THE STUDENTS ROMAN EMPIRE

A HISTORY

OF THE

ROMAN EMPIRE

FROM

ITS FOUNDATION TO THE DEATH OF
MARCUS AURELIUS

(27 B.C.-180 A.D.)
^

BY J.^B.CVBURY, M.A.

FELLOW AND TUTOR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN
ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK • : • CINCINNATI • ! • CHICAGO

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY

E-P

1 76
B97

LIBRARY

^3 'fit 9 6

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

PREFACE.

IT is well known that for the period of Roman history,
which is of all its periods perhaps the most important— the
first two centuries of the Empire — there exists no English
handbook suitable for use in Universities and Schools. The
consequence of this want in our educational course is that
the knowledge of Roman history possessed by students,
who are otherwise men of considerable attainments in
classical literature, comes to a sudden end at the Battle of
Actium. At least, their systematic knowledge ends there ;
of the subsequent history they know only isolated facts
gathered at haphazard from Horace, Juvenal and Tacitus.
This much-felt need will, it is hoped, be met by the present
volume, which bridges the gap between the Student's Rome
and the Student's Gibbon.

This work has been written directly from the original
sources. But it is almost unnecessary to say that the
author is under deep obligations to many modern guides.
He is indebted above all to Mommsen's Romisches Staats-
recht, and to the fifth volume of the same historian's
Romische Geschichte. He must also acknowledge the
constant aid which he has derived from Merivale's History
of the Romans under the Empire, Schiller's Geschichte der
romischen Kaiserzeit, and Herzog's Geschichte und System
der romischen Staatsverfassung. Duruy's History of Rome
has been occasionally useful. The lesser and more special
books which have been consulted with advantage are too
numerous to mention. Gardthausen's (as yet incomplete)
work on Augustus, Lehmann's monograph on Claudiu*

IV PREFACE.

(with invaluable genealogical tables), Schiller's large
monograph on Nero, De la Berge and Dierauer on Trajan^
Diirr on the journeys of Hadrian^ Lacour-Gayet on
Antoninus Pius, Hirschfeld's Untersuchungen auf dem
Gebiete der romischen Verwaltungsgeschichte are the most
important. The assistance derived from Xenopol's paper
on Trajan's Dacian wars in the Revue historique (xxxi.,
1886) must be specially acknowledged. Of editions, the
Monumentum Ancyranum by Mommsen, the Annals of
Tacitus by Mr. Furneaux, the Correspondence of Pliny
and Trajan and Plutarch's Lives of Galba and Otho by
Mr. Hardy, the Satires of Juvenal by Mr Mayor, the
Epigrams of Martial by Friedlander, have been most
helpful. The author has also had the advantage of the
learning of Mr. L. C. Purser, whose great kindness in
reading the proof-sheets with minute care cannot be
sufficiently acknowledged.

It is hoped that the concluding chapter on Roman Life
and Manners will be found useful. It is compiled from
the materials furnished in Friedlander's Sittengeschichte,
various articles in the new edition of Sir W. Smith's Dic-
tionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, and Mayor's
Juvenal. It has been thought advisable to make copious
quotations from, and references to, Horace, Juvenal, and
Martial a special feature of this chapter, in order to bring
the study of those authors more immediately in touch with
the period to which they belong.

The constitutional theory and history of the Principate
have been investigated with such striking results in recent
years by the elaborate researches of Mommsen and his
school in Germany, that the author felt himself called
upon to treat this side of imperial history as fully as the
compass of a handbook seemed to admit. It is a subject
which cannot be otherwise than difficult ; but in order to
read the history of the Empire intelligently, it is indispen-
sable to master at the outset the constitutional principles,
to which Chapters II. and III. are devoted.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

31-27 B.C.

27 B.C.-14 A.D.
27 B.C.-180 A.D.

27 B.C.-14 A.D.
27 B.C.-14 A.D.

27 B.C.-14 A.D.

27 B.C. -14 A.D.

27 B.C.-4 A.D.

25-22 B.C.

12 B.C.-14 A.D.
27 B.C.-14 A.D.
41 B.C.-14 A.D.

14-37 A.D.
14-37 A.D.

37-41 A.D.
41-54 A.D.

CHAP.
I.

III.

IV.

\^

u/

VII.
VIII.

IX.
X

XI.
XII.
XIII.

XIV.
XV

PA«K

FROM THE BATTLE OP ACTIUM TO THE
FOUNDATION OF THE PRINCIPATE . 1

THE PRINCIPATE 12

THE JOINT GOVERNMENT OF THE PRINCEPS
AND SENATE . . . . .27

THE FAMILY OF AUGUSTUS AND HIS
PLANS TO FOUND A DYNASTY . . 45

)ADMINISTRATION OF AUGUSTUS IN ROMK
AND ITALY. ORGANISATION OF THE
ARMY 59

PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION UNDER ^
AUGUSTUS. THE WESTERN PROVINCES 74

PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION (continued}. *
THE EASTERN PROVINCES AND EGYPT 102

ROME AND PARTHIA

EXPEDITIONS TO ARABIA AND . .117
ETHIOPIA

THE WINNING AND LOSING OF GERMANY.
DEATH OF AUGUSTUS . . .124

ROME UNDER AUGUSTUS. His BUILD-
INGS ... . 141

LITERATURE OF THE AUGUSTAN AGE . 149

THE PRINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS . .164

THE PRINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS (con-
tinued) 188

THR PRINCIPATE OF GAIUS (CALIGULA). 214

THE PKINCIPATE OF CLAUDIUS 230

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAP. FACE

43-61 A.D. XVI. THE CONQUEST or BRITAIN . , 258

54-68 A.D. XVII. THE PRINCIPATE OF NERO . . 273
41-66 A.D. XVIII. THE WARS FOR ARMENIA, UNDER

CLAUDIUS AND NERO . . . 30£
68-69 A.D, XIX. THE PRINCIPATE OP GALBA, AND

THE YEAR OP THE FOUR EMPEUORS 324
4JJ9-70 A.D. XX. REBELLIONS IN GERMANY AND JUDEA 351

XXI. THE FLAVIAN EMPERORS,
69-79 A.D. VESPASIAN,

79-81 A.D. Trrus,

81-96 A.D. AND DOMITIAN

69-96 A.D. XXII. BRITAIN AND GERMANY UNDER THE j

FLAVIANS » 397

^ 85-89 A.D. DACIAN WAR )

96-98 A.D. XXIII. NERVA \

98-117 A.D. AND TRAJAN I . .412

101-106 A.D. THE CONQUEST OF DACIA)

98-117A.D. XXIV. TRAJAN'S PRINCD?ATE (continued.
ADMINISTRATION AND EASTERN
CONQUESTS .... 433
37-117 A.D. XXV. LITERATURE PROM THE DEATH OF

TIBERIUS TO TRAJAN. . . 457

117-138 A.D. XXVI. THE PRINCIPATE OF HADRIAN . 489
138-161 A.D. XXVII. THE PRINCIPATE OF ANTONINUS

Pius 522

161-180A.D. XXVIII. THE PRDTCIPATE OF MARCUS

AURELIUS ..... 533
138-180 A.D. XXIX. LITERATURE UNDER HADHIAN AND

THE ANTONINES. . 551

27 B.C.-180 A.D. XXX. THE ROMAN WORLD UNDER THE
EMPIRE. POLITICS, PHILOSOPHY,
RELIGION AND ART . . . 562
27 B.C.-180 A.D. XXXI. ROMAN LIFE AND MANNERS . . 591

INDEX

627

LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS.

Map of the Western Provinces of tlie Roman Empire to face page 83
„ Eastern „ „ „ „ „ „ 103

Plan of Rome . . . page 144

Plan of the Battle of Locus Castoium . . . to face page 335
Map to illustrate the Dacian campaigns of Trajan „ „ 422

Map of the Roman Wall, with the principal stations . page 502

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FAOK

Augustus (from the bust in the British Museum) ... 1
Temple of Mars Ultor (as it appears at the present day) . . 11
Augustus crowned (from the Vienna cameo) .... 12

Agrippa . ... . .20

H>a<i of Livia (found at Pompeii, now in the Museum at Naples) 27
Coin of Augustus . 44

Livia, wearing the Palla ....... 45

Julia 45

Coin : Marcellus ......... 55

Arch of Augustus at Rimini ....... 59

Coin of Gaius and Lucius Caesar 73

Arch of Augustus at Aosta . . . . .74

Gin : Altar of Rome and Augustus at Lugudunum . . .101
Triumph of Tiberius (from the Sainte Chapelle cameo) . . 102
Trophies of Augustus . ... 116

Coi- s commemorating recovery of standards from the Parthians. 117
C' -in of Augustus and Artavafdes ...... 123

So-called Arch of Drusus 124

CoinofDrnsus .... . 140

Ancient Rome (Restoration) . . . . . . 141

Head of Msecenas 148

Tomb of Vinril .149

Digentia, Horace's "Sabine farm . . . , , .163
Head of Tiherius ... ... 164

View of Brnndnsium 187

Parthian Warriors, from Trajan's Column . . . 188

Agripp;na, t-o-called wife of Germanicus (from statue in the

Capitol) 213

Cameo: G;iius and Dru&illa (from the cameo in the Bibliotheque

National e, Paris) 214

Antonia (from the Louvre) 229

Vlll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Claudius (from the statue in the Vatican) . • •

Bust of Agrippina, daughter of Gcrmanicus (from the bust in

the Capitol)

Messalina (from the bust in the Capitol)
Apotheosis of Germanicus
Nero (from the bust in the British Museum, brought from

Athens)

Coin of Poppaea ........

Aqueduct of Nemausus

Coin struck by Nero to commemorate successes of Corbulo
Coin of Arsaces ........

Coin: Galba

Otho (from the bust in the British Museum) .

Vitellius (from a bust in Vienna) .....

Arch of Titus

Coin : Judsea Capta ....

Colosseum •

Titus (from the British Museum) . . . ; .

Domitian (from the statue at Munich) .
Vespasian (from the Museum at Naples) , .
Roman Arch at Lincoln ....

Nerya (from the Vatican) . , .

Trajan's Column . . . . . . . . ;: • . '

Figures from Trajan's Column

Trajan (from the bust in the British Museum).

Relief from Trajan's Column .....

Trajan gives a king to the Purthians

Adventus Coin of Hadrian ......

Nero Citharoedus (from the statue in the Capitol) .
Seneca (so called) (from a bust in the museum at Naples)
Hadrian (from a bust in the British Museum) .
Sabina. .........

Antoninus Pius (from a bust in the British Museum)
Consecratio of Antoninus and Faustina ....

Marcus Aurelius (from the Louvre) ...

Lucius Verus (from a bust in the British Museum) .
Mausoleum of Hadrian (as it appears at the present day).
Head of Antinous ('rom the bust in the British Museum).
Temple of Venus and Rome (as it appears at the present day)
Bas-relief of triumph of Marcus Aurelius (from the Capitol)
Balnese at Pompeii : Tepidarium .
School-flogging . . . . .

Baths of Caracalla . . . .<;

Section of Flav: an Amphitheatre . ..

Method of raising wild beasts in the arena

Faustina as Mater Castrorum.

Coin of Antoninus Pius, representing the Funeral Pyre at his

Consecratio .........

THE ROMAN EMPIEE

Augustus.

CHAPTER I.

THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM TO THE FOUNDATION OP THE
PEINCIPATE.

§ 1. Caesar. § 2. Agrippa and Maecenas. § 3. Caesar's treatment of
Egypt. The Egyptian booty. Settlement of the veterans in Italy.
Reorganisation of legions. § 4. Caesar in the East. His return to
Italy. Conspiracy of Lepidus. Decrees in honour of Caesar. His
triumphs over (1) Dalmatia and Pannonia, (2) Asia, (3) Egypt.
Closing of the Temple of Janus. § 5. Caesar's position as triumvir.
He resigns the triumvirate (27 B.C.).

§ 1. C. JULIUS C-ESAB, the triumvir and the founder of the Roman
Empire, was the grandnephew * of C. Julius Cwsar, the dictator, his

* His mother Atia was the daughter of Julia, the dictator's sister.
1

2 FROM THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM. CHAP. i.

adoptive father. Originally named, like his true father, C. Octavius,*
he entered the Julian family after the dictator's death, and, according
to the usual practice of adopted sons, called himself C. Julius Csesar
Octavianus. But the name Octavianus soon fill into disuse, and by
his contemporaries he was commonly spoken of as Caesar, just as
Scipio ^Emilianns was commonly called S»;ipio.

The victory of Actium (Sept. 2, 31 B.C.), and the death of
Marcus Antonius (Aug. 1, 30 B.C.) placed the supreme power in
the hands of C«esar, for so we may best call him until he becomes
Augustus. The Eoman world lay at his feet and he had no rival.
He was not a man of g< nius and his success had perhaps been chiefly
due to his imperturbable sell-control. He was no general ; he was
hardly a soldier, though not devoid of person^ courage, as he had
shown in his campaign in Illyricum. As a statesman he was able,
but not creative or original, and he would never have succeeded in
forming a permanent constitution but for the example of the great
dictator. In temj)er he was cool, without ardour or enthusiasm.
His mind was logical and he aimed at precision in thought and
expression. His culture was wide, if superficial ; his knowledge of
Greek imperfect. In literary style he affected simplicity and
correctness ; and he was an acute critic. Like many educated men
of his time, he was not free from superstition. His habits were
always simple, his food plain, and his surroundings modest. His
family affections were strong and sometimes misled him into weak-
ness. His presence was imposing, though he was not tall, and his
features were marked by symmetrical beauty ; but the pallor of his
complexion showed that his health was naturally delicate. It was
due to his self-control and his simple manner of life that he lived to
be an old man.

§ 2. The successes of Caasar had not been achieved without the
aid of others. Two remarkable men, devoted to his interests, stood
by him faithfully throughout the civil wars, and helped him by
their counsels and their lahours. These were M. Vipsanius
Agrppa and C. Cilnius Ma3cenas. As they helped him not only to
win the empire, hut also to wield it after he had won it, it is
necessary to know what manner of men they were.

Of Agrippa we know strangely little considering the prominent
position he occupied for a long and important period, and the part
he played in the history of the world. From youth up he had
been the companion of Caesar, and he was always content to take
the second place. His military ability stood Caasar in good stead,
notably in the war with Sextus Pompeius, and on the day of
Actium. He had first distinguished himself at the siege of Perusia
* Thurinus is said to have been given him as a cognomen.

31-27 B.C. AGB1PPA AND MAECENAS. &

(41 B.C), and, subsequently, his victories over the Germans beyond
the Rhine established his military fame. His success was due to
his own energy, for he had no interest, and, belonging to an
obscure gens, he was regarded by the nobility as an upstart. He
was not, perhaps, a man of culture, but Ms tastes were liberal. His
interest in architecture was signalised by many useful buildings ; and
Gaul owed him a great debt for the roads which he constructed in
that country. In appearance he is said to have been stern and
rngized; in temper he was reserved and proud. He was ambitious,
but only for the second place ; yet he was the one man who might
have been a successful rival of his master.

Maecenas resembled Agrippa in his unselfish loyalty to Caesar ;
but his character was very different. Like Agrippa, he did not
aspire to become the peer of their common master; but while the
heart of Agrippa was set on being acknowledged as second,
Msecenas preferred to have no recognised position. Agrippa's
excellence was in the craft of war; while Maecenas cultivated the
arts of peace. Agrippa had forwarded the cause of Caesar by his
generalship ; Maecenas aided him by diplomacy. It will be re-
membered how the latter negotiated the treaties of Brundusium and
Misenum. During the campaigns which demanded the presence
of Ctasar, Msecenas conducted the administration of affairs in
Italy, and watched over the interests of the absent triumvir.
Until his death, (8 B.C.) he continued to be the trusted friend and
adviser, in fact, the alter ego of Caesar ; and he had probably no
small share in making the constitution of the Empire. But he
always kept himself in the background. He was content with the
real power which he enjoyed by his immense influence with Csesar ;
he despised offices and honours. It is characteristic of the man
that he refused to pass from the equestrian into the senatorial
order. He could indeed afford to look down upon many of the
nobles ; for he came of an illustrious Etruscan race. In his tastes
and manner of life he was unlike both Agrippa and Cassar. He was
neither rough nor simple. A refined voluptuary, he made an art
of luxury ; and it was quite consistent that ambition should have no
place in his theory of life. When affairs called for energy and zeal,
no one was more energetic and unresting than Maecenas ; but hi
hours of ease he almost went beyond the effeminacy of a woman.*
Saturated with the best culture of his day, he took an enlightened
interest in literature. Of the circle of men of letters which he
formed around himself there will be an occasion to speak in a
future chapter.

* This Is the expression of Velleius Paterculus : otio ac mollitiis ptene ultra
feminamfluens.

4 FROM THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM. CHAP. I.

Such were the men who helped Caasar to win the first place in
the state ; and who, when he had become the ruler of the world,
devoted themselves to his service without rivalry or jealousy.
Agrippa became consul for the second time in 28 B.O., with the
triumvir for his colleague; and his friendship with Caesar was
soon cemented by a new tie. He married Marcella, the daughter
of Octavia, Caasar's sister, by her first husband, C. Marcellus.*

§ 3. The battle of Actium decided between Antonius and
Cassar. But it also decided a still greater question. It decided be-
tween the East and the West. For the Roman world had been
seriously threatened by the danger of an Oriental despotism. The
policy of Antonius in the East, his connection with Cleopatra, the
idea of making Alexandria a second Rome, show that if things had
turned out otherwise at Actium, Egypt would have obtained an
undue preponderance in the Roman State, and the empire might
have been founded in the form of an Eastern monarchy. Caesar
recognised the significance of Egypt, and took measures to prevent
future danger from that quarter. It was of course out of the
question to allow the dynasty of Greek kings to continue. But
instead of forming a new province, Caesar treated the land as if he
were, by the right of conquest, the successor of Cleopatra, and of
Ptolemy Csesarion, whom he had put to death. He did not, indeed,
assume the title of king, but he appointed a prefect, who was
responsible to himself alone, and was in every sense a viceroy ; and,
as the lord of the country, he enacted that no Roman senator
should visit it without his special permission. The first prefect of
Egypt was C. Cornelius Gallus, with whose help Caesar had
captured Alexandria. The inhabitants of Egypt were debarred
from the prospect of becoming Roman citizens, and no local
government was granted to the cities. f

The treasures of Cleopatra enabled Cassar to discharge many
pressing obligations. He was able to pay back the loans which he
had incurred in the civil wars. He was able also to give large
donatives to the soldiers and the populace of Rome. The abundance
of money which the conquest of Egypt suddenly poured upon
Western Europe helped in no small measure to establish a new
period of prosperity. After many dreary years of domestic war
and financial difficulties, men now saw a prospect of peace and
plenty.

But, above all, the booty of Egypt enabled Csesar to satisfy the
demands of 120,000 veterans. Immediately after Actium he had
discharged all ihe soldiers who had served their time, but without

* Octavia's second husband was M.I f See below, Chap. VTL $ 8.
Antonius.

31-27 B.C. SETTLEMENT OF CESAR'S VETERANS. 5

giving them the rewards which they had been led to expect. These
veterans belonged both to Caasar's own army and to that oi
Antonius which had capitulated. Seeing that they would be of
little importance after the conclusion of the civil wars, they made a
stand as soon as they reached Italy, and demanded that their
claims should be instantly satisfied. Agrippa, who had returned
with the troops, and Maecenas, to whom Caasar had entrusted the
administration of Italy, were unable to pacify the soldiers, and it
was found necessary to send for Csesar himself, who was wintering
in Samos. The voyage was dangerous at that season of the year,
but Cassar, after experiencing two severe storms, in which some of
his ships were lost, reached Brundusium safely. He succeeded in
satisfying the veterans, some with grants of land, others with
money ; but his funds were quite insufficient to meet the claims of
all, and he had to put off many with promises. He thus gained
time until the immense Egyptian booty gave him means to fulfil
his obligations.

The greater number of the veterans were of Italian origin, and
wished to receive land in their native country. As most of the
Italians had supported the cause of Cassar, it was impossible to do on
a large scale what had been done ten years before, and eject proprietors
to make room for the soldiers. But the veterans of Antonius, who
had on that occasion been settled in the districts of Ravenna, Bononia,
Capua, &c., and sympathized with his cause, were now forcibly turned
out of the holdings which they had forcibly acquired. They were,
however — unlike the original proprietors — compensated by assign-
ments of land in the provinces, especially in the East, where the civil
war had depopulated many districts. But the land thus made
available was not nearly enough, and Caasar was obliged to purchase
the rest. In B.C. 30 and B.C. 14, he spent no less than 600
million sesterces (about £5,000,000) in buying Italian farms for his
veterans. We find traces of these settlements in various parts of
Italy, especially in the neighbourhood of Ateste (Este). After the
conquest of Egypt, the Antonian troops were transferred to the
south of Gaul, and settled there in colonies possessing ius Latinum,
for example, in Nemausus (Nimes).

The wholesale discharge of veterans, as well as the losses sustained
in the wars, rendered a reorganisation of the legions necessary.
The plan was adopted of uniting those legions which had been
greatly reduced iu number with others which had been similarly
diminished, and thus forming new «* double-legions," as they were
called by the distinguishing title of Oemina. Thus were formed
the Thirteenth Gemma, the Fourteenth Gemma, &c.

§ 4. The greater part of the year following the death of Cieo-

6

FKOM THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM.

CHAP. L

patra (Aug., B.C. 30) was occupied by Caesar in ordering the
affairs of the Asiatic provinces and dependent kingdoms. Herod of
Judea was rewarded for his valuable services by an extension of his
territory, and several changes were made in regard to the petty
principalities of Asia Minor.* There was probably some expecta-
tion at Rome that Csesar, in the flush of his success, would attempt
to try conclusions with the Parthian Empire, and retrieve the defeat
of Carrh.ie, before he returned to Italy. Virgil addresses him at this
time in high-flown language, as if he were the arbiter of peace and
war in Asia,f as far as the Indies. But Caesar deferred the
settlement of the Parthian question.

In the summer of 29 B.C. he returned to Italy, where he was
greeted by the senate and the people with an enthusiasm which
was certainly not feigned. There was a general feeling of relief at
the end of the civil wars, and men heartily welcomed Cassar as a
deliverer and restorer of peace. The only note of opposition
had come from a son of M. ^Bmilins Lepidus, the triumvir. The
father lived in peaceful retirement at Circeii, but the son was rash
and ambitious, and formed the plan of murdering Caasar on his
return. He did not take his father into the secret, but his
mother Junia, a sister of Brutus, was privy to it. Maecenas
discovered the conspiracy in good time, and promptly arrested
Junia and her son. Young Lepidus was immediately despatched to
Caesar in the East, and was there executed. But this incident was
of little consequence; Caasar's position was perfectly safe. The
honours which were paid to him would have been accorded with an
equal show of enthusiasm to Antonius, if fortune had declared her-
self for him; but there is little doubt that Caesar was more
acceptable. The senate decreed that his birthday should be
included among the public holidays, and it was afterwards
regularly celebrated by races. His name was mentioned along
with the gods in the Carmen Saliare, and it is probable that, if he
had really wished it, divine honours would have been decreed to
him in Rome, such as were paid to him in Egypt, where he stepped
into the place of the Ptolemies, and in Asia Minor, where he
assumed the privileges of the Attalids. But though he had become
a god in the East, Csesar wished to remain a man in Rome.J He
already possessed the tribunician power § for life; but it was now

J For his worship, subsequently es-
tablished, in the western provinces, see
below, Chap. VI. $$ 5 and 6.

$ The potestas or maeisterial power
which belonaed to a tribune of the plebs
Involved the following important rights •
(1) the power of summoning the plebs

* For these changes, see below,
Chap. VII. $ 5.

f Oeorgics, ii. 170 :

Maxime Csesar

Qui nunc extremis Asiae lam victor in oris
Inbellem avertis RomaniB arcibus In-

31-27 B.O.

THE TRIUMPH OV GMSAEi.

granted again in an extended form. It was also decreed that every
fourth anniversary of his victory should be commemorated by
games (ludi Actiaci) ; and that the rostra and trophies of the
captured ships should adorn the temple of the divine Julius.
Triumphal arches were to be erected in the Eoman Forum and at
Brundusium, to celebrate the victor's return to Italy; and a
sacrifice of thanksgiving was offered to the gods by the senate
and people, and by every private person.

The triumph of Caesar lasted three days (Aug. 13, 14, 15).
The soldiers who had been disbanded returned to their standards
in order to take part in it, and all the troops which had shared
in his victories were concentrated close to Borne. Each soldier
received 1000 sesterces (about £8) as a triumphal gift; and the
Roman populace also received 400 sesterces a head. The triumph
represented victories over the three known continents. The first
days were devoted to the celebration of conquests in Europe; the
subjugation of Pannonia and Dalmatia, and some successes won in
Gaul over rebellious tribes by C. Carrinas during Cesar's absence
in the East. The triumph for Actium, which took place on the
second day, represented a victory over the forces of Asia. The
trophies were far more splendid than those won from the poor
prince* of Illyricum. The poet Propertius describes how he saw
"the necks of kings bound with go'den chains, and the fleet of
Actium sailing up the Via Sacra." Among the kings were
Alexander of Emesa, whom Csesar had deposed after the battle, and
Adiatorix, a Graktian prince, who before the battle had massacred
all the Romans he could lay hands on. Both these captives were
executed after the triumph. But the third day, which saw the
triumph over A frica, was much the most brilliant. Cleopatra had, by
destroying herself, avoided the shame of adorning her conqueror's
triumphal car, but a statue of her was carried in her stead, and her
two young children, Alexander and Cleopatra, represented the fallen
house of Egyptian royalty. Images of the Nile and Egypt were
also carried in the triumphal procession, and the richest spoils, with

even against the will of the patrician
magistrates, and making re olutions in
the assemblies of the tribes ; (2) the power
of hindering the proceedings of other
magistrates, in case he was appealed to
for help, within the first milestone from
the city; (3) the right of interceding
against decrees of the senate and against
the acts of other magistrates ; (4) the right
of coerci'io— that is, of suppressing and
punishing any person who attempted to
hinder him in his acts, or who insulted

him in any way. The tribunician potestat
was hallowed by religious sanctity (sacro*
sancta}\ the tribune's person was invio-
lable. As there was no means of opposing
it except by the intercession of anothei
tribune, or by an appeal (jirovocatio) tc
the comitia centuriata or tributa,lt became
the strongest kind of power in the consti-
tution, and was adopted by the Casars.
both dictator and triumvir, as a support
of their position.

8 FROM THE BATTLE OP ACTIUM. QHAP. I.

quantities of gold and silver coins, were exhibited to the gaze of the
people. The result of the great influx of money into Italy was that
the rate of interest fell from 12 to 4 per cent. In one respect the
order of Caesar's triumph departed from the traditional custom.
His fellow-consul M. Valerius Messalla Potitus, and the other
senators who took part in the triumph, instead of heading the
procession and guiding the triumphator into the city, according
to usage, were placed last of all. This innovation was significant
of the coming monarchy.

On this occasion the buildings, which Julius Cassar had designed
and begun, and which had been completed since his death, were
dedicated, and his own temple was consecrated by his son with
special solemnity. The game of " Troy " was represented in the
Circus Maximus by boys of noble family, divided into two parties,
of which one was commanded by Caesar's stepson, Tiberius Nero,
the future Emperor. A statue of Victory was set up in the Senate-
house. The occasion was further celebrated by games and
gladiatorial combats, in which a Roman senator did not disdain to
take part.

But these festivities were less significant for the inauguration of a
new period than the solemn closing of the temple of Janus, which
had been ordained by the senate, probably early in the same year
(Jan. 11). The ceremonies instituted for such an occasion by King
Numa had not been witnessed for more than two hundred years, for
the last occasion on which the gates of Janus had been shut was at
the conclusion of the First Punic War. Strictly speaking, peace
was not yet established in every corner of the Roman realm. There
were hostilities still going on against mountain tribes hi northern
Spain, and on the German frontier. But these were small matters,
mere child's play, which shrank to complete insignificance by the
side of the Civil War which had been distracting the Roman world
for the last twenty years. Peace (the famous pax Romano) had in
every sense come at length, and it was fitting that the doors of
war should be closed at the beginning of an empire, of which the
saying that " Empire is peace," * was pre-eminently true.

§ 5. The powers which Caasar possessed as a triumvir were uncon-
stitutional, and were, by their nature, intended to be only temporary.
Besides the ordinary imperium domi of a consul and an extra-
ordinary imperium (militise) in the provinces, the triumvir had the
power of making laws and of appointing magistrates, which consti-
tutionally belonged to the comitia of the people. When peace was
restored to the world, it might be expected that Caesar would at once
restore to the people the functions which had been made over to him
* " L' Empire, c'est la paix," a saying of the third Napoleon.

31-27 B.C. THE PAX EOMANA. 9

for a time. It was quite out of the question to restore the state oi
things which had existed before the elevation of Caesar, the Dictator.
The rule of the senate had been proved to be corrupt and incompetent,
and annual magistrates were powerless in the face of a body whose
members held their seats for life. The only way out of the diffi-
culty was to place the reins of government in the hands of one man.
This had been done directly in the case of Caesar the father ; and it
had been the indirect result of the triumvirate in the case of Caesar
the son. But the latter resolved to establish his supremacy on a
constitutional basis, and harmonize his sovranty with republican
institutions. A dictatorship could be created only to meet
some special crisis ; and a " triumvir to constitute the state " was
clearly absurd when the state had once been "constituted."
Neither the office of a dictator nor the powers of the triumvirate
were theoretically suitable to form the foundation of a permanent
government; and the logically-minded Csesar was not likely to
leave the constitutional shape of his rule undefined or to be
content with an inconsistent theory.

He did not, however, at once lay down the triumviral powers
which had been conferred on him by the Lex Titia (43 B.O.).
For a year and a half after his triumph he seems to have remained
a triumvir — or at least in possession of the powers which belonged
to him as triumvir — but it is not clear how far during that time
he made use of those unconstitutional rights. He was consul for
the fifth time in 29 B.C. and again in 28 B.C., and it is probable
that he acted during these years by his rights as consul, as far
as possible, and not by his rights as triumvir. There was, however,
much to be done in Rome and in Italy, that might truly come
under the name of "constituting the state." Two of the most
important measures carried out hi these years were the increase
of the patriciate and the reform of the senate. In 30 B.C. a
law (Lex Saenia) was passed, enabling Csesar to replenish the ex-
hausted patrician class by the admission of new families ; and he
carried out this measure in the following year. In 28 B.O. he
exercised the functions of the censorship, in conjunction with
Agrippa, who was his colleague in the consulship. They not only
held a census, but performed a purgation of the senate, and introduced
some reforms in its constitution.* Csesar also caused all the
measures which had been taken during the civil wars to be repealed ;
but the compass and the eliect of this act are not quite clear (28
B.C.). In the same year he marked his intention to return to the
constitutional forms of the republic by changing the consular fasces,
according to custom, with his colleague Agrippa, and thus acknow-

* See below. Chap. III. $ 3.

10

FROM THE BATTLE OF ACT1UM.

CHAP, r

ledging his fellow-consul to be his equal. He also began to restore
the administration of the provinces to the senate.

In 27 B.C. Caesar assumed the consulate for the seventh time, and
Agrippa was again his colleague. It seems that he had already
partly divested himself of his extraordinary powers,* but the time had
at length come to lay them down altogether, though only to receive
equivalent power again in a different and more constitutional form.
On January 13 he resigned in the senate his office as triumvir and
his proconsular imperium, and for a moment the statement of a
contemporary writer was literally true, that " the ancient form of
the republic was recalled." f And thus Caesar could be described on
coins as " Vindicator of the liberty of the Roman people " (libertatis
P. B. vindex). In the next chapter we shall see in what shape
Csesar and his councillors, while they nominally restored the
republic, really inaugurated an empire which was destined to last
well-nigh fifteen hundred years.

* In his Res Oestee Augustus describes
his restoration of the Republic as follows :
"In my sixth and seventh consulships,
after I had extinguished the civil wars,
having by universal consent become lord
of all, I transferred the republic from
my power into the hands of the senate

and i he Roman people." See Note A. at
end of following chapter.

•{• In the speech which Dion Cassius
puts into his mouth on this occasion,
Caesar says, " I restore to you the armies
and the provinces, the revenues and the
laws " (55. 9).

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE DEFINITION OF OESAR'S
POWER IN 29 AND 28 B.C.

The difficult question as to the legal
position of Caesar after his triumph, and
the powers which he held between his
return to Rome and January 13, 27 B.C.,
has been fully discussed by Herzog (Gte-
schichte und System der romischen Staats-
verfassung, il. p. 130 sqq.). He rejects
the idea, which one would at first sight
infer from the statements of our authori-
ties, that Caesar simply retained the
powers given him by the Lex Titia, and
thinks that if he had done so it would
have seemed a usurpation. (He rightly
dismisses the view of Dion, that the census
was performed by virtue of the inherited
title Imperator, and the divergent state-
ment of Suetonius, that it was by virtue
of a perpetual moi-um legumquc regimen,
specially conferred on him. Augustus
himself expressly states in his Res Gestae

that this regimen of manners and laws
had been oft7. Ted to him, but refused.)
His own view is that after the civil war,
in 29 B.C., the extraordinary powers, which
Caesar held by the Lex Titia. were legal-
ised by a new formal act — a law defining
bis imperium consular^, both as extending
over the provi- ces and the armies, and as
constitutive, wiih inclusion of tbr cen-
sorial function^. There does not seem to
be sufficient evi lence for this combination,
which chiefly rests on the expression of
Augustus(Res Gestse, 6. 13), t,erconsenmm
unire'Sorum [potitus rerum omn]ium.
But whether ther^ was a new lex or not,
; the powers of C*'sar in these years were
I the same as those which he possessed as
| triumvir before 29 B.C.

In regard to the censorial functions
which he is said by Dion to have exercised
in 29 B.C., and which he states hi • self he
exercised in 28 B.C., there is some diffi-
culty. Herzog thinks he cannot have

CHAP. i.

NOTES AND ILLUSTBATIONS.

11

done this as consul; for a census did not
usually extend over two < onsular years ;
and, moreover, Agrippa, who was his
colleague in the census (Dion. ?2. 42), was
aot his colleague in the consulate in 29
B.C. It seems most simple to suppose

that Pion made a mistake about the date,
and that both the census and the purifi-
cation of the senate were carried out in
28 B.C. by the consuls in virtue of the
censorial power, which in the ancient
republic was part of the consular office.

Temple of Mars Oltor.

Augustus crowned (from the Vienna Cameo).
CHAPTER II.

THE PBINCIPATE.

§ 1. The new constitution of Augustus : its first and its final form.
§ 2. The title princeps. § 3. Constitutional theory of the Principate.
Consecration. No designation. The Principate elective, not hereditary.
Mode of election. § 4. Honorary titles. The Princeps has neither
censorial nor consular power. § 5. Style of the imperial name.
Imperator. Cxsar. Augustus. § 6. Insignia and privileges of the
Princeps. Amid Cassaris. Comites.

§ 1. THE task which devolved upon Csesar when he had resigned the
triumvirate and the proconsular power which had been conferred
on him in 43 B.C., was to restore the republic and yet place its
administration in the hands of one man, to disguise the monarchy,
which he already possessed, under a constitutional form, to be a
second Romulus without being a king. He still held the tribunician
power which had been given him for life in 36 B.C.

On January 16, in the year of the city 727, three days after
Caasar had laid down his extraordinary powers, the Roman Empire
formally began. Muuatius Plancus on that day proposed in the senate
that the surname Augustus should be conferred on Caesar in recog-
nition of his services to the state. This name did not bestow any

27 B.C. FIRST FORM OF THE PRINCIPATE. 13

political power, but it became perhaps the most distinctive and
significant name of the Emperor. It suggested religious sanctity
and surrounded the son of the deified Julius with a halo of con-
secration. The actual power on which the Empire rested, the
imperium proconsulare, was conferred upon,* or rather renewed for,
Augustus (so we ma}- now call him) for a period of ten years, but
renewable after that period. This imperium was of the same kind
as that which had been given to Pompeius by the Gabinian and
Manilian laws. The Imperator had an exclusive command over
the armies and fleet of the republic, and his " province " included
all the most important frontier provinces. But this im-perium was
essentially military ; and Rome and Italy were excluded fronf its
sphere. It was therefore insufficient by itself to establish a sovranty,
which was to be practically a restoration of royalty, while it
pretended to preserve the republican constitution. The idea of
Augustus, from which his new constitution derived its special
character, was to supplement and reinforce the imperium by one of
the higher magistracies.

His first plan was to combine the proconsular imperium with the
consulship.! He was consul in 27 B.C., and he caused himself to
be re-elected to that magistracy each year for the four following
years. The consular imperium, which he thus possessed, gave him
not only a locus standi in Rome and Italy, but also affected his
position in the provinces. For if he only held the proconsular impe-
rium he was merely on a level legally with other proconsular
governors, although his " province " was far larger than theirs.
But as consul, his imperium ranked as superior (maius) over that
of the proconsuls. He found, however, that there were drawbacks
to this plan. As consul he bad a colleague, whose power was
legally equal; and this position was clearly awkward for the
head of the state. Moreover, if one consul was perpetual, the
number of persons elected to the consulship must be smaller ; and
consequently there would be fewer men available for those
offices which were only filled by men of consular rank. The
consuls too were regarded as in a certain way representative of
the senate ; and the Emperor, the child of the democracy, might
prefer to be regarded as representative of the people. His thoughts
therefore turned to the tribunate, which was specially the magistracy
of the p> ople. But it would have been more awkward to found

* But see NoteB. at end of this chapter, the name Augustus. Ovid records the

t It is not known whether the imperium
was renewed for C» sar on the same day
on which he restored the republic (Janu-
ary 13) or on January 16, when he received

whole under January 13, in Fasti, i. 589.
Redditaque est omnis populo pro vincia.

nostro
Et tnus Augusto nomine dictus aviu.

14 THE PKINC1FATB. CHAP. n.

supremacy in civil affairs on the authority of one of ten tribunes
than on the powers of one of two consuls. Accordingly Augustus
fell back on the tribunicia potestas, which he had retained, but so
far seems to have made little use of.

In 23 B.C. he gave up his first tentative plan and made the
tribunicia potestas, instead of the consulship, which he resigned
on June 27, the second pillar of his power. The tribunician power
was his for life, but he now made it annual as well as perpetual,
and dated from this year the years of his reign. Thus in a very
narrow sense the Empire might be said to have begun in 23 B.C. ;
in that year at least the constitution of Augustus received its final
form. After this year, his eleventh consulship, Augustus held that
office only twice (5 and 2 B.C.). Subsequent Emperors generally
assumed it more than once ; but it was rather a distinction for the
colleague than an advantage for the Emperor.

But the tribunicia potestas alone was not a sufficient substitute
for the consulare imperium which Augustus had surrendered by
resigning the consulate. Accordingly a series of privileges and
rights were conferred upon him by special acts in 23 B.C. and the
following years. He received the right of convening the senate
when he chose,* and of proposing the first motion at its meetings
(ius primas relationis). His proconsular imperium was defined as
" superior " (maius) to that of other proconsuls. He received the
right of the twelve fasces in Rome, and of sitting between the
consuls, and thus he was equalised with the consuls in external
dignity (19 B.C.). He probably received too the ius edicendi, that
is, the power of issuing magisterial edicts.f These rights, conferred
upon Augustus by separate acts, were afterwards drawn up in a
single form of law, by which the senate and people conferred them
on each succeeding Emperor. Thus the constitutional position of
the Emperor rested on three bases : the proconsular imperium, the
tribuniciaii potestas, and a special law of investiture with certain
other prerogatives.

§ 2. The title imperator expressed only the proconsular and
military power of the Emperor. The one word which could have
expressed the sum of all his functions as head of the state, — rex —
was just the title which Augustus would on no account have
assumed ; for by doing so he would have thrown off the republican
disguise which was essential to his position. The key to the
Empire, as Augustus constituted it, is that the Emperor was a
magistrate, not a monarch. But a word was wanted, which, with-
out emphasizing any special side of the Emperor's power should

* This right, however, might have been I f Perhaps in 19 B.C. (Herzog).
derived from the tribunician power.

23 B.C. MEANING OF THE NAME PRINCEPS.

15

indicate his supreme authority in the republic. Augustus chose
the name princeps * to do this informal duty. The name meant
"the first citizen in the state" — -princeps civitatis — and thus
implied at once supremacy and equality, quite in accordance with
the spirit of Augustus' constitution; but did not suggest any
definite functions. It was purely a name of courtesy. It must
be carefully distinguished from the title princeps senatus. The
senator who was first on the list of the conscript fathers, and had
a right to be asked his opinion first, was called princeps senatus ;
and that position had been assigned to Augustus in 28 B.C. But
when he or others spoke or wrote of the princepsy they did not
mean " prince of the senate," but " prince of the Roman citizens."
The Empire as constituted by Augustus is often called the
Principate, as opposed to the absolute monarchy into which it
developed at a later stage, f The Principate is in fact a stage of
the Empire; and it might be said that while Augustus founded
the Principate, Julius was the true founder of the Empire.

§ 3. According to constitutional theory, the state was still
governed under the Piincipate by the senate and the people. The
people delegated most of its functions to one man, so that the
government was divided between the senate and the man who
represented the people. In the course of time the republican forms
of the constitution and the magisterial character of the Emperor
gradually disappeared ; but at first they were clearly marked and
strictly maintained. The senate possessed some real power;
assemblies of the people were held ; consuls, praetors, tribunes, and
the other magistrates were elected as usual. The Principate was
not formally a monarchy, but rather a " dyarchy," as German writers
have callid it; the Princeps and the senate together ruled the
state. But the fellowship was an unequal one, for the Emperor,
as supreme commander of the armies, had the actual power. The
dyarchy is a transparent fiction. The chief feature of the constitu-
tional history of the first three centuries of the Empire is the
decline of the authority of the senate and the corresponding growth
of the powers of the Princeps, until finally he becomes an absolute
monarch. When this comes to pass, the Empire can no longer
be described as the Principate.

* Cp. Horace. Odes, i. 2. 50 : Hie ames
dici pater atque princeps. In the Eastern
provinces, princeps was translated by
^ye/xwi/. But the. Emperor «as c< m-
monly called pewtAevs a title which
finally became restricted to Roman Em-
perors and Persian kings. Augustus
was rendered In Greek by 2ej3aor6s.

f Ovid, in a well-known line, distin-
guishes the Princeps from the Rex (ffcwtt,
2, 142): "tu (Romulus) domini nomen,
principis ille (Augustus) tenet."
Augustus disliked to be addressed as
d-minus. On the title Princeps, see Note
C. at end of chapter.

16 THE PBINCIPATB. CHAP, it

The Princeps was a magistrate. His powers were entrusted to
him by the people, and his position was based on the sovranty of
the people. Like any other citizen he was bound by the laws, and if
for any purpose he needed a dispensation from any law, he had to
receive such dispensation from the senate. He could not be the ob-
ject of a criminal prosecution ; this, however, was no special privilege,
but merely an application of the general rule that no magistrate,
while he is in office, can be called to account by any one except a
superior magistrate. Hence the Princeps, who held office for life and
had no superior, was necessarily exempted from criminal prosecution.
If, however, he abdicated or were deposed, he might be tried in the
criminal courts. And as Roman Law permitted processes against
the dead, it often happened that a Princeps was tried in the senate
after his death, and his memory condemned to dishonour, or his acts
rescinded. The heavier sentence deprived him of the honour of a
public funeral and abolished the statues and monuments erected in
his name ; while the lighter sentence removed his name from those
Emperors, to whose acts the magistrates swore when they entered
on their office. When a Princeps was not condemned, and when
his acts were recognised as valid, he received the honour of
consecration.

The claim to consecration after death was a significant
characteristic of the Principate, derived from Caesar the Dictator.
He had permitted himself to be worshipped as a god during his life-
time ; and though no building was set apart for his worship, his
statue was set up in the temples of the gods, and he had a flamen
of his own. After his death he was numbered, by a decree of the
senate and Roman people, among the gods of the Roman state,
under the name of divus Julius. His adopted son did not venture
to accept divine worship at Rome during his lifetime ; * he was
content to be the son of a god, divifilius, and to receive the name
Augustus, which implied a certain consecration. But like Romulus,
to whom he was fond of comparing himself, he was elevated to the
rank of the gods after his death. It is worth observing how
Augustus softened down the bolder designs of Cassar in this as
in other respects. Caesar would have restored royalty without
disguise ; Augustus substituted the princeps for the rex. In
Rome, Caesar was a god during his lifetime ; Augustus the son of
a god when he lived, a god only after death.

* The genius Augusti was worshipped did not scruple to speak of Augustus as a

god. Thus Horace writes (Odes, iii. 5. 2) :

at street altars in Rome, and he was as-
sociated with the Lares ; cp. Horace,
Odes, iv. 5. 34 : Et Laribns tuum miscet
numen. See above, Chap. I. $ 4, as to
the Carmen Saliare, Contemporary poets

Praesens divus habebitur Augustus ; and
in another place (Epist., ii. 1. 16) speaks
of the divine honours offered to him:
Present! tibi mature* largimur honores.

23 B.O. THE PRINCEPS A MAGISTRATE. 17

In one important respect the Principate differed from other
magistracies. There was no such thing as designation. The
successor to the post could not be appointed until the post was
vacant. Hence it follows that, on the death of an Emperor, the
Empire ceased to exist until the election of his successor; the
republic was in the hands of the senate and the people during the
interim, and the initiative devolved upon the consuls. The
principle " The king is dead, long live the king," had no applica-
tion in the Eoman Empire.

As a magistracy, the Principate was elective and not hereditary.
It might be conferred on any citizen by the will of the sovran
people; and even women and children were not disqualified by
their sex and age, as in the case of other magistracies. Two, or
rather three, acts were necessary for the creation of the Princeps.
He first received the proconsular imperium and along with it the
name Augustus ; subsequently the tribunician power ; and also
other rights defined by the special Law de imperio. But it must be
clearly understood, that his position as Princeps really depended upon
the proconsular imperium, which gave him exclusive command
of all the soldiers of the state. Once he receives it, he is Emperor ;
the acquisition of the tribunician power is a consequence of the
acquisition of the supreme power, but is not the supreme power
itself. The day on which the imperium is conferred (dies imperil)
marks the beginning of a new reign.

It is important to observe how the proconsular power was
conferred on the Princeps. It was, theoretically, delegated by th«
sovran people, but was never bestowed or confirmed by the people
meeting in the comitia. It was always conferred by the senate,
which was supposed to act for the people.* When the title Im-
perator was first conferred by the soldiers, it required the formal
confirmation of the senate, and until the confirmation took place
the candidate selected by the soldiers was a usurper. On the
other hand the Imperator named by the senate, although legitimate,
had no chance of maintaining his position unless he were also recog-
nised by the soldiers.

The position of the new Princeps was fully established when
he was acknowledged by both the senate and the army. After
Augustus, the proconsular power of the Princeps was perpetual,
and it was free from annuity in any form.

The tribunician power, on the other hand, was conferred by the
people meeting in comitia. It properly required two separate
legal acts — a special law defining the powers to be conferred, and
an election of the person on whom they should be conferred. But

* See Note E. at end of chapter.

i« THE PRINCIPATE. CHAP. n.

these acts were combined in one; and a magistrate, probab'y one
of the consuls, brought a rogation before the comiti-a, both defining
the powers and nominating the person. The bill of course had
to come before the senate first, and an interval known as the
trinum nundinum elapsed between the decree of the sena'e and
the comitia. Hence under the earlier Principate, when such forms
were still observed, the assumption of the tribunician power takes
place some time after the dies imperil. The tnbunirian power was
conferred for perpetuity, but was formally assumed anew every
year, so that the Princeps use<l to count the years of his reign as
the years of his tribunician power.*

But though the Empire was thus elective, in reality the choice
of the new Princeps depended on the senate or the army only in
the case of revolutions. In settled times the Kmi erors chose their
successors, and in their own lifetime caused the objects of their
choice to be invested with some of the marks or functions of
imperial dignity. It was but natural that each Emperor should
try to secure the continuance of the Empire in his own family.
If he had a son, he was sure to choose him as successor ; if only
a daughter, her husband or one of her children. If he had neither
son nor daughter of his own, he usually adopted a near kinsman.
Thus the Empire, though always theoretically elective, practically
tended to become hereditary ; and it came to be recognised that
near kinship to an Emperor founded a reasonable claim to the
succession. This feature was present from the very outset; for the
founder of the Empire himself had first assumed his place on the
political stage as the son and heir of Julius, and no one was more
determined or strove harder to found a d\ nasty than Augustus.

§ 4. Augustus assumed other functions and titles (as well as the
proconsular imperium and the tribunician potestas), but they had no
place in the theory of the imperial constitution. He was named by
the "senate, the knights and the people," pater patrise (2 B.C.), and
subsequent Emperors regularly received this titli'.f He was elected
Pontifex Maximus by the people in 12 B.C. (March 6) after the
death of Lepidus, who had been allowed to retain that office
when he was deprived of his triumviral power. Henceforward
the Chief Pontificate was always held by the Emperors, and formed

* The tribunician year of the Republic
began on the 10th December ; but the
imperial tribunician year counted from the
day on which it w»s bestowed, until the
end of the first century A.D., w hen th^ old
republican practice was introduced. The
ordina y system of dating the year by the

consuls (from Jan. 1) was so much more I the title to .ilomulus

practical that it continued in general use.
f This title was first given to Cicero in
the senate by Catulus. Cp. Juvenal, viii.
244 : Koma patrem patria? Ciceronem libera
duxit. But there is no historical con-
nection between the imperial title and the
compliment paid to Cicero. Livy ascribe

23 B.C. THE PBINCEP8 HAS NOT CENSORIAL FOWEK. 19

one of their standing titles. Augustus also belonged to other
religious colleges. He was not only Pontifex; he was also a
septemvir, a quindecimvir and an augur ; he was enrolled among
the Petioles, the Arvales and the Titii*

Augustus was not a censor, nor did he, as Emperor, possess the
powers of the censor's office, although he sometimes temporarily
assumed them. The re-ison why he refrained from assuming
these powers permanently is obvious. It was his aim to preserve
the form of a republic ami to maintain the senate as an indei en-
dent ^ody. One of the chief functions of the censors was to revise
the list of senators ; they had the power of expunging members
from that body and electing new ones. It is clear that if the
Emperor possessed the rights of a censor, he would have direct
control over the senate, and it would no longer be even nominally
independent.

In 28 B.C., as we have seen, Augustus and Agrippa held a census
as consuls, by virtue of the censorial power which originally belonged
to the consular office. And on the two subsequent occasions on
which Augustus htld a census, once by himself (8 B.C.) and once
in conjunction with Tibeiius (14 A.T>.), he did not assume the title
of censor, but caused consular power to be conferred on him tempo-
rarily by the senate. In 22 B.C. the people proposed to bestow on
Augustus the censorship for life, but he refined the offer, and caused
Paullus jEmilius Lepidus and Munatius Plancus to be appointed
censors. This was the last occasion on which two private citizens
were colleagues in that office. Three times f it was proposed to
Augustus to undertake as a perpetual office "the regulation of
laws and manners " (morum legumque regimen), but he invariably
refus<d. Such an institution would have been as openly subversive
of republican government as royalty or the dictatorship. Neverthe-
less some of the functions of the censor, and especially the census
eqnitum, seem from the very first to have fallen within the
competence of the Pi inceps.

It should be specia ly observed that the Princeps did not possess
consular power, as is sometimes erroneously stated. Occasionally
it was decreed to him temporarily for a special purpose, but it did
not belong to him as Princeps. %

§ 5. While the Emperor avoided the names rex and dictator, he
distinguished himseif from ordinary citizens by a peculiar
arrangement of his personal name. (1) All the Emperors from
Augustus to Hadrian, with three exceptions, § dropped the name oi

* These lesser offices do not appear in I J See Note B. at end of chapter,
his titles. $ Claudius, Nero, and Vitellius,

f 19, 18, and 11 B.C.

20 THE PBINCIPATE. CHAP. n.

their gens. (2) They never designated the tribe to which they
belonged. (3) Most of them adopted the title Imperator as a
prsenomen. This designation had been first used as a constant
title by Csesar the Dictator, being placed immediately after his name
and preceding all other titles. Thus it might have been regarded
as a second cognomen ; and the younger C&ssar claimed it as part of
his father's name, and, to make this clear, adopted it as a praenomen
instead of his own prsenomen Grains.

All the agnate descendants of the dictator bore the name Caesar,
which was a cognomen of the Julian gens. But when the house of
the Julian Caesars came to an end on the death of the Emperor
Gaius, his successor Claudius assumed the cognomen Csesar, and this
example was followed by subsequent dynasties. Thus Csesar came
to be a conventional cognomen of the Emperor and his house.

Augustus was a title of honour ; it did not, like imperator or
consul, imply an office, and hence an Emperor's wife could receive
the title Augusta. But it was not, like Caesar, hereditary ; it had
to be conferred by the senate or people. At the same time it
was distinctly a cognomen ; and it has clung specially to him who
first bore it as a personal name. It was always assumed by his
successors along with the actual power ; and it seemed to express
that, while the various parts of the Emperor's power were in their
nature collegial, there could yet only be one Emperor.

In much later times Augustus and Csesar were distinguished as
greater and lesser titles. The Emperor bore the name Augustus ;
while he whom the Emperor chose to succeed to the throne was
a Cassar. Moreover, there might be more than one Augustus, and
more than one Caesar.

We must carefully distinguish two different uses of Imperator in
the titulary style of the Emperors. (1) As a designation of the
proconsular imperium, it was placed, as we have already seen,
before the name as a pramomen. (2) Imp. with a number,
standing among the titles after the name, meant that he had been
greeted as imperator so many times by the soldiers in consequence
of victories. Yet the two uses were regarded as closely connected.
For the investiture with the proconsular imperium was regarded as
the first acquisition of the name Imperator, so that on the first
victory after his accession the Emperor designated himself as
imperator ii.

The order of names in the imperial style is worthy of notice.* In
the case of the early Emperors, Caesar comes after the name ; for

* The full title of Augustus in the last
year of his reign (14 A.u.)was as follows:
lap. C«WM Dirt F(iliue) Augustus,

Pontif. Max., Cos. xiii., Imp. xx.,
Tribunic. Potestat. xxxvii., P(ater)
P(atrie).

27 B.C.-H A.D. IMPERIAL TITLES AND INSIGNIA. 21

example, Imp. Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus. With Vespasian
begins a new style, in which Caesar generally precedes the propel
cognomen; thus, Imp. Caesar Vespasianus Augustus. Augustus
retained its place at the end.

§ 6. The Princeps had the right of appearing publicly at all
seasons in the purple-edged tosa of a magistrate. On the occasion
of solemn festivals, he used to wear the purple gold-broidered toga,
which was worn by victorious generals in triumphal procession.
And although in Italy he did not possess the imperium militia, he
had the right to wear the purple paludamentum (purpura) of the
Imperator even in Home, but this was a privilege of which early
Emperors seldom availed themselves. The distinctive headdress
of the Princeps was a laurel wreath. As Imperator he wore the
sword; but the sceptre only in triumphal processions. Both in
the senate-house and elsewhere, he sat on a sella curulis ; and he
was attended by twelve lictors, like the other chief magistrates.
His safety was provided for by a bodyguard, generally consisting
of German soldi* rs; and one cohort of the praetorian guards was
constantly stationed at his palace.

Under the Republic the formula of public oaths was couched in
the name of Jupiter and the Penates of the Roman people. Caesar
the Dictator added his own genius, and this fashion was followed
under the Principate. The oath was framed in the name of
Jupiter, those Emperors who had become divine after death,
the genius of the reigning Emperor,* and the Penates. The Princeps
also had the privilege of being; included in the vota or prayers for
the welfare of the state, which it was customary to offer up in the
first month of every year.f And it was regarded as treason to
encroach on either of these privileges — to swear by the genius, or
offer public vows for the safety, of any other than the Emperor.
After the battle of Actium, the birthday of Augustus had been
elevated to a public feast; and hence it became the custom to
celebrate publicly the birthday of every reigning Emperor, and also
the day of his accession.

Like other men of distinction, the Princeps gave morning
receptions, which, however, differed from those of private persons,
in that every person who wished, provided he was of sufficiently
high rank, was admitted. It was part of the policy of Augustus to
treat men of his own rank as peers, and in social intercourse to

* For example, an oath in the reign of
Domitian runs thus : per Jovem et divom
Augustum et divom Claudium et divom
Vetpasianum Augustum et divom Titum
Augustum et genium imp. Ceesarii Do-

mitiani Augusti deosque Penatts. The
Greek word corresponding to genius is

f The day was finally fixed as January %

22 THE FBIKCIPATB. CHAP. n.

behave merely as an aristocrat among fellow-aristocrats. There
was formally no such thing as court etiquette, and the Emperor's
Palatium was merely a private house. But the political difference
which set the Princeps above all his fellow- citizens could not fail
to have its social consequences, however much Augustus wished to
seem a peer among peers. Those persons, whom Augustus
admitted to the honour of his friendship — and they belonged
chiefly to the senatorial, in a few cases to the equestrian ranks-
came to form a distinct, though not officially recognised, body
under the name amid Ccesaris, "friends of Caesar." Prom this
circle he selected his comites or " companions," the retinue which
accompanied him when he travelled in the provinces. The amid
were expected to attend the morning receptions, and were greeted
with a kiss. They wore a ring with the image of the Emperor.
They were received in some order of precedence; and gradually
they came to be divided into classes, according to their intimacy
with the Emperor ; and admission into the circle of amici became
a formal act. To lose the position of a " friend " of Caesar entailed
consequences equivalent to exile. Invitations to dine with the
Emperor were also probably limited to the amid. Thus at the very
beginning of the Principate there were the elements of the elaborate
system of court ceremonial which was developed in later centuries.
The position of the comites was more definitely marked out. They
received allowances, and had special quarters in the camp. They
had also precedence over provincial governors. The distinction of
having been a comes of Caesar is often mentioned on inscriptions
among official honours.

It was not lawful under the free commonwealth to set up in any
public place the image of a living man. The image of the Princeps
might be set up anywhere ; and there were two cases in which it
was obligatory that it should appear, namely hi military shrines,
along with the eagle and the standards, and on coins. Sometimes
it appeared on the standards themselves. In regard to coinage,
Augustus held fast the royal privilege which had been accorded
by the senate to Caesar (in 44 B.C.); and the right of being re-
presented on the money of the realm was exclusively reserved for
the Emperor, or those members of the imperial house on whom he
might choose to confer it.

, u.

1LLUSTKATIONS.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

A.— THE RESIGNATION OF THE
TRIUMVIRATE.

If we had not the statement of Augus-
tus himself (in the words quoted in note,
p. 10), we should have supposed, from the
statements of other writers, that the
surrender of all his extraordinary powers
took place on Jan. 13, B.C. 27. But as he
expressly says, " in my sixth and seventh
consulships," the act of 27 B.C. can have
only been partial, and must have been
preceded by another act of partial sur-
render in 28 B.C. Herzog seems to think
that in mentioning his sixth consulship
Augustus is only thinking of his revival
of the form of exchanging fasces with the
other consul. It might also be suggested
that he meant the annulling of the
arbitrary acts of the triumvirate. Momm-
sen discusses the question in his edition of
the Res Gestae, and calls attention (p. 149)
to the evidence of a coin (Eckhel, 6, 83)
that Augustus had begun the restoration
of the provinces (had actually restored
Asia) to the senate in 28 B.C. Perhaps
this fact is sufficient to explain the
Emperor's language. But one might
venture to conjecture that in 28 B.C.
Augustus resigned the constitutive
powers which belonged to him as trium-
vir—this act might have been marked,
among other things, by the exchange
of the fasces — but retained the procon-
sular imperium ; and that the act of 27
B.C. was the surrender of that imperium
only. The formal statement of Augustus
seems to imply two definite acts.

B.— THE FIRST CONSTITUTION OF
THE PRINCIPATE (27-23 B.C.).

The question arises, of what elements
did the Principate consist in its first pre-
liminary stage between 27 and 23 B.C.?
It is generally agreed that the proconsular
imperium was the most important element
then as later. We know also that the
consulate played a chief part in the con-
stitutional position of Augustus at this
time; for, besides the fact of the iteration
of the consulate each year, we have the
express testimony of Tacitus (Annals,
1, 2: posito triumviri nomine consuUm se
/«raw). But it is not clear whether he

based his civil position on the consulate
alone. For it is conceivable that in these
years too he may have made constitu-
tional use of the tribunicia potestas,
though not in the same measure in wl.ich
he alterwards used it. Again, it is un-
known w hether he interpreted the power
which he possessed as consul in the
sense of the early Republic, as involving
censorial power, or in the sense of the
later Republic as not involving it. Thus
there are several conceivable alternatives.
The Principate, as constitutt d in 27 B.C.,
may have been based on

(1). The proconsular imperium, and
consulate.

(2). The proconsular imperium, and
consulate, and censorial power.

(3). The proconsular imperium, and
consulate and tribunician power.

(4). The proconsular imperium, and
consulate, and censorial power, and
tribunician power-

If Augustus adopted either (2) or (4),
he must have afterwards, by 23 B.C., seen
that the assumption of censorial power
made the formally independ-nt position
of the senate illusory, and accordingly
abandoned it. On the whole it seems
probable that he did not claim censorial
power in these years, and that the trib.
pot. was kept quite in the background.
(See note at end of Chap. I.)

It is not superfluous to point out the
old error — re uted by Mommsen and
now generally abandoned — that Augustus
possessed the potestas consular** for life,
and that this was an integral part of the
Principate. This mistake was due to
Dion Cassius (liv. 10), who probably mis-
int'Toreted a decree wi.ich granted to
Augustus the right of wearing ihe consu-
lar insignia, a totally different matter.
Or the expression " consular power " may
have been used by him to designate cer-
tain consular powers, which had l>een
specially granted to Augustus, as the
ius edicendi, the right of convening the
senate, &c. The silence ot the Monnmen-
tum Ancyranum, us Mommsen has pointed
out, is conclusive, and no later Emperor
ever claimed the potestas c<wsula,' is.

The account given in this chapter of the
Constitution of the Principate rests mainly

24

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

CHAP. n.

on the exposition in Mommsen's Stnatt-
recht (vol. ii.), but with some modifica-
tions. The views of Herzog (Geschichte
und System der romischen Staatsver-
fassung, vol. ii.) have been carefully
studied. A somewhat different, and per-
haps simpler, reconstruction of the first
form of the Principate has been expounded
by Mr. H. F. Pelham (Journal of Philo-
logy, xvii., and article PRINCEPS in Smith's
Diet, of Greek and Roman Antiq.\ and
must be set forth in his own words :

In January 27 B.C., "by a vote of the
senate and people, he (Caesar) was legally
reinvested with the essential elements
of his tormer authority. He was given a
command, limited indeed both in area and
duration, but which yet in both points
was unprecedentedly wide. . . . But had
Octavian rested content with this ' consu-
lare imperium' alone, he would have
been merely a powerful proconsul. . . .
He would have been only the equal and
not the superior of the proconsular gover-
nors of the provinces not included within
the area of his own imperium. Nor could
the old difficulties arising from the separa-
tion between the chief military command
abroad, and the highest magistracies at
home, have failed to reappear. These
disadvantages and difficulties Octavian
escaped by retaining the consulship and
wielding his imperium as consul. . . .
It was a return, in a sense, to the practice
ot the early republic, when the consuls
were at once the highest civil and the
highest military authorities of the state."
According to this view, the Principate
was, in its first form, based entirely on
the consulship. As to the arrangement
of 23 B.C., Mr. Pelhanu proceeds :

" But in B.C. 23 a change was made
which gave to the principate a some-
what different shape. ... On June 27 in
that year, Augustus laid down the consul-
ship His 'consulare imperium,'

with its wide province, he still retained,
but he now held it only pro-consule ; and
it therefore ceased at once to be valid in
Rome and Italy, i.e. within the sphere
assigned to the actual consuls. He further
lost both the precedence (mains impe-
rium) over all other magistrates and pro-
magistrates which a consul enjoyed, and
the various rights in connection with
senate and assembly attached to the con-
sulship. He had, lastly, no further claim
to the consular dignity and insignia.'
These losses were made good by a number

of special measures; but unwilling to
rest his position in Rome on the pro-
consular imperium, Augustus "brought
forward into special prominence his tri-
bunicia potestas. . . . As if to conceal the
startling fact, that there was now in
Rome, by the side of the annual consuls,
a holder of consular imperium, fully their
equal in rank and power at home, and
vested besides with a wide command
abroad, the tribunicia potestas was put
forward as the outward sign and symbol
at least in Rome, of the pre-eminence of
the princeps."

0.— THE ORIGIN OF THE TITLE
PRINCEPS.

It used to be thought that Princeps, as
a name of the Emperor, meant princeps
senatus. This view is now generally
abandoned. It was shown very clearly
by Mr. H. F. Pelham (Journal of Phi-
lology, viii. 323) that Princeps stands for
Princeps Civitatis, a term whicn was
applied by Cicero to Pompey. Princeps
alone, was also applied by Cicero both to
Pompey and to Cassar (cp. adAtt., 8. 9. 4,
and ad Fam., 6. 6. 5), and by Sallust to
Pompey. This view is held by both
Mommsen and Schiller.

Herzog, however (Cksch. u. Syst. der
rom. Staatsv., ii. 134), thinks that the
imperial title princeps was originally
derived from the formal title princeps
senatus and gradually gained a wider
sense. He compares the extension of the
term princeps iuventutis, which from
meaning merely the foremost of the
knights came to have the secondary
meaning of the "heir apparent" (for
which see below, Chap. IV. $ 6).

D.— THE LEX DE IMPERIO.

There is extant on a large bronze
tablet, which Cola di Rienri caused to be
fixed up in the Church of St. John in the
Lateran, part of a law conferring upon
Vespasian certain sovran rights, which
had been before conferred upon his pre-
cessors. The statute was evidently
drawn up according to a fixed formula,
and is clearly an embodiment of the
special measures wMch were passed in
favour of Augustus in 23 B.C. and follow-
ing years. This law is designated by
jurists as the lex de imperio or the lex regia.
Mommsen identifies it with the lex which

CHAP. n.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

26

inverted the Btaperors with the tribunicia
potestat, supposing that the sphere of that
potestas was deiined and extended by a
number of special clauses. This seems
very doubtful. As Herzog observes, it is
hardly conceivable that a jurist would
designate a law conferring trih. pot.
(however amply extended) as a lex de
imperio, as imperium and tribunician
potettas are legally quite distinct con-
ceptions. It seems far more likely that
this lex vested the Princeps with a num-
ber of rights which were not given by his
proconsular imperium and by his tri-
bunician power (cp. Herzog, op. cit., ii.
617-619; and Pelham, Diet. Ant., ii.
485).

The fragment of this highly important
document (Corp. Inscr. I. at., vi. No. 930,
p 167) runs as follows :

"foedusve cum quibus volet face re
liceat, ita uti licuit divo Aug(ustu),
Ti(berio) lulio Ctesari Aug(usto
Tiberioque Claudio Csesari Aug(usto)
Germanico;

utique ei senatum habere, relatio-
nem facere, remittere, senatus con-
sulta per relationem discessionemque
facere liceat, ita uti licuit divo
Aug(usto), Ti(berio) lulio Csesari
Aug(usto), Ti(berio) Claudio Csesari
Angusto Germanico ;

utique, cum ex voluntate auctori-
tateve iussu mandatuve eius pra>sen-
teve eo senatus habebitur, omnium
rerum ius perinde habeatur, servetur,
ac si e lege senatus edictus esset
habereturque ;

utique quos magistratum, potesta-
tem, imperium curationemve cuius
rei petentes senatni populoque Ro-
mano commendaverit, quibusue suf-
fragationem suam dederit, promi-
serit, eoruni comitis quibusque extra
ordinera ratio habeatur ;

utique ei fines pomerii proferre,
promovere, cum ex re publica cense-
bit esse, liceat ita uti licuit Ti(berio)
Claudio Caesari Aug(usto) Germanico ;
utique, qusecumque ex usu reipub-
licae, maiestate divinarum, huma[na]-
rum, publicarum privatarumque re-
rum esse censebit, ei agere, facere ius
potestasque Bit, ita trti divo Aug-
(twto) Tiberioque lulio Csesari Aug-
(usto) Tiberioque Claudio Caesari
Aug(usto) Germanico fuit ;

utique quibus legibus plebeive
9dUB scriptum fuit ne divus Aug(us-

tus) Tiberiusve lulius Caesar Augus-
tus Tiberiusque Claudius Caesar Aug-
(ustus) Gerinanicus teuerentur, iis
legibus plebisque scitis imp(erator)
(aesar Vespasianus solutus sit,
quaeque ex quaque lege, roiatione
divum 'Aug(ustum) Tiberiumve lu-
lium Caesarem Aug(ustum), Tiber!-*
umve Claudium Cassareui Aug(us-
tum) Germanicum facere oportuit, ea
omnia imp(eratori) Caesari Vespasiano
Aug(usto) facere liceat ;

utique quae ante hanc legem roga-
tam acta, gesta decreta imperata ab
imperatore Caesare Vespasiano Aug-
(usto) iussu mandatuve eius a quoque
sunt, ea perinde iusta rataq(ue) sint
ac si populi plebisve iussu act a
essent.

SANCTIO :

Si quis huiusce legis ergo adversus
leges rogationes plebisve scita sena-
tusve consulta fecit, fecerit, sive,
quod eum ex lege rogatione plebisve
scito s(enatus)ve c(onsulto) facere
oportebit non fecerit buius legis ergo,
id ei ne fraud! esto neve quit ob
earn rem populo dare debeto, neve
cui de ea re actio neve iudicatio esto
neve quis de ea re apud [s]e agi sinito. "

E.— THE ELECTION OF THE

PRINCEPS.

In stating that the proconsular im-
perium was conferred exclusively by
the senate, and could not be conferred by
the army, I have adopted the view which
is well defended by Herzog (Gesch. und
Syst. der rom. Staatsverfassung, ii. 610,
s<7.). Momiusen's view, on the contrary, is
that the imperium could legitimately
be conferred either by the army or by the
senate ; in fact that the act merely con-
sisted in the assumption of ihe title of
Imperator by any person called upon to
assume it by either the senate or the
troops ; the senate or troops being sup-
posed equally to represent the people,
and the election by the senate being merely
preferred as more convenient and condu-
cive to the interests of the commonwealth.
But the evidence seems to show that the
proclamation as Imperator and the
assumption of that title constituted a
distinct act from the acquisition of the
proconsular imperium. When the sol-
diers proclaimed a commander Imperator,

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

CHAP. n.

be became thereby a candidate for the
Empire ; but he was not an Emperor, he
was not a Princeps, until be received from
the senate the proconsular imperium ;

and when the proconsular imperium was
granted the tribunieian power followed a?
a matter of course. (Cp. Plutarch, Galba,
10; Dion, 63. 25; Victor, Gees. 37.)

Agripp*.

Head of Livia (from the Museum at Naples>

CHAPTEE III.

THE JOINT GOVERNMENT OF THE PRINCEPS AND SENATE.

1. The proconsular imperium and the tribunician power. § 2. Political
rights which remained to the people. § 3. Constitution of the. senate.
Princeps senatus. Curator actorum sewdus. Senatorial committees.
§ 4. Character of the Dyarchy. § 5. Division ot' power between
Emperor and senate: (1) administrative, (2) judicial, (3) in election
of magistrates, (4) legislative (seri'ttusconsulta, ed>cta, ucta\ (5) finan-
cial (taxes, coinage). The senate as an organ of the government, for
publication. § 6. Magistracies under the Empire. § 7. The ordo
equester as revised by Augustus: (1) its constitution, (2) mode of
admission, (3) tenure for life, (4) the equit'tm probitio, (5; military
organisation, (6) privileges of knights, (7) their service as officers,
(8) their service on the judicial benches ; the four decvrise of indices,

28 GOVERNMENT OF PRINCEPS AND SENATE. CHAP. ra.

(9) division of offices in the state between knights and senators,

(10) elevation of knights to the senate.

SECT. I. — POLITICAL POSITION OP THE PRINCEPS. THE PEOPLE.

§ 1. IN the last chapter it was shown how Augustus established
the Principate, and we became acquainted with the constitutional
theory of this new phase of the Roman republic, which was really
.i, disguised monarchy. We also learned the titles and insignia
which were the outward marks of the ambiguous position of the
monarch who affected to be a private citizen. It remains now to
examine more closely his political powers, and see how the govern-
ment of the state was divided between the Princeps and the senate
according to the system of Augustus.

The proconsular imperium of the Emperor differed from that of
the ordinary proconsul in three ways. Firstly, the entire armj
stood under the direct command of the Emperor. Secondly, his
imperium was not limited (except in the case of Augustus himself)
to a special period. It was given for life. And thirdly, it not
only extended directly over a far larger space — the Emperor's
" province " including a multitude of important provinces — than that
of an ordinary proconsul, but being mains or superior above that of
all others, it could be applied in the senatorial provinces which
they governed ; and thus it really extended over the whole empire.
As a consequence ot his exclusive military command, it devolved
upon the Emperor exclusively to pay the troops, to appoint officers,
to release soldiers from service.* The soldiers took the military
oath of obedience to him. He alone possessed the right of levying
troops, and anyone who levied troops without an imperial com-
mand, committed an act of treason. He granted all military
honours except triumphs and the triumphal ornaments. Moreover,
while an ordinary proconsul lost his imperium on leaving his
district, the Emperor lived in Rome without surrendering tht
imperium, although Rome and Italy were excepted from its
operation. The Emperor possessed also supreme command at sea,
and had the prsetorian guards, formed of Italian volunteers, at his
disposal, as a stationary garrison at Rome. In connection with the
proconsular power is the sovran right which the Emperor possessed
of making war and peace ; but this was probably conferred upon
Augustus by a special enactment, and was afterwards one of the
prerogatives defined by the Lex de imperio.

The rights which the Princeps derived from the tribunician
power, as such, were as follows : (1) He had the right to preside on

* Hence veterans were called in later times vettrani Augiuti.

CHAP. in. THE COMITIA UNDER THE EMPIRE, 29

the bench of the tribunes of the people. (2) He had the right ot
intercession,— which he often practised against decrees of the
Senate. (3) He possessed the tribunician coercitio. His person
was inviolable; and not only an injury, but any indignity in act
or speech offered to him was punishable. (4) He had also the
right to interfere for the prevention of abuses, and to protect the
oppressed. (5) It is possible that his power to initiate legislation
may partly come under this head.

Besides these powers springing from the tribunician potestas, the
Princeps possessed, as we have seen, other prerogatives defined by
the Lex de imperio.

§ 2. Though the sovran people was now represented by the
Princeps, it had still some political duties to perform itself. The
popular assemblies still met, elected magistrates, and made laws.
The following points are to be observed.

(1) Augustus formally deprived the people of the judicial powers
which had belonged to it.

(2) The comitia tributa continued to be a legislative assembly,
and the right of making laws was never formally taken away from
it. But by indirect means, as will presently be explained, legis-
lation almost entirely passed into the hands of the Emperor ; and
after the reign of Tiberius laws were not made by the comitia.
For a long time, however, the form of conferring the tribunician
power in an assembly of the people, was maintained. The as-
sembly for this purpose was called comitia tribunicise potestatis.

(3) The election of magistrates was the most important function of
the popular assemblies under Augustus. Constitutionally, the consuls
and praetors were elected in the comitia of the centuries, while the
tribunes, sediles and quaastors were chosen in the comitia of the
tribes. But after the foundation of the Empire the distinction
between the comitia centuriata and the comitia tributa seems to
have disappeared ; and it is only safe to speak generally of " an
assembly of the people."

The chief function of the comitia curiata had been to pass leges
de imperio; and there was room for it to exercise its powers on
the five or six occasions on which the proconsular imperium was
conferred on Augustus. But it is not clear whether on these
occasions an assembly of the people was consulted at all; much
less whether, if so, the assembly took the special form of a curiate
assembly.

But whatever may have been the theory, and however tenderly
republican forms were preserved by Augustus, the people practically
lost all its political power. And this was quite right. In ancient
times, before the introduction of representative government, popular

30 GOVERNMENT OF PRINCE PS AND SENATE CHAP, m

assemblies worked very well for governing a town and a small
surrounding territory, but were quite unsuitable for directing or
deciding the policy of a great empire. Moreover, with ext< nd d
franchise, it was impossible that all those who weie entitled to
vote in the assemblies could avail themselves of the privilege; and,
as a matter of fact, the comitia in the later republic \\ere chiefly
attended by the worst and least responsible voters, and were often
the scenes of riot and bloodshed.

SECT. II. — THE PRINCEPS AND SENATE.

§ 3. The government of the Empire was divided between the
Emperor and the senate, and the ] osition of the senate was a very
important one. Augustus made some changes in it* constitution.
The number of the senate had been raised by Julius Ca?sar to nine
hundred; Augustus reduced it again to six hundred. He also fixed
the property qualification for senators at 1,000,000 sesterces
(about £8,000). Those who hud held the office of quaestor had,
as under the Republic, the right of admission 1o the order, and the
age was definitely fixed at twenty-five. The semtorial classes
were still determined by official rank (consulate, praetorians, &c.).
Thus the constitution of the senate formally depended on the
people, as the people elected the magistrates. The influence of the
Emperor, however, was exerted in two ways. (1) The Emperor
was able to influence the election of magistrates in the popular
assembly (see below, § 5 (2) ), and (2) he coull assume the powers
of censor, and perform a lectio seriatus. Augustus puriried ihe
senate on several occasions.* The censor, or he who possessed
the censorial power, under the Principal — always (after 22 B.C.),
though not necessarily, the Princeps himself with or without a
colleague — could not only place by adlectio a non-senator in the
senate; but could ass gn him a place in a rank higher than the
lowest. In fact, adlection among the qnsestoriatis (the lowest clas<)
was uncommon ; adlection eirher into the tribunician or into the
praetorian class was the rule. Adl< ction into, the highevst rank
of all, the consulates, wa< practised by Caesar the Dictator, but
not by Caesar the first Princeps or any of his successors up to the
third century. When it became usual, as it did before the death
of Augustus, to elect half-yearly instead of annual consuls, the
influence which the Emperor could exert at the elect ons gave him
much of the power which Caesar the Dictator exerted by adlectio
inter consulares. A list of the senate was made up every year.

* See above, Cbap. II. $ 8.

CHAP. m. THE SENATORIAL CAREER. 31

The Emperor also exerted a great influence on the constitution
of the senate in another way. Admission to the senate in the
ordinary course depended on the qusestorship ; .and the quaestorship
depended on the vigintivirate. The rule was that only those who
belonged to the senatorial rank could be candidates for the
vigintivkate. Here adlection could not come in ; but the Emperor
assumed the right of admitting as candidates for the vigintivirate
persons on i side the senatorial class, by bestowing upon them the
latns davus. Thus a young knight, not born of a senatorial family,
might, by the Emperor's favour, enter on a senatorial career and
become a member of the senate. The poet Ovid, who by birth
belonged to the equestrian order, is a well-known example. The
Emperor seems to have also had the power of granting a dispensa-
tion which allowed persons who had not been vigintiviri to become
quaestors. It should be observed that in the senatorial career
(cursus honorum) military bervice (generally for a year in one
legion) was necessary. The usual steps were (1) vigintivirate,
(2) military tribunate,* (3) qusestorship, (4) aedileship or tribunate,
(5) praetorsh ip, (6) consulate. Hence the vigintiviral offices are
called by Ovid " the first offices of tender age." f

The Priuceps was himself not only a senator, but the " Prince of
the senate;" his name stood first on the list of senators, and he
possessed the right of voting first. He did not, however, adopt
princeps senatus as one of his titles, as it was his policy rather to
distingui>h himself from than to identify himself with the senate.
Special clauses of the lex de imperio conferred upon him further
rights in regard to the transactions of that body. He had the
rights of summoning the senate — a right which he might have
claimed by virtue of the tribunician power itself, — and of intro-
ducing bills (relatio) either orally or, in case of his absence, by
writing, the proposal being couched in the form of an oratio (or
litterse) ad senatum. His tribunician power gave him the right,
as we have already seen, of cancelling senatusconsulta. The
reports of the transactions in the curia were always laid before
Augustus when he was not present himself, and he appointed a
special officer, as h'S representative, to see that the reports were
drawn up in full and nothing important omitted. This officer was
called curator actorum (or ab actis) Senal-us.

Augustus introduced the practice of forming senatorial committees
to consult beforehand, in conjunction with himself, on measures
whii-h were to come before the senate. They consisted of one
magistrate from each college and fifteen senators chosen by lot every

* See below, $ 1, (1).

f Tristia, v. 10. 33 : Tenene primes aetatis honores.

32 GOVERNMENT OF PKINCEPS AND SENATE. CHAP, in

six months, and formed a sort of " cabinet council." In the last
year of his life, when, owing to his weakness and advanced age, he
could no longer appear in the curia, a small senate was empowered
to meet in his house and pass resolutions in the name of the whole
senate. This body consisted of his son, his two grandsons, the
consuls in office and the consuls designate, twenty senators chosen
for a year, and other senators whom the Emperor himself selected
for each sitting. This political consilium was no part of the
constitution, and was in fact, under the early Principate, only
adopted by Augustus himself and his successor Tiberius. It must
be carefully distinguished from the judicial consilium, which will
be mentioned below.

§ 4. It has been already mentioned that the joint rule of the
Empire by the Emperor and the senate is sometimes called a
dyarchy. It was a dyarchy that might at any moment become
openly, as it was virtually, a monarchy. For the Emperor
possessed the actual power through his control of the army, and ii
he had chosen to exert force he might have destroyed the political
existence of the senate. But the change of the dyarchy into
a monarchy was wrought gradually, and was partly due to the
incompetence of the senate, which invited the interference of the
sovrans. The mains imperium was changed by degrees into the
direct rule of those provinces which were not part of the Emperor's
proconsular " province." But Augustus was thoroughly in earnest
in giving to the senate a distinct political position and substantial
powers. He carefully abstained from interfering in the provinces
which were not within his imperium. He was a man of com-
promise, and the constitution which he framed was intended to
be a compromise between the democratic monarchy, which as
the son of Julius he really represented, and the aristocracy. He
was anxious to wipe out the memory of the civil wars and to
have it forgotten that he had been the champion of the democracy.
While he continued to bear the name of the divine Julius, he seems
not to have cared to dwell on the acts of the great Dictator ; and it
has often been noticed how rarely the poets of the Augustan age
celebrate the praises of Julius Caesar. We may safely say that no
statesman has ever surpassed Augustus in the art of withholding
from political facts their right names.

There are many points in the Augustan system which are not
p'ain in their constitutional bearings. But the general lines are clear
enough. The careful balancing between the rights and duties of
the two political powers produced some artificial arrangements
which could not last, and which were soon altered, either formally
or tacitly, at the expense of the senate. But the main principle of

CHAP. in. ADMINISTRATION AND JURISDICTION. 33

the system founded by Augustus — the fiction of the independent and
co-ordinate government of the senate— was not entirely abandoned
for three centuries.

§ 5. The division of the labours and privileges of government
between the senate and the Emperor may be considered under five
heads: administration, jurisdiction, election of magistrates, legis-
lation, and finances.

(1) Most of the administrative functions, which the senate dis-
charged under the Kepublic, especially hi its later period, did not
belong to that body by constitutional right, but were acquired at
the expense of the supreme magistrates, to whom they truly
belonged. Many of these powers were confirmed to it under the
Empire.

a. The powers which the senate had exercised in the sphere of
religion, such as the suppression of foreign or profane rites, it con-
tinued to exercise in the imperial period.

b. The rights of making war and peace, and negotiating with
foreign powers, were taken away from the senate; but in unim-
portant cases the Emperor sometimes referred foreign embassies to
that body.

c. The authority of the senate in the affairs of Italy continued
unimpaired.

d. The affairs of Home were at first entirely under the manage-
ment of the senate, but the incompetent administration of that
body soon demanded the intervention of the Emperor.

e. The provinces were divided into imperial and senatorial;*
and the administration of the latter was in the hands of the senate.
But the Emperor had certain powers in the senatorial provinces,
as will be explained in a later chapter. On the other hand,
the senate had a small hold on the imperial provinces (except
Egypt), in so far as the Emperor appointed only senators as his
governors.

(2) The senate, as the council of the chief magistrates, sometimes
exercised judicial functions under the Republic, as for example in
the case of the Bacchic orgies (186 B.C.). But such cases were only
exceptional. Augustus made the senate a permanent court of
justice, in which the consul acted as the presiding judge. This
court could try all criminal cases ; but in practice only important
causes, in which people of high rank were involved, or in which no
specific law was applicable, came before it. The Emperor could
influence this court in two ways, (1) as he was himself a member
of it, and (2) by the riiiht of intercession, which he possessed in
virtue of his tribunician power.

* See below. Chap. VL

34 GOVEKNMENT OF PRINCEPS AND SENATE. CHA! m.

Besides the court of the consul, in which the senate acted as jury,
the e was the court of the Emperor. He could pass judgment with-
out a jury, though he generally called in the aid of assessors, who
were called his consilium, a distinct body from the political
consilium mentioned above (§ 3). Every case might come before
his court as before that of the senate. But practically he only
tried cases of political importance or in which persons of high
position were involved.

It lay in the nature of things that in these two new courts only
special and important causes were tried. Ordinary processes in
Rome and Italy were decided, as in former days, by the ordinary
courts of the praetors (quaestiones perpetuse), who still continued to
exercise their judicial functions. But senators were now entirely
excluded from the bench of indices,* who appear to have been
nominated by the Emperor.

In the provinces justice was administered by the governors, but
they had no jurisdiction over Roman citizens, unless it was specially
delegated to them by the Emperor. Roman citizens could always
appeal from the provincial courts to the higher courts at Home.
The appeUatio to the Princeps seems to have been made legal by a
measure of 30 B.C. On the principle of the division of power
between senate ami Princeps, appeals from the decrees of the
governors of senatorial provinces should have been exclusively
directed to the sena'e. But on the strength of his imperium
mains the Emperor often received appeals from senatorial as well
as from imperial provinces. Appeal could only be made against
the sentence of an official to whom judicial power had been
delegated, it could not be made directly against a jury; but it
could be made against the decree of the magistrate which appointed
the jury.

(3) Under Augustus the senate had no voice in the election of
magistrates. The Emperor was himself able to control the elec-
tions in the comitia in two ways. (1) He had the right to test
the qualification of the candidates and conduct the proceedings
of the election. This right regularly belonged to the consuls. But
when Augustus set aside the consulate for the tribunician power in
23 B.C., it seems that he reserved this right by some special clause.
He was thus able to publish a list of candidates, and so " nominate "
those whom he wished to be elected. He used only to nominate
as ma y as there were vacancies. (2) He had the riy;ht of com-
mendation (commtndatio or suffragatio). That is, he could
name certain persons as suitable to fill certain offices ; and the^e
candidates recommended by the R\\i\mw (candidati principis) were
* See below. $7 (8>.

CHAP. in.

LEGISLATION.

85

returned as a matter of course. The highest office, however, the
consulate * was excepted from the right of commendation.

(4) In regard to legislation the senate was theoretically in a
better position under the Empire than under the Republic.
Originally arid strictly it had no power of legislation \\hatever.
The decisions of the senate, embodied in senatusconsulta, did not
constitutiona'ly become law until tbey weie approved and passed
by an assembly of the people, But practically they came to have
legal force. The confirmation of the people came to be a mere
form, and sometimes the form was omitted. It is possible that it
was omitted in the case of the decree which conferred the imperium
on Augustus.

Under Augustus the senate became a legislative body and in this
respect took the place of the assembly of the people. From it and
in its name issued the laws (stnatusconsultu} which tlie Emperors
wished to enact ; just as the laws (leges) proposed by the republican
magistrates were made by the people.

The senate alone had the power of passing laws to dispense
from the operation of other laws,f and the Emperor himself, who
was bound by the laws like any other citizen, had to resort to it for
tl is purpose. For example, in 24 B.C. a senatusconsultum freed
Augustus Irom the Cincian law which fixed a maximum for
donations. rl he special exception of particular persons from the law
which defined a least age for holding the magistracies, was at first
a prerogative of the senate, but the Princeps giadually usurped it.
To the senate also belonged exclusively the right of decreeing a
triumph, of consecrating or condemning the Princeps after death,
and of licensing colleyia.

The Princeps had no direct right to make laws, more than a
consul or a tribune. Like these magistrates, he had by virtue of
his tribunician power the right to propose or introduce a law at the
comitia, for the people to pass. But this form of initiating
legislation was liitle used, and was entirely given up by the suc-
cessor of Augustus. It would seem tl at it did not harmonize with
the monarchical essence of the Principate. It placed the Princeps
on a level with the other magistrates, and perhaps it recognised too
openly the sovran right of the people, which, in point of fact, the
Emperor had usurped. But formally the Princeps had no right to
make laws himself, and thus Augustus as Princeps was less
powerful than Cassar as triumvir. But the lestraint was evaded in

* This is true, at all even's, for the
first two Emperors. Commendation for
the consulate seems to have been intro-
duced bj the reign of Nero.

f This applies to the early period ; bun
at the end of the first century A.D. we
flnd the Emperors granting dispensa-
tions.

36 GOVERNMENT OF PRINCEPS AND SENATE CHAP, m

several ways, and as a matter* of fact the Emperor was the law-
giver. By special enactments he was authorised to grant to
hoth corporations and individuals rights which were properly
only conferred by the comitia. It was the Princeps who founded
colonies and gave them Roman citizenship. It was he who be-
stowed upon a subject community the dignity of ius Latinum
or a Latin community to full Roman citizenship. It was quite
logical that these powers should be transferred to the Princeps,
in his capacity of Impevator, as sovran over the provinces and
disi enser of peace and war, and maker of treaties. He also used
to define the local statutes for a new colony. He had the right to
<>rant Roman citizenship to soldiers at all events, perhaps also to
others.

Apart from these leges datae, which were properly comitial laws,
the most important mode of imperial legislation was by "con-
stitutions," which did not require the assistance of either senate or
comitia. These imperial measures took the form either of (1;
edicts, which as a magistrate the Princeps was specially em-
powered to issue; or of (2) acta (decreta or epistolsi), decisions
and regulations of the Emperor which primarily applied only to
special cases, but were generalised and adopted as universally binding
laws. The validity of the imperial acta was recognised in a special
clause of the lex de imperio, and the oath taken by senators and
magistrates included a recognition of their validity. But their
validity ceased on the death of the Princeps, and this fact
illustrates the important constitutional difference between the
Principate and monarchy.

(5.) The financial system of the state was modified by the
division of the government between the Emperor and the senate.
There were now two treasuries instead of one. The old serarium
Saturni was retained by the senaoe. Under the Republic the
xrarium was under the charge of the qusestors, but by Augustus
the duty was transferred to two prastors, 23 B.C. (prxtores serarii).
The Emperor's treasury was called the^scws ; * and from it he had
to defray the costs of the provincial administration, the main-
tenance of the army and fleets, the corn-supply, &c. It is to be
observed that provincial territory in the imperial provinces was now
regarded as the property, not of the state, but of the Emperor ;
and therefore the proceeds derived from the land-taxes went into
the fiscus. From a strictly legal point of view the fiscus was as
much the private property of the Emperor as the personal property

* The name, was probably not applied In
this technical sens • as early a-* Augustus.
It perhaps was introduced about ihe time

of Claudius, but it is
amicipatetheu8age.

convenient to

CHAP. in.

^EEARIUM AND FISCUS.

37

which he inherited (patrimonium) or acquired as a private citizen
(res privata). But at first the latter was kept apart from the
fiscus, which belonged to him in his political capacity. His personal
property, however, soon became looked upon, not indeed as fiscal,
but as in a certain sense imperial (cro \\n-property, as we should
say), and devolving by right on his successor.

The expenses which the eerariwn was called upon to defray
under the Principate were chiefly (1) public religious worship,
(2) public festivals, (3) maintenance of public buildings, (4) oc-
casional erection of new buildings, and (5) construction of public
roads in Rome and Italy, to which, however, the fisc also con-
tributed. Indeed it is impossible to distinguish accurately the
division between the two treasuries.

In the senatorial .provinces the taxes were at first collected on
the farming system, which had prevailed under the Republic, but
this system was abandoned before long, and finally the collection
of the taxes in the senatorial as well as the imperial provinces
was conducted by imperial officers. But the tendency was to
consign the duty of collecting the taxes to the communities them-
selves, and in later times this became the system universally.*

In the arrangemenis for minting money also a division was made
by Augustus between Emperor and senate. At first (27 B.C.) both
senate and Emperor could issue gold and silver coinage, at the
expense of the serarium and the imperial treasury respectively.
Copper coinage ceased altogether for a time. But when copper was
again issued about twelve years later, a new arrangement was made.
'1 he Princeps reserved for himself exclusively the coining of gold
and silver, and gave the coining of copper exclusively to the senate.
This was an advantage for the senate and a serious limit on the
power of the Princeps. For the exchange value of the copper
always exceed- d the vnlue of the metal, and thus the senate had
the power, which the Princeps did not possess, of issuing an .un-
limited quantity of credit-money. In later times we shall see that
the Emperors could not resist the temptation of depreciating the
value of silver and thus assuming the same privilege.

One of the most important functions of the senate under the
Emperors was that it served as an organ of publication, and kept
the public in communication with the government. The Emperor
could communicate to the senate important events at home or
abroad, and though these communications were not formally public,f

* For taxes and sources of state income
see Note A. at en" of chapter.

f The publication of the acta senatus,
or proceedings of the senate, which seems

to have been first introduced in 59 B.C.,
was abolished by Augustus. For the
actadiurna, see Note B. at end of chap-
ter.

38 GOVERNMENT OF PEINCEPS AND SENATE. CHAP. m.

they reached the public ear. It was usual for a new Princeps on
his accession to lay before the senate a programme of his intended
policy, and this was of course designed for the benefit of a much
larger audience than that assembled in the Curia.

SECT. III. — THE PRINCEFS AND THE MAGISTRATES.

§ 6. We have seen that the republican magistrates continued to
be electe«l under the Empire, and they were still supposed to
exercise their functions indepijnden'ly. Under the dictatorship of
Julius Caesar, tliey had been subject to the mafus imperium of the
dictator ; but it was not so under the Prineipate. The Princeps
has no mains imperium over them, as he has over the proconsul
abroad. His power is only co-ordinate, but on the other hand it is
quite independent.

The dignity of the consulate was maintained, and it was still
a coveted post. Indeed new, though reflected, lustre seemed to
be shed on the supreme magistracy by the face that it was the only
magistracy which the Princeps deigned occasionally to hold himself.
To be the Emperor's coll^a^ue was a great distinction indeed. The
consuls still give their name to the year of their office, and they
ret dned the right of conducting and controlling the elections in
the popular assemblies. It has already been mentioned that a new
senatorial court was instituted, in which they were the presiding
judges. Augustus al-o assigned the consuls some new duties in
civil jurisdiction. But he introduced the fashion of replacing the
consuls who entered upon office in January by a new pair of
consules suffecti at the end of six months. This custom, however,
was not definitely legal sed, and was sometimes not observed. In
later times four-monthly consulates were introduced,* and later
still two-monthly, f

The number of prsetors had been increased to sixteen by Julius
Caesar. Augustus at first reduced the number to eigjht ; he then
added two prsetores serarii ; J afterwards he increased them again to
sixteen, but finally fixed the number at twelve. The chief duties
of the prsetors were, as before, judicial. But Augustus assigned to
them the obligation of celebrating public games, which formerly
had devolved upon the consuls and the sediles.

A college of ten tribunes was still elected every year, but the
office became unimportant, and the chief duties of a tribune were
municipal.! The asdiles also lost many of their functions.

* After Nero. j $ But they otill retained and Bome-

f By Hadrian. times exercised the ius auxilii and inter-

t See above, $ 5 (6). | cestio.

CHAP. HI. THE REPUBLICAN MAGISTRACIES. 39

Augustus divided the city of Rome into fourteen regions, over
each of which an overseer or prefect presided ; these overseers were
chosen from the praetors, sediles, and tribunes.

The qusestorship was a more serious and laborious office. Sulla
had fixed the number of qusestors at twenty ; Julius Caesar raised it
to forty ; Augustus reduced it again to twenty. Quaestors were
assigned to the governors of senatorial provinces ; the proconsul of
Sicily had two. Two quaestors were at the disposal of the Emperor,
to bear communications between him and the senate. The consuls
had four qusestors. and these were two qusestores urbani.

This magistracy had an importance over and above its proper
functions, in that it qualified for admission into the senate. Thus
as long as the quaestors were elected by the comitia, the people had
a direct voice in the formation of the senate ; and thus, too, the
Emperor, by his right of commendation already mentioned, exercised
a great though indirect influence on the constitution of that body.

The vigmtivirate was held before the qusestorship. It comprised
four distinct boards: the tresviri capitales, on whom it devolved to
execute capital sentences ; the tresviri monetales, who presided at
the mint ; the quatuorviri mis in urbe purgandis, officers who looked
after the streets of Rome ; and the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis,
who were now appointed to preside in the centumviral courts.

The Republican magistrates formed a civil service and executive
for the senate. The Princeps had no such assistance at his disposal
As a magistrate, he was supposed, like a consul or a prastor, to do
everything himself, The personal activity, which is presupposed
on the part of the Princeps, is one of the features which distinguish
the Principate from monarchy. It followed, as a consequence of
this theory, that all the officials, who carried out the details of
administration for which the Emperor was responsible, were not
public officers, but the private servants of the Emperor. A freed-
man fulfilled duties which in a monarchy would devolve upon a
secretary of state. The Emperor had theoretically a perfect right
to have appointed, if he chose, freedmen, or citizens of any rank, as
governors in the provinces which he was supposed to govern him-
self. It was due to the sound policy of Augustus and his self-
control that he made it a strict rule, which his successors main-
tained, only to appoint senators, and in certain cases knights, to
those posts. He also voluntarily defined the qualification of
equestrian rank for the financial officers, procwratores Augusti,
who represented him in the provinces.* But the position of the
knights must be more fully explained.

* Seebelow,$ 7. (9), and Chap. VI., $3.

40 GOVEENMENT OF PRINCEPS AND SENATE. CHAP. m.

SECT. IV— THE EQUITES.

§ 7. The equestrian order was reorganised by Augustus, and
altered both in its constitution and in its political position.

(1) Constitution. In the early Republic the equites were the
citizen cavalry, who were provided with horses for their military
service at public cost. But in the later Republic there had come to
be three classes of equites ; those who were provided with public
horses (eques Romanus equo publico), those who provided their own
horses, and those who by estate or otherwise were qualified for
cavalry service but did not serve. The two last classes were
not in the strictest speech Roman knights, and they were abolished
altogether by Augustus, who thus returned to the system of the
early Republic. Henceforward every knight is an eques Romanui
equo publico* and the whole ordo equester consists of such.

(2) Admission. The Emperor himself assumed the right o.
granting the public horse which secured entry into the equestriai
order. The chief qualifications were the equestrian census.
free birth, soundness of body, good character, but the qualification
of free birth was not strictly insisted on under the Empire, and
freedmen were often raised to be knights. A senator's son necessarily
became a knight by virtue of his birth, and thus for men born in
senatorial rank, knighthood was a regular stage before entry into
the senate. There was a special official department (ad census
eguitum Romanorum) for investigating the qualifications of those
who were admitted into either of " the two orders," (ordo uterque'j
as the senate and the knights were called.

(3) Life-tenure. Another innovation of Augustus consisted in
making the rank of knight tenable for life. Apart from degradation,
as a punishment or as a consequence of the reduction of his incomt,
below the equestrian rating (400,000 sesterces), a knight does not
cease to be a. knight, unless he becomes a senator or enters It gionary
service. Legionary service was so attractive under the Empire
that cases often occurred of knights surrendering their rank in
order to become centurions.

(4) Eguitum probatio. It was an old custom that the equites
ftomani equo publico should ride annually, on the Ides of July, in
full military caparison from the Temple of Mars at the Porta
Capena, first to the Forum to offer sacrifice there to their patron gods,
Castor and Pollux, and then on to the Capitol. This procession,

* Often abbreviated to equo publico.
Under the later Republic, when there
w«re knights, who had their own horses,

equo publico and eques Somantis
synonymous ia use.

CHAP. in. THE EQUESTRIAN ORDER. 41

called the transvectio equitum had fallen into disuse, and Augustus
revived it and combined with it an equitum probatio, or " review of
the knights." Sitting on horseback and ordered according to their
turmse, the knights passed before the Emperor, and the name of
each was called aloud. The names of any whose behaviour had
given cause for censure were passed over, and they were thus
expelled from the order. Here the Emperor discharged duties which
before the time of Sulla had been discharged by the censors. He
was assisted by three or ten senators appointed for the purpose.

(5) Organisation. The equestrian order was divided into
turmx, six in number, each of which was commanded by one of the
seviri equitum Romanorum (i Aa/a^oi). The seviri were nominated
by the Emperor, and changed annually like the magistrates. They
were obliged to exhibit games Qudi sevirales) every year. It is to
be observed that the knights were not organised or treated as a
political body, like the senate. They had no machinery for
action ; no common political initiative ; no common purse.

(6) Privileges. In dress the Roman eques was distinguished by
the military mantle called trabea, and the narrow purple stripe
(angustus clavus) on the tunic. They also wore a gold ring, and
this was considered so distinctively a badge of knighthood, that the
bestowal of a gold ring by the Emperor became the form of
bestowing knighthood. The children of a knight, like those of
a senator, were entitled to wear the gold butta. In the theatre
special seats — " the fourteen rows " — were reserved for the knights,
and Augustus (5 A.D.) assigned them special seats also at races in
the Circus and at gladiatorial spectacles.

(7) Service of the knights as officers. The chief aim of Augustus
in reorganising the knights was military. He desired to procure
competent officers in the army, from which posts he excluded
senators entirely. Men of senatorial rank, however, who, as has
been already mentioned, became knights before they were- old
enough to enter the senate, regularly served a militia, as it was
called. The officer-posts here referred to are the subordinate
commands — not the supreme commands of legions — and are of three
kinds : (a) prcefectura cohortis, or command of an auxiliary cohort,
(fc) tribunatus militum, in a legion, (c) prcefectura alee, command
of an auxiliary cavalry squadron. The Emperor, as the supreme
military commander, made the appointments to these militix
equestres. Service as officers seems to have been made obligatory
on the knights by Augustus. As knights only could hold these
posts, there was no system of regular promotion for soldiers into the
officer class. But it often happened that soldiers who had distin-
guished themselves and had risen to the first rank of centurions—

42 GOVERNMENT OF PRINCEPS AND SENATE. CHAP. in.

who corresponded somewhat to our "non-commissioned officers*'
— received the equus publicus from the Emperor, and thus wore
able to become tribunes and prsefects. As a rule the officers held
their posts for several years, and it was considered a privilege to
hold the tribunatus semestris, which could be laid down after six
months.*

(8) Service of knights as Jurymen. In 122 B.C., C. Gracchus
had assigned the right of serving as indices exclusively to the
knights ; forty years later (81 B.C.), Sulk restored it to the senat. ;
then in 70 B.O., a compromise between the two orders was made
by the law of L. Aurelius Cotta, whereby the list of jurymen was
composed of three classes, called decurise, the first consisting
entirely of senators, the second of knights equo puttico, the third
of tribuni xrarii. As the last class possessed the equestrian census
and belonged to the equestrian order in the wide sense hi which
the term was then used, although they had not the equus publicus,
this law of Cotta really gave the preponderance to the knights.
The total number of indices was 900, each class contributing 300.
This arrangement lasted till 46 B.C., when Caesar removed the
tribuni serarii from the third class and filled it with knights in
the strict sense. Augustus excluded the senators altogether from
service as iudices, and while he preserved the three decurix filled
them with knights. But he added a fourth decuria for service in
unimportant civil trials, consisting ot men who possessed more
than half the equestrian income (ducenarii). Only men of at least
thirty years of age were placed on the list of iudices, and, in
the time of Augustus, only citizens of Rome or Italy.

(9) Employment of knights in state offices. By reserving the
posts of officers and iudices for the knights to the exclusion of the
senators, Augustus was carrying out the design of C. Gracchus
and giving the knights an important political position, so that
they were in some measure co-ordinated with the senate as a
factor in the state. But he went much further than this. He
divided the offices of administration and the public posts between
the senators and the knights. The general principle of division
was that those spheres of administration, which were more closely
connected with the Emperor personally, were given to knights.
The legateships of legions, however, were reserved for senators;
as also the governorships of those provinces which had been
annexed under the republic. But new annexations, such as
Egypt, Noricum, and BaBtia, were entrusted to knights, and
likewise the commands of new institutions, such as the fleet and
the auxiliary troops. Financial offices, the collection of taxes, and

*8eeb»low.Ch»p.V.$7.

CHAP. m.

EQUESTRIAN OFFICES.

those posts in Rome and Italy (to be mentioned in Chap. V.)
which the Kmperor took charge of, were also reserved for knights.
The selection of the procurators Auyusti, or tax-officers, in the
provinces from the knights alone was some compensation to them
for the loss of the remunerative field which they had occupied
under the Republic as pullicani. As the taxes in the imperial
provinces were no longer farmed, but directly levied from the pro-
vincials, the occupation of the knights as middlemen, by which
they had been able to accumulate capital and so acquire political
influence, was gone. Under the Principate they are an official
class. Those knights who held high imperial offices were called
equites illustres.

(10) Elevation of knights to the senate. Knights of senatorial
rank — that is, sons* of senators — who had not yet entered the
senate, formed a special class within the equestrian order, to which
they, as a rule, only temporarily belonged, and wore the badges of
their senatorial birth. They could ordinarily become senators on
reaching the age of twenty-five. For knights who were not of
senatorial rank there was no regular system of advancement to the
senate. But the Emperor, by assuming censorial functions, could
exercise the right of adlectio, and admit kniuhts into the senate.
It seems to have been a regular usage to admit into the senate the
commander of the praetorian guards when he vacated that post.

* Also grandsons or great-grandsons, but not descendants beyond the third degree.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

A.— TAXATION AND SOURCES OF
INCOMK UNDER THE EMPIRE.

The following is a list of the chief taxes,
imposts, and other sources of state revenue
(cp. Mr. W. Arnold, Roman Provincial
Administration, p. 187, tqq., and articles
" Tributum " and " Vectigalia " in Diet,
of Antiquities : (1) The provincial land-
tax ; (2) the aniona, or supply of corn,
either the an< ona ntilitarig, for support
of the soldiers in the provinces, or the
annona civi<a, which fell only on Egypt
and Africa, for the maintenance of Rome ;
(3) capitation-tax on traders; (4) agrr
publicus in Jtaly and the provinces ; (5)
the landed property of the Emperor
(patrimonium Csesaris) in Italy and the
provinces ; Egypt comes under this head.

This property is divided into arable land,
pasture, and mines. (6) The vicesima
hereditatum, duty on legacies (see below,
Chap. V., $ 7), introduced by Augustus hi
Italy, but not applying to the provinces.
(7) The customs duties (portortf). («)
Tax of one per cent, on articles of sale,
c&itrsima rerum venalium, introduced by
Augustus. (9) Tax of four per cent, on
purchase of slaves (quinta et vicesima
venalium mancipiorum. ) (10) Bona dam-
natorum, confiscated property of con-
demned persons. (11) Bona caduca,
unclaimed legacies which came to the
state. (12) Aurum coronarium, a nomi-
nally voluntary, but really compulsory,
contribution offered to Emperors by Italy
and tbe provinces, on their accession.

44

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

CHAP. in.

8.— ACT A DIURNA.

The acta diurna were the nearest
approach in Rome to our newspapers,
especially our official gazettes. They
were published under the authority of the
government. They contained (1) statistics
of births and deaths in Rome; details
about the corn supply : an account of the
public money received from the provinces ;

(2) extracts from the acta forensU,
containing magisterial edicts, reports of
trials, &c.; (3) extracts from the acta
senatus ; (4) a court column, about the
doings of the imperial family ; (5) prodi-
gies, conflagrations, lists of games, gossip
of various kinds. See Wilkins, article
" Acta," Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Antiquities.

OotaofA«gw*w

Lhria, wearing the Palia. Julia.

CHAPTER IV.

FAMILY OF AUGUSTUS AND HIS PLANS TO FOUND A DYNASTY.

§ 1. Tasks of Augustas. § 2. His marriages. Livia. The political im-
portance of the imperial house. § 3. The problem of the succession.
The consors imperil. Position of Agrippa. § 4. First plan of Augustus.
Marcellus and Julia. Illness of Augustus. Death of Marcellus.
§ 5. Second plan of Augustus. Marriage of Agrippa and Julia.
Death of Agrippa. § 6. Marriage of Tiberius and Julia. Position of
Tiberius. Gaius and Lucius Caesar. § 7. Depravity of Julia. Her
banishment. Third plan of Augustus. Tiberius becomes the consort
of the Emperor and is marked out as his successor.

§ 1. WHILE Augustus was constructing the new constitution he
had many tasks of other kinds — administrative, military, and
diplomatic — to perform. He had to regulate the relations of the
Roman state with neighbouring powers in the East; he had to
secure the northern frontier of the empire on the Rhine and the
Danube against the German barbarians, and carry out there the
work begun by Caasar his father. He had to improve the adminis-

4tf THE FAMILY OF AUGUSTUS. CHAP. IV.

tration in Italy and Rome, and step in if the senate of the Empire
failed to perform its duties ; he had to reform the provincial
administration which had been so disgracefully managed by the
senate of the Republic. Besides this he had to make his own
position safe by keeping his fellow-citizens content; he had to see
that the nobles and the people were provided with employment and
amusement. Finally he had to look for war. 1 into the future, and
take measures to ensure the permanence of the system which he
had called into being.

This last task of Augustus, his plans and his disappointments in
the choice of a successor to his power, will form the subject of the
present chapter. It is needful, first of all, to obtain a clear view of
his family relationships.

§ 2. Augustus was married three times. (1) He had been be-
trothed to a d mghter of P. Servilius Isauricus, but political motives
induced him to abandon this alliance and marry Clodia, daughter
of Fulvia, in order to seal a reconciliation with her stepfather
M. Antonius. In consequence, however, of a quarrel with her
mother, he put her away before the marriage was consummated.
(2) His second wife was Scribonia, twice a widow, whom he
also married for political reasons, namely, in order to conciliate
Sextus Pompeius, whose father-in-law, Scribonius Libo, was
Scribonia's brother. By her one child was born to him in 39 B.C.,
unluckily a daughter ; fix, had it been a son, much anxiety and
sorrow might have been spared him. Her name was Julia. He
divorced Scribonia in order to marry (3) Livia, the widow of
Tiberius Claudius Nero (38 B.C). Livia was herself a daughter
of the Claudian house, for her father, M. Livius Drusus Clau-
dianus, was, as his name shows, a Claudius adopted into the
Livian gens. She was a beautiful and talented woman whom he
truly loved ; and it was a sore disappointment to him that they
had no children.

Livia, however, brought her husband two stepsons : Tiberius
Claudius Nero (born in 42 B.C.) and Nero Claudius Drusus, born in
38 B.C., after her marriage with Augustus, and suspected to be really
his son.

Besides his daughter Julia and his wife Livia, another woman
possessed great influence with the Emperor and played an important
part in the affairs of the time. This was his sister Octavia. She
was married twice, first to C. Claudius Marcellus, and secondly, for
political reasons, to M. Antonius. By her first marriage she had a
son, M. Claudius Marcellus (born 43 B.C.), and a daughter
Marcella.

It is necessary to say a word here about the political position of

42 B.O. IMPERIAL COJNttOKTS. 47

the Emi>eror'8 kindred. The imperial house embraced : the male and
female descendants in male (agnatic) line from the founder of the
d \nasty; the wife of the Emperor; and the wives of the male de-
scendants. Thus Livia and Julia belonged to the house of Augustus,
but Octavia did not belong to it, nor Julia's children, until Augustus
adopted them. The distinctive privilege possessed by members of the
imperial house was that they were inviolable and sacrosanct like the
tribunes. This right dated from the triumviral period, and thus is
explained how it was that Octavia, though not one of the imperial
house, possessed tribunician sacrosanctity. She hnd acquired it not
as the sister of Caesar, but as the wife of Antonius. Soon it became
the custom for the soldiers to take an oath of fidelity to the " whole
house of the Ca3sars ; " but this custom hardly existed under
Augustus himself.* Under the first Princeps the members of his
house enjoyed few honours and privileges, compared with those
which were acquired by them in later reigns.

§ 3. It has been already seen that constitutionally the Emperor
has no voice in appointing a successor to the Princi pate ; for neither
designation nor heredity was recognised. Augustus had to find a
practical way for escaping this constitutional principle, and secur-
ing that the system which he founded should not come to an end
on his own death and that he should have a capable successor.
The plan which he adopted was an institution which had no
official name, but which was equivalent to a co-regency. He
appointed a "consort" in the imperial power. There was no con-
stitutional difficulty in this. The institution of collegia! power
was familiar to Roman law and Roman practice ; and the two
elements of the imperial authority — the imperium and the tribu-
nician power— could be held by more than one. But, at the same
time, the consort was not the peer of the Emperor ; he could only be
subsidiary. There could be only one Princeps, only one Augustus.
In fact, the consort held, in relation to the Augustus, somewhat the
same position as the prastor held to the consul.

Thus from the necessity for making practical provision for the
succession arose certain extraordinary magistracies, — proconsular
and tribunician offices, which held a middle place between the
Princeps on the one hand, and the ordinary magistrates on the
other. On the death of the Princeps, the consort would have a
practical, though not a legal claim, to be elected Princeps, and
nothing short of revolution would, as a rule, hinder him from
obtaining the highest position in the state.

The proconsular command was first conferred on the consort,
"he tribunician power subsequently. Under Augustus both powers
* I* seems to have existed to the time of Nero

48 THE FAMILY OF AUGUSTUS. CHAP. IT.

were conferred for a limited number of years, but always for more
than one year, which was the defined period for the ordinary
magistracies. The consort had not command over the troops,
like the Emperor, but it was common to assign him some special
command. He did not bear the title of Imperator, and he did
not wear the laurel wreath. Nor was he included in the yearly
vows which were offered up for the Emperor. But he had the
right to set up his statues, and his image appeared on coins.

Anyone might be selected as consort. But it was only natural
that the Emperor should select his son for that position, and thus
it became ultimately the recognised custom that the Emperor's
son should become his consort. By this means the danger of
elevating a subject so near the imperial throne was avoided, and
the natural leaning of a sovran towards the foundation of a
dynasty was satisfied. When the Emperor had no children, he
used to adopt into his family whomsoever he chose as his successor,
and the danger of such a course was mitigated by the paternal
power which he possessed over his adopted son.

It was some time, however, before this usage became a stereo-
typed part of the imperial system. The first consort of Augustus
was Agrippa, who married his niece Marcella. The proconsular
imperium was conferred on Agrippa, some time before 22 B.C.,
but Augustus had certainly no intention that Agrippa should be
his successor. He was compelled to assign a distinguished position
to his invaluable and ambitious coadjutor, — to take him into a sort
of partnership, — in order to secure his cheerful service. But cir-
cumstances brought it about that he came to be regarded, if not as
the probable successor, yet as something very like it.

§ 4. As Livia proved unfruitful, Augustus had to look else-
where for a successor. Within his own family three choices were
open to him. Though he had no sons, he might at least have a
grandson by the marriage of his daughter Julia. Or he might
select his sister's son * as his heir and successor. Or he might
adopt his Claudian step-children.

His first plan, the marriage of the young Marcellus with Julia,
combined two of these courses. The Empire might thus descend
through a nephew to grand-children. High hopes were formed
of Marcellus, who was attractive and popular and a great favourite
of his uncle. The marriage was celebrated in 25 B.C., during the
absence of Augustus in Spain, where he suffered from a severe
illness, and Agrippa, the brother-in-law of the bridegroom, was
called upon to act as the father of the bride. In the following
year, Marcellus was elected curule aedile, and a decree of the senate

* Octavia had also children by Anton i u«, but they seem to hare been out of tb« question

S8B.C. FIBST DYNASTIC PLAN OF AUGUSTUS. 49

allowed him to stand as candidate for the consulship ten years
before the legal age. At the same time Augustus allowed his
stepson Tiberius to be elected quaestor, though he was even
younger than Marcellus; and this perhaps was a concession to
Livia, who may have felt jealous of the son of Octavia and the
daughter of Scribonia.

But there was another who certainly felt jealous of the favour
shown to Marcellus, and regarded him as an unwelcome rival.
This was Agrippa. He had entered, as we have seen, into affinity
with the imperial family by his marriage with Marcella ; he had
been consul, as the Emperor's colleague for two successive years.
If Augustus was the Princeps, men were inclined to look upon
Agrippa as the second citizen ; anil in the East, where political
facts were often misinterpreted, he was actually thought to be an
equal co-regent with the Emperor. He was not popular, like his
young brother-in-law, but he was universally respected; his
services were recognised, and his abilities were esteemed ; and he
had every reason to cherish ambitious aspirations. Augustus had
left Borne in 27 B.O. in order to devote his attention to the adminis-
tration of Gaul and Spain. During his absence, which lasted
until 24 BXX, there were no disturbances in Rome, although he left
no formal representative to take his place. This tranquillity must
have been partly due to the personal influence of Agrippa, who
lived at Borne during these years, though not filling an official
post*

In 23 B.C., the year of his eleventh consulate, Augustus was
stricken down by another illness, and he seems to have entertained
some idea of abdicating the imperial power. He summoned his
colleague, the consul Piso, to his bedside, and gave him a document
containing a list of the military forces, and an account of the
finances, of the Empire. This act of Augustus displays the con-
stitutional principle, that when the Emperor died, the imperial
power passed into the keeping of the senate and the chief magis-
trates. But Augustus, although he could not appoint, could at
least recommend, a successor ; and it is to his honour that he did
not attempt to forward the interests of his family at the expense of
the interests of the state. Marcellus was still very young, and his
powers were unproved. Augustus gave his signet-ring to Agrippa,
thus making it clear whom he regarded as the one man in the
Empire capable of carrying on the work which he had begun. But
Augustus was not to die yet. He was healed by the skill of the
famous physician Antonius Musa. On his recovery, he learned

But Mommsen holds that the proconsular imperlum was conferred on Agrippa

50 THE FAMILY OF AUGUSTUS. CHAP. it.

that his illness had been the occasion of unfriendly collisions
between Agrippa and Marcellus. While Marcellus naturally built
hopes on his marriage with Julia, Asrippa was elated by the
conspicuous mark of confidence which the Emperor had shown in
him at such a critical moment. Augustus, therefore, thought it
wise to separate them, and he assigned to Agrippa an honourable
mission to the eastern provinces of the Empire, for the purpose
of regulating important affairs in connection with Armenia. The
proconsular imperiu-n was probably conferred on him at this
time. Agrippa went as far as Lesbos, but no further, and issued
his orders from that island. His friends said that this course
was due to his moderation; others suspected that he was
sulky, and it is clear that he understood the true meaning of
his mission.

But an unexpected and untoward event suddenly frustrated the
plan which Augustus had made for the succession, and removed
the cause of the jealousy of Agrippa. Towards the end of the
same year, Marcellus was attacked by malaria at Baiee, and the
skill which cured his father-in-law did not avail for him. He
was buried in the great mausoleum which Augustus had erected
some years before in the Campus Martius, as a resting-place for
his family. The name of Marcellus was preserved in a splendid
theatre which his uncle dedicated to his memory ; but the lines in
Virgil's -/Eneid* proved a more lasting monument. The story
is told that Octavia fainted when she heard them recited, and
that the poet received ten thousand sesterces (about £80) for
each line.

§ 5. Augustus had now to form another plan, and it might be
thought that the influence of Livia would have fixed his choice on
one of her sons. But his hopes were bound up in Julia, and he
now selected Agrippa as husband for the widow of Marcellus.
The fact that Agrippa was married to her sister-in-law Marcella,
and had children by this marriage, was no obstacle in the eyes of
the man who had so lightly divorced Scribonia. Agrippa had
put away his first wife Pomponia to marry the niece of Augustus,
and he was not likely to grumble now at having to sacrifice the
niece for the sake of the daughter. Augustus set forth in 22 B.C.
to visit the eastern provinces. He stayed during the winter in

* Bk. vi. 860 sqq., ending with the | Purpureos spargam flores animamqne

lines :— nepotis

Heu miserande puer, si qua fata aspera His saltern adcutnulem donis et fungar

rumpus, inani

Tu Marcellus eria. Manibus data lilia Munere.

plenis, SOP also Pn.pertius. ii. 16, where Bate

is mentioned.

JD-11 B.O. SECOND DYNASTIC PLAN. 51

Sicily, and while he was there a sedition broke out in Rome, owing
to a struggle between Q. Lepidus and M. Silanus in their candi-
dature for consulship. This incident seems to have determined
Augustus to carry out his project of uniting Agrippa and Julia
without delay. He recalled Agrippa from the east, caused the
marriage to be celebrated, and consigned to him the administration
of Borne and the west during his own absence in the east (early in
21 B.C.). It is said that Maecenas advised his master that Agrippa
had risen too high, if he did not rise still higher, and that there
were only two safe alternatives, his marriage with Julia, or his
death.

In October 19 B.C. Augustus returned to Rome, and in the
following year received a new grant of the proconsular imperium
for five years. At the same time he caused the tribunician power
to be conferred for five years on Agrippa, who was thus raised a
step nearer the Princeps. The marriage of Julia and Agrippa was
fruitful. Two sons and two daughters were born hi the lifetime
of Agrippa, and another son after his death. In 17 B.C. Augustus
adopted Gams and Lucius, his grandsons, into the family of Caesar,
and it seems clear that he regarded Gains and Lucius Caesar as his
successors, and their father Agrippa as no more than their guardian.
But if so, it was necessary to strengthen the guardian's hands,
and when Agrippa's tribunician power lapsed, it was renewed for
another five years.

But Augustus was destined to survive his second son-in-law as
he had survived bis first. Agrippa died in Campania in 12 B.C.
at the age of fifty-one, and was laid like Marcellus in the mauso-
leum of Augustus.* The Emperor's sister Octavia died in the
following year.

§ 6. The death of the consort did not interfere with the plan for
the succession, but he was a great loss to Augustus, whose weak
health rendered him unequal to bearing the burden of the Empire
alone. The tender age of Gaius and Lucius Caesar required a
protector in case any thing should happen to their grandfather before
they had reached man's estate. Augustus accordingly united
his elder stepson Tiberius with Julia (11 B.C.), and thus con-
stituted him the natural protector of the two young Cassars. For
this purpose Tiberius was obliged, much against his will, to divorce
his wife Vips mia Agrippina, by whom he had a son named Drusus.
This Agrippina was the daughter of Agrippa by his first wife
Pomponia (daughter of Pom nonius Atticus, the friend of Cicero).
Thus Tiberius put away Agrippa's daughter in order to marry his

* « Condidit Agrippam quo to, Marcelle, sepulchre," is a line la the Oonsolatw oA
Liviaan (67).

52

THE FAMILY OP AUGUSTUS.

CHAP. iv.

widow. No statesman perhaps has ever gone further than
Augustus in carrying out a cold-blooded method of uniting and
divorcing for the sake of dynastic calculations. His younger step-
son Drusus had been likewise drawn closer to the imperial family
by marriage with Antonia, daughter of Octavia, and niece of the
Emperor.

Tiberius and Drusus had already performed important public
services, and gained great military distinction by the subjugation
of Raetia and Vindelicia (15 B.C.). * In 12 B.C. and the following
years they had again opportunity for displaying their unusual
abilities, Tiberius in reducing rebellious tribes in Pannonia, and
Drusus in warfare with the Germans beyond the Rhine. The
death of Drusus in 9 B.C. was a great blow to Augustus, who had
really "paternal feelings" for him but never cared for Tiberius
But he could hardly have found a more capable helper in the
administration than his elder stepson. Tiberius was grave and
reserved in manner, cautious and discreet from his earliest years,
indisposed to conciliate friendship, and compelled to dissemble by
the circumstances in which he was placed. But he was an excellent
man of business and as a general he wa* trusted by the soldiers,
and always led them to victory. He became consul in 13 B.C.,
at the age of twenty-nine. Augustus raised him to the same
position to which he had raised Agrippa. He granted him the pro-
consular imperium first (about 9 B.C.), and three years later the
tribunician power. In this policy he was doubtless influenced not
only by the merits of Tiberius, but by the influence of Livia, to
whom he granted the ius trium liberorum in 9 B.c.f On receiving
the tribunician power, Tiberius was charged with a special com-
mission to the East, to suppress a revolt which had broken out in
Armenia. He had doubtless hoped that his step-father would adopt
him. But he saw that he was destined by Augustus to be the
guardian of the future Emperors, rather than a future Emperor him-
self, that he was consort indeed of the Princeps, but was not
intended to be the successor. He was too proud to relish this
postponement to his step-children, and instead of undertaking the
commission, he retired into exile at Rhodes. In the following
year C. Caesar assumed the toga virilis. He also became a consul
designate. Four years later he received the proconsular imperinm

* Horace, in the Ode (iv. 4) in which
he celebrates these achievements, gives
credit to Augustus for their education in
the military art. L. 22 sqq.:—

Diu
Lateque Yictrices catenrse

Consiliis iuvenis revictse
Sensere quid raens rite, quid indolet
Nutrita faustis sub penetral;bus
Posset, quid Augusti paternus

In pueros animus Nerones.
t See below, Chap. V. $ 2.

15-2 B.C. JULIA. 53

and a special commission to Armenia. 1 A.D. was the year of his
consulship.

The succession now seemed safe. L. Caesar had assumed the
gown of manhood in 2 B.C. so that the Julian dynasty had two
pillars. The Roman knights had proclaimed Gaius and Lucius
principes iuventutis, an honour which seemed to mark them out as
destined to become principes in a higher sense. From this time
forward the title princeps iuventutis came to be formally equivalent
to a designation of a successor to the Principate, who was still too
young to enter the senate. But fortune was adverse to the plans
of Augustus. Lucius died at Massilia in 2 A.D. and two years later
Grains received a wound at the siege of Artagira and died in Lycia
(4 A.D.). Thus the hopes which Augustus had cherished during
the past twenty years fell to the ground.

§ 7. But the death of his grandchildren was not the only mis-
fortune which befel Augustus. The depravity of his daughter was
even a more grievous blow. The licentious excesses of Julia were
the talk of the city, and were known to all before they reached the
ears of her father. She had long been unfaithful to her husband
Tiberius, and his retirement to Rhodes — though mainly a mani-
festation of antagonism between the step-son and the grandsons of
the Emperor — may have been partly due to his estrangement from
her. But at length her profligacy became so open that it
could no longer be hidden from the Emperor. She is even said
to have traversed the streets by night in riotous company, and her
orgies were performed in the forum or on the rostra. In short,
to quote the words of a contemporary, "in lust and luxury she
omitted no deed of shame that a woman could do or suffer, and
she measured the greatness of her fortune by the licence it afforded
for sin." The wrath of Augustus, when he learned the conduct of
his daughter, knew no bounds. He formally communicated to the
senate an account of her acts. He banished her to the barren
island of Pandateria off the coast of Campania (2 B.C.), whither her
mother Scribonia voluntarily attended her, and no intercession on the
part of the people induced him to forgive her. Her lovers — Claudii,
Scipiones, Sempronii, and Quinctii — were exiled ; but one of them
Julius Antonius (son of M. Antonius and Fulvia), whom Augustus
had spared after Actium and always treated with kindness, was put
to death, on the charge that he had corrupted the daughter in order
to conspire against the father. Rumour said that Livia, scheming
in the interests of herself and Tiberius, had a hand in bringing
about the misfortunes which fell upon the family of Augustas;
but there is no evidence whatever that such was the case.

The other children of Julia and Agrippa could not replace Baius

54 THE FAMILY OF AUGUSTUS. CHAP, iv

and Lucius. Agrippa Postutnus showed such a bad and froward
disposition that Augustus could build few hopes on him. The
younger Julia proved a profligate, like her mother. There remained
Agrippina, who had married within the imperial family, and did not
disgrace it. Drusus, the brother of Tiberius, had wedded the
younger Antonia, daughter of Octavia and M. Antonius. Of this
marriage Germanicus was born, and Augustus selected him as a
husband for Agrippina. The Emperor thus united his grandnephew
with his granddaughter, as he had before united his nephew with
his daughter.

In deciding the question of the succession Augustus was obliged
to have recourse to Tiberius, yet not so as to exclude Germanicus, or
even to deprive the young Agrippa of all hopes. After the banish-
ment of Julia, Tiberius had wished, but had not been permitted, to
return to Rome. He is said to have spent his time at Rhodes in
the study of astrology. In 2 A.D. he was at length permitted to
leave his place of exile, and during the two following years he lived
at Rome in retirement, until, in consequence of the death of Gaiu^
he was called upon to take part again in public life. On June 27,
4 A.D., Augustus adopted both Tiberius and Agrippa Postumus,
and caused the tribunician power to be conferred for ten years
on Tiberius, who was sent forthwith to conduct a campaign in
Germany. At the same tune Tiberius was required to adopt his
nephew Germanicus. As for Agrippa, he soon ceased to be a
possible rival. His conduct was such that Augustus was obliged
to banish him to the island of Planasia.

Thus, after the frustration of many plans, Augustus was in the end
compelled to recognise as his son and heir the aspirant whom he
liked least, but who was perhaps fitter than any of the others to
wield the power. When he adopted Tiberius, he expressed his
feelings in the words : Hoc reipublicss causa fado, " I do this for
the sake of the republic.'*

Nine years later (13 A.D.)* Tiberius was raised higher than any
previous consort. It was enacted by a special law (lex), introduced
by the consuls, that he should have proconsular power in all the
provinces and over all the armies, co-ordinate with the proconsular
power of his " father," and that he should hold a census in con-
junction with Augustus. It is significant that the proconsular
power was conferred by a law. In all previous cases, Augustus
had bestowed it by virtue of his own proconsular imperium. But
now the power of Tiberius in the provinces is no longer secondary,
but is co-ordinate with, and limits, that of Augustus himself, and
does not expire with the death of Augustus. It is therefore
* 11 AJ>. according to MomiUMQ.

18 A.D. THIBD DYNASTIC PLAN — TIBERIUS. 55

conferred by a lex. At the same time Tiberius received a renewal
of the tribunician power, no longer for a limited period, but for
life ; and the senate selected him to hold the foremost place in
the senatorial committee, which at "he request of Augustus had
been appointed to represent the whole senate.*

* see above,' 'hap. I1M a

56

DESCENDANTS OF AUGUSTUS.

11

JJ ,

ilf-B -

II-

Is, I

-IdSf

151

— 300 —

.^ pa

j

-^

I

-3

Hi

-II

II-

DESCENDANTS OF OCTAVIA.

57

t

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H--I

— 88

53

ll-i

58

THE OLAUDIAN HOUSE.

Arch of Augustas at Rimini.

CHAPTER V.

ADMINISTRATION OF AUGUSTUS IN ROME AND ITALY. ORGANISATION
OF THE ARMY.

§ 1. Maecenas. Conspiracies against Augustus. Public prosperity.
§ 2. Revival and maintenance of public religion. Temples. Legis-
lation against immorality. Encouragement to marriage. Lex Julia
de adulteriis. Secular games. Policy in regard to the tibertini. § 3.
New offices at Rome. Cura annonse. Prsefectus vigilum; cwra
operum publicorum ; euro, aquarum. § 4. Prsefectus urbi. § 5. Italy.
Cura viarum. Eleven regions. The imperial post. § 6. The
Augustales. The libertini in Italy. § 7. Organisation of the army.
The legions and auxilia. § 8. The prsetorian guards. The imperial
fleet.

SECT. I. — RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL REFORMS OF AUGUSTUS.

§ 1. AUGUSTUS sought to secure his government by conciliating the
higher classes and keeping the populace amused. In these aims he
may be said to have succeeded. His government on the whole
was popular, and people were content. His policy, constantly
guided by Mascenas, was liberal and humane, and that minister
found means to secure the safety of his master without the help
of informers or spies. The Romans regarded Maecenas as an ideal
minister, and by his death in 8 B.C. the Emperor lost a councillor

60 ADMINISTRATION OF AUGUSTUS. CHAP. v.

whose tact and insight could not easily be replaced. He is reported
to have cried that if either Agrippa or Meecenas had lived, the
domestic troubles which darkened the later years of his life would
never have befallen him.

It was harder to conciliate the aristocracy than to satisfy the
lower classes; and notwithstanding his personal popularity, not-
withstanding the promp ness of the senate to fall in with his wishes
and accept his guidance, Augustus could not fill to perceive a
feeling of regret for the Kepublic prevailing among the higher
classes, and he probably felt that, if his own personal influence were
removed by death, the survival of the Principate would be very
uncertain. He could not mistake obsequiousness, or even personal
friendship to himself, for cheerful acquiescence in the new system.
His safety was occasionally threatened by conspiracies, of which we
have very little information ; but they do not seem to have been
really serious. We need only mention that of Fannius Caepio
(23 B.C.) and that of On. Cornelius Cinna (4 A.D.). Caepio's con-
spiracy is remarkable from the fact that A. Terentius Varro
Murena, who was colleague of the Emperor in the consulate, was
concerned in it. Murena was the brother of Proculeius,* an intimate
friend of Augustus, and of Terentia, wife of Maecenas and reputed
to be the Kmperor's mistress. Augustus took the matter very
seriously, but it seems that the people were not convinced of
Murena's guilt. Both Murena and Csepio were executed. In the
other case, Cinna and his associates were pardoned by the advice
oi Livia, who perhaps had learned a lesson from the clement policy
oi Maecenas. It was a great triumph fur Augustus when, in the
year of Murena's conspiracy — the same year in which he was him-
self dangerously ill, and in which he gave the Principate its final
shape — he won over two of the most distinguished men of repub-
lican sentiments, Cn. Calpurnius Piso and L. Sestius Quirinus, and
induced them, after his own abdication of the consulate in June, to
fill that magistracy for the rest of the year. But there were still
a certain number of irreconcilables, ready, if a favourable oppor-
tunity offered, to attempt to restore the Republic.

The solid foundations of the general contentment which
marked the Augustan period were the effects of a long peace ; the
restoration of credit, the revival of industry and commerce, the
expenditure of the public money for the public use, the promotion
of public comfort and the security of public safety. In describing
the details of the home administration, it is fitting to begin with the
cares which Augustus bestowed on the revival of religion and the
maintenance of the worship of the gods.

He who is described by Horace as notus infratres aiiimi paterni

27 B.o.-H A.D. THE STATE RELIGION.

§ 2. The priestly duties of maintaining religious worship in tht
temples of the gods devolved properly upon the patrician families
of Rome. These families had been reduced in number and
impoverished in the course of the civil wars ; an irreligious spirit
had crept in ; and the shrines of the gods had fallen into decay.
Horace, who saw the religious revival of Augustus, ascribes the
disasters of the civil wars to the prevailing impiety :

Delicta inaiorum immeritus lues,
Romane, donee templa refeceris.*

We have already seen that after the conquest of Egypt, Augustus
caused a law to be passed (the lex Ssenia) for raising some plebeian
families to the patrician rank, f His care for the dignity and
maintenance of the patriciate was closely connected with his
concern for the restoration of the national worship. He set the
example of renewing the old houses of the gods, and building new
ones. J

Apollo, whose shrine stood near Actium, was loved by
Augustus above all other deities, and the Emperor was pleased if his
courtiers hinted that he was directly inspired by the <zod of light
or if they lowered their eyes in his presence, as if dazzled by some
divine effulgence from his face. To this god he erected a splendid
temple on the Palatine. The worship of the Lares engaged his
particular attention, and he built numerous shrines for them in the
various districts of Rome. Many religious games and popular feasts
were also revived.

The state religion, as reformed by Augustus, was connected in the
closest way with the Principate, and intended to be one of its
bulwarks. Divus Julius had been added to the number of the gods.
The Arval brothers sacrificed for the welfare of the Emperor and
his family ; the college of the quindecimviri and septemviii oifered
prayers for him ; and there were added to the calendar new feasts
whose motives depended on the new constitution. Moreover the
Princeps was Pontifex Maximus,§ and belonged to the other religious
colleges, in which members of his house were also usually enrolled.
It has been remarked that the vitality of the old religion is
clearly illustrated by the creation of new deities like Annona, — the
goddess who presided over the corn-supply on which imperial
Rome depended.

The restoration of the worship of Juno was assigned to the care
of Livia, as the representative of the matrons of Rome. Not oialy

* Odes, Hi. 6.

t See above, Chap. I. $ 5.

J Ovid calls him templorum posttor,

templorum sancte repostor (fbsti, ii.
63).
$ See above, Chap. II. $ 4.

ADMINISTBATION OF AUGUSTUS.

CHAP. v.

had the shrines of that goddess been neglected, but the social
institution over which she specially presided had gone out of
fashion. Along with the growth of luxury and immorality there
had grown up a disinclination to marriage. Celibacy was the
order of the day, and the number of Roman citizens declined.
Measures enforcing or encouraging wedlock had often been taken by
censors, but they did not avail to check the evil. Augustus made
the attempt to break the stubbornness of his fellow-citizens at
first by penalties (18 B.C.) and afterwards by rewards. A lex de
maritandis ordinibus was passed, regulating marriages and divorces,
and laying various penalties both on those who did not marry and
on those who, married, had no children. An unmarried man
was disqualified from receiving legacies, and the married man
who was childless was fined half of every legacy. These unlucky
ones were also placed at a disadvantage in competition for public
offices. Nearly thirty years later (9 A.D.), another law, the lex
Papia Poppaea, established a system of rewards. The father of three
children at Rome, was relieved of a certain portion of the public
burdens, was not required to perform the duties of a judex or a
guardian, and was given preference in standing for magistracies.
These privileges were called the ius trium Uberorum. The same
privileges were granted to fathers of four children in Italy, or of
five in the provinces. Augustus also (18 B.C.) tried to enforce
marriage indirectly by laying new penalties on licentiousness. The
lex Julia de adulteriis et de pudicitia, made adultery a public
offence ; whereas before it could only be dealt with as a private
wrong. No part of the policy of Augustus was so unpopular as
these laws concerning marriage. They were strenuously resisted
by all classes, and evaded in every possible way. Yet perhaps
they produced some effect. Certainly the population of Roman
citizens increased considerably between 28 and 8 B.C., and still
more strikingly between the latter date and 14 A.D. ; * but this
increase might be accounted for by the general wellbeing of the
age, quite apart from artificial incentives.

In the year 17 B.C. — ten years after the foundation of the
Principate — Augustus celebrated Ludi Sseculares, which were
supposed to be celebrated every hundred (or hundred and ten) years.
It was thus a ceremony which no citizen had ever beheld before and
which none — according to rule — should ever behold again. As a
matter of fact, however, many of those who saw the secular games-
of Augustus were destined to see the same ceremony repeated by

* la 28 B.C. the number was 4,063,000,
in 8 B.C. 4,233,000, in 14 A.D. 4,937,000.
TV** numbers are taken from the Em-

peror's official statement in the Jfo»M-
mentum Ancyranum.

27 B.O.-14 A.D. THE JULIAN LAWS. 63

one of his successors.* Augustus probably intended the feast to
have a certain political significance, both as lending a sort of con-
secration to the religious and social legislation of the preceding
year, and as celebrating in an impressive manner the introduction
of a new epoch, whose continuance now seemed assured by the
adoption of the Emperor's grandsons, which took place at the same
time. The conduct of the ceremony devolved upon the Quin-
decimviri, who elected two of their members, Augustus and
Agrippa, to preside over the celebration. It lasted three days.
The ceremonies consisted of the distribution of lustral torches,
brimstone and pitch, and of wheat, barley, and beans, at certain
stations in the city. The usual invocations of Dis Pater and
Proserpine were replaced by those of Apollo and Diana. On the
third day, a carmen sa&cufare — an ode of thanksgiving— was
performed in the atrium of Apollo's Palatine temple by a choir of
youths and maidens of noble birth, both of whose parents were alive.
The carmen sseculare was written by Horace, and is still preserved.

Augustus also endeavoured to restrain luxury by sumptuary
laws,t and to suppress the immorality which prevailed at the public
games. He excluded women altogether from the exhibitions of
athletic contests, and assigned them a special place, apart from the
men, at the gladiatorial shows. At these public spectacles he
separated the classes as well as the sexes. Senators, knights,
soldiers, freedmen were all assigned their special places. Precedence
was given to married men over bachelors.

In connection with the social reforms of Augustus may be
mentioned his policy in dealing with the libertini, who formed a
very large portion of the population of Rome. He endeavoured to
reduce their number in three ways. (1) He facilitated the
marriage of freed folk with free folk (except senators), with a view
to drawing them into the number of the free population. (2) The
institution of the Augustales (see below, § 6) was an inducement to
freedmen to remain in the Italian towns, instead of nocking to the
capital. (3) Laws were passed limiting the manumission of slaves.
The lex JSlia Sentia (4 A.D.) decreed that a slave under thirty
years of age or of bad character must not be manumitted except
by the process of vindicta. Four years later, the lex Fufia Caninia
ordained that only a certain percentage of the slaves then existing
could be set free by testament.

* Claudius. i other law of the same year was the de

f Lex Julia tumptwria, 18 B.C. An- | ambit u, to suppress bribery.

64 ADMINISTRATION OF AUGUSTUS CHAP. T.

SECT. II. — ADMINISTRATION OF ROME AND ITALY.

§ 3. No part, perhaps, of the government of Augustus is more
characteristic of his political method and of the g< neral spirit of the
Principate than the administration of Rome and Italy. At first he
left this department entirely in the hands of the senate, and he
never overtly robbed the senate of its rights. Bur he brought it
about that a large number of important branches were by degrees
transferred from the control of the senate to that of the Prihcc-ps.
The senate and consuls repeatedly declared themselves helpless,
and called upon the Princeps to intervene; and so it came about
that some offices were definitely taken in hand by him, and in
other matters, which were still left to the care of the senate and
the republican magistrates, it became the habit, in case of a
difficulty, to look to the Princeps for counsel and guidance. Thus
the way in which the encroachments of monarchy were made
was by keeping the republican institutions on trial and convicting
them of incompetence. This was one of the " secrets of empire,"
which were discovered and deftly manipulated by Augustus. It
was chiefly in the later part of his principate, when he had arranged
the affairs of the provinces, that Augustus began to intervene
seriously in administration and organisation in Italy and Rome. In
this connection, it is important to observe that while the institu-
tion of the Empire inaugurated a new epoch of good government
and prosperity for the provinces, so that they gradually rose to the
same level politically as Italy herself, Augustus was deeply con-
cerned to preserve intact the dignity of Rome as the sovran city,
and Italy as the dominant country ; and the distinction between
Italy and the provinces was not entirely effaced for three centuries.

The supply of Rome with corn required a new organisation;
and the Emperor's possession of Egypt enabled him to meet the
need. In 22 B.C. there was a great scarcity in Rome, and the
people demanded that the senate should appoint Augustus dictator
and censor for life. Augustus rejected this proposal, but accepted
the cura annonee, or " administration of the corn-market," and soon
relieved the distress. This was the first department in Rome
that he took into his own hands. In 6 A.D., there was a still
more pressing scarcity of food, and, some years later the Emperor
was driven to take measures for the permanent provision of
the city with corn. He instituted a prasfectus annonse, of
equestrian rank, and receiving his appointment from the Emperor.
His duty was to superintend the transport of corn from Egypt,
and see that the Roman market was kept supplied at a cheap

27 B.a-14 A.D. CORN SUPPLY. WATER SUPPLY. 65

rate. The expenses were defrayed, chiefly at least, by the fiscus,
though properly they should have devolved, as before, upon the
aerarium, as Rome was within the sphere of the senate's adminis-
tration. The Emperor had also to provide for the support of the
poor. The number of those who were entitled to profit by the
free distribution of corn was finally fixed at 200,000. This in-
cluded freedmen. Immense sums were also expended by Augustus
in public donations to the plebs.

Agrippa, whom the Emperor during his absence in the
Mast (21 B.C., and following years) left in charge of Rome, set
zealously to work to reform the water-supply. He restored the
old and laid down new aqueducts, the chief among them being
the Aqua Virgo (19 B.C.); and he instituted a body of public
servants, whose duty was to keep the water-pipes in repair.* The
administration of the aqueducts (euro, aquarum) seems to have
been regularly organised, after Agrippa's death, in 11 B.C.

While Augustus adorned Rome with edifices, he had also to
guard against their destruction. Conflagrations frequently broke out
in the capital, and there were'no proper arrangements for quench-
ing them. Finding that the sediles, to whom he assigned this care,
were unequal to performing it, he was compelled (6 A.D.) to
organise seven military cohorts of watchmen (yigiles), each cohort
composed of 10CO to 1200 men, under the command of a Prefect of
equestrian rank, who was entitled prsefectus vigilum, and was
appointed by the Emperor. These cohorts consisted chiefly of
freedmen. They were quartered in seven stations in the city,
so that each cohort did service for two of the fourteen regions into
which Rome was divided. f

Other new charges were also instituted by Augustus for the
wellbeing of Rome. The curatores operum publicorum (chosen
from prastorian senators) watched over public ground, and public
buildings.

§ 4. Prfefpctus urbi. Originally Roman consuls had the right
of appointing a representative, called prsefectus urbi, to take their
pLice at Rome when they were obliged to be absent from the city.
This right was taken from them by the institution of the prsetorship.
But immediately after the foundation of the Principal, | while his
position still rested on a combination of the consular with the pro-
consular power, Augustus during his absence from Rome (27-24 B.C.)

* For an account of the Roman aque-
ducts, see Chap. XXXI. $ 16.
f This division of Rome was made in
B.C. (see above. Chap HI- 6 «\ I*,

and August to the Lares and the genius
of Augustus.

J Maecenas had been practically prat*
fectus urhi durine Cesar's contest with

also divided into 265 quarters (vici), under 1 Antony.
wogistri vicorum, who sacrificed in May J

66 ADMINISTRATION OF AUGUSTUS. CHAP. v.

revived this old office, and appointed a praefectus urbi to take
his place. Messalla Corvinus, a man who was much respected
and had rendered great services to the Emperor, was appointed to
the post (25 B.C.), but laid it down within six days, on the ground
that he was unequal to fulfilling its duties ; hut he seems to have
really regarded it as an unconstitutional innovation. During his
visit to the East in 21 B.C., and following years, Rome was
administered by his consort Agrippa, and therefore no other
representative was required. But during his absence in Gaul in
16-13 B.C., when Agrippa was also absent in the East, StatiliuG
Taurus was left as pra/ectus urbi, and performed the duties well.
It is to be observed that on this occasion Augustus v/as not
consul, and the Principate no longer depended on the consular
power ; so that the appointment of Taurus as prspfectus urbi was
a constitutional novelty. But, under Augustus, the post was never
anything but temporary, during the Emperor's absence from
Italy. It was not until the reign of his successor Tiberius that
the prssfectura urbis became a permanent institution.

§ 5. In Italy as well as in Rome the senate proved itself unequal
to discharging the duties of a government, and the Emperor was
obliged to step in. The cura viarum was instituted for the
repair of the public roads (20 B.C.). A curator was set over
each road. For the main roads leading from Rome to the frontiers
of Italy, these officers were selected from the praetorian senators ;
for the lesser roads, from the knights. Italy, like Rome, was
divided into regions, eleven in number,* Rome itself making the
twelfth. The object of this division is uncertain ; but may have
been made for purposes of taxation. In any case, the regions
were not administrative districts, for the independence of the
political communities in managing their own affairs was not
infringed on by Augustus or any of his successors till the time of
Trajan.f

The imperial post, an institution which applied to the whole
Empire, may be mentioned here. It was a creation of Augustus,
who established relays of vehicles at certain !-tations along the
military roads, to convey himself or his messengers without delay,

* Campania, Apulia et Calabria, Bruttia ; an amount over 15,000 sesterces came
et Lucania, Sanmium, Picenum, Umbria, under the competence of the Roman prae-

Etruria (Tuscia), .Emilia, Liguria, Vene-
tia et Istria, Transpadana.

The rights of municipal autonomy

tors. Jt is to be observed that the <om-
munities themselves were financially
quite independent. Imperial taxation

which belonged to the Italian communities fell on the individual members of the
were defined by Julius Caesar in the lex communities, as Roman citizens, but not

Rubria and the lex lulia municipalis
(49 and 45 B.C.). Civil causes involving

on the communities.

27 B.c.-H A.D. THE AUGU8TALKS. 67

and secure rapid official communication between the capital and
the various provinces. The use of these arrangements was strictly
limited to imperial officers and messengers, or those to whom
lie gave a special passport, called diploma. The costs of the
vehicles and horses, and other expenses, fell upon the communities
in which the stations were established. This requisition led to
abuses, and in later times the expenses were defrayed by the //sews.
It is to be observed that this institution had not assumed under
Augustus anything like the proportions which it assumed a century
oi- so later, as the curs <s publicus.

§ 6. The Augustales. — Freedmen were strictly excluded from
holding magistracies and priestly offices, and from sitting in the
municipal councils, or senates throughout the Empire. Caesar the
Dictator had indeed sometimes relaxed this rule in their favour
beyond Italy, but Augustus strictly enforced and excluded libertini
from government. Their exclusion was economically a public loss.
For one of the chief sources from which the town treasuries were
supplied was the contributions levied on new magistrates and
priests, whether in the form of direct payments or of under-
taking the exhibition of public games. As the freedmeti could
not become magistrates or priests, they were not liable to these
burdens, which they would have been glad to undertake. In order
to open a field to their ambition, and at the same time to make
their wealth available for the public service, Augustus created
a new institution, entitled the Augustales, probably in the early
years of his principate. (1) This organisation was first established
in Italy, and the Latin provinces of the west. In Africa it was not
common, and it is not found at all in the eastern part of the
Empire. (2) It was not called into being by a law of Augustus,
but at his suggestion the several communities decreed an insti-
tution, which was in every way profitable to them. (3) The in-
stitution consisted in the creation every year of six men, Sexviri
Augustales, who were nominated by the decurions (the chief muni-
cipal magistrates). (4) These sexviri were magistrates, not priests ;
but their magistracy was only formal, as they had no magisterial
functions to perform. (5) But like true magistrates they had public
burdens to sustain ; they had to make a payment to the public
treasury when they entered upon their office, and they had to defray
the cost of games. (6) The sexviri were almost always chosen from
the class of the libertini. This rule held good without exception in
southern Italy. (7) After their year of office the sexviri Augustales,
were called Augustales, just as consuls after their year of office were
called consulares. Thus the Augustales formed a distinct rank, to
which it was the ambition of every freedman to belong. (8) One of

68 ADMINISTRATION OF AUGUSTUS. CHAP. v.

the most interesting points about the institution is that it seems
to have been partly modelled upon the organisation of the Roman
knights. The designation of the sexviri of the order of the
Augustales seems to have been borrowed from the order of the
Bquites, and perhaps was introduced about the same time. More-
over the Augustales occupied the same position in Italy and
the provinces, as the knights occupied at Rome; they were the
municipal image of the knights. They represented the capitalists
and mercantile classes in contrast with the nobility and landed
proprietors ; they bore the same relation to the municipal senate
as the knights to the Roman senate.

SECT. III. — ORGANISATION OF THE ARMY AND FLEET.

§ 7. Augustus introduced some radical changes into the Roman
military system. In the first place, he established a standing
army. It was quite logical that the permanent imperator should
have a permanent army under his command. The legions distri-
buted throughout those provinces, which required military protec-
tion, have now permanent camps. In the second place, he organised
the auxilia, and made them an essential part of the military forces
of the Empire. Thirdly, he separated the fleet from the army ; and
fourthly, he established the praetorian guards. Augustus spent
great care on the organisation of the army, but it is generally
admitted that he acted unwisely in reducing the number of
legions after the civil wars.* This step was chiefly dictated by
considerations of economy, in order to diminish the public burdens ;
but the standing army which he maintained, of about 250,000
men, was inadequate for the defence of such a great empire against
its foes on the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates, not tc speak
of lesser dangers in other quarters.

At the death of Augustus, the legions numbered twenty-five.
Each legion consisted of not more than 6000, not less than 5000,
foot-soldiers and 120 horse-soldiers. The foot-soldi- rs were divided
into ten cohorts, and each cohort into six centuries. Each century
had a standard (siynum) of its own. The horse-soldiers were
divided into four turmas. Only those were admitted to legionary
s. rvice who were frceborn, and belonged to a city-community.

To the legions were attached auxiliary troops (auxilia), recruited
from the provincials, who did not belong to urban communities.
They were divided into cohorts, and consisted of footmen and horse-
men, or both combined. Some foot-cohorts were composed of about

* See Note C. at end of chapter.

27BC.-14A.D. THE ARMY. 69

500 men, and were divided into six centuries ; such were called quin-
genarias. Others were larger and contained 1000 men divided into
ten centuries ; these were milliariee. Mixed cohorts of both horse
and foot-soldiers, were termed equitatse. The alas consisted only of
horse-soldiers and also varied in size. The auxiliary troops, when
attached to a legion, were under the control of the commander of
the legion. But they could also act separately, and some provinces
were garrisoned exclusively by auxilia.

The legions were distinguished by numbers and by names ; for
example, legio x. gemina, xxi. rapax, or vi. victrix*

Besides these troops there were cohorts of Italian volunteers, of
whom we seldom hear ; and there were in some provinces bodies of
provincial militia. Moreover, Augustus had a body-guard of
German soldiers to protect his person; but he disbanded it in
9 A.D.f With the exception of the legions stationed in Egypt,
and the auxiliary troops in some small provinces, the military
forces of the Empire were commanded by senators. This leads us
to an important institution of Augustus, the legatus legionis, an
officer of senatorial, generally prastorian, rank, who commanded
both the legion and the auxilia associated with it. The military
tribune thus became subordinate to the legatus. He was merely a
" tribune of the legion," and on an equality with the prefect of an
auxiliary cohort, while his position was rather inferior to that of a
prefect of an auxiliary squadron. These three posts (tribunatus
legionis, preefectura cohortis, prsefectura alee) were the three
" equestrian offices," open to the sons of senators who aspired to a
pnblic career. The prefect of the camp (preefectus castrorum) was
not of senatorial rank, and was generally taken from the primipili,
or first of the first class of centurions. He was subject to the
governor of the province in which the camp was situated ; but he
was not subject to the legatus legionis. He had no power of capital
punishment. In Egypt, from which senators were excluded, there
was no legatus legionis, and the prefect of the camp look his place.

The time of service for a legionary soldier was fixed (5 A.D.) at
twenty years, for an auxiliary at twenty-five. The government was
bound to provide for the discharged veterans, by giving them farms or
sums of money. It became the custom, however, for some soldiers,
after their regular term, to continue in tlieservice of the state, in special
divisions, and with special privileges. These divisions were known as
the vexilla veteranorum, $ and were only employed in battle.

* See Note A. at end of chapter

•f See Notes D. and E.

J Also called vexillarii : to be distin-

i;iiislii>cl from another use of vexillnrii,
meaning soldiers of a small division, tem-

porarily separated from its main body
ami placed under a special vexillum.
While the signum was the standard of a
permanent body only, the vexillum was
used for special and temporary formation*.

TU ADMINISTRATION OF AUGUSTUS. CHAP. v.

The expenses of this military system were very large, and in
6 A.D., at the time of a rebellion in Dalmatia, Augustus was unable
to meet the claims of the soldiers by ordinaiy means, and was
driven to instituting an asrarium militare, with a capital of
170,000,000 sesterces (about £1,360,000). It was administered by-
three prsefecti, chosen by lot, for throe years, from the praetorian
senators. The sources of revenue on which the military treasury
was to depend, were a five per cent, tax on inheritances, and a
one per cent, impost on auctions.

§ 8. Eome and Italy were exempted from the military command
of the Imperator; and the army was distributed in the provinces
and on the frontiers. But there were two exceptions : the Praetorian
guards (along with the City guards and the Watchmen) and
the fleet.

Tne institution of a body-guard (cohors prsetoria) for the impe-
rator had existed under the Eepublic, and had been further
developed under the triumvirate. Augustus organised it anew.
After his victory both his own guards and those of his defeated
rival AntoniUs were at his disposal, and out of these troops he
formed a company of nine cohorts, each consisting of 1000 men.
Thus the permanent praetorian guard under the Empire stood in the
same relation to the Imperator, in which the temporary cohors
prsetoria stood to an imperator under the Kepublic. The pay of
the piaetorian soldier was fixed at double that of the legionary,
his rime of service was fixed (5 A.D.) at sixteen years; and
the command was ultimately placed in the hands of two prae-
torian prefects (2 B.C.) of equestrian rank. In later times this
office became the most important in the state; but even at
first a praetorian prefect had great influence. The Emperor's
personal safety depended on his loyalty, and the appointment of
two prefects by Augustus, was probably a device for lessening the
chances of treachery. Only a small division of the praetorian troops
were permitted to have their station within Rome ; the rest were
quartered in the neighbourhood. The irregularity of a standing
military force posted in Italy, was to some extent rendered less
unwelcome by the rule that only Italians — and "Italians" was
at first interpreted in its old sense, so as to exclude dwellers in
Gallia Cisalpina — could enter the service.*

B< sides the Praetorian cohorts, there were three Urban cohorts
(cohortes urbanse) stationed at Korne. During the absence of the

* Tacitus, Annals, iv. 6. Etruria | Thus Italy beyond the Padus and th*
ferine Umbriaque delectae aut vetere I Greek towns in the eouth are excluded.
Latio et coloniis antiques Romania. J

27 B.O.-14 A.D. THE FLEETS. 71

Emperor, they were under the command of the prefect of the
city. The cohortes vigilum have already been mentioned.*

Augustus created an imperial fleet, which was called, though
perhaps not in his own day, the classis prgetoria. Under the
Republic the command of the naval forces had always devolved
upon the commander of the legions, and consequently no fleets could
be stationed in Italian ports, as Italy was exempt from the
imperium. Hence the Tuscan and Adriatic seas were infested by
pirates. The war with Sextus Pompeius had turned the special
attention of Augustus to the fleet, and he saw his way to separating
the navy from the army. Two fleets were permanently stationed
in Italy ; one, to guard over the eastern waters, at Ravenna, and
the second, to control the southern seas, at Misenum. They
formed the guard of the Emperor, and at first were manned by his
slaves. The commanders, under the early Empire, were prsefecti,
who were sometimes freedmen. Augustus also stationed a squadron
of lesser magnitude at Forum Julium ; but this was removed when
the province of Narbonensis was transferred to the senate (22 B.C.).
These fleets were composed of the regular ships of war with three
benches of oars, triremes, and of the lighter Liburnian biremes.
But the heavier and larger kind afterwards fell into disuse, and
liburna came to be the general word for a warship.

* A fourth urban cohort was stationed I Augusti, who seem to have ranked between
at Lugudunum. Another, but very I the cohortes wrbanee and the cohortes
obscure, military corps was the statores \ vigilum.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

A.— DISTRIBUTION OF THE LEGIONS IN THE PROVINCES AT THE
DEATH OF AUGUSTUS (UA.JX).

Spain 3 legions . . IV. Macedonica, VI VictrU, X. Gemina.

Ix;«er Germany . . 4 legions . . I., V. Alauda, XX. Valeria Victrix, XXI

(Rapax).
Upper Germany . . 4 legions . . IL Augusta, XILL Gemina, XIV. Gemina,

XVI.

Pannonia .... 3 legions . . VIH. Augusta, IX., XV. Apollinaris.
Dalmatia .... 2 legions . . VII., <L

Mojsia 2 legions . . IV. Scythlca, V. Macedonica.

Syria 3 legions . . III. Galli-a, VI. Ferrata, X. Fretensis.

Egypt 3 legions . . III. Cyrenaica, XII. Fulminata, XXli

Peiotariana.

Attica 1 legion . . 111. Augusta.

Total number of legions 25.

72

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

CHAP. v.

In 27 B.C., at the beginning of the [
Principate, there were only 23 legions;
VI. Ferrata and X. Fretensis were after-
wards added by Augustus. Moreover,
three of the legions which existed in 27
B.C. no longer existed in 13 A.I>., having
perished it the disaster of Varus, namely
XVII., XVI11., an.i XIX.; but they were
replaced by three new ones, namely I.,
XXL Rapax, and XXII. Deiotariana.

It will be observed that in some cases
more than one legion are designated by i
the same number. It is probable that :
this is due to the fact that the triumvirs j
numbered their legions independently of
one another, and Augustus transferred
into his own army some complete legions
of Antony and Lepidus without changing
their numbers. We know that this was
so in the case of ill. Gallica, which fought
in the eastern campaigns of Antony. In
these cases distinguishing names were
indispensable.

The names were bestowed for various
reasons. One legion got its name from
insignia (Fulminata; perhaps Alauda);
another' from a people against which it
had fought (Scytliica), or a place where it
had fought (Fretensis) ; others were called
by general epithets (Victrix, Rapax).
For Gemma, see Chap. I. § 3.

The auxilia were distinguished by the
names of the peoples from whom they
were recruited, but the alee (more rarely
the cohorts) were also sometimes desig-
nated by special names (e.g. ala Petri-
ono).

B.— PAY OF THE LEGIONARIES

AND PILS3TORIANS; AND

LENGTH OF SERVICE.

Under Augustus the pay of the legion-
ary soldier was 225 denarii a year (about
£8); and this arrangement continued until
the time of Domitian, who increased ;it by
a third ; so that it became 300 denarii.
The Prajtorian soldiers, when organised
in 27 B.C., received 450 denarii (twice as
much as a legionary) annually; but the
money was afterwards raised to 720
(abort £25 10s.), (cp. Tacitus, Ann., 1.
17). The pay of a soldier of the cohortes
urbanse was probably 360 denarii.

At first Augustus (13 B.C.) fixed the
period of service for the legionary at 16
years, for the praetorian at 12 ; but in 5
B.C. the former period was raised to 20,
the latter to 16. For the auxiliaries the

time of service was 25 years ; for the urban
cohorts 20.

C.— THE REDUCTION OF THE
LEGIONS BY AUGUSTUS.

We have no materials for tracing in
detail the transformation which the army
underwent under Augustus. But it seems
highly probable that the change was
accomplished gradually, and not by a
single act. Mommsen holds that the
legions, numbering over 50, were reduced
immedtately after the foundation of the
Principate to 18, and were not increased
until 6 A.D., in which year he supposes
8 new legions to have been formed,
making a total of 26 : the loss of the thre,e
legions of Varus, which were replaced by
two new ones, gives the total of 25, which
we know to have existed at the death of
Augustus. But the evidence which he
cites for the formation of 8 new legions
rather points to the supplementing of
legions already existing.

It seems extremely unlikely that Aug-
ustus would have decided in 27 B.C. to
reduce the army to 100,000 men, however
much such a reduction was recommended
by financial considerations. The question,
as Herzog has well pointed out, must be
taken in close connection with the organi-
sation of the auxilia, which were a new
institution of Augustus, and the formation
of which must have taken time. The
conjecture of Herzog that the reduction of
j the legions was accomplished gradually
and concurrently with the organisation of
! the auxiliary troops, has much to recom-
mend it. It so, this change may have
been nearly accomplished by 13 B.C., for
in that year some important arrangements
in respect to the military service were
made by decree of the senate. (See above,
note B.). See Mommsen, Res Gestee, pp.
68 sqq.; Herzog, Gesch. und Syst., ii.
205, 206.

D.— PROVINCIAL MILITIA..

In some provinces (such as Rwtia,
Cappadocia, &c.) bodies of provincials (to
be carefully distinguished from the regular
! auxilia) were often levied in special cases
of danger. In Tarraconensis there seems
to have been a specially organised body of
provincial soldiers, for we find an officer
entitled the prsefectus orse maritimte

CHAP. V.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

73

in charge of tiro cohorts. It is also not
improbable that in a few cases towns had
small bodies of municipal militia to meet
emergencies.

E.— THE GERMAN BODYGUARD.

The alarm occasioned by the defeat of
Varus in 9 A.D. caused Augustus to
dismiss the German bodyguard which he
had employed since the battle of Actium.
But we find a German guard again under
Tiberius, Gaius, and Nero. Nero's Ger-
mans were disbanded by Galba, and this
institution was not renewed under the
early Empire. The legal status of the
Germans thus employed was that of
slaves, and accordingly they were organ-

ised like a collegium of stares, and divided

into decurice.

F._ THE EVOCATI AUGUSTI.

We hear so little of this body that it
seemed unnecessary to mention it in the
text. They were a special company
organised by Augustus, and constituted
a regular department of the service; not
like the evocati of the Republic, a band
specially "called forth" to meet special
emergencies. They were selected from
those who had already served their time
in the army, and they fulfilled special
duties of a civil rather than a military
kind They uarried out works of military
engineer ing, &c.

Coin of Gaius and Lucii

Arch of Augustus at Aosto.

CHAPTER VI.

PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION UNDER AUGUSTUS. THE WESTERN
PROVINCES.

§ 1. Distinction between the provinces and federate states. Tribute.
Local self-government of provincial cities. § 2. Imperial and Sena-
torial provinces. § 3. Proconsuls and propraetors. Consular and
praetorian provinces. Legati. Procurators. The imperiwn mai"S of
the Emperor. § 4. Visits of Augustus to the provinces. § 5. GAUL ;
the fonr provinces, Narboneusis, Aquitania, Lugudunensis, and Belgica.
Altar of Rome and Augustus at Lugudunum. Importance of Lugu-
dunum. Britain. § 6. SPAIN : Baetica, Tarraconensis and Lusitania.
Gantabrian and Asturian Wars. § 7. AFRICA. The kingdom of Maure-
tania. § 8. SARDINIA and CORSICA. § 9. SICILY. § 10. R^ETIA,
NORICUM, and the ALPINE DISTRICTS. Subjugation of the Raeti and
Vindelici by Drususand Tiberius. Conqnpst of the Salassi, and pacifi-
cation of the Alps. § 11. DALMATIA and PANNONIA. Dalmatian war
of 85 B.O. Province of Illyricum. § 12. MCESIA and THRACE.
Thracian revolts. § 13. The German question, and the defence of
the frontiers.

SECT. I. — G-ENEEAL ORGANISATION OF THE PROVINCES.

§ 1. WHEN Augustus founded the Empire, the dominion of Rome
stretched from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, from the German
Ocean to the borders of Ethiopia. The lands which made up this
empire had by no means the same political status. Rome, the

27 B.C.-14 A.D SUBJECTS AND ALLIES.

mother and mistress of the Empire, stood by herself. She was the
centre, to which all the rest looked up. Next her, sharing in many
respects her privileged position, was Italy.* Outside this inner
circle came tlie directly subject lands and communities, which were
strictly under the sway (in dicione) of the Roman people. Outside
ihese again came the lands and communiiies which, while really
under the sovranty of Rome, preserved their independence and
were not called subjects, but federate states and allies. And in
each of these circles there were various kinds and subdivisions,
according to the mode of their administration or the limits imposed
on their sell-govern ment. Thus the subjects of the Homan Empire
were almost as het< rogeneous in their political relations to their
mistress as in race and language. It is to be observed that by
" Roman Empire," we mem more than the Romans in strict speech
meant by imperium Eomanum. We mean not only the provinces,
but the independent allied states and client kingdoms, in which the
people were not the subjects of the Roman people and the land was
not the property of the Roman state. These federate and
associated states were regarded legally as outside the Roman
fines, although the fcedus or alliance really meant that they
were under the sovranty of Rome and the continuation of their
autonomy depended solely on her will. There was no proper word
in Latin to express the geographical circle which included both the
direct and the indirect subjects. Perhaps the nearest expression
was oibis terra/rum, "the world," which often seems equivalent to
" the Empire." For Roman law regarded all territory, which was
not either Koman or bel< n.ing to some one whose ownership Rome
recognised, as the property of no man, — outside the world.

The chief mark of distinction between the autonomous, and not
autonomous communities was that the former taxed themselves,
whereas the latter were taxed by Rome. In both cases there were
exceptions, but this was the general rule. And the land of the
provincial communities which were not autonomous belonged to
Rome, whereas the land of the autonomous states was not Roman.
Originally, «fter the conquest of her earliest provinces, Rome had
not appropriated the land ; but this was a theoretic mis-take which
she aiterwards corrected when C. Gracchus organised Asia. Hence-
forward all provincial territory was regarded as in the ownership of
the Roman people. The Roman people might let the land anew to
the former possessors at a fixed renr, and in most cases this was done.
Thus the principle was that the provincial subjects occupied as

* Since 49 B.C. all the Italian com-
munities, from the Alps to the straits of
Megsana possessed full Roman citizenship.

By the Lex Roscia of 42 A.D. "Italy'
was extended to the Alps.

76 PEOVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. CHAP, vt

tenants the lands which they or their ancestors once owned. This
rent was called tributum, or stipendium.* (a). The greater
number of provincial communities in the time of Augustus were
civitaUs stipendiarise. The legal condition of these subjects
was that of peregrini dediticii, but they were not called by this
name. They were under the control of the governor of the pro-
vince to which they belonged, (b). Throughout the provinces
there was a multitude of cities which possessed full Roman
citizenship, and their number was continually increasing. But
although, as far as personal rights were concerned, these cities
were on a level with the cities of Italy, they were worse off in two
particulars. They were obliged to pay tribute. The reason of this
anomaly was the theoretic principle that provincial territory could
not be alienated by its owner, the Roman people. The ager pub-
licuspopuli Romani beyond the sea could not become ager privatus
ex iure Quiritium. In other words, a provincial of Narbo,
although a Roman citizen, could not be a quiritary possessor of land
in the Narbonese territory. He could only hold land of the Roman
people, and must therefore pay rent for it. In the case, however, of
some favoured communities, this principle was departed from as
early as the time of Augustus. The privilege took one of two
forms, either a grant of immunity from tribute or the bestowal of ius
Italicum. The latter form, which was the more common, placed the
territory of the community which received it in the same position as the
territory of Italy, and made it capable of quiritary ownership. The
provincial cities which possessed ius Italicum marked their position
by the external sign of a statue of a naked Silenus with a wine-skin
on his shoulder, which was called Marsyas. This custom was
imitated from the Marsyas which stood in the Roman Forum,
as a symbol of the capital city. Besides being tributary, the pro-
vincial communities of Roman citizens were, like the peregrine
communities, subject to the interference of the Roman governor.

It is to be observed that these communities were either colonise
or municipia. In the course of Italian history the word muni-
cipium had completely changed its meaning. Originally it was
applied to a community possessing ius Latinum, and also to the
civitas sine su/ragio, and thus it was a term of contrast to those
communities which possessed full Roman citizenship. But when in
the course of time the civitates sine su/ragio received political rights

* Properly stipendium was the pay-
ment levied on a conquered state towards
the payment of the expenses of the war,
and was thus only temporary. But when

was succeeded by a regular payment, and
this tax was called by the same name.
The tax was afterwards converted into
the form of u ground-rent (ve'tigal) or

the inferior position of the conquered tribute, but the word stipendium was
btate continued, the provisional payment I still used.

27 B.C.-14 A.D.

JUS LATIN UM.

77

and the Roman states received full Roman citizenship, and thus the
municipium proper disappeared from Italy, the word was still applied
to those communities of Roman citizens which had originally been
either Latin municipia or independent federate states. And it also,
of course, continued to be applied to cities outside Italy which
possessed ius Latinum. It is clear that originally municipium and
colonia were not incompatible ideas. For a colony founded with
ius Latinum was both a municipium and a colonia. But a certain
opposition arose between them, and became stronger when muni-
cipium came to be used in a new sense. Municipium is only used
of communities which existed as independent states before they
received Roman citizenship, whether by the deduction of a colony
or not. Colonia is generally confined to those communities which
were settled for the first time as Roman cities, and were never
states before. Thus municipium involves a reference to previous
autonomy.

(c). Besides Roman cities, there were also Latin cities in the
provinces. Originally there were two kinds of ius Latinum, one
better and the other inferior. The old Latin colonies possessed the
better kind. The inferior kind was known as the ius of Ariminum,*
and it alone was extended to provincial communities. When Italy
received Roman citizenship after the Social war, the better kind of
ius Latinum vanished for ever, and the lesser kind only existed
outside Italy. The most important privilege which distinguished
the Latin from peregrine communities was that the member of a
Latin city had a prospect of obtaining full Roman citizenship by-
holding magistracies in his own community. The Latin com-
munities are of course autonomous f and are not controlled by the
provincial governor ; but like Roman communities they have to pay
tribute for their land, which is the property of the Roman people,
unless they possess immunity or ius Italicum as well as ius
Latinum.

(d). Outside Roman territory and, formally, independent allies
of Rome, though really her subjects, are the free states, civitates
liberx, whether single republics, like Athens, or a league of cities,
like Lycia. Coostitutionally they fall into two classes, (1) civitates
liberas et faderatse, or simply fcederatse, (2) civitates (sine foederf)
libersB (et immunes). States of the first class were connected with
Rome by a, fcedus, which guaranteed them perpetual autonomy.
Tn the case of the second class no such fcedus existed, and their
autonomy, which was granted by a lex or senatus coxsultum, could at

* Ariminum was the first of the Twelve
Latin towns which became Bomar
Colonies before the Social War.

f But in some respects the Latin com-
munities under the Empire were less
independent than under th« Republic.

78 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. OHAP. vi.

any moment be recalled. Otherwise the position of the two classes
did not differ. The sovran rights of these free states were limited
in the following ways by their relation to Rome. They were not
permitted to have subject allies standing to themselves in the same
relation in which they stood to Rome. They could not declare
war on their own account; whereas every declaration of war and
every treaty of peace made by Rome was valid for them also,
without even a formal expression of consent on their part. Some
of the free states, such as Athens, Sparta, Massilia — seem to have
been exempted by the treaty from the burden of furnishing military
contingents, both under the Republic and under the Empire. Others,
on the other hand, were bound by treaty to perform service of this kind ;
thus Rhodes contributed a number of ships every year to the Roman
fleet. It is probable that the communities which were established as
federate or Latin states under the Principate, were subject to con-
scription. Theoretically, all the autonomous states should have been
exempt from tribute, as their land was not Roman ; but there were
exceptions to this rule, and some free cities — for example, Byzantium, —
paid under the Principate a yearly tributum.

(e). The position of the client kingdoms was in some respects
like that of the free autonomous states, but in other respects
different. Both were allied with Rome, but independent of Roman
governors. Both the free peoples who managed their own affairs,
and the kings who ruled their kingdoms, were socii of the Roman
people ; and the land of both was outside the boundaries of
Roman territory. But whereas, in the case of the dvitates
f&deratce, the Roman people entered into a permanent relation
with a permanent community, in the case of kingdoms the relation
was only a personal treaty with the king, and came to an end at
his death. Thus, when a client king died, Rome might either renew
the same relation with his successor, or else, without any formal
violation of a treaty, convert the kingdom into a province. This
last policy was constantly adopted under the Principate, so that
by degrees all the chief client principalities disappeared, and the
provincial territory increased in corresponding measure. Even
under the Republic the dependent princes paid fixed annual tributes
to Rome.

(f). The treatment of Egvpt by Augustus formed a new de-
parture in the organisation of the subject lands of Rome.* It was,
as we have seen, united with the Roman Empire by a sort of " per-
sonal union," like that by which Luxemburg was till recently united
with Holland. The sovran of the Roman state was also sovran of
Egypt. He did not, indeed, designate himself as king of Egypt,
* See above, Chap. I. § 3 ; and below, Chap. VII. § 8.

27 B.C.-14 AJX FREE STATES. CLIENT KINGDOMS. 79

any more than as king of Rome; but practically he was the
successor of the Ptolemies. This principle was applied to depen-
dent kingdoms which were afterwards annexed to the Empire,
such as Noricura and Judea. Such provinces were governed by
knights (instead of seLators, as in the provinces proper), and these
knights, who were entitled prefects or procurators, represented
tho iilmperor personally. It is clear that this form of govern-
ment was not possible until the republic had become a monarchy,
and t'.iere was one man to represent the state.

(g). To make the picture of the manifold modes in which Rome
governed her subjects complet-, there must still be mentioned the
unimportant class of attributed places. This was the technical
name for small peoples or places, which counted as neither states
nor districts (pagi), and were placed under or attributed to a
neighbouring community. Only federate towns, or towns possess-
ing cither Roman citizenship or ius Latinum, had attributed
places. This attribution was especially employed in the Alpine
iistricts; smnll mountain tribes bcin<: placed under the control of
cities like Tergeste or Brixia. The inhabitants of the attributed
places often possessed ius Latinum, and as they had no magis-
trates of their own, they were permitted to be candidates for
magistracies in the states to which they were attributed. They
could thus become Roman citizens.

It is to be carefully observed, that while the subjects of Rome
fell into the two general classes of autonomous and not autono-
mous, the not autonomous communities possessed municipal self-
government. The provinces, like Italy, were organised on the
principle of local self-government. In those lands where the
town system was already developed, the Roman conqueror gladly
eft to the cities their constitutions, and allowed them to manage
their local affars just as of oM, only taking care that they should
govern themselves on aristocratic principles. Rome even went
further, an-l based her administration everywhere on the system
of self-governing communities, introducing it in those provinces
where it did not already exist, and founding towns on the Italian
model. The local authorities in each provincial community had
to levy the taxes and deliver them to the proper Roman officers.
Representatives of each community met yearly in a provincial
concilium. For judicial purposes, districts of communities existed
in which the governor of the province dealt out justice. These
districts were called convenlus.

It thus app< ars that the stipendiary communities also enjoyed
autonomy— a " tolerated autonomy," of a more limited kind than
that of the free and the federate communities. The Roman

80 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. CHAP. n.

governors did not interfere in the affairs of any community in
their provinces, where merely municipal matters, not affecting
imperial interests, were concerned. It also appears that those
not autonomous communities which had obtained exemption from
tribute practically approximated to the autonomous, whereas those
nominally independent states, in which tribute was nevertheless
levied, approximated to the dependent.

Here we touch upon one of the great tendencies which marked
the policy of Augustus and his successors in the administration of
the Empire. This was the gradual abolition of that variety which
at the end of the Republic existed in the relations between Rome
and her subjects. There was (1) the great distinction between
Italy and the provinces ; and there were (2) the various dis-
tinctions between the provincial communities themselves. From
the time of the first Princeps onward, we can trace the gradual
wiping out of these distinctions, until the whole Empire becomes
uniform. (1) The provinces receive favours which raise them
towards the level of Italy, while Italy's privileges are diminished
and she is depressed towards the level of the provinces. But this
change takes place more gradually than (2) the working out of
uniformity among the other parts of the Empire, which can be
traced even under Augustus, who promoted this end by (a) limit-
ing the autonomy of free and federate states, (&) increasing the
autonomy of the directly subject states, (c) extending Roman
citizenship, (cF) converting client principalities into provincial terri-
tory. But perhaps the act of Augustus which most effectually
promoted this tendency was his reorganisation of the army, which
has been described in the foregoing chapter. While hitherto the
legions were recruited from Roman citizens only, and the
provinces were exempt from ordinary military service, although
they were liable to be called upon in cases of necessity, Augustus
made all the subjects of the Empire, whether Roman citizens or
not, whether Italians or provincials, liable to regular military
service. The legions were recruited not from Italy only, but
from all the cities of the Empire, whether Roman, Latin, or
ptregrmse ; and the recruit, as soon as he entered the legion,
became a Roman citizen. The auxilia were recruited from those
subject communities which were not formed as cities, and no
Roman citizens beloneed to these corps. Such communities now
occupied somewhat the same position as the Italic peoples had
formerly occupied in relation to Roman citizens. It will be readily
seen that the new organisation of the legions, by largely increasing
the number of Roman citizens, and by raising the importance of the
provinces, tended in the direction of uniformity

27 B.C. IMPERIAL AND SENATOEIAL PROVINCES. 81

§ 2. It has been already stated that in the provincial administra-
tion, as in other matters, a division was made by Augustus between
the Emperor and the senate. Henceforward there are senatorial
provinces and imperial provinces. The provinces which fell to the
share of the senate were chiefly those which were peaceable and
settled, and were not likely to require the constant presence of
military forces. The Emperor took charge of those which were likely
to be troublesome, and might often demand the intervention of the
Imperator and his soldiers. Thus (27 B.C.) Augustus received as his
proconsular " province " Syria, Gaul, and Hither Spain. With
Syria was connected the defence of the eastern frontier; Gaul, which
as yet was a single province, he had to protect against the Germans
beyond the Rhine ; and Hispania Cittrior (or Tarraconensis) laid on
him the conduct of the Cantabrian war. To the senate were left
Sicily, Africa, Crete and Cyrene, Asia, Bithynia, Illyricum, Mace-
donia, Achaia, Sardinia, and Further Spain (Ba3tica). In this
division there was an attempt to establish a balance between the
dominion of the Emperor, (who had also Egypt, though not as a
province,) and the senate. But the balance soon wavered in favour
of the Emperor, and the imperial provinces soon outweighed the
senatorial in number as well as importance. When new provinces
were added to the Empire, they were made imperial.

After the division of 27 B.C., several changes took place during
the reign of Augustus; but before we consider the provinces
separately, it is necessary to speak of the general differences
between the senatorial and the imperial government.

§ 3. The Roman provinces were at first governed by praetors,
but Sulla made a new arrangement, by which the governors
should be no longer praetors in office, but men who had been
praetors, under the title of propraetors. This change introduced
a new principle into the provincial government. Henceforward
the governors are proconsuls and propraetors.

Under the Empire, those governors who are not subordinate
to a magistrate with higher authority than their own, are pro-
consuls; those who have a higher magistrate above them are
propraetors. The governors of the senatorial provinces were all
proconsuls, as they were under the control of no superior magis-
trate ; whereas the governors of the imperial provinces were under
the proconsular authority of the Emperor and were therefore only
propraators.

The distinction between governors pro consule and governors
pro prcetore must not be confused with the distinction between
consular and prs&torian provinces. A propraetor might be either
of praetorian or of consular rank, and a proconsul might be either

82 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. CHAP. Yt

of consular or of praetorian rank. In the case of the senatorial
provinces, a definite line was drawn between consular and praetorian
provinces. It was finally arranged that only consulars were
appointed to Asia and Africa, only praetorians to the rest. In the
imperial provinces, the line does not seem to have been so strict ;
as a rule the praetorian governor commanded only one legion, the
consular more than one.

The proconsuls, or governors of the provinces which the
senate a'lminis ered, were elected, as of old, by lot, and only
held office for a year. They were assisted in their duties by legati
and quaestors who possessed an independent proprastorian imperium.
The proconsul of consular rank (attended by twelve lictors) had
three legati (appointed by himseli) and one quaestor at his side;
he of praetorian rank (attended by six lictors) had one legatus and
one quaestor.

