he was declared Emperor several things with his own Hand and amongst the rest he assured them of this That the Blood of no Man who was an honest Man should ever be spilt by him neither should he be touch'd in his Fortunes or Honour He assured them of this upon his Oath and not only then but he repeated the same to them at other times He sent for Aelianus Casperius together with He punishes the old Mutineers such of the Soldiers of the Guards as had mutined against Nerva as though it were upon some Business to employ them But he did not suffer their Crime and the Murders which they had committed to pass unpunished for he put them to Death When he came to Rome he altered several things for the greater Good of the Publick and in the Favour of Persons who had deserved well He shewed himself particularly careful of the Cities of Italy He settled Alms and Pensions towards the Maintenance of Children of poor Families and did a great deal of Good of that nature Plotina his Empress at her first entrance His Empress into the Imperial Palace at Rome turned herself upon the Steps to the People and said I go in here the same as I would wish my self to come out again and through her whole Reign she preserved her esteem with a Conduct which was without Reproach After some stay at Rome Trajan undertook an Expedition against the People of Dacia unto which he was provoked by the Proceedings of that People who had augmented their Forces and were become insolent the Money besides which was paid to them every Year and with which the Romans bought their Obedience was a Burther that Trajan was willing to throw off Decebalus the King of Dacia was sufficiently The Dacian War apprehensive of a War made upon him under the Conduct of a Prince so formidable He was sensible that he had another Force and another Person to deal with than when he had overthrown Domitian For Trajan was a Prince with whom the Roman State intirely accorded A Prince that excelled in Justice Character of Trajan Gallantry and Integrity of Life Strong in Body In the Forty second Year of his Age when he began his Reign In the full Maturity of his Mind Past the Rashness of Youth and not yet arrived to any thing of the feebleness of old Age. He was one who envied no Man and disobliged no Man All such as he found were really deserving he esteemed and preferred The Estates of Men no less than their Lives remained untouch'd by him If he spent much Money upon his Wars he spent much also to adorn the Times of Peace This is seen in the Roads Ports and publick Edifices which are his and which are great and necessary Works As he was by Nature of a Temper to appear in what he did Great and Magnanimous he rebuilt the Cirque which was decay'd much larger than it was before and more Beautiful He wrote an Inscription upon it to signify that he His Inscription on the Cirque had done it so to make it worthy to receive the People of Rome He desired rather to be loved than Adored He was affable to the People and respectful to the Senate All loved him None dreaded him but the Enemy He Hunted he Feasted with his Ministers Visited their Offices Jested with them Many times sate amongst them in the fourth Place came to their Houses without a Guard and made his Conversation pleasant Tho' he was not one who was studied in all Parts of Learning yet he acquitted himself in that respect very well every thing he did was Excellent I know that he was given to love Boys and to Drink and had he been guilty of any thing in either respect that is Base he would have been to be blamed But in Drinking he went not to excess and as to his love of the Boys he forced or injured no one He loved War yet when he had adjusted Affairs and weakened the Enemy and increased his Alliances he was satisfied No such thing ever befel him as is commonly happens to others that command Armies that is for the Soldiers to Mutiny and be Insolent This was a Happiness owing to the Excellency of his Conduct and therefore if the King of Dacia feared him it was not without reason As he was upon his March against the Enemy and near the place where they lay some body had pretended to cut upon a large Mushroom which was brought to him with words in Latin signifying That others of his Allies and particularly the Byrrhi who bordered upon Dacia advised him to make a Peace with the Enemy and retire But yet this did not hinder but He fights the Enemy he began the Fight in which many of the Enemy were killed and many of his own Men were wounded to bind up whose Wounds he did not spare to tear his own Cloaths into Rags for Binders to give them and for others of his Men that were killed he built an Altar and ordered that there should be Sacrifices every Year offered thereupon in their Honour He pursued his Blow directing his March over the Hills and Mountains from one to another not without great danger till he came up to the Capital City of Dacia whilst Lucius employed the