the West and Galerius was the Caesar properly to Dioclesian to whom he succeeded in the Empire of the East But as Constantius was a Prince endowed with all the fine and good Qualities in the World it is certain that he neither when he was a Caesar not when Emperor dipped his Hands in the Blood of the Christians which all the other Three laboured to spill with so much greediness He could not indeed
208 Expedition into Great Britain 210 His Wall there built 211 Death Febr. 4. CARACALLA Ann. Christi  212 GETA killed Febr 5. And Papinian 213 His Journey into Gallia 214 Banishes the Senate from Rome 215 Marries his Mother-in-Law 216 Commits a vast Slaughter in Alexandria 217 His Death April 8. OPILIUS MACRINUS Ann. Christi  218 COncludeth a Peace with the Parthians  Overcome and killed HELIOGABALUS Ann. Christi  219 ARrives at Rome 221 Adopteth Alexander Severus 222 Death March 6. ALEXANDER SEVERUS Ann. Christi  225 MInistry of Ulpian under him Finishes the Baths of Commodus and Caracalla 226 Ulpian killed 230 Expedition against Artaxerxes 232 Taurinus executed 233 Cashiers a Legion 234 Triumphs Sept. 25. 235 His Death March 18. A CHRONOLOGY TO THE Second Volume Ann. Christi  235 MAximin lays waste Germany 236 The Gordiani set up in Africa 237 Maximus and Balbinus set up by the Senate  Siege of Aquileia  Death of the Maximins 238 The Death of Maximus and Balbinus 240 Revolt of Sabinianus against Gordianus the Third 241 The Marriage of Gordianus the Third 242 His Expedition into the East 243 Death of Mysitheus 244 Gordianus the Third Deposed and Killed 250 The Philips Overcome and Slain 251 Valerian Elected Censor Octob. 27. Death of the Decii  252 of Gallus and Volusianus 253 of Aemilian 254 Valerian Associates Gallienus with him in the Empire 259 Valerian taken Prisoner by the Persians 260 The Revolts of Macrianus Ingenuus Balista Valens Piso and others of the Thirty Tyrants 261  262  263  263 Odenatus Absolute in the East 264 Expedition of Gallienus against Posthumius 265 Death of Odenatus 268 of Gallienus March 21. The Goths and other Barbarians lay wast the Roman Empire  269 Expedition of Claudius against them 270 Death of Claudius Feb. 5.  of his Brother 271 The Libri Sybillini Consulted by the order of Aurelian 273 Zenobia taken Prisoner by Aurelian  Tetricus surrenders to him 274 Aurelian Triumphs 275 His Death Jan 29. Tacitus Elected by the Senate after an Inter-regnum of six Months Sept. 25.  276 His Death Apr. 13.  Death of Florianus 277 Expedition of Probus into Gallia 278 against the Almains 281 Revolt of Saturninus 282 Revolts of Proculus and Bonosus  Death of Probus Nov. 3. 284 Death of Carus and Numerianus  Succession of Dioclesian 285 Carinus Defeated and Slain  Maximian Created Caesar and sent into Gallia 286 Revolt of Carausius  Maximian Created Emperor  Edict against the Christians 287 Expedition of Dioclesian into Armenia  Edict against the Manichees 288 Germany laid wast by Maximian  The Goths Repulsed by Dioclesian  Revolts of Achilleus and the Quinquegentiani 290 Dioclesian and Maximian meet at Milan 291 Constantius and Galerius Created Caesars 292 Dioclesian in Egypt  Carausius Killed  Revolt of Alectus 293 Victory of Galerius in Pannonia 294 Defeat of Achilleus 295 Great Britain recovered to the Empire  The Quinquegentiani reduced 296 Galerius defeated by the Persians 297 Regains his Honour  As likewise Constantius  The Thebaean Legion Massacred 298 Dioclesian Adored  His Baths begun upon 301 Dioclesian and Maximian Triumph  Rescript of Maximian against the Christians 302 Edict of Dioclesian against the Christians 304 Dioclesian and Maximian Abdicate the Empire 306 Death of Constantius in Great Britain  Severus and Maximin Created Caesars 307 