The governors of the imperial provinces were entitled legati
August i pro prcetore.* They were appointed by the Emperor, and
their constitutional position was that the Emperor delegated to
them his imperium. But only consulars or praetorians, and there-
fore only senators, could be appointed. Their term of governorship
was not necessarily limited to a year, like that of the proconsuls,
but depended on the will of the Emperor. The financial affairs
of the imperial provinces were managed by procu>atores, generally
of equestrian rank, but sometimes freedmen. There were also,
for jurisdiction, legati Augusti juridici of senatorial rank, but it
is not certain whether they were instituted under Augustus.

But while the senate had no part in the administration of the
imperial provinces, except in so far as the governors were chosen
from among senators, the Emperor had powers of interfering in the
affairs of the senatorial provinces by virtue of the imperium mains,
which he possessed over other proconsuls. Moreover he could levy
troops in the provinces of the senate, and exercise control over the
taxation. Tnus the supply of corn from Afdca, a senatorial
province, went to the Emperor, not to the senate. In both kinds
of provinces alike the governors combined supreme civil and military
authority; but the proconsuls had rarely, except hi the case of
Africa, military forces of any importance at their disposition.

Thus there were two sets of provincial governors, those who
represented the senate and those who represented the Emperor. It
might be thought, at first sight, that the senatorial governors would
be jealous of the imperial, who had legions under them and a longer
tenure of office. But this danger was obviated by the important
circumstance that the legati were chosen from the same class as tha

* More properly legati prnconmlis pro p*-sitors.

THE WESTERN PHOVINf

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Llgtrl

are

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OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

27 B.C.-U A.D. OALLIA NAKBONENSIS. 88

proconsuls, and thus the same man who was one year proconsul of
Asia, might the next year be appointed legatus of Syria.

§ 4. In reviewing the provinces of the Roman Empire we may
begin with the western, and proceed eastward. With the exception
of Africa and Sardinia, there were no subject lands which Augustus
did not visit, as Caesar, if not as Augustus. In 27 B.C. he went to
Gaul, and thence to Spain, where he remained until 24 B.C.,
conducting the Cantabrian war. Two years later he visited Si<-ily,
whence he proceeded to the East, Samos, Asia, and Biihynia, s ttled
the Parthian question, and returned to ?v,ome in 19 B.C. In 16 B.C.
lie made a second visit to Gaul, in the company of Tiberius, and
stayed in the Gallic provinces for throe years. In 10 B.C. he visited
Gaul again, an^ iu 8 B.C. for the fourth time. Henceforward he
did not leave It ly, but deputed the work of provincial organisation
to those whom he marked out to be his successors.

SECT. II. — GAUL.

§ 5. Augustus divided Gallia into four provinces : Narbonensis,
Aquitania, Lugudunensis, and Belgira. In 22 B.C. he assigned
Narbononsis to the senate, while the others remained under imperial
legati.

Narbonensis had become a Roman province in 121 B.C. United
with the rest of Gaul after the conquests of Julius Caesar, it was
now restored to its separate being. Through the civil wars it
became far more than the territory of Narbo; for the federate Greek
state of Massilia, which possessed most of the coast-line, was
reduced to the condition of a provincial town, and thereby
Narbonensis extended from the Pynnees to the Maritime Alps.
The elder Caesar did much towards Rom.ani-.ing this province. To
him Narbo owed its strength and prosperity, and he founded new
cities, possessing Roman citizenship, chief among them Arelate
which as a commercial town soon took the place of her older Greek
neighbour. The canton system of the Celts was gradually super-
sede! in Narbonensis by ttie Italian system of city communities,
and this development was zealously furthered by Augustus. In one
interesting case we can see the process. The canton of the Volcse
is first organised on the Italian principle under | -rasters (prcetor
Volcarum)\ the next step is that the canton of the Voices is
replaced by the Latin city Nemausus, which is now Nimes. The
disappearance of the canton system distinguishes the southern
province from the rest of Gaul, and is pnrt of its conspicuously
Roman character. This different degree of Romanisation had

84 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. CHAP. vi.

probably a good deal to do with the marked differences between the
lands of the langue d'oc and those of the langue d'oui. Yet the
Celts of Narbonensis did not forget their national gods ; the religion
of the country survived long in the south as well as in the north.

Tres Oallios. The three imperial provinces were often grouped
together as the " three Gauls." This threefold division corresponded
in general outline to the ethnical division, which Cassar marks at
the beginning of his " Gallic War." But it does not correspond
wholly. The province of the south-west contains Iberian Aquitania,
but with a Celtic addition. The Celtic land between the Liger and
the Garumnais taken from Celtica and annexed to Aquitania. The
province Lugudunensis answers to Caesar's Celtica, but it no longer
includes all the Celts. It has lost some on the south side to
Aquitania, and others on the north to the third division, Belgica.
Thus Belgica is no longer entirely Teutonic, but partly Teutonic
and partly Celtic. These three districts seem at first to have been
placed under the single control of a military governor, who
commanded the legions stationed on the Rhine and had a legatus
in each province. Drnsus held this position from 13 to 9 B.C., and
Tiberius succeeded him (9-7 B.C.). Again, from 13 to 17 A.D. we
find Germanicus holding the same position. It is possible that in
the intervening years this military control was suspended, and that
the legati of the three provinces were independent of any superior
but the Emperor, as they certainly were after 17 A.D.

In imperial Gaul the Roman government allowed the cantons to
remain, and ordered their administration accordingly. The city
system was not introduced iu these provinces as in Narbonensis,
and the progress of Romanisation was much slower. There was a
strong national spirit; the religion of the Druids was firmly rooted;
and it was long felt by Roman rulers that the presence of armies OD
the Rhine was as needful to prevent a rebellion in Gaul as to ward
off a German invasion. But no serious attempt was made by the
Celts to throw off the yoke of their Roman lords. An Iberian
rebellion in Aquitania was easily suppressed by Messalla Corvinus
(about 27 B.C.), and perhaps belongs as much to the history of
Spain as to that of Gaul. The Iberians north of the Pyrenees
were probably in communication with their brethren of the south.
The success of Messalla was rewarded by a triumph.

The four visits of Augustus to Gaul, which have been mentioned
above, and that of Agrippa in 19 B.C., show how much the thoughts
of the Emperor were filled with the task of organizing the country
which his father had conquered and had not time to shape. On the
occasion of his first visit he held a census of Gaul, the first Roman
census ever held there, in order to regulate the taxes. It is remark-

27 B.O.-14 A.D. THE THREE GAULS. 85

able that the policy adopted by Borne was not to obliterate, but to
preserve a national spirit. Not only was the canton organisation
preserved, but all the cantons of the three provinces were yoked
together by a national constitution, quite distinct from the imperial
administration, though under imperial patronage. It was in the
consulship of M. Messalla Barbatus and P. Quirinius (12 B.C.), on
the first day of August, that Drusus dedicated an altar to Rome
and the genius of Augustus* beneath the hill of Lugudunum, where
the priest of the three Gauls should henceforward sacrifice yearly,
on the same day, to those deities. The priest was to be elected
annually by those whom the cantons of the three provinces chose
to represent them in a national concilium held at Lugudunum.
Among the rights of this assembly were that of determining the
distribution of the taxes, and that of lodging complaints against the
acts of imperial officials.!

The city which was thus chosen to be the meeting-place of the
Gallic peoples under Roman auspices, Lugudunum, stood above and
apart from the other communities of imperial Gaul. She gave her
name to one of the three provinces, and the governor of
Lugudunensis dwelt within her walls ; but she was far more than
a provincial residence. Singular by her privileged position as the
one city in the three Gauls which enjoyed the rights of Roman
citizenship she may be regarded as the capital of all three, yet not
belonging to any. Her exalted position resembles that of Rome in
Italy rather than that of Alexandria in Egypt; it has also been
compared to that of Washington in the United States. She and
Carthage were the only cities in the western subject-lands hi which
as in Rome herself a garrison was stationed. She had the right of
coining imperial gold; and we cannot assert this of any other
western city. Her position, rising at the meeting of the Rhone
from the east and the Arar (Saoue) from the north, was advan-
tageous from the point of view either of a merchant or of a soldier.
She was the centre of the road-system of Gaul, which was worked
out by Agrippa; and whenever an Emperor visited his Gallic
provinces, Lugudunum was naturally his head-quarters.

The difference in development between the Three Gauls and
Narbonensis — the land of cantons and the land of cities — is well
illustrated by the town-names of France. In Narbonensis the local
names superseded for ever the tribal names ; Arelate, Vienna,
Valentia, survive in Aries, Vienne, Valence. But in imperial Gaul,
the rule is that the local names fell into disuse, and the towns are

* Ara Romee et Augusti. | said to have enriched himself by whole-

f Licinus, a freedmau of Augustus, sale extortion, and his name became
ww procurator In Gaul in 16 B.C. He is I proverbial for wealth.

86 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. CHAP, vi,

called at the present day by the names of the old Gallic tribes. Lutetia,
the city of the Parisii, is Paris ; Durocortornm, the city of the Remi, is
Rheims ; Avarieum, the city of the Bituriges, is BourgeR.

The conqueror of Gaul had shown the way to the conquest of
Britain; but this work was reserved for another than his son.
One of the objects of Augustus in visiting Gaul in 27 B.C. was to
feel his way towards an invasion of the northern island ; but the
project was abandoned. The legions of Augustus, however, though
they did not cross the channel, crossed the Rhine; but the story of
the making of the true and original province of Germany beyond
the Rhine and its brief duration, and of the forming of the spurious
Germanics on the left bank of the river, will be told in another
chapter.*

SECT. III.— SPAIN.

§ 6. Spain, the land of the " far west " in the old world, was safe
through its geographical position from the invasion of a foe. Almost
enclosed by the sea, it had' no frontier exposed to the menace of a
foreign power; and it was the only province in such a situation that
required the constant presence of a military force. For though the
Romanising of the southern and eastern parts had advanced with
wonderful rapidity, the intractable peoples of the north - western
regions refused to accept the yoke of the conqueror, and held out in
the mountain fastnesses, from which they descended to plunder
their southern neighbours. The Cantabrians and the Asturians
were the most important of these warlike races, and. when
Augustus founded the Empire, their territories could hardly be
considered as yet really under the sway of Rome. Since the death
of Cffisar arms had never been laid down in Spain ; commanders
were ever winning triumphs there and ever having to begin anew.
Augustus found it needful to keep no less than three legions in the
country, one in Cuntabria, two in Asturia; and the memory of the
Asturian army still abides in the name Zeon, the place where the
legio VII. gemina was stationed.

Before Augustus, the province of Hispania Ulterior took in the
land of the Tagus and the Durius as well as the region of the
Baetis. This division was now altered. First of all, Gallaecia, the
north-western corner, was transferred from the Further to the
Hither province, so that all the fighting in the disturbed districts of
the north and north-west might devolve upon the same commander.
The next step was the separation of Lusitania, and its organisation
* See below, Chap. IX.

27 B.C.-14 A.D.

SPAIN.

87

as a distinct imperial province, while the rest of Farther Spain,—
Beetica as it came to he called — was placed under the control of the
senate. Another change made hy Augustus was the removal of the
seat of government in Hither Spain from New Carthage to more
northern and more central Tarraco, whence, from this time forth, the
province was called Tarraconensis. Tarraco became in this province
what Lugudunum was in Gaul, the chief seat of the worship of
Rome and Augustus, and the meeting-place of the proviucial
concilium.

Thus, under the new order of things, Spain consists of three
provinces : Bsetica, senatorial : Tarraconensis and Lusitania, im-
perial. This arrangement was probably not completed until the end
of the Gantabrian war, which lasted with few interruptions from
29 to 25 B.C., only, however, to break out again a year or two later.
A rebellion of Cantabria and Asturia was suppressed by Statilius
Taurus in 29 B.C. ; but in 27 B.C. disturbances were renewed
and the Emperor himself hastened from Gaul to quell the
insurrection. But a serious illness at Tarraco forced him to leave
the conduct of the war to his legati, probably under the general
direction of Agrippa. A fleet on the north coast supported the
operations by land ; and by degrees the fastnesses of the Cantabrians
fell into the hands of the Romans. At the same time P. Garisius
subdued the Asturians.

It was a more difficult task to secure a lasting pacification.
Augustus endeavoured to induce the mountain peoples to settle in
the plains, where in the neighbourhood of Roman colonies they
might be tamed and civilized. Such centres of Roman life in the
north-west were Augusta Asturica, Bracara Augusta, Lucus Augusti,
memorials of the Spanish visit of Augustus, and still surviving
under their old names as Astorga, Braga, and Lugo. The chief
inland town* of eastern Tarraconeiisis was the work of the same
statesman ; Saragossa, on the Ebro, still preserves the name of the
colony of Csesar Augustus.

But the Emperor had not left Spain long (24 B.O.)> when new
disturbances broke out.f They were promptly put down, but in
22 B.O. another rebellion of the Cantabrians and Asturians called
for the joint action of the governors of Tarraconensis and Lusitania.
The last war, and perhaps the most serious of all, was waged two
years later, and demanded the leadership of Marcus Agrippa him-
self (20-19 B.O.). The difficulty was at first aggravated by the

* The other Roman cities of thi? pro-
vince were on the coast1; as Barcino, Tar-
raco, Valentia, New Carthage.

f* Horace, Ode*, ii. 0. 2 : Cautabrum

indoctum iutra ferre nostra; 11. 1 : belii-
cosus Cantaber ; iii. 8. 21 : Servit His-
panae vetus hostis one Cantaber sen
domitus catena.

88 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. CHAP. vi.

mutiny of the soldiers, who detested the weary and doubtful war-
fare in the mountains ; and it required all the military experience
of the general to restore their discipline and zeal. After many losses
the war was successfully ended (19 B.C.), and the hitherto
"untameable" Can tabrian people * reduced to insignificance. A
few disturbances occurred four years later, but were easily dealt
with ; yet it was still felt to be needful to keep a strong military
force in northern Spain.

Roman civilization had soon taken a firm hold in the south of
Spain.f The contrast of Narbonensis with the rest of Gaul is like
the contrast of Baetica and the eastern side of the Hither province
with the rest of Spain. But Roman policy was very different in
the two countries ; and this was due to the circumstance that
Spain was conquered and organised at an earlier period. The
Latinizing of Spain had been carried far under the Republic ; the
Latinizing of Gaul had practically begun under the Empire. In
Gaul the tribal cantons were allowed to remain ; this was the
policy of the Caesars, father and son. In Spain, the tribal cantons
were broken up in smaller divisions; this was the policy of the
republican senate. In Gaul, excluding the southern province, there
were no Roman cities except Lugudunum ; in Spain Roman colonies
were laid here and there in all parts. The Gallic fellows of Baetic
Gades, Corduba and Hispalis, of Lusitanian Emerita and Olisipo, of
Tarraconese Carthage, Cassarangusta and Bracara, must be sought
altogether (under the early Empire) in the smallest of the four
provinces of Gaul.

In Lusitania, Augustus founded Emerita Augusta, a colony of
veterans, on the river Anas (Guadiana), and made it the capital of
the province. The other chief Roman towns of Lusitania were
Olisipo, since promoted to be the capital (Lisbon) of a modern
kingdom, and Pax Julia, now represented by Beja. Spain was not
a network of Roman roads, like Gaul. The only imperial road was
the Via Augusta, which went from the north of Italy along the
coast to Narbo, then across the pass of Puycerda to Ilerda, and
on by Tarraco and Valentia to the mouth of the Bsetis. The
other road-communication necessary in a fertile and prosperous
country, was provided by the local communities. The Spanish
peninsula was rich not only in metals, but in wine, oil, and corn.
Gades (Cadiz), which now received the name of Augusta Julia,
was one of the richest and most luxurious towns in the Empire.

* Horace, Odes, iv. 14. 41 : Cantaber
non ante domabilis. Cp. iv. 5. 27 : Quis
ferae bellum curet Hiberise ? Epistles, i.
12. 26 : Cantaber Agrippse, Claudi virtute
NeroniB Armenius cecidit.

f Strabo says (151) that "the dwellers
in the regions of the Baetis have been so
thoroughly Romanised that they have
actually forgotten their own tongue."

V B.C.-14 A.D MAURETANIA S9

SECT. IV — AFRICA. SARDINIA. SICILY.

§ 7. From Spain one naturally goes on to Africa. Augustus never
visited either the African province or the African dependency, but,
before he left Tarraco (25 B.C.), he was called upon to deal with
African affairs. In history Spain and Africa have always been
closely connected. Sometimes Spain has been the stepping-stone
to Africa, oftener, as for the Phoenicians and the Arabs, Africa has
been the stepping-stone to Spain. The western half of Mauretania
was really nearer to the European peninsula which faced it than to
the rest of the African coast ; and under the later Empire this region
went with Spain and Gaul, not with Africa and Italy. There was no
road between Tingis in western and Caesarea in eastern Mauretania :
the communication was by sea. And so it was that the Moorish
hordes, crossing to Baetica in their boats, were more dangerous to
Roman subjects in Spain than to those in Africa. A poet of Nero's
time describes Bsetica as trticibus obnoxia Mauris. For though
Spain, as has been already said, had no frontier exposed to a foreign
power, her southern province had as close neighbour a land which,
first as a dependency and then as a province, was inhabited by a
rude and untamed population.

The commands which Augustus issued from the capital of his
Spanish province especially regarded Mauretania. But we must
call to mind what had taken place in Africa since the dictator
Caesar ordered it anew. He had increased the Roman province by
the addition of the kingdom of Numidia, and the river Ampsaga
was fixed as the western boundary between New Africa, as
Numidia was sometimes called, and Mauretania. This latter
country was at that time under two kings. Over the eastern realm
of lol, soon to be called by Caesar's name, ruled King Bocchus ; over
the western realm of Tingis ruled King Bogud. Both these poten-
tates had taken Caesar's side in the first civil war, unlike King Juba ;
and they therefore kept their kingdoms after Caesar's victory. But in
the next civil war, they did not both take the same side. Bocchus
held to Caesar the son, as he had held to Caesar the father ; but
Bogud supported Antonius, while his own capital Tingis (Tangier)
embraced the other cause. In reward, Bocchus was promoted to
kingship over the whole of Mauretania ; and Tingis received the
privilege of Roman citizenship. When Bocchus died (33 B.C.), his
kingdom was left kingless for a season, but the Roman government
did not think that the time had yet come for a province of
Mauretania.

90

PROVINCIAL ADMINISTBATION.

CHAP,

A son of the last king of Numidia, named Juba, like his father,
had followed the dictator's triumph through the streets of Borne,
and had been brought up under the care of Csesar and his successor.
He served in the Roman army ; he was an eager student of Greek
and Roman literature, and wrote or compiled Greek books himself.
On him Augustus fixed to take the place of king Bocchus. If it
was out 01 the question to restore him to his paternal kingdom of
Numidia, he should at least have the next thing to it, the kingdom
of Mauretania ; and as the descendant of king Massinissa, he would
be welcome to the natives. At the same time (25 B.C.) Augustus
gave Mauretania a queen. The daughter of Antonius and the
Egyptian queen had followed his own triumph, as Juba had
followed his lather's. Named Cleopatra like her mother, she had
been protected and educated by the noble kindness of Octavia,
whom her parents had so deeply wronged. There had been a
peculiar fitness, as has been well remarked, hi the union of the
Numidian prince and the Egyptian princess, whose fortunes were
so like. This union brought about the strange circumstance that
the last king of Mauretania, Juba's son, bore the name of Ptolemy.

Thus Roman dominion in Africa, west of Egypt, consisted
under Augustus of a province and a dej>endent kingdom, the river
Ampsaga, on which Cirta is built, forming the boundary. The
southern boundaries of this dominion it would have been hard,
perhaps, for Augustus himself to fix, inasmuch as there were no
neighbouring states.* The real dominion passed insensibly into
a "sphere of influence" among the native races, who were
alternatively submissive and hostile, or, as the Romans would
have saiu, rebellious.

Against these dangerous neighbours of the interior, Garamantes
and invincible Ga3tulians,t Transtagnenses and Musulami, it was
necessary to keep a legion in Africa, which was thus distinguished
as the only senatorial province whose proconsul commanded an
army. Two expeditions J were made in the reign of Augustus
against these enemies, the first under the proconsul L. Cornelius
Balbus (19 B.C.), against the Garamantes, and a second under
P. Sulpicius Quiriiiiutf, against the tribes of Marmarica further
east. Balbus performed his task ably, and received a triumph,
remarkable as the la>t granted to any private Homan citizen.

In the organisation of Gaul and Spain, Rome had no older

* There was, however, a kingdom of
the Garamantes.

. .,. ,, . ., . ..
f Virgil, 4M4 Iv. 40 :

Hinc Gastula? urbes, genus insuperabile
bello.

Et Numidte infreni cingunt et inhospit*

Syrtls.

1 There was also some warfare in an
J^ year . for ln n ^ L Stmproviw

Atratlnus celebrated a triumph for Tio-
torioe won in Africa,

27 B.O.-14 A.D. AFBIOA. 91

civilisation to build upon.* It was otherwise in Sicily and Africa.
The civilisation of Sicily, when it became Koman, was chiefly
Greek, but partly Phoenician ; tliat of Africa, on the contrary, was
chiefly Phoenician, but partly Greek. Accordingly Rome built on
Phoenician foundations in the lauds wliich she won from Carthage,
and accepted the constitution of the Phoenician town communities,
just as she accepted the cantons in Gaul. But there was a re-
markable likeness hi organisation between these communities and
those of Italy, so that the transition from the one form to the other
was soon and easily accomplished. Carthage, whose existence
was blotted out by the short-sighted policy of the republican
senate, had been revived by the generous counsels of Caesar, to
become soon the capital of Roman, as it had been of Punic,
Africa. At first the Phoenician constitution was restored to her,
but she soon received the form of a Roman colonia, and grew to
be one of the greatest and most luxurious cities of western Europe.
Utica, jealous of the resurrection of her old rival, was made a
Koman rnunicipium. The growth of Roman life hi Africa was
also furthered by the settlement of colonies of veterans. In the
original province may be mentioned Clii]>ea, and Hippo Diarrhytos ;
in Numidia, Cirta (f onstantin?) and Sicca. In Roman civilisation,
Maurctania vas far behind her eastern neighbours ; but Augustus
did much in estr.V filing colonies, chiefly on the coast. These
Roman townb of Jk£ JL'Jtenia owed no allegiance to the native king,
but depended direc^y on the governor of the neighbouring
province.

Besides the Phoenician towns, and the towns on Italian model,
whether municipia or colonies, there were also native Libyan
communities ; but these stood directly under the control of the
Roman governors, or sometimes were placed under special Roman
prefects. The language of the native Berbers was still spoken
chiefly in the regions which the liomans least frequented; it was
treated by the conquerors like the Iberian in Spain and the Celtic
in Gaul. The language of communication throughout northern
Africa was Phoenician ; but Rome refused to recognise this Asiatic
tongue as an official language, as she had recognised Greek in
her eastern provinces. In their local affairs the communities might
use Phoenician ; but once they entered into imperial relations, Latin
was prescribed. It might have been thought that Greek, which
was1 better known in Africa than Latin when the Romans came,
would have been adopted there as the imperial language ; but the
government decreed that Africa, like Sicily, was to belong to the

* Massilia in Gaul, the f»w Greek I Spain, do not affect the general truth of
towns, and the Phoenician factories in this statement.

92 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. CHAP. vi.

Latin West. It is instructive to observe that, while the name of
the Greek queen of Mauretania appears on coins in Greek, that of
her husband, who was regarded as an imperial official, is always in
Latin.

Africa was fertile in fruit,* though her wine could not compete
with the produce of Spain and Italy. In corn she was especially
rich and shared with Egypt and Sicily the privilege of supplying
Rome. The purple industry was still active, chiefly in the little
island of Gerba, not destined, indeed, to become as famous as the
island of Tyre. Juba introduced this industry on the western
coast of his kingdom. The general wellbeiug of the land has
ample witnesses in the remains of splendid structures which have
been found there, in all parts, such as theatres, baths and trium-
phal arches.

§ 8. From Africa we pass to another province in which Rome
was the heiress of Carthage. Sardinia had ceased to look to her
African ruler in 238 B.C., and had become, seven years later, a
Roman province, the earliest except Sicily. In the division of the
provinces in 27 B.C., Sardinia and Corsica fell to the senate and
Roman people ; but the descents of pirates forced Augustus to take
the province into his own hands in 6 A.D., and commit it to the
protection of soldiers. He did not place it, however, under a
legatus of senatorial rank, but only under & procurator of equestrian
rank. It was destined to pass again to the senate under Nero, but
returned to the Emperor finally in the reign of Vespasian. These
islands, though placed in the midst of civilisation, were always
barbarous and remote. The rugged nature of Corsica, the pesti-
lential air of its southern fellow, did not invite settlements or
visitors; they were more suited to be places of exile, and they
were used as such. Augustus sent no colonies thither, and did
not visit them himself. The chief value of Sardinia lay in its
large production and export of grain, f

§ 9. Very different was the other great island of the Mediterranean,
the oldest of all the provinces of Rome, the land whose conquest
led to the further conquests of Sardinia and of Africa herself. It
was in Sicily that the younger Cassar established his position in
the west ; his recovery of the land, on which Rome depended for
her grain, first set his influence and popularity on a sure foundation.
As Augustus, he visited it again (B.C. 22), and, although it was a
senatorial province, ordered its affairs, by virtue of his mains
imperium, at Syracuse ; perhaps it was in memory of this visit

* Horace, Ode*, 111.16. 81: taperlo fertllls I f Horace, odts, 1.- 31. 3 : Oplm* SM-
Afric*. I diniic segetes feraces.

15 B.O;- CONQUEST OF R^TIA.

that he gave the name of Syracuse to a room in his house which
he used as a retreat when he wished to suffer no interruption.
Roman policy had decreed that Sicily was to belong to the Latin
West, not to the Greek East, with which once she had been so
constantly connected ; and for centuries to come, embosomed in the
centre of the Empire, she plays no part in history, such as she had
played in the past and was destined to play again in the distant
future.

SECT. V. — RJETIA, NOEICUM, AND THE ALPINE DISTRICTS.

§ 10. From the province adjoining Italy on the south, we pass
to the lands on its northern frontier, which it devolved upon
Augustus to conquer and to shape. The towns of northern Italy
were constantly exposed to the descents of unreclaimed Alpine
tribes, who could not be finally quelled as long as they possessed
a land of refuge beyond the mountains, among the kindred bar-
barians of Rsetia. For the security of Italy it was imperative
to subdue these troublesome neighbours, and in order to do so
effectively it was necessary to occupy Rsetia and Vindelicia. This
task was accomplished without difficulty in 15 B.C., by the stepsons
of the Emperor. Drusus invaded Rsetia from the south: and
vanquished the enemy in battle.* Tiberius, who was then
governor of Gaul, marched from the north to assist him, and the
Vindelici were defeated in a naval action on the waters of the
Lake of Brigantium.f The tribes of the " restless Genauni " and
the " swift Breuni " appear to have played a prominent part in the
Vindelician war.J The decisive battle which gave Raetia to
Rome was fought near the sources of the Danube, under " the
fortunate auspices" of Tiberius, on the 1st of August.§ By
these campaigns the countries which corresponded to Bavaria,
Tyrol, and eastern Switzerland became Roman; a new military
frontier was secured, and direct communications were established
between northern Italy and the upper Danube and upper Rhine.
The military province of Rsetia was placed under an imperial
prefect, and the troops which used to be stationed in Cisalpine
Gaul could now be transferred to an advanced position. Augusta

* Horace, Odes, iv. 4. 17 :

Nridere Raetis bella suk> Alpibus
Drusum gerentem Vindelici.
f Now Lake Constance. Brigantium
it Bregenz.
J Horace, Odes, iv. 14. 9 :

Milite nam tuo
Drusus Gtenaunog, impUcldum genus.

Breunosque veloces et arces

Alpibus impositas tremendis
Deipcit acer plus vice simplici.
$ Horace, ib. 14 :

Maior Neronum mox grave proellum
'Commisit immanesque Rsetos
Auspiciis pepulit secvmdi*.

94 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. CHAP. VL

Vindelicum was founded as a military station near the frontier of
the new province, and still preserves under the name Augsburg the
name of the ruler who did so much for Romanising western
Europe. For Romanising Rsetia itseif, indeed, neither he nor his
successors did much ; no Roman towns were founded here, as in
the neighbouring province of Noricum.

The conquest of the dangerous Salassi, who inhabited the valley
of the Duila, between the Gralan and Pennine Alps, was success-
fully accomplished by Terentius Murcna, brother-in-law of Maecenas
in 25 B.C. The people was exterminated, cad f. body of praetorian
soldiers was settled in the valley, through wMc'% roads ran over the
Graian Alps to Lugudunum, and over i\\& Pennine 'nto Raetia.
The new city was called Augusta Pretoria jCliO iUmpcrors name
survives in the modern Aosta, whore the old llom^n walls and
gates are still to be seen. The western Alps b3twcen Gaul end
Italy were formed into two small districts, the Maritime Alps,
and the Cottian Alps, of which the former was governed by
imperial prefects.* At first the Cottian district formed a de-
pendent state, not under a Roman commander, but undar its own
prince Cottius, from whom it derived its name (regnum Cottii).
Owing to his ready submission, he was left in possession of his
territory, with the title prcefectus civitatium. His capital Segusio
survives as Susa, and the arch which he erected in honour of
his over-lord Augustus (8 B.C.) is still standing. Through this
"prefecture" (as it seems to have been) ran the Via Cottia
from Augusta Taurinorum (Turin) to Arelate (Aries). The paci-
fication of the Alps, though it presented nothing brilliant to
attract historians, conferred a solid and lasting benefit on Italy,
and Italy gratefully recognised this by a monument which she
set up in honour of the Emperor on a hill on the Mediterranean
coast, near Monaco. The reduction of 46 Alpine peoples is recorded
in the inscription, which has been preserved.

Few relics of the Roman occupation have been found in Raetia ;
it is otherwise wita the neighbouring province of Noricum, which
included the lands now called Styria and Carimhia, along; with a
part of Carniola and most of Austria. Here traffic had prepared
the way for Roman subjugation ; Roman customs and the Latin
tongue were known beyond the Carnic Alps, and when the time
came for the land to become directly dependent on Rome, no
difficulty was experienced. An occasion presented itself in 16 B.C.,
when some of the Noric tribes joined their neighbours the

There was also the district of the i does not seem to nave been organised as
Qraian Alps, under a procurator; but it | early as the time of Augustus.

25 B.O.-M AJft,

NORICUM.

95

Pannonians in a plundering incursion into I stria.* At first treated
as a dependent kingdom, Noricum soon passed into the condition
of an imperial province under a pefect or procurator, but continued
to be called regnum Noricum. No legions were stationed in either
Rsetia or Noricum, ouly auxiliary troops; but the former province
was held in check by legions of the Rhine army at Vindonissa,f and
Noricum was likewise surveyed by legions of the Pannonian army,
stationed at Poetovio, on the Drava (Drave). The organisation of
Noricum on the model of Italy was carried out by the Emperor
Claudius. The land immediately beyond the Julian Alps, with
the towns of Emona and Nauportus, belonged to Illyricum, not to
Noricum. but it subsequently became a part of Italy.

The occupation of Rfetia and Noricum was of great and perma-
nent importance for the military defence of the Empire against the
barbarians of central Europe. A line uf communication was secured
between the armies on the Danube and the armies on the Rhine.

SBOT. VL — ILLYRICUM AND THE HMMUB LANDS.

§ 11. PANNONIA AND DALMATIA. — The subjugation of Illyricum
was the work of the first Emperor. Istria and Dalmatia were
counted as Roman lands under the Republic, but the tribes of tlie
interior maintained their independence, and plundered their civilised
neighbours in Macedonia. Roman legions had been destroyed, and
the eagles captured by these untamed peoples, in 48 B.C. under
Gabinius, and in 44 B.C. under Vatinius.. To avenge these defeats
was demanded by Roman honour, and to pacify the interior districts
was demanded by Roman policy. The young« r Caesar undertook
this task, when he had dealt with Sextus Pompeius, and d scharired
it with energy and success. In 35 B.C. he subdued the smaller
tribes all along the Hadrintic coast, beginning with Doclea (which
is now Montenegro) near the borders of the Macedonian province,
and ending with the lapydes who lived in the Alpine d strict north-
east of Istria. At the same time his fleet subdued the pirates \\ho
infested the coast islands, especially Ctirzola and Meleda. The
lapydes, whose depredations extended to northern Italy, and who
had ventured to attack places like Teriieste and Aquileia, off red a
strenuous resistance. When the Roman army approached, most of
the population assembled in their town Arupinm, but as Csesar
drew nearer fled into the forests. The strong fortress of Metulum,J

* The "Node sword" was proverbial.
Op. Horace. Odes, 1. 16, 9, and Epode*. xvii.
11.

f The name is preserved in Windisch
east of Basel.
i Mottling.

96 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. CHAP vi

built on two summits of a wooded hill, gave more trouble. It was
defended by a garrison of 3000 chosen warriors, who foiled all the
Roman plans of attack, until Caesar, with Agrippa by his side, led his
soldiers against the walls. On this occasion Caesar received some
bodily injuries. The energy of the Romans, inspirited by the
example of their leader, induced the besieged to capitulate; but
when the Romans on entering the town demanded the surrender of
their arms, the lapydes, thinking that they were betrayed, made a
desperate resistance in which most of them were slain ; and the
remainder, having slain the women and children, set fire to their
town.

Having thus subdued the lapydes, Caesar marched through their
country down the river Colapis (Kulpa), which flows into the
Save, and laid siege to the Pannonian fortress of Siscia (whose
name is preserved in Sissek), situated at the junction of the two
streams. It was not the first time that a Roman force had appeared
before the walls of Siscia, but it was the first time that a Roman
force did not appear in vain. Having thrown a bridge across the
river, Caesar surrounded the stronghold with earthworks and ditches,
and with the assistance of some tribes on the Danube, got together
a small flotilla on the Save, so that he could operate against the
town by water as well as by land. The Pannonian friends of the
besieged place made an attempt to relieve it, but were beaten back
with loss ; and having held out for thirty days, Siscia was taken by
storm. A strong position was thus secured for further operations,
whether against the Pannonians, or against the Dacians. A Roman
fortress was built, and garrisoned with twenty-five cohorts under
the command of Fufius Geminus. Caesar returned to Italy towards
the end of the year (35 B.C.), but during the winter the conquered
Pannonian tribe rebelled, and Fufius came into great straits. Dark
rumours of his situation, for he was unable to send a sure message,
reached Caesar, who was at that moment planning an expedition to
Britain. He immediately hastened to the relief of Siscia, and let
the Britannic enterprise fall through. Having delivered Fufius
from the danger, he turned to Dalmatia and spent the rest of the
year 34 B.C. in reducing the inland tribes, which now, forgetting
their tribal feuds, combined in a great federation to fight for their
freedom. They mustered an army 12,000 strong, and took up a
position at Promona (now Teplin, north-east of Sebenico) a place im-
pregnable by nature, and strengthened further by art. The name of
their leader was Versus. By a skilful piece of strategy Caesar forced
the enemy to give up their advanced lines of defence, and retreat
into the fortress, which he prepared to reduce by starving the
garrison out and for this purpose built a wall five miles iu

27 B.O.-14 A.D. ILLTBIOUH. 9?

circuit. Another large Dalmatian force under Testimus came to
relieve the place, but was completely defeated. The defenders of
Promona simultaneously made an excursion against the besiegers,
but were driven back, and some of their pursuers penetrated into
the fortress with them. A few days later it was surrendered. The
fall of Promona put an end to the war, in so far as it was waged by
the Dalmatians in common. But warfare continued here and
there; various tribes and fortresses held out by themselves. It
was necessary to besiege Setovia, and Caesar was wounded there in
his knee. He returned after this to Rome, to enter upon his second
consulship (33 B.C.), leaving the completion of his work to Statiiius
Taurus, who for his services on this occasion received a large share
in the Illyrian spoils, and laid the foundation of his great wealth.
But Csesar laid down his consulate on the very day on which he
assumed it, and returned to Dalmatia, in order to receive the sub-
mission of the conquered peoples. The eagles which had been
captured from the army of Gabinius were restored, and 700 boys
were given to the conqueror as hostages.

The civilising of these Illyrian lands was now begun in earnest;
the chief towns on the coast were raised to the position of Italian
communities; and a new epoch began in the history of Salonse,
lader, Pola, Tergeste, and other places, which made their mark in
the later history of Europe. It was now, doubtless, that colonie£
were settled at Salonae, Pola and Emona. Thus Salonge became in
full official language, Colonia Martia Julia Salonse, and Emona —
which corresponds to Laibach, the capital of Carniola — became
Colonia Julia Emona. Pola, called Colonia Pietas Julia Pola;
may have become in some measure for lllyricum, what Luguj
dunum was for the Three Gauls, in so far as a temple of Rome
and Augustus was built there during the lifetime of the first
Emperor.

A change was also made in the administration of lllyricum
Hitherto it had been joined to the government of Cisalpine Gaul,
with the exception of a small strip of land in the south of Dalmatia;
which was annexed to Macedonia. But after Caesar's campaigns,
IllyricuMi was promoted to the dignity of a separate province,
bounded by the Savus in the north and the Drilo in the south. At
the division of provinces in 27 B.C. it was assigned to the senate.
But in the nature of things it could not long remain senatorial.
The presence of legions on the northern frontier could not be
dispensed with, and it devolved upon the governor to watch over
Noricum on the one hand and Mcesia on the other. Such powers
and responsibilities were not likely to be left to a proconsul : and

98 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. CHAP. vi.

accordingly soon after the conquest of Rsetia, when hostilities in
Pannonia seemed likely to break out, we find Agrippa sent thither
(13 B.C.), invested *' with greater powers than all the governors out
of Italy." The terror of Agrippi's name held the Pannonians in
check, but on his death in the following year they took up arms,
and Tiberius was appointed to succeed Agrippa. He brought the
rebellious tribes to submission, but in the next year (11 B.C.) was
again compelled to take the field against them, and also to
suppress a revolt of the Dalmatians. These events led to the
transference of Illyricum from the senate to the Emperor. Both the
Dalmatian subjects and the Pannonian neighbours required the
constant presence of military forces. At the same time the northern
frontier of the province advanced from the Savus to the Dravus, in
consequence of the successes of Tiberius in his three campaigns
(12-10 B.C.). Poetovio, on the borders of Noricum, now became the
advanced station of the legions, instead of Siscia. This extension of
territory soon led to a division of Illyricum into two provinces, Pan-
nonia and Dalmatia, both imperial. The government of Pannonia
was specially important, because the intervention of the legatus
might be called for either in Noricum or in Moasia. It is well to
notice that the nam-e lllvricum was used in two ways. In its
stricter sense it included Pannonia and Dalmatia; in a wider
sense (and specially for financial purposes) it took in Noricum
and Moesia, as coming within the sphere of the governors of
Illyricum proper.

§ 12. MCESIA AND THRACK. — The governors of Macedonia under
the Republic were constantly troubled by the hostilities of the rude
Illyric and Thracian peoples on the north and east. The Dardanians
of the upper Margus, the Dentheletas of the Strymon, the Triballi
between the Timacus and the (Escus, the Bessi beyond Rhodope
were troublesome neighbours. The lands between the Danube and
Mount Hsemus, which now form the principality of Bulgaria, were
inhabited by the Moesians, and beyond the Danube was the
dominion of the Dac'ans, whom the Romans had reason to regard
as a most fornrdable enemy. The Thracians in the south, the
Moesians in the centre, and the Dacians in the north, were people
of the same race, speaking the same tongue. It was evidently
a very important, matter for the Roman government to break
this line, and to brins Mce^ia and Thrace directly or indirectly
under Roman sway, so as to make the Ister the frontier of the
Empire.

The occasion of the conquest of Moesia was an invasion of the
Bastarnse, a powerful people, perhaps of German race, who lived

27 B.C.— H AOX,

MCESIA.

99

between the Danube and the Dniester, in 29 B.O. As long as they
confined their hostilities to the Moesians, Dardanians, and Triballi,
the matter did not concern the governor of Macedonia, Marcus
Licinius Crassus, grandson of the rival of Pompey and Caesar. But
when they attacked the Dentheletse, allies of Home, he was called
on to interfere. The Bastarnaa retired at his command, but he
followed them as they retreated and defeated them where the river
Cibrus flows into the Danube. But at the same time he turned his
arms against Mcesia, and reduced, not without considerable toil and
hardships, almost all the tribes of that country. He had also to
deal with the Serdi, who dwelt in the centre of the peninsula under
Mount Scomius, in the direct way between Macedonia and Moesia.
These he conquered, and took their chief place, Seidica, which is now
SoHa, the capital of Bulgaria. He was also compelled to reduce the
unfriendly tribes of Thrace. In that country the worship of
Dionysus was cultivated with wild enthusiasm,* and the possession
of one specially venerable grove, consecrated to that god — perhaps
the very grove in which Alexander the Great had once sacrificed —
was a subject of discord between two powerful rival tribes, the
Odrysas and the Bessi. The B ssi were then in possession ; but
Crassus took the sacred plac^ from them and gave it to the friendly
Odrysaa, and constituted their prince the representative of Roman
power in Thrace, with lordship over the other peoples, and protector
of the Greek towns on the coast. Thus Thrace became a depen-
dent kingdom.

That Moesia also became, at first, a dependency of the same kind,
before she became a regular province, seems likely. The Greek
cities on the coast were probably placed under the protection of the
Thracian kingdom, while the rest of Mcesia and Triballia may have
been united under one of the native princes.f After 27 B.C. it
would doubtless have devolved upon the governor of lilyricum, no
longer upon the governor of Macedonia, to intervene in case of
need.

The submission of the Thracians was not permanent, and the
Odrysians were not equal to the task imposed upon them. The
Bessi longed to recover the sanctuary of Dionysus, and a sacred
war broke out in 13 B.C., which resulted in the overthrow of the
princes of the Odrysae. The suppression of this insurrection ought

* Horace refers to their drunken brawls
in Odes, L 27. 1 :

Natis in usum laetitiae scyphis
Pagnare Tbracum est.
Cp. ii., 7. 26 : Non ego sanius bacchabor

Edonis. The Edoni were a Thracian
tribe.

f Possibly with the title prstfectus
civitatium Maesix et Tribollix; like the

title of Cottiua.

100

PBOVINOIAL ADMINISTRATION.

CHAP. VL

perhaps to have devolved upon the governor of Illyricum, but he
had his hands full in his own province ; the proconsul of Macedonia
had no army at his disposal. Accordingly recourse was had to the
troops stationed in Galatia, and Lucius Piso, the imperial legatus in
that province,:}: was summoned to cross into Europe and quell the
insurgents who were threatening to invade Asia, having established
themselves in theThracian Chersonese (11 B.C.). Piso put down the
revolt successfully, and it was probably soon after this that Moesia
was converted into a regular Roman province, though Thrace still
remained under the rule of the dependent Odrysian prince Rhceme-
talces, who, with his son Gotys, was devotedly attached to Rome
and unpopular in Thrace.

Thrace, though not yet Greek, must even now be reckoned to the
Greek half of the Roman world. But its close connection with
Moesia naturally led us to consider it in this place, rather than in
the following chapter. Moesia itself belonged partly to the Latin,
and partly to the Greek division. The cities which grew under
Roman influence in western Mcesia were Latin ; the cities on the coast
of the Pontus were Greek, and formed a distinct world of then* own.
But most of the inhabitants of these cities were not Greeks, but Getae
and Sarmatiaus, and even the true Greeks were to some extent
barbarised by intercourse with the natives.§ The poet Ovid, who
was banished to Tomi, gives a lively description of the wild life
there — the ploughmen ploughing armed, the arrows of ferocious
marauders flying over the walls of the town, natives clad in skins,
and equipped with bow and quiver, riding through the streets.
Getic continued to be spoken in Moesia long after the Roman
conquest, like Illyric in Illyricum ; and Ovid pays that it was
quite needful for any one resident in Tomi to know it. He wrote
himself a poem in the Getic tongue ; and we should be glad to
barter some of his Latin elegiacs for his exercise in that lost
language.

§ 13. Trie subjugation of the vast extent of territory, reaching
from the sources of the Rhine to the mouths of the Danube, was a
military necessity. The conquest of each province, while it served
some immediate purpose at the time, was also part of an immense
scheme lor the defence of the Empire from the Northern Ocean to

J Thus we may best explain the state-
ment oi Dion, that Piao was governing
Pamphylia, and was ordf-red thence
to Thrace. Mommsen, rejecting this
statement, regards Piso as legatus of
Mcesta.

$ Horace describes the Getse thus, Odes
iii. 24. 11:

lligidi Getes,
Imme-ata quibus iugera liberas

Fruges et Cererem ferunt,
Nee cultura placet longior annua, &c.

27 B.C.-U A.D.

THKACB.

101

the Euxine. It was designed that the armies in Pannonia should
be in constant touch with the armies on the Rhine, and that
operations in both quarters should be carried out in connection.
Central Europe and the Germans who inhabited it presented a hard
and urgent problem to the Roman government; but before telling
how they attempted to solve it, it will be well to complete our survey
of the subject and dependent lands.

Coin : Altar of Rome and

at Lugudunum.

Triumph of Tiberius.

CHAPTER VIL

PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION (continued).
PROVINCES AND EGYPT.

THE EASTERN

§ 1. Function of Roman rule in the East. § 2. MACEDONIA, ACHAIA, and
FREK GREEK STATES. Nicopolis and the Actian games. The Delphic
Amphictyonv. § 3. ASIA and BITHYNIA. T»e provincial diets. Asi-
archs and Bithynitrc'is. § 4. GALATIA and PAMPHYLIA. § 5. The
dependent states in Asia Minor ; the LYCIAN CONFEDERACY ; CAPPA-
DOCIA; PONTUS; PAPHLAGONIA; LITTLE ARMENIA. The states of
the Tauric peninsula ; BOSPORUS and CHERSONESUS. § 6. The in-ular
provinces, CYPRUS and CRETE, with CYRENK. § 7. SYRIA, and the
neighbouring dependent states : Nabatea, Judea, Commagene, Chalcis,
Abila, Emesa, Palmyra. King Herod and his Hellenism. § 8. EGYPT.

§ 1. THE Romans, who were the teachers of the peoples whom they
conquered in the West, were themselves pupils in the East. In
Gaul, in Spain, in northern Italy, in Illyricum th^y b'oke new
ground and appeared as the pioneers of civilisation; hut in the
eastern countries which came under their dominion they entered
upon an inheritance, which they were called upon indeed to

THE EASTERN PROVINCE

\

sri I O

«(ta%M^f

A I C A

lf>

A««P*

27 B.C.-U A.D.

MACEDONIA.

103

preserve and improve, but where there was no room for them to
originate new ideas of development. Rome merely carried on the
work of Alexander the Great and his successors, and she was proud
to be entrusted with the task. She not only left Greek what was
already Greek, but she endeavoured to spread Greek civilisation in
those parts of her eastern lands where it had not taken root. The
sole exception to this rule of policy was Sicily ; and this was due to
its geographical position.

The subject lands of the east naturally fall into four groups : (1)
Macedonia and Greece ; (2) Asia Minor, in connection with which
may be considered the Tauric peninsula ; (3) Syria and the neigh-
bouring vassal kingdoms ; (4) Egypt, \vhich stands by itself both
geographically and because, strictly speaking, it was not a province.

SECT. I. — MACEDONIA, ACHAIA, AND THE FREE GREEK STATES.

§ 2. The institution of the Empire was attended by a change in
the administration of Macedonia and Greece, which under the
Republic had formed one large province. Augustus divided it into
two smaller provinces, Macedonia and Achaia, both of which he
assigned to the senate. This division, however, did not altogether
coincide with the boundary between Greece and Macedonia. The
province of Achaia was smaller than Hellas, and the new province
of Macedonia larger tl>an Macedonia pioper. For Thessaly,
^tolia, Acarnania and Epirus * were placed under the rule of the
northern proconsul. Thus Mount (Eta, instead of Mount Olympus,
was the boundary between Macedonia and Greece.

Imperial Macedonia was thus smaller in extent and importance
than republican Macedonia. It also lost its military significance
as a frontier district, through the extension of Roman rule over the
neighbouring lands north tmd east. Greek civilisation, though it
had flourished for centuries in the old cities on both the seas which
wash the coasts of Macedonia, never penetrated far into the high-
lands. Eastward of Apollonia and Dyrrhachium, northward of
Thessalonica and the Chalcidic peninsula, there were few Greek
cities to form centres of culture. Augustus settled colonies of
Roman citizens in many of the old Greek towns ; in Dyrrhachium,
the old Epidamnos, and in Byllis, on the Adriatic coast ; in Thracian
Philippi ; in Pella ; in Dium on the Thermaic gulf; in Cassandria on

* The position of Epirus in the
provincial scheme under the early empire
cannot be determined with certainty. It
seems probable that most of Epirus be-

longed to Macedonia. Tacitus, bowerer,
ep.-aks of Nicopolis as a city of Achala
(Ann., ii. 53), in 17 A.D. But Nicopolls
held a singular position.

104 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. OBI*, m

tbe bay of Pagasae. But his purpose was merely to provide for
veteran soldiers, not to Romanise the province. In general, tha
towns retained their Macedonian constitutions and politarchs; and
they formed a federation with a diet (Koiv6v). The capital of the
province was Thessalonica, and this alone stamped it as Greek.

Thessaly, although placed under the government of the proconsul
of Macedonia, held a position quite apart from the lands north of
Mount Olympus. It was a purely Greek district, and its cities
formed a federation of their own, distinct from that of Macedonia.
The diet used to meet in Larisa, whose fertile plain was so famous.*
Julius Caesar had accorded the right of free self-government to all
the Thessalians, but, for some act of misconduct, Augustus with-
drew the privilege; and the Thessalians, with the single exception
of Pharsalus, were degraded from the position of allies to that of
3ubjects.

The Roman government — whether republican or imperial—
always treated the venerable cities of Greece with a consideration
and tenderness, which they showed to no other conquered lands.
The reverence which was inspired in the Romans by the city of
virgin Pallas, by " patient Lacedasmon," by oracular Delphi, is
displayed not only in their literature, but in their government.
Athens preserved a part of her dominion as well as her independence ;
she could still regard herself as a sovran city.

Thus Greece fell politically into two parts : federate Greece and
subject Greece. (1) First of the free federate states comes Athens,
with the whole of Attica, and various other dependencies. On the
mainland, she possessed Haliartos in 6o3otia and the surrounding
district ; but, as in old days, most of her dominion was insular.
Among the Cyclades, she had Ceos and Delos; in tbe northern
^Egean, Lemnos, Imbros and Scyros. The island of Salamis was
also recovered for her in the reign of Augustus, by the private
liberality of a rich man, Julius Nicanor, whom the grateful Athenians
named " the new Themistocles." In spite of her privileged position,
perhaps in consequence of it, Athens often gave the Roman govern-
ment trouble ; a revolt in the reign of Augustus is recorded. Next
to Athens, in northern Greece, come three famous Boeotian towns,
Thespiae, Tanagra, and Platsea; in Phocis likewise three, Delphi,
Elatea, and Abae ; in Locris, Amphissa. In the Peloponnesus, Sparta
was permitted to retain her dominion over northern Laconia, while
the inhabitants of the southern half of that country were formed
into eighteen communities of **' free Laconians," Meuthero-lacones.
Dyme in Achaea was also a »ree city, and it is highly probable,
though not certain, that Elis and Olympia belonged to the free
* Larisae campus opinue, Hor., Octet, i. 1. 11.

27n.o-HA.lx GREECE. 105

communities. The Roman government interfered as little as
possible with the affairs of these free states. Athens coined her
own drachmae and obols, and the head of Caesar never appeared on
her coins. But she and her fellows knew that their privileges
might at any moment be withdrawn, as the example of the
Thessalians taught them.

Patrae and Corinth, as Eoman colonies, held a somewhat different
position. Corinth, like Carthage, rose again under the auspices of
Julius Caesar, as Colonia Julia (or Laus Julia), and rapidly
recovered her prosperity, thanks to her geographical position.
Patrae, in Achaea, was founded by Augustus, who settled there
a large number of Italian veterans and granted to the now town
dominion over the Locrian haven Naupactus, which lay over
against it on the opposite coast.

(2) The rest of Greece (with the exception of the less developed
districts in the west, JStolia, Acarnania, Epirus) constituted the
province of Achaia. The residence of the proconsul was at Corinth.
The sense of national unity in these subject states was encouraged
by Augustus. He revived the Achaean league, in an extended
form, as the league of " Boeotians, Euboeans, Locrians, Phocians, and
Dorians," or briefly the league of the " Achasans." In later times it
assumed the more pretentious name of the league of the Panhellenes.
The assemblies of this association used to meet in Argos, which was
thus in some measure recompensed for her exclusion from the list of
free communities.

One important and singular state has still to be mentioned. On
the northern lip of the mouth of the Ambracian gulf, near the scene
of the great battle in which he won the lordship of the Roman
world, Augustus founded a new city. Nicopolis, "the city of
victory," rose on the very spot where the main body of his army had
been encamped. This foundation was not to be a Roman colony ;
it was to be a Greek city like Thessalonica, and it was founded, in
the same way, by syncecizing the small communities of the neigh-
bourhood. Nicopolis, like Athens and Sparta, was a free and sovran
state. Acarnania, the island of Leucas, the neighbouring districts
of Epirus, a part of ^Etolia, were placed under her control. On
the opposite promontory, a new temple of Apollo was built at
Actium, and quinquennial games were instituted in honour of that
god, on the model of the Olympian, and actually called " Olympian "
as well as " Actian." The cycle of four years was an " Actiad.."

Nicopolis and its dependencies belonged politically neither to
Macedonia nor to Achaia ; but they were more in touch with the
southern than with the northern province. The great bond of
union among the European Greeks, under Roman rule, was the

106 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. CHAP. vn.

Delphic Amphictyony, and in this assembly, as reorganised by
Augustus, Nicopolis had a prominent place. The chief reform
introduced by that Emperor was the extension of the institution
to Macedonia and Nicopolis ; but as many votes were assigned to
the new city as to the whole of the Macedonian province.* The
functions of the Amphictyony were purely religious. It ordered
the sacred festivals and administered the large income of the temple
of Delphi. From a political point of view, it served the same
purpose as the assembly of the three Gallic provinces which met at
Lyons round the altar of Augustus ; it helped to maintain a feeling
of unity and a sense of common nationality.

SECT. II. — ASIA MINOR. KINGDOMS ON THE EUXINE. ISLANDS.

§ 3. ASIA AND BITHYNIA. — From the Greeks of the mother-land
we pass to the Greeks of Lesser Asia. Here Rome had never to
struggle for dominion as in the other parts of the empire of
Alexander the Great and his successors. The provinces of "Asia"
and Bi thy iiia dropped, as it were, into her arms. Asia was the
kingdom of the Attalids of Pergamum, and was bequeathed to the
Roman people by Attalus III. ; Bithynia became Roman in the
same way by the testament of King Nicomedes. Both these
provinces were assigned to the senate and governed by proconsuls.
Asia extended from the shores of the Propontis to the borders of
Lycia ; eastward it included Phrygia, and on the west took in the
islands along the coast. Bithynia was no longer confined to the
original kingdom of Nicomedes. It had been increased on the east
side by Pontus, after the overthrow of the empire of Mithradates
by Pompey; and it stretched across the Bosphorus into Europe,
so as to take in Byzantium.

In the kingdom of the Attalids little was left for the Romans to
do in the way of Hellenisation. In the interior of the country
there were many Hellenistic cities, and the growth of city-life
required no filtering from the new mistress. The colonies of
Parium, and Alexandria in the Troas, founded by Augustus, were
for the purpose of settling veteran soldiers. It was otherwise in
the kingdom of Nicomedes. Here Greek culture had not taken root
so deeply or so widely ; Bithynia was far less developed than Asia.
Here accordingly there was room for Rome to *tep in and carry on
the work of Hellenisation; and she gladly undertook the task.
Pontus, which was under the governor of Bithynia, was more

* The entire number of votes was 30; i which went round in turn to Corinth,
of these Nicopolis ha<i 6, Athens 1, Delphi I Megara, Sicyon, and Argos.
2. The Peloponnesian Dorians had only 1, '

27 B.O.-14 A.D. ASIA AND BITHYNIA. 107

backward still There were no Greek centres there, like Prusa and
Nicsea in Bithynia; so that- the Hellenisation of that country
practically began under the Empire. The two most important
towns on the coast of Pontus, were Sinope, where a Roman colony
had been planted, and Tra^ezus, which was the station of the
Pontic fleet.

In Asia Minor, as in other parts of the Empire, Augustus
promoted the institution of provincial councils. The deputies of the
various cities met yearly in a centre, and the assembly could make
known to the Roman governor the w^hes of the province. But this
institution took a special shape and colour by its association with
the worship of the Emperor. In 29 B.C. Caesar (not yet Augustus)
authorised the diets of Asia and Bithynia to build temples to himself
in Pergamum and Nicomedia. Hence the custom of paying divine
honours to the Emperor during his lifetime spread throughout the
provinces ; in Italy and Home such worship was not yielded 10 him
till he was deified after death. This worship involved the existence
of high priests, who in the Asiatic provinces became very important
persons, and gave their name to the year. Whereas in European
Greece the ancient public festivals — Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian
and demean, — still lived, and the new Actian feast was celebrated
in honour of Apollo, in Asia the public feasts were connected with
the cult of the Emperor. The president of the provincial diet, the
Asiarch in Asia, the Bithyniarch in Bithynia, conducted the
celebration of these festivals and defrayed the costs ; so that those
offices could only be held by rich men. There was no lack of
wealthy folk in Asia, the province "of five hundred cities." It had
suffered a good deal from piracy and from the Mithradatic war;
and Augustus, in order to restore prosperity, resorted to the
measure of cancelling old debts. Rhodes was the only state that
did not take advantage of this permission. But Asia soon recovered,
and her bright cities enjoyed under the Empire tranquillity and
prosperity.*

§4. GALATIA AND PAMPHYLIA. — When the provinces were divided
in 27 B.C. between the senate and the Emperor, Asia Minor was
only in small part provincial. Besides Asia and Bithynia, only
eastern Cilicia was subject to a Roman governor. The rest of the
country consisted of dependent states, holding the same relation to
Rome as Mauretania in the west. Chief amomj these "vassal"
states was the kingdom of Galati*, then ruled by Amyntas. Celtic
civilisation held its own for a long time against Hellenism in this
miniature Gaul, which was set down in a land of Hellenistic states,
somewhat like Massilia, that miniature Greece, set down in a land
* Horace, Epittles, li. 3. 5 : An pingues Asiae campi collesque aaorantur?

108 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. CHAP, m

of Celtic cantons. The visitor who came from western Galatia (the
Greek name of Gaul) to eastern Galatia might hear spoken in the
streets of Pessinus and Ancyra the language with which he was
familiar in the streets of Lugudunum. Here, too, in the new Gaul
were the same double n*mes of towns as in the old Gaul, the name
of the place and the name of the tribe. As Gallic Mediolanum is
Santones (Saintes), as Lutetia is Parisii, so Ancyra is called by
the name of the Tectosages, Pessinus by that of the Tolistobogii.
But in Asia the Celts did not long maintain the purity of their
race; Gallic and Greek blood weie mingled, and the people were
called Gallo-Greeks, just as in Gaul there came to be Gallo-Romans.
The princes of Galatia were ambitious of empire and were rivals
of Mithradates. In the Mithradatic war they stood fast by Rome.
King Deiotarus, who had played a prominent part then, died in
40 B.C., and his kingdom passed to one of his officers, Amyntas, in
36 B.C., through the favour of Marcus Antonius, who charged the
new sovran with the subjugation of Pisidia. The dominion of
Amyntas extended over those mountainous countries, south of
Galatia, which have always been so hard to civilise — Pisidia,
Lycaonia, Isauria and western Cilicia. The fall of his patron
Antonius made no difference in the position of Amyntas; Caesar
allowed him to remain where he was. But when he died, in 25 B.C.,
r, Galatia was transformed into a Roman province, and (like all new
provinces after 27 B.C.) was administered by an imperial governor-
Pamphylia, over which the authority of Amyntas stretched, was
now separated from Galatia, and made a distinct province; but
Pisidia and Lycaonia still went with Galatia. In the mountainous
regions of these districts the Hellenistic kings had done little for
civilisation, and there was a great field for the plantation of new
cities. Antioch, Seleucia, Apollonia in northern Pisidia, Iconium
and Laodicea CatacecaumenS in Lycaonia, were indeed something ;
but they were only a beginning. Augustus founded the Roman
colonies of Lystra and Parlais in Lycaonia, and Cremna in Pisidia ;
and his successors carried on the work. Many remains of theatres
and aqueducts in these lands tell of prosperity under the early
Empire ; but even at the best times Mount Taurus was the home of
wild mountaineers, always ready, under a weak government, to
pursue the trade of brigandage.

§ 5. THE DEPENDENT STATES IN ASIA MINOR AND ON THB
EUXINE. — The rest of Asia Minor did not become provincial until
after the death of Augustus. During his reign the Lycian con-
federacy, once subject to Rhodes but independent after the Third
Macedonian War, was permitted to retain its autonomy. The
kingdom of Cappadocia was ruled by King Archelaus. Polemon

27 B.G.-14 AD. GALATIA. BOSPORUS. 109

ruled over a Pontic kingdom, consisting of the territory between
Cerasus and Trapezus, and also the land of Colchis. There were
three distinct vassal states in Cilicia. In Paphlagonia there were
some small principalities held by descendants of King Deiotarus,
but these came to an end in 7 B.C. and were joined to Galatia.
East of Galatia, north of Cappadocia, was the kingdom of Little
Armenia, of which more will be said in the next chapter, where
the position of Great Armenia will also be described, a kingdom
dependent by turns on the Roman and the Parthian empires.

One state, or rather two states, which up to very late times
continued Roman dependencies, not incorporated in the provincial
system, still call for notice. These are two cities of the Tauric
peninsula ; Bosporus or Panticapseum, on the eastern promontory-
at the entrance to the Palus Mseotis, and Chersonesus or Heraclea
at the opposite, western side.* Bosporus was governed by kings,
(the original title was archon), who also ruled over Phanagoria,
on the opposite mainland, and Theudosia, a town on the peninsula.
Chersonesus was a republic. Both states had been conquered by
Mithradates and formed into a Bosporan realm. When he was
overthrown, Bosporus, after some struggles, came finally into the
hands of Asandros, who held it until his death (c. 16 B.C.) and
left the kingdom to his wife Dynamis. By marriage with her
and the permission of Augustus, Polemon, king of Pontus, then
obtained the kingdom, and was succeeded by his children. But
the rapublic of the western city was no longer subject to its eastern
neighbour, though it might regard the Basileus of Bosporus as a
protector in time of need. These cities on the distant border of
Scythia played an important part in commerce. The Greek colonies
on the northern shore of the Euxine, Tyras at the mouth of the
river of like name, Olbia near the mouth of the Hypanis, although
they sometimes received Roman protection, never took a permanent
place in the Empire ; lonely and remote, they were left to hold
their own, as best they could, in the midst of barbarous peoples.

§ 6. CYPRUS, CRETE, AND OYRENE. — In the western Mediterra-
nean there were two insular provinces, Sicily and Sardinia ; so like-
wise in the eastern parts of the same sea there were two insular
provinces, Cyprus and Crete. Crete, however, was not an entire
province; it had been joined by its conqueror Metellus with the
Cyrenaic pentapolis. The joint province of " Crete and Gyrene "
was assigned to the senate. The land of Cyrene, remarkable for
its delightful, invigorating climate, was also blessed by freedom
from political troubles throughout its history as a Roman province.

* Bosporus and Chersonesus (shortened into Cherson) correspond to the modern
KerUch and Sebaatopol,

110 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. CHAP. vn.

Like Asia and Bithynia, it had been willed to the Roman republic
by Ptolemy Apion, its last Macedonian king (96 B.C.). Cyprus was
fit first imperial, but in 22 B.C. Augustus transferred it, along with
Gallia Narbonensis, to the senate. The early history of this island
had turned, like that of Sicily, on the struggle between the Phoeni-
cians and the Greeks. Under Roman rule it would have enjoyed
unbroken tranquillity, but for the large population of Jews who
sometimes rebelled. Even the peaceful Cyrenaica was at times
disturbed by the agitations of the same race. Crete, once the
home of piracy was lucky enough to play no part in history as
long as the Mediterranean was a wholly Roman sea.

SECT. III. — THE NEIGHBOURING DEPENDENT KINGDOMS AND SYRIA.

§ 7. Of the imperial provinces, Syria was the most important in
the east, as Gaul in the west. The legatus of Syria, on
whom it devolved to defend the frontier of the Euphrates against
the Parthians, had four legions under him, the same number
that was stationed on the Rhine. But it was not only for frontier
service that the Syrian troops were needed ; they had also to
protect the cities and the villnges against marauding bands
who infested the hills. Hence the legions were quartered in
the cities, and not, like the Rhine army, in special military
stations on the frontier ; and this circumstance was the source of
the demoralisation and lack of discipline which marked the Syrian
army. But notwithstanding the existence of the hill-robbers,
Syria was a most prosperous province. In the way of Hellenisa-
tion and colonisation the Seleucid kings had left nothing for the
Romans to do. Augustus founded Berytus in order to provide for
veteran soldiers, and it remained an isolated Italian town in the
midst of the Greek Asiatics, — like Corinth in Greece, and Alexandria
in the Troad. The Greek names of the towns in Syria recalled Mace-
donia, as towns in Sicily and Magna Grsecia recalled old Greece, or as
names of places in the United States recall the mother-country.
But the older Aramaic names lived on side by side with the new
Greek names, and in some cases have outlived them, as, for instance,
Heliopolis, which is called Baalbec at the present day. People, too,
had double names as well as places. Thomns who was called
Didymus, and Tabitha also called Dorcas, in the New Testament,
are familiar examples. The Aramaic tongue continued to be
spoken beside Greek, like Celt'C beside Latin in Gaul, especially
in the remoter districts. From the mixture of Greek and Syrian
life, a new mixed type of civilisation arose, sometimes called
Syrohellenic, and characteristically expressed in the great mauso-

27 B.C.-14 A.D. SYRIA. Ill

leum erected on a hill near the Euphrates by Antiochus, king of
Comntagene. In his epitaph, that monarch piays, that upon his
posterity may descend the blessings of the gods both of Persis and
of Maketis (Persia and Macedonia).

In the busy factories of the great Syrian cities — Laodicea,
Apamea, Tyre, Berytus, Byblus — were carried on the manu-
factures (linen, silk, &c.) for which the country was famous.
But Antioch, the capital, was a town of pleasure rather than of
work. It was not well situated for commerce, like Alexandria;
but it was rich and magnificent. Splendidly supplied \vith water,
brightly lit up at night, and full of superb buildings, it, with its
suburb, the Gardens of Daphne, was probably the pleasantest town
in the empire for the pleasure-seeker.

Southern Syria, on its eastern side, bordered on the dependent
kingdom of Nabat, which extended from Damascus, encircling
Palestine on the east and south, and including the northern portion
of the Arabian peninsula. The regions, however, of Trachonitis,
between Damascus and Bostra, which had been committed to the
charge of Zenodorus, prince of Abila, were subsequently transferred
by Augustus to the king of Judea. because Zenodorus, instead of
suppressing the robbers who infested Trachonitis, made common
cause with them. Damascus itself, however, was subject to the
Nabatean kings, whose capital was the great commercial city of
Petra, the midway station through which the caravans of Indian
merchandise passed on their road from Leuc^ Come* in Arabia, to
Gaza. These kings were Arabs, and HelLnism had only super-
ficially touched their court. They had officers named Eparchoi
and Strategoi. In the northern part of their realm, Damascus
was Greek, and the close neighbourhood of Syria brought those
border regions on the edge of the desert into connection with
Greek civilisation, The kings of Petra were always at feud with
their neighbours the kings of Judea. Obodas nearly lost his crown
for taking up arms against Herod, instead of appealing to Augustus,
their common lord. Civilisation did not really begin for this
Nabatean kingdom, until, more than a century later, it was at
length converted into a Roman province.

The kingdom of Judea, restored and bestowed upon Antipater
of Idumea by Julius Caesar, had been specially favoured by that
statesman, being exempted from tribute and military levies. After
the death of Antipater the kingdom was won by his son Herod,
after many struggles. At first the unwilling client of Antonius
and the queen of Egypt, he performed some services in the final
contest for Caesar, who not only confirmed him in his kingdom, but
enlarged its borders. Samaria was added to Judea, and also the

112 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. CHAP, m

line of coast from Gaza as far as the Tower of Straton, which
afterwards, under Herod's rule, was to become the city of Csesarea,
the chief port of southern Syria. Herod, throughout his long
reign, prosecuted th§ work of Hellenism, by no means acceptable to
his Jewish subjects, with generous zeal. His policy was to keep
religion and the government of the state quite apart, and do away
altogether with the Jewish theocracy. There was thus a con-
tinuous rivalry between the king and the high priest. The
Hellenism of Herod was shown by hig building a theatre at
Jerusalem, and instituting a festival, to "be celebrated at the end
of every fourth year, in imitation of the Greek games. At this
festival, musical as well as gymnastic and equestrian contests were
held, and people of every nation were invited. He also imitated
the Romans by building an amphitheatre hi the plain beneath the
city, and exhibiting there combats of wild beasts and condemned
criminals. All this was a gross violation of Jewish traditions.
Herod founded two new cities, both of which were named after
the Emperor : Csesarea, already mentioned, intended to be the
seaport of Jerusalem, and Sebaste, on the site of Samaria. These
cities were of Hellenistic and not Jewish character.

The reign of Herod was stained by horrible tragedies, which
darkened his domestic life. Before his death, which occurred
in 4 B.C., his kingdom had been increased by the land beyond the
Jordan. The whole realm he divided among his three sons.
Archelaus was to receive Judea, with Samaria and Idumea; to
Philip fell Batanea and the adjacent regions, with the title of
tetrarch ; while Galilee and the land beyond the Jordan were assigned
to Herod Antipas, also as tetrarch. But the kingdom was not
destined to be of long duration. The Jews preferred to be the direct
subjects of the Emperor, to being under the rule of a king of their
own ; and a deputation from Jerusalem waited upon Augustus in
Borne, to pray him to abolish the kingdom. The Emperor at first
compromised. He did not remove Archelaus from the government
of Ju'lea, but he refused him the royal title, and deprived him
of Samaria. A few years later, however, in consequence of the
incapacity of Archelaus, the wishes of the Jews were accomplished,
and Judea was made a Boman province (6 A.D.) under an imperial
procurator, over whom doubtless the legatus of Syria was em-
powered to exercise a certain supervision, in certain cases, some-
what as the governor of Pannonia might intervene in Noricum.
Under the procurator, the city communities were allowed to
manage their own affairs, as in Asia or Achaia. In Jerusalem, the
synhedrion, an institution which had been founded under the
Seleucids, corresponded to the town council, and the high priett,

27 B.C.-14 A.D. JUDEA. 113

appointed by the procurator, to the chief magistrate. Everything
possible was done, under the new system, to respect and deal
tenderly with the customs and prejudices of the Jews. Out of
consideration for their objection to images, the coins did not bear
the Emperor's head ; and when Eoman soldiers went to Jerusalem,
they had to leave their standards behind them in Caesarea. The
difference of treatment which the occidental Jews experienced is
striking. The same Emperors who persecuted Jews in the west,
scrupulously respected their customs in their own land. But the
Jews were not content; they grumbled against the tribute, not
because it was oppressive, but on the ground that it was irreligious.
This state of things resulted in the great Jewish war of Vespasian,
to which we shall come hereafter.

Some other small vassal states were allowed to survive for a
considerable time. The kingdom of Commagene in the north was
not incorporated in the provincial system until 72 A.D. The prin-
cipality of Chalcis, north-west of Damascus, survived still longer,
(until 92 A.D.). Abila, (between Chalcis and Damascus) was
annexed about 49 A.D. lamblicus of Emesa had been executed
by Antonius shortly before the battle of Actium ; and his territory
was at first annexed by Augustus to the province of Syria, but in
20 B.C. restored to a member of the native dynasty of Sampsi-
geramus. It finally became provincial before 81 A.D. At what
time the Syrian state of Palmyra, called in the Syrian tongue
Tadmor, came to be a Roman dependency, we cannot say for
certain, but probably in the reign ot Augustus. This flourishing
city, situated in an oasis of the desert, lay on the trade route
from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean Sea, and was governed,
under Koman supremacy, by its own municipal officers, until its
destruction by the Emperor Aurelian in the third century.

SECT. IV. — EGYPT.

§ 8. The death of Cleopatra, the last queen of the royal house of
the Lagidse, was followed by the conversion of Egypt from the
condition of a vassal kingdom into a directly subject land. But
although it is often counted with the imperial provinces, it never
stood in line with the other provinces.* It was subject to the
Emperor in his own right, not merely as representative of the
populus Eomanus. Augustus ruled over Egypt, not as proconsul,
but as a successor of the Ptolemies, a king all but in name ; and
the country always remained a sort of imperial preserve.f The

* See above, Chap. I. $3, and Chap. VI. I to describe the imperial administration
$l(f). of Egypt.

f Tacitus uses the phrase dorni retinere /

114 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. CHAP. vn.

Emperor was worshipped as a god by the Egyptian priests, accord-
ing to the same forms which had been used in the cult of the royal
Ptolemies. It was a logical consequence of this legal status of
Egypt, as the Emperor's private domain, that it should stand apart
from the imperial provinces in its administration. Thus senators
were disqualified to fill the post of governor. Hence the governor
of Egypt did not hold the rank of a legatus, but only of a prsefectus.
He was in command, however, of three legions, and this was the
only case in which legions were commanded by men of the eques-
trian order. But not only were senators excluded from the
governorship, they were even forbidden to set foot in the land
without permission of the lord of the land. This regulation (which
extended also to equites illustres) was made by Augustus in se'f-
protection. For if a prominent senator wished to excite a rebellion,
Egypt, through its immense resources and its geographical position,
would have been a most favourable field for such an enterprise.
The military importance had been abundantly proved in the Civil
Wars. Whoever controlled the Egyptian ports could stop the
corn-supply on which Rome and Italy depended, and thus force
them to capitulate without leaving Alexandria. And besides
Egypt was a country difficult to attack and easy to defend; it
had the advantage of an insular position without being an island.
The jealousy with which the Emperors watched Egypt, is illus-
trated by the fate of the first prefect, Cornelius Gallus, the poet.
He allowed his name and deeds to be inscribed on the pyramids,
and these indiscretions were interpreted as treasonable. Tried by
the senate, he was removed from his command, and his disgrace
drove him to commit suicide. Augustus is reported on this
occasion to have complained that he was the only citizen who
could not show anger against a friend without making him an
enemy. Besides the prefect tfcere was a iuridicus to administer
justice, and an officer called idiologus to manage the finances.

In organisation also Egypt differed from the other provinces.
The system of the Ptolemies was continued. No municipal self-
government was granted ; city life was not encouraged, as in the
rest of the empire. The country was divided into districts (nomes}
which were placed under officers appointed by the government.
No diet was instituted to represent the political views of the people.
Under the Ptolemies, the native Egyptians had formed an inferior
class, possessing no political privileges, and under the Romans their
condition remained the same.

Upper Egypt extended to Elephantine on the Nile, and to
Troglodytic Berenice on the coast (in the same line of latitude).
This Berenice must be distinguished from Golden Berenice, far away

27 B.C.-H A.D. EGYPT. 115

to the south, opposite Aden, which, like Zula and Ptolemais
Tbdrdn, were not included in the Roman empire.

The fertility of the land of the Nile was proverbial, and it brought
in an enormous revenue to the imperial purse. Augustus did not
reduce the heavy taxes which had been levied by his Greek
predecessors, but by judicious improvements, among which must be
especially mentioned the re-opening and clearing of the Nile
canals, he enabled the country to bear them, and Egypt soon
recovered from the financial distress in which the rule of Cleopatra
had plunged it. The chief product was grain, with which it
supplied Home. In the production of linen Egypt rivalled
Syria ; in glass manufactures it stood first ; and it supplied the
world with papyrus. Excellently situated for traffic, Alexandria
might claim to be the second city in the Empire ; as a centre
of commerce, she then stood at the head of all cities in the world.
The traffic of the East and the West met in her streets and on
her quays; Greek philosophies and oriental religions mingled
in her schools. The buildings were magnificent, above all, the
Temple of Serapis, the Museum, and the Royal Palace. There were
attrac'ions for the scholar, as well as for the merchant, and the
sight-seer ; the Greek library was the richest, and the Greek
professors of the Museums the most learned, in the Empire. Every-
thing, a Greek writer says,* was to be had in E-ypt, wealth, quiet,
sights, philosophers, gold, a Museum, wine, all one may desire !
There was a very large Jewish population in Alexandria, composing
a distinct community, with its own chief (entitled the ethnarc/i) ;
and the city was too often the scene of riots and tumults, as was
wont to be the c»se where there were large colonies of Jews.

The capture of Alexandria by Csesar was commemorated by the
bmldin'j; of a suburb called Nicopolis, which served as a sort of
fortress to command the city, as a legion was stationed there. The
temple of Antonius, incomplete when the city was taken, was
finished and dedicated to Cassar. At a later period Augustus set up an
obelisk in Alexandria, which survives to the present day, although
no longer in its old station, f under the name of Cleopatra's needle.

Egypt had been accustomed to reckon time by the regnal year of
the Ptolemies, and the same svstem was continued under its new
sovran. The era of the first Roman ruler was counted, not from
the day of his victory, August 1 (30 B.C.), but from August 29,
corresponding to the first day of the month Thoth, which the

* In one of the lately discovered mimes I Roman Alexandria.

of Herodas (i. 27, sqq). Thoi gh this I f It was removed to New York some

writer probably lived in the 3rd century I years ago.

B.C., his description applies equally to |

PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. CHAP. vn.

reckoned as the first day of the new year. Cleopatra
L dining the greater part of August, and this circumstance may
3^0 determined the choice of the beginning of the new era.

UBT OF PROVINCES AT THE DEATH OF AUGUSTUS.

1. &nator£a*t

a. Governed by consular proconsuls.

5. Governed by praetorian proconsuls.

Sicily.

Baetica.

Karbonensis.

Macedonia.

Achaia.

Bithynia and Pontus.

Cyprus.

Crete and Cyrene.
2. Imperial

a. Governed by legati Augusti pro-

praetore.
(1) Governed by consular legati.

Tarraconensis.

Pannonia.

Palmatia.

Jlcesia.

Syria.

(2) Governed by praetorian legati.

Lusitania.

Aquitania.*

Lugudunensis.*

Belgica.*

Galatia.

&. Governed by prefects or procu-
rators.

Egypt (pref.).

Sardinia and Corsica.

Retia (pref.)

Noricum.

Alpes,Maritim£e (pref.

Alpcc Cottiae (pref.

Judca (procur.)

* The legati of these provinces were at
the time of the death of Augustus under
the control of Germanicus, the commander
of the Germanic armies.

'i'ropuies ot Augubtuo.

Coins commemorating the recovery ot the standards from the Parthiane.

CHAPTER VIII.

ROME AND PARTHIA. EXPEDITIONS TO ARABIA AND ETHIOPIA.

§ 1. Relations of Rome and Parthia in the last years of the Republic.
Antonius in the East. The Armenian question. § 2. Policy of
Augustus. Recovery of the standards of Crassus. Recovery of
Armenia. Gaius Caesar in the East. His death. § 3. Arabia Felix.
Expedition of JSlius Gallus, which proves a failure. § 4. Expedition
against Candace, queen of the Ethiopians.

§ 1. THE Arsacid dynasty, which, after the fall of the Greek
Seleucids, ruled over the Iranian lands from the Euphrates to the
borders of India, derived their origin from Parthia, a land situated
between Media and Bactria, south-east of the Caspian Sea. Their
empire is called Parthia, in contrast to the earlier Persian empire of
the Achsemenids, and the later Persian empire of the Sassanids. But
it must not be forgotten that these kings were of Iranian race, speak-
ing an Iranian language, maintaining the religion of Zoroaster, and
that the whole character of their court was Persian. Thus it is quite
true to say that the Romans in their Parthian wars not only
maintained the same cause but fought against the same ito C3
Themistocles when he repulsed Xerxes, and as Alexander ^JjEJ fa@
overthrew Darin a. The Parthian kingdom was composed e£ C-

118 ROME AND PARTHTA. CHAP. vm.

number of subordinate kingdoms or satrapies. The Greek cities in
Mesopotamia formed an exception, to which we must add the
flourishing mercantile city of Seleucia, which had taken the place
of ancient Babylon. In this respect, the Parthian and Roman
states have been sometimes contrasted. In the Parthian realm
dependent kingdoms were the rule, city communities the exception ;
in the Roman Empire cities were the rule, dependent kingdoms
the exception.

Before the overthrow of their rival Mithradates, the Parthian
kings regarded Rome as a friendly power. But after the victories
of Pompeius, when the common enemy had fallen, Rome and
Parthia stood face to face and became rivals themselves. Syria
then became a Roman province, and the Euphrates was fixed
by treaty as the boundary between the great European and the
great Asiatic power. But there were many causes for discord.
Armenia, like Cappadocia, became a Roman dependency ; and this
circumstance could not fail to lead to war. That country, very
important to both states from a military point of view, was
destined to be tossed continually backwards and forwards between
Parthia and Rome. In language, society, and nationality, Armenia
was far nearer to the eastern than to the western power ; an d the
political bonds which unittd it to Rome were always somewhat
artificial. Another source of discord lay in Atropatene, the land
south of Armenia ; for the vassal king of that country, desiring to
free himself from Parthian supremacy, often sought to become the
vassal of Rome. The actual violation of the treaty came from the
Romans, who assumed overlordship over the Mesopotamian city of
Edessa, and attempted to extend the borders of the d< pendent king-
dom of Armenia into Parthian territory. How Parthia declared
war against Armenia, how th?s led to the fatal expedition of Crassus
and the field of Carrhse, how in consequence of that defeat, Armenia
fell into the power of the Parthians, need not be repeated here.

Elated by their success, the Parthians began to demand the cession
of Syria ; while on the side ot Rome it was regarded as a matter of
honour to revenge the defeat at Carrhae and recover the standards of
Crassus. The Civil Wars prevented the accomplishment of such
designs. One great defeat, indeed, the enemy experienced when they
invaded Syria in 38 B.C., at the hands of Ventidins Bassus ; Pacorus,
the son ot the great king, fell on the field of Gindaros. Marcus
Antonius at length seriously faced the Parthian question, in con-
nection with his own ambitious design of founding a great Eastern
empire, composed of dependent kingdoms. It will be remembered
how his expedition came to nought. At that time, the king of Parthia
was Phraates, who was highly unpopular with his subjects, and

38-3J B.C. THE ARMENIAN QUESTION. 119

Antonius supported the pretender Moneeses. The king of Armenia
was Artavasdes, and he, wishing to increase his dominion by the
addition of Atropatene, ardently supported Ant'>nius. Another
Artavasdes was king of Atropatene. Antonius blamed the Armenian
king for his failure, repaired to Armenia in 34 B.C., seized him and
carried him to Egypt, where he was put to death by Cleopatra.
His son Artaxes fled to the Parthians. At the same time
Antonius became reconciled with Artavasdes of Atropateue,
obtained his daughter in marriage for a son of his own, whom he
set up as king of Armenia. Hut at this moment Antonius was
called upon to deal with Caesar ; and Phraates, seizing the oppor-
tunity, deposed the two kings, and combined both Armenia and
Atropatene under the rule of Artaxes, son of the Armenian
Artavasdes. Fortunately for Roman interests, intestine struggles
broke out in Persia,* simultaneously with the final contest between
the two Roman triumvirs. Phraates was deposed, and Tiridates
was set up in his stead.

§ 2. Augustus has been blamed for not dealing resolutely with
the Eastern question immediately after his victory over his rival.
It has been said that he should have at once taken steps to plant
his power in Armenia, and make that country securely and
permanently Roman, at the same time establishing a recognised
authority over the Colchiaus, the Iberians, and the Albanians, who
inhabited the regions between Armenia and the Caucasus, the
Euxine and the Caspian. It seemed incumbent on him, too, to
recover the standards captured at Carrhse ; and at the same time
two exiles were imploring his help, Tiridates, who had been over-
thrown soon after his elevation,f and Artavasdes, king of Atro-
patene. The desire which the Romans felt at this time to see the
Parthians humbled is reflected in the earlier writings of Horace.
Augustus is called juvenis Parthis horrendus,% and "will be
regarded as a true god upon earth if he adds the Britons and the
dangerous Persians to the etnpire."§ Men clearly looked forward
to a Parthian war. But Augustus, after the conquest of Egypt,
postponed the settlement of the Eastern question. Perhaps he was
influenced by the ill-success of Antonius ; and his army, doubtless,
eager for rewards and rest, would have been little disposed to
undertake an arduous campaign in Armenia. And above all
Augustus himself was not a general. Observing the domestic

* Horace, Odes, iii. 8. 19: Medus in-
festus sibi luctuosis dissidet armis.

f Horace, Od~.f, il. 2. 17 : Redditum
Cyrl solio Pbraaten.

I Satires, ii. 5. 62.

Odes, iii. 5. 4 :
Praesens divus habebitur
Ang stus adiectis Britannia
Imperio gravibusque Persia.

120

ROME AND PARTHIA

CHAP, vm

discords in Parthia, he hoped to settle the eastern frontier
advantageously for Rome by diplomacy, and not by arms. He
consoled Artavasdes with the kingdom of Lesser Armenia and gave
refuge in Syria to Tiridates. In 23 B.C. an opportunity came for
recovering the standards and captives which had been taken at
Carrhae. Phraates sent an embassy demanding that Tiridates
should be given up to him, and also an infant son of his own whom
Tiridates had carried off. The child was sent back, but it was
stipulated that in return the captives and the standards should be
restored. It was in connection with this affair that Agrippa was
sent to the East with proconsular imperium. Phraates did not
fulfil the conditions immediately, but in 20 B.C. Augustus appeared
in the East himself, and the Parthian king yielded. The Emperor
was proud of his success, which in his account of his ov\ n deeds
he records thus : " I compelled the Parthians to restore to me the
standards and spoils of three Roman armies, and suppliantly to beg
the friendship of the Roman people. Those standards I deposited
in the temple of Mars Ultor." Poets celebrated the event as if
it ranked with the most brilliant achievements of Roman arms.
Virgil sings of "following Aurora, and claiming the standards
from the Parthians," and imagines the Euphrates as flowing with
less haughty stream * ; and the ensigns so peacefully recovered
are described by Horace as " torn from " the enemy.f

In the same year a more solid success was obtained, the recovery
of Armenia. A conspiracy had been formed there against the king
Artaxes, and a message was sent to the Emperor, requesting that
Tigranes (the younger brother of Artaxes), who was educated at
Rome, should be sent to reign in his stead. Tiberius, the Emperor's
stepson, was entrusted with the task of deposing Artaxes and
installing Tigranes. Artaxes was murdered by the party which
had conspired against him; and Tigranes was established in the
kingdom, which thus became once more a dependency of Rome.
Atropatene, however, was separated, and given to Ariobarzanes,
son of its former king Artavasdes, but it seems to have remained
under Parthian supremacy. Ariobarzanes, like Tigranes, had been
educated at Rome.

New troubles, however, soon arose in Armenia. Tigranes died,
and the kingdom was agitated by struggles between the friends of
Parthia and the friends of Rome. Augustus again entrusted to his
stepson the office of restoring order in Armenia ; but Tiberius, from
motives of private resentment, declined the commission (6 B.C.).

* JFncid, vii. 606 : Auroramque sequi
Parthosque reposcere signa. viii. 726:
Euphrates ibat iam mollior undis.

f Odes, IT. 16. 7 : Derepta Partbomm
superbis postibus.

23 B.C.-4 A.D. ARABIAN EXPEDITION. 121

Nothing was done during the next four years : but then it was
decided that the ordering of the East should be entrusted to the
young grandson of the Emperor, Gaius Caesar, and should form a
brilliant beginning to the career of the destined Imperator. The
young prince started with high hopes, dreaming -perhaps of oriental
conquests and of rivalling the fame of Alexander. His enthusiasm
seems to have been encouraged by, perhaps to have affected, his elders.
A courtly poet cried, " Now, far East, thou shalt be ours " * ; and
Juba, the literary king of Mauretania, wrote an account of Arabia,
for the special benefit of Gaius, whose vision was chiefly fixed on
the conquest of that unconquerable land. The settlement of the
Armenian question was, in the first instance, easily and peacefully
accomplished. Gaius and Phraataces, the son of Phraates, met on
an island in the middle of the Euphrates, and the Parthian agreed
to resign his claim to Armenia. But it was still necessary to
enforce submission to this decision in Armenia itself : and accordingly
Gaius proceeded thither to instal Ariobarzanes, son of Artavasdes.
Before the walls of the fortress of Artagira he was wounded by
treachery, and some months later he died of the effects of the hurt
at Liruyra in Lycia (4 A.D.). During the rest of the reign of
Augustus, no serious measures were adopted in regard to Armenia,
and that state was rent by the contentions between the Parthian
and the Roman parties.

§ 3. The unfortunate death of the young Csesar put an end to
the design of conquering Arabia. That enterprise had been
seriously entertained by the Roman government, and actually
attempted at an earlier date. The possession of southern Arabia
would have been an important advantage, not like that of Armenia or
Mcesia for military purposes, but from a purely mercantile point of
view. The chief route of trade from India to Europe was by the Red
Sea — Adane (Aden) was then, as now, an important port — and the
Arabians, with their born genius for commerce, had it in their
hands. The Indian wares were disembarked either at Leuce Come,
on the west coast of Arabia, and thence transported overland to
Petra and on to some Syrian port, or at Myos Hormos, on the
opposite Egyptian coast, whence they were carried by camels to
Coptos (near Thebes) and shipped for Alexandria. Once in posses-
sion of Egypt, the Roman government could not fail to see that it
would be highly profitable to command the Red Sea route entirely,
and get the trade into the hands of their own subjects. Not long
after the establishment of his power, Augustus took up the
question, and here for once, he was aggressive. He planned an
expedition, of which the object was to reduce under Roman sway

* Ntinc, oriens ultime, noster eris : Ovid, Ars Am., i. 178.
6

122

HOME ANU PAKTHiA.

CHAP. viii.

the land of Yemen, the south-western portion of the Arabian
peninsula. That land was known to the Romans as Arabia Felix,
and its people — the Himyarites — as the Sabsei. It was a rich
country, which in itself invited conquest, though, in consequence
of the remote situation, the luxurious mhabitan-s had never been
subdued, as Horace tells us, by a foreign master.* They suppled
the Empire with spices and perfumes, cassia, aloes, myrrh, (ran kin-
cense, while in return they received the precious metals, which
thev kept in their land. The expedition started towards the end
of 25 R.C., and was entrusted to the care of JElius Gallus, an officer
holding a high post in Egypt.f Ten thousand men, half the
number of troops in Egypt, were placed under his command, in
addition to auxiliaries supplied by the kings of Nabatea and Judea.
The Nabateans had constant intercourse with Arabia Felix, and
Syllseus, a minister of the Nabatean king Obodas, undertook to
play the part of guide. The whole expedition was miserably
mismanaged ; it is hard to say how far Gallus was to blame and
how far his guide may have acted in bad faith. His Iriend the
geographer Strabo, from whom we learn the details of the enter-
prise, shifts the blame on Syllseus; and it is quite conceivable, that
the Nabateans may have secretly wished the expedition to 'ail,
thinking that its success might divert the traffic that had hitherto
passed through their country.

The army embarked at Arsinoe (on the Isthmus of Suez) in a
fleet of war- vessels. Such vessels were quite needless, as there was
no question of hostilities by sea. They disembarked at Lence*
C6m6, which was perhaps at this time subject to Rome, and passed
the winter there. In spring they marched southwards by circuitous
and laborious routes, and at length reached the capital of the
Sabaeans. But the army, though the natives gave little trouble,
had suffered severely from dis ase and hunger, and \\hen at last
they came to the residence of the iSabaean kings, Mariba, on its
woody hill, both the general and the men were too exhausted and
despondent to set to the task of besieging it. Having spent six days
there, Gullus abandoned the undertaking, and the expedition returned
home, but with more speed than it had pone thither. Something
had been accomplished in the way of exploring the country, but the
Sabseiwere still, as before, unconqnered. Augustus, however, did not
choose to consider the expedition a failure. He speaks of it
complacently among his achievements, and he promoted
Gallus to the prefecture of Egypt.

* Odet, 1. 29. 3: Non ante devices
Sabffise regibns.
f Mommsen thinks he was prefect

already; but the ev'rtence seems rather
to favour th v ew that he was made pre-
fect after his expedition.

24-22 B.C. ETHIOPIAN EXPEDITION. 123

§ 4. While half of the Egyptian army was absent on the Arabian
enterprise, the other half was called upon to defend the southern
frontier against the aggressions of a neighbouring power. Upper
Egypt extended as far as Elephantine on the Nile, and beyond that
limit lay the land of the Ethiopians, at this time ruled by the one-
eyed queen Can- lace. She had invaded and ] hindered the extreme
parts of Upper Egvpt — Syene and Elephantine; and after fruitless
demands ior satisfaction, C. Petronius the pi elect was obliged to
take the field (24 B.C.), at the head of 10,000 footmen and 800 horse.
He routed the enemy, took the town of Pselchis on the Nile, and
advanced as far as Nai afa, where was the queen's palace, in the
neighbourhood of the Ethiopian capital Meroe. He razed Napata
to the ground. He did not attempt to occupy all this country, but
made a strong place, named Premnis(or Pivmis), his advanced post.
In ihe following year Premnis was attacked by the Ethiopians, and
Pe'ronius had to return again to relieve it. He inflict* d another
deleat on the <oe (22 B.C.), and Candace was compelled to sue
f< r p<ace. Her ambassadors were sent to Augustus, who was
then at Samos, and petce was granted, the prefect being directed
to evacuate the territory which he had occupied. Augustus drew
the line of Iron tier at Syene.

Augustus and At tavasdes.

The (BO-calied) Arch of Drusus, on the Appian Way.

CHAPTER IX.

THE WINNING AND LOSING OF GERMANY. DEATH OF AUGUSTUS.

§ 1. Project of the conquest of Germany. § 2. Political and social life
of the Germans, as known from Csesar's Commentaries. § 3. Dis-
turbances in Gaul and on the Rhine. § 4. Appointment of Drusus.
His first campaigns (12 B.C.). § 5. Campaigns against the Cherusci
(11 BC.) and the Chatti (10 B.C.). Defence of the Rhine. § 6.
Drusus advances to the Albis (9 B.C.). His death. § 7. Tiberius in
Germany (9-6 B.C., and 4-5 A.D.). § 8. Expedition against Maro-
boduus. § 9. Rebellion of Pannonia and Dalmatia, suppressed by
Tiberius. § 10. Revolt of Germany. Defeat of Varus. § 11.
Tiberius returns to the Rhine. § 12. Effect of the various dis-
asters on Augustus. His last days and death (14 A.D.). § 13. Estimate
of Augustus. § 14. Monumentum Ancyranum and Breviarium Jmperii.

SECT. I. — THE CONQUEST OF GERMANY.

§ 1. THE subject of the present chapter is the story of the
Roman Germany that might have been. Csesar's conquest of
Gaul pointed beyond the limits of that country to further
conquests; it pointed beyond the sea, to the island of the north,
and eastward beyond the Rhine, to the forests of central Europe.

55 B.C.-14 A.D. CESAR'S ACCOUNT OF GERMANY. 125

had shown the way to the conquest of Britain, he had
likewise crossed the Rhine. As far as Britain was concerned,
Augustus did not follow out the suggestions of his " father " ;
that enterprise was reserved for one of his successors. But in
regard to Germany he was persuaded to act otherwise. The advance
of the Roman frontier from the Rhine to the Albis (Elbe), and the
subjugation of the intervening peoples, must have seemed from a
military point of view good policy. The line of frontier to be
defended would thus be lessened. The defence of the Upper
Danube, from Vindonissa on the Rhine to Lauriacum would not be
needed, and the Albis would take the place of the Rhine, This
project of extending the Empire to the Albis, into which perhaps
the cautious Emperor was persuaded by the ardour of his favourite
stepson Drusus, was well begun and seemingly certain of success,
when it was cut short by an untoward accident, if there was not
some deeper cause in the hidden counsels of the Roman govern-
ment. But the winning and losing of Germany is a most interest-
ing episode, giving us our earliest glimpse of the rivers and forests
of central Europe.

§ 2. Caesar in his Commentaries has given a brief sketch of the
political and social life of the Germans in general, and of the
Suevians in particular. This sketch, though somewhat vague and
doubtless derived chiefly from the information of Gauis, is valuable
as the earliest picture of the life of our forefathers, and one written
by a great statesman. He describes them as a hardy, laborious and
temperate people, diriding their life between hunting and warlike
exercises. They practise agriculture but little, and subsist chiefly
on flesh, milk, and cheese. No one possesses a permanent lot of
landj but the chiefs assign a certain portion of land every year,
and for only one year's occupancy, to the several communities which
form c, civi'cas. At the end of each year the allotments arc given
up, and each community moves elsewhere. For this custom
several reasons were given, of which the most important were that
the people might not by permanent settlement become agricultural
and give up warfare ; that the more powerful might not drive the
weaker from their possessions ; and that the mass of the people might
be contented. The territory of each tribe is isolated from those of its
neighbours by a surrounding strip of devastated unpeopled land.
This is c, safeguard against suddon attack. In timo of war special
commanders arc chosen ; but in time of peace, there is no central or
supreme magistracy in tho state, but the chiefs of the various
districts (pcw/a) or tribal subdivisions, administer justice. The
Sucvi had a hundred pagi, of which each furnished a thousand men
to the military host ; the rest stayed at home and provided rood

126 WINNING AND LOSING OF GEKMA.NY. CHAP. UL

for the warriors. The next year the warriors returned home and
tilled the Lmd, while those who had stayed at home the previous
•ear took their places.

From this sketch it may be inferred that the tribes known by
Caesar " were in a state of transition from the nomadic life to that
of settled cultivation." Some tribes must have been in a more
advanced stage of development than others; and this development
must have been proceeding during the age of Augustus. But we
have no means of tracing it.

§ 3. The first disturbance in Gaul after the battle of Actium was
the revolt of the Celtic Morini, in the neighbourhood of Gesoriacum
(Boulogne); and their rebellion, perhaps, was in some way con-
nected with the invasion of the German Suevians from beyond the
Rhine, in the same year (29 B.C.). Tie Suevians were driven back, and
the Moriiii subdued by Gaius Carrinas; while Nonius (.iallus, about
the same time, suppressed a rising of the Treveri, on the MosHla.
The following years were marked by those measures of organisation
in Gaul, which have been mentioned already (Chap. VI.). There
seems to have been a good deal of oppression in the taxation, and
dissatisfaction among the provincials. In 25 B.C. German invaders
came from beyond the Rhine, and were repulsed by M. Vinicius ;
but we know not whether they came by the inviiarion of Roman
subjects. More alarming was the in vasijn which took place nine
years later. Sugambri, Usipetes, and Tencteri, tribes whose homes
were on the right bank of the lower Rhine, crossed the river on an
expedition of plunder, and inflicted a defeat on the legatus, M.
LolHus, carrying off the eagle of the Vth legion. This event was
not a very serious loss, but it was a serious disgrace.* Augustus
hastened to Gaul himself, taking Tiberius with him ; the question
of the defence of the northern frontiers was becoming serious.
Tiberius was appointed to the military command in Gaul, and
offensive operations were be^un by the annexation of Noricum and
the conquest of Raetia and Vindelicia.f

§ 4. In 12 B.C. Drusus succeeded his brother as commander of
the Rhine army. He was a brilliant yo-mg man, hardly twen'y-
five years old, handsome, brave, and popular; of winning manners
worshipped by the soldiers ; ardent and bold, but a sagacious leader.
He lost no time in setting about the accomplishment of his
scheme of conquest beyond the Rhine ; and the occasion was given

* Horace alludes to this in his praise (Odes, iv. 2. 34) prophesies (13 B.C.) a
of Lollius (Odes, iv. 9. 36) to whom he victery over the Susambri :—
attributes a mind " temporibus \ubiisque guandoque trahet feroces

rectus.'

r See above, Chap. VI. $ 10. Horace

Per sacrum clivum merita decorua
Fronde Sugambros.

12 B.C. FIRST CAMPAIGN OF DRUSUS 127

to him by the hostilities of the Sugambri and their confederates.
Having inaugurated the altar of Augustus at Lugudunum, and thus
called forth a display of loyal sentiment in Gaul, he proceeded to
the lower Rhine, threw a bridge acioss the river, and entered the
land of the Usipetes, who had already begun hostilities. This
tribe dwelled on the northern bank of the Luppia, a tributary
of the Rhine, which still bears the same name in the form Lippe.
The lands south of the Luppia belonged to the Sugambri, and
southward still as far as the Laugonna (now shortened into Lahn)
dwelt the Tencteri. Having quelled the Usipetes, the Roman
general marched southward to chastise the Sugambri, who, under
their chieftain Melo, had begun the hostilities.

But at present his way did not lie further in that direction. His
plan was to subdue the northern regions of Germany first ; and he had
decided that this must be done in connection with the navigation of
the northern coast. There were three stages from the Rhine to the
Albis. The conqueror must first advance to the Amisia, and then
to the Visurgis, before he reached the Albis, his final limit. The
names of these rivers, thus Latinized by Roman lips, are still the
same: the Ems, the Weser, and the Elbe. A canal connecting the
Rhine with Lake Fievo (as the sheet of water corresponding to the
Zuyder Zee was then called) was constructed by the army under
Drusns, from whom it was named the Fossa Drusiana; so that the
Hhine fleet could sail straight through the Lake into the German
Ocean and coast along to the mouth of the Amisia. The Batavians
acknowledged without resistance the lordship of Rome, and helped
the troops in cutting the canal ; and the Frisians, who dwelled north-
east of Lak^ Flevo, likewise submitted to Drusus without resistance.
Having thus secured the coast from the Rhine to the Amisia, he
occupied the island of Burchanis (which we may certainly identify
with Bo-knm) at the mouth of that river, and sailing np the stream,
defeated the Bructeri in a naval encounter. Returning to the sea,
he invaded the land of the Chauci, who inhabited the coast regions
on either side of thn mouth of the Visurgis ; but it does not appear
whether the Roman fleet sailed as far as the Visurgis, or wheiher
Drusus advanced into the territory of the Chauci from the Amisia.
In the return voyage the ships ran some danger in the treacherous
shallows, but weie extricated by the friendly Frisians who had
accompanied the expedition on foot.

§ 5. Thus the work of Drusus in the first year of his command
was the reduction of the coast of Lower Germany as far as the
Visur-is. In the next year (11 B.C.) he determined to follow this
up by the reduction of the inland regions in the same direction.
For this purpose he had to choose another way. The chief military

128 WINNING AND LOSENG OF GERMANY. CHAP. ix.

station on the Lower Rhine was at this time Castra Vetera,* situated
not far from the mouth of the Luppia. Starting from h< re in spring,
the legions crossed the Rhine, subdued once more the unruly
Usipetes, threw a bridge across the Lup. ia and entered the land of
the Sugambri. In order to advance eastward it was necessary to
secure the tranquillity of these troublesome tribes in the rear.
Then following the course of ths Luppia, Drtis is advanced into the
land of the Cherusci (the modern Westphalia), as far as the banks
of the Visurgis. It was thought that the Sugambri mi^ht have
thrown obstacles in the way of this achievement, but they were
fully occupied by a war with their southern neighbours, the Chatti,
who dwelled about the Taunus Mountains. Want of supplies and
the approach of winter prevented the Horn ins from crossing the
Visurgis. In returning, they fell into a snare, which, but for the
skill of the general and the discipline of the soldiers, would have
proved fatal. At a place named Arbalo, which cannot be identified,
they were surrounded in a narrow pass by an ambushed enemy.
But the Germans, confident in their own position, and regarding the
Romans as lost men, took no precautions in attacking; and the
legions cut their way through, and reached the Luppia in safety.
On the 1 anks of that river, at the point where it receives the waters
of the Aliso, Drusus erected a fort, as an advanced position in tin
country, which was yet to be thoroughly subdued. This fort, also
named Aliso, perhaps corresponds to the modern Elsen, the river
being the Aline. About the same time another fort was established
on Mount Taunus, in the territory of the Chatti, whom the Romans
drove out of their own land into that of the Sugambri. The
following year (10 B.C.) seems to have been occupied with the
subjugation of the Chatti, who were fighting to recover their old
homes between the Laugonna and the Mcenus (Main). During
this year Drusus possessed the proconsular power — that is the
secondary imperium, as it is called, subordinate to that of the
Emperor — which had been conferred upon him by designation in
the previous year. Soon afterwards, perhaps in the following
year, along with his brother Tiberius he received the title of
imperator.

While Drusus was thus actively accomplishing his great design
of a Roman Germany, he was not neglectful of the defence of
the Rhine, which was secured by a line of fifty forts on the left
bank, between the sea and Vindonissa. The chief station of the
Lower Rhine was Castra Vetera ; of the Upper, Moguntiacum
(Mainz), probably founded by Drusus. Among the most important
stations, which were established either at this time or not much
* Birten, near Xanteu.

9 B.O. DEATH OF DRUSUS. 129

later, were Argentoratum,* the southern Noviomagus, which
corresponds to Speyer, Borbetomagus, Bingium, Bonna; the
northern Noviomagus, which is still Nimeguen, and the northern
Lugudunum on the Rhine, which has become Leyden, in contrast
with its southern namesake on the Rhone, which has been trans-
formed into the softer Lyons.

§ 6. In the following year the victorious young general, who
might now lay claim to the title of " subduer of Germany," entered
upon his first consulship. Bad omens at Rome in the beginning of
the year did not hinder the consul from setting forth in spring, to
carry on his work beyond the Rhine. This time he was bent on a
further progress than he had yet achieved. Hitherto he had not
advanced beyond the Visurgis ; it seemed now high time to press
forward to the Albis itself. Starting probably from Moguntiacum
he passed through the subject land of the Chatti and entered the
borders of the Suevi. Then taking a northerly direction, he reached
the Cherusci and the banks of the Visurgis, and crossing that river
marched to the Albis, hitting it perhaps somewhere in the neigh-
bourhood of the modern Magdeburg. Of his adventures on this
march nothing is definitely recorded, except that the Romans wasted
the land and that there were some bloody conflicts. On the bank
of the Albis he erected a trophy, marking the limit of Roman
progress. A strange and striking story was told of something said
to have befallen him there, and to have moved him to retreat. A
woman of greater than human stature stood in his way and motioned
him back. " Whither so fast, insatiable Drusus ? It is not given
to thee to see all these things. Back ! for the end of thy works and
thy life is at hand."

And so it fell out. The days of Drusus were numbered. Some-
where between the Sala, a tributary of the Albis, and the Visurgis,
he fell from his horse and broke his leg. The injury resulted in
death after thirty days' suffering; there seems to have been no
competent surgeon in the army. The alarming news of the
accident was soon carried to Augustus, who was then somewhere in
Gaul. Tiberius, who was at Ticinum, was sent for with all haste,
and with all haste he journeyed to the recesses of the German forest,
and reached the camp in time to be with his brother in the last
moments. The grief at this misfortune was universal; both the
Emperor and the soldiers had lost their favourite, and the state an
excellent general. Drusus was not yet thirty years old; he had
accomplished a great deal, and he looked forward to accomplishing
far more. Perhaps nothing will enable us so well to realise his
importance in history, as the reflection that, if he had lived to fulfil

* Strassburg. Borbetomagus is Worms ; Bingium, Blngen ; and Bonn*, Bonn.
6*

130 WINNING AND LOSING OF GERMANY. CHAP. ix.

his plan, his work could not have been easily undone, the events
which are presently to be related could not have happened, and the
history of central Europe would have been changed.

'\ he corpse was carried to the winter-quarters on the Rhine and
thence to Home, where it was burned ; the ashes were bestowed in
the mausoleum of Augustus. Two funeral speeches were pronounced,
one in the Forum by Tiberius, the other by Augustus himself in the
Flaminian Circus. Be-ides these solemnities, more lasting honours
were decreed to the dead hero. The name Germanicus was given to
the conqueror of Germany, and to his children after him. A
cenotaph was built at Moguiiiiacum, and a triumphal arch erected
to record the founder ol the new province. It would seem that
Moguntiacum was in some special way associated with Drusus.
These monuments in stone have not come down to us, but there has
survived a monument in verse, an ele;j;y addressed to his mother, the
Empress Li via. We could wish that the author of the Consolatio
ad Liviam had given a more distinct piciure of the qualities of the
young general whom he deplores.

SECT. II. — TIBERIUS IN GERMANY. THE PANNONIAN REVOLT.

§ 7. It now devolved upon Tiberius, who possessed the pro-
consular power and the title of imperator, to carry on his brother's
work. He took the place ol Drus is as governor of the Three Gauls
and commander of the armies on the lihine, and maintained the
Roman supremacy over the hall-S'ibdue'l German tribes between
that river and the Albi*. The pacification of the Sugambri was at
length effecti d by strong measures, and they were assigned
territory <>n the left bank of the Rhine. Each summer the Roman
legions appeared in various parts of the new province; the Roman
general dealt out justice, and Roman advocates appeared beyond the
Rhine. There was *till much to be done to place Germany on the
level of other provinces ; it would have been perhaps unsafe as yet
to n quire the Germans to contribute aunfia, or t<> impose on them
a regular tribute. Tiberius p-ssessed the confidence of the army,
but he <lid not, like Orusrs, possess the affection of the Emperor.
In 7 B.C., the year of his second consulship, he received
triumphal honours; but he did not return to Germany, and in the
following year he retired to Rhodes. Little is recorded of his
successors, but it is not to be assuired that they were idle or
incompetent. The courtly writers of tlv* day had eyes only for
the exploits of D'usus and Tiberius, the princes of the imperial
house. The c<>n>nliriati<>n of the conquests of Drusus was doubtless
carried on amid frequent local rebellions, such as that in 1 B.C.,

*-6 A.D. TIBERIUS IN GERMANY. 131

which was put down by M. Vinicius. Another legatus, L.
Domitius Ahenobarbus, built a road, called the ponies longi,
connecting the Amisia with the Rhine. These commanders, how-
ever, were not entrusted, like Drusus and Tiberius, with the
government, of the Three Gauls.

After the deaths of Gaius and Lucius Caesar, Tiberius was
reconciled with his stepfather, and undertook the command of the
armies on the Rhine once more. The legions were de'ighted to be
commanded by a general whom they knew and trusted, whose
ability was proved, and who was now marked out as the successor
to the Empire. And there was need of a strong hand, for there had
been many tokens of an unruly spirit. In his first campaign (4 A.D.)
Tiberius advances beyond the Visurgis, and reduced the Cherusci
who had thrown off the Roman yoke; and for the first time the
Koman army passed the winter beyond the Rhine in the fort of
Aliso on the Luppia. In the following year (5 A.D.) the Lower Albis
was reached, and an insurrection of the Chauci was suppressed.
The Langobardi, who dwelled in these parts, and of whom we hear
now for the first time. — a people destined in a later age to rule in
Italy arid become famous under the name of " Lombards " — were
also reduced. This expedition was carried out by the joint
operations of a fleet and a land army. Tiberius repeated on a
larger scale what Drusus had done eiuhteen years before. But
while on the earlier occasion the Roman fleet had not advanced
beyond the mou'h of the Visurgis (if so far), under the auspices of
Tiberius it reached the Albis and even sailed to the northern
promontory of the Cimbric peninsula. Some peoples east of the
Albis, such as the Sem ones, the Charydes, and the Cimbri (in
Denmark), sent envoys seeking the friendship of the Emperor and
the Roman people.

§ 8. The authority of Tiberius had thus pacified the trans-
Rhenane dominion of Rome, and in the following year (6 A.D.) a new
enterprise of conquest was entrusted to his conduct. When Drusus
in his last expedition marched up the Mcenus, he entered the land
of the Marcomanni, and they, under the L adership of their chief
Maroboduus, retreated before him into that lozenge-shaped,
mountain-girt country in central En rope, which has derived its name
Boiohammm, Bohemia, from the Celtic Boii who then inhabited it.
TheMaicomanni dispossessed the Colts, and Marobodnus established
a powerful and united state, which extended its sway eastward, and
north war ' over the n< i 'hb-uring German tribes. The ideas of this
remarkable man were far in advan e of his countrymen. He had a
leaning to I toman civilisation, and he was ready to learn from it the
methods and uses of political organisation. He formed and

132 WINNING AND LOSING OF GERMANY. CHAP. rx.

disciplined in Roman fashion an army of 70,000 foot and 4000 horse.
But his policy was essentially one of peace. He desired to avoid a
war with Rome, and yet to make it plain that he was quite strong
enough to hold his own. He was willing to be a friendly ally, but
he was not disposed to be a vassal. Geography, however, rendered
a collision unavoidable. For Rome, possessing Germany in the
north, and Noricum and Pannonia in the south, it would have been
impossible to allow the permanent presence of an independent
German state wedged in between these provinces. The actual
occupation of the territory between the Dravus and the Danube, if
it had not already taken place, was merely a question of time, and
it was obviously necessary to have a continuous line of frontier from
the Albis to the Danube. Policy demanded that the Empire should
absorb the realm of Maroboduus, and advance to the river Marus
(now the March, which flows into the Danube below Pressburg).

The legions of the Rhine under an experienced commander,
On. Sentius Saturninus, advanced from the valley of the Mcenus,
breaking their way through the unknown depths of the Hercynian
Forest, to meet the legions of Illyricum, which Tiberius led across
the Danube at Carnuntum. Both armies together numbered twelve
legions, nearly double of the troops mustered by Maroboduus ; and
under the command of a cautious and experienced leader like
Tiberius the success of the enterprise seemed assured. But it was
not to be. Before the armies met, sudden tidings of a most
alarming kind imperatively recalled the general. A revolt, caused
by oppressive taxation, had broken out in Dalmatia and Pannonia,
and of so serious a nature that not only were the Illyric legions
obliged to return, but the troops of Mcesia and even forces from
beyond the sea (probably from Syria) were required to assist in
suppressing it. This would have been an excellent opportunity
for Marohoduus to take the offensive, but he clung to his policy
of neutrality, and accepted terms of peace which were proposed
by Tiberius. The army of Sentius Saturninus hastened back to
the Rhine to prevent a simultaneous outbreak there.

§ 9. The Pannonian revolt lasted for three years, the Dalmatian
for one year longer. In Dalmatia the leader of the insurgents was
one Bato. He made an attempt to capture Salonse, but was obliged
to retire severely wounded, and had to content himself with
ravaging the coast of Macedonia as far south as Apollonia. The
Icgatus of Illyricum, M. Valerius Messalinus, son of the orator
Messalla, contended against Mm with varying success. In Pan-
nonia, another Bato, chief of the Breuci, was the most prominent
leader. As the Dalmatian Bato failed to take Salonse, so the
Pannonian Bn'o failed to take Sirmium, and was defeated before its

6-8 A.D.

PANNONIAN REBELLION.

133

walls by Aulus Caecina Severus, the legatus of Moesia, wlio had
hurried to the scene of action. After this the two Batos seem to
have joined forces and taken up a strong position on Mount Almas,
close to Sirmium. Tiberius passed the winter in Siscia, and made
that plase the basis of his operations in Pannonia. As many as
fifteen legions were ultimately collected in the rebellious provinces
under his command, and the loyal princes of Thrace had also come
to the rescue. An unusually large number of auxiliary troops, fully
90,000, were employed in this war. Terror was felt not only in
Macedonia, but even in Italy and Borne. Augustus himself had
hastened to Ariminum, to be near the seat of war ; levies were
raised in Italy and placed under Gennanicus, son of Drusus, a
youth of twenty-one years. In 7 A.D. the course of the hostilities
was desultory ; the rebels avoided engagements in the open field.
Gennanicus advanced from Siscia along the river Unna into
western Dalmatia, and conquered the tribe of the Msezsei, who
dwelled in the extreme west of modern Bosnia. Subsequently
(7-8 A.D.) he captured three important strongholds,* which seem
to have been situated on the borders of Liburnia and lapydia. The
next serious event was the long siege of Arduba,f in south-eastern
Dalmatia, which was marked by the heroic obstinacy of the women,
who, when the place was captured, threw themselves and their
children into the fire. But in the following autumn the Pannonian
Bato was induced to betray his cause. He surrendered in a battle
fought at the stream of Bathi&ua$ (August 3) and handed over
his colleague and rival Pinnes to Tiberius, who in return recog-
nised him as prince of the Breuci. But his treachery did not go
unpunished. He was caught and put to death by his Dalmatian
namesake. Germanicus hastened in person to carry the news of
the Bathinus to Augustus at Ariminum, and the Emperor returned
to Home, where he was received with thank-offerings. But although
this victory practically determined the end of the war, Tiberius was
obliged in the following year to bring his forces again into the field
against the Dalmatians, and Bato, besieged in his last refuge,
Andetrium (near Salonse), at length gave up the desperate cause,
and was sent as a prisoner to Ravenna, where he died When he
was led before Tiberius, and was asked why he had rebelled, he
replied, " It is your doing, in that ye send not dogs or shepherds
to guard your sheep, but wolves to prey on them."

* Splonum, Rsetinium, and Seretium.
Plausible suggestions have been made as
to the identity of the first and second ;
Seretium is quite unknown.

f Possibly on the way from Narona to

Scodra.

% Now the Bednya, which falls into the
Drave south-east of Warasdin. The date
Is determined by an inscription (C. I. L,
ix. 6637) TI. AVG. IN LYRICO VIC.

134 WINNING AND LOSING OF GEKMANY. CHAP. ix.

Germanicus, who had taken part in the suppression of this
dangerous and tedious war — the hardest, it was said, since the war
witli Hannibal — showed high promise of future distinction, and,
like his father, was a universal favourite. Triumphal ornarnen's
were granted to him, and h« was placed first in the rank of i ras-
torians in the senate. To Tiberius himself the senate decreed a
triumph, but it was not des^ied to be celebrate'!. The people
had hardly time to realise the successes of the legions of the
Danube, when the news came of a terrible disaster which had
befallen the legions of the Rhine.

SECT. III. — THE GERMAN REBELLION AND DEFEAT OF VABUS.

§ 10. The Emperor seems to have entertained few fears of the
possibility of a rising in his new German province. For he named
as commander of the Rhine armies a man, distantly related to him-
self by marriage, who had no experience of active warfare and was
quite incompetent to meet any grave emergency. This was
Publius Quinctilius Yarus, who, as imperial legatus in Syria, had
won wealth, if not fame. It was said that when he came to that
province he was poor and Syria was rich ; but when he went, he
was rich and Syria was poor. His experiences as governor of .-yria
proved unlucky for him as governor in Germany. He utterly
misconceived the situation. He imagined that the policy which
he had successfully pursued in Syria might be adopted equally well
in Germany. He failed to perceive the differences between the two
cases ; and to mark the weak grasp with which Rome, MS yet, held
the lands between the Rhine and the A Ibis. He seems to have
felt himself perfectly sale in the wild places of Germany, under the
shield of the Roman name ; he imposed taxes on the natives and
dealt judgment without any fear of consequences.

But a storm was brewing under his very eyes, It seemed to
those German patriots, who could never brook with patience the
rule of a foreign master, that the moment had come when a
struggle for the liberty of their nation might be attempted with
some chance of success. In this enterprise only four prominent
German peoples were concerned, the Cherusci, the Chatti, the Marsi,
and the Bructeri; the same who had before distinguished them-
selves by their opposition to Drusus. The Frisians, the Chauci,
the Suevic peoples who acknowledged the overlordship of Maroboduus,
took no part in this insurrection. The plotter and leader of the
rebellion was the Cheruscan prince Arminiup, s«>n of Sigimer, then
in the twenty-sixth year of his age. He and his brother Flavus
had received the privilege of Roman citizenship from Augustus;

9 A.D. AKM1NIUS. 135

he had been raised to the equestrian rank, and had seen military
sirvice under the Koman standard. He was not only physically
brave, hut it was thought tliat he possessed intellectual qualities
unusual in a barbarian. The Romans naturally trusted his loyalty,
and the insinuations of Seg( stes his countryman, who knew him
beiter, received no attention.

SLiiner, the Irother, and Segimund, the son of this Sezestes,
threw themselves into the enterprise of Arminius, and Thusnelda,
the daughter of !Se,;estes, married the young patriot against the
wishes of her father.

It was the policy of the contrivers of the insurrection to keep the
design dark umil the last moment, and in the meantime to lull
\ arns, alieady secure, into a security still more complete. Of the
five Germanic legions, two had their winter-quarters at Mognntiacum,
the other three at C.istra Vetira on "he Lower Rhine, or at the
fortress of Aliso on the Lupp'a. In summer they used sometimes
to visit the interior parts of the province ; and in 9 A.P., Varus,
with three legions, occupied summer-quarters on the \ isurgis,
probably not far from the mode»n town of Minden and the Porta
Wtsifalica. The camp was mil of advocates and clients, and the
chief conspirators were present, on intimate terms with the governor
and c- nsiantly dining with him. Autumn came, and as the ra-ny
season apiroichid Varus prepared to retrace his steps westward.
There can be no doubt that a line of communicai ion connected his
summer station wi h Aliso; and, if the army had returned as it
came, Arminius could hamly have been success ul in his plans.
But a message suddenly arrived that a distant tribe had revolt d,
and Varus decided to take a roundabout way homewards in order
to suppress it. This news was suspiciously opportune for the
rebels. The Romans had to make their way through a hilly
district of pathless forests, and their difficulties were increased not
only by the encumbrances of heavy baggage and camp-followers,
but by the heavy rains, which had already begun and made the
ground slippery. The moment had come for the German patriots
to strike a desperate blow for independence. Segestes warned
Varus of the impending dancer, but the infatuated governor trusted
the as-everations of Arminius. As the legions were making their
laborious way tl rough ihesaltus Teutoburgiensis, they were assailed
by the confederate insurgents. This Teutoburg forest cannot be
identified with any certainty, but it seems to have been somewhere
between the Amisia and the Luppia, north-east of Aliso. It is
impossible to determine how far ihe circumstances of the case and
how far the incompetence of the general were to blame for the
disaster which followed.

136 WINNING AND LOSING OF GERMANY. CHAP. ix.

For three Hays the Bomans continued to advance, resisting
as well as they could the attacks of the foe, and if Varus had
possessed the confidence of his soldiers and known how to hold
them together, it seems probable that he might have passed through
the danger in safety. But both officers and soldiers were demoralised
under his command. The prefect of the horse deserted his post,
taking all the cavalry with him, and leaving the foot-soldiers to
their fate. Varus was the first to despair; he had received a
wound, and he slew himself. Others followed his example; and
the rest surrendered. The prisoners were slain, some buried alive,
some crucified, some sacrificed on the altars. The forces of Varus
consisted of three legions (XVII., XVIII., XIX.), six cohorts, and
three squadrons of cavalry. The army had been weakened by the
loss of detachments, which, at the request of the conspirators, had
been sent to the territories of various tribes to preserve order.
These detachments, taken chiefly from the auxiliary cohorts, were
slaughtered when the insurrection broke out. Of the troops which
were entrapped in the Teutoburg forest, numbering probably almost
20,000 men, only the cavalry escaped and a few individual foot-
soldiers. The three eagles of the three legions fell into the hands
of the victors. Such a disaster had not befallen since the day of
Carrhae.

The peoples of central Germany from the Rhine to the Visurgis
had thus thrown off the Roman yoke ; the cause of freedom had
been victorious. Two results, fraught with great danger to the
Roman Empire, seemed likely to follow. It was to be feared that
the triumphant Germans would push across to the left bank of the
Rhine, arouse a revolt there, and perhaps shake the fidelity of Gaul.
And seemingly it was to be feared that Maroboduus, lord of the
Marcomanni, and chief of the Suevic confederacy, would declare
himself on the side of the insurgents, now they were successful.
But neither of these dangers was realised. The first was
foiled by the bravery of Lucius Caedicius, commander of the
garrison in Aliso, and the promptness of Lucius Nonius Asprenas,
who commanded the two legions stationed at Moguntiacum. The
first movement of the rebels after their victory was to attack Aliso,
but Caedicius defended it so bravely that they were obliged to
blockade it. When provisions ran short and no relief came, the
garrison stole out on a dark night, and made their way, harassed
by the attacks of the enemy, to Castra Vetera. Thither Asprenas,
when the news of the disaster reached him, had hastened with his
two legions, to hinder the Germans from crossing the Rhine.

The other danger was frustrated by the peculiar temper of
Marotx>duus himself. Arminius had triumphantly sent him the

9 A.D. DEFEAT OF VARUS. 137

head of Varus as a token of his own amazing success, hoping to
persuade him to join the confederacy against Rome. But the
message was ineffectual. Maroboduus refused to link himself
with the insurgents or to depart from his policy of neutrality.

§ 11. When the news of the defeat reached Rome, Augustus met
the emergency with spirit and energy. The citizens seemed in-
different to the* crisis ; many of them refused to place their names
on the military roll; and the Empeior was obliged to resort to fines
and threats of severer punishment. Troops hastily levied from the
veterans and freedmen were sent with all speed to the Rhine; and
the Germans, who served as an imperial bodyguard, were
disarmed and driven forth from Rome. In the following year
(10A.D.) Tiberius assumed the command of the Rhine army, which
was increased to tight legions. Four of these were doubtless
stationed at Moguntiacum and lour at Vetera ; and it was probably
the Emperor's intention that when the immediate crisis was past,
the command of the Germanic armies should be divided between
two generals. During the first year Tiberius seems to have been
engaged in organising the defence of the Rhine, restoring the
confidence of the old legions, and establishing discipline among the
new. In the next year, 11 A.D., he crossed the river, and spent
the summer in Germany, but he does not seem to have ventured
far into the country or to have attempted any hostile enterprise. He
was accompanied by his nephew Germanicus, to whom proconsular
powers had been granted. In the following year the duties of his
consulship retained Germanicus at Rome, but in 13 A.D. he suc-
ceeded Tiberius in the sole command on the Rhine. During these
years nothing was done against the Germans, though the state of
war still continued ; but Germanicus was not long content with
inactivity. Upon him seetned to de*olve the duty of restoring his
father's work, which had been so disastrously demolished, and he
burned to do it. But his efforts to recover the lost dominion and
reach the Albis once more must form the subject of another chapter.

SECT. IV. — THE DEATH OF AUGUSTUS.

§ 12. The slaughter of the Varian legions in the wilds of
Germany tarnished the lustre of Roman arms, and cast a certain
gloom over the last days of the Augustan age. The Emperor
himself, now stricken in years, felt the blow painfully. He let his
hair and beard grow long. It is said that he dashed his head
against the walls of his chamber, crying, " Varus, Varus, give me
back my legions ! " Every year he went into mourning on the

138 WINNING AND LOSING OF GEKMANY. CHAP. ix.

anniversary of the defeat. He knew that his end must sonn come,
and he began to set his house in order. In 12 A.D. he addressed a
letter to the senate, in which lie commended Germanicus to its
protection, and commended the senate itself to the vigilance of
Tiberius. In the following year he assumed once more the pro-
consular power for a period of ten years. At the same time (as
has been recorded in Chapter IV.), Tiberius was raised to a position
almost equal to that of the Emperor himself, and his son Drusus
received the piivile^e of standing for the consulship in three years,
without the preliminary step of the prsetorship.

A census was held in 14 A.D., and after its completion Tiberius
set out for Illyricum, where he was to resume the supreme com-
mand. Augu.-tus accompanied him as lar as Beneventum, but in
returning to t e Campanian cotst was attacked by dysentery and
died at Nola (August 19). Tiberius had been sent for without
delay, and came, perhaps in time to hear the parting words of his
stepfather. There is no good reason to believe the insinuation that
the Emperor's death was caused or hastened by poison administered
by Livia. Her son's accession was sure, and Augustus was old and
weak; so that it would hardly have leen worth while to commit
the crime.

§ 13. Both contemporaries and posterity had good cause to
regard Augustus as a benefactor ; he had given them the gift of
peace. They also esteemed him fortunate (felix) ; and his good
fortune became almost proverbial. Yet it has been truly remarked
that luck was the one thing that failed him. Both points of view
are true. He was unusually fortunate. When he entered upon
his career as a competitor for power, his motives were probably as
vulgar as those of his rivals ; there is no reason to suppose that in
the pursuit of ambition he had large views of political r« form or an
exalted ideal of statesman "hip. His actions throughout the Civil
War indicate the shrewd, cool, and collected mind; they give no
token of wide views, no promise of the future greatness. " But his
intellect expanded with his fortunes, and his soul grew with his
intell ct."* When he came to be supreme ruler, he rose to the
position; ho learned to take a large view of the functions of the
lord of ihe Uonian world; and there was born in him a spirit oi
enthusiasm for the work1 which history set him to accomplish. H«
knew too how to bear his fortune with dignity. But he Wcis un«
lucky when his fortune wa< most firmly established. It was nol
given to the founder of the Empire to leave a successor of his own
blood; and, as we have seen, his end«avours to set le the sue-
cession were doomed to one bitter disappointment alter another
* Merivale, cap. xxxviii., ad fin.

14 A.D. DEATH OF AUGUSTUS.

and led to domestic unhappiness. And it was not given to him to
establish a secure frontier for the northern provinces of ihe Empire.
The efforts in that direction, which were made under his auspice!
and seemed on the eve of being crowned with success, were undone
by a stroke of bad luck. Yet, reviewing his whole career as a
statesman and reflecting on all that he achieved, we may assuredly
say that the Divine Augu-tus was fortunate wiih a measure
of good fortune that is rarely bestowed on men who live out
the.r life.

§ 14. The written memorial of his own acts which Augustus
composed before his death may be spoken of here. It has been
incompletely preserved in a Latin inscription which covers the
walls of the pronaos of a temple of Augustus at Ancyra. Owing to
this accident it is generally known as the Monumentum Ancyranum,
but its proper title was JRes gestas diiri Auyusti. Fragments of the
Greek text of the same work have also been found in Pisidia, and
have hel| ed scholars in restoring the sense, where the Latin fails.
In this document the Emperor briefly describes his acts from his
nineteenth to his seventy-seventh year, with remarkable dignity,
reserve, and moderation. The <ir« at historical value of this
memorial, composed by the founder of the empire himself, need
hardly be pointed out.

Au extract will give an idea of the way in which the great
statesman wrote the brief chronicle of the history which he made.

" I extended the frontiers," he says, " of all those provinces of
the Roman people, on whose borders there were nations not subject
to our empire. I pacified the provinces of the Gauls and the
Spains, and Germany, from Gades to the mouth of the Albis.
I reduced to a state of peace the Alps from the district which is
nearest the Adriatic Sea to the Tu>can Sea, without wrongful
aggressions on any nation. My fleet navigated the ocean from
the mouth of the Rhine eastward as far the borders of the Cimbri,
whither no Roman before ever passed either by land or sea ;
and the Cimbri, the Charydes, and the Senmoms and other
German peoples of the same region sought the friendship of me
and the Roman ]>eople. By my command and under my auspices
two armies were sent, almost at the same time to Ethiopia and
to Arabia, calkd Euda^mon [Felix], and very large forces of the
enemies in both countries were cut to pieces in battle, and many
towns taken. The invaders of Ethiopia advanced as far as the
town of Kabata, very near Meroe. The army which invaded
Arabia marched into tha territory of the Sabasi, as far as the town
of Mariba,"

Another work compiled by Augustus was the JSremarium Imperii,

140

WINNING AND LOSING OF GERMANY. CHAP. ix.

containing a short statement of all the resources of the Romaii
State, and including the number of the population of citizens,
subjects, and allies. It was in fact a handbook to the statistics
of the Roman Empire. At the end of this work he recorded
his solemn advice to succeeding sovrans, not to attempt to extend
the boundaries of the Empire.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

A.— THE LEGIONS IN DAL MAT I A,

6-9 A.D.

Six legions operated in Dalmatia during
the rebellion: VII., VIII., XI., XV.
Apollinaris, XX. Valeria Victrix. The
Vllth and Xlth remained in the
country after the conclusion of the war ;
the other four were withdrawn. The
XVth and XXth were specially formed
for the war. The headquarters of the
VII th were at Delmiuium, north-east of
Salonse; those of the Xlth at Burnum,
near Kistanje, on south border of Libur-
nia, but later probably at Salonse. The
camp of the XXth was also at Burnum ;
that of the VHIth probably at Asseria,
west of Burnum, on the road to Zara, near
the modern Podgradje.

See the important article of 0. Hirsch-
feld, Zur GescJi. des pannonisch-dalma-
tischen Krieges, in Hermes, xxv. 351
sqq.

B. -SCENE OF THE DEFEAT OF
VARUS.

Many attempts have been made to
etermine the battlefield on which the

legions of Varus were destroyed, and to
identify the Ten toburgensis saltus. Claims
have been advanced for various places,
but it is improbable that the question
will ever be decided with certainty. It
! seems clear from the rest of the narrative
that the spot must lie north of the Lippe,
and between the Ems and Weser. The
| circumstance that the place was hilly is
! also a vague clew ; that it was marshy, is
' of less help, as ground which was marshy
then maybe dry now. Many gold, silver,
and copper horn an coins, of the time of
Augustus, have been found in the neigh-
bourhood of Venne, a marshy district
some miles north of Osnabrtick; while
I almost no coins of a later date have
occurred. Hence the view of Mommsen,
who holds this to be the scene of the
disaster, is very plausible. The hills
which played a part in the episode would
then be the Wiehengebirge.

As to the year of the battle, there is no
doubt that it was 9 A.D., not 10 A.D. (as
Brandes argued) and it probably took
place in the extreme end of summer.

Coin of Drusus.

Ancient Rome.

CHAPTEK X.

ROME UNDER AUGUSTUS. HIS BUILDINGS.

§ 1. The Augustan age a new epoch for Rome. § 2. The Forum. § 3.
The Forum Caesaris and Forum Augusti. Temples of Venus and
Mars. § 4. Campus Martius. Pantheon, Mausoleum, &c. § 5. The
Capitolium. § 6. The Palatine. Palace of Augustus and Temple of
Apollo. The Aventine.

§ 1. THE Augustan age marks a new period in the history of the
city of Eome. Augustus boasted that he found it a city of brick
and left it a city of marble. For the change consisted not only in
the large number of new buildings which were erected under his
auspices, but in the material which was used. The white marble
quarries of Luna had been recently discovered and this rich stone
was employed in many of the public edifices ; while the aristocrats,
stimulated by the example of the Emperor, used bright travertine to
adorn the f^ades of their private houses. The most striking
change that took place in the appearance of the city during the
reign of Augustus was the transformation of the Forum, and the
opening up of the adjacent quarters. In this, as in so much else,
Julius Caesar had suggested innovations, which he did not live to
carry out himself.

§ 2. The Roman Forum extends from the foot of the Capitol to
the north-west corner of the Palatine. Adjoining it on the north
side, but separated from it by the rostrum, was the Comitium, a
small enclosed space in which the Curia stood. The first step to

142 BOME UNDEB AUGUSTUS. CHAP. x.

the transformation of the Forum, was the removal of the rostrum
(42 B.C.), so that the Forum and Comitium formed one place. The
Curia had been burnt down ten years before, and Caesar began tKe
building of a new one, which was finished by Augustus and
dedicated under the name of Curia Julia.* But this was only the
beginning of the new splendour that was to come upon the great
centre of Roman life. A sliort desciiption of the chief buildings
which adorned it at the death of Augustus will show how much it
was changed under the auspices of the first Princeps.

At the north-west corner, close under the Capitoline, where the
ascent to the Arx begin*, stood the Temple of Concord, rebuilt by
Tiberius in 10 A.D. and dedicated in the name of himself and his
dead brother Drusus, as asdes Concordias Augustas. Owing to the
nature of the ground this temple had a peculiar cramped shape, the
pronaos being only half as broad as the cella. Adjacent on the
south side was tl>e Temple of Saturn, between the Clivus Capitoli-
nns and the Vicus Jugarius. It was built anew in 42 B.C. by the
munificence of Munatius Planous. The eight Ionic pillars which
still mark the spot where it stood date from a later period. This
temple served as the state treasury, which was therefore called the
asrarium Saturni.

Between the Vicus Jugarius and the Vicus Tuscus, occupying the
greater part of the south side of the Forum, stood the Basilica
Julia, which, like the Curia, the elder Caesar had left to Ids son to
finish. Begun in 54 B.C., it was dedicated in 46 ; but after its com-
pletion, some years later, it was burnt down. Then it arose as;am
on a larger and more splendid scale, and was finally dedicated by
Augustus a few ni'-nths before his death, in the name of his
unfortunate grandsons Gains and Lucius Caesar. East of the
Basilica, on the other side of the Vicus Tuscus, was situated the
Temple of Castor, of which three Corinthian columns and a
splendid Greek entablature still stand. Founded originally in
memory of the help which the great twin brethren were said
to have given to the Romans at Lake Regillus it was renewed
for the second time by Tiberius, under the auspices of Augustus,
and, like the Temple of Concord, dedicated in the name of the
two sons of Li via.

The Temple of the divine Julius, built on the spot where his
body had been burned by the piety of his son, stood at the eastern
end of the Forum, facing the new rostra which had been erected at
the western side in front of the Temple of Concord. Behind the
JiMes Pivi Julii and on the north side of the venerable round Temple
of Vesta, was the Regia, a foundation of high antiquity, ascribed
* The Curia is DOW San Aflrff*10-

27 B.C.-14 A.D. THE FORUM. 143

to Numa, and used under the Republic as the office of the Pontifex
Maxim us. It had been o;ten destroyed by fire, and in 36 B.C. it
was rebuilt in splendid style by Cn. Domitius Calvinus, and there
Lepidus transacted the duties of his pontifical office. But when
Augustus himself became chitf pontiff (12 B.C.), he n-si.-ned the
Reg'a to the use <-f the vestal virgins. On the north side, east of
the Cuiin, stood a building originally design«d in 179 B.C. by the
cen-ors Fulvius and JSmilius, but built anew by L. ^Einilius
Paullus in 54 B.C. and since then known as the Basilica Emilia.
Burnt down forty years later, it was rebuilt by Augustus, with
pillars ot Phrygian marble. The Temple of Janus, which Augustus
thrice closed, stood somewhere — the exact position is uncertain —
aear the point whete the Ar-iletum entered the Forum, between
the Curia and the Basilica ^Emilia.

§ 3. The Argiletum, a stieet famous for booksellers, traversed
the populous and busy region north of the B\)rum, which was
densely packed with houses and threaded only by narrow
streets, C'aesar formed the desi-n of op"iiing up this crowded
quarter and establishing a free communication on this side between
the Forum and the iireat suburb of Rome, the Campus Marti us. In
order to effect this he construct' d a new market-place: and it was
owing probably to this ^chenle that the Curia Julia, whose building
began about the .«ame time (54 B.C.), was built nearer to the Forum
than the old cuiia The Forum Julium, as it was called, lay
north of the Curia, and, like it, was dedicated (46 B.C.) before
completion, and finished a'ter Cse-ar's dtath. The chie' building
which adorned it was the Temple of V« nus Genet rix, moth- r of the
Julian race, which Osesar had vowed at the battle ol Pharsalia.

As the elder Caesar had made a vow at Pharsnlia, .-o the younger
Caesar made a vow at Philippi. The vow was to Mars Ultor, and
was dul\ fulfilled. The house of Mars the Avenger likewise became
the centre of a new Forum. This temple, dedicated by its foundei
on the first of his own month in 2 B.C., served as the resting-place
of the standards which his diplomacy had recovered from the
Parthians. The Forum Augnstum adjoined t1 at of C'sesar on the
north-east side. It was rectan ular in shape, but on the east and
west sides there were semi-circular spaces with porticoes in which
statues of Roman generals in triumphal robes were s< t up. It
became the practice that in this Forum, the members of tl e
imperial family should assume the to.ua virilis; and when victorious
generals were honoured by statues of bronz?, they were set up here.
These fora of the first Caesars, father and son, were the beginning
of a rehabilitation of this quarter of the city, wliich was resumed, a
century later, by the Emperors Nerva and Trajan; and they

144

ROME UNDER AUGUSTUS.

CHAP.

established an easy communication between the Forum and the
Field of Mars. Hitherto the way from the Campus to the Forum
had been round by the west and south sides of the Capitoline,
through the Porta Carmen tali s.

Walls of the Emperors _______

1. Theatrum et Porticus Pompeii.

2. Pantheon.

3. Theatrum Marcelli.

4. Templum Veneris et Romae.

5. Templum Pads.

6. Forum Nervae.

7. Forum Augusti.

8. Forum Julium.

9. Forum Trajani.

Walls of Seruius —

10. Basilica Julia.

11. Templum Castorum.

12. Templum Saturni.

lil. Templum D. Vespasiani.

14. Templum Concordiae.

15. Basilica ^Emilia.

16. Templum Jovis Capitoliui.

17. Arx.

§ 4. The Campus Martius itself, whether taken in the wider or
the narrower sense, put on a new aspect under the auspices of the
Caesars. The Campus in the stricter sense was bounded on the

27 B.c.-H A.D. THE PANTHEON. 145

south by the Circus Plaminius and on the east by the Via Lata.
It was the great rival of Caesar who set the example of building
on this ground. In 55 B.C. Pompey erected his " Marble Theatre."
Caesar began the construction of marble Saspta — an enclosure
for the voting of the centuries — which was finished by Agrippa.
The name of Agrippa has more claim to be associated with the
Field of Mars than either Caesar's or Pompey 's. The construction
of the Pantheon, which is preserved to the present day, was due
to his enterprise. This edifice is of circular form and crowned
with a dome, which was originally covered with tiles of gilt bronze.
The dome is an instance " of the extraordinarily skilful use of
concrete by the Komans; it is cast in one solid mass, and is as
free from lateral thrust as if it were cut out of one block of
stone. Though having the arch form, it is in no way constructed
on the principle of the arch." * The building is lighted only
from the top. "The interior measures 132 feet in diameter, as
well as in height. The walls are broken by seven niches, three
semicircular, and, alternating with them, three rectangular, wherein,
at a later period, splendid marble columns with entablatures were
introduced. Above this rises an attica with pilasters, the original
portion of which has undoubtedly been changed, since we know
that Diogenes' Caryatides once rose above the entablatures of the
columns, and divided the apertures of the great niches. Above the
attica rises, in the form of a hemisphere, the enormous dome, whicht
has an opening in the top twenty-six feet in diameter, through
which a flood of light pours into the space beneath. Its simple
regularity, the beauty of its parts, the magnificence of the materials
employed, the quiet harmony resulting from the method of illumi-
nation, give to the interior a solemnly sublime character, which
has hardly been impaired, even by the subsequent somewhat
inharmonious alterations. These have especially affected the dome,
the beautiful and effectively graded panels of which were formerly
richly adorned with bronze ornaments. Only the splendid
columns of yellow marble (giallo antico), with white marble
capitals and bases, and the marble decorations of the lower walls,
bear witness to the earlier magnificence of the building. The
porch is adorned with sixteen Corinthian columns." f

Agrippa also built the adjacent bathfe called after him, Thermae
Agrippse (27 and 25 B.C.), and a basilica, which he dedicated to
Neptune in memory of his naval victories, and enclosed with
a portico which from the pictures adorning it was called the
Portico of the Argonauts. Another wealthy noble of the day,

- Middleton, Remains of Ancient I f Taken from' Lflbke's History of An
, ii. 131. I (Bug. Tr.).

7

146 BOMB UNDER AUGUSTUS. CHAP, x

Statilius Taurus, constructed the first stone amphitheatre in Rome,
and its site, too, was somewhere in the Fie d of Mars. The first
Princeps himself seemed content to leave the adornment of the
Campus chiefly to the munificence of his lesser fellow-citizens.
But much further north than all the buildings which have been
mentioned, where the Campus heroines narrow by the approach
of the Via Flamiuia to the river, he built a great mausoleum
for the Julian family, a round structure surmounted by a statue
of himself.

On the south side of the Flaminian Circus, in the Prata Flarninia,
a region which might be included in the Campus, in a wMer
sense of the name, Augustus erected the Fort cus Octavias in the
name of his sister, and attached to it a library ami a Collection of
works of art. It was close to the Tc.mplum Herculis Mnsarum
built by Fulvius Nobilior, the patron of the poet Ennius, and
renewed under Augustus, and surrounded by a portico which was
dedicated as the Portions Philippi, in honour of L. Marcins Philippus,
the step-father of the Em|>eror. Near the Portico of Octavia, were
the Theatres of Balbus and Marcellus, both dedicated in the same
year (11 B.C.). The first was one of those works which the rich
men of the day executed through the influence and example of
Augustus. The second had been begun by Csesar, but was finished
by Augustus and dedicated in the name of his nephew Marcellus.
The Portions Octavii (close to the Flaminian Circus), which was
dedicated by Cn. Octavius after the victory over Perseus, was
burnt down and restored un»ler Augustus. It was remarkable as
the earliest example of Corinthian pillars at Rome.

§ 5. From, the Forum the Clivus Capitolinus, passing the temple
of Saturn, led up to the saddle of the Mons Capitolinus, the smallest
of all the mountains of Rome. Thence it ascended to the southern
height, called specially the Ca|itolium, the ciradel of Servian Rome,
where the treaties with foreign nations were kept a»d triumphal
spoils were dedicated. Another path led up to the northern height,
the Arx, which underwent little change under the Empire. But on
the southern hill it was otherwise; there new buildings arose under
the auspices of Augustus. The highest part of the hill was occupied
by the great temple of Jupiter Optimus Mnximus, in which the
senate used to meet on certain solemn occasions. This temple,
burnt down in 83 B.C., had been rebuilt, but it required and
received costly repairs in the time of Augustus. Ranged around it
on lower ground were many lesser temples, of which that of Jupiter
Feretri us, to whom Romulus dedicated his spolia opima, and that
of Fides founded by Numa, may bf ppeci ally mentioned. Augustus
increased their number. In 20 B.C. he dediicated the round temple

27 B.O.-H A.D. THE PALATINE. 147

of Mars Ultor, and in 22 B.C. that of Jupiter Tonans, in memory
of an occasion, during his Cantabrian expedition, on which he had
narrowly escaped death by lightning. This temple, marvellous for
itz splendour, attracted muliitudes of visitors and worshippers, and
its position at the point where ihe Clivus reached the Area
Capitolina might suggest that Jupiter Tonans was a sort of gate-
keeper for the greater Jupiter on the summit.

§ 6. But the Palatine Mount was the centre from which the de-
velopment of Rome went our. It was the original Rome, the Roma
quadrata, where were localised the legends of its foundation.
There were to be seen the Casa Romuli, the Lupercal where
Homulus and Remus were fed by the wolf, the cornel-tree, and the
mundus, receptacle of those things winch at the foundation of the
city were buried to ensure its prosperity. Under the Republic, the
Palatine was the quarter where the great nol»les and public men
lived. Augustus himself was born there, and there he built his
house. So it came about that the name which designated the city
of Rome in i'S earliest shape, Palatium, became the name of the
private residence of its first citizen. The palace of Augustus was a
magnificent building in the new and costly style whicu had only
recently b^en introduced in Rome. Ovid, standing in imagination
by the temple of Jupiter Stator, where the Palatine hill slopes down
to the Via Sacra, could see the splendid iront of the palace,
" worthy of a god."

Singula dmn miror, video fnlgentibus armis
Conspicuo.- posies tectaque digna deo.*

The other great building by which Augustus transformed the
appearance of the Palatine was the temple of Apollo, begun in
36 B.C. after the end of the war wiih Sextus Pom^eius, and dedi-
cated eight years later. It, wa^ an < ight-pMared peripteros, built
of the white marble of Luna, and richly adorned with works of art.
The chief sight was the colossus of bronze representing Augustus
himself under the form of Apollo. Between the columns stood the
statues of the fifty Danaids. and over against them their wooers, the
sons of ^Egyptus, mounted on horseback. Under the statu-' of the
god were deposited in a vault the Sibylline Hooks. In the porticoes
were two libraries, one Latin and one Greek.

On the northern slope of the Palatine, facing the Capitol, stood
the temple of Augustus, which Tiberius and the Empress Livia
erected in his honour alter his death.

On the south sid« the Palatine looks down on the Circus
Maximus, which was restored by Augustus. Opposite rises the
Aventine, a hill long uninhab ted and afterwards chiefly a plebeian

* TrUtvi, iiL 1. 63.

148 BOMB UNDER AUGUSTUS. CHAP. x.

quarter, on which the chief shrine was the temple of Diana, whence
the hill was sometimes called oottis Dianse. This temple was
rebuilt by L. Cornificius under Augustus, who himself restored
the sanctuaries of Minerva, Juno Regina, and Jupiter Libertas on
the same hill. Livy was hardly guilty of exaggeration when
he called Augustus "the founder and restorer of all the temples"
of Rome.*

§ 7. A word must be said here about the triumphal arch (arcus
triumphalis) which was a characteristic feature in the external
appearance of Rome and other important cities of the Empire.
Under this name are included not only arches erected in honour of
victories, but also those which celebrate other public achievements.
A triumphal arch was built across a street. It consisted either ot
a single archway, or of a large central and two side ones, or some-
times of two of the same height side by side. There were generally
columns against the piers, supporting an entablature, and each
fa9ade was ornamented with low reliefs. Above all rose an attica
with the inscription, and upon it were placed the trophies in case
the arch commemorated a victory. The arch of Augustus at
Ariminum. erected in memory of the completion of the Via
Flamiixia, and his arches at Augusta Pretoria and Susa, still stand.
The general appearance of the arch resembles that of the gate of
a city, and it seems to have owed its origin to the Triumphal Gate
through which a victorious general led his army into Rome to
celebrate his triumph

*hr.20.

Head of Mjecenas.

Tomb of Virgil.

CHAPTER XL

LITERATURE OF THE AUGUSTAN AGE.

§ 1. Augustan literature. Writings of Augustus. Circles of Maecenas
and Messalla. Asinms Pollio. § 2. Virgil. § 3. JEmilius Macer.
Cornelius Gallus. §4. Horace. Valgius. Melissus. Domitius Marsus.
§ 5. Tibullus. Propertius. Ovid ; his banishment. Albinovanus
Pedo. § 6. Gratius. Manilius. § 7. Livy. Pompeius Trogus.
§ 8. Hyginus. Verrius Flaccus. Philosophy, rhetoric and oratory.
Jurists. § 9. Greek writers. Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Longinus.
Nicolaus of Damascus. Strabo.

SECT. I.— LATIN POETRY.

§ 1. LATIN literature was affected seriously, and in many ways,
by the fall of the Republic and the foundation of the Empire. The
Augustan age itself was brilliant, but after the Augustan age
literature rapidly declined. The most conspicuous figures in the
world of letters under Augustus had outlived their youth under
the Republic ; some of them had served on the losing side. But
these soon became reconciled to the new order of things. The
Emperor drew men to himself by virtue of the peace and security
which he had established (cunctos dulcedine otii pdlexit *) ; and
it was his special object to patronise men of literary talent and
engage their services for the support of his policy. His efforts
were successful ; he won not only flattery, but sympathy for the
new age which he had inaugurated ; he enlisted in his cause, not
* Tacitus, Annals, 1. 2.

150 LITERATURE OP THE AUGUSTAN AGE. CHAP. XL

only timeservers, but the finest spirits of the day. Although the
Augustan literature is certainly marked by a vein of flattery to
the court, and by a luck of republican independence, yet we cannot
but recognise a genuine enthusiasm for the new age, for the peace
which it had brought after the long civil wars, and for the great-
ness of the Roman Empire. And, from a literary point of view,
the Augustan age ranks among the most brilliant in the history
of the world; below the Periclcan, perhaps below the Elizabethan,
but certainly far above that of Louis XIV. It is true that the
cessation of the political life of the Republic necessarily meant the
decline of oratory ; it is true that historians could no longer treat
contemporary events with free and independent criticism. It is
true likewise that the severe style of old Latin prose begins to
degenerate, and that poetry lays aside its popular elements and
becomes more strictly artificial. In fact the poetc deprecate
popularity and despise the public. Horace's cry "OJi prolanum
vulgus et arceo" is characteristic of the age. But for literary
excellence and for the perfection of art the best of the Augustan
writers had a clear judgment and a delicate taste. The tendencies
of the new age inevitably led to a decline ; but, as an ample
compensation, we have Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, Livy.

AUGUSTUS, as we have s-aid, concerned himself with the pro-
motion of literary activity, and the patronage of men of letters.
"He fostered in all ways the talents of his age."* He founded
two libraries, one in the portico of Octavia, the other at the temple
of Apollo 011 the Palatine. He was an author hims> If both in prose
and verse. He wrote " Exhortations to Philosophy ; " and a poem
in hexameters, entitled " Sicilia." The Monumentum Ancyranum
and the Breviarium totius imperil have been mrntioned else-
where.f

The two chief ministers of Augustus were authors likewise
AGEIPPA wrote memoirs of his own life, and edited an Atlas of the
world. M.ECENA8 composed occasional poems of a li'j;ht nature,
and also wrote some prose works. But he is more famous as a
patron of poets than as a poet himself. H'S literary circle included
Horace, Virgil, Varius, Tucca, Dora i tins Marsus, besides many lesser
names. The orator M. VALERIUS MESSALLA (64 B.C.-9 A.D.), also
drew round him a group" of men of letters, among whom the
most distinguished were the poets Tibullus, Valgius Rufus,
JSmilius Macer, and perhaps Ovid. This circle seems to have
held quite aloof from politics. MessalU's own literary work
chiefly consisted in translations from the Greek, both prose and
verse.
* Suetonius, Auguttut | f See above, Chap. IX. $ 14.

CHAP. XL VIKGIL. 151

0. ASINIOS POLLIO (75 B.C.-5 A. P.) held a unique position. Having
been on the side of Antonius, he withdrew a ter Actium from
political life, and holding himself aloof from tl;e court, devoted
Limsclf to literature, with a ceitain independence and peihaps
antaiionibm to the spirit of the age. He was very learned ami
c, very severe critic. He wrote tragedies, w! ich are p.aised by
Virr'l;* and a history of the civil wars (FJistoriie) reaching
fum 60 to about 42 B.c.f He was a friend of both Virgil and
IIori.ce.

S 2. PUBLICS VERGILLIUS t MARO was born in 70 B.C. at Andes,
near Mantua. His rustic features bore tes imcny to his humble
origin : his father was an 'artisan. He went to school at Cremona ;
afterwards he studied at Med olanum, and finally at Rome, where
Octavius, afterwards to be Caesar and Augustus, was his fellow-
studeut in rhetoric. He studied philosophy under ti e Epicurean
Siro. After his return home, he and his family experienced the
calamities of the civil war. Octivms Musa, v\h«» was appointed
to carry out the distribution of land to veteran soldiers in the
district of Cremona, transgressed the limits of that district and
encroached § upon the neighbouring territory of M-ntua (41 B.C.).
Virgil's father was among the sufferers; but Asinius Pollio, who
was then legatus in Gallia Transpada.ua, and the poet Cornelius
G-allus, interested themselves in his beh;df. At their sug estion,
Virgil betook himself to Rome, and obta'ned from Csesar the
restitution ot his father's farm. The first Eclogue is an expression
of gratitude to Caesar for this protection : deus nobis hcec oti<*
fecit. But Virgil and his father were not permitted to remain
long in po.-sessiou of their recovered homestead. The same
injustice was repeated a year or two later, and the poet was even
in danger of his life. A^ain he went to R"ine, and the influence
of Maecenas, to whom he had probably become known by the
publication of some of his Bucolics, secured him, not restitution
but compensation, perhaps by a farm in Campania, where he spent
much of his later life.

Virgil's first work, the Bucolics, consisting of ten "eclogse," or
idylls, was composed in the years 41-39 B.C. Inspired by
Theocritus, they are written in the same metre, and are in great
part imitations from his idylls. But most of them contain
references to contemporary persons and events, especially to the
hardships in Transpadane Haul from which Virgil himself

* Eclogue viii. 10: Sophocleo digna the familiar Fnglish ai-breviation of the

cothurno. I name from Virgil to Vergil.

f See Horace, Odes, ii. 1. $ Hence the line, Mantua vae miser*

t Thi* is the true spelling of the port's niniium vicina Cremonae, Eel. is.. 28.
>; but it is quite needle.-* to alter

152 LITERATURE OF THE AUGUSTAN AGE. CHAP. XL

had suffered so sorely. Caesar, Cornelius Gallus, Alfenus Varus
(the successor of Pollio as legatus), and above all, Pollio himself,
have their places in the woods of Tityrus. The fourth Eclogue,
written for the year of Pollio's consulship (40 B.C.), treats a theme
which hardly belongs to bucolic poetry. Virgil feels that he has
to make his woods " worthy of a consul."

Si canimus silvas, silvas sint consule dignte.

He salutes the ret irn of the " Saturnian kingdoms" and the
golden age.* The salutation was premature by ten years; and
when peace at length came to the Roman world, Pollio, instead
of being its inaugurator, was rather an opponent. But it is
interesting to observe, that the idea of some great change for the
better was in the air.

The Bucolics were written in the north of Italy (not yet " Italy "
at that time); his next work was written in the south, chiefly at
Naples. It was Msecenas who suggested the subject of the
(leorgics, a didactic poem in hexameters, dealing with the various
parts of a farmer's work. The first Book treats of agriculture, the
second of the plantation of trees, the third of the care of livestock,
the fourth of bees. No subject was more congenial to Virgil's
Muse — his "rustic Muse," as he says himself; and from some
points of view the Georgics may be regarded as his masterpiece.
He has here achieved a task, which is the hardest that a poet
can undertake, to write true poetry in a didactic form. Rare
artistic instinct and genuine love of his subject were happily joined
to produce this unique poem, in which Virgil seems to be more truly
himself than either in the Bucolics or the Aeneid. The composi-
tion and revision of this work occupied the years from 37 to 30 B.C.
when it was read aloud to Caesar on his return from Actium. It
is interesting to note that the latter part of the fourth Book was
originally devoted to the praises of the poet's friend Cornelius
Gallus, but that after his execution (27 B.c.)f this passage was
cut out by the wish of the Emperor and replaced by the story of
Orpheus.

In the Georgics, Virgil promises that he will soon gird himself
to a greater task, and sing the deeds of Csesar. J But his poem took
the form of an epic, in which, not Csesar, but ^Eneas, the founder
of the Julian gens, was the hero. The work was begun about

* Toto surget gen** aurea mundo (1. 9).

f See above, Chap. VII. $ 8.

j Bk. iii. 46. Propertius, writing in
26 or 25 B.C. heralds the coming of the
-Eneid thus (iii. 34. 65) :

Cedite Roman! scriptoree, cedite Grail;

Nescio qnid maius nascitnr Iliade.

Other lilies in this context suggest that
Virgil may have intended to celebrate the
victory of Actium after the completion of

OHAP. xi. THE GEQRGICS AND ^BNEID. 153

29 B.C., and occupied the remaining ten years of the poet's life. He
died at Brundusium in 19 B.C., leaving the Mneid. unfinished. His
wishes were that the manuscript should be burnt, but Augustus,
that such a great work should not perish, committed its publication
to Varius and Tucca, friends of Virgil, on the condition that they
should make no alterations. Though Augustus was not the hero,
there were opportunities, in a poem doaling with the origin of " the
Latin race and the Alban fathers and the walls of lofty Rome," *
to look forward over the ages of Roman history and celebrate the
glories of him who was to " found a golden age.f The JSneid has
suffered from the premature death of its creator ; it was neither
finished nor revised. Yet it would hardly be an injustice to Virgil
to say that its excellence and charm lie in particular episodes, in
delicate and subtle details of language and rhythm, and not in the
poem regarded as a whole. But it must always stand beside the
[Had and Odyssey, as the third great epic of antiquity. The
Roman dignity and magnitude of the subject, and the wonderful
power of the narratives in the second, fourth, and sixth Books,
have exalted the ^Eneid far above the Georgics in the estimation of
posterity ; yet it might be argued that Virgil had more in common
with Wordsworth than with Milton or with his worshipper Dante.
The note of Virgil is " natural piety ; " perhaps he cannot be
described better than by the happy expression which his friend
Horace applied to him, anima Candida.

Virgil was buried close to Naples on the road to Puteoli, and
the inscription on his tomb, said to have been dictated by himself
before his death, ran thus :

Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc
Parthenope ; cecini pascua, rura, duces.

§ 3. In connection with Virgil, it is natural to mention his elder
contemporary and friend, L. VARIUS RUFUS (B.C. 74-14), celebrated
for his epics on Csesar and Octavian,J and more celebrated for his
tragedy the Thyesfes. Another poet of about the same age was
^EMILIUS MACER of Verona, also a friend of Virgil, and disguised
in the Bucolics under the name of Mopsus. He wrote poems OD
natural history (Ornithogonia and Theriaca), but they have been
less lucky than his models, the Greek poems of Nicander, which
survive to the present day. The unfortunate CORNELIUS UALLUS
(69 B.C.-27) must also be mentioned here, though his name has its
place rather hi the age of Catullus and Cinna. It was he who
transplanted the erotic elegy of the Alexandrine Greeks to Roman

* ^Eneid, i. 6. J He was expected to write a glorlfl-

t JSnefd, vi. 791. | cation of Agrippa: Hor., Odet, i. 6.

7*

154 LITERATURE OF THE AUGUSTAN AGE. CHAP. xt

soil, and founded " the school of Euphorion," to which Catullus and
Cinna belonged. He translated Euphorion into Latin; and vroto
tour Books of original elegies on his own mistress Cytheris under
the name of Lycoris. His death has been alivady noticed. ::

§ 4. The great lyric, like the great epic, poet of Rome was of
humble birth. Q. HORATIUS FLACCUS was the son of a frccdman.
and was born at Venu>ia, on the borders of Apulia and LucaninyJ* in
65 B.C. After the death of Julius Caesar (44 B.C.) he joined the cause
of Brutus and served under him in Asia and Macedonia, until' o
Battle of Philippi (42 B.C.). On that occasion ho took pr*,w ." '. i\e
general flight, as he tells us himself | and afterwards rctuir'n/; to
Rome, obtained a post ns a qusesior's secretary. During t'ie i.jxt
ten years he wrote hisSttires and Epodes, v/hich brought hinfame,
and secured him the friendship of Virgil and Yariuc, vlio introduced
him to Maecenas. In 37 B.C. we find him accompanying I.'secenas
on the journey to Brundusium, of v/h'ch he Las left us r. pleasant
descnption.§ The intimacy with Maecenas ripened; the Epicurean
views of life which both held were a Injnd between the poet and his
patron. Horace had a taste for country liie, and in 33 B.C. Maecenas
bestowed upon him a farm in the Sabine territory, which he preferred
to "royal Rome." Independence was one of the chief character-
istics of Horace, and he felt more independent in the country than
in the immediate neighbourhood of the court.

The first Book of the Satires appeared about 35 B.C. : the second
Book about five years later. In this style of composition the
predecessor of Horace was Lucilius; [ but while LucLLus cri'icised
persons and politics freely, Horace prudently confined himself to
generalities on society and liierature, owing to the altered circum-
stances of the time. Lucilius had imitated the Greek writers of Old
Comedy, such as Cratinus and Aristophanes ; «nd Horace stood in
somewhat the same relation to his predecessor as the New Comedy
• stood to the Old. From the-e " Talks" (s<-rmones, as Horace calls
them himself^), written, like those of Luciliu*, in hexameter verse
and in coll quial style, we learn much abouc the personality of
Horace and about his friends. In the Epodes, which were published

* Another poetic friend of Virgil is
mentioned in the Bucolics under the name
(perhaps fictitious) of Coilrus: Proxima
Phoebi versibus ille faci. (vii. 22).

f Satires, ii. 1. 34: " Lucanns an
Appulus anceps." He has given an
account of liis early life in Sat., i. 6.

% Odes, ii. 7.

$ Satire*, \. 5.

|| Horace discusses Lnciltus and his
relation to Greek comedy in Sat., i. 4 (cp.

Sat., i. 10). In 1. 56 he states that Lucilius
was his own predecessor (his ego quae
uu- c, olim qu;e s. ripsit Lucilius).

^[ Epistlts, i. 4. 1 : Albi, nostrum ser-
monum candid'- iudex. And this is the
title given in he Manuscripts. But Horace
also called his f| ir-tles sermoi'i-s, so that
sa'iie is a very co venient name for the
sake of distinction. Sermo indicates the
colloquial style.

CHAP. xi.

HOKACE.

155

about the same time as the second Book of the Satires, Horace
imitated Archilochus and attacked persons in coarse language. All
these poems (except the last) are written in couplets consisting of
a longer and a shorter line, generally an iambic trimeter followed
by nn iambic d^neter. They are the least interesting w<>rk of
Horace, but they were a good exercise in handling metres ant)
in the imitation of Greek m«'d*ls, and they led to the Odes.*

The greatest "mon ment 'f of poetry th-at Horace has bequeathed
to posterity is the collection of lyrical poems in 'our Books known us
the Odes. The first three Books v\ ere published in 24 B.C., the fourth
eleven years later. In lyric composition he does n<-t claim originality,
he only "adapted ^Eolian song to Italian measures;" but he claims
priority; he was the first (except Catullus) to make the attempt : —

Princeps JEolium carmen ad Italos
Deduxisse modos.

For this he b'ds the Muse crown him with Delphic laurel. But
though the Greek lyric poets, especially Sappho and Alcseus, were
his models, it was an original idea on the part of Horace to turn
away from the A lexandrine poets who were then in v« gue, and go
back to the older singers. It required true genius and wonderful
artistic instinct to tune the borrov\ed l\re to the accents of another
tongue. Horace was supremely successful. In the Odes his poetic
judgment is, with few exceptions, laultless ; the happiest word
comes almost inevitably ; his felicity (curiosa felicitas) was praised
by Roman critics. Some of these poems are probably tree trans-
lations from the Gnek, but many refer to contemporary people and
events, some deal with Homau history, and the vic'ories won under
the auspices of Augustus. The fourth Book of the Odes is said to
have been published at the instance of the Emperor.

But in the interval between his earlier and later lyre works,
Horace wrote Epistles. The first Pook appeared about 20 B.C.
After the strict technical constraints to which he had subjected
himself in the Odes, it was a relaxation for the poet to expand him-
self in the easy and fami'iar st)le of the Sermones. But the
urbane kpistfes, though written in tie same colloquial language, are
very different from the Satires ; they are more /nature, less polemical,
and they have a charm of serenity which is wanting in the earlier
work. It might be said, that if the genius of Virgil found its truest
expression in the Georuics, so that of Horace was best expressed in
his Epistles; and in this form of composition he has never been

* Horace hims If does not use either
epode or ode. The epodes he calls iambi,
the odes carmina.

t Monuraentum are perennlus, Oda,
ill. 30. 1.

156 LITERATURE OF THE AUGUSTAN AGE. CHAP. XL

equalled The second Book of the Kpistles, written in the later years
of his life, includes a Treatise on Poetry, the Ars Poetica, in the
form of a letter to his friends the Pisos.

Horace died in 8 B.C., surviving by a few months his benefactor
Maecenas, beside whom he was buried. Though he had at first
stood aloof, he became reconciled, as time went on, to the Empire,
was on good terms with Augustus, and did what was required of
him as an Augustan poet. And independent though Horace was,
he had a decided weakness for friendships with great people. The
influence of Maecenas probably did much to stimulate his poetic
activity ; for Horace was by no means one of those who cannot help
singing. He was not " inspired ; " his poetry is marked by lucidity
and judgment.

Many poets, whose works have not survived, but famous in their
own day, are mentioned by Horace. His friend V ALGIUS, who wrote
Epigrams and Elegies, was actually compared to Homer.* ABISTIUS
Foscus and FUNDANIUS composed dramas, PUPIUS doleful tragedies.
Here may be mentioned also C. MELISSOS, who wrote a jest-book,
and originated the fabula trabeata ; and DOMITIUS MABSUS, famous
chiefly for his Epigrams, f in which field he was the predecessor
and master of Martial.

§ 5. Of the elegiac poets of this period whose works have come
down to us, the most charming is ALBIUS TIBULLUS (54-19 B.C.).
Adopting the form of Alexandrine elegN-, he breathed into it a fresh
spirit of Italian country life. In his love poems to Delia,J whose true
name was Plania, there is a certain tender melancholy which we do
not find in the rest of classical literature. By his deft handling of
the pentameter he made an important technical advance in the
development of Latin Elegy. Along with his works and under his
name were published after his death some poems, which were not
by him, but by a certain Lygdamus (perhaps a fictitious name).
Also included in the collection of his elegies are some which were
written by STJLPICIA, the niece of his patron Messalla.

The Umbrian poet SEXTUS PROPERTIUS (probably born at Asisium,
about 49-15 B.C.) did not emancipate himself like Tibullus
from the influence of his Alexandrine models, Callimachus and
Philetas. On the contrary he prides himself on his Alexandrinism,
and calls himselt the Roman Callimachus. He was very learned,
and his elegies are full of obscure references to out of the way
myths. Nevertheless no works of the age are so thoroughly
impressed with the individuality of the writer as the passionate
j>oenis of Propertius. The passion which inspired his song, was his

* By Tibullus (iv. 1 . 179), eeterno propior I f 1 he title of his book was Cfcuta.
non alter Homero. | J fir/Acs = planus.

CHAP, xi TIBULLUS. PROPERTIUS. OVID. 157

love for Hostia, a beautiful and accomplished courtezan, whom he
disguised under the name of Cynthia, as Catullus had disguised
Clodia under Lesbia, and Tibullus Plania under Delia. His first
Book of Elegies brought him fame, and probably secured1 him an
admission into the circle of Maecenas. The imagination of Pro-
pertius was eccentric, his nature melancholic. He looked at things
on their gloomy side, and perhaps his special charm is his skil-
fulness in suggesting vague possibilities of pain or terror. He loved
the vague, both in thought and in expression; in his metaphors, the
image and the thing imaged often pass into each other, and the
meaning becomes indistinct. He seems to have been a man of
weak will, and this is reflected in his poetry. It has been noticed
by those who have studied Ids language, that he prefers to express
feelings as possible rather than as real ; Ms thoughts naturally ran
in the potential mood. His connection with Cynthia lasted for
about five years, and after it was broken off, Propertius wrote little.
It was Cynthia who had made him a poet.*

The third of the great Roman elegiac poets, P. OVIDIUS NASO, of
equestrian family, was born at Sulmo in the Pselignian territory,
43 B.C. Trained in rhetoric and law, he entered upon an official
career and by the favour of Augustus received the latus davus, and
held some of the lower equestrian posts, such as vigintivir and
decemvir. But he gave his profession up for the sake of poetry.
He has said himself, in a verse which probably suggested a familiar
line of Pope, that verse-writing came to him by nature:

Quidquid tcntabam dicere versus era*.

He is the only one of the great Augustan poets whose literary
career belongs entirely to the Augustan age. His works may be
classified in three periods. (1) The extant works of the early
period are all on amatory subjects and in elegiac verse. The
Amoves, in three Books, celebrate Corinna. The Ars Amatoria,
likewise in three Books, gives advice to lovers of both sexes
as to the conducting of their love affairs, while the Remedia
Amoris prescribes cures for a troublesome passion.f But the best
work of this period is the Heroides, a collection of imaginary
letters of legendary heroines, such as Penelope, Dido, Phaedra,
to their lovers. Here Ovid has shown his poetic power at its
best.

(2) The two works of the second period, the Metamorphoses and
the Fasti, are the most ambitious of Ovid's works. They deal

* So Martial : Cynthia te vatem fecit, I hints for a lady's toilette, also falls in
lascive Propprti. this period.

f The short poem Medi-.<imina /octet, I

158 LITEBATUBE OF THE AUGUSTAN AGK CHAP. XL

respectively with Greek and Roman mythologv. For the Metamor-
phoses or Transformations, composed in hexameter verse, Ovid
obtained his material chiefly from the Alexandrine poets Nicander
and Parthenius. The Fasti, a sort of commentary on the Roman
calendar, in elegiac me1 re, should have consisted of twelve books,
one for each month of the year, but only six (March to August)
\\ere completed.

(3) The third period begins with Ovid's banishment to Tomi in
Scythia, in 9 A.D. The cause of this ban's1 ment is one of those
historical mysteries which can never be decided with certainty.
The poet l.imself only ventures on dark hints. He mentions "a
poem and an error " (carmen ef. error} as the two charges which led
to his fate. He also says that his eyes were to blame (cur noxia
lumina fed ?). The poem probably refers to his licentious Ars
amatoria which was so oppos d in spirit to the attempts at social
reform made by the trainer of the Julian Laws. But the true cause
must have been the mysterious error. It, has been conjectured,
with considerable probability, that Ovid had witnessed some act oi
misconduct on the part of a member of the Emperor's family, and
was piuiuhed for not having prevented it. 'I his may have b«en
connected with the adultery of the younger Julu and P. Silanus.
The poet perhaps was made the scapegoat. In his exile on the
shores of the Euxine,* he composes the letters ex Ponto (in four
Books), and the, Tristia (in five Hooks), in which he laments his
fate and implores to be forgiven; the Ibis, a bitter attack on some
anonymous enemy, on the model of a poem which Callimathus
wr.-te against A| ollonius of Hhodes; and an unfinished poem on
fishing (Ualieutica). He also wrote a Getic poem in honour oi
Augustus. But neither Augustus nor his successor Tiberius re-
voked the sentence of the unhappy poet, and Ovid dud at Tomi
in 17 A.D.

In handling the elegiac metre, Ovid bound himself by stricter
rules than his predecessors. He had wonderful facility in versi-
fication, but he was more of a rhetorician than a poet, and he is
most successful where rhetoric tells, as in the Heroides. He lived in
ease and luxury, and rejoiced that he lived in the a«re of Augustus,
when life went smoothly (hasr aetas moribus apta meis). His love-
poetry was distinguished by lubricity ; and in this he contrasted
unfavourably with Tibullus and Propertius. The tragedy of Medea>
which he composed in his early period, is rot extent; but it and
the Thyestes of Vanus were the two illustrious tragedies of the day,
Two poems, Nux. an elegy, and 'he Cons<>lat>o ad Liviamfi were

* See above, Chap VI. $ 12, for Ovid's I f See above, Chap. IX. $ 6.
description of lile at Vomi. I

(JHAP. M. LIVY. 159

falsely ascribed to Ovid, but were probably written by some
contemporary of inferior talent.

Among the friends of Ovid, who were likewise poets, may be
mentioned SABINDS who wrote answers to the Heroides ; POXTICUS,
author of a Thebaid; CORNELIUS SKVERUS, who tr« ated the Sicilian
war with S'-xtus Pompeius in verse. The "starry" ALBINOVANUS
PEI»O,* wrote a Theseid, and also an epic on contemporary history.

§ 6. The Georgics ot Virgil and the Halieutics oi Ovi«i belong to
the kind of poetry known as didactic. Other works of this class
are the Cynegetica of GKATTIUS, on the art of hunting; and the
Astronomica of MANILIUS, in five Books. Of the author of this
astronomic. -I poem we know nothing, even his name is uncertain,
but he possessed poetical facility of no mean order, and considerable
originality.

Most of the short occasional pieces, of a light and humorous
nature, which were collected under the title ot Priapea, belong to
the Augustan age, and many of them to the best poets.

SECT. II. — LATIN PBOSE-WBITEBS.

§ 7. The History of Rome by TITUS Livrus (59 B.C.-17 A.D.)
stands out MS the greatest prose work of the Augustan period. Livy
was born at Patavitim, and a certain Patavinity has been remarked
in his diction. But most of his ii"e was spent at Rome, where he
studied rhetoric, wrote philosophical dialogues, and enjoyed the
friendship of Augustus. He bc^an his history (Ab urbe condi.ta
Ifbri was the title) soon after the foundation of the Em i ire, and
carried it clown as tar as the death of Drusus (9 B.C.). '1 he work
consisted cf 142 Hooks in all, originally distributed in decays and
hall-dccads, which appeared separately, according as they were
completed. But only 35 Hooks have been preserved to us, namely
B. 1-1<) and B. 21-45. We ha\e, however, short epitomes of the
contents of almost all the lost Bo *ks.

Livy was a mild and amiable man, who held no extreme views,
liked compromise and conciliation, hated violence and turbulence,
and could be indulgent to men of all parties. This lair and equable
temper can be traced in his history; the one thing which is un-
pardonable in his eyes is harsh fanaticism. Ancient Rome is his
ideal; a».d he regards his own age as degenerate, destitute of the
virtue*, simnlirity, and piety which made the old time soyreat. His
heroes are Cincinna us, Camillas, Fabius the Delayer. This general

* Stdereusque Pedo (Ovid, Pont.,iv. 16. I another poet of the day, Albinovanm
6.). He must not be confounded with | Ceisus, mentioned by Horace.

160 LITERATURE OF THE AUGUSTAN AGE. CHAP. xi.

view of the course of Roman history he states in strong Language
in the general preface to his work. He invites his readers to learn
by what men and by what policy at home and abroad the empire
of Rome was won and increased, then to follow the gradual decline
of discipline and morals, then witness that decline becoming more
and more marked, and ending in a headlong downward rush, until
his own times are reached " in which we cannot endure our vices
nor submit to remedies.'* We cannot doubt his honesty as a
historian; but his views of writing history were such that his
statements must often be received with caution. For though he
wished to tell the truth, he cared much more for style than for
facts. He had little idea of historical method, or of historical
research. He gave himself no trouble to -ascertain the truth in
doubtful cases. For the early history he simply worked up into
an artistic form the narratives of Polybius and of late Roman
annalists, especially Valerius of Antium ; and did not exert himself
to consult all the available sources, or even the best. His knowledge
of constitutional matters was unsound ; nor was he at home in
military history. He approached his subject rather as a rheto-
rician than as a historian ; and as a literary work his history takes
rank among the great histories of the world. His style was prolix.
Ancient critics observed that he used more words than were
necessary, and his "abundance" (lactea ubertas) was contrasted
with the conciseness of Sallust.

POMPBIUS TROGUS wrote a universal history hi forty-four books,
beginning with the Assyrian Nintis, and ending with his own time.
It was entitled Historic Philippics. The original work has not
come down to us, but in a later age it was abbreviated by a certain
Justinus, and this abridgment is extant. Other historians of the
Augustan period were L. ARRUNTIUS, who wrote an account of the
Ptmic war in the style of Sallust, and KENKSTELLA, an antiquarian,
who, in his Annales, paid special attention to social and constitu-
tional history.

§ 8. C. JULIUS HYGINUS, a freedman of Augustus and librarian of
the Palatine Library, was an interesting figure in the literary history
of his time. He may be regarded as the successor of Varro, as an
antiquarian and polymath. He wrote on the cities of Italy (de situ
urbium Italicarum), on illustrious Romans (de viris claris\ on
agriculture ; also a commentary on Virgil. All these books are
lost, but a mythological (Fabulai) and an astronomical work have
come down under his name, and perhaps are really his.

Of other antiquarians, many of whose names we know, must be
mentioned M. VERRIUS FLACCUS, who wrote a book on the Calendar
( Fasti), and an important lexicographical work entitled de verborum

CHAP. xi. GREEK LITERATURE. 161

significatu.* Most valuable, as the only work of the kind that
has been preserved, is the treatise of VITRUVIUS POLIJO, De Archi-
tectures, in ten books. It was dedicated to Augustus and finished
before 13 B.C.

Of the many philosophers, rhetors and orators, who talked and
wrote at this period, there is none of any interest to posterity.
Among philosophical writers may be mentioned Q Sextius Niger,
and his son of the same name; among the rhetors M. Porcius
Latro, of whose declamations some extracts are preserved; and
among orators, the fluent Haterius, the rabid Labienus,t the biting
Cassius Severus. The two great jurists of the Augustan age were
M. Antistius Labeo (59 B.C.-12 A.D.), and his younger rival C.
Ateius Capito (34 B.C.-22 A.D.), who founded schools afterwards
known as the Proculian and Sabinian respectively.

SECT. III. — GREEK LITERATURE.

§ 9. Prom the year 146 B.O. forward, Greek literature begins to
hold a place in Roman history along with the advance of Roman
sway over the Greek world. By the time of Augustus nearly all
the Greeks of Europe, Asia, and Egypt have become either im-
mediate or federate subjects of Rome. Their literature, therefore,
on this ground claims the attention of the student of Roman
history; but still more because many Greek writers busied them-
selves with the history and antiquities of their new mistress.
Polybius is the first and most famous example of a Greek writing
Roman history; but under the Empire Greek books on Roman
subjects are numerous.

DIONYSIOS of Halicarnassus came to Rome soon after the battle
of Actium and lived there for more than twenty years, studying
Latin literature and writing in his own language on Latin subjects.
While he was at Rome he associated with men of the senatorial
class, and his writings are animated with republican sentiments.
He continued the work of Polybius in endeavouring to reconcile his
countrymen to Roman sway. Polybius had expounded the rdle
which Rome was destined to play in history ; Dionysius is con-
cerned to show that she was worthy to play it. In his work on
"Roman Archaeology," which he finished in 8 B.C., he seeks to
prove, by tracing out mythical connection between Rome and
Greece, that the Romans were not really " barbarians." It was a

* Not extant, but partly preserved
through the copious extracts of Festus.
f He was nicknamed roWet, f»wu his
ROMAN BMPIBE.

promiscuous attacks on nil sorts and con-
ditions of men.

LITERATURE OF THE AUGUSTAN AGE. CHAP. xi.

mark of graMtude for the kind treatment which he experienced at
Rome. This work consisted of twenty Books, but only the first
eleven are preserved entire. The style is wordy and rhetorical,
very unlike that of Polybius. He used good sources; but he has
no appreciation of the meaning or methods of history; he even
P' ts long rhetorical speeches into the mouths of legendary persons.
Fie defines history as "philosophy by examples." In tjuesiions of
literary criticism, however, he is quite at home; and his various
literary treatises, in which he shows thorough appreciation of the
old masters, are of considerable value.*

More interesting in some ways than the literary treatise of
Dionys us is that of a certain LOXOINUS — of whom personally
nothing is known — "on the sublime" (or more correctly "on
loftiness of style "),f which seems to have been written in the
early years of the first century A D. It contains much enlightened
and suggestive criticism. The author had some acquaintance with
the Hebrew scriptures.

NICOLAUS of Damascus (born about 64 B.C.) was a great friend of
King Herod, whom he assisted in his work of He'lunism. HJ had
been the teacher of the chiMren of Antony and Cleopatra. Ho was
a very prolific author, and wrote on philosophical, rhe'orical and
historical subjects. His greatest work was a universal- history,
planned on a very large scale, which Herod stimulated him to
compose. Of it we have only fragments. But his pan gyrical life
of Caesar (Augustus), a declamatory rather than historical work,
has come down to us comi-lete.