Enemy on another side and killed and took great Numbers of them Then Decebalus sent to Trajan to desire Peace by some of his chief Officers who Decebalus desires Peace coming into his Presence laid down their Arms and prostrated themselves upon the Ground before him and said That Decebalus did above all things covet the Honour to come and confer with him in Person being ready on his Part to receive all his Commands But if this was otherwise to be resolved on he desired that some Persons might be sent to him with Powers to Treat a Peace Suras and Claudius Livianus the Captain of the Guards were sent from Trajan upon this Subject who were met by others on the side of Decebalus But nothing being concluded because Decebalus refused to appear Trajan took his Castles and therein his Arms Artillery and Stores together with a Roman Standard which had been lost formerly under Fuscus A Sister of Decebalus fell at the same time a Prisoner into the Hands of Maximus and a strong Town in the Country was taken by the same All which coming upon the heels of one another Decebalus recollected himself again and intirely complied Decebalus submits with the Conditions that were offer'd him He promised to deliver up his Arms Artillery the Artificers that made them and the Deserters that had run over to him To dismantle his Fortresses retire from the Land that he had taken from his Neighbours and have the same Friends and Enemies with the People of Rome To entertain no Deserters and to take no Soldiers into his Service out of Places in the Dominions of the Romans because most of his best Men were such
hath exposed a Hundred Lions together at one Shew His behaviour towards his Friends in his Reign was just the same as before when he was a private Person and neither they not his Servants whom he manumitted pretended to make any Gain to themselves of their Interest in him particularly he was very strict with the Latter He was much delighted with His Recreations the Diversions of the Comedians and in Fishing Hunting Walking and Talking with his Ministers to whose Entertainments he went and sometimes to the Feasts of the Vintage He gave Honours and Recompences in Money in the Provinces to the Rhetoricians and the Philosophers The Speeches which are extant under his Name are said by many to have been of the Composition of another but Marius Maximus says they are truly his own He made Entertainments for his Friends in particular and in publick He never Sacrificed by a Proxy unless he was Sick When he desired any Honour for himself or his Sons he did all things as a private Candidate in the same Case He dined with his Ministers many times at their Houses He went one time to see the House of Omulus where admiring the Porphyry-Pillars which he had and asking him from whence he procured them Omulus said When you came Sir into a Strangers House you are to be both Dumb and Deaf He took this patiently as he did a great many other Jests of the same Person He made divers Laws in which he served His Laws himself of the best Lawyers of his time who were Vinidius Verus Salvius Valens Volusius Metianus Ulpius Marcellus and Jabolenus He put an end to whatever Seditions in any Part arose not by Force and Cruelty but by the Modesty and the Gravity of his Judgments He prohibited the burying of the Dead within the City He limited the Expences of the Games of the Gladiators He facilitated things for the convenience of Travelling with all the Care he could He gave Reasons for every thing he did either to the Senate or in his Edicts He died in his Seventieth Year but was His Death as much lamented then as if it had been in the flower of his Age And the manner of his Death they say was this he had eaten with great Appetite at Supper of the Cheese which is made upon the Alps but he brought it up again in the Night and the next Day was taken with a Fever the third Day being worse he recommended the Empire and the Care of his Daughter unto Marcus Antoninus in the presence of the Court. Then he ordered the Golden Image of Fortune which always stands in the Emperor's Bed-Chamber to be removed out of his Room into that of Marcus Antoninus Then he gave the word to the Tribune which was Equanimity and turning himself as it were to sleep he died at his own Seat at Laurium He was light-headed in his Fever at which times all his Discourse was concerning the State and the Kings who had given him an occasion of Displeasure He left his Paternal Estate to his Daughter and Legacies by his Will to all his Domesticks He was tall and graceful but being apt to His Personage stoop a little in his old Age he then wore a pair of Bodice on purpose to keep himself strait In a morning when he grew in years before he was visited he eat a little dry Bread for his Health He spoke a little broad but yet agreeably enough The Senate made him a God in which all People were forward to concur with them because his Goodness Clemency