Maximian takes and slays Severus  The Marriage of Constantine and Fausta 309 Death of Maximian 310 Licinius Created Emperor 311 Death of Galerius 313 Death of Dioclesian INDEX TO THE Second Volume A. AChilleus 343 344. Acholius 209. Aegyptians 158 186 307. Aelius Cordus 7. Aelius Lampridius 274. Aelius Sabinus 35. Aemilian 97 112 158. Aera of the Martyrs 340. African Revolt 15. Agaunum 348. Alans 5. Alectus 343. Alexander Severus 8 29. Alexandria 308 344. Almus 294. Amandus 341. Annius Severus 41. Apollo 23. Apollonius Tyanaeus 221. Aquiloia 23 35 348. Aradion 282. Argunthis 69. Arrius Aper 329. Asclepiodotus 341. Aurelian his Extraction 197. Personage 200. Exploits being a private Man ibid. Discipline 201. Honour done to him 209. Adoption 211. Declared Emperor 213. His Marcomannick War 214. Extreme Severity 218. Severity and Mercy 220. Conquests 221 223 229 230. Triumph 231. Death 234. Publick Managements 233 237. Character 235 244. Munificence 247. Aurelius Apollinaris 328. Aureolus 110 113 145 180. Ausburgh 234. B. BAlbinus his Character 81. Declared Emperor ibid. Jealousie 88. Death 89. Balbus Cornelius Theophanes 81. Balista 111 154. Bastarnae 293. Blemmyae 292. Bologna 173. Bonosus his Extraction 312. Ability at Drinking 313. Death ibid. Britain 344. C. CAllicrates Tyrius 198. Calphurnia 172. Candidus 348. Capellianus 20 51. Caracallus 34. Carausius 341 343. Carinus his Enormous Vices and Luxury 332 333. Death 335. Carpi 228. Carus his Birth 321. Esteem with Probus 324. Persian Expedition 325. Death ibid. Victories 327. Games 335. Carthage 348. Cassius Longinus 228. Cecropius 125. Celsus 165. Censorinus 173. Christians 308. Christian Bishops and Presbyters 308. Cicero 38. Circessum 72. Claudius his Elevation to the Empire 124 125. Elogium 176. Honours done to him 178 179 194. Victories over Aureolus 180. The Barbarians 181 182 184. His Death 187. Family 188. The Opinion of several Emperors of him 189. Claudius Eusthenius 335. Constantine 344 351. Constantinople 115 116. Constantius his Descent 124. Presidentship of Dalmatia 334. Created Caesar 334 343. Reduces Great Britain 343. Exploits with the Germans 345. Created Emperor 350. Coptos 292. Cornelius Tacitus 262. Coyners 236. Crispinus 23. Crispus 188. Ctesiphon 119 326. Curius Fortunatianus 79. Cyriades 132. D. DAcia 238. Decii 96. Dexippus 124. Diana 114. Dioclesian his Character by Vopiscus 329. Kills Aper 330. Reign fore-told ibid. Great Expressions 243 336. Name and mean Original 339. Proclaimed Emperor 329 340. Clemency 341. Creates Maximian Caesar and Emperor 342. Pride 346. Triumph 346. Baths 348. Edict against the Christians 349. Abdication ibid. Death 350. Dioclesian Persecution 340 347 349. Drinking 305 313. E. EArthquake 63 113 Eclipse 59. Edict against the Manichâ—â—s 346. Edict against the Christians 347 349. Emissa 111 223. Ennius 183. Eunuchs 61. Exuperius 348. F. FAbilius 30. Fabius Ciryllianus 322. Fabius Marcellinus 274. Fausta 351. Firmus his Revolt 230 302 303. Birth 303. Vast Wealth ibid. Personage 304. Bodily Strength ibid. Death 305. Florianus 261 2â—9 French 307. Furius Placidus 211. G. GAlerius created Caesar 343. His Military Atchievments 335 344. Created Emperor 350. Gallienus I. The Revolts under him 109 114. His Dissoluteness 111. Peace with Aureâ—lus 113. The Misfortunes of his times 114 War with Posthumius 112 116. Profound Negligence 115. Decennial Games 116. Epithalamius made by him 121. His Wit 122. Death 125. Character ibid. Horrid Luxury 126. Cruelty 141. Gallienus II. 129. Gallus Antipater 180. Games 335. Gargilius Martial 274. Gordianus I. His Extraction 37. Studies and Munificence 38. Proconsul of Africa 40. Forced to
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