The long Oeo<iraphica of STRABO (63 R.C.-23 A.D.), in seventeen
Books, is of great historical importance as giving a picture of some
of the subject lauds of Rome in the Augustan age. Strabo wax of
a good Cappadocian family, a native of Amasea, and lived at Alex-
andria. He came to Rome about the same time as Dionysius, but
soon left it. He describes the whole known world, but in many
cases his information was mainly derived from older books, and
cannot be taken as representing the condition of things which pre-
vailed in his own time. Books i and ii. deal with physical g^ogra] >hy,
Books iii. to x. describe Eur -pe, Books xi to xvi. Asia, Book xvii.
Africa. His accounts of As'a Minor and '''gypt are especially valuable,
as he knew these lands himself and mentions many of his own
experiences. His description of Spain is also valuable ; for though

• "Handbook to Rhetoric.
prjropiKrj) in 11 parts; "On the Composi-
tion of Words" (in reference to n>sthe:ic
effect) ; " Criticism of the Ancients (an
extract from a larger work " On Imita-

tion ") ; Essays on the Style of Pemos-
ihenes, « n Thucydidec, &c.

f Hfpi uj/ous. I h»re is considerable
uncertainty about the name and the Oate
of the author.

CHAP. xi.

GREEK LITERATURE.

163

h<> had not been there, he had evidently received recent infor-
mation about it, probably at Rome. Fro'ii Strain's work we
get a very distinct impression of the bless ngs of the Pax Augusta
and the safety which traveller- now enjoyed both by sea and land.
He also wrote a work entitled " Historical Memoirs," in over forty
Books,* but it has not been preserved.

Digentia. Horace's Sahine Farm.

Tiberius.
CHAPTER XII.

THE PBINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS (14-37 A.D.).

§ 1. Position of Tiberius at death of Augustus. Possible rivals. His
accession. § 2. Deification of Augustus. Will of Augustus. § 3.
Mutinies of armies in Germany and Pannonia suppi'essed by Ger-
manicus and Drusus. § 4. Position and designs of Germanicus.
§ 5. His campaign in 14 A.u. against the Marsi. § 6. Two
campaigns in 15 A.D. against the Cherusci. Ill-luck of the Romans
in returning. § 7. Great campaign of 16 A.D. Its description by
Tacitus. Battle of Idistaviso. § 8. Small result of the campaigns
of Germanicus. His recall by Tiberius. Germany abandoned. § 9.
Triumph of Germanicus. § 10. Drusus in Illyricum. The Suevians.
Maroboduus deposed retires to Ravenna. End of Arminius. § 11.
Germanicus sent to the East. The Armenian question. § 12. Hos-
tility of Cn. Piso. Death of Germanicus. § 13. Insubordination of
Piso. The attitude of Tiberius. § 14. Trial and death of Piso. § 15.
Tacitus on Germanicus and Tiberius. § 16. Conspiracy of Libo Drusus.
§ 17. War in Africa against Tacfarinas. Campaigns of Blaesus and
Dolabella. § 18. Rebellion in Gaul. Florus and Sacrovir. § 19.
Risings in Thrace suppressed by Poppaeus Sabinus. § 20. War with
the Frisians. § 21. A Servile War averted.

SECT. I. — ACCESSION OF TIBERIUS.

§ 1. IT was generally regarded as a matter of course that Tiberius
should step into the place of Augustus. The Roman world did not
dream of a revolution ; and it was felt that the monarchy naturally
fell to him, who stood in the same relation to the now divine
Augustus as Augustus himself to the divine Julius. Men uni-
versally acquiesced in the succession of Tiberius as the heir, the

14-37 A.D. ACCESSION OF TIBERIUS. 165

adopted son, the chosen consort of the deceased Emperor. But
though such feelings moved men's minds, constitutionally the
Empire was elective, not hereditary ; and the senate and the people
could, without infringing the constitution, have conferred the
Principate on someone wholly unconnected with the Julian family.
Augustus had himself named three nobles who might possibly
compete with Tiberius : Lepidus, who was " equal to the position,
but despised it ; " Asinius Gallus, who " might desire it, but was
unequal to it ; " and Arruutius, who " was not unworthy of it and
would dare to seek it, if a chance were offered." But even from
Arruntius, Tiberius had nothing to fear ; the only possible rivals
seemed to be his own kinsmen, his nephew Germanicus, who was
absent in Gaul, and Agrippa Postumus, who still pined in the island
to which his grandfather had banished him. The unlucky Agrippa
was slain by his gaoler immediately after the death of Augustus ;
and there can be no doubt that the order for his execution was
given either by Tiberius or by Livia.

When the death of Augustus was announced, Tiberius by virtue
of the tribunician power which he had received in the preceding
year for an indefinite period, convoked the senate. He had already
given the watchword to the praetorian cohorts and sent despatches
to the legions, as if he were formally Emperor. It is not quite
clear whether this was formally an act of usurpation. For it
might have been held that the proconsular imperium, which
Tiberius possessed before the death of Augustus, having been
bestowed by a decree of the senate and not being merely derived
from the imperium of the Princeps, did not cease on the death of
the Princeps. In any case, the act seemed an anticipation of his
election to the Principate, and Tiberius afterwards made a sort of
apology for it to the senate. But senate and people, consuls and
prefects, took an oath of obedience to him without a sign of
hesitation. The proconsular imperium was renewed or confirmed,
and the various rights, which had been granted to Augustus by,
separate enactments, were conferred upon him, doubtless by a
single comprehensive law (lex de imperio). Tiberius indeed,
adopting the maxims of statecraft, which he had learned from
his predecessor, feigned reluctance to assume the immense task of
directing such a vast Empire, and suggested that the functions
of government should be divided among more than one ruler.
But it was easily seen that the suggestion was not intended
seriously. It \vas part of the transparent comedy, which was
played henceforward between the senate and the Princeps. It is
important to observe that the practice adopted by Augustus of
assuming the Empire for a defined period of years was now

166 THE PRINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS. CHAP. xn.

abandoned. On the other hand, Tiberius would i ot assume it for
life. No term was fixed; but he iniinmud his intention of
resigning the Principate when the state no longer needed him.
Here again no one took his words as seriously meant.

§2. The fist care of Tiberius was the niium! and deification of
Augustus. The dead body was borne by .-enators to tl.e Campus
Martins, \vhereit was burnt and the ashes weie bestowed in the
imperial Mausoleum. Funeral orations were pronou. ced both by
Tiberius and by his .*on Drusus. The senate decreed temples and
priests to the divus Augustus, who was thus raised to a place beside
his father, the divus Julius. His will, which had been deposited
in the charge of the Vestal Virgins, was read before the senate and
thus published abroad. It bequeathed t^o-th rds of his fortune to
Tiberius, and the remainder to Li via, who was to he adopted into
the Julian family and bear the name Augu-ta. If these heirs
failed, one-third of the property was to descend to Drusus, the son
of Tiberius, and the remainder to Gerntmicus and his time sons.
But the>e legacies were considerably diminished by the large
donations which were left to the citizens -nd to the prtetorian and
le ionary soldiers. Along with his fortune, the old Emperor
bequeathed (in his Breviariwm Imperil) some counsels of
government. He deprecate 1 the admission of provincials to the
privileged position of Roman citizens; he condemned the further
extension of the frontiers of Roman dominion; and he advised
that as many men of ability as possible should be engaged in the
administration of public affairs. It seems probable that the second
of these counsels specially regarded the conquest of trans-Rhenane
Germany, and we shall see how Tiberius acted on it.

SECT. II. — GERMANICUS ON THE RHINE.

§ 3. The first weeks of the reign of Tiberius were disturbed by
mutinies in the Rhine and Danube armies. Discontent had long
been smouldering, and had only been h-nder- d from bursting forth
by res, ect for the old Empe or. The soldiers who defended the
German frontiers contrasted the hardships- which they were obliged
to endure in harsh climates and remote regions, the small pay
which they received, the unduly long term of service and the
inadequate provision awaiting them at its expiration, with the easy
life and the higher pay of the prastorian guards, who could look
forward to g'fts of land in Italy itself. On the news of the death of
Augustus, mutinies broke out simultaneously on the Danube and
on the Rhine. The Pannonian army, consisting of three legions

14 A.D. MUTINY OF THE RHINE ARMY. 167

under the command of Julius Blsesus, threw off the authority of
their general, and demanded that ti eir pay should be raised, that
the term of service should be reduced Irom twenty to sixteen years,
and that the veterans should receive their pensions iu money.
Blaesus was forced to send his son to Rome, to bear thcs«- demands to
the new Emperor, and in the meantime the troops vented their pent
up wrath on the centurions, whom they most detested, and refused
to perform their military duties. Tib. rius despatched some prae-
torian cohorts under his son Drusus to treat with the mutineers and
restore order, but sent no definite message of concession. The
soldiers were enraged when they discovered that Drusus was in^
structed to evade rather than comply with thtir demands, and the
young prince was with difficulty rescued from their fury. But an
eclipse ol the moon opportunely took place; the snp< rstitious
soldiers were alarmed, and, seized with a fit of remorse, they
listened to thr indefinite promises of Drusus and returned to their
allegiance. The ringleaders were given up and put to death.

The revolt of the Rhine legions was a more serious danger.
In Pannoma there was no question of setting up a rival emperor;
but this danger existed on the Rhine. Germnnicus Caesar,
governor of Gaul and general of the eight legions stationed on the
German frontier, was marked out as the successor of Tiberius, his
adoptive father ; and the troops of Lower Germany conceived the
design of hastening his reign. Tdey not only demanded shorter
service, higher pay, and lighter labour, but proclaimed their inten-
tion of carrying Germanicus to Rome, and making him Emperor.
Germanicus was at the time absent in Lugudnnum, occupied with
the census of Gaul. Aulus Caecina, an experienced officer, was
in command of the legions ol the Lower province, wi ile Upper
Germany had been assigned to C. Silius. Win n the news reach* d
Germanicus, he hastened to the camp on the Lower Rnine, which
lay in the land of the Ubii, and appeared in the presence of the
mutineers. An exciting scene then took place; the soldiers
beseeching their popular commander to ri^iht their wrongs,
showing him the marks of their wounds and stripes, finally urging
him to march to Rome and seize the sovran power; Germauicus
exi ostulatiug and praising the virtues of Tiberius. The excitement
reached such a pitch that it was necessary to withdraw the general
from the presence of the troops. It was a critical moment. The
mutineers talked of destroying the Town of the Ubii — Oppidum
Ubwrum — and plundering the cities of Gaul. The German foes
beyond the Rhine would not fail to take advantage speedily of
the broken discipline of the army. To restore order, Geimanicus
was forced to concede, in the name of Tiberius, the demands of

168 THE PRINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS. CHAP. xn.

the troops. He promised that the term of service should be
shortened, and that large donatives should be distributed. The
legions then returned to their winter-quarters, two under Germanicus
to Oppidum Ubiorum, the other two under the legatus Aulus
Gaecina to Castra Vetera. But at this moment messengers arrived
from Rome, for the purpose of investigating the causes of the
discontent, and when the soldiers saw that the concessions might
fail to be ratified, the mutiny broke out more furiously than ever.
Germanicus decided that his wife and children should leave the
camp. It does not appear that he apprehended any serious danger
on their account, for no measures were taken to conceal their flight.
They departed in broad daylight, and in view of the whok camp.
The sight of Agrippina carrying in her arms tho little boy Gaius,
who had been born and reared in the camp, and whom they had
nicknamed Caligula " Boots," (from the caligse or military boot,
which they made him wear in sport) moved their hearts to remorse.
The memory of her father Agrippa, her grandfather Augustus, her
father-in-law Drusus, stirrrd their pride; and when they learned
that her destination was the city of the Treveri, jealousy prompted
them to make peace with their general. Germanicus seized on the
propitious moment to work on their softened feelings, and recall
them to their duty. They fell on their knees before him, begged for
forgiveness, and zealously delivered their ringleaders to punishment,
It seems likely that this scene was expressly devised by Germanicus,
as a last resource for appealing to the nobler sentiments of the
insurgents.

Thus was the danger averted in the Ubian camp. In Castra
Vetera, the skilful management of the experienced Csecina restored
discipline ; while at Moguntiacum the agitators, who tried to stir to
rebellion the army of the Upper province, seem to have totally failed.

§ 4. The only peril which threatened the succession of Tiberius
was thus hindered, and for this he had to thank the unshaken
fidelity of his nephew. Germanicus had refused to listen when the
troops tempted him to disloyalty ; he declined to take the flood of
the tide, which might have led him to fortune. If he had marched
to Rome at the head of the Germanic legions, he would have
plunged the state once more in civil war, but it is not certain
that he would have been the survivor. Germanicus was a man
of considerable ability, and his affable manners and urbanity won
him friends everywhere. In the camp he associated freely with the
soldiers, and they idolized him. He had his father's gift of making
himself popular, but he had not his father's genius. It was his
dream, however, to restore the work which Drusus had so brilliantly
begun, and carry the eagles of Rome once more to the A Ibis.

14 A.D. FIRST CAMPAIGN OF GERMANICUS. 169

Immediately after the suppression of the mutiny, the young Caesar
decided to employ the discontented legions, who were themselves
anxious for active service. Hostilities against the Germans had
been slumbering for the past few years ; but no treaty had been
made since the defeat of Varus, so that in making a sudden incur-
sion the Romans were formally justified. It has been questioned
whether Germanicus was not exceeding his powers in taking the
offensive without the express permission of the Emperor. But as he
had been entrusted by Augustus with his large command for the
purpose of conducting the war and defending the frontier against the
Germans, it must clearly have been left to his discretion when he might
advance and when he should retire.

§ 5. In the late autumn (14 A.D.) the legions and cohorts of the
Lower province crossed the Rhine, cut their way through the Silva
Caesia, and through the rampart which Tiberius had constructed
after the Varian disaster, as the limes of Roman territory. Thus
they reached the land of the Marsi, who dwelled between the rivers
which are now called Lippe and Ruhr. Csecina advanced in front,
with some light cohorts to reconnoitre and clear the way. It was
discovered that the Marsi were to spend the night in solemn
festivities, and when the Romans approached their villages after
sunset, the inhabitants, unsuspicious and inebriated, offered an
easy prey. The legions were divided into four " wedges " (cunei),
which devastated the country for fifty miles with fire and sword,
sparing neither sex nor age. The holy places of the Marsi, especially
the sacred precinct of the deity Tamfana, were levelled with the
ground.

The fate of the Marsi roused to arms the neighbouring tribes,
the Bructeri, who lived northward, the Tubantes, who dwelled on
the Rura (Ruhr), and the Usipetes between the Lnppia and the
Mcenus. They stationed themselves in the woods through which the
Romans had to return ; but the zeal of the legions and the skill of
the commander shook off the enemy, and the winter-quarters were
safely reached.

The revolt on the Lower Rhine had caused serious anxiety at
Rome, and especially to Tiberius, coming, as it did, in conjunction
with the mutiny in Pannonia. The Pannonic arrny was nearer
Italy; on the other hand the Germanic army was far larger; and
the Emperor, uncertain in which of the camps his presence was
more needful, and afraid of giving the preference to either, ended
by remaining in Rome and watching the issue of events. The
news that Germanicus had quelled the mutiny was a great relief;
but it was suspected that the military success which he gained
in his brief campaign was not so agreeable to Tiberius. If so, ths
8

170 THE PBINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS. CHAP. acn.

Emperor dissembled his jealousy, praised the achievement of his
nephew in the presence of the senate, and granted him the honour
of a triumph.

§ 6. The following year was marked by two distinct invasions
of Germany, which, however, hnng closely together and were parts
of a common design. Of all the German tribes, the Chernsci, the
tribe of Arminius, were the most formi<lable and the mo>t hostile.
They had been the leaders in the fiiiht for freedom which ended in
the Varian disaster. Against them above all others policy and
revenge excited the spirit of Germanicus. His plan was to prevent
the neighbouring peoples from assisting them and then attack them
alone. Their most powerful neighbours were the Cha'ti, and the
first expedition was directed against them. (1) In the spring
the four legions of the Lower Rhine crossed the river from Castra
Vetera under the command of Csecina, who was to prevent the
tribes in that quarter, especially the Marsi and the Cherusci,
from marching to aid the Chatti. Caacina's army was augmented
by bands of the cis-Rhenane German tribes — Batavians, Ubii and
Sugambii. Meanwhile Germanicus himself at the head of the
four legions of the Upper Rhine advanced into the territory of
Mount Taunus, and attacked the Chatti so suddenly that no
serious resistance could be made. Their fortress Mattium was
destroyed. By this means the Chatti were prevented from making
common cause with the Cherusci. That people was distracted at
this time by domestic discords. Segestes was invoking the help of
the Romans against his enemy and son-in-law Arminius, the hero
of the Teutoburg Forest. The messengers of Segestes reached
Germanicus as he was returning to th^ Rhine, and besought him to
relieve their master, who was blockaded by his enemies. The
Roman army retraced thtir steps, entered the borders of the
Cherusci, and delivered their ally, who was able, in return; to
restore some of the spoils of Varus, and hand over some imp>rtant
hostages, among these his daughter Thnsnelda, the wife of Arminiua
That warrior, infuriated at the capture of his wile, left nothing
undone to stir up the passions of his nation, and he succeeded in
winning over Tnguiomer, an influential noble, who had hitherto
sided with the Romans.

(2) Germanicus and Caecina, who had signally defeated the
Marsi, having returned to the Rhine, prepared for a grand ex-
pedition against the enemy, conceived on the same plan which
Drusus had formerly adopted with success. The army was divided
in three parts. Caecina led his legions through the land of the
Bructeri to the banks of the upper Amisia; Germanicus and the four
legions of the Upper province embarked, to coast along the shore of

15 A.D. SECOND CAMPAIGN OF GERMANICUS. 171

the North Sea and enter the river at its mouth ; while the cavalry,
tmder Pedo Albinovamis, the poet, marched to the same goal through
the land of the Frisii. Successfully united, the combined army laid
waste far and wide the land between the AmHa and the Luppia.
Here they were near the Saltus TentoMur-iensis, where the remains
of Varus and his legions lay unburied, and Germanicus could not
resist the desire of visiting the spot, erecting a mound over the
white bones, and honouring with funeral rites the slaughtered
Romans. The lonely and melancholy scene produced a deep
impression on the legions, but they were soon required to extricate
themselves from a trip similar to that which had ensnared the
Varian army. Arminius had hidden his forces in the forest and
the Romans had not secured themselves sufficiently against sur-
prise. But Germanicus and Caacina were more skilful than Varus,
and though he did not defeat the enemy he retreated to the
Amisia with some difficulty. The return to the l.hine was not easy.
The cavalry of Pedo reached their quarters without mischance.
But the country through which the way of Caacina lay was heavy
and marshy, and the Germans of Arminius and Iiiguiomer sought to
surround him as they had surrounded Varus. 'I he experienced
Caecina was cool and collected in these perils, and knew how to
maintain discipline, but he might have failed to extricate his army
but for a false move of the foe. The Germans h*d made a success-
ful attack on the cavalry and baggage of the Romans, and elated
by their luck proceeded, contrary to the counsels of Arminius, to
assault the Roman camp. Waiting until they had reached the
rampart, Caacina suddenly threw open the gates and poured out his
troops on the besiegers. The Germans suffered a decis've deteat ;
Inguiomer was severely wounded ; and the Romans were able to
proceed on their way. A false rumour of their destruction
had gone before them to Castra Vetera; and it was proposed
there to break down the Rhine bridge. But the humanity and
courage of Agrippina saved the means of retreat lor the fugitive army.
She stood at the head of the bridge and would not move until the
remnant should reach it ; and she was repaid by seeing the arrival
of the four legions safe and whole.

The return of Germanicus himself was attended with ill-luck
and serious losses. He found it necessary to lighten his ships
amid the shallow waters of the Frisian coast, and dis< mbarked two
legions, directing them to march along the shore. The treacherous
equinoctial tides sxvept away a large number of the soldiers, and
much of their baggage. On the whole the campaign could hardly
be regarded as a success. The dangers and losses of the return
march threw a cloud over the expedition, and Tiberius had some

172 THE PRINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS CHAP. xn.

reason to murmur at the little results obtained at such expense. The
advantages won by Germanicus were only momentary ; for he had done
nothing to effect a permanent occupation of the country which he
had laid waste. He had built no fort, and established no lines of
communication. His wisdom in visiting the battlefield of Varus
was open to question. Tiberius, naturally distrustful, nourished
some jealousy and perhaps fear of his popular nephew, and there
were enemies of Germanicus at Rome who were eager to encourage
such feelings. But the Emperor had not yet decided to interfere
with the plans of Germanicus for the subjugation of Germany ; and
he professed to regard the achievements of the year as worthy of
a triumph. He seems not to have fully made up his mind yet,
whether the conquest of Germany was really desirable or its
permanent occupation possible.

§ 7. The next, and last campaign of Germanicus (16 A.D.) was
planned on a larger scale. This time he hoped to reach the Albis,
and break the last resistance of the Cherusci. A fleet of one
thousand ships was collected where the Rhine broadens and
branches into the Vahalis ; and the whole army embarked and
sailed down the Fossa Drutdana, where Germanicus invoked the
spirit and recalled the memory of his father. Before starting he
had taken the precaution to send his legatus C. Silius to make a
demonstration against the Chatti, and had himself, with six legions,
inarched up the valley of Luppia, to secure strongholds and make
provision for the return of his army. The fleet reached the mouth
of the Amisia safely, and, leaving the ships anchored and guarded,
the Romans advanced in a south-eastward direction to the banks of
the Visurgis, where the Germans, prepared for their coming, had
concentrated their forces under the leadership of the indefatigable
Arminius. Here at length the Roman invader and the champion
of German freedom were to fairly try their strength in a field
of battle.

The reserved historian Tacitus rises to the occasion as he
describes the campaign which decided both the destinies of
Germany and the fortunes of his hero Germanicus. He embellishes
his Germaniad with tales which have a ring of legend and throw
over the young general a halo of romance which his deeds hardly
deserved. The colloquy of Arminius and his renegade brother
Flavus, standing on the opposite banks of the Visurgis, is, if not
true, well imagined. Flavus had lost an eye in the service of the
Romans, and Arminius, when he had inquired and learned the
cause of the disfigurement, asked, " What was thy reward?" "I
received," said Flavus, " increase of pay, a gold chain and crown,
and other military distinctions." " Vile badges of slavery," sneered

16 AD. BATTLE OF IDlSTAYISO 17B

his brother. Flavus continued to praise the greatness of Rome
and the Emperor, while Arminius appealed to ancestral freedom,
and the national gods of Germany. At length such bitter words
were bandied, and the wrath of the brothers rose so high, that they
were about to plunge into the stream and grip each other in
mortal struggle ; but the Romans intervened and dragged Flavus
from the bank. The night-adventure of Germanicus has the same
epic flavour as the converse of the German brethren. The Romans
crossed the Visurgis in the face of the enemy, who had retreated
into the recesses of a sacred wood, and news was brought that
Arminius contemplated a night-attack on the Roman camp. Tacitus
tells us how Germanicus (like our own Henry V.) was seized with
a desire to ascertain the spirit of his soldiers, and how, for this
purpose, he disguised himself, and, with a skin over his shoulders
attended by one companion, he went round the camp and listened
near the tents. He was pleased to hear his own praises loudly
sung and to observe that the men were eager to punish the " per-
fidious" foe. As he traversed the camp a German horseman rode
up to the rampart and in the Latin tongue invited deserters in the
name of Arminius, with promises of lands, wives, and a daily sum
of money. Scornful was the answer : " Let the day break, let
battle begin ; we will ourselves seize your wives and lands."

The battle was fought in the plain of Idistaviso, which probably
lies to the south of the Porta Westfalica on the right bank of the
Visurgis. The Germans had occupied the lower slopes of the
mountains, and were protected in the rear by a wood, unencumbered
with brushwood, and thus offering an easy retreat. The Cherusci
placed themselves on the higher hills, intending to rush down upon
the Romans in the midst of the battle. While the legions and
auxiliaries advanced to attack the German position in the open
plain, Germanicus sent a body of cavalry round to out- flank the
enemy and fall on their rear. This movement was completely
successful. The German forces which were stationed in the wood
were driven out of their cover into the plain, while at the same
tune the ranks which were drawn up in the plain were beaten back
before the onset of the legions into the wood. The confusion was
increased by the Cherusci, who were forced by the attack of the
cavalry to descend from the hills into the midst of the battle.
Arminius essayed bravely to sustain the fight, but he and his
fellows were surrounded by the Roman forces, and their doom
seemed sealed. Arminius, however, and Ingniomer managed to
escape, perhaps owing to the treachery of some German auxiliaries ;
the rest were slain.

This decisive victory was gained by the "Romans without any

174 THE PRINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS. CHAP. xu.

serious loss. The soldiers saluted Tiberius as " Imperator," and
erected a trophy of the arms of the enemy, subscribing the names
of the conquered nations. The defeated and dejected Germans
were, it is said, preparing to cross the Albis, and leave their country
to the victor, but this trophy exc'ted their rage, and decided them to
make another desperate attempt. It may he suspected, however,
that the battle of Idistaviso was less decisive than it has been
represented. In any case, tne enemy once more collected large
forces, and occupied a place protected by woods and a deep swamp,
and on one side by an old rampart. But Germanicus discovered their
position, and did not fall into the trap. He attacked them on the
side of the earthwork, and forced his way into the small space in
which they were thickly packed together. Their position was
desperate. If they retreated, they must perish in the marsh ; and
with their long swords they could sustain no equal combat with the
legions at such close quarters. Germanicus, it is said, was in the
thickest of the fray, crying that the Germans must, be extermina'ed.
But the barbarians fought well ; Arminius escaped ; and the cavalry
engagement was indecisive. At nightfall the Romans returned to
their camp, victorious indeed, hut without having exterminated or
routed the foe. The Angrivarii were the only tribe ^ho sued for
peace. Germanicus erected a second trophy, which told how the
army of Tiberius Cse-ar, having suhdued all the nation0- between
the Rhine and the Albis, dedicated this monument to Mars, and
Jupiter, and Augustus.

It was now the middle of summer, and Germanicus, notwith-
standing his successes, resolved to retrace his steps. Some oi the
legions returned by land, others by sea on the ships which awaited
them at the mouth of the Amisia. The voyage was disastrous,
owing to violent gales which agitate the North Sea in the autumn
season; the fleet was scattered, ai-d Germanicus himself wrecked
on the shore of the Chauci. The losses, however, were not so
great as was at first thought, and on his return to the Rhine some
successes gained against the Marsi and Chatti partly restored the
spirits of the troops, which the sea disaster had damped; and the
last of the captured eagles of Varus were recovered.

§ 8. Germanicus deemed that he was now near the goal of his
ambition. One more campaign would suffice, he thought, for the
complete subjugation of Germany. But destiny decreed, and
Tiberius judged, otherwise. It is clear enough that the victories of
the last campaign were far less important and complete than
Tacitus has tried to make them out. Their resul's were only
temporary, and the Emperor, perhaps wisely, decided that no
abiding result was likely to be achieved by Germanicus. There

17 A.D. GEBMANIOU8 RECALLED 175

was indeed reason for disappointment ; nothing had been accom-
plished in proportion to the magnitude of the expeditions.
Accordingly Tiberius offered the consulship to his nephew, and this
was equivalent to a recall. How far the sovran was influenced by
a lurking jealousy of the popular general, how far he deemed it
inexpedient that the close counectiou between Germanicus and the
Rhine army should continue, we cannot say. But it is only fair to
point out that the recall of Germanicus can be completely explained
by political considerations, without taking into account any personal
motives. Tiberius may have come to the conclusion that annual
invasions of Germany were too slow and costly a method of winning
the new province, even though it were certain that this method
must ultimately succeed. A different policy was suggested by the
intestine feuds of the barbarians. If the Romans retired from the
field a deadly contest must soon take place between the Saxon and
the Suevian tribes ; and when the enemy had enfeebled themselves
in domestic war, the Romans might step in and take possession of
their country. This was a plausible policy, and was perhaps
seiiously entertained by Tiberius. But it is possible that he had
really come to regard the advance to the Albis as a visionary idea
which it would not be expedient to realise. If the Rhine troops
changed their station to the banks of the Albis, would not another
army be required to watch Gaul, and would the state be able to
support another army ? These were the questions which a states-
man had to consider ; and they may have decided Tiberius, as they
seem to have decided Augustus, that the Rhine was roughly the
limit. In any case, financial considerations had probably much to
do with the disappointment of the dreams of Germanicus.

From the year 17 A.D. forward we never rind one man uniting
under his single authority both the government of the Gallic
provinces and the command of the Germanic armies. Henceforward
the three provinces of Gaul are administered by three praetorian
governors ; and the two frontier districts, Upper and Lower Germany,
are kept strictly separate under two consular legati, who are always
(up to the time of Hadrian) strictly military commanders (legati
exercitus inferioris et superioris), not legati provincial, though
often lo >sely spoken of as such. The financial administration of
these military districts was at first combined with that of Belgica
(like that of Numidia with Africa). It is to be observed that for
many years yet the province of Lower Germany extended bej ond
the Rhine and as far as the Lower Amisia.

§ 9. The young general celebrated a brilliant triumph (26 May,
17 A.D.) over the conquered nations between the Rhine and Albis.
Thusnelda, the wife of Arminius, with her infant son Thumelicus,

176 THE PBINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS. OHAP. xu.

whom she had borne in captivity, was among the captives who
adorned the procession.

It is said that in the midst of the festivities people felt a gloomy
presentiment, comparing the young Caesar with his father Drusus
and his uncle Marcellus, who, like him, had been so popular, but
had died so early. " Brief and unlucky," they said, " have been the
loves of the Roman people."

§ 10. After his triumph G-ermanicus was appointed to an
honourable mission in the east. At the same time his cousin
Drusus was sent to Illyricum, to observe the course of affairs in
northern Europe. Arminius and his Cherusci, with their Saxon
federates, having no longer to oppose the invasions of the Romans,
hastened to deal with the Suevian state in the south, over which
Maroboduus held sway with the title of. king. It will be re-
membered that this chief had refused to join Arminius after the
defeat of Varus. He was an admirer of Roman civilisation, having
spent part of his youth in Rome, and he tried to introduce Roman
manners and government among his countrymen. Throughout the
struggle for freedom he had remained persistently neutral. The
centre of his power and his palace lay in Boio-haemum, but he was
recognized as the head of a large and loose Suevic confederacy.
Of these tribes, the Semnones and Langobardi deserted his cause on
the first attack of the Cherusci. On the other hand, the Chernscan
Inguiomer went over to Maroboduus. A decisive battle was fought,
in which the Suevians were defeated, and many more of his allies
deserted the Suevic king, who then applied for aid to the Roman
Emperor. Tiberius immediately sent Drusus to confirm peace,
perhaps really to effect the downfall of Maroboduus. The unlucky
king was finally overthrown and driven from his realm by Catualda,
chief of the Gotones, a people who lived on the lower Vistula. They
invaded the land of the Marcomanni, and stormed the town and
stronghold of Maroboduus, who was forced to flee to the refuge of
the Empire and throw himself on the Emperor's mercy. Ravenna
was assigned to him as a dwelling-place, where Thusnelda and her
son had been also doomed to live. . It was a curious historical
coincidence that the city of the marshes, which was destined five
centuries later to be the capital of the great German hero, the
Ostrogothic king Theodoric, should have been selected as the
habitation of Maroboduus, his predecessor in attempting to
spread Roman ideas among his countrymen. Maroboduus lived
eighteen years at Ravenna, vainly expecting to be restored
to power. He had the satisfaction to see Catualda overthrown
and like himself seeking a refuge from the Romans. He had
the satisfaction to see his younger rival Arminius succumb to

17 AA EASTERN AFFAIRS. 177

the guile of a domestic enemy (21 A.D.). After the defeat of the
Suevians, the hero of Germany had been false himself to the
freedom for which he had fought, and tried to establish a monarchical
power. He was " undoubtedly," says the Roman historian,* " the
deliverer of Germany, and not one of those who attacked the Roman
people in the beginning of its power, but when it was at the height
of its prosperity. He lost battles, but in war he was unconquered.
He died at the age of thirty-seven, in the twelfth year of his power,
and he is still sung among the barbarians, although to the annals
of the Greeks he is unknown, and among the Romans not at
celebrated as he deserves."

SHOT. III. — GKRMANICUS IN THE EAST. His DEATH, AND THE
TRIAL OF Piso.

§ 11. In the East several affairs demanded the attention of the
government, but not so imperatively as to require an extraordinary
command like that which Tiberius assigned to Germanicus after his
triumph. The dependent principalities of Cappadocia, Commagene
and Cilicia Aspera had to be transformed into provinces; for
Archelaus of Cappadocia had been recalled to Rome, and informed
that he had ceased to reign, while the peoples of Commagene and
Cilicir, had, on the death of their princes, begged for a direct Roman
government. The inhabitants of Judea and Syria were murmuring
loudly at the heavy taxation, and demanding a reduction. New
difficulties had also arisen with the Parthian kingdom. Vonones, a
son of Phraates IV., who had been kept by Augustus as a hostage
and brought up at Rome, was elected to the throne by the Parthians
after the death of their king. He did not, however, reign long ; his
Roman manners gave offence ; and he was forced to surrender his
throne to Artabanus of Media, and fly to Seleucia. The Armenian
throne was at this moment vacant, and the people accepted the
fugitive Vonones as their sovran; but Artabanus, who could not
endure the rule of his rival in a neighbouring kingdom, called upon
them to surrender him. Meanwhile Silanus, legatus of Syria, got
possession of the person of Vonones and detained him in Syria. All
these affairs might have been arranged by ordinary imperial legati ;
but Tiberius may have had good reason for sending a near kinsman
and a Caesar, invested with special powers and representing the
imperial majesty, to deal with Eastern countries, where pomp
always produces its effect. Such a plan had been successful before,
when Gaius Csesar received a like mission from Augustus.

The sphere of the command of flermanicus was all the provinces

* Tacitus, Ann., ii. 88.

8*

178 THE PEINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS. CHAP. xn.

beyond the Hellespont. He travelled thither at leisurely speed*
visiting Nicopolis, Athens, and Lesbos on his way, and lingering in
the cities of the Hellespont. The affairs of Armenia he arranged
without difficulty, and established friendly relations with the
Parthian king. The favour of the Armenians inclined to Zeno, son
of Polemo, former king of Pontus, who had been brought up as an
Armenian from his inlancy, and was popular by his excellence as a
huntsman and a trencherman. Germanicus visited the city of
Artaxa'a, and solemnly crowned Zeno there under the royal name of
Artaxes. This arrangement also satisfied Artabanus, who regarded
Vonones as the Roman candidate and had put forward his own son
Orodes as the Parthian candidate. The election of Artaxes was a
satisfactory compromise, and Avtabanus sem a courteous message to
the Roman general, proposing a personal meeting on the Euphrates,
and only requiring him to remove Vonones from Syria, so as to
prevent communications with the disaffected party in Persia.
Germanicus readily acceded to the request, and Vonones was
removed to Pompeiopolis in Cilicia. Thus excellent relations were
established between the Roman and tho Parthian powers, and
continued to exist during the lifetime of Artaxes, until the last
years of the reign of Tiberius. Cappadocia and Comrnagene were
at the same time incorporated in the provincial system, and thus
the direct rule of Rome extended now to the Euphratep.

§ 12. Germanicns had speedily and satisfactorily accomplished
the main object of his mission, but he had other difficulties to
contend with. It was not the intention of Tiberius that the ample
authority of the young Csesar should be as completely unchecked
in the east as it had been in the north. Consequently Si I anus,
who was a personal friend of Germanicus, was replaced as proconsul
of Syria hy Cn. Calpurnius Piso, a proud, self-asserting nobleman,
who would not hesitate to hold his own against his superior. The
position of Piso was strengthened, an>i his independent spirit
encouraged by the bonds of intimacy which existed between his
wife Plancina and the Emperor's mother Livia. The dis-ensions
of Piso and Germanicus were doubtless embittered by the rivalry of
Plancina and Agrippina. Piso had been ins ructed to lead or send
a portion of the Syrian army to join Germanicns in Armenia. He
disobe>ed this command, and the ill-feeling between the Caspar and
the le^atus became very bitter. It is not cl ar why Germanicus
did not invoke the intervention of the Emperor. But instead ol
asserting his authority in Syria, he made an excursion to Ejypt,
not for any political pnrp >se, but from a curiosity to visit the
antiquities of the land. This expedition was imprudent in two
ways ; for it left the field clear to Piso, and it violated the law of

10A4K DEATH OF GERMANICUS. 179

Augustus, that no senator should set foot on Egyptian soil, without
the express permission of the Emperor. On returning to Syria,
Germanicus found that Piso had disregarded and overthrown his
own regulations. This discovery roused him into asserting his
authority, and Piso prepared to leave the province. Suddenly,
Germanicus fell ill at Antioch, and Piso postponed his departure.
The attendants of Germanicus suspected and circulated their
suspicions, that poison had been administered to him by Piso or
his wife. Messages enquiring after the health of the prince
arrived from Piso, who was lingering at Seleucia; br.t Germanicus,
distrustful of their genuineness, wrote a letter to the governor,
renouncing his friendship, and commanding him, perhaps, to leave
the province. Piso sailed to Cos, and there received the news of his
rival's death (19 A.D.). Germanicus himself believed that he was
the victim of foul play, for on his deathbed he charged hie friends
to prosecute Piso und Plancina. And his uiends determined that
he should be avenged. Agrippina, w^h Jier children and tie ashes
of her husband, immediwtely set oail for KUBJ.

§ 13. The staff of the dead prince chose Go. Renting or.tiirninus
to take charge of Syria, until a new governor should oe appointed.
Piso however dete-min-d to make a bold r,(»tenipi lo ic-umc his
command in that province, and for tKiS purpose ooflcctci some
troops in Cilicicv, But Sentius was victorious in. an coga;; :men', *n\
besieged Piso in tho Ciliciar fortress of Celeadoris. The px-governor
was finally forced to submit and take ship fur Borne, w7 ere an
unpleasant reception awaited hinio

The feelings of sympathy awakened by the death of Germanicrs
wore intense, both in the provinces and at Kame. Triumphal arches
were erected in his honour, anl his statues ^?crc set up in cities.
Inscriptions recorded that he had *« d5cd fctf tho fcpu. lie.'3 Corre-
spondingly bitter was the rage felt agdnr.it Tiso and Plandna, who
were generally Relieved to have been guilty. N^r were there
wanting hints and murmurs that Tiberius Limse^f and Livia wcrt
privy to the supposed crime of Piso and Planuina. It was thought
that Tiberius regarded his nephew with jealousy and hatred, r.nd
rejoiced at his death; and it was apparently this idea that en-
couraged Piso to act as lie had done. The reserve of Tiberius in
regard to the funeral ceremonies of Germanicus, at which he and
Livia were not present, was interpreted in the same way, and the
Emperor even went so far as to show displeasure at the excess of
the public lamentations. He issued a characteristic edict, enjoining
on the people to observe some moderation in their sorrow. " Princes
are mortal, the republic is eternal. Resume your business ; resume
your pleasures "—be added, for the Megalesian games approached.

180 THE PBINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS. CHAP. xn.

By this contempt for popular sentiment Tiberius, it has been
remarked, was " sowing the seeds of a long and deep misunder-
standing between himself and his people." Men contrasted the
behaviour of Augustus on the death of Drusus.

§ 14. But the Emperor had no intention of protecting Piso, who
had been guilty of the serious offence of trying to recover a province
from which be had been dismissed by a superior in authority.
The friends of Germanicus vied in undertaking the prosecution,
but it was hard to find advocates to plead the cause of Piso. His
friends wished the accused to come before the tribunal of the
Emperor, but Tiberius did not like to undertake the decision of such
a delicate case, and he referred the judgment of it to the senate.
He opened the proceedings in the senate-house in a very impartial
speech. The charges of political misconduct were clearly proven,
but the charge of having made attempts on the life of Germanicus
by magic and poison broke down. The senators, however, who
in general sympathised with Germanicus, felt convinced that the
prince's death had been due to foul play, while the political offences
of the culprit weighed with Tiberius. At the close of the second
day of the trial, Piso saw in the cold look of the Emperor that his
doom was fixed. His conclusion was confirmed by the behaviour ot
his wife Plancina, who had pleaded for him with the Empress Livia,
but, as his chances of escape seemed to grow less, tried to sever
her own cause from his. He anticipated the sentence by piercing
his throat with his sword. The senate expunged his name from
the Fasti, and banished his eldest son for ten years ; but Tiberius
interfered to mitigate the sentence of the senate, and conceded Piso's
property to his son. The influence of Livia shielded Plancina from
prosecution.

Thus ended a domestic tragedy. It must be observed that even
if it were certain that Germanicus was the victim of foul play, there
is not the smallest reason to suspect that the Emperor was in any
way concerned, as malicious rumours hinted. But there is no proof
and there can be no certainty that the death of Germanicus was
brought about by unfair practices of Piso or his wife. Another
malicious report, which gained belief, was that Piso had not died
by his own hand, but had been assassinated by the orders of the
Emperor.

§ 15. The qualities of Germanicus have been painted in such
bright colours by the great Roman historian who has recorded his
career, that we cannot help feeling deeply prepossessed in his favour.
He appears as one of the ideal heroes who die young. But it is not
clear that he would have become a great man, if he had lived. His
exploits have been exaggerated by the enthusiasm of his admirers.

16 A.D. LIBO DRUSUS. 181

Tacitus, with more regard to art than truth, has selected him
as the brilliant hero to set beside the dark figure of Tiberius.
Germanicus is generous and virtuous; Tiberius suspicious and
stained with crime. The uncle is the ideal tyrant, the nephew
is the magnanimous prince. This picture of Tacitus hi some
measure reflects the general feeling which seems to have pre-
vailed on the death of the popular Germanicus. Tiberius was
misunderstood and maligned; the virtues of the son of Drusus
were exaggerated.

§ 16. In the year 16 A.D. a plot was detected, which, though not
of a formidable nature, attracted considerable attention. It shows
that there was dissatisfaction in patrician circles, and illustrates the
character of Tiberius. A young man named Libo Drusus, of the
Scribonian family, was accused of revolutionary projects. Scribonia,
the second wife of Augustus, was his great-aunt ; Livia was his
aunt; and be was the grandson of Sextus Pompeius through his
mother. These connections with the imperial house seem to have
turned his brain and suggested perilous ideas, which were encouraged
by a senator named Firmius Catus, who was his intimate friend.
Catus induced him to consult Chaldaean astrologers, and dabble in
magic rites, practices which were tnen very dangerous, as they
were regarded as a presumption of treasonable designs. He also
treacherously led Drusus into extravagance and debt. Having
collected sufficient proofs of guilt, Catus sent a messenger to the
Emperor, craving an audience and mentioning the name of the
accused. Tiberius refused the request, saying that any further
communications might be conveyed to him in the same way.
Meanwhile he distinguished his cousin Libo by conferring the
prsetorship on him, and often inviting him to table, showing no
unfriendliness either in word or look ; but he kept himself carefiilly
informed of the daily conduct of the suspected man. At length a
certain Junius, whom Libo had tampered with for the purpose of
invoking the dead by incantations, gave information to a noted
informer, Fulcinius Trio, who immediately went to the consuls, and
demanded an investigation before the senate. Libo meanwhile
knowing his peril, arrayed himself in mourning, and accompanied
by some ladies of high rank, went round the houses of his relatives,
entreating their intervention. But all refused on various pretexts.
When the senate met, Tiberius read out the indictment and the
accusers' names with such calmness as to seem neither to soften nor
to aggravate the charges. Some of them were of a ridiculous nature ;
for example he was accused of having considered whether he would
ever have wealth enough to cover the Appian Road as far as
Brundusium with money. But there was one paper in which the

THE PEINCIFATE OF TIBERIUS CHAP. ML

names of Csesars and senators occurred with mysterious, and there-
fore suspicious, signs annexed. Liho denied the handwriting, and
the slaves who professed to recognise it were examined by torture.
As r.n old decree of the senate iorbade the evidence of slaves to be
taken in cr.ses affecting their master's life, Tiberius evaded the law
by ordering the suves to be sold singly to the actor publicuz, or
age:.t of tl.e serarium, so that Liho mi^ht he tried on their testimony.
The acjused bagged for an adjournment till the following day. On
going hrme,he committed suicide, seeing that his case was hopeless.
Tiberius said that he would have interceded for him, guilty though
he was, if he had not destroyed himself. Libo's property was
divided among the accusers ; and some of the senators proposed
decrees reflecting on his momory — for example, that no Scribonian
should bear the mime of Drusus — in order to please Tiberius. Days
of public thanksgiving were appointed, and it was decreed tLat the
day on which Libo killed himself should be observed as a festival.
Such sycophancy on the part of the senate became in later times a
matter of course.

SECT. IV.— REBELLIONS IN THE PROVINCES AND DEPEND:

§ 17. We must glance at the troublesome, though unimportant,
war which was waged at this time on the southern borders of the
Empire, and at the career of Tacfarinas, who played in Africa the
same part which the more famous Arrainius played in the north.
This Numidian had served in the Homan army, and had thus
gained a knowledge of Roman discipline and military science. He
then deserted, placed himself at the head of a band of robbers, and
was finally elected as their leader by the Musulamij, who dwelt
on the southern side of Mount Aurasius. The insurrection was
not confined to these peoples of Numidia: it spread westward into
Mauietania and eastward to the Garamantes. The discipline and
drill which Tacfarinas enforced rendered the rising formidable;
for his organized bands were able to give battle and attempt sieges.
The commanders, whom the senate elected by lot, were incompetent
to deal with the insurgents, and the resulting war was protracted
for seven years (17-24 A.D.). The single legion which protected
Africa was reinforced by a second from Pannonia, and, by the
Emperor's intervention, an able proconsul, Q. Junius Blse*us, was
at length appointed. Tacfarinas had demanded from Tiberius
a grant of territory for hiim>elf and his rebel army. Tiberius
haughtily refused and instructed Bla3sus to hold out to the
other chiefs, who supported Tacfarinas, the prospect of a free

17-24 A.D. MUSULAMIAN WAR. 183

pardon if they laid down their arms. Many surrendered, and then
Blsesus attempted to meet Tacfarin^s by tactics similar to his own.
He divided his army into three columns, one of which he dis-
patched eastward under Cornelius SScipio, to act against the
Garamantes and protect Leptis. In the west, the son of Blsesus
commanded a second column, and defended the territory of Cirta;
while in the centre Blsesus himself established a number of
fortified positions, and thus embarrassed the enemy, who found,
wherever lie turned, Roman soldiers in his lace, or on his flank, or
in MB rear. When summer was over, Blsesus continued hostilities,
and by a skilful combination of forts and flying detachments of
picked men, who were acquainted with the de.>ert, he drove
Tacfarinas back step by step and finally captured his brother, and
occupied the district of the Musulamii (22 A.D.). Tiberius per-
mitted the triumphal ornaments to be awarded to Blsesus, and
also granted him the distinction of being greeted Imperator by
the troops — the last occasion on which this honour was granted
to a private person.*

But even the success of Blsesus was not the end of the
insurrection. There were three laurelled statues at Rome for
victories over the Musulamian chief — those of Camillus, Aprouius,
and Blaesus — and yet he was still ravaging Africa, supported on
the one hand by the king of the Garamantes, on the other by the
Moors. His boldness was increased by the circumstance that,
after the campaign of Blsesus, the IXth legion had been n called
from Africa. In 24 A.D. he laid siege to Thubursicum, a
Numidian town lying a little to the north of Mount Aurasius. The
proconsul of the year, Publius Dolabella, immediately collected all
his troops, and raised the siege. Knowing by the experience of
previous campaigns that it was useless to concentrate his heavy
troops against an enemy which practised such desultory warfare as
Tacfarinas, Dolabella adopted the plan of Blsesus, and divided his
forces into four columns. He also obtained reinforcements from
Ptolemy, king of the Mauretanians. Presently he was informed
that the Numidian marauders had taken up a position close to
Auzea (Aumale), a dilapidated fort, surrounded by vast forests.
Some light-armed infantry and squadrons of horse were immediately
hurried to the place, without being told whither they were going.
At daybreak they fell upon the drowsy barbarians, who had no
means of flight, as their horses were tethered or pasturing at a
distance. The dispositions of the Romans were so complete that
the enemies were slaughtered or captured without difficulty. The

* He was nephew of Sejanus, the pnetorian prefect (see next chapter).

184 THE PBINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS. CHAP, xtt

general was anxious to capture Tacfarinas, but that chieftain,
driven to bay, escaped captivity by rushing on the weapons of his
assailants. His death ended this tedious war.

§ 18. During this period there were also grave disturbances in
Gaul and Thrace. In Gaul the fiscal exactions had led to heavy
accumulations of debt among the provincials, and the creditors
pressed for payment. The provincials resorted to counsels of
despair. A conspiracy was formed to organize a rebellion
throughout the whole land, and throw off the Roman yoke. The
leaders were Julius Florus and Julius Sacrovir, two Romanised
provincials. Florus undertook to gain over the Belgse and Treveri
while Sacrovir, who perhaps held some priestly office, intrigued
among the Mdui and other tribes. The secret was well kept, and
the revolt broke out in western Gaul in the consulship of Tiberius
and Drusus (21 A.D.). But the first rising was premature. The
Andecavi and the Turones — whose names still live in Anjou and
Tours — moved too soon, and were crush sd by the garrison of Lugu-
dunum, under Acilius A viola, the Itgatus pr. pr. of Lugudunensis.
This false move put the Romans on their guard, and the subsequent
risings of the Treveri were easily foiled by the governors of the two
Germanic provinces. Florus slew himself to escape capture. The
JSdui had seized the important city of Augustodunum (Autun),
but they too were easily defeated by C. Silius, legatus of Upper
Germany, at the twelfth milestone from that town. Sacrovir
escaped from the field to a neighbouring villa, where he fell by his
own hand, and his faithful comrades slew one another, having first
set fire to the house. A triumphal arch was erected at Arausio
(Orange) to commemorate the defeat of Sacrovir.

§ 19. The dependent kingdom of Thrace, after the death of
Rhcemetalces, who had loyally stood by the Romans in the
Dalmatian revolt, was divided between his brother Rhascuporis
and his son Cotys. Their jealousies and feuds, which ended in the
murder of Cotys, led to Roman interference and the execution of
his uncle (19 A.D.). Two years later a formidable insurrection of
the western tribes broke out. The rebels besieged Philippopolis,
but were defeated by P. Vellseus, the governor of Moesia. They
rebelled again in 25 A.D., and of this rising we have more details.

The mountaineers refused to submit to levies and to supply their
bravest men to the armies of Rome. A rumour had spread that
they were to be dragged from their own land to distant provinces,
so that, mixed with other nations, they might lose their own
nationality. They sent envoys to the governor of Achaia and
Macedonia, Poppasus Sabinus, assuring him of their fidelity, if no
fresh burden were laid upon them. Otherwise they gave him to

555, 26 A.D. WAR IN THRACE. 185

understand that they would tight for their freedom, lie gave mild
answers until he had completed his preparations; but when he had
concentrated his forces, and was joined by a legion from Mcesia and
reinforcements from Rhceiiietalces, son of Rhascuporis, he advanced
on the rebels, who had taken up a position in some wooded defiles
ha their mountains, in the neighbourhood of a strong fortress.
Sabinus fortified a camp and occupied, with a strong detachment,
a long narrow mountain ridge, which stretched as far as the
enemies' fortress, which it was his object to capture. After some
skirmishing in front of the stronghold, Sabinus moved his camp
nearer, but left his Thracian allies in the former entrenchments,
with strict injunctions to pass the night vigilantly within the camp,
while they might harry and plunder as much as they wished in the
daytime. Having observed this command for some time, they
began to neglect their watches, and gave themselves up to the
enjoyment of wine and sleep. Learning this, the insurgents
formed two bands, of which one was to surprise the pillagers, the
other to attack the Roman camp, in order to distract the attention
of the soldiers. The plan was successful, and the Thracian
auxiliaries were massacred.

Sabinus then laid regular siege to the stronghold, and connected
his positions with a ditch and rampart. The besieged suffered
terribly from thirst, and their cattle were dying for want of fodder.
The air of the place was polluted with the stench of the rotting
carcasses of those who had perished by wounds or thirst. In this
situation, many followed the advice and example of an old man
named Dmis, who surrendered himself, with his wife and children,
to the Romans. But two young chieftains named Tarsa and
Turesis had determined to die for their freedom. Tarsa plunged
his sword in his heart, and a few others did likewise. But Turesis
and his followers decided to prolong the struggle, and pjanned
a night-attack on the camp during a storm. Sabinus was pre-
pared, and the brave barbarians were beaten back and compelled
to surrender. The triumphal ornaments were decreed to Sabinus
(26 A.D.).

§ 2u. Against a revolt of tributaries on the northern boundary of
the Empire, the arms of Rome were not so successful. The
Frisians, who had been subdued by Drusus in 12 B.C., had for
forty years paid the tribute which he imposed on them. This
tribute consisted in ox-hides, which were required fo;* military
purposes, and the officers who levied it never examined too
curiously the size or thickness of the skins, until in 28 A.D.
Olennius, a primipilar centurion, who was appointed to exact the
tribute, chose the hides of wild bulls as the standard. As the

186 THE PRINCIPATE OP TIBERIUS. CHAP, xu

domestic cattle of the Germans were of small size, the Frisians
found this innovation hard. In order to meet the demands of
Olennius, they were forced to give up, first their rattle, then their
lands, finally to surrender their wives and children as pledges. As
their complaints led to no redress, they rose in revolt. The
soldiers, who were collecting the tribute, were impaled on gibbets,
and Olennius himself was obliged to flee to the fortress of Flevum
— probably in the island of the same name, now Vlieland, near the
Texei — which was a Roman coastguard station. When the news
reached L. Apronius, the governor of Lower Germany, he summoned
some veteran legionaries and chosen auxiliaries from the upper
province, to reinforce his own legions, with which he sailed down
the Rhine, and relieved Flevum, which the Frisians were besieging.
He then constructed roads and bridges over the adjoining estuaries,
in order to transport his legionaries into tne heart of the Frisian
territory; and in the meantime sent some auxiliary cavalry and
infantry across by a ford to take the enemy in the rear. The
Frisians beat these forces back ; more cohorts and squadrons were
sent to the rescue, but these too were repulsed ; and soon all the
auxiliary forces were engaged. The legions were at length able to
intervene, and just saved the cohorts and cavalry, who were com'
pletely exhausted. A large number of officers had fallen, but
Apronius did not attempt to take vengeance or even to bury the
dead. Two other disasters completed the ill-luck of the Romans.
Nine hundred soldiers were destroyed by the enemy in the wood of
Baduhenna; and another body of four hundred, who had taken
possession of a country house, perished by mutual slaughter, to
avoid falling into the hands of the enemy. No further steps
seem to have been taken against the Frisians. These events
probably confirmed Tiberius in his determination to regard the
Rhine as the limit of the Roman Empire, and he thought it a good
op|K>rtunity to abandon the last relic of the conquests of his
brother beyond that river.

§ 21. The reign of Tiberius was very nearly being marked by a
slave war in Southern Italy, but by a lucky accident the movement
was crushed in its very beginning (24 A.D.). The organiser of the
rebellion was Titus Curtisius, who had once been a praetorian
soldier. He held secret meetings at Bnmdusium and other towns
in the neighbourhood ; then posted up placards, and incited the
slave population in Calabria and Apulia to assert their liberty.
Three vessels happened to come to land just then, and from them
the quaestor Curtius Lupus (who had charge of the saltus, or
forests and pastures in those parts) obtained a force of marines and
crushed the conspiracy. Curtisius and his chief accomplices were

28 AJX

FRISIAN WAR.

187

sent prisoners to Borne, where, says Tacitus, "men already felt
alarm at the enormous number of the slave population, which was
ever increasing, while the free-born population grew less every
day." The great marvel is that combinations among the slaves
were not more common, and that it was not thought necessary to
keep considerable garrison* in the towoi of Italy to meet such

View ot Brundusmm,

L'arthiau Warriors, from Trajan's Column.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE PBINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS (continued).

I. Tiberius develops the dyarchy on the lines of Augustus. Political
rights of the people diminished. § 2. Institution of a permanent
Prefecture of the City. § 3. Improvement of the civil service-
The consilium. § 4. The army. Praetorian Castra. § 5. Finances.
§ 6. The provinces. § 7. Italy. Economic crisis (33 A.D.). § 8.
Administration of justice. Legislation. Social reforms. § 9.
Maiestas. Case of Lratorius Priscus. § 10. The delatores. § 11. The
younger Drusus. § 12. Plots of Sejanus and Livilla. Death of
Drusus. § 13. Li via, Livilla, Agrippina, and Antonia. § 14. In-
fluence of Sejanus. Deaths of C. Silius and Cremutius Cordus. Claudia
Pulchra. Attacks on Agrippina. § 1 5. Tiberius leaves Rome (25 A.D.)
and settles at Caprese. Incident at the Spelunca. § 16. Trial and
death of Titius Sabinus. §17. Death of Livia. §18. Plots of Sejanus
against family of Agrippina. Nero declared a public enemy. § 19.
Power of Sejanus. He conspires against the Emperor. His fall.
§ 20. Deaths of Agvippina and her son Drusus. § 21. Prosecutions of
the friends of Sejanus. Servility of the senate. Marcus Terentius.
Foolish proposals of senators rejected by Tiberius. § '22. Relations
with Parthia. Artabanus lectures Tiberius. L. Vitellius sent to the

, East, and Mithradates of Iberia set up in Armenia. Warfare in

14-37 A.D. CESSATION OF COMITIA. 189

Armenia. § 23. Vitellius intervenes. Tiridates seut to Par this.
Artabanus expelled and then restored. His submission to Rome.
§ 24. Deeigns of Tiberius fo? the succession. Gains, son of Germanicus,
and Tiberius Gemellus, son of the younger Drusus. § 25. Death of
Tiberius at Misenum. § 26. Estimate of Tiberius. His character.
§ 27. His policy and its effects on literature. Velleius Paterculus.
Valerius Maximus. Phaedrus. § 28. Tacitus on Tiberius.

SECT. I. — CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF TIBERIUS.

§ 1. As the reign of Tiberius was singularly exempt from wars, the
Emperor was able to devote his undivided attention to domestic
government and the welfare of his subjects. His policy was
distinguished by a conservative spirit. The chief principle of his
administration was to follow the lines marked out by his pre-
decessor. By abandoning the practice, which Augustus had adopted,
of receiving an investiture of supreme power for a limited period
only, he made a step nearer undisguised monarchy. The decen-
nalia, or feast in honour of the decennial renewal of the tribuni-
cian power of the Emperor, survived as a mere custom, without
any political meaning. In two important matters he went beyond
Augustus in emphasising the dyarchy and excluding the people
from the government. (1) The functions which Augustus had left
to the comitia of the people in electing magistrates were taken
away by Tiberius, and transferred to the senate, soon after his
accession. The only part left to the people was to " acclaim "
those whom the senate chose. Tiberius preserved the imperial
rights of nomination and commendation of candidates within the
limits marked out by his father. (2) The people did not formally
lose its sovran right of legislation, but since the time of Tiberius it
actually ceased to legislate. For the Emperor and the magistrates
ceased to bring leges before the comitia; there are only two
instances of such leges in the reign of Tiberius, while there are
numerous senatusconsulta. The later Emperors, Claudius and
Nerva, temporarily revived the old practice ; but with these
exceptions it may be said that, from Tiberius forward, legislation
consisted of the consulta of the senate and the rescripts of the
Emperor. The only legislative purpose for which the people had
any longer to meet in comitia was to confer the tribunician power
on a new Princeps.

§ 2. Another important matter, in which Tiberius carried further
an idea originated by Augustus, was the establishment of a perma-
nent Prefecture of the city of Rome. We have seen that this
office had been instituted as a temporary provision for the care of
the city during absences of the Emperor, and Lucius Calpurnius
Piso had been appointed prefect when Augustus left Rome in 14 A.D.

190 THE PBINCIPATJE OF TIBEB1U8. CHAP. zm.

Tiberius made the office a permanent post of great dignity, only
open to senators of consular rank. He placed the three cohortes
urban* at the disposal of the prefect, and thus deprived the senate
of the police control of the city. The prefect had a criminal
court, in which he administered summary justice in the case of
slaves and " roughs." Piso held the office for nearly twenty years,
till his death in 32 A.D. Tiberius also instituted a new official of
consular rank to look after the banks of the Tiber, euro, riparum et
alvei Tiberis, in addition to the cura aquurum which had been
founded by Augustus.

§ 3. Tiberius concerned himself for the improvement of the civil
service. One great defect of the prevalent system was that offices
were filled by inexperienced young men, who held them for only a
brief time. Tiberius tried to remedy this by extending the period
of tenure, and men began to complain that they grew old in the
discharge of the same duties. He did not attempt to introduce this
innovation in the case o? the magistrates appointed by the senate,
and this was a sign *hai :\c was in earnest with the maintaining of
the imperial system of Augustus, by which the senate had its
sphere of activity independent of the Emperor. And whan the
proposal came from that body (in 22 A.D.) that the Emperor should
test the qualifications of senatorial magistrates, Tiberius rejected it.
He always behaved with studied politeness to senators, and he
was accustomed to refer to the senate matters which might more
naturally have come before himself Like Augustus, he employed
a consitium, which consisted of his personal advisers and twenty
illustrious members of tho senatorial and equestrian orders ; but
it does not appear that this cabinet council had any real influence
in political affairs. Tiberius was curiously reserved in avoiding the
assertion of his sovran power by titles and outward forms. In
affecting to disguise his imperial position he vent much further than
Augustus. He never bore the prsenomen Imperator, and called
himself Augustus only when he was corresponding with foreign
princes.* He refused the title pater patrise, and forbade all, except
his slaves, to address him as dominus. He did not permit temples
or statues to be erected to himself, and he rejected the proposal
to consecrate his mother, Li via Augusta.

§ 4. In the army he maintained strict discipline. He declined
to fulfil the promises of higher pa\7, which had been made to the
mutineers in Illyricum and on the Rhine, after his accession; and
instead of shortening the period of service, he actually lengthened it.
These facts indicate the strength of his authority with the troops.
He took away from victorious generals the privilege of bearing the
* His usual title is Ti. Ctuar divi J«0u*ti/(»Ztu*>

14r~87 A.D. FINANCES. 191

title imperator, and reserved it for members of the imperial family.
In regard to the prastorian guards, he made an innovation, which
had an important bearing on the future course of Roman history.
Augustus had allowed only three cohorts to be quartered within
the city, the other six being dispersed in the neighbourhood of
Rome. Tiberius caused a pt^ rmanent camp to be built in front of
the Porta Viminalis (23 A.D.), and henceforward all the nine cohorts
were stationed there together. Thus united, they were conscious of
their numbers, and felt their power ; and at many a crisis, they
disposed of the Empire and elected Emperors. This step also
increased considerably the political power ot the praetorian prefect ;
in fact, the idea seems to have emanated from the favourite
councillor of Tiberius, L. ^lius Sejanus, whom he had appointed
praetorian prefect, and who saw how his own position would be
strengthened by a concentration of the forces under his command.

§ 5. The financial policy of Tiberius was careful and successful.
The expenses of supplying Rome with corn and feeding the
populace grew larger in his reign than they had been under
Augustus. But in spite of this Tiberius was so economical that he
was always able to act liberally in special emergencies. He did
not waste the funds of the state in donatives or costly buildings.
The only public edifices built by his command were the Temple of
Augustus and the Theatre of Pompey. But when many of the
famous cities of Asia were laid in ruins by an earthquake, Tiberius
succoured them with the princely gift of 10,000,000 sesterces
(£80,000) and caused the senate to remit to the inhabitants the
payment of their tribute for five years. He had himself to supply
the deficiency in the aararium. We find him, in 33 A.D., bestowing
on that treasury 100,000,000 sesterces (£800,000) ; and in 36 A.D.
he gave the same sum for the relief of the sufferers in a great
conflagration on the Aventine Hill. He never raised the rate of
taxation. When Cappadocia became a province, on the strength
of the addition which thus accrued to the revenue he reduced the
tax of 1 per cent, on the sale of goods to £ per cent.*

§ 6. The liberality of Tiberius in coming to the relief of the
provinces, in the case of disasters, introduced a new principle into
Ronun statesmanship. Men were beginning to see that Home, the
mistress, had duties towards her subject lands. This policy of
Tiberius is, as has been observed, one of the first signs of the
reaction of the provinces upon Rome. It was, indeed, in the
exercise of his proconsular functions that Tiberius most conspicuously
showtd himself as a wise and largo-minded statesman. If he was
hated at Rome, he was loved in the provinces. There is ample
* It was raised again in 31 A.D.

192

THE PEINCIPATE OP TIBERIUS. CHAP. MIL

testimony to prove that his reign was, to the subjects, a period of
unusual happiness. The discipline of the troops was strictly
maintained, and the control exercised over the conduct of the
governors was efficient and severe. The means of obtaining
justice against oppression were facilitated, and under no reign were
there so many prosecutions of governors and procurators for
extortion. Besides this, the burdens were never increased; and
the new principle of keeping the same governor at his post for a
long time seems to have worked satisfactorily. C. PopDsms
Sabinus, legatus of Macedonia and Achaia, which Tiberius had
united in a single imperial province (15 A.D.), held that office
throughout almost the whole rei;j;n. The imperial provinces were,
as a rule, more equitably ruled than the senatorial. This is Jio-,vn
clearly under Tiberius by the number of cases in which proconsuls
were condemned for maladministration.* The subjects themselves
considered it a piece of good fortune to be transferred from the
government of the senate to that of the Emperor. Tiberius expressed
his provincial policy in saying that " it is the part of a good
shepherd to shear his sheep, not to flay them.'* The special
regulation which made the governors responsible for acts of rapaoity
on the part of their wives, deserves notice.

§ 7. If he cared for the provinces, Tiberius did not neglect to
help and guide the senate in promoting the welfare of Italy. He
piovided for the public safety and the security of travellers against
robbers by stationing troops in various parts of the country ; and
all disturbances were promptly suppressed. He also concerned
himself for the revival of agriculture, which had been slowly and
surely declining in Italy during the past century, owing to the
disappearance of the population of free labourers, so that the
peninsula was dependent on foreign supplies for her maintenance.

A serious economic crisis occurred in 33 A.D., and the Emperor
was obliged to interpose in order to save credit. The professional
accusers (delatores) made an attack upon the money-lending
capitalists, who had been systematically acting in defiance of two
laws of Julius Caesar. Oue of these laws forbade any one to have
more than 60,000 sesterces (£480) of ready money in hand ; the
rest of each man's property was to be invested in lands and houses
in Italy. The other regulated the relations between lenders and
borrowers, and the amount of interest. The matter came before the
ciiy praetor Gracchus, who thought it necessary to refer the question
to the senate, as so many people were concerned. But the senators

* There are four cases : (l) Granius proconsul of Crete, (4) Vibius Serena?,
Marcellus, proconsul of Asia, (2) C. Sila- proconsul of Baetica, were all condemned,
uus, proconsul of Asia, (3) Caesius Cordus,

33 A.D. FINANCIAL CRISIS. 193

themselves were all guilty of transgressing the law, and so they
appealed to the Emperor. He granted a year and six months,
within which term everyone was to arrange his accounts in con-
formity with the law. The usurers immediately called in their
loans, and a large number of the debtors, in order to meet their
obligations, were obliged to sell their estates. It was foreseen that
this would lead to a scarcity of money, and, in order to keep specie
in circulation, a senatusconsultum in the spirit of Caesar's law was
passed, that every creditor should have at least two-thirds of his
capital invested in estates in Italy. But the remedy proved only an
aggravation of the evil. For the creditors hoarded up their money
to buy land cheap, and the value of estates fell so much that the
debtors could not pay their debts. Many families were ruined ;
but at length Tiberius came to the rescue, and advanced 100,000,000
sesterces as a loan fund, from which any debtor might borrow, for
three years without interest, on giving security to the state for
double the amount. By this means credit was restored, and the
remaining debtors were enabled to save their estates or get the
legitimate value for them.

§ 8. Tiberius paid special and minute attention to the adminis-
tration of justice. He introduced a new and salutary regulation,
that nine days should intervene between the sentence and its
execution, in the case of culprits condemned by the senate. That
body became, in his reign, the high court of criminal justice. But
the Emperor exercised paramount control over its decisions; and in
all cases which affected his own interest, the senate merely
expressed what they knew to be his will. In legislation Tiberius
was also active. The lex Juuia Norbana (19 A.D.) was a measure
to protect such freedmen as had not been strictly emancipated, but
were released from slavery by their masters. This law rendered
them independent of their masters for life, and gave them
commercium without connubium, or, as it was called, Juniana
Latinitas. They could neither bequeath property by will, nor
receive bequests from others. The equestrian class was also
Umited by a senatusconsultum, which excluded those whose
grandfathers were not freeborn, and who did not possess a fortune
of 400,000 sesterces (£32,000).

In his endeavours to reform abuses and suppress nuisances in
Rome and Italy, the Emperor increased and confirmed his
unpopularity. He limited the number of gladiators in the arena ,
and on the occasion of a riot in the theatre, he expelled the players
from the city. He made a vain attempt to banish soothsayers from
Italy. He tried to suppress the Oriental rites, which were making
themselves a home in Rome ; he forbade especially the worship of

194 THE PBINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS. CHAP. xm.

isis, and cast her statue into the river. He also adopted severe
measures against Jews, who possessed Roman citizenship, ill Italy.
They had attempted to evade military service, and on this ground
were regarded as ba'l subjects, and their rites were forbidden. Four
thousand Jew freedmen were transported to Sardinia, and set the
task of reduce the robbers who infested that unhealthy island.
The limitation of the right of asylum may also be mentioned here,
though it chiefly affected the eastern part rf the Empire, where many
places of refuge had been established for the protection of criminals.
These religious ref-iges secured immunity to crime, and they had
become public nuisances.

Tiberius could do little to combat the prevailing luxury and
dissipation among the higher classes. Frugal and modeiate
himself, he deeply disapproved of the extravagance of the aristocracy,
and the absurd sums which were sp-nt on furnituie and the
luxuries of the table. But he saw clearly hat sumptuary laws
were futile, and he said publicly that the time was not fit for a
censorship. He was careful to keep up the state religi.-n, which
Augustus had revived. His mother Livia sat in publ c among the
Vehtal virgins; and the priests of the newly founded college of the
Sodales Augustales, who were to preserve the worship of the divine
Augustus, consisted of the leading senators.

§ 9. The part of the policy of Tiberius, which perhaps did most
to render him disliked by both contemporaries and posterity, was
the new interpretation which he gave to maicstas. This crime was
properly an offence against the abstract majesty of the common-
wealth, and it came to include anything tending to bring the state
into contempt. A lex Julia of Cassar had defined strictly the
various forms which maiestas might assume, a"d had been
extended by Augustus, who, however, had made little use of it.
But Tiberius seized on the law of m'iestas as a means for his own
security ; and under him treason became an offence against the
person of the Emperor, who thus comes to be regarded as the state.
Any insult offered to the Pnnceps in either speech or writing, was
brought under the head of maiestas. Tiberius did not deem himself
safe against treachery, and he decided to resort to this engine,
which could not fail to be abused and bring odium upon him.
It was an instrument, by the fear of which he hoped to control
the senators, and prevent them from expressing a dissentient view,
lest it should be construed as treason. The case of Lutorius Prisons
shows how outrageously *his safeguard could be abused. Priscus
was a knight who had written verses on the death of Germatiicus,
aud had received from Tiberius a gift as a reward. Some time
later Drusus fell ill, and Priscus, encouraged by his former success,

14-87 A.D. MAIESTAS. DELATION 195

composed a poem on Drusus, to be published In case the prince
should not recover. But, though Drusus did not die, the poet
could not resist the pleasure of reading his compo*ition to an
audience, and the consequence was that the matter became known,
and he was accused before the senate. The senate found him
guilty of counting on the death of a C«esar; only two senators
proposed that he should be leniently dealt with, as his act was due
to thoughtlessness, not to evil intent. But he was condemned to
death, and the sentence was forthwith cairied out. Til>erius was
absent from Home when this happened, and when he returned he
regretted the occurrence, and praised the view of the small minority.
This affair of Prisons led to the regulation already mentioned, that
a delay should intervene between the sentence and the infliction of
punishment.

§ 10. The evils pf this unhappy extension of the scope of maiestas
were aggravated by the encouragement which was given by
Tiberius to the delatores. Originally the delator was one who apprized
the officers of the exchequer, of debts that were due to the state.
The name was extended to those who informed in the cases of
offences which were subj- ct to fines. Augustus encouraged delation
by offering rewards to those who lodged information against the
violators of his marriage laws. Delation soon became a regular
profession, and as there was no public prosecutor, it was very con-
venient to the government to have prosecutions conducted by
private delators. When Tiberius came to the throne, he regarded
delation as an admirable instrument for securing the administration
and enforcement of justice, and therefore encouraged it. But when
he discovered how terribly it was abused and how odious it was to
his subjects, he concluded that it was too dangerous a remedy, and
set himself to check it, for he was honestly anxious to administer
justice purely and strictly. The citizens lived in fear and terror
of the unscrupulous informers; and Tiberius tried to hinder the
distortion of the laws by instituting a tribunal of fifteen senators.
But he relapsed afterwards into countenancing the practice of
delation, owing to the influence of the prsetorian prefect, Sejanus ;
and as the law of treason became more comprehensive and
extravagant, the delators became more terrible.

SECT. II. — KIBE OF SEJANUS. DEATH OF DRUBUS.

§ 11. The death of Germanicus removed difficulties from the
path of Tiberius, in regard to the succession. It had been difficult
for him to hold the balance evenly between Germanicus and his
own son. How precisely he endeavoured to make no distinction

196 THE PRINCIPATE OP TIBERIUS. CHAP. xra.

between them is shown by a coin of Sardis, where Drusus comes
first in the inscription, but Germanicus sits on the right haud in the
picture. Drusus was morally and intellectually inferior to his
cousin, but was deeply attached to him, and after his death, acted
as a father to his children. The attitude of Tiberius to Germanicus
seems to have been much like that of Augustus to Tiberius
himself. From a feeling of duty to the state, he might acquiesce
in the designation of his nephew as his successor, but his affection
prompted him to prefer Drusus, though the father and son were not
always on the best terms. After the mysterious death of
Germanicus, he set himself to secure the succession of Drusus, to
the exclusion of his nephew's children. Ovations had been decreed
to both the young Csesars for the successful discharge of their
fcasks hi Armenia and Illyricum. The pacifier of Armenia nevei
returned to Rome, but Drusus celebrated his ovation in 20 A.D.,
and in the following year held the consulship for the second time.
In 22 A.D. his father raised him to the position of an imperial
consort, by causing the senate and people to confer upon him the
tribunician power.

§ 12. But though the Emperor seemed to have cause to regard
his nephew's death as a piece of good luck, his hopes for his son
were destined to be frustrated. Drusus had married the sister of
Germanicus, the younger Livia, generally called Livilla to dis-
tinguish her from the wife of Augustus. She was beautiful,
ambitious, and unscrupulous, and seems to have had an ally in her
namesake, the Augusta. She was seduced into an intrigue with
Sejanus, the handsome and powerful prefect of the guards, who
pretended to be in love with her and flattered her ambitious hopes
with promises of marriage and the imperial throne, if the hindrance,
which stood in their way, were once removed. Sejanus was a
native of Vulsinii in Etruria,* and belonged to the equestrian class.
In his youth he had served on the staff of Gaius Csesar. By his
address and tact he had worked himself into the confidence of
Tiberius, and had at length become indispensable as an adviser and
semi-official minister. The Emperor did not dream how high the
ambition of his favourite soared. For Sejanus was not content with
being the right hand of his master; he longed to occupy himself
the highest position in the state. But Tiberius was thoroughly
blinded by his useful and servile instrument, and used to throw off
his habitual reserve in his intercourse with Sejanus. He even went
so far as to call the prefect, not only in private conversation, but
in ad tresses to the senate and the people, "the associate of my

* Hence Juvenal calls him " the Tuscan," Xat., x. 74 : Si Nortia (an Etruscan god-
i^ss) Tusco favisset.

23 AD. DEATH OF DBUSUS. 197

labours," and allowed his busts to be placed in the theatres and
fora. But these marks of favour were given freely, just because
it never entered the thought of Tiberius that a man of the origin
and position of Sejanus could possibly be dangerous. Drusus saw
more deeply into the character of his father's favourite, and mur-
mured at the influence which an alien had acquired at the
expense of a son. On one occasion he raised his hand to strike the
hated prefect. Sejanus, who had already begun to pave his way to
the throne by arranging an alliance between his own daughter and
a son of Claudius, the brother of Germanicus, determined to sweep
Drusus from his path.

Suddenly Drusus died (23 A.D.), seemingly of an accidental
illness; but eight years after it was discovered that poison had
been administered to him by the machinations of his wite Li villa,
and her paramour Sejanus. It was a heavy blow to Tiberius. The
children of his son were still too young to be designated as his
successors, and nothing was left but to adopt Nero and Drusus, the
eldest sons of Germanicus. He led the youths before the senate
and recommended them as the future rulers of the state. Sejanus,
who had divorced his wife Apicata, proposed to marry Livilla, but
Tiberius forbade the union, which could only lead to new candi-
dates for power. The prefect was driven to frame new plans. He
resolved to destroy the family of Germanicus.

§ 13. Tiberius was now surrounded by four imperial widows,
who made his court a scene of perpetual jealousy and intrigue.
These were his mother Livia and his daughter-in-law Livilla, his
sister-in-law Antonia, and Agrippiua. The will of Augustus had
left Livia a share in the supreme power, and she desired to exert it.
Her name appeared with that of her son on the imperial rescripts.
Tiberius was unable to shake oif her influence, while he deprecated
her interference in public affairs, and she had a strong party of
adherents in the senate, who proposed to call her mater patrice.
The ambition of the strong-minded Agilppina had been dis-
appointed by the death of her husband, but she hoped to rise again
through her children. Her chastity and fertility made her an ideal
Roman matron, but she had a violent temper and an unbridled
tongue. She regarded the Emperor as her natural enemy, and the
leniency which was shown to her rival Plancina filled her with resent-
ment. Nor was she satisfied even when her sons, Nero and Drusus,
were marked out as the successors of Tiberius. The fulfilment of
her ambitious dreams seemed still too far away.

§ 14. After the death of Drusus, Tiberius leaned more and more
on Sejanus, and from this period the Eomans remarked a de-
generation in the home government. The prefect worked on the

198 THE PRITOIPATE OF TIBERIUS. CHAP. xm.

Emperor's fears by pretending to discover conspiracies against him,
and many acts of cruelty were committed. But it must be noted
that this change for the worse affected only the circles of nobles and
officials, and did not involve any deterioration in the general
prosperity of the Empire. Many victims, in high positions, were
sacrificed unjustly to suspicion and intrigue, but the Roman world,
as a whole, was still well governed. The key to the tyranny which
marked the second half of the principal of Tiberius is probably to
be found in his knowledge that Agrippina had a large party of
sympathisers in the senate, who, after the death of Drusus, joyfully
looked forward to the succession of her children. This party he
and Sejanus determined to crush out. The first victim attacked
by Sejanus was C. Siiius, whom we have seen doing good work
on the northern frontiers, and whose wife was a friend of
A«rippina. He was accused of having connived at the rebellion
of Sacrovir and of extortion, and the charges pressed him so hard
that he committed suicide before sentence was passed. His wife
was banished, and his possessions, said to have been wrung from
the provincials of Gaul, were confiscated. It is doubtful whether
Cremutius Cordus, a Stoic philosopher,, and author of Annals of
the Republic during the period of the civil wars, was also a partisan
of Agrippina. In his work he had ca Jed Gassius " the last of the
Romans," and although Augustus had read the boot and found
no fault in it, this expression was now (2$ A.^O made a cause
of accusation against him. It waj said fffofi hi; work was an
attempt to excite a rebellion. Crenr.tr/S; tft&&;icr; that his case
was prejudged, delivered a bitter srwecl* in tr^e senate, and,
returning home, starved himseli to djaih. Alt that could then
be done was to burn his books.

In the following year (26 A.D.) the debtors attacked Agrippina
through her cousin Claudia Pulchra.* They charged this lady with
the crime of adultery and also with having made attempts on the
Emperor's life by poison and magic. Thereupon Agrippina sought
the presence of Tiberius, and fonnd him sacrificing to the divinity
of his father. " The same man," she cried, " cannot offer victims to
the divine Augustus, and persecute his posterity." Stung by the
reproaches which she heaped upon him, Tiberius quoted a Greek
verse to this effect : " My daughter, have I done you wrong, because
you are not a queen?" On the news of the condemnation of her
cousin, Agrippina fell dangerously ill. When Tiberius visited her,
she besought him to permit her to take a second husband. To such

* It seems that Claudia Pulchra was I would be the sobrina (cousin on the
daughter of Marcella, the daughter of mother's side) of the granddaughter oi
OetavU. The granddaughter of Octavla I Augustus.

26AJX PAKTY OF AGfiiFi'lNA. 199

a step there were the same objections which he had opposed to the
union ol Li villa and IS- janus, but Tiberius deemed it more prudent n<>t
to urge them then, and he left the room abruptly. This anecdote
was told in the Memoirs of Agrippina's daughter, the mother of
Nero. Such scenes as these were calculated to widen the breach
between Ayrippina and Tiberius, and stisp:c'ons ot her kinsman
were artfully distilled, by the contrivance of Sejanns, into the mind
of the piincess. She became possessed of the idea that the
Em|»eror was planning to poison her, and when she was invited to
sup with him, she absolutely refused to partake of any of th - food
that was presented to her. This undisguised declaration of her
suspicions alienated the Emperor still more.

SHOT. III.— TIBERIUS AT CABBED. INFLUENCE OF SEJANUS
AND HIS FALL.

§ 15. Hitherto Tiberius had resided continually at Rome, and
devoted himself assiduously to the conduct of affairs. He had con-
stantly talked of visiting the provinces, and even made the
preliminary arrangements for the journey, but when it came to the
point, he had always found a pretext for not going. He never
went further from the city than Antium. But as he grew older —
in 26 A.D. he had reached the age of sixty-seven — his reserve, his
distrust of his fellow-creatures, his dislike to the pomp of public life,
seem to have incre sed. He had alway* been reserved, sensitive, and
shy ; his temper had been soured by disapi -ointments, bo h in his
early life and in his recent years. His unpopularity in Rome, of
which he was fully conscious, may have irritated him more as he
became older; and his domestic life was full of worry, with Livia
and Li villa on one side, and Agiippina on the other. All this
might be enough to explain the motives which led him to take the
momentous step of abandoning Rome and living permanently else-
where. But if such motives operated, thtir effect was supported by
the persuasions of the favourite Sejanus, wlo desired nothing better
than to remove the Emj>eror to a distance, so as to have a tree scene
for his own plans. It is possible, however, that Tiberius mny have
been decided by a political motive. He may have wished to give
Nero, the eldest son of Germanicns, an opportunity of gradually
undertaking an active part in the government, and assisting
him somewhat as he had himself assisted Augustus. Silly and
malicious stories were circuit ted by the Emperor's enemies. It
was said that he souaht a jlice of concealment for the practice of
licentiousness; or that he wished to hide from the public view a
face and figure deformed by old age.

200 THE PRINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS. CHAP. xm.

He left Rome (26 A.D.) on the pretext of consecrating a temple
of Jupiter it Capua, and a temple of Augustus at Nola, recently
built. His attendants were one senator, Cocceius Nerva; two
kuights, Sejanus and another; and some men of science, and
astrologers. During the Emperor's progress in Campania, an
accident happened, which increased his confidence in Sejanus.
The imperial party were dining at a country house called the
" Cave " (Spelunca), formed of a natural grotto, between the gulf
of Amyclse and the hills of Fundi. The rocks at the entrance
suddenly fell in and crushed some of the servants, and the guests
fled in panic. Sejanus placed himself in front of the Emperor, and
received the falling stones. This incident convinced Tiberius that
his prefect was a man who had no care for himself.

Having dedicated the temples, he proceeded to the little island
of Caprese, which Augustus, struck by its salubrious climate, had
purchased from the people of Neapolis. Lonely and difficult to
approach by its precipitous lime cliffs, yet near enough to the
mainland, this island, about eleven miles in circuit and rising
at either end to higher points of vantage, was an attractive retreat
for the wearied statesman. Twelve villas were built by Tiberius in
various parts of the island, which was vigilantly guarded from
intrusion. But while his subjects thought that he had entirely
relinquished the conduct of affairs to the pratorian prefect, and
was spending his days in consultation with his astrologers or
in foul debauchery, Tiberius still bestowed constant attention to
the details of public business.* But he no longer troubled himself
to suppress the servility of the senate, or to check the abuses of
delation. Many innocent men were betrayed by the indefatigable
informers, and the senators lived in fear ai d peril of their lives.

§ 16. The case of Titius Sabinus, a Roman knight, who was tried
and put to death in 28 A.D., was an episode in the struggle between
Sejanus and the party of Agrippina, to which Sabinus belonged.
Sabinus, who had been a friend of Germanicus, had made him-
self conspicuous by the attention which he paid to the wife
and children of that prince, after his death. Four ex-prators, who
wished to obtain the consulship and sought for that purpose to
ingratiate themselves with Sejanus, conceived the idea that the
destruction of Sabinus would be an effectual means of winning the
favourite's favour. Accordingly they laid a plot. One of them,
named Latinius Latiaris, who was slightly acquainted with Sabinus,
entered one day into conversation with him, praised him for not

• Juvenal, Sat., x. 91 (of Sejanus) :

Tutor baberi
Principle angusta Caprearum in rupe

sedentis
Cum grege Chaldaeo.

26 AD. TIBERIUS RETIRES TO CAPRE^B 201

having abandoned the house of Germanicus in the hour of adversity,
and spoke in compassionate terms of Agrippina. Sabinus, who was
of a soft nature, took Latiaris completely into his confidence, burst
into invectives against the cruelty of Sejanus, and did not spare
Tiberius himself. Several treasonable conversations took place, but
as it was necessary to have mure witnesses, and as Sabinus would
not have spoken freely in the presence of the others, the three
accomplices hid themselves between the ceiling and the roof in a
room in the house of Latiaris, who induced Sabinus to visit him
there on the plea of making a disclosure. The utterances of the
entrapped knight on this occasion were quite sufficient for his
condemnation, and the conspirators immediately dispatched a
letter to the Emperor informing him of the treason of Sabinus.
Tiberius, in his letter to the senate on January 1st (28 A,D.),
mentioned the treasonable designs ol Sabinus, and suggested that it
might be well to punish him. The senate condemned him to death
without hesitation and received a letter of thanks from Tiberius,
hinting, however, that he still apprehended treachery, but without
mentioning names. He was supposed to al'iule to Agrippina and
her son Nero.

§ 17. The year 29 A.D. was marked by the death of Livia, or, as
she was publicly called, Julia Augusta, at the age of eighty-six.
Her funeral oration was pronounced by Gains, the thiid son of
Agrippina, then in his seventeenth year. Tiberius did not regret
his imperious mother. The funeral was marked by little ceremony ;
ilie senate was forbidden to decree her divine honours ; her will
remained long unexecuted. The memory of Livia has been much
wronged by history. The consort of Augustus is forgotten in the
mother of Tiberius ; and it is only remembered that she had done
much to raise to the throne an unpopular ruler, whom the Romans
cursed as a tyrant. There is reason to suppose, however, that her
influence, exerted in the interests of clemency, sometimes thwarted
Sejanus, and it is worthy of notice that he did not carry out his
design against Agrippina until after the death of Livia. It has
even been said that her death was a turning-point m the reign. Her
friends, who, under her powerful protection, had ventured to speak
somewhat boldly against the Emperor, were persecuted when she
died. Conspicuous a,mong these was the husband of the Emperor's
divorced wife Vipsania, Asinius Gallus, who was confined in prison
for three years and then put to death.

§ 18. The body of Livia had not been long bestowed in the

mausoleum of Augustus, when the senate received a letter from

Tiberius, containing charges against Agrippina and Nero. The son

was charged with gross licentiousness, the mother with insolence

9*

202 THE PKINC1PATE OF TiBEKIUS. CHAP. xra.

and a contumacious spirit. There was no hint of disloyalty or
treason, and the Etnporor did not signify what he wished the
senate to do. The people assembled outside the doors of the
senate-house, and cried that the letter was a forgery, hinting that it
was the work of Sejanus, and bearing aloft the images of Agrippina
and Nero. A second message soon came from Capreae, rebuking
the citizens for their rebellious behaviour, and urging the senate to
take definite action on the charges against the arcus d. The servile
senators found them guilty, and they were banished to barren
islands, Agrippina to Pandateria and Nero to Pontia. Agrippina's
second son Drusus still remained, but his fall, too, was speedily
contrived by Sejanus. Just as he had seduced Li villa to compass
the death of the elder Drusus, so now he seduced Lepida, the wife
of the younger Drusus, and suborned her to calumniate her husband
to Tiberius. Drusus, who, with his younger brother Gains, lived
at Caprese, was sent to Rome, as a mark of disgrace, and the senate
hastened to declare him a public enemy. F«>r the right of
declaring an individual a public enemy, as of declaring war, still
belonged to the senate. He was then arrested and imprisoned in
the palace.

§ 19. The power of Sejanus had now reached its highest point.
He was regarded with greater awe than the Emperor himself. He
seemed t-» be the true sovran and Tiberius the mere " lord of
an island" (nvsiarcli) Altars were raised and sacrifices offered
before his statues, gnmes were voted in his honour. But his fall
was at hand. Tiberius had become jealous and suspicious of the
designs of his minister ; and the graver his suspicions became, the
more assiduously did he seek to disguise them until the time
should come for the final blow. He loaded the prerect with honours.
He betrothed him to his granddaughter Julia, the widow of Nero,
who had died in exile at Pontia, and he conferred on him the
honour of being his colleague in the consulship. This honour also
furnished him with a pretext of ridding himself of the prefect's
presence at Caprese. Sejanus wa>* sent to Home to perform the
functions of the consuls, on behalf of both himself and Tiberius,
and he was received with abj ct flattery by senate and people.
The senate decreed the consulate to him along with Tiberius for
five years, and he was disappointed when Tiberius insisted on
resigning it in the fifth month (31 A.D.).

The messages, wh'ch from time to time arrived from Caprea3,
were uncertain and puzzling. Tiber us intended to keep Sejanus
in a state of restless uncertainty. He conferred upon him the
proconsular p»wer and raised him to the dignity of a priest, but at
the same time he mentioned, his nephew Gams Caesar with great

31 A.IX FALL OF SEJANU8. 208

favour, and conferred a priesthood on him also. Sejanus felt
uneasy, and besought Tiberius to allow him to return to Caprese, to
«ee his betrothed bride, who was ill. The request was reiusid, on
the ground that the Emperor and his family were about to visit
Rome. In a letter to the senate, which arrived soon after,
" Sejanus " was mentioned without the addition of his titles, and it
was forbidden to yield divine honours to a mortal. Besides this
the enemies ol' the prefect were 1 1 eated with favour. The»>e things
seemed to forebode disgrace, and Sejnnus resolved to forestal his fall
by overthrowing his master. A conspiracy was formed to kill
Tiberius when he came to Rome, but Satrius Secundus, one of the
conspiiators, betrayed the plot to Antonia, and she hastened to
reveal it to her brother-in-law.

It would hardly have been safe to denounce openly the treason of
Sejanus. To strike down the prefect of the prastorian guards
required caution and cunning. Tiberius selected a trusted officer,
Sertorius Macro, to succeed Sejanus as prefect, and instructed him
how he was to proceed. When Macro reached Home (Otober 17)
it was midnight. He immediately sought the house of the consul
Memmius Hegulus, and, having revealed the purpose of his
coming, caused him to summon a meeting of the senate, early in
the morning, in the teni| le of Apollo on the Palatine. This place
of meeting was perhaps chosen, in order that, if a disturbance
should arise, Drusus, who was a captive in the adjoining palace,
might readily be produced. Macro then visited Grsecinus Laco, the
commander of the cohortes vigilum, and arranged with him that the
approaches to the temple should be guarded. In the morning, as
Sejanus was proceeding to the senate, attended by an aimed retinue,
Macro met him and disarmed his suspicions by informing him that
the business of the meeting would be to confer the tiibunician
power on Sejanus himself. This power was the only thing
wanting to his association in the Empire, and Sejanus thought that
his highest ambition was about to be fulfilled. When Sejanus hao
entered the temple, Macro informed the praetorians that he had
been appointed their new prefect, and returned with them to their
camp, as soon as he had given the Emperor's letter to the consuls.

This "great wordy epistle" from Capreas,* which sounded the
doom of Sejanus, began wi h some remarks on general matters, and
then proceeded to a slight rebuke of Sejanus; then passed to some
indifferent matters again, and finally demanded ihe punishment of
Sejanus himself and some of his intimate friends. During the long
recital of the letter, the suspense of the audience was intense, for

* Verboea et grandls epistola venlt
A Caprels (Juvenal, x. U>

204 THE PKINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS, CHAP, xnt

none knew how it would end. Then the senators, who had been
heaping Sejanus with congratulations, left his side. The consul
ordered the lictors to seize him, and he was hurried off' to prison.
The people showed how much they rejoiced in the fall of the hated
tyrant, by hurling down his statues. The senate, when they saw
the temper of the populace, and as the praetorian guards did not
intervene, met at a later hour of the same day in the Temple of
Concord, and sentenced Sejanus to death. He was immediately
strangled in the prison, and his corpse was dragged by the execu-
tioner's hook to the Scalse Gemonise, according to the usual custom
in the reign of Tiberius.* His death was followed by the execution
of his family and friends. The senate decreed that a statue of
Liberty should be set up in the Forum, and that the anniversary
of the traitor's fall should be solemnly kept as a day of deliverance.

Tiberius had in the meantime been agitated with fear and sus-
pense. He had a fleet in waiting, ready to bear him to the east, in
case Macro failed in the enterprise, and he posted himself on the
highest cliff of the island, to watch for the appointed signal ot
success or failure. The fall of Sejanus was a relief to him, but it
was soon followed by a horrible revelation. Apicata, the divorced
wife of the fallen prefect, sent to Tiberius a full account of the
details of the death of Drusus, showing how it had been com-
passed by Sejanus and Livilla ; and having revealed this long-kept
secret, she put an end to her life. The revelation was confirmed by
the testimony of the slaves concerned in the affair, and the guilty
Livilla was punished with death. ' «••£

§ 20. The overthrow of Sejanus brought no alleviation to the
miseries of Agrippina in her island or her son Drusus in his
prison. It is not clear why the Emperor determined to destroy
Drusus ; perhaps he thought that one so deeply injured would be
dangerous if released. He allowed him to perish by starvation, and
then wrote a letter to the senate, describing minutely the manner
of his death, even the curses which in his last moments he had
vented against Tiberius himself. The object of this strange com-
munication, which excited the horror of the senators, is not
evident ; perhaps it was intended to show beyond doubt that
Drusus was really dead, for an impostor, pretending to be Drusus,
had recently created some disturbances in Greece and Asia. The
death of Agrippina by voluntary abstinence from food soon followed
that of her son. The senate, at the Emperor's wish, decreed that
her birthday should be ill-omened, and remarked tdat her death
took place on the anniversary of the execution of Sejanus (18th
October, 33 A.D.). The bodies of her and her children were not

* Juvenal, x. 66 : .Sejanus ducitur unco Spectandu*.

A.I).

PROSECUTIONS.

205

admitted to the mausoleum of the family until the reign of Gaiug,
who exhumed them from the lowly tombs in which they had
been thrown.

§ 21. The prosecutions of those who were supposed to have been
connected with the conspiracy of Sejanus were protracted over a
year, but at length, in 33 A.D., the Emperor, weary of the pro-
ceedings, issued an order for the summary execution of all who
were still detained in prison, whether men, women, or children. A
certain Marcus Terentius, who was impeached in the senate on the
ground of friendship with Sejanus, is reported to have made a bold
speech. Others had repudiated their friendly relations with the
fallen prelect, but he candidly acknowledged that "he was the
friend of Sejanus, had eagerly sought to be such, and was delighted
when he succeeded." "Do not think, fathers," he said, "only of
the last day of Sejanus, but of his ^xteen years of power.* To be
known even to his freedmen and hall-porters was regarded as a
distinction. Let plots against the state, conspiracies for the
murder of the Emperor, be punished; but as to friendship, the
same issue of our friendship to Sejanus must absolve alike you,
Caesar, and us." Terentius was saved by his boldness, and his
accusers were condemned to banishment or death, according to the
nature of their previous offences. But if a rare senator spoke out
boldly, most of the order made the fall of the minister an occasion
for ob-equiousness. Some went so far in their proposals that they
drew upon themselves the ridicule or severe censure of Tiberius.
Thus Togonius Gallus begged the Emperor to choose a number of
senators, of whom twenty should be selected by lot as a bodyguard
whenever he entered the curia. This mnn had actually taken
seriously a letter of the Emperor asking for the protection of a
consul from Capreas to Home. Tiberius, who had a fashion of
combining jest and seriousness, thanked the senators for their
kindness, but suggested several difficulties. WTho were to be
chosen? Were they to be always the same? Were they to be
men who had held office, or youths ? And would it not be strange to
see persons taking up swords on the threshold of the senate-house ?
But if he knew how to answer a fool according to his folly, he could
also sharply rebuke an impertinence. Junius Gallic proposed that
the praetorian soldiers, after having served their allotted time,
should have the right of sitting among the knights in the fourteen
rows of the theatre. Tiberius asked what Tie had to do with the

* The power and fall of Sejanus fur- ingens

nished Juvenal with an example in his Sejanua: deinde ex facie toto orbe
satire on the vanity of human wishes. secunda

QV- X. 62 : Fiunt urceoli pelves sartago matelUe,

4rdet adoratum popnlo caput et crepat and the whole passage to line 107.

206 THE PR1NCIPATE OF TIBERIUS. CHAP. xm.

praetorian guards, who received their commands and their rewards
only from the Imperator ; and suggested that Gallic was one of the
satellites of Sejanus, seeking to tamper with the soldiery. Gallic
was then, in return for his flattery, expelled from the senate and
banished from Italy.

Kecent experiences had aggravated the Emperor's suspicious
nature. He became more difficult of access, and committed many
acts of cruelty. His faithful adviser, Cocceius Nerva, who was his
companion at Caprere, weary, it is said, of seeing the harshness ot
his sovran, put himself to death, in spite of the prayers and
remonstrances of Tiberius. Of the twenty members of the imperial
consilium there soon remained only two or three; the others had
been the victims of delation. Public report ascnb'd to Tiberius a
life of bestial debauchery in the inaccessible island, and the
Parthian king actually ad Ires-ted to him an impertinent re-
buke for his licentious habits, and called upon him to satisfy
public opinion by committing suicide. There is little doubt that
Tiberius lived licentiously, like most of the Roman nobles of those
days; but there is no doubt also that his dissipations have been
foully exaggerated. The circumstance that his life was prolonged
to nearly four-score years without medical aid is enough to make us
hesitate to accept the stories which were circulated about the orgies
of Capreae.

SECT. IV.— PABTHIA AND THE EASTERN QUESTION.

§ 22. Among other slanders, it was said that Tiberius in his
island retreat was indifferent to the government of the Empire.
The rumour seems to have reached the Parthian court and en-
couraged the Parthian king Artabanus to assume a hostile
attitude. The peace with Parthia was undisturbed until the
death of Artaxes, king of Armenia, about 34: A.D. Artabanus,
elated by a long and successful rehn. and thinking that the old
Tiberius would not be likely to undertake an eastern war, seized
the opportunity to transfer Armenia from dependence on Rome to
dependence on Parthia. He induced the Armenians to elect his son
Arsacr-s as successor of Artaxes. He even seerm d to court a war
with Rome, an- 1 addressed insulting letters to the Emperor, demand ing
the inheritance of his old rival Vonones, who had died in Cilicia,
insisting on the old boundaries of Macedonia and Persia, and
threatening that he won! 1 seize the territories possessed long ago
by Gyms and afterwards bv Alexander the Great. Tiberius was
equal to the emergency. He conferred upon Lucius Vitellius, an
able and resolute officer, the same powers which he had before con-

34A.D. THE EASTERN QUESTION. 207

ferred upon bis nephew Germanieus, and sent him to the east, with
orders to cross the Euphrates, at the h ad 01 the Syrian Itgions, if it
should prove needful. At the same time he set up a rival to
Arsaces in the person of Mitlira 'ates, brother of Pharasmanes, king
of the Iherians; and stirred up both the Iberians and Albanians to
sup|>ort his claim by an invasion of Armen'a. Mir hra<' ates gained
possession of the Armenian capital, Aitaxata, and his rival Ars>aces
was removed by poison. King Artabanus then sent another of his
sons, Orodes, to take the place of Arsaces, and recover Armenia, but
the Parthian cavalry proved no match lor the Caucasian infantry
and the Sarmatiau mounted archers, which supported Pharasmanes
and Mithradates. A lively description of the warfare has come
down to us. Pharasmanes challenged Orodes to battle, taunted
him when fre refu.-ed, rode up to the Parthian camp, and harassed
their foraging parties. The Parthians at length became impatient,
and called upon their prince to lead them to battle. In the fight
which ensued every variety of warfare was to be witnessed. The
Parthians, accustomed to pursue or fly with equal skill, deployed
their cavalry and sought scope for the discharge of their missiles.
The Sarmatians, throwing aside their bows, which at a shorter
range are effective, rushed on with j-ikes and swords. There were
alternate advances and retreats, then close fighting, in which, breast
to breast, with the clash of arms, they drove back the foe or were
themselves repulsed. The Albanians and Iberians f-eized the Par-
thian riders, and hurled them from their horses. The Parthians
were thus pressed on one side by the cavalry on the heights, on the
other by the infantry in close quarters. The leaders, Pharas-
manes and Orodes, were conspicuous, encouraging the brave,
succouring those who wavered; and at length recognising each
other they rushed to the combat on galloping chargers and with
poised javelins. The force of Pharasmanes was greater; he
pierced the helmet of the foe. But he was hurried onward by
his horse, and before he could repent the blow with deadlier
effect, Orodes was protected by his guards. But the rumour
spread among the Parthians that their general was slain, and
they yielded.*

§ 23. Alter the ill-success of both his sons, Artabanus took the
field himself. It was now the moment for Vittllius to intervene.
He sethis troops in motion, and threatened to invade Mesopotamia.
This was the signal for the outbreak of an insurrection which had
been long brewing in Parthia, and had been fomented by Roman
intrigues. The Parthian nobles, dissatisfied with the rule of the
Scythian Artabanus, clamoured for the restoration or a true Arsacid.

* The above description of the battle Is a free translation from Tacitus, vi. 34, 35.

208 THE PRINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS. CHAP. xin.

There was still a surviving son of Phraates at Rome ; and a section
of the disaffected Parthians sent a secret embassy to Tiberius,
requesting that this representative of the house of Arsaces should
be sent to the east as a claimant to the Parthian throne. This
suited the views of Tiberius, and he acceded to the request. But
the candidate for sovranty died in Syria, and Tiberius then chose
Tiridates, a grandson of Phraates, to take his place. The appear-
ance of Vitellius and Tindates in the Parthian dominions was
attended at first with complete success. Sinnaces, a man of good
family and great wealth, and his father Abdageses, were the
leaders of the party hostile to Artabanus, which was largely in-
creased after the disasters in Armenia. Artabanus had soon found
himself deserted except by a few foreigners, and was compelled,
in order to save his life, to flee into exile among the Scythians.
Tiridates then, under the protection of Vitellius and the Roman
legions, crossed the Euphrates on a bridge of boats. The first
Parthian to enter the camp was Ornospades, formerly a Parthian
exile, who had been made a Roman citizen in recognition of aid
which he had given to Tiberius in the Dalmatian war, and sub-
sequently returning to Parthia had been received into favour and
appointed governor of Mesopotamia. Sinnaces and Abdageses
arrived soon afterwards with the royal treasure. Then Vitellius,
having thus given Tiridates a start, and displayed the Roman
eagles beyond the Euphrates, returned with his army to Syria.
Nicephorium, Anthemusias, and other towns of Greek foundation,
gladly received the new king, expecting him to be a good ruler
from his Roman training. The enthusiasm shown by the powtrlul
city of Seleucia, which had preserved intact its Greek character
under Parthian domination, was especially encouraging. But
Tiridates made a fatal mistake in losing time. Instead of pressing
forward into the interior of the country, he delayed over the siege
of a fortress in which Artabanus had stored away his treasures and
his concubines. In the meantime quarrels broke out among his
adherents, some of whom, jealous of the influence of Abdageses, and
regarding Tiridates as a Roman dependent, decided to restore Arta-
banus. They found the exiled monarch in Hyrcania, covered with
dirt and sustaining life by his bow. At first he thought that they
intended treachery, but when he was assured that they desired
his restoration, he hastily raised some auxiliaries in Scythia, and
marched against Seleucia with a large force. In order to excite
sympathy he retained the miserable dress which he had worn in
his exile. The party of Tiridates retreated into Mesopotamia, and
soon dispersed, Tiridates himself returning to Syria (36 A.D.), and
leaving Artabanus master of the realm, except Seleucia, which was

85 A.D. QUESTION OF THE SUCCESSION. 209

strong enough to hold out. Vitellius again threatened Mesopotamia ;
but the restored monarch hastened to yield to the Roman demands,
and a peace was concluded. Artahanus recognised Mithradates as
king of Armenia, while the Romans undertook not to support the
pretensions of Tiridates. The Parthian king also did homage to
the imaiie of the Roman Emperor, and gave up his son Darius as
a

'. V. — LAST DAYS AND DEATH OF TIBERIUS.

§ 24. Tiberius was not indifferent to the selection of a
successor, though he is reported to have once said, quoting the
verse of a Greek poet, " When I am dead, let earth be wrapt in
flame." * There were three male representatives of his house on
whom his choice might fall. There was his nephew Tiberius
Claudius Drusus, the youngest son of the elder Drusus, but he was
considered out of the question, as being of weak intellect. There
was his grand-nephew Gains (born in 12 A.D,), the youngest son of
Germanicus, and there was his grandson Tiberius Gemellus (born
19 A.D.), son of Drusus and Li villa. Between these two the choice
was practically to be made. The Emperor had for a long time
slighted Gaius, as being a son of Agrippina, and had not permitted
him to assume the toga virilis until his nineteenth year. But
Gaius began to rise, when Sejanus began to decline, in favour. He
carefully dissembled any emotions he may have felt at the fate
of his mother and brothers; and the people looked forward witli
satisfaction to a son of Germanicus on the throne. On the other
hand, Tiberius may have secretly wished for the succession of his
grandson. In 35 A.D. he made a will leaving Gaius and Gemellus
joint heirs of his private fortune, and this was equivalent to an
expression of his wish that they should be joint heirs of the Empire.
But there is reason to believe that he regarded Gaius as his
successor. The four daughters of Germanicus had been married
to men of note; Agrippina, of whom we shall hear more, to Cn.
Domitius ; Drusilla to Cassius Longinus ; Julia, to Vinicius, the
patron of Velleius Paterculus the historian; and a fourth, of
unknown name to the son of Quintilius Varus. His own grand-
daughter Julia, the widow of Nero, and the betrothed of Sejanus,
he married to Rubellius Blandus, a knight of obscure origin.

§ 25. The praatorian prefect Macro, who now partly occupied the
place which Sejanus had formerly held at Caprese, saw that Gaiu?

* 'E/uou 0ac6»"ros yaia mx^Toi irvpi, equivalent to the expression of a modem
potentate, " After me the deluge."

210 THE PBINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS. CHAP. xin.

was probably destined to succeed, and sought to obtain an
ascendency over him G-aius had lost his wife, the daughter of
M. Junius Silanus, in the third year of their marriage, and Macro
engaged his own wife Enuia to enthral the young man by her arts
and charms. The sh-irp old Emperor observed the | olicy of the
prefect, and said to him, " You leave the setting sun, to court the
rising." In the seveiity-eiglith year of his age, in the fir>t months
of 37 A D., Tiberius quitted his i>land, never t- » return. He travelled
slowly towards Rom«' and advanced along the Appian Way within
seven miles of the city. He gaze! lor the last time at the tons of
the distant buildings but frightened by some evil omen, turned
back, and retraced his steps southward. He was fa'ling fast. At
Circeii, in order to hide his we«kness, he presided at military
exercises, and in consequence of the over-exertion b came worse.
He tried till the last to conceal his condition from those who were
with him, and his physician Chariules had to resort to an artifice to
feel h's pulse. He breathed, his last in the viila of Lncullus at
Misenum, on March 16, 37 A.D. It was whisper* d that his end
w^s hastened by Macro, who, seeing him bud.tenly revive, stifled
him.

§ 26. In estimating Tiberius, we must take into account the cir-
cumstances of his life, and a'so the character of the witnesses who
have recorded his rei^n. A CLiuilim, bo h on the father's and on
the mo her's side, descended from the Neros to whom, as Horace
sang, Rome owed so much, he had all the pri<ie of his patrician
house. He was strong, tall, well-made, and healthy, with a fair
complexion, and long hair profuse at the back of his head — a
characteristic of the Claudii. HH h-id unusually large eyes, and a
serious expr ssion. In his youth he was called " the old man," so
thoughtful was he and slow to speak. H • had a strong sense of
duty, and a profound contempt for the multitude. The spirit of his
ancestress, the Claudia who uttered the wish that her brother were
ali"e ajcain, t-» lose another fleet and make the streets of Rome less
crowded, had iu come measure descended upon Tiberius. He
was, as the originally Sabine name Nero signified, brave and
vigorous ; and had a conspicuous aptitude fer the conduct of affairs.
But he was too critical to have implicit confidence in h'mself ; * and
he was suspicious of others. His sell-distrust was increased Hy the
circumstances of his early m:mhood. His reserved manner, unlike
the geniality »«f h's brother Drusus, could not win the affection of
his stepfather Augustus, who regarded his peculiarities as faults;

* This feature of his character— impor- I callidum eh» ingentam, it*
t«nt for comprehen ing him— is thus Big- | indicium.
nifto.i by Tacitus (Annals, i. 83): Ut

87 A.D. DEATH OF T1BEKIU8 211

and when he was young enough to have ambition, he was nWe use
of indeed, but he never enjoyed Imperial favour. Kept, when
possible, in the second place, he was always meeting rebuffs. He
was forctd to divorce Vipsania and marry Julia, who brought him
nothing but shame. Thus the circumstances of his life, and his
relations to his stei father were calculated to deepen his reserve, to
embitter his feelings, and produce a ha'it of dissimulation ; so that
there is little wonder that a man of his cold, diffident nature,
coming to the throne at the age of fifty-five, should not have won
the affections of subjects whom he did not deign to conciliate. All
his experiences tended to d'jvelope in Tiberius that hard spirit
(rigor animi}, so clearly stamped on his natures in the large sitting
statue which has b< en pres- rved. On the other hand his diffidence
made him dependent on others, first on Livia, and then on ISejanus,
who proved his evil genius.

In regard to the darker fide of his policy as a ruler, we must
remember that he hud undertaken a task which necess^rih involved
inconsistencies. He undertook to maintain the republican disguise
under which Augustus had veiled the monarchy. The w<aring
of a mask well suited his r< served and crafty nature, but the
success of this pretence dep nded lar more on personal qualities than
Tiberius realised. It had been a success with Augustus, because
he was popular and Menial. It was a failure with Tiberius because
he n-as just the opposite. After Tiberius, the mask was dropped.
The system of delation and the law of maiestas were provided by
Tibi rius as a substitute lor the popularity which had shielded his
predecessor from conspiracy. Owing to the spread of delation, the
reign ol Tiherius was to some extent a reign ol terror. Hardly any
important works of liternture were produced, for men did not care
to write wh^n thev could not write freely. We have already seen
the fate of the historian Cremutius Cordus. Two other historians
whose works have come down to us, escaped censure by flattery,
In the case of one, the flattery was pr- bably sincere. VELLEIUS
PATERCULUS, whose short " Roman History" in t«o Bonks was
pul-lifhed in 30 A.D., had served under Tiherius in the Pannonian
war, and af-erwards risen to the rank of quaestor, and then of
praetor. He had conceived a deep admiration and affection for his
general, and lauds him with extravagant superlatives. He also
speaks in very high terms of Sejan"S, who had not yet fallen.
VALERIUS MAXIMUS was mor»j clearly a time-server. In his " Nine
Books of Memorable Deeds and Words," a coll* c'ion of anecdotes of
Roman history, wr tten in a tasteless, pretentious style, he is servile
to the Emperor, but as the work appeared after the fall of Sejanus,

212 THE PRINCIPATE OF TIBERIUS. CHAP, xm,

a vehement declamation against that minister is introduced. The
Spaniard, ANN^EUS SENECA of Corduba, not to be confounded with
his more famous son, was active under Tiberius as well as under
Augustus. He wrote a history extending from the b< ginning of the
civil wars almost to the day of his death (about 39 A.D.). unfortu-
nately not preserved ; but his works on rhetorical subjects are partly
extant. The terror of delation did not affect jurists like MASUBIUS
SABINUS, men of science like CELSUS, or gastronomists like Aricius,
owing to the politically indifferent nature of their subjects. It is
not easy to see ^w it affected poetry, but Virgil and Horace had
no immediate successors. The only poetical writer of the rei<*n was
the freedman PH^EDRUS, and he tells us that he was persecuted.
He was the author of five Books of ^Esopian fables, in iambic
trimeters. POMPONIUS SECUNDUS wrote tragedies, but perhaps did
not publish them till after the death of Tiberius. The Emperor
was himself imbued with letters. He wrote a lyric poem on
the death of Lucius Caesar, and Greek verses in the style of the
Alexandrine school. He also wrote memoirs of his own life. He
was a strict purist in language, and icsolutely refused to use words
borrowed from Greek.

§ 28. This negative testimony of literature shows that delation
was a very real danger and that the government of Tiberius was in
some respects tyrannical. But he was not such a tyrant as he has
been painted by the later writers Tacitus and Suetonius. Over
against the dark picture of Tacitus we must set the opposite
picture of the inferior artist Velleius, and we must allow for the
bias of both authors. We must remember that Velleius had seen
Tiberius at his best, in the camp conducting a campaign, that he
received promotion from him, and was prejudiced in his favour; in
addition to this, he was writing in the Emperor's lifetime. On
the other hand Tacitus wrote under the influence of a reaction
against the imperial system, and he lays himself out to blacken the
character of all the Emperors prior to Nerva. The dark character
of Tiberius, and a certain mystery which surrounded his acts and
motives, lent themselves well to the design of the skilful historian,
who gathered up and did not disdain to record all sorts of popular
rumours and stories imputing crime to the exile of Capreaa. Apart
from the measures which he adopted for his own safety, or at
the instigation of Sejanus, and which mainly concerned his own
family and nobles connected with them — apart from the conse-
quences ol the system of delation, which were felt almost ex-
clusively at Rome — there can be no question that the rule of
Tiberius was wise, and maintained the general prosperity of the

14-37 A.D.

TACITUS ON TIBERIUS.

213

Empire. Augustus was not deceived, when, in adopting his stepson
into the Julian family, he said " I do it for the public wellare ; "
nor, on the other hand, was he mistaken when he prophetically
pitied the fate of the people of Rome which he was committing to
be masticated in the " slow jaws " of his adopted son.*

* Miserum populum Romanum, qui sub tarn lent is maxillis erit'

Agrippina, wife of Germanieus (from Statue iu tbe Capitoline Museum).

Gaius and Drusilla (from cameo in Bibliotheque National* Paris).
CHAPTER XIV

THE PRTNCIPATE OF GAIUS (CALIGULA) (37-41 A.D.).

§ 1. Claims of Gains to the Principate. He is accepted by the senate.
The acts of Tiberius are not confirmed, his will is annulled, and he is
not deified § 2. Funeral of Tiberius. Reaction against his policy.
Gaius shows respect for the senate and piety to his family. § 3.
Munificence of Gaius. His speech in the senate. § 4. Early life
and character of Gaius. He is under the influence of Agrippa.
§ 5. Illness of Gaius. Sympathy of his subjects. Philo quoted.
Death of Tiberius Gemellus. § 6. Pleasures of Gaius. He degrades
his dignity in the circus. § 7. Sisters and wives of Gaius. His
oriental ideas. He demands divine worship and professes to be a
god. § 8. His architectural extravagance. The bridge of ships at
Puteoli. His jealousy of great names. § 9. Financial difficulties
drive him to plunder his subjects. § 10. His expedition to Gaul.
Conspiracy of Lentulus Gsetulicus. Exile of the Emperor's sisters.
Acts of Gaius at Lugudunum. § 11. Britannic expedition. His return
to Rome. § V2. The reign of terror. § 13. Increased taxation.
Conspiracy of Chserea, and murder of Gaius. § 14. Policy of
Gaius in the provinces reactionary. He restores client kingdoms in the
East, but annexes the kingdom of Mauretania. § 15. Refusal of the
Jews to pay him divine worship. Embassies from Alexandria.

SECT. I. — Popt'LAB BEGINNINGS OF THE REIGN OF GAIUS.

§ 1. WE have seen that Tiberius had made Gaius and Gemellus
co-partners in the inheritance of his private fortune, thus re-
commending them to the senate and people as co-partners in the
Principate. He seems to have intended for them a joint rule like
that which Augustus intended for his grandchildren Gaius ant?
Lucius Caesar. Perhaps he did not believe that such a rule was

87 A.D. ACCESSION OF GAIUS. 21 6

possible; but he left the decision to fate. The power and the
initiative naturally devolved on Gaius, who was older than his
cousin by seven years and had Already entered on public life. He
was supported by the favour of the populace and the strength of
the praetorians with Macro at their head; so that his succession
seemtd certain. But it is to be observed that from a constitutional
point of view Gaius did not occupy as strong a position on ihe
death ot Tiberius as Tiberius had occupied on the death of Augustus.
Tiberius had been already invested with the tribunicinn power and
the most important of the imperial prerogatives during the lifetime
>f Augustus. But since the death of his son Drusus, Tiberius
had not moved the senate to confer the tribunician power on any
one; and Sejanus, who had r«ceived proconsular power, no longer
lived. Gaius was not in any sense a consors imperil. Hence on
the death of Tiberius, it was open to the senate to elect as the new
Princeps whomsoever they wished. But though the inheriting of
the Empire was not recognised by the constitution, it was generally
felt that the heir of the Emperor had the best claim to succ ed
him in the government as well as in his private property. Hence
the election of Gaius was taken fur granted both by himself and
by others.

The Emperor's death was finally announced to the senate in a
letter from Gaius, conveyed by the hand of Macro, who also
brought the testament of Tibet ius, in which Gaius and Gemellus
were appointed co-heirs. Gaius asked the fathers to decree to the
late Emperor a public funeral, deification, and the other honours
which had been decreed to Augustus, also to confirm his acts ; but
at the same time he demanded that the testament should be
annulled. Such a document might prove inconvenient, for though
legally it only concerned the private estate cf Tiberius, it mi^ht be
used to give his grandson a claim to participation in the imperial
power. The senate acceded to the wishes of the candidate for the
Empire, whom it did not hesitate to elect. The tribunician power
and all the functions of the Empire were conferred on Gaius Caesar*
(March 18) ; a public funeral, but not deification, was decreed to
Tiberius ; and his will was annulled. But in return some concessions
were required from Gaius, He adopted his cousin Tiberius Gemellus
and named him princess iuventutis ; and he gave up his demand
that the acts of his predecessor should be confirmed by the senate.
Tiberius was not added to the gods, and in this way his memory
was condemned.

§ 2. The accession of the young Emperor was hailed by the
people with wild delight as the beginning of a new age. They had
* His official title was C. Caesar Augustas Gernmnicus.

216 THE PRINCIPATE OF GAIUS. CHAP. xiv.

received the news of the death of Tiberius with a savage outburst
of hatred. It is said that they wished to drag his corpse to the
river, and cried Tiberium in Tiberim, " Tiberius to the Tiber ! "
After years of fear, sullenness, and gloom, they looked forward to
an age of merriment and pleasure — a return of the Augustan era.
The procession conveying the body of the dead Emperor was
conducted by his successor from Misenum to Rome, and the people
poured forth to meet it, forgetting their hatred of the dead tyrant
in their joy at welcoming the new sovran. They allowed the
funeral solemnities to pass over quietly, and when Gaius had
spoken a funeral oration, the corpse was cremated in the Campus
Martins and the ashes placed in the mausoleum.

The new reign was inaugurated by a reaction against the policy
of the preceding. The most odious delators were banished from
Italy; all prisoners were released; all exiles recalled. The ex-
tension of the law of maiestas to words written or spoken was
done away with. The writings of Cremutius Cordus and others,
which had been suppressed, were permitted to circulate again ; the
Emperor declaring that the writing and reading of history conduced
to the interests of every good prince. Gaius also annulled the
right of appeal to himself from the tribunals in Rome, Italy, and
the senatorial provinces. He endeavoured to make a strict division
between the functions of senate and Princeps ; and he followed the
example of Augustus, neglected by Tiberius, in publishing the
accounts of the state. He restored to the comitia the election of
the magistrates, and thus showed that he desired to maintain the
outward form of a republic. But this change was soon discovered
to be useless, for as the number of candidates seldom exceeded the
number of vacant places, there was no room for suffrage, and the
comitia, when it assembled, found that it had nothing to do.
Hence after two years, the system of Tiberius was restored. Gaius
assisted the administration of justice by creating a fifth decuria of
jurymen, for the existing number was found to be unequal to the
work they had to do. It was composed of men of the same
qualification as those who filled the fourth decuria, created by
Augustus (see above, Chap. III. §§ 7, 8). Gaius also conferred the
equus publicus on a large number of persons, because the equestrian
order had been greatly reduced in number in the reign of Tiberius,
who had neglected to replenish it by new nominations.

The son of Germanicus distinguished himself by piety to his
family no less than by respect to the senate. When he had
appeared in the presence of the fathers and won their goodwill by
a plausible and submissive speech, he hurried in person to the
islands where his mother and brother had been banished and con-

37 A.D POPULARITY OF THE NEW REIGN. 217

veyed their ashes back to Rome, to be deposited in the mausoleum
of the Caesars. He caused the senate to decree to his grandmother
Antonia the titles and honours which had been formerly decreed to
Livia. He changed the name of the month September to Ger-
manicus, so that the name of his father might rank in the Calendar
beside Julius and Augustus. He called upon his uncle Tiberius
Claudius, whose existence no one ever seemed to remember, and
who hitherto, although he was forty-six years of age, held only
equestrian rank, to be his colleague in the consulship, on which he
entered on July 1st (37 A.D.). His sisters Julia Li villa, Agrippina,
and Drusilla received the honours of Vestal virgins. Gaius
himself modestly refused the title Pater Patrise, which the senate
offered him.

§ 3. How popular the new reign was with the multitude is
shown by the immense number of victims — one hundred and sixty
thousand — which were offered in thanksgiving to the gods. The
citizens and the soldiers were delighted with the unbounded
munificence of the successor of the frugal Tiberius. All the
legacies and donations ordered in the will of Tiberius were paid,
although that deed was otherwise annulled, and the testament of
Livia, which Tiberius had neglected, was now executed. Besides
this, Gaius distributed to the plebs the donation, which should
have been given when he assumed the toga virilis. The immense
sums which lay in the treasury, heaped together by the saving
policy of Tiberius, enabled him to defray these expenses and to
enter upon a course of reckless profusion, which the rabble greeted
with applause. At the same time he reduced his revenue by
abolishing the small tax of ^ per cent, on sales in Italy.

When Gaius assumed the consulship, he made a speech to the
senate, criticising severely the acts of Tiberius and making fair
promises for his own future government. The fathers were so
pleased, and yet so afraid that he would alter his views, that they
decreed that his speech should be read aloud every year. His
exemplary devotkm to his duties during the two following months
seemed to augur well for the future. But on the last day of
August, which was his birthday, he threw aside business, and gave
a magnificent entertainment, such as had not been witnessed for
many years. On this occasion he consecrated the temple of
Augustus, which was at length completed. From this time Gaius
showed the world a new side of his character, which few perhaps
had suspected. He plunged into a mad course of shameless dissi-
pation and extravagance.

§ 4. When his subjects saluted their new Emperor, they were
quite ignorant what manner of man he was. In his personal
10

218 THE PKINCIJPATE Otf GA1US. CHAP. xiv.

appearance there was nothing to attract. His figure was ill-
p oportioned, his eyes set deep in Ms head, his features pale; and
his scowling expression srill displeases us in his bust.* His
constitution was weak, and his intellectual capacity was small; and
whatever intellect he possessed had never heen trained, except in
rhetorical exercise. Want of training in his youth may partly
account for the vagaries of his manhood ; but there is no duubt
that his brain was affected. He was subject to epileptic fits, and
he suffered from sleeplessness. His early childhood was spent in
the camp on the Rhine; his next expeiience was the distre->sing
circumstances of his lather's death. Afterwards he was detained
under the watchful eye of Tiberius in the lonely island, where he
learned to dissemble, natter and deceive. It is said that Tiberius
penetrated the real character of the crafty boy, and made the
remark that Gains lived for the perdition of himself and all men.
All the tastes of this degenerate grandson of Drusus were vulgar and
vile. He cared only for the company of gladiators and dancers;
he took delight in the siuht of torture and death. He seems to have
been always thoroughly uiisound in mind, and when the unlimited
power of the sovran of the Roman Empire was placed in his hands,
his head was completely turned. He had fallen under the influence
of Heiod Agrippa, who instilled into his mind oriental ideas as to
the divine nature of monarchy, and filled his head with dreams of
the grandeur of eastern kings. This Agiippa, son of Aristobulus,
was grandson of Herod the Great, and had come to Rome along
with his mother Berenice and his sister Herodias, after the death
of his father. Rome was at this time an asylum for the members of
eastern royal families, who in their own country would probably
haveperishtd by the hand of their reigning kinsmen. Antonia,
whose father had been a friend of Herod, been me the protectress of
his grandson, and the \ oung Agri,>pa WPS brought up in the company
of Claudius, who was of his own age. When his uncle Herod
Antipas (the Herod of the Gospels), B.C. 4-A.D. 39, who married
Herodias, obtained the kingdom of Samaria, Agrippa was invested
with the governorship of the city of Tiberias. But this did not
satisfy his ambition. He returned to Rome in the last years of
Tiberius, to watch for an opportunity to better his position. He
attached himself to the young Gains, whose prospects seemed to
be bright, and obtained a great influence over him. Agrippa was a
shrewd and energetic man, who had seen a great deal of the world;
very dissipated and unprincipled; and always in want of money.
His descriptions of oriental magnificence, his pictures of the omni-
potence which even the small.st monarchs in the east possessed
* In the Capitoline Museum.

87A.D. INFLUENCE OF HEROD AGEIPPA. 219

over the life and property of their subjects, his lessons perhaps in
the voluptuousness of Asia, produced a deep and dang< rous effect
on the diseased mind and sensual nature of the future Emperor,
^ome had been threatened with the introduction of oriental
theories by Antmiius ; she was destined to experience them at the
caprice of his great-grandson.

§ 5. After the celebration of his birthday, the Emperor did not
resume his political duties, but gave himself up to dissipation and
enjoyment, and from this time to the end of his reign his outy
occupation was the pursuit of pleasure and excitement. Under
the first wild outburst of sensuality his weak constitution gave
way and he became dangerously ill. The general distress which
was then felt both in Rome and in the provinces shows how popular
he was. Philo, a Jew of Alexandria, describes the prosperity of
;he Eimire at the beginning of his reign and the sympathy which
was felt at his illness. The passage 4°iserves to be quoted:*

"Who was not amazed and delighted at beholding Gaius assnme
the government of the Empire, tranquil and well-ordered as it was,
fitted and compact in all its pa.ts, north and south, east and
west, Greek and barbarian, soldier and civilian, all combined
tog- ther in the enjoyment of a common peace and prosperity ? It
abounded everywhere in accumulated treasures of gold and silver,
coin and plate ; it boasted a vast force both of horse and foot, by
land and by sea, and its resources flowed, as it were, from a
perennial fountain. Nothing was to be seen throughout our cities
but altars and sacrifices, priests clad in white and garlanded,
the joyous ministers of the general mirth ; festivals and assemblies,
musical contests and horse-races, nocturnal revels, amusements,
recreations, pleasures of every kind and addressed to every sense.
The rich no longer lorded it over the poor, the strong upon the
weak, masters upon servants, or creditors on their debtors; the
distinctions of classes were levelled by the occasion ; so that the
Suturnian age of the poets might no longer be regarded as a
fiction, so nearly was it revived in the life of that ha| py era."
The provinces were happy for seven months; then the news
arrived that the Emneror, having abandoned himself to sensuality,
had fallen grievously sick, and was in great danger. " When the
sad news was spread among the nations, every enjoyment was 'A
once cast aside, every city and house was clouded with sorrow and
dejection, in proportion to its recent hilarity. All parts of the
world sickened with Gaius, and were more sick than hp, for his was
the sickness of the body only, theirs of the soul. All men reflected

* The translation of this passage is borrowed, with modifications, from Mertvale
(cap. xlvil.).

220 THE PRINCIPATE OF GAIUS. CHAP. xiv.

on the evils of anarchy, its wars, famines, and devastations, from
which they foresaw no protection but in the Emperor's recovery.
But as soon as the disease began to abate, the rumour swiftly
reached every corner of the empire, and universal were the excite-
ment and anxiety to hear it from day to day confirmed. The
safety of the prince was regarded by every land and island as
identical with its own. Nor was a single country ever so interested
before in the health of any one man as the whole world then was
in the health of Gains."

This instructive passage of an Alexandrine writer of that day,
shows how important an Emperor's life was then felt to be for the
welfare of the state. Gains recovered, but he di»l not mend his
ways. The solicitude of the citizens and the provincials impressed
him with a deeper sense than ever of his own importance. His
first act was to remove from his path his cousin Gemellus, who
had a rival claim to the throne. About November, 37 A.D., the
feeble grandson of Tiberius was compelled to kill himself.* Macro
the praetorian prefect had laid Gains under such great obligations
in helping him to secure the throne, that he ventured on the
indiscretion of sometimes reminding the Emperor of his duties.
At the same time Ennia pressed her lover to keep his promise of
marrying her. But Gains was weary of the wife, and impatient
of the husband, and he resolved to destroy them both. Macro
received a command to put himself to death. About the same
time Gaius recalled M. Silanus, the father of his first wife, who was
then proconsul of Africa, and caused him to be executed. These
acts may be regarded as the turning-point of the reign.

SECT. II. — EXTRAVAGANCE AND TYRANNY OF GAIUS. His

MURDER.

§ 6. Feeling himself' superior to both law and custom, Gaius did
not hesitate to parade his degraded tastes before the public, and to
prostitute the imperial dignity in a way which would have seemed
simply inconceivable to Augustus or Tiberius. He took a keen
delight in the sports of the circus and in gladiatorial shows, and
is said to have himself sung and danced in public, and even
descended into the arena. Knights and senators were compelled
to take part in the chariot-races. Charioteering became a sort of
political institution in this leign, and continued to be so until the

* The epitaph of this boy has been
found near the hustum Caesarum in the
Campus Martius:
Ti. Caesar JJrusi Cuesaris f. hie situs est.

As he is called the son of Drusus, his
adoption by Gaius was apparently an-
nulled on his death.

38 A.D.

LICENTIOUSNESS OF GAIUS.

221

latest days of the Empire1. There were four rival parties, dis-
tinguished by colours, the green, blue, red, and white. Grams
favoured the green faction, and built a special place of exercise for
it. But the gladiatorial shows were the special delight oi' the
Emperor. He removed the limitations which Augustus had set
on the number of gladiators ; and the amphitheatre of Taurus and
the Ssepta in the Campus Martius were constantly filled with the
rabble and the court witnessing not only pairs of gladiators, but
the battles of armed bands. Nobles and knights were forced to
fight, as well as slaves ; for all his fellow-citizens were his slaves
in the eyes of this Princeps. Combats with wild beasts were also a
frequent amusement. One wonders that the higher classes
tolerated this juvenile tyranny and such shameless degradation
of the imperial dignity ; but they seem to have felt it as a change
for the better after the parsimony and austerity of the preceding
reign, and they saw that the new fashion of things was popular
with the rabble.

§ 7. Gaius is said to have lived in incestuous connection with his
three sisters,* and though this charge is uncertain in regard to
Agrippina and Julia, there can be no doubt about Drusilla, of whom
he was very fond. He had separated her from her husband, and
lived openly with her, after the manner of the Ptolemies and other
oriental potentates. When she died (July, 08 A.D.), he was incon-
solable. The senate decreed her the honours of Li via ; her statues
were placed in the curia and in the temple of Venus ; and she was
deified under the title of Panthea. All the cities of the Empiie
were commanded to worship her. During his principate, Gaius was
married three times, and in all cases, to married women whom he
snatched from their husbands. The first, Orestilla, wife of Cn.
Piso, was soon repudiated for the sake of Lollia Paulina, the wife of
Memmius Regulns, the same who had assisted in the arrest of
Sejanus. She was a very rich lady, and her wealth was probably
her chief attraction for the Emperor. She was then divorced on the
ground of barrenness, and was succeeded by Milonia Csesonia, to
whom, though she was a woman of plain features, the Emperor
seems to have been really attached.

As time went on and Gaius found no resistance offered to his
sovran will, as he saw the world at his feet and men of all classes
content to be his slaves, he was seized with the idea of his own
godhead, and exacted divine worship. The oriental notions which
he learned from Agrippa, an.l the deification of Julius and Augustus,

* He caused his sisters to be mentioned
along with himself in the military oath ;
and the formula lor the relatio of ;t ccnsul

was quod bomim felixque sit C. ('nesari
sororibnsque eius.

222 THE PBINCIPATE OF GAJ.US. OHAF. auv.

suggested to him this extravagance. He believed that nothing
was impossible for him to execute, and his great passion was to
make it manifest that he was controlled by no law, and not
subject to ordinary human affections. He exulted in looking on
suffering without blenching. He regretted that his reign was not
marked by some striking disaster such as the defeat of the Varian
legions. He used to dress himself like Bacchus or Hercules or
Venus, and play the part of these deities in the temples before an
admiring crowd. He pretended to converse with Jupiter in the
temple on the Capitol, and for this purpose, in order to have
speedier access to his divine kinsman, he caused a flying bridge
to be thrown across the Velahrum, reaching from the Palatine close
to the newly dedicated temple of Augustus to the Capitoline.
Among the gods, as amon^ men, he claimed to be pre-eminent; he
declared that he was the Latian Jupiter ; and he challenged, with a
Homeric verse, Jupiter Capitolinus to combat.

§ 8. He endeavoured to manifest his divine nature by archi-
tectural constructions of colossal and fantastic designs. He
connected the imperial palace with the temple of Castor in the
Forum, perhaps by a series of corridors supported on a bridge, and
thus made the temple the vestibule of the palace. This construc-
tion has disappeared without leaving a trace. His most useful work,
was the aqueduct conveying to Rome the waters of the Aqua
Claudia and the Anio Novus ; but this he was unable to complete.
He planned a work, which has been often designed but never
executed, the making of a cnnal through the Isthmus of C 'rinth.
His most during construction was the bridge across the Gulf of
Baiae (39 A.D.), which was clearly not intended to be permanent.
A soothsayer, it is said, had prophesied that Gains would never
become Kmperor any more than he would drive a chariot across the
Gulf of BaiaB. Gaius determined to drive across it, attended by a
whole army. Having collected all the ship-; that were to be found
in all the havens far and wide, thus impeding the regular course of
commerce and causing seriou-* inconvenience, he d ew them up in
double line from Bauli to Puteoli. On this bridge of ships was
placed a great floor of timber, which was covered all over with earth
and paved like a high road. A n w and unheard of spectacle was
devised, to be exhibited on this structure before it was demolished,
and the whole shore from Misennm to Puteoli was crowded with
spectators. The Emp- ror, dressed in armour which had been worn
by Alexander the Great, rode at the head of a band of soldiers,
across the bridge and entered Puteoli a-< a conqueror. Next
morning he drove back in a triumphal chariot but dressed as a
charioteer of the green party. He halted at the centre of the bridge

39 A.D. FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES. 223

and made a speech. A banquet followed, which lasted till late in
the night, and the whole scene \va* illuminated with torches on
the bridge and on the coast. Intoxication prevailed and many
spectators were drowned.

If he was zealous for his own fame, Gaius was jealous of the
fame of others. He caused the statues of the distinguished men of
the Kepublic, which Augustus had set up in the Campus, to be
broken hi pieces. He forbade the last descendant of the Pompeys
to bear the name Magnus. He commanded the works of Virgil and
Livy to be removed from the libraries, on the ground that Viigil had
no genius, and that Livy was careless. He would not permit the
image of his own ancestor Agrippa to be placed beside that of
Augustus ; he even repudiated his grandfather, and gave out that
he was the grandson of Augustus and Julia, living in incest like the
gods.

§ 9. The extravagances of Gaius at last plunged him into
financial difficulties. He exhausted the large treasures accumulated
by Tiberius, and in order to refill his empty purse, he began to
persecute the nobles, and confiscate the property of the rich.
Hitherto, he had steadfastly and vehemently denounced all the
works of Tiberius, but, pressed by want of gold, he did not hesitate
to revive the law of treason and the .system of delation, in order to
plunder his fellow-citizens.

Appearing in the senate, he openly praised the policy of his
predecessor, and announced the revival of the laws of maiestas.
The senate thanked the Emperor for his clemency in permitting
them to live, and decreed him special honours. Many rich
senators were sacrificed to appease the Emperor's cuj idity.
L. Annaens Seneca only escaped because his declining age pro-
mised that his wealth would soon fall into the imperial coffers
without prosecuting him. The noble exiles in the islands were
put to death, and their fortunes confiscated. But Ga'us ultimately
alienated not only the senate, but the people, by imposing new
taxes which affected Italy and Rome, and the soldiers, by rescind-
ing tl>eir wills.

§ 10. But before he went so far as to tax the citizens of Rome
(41 A.D.), he had plundered Gaul. In September, 39 A.D , he
announced that hostilities of the Germans required his presence
on the Rhine, and proceeded thither with a retinue of dancers and
gladiators. Lentulus Gaatulicns, a son-in-law of Scjanus, had b« en
now for ten years the commander of the legions of the Upper Rhine.
Before the death of Tiberius, he had b. en accused of having relaxed
the discipline of the camp in order to win the favour of his soldiers.
When he was threatened by disgrace, he boldly defied the Emperor tc

224

THE PRINCIPATE OF GAIUS

CHAP. xiv.

remove him from the governorship of Upper Germany, and Tiberius
had left him where he was. Perhaps the purpose of the expedition
of Gaius was to assert the imperial authority over this independent
le^atus, and restore military discipline. It is certain that the
barbarians beyond the limes were at this time troublesome, and
the victory which Gaius announced to the senate may have been
warranted by a real repulse inflicted on some band of Germans
attempting to invade Gaul.* At this time a conspiracy was formed,
in which Lentulus Gsetulicus was implicated. The object of the
plot was to slay Gaius and place M. .ZEmilius Lepidus on the
throne. Lepidus had been a favourite of the Emperor and a
companion of all his pleasures. Gaius had given him in marriage
his favourite sister, the unfortunate Drusilla, and had intended to
designate him as successor to the Empire. The surviving sisters
of Gaius, Agrippina and Julia, intrigued with Lepidus, and took
part in this treasonable plot, which was discovered in October,
39 A.D. Gsetulicus and Lepidus were executed, and the two
women were banished. Gaius sent a full account of their adultery
and treason to the senate, and asked the fathers to confer no
distinctions on his kinsfolk for the future. He also sent three
swords, destined for his assassination, to be dedicated as votive of-
ferings to Mars Ultor. To till the place of Gastulicus, he appointed
Lucius Galba (afterwards Emperor), who enforced and restored
disci pline among the demoralized legions.

The Emperor spent the winter at Lugudunum, where he
practised every device for extorting money from the inhabitants
of Gaul. Prosecutions and executions were the order of the day.
Auctions were held, at which the people were forced to buy at
extravagant prices. It is said, that furniture of the imperial
palace was conveyed from Rome to the banks of the Rhone, and
that the Emperor himself played the auctioneer, recommending each
article and encouraging the bidding. " This was my father's," he
said, " this my great-grandfather's ; this was a trophy of Augustus ;
this an Egyptian rarity of Antony." By such means the imperial
coffers were enriched. Lugudunum also witnessed the great-grand-
son of Augustus mocking the celebration of the ceremony at his
Altar, which represented the union of the Gallic provinces. Among
the contests which were instituted in his honour were competitions
in rhetoric and verse. Gaius compelled the unsuccessful candidates

* Persius, vi. 43 :

Mis-a cat a Caesare laurus
tnsignem ob cladem Germanse pubis et aris
Frigidus excutltur cinis ac iam postibus

arma,
Jam chlaniydes regum, iam lutea gausapa

captis
Essedaque ingentesque locat Caesonia

Rbenos.

Tacitus calls the Britannic and the
Germanic expeditions " Galanarum ex.
peditionum ludibriuua."

40 AA GAIUS IN GAUL. 225

to wipe out what they had written with their tongues, undei
penalty of being cast into the river.

§ 11. On January 1, 40 A.D., he assumed the consulship for the
third time, but resigned it on the twelfth day. As his destined
colleague had died before the end of the year, and the senate was
afraid to nominate anyone in his place without the imperial
sanction, the Emperor was sole consul during the short period of
his office. In spring, he advanced northward from Lugudunum
to the shores of the ocean, in order to achieve the work which his
greater namesake had attempted, the conquest of Britain. This
project was suggested to him by Adminius, a fugitive prince of
that island, who had sought retuge with the Romans. The large
army which Gaius had collected reached the Bononia* of the
north — otherwise called Gesoriacum — expecting to take ship there ;
but one day they were ordered to form in line along the shore,
in full battle array, and Gaius, who reviewed his troops from a
trireme, suddenly issued a command to pile arms and pick shells.
The soldiers filled their helmets with the shells, which were regarded
as spoils of the sea, and sent to Kome in token of the great victory
won by the Emperor over the ocean and the island of the ocean.
It is quite conceivable that this extraordinary caricature of a
British expedition was actually enacted by the eccentric Emperor;
but it is also possible that the story may be a fictitious parody of a
genuine expedition which came to nothing.

Before he returned to Home, in order to celebrate there with
unheard of magnificence a triumph for his warlike exploits, Gaius
visited Castra Vetera and Oppidum Ubiorum on the Lower Rhine;
and report said that he conceived the monstrous idea of decimating
those troops, who, twenty-five years ago, had by their mutiny
caused the flight of his mother Agrippina, when he was an infant
in her arms.f The tale probably rests on some jest which the
Emperor let fall, in his bantering manner, ai'd which was taken up
as serious. His entry into Kome (August 31, 40 A.D.) took the
form of an ovation, not a triumph as he proposed. For the senate,
uncertain what his real wishes were, had not ventured to decree him
a triumph until the last moment ; and Gains, filled with resentment,
refused their tardy offer. " I am coming," he said, " but not for the
senate, 1 am coming for the knights and people, who alone deserve
my presence. For the senate, I will be neither prince nor a citizen,
but an Imperator and a conqueror."

§ 12. From the moment of his return the Emperor threw off all
the remaining disguises which cloaked the monarchy, and all the

* The northern Bononia is now Boulogne, I f See above Chap. XII. $ 8.
ae the southern Bononia is Bologna.
10*

226 THE PKINCIPATE OF GAIUS. CHAP. xiv.

fictions of liberty. He appeared in the undisguised character of an
eastern autocrat. Instead of entering Rome as a citizen, he
entered in the garb of an imperator; and it it said that he would
have assumed the diadem, if he had not thought himself superior
to the kings of the east who wore it. The cruelties and excesses
of the new tyranny, which exceeded what had been hither-
to experienced, necessarily led to conspiracies. A plot, in which
Anicius Cerealis, who will meet us again in a subsequent'
piincipate, took part, was detected, and the senate decreed that the
Emperor should occupy a seat in the curia, elevated so high that
no conspirator could reach him. Fear of his life made Gains
doubly cruel, and yet the nobles, instead of striking a blow for
their fivedom, tried to save themselves by servility to the worth-
less favourites and delators. Such was the freerlman Protoo;enes,
who carried about with him two tablets calU-d Sword and Dagger,
on which the names were inscribed of those who were marked out
for death by execution or assassination. To what a pass the spirit
of the senate had descended is illustrated by the fate of Scriboiiius
Proculus. One day when Protogenes entered the curia and the
senators pressed forward to shake hands with him, he cried to Pro-
culus who was among them, '* What ! darest thou, the enemy of
Caesar, to salute me?" The word was hardly spoken when the
Fathers fell upon their brother senator, and stabbed him to death
with their styles. From such men the tyrant thought he had little
to fear.

§ 13. Financial difficulties drove the Emperor at length into
imposing a number of new taxes on Italy and Rome, and these
measures deprived him of any vestige of popularity that he still
enjoyed with the populace on account of the shows with which he
amus' d them. In January, 41 A.D., he imposed a tax on imj orts
at the Italian harbours, and at the gates of the Italian cities, in-
cluding Rome. He ordained a fee of 2£ per cent, for persons
suing in the courts of law. He established an income tax, which
was levied even on prostitutes. He seems to have nlso resorted to
the device of debasing the currency.* A feeling of hostility grew
up between the people and the'r ruler ; and it is said that Gains,
disgusted at the symptoms of his unpopularity, expressed the wish,
" Would that the Roman people had only one neck I*

But from these new imposts men had not long to suffer. A
conspiracy was formed among the pra?t"rian officers, in which
Cassias Chserea, who owed a | ersonal grudge to the Emperor, and
Sabinus, both tribunes of the praetorian guards, took the most
active part. L. Annius Vinicianus and some of the imperial
* Statins. SUv. iv. 9. 22 : Emptum plus minus asse Qalaoo

41 A.D. MURDER OF GAIUS 227

freedmen were also implicated. The blow was itruck on the
24th of January (41 A.D.) just as Gaius was making prepara-
tions for a campaign of extortion in the rich province of Egypt.
The assassination was accomplished by Chserea and his fellows in
the vaulted corridor which connected the palace with the Circus
Maximus, through which Gaius was passing to see the horse-races.
The conspirators succeeded in escaping from the swords of the
German bodyguards, and the corp e of Gains was hastily interred
in the Lamian gardens. At a later period it was exhumed and
cremated by the sisters whom he had banished. At his death
Gaius was only thirty years old.

SECT. III. — PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT. THE JEWS.

§ 14. If the ] rincipate of Gaius was a reaction on that of
Tiberias in domes' ic policy, so too in provincial affairs he aimed at
altering the arrangements of h s predecessor. Tiberius had deposed
Antiochus of Commagene, and made that district a province ; Gaius
restored it to the deposed king's son, Antiochus IV. Epiphanes
Magnus, increased it by the Cilician coast, and restored 100,00 ,000
sesterces, the confiscated property of his father. Agrippa, whom
Tiberius bad imprisoned, received the tetrarchy* of his uncle,
Philip IIM who had recently died, and in addition Abilene. Two
years later, he induced the Kmperor to deposs Antipas and his wife
Herodias, the rulers of Samaria, and send them into exile, on the
ground of treason. Samaria was given to Agrippa, who thus united
under his sceptre the lands which had formed the kingdom of
Herod the Great, with the exception of the province Judea. In
Thrace a Roman officer had governed the inheritance of Cotys
since 19 A.r>. Gaius restored it to Rhcemetalces, son of Cotys,
and increas-H the realm by the rest of Thrace, which had belonged
to another Rhcemetalces, the son of Khascnporis. The younger
brothers of the restored Rhoemetalces had been brought up with
Gaius himself in Italy, and were related through their mother
A'.tonia Tn pliaina with his own grandmother Antonia. He there-
fore provided them also with kingdoms. To Polemo he gave Pontus
Polemoniacns, and to Cotys Lesser Armenia. Another, appoint-
ment made by Gaius at the same time (38 A.D.) was that of the
Arabian S< agmus to the throne of Iturasa.

But while he restored dependent kingdoms in the east, he pulled

down a de| e dent kingdom in the west. Ptolemy, king ol

Manretan a, was summoned to Rome and executed, in order that

his treasures might replenish the Emperor's coffers. It was con-

* See above, Chap. VII. 0 T.

228 THE PRINCIPATE OF GAIUS. CHAP, xiv

templated to divide Mauretania into two provinces, Ccesariensis
and Tingitana ; and this arrangement was afterwards carried out.
Grains also made an administrative change in the neighbouring
provinces of Africa and Numidia. Africa was the only senatorial
province in which a legion was stationed under the command of
the governor. Gaius removed this anomaly by consigning the
legion to an imperial legatus, who was also entrusted with civil
functions in Numidia, while the powers of the proconsul were
confined to the administration of civil affairs in Africa Vetus.

§ 15. The claim of the Ernperor to receive adoration as a god led
to disturbances among the Jews, 'both in Judea and at Alexandria.
In 38 B.C. Herod Agrippa visited Alexandria on the way to his
new kingdom. His appearance in the streets in royal state led to
an anti-Jewish demonstration among the non- Jewish population;
and the prefect of Egypt Avillius Flaccus, with a zeal which
proved unlucky for himself, seized the opportunity to re mire that
the Jews, whom they detested, should set up statues of the Emperor
in their synagogues. When the Jews refused to submit to such
an abomination, their fellow-citizens drove them into one quarter
of the town, and destroyed their dwellings throughout the rest.
Many of them were slain in the tumult. But Flaccus, who had also
issued an edict forbidding the Jews to keep the Sabbath, paid the
penalty of his wrong-doing. He was immediately superseded, and
sent as a prisoner to Rome by Bassus, who succeeded him. The
Jews, however, had only a short respite. When Gaius began to
claim divine worship from all his subjects, he would not brook the
solitary refusal of the Jews. It was expected that a decree would
go forth, ordaining that the imperial image should be set up in all
synagogues ; and with a view to avert, if possible, such a calamity,
the Jews of Alexandria sent an embassy to appeal directly to the
Emperor (40 A.D.). The details of this embassy have come down
to us from the pen of the most distinguished of the ambassadors,
the learned philosopher Philo. At the same time the Alexan-
drians sent a counter-embassy to thwart the Jews. When they
arrived on the coast of Campania, the tidings met them that
orders had just been issued to Petronius, the governor of Judea, to
set up a colossal statue of the Emperor in the Holy of Holies at
Jerusalem. Gaius was at this time engaged in transforming the
house and gardens of the Lamias into a royal residence, and the rival
embassies from Alexandria were summoned thither. They found
him hurrying; about from room to room, surrounded by architects
and workmen, to whom he was iiivinj directions, and th- y were
compelled to follow in his train. Stopping to address the Jews, he
asked, " Are you the God-haters, who deny my divinity, which all

10 A.D.

JEWLSH EMBASSY.

229

the world acknowledges ? " The Alexandrian envoys hastened to
put in their word, " Lord and master, these Jews alone have refused
to sacrifice for your safety." " Nay, Lord Gaius," said the Jews,
" it is a slander. We sacrificed for you, not once, but thrice ; first
when you assumed the empire, then when you recovered from your
sickness, and again for your success against the Germans." " Yes,"
observed Gaius, "you sacrificed for me, not to me ; " and thereupon
he hurried to another room, the Jews trembling, and their rivals
jeering, " as in a play." The next remark he addressed to them
was, "Pray, why do ye not eat pork?" Finally he dismissed
them with the observation, " Men who deem me no god are after
all more unlucky than guilty." The embassy of Philo and his
fellows was a failure. Gaius was resolved to impose his worship
on the Jews, and his orders to Petronius were confirmed. The
"ebellion of Judea seemed inevitable, when the death of the mad
tyrant averted the sacrilege from the temple of Jerusalem.

Antonin.

Bust of Claudius (from the statue in the Vatican).

CHAPTER XV.

THE PRINCIPATE OF CLAUDIUS (41-54 A.D.).

1. Circumstances of the accession of Claudius. Idea of restoring the
Republic. The praetorian guards and the senate. § 2. Early life and
character of Claudius. § 3. Hi" legitimacy. Connection of Claudian
and Julian houses. Marriage relationships. §4. Reaction against policy
of Gaius. § 5. Revision of the senate. Censorship of Claudius. Ex-
tension of Roman civitas to Gaul. Increase of patriciate. Extension
of pomoerium. Religion. Jews. Secular games. § 6. Administra-
tion of justice. § 7. The serarium. J'lebiS'ita. § 8. Public works.
Draining of Fucine lake, and naval spectacle. § 9. Provincial
administration. Mauretania. § 10 Corbulo on the Rhine Lower
Germany. §11. Upper Germany. § 12. Pannonia. The Suevians.
§ 13. New provinces. The client kingdoms. Mithradates and the
kingdom of Bosporus. § 14. Judea and Agrippa. Cos. Byzantium.
§ 15. Employment of freedmen by Claudius. § 16. Marriage of
Claudius. Messalina. § 17. Position and influence of the Empress.
Exile and death of Julia. Destruction of Appius Silanus, Valerius
Asiaticus, and Poppaea Sabina. § 18. Messalma's intrigue with Silius.
Their marriage. Stratagem of Narcissus and the freedmen. § 19.
The orgies of Messalina. I'eath of Silius and Messalina. § 20.
Agrippiua and her designs. § 21. Her marriage with Claudius.
Death of Lucius Silanus and Lollia Paulina. § 22. Character of
Agrippina and her court. § 23. Her schemes for her son. Nero and

41 A.1X QUESTION OF THE SUCCESSION. 231

Britannicus. Marriage of Nero and Octavia. Agrippina's influence
sbiken. § 24. Struggle of Narcissus and Agrippina. Destruction of
Domitia Lejiida. § 25. Death of Claudius. § 26. Arrangements ot
Agrippina for the accession of Nero. He is accepted by the guards
and the senate. § '27. Deification of Claudius. § 28. Seueca's satire,
fadus de morte Chtudii C&saris.

SECT. I. — ACCESSION AND CHABAOTEB OP CLAUDIUS.

§ 1. GAIUS dssARwas the first of a long list of Roman Emperors
who were destined to fall by the bunds of assassins. His death led
to a serious crisis, for the conspirators had acted without a thought
of what was to come, and no one was marki d out to step into the
place of the murdered Emperor. Augustus had formally selected
Tiberius as his successor, and conferred on him the tribunician power ;
Tiberius had practically selected Gaius by his testament, but
Gaius had not either conferred a share of tlie imperial prerogatives
on any one, or made a wilL Thus it seemed open to the senate
and the Roman people to put into practice the constitutional
theory that the Empire was elective.

As soon as the assassination became known, the consuls Sentius
Saturninus and Pomponius Secundus ordered the urban cohorts to
post themsdves in various parts of the city, and immediately
called together the senate to deliberate on what was to be done.
The fathers met in the temple of Capitoline Jupiter, and not, as
usual, in the Curia Julia, as though in this building they would have
been under the ^nfiuence of the Julian name. They were unanimous
in denouncii g the tyrannical rule of Gaius, in abolishing his un-
popular taxes, and in promising a donative to the soldiers. But
they were divided on the more momentous question as to the
future of the state. Some held that the free Republic should be
restored and the constitution of the Ca?sars abolished ; others voted
that the Principate should continue, but in another family, and
there were not wanting candidates for the supreme place. They
could come to no agreement, but, before they separated, a decree
was parsed in honour of Cassius Cha^rea and the other conspirators,
and the watchword given ly the consuls to the city cohorts was
Libertas. Chorea then sent an officer to put to death the Empress
Caesunia and her infant daughter.

But the solution of the difficulty did not rest with the senate.
The prastorian guards had already determined that the Empire was
not to be abolish d, and who the next Kmperor was to be. In the
confusion which follnw.d the assignation, some of these soldiers
had rushed into the palace in search of plunder, and had discovered,

232 THE PRINCIPATE OF CLAUDIUS, CHAP. xv.

hidden behind a curtain, in fear of his life, Claudius, the son of
Drusus and brother of Germanicus. They greeted him with the
title Imperator, and carried him off to the prsetorian camp. The
restoration of the Republic would have meant the dissolution of the
guards, and they were naturally resolved to hinder it. Claudius
wavered before accepting the dignity which was thus thrust upon
him and of which he had perhaps never dreamt. But the in-
sistence of the soldiers, the voice of the people who gathered round
the senate on the following morning, and the counsels of Herod
Agrippa, who went to and fro between the senate and the camp,
determined him to yield ; and he promised the guards, when they
took the oath of allegiance, a donative of 15,000 sesterces (£120)
each. He was the first of the Caesars who bought the fidelity of the
soldiers by a donative. It would have been useless for the senate
to attempt to struggle against the will of the praetorians, even if
the urban cohorts had continued to support it, but these went
over to the other side.

Claudius was then conducted to the palace by the praetorians,
and he ordered the senate to come to him there. The senators did
not dare to refuse ; only the conspirators Chaerea and Sabinus held
out, and protested against the replacement of a madman by an
idiot. The usual decrees were passed conferring the imperial
powers upon Claudius, the first, but by no means the last, Roman
Emperor who was elected by the will of the praetorian guards.

Chasrea and others of the conspirators were immediately executed.
Sabinus was pardoned, but killed himself by falling on his sword,
having declared that he could not survive the accession of another
Caesar. For all the other acts of the short interregnum a general
pardon was proclaimed. But the assassination of his nephew had
made a deep impression on Claudius, and he adopted the practice of
keeping guards continually posted round his person, even when he
sat at table. All persons who were admitted to the imperial
apartments were searched before they entered.

§ 2. The new Emperor, Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus*, was
born at Lugudunum on the day on which the temple of Augustus
and Rome was dedicated there by his father (10 B.C.). He was thus
about fifty years of age when he came to the throne. He had
always been regarded arid treated by his family as half an imbecile,
but his defects seem to have been physical rather than mental.
His constitution was weak : his hands trembled ; he halted on one
leg ; and his speech was thick. Labouring under these disadvantages,
he was neglected by his mother, who described him as a "monster,"
and left to the care of servants. His grandmother Livia ignored
* Full name : Ti. Claudius Drusi f. Cwsar Augustus Germanicus.

il A.D.

CAREER OF CLAUDIUS.

233

him. Augustus, indeed, recognised that he was not such a fool as
he seemed, but slighted him, deeming him worthy of no higher
dignity than an augurate, and leaving him only a very small
bequest in his will. Tiberius treated him with undisguised con-
tempt, and seeing no hope of a public career, Claudius retired to
the country, devoted himself to literature, and amused himself
with the society of low people. Under his nephew Gaius he was
promoted to the dignity of the consulship, and thereby entered the
senatorial rank. But his wanton kinsman forced him to submit to
all kinds of indignities and insults. He was slighted in the curia,
and at the court was the butt of the Emperor's rollicking com-
panions. The senate selected him as the head of a deputation to
Gaius in Gaul, and on that occasion he was ducked in the river
Rhone. He was created priest to Gaius as Jupiter Latiaris, and
ruined by the enormous expenses which devolved upon him in that
capacity. Yet, as Gaius had no children, the more farsighted, like
Herod Agrippa, saw that Claudius might one day be a candidate
for empire, and took care to maintain friendly relations with him.

He wrote three large historical works : a history of the Etruscans,
in twenty Books ; a history of the Carthaginians, in eight Books :
and a history of the Roman state since the battle of Actium, in
forty-one Books. He also wrote his own biography, in eight Books ;
a defence of Cicero against the censures of Asinius Gallus ; a treatise
on dice-playing, and a Greek comedy. The Etruscan and Car-
thaginian histories were also written in Greek. He studied grammar,
and attempted to enrich the Latin alphabet by three new letters,*
which, however, did not survive his reign. But though he was
erammed with antiquarian lore, he had little judgment in applying
it, and the circumstances of his early life did not tend to make him
practical. Yet it was a gross misrepresentation to say that he was
half-witted. When he came to the throne he surprised all by
showing considerable talent for administration, as well as a genuine
anxiety for the welfare of the state. He was a weak-minded
pedant, and lived under the influence of his wives and his freed-
men, but he was far from being an imbecile. He and James I. of
England, to whom he has aptly been compared, are the two
notorious examples of pedants on the throne. They were alike
also in their ungainly figures, coarse manners, and want of personal
dignity. The face of Claudius, as represented in his busts, was
handsome, and has a look of pain or weariness, which gives it
a certain interest.

* The most useful of the«e novelties
was the distinction of u and v, by using an
inverted digamuin for the Utter sound.

We meet this symbol frequently in the
inscriptions of bis reign. Thus ampliavit
was written ampliajitu

234 THE PRINC1PATB OF CLAUDIUS. CHAP. xv.

§ 3. Claudius did not belong, strictly speaking, to the house of
the Csesara. He had not been transferred into the Julian gens,
like his uncle Tiberius and his brother Germanicus.

When therefore he adopted the name " Cajsar," it was in strict-
ness no longer a family name, but an imperial title. Yet Claudius
had been so closely associated with the family of the Caesars that
his assumption of the Julian cognomen may have har«ily seimed
an innovation. The Claudians and Julians had been so closely
connected since the marriage of Augu.^tus and Li via that they
were almost regarded as a single house. It was the policy, oi
Claudius to emphasize his connection with Augustus. He caused
the divine honours, which Tiberius had refused, to be granted to
his grandmother Livia Augusta. • His position was perhaps further
strengthened by his marriage with Valeria Messalina, who was a
descendant of Octavia, the sister of Augustus.* Their daughter
Octavia was intended to be the bride of L. Junius Silanus, who was
a great-great-grandson of Augustus; and his other daughter,
Antonia, by a former wife, was affianced to Cn. Pompeius Magnus,
who was connected through his parents with several distinguished
families.f

§ 4. The reign of Claudius was marked by a reaction against
that of Gaius, as that of Gaius had been marked by a reaction
against that of Tibeiius. The new Etnperor showed himself
clement and moderate. The acts of Gaius were annulled; the
estates which he had confiscated were restored to their owners, and
the statues of which he had lobbed the temples of Greece and Asia
were sent back to their homes. Exiles and prisoners who were
suffering under the charge of treason, were pardoned, and Julia
and Agrippina, the nieces of the Emperor, were recalled from the
banishment to which they had been condemned by their brother.
The new year's presents, which Gaius had demanded from his
subjects, were forbidden, and the Emperor accepted the inheritance
of no man who had relatives. But the aristocrats were not at first
contented with the rule of one whom they had been taught to
regard with a pitying contempt. The fate of Gaius showed how
easy it was to overthrow an Emperor, and there were not want'ng
aspirants to the supreme power. A conspiracy was formed to strike
down Claudius and set in his place L. Annius Vinicianus, a promi-
nent senator. The movement was supported by Furius Camiilus
Scribonianus, governor of Dalmatia, who undertook to march into
Italy at the head of the two legions under his command, and sent
a message of insolent defiance to Claudius, who was so terrified

* See below, $ 16.

t The Calpurnfi Pisones, and the Licinii Crnssi, as well as the Pompeii.

47, 48 A.D. CENSORSHIP OF CLAUDIUS. 235

that he thought of resigning the Empire. But the soldiers refused
to follow their commander when he announced his intention, and
he was forced to fly to one of the islan-is off the coast, 10 escape
their anger. The legions (VII. and XL) were rewarded for their
loyalty, and a decree ot the senate conferred upon each the titles
of Claudian, Pious, Faithful. The chief conspirators were pun-
ished by death or committed suicide.

SECT. II. — ADMINISTRATION OF CLAUDIUS.

§ 5. Claudius endeavoured to model his statesmanship on that ol
Augustus. He set himself to restore the relations of cordiality
which had subsisted between senate and Princeps under the
first Emperor. The division ol power between them was strictly
maintained, and Claudius was prompted by his passion for antiquity
to preserve the dignity of the senate. He reserved for members of
that ancient order special seats in the Circus Maxinms. The
influence of the senate was also increased by the rivalry which
existed between the 1'reedmen and the wives of the Emperor, each
party seeking a support in the authority of the senate. The list of
the order had not been revised since the reign of Augustus, and
Claudius undertook the unpopular task, which his two predecessors
had omitted. The task was necessary, but like most things which
Claudius did, he performed it in a manner which excited ridicule.
Instead of simply assuming censorial power, he revived (47, 48 A.D.)*
the office of censor— a title which Augustus had avoided — and held
a lustrum. His colleague in the office was L. Vitellius. The act
was harmless, but it seemed to savour of the antiquarian on the
throne, and when the zealous censor issued fifty edicts in one day,
there was matter for jest in Rome. But useful business was done.
Many new members were admitted into the senate, and the
equestrian order was also revised. Claudius showed that he had not
forgotten the land of his birth, by paving the way for extending
the^'ws honorum to the three Gauls, so far as they already possessed
the civitas sine suffrayio. Natives of Gallia Narbonensis, of Spain
and Africa, had already been admitted to the senate, and the
magistracies ; Claudius extended the privilege to the ^Edui, who, as
the first Gallic allies of Rome, were called the " brothers of the
Roman people." This mark of favour came fitly from the son of
Drusus, the brother of Grermanicus, and the conqueror of Britain.
The speech which Claudius pronounced on this occasion before the

* He appears as censor designate In 47 I following year. He laid It down before
A.D., but it is uncertain whether the cen- the ftjitumn of 48 A.D.
sorship began in this, or not till the '

236 THE PBINCIPATE OF CLAUDIUS. CHAP. xv.

senate was characteristic of the man. Two considerable fragments
of it have been preserved on bronze tablets, which were dug up at
Lyons, and we can judge from these remains that the oration was
long and rambling, displaying knowledge of the ancient history of
Rome, which bore very little on the matter in hand, and illustrating
that want of sense of proportion, which made even the best acts of
Claudius seem a little absurd. After a long and tedious historical
disquisition, he suddenly breaks out in an address to himself which
is simply grotesque: "But it is high time for thee, 0 Tiberius
Caesar Germanicus, to unfold to the conscript fathers the aim of
thy discourse."

Like Augustus, Claudius was specially empowered by the senate
(in the year of his censorship) to increase the number of patrician
families, which were gradually dwindling, with a view to the
conservation of religious ceremonies. This was a work thoroughly
congenial to the spirit of the antiquarian sovran. He also received
powers to enlarge the Pomoerium, so as to include the Aventine
hill, which had hitherto lain outside the limits of the city in its
narrower sense. As an imitator of Augustus and a student of
Etruscan archaeology, he naturally made the maintenance of religion
a special care, and did away with the oriental rites which had come
into practice at the court in the reign of Gaius. The Jews were
tolerated in Rome until their seditions caused him to expel them
again, as they had been expelled by Tiberius. In the eight
hundredth year of the city, which fell in this reign (47 A.D.),
Claudius as Pontifex Maximus celebrated the Ludi Sseculares, though
they had been celebrated sixty-three years before by Augustus.
He founded a college of sixty haruspices for the official main-
tenance of Etruscan auguries. But in his zeal for religion he did
not neglect the dictates of worldly wisdom, and limited the number
of holidays, which interfered with the course of business.

§ 6. Claudius also imitated his great model in devoting himself
assiduously to the administration of justice. He used to sit
patiently, hour after hour, through tedious judicial investigations in
the open forum, or in the Basilica Julia. But while we may
recognise his good intentions, it is doubtful whether such personal
activity of a sovran in administering justice is not more harmful
than beneficial. He annulled the laws of treason, suppressed the
practice of delation, and promised that no Roman citizen should be
submitted to the pain of torture. He did away with the innovation
introduced by (Saius, that slaves might give evidence against their
masters. In connection with these measures, which were designed
to preserve the dignity of the Roman citizen, it may be mentioned
that he meted out strict punishment to those who claimed the

41-54 A.D. ADMINISTRATION. PUBLIC WORKS. 237

franchise on false pretences. He also regulated marriages between
free women and slaves, and defined the legal position of their
children as servile.

§ 7. Some important administrative changes were made in the
reign of Claudius. Judicial authority was committed to the
procurators, who managed the affairs of the fiscus in the provinces.
Thus, suits concerning fiscal debts were withdrawn from the
ordinary tribunals ; but those who were not satisfied with the
award of the imperial procurator could appeal to the Emperor.
Claudius also made a new arrangement for the administration of
the asrarium. It will be remembered that Augustus had transferred
this treasury from the urban quaestors to two prsetores serarii.
Claudius restored it to the quaestors, but with a modification of
the old arrangement. The two treasurers were selected from the
quaBStors, not by lot, but by the choice of the Emperor, and they
held office for three years, under the title of qusestores xrarii
Saturni (44 A.D.). The tendency to return to old constitutional
forms was also manifested in the revival of the legislative power
of the comitia of the people. Some of the laws of Claudius took
the form of plebiscites. But it was the unpractical experiment i>f
an antiquarian,* and all his important legislation took the form of
senatusconsulta.

§ 8. His reign was distinguished by the execution of works of
public utility. He completed the aqueduct which had been begun
by Gaius, and left unfinished ; and from him it derived the name
of Aqua Claudia. A much greater work was the construction of
the Portus Romanus. When Claudius came to the throne, the
public granaries were empty, and Rome was threatened with a
famine. The immediate necessity was relieved by extending privi-
leges to private trade in corn ; but the scarcity continued, and one
of the chief and abiding causes was the want of a good haven close
to Rome. The mouth of the Tiber was silted up with sand, and
the corn-ships from Egypt were obliged to anchor at Puteoli.
Claudius supplied this great want by making a new haven, a little
above the well-nigh deserted port of Ostia, and connected with the
river by an artificial channel. The haven was formed by two
immense moles built out into the sea, and a lighthouse was erected
at the entrance. This undertaking involved a large outlay, but it
was of great and permanent utility. A still vaster enterprise was
the draining of the Fuciue Lake in the land of the Mar si, but the
cost and the labour were not recompensed by the results. The
agriculture of the Marsians suffered constantly from the swelling of
the waters of the lake, and Claudius undertook to hinder this
* It WM tried once again by Nerva, as we shall see.

238 THE PBINCIPATE OF CLAUDIUS. CHAP. xv.

calamity by constructing a tunnel,* three miles in length through
Monte Salviano, to carry away the overflow into the river Liris.
The work of thirty thousand men for eleven years (4l-~-<l A.D.)
was spent on this design, but the tunnel did not prove permanently
efficient, like that which drained the Alhan Lake. Claudius cele-
brated the completion of the work by a mimic naval battle on the
lake, like one which Augustus had exhibited in an artificial basin
in the Transtiberine suburb of Rome, but on a much larger scale.
Claudius equipped vessels of three and four banks of oars, with
nineteen thousand men. He lined the shores of the lake with a
continuous platform of rafts to prevent the galley-slaves from
escaping, but full space was left for the operations of a sea-fiuht.
Divisions of praetorian cohorts and cavalry were posted on the rafts,
with a breastwork in front of them, from which they could direct
missiles against any of the naval gladiators who tried to escape.
An immense multitude of people, both from Home and the neigh-
bouring towns, had gathered, both to see the wonderful spectacle,
and to show their res|>ect for the Emperor ; and the banks, the slopes,
and the hill-tops were crowded with spectators, so that the scene
resembled a vast theatre. The Kmpero'1, dressed in a splendid
military cloak (paludamentum] , and his wile Agrippina, also wearing
a military cloak, presided. Though the combatants were condemned
crimiriHls, they fought bravely, and when much blood had been
shed, they were allowed to separate. The story is told that when
they saluted Claudius with the words, Have, imperator, morituri
te salutant, ("Hail, Emperor! men doomed to die greet thee "),
he answered with aut non (" Or not" doom d to die); and they,
taking the words as a pardon, refused to fi^ht. Claudius at first
thought of having them all massacred, but after wan Is, going round
in person, induced them to fight by threats and exhortations.

SECT. III. — THE PROVINCES UNDER CLAUDIUS.

§ 9. The gradual elevation of the provinces to a poHtical equality
with Italy is one of the features of the imperial period. The
extension of the ius honorum to Gaul, which has been already
mentioned, was an important step in this direc tion, and the reign
of Claudius was marked by a tendency to bestow the Roman
citizenship on provincial communities. He was ridiculed, in a
humorous satire written after his death by the philosopher Seneca,
for having resolved to see all the Greeks, Gauls, Spaniards and
Britons, dressed in the Roman toga. He introduced many changes
* Bee under the article " Emissarium " In Smith's Dictionary qf Antiquitte.

A.D. WARFARE IN AFRICA AND GERMANY 239

in the administration of the subject lands, both the provinces and
the dependent kingdoms. In the north tlie Empire gained a new
province by the conquest of Britain, which will be recounted in
another chapter ; and this led to an increase of the army by two
new legions. The praetorian cohorts were also increased in this
reign from nine to twelve. Manretania had 10 be conquered anew
at the other extremity of the Empire. The inhabitants had rushed
to arms after the execution of their king Ptolemy, under the
leadership of JSderaon, one of his freedmeu. The governor,
Publius Gabinius, was not equal to coping with the rebellion ; but
his successor, C. Suetonius Paulinus, who became famous after-
wards by his campaign in Britain, crossed Mount Atlas and went
as far south as the river Gir, reducing the Maurusian tribes
(42 A.D.). This expedition, however, was not decisive, and the
struggle seems to have lasted until 45 A.D., when Lucius Galba
(who was afterwards Emperor) became proconsul of Africa, and
Cn. Hosidius Geta commanded in Numidia. When order was
restored, chiefly through the energy of Geta, Mauretania was
divided into two provinces, separated by the river Mattua. The
western was distinguished as Tmgitana, from the town Tingi; the
eastern as Csesariensis, from the town Jol Csesarea. Each was
governed by a procurator; but in case of necessity they were
united under the authority of a legatus. Another change in the
western half of the Empire was the enlargement of the little
prefecture of the Cottian Alps, and the elevation of its prefect,
Julius Cottius, to the rank of king.

§ 10. Claudius conquered Britain, but he did not essay the other
enterprise which had once seemed expedient for the protection of
Gaul ; he did not try to repeat the conquest of Germany, which had
busied his father Drusus, and his brother Germanicus. There
was, however, in his reign some fighting beyond the Rhine.
Domitins Corbulo, an able soldier, the rival of Suetonius Paulinus,
was appointed legatus of Lower Germany. He was the half-
brother of CaBsonia, the wife of Gains, in whose reign he had been
entrusted with the task of inspecting the condition of the roads
in. Italy. On reaching the Rhine he set himself to check the
piracy which had been practised in recent years by the German
peoples along the coast of the North Sea. He punished the
Frisians, who had refused to pay the stipulated tribute, and made
an expc dition against the Chauci (47 A.D.), who had dared to make
incursions into the Lower province. But a* he was about to
establish a fortress in the land of that peoi'le, he received orders
from the Emperor to desist from his undertaking, and leave the
Chauoi to themselves. The enemies of Corbulo had represented

240 THE PBINCIPATE OF CLAUDIUS. CHAP. xv.

that he was only seeking his own glory. But in any case it was
the policy of the government at this time to keep the Germans in
order by diplomacy rather than by arms. Thus the Cherusci, who
had degenerated since the days of Arminius, besought the Emperor
to provide them with a chief. Claudius sent Italicus, the son of
Flavus and nephew of Arminius. For a time the youth was
popular, but he soon became suspected and disliked on account of
his Roman manners, and had great difficulty in maintaining his
position. This was just what Rome desired ; it was her policy to
promote discord and dissension among the Germans.

Corbulo returned to his province disgusted and disappointed.
" How happy were the Roman commanders in old days," he is
reported to have murmured when he received the imperial com-
mand. As the soldiers were not to fight, he employed them in the
task of cutting a great canal, connecting the Mosa (Maas) with the
northern branch of the Rhine, parallel to the coast. This supplied
the place of a road, and has lasted till the present day, running
from Rotterdam to Leiden. The reign of Claudius was also dis-
tinguished in the history of the Rhine lands by the elevation of
the Oppidum Ubiorum to the rank of a military colony (50 A.D.), —
Colonia^ Claudia Agrippinensis, called after his fourth wife the
Empress Agrippina, who was born there. Colonia, as it was simply
called — and is still called so in the form Cologne or C6ln — became an
important centre of Roman civilisation. It is possible that another
illustrious Roman colony, Augusta Treverorum — Trier on the
Mosel — was also founded under the auspices of Claudius.* One
work which had been begun by his father it devolved upon him to
complete. This was the great road connecting Italy with the
U pper Danube, passing over the Brenner Alps, the Via Claudia
Augusta.

§ 11. There were also hostilities in the Upper province during
the reign of Claudius. It was found necessary to make an ex-
pedition against the Chatti, and the last of the three eagles lost by
Varus was on this occasion recovered. Some years later (50 A.D.)
predatory bands of Chatti invaded the province, which was
then governed by Publius Pomponius Secundus. He ordered the
Vangiones and the Nemetes — tribes which dwelled on the left bank
of the Rhine about Borbetomagus (Worms), and Noviomagus
(Speyer) — along with the auxiliary cavalry, to intercept the retreat
of the invaders and attack them while they were dispersed. The
troops were divided into two columns. One of these cut off the
plunderers on their return, when after a carouse they were heavy

* But Borne refer It to Augustus himself, while others place it as late as the reign of

Oklta.

50 A.». RELATIONS WITH GERMANY. 241

with sleep; and some survivors of the disaster of Varus were
delivered from captivity. The other column inflicted greater loss
on the foe in a regular battle, and returned laden with spoil to
Mount Taunus, where Pomponius was waiting with his legions.
The triumphal ornaments were decreed to Pomponius, who,
however, was more celebrated for his poems than for his military
achievements.

§ 12. On the Pannonian frontier, Claudius was called upon to
intervene in the affairs of the Suevi. After the overthrow of
Maroboduus, Vannius had been recognised as king of the Suevic
realm, which included Bohemia, the land of the Marcomanni, and
also the modern Moravia, the land of the Quadi. For about thirty
years Vannius reigned in great prosperity, popular with his
countrymen, whom he enriched by plunder and the tribute of
subject tribes. But long possession made him a tyrant, and domestic
hatred, combined with the enmity of neighbouring peoples, proved
his ruin. In 60 A.D. a plot was formed for his overthrow by his
nephews Vangio and Sido, who were supported by Vibilius, king of
the Hermunduri, a people who lived west of Bohemia. Claudius
declined to send Roman troops to protect his vassal, and would only
promise a safe refuge to Vannius in case he were expelled. But he
instructed Palpellius Hister, the legatus of Pannonia, to have his
legions with some chosen auxiliaries posted along the banks of the
Danube— as a rule their station was on the Drave — to be a support
to Vannius if he were conquered, and a terror to the conquerors. The
enemies of Vannius were supported by an immense force of Lugii, a
Suevic tribe which probably dwelled in the modern Silesia. To
oppose this large force, Vannius had obtained some cavalry from the
lazyges (a Sarmatian race who lived between the Danube and the
Theiss), to support his own infantry. He wished to protract the
war by maintaining himself in fortresses ; but the lazyges, who
could not endure a siege, brought on an engagement; Vannius \vas
compelled to come down from his forts, and was defeated. He then
fled to the Roman fleet on the Danube, and grants of land in
Pannonia were assigned to him and his followers. Vangio and
Sido divided his kingdom, and remained loyal to Rome.

§ 13. In the east, the list of provinces was augmented by the
"conversion of the kingdom of Thrace into a province governed by a
procurator (46 A.D.). The free confederation of the cities of Lycia
was also abolished and that country united to the province of
Pamphyiia (43 AD.). This measure led to the complete Hellenisa-
tion of Lycia. Macedonia and Achaia, which Tiberius had placed
under the common control of an imperial legatus, were restored by
Claudius to the senate, and again governed by praetorian proconsuls.
11

242 THE PBINCIPATE OF CLAUDIUS. CflAH xv.

Now that Moesia was separately administered, they wore girt round
by a chain of frontier provinces which secured them against hostile
inroads, so that they could be safely entrusted to the senate.

The affairs of the small dependent kingdoms in the east were
ordered anew. Antiochus IV. was restored to the throne of
Commagene, which Gaius had given him and then capriciously
taken away. Special attention was attracted tc the kingdom of
Bosporus and the north-eastern shores of the Knxine. The history
of these regions is so little known that the glimpse of them which
we get now is welcome. In 41 A.D. Claudius transferred the
kingdom of Bosporus, which Gains had bcstowrd on Polemo, to a
certain Mithradates, who claimed to be descended from the great
opponent of Rome; and Polemo received some districts in Cilicia as
a compensation. But a few years later (45 A.D.) he was deposed,
for what reason is unknown, and his brother, a youth named Cotys,
was set up in his stead and at first supported by a considerable
Roman force under Aulus Didius Gallus, who was probably governor
of Moesia. When the Romans departed, leaving only a few cohorts
under a knight named Julius Aqnila, Mithradates saw his op-
portunity. Collecting a band of men, who were exiles like himself,
he overthrew the king of the Dandaridae, a people which dwelled
near the Hypanis(the Kuban), and established himself as ruler over
them. Cotys and Aquila were alarmed at the prospect of an
invasion by Mithradates at the head of the D.mdarids, especially as
the Siraci, another obscure people of those regions, had assumed a
hostile attitude. Accordingly they sought the alliance of Ennones,
king of the Aorsi, another race whose exact home is uncertain It
was resolved to anticipate the designs of the dethroned king of
Bosporus by attacking him in his new Dandarid realm. The army
of Cotys consisted of the Roman cohorts, native Bosporan troops,
and cavalry supplied by Eunones. Mithradates, having no adequate
forces to oppose to this attack, was defeated, and Soza, the town of
Dandarica, was occupied by the invaders. The victors then
proceeded against the Siraci, and laid siege to their town, named
Uspe, which was built on high ground and also fortified by art.
The place was easily taken, and the inhabitants, although thev had
offered submission, were massacred. After the fall of Uspe, the
king of the Siraci deserted the cause of Mithradates, and prostrated
himself before the image of the Emperor. The Romans were very
proud of this expedition. They had advance*! within three days'
journey of the banks of the Tanais, which in their geography was
regarded as one of the limits of the known world. But as they
returned by sea, some ships were wrecked on the shores of the Tauri,
and the barbarians slew one of the prefects and some of the soldier*.

44 A.0. JUDEA. 243

For Mithradates it only remained to throw himself on the mercy
of some protector. Not trusting his brother Cotys, and there being
no Roman officer of influence on the spot, he gave himself up to
Eunones, king of the Aorsi. Eunones undertook his cause, and sent
envoys to Claudius, begging mercy for the captive. After some
hesitation, the Emperor decided on exorcising clemency ; Mithradates
was conducted to Rome, and is said to have spoken bold words in
the imperial presence : " I have returned to you of my own free will ;
it you do not believe it, let me go, and look for me! " The fate of
Mitbradates is uncertain, but he was probably kept, like Maroboduus,
in some Italian city.