Wit and Sanctimony were universally esteemed They decreed him all the Honours which had ever been bestowed upon the best Princes They appointed him an Order of Priests of his own Name a Temple and the Honour of the Games of the Cirque He was absolutely the only one of all the Emperors who lived without having ever shed the Blood either of Citizen or Enemy and as his Reign was attended with the same Felicity and Goodness the same Security and Religiousness with that of Numa Pompilius he may very well be put in the Comparison with that Prince He reigned Twenty Three Years THE A. Christi CLXII Life and Reign OF THE EMPEROR Marcus Aurelius Antoninus The PHILOSOPHER BY JULIUS CAPITOLINUS Addressed to the EMPEROR DIOCLESIAN MArcus Antoninus was a Lover of Wisdom a Philosophical Man all his time and the best as to the Sanctity of his Life of all the Emperors before him His Father was Annius Verus who died in his Praetorship His Extraction His Grandfather was another Annius Verus who was twice Consul and the Governour of the City of Rome having been admitted amongst the Patricians by Vespasian and Titus when they were Censours His Uncle by his Father's side was Annius Libo a Consul the Empress Galeria Faustina was his Aunt his Mother was Domitia Calvilla the Daughter of Calvisius Tullus who was twice Consul his Father's Grandfather was Annius Verus originally of Succubae in Spain who was a Praetor and a Senator his Mother's Grandfather was Catilius Severus who was twice Consul and Governour of Rome his Grandmother by his Father's side was Rupilia Faustina the Daughter of Rupilius Bonus who was a Consul also Marcus Antoninus was born at Rome upon Mount Caelius in the Gardens 〈…〉 e the Sixth of the Calends of May under the Consulships of his Grandfather and Augur which was then the Second Consulship of his Grandfather His Family if we carry it up to the highest is proved to partake of the Blood of Numa Pompilius by his Father's side according to Marius Maximus and by his Mother's to come from Malennius a King of the antient Salentini in Naples who was the Son of Dasumnus who built Lopiae He was brought up where he was born and partly in the House of his Grandfather Verus hard by the Lateran Palace He had a Sister who was younger than he called Annia Cornificia His Wife was Annia Faustina who was his Cousin German by his Mother's side At first his Name was Annius Verus from his Father and his Grandfather Hadrian called him Annius Verissimus because of the Integrity of his Temper But afterwards he re-assured his first Name again of Annius Verus because his Grandfather his Father dying adopted him and educated him He was from his first Infancy grave and serious and after he was out of those Years in which Children are in the hands of the Women His Education he was delivered to the Tuition of great Masters who prepared his way for Philosophy His Masters to teach him his first Elements of Letters were Euphorion the Grammarian Geminus a Comedian and Andron who was both a Musician and a Geometrician As these Three were they who laid the Foundation for him to 〈…〉 eed to all other Learning so he ever had 〈◊〉 â—n very great Respect His Masters to teach him Grammar were for the Greek Alexander for the Latin Trosius Aper Pollio and Eutychius
should happen to him they desired him before he went that he would discover to them his Precepts of Philosophy which at their Entreaty he did in Discourses to them which he continued three Days together Besides this Avidius Cassius was a strict Man for Military Discipline insomuch that he was willing to have himself be called a Marius Now having begun to make mention of his His strict Discipline Strictness there are many Instances not to be omitted in which he shew'd himself not so properly to say strict as he was cruel For first if the Soldiers had taken but the least thing by violence from the People of the Provinces he crucified them immediately upon the place where they committed the Fact He had another way of executing them which was purely of his own Invention which was this A great Stake of Timber was set up which was Eighty or a Hundred Foot high the condemned were tied to this Stake in Ranks from the top to the bottom at the bottom was a Fire which burnt some to Death whilst others were suffocated with the Smoak and others were sometimes frightned to Death He hath ordered Ten in a Body to be chain'd and thrown into a River or into the Sea together To Deserters he many times cut off their Hands or their Legs and Thighs saying The Example of a Criminal living in that manner in misery is of a greater Force than if he was kill'd at a blow A Party of the Auxiliaries once in the Army under his Command had without his knowledge surprised the Sarmatae as they were lying carelesly upon the Banks of the Danube of whom they killed Three Thousand and returned to their Corps again with a great Booty And as it was their Centurions that had put them upon this Action the Centurions expected to be rewarded for it because with a handful of Men they had killed such a Number of the Enemy whilst the Tribunes and the other Officers had neglected the Opportunity that was offered But for their Reward he ordered them to be all taken and which is a thing without Example crucified like Slaves He said It might have happened that the Enemy had had a Trick in it and an Ambuscade which would have much reflected upon the Honour of the Roman Name So a great Mutiny upon this arising in the Army he came immediately to them and said Kill me if you think fit and add that Fact more to this Corruption of Discipline At which they were all appeased He shew'd he did not fear them and this made him to be feared by them Which added such Strength to the Discipline of the Romans and struck such a Regard on the other side into the Enemy that they came and begged of the Emperor Antoninus an Hundred Years Peace having had the Satisfaction to see those very Persons who had gotten a Victory over them condemned to Death by the Judgment of the Roman General himself because without his permission they had without Orders gained that Victory Many more of his Severities upon the Soldiers are to be seen in Aemilius Parthenianus he caused them to be beaten with Rods in the Markets and in the midst of the Camp he cut off their Heads or many times their Hands He forbad them to carry any thing with them in an Expedition beside Bacon Bisket and Vinegar which if he found they transgressed he not a little punished their Luxury A LETTER from the Emperor Marcus Antoninus to the Lieutenant of Syria says thus of him I Have given the Legions of Syria which Caesonius Vectilianus says that he found all in Hot Baths dissolved in Luxury and living in all sorts of Pleasures to the Command of Avidius Cassius and I think I have not done amiss You know him a Man of the Severity and Discipline of the antient Cassii and to speak truly without the Antient Discipline the Soldiers cannot be well governed You remember that good Verse of the Poet Moribus antiquis res stat Romana virilis That is the Customs of our Fore-fathers and such Persons as were in those days are the best Supports of the Empire of Rome Do you take care that there be sufficient Provisions laid up for the said Legions and if I am not mistaken in Avidius Cassius he is one that will not let them be lost The ANSWER of the Lieutenant to Marcus Antoninus was this IT is well dove Sir that your Majesty hath preferred Cassius to the Command of the Legions of Syria For there is nothing so convenient aâ— a severe sort of a Man for those Grecianised Soldiers He will strip them of all their hot Baths and shake all their fine Flowers off of their Heads their Necks and their Bosoms All the necessary Provisions for the Legions are ready and nothing will be wanting so long as they have so good a Commander over them Nor were they mistaken in their Judgments which they had of Avidius Cassius He immediately commanded the Soldiers to their respective Colours and published an Order that if any one of them was but seen at Daphne he should be cashiered Every Seventh Day he examined their Arms and Cloaths and Equipages He banished all sorts of Pleasures from the Camp and unless they corrected their Manners he assured them they should pass the Winter there in their Tents which certainly had been done if they had not lived more soberly He exercised the whole Body of them every Seventh Day at their Arrows and their Arms. It was a miserable thing he said that Wrestlers Huntsmen and Gladiators should be continually exercised and not Soldiers to whom their Labours are always the less after they are once accustomed to them Thus correcting the Discipline of the Army and ordering all things well in Armenia Arabia and Egypt he made himself to be beloved by all the Eastern People especially by those of Antioch insomuch that that City consented to his Assumption of the Empire as Marius Maximus says in the Life of Marcus Antoninus who in his Second Book of the same Life says also that when the Robbers of the Parts called Bucolia in Egypt had committed many Disorders there which were heavy upon that Kingdom they were reduced again under subjection by Cassius Now this Cassius set himself up in the East Cassius usurps the Empire to be Emperor some say by an Intrigue of Faustina who despairing of the long Life of her Husband Mareus Antoninus was in a fear that she alone should not be able to protect her Infant-Children and that somebody should come upon the Throne who would destroy them But however this is to take the Soldiers and the People off of their Love to Marcus Antoninus in order to bring them to consent to himself Cassius served himself of an Artifice which was to give out that Marcus was dead and to qualify the Regret of his Loss he mentioned him with the Respect of one made a God Then as Emperor he chose himself a Captain of