§ 14. But the most important change was the restoration of the
kingdom of Herod. Judea, which since his death had been governed
by a Roman procurator, was given along with Samaria to his
grandson Agtippa, who had played a prominent part in securing
the accession of Claudius. This change was at least as much a
matter of policy as a reward to Agrippa. It was intended to soothe
the bad feeling against the Roman government which had been
stirred up among the Jews under the reign of Gaius. Two edicts
were issued, according, first to the Jews of Alexandria, and then to
the Jews of the whole Empire, ti e free exercise of their worship.
Agrippa was very popular with the Jews, and he was also popular
with the Greeks. At Jerusalem he was a Jew ; at Csesarea he was
a gentile. On two occasions the governor of Syria, Vibius Marsus,
was obliged to interfere with his policy ; in 42 A.D , to prevent him
from fortifying the new town of Jerusalem, and in the following
year, to put a stop to a suspicions congress of kings — Antiochus of
CorriTnagene, Cotys of Little Armenia, Sampsigeram of Ernesa,
Polemo of Pontus — who had assembled at Tiberias to meet Agrippa.
But the restored kingdom of Judea was of short duration. Agrippa
died, eaten up of worms, in 44 A.D., and his son, who was kept as
;i hostage at Rome, was not deemed competent to succeed him.
Judea was placed nga n under the government of a procurator, but,
to assume the discontent of the Jews and prevent disturbances, the
nomination of the high priest and the administration of the treasure
of the temple were not assigned to him but to king Herod of the
Syrian Chalcis, a brother of Agrippa. At this time Judea was much
disturbed by brigands as well as by the fanatical hatred of the Jews
against the Pagans ; and the constant interference of the governor of
Syria was required. The administration of Judea was one of the
most difficult problems that the Roman* had to deal with ; and they
committed the error of not stationing sufficiently large military
forces in that province.

In 53 A.D., Claudius granted immunity from tribute to the island

244 THE PRINCIPATE OP CLAUDIUS. CHAP, xv

of Cos, as a personal favour to his physician Xenophon, who
belonged to the Asclepiadse, a family of medical priests, who lived
in that island. The Emperor made one of his characteristic
speeches in the senate, going into the ancient history of the Coans,
and then letting out the true motive of his proposal by mentioning:
Xenophon, their distinguished countryman. About the same time,
tribute was remitted for five years to Byzantium, which had suffered
severely from the Bosporan war and from disturbances in Thrace
when that country was made a province. The history of the war
for Armenia must be reserved for another chapter.

§ 15. It may be asked how far the administration of the Empire
was guided by the mind of Claudius, and how far the measures of
his reign were due to his advisers. On this it is impossible to
speak with certainty. There is a curious contrast between his
rather ridiculous personality and the not inconsiderable positive
results of his reign. However much he owed to his able councillors,
it is certain that he impressed many of his measures with his
personal stamp. If he was weakminded, easily influenced by women
and freedmen, immoderate in sensual indulgence, and fond of wine
and gambling, it must not be forgotten that he was well educated.
Nor is it fair to blame him for the prominent part which the freed-
men of his household played in the administration of the state, it
must be remembered that the Emperor had neither official ministers
nor a regular civil service at his disposal. He was supposed to be
his own secretary of state and his own treasurer; and he was
therefore obliged to have recourse to the services of his freedmen for
carrying on the business of ihe state. Augustus himself had
depended on freedmen after the death of his advisers Agrippa and
Maecenas. Tiberius and Gams also employed them, but did not
admit them to their confideuce. They occupied, however, such ?
position that their influence over a weak-minded Princeps was
almost a matter of course. This happened in the case of Claudius.
He needed councillors to lean upon, and the freedmen were there, at
his hand. His most trusted advisers were Narcissus, who held the
post of ab epistulis, or secretary ; Pallas, who was the a rationibus,
or steward and accountant ; Callistus, the a libellis, who received all
petitions preferred to the Emperor ; and Polybius, who assisted his
master in nis studies, and had himself won a place in literature by
translating Homer into Latin and Virgil into Greek. These Greeks
were well-educated men, capable and versatile ; and it would be an
error of prejudice to ridicule the government of Claudius as being
conducted by a company of menials. They were doubtless far
more competent to perform the duties of their offices and to advise
the Emperor than the officials of equestrian and sen.itorian rank.

41-48 A.D.

MESSALINA.

245

But in consequence of their position they were overbearing and
avaricious. Having no social position they sought a compensation
in amassing wealth, and their administration was consequently
marked by the grossest corruption. They sold appointments to the
highest bidders ; they compassed the confiscation of the estates of
nobles on false or frivolous charges; they extorted bribes by
threats.*

SECT. IV. — MESSALINA.

§ 16. In these malpractices the freedmen were aided and abetter!
by the Empress Messalina. In his youth Claudius had be&n
betrothed to Emilia Lepida, daughter of the younger Julia, but
the marriage was broken off on account of her mother's misconduct.
He lost a second bride, Livia Camilla, through her death on the
wedding-day, and finally married Plautia Urgulanilla, daughter of
Plautius Silvanus, who had distinguished himself in Illyricum.
Plautia f was repudiated on account of an intrigue with a freedman,
and Claudius then married M\i& Paetina, by whom he had one
daughter. JSlia was also divorced, but for no serious cause, and
(about 38 A.D.) Claudius took a third wife, as has been already
mentioned, Valeria Messalina. This remarkable woman was
descended, on the father's side, from the race of the orator Messalla
Corvinus ; but by her mother, Domitia Lepida, she was connected
with the family of the Caesars. Claudius and Lepida were
cousins, being both the grandchildren of Antonius the triumvir
and Octavia, the sister of Augustus. The name of Messalina
has become proverbial for unblushing sensuality. The tales that
have been preserved of her vices and her orgies bear on them the
marks of exaggeration, but there can be no doubt that her conduct
was dissolute, and that she exercised an evil influence on the women
of Rome. She is said to have carried on criminal intrigues with
the Emperor's freedmen, especially with Narcissus. It seems
certain that she and they combined to hoodwink Claudius. They
concealed her love affairs with others, and she concealed their pecula-
tions. While Messalina indulged her amorous caprices, Narcissus
and Pallas built up such great fortunes, that when Claudius once
complained of want of money, he was told that he would be
rich enough if those two freedmen took him into partnership.

* The wetltb of Pallas was proverbial,
Juvenal, Sat. i. 108: Ego possideo plus
Pallante.

f By Plautia Claudius had two children :
Drusus, who was betrothed to a daughter

of Sejanus, but died in infancy; and a
daughter whom he caused to be exposed
at the age of five months on account of
her mother's guilt.

246 THE PRINCIPATE OF CLAUDIUS. CHAP. xv.

§ 17. The position of Messalina seemed secured by the circum-
stance that she had borne her husband a son, Tiberius Claudius
Grermanicus, who afterwards received the name Britannicus in
memory of the conquest of Britain. He was born in February,
shortly after his father's accession, and this was the first case of a
son born to a re'gning Caesar. But Claudius declined the proposal
to confer either upon his son the title Augustus, or upon the
Empress that of Augusta.* But although Mea>alina was not raised
to the rank which had been held by Livi.i, she received conspicuous
honour by the decree which permit ted her to ride in the carpentum,
the use of which was still generally restricted to persons holding
priestly offices at solemn festivals. A like permission had been
already granted to the Kmperor's mother Antonia.

It has been already stated that Claudius recalled his nieces, Julia
and Agrippina, from exile. Agiippina's husband, Cn. Domitius
Ahenobarbus, was dead, and some time after her return she married
Crispus Passienus. Julia was espoused to M. Vinicius. Both ladies
were young and attractive; and, as the daughters of Germanicus
and sisters of Gaius, they both exercised influence' and awakened
suspicion at the court of Claudius. Agrippina avoided the dangers
which surrounded her, but Julia's marked attentions to her uncle
excited the jealousy of Messalina; she was driven asain into
banishment, and died of starvation. The philosopher Senec^, noted
for his wealth as well as for his writings, was banished at the same
time to Corsica, as a lover of Jnlia ; but, strange to say, his estates
were not confiscated. In the following year (42 A.D,) a far more
glaring act of injustice was committed to satisfy the vengeance of
Messalina. A distinguished nobleman, Appius Silanus, of the Jnnian
gens, had rejected the licentious advances of the Empress, and she
determined to destroy him, although he had been recently married
to her mother Domitia Lepida. As there was no possible ground
of charge against him, Messalina and her accomplice Narcissus
devised a curious plot. Narcissus entered the Emperor's chamber
early one morning, and told in accents of alarm that he had dreamt
the previous night that Claudius was murdered by Silanus.
Messalina then said that she had been visited by the same dream.
Claudius, weak and superstitious, was terrified by the startling
coincidence, and before he had time to lecover from his fright,
Silanus himself appeared, according to an appointment which the
Emperor had made with him. But Claudius in his bewilderment
forgot the appointment, and saw in the sudden appearance of
Silanus a confirmation of the suspicions which had been aroused by
the dreams. Messalina and Narcissus, pressed their advantage, and
* The title Augusta, however, was freely given to Messalins in the provinces.

41-48 A.D. MESSALINA AND SILIUS 247

easily persuaded the deceived Emperor to issue an order for the
immediate execution of Silanus.

If this tale can be trusted, it shows how unscrupulous the
Empress and the freedmen were in compa-sin'j their ends, and how
completely the Emperor was dominated by their influence. Many
other conspicuous victims were sacrificed to the jealousy or
covetousness of Messalina. Among them was Poppsea Sabina, said
to be the most beautiful woman of the day, the wife of L. Cornelius
Scipio. Her real offence was that she tried to fascinate Mnester, a
dancer with whom Messalina was in love. But the charge preferred
against her was that she committed adultery with Valerius
Asiaticus, a nobleman of wealth and influence, who was one
of the consuls of the year (47 A.D.). He was brought into the
trial because Messalina coveted the gardens of Lucullus on the
Pincian hill, which he had inherited. At the same time he was
accused of treasonable designs, and was given no opportunity to
defend himself before the S( nate. The trial took place privately in
the palace ; sentence was passed on the accused, and he was allowed
to choose his own death. He adopted the manner of suicide which
was then in fashion, and, after bathing and supping, cut open his
veins and let himself bleed to death. Poppsea put an end to her
own life, before the trial was concluded,

§ 18. So far the plans of Messalina and those of the freedmen
had not clashed. The interests of the latter were not threatened by
an intrigue with the dancer Mnester or by the confiscation of the
gardens of Asiaticus. But when she engaged in an intrigue with
a Roman noble, Gaius Silius, the case was very different. For such
a connection was clearly a menace to the throne. A man in the
position of Silius would hardly have suffered himself to be drawn
into an intrigue with a woman of Messalina's evil reputation, if he
had not been urged by motives of ambition. But the interests of
the freedmen we re bound up in their master's life, and his overthrow
would have almost certainly meant their ruin. They determined that
Gains Silius should not attain to the Principate, and, as Messalina
refused to listen to their warnings, they brought about her
fall (48 A.D.).

The Empress, infatuated with her new lover, induced him to
divorce his wife, and promised to wed him after the death of
Claudius, whose weak constitution might not be expected to hold
out much longer. But at length Silius, weary of his ambiguous and
dangerous position, and apprehensive, perhaps, of the constancy of
his paramour, urged her to consent to the bold step of removing
Claudius. He undertook to adopt Britannicus, and promised to
reign in his name and as his guardian. Messalina, however, wa§

248

THE PRINCIPATE OF CLAUDIUS. CHAP.

not anxious to gratify his wishes. She feared that when Silius
reached the goal of his ambition he might spurn her from him OB
account of her licentiousness. Nevertheless she felt such pleasure
in trampling upon public opinion and outraging morality, that she
consented to celebrate a formal marriage with her lover. Claudius
was just then about to set forth for Ostia, but before he started
he was assured by diviners that some evil was destined to befal
'* the husband of Messalina." To avert evil from his own head, he
was induced to sanction a pretended marriage between his wife and
another. Gaius Silius was chosen to be the sham bridegroom;
the betrothal took place in the Emperor's presence, and he himseli
signed the marriage contract. He then started for Ostia, but
Messalina remained behind on a plea of indisposition, and, incredible
as it may seem, celebrated her marriage with Silius with all the
customary festivities.*

It was an anxious moment for the freedmen, Narcissus, Pallas,
and Callistus. The destruction of Gaius Silius must at all hazards
be effected, and it was necessary to set cautiously to work. The
influence which Messalina still possessed had been recently shown
by the sentence of death passed on Polybius, who had attempted to
interfere between her and her lover. So Narcissus laid a plan to
take her unawares, and ensure her fall before she could obtain an
interview with her husband. He suborned two women, who were
intimate with Claudius to awaken him to the knowledge of his
strange situation. Narcissus was then, according to the pre-
arranged plot, summoned to the Emperor's presence, and confirmed
the strange tale of the marriage of Messalina. " Did Claudius," he
asked, "know that he had been divorced by his own wife? that
the people, the senate, the soldiers had witnessed the marriage of
Silius? was he still unaware that, unless he acted promptly, the
city was in the hands of the husband of Messali'na ? " The Emperor
could hardly believe the story, but others of the household bore
testimony to its truth, and he was urged to hurry back to Rome
with all speed, and secure himself in the praetorian camp. Utterly
bewildered and frightened, Claudius let his councillors do with him
what they would, and on his way back to Rome he kept continually
asking, " Am I the Emperor ? Is Silius a private citizen ? "
Narcissus distrusted Lucius Geta, one of the two prefects of the
praetorian guards, as a friend of Messalina. He therefore induced

* Juvenal, when enlarging on the
theme that beauty is a dangerous gift,
adduces the case of Silius, as one whose
ruin was due to his good looks, and draws
•picture of the marriage (Sat., x. 331 sqq.y.
Optimus hie et formosissimus idem

Gentis patricise rapitnr miser extinguendua
Messalinae oculis ; dudum sedet ilia parato
Flammeolo Tyriusque palam genialis in

hortis

Sternitur, et ritu decies centena dabuntm
Antiquo, ventot cum signatoribms <

48 A.D. FALL OF MESSALINA. 249

Claudius to commit to himself the command of the guards for a
single day. On obtaining the consent of the Emperor, he sent orders
to Rome that the house of Silius should be occupied, and all who
were present arrested. He obtained a seat in the carriage of the
Emperor, lest the two companions of Claudius, Vitelliusand Largus,
should weaken his resolution. L. Vitellius, who had gained
di&tinction in the east under Tiberius, and had worked himself
into the favour of Gaius by unscrupulous flattery, carefully
abstained from committing himself to an opinion. To the com-
plaints of Claudius he merely said, "How scandalous! how
horrible ! " leaving the freedman to bear all the responsibility.

§ 19. Meanwhile in the house of Silius, the Empress was cele-
brating a vintage festival. The grape-juice flowed in streams from
the wine-presses, and women, arrayed as Bacchants, with skins
flung over their shoulders, performed wild dances. Messalina,
herself brandishing a thyrsus, and Silius, crowned with ivy, at her
side, strode about in buskins. A note of discord suddenly broke
upon the dissolute scene. A physician, one Vettius Valens, had
climbed up a high tree, and when they asked him what he saw, he
replied in jest or by some kind of prevision " a terrible storin
coming from Ostia." Presently the news came that Claudius was
indeed coming from Ostia, and coming to avenge. The riotous
company was instantly scattered. Silius rushed to the Forum
to hide his fear under the appearance of business ; Messalina fled to
the gardens of Lucullus. They were hardly gone when the officers,
sent by Narcissus, arrived ; and some of the guests, who were slow
in making their escape, were arrested. Messalina had no fear that
all was lost; she trusted in her power over her husband. She
made arrangements that her children Britannicus and Octavia
should meet their father, and silently plead their mother's cause ;
and she prayed Vibidia, the eldest of the Vestal virgins, to implore
the Pontifex Maximus for pardon. Then, having passed through
the city on foot, she set forth on the road to Ostia, and was able to
find no better conveyance than a cart which was used to carry
garden refuse. But all her endeavours failed. Narcissus prevented
Claudius from listening to her cries, and the Vestal, when she met
the carriage on its entry into Eome, was dismissed with an
assurance that the Empress would have an opportunity of defending
herself. Claudius visited the house of Silius, and saw in the hail
the statue of the culprit's father, which the senate had ordered to be
overthrown, and other sights calculated to increase his indignation.
He then proceeded to the camp of the praetorians, and ascended the
tribunal. Silius would not defend himself, and merely asked for a
speedy death. He was immediately executed. The same fate befel
11*

250

THE PRINC1PATE OF CLAUDIUS. CHAP. x\.

Vettius Valens and several others, who were charged with abetting
Silius in his crime. The dancer Mnester was also put to death on
account of his intrigue with Messalina, and likewise a young
knight named Sextus Montanus, who had been her lover for only
one day. In the meantime Messalina had returned to the Lucullan
gardens and did not yet despair. Her mother Donritia Lepida,
who had stood aloof in the days of her prosperity, came to her in tht
hour of her distress. She urged her daughter to anticipate the stroke
of the executioner by a voluntary death. "Life is over," she said,
"nothing remains but an honourable end." But Messaliua was
fond of life and she knew the nature of her husband. Claudius,
exhausted by his work of retribution, had retired to the palace tc
dine ; and after dinner he sent a message to the " poor woman,'
bidding her come next day and plead her cause. But Narcissus
was determined that she should have no chance of pleading. So he
immediately ordered a tribune and some centurions to go and slay
the criminal, saying "such are the Emperor's orders." Messalina,
having in vain attempted to pierce herself with a sword, was killed
by a blow of the tribune, and the corpse was left to her mother.
Claudius meanwhile, under the influence of wine, had forgotten the
events which had just passed, and began to ask why the lady
tarried. When they told him that she was dead, he merely called
for another cup, and never mentioned her again. The senate
decreed that her name should be effaced from all monuments, and
Narcissus received as a reward for his services, the insignia of
the quaestorship.

Such seems to be the least improbable version of the stransre story
of the crowning insolence of Messalina, and her sudden fall.* But
the episode of her public marriage with Silius will always remain a
perplexing riddle, unless some totally new evidence be discovered.

SECT. V.— AGBIPPINA. DEATH OF CLAUDIUS.

§ 20. Messalina had fallen, and the question was, who was to be
her successor. On this the freedmen were not unanimous. Narcissus
urged that Claudius t-hould take back his second wife, ^Elia Psetina,
whom he had divorced. Callistus worked in t> half of I .ollia Paulina,
the divorced wife of the Emperor Gaius. Pallas esi»oust-d the cause

* This is the version adopted by
Merivale. It modifies the nanative of
Tacitus by the statement of Suetonius,
th&t ClAudius sanctioned

between his wife and SUius in order tc
avoil an evil which was said by the
soothsayers to thi eaten the husband oi
Messalina.

48 A.D. AGRIPPINA. 251

of Agrippina, the Emperor's niece. This remarkable woman, who
inherited the ambition, without the morality, of her mother, had
long been scheming to establish an influence over Claudius, who
was very susceptible to female fascinations. She aimed at securing
the Empire for her son Lucius Domitius, and winning for herself
such a position as had been held by Livia. It is impossible to
know how far she may have been involved in the intrigues
connected with the fall of Messalina. But it is probable that she
has influenced the verdict of history on the career of her rival.
For Agrippina published personal memoirs, in which she revealed
the secret history of the palace, and it was almost certainly from
these memoirs that the historian Tacitus drew his account of
Messalina's wickedness. It may easily be believed that Agrippina
highly coloured the story and distorted the truth. The death of
her husband Passienus had left her free and wealthy ; and she
determined to marry her uncle, in spite of the Roman prejudice
agninst such a union. Her charms, supported by the persuasions
of Pallas, subdued the weak Emperor, and, in a few weeks after the
d'-ath of Messalina, Agrippina exerted over Claudius all the
influence of a wife. Before the end of the year (48 A.D.), ^he took
the first step in the direction of elevating her son to the throne*
He was then eleven years old, but she resolved that, when he came
of age, he should marry Octavia, the daughter of Claudius. For this
purpose it was necessary to break off the betrothal which existed
between Octavia and Lucius Silanus, a great-great-grandson of
Augustus. In accomplishing this, Agrippina was assisted by
Vitellius, the Emperor's colleague in the censorship, who bore a
grudge against Silanus, and was ready to ruin him. He informed
Claudius that Silanus had committed incest with his sister, and the
horrified Emperor immediately broke off' the engagement of his
daughter. Silanus, who was a praetor that year, was ordered to
lay down his office, and Vitellius, although no longer censor, pre-
sumed on his recent tenure of that office to remove the name of
Silamis from the list of senators.

§ 21. When this obstacle to the future marriage of Domitius and
Octavia was removed, it remained for Agrippina to smooth the way
fur her own union with Claudius. No precedent in Roman history
could be found for marrying a brother's daughter. Such an alliance-
was regarded as incestuous; and in all matters of religion Claudius
was punctiliously scrupulous. The censor, who had just expressed
his horror at the alleged incest of Silanus, shrank from incurring
the charge of a similar offence. But here Rgain Vitellius came to
the aid of Agrippina. He appeared in the senate and delivered a
specious harangue in favour of the proposed marriage. The

252 THE PRINCIPATE OF CLAUDIUS. CHAP. xv.

senators tumultuously applauded, and Claudius then appearing in
the curia caused a decree to be passed that henceforward marriages
with the daughters of brothers* should be valid. The fourth mar-
riage of Claudius took place in the early days of 49 A.D., and on
the wedding day, as it were to bring a curse on the event, Silanus,
the betrothed of Octavia, killed himself. Another victim, who had
come across the path of Agrippina, was Lollia Paulina, who had
•aspired to the hand of Claudius. She was accused of having
consulted Chaldean astrologers concerning the imperial marriage,
and the Emperor himself spoke against her in the senate. She was
banished from Italy, but Agrippina is said to have dispatched a
tribune after her to put her to death.

§ 22. While Messalina cared only for sensuality, Agrippina was
enamoured of power. She was not content with being the
Emperor's wife, but wished to be his colleague. This position was
designated by the title Augusta, which was conferred upon her in
50 A.D. She was the third woman who bore this title, but it meant
for her, as it had meant for Livia, a share in political power, and was
not merely, as it had been for Antonia, an honourable title. But
Agrippina enjoyed a mark of distinction which had not been granted
even to the consort of Augustus. She was the first Roman Empress
whose image was permitted to appear on coins during her lifetime
by decree of the senate. When Claudius gave audiences to his
" friends," or to foreign envoys, his wife sat on a throne beside him.
We have seen that she gave her name to the new colony of veterans
established iu the town of the Ubii, as Colonia Agrippinensis. In
order to secure her influence with the freedman Pallas, she is said
to have engaged in an intrigue with him ; but the court, under her
rule, seems to have been distinguished by outward propriety and
certainly by stricter etiquette.

§ 23. Her schemes for her son's advancement rendered her a
cruel stepmother to Britannicus. On the 25th February, 50 A.D.
Lucius Domitius was adopted into the Claudian gens, under the
name of Nero Claudius Osesar Drusus Grermanicus. This was the
first instance of an adoption of a son by a patrician Claudius, and the
Emperor was disinclined to take the step, not only on this account}
but lest the prospects of Britannicus should be injured. He was
overcome, however, by the example of Augustus. The advancement
of Nero progressed rapidly. In the following year he was permitted
to assume the toga of manhood, and by a decree of the senate he was
made princeps iuventutis, designated to hold the consulship at the age
of twenty, and he received proconsular power. These honours were
sufficient to mark him out as the successor of Claudius to the
* But not •liters ; and, strange to say, this distinction continued in force.

50-53 A.D. ADOPTION OF NERO. 253

Principate. But Agrippina went even further, and caused her son
to be elected supra numerum into the four chief priestly colleges —
the Pontiffs, the augurs, the quindecim viri, and the septemviri.
This was a distinction which the youthful grandsons of Augustus,
Grains and Lucius, had not received. Nero had already been
betrothed to his cousin Octavia; and his adoption, whereby he
became legally her brother, was not allowed to hinder the cele-
bration of the marriage, which took place in 53 A.D. In the
meantime Britanuicus, who was only a little younger than Nero,
was regarded and treated as a child. Misunderstandings and
estrangements were treacherously brought about between him and
his father. On one occasion, when the two young princes met, and
Nero saluted Britannicus by name, Britannicus saluted him as
" Domitius." Agrippina complained of this to the Emperor, as
implying a contempt of Nero's adoption and the decree of the
senate. Claudius was moved by her representations to punish one
of the instructors of his son by death, and others by banishment,
and place him under the charge of the creatures of his stepmother.
By her machinations, also, the two prefects of the prsetorian guard,
who had been adherents of Messalina, and were anxious to secure
the succession of her son, were deposed, and replaced by Afranius
Burrus, who was devoted to the interests of his patroness. All
the officers who were attached to the cause of Britannicus,
were then removed. But the son of Messalina had not only a
strong party in the senate, but a powerful supporter in the
imperial household. This was the freedman Narcissus, who
exerted all his energy and influence to weaken the power of
Agrippina, and keep Nero from the throne. After the marriage of
Octavia, the struggle between the two parties became keener.
Vitellius, who had shown his devotion to the Augusta, was
threatened with a criminal prosecution. The condemnation of
Tarquitius Prisons also showed the uncertainty of her position.
She coveted the house and gardens of Statilius Taurus, a man of
noble ancestry and great wealth, who had been governor of Africa.
Priscus brought against him charges of extortion in his adminis-
tration of that province, and of practising magic. Taurus disdained
to reply, and chose to die by a voluntary death ; but the senate
expelled the accuser from their body, although Agrippina exerted
all her power to protect him. There were other signs, too, which
might alarm the Empress. Claudius showed himself inclined to
reinstate his son Britannicus in his proper position, and spoke of
allowing him to assume the toya virilis. An ominous remark is
said to have droppe«l from his lips, that it was his fate first
to endure the offences of his wives, and afterwards to punish

254 THE PRINCIFATE OF CLAUDIUS. OHAP. XV

them. It looked as if the influence of Narcissus were likely once
more to get the upper hand.

§ 24. Agrippina made an attempt to ruin Narcissus by ascribing
to his mismanagement the failure of the tunnel of Lake Fucinus.
She failed, but she soon enjoyed a triumph in the ruin of her most
formidable female rival, Domitia Lepida. This lady, as the daughter
of the elder Antonia and L. Domitius, was the grandniece of
Augustus; as the mother of Messalina, was the grandmother of
Britannicus ; and as the sister of Cn. Domitius, was the sister-in-law
of Agrippina. " In beauty, age, and wealth, there was not much
difference between them. Both were immodest, infamous, and
violent. They were rivals in their vices no less than in the gilts
which fortune had given them." * During the exile of Agrippina,
Lepida had given a home to the child Nero, and ever since had
endeavoured to secure his affections by flattery and liberality,
which contrasted with his mother's sternness and impatience.
Lepida was charged with making attempts against the life of the
Empress by means of magical incantations, and with being a dis-
turber of the public peace by maintaining gangs of turbulent
slaves on her Calabrian estates. The indictment seems to have
been brought before the Emperor, and it was a trial of strength
between Agrippina and Narcissus, who did all he could to save
Lepida. But Agrippina triumphed ; Lepida was sentenced to
death. Yet notwithstanding this victory, and notwithstanding the
fact that Claudius had been induced to make a will favourable
to her son, the Empress did not feel sure of her ground, and dreaded
a reaction.

§ 25. Under these circumstances the greatest luck that could
befal her was the death of Claudius ; and Claudius died (Oct. 13,
54 A.D.). It was generally believed that he was poisoned by his
wife ; and though we cannot say that her guilt is proved, it seems
highly probable. Claudius was in his sixty-fourth year, and in
declining health. His death took place when Narcissus was absent
at Siuuessa for the sake of the medicinal waters ; and this coinci-
dence supports the traditional account that there was f«»ul play,
for Narcissus suspected the designs of Agrippina. According to the
received story, she emplo}ed the services of a woman named
Locusta, notorious for the preparation of subtle ]X)isons, who,
according to the historian Tacitus, was long regarded as "one of
the instruments of monarchy." f She compounded a curious drug
which had the property of disturbing the mind without causing
instant death, and it was administered to Claudius in a dish of

* Tacitus, Ann., xii. 64.

*• -later iiutrumenta regni, Ann., xii. 66.

DEATH OF CLAUDIUS.

255

mushrooms.* But for some reason the poison failed to work ; and
Agrippina, fearful lest the crime should be discovered, called in
her confidential physician Xenophou, who did not hesitate to pass
a poisoned feather into the Emperor's throat, on the plea of helping
him to vomit.

§ 26. The position of Nero at the death of Claudius was tar
stronger than that of Gains at the death of Tiberius. Nero had to
fear a declaration in favour of Britarmicus, as Gaius had to fear the
rivalry of the son of Drusus ; but Nero possessed the proconsular
power, as well as other dignities, which had not been conferred on
Gaius. He had also the support of bis mother's influence, and
above all, Burras, the prefect of the praetorian guard, was devoted
to his interest. Seeing that the accession of Gaius had proceeded
so smootlily, there seemed no reason for doubt in the case of Nero.
But Agrippina took every precaution for securing success. She
concealed the Emperor's death lor some hours and made pretexts
to detain his children in the palace, until her own son had been
proclaimed Emperor by the guards. About midday the doors
of the palace were suddenly thrown open, and Nero issued
forth, accompanied by Burrus, into the presence of the cohort
which was then on duty. The prefect gave a sign, and the
soldiers received him with acclamations. It was said that some
hesitated, and asked for Britannicus; but this demurring was
only for a moment. Nero was then carried in a litter to the
praetorian camp, where he spoke a few suitable words and was
saluted Imperator. This was the second occasion on which the
praetorians created an Emperor, and, following the example of his
" father " Claudius, Nero promised them a donative. The senate did
not hesitate to accept the will of the guards, and on the same day
(Oct. 13, the dies imperil of Nero) decreed to him the proconsular
power in its higher unlimited form, the prerogatives embodied in
the lex de imperio, and the name Augustus. The tribunician
power, which was necessary to complete the prerogatives of the
Princeps, was conferred upon him by a comitia on the 4th
December. The legions in the provinces received the news of the
new principate without a murmur of dissent.

§ 27. According to custom, the senate met to consider the acts
of Claudius. He was fortunate enough to receive the honours
which had fallen to the lot of his model, Augustus, and which hi.-
two predecessors had missed. He was judged worthy to enter into
the number of the god?, and fiameus were appointed for his worship.

* Juvenal refers to this in the lines
(v. 147, 148) :
Boletus domino, sed quales Claudius edit

Ante ilium uxoris, post quern oil ampliu-
edit.

256 THE PRINCIPATE OF CLAUDIUS. CHAP, xv

All his acts were decreed to be valid. His funeral was ordered
after the precedent of that of Augustus, and Agrippina emulated
the magnificence of her great grandmother Livia. But the will
of the deceased sovran was not read in public. It was feared
that the preference shown to the stepson over Britannicus would
cause unpleasant remarks.

§ 28. Nero pronounced a funeral oration, composed by L. Annseus
Seneca, over the dead Emperor. One of Agrippina's first acts after
her marriage with Claudius had been to recall Seneca from his
exile in Corsica and entrust to him the completion of her son's
education. During his banishment he had attempted, by the arts
of flattery, to get his sentence repealed, and had addressed a.
treatise to the freedman Polybius, into which he wrought an
extravagant panegyric of the Emperor. But Claudius had paid
no heed, and Seneca was resolved to have his revenge. He
assailed the memory of the Emperor, soon after his death, in an
unsparing and remarkably clever satire, entitled the Apocolocyn-
tosis, " pumpkinification " — a play on " apotheosis," — or, other-
wise, the Indus de morte Claudii Csesaris. The arrival of Claudius
in heaven, the surprise of the gods at seeing his strange shaking
figure, and hearing his indistinct babble, are described with many
jests. '1 he gods deliberate whether they should admit him, and
are inclined to vote in his favour, when the divine Augustus arises
and tells all the crimes and iniquities which have stained the reign
of his grandnephew. The gods agree that he deserves to be ejected
from Olympus. Mercury immediately seizes him by the neck, and
drags him to the place whence none return —

llluc unde negant redire quenquam.

On the way to the shades he passes through the Via Sacra, where
he witnesses his own funeral, and sees the Roman people " walking
about as if they were free " from a tyrant.* When he reaches
the lower regions he is greeted with a shout, " Claudius will come."
He is surrounded by a large company, consisting of the victims who
had perished during his reign — senators, knights, freedmen, kins-
folk. "I meet friends everywhere! " said Claudius. " How came
ye hither ? " " Do you ask, most cruel man ? " was the reply ;
" who else but thou sent us hither, murderer of all thy friends ? "
He was then led before the tribunal of .ffiacus, and prosecuted on
the basis of the Lex Cornelia de sicariis. He is condemned to play
for ever with a bottomless dice-box.

This satire of Seneca reflects the general derision which was
cast unon the deification of Claudius. The addition of this

* itpuras Romanus ambulabat tanquam liber.

54 A.D.

APOTHEOSIS OF CLAUDIUS.

257

Emperor's ridiculous figure to the number of the celestials, effec-
tually dispelled that halo of divinity with which Augustus had
sought to invest the Principate.

Bunt of Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus (from the bust in the Capitol>

Messalina (from the bust in the Capitol).

CHAPTER XVI.

THE CONQUEST OF BRITAIN.

1. Designs of Augustus to conquer Britain. Policy of his successors.
Reasons for the undertaking. Diplomatic relations with Britain.
§ 2. Preparations of Claudius for the expedition (43 A.D.). Aulus
Plnutius. § 3. Landing of the forces. Campaign of Plautius, and
victory over the Trinovantes. Claudius in Britain. § 4. Triumph of
Claudius. § 5. Extension of the conquest under Plautius (43-47 A.D.).
§ 6. Ostorins Scapula succeeds PI mtius. Revolt of the Jceni. § 7.
War with Silures and Ordovices in the west. Caractacus. Great
Roman victory (51 A.D.). Caractacus at Rome. § 8. Warfare con-
tinued in the west. Foundation of a colony at Camalodunum. § 9.
Didius Gallus governor of Kritain. § 10. Suetonius Paulinus (59-
61 A.D.) governor. Campaign in Mona. § 11. Revolt of he Iceni
and eastern districts; suppressed by Suetonius. Results. § 12.
Recall of Suetonius, who is succeeded by Turpilianus.

SECT. I. — CONQUEST OP SOUTHERN BRITAIN BY PLAUTIUS,

§ 1. THE conquest of Britain was one of the tasks which
the great Csesar left to the Csesars who were to come after him.

34, 27 B.U. KEASONS FUK JNVADlNli B1UTA1V.

259

Like the conquest of Germany, it was an undertaking to which
the subjugation of Gwl naturally led. And although his first
successors «iid not cross the channel a-* they crossed the Rhine, the
island of the north was by no means forgotten. On two occasions
Augustus had made preparations for an expedition against Briiain,
and both times the enterprise had fallen through. He was about
to invade the island in 34 B.C. when he was recalled from Gaul by
the rebellion in Dalmatia; and the poetical literature of the follow-
ing years shows that the conquest of "ultima Thule" was an
achievement to which the Romans looked forward with confidence
as destined to be accomplished when ihe civil wars were over.*
Horace deplores that Romans should turn their swords against
each other, instead of lea- 'ing the "chained Briton" down the
Via Sacra, f In 27 B.C., after his accession, Augustus was believed
to be about to fulfil their expectations, and a«ld a new province to
the Empire. Horace beseeches Fortune to preserve Caesar, about
to set forth against the Britons who live in the ends of the earth.J
It is uncertain why this intention was not carried out ; perhaps the
Cantabiian war and the hostilities of the Saiassi, which occupied his
attention at this time, made Augustus shrink from undertaking
further waifare. At all events, the idea of subduing Britain was
not again resumed by Augustus. Tiberius confessed that the
occupation of Biitain was necessary, but, through reverence for the
precept of Augustus against extending the Empire, retrained from
attempting it. The problem also engaged the attention of Gains,
and we saw how his undertaking ended in a ridiculous demonstration
on the Gallic shore. Strange to say, the conquest of Britain, which
Caesar himself had failed to accomplish in two attempts, which
Augustus deemed too difficult, which Tiberius shrank from, was
reserved for the arms of Claudius. And we are led to believe that
the idea was his own, and not the suggestion of his councillors.
The importance of occupying Britain was perhaps brought home to
him when he endeavoured to suppress the druidical worship in
Gaul. The constant communication which existed between the
northern coast of Gaul and the opposite island rendered it hopeless
to stamp out the barbarous rites as long as Britain was not in the
hands of Rome. Moreover, the fact that his model, Augustus, had
contemplated the redaction of the islan-1, was a recommendation of
the enterprise to Claudius. It is probable, too, that he was
encouraged by his freedmen, who may have entertained an ex-

* Virgil, Oeorgics, i. 30 : Tibi serviat
ultima Thule (published B.C. 30).
f Epod. vii. 7 : Britannus ut descenderet
Sacra catenatug via.

J Odes, i. 35, 29 :

Serves iturura (Jiesareiu in ultimo*

Orbia Britannos.

260 THE CONQUEST OF BRITAIN CHAP. xvi.

aggerated idea of the wealth of the island, and hoped to profit
by it.

Friendly relations had been maintained with British kings by
Augustus and Tiberius. Exiled princes sought refuge with
Augustus and Gaius. The immediate occasion of the expedition of
Claudius is said to have been the request for succour addressed to
him by Bericus, who, owing to domestic feuds, had fled from
his country and became the suppliant of Claudius, as Adminius
had been the suppliant of Gaius. This Bericus was probably
a son of the king of the Atrebates, who dwelled between the
Severn and the Thames. But the restoration of this native was
merely a pretext for carrying out at length what had long been
inevitable.

§ 2. The Emperor resolved to visit Britain himself, and win the
honour of personally achieving a great conquest and adding a new
province to the empire. But it was arranged that the way should
be prepared before him, so that he could arrive in time to witness
the final scene. Four legions were assigned to the expedition,
three Irom the German provinces, and one from Pann«»rJa. Their
numbers and names were : — II. Augusta and XIV. Gemina, from
Upper Germany ; XX. Valeria Victrix, from Lower Germany ; and
IX. Hispana, from Pannonia. Besides these, there were the usual
contingents of auxiliary troops, cohorts of infantry and alx of
cavalry. Aulus Plautius Silvanus was selected to command the
expedition. He was a relation of Plautia Urgulanilla, the divorced
wife of Claudius, and is described as a " senator of the highest
repute." At this time he doubtless held command in some of the
provinces from which legions were drafted for the expedition — either
Upper or Lower Germany, or possibly Belgica. He was supported
by many able and distinguished officers, whose selection shows
what importance was attached to the expedition. Among them
must be mentioned L. Galba — destined one day to be an Emperor
himself — an able officer whom we have already met as legatus of
Upper Germany. The legatus of the Hud legion was Flavius
Vespasifinos, also destined like Galba, to rule the Roman world.
Cn. Hosidins Geta, who had conn leted the work of Suetonius
Paulinus in Mauretania, was probably the commander of another
le.-ion. Valerius Asiaticus, who afterwards fell a victim to
JVIcssalina, and Cn. Sentius Saturninua may also be mentioned,

It has been calculated that the whole forces amounted to up-
v ards cf sixty thousand men,* and an enormous transport fleet was
neces ary to convey them to the British coast. For this purpose
ships were sent to Gesoriacum (Boulogne), from the naval stations of

* Mommsen rates the force as low as 40,000, Htlhner as high as 70,000.

43 A.D. EXPEDITION OF PLAUTIUS. 261

Italy, Ravenna and Misenum. Early in 43 A.D. the army assembled
near the place where, just one hundred years before, Csesar had
embarked on the same errand.* But the difficulties of those
first, unsuccessful attempts were remembered in the army. The
soldiers murmured and showed a mutinous spirit when Plautius
revealed the object of the expedition. Plautius sent the news
to Rome and Claudius dispatched Narcissus to restore order.
The freedman harangued the turbulent troops, and they, con-
tented with mocking him as a slave, submitted to the Emperor's
wishes.

§ 3. The British coast was reached safely, though not without some
difficulty from adverse weather, and the invading army disembarked
in three harbours, without encountering any resistance from the
Britons. It seems probable that these harbours were on the coast
of Sussex and Kent ; some think that ft landing was made as far
west as Portsmouth. It is impossible to determine with anything
like certainty the line of Roman advance, but it is clear that their
first object was to overcome the Trinovantes, whose home was north
of the Thamesis (Thames), in the territory which now forms the
counties of Essex and Hertford, but whose sway extended over
south-eastern Britain. In the days of Csesar, their leader, Cassivel-
launus, had formed a league to oppose the invaders. Their capital
was then at Verulamium (St. Albans), but Cunobellinus — the
origin of Shakespeare's Cymbeline — had transferred it to Camalo-
.dununi (Colchester). The sons of Cunobellinus, by name Caractacus f
and Togodumnus, commanded the Trinovantes, and took the field
against Plautius. Their tactics were to draw the invaders into
woody and marshy country, but they were both defeated in two
distinct battles. The Boduni, one of the tribes which were ruled
over by these princes, submitted, and received a Roman garrison.
Soon afterwards, the legions, drawn on by the barbarians, and
perhaps conducted by the friendly Atrebates, reached a certain river,
which may possibly be the Medway. The Britons offered a
stubborn resistance, but at length, after two days' fighting, the
Romans effected a crossing. On this occasion, Vespasian and
Hosidius Geta particularly distinguished themselves. The enemy
then fell back behind the Thamesis. The)' were followed by the
Batavian auxiliaries, who swam across the stream, and by some
Roman troops who crossed by a bridge higher up ; but these forces
were beaten back, and Plautius determined to wait for the arrival
of the Emperor with reinforcements before crossing the Thames
and striking the final blow. In the meantime he was able to

* Caesar had embarked from Portus t f The more correct form of the name
Itius; perhaps Wissant. ) swms to be Caratacus.

262

THE CONQUEST OF BRITAIN. CHAP, xn

secure the ground which he had won, and it seems likely that at
this time King Cogidubnus declared for the Romans. He seems
to have been the |>rmce of the Regni, whose capital town has been
identified with Chichester. He proved himself a firm friend of the
Romans, and received as a icward from Claudius Roman citizenship,
the title of legatus Auyusti, and a grant of territory — apparently
his original possessions. A monument of him, as Tiberius Claudius
Cogidubnus — he assumed the Emperor's name — may be still seen
in Goodwood Park.*

Leaving the conduct of affairs at Rome during his absence to
L. Vitellius, Claudius, with a large retinue, embarked for Massilia
(about July), crossed Gaul an»i reached the Romnn camp, probably
somewhere near Londiniuui (London), before the end of the military
season. A great battle was fought under the imperial auspices; the
Britons were routed and Camnlodunum, the capital of the Trino-
vantes, was taken. Claudius was saluted Imperator by the army
more than once, although only a single assumption of the title
in a single campaign was allowed by usage. He honoun d Camalo-
dunum by a visit, and selected it to be the centre of the Romauisation
of Britain.

§ 4. The Emperor remained only sixteen days in the island, and,
leaving the consolidation and extension of the conquest to his
general, he recrossad the channel, spent the winter in Gaul, and
reached Rome in the following spring (44 A.D.). His son-in-law
Pompeius, and L. Silanus, who had attended him on his journey,
were sent forward to announce the victory. The senate decreed to
the conqueror of Britain the honour of a triumph, and the title
Britannicus, which, however, he declined for himself but accepted
for hi* infant son. r\ hey also decreed the erection of two triumphal
arches, one in the Campus Martins, the other at Gesoriacum. In
the inscription on the Roman arch, which has been partly pre-
served, Claudius boasts that he subdued eleven kings f The
rejoicings were marked by the mimic representation in the
Campus Martius of the siege of a British town and the submission
of Biitish chieftains. The part which the fleet had played in the
expedition was afterwards celebrated by naval manoeuvres
at the mouth of the Padus. Claudius was not a little proud of
having outdone his three predecessors by adding a province to the

* The Inscription is as follows :
[II]eptuno et Minervae templum [pr]o
salute Do[mus] Divina; [ex] auctoritate
[Ti.] Claud. [Cojgidubni R. I ega [ti]Aug.
in Brit. [Collegium fabror. et qui in eo
d. 8. d. (de suo da* t) donante aream
fdwnjente Pudentini 31.

t Quod reges Britannia! xf. devictos
sine ulla iactura in «'e it'onem acceperit
gentesque barbaras trans oceauum primus
in dicionem populi Romani redegerit.

Another triumphal arch was erected at
Cyzicus.

43-47 A.D. F1KST LIMITS OF THE TKOVINCE

263

Empire, and the achievement scermd greater from the circumstance
that the new province was be\oud ti e oc< an.*

An important cons quenoe of ih-' conquest of Claudius was the
decree of the set aie that tre lies made l>y Claudius or his legati
shoiiid be valid, just as if they had been made l.y the senate or
the Roman people. This measure was intended to facilitate the
reduction of the distant island.

SECT. II. — ADMINISTRATION AND EXTENSION OF THE PROVINCE
U^DER PLAUTIFJS, USTOKIUS AND DIDIUS.

§ 5. The true conqiuror of Britain, was Aulus Plautius, and he
remained theie until 47 A.D , as Igafus pro prcetore of the new
province. During these years the progress ot the conqii«st went
on, chiefly in the west and south. Vespasian and his broiher
Flavins Sabinus played a prominent part in bieaking the resistance
of the natives. Vts]:asian is said 10 have fought thirty battles
during his command in Britain, ai d to have captured twenty
places. One of his chief achievements was the reduction of
Vectis, the Isle of Wight. The Romans must also have penetrated
to the border of Somersetshire at this period; lor there have been
found in the Mendip Hills two pigs of lead, with the names of
Claudius and his son, dating from the year 49 A.D. In the east,
the Iceni, a powerful tribe, who h< Id the regions which, after the
English conquest, became East Anglia, submitted to Roman
overlordship. It may be said roughly, that a line drawn from
Aquse Sulis (Ba'h) to Lnndinium, passing through Calleva (Sil-
chester) and extended so as to take in Camalodunnm, n ay
roughly define the limits of Koman Britain, when Plautius was
recalled. Plautius received the reward of an ovation, — a rare
distinction under the Empire for anyone not belonging to the
impei ial family.

§ 6. The successor of Plautius was P. Ostorius Scapula, and im-
mediately on his arrival, towards the close of the season, he was
called upon to subdue a rising of the Idni. The Iceni wer- ail
the more formidable as their strength ha i not yet been weakened
by war. They instigated the surround, ng tribes to take up a ms,
and chose as a battle-field a plac<; enclo>ed by a rudo birrl-r, v\itii

* The epigrams which were composed
at the time of the triumph illustrate tins.
For example :
Mars pater, et nostrfe gentis tutela Quirine,

Et magno positus C#«ar uterque polo,

Cernitis ignoto l.atia sub lege Britannos?

8)1 citra nostrum flectitnr oceanum.
Ultima «-esserunt adaperto claustra pro-
fundo

Et iam Romano cingimur Oceano.

264 THE CONQUEST OF BRITAIN. CHAP. xvi.

a narrow approach and impenetrable to cavalry.* Os tor ins led
the auxiliary troops without the strength of the legions — whose
presence in other parts of the country was necessary — against these
defences, and attempted to break through them. He equipped the
cavalry to do the duty of infantry, and succeeded in forcing the
harriers. The rebels, finding escape impossible, fought desperately;
and the general's son, Marcus Ostorius, won the civic crown for
saving a citizen's life. Those tribes which were hesitating between
war and peace were quieted by this defeat of the Iceni.

§ 7. But the main work of Ostorius lay in the west. The peoples
of the mountainous districts of Wales presented a stubborn re-
sistance to the progress of Roman arms in that direction ; and they
were organised by the indomitable spirit of Caractacus, who, when
his own people, the Trinovantes, were irretiievably overthrown,
retreated to the west and there maintained with vigour and success
the struggle for British independence. The remains of the British
entrenchments in the counties which bonier on Wales, are probably
a record of this struggle. Grlevum (Gloucester) seems at this
time to have become the headquarters of the Ilnd legion, and
Ostorius probably drew a line of forts from this point across country
to Camalodunum.t Ostorius first attacked the Decangi, an
obscure tribe, who dwelled probably in the neighbourhood of Deva,
(Chester), and then advanced into the hilly land of the Silures,
whose habitation corresponded to Hereford, Monmouth and South
Wales. The position of Viroconium, (Wroxeter), was occupied
as a stronghold against the Ordovices and became for some time
the headquarters of the XlVth legion.

The Britons were far inferior in military strength, but Caractacus
knew how to take advantage of the intricacies of the country.
After a struggle of three years, he changed the scene of war from
the land of the Silures northward to the territory of the Ordovices,
and thus compelled the Roman army to retrace its steps under
great difficulties (51 A.D.). He then resolved on bringing the war
to a final issue. He chose a position for the battle, in which it
would be easy for his own forces, and difficult for the Romans,
either to advance or retreat ; and piled up stone ramparts on some
lofty hills wherever the slope was gentle enough to admit of an
approach.^ A river lay in front of his position, and he drew up

f It is possible, however, that this line
was further north, co responding to the
line of the Severn, Avon, and Trent. Se«
Notes and Illustrations, B., at end of this
chapter.

* There are no data for determining the
locality of the battle. Scarth supposed it
to be Burrough Hill, near Daventry. It
may be mentioned that the remains of one
of the embankments of the Iceni is still
traceable in the Devil's Dvke, which
crosses the road from Cambridge to New-
market.

It is useless to attempt to fix the
place. One guess is Coxall Knoll, near
Leintwardine, the river being the Teme.

51 A.D. CAltACTAOUS. 265

his men before the defences. He made a stirring appeal to his
followers to recover their freedom, and every warrior swore by the
gods of his tribe to shrink neither from wounds nor weapons. The
Roman general was somewhat daunted by the enthusiasm of the
foe, the river in front of him, the frowning hills behind, but the
soldiers insisted on accepting battle. Having made a careful
survey of the assailable points in the enemy's position, Ostorius
led his troops across the river without difficulty, and attacked the
barrier. As long as it was a fight with missiles, the Romans had
the worst of it, but when the te»tudo was formed, and the soldiers
advanced with locked shields, the rude fence was easily thrown
down, and the barbarians were forced to retire up the heights.
The Romans pursued them, and as the Britons had no defensive
armour their ranks were soon broken. When they turned to oppose
the light-armed auxiliaries, the legionaries hewed them down behind
with swords and javelins ; when they turned round to resist the
legionaries, they were attacked by the spears and sabres of the
auxiliaries. It was a great and decisive victory. The wife and
daughter of Caractacus were immediately captured, his brothers
surrendered, and he was soon afterwards taken prisoner through
the treachery of Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes, to whom he
had fled for refuge, and was sent to Rome.

His fame was celebrated in Italy, and all were eager to see the
hero who had defied the Roman power for nine years. The people
of Rome were summoned as to a great spectacle; the pratorian
cohorts were drawn up in front of their camp. A procession of
the clients of the British prince defiled before the Emperor's
tribunal; the ornaments and chains of Caractacus and the spoil*
which he had won in war with other tribes were displayed. Then
followed his brothers, his wife, and his daughter ; last of all the
warrior himself. While all the others were cowed into humility,
Caractacus did not seek to move compassion either by word or
look. Claudius pardoned him and his kinsfolk; and the captives,
released from their chains, did homage to the Emperor and
Agrippina, who sat on another throne beside him, although it was
an unheard of thing that a woman should sit on the tribunal of the
Imperator surrounded by the standards. After this solemnity the
senate assembled and laudatory speeches were delivered on the
capture of Caractacus, which was compared to the exhibition of
Syphax by Scipio, or that of Perseus by JSmilius Paullus. Caractacus
was retained, like the Suevian Mrtroboduus, in an honourable
custody until his death. Ostorius received the triumphal orna-
ments.

§ 8. This victory, although decisive, was by no means equivalent
12

266 THE CONQUEST OF BKITAIN CHAP. xvi.

to the subjugation of western Britain. The quarters of the Ilnd
legion were established further west, at Isca Silurum (Ca< rleon
on the Usk, to be distinguished from Isca Durnnoniorum, Exeter),
and it was exposed there to great dangers, sustaining several
s^iious reverses. At the same time the great tribe of the
Brigantes in the north, who held all the land north of the Tient
at least as far as the Tyne, displayed signs of hostility to the
Romans. Scapula did not long survive his victory. He died in
52 A.D., worn out, it was said, by the troublesome and exhausting
warfare against the Silures. During the folowini six years, under
the administration of A'dus Didius Gallus (52-57 AD) and
Veranius (57-58 A.D.), the limits of the province do not seem to
have been extended.

The governorship of Ostorius Scapula was also marked by the
plantation of the first military colony. The ancient capital of
Ounohellinus was chosen, to hold somewhat the same poddon in
Britain that Lugudutmm held in Gaul. It is remarkable that
this place was preferred to Londinium, which was commercially
the most considerable town in Britain. Under Cunobell nns,
Camalodunum had assumed "an importance eclipsing that of all
other British 'op | >id «,' though still apparently resembling the general
type in consisting of a large enclosed tract of some square miles,
protected on the east, north, and south by the tidal marshes of the
Colne and its small tiibutary (still tailed the Roman river), and on
its assailable side, the west, by strong earthworks, in part still
traceable, from stream to stream."* The official name given to
the new colony was Colonia Yictrix, and a temple was erected to
Claudius, lor the purpose of < stabli-hin^ a provncial worship like
that which Augustus had instituted in Gaul. A theatre and o'hcr
buildings soon sprang up, but, like Loud nium and Verulamium, it
was lett unwalled and inadequately de'ended.

§ 9. When Didius arrived in the pro v i nee, he found that one of
the legions under Manlius Valens had been defeated by the Silur* s,
who were scouring the country far and wide. Having dispersed
them, he was olliged to turn his arms against the Brigantes. A
chief of this tribe named Venutius, was, since the capture of
Caractacus, the foremost warrior and the a1 lest leader in the cause
of British independence. He had for many years been faithful to
Rome, and had been united in marriage to the queen Cartimand'ia.
But they quarrelled and were divotdd; a domestic war followed,
and while the queen held to the Romans, Venutius c anged his
attitude to them also. By wily stratagems Cartiman<lua got into
her power the brothers and kinsmen of Veuutius, and this led to
* Furneaux, Tacitus, vol. ii. p. 142.

59-61 A.D. CAMALODUNUM. 267

an invasion of her kingdom by the flower of the British youth.
Roman cohorts were sent to the assistance of the Queen, and
effectually protected her. Desultory warfare seems to have con-
tinued during the following years, but no further events of import-
ance are recorded in the governorship of Didius. Veranius his
successor (A.D. 58) made some small raids upon the Silures, but
was prevented by deaih from continuing the war.

SECT. III.-— GOVERNORSHIP OF SUETONIUS PAULINUS.

§ 10. A new advance was made when the able and ambitious
Suetonius Paulinus, who had distinguished himself in Mauretania,
was appointed legatns in 59 A.D. It was he probably who occupied
Deva, and made it the quarters ot the XXth legion — "the Camp"
as it came to be called, Castra or Cluster. Deva seived as a post
against North Waies on the one side and against the Brigantes
on t'-e other. It is probable that he spent his first two years in
subduing the northern parts of Wales, and in 61 A.D. he pushed
forward with the XlVth legion to exterminate the Druidical
worship in its extreme retreat. The Mritish priesthood had retired
to the island of Mona, the present Anglesey, where they hoped to
be able to protect themselves by the strait. But Suetonius was
not foiled. He prepared rafts for the transport of his infantry
across the stream, and landed on the shore of th^ island in the face
of a dense array of Britons, while in the background the women,
dressed in black, and with dishevelled hair, brandished torches, and
the priests imprecated curses on those who had come to disturb
them. Panic seized the llomaus, but not for long. The landing,
was f-rced, the enemy was utterly routed, and the sacred groves
were cut down or burnt. It was probably in connection with this
expedition that Segontium, whose name is still preserved in Caer
Seiont, was founded.

§ 11. But while Suetonius was busy in the west, a great
insurrection broke out in the east. The Iceni were the ringleaders.
This tribe, under its king Piasutag"s, had been suffered, notwith-
standing its former revolt, to r tain its position of a client tributary
state. The heavy exactions imposed by the fiscus, and the violence
and insolence of the imperial procurator in levying the dues,
excited general discontent. The British communities weie com-
p-lied to borrow from Koraan money-lenders in order to meet these
exactions; and S< neca is stated to have directly promoted the
rebellion by suddenly calling in his investments. On the de>ith of
the king the land of the Iceni was annexed to the province.
Prasutagus had made the Emperor his heir along with his two

268 THE CONQUEST OF BRITAIN. CHAP. xvi.

daughters, thinking that this compliment would secure his
fanily and his kingdom from injury at the hands of the
Romans. But it turned out quite the reverse. The agents of
tho imperial procurator plundered the house of the dead king on
tho pica of exacting the inheritance, and treated his family with
outrage. His wife Boadicea* was beaten with stripes, and his
daughters were dishonoured. His relations were made slaves, and
ihe chief men of the tribe were stript of their property. The
Iconi v/ore roused by these indignities and the fear of worse, and
ihcy Tound allies in the Trinovantes, who smarted under the
violence of the veterans settled at Camalodunum. These colonists
drove £Ke natives out of their houses and farms, and the priests
who officiated at the temple of the Divine Clau*lius, levied heavy
enactions for the maintenance of the alien worship.

rebels chose a moment at which all the legions were far
end marched against Camalodunum. The inhabitants im-
plcrccl help from the procurator Catus Decianus, who sent a
reinforcement of two hundred men without regular arms. But the
place vTCS undefended either by fosse or by rampart ; and secret
accomplices in the revolt hindered them from taking fitting pre-
cautionrjo They did not even remove the women and old men, but
all fcooli I'oftige in the temple of Claudius, hoping that succour
noighft come. An immense host of Britons surrounded the place
and the sanctuary was stormed after a siege of two days. All the
defenders were put to death with the greatest cruelty. The tidings
of the outbreak first reached Petillius Cerealis, the commander of
legion IX, which, though its station at this moment is not
known,f was nearest the scene of the revolt. He hurried to attack
the insurgents, but in a great battle the infantry was cut to pieces,
and only the cavalry escaped. Petillius could not do more than
hold his entrenchments until the arrival of Suetonius, who was
hastening eastward, with legion XIV. from Mona, reinforced by
the veterans of the XXth, which he picked up at Deva. Legionaries
and auxiliaries, in all, his forces amounted to about 10,000 men.
He had intended that legion II., stationed at Isca Silurum,
should also march eastward in this great emergency, but the
commander disobeyed the summons, on the plea, doubtless, of
troubles with the Silures.

In order not to dissipate his forces, Suetonius was obliged to leave
the important and populous towns of Londinium and Verulamium
to the fury and greed of the insurgents, who, having burnt the
Glaudian colony, were marching about, bent on destruction. The

* Boudieca spcms to be the proper form.

f Pome think Lindum ; but it is doubtful whether Linduni was yet Komim

REVOLT OF THE ICENI.

269

movemeuts of the Homau general are very uncertain, but the
decisive battle seems to have taken place in the neighbourhood
of Camalodunum.* He chose his own battle-ground. The position
which he selected was approached by a narrow defile, and closed at
the other end by a forest. In front extended an open plain, where
there was no danger from ambuscades. In this position he could
not be outflanked or surrounded in the rear — the chief dangers,
from the superior numbers of the enemy. The legions were drawn
up in close array, round them the light-armed cohorts; and the
cavalry were massed on the wings. The army of the Britons,
consisting of both infantry and cavalry, were confident of victory,
and had hampered themselves with their wives, riding in waggons to
witness their triumph. Boadicea, a woman of spirit and deter-
mination, had blazened abroad among her people the treatment she
had received, and drove about in her chariot along with her
daughters from tribe to tribe, calling upon her countrymen to
throw off the foreign yoke. But in spite of their numbers and
their ardour, the Britons experienced a crushing defeat. At first
the legion kept its post in the narrow defile, but when the pila,
which were hurled with unerring aim on the advancing foe, had
been exhausted, they rushed forward in a wedge-like column and
broke the British centre. The auxiliaries and the cavalry com-
pleted the victory, and the flight of the conquered enemy was
impeded by the waggons. Their loss is computed at nearly 80,000.
Boadicea poisoned herself, and the commander of legion II.,
who had disobeyed orders, and thereby kept his troops from sharing
the glory of the XIV th, committed suicide.

The number of Roman citizens and allies, who had perished at
the hands of the rebels, is stated to have been about 70,000, and it.
was necessary to begin the work of civilisation in the eastern
districts all over again. Considerable reinforcements arrived from
Gaul ; the IXth legion was recruited again ; and the whole army
was brought together to stamp out the remaining sparks of re-
bellion. Suetonius took a terrible vengeance. He wasted the land
of the enemy with fire and sword, and the famine which ensued
made great havoc among the Iceni. Perhaps at this time the
stronghold of Venta Icenorum f was established to control the
districts north of Camalodunum.

§ 12. Suetonius was a severe ruler ; his counsels were always of
sternness, never of lenity. Charges of oppression were brought
against him by a procurator, and Polycletus, an imperial freedman,

* Some fancy that the scene of the
defeat was Wormingford (near Colchester),
where a mound has been discovered

rtth a large number of funeral urns.
f Norwich or Caistor.

270

THE CONQUEST OF BRITAIN. CHAP. xvi.

was sent to the island to investigate the matter. His decision was
practically adverse to Suetonius, who was recalled (61 A.D.) aiid
replaced ill the command by Petroniuo Turpilianus, a man of more
conciliatory temper. Under his auspices southern Britain seems to
have become contented with Roman rule. The towns which had
been sacked by the Iceni, were rebuilt, and soon resumed their
former prosperity — Camalo lunum, as the centre of the Roman ad-
ministration, and Londinium, as the centre of British commerce.
By this time all the most important stations in the province were
connected by Roman roads. The two most important roads,
Watling Street, leading to the west, and Ermine Street to the
north (through Camalodunum) met at Londinium. The chief sea-
ports were Rutupiae (Richborough) and Portus Lemanis, which
preserves its old name as Lymne. It is highly probable that these
places — as well as inland centres such as Calleva (Silchester, near
Reading), and Corinium, (Cirencester) — were already begiuning
to become centres of Roman civilisation.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

A.— THE CAMPAIGN OF PLAUTICJS.

Our only account of the invasion of
Britain by Plautius is that of Dion Cassius,
and he gives so few geographical indi-
cations, and those few so vague, that it is
quite hopeless to reconstruct the cam-
paign with anything like certainty. The
views of scholars who have investigated
the question diverge widely. The account
given in the foregoing chapter is in ac-
cordance with that of Mommsen (Rom.
Gesch., v. cap. 5) and Mr. Furneaux
(Annals of Tacitus, vol. ii. p. 126, sqq.~).
Hubner's view is very different (Romische
Herrschaft in Westeuropa, p. 10, aqq."),
and deserves to be recorded.

Hubner holds that the Roman forces
landed at one or more points between
Dover and Southampton; that the first
camp was near Chicijester, the old capital
of the P.egni, where they received the
support of Cogidubnus ; that Clausentum
(near Southampton) may have been
founded in honour of the victorious enter-
prise of Claudius near the spot where the
fleet landed; that the occupation of the
Isle of Wight was one of the earliest
events of the conquest. From Chicheeter,

according to this view, the army advanced
in a north-westerly direction to Venta
(the chief city of the Belgae), whose name
is hidden in Win-chester; and thence to
j Calleva (Silchester), which, situated at
i an equal distance from the eastern and
j western seas, was well suited to be a
centre for simultaneous operations in east
| and west. The Boduni, mentioned by
I Dion, are the same as the Dobuni who
dwelled on the Severn in the neighbour-
hood of Gloucester, and'Jlevum (Glouces-
ter) was occupied by a Roman garrison.
Having established a footing in the west,
the main part of the army proceeded east-
ward against the Trinovantes, and the
unnamed river of Dion is probably the
Avon.

Against Hubner's view and all others
wliich, like his, assume operations in the
west immediately after the landing, it
must be urged that nothing in Dion really
justifies such an assumption, which is,
antecedently, improbable. The first shock
of the invasion was clearly aim d at the
1 Trinovantes, and it is difficult to see why
Plautius should have advanced against
Canial dunum by way of Calleva anu
I Qlevum. The only plausible argument

CHAP. xvi.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

2571

tor Htibner'8 reconstruction is Dion's men-
tion of he tiudani, from which, by trans-
posing two letters, we may get Dobuni,
who (we know Irorn the geographer
Ptolemy) lived in the neighbouruood of
Gloucester and Cirencester. BU there is
no reason whatever why tuere might not
have been Boduni, totally distinct from
the Dobuni. and dwelling in a different
partot Britain. N.. guesswork is so un-
certain as guesswork about proper names.

The view of Dr. >«uest assumes a similar
det >ur to the west. It is briefly and
clearly summed up by Mr. Furueaux
(p. 134). Dr. Guesr, "thinks that tbe
landing was effected probably at Rich-
lx>rousjh, Dover, and Hythe, bu that the
Britons abandoned K -m without astruggle;
that their tirst stand (in which Caractacus
w.s defeated) was near Silchester, the
second (in which Tog.idumnus was de-
feat-d) near Cirencester; that the un-
named riv. r to which the Uritons then
fell back, and where the chief battle took
place, wa-i really the Tnames, which was
crossed at Wallingford ; (hat the so i ailed
Thames which the Britons aft rwards
crossed, ..nd at which the lioman advance
was checked, was really the tidal estuary
of the Lea noar Stratford; and that the
place wh re Plautius then waiied was
Lo .don, where his camp formed the first
p ruument castellum, and where he does
not think 'hat there is evidence of any
previous Britisn settlement. He supports
this view from a passage in win h Alfred
(who is supposed to have followed some
confused Welsh Chronicle) Ascribes to
Caesar a march somewhat resembling the
above (but stated as by way of Walling-
ford to Cirencester); but the difficulties
involved seem extremely great." If we
once begin to doubt one of tne tew data
which seem fairly certain, namely, the
ident ty of I >ion's Thamesis with the
Thames, t'ie reconstruction of the cam-
paign is hopeless.

An.ther verv different view was put
forward by Mr. G. B. Airy (Athenaeum,
June 28, 1860), and is thus summed up
by Mr. Furneaux. He held "that the
westerly course ment oned by Dio was
really that from the North Foreland to
the coast of Essex, where the landing took
pla'-e (probably at or near Southend);
that the Britons retr ated south-west ;
that the unnam d river, the j-cene of the
chief conflict, was the tidal portion of the
Lea; that the Britons, retreating thence,

crossed to the south of the Thames, fol-
lowed i>y the Romans, who took up a
position (probably at i\eston), where they
re-crossed the Thames with Claudius and
struck at CamaUxlunum. This view ap-
pears to involve the hardly possible sup-
position, that the Biifcns, in.- lead of
1 ailing back upon their str. nghold at
Camaiodunum, delibeiately marche<i away
irom it and leit it open to atiack, and
that the homans, instead of availing
themselves of that opi ortunity, marched
after them, and even crosseu the Thames,
knowing that they wouid have to e-cross
it for the main oi ject ol the campaign."

More recently Mr. F. C. J. Spurrell
read a paper at the Arcba ological Insti-
tute (1888), which puts forward a new
view, partly in agreement with I r. Guest,
partly with Mr. Airy. '-He places the
landing on the Hampshire coast, and
makes the Romans march to Gloucester-
shire and thence eastward till they reach
the Lea (the unnamed river of Lio);
whence he also makes them follow the
Britons southward across the Thames
(probably near Tilbury, supposed to be
then above- the tidal limit), and wait
there for Claudius."

One ot the most useful 'ssays written
on this difficult subject is that ol Mr.
Furneaux, to which this note is largely
indebted.

B.— THE LIMITS OF THE PROVINCE
UNDER OSTORIUS SCAPULA.

The chronology of the northward ex-
tension of the province is very unct rtain.
The data are lew ; and, in an iniportant
sentence ot Tacitus, which might throw
some light upon the question, the r< aning
is doubtful. In ti e foregoing chapter tbe
view ol Htbner, that Camalodunum and
tilevum markeil the 1 mits of the province
under Plautius and ( storius, has be. n
adopted. It bus also been assumed that
the permanent establishment at Deva was
due to Suetonius, and that I indum (Lin-
coln) was not occupied until a later period
(seeb low, Chap, xxii $ 1). Otbeis bow-
•"•er, hold that Lindum was a Roman post
under Suetonius, or even under Ostorius,
and that in iact Cereal is and legion IX.
were Rationed there when the revolt
of 61 A.D. broke out. Th s seems quite
possible.

Tacitus (Annals, xii. 31) describing the
acts of Ostorius says : Ctinctaque castris
Antonam et Sabrinam fluvios cohitere

272

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

CHAP, xvi

parat. As they stand, the words cannot ;
be construed, but they are supposed to j
mean that tbe governor drew a line of I
forts across the country between two j
rivers, of which one was the Severn.
Many corrections have been proposed,
among others inter Avonam (for Anto-
nam); a very improbable change. Momm-
sen thinks that castris means a military
station at Viroconium (Wroxeter), and
that the river whose name is corrupted,
was the Tern. (So Mr. Haverfield, who
suggests castris ad Tri&antonam.) But
the context shows that the measure of

Ostorius in some way affected the Iceni,
so that Viroconium seems unlikely. The
conjecture of Heraeus is more plausible,
both pala'ographically and historically.
He proposes cis Trisantonam (instead of
castris Antonarn), "south ot the rivers
Trent and Severn." Trisantona might
well have been the old name ot the Trent.
If the Trent is mentioned as a lim t, the
occupation of Lindum at this time becomes
highly probable.

It is to be observed that if castris is
right, it must mean "a camp," not "a
line of forts," which would be castellis.

Apotheosis of Germanicus.

Nero.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE PBINCIPATE OF NERO (54-68 A.D.).

1. Early life and education of Nero. Seneca. § 2. Position of
Britannicus. Speech of Nero in the senate. § 3. Struggle between
Agrippina, and Seneca and Burrus. Disgrace* of Pallas. Death of
Britannicus. § 4. Nero's licentiousness. Poppaea Sahina. § 5. Destruc-
tion of Agrippina. § 6. Sympathy with Nero. § 7. Nero's appearance
in public as a lyre-player and charioteer. § 8. Death of Burrus. Decline
of Seneca's influence. Schemes of Poppaea. § 9. Tigellinus. Execu-
tion of Rubellius Plautus and Cornelius Sulla. § 10. Divorce and
death of Octavia. Nero marries Poppaea. Her death. § 11. The
feast of Tigellinus. § 12. Financial measures. Project of "free
trade." Taxation. Delations and confiscations. Debasement of
coinage. § 13. Great fire in Rome, 64 A.D. Rebuilding of the city.
§ 14. Cause of the fire ; charges against Nero. Accusation and
execution of Christians. § 15. Conspiracy of Piso. § 16. Deaths oi
12*

274 THE PRINCIPATE OF NERO. CHAP. xvn.

Seneca and Lucan. § 17 Death of Petronius Arbiter. § 18. Death of
Thrasea Paetns. § 19. Nero's visit to Greece. Freedom granted to
Achria (06-68 A.D.). §20. Revolt of Vindex. § -Jl. It is suppressed
by Veigiuius. § 22. Advance of Galba and death of Nero (68 A.D.).
§ 23. Feelings on his death. § 24. His appearance and character.
§ 25 Encroachments on the power of th senate. § 2(3. Provincial
administration. Prosecutions of governors. New provinces. Coloni.-.a-
tion in Mo;>ia. § '27. Project of a water-route through Gaul. § 28.
Hostilities of the Frisians.

SFCT. I. — THE ASCENDENCY OF SENECA AND BCTRRUS.

§ 1. THE new Princeps* belonged to the house of ihe Brazen -beards,
one of the most illustiious families of the Dou.itian <jens. His
father, Gnaeu* Domitius Al enobarbus, a man infmious for his
vices and crimes, i* reported to have said on his child's birth, that
the offspring of such a father as himsel', and such a mother as
A'jrippina, m.ust turn out ill-omened and disastrous to the state.
The child lost his f.ither at the age of three, and was despoiled of
his inheritance by the Emperor Gaius. Hi-, mother was in banish-
ment, ami his training d- v«»l ed 'or a time upon his aunt Domitia
Lepida. The accession of Claudius restored to him both his mother
and his possessions, and under the eye of Agrippina he WHS brought
up with a view to future greatness, It has been already men-
tioned that she recalled the philosopher Seneca from exile, and
entrusted to him the education of her son. This remarkable man,
who played an imporant i art in the administraiion of the Homan
world during the early half of Nero's reign, professed to be a Stoic,
superior to the ordinary desires and amb tions of mankind. But
he amassed an immense fortune, and did not disdain the arts of
a courtier. He was not a politician who amuses himself with
philosophy, nor yet a pure philosopher who steps out of his
sphere to give advice in politics. On the contrary, his theory was
that philosophy should be applied to government, and that thought
should be combimd with notion. He mny not h.nve adhend
over strictlv to all his precepts ol moralit\, but tj ere can be nodruht
that whatever w re hi* faults, he rose " far above the culinary
pi da^ogues of the day, the cri"gin>.r slave or the flattering freedman
to wi om tb.3 young patricians were, for the most part, consigned.
Doubtless it was Seneca's principle of education to allure, possibly
to coax, rather than drive his pupil into virtue. He yielded on many
points in order to borro v influence on others. He deigned to pur-
chase the youth's attention to severe studies by indulging his incltna-

* His name in official style was : Nero I n., 1'i. Ceesaris Autmsti pron.,divi Augusti
Claudius divi Claud, f., Germanici Csesaris ] abn. Caesar Augustus Germanicus.

54 AJX HIS EDUCATION. SENECA. 276

tion to some less worthy amusements." * The young prince was
sunounded by the temptations whfch beset the pa'rician youth of
Rome, and accustomed to the indulgences which tended to relax
the vigour of mind and body. His favourite studies were artistic,
especially music and singing ; in oiatory he was not thought to be
proficient. It was a matter of remark that he required the help oi
Seneca to compose the funeral oration of his uncle.

§ 2. The succession of Nero to the Principate was readily
acquiesced in by the people, the soldiers, and the senate. Yet
there was a feeling that Britannicus, as the real son of Claudius,
had a better claim than the adopted Donrtius. It is significant
that the will of Claudius was not read, but was silently passed
over. No one, however, felt called upon to undertake the cause oi
Britannicns. This may have been partly due to the fact that the
infidelity of his mother had cast a slur on his birth. The s nators
may have even preferred an Emperor whose claim was doubtful, in
the hope that they might exert more influence in the administra-
tion, if he felt dependent on their goodwill. It must be re-
membered that, from a strictly constitutional point of view,
Britannicus had no more claim to the Princ'pate than Nero, and
Nero, through his mother, was descended in direct line from
Augustus. The first speech of the new Emperor in the senate,
dictated doubtless by Seneca, produced a favourable impression.
He promised not to interfere with the senate in the exercise of any
of its functions, but to confine his activity to the armies. The senators
lost no time in repealing a law of Claudius, by which lawyers were
allowed to accept rewards for pleading causes, and in exempting
quaestors from the burden of exhibiting gladiatorial shows, which
the same Emperor had laid upon them.

§ 3. The early years of Nero's rule were marked by a struggle for
power between his mother and his two chief advisers, Seneca and
Burrus. Agrippina had staked everything for power, and she did
not intend to surrender the reins on her sou's accession. It was
not enough for her that Nero should rule ; she d< sired to rule
herself. And Nero was devoted to her. His first watchword was
"the best of mothers," and during the first months she behaved as
the regent of the Empire. On coins her head appeared along with
that of the P inceps, and she took upon herself to receive the
ambassadors of foreign states. She hastened to remove from her
path two enemies, t1 e freedman Narcissus, and M. Silanus, pro-
consul of Asia. She feared the vengeance of the latter for the
death of his brother Lucius, whom she had destroyed as a possible
rival of her son. Nero, who cared only to enjoy the pleasures of
* Merivale. vi. 270.

276 THE PRIXCIPATE OF NERO. CHAP. xvn.

his position, and not to fulfil its duties, had himself little objection
to his mother's political activity ; but Burrus and Seneca were
resolved not to concede the assumption of such power to a woman,
especially as it seemed likely to be cruelly and unscrupulously
exercised. In order to* counteract her influence, they encouraged Nero
in an intrigue with a Greek freedwoman named Acte. Agrippina
was incensed, and her violent language drove the Emperor to attach
himself more closely to the indulgent Seneca. She then changed
her policy, and attempted to bid against the philosopher by still
greater indulgence ; but the eyes of her son had been opened to her
overbearing ambition. The first decisive triumph of the rivals of
Agrippina was the disgrace of the freedman Pallas, with whom she
had closely leagued herself, and on whose political experience she
leaned. Nero, who had never liked him, and would not submit
to his counsels, deprived him of his office, and dismissed him from
the court (before February 13, A.D. 55).

This was felt as a serious blow by Agrippina, and she made a
desperate move to recover her power by espousing the cause of her
stepson Britannicus. She declared that he was the true heir of
Claudius; she threatened to rush with him to the camp, and
ask the soldiers to judge between the daughter of Germanicus, and
Burrus and Sen* ca. Whatever were her own crimes, she said, she
had at lea-t preserved the life of Britannicus. This action on her
part proved fatal to the unlucky son of Claudius. Nero saw that
his own seat was not secure as long as Britannicus lived, and he
determined to remove him. The services of Locusta, which
Agrippina had employed to hasten the death of Claudius, were
now employed by her son to kill Britannicus. A warm wine-cup
was presented to the boy at table, and when he found it too hot,
cold water was added, into which a drop of deadly poison had been
poured. He died instantaneously, to the alarm of all those who
were present, and the unaffected consternation of Agrippina. The
body was burnt the same night in the Campus, in the midst of a
y;reat storm, which was interpreted as a sign of divine wrath. It is
impossible to know whether Seneca was privy to this deed, or
whether it was solely due to the calculation of Nero. It is clear
that the death of Britannicus was a decisive ch< ck to the plans of
Agrippina, and the question is whether Seneca would have been
ready to go to the length of poisoning in order to foil her and
preserve his own position. But there is no evidence to prove him
guilty, and therefore we must suppose him innocent. The death
of Britannicus was represented as natural, and Nero professed to
lament the loss of a dear brother. He had no curious inquiries to
tear from the senate ; for the senate was content with the Emperor's

55 A.D. DEATH OF BKITANNICUS. 277

policy, guided as it was by Seneca, and as long as the senate was
content, fratricide and other crimes might be committed in the
palace without interference.

Popularity with the senate was indeed the keynote of Seneca's
policy. The Emperor refused statues of gold and silver; he
declined the honour of letting the year begin with his birth-month,
December; he dismissed the charge of a delator against a knight
and a senator. Such acts were counted to him for righteousness.

Agrippina had lost her influence with Nero, and when, after the
death of Britannicus, she posed as the protectress of Octavia, her
son's wife, whom he treated with contemptuous neglect, and
attempted to form a party of her own, he became alarmed. He
caused the guard which had hitherto attended her to be removed,
and forced her to leave the palace, and take up her residence in the
house which formerly belonged to her grandmother Antonia. At
these signs of disfavour her friends fell away, and Junia Silana,*
who had a private grudge against her, attempted to work her ruin
by a false charge of conspiracy. Two suborned informers stated
that she had plotted to overthrow her son, and replace him by
Rubellius Plautus,f who was as nearly related to Augustus as
Nero himself. But on examination the charges fell through, and
Silana was banished.

§ 4. During the next three years Agrippina vanishes from the
pages of history. Though her influence was gone, there seems to
have been no open rupture. While Seneca and Burrus ad-
ministered the affairs of the Empire, and an unwonted activity was
permitted to the senate, the Emperor occupied his time in the
licentious amusements of youth. Adopting a favourite pastime of
profligate young nobles, he used to wander through the streets at
night, disguised in the garb of a slave to conceal his person, and
visit taverns and low haunts. He and his comrades used to seize
goods exposed for sale, and assail those whom they encountered in
their progress. The Emperor himself bore on his face the marks
of wounds received in these brawls. When it became known that
Nero was in the habit of masquerading thus, and many men and
women of distinction had been insulted in his nocturnal escapades,
others assumed his name and followed his example, so that the city
was infested by gangs like the Mohawks, who in the last century
used to make London dangerous at night. On one occasion a man
of senatorian rank, named Julius Montanus, happened to meet Nero
in the darkness. He first repelled his assailant vigorously, but
afterwards recognised him, and sent in a petition for pardon. Nero,

* Widow of C. Silius, the paramour of | f His mother was Julia, daughter of
Messalina. | Drusus (son of Tiberius) and Livilla.

278 THE PRINCIPATE OF NEBO. CHAP, xvn

angry at being recognised, asked " Has henot, then, already dispatched
himself, seeing that he strut k Nero? ''and Montanus was oblLed
to destroy himself. But after tliis occurrence the Emperor was
more cautious, and on such expeditions was always attended by
a guard of soldiers and gladiators, to interfere if necessary.

The two most intimite companions of Nero were two profligate
men of fashion, Salvius Otho and Claudius Senecio. In 58 A.D., his
intimacy with Otho led to an entanglement with Otho's wife
Poppasa Sahina. She had been divorced from a former husband to
marry Otho, and she regarded her second husband as merely a
stepping-stone to a still higher alliance. She had determined to
win the hand of Nero hinoelf. The historian Tacitus has described
with great art her coquetry, her fascinations, her audacity, and
her wickedness. "She had all things except a high rnind."* In
her, Agrippina had indeed found a mated. Tl e Emperor suc-
cumbed to her charms, and got rid of Otho by appointing him
governor of Lusitania. In order to marry Nero it was necessary
for Poppasa to procure the divorce of Octavia, but she saw
clearly that the chief obstacle to her plans was Agrippina, who
had always striven to maintain the nominal union of her son and
her stepdaughter. So Poppaei set herself to bring about a rupture
between the Emperor and his mother. She had friends and
supporters in Seneca and Bumis, the opponents of Agrippina, and
she had made up her mind to step over the corpses of the two
Empresses into the palace of the Cassars.

§ 5. The daughter of Germanicus still possessed considerable
influence with ihe praetorians, and it would have been dangerous
to resort to public measures against her. But Nero, led on by the
persuasions of his mistress Poppaea, did not shrink from contriving
a scheme for her assassination. His old tutor Anicetus, whom he
had raised to be captain of the fleet of Misennm, undertook to
construct a vessel which could be sunk, without exciting suspicion,
aud if it could be managed that Agrippina should emburk in it,
her destruction would be imputed by the worll to the winds
and waves. At the Quinquatrus, a festival of Minerva lasting
five days in the month of March, Nero incited his mother
to his villa near Baias. She landed at Bauli, between Baias and
Cape Misenum, and completed her journey in a litter, but after the
banquet, when night had f lien, she was induced to return to
Bauli in the vessel which had been prepared for her destruction.
But the mechaniwm did not do its work with the expected success,
a,ud Agrippina succeeded in swimming to shore, whence she pro-
ceeded to her villa on the Lucrine lake. One of her maids.

* Too., Ann., xiii. 45 : Ctmcta alia prater honestum animum.

59 A.D. DEATH OF AGKIPPINA. 279

Acerronia, who in order to save her own life called out, " I am
the Empress," was struck with oats, and drowned. Agrippina
saw through the treachery which she had so narrowly escaped,
but pretended to regard it as an accident, and sent her freedman
Agerinus to bear to Nero the news of her fortunate escape. Nero,
who had been waiting in agitation to learn that his mother
was no more, was terror-stricken at the tidings that the
plan had miscarried. He a| p>-aled for help in his difficulty
to Burrus and Seneca, who, however, seem to have had no pait
in the plot. But Anicetus undertook to finish the work. It
was pretended that a dagger was found in the possession, of
Agerinus, the freedman of Agrippina, and that she had conspired
against the Emperor's life. Anicetus, accompanied by a captain
and a military tribune, hastene 1 to the Lucrine villa. They found
her lying on a couch, with a single attendant, all the others having
deserted her at the approach of the assassins; and at their appearance
the last slave fled. She was dispatched with many wounds, crying.
" Strike the" womb which bore Nero." She was buried by slaves,
and Mnester a faithful freedman, slew himself on her pyre
(59 A.D.).

§ 6. If the matricide felt stings of remorse, they were speedily
alleviated by the congratulations, which poured in on him from
every side, on having escaped the plots of his mother. He wrote a
letter to the senate, explaining the circumstances of her death, and
there is no reason to suppose that this false account, embellished by
the art of Seneca, and confirmed by the testimony of Burrus, was not
generally believed. This is an instance of the way in which the
senate served the Princeps as a means of reaching the public tar.
The true story was probably known only to a few initiated persons ;
and there was nothing improbable in a woman who had killed
her husband planning to kill her son. Otherwise the great
sympathy which was expressed for Nero is unintelligible. The
senate decreed that thanksgivings should be offered for the
Emperor's safety, and that golden statues of Minerva and the
Emperor should be erected in the senate-house. The Quinqnatrus
were henceforward to be celebrated by public Barnes, and
Agrippina's birthday to be regarded as a day of ill-omen. All
those persons who had been sent, into exile owing to her influence
were permitted to return. Nero's entry into Rome was like a
triumph. He ascended to the Capitol and ottered thanks to the
gods for his preservation.

'280 THE FRINCIPATE OF NEKO. CHAP, xvn

SECT. II. — THE ASCENDENCY OF POPP^JA AND TIGELLINUS.

§ 7. Agrippina, with all her unscrupulous ambition, had a high
conception of the imperial dignity, of which Nero was totally
devoid. After her death, there was no restraint to hinder him from
following his bent, and indulging his theatrical and artistic tastes,
in a manner which set at defiance all the national prejudices of the
Romans. His gnat desire was to appear in public, in tragic
costume, and delight the ears of his subjects by singing and playing
)n the lyre, or to guide a chariot with his own hands in the
circus. When Seneca represented that such acts hardly befitted
the dignity of the Emperor, Nero answered him with appeals to the
superior culture of the Greeks, and the example of his uncle Gaius.
Seneca and Burrus, seeing that there was no help for it, tried
at least to limit the performances of the Emperor to a select
audience. A circus was erected in the Vatican va'ley, and there a
privileged number of courtiers were permitted to admire the skill
of the imperial charioteer. But if his guides thought that he would
be satisfied with this concession, they were mistaken ; it only
stimulated him to more public exhibitions. He was resolved to
appear as a singer and an actor. He seized the occasion on which
his beard was first clipped to institute a feast called Juvenalia,
to be celebrated within the palace. Numerous invitations were
issued, and noble young Romans were induced to contend as singers
and dancers for the prizes which the Emperor offered. Nero him-
self descendc-d on the stage with his lyre in his hand, and a band of
young men, called Augustiani, were enrolled to applaud the
excellence of his singing. Burrus is described as looking on,
" grieving, but applauding " (59 A.D.). In the following year, the
Emperor instituted another feast, called by his own name Neronia,
modelled strictly on the great Greek games, and to be held every
fi>e years. In the musical contests he took part himself. These
exhibitions were far more harmless than the horrible gladia-
torial shows, but they outraged national prejudice and are spoken
of with disgust by Roman historians. Nero's ideals were altogether
Greek, and i.e cared little for the spectacles of the arena. Brought
up by Seneca in the Stoic philosophy, he had imbibed at least the
spirit of cosmopolitanism and was not influenced in the least by the
political traditions of Rome.

§ 8. The year 62 A.D. was a turning-point in Nero's reign.
Hitherto he had been under the constraint of Burrus and Seneca,
who, while they indulged judiciously his licentious and frivolous
tastes, had prevented him from exerting his imperial power to the

62 A.D POPP.EA AND TIGELLINUS. 281

detriment of the state. Thus the first five years of Nero's reign
became proverbial for good government — the quinquennium Neronis-
The death of Burrus early in 62 A.D. was the beginning of a change
for the worse. The influence of Seneca, deprived of his friend's
support, immediately began to wane. It seems to have been
almost impossible to exercise an important influence in political
affairs, except in concert with the prsetorian prefect, and Seneca
could not act with the new prefects, Sofonius Tigellinus and Fsenius
Rufus, as he had acted with Burrus. But his estrangement from his
former pupil was chiefly due to the enmity of Poppasa, who was
jealous of the old courtier's influence over her lover. It was mainly
due to Burrus and to Seneca that she had not yet succeeded in dis-
placing Octavia, and marrying the Emperor. Burrus, when asked
to consent to the divorce, had replied with characteristic bluntness,
" If you put away the daughter of Claudius, at least restore the
Empire which was her dowry." Poppsea now endeavoured to remove
Seneca from her path, as she had before removed Agrippina. His
riches were imputed to him as a crime, and he was charged with
the design of corrupting the populace for treasonable purposes. It
was said too, that he had boasted his own superiority to the
Emperor in verse- writing and oratory. Nero's jealousy and fears
were easily aroused, and his altered manner showed the philosopher
the dangerous position in which he stood. He took the precaution
of giving up all the outward pomp which he had hitherto maintained,
and meditated a complete abandonment of public life.

§ 9. Of the two prsetorian prefects who had succeeded Burrus,
Rufus remained insignificant, but Tigellinus, a man of obscure
birth and no principles, soon worked himself into the Emperor's
confidence, by humouring and sharing in his vices. If he had only
been the companion of his debaucheries, it might have mattered
little to the general welfare, but he was also the instigator of
cruelty. The tyranny which marked Nero's later years dates from
the appearance of Tigellinus on the scene. The two acts which
inaugurated it, were the executions of Rubellius Plautus and
Cornelius Sulla. On the appearance of a comet in the year 60, which
was supposed to betoken the fall of the Princeps, rumour spoke of
Rubellius Plautus as the probable successor. Nero advised him,
and the advice was equivalent to a command, to retire to his estates
in Asia, and there he had lived quietly ever since. Tigellinus
represented to the Emperor that Plautus was still dangerous, in
consequence of his reputation, his wealth, and the proximity of
Asia to the Syrian armies. Accordingly a centurion with sixty
soldiers were sent from Rome, with a eunuch of the palace, to
remove the obnoxious noble, and Plautus, although he was warned

282 THE PK1NCIPATE OF NEKO. CHAP. xvu.

by his friends beforehand, and might have fled to Persia, calmly
awaited his fate. Cornelius Sulla, the husband of Antonia,
daughter of Claudius by Psetina, had been suspected of disloyalty
four years before, and ordered to reside in Massilia. He was not
rich, but his noble de.-cent, his connection with the Clandian house,
combined with the suspicions which he had previously aroused,
decided his doom. After this specimen «-f tyranny no senator could
consider himself safe, and the tone of the senate now changes from
independence to servility. Tigellinus and Poppsea were triumphant,
ami Seneca left, the fit-Id.

§ 10. The time had now come for Poppsea to accomplish her
great project, and induce Nero to divorce Octavia. Tigellinus
helped her. A charge was goc up of criminal intercourse wiih an
Alexandrine flute-player, and the praetorian prelect conducted
the investigation. Under torture some of the Empress's slave-women,
acknowledged the guilt of fieir mistress, but most of them denied
it. On su3h evidence there was no pretext for put iug the accused to
death, as Poppasa wished, and Nero content d himself with divorcing
her on the ground of barrenness. Th^ palace of Burrus and the
possessions of Plautus were assigned for her maintenance, and she
was commanded to retire to Campania. But the universal
sympathy, which the lot of thin unfortunate and innocent lady
aroused among all classes, proved her destruction. A rumour was
suddenly spread that the Emperor had recalled his wife. It was
quite groundless, for Nero had already married Poppsea, whose
statues were erected in tlie public places in the city. But the
people rushed in excitement to the Capitol, thanked the gods that
the Emperor had recognised the just claim of the true daughter of
the Csesars, and thrust down the images of Poppsea, while they bore
those of Octivia in triumph. The soldiers of Tiiiellinus dispersed
the masses when thev gathered round the imperial palace. Poppsea
saw that while her rival lived, her position was insecure, and
she easily persuaded her husband to consent to the execution of
Octavia. Auicetus, the prefect of the fleet at Misenum, who had
proved himself so useful in compassing the death of Agrippina, again
supplied his services f»r the destruction of a second victim. He
laid a confession before the Kmperor that he had committed adultery
with Octavia, and was sentenced to banishment to Sardinia, w ere
he lived in luxury and died a natural death. Octavia was banished
to the island of Pandateria, where she was executed (June 9th,
6 1 A.D.). Her head was cut off and carried to Pop sea, who could now
bre ithe freely. By a d( cree of the senate, samfiVes of thanksgiving
were offered to the gods; and, says Tacitus, ii may be henceforward
understood without special mention, that " whenever the Princeps

62, 63 A.D. DIVORCE AND DEATH OF OCTAVIA. 283

ordered banishments or executions, thanksgivings were paid to the
gods, and the ceremonies which fo merly marked prosperous events,
were then the tokens of some public di-aster."

In the following year (63 A.D.) Poppsea bore a daughter to Nero.
The senate decreed her the title Augusta, which had not been
granted to Octavia,-but, fr«>m this time forwa'd,this tMe no longer
possessed the same political importance which it I ad for Livia and
Agripp'na. Nero was overjoyed at the birth of the child, \\ho
was named Claudia, but she died afUr three months, and then
his griet was as extravaian^ as his joy. Claudia was enrolled in
the rank of the divas, like Brasilia, the sister ot Gains. Poppaea
herseli died two yea'-s later in premature child-birth, owing, it is
said, to an accidental kick from Nero. She also was consecrated,
the first Empress since Livia who had received that honour.

§ 11. Under the new order of things, Poppsea and 'ligellinus
having taken the place of Seneca an«i Bnrrus, the luxury and
cruelty wh ch prevailed in the reign of Gaius, and the glutt"ny of the
court of i laudius, were renewed. Ne/o's debauchery was practised
as publicly as his acting and chariot-driving. Banquets were spread
in all the public places of the city, and the Emperor used the whole
city as if it had been his private house. The luxury of these revels,
devised by the genius of Tigellinus, was notorious, and the citizens
were permitted to be spectators of the Emperor's licentiousness,
On one occasion a feast was laid out on a large raft, which was
towed along by ships in the Basin of Agrippa.* The vessels were
adorned with gold and ivory, and were rowed by men oi abandoned
character. On the banks of the basin, stood disreputable houses,
filled with women of noble birth. Nero hira-elf is snld to have
crowned his infamy by going through all the rites of the marriage
ceremony, the veil, the dowry, the torches, the auspices, with a
man named Pythodorus. Although the stories told by the ancient
historians of the debaucheries of Nero and his court may be
exaggerated, yet there can be no doubt that exhibitions of wanton-
ness took place with a shameless publicity, which seems almost
incredible to a modern reader.

§ 12. The extravagance and prodigality, which went hand in
hand with the vices of the court, empiied the imperial coffers, and
brought about a financial crisis, just as had happened in the similar
case of Gaius. The earlier years of Nero had been signalised by a
liberal and enlightened financial policy. Claudius had left him a
well-filled treasury, such as Tiberius had left to Gaius, and he made a
serious attempt to relieve the burdens of the masses, upon whom
the indirect taxes fell so heavily. In the year 58 a remarkable
* Probably 5n the Campus Martins.

284 THE PKINCIPATE OF NERO. CHAP, xvn

proposal was made by the Emperor to do away with the vectigcdia,
and as we should say, establish " free trade." There is no reason to
suppose that this measure was intended to be confined, as some
have supposed, to Roman citizens, or to the city of Rome. Its
object was both to relieve the people and to set aside a mode of
taxation which was attended with much injustice and fraud. There
can be no doubt that it was proposed to make up the loss to the
treasury by increasing the direct taxes, which fell upon the pro-
ducers and capitalists, who would have profited by the remission
of the duties. But the Emperor's projt ct did not get a trial ; his
experienced advisers represented to him that it would mean the
ruin of the state. The opposition doubtless came from those
privileged classes which had invested large capital in the farming
of taxes, and who would have suffered if the duty on inheritances
had been raised. But although this bold design fell through, it
led to some important changes which alleviated the hardships of
the taxation in its various forms. One measure commanded the
publication of the exact amounts of all dues to the state, so
as to prevent the tax-collectors from exacting too much ; charges
against them for extortion were to have precedence in the
courts ; and claims for arrears were not to be made after a year.
The duties on corn imported to Italy from the provinces were
lightened.

The expenses which fell on the fiscus were heavy. Every year
Nero presented 60,000,000 sesterces (£480,000) " to the state." This
sum was chiefly devoted to defray the cost of supplying the city with
corn, but it also included an advance to the aerarium, which was
never able to meet its claims without aid from the fisc. The wars
in Armenia and Britain were also costly, over and above the ordinary
expenses of maintaining the administration and the armies through-
out the Empire. The consequence was that, when the outlay of
the court became extravagant under the guidance of Tigelliuus and
Nero's other licentious friends, the funds ran short, and the Emperor
was driven to resort to the same measures to replenish his treasury
as had been adopted by his uncle Gaius. The methods of delation
and confiscation were again introduced. The rich were accused OD
false or trifling charges, and their possessions appropriated by the fisc.
Among the first victims who were saciificed were two rich freedmen :
Nero's secretary Doryphorns, who had presumed to oppose his
master's marriage with Poppsea, and the old Pallas, who had amassed
an immense fortune, which, when he was deposed from his office,
he had been suffered to retain. As Pallas had become wealthy by
defrauding the imperial treasury which he administered under
Claudius, there was no glaring injustice in confiscating his fortune.

64 AD. FIN AN CI AT, DIFFICULTIES. 285

Seneca offered to place his wealth at the Emperor's disposal, but the
offer was refused.

But the most important effect of the financial difficulties was the
fatal measure to which the government resorted of depreciating the
gold and silver coinage. This began as early as the years 61 and 62.
Forty-five instead of forty aurei, and ninety-six instead of eighty
denarii, were struck out of a pound of gold. The coinage never
recovered itself, and from Nero's reign we must date the bankruptcy
which reached a climax in the third century. The immense amount
*>f silver which was drafted from the Empire to Eastern Asia in
return for oriental luxuries, must be taken into account as a cause
of the debasement of the silver coinage. Nero, further, robbed the
senate of their right of coining copper — a right, the importance of
which has been already explained.*

SECT. III.— THE GREAT FIRE IN BOMB.

§ 13. If Nero succeeded in replenishing his coffers by fair means
and foul, an event happened in 64 A.D., which demanded all the
resources of the fiscus. Fires were common in Eome, but on the
night of July 18 of that year, a conflagration broke out which in
magnitude exceeded anything that had been experienced before. It
began among some shops full of inflammable material, at the south-
east end of the Great Circus, where the valleys west of the Cselian
and south of the Palatine meet. Driven by a high wind the flames
consumed the wooden benches and structures of the Circus, and
spread rapidly and irresistibly over the Palatine, the Vulia, and the
Esquiline, where, near the gardens of Maecenas, their course was
stayed. But in another direction, also, the fire made its way, and
consumed many buildings on the Aventine, in the Forum Boarium,
and the Velabrum. It raged for seven nights and six days, and
when ;ill thought that it was over, it broke out again in the Campus
Ma1 tins, destroyed the buildings of the ^Emilian Gardens, which
belonged to Tigellinus, and spread to the foot of the Capitoline and
the Quirinal. It was said that of the fourteen regions, seven
completely and four parrially were reduced to ashes. But it has
been shown that this must be an exaggeration, although the damage
done was enormous. Among the public buildings which were
consumed, wer<". the temple of Jupiter Stator founded by Romulus,
the Red v of Numa, and the temple of Vesta, the temple of Diana
dedicated by Servius on the Aventine, the Ara Magna ascribed by
legend to Evander — all ancient monuments said to date from the
* See above, Chap. III. $ 5.

286 THE PBINCIPATE OF NEBO. CHAP. xvn.

time of the kings. More serious, from a practical point of view,
was the destruction of the splendid edifices of Augustus on the
Palatine, the palace and the temple of Apollo. The new build-
ings in the Campus Martins near the Flarninian Circus had also
seriously suffered. Numbers of priceless works of the great Greek
sculptors, which no wealth could ever replace, perished in the
flames, and countless memorials and trophies of Roman history
must have been lost for ever.

In this emergency Nero showed himself in the most favourable
light. He was absent at Antium when the fire broke out, and he*
returned to the city as the conflagration was approaching the palace,
He left nothing undone in his attempts to qu< ll the flames. He
rushed about the city by himself, without attendants or yuards, to
the places which were most in danger, and when at length the tire
ceased to spread, he did all he coul«l to help and relieve the terrible
distress of the homeless and shelterless thousands who had lost all
their belongings. The public buildings and the imperial gardens
were opened to receive them, and a temporary shelter was erected
in the Campus. The price of corn was lowere 1 to three sesterces a
bushel, and contributions were levied for the relief of the sufferers.

The rebuilding of Rome was begun with vigour. It must have
involved a vast outlay, and Nero was determined that the city
should arise from its ashes both on a more splendid scale and on a
more rational and salubrious plan. The mi-st-ikes of the old archi-
tecture were comprehended and avoided. The streets were made
wider, the houses lower and, partly at least, of stone. Arcades
were built outside the new houses for protection from sun and rain.
But the new palace — the Golden House as it was called — planned
by the architects Severus and Celer, was the wonder of the restored
Rome. It was not so much the spl ndour of the house that excited
wonder, as the fields, the pond.-, the wooded solitudes, the views of
the park. Italv and the provinces were required to contribute to the
restoration of their mi-tress city, and treasures of art which adorned
rhe ci'ies and temples of the Greek lands were carried off to replace
those which Rome had lose.

§ 14. There is no reason to suppose that the outbreak of this
great fire was other than accidental. But, the multitude suspected
incendiaries, and a wild rumour was circulated that the Emperor
himself was privy to the burning of the city. Various motives
were attributed for such a monstrous act. It was said that he
wished to outlive the destruction of his mother-city, or that he
desired to rebuild Rome and call it by his own name, or that his
artistic sense was offended by the architectural ugliness of the city.
It is also related that he regarded the ravages of the flames from

64 A.D. THE GKEAT FIEE AT ROME. 287

the palace of Maecenns with delight, and snng a «cene f om I is own
play on the Capture of Troy. For this anecdo-e there may U- some
foundation in fact. But the charge of incendiarism, which even
contemporaries brought against Nero, was assuredly false. He had
nothing to gain and everything to lose by the destruction of Home.
The solicitude which he always showed for the wel'are of the
populace, and the efforts which lie made to save the Palatine, are
hardly consistent with such a supposition. Nor is it conceivable
that, at a moment when he was pressed by financial difficulties, he
would have gone out of his way to burden the treasury with the
enormous expenses required for the rebuilding of the city and the
maintenance of the sufferers. The Emperor had many enemies,
whose interest it was to place him in the worst light, and we can
easily understand that they either originated or fostered the rumour.
But it was generally believed. that incemliaries were at work,
and there were police investigations which led to the arrest and
punishment of a number of people ''whom the vulgar called
Christians." Here for the first time the Christian sect appears on
the stage of profane history, and the remarkable words in which
Taci tus describes it deserve to be quoted. *• Christus, from whom this
name was derived, was executed when Tiberius was Imperator, by
Pontius Pilatus the procurator. The pernicious superstition, checked
for the time being, again broke out, not only in Ju«l«a, its original
home, but even in the city, the meeting-place of all horrible and
immoral practices from all quarters of the world." This description
represents the popular belief that the Christians practised nil sorts
of horrors in their secret assemblies, such as cannibalism and incest.
Those who were known to he Christian*, and confessed the creed
when they were charged with it, were first arrested, and some of
these, und^r torture, betrayed the names of many others who were
secretly Christians, but were not known as such. The prisoners
were not tried strictly on the charge of incendiarism ; and Tac.tus
seems to have no doubt of their innocence 01 this crime, \\hich coi.ld
not be brought home to them. But as " hatred of the human rare"
was in popular credence imputed to Christians, they were th ught
capable of it. A consilerab1* number were condemned — really
because they were prov« d to be Christians, but nominally on the
ground that they were incendiaries. They were put to death with
mockery. Some, wrapped in skins, were torn to i ieces by dogs ;
others, arrayed in the tunica molesta, were set <(n fire to seive as
torches by nig it.* Nero gave up his Vatican gaidens to the

* Juvenal describes this punishment in

the lines (Sat. i. 155 tqq.)t ,

Pone Tigellinum, twda lucebis in ilia, Et latum media sulcum deducit harena.

Qua stantes ardent qui flxo pectore
ft) ma tit,

288 THE PRINCIPATE OF NERO. CHAP.

spectacle of these tortures, and at the same time exhibited a show
in the circus there, appearing himself dressed as a charioteer. The
sacrifice of these victims soothed the exasperation of the populace^
and the Emperor's callousness even brought about a revulsion of
feeling.

The Christians of Rome were sacrificed because Nero required
scapegoats ; but the question arises, why were the Christians, who
as yet had attracted little public attention, selected for the purpose?
Contemporary literature shows that at this time the Jews were
objects of general hatred and suspicion, and it might seem more
natural that they should have been suspected and punished by the
government. It is impossible to answer the question with certainty,
hut it has been plausibly suggested that the Jews themselves may
have shifted the charge from their own body upon the Christians,
whom they hated bitterly. They might have been the more easily
able to effect this through the influence of Poppsea Sabina of whose
leaning towards the Jews and their religion there is undoubted
evidence.*

SECT. IV. — THE CONSPIRACY OF Piso.

§ 15. Tigellinus was unwearied in scenting out pretenders to the
Principate. By this policy, he helped to fill the imperial coffers and
to render himself indispensable. In 64 A.D., D. Junius Torquatus
Silanus was accused of treason and driven to suicide. But a pro-
found and widely-spread discontent prevailed among the nobles, and
a conspiracy was formed, which came to a head in the spring of 65
A.D. C. Calpurnius Piso, whom the conspirators chose to fill the
place of Nero, was one of the most prominent and popular men in
Rome at this time. He lived in magnificent style, was lavish of his
wealth, and was ready to place his powers of oratory at the service of
the poor. He had winning manners, and his life was as dissolute as
that of Nero or Tigellinus. He lazily consented to be the centre of
a plot, the dangers of which he was not sufficiently ambitious to
share. What seemed to give this enterprise a considerable chance
of success, was the adherence of Fsenius Rufus, the praetorian prefect,
who was jealous and afraid of his powerful colleague Tigellinus.
Along with Rufus a number of the tribunes and officers, who had
been passed over by Tigellinus, joined the conspiracy ; conspicuous
among these was the tribune Subrius Flavius. Among the rest
were the consul designate Plautius Lateranus : Antonius Natalis, a
friend of Piso ; Annseus Lucanus, the poet, whose verses had
incurred the disfavour of the Emperor ; Claudius Senecio, a
* She interceded for them on other occasions.

65 A.D. CONSPIRACY OF PISO. 289

courtier constantly in attendance on Nero, and so able to keep his
associates aware of what was going on in the palace. Lucan's mother
and a freed woman named Epicharis were also initiated into the pro-
ject. Epicharis tried to win over an officer of the fleet, Volusius
Proculus, who was supposed to have a grudge against Nero, but he
deceived her expectation by revealing the affair to the Emperor-
As, however, she had mentioned no names, the conspirators were
not discovered.

They then decided to kill Nero during the feast of Ceres, between
the 12th and 19th of April, at the games in the circus. The plan
was the same as that which had been successfully adopted by the
assassins of Julius Cassar. Lateranus was to present a petition to
Nero, and clinging to his legs throw him on the ground ; the rest
were to bury their weapons in his body. But Flavius Scsevinus, who
claimed the first blow, foolishly betrayed the secret, which had
hitherto been closely preserved. He made his will, gave the dagger,
which he had chosen for the deed, to his freedman Milichus to
sharpen, got ready the appliances for binding up wounds, and gave
his slaves and freedmen a luxurious feast. These unusual proceed-
ings excited the suspicions of Milichus, who at daybreak sought and
obtained an audience with Nero. Scsevinus was arrested, but his
examination led to nothing, and the plot would not have been dis-
covered if Milichus had not remembered the frequent visits which
his master received from Natalis. When Natalis was examined
separately, his evidence did not agree with that of Scaevinus, and in
this way the accusation of the freedman was proved t-> be well-
founded. Threats of torture and promises of mercy induced the two
conspirators to vie with each other in revealing the names of their
associates. Their conduct contrasted with the constancy of Epi-
charis, who submitted to tortures, and in the end strangl< d herself
rather than betray her trust. The names of the military con-
spirators had not been disclosed, and Fsenius Rufus took his seat
beside Tigellinus at the trial and sought to divert suspicion from
himself by his zeal as a judge. But when one of the accused
denounced him, he turned pale, and could not defend himself. The
proceedings against the victims were summary, but they were
allowed to choose their own mode of death. Piso, who had shown
irresolution and cowardice through the whole episode, and Lateranus
were slain without resistance, and Piso made a cringing will in
favour of the Emperor.

§ 16. Among the first whose names were betrayed, and who were
condemned to die, was the philosopher Seneca. It is not improbable
that he was really implicated in the enterprise, and in any case it
seems to have been the wish of the military associates in the plot

THE PBINCIPATE OF NERO. CHAP. xvn.

to elevate him, instead of Piso, to the supremo power. If Nero
had any wish to spare bis former tutor, he was hindered by Popj aea
and Tigellinus. Seneca had just returned from Campania with his
wife Paulina, and was staying at a country house four miles from
the city. When the message of death was brought, his wife
declared her resolution of dying along with him, and they severed
the veins of their arms. The flow of blood in Seneca's old frame
was languid, and his agony was protrac'ed. As he lay slowly
bleeding, he dictated a composition which was afterwards published.
To hasten his end, he swallowed poison, which, however, had no
efle t on his drained body, and death was finally brought about by
the steam of a hot bath. But Paulina was not permitted to die.
Nero had no cause of hatred against her, and her arms were bound
up by the orders of the soldiers. She lived some years longer,
faithful to her husband's memory, and the las' ing pallor of her
skin was a monument of her attempt to die with him.

The fate of this distinguished philosopher and thai? of his
nephew, the poet Lucan, give this abortive conspiracy a certain
celebrity. Lucan opened his veins in the bath, and, as he felt the
animation depart from his feet and hand?, recited appropriate
verses of Ids own, describing a wounded soldier bleeding to
death.* Subrius Flavus, a tribune of one of the prastorian cohorts,
distinguished himself by his bold worc's to Nero. When the
tyrant *sked him why he conspired, he replied: "Because I hated
you. None of the soldiers was more loyal, as long as you deserved
our affection. I began to hate you, when you became an assassin
of your mother and your wife, a charioteer, an actor and an in-
cendiary ! " The consul Vestinus was included among the victims,
although his guilt was not clear, and it is said that Nero wanted
to get rid of him, on account of his wife Statilia Messalina. Nero
married Messalina in the following year.

Natalia was pardoned. Milichus was richly rewarded, and
received the name ol "Preserver." The praatorian guards received
each man two thousan 1 sesterces, and were for the future provided
with bread free of cost. Triumphal decora ions were granted to
the prefect Tigellinus, Cocceius Nerva, and Pctroaius Turpilianus,
who had helped in the judicial proceedings, and their statues were
set up in the Palatium. Consular insignia were conferred on
Nymphidius Sabinus, who had succeeded Fasnius Rufus as pras-
torian prefect. A temple was erected to Salus, the dagger of
Scasvinus was dedicated to Jupiter the Avenger, and 'he month of
April was named Neronianus. It was even pioposed, but the
proposal was rejected, t > erect a temple to Nero. It is noteworthy
* Perhaps Pharsdlia, iil. 635-646.

65, 66 A.D. DEATHS OF SKNECA, PBTBONIUS, ETC. 291

that a full account of the judicial proceedings, which were con-
ducted by the im| erial concilium, was publi.>hed.

§ 17. Both later in 65 A.D., and in the succeeding year, executions
took place which seem to have been in some way connected with
the conspiracy of Piso. Annseus Mela, brother of Seneca and
father of Lucnn, was condemned on the ground of a forged letter
of his son, charging him with complication in Piso's plot. He was
a rich man, and Nero wanted his possessions. About the same
time perished T. P^tr- niu*, on the charge of a suspicions friendship
with the conspirator Scsevinus, but really on account of the
jealousy of Tigellinus. Petronius was a man who made the plea-
sures of vice a fine art, and his judgment was regarded as the
standard of taste in all matters of luxury at Rome. He was " the
glass of fashion." h s feasts were elegant, his debauchery refined.
He was nam> d Arbiter, as the arbitrator or director of the Emperor's
plasures, and Tigellinus, who aspired to be Nero's sole guide in
such things, ei.vied the influence of Petronius. When the Em-
peror was in Campania (66 A.D.), Tigellinus caused Petronius to be
detained at Cumse. Seeing that his fate was determined, the
voluptuary was true to t'ie principles of his life in the moments of
his death. Having opened his veins, he bade the physician bind
them up again, and r«peating this operation at intervals, he spent
his last hours at a banquet, amusing his friends with wanton
verses He also composed an account of the unnatural orgies of
the Emperor, and sent it to him under seal. This led to the
banishment of a woman named Silia, whom Nero suspected of
having betrayed the scenes in the palace in which she had taken
part.

§ 18. " Having butchered so many illustrious men, Nero at
leng'h desired to dest'oy virtue herself by the death of Thiasea
Pa^tus and I 'area Soranus." P. Clodius Thrasea Pse'us was more
remarkable for what he was than for anything he did. He was
the leader of the party of opposition whicn yearned, helplessly,
for the resto-ation of the Republic and set up the younger Cato
as their ideal. He was the embodiment of their virtues and
their faults. Born at Patavium, he was simple in his habits,
incorruptible in his morals, and out of sympathy with the
luxury of Rome. He matried Arria, the daughter of a man who
had fallen in a conspiracv against Claudius, and whose wife had
heroically slain hersnif. He and his son-in-law, Helvidius Pri>cus,
used to crown themselves with garlands, and celebra'e the birth-
days < f Brutu* and Cass us. 'Ihrasea distinguished himself in the
senate by his rough independence. He withdrew, without voting,
when the motion was made to condemn the memory of Agrippina;

292

THE PRINCIPATE OF NERO. CHAP,

be declined to take any part in the Neronian games ; he did not
attend the funeral of Poppsea. When one Antistius was con-
demned to death for mocking the Emperor in verse, Thrasea
endeavoured to moderate the flattery of the senate. It was said
that he never sacrificed for the Emperor's safety. He and his
party were always protesting against the government in insig-
nificant matters, and asserting their independence in trifles. Their
republican ideal was an anachronism ; their rhetoric was hollow.
Their activity was chiefly confined to society and literature.
Thrasea was a Stoic, and he composed a life of his model, Cato.
Lucan's Pharsalia was a characteristic work of this party of
opposition, which, throughout the whole period of the Julian
and Claudian dynasties, fostered its Utopias and repeated its hollow
phrases. It must be owned that they had the courage of their
opinions, and that their bitterness against the Principate was,
natural enough; for its institution had destroyed the political
power of the senatorial order. Nor could they see, as clearly as
we can see now, that even imperial despotism was a lesser evil for
the Roman world than the government of the senate in the last
days of the Republic.

The courageous obstinacy of Thrasea led to his destruction. All
his little sins of omission and commission against the majesty of the
Emperor were marshalled by Capito Cossutianus, a son-in-law of
Tigellinus, and another delator, Eprius Marcellus ; and at the same
time Barea Soranus was accused on various charges ; among others,
that he had been intimate with Rubellius Plautus. The chief
witness against him was P. Egnatius Celer, a Stoic philosopher.
The daughter of Soranus, Servilia, was also charged with treason-
able divination concerning Nero. The cases were tried by the
senate, and all three were condemned.* Helvidius Priscus, who
was likewise accused of neglecting his duties as senator, was
banished. Thrasea adopted the usual mode of death among
condemned nobles, and opened his veins, forbidding his wife Arria
to follow her mother's example. As the first blood spouted, he
said, " A libation to Jove the Deliverer ! "

§ 19. In the meantime Nero had been busy with those pursuits
for which ho imagined that he had a special calling. He had
appeared publicly on the stage at Neapolis (64 A.D.), where, from
the Greek character of the city, he expected a favourable reception,
and he received such enthusiastic applause that he determined to

* These trials took place about the
same time of the year (66 A.D.) that
Tiridates arrived in Home to receive the
crown of Armenia from Nero; probably

about the middle of the year.— Cf. J u venal,
Sat., iii. 116 :

Stoicus occidit Baream delator, aniicuti,
Diacipulumque senex.

66, 67 A.D.

NERO IN GREECE.

293

exhibit his skill to Greece herself. He had made preparations for
a visit to that country, but the project was not carried out until
two years later. In the meantime he celebrated the Neronia a
second time (65 A.D.), read his poems to a delighted audience, and
appeared as a citharoedus. It was considered almost high treason
not to appear in the theatre on such occasions. Towards the close
of the following year (66) Nero visited Greece, where he appeared
at all the public spectacles, and danced and sang without any
reserve. Those towns in which musical contests were held had
sent invitations to him, offering him prizes, and the four great
games at Olympia, Delphi, Isthmus, and Nemea, which were
regularly celebrated in successive years, were crowded into the
space of one year for his sake, so that he could win the j^lory of
being a periodonikos or victor at all four.* Besides this irregularity,
a musical contest was held at Olympia, contrary to wont. He also
competed in a chariot-race, and is said to have received the prize,
though his horses and chariot fell. The proclamation was made in
this form : " Nero the Emperor is victorious, and crowns the
People of the Romans and the world which is his," Nero was
attended on his Greek tour by a large train of courtiers and
prsetorian guards, and he seems to have indulged in debauchery
with less reserve than ever. He had a profound admiration for
Greece and the Greek people, and he could not brook that they
should hold the position of mere provincials. He determined to
reward them for their kindness to himself and their appreciation of
his artistic talents. So he enacted at Corinth the scene which,
two-and-a-half centuries before, had been enacted by Flamininus.
He proclaimed in the market-place the freedom of the Greeks ; the
province of Achaia was done away with. The proclamation of
Nero was very different in practical effect from that of Flamininus.
It was harmless ; it did not mean civil war ; it merely relieved a
favoured portion of the Empire from the burden of taxation.
Nero's Greek visit was also marked by a serious attempt to cut
through the Isthmus of Corinth, a project which had been most
recently entertained by his uncle Gaius. Nero inaugurated the
beuinuing of the work himself, but after his departure it was
abandoned.

Nero's visit to Greece was marked by the destruction of three
consular legates, of whose power or ambition the Emperor was
jealous or afraid. The most important of these was Corbulo,

* Juvenal has som« well-known verses
on this degradation < >l the imperial dignity
'£&«., x. 224 sqq.) -.

Haec opera atiju hae sunt generosl
principis artes

Gaudentis foedo peregrina ad pulpita

cantu
Prostitui Graiipqiie apium mrrniss"

coronse.

294 THE PBINCIPATE OF NERO. CHAP. xvn.

whom we have already met on the Khine, and whose exploits in
the east will be recorded in the following chapter. The other two
were Scribonius Rufus and Scribonius Proculus, brothers, who at this
time were the legati of the two Germanics. It is unknown, what
accusations were preferred agiinst them, or who #ere their enemies.
While the Emperor was absent, he left a freedman named Helius
as his representative in Home, and he could probably have found
no one more faithfully devoted to his in erests. At the be^inninj;
of the year 68 A.D. serious signs of discontent were apparent in
the provinces, and plots in the western armies a.uainst the Emj^ror
were suspected. Helius crossed over to Greece, and urged Nero to
return if he would save his power. He entered Rome, borne in the
charios in which Augustus had triumphed, crowned with the
Olympian wreath. He was hailed as Nero Apollo and Neio
Hercules, and coins were struck, on which he was depicted as a
flute-player. But although lie was Mattered ou all sides, he soon
left Rome for Campania, where he breathed more freely.

SECT. V. — THE REVOLT OF VINDEX, AND FALL OF NERO.

§ 20. The events which led to the fall of Nero began in Ganl,
although it was not from Gaul that the final blow was to come.
C. Julius Vindex, sprung of a noble Celtic family, but thoroughly
Romanised and adopted into the imperial ^ens, was governor of
Gallia Lugudunensis. At the beginning of 68 A.D , he raised the
standard of revolt. It is not quite clear what his ultimate inten-
tions were, but he seems to have conceived the idea of a kingdom
of Gaul, ruled by himself, nominally perhaps dependent on the
Empire, like the former kingdom of Mauretania. But it was
practically an attempt to throw off the Roman y"ke. Vindex may
be regarded as a successor of Vercingetorix and Sacrovir. He
collected from various parts of Gaul a force of about 100,000 men.
The districts of the Arverni and the Sequani joined in the move-
ment, and the town of Vienna on the Rhone was a sort of centre
for the rebellion. But Luuudunum, the capital of the Three
Provinces, held aloof, as did the Lingones nnd the Treveri on the
borders of Germany. The troops which Vindex gathered were
ill-disciplined and ill-armed, the enterprise was hopeless unless he
could induce some of the western armies to take part in it. His
attempts to win the armies of the Rhine were fruii less, but he was
more successful in Hither Spain. We have already met Galba, the
governor of that province. He had distinguished himself slightly
both on the Rhine and in Africa. He was already in his seventy-

68 A.D. REVOLT OF VINDEX. 295

third year, and in his childhood had seen Augustus, who had said
to him, according to report, " Thon shalt one day taste our empire.'
It is probable that Galba had already thought of rebellion before he
received the overtures from Vindex. Oracles were afloat that an
Emperor was to arise from Spain. The revolt of Vindex, and the
pressure of his lieutenant, T. Vinius, decided the old man ; and, as
he belonged to the senatorial party, his declaration of rebellion
took the form of declaring himself the servant of the senate. Afier
considerable hesitation, on April 2nd he named himself the legatus
senatus populique Romani in a spei-ch delivered from his tribunal,
and made preparations for war. In Spain he was supported by
Otho, leiiatus of Lusitania, and Cascina, qusestor of Bastica ; but
their adherence was of little consequence if the legions of the
Rhine and Clodius Macer, governor ot Africa, held aloof.

§ 21. In the meantime the issue of the revolt of Vindex had
been decided. When the m^ ws was brought, Nero returned to Rome,
and took measures lor its suppression. Those troops, which were
already on their march from Germany and Britain to prosecute a
war against the Sarmatians, received orders to return. But the
quelling of the rebellion was due to Verginius Rufus, the legatus
of Upper Germany, who resisted all the endeavours of Vindex to
gain him over.* Alarmed by the national character of the move-
ment, Verginius advanced with Ids own legions, reinforced by a
division from the lower province, to Vesontio, which was threatened
by the Gallic militia of the rebel. Vesontio, whose name has
become Besancon, was a very important place ; for at it the roads
from Lower Germany and north- western Gaul, from the Rhine and
from the Jura mountains, m- 1. Here a great battle t< >ok place. The
legions were completely victorious, and Vindex was slain. It was
not loyalty to Nero that had induced the Germanic army to repel
the advances of Vindex : it was rather the Gallic character of the
revolt. This is shown by the fact that after the victory they
proclaimed their general Impcrator. But he resisted the temptation.
He was a man of lowly birth, and perhnps thought tiiat he had no
chance ol being accepted by the nobility of Rome. In the inscrip-
tion for his tomb, which he compose d before his death, he mentions
as the two creditable actions of his life his victory over Vindex and
his refusal of the Empip-.f

* Juvenal groups Verginius with
Vindex and Gal ha. as if he too had taken
part in the overthrow of Nero. What
deed of \ero's tyranny, a*ks the sa'irist,
deserved the vengeance ot those three
more than his singing and his scribbling ?
(viii. 221 ) :

Quid enim Verginius armis

Debuit ulcisci magis aut cum Vindice

Galba,
Quod Nero tani saeva crudaque tyraunide

f cit ?
f Hie situs est Rufus pulso qui Vindice

quondam
Imperium asseruit mm sibi ned

patrte.

296 THE PRINCIPATE OF NERO. CHAP. xvu.

§22. After the failure of the revolt in Gaul, the situation of
Galba seemed hopeless, and he despaired himself. But he was
saved by the Emperor's want of resolution, and the treachery of
the ministers. When the news of the defection in Spain arrived
in Rome, Nero confiscated Galba's property, and himself assumed
the consulship. He made preparations for an expedition against
Galba, and appointed Petronius Turpilianus as the commander. A
new legion was organised from the troops of the fleet and called
legio classica. But the praetorian guards, who were devoted to the
Julian house, seemed to have remained quietly in their camp,
instead of taking the field, as we should have expected.

The prefect Tigellinus vanishes from the scene, and plays no
part in the catastrophe of his master. His fall was probably due
to the intrigues of Nymphidius Sabinus, the other prefect, who
nominally embraced the cause of Galba, but was really aiming at
securing the Empire for himself. If Nero had not utterly lost
his head, he was secure in the loyalty of the praetorian guards,
notwithstanding the aspirations of the prefect. But he was a
coward, and his irresolution drove his supporters away. Dull
dissatisfaction prevailed in Rome. Corn was dear, and when a ship
arrived from Egypt which proved to be laden, not with corn, but
with sand for the Emperor's arena, the discontent became acute.
It was reported that Nero entertained the idea of abandoning
Rome, and sailing to Alexandria, to make that city the capital of
an eastern empire — the idea which Antonius had almost realised.
The senate was naturally eager to overthrow the tyrant, who hated
it, in favour of Galba, but feared to compromise itself until the
praetorian guards had declared themselves. In order to draw them
from their devotion to Nero, Nymphidius resorted to an artifice. He
persuaded the Emperor, who was distracted with fear, to repair from
the palace to the Servilian gardens, which lay close to the Tiber,
on the road to Ostia. He then went to the camp and informed the
soldiers that Nero had deserted them and left Rome. They were
easily convinced that it was their interest to support Galba, and
the wily prefect promised them in Galba's name a donative of
30,000 sesterces each. He knew that Galba would never fulfil the
promise, and he hoped, by means of the consequent dissatisfaction,
to secure his own ends. Meanwhile, in the Servilian gardens the
Emperor was devising counsels of despair. He was gradually
deserted by his courtiers and most of his slaves and freedmen ; and
the praetorian cohort, which was keeping guard at the palace, left
its post at midnight. At length he determined to flee from Rome,
but could induce no friend to share his danger, except a few freed-
men. One officer scornfully quoted Virgil, " Is it so hard to die ? >J

A.D. DEATH OF .NERO. 297

One of the imperial freedmen, named Phaon, offered his
the refuge of a villa, alxnit four miles north-east of Home, on the
Via Patinaria, a cross-road connecting the Via Salaria and the Via
Nomentana. Thither he started by night accompanied by Phaon,
Epaphroditus, and two other freedmen. The historians have not
failed to invest the night-ride and the last scene of Nero's life with
dramatic colouring. The Via Nomentana went close to the
praetorian camp and shouts in honour of Galba reached the ears
of the fugitives as they passed. The night was wild, with lightning
and earthquakes. Nero crept into the villa by a narrow entrance
at the back, in order not to arouse the suspicions of the slaves.
There he lay on straw for hours, unable to make up his mind to
die. " What an artist I am to perish ! " he said. But when a
slave of Phaon arrived with the news that the senate had con-
demned him to death more maiorum, and that he was being
sought for everywhere, he made up his mind to escape a cruel
execution. The tramp of horses' feet was heard in the distance,
when he pressed a dagger to his throat, and it was driven home by
Epaphroditus. As he was dying, a centurion entered, and pre-
tended he had come to help him. " Too late ! — that was fidelity
indeed ! " were Nero's last words. He perished on June 9, 68 A.D.
His body was burnt, and the ashes were buried honorably in the
sepulchre of the Domitian gens on the Pincian hill.

§ 23. At first the tidings of his fall caused universal joy. The
senate, who, as soon as the decision of the praetorian guards was
known, had hastened to sentence him to a punishment which was
almost obsolete, condemned his memory and ordered his statues to
be overthrown. The intense hatred which the senatorial party
felt towards Nero is most clearly seen in literature. But among
the mass of the people, a reaction soon set in. The tyrant's grave
was adorned annually with wreaths of flowers. Many people
doubted the reality of his death, and looked for his reappearance ;
and under succeeding Emperors three false Neros arose and
obtained a following. King Vologeses of Parthia sent an embassy,
requesting the senate and the new Princeps to hold the memory of
Nero in honour. Christians saw in Nero the Antichrist, and
thought that as such he would come again.

Nero was the last of th« true Caesars — the last, we may say, ot
the Julian line. Strictly he belonged^ by adoption, to the Claudii,
yet the Claudian and Julian houses had been so closely connected
since the union of Augustus with Livia, that politically little dis-
tinction was made between them Nero was not only the adopted
son of Claudius ; he, was also, through his mother, the great-great-
grandson of Augustus, and *he grandson of Germanicus, who
13*

298 THE PKINC1PATE OF JMEKO. CHAP. xvii.

belonged, by adoption, to the Julian gens. Thus it was felt, when
Nero perished without an heir, that the line of the great Dictator
had come to an end and a new epoch was beginning.

§ 24. The features of Nero were handsome, but his expression
was no' pleasant. His face wore a sort of scowl, perhaps due to
his defective sight. His body was ill-made ; he had a prominent
stomach and thin legs. In his later years his skin was blotched
from excesses ; but his health was good. As a professional singer,
he was very careful about his voice. His effeminacy was shown
in the arrangement of his hair, and in the looseness of the
cincture which bound his dress when he appeared m public. His
capricious tyranny recalls, in many respects, the extravagances of
Gaius. Like Gains he was " a lover of the incredible." But while
the mad Gaius had almost a genius for devising absurdities on a
colossal scale, Nero was merely extravagant on the beaten tracks
of luxury. He gave immense presents to his favourites, and tried to
outdo his predecessors in the spaciousness of his buildings. He
projected a canal from Puteoli to Rome, as well as the cutting of
the isthmus. He did not aspire to divinity, like Gaius, but rather
at being pre-eminent among men and receiving their admiration.
He was vain rather than proud. He adopted superstitions from
the east, and practised mauic. In his later years, the senators seem
to have kept quite aloof trom his court, and he hated them cordially.
No flattery pleased him more than when a courtier said, " I hate
you, Nero, because you are a senator."

SECT. VI. — NERO'S ADMINISTRATION.

§ 25. The peculiarity of Nero's principate was that it was
marked by good government under a bad Emperor. Nero himself
was devoid of political insight and spent no care on the adminis-
tration. Yet in general policy and in the conduct of military
affairs, there is little to blame, if there is little to praise, in his
government in the early years of his reign. This was not due to
the Princeps. It was partly due to well-trained ministers, to
Seneca and Burrus especially ; but it was also due to the ex-
cellence of the machine which Caesar the Dictator and Augustus
had set goin'j;. It was perhaps as well that the political views of
the ministers were strictly limited by the system of Augustus.
They did not introduce any new idea into the government. It was
a more serious defect that their activity was mainly confined to
the interests of the capital. They concerned themselves less
with the welfare of the provinces. It must be admitted, however,

54-68 A.D. THE SENATE UNDEK NKRO. 299

that they appointed able officers to the commands on the
frontiers.

The revival of the power of the senate in Nero's early years has
been already noticed. In 56 A.D. the management of the sera Hum
was transierred from the quaestors to two prefects, of praetorian
standing, who were to be appointed by the Kmpeior and hold
office for three years. Tl.is perhaps served to give the Emperor
more control over the money which the fisc advanced to the
aararium. In the same year the tribunes were deprived of their
rights of intercession and inflicting fines. It was probably in this
reign that the independence of the senate was diminished by the
Emperor's extension of the right of commendation to the consulate,
which had hitherto been exempted from this influence. But
the most serious aggression of Nero against the senate, was his
appropriation of the right of issuing copper coinage, which had
hitherto been reserved lor the senaie.* He also entertained the
idea of abolishing the senatorial privilege of holding the high
commands in the provinces and armies, in fact of abolishing the
senate altogether, and carrying on the business of the state by
means of the knights and freedmen. In the field of civil legis-
lation several useful measures were passed, among which may be
mentioned that which forbade the exhibitions of gladiators and
beasts in the provinces.

§ 26. In provincial administration the reign of Nero was
marked by numerous processes for extortion, both in senatorial and
in imperial provinces, instituted by the subjects against their
governors. Cestius Proculus, accused by the Cretans, was acquitted.
P. Celer, proconsul of Asia, died before his case was decided.
Tarquitius Piiscus, accused by Bithynia, was condemned; and
Pedius Blassus, accused by Cyrenaica, was degraded from the
senate. In the imperial provinces, Cossutianus Capito* was pro-
secuted by Cilicia, and condemned, but pardoned by Nero, owing to
the influence of his father-in-law Tigellinus. Sardinia accused
Vipsanius Lasnas and obtained his condemnation; but Eprius
Marcellus, accused by Lycia, was acquitted. Some of these processes
can e before the senate, others before the Emperor. In 57 A.D. an
edict was issued, forbidding provincial governors and procurators to
exhibit spectacles. Many had been in the habit of doing this, in
order to reconcile the people to their unjust administration. These
facts prove that the subjects were still exposed to injustice from
their governors, and also that under Nero they were encouraged to
complain.

A new procuratorial province was created, Pontus Polemoniacus ;

* See above, & 12.

300 THE PRINCIPATE OF NERO. CHAP. XVH.

and Alpes Cottix was placed under procurators. The districts of
the Cottian and the Maritime Alps had been Romanised since their
pacification under Augustus, and now received the ius Latinum.
Possibly the Pennine Alps also became a procuratorial province
as early as Nero. The preservation of the Latin nationality
occupied the serious attention of the government ; new blood was
imported into Italy from the provinces ; and a considerable number
of towns were colonised, including Antium, Beneventum, Capua,
Tarentum, Nuceria, Puteoli. The progress of Roman civilisation
in Spain is shown by the fact that the three legions placed there by
Augustus were reduced under Nero to two. It has been already
mentioned that Nero gave the Greeks their freedom. As this act
deprived the senate of a province, he made up the loss to the
serarium by transferring to the senate the imperial province of
Sardinia and Corsica.

In the middle of Nero's reign an important colonisation took
place in Mcesia, which was constantly threatened by invasions of
barbarians from the north, and seems to have suffered from de-
population. The legatus, Tiberius Plautius Silvanus ^Elianus,
settled 100,000 inhabitants of the land beyond the Danube in the
Moesian territory. They were obliged to pay a certain tribute and
also doubtless to perform military service in case of need. He also
extended the sphere of Roman influence on the north shore of the
Euxine by annexing to the Empire the town of '. yras. The
advance of Roman arms in Britain has already been related. The
war for Armenia and the rebellion in Judea will be described in
subsequent chapters.

§ 27. The project of an overland water-route from the Mediter-
ranean to the North Sea was proposed by Lucius Vetus, the legatus
of Upper Germany (55-56 A.D.). It was merely required to cut
a canal -connecting the Arar (the Sa6ne), with the Mosella.
Thus ships might sail up the Rhone, turn into the Arar at
Lugudunum, reach the Mosella by the projected channel, and
descend the Mosella into the Rhine. But the jealousy of ^Elius
Gracilis, the legatus of Belgica, frustrated the execution of this
plan, which would have necessitated the brin-ing of the legions of
Germany into Belgica. Gracilis frightened Vetus by suggesting
that the Emperor would be annoyed at the undertaking of such a
large work by a subject.

§ 28. In the Lower province some trouble was caused by the
eastern Frisians, who were independent, whereas the western
Frisians were tributary. Emboldened by the long peace, they
migrated with all their people to the bank of the Old Rhine and
established themselves in unoccupied lands reserved for pasturing

54-68 A.D. THE FRISIANS. 301

the beasts which supplied the Roman troops with food. Their
leaders — we cannot properly speak of kings — were Verrittis and
Malorix. They had built their houses, sowed the fields, and
were using the soil as their own, when the legatus Dubius Avitus,
threatened to attack them unless they either returned to their old
abodes or obtained from the Emperor a grant of land. Verritus
and Malorix preferred the second alternative, and went themselves
to Rome to beg Csesar for the boon. They were obliged to wait
some days on Nero's pleasure, and spent the time in seeing the
sights of Rome, They were shown Pompey's theatre, in order that
they might apprehend the greatness of the people. They took
their seats among the general public, and as they could not
appreciate the entertainment, they asked questions about the
places assigned to the various ranks — the fourteen Benches of the
knights, and the orchestra where the senators sat. Observing some
persons in foreign dress among the senators, and learning that they
were the envoys of nations, who were distinguished by their bravery
and friendship to Rome, they exclaimed that the Germans were
excelled by none in valour or loyalty, and took their seats among
the senators. The incident was good-naturedly received by the
spectators, who regarded it as an example of old-fashioned im-
pulsiveness. The result of the embassy was that the two chieftains
received Roman citizenship, but their nation was commanded to
evacuate the territory which they had occupied. They refused to
obey, and it was necessary for some auxiliary cavalry to drive
them out.

But no sooner were the Frisians ejected than the same lands
were seized by another and more powerful people the Ampsivarii,
who lived in the neighbourhood of the Amisia, and were driven out
of their territory by the Chauci. The cause of 'these homeless
exiles, seeking a new habitation, was pleaded by Boiocalus, an old
man who was influential among these nations and loyal to Rome. On
the occasion of the Cheruscan revolt in the disastrous year 9 A.D.
lie had been imprfeoned by Arminius, and had since then served
under Tiberius and Germanicus. But Avitus refused to accede
to the request, and the Ampsivariaus called on the Bructeri,
Tencteri, and other tribes to help them to take by force what the
Romans refused to give. Avitus sent a message to Curtilius
Mancia, who had succeeded Vetus as legatns of Upper Germany,
requesting him to make a hostile demonstration beyond the Rhine ;
and he himself promptly invaded the land of the Tencteri and
threatened to exterminate them if they associated themselves with
the Ampsivarians. The Bructeri were scared in the same way ; and
the Ampsivarians were then isolated and forced to retreat

302

THE PB1NCIPATE OF NEEO.

OHAP. xvn.

Wandering as outcasts from one territory to another, received now
as friends and now as foes, their entire youth was finally slain, and
those who could not tight were divided a? booty.

Coin of Poppsea.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

A.— THE PERSECUTION OF CHRIS-
TIANS UNDER NERO.

The famous passage in which Tacitus
notices the persecution of the Christian
sect at Home alter the great fire (Annals,
xv. c. 44), is remark ible not only as the
earlie-t detailed account of the facts but
also incidentally, as containii g both the
earliest record of the Crucifixion in a
classical author, and the only mention
of Pontius Pilate in a Romm hi>torian.
It is perplexed by some diffl.-ulties of
interpretation which have an imjwrtant
bearing on the sense, and must be briefly
noticed, as the question is of unusual
Interest. The words of Tacitus are as
follows:

Ergo abolendo rumori Nero suhdidit
reos et quaesitissimis pcenis adfecit, quos
per flagitia invisos vulgus Christianos
appellabat. Auctor noininis eius Christus
Tibeno imperitante per pr-curatorem
Pentium Pilatum snpp'icio adfectus erat ;
repressaque in praesena exitiabilis super-
stitio rut sum erumpebat, non modo per
ludap&m ortglnem eius mail, sed per
urbem etiam, quo cuncta undique atrocia
aut pudenda confluunt celebnnturque.
Igitur primum correpti qui fatebantur,
deinde iniHclo eorum nmltitudo ingens
baud proinde <n crimine incendii qu>im
odio humani gentris convicti sunt. [ The
punishments are then described.] Unde

quamqnam advprsus sontes et novissima
exempla meritos miseratio oriebatur
tamquam non utilitute publics sed in
saevitiam unius absnmerentur.

("So in order to <irown the rumour
j Nero shifted the guilt on per-ons hated
f<>r th*'ir abominations atid known to the
vulgar as Christians, and punished them
with exquisite tortures. Christus, from
whom the name originated, had been pun-
ished under Tiberius by the procurator
Pontius Pilatus. Checke I for the time,
this pernicious religion broke out again
not only in Judaea, but in Nome. Those
th'-n w>iO confessed were first arrested;
then by their intbrrna ion a large number
| was convicted, not so much on the charge
I of incendiaiism, as for hatred of thf
: human race." On witnessing Nero's
brutality, "people were moved by pity
for the sufferers, though they n ere guilty,
and had deserved extreme penalties ; for
it was felt that they were suffering to
gratify Nero's cruelty, not from con-
siderations of the public welfare.")

From this passage the following points
| seem clear :

(1) For some reason suspicion fell
upon the Christians; but Tacitus does
not assign any more definite reason for
their being chosen as scapegoats than that
they were believed to be capable of any
enormities.

(2) Tacitus does not himself believe

CHAP. xvn. NOTES AND ILLUSTBATIONS.

303

that they were guilty of this special
charge. But he shares the general belief
in their bad character.

(3) At the time of which Tacitus
writes, the name Christian (first given
at Antioch, »s w e learn from the Acts of
the Apostles') had reached Rome and was
used by the populace of the Christians,
but not yet by the Christians of them-
selves.

(4) There was a considerable number
of Christians at Rome. This is implied,
however much allowance we make for
the rhetorical phrase of Tacitus, "a
large multitude." The Christian commu-
nity at Rome mainly consisted of Greeks.

(5) Of these only a few were generally
known as Christians, and the rest could
only be got at through the information
of these few.

The three chief difficulties in the text
are: (1) Fatebantur. This must mean
•• Were openly con es>ing that they were
Chi istiuns," aod not " were confessing
that they were concerned in the conflagra-
tion." Kor they would not have con-
fessed to the incendiarism unless they
had a hand in it, and Tacitus implies
that they were innocent. And when the
proceedings were taken, they were not
likely to be openly (Furneaux^ confessing
the crime. (2) Odio humani generis
depends on in from the preceding clause.
This was the real charge on which they
were condemned ; for inrendiarism could
not be br ught home to them. Others take
it " in consequence of the hatred of the
human race for them ; " but this inter-
p'etation gives inferior sense, and the
universal phrase humanum genus would
be out of place, if that were the meaning.
(3) It has b^en objected to Tacitus that
he contradicts himself, by implying at
the beginn'ng of the passage (subdidit
nos) i hat the victims were innocent, and
then at the end calling them sontef,
"gu'lty." This is a misconception.
Sorites means guilty from the point of
view of those who riMed them.

Thus interpreted the whole passage is
perfe* tly clear, as far as it goes ; and the
only difficulty which remains is the ques-
tion, why Nero pitched upon the Chris-
tians? This difficulty hus appeared so
great to some historians that they have
cast doubt upon the whole narr tive. It
has < ven been held that the passage is
not the work of Tacitus, but the insertion
of a Christian forger. There is no ground

whatever for this extravagant supposi.
tion : nor yet is there any ground for
assuming that Tacitus confounded the
Christians with the Jews, or mi ant not
Christians but some other sect. That a
persecution of the Jews was unlikely is
clear from the protection which Poppaea
extended to them; that there actually
was no such persecution is proved by the
silence of Josephus. There is no evidence
whatever incompatible with the plain
statements of Tacitus ; and every attempt
that has hitherto been made to explain
away the Neronian persecution violates
the most elementary laws of historical
criticism.

The most plausible conjecture as to
the singling out of the Christian sect —
which, as appears even trom the language
of Tacitus, had attracted as yet little
notice — is that charges were brought
against them by the Jews (see above,
$ 14). This view was held by Bishop
Lightfoot. But it Is only a conjecture.

The tradition of the martyrdom of
Saints Peter and Paul, under Nero, rests
on a totally different kind of evid nee;
and the story must be regarded as highly
uncertain.

As to the question concerning Chris-
tian proselytes at Rome nmor.g the
higher classes, there is only negative
evidence. We hear of none omch in the
writings ot St. Paul. The case of Pom-
ponia Graecina is often alleged as an
instance This lady was the wife of
Plautins, the conqueror of Britain. Her
life was long and unhappy. She bad
been a bosom friend of that Julia
(the daughter of Drus"s) whom Messa-
lina had put to death, and she mourned
her loss for forty years. She was accused
in the reign of Nero, of being devoted to
a foreign religion, and the decision was
left to her husband, who pronounced her
innocent. It is Tacitus who tells the tale
(Annals, 13. 32), and it has been often
assumed that the superstitio externa is
Christianity and that Pomponia was a
Christian. But this is only an assump-
tion which cannot be proved; and even
if it were true, there is the further
assumption that Pomponia was guilty
of the crime of which her husband ac-
quit ed her. Tacitus does not suggest
that she wns. Nor does the fact that she
was a woman of sorrows prove anything.
She may have been a Christian ; but, as
far as our evidence goes, it is quite a£

304

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. CHA*. xvn.

likely that she was not. We cannot
possibly know. She may have been
accused of being a Christian, without
being one ; but this also we cannot know.

B.— THE SPEECH OF NERO AT
ISTHMUS (A.D. 67).

The actual s-peech in which Nero
declared Hellas free has been recently
discovered in the form of an inscription.

"The Emperor Caesar says: 'Wishing
to requite most noble Hellas for her
loyalty towards me, I command that as
many persons as possible from this pro-
vince should assemble at Corinth on the
28th of November.'

" When the people assembled in Kc-
clesia he delivered the following address :
'Men of Hellas, I am giving you an
unexpected favour — though nothing ie
really surprising from my generosity—

and such as ye did not come to ask. I
say unto all the Greeks who dwell in the
province of Achaia and the land hitherto
called Peloponnesus: Receive freedom,
and exemption from tribute, which you
did not, all of you, obtain even in your
most prosperous days; for you were
enslaved either to foreigners or to one
another. Would that I could have
bestowed this gift, when Hellas was in
her prime, in order that a larger number
might enjoy my favour ! I have reason
to blame Time for having prevented me
from making my favour greater. And
now the motive of my benefit to you is
not pity, but goodwill. I am requiting
your gods, whose continual providence I
have experienced both by land and sea, for
that they allowed me to confer such great
benefits. Other pr nces, too, made cities
free ; Nero has freed the whole province."

Aqueduct of Nemausu*.

Goto struck by Nero to commemorate successes of Corbulo.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE WABS FOB ARMENIA, UNDER CLAUDIUS AND NERO.

1. The Armenian question; retrospect. § 2. Struggle between the
sons of Artabanus. § 3. Meherdates, the Roman candidate for the
Parthian throne. § 4. Radamistus drives Mithradates from Armenia.
§ 5. Action of Julius Paelignus. § 6. Parthians invade Armenia.
Escape of Radamistus and Zenobia. Tiridates established as king of
Armenia. § 7. Corbulo sent to the East. He invades and winters in
Armenia. § 8. Campaign of 58 A.D. § 9. Capture of Volandum

and Artaxata. § 10. Campaign of 59 A.D. Capture of Tigranocerta

af Armenia by
Parthians permitted to occupy Armenia again. Behaviour of Corbulo.

and Legerda. § 11. Tigranes made king of Armenia by Nero.

§ 12. War renewed. Disaster of Paetus (62 A.D.). § 13. The home
government rejects the capitulation made by Paetus, and Corbulo
again takes the field. Tiridates receives the crown of Armenia at
the hands of Nero (66 A.D.). § 14. Projected expedition against the
Alans. Fate of Corbulo.

§ 1. THE struggle between Rome and Parthia for the possession of
Armenia, was renewed in the reign of Claudius. This struggle was
perpetually being decided and perpetually recurring. The Romans
were determined to keep their hold over a country which was a
ground of vantage for either realm against the other; while the
Parthian monarchs tried, whenever they got an opportunity, to
supplant Roman influence and reduce the land to dependence on
themselves. Warlike demonstrations on the part of Rome were
generally sufficient to make the Parthian kings withdraw their

306 THE WARS FOR ARMENIA. CHAP. xvm.

pretensions to Armenia and adopt a respectful attitude to the
Roman Emperor; for they were constantly hampered by wars
on other frontiers of their dominion and by domestic dissensions.
These repeated settlements of the Armenian question are marked
by the same general features. Rival pretenders to the throne of
Armenia are supported by Rome and Parthia; the Parthian
kingdom is distracted by civil war or excited into discontent
again>-t the reigning monarch, and there is a movement in favour
of some scion of the Arsacid house who is living in exile or as a
hostage at Rome; he is supported by Roman arms, but by an
inevitable reaction is soon rejected; and the war ends with the
acknowledgment of Roman supremacy in some form in Armenia.
It will be remembered that Tiberius had established the overlord-
ship of Rome in 20 B.C., that it was again confirmed by Gaius Csesar
in 2 A.D. Again, in 18 A.D., the Parthians submitted at the
appearance of another presumptive heir to the Empire ; and
recently, the energetic action of Lucius Vitellius had thwarted
the schemes of Artabanus III.

§ 2. But what had been well done under the auspices of Tiberius,
was immediately undone by the caprice of his successor. Gaius
summoned Mithradates, the new king of Armenia, to Rome,
deposed him, and sent him into exile. At the same time he
recalled Vitellius in disgrace from his government of Syria. This
was an opportunity for the Parthians, and they did not fail to seize
the coveted land. Thus, when Claudius came to the throne, one
of the tasks which devolved upon him was the recovery of
Armenia. Mithradates was immediately recalled from exile, and,
restored to his royal dignity, he set about recovering his kingdom
with the help of his brother Pharasmanes, king of Iberia. Arta-
banus III. was now dead, and Parthia was disturbed by a war
for the succession between his sons Gotarzes and Vardanes.
Gotarzes had come to the throne and made himself detested by
his cruelties. One of his acts was the murder of his brother
Artabanus, with his wife and son. His subjects accordingly
sent for his other brother Vardanes, an enterprising prince, who was
then at a distance of 400 miles from the court. He is said to
have traversed this space in two days ; and Gotarzes, completely
surprised and terrified, fled. Seleucia alone, which had; held out
against his father, declined the rule of Vardanes, and the new
king was impolitic enough to give way to his resentment at such
a moment, and embarrass himself with the siege of a city secured
by strong fortifications and abundant supplies. He thus gave
Gotarzes time to collect an army of Hyrcanians and Dahse — Scythian
races east of the Caspian sea, — and was then compelled to raise the

48-49 A.D. CIVIL WAR IN PARTHIA. 307

•iege, and march against his brother. He pitched his camp on
the great Bactrian plain, which stretches between the Oxus and
the Paropamisus (now the Hindoo Koosh). It was a favourable
moment for Mithradates to re-establish his rule in Armenia, and
the Armenians made no resistance when their governor, who had
ventured on a battle, was slain. Some of the nobles inclined to
Cotys, king of Little Armenia, but a letter from his overlord
Claudius prevented that monarch from interfering. Some of the
fortresses of Armenia received Roman garrisons. Meanwhile the
armies of the Parthian brothers had met, but just as they were
about to begin battle, they came suddenly to an agreement,
through the discovery of a plot which Gotarzes revealed to his
brother. They joined right hands, and Gotarzes yielded the
sovranty to his brother, and, to avoid rivalry, retired into the
wilds of Hyrcania. Vardanes was then able to force Seleucia,
which had defied the Parthian government for seven ytars,
to capitulate (43 A.D.). After this success, he was preparing to
invade Armenia, but was deterred by the threatening attitude of
Vibius Marsus the legatus of Syria.

The Strug le with Gotarzes soon broke out anew. That prince
repented of his renunciation of the crown, and was urged by the
discontented nobility to take up arms again. The conflict took
place in the country between the Caspian and Herat; and
Vardanes gained a great victory, and pushed his successes as
far as the borders of the Dahse. He returned haughtier
and more intolerable to his subjects than ever. A plot was con-
certed, and he was assassinated when he was intent upon the
chase (45 A.D.). He was still in his first youth ; but he would
deserve, says the historian Tacitus, " to be ranked amon? the few
greatest of even long-lived kings, if he had sought to be loved by
his subjects as he sought to be feared by his enemies."

§ 3. Gotarzes immediately assumed the sovranty, but after some
years his cruelty and profligacy drove the Parthians to send
an embassy to Rome and be^ that the prince Meherdates, the
surviving son of Vonones, whom Germanicus had put to death in
Cilicia, should be sent to dispute the Parthian throne with the
hated Gotarzes (49 A.I\). The ambassadors represented that
Pa> thia sent her kinds' sons as hostages to Rome, in order that when
she grew tired of her own government she might fall back on the
Emperor and the senate, and obtain a better king trained in
Roman manners. Claudius improved the occasion by emphasising
the superiority of Rome and the snbmissiveness of the Parthians.
He did not lose the opportunity of comparing hims< If to the divine
Augustus, from whom the Parthians in like manner had sought a

308

THE WARS FOR ARMENIA. CHAP. xvm.

king (Vonones), but he omitted all reference to his uncle Tiberius,
who had sent two kings to Parthia. He gave good advice to
Meherdates, who was present, urging him to consider himself as
a ruler among freemen, not as a despot among slaves ; " the bar-
barians will like clemency and justice all the more, because they
are unused to them." Then turning to the ambassadors, he
dwelled on the virtues of the young foster-child of Rome. Yet,
even if his character should change, " it is well that subjects should
bear with the caprices of kings. Frequent revolutions are un-
profitable. Rome has now reached such a height, that she can
afford to wish that even foreign peoples should enjoy repose."

As L. Vitellius had formerly conducted Tiridates to the frontiers
of the Parthian empire, so it devolved now upon 0. Cassius,
governor of Syria, to escort Meherdates to the Euphrates. There
he was received by several Parthian potentates, including king
Abgar of Osroene. Cassius gave the young prince sound advice,
showing him that delay would be fatal, and that if he did not act
quickly the enthusiasm of the barbarians would soon flag. But
Meherdates was induced by Abgar to amuse himself for several days
in Edessa, and then, instead of occupying Mesopotamia, where success
seems to have been assured to him by Carenes, the governor of
Mesopotamia, he proceeded by a circuitous route to Armenia, where,
as winter was beginning, it was impossible to do much. He was
joined by Carenes, and then advancing along the Tigris into
Adiabene, whose king Izates pretended to espouse his cause,
he occupied the historic site of Ninus, and gave it the' name
of Colonia Nini Claudia. Delay was fatal to Meherdates,
even as it had been fatal to Tiridates, the pretender sent by
Tiberius. His chief adherents, recognising his incompetence,
especially Abgar and Izates, deserted to G-otarzes, and then he
decided to risk everything on a battle. The struggle seems to
have taken place between the Tigris and Mount Zagros. Both sides
fought with desperate courage. Carenes carried all hefore him,
but, advancing too far, was surprised in the rear. This decided the
issue. Meherdates yielded to false promises, and was led in
chains to the victor, who despised him too much to put him
to death, but rendered him harmless by the amputation of his
ears.

§ 4. But Gotarzes did not long survive his victory.* He was
succeeded (in summer 51 A.D.) by Vonones II., king of Media, who
was followed, after a reign of a few months, by his son Vologeses I.,

* It is supposed that this victory is
commemorated in an inscription carved
on the rock of Behistun. But it is hard

to see why Gotarzes should be called
"satrap of satraps" at this time. Wai
he not " king of kings " f

52 A.D. MURDER OF MITHRADATES. 309

a capable and successful ruler (51-78 A.D.). One of the chief
ends of the policy of Vologeses was to recover Armenia, and an
opportunity was soon offered through an act of .foul treachery on
tlie part of the Iberian king. Pharasmanes had a son named
Radamistus, tall, handsome, of remarkable bodily strength, trained
in archery and riding, and the other accomplishments of his
countrymen, and of high renown among the neighbouring peoples.
This ambitious youth declared too boldly his impatience of his
father's long old age, which kept him out of the little kingdom,
which he perhaps hoped to extend. Pharasmanes, seeing that his son
was prepared to grasp the power, if an occasion offered itself, tempted
the youth with other prospects, and pointed to Armenia, suggesting
that his brother Mithradates might be overthrown. A treacherous
scheme was devised. Radamistus, feigning to have quarrelled with
his father, sought shelter at his uncle's court, and there engaged
in treasonable intrigues with some of the Armenian nobles. When
the ground was prepared, Pharasmanes declared war against his
brother on some trifling plea, and supplied his son with an army,
with which he invaded and occupied Armenia (52 A.D.). Mithra-
dates placed himself under the protection of the Roman garrison
of the fortress ot Gorneas, which was commanded by Cselius Pollio.*
Radamistus blockaded the place, and, unable to take it, attempted
to bribe Pollio. But Casperius, a centurion, who held a secondary
command, protested, and, having arranged a truce, proceeded to
Pharasmanes, to induce him to withdraw the army. Pharasmanes
replied in a conciliatory manner, but by secret messages urged
Radamistus to hurry on the siege. A large bribe was offered to
Pollio, who seems to have been a man of bad character ; he bribed
the soldiers to threaten to abandon the place unless terms were
made with the besiegers; and the unfortunate Mithradates was
compelled to surrender.

Radamistus at first rushed into his embrace, greeted him as his
parent, and feigned the deepest respect. He even swore an oath
that he would offer him no violence either by sword or by poison.
He then drew him into a neighbouring grove, where he said that
preparations had been made for the sacrifice which should confirm
peace in the presence of the gods. It was the custom of these princes
when they met to form an alliance, to join their right hands and
tie together their thumbs in a tight knot. Then when the blood was
collected into the extremities which were thus tied, they let it out
by a small puncture, and sucked it each in turn. The treaty had
thus a mystical sanctity, being sealed by the blood of both. On
this occasion, the man who was tying the knot pretended to fall,
* Holding the rank probably of prefect of a cohort.

310 THE WARS FOR ARMENIA. , CHAP, xvm,

and seizing the knees of Mithradates flung him down. A number
of people then rushed upon him, and loaded him with chains. He
was dragged along, subject to all kinds of indignities, while his wife
and little children followed waiting. They were hidden in covered
waggons, until the will of Pharasmanes as to their fate should
be made known. " To him the desire of kingdom was more than
his brother and his daughter, and his heart was steeled to crimes.
But he spared his eyes the sight of a brother's execution.
Radamistus, to keep the letter of his oath, used neither steel nor
poison against his uncle and his sister, but had them thrown on
the ground and smothered under a load of heavy clothes. Even
the sons of Mithradates were slaughtered for having wept at the
murder of their father and mother." *

§ 5. Ummidius Quadratus, the legatus of Syria, on whom it
devolved to watch the course of events in the neigh bonring depen-
dent kingdoms, decided not to interfere. He or his councillors
judged it to be a matter of indifference whether Armenia was ruled
by the uncle or by the nephew ; and the principle was asserted that
all crime in a foreign land was to be received with joy. It was
the policy of Rome to sow strife among the barbarians ; and it was
rather for her interest that the hated Radamistus should retain
what he had got by such an infamous deed, inasmuch as he would
be more easily managed. At the same time appearances were kept
up by sending an embassy to Pharasmanes, bidding him and his
son evacuate Armenia. A show of interference was also made by
Julius Pselignus, the procurator of Cappadocia, a man of deformed
body and feeble intellect, who had been a sort of buffoon at the
court of Claudius. There were no military forces stationed in
Cappadocia at this time, but Pselignus collected some native militia?
and set forth "to recover Armenia." His men deserted their
incompetent leader, and he, finding himself defenceless, went to
Radamistus, whose gifts had such an effect that Paelignus actually
urged him to assume the tiara and diadem of royalty, and took part in
the coronation of the usurper whom he had come to expel. This
disgraceful act caused great scandal, and lest other Romans should
be judged by the behaviour of Pselisnus, Quadratus sent a certain
Helvidius Priscus, with one of the Syrian legions, to restore order ;
but this force was speedily withdrawn, in order to avoid a collision
with the Parthians.

§ 6. For in the meantime Vologeses, judging the moment to be

favourable, and supposing that the Romans would not trouble

themselves to support Radamistus, had named his brother Tiridates

king of Armenia, and had entered the country witb an army

* Tacitus.

53, 54 A.D. FLIGHT OF RADAMISTUS. 311

(53 A.D.). The Iberians were expelled without a blow, and the
two chief cities. Artaxata arid Tigranocerta, submitted to the
Parthian yoke. A severe winter, want of provisions, and the
breaking out of a disease in his army, compelled Vologeses to
retire; and Radamistus speedily returned, and dealt out vengeance
to those who had deserted him. But his subjects rebelle<i against
his cruelty, and an armed crowd gathered round his palace in
Artaxata. He and his wile Zenobia were obliged to flee, and the
story of their escape is romantic. Their chance of safety lay in the
swifmess of their horses, but Zenobia was pregnant, and, though she
endured somehow or other the first part of the flight, she was after a
while so sliakenby the continuous galloping, that she could hold out
no longer, and dismounting she begged her husband to rescue her
from the insults of captivity by an honourable death. Radamlstus
was at length induced to comply with her request. Unsheaihing
his short sabre (the acinaces), he stabbed her, and, dragging her
to the bauk of the Araxes, committed her to the stream, that even
her dead body might be rescued from the enemy. He then
continued his headlong flight, and reached Iberia in safety. But
Zenobia was not mortally wounded. She lay in the calm water
near the edge of the rr*er, breathing and showing signs of life.
Some shepherds observed her, and, seeing from her appearance that
she was a woman of high degree, bound up her wound, and applied
rustic remedies. Having discovered her name and story, they took
her to Artaxata, whence she was led to Tiridates, now established
as king of Armenia, who received her kindly, and treated her as a
queen (54 A.D.).

Some desultory warfare was kept up between Tiridates and
Radamistus, during the last year of Claudius (54 A.D.). The
Parthians were at this time trammelled by revolts in the north of
their empire, and the Romans were busied with the suppression of
a rising of the Clitae in Cilicia, and with troubles in Judea. The
Armenians, disgusted at the countenance which the Romans had
given to the usurpation of Radamistus, were by no means dissatisfied
at the establishment of a Parthian prince in their country.

§ 7. The success of Tiridates seemed to be one more proof that
the policy of Augustus was not likely to lead to a stable settle-
ment of the eastern question. The death of Claudius and the
accession of Nero was a good opportunity for trying a new policy.
The government of Nero, conducted by Seneca and Burrus,
decided to take active measures for the recovery of Armenia and
the maintenance of Rome's prestige, which had been dimmed by
the recent triumph of Vologeses and his b other. The first step
was the appointment of Gnasus Doniitius Corbulo to the government

312 THE WARS FOR ARMENIA. CHAP. xvm.

of Cappadocia, with the rank of a consular legatus, although that
province had been hitherto under a procurator. He was consul in
39 A.D. We have already met him as legatus of Lower Germany
(47 A.D.), where he gained a high reputation for discipline and
ability. Quadratus was allowed to keep his post in Syria, but was
ordered to place two of his four legions at the disposal of the
new legatus of Cappadocia. Antiochus ot Commagene and Herod
Agrippa II. of Chalcis, (see below, p. 367) received commands to
have their troops in readiness for operations against the Parthians.
Lesser Armenia and Sophene, the countries which bordered Armenia
on the west, were entrusted to two Syrian princes, Aristobulus and
Sohaemus respectively, Butfthe legions had become demoralised by a
long peace, and they liked little to change their quarters in Syria
for the mountains of Armenia. There were veterans in the army
who had never served on sentinel duty, to whom the rampart and
the ditch were novelties, men without helmets or breastplates,
sleek traders who had served all their time in towns. The first
thing that Corbulo had to do was to dismiss a large number of
incapable men, and levy new recruits. Even after the restoration
of discipline he was obliged to ask for additional troops from the
more efficient armies of the west. A legion and auxiliaries were
sent from Germany. But Rome did not immediately come to
blows with Parthia. Instead of invading Armenia, Gorbulo entered
into negotiations with Vologeses, and a treaty was concluded. The
Parthians undertook to give hostages as a pledge of peace, while
the Romans suffered the rule of Tiridates in Armenia. Perhaps
this was only for the purpose of gaining time. But it may be that
the Roman government had come to see the uselessness of con-
tinually setting up kings of their own choice in Armenia, destined
to be overthrown in a few years by Parthian rivals. So as they
were not prepared to annex that country as a province, they
decided to adopt the policy of recognizing the Parthian candidate,
on the understanding that he held his dependency under the over-
lordship of the Roman Emperor, not of the Parthian monarch. But
as time went on and Tiridates still demurred to receive Armenia as
a Roman gift, and take an oath of allegiance to the Emperor,
Corbulo set out in 57 A.D., two years after his appointment, with an
army of about 30,000 men, and wintered in Armenia.

The rigour of Armenian winters was proverbial,* and the army
seems to have suffered severely. The ground covered with ice
yielded no place for the tents, until it was regularly dug up. The
cold was so intense that many of the men had then* limbs frost-

* Horace, Odes, ii. 9. 4: ... stet glades mere

Nee Armeniis in oris Menses per omnes.

58 A.D. CAMPAIGN OF COBBULO. 313

bitten ; others perished on guard. A soldier carrying a bundle of
wood was observed, whose hands dropped off and fell with the
burden. Coibulo was glad to give his demoralised soldiers the
experience of hardships. He is described as going about among his
men, lightly clad, with uncovered head, praising the brave, en-
couraging the weak, enforcing strict discipline. Deserters were
put to death for the first offence.

§ 8. It was probably in the table-land of Erzeroum that the
warfare of the year 58 A.D. was carried on. The campaign began
by a slight reverse for the Bomans. Corbulo had posted some
auxiliary infantry in certain defensive positions under the command
o' a centurion, to whom he had given strict orders to keep within
the entrenchments. But this officer seeing what he thought a
favourable opportunity, disobeyed and was defeated. The general
punished both officers and soldiers by making them encamp outside
the rampart, and they were only released from this disgrace when
the whole army interceded. When spring was well advanced,
Corbulo did all in his power to force into an engagement Tiridates,
who was scouring the country and plundering all whom he thought
friendly to Borne. Weary of following the enemy hither and
thither, Corbulo divided his forces, so that his legati and prefects'
might attack several points at the same time. His operations were
supported by Antiochus, king of Commagene, advancing from the
south, and Pharasmanes of Iberia — who desired to redeem his former
treachery and had already put to death his son Badamistus — from
the north. A people called the Moschi, who dwelled near the
sources of the river Phasis, also assisted Borne. Vologeses was
occupied in another quarter of his kingdom by a revolt of the
Hyrcanians, and Tiridates found himself unable to cope with the
superior forces of the Bomans. He therefore entered into negotia-
tions with Corbulo, who advised him to send a petition to the
Emperor. As it was found that the interchange of messages did
not lead to a settlement, an interview was arranged between the
commanders. Tiridates proposed to arrive himself with a thousand
horsemen, and that Corbulo should be accompanied by as many
soldiers as he chose, provided they came " without helmets and
breastplates, so as to give the appearance of peace." The wary old
general was not deceived by this offer, so transparently treacherous.
Tiridates intended that his trained archers should shoot down the
escort of Corbule, whose numbers would be of no avail if their
bodies were undefended. Corbulo, however, pretended not to see
through the stratagem, but replied that it would be better to
discuss the matters in dispute in the presence of the whole armies.
On the appointed day he arrived first, and disposed his troops, but
14

314 THE WAKfc FOK AKMENIA. CHAP, xvm

Tiridates did not appear till the afternoon, and then stood at a
distance " whence he could be seen rather than heard." Thus
no conference took place, and Tiridates presently marched off,
apparently in a north-westerly direction, perhaps intending to cut
off the supplies which the Roman army drew from Trapezus.

§ 9. Corbulo now ceased to follow Tiridates, and prepared a series
of attacks on the Armenian fortresses. He undertook himself the
assault on Volandum the strongest in the district, and assigned the
lesser forts to the subordinate officers. Volandum lay west of
Artaxata and south of the river A raxes. Corbulo formed his troops
in four divisions and assigned to each a different task. One part,
with their shields locked above their heads, in the army known as
testudot advanced close to the rampart to undermine it ; others
applied scaling-ladders to the walls; others hurled javelins and
brands from the engines ; while the slingers at a distance discharged
leaden balls against the garrison. Within the third part of a day,
the walls were stripped of their defenders, the barricades of the gate
were thrown down, the fortifications scaled and captured, all
the adults butchered, without the loss of a single Roman soldier.
Corbulo's officers were equally successful in their less difficult enter-
prises, and he was encouraged by this success to attack Artaxata,
the capital of the country. On the march thither the Romans were
attacked by the cavalry of Tiridates, who had hoped to take them
unawares. But Corbulo had formed his army for fighting as well
as for marching. On the right and left sides the illrd and Vlth
legions marched respectively, and a chosen body of the Xth was
placed in the centre.* The baggage was secured within the lines
and the rear was guarded by a thousand cavalry, who were ordered
to resist if attacked, but not to pursue. On the winis were placed
the foot bowmen and the rest of the cavalry. The left wing was
extended further along the foot of the hills, so that if the enemy
broke through the centre, his flank might be enveloped by the
extended wing. Tiridates rode up in the face of the advancing
army, but taking care to keep out of the range of missiles. H>s
object was to loosen the ranks, by threatening an attack, and then
to fall on the separated divisions. But his design fail d. Only one
cavalry officer advanced rashly, and fell pierced with arrows. His
example confirmed the others in obedience to orders, and Tiridates
retired on the approach of night. Corbulo thought of advancing on
Artaxata the same night, and beginning the blockade ; but when
his scouts reported that Tiridates had started on a distant march—

* III. and VL were tbe Syrian legions j absent; but the main body was left in
sent to Corbulo by Quadratus. Picked Syria,
men of X., another Syrian legion, were |

59 A.D. CAPTURE OF AETAXATA. 315

either to Media or Albania— he waited for daylight, and then sent
on his light-armed troops with directions to begin the attack at
a distance. But no siege was necessary. The inhabitants im-
mediately opened the gates and surrendered, and thereby saved
their lives. The city was burnt to the Around, as Corbulo could
not snare a sufficient garrison, and the place was too strong to be
left unoccupied.

§ 10. The army seems to have wintered in the neighbourhood
of Artaxata, and in the following year (59 A.D.) to have marched
to Tigranocerta, which they reached in autumn. The line of
march which Corbulo followed is not certain. It seems probable
that he proceeded southward from Artaxata, and skirting the foot
of Little Ararat entered the plain of Bayazid ; whence, following
the basin of the river Balyk he could have crossed the watershed
of that stream and the Murad at Djadin, and thence marched
along the Murad through the plain of Arishgerd. The way would
then lie through the plain of Mush, and south-eastward across the
Bitlis pass and Tigranocerta.* On this march the Roman general
made no hostile demonstrations, but did not relax his vigilance,
knowing the character of the Armenians, who were " as treacherous
when opportunity offered, as they were slow to face danger."
Those who submitted, received quarter ; but to those who fled, or
hid themselves in caverns, Corbulo was pitiless. He burnt them
out of their holes, filling the entrances aiid egresses with brush wood.
The Mardi of Mount Niphates were especially troublesome, and
defied him in their mountain fastnesses. Corbulo set the Iberians
on them, so as to avoid the sacrifice of Roman lives. In this
march the Romans suffered as much from heat as they had
suffered during the winters from cold. They were exhausted by
shortness of supplies, and were compelled to depend solely on the
cattle of the country. This meat diet, without any other food,
was found to be very injurious. Besides this, water was scarce,
and the marches in the burning heat were long. At length they
reached cultivated lands, perhaps in the neighbourhood of Melaz-
gerd, and were able to obtain vegetable food. Two Armenian
fortresses were taken, and then they crossed into the country of
the Tauronites, which is probably to be identified with the district
of Mush, west of Lake Van. Here Corbulo's life was endangered.
A barbarian of considerable rank was discovered with a dagger
near the general's tent, and, on being tortured, confessed the names
of confederates who were associated with him. The men were
convicted and punished. Soon after this, envo> s whom Corbulo
had sent to Tigranocerta returned and reported that the gates were

* Fttrneaux, Tacitus, ii. 114.

316 THE WARS FOR ARMENIA CHAP, xvm

open to receive him, and the inhabitants ready to obey his orders.
They also brought a golden crown, a gift betokening the friendship
of the city. Corbulo left the place intact, and then proceeded
against Legerda, a fortress to the west of Tigranocerta. The
stronghold was defended by a brave band, and was stormed
with difficulty. This success seems to have marked the end of
the campaign.

§ 11. Tiridates made some further attempts to re-establish himself
in Armenia, but was promptly checked by Corbulo. The land
was completely in Roman power, and a new king was chosen
(60 A.D.). The choice of the government fell on Tigranes, a young
prince who had been brought u|> in Rome, descended on the
father's side from Herod the Great, and on the mother's from
Archelaus of Cappadocia. But the realm which Nero conferred on
Tigranes was considerably less than that which the previous kings
had ruled. It was curtailed by some frontier districts, which were
distributed between neighbouring princes — Pharasmanes, Antiochus,
Aristobulus, and Polemo of Pontus.

Tigranes sought to increase his kingdom on another side, by
wresting Adiabene from Parthia. He invaded that province and
defeated the governor Monobazus. This occurrence forced the
Parthian monarch, who had abstained from interfering in the
recent war in Armenia, to take a decisive step. He confirmed the
sovranty of Tiridates in Armenia, placing the diadem on his head
in solemn council ; and sent his general Monseses to drive out the
Roman usurper. In the meantime Quadratus, the governor of
Syria, had died, and, pending the appointment of a successor, the
command both in Syria and Cappadocia, devolved upon Corbulo.
That general sent two legions to Armenia to support Tigranes, who
was besieged by the Parthians in Tigranocerta. But it was not
the interest of Corbulo to finish the war and shorten his own
command. The two legions which he sent were not those which
had been trained by himself, but IV. and XII., which had
remained behind in Syria, and were quite inefficient. More-
over, he is said to have given secret instructions to the two
commanders, to whom he committed the charge of the legions, " to
act with deliberation rather than with expedition, for he would
rather have war on hand than prosecute it." He himself prepared to
cross the Euphrates, and meet Vologeses. But the Parthian monarch,
again, as so often before, shrank from war at the last moment.
The attack of his general upon Tigranocerta had been completely
unsuccessful. He opened negotiations, and declared himself ready
^to fulfil the conditions of the treaty which had been proposed
in 55 A.D., and let his brother hold Armenia as vassal of the

61, 62 A.D. CORBULO ABANDONS ARMENIA. 317

Roman Emperor. Corbulo accepted the proposal, withdrew his
iegions from Armenia, gave up the cause of Tigranes (61 A.D.),
and permitted Tiridates to resume his possession of the land. It
was said, by some, and it is not improbable, that there was a secret
understanding between Corbulo and Vologeses. In any case these
proceedings of Corbulo cannot be justified. He may have honestly
'thought that the arrangement which he twice attempted to make
with Vologeses was the best solution of the Armenian question ;
but, once the Roman government had set up Tigranes, he had no
right to give up the results which had been won by his own
campaigns. Moreover he was at this time only a temporary
commander, and Lucius Csesennius Ptetus was already on his way
to assume the government of Cappadocia, to which he had been
appointed. It is possible that Corbulo was jealous of his successor,
and wished to deprive him of the honour of the final subjugation
of Armenia. In any case Corbulo did not act in accordance with
the views of the government, and when the ambassadors of
Vologeses presented themselves at Rome, the treaty was not
confirmed. There is some ground for believing that at this
moment it was actually contemplated to make Armenia a Roman
province, and this certainly was the view of the new governor of
Cappadocia.

§ 12. Thus Armenia had to be conquered again. The two
legions * which were stationed in Cappadocia were to be reinforced
by a legion from Mcesia,f and Psetus, as soon as he arrived in his
province, lost no time in setting out. He crossed the Euphrates
at Melitene, and marched through Sophene, capturing forts and
booty on his way. His first object was the recovery of Tigrano-
certa, but it was late in the year (62 A.D.), and he was obliged to
defer this enterprise until next season, especially as the Moesian
legion had not yet arrived. He established the winter-quarters
of the IVth legion at Kandeia, a place on the borders of
Sophene, close to the Taurus range, and situated on the north bank
of the Arsanias (Murad). In the meantime, Corbulo had taken up a
position on the banks of the Euphrates, near Zeugma, to prevent
the forces of Vologeses from invading Syria. The Parthian king,
learning that the two legions of Paetus were not together, that the
camp at Randeia was badly supplied with provisions, and that
Pa?tus was granting furloughs indiscriminately to all the soldiers
who applied for them, suddenly determined to invade Armenia,
notwithstanding the lateness of the season, and surprise the Roman
camp before reinforcements could arrive. Corbulo did nothing to

* XII. (Fulminata), • one of the two I had originally come from Moesia.
Syrian legions ; and IV. (Scythica), which I t V. CMacedonica).

318 THE WABS FOB ARMENIA. CHAP. XVCL

hinder the march of the Parthians into Armenia ; perhaps he was
secretly pleased at the prospect of the other commander petting
into difficulties. When Psetus heard that Vologeses was ap-
proaching with a large force, he summoned the XI 1th legi<>n
to his head-quarters, and then fully realised the numerical weak-
ness of his forces. The whole army advanced in the direction
from which the Parthians were approaching, but when a centurion
and some soldiers, who had been sent on to reconnoitre, were killed
in a collision with an advanced party of the enemy, it retreated
to the camp. Vologeses did not press on immediately, and Paetus
posted a body of 3000 chosen infantry in the pass of Mount
Taurus, which the Parthians had yet to pass before they reached
Kandeia, and also placed the best of his cavalry in the plain to
support the legionaries. But these forces were utterly insufficient,
and were swept away before the advance of the Parthian army.
The unwounded fled to distant wilds; the disabled returned to the
camp. Thus Paetus was left, having lost the best part of his army
through his ill-considered dispositions; and his forces were still
further weakened by the withdrawal of a cohort to the defence of
the neighbouring fort of Arsamosata, whither his wife and son had
been removed for safety. His only chance of escape lay in speedy
succour from Corbulo, to whom he had already sent a piessing
message. But Corbulo did not hurry ; he was willing to let the
peril increase, in order that the glory of rescuing the army might
be enhanced. But he ordered 1000 men from each of his three
legions,* along with 800 cavalry and about 4000 auxiliary infantry,
to be in instant readiness to march. When, however, another
message arrived from Psetus, with news of the defeat, and earnestly
entreating him to come to save the eagles, he set out, leaving
half his army to defend the forts on the Euphrates. He marched
straight north from Zeugma, through Commagene and Cappadocia —
the route which was shortest and most convenient for obtaining
supplies. His army was attended by a large number of camels
laden with corn. When he met stragglers from the defeated army,
and they alleged various excuses for their flight, he advised them
to return to their standards, and throw themselves on the mercy of
Psetus. " I," he said, " have no pardon but for the victorious."

In the meantime Vologeses pressed both the fortress of Arsamosata
and the camp at Randeia. He tried to lure .the legions from their
entrenchments, and bring on an engagement. But the Roman
soldiers were demoralised, and had no intention of righting; they
only thought of escaping with their lives. They are said to have
quoted the historical dkasters of Rome, such as the Caudine Forks
* III. (Gallic*), VI. (Ferrate), andX. (.FretenstoY

62 A.D. THE DISASTER OF KAN DEI A. 319

and the capitulation of Mancinus at Nnmantia ; aud urged that if
Romans had yielded to Samnites, it would be no disgrace to capitu-
late to the greater power of Parthia. The general was forced by this
attitude of his troops into treating with the enemy. Yet if he had
held out for three days longer his colleague would have arrived
with succour. The terms of the capitulation were that the legions
should quit Armenia, that the forts and supplies should be
surrendered to the Parthians, and a bridge thrown across the
river Arsanias to enable them to carry off the booty. The
Romans had to submit to much ignominy. The Parthians and
Armenians insulted them as they prepared to retire, and their
flight was precipitate. Psetus traversed forty miles in a single day,
leaving his wounded all along the route. The fugitives met the
army of Coibulo on the banks of the Euphrates, near Melitene.
" Corbulo made no exhibition of standards and arms, so as to taunt
them by the contrast. His maniples, in their grief for the lot of
their comrades, could not even refrain from tears ; the mutual
salutation was hardly interchanged for weeping. Rivalry and
desire of glory, emotions which men feel in success, had died away ;
pity alone prevailed, and was more deeply felt in the lower
ranks." *

A short conversation took place between Corbulo and Paetus.
The defeated general urged that everything might still be retrieved
if the whole army were at once to invade Armenia, from which
Vologeses had already departed. Corbulo declined, on the ground
that his commission irom the Emperor strictly confined him to the
limits of Syria, which he had only left on account of the peril of
the legions. Psetus then retired to Cappadocia, and Corbulo to
Syria, where messages passed between him and Vologeses, and it
was agreed that the Roman fortresses on the Parthian bank of the
Euphrates were to be abandoned, while on the other hand the
Parthian garrisons were to be removed from Armenia.

§ 13. When Psetus first estiblished his quarters at Randeia, he
had sent bragging dispatches to Home, as if he were in possession
of the whole coun'ry; and trophies and arches were erected at
Rome in honour of his supposed successes. The arrival of the
envoys of Vologeses early in 63 A.D. exposed the falseness of these
pretensions. The letter of the king was moderate, but its tone was
that of one who need not condescend to ask for terms. He pro-
fessed that his brother Tiridates was ready to receive the crown of
Armenia as a Roman vassal. Being a Marian priest, Tiridates had
a scruple against crossing the sea; otherwise he would have been
ready to appear at Rome and receive the diadem from the

* Tacitus, Ann., XT. 16.

320 THE WAKS FOR ARMENIA. CHAP, xvm

Emperor's hand. But he would willingly go to one of the neigh-
bouring camps, and do homage to the standards and the image of
the Emperor. The council of Nero rejected this proposal, and sent
the envoys back without a formal answer, refusing to accept the
terms which were arranged between Corbulo and Vologeses. But
they seem to have intimated at the same time that if Tiridates pre-
sented himself at Rome in person, an understanding might be effected.
But for the present the war was to continue, and preparations were
made for it on an unusually large scale.

Pastus was recalled; and Corbulo, who, though his recent
behaviour was certainly open to criticism, was justly recognised to
be the most capable general, undertook once more the command in
Cappadocia, while C. Cestius Gallus replaced him in Syria. He
was now entrusted with larger powers than before — perhaps with
an imperium proconsulare. All the governors and dependent
princes of the East were instructed to obey his commands, and his
position resembled that which had been formerly held by Ger-
manicus and Vitellius. The army was increased by the XVth
legion (Apollinaris) taken from Pannonia. The whole strength of
Corbulo's army, taking into account the troops supplied by neigh-
bouring allied princes, probably approached 50,000, and was the
most numerous force ever put in the field for an Armenian war.
Corbulo crossed the Euphrates, and entered southern Armenia,
advancing in the direction of Tigranocerta, and opening up the route
which in former days had been followed by Lucullus when he
advanced to overthrow Tigranes. He drove from their possessions
those Armenian nobles who had led the revolt against Rome, and
captured their fortresses. Then Vologeses sent envoys to demand an
armistice, and Tiridates proposed a personal interview with the
Roman general. Corbulo acceded, and made no objection when
Tiridates proposed that the place of meeting should be at Randeia,
the scene of the disaster of Paetus. He commanded the son of
Psetus, who was a military tribune in his army, to take some troops
with him, and cover up the relics of the battlefield. Tiridates and
Corbulo, each attended by twenty horsemen, met on the appointed
day. It was agreed that the Parthian should take the diadem
from his head, place it in front of the Emperor's image, and not re-
sume it until he had formally received it in Rome from the Emperor's
own hand. This ceremony was to take place in the presence of
both armies and on the very spot where Pasrtus had capitulated, so
that the memory of the disgrace which had then tarnished Roman
arms might in some measure be effaced. The interview ended
with a kiss. After a few days, the solemnity took place. On one
side was ranged the Parthian cavalry with their national decora-

66 A.D. TIRIDATES CROWNED BY NERO. 321

tions ; on the other, the legions with glittering eagles, and
standards, and images of the gods, set so as to represent a temple.
Between the armies was a tribunal supporting a chair of state, on
which a statue of Nero was placed. Tiridates advanced, and,
having slain the customary victims, removed the diadem from his
head and placed it at the foot of the statue. Then Corbulo
courteously entertained the king, who prepared to set out for Rome,
as soon as he had visited his brothers. This time, Corbulo's
favourite scheme succeeded. New statesmen were influential at
Rome, and the vanity of the Empevor was gratified by the prospect
of giving away the crown of Armenia to a Parthian prince as a
humble suppliant. Tiridates, accompanied by 3000 Parthian
horsemen, arrived in Rome in 66 A.D. The ceremony of investiture
took place in the Forum, where the brother of Vologeses, kneeling
at the feet of his overlord, received the crown of Armenia. This
settlement of the eastern question lasted for many years. Rome
had succeeded in getting rid of a troublesome dependency without
losing her prestige or endangering her interests.

§ 14. One more eastern expedition was planned by Nero, but its
execution was prevented by his overthrow. It was directed
against the Alans, a people who lived north of the Caucasus, and
had recently made some plundering excursions in Armenia and
Media. The object was probably to occupy the " Caucasian Gate,"
now known as the Dariel Pass, between Tiflis and Vladikaukas,
with a permanent garrison; and this was for the advantage of
Parthia as well as for that of Rome. The XIV th legion, which
was recalled from Britain, and the I. Italica, newly enrolled for
this expedition, were on the way to the east, when they were
recalled on account of the revolt of Vindex.

It remains to tell the fate of Corbulo. His prominent position
and services seem to have roused the jealousy of Nero, who
summoned him to his presence in Greece (67 A.D.). When Corbulo
landed at Cenchrea?, he received a message to the effect that he
was expected to cease to live. He plunged his sword in his breast,
with the words, " I deserve it ! " It is impossible to know whether
he had given any real ground of suspicion. He was an able
soldier, but his merits, perhaps, have been exaggerated. Tacitus, at
least, seems to use the meritorious Corbulo as a sort of antithesis to
Nero, just as he set up Germanicus as a foil to Tiberius ; and the
contrast drawn between Corbulo's unerring generalship and the
rash incompetence of Psetus is obviously heightened for the sake of

artistic effect.

M*

322

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. CHAP. XVHL

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATION

A.— CHRONOLOGY OF THE WARS
FOR ARMENIA UNDER CLAU-
DIUS AND flERO.
According to th*1 view of Rawlinson
and Egli, Artabanus III. died in 42 A.D.;
others placed his d.ath in 43 A.D. (so
Saint-Mai tin); but it may now be re-
garded as certain (wi h Mr. Percy Gard-
ner and Gut<cbmid) tha« the true dut* is !
40 A.D. It is further probable that after
the d 'ath of Artabanus, <iotarze-, his son,
reivned fora sh"rt t me before Vanianes
(40-41 A.D.); and that Vardanes died in I
45 A.D. (whereas his death is generally I
placed in 48 A.D.). For these dat s the
Parthian coins are our chief pource.
There is no evidence to support the sup-
position of Mommsen, that the immediate
successor of Artabanus was the son of
the same name mentioned by Tacitus.
The surrender of S'l«-uiia is usually
placed in the yar 46 A.D., but this can-
not be light if Vardanes' drath is to be
placed in 45 A.D.

Tacitus states that the rebellion of
Seleueia hsied seven years. Nipperdey's :
view (appr-'ved by Fnrneaux) that the i
revolt began in 36 A.D., and the capitula- j
tion took place in 43 A.D., is probably .
righ'.

With the sending of Meherdates to the ,
East in 4» A.D. we reach firm ground fur j
a moment. It seems clear that Meher ;
dates advanced into Adiabene in spring

50 A.D , that Ins defeat took place in the
same year, and that Gotarzes died in

51 A.D. (But Egli holds that all these
events took place in 49 A.D.) The d.-ite
of the accession of v ologeses is variously
plac d in 51 A.D. and 52 A.D. (Egli), but
the lot mer year is doubtless rteht. The
intrigues of Radamistus in Iberia (plac> d
by Saliit-Murtti in 50) began in 51; the
Iberian invasion of Armenia took place
in the following year; and the Parthian
intervention in 53 (see Furneaux, p.
106).

The chronology of the first campaiens
of 0»rhuio is ptill more perplexing.
(1) Egli places the mpet ng of Corbulo
with Tirida'es on Aptil 29th, 59 A.D.,
and the capture of Artaxata and the
surrender o. ; igrano erta in the same
year. This view may be rejected at

once. It is founded on a misconception.
Tacitus, after describing the meeiing
of Corbulo and Tiridates, mentions a
miraculum, which Egli identifies with
the solar eclipse of Apiil 30th, 59 A.D.
But If Tacitns had meant an eclipse, he
would not have so described it; and
Mommsen has poxnted out thatta campaign
in that climate ~ould not have begun so
early. (2) M-mmsen thinks that the
taking of Aitaxata is to be pla«ed in
59 A.D., that of Tigranocerta, in the fol-
lowing year. (3) Mr. Furneaux's view
s^oms, on the whole, to involve fewest
difficulties. He makes Oorbnlo enter
Armenia in 57 A.n., capture Artaxata
in 58 A D., winter there 58-59 A.D., and
march to Tigranocorta 59 A.D. The only
serious difficulty is that Tacitns d<>es not
mention the wintering at Artaxata, but
writ- s as if that place were razed to the
ground immediately after its capture.

B.— THE SITE OP TIGRANOCERTA.

Th:s disputed question is well summed
up by Mr. Furn^aux (in his note on
Tacitus, Annals, xii. 50. 8) as follows:

Tacitus who n ay probably be follow-
in? Corbulo, give* one very definite state-
ment, i hat it was thir y-seven miles from
Ni-iMs, and places it on the Nicephorins,
described by him as a considerable
stream, ami given by Pliny as a chief
tributary of the Upper Tigris; but all
the principal branches of that river flow
into it from the north and at considerably
grea er distance from Nisibis th >n that
specified. Again the statement of Strabo,
ihat it lay at the foot of Mount Masius, 1n
a fimiar p<>s>tion to th t of Nisibis, is
inconsistent, with Pliny's statement that
it *as " in excelso " [on a high eminence.]

U) Egli, supposing that the city was
built to command the Bitlis pass, placrs
it at Sert on th" Biilis-Su. This dis-
regards completely the ctatements of
Tacitns and Strabo.

(•2) Others pla<-ed it at Tell-Abad, or
some other place within the basin of the
Tigris on the northern side of Masins.
This accords fairly with the ht«tement of
Tacitus as to the distance from Nisibis,
bui the streams (here are too small to
answer to the Nicephoriu*.

xvui. NOTES AND ILLUSTltATiONfiJ.

323

(3) Professor Sachau, travelling in the
country in 1879-188", found considerable
remains at Tell-Krmui, a little south-
west of Murdin, quite thirty-seven miles
from Nisibis, and on a river. Th s A>e
would agree with the data of Tacitus and
Strabo, but. not with Pliny's connection of
the Nicephorius with the Tigris. Pro-
fessor Sachau's view now holds the fi Id.

C.— LEGIONS UNDER CLAUDIUS
AND NERO.

At the death of Augustus the number
of legions was twenty-five, and remained
at that under Tiberius and Gaius.
Claudius in making arrangements for
th«- conquest of Britain, added one new
legion, XXII. Primigenia, and under Xero
three new 1. gions were formed, XV. Primi-
genia, I. Italica, and the Le<iio Clussica,
which afterwards probably became the
I. Adjutrix. Thus at the death of Nero
there were twenty-nine legions, and they

were distributed as follows (Pfltzner,
Qefchichte der rSm. Kaistrlegionen,
p. 45):

Spain : VI. Victrix.
Germany, Lower: I. Germanica, V.

Alauda, X. Gemina, XVI.
Germany, fpper: IV. Macedonica,

XXL, XXII. Primigenia.
Britain II. Augusta, IX., XX. Victrix.
Pannonia: XIII Gemina
Moesia : III. Gallica.
Syria : IV. Scythica, IV. Ferrata, XU.

Fulminata.
Judea: V. M ao. donica, X. Fretensis

XV. Apollinaris.
Egypt: ni. Cyrenaica, XXH. Dejota-

r ana.

Africa : III. Augusta,
Gaul : I. Italica.
Rome : Legio Classica.
Northern It .ly : VII. Clau Ua.VIII Au-
gusta, XI. Claudia, XV. Primteenia,
On its way from Bri aln 10 join the

Eastern Expedition: XIV. Gemina.

Coin of Arsaces

Galba.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE PBINCIPATE OF GALBA, AND THE YEAR OP THE FOUR
EMPERORS (68-09 A.D.).

1. Position of affairs at the death of Nero. Proclamation of GALBA.
§ 2. Advance of Galba to Rome. Nymphidius Sabinus. § 3. Cha-
racter of Galba and his principate. His financial measures. § 4.
Mutiny in Upper Germany. Galba's adoption of Piso. § 5. Con-
spiracy of Otho. Deaths of Galba and Piso Elevation of OTHO.
§ 6. Vitellius proclaimed Imperator in Lower Germany. § 7. Vitel-
lius' plan of campaign. Valens and Caecina. § 8. Difficult position of
Otho. Measures of his reign. § 9. Vitellius invades Italy. Pre-
parations. Battle of Locus Castorum. First battle of Betriacum.
§ 10. Death of Otho. Verginius Rufus declines the Empire. The
Othonians submit. §11. VITELLIUS arrives at Rome. § 12. Measures
and character of his principate. Increase of the praetorian guards.
§ 13. The armies of the East. Mucianus. Vespasian, § 14. is pro-
claimed Imperator, and prepares for war. § 15. Advance of Mucianus
to Italy. Antonius Primus. § 16. First successes of the Flavians.
Preparations of Vitellius. § 17. Caecina's plan of campaign. Second
battle ot Betriacum. § 18. Destruction of Cremona. Capture of
Valens. § 19. Campania deserts Vitellius. Battle in Rome. The
Flavians besieged by Vitellians in the Capitol. Burning of the
Capitol. Slaughter of Flavius Sabinus. Primus enters Rome. Death
of Vitellius. § 20. VESPASIAN accepted by the senate. § 21. Notable
points in the civil wars of 69 A.D

SECT. T. — GAI.BA AND Piso.

§ 1. IT has been already explained that with the death of a
Princeps the Principate ceases until a successor is duly elected.
This constitutional principle was exhibited in an unusually clear
lijiht at the death of Nero ; for the interval, the interprincipate, so
to speak, Listed sevrn days. And the circumstances were unpre-

68 A.I) GALBA'S PROGRESS TO ROME. 325

cedeuted. Hitherto the state had been practically, though not
theoretically, " the inheritance, as it were, of one family."* But
Nero had neither begotten nor adop1 ed a son, and at his death
there was no one belonging to the Julian or Claudian family to
claim the allegiance of the praetorian guards and the suffrages of
the senate. Consequently there arose many pretenders to the
Principate, and there may have been even some thoughts of
restoring the Republic, though this was hardly seriously contem-
plated. It was a moment, at least, when people talked much of
" the senate and the Roman people ; " but the actual decision lay
in the hands of the armies. But the armies were not at one; and
the result was a series of civil wars, in the course of which four
Emperors rapidly succeeded one another, within the space of less
than a year.

The prsetorian soldiers had declared for Galba, and to him most
eyes in Rome and probably in Italy looked. Having equipped
himself for a contest of whose issue he despaired, Galba was waiting
at Clunia in Tarraconensis, supported by the counsels of Otho, Titus
Vinius and Cornelius Laco. His freedman, Icelus, who was acting in
his interests at Rome, arri ved with the news of Nero's death seven days
after the event, and Galba assumed the title ofCeesar. The creation
of an Emperor in the provinces was a new departure, and it served
to give men a glimpse into the real conditions on which the Empire
depended. " A secret of the Empire was revealed," according to a
famous saying of Tacitus, " that a Princeps could be made elsewhere
than at Rome."

§ 2. The progress of the new Princeps to Rome was slow and
stained with bloodshed. He was recognised by the senate, who
sent a deputation which met him at Narbo Martius ; but rival
candidates for the supreme power sprang up on all sides, some
formidable, others insignificant. The pretenders who arose in
Spain and Gaul were easily disposed of: but more formidable were
the pretensions of Fonteius Capito, the legatus of Lower Germany,
and of Clodius Macer, the governor of Africa. Macer professedly
aimed at restoring the Republic, and issued coins with the inscrip-
tion pro prcetore, in the republican style.f He was kilUd by the
imperial procurator at Galba's instigation. Capito was slain by
some of his officers who supported Galba, but without Galba's
orders. The army of Upper Germany regarded with hostility the
Emperor who had been elevated in Spain, and still desired to elevate
their own general, Verginius Rufus, but he persisted in his refusal.
Galba, however, fearing his popularity with the army, summoned

* Tacitus : quasi hereditus unius I f But perhaps he did this merely as a
familise. I constitutional formality.

326

THE PKINCIPATE OF GALBA. CHAP. six.

him to his presence, and forced him to accompany him to
Rome.

Meanwhile the praetorian prefect Nymphidius Sabinus marie an
attempt to seize the Empire for himself. He supported liis claim
by pretending to be an illegitimate son of the Emperor Gaius. But
he rviscalculated his influence with the prsetorians, who swore
fidelity to Gulba, and he was cut to pieces. The chief supporter of
Nymphidins was the consul designate, Cinvjonins Varro, and he was
puttodeaih by Galba's order. The slaughter of Petronius Turpilianus
was also commanded, without anv form of trial, because Nero had
appointed him commander of his forces. When Galba approached
Rome (in October) he was met at the Milvian bridge by marine
soldiers, who had been enrolled by Nero. Galba seems to have
regarded them as enemies, and ordered his soldiers to charge them,
and entered the city over their bodies. Thus the path of the new
Emperor was stained with blood.

§ 3. Servius Sulpicius Galbi* was a man of family and wealth.
The senate had reason to see in his elevation the prospect of a
return to constitutional government. There is evidence to show
that he wished to model his policy on that of Augustus. But he
was not strong enough to hold his own. His talents were of
very mediocre quality, and he has been described as rather
free from vices than distinguished by virtues. He cared little
for fame, nor was he grasping, though he was parsimonious
to a fault. He was much under the influence of his friends
and freedmen, and in difficulties depended on the advice of
others more than on himself. His apparent wisdom was often
mere indolence. But he was not equal to the greatness which was
perhaps thrust upon him. '* All," says Tacitus, " would have agreed
that he was fitted for empire, if he had not been an Emperor." f
His short principate is marked by a succession of blunders. In the
first place, his policy in Gaul had been unwiso. He identified his
own cause with the abortive revolt of Vindex, and while he
rewarded those cities which had joined in that movement, he pun-
ished Lugudunum, theTreveri, the Linuones, and other communities
which had remained faithful to Nero. This policy alienated the
Germanic legions. In Rome the severity of Gal ha, and especially
his treatment of the marine soldiers, produced a bad impression,

* Galba, having been adopted by
his stepmother Li via Ocelina, io»k the
name Livius, changed his praenomen, and
called himself Lucius Livius Sulpicius
«alba until his accession. Then he
reassumed his original namp. The order
of names in his imp erlal title vi ries. We

find Imp. Serv. Galba Caesar Aug. ; Ser.
Galba Imperator Csesar Augustus ; Caesar
Augustus Galba Imperator ; Galba Imp.,
&c.

f Omnium consensu capax imperil nis?
Imperasset (Hist., i. 40).

68 AD, HIS ADMINISTRATION. 327

and I is strict idens of discipline were not popular. He alienated the
prsetorian guards by refusing to give them the donative which
Nymphidius had promised hi liis name.

Nero had left an empty treasury, and the financial measures
which Galba resorted to were very ill-advised. On the one hand
he remitted a tax of 2£ per cent., of which the nature is unknown,
B it on the other he made an attempt to force those who had
profited by Nero's liberality to disgorge their booty. He appointed »
commission to exact from those who had received presents irom Nero
nine-tenths of the amount. But as most of these persons ha«i spent
their fortunes as lightly as they had gained them, the commission
had very little result for its labours. Then Galba comm mded that
application should be ma<le to those who had received any i^jn<-y
from the favourites of Nero, an absurd measure which led to endless
lawsuits. And besides being unprofitable, this policy was in-
jurious, for it created many enemies to the Emperor. Moreover the
parsimony of Galba verged on meanness, and was unfavourably
contrasted with the open-hand'-dnes.s of his predecessor. It was
rendered all the more glaring by the rapacity of the three men
on whose counsels he leaned, Vinius, Laco, and Icelus. He had
appointed Laco praetorian prefect, and he had raised his fi e« drnan
Icelus to equestrian rank. Vinins was designated as his colleague
in the consulship for the year 69. These three exerted such an
influence over Galba, that they were called his " three pedagogues."
Another circumstance which increased the dissatisfaction with
Galba was that he spared Tigellinus, for whose slaughter Rome
was clamouring. The freedmen, who had been the intimate
advisers of Nero, were put to death ; but Vinius, who was
betrothed to the daughter of Tigellinus, a widow with a large
fortune, exerted his influence to save him.

§ 4. Soon after the 1st of January, 69 A.D., disquieting news of a
mutiny in the army of Upper Germany reached Rome. Galba had
replaced Verginins by Hordeonius Flaccus, an old general, who was
incapable of maintaining discipline. Galba was in a difficulty.
He had no forces which he could trust to oppose this movement.
The praetorians were lukewarm; the Spanish legion (VII.
Galbiana) had been sent to Pannonia; and he had dismissed the
German bodyguard of his predecessor. There were some divisions
of Germanic and Illyric legions temporarily stationed at Rome, but
they were small and uncertain. Galba was decided by his advisers
to adopt a consort in the Empire. This course might satisfy the
wishes of the German army, who clamoured for a i.ew Imptrator.
Two names were proposed as candidates for association in the
Principate. Vinius supported the claims of Otho ; but Laco, who

328 THE PEINCIPATE OF GALBA. CHAP. xix.

always opposed Vinius, and Icelus recommended Piso Licinianus.
The consultations of this " comitia of the imperium" * ended in the
choice of Piso. He was of ancient lineage and high character, but
he was unpopular, and under the circumstances his choice was a
mistake. He was adopted under the name Ser. Sulpicius Galba
Caesar, on January 10th ; but the measure did not in the least tend
to conciliate the soldiery. When the old Emperor announced his
choice to the praetorians in a storm of rain and thunder, and
appealed to the example of Augustus, who had in a like way
associated with himself Agrippa and Tiberius, the soldiers main-
tained a sullen silence ; only the officers and the front ranks uttered
the acclamations which made Piso an Imperator. On this occasion
Galba might have retrieved his first mistake of not giving a
donative, but on this point he was obstinate. In the senate Piso's
election was received with approbation.

§ 5. But while this measure of Galba failed in its intended effect,
it stirred up against him an active enemy in the person of
M. Salvius Otho, who had supported Galba from the first, and was
indignant that Piso was preferred to himself. He had been
embittered by the long years of exile in Lusitania to which Nero
had condemned him ; he was weary of restraint ; he was deeply
involved in debt ; and was ready to risk his life unsparingly for the
chance of sovranty. Moreover he was afraid of the jealousy of
Piso; and his ambitious plans were fostered by soothsayers and
astrologers, to whose influence he was subject. The enterprise too,
seemed hopeful, owing to the general dissatisfaction with the
government of Galba. Those who were beginning to regret the
golden days of Nero might hope for their revival under the rule of
the luxurious Otho. The guards were easily corrupted by two of
tht-ir number who had embraced the cause of Otho. "Two
manipulars," says Tacitus, " undertook to transfer the empire of the
Roman people, and they did transfer it."

The decisive moment came on the morning of the 15th of
January. Galba was sacrificing before the temple of Apollo on
the Palatine, and the omens were inauspicious, portending, the
aruspex said, a foe in his own household. Otho was standing by,
when a freedman announced to him according to a preconcerted
signal, that his engineer awaited him. The conspirator immediately
descended through the house of Tiberius, on the north-west side of
the Palatine, and made his way to the golden milestone in the
Forum. Here he was met by twenty- three soldiers, who hailed him
as Imperator, placed him in a litter, and hurried him to the eamp.
Galba meanwhile was still " importuning the gods of an empire no
* Comitia imperii (Tac., Hist., i. 14).

69 A.D. HIS MURDER. 329

longer his,*1 when the news of Otho's entry into the camp reached
him. After much irresolution it was decided that Piso should
precede Galba to the camp, and attempt to quell the mutiny. Then
a false report came that Otho had been slain, and the Emperor no
longer hesitated. Accompanied by a cohort and a large multitude of
the populace, who had declared themselves on his side, he set out
for the camp. Before lie left the Palatine, a soldier ran up to him
with a bloody sword, crying that he had killed Otho. " Fellow-
soldier," said Galba, " who ordered you ? " But there in the mean-
time Otho had been saluted Imperator by the praetorians, and the
regiment of marine soldiers had also joined him. Otho armed the
troops, and led them from the camp into the city, to suppress the
opposition of the populace and the senators. Galba and Piso had
halted in the Forum, uncertain whether to advance or to return to the
palace. When the cohort which surrounded Galba perceived the
advance of Otho's forces, the standard-bearer dashed the imago to
the ground, thus showing that the soldiers sympathised with Otho.
The people fled from the Forum. The litter in which Galba was
borne was overturned near the Pool of Curtius, and the Emperor was
hewn in pieces. The murder of Vinius followed, and Piso, who
had sought refuge in the temple of Vesta, was dragged out and
slain. The senate did not delay to recognise the Imperator
whom the praetorians had chosen. The title of Augustus was
immediately conferred, and the tribunician power decreed.

SECT. II. — OTHO AND VITELLIUS.

§ 6. But a rival to Otho* was already in the field. While these
things were enacted at Rome, events of great moment were taking
place in Germany. After the murder of Fonteius Capito, the
legatus of Lower Germany, Galba had selected Aulus Vitellius to
take his place. This Vitellius was the son of Lucius Vitellius, who
had commanded in the east under Tiberius, and been censor with
Claudius. Aulus had gained the favour of Nero, had been pro-
consul and iegatus in Africa, but was little fitted for the post for
which Galba had chosen him. He was insignificant and good-
natured, sensual and indolent. He had no ambition, but circum-
stances led him to the supreme power. The legions of both Lower
and Upper Germany were discontented with the rule of Galba.
They were jealous, because he had been created by the Spanish
legion, and they did not see why they too should not make an
imperator. The recall of Verginius had especially exasperated the

* Imp. M. Otho CaRsar Augustus.

330

THE PK1NC1PATE OF OTHO.

CHAI-.

troops of the Upper province and on the kalends of January the
IVth and XXIInd legions at Moguntiacnm had refused to take
the oath of allegiance to Galba, and had placed themselves, as
Galba himself had done, when he threw off the yoke of Nero, at
the disposal of the senate and the Koman people. The uovernor
Hordeonius did not venture to interfere. But it was in the Lower
province that a candidate for the Empire was found. On the same

Otho.

night the news from Mognntiacum reached ViteHius as he was
supping at Colonia, He immediately sent messengers to the legions
of his own province in their various quarters. I. Germanics was
stationed at Bonna ; V. Alauda and XV. Primigenia at Vetera,
and XVI. Gallica at Novaesium. On the next day Fabius Valens,
legatus of legion I., arrived fn>m Bonna with some horse-soldiers,
and saluted Vitellius as Impoator. On the following day (January
3rd) the Upper army, which had not found a candidate of its own,
abandoned the empty and high-sounding names of ihe senate and
the Roman people, and acknowledged Vitellius. The ardour of the

69 A.D. PBEPABATIONS OF VITBLLIUS. 331

troops was emulated by the provincials of Colon! a, the Treveri, and
the Lingones (whose city is now represent* d hy Langres). Valerius
Asiatic'is, the legatus ol Belgica, and Blassus, the governor of Gallia
Lugudnnensis, along with legion I. Italica, which properly belonged
to Upper Gvrmnny, but was then stationed at Luguduniim, declared
themselves for the new Imperaior. Vitellius him.velf was perhaps
the lea-t emhusiastic of all. He took little active part in the
pieparations for overthrowing Galba, and en1 rusted the conduct of
his cause to his officers, especially to Aulus Csecina Alienus in the
Upper province and C. Fabius Valens in the Lower. Caecina was a
youi-g, strong, able, ambitious and popular legatus.

§ 7. It was decided to advance upon Italy and Rome, and the
armament was divided in to three parts. Cascina, at the head of 36,000
men, was to cross the Pennine Alps ; Valens, with 40,000, was to
march through Gaul, and penetrate by the Cottian pass; and hoth
were to join iheir forces at Cremona. Vitellins, with the main body
of the army, was to come slowly after. His presence was not
required, for the troo;>s were so excited that they needed no
stimulus. The cause of Vitellins found great sympathy in those
parts of Gaul which had declared against Vindex, and had been
punished by Ualha. The progress of Valens was marked by rapacity
and military licence. All the cities through which he passed
were required to furnish a contribution to the expedition, and
special severity was shown to places like Augustodunum and
Vienna, which had found favour with Galba. Caecina's march L»y
through the highlands of the Helvetii, who resented the lie* nee of
the soldiers. The natives were fierce, and the course of the army
was marked by slaughter. The Helvetii were at length driven into
their town Aventicum (Avenches), and yielded only to the menace
of a siege.

But before the army of Vitellius reached Italy, the murder of
Galha and accession of Otho had altered the position of aflVdrs.
Otho prepared to meet the armies of his rival, but he first made
overtures to Vitellius, offering him a quiet and luxurious retroa', if
he retired from the field. If the decision had lain with Vitellius
himseli, this offer would probably have been accepted, but it really
lay with the army, and tho army had no inten ion of retreating.
The question could only be decided by arms. Most of the western
provinces declared for Vitellius : the three Gauls, Narbonensis,
Raatia, and Britain. Otho was recognised in Spain and lllyricum ;
but Spain soon deserted hun, and then the west was entirely on
the side of his rval. Thus Otho had the prastorians and the
four legions of Pannonia, Dalmatia, and Moesia to oppose to the
forces of Vitellius. Besides this, he obtained the recognitioD o/

332 THE PR1NCIPATE OF OTHO. CHAP. xix.

-the eastern provinces, of Egypt and Africa, though he could look
for no active support from those quarters. It is highly probable
that he would have come off victorious in the conflict which
followed if he had acted with promptitude, and entrusted the
supreme military command to one competent general. He was no
soldier himself, but he had at his disposal several able officers, such
as Suetonius Paulinus, Marius Cel«us, Vestricius Spurinna. Instead
of trusting them, he listened to the counsels of Licinius Proculus,
the praetorian prefect, who was inexperienced in warfare. And
instead of hastening to occupy the passes of the Alps before the
enemy reached the frontiers of Italy, he delayed in Rome.

§ 8. The position of Otho was a difficult one for a man, who, like
him, had little talent for ruling men. He was embarrassed by the
veiled hostility of the senators, who regretted Galba, a man after
their own heart, and, while they were obliged to accept Otho,
/ would have been pleased at his fall. Otho endeavoured to conciliate
them, and strictly observed their privileges, but in vain. And the
difficulty was aggravated by the hostility of the praetorians to the
senators. On one occasion a party of nobles, whom Otho was
entertaining, were almost murdered by the soldiers, v-rho suspected
them of a conspiracy against the Emperor. The remarkable cir-
cumstance that no copper coinage was issued by the senate under
Otho may be partly explainad by the fact that he was not made
Pontifex Maximus until March 9. The senate may have delayed
until he received the mil number of the imperial titles. The
enthusiasm of the populace, who greeted Otho as Nero and looked
for a revival of Nero's liberal policy, did not tend to conciliate the
senators. Otho even adopted ^ho name Nero officially, but gave it
up again hi deference to the feelings of the senate. He sacrificed
Tigellinus, whom Galba !iad spared, to the public hatred. The
prsetorian soldiers were clso a difficulty. They were conscious that
Otho owed his position to them, and depended on their support,
as his best arm in the coming struggle. It was therefore impossible
to oppose them or maintain strict discipline. He had placed him-
self in a false position at the beginning by allowing them to choose
their own prefects.

In the two months which elapsed between the accession of Otho

and his- departure from the city, there are few acts of general policy

i to record. Occupied with preparations for the war, he had little

time for government. In Spain the colonies of Hispalis and

Emerita were strengthened. The province of Bastica was increased

> in extent by the addition of some districts in the land beyond the

': 'strait. Africa -and Cappadocia received various privileges. An

1 invasion of Moesia by the Koxolani, a Sarmatian tribe, was

A.D

CIVIL WAK BEGINS.

repelled, and. the victorious officers were rewarded by Otho with . .:.
high distinctions. In these measures, we can see the aim of Otho
to strengthen his political position.

§ 9. The civil war began in March. The republic had not been
rent by domestic struggles, Italy had not been exposed to the
disasters of warfare, since the terrible years which followed the
^reat Caesar's death. Men remembered Philippi, Mutina, and _
Perusia, and looked with horror to a repetition of such scenes,
And the prospect was all the worse, as neither of the chiefs, for
whom so much blood was to be shed, was worth fighting for. As
candidates for the government of the republic, both the dissolute -
Otho and the gluttonous Vitellius were contemptible. They were
instruments, it seemed, " chosen by fate for the ruin of the state."
But while Vitellius was torpid, Otho at least was active. When
the time for action came, he threw off luxury, marched on loot,
rough and unkempt, at the head of his troops, "quite unlike
himself."* He set out from the city on the 14th of March, leaving
his brother Titianus in charge at Home, and forcing a number
of senators, whom he feared to leave behind, to accompany him.

The object of the Vitellians was to gain possession of Home.
Until their chief was recognised there, by the people and the
senate, it was felt that he was only a pretender. The object of
Otho was to prevent his enemy from crossing the Padus, the
second defence of Italy ; for the Alps, its first defence, had already
been passed by Csecina. For this purpose Annius Gallus and
Vestricius Spurinna had been sent on in advance, with a force con-
sisting of five prsetorian cohorts, and the remainder of the legio
dassica (numbered L) which had escaped the sword of Galba,
besides a corps of 2000 gladiators. They expected to be reinforced
by 8000 men, sent forward from the four legions of Pannonia
and Dalmatia, which were themselves following at leisure. Otho
followed with the rest of the praetorians and a large number of
marines. By his fleet he commanded the west coast of Italy,
and was assured of the adhesion of Corsica and Sardinia. A y
division of troops was sent to seize the district of the Maritime
Alps and attack the province of Narbonensis. The procurator
of the Maritime district attempted resistance; and the irritated
soldiers vente-l their wrath on the town of Albintimilium, (Venti- ,
miglia). The cities of Narbonensis, especially Forumjulii, sent

* Juvenal indeed describes him as
carrying a mirror, an emblem of effemi-
nacy, with him on this expedition, Sat.,
ii. 99 :

Speculum pathici gestamen Othonis,
Actoris Aurunci spolium, quo se Hie

videbat

Armatum cum iam tolli vexilla iuberet
l!es memoranda novis annalibus atque

recenti
Historia speculum civilis sarcina belli.

334

THE PKJJSUIFATE OF OTUU

CHAT, xix

for aid to Valens, who was advancing to join Caecina. In the
battles which ensued, the Vitellian party was worsted, but the
Othonians retreated to Albingaunum (Albenga), an inland city of
Liguria. The beginnings of the war in this quarter were prosperous
for Otho.

When Cascina entered Cisalpine Ganl, he had won the adhesion
of a squadron of cavalry which was stationed in that region and
known as the ala Siliana. Along with it the municipal towns
of Mediolanum, Eporedia, Novaria, and Vercellse, embraced the
cause of Vitellius, and the invaders held most of the land between
the Padus and the Alps. The communication between Home and
lllyricum, however, was uninterrupted. One of those cohorts of the
Pannonian army which had been sent on in advance was captured
by the Vitellians at Cremona, and some other divisions of the
Othonians were discomfited near Ticinum ; but the first serious
engagement took place at Placentia, which was defended by
Vestricius Spurinna. Caecina himself had crossed the river to
capture it, but the assault— in the course of which a large
amphitheatre outside the town was consumed by fire — was un-
successful. Cascina was forced to retire to his camp near Cremona.
Meanwhile, Anuius Gallus was hastening to relieve Placentia, but
on hearing that the enemy had been repelled, he took up a position
at Betriacum,* a place lying between Cremona and Mantua, and
distant about two days' march from Verona. About the same time
the Othonian corps of gladiators under Marcius Macer crossed over
to the north bank of the Padus, near Cremona, and defeated a body
of Vitellian auxiliaries. It was thought that this success should
have been followed up; the commanders, Gallus, Suetonius and
Celsus, were severely criticised by their own party, and their
fidelity to Otho was questioned. In consequence of these sus-
picions the Emperor was led to summon his brother Titianus from
Rome, and make him command er-in-chief.

But before he arrived, the Othonians achieved another success,
which might have decided the war in their favour, but for the
ill-judgment or treachery of Suetonius Paulinus. This general and
Marius Celsus had joined forces with Grallus at Betriacum. Caacina,
disgusted with his failure at Placentia and anxious to gain a victory
before the arrival of his colleague Valens, determined to brini on
an action, and with this intent placed an ambush of picked
auxiliaries in woods overhanging the Postumian Way, at a place

* Mommsen has shown that this is the
right spelling of the name. It is gene-
rally spelt Bedriacum. In the texts of
Jttren*l we find another form— Bebrta-

cum (Sat., ii. 105), where he says of
Otho:

Summi coustantia civi*
Bebriaci campo epolium affectare

69 A.D. BATTLE OF LOCUS CASTOKUM. 335

called Locus Castorum (from a temple of Castor and Pollux),
twelve miles from Cremona. Some cavalry were detached to
advance along the road, and lure the enemy to the spot. But
the Othonian generals got intelligence of this stratagem, and
skilfully arranged a counter-stratagem. Gallus had been hurt
by a fall from his horse ; accordingly Celsus and Paulinus divided
the command, Paulinus taking the infantry, and Celsus the
cavalry. They drew up their army on this wise : three praetorian
cohorts were placed in columns on the road itself, and formed
the centre of the array; on the left were posted the advance
body (2000 strong) of the XHIth legion from Pannonia, with
five auxiliary cohorts and 500 cavalry ; on the right stood I.
Classica with two auxiliary cohorts and likewise 500 cavalry.
A body of a thousand picked horsemen was placed in reserve.
When the Vitellians, according to their plan, pretended to
retreat in order to draw their opponents into the ambuscade,
Celsus kept his men from advancing too far, and when the
ambushed troops, sure of success, rushed out, he gradually retreated
and drew them on into the snare which had been prepared for
them. When Celsus and his cavalry, hotly pursued by the enemy,
reached the three prastorian cohorts stationed on the Via Postumia,
the legionary soldiers, who were right and left of the Via, advanced
and closed up in front, so as to oppose a continuous line to the
pursuers. At the same time the auxiliary cohorts on both sides
were pushed forward, so as to take the Vitellians in the flanks.
Finally the reserve body of cavalry was dispatched to ride round
and come on them in the rear, so that they were completely
enclosed in the well-contrived snare. But Suetonius, for whatever
reason, did not act with sufficient promptitude. He wasted time
in preliminaries, and did not give the signal to the infantry to
attack, until many of the Vitellians had time to seek refuge in the
vineyards adjacent to the road, where it was impossible to use the
pila freely. But when the infantry of Suetonius at length attacked
they carried all before them. Caecina brought up his cohorts one
by one, and each by itself was too weak to withstand the assault
of the Othonians. Caecina and his whole army, it was said, migh t
have been annihilated, if Suetonius had not sounded a retreat, and
hindered his troops from attempting to cariy the enemy's camp
at Cremona. Some suspected him of treachery.

Valens had already arrived at Ticinum, and soon after this defeat
pushed on to join forces with Caecina at Cremona. Meanwhile
Otho came himself to Betriacum and held a council of war.
Suetonius, Gallus, and Marius Celsus, were of opinion that a
general engagement should not be risked until the arrival of the

336 THE PRINCIPATE OF OTHO. CHAP. xix.

Rlyric legions, which in discipline and valour were a match for
the troops of the Rhine. But Otlio could not endure to wait
longer for the decision of his late; and Titianus and Proculus,
who perhaps thought more of his wishes than his interests, voted
for immediate action. Oiho then retired to Brixellum (Bresello),
and the army, which was now comman-led nominally by Titianus,
but really by Proculus, advanced westward from I'etriacnm and
encamped four miUs nearer Cremona. The ultimate strategical
object seems to have been to reach the confluence of the Padus and
the Addua, two hours west of Cremona, so as to sever the com-
munication between that city and Ticinum. Yet it is hardly
credible that even Titianus would have conceived anything so ra-h
as a flank-march past the enemy stationed at Cremona. The
messages of Otho, who was growing more and moie impatient,
induced his brother, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the
more experienced generals, to advance further in the direction
of the enemy.

Meanwhile the Vitellians had been occupied in building a bridge
across the Padus, near the month of the Addua. M*ri ins Macer
with his gladiators had endeavoured to prevent them and a struggle
had taken place for the possession of an island in midstream, in
which the gladiators were worsted by Batavian troops. They
blamed Macer for< this discomfiture, and he was with difficulty
rescued from their vengeance. Flavius Sa'dnus was appointed
in his stead, with a general command over the Othonian forces
south of the river.

On the 15* h April, Caecina who had been hurrying on the
building of the bridge, returned to Cremona, to find that the
Othonian forces had arrived within fair miles of the place, that, a
body of their cavalry had attacked the camp, und that Valens had
given the signal to march forth to fight. The battle which ensued
— generally called the battle of Betriacum, though more correctly
the battle of Cremona— is far less interest-n^ from a military point
of view than that of Locus Castarum, although, a* things turned
out, it decided the war. A report was spread that th<j Vitellians
had abandoned their cause, and the Oihonians grounded their arms
and hailed them as friends. But they were so'>n undeceived.
The fighting took place on the highroad and in the groves and
vineyards on either side. The contending parties were equally
matched, and on Otho's side ?he Icgio classica, displayed conspicti- us
bravery. But there was no general action. The battle con-isted
of a series of desultory con flic's. The result was undecided until
Oiho's generals fled, and at the same moment, reinforcements arrived
for tne Vitellians in the shape of the Batavian cohorts which had

t>9 A.IX FATE OF OTHO. 337

recently routed the gladiators. Their flank attack was decisive.
The defeated army fled along the high-road to their camp and next
morning capitulated.

§ 10. Otho awaited the result at Brixellum, guarded by some
divisions of the j>ra3torians. The defeat at Cremona was not in
""self necessarily decisive of the vrar. He had still every chance of
Gtrieving his furtums, with the help of the approaching legions
from Illyricum. But he was weary of the uncertainty, and when
the news of defeat carne, he made up his mind to Hie. He did
not think of his obligations to the troops which fought for him;
perhaps he felt unable to trust his generals. In the evening
he called for two daggers, of which he chose the sharper, and
placed it beneath his pillow. Having slept for some hours, he
drew forth the weapon at da v break, and fell upon it. His dying
groan was heard, ami when his slaves rushed in, they found their
master dead (April 17). If in the effeminacy of his life be was
supposed to resemble Nero, the resolution which he displayed iu his
death contrasted with Nero's ignoble end.* His body was imme-
diately placed on a pyre, and some of the praetorians slew themselves
on the spot. The ashes were buried under a humble monument.

The praetorians at Brixellum then offered the Empire to Ve ginius
Rufus, who was in attendance on Otho, and he declined their offer,
as he had before refused that of the legions of Germany. No
course remained but submission to Vitellius. The victorious armies
plundered and d-soliied the Italian ciiies, uhich had already
been exhausted by the soldiers of Otho, and Valens and Cascma
did not attempt to hinder the rapine. In Rome the news of Otho's
death was received with joy. The senate met and decreed to
Vitellus all the imperial titles by a single act (April 19). Just
as Oiho had been regarded as the successor of Nero, Vitellius was
considered the succes>or of Galba. The ima.es of Galba were
burne, crowned with flowers, to the spot in the Forum where he
had fallen. Everything was done to conciliate the Germanic
legions, to whose approach Rome looked forward with dread.

SECT. III. — VITELLIUS AND VESPASIAN.

§ 11. Vitellius himself meanwhile had been movirg, with
characteristic torpor, through Gaul. He had with him about

* The death of Otho made an impres-
sion on ibe Romans. It is celebrated in
an epiuram of the poet Martial (vi. ;s'2) :
Cum dubitaret adhuc l-elli civiiis l-nyo

Forsitan et posset vincere niollis Otho»
Damnavit multo etaturum sanguine fuit •

15

Martem

Et fodit certa pectora tota manu.
Sit Cato, dum vivit, sane vel Csesare

nuiior;
Dum moritur, numquid maior Oth<

338^ THE PRINC1PATE OF VITELLIUS. CHAP.

60,000 men, including the strength of the Germanic armies and
some divisions which had been sent from Britain. The tidings of
victory reached him at the same time as the announcement that
the Mauretanian provinces had declared for him. Lucceius
Albinus had been appointed procurator of Csesariensis by Nero,
and the Tingitane province had been added to his sway by Galba.
On Gaiba's death he embraced the cause of Otho, and threatened
Spain. But Cluvius Rufus, the legatus of Tarraconensis, on whom
it devolved to provide for the military protection of Bsetica,
succeeded in slaying Albinus and his chief supporters. It was
said that Albinus had some thought of reviving for himself the
royal title which had expired with King Juba.

The Imperator descended the river Arar in a barge, and at
Lugudunum was met by his victorious generals, Valens and
Csecina. Here he conferred his own title of Germanicus upon
his Infant son. The vengeance of Viteliius chiefly fell upon
subordinate officers, especially those of the Illyrian legions, which
were sent back to their stations. His rival's brother Titianus,
Suetonius, Proculus, and Marius Celsus, were all spared. Viteliius,
perhaps, did not forget that his own wife and children had been
spared by Otho. The XlVth legion, which had been removed
from Britain by Nero, was now sent back there. The legio classica
was dispatched to Spain. The praetorian guard was disbanded, and
a new guard formed from the Germanic soldiers, who demanded
this promotion in return for their services. Thus the principle,
that the praetorians should consist only of Italian levies, was
transgressed. The new guard consisted of 16 cohorts of 1000 men
each, instead of 9 as before. The four urban cohorts were also
organised anew. Rome was overrun by soldiers. Besides the
new guards, there were 4 legions,* 4 divisions of other legions,f
34 cohorts of auxilia, and 12 squadrons of cavalry, all of
which had entered Rome with the victor and treated it as a
captured city.

§ 12. The administration of Viteliius was better than might
have been expected from the licence of his subordinates. He filled
the offices of his household with knights, not with freedmen. He
respected the independence of the senate and attended its
meetings. When he was opposed in the cnria, he observed, that
it was not strange that two senators should differ ; that he himself
had sometimes dissented from Thrasea. He forbade processes for
maiestasy and confirmed the privileges which had been granted
by his predecessors. He also made laws against the practice of

* I. Italica, V. Alauda, XXI. Rapax, i f I. Germanica, IV. Macedonia, XV
*XU. Primigenia. 1 Priraigenia, XVI. Gallica.

A.D

HIS ADMINISTRATION.

339

Roman knights degrading themselves by fighting in the arena, and
banished astrologers from Italy. Whereas Galba and Otho had
adopted the cognomen Caesar as part of their imperial style, Vitellius
refused to affiliate himself thus to the Julian dynasty.* He had post-
poned the assumption of the title Augustus, but it was pressed on
him when he arrived in Some. On the other hand he permitted a
perpetual consulship to be decreed to him. In regard to his
attitude to the senate, it is important to remark that he dated
his accession (dies imperii), not from the day on which the army
had saluted him Imperator, but from the decree of the senate,
after Otho's death.f But the real power lay with Valens and
Csecina. They encouraged the Emperor in the coarse sensuality
to which he was naturally addicted, while they enriched themselves
and made all the state appointments.

The cost of increasing the number of the praetorians, and the
extravagant expenditure of the gluttonous Princeps on the pleasures
of the table, led soon to a deficit, to meet which the coinage was
depreciated.

§ 13. While western Europe was rent with civil wars, and
Emperors rose and fell in rapid succession, the legions of the
east looked on with surprise and indifference. Galba and Otho
were acknowledged in Syria and Judea ; even Vitellius was
accepted for a moment. But when it was fully grasped that
Vitellius had been elevated by the Germanic army, a dormant
spirit of jealousy began to awake in the legions of the east,
just as the Germanic legions themselves had been excited at the
elevation of Galba in Spain. If a Princeps could be made out of
Italy, why should he not be made in the east as well as in the
north ? If the army of the Rhine created an Emperor, if the
army of the Danube supported another, why should not the army
of the Euphrates have their candidate too? This feeling spread
among both officers and men, and the east determined to assert
itself in the " comitia of the Empire." The only question was,
who should be the candidate? The most natural person to
select was C. Licinius Mucianus, the legatus of Syria, a man of
noble birth, an experienced and able diplomatist, popular with
the soldiers. But he refused, perhaps because he had no children
•and thought it vain to attempt to found a permanent monarchy,
except as a dynasty. Then all eyes turned to Titus Flavins
Vespasianus, the legatus of Judea. He was not a man of high
descent like Mucianus. He was born of obscure family at

* Vitellius Germanicus Imperator Au-
gustus.

•*- It is stated by a late authority that

Vitellins conferred the title of Imperator
—that is, the proconsular power— on his
son, who was six years old ,

340 THE PBINOIPATB OP VTTBLLITJ8. CHAP. six

Phalacrine, ne.ir Rrate, the tow a of Varro. We have already met
him doing good service in the conquest of Britain as the commander
of a legion. He had afterwards held the consulship (51 A.D.), but
the fall of Narcissus, his patron, interrupted his career, and it
was not till after the death of Aiirippina, that he again took part
in public life as the proconsul of Africa (63 A.D.), which he
administered with integrity. He followed in Nero's train to
Greece, and was appoin'ed by that monarch governor of Judea
(66 A.D.) to suppress a formidable rebellion which had broken out
there. He was slowly and surely carrying this task to a successful
issue, vhen the news of Nero's death came; upon which he with-
drew his troops from the field of action, and ceased hostilities. This
act does not imply any ulterior mo'ives on the part of Vespasian.
His office was delegated to him by Nero, and his authori y expired
with the death of the Imperator wno delegated it : so that he had
no legal position to act until his powers were delegated to him
anew by another Imperator.

§ 14. On July 1st, Vespasian was proclaimed Imperator at
Alexandria by Ti. Julius Alexander, the Augustal prefect of
Egypt, and from this day Vespasian dated the beginning of his
reign. A few days later the Judean legions followed with en-
thusiasm at Ca3sarea; and Muoianus, who zealously assumed the r61e
of a " kingmaker," secured the adhesion of both soldiers and citizens
at Antioch. A probably forged letter of Otho was produced,
calling upon the East to avense his death ; and Mucianus inflamed
the soldiers by stating that Vitellius intended to recall them from
their luxurious quarters in Syria, and replace them by the lesions
of Gaul and Germany. The choice of the armies was supported by
the vassal kings, Sohgemus of Sophene, Antiochus of Comniagene,
and Agrippa II., lord of Batanea, Trachonitis, and other districts
Negotiations were made with the king of Parthia to ensure the
safety of the eastern provinces during the absence of the legi< ns
in the west ; and he even offered to place at Vespasian's disposal a
force of mounted cavalry, but this offer was refused. A council of
war was held at the colony of Berytns, where Mucianus and
Vespasian concerted measures for the campaign against Vitellius.
It was decided that Mucianus should lead the expedition to the
west ; and that Vespasian himself should occupy Egypt, whose
possession w\s very important in a war against Italy, as Rome
depended for her corn-supply chiefly on Egypt. Titus, the son
of Vespasian, took his father's plac* in Judea.

§ 15. Mucianus marched westward through Cappadocia and
Phryuia. Tho number of his troops was not large ; only about
20,000 or 25,000 men. But he relied upon the accession of the

6y A.D. PLANS Otf VESPASIAN. 341

armies of the Illyric provinces, which burned to avenge tlie death
of Oiho. The unanimity of the eastern and Illyric armies was
expressed on coins, issued at this period, with the words C'>nsensus
Exercituum. In Moesia three legions were stationed, III. Gallica,
VIII. Augusta, and VII. Claudiana. Of these III. had been
originally in Syria, and was transferred to Moesia by Nero.
Mucianus relied on its adhesion, and it did not fail him ; the oth« r
two followed its example. The two legions in Pannonia, XIII.
Gemina, anl VII. Galbiana, eagerly embraced the cause oi
Vesrasian. They were smarting under the defeat which their
contingents had experienced at Betnacum, and the treatment
which they received from Vitellius. The Xlllth had been employed
by Csecina and Valens in the construction of amphitheatres at
Bononia and Cremona, and had then been sent back to their
winter-station at Pcetovio. Antonins Primus, a native of Tolosa,
and legatus of the Spanish legion of Galba, threw himself ardently
into the cause. The legion in Dalmatia (XL Claudiana) followed
the example of the others, but with less zeaL Emissaries of
Vespasian won the adhesion of the XlVth legion, which was
returning to Britain.

The march of Mucianus was slow, like that of Valens through
Gaul, fie collected money as he went, on the principle that
"money is the sinews of civil war."* He was fully aware of the
difficulty of the enterprise ; he had a hi«h idea of the valour of the
Germanic legions ; and his wish was, if possible, to avoid bhx di-hed
and reduce Italy by a blockade. The stoppage of corn-supj lits
from Egypt might, it was expected, produce a revolution in Home.
But the Illyric legions, under the influence of Antonius Pumas,
took mattprs into their own hands, and did not wait for the arrival
of the eastern forces. At a council of war held at Poetovio, Primus
urged the expediency of surprising Italy while it was still unpre-
pared, and his counsels were adopted, in spite of the letters from
Mucianus and the opposition of the governor of Pannonia, Tampius
Fhvianus. The latter was suspected by the soldieis of sympathy
with Vitellius, and had little influence. A message v\as sent to
Aponius Saturniuus, governor of Moesia, to hurry on with his
army ; the Jazyges, who dwelled between the Da-mbe and the
Theiss, were engaged to undertake the defence of the Dai.ube
during the absence of the lesions, and two Suevian kings, ^ido and
ItMlicns, joined the expedition against Italy. The procurator of
Raetia was faithful to Vitellius, and in order to prevent him from
interven ng, troops were sent to the river (Enus (Inn), which
divided Rsetia liom Noricum.

Belli civfflB nervos (Tacitus, Hist,, ii. 84).

342 THE PRIiNClPATE OF VITELLIUS. CHAIY xix.

§ 16. Primus advanced, in front of the main body, with some
detachments of horse and foot He occupied Aquileia and the
passes of the Julian Alps, but instead of waiting on the confines of
Italy, as Mucianus desired, he proceeded to Opitergium (Oderzo),
and Altinum, in which places he was gladly welcomed. Pataviurn
declared for his cause, and likewise Ateste (Este), where he heard
that some Vitellian troops were stationed at Forum Alieni (which
is perhaps the modern Legnago on the Adige). He surprised them,
and thus the beginning- of the war declared in favour of the
" Flavians," as the party of Flavius Vespasiauus was called. On
the news ot this small success, the two Pannonic legions marched
rapidly to I'atavium, and it was decided to make Verona the basis
of further operations. Vicetia (Vicenza) was taken on the march
to Verona, which city they prepared to besiege. The lllrd and
VHIth legions soon arrived from Moesia. Outside Verona the
governor of Pannonia, Flavianus, and the governor of Moesia,
Aponius, were set upon by the soldiers, who suspected them of
treachery to the cause, and escaped with difficulty. Their flight
left the conduct of the campaign entirely in the hands of Primus.

Meanwhile, Vitellius was ill-prepared to oppose the forces which
had approached to wrest the Empire from his hands. The breaking
up of the old legions for the sake of the reorganisation of the
praetorians had been, under the circumstances, a fatal mistake.
They were weakened not only by the decrease of numbers, but by
the relaxation of discipline in their Italian quarters, and there was
no bond between the veterans and the new recruits, who were
raised to fill up the maniples. Vitellius formed a new legion
from the marines of the fleet of Misenum. He expected reinforce-
ments from the provinces, but the governors of Germany, Britain,
and Spain made excuses for delay. Africa alone, where Vitellius
had formerly won popularity as proconsul, showed some alacrity.
When the news of the approach of the enemy came, Caecina
was sent on to defend the north of Italy ; Valens was detained
at Rome by illness. The army which Cascina led against the
Illyric legions wore a very different appearance from that which
it presented when it descended from the Alps to play the part
which the Illyric legions were now about to play against it. The
Germanic troops had lost their vigour and their enthusiasm.
They were enervated by the climate; their arms were in bad
order, their horses lazy. The vigour of Caecina himself had suffered
from the pleasures of success, and perhaps he meditated treachery
before he left the city, under the influence of Flavius Sabinus,
the prefect of the city, Vespasian's elder brother.

§ 17. The plan of CaBcina was to make the river Athesis the line

69 A.D. TRKACHEBY OF C/EC1NA. 343

of defence. Cavalry were sent in advance to occupy Cremona,
which played an important part in this as in the former war. V.
Alauda, and XXII. Primigenia, with the divisions of four other
legions * followed ; last of all, XXI. Rapax, and I. Italica, with
the divisions of the Britannic legions, which had been sent to
support Vitellius against Otho, marched to the north. The two last-
named legions were sent to Cremona, the other forces to Hostilia,
a village still existing as Osdglia, on the lower course of the Padus.
Caecina himself turned aside to Ravenna, in order to concert with
Lucilius Bassus, the commander of the fleet, a treacherous desertion
of Vitellius. Bassus was discontented because he had not been
appointed praetorian prefect. It was soon known that the fleet had
gone over to the enemy ; this was the first blow to the cause of
Vitellius. Caacina's army had encamped between Hostilia and the
marshes of the river Tartarus, which flows into the Adriatic between
the Padus and the Athesis. It was a good position ; the camp was
covered by the river on the rear and flanked by the marsh. If
Caecina had been in earnest, he should have been able to crush the
two Pannonic legions before the Mcesian troops arrived. But he
delayed action on various pretexts ; allowed the five Flavian legions
to assemble at Verona; and finally tried to persuade his soldiers to
desert to Vespasian. But his attempts were vain. The troops
restored the images of Vitellius, which he and a lew officers,
whom he beguiled, had thrown down ; and bound Caecina himself.
They elected as their leaders, Fabius Fabullus, legatus of the
Vth legion, andCassius Lon^us, prefect of the camp. Then they
moved back to Hostilia, and proceeded to join the other legions at
Cremona.

When Primus learned what had happened, he determined that
it was the favourable moment for action. The plans of the
Vitellians had been thrown out by the desertion of Caecina ; they
had no leader of authority until Fabius Valens should arrive from
Rome. Primus hastened to anticipate his arrival, and ltd his army
in two days from Verona to Betriucum, in order to intercept the
legions coming from Hostilia. Encamping at Betriacum, he
advanced himself with some cavalry and cohorts of auxiliary foot
towards Cremona, and falling in with some Vitellian troops,
defeated them. The two legions stationed at Cremona — Italica and
Rapax — then came up, and were beaten back by the Flavian
legionaries who had been summoned from Betriacum. In this
conflict Primus left nothing undone that devolved upon a good
general and a brave soldier. As the evening was falling, the whole
body of the Flavian army came up, and the soldiers were eager to

* See above, note f, p 338.

344 THE PRINCIPATE OF VITELLIUS. CHAP. xix.

hurry on to Cremona and take it by assault. The efforts of
Primus himself, who tried to expose the folly of such an attempt,
would hardly have been sufficient to restrain them; but the news
arrived that the six legions of Hosiilia had reached Cremona.
They had crossed to the right bank ot the Padus, and marched to
Cremona by Parma; and although they had accomplished thirty
mil« s that day, they were so excited by the news ot the def-at that
they hastened to attack the Flavians the same night. Thus, in the
same place where the struggle had been decided between Otho
and Vitellius, was also to be decided the struggle between Vitellius
and Vespasian. Primus made his dispositions for the battle as
follows. He placed the XLIIth legion in the centre, on the Via
Postumia. Next it, on the leit, in the open plain, was stationed
VII. Galbiana, and beyond it VII. CUudiana; on the other
side were placed, in corresponding positions, VIII. and III., of
which the latter was protected by dense underwood. The
praetorians, whom Vitellius h»d disbanded, had joined Vespasian,
and they stood near the Illrd. The flanks and rear were fringed
with cavalry. Tne Suevian auxiliaries were in front. About
nine o'clock in the evening the Vitellian legions approached
and drew up in disorder. Weary though they were with the long
march, with hunger and cold, they pressed the Flavians hard, and
the fierce and doubtful battle lasted the whole nijiht through
The Vllth Gall>iana was especially hard pressed, but it was
sustained by Primus, who sent the prsetorians to assist it. The
ballistse and engines of the Vitellians, which they plante I on the
causeway, wrought g'eat mischief among 'he Flavi m ranks, till
two brave soldiers lost their lives in cutting the cords which im-
pelled the missiles. Fortune began to declare -or the Flavians,
when the moon rose in their rear at an advanc- d hour of the night,
and rendered the aim of the enemy more difficult-. Primus rallied
his flagging troops. The Illrd, which had been origin illy s'ationed
in Syria, saluted the rising sun, and from this incident a report
was spread that Mtici mus had arrived with the eastern army.
The Flavians, hi lievins; themselves reinforce (, fought with con-
fidence, and their foes, completely routed, fled to Cremona.

§ 18. Primus led on his victorious troops, excited with the
prospect of plunder, a ainst Cremona. In the war with Otho, the
German sol iers had made their camp round the walls of the city,
and surrounded the camp with a rampart. The Flavians stormed
the camp with much labour, and then the town capitulated. But
the soldiers, who hat d the place, which had bet n twice the I'ead-
quartera of the Vitellians, and burned with the d- sire of plundering
the wealihy colony, did not respect the capitulation. Primus had

69 A.D. BATTLE OF BETBIACUM. 345

retired to refresh himself with a bath, and when he complained
that the water was not warm enough, the attendant said, " It will
soon be hotter." The word was seized by some who heard it, and
interpreted as a permission to burn the city. Forty thousand
armed men, with crowds of camp-followers, burst into the place ;
and the inhabitants experienced all the horrors of military licence.
The "miserable Cremona" burned for four days, and no edifice
was left in it, except the temple of Mefitis, the deity of the
marshes.

If Valens had hurried northward, he might have reached
Cremona in time to change the course of history. But his
movements were slow. He sent three praetorian cohorts which had
followed him to Ariminum, went himself to Eiruria, and having
heard of the result of the battle of Cremona, took ship for Gaul,
intending to rouse the northern provinces to retrieve the cause of
Vitellius. But Valerius Paulinus, the procurator of Narboneusis,
who had embraced his friend Vespasian's cause, succeeded in
capturing Valens. Then the legions of the western provinces,
Spain, Gaul, and Britain, declared for Vespasian. Meanwhile
Umbria was occupied by the Flavians, and the cohorts at
Ariminurn were blockaded by land and sea. Italy was divided by
the Apennines between Vespasian and Vitellius. The contest was
not yet over, for the praetorian guards, the pick of the Germanic
army, had taken no part hitherto in the war, and were still to
be dealt with ; and Vitellius had still a strong natural oefence in
the Apennines. Primus, leaving most of his army at Verona, led
a force consisting of auxiliary cohorts and chosen legionaries, alon^
with the Xlth legion from Dalmatia, to Fanuni Fortunes. At
this place, the present Fano, which lies between Ancona and
Ariminum, the Flaminian road reaches the Adriatic Sea. Here
Primus waited, expecting that the troops of Vitellius would desert
the Emperor.

§ 19. In the meantime Vitellius had been burying his cares in
sensual gratifications. At first he could hardly believe ihe tilings
from Cremona, but when he was at length wakened out of his
sleep, he sent fourteen cohorts to defend the Apennine passes at
Mevania (Bevagna), near Fulginium, on the Flarmnian road.
To these forces was added a new marine legion, which he lormed
from the fleet of Misenum. The remaining cohorts were kept to
defend the city, under the command of his brother, Lucius Vitellius.
The Emperor himself visited the camp at Mevania, but on the
news that the Misenurn fleet had declared for the enemy, he
returned to Rome. The next blow was the defection of Campania.
The Samnites, Marsians, and Pelignians followed. Vitellius
16*

346 THE PR1NC1PATE OF VITELLIUS. CHAP, xix

divided his forces ; some were stationed at Narnia, to oppose the
advance of the Flavians, others were sent to check the movement
in Campania. Primus crossed the Apennines with great difficulty,
owing to the heavy snow, and stationed himself at Carsulae, north
of Narnia, where he was presently joined by his legions. The
Vitellian cohorts had little spirit to fight ; but when the head of
Fabius Valens, whom they believed to be in Germany collecting a
new army, was exhibited to them, they no longer hesitated, and sub-
mitted to the victor, who treated them with clemency (December ).
Primus then offered terms to Vitellius ; if he submitted, he and
his children should have a safe retreat in Campania. Mucianus
wrote to the same effect, and Vitellius readily agreed to the
proposal. " Such a torpor had seized upon his spirit that he would
himself have forgotten that he was Princeps, if the rest had not
remembered it." The transference. of the Empire took place in the
temple of Apollo. Vitellius came forth from the palace, clad in
black, with his family around him, and proceeding to the Forum,
offered his dagger to the consul Caecilius, who refused to accept it.
He then turned towards the temple of Concord, to deposit there the
insignia of Empire, but a number of the prastorian soldiers prevented
him, and compelled him to return to the palace (December 17th).
These adherents would not permit him to carry out the agreement.
Senators and knights, the urban soldiery, and the cohorts of the
watch (yigilcs) had gathered to the house of Vespasian's brother,
Flavius Sabinus, who had acted as a mediator. They urged
Sabinus to occupy the palace in his brother's interest. But as they
conveyed him thither (December 18th), they were attacked by the
Vitellians at a place called the Pool of Fundanius. Sabinus and a
few others fled to the Capitoline hill, and shut themselves up in
the temple of Jupiter. The Vitellians guarded the approaches,
but during a violent storm of rain Sabinus communicated with his
friends and received into the place of refuge both his own children,
and his nephew Domitian, the son of Vespasian. The next
morning the Vitellians assaulted the Capitol.* From the Forum
they rushed up the Clivus, but the Flavians, issuing on the roof of
the portico, which reached from the temple of Saturn to the
Capitol, hurled down stones and tiles. The assailants then set fire
to the portico, and would have passed through the burnt door into
the court of the temple if Sabinus had not torn down the statues
and monuments which filled the place, and thus constructed a
barrier. Foiled here, the Vitellians attempted other ways of
ascent. One of these rose from the shoulder of the hill, another
was close to the Tarpeian rock, and known as the Hundred

* For the topography of the Oapitoline, cf. above, Chap. X. $ 5.

69 AI>. BURNING OF THE CAPITOL. 347

Stairs. By the former especially they forced their way along the
tops of houses and with the help of fire. At length the conflagration
broke out on the summit of the hill, and the temple of Jupiter was
consumed. Domitian escaped and hid himself in a porter's hut,
hut Sabinus was seized and carried to the palace, where, in spite of
the attempts of Viteliius to save him, he was slain, and his trunk
dragged to the Gemonian Stairs outside the Career (December
lt)th). Immediately after this, Cerealis, who had been sent on by
Primus, arrived with one thousand horsemen, and tried to force his
way into Rome. But the Vitellians were prepared, and drove him
back.

Primus was himself close at hand, and had reached Saxa llubra,
when he learned the destruction of the Capitol, and the repulse of
Cerealis. The slaughter of Sabinus rendered further negotiations
impossible, and a deputation of the Vestals, beseeching for a
conference, was rejected. The Flavians attacked Rome in three
divisions ; one party approached the Colline gate, another marched
through fields along the bank of the Tiber ; and a third band,
between these, advanced along the Flaminian Way. The Vitellians,
who had armed the rabble and the slaves, went forth to meet them,
but were driven back with slaughter. Conquerors and conquered
entered the city together, and the battle was renewed in the streets.
Then the praetorian camp was stormed. It is said that 50,000 men
were slain in this capture of Rome. Viteliius tried to make his
escape to join his brother Lucius, who held Tarracina, but he was
discovered, dragged from his hiding-place, and amid the mockery
of the soldiers was haled to the Gemonian stairs, and slain with
insults (December 20th or 21st). His last words were perhaps the
only he had ever uttered worth recording : " Yet I was your
Imperator." Thus perished the first Emperor who had been set up
by the Germanic legions. His brother Lucius Viteliius, who had
occupied Tarracina, soon afterwards surrendered, and was put to
death.

§ 20. For a second time in the same year, Rome was occupied
by a victorious army, and citizens were exposed to the licence of
soldiers greedy for plunder, whom their leader Primus did not keep
in check. Domitian, the second son of Vespasian, was installed in
the palace, and received the name of Cassar, but the power was in
the hands of Primus, a soldier whom Vespasian had no intention of
p'acirig in such a position. But he did not enjoy the pleasures of
power long. Mucianus presently arrived, and his entry into the
city was felt as a relief. He acted as a semi-official representa-
tive of Vespasian, until Vespasian came himself. He sternly
suppressed the licence of the soldiers, dismissed the Illyric legions

348 THE PKINCIPATE OF VITELLIUS. CHAP. xi*.

from Rome, and taught Primus his place. He put to death
Galerianus, the son of Piso, whom Galba had made his colleague,
and Asiaiicus, a freedman of Vitellius.

The senate hastened to make the victorious Imperator a
legitimate Emperor by the usual decrees, conferring on him the
proconsular power, the title Augustus, and other prerogatives.
The tribunician power, however, does not seem to have been
conferred upon him until a considerably later time. The Emperor
and his elder son Titus were designated consuls for the year 70.
The preetorship and consular power were decreed to Domitian. The
triumphal ornaments were voted to Mucianus for his defence of
Mceaia against a Dacian invasion, which had taken place as h^
passed through that province; Antonius Primus and Arrius Varus,
who was made praetorian prefect, received the lesser distinctions of
the consular and praetorian insignia respectively.

§ 21. Thus the remarkable Year of the Four Emperors came to
an end. The events between the death of Nero and the victory ol
Vespa-ian throw instructive light on the conditions of the Empire.
The following points deserve notice. (1) The most striking motive
which determined the course of the civil wars was the exclusive and
jealous espru de corps which was growing np among the different
armies. The Germanic army was hostile to Galba, because he was
proclaimed by the Spanish legion, and the eastern and Illyric armies
were iealous of the Germanic troops, because they proclaimed
Vitellius. (2) Galba, however, cannot be considered so strictly a
candidate set up by the soldiers as Vitellius and Vespasian. He
posed as a senatorial candidate, and was not forced upon the senate
in the same way as the Emperors who came from Germany and
Syria. (3) Each successive Emperor professed to represent the
cause of him whom his rival had overthrown. Vespasian came to
avenge Otho, and Otho came to avenge Nero, and Vitellius, though
when first proclaimed he was the rival of Galba, afterwards posed
as his successor. (4) Although the legions arrogated the right of
creating Emperors, they recognised that their candidates were only
pretenders until they possessed Rome, and were acknowledged by
the senate. (5) The dilemma in which the Empire was placed in
regard to the question of dynastifj succession is clearly shown.
While the hereditary principle was followed, weak or bad rulers,
like Gains and Nero, were an inevitable result. On the other hand
when there was no candidate with an hereditary claim to the
Principate, the state was exposed to the dangers of civil war, such
as followed on the death of Nero. (6) Dynastic succession, how-
ever, was considered the least evil. The fact that he had no
children, deterred Mucianus from accepting the empire, and perhaps

69 A.D.

YEAR OF THE FOUR EMPERORS.

349

the same motive influenced Verginius. Both Otho and Vitellius
destined their children as their successors, and Vespasian founded
a new dynast}7. Galba, who had no children, resorted to the
principle of adoption, following the example of Augustus. (7)
Each of the Emperors, with the exception of Vi telling, afaclied
himself in a certain manner to the house of the Julii and Claudii
by adopting the name Caesar ; ami even Vitellius assumed it in
his last crisis.

Vitellius.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE FIRST BATTLE OF
BETRIACUM.

There is great difficulty in under-
standing the intention of the Othonians
in making that advance in tlie direction
of Cremona which led to their defeat in
what is called the first Battle of Betria-
cum. If we were told that they had
marched to Cremona in order to bring
matters to an immediate issue with the
Vitellians who were encamped there, the

matter would be simple. But Tacitus
(Histories, ii 40) says that their intention
in setting out was noi to fig»-t a battle,
and that their goal was n«t Cremona but
a point to the west of Cremona, namely,
the confluence of the Adda with the
I'adus, near which the Vitellians had
been building tiieir bridge. Tnat the
Othonian lead TS would have attempted
to reach t is point bv marching past
Cremona, anJ so exposing themselves to
a flank attack of a terribly dangerous

350

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

CHAP. xix.

kind is not impossible, but seems im-
probable. Mommsen regards it as in-
credible, and thinks that Tacitus mis-
understood the situation. Tacitus has
certainly gone wrong in his distances.
The Othonian camp was four miles west
of Betriacum, and therefore sixteen miles
from Cremona. The confluence of the Po
and Adda is more than two hours' march
west of Cremona. But Tacitus gives
sixteen miles as the distance between the
confluence and the camp. Varioug ex-
planations have been suggested, (l)
While the ultimate object of the march
may have been the mouth of the Adda,
the goal of the first day's march may
have been a point four miles west of
Cremona. For Celsus and Paulinus ap-
prehended that the Vitellians would
issue from their camp, fresh and unen-
cumbered, and attack them there (vix
quattuor millia passuum progressus).
From this point they may have intended
to turn northward and reach some point

on the road from Cremona to Brixia
(Brescia), and so cut the communication
between the Vitellians and the North.
Thence, on the arrival of the legions from
lllyricum, they might have prepared to
advance to the mouth of the Adda, and
enclose the enemy on all sides in Cre-
mona. (So Heraeus.) (2) It has been
suggested that the words profecti con-
fluentes Padi et Aduse fluminum should
be simply profecti confluentes fluminum,
the names having been inserted by a
copyist ; and that Tacitus really referred
to the union of the Caneta, a small stream,
with the Po, at a point east of Cremona.
(Nipperdey.)

One thing at least seems clearly implied
in the narrative of Tacitus. Whatever
was the ultimate purpose of the Othonian
leaders, they intended, on the day of the
battle, either to pitch their camp, or to
turn off from the Postumian Way, at a
point about four miles from Cremona.

Arch of Titus.

CHAPTER XX.

REBELLIONS IN GERMANY AND JUDEA.

§ 1. The Batavian auxiliaries fight for Vitellius, and return to Gaul.
* 2. REVOLT of CIVILIS, instigated by Primus. § 3. State of the two
Germanic provinces. First successes of Civilis. Revolt of the Bata-
vian cohorts at Moguntiacum. They join Civilis. § 4. Civilis
besieges Vetera. The Roman forces at Gelduha. § 5. News of defeat
of Vitellius. Relief of Vetera, and Roman victory. § 6. Mutiny of
legions, and murder of Hordeonius Flaccus at Novaesium. § 7. The
Imperium (jalliarum. Defection of the legions. § 8. Fall of Vetera.
The prophetess Veleda. Colouia Agrippinensis spared. § 9. Insta-
bility of the Gallic empire. § 10. Victory of Sextilius Felix at Bingium.
§ 11. Cerealis arrives and occupies Augusta Treverorum. ' Civilis
attacks Roman camp, and is defeated. § 12. Battle of Vetera. § 13.
Civilis retreats to the Island. End of the war. § 14. General
character of the episode of Civilis. § 15. Changes in the army in
consequence of the rebellion. § 16. The REBELLION IN JUDEA brewing.
§ 17. It breaks out (66 A.D.). Disturbances in Csesarea and Jeru-
salem. The Zealots. Cestius Gallus replaced. § 18. Vespasian
conducts the war. Josephus. § 19. Siege and capture of Jerusalem
by Titus. § 20. Consequences of the war.

352 REBELLIONS JN GERMANY AND JUDEA. CHAP. xx.

SECT. I. — FIRST STAGE OF THE REVOLT OF CIVILIS.

§ 1. WHILE the legions were contending for the right of electing a
Princeps, and Italy was devastated with civil war, the Empire vras
threatened in two opposite quarters, in the south-east and in the
north-west, with serious danger from rebellious provincials; and
to meet these dangers was the first task that devolved upon
Vespasian. We shall see presently how the insurrection in Judea
was suppressed ; there he had merely to finish a work which was
already hair' accomplished. We must first follow the curious and
terrible rebellion, which, breaking out among auxiliary troops
of the Germanic army, extended to the free Germans beyond
the Rhine, and led to the foundation of a transitory "Gallic
empire."

In the province of Tower Germany the Batavians, who occupied
the delta of the Rhine — the district enclosed between the Vahalis
(Waal) and the Rhine proper — held a peculiar position. Their
fidelity to the Empire had been conspicuous ; they had taken no
part in that movement of their countrymen which led to the defeat
of Varus. They paid no tribute, but on the other hand, they were
required to supply a very large contingent of recruits to the army.
They did not grumble at the bu-den of this conscription. They
were brave and daring soldiers, skilful in riding and swimming.
Eight Batavian cohorts, associated with the XlVth legion in Upper
Germany, ha«l been sent with thar legion to take part in the
conquest of Britain, where they had distinguished themselves
conspicuously by their valour. Both the legion and its auxiliaries
were recalled by Nero to aid in the eastern expedition which he
planned at the end of his reign ; but the revolt of Vindex, \\hirh
had just then broken out in Gaul, led to a discord between the
legionaries and the cohorts. Whi e the legions hastened to Italy
to defend their master, the 8000 Batavians refused to follow. This
was probably due to the fact that two Batavian offirers, Julius
Civilis and Claudius Panllus, bad been accused falsely of treason,
and while Paullus was put to death by Fonteins Capito, governor of
Lower Germany, Civil's hnd been sent to Nero, and thrown into
prison. After Nero's fall Galba released Civilis, and ordered the
Batavian cohorts to return to Britain. But when they had reached
the city of the Lingones, the insurrection of the Germanic army in
favour of ViMlius took place, and after long hesitation the
Batavians embraced his cause. They did him sood service in the
battle of Betriacum, where they measured swords with their former
comrades of the XlVth, which was fighting for Otho. After

69 A.D. JULIUS CIVILIS. 353

the victory the Batavians were commanded to accompany the
XlVth to Britain, but the legion and the cohorts came to blows
at Augusta Taurinorum (Turin), and separated, the legionaries
proceeding to Britain, and the Batavians to Moguntiarum. The
latter were soon summoned back by Vitellius, when he was
threatened by Vespasian. But Antonius Primus sent a messenger
to hinder their complying with this summons, and immediately
afterwards a revolt broke out in Germany, which prevented the
troops in the north from taking part in the conflict in Italy.

§ 2. The organiser of this revolt was Julius Chilis. He was
looked up to by his Baiavian countrymen on account of his high
descent, and he was "a man of more brains," says Tacitus, "than
barbarians are usually endowed with." He had only one eye, and
he liked to compare himself to Hann'bal and Sertorius, who were
disfigured in a like way. The idea of the revolt is said to have
been suggested by Primus, who thought in that way to keep the
Germanic legions at a distance. The plan served his immediate
purpose, but the revolt assumed far larger proportions than he
could have anticipated. The un'airness of the Roman levi»s was
a sufficient grievance. If Civilis began by playing for Vespasian,
he ended by playing for himself. It is impossible to say whether
he had matured the deeper game of a rebellion against Rome from
the very beginning. He first roused the inhabitants of his native
country to rebel. Calling the chiefs of the Batavians to a nocturnal
banquet in a sacred grove, he revealed his scheme of revolt. The
Cannitiefates, the northern neighbours of the Batavians, were next
gained over, arid then the Frisians ; and messengers w« re sent to
Moguntiacum, to secure the adhesion of the eight Batavian cohorts.
Somewhere near the mouth of the Rhine was a winter camp of
two Roman cohorts; it was seized and destroyed. This waa the
first act of the revolt. The other garrisons in the territory were soon
dislodged from their castdla, and a cohort of Tungrian auxiliaries
went over to the rebels; and part of the Hhine fleet, numbering
twenty-four ships, fell into their hands. These successes supplied
the insurgents with arms and ships, and Civilis invoked both
Germany and Gaul to join him in supporting the cause of
Vespasian.

§ 3. At this time both Lower and Upper Germany were
under the single command of Hordeonius Flaccus, an old and
utterly incompetent man, decrepit with gout, who was inclined
secretly to Vespasian's cause, and was suspected by his soldiers of
treachery to Vitellius. The remnant of the legions which had
accompanied Vitellius and his generals to Italy may have been
partly supplemented by new recruits, but in uo case can they have

354 REBELLIONS IN GERMANY AND JUDEA. CHAP. xx.

consisted of more than about half the usual number. In Lower
Germany the Vth and XVth were stationed at Castra Vetera
under the legatus Mimius Lupercus; the XVIth under Numisius
Rufus at Novsesiuni (Neuss), between Vetera and Colonia; the
1st under Herennius Gallus in the southern extremity of the
province at Bonna. The boundary between the two Germanics
was at the river Abrinca, south of Rigomagus (Remagcn). Thus
Confluentes (Coblenz) belonged to the Upper province. In it two
legions, IV. Macedonica and XXII., lay at Moguntiacum. It is
possible that part of XXI. was also left in garrison at Vindonissa
(Windisch), but it took no part in the earlier events of the
rebellion.

By the command of Flaccns, the two legions of Vetera marched
against the rebels, who were now receiving promises of help from
the German tribes beyond the Rhine. Both legions together hardly
amounted to 5000 men, but Mnnius Lupercus obtained reinforce-
ments from the Ubians and cavalry from the Treveri. He had also
a squadron of Batavians, who feigned fidelity in order to desert him
in the action. The battle was fought north of Vetera, and was
decided by the desertion of the Batavian horse, who suddenly turned
upon the Romans. The Ubians and Treveri fled, and, while the
Germans pursued them, the legions retreated to Vetera.

Meanwhile the messengers of Civilis had moved the eight
Batavian cohorts at Moguntiacum to rebel. They made large
demands from Flaccus ; and when he had made considerable conces-
sions, they insisted on further demands which they knew could not
and would not be granted. Then they left the camp, and set out to
Lower Germany, to join Civilis. The general, instead of ordering
his legions to cut the mutineers to pieces, allowed them to depart ;
but presently, changing his mind, sent a letter to Herennius Gallus
at Bonna, bidding him prevent the Batavi.ms from passing, and
promising to follow with his own army in the rear. Then, changing
his mind once more, he wrote again to Gallus, ordering him to allow
them to pass. This shuffling conduct of Flaccus gives good ground
for suspecting him of treachery. The Batavians reached Bonna by
the road on the left bank of the Rhine, and sent a message to
Gallus, demanding that they should be allowed to pass in peace.
The leaatus was almost disposed to comply, but his soldiers com-
pelled him to try the fortune of a battle. The 1st legion was
completely defeated, and driven back to the camp. The victors,
taking no further advantage of their success, continued their north-
ward march, and, turning aside to avoid Colonia Agrippinensis,
joined the army of the insurgents.

§ 4. Civilis was now in command of a regular army ; and German

69 A.D. BLOCKADE OF VETERA 355

tribes from beyond the Rhine, such as the Brncteri and the
Tencteri, had flocked to his standard. He made an attempt to
induce the two legions which had retreated to Vetera after tha
defeat to embrace the cause of Vespasian, but they were obdurate
in their loyalty to Vitellius. He resolved to blockade the camp,
and ranged his troops on both banks of the Rhine. Vetera was not a
strong position, either by nature or by art. On the west side there was
a level approach to the praatorian gate. Augustus had regarded it
as a winter station, from which the legions should go forth to attack
the Germans, not as a place in which they might have to defei d
themselves against German assailants. Lupercus and Ru'us hRd
to repair the fortifications, which had suffered from the efivcts of a
long peace. The attempts of the Germans to storm the place were
unsuccessful, and they were obliged to blockade it. Flaccus in
the meantime had sent messengers throughout Gaul, to obtain
auxiliaries, and, on learning the danger of Vetera, despatched Dillius
Vocula, the legatus of the XXIInd, with chosen legionaries
to march to its relief with the utmost speed. Flaccus himself
followed by ship. The troops, when they heard of the successes
of Civilis, murmured loudly that Flaccus was playing them false ;
and in order to appease them, Flaccus read aloud a letter which
had arrived from Vespasian, and sent the bearers in chains to
Vitellius. When he reached Bonna he was assailed by the
reproaches of tjie 1st legion, who attributed their defeat by the
Batavian cohorts to his false promises. But he reassured them of
his good faith in some measure by reading copies of the letters
which he had sent to Gaul, Britain, and Spain for assistance.
Auxiliary troops from Gaul were already arriving, and the army
advanced by Colonia to Novassium, where they picked up the
XVIth legion, and proceeded to Gelduba (Gelb), a little lower down
the river. Here the leaders Vocula and Gallus, to whom the
conduct of the warfare was entrusted, made a camp and practised
the soldiers in the operations of war. Apparently the demoralisa-
tion of the troops was such that the officers did not feel prepared to
risk an action at Vetera, until the discipline was confirmed. The
temper of the soldiers is shown by an incident at Gelduba. A corn-
ship had run into the shallows of the river, and Germans on the
right bank were trying to capture it. Gallus sent a cohort to
prevent them, but the Romans were defeated. The soldiers accused
their officer of treachery, dragged him out of his tent, beat him, and
kept him bound until the arrival of Vocula, who was absent on an
excursion against the Cugerni, a tribe which dwelled north of the
Ubii. VocMila executed the ringleaders.

§ 5. Civilis did not confine his operations to Vetera. He sent

356 BEBELLIONS IN GERMANY AND JUDEA. CHAP, xx

troops beyond the river Mosa, to stir up the Menapii, Morini, and
other tribes of north-eastern Gaul. Another band ravaged the
lands of the Treveri and Ubii. The Ubii were made the mark of
special hatred, because under their new name of Agrippinens< s
they seemed to have renounced their German origin ; and their
cohorts were defeated at Marcodnrum (Dtiren). A third band
threatened Moguntiacnm. Such was the ?4ate of affairs at the end
of October (6i) A.D.) when the news of the <ireat defeat of Vitellius
at Cremona arrived. The GaLic auxiliaries immediately declared
for Vespasian; at Novaesinm and Geldnba the legions took the
military oath to the new Emperor, but without enthusiasm.

It was now necessary for Chilis to declare himsdf, and show
whether the sole object of his revolt was the elevation of Vespasian.
His mask could no longer deceive anyone ; it was clear that the
deliverance of the Germans of Northern Gaul from the Roman yoke
was the aim of the war. He sent a force, including the « ight veteran
Batavian cohort*, against the army at Gtlcuha. In their rapid
march from Vetera they seized Asciburgium (Asberg), and
swooped down upon the Roman camp so suddenly that Vocula had
no time to spread out his line. He p ac-ed the legions in the
centre, and the auxiliaries surrounded them in irregular order.
The battle almost proved a defeat for the Romans. The cavalry
advanc d, but turned and fled before the firm an ay of the Germans,
and brought confusion into the ranks of the cohorts, who were
then easily cut down by the foe. The auxiliary Nervii deserted,
and the legions were being discomfited, when the tide of battle
was turned by an unexpected reinforcement. Cohorts of the
Vascones of the Pyrenees — supposed to be the forefathers of the
Basques— enrolled by Galha, when he was governor of Tarra-
conensis, happened to arrive at this moment, and attacked the
enemy in the rear. The Germans, believing tl at forces had
arrived from Novsesium or Moguntiacum, were disconcerted ana
utterly routed. After this victory Vocula at length advanced to
the relief of Vetera, which was suffering severely from want oi
supplies, and succeeded in entering the place after a hard fi<iht
with the besiegers. The beasts of burden and the camp-followers
were sent to JS'ovassium, to brh'g provisiors by land, as the enemy
commanded the river. rJhe fiist supply Mas conveyed safely, but
on the second occasion Civilis attacked the cohorts which escorted
the train of waggons, and compelled them to retreat to Gelduba.
Vocula, having added to his own army a thousand chosen men of
the legions of Veteia, marched to Gelduba, and, as the cohorts
refused to return to Vetera, proceeded to .Novsesium, the head-
quarters of Flaccus.

69A.D. MURDER OF FLACCUa 357

§ 6. Here a mutiny broke out. A donative for the soldiers had
arrived from Vitellius, and Flaccus distributed it in the name of
Vespasian. The soldiers, excited by the carouses which followed,
revived their anger against Flaccus, dragged him out of his tent
and slew him. Vocula would have experience*! the same fate had
he Dot escaped from the camp in disguise. The army proclaimed
Vitellius Emperor, although he was al-eady dead (?hese events
seem to have taken place in the last days of December). But
the legions of Upper Germany soon dissociated tneir cause from
that of the others. Along with legion L, they placed themselves
under the command of Vocula, renewed their allegiance to Vespasian,
and marched up the Rhine to deliver Moguntiacum, which was
threatened by the Chatti, the Usipi, and the Mattiaci. But on
their arrival the enemy was already departing. Vocula remained
during the rest of the winter at Moguntiacum. Civilis renewed
the blockade of Vetera, and occupied the camp of Gelduba, which
the Romans had abandoned.

SECT. II. — SECOND STAGE OF THE REVOLT. THE IMPEMUM
GALLIARUM.

§ 7. On the news of the death of Vitellius, the mask of Civilis
was finally thrown off, and he acknowledged that he was fighting
against the Roman people. The destruction of the Capitol by fire
produced a profound impression upon the superstitious minds of the
Gauls, who believed that it betokened the approaching end of the
Roman Empire. The remnant of the Druids interpreted it as a
sign of heavenly wrath, and prophesied that the nations north of
the Alps were soon to become the lords ot the world. A conspiracy
had been organized by Julius CLissicus, a distinguished nobleman
of the Treveri, and prefect of a squadron of cavalry which had
fought under Valens against Otho. He renewed the design of
forming a Gallic kingdom, which had been tried in vain by ISacrovir,
and perhaps contemplated more recently by Vindex. His chief
associates were his countryman Julius Tutor, and Julius Sabinus, a
Lingon, who pretended to be descended from a bastard of Julius
Csesar. The conspirators met in Colonia, and maintained secret
communications with Civilis. Their first object was to get rid of
Vocula, and they accomplished it by a similar deceit to that which
Arminius practised on Varus. They induced Vocnla to leave
Moguntiacum, and descend the Rhine to relieve Vetera, which
was hard pressed. On the march from Novsesium to Vetera, the
troope of Classicus and Tutor rode forward on the pretext of
reconnoitring, and entrenched themselves at a distance. Vocula was

358 REBELLIONS IN GERMANY AND JUDEA. CHAV. xs

unable to persuade them to return, and could not enforce obedieuce.
He was compelled to fall back on Novsesium : the Gauls encamped
at a distance of two miles. Vetera could not hold out much longer,
and when it fell, the whole army of the Germans would be free to
attack Novsesium. Under these circumstances, the legions deter-
mined to desert the cause of Rome and declare for the imperium
Galliarum, which was being proclaimed by Classicus. Vocula
appealed in vain to their better feelings, and when he found they
were determined to join the standards of Classicus and Civilis, he
decided that nothing was left for himself but to die. Before he
had time to make arrangements for a voluntary death, he was slam
by an emissary of Classicus— a legionary soldier who had deserted.
The other legati, Gallus and Numisius, were thrown in chains.

§ 8. Then Classicus, assuming the insignia of a Roman Emperor,
entered the camp of Novsesium. Bold though he was, he found no
words to express or defend his assumption of such a dignity ; he
merely read out the oath of allegiance. The Homan soldiers swore
fidelity to the " Empire of the Gauls." The dream of Sacrovir and
Vindex was at last accomplished, if only for a moment. Classicus
and Tutor divided between them the work of reducing the two
Rhine provinces under the new empire which was thus inaugurated.
Tutor undertook to secure the adhesion of the IVth and XXIInd
legions at Moguntiacum. The officers were slain and the
soldiers took the same oath as their comrades at Novsesium.
Classicus himself proceeded to Vetera, where the wretched garrison,
reduced to the last extremities of hunger, were supporting life on
the herbs that grew among the stones. They sent envoys to the
Batavian chief, asking to be permitted to leave the place alive, and
their prayers were granted when they took the oath of loyalty to
the new empire. But five miles from Vetera they were treacherously
attacked by the escort of Germans whom Civilis had ordered to
accompany them, and many were slain. Vetera was dismantled
and burned, and in like manner all the other winter stations of the
legions, including Bonna and Novsesium, were destroyed except
Moguntiacum and Vindonissa. The latter place was at such a
distance that it was quite unaffected by the rebellion. The
XVIth legion and the auxiliaries which had surrendered at
Novsesium and the 1st legion from Bonna were commanded to
repair to Augusta Treverorum — which Classicus and Tutor doubt-
less intended to make the capital of the new empire — within a
given time. On their march thither they had to endure the
mocking of the inhabitants through whose country they passed,
and one squadron of cavalry, the ala Picentina, unable to endure
the shame of the position, left the procession, and went to

70 A.D IMPERIUM GALLIARUM. 359

Moguutiacum. On their way they fell in with the murderer of
Vocula, and dealt with him as he deserved.

Munius Lupercus, who had commanded the garrison of Vetera
during the long blockade, was sent among other gifts to Veleda,* a
German prophetess who played a part in this rebellion, and
exercised great influence over her countrymen. This maiden
belonged to the tribe of the Bructeri, and lived remote from the
abodes of others in a solitary tower on the river Luppia. She had
predicted the success of the Germans and the destruction of the
legions, and the accomplishment of her prophecy confirmed her
power. She was soon called upon to exert it for the purpose of
hindering her countrymen from abusing their victory.

The Ubii had been faithful to Rome throughout the rebellion \
but when the legions yielded, nothing was left lor them but to
yield too. The question was then agitated by the Germans,
whether they should destroy Colonia, or leave it standing. Jealousy
of the privileged position of the Ubii and desire of plunder prompted
the trans-Rhenane tribes to counsel its destruction, but Civilis
judged that clemency would be the better policy. The Tencteri
sent an embassy to the colony, and demanded that the inhabitants
should pull down their walls, slay all the Romans within their
borders, and resume their German habits and institutions. But the
Agrippinenses escaped from the fulfilment of these requisitions by
appealing to the authority of Civilis and the prophetess Veleda.
The Sunuci, who lived west of the Ubii on the Mosa, were then
reduced ; and the Nervii, Tungri, and Bsetasii, who still maintained
the cause of Rome under the leadership of Claudius Labeo, a
Batavian, but a rival of Civilis, submitted.

§ 9. The new Gallic empire had no firm foundation, and was not
destined to prosper. It had sprung up by means of the Batavian
rebellion; but Civilis and the Batavians, although they made
common cause with Classicus in pulling down the Roman power,
stood aloof from the imperium Qalliarum. The Germans had no
intention of throwing off Roman for the sake of Celtic rule. But
besides, the Gauls themselves were for the most part by no means
favourable to the project of the Treveri and the Lingeries. Julius
ISabinus cast d >wu the bronze tables on which the treaties between
Rome and the Lingones were inscribed, assumed the name of CEesar,
and marched at the head of a disorderly band of his countrymen
against the Sequani. But the Sequani were faithful to Rome, and
beat back the spurious Caesar, who deserted in the middle of the
battle, and by burning down the house to which he fled caused it
to be supposed that he had killed himself. But he really remained

* Statius, Silv., i. 4. 90: Captivaeque preces Veledse.

360 REBELLIONS IN GERMANY AND JUDEA. CHAP, xx

hidden in a subterranean retreat for no less than five years, kept
alive by his wife Epponina. He was finally discovered, and put to
death, along with his wife, by Vespasian's orders.

The declaration of the Sequani against the Gallic rebels was
soon confirmed by the verdict of a common council summoned by
the Remi, who took upon themselves the initiative in this crisis.
It was put to the states of Gaul whether they preferred "liberty
or peace." The Treveri were represented by Julius Valentinus,
but the arguments of Julius Auspex, a noble of the Remi, carried
the day, and a letter to the Treveri was composed " in the name
of the Gauls," calling upon them to desist from v\ar. The strongest
motive of the Gallic states in adhering to Rome was perhaps
mutual jealousy. The question presented itself: supposing the
empire of the Gauls to be established, what city will be the centre?
The other states would certainly never have submitted to be ruled
from the city of the Treveri or toe city of the Lingones. It does
not appear that the idea of a Federal Union— like that of the
Achaean League — occurred to any of the Gallic patriots.

§ 10. In the meantime Mucianus and the government of Vespasian
were making preparations to suppress ti e lebels of the north, both
Germans and Gauls. Q Petillius Cerealis was appointed to the
command in Lower, Annius Gall us, the general of Ottio, in Upper
Germany. Two of the victorious legirns, the VHIth of Mcesia
and the Xlth of Dalmatia, along with one of the Vitellian legions,
the XXIst, whose station was Vindonissa, were chosen for the
expedition, and marched northward by the Pennine, Cottian,
and Graian Alps. Moreover the XlVth was summoned from
Britain, and VI. Victrix and X. Geinina from Spain. But the
rebels did net realize, < r at least took no steps to meet, the
danger which was approaching. Civilis was engaged in pursuing
his enemy Claudius Labeo, in the wilds of Itelgica. Clnssicus was
enjoying his position as head of an empire. Tutor talked about
occui ying the Alpine passes, but omitted to do so. He had indeed
increased the forces of the Treveri hy the accession of the Vangiones
and other small tribes, aud some of the legionaries of Mojiuntiacum
joined his army. Sextilius Felix, the officer who had been set by
the leaders of Vespasian to watch Raatia, was the first to arrive on
the scene of action with his auxiliary cohorts. One cohort which
he sent on in advance was routed by the lorces of Tutor, but on
the approach of the rest and of the XXIst legion, which had
reached Vindonissa, the legionaries deserted, and the allies of the
Treveri followed the example. Tutor with his Treverans retreated
to Bhmium, and took up a position on the left bank of the Nava
(Nahe), having broken down the bridge. But the cohorts of

70 A.D. CEREALIS AT TKIEE. 361

Sextilius crossed by a ford, and routed the Treveri. The legions,
who had been compelled to post themselves at Augusta Treverorum,
on the news of this defeat, took an oath of allegiance to Vespasian,
and marched to the town of the Mediomatrici, called in older days
Divodurum, in later days Mettis, now Metz. The leaders Tutor
and Valentinus roused the Treveri again to arms, and put to death
the leyati Herennius and Numisius, whom they had kept prison< rs.

§ 11. Petillius Cerealis now arrived at Moguntiacum. His con-
tempt for the enemy, and his rejection of a Gallic levy, inspired his
troops with confidence and confirmed the Gauls in their obedience.
He united the remnant of the legions of Mojiuntincum with his
own army, and marched in three days, at the rate of nine hours
a day, to Kigodnltiin (Riol), about ten miles from Augusta
Treverorum, lower down the Mosella, protected on one side by
the river, on the other by steep hills. This place had been
occupied by a large band of Treveri under Valentinus, who had
entrenched himself behind ditches and stone barricades. The
troops of Cerealis boldly stormed the position, and Valentinus
himself was captured. They then entered Augusta Treverorum,
the soldiers burning to destroy the home of Classicus and Tutor —
a city, they said, far more guilty than Cremona, which had paid
so heavily for its part in the Vitellian war. But the august city,
which was destined hereafter to become the capital of a Belgic
province, and even a seat of Roman Emperors, was spared by the
decision of Cerealis.

When Civilis and Classicus learned that the Romans held
Augusta Treverorum, they tried to tempt the ambition of Cerealis
by offering him the 'imperium Gattiarum. Cerealis did not deign
to reply to the letter, which he sent to Rome ; and the rebels
prepared for a decisive battle. Civilis counselled delay, until they
should receive reinforcements from the trat>s-Rhenane tribes; but
Tutor urged that if they delayed, the Roman forces would be
increased by the legions which had been summoned from Spain
and Britain. The advice of Tutor was followed, and the forces o<
the insurgents unexpectedly attacked the Roman camp. Augusta
Treverorum lies on the right bank of the Mosella ; the Roman camp
was pitched on the left bank, to protect the town against the foe
coming from the north. On the night of the attack Cereali?
himself happened to be sleeping in the city, and he was awakened
by the news that his troops were fighting, and getting the worst
of it. The enemy had made a way through the camp, routed the
cavalry, and occupied the bridge which connected the town with
the left bank. The boldness and presence of mind of the general
retrieved the fortune of the legions. Placing himself at the head

362 REBELLIONS IN GERMANY AND JUDEA. CHAP.

xx.

of those whom the foe had driven before them into the town, he
recovered the bridge, and, reaching the camp, rallied his men.
Everything was in favour of the enemy, and the victory which the
Romans secured seemed almost miraculous.

§ 12. The Agnppinenses gladly returned to their allegiance to

Rome; they slew the Germans in their city, and destroyed a-

cohort of Chauci and Frisians, which was stationed at Tolbiacum

(Ziilpich), by making them intoxicated and then setting on

fire the house in which they slumbered. The rebels in Belgica

were suppressed by the XlVth legion, which arrived from

Britain. On the other hand the Britannic fleet was defeated by

the Canninefates, who were more skilful in managing ships, but

this success did not hinder the suppression of the rebellion. The

next defeat of Civilis took place at Vetera, where, having gathered

together his forces after the defeat at Augusta Treverorum, he had

taken up a strong position. The army of Cerealis, doubled in

number by the arrival of the legions from Spain and Britain,

proceeded to Vetera ; but the combat was delayed by the nature of

the ground. The fields, always marshy, had been flooded by the

art of Civilis, who had built a mole into the Rhine from the right

bank, and so caused the river to overflow. Thus the Romans could

not approach the camp, and when they attempted to fight in the

deep marsh, the Batavians, skilful in swimming, had the advantage.

On the fol lowing days, Cerealis drew out his line of battle. The

cohorts and cavalry were placed in front ; the legions in the centre,

and a chosen band in the rear, in case of emergencies. Civilis

arranged his forces in deep columns. The Cugerni arid Batavians

were on the right, the transrRhenanes on the left and nearer the

river. The Germans began the battle by missiles, Hut could not

provoke the Romans to enter the marsh. When the missiles were

spent, they drew nearer, and with long lances pierced the front

ranks of the soldiers, who were slipping and tottering on the

margin of the morass, and could not with their shorter weapons

reach the assailants. Then a column of the Bructeri, who were

stationed on the right bank of the river, swam across from the

mole already mentioned, and fell upon the right wing of the

Romans. The cohorts seem to have had the worst of it all

along the line, but the legions, when it came to their turn, stood

their ground. The battle was decided by the interposition

of a Batavian deserter, under whose guidance two squadrons of

cavalry went round by the extremity of the marsh, where there

.was solid ground and the Cugerni were keeping careless wntch, and

attacked the enemy in the rear. The legions at the same time

pressed on more vigorously in front, and the Germans Hed to the

70 A.I). BATTLE OF VETERA.

river. The approach of night and the nature of the ground pre-
vented a pursuit.

§ 13. After this defeat Civilis could no longer hold his position
on the Rhine. He made no attempt to defend the " town of the
Batavians," which is perhaps the modern Cleves, but retreated into
the island. He destroyed the dam of the Rhine, hegnn by Drusus
and finished in the reign of Nero (55 A.D.), which was intended to
divert the waters of the left arm of the river into the right or
eastern channel. When it was broken down, the waters plunged
into the left channel, called the Vahalis, and the right channel, or
the Rhine proper, was rendered shallow. The result of this act of
Civilis was that the Island of the Batavians was made, as it were,
part of Germany — a trans-Rhenane land ; instead of being, as
before, a part of Gaul. The remnant of the " empire of the Gauls," —
Tutor, Classicus, and more than a hundred Treveran senators — also
found refuge in the home of Civilis, which was now " beyond the
Rhine." Cerealis led his forces down the river, and occupied various
posts. The Xth was stationed at Arenacum (the village of
Ryndern, near Cleves), the Hud at Batavodurum (near Nymwegen),
while cohorts and alee of the auxiliaries were sent to Grinnes and
Vada, places close to each other on the Vahalis. Cerealis himself
probably made the " town of the Batavians " his headquarters.
Civilis divided his forces into four parts, to attack these posts of the
Romans. The assault on Vada he undertook himself, Grinnes was
assigned to Classicus ; while Tutor and Verax, a nephew of Civilis,
marched against Arenacum and Batavodurum. The assault on
Arenacum resulted in the slaughter of the prefect of the camp and
some officers and soldiers. At Batavodurum, where the Romans
were building a bridge across the river, there was an indecisive
skirmish. On the Vahalis the fighting was more serious. Julius
Briganticus, another nephew of Civilis, but his bitter foe and a
faithful adherent of the Romans, was slain ; and the Germans,
reinforced by Tutor and Verax, were winning the day, when the
arrival of Cerealis with a band of cavalry decided the battle in
favour of the Romans. The enemy were driven into the river.
Civilis and Verax escaped by swimming, and Tutor and Classicus
were rescued by boats. They would have been captured if the
Roman fleet had come in time.

The conduct of the campaign by Cerealis had been marked by
great want of caution and great good-luck. He did not mature his
plans, and yet they generally succeeded ; fortune favoured him when
he ought to have failed. But his carelessness about details of
discipline proved almost fatal to him a few days after the
victory of Vada. New camps were being constructed at Novsesium

364 REBELLIONS IN GERMANY AND JUDEA. CHAP.

xx.

and Bonna, as winter was approaching, and Cerealis sailed up the
Rhine to inspect them. An escort of foot accompanied him,
marching along the banks, and, as he was returning, the trans-
Rhenane Germans — Tencteri and Bructeri, doubtless — who were on
the watch, observed that the soldiers did not keep together, and
were careless about their ni^ht encampments. Choosing a dark
night, they entered the camp, cut the ropes of some of the tents, and
massacred the soldiers who were unaUe to extricate themselves.
They also dragged away the vessels, including the "prsetorian
ship" of the commander, which was towed up the Luppia, and
presented as a gift to Veleda. The cause of this disaster was that
the watch had fallen asleep, having been ordered not to sound the
bucina or trumpet, lest they should disturb Cerealis, who was
engaged in a love adventure somewhere in the neighbourhood.

Civilis soon abandoned the defence of the Vahalis and retreated
beyond the true Rhine into the country of the Frisians. The
Romans then crossed the Vahalis, and laid waste the Batavian Island,
sparing, however, the private j ossessions of Civilis, in order to
excite the suspicions of his countryrren, just as Archidamus had
spared the property of Pericles in the Pelopocnesian war, and
Hannibal that of Fabius Maximus. But the Batavians were ready
to return to their allegiance; the trans-Rhenanes were ready to
make peace; and Civilis, seeing the inclinations of his followers,
resolved to save his own life by capitulation. He sought an inter-
view with Cerealis A bridge across the river Nabalia — perhaps
the Yssel or the Vecht — was severed in the centre, and the two
leaders conversed from the broken extremities, and made their
terms. No record remains as to the ultimate fate of Civilis or of
his Gallic allies, Classicus and Tutor. The Batavians resumed the
same position which they had held before ; they paid no tribute, but
were largely employed as auxiliaries. The submission of the trans-
Rhenane Germans, who took part in the war, is shown by the fact
that the prophetess Veleda was conveyed as a captive to Rome. We
may take it for granted that Mucianus, who along with the
Emperor's son Domitian* had come to Lugudunnm, in order to be
near the scene of operations, had a decisive voice in making the
final negotiations.

§ 14. The revolt of Civilis could never have taken place but for
the strange position in which the Roman Empire was placed after
the death of Nero. It was a direct consequence of the action of

* This circumstance gave the poet
Silius an opportunity of addressing the
Emperor Domitian (iii. 608) as
Um puar Murkomo proformidAte BaUvo.

Juvenal refers to the revolt of Civilis
when be speaks (viii. 51) of the damitique
Batavi cus lodes uouHtu.

70 A.D. CHARACTER OF THE BATAVIAN REVOLT. 365

the Germanic legions, and is merely another act of the same drama
to which the civil wars in Italy belonged. It exhibits the mistrust
of officers and relaxation of discipline which generally prevailed. If
the legions asserted at Betriacum their part in the Empire, the
auxiliary troops asserted themselves in the movement of Civilis. It
was primarily a rebellion of the auxiliaries, but it involved in its
train aggressions of the free Germans beyond the Khine, and the
attempt to set up a Gallic empire. Oivilis has been called a suc-
cessor of Anninius, and Arminius, like him, had been an officer in
the Roman army. But it must be remembered that the Cheruscans
were only tributaries, and did not, like the Ratavians, supply the
army with recruits. The Batavian war was properly a revolt
within the army itself, though it accidentally assumed larger
proportions.

Civilis has also been called a successor of Vindex, but this is due
to a misconception. Civilis indeed used the name of Vespasian,
as Vindex used the name of Galba ; but the idea which, according
to all appearance, Vindex cherished of making a Gallic kingdom
was renewed, not by Civilis, but by Classicus, Tutor, and Sabinus.
The Batavians and the Gauls had a common interest in their
hostility to Rome, and so far they co-operated; but Civilis had
nothing to do with the imperium Q-alliarum. It is remarkable,
however, that the states which took the leading part in establishing
the Gallic kingdom, at which Vindex had aimed, were the Treveri
and Lingones, the very people who had refused to join his enterprise,
and had sided with Verginius Rufus against him. On the other
hand, the Sequani, who had supported the cause of the Aquitanians,
declined to move when the same cause was represented by Treverans
and Lingons. The events of the rebellion show clearly that the
Gauls in general, apart from a few disaffected tribes, had come to
see that their true interests were best served by remaining faithful
to Rome. They saw that to win freedom by the help of Germans
beyond the Rhino would only bring upon them a new Ariovistus.
It should also be remarked that the part played by the free Germans
was a small one. The revolt only affected those trills which dwelled
close to the Roman limes, and did not call forth any movement in
central Germany. Moreover, the motive which attracted the
Bructeri and Tencteri to the Batavian standard was rather the
hope of immediate plunder than the expectation of any lasting
success against the Roman power.

§ 15. When the revolt was quelled, Vespasian adopted the wise
policy of letting bygones be bygones. It was of course impossible
to ignore the conduct of the Germanic legionaries, who had failed
BO signally in meeting the responsibility which had fallen to their

366 REBELLIONS IN GERMANY AND JUDEA. CHAP. xx.

share — who had taken the oath of allegiance to the Julius of
Trier. The four legions of the Lower province (I., V., XV., XVI.)
and one legion of the Upper (IV. Macedonica) were broken up ; the
XXIInd, the legion of Vocula, was pardoned. But Vespasian
had learned a lesson from the rebellion, and he made a very
important change in the organisation of the auxilia. The cohorts
and alse no longer consisted of men of the same nation. Batavians
and Treverans, for example, were scattered among all the auxiliary
regiments indifferently. Moreover, the command of the auxiliaries
was no longer entrusted to natives, like Arminius and Civilis, but
to men of Italian origin ; and these troops were not employed in
the neighbourhood of their homes. The result was that a rebellion
like that of Civilis did not occur again.

SECT. III. — THE REVOLT OF JUDEA AND DESTRUCTION OF
JERUSALEM.

§ 16. In regard to the Jews, Claudius followed the policy of
Tiberius. Their worship was checked in Italy ; but toleration was
granted to them in their own land and in the east. Claudius went
even further. He gave all the lands which had formed the kingdom
of Herod to his friend Herod Agrippa, thus returning, as he loved
to do, to the system of Augustus. By this means direct collision
between the Romans and Jews was avoided ; A»rippa acted as inter-
mediate. But when he died in 44 A.D., his son Agrippa, aged seven-
teen years, was considered too young to take his father's place, and
Judea was once more made a province of subordinate rank. From
this moment a spirit of hatred and rebellion fermented in Judea.
The Jews had not forgotten how Grains had insisted upon receiving
divine honours ; they feared that another Emperor might do the
same, and regarded all Roman Emperors as abominable. National
sentiment and religious bigotry were inseparable for the Jews ; and
the fanatics burned to cast off the Roman yoke or die in the
attempt.

The insurrection did not break out till 66 A.D., but it was
prepared during twenty-two years. The great fault of the Romans
was that, instead of stamping out the elements of op?)osition, they
tried to humour an irreconcilable people, and yielded, wherever it
was possible, to the prejudices and absurd demands of the Jews.
Thus a Roman soldier was executed because he had torn a roll of
the law. Another mistake was that too small a military force was
kept in the province and was mainly recruited from the province
itself. As for the Jews, they brought their destruction upon
themselves. The high priests were worthless and violent, and

52-S6 A.D. KEVOLT OF JUDEA. 367

took advantage of the yielding spirit of their rulers to make
most unreasonable demands. During these twenty-two years the
Romans were continually trying to suppress the brigands of the
hills, whom the Jews called Zealots. They combined the spirit of
the robber with that of the religious fanatic. Cuspius Fadus, the
first procurator under Claudius, routed them out of their strongholds
and slew them. But the evil broke out again under his successor,
Tiberius Alexander, a nephew of the philosopher Philo, and he
succeeded in capturing two noted leaders, Jacobus and Simon, sons
of Judas the Galilean, whom he crucified. There was a constant
feud between Galilee and Samaria, and the latter district was
subject to the incursions of armed bands of Galilean brigands. This
led to a serious collision in the year 52 A.D., in which Qmmidius
Quadratus, the governor of Syria, was obliged to interfere. The
affair was attributed to the rivalry of the two procurators, Cumanus
of Galilee, and Felix of Judea and Samaria ; and Quadratus having
held an investigation punished Cumanus, and pleased the Jews
by executing a tribune, named Celer, in Jerusalem. Felix, who
was equally to blame, escaped, because he was the brother of the
powerful freedman Pallas, and the husband of Agrippa's sister
Drusilla. The troubles continued under Festus and Albinus, the
successors of Felix. War against Rome was preached in the streets;
miracles and prophecies were the order of the day ; the Zealots of
the hills were as violent as ever. There was no real grievance. It
was not the case of an oppressed people rising against oppressors, or
bondmen struggling for their freedom. The war was due to the
fanaticism of short-sighted peasants.

The authority over the temple and its treasures, and the nomina-
tion of the high priests, had been assigned in 44 A.D., not to the
procurator, but to Herod of Chalcis, and after his death in 48 A.D.
had been transferred to his heir Agrippa. In 53 A.D. Agrippa had
received, instead of Chalcis, the districts of Batanea, Auranitis,
Trachonitis, Gaulonitis, and Abilene, along with the title of king,
and two years later he received from Nero Tiberias and Tarichea
in Galilee, and Julias in Peraa. Agrippa stood by the Romans
faithfully throughout the Jewish war.

§ 17. The insurrection broke out under the procurator Gessius
Florus (64-66 A.D.). Csesarea was inhabited by Greeks and Jews,
possessing the same civil rights, the Jews being the more numerous.
But under Nero the Greeks disputed the rights of the Jews, and
appealed to the government at Rome. Burnis decided in favour
of the Greeks, and the citizenship was deckred to be a privilege
which did not belong to the Jews (62 A.D.). This decision led to
tumults in the town. Finally the Jews left Csesaiea, but were

368 REBELLIONS IN GERMANY AND JUDEA. CHAP. xx.

compelled by tne governor to return, and then slaughtered in a
street riot (Aug. 6, 66 A.D.).

In Jerusalem, things came to a crisis at the same time. The
Jews were divided into two parties ; the men of moderation, who,
putting their trust in the Lord, were ready to endure Roman rule
without resistance, and the men of action, who resolved to found
the kingdom of heaven by the sword. The former were the
Pharisees, the latter the Zealots, and the power of the Zealots was
on the increase. To this party belonged Eleazar, son of the high
priest Ananias.* He was a young man of upright character ; but it
has been said of him that his virtues were more dangerous than his
father's vices. He was overseer of the Temple, and he forbade
those who did not belong to the Jewish faith to present offerings to
Jehovah in the outer court, although this had always been
permitted by tradition. f He refused to listen to the remonstrances
of the wiser Jews. The moderate party resolved to make an
attempt to put down the fanatics. They asked the Romans and
King Agrippa for help; and Agrippa sent some cavalry. But
Jerusalem was filled with extreme patriots and desperadoes known as
" men of the dagger," who were ready to exterminate supporters of
Roman rule. The Roman garrison in the citadel was surprised and
cut to pieces. The greater number of the moderates, the soldiers
of Agrippa, and some Romans, occupied the king's palace on Zion,
but could not maintain their position against overwhelming
numbers, and capitulated. Free departure was refused to the Romans,
but they were assured that their lives would be spared. But they
were disarmed and cut to pieces. Ananias the high priest and
other leaders of the moderate party were slain. After the victory
a quarrel broke out between Eleazar, who seems to have felt
remorse for the perfidy of his followers and his father's death, and
Manahem, the most violent of " the men of the dagger." It ended
in the execution of Manahem.

Thus, in Ca3sarea the foes of the Jews had slaughtered the Jews ;
in Jerusalem the Jews had slaughtered their foes ; and it was said
that both events happened on the same day. Other Greek townt
followed the example of Csesarea. The Jews in Damascus, Gadara,
Scy thopolis, Ascalon, were massacred. The bitterness against them
broke out, too, in Alexandria, and the street-tumults required the
interference of the Roman troops. As soon as Cestius Gallus, the
governor of Syria, heard what had happened in Jerusalem, he set
forth with his troops to put down the insurgents. His army con-
sisted of about 20,000 Roman soldiers, and 13,000 auxiliaries from

* The same who is called a "whited I f Even offerings to Augustus had beer
wall " in the Act* of the Apotttet. \ allowed.

65-68 A.D. VESPASIAN'S STRATEGY. 369

the dependent kingdoms, along with forces of Syrian militia.
Having taken Joppa and slain its inhabitants, he marched ou
Jerusalem, and stood before its walls in September. But the strong
fortifications defied him, and he was driven back with serious loss.
The news of the failure of Gallus reached Nero in Greece, and he
appointed Mncianus le^atus of Syria, and assigned to Vespasian the
task of quelling the Jewish rebellion, as an independent le^atus.

§ 18. The three legions, which had been sent from the Illyric
lands to carry on the war with Parthia, were perhaps already
returning to their original stations. If so, they were now sent
back on account of the rebellion. Two of them, V. Macedonica
and XV. Apollinaris, were given to Vespasian, along with one of the
Syrian legions, X. Fretensis. The other additional legion, IV.
Scythica, took the place of the Xth in Syria, and remained there
permanently. In addition to his three legions and their auxilia,
Vespasian had large bodies of troops contributed by the dependent
kings of Commagene, Emesa, and Nabatea, as wtll as by Agrippa.
The whole army, amounting to more than 50,000 men, was
mustered at Ptolemais in spring, 67 A.D., and entered Palestine.
The entire country, Galilee and Samaria, as well as Judea, was
now in the hands of the insurgents, with the exception of the
Greek towns. They had taken and destroyed Anthedon and
Gaza, but after they had failed at Ascalon, they confined them-
selves to defensive measures, and did not meet the Romans in the
open field. Vespasian's plan was slow, but sure. He decided to
make no attempt against Jerusalem until he had isolated it by
reducing the surrounding districts. The first campaign was
occupied with the reduction of Galilee, and the coast as far as
Ascalon. In this warfare the historian Josephus played a con-
siderable part. The siege of Jotapata, which he defended, lasted
forty-five days. Ho was a member of the moderate party, but
was appointed commando" in Galilee. Josephus escaped with his
life, and found favour with Vespasian, whose client he became,
adopting the name Titus Flavius. During the following winter,
Vespasian kept two legions at Cagsarea, and stationed the third at
Scyihopolis, so as to cut off communications between Judea and
Galilee. In the spring of 68 A.D., he proceeded to occupy the
regions beyond the Jordan, including the imp rtant towns of
Gadara at,d Gerasa. The fugitives, who were driven from
their homes by the Roman soldiers, nocked to increase the
multitude collected in Jerusalem. Vespasian then took up
quarters at Jericho. Samaria was occupied in the north, Idumea
in the south, and the legions weie about to advance on Jerusalem,
when the news of Nero's death arrived. Vespasian was not
16*

370 REBELLIONS IN GERMANY AND JUDEA. CHAP, xx

disposed to put himself in a false position by continuing to act as
legatus, until his powers should be renewed by Nero's successor,
Military operations were therefore suspended, and before Galba
could send his commands to Vespasian, winter had approached.
The foil of Galba and the struggle between Otho and Yitellius gave
the Jews a still longer respite ; and when, after the proclamation of
Vitellius, Vespasian began to resume operations, his own elevation
again interrupted the warfare, and it was not till the spring of 70
A.D. that his son Titus marched against Jerusalem to end the
miserable episode.

§ 19. Jerusalem, in the meantime, was a scene of wild confusion.
The leader of the moderate party had been slain, the Zealots
reigned supreme, and quarrelled and fought among themselves.
There were three main parties. One headed by Eleazar, son of
Simon, and consisting of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, occupied
the inner enclosure of the Temple. The outer court of the Temple
was held by John of Giscala and his Galileans. Another party,
under Simon, son of Gioras, of Gerasa, held the upper town, the hill
of Zion. But when the Romans came, these factions composed their
differences, and fought side by side. Eleazar's party placed itself
under John, and thus the rivalry was narrowed to two competitors,
Simon in the city and John in the Temple.

Titus might have blockaded the city, and starved the inhabitants
out, but he wished to inaugurate the new Flavian dynasty aud
make his own reputation by a brilliant exploit. Jerusalem was
defended on all sides by impregnable rocks, except on the north,
on which side it had been attacked by the Assyrians, and more
recently by Pompeius. Herod Agrippa had attempted to strengthen
the fortifications on this accessible side, but the Romans had
prevented him. The walls which he had planned were hastily
raised under the direction of the Sanhedrim during the insurrection.
The task of Titus was not an easy one. When he had stormed the
outer wall, and penetrated into the new city, a second wall met
him wh;ch he had to pass before he could reach the lower city
on the hill of Acra. Then he had to storm the temple, surrounded
by an inner and an outer wall, and the adjoining citadel, called
Antonia. The strong defences of Zion, on which the upper city
was built, and the palace of Herod, still remained.

The forces of Titus had been increased by another legion from
Syria, XII. Fulminata. The first wall resisted for a long time
all the attempts of the assailants, but at length fell beneath
the battering-ram. Many of the besieged would then have been
willing to submit, in fear of the famine which threatened them, and
the Roman general sent Josephus to the wall to offer honourable

70 A.D. TITUS BESIEGES JERUSALEM. 371

terms. But the chiefs would not hear of surrender. Then Titus
drew a wall of circumvallation round the city, and cut oft all
external supplies from the inhabitants, while they continued their
attacks on the second wall. The sufferings of the Jews from
famine became terrible ; a woman was known to kill her child for
food. At this time a half-witted fanatic, Joshua, the son of
Hanan, went about the public places shouting, " A voice of ruin
from the east and from the west, from the north and from the
south ! " and " Woe to Jerusalem ! " None dared to hinder or
punish him. One day he uttered a new cry, " Woe to me also ! "
and at the same moment he was killed by a stone from a catapult
of the besiegers. All sorts of portents were said to have .occurred.
The doors of the Temple burst open, and a voice more than human
cried, " Let us depart hence ! " and a great sound of departure was
heard.

At last, at the end of three months, the second wall was
passed, and the citadel Antonia taken. This castle, close to the
temple, and overlooking it, was destroyed by the Eomans, except
one wing, which was left standing as a watch-tower. Titus then
allowed considerable numbers of the population to leave the town ;
but the Zealots remained deaf to the expostulations of Josephus,
and the admonitions of the Jews who had been taken captive in
the lower city. They refused to spare the temple by timely
submission to the besiegers. They carried on the work of defence
with no regard to the sacred character of the place, and even
desecrated the Holy of Holies by their presence. For a long time
they baffled the assaults of the Romans; but the defence of the
outer temple-wall gradually relaxed, and at length the burning
missiles of the assailants set fire to the northern portico. The two
leaders, John of Giscala, and Simon, son of Gioras, with some of their
followers, escaped by the connecting causeway which they broke
down behind them, into the upper city. But the multitude and
the p'iests stood firm in the inner enclosure. The Romans with
difficulty passed the outer wall, making a path for themselves
with the help of fire, which soon spread and consumed the royal
porch of Herod. Many of the Jews perished in the flames, the
rest were cut down in a final struggle. The Temple and its
treasures were burned to the ground (August). The chiefs still
lay behind the defences of the upper city, hopeless, yet resolved
not to yield. But discord raged among the garrison of the; last
stronghold, and a large number of Jews gave themselves up to
the Romans. The rest were reduced by famine, and the chiefs
at last abandoned the defence of the rampart, and sought refuge
in the subterranean passages with which the hill was honeycombed

372 REBELLIONS IN GEEMANY AND JUDEA. CHAP. xx.

and by which they hoped to reach the valleys beyond. The
Romans then entered ; and slew, plundered, and burned (September
2nd). The siege had lasted over five months, but at length
Jerusalem was laid in ruins. Simon and John, unable to escape
in the underground galleries, and pressed by hunger, came forth
from their holes, and surrendered. The life of John was spared,
but Simon was reserved for the triumph, and put to death after-
wards. Those of the insurgents who escaped, held out lor years
in the rock fortresses of Massada and Machajrus, near the Dead
Sea. The captives were put to death or sold into slavery. Many
died from starvation, refusing to accept food from their warders.

§ 20. Although Vespasian and Titus disdained to add to their
names the title Judaicus, drawn from a people whom they despised,
they did not omit to celebrate a triumph in honour of the victory ;
and an arch was erected by the senate to Titus after his death
on which may be still seen a sculpture of the golden candlestick
with seven branches, which was rescued from the sanctuary of the
Tern pie Another arch was erected during his lifetime in the
Circus, and the dedication celebrates his capture of Jerusalem,
" which all leaders, kings and nations before him had either
attacked in vain or left wholly unattempted." The statement
is ludicrously false ; and if we can excuse the senate lor ignorance
of the Assyrian siege or even of that of Antiochus Epiphanes, we
cannot understand their ignoring Pompeius.

The demolition of Jerusalem, which lay in ruins as Carthage and
Corinth had once lain, deprived the Jewish nation of a centre.
The high priesthood and the Sanhedrim were abolished, and the
Israelites were left without a head The yearly tribute which
every Jew, wherever he dwelled, used to send to the temple, was
now, by a sort of bitter parody, to be sent to the temple of
Capitoline Jupiter. It is a disputed question whether Titus
really wished to destroy the Temple with all its wonders, or
whether its destruction was an accident which he deplored. It
seems, on the whole, more likely that its destruction was part
of the political scheme which the Roman government hud devistd,
to settle the petty, but troublesome Jewish question once for all.
It should be taken in connection with the fact that Vespasian at
the same time closed the Temple of Onias near Memphis in Euypt,
the chief sanctuary of the Egyptian Jews. The conflagration
was a matter for praise to the Roman po«-t Valerius Flaccns, who,
in the invocation of his " Argonautica," celebrates Titus for
scattering the torches in Solyma :

Solymo nigrantem pulvere fratrem,
faces et in omni turre furentem..

70 A.D.

DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.

373

Judea became a province of the Empire, and the camp of the
Xth legion,* wl.ich was left as its garrison, was pitched on the
ruins of the fallen capital. Henceforward, the troops levied in
Judea were employed elsewhere. A settlement of Roman veterans
was made at Kmmaus. In Samaria, the chief town, Sichem, was
organised under the name Flavia Neapolis, as a Greek city. On
the other hand, Csesarea, hitherto a Greek city, was made a
Flavian Colonia of Roman type. King Agrippa, who had sup-
ported the Romans loy.illy, retained his possessions as long as
he lived; but on his death, about thirty years later, his kingdom
was incorporated in the province of Syria.

* The Xllth legion was sent to Cappadocia; the Vth and XVth back to then
quarters in Mcesia and Pannonia respectively.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE LEGIONS
IN THE PROVINCES IX 71 A.D.

The following (nccording to Pfitzner,
Gefchichte der romischen Kaiserlegioneri)
was the distribution o( the legions by
Vespasian, afier the subjugation of the
jerman and Jewish revolts :
Spain: V-I. Gemina.
Britain : II. Augusta, IX., XX. Victrix.
Germany, Lower : II. Adjutrix, VI.

Victr., X. Gem., XXI. Rapax.
Germany, Upper: I. Adjut., VIII.

Aug., XL Cl.,udia, XIV. Gem.
Ham onia : XIII. Gem., XV. Apollinaris

XXII. Prinjigenia.
Mcesia: I. Italica, IV. Flavia, V.

Alauda, V. Macedonia, VII. Claudia.
Syria: 111. Gallica, IV. Scythica, VI.

Ferrata.
Cappadocia: XII. Fulminata, XVI.

Flavia.

Judea: X. Fretensis.
Egypt: III. Cyrenatca, XXII. Dejo-

tariana.

Africa: III. Augusta.
The total number of legions was thus
twenty-nine, as at Nero's death. This
number had bien Increase*) to thirty by
Galba, who ad.led VII. Galbiana. Four
legions had been disbanded inconsequence
of the revolt of Civilis, and their place
supplied by three new ones. Thus the
number of twenty-nine was restored.

Coin: JudaaCapta.

Colosseum.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE FLAVIAN EMPERORS. VESPASIAN, TITUS, AND DOMIT1AN
(69-96 A.D.).

L. The work of VESPASIAN. Character, origin, and family. § 2. Cere-
mony on the restoration of the Capitol. Closing of Temple of Janus
(7 1 A.D.). § 3. Titus made a consort and praetorian prefect by his
.'ather. § 4. Vespasian's attitude to the senate and to the opposition.
Helvidius Priscus. § 5. Finances. § 6. Public buildinars. § 7.
Praetorian guards reorganised. § 8. Provincial administration.
Gra&t of tus Latinnm to Spain. § 9. Death of Vespasian. — § 10. Acces-
sion of TITUS. Berenice. § 11. Policy of Titus. Spectacles. § 12.
Fire at Rome. Eruption of Vesuvius (79 A.D.). § 13. Death of Titus.
— § 14. Early career of DOMITIAN. § 15. Victory over the Chatti.
§ 16. Domitian's monarchical policy ; perpetual censorship ; consul-
ships. § 17. He imitates Tiberius. The finances. § 18. Revolt of
Aiitonius Saturninus. § 19. The Stoic opposition. Reign of Terror.
Murder of Domitian. § 20. Feelings of the senate, soldiers, and people

69-79 AD BIRTH AND CHARACTER OF VESPASIAN, 375

at his death. § 21. Character and policy of Domitian. His strictness
in matters of religion and morals. § 22. Buildings 23. Treatment
of Domitian by historians. Satire of Juvenal on his Consilium.

SECT. I. — VESPASIAN.

§ 1. THE new ruler of the Roman world, Titus Flavius Ves
pasianus, has the distinction of having founded a new dynasty.
Indeed he might claim to be considered a second Augustus, some-
what as Augustus claimed to be a second Romulus. He WE*
called upon to perform a task of the same kind as that which
Augustus wrought, though on a far smaller scale. The conqueror
of Vitellius, like the conqueror of Antonius, had to pacify the state
and restore order after civil wars. The wars which followed the
death of Nero were not as great in importance or duration as those
which followed the death of Julius. But they were serious enough
to put the state out of joint, and Vespasian has the glory of having
set it right so effectively that the machine went smoothly for
another century, during which the empire enjoyed peace End
plenty. Vespasian was not a man of originality, he had not a
spark of genius. But then no new ideas were required for his
work. He merely confirmed the Augustan system and rectified
it in some details. He was fully equal to the task which fell to
his lot. It required strength of character, and he was strong ;
it required the plainest common sense, and he had no illusions of
imagination ; it required caution, and he was not rash ; it required
determination, and when he had made up his mind, nothing
deterred him from, carrying out his resolve.*

The elevation of a Sabine of humble birth to the Principate is
a symptom of the levelling process which was gradually raising
• Italy to an equality with Rome. Hitherto, no man who was not
of high Roman descent was regarded as a possible candidate for
the Empire. In appearance, the homely Vespasian WES very
different from the aristocratic Augustus. He was square and
firmly built, his neck thick, his features coarse, his eyes small.
As a soldier, he was competent, but not brilliant. He had enjoyed
a fair education, and con Id speak and write Greek with ease. He
was careless of appearances, and was not ashamed of his humble
origin. He laughed at the flattery of the poets who tried to
discover a heroic origin for his municipal family. He had a sharp
and homely wit. An anecdote is related of him that, having been
criticised by Florus for pronouncing the word plaustritm, " a
waggon," in provincial fashion plostrum, he addressed Florus, on

* Part of the Lex de Imperio passed for Vespasian is extant ; Bee above Chap. II
Notes and illustrations, D.

376 THE FLAVIAN EM^EJiOKS. CHAP, auu

meeting him next day, as 0 Flaure. He was not, perhaps naturally
superstitious, but while he was at Alexandria, oriental flatterers
practised on his credulity. A blind man and a cripple alleged
that the god Serapis had assured them that the new Imperator
possessed the divine power of healing their infirmities. Vespasian
was persuaded to touch the eyes of the blind with his spittle, and
to place his foot on the lame man; immediately the blind r-ceived
his sight and the lame walked. Vespasian was deceived by the
imposture, and was filled with a deep respect for the oracles of
Serapis. He married Flavia Domitilla, and by her had three
children, Titus, Domitian, and Domitilla. After her death, he did
not marry again, but formed a permanent connection, known as
contubernium, with a freed woman, named Coanis, with whom he
had been intimate before his marriage.

§ 2. Vespasian did not arrive in Rome until the summer of
70 A.D. Before he returned, the senate had taken in hand the
restoration of the Capitol, for while the temple of Jupiter Capito-
linus lay in ruins, it was believed that the Empire could not be
prosperous. The work was entrusted to L. Vestinus, a knight
of high reputation, although such works usually devolved upon
senators. The ruins of the old temple were removed, by the orders
of the haruspices, so that the new edifice might be erected on the
foundations of the old ; " for the gods do not wish the old form to
be changed." On the 21st June, being a fair day, soldiers whose
names were auspicious (such as Valerius or Salvius), entered the
arena, crowned with garlands; and the Vestal virgins along with
boys and girls, both of whose parents were alive, sprinkled the site
with the water of springs and running streams. The praetor,
Helvidius Priscus, then purified it by the blood of a boar, a
wether, and a bull, and having placed the entrails on an altar of
turf, repeated after the pontifex a prayer to Jupiter, Juno, Minerva,
and the patron gods of Eome, to prosper the undertaking, and by
divine help raise the temple. Then he touched the fillets which
bound the foundation-stone, and it was dragged to the spot where
it was destined to lie by the combined efforts of priests, senators,
knights, and the people. Heaps of gold and silver coins, never
used for profane purposes, and nuggets of unwrought metal, were
then cast on the foundations. The new temple was built on the
plan of the old one, but the haruspices permitted Vespasian to
raise it to a greater height than the temple restored by Catulus.

This striking ceremony and the rebuilding of the Capitol, were
a fitting inauguration of the era introduced by the accession of
Vespasian, an era of peace and tranquility. The temple of Janus
was closed in the following year (71 A.D.), after the return of Titus

70-71 A.D. POLICY OF VESPASIAN. 377

from the conquest of Judea; and the peace which Vespasian
bestowed upon the world was (like the pax Augusta) apprec'ated
by his contemporaries, celebrated by poets, and impressed on
coins.

§ 3. Vespasian followed the example of Augustus, and the more
recent example of Galba, in taking to himself a consort in the
Empire. Both the proconsular imperium and the tiibunician power
were conferred on his son Titus at the same time, and thus Titus
held a position like that which Tiberius held in the last years of
Augustus. The object of Vespasian was not to lighten his own
labours, but to secur e the succession for his son. Titus was allowed
to assume more of the imperial privileges than had been conceded
to any consort before. He wore the laurel wreath, and vota were
offered in his name. He also styled himself Imperator; but
while Vespasian used this title as a praenomen, Titus bore it as a
cognomen (Titus Csesar Imperator Vespasianus). The position of
Titus was also rendered unique in another way. The dangers
which threatened the Principate from the power which was in the
hands of the praetorian prefect had been clearly shown in the
course of recent history. The appointment of two prefects was
one solution of the difficulty ; but Vespasian found a more effective
solution by entrusting it to his son and consort.

Vespasian made no alteration in the constitution of the Princi-
pate; but he attempted to introduce some innovations in practice.
He seems to have laid less stress than his predecessors on the
tribunicia potestas, and to have even intended to discontinue the
official counting of the years of his reign as tribunician years. He
seems to have contemplated a return to the first system of
Augustus (27-23 B.C.) which based the position of the Ptinceps
mainly on the consulate. He was ordinary consul himself in every
year of his reign except two (73 and 78 A.D.), and his son and
consort Titus was generally his colleague. But nothing came of
this unusual series of imperial consulates. It was only tentative,
and did not affect the future development of the Principate.

§ 4. Vespasian was respectful to the senate, but he did not
permit it such independence as it en joyed under Augustus, Tiberius,
Claudius, and in the early reign of Nero. By exercising an influence
on its composition, he tried to render it dependent on the Emperor.
This influence he exercised in two ways. By frequent consular
elections, which he was able to control, he increased the number of
the consulares ; and (in 73 A.D.) he assumed the censorship along
with Titus, and exercised the censorial power of adlection to the
senate. At the same time, he created a number of patrician
families to take the place of the old nobility which was exhausted.

378 THE FLAVIAN EMPEEORS. CHAP. xxi.

A new aristocracy dates from this reign. Vespasian abolished,
chiefly in favour of Italians and provincials, trials for maiestas ;
but, on the other hand, he did not permit processes to be
instituted against delators, and this clemency displeased the
aristocracy. Tb-re was a party of opposition in his reign, just
as in the reigns of his predecessors, consisting of Stoic and
Cynic philosophers and discontented nobles full of vain and
unpractical theories. Under Nero, their leader had been Thrasea,
under Vespasian, it was Thrasea's son-in-law Helvimus Priscus.*
He was a man of no judgment. Infatuated with an idea of an
impossible republic, dreaming still of Cato and Brutus — he had
written a book entitled " The Praise of Cato" — he was unable to
distinguish between the tyranny of a Nero and the good govern-
ment of a Vespasian. He not only indulged in untimely opposi-
tion, but took part in conspiracies, and at length, like Thrasea, he
died a martyr to a vain aspiration Vespasian caused a decree for his
banishment to be passed, and then ordered his death. The sects of
the Stoics and Cynics were banished from the city, and here popular
opinion probably supported Vespasian. These philosophers kept
up a constant agitation by their tracts against monarchy. The
Stoic, Musonius Kufus, was honourably excepted from the decree
of exile ; he knew that the monarchy was a necessity, and he did
not bark.f The only other execution of note, besides that of
Priscus, was that of Csecina, the general who betrayed Vitellius.
He was put to death for implication in a conspiracy (in 79 A.D.) by
the order of Titus.

§ 5. The most difficult and most ungrateful problem that
Vespasian was called upon to solve was the ordering of the finances
of the state. The treasuries were empty, and a large outlay was
urgently demanded, both in the provinces and in Italy. The extra-
vagance of Nero's reign, followed by a year of civil war, had
plunged the state in bankruptcy. Vespasian required means not
only for the ordinary expenses of administration, but for carrying
out the work and repairs which had been neglected during the last
years, owing to want of funds. He had to renew the fortifications
of the Ehine frontier, which had been destroyed in the rebellion of
the Batavians, and he had to help Rome and Italy to recover from
the disasters of the recent wars. He calculated that a sum of

* Juvenal speaks of wine such as
Helvidius and Thrasea used to drink on
the birthdays of the Bruti and Cassius
(v. 36) :

f Two philosophers, Hostilius and
Demetrius, who were outrageously viru-
lent, were sent to islands. When they
did not cease their invectives even after

Quale coronati Thrasea Helvidiusque ! the sentence was passed, Wspasian re-
bibebant fused to pass a severer sentence, saying,

) Brutorum et Gassi natalibus. <« I will not kill a dog that barks at me."

69-79 A.C. ECONOMY OF VESPASIAN. 379

40,000,000,000 sesterces (about 320,000,000^.) was required to
raise the prostrate republic. The census was held (73 A.D.) in
order to set the revenue in order and adjust the taxation ; and this
was one of the Emperors chief objects in assuming the censorship.
Like all rulers to whom the task has fallen of rescuing a state from
pecuniary embarrassment, he was obliged to make the burdens
severe, and to practise strict economy. And like all such rulers he
got little thanks. His fiscal strictness and policy of retrenching
made him unpopular; he was called avaricious and parsimonious.*
He renewed imposts which had been remitted by Gralba, and insti-
tuted new taxes. He rais^, in some cases even doubled, the
tributes of the provinces. He exercised strict control over the fiscal
officers, who under a careless Princeps were in the habit of diverting
the public money into their private chests. Some pieces of public
land in Italy, destined for the occupation of veterans, but still un-
assigned, had been unlawfully occupied, and Vespasian endeavored
to resume these for the state. He retrenched the expenses of the
court, and by his own frugal life set the example of moderation.
The extravagant luxury which had prevailed at the courts of
Claudius and Nero seems to have gone out of fashion.

§ 6. The great public buildings which he erected show that he
succeeded in filling the treasury. The fire of Nero's reign as well
as the fire which attended the fall of Vitellius and ushered in the
Flavians, had given opportunity for the erection of new buildings.
Rome rose again from her ashes ; Roma resurgens is one of the
mottoes on coins of Vespasian. Besides the temple of Jupiter,
already men'ioned, Vespasian built a temple to Peace, the goddess
whom he pre-eminently revered (in 75 A.D.). This temple was
connected with an open place which resembled the fora of Caesar
and Augustus, but was not called a forum, not being ut-ed for
forensic purposes. It lay behind the Basilica ^Emilia and east of
the Forum August! from which it was separated by the Argiletum.
Domitian afterwards connected the Forum Augusti with the
Templum Pacis by the Forum transitorium. Pliny counted the
temple of Peace among the finest works in the world. Vespasian
depo.-ited in it the golden treasures which Titus brought back from
the temple of Jerusalem. On the south-east side of this place he
erected a Templum Sacrx Urbis, which served for keeping the
archives of the census. But the great work by which Vespasian
will be remembered is the huge amphitheatre which he built in the
hollow between the Esquiline and the Caelian to take the place of
the amphitheatre of Taurus in the Campus, which had been burnt
down in the great fire. This building, now popularly known as

* Si avaritia abesaet, antiquis ducibus par (Tacitus)

380

THE FLAVIAN EMPEKOES.

CHAP. XXL

the Colosseum, rose almost as high as the Capitol itself, and ac-
commodated nearly ninety-thousand spectators.*

§ 7. One of the most important cares of Vespasian was the
organisation of the praetorian guard. The cohorts formed by
Vitellius out of (he Germanic legions had in any case to be broken
up; but Vespasian bad to decide whether he would accept the
innovation of his predecessor and form the new guard out of his
own victorious legions, and adopt the increased number of sixteen
cohorts instead of nine. Both political and financial considerations
induced him to return to the system of Augustus. If he filled up
tho prsetorian cohorts from certain legions and not from others,
insolence on the one hand and jealousy on the other would be the
necessary results ; while the treasury could not afford to increase
the number of highly-paid troops. He therefore established again
the old number ot nine cohorts, and renewed the practice of
recruiting them from Italians. In regard to the lc giouaries, he had
to replace the Germanic troops who were dismissed in consequence
of the part they plnyed in the rebellion of Civilis, by three new
legions (II. Adjutrix, IV. Flavia Felix, XVI. Flavia Firma).
From this time forth Italians do not seem to have been recruited
as legionaries ; this, however, was probably the natural result of
their privilege, and not due to any enactment excluding tliem.

§ 8. In the provincial administration which was marked by the
appointment of good governors, several changes took place. lus
Latinum was conferred upon all the peregrine town-communities of
Spain,f and the new citizens were enrolled in the tribus Qnirina
(74 A.D.). The same privilege was probably bestowed upon the
Helvetians. Achaia, which Nero in his philhellenic enthusiasm had
declared free, was made tributary again, and restored to the senate,
while Sardinia and Corsica were transferred back to the Emperor.
The two Cilicias (Rough and Smooth) were united as a single
province under an imperial governor (73-74 A. D.); and Lycia and
Pamphylia were similarly united. The dependent kingdom of
Commagene was incorporated in the province of Syria (7-' A.D.) the
governor of Syria, Caesennius Paatus having accused King Antiochus
of conspiring with Parthia. This change must have been an
advantage for the inhabitants, who must have been more severely
taxed to keep up a small sovranty, than as tributaries of Rome.
The Parthian king tried ineffectually to procure the restoration of

* For a description of this building, see -begun in 73 A.D., but was not fully

below, Chap. XXXI., $ 24. carried out until the reign of Pomltian.

f It is possible that it may have been The municipal laws which w- re c-^nse-

conferred in some modified form on the quent ly drawn up for ^alpmsa and Malaca

non-civic communities, to which sMctiy (between 82 and 84 A.D.) are preserved,
i t. was not appropriate. The meaaure wa«

79 A.D. ACCESSION OF TITUS. 381

King Antiochus, and it is possible that these negotiations, as well as
the refusal of Rome to help Parthia against the Alans may have led
to a breach between the two powers, which resulted in hostilities in
77 A.D. when M. Ulpius Trajauus was governor of Syria. Volo-
geses invaded the province, but was compelled to retire by Trajan
—the future Emperor — who received for his services the triumphal
insignia, and was appointed proconsul of Asia two years later. The
east rn frontier was now protected not only by the four legions of
Syria, but by a legion in the newly -organised province of Galatia
and Cappadocia which was entrusted to a legatus August! pro
praetore. Vespasian's measures for the protection of the Danube
frontier and the wars of his lieutenant in Britain will be more
conveniently told in subsequent chapters.

§ 9. Vespasian died on June 23, 79 A.D. at the age of seventy.
During his last illness he carried on his public business as usual,
and said that an Imperator ought to die standing. He was
consecrated by a decree of the senate, like Claudius and Augustus.

SECT. II.— TITUS.

§ 10. Titus, already Imperator, already endowed with the tri-
bunician power, was elected Princeps and Augustus without a
demurring voice. Born hi the first year of Claudius, he had been
educated along with Britannicus. He accompanied his father to
Judea, and had been sent to announce to Galba the adhesion of the
eastern army. He was well educated, eloquent, aud accomplished,
and of great personal beauty. His conquest of Jerusalem established
his military reputation. He was fond of pleasure and dissipation.
While he was in the east he became the lover of Berenice, sister of
Agrippa, and during his father's reign she lived with him at Rome
as his mistress. But to the Romans, who might have tolerated a
Greek concubine, this open connection of the consort of the Emperor
wiih a Jewess was a scandal, and Titus yielded to their prejudices,
much against his will. Berenice returned to her country, but visited
Rome once more after the death of Vespasian. Titus, however, was
firm, and refused to sacrifice his influence to her seductions. He
had been married twice, and by his second wife, Marcia Furnilla,
had a daughter Julia, on whom he conferred the title Augusta,
after the example set by Nero in the case of Claudia.

§ 11. The great aim of Titus was to make himself popular. He
was already the darling of the soldiers, and when he became
Prinreps he courted favour with the aristocracy as well as with
the populace. Thus his short reign bears in several respects the
character of a reaction against his father's policy. He ingratiated

382

THE FLAVIAN EMPERORS.

CHAP. xxi.

himself with the senate by punishing delators, who were scourged in
the amphitheatre and deported to islands. He did not, like his
father, exercise control over the public officials, and he, allowed
peculation to go on unchecked. He was lavish in giving away,
and said that " no one ought to leave the presence ot the Princeps
disappointed." An anecdote is told that one evening at supper
he remembered that he had bestowed no gift on anyone during the

Titus (from the British Museum).

day, and said to his friends, " I have lost this day." He built
magnificent baths — the Thermae of Titus — for the people, and on
the occasion of the dedication of the great amphitheatre (80 A.D.;
he exhibited shows which lasted for a hundred days. There were
combats of gladiators, in which women took part, and five thousand
animals were slain. The arena was then filled with water, and a
sea-fight took place representing the battle of the Corinthians and
Corcyraeans recorded by Thucydides. There was also a representation
of the siege of Syracuse in the Naumachia of Augustus. At the

79 A.D.

POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM.

383

end of the exhibitions, tickets for a distribution of eatables were
thrown to the populace. By acts like these he wasted the funds
accumulated by the economy of his father, just as Gaius had wasted
the treasury of Tiberius.

§ 12. The reign of Titus was marked by public misfortunes at
Rome and in Campania. A fire broke out in the city (bO A.D.) and
consumed the new temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, not yet quite
completed. It also injured the Pantheon and Thermse of Agrippa,
the theatres of Pompeius and Balbus, and the portico of Octavia.
In 79 A.D. (August 23rd, 24th), the great eruption of Vesuvius
took place, which overwhelmed the cities of Pompeii and Her-
culaneum. Owing to this disaster a picture of the Greek civilisation
of Campania was safely preserved under the lava for the benefit of the
present century. A description of the eruption has been preserved
by an eye-witness, the younger Pliny, whose uncle, the elder Pliny,
perished by approaching too nearly the volcanic eruption, which
was also fatal to the lyric poet Caesius Bassus.

§ 13. The health of Titus was seriously undermined before he
became Princeps, and no remedies availed to cure him. He died in
his father's native district at Reate, on September 13th, 81 A.D.
His short term of power was not stained by a single execution of
a senator, and the Romans regretted his death. But it is impossible
to know what he might have turned out if he had lived longer.
He began somewhat like Nero and Gaius ; and it is possible that
when he had exhausted the treasury he might have ended like
Nero and Gaius too. He was popular — " the darling of the
world"*— but his popularity rested on a false foundation, and he
bequeathed to his successor the invidious task of replenishing the
fiscus which his extravagance had well-nigh emptied. The brevity
of his reign was indeed fortunate for Titus,f who, like his father,
was enrolled among the gods.

SECT. III. — DOMITIAN.

§ 14. Titus was succeeded by his brother Domitian,^: who had
just reached the age of thirty. It has been already mentioned how
he escaped from the sack of the Capitol by tne Yitellians, and was
saluted as Csesar after the Flavian victory. But Mucianus did not
allow him to exercise political power. He was eager to win military
fame, like his brother, and wished to take part in the Batavian war.
But Mucianus urged that it would be enough to exhibit the pomp

* This is the celebrated phrase of
Tacitus : delicise humani generis.
f Titus imperil felix brevitato (Auso-

nius).

J Imperator Caesar divf Vespasian!
f(ilius) Domitianus A

384

THE FLAVIAN EMPERORS.

CHAP. xxt.

of the principate at Lugndunum, as Cerealis had nearly finished
the war. Domiti-m yielded, but was so disgusted at his want of
influence, that when he returned to Romo he refused any longer to
act as a figure-head in pubic mat'ers, and retired to a villa on the
Alban mount, where he lived with 1 is mistress Domitia, daughter
of Corbulo, tlie hero of the Armenian wars. But in the lew
months during which he had represented his father he had tasted

Domitian (from the btatue at Munich).

/

the pleasures of power and sovranty, and he felt bitter when, after
his father's return, he was kept strictly in the background. He
lived with his father, and it was thus clearly shown that he was
under the patria p otestas. He was jealous of his brother who had
been made consort in the Empire. While Vespasian and Titus
were borne in ihe-«etfa. Domitian had to follow in the lectica. He
was six times consul, but only once at the bevinning of the year
(73 A.D ), and then because Titus retired in his favour. He still
yearned to distinguish himself in warfare, and when the Parthian

31 A.1X ACCESSION OF DOM1TIAN. 385

king asked for Roman help against an invasion of the Alans,
Domitian left nothing undone to induce Vespasian to send him;
and when Vespasian refused, he tried by gifts to induce other eastern
potentates to make similar requests for help. Outwardly, indeed,
Domitian received all the honours which an Emperor's son might
expect. He was allowed to wear ihe laurel wreath; his imag^ was
represented on coins, and his superscription, along with those of
his father and brother, on public buildings. He was made a
member of all the sacred colleges. But he had no political
influence ; he was given no opportunity of winning military
renown ; and no mere outward marks ot honour could reconcile him
to hisposiiion. It was said that on his father's death he formed the
plan of bribing the praetorians to make him Imperator by a double
donative. He seems at all events to have hoped that he would
occupy the same place under Titus which Titus himself had
occupied under Vespasian. But though Titus recognised him in
an unofficial way as his consort and successor, the proconsular
imperium and tribunician power were not conferred upon him.
This was a new and bitter disappointment, and there is no doubt
that jealousy and suspicion prevailed between trr brothers. Titus,
however, really regarded Domitian as his successor. For he had
no male children; and in order to avoid any question about the
succession, he actually proposed a marriage between his daughter
Julia and Domitian. Unions between uncles and nieces had been
legitimised by Claudius, but they were a gross defiance of old
Roman prejudices, and Domitian was a strong upholder of Roman
religion. Besides this he was passionately fond of his mistress
Domitia, whom he married, and the idea of Titus fell through.
Julia was united to her cousin Flavius Sabinus, the son of
Vespasian's brother, who perished in the Vitellian catastrophe.

Domitian had ridden at full speed to Rome from his brother's
bedside, and was greeted Imperator by the praetorians, and he
counted September 13th as the dies imperil, from which he also
dated his tribunician year, although the tribunicia potestas was not
conferred upon him till September 30th. He assumed the chief
Pontificate immediately, and also the title Pater Patrias, which
his predecessors had been accustomed not to accept for some time
after the accession. This trait is characteristic of the autocratic
and imperious nature of Domitian.

§ 15. The reign of Domitian was marked by a new and distinct
departure in autocratic policy, forming— it is hardly too much to
say — an epoch in the growth of the Principate towards absolute
monarchy; by important wars against Dacians and (iermans on
the Danube frontier; and by the advance of Roman arms in

386 THE FLAVIAN EMPERORS. CHAP. xxi.

Britain. These wars will be described in the following chapter.
Here must be mentioned a small campaign on the Rhine, by which
Domitian secured the military distinction which he had desired
and which befitted the position of an Imperator.

In 83 A.D. the Emperor proceeded to Gaul on the plea of a
census in that country, but his real object was to cross the Rhine
and invade the country of the Chatti. What the Chatti had done
to provoke this attack, is not known. The chastisement of
their plundering bands, which often troubled the Upper province,
hardly required an imperial expedition. In any case a victory was
gained over the Chatti, and Domitian celebrated a splendid triumph,
and assumed the name Germanicus, by which he is constantly
called in contemporary literature. His enemies ridiculed this
victory as a mere farce, and it was maliciously whispered that in
the triumphal procession slaves wearing wigs of fair hair and
dressed in German fashion acted the part of Chattic captives. On
the other hand, the poets seeking for imperial favour exaggerated
the imperial exploit. The victory, of whatever nature it was,
must have been of some importance, though this is not always
recognised ; and it was connected with a new plan of frontier
defence, which will be described in the following chapter.

§ 16. In the beginning of his reign Domitian was gracious to the
senate, as the senators themselves admitted. Like Titus, he put
down delation, and punished delators, on the principle* that unless
a delator is chastised he is encouraged. But when the Emperor
had established his power securely, and felt himself after his
Germanic triumph a true Imperator, he soon began to let the
nobles see that they were greatly mistaken if they expected him to
a<! here to the constitution of Augustus. Naturally endowed with
a cap>city for governing, and imbued with an autocratic spirit, he
was determined to rule the state himself. The joint rule of the
senate, the "dyarchy" which Augustus had framed so tenderly,
seemed to Domitian intolerable, and he aimed at reducing it to a
nullity. Other Emperors had indeed assumed more than their
own share of the government, and made the senate feel its dependent
] osition ; but they had done so only by fits and starts. Tiberius
and Nero had been autocratic in their last years, but they had
made no constitutional innovation vitally affecting the relation
between Princeps and senate. But Domitian worked towards the
political annihilation of the senate systematically and in cold blood ;
and that is why the senatorial party regarded him with such intense
hatred.

(i) It has been already explained that the Princeps exercised

* Princeps qul dolatores non castlpat irrltat.

85-96 A.D. DOMITIAN'S CENSOKSHIP. 387

influence on the constitution of the senate by his right of com-
mendation in the case of those magistracies which conferred
admission to that body. But he had no right of directly appointing
senators. Such right of adlection, as it was called, could only be
exercised by the censor ; and the censorial power did not belong to
the competence of the Prince) s, according to the Augustan con-
stitution. Claudius had assumed the censorship, and more recently
Vespasian had assumed it, but in each case only to lay it down again
at the end of a year. In fact, the maintenance of the censorship as
an independent magistracy, not connected with the Principate as
such, but which the Princeps, or any other eligible citizen, might
fill when required, was an essential feature of the Principate. And
Domitian saw this clearly. He saw that the censorship was the
means by which he could reduce the position of the senate to
insignificance. Once the Princeps possessed the powers of a
censor perpetually, the control of the senate was entirely in his
hands, and the system of Augustus was undermined. Domitian
did not hesitate. He first caused the censoria potestas to be
conferred on him (end of 84 or early in 85 A.D.), but a few months
later assumed the office of censor for life.* With this power ot
electing; and ejecting whomsoever he chose, he made the senate
completely dependent on his own will. The Principate thus received
a permanent shock ; for his successors, though they did not assume
the title of censor, silently retained the censorial powers. The
senate continued, indeed, to share the cares of government; its
nominal position in the constitution remained unchanged ; but
virtually the Principate had become a monarchy without disguise.
In connection with this important innovation, it is probable that
the census office (a censibus pop. Rom.}, which was under the
control of the senate, was made an imperial office over which a
knight presided.

(2) Domitian was consul ten times during his principate; seven
times in succession from 82 to 88 A.D., then apain iu 90, 92, and
95 A.D. He never continued in office beyond the 1st of May, some-
times not beyond the Ides of January, but it looks as if he intended
to assert for the Princeps the right of giving the name to the year.
In this he was following the example of his father, who throughout
his reign generally assumed the consulship. But Domitian went
further than Vespasian. In 84 A.D. he caused himself to be
designated consul for ten years. He had precedents for this in the
case of Tiberius, who, along with Sejanus, had been designated
consul for five years (29 A.D.), and in that of Nero, who had been
designated for ten years (58 A.D.). Neither Tiberius nor Nero hao

* Martial addresses Domitiau as censor maxime, principumyue princeps (vt 4}.

388 THE FLAVIAN EMPEROB8. CHAP. XXL

cared to carry out their derivations, and Domirian did not fully
carry out bis; but he went nearer to a con'intious consulship than
any of his predecessors since the consulships of Augustus himself
from 30 to 23 B c.

(3) The senate was very anxious, for its own safety, to have the
principle laid down that the Emperor was incompetent to condemn a
senator to death. Titus had acted on this principle, hut he had
not formally admitted it. Domitian, a strong asserter of the
higher power of the Princeps, refused to recognise a decree of this
kind which the senate wished to pass. And what made matters
worse was that Domitian formed his consilium out of knights as
well as senators, so that, when a senator was tried before tht
imperial court, a knight might be one of his judges.

(4) Practically Domitian treated the senate as of no account,
lie only asked its opinion on matters of no consequence, and he
constantly used his right of voting first in order to force the res/
to vote as he willed. The senators were completely cuwed.

(5) In outward forms too Domitian di>played his autocratic
spirit. The procurators were permitted to designate the Emperor
as dominus ac deus, and the same expression was used by the
poets ; but it was not recognised as an official title. The citizens,
however, always spoke of him as dominus. Domitian was regarded
by the people as something very dilferent from a First Citizen.
Further, he regularly wore the purple garment of triumph, even
when he appeared in the senate : he was attended by twenty-four,
inst< ad of twelve, lictors ; and he allowed only statues of gold and
silver to be set up in his honour.

§ 17. If Vespasian had made Augustus his model, Domitian
derived precepts of government from the Memoirs of Tiberius, a
book which he constantly studied. Like Tiberius, he was an able
and clear-headed ruler. He controlled with a strong hand the
officials both in the provinces and in the city. Only those were
appointed of whose personal devotion the Emperor was secure, and
this principle was appli- d even to senatotial provinces. Can-
didates whom Domitian mistrusted were indue* d to withdraw, and
received in compensation the proconsular salary of a million
sesterces. But Domitian, unlike Tiberius, did not suffer the
praetorian prefects to gain any political influence, like that which
Sejanus and Tigelliuus had possessed. In this he was following
the example of his father.

Domitian was fully conscious that the independent position of
the Emperor in regp*rd to the senate necessarily rested on the
support of the army. The Flavian dynasty had been set up by
the soldiers; both Vespasian and Titus had maintained its

88 A.D. BE VOLT OF SATUBNINUS. 389

military character ; but Domitian went even further than iney in
displaying the importance of the legions and in emphasising his
own character as Imperator. His breach with the senate rendered
him more dependent on the favour of the army. He added a very
large item to the yearly expenditure by increasing the pay of
the legionary soldiers by one third (from nine to twelve aurei), and
that of the praetorians hi a similar proportion.

The ordering of the finances was one of the most difficult
problems for Domitian, as for his father. The extravagance of
Titus had diminished the full treasury of Vespasian, and Domitian
had no intention of resuming Vespasian's policy of parsimony. On
the contrary, Domitian was a most open-handed sovran. His
liberality to his friends was profuse, and, like Titus, he entertained
the populace with frequent games and shows on a magnificent
scale. On these occasions he distributed congiaria or bread-money
among the poorer citizens, at the rate of three hundred sesterces
each. He tried to diminish the burdens of the people, and
cancelled arrears due to the seiarium of longer standing than five
years. He abandoned the claim of the state, which had been
enforced by Vespasian, to the unallotted stnps of land in Italy.
In his financial measures he was assisted by the advice of Claudius
Etruscus, who had been a minister of Nero. But a policy of this
kind could not be permanent. The wars in Britain and on the
Danube were costly ; while the buildings which he undertook and
the spectacles which he exhibited demanded immense sums. To
increase the tribute and oppress the mass of the population was
against the traditions of the Empire, and especially opposed to the
principles of Domitian. He was thus placed in the same circum-
stances which had driven Gaius and Nero into a systematic course
of plundering the nobility.

§ 18. but other motives along with these financial necessities
contributed to make the last dajs of Domitian a reign of terror
for the aristocracy. His wife Domitia had borne him one son, who
had died in childhood ; and without an heir Domitian did not feel
secure. He saw in every distinguished man a possible successor,
a possible assassin. His suspicions and fears were confirmed and
increased by the rebellion of L. Antonius Saturninus (probably
early in 88 A.D.) the governor of Upper Germany. He was a man
of noble family, and had accomplices in the senatorial ranks. He
induced the two legions which were stationed in his headquarters
(XI. Claudia and XXI. Rapax) to proclaim him Impera'or, and he
relied for the success of his enteri >rise on the assistance of the free
Germans beyond the Rhine, doubtless the Chatti. The revolt,
however, was promptly and unexpectedly suppressed by L. Appius

390 THE FLAVIAN EMPERORS. CHAP. xxi.

Maximus Norbanus, who arrived with the VUIth legion, and
defeated the forces of Saturninus, who had not received the aid of
his German allies, because the ice on the Rhine had suddenly
thawed and prevented their crossing. It is not known for certain
where Norbanus and his legion came from ; but it seems probable
that he was the legatus of the legion stationed at M oguntiacum,
and thus a subordinate of Saturninus, who was doubtless stationed
at Vindonissa. The battle took place perhaps in the neighbour-
hood of Basilia. The news of the revolt caused great consternation
at Rome, and Domitian himself went forth to suppress the pretender,
but heard on the march that Norbanus had anticipated him.
Domitian left nothing undone to discover the fellow-conspirators of
Saturninus, and Roman senators are said to have been subjected to
horrible tortures in the investigations which followed. Many were
put to death, and almost all the officers in the rebellious army were
executed. From this time forth Domitian developed into a
suspicious tyrant, somewhat like Tiberius in his later years. He
hated and feared the aristocracy, and the aristocracy hated and
feared him. His niece Julia, whom he had refused to marry, but
whom he afterwards seduced from her husband, Flavius Sabinus,
had exercised upon him a softening influence, and after her death in
89 A.D. he felt that he had no one whom he could trust. He still
devoted his time to public business with unwearying diligence,
but he lived solitary, inaccessible and misanthropic.

At a later period he made some provision for the succession to
the Principate. He had two cousins, Flavius Sabinus, the husband
of Julia, and Flavius Clemens, husband of Flavia Domitilla.
Domitian let it be understood, that he destined the two infant sons
of Clemens to be his successors. He changed their names to
Vespasian and Domitian, and entrusted their education to the
learned Quintilian.

§ 19. Another cause which operated in converting Domitian into
a tyrant was the continuance of that irritating and obstinate Stoic
opposition which we have seen at work under Nero, and again under
Vespasian. In 93 A.D., a number of these worshippers of Cato
fell under suspicion, and were punished. Herennius Senecio had
composed a panegyric on Helvidius Prisons, who had perished under
Vespasian ; he was accused of maiestas by the delator Metius Carus,
and was condemned to death. Fannia, the widow of Priscus and
daughter of Thrasea, had supplied Herennius with the materials
for this work. She was therefore banished, arid her property
confiscated. The composition was publicly burned in the
Comitium. L. Junius Arulenus Rusticus, " the ape of the Stoics "
(stoicorum aimia), as an opponent called him, was condemned to

9S--96

MAIESTAS AND DELATION.

391

death on & ifmilar charge of having published laudations of Thrasea
and Priscus. The Emperor's wife Domitia had been suspected of
an intrigue with Paris, a celebrated and popular actor.* Donritian
consequently divorced his wife and caused Paris to be stabbed in
the street, to the great grief of the populace. Many brought
perfumes and flowers to his tomb. The younger Helvidius Prisons
composed an Atellnne farce on the subject of Paris and (Enone,
and he was accused of disguising under this form unfavourable
criticisms on the Emperor. He was arrested in the senate-house,
and condemned to death. Other members of the same clique were
sent into banishment, including Arria, the mother of Fannia,
Gratilla, the wile of Rusticus, and Junius Mauricus, his brother.
At the same time a decree of the senate was passed by which
philosophers, mathematics (astrologers) and soothsayers, were
banished from Italy, just as in the reign of Vespasian. This decree
affected, among others, the Stoic Epictetus, and Dion, called
Chrysostomus, " Golden-mouthed," a native of Prusa, whose
interesting rhetorical essays are still extant.f

Domitian's suspicions hatred of the aristocracy, caused by his
childlessness, and strengthened and increased by conspiracies and
by the opposition of the party of Priscus, co-operated with the
financial straits to which he was reduced, to bring about a
repetition of the unjust executions and confiscations which
had stained the last years of Nero. The system of delation which
G-aius, Nero, and Domitian had each in the opening years of his
reign sternly and honestly rejected, was called into requisition
by Domitian, as well as by the other two. Among the most
prominent delators were Catullus Messalinus and Metius Cams;
M. Aquilius Regulus,| an able orator who was regarded with
jealousy by Pliny ; and Massa Bsebius, who, having been proconsul
of Bsetica, was accused of extortion by Pliny and Senecio, and
was condemned. Perhaps the part which Senecio played in the
trial had something to do with his own condemnation shortly
afterwards.

Another prominent favourite at the court of Domitian was a man
of low birth named Crispinus, a native of Egypt, who, coming to
Rome, at first dealt in salt-fish, but was presently exalted to the
rank of praetorian prefect. He affected the airs and dress of a

* Paris was a pantomime (see below,
Chap. XXXI. 21). Juvenal mentions him
as acting the Agave of Statius (vii. 87) :

Ksurit, intactam Paridi nisi vendit
Agaven.

f See below, Chap. XXV $ 28.

j Perhaps to la th« delator whom

Juvenal mentions as feared by Massa and
Carus in Satire i. 33:

Magni delator amici
Et cito rapturus de nobilitate comesa
Quod superest, quern Massa timet,

queni munere palpat
Carus.

392 THE FLAVIAN EMPERORS. CHAT . XXL

dandy, and seems to have been detested as an insolent up-
start.*

Domitian knew that conspiracies were formed against him, and
as he could not lay his finger on them, innocent victims often
perished. His cousin Flavius Submits perished on suspicion of
treason. The two whose death excited most indignation were
Flavius Clemens and Epaphroditus. Clemens was his cousin, and
father of the presumptive heirs of the Empire. He and his wife
Flavia Domitilla had been converted to a foreign religion, and
this was made a charge against them. He was put to death and
Domitilla banished. E| aphroditus was the freedman who had
helped Nero to commit suicide, and, although twenty-eight years
had passed since then, Domitian punished him for maiestas. Such
examples of cruelty alarmed the Emperor's household; and it was
from this quarter where he felt himself safe, not from the senate
which he feared, that vengeance came. The Augusta, Domitia,
whom he bad divorced on the suspicion of an intrigue with an
actor, as already mentioned, he afterwards recalled ; but she did
not feel secure, and she organised a conspiracy, along with the
freedmen of the palace, Parthenius, Entellus, and Stephanus. The
two praetorian prefects Norbanus and Petronius Secundus were
privy to it, and the conspirators fix<d on M. Cucceius Nerva as
the successor of their victim. Stephanus, a man of great bodily
strength, undertook to do the deed. Pretending to have hurt
his left arm, he carried it for some days in a sling, and on the
appointed day (September 18, 96 A.D.) hid a dagger in the cloths
which bound it. Obtaining an audience of the Emperor, to give
information touching a conspiracy, he presented a document to
Domitian, and as he was hastily reading it, drew the dagger and
stabbed him in the loins. Domitian threw himself on the assassin,
and called a page to bring him his s\vor»i and summon the attendants.
But the sword, which lay under a pillow, was useless ; for it had
been tampered with by the precautions of the conspirators. As
Domitian wrestled with Stephanus, the other conspirators rushed
in and dispatched their victim. The attendants arrived too late
to save their master, but in time to slay Stephnnus.

§ 20. The senate rejoiced at the death of the tyrant whom it
detested, and the senators hastened to the curia to express their
long-concealed hatred without restraint. His statues and busts

* If we may trust Juvenal, who sketches
him In Sat., I. 26 sqq. :
Cum pars Nlliacae plebis, cum verna

Ventilet ffistivum dlgitis sudantibus

aurnm,
Nee sufferre queat maioris pondera

Canopi geniu ee

Crlspinus, Tyrias umero revocante lacer- Lifflcile est saturam non scribere.

96 A.D. MURDER OF DOMITIAN. 393

were torn down, and it was resolved to destroy everything that
suggested his memory. A decree was passed that the name
Domitian should everywl ere be erased. The consequences of the
hatred ot the senate can be felt by us at the present day ; for there
remain extraordinarily lew inscriptions dating from the reign of
Domitian. A decent burial was uot accorded to him; he was
carried out on a common bier, such as was used by poor pe<-ple.
But his nurse Phyllis contrived to deposit his ashes in the
temple of the Gens Flavia, a sepulchre lor the Flavian dynasty
which he had built, and placed them in the same urn in which
reposed the ashes of his beloved niece, the Divine Julia. The
soldiers did not share in the jubilation of the senate ; they loved
Domitian, and if they had had a capable leader they would have
probably insisted by force on the consecration of then: imperator.
The populace neither rejoiced nor lamented ; they had no reason
to hate him, tor he had been generous to them ; but his haughty,
inaccessible manner hindered them from feeling personal affec-
tion for him.

§ 21. In his youth Domitian was noted for his beauty ; but in
later years he showed a tendency to corpulence, and became bald
(his enemies called him '* bald Nero ").* His eyes were large and
languid, but the expression of his face was intense. The family re-
semblance to Vespasian and Titus comes out in his busts. He was
not fond of physical exercise, but was a good archer. Though he
gave luxurious banquets, he was moderate in eating. He has been
accused of gross licentiousness, but such charges must be judged in
relation to the practice of the times. There is no reason to suppose
that he was either better or worse in this respect than his contem-
I»oraries of noble rank. He was an unusually strict defender of the
national religion, and he protected morality from a religious, if not
from an ethical, point of view. In this be followed the example of
Augustus, who regarded religion as conducive to the welfare of the
stare; and his reign contrasts with the indifference of his pre-
decessors. In 83 A.D. three Vestal virgins were charged with tin-
chastity, arid condemned. They were allowed to choose the mode
of their death, and their seducers were banished. But some time
later the chief Vestal Cornelia was accused of a criminal intrigue
with a knight named Celer, and was found guilty. Domitian, as
Pontifex Maximus, revived in her case the ancient punishment,
which was generally regarded as obsolete ; and Cornelia, in spite of
her protestations of innocence, was buried alive in the Campus
Sceleratus.f It is worth noting that Pliny, in speaking of this case,

* Calvut Nero, Juvenal, iv. 38. I he writes (iv. 10) : Sanguine adhuc vivo

f Juvenal IB thinking of Cornelia when I terrain snbitura sacerdoe.
17*

394

THE FLAVIAN EMPERORS.

CHAP. XXL

feels less indignation at the cruelty of the sentence, than at the
circumstance that Domitian judged the case in his Alban villa, and
not in the Regia, the office of the Pontifex.* Celer was scourged
to death in the Comitium.

In maintaining the national religion, Domitian tried to hinder
the spread of oriental cults. The Jews did not specially suffer,f
although the tribute of two drachmas to Jupiter of the Capitol was
strictly exacted. There was a Jewish rising in Judea (85 to
86 A.D.), which was easily put down. Some Christians suffered
death for refusing to worship the Emperor's image, but there
is no evidence of a general persecution. The tale of the martyrdom
of St. John the Evangelist is universally recognised to be a fable.
It has been supposed that Fluvius Clemens and Domitilla, who are
said to have been accused of " impiety ,"J were Christians, and this
is not improbable.

He encouraged, however, one oriental cult, that of Isis, the
Egyptian goddess, and built a splendid temple to her and Serapis,
the Iseum et Serapeum. In 88 A.D. he celebrated the Ludi Seculares,
reckoning the hundred years from the celebration held by Augustus.§
If Domitian was severe as Pontifex Maximus, he was also severe
as censor. He strictly enforced the lex Scantinia against unnatural
crimes, and the lex lulia anainst adultery. Many senators and
knights were condemned by these laws, and his strictness increased
the hatred with which he was regarded. He deprived women,
who had been condemned under the Julian law, of the right of
using a litter (lectica) or accepting legacies. He tried to suppress
the licentiousness of the theatres, and forbade pantomimes to
appear in public, while he allowed them to hold performances in
private houses. He put down the oriental practice of mutilating
boys in order to sell them as eunuchs, and endeavoured to
dimmish the trade in eunuchs by lowering the prices.

§ 22. It devolved upon Domitian to restore the buildings which
had been consumed by the fire in the reign of Titus. The temple
of Jupiter Capitolinus had to be rebuilt once more, and it rose under
his auspices in greater magnificence than ever. He also erected
on the Capitol a temple to Jupiter Gustos, in thanksgiving for

* Augustus had assigned the Regia to
the Vestal virgins (see above, Chap. X.
$ 2); but it seems to have been tigain
occupied by the chief pontiff.

f The Jews were allowed to have
synagogues at Rome. To ask a man
" In what synagogue shall I find you ? "
( in qua te gutero prosettcJM, Juvenal, Sat.,
iii. 296), implying that he was a Jewish
proselyte, was a form of abuse. Juvenal

describes the grove of Egeria near the
Capene gate as thronged with Jewish
beggars, "whose furniture is a basket
and hay (for a bed)," quorum cophinus
faenumque supellex, iii. 14.

* dfleoTijs. Dion Cassius mentions in
the j-ame connection that 01 hers were con-
demned for adopting Judaism. (Ixvii. 14).

0 Martial, iv. 1. 7.:
Hie colat ingenti redeuntia secttla lustro

85 A.D. JUVENAL ON DOMITIAN. 395

his own rescue from the hands of the Vitellians. The temple
of the Divine Vespasian and the Divine Titus was built at the
western extremity of the Forum, between the Clivus Capitolinus
and the temple of Concord. Three Corinthian pillars of this small
building still stand. Several temples were erected to Minerva, the
goddess whom Domitian specially revered. For the purpose of
games he built a stone stadium in the Campus, and also an Odeum
for musical performances. The former of these buildings accom-
modated 30,000, the latter 10,000 people. Domitian also completed
the palace begun by Nero, but confined it to the limits of the
Palatine. On all buildings, whether first built by him or only
restored, Domitian inscribed his own name.

§ 23. Our records of Domitian are very scanty, and come
almost entirely from prejudiced witnesses, so that it is difficult
to get a clear and fair view of his acts and policy. On the one
hand we have the flatteries of the poets who courted his favour ;
on the other, the venomous invectives written by members of
the senatorial party, like Pliny and Tacitus, after his death.
Martial and Statius generally speak of him as a god, and all that
appertains to him as divine. " Capitoline," the epithet of Jupiter,
is applied to him ; he is the Ausonian Jupiter, and Domitia the
Roman Juno.* To Tacitus, he is a tyrant without a redeeming
virtue, and so the aristocracy in general regarded him. His con-
temptuous treatment of the senate, as far as it was represented in
the Emperor's consilium, is cleverly travestied by the satirist
Juvenal. The scene is placed in the end of 85 A.D. The members
of the council, such is this" true history," were suddenly summoned
in haste to the Emperor's Alban citadel. " They were, it seems,
eleven in number, and in twice or thrice as many verses their
crimes are succinctly traced for us with a pen of cynical sincerity.
One after another pass before us, Pegasus, the prefect — say rather
the bailiff — of the city, for what is Home but the Emperor's farm,
and the prefect of Rome but his manciple? — Fuscus, brave and
voluptuous, soon to leave his limbs a prey to the Dacian vultures ;
Crispus, a mild and genial greybeard, who has lon^ owed his life to
the meekness with which he has yielded to the current, and shrunk
from the vain assertion of independence ; the Glabrios, father and
son, of whom the elder slunk through an inglorious existence in
pusillanimous security, the younger was doomed to perish
innocently, condemned to fight with beasts in the arena ; the blind
Catullus, deadliest of delators, with whom Domitian, as with a blind
and aimless weapon, aimed at his destined victims ; to these were
added the sly Veiento, the fat old sycophant, Montanus, Crispinus

* Statiufl (Silv., iii. 4. 18) : Jupiter Ausonius parlter Romanaque Juno.

396

THE FLAVIAN EMPEBOK&

CHAP.

redolent with the perfumes of his native East, the vile spy
Pompeius, who slit men's throats with a whisper, and Rubrius, the
perpetrator of some crime too bad, it seems, to be specific 1 even in
that day of evil deeds and shameless scandals. Such were the
men who now hurried in the darkness along the Ai-pian Way, and
met at midnight in the vestibule of the imperial villa, or the
tyrant's fortress, which crowned the lon^ hill of the assent to Alba.
Anxiously they asked each otlier, *' What news ? — What fie purport
of their unexpected summons? — What foes of Rome had Broken
the prince's slumbers, the Chatti, or the Sicarnbri,* the Britons or
the Dacians?" While they were yet waiting for admission, the
menials of the palace entered, bearing aloft a huge tui bot, a present
to the Emperor, which they had the mortification of seeing intro-
duced into his presence, while the doors were still shut against
themselves. A humble fisherman of the upper coast had (bund the
monster stranded on the beach, beneath the fane of Venus at
Ancona, and had hurried with his prize across the Apennines, to
receive a reward for so rare an offering to the imperial table.
When at last the councillors were admitted, the question reserved
for their deliberations was no otlier than this, whether the big fish
should be cut in pieces or served up whole on some enormous
platter constructed in its honour. The cabinet was no doubt
sensibly persuaded that the question allowed at least of no delay,
and with due expressions of surprise and admiration voted the dish
and set the potter's wheel in motion. "f

* This is the only reference we have
to warfare against the Su^ambri (west of
tbe Chatti) in Domitiau's rei^n.

f Juvenal, Satire iv. The reproduc-
tion in the text is borrowed from
Merivale. Juvenal concludes with a
wish that the tyrant had devoted to such
trifles all the time in \\hich he was
oppressing the citizens (11. 150-154) :

Atque utinam his potius nugis tota ilia
dedisset

TemporaMBvitte, claras quibus abstulit

urbi
Inlustresque animas impune et vindice

nullo.
Sed periit postquam Cerdonibus esse

timendus
Coeperat ; hoc nocuit Lamiarum csede

madenti.

The words "he perished when the
Cerdons— that is, the nobodies --came to
fear him," refer to the low rank of his
murderers— Stephanus, &c.

Portrait of Vespasian.

CHAPTER XXIL

BRITAIN AND GERMANY UNDER THE FLAVIANS. DACIAN WAB.

1. Britain under Petillius Cerealis and Frontinus. § 2. Agricola. § 3.
Campaigns of 79, 80, 81 A.D. Eburacum. § 5. Invasion of Caledonia.
Battle of the Graupian Hill (83 A.D.). § 6. Agricola recalled.
Domitian not to he Mamed. § 7. The Airicola of Tacitus. Estimate
of Agricola. — § 8. The Agri Decumnni. Vespasian's strategic lines in
the Main and Neckar regions. § 9. Domitian's occupation of the
Taunus district. Line of forts. Limes Germanicus. § 10. Limes
Rceticus. — § 11. Dacian and Sarmatian danger. § 12. Measures of
Vespasian for defence of Danube. § 13. Kingdom and designs of
Decebalus. § 14. He defeats Roman armies, but is defeated by
Julianus at Tapae. § 15. Romans defeated by the Suevians. Peace
with Decebalus. Triumph of Domitian (89 AOX). Suevian and
Sarraatian war.

398 BRITAIN AND GEKMANfc CHAP, xxii

SECT. I. — AOBICOLA IN BRITAIN.

§ 1. UNDER the Flavian Emperors no important addition was made
to the Boman Empire, such as had been made under Claudius by
the conquest of Britain. But in two quarters the boundaries were
pushed forward. The ea*tern boundary of Upper Germany advanced
considerably into trans-Khenane territory, and the province of
Britain was enlarged by a further advance northward.

The legatus of Britain, Petronius Turpilianus, (62-64 A.D.) had
been succeeded by Trebellius Maximus (64-69 A.D.) and Vettius
Bolanus (69-70 A.D.). These governors1 seem to have contented
themselves with administering the province as they found it, with-
out attempting to enlarge it. Bolanus seems to have founded forts
against the natives. His successor, Petillius Cerealis, who had
commanded the IXth legion when it was nearly exterminated in
the great revolt of the Iceni, and who had recently distinguished
himself by the suppression of the rebellion of Civilis, was not
satisfied with the inaction of his predecessors. He made war upon
the Brigantes, the most powerful of all the British tribes, whose
name was sometimes used as synonymous with " Britons." The
XlVth legion, which had been sent from Britain to his assistance
in Germany, did not return to its old station, but Vespasian
sent him II. Adjutrix in its place. After many battles with
the Brigantes, whose territory extended from the Solway to the
Wash, Cerealis reduced part of their land under Roman sway;
including the town of Lindum (Lincoln) where he established
the II. Adjutrix. This legion was removed to Pannonia at the
beginning of Domitian's reign, but some tombstones found at
Lincoln show that its station was there during the few intervening
years. Thus, the result of the war of Cerealis was that the
northern boundary-line of the province was no longer drawn from
Glevum to Camalodunum — with an advanced post at Deva in the
west — but from Deva to Lindum. But south of this frontier, the
western highlands (Wales) could not yet be considered part of the
province. The subjugation of the tribes in this quarter devolved
upon the two successors of Cerealis. Sextus Julius Frontinus,
whose name is well-known as an authority on the art of war, and
who was capable of applying his theory, reduced the Silures, in the
south ; while his successor, Gnseus Julius Agricola (78-85 A.D.),
conquered the Ordovices and occupied the island of Mona, which
Suetonius Paulinus had been compelled to abandon, in the first
year of his governorship. In the conquest of Mona he was, like
Paulinus, assisted by the skill of the Batavians in swimming.

79-81 A.D. AGKICOLA'S FIRST CAMPAIGNS. 399

§ 2. Agricola, whom Vespasian thus called to be governor of
Britain, had already, like Cerealis, served his time in that
country in subordinate posts. He had served under Suetonius
Paulinos as military tribune, and, atrain, under Vettius Bolanus as
legatus of the XXth legion. On this occasion (70 A.D.) he had
the difficult task of restoring discipline among the troops, who had
been demorali ed by a quarrel between his predecessor Roscius
Caslius and the governor Trebellius Maximus. He had then been
appointe 1 legatus pro prsetore of Aquitania, had been recalled to
Rome to fill the consulship, and then sent to succeed Front inus
in Britain. A governor of Britain might, enga'e in one or both
of two enterprises at this | eiiod. He might devote his atten-
tion either to " intensive conquest," that is, the civilisation and
consolidation of the province as he found it, or to " extensive
conquest," that is, to carrying its boundaries further north by con-
quering new tribes. Agricola professed to do both, but really
sacrificed the intensive conquest to the extensive. The confidence
which the Emperors reposed in him was shown by the unusually
long period during which he was suffered to remain in his
command.