Niger Afterwards he received Plauâ—ianus into favour again and banished his Enemies who entred the City as it were in Triumph and went up to the Capitol and yet in Process of time for all that he killed him He gave the Man's or the Roman Gown to Geta his youngest Son and married his Eldest to a Daughter of Plautianus He made them both Consuls but Geta his own Brother he killed Then the Parthian War came on upon his going to which he first treated the People with the Games of the Gladiators and gave them a Largess But still he put to death several Persons whether for real or pretended Causes whilst these things past Some because they Rallied upon him others because they held their Tongues and said nothing Some because they had said He was an Emperor that had not his name for nothing A right Pertinax a right Severus As for the Parthian War certainly it was The Parthian Expedition generally said that Severus affected it out of a desire of Glory rather than that he was carried upon it by any necessity He imbarked his Army at the Port of Brindisi from whence continuing on his Journey he came into Syria where he prepared himself to make Waâ— upon the Parthians in their own Country after he had driven them out of their Footings iâ— this Together with which by the advice oâ— Plautianus he hunted after the Reliques of thâ— Faction of Pescennius Niger and slew theâ— without Mercy Others he slew pretendinâ— that they had consulted the Astrologers anâ— the Diviners concerning his death Particâ—larly he suspected every one that was but proper to make an Emperor of Whilst his Sons were yet little which was the time for Men to try their Fortunes either he heard that it was said by them or he imagined that they said so But yet as to some who were murdered he excused himself and denied that it had been done by his order and particularly Marius Maximus says he did it in the Case of Laetus His own Sister making him a Visit from the Town of Napoli di Barbaria where he was born had brought her Son along with her and as she was one that was scarce able to speak the Latin Tongue she made the Emperor blush for her very much who gave her several rich Presents and made her Son a Senator but when that was done he ordered her to go back to her own Country again and take her Son with her who soon after died The Summer being over because in those Parts the Winter is the best Season for War he entred into the Kingdom of Parthia and obliging the Enemy to give way to him he marched forward and set himself down before Ctesiphon which he took But as his Soldiers had lived but upon the Roots of the Herbs which they found whereby they had contracted great sicknesses and particularly the Flux which hindered their Marches he satisfied himself with the Conquest which he had made having killed a great number of the Enemy and put to slight their King which gained him the Title of Conqueror of the Parthians His eldest Son the Caesar Bassionus Antoninus of thirteen years of Age was upon this occasion by the Army proclaimed a Partner in the Empire with his Father and his younger Son Geta Antoninus was declared at the same time Caesar Wherefore Severus gave to the Army a very large Donative and all the Booty of the Town of Ctesiphon according to their desire which they were become the Masters of From thence he returned a Conqueror into Syria The Senate offered him the Honor of a Triumph which he refused Refuses a Triumph beâ—â—â—se he could not sit in the Chariot by reason of the Gout which afflicted him But he permitted his Son to receive it in his Place to whom the Senate had decreed a Triumph in relation to the successes over the Jews For all things had passed well in Syria as well as Parthia under the Conduct of Severus In fine being come to Antioch he granted to his eldest Son the Roman Gowâ— and appointed him to be Consul with himself Accordingly they both entred upon their Consulships in Syria After which having gratified the Army with a Bounty upon that Subject they took their way to Alexandria In this Expedition he made a great many Laws to Establish the Rights of the People of Palestine He forbad Men to turn Jews under a great penalty and he made the like Ordinances as to the Christians He granted to the City of Alexandria the Privilege of a Senate besides which he changed their Laws in several things He was much pleased with his Voyage into these Parts to see the Worship of the God Serapis and because of the singular strangness of the Animals and places which he saw here He viewed Memphis and Memnon the Pyramids and the Labyrinth with great Care and great Satisfaction It would be too tedious to pursue the Life of this Prince in Matters of a lesser Note Therefore his diminishing the Power of the Pretorian Guards at Rome after Julianus was conquered and killed and his consecrating Pertinax a God contrary to the Will of the Soldiers were bold and great