§ 3. The second year (79 A.D.) of Agricola's legateship was
spent in completing the reduction of the recently conquered tribes
— probably in Wales — by building forts and making roads through
woods and marshes During the winter the troops remained in
their quarters, and Agricola occupied himself with the Romaniza-
tion of the natives. In the third summer (80 A.D.) he advanced
against new tribes in the north, laying the land waste as far as an
estuary called Tanaus. It has been thought that this unknown
name may represent the North Tyne-at Dunbar. The Britons did
not attempt to oppose the legions, and they had time to establish
some castetta, in which they remained during the winter. The
following summer (81 A.D.) was spent in completing the occupation
of the land which had been traversed, and the army advanced as
far as the sestuaries of Clota and Bodotria (the Clyde and the
Forth). The narrow strip of land between these friths was fortified
and occupied by garrisons; and it seemed as if the enemy, who
retreated into the northern highlands, had been " removed to another
island." In this expedition Agricola had, probably, about 30,000
men with him, counting both legions and auxiliaries; and his
operations were supported by a fleet, perhaps, on the east coast.
At this time the Britannic legions were reduced to three by the
recall of II. Adjutrix, whose removal left Lindum without a
garrison. A new station more northerly than Lindum was
probably established. It seems certain that Agricola did not

400 BRITAIN AND GERMANY. CHAP, xxn

venture to push so far into the unknown re i ions of the north
without securing the territory north of the Humber, and we may
take it for granted tliat he occupied Ebnracum, the chief town
of the Brigantes, the modern York. This position took the place
of Lindum, and was, perhaps garrisoned by the IXth legion. In
later times Elmracum became '.he chief centre in Britain.*

§ 4. In the next year Agricola sailed across the estuary of Clota
to the western districts of Caledonia — probably Arran and Cantire.
He had conceived the project of conquering HiUrnia, which he
thought might be best approache 1 from this point. The conquest,
he imagined, could be easily accomplished with one legion and a
small number of auxiliaries, and he held that it would prove
important to the complete subjection and pacification of Britain.
For Hibernia occupied much the same relation to Britain as Britain
itself occupied to Gaul. One of the chief reasons tor occupying
Britain was, that as long as the Guils saw a tree lat d beyond the
channel, a land into which they could themselves flee for refuse,
they were restless under R -man rule. In the same way, the sight
of free Hibernia had a disturbing effect on the sp'rits of enslaved
Britannia. In addition to these considerations, a false geographical
notion recommended the policy of including Hibernia in the
Empire. It was supposed that Hibernia lay between Britain and
Spain, and thus formed a natural connection between the western
provinces of the Empire. But AgricoU could not carry out his
project wiihout additional forces. The three legions in Britain
were little enough for the security of the province, extended as it
was by his new acquisitions. He applied to Domirian for another
legion, but the request was refused, an«l the enterprising governor
was obliged to abandon his project. Domitian acted in accordance
with the cautious precept of Augustus, not to undertake new
conquests. And the project was never revived ; Hibernia never
became part of the Rmpire.f

§ 5. But if Agricola was not permitted to attack the island of
the Scots, he was resolved to carry his arms hvo Caledonia. In his
sixth year (83 A.D.), in spite of the dissuasions of his officers, he
penetrated into the land north of the sestuary of Bodotria, aich d by
his fleet. The appearance of the Romans excited consternation and
fury among the Caledonian folk. Auricola had divided his army
into three divisions, and one of them, consisting of the IXth
legion, which was especially weak, suffered S"rious losses from a
night-attack of the native tribes. The quick arrival of Agricola

* It is not directly recorded, but is a I f Juvenal's (ii. 159) " Anna quidem
tolerably certain inference from the cir- ultra Litora Jurernte promovimus" is a
cumstancea. rhetorical flourish.

84 A.D. BATTLE OF MONtt ORAUPiUS. 401

and the other divisions of the army prevented a disastrous defeat,
and the affair resulted in a Koman victory. The Caledonians, under
the cliie Calgacus, utilized the ensuin_f winter in organising a £reat
army to resist the invaders in the following season. In 84 A.D.
Agricola took the field a^rai-i. a< d a yreat battle was 'ought at an
unknown place caLed the Granpian H 11.* Agricola's army
probably nnmWred from 2~>,000 to 30,000 men. He place-1 his
8000 auxiliary f«*>t in the centre, and 3 00 horse on the wi> gs.
The legions were ranged in the rear, in front of the rampart of their
camp. The enemy, who far outnuml>ere<l the Romans, had drawn
up part of their forces on the plain, the rest on the hill hehind.
'I he lest plan for the Br'tons was to use their advantage in
numbers by attacking the Romans in front and on the flanks at
the same time; and this was the movement which Agricola most
feared. But Calgacus did not a«'opt that strategy at the beginning
of the battle. In close quarters the Britons, with their longclumsy
swords and short sMelds, were no match for the long pilum and
short sword of the Romans. The Batavian and Tungrian cohorts
beat the enemy back, and matters were not mended by "he inier-
vei-ti'-n of the war-chariots, which could not move freely on the
uneven 2 round and amid the ilense ranks of the Cale-lonians. The
ca- airy of the enemy were also ro ted. The Britons, who were
s atioi ed "ii the hills hehind, had hitherto taken no pan in the
fighting, but when they saw their companions worsted, they beg^n
to descend from the heights and made a movement to approach the
Romans in the rear. Agiicola had foreseen this, and detached four
alx oi horse, which he had retained in reserve, to meet them. flhe
Britons, coming up in disorder, were scattered, and their plan was
turned a ainst themselves, for the Roman cavalry rode on to attack
the r«-ar of the e» emy's line. This decided the battle. It is said
that 10,000 Caledonians fell, and only 360 Romans. The yea' was
too far advanced to undertake further operations. Agricola led his
a my into t e maritime district of the Boresti, an unknown people,
where he received hosta es, and »ave directions to the prefect of the
fleet to circumnavigate B'-itain. This tmdeitaking was successfully
accomi'l shed, and Roman poets sans; of the "captured Orkneys." f
A<iricola retired into winter-quarters, probaMy to Eburacum. .No
Roman army ever again penetrated as far north as he.J

§ 6. In the following year (85 A.D.) Asricola was recalled. He
received the triumphal ornaments and a lanrea'e statue in

* Ad montem Graupium (Tacitus,
Ariricola, c. 29). It has nothing to do
with tiie Grampians.

f Juvenal, ii. 160

Et xnodo capias

Orcadas ac minima contentos nocte
Britannos.

J How far north is unknown, as we
cannot identify Mons Graupius or the
country of the Jtomti,

402 BRITAIN AND GERMANY. CHAP, xxn

recognition of what he had done, but this did not compensate him
for the disappointment of not being able to complete the northern
conquests which he had begun. Yet he had really no reason to
complain o! the decision of Domitian. He had been allowed to
remain in his post far longer than any previous legatus, and to carry
on expensive campaigns. Financial considerations alone may have
been sufficient to influence Domitian in discontinuing the policy of
aggression in Britain. The results of Agricola were certainly not an
adequate return for the enormous cost. It must especially be
remembered that at the moment of Agricola's recall a most serious
war was breaking out on the Danube against the formidable kingdom
of the Dacians. We can readily believe that the cost of supporting
two wars simultaneously in Britain and on the Danube was quite
beyond the means of the fiscus at the time. The enemies of
Domitian of course set down Agricola's recall to the petty jealousy
of the Emperor ; Agricola himself naturally felt sore about it. But
the best justification of Domitian is that his two successors, Nerva
and Trajan, abode by his decision and did not attempt to renew
the designs of Agricola. The case of Agricola recalled by Domitian
closely resembled that of Germanicus recalled by Tiberius. In
both cases the ambition of a general was sacrificed to the prudent
policy of the Imperator, who saw that the outlay was not repaid by
the result ; in both cases the Imperator was said by his adversaries
to lie actuated only by jealousy of a possible rival.

§ 7. Agricola has often received a higher place than rightly
belongs to him in the history of Britain, because he was fortunate
enough to have a brilliant historian for his son-in-law. Tacitus
married Agricola's daughter and wrote his biography. This work,
Concerning the Life and Character of Julius Agricola, gives an
artistic but superficial account of Britain and a brief description of
Asricola's campaigns, culminating in the battle of Mons Graupius,
which is described at length. The author's neglect of almost all
topographical details, which did not interest him but would interest
us very deeply, detracts greatly from the historical value of the
book.§ Tacitus says that from Agricola's countenance, " you would
readily believe him good, you would gladly believe him great."
This epigram suggests the truth. Agricola was in no sense a great
man, but he was an officer of respectable ability, and ambitious
enough to grasp at glory when the chances were offered to him. His
son-in-law and his contemporaries overrated what he had done;

on the imperial consilium, Sat., iv. 126) :
Omen habes magni clarique triumphi :

* Nor does Tacitus individualise the
Biitish chieftains except Calgacus. There
was a king named Arviragus, as we learn
rom a line of Juvenal, who makes
Vetento eay to Domitian (in the parody

Regem aliquem capies, aut de temone

Britanno
Excidet Arviragus.

85 A.D. THE " AGKICOLA " OF TACITUS. 403

ill-advised friends at Rome doubtless sounded his praises ' to©
loudly ; and Domitian was not sorry when the lime oame to remove
him from Britain.

He refused the offer of a proconsulate (of Asia or Africa), and
lived in retirement until his death, which occurred a few years
later. Some maliciously whispered that he was taken off by
poison.

The conquests he had made were only transient. The country
he had occupied was immediately abandoned, and, after all his war-
fare, he left to his successor nearly the same northern boundary-line
which had been established by Cerealis, from Deva to Lindum.
Perhaps the chief part of Agricola's work that survived was the
occupation of Eburacum, which now formed an advanced post in
the east, somewhat as Deva in the west before the conquests of
Cerealis. Eburacum now stood to Lindum in somewhat the relation
in which Deva then stood to Glevum. But Agricola's contem-
poraries could not appreciate the importance of Eburacum, and
Tacitus passes it over in silence.

SECT. II. — THE LIMES GERMANICUS.

§ 8. As there were some Germans on the left bank of the
Rhine, so there were some Gauls on the right. The valley of
the river Nicer (Neckar) had been cleared of the Germans
who had possessed it, and the Romans had permitted poor and
adventurous Gauls to cross the Rhine and take possession of
lands where they were constantly exposed to the incursions of
the neighbouring German tribes. These Gauls paid a tithe of the
produce of their fields, and hence the whole district was called " the
Tithe-lands " — Agri Decumani (or Decumates} ; but they were
exempt from other burdens, and no Roman garrison was quartered
in the land, which thus was luosely included in the Empire, but
was neither a province nor part of a province. The Flavian
Emperors placed this doubtful territory on a clearer footing.
Vespasian built roads in it, and it was probably he who protected
it by an elaborate system of fortification. The eastern frontier was
marked by a rampart of earth, and a ditch in front of it, con-
struct 3d just as in a Roman camp. Behind the rampart were placed
castella at nine or ten miles' distance from one another; between 'he
castella occur watch-towers. This line of defence stretched from
Seiopnm (Miltenberg) on the Mcenus, in a due southward direc-
tion to the neighbourhood of Lauriacum (Lorch) * ; it can still be
traced, and the sites of many of the castella have been identified.

* Not to be confounded with the northern Lauriacum, Lorch on the Rhine, or th«
eastern, Lorch on the Danube.

404 BRITAIN AND GERMANY. CHAP. xxn.

Behind this, there was a second system of defence. From Vin-
donissa, the chief camp of Upper Germany, a road led northward
to a place on the Nicer which is now called Rottweil. This place
was selected to be a centre for the trans-Khenane territory, in the
same sense in which Lugudunum and Camalodunum were centres
in Gaul and Britain. Here altars were set up for the worship of
the Flavian house, and the place was called Arse Flavice. From
here northwards a number of castella wore constructed ..long the
course of the river Nicer, which vras in itself a defence. As zoon
as the Nicer turns westward to join the Rhine, the line of forts
leaves the river and continues in a northerly direction, passing over
the Odenwald and reaching the IVIcenus at a point (near the
modern Worth), northwest of Seiopum. This second line, con-
necting the Mcenus and Nicer, is known as the Neckar-Miimling
line, because it cuts the valley of the Miiraling stream. It is
impossible to determine how much of this defensive system is flue
to Vespasian and how much to his son Domitian. The forts
connected with this line from Lauriacum to Seiopum may be
due to Domitian's successors. The object of these defences was
probably not so much military as to give the people settled habits,
and prevent nomads entering the Empire at will.

§ 9. But if the main credit for the enclosure of the Agri
Decumates is due to Vespasian, the occupation of the Taunus
district north of the Main was probably the work of Domitian.
This land was inhabited by the Mattiaci, a tribe of the Chatti,
who gave their name to the Accuse Matfacas (the springs of
Wiesbaden). Dru*us had tried to establish the Roman p«>wer in
this region by founding the fort Ar'aunum on Mount Taunus, and
Germauicus had restored it. Since his time, desultory hostilities
had continued with the Chatti, and at length Dornitian determined
to take the decisive step of annexing the territory <>f Mount Taunus
to the province of Upper Germany and continuing the line of
defence between Mcenus and Nicer, so as to connect the Moenus and
the Rhine, flis campaign against the Chatti, in 83 A.D.. which
was so rlliculed by his enemit s, was connected with this important
undertaking. He was assisted by the skill of Sextus Frontinus,
whom we have already met as governor of Britain. From Worth
to Hanau the course of the Main is northerly, and at Grosskrotzen-
burg, near Hanau, the earthen rampart of Dornitian begins. It
does not follow a straight course, but takes advantage of the nature
of the ground. Crossing the Lahn near Ems, it reaches the Rhine
at Rheinbrohl, opt>osite the stream which formed the boundary
between the provinces of Lower and Upper Germany. Forts
occurred at intervals close to the rampart, and were connected by a

70-96 A.D. THE LIMES GEKMANICUS. 405

military road.* Near most of these castella have been found the
remains of villas, with bath arrangements, meaut for ttie use of
officers.

Thus the limes of Upper Germany was an earthen wall, reaching
from that point on the Rhine which marks the northern extremity
of the province, all the way to Lauriacum, except where (b tween
the points Grosskrotzeuburg ami Miltei.berg) the Moenus takes its
place. It was protected all the way by castella and watchtowers,
and between the Moenus and Mcer was covered in the rear by a
line of forts (not connected by a rampart) reaching from the Mcenus
to Area Flaviae on the Nicer. It is thought probable that
Domitian also built the first great permanent bridge over the Khine
at M« >guntiacum.

§ 10. The linies Germanicus is only part of a gigantic scheme of
defence, of a line reaching from the mouth of the Rhine to the
mouth of the Danube. These two rivers formed a natural defence,
which merely required the erection of forts on their banks. But
where the line left the rivers, an artificial defence — a wall of earth
or stone — took the place of the water. Thus the limes Germanicus
was not complete, without another line running from west to east,
and connecting its southern point at Lauriacum with the Danube
fortresses. This was the limes Kxticus, forming part ot the
northern boundary of the province of Rgetia. It is not certain
whether the Flavian Emperors began its construction, but
it certainly did not assume its final form until the reign of
Hadrian or possibly even later. But it is so closely connected
with the limes Germanicus, that it may be mentioned in
this place. Beginning at Lauriacum, it runs due east (through
Wtirtemberg and Bavaria), and reaches the Danube (near Kehl-
heim), where the river Alcimona (Altmiihl) flows in. The
Raetian limes is not like the Germanic, a rampart of earth. It
is formed by a wall of stones, on the top of which palisa-les were
planted, such as the soldiers used in their camps, and with the
usual ditch in front. It seems probable that this line was pro-
tected by an earth-wall in the time of the Flavians, but that, at a
somewhat later period, when the Empire was threatened by
German invaders, the "devil's wall" (Teufelsmauer), as it was
called in the middle ages, was erected.

SHOT. III.— DAOIAN AND SUBVIAN WABS.

§ 11. Soon after his campaign on the Rhine, Domitian's
attention was demanded by a more pressing and formidable danger
* The beat known of these forte is the Saalburg, near Homburg.

406 BK1TAIN AND GERMANY. OHAI . xxn.

ou the Ister. The Daciaus had invaded Moesia. The country of
the Dacians was comprised between the Theiss and the Pruth from
west to east, the Carpathian mountains and the Danube from north
to south. Thus Dacia corresponded to the modern kingdom of
lloumania, along with Siebenbiirgen and the Banat of Temesvar.
Beyond the Dacians, in the modern Moldavia and Bessarabia, were
the Bastarnse, a German people; beyond them again were the
Eoxolani, a Sarmatian tribe. The land between the Danube and
the Theiss was held by the Jazyges. It was easy enough for the
Romans to repel the occasional invasions of their trans-Danubian
neighbours as long as they were not united and organised under an
able leader. They had been conquered more than once in the
reign of Augustus, and in the last years of that Emperor, 50,000
barbarians had been transported into Mcesia, and settled on Roman
territory by ^jlius Catus. The same experiment had, as we have
seen, been repeated under Nero, when Tiberius Plautius ^lianus
settled 100,000 Dacians with their wives and children in the same
province. The same governor of Mcesia checked a threatened
movement of the Sarmatians before it broke out, and compelled a
number of unknown or hostile princes to do obeisance before the
Roman standards on Roman soil. But though Dacians and
Sarmatians were thus kept in check under the Julian and Claud ian
Emperors, the defence of the Danube was wholly insufficient, a
fact which became clearly apparent during the civil wars after the
d^ath of Nero. The two legions quartered in Moesia were supposed
to defend the whole line, from Singidunum (Belgrade) to the
mouth of the river, but the defence of the lower stream was left
almost altogether to the Thracians; and as the Thracians were
kinsfolk of the Dacians, their help was in itself a danger. When
the legions marched to Italy to overthrow Vitellius, the province
was invaded by Roxolani, then by Dacians, and then by Jazyges.
The opportune arrival of Mucianus with his Syrian legions repelled
some of these incursions, but the governor of Mcesia, Fonteius
Agrippa, perished in the invasion of the Jazyges.

§ 12. Vespasian did not actually increase the army of Illyricum,
but he made some changes with a view to the defence of the
Danube. He seems to have moved the two legions, which were
stationed in Dalmatia, to Mcesia, so that the governor of that pro-
vince had four legions under his command. This reinforcement
was the more necessary since Thrace had been made a province.
For when the native princes of Thrace were superseded, the native
army, on which the defence of the Danube partly relied, was
dissolved. But the danger which the Roman government had
especially to fear was a coalition of the Dacians with their German

70-79 A.D. DECEBALUS 407

neighbours. A joint invasion of the Empire by the Dacians and
Suevians would have been very formidable. The Suevian peoples,
consisting chiefly of the Marcomanni and Quadi, were still in the
same seats which they held under King Maroboduus, in the modern
Bohemia and Moravia ; and since his death they had been in a sort
of dependent relation to Rome. Thus they had sent auxiliaries to
the army of Vespasian in the civil war with Vitellius. But their
fidelity could not be trusted very far, and Vespasian thought it
prudent to move the two Pannonian legions forward to the Danube
frontier. XIII. Gemina was stationed at Vindobona (Vienna), and
XV. Apollinaris a little lower down, at Carnuntum. He also
reorganised the Danube fleet, which was hence called the " Flavian
fleet."

§ 13. If things in Dacia had remained as they had been for a
century past, these measures of defence might have been sufficient.
But the aspect of affairs in those regions was changed by the
sudden appearance of a leader of men, endowed with military genius.
This was Decebalus.* His conspicuous talents had attracted the
attention of King Duras, who generously resigned the government
in favour of one who seemed likely to regenerate his country. The
idea of Decebalus was to form a great military state, which might
hold its own, as a power of first-rate importance, on the northern
frontier of the Roman Empire, somewhat as Parthia itself on the
eastern. This had been attempted before by Burebistas in the time
of Julius Caesar, who was making preparations for a great Dacian
expedition when he was assassinated. Fortunately for Rome,
Burebistas perished in a sedition about the same time, and after his
death the Dacian power collapsed and fell to pieces. Maroboduus,
the Marcoman, attempted to form a great German realm, as has
been related in an earlier chapter,! and it too collapsed. Like Maro-
boduus, Decebalus aimed at introducing into his country Greek
and Roman civilisation. And especially, in order to cope on equal
terms with Rome, he set himself to learn the Roman art of war.
From deserters he learned the Roman methods of entrenchment
and the construction of military engines. How far-reaching his
designs were, and how wide his political view, may be guessed from
the fact that he entered into negotiations with Parthia, the natural
enemy of Rome in the east. For a Roman war he also relied on the
help of the neighbouring Sarmatians — the Jazyges on one side and
the Roxolani on the other ; but above all on the Dacian, Getic and
Thracian population of the provinces south of the 'Danube. He
hoped doubtless to conquer Mcesia, and possibly even Thrace, and

* He ts also called Diurpaneus. This • balus only titular,
was probably his true name, and Dece- / f See above, Chap. XII. $ 10.

408

BRITAIN AND GEKMANY.

CHAP. xxu.

thus erect a great Dacian kingdom of homogeneous population, reach-
ing from the Carpathians to the boundary of Asia. Dacia, at this,
time, was to the provinces south of the Danube what Britain before
the conquest had been to the subject Celts of Gaul — a reluge and
an attraction for all restless spirits.

§ 14. At length, when lie had organised a well-disciplined army,
the Dacian king descended fr»m the. Ister ard dealt his tirst blow
(85 A.D.). The legatus of Mcesia, Oppius Sahinus, opposed him
with insufficient forces, and was slain ; foi tres>es wt re seized by
Drcebalus, and the land harried. Rome was threatened by the loss
of the province. When the news of the disaster reached Home,
Domitian entrusted Cornelius Fuscus, the prastorian prefect,* with
the conduct of the war, and himself repaired to the scene of action.
The Pannonian legions were summoned in haste, and the Mar-
comantii promised to bring aid. It stems that the Dacians made
some overtures tor peace, which were rej ct< d, and DiCehalus then
insolently told the Romans that he wo .Id grant them peace at the
price of two asses lor eveiy soldier's head. Fuscus drove the
enemy out of Moesia, and then, throwing a bridge of boats across
the Danube, boldly penetrated into Dacia. But the Marcomannic
confederates did not come with the succour which they had
promised, and the Roman forces suffered a terrible defeat, perhaps
owing to the rash confidence of their general in an unknown
country. He was hims< It, like Sabinus, >>lain f on the field of battle.
The Romans with difficulty found their way back, having left in
the hands of the enemy a large number of captives, and booty,
including war-engines, and an eagle of one of the legions (86 A.D.).
But the next general, Jnlianus, avenged his predecessor. He
invaded Dacia, and gained a great victory at Tapa3.J The slaughter
of the barbarians was immense, and Vezinas, the chief who held
second rank alter Decebalus, only escaped by hiding himself
among the dead. Jnliinus followed up his victory by marching
upon Sarmizegethusa (Varhely), the chief town of Dacia. But
some unknown circumstance hindered him from attacking it —
probably a message from the p]mperor, who had in the meantime
determined to make peace. According to an incredible story,
however, Julian was driven back from the Jbacian capital by a

as:

Hence Martial (vi. 76) describes him

9 •

Ille sacrl lateris custos Martisque tosratl
Credita cul summi castra fuere ducis.

f Juvenal, Iv. ill :

Et qui vulturtbuB servabat viscera
Dacis

FUBCUB, nurmorea medltatus prcella

villa.

See above, Chap. XXI. $ 23. Martial
has an epigram on Fuscus (vl. 76), and
speaks of him as buried in a i>acian
grave.

I Tapes prohahly corresponds to Tapia.
See below, Chap. XXIiL $ 12.

85, 86 A.D.

DACIAN WARS.

409

stratagem of the wily king. A large number of trees near the city
were cut down so tnat the trunks were not hhher than a man's
stature ; arms wt-re attached to them, and Julian, imagining that
he was opposed by an immense army, hastily retreated.

§ 15. What disposed Dumitian to treat wit!- the Dacians was a
defeat which the Romans had exierienccd in another quarier.
While Julian was 01 dating iu Dacia, the Emp< roi himself hud
proceeded to Carnunmm, and taken the fit Id against the Marco-
manni and Quadi, who had tried to play the Romans lalse. TI ey
sent two embassies to Domitian, t«. excu>e their conduct in failing
to send help against the Dacans; but he, regarding them as
rebels rather than tees, put t«- death the second set of ambassadors.
This in'uriated the iSuevians, and the Pannoinc army under the Km-
peror suffered a defeat. Accordingly when IVcebalus sent an embassy
to Moe*ia, headed by a noble Dacian named Di gis,* Domitian
accepted his submission, and jilacid a diadem on the hi ad of Di<gis,
as the representative of Dccehalus, in toktn that Dacia was
dependent on the Empire, and Roman poets could sing that th?e
" victorious, shade" of Fuscus might now haunt the " vassal grove"
in which he had been buried.f On the other hand, the K.mp« ror
sent to Decebalus workmen and engineers, and gilts of money
which the Romans, dissatisfied with their prince, professed to
regard as a shameful tribute. It was really a timely concession,
which involved no manner ot humiliation for Ro i e. A tributary
relation of Rome to Decel>alus was out of the question alter the
victory of Julianus ; and of all Emperors the proud Domitian was
least likely to assume such a humiliating position. After his
return to Home, Domitian celebrated a spler.d d triumph (89 A.D.).
A great triumphal arch was (rected near the temple of Fortuna
Redux, and in the Forum a colossal equestrian bronze statue of
the Emperor was set up. The city was filled with arches and
statues in his honour. The nobility of Home were entertained at
a great banquet, and the provinces were fore* d to send contribu-
tions, under the name of aurum wonarium, to defray the celebra-
tions in the city. I>omitian did not officially as>ume the title
Dacicus, though flatterers often gave it to him. An important
administraiive change was introduced in Moesia, as a result of
the Dacian war. The province was divided iuto two smallei

* Martial calls him "brother" of De-
cebalus; but this, perhaps, is not to he
taneu literally. See v. 3, which describee
the astonishment of "Degis" at the
majesty of the Kmppror :

Accola iam nustrtt Ltogis, Germanic*.

18

A famulis Histrl qui tibi venit aquls,

&c.

Observe that Dacia is spoken of ae
"already ours."
f Martial, vi. 76. 6. :
Et famulum vktrix possidct umbra

nemus.

410

BRITAIN AND GERMANY

CHAP. xxn.

provinces, Upper and Lower Mcesia, each under a legatus, with
two legions at his disposal.

Meanwhile hostilities were continued with the Suevic nations
and their Sarmatian allies the Jazyges. The Romans suffered
severe reverses. Not only were they defeated on their own ground
— in Pannonia — but a whole legion * was annihilated. In May, 92
A.D., the Emperor again repaired to the scene of war, and remained
there eight months. Successes seem to have been gained by the
Romans, for Domitian sent to the Senate dispatches wreathed in
laurel, according to the practice of victorious geneials,f and on his
return in January, 93 A.D., he celebrated an ovation over the
Sarmatians. This war, in which the eastern Sarmatians beyond
the Lower Danube $ were involved as well as the Jazyges, was
called the " Suevian and Sarmatian War,'' and it was protracted
into the reign of Domitian's successor, Nerva. On the oiher hand
the peace with Dacia was preserved for ten years, and during that
period Decebalus had time to mature his plans, and prepare his
country for a struggle with a greater adversary than either Julian
or Domitian.

* Probably V. Alauda. The disaster
sterna to have happened in the land of
the Jazyges.

f Epistolx laureatse. Martial wrote
four epigrams in Dec. 92 A.D. on the
expected return of Domitian (vii. 5-8).
Cp. 5. 3 : Invidet hosti Roma suo, veniat
laurea multa licet; and 6. 5: Publica

victrices testantur gaudia chartee; ib. 10:
Sarmaticae laurus nuntius ipse veni.

% This is implied by Martial's mention
of " rudis Peuce," an island at the mouth
of the Ister (vii. 7. 1), where he also
speaks of the frozen river as warm under
the hoofs of Roman horses (et ungularum
pulsibus catena Ulster).

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE LIMES GERMANICUS AND
LIMES R.EIICUS.

In the account of the origins of the
Roman limes beyond the hhine (trans-
Rhenanus)a,nd beyond the Danube (trans-
Danub>anus\ which has been uiven in
the oregoing chapter, the views of Htibner
have been adopted. But they cannot be
considered as finally established. The
clearest statement of a contemporary
writer is that of Frontinus (Strateg., i.
3. 10), who says that Domitian drew a
frontier line 120 m les in length (limitibus
per centum viianti milia passuum actis).
Most critics agree that this refers to the
section between the Main and the Rhine ;
and it seems natural to connect this line

of defence with Domitian's war with the
Chatti, who dwelled in this district. But
then the difficulty arises that the length
of the wall, as it h»s actual y been traced
from Gross Krotzenburg to Ho'nningen,
where it joins the Rhine, is 140 l.'oman
miles 20 too much. Mr. Hodgkin (Essay
on " The Pfahlgrab^n," reprinted from the
Archaeologia A el ana. 1882) ha* ventured
to guess that I >omitian's part in the limes
was the trans-Danubian section, which
measures 112 Roman miles. But (T)
there mav possibly be an error in the text
of Frontinus— C \ X. for CXL. ; or (2)
the limes constructed bv Domitian may
have come to an end neai- Coblenz, and
been subsequently continued to Hon-
ningen.

CHAP. XXTT.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

411

There can be no doubt that Trajan and
Hadrian did a great deal for the comple-
tion of the Wall ; but there can also be
no doubt that its \ eginning must 1 e
assigned to the Flavian Emperors. It
seems highly probable that Hadrian gave
the *~N)le limes, from Honningen to

Kehlheim, its final form. Mr. Hodgkin
says (p. 85): "It was probably the
glory of the whole serieis of Adoptive
Emperors, from Nerva to Aurelius, to
have a share, more or less, in the comple-
tion of this great work."

Roman Arch at Lincoln.

Portrait of Nem.

CHAPTER XXIH.

NERVA AND TRAJAN. THE CONQUEST OP DACIA.

. Accession of NERVA. § 2. Treatment ot the delatores of Domitian.
§ 3. Finances. § 4. Italian policy of Nerva. Revival of the comitia.
Alimentary institutions. Forum of Nerva. § 5. Mildness of Nerva.
Conspiracies. § 6. Adoption of Trajan. Death of Nervi. § 7. The
accession of TRAJAN marks a new departure. § 8. Trajan's fortifica-
tions on the German frontier. § 9. Trajan's return to Rome. § 10.
Preparations for the FIRST DACIAN WAR. §11. Sarmizegethusa.
Roman plan of campaign. § 12. First campaign (101 A.D.). Battle
of Tapae. § 13. Se ond campaign (102 A.D.). Final struggle. Cap-
ture of Sarmizegethusa. § 14. Trajan returns to Rome. § 15.
Decebalus breaks the peace. § 16. SECOND DACIAN WAR (105,
106 A.D.). Dacia made a province. § 17. Description of the Pillar
of Trajan. § 18. Organisation of Dacia. § 19. Disposition of legions
in Dacia and adjacent provinces. § 20. Change in administration of
Thrace. § 21. New province of Arabia. § 22. Death of Agrippa IL,
and enlargement of Syria.

96 A.D. NERVA. 413

SECT. I.— NERVA.

§ 1. WITH the death of Domitian the second Imperial dynasty
came to an end. But no disturbances took place like those which
had followed the death of Nero. The new Princeps, M. Cocceius
Nerva, who acceded Oct. 1, A.D. 96, was not, like Galba, set up in
tho provinces or chosen by the soldiers. He was the elect of the
senate. He had no claim to the Principate either by lineage or by
pre-eminent personal qualities. He was a clever jurist, an accom-
plished writer, and had been twice consul; but he owed his elevation
to the fact that he was colourless. The senators, most of whom
were doubtless privy to the conspiracy which overthrew the
Flavian house, wanted an Emperor who would be ready to concede
a due share of tiovernment to themselves, but who at the same
time would not be obnoxious to the army. Such an one they
found in the inoffensive Nerva. He had never stood in the ranks
of the senatorial opposition. On the contrary, he had taken y>art
in suppressing the conspiracy of Piso, and had kept in favour with
the Flavian Emperors. Over sixty years of age, he was self-
indulgent, tolerant, and mild; and the senate expected to find
him subservient to their guidance. His reign was greeted by the
aristocrats as a new epoch; coins were issued with ihe inscriptions
Libertas pubtt<a and Roma renascens At length, it seemed to
the most bitter adversaries of Csesarism, that liberty and the
Principate, things formerly irreconcilable, had been happily
blended.* If Cato himself were res ored to life, says an epigram-
matist, he would be a Caesarinn.f It is to be observed that
Nerva, like Vespasian, adopted, as a matter of course, the name
Ccesar, which by this time had become as necessary a part of the
imperial nomenclature as Imperator itself.

From Nerva the senate obtained the guarantee which they had
souuht in vain from thn Flavians. The new Princeps took a
solemn oath that he would put no member of that order to death.
The senate had <rood reason to be satisfied with his administration,
for he consulted it on every matter.

§ 2. The measures taken against the instruments of Domitian's
cruelty were miid, owing to the moderate character of Nerva, who
would not satisfy the general ontcry for revenge. The exiles,
including the philosophers, were recalled; and the sune-ers and
their friends were eager to punish the delators who had been the
cauw of their wrongs. C. Plinius S cundus — the younger Pliny, as

* Tacitus, Agricola,3: Res olim dis- I f Martial, xi. 614: Si Cato reddatur,
soriabilesmiscuerit.principatumftc liber- I Cswarianus erit.

414 NEKVA AND TRAJAN. CHAP. xxm.

he is generally called — thought it a good opportunity " to assail the
guilty, avenge the unfortunate, and advance himself." Accordingly
he attacked Certus, one of Domitian's ministers, in the senate.
Certus had laid hands on Helvidius Prisons in the curia, and
HelvMius was a friend of Pliny. But Nerva did not permit a
process to be instituted against Certus, though he went so far as to
refuse him the consulship and supersede him in the praetorship.
The suits which the injured were bringing against the delators
were stopped at the instance of a senator named Fronto, who
proposed a general act of par<lon. He is said to have used words
which epigrammatically expressed the weakness of Nerva : " It is
bad to have a Princeps under whom no one may do anything ; it is
worse to have one under whom everyone may do anything."

The oath of security which Nerva gave to the senate, implied
the abolition of processes for maiestas. Moreover, slaves were
forbidden to accuse their masters of " impiety," or of " leading a
Jewish life," which seems to have been a frequent charge in the
reign of Domitian. But though the senate had condemned the
memory of Domitian, Nerva did not allow all his acts to be
abolished. That, for example, against mutilation, was confirmed,
and the marriage of uncles and nieces was forbidden — a principle
acknowledged by Domitian when he refused to marry Julia.
Moreover, the beneficia granted by him were confirmed.

§ 3. In the public finances Nerva, like Vespasian, had difficulties
to contend with. The tyranny of Domitian's later years was, as we
have seen, partly due to the needs of an exhausted treasury. Nerva
was obliged to suspend temporarily the celebration of games and
the distributions of corn in Home. A senatorial commission was
appointed for considering the question of ways and means, and the
best manner of economising. The Emperor sacrificed a large
amount of imperial property, and the crisis was at length tided
over. Then Nerva set himself to relieve his subjects of some of
the most unpopular taxes. He abolished the tax which Vespasian
had levied on the Jews, and which had called forth bitter dis-
content. He relieved Italy of the cost of supporting the imperial
post — the cursus publicus — within her own borders, and transferred
the burden to the fiscus. This tax was called vehiculatio, and it
continued to remain in force for the provinces. He also reduced
the five per cent, duty on inheritances.*

§ 4. From an economical point of view, the short reign of Nerva
was retrogressive. It was characterised by an exclusive and
narrow attention to the interests of Italy. This was to be ex-

* He also placed the decision of suits between the fiscus and j.rivate persons in the
hands of the praetors.

96-98 A.B. MEASURES FOE ITALY. 410

pected from a government which was so much under the influence
of ths senate. The ideal of the senate was to maintain the
supremacy of Rome and Italy and to keep the provinces in a
subordinate place; whereas, one of the c^ief tendencies of imperial
policy — the policy inaugurated by Csesar himself — was to raise
the provinces to the position of importance which they had a right
to claim. But Italy, perhaps, liad been too much neglected by
previous rulers ; and it was only fair that she should have her turn
now. The decline of Italian agriculture was a serious disaster
which had attracted the attention of Domitian, and he had sought
to remedy it by forbidding land to be drawn from the cultivation
of corn and appropriated to the produce of wine. Nerva's plan
was to send out colonies of agriculturists, but he had not enough
money at his disposal to make this remedy really effective. He
bought up large lots of land, and appointed a commission of
senators — quatuorviri agro dividundo — to divide it. It is im-
portant to observe that the Agrarian Law of Nerva was a true
Lex, passed at a comitia of the people. Nerva, like Claudius,
revived the old republican form, for the last time.

More effectual and important for the welfare of Italy than his
attempt to heal the irremediable agrarian evil, was Nerva's system
of alimentary institutions. These were designed to help the
education of the children of poor parents. For each town which
received the benefit of this endowment, a certain sum of money
was set aside at once, and lent to landed proprietors, and the
annual interest which it produced formed the support of the
alimentary institution. As the investment rested on land, it was
secure, and the state on its part undertook not to withdraw the
loan. The control of the administration of this charity was
probably placed in the hands of men of senatorial rank, the
curatores viarum. Nerva's successors carried out the organisation
of the institution more thoroughly.

The brevity of Nerva's reign gave him little time for
executing public works. But he completed the forum transitor-
ium which Domitian had left unfinished, connecting the Templum
Pacis with the Forum of Augustus. This new forum was
marked by the temple of Minerva and was called the Forum of
Nerva.

§ 5. The policy of Nerva was marked by mildness, even by weak-
ness. He boasted that he had done no act « hich could prevent him
from resigning the Principate, if he chose, with perfect security. His
clemency, however, was the one feature which did not satisfy the
senatorial party. ±x story is told that Mauricus, who had returned
from exile, was supping one evening with Nerva, and " the prudent

410 NERVA AND TEAJAN. CHAP. xxra.

Veiento,*' * a notorious creature of Domitian, wan also present,
reclining in a place of honour n^xt the Emperor. The conversa-
tion chanced to turn on the blind delator Catullus, who had lately
died. " If he were still living," said Nerva, " what would his fate
be ? " " He would be supping with us," replied Mauricus, glancing
at Veiento. But though Nerva was mild, perhaps because he was
so mild, conspiracies were formed against him. That of Calpurnius
Crassus, a descendant of the triumvir, was easily put down, and
Crassus was banished not to an island, but to the pleasant city
of Tarentum. A more dangerous movement originated in the
praetorian camp. Casperius .<Elianu*v one of the praetorian prefects
under Domitian, and retained in the post by Nerva, excited the
soldiers to demand the execution of the murderers of Domitian,
especially the freedman Parthenius and the other prefect, Petronius
Secundus, although more than a year had passed since the event.
Nerva, indeed, bared his own neck, and offered to die himself
instead of the victims, but he was forced to comply (about Oct.,

97 A.D.).

§ 6. This experience decided Nerva, who was weak in health
and felt himself unable to cope with the difficulties of government
or manage the soldiers, to follow the example of Augustus, Galba,
and Vespasian, and choose a consort, who should also be his pre-
sumptive successor. He had kinsfolk of his own, but he passed
them over, and regarded the interests of the statn, not those of his
own family. His choice, guided by his adviser, L. Licinius Sura,
fell on M. Ulpius Trajanus, the legatus of Upper Germany, and
the result proved that it could not have fallen upon any one better
fitted for the post. TVajan was a Spaniard of Italica, a municipium
close to Hispalis in Bsetica. His father had served with distinction
in the Jewish war, and held the proconsulate of Asia. The son, born
18th Hept., 52 A.D.,f had been brought up as a soldier, and seen ten
years' active service as a military tribune. He then went through
the cursus honorum, and obtained the prsetorship in 85 A.D. We
next meet him in Spain, where, on th^ outbreak of the revolt of
Antonius Saturninns, he was o-dered by Domitian to lead one oi
the Spanish legions, I. Adiutrix, of which he was clearly
legatus, to Upper Germany, but the rising was suppressed before
his arrival. His promptitude was rewarded by an eponymous
or ordinary consulship in 91 A.D., a great honour coming from
Domitian, who was usuallv first consul of the year himself. He
was afterwards appointed legatus of Upper Germany. He waa
probably at Vindonissa when Xerva ad-tressed a letter to him,
offering him a share in the imperium, explaining his own

* Prudent Veiento ( Juvenal. IT. 118> f Or 53 A.D. The date is doubtful.

98 A.D. ADOPTION OF TBAJAN 417

difficulties, and calling upon hkn to take vengeance on those who
had tormented him, with the Homeric line, " May the Danai pay
for my tears beneath thy shafts." * But without waiting for the
consent of Trajan, Nerva proceeded without delay to perform the
ceremony of adoj tion in his abse ce. The P mnoniau legions had
gained a victory over the Suevians who were still hostile, and to
celebrate it the citiz- ns had assembled on the summit of the
Capitol, in front of the temple of Jove. There Nerva declared the
adoption of his son and consort in the;-e w<-rds: "1 adopt M.
Ulpms Nerva Trajan us; may it prove fortunate to the senate, the
Roman people and myself." Thus Trajan became the son of
Nerva, and, like Nerva himself, Csesar; it remained to confer upon
him the pr"Consular power, and this was done in due form by a
decree of the senate. But he was not only made Imperator ;
he also, like Titus, received the tribunician power at the same
time. This probably means that the tribunician lex was pro-
posed in the senate at the same time, and then, after the due
interval, brought before the comitia. The elevation of Trajan to
the second place in the empire took place on the 27th October,
97 A.D., and from this day Trajan dated his tribuniciau j'ears.
In consequence of the Pannonian victory mentioned above, both
Nerva and Trajan assumed the name Germanicus. They were
d< signated as colleagues in the consulship for the following year
Nerva died January 27th, 98 A.D. His acts were confirmed and
he was enrolled among the gods, as a matter of course ; and Trajan,
" son of the Divine Nerva," was elected Princeps and Augustus.

SECT. II. —TRAJAN ON THE RHINE.

§ 7. A new epoch in imperial history may be said to begin with
the accession of Trajan. Hitherto al' the Emperors had been of
Roman or Italian origin. The elevation of the first Italian — the
Sabine, Vespasian — had been a novelty ; but this was a small
innovation compared with the raising of a provincial to be head
of the Roman world, — master of Rome herself. Not a murmur
was heard at the election of Trajan, the Spaniard, though his
birthplace, Italica by the Bsetis, was not even a colonia. How far
Roman opinion had progressed during the past century in regard
to the provinces may be estimated, if we recollect that Augustus
had hesitated to admit inhabitants of trans- Padane Italy into the
prsetorian guards.

§ 8. Trajan was not required to return to Rome on his adoption by
Nerva. He seems to have continued to hold the post of legatus of

18*

418 NEBVA AND TEA JAN. CHAF. xxm.

Upper Germany, combining it, as*Titus combined the praetorian
prefecture, with his imperial position. But it is probable that by
virtue of his proconsular power, perhaps by the special ordinance of
Nerva, he exercised beyond his own province a control over Lower
Germany as well. He would thus have held a position somewhat
similar to that held by Drusus, Tiberius, and Germanicus. This
will explain the fact that the news of Nerva's death reached him
not in the Upper, but in the Lower province, at Colonia Agrippi-
nensis. The new Emperor did not immediately return to Rome.
He saw that there was work to be done on the Rhine, and he stayed
to do it. Some time before, intestine quarrels had broken out
among the Bructeri ; a chieftain was expelled from their land and
had returned with the help of neighbouring tribes. The governor
of Lower Germany, Vestricius Spurinua, also assisted in the restora-
tion of the Bructeran king, who after his victory settled a large
number of the Chamavi and Angrivarii in Bructeran territory, in
order to maintain his position with their help against his own
countrymen. Trajan seized the opportunity of these domestic
dissensions to strengthen the fortifications of the Rhine, to complete1
and improve the work begun by the Flavians. Some ascribe to
him the erection of the rampart and forts in the Agri Decumates,
which in the foregoing chapter was described as the work of the
Flavians.* In any case Trajan went on with work which was
begun by them. It is certain that a road on the right bank of the
Rhine leading from Moguntiacum southward, crossing the Nicer
(near the present Heidelberg) and passing Aquas, in the direction of
Offenberg, was constructed under the auspices of Trajan in 100 A.D.
To him also Aquae (Baden) may attribute the beginning of her
prosperity, as well as other towns in the same region, such as
Sumelocenna (Rottenburg) on the Nicer, and Lopodunum (Laden-
burg).f On the Mrcnus not far from Moguntiacum he constructed
a castellum, called after himself, but its site cannot be identified.
About a mile lower than the old Vetera he founded a new fortress,
which was afterwards called Colonia Trajana.J Having spent the
summer of 98 A.D. in the German provinces, Trajan proceeded
to the Danube and spent the ensuing winter in making preparations
for a Dacian war, which, as he foresaw, was inevitable. At this
time a road on the right bank of the Danube was made in the
neighbourhood of Tierna (near the present Orsova). Public interest
at Rome was awakened in the operations of Trajan by the timely
appearance of the Qermania of Tacitus, giving a picturesque

* The rampart fr m Lorch to Milten-
berg is often called the Vallum Trajani.
f Jieparavit (Eutroplus. 8. 2V

Jit became the headquarters of Trajan'i
new legion, XXX. Ulpia Victrix.

98, 99 A.D. THE " GEKMANIA ". OF TACITUS. 419

account of the manners and customs of the Teutonic peoples
with which Rome had been brought in contact. Tacitus personally
had some local knowledge of the subject, as he had been either
legatus of a legion in Germany or governor of Belgica from 90
to 94 A.D. His interest in Gtrmany was stimulated by an
instinctive perception that Rome's greatest danger lay in that
quarter; "the liberty of the Germans is more active than the
kingdom of the Arsacids." Reviewing the past history of the
relations between Roman and Teuton, he makes use of that pregnant
expression, tarn diu Oermania vincitur, " so long is Germany in
the process of being conquered."

The Germania contains an account of the Teutons in general,
and also notices of the particular tribes.* The Germans have now
reached a more advanced stage of civilisation than that which
Caesar described a hundred and twenty years before. The com-
munities no longer migrate from one part of the territory to
another, but each community of the tribe has a permanent village
settlement and a certain area of arable land, although their wealth
still consists chiefly in cattle ; and there is a considerable advance
in local organisation. Agriculture has become general, and each
man has a fixed home. The love of hunting has declined, perhaps
owing to the decrease of beasts of chase, and the warriors during
times of peace devote themselves to the wine-bowl and to
gambling.

The arrangement which formerly held for the communities or
families now holds for the individual freeman. Each freeman
receives an allotment of land from the community, and his allotment
is changed every year. As there is a large quantity of waste land
available, the arable area is changed annually, and nothing is grown
on it but corn. But though the freeman has no permanent landed
property, he has a permanent right to a share in the land of the
community, and he has complete ownership of his homestead. He
has also a right to a share in the common pasturage. But.
though these facts testify to a considerable development since the
days of Caesar and Ariovistus, there are many social features
which still survive. They are still without cities, and their
buildings are very rudely put together. They are still chaste,
they are still plain and simple in dress, and they are still indifferent
to merchandise.

Differences in social rank and dignity seem to have been of three
kinds. (1) Some were more wealthy, that is, possessed more cattle
than others. And those who were more wealthy must have had .1

* In the following interpretation of [ Constitutional History of England has
Tacitus, the 2nd chapter of Bishop Stubbs's | been closely followed.

420 NBBVA AND TEAJAN. CHAP. xxui.

larger share of pasture and arable land. It is true that all the
allotments of land were equal, but then one man may have held
more than one allotment. (2) Some were noble by race, or
descendants of kings, or gods, or great chieftains; and others were
not. Those tribes which adopted monarchy chose tlieir kings on
account of nobility. This distinction of mobiles and ingenui
probably involved no inequality in political rights. (3) Besides the
freeborn, including the nobles, who possessed po'it'cal rights were
the freedmen and servi. There were two kinds of servi, (a) the
slaves consisting of those who lost their freedom by gambling, and
perhaps prisoners of war, and (6) the cultivators of the land, corre-
sponding to the Roman coloni. This second class was far the more
important, and probably consisted of the «-riginal occupiers of the
land who had been subdued by the German tribe, wh^n it took
possession. The German colon — as we may call the slave of this
class — possessed a home of his own, and was personally free
except in relation to his lord, whom he could not desert, and his
land, which, like the medieval serf, he cou'd not forsake. He paid
to his lord a fixed quantity of corn, or cattle, or clothing. His lot
was not hard, but his lord might kill him with impunity.

The administration of the tribe resided in the tribe or civitas*
itself, whether the tribe adopted monarchy or not. The national
assembly, which met at the new or full moon, wieMed the power.
All the free-born members of the community attended it in arms,
without distinction of seat. In their assemblies questions of war
and peace were determined ; the magistrates who administered
justice were elected; and it acted as a court of justice itself. The
magistrates (or principes, as Tacitus calls them) had the ri^ht of
keeping a comitatus. This characteristic German institution was a
body of warriors attached to a chieftain, who provided them with
their equipment and entertained them. They fought for him in
war, and were bound to defend him and attribute to him their own
brave deeds. Their chief employment was war ; and the dignity
and fame of the chieftain depended largely on the number and
efficiency of his "companions." The principes acted independently
of each other, each in his district, in time of peace, but in war all
obeyed a leader chosen by the common council. Royalty, in those
tribes where it existed, was of a very limited nature, and involved
rather honorary privileges than political power.

The host or military force of the tribe coi misted of both cavalry
and infantry. The cavalry was composed of the comitatus of the
principes. The hrantry was of two kinds. Each district (pagus]
sent a hundred chosen champions or fighting-men, who fought in

* Tacitus VBM civitas of the tribe regarded ae a political constitution.

99 A.D. THE " GEKMANIA " OF TACITUS. 421

front in battle; and besiles the e there was the mass of the free-
men, who were arranged in families.

§ 9. At the beginning of 99 A.D. Trajan returned from the
Danube to Rome, where he was received with warm and unfeigned
enthusiasm, and became consul for the third time. He renewed
the pledge, which he had already given to the senate in writing,
that he would not condemn a t-enator to death, an-l this oath he
always respected. He had received from the Fathers the title of
pater patrisR. He a\enged the tears ol Nerva by punisidn^ the
mutineeis of the pisetorian guard, and he was so coi.fid-nt in his
own military authority that he reduced by one hali the usual
donative t<> the solliers, and no murmur was heard. In handing
to the pra3forian prefect the dagger, which was the sign of his
office, Trajan employed the celebrated words, " Use this f«>r me, if I
do well; against me, if I do ill." His moderate demeanour con-
ciliated ihe senators, and his wile Plotina conducted herse f with
the same mo<hsty. As she entered the palace, she is reported to
have turned to the multitude, and said that she entered it with as
perfrct equanimity as she should wish to leave it, if late required.
Geneial satisfaction was hit when Trajan punched the delators
whom Nerva had spared. Some were executed, others banished.

Trajan only remained two years at Rome, and then proceeded to
deal with the Dacian question, wnich Domitian had not settled.
Of his work in administration and legislation during those two
years, some account will be given in the following chapter.

SECT. III.— FIRST DACIAN WAR (101, 102 A.D.).

§ 10. In making war a:ainst the Dacian kinur Decebalus, Trajan
had no thought of extending t-ie limits of the Empire. Its natural
border in that quarter was the Danube, just as its natural border in
the east was the Euphrates. His object was to prevent the con-
solidation of a great rival power on tlie Roman frontier, by
reducing the Dacian state to a position of dependence on Rome,
somewhat like that of Armenia. Formally, inde< d, Domitian had
been acknowledged overlord by Decrbalus, when he set the diadem
on the brow of Diegis. But the gifts, which he had consented to
send to the Dacian king at certain times, were too much like a
tribute, and seemed dishonourable to the mistress of the world.
Trnjan was determined to " war down tne proud,'* and teach the
Dacian his place.

On the 25 1 h March, 101 A.D., sacrifices were offered at Rome for
the success of Trajan's expedition, and perhaps on that very day,
certainly soon after, he set out from the city for the Danube.

422

NERVA AND TRAJAN.

CHAP. xxm.

the eight legions stationed in the Illyric provinces — three
in Pannonia and five in Moesia,* — the Emperor brought XXI.
Rapax from Lower Germany f to take part in the war. It has
been supposed that the forces which he led into Dacia amounted to
about 60,000 men. The German and Mauretanian cavalry — the
latter led by Lusius Quietus— played a conspicuous part in the
campaign. Tiberius Claudius Livianus, the praetorian prefect, and
Laberius Maximus, governor of Moesia, were the most prominent
among the officers, but Trajan directed all the operations himself.
The future Emperor, Hadrian, who had married Trajan's niece Julia
Sabina, was among the imperial comites.

§ 11. The object of the invading army was Sarmizegethusa, the
chief city of Dacia. It seems probable that D^cebalus first made
this place the capital, and that previously Porolissum, in the north-
west of the country, held that position. The policy of BurebistasJ
had tended rather towards the west, whereas that of Decebalus
looked southwards. It is possible that the complete occupation of
Pannonia by the Romans may have had something to do with this
shifting in Dacia. The choice of Decebalus was a hat»py one.
Sarmizegethusa — now called Vdrhely by the Hungarians, Gredistye
by the Slavs — is easy to get at from other parts of the land, and
at the same time easy to defend. It is connected with the northern
regions of the river Marisus (Maros) by the Sztrigy valley ; wMle
westward the pass of the Iron Gate leads to the valleys of a river,
whose ancient name is unknown but which is now called the
Bisztra, and of the Tibiscus (Temes). The plains of the Lower
Danube can be reached either through the Vulkan Pass or by the
defile of the Red Tower. Thus three routes were open to Trajan.
(1) He might cross the Danube at Viminacium, opposite to which,
on the left bank, was the Dacian fortress of Lederata. From
Lederata a road led northwards, across the Bersava, to the valley
of the Tibiscus, ascended this valley, and then, turning eastward
led up the valley of its tributary the B sztra, and so reached the
Iron Gate. (2) Lower down the river the Roman fort of Saliatis
was confronted by Tierna on the Dacian bank, from which a road
led past Ad Mediam (Mehadia) to the confluence of tho Temes
and the Bisztra. (3) A third road led from Drobetas — opposite to
Egeta, near the modern Turnu Severin — and proceeded by the
valley of the Alutus and by the pass of the Red Tower. The first
of these routes was chosen by Trajan. Viminacium (Kastolats) had

* In Pannonia : XIII. Gemina, XIV.
Gemina, XV. Apollinarls.

In Mcesia : I. Italica, II. Adjutrix, IV.
Flavia, V. Macedonica, VII. Claudiana.

f It WM replaced by a new legion

formed by Trajan, which brought 'the
total number of leprions up to thirty, and
was therefore numbered XXX. Ulpia.
$ See above, Chap. XXII. $ IS.

101 A.tt FIRST DACIAN WAB. 423

two evident advantages as a starting-point Being equally distant
from Pannonia, and Mcenia, it was a convenient centre for
gathering the troops tog ther, and its strong fortifications made it a
good base in the rear of the advancing army. It was also nearer
Italy than the other possil-le starting-points.

Transport-vessels were actively engaged in bringing corn,
wine, vinegar, and other provisions to the place of assembling.
The boats coming from Moesia had to pass through the Iron
Gate of the Danube. Here the river, close to Orsova, is enclosed
between two walls of rock rising directly from the water and of
immense height. In the narrowest part, where the stream can
hardly win its passage, there is an inscription of Trajan cut in the
rock and recording how he made a path on the side of the steep
mountain of stone.* This path was for the purpose of towing the
boats of provisions.

§ 12. At Viminacium then a bridge of boats was thrown across
the Danube, for the transit of the ai my, and on the other side
Trajan performed the due sacrifices. Their march lay by Bersovia,
(on the river now called Bersava), and Aixis on a more northerly
river. As the Romans approached the Tibiscus an embassy arrived
from the Buri, a Suevian tribe, who dwelled north of the Jazyges
in the neighbourhood of the Quadi. Their errand, which, it is said,
was in some manner inscribed on an enormous mushroom, was to
counsel the Emperor to abandon his project, and make peace with
the Daciaus. This incident can hardly be regarded as anything
but a piece of insolence. The Buri fought in the army of Dece-
balus. In his advance Trajan neglected no precautions, in fortifying
camps and sending forward scouts. But the -enemy had retreated
into the recesses of the country, and left the road free. At length
when the Romans reached Tapse (Tapia), on the Tibiscus, a
place which commands the entrance to the Bisztra valley, they
found the Dacians drawn up in a strong position between the river
at id wooded hills. This place had been the scene of Julian's great
victory thirteen years b( fore, and it proved ansj icious again to the
arms of Trajan. The Romans were assisted by a thunderstorm,
which threw the ranks of the enemy into disorder. In this, the
first battle, the infantry on both sides seem to have been chiefly
engaged. Though the legions conquered, the victory cost them
dear. It is probable that one legion, XXI. Raj -ax, perished
almost entirely in the batrle. It is related that the Emperor gave
his own clothes for bandages to bind up the wounds of the injured.
He built an altar to the Manes of those who had fallen, and instituted
a yearly sacrifice in their memory. Not far from Tapse was the

* Montis anfractibus snperatis viam patefocit.

424 NEKVA AND TEAJAN. CHAP. XXIIL

town of Tibiscum, which was taken and set on fire, and then the
legions advanced up the Bisztra valley. A deputation from Dece-
balus, suing for peace, soon arrived. It consisted of three men on
horses without saddles, followed by a number of men on foot, all
of inferior rank, not belonging to the nobility (whom the Romans
called pileati, or " men of the cap "). Trajan refused to listen to such
envoys. The war, however, was soon suspended, owing to the
approach of winter, when the invaders had only penetrated half
way up the Bisztra valley. Trajan returned to winter in Pannonia,
with the greater part of his army, but left all the fortresses he had
occupied strongly garrisoned.

§ 13. In the following spring (102 A.D.) Trajan and his legions
descended by boat to Viminacium, the Emperor himself rowing or
steering along with the men; and retraced the road which they
had traversed the year before. They found all their posts safe.
Two small encounters took place now, and resulted in Roman
victories, which were followed by the submission of one of the
Dacian tribes. Then Trajan continued his advance on the capital
The way was difficult. The soldiers had to hew their way through
forests with the axe, and they were constantly hindered by ditches
and precipices. The defence of the Dacians now became more
active as the enemy was approaching the heart of their country.
Their belief in immortality aided their bravery, and made them
unsparing of their lives. They were now assisted by reinforcements
of Sarmatian mounted archers, whose steeds, as well as the riders,
are represented on Trajan's column as clad completely in mail.
The fury of the struggle may be measured by the horrible tortures
which the Dacian women inflicted on Roman prisoners by burning
parts of their bodies with lighted brands. At length the last
fortress defending the approach to Saimizegethusa fell before the
attack of Trajan, while his general Laberius Maximus at the same
time captured the sister of Decebalus in another town. Some high
mountain fastnesses were also taken, and the Roman eagle was
recovered which had been lost by Domitian's general, Cornelius
Fuscus. After these successes Decebalus once more sued for
peace, but this time his messengers werepileati. Their supplication
was humbler, they bent the knee to Trajan and implored pardon.
They asked him to consent to meet their king, professing that he
was ready to submit to any conditions ; and if he would not
agree to this, at least to send deputies to Decebalus. Licinius
Sura, Trajan's friend, and L vianus the prefect were sent, but
the negotiations came to nothing, and the struggle was resumed
A tract of forest still separated the Romans from the Dacian capital.
The Mauretanian cavalry, with Lusius Quietus at their head, attacked

105 A.D, SECOND DACIAN WAJR.

several detachments of the enemy and drove them into the recesses
of the woods, where they barricaded themselves by trees, and tli«ir
position had to be stormed like a regular fortress. The way was
thus prepared for the main body of the Roman army, an<1 on emerging
on the other side of the forest, they found themselves in front of
Sarmizegethusa. The Dacians did not wait to endure the slow
course of a siege. They came forth to fight and were conquen d.
Then, in order to save his capital from destruction, Decebalus
submitted to whatever terms the victor deemed fitting to impose,
and came himself along with two of his chief officers into the
presence of the Roman Emperor, to implore mercy. He was
required to surrender all his military engines, all Roman deserters,
and the woikmen who had been placed at his disposal by Domitian.
He undertook either to destroy or to hand over to the conquerors
all his fortresses. Dacia became a dependent state, and the king
was bound neither to make war nor to conclude peace without the
consent of Rome.

§ 14. Having left garrisons hi some of the Dacian fortresses, and
especially in Sarmizegethusa itself, Trajan returned to Rome,
accompanied by Dacian deputies, who went through the form of sub-
mitting themselves to the senate, and the peace was not regarded
as finally concluded until the senate ratified the terms which
the Emperor had imposed. Trajan had been proclaimed Imperator
three times during this war — once in the first campaign after the
battle of Tapse, and twice in the second campaign. The senate
decreed him the title of Dacicus, and he was designated consul lor
the following year. Out of the large booty a congiarium was
distributed to the people.

SHOT. IV.— SECOND DACIAN WAR (105, 106 A.D.).

§ 15. It soon became evident that Decebalus did not intend to
carry out the terms which his conqueror had imposed upon him.
He had accepted them in order to gain a respite and make pre-
parations for another struggle for the liherty of Dacia. But in
attempting to shake off the lesser yoke of " federation " he was
destined only to bring upon his country the heavier yoke of direct
subjection to Rome. When the Emperor learned that his vassal
was playing false, was receiving deserters, building and renovating
fortresses, collecting the instruments of warfare, and carrying on
suspicious negotiations with the neighbouring tribes, he determined
to overthrow Decebalus altogether, and convert Dacia into a Roman
province. In taking this resolve he departed from the recognised
policy of the Roman government, *,o abstain from extending the

426 NEBVA AND TRAJAN. OBA*. *xm.

borders of the Empire. He transgressed the precept of Augustus,
as Claudius had already done in the case of Britain. He has been
accused of unwisdom in taking this step, of sacrificing the interests
of the Empire to the ambition of military conquest. But we do
not know the full circumstances of the case, and it would be rash
to say that the continuance of the dependent Dacian kingdom
would have been less dang rous to the Empire than the creation
of the Dacian province. If merely military ambition prompted
Trajan in the second war, why did it not prompt him to the
same policy in the first ?

§ 16. In 104 A.D. Decebalus was decreed by the senate to be an
enemy of the Roman people, and Trajan set out for Mresia, to
superintend the preparations for invading Dacia in the following
year. He chose a different route from that which he had followed
in the former war. Instead of starting from Viminacium he started
from Egeta, at which place he caused a permanent stone bridge to
be built across the Danube.* The architect was Apollodorus of
Damascus, and bricks used in the construction of the pillars have
been found, which show that soldiers of the XHIth legion were
employed in the work. The construction of this solid bridge — a
wonderful work of engineering— was a sign of Trajan's resolve to
make Dacia a province of the Empire. For the second war more
troops were mustered than for the first. To the eight Illyric
legions, four were added from the two German provinces.! Dece-
balus on his side had also made great preparations, especially in
building fortresses, which seem to have played a greater part in
the second than in the first war. But perhaps he did not fully
believe in his own powers ultimately to resist the invader ; for we
find him, while Trajan was still in Moasia, suborning two deserters
to take the life of the Emperor by poison. One of the traitors was
arrested on suspicion, and revealed under torture the name of his
accomplice. This episode casts a slur on the career of the Dacian
hero.

From Drobetae, Trajan might follow either of two routes to reach
the Dacian capital. The shortest was by the pass of Vulkan, but
shortness was not Trajan's aim, otherwi>e he would have gone as
before by Viminacium and the Bisztra valley. His object seems to
have been to cut off the retreat of the enemy towards the eastern
parts of Dacia, and therefore he took the other route by the Red
Tower. Marching eastward from Drobeta3, he reached the river
Alutus at Pons Aluti, but without crossing the river moved up the

* There is no doubt that Turnu Severin
is the Bite of Trajan's bridge.
f I. Minwvia and X. Gemina from

Lower, I. Adjatrix and XL
from Upper Germany.

105, 106 A.D. PILLAR OF TRAJAN. 427

valley on the right bank. During Ma march several Paclan and
Jazygic tribes sent messages of submission. Of the details of the
march, of the points at which the Dacians offered resistai ce, of the
length of time which elapsed before Sarmizegethusa was reached
we know nothing certain. The pass of the Red Tower was,
doubtless, staunchly defended. One instance of noble self-sacrifice
has I een preserved. A valuable officer of Trajan, Ca-sius Lon-jinus,
a camp-prefect, had somehow been enticed into the power of Dece-
balus, who kept him a prisoner, and sent a message to Trajan that
he would not release his captive unless Pacia were evacunted and
the exp nses of the war paid. The Emperor, unwilling to seal the
doom of Lonuinus, did not flatly refuse, but the prisoner freed his
Imperator from the dilemma by swallowing poison.

The movements of the Romans were slow but sure. At length
(probably in 106 A.D.) they approached the ca| ital of Decebalus
from the eastern side, and laid hit ge to it. A battle was fought, in
which the Dacians were worsted, and then Decebalus caused his
followers to set fire to their city. A number of Dacian nobles,
thinking further resistance useless, and not wishing to fall alive
into the hands of the victor, assembled for a last banquet and
drank a poisoned cnp. Most of the common people submitted to
the Romans. Decebalus himself, with a few devoted followers,
fled, but was followed by Roman troops, and, after a combat,
despatched himself with his sv\ord. His head was brought to
Trajan, and sent to Rome. His followers resisted to the last, and
were not taken until the Romans set fire to the fortress in which
they had shut themselves up. Trajan was saluted Imperator for
the sixth time.

Having arranged the organisation of the new province, Trajan
returned to Rome (end of 107 A.D.), and celebrated his triumph by
a feast which lasted 123 days. Ten thousand gladiators fought in
the spectacles. The people received a con<iiarium, and the
Emperor, as one who had extended the boundaries of the Roman
territory, extended also the pomcerium of the city.

§ 17. The great memorial of these Dacian wars is the Column of
Trajan, erected by the senate in the new Forum Trajani, where it
stands to this day. This column, one hundred feet high, is
decorated by sculptures, in low relief, of scenes from both the wars.
It is a picture-book of the Dacian campaigns, but, unluckily, to
most of the pictures we have no text. The Caesar who conquered
Dacia, like the Caesar who conquered Gaul, wrote an account of his
conquest, but the Commentaries of Trajan have not survived, and
this is, perhaps, one of the greatest losses that history has to
deplore. Nor have we in its place any other full account of

428. NERVA AND TRAJAN. CHAP. xxra.

the wars — nothing but a late and meagre epitome.* In these
circumstances, the pillar of Trajan is of the greatest value. It is
possible, from the vivid illustrations, whose meaning is generally
clear, to supplement in many important particulars the one very
deficient written record which we possess. Just as the Bayeux
Tapestry helps the historian to understand the story of the Norman
conquest of England, so the Pillar of Trajan helps him to follow
the Roman conquest of Dacia. It does not, indeed, throw light on
the chronology and geography of the campaigns, as to which we
are almost hopelessly in the dark; and it does not give a complete
view of the war, for only those episodes are represented in which
Trajan himself took part. Its value, perhaps, is ethnographical
rather than strictly historical. It teaches us what the bearded
Dacians were like, with their long hair, loose drawers, and long-
sleeved jerkins ; we see them fighting under their dragons — the
Dacian stand -rd. We see the Sarmatian archers on horseback,
clad in complete mail. The various events of the march, as well as
battle-scenes and sieges pass before us. We see the Roman soldiers
following their standard-bearer across the bridge of boats at
Vimiuacium, and the river-god, the Danube, rising from his bed to
behold them. Then we see the Emperor performing sacrifices in
front of the camp. The cutting down of trees, the construction of
camps, the making of bridges, the Emperor addressing the troops,
are all represented. We see Dacian spies dragged by the hair into
Trajan's presence ; soldiers displaying to the Emperor the bloody
heads of enemies they have slain; the Dacians carrying their
wounded into a wood. A village built on stakes in a lake is set
on fire, the women and children implore mercy. The houses of the
barbarians are round, with pointed roofs. Here is portrayed the
distribution of distinctions to brave soldiers ; there the tortures which
Dacian women inflict on Roman captives. In the sculptures of the
second war we have a view of the capital city of Decebalus, his
palace, and probably the temple of Zalmoxis. We see the Dacian
chiefs sitting in a circle and emptying the bowl of poison in front
of the burning town. Then we see the head of Decebalus presented
to Trajan on a dish. The sculptures are ranged in a spiral band
round the column, which supported a colossal statue of the
Imperator.

SECT. V. — ORGANISATION OF DACIA.

§ 18. Dacia differed, in one important respect, from the other
provinces of the Empire. It wa« bounded on three sides by
territory that was not Roman, and thus resembled a peninsula of
* Xiphilin's abridgment of Dion Cassiui.

107 A.D. ORGANISATION OF DACIA. 429

civilisation jutting out into a barbarian sea. The land between the
Danube and the Theiss was left to the Jazyges, and never formed
part of the Empire, so that Dacia was thus separated from
Pannonia. In fact, Dacia was an " eccentiic position" thrown out
from the natural Danube frontier. It is generally thought that
Trajan was guilty of a political error in occupying it ; but perhaps
the error rather consisted in not going further. Certainly the
annexation of Jazygia seemed called for, in order to complete a
continuous line of frontier from the Rhine to the Pruth or
Dniester. It is to be observed that the Dacian province cfid not
extend as far east as the Pruth. It included Transylvania, the
Banat, and western Wallachia. In eastern Wallachia and Moldavia
there are no remains of Roman civilisatii >n, and while they were
included in the Roman sphere of influence, they can hardly have
belonged to the province. The remains of fortifications between
the Pruth and the Dniester in modern Bessarabia have been
discovered, but do not necessarily imply that the Dacian province
extended so far.

The native population of Dacia was exhausted by the wars, and
the greater part of what remained was driven out by Trajan,
probably into the eastern regions beyond the Alutus. One of the
scenes on the pillar represents the fugitives going forth from their
homes. A few were allowed to remain in Transylvania, but they
were isolated and gradually disappeared. The land was repopulated
by colonists from all parts of the Roman world, especially from
Asia Minor, and thus the province of Dacia never represented a
nationality. Dalma'ians, skilled in mining operations, were settled
in the northern districts in order to work the valuable gold-mines,
which were probably a considerable motive in inducing Trajan to
conquer the country. They not only rendered Dacia self-supporting,
but were a source of additional wealth to the fiscus. The province
was placed under a legatus Auyusti pro prxtore. The first
governor, D. Terentius Scaurianus, was remembered as the founder
of the colony of Sarmizegethusa (under the name Ulpia Trajana).
Apulum, however, further north, (corresponding to the present
Karlsburg,) was more important than the capital of Decehalus. It
was the centre of the road-system of the province. Besides these
two cities, Napoca in the north and Tierna on the Danube received
ius Italicum.

§ 19. It is probable that Trajan left two legions,* as the garrison
of his new province. Both Moesia and Pannonia were guarded more
strongly than ever, eight legions being distributed between them.

* Ptaeibljr three. The XIII. Qemina was certainly stationed in Dacia, at Apuhun.

430 NERVA AND TRAJAN. CHAP. xxm.

One of the great consequences of the Dacian war was the shifting
of the military centre of gravity in Europe from the Rhine to the
Danube. The legions which were taken from the German provinces
were not sent back (except I. Minervia), but were kept in the Illyric
provinces. Here Trajan made a new administrative arrangement.
As Domitian had divided Moesia, so he broke up Pannonia into an
upper and lower province, each under a legatus. In Lower
Pannonia he established a military station at Acumincum, close to
the confluence of the Theiss and the Danube, in order to be a check
on tbe Jazyges. In connection with Trajan's reorganisation of
these provinces some new towns were founded, for example
Marcianopolis, called after his sister Maiciana, and Nicopolis on the
Danube; many old towns were enlarged or improved, such as
Pretovio in Pannonia, Ratiaria (near Widdin), Serdica (Sofia), (Escus.
The stations of the army of Lower Moesia were now fixed at Novse
and Durostorurn (Silistria). The Dobrudza district at the mouth
of the Danube seems to have been excluded by Trajan from the
province, though it was included in the following reign. The
remains of a threefold system of ramparts of earth and stone running
eastward from the Danube below Durostorum to the sea near Tomi
have been discovered, and there are' reasons for attributing the
fortification to Trajan.

§ 20. One of the most distinct results of the Dacian Conquest
was that it stifled all thoughts of insurrection among the Thracians,
whose restless spirits were no longer fomented by free kinsmen in
the north.* Trajan made Thrace, hitherto a procuratorial province
dependent on Moesia, a province of the first rank under a legatus
Augusti pro prsetore.

SECT. VI. — PROVINCE OP ARABIA.

§ 21. While the Emperor was himself reducing the newly
conquered client-state of Dacia into the form of a province, the
governor of S.>ria, Cornelius Talma, was also bringing under the
direct rule of Rome the elder client-state of the Nabateans.
Malchus, king of the Nabateans, had supported Vespasian in the
Jewish war, and was succeeded by his son Dabel, who was destined
to be the last of the line. The change introduced (Doubtless for
commercial reasons) by Trajan was really administrative, but was
not accomplished without resistance on tbe part of the Arabs, and
Palma was considered a conqueror of Arabia. Some outlying

* It is perhaps significant that Martial I SarmaHan war in 92 A.D. See vii. 8. 2:
speaks of the Odrysians (a Thracian Victor ab Odrysio redditur or&e deoa.
people) in connection with Doxnitian'n

100 A.D.

PROVINCE OF ARABIA.

431

regions possessed by the Nabatean king were
abandoned ; Damascus was am.exed to the pro-
vince of Syiia: and the rest of the kingdom
was organised as an imperial province, under a
legatus Augusti pr.pr. who commanded a legion
which was stationed at Bostra. The province
is otten called Arabia Petraea, from the impor-
tant city of Petra.* The country was protected
by m'litary stations. A line of fortresses pro-
tected the road from Damascus to Palmyra.
Under direct Roman rule, which by its perma-
nent military strength ensured peace, Greek
civilisation began to penetrate into the-e regions
on the border of the desert. Hitherto Hellenism,
opposed by Jewish influences, had made little
way here ; Trajan's innovations made a new
epoch.

It is significant that no Greek monument
dating from the time before Trajan has been
found within the limits of the Nabatean king-
dom, while on the other hand there are no
insciiptions in the native tongue alter Trajan.
The commercial importance of Bostra, the new
Bostra of Trajan, as it was callt d, dates from the
time when it became the centre of the Roman
province. Its good position made it the great
market for the Syrian desert, the Arabian high-
lands, and Persia; it became the rival of
Damascus. Buildings sprang up rapidly in
this land under Roman rule. New towi>s
arose, symmetrically built, adorned with palaces
and temples, theatres and baths, aqneuucts and
triumphal arches. The architecture, owing to
want of wood, developed some peculiar features*
especially in the treatment of the stone arch
and the dome, which give the buildings of
this region a place of their own among Greek
buildings of the imperial period.

§ 22. Another client-state had ceased to exist
a few years before. On the death of Ayrippa
II. in 100 A.D., the last remnant of the king-
dom of Herod was annexed to the province

* See above, Chap. VII. $ 1.

Trajan's Column

432

NEBVA AND TKAJAN,

CHAP. xxui.

of Syria. In consequence of this enlargement and the subsequent
addition of Damascus, Syria reached under Trajan its widest limits
as a province ; and, as the legatus exercised control over the secon-
dary province of Judea, his sphere of government was a very

Figures from Trajan's Colui

Trajan.

CHAPTER XXIV.

TRAJAN'S PEINCIPATE (continued}. ADMINISTRATION AND

EASTERN CONQUESTS.

§ 1. Character of Trajan. Title of Optimus. Relations to the senate
§ 2. Monarchical policy in two ways. § 3. Equity. Finances
Congiaria. § 4. Slavery. § 5. Italian policy. Agriculture. § 6.
Roads, aqueducts, &c. Forum of Trajan. § 7. Provincial adminis-
tration. Bithynia. § 8. Correspondence of Pliny and Trajan. § 9.
Proscription of Christianity in Bithynia. Letter of Pliny, and Trajan's
reply. § 10. Trajan determines on a new solution of the Armenian
question. § 11. He proceeds to the East and prepares for war.
Parthomasiris. Armenia made a Roman province. § 12. Mesopo-
tamia becomes a Roman province, and, § 13, likewise Adiabene. Trajan
proceeds against Ctesiphon and captures it. Parfhia capta. § 14.
Trajan descends the Tigris. His further plans checked by a rebellion.
§ 15. Parthia a client-state. Trajan returns to Syria. § 16. Revolt
of the Jews. § 17. Death of Trajan (117 A.D.). § 18. Estimate of
Trajan's eastern policy.
19

434 TRAJAN'S PRINCIPATE. CHAP.

SECT. L— TRAJAN'S ADMINISTRATION. ROME AND ITALY.

§ 1. TRAJAN ranks amongst the greatest Emperors of Rome. But
he stands alone. He boldly inaugurated a new policy of conquest,
but his successors refused to walk in the path which he marked out-
His originality was fruitless; he did not influence the ages which
succeeded him. The province of Dacia, his only work that was
in any way abiding, ceased to be Romau before two centuries had
elapsed. Trajan was above all a soldier; and his aggressive policy
was largely due to this fact. His military undertakings were
successful, but the reports of them which have come down are not
sufficient to let us judge whether his strategy was original. He
was robust in mind and body. He had a clear understanding, but
one of a thoroughly practical turn, and he had no taste for literature.
He was not averse to pleasures, but was careful not to indulge in
them to the hurt of others. He was genial and popular in his manner
and used to play the part of a comrade to his soldiers. His chief
foible was vanity. He was fond of naming places after himself
and members of his family. He caused the title of Augusta to be
conferred not only on his wife Plotina, but on his sister Marciana
and her daughter Matidia. Train's personal appearance was
noble and impressive. He was tall of stature, and his features were
regular. He had an aquiline nose, a broad and low forehead, thick
straight-cut hair. He was the first Emperor to whom a special
name was given to designate his personal qualities. In 100 A.D.*
the senate conferred on him the name Optimits, which, however, he
did not adopt as one of his titles until a later period (114 A.D.).

In his relations with the senators Trajan was studiously
moderate in language and demeanour. He was careful to maintain
the fiction that the senate was a free body, as in the days ot the
Republic; he proposed to be a Princeps, not, like Domitian, a
dominus. "You bid us be free," says Pliny; " we will be free."f
He faithfully kept his oath never to take the life of a senator. When
his friend Licinius Sura was secretly charged with a treasonable
conspiracy, he sent for Sura's physician to anoint his eyes, and let
himself be shaved by Sura's barber. Next day he said, " If my
friend proposed to take my life, he mkht have compassed his
design yesterday." Calpurnius Crassus, who had been pardoned
by Nerva, afterwards conspired against Trajan, and was put to
death, not, however, by the Emperor, but by his own senatorial
colleagues. But while Trajan disarmed opposition, and won golden

* Perhaps earlier, but certainly before I f Jubes ease liberos; erimus
Sept., 100. I gyrio, 66).

98-117 A.D. THE CURATOR REIPUBLIC^J. 435

opinions by outward respect for the Fathers, and by the observance of
superficial forms, he avoided having to restore to the senate any real
powers. He retained the substance of monarchy, and endeavoured
to render it palatable by a show of equality between the monarch
and the other senators. He made no objection to the expression
of republican sentiments, and allowed the followers of Thrasea and
Helvidius to indulge in their harmless hero-worship of Brutus and
Cassius. Yet men like Pliny did not disguise from themselves
that they were under the absolute rule of a single man ; but they
recognised that he worked for the public weal.

§ 2. Thus the policy of Trajan resembled that of Vespasian;
except that Trajan was more affable and more tolerant. But he
developed the monarchical principle in at least two ways. (1) He
did not assume a perpetual censorship like Domitiau, but he did
what was more unconstitutional. He created new patricians with-
out assuming the censorship at all. This was equivalent to claim-
ing censorial power as part of the imperial prerogative. (2) He
instituted an imperial control over the local administration of the
towns of Italy, of the free cities in the imperial provinces, and of
the cities which were subject to the administration of the senate.
These three classes of the community were hitherto exempt from the
interference of the Emperor, and the appointment of an imperial
officer, called curator reipiiblicse* with control over the affairs of such
a community, was a distinct step in the growth of monarchy.
The curator was of equestrian or senatorial rank, and was chosen
from some neighbouring community. He had control over the
municipal administration, especially in regard to the public buildings,
and the town rent-roll. In many cases doubtless, and especially in
the senatorial provinces, there had been financial mismanagement,
and the intervention of the state was beneficial. But the political
tendency of the measure was to increase the sphere of the Emperor's
influence, on the one hand, and to level the distinction existing
between the various communities of the Empire, on the other.
The control of the Emperor in Italy tended to reduce the mother-
country to the position of the subject-lands ; and the intervention
of imperial officers " to correct the state " of the free communities
seriously diminished the value of their privileges.

§ 3. Otherwise Trajan's policy in domestic and civil administra-
tion was not marked by any particular tendency. He does not
appear to have been guided much by general principles, but rather
to have dealt with each question, as it arose, on its own merits.
Many beneficial results in special departments of law were achieved

* In the case of city communities ; but generally corrector in the case of district* or
provinces.

436 TRAJAN'S PRINC1PATE. CHAP. xxiv.

by bis legislation. Like Claudius, he used personally to deal out
judgment in the tribunals of Eome, and used himself to try all
cases of appeal to the imperial court. His spirit of moderation and
equity is expressed in the sentiment, which is attributed to idm,
that it is better that the guilty should escape unpunished, than
that the innocent should be condemned. The state finances seem
to have been mahaged by Trajan with discretion and success, for,
notwithstanding the large expenses incurred by his wars and his
buildings, no increase of taxation was found necessary. On the
contrary, the duty on inheritances (vicesima hereditatum) was
alleviated in certain cases. Trajan published a budget with the
details of the public expenditure, — a popular measure, but also a
politic move, as showing how favourably his administration com-
pared with that of his predecessors. He also established a special
court to deal with fiscal lawsuits.

The secret of Trajan's financial success lay partly in the strict
economy of his court, but also in the large increase of revenue
derived from the province of Dacia and its rich mines. One feature
of his reign has received severe condemnation. He adopted from
his predecessors the practice of giving congiaria to the people of
Rome, but increased the amount of the donation to an extravagant
height. His first congiarium (99 A.D.) was probably no larger
than that of Nerva (75 denarii, £2 10s., a head), but his second
and third distributions of money, after each Dacian war, amounted
to 650 denarii a head. He thus introduced a precedent of ex-
travagant charity, which became a serious tax on his successors.

§ 4. Though it was the general tendency under the Empire to
alleviate the conditions of slavery, Trajan inclined in a contrary
direction, and passed some laws which made the discipline of
servitude harder. By the existing legislation, when a master
was assassinated, all his slaves were condemned to death. Trajan
introduced a new regulation by which not only the testamentary
freedmen, but those freedmen who had received their liberty during
their master's life, and possessed either wholly or partly Roman
ci izenship, were subjected to torture. He also issued an edict
that a freedman or slave who had obtained from the Emperor
Roman citizenship in its complete form, without the knowledge
of his patron or master, and possessed thereby the right of freely
disposing of his property, should retain the right during his lite-
time, but should on his death be regarded as a freedman possessing
only the im Latinum, so that his fortune might revert to his
patron.

§ 5. Trajan followed the example of Nerva in paying special
attention to the wellare of Italy. The possibility of an invasion

D8-117 A.D. ITALIAN POLICY. 437

by the barbarians beyond the Danube — which in Doinitian's reign
may have seemed near enough — may have awakened the minds of
statesmen to the importance of maintaining the population and
encouraging agriculture in Italy, if only for the purpose of
strengthening her against a hostile attack. In four ways Trajan
came to the rescue of Italy. In the first place, he carried on,
extended and modified the alimentary institutions, which Ncrva
had founded.* This policy directly contributed to encourage
marriage and raise the population. Secondly, the state further
encouraged small proprietor* by advancing loans at small interest.
Thirdly, Trajan renewed the law of Tiberius, that all provincials
who became senators must invest a third of their property in
Italian land. Fourthly, he tried to hinder emigration from Italy,
by an ordinance that no Italians should take part in the foundation
of new colonies. This Italian policy involved the principle that the
provinces were to contribute to the maintenance of the mother-
country. It was a principle which was not then disputed, but
which was manifestly unfair, inasmuch as the legions which
defended the provinces were no longer recruited from Italy. On
the other hand, as we have seen, the institution of curatores tended
to deprive Italy of political privileges.

§ 6. Trajan concerned himself with the improvement of Italian
traffic, both by sea and land. He restored the harbours of Ostia
and Centumcellse (Civita Vecchia) on the west coast, and enlarged
that of Ancona on the east. At Ostia he excavated a very large
hexagonal basin, still called theLago Trajano, and connected it with
the Port of Claudius by two smaller basins. This new port was
surrounded with quays and buildings for magazines.f He constructed
a road through the Pomptine marshes on the coast of Latium, and
converted the mule-path, which led directly from Beneventum to
Brundusium, into a regular road, called Via Trajana. Nor did he
neglect the welfare of Rome. He improved the water-supply by
executing important repairs of the Aqua Marcia and the Anio
Novus, and conferred a great benefit on the inhabitants of the

* This system has been already de- i month to boys, 34 grants of 12 sesterces
scribed under the reign of Nerva. The to girls; and also a grant of 12 and 10
two inscriptions, however, which tell us sesterces a month to support an illegiti-
most about it belong to the reign of mate boy and girl.

Trajan, the tabula of the Ligures i f Juvenal (5fct«. xii. 75) mentions this
Baebiani (101 A.D.), and that of Veleia i new port thus:

(after 103 A.D.). At Veleia 1,044,000 Tandem intrat positas inclusa per jequora
sesterces (over £8300) were assigned on moles

a mortgage bond to 46 estates, whose Tyrrhenamque Pharon porrectaque
total value was reckoned at over 13 million brachia rursum

sesterces (£104,000). The interest of this yuas pelago occurmnt medio longeque
grant at 5 per cent, enabled provision to | relinquunt
be made for 245 grants of 16 sesterces a ' Italiam.

438 TK A JAN'S PB1JSCIPATE. CHAP, xxiv

Transtiberine quarter, by building an aqueduct to supply them,
the Acqua Trajana. This aqueduct derived its waters from the
lacus Sabatmus, and is used at the present day under the name of
the Aqua Paola. Trajan built two public baths, the Thermae
Trajanas, (near the baths of Titus) intended exclusively for the
use of women ; and the Therm® Suranse, in memory of his friend
Licinius Sura. He arranged for a cheaper supply of bread in
Italy and Home by reorganising the guild of bakers, — a con-
siderable concession on Trajan's part, as he always manifested
great jealousy of collegia and corporations. The list of those who
received corn was revised, and 5000 poor children were placed
among the recipients.

The great monument of Trajan in Rome was his new forum,
which was confessed by posteiity to be one of the most striking
sights of the city. It lay in a narrow valley which he formed by
cutting off a spur between the Capitoline and the Quirinal hills,
and was designed to form a connecting link between the other
fora and the Campus Martius. It was, in fact, a northerly continu-
ation of the Forum of Augustus. The execution of the design was
entrusted to Apollodorus of Damascus, the skilful architect who
built the bridge of the Danube at Turnu Severin. The western
and eastern sides of the forum were formed by semicircles hewn
out of the hills, in front of which were rectilineal porticoes enclosing
the area. In the middle of the space was an equestrian statue of
the Emperor. The southern side was occupied by a magnificent
entrance, and the northern by the Basilica Ulpiana, a large edirice.
Behind it was the Pillar of Trajan, which has been already described,
in the centre of a small place, whose sides were forme J by two
libraries, one of Latin, the other of Greek works. Beyond this
space was a temple, completed after Trajan's death, and consecrated
to him by his successor.

SECT. II. ADMINISTRATION OF THE PROVINCES. CORRESPONDENCE
OP PLINY AND TRAJAN.

§ 7. The corruption of the governors of the senatorial provinces
is illustrated by the cases of Marius Priscus and Csecilius Classicus,
which occurred at the beginning of Trajan's reign. Marias Priscus,
who had been proconsul of Africa, was accused in 99 A.D. by the
provincials, and prosecuted by Pliny and the historian Tacitus.
The case came before the senate in the following year, Trajan, as
consul, presiding, It was proved that Marius had indeed "fleeced"
the AM.* For a bribe of 300,000 sesterces he had banished a
* Juvenal, viii. 120 : Com tenues nuper dlscinxerit Afroa.

98-117 A.IX CONDITION OF BITHYNIA. 439

knight and pnt to death seven of his friends. He flogged, sentenced
to the mines, and finally strangled another knight for a bribe of
700,000. The sentence of the court was that the 700,000 should
be paid to the aerarium, and that Marius should be exiled from
Italy. This was a poor compensation to the province for its
sufferings. * Soon after this, Pliny prosecuted Classicus, formerly
governor of Baetica, at the instance of the inhabitants. His guilt
was proved, but he died before the trial.

In the administration of the provinces, Trajan's reign offfrs nothing
noteworthy, except liberality in the construction of new roads,
and the policy, already mentioned, of intervening in the affairs
of free communities by means of a curator reiputticse, and
sending special commissioners to senatorial provinces. Thus Sex.
Quintilius Maximus was sent to Achaia, probably to supervise the
affairs of the free states of Greece. In this policy, Trajan did not
aim at uniformity; he only adopted it in cases where special
circumstances seemed to demand his intervention. The wretched
condition to which the province of Bithynia had been reduced by
the incompetent rule of the senatorial proconsuls, was a case which
called for the Emperor's interference, and he saw good to make
it, temporarily, an imperial province. He probably made the loss
good to the senate by assigning to it the province of Pamphylia
instead. He appointed Pliny as legatus Attgusti pro preetore,
to restore order in the demoralized province. The provincials had
instituted suits against corrupt proconsuls, and while the pro-
ceedings had dragged slowly on, the finances had fallen into
disorder, the public buildings remained unfinished, and social life
had been completely paralysed. Pliny, who had had no previous
experience of provincial government, referred to the Emperor for
instruction on every question which arose, and their correspondence
has come down to us. It shows us that Trajan was averse to treating
different cases in the same way or applying a general rule, as Pliny
suggested to do, to the whole province. He adopted the more
equitable and more troublesome plan of paying regard to the local
usages and special traditions of each community. It would be a
great mistake to infer from the minute details with which the
Emperor concerned h.mself in the case of Bithynia, tliat he devoted
the same attention to the minor affairs of all the other provinces of
the Empire. On the contrary, he seems to have laid a great deal of
responsibility on the shoulders of the governors. Bithynia was a
special case. Its condition at this time is one among many pieces

Exnl ab octava Marlus bibit at frultur Die
Iwtis, at tu, victrix provlncU, ploras.

440

TEA JAN'S PKINCIPATE.

CHAP. xxiv.

of evidence that the government of the imperial provinces was far
better than that of the senatorial.

§ 8. The Correspondence of Trajan and Pliny gives a most
interesting glimpse cf the questions and affairs which the Emperor
had to deal with in governing the provinces; and it is all the more
valuable, as our record of Trajan's reign is otherwise meagre. The
following abbreviated extracts from the Correspondence will serve
to give an insight into some sides of Roman provincial government.
They will also illustrate the practical judgment of Trajan, and the
narrow limits within which Pliny was permitted to decide for
himself.*

I. — Imperial authorization of public works.

Pliny. — May the people of Prusa be authorized to replace their
bath-house, which is old and dilapidated, with new thermae?
Money will be forthcoming for the work. Trajan. — Yes, if the
construction will not be too great a burden for their strength or
necessitate the imposition of a special tax.

Pliny. — Sinope lacks water. I have found a copious spring of
good quality sixteen miles away, but the aqueduct will have to
pass for a distance of about a mile over soft and uncertain ground.
I can easily raise the money required ; it only remains for me
to secure your approval. Trajan. — Make this aqueduct; but first
carefully examine whether the suspicious locality can bear it,
and whether the expense does not exceed the ability of the town.

Pliny. — Nicomedia has expended over 3,000,000 sesterces
(£24,000) on an aqueduct, which has been abandoned, and is now
in ruins, 2,000,000 (£16,000) on another, which has also been
abandoned. I have means for making a third, which will stand,
if you will send an inspector of aqueducts or an architect.
Trajan. — Supply Nicomedia with water, but investigate by whose
fault so much money has been wasted.

Pliny.— Nicsea has expended 10,000,000 sesterces (£80,000) on
a theatre which is tottering, and great sums on a gymnasium, which
was burned and which they are rebuilding. At Claudiopolis f they
are excavating a bath-house at the foot of a mountain, with the
money which the decurions appointed by you pay for their admission
to the curia. % What am I to do with respect to all these works ?
Send me an architect to advise. Trajan. — You are on the spot ;

The choice, the headings and form of
the extracts have been borrowed from
Duruy's Histoiy of Jtome, but with many
modifications and corrections.

f An inland town of Bithynia in the

district of the Mariandyni.

| Decurions appointed by the Emperor
in excess of the regular number had to
pay one or two thousand denarii as an
entrance-fee.

112 A.D. PLINY IN BITHYNIA. 441

decide. As for architects, we at Home send to Greece for them.
You will therefore find them about you.

Pliny. — Amastris is infected by a sewer which ought to be
covered. If you permit the work to be executed, I have the
money required. Trajan. — Cover this infectious stream.

Pliny. — There is a great lake on the concurs of the territory of
Nicomedia (Lake Sophon, about ten miles east of that city). It
would be highly advantageous to connect it with the sea by a canal.
Send me an engineer. Trajan. — Take care that the lake, in
uniting with the sea, does not run out entirely. I will send you
from here men conversant with this kind of work.

II. — Supervision of Municipal Finances.

Pliny. — The money due to towns of the province has been called
in, and no borrowers at 12 per cent, are to be found. Ought 1 to
reduce the rate of interest, or, if that fails to attract borrowers*
compel the decurions to borrow the money in equal shares on
suitable security. Trajan. — Put the interest low enough to find
borrowers, but do not lorce anyone to borrow against his will. Such
a course would be inconsistent with the temper of our century.

Pliny. — In the free and federate city of Amisus, which, thanks
to you, is governed by its own laws, a request has been handed to
me, concerning societies for mutual aid (erani). I mention the
circumstance, that you may consider how far they may be tolerated
and how far they must be forbidden. Trajan. — Allow them their
societies, which the treaty of federation gives them, especially
if, instead of spending their contributions on illicit assemblies, they
employ them to assist their poorer members. In the other towns,
which are subject to our dominion,* it should not be permitted,

Pliny. — Most of my predecessors have accorded to the towns of
Pontus and Bithynia, a priority of claim upon the property of their
debtors. It would be well if some permanent regulation were
made on this matter. Trajan. — Let it be decided according to the
special laws of each town. If they have not a privilege over
other creditors, I ought not to grant it to them at the expense of
private individuals.

Pliny. — The inhabitants of (the colony of) Apamea request me
to examine their accounts, despite their ancient privilege of
administering their own affairs. Ought I to cumply ? Trajan.—
Yes, since they themselves desire it. Assure them that your
inspection is by my desire, and will not prejudice their privileges.

* The directly subject civitates (both peregrin*, and those which possessed Roman
citizenship or ius latinum).
19*

442

Tit A JAN ' g PE1N Oil* ATK.

zxiv

P/my.— Julius Piso received 40,000 denarii twenty years ago a?
a public gift from Amisus. The public prosecutor (ecdicus) claims
this sum in accordance with your edicts, which forbid such acts of
liberality. Piso urges the length of time that has elapsed, and pro-
fesses that repayment would ruin him. Trajan. — If the gift dates
back more than twenty years, let it not be revoked ; for we must
regard the security of the individual citizens while taking care of
the public funds.

Pliny. — I enclose a memorial of the Nicseans. Trajan. — They
pretend to have received from Augustus the privilege of collecting
the inheritance of all their fellow-citizens who die intestate.
Examine this affair in the presence of the parties, along with the
procurators Gemelliuus and my freedman Epimachus, and decide
what may appear to you just.

Pliny. — I have been examining the expenses of the Byzantines.
They spend annually 12,000 sesterces (£96) on the travelling ex-
penses of a legatus, bearing to you a formal honorary decree, and
3000 (£24) in sending an envoy to salute the governor of Moesia
Have I done right in cutting down both expenses? Trajan. — It is
enough for them to forward to me through your hands their decree
of homage. As for the governor of Moesia, he will pardon them if
they make their court to him cheaper.*

III. — The Decurions.

Pliny.— 3n. certain towns of the province the decurions supra
numerum are obliged, on their admission to the curia, to sub-
scribe, some 1000 (about £35), others 2000 denarii. It pertains
to you, sire, to make a general law. Trajan. — No, it is safest to
follow the custom of each town, especially regarding those who are
made decurions against their wish.

Pliny. — The law of Pompeius observed in Bithynia, requires the
age of thirty years for exercising the function of the magistracy and
entering the senate. But an edict of Augustus permits the inferior
magistracies to be held at the age of twenty-two. I have concluded
that those who become magistrates under this edict, ought to have
siats in the municipal senate, although under thirty years of age.
But what about those who, being of the prescribed age for holding
magistracies, have not obtained them? Trajan.— Close the
senate-house to them.

* This reply doubtless " pleased By-
zantium, for, in ppite of the police duties
performed in the empire, to go to Rome
was not only an expense but a peril.
Petronius and Apuleius show that high-
way-robbers were numerous, and we

a marble on which tlw good
pe..ple of Mehadia on tlie Danube, sent
out by their fellow-citizf ns, haveenpraved
their gratitude toward the Divinities of
the Waters for having brought them b ick
safe and sound into their city." (Duruy.)

112 A.JX PLINY IN B1THYNIA. 443

IV.— Right of Citizenship.

Pliny. — To obtain the right of citizenship in a Bithynian towr»,
it is necessary, by the law ot Pompeius, not to be a citizen of any
other Bithynian community. Many of the decurions in every
community are in this position. Should they be excluded from
the senate -house? Trajan. — No, but see to it that in future the
law of Pompeius be better observed.

V. — Protection for the Towns.

Pliny. — Byzantium has a legionary centurion, sent by the
legatus of Lower Moesia, according to your directions, to watch
over its privileges. Juliopolis, on the frontier of Bithynia, requests
of you the same favour. Trajan. — Byzantium is a great city,
where a large number of strangers land. Its magistrates require
some military as-dstance. But if I give such help to Juliopolis, all
the small towns will want the same thing. It devolves upon you
to watch that no injury be done to the cities under your
government.

VI.— Religious Matters.

Pliny. — May a temple of Cybele, at Nicomedia, be removed to a
more convenient site. Trajan. — Yes ; the proceeding cannot violate
a lex dedtcationis, as the provincial soil is not capable of receiving
consecrations according to Roman law.

Pliny. — I have been asked for permission to transfer some dead
bodies from their present tombs. At Rome a deci>ion of the
pontiffs is required. What shall I do here? Trajan. — Grant or
refuse, according to the merits of the case. It would be too hard
to require provincials to come and consult the pontiffs at Rome in
this matter.

Pliny. — 1 have found a ruined house, suitable for the bath to be
built at Prusa. The proprietor built a temple to Claudius in the
peristylium, but nothing is left of it. Is there any objection?
Trujan. — Put the bath in this house, unless the ten pie was
actually competed, for even though it may have disappeared, the
soil remains sacred to him.

Pliny. — It is said that a woman and her sons were buried in the
same place where your statue is set up. The statue is in a
library, the burial places in a la' ge court surrounded by a colonnade.
I pray you to enlighten me as to the decision of this affair.
Trajan. — You should not have hesitated about such a question,

444 TKAJAN'S PKINCIPATE. CHAP. xxiv.

for you know very well that I do not propose to make my name
respected by terror and judgments of maiestas. Dismiss the
accusation.

Nil.— Military Discipline.

Pliny. — Should the prisoners be guarded by soldiers or, according
to custom, by public slaves? I have stationed some of both.
Trajan. — It is better to adhere to usage ; and the soldier must not
be called away from his flag.

Pliny. — Two slaves have been found among the recruits. What
shall be done with them ? Trajan. — If they have been enlisted,
the fault lies with the recruiting officer. If they have been fur-
nished as substitutes, you must punish those whose places they
fill. If, knowing their condition, they have come and offered
themselves, execute them.

VIII.— Civil Discipline.

Pliny. — In many towns persons condemned to the mines or to
fight as gladiators, are serving as public slaves, and receiving
wages What is to be done? Trajan. — Execute the sentences,
except where the condemnation dates back more than ten years ;
and in the latter case cause the convicts to be employed in such
menial offices as are nearly penal, such as cleaning the public baths
and the sewers.

Pliny. — A man, who was sentenced to perpetual banishment by
Bassus (proconsul of Bithynia in 98 A.D.) has remained in the
province, though he has not made use of the right given him by
the senate after the rescinding of the acts of Bassus, to claim
within two years a new trial. Trajan.— He has disobeyed the
law. Send him in chains to my praetorian prefects for a more
rigorous punishment.

Pliny. — Those assuming the toga virilis, celebrating a marriage,
inaugurating some public work, or entering on a magistracy, are
accustomed to invite the decnrious and many of the plebs — some-
times more than 1000 persons — and to give each one a denarius or
two. I am afraid that the numbers at these gatherings are excessive,
though you have yourself allowed invitations on special occasions.
Trajan. — You are right. But I have made choice of your wisdom
for the express purpose of reforming all the abuses of the province.

Pliny. — A great fire has devastated Nicomedia. Would it not
be well to establish a society of 150 firemen? Trajan. — No.
Corporations, whatever the names they bear, are sure to become

95 A.D. DOMITIAN AND THE CHRISTIANS. 445

political associations. Supply the apparatus of buckets ; warn the
proprietors, and, in case of need, employ the populace.

SECT. III. — THE CHRISTIANS.

§. 9. The letter of Pliny and the reply of his master which have
excited most interest and led to most discussion, are those con-
cerning the punishment of Christians. Until Domitian's reign the
Christians had been regarded as a Jewish sect, and had been treated
as Jews. Since the death of Gaius, the Jews had never been
forced to take part in the divine worship of the Emperors, and the
Christians shared in this immunity, as the state did not recognise
their distinction from the Jews. But the fall of Jerusalem
brought about a change in the position of Christianity, by
emancipating it from its home in Palestine, and leading to its
wider propagation among the gentiles. This propagation led to
the recognition of the distinction between Jews and Christians. It
was observed that the proselytising efforts of the Jews proper
were attended with unimportant results, whereas the Christian
sect increased rapidly. The Koman government was only ready
to tolerate the opposition of the Jews to the state religion, so long
as there was no danger of Jewish doctrines spreading among
subjects of other races. The question therefore, was whether
they should suppress the Jewish religion altogether, including
Christianity as a species of Judaism, or should deal with the
Christians separately. Domitian chose the latter alternative,
towards the close of his reign. A refusal to worship the Emperor's
image was regarded as an act of sacrilege ; and such worship was
required from Christians,* though not from Jews. A Christian,
named Antipas, suffered death at Pergamum, for refusing to
comply with this requisition. At Rome, Flavius Clemens was put
to death, and Domitilla banished on a charge of sacrilege ; and it
seems probable that they were Christian converts. The year 95, in
which these things happened, may be regarded as the date at
which Christianity came into conflict with the state religion, and
was forbidden. As the Christian faith compelled those who
professed it to set at naught the established religion, Christians
were regarded lay the law as sacrilegious ; and to be suspected of
Christianity was equivalent to being suspected of sacrilege. An
important consequence followed. It was one of the duties of every
provincial governor, to seek out and punish all sacrilegious persons,
brigands, robbers, and others, who infested his province. As the
Christians came under the head of sacrHegi, the governor was not
* Also doubtless from non-Jewish converts to Judaism.

446 TBAJAN'S PBINCIPATE. CHAP. xxiv.

only able, but was required, to deal with them according to his
own discretion, without receiving any special imperial instructions.

It was part of Nerva's reaction against the policy of Domitian,
that accusations of this kind of sacrilege were not encouraged ;
but the principle was not changed. Christians were still
punishable, and this was an acknowledged fact when Pliny was
governor of Bithynia. The wide diffusion of the forbidden
religion in this province Became known to Pliny in 112 A.D, when
he issued Trajan's rescript forbidding societies (betm-ise). The
enemies of the Christians took the opportunity of point ng out that
they were in the habit of holding illicit assemblies. Pliny
describes his investigation of the question in his letter to Trajan, of
which the tenor is in brief as follows: —

" I have never been present at the resolutions taken concerning
the Christians, therefore I know not for what causes or how far
they may he objects of punishment. And I have hesitated con-
siderably in considering whether the differenre of age should make
any difference in our procedures. Are those who retract their belief
to be pardoned? Must they be punished for the profession alone,
although otherwise innocent? I have pursued the following
method : — I have asked them whether they were Christians, and to
those who avowed the profession I have put the same question
a second and a third time, and have enforced it by threats of
punishment. When they have persevered, I have ordered them to
be led to execution. For what ver their confession might be, their
audacious behaviour and immovable obstinacy undoubtedly de-
manded punishment. I have reserved some who shared in the
si me kind of madness, but were Roman citizens, to be sent to
Rome.

" An anonymous information was put into my hands, containing
a list of many persons who deny that th«-y are or ever were
Christians. For, repeating the form of invocation after me, they
called njKm the gods and offered incense and made libations to vour
imag'; and they uttered imprecations against Christ, to which no
true Christian, as they affirm, can be compelled by any punishment
what* ver. I thought it best, therefore, to dismiss them. Others of
them said at first that they were Christians, and then immediately
afterwards denied it, and said that they had entirely renounced the
error several years before. All these worshipped your image and
the images of the gods, and they even vented imprecations against
Christ.

•* They affirmed that the sum total of their fault or their error
consisied in assembling upon a certain stated day before it was
light to sing alternately among themselves hymns to Christ as to a

112 A.JX THE CHRISTIANS IN BITHYNIA. 447

god ; binding themselves by oath not to steal nor to rob, not to
commit adultery nor break their faith when pLghti-d, nor to deny
the deposits in their hands whenever compelled to restore them.
These ceremonies performed, they usually departed, and came to-
gether again to take a repa-t, the meat of which was inncc«nt*
and eaten promiscuously; but they had desis-ed from this custom
since my edict, wherein by your commands I had prohibited all
associations (he'serisi). From these circumstances I thought it
more necessary to try to gain the truth, even by torture, from two
women who were said to officiate at their worship. But 1 could
discover only an obstinate kind of superstition, carried to great
excess. And therefore, postponing any resolution of my own, I
have waited the result of your judgment. Tome an affair of this
sort seems worthy of your consideration, principally from the
multitude involved in the danger. For many persons of all degrees,
of all ages, of both sexes, are already and will be constantly brought
into danger by these accusations. Nor is this superstitious contagion
confined only to the cities; it spreads itself through the villages
and the country."

It is clear from this letter that Pliny had no doubt in his mind
that Christianity was forbidden and punishable. It is also clear,
that although this was recognised in principle, yet in practice,
Roman governors did not attempt to discover Christians, and did
not concern themselves with the prohihited faith, unless it was
specially brought under their notice. On the first occasion on
which Christians were accused before Pliny, he dealt with them as
with persons guilty of sacrilege, on his own responsibility. But
on the second occasion, when an anonymous letter reached him,
containing a long list, he investigated the question more fully, and
made two discoveries : (1) that the number of Christians was v< ry
large, and (2) that they seemed to be innocent of the crimes of
incest and Thyestean banquets, which were popularly ascribed to
them. Consequently he hesitated to deal with the " superstition"
as summarily as he had dealt with it before, and referred the matter
to the Emperor.

In reply, Trajan refused to adopt any general measure. " The
Christians," he wrote, " need not be sought out.f If they are
brought into your presence and convicted, they must be punished.
But anonymous informations ought not to have the least weight in
any charge whatever."

Thus Trajan upheld the principle that Christianity, being a form
of aacrilegium, was punishable. But on the other hand, he

* The Jews accused the Christiana of killing and eating children.

^ ODKUI uirtiuuli OOP

448 TRAJAN'S PBINCIPATE. CHAP. xxiv.

prescribed that Christians were only to be punished when they were
accused and convicted ; they were not, like robbers or sacrilegious
persons of other kinds, to be sought after or hunted down. This
was an inconsistent position. It was hardly logical to leave in
peace the Christian whom no one happened to accuse, and con-
demn to death the Christian against whom an ill-wisher brought
the charge of belonging to the forbidden sect. But the great
significance of Trajan's rescript is that it affirmed clearly the
attitude of the Roman government to Christianity, and laid down a
principle, which set Christians outside the pale of the law. This
principle formed the basis of the religious policy of the Emperors for
the two following centuries. It is important to observe that
the crime for which a Christian was punished, according to this
rescript, was not that of belonging to an illegal association — a
transgression which would have come under the head of maiestas.
Nor was the Christian punished because he had hitherto abstained
from taking part in the worship of the Emperor or the gods.
When a man was accused of Christianity, his judge required him
to make a "supplication" to the Emperor's image, and if he
refused, punishment was inflicted for this refusal, which was
accounted sacrilege.

SECT. IV. — TRAJAN'S WARS AND CONQUESTS IN THE EAST.
His DEATH.

§ 10. Ever since Tiridates had received the Armenian diadem
from the hands of Nero, peace had subsisted between Rome and
Parthia. The relations between the Flavian Emperors and the
Arsacids had hardly been troubled by a single cloud ; but under
Trajan they became less friendly. King Pacorus did not decline to
negotiate with Docebalus, the enemy of Rome. This negotiation,
however, was not followed by any action on the part of Parthia,
and did not lead to hostilities. But under Chosroes, the brother
and successor of Pacorus, the crucial question of Armenia
came -up once more. The Armenian throne having become
vacant. Trajan bestowed it upon Axidares, a son of Pacorus, but
Chosroes deposed Axidares, and set up Parthomasiris, another son
of Paccrus, on the ground that Axidares was incapable of governing.
This action of Chosroes was a direct violation of the treaty existing
between the two states, and Trajan was not a man to pass this over,
lie declared war immediately, and left Rome for the east at the
end of 113 A.I). When he reached Athens he was met by a
Parthian embassy, sent to divert him from his purpose, for
Chosroes was not prepared for war. At this time Parthia was

113 A.P.

TRAJAN'S ARMENIAN POLICY.

449

distracted by internal dissensions, and several rival kings were
ruling in different parts of the realm. The ambassadors declared
that Parthomasiris was prepared to acknowledge himself the client
of Rome, and receive the diadem from Trajan as Tiridates had received
it from Nero. But the Emperor refused to recognise one who had
been set up in defiance of his authority. He dismissed the embassy,
saying shortly that he looked for deeds and not tor words. Another
Emperor would probably have been satisfied with the compromise,
and Trajan, if he had intended to follow the eastern policy of his
predecessors, would not have dismissed the Parthian envoys as he
did. But he had come to the conclusion that the settlement of the
Armenian question which had been come to in the reign of Nero
was no settlement at all ; and he determined to make the position

Relief from Trajan's Column.

of Armenia clear, by converting it into a Roman province This
step, which previous Emperors had declined to take, would remove
once for all every pretext for Parthian interference in Armenia and
put an end to the unsatisfactory combination of nominal Roman
sway and real Parthian influence. The resolve of Trajan was
quite in accordance with his previous policy in the case of Dacia
and Arabia. The conversion of client states into provinces is a
feature of his reign. But his purpose went even further than the
annexation of Armenia. He decided to carry out an idea, which
had been in the air for more than a hundred years, and subdue the

450 TRAJAN'S PRINCIPATE. CHAP. XXTV.

realm of Parthla, as he had subdued the realm of Decebalus. It
was a project which Julius Csssar might have attempted if he had
lived. It was an aspiration of Roman poets, from Horace, who
dreams of "R>me giving laws to the vanquished Medes," to
Statius who, in addressing D'»mitian on his seventeenth consulate,
reminds him that Bactra and Babylon still remain to be curbed by
a new tribute.*

§ 11. From Athens Trajan proceeded to Antioch, and found that
the Syrian army had degenerated in discipline and vigour owing to
the long peace, so that his first task was to restore the efficiency
of the troops. There were seven legions in the east available
for the Parthian war — four in Syria, one in Jndea, and two
in Cappadocia — in addition to which Trajan summoned some
Pannon-an reinforcements, but it is uncertain how he apportioned
his forces. Hostilities had already commenced, and the advanfage
was on the side of the Parthian*, who had taken Samo-ata. Before
Trnjan took the field in spring 115 A.D., he received a letter from
the pretender Parthomasiris, of which he took no notice, because
the writer styled himself "king." The first event of the campaign
was the recovery of Samosata. Thence Trajan marched to Satala in
Little Armenia, intending to make that country the basis of his
operations. At Satala he was met by the kings of various
Caucasian countries, who came to assure him of their devotion and
obidience — such as the Iberians, Albanians an<l Apsilians. Among
others, Anchialus king of the Heniochi and Machelones was dis-
tinguished with marks of favour by the Emperor, to whom the
attitude of these northern barbarians was a matter of imiortance
for the success of his further operations. Here, too, another
message was received from Parthoma-iris, couched in far humbler
terms than the previous one, and begging for an interview with
M. Junius, the governor of Cappadocia. Trajan sent the son of Junius
to treat with the pretender, and himself, returning on his s^eps, pro-
ceeded with the army in the direction of Artaxata, and halted at
Elegeia (near Erzeroum), a locality well adapted for concentrating
forces. Here Parthomasiris was permitted to wait upon the Emperor,
who took his seat on a svggestus in the presence of the troops.
The Parthian prince, taking the diadem from his head, laid it at
the feet of Trajan, in order that the ceremonial of investiture mhht
be performed ; but the soldiers, misunderstanding his attitude, and
thinking that he was renouncing Armenia, conceived that this
country was won for Rome without a blow, and saluted Trajan as
Imperator. Frightened by the cries of the soldiers, Parthoinasiris

* Horace. Odet, HI. 3, 43 : Trtnmphatis. I Statius, Silv*, i. 1. 40 : Restat Bactra
qne Media Roma ferox dare tara posslt. | novis, reetat Babylona tribntis frenarl.

115 A.D. ABMEN1A A BOMAN JPKOVINCJS. 451

made as if he would flee, but he was surrounded, and could not
escape. He then begged for a private interview with the Kmperor,
and WHS led into the imperial tent. But Trajan's mind was made
up, and the Partisan's offer was rejected. Alter a few minutes
they issue«l from the tent; Trajan resumed his seat on the sttygesfus,
an 1 commanded Paithomasiris to declare his demands cl arly he:ore
the army, in onler that the words which passed between them
mi^ht never be falsely reported. The soldi, rs preyed round, but
Parthomasiris, in this dangerous situation, did not lose his self-
possession. He said simply that Armenia rightfully belonged to
him on condition of receiving the diadem irom Trajan's hands, that
lie had come of his own accord for this purpose, and not as a
defeated or captured enemy, and that he expected to suffer no
injury. Tlie Emperor, in reply, shortly announced that Armenia
belong d to Rome, and should hencefonh be ruled by a Koman
governor. Parthomas ris, with his Paithian retinue, was then per-
mitted to depart under an esco: t of Roman horse, to prevent them
from holding communications with anyone until ihey were beyond
the frontiers of Armenia. The Armenians who had accom,ani<d
him were sent back to their own homes. Soon alter lie had left
the camp, Harthomasins was slain by his escort. It is unknown
whether this act was committed in cold blood by the orders of
Trajan, or whether the Parthian prince made an attempt to escape
from his conductors. Armenia submit' ed to rs late without a
struggle, and became a Roman province. The Caucasian kingdoms
now stood to Rome in the same relation in which Armenia had
stood before.

§ 12. Meanwhile, the Moorish captain, Lusius Quietus, who had
distinguished himself in the Dadau war, had hastened eastward
with a part of the army, crossed the Araxes, and occupied
Atropatene or Media. He surprised the strong and important
fortress of Singara, whose possession was a great advantage lor an
invader of Parthia. As soon as Trajan had occupied Armenia, he
marched into Mesopotamia, where he met with little resistance.
Batnse and Nis bis were tak« n without d fficulty, and the fortress
of Thebitha, between Nisi bis and Singara, secured a line of com-
munication between the main a>my and the detnchment of Lusius
Quietus. Ahgar, king of Osroene, had long ago volunteered to
desert his allegiance to Parthia, and become a Roman vassal. At
Edessa he publicly offered his submission to the conqueror, and
other phylarchs and satraps followed his example. Civil war
among the Parthians hindered them from taking any steps to
opp se the conquest of ihe land between the Euphrates and Tigris.
The king phosroes was overthrown by a pretender of Arab race.

452 TRAJAN'S PRINCIPATE. CHAP. xxiv.

named Manisares, who now sent a message to Trajan, proposing to
divide the spoils of the Arsacid. Trajan refused to entertain the
proposal or admit the envoys to a conference, and Manisares allied
himself with another Arab king, Mannus, and prepared to oppose
the advance of the Romans. But Trajan did not intend to cross
the Tigris until the following year, as the season was already far
advanced. He organised Mesopotamia as a Roman province, and
retired to Antioch for the winter. His stay there was marked
by a terrible earthquake (Dec. 13, 115 A.D.) which cost many lives
and demolished a large part of the city, and Trajan himself narrowly
escaped destruction.

§ 13. The winter was employed with the construction of a fleet
on the Euphrates, which was to operate in the next campaign along
with the army. Trajan, ennobled by the name of Parthicus,
which the senate had decreed to him, proceeded to Nisibis in spring
(116 A.D.), and thence lijd his army to the upper Tigris, where it
flows through the district of Corduene. The passage of the river
was made on boats, which had been built in the woods of Nisibis
and transported thence on waggons. The army crossed with
difficulty, for the Carduchians of the adjacent mountains lined the
opposite shore, but at length, seeing that the numbers of the
Homans rendered resistance hopeless, the barbarians retired. The
whole country of Adiabene was occupied by Trajan with little
opposition, and was made into a third Roman province under the
name of Assyria.

Recrossing the Tigris, Trajan joined his fleet on the Euphrates,
and reviewed his troops at Ozogardana, near the bitumen-springs
which supplied the Babylonians with building-cement. Babylon,
nearly deserted by its inhabitants on account of the civil wars, fell
an easy prey to the Romans, who then proceeded to attack Ctesi-
phon, the Parthian capital. The two rivers were connected by the
Nahar-mcdcha, or royal canal, which joined the Tigris at Ctesiphon,
and this canal was used by Trajan to transport his ships from the
Euphrates to the Tigris. His plans for the siege of Ctesiphon
rendered it necessary to disembark his troops on the left bank of
the Tigris at a distance from the city, and accordingly a new canal
was dug connecting the Nahnr-malcha with the river at a point
above Ctesiphon. The Romans soon captured the capital of the
Arsacids. Chosroes himself escaped, but his daughter was captured,
and the golden throne of the Parthian kings was taken and reserved
for the triumph of Trajan. With this success the soldiers regarded
Parthia as conquered, or, at least, its conquest as assured, and
Parthia capta was inscribed on coins.

§ 14. The Emperor then descended the Tigris with fifty ships, as

116 A.*. CONQUEST OF WESTERN PARTHIA. 453

far as Charax Spasinu near its mouth. This place w;is in the
territory of Attambelos, king of Mesene, who submitted to the
Roman conqueror, and became his tributary. Old as Trajan was,
his imagination was excited by this proximity to the Indian Sea.
At Charax, seeing; a vessel bound for the Indies, he expressed regret
that he was not young enough to visit them himself. He was t^e
first western conqueror since Alexander tie Great, who had
penetrated so far, and he may have dreamed of rivalling Alexander
by still more extensive conquests. But he was speedily aroused
from his dreams by the news that the lands which he had won so
easily, Babylonia and Mesopotamia, had revolted. A legion under
the general Maximus was cut to pieces hy the insurgents. Nisibis,
Seleucia, and E<lessa slew or drove out the Roman garrisons, and
shut their gates. This rebellion, in which the Jews played a
prominent part, was suppressed, but not without difficulty. The
important cities which had revolted, were treated severely. In
Babylonia, Seleucia was taken by Krucius Clarus and Julius
Alexander, and burnt to the ground. The recovery of Mes« >potamia,
where the Jewish populations were the leaders of the revolt, was
entrusted to the gallant Moor, Lusius Quietus. He besieged and
reduced both Nisibis and Edessa; and the city of Abgar, who had
doubtless fallen a victim to the rebels, was burnt down like
Seleucia.

§ 15. This revolt forced Trajan to be content for the present with
the three new provinces which he had added to the Empire by his
two campaigns, and to desist from further conquests, especially as
the Parthians were rallying forces and preparing to make an attempt
to wrest Armenia from its new lord. Trajan prevented their
projects by a stroke of diplomacy. Although he had not penetrated
further than the western borders of the great eastern realm, he
regarded Parthia as a conquered country, and at Ctesiphon bestowed
the crown upon Parthamaspates, son of Chosroes, who accepted it at
a client of Rome. Thus a king was given to the Parthians — rex
Parthis datus, as coins record — and thus Parthia itself came to hold
nominally the same position towards Rome as formerly Armenia.

The Roman army then returned to Syria. On the way an
attempt was made to take Hatra, a small but t-trongly fortified
city in the Mesopotamian desert, on the way from Ctesiphon to
Singara. The nature of the country and the parching sun rendered
a long siege impossible, and the inhabitants were brave. Though a
breach was made in the walls, the soldiers could not enter. Trajan
himself, approaching with a small body of horse and conspicuous
by his white hair and majestic form, was the mark for the arrows of
the garrison, but he escaped injury, though a horseman at his side

4:54 TBAJAN'tt PKINCIPATE. CHAP,

was slain. A tnunderstonn compelled the Romans to retreat, and
the sufferings that they endured from the hear, noxious insects,
and want of water and pasture, saved Hatra from further assaults.
The Emperor returned to Antioch (about April, 117 A.D.).

§ 16. The attempt of Mesopotamia to throw off the yoke of Rome
was closely connected with another more widespread movement of
rebellion in the eastern provinces of the Empire. Fnty years had
not fully elapsed since the great Jewish war which ended in ihe
destruction of Jerusalem, and now the Jews made another desperate
attempt to break tree from the rule of their Roman masters. Their
hope was to drive both Greeks and Romans out of those countries
in which there was a considerable Jewish population, — C \prus, the
Cyienaica, Egypt, Mesop>tamia and Palestine — and torm an inde-
pendent Jewish state. They chose the moment when the Emperor
was in the far east. Wherever the insurgents succeeded, they
exterminated their enemies with relentless fury. In I yprus, which
had been long the refuge of Jews from Palestine and (Syria, it is
said tha 240,000 were slain. When the revolt was afterwards put
down, the Jews were forbidden thenceforth to set foot on the island.
In Cynnaica, a senatorial province, unprotected by a military
garrison, the Jewish population outnumbered the natives, and
under a duel named Andrew or Lucuas, who assumed the title oi
king, obtained rapid successes. Ht-re 220,0' 0 natives were slain
with great barbarity. In Egypt, the prelect Rutilius Lupus
unprepared for the emergency, was compelled to shut nunseif up in
Alexandria. The Jews in the city, though numerous, were in a
minority, and were massacred by the Greeks. Tr;ijan sent Q.
Marcius Turbo, with an army and fleet, to restore order in Kgypt
and Gyrene, and the rebels were soon crushed l>y the trained troops.
The Jews of Egypt were almost exterminated. The suppression of
the movement in Mesopotamia by Lus>ius Quietus has already been
ua'-rated.

§ 17. Not only the Jews took advantage of the absence of the Em-
^peror in the far cast, bat the enemies of Rome in other quarters also
seized the opportunity to rebel or invade. The Danubian provinces
were threatened by the Sarmatians ; Africa was harried b\ tne Moors;
a revolt broke out in Britain. Thus Traian's presence wa,s
earnestly demanded in the west, and the sennte uned his return,
The eastern war was regarded as finished, and preparations were
made at Rome for a brilliant triumph. But, like Alexander whom
he emulated, he was not destined to reach ijonie. His journey was
in errupted at Selinus in Cilioa,* by an illness to which he

* At Seleucia, In laauria. according to i Sellnus was the place is proved by an
another account (Eutropius); but that I inscription (C. I. L.. 6, 1884.)

117 A.D. DEATH OF TRAJAN. 455

succumbed. He died on August 8, 117 A.D.* The triumph over
the Parthiaus was c lehratevl in Ids nan.e after his d«ath, and was
the only case in which a dead Kmperor obtained that honour.
The consecrati d conqueror, Divus Trajanus Parthicus, as he was
designat< d, was reprtsented by a statue in the triumphal car. His
ashes, \ laced in a golden urn, were buried at the foot of liis own
Pillar in his own Forum, and he is ihe only one of the Emperors
vvh-)se remains were permitted to rest within the limits of the
city.

Trajan gives a king to the Parthians.

§ 18. Trajan must have been well aware that his easily won
successes in the east had been largely due to the internal divisions
of Parthia, and that his conquests would be endangered as soon
as unity should be restored. The insiitution of a dependent
Parthian kingdom cannot have been more than a temporary
device for the purpose of avoiding an immediate difficulty ; or at
least, if Trajan intended it to be permanent, he must have known
well that it would need nr-re fight. ng and bloodshed to establish
a lasting overlordship over Parthia. Alexander's conquests had
been won at Issus and Arbela, but T aj in's had been almost
bloodless. It is probable that Trajan intended to return to the
east after his triumph, and renew t e war, for the purpose oi
reducing the power of the Paithians, and securing more firmly the
fiontiers of his new provinces. He had made the Tigris, in>tead
of the Euphrates, the eastern boundary of the Emi ire, ai.d it was
a boun-'ary peihaps mote easy to detend. It is iash and ui just
to condemn this extension of the Empire as a mistake into which
Trajan was misled by mere ambition; for his conduct can be
exp'airied and defended on political grounds. Oi ce he condemned
the Armenian policy of his predecessor — and it certainly was not
unassailable, — and decided to annex Armenia, the annexation ot
Mesopotamia was a logical consequence. The province of Assyria

* The exact day to not quit* certain. Authorities vary between 7th, 8th, and llth.

456

TRAJAN'S PR1NCIPATE.

CHAP, xxiv

was an advanced position beyond the Tigris, somewhat as the
province of Dacia beyond the Danube. The new acquisitions
should have been a great commercial advantage for Rome by
bringing into her hands command of the whole line of traffic from
Syria to the Persian Gulf. But owing to Trajan's inopportune
death and the different policy of his successor, the Empire was not
permitted to test the consequences of an eastward extension ot its
borders.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE MARTYRDOM OF IGNATIUS.

The most distinguished Christian who
suffered death under Trajan was Ignatius,
Bishop of Antioch, who, according to the
tradition of the Church, was sent by the
govern- .r of Syria to Rome and there was
given to the beasts in the amphitheatre.
The whole story has been doubted by
some critics. The truth of it would be
proved, if we could establish with cer-
tainty the genuineness of the Letters
ascribed to St. Ignatius. But quite apart
from the question of the Letters, there is

a priori no improbability in the story.
Ignatius, if he was martyred at Home,
simply suffered the fate which the Roman
citizens of Bithynia, whom Pliny reserved
to be sent to Rome, must actually have
suffered if they persisted in the pro-
fession of Christianity. And the simplest
way to account for the very early origin
of the tradition of the martyrdom of
Ignatius seems to be to accept it as true.
(A good account of the question will be
found in the Dictionary qf Christian
Biography.)

Adventus Coin of Hadrian.

Nero Citharcedus (from the Statue in the Capitol).
CHAPTER XXV.

LITERATURE FROM THE DEATH OF TIBERIUS TO TRAJAN.

§ 1. LITERATURE UNDER CLAUDIUS AND NERO, Literary tastes of these
Emperors. Memoirs of Agrippina, Corbulo, and Antistius Vetus.
History of Q. Curtius. § 2. Seneca. His prose works, and § 3.
Tragedies. The Octavia. §4. Columella. Pomponius Mela. Asconius.
Valerius Probus. Jurists. § 5. Poetry. Panegyric on the Consul Piso.
Satires of Persius. Caesius Bassus. § 6. Lucan. The Pharsalia
§ 7. Calpurnius Siculus The JEinc of Lucilius. Homerus Latinus.
§ 8. Satiricon of Petronius Arbiter. § 9. LITERATURK UNDER THE
FLAVIAN EMPERORS. Imperial patronage. Professorial chairs founded
by Vespasian, and contests instituted by Domitian. § 10. The elder
Pliny: The Naturalis Historia. §11. Historians. § 12. Rhetoric
and etatory. Quintilian. § 13. Frontinus. § 14. Valerius Flaccus ;
Argonautica. Saleius Bassus. § 15. Silius Italicus1; Pumca. § 16.
Statius; (1) Thebaid, (2) Achilleid, (3) Silvae. § 17. Epigram.
Martial. § 18. Arruntius Stella. Sulpicia. Turnus, § 19 LITERA-
TURE UNDER TRAJAN. § 20. Juvenal § 21. Tacitus. Hi> life.
§ 22. Works. § 23. Estimate of him as an historian. § 24 Pliny
the younger. § 25. Florus. Specialists. § 26. GREEK LITERATURE.
Josephus and Philo. § 27. Plutarch. § 28. Dion Chrysostom.

458 LITB&ATUEfi. Ciur. uv.

SECT. I. — LITERATURE UNDER CLAUDIUS AHD NERO.

§ 1. AFTER the lull during the reign of Tiberius, literary activity
v\as awakened again under his successors. But it has no longer the
freshness of inspiration which c aracterised t lie epoch of Augustus.
The golden aj,e has passed ; the silver age has begun. There is no
doubt that the political events at Koine exercised an uniavourable
influence on literature. The despotism of Tiberius in his later
years, the wild career of Caligula, the vicissitudes under the rule of
the wives and freedmen of Claudius, the follies of Nero, did not
constitute a genial atmosphere for the development of successors to
Virgil, Horace, and Livy. The contemporaries of Augustus had
witnessed order arisen out of disorder, and the worli set to rights;
but to Romans under Claudius and Nero the world seemed to have
gone mad. The men who write are no longer proud of their age,
or confident of the future. They regard the government with
distrust, knowing not what a day may bring forth. 'I hey look
upon the Caesar's palace as a scene of intrigues, guile, and violence.
There is nothing in public life to inspire them; literature retreats
into itself. Most of the works produced during this period are
either of a reflective character, or concerned with scientific subjects,
or mere imitations of older literature. In both poetry and history,
the great Augustan writers are regarded as the models to be fol-
lowed, and earlier authors are looked down upon as vas'ly inferior.
All kinds of composition aro marked by rhetoric; the result being
that the prose is poetical and the poetry prosaic.

It has been already mentioned that Claudius and Nero were
themselves authors, Claudius an historian, Nero a poet. Claudius
was incited in his youth to historical studies by Livy himself.
None of his compositions remain, with the exception of part of
the speech which he delivered in the senate (48 A.D.) for the
admission of the Gallic nobility to Homan magistracies.* The
memo rs of the Empress AGRIPPINA were an important source fix
the secret history of the court of Claudius, but they have also been
lost, as well as other contemporary records of their own experiences
by prominent men of the day. Thus DOMITIDS CORBULO wrote an
account of his exploits in the Armenian wars. SUETONIUS PAULINUS.
whose name we chiefly associate with Britain, described his deeds
in Mauretania ; and L. ANTISTIUS VETUS wrote a work on his ex-
periences as commander in Germany (58 A.D.). All these works,
whatever their literary value, would have had great historical

* The fragment is preserved on a bronze tablet discovered at Lyons. Tacitus gives
* short abstract Unn., ad. 34).

CHAP. xxv. SENEGA. 459

interest, if they had heen preserved. The only historian of this
ago, whose work has reached us, is Q. CURTIUS RUFUS, of whose life
we hnow nothing. He wrote a history of Alexander the Great in
ten Books, of which the two first are lost. He derived his in-
formation from Greek writers, hut displayed no critical faculty in
using his sources. His s'yle is modelled on that of Livy, but is
unc mscio .oly influenced by the mannerisms of his own age. He
strives after antithet'c semences and poetical expressions. He
hardly appreciates the political greatness of Alexander, but regards
Ms eastern expedition as a brilliant adventure. He has an eye for
the more telling epi.-odes, and hurries rapidly over all that is less
striking, tl.ough perhaps more important.

§ 2. SENECA is the most characteristic and interesting literary
fguro of this age. All the great Augustan writers were Roman or
Italian, but Seneca was a Spaniard of Corduba. We have already
met Ms lather, tlie rhetoritian, a man of some literary note. The
provinces are now beginning to play a prominent part in Roman
literature; or rather Spain is setting the example to the other
subject lands. Two other conspicuous authors at this time were of
Spanish origin, Seneca's nephew Lucan, and Columella of Gades.
The writings of Seneca reflect in many ways the spirit of the age.
He wrote on a variety of subj< cts, but his most important works are
philosophical and contemplative. His philosophy was popular in
style as well as in matter.* He desired the applause of his con-
temporaries—literary vanity was a feature of the time — and did not
write with a view to the judgment of posterity. His style was
suitable to the taste of his age. He had a wide range of know-
ledge, a nice faculty of psychological observation, and was by no
means pedantic; but his philosophy was neither original nor deep.
He is always ready to sacrifice tlie thought to a verbal antithesis.
He wrote too much and was " not sufficiently diligent in phi'osophy."
He is often tediously diffuse, and the same sentiment meets the reader
again and again, disguised in a new dress. An excellent Roman critic
censures his style as viti «ted by " agreeable faults," such as captivate
boys.f It is possible that ambition was his chief motive in writing.
He may have aimed at obtaining political influence by winning
literary reputation. But it would be unjust to deny him a genuine
interest in philosophy, especially in its practical aspect, although,
from a higher point of view, philosophy can only regard him, like
Cicero, as a dabbler. Mo-t of his philosophical works, composed
at various times, are collected in twelve Books under the tid« of
Dialogues. They treat of the following subjects: — (1) "If there

* For some account of his philosophy, see below. Chap. XXX. $ 7.
f Quintilian, x. 139 : Oulcibus vitiis.

460 LITERA TUBE. CHAP. xxv.

is a providence, why do good men meet with troubles?'* (5)
Leisure. Both of these treatises were written after his retirement
from public life. (3) Anger (in three Books). (4) The happy life.
(6) Tranquillity of mind. (7) Brevity of life. (2) " The wise man
receives neither injury nor insult." Also three works of consola-
tion : (8) to a lady on the death of her son, (9) to Polybius, the
freedman, on the loss of a brother, and (10) to his mother Helvia,
on his own banishment. Beyond these " Dialogues " there are
extant the treatise " On clemency," written after Nero's accession,
and seven Books De Beneficiis.

Seneca also wrote a work in seven or eight Books on questions of
natural history (naturales qusestiones), which he dedicated to his
young friend Lucilius, procurator of Sicily. We possess further a
collection of letters * addressed to the same Lucilius, and written
with the intention of publication. They do not possess in any
degree the interest which belongs to the letters of Cicero and Pliny.
Seneca's satire on Claudius has been noticed already in another
connection, f

§ 3. Seneca wrote verse as well as prose. Nine tragedies have been
preserved, all dealing with subjects of Greek mythology, and
founded on Greek originals. They are : — Hercules Furens, Troades
(or Hecuba), Phccrtissse (or Thebuis), Medea, Phsedra (or Hippo-
lytus), (Edipus, Agamemnon, Thyestes, and Hercules (Ets&us.
In the case of most of these plays we possess the Greek originals,
and can judge of the deplorable taste of the Neronian age by the
manner in which Seneca has spoiled the works of the great masters,
omitting all the finer touches, and smothering the action with
declamation. The purpose of the characters in Seneca is to
declaim ; the action and the plot are of subordinate importance. It
has been a disputed question whether these tragedies were meant
for representation on the stage, and although they are in every
way unsuitable for acting, it is nevertheless not impossible that
in that age they may have been acted with applause. But it is
probable that Seneca in composing them had the recitation of
separate scenes before select audiences chiefly in view. The
versification of these plays is very strict, and conforms to the rules
of the Augustan poets. Besides the iambic trimeters and anapaests,
sapphic, glyconic and asclepiad measures are also introduced, with
little regard, however, to harmony of metre and subject.

More interesting historically is the fabula prxtexta, or tragedy
with Koman characters, entitled Octavia, which used to be attri-
buted to Seneca, and is always included among his works. The
subject of this drama is the tragic fate of Nero's wife, and Seneca

* 124 letters divided into twenty Books. | f See above, Chap. XV. $ 29.

CHAP. xxv. SPECIALISTS. 461

himself is one of the characters. He cannot, however, have been
the author, as there is an allusion to the fall of Nero'. It seems
probable that the work was composed under the Flavian Emperors,
before the end of the first century ; but even this cannot be regarded
as certain.

§ 4. Seneca's contemporary and countryman, L. JUNIUS
MODEBATUS COLUMELLA, of Grades, devoted himself to the subject
of agriculture, and tried to revive an interest in it, somewhat as
Virgil had done nearly a century before. His uncle, a learned man,
was an extensive farmer in Bastica, and so he had an oppor-
tunity of studying his subject practically. He wrote two prose
treatises on agriculture (JDe Be rustica), the second much more
elaborate than the first. Of the first \ve possess one Book, " On
trees ; *' but the second, in twelve Books, has been preserved entire.
One of these Books (the tenth) is compose.! in excellent hexameter
verses. The author made this variation because horticulture, the
subject of this Book, had been omitted by Virgil. He intended it
as a sort of supplement to the Georgics, " the precepts," as he says,
" of the sidereal bard."* Here may be mentioned other books on
special subjects, such as the treatise on Medicaments by Scribonius
Largus, and the work De Chorographia, in three books, by the
geographer Pomponius Mela, of Tingentera, in Spain. Q. ASCONIUS
PEDIANUS composed his commentary on the speeches of Cicero about
55 A.D. This highly important work has been preserved in frag-
mentary form. The language is pure, the comments acute. He
also wrote a work against the detractors of Virgil, but it has not
survived. Grammatical investigation was represented by M. VALE-
RIUS PEOBUS, of Berytus, who made eminent Latin writers the
subject of criticism and explanations in the same way that the
Alexandrine scholars treated classical Greek authors. He issued
annotated editions of Virgil, Horace, and Lucretius, and he wrote
and lectured on old Latin. He enjoyed a hi^h reputation with
later workers in the same subject, as an illustrious grammarian and
an acute critic.f The most important writers on jurisprudence were
Proculus, who gave his name to the Proculian school, and Cassius
Longinus, who was banished by Nero to Sardinia, and recalled by
Vespasian. %

* Siderei vatis praecepta Maronis (1.
434).

f He is probably the Probus meant by
Martial, when in sending a copy of Book
iii. of his epigrams to the poet Faustinas,
he writes (iii. 2. 12) :

Illo vindice nee Prdbum timeto.

% As one of those who were punished
by Nero owing to their wealth, be is

linked with Seneca and Laterauus by
Juvenal (x. 15):

Temporibus diris igitur iussuquc Neronis
Longinum et magnos Seneca? praedivitis

hortos
Clausit et egregia Lateranorum obsidet

a-des
Tota cohors.

LITEBATURB. CHAP. xxv.

§ 6. It is possible that some of Seneca's tragedies were composed
in the reign of Claudius, but the only poetical work which we can
set down as probably belonging to his age is a panegyric in
hexameters on the Consul Piso, by an unknown youthful author
(supposed by some to be Calpurnius). The poem is full of remi-
niscences of the Augustan poets, with whom the airhor was well
acquainted. Tlie versification is strict and elegant; there are only
two elisions in the whole poem. Of Nero's effusions only a few
odd lines have bi en preserved, l>ut they se» m to have been read and
well-known lonz alter his death. The two most important poets
of his reign were Persius and Lucan, who resembled each other in
their Sioic doctrines, their somewhat precocious talents, and in
their early deubs.

A. PERSIUS KLACCUS was born (34 A.D.) at Volateme, in Etruria,
and <iied at the ageot twenty-ei>iht (62 A.H.). He studied at Rome
under the Stoic philosopher Annaeus Cornutus, for whom he enter-
tained an affectionate regard, to which he has given expression in
his writings. Having read Lucilius, he was stimulated to write
poetical satires, and he was also much under the literary influence
of Horace.* His six Satires have come down to us ; but only one
of them (the First) is a satire in our sense of the word. In it
he ridicules the poets of the day, and the prevailing public taste;
but the others are merely tirades or sermons on Stoic texts, em-
broidered with some burlesque dramatic scenes. The persons
introduced are generally borrowed irora Lucilins or Horace, and the
ven-es are full of phrases, beginnings and ends of lines, taken din ctly
or in a modified Ibtm from these poets, especially from Horace.
But in I'Oth stxleand spirit the Satires of Persius are vas ly different
from those of his master. The Augustan poet was a genial Epicu-
rean, who laughed good-humouredly at the follies of mankind ; the
Neronian verse-writer was a Stoic preacher, who aspired to amend
the world. The youthful Persius takes upon himself to instruct
mankind; the more mature Horace is content to amuse. It is
to be remarked that Persius does not deal at all with contemporary
politics; he does not regret the Republic or condemn the Empire.
In point of style, it is unfortunate that Persius did not profit more
by his study of Horace. He could not manage the hexameter wiih
ease. His thoughts were poor, and he laboured to express them
with the utmost possible obscurity. His intentions were pure, but

* In Sat 1. 114 he contrasts the bitter- Omne vafer vHlum rldentl Flaccus amico

ness of Lucilius with the good-natured Tangit et admissus circum prsecordia

kanter of Horace : ludlt,

Secuit Lucilius nrhem, Callldus excusso populum suspendere
fe, Lupe, te, Muci et genuinum flregit in

fflte

. XXY.

PJBRSIU8 AND LUCAN. 463

he had no originality, and no poetical gift, and he tried to cover
this de'ect by mannerism and affectation. A friend of Persius,
C^ESIUS BASSUS may be mentioned as the chief representative ot
lyric poetry in Nero's reign. We do not possess any of his poetical
works, but remains of his treatise on Metric have been preserved.

§6. Epic poetry was very popular. Virgil was the model, and
national subjects were in vogue. Nero entertained the project of
writing an epos on the history of Rome. The .' harsalia of LUCAN
(39-65 A.D.), whom we have already met as one of the sufferers in
connection with the conspiracy of Piso, is a poem on the civil wars,
in ten books, left unfinished at the author's death.* Lucan was
brought up in a cultivated familv. His grandfather was Seneca
the rhetor, his uncle Seneca the philosopher, f In his early years
he was a great friend of Nero, who afterwards, however, bee 'me
jealous of his 1 terary reputation, and forbade him to compose
poetry. The Pharwlia was begun be fore the breach with the
Emperor, for the introductory verses contain a glowing panegyric
on him. Lucnn's epic must be considered a remarkable feat in its
wa\, when it is remembered that the author died at the age of
twenty six, but it has not a spark of genius. The practice, which
was then in fashion, of reciting literary works before private
audiences, had a s| ec ally nnfo tunate eflect on epic poetry. A
poet, thi' king of th< se recitaiions, was tempted to sacrifice the
unity of the whole to the effectiveness of special scenes, which
might be read aloud to applauding hearers. And for the same
reason poetry became rhetor cal ; the reciter wanted stuff to declaim.
The PharsaJia is versified oratory, not poetry ; Lucan is "to be
imitated,' says Quintilian, hinin-jc. as u*ual, the nail on the head,
"byo'ato's rather than by poets." The choice of subject was
very natural to a Stoic, breathing the atmosphere of Thraseaand
Helvidiu«s and reared up with a deep veneration for the senate, but
<r- m a li erary pout of view it was unfortunate. Pompey is
the hero ; but the miserable part wlrch he played in the Civil
Wars makes the poem rMiculons. Cato is a sort of secon 1 hero;
though |»erhaps as has been cleverly said J the trne hero is neither
Pompey nor Cato, but the senate. The cause of Caesar is
denounced as crime ; his victory is regarded not only as the death-

* Lucan's other works, including an
fliacon. Saturnalia, ten books of Filvse
(or miscellanies), a tragedy, Medea, have
perished.
t Martial, i. 61 :
Duosque Senecas unicumque Lucanum

birthday (vii. 21, 22, 23). Juvenal speaks
of him as wealthy (vii. 79) :
Contentus fama iaceat Lucanus in hortie
Ma moreis.

From another epifmm cf Martial we
leirn that the Pharsalia was very popular,

Facunda loquitur Corduba. I and had an extensive sale.

Martial bM three epigrams on Luctn's I I By Merival*.

464

LITERATURE.

CHAP. xxv.

blow to freedom, but as the destruction of Rome's greatness. The
work is full of Stoical doctrine, pretentious phrases, sounding
common -places, tedious speeches. The language is often difficult
on account of its affectations, and the introduction of out-of-the-
way geogi aphical and mythological learning renders some parts of
the work repulsive. But there are episodes which show consider-
able power of imagination, and there are many well-turned phrases,
such as the epigram on Cato —

Victrix causa dels placuit, sed victa Catoni,
and the famous words on Pompeius Magnus —
Stat magni nominis umbra.

§ 7. If Virgil's epic inspired Lucan and his Georgics Columella,
his Bucolics found an imitator in CALPURNIUS SICULUS. It is un-
certain whether Siculus designates the actual home of the poet or
was assumed on account of the Sicilian associations of Theocritus.
He was a poor man, and begs some patron whom he calls Meliboeus
— perhaps Seneca, or Calpurnius Piso — to bring his productions
under the Emperor's notice. Seven Eclogues are preserved. They
are metrically exact, like the rest of the poetry of the age, but
devoid of all originality, being copied from Virgil and the Greek
pastoral writers. Nero, spoken of in court style as a god, is
described as inaugurating a new period of freedom and clemency,
Rnd the seventh Eclogue contains an account of magnificent games
which he exhibited.*

The didactic poem entitled jffltna illustrates the tendency of the
age, to put the most unpromising subjects into verse. It discusses
the scientific causes of volcanic phenomena, and combats the
popular views diffused by the poets. The authorship is uncertain,
but the most ) robable view ascribes the poem to LUCILIUS,
the friend of Seneca, the same to whom the philosopher addressed
his Epistles. Lucilius was for a considerable time procurator
in Sicily, and had an opportunity of studying the mountain.
The poem contains echoes of Lucretius, but the author has none of
Lucretius' power in investing a dry subject with poetic attraction.
He rises higher when he is contrasting the pleasure of observing
nature with the pettiness of human life. The poem ends with the
story of two brothers who rescue their old parents in an eruption of
the volcano. It is probable that to this age also belongs the
Ffomerus Latinns, a short Latin version of the story of the Iliad,

* Two other eclogues by a contem-
porary of Nero, not Calpurnius, are pre-
served In a manuscript of Einsiedeln. In

one of these the appearance of Nero in
public as a citharcedus is celebrated.

CHAP. xxv. PETBONIUS. 465

in some parts almost a translation of Homer. This was intended
for use in schools, and has no merit except its scrupulously exact
metre.

§8. Perhaps the most interesting work of Nero's age was the
satirical work of PETRONIUS ARBITER in twenty Books. It may t>e
considered almost certain that this Petronius was the same as the
sesthetic voluptuary whose death by Nero's orders, in 66 A.D., has
been described in a foregoing chapter. His work (entitled Satiree
or Satiricon) recounted all sorts of imaginary adventures, in wliicli
he satirised the manners and weaknesses of his a;ie. Unluckily
only fragments of the book remain, of which the largest is the
BanqijLet of Trimalchio, describing a feast given by a wealthy,
uneducated upstart in a Greek town of Campania, probably Cumas.
The person who tells the tale is a freedman named Eucolpius, \\ ho
recounts his travelling experiences in company with Ascyltos,
another freedman, and Giton, a slave, in the last years of Claudius
or the early years of Nero. The work is wonderfully < lever and
artistic, full of wit, humour, and delicate irony, displaying wide
knowledge of the world, and great dramatic power in making the
persons introduced speak in character. The motive which united
the various parts of the composition was probably the anger of the
god Priapus, who may have played a part meant to travesty that
of Poseidon in the Odyssey. The work is quite devoid of any
moral tendency. The author shows a fine appreciation of Greek
art, and satirises pointedly the literary taste of the day. One of
the characters is a vain p>et named Eumolpus, who n cites two
poems of considerable length, the Troise Halosis, or " Capture of
Troy," in iambic trimeters, and the Bellnm Civile, in hexameters.
But the prose narrative sometimes passes into verse in all sorts of
metres, in the style of the Meriippean Satire. The former is clearly
allusive to the poem of Nero on the same subject, and the Bellum
Civile might be a parody of the Pharsalia.

SECT. II. — LITERATURE UNDER THE FLAVIAN EMPEROBS.

§ 9. All the Flavian Emperors patronised literature, although
none of them was so devoted to it as either Claudius or Nero.
Vespasian was not unskilled "even in Greek eloquence," and he
wrote memoirs. We hear of Titus writing a poem on the appear-
ance of a comet, and Domitian was devoted to poetry in his youth.*
But Vespasian also actively encouraged literary talent. He was the

* It was supposed that Domitian in- ! (Argonaut, i. 12):

tended to write a poem on his brother's j Versam proles tua pandet Idumen

capture of Jerusalem. Hence Valerius j (Namque potest), Solymo nigrantem pnl-

Flaccus, addressing Vespasian, says I \eref ratrem, etc.
20*

46b LITERATURE. CHAP. xxv.

first who endowed Latin and Greek rhetoricians with a yearly allow*
ance (1 0,000 S'Sterc<s) from the fiso. He gave rich rewards
to distinguished poets, and encour4.ed art in the same v\ay.
Domitian promoted poeti al activity by the Cnpitoline and Alban
contests. The effect of Domitian's despotism on literature may
be easily ex i-jge rated. Mis rule, though abs< lute, was not
despotic until thrf later years of his reign ; and it was only a small
class of people who hud anything to fear from his suspicion or
jealousy. There is no (jues ion that mrm were not free to criticise
the government or write republican tirades, which were really an
attack on the impeiial system; but there were many other
subjects for poets or prose writers to choose if they wished. The
writing of contemporary h st»ry is the only branch of literature
which must necessarily suffer under such a rule as that of
Domit'an.

§ 10. C. PLINIUS SECUNDUS (A.D. 23-79) of Comum in Cisalpine
Gaul, geneially called the Elder I'liny to distinguish him from his
nephew, was perhaps the most learned man of his time. His
death, in the ^reat eruption of Vesuvius, has already been mentioned.
He had filled the office of procurator in various provinces and had
found time amid his official activities to pursue studies of the most
varied and comprehensive character, and to wriie a gre-4 number
of books. Besides lesser works, he wrote a history, in twenty Books,
of all the wars that, Home ever waged with the Germans; a work
entitled Studiosi, being a sort ot introduction to rhetoric with
examples; a grammatical treatise dealing with doubtful forms in
declension and conjugation ; a contemporary history (in thirty-one
Books) probably reaching from the fall of Gams to the year
71 A.D. ; and a Natural H. story. Pliny's nephew gives us an
interesting account of the manner in which his uncle disposed of
his time, so as to be able to get throng i an amount of literary
work, which another man, with all his time to himself, could hardly
accomplish. Before dawn he USK! to att nd on the Emperor
Vespasian, in his capacity of procurator Cxs'iris, and then proceed
to the execution of his official business, which was thus fin shed
early. On returning home, he devoted the rest of his time to study.
After food, he n ad a book, making notes and extracts. " For he
read nothing without making extracts fom it." In the bath, he
either dictated or listened to something read out. In travelling he
always had at his side a secretary with book and note-book, whose
hands in winter were protected by gloves. " He deemed all time
lost that was not spent on Ktudv." As he wrote so much, Pliny
could attend little to the form or style of his writing, and his works
are memorable rather for the quantity of matter which he put

CHAT. XXT. PLINY THE ELDEB. 467

together than for the quality of the composition or the discretion of
his criticism.

The only one of his works which has been preserved is his
NaturaUs Historia, dedicated to the Emp<ror THUS in 77 A.T\
It consisted, according to the design of the author, of thirty-six
Books, to which was prefixed a list of the Cfntmts, and at;
account of the sources which he used. This prefitory matter
was afterwards issued, probably by his nephew, as the First
Book; so that the work in its present form consists ot thiity-
seveu Books. It gives an encyclopaedic account of the results
of natural science, and deals with physics, geography, zoology,
anthropology, botany, and m>neral<>gy. * Pliny wa^ con>cious of
the diyness of his work, which sometimes becomes a mere enume-
ration of details, and he endeavoured to enliven it by introducing
occasional descriptions in the rhetorical style, which \\as then in
fashion. He introduces the different subjects of which he treats
by general remarks, often in a mor- Using tone, and very concisely
expressed. Like ISeneca and Columel a, lie frequently deplores the
degeneracy of the age. In religion he is hostile to the popular
creed, but is not a follower of any particular philosophical system.
His view of the universe is pantheistic. He inclines to the belief
that the sun is the spirit and mind ot the \\ orld, " the chief ruler
and deity of nature."

§11. The most eminent historians under Vespasian were M.
CLUVIUS RUFUS, an orator of consular rank, and VJPBTANUS
MESSALLA, also an orator, and a friend of Tacitus in his youth. The
work of Rufus embraced the reign of Nero and the events of the
year of the Four Emperors. He took an unfavourable view of
Seneca, whereas another historical writer ot the time, FABIUS
RU^TICUS, praised Seneca's political career. Messalla,, who had
taken part, as a military tribune, in the events of 69 A.D., wrote
memoirs of his own experiences. Under Domitian, YIBIUS MAXIMUS
wrote a universal history. None of these works have survived. Of
orators, M. Aper was one of the most distinguished; of jurists, the
Sabnian, Caalius Sabinns, a man of great influence under Vespasian,
and the Proculian, Pegasus, reported to have been an incorruptible
interpreter of the laws.f

§ 12. More enrnent than Aper and the o» her pleaders of the day
was the teacher and scientific student of rhetoric, M. FABIUS

* B. 2 contains a cosmology; B. 3-6 j B.28-3Vf medicinal zoology: and B. 33-
treat of geography ; B. 7, of anthropology- i 37, of mineralogy, with si-ecial reference
B. 8, of mammals; B. 9, of fishes; B. 10, I to the use of stone and metal in art.

of birds; B. 11, of insects; B. 12-27, of
botanical subjects, including exotic plants,
fruit-trees, horticulture, medicinal botany ;

f nterpres legum sanct.ssiums (Ji
venal, 4, 78).

468 LITERATURE. CHAP, xxv

QUINTILIANUS, who increases the goodly foil of Spaniards distin-
guished in literature. Born at Calagurris about 35 A.D., he came
to Rome in the train of Galba, soon gained a reputation for his
eloquence, and became " the glory of the Roman toga." * Like his
countryman Seneca, he was entrusted with the education of the
imperial princes — the grand-nephews of Doimtian.f He was the
first to hold the professorial chair of rhetoric at Rome, founded by
Vespasian. He was very successful as a teacher and acquired
wealth. J His great work, entitled Institutio Oratorio,, " the
Training of an Orator," consists of twelve Books, intended to be
a complete guide to a man's education for a public career from
childhood. He has a high ideal of the duties and rights of an
orator. § His treatise is not so superficial as those of Cicero on
the same subject, but it is more popular than the technical hand-
books on rhetoric. He has a sober, independent judgment, and
ivrnarkable insight in literary criticism. He is not blinded by great
reputations or misled by the current ideas of his age. On the
contrary, he is remarkable for his depreciation of Seneca's style and
for his opposition to contemporary prejudices, especially in his
admiration of Cicero, whom it was the fashion to under-rate as an
orator, but whom he regards as a model. In his critical estimates
he is more inclined to be too lenient than too severe.

Quintilian recognised clearly, and condemned judicially, the faults
of taste, the mannerisms, the affectations, the marks of decadence
which characterised the literature of his own age. The inspira-
tion of nature, the natural expression of a simple feeling was
regarded as a baseness— a defect of art; nothing was considered
worth reading or at least worthy of admiration, that was not far-
fetched, or that did not glitter with figures and phrases. " Almost
all our speech is metaphor." The "antique, the remote, the
unexpected," were the fashion of the day. Quintilian frequently
uses the word lascivia, " wantonness," to describe the nature of the
modern style of writing. But in spite of the protests of Quintilian,
and some others like him, the modern style was victorious ; men
would not go back to the simple "uncombed antiquity," || even
when, after the first impulse of reaction, they came to admire its
excellences.

§ 13. We have already met SEXTUS JULIUS FRONTINUS as con-
queror of the Siluresin Britain, and afterwards as assisting Domitian

* Quintiliane, vagas moderator summe

iuventse.
Gloria Komanae, Quintiliane, toga).

(Martial, ii. *0, 1.)
f See above, p. 390.
j Juvenal, vii. 188: Unde igitur tot

Quiutilianus habet saltus ?

$ Cp. Bk. i. 9. Oratorem autem
instituimus ilium perfectum, qui etse
nisi vir bonus non potest.

|| Impexam antiquitatem (Tacitus,
Dial, de Or., c. 20).

TRAP, xxv

QUINTILLIAN. FRONTINUS

469

in establishing strategic posts beyond the Ehine. He was clearly
an able man ; Tacitus even describes him as " a great man," who
would have approved himself great if he had not been hindered by
the jealousy of Domitian.* Here he has to be spoken of as a
writer on technical subjects. Two of his treatises have been pre-
served, and fragments of a third. The Strategemata consists of three
Books illustrating the artifices of strategy by examples chiefly taken
from Roman history. Some later writer added a fourth Book to the
genuine work of Frontinus. The De Aquis Urbis fiomse, composed
in 97 A.D., in which year he held the post of curator aquarum, and
published after Nerva's death, furnishes us with a most valuable
account of the aqueducts of Rome, their construction and adminis-
tration. Frontinus also wrote a book on field-measur. ment
(Gromatica), of which only some extracts are extant. He died
about the year 103 A.D. Whenever he was not holding a public
office, he lived a retired life on ihe Campanian coast.f His modesty
seems to have been equal to his merits. He forbade a monument
to be erected to his memory: "the expense," he said, "is un-
necessary ; our memory will endure if we have deserved it by our
life."

Another technical writer of Domitian's time deserves mention,
the grammarian JLmilius Asper, best known for his commentary
on Virgil, which seems to have been a valuable work, but
unfortunately only extracts remain.

§ 14. Epic poetry was diligently cultivated in the Flavian age,
and we possess no less than four heroic poems, three of considerable
length. C. VALERIUS FLACCUS began his Argonautica in the reign
of Vespasian, whom he invokes in the opening verses. The composi-
tion of the work went on, during the following reign, until the
poet died, before the year 90 A.D., leaving his poem unfinished in
eight Books. The death of Medea's brother Apsyrtus, and the
return of the Argonauts to Greece, were still to be told; and it
seems probable that Valerius intended the whole work to consist of
twelve Books, on the model of the ^Eneid. Valerius made the
Argonautica of the Alexandrine poet Apollonius of Rhodes the
basis of his composition ; but took care not to borrow the tedious
erudition of the Greek. He aims more than his model at senti-
mental and pathetic effects, and takes pains with the psychological
development of his characters. He formed his style closely on thaf
of Virgil, whom he imitates and echoes on every page, somewhat as
Persius imitated Horace; and, like Persius, he is often difficult and

* This is the meaning of vir magnus conversations which he had with Fron-
quantum licebat (Ayr. 17). tinus in his villa on the Bay of Naples.

f Martial (x. 58) mentions literary

470 LITEKATUJRE. CHAP, xxv

obscure by reason of his artificially. In versification, he is as strict
as Ovid.

Another epic writer under Vespasian was SALEIUS BASSUS, * but
none of his works are preserved. It is rel t<d that Vespasian
bestowed u on him a liberal present, in recognition of his poetry,
and Tacitus calls him "a most perfect pier." In the same reign
CUUIATIUS MAT.KRNUS wrote tragedies on I'oman subjects and a
Greek pliy on Thyestes.

§ 15. Ti. CATIUS Siuus TTALICUS (25-101 A.D.) f chose, after the
example of Luean, an episode < f Roman history as subj ct of aneiic
poem. He chose the second P<mic War, and his work entitled
Punica, in seventeen Books, h.is comedown to us. Silius went
through the usual stages of an official career, which was respectable,
but not distinguished. He held the consulship in the year of
N ro's death an<l was afterwards proconsul «»f As a. As a senator,
he was r« specte •!, but had no political influence; on the other
hand he made no enemies. After his |»roconsulsliip he retired from
public life, and d- voted him-elt' to the service of the muses.
" Now," sa>s his friend Martial, J " Helicon is his Forum."

Proque suo celebrat mine Helicona foro.

Silius suffered from an incurable tumour, and it finally became so
irksome to him that he determim d to put an end to his life, and
starved himself to death in his villa at Naples.

Silius wrote his Punica in the rei^n of Domitian, whom he
addresses in the usual tone of courtly flattery. " Thou," he cries,
"0 Germanicus, wilt transcend the deeds of thy kinsmen (Vespa-
sian and Titus)" ;§ and he ce'ebrates the Emperor as a greater
bard than Orpheus. The poem was judged by a contemporary
writer to display greater diligence than talent || a judgment which
might be ex ended to most of the writ rs of the :>ge. To a modern
reader the work is irredeemably dull. It abounds in imitations
from Virgil in incident as well as in language, and is not marked
by the least originality of any kind. Silius was aii enthusiastic
admirer of the p»et of the ^neid ; used to celebrate his birthday
with religious solemi ity, especially when he was at Naples, and

Juvenal (vii. 80) speaks of him as

poor:

At Serrano tenuique Saleio

Gloria quantalibet quid erit, si gloria

tantum est.

f Silius can hardly have b*>en. as is
usually thought, a native oi Italica in
Spa n ; for his riend M rtial who was
a Spaniard, never claims him as a
countryman.

J vii. 63 12.

$ At tu transcendes, Germanice, facta
tuo'um, 1 3. 607).

|| Maiore cura quam insienio (Pliny),
if we had only the criticisms of his friend
Martial (who calls ' im "eternal," per-
j>etui Hi, vi. 64), we might infer that he
was considered a great luminary by bis
contemporaries. Of. iv. 14. 1, Sili, Casta
lidum decus sororum.

CHAP. »v. 8ILIUS. STATIU8. 471

u«ed to visit the tomb of Virgil as if it « ere a tempi".* He has hy no
means the same skill as his c«'mem]M>rary Valerius Haccus in
introducing Virplian eclioes. The PI mica ends with Scipio's
triumph after the battle of Zaina, and like the .^Eneid is national in
sentiment. But while Virgil's national sentiment is a genuine
inspiration, that of Sibus is a coll and correct reflection of the
Vtrgihan spirit. Hannibal pi iys the part of Tmnus. Like 'I urnus,
t<*>, Hannibal fights with a phantom; and Juno plays the same
anti-Roman part in the poem 01 Sinus that she h d played in the
po'-m of Virgil. The usual epic paraphernalia are duly worked in,
the catalogue, the nekyli, the games, the desciiption of a shield, the
dream-god, the battle on a river's bank. A tendency to Stoicism
can be dis inctly traced in the poem. But, unlike Lucan, Silius
never touches upon politics. " He neither reflects on the present
'nor re.: ret N the past. To him the warriors of the, old republic are
no longer the men of the forum and the capital, such as he sees
before his own eyes : they have passed in'o the twilLht of m\ths
and demigods. To him, Scipio is a second Here des, the achiever
of labours, the tamer of monsters, the umpire of the divinit.es of
Pleasure and Virtue Hannib d is an ogre or jiiant of romance, who
seems to v nisb at the catas.rophe ot the s ory in a ttmpest of
flame or cloud." f This contrast with Lucan is an instructive
indicati-m of the change in spirit which took plac- at Rome, even
in Stoic circles, during the last fory years of the first century. In
the technical construction of his verses, Siius is excessively strict,
like a'l his contemporaues.

§ 16. P. PAPINIUS STATIUS of Naples, (45-96 A.D.) also composed
epic poems in the reign of Dom.tian. He had inherited a taste lor
poetry from his father, who had celebrated in verse the Burning of
the Capitol in 69 \.D, and was about to compose a work on ihe
eruption of Vesuvius when he died. The younger Statius won the
olive wreath at the Alban contest in poetry, insiitutt-d by thnt
Emperor, thr e times; but he was defea ed in the Capitol.ne
competition. His circumstance* wer> c< -mf»r table and he p<'ssess d
aoonntry place at Alba, whi« h was perhaps a gift of the Emperor. He
enjoyed the patronage <>f a nobleman named Metius Teler. At the
beginning o* Domitian's reign he com osed a mime end led A^ave.%
He promised, and perhaps be.^an to write an epic celebrating the
German expedition of the Emperor,§ but if b gun, it \\as never

* He sets Virgil beside Homer (8. 593)
thus:
Mantua Musarum domus atque ad sidera

cantu
Evec-a Aonio et Smyrnasls aemula plectris.

f Mwivale, Chap. 84.

J See above, Chap. X X I. $ 19.

$ See Silrse, iv 4. 95 :
Sed vocat ( rom the Achi'Heid} arcitenens

alio pater armaque munstrat
Ausonii maiora duels.

4:72 LITEKATUBE CHAP, xxv

finished. Three works of Statius have been preserved, of which

(1) the longest and most ambitious is the Thebaid, which occupied
him for twelve years.* The subject of the poem is the war between
Eteocles and Polynices, the sons of (Edipus ; and it is treated very
unequally. The first ten Books are devoted to the preparations, and
are lengthened out with digressions and prolix speeches ; while all
the important events, to which these preparations lead up, includ-
ing the combat of the brothers, and the story of Antigone, are
compressed into the last two Books. Books 5 and 6 are occupied
with the episode of Hypsipyle and Archemorus. This want of
artistic proportion is to some extent compensated for by careful finish
in the detail ; but there is little psychological skill in portraying the
characters, and little poetical imagination. Like Valerius and
Silius, he regards Virgil as the epic model. It is probable that he
drew his material for the Thebaid from the Greek poet Antimachus.

(2) Of another epic poem, dealing with the life of Achilles, only a
small part was written, and this has come down to us. The first
Book of the Achilleid tells how Thetis hid her son among the
daughters of Lycomedes at Scyros, how the disguised hero made
love to Deidamia and was discovered by Ulysses. Of the second
Book only a short fragment remains. The style is less crabbed than
in the Thebaid. (3) The Silvee is a collection of " occasional posms,"
arranged in five Books, and is the most interesting of the works of
Statius. Each poem was composed separately, and a number
(from five to nine) afterwards collected in a Book, which was
published with a prose preface. The greater number of these pieces
are in hexameter metre, but some are in hendecasyllabic, Alcaic,
and Sapphic metres. They were almost all written in the last six
years of Doinitian's reign. The first Book is dedicated to the poet
Stella, and one of the poems included in it is an Kpithalamium on
the occasion of the marriage between Stella and Violentilla. Deaths
and births, the handsome villas, the rich baths or the beautiful
statues belonging to wealthy friends, form the subjects of other pieces.
There is a lament, composed on the death of the poet's father, and
an Eclogue — really a sort of familiar epistle — to his wife Claudia.
One poem celebrates the birthday of the poet Lucan, whom he
extols with enthusiasm ; and the circumstance that he praises Cato f

* Juvenal thus describes the favourable Adficit ille animos tantaque libidiue
reception given to the Tfiebaid (Sat. vii. ! volgi
82): j Auditur.

Curritur ad vocem iucundam et carmen j •[• Libertate gravem pia Catonem,

amicae Et gratum poptilaritate Magnum.

Thebaidos, Isetam cum fecit Statius I And:

urbem Et te nobile carmen insonantem

Promisitque diem : tanta dulcedine Pompei comitantur et Catones (iv. 7}

captos

xv. STATIUS. MAHTIAI, 473

and speaks sympathetically of the spirit of Lucan's poern, shows
'.hat Domitian's censorship of the press cannot have been as
.severe as it is sometimes made out to be. Statins, however,
regarded Lucan entirely from a literary point of view. He was a
court poet, and was ready to purchase the favour of Domitian by
adulation, both of the Emperor himself and of his favourites. In
celebrating the occasion of Domitian's seventeenth consulship,
he adopted a tone of hyperbolic flattery. He composed a special
poem to thank the Emperor for an invitation to dine at the
imperial table. He wrote lines on the locks of the boy Earinus, a
favourite of Domitian.

§ 17. In the poems of Statius we observe a tendency to epi-
grammatic writing, and an anxious care in the coinage of phrases.
Skill in epigram is indeed the characteristic of the age, and Martial
is the characteristic poet. " The verses oi Martial," it has been
said, " are the quintescence of the Flavian poetry." M. VALERIUS
MARTIALIS (about 40-102 A.D.) was born at Bilbilis * in Spain, and
thus makes the fourth Spaniard of the first century who holds a very
distinguished place in literature. He lived for thirty-four years in
Rome and returned to his native country at the end of his life
(98 A.D.). He was poor and setms to have had no fixed employ-
ment. He possessed a small house in Rome and a small country
place at Nomentum in the Sabine territory. Both Titus and
Domitian conferred upon him, in recognition of his poems, the
privileges which the law gave to those who were the fathers of
three children (ius trium liberorum), f and he was made a military
tribune, which gave him the standing of a knight. His flattery to
Domitian is even more extravagant than that of Statius ; he was a
more needy and more ea^er bidder for court favour. Among his
patrons were Earinus, Crispinus J and Parthenius. As an example
of his glorification of the Emperor may be quoted the verses in
which he cries, " Under what leader was martial Rome fairer and
gr.-ater ? Under what Princeps did we enjoy such great liberty ? " §
Martial can be convicted of being a timeserver out of his own
mouth, for after the death of Domitian he confesses that "the reign

* i. 61. 12 : Nee me tacebit Bilbilis.
f Martial, iii. 95 5:

Pra-mia laudato tribnit mih Cassar uter-
que

before Domitian (Carmina Parrhasia si
nostra legentur in aula). Similarly in v.
6 he asks Parthenius to introduce this
Book to the Emperor at a favourable

Njttorumque dedit iura paterna trium. moment: Nosti tempora tu Jovis

li. 91 is a petition to Domitian to con- \ sereni.

firm the right besiowed by Titus. For the
military trimmate, see iii. 95. 9 : vidit me
Koma iribunum.

^ in vii. 99 he asks Crispinus to say a
word for him, when his poems are read

Pulchrior et maior quo sub duce Mar-

tia Roma ?

Sub quo libertas principe tanta
fuit? (v. 19, 5).

LITERATURE.

of terror is over.** * It is conceivable, however, that here too he
spoke less from conviction than from a desire to be agreeable to the
new government. His epigrams were collected in fourteen Books,
of which each contains about a hundred epigrams. Most of the
Books are introduced by a preface, either in prose (like the
Silvse of Staiius) or in verse. The thirteenth and fourteenth
Books, entitled respectively Xenia and Apophoreta, f consist
altogethir of distichs on presents suitable for the Saturnalian
festival — epigrams in the original sense of ihe word. The other
Books contain epigrams in the later sense of the word, short, and
often with a fine pent. Besides these, there is an unnumbered
Book known as the liber spectaculomm, consisting of poems
which refer to the public spectacles at Rome. In the art of
epig am Martial regarded Catullus aud Douitius Marsus as his
models J

A large number of his verses turn on filthy subjects, but he is
careful to tell us that, if his p ge is wanton, his life is honest :

Lasciva est nobis pagina, vita proba eat.

He was, howevf-r, a nian of no character; he prostituted his Muse
to the taste of tht- po enlace. But he was a writer of the greatest
talent ; and his b -st verses are very pod indeed. His works give a
most valuable picture of the Roman life of his timn, especially per-
haps its shady slides, and we meer, many notable lite>ary persons
in his paues, such as the younger Pliny, ^ilius and Stella.
It is remarkable that lie does not mention ei her Statics or
Tacitus, in his stinging epigrams he always used fictitious names,
such as Ponticus Tuvca, Tongilianus ; he mentions livinz persons
by their true names only when he praises or says something
indifferent. §

§ 18. Ah HUNT i us STELLA of Pataviurn.|| the friend of Statius and
Martial, composed love IN -ems. uhich were ii.gp red by Violentilla,
who afterwards bi came his v» ife. He celeb a ted her under the

* Ixmgi terga dedere Metus, xii. 6. 4.
Cp. 11, sub principe duro.

t See below Chap. XXXI $ 13.

J See vii. 99. 7 : Nee Marso nimium
minor est doctoque Catullo.

not published until after the death of Do-
mltian, in Decem' er 96 A.D. In MS A.D.
apt eared the second expurgated edition
of Book 10, which has coine down to us.
Book 12 appeared probably in 101 A.D.

The dates of Martial's Epigrams are Books 13 and 14 must be placed between
as follows : the Liber S/ ectaculorum, and 88 and 93 A.D.

Books 1 and 2 in the early years of I >o-
mitian, before 87 A.I». ; Book * about M7,
and Book 4 in 88 and 89 A.D. ; Book 5,
90 A.D. ; Book 6, end of 90 and beginning
of 91 A.D. ; Books 7 and 8, 92, 33 A.D. ;
Book* ft, 10, ll, 94-88 A.D. Book 11 was friend of MartUL

|| Martial, 1. 61. 3 :
Censetur p6na I .ivio suo tellus

xtri 'aque nee Flacco minus.
(Anona tellus = district of Patavium).
Flaccus (not Valerius) was ft poor poet, a

CHAP. xxv.

JUVENAL.

475

fictitious name of Asteris, but in the pages of Martial she appears
as lanthis, a ur«;ek rendering of her true name. The death of her
pet dove is the subject of one of Martial's epigrams. Another
writer of erotic poems was SULMCIA, the wife of Calenus ; her verses
were remarkab'e for their wantonness.* TURKUS, a distin-.imsl>ed
satiric poet, als«> deserves mention. Many other verse-writers in
various styles, whose works have perished, are mentioned by
Martial, fctatius,and Pliny; but they are now nothing more than
natues.

SECT. III. — LITERATURE UNDER TRAJAN.

§ 19. After the death of Domitian, there was, according; to con-
temporary waters, a revival o> literature. This revival has prohably
been exaggerated, but it is cenain that history, at least, and oratory
regained their freedom. Nerva would doubtless have been a pa'ron
of men ot letters, bur his reign was too short to afl'ect literature.
Traj'in was not a man of culture, and did little directly to further
learning, but he was certainly not against it. He showed special
favour to the Greek rhetorician, Dion Chrysostom ; and he wrote
himself memoi'S ot the Dacian war. His answers to Iliny's letters
are brief and to the point. The private recitations of liter ry com-
positions, which had been a marked feature in the reign of Domitian,
are now less conspicuous. This may be partly due to the greater
liberty which orators enjoved under Trajan.

§20. D. JUNIUS JUVENAI.IB was born at Aqninuni,t probably
about 55 A.D. He busie<l himself in his youth with thetorical
studies, and served in the army. In the year 81 A.n. he se ved under
Agricola in Britain, as the tribune or prefect of a Dalmatian cohort.
He lived far into the reiiin of Hadrian, by whom he seems to have
been banished to Egypt, in the year 135 A.D., at the age of eighty.
But the question of the banishment is very difficult. There is
some evidence for supposing th;it the populace declaimed certain
offensive verses J; of Juvenal in the theatre in the Emperor's
presence, and that Hadrian, unable to punish the people, punished
the innocent poet.

Juvenal's sixteen Satires were published in five Books at dif-
ferent times, like the Silvae of Statius; the exact dates at which

* Martial, however, praisps the moral
tendencies of her poems, x. 35 :

Omne* Sulpiciam legant puellae,
Uni quae cupinnt viro placere ;
Onm s Sulpiciam levant mariti
Uni qui cupiunt placere nuptae.

t Satire lii. 319 : Roma tuo refid pro-

perantem reddet Aquino. An Inscription
which h*- dedicated in the temple 01 Ceres
at his birthplace is still extant. See Notes
and illustrations at end of this chapt r.

J Satire vii. 90 eqq.: yuod non dant
proceres, dabit histrio. etc.

476

LITERATURE.

CHAP, xxv

they appeared are not certain.* He states that indignation at crime
and folly drove Mm to write satire :

Si natura negat, facit indignatio versum.

And he paints in vivid and dark colours, often with revolting
realism, the social vices of his age. The persons whom he intro-
duces have either fictitious names or belong to the past, especially
to the reigns of Nero and Domitian. His verses are forcible and
pointed ; and the standard, of morality which he sets up has been so
much admired in modern times that some churchmen have thought
that he must have owed something to the inspiration of Christianity.
But his morality was really the stock virtue of the rhetorical
schools, well and eloquently expressed. We cannot take too seriously
the declamatory invectives and biting epigrams which he launches
against his contemporaries. He was not concerned to give a true
picture of his times ; he wrote his satires at once to make an effect
and gratify his spleen. Their value for us lies in the accessory
parts of the pictures. They enable us to realise more vividfy
than we could otherwise do, life and manners at Borne under
Domitian, Trajan, and Hadrian.

The First Satire gives a general description of the follies and
vices of the day, and forms a general introduction to the Satires-
The poet defines his subject as the whole of human life, men's
passions, pleasures and business :

Quidquid agunt homines, votum timor ira voluptas
Gaudia discursus nostri farrago libelli est.

It may be dangerous to attack the living, but he may at all
events show up the sins of the dead, " whose ashes are interred on
the Flaminian and Latin Ways : "

Experiar quid concedatur in illos
Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis atque Latina.

The Second deals with gross vices practised by hypocritical
philosophers and hidden under a cloak of austerity ; the Third with
the dangers and vexations of life in Rome. The Fourth contains
thi. travesty of Domitian's Consilium, of which a brief account has
been given in a previous chapter. The Fifth describes the wretched
life of a parasite and the rebuffs and scorn which he endures for the
sake of a poor dinner. The Sixth, which is the most powerful of
all, paints in heightened colours the fashions, follies, and vices of
contemporary women. The Seventh portrays the struggles and

* Bk. 1 = Sat. 1-5, later than 100 A.D. ;
Bk. 2 = Sat 6, later than 116 A.D. ; Bk. 3
;=Sat< 7-9, about 120 A.D. ; Bk. 4 =

Sat. 10-12, about 125 A.D,-, Bk. 5;
13-16, after 127 A.D.

:S»t.

CHAP. xxv. JUVENAL'S SATIRES. 477

poverty of men of letters. The Eighth holds up to ridicule pride
in long pedigrees. " It were better to be the son of Thersites and
able to wield the arms of Achilles, than to have Achilles for sire
and be a Thersites oneself : "

Malo pater tibi sit Thersites, dummodo tu sis
^Eacidte similis Vulcaniaque arma capeseas,
Quam te Thersitae similem producat Achilles.

The Ninth treats of vices common in the time of Juvenal. The
theme of the Tenth is the " vanity of human wishes.'** It is shown
that what seems to be best is often worst, and that men know not
what is really best for them.f They are often ruined if the gods
take them at their word :

Evertere domos totas optantibus ipsis

Di faciles ; nocitura toga, nocitura petuntur

Militia.

The Eleventh, in the form of an invitation to a friend to a simple
dinner, holds up to ridicule the prevalent luxury at table. The
Twelfth celebrates the safe return of a friend from a voyage, and
describes the perils of the ocean ; it also satirises fortune-hunters
(captatores) who pay court to the rich and chil'iloss. The Thir-
teenth, a consolation to a certain Calvinus who had been cheated of
ten sestertia (£80), is full of Stoic doctrines epigrammatically ex-
pressed. Calvinus is admonished that such crimes are the order
of the day, perjury is general, and it would be absurd to raise an
outcry for such a trifle ; besides, only small minds desire revenge,
it is a feminine weakness :

Quippe minuti

Semper et infirmi est animi exiguique voluptas
Ultio : continue sic collige quod vindicta
Nemo magis gaudet quam femina.

Calvinus is bidden to leave his false friend to his own devices,
for he is not likely to stop at the first crime and will probably
sooner or later come to a bad end. The Fourteenth enlarges on the
theme that children learn vice, and especially avarice, from the
example of their parents. The Fifteenth describes a quarrel
between Ombi (Kum Ombu), and Tentyra (Denderah) in Upper
Egypt, at a religious fenst held by the Omhites and interrupted by
the Tentyrites. The latter were put to flight, ami one of them was

* Dr. Johnson imitated it under this title,
•f- 0 Juvenall lord, true is thy sentence
That little wenen folke what is to
yerne

That they ne finden in hlr desire

offence.
(Chaucer, Troilus and Creseide, far. 25.)

478

LITERATUBE.

CHAP. xxv.

caught and devoured by the Ombites.* The Sixteenth sketches
the advantages of a soldier's life.

The Seventh satire is interesting and important ror literary history
and deserves special noti< e in this place. The bulk of it see.ms to
have been written under Trajan, but the introduction to have been
added in the reign of Hadrian, under whose auspices poetry and
other studies are described as reviving :

Et spes et ratio studiorum in Csesare tantum.

Hitherto men of letters have been forced, in order to support life,
to engage in the meanest pursuits. The poets have had no
Mseceuas to patronise them ; the most a rich man, who pretends
to have a taste for poetry, wiil do is to lend a dus'y and inconvenient
room for the poet to give a recitation, and send his free^men to
applaud. The best poets, like Statins, ha«l to write verses to order
for the stage in order to get a living. The historians are worse off
than the poets ; thdr task is more laborious, and they fret less.
Who will give an historian as much as one would give to the
actuarius f who reads aloud the daily chronicle ?

Quis dabit historico quantum claret acta legenti ?

The rhetoricians were miserably paid too; the profession of a
music-master was far more lucrative. Rich Quintilian was quite
an exception.

The fact that so little encouragement was given to poetry by
Trajan may have be^n partly the cause why there were no distin-
guished poets in his reign, with the exception of Juvenal himself.
There were a few of less note, and known to us only by name.
CANINIUS, who set himself to the task of an epic on the Dacian
war of Trajan, and PASSENNUS PAULLUS, who wrote elegies, figura-
tively "in the house of Proper this," J may be mentioned.

§ 21. The most striking literary figure of Trajan's principal,
and one of the greatest historians of the world, was CORNELIUS
TACITUS. In a history of the earlv Empire he and his works claim
special attention, because his writings, so far as they have been
preserved to us, are our chief authority. We have to ihank Mm for
most of the details which we know about the reigns of Tiberius,
Claudius, and Nero, and about the civil wars which followed Nero's
death. If his works had been entirely preserved, he would have
been our main guide from the death of Augustus to the death of

* The Brene is unlikely, as Tentyra dturna and read them aloud at dinner to

and Ombi were separated by a distance of amuse t e company.

100 miles. $ '*'ne expression is Pliny's (1z. 22).

t An ABtoariu$ copied out tb« Aeta

TACITUS.

Domitian, It is because large portions of his writings have been
lost that we are so ill-informed about the history of Caligula and
that of the Flavian Emperors.

Of the life of Tacitus * we know little. He was born about
54 A.D. ; and in his early years studied jurisprudence and rhetoric.
He wtnt through the ordinRry senatorial career, beginning as
military tribune under Vespasian, becoming qusestor under Titus,
sediie (or tribune), and then prsetor (in 88 A.D.) under Domitian.
While piaster, he was also one of the quindecim viri, to whom the
care of the Sibylline books was entrusted. We have already seen
that he married a daughter of Ag icola. After the return of
Agricola to Rome, Tacitus, probably in the year 90, obtained a post
in the provinces, either as lejatus of a legion in Lower Germany or
as governor of Belgica. and was absent from Rome for four years,
during which his father-in-law dkd. Under Nerva in 9H A.D.
he was p'omoted to the consulship. Of the rest of his life we
only know that he was occu|i<d with his great historical works.
It seems possible that his death took place in the first years of
Hadrian.

§ 22. The works of Tacitus which have come down to us, wholly
or partially, are five in number : —

(1) His earliest work — a consequence of his rhetorical studies —
was the Dialogus de oratoribus f which perhaps appeared soon after
80 A.D. The dialogue is supposed to have taken place in the sixth year
of Vespasian (75 A.D.), and the speakers are the most celebrated
rhetoricians and men of letters of that time, including Curiatius
Maternus, Vipstanus Messalla, Aper, and Julius Secundus. The
object of the work is to trace and explain the decline of oratory
under the Empire. Ti e ca> ses which he assigns are both political
and social ; and in this earliest work the republican sympathies
and anti-imperial has of the author can be seen plainly. It also
exhibits the same psychological acu-eness and the same skill in
saying sharp things, which are distinguishing marks of his his-
torical works. In point of sty le, he is under the influence of
Cicero.

(2) The next composition of Tacitus, the " Life and Character of
Julius Agricola," his father-in-law, Ins been already noticed in
connection w th Agricola' s work in Britain.^ It was written at the
beginning of Traj «n's re ign. The influence of Sallust is conspicuous
and the very form of the wo'k, as a historical monograph, re-

* His pramomen is uncertain; possibly
Publius. There is no good ground ior
supposing him to have been burn at
Intwamna.

f Some have denied the Tacitean
authorship, but it is now generally ad-
mitted.

J See above. Chap. XXU. $ 7.

480 LITERATURE. CHAP. xxv.

sembles the Catiline and Jugurtha. The same influence is also
evident in

(3) the Germania, which appeared in the same year, and of
which some account has already been given.* It was the result of
the researches which the autlior had been making for some years
back with a view to a large historical work, but which he now
published in a separate form a propos of the work of Trajan on the
Rhine In describing the manners and institutions of German
communities, Tacitus cannot resist pointing comparisons between
the simplicity of the barbarians, and the corruption of Roman
civilisation. He remarks, for example, that " good manners are of
more avail there than good laws elsewhere," and that " there no man
laughs at vices." f But it is absurd to suppose, as some have done,
that the book was \\ ri'ten merely as a hit at Rome.

(4) The Histories, consisting of about twelve or fourteen Books
was written under Trajan and embraced the period from the
elevation of G-alba to the death of Domitian. Unluckily, only the
first four Books and part of the fifth have come down. These are
taken up with the events of 69 and 70 A.D. Owing to the loss of
the later Books, our knowledge of the reign of the Flavian Em-
perors is very fragmentary ; and this loss is especially to be
regretted as the author was a contemporary of the events about
which he wrote.

(5) The " Annals " (entitled " From the death of the Divine
Augustus ") was likewise written under Trajan, and was published
between 115 and 117 A.D. It embraced the period between
Augustus and Galba, (14-68 A.D.), and as the material is arranged
chronologically, all the various events of each year being (with few
exceptions) grouped together, the work is designated by the author
himself as Annales. The first six Books, which contain the reign of
Tiberius, are extant, with the exception of the greater part of Book v.
The next Books (vii.-x. and a portion of xi.), which comprised the
reign of Gains, and the first years of Claudius, are lost. Books
xii.-xv. and a part of xvi., bringing us down to the year 66 A.D.,
are preserved; hut the end is lost, and it is not certain of how
many Books the work orirrinrilly consisted.

Tacitus had made further plans for historical work, but they
were not carried out. He intended, it he had lived, to lead up to
his Annals by a work on the principate of Augustus, and also, at
the other extremity, to continue his Histories by a work on the
principat'-s of Nerva and Trajan. If these designs had been exe-

* See above, Chap. XXFII. $ 8.
f Cap. 19 : Plus ibi boni mores valent
quatu alibi buna- leges ; and Nemo illic

vitia ridet. Such hits at Home occur In
almost every chapter.

CHAP. xxv. TACITUS. 481

cuted, he would have covered the whole imperial period down to
the death of Trajan.

§23. The political sympathies of Tacitus penetrate his whole
work, and while they give it much of its literary flavour, they also
diminish its historical value. He was an aristocrat in his views,
sympathised with the senate of the Republic, and disliked the
imperial constitution. Although his common sense obliged him
to confess that the Empire was a necessity, it was a necessity
against which his heart revolted, and which the events which he saw
with Ins own eyes in the last years of Domitian rend- red still more
odious to him. It was a calamity, he thought, due to the anger of
the gods against the Roman state. His historical works are \\ ritten
to arraign the Empire, and he sees everything in the worst light,
even if he does not intend to misrepresent. We have already seen
how he sets up Germanicus as a foil to Tiberius, and Coibulo as a
foil to Nero. The aggressions of the Emperors on the functions
of the senate are crimes in his eyes ; and he regards the Roman
world as in a state of servitude. Yet, on the other hand, he despised
the vain talk about liberty by which such men as Helvidius Priscus
courted martyrdom ; and he laid down the principle that, seeing
monarchy to be a necessity, we should " pray for good Emperors
and put up with whatever kind we get." *

Connected with his prejudice hi favour of the senate is his
prejudice in favour of Rome and Italy. He tolerates the provinces,
but takes no interest in them, and has not the slightest conception
that their needs justified the Empire. In estimating the work of
an Emperor, the character of his provincial administration would
have small weight with Tacitus, who thinks far more of a disturb-
ance in Rome than of distant events, affecting a whole country.
With these narrow and old-fashioned views, he was unable to see
the true significance of the Empire, on which he pondered so much,
and on whicn he has made many acute observations. His lack of
interest in provincial matters affects his history in another way
which is much more irritating. It makes him indifferent to geo-
graphical details ; and thus it is often hopeless to follow on the map
his vague descriptions of warfare in Britain, Germany, Armenia, or
Thrace. Like Livy, he cared little for historical research, and was
far more concerned with the form than with the matter of his
work. The military parts of his history are generally judged to be
untrustworthy.

Yet in spite of these faults Tacitus is always regarded as one of
the greatest historians. This is mainly due to his excellence as an
artist in style. He wrote for effect, and he was ready to sacrifice

* aittoriet, iv. 8.
21

482 L1TERATUBE. OHAP. xxv.

facts to art. His picture of Tiberius is a great literary achieve-
ment, but at the expense of historical truth. His work abounds
in telling epigrams, and in acute and cynical observations which
show <rreat psycholo.ical insight. Many of Ids phrases have be-
come familiar quotations, such as omnc ignotum pro mirifico ;
maior ex longinquo reverentia. His style is concise, but always
dignified and cold, never passionate or declama'ory. HIS points of
contact with his contemporaries should DH ol 'served. In bitterness,
in his view of the degeneracy of soeiety, in wiitmg tor effect, he
resembles Juvenal ; while in his taste for point* d epigram he shows
that he belongs to the san>e age as the court-poet Martial. *

§24. PLINY, the Younger, belonged orkiii ally to the family of the
Csecilii, which was settled at Comum (Como), in trans- Padane I'aly.
His father was L. Caecilins Cilo, and his own name before adoption
was probably P. Csecilius Secnndus. He was eighteen years old at
the time of the eruption of Vesuvius, 7H A.D., S'> that he must have
been born about 61 A.D. During his boyhood there was no school
at Comum, but he was taught well, and wrote a Greek tragedy at
the age of fourteen. On his father's death, he was placed under
the guardianship of Verginius Rulus, and was presently sent to
Rome to finish his education, where be attended the lectures of
Quintilian in rhetoric. But it was the young man's uncle on the
mother's side — C. Plinins Secnndus, whom we have alreadv m< t —
who exercised most influence on his studies and his fu'ure career.
He and his mother were staying with his uncle at Misenum, when
the fatal eruption of Vesuvius took place, which caus< d his uncle's
death. The young Csecili MS was adopted by his uncle's will into
the Plinian family, and henceforward his name was C. Plinius
Csecilius Secundus.f A year later Pliny pleaded bis first cause
before the court of the centumviri in the Basilica Ji lia. Soon after
this he was appointed one of the devrnviri stlit'bus iu<l i&mdis, who,
by a regulation of Augustus, presided over the centumviral c«>urt,
under the general control < f a praetor. He next became a mil.tary
tribune of the Irgion III. Gallica, which was stationed in Syria (82-
83 A.D.) On returning to Rome he was appointed a sevir of the
Roman knights,J and held this office unt.l lie became qnsestor
(probaHy in 8tf A.D.). His next step was the tribunate of the plebs
(10 h December, 91 A.D.), and he was promoted to be praetor in 93
A.D., the Kmperor having dispensed him Irotn the interval fixed by
the Lex Annalis. In this rapid advancement in the senatorial career

Rusticus; Sisenna; and Vipstanus Mes-

* The chief sources which Tacitus used
for his historical works were : the Acta
Diurna and Acta Senatus (see above, pp.

sal la.
f In earlier f imps it « ould have l»er

37, 4 1); th* memoirs ot Agrippina,and of C. Plinius Secundus Cae. ilianud.
Corbulo; th««lder Pliny ; Cluvius ; Fabiu* J See above, Chap. III. $ T (5\

CHAT. xxv. PLINY THE YOUNGEB. 483

Pliry was supported bv his former guardian Verginius Rnfus.
About this time he successfully aided in the prosecution of a pro-
consul of Baetica, but this action seems to have inju'ed Irm in the
favour of Domitian. The death of the tyrant was a relief to I im.
He had been already appointed prefect of the serarium militare.
Nerva promoted him to be prefect of the ssrarium Snturni like-
wise. These duties so much engrossed his time, ih it he renounced
pleading in the courts, and it was with much difficulty that he \vas
persuaded (100 A.D.) to plead the cause of the provincials of Af ica
against the extortionate proconsul Marius Priscus. The accusers
were successful ; Marins was condemned. In the same year Pliny
was advanced by Trajan to the consulship, which he held in
September and October. It devolved upon him to thank the
Emperor on the first day of this office, and he did so in a Panegyric
which has been preserved, and which, t" ongh not interesting from
a literary point of view, is of great historical value, as if <;ives an
account of the acts of Trajan, in t1 e first years of his reign. In
the following year Pliny was again induced to act as the advocate
of provincials against an oppressive governor. HP undertook the
cause of Baetica against Classicus. Some time after this he received
the honour of an angurship. He had given U|> his tn asury appoint-
ment and returned to his occupation as a pleader. He was also
appointed curator alvei Tiberis et riparum et cloac-trum urbis.
Two important cases occurred in 104 and 106 A.D., in connection
with Bithynia, und were successfully conducted by Pliny. This
led to his appointment (111 A.D. probably) as a spec al legatus
in that province, as we have already seen. The date of his death
is unknown, but w;is probably before 115 A.D. He was married
three times, but had no children. Trajan granted him, however,
the i us trium liber or um.

The career of Piiny is interesting, as it illustrates how citizens
belonging to an Italian or provincial munici|lum rose to i he highest
offices in the state. His letters are interesting as illustrating the
life, opinions, and feelings of an emVghtened and generous Roman
gentleman. Bnt he was neither a great writer nor a great states-
man. He could discharge meritoriously the ordinary duties of a
senator. He was an ardent reader, a careful and pleasant writer,
but had no ideas. He was rich and liberal. We find him giving
pecuniary help to Quintilian and Martial. He reme lied the want
of a school at Comum, by paying one-third of the salary of a
teacher. He also gave his native town a public library at the
cost of a million s 'sterces (£8000) ; and granted halt' a million
more for the maintenance of poor children. His letters prove
that he was a warm friend, a loving husband, a kind master to

4:84 LITERATURE. CHAP, xxv

his slaves, and that he always honestly wished to do the right
thing.

The Letters of Pliny consist of (1) nine Books of letters, dating
from 97 to 109 A.D., and (2) the correspondence with Trajan, (chiefly
from the Bithynian period), of which specimens were given in the
preceding chapter. They concern all sorts of subjects and show
the character of the author and his relations with his friends in a
most favourable light. He is very vain, but then he is very
candid. The letters were written with a view to publication, and
therefore they have not the freshness and directness of the letters
of Cicero, who was Pliny's model, as he tells us himself. He owns
that his great desire is to be remembered by posterity. There is
consequently a great deal of self-consciousness in the epistles.

Tacitus and Pliny were intimate friends. In one of his letters
Pliny tells a story, how at the Circensian games Tacitus sat next an
unknown person who entered into learned conversation with him,
and after some time asked, " Are you an Italian or a provincial ? "
" You know me," said Tacitus, " from your reading." " Are you
Tacitus or Pliny ? " asked the stranger.

§ 25. Besides the Panegyric of Pliny, which is a specimen of the
style of rhetoric then in fashion, we have a fragment of a dialogue
on the theme " Was Yirdl an orator or a poet ? " (Vergilius orator
an poeta ?) by P. ANNIUS FLORUS. An African by birth, he had
competed under Domitian at the Capitoline Agon, and — unfairly,
according to himself — had not heen crowned. Leaving Rome, he
travelled about and finally settled as a man of letters at Tarraco,
where he lived under Trajan. At a later time, he returned to
Rome and interchanged light verses with the Emperor Hadrian.*
For he was also a verse-writer, and some small fragments of verse
under the name of Florus have come down.

The work of HYGINUS on the jurisprudence of field-measurement,
o£ which fragment^ have come down to us ; the treatise of SICULUS
FLACCUS de condirionibus agrorum ; the works on orthography of
CAPER and VELIUS LONGUS, which belong to this period, can only
be mentioned.

SECT. IV.— GREEK LITERATURE.

§ 26. The growing importance of the Jews in the Hellenic world
is illustrated by the circumstances that two of the most important
Greek writers of the first century A.D., whose works have come

* It is generally supposed tbat Florus poeta is the same as the author of the
dialogue. See below Chap. XXIX. $ 3.

CHAP, xxv JOSEPHUS. PHILO. 485

down to us belonged to the Hebrew race. These were the historian
Josephus and the philosopher Philo.

We have already met FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS in the tale of the Jewish
rebellion under Nero and Vespasian. Born about 37 A.D., he
belonged to a distinguished sacerdotal family, and on the mother's
side to the royal house of the Maccabees. In religion he inclined to
the sect of the Pharisees. He first visited Kome in 63 A.D., to
defend some of his countrymen, and succeeded in his object through
the influence of Poppsea. The part which he played in the last
struggle of the Jews for independence has been already told.
Received into favour by Vespasian, he lived henceforward at Rome,
and wrote his historical works there. His purpose in writing was
to make the Greeks acquainted with the history and character of
his own people. (1) The best known and most interesting of his
writings is the story of the Jewish war, in seven Books, which
has all the value of a contemporary witness who had taken part in
it himself and been present at the most striking scenes ; and a
witness, who, although a Jew, was able to see the Roman as well
as the Jewish side of the question. He wrote this work in
Hebrew and then got it translated into Greek. (2) His " Jewish
Archaeology,'' in twenty Books, reaching from the Creation to Nero,
is a much larger work. The later books are very valuable for the
history of the first Roman Emperors, and in Book xviii. occurs
the earliest notice in literature of the founder of Christianity.
(3) Josephus also wrote his own autobiography ("Life of Flavius
Josephus"), and (4) two Books against Apion, an Alexandrian
grammarian who on occasion of the Jewish embassy to Caligula had
attacked the Jews, and (5) a treatise " On the Sovranty of Reason."

Like Josephus, PHILO of Alexandria also appears in political as
well as in literary history. We met him as one of that embassy of
Alexandrian Jews which waited on the Emperor Gaius in 39 A.D.,
and of which he wrote an account. As a philosopher, he was one
of the earliest who attempted to combine Greek and Jewish ideas into
a philosophical system. On the one hand he makes Moses speak
with the lips of tSocrates, on the other he derives the views of Plato,
H( raclitus, and other Greek philosophers from Mosaic sources. He
interprets the Old Testament allegorically ; but his chief inspiration
is drawn from Plato. In his treatment of Plato, in whose writings
he finds more than Plato ever dreamed of, he is a precursor of the
Neoplatonists.

§ 27. PLUTARCH was born at Chasronea about 46 A.D., and educated
at the University of Athens. Under Vespasian he visited Rome
as an envoy from his native place; and ^eems to have won some
iafluence at the imperial court. Trajan granted him consular rank,

480 LITEKATUKB. CHAP. x*v.

and directed the governor of Achrea to avail himself of his
counsels. But the favour which he enjoyed at Rome did not induce
him to quit his home, where he lived a happy domestic life, and
died at an advanced age.* His attachment to Boeotia was a feature
of his character; Hesiod and Pindar, as the two great Boeotian
poets, had always a special charm for him. He seems to have
occupied himself with informal teaching and lecturing, as well as
with writing his historical and philosophical works.

Hiu historical work consists of the " Parallel Lives," a series of
forty-six biographies of great Greek and Roman statesmen, grouped
in pnirs.f In every case, except in that of the Gracchi, a Greek
is compared with a Roman. This way of setting Greek and Roman
history side by side was natural enough in a Greek under the
Empire, recognising the greatness of his conquerors as well as that
of his o\ro nation. The example of such parallels had been set by
Cornelius Nepos. In some cases, such as Demosthenes and Cicero,
Alexander and Caesar, the comparisons are obvious ; in othors, such
as Pyrrhus and Marius, less striking. In most cases, Plutarch
appends to the pair of lives a formal statement of the points of like-
ness and contrast. Besides these parallel lives, there are four
single biographies of Artaxerxes, Aratus, Galba, and Otho. In
compiling this historical gallery, Plutarch thought far less of finding
out and relating what actually occurred than of edifying his
readers and promoting virtue. He has no idea of historical
criticism ; he is much more at home in ethical disquisition. He
loved anecdotes which point a moral. The consequence is that
perhaps no ancient history has been more popular down to the
present day than his Lives.

His other works consist of numerous essays and treatises on
various subjects, chiefly ethical, and generally grouped together
under the title of Moralia. Among them may be mentioned the
"Platonic Questions;" controversial pamphlets against the Stoics
and the Epicureans, and ag'iinst superstition; an attempt to explain
the myth of Isis and Osiris ; a large number of sermons on moral
subjects, such as " Virtue is teachable," " Fortune," " Cheerfulness ; "
a physical treatise on the Face in the Moon;J a discussion of the
question "Should an old man take part in public life? " Literary

* He was alive in the third year of
Hadrian.

f Theseus, Romulus ; Lycurgus, Numa ;
Solon, Valerius Publicola ; Themistocles,
Camillus; Pericles, Fabius Maximus ;
Alcibiades, ' oriolanus; Timoleon, &m\-
lius Paullus ; Pelop da*, Marcellus ; Aris-
tides, Cato Major ; Philopoemen, Flamini-
nus; Pyrrhus, Marius; Lysander, Sulla;

Cimon, Lucullus; Nicias, Crassus; Eu-
menes, Sertorius; Agesilaus, Pompey;
Alexander, Caesar ; Phocion, Cato Minor;
Agis, Cleomenes ; Tiberius Gracchus,
Qaius Gracchus; Demosthents, Cicero;
Demetrius Poliorcetes, Antony; Dion,
Brutus.

J Hep! rov en<t>aivon{vav vpwrtmav T<2
KVKAw TTJS <rcA?)iT}$.

CHAP. xxv. PLUTARCH. DION. 487

questions are considered in "The Malice of Herodotus" and "A
comparison of Aristophanes and Menander." His dialogue on
"Music "is very important for the history of ancient music and
metre. Perhaps the most attractive of all Plutarch's works is the
Symposiaca,m nine Books, containing discussions on all sorts of
subjects in the form of tabletalk. The scene constantly changes;
the symposia are sometimes at Athens, sometimes at Rome, some-
times at the author's house. As examples of the questions dis-
cussed may be mentioned, ihe number of the Muses; the grafting
of trees; the most suitable form of entertainment at table; the
abstinence of Jews from pork.

§ 28. Another Greek essayist, contemporary with Plutarch, was
DION ot'Prusa, in Bithynia, surnamed Chrysostomos," gold-mouthed,"
from his eloquence. He had come to Rome under Vespasian, but
fell under suspicion with iHmiitian, and, banished from Ita y,
retired to the north shore of the Black Sea. Of the old-fashioned
life at Olbia on the Borysthenes, of the enthusiasm for Homer
which prevailed in that remote Greek colony, and ot the dangers
which constantly threatened Greek civilisation in those regions
from the Scythians, he has given an interesting account in his
"Borysthenic Discourse" Under Nerva he was recalled to Rome,
and when he afterwards returned to his native town Prusa, he
obtained some privileges for it by his influence with Trajan.
Although Dion is counted among the sophists,* and went about as
a rhetorician, it must be said to his honour that he was by no
means a typical specimen. He did not, like the ordinary sophist,
sacrifice thought to expression ; he was a deeper thinker — inclined
to Stoicism — than most of his class, and he sometimes makes a hit
at the vapid sophistic style. Of his discourses or essays, seventy-
nine are extant, and many of them are most interesting. In the
Alexandrina he inveighs against the extravagant luxury of life
in Alexandria; in the Olympica he places in the mouth of Phidias
a description and explanation of that sculptor's great «tatue of Zeus
at Olympia. In his four discourses on monarchy he sketches, for
the benefit of Trajan, the rule of an ideal sovran. One of the most
pleasing essays is the Euboica, in which an idvllic description is
given of the life of two rustic families in a desolate part of Euboaa,
and a counter-picture is drawn of life in the town. Dion aimed at
writing pure Attic ; his chief models were Plato and Xenophon.

* In later times ten sophists of the i the ten; also Aristides, Herodes, and
Imperial age were counted, on the analogy j Philostratus.
of the ten Attic orators. Dion was one of '

488

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS CHAP, xxv

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

INSCRIPTION OF JUVENAL AT

AQU1NUM.

The inscription on the altar of Ceres
which Juvenal dedicated at his birthplace,
is as follows : —

[CERB]RI SACRVM
[D. rv]Nivs IVVENALIS

TKIB. COH. DELMATARVM

II. QVINQ. FLAMEN

DIVI VESPASIAN I

VOVIT DEDICA[VITQ]VE

SVA. PEC.
That is : Cereri sacrum De imus Junius

Juvenalis Tribunus Cohortis Delmatarum,
duumvir quinquennalis, flamen divi
Vespasiani, vovit dedicavitque sua pe-
cunia.

As the ordinary legionary cohorts had

prefects, not tribunes— and we actually

| find on inscriptions prefects of the cohors

| /. Ddmatarum mentioned— it has been

| questioned whether tribunus is not a

mistake for prsefectus.

The story of Juvenal's banishment to
Scotland seems to have arisen from a
confusion with Ins military service, as a
young man, in Britain,

Seneca (so called) (from a bust in the Museum at Naples).

Hadrian (from a bust in the British Museum).

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE PBINCIPATE OP HADRIAN (117-138 A.D.).

§ 1. The circumstances of Hadrian's accession. § 2. Hadrian's family
and career. His letter to the senate. § 3. Hadrian's personality.
§ 4. Character of his statesmanship. He abandons Trajan's policy and
surrenders the new provinces in the east. § 5. New ideas which
mark Hadrian's reign. § 6. Hadrian settles affairs in the east and
returns to Rome. § 7. Conspiracy of Avidius Nigrmus, Lusius
Quietus, and two others discovered and suppressed. § 8. The journeys
of Hadrian through the provinces. § 9. Military reforms. § 10. The
Sarmatian danger. Q. Marcius Turbo, commander on the Danube.
Measures for the defence of Mcesia and Dacia. §11. Defence of
Pannonia. § 12. The limes tmns-Dinvbtimu. § 13. Britain. De-
scription of the wall of Hadrian. § 14. Hadrian in Gaul, Spain, and
Africa. § 15. Relations with Parthia. § 16. Hadrian in Greece.
§ 17. His visit to Asia. § 18. Egypt. § 19. Jewish rebellion. § 20.
21*

490 THE PRINCIPATE OF HADRIAN. OHAP.

Political tendencies of Hadrian's government. § 21. Institution of the
Consular Julges in Italy. Administrative change-; in the provinces.
§ 22. The organisation of a civil service. Increased importance of the
knights. Poition of the Praetorian prelects. § 23. New organisa-
tion of the imperial consilium. Position of lawyers. The Perpetual
Edict. § -J4. Hadrian's relations with the senate. § 25. Financial
administration. § 26 Legislation in regard to slaves. Minor legis-
lation. § 27. Buildings. The Temple of Venus and Rome. The
Mausoleum § 28. Hadrian's last years. Adoption of Verus. New
meaning of Caesar. Character and death of Verus. § J9. Adoption of
Titus Antoninus. § 30. Death of Hadrian. Results of his principate.

SECT. I. — THE ACCESSION OF HADRIAN, AND THE CHARACTER
OF HIS REIGN.

§ 1. NOTWITHSTANDING his advanced age, Trajan had gone forth
on his great eastern expedition without having taken the pre-
caution of settling the succession to the Principate bv adopting a
son. He had indeed made it clear enough, by various marks of
favour, that he designed P. Mlius Hadrianus, his relative, to be
his successor. Perhaps, confident that he had still many vears to
live, he wished to postpone as long as possible the act of adoption
aud did not care for the notion of delegating to another any portion
of the supreme power. Or perhaps he may have thought that even
without the usual measure of adoption the succession of Hadrian
was sufficiently assured, and may have been willing to leave the
senate to elect as Princeps. without any apparent constraint, one
who was not the son of an Augustus or a Cse>ar. There is, certainly,
little reason to suppose that he had not himself decided on his
successor, and that he looked forward to testing the merits of
possible candidates in the Parthian expedition. He had already
shown such favour to Hadrian that to have preferred another would
have inevitably led to civil war, and Trajan could not have failed to
foresee the result. In any case, he found himself in the presence
of death before he had formally declared Ms will on this im|K>rt»nt
question. Plotina, who was a warm supporter of Hadrian's in-
terests, seems to have induced the dying Kmperor to sign at the
last moment a " letter of adoption," or at least signify his consent
to the act. It was reported, however, at the time, that this c(>n-
sent was a fiction contrived by Plotina. Whether genuine or not,
the letter reached Hadrian at Antioch on August 9, two days
before the news of Trajan's death arrived, and there can be little
doubt that it represented Trajan's real wishes.

§ 2. The family c.f Hadrian belonged originally to Hadria, a
municipality of Picenum, but had settled in the Roman colony of

117 A.D. HADBIAN'S ACCESSION. 491

Italioa. His father, Hadrianus Afer, was a first cousin of Trajan.*
Hadrian himself was born at Rome (January 24, 76 A.D.). He
entered early ujxm the usual official career, and, after the viginti-
virate, became a legionary tribune. Under Trajan he was promoted
to be quaestor (101 A.D.) and tribune of the people (105 A D.). rl he
Empress Plotina showed marked favour to him, and through her
influence he was permitted to con tract a marriage with Julia Sabina,
the grand-daughter of Marciana, Trajan's sister. As Trajan had no
children, this alliance was naturally held to be significant. In the
second Dacian war Hadrian commanded a legion, and in recognition
of his services the Emperor presented him with a diamond ring
which he had himself received from Nerva. He became praetor in
due course of time, and in 108 A.D. was elected as a suffect consul.
About the same time he was appointed legatus of Lower Pannonia.
After the death of Licinius Sura, his influence with Trajan doubtless
increased. He took part in the eastern expedition, and in 117 A.D.
was appointed legatus of Syria, with an extraordinary military
command during the Emperor's absence; and in the same year
was a second time consul.

On receiving the news of Trajan's death, Hadrian was proclaimed
Imper ator by the soldiers, having secured their allegiance by pro-
mising them a donative of double the usual amount. He then
wrote a modest letter to the senate, asking, as the adopted son of
Trajan, for their recognition, and excusing the unconstitutional
action of the soldiers in acknowledging him as Emperor before he
had been elected by the senate. Although there were many
members of the senate adverse to Hadrian, no opposition was
organised against his claim; his respectful letter produced a
favourable impression; and the various powers which belonged to
the Princeps were duly conferred on him.f

§ 3. Hadrinn had received as a boy an education in Greek letters,
perhaps at Athens, and he showed such a decided leaning to Greek
life and thought that he was jestingly called the " Greekliiig."

* Trajanus (l)

Hadrian
Domitia Paulina =

us (1) = Ulpla
= Hadrlanufl (2)

Trajanus (2)

Marciana

Matidla
1

Trajanns (3)
Imperator

aPlotina

.Servtanus = Paulina Hadrian (3) = Sabina

Imperator

f His title was: Imp. Case. Divi Trajan! f. Divi Nerva nep. Trajanus Hadrianns
Aug. poet . ma*, trib. pot ooft.

492 THE PEINCIPATE OF HADRIAN. CHAP. xxvi.

But his interest in things not Roman went further than Greece. He
was attracted by the antiquitit s, the mysteries and the romance of the
east, and studied oriental philosophies and religions with curiosity.
He was, in fact, a cosmopolitan, and liked to place himself in touch
with all the various races and creeds and institutions which had
been gathered together in the complex of the Roman Empire. He
was eminently susceptible of new ideas, and must have been
impatient of the narrow prejudices of the aristocracy of Home. It
may be readily imagined that such a man could not win the sym-
pathy of the senate ; and though the nobles had to cloke their
feelings during his lifetime, their antipathy expressed itself after
his death in detraction and calumnj. The note of his character
was a certain restless curiosity. He desired to see all that was to
be seen, to know all that was to be known, to do all that was to be
done. He visited all the provinces of the Empiie, and in each
province he was as much a sightseer as an administrator. He wrote
poetry; attempted painting; acquainted himself with all the
systems of philosophy. It accorded with his character that he had
an extravagant passion for the excitement of the chase. The
personality of this " searcher out of all curiosities ' * is indicated in
his countenance as we ses it in his numerous busts. The head is
bent a little, as if to catch every sound ; the eyes and mouth suggest
the quickness and liveliness of an intellect determined that
nothing shall escape it. The type of face is neither Roman nor
yet Greek. In the gallery of imperial busts, his is the first marked
by a beard. Whether he wore it, as some said, to disguise a scar,
or whether it was characteristic of the " Greekling," it may be
regarded as an outward sign of a new type of Emperor. Hadrian
had his faults and foibles as well as his striking qualities. Although
he took wide views as a statesman. and a thinker, he was not above
petty ambitions ; although he was eminently tolerant, he was not
superior to feeling jealousy at the merits of men who followtd as
their special calling pursuits in which he engaged as a dilettante.
He was suspicious and distrustful of those who surrounded him ;
and naturally was not able to awaken their confidence or engage
their affection. The rhetorician Fronto says that he regarded
Hadrian rather as a god to be propitiated than as a man to
be loved.

§ 4. Hadrian was a statesman of great ability, but by no means
of transcendent genius. Indeed, at this time, there was little scope

* Curiositatum omnium explorator the time, " we miss that unity of aim and
(Tertullian). Semper in omnibus vari us i complete subordination of all the faculties
(Spartian). Merivale has well remarked to a ruling idea whirh exalt the man <>t
that in Hadrian, as in other great men of talent into a man of genius."

117-138 A.D. HADRIAN'S CHARACTER AND POLICY. 493

for a man of genius. What makes him so remarkable aiid his
reign so unique, is the circumstance that he embodied and repre-
sented in his own person the tendencies of the period, and revealed
and developed those tendencies in his policy. It rarely happens
that the most typical man of an age is selected by destiny to be a
sovran. It happened in the case of Hadrian ; and his reign derives
much of its peculiar interest from this coincidence. He was not a
military monarch ; and here, conspicuously, he was in touch with his
age. The Roman world wanted peace and rest ; men did not yearn
for conquest ; and the military policy of Trajan, however plausible
it may have seemed from a theoretical point of view, however
necessary it may have been up to a certain point, was not in
harmony with the spirit of his time. In this respect, Hadrian
marked his position clearly at the outset. The first important act
of his reign was the surrender of the three new eastern provinces,
which Trajan had annexed, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria.
The new Emperor thus declared that he regarded Trajan's oriental
expedition as a huge mistake, that he definitely abandoned the
project of extending the empire eastward, and that he recurred to
the policy of Augustus. It may be questioned whether it might
not have been wiser to retain Armenia, while abandoning Mesopo-
tamia and Assyria. Dislike of Trajan's war policy as a whole may
have carried Hadrian too far in his reaction. It is even said that
he contemplated the surrender of Dacia, but if so, he was wise
enough to abandon the idea. Dacia, in which a large number of
Roman colonists had taken up their abode, was in quite a different
position from the annexations beyond the Euphrates, where no
Roman settlements had yet been made. Of resigning Arabia,
Trajan's other new province, there was no question.

§ 5. This first act of Hadrian struck the keynote of his reign, and
inaugurated that remarkable period of nearly half a century, in
which the Roman world enjoyed a measure of peace and happiness,
which it had never enjoyed before and was never to enjoy again.
The thought was beginning to force itself on people, more or less
consciously, that men were not made for the state, but that the
state was made for men ; and Hadrian's policy expressed and
realised this thought. Trajan had been tempted to make the
extension of the Empire, and military glory, ends in themselves;
Hadrian regarded the defence of the frontiers and the maintenance
of the army merely as means to the prosperity of his subjects. He
fully recognised the necessity of maintaining a strong military
force, and of being prepared to fight in case of need ; and he devoted
himself to the reform of the military service. Closely connected
with this view of the state, and at the same time characteristic of

494 THE PRINC1PATE OF HADRIAN. CHAP.

his cosmopolitan temper, was Hadrian's interest in the provinces. The
importance of the welfare of the provinces had heen recognised by
Julius Caesar, and had been always a political principle under the
Empire. But Hadrian sympathised with the provincials more
thoroughly than any of his predecessors, and really felt that the
provinces were not made merely to serve Home and Italy, lie was
himself less at home in Eome than in any part of his Empire, and
hardly a third part of his reign of twenty-one years was spent on
Italian soil. He saw that personal acquaintance on the part of
the ruler with the aifairs ot each province was requisite for a
sound administration ; and his journeys through the provinces are
a unique and striking feature of his reign. His other great work
was the creation of a civil service.

We must not fail to note that in the period of peace and pro-
sperity which was inaugurated by Hadrian and continued by his
two next successors, a great social and spiritual change, of deep
significance for the future of the Empire and also for the future of
the world, was being accompli shed. The process was rilent and
almost escapes our observation; but the results are clear. The
principle of humanity, as opposed to Eoman exclusiveness, was
becoming widely recognised ; and a spirit cf cosmopolitanism was
taking possession of the world. The way was being prepared for the
diffusion of Christianity. This new spirit was injurious to the
power of Rome, but advantageous for the future development of
Europe. It helped on the decline of the Empire, but it was also the
beginning of the transformation of the ancient into the modem
world. Hadrian is the first great representative of this new spirit.

SECT. II. — HADRIAN'S VISITS TO THE PROVINCES. MILITARY
REFORMS.

§ 6. The last months of the year (117 A.D.) were occupied with
ordering the affairs of the east. The Parthian question was settled,
as has been already said, by sunvndeiing Trajan's conquests,
abandoning the cause of Parthamaspates, and recognising king
Chosroes. In order to retain the new conquests it would have
been necessary to increase the army, and the financial condition of
the Empire would not have admitted such a step without an increase
of taxation. Moreover, under Trajan's mil tary reign, too little
attention had been paid to internal administration. These con-
siderations alone were sufficient to move Haurian to adopt a totally
different policy from that of his predecessor. The danger of ex-
tending the frontier may have al*o been brought home to him by
the reports which arrived of disturbances breaking out in remote

118 A.D. CONSPIRACY OF NIGRINU6. 496

corners of the realm. The Britons in the far north, the Sarmatians
on the Danube, the Moors in the west were all saving signs of
rebellion ; while the rising of the Jews in Palestine and Libya,
not yet completely allayed, was in itself an adverse comment on
oriental expeditions. Hadrian probably visited Palestine and Egypt
himself, to hasten the suppression of the Jewish revolf, which was
carried out by his able officer Q. Marcins Turbo. He ap[>ointed
Catilius Severus to the post of legatus of Syria, which he had
occupied himself before his elevation <o the Principate. He
removed Lusius Quietus from the governorship of Judea, and sent
him to his native land, Mauretania, apparently in order to quell
a revolt which was breaking out among his countrymen. But
Lusius, who was by no means well disposed to the new Emperor,
and disliked the change of policy, showed no energy in crushing the
movement, or perhaps encouraged it. At all events Hadrian found it
necessary to send Turbo, who had already suppressed the Jews, to
suppress the Moors also ; and we are told that he " disarmed
Lusius Quietus."

Hadrian travelled by way of Illyricum to Rome, which he
reached early in 118 A.D. He was favourably received by the
senate, to which he now renewed in person the respectful overtures
which he had already made by letter. The title Pater patrix was
otf'er< d to him, but he refused it, on the ground that Augustus had
received it at a late period of his reign ; and did not accept it until
128 A.D. He celebrated the Parthian triumph of Trajan, the image
of the dead Emperor being borne in the triumphal car.

§ 7. Hadrian was not long ai Rome before he had to hurry away
to the Danube to meet a Sarmatian invasion, and during his absence
his throne was threatened by a con piracy in which four men of
great distinctly were implicated. The leader was a consular named
Avidius Nijjinus, whom the Emperor seems to have regarded with
special favour, and perhaps intended to choose as his successor in
the P.incipate. Besides another consular, Pnblilius Celsus, two
officers of high miliiary reputation, Cornelius Palma, the conqueror
of Arabi i,and Lusius Quietus, who had air ady displayed a disloyal
spirit in Maureta ia, took part in the plot. The implication of
these two generals sugge-ts that dissatisfaction was felt in military
circles at the peace policy of the new Emperor. The intention of
the conspirators was to kill Hadrian when he was either hunting or
performing a sacrifice B it the plot was discovered, and the senate
showed their zeal and loya ty by ordering the four conspirators to
be put to death. When the n-ws of the affair reached Hadrian,
he paced the conduct of affairs on the Danube frontier in the
hands ol his trusted officer, Marcius Turbo, and hastened back to

496 THE PBINCIPATE OF HADRIAN. CHAP, xxvi

Rome (August). He regretted the execution of the culprits, wrnch
was an unpopular act ; and although the senate had acted without
consulting him, he was blamed for it. To dissipate the feelings of
alarm which the occurrence had caused, and to show that
terrorism was not to be the policy of his reign, he voluntarily took
an oath never to pass sentence of death on a senator, as Trajan had
done before him.

During the next years, Hadrian seems to have devoted himself to
internal reforms in Rome and Italy. In 119 A.D. he was consul
for the third, and last time, and in the same year he undertook a
journey through southern Italy. In 121 A.D., having laid the
foundation-stone of the Temple of Rome and Venus (April 21), he
started on his first great journey through the provinces. As he
intended to be absent for a considerable time, it was necessary to
leave the control of Rome in trustworthy hands. The safety of the
city lay with the commanders of the praetorian guards. Hadrian
had not full confidence in Attianus and Similis, the two prefects
who were in office at his accession. Attianus had given him
support at the critical moment when his installation as Princeps
was doubtful, and on that account might have proved presumptuous ;
while Similis was a man of independent ideas. Accordingly they
were removed, and Q. Marcius Turbo, along with C. Septicius
Claras, appointed in their stead.

§ 8. Hadrian undertook two great journeys through the provinces.
The first began in spring 121 A.D. and ended with his return to
Rome at the end of 126 A.D. The second began in spring 129 A.D.
and ended with his return to Rome early in 134 A.D. On the first
occasion he visited almost all the provinces of the Empire, both
western and eastern. But on the second occasion he only visited
the eastern. This was probably due to the outbreak of the Jewish
rebellion, which recalled him to Judea as he was retracing his path
to the west (131-132 A.D.); so that at this point his second long
absence from Home ceases to be a provincial tour. Besides these
two great journeys, he undertook, in the interval between them, a
lesser journey to the African provinces (128 A.D.).

The exact route of his first journey is not in all respects certain,
but it seems to have b en as follows. Having made a progress
through eastern Gaul, and probably visited Lugudunum, he pro-
ceeded to the province of Upper Germany, and thence along the
northern frontier of Rsetia and Noricum, into Pannonia. Return-
ing, doubtless by a different route, through these provinces, he
reached the Rhine again, proceeded to Lower Germany, and passing
throush the lanrl of the Batavians, crossed over to Britain (122 A.D.).
Having remained there for some months he returned to Gaul, and

121-134 A.D. JOURNEYS IN THE PROVINCES. 497

travelled through the western regions of that country to Spain,
where he visited Tarraco. A revolt of the Moors induced him
to visit Mauretania, though this perhaps was not part of his pro-
gramme, and thence he went on to Africa, and possibly to Libya.
Crossing over to Asia Minor, he first visited the cities on the coast,
and then travelled through the interior to the Euphrates (123 A.D.).
Returning by the coast of the Euxine, he traversed Pontus and
Bithynia, and ciossed over into Thrace, whence, advancing through
Macedonia, he reached successively Epirus and Thessaly. In
autumn 125 A.D. he arrived at Athens, where he spent the winter
and spring, and made a tour in the Peloponnesus in the following
summer, whence he returned to Rome, taking Sicily on the way
(126 A.D.).

His second journey began by a second yisit to Athens, where he
spent another winter (129-130 A.D.). Then he sailed to the south
coast of Asia Minor, and landing in Caria or Lycia travelled through
Pisidia and Cilicia, into Syria, reaching Antioch by June. In the
same summer he visited Palmyra, Judea, and Arabia, and proceeded
in autumn to Egypt, where he spent the greater part of a year,
returning in the later part of 131 A.D. to Syria, whence he set out
for the west, fie was then recalled by the Jewish revolt, and spent
two years on the scene of warfare.

These imperial visits may in some cases have been burdensome
and expensive to the provincials at the time, but there can be
no doubt that they conduced to the prosperity of the subject
lands. The Emperor saw with his own eyes the condition and
needs of each province, and also the exact importance of each in
relation to the rest of the Empire. We cannot trace all that he did
in the correction of abuses, or in furthering the economical interests
of the lands which he visited. But we know how he tried to secure
the indispensable condition of peaceful development, namely, the
safety of the Empire against invaders. Hadrian never lost sight of
this end. His care in providing for it was exhibited in two ways :
(1) he introduced a number of vital reforms into the army, and the
military system ; (2) he developed, with more consistency than
any Emperor before him, the method of defending the frontiers by
artificial means.

§ 9. The military reforms of Hadrian went into the minutest
details, and he may be considered the originator of the military
system of the later Empire. His changes affected both tactics and
discipline.

His great reform in tactics was the introduction of the phalanx,
not exactly the Macedonian phalanx, but an improved form. The
necessity of superseding the old legionary battle-array seems to have

498

THE PKINCIPATE OF HADRIAN. CHAP, xxvi

been proved in recent warfare. Hadrian directed all his officers to
study carefully the tactics and a ms of the bari>ar>ans, Parthians
and Armenians in the east, Sarmatians beyond the Danube, Celts in
Britain. He also introduced oriental armour and heavily.armed
cavalry. His Batavian squadrons were so well drilled that they
could swim across rivers in panoply.* Improvements were made
in the military engines, with a view to facilitating the ra^id motion
of the army.

Hadrian found that the discipline of the camp had degenerated,
and he spent the greatest pains in restoring it, and made it stricter
than ever. He increased the number of centurions, and only
allowed those to be appointed who were of strong body and good
character. He admitted none to the legionary tribunate who were
not of mature age. Leaves of absence were rarely granted, and
everything that could have an enervating effect on the soldiers was
removed from the camps. But notwiths'anding his strictness he
was very popular with the men, and there was not a *iuAe mutiny
throughout his peaceful reign. This was due to the fact that
he shared with the soldiers their exercises and privations, whenever
he visited the camps, and required of them to undergo no hardships
which he was not ready to undergo himself. His dress was
severely simple; his repast consisted of the same plain food — lard,
cheese, and sour wine — as that of the legionaries themselves. On
the march, he used to walk or ride in full armour and bareheaded,
amid the snows of Caledonia or beneath the hot sun of E'jiypt ; and
never made use of a vehicle. He concerned himself with every
detail of military life. He used to visit the ambulances every day,
used to attend to the commissariat, and inspect the arms, dress, and
baggage of the soldiers. On coins he is often represented as
addressing his legions. At Lambassis in Africa, where he founded
a new camp, of which the prseturium, or general's quarters, still
stands, a pedestal has been found, on which is inscribed a speech
which he delivered to legion III. Augusta. He prai-es the soldiers
for their performance of the most difficult exercises, for executing in
a single day works which would employ others for a week, for their
sham battles, and other achievements. Under no Emperor was the
army in moie efficient condition than under Hadrian.

In regard to the fleet, Hadrian introduced the regulation that all
the marines should possess ius Latinum. Thus no Koman citizen,

* This is mentioned by the historian I oris

Dion, and finds an interesting confirma- Inter mille viros fortis priniusque Ba-

tion in the rude verses of a Hatavian tavos

horse-soldier found on an inscription in Ha<iriano potui qul iudice vasta profundi
Lower Pannonia (C. I. L. 3, 367t>): ^Equora I'anuvii icunctt* transnwre sub-
Hie ego Pannoniis quondam notisshuus armis, etc.

118 A.D.

MILITARY REFOBM8.

499

whether Italian or provincial, could serve in the fleet. The service
was only open to those who possessed Latin rights, or those who
possessed neither Roman nor Latin rights; the latter received ivA
Lattnum on entering the service.*

SECT. HL — THE DEFENCE OF THE FRONTIERS ; AND THE
WESTERN PROVINCES.

§ 10. The Sarmatian races which were separated from each
other by the province of Dacia, the Roxolani on the east and
the Jazyges on the west, kept up mutual communication, and
fornved a league against the Empire after the accession of Hadrian.
The immediate cause of the war is said to have been that the
Roman government refused to continue the subsidy which Trajan
had consented to pay to the king of the Roxolani. The barbarians
probably invaded Dacia, and Hadrian, as we have seen, was obliged
to leave Rome sho.tly after his ai rival and take the field against
them (118 A.D.). Although successful in this war, he consented to
a compact by which he agreed to renew the subsidy claimed by the
Roxolani, and the kinj; of that people received Koman citizenship
and became a Roman vassal. Recalled to Rome by the conspiracy
of Nigrinus, Hadrian appointed Q. Marcius Turbo to a special
military command over both provinces of Pannonia and Dacia,
although Turbo was only of equestrian rank, and gave him. the
same title and dignity which the prefect of Egypt possessed.

But Hadrian was not content with averting the present danger.
He sought to guard against future invasions, on the one hand of
Pannonia by the Jazyges, on the other hand of Mcesia by the
Roxolani, and with this view constructed lines of fortification. The
new fortress of Troesmis (I<ilitza), in the delta 'of the Danube,
commanded the route of invaders coming through Bessarabia, and
formed one of a number of po<ts along the Euxine coast — Odessus
(Vama), Tomi (Kiistendje), Troesmis, Tyras at the mouth of the
Dniester, Olbia at the mouth of the Dnieper, Panticapaenm in the
Tauric peninsula, b twcen which constant connection was kept up
by the Pontic fleet. Panticapseum was at this time under the
government <f a Sarmatian prince, who professed warm friendship
for Hadrian and t> e Empire.

It is said that Hadrian, in order to protect the provinces south of
the Danube from the chance of an invasion by way of Dacia, broke
down the upper part of the great bridge which Trajan had con-

* Here may he mentioned the imperial
oodyguard entitled equites singula^es
Augutti, and instituted either by Trajan

or Hadrian. The soldiers of this corps

possessed ius iMti

500 THE PROrCIPATE OF HADRIAN. CHAP, xxvi,

strncted at Turnu Severin. The truth of this statement has been
questioned ; but it may have been found that the intercourse be-
tween the northern and southern banks of the Danube was still
carried on chiefly by boat, and was little facilitated by the existence
of one bridge, and the Emperor may have determined to sacrifice it.
Possibly he substituted a drawbridge. To him, perhaps, were due
many of the forts which protected the valleys and passes of the
eastern Carpathians. But though he regarded the province as out-
lying and insecure, he did much for developing its resources and
Romanising it. Under hira began the settlements of veteran
soldiers, and a vigorous prosecution of the mining works. The
administration of Dacia was changed (129 A.D.) by its division, like
Pannonia and Moesia, into two provinces, Upper and Lower Dacia,
governed by legati.

§ 11. Hadrian busied himself equally with the defence of the
middle Danube in Pannonia. It was here most conspicuously that he
put into practice a new principle of investing with a municipal
character the most important frontier stations, and combining civU
with military life. This was easy. For not only did many trades-
people settle close to important camps, but the veterans, after thei]
discharge, used for the most part to remain in the same place ; and
thus were formed town settlements, separate from the camp, and
known as candbas or "the booths." Trajan had tried the ex-
periment in the case of Castra Vetera and Ulpia Noviomagus
Hadrian transformed into colonies the two head-quarters of the
troops of Lower Pannouia, AquinciPTa, which is now the capital
of Hungary, and Mursa (Eszeg)- where the Drave flows into
the Danube. In Upper Pannoniar the three chief stations ot
legions were Vindobona (Vienna), Cwnuntnm (Petronell), and
Brigetio (0-Szony). These he converted ioto U<*xian cities, as well
as other stations of less renown.* Vimin^cipm aoi >jicopolis, in
Upper Mcesia, and Augusta Vindelicorum, IP Paetia, were treated
in the same way. Th< se changes were probably inangvrated during
Hadrian's visit to these regions in 121 A.D. It is also to be observed
that he transferred a considerable part of southern PauDonia to
Italy : and colonised anew the Flavian foundation of Siscia on the
Save. Thus, while he was providing for the defence of the Empire.
Hadrian was also carrying on the work of Komanisation.

§ 12. As far as Regina Castra (Regensburg) it was only necessary
to reinforce the natural defence of the Danube by a line of forts.
Now the idea which Hadrian endeavoured to carry out systematically
wa^ to supplement natural defences of water by artificial defences of

* These foundations of Hadrian are I epithet ".Elian" in inscriptions: e.g»
generally recognised by their bearing the I Municipiwn JSliwrn, Carnuntum.

121, 122 A.D. PANNONIA AND GERMANY. 501

wall. To him we may attribute with great probability the construc-
tion of the Hi man wall which protected the corner between the
Rhine and the Danube, and marked the limes trans-Danubianus*
Trajan had doubtless already defended the exposed region by a line
of forts, which Hadrian now connected by a wall which can still
be traced from the Danube (a little above Kehlheim), to the limes
trans Shenanus (near Wetzlieim). It is quite possible that part of
the line ot wall, running southward from the Main and bounding
the agri Decumates, may be also due to him, and not to the
Flavian Emperors.

The Germans seem to have given no trouble in this reign. One
tribe accepted a king appointed by the Emperor. In his progress
through Lower Germany Hadrian founded Forum Hadnani in
an island close to the Batavian Lugudunum.

The administration of the two provinces of Germany was
changed. Hitherto, it will be remembered, their legati were only
military commanders, and the civil administration was in the hands
of the legatus of Belgica . Henceforward, Upper and Lower Germany
have each a legatus possessing civil powers; but they are still
financially connected with Btlgica, inasmuch as the Belgic pro-
curator collects the taxes in the Germanics.

§ 13. In Britain, which he reached in 122 A.D., there was much
to be done and some cause for serious anxiety. Little hold could
be kept on the lands beyond the Tyne, which Agricola had tried to
conquer, and even south of the Tyne the Brigantes, by no means
wholly subdued, held out in their strong places.f The Romans
suffered most severe losses in continuous warfare with the
Britons,f and the IXth legion, which had been in the island since
the conquest of Claudius, was annihilated. It was replaced by
VI. Victrix, which had hitherto had its quarters at Castra
Vetera, and was now stationed at Eburacum, which became the most
important Roman position in the north. Hadrian took the field him-
self against the barbarians, but the great result of his visit to Britain
was the elaborate system of fortification which he devised to
facilitate not only the defence, but also the extension of the province.
For he did not surrender the design of occupying the northern
half of Britain, as he had surrendered Trajan's annexations beyond
the Euphrates; he did not intend to make the Tyne and Sol way
the limit of the province. To complete the conquest of a half-
conquered island was a widely different project from advancing
into the heart of a vast continent. It is uncertain how far we are

* See above, Chap. XXII. $ 10. | t Among the legati who succeeded

t Cf. Juvenal, xiv. 196: Dirue Mau- Asrricola were the orator Salvius Liberalis
rorum attegias, castella Brigantum. and the jurist Neratius Marcelluu.

502

THE PBINCIPATE OF HADRIAN. CHAP, xxvi

il

to accept the statement of a contemporary historian,* that from an
economical point, of view Britain was quite useless to Rome. But
, the Roman government evidently con-
si sidered that the acquisition of North
3 Britain was politically, if not economi-
$ cally, desirable. Hadrian saw that this
| end could only be attained by a slow
^ and methodical advance. Accordingly
a line of fortifications, on an immense
scale, was drawn across the island, from
the Tyne to the Solway, and the re-
mains of this construction constitute
the most striking record of Roman
dominion in Britain.

The Roman wall — it used to be called
I the Picts' wall — is a system of walls,
•3 earthworks, fosses, and forts, connected

tby a road. On the east side its began
at Segedunum, whose modern name,
Jj Walls-end, reminds us of the fact ; its
g western extremity was at Glannibanta
\ (near Bowness) on the Solway Firth.
I Its course was straight, and its entire
a length about seventy miles. It con-
1 sisted of three parts : a stone wall, a
w series of stations connected by the road,
+2 and an earth-wall. (1) The stone wall,
^ on the north, was from six to eight feet
g broad and nearly twenty feet high.
Turrets, of rectangular f shape, occurred
in it at unequal distances. At longer
intervals (about a Roman mile) were
fortified gates, generally called "mile-
castles." A fosse runs along the northern
| side of the wall. (2) The earth-wall, or
^ vallum, on the south, consists of three
| parts itself: a single mound, a fosse, and
I* a double mound. The single mound is
3 on the north side of the fosse which is
I about thirty feet broad, and the double
mound is on the south. The dis-
tance between the vallum and the stone wall varies considerably,
but is on a rough average about 120 yards. (3) The road runs

* Appian. f In one case, circular.

timac

122 A.D. THE WALL IN BRITAIN. 503

between the stone wall and the vallum, and along it are situated, at
unequal distances, fourteen large camps (called prxtenturxf).
Belonging to this line of camps, but situated at a short distance
south of the vallum, are three others, so that we must count
seventeen camps as part of the system of fortification. The best
preserved of these camps are Borcovicium (now called Housesteads)
and Cilurimm, where the memory of the Koman site is retained
in the name " Chesters." A long and continuous stretch of the
stone wall may be seen at Borcovicium.*

The work was probably begun during Hadrian's visit to Britain
(122 A.D.) and was executed, under the direction of the legatus,
Aulus Platorius Nepos, by the labours of the three Britannic
legions (II., VI., XX.,); while the other military service tem-
porarily devolved upon detachments sent from Spain and Upper
Germany. The auxiliary troops also assisted, and a large number
of inscriptions bear witness to the part taken in the work by the
various centuries, and cohorts, and alas. Hadrian's connection with
the wall is commemorated in the name of the second station, on
the eastern side, Pons Mlii (Newcastle). There can be little
doubt that some of the stronger positions, which formed the sites
of the camps, had been previously occupied by Agricola and other
commanders as detached forts. This consideration will help to
explain the inequality of the distances between the stations.

The significance of the wall cannot be appreciated if it is not
observed that the Brigantes were not yet thoroughly subdued, and
that the continuous fortification was designed to serve as a barrier,
hindering effectual communication or co-operation between the
enemies to the south and the enemies to the north. With the
wall as basis of operations the subjugation of the northern tribes
could be gradually effected, and this work was carried on by
detached forts and camps, such as that of Bremenium (High
Rochester), north of the wall. The line of the wall was crossed by
roads leading northwards. Thus, Wailing Street crosses it near
Cilurnum. This circumstance alone indicates that Hadrian's wall
is not to be regarded as a frontier barrier, not intended to be passed,
against a foreign foe, but as a sort of huge elongated camp
established in a country which the Romans purposed to make their

* It is not certain whether the whole of was the work of Severus, but until some

this system of fortification was due to ' clearer evidence is forthcoming we may

Hadrian. It is held by some that he only f be content to ascribe to Hadrian the

constructed the vallum, while the stone general design of the fortification and at

w all was built about eighty years later by all event-* the eastern part 01 the wall.

the Emperor Septimius Severus, who died i For names of camps, see Notes and Illus-

during a visit to Britain. It is quite < trations, B.

credible that the western part of the wall |

504 THE PRINCIPATE OF HADRIAN. CHAP, xxvi.

own. It marked a stage, but was by no means intended to mark
the last stage, in the conquest of the island.

§ 14. Of Hadrian's acts in Gaul we only know that he showed
great liberality in all the provinces. We have no record as to what
cities he visited, except Nemausns (Nirnes), where he erected a
basilica in honour of his adopted mother Plotina. Crossing the
Pyrenees, he spent a winter (122-123 A.D.) at Tarraco, where he
held a meeting of representatives of the Spanish cities, and made
himself acquainted with the needs and wishes of the provincials. Of
his visit to Sicily we only know that he ascended Mount ^tna to
see a sunrise. These internal provinces, the Gauls, the Spain s, and
Sicily, were prosperous, and had less need of imperial care than those
whose borders were exposed to invasion, like Pannonia, Britain, and
Africa. He visittd the African provinces twice, in 123 A.D. on
the occasion of a Moorish rising, which he quelled, and again in
128 A.D. Of his activity there we have many, though slight,
traces. A new road was constructed from Carthage to Theveste ;
and having completed this work, under the direction of the legatus,
P. Metilius Secundus, the legion was established in a new per-
manent camp at Lambsesis. The object of this change was that
the army should be nearer Mauretania, in which there were no
legionary troops. In founding colonies Hadrian seems to have been
as active in Africa as he had been in Pannonia. Utica was raised
to colonial rank. " ^Elian " colonies were founded at Thense (on
the coast, south of Carthage), at Zama Regia and Lares in
Numidia, at Banasa in Tingitana. A new road was constructed
from Cirta to the coast at Rusicade (Philippeville). These
facts, among others, known to us entirely from inscriptions,
illustrate the universal activity of Hadrian in all parts of the
Empire.

SECT. IV. — THE EASTERN PROVINCES.

§ 15. The progress of Hadrian through the Latin portion of the
Empire, as far as we can trace it, is chiefly marked by his measures
for the defence of the frontiers; in the eastern provinces he
had more room for manifesting and gratifying his personal tastes.
There was no cause for apprehension on the oriental frontier.
Parthia was afraid of Rome. The tranquillity was threatened
some years cuter Hadrian's accession, but matters were smoothed
by a personal meeting with the Parthian king. During his second
visit to the east, the Emperor held a friendly gathering of client
kings and princes. He visited Chosroes, and sought to maintain a
good understanding with that potentate by sending back his

125 ; 129 A.D VISITS TO GREECE. 505

daughter, whom Trajan had captured. A difficulty arose (about
134 A.D.) when Pharasmanes, king of Iberia, invaded Media. Volo-
geses, the successor of Chosroes, complained to Hadrian, who, however,
refused to call his vassal to account, and even enlarged his kingdom.
Vologeses was not strong enough to press the matter. The efficiency
of the Roman army, trained under the new reforms, was made
evident at the same time, when the Alans threatened to invade
Armenia and Cappadocia. Armenia was saved by the Parthian
king, who gave the barbarians money ; Cappadocia, by the resolute
attitude of its governor, Arrian, a capable commander, who, however,
obtained more celebrity as a writer than as a general. rl he atten-
tion of Hadrian to the military exigencies of the Empire in the east
is shown by the official tour ot inspection round the Euxine sen,
which Arrian made by his orders, and wrote an account of in his
PeripluS) from which work we learn what Hadrian expected from
his generals.

§ 16. No land was so much patronised b\ Hadrian as Greece, which
he visited twice. Almost every town ot importance or ancient dis-
tinction was enriched by new buildings or gifts. At Corinth he
built an aqueduct and baths ; at Megara, a temple of Apollo.
Olympia was adorned with several splendid buildings, and a statue
was erected there to the Emperor by all the Greeks. He restored
the horse-racts, which had fallen into disuse, at the Nemean games.
At Mantinea he erected a temple of Poseidon, and engraved on the
tomb of Epaminondas an inscription composed by himself. In
the temple of Eros at Thespiae he dedicated the skin of a bear,
which he had killed, with Greek verses ot his own. In the temple
of Hera at Argos he offered the goddess's favourite bird, a peacock
of gold, the tail brilliant with precious stones. But it was Athens
lor which Hadrian showed a special predilection, both by his two
long visits there and by his liberality in beautifying the city. He
desired that Athens should once more be the capital of Greece,
and his patronage called forth a sort of Greek Renaissance. He
gave the Athenians the revenues of the island of Cephaleuia ; and
the city, which in the time of Augustus had been called " empty "
by Horace, soon became so flourishing that it surprised travellers
by the size of its population. Hadrian adopted Greek dress while
he resided at Athens ; he presided at public games, and took part
in the Eleusiman mysteries. He permitted himself to be elected
archon, and fulfilled the functions of the office. He spent his time
in associating with the philosophers, sophists, and artists, and
superintending the progress of the architectural works which he
was constructing in the plain of the Ilissus. Here a "new
Athens " arose which was called Hadrianopolis. It has disappeared.
22

506 THE PRINCIPATE OF HADRIAN. CHAP. xxvi.

but its limit is still marked by an arch of tiiumph, south-east of
the Acropolis, on one face of which is inscribed, "Athens, the city
of Theseus," on the other, " The city of Hadrian, not of Theseus."
He completed the temple of Zeus Olympius, known as the
Olympieum, which hari been designed on a vast scale by Pisis-
tratus and left unfinished for seven hundred years. An inaugural
address, on the occasion of its dedication, was pronounced by
Polemon of Smyrna, a sophist famous for his eloquence Fifteen
of the hundred and twenty columns of this building still stand.

But besides finishing the edifice which had waited so long for its
completion, Hadrian carried out an idea which the Greeks had
dreamed of and striven after for centuries, but had never succeeded
in realising. This idea was the unity of Hellas. It was at length
effected by the condescension of a stranger, when it had no longer
any political meaning. Representatives of all the Greek cities, both
those which were free, and those which belonged to the Achaian
province, were constituted as a college of Panhellenes * and met
yearly in Athens. Their special charge was the worship of Zeus
Panhellenios and Hadrian in a new temple called the Panhellenion,
which was built in Hadrianopolis and intended to serve in Greece
somewhat the same purpose as the temple of Rome and Augustus
served at Lugudunum. It was ordained that annual games should
be celebrated close to the Panhellenion, and on this occasion an
offering was made to Zeus the Deliverer at Platsea in memory of
the (ji reeks who fell there, on the anniversary of the battle, the
fourth day of Boedromion. Hadrian himself received the divine
title "Olympian."

In the honour of enlarging Athens a distinguished share was
borne by the accomplished and wealthy rhetor, Herodes Atticus.
He built a bridge over the Ilissus in the new town, and constructed
a Stadium, which he covered with Pentelic marble. On one of the
hills which overlooked it he raised a temple to Fortune. He
also founded a library, which Hadrian surrounded with splendid
porticos.

§ 17. In the Asiatic provinces there are many traces of Hadrian's
progress. Everywhere he came to the relief of cities which had
been injured by earthquakes ; everywhere he appeared as a restorer.
To Smyrna, the Athens of eastern Greece, the home of his friend
Polemon the sophist, he was specially gracious. At his instance
a new gymnasium was erected there by subscription, and we still
possess the list of subscribers. At Ephesus he raised a t« mple to

* It is called KOIVOV rfc 'EAAafios, and , Augustus permitted to be held at Argos
TO Uave\\rivtoi> in inscriptions. It will represented only the subject, not the free
be remembered that the KOII/($? which ) Greek cities.

123 ; 130 A.D. SYRIA. EGYPT. 507

Roman Fortune. At Cyzicus a temple of imposing size was erected
in his honour, and the famous rhetorician Aristides was engaged
to pronounce an oration on the day of its consecration.* This speech
is preserved. Trajan had placed Bithynia temporarily under an
imperial legatus ; Hadrian made this arrangement permanent, and
compensated the senate by transferring PamphyLa to its control.
In Bithynia he pursued his favourite pastime of hunting, and
founded a new town called " Hadrian's Chase" (Hadrianotherse), at
a spot where he slew an enormous bear. He visaed the Troad and
beheld the places where the story of the Iliad was enacted — places
which might have a peculiar attraction for a Roman who placed
any faith in the tales connecting Koman with Greek antiquity.
At Trapezus he had a fancy to look upon the sea on the same spot
where Xenophon's Ten thousand had cried, Thalatta, Thalatta!

He was little pleased with the luxurious city of Antioch, and the
inhabitants, always noted for a temper of insolence, seem to have
given him some offence. He is said to have contemplated breaking
up Syria into two provinces, in order to reduce the importance of
Antioch. He did much for the development of the recently -formed
province of Arabia. He visited Palmyra on the border of the
desert, gave it the rank of a colony, and the privileges of ius
Italicum, and adorned it with new buildings. Both this city and
Petra assumed the title of Hadriane.

§18. From Arabia he passed into Egypt (130 A.D. ), which he
entered at Pelusium. From this place he made an expedition to
Mount Kasios, where the body of Pompey had been interred
without honour, and erected a funeral monument to the rival of
Caesar. He travelled through Upper as well as Lower Egypt, and
visited the chief antiquities of the land. One of the wonders which
travellers generally went to see was the broken statue of Memnon,
from whose limbs music miraculously issued at the hour of sunrise.
An interesting reminiscence of the visit of the imperial party
survives in some Greek elegiac verses scribbled on a leg of the
statue by the court-poetess Balbilla, who was in the train of the
Empress Sabina. A private misfortune befell Hadrian while he
was in Egypt. Antinoua, a beautiful youth, to whom he was
deeply attached, was drowned in the Nile. The story went that
an oracle required either the Emperor's life or the sacrifice of the
object dearest to him, and that Antinous deliberately drowned
himself. The event excited general sympathy throughout the
Empire. Hadrian deified his lost favourite, dedicated a temple to
him, and built Antinoopolis in his honour. Coins were struck
with the head of the " TT< n> Antinous," and his statues were multi-

* See Chap. XXX. $ 27.

508 THE PRINC1PATE OF HADRIAN. CHAP, xxvi

plied in the cities of Asia. The people of Alexandria alone scoffed at
the grief of the Emperor, although he had conferred many privileges
and benefits on their city. Hadrian was repelled rather than
attracted by Egypt,* and was disgusted by its capital, if we may
believe in a remarkable letter which he is said to have written to
Servianus some years later, and which may really represent his
impressions, although it can hardly have been written by him in
the form in which it has come down to us.f

§ 19. The peace of Hadrian's principate was interrupted by only
one really serious war, another revolt of the Jews. Since the
destruction of Jerusalem, theological schools had been established
in Jabneh, Tiberias, and Lydda, to keep alive the knowledge of the
law and the orthodox Jewish religion. The most famous doctor at
this time was Akiba, to whose name strange legends were attached.
He led this revival of Judaism and kept alive the hopes of his
people to recover Jerusalem and establish a Jewish kingdom
under the Messiah, who was expected to come. As long as these
hopes were fostered the Jews were a dangerous element in the
Empire, and their rising in the last year of Trajan gave Hadrian a
lesson. He resolved to annihilate their hopes by founding a military
colony at Jerusalem, from which the Jews should be entirely ex
eluded. The new city was called ^Elia Capitolina; pagan altars
were erected where the temple of Jehovah had stood. Hadrian
also conceived the idea of eradicating Judaism by forbidding the
rite of circumcision. Such measures drove the Jews to despair,
and they rose in arms. The priest Eleazar and a bold and able
fanatic, who received the name of Bar-Coca' >a, " son of the star,"
placed themselves at the head of the rebels (131 A.D.). It seems
that Jerusalem, where the Romans were beginning the foundation
of the new city, was captured by the Jews, and had to be retaken.
The governor of Judea, Tineius Rufus, and the governor of Syria,
Publicius Marcellus, proved unable to cope with the insurgents.
The Krnperor himself, who had just left Syria for the west, returned
hastily to the scene of action, and finally committed the conduct
of the war to an able commander, Julius Severus, who was then
legatus of Britain. The war, waged chiefly in Samaria and Idumea,
was protracted for three years; but Severus took fortress after
fortress, and with the fall of Bether (a fortress not far from
Jerusalem), and the death of Bar-Cocaba, the struggle was at an
end. No mercy was shown. The old doctor Akiba, who had been
the life and soul of the rebellion, was torn in pieces with hot

* The fanaticism of the Egyptians is f See Notes and Illustrations, D. at end
satirized in Hadrian's reign by Juvenal of this chapter.
(Satire xv.). See above, Chap. XXV. $ 20. 1

131-133 A.D.

JEWISH EEVOLT.

509

pincers. Judea was almost depopulated.* It was decreed that no
Jew should set foot in ^Elia Capitolina except once a year ; and
henceforward the province was called, not Judea, but Syria
Palsestina. Julius Severus received the triumphal insignia ; and
it was the last occasion on which they were conferred. Hence-
forward victorious generals were recognised by the erection of their
statues in the Forum of Trajan. Hadrian permitted the soldiers
to greet him as Imperator, the only occasion on which he accepted
that military honour.

SECT. V. — HADRIAN'S ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS.

§ 20. The reign of Hadrian marks, in some important respects,
the beginning of a new stage in the development of the Principate.
In the course of imperial history we have observed two great
tendencies : (1) the encroachment of the Princeps on the functions
of the senate, and the consequent advance towards pure monarchy ;
(2) the levelling of the distinctions which existed between Rome
and the provinces. Previous Emperors promoted one or other of
these tendencies, by fits and starts, and sometimes unconsciously.
Domitian took a great and deliberate step in the direction of
absolutism ; Trajan, the Spaniard, made a serious advance towards
equalising Italy with the oth3r subject lands. But under Hadrian
these tendencies assume a systematic form. And it is to be
observed, that this side of his policy is largely a result of very
important administrative improvements which he introduced. Not
only his interest in the welfare of the provinces, but also his
creation of an administrative machinery, which had hitherto been
a conspicuous want, promoted the tendencies which have been
mentioned.

§ 21. The equalisation of Italy and the provinces was forwarded
by placing Italy under the control of four judges f of consular
rank. This institution was a step further in the course which
Trajan had inaugurated by his appointment of curatores reipubticse.
But while the curators exercised control only in the sphere of
municipal administration, the judges usurped important judicial
functions, which had hitherto belonged to the local magistrates,
and had often been very badly discharged by them. The chief
matters which came under the cognizance of the judges were the

* It is stated that in this war 985 places
were destroyed, and 580,000 men killed.

f Often called iuridici, the title which
the bore under Marcus Aurelius. But

under Hadrian it is safpr to call them
judges (c/. Life of Hadrian, 22 : Quattuor
consulares per omnem Italiam indices
constituit).

510 THE PRINCIPATE OF HADRIAN. CHAP xxvi

nomination of guardians, cases of fidei commissa,* and dis-
putes connected with the decurionate. The districts in which
these officials operated do not seem, at first, to have been strictly
separated. This institution not only affected the position of Italy
by placing it more directly under imperial control, but also affected
the senate, by excluding that body almost completely from
interference in the affairs of Italy, which had hitherto been looked
upon as a specially senatorial domain.

There also seems to have been some attempt made to introduce
the same institution in the provinces. Under Hadrian the pro-
vincials enjoyed great prosperity. We have seen that by visiting
them himself he became acquainted with their needs, and spared
no pains in furthering their welfare. He exercised a sharp control
over the governors, and under his rule we hear of no cases of extor-
tion. He employed special officers to check the finances of the town
communities. It was his policy to increase the number of Roman
citit s, and this policy was especially pursued in Pannonia, a part
of which seems to have been added to Italy.

It was a natural consequence of Hadrian's constant and extensive
travels in the provinces, and also of his talent for organisation, that
he should develope, extend, and place on a new footing the cursus
publicus, or state post, which had been instituted by Augustus.
Trajan had done something for its improvement, but Hadrian made
it a fiscal institution, and thus relieved the local corporations
of the expense. He also seems to have introduced definite districts
and prefects.

§ 22. Perhaps the most obvious deficiency in the political
machinery of Rome under the early Emperors, was the want of a
regular civil service for carrying on the work of the central
government at Rome. The senate had its officials ; but the
Emperor, on whom, practically, the whole administration had come
to devolve, had no recognised body of public servants at his
disposal. His correspondence and his finances were conducted by
private dependents, who had no recognised official position —
generally freedmen and slaves. But since the time of Claudius,
some of these offices — the db epistulis, and the a libellis — had been
occasionally entrusted to persons of equestrian rank. Hadrian
adopted this exceptional practice, and converted it into a permanent

" When a person made a bequest to I heir; and if the heir refused to accept
another on tru-t, that is, with the obliga- | the inheritance, the fidei commissum was

lost. Hence a law of Vespasian (S. C.

tion of transferring it to a third person,
*Mi» was called & fidei commissum. The
iliiiig willed might be either the whole
inheritance or some single thing. The
obligation could only be imposed on the

Pegasianum), allowing the beir hi such
cases to retain one-fourth of the ftdet
commissaria hereditas.

1 17-138 A.D. NEW CIVIL SERVICE. 51 1

principle. Henceforward freedmen were excluded from all im-
portant administrative posts, and only knights appointed. By
this means an official body of civil servants was organised, and
there was a definite career of civil service, with regular grades of
promotion, open to knights, who were thus no longer obliged to
begin with military service in order to obtain civil appointments.
The highest procuratorship in this career was that of the imperial
fisc.

The increased importance, which the reforms of Hadrian erave to
the knights — also a tendency which can be traced from the
beginning of the Empire — was a further blow to the senate ; and it
is worth remarking that the only extensive command delegated
by Hadrian to a subject — somewhat like that which Corbulo held
under Nero — was given, not to a senator, but to a knight. To Q.
Marcius Turbo was committed an exceptional control over the two
Pannonian provinces and Dacia.

In the same connection it must be observed that the power ot
the praetorian prefect— who was necessarily not a senator — is recog-
nised under Hadrian in quite a new way. The influence of this officer
had already made itself felt on several occasions; but it was an
influence which depended on the character of the prefect — and also
on the character of the Emperor — rather than on the office itself.
Thus Sejanus under Tiberius, Titus under Vespasian, Tigellinus
under Nero, were the most powerful persons in the Empire, next to
the Emperor. But other prefects had exercised comparatively
little political power. The importance of the prefecture, as such, was
first openly recognised under Hadrian. The prefect now appears as
the second man in the state, and his relation to the Princeps was
compared with that of the master of horse to the dictator. He
begins now to acquire that competence, in civil and criminal
jurisdiction, which led up to his becoming, in the following century,
a supreme judge of appeal.

§ 23. Augustus had been in the habit of summoning a consilium
to help him in the decision of the cases which came before him.
But this body was informal; it had no place in the constitution,
and the Princeps was not in any way bound to consult it. More-
over, it was not defined either in point of number, or by any
qualification for membership. It was composed of the friends of the
Princeps. Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Domitian, and Trajan
had adopted this practice, but none of them gave the consilium a
definite organisation. This step was reserved for Hi.drian. Just
as he had seized the floating idea of employing th«- equestrian order
for the civil service, and realised it as a definite system, so he seized
the informal babit of summoning experienced friends to give legal

512 THE PRINCIPATE OF HADRIAN. CHAP, xxvi

advice, and <»rganised a permanent institution. The new Council
consisted of meii of senatorial and equestrian rank, formally
appointed and in receipt of a salary. They were called consiliarii
Augusti. rlhe approval of the senate was necessary for their
appointment — a concession on the part of Hadrian to the senate,
but one of little political importance. They were obliged to hold
themselves constantly in readiness to attend the Emperor in the
palace. The Council was largely composed of experienced jurists.
It does not seem that Hadrian gave greater weight to the senatorial
members, but he respected the privileges of senators, in so far that
in trials where they were concerned as parties, only those coun-
cillors who belonged to senatorial rank sat in judgment. There is
no evidence to show that the Council had any power to act in the
absence of the Emperor ; on the contrary, it seems — sometimes at
least — to have accompanied Hadrian in the provinces.

Having thus surrounded himself with jurists, Hadrian exercised
great influence on law. He made two very important changes:

(1) The ius respondendi, or right of replying officially to queries
on legal difficulties, was granted to a number of skilled jurists
(prudentes), and when their opinion was unanimous he gave it
the force of law. This did much to encourage legal studies.

(2) The Perpetual Edict of the praetors was reduced to a final form.
Salvius Julianus was entrusted with the frisk of editing, and co-
ordinating in a consistent form, the immense body of law which had
gradually grown up. by the edicts of successive prsetors. A senatus-
consultum (131 A.U.) gave the force of law to Julian's edition of the
Edict, which ni'iy be considered as the earliest approach to the
Corpus juris civilis. Henceforward law could not be modified
by the prsetors, but only by the legislation of the Emperor or the
senate. All the prsetors and provincial governors were bound to
act strictly in acco dance with the Edict.

§ 24. But while Hadrian governed as an autocrat, and worked
towards the political annihilation of the senate, he treated that
body and its individual members with the greatest deference and
courtesy. He followed Nerva aid Trajan in admitting no charges
of maiestas. He " deigned to admit the best of the senators freely
.to his private society.* He repudiated the games of the circus
voted in his honour, excepting those on his own birthday only,
and often declared publicly that he would so administer the
republic that it should know that it belonged to the people and
not to himself. As he made himself consul thrice, so he advanced
several personages to a third consulship ; and the number to whom
he granted a second was very considerable. His own third consul-
* But this may refer to the consilium.

117-138 A.n FINANCIAL POLICY. 513

ship he held for four months only, and in that time sat often in
judgment. He always attended the regular meetings of the '
senate, whenever he was in or near the city. He cherished highly
the dignity of the order, and was chary of admitting new members ;
so much so, that when he thus advanced Attianus, who was already
prefect of the praetorians, and enjo\ ed the triumphal ornaments, he
showed that there was no higher eminence to which he could exalt
him. He expressed his detestation of princes who paid the senate
less deference than he showed himself. To Set vianus, his sister's
husband, whom he treated with such respect as always to
meet him when he issued from his chamber in the morning, he
gave a third consulship unasked, taking care that it should not
coincide with his own, that Servianus might never be required to
speak second in debate." * But notwithstanding all his en-
deavours, he was unable to win the confidence of the Eoman
nobility.

§ 25. In the history of the financial administration of the Empire
Hadrian's reign is very important. As we have seen, the
financial minister was no longer a freedman but a knight, and the
financial bureau became a definite branch of the civil service. A
very large body of officers were employed in it, and the administra-
tion was carefully watched by the Emperor himself. The old
system of farming the revenue, which had been gradually becoming
superseded under the Empire, was now almost entirely abolished,
arid all the taxes — even the vicesima hereditatum — were collected
directly by the imperial procurators. To represent the interests of
the imperial treasury in law-suits, special officers, called advocati
fisci, were appointed.

At his accession Hadrian found that the enormous sum of
900,000,000 sestercesf was due to the fiscus, as arrears of taxes.
It was quite hopeless to recover this sum, which covered the
previous fifteen years, and the Emperor boldly and wisely remitted
it, and erased the debt from the state accounts (118 A.D.). The
bonds were publicly burned in the Forum of Trajan. To prevent
the accumulation of bad debts, and also in the interests of equity,
Hadrian ordained that arrears should be ex'-imined and the
taxation revised every fifteen years, so that account could be
taken of changes in the value of money and property, and the taxes
regulated accordingly .J

Hadrian also remitted in Italy the aurum coronarium, which the

* This is taken from Spartian's Life \ % This regulation, though not carried
of Hadrian. The translation of Men vale out, is important, because it anticipates

(viii. p. 198), but with some modifica-
tions, is borrowed.
f About £7,200,000.
2

the celebrated system of indictions intro-
duced by the Emperor Constantino in
312 A.D.

514 THE PBINCIPATE OF HADRIAN. CHAP. xxvi.

subjects were expected to pay to a new Emperor. In the provinces
he reduced its amount. He always refused to accept inheritances
willed to him by citizens who had children ; and he often remitted
part, or even the whole, of the property of men condemned to coi-
fiscation, in favour of their sons. " I prefer," he said, " to enrich
the state with men than with money."

He occasionally, but not often, spent large sums on magnificent
spectacles, such as the populace loved. Once he exhibited
gladiatorial combats for six successive days ; and he once cele-
brated his birthday by the slaughter of a thousand wild beasts.

§ 26. The growth of humanity in the treatment of slaves has
already been noticed. It was a conspicuous feature in the legis-
lation of Hadrian and marks a reaction against the policy of Trajan,
who in this respect was inclined to be retrogressive. Hadrian
revived the old law, that a master could not kill his slave, but
must hand him over to the law; and he punished the ill-treatment of
slaves. He condemned to five years' banishment a matron who
had cruelly treated her maids. He forbade the sale of male or
female slaves for immoral purposes or for employment in the arena;
and he forbade human sacrifices to Mithras and Baal. The cruel
practice of putting all the slaves to death in case of a master's
murder was modified; only those were to suffer who were near
enough to give their master help if they had chosen.

Hadrian also introduced a number of small reforms in tended to
improve the manners and morals of his subjects. The public baths
weie subjected to a stricter supervision. Senators and knights
were compelled to wear the toga in public, except when they were
returning from supper ; and the Emperor himself always wore the
national dress when he was in Italy. He was punctilious about
etiquette in other ways too. On one occasion, seeing a slave of his
own walking familiarly between two senators, he ordered his ears
to be boxed, with an iojunction not to walk between men whose
slave he mi^ht live to become. He endeavoured to repress luxury
in food, after the fashion of the ancient Republic. He facilitated
traffic by forbidding great vehicles, which blocked up the narrow
streets, to pass through Rome.

In regard to the alimentary institutions, the work begun by
Nerva and Trajan was carried on. More money was advanced, and
it was definitely prescribed that boys up to the age of eighteen and
girls up to fourteen should receive the alimentary support.

§ 27. In the number and magnificence of the buildings erected
throughout the Empire under his auspices no Emperor surpassed
Hadrian. There is evidence to show that building was never
more active in the capital than under his reign, though we cannot

117-138 A.D. BUILDINGS.

follow in detail his smaller works. He did much in restoring aucl
improving older buildings, such as the Pantheon of A<.irippa and
the Basilica Neptuni in the Campus, and the Forum of Augustus.
He built, as in duty bound, a temple to his " father " Trajan, and
this was the only one of his edifices on which he inscribed his name.
But his t« o great buildings were the temple of Venus and Roma,
and his mausoleum.

The temple of Venus and Roma was built on the eastern slope of
the Velia, just above the site of the Colosseum. In order to make
room for it, the Colossus of Nero, which still stood on the site of
his demolished palace, and which Vespasian had converted into a
statue of the Sun, had to be removed to lower ground near the
Colosseum. The new temple was built according to an architectural
design of Hadrian's own. It was a double temple, with its two
cells (apsides') placed back to back, facing east and west. It was
the largest and most splendid of all the religious buildings of Rome;
its ruins si ill remain. The temple was in an open place surrounded
by porticoes and thus resembled the imperial /ora. Moreover, the
imperial fora were all dedicated to deities who stood in special
relation to the greatness of Rome — Venus Genetrix, Mars, Pax ; so
that Hadrian's temple to Venus and Roma resembled them also iu
this point. It may be regarded, then, as part of a series of build-
ings of a special kind stretching from the Campus Martins to the
Esquiline. There was indeed a great gap between Hadrian's
temple and Vespasian's, but this was filled up at a much later
period by the Basilica of Constantino, and then the series was
completed.

This temple was dedicated in 128 A.D. (21st April), on which
occasion Hadrian probably accepted the title of pater patrite ami
permitted Sabina to receive the title Augusta.

The district beyond the Tiber had been gradually losing its rural
appearance and becoming an important suburb of Rome. Com-
munication between the city and th^ Vatican region was facilitated
by a new bridge which Hadrian built across the river, where it
takes an easterly turn and skirts the Campus Manius on the north.
At the further extremity of the POMS JSlius, as it was called, he
erected in the gardens of Domitia an immense mausoleum,
known as the Moles Hadriani, which played a part in modern
history as the castle of St. Angelo, and is still an important
strategic point as well as a conspicuous object in Rome. Consist-
mo; of a square structure below and a massive dome, crowned with
the statue of Hadrian, it outdid in size and splendour the burying-
place of Augustus, which was over against it on the other side of
the river. The building was not finished at the Emperor's death

516 THE PR1NCIPATE OF HADRIAN. CHAP. xxvi.

and was completed by his successor. It was the burying-place
of the Emperors for the rest of the second century and even
longer.

SECT. VI. — LAST DAYS OF HADRIAN.

§28. When Hadrian returned to Rome, at the beginning of
134 A.D., he did not again quit Italy. His health was giving way,
and he spent much of his time at his magnificent villa at Tibnr-
tie is said in these last years to have been suspicious, jealous, and
cruel, and to have put to death or disgraced distinguished men who
had committed no fault but that of awakening his suspicions. How
far these accusations are true, how far they are the calumnies of the
senatorial party, who hated him, it is impossible to determine. The
fact remains that Hadrian conspicuously failed to conciliate the
aristocracy; and for this misfortune he was doubtless himselt
largely to blame. As he had no children, and felt that his health
was precarious, he made provision for the succession to the Princi-
pate by adopting, in 136 A.D., L. (Vionius Commodus Verus, a son-
in-law of that Nigrinus who had conspired against him at the
beginning of his reign. This choice seems to have bern highly un-
popular, and the Emperor was compelled to buy the goodwill of the
soldiers and people for his new son by bestowing immense donatives.
Men of approved ability like Catilius Severus, the prefect of the
city, or Platorius Nepos, who had done good work in Britain, might
feel indignant at being passed over in favour of a youth who was only
distinguished for his handsome figure and his luxurious life. But
Servianus, the Emperor's brother-in-law, felt the adoption of Verus
as an injury. For though he was ninety years old, and could not
hope to become Emperor himself, he had a grandson named Fuscus,
on whom he would doubtless have wished Hadrian's choice to fall.
Their disappointment must have betrayed them into something
more decisive than mere murmurs ; tor they were both executed.
It is not credible that, unless there were some overt act of conspiracy,
Hadrian would have increased his unpopularity by killing an old
man of ninety. About this time the Empress Sabina died. She
had accompanied him on some at least of his journeys, but his
relations with her were never satisfactory. She was suspected of
infidelity, and, whether these reports were true or not, she seems to
have heartily hated him. On her death, rumours were spread that
she had been poisoned at the Emperor's instigation, or that she had
killed herself on account of his ill-treatment.

In adopting Verus, Hadrian made him assume the name Ceesar,
but did not at once raise him to the position of consort. Thus a

186-138 A.D. LI UIUS VERUS. 517

new significance was given to Caesar; it meant the prospect of
becoming Augustus. A special command in the Pannonian
provinces was assigned to L. ./Elius Verus Caesar, as he was now
called, and he showed there that he was not incapable. He received
the tribunician power before the end of 136 A.D., and held the
consulate for the second time in the following year. We cannot
tell whether Hadrian was wise or not in selecting Verus, for he
fell sick and died prematurely. He seems to have been a man of
pleasure, but, like Otho, he may have had a strain of vigour too.
Curious anecdotes are told about his voluptuous life. He is said
to have "recommended himself to the Emperor by the invention
of a pasty which became the favourite dish at the imperial table.
He was wont to take his midday rest, with his concubines, on an
ample couch enclosed in mosquito-nets, stuffed with rose-leaves,
and strewn with a coverlet of \\oven lilies, amusing himself with
the perusal of Ovid's most licentious com posit ions. He equipped
his pages as Cupids, with wings on their shoulders, and made them
run on his errands with a speed which human muscles could not
maintain, till they dropped. When his spouse complained of his
infidelities, he gaily bade her understand that wife is a term of
honour, not of pleasure." * When Hadrian, heard that Verus was
sick and likely to die, he was sorely disappointed, and lamented
aloud that he had spent so much in donatives and leant on a rotten
wall. The bitter word was reported to Verus, and made his illness
worse. He died on January 1, 138 A.D., and was buried in
Hadrian's mausoleum.

§ 29. It was impossible to let the Empire de olve immediately
Upon his son Lucius, who was only a child of seven years.
Accordingly Hadrian chose T. AureliusFulvus Boionius Antoninus,
a man of consular rank, who had reached his fifty-second year, and
seemed in every way a safe choice. Hadrian, on January 24th, his
own birthday, notified his intention to the senate, and recommended
Antoninus. When, after a month's consideration, Antoninus
consented to accept the honour which was proposed, he was duly
adopted (February 25th), and was at once raised to a higher
position than Verus had occupied, receiving the proconsular im-
perium, with the title Imperator, and the tribunician power. He
was thus a consort in the full sense, and all that still failed him
was the title Augustus, and probably the special privileges con-
ferred by the lex de imperio. The new Csesar f was childless, and
Hadrian called upon him to adopt two sons, in order to make the
succession sure. The imperial choice fell on M. Annius Verus, a

* Motivate, Cap. 66. ' Caesar Antoniuus, or T. Mlius Hadrianus

t Hi* name wu Imperator T. JElius '• Antoninus Caesar.

518

THE PBINOIPATE OF HADRIAN. CHAP. xxn.

youth of eighteen years, and nephew of Antoiiinus. and on the
son of Lucius Verus, who, through his father's adoption, was
grandson of Hadrian. By these acts of adoption Marcus received
the name M. Aurelius Antoninus, and Lucius that of L. ^Elins
Aurelins Commodus. Neither of them bore the name Caesar, as
long as Hadrixn lived and their father, Titus, was only a Csesar
himself. Tlie appointment of Antoninus was highly displeasing to
Catilius Severus (who was the maternal grear-grandfather of
Marcus), the prefect of the city. He aspired to the Pnncipate
himself, and now showed his disappointment in some way, which
caused Hadrian to deprive him of his office.

§ 30. The illness of Hadrian, which seems to have been dropsical,
induced him to seek relief in the salubrious air of Ba'se, and Anto-
ninus was left at Rome to conduct the government. But change of
air proved as useless as medical advice. He resorted to the aid of
magicians, and even besought his servants to put him out of pain by
killing him. The curse which his brother Servianus had called
down upon him, that he should pray for death but should be unable
to die, was literally fulfilled. Death at length treed him from his
suffering on July 10 (138 A.D.). In his last hours, in a happy
moment of inspiration, he composed some verses, an address to his
soul, which has become famous :

Animula vagula blandula,
Hospes comesque corporis,
Qua? iiunc abibis in loca,
Pallidula rigida nudula,
Nee, ut soles, dabis ioct-s ?*

Few principates have been more important in results than that of
Hadrian, which lasted nearly twenty-one years. The creation of a
regular civil service was destined to transform completely the
character of the Principate, and work in the same direction as the
idea which animated Hadrian's policy, of governing the whole
Empire as homogeneous. Both these tendencies were opposed to
the maintenance of the power of the senate. What Hadrian did
for the defence of the frontiers and the reform of the army, also
stamps his reign as an epoch ; and his limitation of the name
Caesar to the chosen successor was a change, though only formal,
of some significance.

Guest and partner of my clay,
Whither wilt thon hie away—
PallM one, rigid one, naked one —
Never to play again, never to play."

Hadrian's lines suggested to Pope his
" Vital spark of heavenly flame."

* It is impossible to render the effect
of the dimin nives and the tribrach feet in
a modern version. Lord Byron attempted
to translate it ; but Merivalo's version is
rather better, though not successful :

Soul of mine, pretty one, flitting one,

CHAP. xxvi. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

519

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

A.— THE CHRONOLOGY OF
HADRIAN'S JOURNEYS.

The reconstruction of Hadrian's pro-
vincial progresses worked out by Dilrr (in
Die Reiser dc3 Kaisers Hadrian) is now
accepted by most scholars in its general
outline, though there are still many points
which must be regarded as highly un-
certain. Dtirr's arrangement has been
adopted in the foregoing chapter, except
in regard to the Emperor's movements in
118 A.D., where Dfirr places hisSarmatian
expedition before his arrival in Rome,
but it ceems more probable, from the
evidence, that he went to t.ie Danube from
Rome fso ITorzog). TLe following table
of the imperial movements may be of
service to the reader.
A.D. 117. After his accession (Aug. 11)

two and a half months in the east.

Starts for Home.
A.D. 118. Reaches Rome early in the

year. Proceeds to Dacia and Mcesia

for Iho Sarmatian War. Returns to

Rome in Au^st.

A.D. 119. At Home. Visits southern Italy.
A.D. 120. At LI. one.
A.D. 121. First great journey in the

provinces (^arts later than April 21).

Visit to Gaul (eastern) ; Upper Ger-
many ; Rtetia ; Noricum ; northern

Pannonia.
I.D. 122. Returning, he proceeds to Lower

Germany, thence to Britain ; in autumn

back to Gaul ; through western Gaul to

Spain, reaching Tarraco at end of the

year.
A.D. 123. Mauretania, Africa, possibly

Libya. In summer, Asia Minor,

autumn to the Euphrates
A.D. 124. Through Pontus, Bithynia, and

Mysia to Thrace.
A.r>. 125. Through Thrace and Macedonia.

Kpirus; Thessaly; northern Greece.

August or September, Athens.
A.D. 126. Athens. In summer ; through

the Peloponnesus. Return to Rome.
A.D. 127. At Rome.
A.D. 128. Visit to Africa, (starts later than

April 21). Return to Rome.
A.D. 129. At Rome. In spring, second

great jowney in the provinces.

Through the Peloponne«ms to Athens.

I A.D. 130. Athens. Proceeds to Asia
Minor i:i spring; travels through the
countries of the south coast. Antioch;
through Syria to Judea and Arabia.
Egypt.

A.D. 131. Egvpt. Returns to Syria.
A.D. 132. In Judea on occasion oi Jewish
revolt. tf

A.D. 133. Judea.
A.D. 134. Returns to Rome.
A.D. 135-138. Rome and its vicinity.

It is worth while observing how totally
Dtirr's researches have changed the
general arrangement of Hadrian's reign.
Lei us take, for example, the arrangement
adopted by Merivale, who, however, ac-
knowledges the uncertainty of his own
dates. According to it, I adrian returns
to Rome from his Sarnoatian expe-
dition in the beginning of 119 A.D. In
the same year he proceeds by Gaul
and the Rhine into Britain, and in 120
A.U. returns to Gaul and visits Spain,
and in 121 A.D. Mauretania. He then
appears on the Parthian frontiers, and
thence proceeds to Athens, by Asia
Minor (122, 123 A.D.); thence to Sicily,
thence to Africa, (12 ; A.D.). and back to
Rome. His second journey begins in 125
A.D. and lasts till 134 A.D. (for on the
time of the final return to Lome there
1 was no room for dispute), the sojourn at
j Athens lasting from 125 to 130 A.D. It
will be obs rved that this arrangement
I (1) antedates the first journey by two
years, (2) makes the second long absence
from Rome last nine years instead i.f five,
(3) knows nothing of the visit to the pro-
vinces of the Upper Danube, (4) makes
the visit to Africa the last stag^ of the
first journey instead of being an episode
distinct from both journeys.

B.— THE SEVENTEEN STATIONS OF
HADRIAN'S WALL IN BRITAIN.
The names of the stations from east to
west are as follows :—

(1) Segedunum, Walls-nd, (2) Tons

.Elii, Newcastle, (3) Condercum,

j Benwell. (4) Vindobala, Rutch^ster, (5)

j Hunnum, Haltonchesters, (6) Cilurnum,

Chesters, (•; Procolitia, Carrawburgh, (8."

! Borcovicium, House^eads, (9) Vindolana

1 Chesterholm, (10) uEsica, Great Cheetere,

520

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. CHAP. xxvi.

(11) Magnas, Carvoran, (12) Amboglanna,
Birdoswald, near Gilsland Spa, (13)
Petriani, Castlesteads (doubtful), (14)
Conguvata, Stanwix, (doui>tful), (15)
Luguvallium, Carlisle, (16) Gabrosontum,
Burgh-upon-Sands, (17) Glannibanta,
Bowness. (See Hilbner, Corp. Infer. Lat. ,
vol. vii.). Our knowledge of these names
is .derived from the N»titia IHgn>tatum,
an official handbook to the administration
of the provinces, drawn up in the begin-
ning of the 5th century.

" The camps are all alike of the well-
known oblong form. Their extent varies,
according to the nature of the ground,
between three and six acres. Walls of
about five feet in thickness, mounds, and
fosses, surrounded them. In almost all,
the four principal gates and the chief
streets intersecting one another at right
angles are still clearly visible. Round
some oi them, as round the larger colonise,
great suburban buildings have clustered ;
baths, small temples, in one instance even
an amphitheatre," [at Borcovicium].
(See Mr. Hodgkin's translation (p. 109)
of Hflbner's paper on the " Roman
Annexation of Britain," Deutsche
Rundschau, May 8th, 1878). They were
garrisoned by auxiliaries, not by legion-
aries.

C.— AULUS PIJITORIUS NEPOS.

The name of this officer occurs on a
slab (said to have been found in a mile-
castle near Borcovicium) with an inscrip-
tion which has an important bearing on
the origin of the wall.

IMP CABS TRAIAN
HADRIAN AVG

LEG II AVG
A PLATORIO NEFOTE LEG PRPR.

That is: Imperatoris Caesaris Traiani
1 ladriaui Augusti legio ii. Augusta Aulo
Platorio Nepote legato propraetore.
" The second legion Augusta, by authority
of A. Platorius Nepos, legatus proprsetore,
(erects this lor the safety) of imperator
Caesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus." If
this slab was originally put up in a mile-
castle, it would prove definitely the
Hadrianic origin of part of the wall.

D.—AN EXTANT LETTER AS-
CRIBED TO HADRIAN.

In his Life of the Emperor Saturumus,
Vopiscus inserted a letter which he states

was written by Hadrian. It describe*
his impressions of Kgypt, and runs as
follows :

"Hadrian Augustus to the consul
Servianus greeting. I have come to know
Egypt, which you praise so much, from
end to end ; and have found it fickle, un-
stable, and in a flutter at every breath of
opinion. In Egypt the worshippers of
Serapis are really Christians, and those
who call themselves bishops of Christ are
votaries of Serapis There is not a chief
of a Jewish synagogue, there is not a
Samaritan nor a Christian prie- 1 (presbyter)
who is not an a:-trologer, a haruspex, and
an aliptes. Why, when the patriarch
himself, of whom you speak, comes to
Egypt, one party forces him to worship
Serapis, the other to adore Christ. They
(the Alexandrians) are an excessively
seditious, vain, and insulting people.
Their city is wealthy and prosperous, and
admits of no one living idle in it. Some
manufacture glass, others paper, « thers
are linen-workers, all profess some trade
or other. Those whose feet are lamed by
gout have something to do; the blind
have an occupation ; even those who
suffer from gout in the hands do not live
idle there. They have one god, money ;
he is worshipped alike by Chri6tians,Jews,
and all nations. I wish the city had
better manners and morals ; its prosperity
and its size really entitle it t.» be the first
city of Egypt. I granted to it all it asked
for; I restored its old privileges, and
added new; and they could not avoid
giving me a vote of thanks when I was
there. Then as soon as I had gone, they
said many (malicious) things against my
son Verus ; what they said of Antinous,
I believe you have already heard. I wish
them no worse fate than that they should
feed on their ow;i chickens, which they
hatch in a way that I am ashamed to
mention. [The Egyptians hatched their
fowls' eggs in dung.] I am sending you
over drinking-cups of changing colour,
which the priest of the temple presented
to me. They are specially dedicated to
you and my si>ter. Pray use them at
banquets on feast-days; but take care
that our friend Africanus use them not
too freely."

The genuineness of tiiis letter has been
very reasonably doubted. Verus was not
adopted by Hadrian until 136 A.D. and
before that year he would hardly have
called him my son. The tenor of the

CHAP. xxvi. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS,

521

letter suggests that it was written not
long after Hadrian's visit to Egypt, and
certainly before his return to Rome in
134 A.D. But if the superscription
Serviarto consult is right, it would have
been written in 134 A.D., in which year
Servianus was ordinary consul. Again
the words "Chiistians, Jews, and all
nations (gentes) " could hardly have been
written by Hadrian, could hardly have
been written by anyone but a Christian.
Moreover, suspicions are excited by the
want of connection in the letter. The
writer begins to talk about Egypt, and
then goes on to deal exclusively with
Alexandria, as if he had mentioned it and
not Egypt.

There are thus indications of forgery,
and yet much of the letter has a genuine
ring. It ishaid to suspect Vopiscus. He
states that he extracts the document from
a work of Hadrian's freedman Phlegon ;
which was perhaps an autobiography of
the Em per T, edited bv Phlegon. Vopis-
cus, who wrote in or before 307 A .D., was
as little likely to interpolate the sentence
about the Christians as Hadrian was to
write it. It looks like a later interpola-
tion. If so, we may, as Dtirr suggests,
regard this document as a genuine letter
of Hadrian, but tampered with and inter-
polated. (Schiller accepts this view of
Diirr). On the other hand, it is not easy
to see why any one should interpolate the
sentence about Verus.

K.— THE DISTRIBUTION OF LEGIONS

AT END OF HADRIAN S REIGN.

The following table gives the results of
the investigation of Pfitzner (Gesch. der
rout. Kaiserlegionen, p. 97).

Spain : VII. Gem.

Britain : II. Aug., VI. Victr., XX. Victr.

Germany, Lower : I. Minerv., XXX. Ulp.

Germany, Upper : VIII. Aug., XXII.
Prim.

Pannonia, Lower : II. Adjutr.

Pannonia, Upper : I. Adjutr., X. Gem.,
XIV. Gem.

Mo3sia, Lower: I. Ital.

Mcesia, Upper : IV. Flav., VII. Claud.

Dacia: V. Maced., XI. Claud., XIII.
Gem.

Syria : i V. S.cjM?h., X VI. Flav.

Judea: VI. Ferr., X. Fret.

Phoenicia: III. Gall.

Cappadocia : XII. Fulm., XV. Apoll.

Arabia: 111. Cyren.

Egypt : II. Traj.

Africa : III. Aug.

This gives a total of twenty-eight
legions, two less than the number which
existed in Trajan's reign; the IXih
having suffered so much in the Britannic
wars, and XXII. Deiotar. in the Jewish
wars, that they ceased to exist. There
is, however, great uncertainty as to the
exact time at which these legions dis-
appeared, as we have no direct evidence
on the subject.

Antoninus Pius.

CHAPTER XXV1L

THE PRINUIPATE OF ANTONINUS PUTS (138-161 A.D.).

§ I Accession of Antoninus. Deification of Hadrian. Family and career
of Antoninus. Marriage of the younger Faustina and Marcus Aureiius.
Position of Marcus and Lucius. § 2. Characteristics of Antoninus as
a statesman. Reaction against Hadrian. Financial policy. § 3.
Peace policy. Relations with Parthia. § 4. Britain. The wall of
Antoninus. § 5. Importance of his reign in the history of law.
Characteristics of his legislation. The jurists of the Consiium. G;\ius.
§ 6. Improved condition of slaves. Reforms in criminal legislation.
Distinction of humiliores and honestiores recognised in law. §. 7. The
State religion under Antoninus. § 8. Private life of Antoninus.
Character of the elder Faustina. The correspondence of Pronto. § 9.
Philosophers at. court. The imperial villas. § 10. Antoninus and
Polemon. §11. Picture of Antoninus by Marcus Aureiius. § 12
Death of Antoninus. § 13. His apotheosis.

138 A.* FAMILY OF ANTONINUS. 523

SECT. I. — THE ADMINISTRATION OF ANTONINUS.

§ 1. THE death of Hadrian was welcome to the Roman nobility, to
whom he was odious, and the installation of Tims Antoninus as
Princeps was attended with no difficulties. The senate wished to
signify their dislike of the dead Emperor by condemning his
memory, but their malice was overcome by the influence of
Antoninus, and perhaps also by fear of the soldiers, with whom
Hadrian was extremely popular. The dend Emperor was duly
enrolled among the gods. His body was conveyed from Raise in
Rome, and lodged in his own mausoleum. It has been supposed
that the name Pius, which Antoninus bore before the end of 138
A.D., was given to him on account of his piety tow ards his adoptive
father ; but this is not certain, and others think that he won it by
the general clemency of his character.

The family of Antoninus belonged to Nemausus, in Ghllia Nar-
bonensis. It is probable that the amphitheatre, of which the remains
are still to be seen there, and the aqueduct known as the I'ont-du-
Gard, were built by this Emperor. Both his father and grandfather
were consulars. He had himself g<>ne through the usual career of
public honours, had been appointed one of the four consulars of
Italy, and had been proconsul of Asia. He married the sister of
^Elius Verus, Annia Galeria Faustina, by whom he had two sons,
who died young, and two daughters. Hadrian had willed that one
of these daughters, who bore her mother's n>nne Faustina, should
many Lucius Verus, while Marcus Aurelius should marry the
sister of Verus. But as Verus was only a child, Antoninus upset
this arrangement and united the younger Faustina with Marcus
Aurelius (probably 146 A.D.). Shortly afterwards (147 A.D.), he
made Marcus his consort in the Empire, by conferring on him the
proconsular imperium and the tribunician power, along with the
special right of proposing five measures at one session of the
senate. Marcus bore the title Caesar, which meant that he was
presumptive successor; and occupied, theoretically, the same
position which Antoninus had occupied before Hadrian's death.
But he took no active p >rt in the administration, and did not bear
the title Imperator. The other adopted son of Antoninus, L. Verus,
was not admitted to the dignities which were granted to Marcus.
His image, indeed, appeared on imperial coins, but he was not
entitled Ca?sar, only Auyusti films. It is quite clear that
Antoninus did not contemplate the idea of two Emperors of equal
authority. Marcus was to be his successor ; and it was for
Marcus hereafter, if he chose, to elevate his brother Verus to the
position of Caesar.

524 PK1NCIPATE OF ANTONINUS PIUS. CHAP, xxvn

§ 2. The universal consent of antiquity represents Antoninus as
a most estimable man. Honourable and dignified, yet affable and
condescending, he won golden opinions from all men. His pro-
motion to the highest position in the state did not change his
temper or his manners. In private life he was singularly simple
and temperate.

But however estimable as a man, Antoninus was hardly a great
statesman. The rest which the Empire enjoyed under his
auspices had been rendered possible through Hadrian's activity,
and was not due to his own exertions ; on the other hand, he carried
the policy of peace at any price too far, and so entailed calamities
on the state after his death. He not only had no originality or
power of initiative, but he had not even the insight or boldness to
work further on the new lines marked out by Hadrian. The
wall in North Britain is the sole exception. The only administra-
tive changes in his reign were retrogressive. Thus he did away
with the four Judges of Italy. This was a concession to the
senate ; and concession to the senate was one of the notes of
policy, which distinguished his reign as a reaction against that of
Hadrian. If he had been equally estimable as a man, but stronger
as a ruler, and less obliging to the senate, a very different account
of his character would have been transmitted to us. He troubled
himself little with the provinces, except in so far as to hinder
oppression in collecting the taxes, and probably only left Italy once
during his reign. He disapproved of imperial progresses, on the
ground that they were a burden on the provincials, but he was also
doubtless influenced by the fact, that Hadrian's long absence from
Rome had given dissatisfaction. We hear, however, of roads built
in various provinces, and of a few other public works, such as a
temple of Meptune at Lambaesis. He adopted the reasonable prin-
ciple of retaining provincial governors and other officials at their
posts for long terras.

The financial policy of Antoninus was marked by care and
economy. The only unfavourable thing that has been said of him
is that he was a " cheese- parer." * No extravagance was permitted
at his court. Although he reduced the taxes, he left in the
treasury at his death a sum of 2700 million sesterces (£21,600,000).
In public largesses, however, he was excessively liberal. rlhere
were no less than nine congiaria during his reign, and his games
were not less magnificent than those of his predecessors. In A.D.
147 he celebrated the Ludi Seculares, on the nine hundredth
anniversary of the foundation of the city. He built a temple to
the deified Hadrian, and completed that Emperor's mausoleum.

138-161 A.D. WALL IN NORTH BRITAIN. 525

§ 3. The reign of Antoninus, as has been already said, was
marked by peace, the result of Hadrian's able policy on the
frontiers. The only serious warfare was in Britain. There were
some trifling disturbances, which do not deserve to be dignified by
the name of wars, in other quarters. The governors of the Danube
provinces had to deal with a Dacian revolt; and Greece was sur-
prised by the invasion of a marauding band of Kostoboks (probably
a Sarmatian people), who penetrated as far as Elatea in Phocis.
Olbia had to be protected asrainst the attacks of the Scythians of
Taurica, and the Alans had to be beaten back more than once
from the Armenian borders. There were, ajiain, some Jewish
disturbances in the east, and some Moorish disturbances in Africa.
A revolt in Egypt induced the Emperor to leave Italy, seemingly
the only occasion on which he made a provincial expedition during
his long reign (about 154 A.D.). About the same time difficulties
had arisen with King Vologeses IV., in reference to Armenia, and
here perhaps Antoninus was led, by his love of peace, into adopting
a weak policy, and sacrificing to temporary tranquillity the interests
of a m<>re permanent settlement. Peace was made in 155 A.D.,
but the inevitable war broke out in the following reign. The
prestige which Rome enjoyed at this time, in the eyes of neigh-
bouring peoples, is shown by the fact, that the Lazi of Colchis and
the Quadi asked the Emperor to appoint their kings.

§ 4. The activity which was displayed in Britain is contrasted
with the inactivity in other parts of the Empire. The Hrigantes
rebelled, and were defeated and thoroughly reduced by Q. Lollius
Urbicus (140 A.D.), the legatus. Under his direction a new line of
fortifications was constructed, between the firths of Clota and
Bodotria (Clyde and Forth), at the narrowest part of the island.
The work was begun in 142 A.D. It was not such an elaborate
construction as that of Hadrian's, but consisted of a fosse (about
40 feet wide and 20 feet deep) and an earth- wall (now known as
Graham's dyke) on the southern side of the fosse. It did not run
along hills, like Hadrian's wall, but through level country, for a
distance of about thirty-seven miles, from Carridden on the Forth
to West Kilpatrick on the Clyde. South of the fosse ran a
military road, along which were ten camps, surrounded with
mound and ditch. The north side of these camps, which coincides
with the wall, is always closed up. The wall of Antoninus, like
the wall of Hadrian, was intended to be both a check on the
country to the south of it, and a basis of operations for further
conquests to the north. The Roman government had not
abandoned- the design of subjugating the whole island. This
is proved by the circumstance, that the camps of the wall of

526 PRINCIPATE OF ANTONINUS PIUS. CHAP, xxvn

Antoninus are not the most northerly Roman positions. The
remains of a Roman camp are still to be seen at Ardoch, north of
Stirling.

The energetic policy pursued by Antoninus in Britain secured
for that country peace and prosperity for sixty years. This fact
suggests, that he might have better consulted the interests of the
Empire, and averted the troubles which befel in the reign of his
successor, if he had acted with like vigour on the Danube and on
the Oriental frontier.

§ 5. It is in the field of law that the chief importance and
credit of the principate of Antoninus lie. The same temper which
made him somewhat weak in his foreign policy, made him strong
in jurisprudence and legislation. The importance of his reign in
the history of Roman law is not due to any single sweeping
reform — like the final redaction of the perpetual Edict by Hadrian
— but to the spirit which guided his measures. Antoninus laid
special stress on equity. While, on the one hand, he was no rash
innovator, ready to tamper unscrupulously with the written law,
he entertained, on the other hand, no superstitious reverence for
the letter. He invariably consulted the dictates of equity and
humanity, and introduced into Roman law many important new
principles, conceived in this spirit. The view which he took of the
administration of justice is thus expressed by himself: "Although
traditional forms must not be lightly altered, yet, when demon-
strable equity demands, it is necessary to intervene." *

The activity in jurisprudence which marked the reign of
Antoninus, and prepared the way for the golden age of Roman law
at the beginning of the third century, must be partly, at least,
imputed to Hadrian's reform of the imperial c»nsilium, described in
the last chapter. One of Hadrian's consfliarii, P. Salvius Julianus,
who had codified the Edict, was also active under Antoninus, by
whom he was promoted to be consul and prefect of the city. The
chief lawyers by whom the Emperor was assisted were five in
number: L. FuMus Aburnius Valens, an author of legal treatises ;
L. Volusius Msecianus, chosen to conduct the legal studies of Marcus
Aurelius, and author of a large work on Fidei Commiswi (Testa-
mentary Trusts) ; L. Ulpius Marcellus, a prolific writer ; and two
others. Some of these lawyers belonged to the Proculian school,
like Ulpius Marcellus, others to the Sabinian, like Valens ; so that
the decisions of the imperial council steered a mean way between
the two opposite schools. f The attention which was given to the
study of law at this period is shown by the appearance of the
Tnstitutes of Gaius, an elementary manual for beginners, prol> l>ly

* Digest, iv. 1. 7. "f For these schools see above, Chap. XL $ s.

188-161 A.D. LEGISLATION. 527

published about 161 A.D. Of the author we know absolutely
nothing; even his name is uncertain.

§ 6. It has already been seen that there was a tendency
under the Empire to alleviate the condition of slaves; and this
tendency was zealously promoted by Antoninus. He passed
measures to facilitate enfranchisement. His decision, in one case,
will illustrate his spirit. A female slave was to have been made
free by a fidei commissum, but chance circumstances caused the
act of enfranchisement to be delayed. In the meantime she gives
birth to children, and the question arises, are the children to be
slaves or free? Antoninus decided that in such a case the
children shall be free, as it would be unfair that they should
suffer on account of the accident which retarded their mother's
emancipation.

In criminal law, Antoninus introduced the important principle,
which, though now universally recognised in theory, is not always
respected in practice, that accused persons are not to be treated as
guilty before trial. He also asserted the principle, that the trial
was to be held, and the punishment inflicted, in the place where the
crime had been committed. He mitigated the use of torture in
examining slaves by certain limitations. Thus he prohibited the
application of torture to children under fourteen years, though this
rule had exceptions. It would be as absurd to blame this humane
prince for not abolishing the practice of torture altogether, as it
would be to blame him for not abolishing slavery. He deserves
great credit for what he did in mitigation of. both institutions, but
the abolition of either was quite beyond the scope of the imagina-
tion of any man of his time. The universal use of torture in
Christian countries until recent times, illustrates the supposed
necessity of its use.

One of the most striking features in the criminal legislation of
Antoninus, is the account taken of social rank. There was always,
under the Empire, a social distinction of freemen into two classes :
the humiliores, men of low decree, and the honestiores, men ot high
degree. The cr.terion of this distinction was mainly wealth. The
honesfiores were practically the rich, the humittores the poor.
Under Antoninus, this unwritten distinction is recognised by
law ; but we cannot tell whether he was the first to aive it official
recognition. There can be little doubt that it had influenced
practice, actually, if not confessedly, before his time. But now the
law becomes openly, and officially, a re>pecter of persons. There is a
diff. rent justice for the base and for the noble. Different penalties
are assigned for the same offence, acco>d;ng as it is committed by a
humilior or a hoi>estior " Show me the man, and 1 will show you

528 PBINCIPATE OF ANTONINUS PIUS CHAP xxvn.

the law," is not merely the practice of the judge, but the principle
of the legislator. And it was a principle against which no one
grumbled.

§ 7. Antoninus differs from his predecessors in being personally a
religious man, and really devoted to the worship of the national
gods. With Augustus religion had been mainly a matter of
policy. Trajan had been indifferent; Hadrian was a sceptic. But
Antoninus took very seriously the religious duties which devolved
upon him as Pontifex Maximus, and member of other colleges. In
this respect, contemporaries compared him to Numa, The senate
erected a monument to him on account of his zeal for public religious
ceremonies.* One can discern in the Correspondence of Fronto,
the instructor of Marcus in Latin rhetoric, that a certain spirit of
piety prevailed in the circle of the imperial family. Closely con-
nected with zeal for the maintenance of the national religion, was
the Emperor's interest in the antiquities of Roman history., The
coins issued on the occasion of the Secular Games represent the
arrival of ^Eneas at Lavmium, the birth of Romulus and Remus,
the shields of Numa, the miracle of the augur Nasvius, the exploits
of Horatius Codes, and other events of the story of ancient Rome.
Pallantium, the Arcadian home of Evander, was promoted to be a
city, and immunity was granted to the people of Ilium, the city of
^ueas. New privileges were granted to Lavinium. But devoted
as he was to the Pagan religion and traditions of Rome, Antoninus
was tolerant of other creeds. He did not indeed repeal the laws
which were in force against Christians, but he discouraged
persecution.!

SECT. II. — THE PRIVATE LIFE OF ANTONINUS, AND HIS DEATH.

§ 8. The significance of the reign of Antoninus lies just in the
fact, that it was singularly devoid of striking events. Hence our
attention, undistracted by wars or great administrative changes, is
naturally turned to the personality of the Emperor himself and his
private life. And perhaps nothing will better serve to convey an
impression of the tranquillity of his reign, than the glimpses wliich
we get, in the Correspondence of Fronto, of the simple daily life of
the imperial family, and the peaceful atmosphere in which they
lived. The loss of his wife Faustina, who died in 140 (or 141)
A.D., was a great blow to the Emperor, who loved her deeply, as
we know from his own words. Writing to Fronto, who had praised

* Ob insignem erga caerimonias publicas curam et religionem. (Corp. Inscr. Lot
vi. 1001.)
f S«e below, Chap. XXX. $ 24.

138-161 A.D. FAUSTINA. 529

her in a speech in the senate, he says : " The part of your s| eech
which related to the honouring of my Faustina [by the title
Augusta] seemed to me even more true than eloquent. For it is
really the case. I would prefer to live with her at Gyaros, than
in the palace without her." Faustina was a beautiful woman,
and scandal was hisy with her name. But there is no conclusive
evidence for the truth of the charges of infidelity, which rumour
brought against her. It seems clear that Autonii us had no suspi-
cions. He heaped honours upon her memory after her death. She
was deified; a temple was erected in her honour, and priestesses
instituted for her worship. Her image WHS publicly displayed
at the Circentdan games. A new alimentary endowment was ma';e
(in pursuance of the policy of Nerva and Trajan) for orphan girls,
who were called Faustinianse. Antoninus did not run the risk
of endangering the peace of his family by taking another wife.
Gaieria Lysistrata, a freed woman of Faustina, lived with him in
the relation of concubinage, which among the Romans was a legal
bond, though inferior to marriage, and involved certain rights.
For an Emperor it corresponded somewhat to a morganatic
marriage.

§ 9. The two adopted sons of Antoninus lived continually with
their father. True affection and sympathy seemed to have bound
together Antoninus and Marcus. This comes out in the Corre-
spondence of Pronto and in the Meditations of Marcus. At Rome
the imperial family lived in the house of Tiberius on the north side
of the Palatine. Here the Emperor kept up the snme social
intercourse with his friends as before his elevation. He was not a
lover of formality and rigorous etiquette, and he used often to weai
the tunic at receptions, instead of the official toga. He was obliged,
however, to resign himself to maintaining the immense staff of
domestics, which had come to be considered ind spensable in the
imperial "palace." Although he was excessively simple in his
dress, he had several officers of the wardrobe. We meet at his
court a servant, whose sole duty it was to announce the
names of visitors (nonienclator\ a silentiarius, on whom it
devolved to keep silence among the slaves, a pxdagoyus pu<rorum,
who instructed the pages, and many others. Antoninus did not
take the same personal interest in philosophy and literature, which
had been a characteristic feature in Hadrian. But he patronised men
of letters, and gathered them about him at his court, mainly for the
sake of his son, by whom they were really appreciated. M. Cornelius
Fronto shared the intimacy of the Emperor as well as of Marcus,
his pupil. Herodes Atticus, the roaster of Marcus in Greek
rhetoric, was also highly favoured. Junius Rtisticus, a Stoic
23

530 PKINCIPATE OF ANTONINUS PIUS. CHAP, xxvii.

philosopher, who exercised a great iiulueuce over the mind of
the young Caesar, also belonged to the court circle.

But it is in the country, not in the city, at his villas, not on the
Palatine, that we get the most pleasing picture of Antoninus and
his family. He was born and brought up in the country, and he
loved nothing so well as rural life. Whenever he could, he left
Rome for his house at Lorium on the Aurelian Way, or for Trajan's
villa at Ontumcellse, overlooking the sea, for Signia in Latium, or
for Campania. The villa of Lorium, not far from Rome, seems to
have been his favourite residence ; it was there that he died. In
the country his pastimes were hunting and angling. Letters of
Marcus to his beloved master describe how the days passed by in
simple occupations, riding, reading, writing, talking nonsense with
Faustina (the younger), whom he calls "my little mamma."*
There is a delightful description of the vintage at Signia. The
Emperor and hi < family all dine in the winepress, and listen to the
jests of the peasant*.

§ 10. A characteristic anecdote is told of Antoninus and the
sophist Polemon. When Antoninus was proconsul of Asia, he
entered the house of Polemon at Smyrna, without being invited,
assuming that he would be welcome. Polemon happened to he
absent, but he returned in the course of the night, and turned the
governor, bag and haggag'j, out of his house. Antoninus said
nothing at the time, but sought shelter with some more hospitable
inhabitant. But he did not forget the insult, and had afterw.irds
opp -rtunities of revenging himself by witty words. When he was
Kmperor, Polemon visited Rome, and Antoninus made him
welcome. "Give Polemon apartments," he said, "and see that no
one turn him out of doors." An actor of tragedy complained that
he was expelled from a dramatic representation, at which Polemon
was presiding, just when he was about to begin his pait. "At
what hour of the day," Antoninus asktd, "do you say that he
drove you from the stage ? " " At mMday." " Ah ! he drove me
out of his house at midnight, and I made no complHint."

§ 11. But perhaps the liveliest idea of his personality will be
gained from the picture of him, which has been dra«n by his
adopted son. " In my father," Marcus writes in his Meditations,
" I bad an example of mildness of manners and firmness of reso-
lution, contempt of vain-glory, industry and pe> severance. He
was accessible to all who had counsel to give on public matters,
and invariably allowed to everyone his due share ot C"nsideration.
He knew when to relax, as well as when to labour ; he taught me
to forbear from licentious indulgences: to conduct myself as an

* Mtttercula mea.

Ifil A.U. CHARACTEK OF ANTONINtJS. 531

equal among equals; to lay on my friends no burden of servility,
neither changing them capriciously, nor passionately attaching
mysdf to any. From him I learned to be self-sufficing and
cheerful in every fortune, to exercise foresight in public affairs,
and not to be above examining the smallest matters without
affectation; to rise superior to vulgar acclamations; to worship
the gods without superstition, and serve mankind without ambition ;
in all things to be sober and steadfast, not led awav by idle
novelties; to be content with little, enjoying in moderation the
comforts within my reach, but never repining at their absence.
Moreover, from him I learned to be no sophist, no pe<lant ; but
u practical man of the world ; yet, at the same time, to give due
honour to true philosophers ; to be polite in manner, neat in
person, and ro attend to my health so far as to rid myself of the
need of medicine and physicians. Again, to concede, without a
grudge, their pre-eminence to all who specially excel in legal
or any other knowledge, to act in all things after the usage of our
ancestors, yet without pedantry .... My father was evr prudent
and moderate; he neither indulged in private buildings, n«»r in
excessive largesses, or extravagant shows to the people. He looked
to his duty only, not to the opinion that mi^ht be formed of his
actions. He was temperate in the use of baths, modest in dress,
indifferent to the beauty of his slaves. Such was the whole
character of his life and manners : nothing harsh, nothing excessive,
nothing rude, nothing over-done. It might be said of him as of
Socrates, that he could both abstain from and enjoy the things,
which men in general find it hard to abstain from at all, and
cannot enjoy without excess." *

§ 12. The appearance of Antoninus, as we know it from his
busts, corresponds to the written records of his character and tem-
perament. They present the features of a man, who was grave yet
gentle, firm yet kind, robust and earnest, but neither austere nor
coarse. He died in his villa at Lorium, from the consequences of a
cold, on March 7, 161 A.D., in the seventy-fourth year of his age.
In his last hours he was careful to show forth clearly his wishes as
to the succession. The praetorian prefects, L. Furius (Fabius)
Victorinus and Scxtns Cornelius Repentinus, were summoned to
his bedside, and in their presence he recommended Marcus Aurelius
as his successor, and made no mention of L. Verus. He then com-
manded that the golden statue of Fortune, which stood continually
in i he imperial bedchamber, should be removed to that of Marcus, in
token of the transference of the Principate to the presumptive
successor. The tribune of the praetorian cohort in attendance then

* Bk. i. 16. The paraphrase is Merivale's (chap. lxvii.\ with modifications.

532 PB1NCIPATE OF ANTONINUS PIUS. CHAP. xxvu.

entered, and asked for the watchword. " Equanimity," replied the
Emperor, expressing in this, his last utterance, fie spirit of his
reign. His end, says the historian Qnadratus, was most peaceful,
like a sweet sleep.

§ 13. There was no dissenting voice in the senate, when it was
proponed to decree to this beloved sovran a pu'-lic funeral, and u>
consecrate his memory. An immense funeral pile, in the shape of
a pyramid, was erected in the Campus Martius, crowned by a
staiue of the dead Emperor standing in a chariot. As the pyre
was being consumed, an ea^le was allowed to escape, as a token of
the apotheosis of the dead ; and then Marcus and Lucius pronounced
funeral orations in the Forum. A great spectacle of gladiators, in
the Flavian amphitheatre, was an indispensable part of the
solemnities.

Antoninus had erected a temple to the divine Faustina, on the
Sacred Way, close to the Forum (140 A.D.). This temple was now
transformed in such a way as to serve for the worship of both
Antoninus and Faustina. It still stands, one of the best- preserved
ancient buildings of Rome, and the inscription on the fa9ade may
still be read.

DIVO ANTON INO ET
DIV.S FAVSTIN^E EX. 8. C.

Consecratio of Antoninus ana Faustina (from pedestal of the column of
Antoninus Pius).

Marcus Aurelius.

CHAPTER XXVIH.

THE PBINCIPATE OF MABCUS AURELIUS (161-180 A.D.).

§ 1 Character and philosophy of Marcus Aurelius. § 2. His statesman-
ship. § 3. Lucius Verus. The two Augusti. § 4. Relations of
Marcus and the senate. § 5. Growth of centralisation. Juridici
Cu atores. § 6. Financial administration. § 7. Legislation. § 8.
THK PARTHIAN WAR. Battle of Elegeia. Verus in the East. Re-
covery of Armenia by the Romans. Battles of Sura and Zeugma.
Result of the War. § 9. The plague. § 10. FIRST MAPCOMANNIC
WAR, Invasion of Raetia and Italy by a coalition of German tribes.
§ 11. Difficulties of Marcus. New legions. § 12. Marcus and Verus
take the field and make terms with some of the barbarians. § 13.
Death of Verus. Campaigns and victories of Marcus (169-175 A.D.).
§ 14. Design of two new provinces, Sarmatia and Marcomannia.
Terms made with the enemy. §15. Revolt of Avidius Cassius. §16.
Faustina. Commodus created Augustus § 17. SECOND MARCO-
MANNIC WAR. Victory of Paternus. Death of Marcus. § 18.
Beginnings of the Military Colonate.

V

634 FBINCIPATE OF MARCUS AURELIUS CHAF. xxvin

SECT. I. — MARCUS AND VEBUS. THE TWO AUGKJSTI.

§ L MARCUS AURELIUS had reached the age of forty (born at
Home 121 A.D.) when he succeeded Antoninus. His family
belonged to Succubo, a municipal town near Corduba in Spain ;
his grandfather was one of the new patricians created by Vespasian.
He had shown an early predilection both for the study of Stoic
philosophy and for the practice of Stoic austerity. When he was
twelve years old, his mother Domitia Lucilla could liardly induce
him to lie on a bed spread with sheepskins. His whole life was
marked by similar asceticism. As his constitution was weak, he
was obliged to spend some care in husbanding the forces of his
body, and had constantly to consult the medical skill of the famous
physician Galen, and others ; but he did this as a duty. His only
pleasures were meditation and the society of philosophers and men
of letters.

No man has ever carried further than Marcus Aurelius the desire
of moral perfection, and he accounted, like other Stoics, the service
of humanity indispensable to the attainment of such perfection.
The idea which runs through all his Meditations — a collection of
thoughts lotted down in the leisure moments of a busy life, much
of it written in the camps on the Danube during the Marcomannic
War — is that of a " natural unity," embracing not only mankind,
but nature and God, in which every individual has a distinct place
of his own, and distinct functions to fulfil. Each man is expected
to act so as to promote not his own good, at least directly, but the
general good of the great Whole, of which he forms part, and on
whose welfare his own welfare depends. The Meditations in fact
show how the tStoic theory of Pantheism is to be applied in detail to
life and morality. Thus Marcus Aurelius enjoins service to others as
the special function for which we are adapted by nature. " What
more dost thou want," he asks, " when thou hast done a man a
service? Art thou not content that thou hast done something
conformable to thy nature, and dost thou seek to be paid for it,
just as if the eye demanded a recompense for set-ing or the feet for
walking?" He considered the social principle as the chief in the
constitution of human nature. Yet he had himself a passion for soli-
tude, which he set himself strictly to keep under. "Men seek
retreats for themselves," he says, " houses in the count ry , sea-shores,
and mountains, and thou too art wont to desire such things very
much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of
men, for it is in thy power, whenever thou shalt choose, to retire
into thyself; " and he goes on to advise constant self-communing

161-180 A.D. THE PHILOSOPHER ON THE THEONE. 535

His view of life is austere and even sad. " The things which are
much valued in life are empty and rotten and trifling." But be
cultivated a cheerful temf>er. His teacher Maximus, he tells us,
had taught him cheerfulness in all circumstances as well as in
illness. The precepts on which he is always dwelling are to love
all men as brothers, to forgive injuries, and to sacrifice even thing
to duty. Few men have more nearly approached in practice their
own ideal.

§ 2. Plato had prophesied that there would be no end of the
sufferings of mankind until a philosopher should become a king or
nntil a king should become a philosopher. This had at length
come to pass. A philosopher now ruled over a far greater state, a
far larger portion of mankind, than Plato had dreamed of. 'I he
philosophic ruler, whom the world had at length obtained, did not
attempt to establish the ideal Republic of Plato, or any other
a priori constitution ; but he treasured up Plato's words and made
it his aim to mitigate suffering and to help humanity. He desired
to show that Plato's saying was really true. The idea of helping
humanity and alleviating its burdens was one of the leading senti-
ments of the new Stoicism which Marcus represented. But after
all he was only doing on system, what Antoninus had been already
doing instinctively. Antoninus indeed was also in some measure
imbued with Stoic ideas,

Two different views have been taken of the reign of Marcus
Aurelius. Some regard the Empire as fortunate to have been ruled
by such a noble model of Pagan virtue, such an unselfish and high-*
minded prince. Others pity the subjects of a mere pl.il'SOpher,
who took more interest in the disputations of sopl lists and rhetors
ciansthan in the affairs of the state which he ^oven ed. There is a
certain measure of truth in this censorious criticisu j, but it may
easily be exaggerated. His fault was that he thought more ol
doing his " duty," than of what was good for the state. He regarded
every question from the standpoint of personal ethics rather than
from that of political wisdom. He wa^ excessively self-conscious, and
used to ask himself in a difficulty, not " What is the best course V"
but rather "How should the philosopher act?" On the other
hand it must he remembered to his credit that he did not, as many
serious philosophers — as Plato himself — mi'jht have been tempted
to do, make any attempt to apply a priori theories to politics or
perform experiments with the fabric of the constitution. The
single innovation in constitutional practice, which he introduced,
was, as we shall see, not a veiy happy one. In general, he clung
to the traditions of the Empire, and walked on the lines marked
out by his predecessors. He did not try to reform the world on a

536 PRINCIPATE OF MARCUS AURELIUS. CHAP. xrrm.

model constructed in the philosopher's workshop. He was a pre-
cisian in ethics, but he was not a doctrinaire in politics. He
honoured philosophers above all men, but did not allow them to
interfere in the management of the state.

But if Aurelius was determined to show by righteous and bene-
ficent government that Plato was right, fortune was equally deter-
mined to show that Plato was wrong. Men were to learn by the
reign of Aurelius that their happiness cannot be secured by political
government independently of external circumstances, unless indeed
they adopt the maxims of Stoicism and feel indifferent to external
circumstances themselves. The imperial philosopher fell on evil
times. His principate was marked by a series 01 formidable wars on
the Euphrates and the Danube, with hardly an interval of peace ;
and the Empire was devastated by one of those terrible pla.ues —
like the Black Death of the fourteenth century — which produce
permanent effects on the lands which they visit. It required all
the stoical resignation and patience that Marcus could command,
to stand firmly at the helm throughout these tempests, which
were the heralds of the beginning of the Decline of the Empire.

§ 3. The first act of Marcus on being elected Emperor by the
senate was highly characteristic of the man, and shows his weak
point. He did not know men. His adoptive brother L. Commodus
had been kept in the background by Antoninus, and received no
honours except such as might be permitted to am member of the
imperial house. He was a young man without much character or
ability, and fond of pleasure, though his dissoluteness has perhaps
been exaggerated. According to the example set by Hadrian and
Antoninus, it would have been proper for Marcus to make Lucius
his consort, with the title of Cassar and subordinate proconsular
power. But Marcus was not content with this. He regarded
Lucius as having an equal right with himself to the supreme
dignity, and deemed it his duty to share the Principate equally
with his brother. He therefore insisted that the senate should
confer all the titles and privileges, which he had himself received,
on Lucius also. Thus Marcus and Lucius (henceforward called L.
Verus) were colleagues, co-equal and each ruling, in his own
right, over the whole Empire. Lucius, like Marcus, was an
Augustus and a Princeps. The theory of the Principate was quite
compatible with such collegiality, but in practice it was an innova-
tion. Two Augusti had never ruled together over the Empire
before. Marcus assuredly did not look into the future or consider
the probable consequences of introducing this system. But it was
clear enough that the joint rule of two coequal Emperors must
in most cases lead to rupture and disunion, unless either (1) one

161-180 A.D. TWO AUGUSTI. 537

of them were to keep himself in the background, or (2) the
territory of the Empire wt re to be divided between them into
two huge provinces. In the case of Marcus and Lucius, harmony
was preserved, because Lucius was goodnatured, insignificant and
unambitious, and willingly left all initiation to his elder brother.
If he had been a strong arid energetic man, the harmony would
have been as little imperilled, for in that case Marcus would have
gladly resigned the chief conduct of affairs to him. But though
the precedent which Marcus introduced made little difference in
his own case, it was fraught with grave consequences in a later
age,* when the second alternative came to pass, and the Empire
ruled by two Augusti was split up into two distinct realms.

SECT. II. — ADMINISTRATION OF MARCUS.

§ 4. The points which chiefly call for notice in the internal
policy of Marcus Aurelius are (1) the further growth of the aristo-
cratic power of the Princeps, combined with punctilious outward
deference to the senate ; (2) the further growth of centralisation on
the lines of Trajan and Hadrian ; (3) an injudicious financial ad-
ministration ; (4) a marked advance, on the lines of Antoninus
Pius, in humanity and equity in legislation.

The deference which Marcus paid to the senate has been made
much of, and was duly appreciated. When at Home, he was con-
stantly in attendance in the curia, and when in Campania, he used
often to come all the way to Rome to introduce a proposal. He never
quitted the assembly until the consul pronounced the words of
dismissal — Nihil vos moramur, Patres Conscripti (" We no longer
detain you, P.C."). He used regularly to refer foreign affairs to
the senate, and present treaties to receive its confirmation. In all
this Marcus followed the policy of Trajan. But, at the same time,
he not only surrendered none of the prerogatives or powers which
the Emperors had gradually usurped, but rather increased tuem.
This path had been marked out f.r him by Antoninus Pius, for
on his elevation to the rank of Ceesar, he had received the ri-ht of
bringing five relationes in writing before the senate, which should
have precedence before ah others. The power of the Emperor to
introduce one bill (relationem facere) in writing at each sitting,
which should be read before all others by an impeiial qusestor, had
been established by Augustus and practised by his successors;
Antoninus himself had the r ght of four relationes ; but we have no
evidence that, until Marcus, any Emperor possessed the right of so
many as five relations. '\ he imperial relatio took the form of an

* At end of the following century, under Diocletian (285 A.D.).
•23*

538 PRINCIPATE OF MARCUS AURELIUS. CHAP, xxvm

•'oration" or "letter" to the senate, and the fiction that the
Emperor was proposing it in person seems to have been kept up.

Hadrian had felt himself obliged to follow Nero's example, and
take oath in the senate that he would never condemn a senator to
death. But Marcus could not be moved to take this step, although
he endeavoured throughout his reign to act as if he had. He thus
refused to recognise the principle that the senators were exempt
from being tried at the imperial tribunal, or could not be condemned
by their peers. It is also important to observe that he made large
use of the powers which lay in his hands to determine the consti-
tution of the senate. He employed the right of adlection to raise
"many of his friends" to the rank of praetorian and aedilician
senators.

The title vir clarissimus (abbreviated in inscriptions to V.C.) *
was in general use in the second century as a title of honour for
senators. It was perhaps Marcus who first gave it regular official
sanction. It is known with more certainty that he divided the
public officials of equestrian rank into three classes: (I) viri
eminent issimi, confined to the prsetorian prefects ; (2) viri perfec-
tissimi, including the heads of departments at Rome ; (3) viri
egregii, procurators and less important subordinate officials.! The
title of a municipal knight (in Italy) who did not hold office was
xplendidus eques Rom<mus.

§ 5. Marcus contributed to the improvement of the new Civil
Service, which had been organized by Hadrian, by appointing
" under-secretaries " in the various departments, and thus diminishing
the burdens which fell on the chiefs. It is probable that he fixed
certain salaries for the members of the imperial Consilium. But
what is of more importance, the stranue development of the office
of praetorian prefect — which, beginning as a purely military, ulti-
mately became a purely civil office — enters on a new staye. Under
Marcus the praetorian prefecture is occasionally filled by eminent
jurists, and the prefect is thus more clearly designated as representa-
tive of the Emperor. In the administration of Italy, he revived
the four Judges who had been instituted by Hadrian, and, to please
the senate, abolished by Pius. But in reviving this institution,
he modified it. The juridici — for so they were now called, if not
before — were no longer consulars, but praetorians, and thus the
appointment was accessible to a larger class. The institution of
the curatores reipublicse, chosen from either the senatorial or the
equestrian order, seems to have been developed further, and doubtless
from financial motives. Thus Marcus encouraged that advance of

* In Greek, Ao/an

f The Greek term* are respectively : «fox«TaTos,-Siao-»]M<>TaTos,

161-180 A.D. ADMINISTRATION.

centralisation which soon paralyzed public life in the municipal
towns of Italy. On the other hand, he seems to have accorded
greater freedom to the public associations and guilds — collegia —
which were regarded with such suspicion by Trajan. He gave them
the power of making wills ana performing the act of manumission ;
in fact, to a certain extent, the privileges of a legal person. But
he took the precaution of making a regulation that no one should
belong to mote than one collegium at the same time.

§ 6. Pius had left a large sum in the treasury, notwithstanding
the numerous buildings which he had undertaken ; but the imprudent
and lavish administration of Marcus involved the fiscus in serious
financial difficulties. His errors in this respect were chiefly due to
his good-nature. On his accession he indulged in an act of liberality
which was uncalled for, and indeed mischievous. He gave each
soldier of the praetorian guard a sum of 20,000 sesterces (about £160)
and a proportionable sum to the other soldiers. He repeated, y
bestowed large congiaria on the people, and he increased the
number of those entitled to receive the public corn. Towards
the end of his reign he remitted an immense sum of arrears (178
A.D.). Much of the extravagant expenditure may, perhaps, be
set down to the account of L. Verus, but it is not known how
the two colleagues arranged between themselves the control of the
fiscus. In all financial matters Marcus was indulgent and easy-
going, in accordance with his philosophical theories on the duties
of a prince. But in his reign the Empire was called to face dangers,
which required all its strength and entailed heavy expenses; so
that greater stringency in the taxation and greater economy in the
administration were urgently required. Marcus, under the pressure
of his military expenses, was forced to pawn his crown jewels,
and to depreciate the gold coinage. Things went so far that, at the
end of his principate, the issue of gold came altogether to a stop, and
the silver coinage was called in, in order to be issued in a depreciated
form. It is, therefore, not surprising that very little was done by
Marcus in the way of public buildings.

§ 7. That which above all things links together the reigns of
Antoninus and Marcus, and makes them appear as an epoch ani-
mated by a single spirit, is the policy in legislation and administration
of justice common to both. What has already been said, in these
respects, of Antoninus applies to Marcus. To come to the aid of
the weaker, to mitigate the estate of slaves, to facilitate manumission,
to protect the condition of wards, were the objects of Marcus as of
his predecessor. A special officer (pr&tor tutelarius) was instituted
to regulate difficulties between wards and guardians. The law per-
mitting a creditor to seize the goods of a debtor was modified.

540 PRINUIPATE OF MARCUS AURELIUS. CHAP, xxvui

Children no longer suffered disgrace for the crimes of their fathers.
The Einperor was himself untiring in hearing causes, and his
sentences were marked by leniency. Like Antoninus, he was
anxious to defend the provinces against the oppression of pro-
curators, and to come to the assistance of communities in the case
of public disasters.

SECT. III.— THE PARTHIAN WAR.

§ 8. Almost immediately after his accession, Marcus Aurelius
was threatened by hostilities both in the east and in the west.
The dangers in the west were easily dealt with. The Picts
threatened Britain, and at the same time the Britannic legions formed
a design to make the legatus, M. Statius Priscus, Einperor in
place ot Marcus. These movements were speedily checked, and
attacks of the Chatti and Chauci in the Rhine provinces were also
repelled. But it was impossible to avert the greater danger which
had been long looming in the east. Hadrian and Antoninus had
succeeded in deferring the evil day, but when Marcus came, it could
be deterred no longer. Tiie Parthian king, Vologeses, was an able
and ambitious man. He had pulled together the Parthian realm,
which he had found split up into a number of kingdoms, and having
tirmly established its unity, he resolved to get Armenia into his
power. No sooner was Pius dead, than a Parthian general invaded
Armenia, and set Pacorus, an Arsacid, on the throne.* The go-
vernor of Cap,>adocia, P. ^Elius Severianus Maximus, immediately
led a legion across the Euphrates, and at Elegeia — the place at
v\hi£h Parthomasiris had bowed the knee to Trajan — a battle was
fought, anu the Roman legion was annihilated. Severianus slew
hiinsblf. The Parthiaus, elated by this victory, invaded Syria and
defeated the Roman army, then under L. Attidius Cornelianus. In
consequence of these disasters, which proved that the oriental legions
were as demoralised and inefficient as they had been a hundred years
before, when tht-y were taken in hand by Corbulo, it was necessary
to transport western legions to defend the eastern provinces. Statius
Prisons was appointed to succeed Severianus in Cappadocia, while
Julius Verus became governor of Syria. The supreme command in
the war was undertaken by the Emperor Verus (162 A.D.), who, how-
ever, had neither military gifts nor a sense of duty, and spent most
of his time at Antioch in amusements, leaving the actual conduct
of the war to his generals, Avidius Cassius, Priscus and Martins
Verus. At first overtures of peace were made, for Marcus Aurelius

* It is not known whether the Armenian throne was at this moment vacant or
filled by some unknown vassal of Rome.

162-166 A.D. PARTHIAN WAR. 541

would have been glad to avoid the war ; but Vologeses rejected
them, and left the Romans no choice. Armenia was soon recovered
by Priscus, who captured Artaxata, and burned it to the ground
(163 A D.). Near its site Kainepolis or New City (in Armenian,
Nor-khalakh) was built, and became the capital of the country.
Pacorus and his Parthians were driven out, and Sohsemus, a prince
of Arsacid family, but a Roman senator and devoted to Rome, was
raised to the throne (163 A.D.). Thus the war led to no theoretical
change in the position of Armenia. This country still remained a
Roman dependency, ruled by a prince of Parthian blood. But in
actual fact it was now bound more closely to Rome than before,
owing to the personal interests of Sohaemus. After this success
Verus assumed the name Armeniacus, but Syria and Mes'-potamia
were the scene of the most serious events of the war, which was
chiefly conducted by Avidius Cassius, who became governor of Syria
(about 164 A.D.). Of the details we know very little. A Roman
victory at Sura was foil" wed by the capture of the fortress Nice-
phorium on the Mesopotamian side of the EUJ hrates. At Zeugma
the Parthians offered strenuous resistance to the Romans crossing
the river, but were wholly defeated in a battle at Europus. Having
thus opened their way into Mesopotamia, the legions stormed
Dausara, laid siege to Kdessa, and captured Nisihis. The satraps
forsook their king, and the victorious army marched on Ciesiphon.
The Greek city of Seleucia opened its gates, but the inhabitants
were subsequently accused of collusion with the enemy, and it was
burnt to the ground. Ctesiphon, the Parthian capital, was taken
and destroyed. The Romans also penetrated into Media. In 165
A.D. the war was practically finished, and Verus was able to return
to Rome to celebrate a brilliant triumph, in conjunction with his
brother (166 A.D.). Lucius bore the titles Armeniacus P'irthicus
MaximuK, and Medicus ; Marcus that of Armeniacus Parthicus.

Through this war Rome not only won immunity from Parthian
aggressions for many years and increased her prestige, but also
slightly enlarged her territory. The district of Mesopotamia
known as Osroene was made a Roman dependency, and Carrhae
became a free city under Roman protection. Thus Marcus
committed himself, though on a very small scale, to the same
policy which Trajan had inaugurated on a very large scale, and
which Hadrian had disapproved of. Seeing that Marcus was by
no means a grasping or acquisitive ruler, this circumstance suggests
that there was something to be said, on grounds of policy, for
Trajan's enterprise.

§ 9. Fate willed that these successes in the east should be bought
at a terrible cost. The army of Avidius Cassius contracted the germs

542 PEIXCIPATE OF M ABC US AURELIUS. CHAP, xxvm

of a pestilential disease in the Tigris regions, and brought the infection
back with them into Roman dominion. The plague spread in the
eastern provinces, and was carried to the west by the legions who
returned with Verus. The army was terribly ravaged by this
visitation. Italy was devastated, and many districts left without
inhabitants. In Rome immense numbers di*d, and Marcus
ordained that both poor and rich should be buried at the public
expense. He essayed all the ceremonies of the national religion
to save the state, and performed a lustration of the city. He even
attempted to propitiate foreign deities. There is no doubt that
this virulent pestilence, which spread in every direction, produced
far-reaching effects on the population of the Empire. The historian
Niebuhr even goes so far as to think that " the ancient world never
recovered from the blow." But we know very little about it beyond
some details given by the physician Galen. No account has been
preserved like that which Thucydides gives us of the p^gue at
Athens, or that which Procopius wro'e of the great pestilence in the
reign of Justinian, or like Boccaccio's description of the Black Death
in the fourteenth century.*

SECT. IV. — THE MARCOMANNIC WAR.

§ 10. Since the Dacian conquest of Trajan the Danube lands had
enjoyed a long period of peace. The menaces of danger which had
appeared at the opening of Hadrian's reign had been happily averted ;
and the chief nations on that frontier — the Roxolani in the east, the
Jazyges in the strip of land between Dacia and Pannonia the Mar-
comanni in Bohemia, the Quadi in Moravia — all acknowledged more
or less the sovranty of Rome, and did not trouble her with hostilities.
The Quadi had asked Pius to confirm the election of a new prince;
but after the death of Pius a change came over the scene, and Marcus
soon found himself involved in a great war with these frontier
nations — generally known as the Marcomannic War.f

For this war the Romans were not to blame. The policy of
Antoninus Pius had been essentially one of peace, and Marcus was
riot a man to provoke enemies. Nor yet was it due to the spon-
taneous rapacity or restlessness of the neighbourng barbarian
peoples. The cause came from a strange quarter, quite beyond the
limits of Roman politics. Shiftings took place among the German
folks of central and northern Europe, on the Elbe and the Vistula ;
and these migratory movements induced pressure on the Marco-

* Or even that of the plague in the manicum ; afterwards, when the Jazyges
eighth century by Theophanes. took a principal part in it, the Belluro

f It was at first called the Bellum Ger- 1 Germauicum Sarmaticuin.

166 AD. MARCQMANNIC WAR. 543

manni, Quadi, Buri, and other southern nations, who in turn pressed
upon Roman territory. The Empire resisted tlieir pressure, and
the consequence was a serious war of thirteen years, which may be
regarded as an early prelude of those historic I events which took
place two or three centuries later, known as the " Wandering of the
Nations."

The first incident which declared the new danger and occasioned
the war, was the appearance of a large number of Germans in
Pannonia, seeking new abodes there. This multitude consisted of
Lamrobardi, or Lombards, from the distant Elbe — their first appear-
ance in the south — as well as of Marcomanni and others. But
they were promptly driven back across the Danube ; and then they
sent as ambassador Ballomar, king of the Marcomanni, and ten
others, representing ten tribes, to ^Elias Bassus, governor of Pan-
nonia, asking for an assignment of territory. But the request was
not granted, and they had to return.* The migrations already
mentioned seem to have produced some pressure westward as
well as southward. For in Upper Germany we find the governor,
Gains Aufidius Victorinus, the father-in-law of Front* >, compelled
to take the field against the Chatti, who had attacked the province.

The outbreak of the war in the east hindered Marcus from taking
adequate measures to avert the dangers which, as it was easy to sec,
threatened the Danube provinces. It was at least lucky that the
first great blow was not struck until Roman arms had been successful
against the Parthians. It was probably about the time of the
triumph of M TCUS and Verns (166 A.D.) that a great though loose
coalition of German tribes — Marcomanni, Quadi, Hermunduri, and
others — burst into the empire and overran Dacia, Pannonia, Rsetia,
and Noricum. The Jazyges took part in this irruption, but the
Sarmatian tribes to the east of Dacia were not implicated. In Dacia
the town of Alburnus (Verespatak) was burnt down, and Sarmize-
gethuza itself was threatened. But the danger carne far nearer to the
heart of the Empire, and made Rome herself tremble. Since the
day when the Cimbri and Teutons had been repelled by Marius on
the field of Vercellae no barbarian enemy had ever carried arms into
Italy. But now they swooped down Irom Ra3tia to destroy Opiter-
gium (Oderzo'), and crossed the Julian Alps to lay siege to Aquileia.
Of the measures which were taken to check the incursions by the
commanders on the spot, we only know that Furius Victoiinus
was (iefeated and slain.

§ 11. The invasion took place at an awkward ni< m< nt for the
government. The Parthian War was over, but the plague which

* The date is not fixed, but the event must* have taken place soon after tb*
death of Pius.

PfttNCtPATE OF MAECUS AtJBELIUS. CHAP, xxvm

it had brought in its train bad made fearful havoc in Italy, and
famine, the usual companion of pestilence, also set in. People were
unable to pay the dues to the state, and the Emperors had not
money to meet the expenses of the war. Marcus was compelled to
sell by auction the imperial jewels, in order to pr-vide imme date
funds. New troops had to be raised, and measures had to be tnken
for the defence of the chief cities which lay in the parh of the in-
vaders, or tempted their progress. The walls of Salonas in Dalmatia
and those of Philippopolis in Thrace were restored. Two new
legions were created — II. Pia and III. Concordia — and assigned to
the defence of Rastia and Noricum, where a new frontier camp was
established at Lauriacum (Lorch), near the mouth of the Enns,
as well as a large number of small forts. The troops in Noricum
and Pannonia were supported by the Danube fleet, which had its
chief stations at Lauriacum and Carnuntum.

§ 12. Marcus, although not a soldier, was obliged to undertake the
irksome task of directing in person the operations of the war. The
matter could not be left to the several commanders of the provinces ;
the general control of one supreme commander was required ; and
this duty could not be safely consigned to the frivolous and
incompetent Verus. The two Emperors left Rome and reached
Aquileia (168 A.D.). Their advance (lightened the invaders, who
had no idea of acting together, and immediately began to retreat.
The Quadi offered submission and begged for terms; but the
Marcomanni held out. It was clearly premature to make peace
until the barbarians had been taught a lesion, although the younger
Emperor, eager to return to Rome, wished to consider the danger as
past. But the devastations which the invaders had wrought could
not be atoned for so easily. They had carried off enormous numbers
of Roman captives — the Quadi, it is said, over 60000, the Jaxsyges
100,000. Marcus saw the importance of teaching the barbarians a
lesson, and prosecuted the war with vigour. Unfortunately we
have no precise record of his movements. He made peace with
the Quadi, on condition of their giving; back the captives, and
confirmed the election of a new king, Furtius. He proceeded to
the Pannorian frontier, and seems to have made Carnuntum his
headquarters. In the meantime his son-in-law, Tiberius Claudius
Pompeianus, was appointed commander in Rastia and Noricum, and
with the help of his lieutenant, P. Helvius Pertinax — who at a
later period became Emperor— -cleared these lands of their invaders,
who, in RsBtia at least, were probably the Chatti. Some of the
barbarians, it is worth noting, were seduced by Roman pay into
fighting in Roman service. against their fellow-barbarians.

§ 18. By this policy the war was soon practically reduced

168-175 A.D. VICTORIES OF MARCUS. 545

to a war against the Marcomanni and Jazyges. The Emperor
returned to Rome in 169 A.D., but Verus died at Altinum on the
way, and Marcus had to carry on the war alone. He returned to
the Danube in the same year and remained on the scene of action,
making Carnuntum, Vindobona, or Aquincum, his headquarters, as
occasion demanded. The operations were for a long time unsuccess-
ful, and the Romans met with severe defeats. A special command
over Dacia and Upper Mcesia had been intrusted to Marcus Claudius
Fronto, but he fell in a battle against the Jazyges. Another victim
of the war was Marcus Macrinius Vindex, the prefect of the praetorian
guard. It was not until 172 A.D. that the first decisive success was
gained. The Marcomanni sustained a grave defeat, and the Kmp- r«-r
assumed the title Germanicus. But in the meantime the Qundi
had rebelled, driven out their king, Furtius, the client of the
Romans, and elected a new king, Ariogassus, who entered into
alliance with the Marcomannic king Ballomar. Marcus set a price
of 1000 pieces of gold on the head of Ariogsesus ; he was soon sur-
rendered to the Romans, and sent to the distant city of Alexandria.

The curious legend of the " Thundering Legion " arose in con-
nection with a great victory over the Quadi. A storm seems to
have burst over the armies during battle, and while a grateful shower
of ram lell upon the Romans, the enemy were disconcerted by thunder
and lightning. The event was considered miraculous, and was said
to be the answer of Heaven to the prayers of a legion consisting ol
Christians. That some such occur reuce did take place is confirmed
by a sculpture on the Column of Aurelius, but of course at this
time there was no such thing as a Christian legion ; and the legion
Fulminata existed under Augustus. The reduction of the Quadi
was soon followed by that of the Jazyges (175 A.D.), which was
signalised by the Emperor's assumption of the name Sarmaticus.

§ 14. Marcus had the insight of a true statesman. He realized
the permanent danger which threatened the Empire on the northern
frontier ; he foresaw the barbarian eruptions which were ultimately
destined to break up the Empire. He perceived clearly that, in
oider to prevent these perils, it was not enough to gain victories —
it was necessary to subjugate the enemy. He >aw that Trajan had
been right in annexing Dacia. In fact, this Marcomannic war had
thoroughly justified Trajan's policy ; for the fact that Dacia was in
the hands of the Romans had kept the Roxolani and other folks in
the Eastern Carpathians from joining in the invasion. Marcus dec.ded
that it was necessary to go further in the path marked out by Tra-
jan, and round off the frontier on this side by annexing the lauds
of the Jazyges and the Marcomanni. The annexation of Jazy^ia.
the strip between the Danube and the Theiss, was indeed obviously

546 PRINC1PATE OF MARCUS AURELIUS. CHAP, xxvin

expedient. Boiohsemnm (Bohemia), which the Marcomanni occu-
pied, is so well defended hy nature within its mountain and forest
walls that it would have proved a useful advanced position
against the barbarians. Marcus therefore decided to erect two new
provinces — Sarmatia and Marcomannia. Sarmatia, at all events,
he would probably have formed at once by expelling the Jazy^es ;
but he was obliged to postpone the execution of his plans by an
insurrection which broke out in Syria. The terms which, in the
meantime, he imposed on the conquered peoples were MS follows.
They had to contribute contingents to the Roman army ; thus the
Jazyges had to furnish 8000 horsemen. The Marcomanni and
Jazyges had to evacuate a strip of land along the Danube, ten miles
in breadth (afterwards reduced to five miles). And the Quadi and
Marcomanni had to receive in their country Roman garrisons, to
the number of 20,000 men. The conditioLs of trading were strictly
regulated, in order to avoid possibilities of collision.

About the same time the tribe of the Astin^i entered Dacia, and
demanded permission to settle there, on the condition of military
service. But another tribe, the Lacringi, fearing that their own
interests might be endangered, and incited by the Roman governor
of Dacia, attacked the Astingi, and destroyed them. This incident
deserves mention here because it is an early example of the method
of keeping enemies in check by stirring up one tribe against
another which the Roman government afterwards developed into
a system.

§ 15. The revolt which threatened the throne of Marcus in the
East was organized by Avidius Cassius, the able governor of Syria,
who had been chiefly instrumental in bringing the Parthian war
to a successful issue. When Verus returned to Rome, Cassius had
been appointed to a military command — like that which Corbulo
had held under Nero — extending beyond his own special province
over ail the regions adjacent to the eastern frontier.

Cassius belonged by birth to this quarter of the Empire, being a
native of Cyrrhus, and possessed great influence there. The soldiers
seemed to have loved him, although his discipline was strict and
even harsh. During the term of his special command, he rendered
further services to the government by suppressing a rising in Arabia,
and putting down a serious revolt of religious fanatics, who were
known as " Bucolics," in Egypt. But he chafed under the rule of
the imperial philosopher, and this feeling of dissatisfaction with the
administration of Marcus seems to have prevailed in military circles
in the east. The officers sneered at the "philosophical old woman"
who wrote ethical essays in the camp. Verus had warned Marcus
against him, but the imperial Stoic replied, in the spirit of fatalism :

175-176 A.I). REVOLT OF CASSIUS. 047

" No prince ever killed his successor." At length, in 175 A.D., while
Marcus was on the Danube waging war against the Marcomauni,
Gassins had organised a sufficient party of adherents to declare
openly his treasonable designs. He was supported by Flavins
Calvisius, the prefect of Egypt. The significance of the movement,
as expressed in the manifestoes of the pretender, lay in the contrast
between the soldier and the philosopher. Gassius was willing to
allow that Marcus was a very good man, but complained that, in
his devotion to philosophy, he neglected the republic. The out-
break of the revolt was hastened by the diffusion of a false report
that Marcus was dead, and this decided its failure. Avidius was
proclaimed Imperator and recognised, in the belief that the Emperor
was dead ; but when this news proved false, men no longer cared to
undertake the usurper's cause, and Cassius was murdered. On
learning that the revolt had broken out, Marcus had immediately
started for the east, prepared for civil war. He took the precaution
of first investing his son Com mo us, who was then fifteen years
old, with the toga virilis. When Man MS on arriving in Syria
found the pretender dead, he expressed much distress at being
deprived of the pleasure of pardoning him. All who had been con-
cerned in the treason were treated with lenity ; but the principle
was henceforth established that men should not be appointed as
governors in their native provinces.

§ 16. The Empress Faustina, who had accompanied her husband
in his expedition against the Marcomanni and had received from
the army the name " Mother of the Camp " (Mater Castrorum),
accompanied him also to the east. But she died on the journey, at
Halala in Cappadocia, at the foot of Mount Taurus. The senate
decreed her divine honours, and a temple was built to her at the
place where she died. Her good name, like that of her mother, was
assailed by the breath of slander. She is said to have been openly
unfaithful to her husband; it was even whispered that Commodus
was the son of a gladiator. The worst a.-persion shed upon her
fame was that she was privy to and favoured the treasonable design
of Cassius, and promised to marry him in case he succeeded. But
there is positively no evidence against her character, that can claim
to be seriously considered.

Since the death of Lucius Verus, the Roman world had been
governed once more by a single ruler. The Emperor's two sons,
L. Aurelius Commodus (born 161 A.D.) and Annius Yerus, had
received the title of Caesar in 166 A.D., and it is probable that, if
they had both lived, Marcus would have committed the Empire to
the joint rule of the two brothers. But Annius, the younger, died
in 170 A.D., and Commodus was the only surviving son of a large

548 PEINC1PATE OF MAKCUS AUBELIUS CHAP, xxvm.

family. On the Emperor's return to Home after the revolt of Cassius,
he received the title Imperator, shared in his father's triumph, and
'was designated to the consulate for the following year, notwith-
standing his extreme youth. At the same time he received the
tribunician power (before Dec. 10th, 176), and in 177 A.D. was
raised to\ hold the same place which L. Verus had held, and be
his father's peer, with the title Augustus. Commodus was not
indeed of a radically bad nature, but he was utterly weak, devoid of
judgment, and self-indulgent. He was a man who could not possi-
bly make a good or even a tolerable ruler. Marcus cannot have
been blind to the faults of his son's character, and he has been
severely blamed for sacrificing the good of the state to his feelings
ot paternal affection. His son-in-law Claudius Pompe anus, who
had married Lucilla, the widow of Verus, would have bt en a better
choice. On the other hand, if he set aside Commodus, who might
naturally consider himself as having a right to succied, there was
the probability of a civil war. The imperial constitution provided:
no means of avoiding such a necessity of a choice between evi >
occasionally arising; and it would be difficult to say that of the tw<
evils Marcus did not choose the lesser.

§ 17. In the meantime the conquered nations on the Danube
frontier had violated the peace. Marcus had hardly turned his
back, when the Quadi and Marcomanni, uneasy under the con-
straint of the Roman garrisons, determined to take advantage of
the revolt of Cassius, and they rebelled. Thus Marcus, when he
returned from the east, was forced to begin a second Marcomannic
war, just as Trajan had been forced to undertake the second Dacian
war; and if he had lived, this too would have been, like Trajan's.
a war of extermination. This time Marcus was attended to the
scene of war by his son Commodus. It is related that before he
left Rome he conformed to the old custom of hurling a bloody
javelin in front of the temple of Bellona. The details of this war
(178-180 A.D.) are unknown. We hear of a great victory gained
by a general named Paternus, in consequence of which Marcus was
proclaimed Imperator for the tenth time. The Marcomanni seem
to have been completely subjugated ; and the Quadi suffered so
severely that they wished to move northward and settle in the land
of the Semnones, but were compelled to remain where they were and
cultivate the land for the Roman garri>ons. The -lazyges seem to have
submitted more readily, and received favourable terms. The hardest
burdens which had been before imposed upon them were abolished;
and the important right was conceded to them of passing thro 'gh
Dacia, in order to keep up communication with their Sirmatian
brethren in the east, the Roxolani. We may conclude that Marcus

J80 A.D. DEATH OF MARCUS. 54:9

was on the point of organising Jazygia as a Koman province, and
that Marcomannia would soon have been treated in the same way.
It was a critical moment. The reduction of an important part of
central Europe under direct Kornan sway — which would have had
its effect on the future history of those lauds — was a matter of a lew
months. The frontier of the Empire was about to be extended to
the Elbe, and a design, which had fallen through under Augustus
well-nigh two centuries ago, was on the eve of being accomplished.
But on March 17, A.D. 180, Marcus Aurelius died in the camp at
Vindobona. He was not yet sixty years of age, but his body seems
to have been exhausted by the fatigues of military life, and he was
carried off by fever. His death doomed his plans to disappointment.
His worthless son Commodus immediately abandoned the results
which had been achieved by his father's statesmanlike resolution
and admirable perseverance. Eager to return to Rome and get rid
of the war, the young Emperor, instead of completing the work
of annexation, granted favourable terms to the Marcomanni and
the Quadi, and so stultified his father's long campaign.

§ 18. A very important result of these wars of Marcus must be
briefly noticed here, though it really belongs to the history of the
following century. The system of settling large bodies of Germans
and Sarmatians on Roman soil as military coloni now regularly
began. Marcus (172 A.D.) made such settlements in Pannonia,
Mcesia, Dacia, and Germany. He even attempted to relieve the
depopulation of Italy by establishing a barbarian colony near
Ravenna, but the settlers tried to seize Ravenna, and the idea
was abandoned. Land was assigned to them, and they were
free; but their freedom was limited in so far as they were not per-
mitted to leave their lands. They were also bound to perform
military service. Thus both the cultivation and the military
defence of frontier districts, where such settlements were made,
depended upon the same persons. The development of the colonatus
to its final form took place during the third century. It is to be
carefully observed, however, that this institution did not arise solely
from the sett.ement of foreign captives. The military co onatus
was only one form of a system which resulted from the economic
conditions of the Empire itself. Tenants by contract, who were
unable to meet heavy arrears of rent, lapsed into the state of coloni,
attached to their landlord's soil by a tie which was practically,
though at first not legally, obligatory. It also happened that small
proprietors who had failed and become bankrupt, voluntarily ceded
their ownership to others an.l took upon themselves the yoke of the
colonate as an improvement in tluir condition.

The beginning of the military colonate is one of the circum-

550 PRINClPATE OF MARCUS AURELIUS. CHAP. xxvm.

stances w' ich show that in the reign of Marcus Aurelins we stand
ou the threshold of the Decline of the Roman Empire. For the
breaking up of the Empire was due not only to the invasion of
Teutonic nations from without, but also to the presence of a large
Teutonic element, within. It is also significant that the other
i eat t«>rce, which, besides the Teutonic nations, \\as ins' rumen al
i i d^inte^ra'ing the Empire and transforming the condition of
E impo, namrly the Christian religion, appears promiiiHntly for
the first time in the reun of Marcus, and comes for the first time
into serious collision with the state.*

* See below. Chap. XXX. $ 24.

Lucius Verus.

Mausoleum of Hadrian.

CHAPTER XXIX.

LITERATURE UNDER HADRIAN AND THE ANTONTNES.

§ 1. Characteristics of Greek and Latin literature in this period.
Archaism. Decline of nationality. § 2. Poetry. Hadrian an!
Florus. § 3. Suetonius Tranquillus. Florus. § 4. Pronto. § 5.
The Pervigilium Veneris. § 6. Aulus Gellius. § 7. Terentius
Scaurus. Sulpicius Apollinaris. L. Ampelius. Junius Ruslious.
§ 8. GREEK LITERATURE. Arrian. § 9. Appian. Polyaenus. § 10.
Ptolemy, the geographer. Pausanias, the traveller. * § 11. ^EJius
Aristides. § 12. Lucian. § 13. Greek Poetry.

§ 1. THE reijin of Hadrian inaugurated a new era in Latin literature,
and was also marked by a renaissance of Greek literature. HADRIAN
himself dabbled in literature and science, and as-iduously cultivated
the society of men of letters. He founded a sort of academy at
Rome called the Afhenseum, in which rhetoricians, philosophers, and
poets could read their compositions. He produced some slight com-
positions both in verse and in prose, but they were only the work of
a dilettante. He affected the style of the older Latin writers, pre-
ferring Cato to Cicero and Ennius to Virgil. Here he was following
the tendency of his age. In fact it might almost be said that the

552 LITERATURE. CHAP. XXK.

" note " of the literature of the second century was an affectation
of archaic style. The man of letters spent much of his time in
searching among old writers for unusual expressions and obsolete
words, which he then introduced in his own compositions.
Recondite learning was thus in fashion ; rhetoricians and gram-
marians were the leaders in library taste. The whole movement
— revival of interest in the early national literature, and the taste
for archaism in style — has parallels in similar movements in modern
times. Only a few writers, trained on the precepts of Quintilian,
escaped this prevailing tendency.

But on the other hand, the Roman literature of this period is
distinctly becoming less national and more cosmopolitan. Greek
and Latin come into closer contact, and many writers — such as
Hadrian himself (like Claudius), Fronto, Suetonius, Apuleius —
compose works in both tongues.

Literature and learning were patronised by the Antonines as well
as by Hadrian. Antoninus Pius, following his predecessor's example,
endowed chairs of philosophy and rhetoric in various cities
throughout the Empire; and also accorded privileges of exemption
from taxes to a certain number of sophists, grammarians, and
physicians in both small and large towns. Under his reign both
Fronto, the representative of Latin, and Herodes Attlcus, the represen-
tative of Greek literature, had the honour of being consuls. MARCUS
AURELIUS was not only a patron of learning, but a man of letters
himself,* although the interest of his Meditations lies entirely in
the matter, and not at all in the literary form, for which it can
only be said that it is quite free from affectation.

SECT. I. — LATIN LITERATURE.

§ 2. In the reign of Hadrian, Juvenal wrote some of his Latin
satires, but there was no other poet of distinction. ANNIANUS sang
the pleasures of country life. FLORUS wrote pretty trifles, and
interchanged verses with the Emperor. He jested at Hadran's
travels in the following lines : f

" I would rather not be Caesar,
Have to haunt Batavian marshes,
Lurk about among the Britons,
Feel the Scythian frosts assail me."

* His Meditations— the work is entitled Hadrian : Ego nolo Floras esse,
" To Himself " (ei? eavrov] — has been Ambulare per tabernas.

spoken of in the foregoing chapter ($ 1).
•f Florus : Ego nolo Caesar esse,

Ambulare per [Batavos,

Latitare per popinas.
Culices pati rotundos.
The English version was supplied b.\

Latitare per] Britannos, I Mr. Hodgkin.

Scythicas pati pruinas.

OHAP. xxix. SUETONIUS. 553

To which Hadrian replied :

"I would rather not be Florus,
Have to haunt the Roman taverns.
Lurk about among the cook.-hops,
Feel the bossy bowl assail me."

The lines of Hadrian to his soul have already been quoted. Tl>e
versatile Emperor, besides several works in Greek, wrote an auto-
biography, which was published by his freed man PHLEGON, but lias
not come down to us. Phlegon himself wrote a history, entitled
Olympiads, in the Greek language.

§ 3. C. SUETONIUS TBANQUILLUS (about 75-1^0 A.D.) had filled
some posts under Trajan, and afterwards became private secreta' y
(magister epistularum) to Hadrian. He was a polymath, thp
Varro of this period ; and wrote on all kinds of Mibjccts His
Prata or "Miscellanies" was an encyclopaedic work giving an
account of Roman institutions and customs, chronology and dr« KB,
with special attention to the interpretation of words; also dealin-
with natural philosophy, and keeping specially in view ihe lavourite
parallel between nature and man. Most of his works are lost. \\ e
possess only his Lives of tie Caesars, and fragments of his accounts
of famous men (J)e viris illmtribus). The De vita C&sarum is
divided into eight Books. The first six Caasars, beginning with
Julius,* occupy each one Book ; the seventh is devoted to Galba,
Otho, and Vitellius, the eighth to the three Flavian Emperors. The
work is strictly biographical, not historical, and thereiore a pre-
ponderance is given to anecdotes and personal details. The writer
had good materials at his disposal, but is not critical, though, as far
as we can judge, impartial in recording all that he could learn, and
thought likely to be interesting. His De viris illustribus was
confined to men who had made a mark in any branch of Roman
literature. We possess the lives of Terence, Horace, and, in part, of
Lucan, and fragments of the life of the elder Pliny.

FLORUS composed an abridgment of Roman military history f in
two books, reaching down as far as Augustus, and founded chiefly
on Livy. The first book deals with the best days of Rome, the
second with her decline, the line of division being drawn at the
Gracchatj age. The work is written in a rhetorical and exaggt rated
style. His objec', it has been said, was " not to record the wars ot
Rome, but to praise her empire." It is possible that this Florus
was the same as the poet of that name. J

§ 4. The three great representatives of Latin literature in the

* The beginning of the life of Julius i rum omnium annorum DCC libri duo.
is missing. J See above, Chap. XXV. $ 25.

f Title : Epitomaj de Tito Livio bello-
24

554 LITEEATUBB. CHAP. xxix.

age of the Antonines were Fronto, Aulus Grellius, and Apuleius.
As Fronto was a native of Cirta, and Apuleius of Madaura, Africa is
beginning to take the same place in Roman literature which Spain
had taken in the previous century.

M. CORNELIUS FRONTO (about 100-175 A.D.) has been already
mentioned as a teacher of M. Aurelius, and his correspondence with
his pupil has been referred to. He was a learned rhetorician, and
in point of style he may be said to have given the tone to the age.
He cultivated what he called an elocutio novella, marked by quaint
expressions, uncommon words, archaic images, and he found a host
of imitators. In fact he headed a reaction against the style repre-
sented by Seneca, which reminds us in some ways of the reaction
in English literature of the present century against the style of the
eighteenth. He tried to return, partially at least, to pre-Ciceronian
Latin. Besides the Letters, he wrote essays on eloquence, comparing
its value with that of philosophy ; a panegyric on L. Verus, for his
conduct of the eastern war, entitled Principia Historise, and other
treatises. The letters are very interesting, although they are full
of mannerisms, and give little information as to contemporary
history.

§ 5. Under the influence of the literary movement, of which
Fronto was the chief representative, was composed a notable poem,
of unknown authorship, entitled the I'ervigilium Veneris, in tro-
chaic septenarian metre. It is inspired by the spring-time, intended
perhaps to be sung at a spring festival, and celebrates the power of
Venus in nature. The refrain of the poem is

Cras amet qui numquam amavit, quique amavit eras amet.

§ 6. AULUS GELLIUS flourished under Marcus, and wrote a mis-
«ellam»ous collection of details on ancient literature and language,
in twenty books, called Noctes Atticse. He was a man of very
mediocre talent, but great diligence, and his work contains much
valuable information. In fondness of archaic expression he went
with the tendency of his age, of which, in his vory mediocrity, he
is a typical example. Hero-worship was a mcessity to him; and
like most of his contemporaries, he had no critical faculty.

Of a very different order of merit was APULEIUS (born about
125 A.D.), son of a duovir at Madaura. He studied at "Attic
Athens," as he calls it in Plautine phrase, and for some time
practised as a pleader at Rome. He married a rich widow, much
«»l«ler than him s-- If, ^Emilia Pudentilla, whom he met at OEa on a
journey from Madaura to Alexandria ; and her kinsfolk brought a
suit against him for having won her affections by magic. To defend
himself he composed his Apologia, which has come down to us, and

CHAP. xxnc. APULEIUS. 555

in which he seems to have easily disposed of his accusers. After
this he lived at Carthage, from which he sometimes made tours
through the cities of Africa to deliver public addresses, after the
fashion of the Greek rhetoricians.

Apnleius had a decidedly original talent, a lively fancy, and
considerable literary powers. But he was completely dominated by
the mannerisms of his age, which have been already noted ; and he
had not a sufficient faculty of criticism to guide his taste, and
determine the legitimate limits within which a literary stylist may
affect a flavour ot antiquity, or to discern the point at which quaint-
ness passes into absurdity.

Besides the Apologia, the following works are preserved. The
Florida is an "anthology" of his lectures and speeches, on various
subjects. The Metamorphoses, in eleven Books, is the work on
which his fame rests. The subject is probably borrowed from the
Lucius of the contempoiary Greek writer Lucian, who in turn
derived it from the Metamorphoses of a certain Lucius of Patras.
The story recounts the experiences of a man who had been trans-
formed into an ass. Apuleius introduced various episodes, of which
the most striking is the charmingly told legend ot Amor and Psyche.
B< -sides these works, there are some philosophical treatises by
Apuleius, who professed the Platonic philosophy. The De deo
Socratis expounds the Platonic doctrine of God and the daemons.
The treatise on " Plato and his dogmas" deals with natural and
moral science, and the De Mundo reproduces the tract "On the
Kosmos " falsely ascribed to Aristotle.

§ 7. The activity of the jurists, the works of Julian and Gaius,
have been already mentioned. Grammar was a very popular study
at this time. Under Hadiian it was represented by Q. TERENTIUS
SCAURUS, who wrote a Latin grammar and commentaries on Plautus,
Virgil, and Horace. A little later C. SULPICIUS APOLLINARIS of
Carthage wrote Qusesti^nes Epistolicx, dealing with grammatical
and literary questions, and composed metrical arguments to the
plays of Terence and the JEneid. He was the teacher of Aulus
Gellius.

The Liber Memorialis of L. AMPELIUS, describing the geography
of the worM, and the doings of mankind — with a resume of Greek,
Roman, and Eastern history — probably belongs to this age.

The most distinguished philosopher was tl>e Stoic Junius
Rusticus, a revered master of Marcus Aurelius, who mentions that
Rusticns ii<duced him to abandon the rhetorical triflings, to which
he had devoted himself under the influence of Fronto, and study
the books of Epictetus.

The first apology for Christianity in Latin was composed in this

556 LITERATURE. CHAP. xxix.

age, by Miuucius Felix. This curious and interesting work will be
referred to in the following chapter.*

SECT. II. — GREEK LITERATURE.

§ 8. One of the most characteristic figures of the Greek renais-
sance under Hadrian was FLAVIUS ARRIANUS of Nicomedia, in Bi-
thynia, who, as has been often noticed, has many points of
resemblance with Xenophon. The same kind of induence that
Socrates exercised on Xenophon was exercised on Arrian by the
Stoic philosopher Epictetus. And though, like Xenophon, drawn
to philosophy in his youth, like Xenophon also he chose a practical
career. He was consul suffect in 130 A.D., and governor of Cappa-
docia from 131 to 137 A.D. ; and we meet him as archon at Athens in
147 A.D. Like Xenophon again, he wrote on all subjects. (1) His
philosophical works were devoted to the exposition of the teaching
of his master. The Enchiridion is a short handbook to Stoic
morality as taught by Epictetus ; and the Diatribe Epicteti (in
eight Books, of which four are preserved) gave a fuller account of his
doctrines. (2) In imitation of Xenophon's Anabasis of Cyrus in
seven Books, Arrian wrote the Anabasis of Alexander in seven
Books. This was the most important of his historical works, and
has luckily been preserved. The author docs not confine himself
to the eastern expedition of his hero, but gives a full biography. The
tale is told simply, on the model of Xenophon, and without
rhetorical ornament. In connection with this work, Arrian also
wrote an account of India (the Indict t) chiefly geographical, in
Ionic dialect.f His other historical works are lost. They included
a history of the Diadochi ; a history of Bithynia ; biographies of
Timoleou and Dion ; a history of Trajan's Parthian wars ; and a
work on the Alans (of which an important fragment is extant).
(3) Arrian's Pe>iplus, or account of a circumnavigation of the
Euxine Sea, has been already mentioned.J He also wrote (4) a
treatise on Tactics, and (5) a work on hunting (f^ytt^geticus),
being a continuation of Xenophon's tract on that subject. All these
have come down to us.

The significance of Arrian in the history of Greek literature is
that he belonged to the Atticising school, of which Lucian was the
chief representative. The return to the style of Plato and Xeno-
phon involved a reaction against the style represented by Polybitis
— that is, against the natural development of the Greek language—

* Chap. XXX. $ 26. | tries.

t He chose this dialect in imitation of J See aibove, Chap. XXVI. 0 16.
Herodotus' description of strange coun- |

CBAP. xxix.

GREEK HISTORIANS.

557

and could not be permanent. It may be added, that notwithstanding
all his care to write pure Attic, Arrian often falls into errors.

§ 9. APPIAN of Alexandria wrote his History of Rome * about
160 A.D. He had come to Rome in the reign of Hadrian, and
through Fronto's influence obtained the post of a procurator. The
most remarkable point about Appian's history is its arrangement
He abandoned the chronological method, adopted by most his-
torians of that time, and arranged his work in subject groups.
Thus his history consists of a number of special histories. One
Book dealt altogether with Spanish events, and was entitled Iberik \
another with lllyricum (Illyrike)\ five books were devoted to the
civil wars (Emphytia).-f Appian wrote without any regard to style,
and his pages are lull of Latinisms.

POLY^INUS of Macedonia wrote a work entitled Strategemato, in
eight Books, which he dedicated to the Emperors Marcus Aurelius
and L. Verus. This has come down to us almost entire. It is a
collection of strategic tricks which had been actually used by
generals in the course of Greek history. The writer shows no
discrimination in the choice or use of his material.

§ 10. The great astronomer and geographer PTOLEMY of Alex-
andria flourished under Marcus Aurelius. His chief works are the
Great System of Astronomy, and the Guide to Geography, con-
taining, besides the text, a number of maps based on mathe-
matical computations. Both these works may be said to
have been epoch-making. A short work by Ptolemy on the theory
of music is also preserved. Here may be mentioned also a hexa-
meter poem of DIONYSIUS (" the Periegete " J) describing the world,
which afterwards came to be used in schools.

Of PAUSANIAS, who wrote a "Tour round Greece," § we know
nothing personally, except that he was born or lived in the
neighbourhood of Mount Sipylus in Asia Minor, and that he wrote
under Marcus Aurelius. His work, in ten Book-, de-scribes a tour
he made through the greater part of Greece. He professes to
describe all the buildings, statues, and works of historical or artistic
interest which he saw in his travels, and he often goes into long
historical and mythological digressions. || But while there can be no
doubt that he visited all the countries which he describes, he seems

= Bk. 6 ;

f These Books (
IXAvpiKTJ = part of Bk.
Bks. 13-18), along with 'Ai/i/i0ai/cT) =Bk.7,
AI/SUKTJ = Bk. 8, Svpifluaj = Bk. 1 1, Miflpi-
fiareios = Bk. 12, and fragments of the
Ma/ceSoviKT; (part of Bk. 9) have been
preserved. This arrangement of his his-
tory according to subject was suggested

to Appian by the example of the historian
Ephorus.

J The name of his work i> Ilepu/yrjeris
TTJS oi/eofo/ixias.

$ Ilepujyrjo-i? nijs 'EMafio?.

|| Bk. 1 describes Attica ; Bk. 2 Corinth
and Argolis ; Bk. 3Laconia ; Bk. 4 Messe-
nia ; Bks. 5 and 6 Klis ; Bk. 7 Achaia ; Bk. 8
Arcadia ; Bk. 9 Bonrtia ; Bk. 10 Phocis.

558 LITERATURE. CHAP. xxi*f

to have written his work from memory, on his return home, or not
to have kept a very careful note-book. For he omits all mention
of many important monuments which we know to have been
in existence in his time. But notwithstanding his many omissions,
his book is priceless now to the archaeological student. It was
through a notice of Pausanias that Schliemarm was enabled to
discover the royal sepulchres in the agora of Mycenae. For the
Messeniau wars, the fourth Book of Pausanias is our chief source.