Actions He seems to have deserved the Name of Pertinax which once he assumed not so much for his Affection to Pertinax the Emperor as for the austerity of his manners and his own pertinaciousness in what he did As one of the Enemy who was taken had cast himself humbly at his Feet and said to him Sir what would your self have done in my place He not at all softened with so prudent an Expression commanded him to be killed without remorse He was bent upon utterly extirpating the Parties that were against him and almost from no place did he come off less than Conqueror He conquered Abgarus the King of Persia His other Successes The Arabians yielded themselves under his Obedience He made the Adiabeni Tributary to him He fortified Great Britain which is the greatest Ornament of his Reign with a Trench drawn cross the Island from the one Ocean to the other from whence he received the Title of Conqueror of the Britains He put his Native Country of Tripoli into a Condition of the greatest Security and a lasting Peace by subduing those most Warlike Nations which lie all about it for which the Tripolines in return presented him with Oyl and Corn every Year in abundance and gave for that purpose some fruitful Fields for ever to the People of Rome As he was of a Temper to be implacable towards such as transgressed their Duty so on the other hand he was of a singular good Judgment in making Choice of Persons to serve him who were Men of Fidelity He was much addicted to the Studies of Philosophy and Eloquence and had a desire to know the rest of the Sciences He was a mortal hater of Robbers He writ his own Life himself faithfully as he was a private Man and as he Emperor in which however
way by Ravenna to deliver it first to the Emperor Maximus and yet he made such haste by change of Horses that he reached Rome in four days which was never known done before The two Emperors Balbinus and Gordianus with all the People were then assembled in the Theatre at the Publick Divertisements Immediately as the Express came into the Theatre before he could have the time to say any thing all the People cryed out with great Joy Maximin is Killed which was a grateful Hearing to the Emperors So the Company rose and every one went strait to the Temples and the Chappels to return their Thanks to the Gods From thence the Emperors went to the Senate which Assembled upon this Occasion as likewise did the People and after the Emperor Balbinus had read to the Senate the Letter which was arrived from Maximus the Senate passed this Decree as follows The Gods Pursue the Enemies of the People of Rome We return our Thanks to thee for the same O most Excellent Jupiter and to Thee O Holy Apollo We Thank the Emperor Maximus We Thank Your Majesties here present Balbinus and Gordianus We Decree Temples to the Honour of the Emperors the Gordiani deceased The Name of Maximin as it hath already been erased out of the Publick Monuments so now let it be erased out of our Thoughts and be forgotten for ever Let the Head of the Publick Enemy be thrown into the River and no Man Bury his Body He that threatned the Senate with Death and Bonds is Killed as he deserved We give our Thanks for it to your most Sacred Majesties Maximus Balbinus and Gordianus The Gods Preserve you We all wish you Victory over your Enemies We all desire the Return and Presence of Maximus The Gods Save Your Majesty Balbinus Your Majesties will be pleased to be the Consuls this Year After this Cupidius Celerimus said thus Having Erased the Name of the Maximins and Deified the Emperors the Gordiani we on the other hand Decree Triumphal Statues with Elephants to our present Princes Maximus Balbinus and Gordianus We Decree them Triumphal Chariots Statues on Horseback and Trophies upon the Subject of this Victory Then the Senate Adjourn'd The Emperors retired to the Palaces and Publick Sacrifices were appointed throughout all the City of Rome THE Life and Reign OF THE EMPEROR Maximin the Second TO THE EMPEROR Constantine the Great BY JULIUS CAPITOLINUS MAXIMIN the Second or the Younger and the Son of the foregoing was a Youth of that extraordinary Beauty that generally the Ladies of Wit were in Love with him some of them even wished themseves a part in his Caresses and to have Children by him He was so Tall that had he lived it is probable he would have reach'd the heighth of his Father But he dyed in the Flower of his Youth in his one and twentieth Year or as some say in his eighteenth He had learn'd the His Learning and Masters Greek and Latin Languages to a Perfection In the Greek his Master was Fabilius who hath several Epigrams in the Greek yet extant and particularly some that he made upon the Picture of his Scholar In the Latin he had the Grammarian Philemon Modestinus the Lawyer and Titianus the Orator The Father of which last was he who hath written a Chorography of the Provinces of the Roman Empire and was called the Ape of his Age because he Imitated all things He had a Greek Rhetoriâ—ian called Eugenius who was Famous in his time Junia Fadilla a Daughter of the Family of the Princes the Antonini was Contracted to him who afterwards was Married to Toxotius a Senator of the same Family who dyed after his Praetorship and hath written some Poems which we have at this day The Presents which were given to her by Maximin when he Contracted her are particularly recounted by Aelius Cordus A Locket of nine great Pearls a Head set with eleven Emeralds a Bracelet of four Jacynths Garments of Cloth of Gold and all the Ornaments of Princely Attire which were fit for a New Spouse As this Maximin was very Beautiful so he carried a Pride to the highest degree he kept himself Sitting when his Father as Cruel as he was many times rose to Persons of Honour that came to wait upon him He was of a gay Humour Drank little but loved good Eating especially of the wild Creatures of the Field the Wild Boar Duck Crane and the like were his constant Dishes Those of the Party of the Emperors Maximus Balbinus and Gordianus and particularly the Senators were willing to slander him because of his great Beauty Pretending that it was impossible that so charming a Gift of the Gods could be kept uncorrupt So also when he went about the Walls of Aquileia in Company with his Father to persuade that City to a Surrender All that they pretended to object against him was the matter of Uncleanness because of his tempting Beauty which however was very far from him He was so Proper in his Cloaths that no Lady in the World could be more He was extreamly Obsequious to such as were of his Father's Friends that is so far as to give them what was in his power and make them Largesses But when they paid their Reverences to him he received them in a manner which was again as high He gave them his Hand to kiss he suffered them to kiss his Knees and sometimes his Feet which his Father would never do who said The Gods forbid that any free-born Man should lay his Lips to my Feet Having mention'd his Father I desire to insert one pleasant Passage of him He was as I have observed before in his Life Eight Foot and almost a half high Therefore his Shoe or Royal Buskin was given by some to be seen publickly in a Religious House in a Grove which is betwixt the City Aquileia and a place called Arzia which Shoe it is certain is bigger by a Foot than the Measure of any other Man And hence it is become a Proverb to say of one who is of an extraordinary Height without much Wit Caliga Maximini i. e. He is the Print of Maximin He treads in his Shoe But I return to speak of the Son The Emperor Alexander Severus in a Letter to his Mother Mammaea appears to have had some thoughts of Matching this Maximin to his own Sister Theoclia The Letter was this Madam I Would propose to you to Marry your Daughter Theoclia to the younger Maximin did not his Father who is a Commander in our Forces and I assure you a very good one retain something in him that savours of the Barbarian I fear my Sister who is so acquainted with all the Politeness of the Grecian Education will not endure a Father in Law of that Nature Otherwise as for the Youth himself he is Beautiful and Ingenious and seems to be bred and polished to the Mode of the Grecians too This is what I think You may please to consider with
your Cabinet to Consult about Matters that are not immediately to be made known to all the World your Ministers are under their Oaths to speak nothing of them till such time as the Business is compleated so when any Publick Necessity in Antient Times press'd the State as for Instance an imminent Danger from the Enemy which obliged them either to take inferiour Measures perhaps or to make an Order which was no sooner to be known than done or that they would not have their Friends nor any body to know any thing of it then the Senate assembled themselves in Private and their Decree was Tacit They had no Clerks no Publick Servants no Assessors present the Senators did all and executed the Offices of the Necessary Men themselves that nothing that was done should be betrayed And in this manner it was that according to Junius Cordus the Decree of the Senate against Maximin passed to Conceal it so much the more from Maximin But as there are some Men who cannot keep a Secret for fear as it were that it should burst them and who blush that what they know should not be discovered by themselves and imagining that they shall be Men of no Consequence unless they make it appear that they are intrusted with great Matters Maximin notwithstanding this Secrecy soon came to the knowledge of what had passed and had a Copy of this very Decree sent him which was never known to be done before Hereupon he writ a Letter to Sabinus the Governour of the City offended at his absence from the Senate at the time when that Decree was carried because as he was a Friend of his he ought to have been there to have opposed it The Letter was this I Have read the late Secret Decree of those Senators of yours at Rome which perhaps you who are the Governour of the City know nothing of for neither was you present at it I have sent a Copy of it to you that you may consider what Measures to take and how to Conduct your self The Emotion which Maximin was in when he received the News of the Revolt of Africa and the Concurrence of the Senate to it was such as cannot be expressed He threw himself Extreme Passion of Maximin against the Wall tore his Cloaths drew his Sword as if he could kill all the World and seem'd absolutely like a Man out of his Wits His Statues and Images in the mean time as he was a declared Enemy were thrown down and the Senate made all the use imaginable of the Power which they had taken into their hands The Informers Calumniators Receivers and all those Firebrands of the Party of Maximin they condemned to death But this did not satisfie the People who dragged them also through the Streets and threw them into the Kennel Sabinus the Governour of the City who had been a Consul was then knockt on the head and left in the Street dead When Maximin had heard of these things he came presently to his Army and harangu'd them to this purpose My sworn Fellow-Soldiers you who are engaged in my Fortunes and who endure all the Hazards of the War with me whilst we defend the Honour of the Roman Name in Germany and with our Arms maintain the Country of Illyricum against the Barbarians I am to acquaint you that the Africans who are false to a Proverb are now Revolted They have set up the two Gordiani Emperors against me One of them so Old that he can scarce rise from his Chair the other so weakned with his Debauchery that he is as feeble as if he was as Old as his Father This is not all That Worthy Senate at Rome hath approved of the Fact of the Africans and those for whom and for whose Children's Good after them we carry our Arms have appointed Twenty Persons of the Order of the Consuls to make Head against us in Italy and have declared us all Enemies Now that which I say to you is Let us play the Men and marcâ— forthwith to Rome and let us Bravely and Conragiously as we always do cut our way through them all The Army was not so moved at this Speech but Maximin perceived a slackness in their March and a Backwardness which he did not relish So he writ a Letter to his Son who was a great way behind to hasten to him with all speed for fear the Soldiers should take the advantage of his Absence to set something on foot against him The Letter was this as it is in Junius Cordus THis Express who is one of my Guards will tell you the News that I have received both from Africa and Rome and also how my Army stands affected Pray make all the haste you can to me for fear of any Attempt that should be made as is usual He whom I have sent will acquaint you further Whilst these things passed Capelianus in Africa Capelianus ' s Opposition in Africa took up Arms against the two Gordiani He had always been an Enemy to the Father before he was Emperor and being the Governour of Mauritania for Maximin and an old Soldier Gordianus after he was Emperor turn'd him out which provoked him to raise a Body of the Moors with whom he hastily directed his March towards Carthage where all the People with a right Punick Infidelity were ready to revolt to him from the Gordiani again Gordianus the Father desired however to try the Fortune of a Battel He sent his Son to fight Capelianus and the Party of the Maximins that was with him The Son was then of the Age of six and forty Years younger than Capelianus and not so experienced in the matter of War because he had been more conversant in the Delights ordinary to Persons of his Quality than the Affairs of the Field They Engag'd Capelianus as he was the Bolder and the skilfuller Soldier won the day and Gordianus was killed upon the place The number of the slain in this Battel on the side of Gordianus was so very great that his Body after a long search which was made for The young Gordian slain the Elder strangled himself it could no where be distinguished amongst such a prodigious multitude That which facilitated the Victory was a great Storm which is seldom seen in Africa arose before the Fight and shattered the Forces of Gordianus so that it in a manner disabled them Gordianus the Father hearing this and considering that his Strength was now small and Maximin's great and that Capelianus was at his Heels That the Carthaginians were a People rarely true to their Trust and there was no more safety for him in Africa And being troubled to think that he should fall alive into the hands of his Enemies to avoid that he took a Cord and strangled himself This was the End of the two Co-Emperors of the Name of Gordianus As the Senate had Recognized them both so they afterwards Deified them They Reigned one Year and six Months THE Life