§ 11. The great sophist, ^ELIUS ARISTIDES, was a native of Mysia
(born in 117 A.D.). He sat at the feet of the most celebrated
masters of the soptiistic art, Herodes Atticus at Athens, Polemo at
Smyrna, and others. When his education was finished, he travell- d
about, through Egypt, Asia Minor, and Greece, seeing the world
and delivering lectures. He also visited Rome. But his head-
quarters were at Smyrna. He died about 185 A.D. Fifty-five of
his discourses nave come down to us ; most of them are speeches in
the proper .sense of the word, but some are in the form of letters.
Many ot them turn on events and situations of ancient history. In
one he declaims on the Athenian expedition to Sicily, in another on
the peace with Sparta ; while no less than five are devoted to the
situation of Athens, in respect to Sparta and Thebes, after the
battle of Leuctra. Two declamations discuss the question at issue
in the speech of Demosthenes in reply to Leptines. The Pan-
athenaikos is a panegyric on Athens, in imitation of the like-named
speech of Isocrates ; and the glory of the same city is the keynote
of the discourse On Behalf of the Four* that is, the four Athenian
statesmen, Themistocles, Miltiades, Cimon, and Pericles, whom
Plato attacked in the Gorgias. The Panegyric on Rome was de-
livered in 160 A.D. The five Sacred Discourses, f give an account
of the author's long illness, and of the miraculous cures which at
last gave him relief. They are interesting as a picture of the
superstitions of the age. The Discourses in honour of gods illustrate
the tendency then prevailing to interpret It gend allegoricallv. The
Discourse to Poseidon wa^ delivered at a celebration of the Isthmian
games, and that to ^Esculapius on the occasion of the dedication of
his temple at Cyzicus. The general impression left upon the reader
by the works of Aristides is that he is dealing with an author who
operates entirely with words, and cares nothing about ideas. And
Aristides confessed, or rather boasted, himself, that he set words
above everything. He was not a ready speaker; he rather despised
extempore speech. He polished his sentences to the highest
point, and through his extreme artificiality and subtlety is often
obscure.

* 'Yirep iwv rerrapw. "f ' lepoi Aoyoi.

CHAP,

LUCIAN.

559

§ 12. LUCIAN of Samosata (born about 125 A.D.) not only is by
far the greatest figure in the Greek literature of the second century,
but holds a distinguished place in the literature of the world. He
tells us in his Dream how an accident saved him from becoming
a sculptor and made him a man of letters. His parents had been
in doubt whether they should apprentice him to his uncle, who
was a sculptor, or give him a literary education. The consideration
that a course of study renuired so much money and time decided
them in favour of the former alternative ; and, besides, the boy had
displayed some skill in making wax figures. But in the first days
ot his apprenticeship Lucian smashed a block of marble in pieces,
by striking it with too much force, and was beaten by his master
for his awkwardness. This incident, reinforced by a dream which
had appeared to him, decided him to abandon the sculptor's trade.
Techne (Art) and Paideia (Culture) had come to him in his
sleep, each inviting him to follow her way ; and the promises of
Paideia, who pointed to the glories of a rhetorician's career, had forced
her rival to retire. Lucian's parents allowed him to return to his
studies. When his education was finished, he travelled about, like
Aristides, delivering public addresses. Of these some have survived,
and one especially deserves mention, as displaying that literary
talent which was afterwards developed in other kinds of composi-
tion. This is the Lawsuit of Letters ; a lawsuit between Sigma
and Tau, brought before the court of the Vowels. Sigma com-
plains of having been ousted from a number of Greek words in
Attic speech, to make room for Tau (like thulatta for thalassa).

But although he was successful as a sophist or rhetorician, a man
with Lucian's powers could not rest satisfied with an art which
after all was so hollow. He took up his quarters at Athens and
devoted himself to philosophy. This new study had an effect on
the form of his literary compositions, leading him to discover and
adopt the style which suited his genius best. He now composed
dialogues instead ot speeches, and abandoned the elaborate periods
which were considered an essential feature of rhetoric. He is the
creator of satirical Dialogue. In the later years of his life,
indeed, when the freshness of his muse WHS exhausted, he returned
to the composition of Discourses. He also left Athens, and accepted
a public post in Egypt, where he died (probably in the reign of
Commodus, certainly later than 180 A.D.).

The "Dialogues of the Gods"* are the best known and most
original of Lucian's works. Among the most witty and amusing

* Under this geivral heading we may
include (1) Dialogues of the (celestial)
Qoda ; (2) Dialogues of the Sea ; (3) Dia-

logues of the Dead ; (4) Prometheus or
Caucasus; (5) Cataplus; (6) Charon; (7)
Menippua; (8) Ic .romenippus.

560

LITERATURE.

OHAP. xxix.

are those in which the satirical philosopher Menippus recounts his
experiences in the under-world and describes visits which, having
put on the wings of Icarus, he made to the moon and Olympus.
i he subject of the Charon is a visit which the ferryman of Styx
made to the upper-world. Parnassus is placed on the top of Ossa
and Olympus, and from the summit Charon gazes upon the world
of men and their follies. In all these dialogues Lucian contends
against superstition with the weapons of ridicule, and exposes the
absurdities of pagan theology by ludicrous situations In others he
attacks the gods more directly. In Zeus under Examination*
an Epicurean philosopher examines the god as to the incom-
patibility of the necessity of fate with the free-will of the gods, and
reduces him to a dilemma. The dialogue entitled Timon (the
misanthrope) is also very clever. Of those dialogues which ridicule
philosophical imposture, the most striking perhaps is the Hermo-
timus, which aims at showing the mistake of accepting any
philosophical system. The Cynic is very bitter against the
Cynics and shows the follies of rejecting the good things which
nature offers us. The Philosopher's Auction and the Parasite musi
also be mentioned. The Lexiphanes is an attack on the "eu-
phuists " of his own day.

Lucian also composed some works in epistolary form. Alex-
ander or the False Prophet gives a biography of the Cagliostro of
that, day, an impostor who professed to have divine powers and
work all sorts of miracles and who closely resembled Apollonius of
Tyana. The Pereyrinus is another attack on the Cynics. The
Professor of Rhetoric} is a bitter caricature of a rhetorician or sophist,
and was probably aimed at some particular person. The celebrated
pamphlet How History should be written^, ridicules writers who
undertook to describe the contemporary Parthian war of 165 A.D.
in tue style of Thucydides or Herodotus.

Other worRs, which deserve mention, are the True Stories, a
satire on contemporary novelists; and the romance entitled
Lucius or Ass which has already been referred to in connection
with Apuldus.

There is a great charm about Lucian's graceful and easy style.
He had mastered with marvellous thoroughness the Attic idiom ;
and his is one of the few cases in which a return to the speech
and style of ancient models has been happy and effective. He
was unusually well read in the great works of classical literature,
and not the least attraction in his writings is that one is ever

* Zev? eAeyxofieyos, " Zeus being con-
futed." The Epicurean ppears under the
guise of a cynic.

t

rhetors."
£ LI w9 6ei i

fiiSaoxoAos, "teacher o

CHAP, xxnt

LUCIAN.

561

coming across a phrase from Homer, an echo of Aristophanes, or a
reminiscence of Plato

§ 13. Greek poetry had wholly declined. The only kind of
poetical composition still practised with any success was epigram
The poetess BALBILLA has been already mentioned as accompanying
the Empress Sabina on her visit to Egypt. OPPIAN of Corycus in
Cilicia wrote a work on fishing in five Books, entitled Halieutica.
The hexameters flow easily enough, but it has no poetic merit.
Oppian's father was banished, but the son won the favour of Marcus
Aurelius (169 A.D.), and procured his father's pardon. The date of
BABRIUS is uncertain, but he certainly lived in the first or second
century A.D. He wrote a collection of ^Esopic fables (in two
books). The metre is choliambic. Nearly all the stodes are taken
from older sources ; but a few seem to have been invented by the
author.

Head of Antinous (worn the bust in the British Museum).
24*

Temple of Venus and Rome (as it appears at the present day).

CHAPTER XXX.

THE ROMAN WORLD UNDER THE EMPIRE. POLITICS, PHILOSOPHY,
RELIGION, AND ART.

1. Tendency of the Principate to absolutism. Defects of the Principate
as a form of government. Tendency to a military monarchy. § 2.
Growing importance of provinces. Edict of Caracalla. Tendency to
uniformity. Elements of disintegration in the second century. Finan-
cial mistakes. § 3. Felicity of the second century. Brilliant legisla-
tion. Spirit of humanity. § 4. PHILOSOPHY. Diffusion among the
Romans. § 5. Epicureanism. § 6. Stoicism. § 7. Seneca. § 8.
Musonius Rufus. § 9. Epictetus. § 10. Marcus Aurelius. § 11.
Cynicism. Demetrius, Demonax, and Peregrinus, § 12 General
resemblance of these philosophies. § 13. Natural antipathy of Romans
to philosophy. Difference in the attitude of the government in first
and second centuries. § 14. Philosophers unpopular with the masses.
§ 15. Quarrels between philosophers and rhetoricians. § 16. Sham
philosophers. § 17. Cosmopolitanism. § 18. Suicide. § 19. RELIGION.
Strength and permanence of the national Roman and Greek religions.
§ 20. Different attitude to religion in the first and in the second
century A.D. Superstition. § 21. Religion maintained by Emperors.
§ 22. Judaism. § 23. Christianity. Causes of its success. § 24.
Attitude of the Emperors to Christianity. Its unpopularity. Re-
scripts of Marcus Aurelius. § 25. Apologies of Aristides, Justin, anJ
Minucius Felix. § 26. Christian heresies. § 27. ART. Architecture.
3 23. Sculpture. § 29. Painting.

27 B.C.-180 A.D. THE DYARCHY. 563

SECT. I. — THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRIKCIPATE.

§ 1. IT will be well here to recapitulate the chief features which
we have observed from time to time in the foregoing pages as
marking the political development of the Pducipate, from its
inauguration by Augustus to the death of Marcus Aurelius.

(i) In the first place, the relations between the Emperor and
the senate in their joint rule, gradually shift to the advantage of
the Emperor at the expense of the senate. The dyarchy insiituted
by Augustus has set a long way in the direction of pure monarchy
by the time of Marcus. In general, the unlimited autocratic
power which the Emperor possessed in the large dominions subject
to his iniperium, reacted on his limited power in Rome and Italy.
The man who was absolute monarch abroad could hardly help
working towards the acquisition of absolute power at home also ;
and if he worked towards it, ~e could not help winning it. (1) In
particular the constitutional position of the Princeps was strengthened
by new prerogatives, especially by the censorial power, which was
openly usurped by Domitian, and silently adopted by his more
tactful successors. (2) The sphere of the Emperor's competence in
Italy and Rome was enlarged. (3) His " province" was enlarged,
by the acquisition of new territories, especially Biitain and Dacia.
(4) His power of interfering in senatorial provinces by virtue of
his maius imperium was more clearly recognised, and more
frequently exercised. None of these tendencies has reached its
final consummation at the end of the second century, but it is
already quite evident to what point the Empire is drifting. The
dyarchy will be subverted, and the Princeps will become an absolute
monarch ; the distinction between Italy and the provinces will
disappear; and the distinction between senatorial and imperial
provinces will be obliterated. And therefore, when th«>se chajacttr-
istic principles, which distinguish the Principate from other forms
of monarchical government, have been undermined, the Piincipate
its* If will come to an end (285 A.D.), and an undisguised autocracy
will take its place.

Practically, indeed, though not theoretically, the Emperors of
the second century were very nearly absolute monarchs. Ovid had
distinguished Augustus from Romulus as a princeps from a
dominus ; but, a hundred years later, the Princeps is generally
addressed as Dominus. In the first century there is a continuous
struggle, sometimes acute, between the two members of the
dyarchy. In the second century, this struggle is over ; the senate
acknowledges its master without murmuring ; and the Emperors

564 EOMAN WORLD UNDER THE EMPIRE CHAP, xxx

find it convenient to be extremely conciliatory and considerate in
their relations with that body.

As a political machine, the Principate cannot be pronounced a
success. It is hardly, perhaps, fair to say that it rested on a
transparent falsehood. It certainly professed to be a republic,
whereas in reality it was a monarchy; it disguised monarchical
government undor republican forms. But this want of candour,
which was essential to it, cannot in itself be reasonably called a
fault. If the maintenance of republican forms had given general
satisfaction, it could not be censured. The real fault WHS that the
disguise did not succeed. The Principate did not accomplish the
object which was the sole justification of such a cumbrous machine.
It did not satisfy the higher classes, in whose hands the government
had rested before and after the dictatorship of Cassar. The aris-
tocracy had governed so badly that monarchy was necessary ; but
when monarchy was established, the aristocracy could not with
impunity be disregarded. Thus the problem set to the new monarch
was to frame a constitution of such a kind that the aristocracy
should have a sufficient share in the government to satisfy them,
and congenial political employment. That the ingenious experi-
ment which Augustus made to solve this problem was a failure, is
proved by the history of the first century, and the writings of
Tacitus. A form of government in which a large and influential
class, or a large section of such a class, does not acquiesce, or only
acquiesces through fear, is, so far, a failure. One cannot sympathise
with the desire of men like Thrasea and Helvidius to recall the
Republic, but their opposition shows the weak point of the Princi-
pate. The aristocracy no longer felt themselves free. If Augustus
had had the experience of modern Europe, and known something
about the working of ministries, he might have made a better attempt
at establishing a monarchy, to which the nobles would have been
more .easily reconciled.

(2) The military side of the Empire becomes more pronouncedt
The elevation of both Claudius and Nero was due to the attitude
of the military forces at Rome. The events of the year 69 A.D.
proved still more clearly that the creation of Empt rors depended on
the armies, and showed, too, that they need not be created at Rome.
Trajan was a military monarch, and in his time the title Imperator
begins to come into common use, instead of Princeps, to designate
the Emperor, without special reference to his position as Commander-
in-chief.

§ 2. (3) Another tendency which we have frequently noticed is
the growing importance of the provinces. It was the provincial
administration which above all things had made the Empire a

27 B.C.- ! 80 AD. WEAK POINTS IN THE EMPIRE. 565

necessity; and it was in the provincial administration above all
things i hat the Empire was a success. The elevation of Emperors
of provincial family — beginning with Trajan — is in itself an im-
portant sign of the ten iency to |>rora«.te the provinces to the level of
Italy. The Roman semte, ever since the censorship ©f Vespasiau>
was recruited from provincial, as well as Italian families. The
extension of Roman citizenship was destined to reach its culmina-
tion, only thirty-two years after tt.e death of Marcus, wheu the
Constitutio Antoniniana of Caracalla conferred it on all the suojects
nf the Empire (212 A.D.).

(4) The tendency to political uniformity between the various
parts of the Empire is (1) one of the many tendencies, perceptible
in the second century, which were destined to weaken and disinte-
grate the empire. Closely connected with it is (2) the policy of
limiting the local self-government of both Italian and provincial
communities, a policy which was ultimately to result in a thorough-
going centralisation, and to paralyse municipal life throughout the
Roman world. On the other hand the policy of converting non-
municipal into municipal communities was largely adopted. An-
other sign of what was to come hereafter may be seen in (3) the
revolt of Avidius Cassius, which suggests the division and opposition
of interests between the eastern and western halves of the Empire.*
(4) The wars of Marcus on the Danube are a foretaste of the danger
which menaced the Empire from the barbarians of central Europe.
A hundred years before, the war of Civilis had shown conspicuously
the strength of the Empire; but the Marcomaunic war rather
displayed its weak points. (5) The system of foreign settlements
in Roman territory, and its significance have been set forth in the
foregoing chapter. (6) The institution of two Augusti k also a
step in the direction of disintegration. (V) Christianity, which
was destined to help in the weakening of the state, begins to
attract attention. But the weakast point of the Empire was its (8)
financial administration. The ancients had very little knowledge
of economical causes and enects ; but it is difficult to see how even'
they could fail to discern the results to which the cheap distribution
of gram at Rome necessarily led. An immense sum was si-ent
every year in order " to keep bread cheap in a city where a variety
of circumstances tended to make it dear. This singular system of
annihilating capital, and ruining agriculture and industry, was so
deeply rooted in the Roman administration, that similar gratuitous
distributions of grain were established at Antioch and Alexandria,
and other cities." f The depreciation of coinage had begun with

* This is shown a few years later by mius Severus and Pescennius Niger,
the struggle between the Emperor Septi- f Finlay, History of Greece, vol. i. p. 43.

566 KOMAN WORLD UN DEE THE EMPIRE. CHAP. xxx.

Nero, and paved the way for the public frauds committed by this
means, on a gigantic scale, by some of the Emperors of the third
century. This policy tended to diminish, and ultimately destroyed
a large part of the trading capital in the Empire. " The laws which
regulate the distribution, the accumulation, and the destruction of
wealth, the demand for labour and the gains of industry, attest that
the depreciation of the currency was one of the most powerful
causes of the impoverishment and depopulation of the Roman
empire in the third century." *

Manners have an important influence on economy ; and luxury
was one of the direct causes of the financial difficulties which
induced Emperors to adopt the dangerous experiment of depreciating
the currency. The costliest articles of Roman luxury were im-
ported from the east, and immense sums of specie were drafted
every year to oriental countries, and never returned. The elder
Pliny speaks of the Arabs as the richest people in the world, " for
the treasures of the Romans and the Parthiaus flow in to them."
The same writer mentions that the luxury of Roman women cost the
state a hundred million sesterces (about £800,000) yearly, which
went to Arabia, India, and China.

§ 3. But though we can detect in the second century these small
beginnings of causes which were subsequently fatal to the Roman
state, no one at that time could possibly dream of such results.
The period from Trajan to the outbreak of the plague under
Marcus, is the most brilliant period of the Empire. Never was
prosperity more widely diffused, seldom was the individual subject
more respectfully considered, than under Antoninus Pius. This
general happiness of a large portion of the world is a pleasant
prospect, though rendered somewhat melancholy by the thought of
the troubles which immediately followed. But the second century
has a far higher significance in the history of the world. Then
began a period of legislation, the like of which men have never
seen, either before or since. The Roman genius for legal construc-
tion entered on the highest phase of its development. Hadrian
inaugurated, Pius and Marcus fostered, the movement which was to
produce Papinian and Ulpian. The principles of jurisprudence which
were developed then, form the basis of the law which at present pre-
vails in most countries of continental Europe. But it is worthy of
note that the spirit of humanity which animated the Roman legis-
lators of this period, was probably a source of weakness for the Empire.
It was a departure from the general traditions of Roman antiquity,
a simultaneous movement in the direction to which not only
Christianity but also the later Greek philosophies were pointing.

* Finlay, History of Greece, voL L p. 52.

27 BO.-180 A.D. EPICUREANISM. 567

Having reviewed the political tendencies of the Empire, we may
now proceed to a brief survey of contemporary philosophy and
religion.

SECT. n. — PHILOSOPHY AND PHILOSOPHERS.

§ 4. The later Greek philosophies, which subordinated theory to
practice and pursued knowledge mainly as a means to happiness,
had been introduced at Rome in the second century B.C. Cicero
made a special study of them, and his numerous treaties contributed
largely to making the Latin world familiar with the tenets of the
Stoics and the Epicureans, the Academicians, the Peripatetics, and
the Sceptics. The three last-named schools, although they possess
considerable interest in the special history of philosophy, were not
prominent under the Empire, and did not at this time exercise
much influence on the spiritual development of mankind. The
Peripatetics, who were the most important of the three, chiefly
confined themselves to the exposition of the writings of Aristotle.
But Stoicism and Epicureanism claim our attention as representing
an important side of the spiritual life of our period.

§ 5. The Epicurean school held that the supreme good was
happiness, and that happiness consisted in pleasure. Virtue, they
said, has no value except in so far as it is a means to enjoying
pleasure. But the wise man will seek pleasure for the whole ot
life, not merely for the moment. Hence he will reject many
momentary pleasures which may entail pains afterwards ; and he
will pay greater attention to the pleasures of hope and memory, and
to spiritual joy, than to sensual pleasures. The supreme good
is thus reduced to a mental condition of tranquillity, which nothing
can shake ; and this condition is impossible, according to Epicurus,
without the practice of virtue, and especially of temperance.
Above all, man must learn not to fear death, and not to be super-
stitious. The Epicureans adopted the atomic theory of the
universe, and did not believe in the existence of the gods or of a
guiding providence. Their theories were presented to the Roman
world in the great poem of Lucretius, who came forward as a
champion against the terrors of religion. Under the Empire the
school continued to exist, and attracted those who desired to lead
a tranquil life, and were repelled by the austerer system of the
Stoics. Horace, who calls himself "a pig of the drove of
Epicurus," * endeavoured to realize this cheerful tranquillity.

§ 6. The Stoic philosophy, which was originated by Zeno f and

* Hpitl.t fc 4. 16 1 Epicuri de grege I t Juvenal, sv. 106 -. Melius nos Zeno-
porctun. j nis praecepta monent.

568 ROMAN WORLD UNDER THE EMPIRE CHAP. xxx.

developed by Chrysippus,* based its system of morality on a
physical theory of the univer.se. The Stoics held that all things
are corporeal ; there is no spiritual, as distinguished from material,
substance. Hence they considered God and nature to be the same.
God is the soul of nature, and nature the body of God. The uni-
verse is a whole, of which all the parts are bound together by law
in a rational order. The parts arc strictly subordinate to the
whole. No single thing is at liberty to isolate itself. From this
principle of the rational order of the world they deduced their
ethics. The supreme good (sammum bunum) for the individual,
is to live in harmony with the whole of which he is a part — " to
live suitably to nature " (yivere convenienter naturx). This is virtue,
and virtue is the supreme goo I. Hence the Stoics reject pleasure
as of no moral worth ; for it is merely a personal end of the
individual, and has no part in the supreme good. They also reject
all external goods, regarding them as morally " indifferent." f
Such things may be used well or ill ; to be without them does not
affect a man's true happiness. The only good is virtue ; and the
only evil vice. Moreover, they did not admit any decree in virtue
and vice. All good acts, they said, are equally right, all bad acts
equally wron^. Their ethics culminated in the paradoxical idea
of the wise man. He, the perfect Stoic philosopher, knows every-
thing. He is the true lawgiver, the true physician the true poet,
the true friend; for he alone has true knowledge of all things
human and divine. He may have never stitched a shoe in his life,
but yet he is a good shoemaker.^ He is only responsible to
himself for his actions ; therefore he is lord of himself and king.

§ 7. This ethical ideal of Stoicism, in its purest and original form
made it exclusive and highly unpopular. A philosophy, which
set up virtue as the sole good, and accounted all other things as
valueless, could not be acceptable to ordinary people. A system
which upheld the absolute sovranty of reason, was not likely to
spread widely. Hence some thought it necessary to soften these
hard sayings, and SENECA, who was essentially a man of com-
promise, presents us with a much milder form of Stoicism than
that of his Greek masters. He even goes so far as to say that he
is b> st who is least bad. Like the older Stoics, he hoLls that the
distinction between God and nature is not primary, but he
emphasizes more strongly the ethical importance of God's

* Horace, Sat., ii. 3. 44: Chrysippi Cur optas quod habes ? " Non nosti quid
porticus et grex. ^ pater," inquit,

f uStai/Jopa. "Chrysippus dicat: sapiens erepidas sibi

niimquam
Nee soleas fecit, sutor tamen est aapieu*.'

Horace, Sat., i. 3. 124 :

Si dives qui sapiens est
Et sutor bonus et solus formosus et est rex,

27 B.C.-180 A.D. STOICISM. 569

providence. He also goes further than they, in making morality
the main purpose of philosophy. It is easy to see that the circum-
stances of the age influenced the spirit of the Stoic teaching. The
decadence of morals, and the despotism of such Emperors as
Caligula and Nero, made men tike with great seriousness thn
problem of finding a firm vantage-ground within the mind itself,
from which to defy fortune. The feeling of human weakness was
also brought home to men in new ways, and this produced a feeling
of sympathy and indulgence, which softened the rigorous piincipie
of Stoic Si If-sufficingness. We can mark these eifects in the
writings of Seneca. No one has taught with more enthusiasm
than he tue independence on ext-rnal tilings, which philosophy can
give. The chief condition of happiness is contempt of death.
And no ancient philosopher has insisted more strongly on the
importance of universal philanthropy, which does not exclude even
the slave. God, he says, dwells in the soul of the slave, as well as
in that of the knight.

§ 8. MUSONIUS RUFUS, a younger contemporary of Seneca,
tau-ht philosophy at Rome in the reign of Nero and Vespasian, and
enjoyed a high reputation. He was a friend of Pastus Thra>ea and
a member of the Stoic party of opposition, and was banished by
Nero in 65 A.D. It has been mentioned before that he was
honourably excepted, when Vespasian ejected the philosophers from
Rome. He seems to have been a man of strong nature, and to have
exercised a great influence on his pupils in strengthening their moral
character. " Every one of us," said a distinguished pupil of his, *
''thought, as he sat listening, that he was personally meant; so
vividly did our master bring the evil qualities of each home to him."
Musonius did not introduce new doctrines; the distinctive character
of his teaching lay in emphasizing strongly, and perhaps extrava-
gantly, spec'al doctrines. Philosophy, he said, is the only way to
virtue ; a philosopher and a good man are synonymous.

§ 9. Musonius was the teacher of the celebrated EPICTETUS, a
native of Hierapolis in Phrygia, a slave of Nero's freedman
E|>aphroditus. He was lame and of weakly body. He hiard the
lectures of Musonius and devoted himself to philosophy. After-
wards he acquired his freedom. Under Domitian he was banished
with the other philosophers from Home, and retired to Nicopolis,
where Arrian was one of his pupils. Hence he is described by a
modern poet as

" That halting slave, who in Nicopolie,
Taugi t Arrian, when Vespasian's brutal son
ClearM Rome of what most shamed him."f

Epictetus. f Matthew Arnold

570 BOMAN WOULD UNDEK THE EMPIRE. CHAP.

Like Seneca and Musou'us he laid the whole weight of philosophy
in ethics. Socrates had taught that the beginning of philosophy is
a painful consciousness of one's ignorance. Epictetus taught that
the beginning of philosophy is a painful consciousness of one's
weakness. In order to b^ good, a man must be convinced that he
is evil. There are two rules for realizing happiness. The first is
to bear with resignation all outward circumstances ; the second is
to renounce desires of outward things. These may be expressed in
two words sust'iin and abstain.* He insists stronuly on divine
providence, the paternal care of God for the world, and the
faultless perfection of the universe. He tries to reconcile the
popular religion with his philosophical pantheism, by explaining the
gods as subordinate beings, derived from the Supreme Being. " Alj
things are full of gorls and daemons." He seems to have believed
in the immortality of the soul, though it is not clear what form his
theory of the life after death assumed. He looks upon the soul as a
stranger to the body, longing to leave it. "Thou art a little soul,"
he said, " bearing up a corpse." f The brotherhood of mankind is
a prominent feature of his teaching.

§ 10. MARCUS AURELIUS was a great admirer of Epictetus, whom
he follows closelyo He neglects physics and dialectics, and denies
that much knowledge is necessary for leading the life of the wise
man. The chief theories on which he builds up his ethical precepts
are the doctrine (which the Stoics derived from Heraclitus), that
all things are in a constant flux, every moment passing into some
new form, and that, in this great stream of the world, the life of an
individual is of absolutely no account. On the other hand, this
eternal process of Becoming is controlled by a supreme law, and
serves the aims of supreme Reason. Like Epictetus, he believes in
gods, and even says, that it would not be worth living in a world
without gods. He also believes in special revelations to men, by
means of dreams and prophecies. Perhaps the chief difference in
sp'rit between Marcus and Epictetus lies in the stronger emphasis,
which the Emperor lays on the duties of the individual to society.

§ 11. In the first century B.C., the CYNIC philosophy seems to
have been regarded as practically obsolete. But it was revived
under the Empire, and in Nero's reign we met a Cynic named Deme-
trius, of high repute, a great friend of Seneca and Thrasea Psetus.
He was afterwards banished to an island by Vespasian. His principles
differed little from those of the Stoios ; he only carried them out
more unscrupulously and rudely. What chiefly distinguished the

* 'Av*x<w K«U a7rexov. Sustine et abS' little soul for a little bears up this corpse
tine. which is man " (Swinburne),

t

27 B.C.-180 A.D. ECLECTICISM. 571

practical aide of the Stoic from the Cynic teaching was that the
Stoics admitted, that of indifferent things some were more desirable
than others, whereas the Cynics rejected this distinction. In this
matter Kpictetus had approximated to Cynicism. The Cynics, who
affected simplicity in matters like dress, did not wear tunics ; hence
Juvenal describes the Stoic doctrines as "differing only by the
tunic from the Cynic." * In the second century DEMONAX was head
of the Cynic school at Athens, and Lucian, who was no lover of
philosophers, especially of Cynics, gives a favourable picture of his
life and teaching. On the other hand, he gives a caricature of the
Cynics in his description of the adventurer PEEEGBINUS, who after a
dissolute youth embraced Christianity, then became a Cynic, and
finally, in order to make himself notorious, cast himself into a
funeral pyre at a celebration of the Olympian games (165 A.D.) in
the presence of a large concourse of spectators. It seems possible,
however, that the true Peregrinus was a man of moral earnestness,
who wished to enforce his views on the desirability of suicide by a
striking example.

§ 12. The tone and spirit of these philosophies was much the
same, however widely different their first principles, their systems
and their methods. Both Stoics and Epicureans believed that
happiness is attainable in this life by a man's own efforts. When
a man is educated by philosophy to recognise that bodily pains are
not real, and that the true self is independent of external circum-
stances, he attains to resignation; and happiness, they agreed,
consists in resignation. Knowledge makes a man free; for it
makes him independent of circumstances. The precept of Epictetus
"Sustain and abstain" strikes the note of all these later philosophies.
Men of serious and austere temperament were attracted to the Porch
of Chrysippus ; men of milder and weaker character to the Garden
of Epicurus.f It is also observable that, while the Epicureans held
their own special tenets exclusively, the Stoics and other schools
mutually approximated their views. Kcltcticism — the combining
of various doctrines selected from different systems — was thus
rendered easy. Those who professed adhesion to Plato were quite
ready to adopt parts of the Stoic teaching ; and Peripatetics were
anxious to assimilate Aristotle to Plato. Of this spirit of com-
promise, which was characteristic of the age, Plutarch was a typical
example. "In philosophy his adherence to the Academy was
loose even for that very broad and undogmatic school. It would
be hard to say whether the number of Stoic dogmas which he

* xiti. 120 : • f Juvenal, iii. 122 : Epicurum— exigui

Kt qui nee Cynicos nee Stoica dogmata I laetum ph»ntaribus iiorti ; xiv. 3l9:Quan-

legit turn, Epicure, tibi parvis suJecit in

A Cynicis tunica distantia, I hortis.

372 ROMAN WOULD UNDER THE EMPIRE. CHAP, xxx

rejects exceeds that which he quotes with approval." " He will
not adopt with Plato the equality of the sexes, or with the Stoics
the injustice of slavery, or with the Pythagoreans the rights of the
lower animals to justice at the hands of men, yet he goes a long
way with all three — magnifying the position and the dignity of the
house-mother both by example and precept, inculcating everywhere
kindness and consideration to slaves, adopting even vegetarian
doctrines in some of his earlier treatises."*

§ 13. Though Greek philosophy spread among the Romans and
exercised considerable influence on their leading men, there was a
certain lurking antipathy to it in the Roman character, which was
never wholly removed. Both Epicureans and Stoics taught their
pupils to hold aloof from public life. Both, likewise, regarded
celibacy as preferable to marriage ; Musonius indeed was an exception.
Here were points in which their teaching directly clashed with the
interests of the community, and which provoked aversion and con-
tempt on the part of practical Romans. Tacitus suggests that the
most common function of philosophy is to serve as a cloak for
idleness;! and he ridicules the "unseasonable wisdom" of the Stoic,
Musonius Rufus, who when the Flavian army approached Kom&
(69 A.D.) went about among the maniples, discoursing philoso-
phically to the soldiers on the advantages of p«ace and the dangers
of war. Quintilian opposed the practical statesman to the mere
philosopher. Avidius Cassius ridiculed M«.rcus Aurelius for nib
philosophical studies.

But in the attitude adopted to philosophy, if not by the educate^
public, at all events by the government, uhere is a marked differ-
ence between the first and second centm-ies of the Empire. In thb
first century philosophers are regarded with suspicion. Nero waa
not allowed to learn philosophy, as a study likely to prove injurious
to the character of a ruler. Seneca felt himself called upon to make
an attempt to remove the prevailing prejudices and to show that phi-
losophy was not inconsistent with the performance of public duties,.
The fact that most of the leading nobles, who under Nero and the.
Flavians were irreconcilable adversaries of the imperial government,
were professed Stoics, may have had a good deal to do with the
attitude of distrust which the Emperors assumed towards philosophy.
Stoicism became associated and identified with disloyalty. After
Domitian there was a reaction, and the Emperors of the second
century, from Trajan the soldier, to Marcus the philosopher, favour
and encourage philosophy. Under Marcus it was fashionable even

:* Mahau'y, Greek World under Hainan
Sway, pp. 300, C01.
f Sitt., tv. 6: Non ut plerique. ut

nomine magnifico segne otium velaret.
He excepts Helvidius from the
rule.

27 B.C.-180 A.D PHILOSOPHY AND RHETORIC.

573

for women to study ?!ie subject , and men like the Stoic Junius
Rusticus and the Peripatetic Claudius Severus held high and
influential positions.

§ 14. Philosophers were always unpopular with the mass of the
people. Their pretentions to superiority, their strict moral precepts,
and their severe moral judgments made them disliked. Their
weak points and their external appearance — the long beard, bare
feet, coarse cloak* ot the Stoics — were unsparingly ridiculed. More-
over, philosophy was despised as unproductive and useless. Persius,
in his satires, introduces centurions mocking at philosoi hy as a
useless art. " Big Vulfenius gives a hoarse laugh, and bids a bad
farthing for a hundred Greeks." f Another laughs at the i-lea of
growing pale or going without ont-'s breakfast in order to meditare
on a sick man's dream, "that nothing arises out of nothing, and
nothing returns into nothing."^ It need hardly be said that the
mercantile world agr«e<l with the centurions. The rich freedman
Trimalchio, in the Satiricon of Petronius, ordered that his epitaph
should end with the w«»rds, " He left thirty million sesterces, and
never hearH a philosopher." §

§ 15. Philosophy was also despised and disliked by rhetoricians.
The controversy which has been raised in modern times as to the
respective educational values ot classicaj literature and science has
its parallel in the controversy which was vehemently waged under
the Empire between the merits of philosophy and rhetoric. The
rhetoricians made little of philosophy as useless for practical
purposes, just as votaries of science in the present century have
been inclined to make little of the " humanities." Quintilian
mentions as a subject set for a declamation i " A man who had three
children, an orator, a philosopher, and c, physician, divided hi?
property into four parts ; each son received a part, and the fourth
was to belong to him who was most useful to the state. Whose is
the fourth to be ? " The elder Seneca hated philosophy. In the
second century Aristides was a vehement defender of rhetoric versus
philosophy, and Pronto shared the same antipathy to the favourite
studies of his imperial pupil. Lucian makes out in his Hermotimus
a striking case for the utter futility of philosophic pursuits.

§ 16. Another circumstance which gave philosophy a bad name

* Abolla. Cf. Juvenal, iii. 115 : Facinus
inaioris abollae.

f v. 184:

Continue crassum ridet Vulfenius ingens
Et centum Grapcos curto cen'tisse licetur.

iii. 74:

Aliquis de gente hircosa centurionum.
Ib. 83:

veteris meditantes somnia, gigni
De nihilo nihil, in nihilum nil posse re-

verti,
Hoc est quod palles ? cur quis non pran-

deat hoc est ?
His populus ridet.

§ Petroi i ius, 71 : Nee unquam philo-
sophum audivit.

574 BOMAN WORLD UNDER THE EMPIRE. CHAP.

XXX.

was that she frequently served as a mask for vice. Men who pre-
tended to be Stoics or Cynics, wearing long beards and professing
extreme strictness, often led most dissolute livt-s.* Models of pro-
priety in public, they held shameless orgies at home. Many
avaricious sycophants wore the guise of philosophers; nor were even
the genuine professors of philosophy always above the suspicion of
gieed of gold. Aristides described them as a vicious class, without
a redeeming virtue. The towns of Greece swarmed with them.
Everywhere, Lucian tells us,f one meets in the streets their long
beards, their rolls of books, their threadbare cloaks, and their big
sticks. Poor cobblers and carpenters kave their shops to rove about
the country as begging Cynics, and the Cynic school, which had
gained a new lease of vitality under the Empire, helped especially
to bring philosophy into disiepute. In the second century the
country was infested with begging philosophers, carrying scrip and
staff like the begging monks of the Middle Ages. This trade was
often adopted by runaway slaves, and the whole class was dis-
tinguished for shamelessness and filth.

§ 17. But, although unpopular and mercilessly jibed at, the
philosophers exercised great influence; and the very existence of a
multitude of spurious philosophers proves the repute which the true
philosophers enjoyed. It was not uncommon among the better
classes at Rome to retain a philo>opher as a perpetual inmate of the
house, to be consulted on all difficulties, somewhat like a father
confessor of modern times. In this capacity, and as the heads of
schools, and also as travelling missionaries, they exercised an
important influence on public opinion. The teaching of all the
schools tended to promote a cosmopolitan spirit ; Epicureanism by
its opposition to national sentiment and patriotism, Cynicism by
denying all bonds of family and country, S oicism by the positive
doctrine that all men are brothers. External circumstances, the
immense traffic and lively intercourse which were kept up between
the various peoples of the Empire and its remotest provinces, were
favourable to cosmopolitanism. "We have not," says Seneca,
" shut ourselves up in the walls of a city, but opened au intercourse
with the whole world; we have declared ourselves citizens of the
world." It is cl ar that the growth of this spirit prepared mankind
for the reception of the Chri-tian idea of human fellowship.

§ 18. One of the most striking facts in the early Empire was the
frequency of suicide among the higher classes in Rome. No
system of philosophy regarded self-destruction as a crime, and the
ancients in general did not look upon it with the same eye as

* Juvenal lashes such iu bis Second I t Piscator, 34.
Satire.

27 K.O.-180 A.D.

SUICIDE.

575

modern societies. In the age of the early Caesars the doctrine was
emphatically preached, that it was each man's inalienable right to
leave the world at pleasure. The Stoics, who held that death was
not an evil,* regarded the power of self-destruction as an in-
estimable privilege. Familia-ity with the bloody scenes in the
arena blunted men's horror of death ; and, on the other hand, the
example of their hero Cato (Catonis ttdbile letum) made suicide
popular with the aristocracy. Thus the discontented nobles were
ready to engage in desperate conspiracies, which had little chance
of success, and betake themselves to a voluntary death when the
plot was discovered. The admiration in which Arria, the wife of
Psetus, was held, shows how honourably suicide was esteemed in
the first century A.D. When her husband was sentenced for
conspiring with Scribonianus, she determined to die with him, and
having given herself the first blow, handed him the dagger, saying,
" It is not painful." f Her relations had attempted to dissuade her
from her resolution, and when Thrasea, her son-in-law, asked her
whether she would wish her daughter to destroy herself under
similar circumstances, she answered, " Yes, if she shall have lived
with you as long and as harmoniously, as I have with my Paetus."
When they kept watch over her actions, she said, " You can make
me die painfully, but cannot hinder me from dying," and leaping
up, dashed her head against the wall. " I told you/' she said, on
recovering from the shock, " I would find a way of death, however
hard, if you denied me an easy one." The younger Pliny tells the
story with the greatest admiration.

SECT. HI. — RELIGION.

§ 19. It would be a great mistake to suppose that scepticism and
disbelief in the national religion, which were prevalent enough
among the educated classes in the first century A.D., had made any
way among the uneducated masses. The great majority of the
people of the Empire believed as firmly as their ancestors, in the
existence of the gods. Evidence of this fact must be sought, not so
much in literature, which is misleading because it represents the
opinions of cultivated society, as in inscriptions, which directly
reflect popular beliefs. Besides the abundant evidence of in-
scriptions, there are three considerations, which show the strength
of the old religion. Its vitality is proved (1) by its power of
assimilating elements from oriental creeds ; (2) by the creation of

* Nothing natural (they said) is evil,
and death is natural. Juvenal, x. 357 :
Fortem posce animum, mortie terrore

car en tern.

t P*te,nondole (Pliny, L# ist. , iii. ic>.

576 ROMAN WORLD UNDER THE EMPIRE. CHAP. xxx.

new deities, such as Annona, the goddess of the corn-market; the
deification of Emperors both living and dead; the multiplication
of the genii j (3) by the resistance which it offered to Christianity
for nearly five hundred years, and by the remarkable fact that
the early Christians themselves never thought of disbelieving in
the existence of the Pagan gods, whom they regarded as really
existing powers of darkness.

§ 20. In regard to the reliuious attitude of educated people
there was a notable difference between the first and second
centuries.

In the first century, men who read and reflected, bat did not
embrace any definite philosophical system, wavered between poly-
theism and monotheism. Tacitus seems to have believed in the
gods. Quintilian veered towards monotheism, but does not seem to
have absolutely rejected poly theism or come to any clear conclusion.
Pliny the elder definitely denied the existence of the gods, and
identified God with nature. He held especially that God is not
omnipotent ; for he cannot kill himself, or make immortal what is
mortal, or undo the past, or make twice ten anything but twenty.
Some of the Stoics, as we have seen, made a systematic attempt to
reconcile the received religion with enlightened thought. They
believed in one supreme god; but set under him a number of gods
of lower rank, whom they call dsemons, and with whom the
popular gods could be identified. But these streams of doubt and
disbelief <*id not affect the masses.

In the second century we become aware of a great reaction.
There was a general return, on the part of educated men, to
the old religion. Superstition prevailed, and miracle-monger ing
became the fa- h ion. This change is clearly reflected in the
literature of the ane. Even the younger Pliny, whose philosophic
beliefs approximated to Stoicism, believed firmly in dreams, and
built two temples. Sue'onius was childishly superstitious. During
an illness of Faustina, Pronto prayed to the god-> for her health
every mo niog. Aulus 'Tellius was extremely conservative in
matters of religion. Turning to Greek literature, we meet the same
phenoraen n. Credulity is one of its distinguishing notes. Lucian
and Galen are the tw<> exceptions. Plutarch is deeply religious;
Pausanias is absurdly superstitious ; the credulity of Aristides, the
rhetorician, rises to enthusiasm. It is necessary to be fully aware
of this wide-spread superstition, in order to appreciate the satirical
wit of Lucian.

The prevalence of superstition is illustrated by the story
which the sophist Philostratus composed (early in the third
century ) of the wonder-worker Apollouius of Tyana, who, having

27 B.C.-180 A.D. SUPERSTITION. 5/7

travelled ihrougbout the whole world, having learned wisdom
from the Brahmins of India, and mystic lore from the priests of
Egypt, suddenly appeared in Greek lands in the rei^n of Claudius,
wrought miraculous cures, raised the dead, walked through shut
doors, rendered himself invisible at pleasure, and performed all
kinds of miracles. It is not to be regarded as sober history. It
is merely a romance; but the picture which it draws of the
general credulity, is probably true to life. Astrology was encouraged,
both by the higher and lower classes. Noble houst-s often kept
private astrologers (mathematici) to consult about future events.
As these seers were susj ected of revealing the succession to the
Principate, and were consulted in the case of treasonable conspiracies,
the Emperors regarded them with suspicion, and edicts were issued
again and again, banishing them from Italy, but it proved impossible
to suppress them.*

§ 21. The Emperors, however widely their policies differed in
other respects, were all alike solicitous to maintain the religion of
the Roman republic, as became the high pontiffs. Augustus had
perceived that the close connection of the Principate with religion
would be a support for his government, and this principle was
recognised as a political tradition by his successors. The higher
classes at Rome, the senate and the knights, were readv to follow
the example of the Emperors, and were glad to distinguish them-
selves from freedmen and foreigners by clinging to the ceremonials
of the old Roman religion. The national worship, however, was not
held incompatible with foreign cults, which owing to the increased
communication between the east and west, rapidly made their way
into R me ; and the worship of Isis, in particular, had so securely
established itself, that she seemed almost to hold a place in the
Roman Olympus. " We have received Isis," says a poet 01 Nero's
age, " into the Roman temples."

§ 22. Besides the criticism of philosophy, there were at work
other forces hostile to the pagan religion. These were the two
rival reli'-iions, Judaism and Christianitv. Being both mono-
theistic, th'-y were both alike diametrically opposed to p"lytheism.
The chief Jewish doctrines spread with the Jewish diaspora fn the
west as well as the east, and commanded attention. Popularly,
indeed, the Jews were regarded with the greatest contempt. Their
poverty, their dirty habits, their curious customs — such as
circumcision, abstinence from pork, and the keeping of the
Sabbath f — were a constant theme for ridicule. Yet Judaism

* Tacitus (//is/!., i. 22) speaks of them
as a class of men quod in civitate nostra
et vetabitur semper et retinebitur.

f Juvenal, Sat., xiv. 96 sqq. Hor.,
25

Sat., i. 9. 70 : Judaeis curtis. On their
credulity, ib. 600. 5 : Credat Judama
Apella. Persius, v. 184: Recutitaque
sabbata palles

578 ROMAN WORLD UNDER THE EMPIRE. CHAP, xxx

possessed attractions, especially tor women. The Jews were ready
"to compass sea and land to make one proselyte," and though
their efforts in this direction were never attended with such
results as the preaching of Chri>tianity, they were not altogether
unsuccessful. Poppsea, the wife of Nero, was a convert to
Judaism. Under Tiberius, Fulvia, a lady of high rank, adopted
the Jewish faith, and sent gifts to the temple at Jerusalem. It is
said that the banishment of the Ji ws from Rome by Tiberius was
caused by the complaints of her husband. Horace, to get rid of
his bore, afifecUd respect for "the thirtieth Sabbath." * Augustus
praised his grandson Gaius for having passed through Juden
without worshipping in Jerusalem.

§ 23. In the meantime, Christianity was silently spreading in
the west as well as in the east. The causes which chiefly promoted
its rapid diffusion were (I) its all-embracing character : it opened
its fold to sinners and slaves ; (2) the attraction which it possessed
for women, who felt themselves placed on a spiritual equal ty with
men ; (3) the promise of a future life ; (4) when persecution
began, the examples of noble martyrdom produced their effect.
In order to contend successfully with heresies, which were rife,
especially with Gnosticism, the orthodox majority were forced to
form a close organisation, which soon came to be called the
" Catholic Church." This organisation, this state within the " state,"
was ultimately destined to exercise a decisive influence on the
Empire ; but it attracted little notice in the second century. For
Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius,as well <*s for Trajan and Hadrian,
the Christian question was of quite minor importance.

§ 24. We have seen that Christianity was a prohibited religion.
This principle had probably been laid down by Domitian and was
affirmed by Trajan in his rescript to Pliny. But the actual
practice of Emperors varied. Trajan did not discourage informa-
tions against Christians; but forbade his officials to seek them
out. Hadrian tolerated this religion, and there is no evidence
that Christians suffered during his principate. Under Antoninus
the same practice seems to have been followed as under Trajan.
Thus several Christians at Rome, who confessed their faith before
Lollius Urbicu*, prefect of the city, were condemned. Antoninus,
although more sincerely devoted to the established religion than
any other Emperor, was mild and tolerant, and disliked persecu-
tion; and towards the end of his reign at least, he interfered
to prevent it. His interference was called forth by the occur-
rence of tumults, directed against the Christians in cities of
Asia and Greece. For at this time, the feeling of hostility

* HOT., .<%»*., t 9. 69.

27 B.C.-180 A.D. CHRISTIANITY. 579

against the Christians was very bitter. They were believed,
even by such a well-informed person as Fronto, to p»actise
horrible enormities. The three charges popularly brought ayainst
them were sacrilege, incest, and cannibalism. It is remarkable,
however, that the government seems to have paid no attention to
the second and third charges. Evidence of the prevailing prejudice
against Christianity is found in the writings of Lucian, and
of the rhetoricinn Aristides. A little later Celsus wrote a trea'ise,
entitled the True Word, to prove the absurdity of the prohibited
religion. In consequence of the hostile feeling, popular tumults
olten broke out in the cities of the east, where the people were
enthusiastically devoted to the divine worship of the Emperor. The
mob cried for vengeance on the Christians ; many of the Christians
were themselves eager for martyrdom, and the official authorities
could not protect men who were shown, by their own confession, to
be guilty of saerilcginm. Thus the Chiistians were practically
exposed to a persecution, which was not organized or ordained by
the authorities, but which the authorities, if they maintained the
law, could not put a stop to, without the special intervention of the
Emperor. Antoninus intervened, and-sent rescripts to Thessalonica,
Athens, and other cities, to prevent these persecutions. A letter,
purporting to have been written by him to the provincial council of
Asia, is extant ; and though it is a forged document, the very fact
of its forgery proves the reputation for toleration and clemency
which he enjoyed among the Christians. They looked upon
Antoninus as not only tolerant, but even favourable to their
creed.

Under Marcus, popular tumults were frequent. It was in a tumult
of this kind that Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna suffered martyrdom.*
Marcus Aurelius, like Antoninus, was of a tolerant disposition, but
his strict sense of duty led him into countenancing persecution.
He regarded the resoluteness of the Christians in refusing to take
part in the worship of the gods as "sheer obstinacy." f About
177 A.D. he issued a rescript, providing for the punishment of new
sects, which caused popular tumults by spreading doctrines "by
which the ill-balanced minds of men are excited." This was not
directed specially against Christianity, but it led to an outbreak at
Lugudunum, and the arrest of a number of Christians. .The
legatus of Lngudunensis did not feel sure how he ought to deal
with his prisoners, especially with those who denied the faith ; and
Marcus issued a second rescript, directing that those who denied

* Perhaps in 166 A.D. ; almost certa^ly
under Marcus. 155 A.D. is only a guess
of Waddington, which has been too
hastily accepted.

+ *iArj Traparafts. This I1* the BoV
reference to Christianity in the Medi-
tations.

580 ROMAN WORLD UNDER THE EMPIRE. CHAP, xxx

should be set free, and those who confessed beaten to death.* It
is clear that the first rescript placed the Christians in a more
unfavourable position than that which they had occupied under
the rescript of Trajan. For it gave provincial governors a warrant
to hunt down the illegal sects to which i applied ; whereas, Trajan
had expressly withheld such a wan ant.

§ 25. On their part, meanwhile, the Christians made some
attempts to protect themselves, by repelling the charges which
were popularly brought against them. An apologetic Christian
literature, seeking to remove the prevailing prejudices, came into
being, and is a feature of the second century. A certain Aristides
addressed a defence of Christianity to Antoninus ; and this Apology,
which was supposed to have been lost, lias been lately recovered.
But the most celebrated Apologies are the two composed by Justin
Martyr, a Samaritan, born at Klavia Neapolis. He had been
trained in his youth in Greek philosophies, and thought that he
had found in Platonism a satisfactory solution of the problems of
existence. But one day at Ephesus, he met an old man by the
shore of the sea, who revealed to him the doctrines of Christianity.
This led to his conversion. Encouraged, perhaps, by the tolerant
spirit of Antoninus, he wrote (about 148 A.D.) an " Apology for
the Christians," which he addressed to Antoninus, Marcus — whom
he calls " Verissimus the philosopher," — Lucius Verus, " the sacred
senate, and the whole Roman people." He undertakes the defence
of " the men who are hated and reviled by the whole human race."
He calls upon the Emperor and his sons to listen to his pleas, and
judge the cause fairly, if they would sustain their reputation of
being "pious, philosophical, guardians of justice, and lovers of
education.'5 The treatise falls into three parts. In the first, the
apologist points out that the Christians should not be condemned
unheard, and shows that their conduct is innocent and harmless.
Thev are good citizens; they render unto Caesar the things which
are Caesar's, and pay their taxes regularly and punctually. In the
second part, he professes to prove that the Christians alone teach
the truth, that the Son of God was really made flesh ; and fhat the
pagan myths were invented by evil spirits (ifcemtms), in order that
the coming of Christ mi' ht be rejected as fabulous. In the third
part, the mysteries of baptism and the eucharist, which the pagans
were always disposed to regard with suspicion, are explained. The
second Apology, which appeared some years later, is a sort of
appendix to the first. It was called forth by the execution of some
Christians by the prefect Lollius Urbicus, to which reference has

This, of course, did not apply to Roman citizens, over whom a governor had not
the right of life and death.

27 B.r.-180 A.D. CHRISTIAN APOLOGISTS. 581

been already made. It has been supposed by some that these
manifestoes of Justin induced Antoninus to send his rescripts to
the cities of the east, for the prevention of persecution. Justin
himself was destined to suffer martyrdom. In 163 A.D., he was
denounced at Rome by a philosopher named Crescens, and sen-
tenced to death by the prefect of the city, Q. Junius Rusticus, the
Stoic.

The first Latin apology for Christianity was the Octavius of
Minucius Felix, which probably appeared in the reign of Marcus.
Minucius does not appear to have been a Christian in the full sense
of the word. He can hardly have believed in the divine nature of
Christ. But he recognised that many of the Christian doctrines
were true and acceptable, and tried to offer the religion to his pagan
friends in a somewhat r<ttiona'ize>i form. He was a sort of Christian
Seneca. His work is in the form of a Ciceronian dialogue
between Csecilius, who attacks the Christians, their works and their
beliefs, and Octavius, who defends them. The scene of the conver-
sation, is laid on the seashore, near Ostia.

§ 26. The Christians had not only enemies without to contend
against, they had also heresies within. The three great gnostic
heresies of Basilides, Carpocrates, and Valentinus, originated in the
reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus. These men, all three of oriental
origin, propounded different theories, to explain the creation of the
world, the origin of evil, and the nature of the Deity. These
theories are medleys, combining doctrines taken from all sorts of
philosophies and oriental religions; and they illustrate the tendency
to Eclecticism, which has been already noticed as a feature of the
age. But far the most powerful gnostic sect, and that most
dangerous to the Church, was founded by Marcion of Sinope, who
came to Rome in the reign of Antoninus. It was known as
Marcionism, and was characterized by exclusive adhesion to the
writings of St. Paul, and by very vigorous asceticism. The effect o!
these heresies was to force the Church to define her teaching and
explain her doctrines in writing. Thus persecution and heresy
called into being an ecclesiastical literature, apologetical on the one
hand, and polemical on the other.

SECT. IV.— ART.

§ 27. ARCHITECTURE. — The chief architectural works of the
various Emperors from Augustus to Hadrian have been mentioned
under their several reigns. It remains to say something here of
architecture under the Antonines. Although architects were still
as akilful as over, there \ras at this time a distinct decadence in

582 KOMAN WORLD UNDER THE EMPIRE. CHAP. xxx.

taste, which manifested itself especially in a striving after novel
effects by means of gigantic proportions. The most celebrated
example of this fashion was the colossal temple of Hadrian at
Oyzicus, in Bithynia. Its construction occupied the whole reign
of Antoninus, and was not finished till the first years of Ma cus.
The rhetorician Aristides, who gave an address on the occasion of
its dedication, can hardly find words to exp-ess his admiration of
its enormous size. " Your city is now the only one which does not
need lighthouses or high towers to guide mariners to its harbours.
Til? temple fills, as it were, the whole horizon, and marks the
citur-tion of the city. Every block of marble is as big a< a C'-mplete
temple." But the size was the only wonderful th ng ab >ut it. It
does not seem to have been beautiful, and its sculptures we>e poor.

Hut if taste at < 'y/.icus and in other provincial places was so
deplorable, better thin.-s were not yet forgotten at Rome. One of
the most interesting buildings of the second century is the temple
of Antoninus and Faustina, on. the Sacred Way — the most perfect
specimen of the Corinthian style at Home. The origin of this
temple has given rise to considerable discussion. It seems most
probable that the temple which Antoninus built to his wife after
her deification (140 A.D.) was pulled down wholly or partly after
his dea h, and replaced by a new build.ng dedicated both to him
and to Faustina.* The ten columns are each of a single piece of
rich C-irystiau marble, standing on bases of whi'e marble and sup-
porting capitals likewise ot white marble. The edifice was entirely
constructed of stone and marble; and the common system of u>ing
brick and cheap material in the parts not intetided to be seen was
not adopted here. Its modest proportion* were a protest of good
taste against such buildings as the temple of Cyzicus.

In Italy fine buddings were not confine! to Rome In the
splendid rema ns at Verona we can form some idea of the public
buildings which, under the Empire, adorned most Italian cities of
this size, but of which now hardly a trace remains. 'I he coloi.ies
and municipal towns imitated the capital in the erection of amphi-
theatres, baths, temples, and basilicas, f The same archi'e<-tural
principles which were adopted at Rome were adopted throughout
the Kmpire. There were no local schools or provincial styles of
architecture.

Of the building of ordinary private houses we know little, except
as far as concerns Pompeii. The style was Greek, but cheap imi-

* This seems more probable from the
data than that the temp e of Faustina

\vas left untouched and his name merely
added to hers, as has been very generally

f This love of imitation was carried
even to local names. Beneventum ha<i
an Esquiline, Ariminum an Aventine.
The fashion went even beyond Italy.

•uppOBed. See above, Chap. XXVH. $ 13. I Lyons had a Vatican.

27 B.C.-180 A.D. ABCHITECTUBB. 583

tation of Greek ornament ; and the use of stucco mouldings instead
of stone were the great feature. In one case a colonnade has been
"turned from the Doric into the Corinthian order by the addition
of stucco capitals laid round the original echinus." * An interesting
comparison has been instituted between the Pompeian houses and
private dwellings which have been recently discovered at Delos, and
are probably of much the same date. The difference is that " while
there was much less decoration by painting, and while the Delian
householder was content with plain panels upon his wall with no
ornament, the materials of his pillars and the general construction
were far superior to the very shoddy building of Pompeii." f

§ 28. SCULPTURE. — The history of "Roman sculpture" is really
a continuation of the history of Greek sculpture. For it is a
chronicle not of Roman talent, but of Greek talent displayed under
Roman influence and in a Roman atmosphere. With the disappear-
ance of Greek freedom, the inspiration which had shaped the form
of the best Greek art had also disappeared. But the art of captured
Greece had conquered her Roman captors, and their demands called
forth a new development of Greek artistic talent. The taste of the
Romans for sculpture was part of their love of luxury; and it could
not be expected that a school of sculptors called into being to supply
such a demand should be inspired by any new creative power. They
contented themselves with reproducing the motives of the older
masterpieces; and they wrought with such wonderful technical
skill, with such accurate delicacy, that, if we had not works of
Phidias, Praxiteles, and the other great masters to set beside them,
we should think it almost impossible that they could be surpassed.
But the art of the Roman school is marked by a striving after
effect, which is quite absent from the older works. The works
were designed to satisfy the Romm love of ostentation; the artists
were affected by the end to which their works were destined, and
the works themselves have the stamp of self-consciousness. At the
beginning of the Empire the chief schools were the Mew Attic and
the Asiatic. One of the most admired works of the " New Attic "
school is the Farnese Hercules (at Naples). Hercules leans upon
his club, with his head, which is very beautiful, bent forward ; the
impression he gives us is that he is conscious of his muscles. In the
same way, the Medicean Venus and the Venus of the Capitol are*
conscious of their nudity. The Borghese gladiator of the Louvre,
a bold and striking work of the Asiatic school, " expressing most
powerfully and most artistically the straining of all the force to the
utmost, but distinguished by an elasticity and rapidity of movement

* Mahaffy, Greek World under Aman I f Mahafify, Greek World under Roman
Sto&y, p. 218. | Sway, p. 217.

584 ROMAN WORLD UNDER THE EMPIRE CHAP. xxx.

which seems to defy the rigidity of the marble," * is characterised
and perhaps spoiled by the impression it gives of a premeditated
effect. But notwithstanding this feature, these imitations <>t older
art have a great charm. Nothing can be more beautiful in its way
than the Sleeping Ariadne of the Vatican, where the folds of the
rich drapery are treated vvitli singular delicacy.

In the reign of Hadrian, which was marked by a renaissance in
many kinds of culture, the sculptors invented a new ideal — the
Emperor's favourite, Antiuous, of whom innumerable statues were
set up flfter his strange death. Be was represented in many ways,
but all his images have the same type — the curls overshadowing the
brow, a certain sadness in the sensual mouth, the head drooping as
if in some melancholy contemplation.

Under the Antonines there were three famous sculptors of
Aphmdisias in Caria. Their names were Zeno, Aristeas, and
Papias. Two Centaurs in dark grey marbl^, discovered in the
Villa of Hadrian, and now in the Capitoline Museum at Rome, are
the work of the two last-named artists. The anatomy is faultless,
and wonderful skill is shown in treating a very hard kind of marble.
But there is no genius or originality displayed in these works ;
sculptors had long since given up even trying to be original. The
best that we can look for is purity of taste combined with skill in
execution, such as we find in these Centaurs or in the equestrian
bronze .-tatue of Marcus Aurelius.

The decline of art in the second century is shown by two bar-
barons fashions: the employment of costly and showy materials,
and the construction of images of colossal size. Gold and silver are
used for statues. Hadrian introduced a taste for statues in Egyptian
style, and caused some to be executed for his Tiburtine villa.

Besides the sculpture which was characteristically Greek, there
was also a kind of sculpture which had a Roman character about
it, and was called into being by Roman customs. This was portrait
statues. The Roman desired to preserve the exact likeness of his
ancestors, and the imagines, masks moulded in wax, which he kept
in his house, aimed at being close resemblances, not at being works of
art. Through contact with the Greeks, marble and bronze came to be
used instead of wax. But "whilst Hellenistic art idealized the
individual form, and only made such use of drapery, even in the
airy disposition of it about the figure, as seemed to be demanded
for the interpretation of characteristics, the Romans started with
the idea of representing the individual appearance with the utmost
exactness, either in the voluminous drapery of peace, the toga, or
in complete warlike paraphernalia : hence the portrait, statues

* LUbke, History of Art, i. 305.

27 B.C.-180 A.D SCULPTURE. 585

are distinguished as togatse and thoracifa" An example of the
latter is the marble statue of Augustus in the Vatican. Thus Roman
portrait statues are an expression of the practical, realistic character
of the Roman mind. But as Greek dress began to supersede the
native costume of the Romans in ordinary life, portraiture became
more ideal, yet without abandoning the life-like representation of
the individual In many of the statues and busts of the Emperors
and Empresses which have been preserved, we have this reality
touched by idealism, which is the perfection of portraiture. The
seated figures of the " Women of Herculaneum," in the Dresden
Museum, are fine examples of this type. The familiar busts of the
Emperors have, many of them, an individuality, evidently life-like
and true ; and it has been justly said that " the critical inspection
of, for instance, the large collection of portrait-bust sin the Capitohne
M useum is of high interest hi a psychological point of view ; one of
the most complete sets of plastic illustrations to Roman history being
here preserved to us."

Portrait images of the Emperor and his family were made and
circulated in immense numbers throughout the Empire. Fronto
writes thus to Marcus Aurelius (140 A.D.) : " You know how in all
the banks, all the shops, taverns, house-fronts, porches, and wmd-ws,
your images are everywhere exposed to view. Most of them, truly,
are badly painted and coarsely chiselled."

In the plasnc representation of historical scenes — as on the Arch
of Titus or the Column of Trajan — we have a still more conspicuous
illustration of the Roman tendency to realism. The Romans wished
to see reproduced what actually occuned — the details of a march,
a battle, or a triumph. " The necessity of grouping, for the most
part, in as limited a space as was consistent with reality, a large
number of figures, led to an arrangement of the relievo, which is
widely removed from the fine and polished treatment of Hellenic
art. Sculpture loses itself in the realm of painting when, taking
a deeper background, it arranges its figures on different planes by
gradations of modelling, those in the foreground often standing out
completely from the surface, and thus retaining that substantial
form which appea-ed so essential to the Roman conception, while
the remaining figures, crowded together, gradually rectde into the
background."* The reliefs on the Column of Trajan hive been
described in a previous chapter. Two reliefs of a triumphal arch
en cted by Marcus Aurelius in the Via Flrtminia have been preserved,
one of which represents the deification of the j'ounger Faustina, who
is born*' a'oft by the goddess »>f victory from the fuiK ral pyre. rl here
is a similar representation of the apotheosis of Pius and the elder

* Lttbke, History qf Art, i. 312.
25*

586 ROMAN WOULD UNDEB TiUB EMPIBE. CHAP, xxx

Faustina on the front of the postament of the column erected to that
Emperor after his death. The g< uius of immortality is mounting
up from earth, and the Emperor and Empress are supported on his
great wings. Two eagles accompany them in their upward flight.
On the earth are two figures — an Amazon, representing Rome, and
a young man, personifying the Campus Martius. On the other sides
of the same postament are delineated processions of galloping horse-
men— being the decursio, a series of military evolutions, executed
round the pyre of the dead Emperor. The representations of the
Marcomannic and Quadic wars on the pillar of Marcus Aurelius do
not equal, but come very near to, the reliefs of the pillar of Trajan.

Heie must be mentioned the art of cutting gems, which reached
great periection in the period of the early Empire. Dioscorides was
the great master of this branch of skill under Augustus. There is
a splendid cameo at Vienna, of enormous size, measuring nine inches
wide by eight high, on which Augustus as Jupiter and personified
Rome are represented.

§ 29. PAINTING. — Our knowledge of Roman painting is almost
altogether confined to mural painting, of which abundant and most
interesting remains have been preserved. The wall-paintings dis-
covered at Rome and those of the Campanian cities, Pompeii and
Herculaneum, must be treated separately. But it should be remem-
bered that the object of all these pictures is the decoration of rooms,
and their pictorial character is subordinate to this end.

In style, mural painting passed through several stages. At first
Greek artists used to imitate marble incrustations ; the next stage
was to paint imitations of architecture, columns and pediments.
Open rooms were adorned with backgrounds, corridors with land-
scapes; and the pictures were always copies of things actually
existing. Then fantastic fashions began to be introduced into the
realistic imitations, and then grotesque devices gradually came to
take the chief place in wall decoration. Under Augustus, the archi-
tect Vitruvius inveighs against this degeneration in style, and
describes how " reeds take the place of columns in a design, ribboned
and streamered ornaments, with curling leaves and spiral tendrils,
take the place of pediments ; diminutive temples are supported upon
candelabra , vegetable shapes spring from the tops of pediments, and
send forth multitudes of delicate stems with twining tendrils and
figures seated meaninglessly among them — nay, from the very
flowers which the staks sustain are made to issue demi-figures,
having the heads sometimes of human beings and sometimes of
brutes." *

* This translation is taken from the work this account of Roman painting is
History of Painting, by Woltmann and chiefly derived.
Woermann (Eng. tr.), i. Ill, from which

27 B.C.-180 A.D.

PAINTING.

587

Of the mural artists we know nothing personally, except of one
LiuUns,* who flourished in the time of Augustus. The elder Pliny
describes with enthusiasm the kind of wall-painting which he
brought into vogue: "Villas, colonnades, examples of landscape
gardening, woods and sacred groves, reservoirs, straits, rivers, coasts
—all according to the heart's desire ; and amidst them passengers
of all kinds on foot, in hoats, driving in carriages or riding on asses
to visit their country properties; furthermore fishermen, bird-
catchers, hunters, vintagers; or, again, he exhibits stately villas,
to which the approach is through a swamp, with men staggering
under the weight of the frightened women whom they have bargained
to carry on their shoulders ; and many another excellent ami enter-
taining device of the same kind. The same artist also set the
fashion of painting views — and that wonderfully cheap — of seaside
towns in broad day light." f It is possible that we have speci-
mens of the work of this Ludius in a celebrated painting of the
villa of Livia in Home, which represents the plan of a garden on
the four walls of a room, so that one sitting in the room might
imagine himself in the middle of a garden. This work is an inte-
resting example of that stage mentioned above in which fantastic
ornament was introduced, but had not driven out the older, more
sober style.

A brilliant example of that older, sober style, approved of by
Vitruvius, are the great landscapes illustrating the Odyssey, which
were discovered in excavations on the Esquiline in the middle of the
present century. Six \ ictures are complete, and half of the seventh.
They represent the episode of the Laastryjiones, the story of Circe, and
the Nekuia, or the visit of Odysseus to the Shades. They ran round
a loom, as a frieze or dado, the panels being divided by bright red
pilasters. The colours in the paintings are chiefly a yellowish
brown and a greenish blue. But the chief interest which thp«e
works possess is a* examples of ancient landscape painting. " The
country of the Lsestry^ones bordered with its jutting yellow crass,
the wide blue inlet of the sea, from the mountains overhanging which
the giants hurl destruction upon the Greek ships; the court of
Circe's palace; the mighty opening in the rocks on the se-islore
which proclaims itself the entrance to the nether world, and with
vivid pictorial effect, lets a broad ray of liuht stream into the dark
and th'ckly-peopled kingdom of shadows — all these furnish examples
of completed landscape painting, for which, up to the time of their

* There is an uncertainty about his
name, as there are other readings, Studius
and Tadius.

f Pliny, Nat. ffigt., 35. $ 116. The

translation is taken from the Eng. tr. of
the History of Painting, by Woltmaun
and Woerraann, i. 67.

566 ROMAN WORLD UNDER THE EMPIRE. CHAP xxx.

discovery, we should not have given any age of antiquity credit."
Their date is the end of the Republic or beginning of the Empire ;
but they were, doubtless, copies of older compositions.

A famous wall-painting preserved at Home is the so-called
Aldobraiidini marriage, representing a bride and bridegroom, with
eight other figures, on the day of their nuptials. More interesting
is the picture of fair women of legend, notable for their strange
love-stories — such as Pasiphae and Phaedra — preserved in the Vatican
gallery, having been removed, like many other mural paintings, from
the original wall, along with the plaster-ground. In excavations
on tlio Palatine, striking paintings were discovered, especially in
tho house of Livia ; a landscape in which the tale of Polyphemus
and v>alater, is represented may be specially mentioned. It has
been justly observed that in choosing their mythical subjects mural
painters were generally guided by the opportunities given tor land-
scape.

Turning to the paintings of the Campanian decorators, which are
to be seen in the private houses at Herculaneum and especially at
Pompeii, we must first observe the double division of the walls.
They are divided horizontally into a dado, generally tinted dark,
and an upper wall, generally light, separated by a bright band.
They are also divided vertically by painted stripes, instead of the
pilasters of the older style, which we saw in the Odyssey landscapes.
Tho middle band is thus divided into panels, painted usually red,
yellow, black, or white. The architectural designs are in the fan-
tastic style condemned by Vitruvius.

The pictures themselves have been classified into five groups,
according to the part they play in the general design of the room
or the wall which they decorate. (\) Landscapes which cover a
whole wall or the four walls of a room, and where the usual division
into panels is abandoned. (2) Large paintings, of which, howev* r,
more than one, separated by pilasters, are wrought on the same wall.
These are often pictures of the chase,, or representations of mountain
sceuery. (3) Those which look liko panel pictures set in tiie walls.
These are very often copies of old pictures. (4 Small accessory
frescoes, which really form part of the ornamentation. They are
often subjects of still life. (5) Pictures which have no frame or
background, especially human figures, forming part of no scene,
but merely intended as ornament. These airy figures floating about
in any unoccupied space are sometimes allegorical, often Satyrs,
Bacchants, or Graces.

The mythological pictures are always of a light kind. The only
ones, perhaps, marked by seriousness or solemnity are those in thr
house of tho Poet at Pompeii, representing the marriage of Zeus,

27 B.C.-79 A.D. PICTURES OF POMPEII. 589

the sacrifice of Iphigenia, the release of Chryseis, and the Rape of
Briseis. Favourite subjects were the loves of Venus and Mars, tlie
judgment of Varis, Bacchus and Ariadne, Narcissus seeing his re-
flection in the water. The colouring was bright and gay, and the
whole eff« ct was cheerful ; and the same spirit is displayed iu the
genre pictures, whose subjects are taken from daily life. These
frescoes have been divided * into two classes : the Hellenistic and
the Romano-Companion. The former has a certain idealism which
is wanting in the latter. They represent idealized scenes from the
ordinary life of women and young people. " A woman sits lost in
love-dreams, with Eros leaning at her side; or two women are en-
gaged in friendly dialogue ; or a girl sirs at her painting or her
music. Scenes of the toilet, too, are not forgotten. Then thero are
youths and maidens assembled at festive gatherings, or explicit
love-scenes of more or less levity ; as well as groups of poets and
actors, and occasionally actual stage-scenes, especially one lovely
concert-piece which breathes the purest spirit of Greek art." f The
others — the Roman-Campanian class — are technically very inferior,
and are marked by the coarsest realism that Dutch painters ever
reached, without the compensation of good work. Scenes from
taverns and houses of ill-fame, the incidents of the market, brutal
scenes of gladiatorial life, are the favourite subjects.

The objects of still life which are represented are as various as
those treated by modern painters : fruit and dowers, dead and live
fish, dead and live fowl, all sorts of vessels and utensils. Caricatures
also occur. That of ^Eueas fleeing from Troy, holding his son by
the hand, and bearing his father on his shoulders, may be mentioned.

Who the decorative artists were is unknown. It is possible that
those who were inspired by Greek traditions were Greeks, and the
executors of the realistic genre paintings Italian natives. One of
the most striking things about the frescoes is their dm ability ; and
the question as to the materials and methods used has not been yet
satisfactorily answered.

Something has still to be said about mosaic pictures — that is,
pictures constructed by putting together small cubes of coloured
stone or glass. It is said that Sulla was the first to introduce this
art at Rome. In imperial times the decoration with mosaic not only
of floors, to which it was first applied, but of walls, was very
fashionable. Mosaic pavements with patterns were, of course,
common. One of the most celebrated and excellently executed
mosaic pictures is that of the battle of Issus, found (in 1831) in the
House of the Faun at Pompeii. It represents the moment at which
Darius saves himself from the pursuit of the Macedonians by throwing
* By Helbig. f Woltwann and Woermann, i. 132.

ROMAN WORLD UNDER THE EMPIRE. CHAP, xxx

himself on a horse which is offered to him. The artist has most
happily and effectually rendered a complicated battle-scene with
few materials. " 80 tar as we know, the heads — especially that of
Darius, whose face, notwithstanding its look of anguish, is full of
manly fire — are unsurpassed for emotional expression in any work
of aticieut painting." * The large Nile mosaic of Palestrina, repre-
senting an Egyptian landscape, may be also mentioned. A number
of landscapes on tessellated pavement in Hadrian's villa at Tivo' '
are preserved.

* Woltmann and Woermann, i. 99.

Bas-relief of Triumph of Marcus Aurdius (from Palace of the Conservator
the Capitol, Koine).

Balnea? at Pompeii : Tepidarium.

CHAPTER XXXT.

ROMAN LIFE AND MANNERS.

§ 1. Foreigners at Rome. § 2. Slaves. § 3. Disadvantages of life
at Home. Epidemics; fires; dear prices; noise of streets; dangers
at night. § 4. Wealth. Luxury : two periods to be distinguished.
Apicius. § 5. Clients. Salutatio. Sportula. Cena recta. § 6.
Life of pai'asites. § 7. Follies and vices of women. § 8. SCHOOLS.
The litterator ; grammat cus ; and rhetor. § 9. HOUSES. — Domus
and insulse. Description of Roman house. § 10. Imperial palaces.
§ 11. Country villas. § 12. MEALS. — Hours. Fare. § 13. Entertain-
ments. Art of carving. § 14. Manners at table. § 15. Convivia
pu'<lica. The black banquet of Dorr.itian. § 16. AQUEDUCTS. —
List and description of Roman aqueducts. § 17. Construction
and organisation of the aqueducts. Specus and Castella. § 18.
BATHS. — Bnlnese. Description of a public bath. Thermal. Private
baths. § 19. AMUSEMENTS. — Public gamos and spectacles. Political
significance. Scrambles. § 20. The theatre. Plan of building.
§ 21. Character of performances. Pantomimes. § 22. Description of
the Circus Maximus. § 23. The games. Procession. Charioteers
and horses. The factions. § 24. Amphitheatres. Description of the
Flavian Amphitheatre (Colosseum). § 25. Gladiators. Ludi. La-
nistss. Various kinds of gladiators. § 26. Beast-baiting (venatio).
Pegmata.

592

ROMAN LIFE AND MANNERS CHAP, xxxi

SECT. I. — LIFE AT ROME.

§ 1. UNDER the Empire Home wore a very different appearance
from that which she had presented in the days of the Republic.
We have already s^en that the principate of Augustus inaugurated
a new era in the history of her architecture. Numerous splendid
Buildings are a feature of Rome in the imperial age. Ovid and
Martial call her "Golden Rome."* But she has taken upon
herself more decidedly, not only in external dignity, but also in the
constitution of her inhabitants, the character of a capital of the
world. Hundreds of races met within her gates; many lai guages
were spoken in her streets. Eastern princes and tattooed I 'ritons,
rough Dacians and grim Sugambrians, Arabians and Ethiopians,
Thracians and Sarmatians, were to be encountered in the Forum.
Hadrian's friend, the Sophist Polemon, called the city "a compen-
dium of the world." The chief portion of the foreign population
were Greeks. " I cannot bear this Greek city," says a speaker in a
Satire of Juvenal,f but he goes on to confess that the Greeks are
perhaps not the worst feature. There was also a large multitude
of Syrians : " the Syrian Orontes has long since emptied itself into
the Tiber." J

Most of these strangers were adventurers who lived by their
wits. The versatility of the Greeks was proverbial, and the men
who nocked to Rome from Achaia and Macedonia, from Asia Minor
and the islands, were ready to undertake any employment that
was required, and make themselves useful in the houses of the
wealthy people who lived in the Esquiline, the " West End " of
Rome. § "The starveling Greek knows everything. He is a
grammarian, a rhetorician or engineer, a painter or a trainer, an
auitur or a rope-dancer, a physician or a magician, anything you
please. He will go to heaven, if you bid him." || These Greek
adventurers were adepts at ingratiating themselves by flattery, and
outran the needy Roman competitors in the race for the favour of
the great. Rome was the great hunting-field for adventurers and
knights of fortune.

§ 2. A large portion of this foreign population were slaves, a
class which formed more than half the total population of Rome.^f

* Ovid, Ars Am., Hi. 113. Martial, ix.
59, 2 : Hie, ubi Roma suas aurea vexat
opes.

•f- Sat., iii. ti > : Non possum ferre,
Quirites, Graecam urbem.

J Tb., 62 : lampridem Syrus in Tiberim
deflnxit Orontes.

$ Ib., 71. The house of Maecenas was
on the Esquiline.

|| Ib., 76:
Grammaticus, rhetor, geometres, pictor,

aliptes,
Augur, schosnobates, medicus, magus;

omnia novit
Graeculus esuriens; in caelum iusseris

ibit.

«|J 900,000 out of 1,600,000 (according
to calculation of Marquardf)

CHAP. xxxi.

LIFE AT ROME.

593

The number of slaves in all the large towns of the Empire w»s
enormous. The price was cheap. A young male slave ot good
character could be b"Ught tor £20, a girl of six years old 'or about
£8. Notwithstanding tlie feelings of humanity which 1-egan to
pervade society in thesrcoi.d century, owing partly to t' e spnadm
of the Stoic il<»ctrineon tlie su'ject, tlie condition of slaves was o 'en
very deplorable. This was especially the case with the inn, ense
gamis which speculators em lo\ed in indusiry and manu act'-re.
Apnleins Drives a harrowing description of slaves working in a mill.
'' hese wretches, pale and almost naked, woie rings on their fei t ;
t1 eir skin was d scoloured and furrowed w th the black mark- of
the lash ; their eves were nearly blind from smoke and ste >m
The condition of slaves in private fa,mi ie*, and even in small
private crgastula, was comparatively exempt from such rigours.*

§ 3 The disadvantages and dangers of life at Rome are often
enbrged upon by Latin writers. Both Horace and Pliny the
Younger contrast the advantage of country life with the mis ne*
and hardships of the capital. Juven-ii, in his Third Satiie,
represents Urabricius starting for Cumae and relating the causes
which have driven him from Rome

To begin with, the outbreak of epidemics was a constant
occurrence at Rome. Serious pestilences broke out in 23 and
22 B.C. ; in 65 A.D. after the preat fire ; in 79 A.D. just after the
eruption of Vesuvius. On the last occasion, 10/»00 denhs
sometimes occu-red on the »ame day. The most virul- nt of all was
the plague in the reign of Marcus Aurelius Fires were a much
more frequent evil.f Moreover living was very dear at Rome
compared with the municipal ton-ns of Italy. The yearly rent of a
garret at the top of a Roman lodging-house would have purchased
a houst- and garden at So'a o> Frnsino. J Ti.e city was consequently
full of poor people (humil'S) in straitened circumstances, tn ing to
uerp up appearances. Men who made a great show wen often
bankrupt.!

I Besides this great drawback of dear prices, the man of modest
means found everything advtrse to com ort and tranquillity in
l.'ome. During the daytime, the ordinarv traffic made the streets
ver\ noisy,|| and at night there was the rumMing of the \elick-s

* But see below, $ 7.

f See below, $ 9.

J Juvenal, iii. 222 :
Si potes av. Hi i :ircensibus optima Soraj
Aut Fabrateri* domus aut Frusinone

paratur,
Quanti nunc tenebras unum conducis in

Tenebras means a dark garret.

$ Martial (ii. 57) mentions a dandy
lounging along the Septa, and followed by
a long train of dependants, who has just
pawned bis ring to get 8 sesterces (Is, Ad.),
the price of a dinner.

[| See Martial, xii. 57.

594

ROMAN LIFE AND MANNERS. CHAP. xxxi.

which were not allowed to pass through the streets by day. Slrep
was the luxury of the rich.* Even walking in the narrow, crowded
streets was a disagreeable and dangerous necessity lor the man who
was not rich enough to afford to be carried at his ease in a litter
(lectica). He ran the risk of being struck in the side by planks of
timber, of being trodden on by a soldier's hob-nailed boots, ot being
crashed to death under a waggon-load of stone. At night a poor
man in the streets was exposed to all sorts of danuers. There were
the chances of being struck on the head by things thrown out of
high windows, and there was the possibility of being assailed by
thieves or bidden to stand by quarrelsome bullies,f or one of those
bands of profligate young men, which were brought into fashion by
the example of Nero. Those who fell into their hands were un-
mercifully beaten, sometimes tossed in blankets.^

Even the rich were glad to leave their houses on the Esquiline
and Cselian § for their villas on the Campanian coast or in the
Tus an hills. Literary men are never tired of contrasting the
pleasures if the country with the weariness of town life.
" Country, when shall I see you ? " cries Horace, " and be restored
to my book, and sleep, and pleasant idleness ? " || Pliny and
Juvenal echo the same cry.

§ 4. Thus imperial Home presents many points of comparison
with a large modern capital. Wealth there had the same advan-
tages; there were the same vast inequalities in its distribution, and
the same glaring contrasts between indigence and luxury. Seneca
who was "very rich,"l was said to have amassed 300,000,000
sesterces (£2,400,000) within four years. The fortune of the
Ireedman Narcissus was 400,000,000 (£3,200,000). One of the
favourite extravagances, not only of the wealthy but of men of
moderate income, was the possession of a number of houses and villas
in different places. Cicero and the younger Pliny, for example,
kept up several country houses. In regard to luxury of living the
fashion set by the court exercised doubtless considerable influence,
and it is expressly stated by Tacitus that a great change for the
better took place after the death of Nero. To illustrate the
extravagance of the earlier period, it may be mentioned that Seneca
possessed five hundred tables with ivory feet, and that at a dinner
given in winter to Nero, more than four million sesterces (£32,000)

* Juvenal, Hi. 235 : Magnis opibus dor-
mltur in urbe.

f Juvenal, iii. 289 : Tu pulsas, ego
vapulo tantum.

t This was called sagatio.

§ The bouse of the wealthy Lateranus
(who perished in the conspiracy of Piso

against Nero) was on the Cselian.
Martial, zii. 18. 4 :

Dum per limina te potentiorum
Sudatrix tona ventilat vapumque
Maior Cajlius et minor fatigant.
|| Sat., ii. 6. 60.
if Juvenal, x. 17 : prsedivitis.

Op.

C/UAf. XXXI.

tiPOKTULA.

595

were spent on roses. A gourmand named Aplcius, who lived in
the time of Augustus and Tiberius, became proverbial f-r the
pleasures of the table. Hut although Vespasian's moderate example
seems to have brought about a reaction, and the Emperors of the
second century were simple in their way of living, the age of
Juvenal seems to have had many a rival of Apicius.* In a 1 ttt-r
to his friend Persicus, invithus him to a dinner of simple fare —
suggested perhaps by the invitation of Horace to Torqiuitusf—
Juvenal satirizes the extravagant dinners of the rich,J n^oro
vehemently than Horace. §

§ 5. Under the Empire the relation of patron and client still
played a part in Roman life, but clients had no longer the same
political importance for the patron as und r the Republic, an I
consequently their morning visits were less welc^ me. The habit
of receiving retainers, however, was kept up by the wealthy; but
the patron, instead of occasionally asking the client to a "right
dinner" (cena recta), as it was called, used to give him at Hie
morning r« ceptiou || a dole of food, which he carried away in a small
basket, sportula, whence the dole itself was called sportula 1 The
next step was to convert the gift in kind into a gift in money ; and
the amount fixed by custom \\as 100 qua.irautes. Domitiau made
an attempt to revive the old practice of the etna recta** l>ut d.d
not succeed in introducing it permanently. If we can trusr, the
satirist Juvenal, many persons of low decree supported themselves
entirely on the doles of patrons, and even men of hign position
did not disdain to accept the sportula.

§ 6. The p -or client was glad to buy his patron's hospitality by
all arts and kinds of flattery and obsequiousness; but in the idle
of the parasite, the Roman was generally less success ul than the
more versatile Greek. Juvenal has given us a vivid, and doubtless
heightened, picture of the life of the needy parasite, who was in his
day as marked a feature of imperial Rome as, in Menander's day,
of republican Athens. Trebius, in order to fill occasionally a
vacant place at the table of his rich patron, Virro, has to break his
sleep before dawn and expose himself to the cold night air, in order

* Juvenal, iv. 22:

Multa videmus

Quse miser et frugi non frcit Apicius.

•j- Epist., i. 5 (beginning: Si potes
Archiads con viva recumbere lectis).

} Sat., xi.

$ In Sat., ii. 2.

|| Juvenal, 1. 128: Sportula, deinde
forum.

^[ Ib.,\. 95:

Nunc sportula primo

Limine parva sedet turbae raplenda togatse.
The receptions were always attended in
full dress— in the toga.

** Martial, iii. 7. 1: Centum miselli
iam valete quadrantes. 5 : regis superbi
sportula- n cesserunt. iii. 30. 1 : Sportula
nulla datur; gratis con viva rccumbis
(where Martial puts it as i; att> ndance at
dinner were part of the client's services
for which he should be paid).

596 ROMAN LIFE AND MANNERS. CIIAF.XXXI.

to attend an earlymorning reception and present himself to the patron
before his rivals. For two months, perhaps, he goes without an
invitation; at length he receives one. At the dinner, for which
he pays so dear, he gets the worst wine while his host drinks choice
Setine.* The cup of Virro is jewelled, that of Trebius is of cracked
i^lass ; or if he too has a jewelled one placed before him, a slave
stands by to see that he does not steal it. The patron and his
dependant do not even drink the same water. Trebius ha< to eat a
I'iece of mouldy black bread, and if he ventures to help himself
f om Virro's loaf, the slave makes him restore it. Virro eats lobster
stewed with oil of Venafrum, choice truffles, and fruit ; Trebius a
common crab, dressed with lamp-oil, wretched fungi, and rotten
•ipples. But it is not from stinginess that Virro treats the parasite
thus ; no, he is bent on mortifying him.f " You think you are a
free guest ; he knows that you are the slave of the savour of his
kitchen. ' J

But the satirist also complains that patrons are less generous
than they used to be. Among the Virros of his day there are none
who bestow such gen rous presents on their modest fri'-nds as
Seneca or Piso in the time of Nero. Years later, Lucian draws a
similar picture of the parasite Nigrinus.

§ 7. It would be a mistake to draw any conclusions as to the
morality «-f Roman society from the stories which are told by
ancient writers of the profligacy of Emperors like Gains or Nero
or from the licentiousness of Messalina. This occasional wicked-
ness in high places might have been compatible with an average
standard of morality among the mass of the senators, the knights,
and t"6 people. We must also beware of taking too literally, or
applying too generally, the heightened pictures of Juvenal. He
devotes his longest satire to a description of the depravity of the
women of his day ; but most of the follies which he lashes are
common to all ages. He describes the women who fall in love
w th actors and gladiators, harp-players and flute-players ; those
who affect Greek and profess to be quite ignorant of Latin ; § those
who tyrannize over wetik husbands, and those who have eight
husbands in five years. He satirizes their love of finery, their love
of gossip, and their pride of birth. || He ridicules the literary matron

* Cp. Martial, iii. 60. 9 :
Cur sine te ceno, cum tecum, Pontice,

cenem?

Sportula quod non est prosit; edamus
idem.

f Hoc arft nt doleas ; nam qua? comoa-
dia, mimu&

J 76., 161.

$ Juvenal, vi. 187 : Omnia Graece.

|| Juv., vi. 167:

Malo Venusinam quam te, Cornelia mater
Gracchorum, si cum magnis virtutibus

aff rs
Grande fvpercilium et nuraeras in dote

is melior plorante gula ? (Juv., v. , triumphos.
tit.)

UilAP. XXXI.

MANNERS OF WOMEN.

597

who, when she goes out to dine, institutes comparisons between
Virgil and Homer; all the philologists and rhetoricians are hushed
by her cha.ter, which is like the noise of basins and bells. * Mes-
salina is introduced as a type of female licentiousness; and Ilippia,
the wife of Veiento, who eloped to Egypt in the company of
Sergius, an ugly gladiator, is mentioned as an instance of vul ar
passion in noble dames for men of mean calling. Of all the
follies of Rom in ladies, that which we can least understand is the
practice o the gladiaors art. Women of the lowest class often
appeared in the arena, and no one thought anything of it ; but
ladies of high family, both under Nero and under Domitian,
dressed as gladiators, with helmets and greaves, and fought in the
amphitheatre. This scandalized Juvenal, but Martial speaks of it
with an approving smile.

The superstition of women is ridiculed by Juven «1, who describes
them as ready to ;all under the influence of every oriental impostor.
Priests of Isis, Jewish hags, Chaldsenn astrologers, ham spices Irom
the east, are all consulted and believed. The cruelty of ladies to
their slaves is p->rtrayed vividly. If they g.-t up in a cross temper,
their maids and tire-men (cosmetas) are flogged. Some, he says,
pay so much a year for the use of the public torturers, in order
to punish their slaves, f

Juvenal seeks for the causes of the degeneracy of morals,
and indicates three : % (1) the evils of a long period of peace,
which induces idleness and luxury; (2) the great increase of
wealth, which produces the same effects; and (3) the influx of
foreign nations, who brought with them ( ffeminacy and debauchery.
" Since Roman poverty departed," he says, " every lust is iu our
midst " There can be no doubt that these were the chief causes
of the difference between Rome in the third century B.C. and
Rome in the first century A.D. The close connection between the
three causes assigned is evident.

* Juv., vi. 441 :

Tot pariter pelves, tot tintinnabula dicas
Pulsari.

f Juvenal's picture of the girl Psecas,
who has her dress torn by her mistress,
and is beaten with a bull's-bide whip,
because she has not arranged one curl of
the lady's hair to h« r liking (vi. 491), is
borne out by Martial's well-known epi-
gram (ii. 66) on Kalage, who for the same
reason — a ringl t insecurely fastened by a
hair-pin had fallen from its place— cruelly
lashed her maid Plei usa : Et cecidit s* vis
icU Plecusa modis (Palmer : vulg. cornis).
+ vi. 292 :

Nunc patimur longx pacts mala ; saevior

armis
Luxuria incubuit victumque ulciscitur

orbeni.
Nullum crimen abest facinusque libidinis,

ex quo
Paupertas Romana perit : Line fluxit ad

1st os
Et S<ibaris colles, hinc et Rliodos et

JJiletos
Atque coronatum et petulans madidum-

que Tarentum.

Prima peregrines obscena pecunia moret
Intulit.

598

KOMAN LIFE AND MANNERS. GHA*>. XXXL

§ 8. SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION. — At Rome education was not
compulsory, but it was general. The fees at the elementary
schools were low, not more than 15s. a year. Under the
Empire men of the highest rank sent their children to public
schools ; members of the imperial family, however, were always
taught at home. The elementary school of the litterator, or ludi
magisttr, must be distinguished from the advanced schools of the
gi-amwiiticu* and the rhetor. The schools seem to have been held
in portic' es opening on the street, * and the noise of the classes was
often a nuisance to the neighbours. Martial assigns the din of a
school near his lodgings f as one of the causes which drive him to
seek rest at his Nomentane villa. Children began to attend school
at about seven years old, and boys and girls were taught together. J
The school year began on the 24ih of March, the day following
the Five-day festival of Minerva, called Quinquatrws,§ and the
new pupil then paid his first lee, which was called Mi nervate.
These five days in March and the week of the Saturnalia in
December were the only school vacations; but the Nundings were
always free days. School began before dawn; the boys used to
bring their own lamps. || There was an interval for breakfast
(prandium). Children were accompanied to school by a servant
called the psedigogu*,^ who had control over them and probably
superintended the preparation of their lessons. Another slave, the
capsarius, carried the books. ** The discipline both of the litterator
and of the yrammaticus was strict; we hear much of the school-
master's " ferule." ft Orbilius, the schoolmaster who taught Horace,
was famous for his severity. ££

On leaving the li'-ferator, children who were destined to have a
higher education coull go to the graimnalicus, who gave instruction
in the recitation and interpretation of the Greek and L tin poets.
Acquaintance with Greek began at an early age, and we read of a

* The schoolroom is spoken of as per-
gula and poiticus.

f xii. 57. 4: Negant vitam
Ludi magistri mane.

$ Mart., is. 68 :

Ludi scelerate m -gister,

Invisum pueris virginibusque caput.
Cp. viii. 3. 15.

$ Juvenal, x. 114 :
Eloquium ac famam Demosthenis axit

Ciceronis
hicipit optare et totis quinquatribua

optai, etc.

|| Juvenal, vii. 222: M dUe quod noctis
ab hora sedisti; 225: Totidem olfecisse
lucernas.

Martial, ix. 68.3:
Nondum cristati rupere silentia palli :

Murmure iam ssevo verbenbusque tonas.

^[ Often called custos. Horace, Sat.,
i. 6. 86: Ipse mihi custos incoi ruptissimus
omnes circum do< tores aderat (of his
father). Juvenal, vii. 218: Uiscipuli
custos.

** Juvenal, x. 117: Custos angustae
vernula capsse.

•f-f- Juv., i. 15 : Et nos ergo rnanum
feral* flubduximus. Martial (x. 62, 10:
Ferulasque tristes sceptra paedagogorum)
mentions ferules as used by the peda<
gogues.

JJ Horace, Epist., ii. 1.70: plagosum.

CHAP, xxxi

SCHOOLS.

599

Greek maid being kept to exercise young children in talking the
language, just as English children liave French and German
nursery-governesses.* Great stress was laid on the art of t locution.
The master used to read passages aloud and tlie pupils used to
repeat them after him and practise the right emphasis.! The
meaning: was explained in great detail. Of Greek poets, Homer J
and Menander were the favourites. Statias gives a list of those
who were read at his father's school in Naples. § It includes
Hesiod and Pindar, Alcman, Stesichorus and Sai pho, Sophron
Callimachus and Lycophron. Of later poets, Virgil, Horace || and

School Flogging.

Lucan were the most popular in the first century. Statius seems
to hive been read at schools in his own lifetime. ^[ In t<>e second
century the school course was affected by the reaction in taste, and
early wiiters were introduced, such as Ennius and Pla tus.
M< sic and geometry also came into the "encyclic education,"
which w^s preliminary to the study of rhetoric.** At the schools
of the rhetoricians, prose authors were studied instead of the poets,
and the art of prose compositi"ii and declamation was practised.

* Tacitus, Dial, de Or., 29.

f Quintilian, i. 5. 11: Auctores quos
pnflcgunt.

Horace, Epitt.,\. 18. 13:
Ut pueruin saevo ciedas dictata magistro
Ktdder*.

J Horace learned Homer. Epist., ii.
2. 42:

Horn* n'ltriri mi'u contigit atque doceri
Iratus Grails <iuant*m nocuisset Achilles.

$ In the Epicedium on his
.sVZw., v. 3. 150 sqq.

|| Juvenal, vii. 226:

Cum lotus decolor esset
Flaccus et Iwreret nigro fuligo Maroni.

Horace looked forward to this fate him-
self, /p St., i. 20. 17:
Hoc quoque te manet ut pueros element*

d centetn
Occupet extremis in vicis balba senectun.

II Thebaid, xii. 815:
Itala Jam studio discit memoratque iu

ventus.

** Quintilian at the beginning of his
Institutio gives an account of the neces-
sary preliminary studies.

600 KOMAN LIFE AND MANNERS. CUAI. xxxi.

" Do you teach to declaim ? " was a way of asking " Are you a
rhetorician ? " * The classes were very large.f The lecturer sat
on a hiuh chair (cathedra), and the pupils sat on benches (subsellia)
or stood. The subjects of the declamations Irequently turne<i on
historical questions, such as, " Should Hannibal have marched on
Rome after his victory at Cannse?" or "Advice to Sulla to
abdicate.'1 % Such declamations were called sua*tn-mt and are
distinguished from the controversial, which handled leg.l questions.
Juvenal satirizes the tedious sameness of the subjects discussed in
th« se essays. § The parents used to come on special days to
hear their sons declaim.||

SECT. II. — HOUSES.

§ 9. The houses in Rome were of two kinds, domus and iittntlai.
The domus was a private house, generally inhabited by one family,
and of not more than one storey above the ground floor. 'Ihe
inxula was a building of three or four storeys,^" let out in flats
or rooms, and inhabited by people of small means. The insula was
so called becans<- it was detached, and stood, like an island,
surrounded by streets. The ground floor was generally let out in
shops. The ganvts of the fourth flo-»r were called cenacula** The
ucper storeys had windows, ff and somet mes balconies, from which
people could shake hands acr ss the narrow streets, and sometimes
the higher storeys p-ojccted over the lower. These houses were
often cheaply and badly built by speculators They wre generally
of wood, and they were constantly either tumbling :$ or being burnt
down.§§ Augustus made some attempt to remedy these evils, and
fixed a limit for the height of houses; but N ro WHS the great
reformer. He ordained that the outer walls should be built of

* Juvenal, vii. 150: Peclamare doces?

f Ib., 151 : Classis numerosa.

J Ib., 160, and x. 166:
1 demens et sa-vas curre per Alpes
Ut pueris placeas et de--lamatio fias.

i. 16:
ConsiHum dedimus Sullae, privatus ut

xltum
Dormiret.

0 Juvenal, vii. 1V2 sqq.
154 : Orcidit miseros crambe repetita ma-
gistros.

** Horace, JSpist., i. 1. 191: Quid
pauper? ride; mutat cenacula.

Juvenal, x. 18 R nus venit in cenacnla
miles; iii. 201: Ultimus ar.iebit quern
tegula sola tuetur a pluvia.

tf One of the dangers of the streets
of Borne at night was the chance of bei'ig
hit hy things thrown out of ihe windows.
Juvonal, iii. 275: Adeo tot fata quot ilia

Nocte patent vigiles te pnetereunte
fenestrae.

ft Ib., iii. 193:

Ib., 166: Ut totiens ilium pater | Nos nrbem c»limus fenui t:bicine fnltaui

audiat. Mapna parte sui: nam sic labentibus

^T Juvenal, Sat., iii. 199: Tabulata i obstat

tibi iatn tertia fumant. Vilic.uS et, veteris rimae cum texit hiatum,

Martial, i. 117. 7: Scalis hablto tribus, Securos pendente iubet dorrnire ruina.

sedaltis. $$ Ib., 197 tijq.

CHAP. xxxi. HOUSES. 601

peperino stone, and introduced other improvements. It has even
been suggested that he caused the great conflagration in order to
be able to carry out his reforms.

In the domus, the dwelling of the rich man, most of the rooms
were on the ground floor. The two most important rooms were
the atrium, which was the original nucleus of the house, and the
peristylium, both open to the sky. The hearth, beside which the
household go is were kept, was in the atrium, where also were
arranged the ancestral images (imagines')* The space exposed
to the rain in the centre of the a'rium was calle 1 the impluvium.
and in it was a marble fountain. The peristyUnm had likewise a
fountain in the centre ; the open space in the middle was planted
with shrubs and flowers and surrounded by columns. 'I he dining-
rooms, sitting-rooms, withdrawing-rooms, bed-rooms and kitchens
opened out from the pet istylium, which was kept as a sort of
private court, while the atrium was used as a recei-tion-room.

The floors on the ground-floor were generally of stone or
"pavement,"f that is, pieces of stone and brick beaten down to a
smooth surface ; in the upper storeys the floors were of wood or
concrete. The walls were usually decorated with paintings on a
prepared white ground; but wealthy and fashionable people at
Rome used to line their walls with marble slabs, or adorn them
with mosaics of brilliant colours. Ceilings were ornamented with
paintings or relief in stucco work. Sometimes they were divided
into small sunken panels resembling lakes (whence the name
lacunar). J There were windows in the upper storey looking boih
into the street and into the inner court ; but the ground-floor Floras
w re chiefly lit f r m the atri'>m andpe isfylium. There seems to
be little, doubt that ^lass and other transparent substances were
used in the windows. The rooms were heated by braziers or by
pipes ol hot air.

§ 10. Of the imperial pnlaces, we know most about the Flavian
pabce of Domitian, of which there are considerable remains on the
Palatine. Jt was not a comparatively modest dwelling-place, like
the house of Augustus, but consisted of a number of stately ronms
for public puri oses. " At one end is a very splendid throne-r«-om
with a lararium or imperial chapel on one side, and a basilica for

* Juvenal, viii. 19 : Tota licet veteres | where Lacedeemonium means that the
exorn'-nt undique cerae atria. \ floor was of marble from Mount Tamarue.

Martial, iv. 40. 1: Atria Pisonum sta- •, Cp. Tibullus, iii. 3. 16: Mai moreunique
bant cum stemmate tot >. j solum.

•f Juvenal, xiv. 60: VVrre pavimetitum, J Horace, 0<l*s, ii. 18. 1:

nitidas stende columnar

Thp floor was called orbis. lh., xi. 175 :
'jui I,a'pda>m>'nium pytismate lubricat

Non ebur neqne auieum
Mea, ren'de: in dnnv> lacunar.
Juvenal, i. 56 : Doctus sptctare lacuiun
(perhaps to n^ml-o t'-o decor ition).

602 KOMAN LIFE AND MASfNEES. CHAP, xxxi.

judicial business on the other. At the other end of the peristyle
is the triclinium, for state banquets; and beyond it a series of
stately halls, which may possibly be libraries, and an Acidemia
for recitations and other literary purposes. A sort of nympliseum,
a room containing a fountain, with flowers, plants, and statues of
nymphs and river-gods, was placed at one side of the triclinium, if
not on both, so that the murmur and coolness of the water, and the
scent of the flowers might refresh the wine-heated guests. The
whole of this magnificent palace was adorned witli the greatest
richness, both of design and materials, with floors, wall-linings,
and columns of oriental marbles, alabaster, and red and green
porphyry. Even the rows of colossal statues, which decorated the
throne-room, were made of the very refractory basalts and porphyry
from the quarries of Egypt, at a cost of an almost incredible
amount of labour. Remains of these were found early in the last
century. The position of the Flavian palace is very remarkable :
it is built on an immense artificial platform, which bridges over a
deep valley or depression in the summit of the Palatine." *

§ 11. The Roman villa, or country-house of the rich, was
generally situated on the seashore or among the hills, for the sake
of coolness. The Laurentine villa of Pliny overlooked the
Tyrrhenian Sea. " It consisted of numerous rooms of various forms
and dimensions, and designed for various uses, united by open
galleries. Most of these chambers commanded, as may be
supposed, a sea-view and enjoyed nearly a southern aspect. Some
were circular, and looked forth in all directions ; others semi-
circular, and screened only from the north ; others, again, excluded
the prospect of the water, and almost its noises ; some faced west,
some east, to be used at different seasons, or even different times of
the day. Behind this long line of building, the outward appearance
of which is nowhere indicated [by Pliny in his description of it]
but which seems in no part to have risen above the ground-floor,
lay gardens, terraces, and covered ways for walking and riding ;
and among these were placed, also, some detached apartments,
such as we might call summer-houses; while still farther in the
rear, rose the primeval pine-woods of the Latian coast, which
supplied the baths with fuel, and formed a chief recommendation
of the locality." Pliny's villa among the Tuscan hills, seems to
have been still more extensive. He describes in a letter " the
silvan beauties of the spot, the wide range of plain and
meadow stretching before it to the Tiber, the slope of leafy hills
on the skirt of which it lay, the massy amphitheatre of the
Apennines behind it." " It is approached by a long portico,
* Dictionary of Ortek and Roman Antiquities, Art. " Domui."

CHAP. xxxt.

COUNTRY HOUSES

603

leading to an atrium or central hall, such a* formed the nucleus of
the town-residence ; but there the likeness ends, for whereas in the
house at Rome all the living-rooms open upon the atrium, and lie
compactly arransed within the four outer walls, in the villa almost
overy apartment is substantially independent of the rest, and only
slightly connected with them by suites of open galleries. The
Tuscum seems to have abounded also in gardens and plantations,
its situation being better adapted for such luxuries than the
sea-shore. But neither in this case is there any mention of the
exterior appearance, nor any hint that the reader might be
expected to derive pleasure from the description of it. It is
evident that an architectural design did not enter into the ideas
either of Nero, when he flaunted over Rome with his palace of
palaces, or of the elegant master of the patrician villa by the sea
or on the hillside." *

The villa of Hadrian, at Tibur, was laid out as a sort of miniature
world. It contained a representation of the under-worU, and a
number of buil< lings called after the Lyceum, the Academy,
the Prytaneum, and the Poecile Stoa, at Athens. The vale of
Tempe was imitated with artificial mountains. There were
libraries, temples, and a small theatre. The villa was full of works
of art, some of which have been recovered in modern excavations.

SECT. III. — MEALS.

§ 12. The first meal of the day, among the Romans, was
the ientaculum, or breakfast, generally taken about the third hour.
It was very light, generally consisting of bread, seasoned with salt
or honey, or dipped in wine. School-boys in some cases had their
breakfast at cock-crow, and g»>t a sort of pancake. The next meal
was the prandiun, corresponding to our lunch, or more nearly to
the French dejeuner. It was taken at the sixth hour (about
eleven o'clock), and might be as simple as a piece of bread, or
consist of a number of courses of fish, flesh, and fowLf The
regular hour for the cena or " dinner," the chief meal of the day,
was the ninth, J but it was often later. A fashionable entertain-
ment was marked by the earlmess of the hour, and early dining
was considered a sign of luxury. § The dinner always lasted a long

* These descriptions are taken from
Merivale's History of the Romans under
the Empire, cap. 64.

f When the prandium was omitted for
any reason, an early afternoon meal*
called merenda. was taken instead.

J Half-past oue in winter; half-past

two in summer.

Martial, iv. 8. 6: Imperat extructoe
frangere nona toros.

Horace, Epist., i. 7. 10: Post nonam
veni s.

$ Horace, Odes, i. l. 20: Nee partem
solido demere de die.

604 ROMAN LIFE AND MANNERS. CHAP, xxxi

time : three hours was considered a moderate length. The
ordinary Roman, of modest means, dined in the atrium, with
his wile and children; but rich men had separate dining-rooms,
called t.idinia. The men reclined on a lectus or couch, the women
sat. An elaborate cena consisted of three parts : the ymtafio,
somewhat like the Zakuska of Northern Europe, consisting of
shell-h>i., olives, eggs, and other " hors-d'oeuvre," to stimulate the
appetite -t then the cena proper, of several courses of all sorts of
viands,* after which offerings were made to the Lares, and the
the third part of the dinner, calle'd mensse secundse, " second
course," was served, consisting of partly and fruit, and cor-
responding to our "sweets "and dessert. Augustus used to give
three courses (fercula, " trays ") of viands, or at the outside six.
Juvenal mentions seven as luxurious.f The arrangement of the
dishes on the trays, and the carving of the joints became, with the
development of luxury, a special art. J One tray olten contain* d a
large number of viands. At the dinner of Trimalchio, described
by Petronius, a ferculum was served with twelve dishes of fish,
meat, fowl, vegetables, and fruit, arranged to represent the signs of
the zodiac ; and when the guests seemed disappointed, the upper
part was removed and richer dishes, such as hares, capons, were
discovered underneath. The Romans ate with their fingers, and
hence used to wash their hands after each course. They wiped
their hands on pieces of bread, which were afterwards thrown to

§ 13. At dinner-parties nine was the usual number. Three
couches (lecti) were arranged on three sides of a square, and each
accommodated three people. To make up parties it was usual for
invited guests to bring uninvited persons who were called '• shadows "
(urnbree) ; sometimes the host asked a client to fill a vacant place.||
Thus at the dinner of Nasidienus, described by Horace,^" there

* Martial (x. 48) mentions as the food
at a simple dinner, kM, cutlets or sausages
"which do not require carving," beans,
early cabbage, chicken, and ham. The
fare to which Juvenal invites Persicus is
similar (xi. 65-76) : a tender kM, moun-
tain asparagus, chicken, eggs, apples,
pears, and grapes.

f Sat., i. 94 : Quis fercula septem
secreto cenavit avus ?

J The arranger of the dishes was termed
structor; he also carved with much ges-
ture and flourish, and in this capacity
was called carpto>\

Juvenal, v. 120: Structorem . . . eal-
tantera spertes et chironomunta volant i
cultello, etc. Cp. also : Sed non structor

erit. . . . Sonat ulmea cena Subura. Sat.
xi. 136.

Cp. xi. 136, where a carving school
kept by Professor Tryphot u> is described
(tota sonat ulmea »ena Subura).— The
development of the art of cookery at
Rome in the time of Augustus may be
judged by the lecture which Horace puts
in the mouth of Catins (Sat., ii. 4).

§ Called in Greek a.Tro/j.ayScL\iat Cp.
Martial, x. 5. 5, wliere a beggar asks for
"caninas pan is improbi buccas."

|| Juvenal, v. 16 :

Neglectum adhibere clientem

Tert ia ne vacuo cessaret culcita lecto.

^[ at., il. 8.

OHA.P. xxxi.

DINNER-PARTIES.

605

were nine at table, and Maecenas, the guest of the evening, haci
two "shadows." The Romans dressed for dinner, the garment
consisting of a coloured tunic (yestis cenatoria). When thev
reclined, they took otf their sandals, which the uuests iinve into the
charge of their slaves, whom they brought with them for flit-
purpose. The Latin for " he rose from table " is " he called for his
sandals." During the meal, the guests were entertained by reading
or music (acroama). Literary hosts used often to bore their parties
by reading their own compositi- -ns. At the entertainments of the
fashionable, there were frequently dancing-girls and singing-girls to
amuse the guests by their performances, which were of a very loose
kind. Dancers from Gades were especially in request. Juvenal
tells his friend Persicus, whom h^ invites to a modest meal, that he
will not see girls singing the lascivious songs of Hades to the sound
of castai.ets, but will hear a recitation of Virgil or Homer.

It was a frequent practice, at the end of entertaii ments, to give
presents to the guests to carry home with them. These were
called apophorefa.*

The style of the slaves, who waited, was considered important by
fashionable people. Africans and handsome Greeks from Asia
Minor seem to have b< en the favourites. They were either dressed
in showy silk or went without clothing of any kind, f It was the
custom for the guests to address the slaves in (lr< ek. J

§ 14. In third-rate society manners at meals were ofter. coarse
and violent. Horace says that " to fight with cups" is a cist* m
which should be left to the Thracians; § but it seems to have been
common in the civilized world. The vulgar fieedman Trimalchio,
in the satire of Petroiaius, throws a cup at the face of his wife
Fortunata, who has just called lam a " dog." Juvenal hints at
quarrels and bloody fac»s as a feature of entertainments given to
freedmen by their patrons.|| Lncian in his / apithx gives an accoi n'
of philosophers fighting at a wedding feast. Diphilus rights wit!
the slaves for a fowl. Zenothnnis, seeing that a larger fowl 1 a>
been set before Hermon than that, which he has got himself,
snatches it; they throw the birds at one ano'her and tear one
another's beards. Zennthemis flings a cup at his antagonist, and,
missing him, hits the bridegroom. Then the women throw them-
selves between the opponents, and the Cynic Alcidaruas uses his
club with great effect. A general fray ensues, and cups are freely

* See above. Chap. XXV. $ 17.

+ Juvenal (xi. 146) stys that his
a'tendmt will not he a dear-bouRht
Phrygian or Ly inn, but a country boy
cla * in warm clothes, •' a Irigore tutus."

J Juvenal bids Persicus (xi. 148) ask

for what, he wants in Latin : " Cum posces,
posce I ati e."
$ t,dei. i. 27. 1 :

Nati* in usum isetitiae ecyphis
Pugnare Thracum est.
II v. 26.

606 BOMAN LIFE AND MANNERS. CHAP. xxxi.

hurled. Allowing for exaggeration, this description shows that
scenes of the kind sometimes occurred.

§ 15. The public banquets (convivia publica) given by the
Emperors to their "friends," must be briefly mentioned. An
invitation to these was considered a great honour by senators of
the highest rank. Statins was so elated at being invited to
dine with Domitian that he wrote a special poem on the occasion.
The wives of senators were sometimes present, as, for instance, at a
banquet given by Oiho. Claudius used to give large dinners
constantly to about 600 guests. A story is told that on one
occasion a guest was suspected ol having carried off a gold drinking-
cup, and that on the next day an earthen cup was set before him.
The fare provided by Augustus was very simple ; that of Tiberius
was said to have been hardly decent. Under the three subsequent
Emperors there was a reign of luxury. Vespasian's dinners were
costly without being extravagant. Gold plate was a privilege
reserved for the Emperor since 16 A.D. All the guests appeared
in the toga, and all, irrespective oi rank, enjoyed the same fare.
The treatment of the guests by the various Emperors at their state
banquets was very different. Augustus, in his r61e of a true
princeps, was friendly. Trajan also showed himself very sociable,
and the Antonines doubtless knew how to make their guests
feel at home. Domitian was condescending, according to his
admirer Statins, haughty according to the adverse testimony of
Pliny, who states that he used to dine by himself before midday
and sit at the public banquet as a mere spectator. A curious story
is told of a grim piactical joke which he played upon a select
number of distinguished guests. He decorated a room in funereal
black. The walls, the ceiling and the floor, were all black, and
stone seats, also black, were arranged in order. The guests were
ushered in at night, without their attendants, and each man saw a
pillar, like a gravestone, at the head of his sear, and his own name
graven on it and a sepulchral lamp hanging above it. A band of
blackened naked boys then entered, danced round the room
with hideous gestures, and offered the guests fragments of focd such
as are presented to corpses. The guests were terribly frightened;
they expected death at every instant, and Domitian spoke of
funereal subjects. But presently, when the Emperor was sufficiently
amused with their terror, he ordered that the silver cup and plate
on which the food had been served should be given as a present
to each guest, and likewise the slave who had waited on him.

CHAT.

AQUEDUCTS.

607

• SECT. IV.— THE AQUEDUCTS. THE BATHS.

§ 16. During the last three centuries of the Republic and under
the Empire, Rome obtained her supply of water from the sur-
rounding hills by means of aqueducts, some ot which have been
mentioned in the foregoing pages. When Frontinus wrote his
treatise "On the Aqueducts of the City of Rome,"* there were
nine aqueducts, of which four dated from the Republican i eriod :

(1) Aqua Appia, begun by Appius Claudius, the censor, B.C. 312 ;

(2) Anio Vetus, derived from the river Anio, begun by M. Curius
Deiitatns, censor in B.C. 272 ; (3) Aqua Marcia, built by the
praetor Q. Marcius Rex in B.C. 144 ; (4) Aqun Tepula, built by
the censors Serviluis Caapio and Cassius Lon^inus, B.C. 127, and so
called because its water had a slightly warm temperature. The
courses of the Aqua Appia, the Anio Vetus, and the Aqua Marcia
were almost entirely underground. The Aqua Marcia, which
bejian south of the Via Valeria, at a distance of thirty-six miles
from Rome, supplied the coldest and purest water of all. There are
still remains of it to be seen near Tivoli. It was repaired by
Agrippa, and Augustus reinforced its supply from a new spring,
which he connected with it by the Aqua Auyusta. f

The two new aqueducts of Agrippa (33 B.C.), (5) Aqua Julia,
and (6) Aqua Viryo, have been mentioned in an earlier chapter.
The Aqua Julia came from a source two miles to the right
of the twelfth milestone on the Via Latina ; it joined the Aqua
Tepula, and afterwards both joined the Aqua Marcia, so that
the three channels travelled for some distance, one above the other,
on the same substructions, and entered Rome on an arch (now
the Porta San Lorenzo), erected by Augustus in 5 B.C. The Aqua
Virgo, J renowned like the Marcia for the purity of its water, was
designed to supply the Baths of Agrippa. (7) The Aqua Alsietina,
derived from the Lacus Alsietinus, was on the other side of the
Tiber; the water was remarkably bad, aiid was probably intended
for the Naumachia, the basin which Augustus made for sham
sea-fights. (8) The Aqua Claudia, and (9) the Anio Novus were
begun by Gains and finished by Claudius (52 A.D.). The length
of the former, which began near the thirty-eighth milestone on the
Via Snblacensis, was between forty and fifty miles, and about a
third of it was above-ground, resting on arches and substructions.
The Anio Novus, which began a few miles further on the same

* See above, Chap. XXV. $ 13. J Martial, vii. 32. 11 : Sed curris nivea*

t A branch of the Aqua Marcia passed tantum prope Victims undas; vi. 42. 18:

over the Porta Capena. Martial, iii. 47. 1 : Cruda Virgine Marciave mergi.

Capena grand! porta qua pluit gutt*.

608 ROMAN LIFE AND MANNERS. CHAT, xxxi

road, was still longer (nearly sixty miles) and higher, but less of
it was above-g'ound. These two aqueducts joined near the city,
which thry entered one above the other Of the Claudian aqueduct,
whose arches still remain in the Campagna, the elder Pliny wrote
thus : " If anyone will carefully calculate the quantity of the public
supply of water for baths, reservoirs, houses, trenches, gardens, and
suburban villas, and, Rlong the distance which it traverses, the arches
built, the moimta'ns perforated, the valleys levelled, he will confess
that there never was anything more wonderful in the whole world."

It has been estimated that the water supplied by these nine
aqueducts was "equal to that carried down by a river, thirty feet
broad by six deep, flowing at the rate of thirty inches a second," and
that if the population of Home was a million, the supply was
equivalent to 332 gallons a head daily.*

To these aq-ieducts Trajan added a tenth, the Aqua Trajana.f
It is interesting to observe that some of the ancient aqu- ducts
still supply Rome with water; namely, the Aqua Virgo (still
called by the same name, Acqua Vergine), restored by P«-pe
Pius IV.; the Acqua Paola, named after Pope Paul ^'., who con-
structed it by uniting the Aqua Trajana and Aqua Alsietina; and
the Acqua Marcia-Pia, restored in 1870. Splendid aqueducts were
built also in other parts of the empire, and p- rhaps the finest 'emains
of these achievements of Roman engineering are to be found at
Se -ovia in Spain, and at Nemausus (the Pont-du-Gard).

§ 17. The channel (.specw.s) through which the water flowed had
a slight slope. It consist d of stone or brick, lined with cement,
and was provided with vent-holes. Sometimes the water did not
pass through the spec/is itself, but through pip s (/E«/ttJ*»)of pottery
or lead laid along inside the spccus. At the source of the aqueduct
there was a large reservoir (piscina), and other reservoirs were
placed at stages along the course. When the water reached the city
it flowed into a large chamber, from which it was conducted into
three smaller basins, the middle on« of these being filled from the
overflow of the other two. Th* two outer basins suppl'ed private
ho ises and the public baths; the middle one, the public fountains
and ponds; so tnat in the case of a deficiency in the supph , t1 e
most useful purposes were first satisfied. These reservoirs formed
what was called the chief castellum, and were usually confined
in a handsome building. From the chief castellum the water was
diverted into lesser local castella, distributed over the regions of the
city. The castella were either public or private. The former
supplied the circus and amphitheatres, the public fountains, the
baths, the praetorian camp.

* Smith'* Diet, of Antiquities, vol. i. p. 150. t See above, Chap. XXIII. $ 6.

CHAP. xxxi.

BATHS.

609

The private castella were built at the joint cost of the families
who used them, but were under the supervision of the public
officers, who controlled the aqueducts (curatores oquarum) The
water was measured by the size of the tube (calix) through which
it passed out of the casteUum.

A very large number of officials were employed in managing the
water-supply, in keeping the aqueducts in repair, and in preventing
fraudulent diversion of the water. The curators aquarum had
460 slaves under them in the time of Frontinus. They were
divided according to their duties as follows : * (1) the vilici, who
managed the pipes and the tubes ; (2) t\-e caKtellarii, who had
charge of the castttta ; (3) the circ"itores, who went round
and inspected the aqueducts; (4) the silicarii, who took up the
pavement and laid it down again, when subterranean pipes had to be
examined; (5) the tectores, who attended to the masonry. This
will give an idea of the elaborate organisation which the Emperors
developed for the supply of the city with water, f

§ 18. BATHS. — In early limes the Eomans made use of the bath
only for health or cleanliness. They washed their arms and legs
once a day, and their whole body every week. But in Inter times
bathing came to be regarded, not merely as a necessity, but as a
luxury, and in the imperial period was a conspicuous feature of
Roman life. At first, public baths were only intended for the use
of poor people of low rank, who were unable to have the luxury of
a bath-room at home ; but before the end of the Republic, people of
all classes resorted to the balnea^ and the Emperors themselves
used to bathe in public with their fellow-citizens. The bath was a
very cheap luxury, which the poorest men could indulge in, as the
lee was only a quadrans, the smallest Roman coin. § Women had
probably to pay a higher price. The usual time for bathing was
about the eighth hour,|| before the chief meal of the day: but idle

* They were also divided into two
families: (1) familia aquaria publica,
(tyfamiJia aquaria Csesaris.

f Martial wrote an epigram (ix. 18) to
Pomitian, supplicating for permission to
have water laid on to h s house in Rome
from the Aqua Marcia (Cum mihi vicino
Marcia fonte sonet\ and also to have his
small country house (probably at Nom
c turn) suppl'ed with water.

J Originally, in strict language, baluese
meant the public baths ; lialneum, a
private bath; balnea, a private bath of
more than one room. But the distinction
of these terms became gradually oblite-
rated in use.
26*

$ Martial, iii. 30. 4: TJnde datur quad-
rans? Horace, Sat., i. 3. 137: Quad ran te
lavatum.

I! Martial, xi. 62. 3: Octavam poterig
servare ; lavabimur una.
The tenth hour was considered late
(76., iii. 36. 5). Some bathed at the sixth
hour (76., x. 4«. 3):

Nimi- >s prior hora vapores

Halat et immodico sexta Nerone calet.
Juvenal proposes to I'ersicus to bathe an
hour before the sixth (xi. 204):
lam nunc in balnea salva
Fron»e licet vadas, quamquam solida hora

supersit
Ad sextant.

610

ROMAN LIFE AND MANNERS. CHAP. xxxi

and luxurious people often bathed several times a day. Gourmands
used to take a bath alter eating as well as before, in order to get a
fresh appetite ; this practice is ascribed, for instance, to Caligula
and to Nero, and a contemporary writer, Pliny the elder, con-
sidered it partly the cause of the degeneration of morality.* It was
an ordinary practice in the time of Cicero to take emetics for the
same purpose, f

Baths of Caracalla.

The number of public Baths — some built by the state, others by
private speculators J — was enormous. Agrippa is said to have
added one hundred and seventy to those already in existence ; by

* Horace, Eptst., I. 6. 61 : Crudi tumi-
clique lavemur. Persius, Hi. 98: Tur-
gidus hie epulis atque albo ventre lava-
tur. He goes on to describe the sickness
and death which ensue. So Juvenal, 1.
142:
Poena tamen praesens com tu deponta

amictus
Turgidus et crudum pavonem in balnea

portas.

Hinc subitse mortes atque intestata se-

nectus.

f Cicero Pro Deiot. 21. De Finibus,
ii. 23 : Qui m m^nsam vomant et qni de
conviviis aufrrantur crudique postridie se
rursus ingurgitent.

J Juvenal mentions the Baths of
Phoebus (vii. 232). The Baths of Ste-
phanue were close to the abode of Martial
(Martial, xi. 52. 4).

HA! HIS.

611

the beginning of the fourth century, their number was nearly a
thousand. The bathing did not consist merely of a hot or cold
bath, but was a long process, somewhat like that of our Turkish
baths, only more elaborate. Hot air was employed as well as
water. The chief rooms of a Bath were the apodyterium or
stripping-room, in which the bathers took off their garments, and
committed them to slaves, who were proverbial for their dishonesty ;
the elssothesium, or oil-room, where the unguents were kept ; the
frigidarium, or cold room, for those who only wished for cold
baths ; the tepidarium, a chamber heated by moderately warm air,
in which the bather sat and was anointed, before proceeding into
the hot atmosphere of the caldarium. In some rich Baths there
was a special anointing room (unctorium). The caldarium was
heated by a hypocaust, over which its floor was suspended. At
one end of this room, in the old Baths of Pompeii, was a bath of
warm water, at the other end a tub of cold water, which was
poured over the head before leaving the room. In some Baths,
there was a sweating-chamber of higher temperature, known as the
laconicum, which was a round room with a domed ceiling. When
he had duly perspired, the bather was scraped all over with a
strigil, a sharp instrument of bone or metal, whose edge was
softened with oil.* The rich man was scraped by his slaves, whom
he brought with him for the purpose ; the poor man scraped
himself. It was a disagreeable experience for fastidious people to
bathe at the same time as those who used rank-smelling oil.f
After anointing, the bathers remained some time in the tepidarium,
so as not to pass suddenly into the cold air.

This general description applies both to the ordinary Baths
(balnesi), and to the special kind of baths called Ttterma, J which
were introduced by Agrippa, and formed a feature of imperial Rome.
Baths were only a part of the thermae, which were really "a
Roman adaptation of a Greek gymnasium." § In the period with
which we are concerned four great thermal were erected at Rome,

* Juvenal (iii. 262) says of a private
house at the hour of bathing that it

Sonat unctis
Striglibus et pleno componit lintea guto.

The towels (lint- a) were of linen. The
luxurious Trimalchio (in Petronius, Sat.,
28) was rubbed with woollen rugs. The
bottle containing the oil was called gutus.
It was often of horn (gutus corneus,
Martial, xiv. 52), and was sometimes
called a rhinoceros. Juvenal, vli. 130:
Cum rhinocerute lavari.

f Horace, Sat., L 6. 123 :

Unguor olivo,
Non quo fraudatis immundus Natta lu-

cernis.

Jm enal, v. 90 : Romae cum Boccare
nemo lavatur (an allusion to the rank oil
used by Numid'an snake-charmers).

J Balnea are distinguished from thtrmsf
in Juvenal, vii. 232 :
Dum petit «ut thermas aut Phcebi balnea

$ Thus Dion Cassius uses the word
yvp.vii(Tiov to designate the Therm* of
Agrippa and those of Nero.

612 ROMAN LIFE AND MANNERS. CHAP, xxxi

chose of Agrippa, Nero, Titus, and Trajan.* They were extensive
and splendid establishments, fitted up with conveniences for every
exercise and pursuit. Here the youth of Rome could learn and
practise athletics ;f here there were cool colonnaded halls (ex^-drse),
where the idler could lounge and talk, where the philosophers
could lecture, and the poets recite their verses.

It was usual for clients to escort their patrons to the public
baths, and these large crowds of shabby and dirty retainers were a
nuisance to others. ^

At the baln'-se (not in the thermae) there were separate sets of baths
for women. A story is told of a consul's wife, who wished to bathe in
the men's baths at Teanum in Campania, and an order was con-
sequently issued that all the men should be turned out. The
meu's establishment was probably better provided with con-
veniences than the women's. But although there were separate
departments, it was a common practice in the imperial age for men
and women to bathe promiscuously in the same baths. § Respect-
able women, of course, did not do so, but the habit was so wide-
spread that both Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius had to make
attempts to check the scandal.

Rich men had private baths (balnea) in their own houses,
though they used to frequent the public baths also. Juvenal
mentions 600,000 sesterces (£4800) as a large price for building a set
of bath-rooms. || The baths of Fronto cost more than half that
sum (£2800).

SECT. V. — PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS.

§ 19. THE GAMES AND SPECTACLES. — The public games at Rome
were not only a striking feature of Roman life, but they possessed
under the Empire an important political significance. They were
one of the two great baits which the Emperors used to divert the
mass of the people from political lite. The other WHS the cheap or
free distribution of bread. Fronto says that it seems to be very
politic in the Emperor not to neglect actors and performers in the
circus and amphitheatre, knowing that the Roman people is held

* Martial, iii. 36. 5 :
Lassus ut in thermas decima vel serius

bora
Te sequar Agrippse, cum laver ipse Titi.

In x. 51. 12 he calls the thermae of
Agrippa, Nero, and Titus, "triplices
thermae."

f For ball-playing in the baths, cp.

balnea turba. Cp. Martial, iii. 36.

§ Juvenal, in satirising the depravity
of women, describes a lady visiting the
baths with a crowd of retainers at night
(vi. 419):
Balnea uocte subit; conchas et castra

moveri
Nocte iubet; magno gaudet sudare tu-

Martial, xii. 82. multu.

i Juveual, vii. 131: Vexat lutulenta I l| vii. 178: Balnea seouentis.

CHAP. xxxi. PUBLIC GAMES 613

especially by two things, the corn-supply and the spectacles
(annona et spectacutis), and that the success of a government
depends on amusements as well as on serious matters of policy.*
These two sedueements are set together in Juvei- al's famous expres-
sion panem et circenses^ For the cheap supply of food, and the cheap
exciting amusements, which the Emperors provided for them, the
degenerate populace of Rome were contented to surrender their
political rights. The public games, under the Empire, increased in
number, variety, and splendour. We must distinguish between
(1) the ludi scenici, consisting of dramatic performances in the
theatre, and the ludi circenses, including both (2) the races in the
circus and (3) exhibitions of gladiators and beasts in the amphi-
theatre. Games were given either by the consuls, or the praetors,
or the quaestors, or the Emperor himself. The consuls had charge
of the Actian Games, which were celebrated at Rome annually on
September 2, the anniversary of Actium and of the games in
honour of Augustus's birthday (September 23). Early in the
second century, the duty of giving; gladiatorial shows (munera, as
they were called) devolved upon consuls elect, and, later in the
same century, on consuls entering upon office. The duties of
administering public games, which under the Republic had
belonged to the aediles, were transferred by Augustus to the
praators. $ But the gladiatorial shows, which under the Empire
were exhibited publicly as well as by private persons, devolved not
upon the praetors, but upon the quaestors, who in the reign of
Claudius were relieved from the duty of paving the streets, in order
to undertake this new burden. This arrangement lasted for about
seven years, but was revived under Domitian.

It is important to observe that the public games gave an oppor-
tunity for the expression of public opinion. "In republican times
much importance was attached to the manner in which public men
were greeted in the theatre by the people. In imperial times we
hear of the audience rising up when the Emperor or a disiingnished
man entered, or waving handkerchiefs and vociferously addressing
com pli men tar}' titles or good wishes, often in a kind of song. Of
course there was the most clamorous outcry for th< liberation of slaves
or criminals who had made a good exhibition in the contests, for
the discharge of distinguished gladiators, and many a gibe was
directed at unpopular people, and even the Emperor himself. The
people also made use of these occasions to declare against laws,

* Fronto, Principia histories, p. 210.

•j- x. 80 : Duas tantum res anxius optat
p.inem et Circeiises. Cp. i. 118: Urbem
circo scenajque vacantem. Tacitus de-
signates " histrionalis favor et gladiatorum

equorumque certamina " as special vice*
of Rome (Dial, de Or. 29).

J Juvenal, x. 36: Praetorem curribus
altis exstantem.

ROMAN LIFE AND MANNEKb. CHAP. xxxi.

against detested ministers, e.g. Tigellinus, and make many other
appeals and demonstrations. Indeed, these were pretty much the
only occasions on which the feelings of the people could be ex-
pressed or gauged under the Empire ; and the importance which
was attached to this expression of the popular will may be seen
from the fact that Titus, in order to carry out certain executions
which he considered advisable, put people throughout the theatre
to demand them." *

A feature of the games in imperial times were the scrambles.
The giver of the games often provided presents to be thrown among
the audience, and scrambled for. These were called missilia.
They consisted of fruits and other eatables, but more often of
tickets (tessera?), by which various entertainments could be
enjoyed.f Another practice was to sprinkle the stage and seats
with perfumes, especially saffron. %

§ 20. THE THEATRE. — There were three theatres in Rome in the
imperial period. (1) That of Pompeius, erected in 55 B.C., was the
first stone building of the kind at Romo. It was constructed on
the model ot the theatre at Mytilene, and contained 40,000 s^ats.
(2) 'I he theatre of Marcellus held 20,500 spectators. § (3) The
theatre of L. Cornelius Balbus had room for 11,510 people.

The Koman theatre was like the Greek, from which it was
copit d, but with certain differences. As the Dionysiac chorus of
Greek drama played no part in Roman representations, the orchestra
or "dancing floor "was not reqa ivd for its original use, and its
shape was modified. It no longer forms almost an entire circle,
but only a semicircle, and is appro priated to seats for a portion of
the audience. The consequence of this was that the part of the
thentre occupied by 'he audience (the cav&i) was semicircular also.
A further chanue was that whereas in the Greek theatre the stage
and the beats of the audience were not connected, but open passages
ran between them, in the Roman theatre the walls of the stage-
buildings and the walls of the cavea were continuous. The orchestra
was approached by vaulted passages at the sides. Awnings of various
colours were spread over the brilding to protect the people from
rain or sun. Be ore the beginning of a play, the stage (pulpitum)

* From thp article Ludi in Dictionary
of Antiquities, ii. 88.

f Martial, viil. 78. 9 :
Nunc veniunt subitis lasciva nomismata

nimbi 8,

N unc dat spectatas tessera larga feras.
The tessera fnimenti in Juvenal vii. 174
was a ticket, for a share in a corn-distri-
bution (largitio). Of. Persius, v. 74:
I'ublius emeruit scabiosum tesserula far.

These tickets must not be confounded
with those scrambled for at Spectacles.

J Martial, v. 25. 7 :

Rtibro pulpita nimbo

Spargere et effuso permaduisse croco.

$ See above, Chap. X. $ i. Martial
x. 51. ii:
Sed nee Marcelli Pompeianumque, nee

illic
Sunt triplices thermae.

CHAP. xxxi. THEATRES. 615

was concealed by a curtain (anlaum) * ; and at the falling of the
curtain — not, as with us, at its rising — the play began.

The seats in the orchestra were reserved for senators;! distin-
guished foreigners were sometimes admitted. The " fourteen rows';
in the cavea, nearest the orchestra, were assigned to the knights
by the Law of Roscius Otho (67 B.C.). % The beadle who arranged
the spectators and looked after the seats was called designator.
Such an official named Leitus is often mentioned by Martial, as
clearing the equestrian seats of intruders. § Augustus made further
regulations in the allocation of special parts of the theatre to special
classes of persons. There was a tribunal or imperial "box"
reserved for the Emperor, or the person who presided at the
performance, over the stage, to the left of the spectators. Opposite,
on the right, was a similar tribunal occupied by the Vestal virgins,
and the Empress had her place among them.

§ 21. The pieces performed were, as under the Republic, comedies,
tragedies, AMlane farces, and mimes. The mimes, which repre-
sented vulgar characters speaking in vulgar language, were
especially popular, and the composition of mimes was much
cultivated.

The female parts were acted by women, and the performances
were often of a very licentious nature. || The plots generally turned
on some loose love affair. Some mimes had ghosts in them, for
example, the Phasma of Catullus ; ^[ and Laureolus, who has been
called "the Dick Turpin of the ancients," was the subject ot

* The siparium was a smaller curtain
behind-; Juvenal, viii. 185 :

Consnmptis opibus voceui, Damasippe,

locasti
Sipario.
(That is, «' you hired out your voice to the

offert.

Juvenal, iii. 154:

De pulvino surgat equestri
Cuius res leg! non sufficit.

159 : Sic libitum vano qui nos distinxit
Othoni.

stage.") xiv. 324: Bis septem ordinibus quam

f Juvenal, iii. 178: Orchestram et
populum (= the senators and the ordinary

lex dignatur Othonis.

For example, v. 25. 1 :

public). In vii. 46 a room for a private Quadringenta tibi non sunt, Chserestrate ;
recitation, fitted up on the model of a ; surge,

theatre, is described : Leitns ecce venit : st ! fuge, curre, late.

Et quae conducto pendent anabathra ti- > || Arbuscula is the name of a m>ma

pillo I mentioned by Horace (Sat., i. 10. 77) as

Quaeque reportandis posita est orchestra having said, "Satis est eqnitem mihi

cathedris, I plaudere."

where anabathra means tiers of seats one j Martial (Preface to Bk. viii.) speaks ol

above the other.

J Horace, Epod., iv. 15:
Sedilibusque magnus in primis eqnes

'mimicam verborum licentiam."

51 Juvenal, viii. 186 : Clamosum agerep
ut Phasma Catulli. This Catullus was a

Othone -contempto sedet. popular composer of mimes. Juv., xiii.

Epist., i. 1. 62: \ 111 : Urban! qualem fugitivus scurra Ca-

Koscia die sodea melior lex an puerorum j tulli. Martial, v. 30. 3: Facundi scena

est j Oatullt.

Nenia, qtue regnmn recte facientibUB |

616 ROMAN LIFE AND MANNERS. CHAP. xxxi.

another.* L, this mime Laureolus was represented as being
crucified, and Martial relates, that a criminal was set to act the
part, and actual'y nailed to a cross and lacerated by a bear.f But
a new kind of performance collie into vogue under the Empire, and
became, among the higher classes at least, more popular than the
mime. '1 his was the pantomime, J in which a whole story was
represent, d by the movements and gestures of a single dancer.
Such a grave person aee as the philosopher Seneca owned that he
delighted in these performances ; and such men of literary distinction
as Lucan and Statins composed " saltatory " dramas. § " The rage
for exhibitions of dancing that arose about the time of the empire
cannot be better exemplified than by the fact that poems of Ovid,
not written lor the theatre at all, were ' pantomimised ' (just as
our second-rate novels are dramatised), and actually orations were
set to music, and adapted tor dancing." || The subjects were of
all kinds, generally love stories. The actor appeared successively in
various characters, and a chorus sang cantica during the dancing.
There is much evidence in ancient writers to show that these
performances were extremely fascinating.^" The art of the dancer,
as far as the reproduction of the character which he impersonated is
concerned, soon became quite conventional. Lucian tells of an
actor, who, having to dance Cronos eating his children, danced
instead Thyestes eating his children. There is no doubt that
these pantomimic performances, in which passion and tende>ness
were represented by the voluptuous motions of the dancer, had a
serious effect on morality ; and we hear of Roman ladies of high
birth falling in love with tUe pantomimi, who were fSted somewhat
in the same way as distinguished musicians are made much of
among us. Some of the actors — a histrio in imperial times
generally means pantomimus** — were influential at court, like
Mnester and Paris. But legally they were infantes, disqualified
from public and certain private rights; and they were generally

* Juvenal, viii. 187 : I || Diet, of Antiquities, ii. 335.

Lanreolum velox etiam bene Lentulns | ^[ For the popularity of the Egyptian

egii. | 1'aris, see above, Chap. XXL $ 19, and

ludice me rtignus vera cruce. cp. the epigram of Martial on his death

f Martial, Spect., vii. (4: Non falsa (xi. 13):

pendens in cruce Laureolus). (juisquis Flaminiam teris, viator,

J It must be observed, that while Noli nobile praeterire niarmor,

iiiimus may mean either the piece or the Urbis delic a> salesque Nili;

actor, pantomimus is only used of the Ars et gratia, lusus et voluptas,

performer, never of the piece, which was Hnmani decus et dolor theatri

called &fabula saltica. Atque omnes Veneres Cupidinesque

$ Juven il, vii. 93 : Vati quern pul- Hoc ?unt condita, quo Paris, sepulchre,

pita pa cunt. ** So in Juvenal, vii. 90: Quod non

fb., 87 (of Statins): Eeurit, intactam dant proceree, dabit histrio (to the poet).
ljaridi nisi vendit Agaven.

CHAP, xxxi, CIECUS MAXIM US. 817

slaves, freedmen, or foreigners. The fact, however, that men of
equestrian rank often appeared on the stage in imperial times
bettered the social position of the actors in general. The inter-
lerence of> Tiberius and Domitian with the histrionic profission has
been mentioned under their reums ; but these cases were exceptional.

§ 22. THE CIRCUS. — The Circus Maxinnis, which stood iu the
valley between the Palatine and Aveutine hills, was for along time
the only circus at Rome ; and it was the model of the Circus Fla-
minius (217 B.c ), and all later buildings of the kind. It was a long
building, at least two thousand fe<-t long and six hundred feet wide,
curving in a semicircle at the eastern end (towards the Porta Capena)
and at the western, in the Forum Boariu in, closed by the chambers
(carceres) from which the char ots started. All round the buildii g
were tiers of seats,* divided into blocks (cunei, "wecLes"), and
this part of the edifice was called the cavea. The cavea was al>o
divided horizontally into bands (mseniana), of which there were
probably three. At the foot of the cavea, separating it Horn the
racecourse, a marble platform, called t\\Q podium, ran all round th
building, and on the podium were arranged marble seats for distin-
guished persons. Augustus introduced new regulations <or the
distribution of the spectators, like those which he made for the
theatre. He assigned the podium to senators and other persons of
high position, and defined special parts of the cavea for soldiers, for
women, for boys and their tutors, and for married plebeians.
Before this, men and women used to sit together. In restoring the
circus after the fire of 31 B.C., Augustus added a marble pulvinar
or box for the use of the imperial family. In the cavea, some ol
the seats were marble, but others, even in the second century A D.,
were of wood, and when the building was crowded accidents olten
happened. In the reign of Antoninus Pius, it is recorded that the
seats gave way and a thousand people were killed.

The carceres were low vaulted rooms, each large enough to
contain a chariot with its horses, and closed by grated doors, which
were thrown open at the start. Above the carceres towered high
state boxes, where the consuls or others sat; and the whole
structure was called the oppidum, from its likeness to the turreted
gates of a town. The racecourse was divided into two arms by the
spina, a long platform, on which were placed statues, small
obelisks, trophies. When Augustus restored the circus, he placed
in the centre an Egyptian obelisk, which at the prnsent day stands
in the Piazza del Popolo at Rome. At ench end of the spina there
was a set of seven marble eggs, one of which was removed,
according as each lap (curriculum) of the race (missus) was run ;
* Oradus or subsellia.

618

BOMAN LIFE AND MANNERS. CHAP.

for there were generally seven laps. The turning-points, or
consisted ot three tall cones, set together ou a semicircular base,
close to each end of the spinet. The start was made from a
chalk-line drawn across the arena opposite the metx, which were
nnnrest the carceres. The signal was given by the president of the
games, who waved a napkin (mappa).* The goal was a chalk line
drawn at a point between the two turning-points, and opposite to
the box in which the judges sat.

Considerable damage was done to the Circus Maximus by a fire
in 36 A.D. Claudius restored it. He rebuilt the carceres, which
were hitherto of tufa, in white marble, and set up new metas of
gilt bronze, instead of the old wooden ones. The circus then con-
tained room for two hundred and fifty thousand people. Domitian
made some further improvements, but under Trajan the building
berime really magnificent. " The whole cavea, with its tiers of
seats, the carceres, the Emperor's pulvinar, and the central spina
were then of gleaming white marble, decorated with gold and
colours, studded with jewel-like glass mosaics, and adorned with
long lines of columns made of richly coloured oriental maibles, and
ro»vB of large statues in marble and gilt bronze, together with
costly metal screens and richly sculptured thrones for officials of
rank." f The other circi of Rome were the Circus Flaminius, that
of Gains and Nero in the gardens of Agrippina, at the foot of
the Vatican, and that of Hadrian, north-west of his mausoleum.

§ 23. The games of the circus were opened by a procession, which
assembled on the Capitoline Hill, and, descending into the Forum,
passed by the Vicus Tuscus and the Velabrum into the Forum
Boarium, where it entered the Circus Maximus by the " Procession
Gate " (Porta Pompse) at the western end. It then passed round
the spina, stopping to sacrifice, and to salute the Emperor's
pulvinar. The procession was headed by the presiding magistrate
or by the Emperor, driving in a chariot, and dressed as a triumphant
imperafor ; a slave held a golden wreath over his head. J He was
followed by a bind of nobles ; then came the chariots and riders
who were to take part in the races ; then the priests according to
their collegia, with the images of the gods. The games consisted

* Martial, xii. 29. 9 : Cretatara prsetor
cum vellet tnittere mappatn. Hence
Juvenal (xi. 193) calls the spectators of
the MegaleMan games " Megalesiacae
apectacula niapp«."

•T Die', of Greek and Roman Antiqui-
ties, i. 430.

J Juvenal, x. 36 :

Quid si vidisset praetorem curribus altls
Exstantera et medii suhlimera pulvere

circi

In tuni a lovis et pictae Sarrana ferentem
Ex umeris aulaea togae magnseque coronas
Tantnm orbem, quanto cervix non sufficit

ulla?
Quipoe tenet sudans hanc servus publicus.

The tunica lovis is the triumphal
tunica palmata, a tunic wrought with
gold. The auleea topte are the ample folds
of the toga picta, stiff with embroidery.

CHAP. xxxi. CIKCENSIAN GAMES.

chiefly of chariot races; and the chariots were drawn by various
numbers of horses, generally two or four, but sometimes as many
as fcn. The races were extremely dangerous, and required extra-
ordinary courage and skill on the part of the charioteers (aurigsi).
Each driver aimed at upsetting his competitors, and there were
probably few games at which some unfortunate charioteers were
not crushed to death or seriously injured. It was the custom for
the charioteer to keep the reins looped round his waist, and this
made the danger much greater ; for though he carried a knife in
his belt to cut himself free, it must have been often impossible to
use it in the sudden shock of an accident.* There was heavy
betting (i-ponsio) on the races, f and successful drivers oft< n received
immense sums from those who backed their horses. Scorpus, a
charioteer in Domitian's reign, is recorded to havegain«d fifteen
purses of gold within an hour. £ The popularity of the jockeys is
shown by the fact that statues of them were erecud § — a feature of
Rome which surprised Lucian. The race-horses were bred el iefly
in Northern Greece, Spain, Mauretauia, and Sicily, and carefully
trained.|| No horse was allowed to run bt-fore the age of five years.
The most famous race-horse in the age of Juvenal and Ma tial was
Hirpinus. Martial mentions as one of the marks of the "man
about town" (bellus homo) knowledge of the ancestors of
Hiriinus. ^

When a magistrate, or any other person, gave an exhibition of
gam«js at the circus, he merely supplied the money, and committed
the whole management of the arrangement, the providing of the
horses and charioteers, to certain established companies, \\hich

* In spite of these dangers some drivers demand of the people. Juvenal, vii. 243 :
lived to win an enormous number of Accipe, viitori populus quod p stulat,
victories. The monument of the auriga I aurum. Martial has a witty epigram
Diodes (ci'rc. A.D. 150) records that he j (iv. 67) on this usage. A friend ot his
defeated Scorpus, the winner of 2048 named Gaurus asked the praetor for
races ; Pomp. Mnsclosus, the winner of I 100,000 sesterces to make up the income
3559 ; and Pomp. Epaphroditus, who had ! of a knight. The piaster replies that he
won 1467 times. Diocles himself, when j has to give far more than that sum to the
he retired from his profession at the age charioteers Scorpus and Thallus. Mar-
of forty-two, had won 3000 races of bigse, j tial's comment is : Quod non das equiti,
and 1462 with more than two horses. | vis dare, prsetor, equo.

f Juvenal, xi. 201 :

Spectent iuvenes quos clamor et audax
Spon Kio, quos i ultse decet adsedisse puella>.
Martial, xi. 1. 15 :
Sed cum sponsio fabulaeque lasso;
De Scorpo fuerint et Incitato.

$ Martial, v. 25. 10 :

Aureus ut Scorpi nasus ubique micet.

|| Juvenal, viii. 58 :
Sic laudamus equurn facili cui plurima

palma
Fervet et exsultat rauco victoria circo.

Scorpus and Incitatus were famous ^J iii. 63. 12 : Hirpini veteres qui benc

charioteers. Incitatus was also the name novit avos. Cp. Juvenal, viit. 62 :

of a horse of the Emperor Gaius. j Sed venale pecus Coryphaei posteritas et

J Martial, x. 74. 5. They also received j Hirpini, si rara iugo Victoria sedit.
large sums from the prtetor, on the

620 ROMAN LIFE AND MANNERS. CHAP. xxxi.

were called " factions " (factiones). These factions were dis-
tinguished by colours (panni\ The two oldest were the White
(a/bata) and the Bed (russata); then in the early days of the
Empire came the Blue (veneta) and the green (prasina).*
Doniitian added a fifth, distinguished by purple and gold. The
Green and Blue came ultimately to be far the most important.
Each faction was elaborately organised, and had an enormous
number of officials and slaves. It was only natural that rivalry
should be develoj ed among these factions, and riots and dis-
turbances often took place in consequence. Under the later
Km pi re, at Constantinople, they obtained the significance of
political parties, and their rivalry sometimes issued in horrible
scenes of bloodshed.

§ 24. AMPHITHEATRE. — The most characteristic amusement of
the Romans were the gladiatorial shows, and the combats of wild
beasts. Notwithstanding the advance of their civilisation in other
respects, the love of these cruel sports prevailed among all classes,
and is a mark of barbarism which conspicuously distinguishes
Rome from Greece. At h'rst the shows of gladiators used to take
place in the Forum, and the shows of wild beasts in the Circus.
But the want was felt of a new kind of building, not long and
narrow like the circus, but such that all the spectators could have a
good view of the whole space at the same time. The first attempt
to supply this want was that of Scribouius Curio, who (B.C. 50)
constructed two theatres placed on pivots, so that they could be
turned either front to Iront, so as to form one building — a double,
or amphi-t^ atre — for exhibitions of gladiators, and wild beasts ;
or else back to back, and form two theatres for dramatic per-
formances. This building was wooden, and likewise the amphi-
theatre built by Julius Csesar, a few years later. The stone
amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus, as has been already related, was
burnt down in the reign of Nero. Augustus had contemplated
erecting an edifice of this kind in the middle of Rome, but the
design was not carried out until Vespasian began, and Titus and
Domitian completed, the Flavian Amphitheatre.!

* Jmvenal, vii. 114 : Parte alia solum Doniitian (xi. 33. 4: Vicit nimirum non
russati pone Lacernae (name of a cha- i Nero sed Prasinus). Cp. x. 48. 23: De
rioteer). ! Prasino conviva meus Vent toque loqua-

xi. 197 : tur.

Totam hodie Roman) circus capit et f See above, Chap. XXI. $ 1. It is

fragor aurem • probable that the higher parts of the

Percntit, eventmn inridis quo colligo building were at first of wood. For in

panni. ' the structure which now exists, these

Martial used to cheer the Greens, whom parts date from the third century at
he vindicates from the suspicion of having earliest.
won victories owing to the favour of i

OHAP. xxxi.

THE COLOSSEUM.

621

The shape of this wonderful building,* which occupied about six
acres of ground, was an ellipse. The seats of the spectators were
ranged in Hers all round the building, and were reached by four
corridors.-, c: \ corridor corresponding to a storey. The corridors of
the thr.t* lower storeys received air from without by eighty great
arched openings, separated by piers. In front of each pier stood a
column, and over the arches, round the whole building, ran a
continuous entablature. The columns of the lowest storey were
Eoman Doric, of the second Ionic, and of the third Corinthian.
The fourth storey has no arches, but a windowed wall, and is
adorned with pilasters in Composite style.

A wall ran round the arena, high enough to protect the spectators
against danger from the wild beasts. From the top of this wall
rose, as in the circus, the podium, a terrace wide enough to accommo-
date two or three rows of marble seats, which were reserved for the

Section, Flavian Amphitheatre.

senators, the ambassadors of foreign nations, and probably the Vestal
virgins. The Emperor and the person who exhibited the games had
raised seats on the podium. The gradus, or " stairs," rose in tiers
above the podium, and accommodated the other spectators. They
were divided into mosniana, or storeys. The lowest of these consisted
of the fourteen rows of seats reserved for the knights, the next was
appropriated to the populus, and the third to the common people.f
Higher still, there was a gallery which was set apart for women,
who were not allowed into the other parts of the building. Be-
tween each storey there was a landing-place (prsecinctio). More-
over the maeniana were not continuous, but were divided into
cunei or " wedges " £ by flights of stairs. Each spectator had a

bus). Cp. Martial, iv. 2. 3:
Cum pleb> et minor ordo maximusque
Sancto cum duce candidus sederet.

(Minor ordo = knights ; maximus ordo s

senators ; duce = Domitian.)
J Martial, i. 26 (on a knight who used

to drink an enormous quantity of wine in

the amphitheatre) :

* Martial, Spect., 1.1:
Omnis Caesareo cedit labor amphitheatre ;
Unum pro cunctis fama loquetur opus.

f Juvenal, ii. 143, describes a noble-
man appearing as a gladiator, who is
more noble than "the Catuli, Paulli,
Fabii, and all the spectators at the
podium " (omnibus ad podium spectanti-

622

KOMAN LIFE AND MANNERS. CHAP. xxxi.

ticket marking the exact place where he was to sit. The space in
the centre consisted of boards, covered with sand (to absorb blood),
whence it was calhd the arena. Underneath the arena were
elaborate substructures, being dens from which the animals were
raised in movable cages, and let loose into the arena by trap-floors.
They cnnnot, however, have been kept long in these places, as
sometimes, between the exhibitions of animals, the arena used to be
flooded with water for the purpose of a sea-fight.*

The general effect of the Flavian Amphitheatre, and its spectacles,
is hapi ily given in a celebrated description of Gibbon. " The out-
side of the edifice was encrusted with marble and decorated with
statues. The slopes of the vast concave, which formed the inside,
were filled and surrounded with sixty or eighty rows of seats, of
marble likewise, covered with cushions,! and capable of receiving
with ease above fourscore thousand spectators. Sixty-four vomi-
tories (for by that name the doois were very aptly distinguished)
poured forth the immense multitude ; and the entrances, pas^ag^s
and staircases were contrived with such exquisite skill, that each
person, whether of the senatorial, the equestrian, or the plebeian
order, arrived at his destined place without trouble or confusion.
Nothing was omitted which, in any respect, could be subservient to
the convenience and pleasure of the spectators. They were pro-
tected from the sun and rain by an ample canopy, occasionally
drawn over their heads. The air was continually refreshed by the
playing of fountains, and profusely impregnated by the grateful
scent of aromatics. In the centre of the edifice the arena, or
stage, was strewed with the finest sand, and successively assumed
the most different forms. At one moment it seemed to rise out of
the earth, like the garden of the Hesperides, and was afterwards
bmken into the rocks and caverns of Thrace. The subterraneous
pipes conveyed an inexhaustible supply of water ; and what had
just before appeared a level plain, might be suddenly converted into
a wide lake, covered with armed vessels, and replenished with the
monsters of the deep. In the decoration of these scenes the Roman
Emperors displayed their wealth and liberality ; and we read on
various occasions that the whole iurniture of the amphitheatre
consisted either of silver or of gold or of amber." In the wooden
amphitheatre temporarily erected by Nero, the nets designed to
protect the spectators were of gold wire.

Sextiliane, bibis quantum subsellia quin- tokens entitling the bearer to a certain

que— quant ty of wine.

Nee consessornm vicina nomismata tan- * Martial, Sped., 24. Tableaux vivants

turn on the water are described in 26 (cp. 28).

.Era sed a cuneis ulteriora bibis. f This is only true of the seats of the

The nomiimata eoem to have been senators and knights.

CHAP. XXXL

GLADIATOKS.

§ 25. Gladiators were of two classes. There were those who
were forced to fight, such as slaves, captives, condemned criminals,*
and there were those who of their own free will undertook to fight,
and took an oath of obedience when they entered on the gladiatorial
career. Men of all classes, even senators and knights, f and not only
men, but women, $ fought as gladiators under the Empire. The
places where gladiators were kept were called " schools " (ludi). §
Four ludi were built by Domitian at Rome. The training-masters
were called lanistse ; \\ and the gladiators sometimes belonged to
the trainers, who hired them out for exhibition, sometimes to
private citizens who hired lanistse to train them. In B.C. 68
the Senate fixed a limit for the number of gladiators which a
citizen could keep, but this was removed by the Emperor Gaius.
The Emperor, however, appointed an officer to inspect and control
the ludi. The gladiatorial practice in the schools was carried on
with wooden swords, called rudes, ^ and when a gladiator was
discharged he received a rudis as a token of his release. At the
public shows the real fighting was preceded by a sham fight, or
" prolusion," ** lought with thesewooden weapons. When a gladiator
received a wound, the people used to cry habet ! " a hit," or hoc
hdbetl "a palpable hit," and if the wounded man was at his
adversary's mercy, the spectators, when they wished him to be
slain, used to turn up their thumbs ; ft when they wished him to be
spared, they probably waved their handkerchiefs. The most usual
occasion for the gladiatorial shows (munera) was a funeral.

* Martial, Spect., 4. 3: Nee cepit
harena nocentes.

f It was said that Domitian ordered
Acilius Glabrio to be killed because he was
jealous of his skill as a gladiator. Ju-
venal, iv. 95 :
Cum iuvene indigno quern more tarn sseva

maneret
Et ilomini gladiis tarn festinata.

Cp. xi. 8, and viii. 199.

J Tacitus states that "illustrious wo-
men" fought in the arena under Nero
(Ann., xv. 32), and Statius applauds
the feats of the weaker sex under Do-
mitian (Silv., i. 6. 53):

Stat sexus rudis insciusque ferri
Et pugnas capit improbus viriles.

Juvenal, in Satire vi. (246 sqq.), gives
an account of women gladiators. In
Sat., i. 22, he mentions Mevia fighting
with a boar as a sign of the depravity
of the age:

(Cum) Mevia Tuscum
Figat aprum et nuda teneat renabula

$ Juvenal, viii. 199 : Hasc ultra quid
erit nisi ludus? ("What worse remains
except the school of the lanista f "). xl.
20: Sic veniunt ad miscellanea ludi.
("M'scellauea" means the food served
to the gladiators.)

|| Juvenal, xl. 8 : Scripturus leges et
rej;ia verba lanistae.

^[ Horace, Epist., i. 1. 2:
Speetatum satis et donatum iam rude

quaeris,

Maecenas, iterum antique me includere
ludof

Juvenal, vii. 171: Ergo sibi dabit ipse
rudem.

** Hence the metaphor in Juvenal, v.
26, iurgia proludunt.

ft Juvenal, iii. 36 : Verso polllce
vulgus quern iubet occidunt populariter.
Cp. Horace, Epist., i. 18. 66: Fautor
utroque tuum laudabit pollice ludum
(where " utroque pollice ' means by keep-
ing both thumbs pressed down, not turned
up).

624 ROMAN LIFE AND MANNERS. CHAP. xxxi.

Gladiators fought in different ways and with various arms.*
There were the Scunnites, who wore a helmet with a high crest and
bore the oblong scutum ; there were the Thracians, who had the
round buckler worn by that people, a short sickle-like sword, and
gretves; f the Mirmillones, armed like the Gauls, £ and generally
matched against the Retiarii ; the Anddbatx, who fought blind-
fold, as their helmets had no eye-holes; the Essedarii, who fought
in chariots; the Retiarii, who were armed with a net (whence their
name) to entangle their adversary, and a three-pointed spear to
attack him when be was enmeshed ; and the Sea/tores, who were
matched with the Retiarii, and possibly received their name
" pursuers " because when the Retiarius failed in casting the net
he had to fly, and the Secutor pursued him around the arena. §
Gladiatorial combats were a common subject of Roman painters
and sculptors.

§ 26. The combat of men with beasts, or of beasts with beasts,
was called a venatio, a "hunting;" we should call it a " beast-
baiting." All sorts of animals were exhibited. We hear of bull-
fights, of battles of bulls and elephants; combats of men with
elephants, lions, tiuers, bears and boars were common. The number
of beasts slaughtered at a venatio was sometimes enormous ; it is
said to have reached 11,000 in Trajan's games after the Da<-ian
Conquest. Some scenes from these be ist-bai tings are commemorated
in Martial's " Book of Spectacles." He describes a rhinoceros
tossing a bull, || a bear sticking fast, in the blood-moistened sand of
the arena, the lea s of the beast-slayer (bestiarius) Carpophorus in
dealing with bulls and lions. The taming of wild animals was also

* Martial has an epigram on a famous
gladiator named Hermes (v. 24. 1 : Her-
mes inartia sseculi voluptas), and de-
scribes him as skilled in two modes of

Postquam vibrata pendentia retia

dextra
Nequiquam effudit, nudum ad spectacula

voltum

combat; as (1) a Velite, 11: Belligera | Erigit ft tota fugit agnoscendus harena.
superbus hasta; (2) a retiarius, 12: Credamus tunicae, de faucibus aurea cum
^Equoreo minax tridente. se

The Samnite was matched with a | Porrigat et longo iactetur spira gale*o.
pinnirapus ("crest snatcher"): Juvenal, j Ergo iguominiam graviorem pertullt
iii. 158: Pinnirapi cultos iuvenes lure- j omni
nesque lanistaj. | Vulnere cum Graccho iussus pugnare

-|- Hoi ace, fynst., i. 18. 35: Ad imum j secutor.

Thrax eiit aut olitoris ao;et mercede ca- | The galerus was a leather or metal
ballum ; and Juvenal, viii. 201 : Nee j guard worn on the left arm. Spira aurea
clipeo dracchum pugnantem aut falce i is the lasso < >f gold cord,
supina. || The rhinoceros was first seen at

J Juvenal, viii. 200 : Nee mirmillonis j Rome in Domitian's reign, and the
in armis. event was commemorated by a represen-

$ Juvenal describes this combat (viii. j tation of the animals on some of nis
203): I coins.

Movet ecce tridentem et

CHAP.

BEAST-BAITING.

625

carried to great perfection. We hear of elephants dancing, leopards
yoked, stags and bears bridled.*

Various scenes were represented in the amphitheatre by means of

pageants (peginata), f lofty structures of wood of several storeys,
\vhioh could be raised and lowered, or open out and close in, by

* Martial, i. 104. For accidents to
beast -trainers (magi&tri}, cp. Juvenal,
xiv. 246 :

Trepidumque magistrutn
Jn cavea ma^no frvmitu loo toilet alumnus.
27

Martial, Spect., 10. 1 : Laaserat ingrato
leo perfidus ore magistrum.

f Martial, ftpect., 2. 2: Et cresctmt
media pegmata celsa via.

626

ROMAN LIFE AND MANNERS.

CHAP. XXXL

machinery. Strabo saw a pageant of this kind exhibited in the
Forum. The scene represented ^Etna, and a condemned Sicilian
brigand was placed on the summit. The pageant suddenly
collapsed and he fell among wild beasts who were concealed
beneath. We hear of boys being caught up from the top of a
pageant to the awning of the Flavian amphitheatre.*

Juvenal, iv. 122 : Et pegma et pueros inde ad velaria raptos.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE LUDI.

The great votive games which were
established under the Republic were
seven in number : the Ludi (1) Romani,
said to date from Tarquinius Priscus;

(2) Plebeii, dating from about 216 B.C. ;

(3) Ceriales, not before 493 B.C. ; (4)
Apollinares, instituted in 212 B.C.; (5)
Ifegalenses, in honour of Cybele, the
••Great Goddess," dathig from 194 B.C.;
under the Empire the ceremonial became
far more elaborate; (6) Florales, insti-
tuted in 238 B.C. ; it gradually came to
last six days, and the celebration was
attended with much licentiousness; (7)
Victorix Sullante, 82 B.C.

Under the Empire a variety of new
games were added, chiefly in honour oi
Emperors either living or dead. Such
were the ludi Actiaci instituted by Au-
gustus on the occasion of bis victory to the
Actian Apollo, the ludi Parthici, insti-
tuted by Hadrian in honour of Trajan's
victories, the Juvenales, founded by Nero
in memory of the fir.-t shaving of his beard
(59A.D.). Birthday games (natolfcu)
were celebrated in honour of reigning
i Emperors, but seem to have ceased after
I death, except in the case of those who
were consecrated. For the Ludi secular**,
see above, p. 62.

Faustina as Mater Castrnram.

INDEX.

Ab actis senatus.

Ab actis senatus, 31.

Abgar of Osroene, 308, 451.

Abilene, 113, 227, 367.

Abnnca, 354.

Abumius * alens, 526.

Acaraaniii. 105.

Acliaia, 10.5 sqq., 192, 241,

29 , 300, 380, 439.
Acroama, 605.
ActP, 276.
Acta, imperial, 36.

senatus, 37.

diurna, 44, 478.

Actium, battle of; results

of, 2, 4 ; games in honour

of 7, 21, 105.
Actiads, 105.
Acumincnm, 430.
Ad inp, 121.
Adi.ibene, 452.
Ad atorix. 7.
Adlectio, 30.
Admin us. 225.
^Edemon, 239.
jEdileship, 38.
.&lia Capitolina, 508.

Paetina, 245.

jElius (Jallus. 122.

— Catus, 40<«.
JSrarium, militare, 70.

- Saturni, 36, 38, 142,

237.

sEtna, the, 464.
Africa, 89 sqq., 228. 239.
Agri Pecumates, 403, 418.
Agricola, Cn. Julius, 398

sqq.
Agrippa, Herod i., 218, 227,

232, *33, 243
Agrippa. Herod ii., 312, 366,

368, 373, 432.

Agrippa, M. Vipsanius; char-
acter, 2 ; 3, 4 : consulships,

9. 10 ; 48 ; marriages 49 ;

death. 51 ; 65, 85. 87 ; 98,

120 ; 145 ; mip, 150.

Postnmus, 54, 165.

, Basin of, 283.

Agrlppina, the elder

(daughter of Julia), 54,

168, 171, 179 ; 197 sqq. ;
death. 204 ; 225,
Agrippina, the yuunger, 199,
209, '217, i.21, 224, 234,
238, 240 ; 246 ; 257 sqq. ;
274, 275 sqq. ; death, 279 ;
] memoirs, 458.
! Ahenobarbus, L. Domitius,

l.sl.
- Cn. Domitius, father ol

Nero, 209, 274.
Akiba. 50rf.
Aloe, 69.

I Alans, 321, 385, 505, 525.
* Alba, 395.
Albania, 207, 450.
Albingaunum, 334.
Albinovanus I'edo, 159, 171.

Albintimilium, 333.
Albums, Uuxeius, 338.
Albis, the, 127, sqq.
Alburnus, 543.
Alexander of Envsa, 7.
Alexandria, in Troas, 106.

- , in Kgypt, 115, 228,
340. 376.

Alimentary institutions, 415,

437, ol'.
Alls.*, fort, 128 sqq., 135,

136, 137.
Alpts Maritime, 94, 333.

- Cottise, 94, 300.

- Penninse, 300.
Altinnm 545.
Alutus, 426.
Amastris, 441.
Antic* Cfesaris, 22.
Amisia, R., 127 sqq., 175.
Amisns, 441, 442.
Amphitheatres : of Taurus,

146, V21; Flavian, 370,
3 0, 382. 6:0 sqq.

Am* elius. 555.

Ampsivarii, 301. 302.

Amyntas, 107, 108.

Ananias, 368.

Ancona. 437.

Ancvra, 108.

Andecavi. 184.
I Andftiium. 133.
• Angrivarii, 174 418.
I Anicetus, 278, 279, 282.

Apsilia.

Annius Verus (son o
I Marcus), 547.
Anio Novus, 222, 437.
Annoi.a, 61, 576.
Anthedon, 369.
Anihemusias, 203.
A'Hinoopolis, 507.
Autinous, 507.
Antioch, 111, 450, 462, 464,

490, t>07.
Antiochus, of the Henlochi,

450.

iii., of Commagene,

111, 227.

iv., of Commagene, 227,

242, 312, 380.

Antipas (Christian martyr),
445.

Antistius, 292

Vetus. 458.

Antium, 199, 300.

Anioniu, daughter of Clau-
dius, 234.

, daughter of Octavia,
52, 54, 197, 203, 217.

Tryphaina, 227.

ANTONINI 8 Piu>, Emperor,
517, 518; principate, 523
sqq.

Antonius, Julius, 53.

, M.. triumvir, 2, 4,

6, 46, 118,

Musa,49.

Nafalis, 288.

PMmus, 341sgo.,353.

Aorsi. 242.

Apamea, 441.

Apicata, 197.

A|>iciu>, 212, 595.

Apion, 485.

Apollinaris. Sulpicius, 555.

Apollo, Palatine temple of,

61.
Apollonius of Tyana, 560,

576.
Apollodorus, architect, 426,

438.

Apophoreta, 474, 605.
Apotheosis of Autonlnus,
I 532, 5«5.
Appian, 557.
Apronlus, L., 186.
ApsUia, 450.

628 INDEX.

Apuleius.

Bosporus.

Apuleins, 554, 593.

Asandros, 109.

Apulum, 429

Ascalon : 68, 369.

Aqua Marcia, 437 ; I'rajana,

Ascibergium, 356.

•

438 ; Virgo, 607 ; see

Asc nius Ptdiantis, 461.

Bahrius, 561.

Aqueducts. iAsia, province, 106 sqq.,

Baaiica, 87, 88, H32.

Aquae (Baden), 418.

507. | Baiae. 222, 2T8.

Mattimas, 404.

Asiarch, 107. Bilbilla, 507, 561.

— Sulis, 263.

Asiaticus, Valerius, 247, Balbus, L Cornelius, 614.

Aqu ducts, 65, 222, 437, 440,

260. Ballumar, 543, 545

469 607 sqq.
Aquila. Julius, 242.

, Valerius (leg. ot
Belgi( a, 69 A.D.), 331.

Halnese 609 ?qq.
Balnea, 60«, 611.

Aqu leia 3^2, 5 '<.

Asper, vEmilius, -169.

Banasa, 504.

Aquincum, 500, 545.

Asprenas, L., 136.

Bar-Cocaba, *08.

Aquitania, 84, :s99.

Assyria, Homan province of,

Barea S.>ranus, 291, 292.

Arabia, m, 122.

452,455,493.

Basilia, 390.

Pet raed. 430,431, 507.

Astingi, 546.

Basilica Emilia, 143.

Arae Flaviae, 404.

Asturians, 86 sqq.

— Julia, 142, 236.

Arar, R., 300.

Astuiica Augusta, 87.

Ulpiana, 438.

Arausio, 184.

A test", 5, 342.

Bas-us jElius, 543.

AH alo, 128. Athenseum, 551. (proc. of Bithynia, 98

Archelaus, of Cappadocia, Athens, 104, 448, 506, 506.

A D.), 444.

17T. Athesib, R., 342.

, Csesius, 463.

Archelnus, son of Herod, Atia, 1.

, Saleius, 470.

112. Atratinus, L. Sempronius,

Basrarnse, 98.

Arches, triumphal, 148; of 91.

Batanea, 367.

Titus, 372. ; Atrebat s, 260, 261.

Batavians, 352 sqq. ; " town

Architecture, 581 sqq. \ Atrium, tiOl.

of," 363, 496.

Arduba, 133. Atropatene, 118, 119.

Batavodurum, 363.

Arelatp, 85. ! Attiauus, '96, 513. Bathinus, battle of, 133.

Arenacum, 363. i Attidiu- Coinclianus, 540. ! Baths, R' man. • 09 sqq.

Argentoratum, 129.

Attributed places, 79. Batnse,451.

Argilt turn, 143.

Augusta, title, 20, 246, 252. . Bato, Dalmatian, 132, 133.

Ariminum, 133, 148.

Augusta Praetoria, 94, 148.

, I'anuuniai), 132, 133.

Ariobarzanes. 120.

Taurinorum, 353.

Hauli, 278.

Ariogaesus, 545.

Treverorum, 24 <i, 358,

B;-astbaiting, &c., 221, 624.

Arisiides, apologist, 580.

361. i Belglca, 84, 175, 300.

, rhetorician, 558, 573.

Vindelicum, 93-1.

Bcneventum, 30 o.

Aristius Fuscus, 156.

Augustnles, 67

Berenice, sister of Agrippa.

Armenia, 1 18 sqq., 177, 206,

Augnstiani, 280.

381.

sqq. ; 305, sqq. ; 448, sqq. ; Augu-todunnm, 331. , Golden, 114.

a Roman province, 451 ; ; Augustus, name conferred, , Troglodytic, 114.

abandoned, 493; 540 sqq.

12; meaning of, 16, 20; Bericus, 261.

, Little, 109, 227, 450. two Augusti, 536. ; Bersovia, 423.

Arminius, 134 sqq., 170, AoGrsrus C^ESAE, 1 sqq.; Bervtus, 110, 340.

sqq. ; death, 17

Army. 68 sqq., 389; Ha-
drian's reforms 497, 498.

Arria, the elder, 575.

, wile of Thrasea, 291,

391.

Arrian, 505, 556.

Arrius Varu>, 348.

Arruntius, L., 160, 165.

Arsaces, son ot Artabanus,
206.

Arsacids, 117.

Ars imosata, 318.

Artabanus of Media, 177.

— iii., of Parthia, 206 \ Auzea, 183.
sqq. ; 306. i Avaricum, 86.

Artagora, 121. 1 Avenii- um, 331.

Artaunum, 404. Avidius Oassius, 540, 541.

Artavasdes, of Armenia, 119. Avio a Acilius, 184.
, of Atropatene, 119. A vitus, Dubius, 301.

Ariaxata, 178, 311, 314, 641. Axidares, 446.

Artaxes, 119, 120.

(Zeno), 178, 206.

Arvales, 19, 61.

Arverni, 294.

Arvirague, 402.

9, ; character, 2 ;
triumph, 7 resigns the
triumvirate. 9 ; founds
the Principate, 12 sqq. ;
titles, 2fc; la-tdays, 137;
death, 138; Res Gestse,
139 ; patronage of litera-
ture, 149, 50, sqq. ; writ-
ings, 150 ; funeral and
will, 166.

Aurasius, Mons, 182.

Avr"m coronarium, 513.

Aii^pex, Julius, 360.

Auxilia, 6s 72, 8u.

Be riacum, 334 ; first battle
of ; 336, 349 ; second battle,

Bingium, 360.

Bithynia, 1> 6 ; 439 sqq., 507.
BWtifniarch, 107.
Bla'Mis, Juiius, 167, 182.

. Fed u>, 299.

, (Leg. Gall. Lug.), 331.

Boadicea, 268, 269.
Boccbus, 89.
Bodo ria, .'^99. 400. 525.
Boduni, 261, 270, 271.
Bodyguard of hmperors, 21

73.

Bogud 89.
Bohemia, 131. 176.
Boiocalus. 301.
Bonna 330, 354, 358.
Bononia('.allic), 126,225.
Bononia (Italian), 341.
Borbetotnugus, 129.
Borcovicium, 503.
Boresti, 401,
Bosporus, 100, 242.

Bostra.

ftostra, 431.

Bracara, 87.

JJreuni, 93.

Breviarium imperii, 139.

Britain, 86; expedition of
Gaius, 225 ; conquered by
Claudius, 258 sqq. ; de-
signs of Augustus, 259 ;
398 sqq. ; 495. 501 ; Ha-
drian's wall, 502, 519, 520;
wall of Antoninus, 525;
540.

Bripcantes, 265, 398, 400, 501,
503, 525.

Brigauticus, Julius, 363.

Brigetio, 500.

Batannicus, 246, 252, 253,
262, 275 ; death, 276.

Brixellum. 336, 337.

Bructeri, 134, 301, 355, 359,
418.

Brundusium, 7.

Burebistas, 407, 422.

Burl, 423.

Burrus, Afranius, 256, 276,
276, 279, 280, 281.

Byllis, 103.

Byzantium; tributary, 78;
244, 442, 443.

Caecina Alienus, A., :
sqq., 339, 342 sag., 378.

Severus, A., 133, 167,

168, 170, 171.

Caidicius, L., 136.

Cselius, Roscius, 399.

Caepio, Fannius, 60.

Caesar, as imperial cog-
nomen and title, 20, 234,
339 ; 617, 523.

Caesar : see Julius and
AUGUSTUS.

, Gaius, grandson of

Augustus, 61, 52, 53, 121.

, Lucius, 51-53.

Csesaraugusta, 87.

Csesarea, 112, 367, 368, 369,
373.

Ctesariensis, 228, 239.

Caesonia, 221, 231, 239.

Calabria, 186.

Caledonia, 400 sqq.

Calgacus, 401.

Caligula, 168 ; see GAHTS.

Calleva, 263, 270.

Callistus, 244, 248.

Calpurnius Siculus, 462,
464.

Calvinus, Cn. Domitius, 143.

Camalodunum, 262, 263,4266,
268, 269, 270.

Campania, 345.

Campus Martins, 14* *qq.

Candace, 122.

< 'animus, 478.

Canninefates, 353, 362.

Cantabrian wars, 83,86-88.

INDEX. 629

Commagene.

Capito Cossutianus, 292, 299. Chrysippus, 568.

, Ateius, 161. Cilicia, 109, 177, 179, 227,

, Fonteius ; see Fon-

311, 380.

teius.

Cilurnum, 503.

Capitolium, 146, 346, 376.

Cimbri and Cimbric penin

Cappadocia, 108, 177, 178, sula, 131.

310, 312, 317, 505.

Gingonius Varro, 326.

Caprese. 200.

Cinna, Cn. Cornelius, 60.

Caracalla, Edict of, 566.

Circus, Games of, 280.

Caractacus, 261, 264, 265.

Maximus, 227, 235,

Careues, 308.

286, 617.

Carisius, I'., 87.

Flaminius, 617.

Carmen Saliare, 6.

of Gaius and Nero, 618.

Saeculare, 63.

of Hadrian, 618.

Carnuntum, 132, 409, 500.

Cirta, 91.

Carrhae, 541.

Civil service, 190 ; 510, 511.

Carrinas, C., 7, 126.

Civilis, Julius, revolt of,

3arsulae, 346. j 352 sqq.

Carthage, 91.

Civitates fcederatee and

Cartimandua, 265, 266.

liberse, 77.

Casperius jElianus, 416.

Clarissimus, 538.

Cassius, C., 308.

Clarus, C. Septicius, 496.

Castra Vetera, 128, 135, 137,

Classicus, Csecilius, 438.

168, 225 ; 354 sqq.
Catualda, 176.

, Julius, 357 sqq.
Classis praetoria, 71.

Catullus Messalinus, 391,

Claudia, daughter of Nero,

395, 416.

283.

Caucasian Gates, 321.

Pulchra, 199.

Oelenderis, 179.

Claudiopolis, 440.

Oeler, architect, 286.

CLAUDIUS, .Kmperor, 95,209 ;

Celsus, 212.

principate, 232 sqq. ;

Celsus, Marius, 332, 334 sqq.
Celsus' True Word, 576.

death, 254 ; conquest of
Britain, 259 sqq.'t 307;

Cena, 603 sqq.

writings, 458.

recta, 595.

Etruacus, 389.

Censorial powers, assumed

Clausentum, 270.

tacitly by Trajan, 435.

Cleopatra, 4, 7.

Censorship, 19 ; of Claudius, ', daughter, 90.
235 ; of Vespasian, 377, Client states, 78.

379; of Domitian, 387;

Clients at Rome, 595.

434.

Clodia, wife of Augustus,

Census, 19, 379 ; 387.

46.

Census equitum, 19.

Clota, 399, 400.

Centumcellae, 437, 630.

Clunia, 325.

3ephalenia, 505.

Cluvius Rufus, 338, 4«7,

Cerealis, Petillius, 268 ; 369

482.

sqq. ; 398
Certus, 414.

Codrus (poet), 164.
Coenis, 376.

Cestius Pi oculus, 299.

Ooerdtio, 7.

Chaerea, Cassius, 226, 231,

Cogidubuus, 262.

232.

Cokortes urbanse, 70.

Chalcis, in Syria, 113, 243,

Coinage, 22, 37 ; debasement

367.

Of, 285, 299, 539.

Chamavi, 418.

Collegia, 438, 444, 539.

Charax Spasinu, 453.

Colonatus, 549.

Charicles, 210.

nolania, 76, 77.

Chatti, 128, 134, 170, 172,
174, 240, 357, 386, 396,

Colonia Ag. ippinensis, (see
Oppidum Ubiorum), 240,

543.

252, 330, 354, 365, 367,

Chauci, 127, 174, 239, 301,

359, 418.

362.

Colonia Trajana, 418.

Cherusci, 128, 134, 170, 172

Colosseum, 379, 380, 382.

sqq., 240.

Columella, 459, 461.

Chosroes, 448, 494, 504.

Comitatus and comites ; im-

Christians, accused of incen-

perial, 22 ; German, 420.

diarism, 287, 288, 302;

Comitia, 29; trib. pot., 29,

unde» Domitian, 394, 445 ;

189, 237, 415.

under Trajan, 446 833. ;
620, 521 ; under the An-

Comitinm, 142.
Commagene, 177, 178, 242.

tonines, 578 sqq.

380.

630

Commendatio.

Commendatio, 34.
Commodus, L. Aurelius,

547 549.
Comum, 483.
Concilia, provincial, 78, *5,

87.
Otmgiaria, 389, 425, 436,524,

539.
Consecration of Emperors,

16; Empresses, 283.
Consilium, the political and

judicial distinguished, 32 ;

34; 190; 291, 388, 395;

judicial under Hadrian,

511,512; 526; 538.

fXDBX

Curia Julia, 142, 143.
Curiatius Maternus, 479.
Cursus honorum, 31.

publicm, 67, 414, 510.

Curtilius Mancia, 301.
Curtisius. Titus, 186.
Curtius, Quintus, 459.
Cuspius Fadus, 367.
Cynic philosophers, 378, 560,

570.

Cyprus, 109, 454.
Cyrenaica, 109, 299, 454.
Cyrene, 109, 454.
Cyrrhus, 946.
Cyzicus, 262, 507, 582.

Epicharis.

Domitia Ludlla, 534.

, daughter of Corbulo,

384, 389, 391, 392.
Lepida, 245, 250, 254,

274.
Domitian, Emperor, 346,

347, 364; principate, 383

sqq. ; death, 392 ; 400 ;

Britannic policy, 402 ;

limes (Termanicus, 4U ;

Dacian and Suevian wars,

405 sqq. ; literary contests,

466, 473, 601, 606.
Domitian, son of Clemens,

Cunsolatio ad Liviam, 51,

Domitilla, Flavia, wife of

130, 158.

Vespasian, 376.

ronsors imperil, 47, 54.

D.

, daughter of Vespasian,

Consular provinces, 81.
Consulates potestas, not

Dabel, 430.

376.
, wife of Clemens, 390,

possessed by Emperors, Dacia, 406 ; 422 ; province,

445.

19. 23. 428-429 ; 499 ; two pro- Domitius ; see Ahenobarbus.

Consulate, 38 ; consulates of vinces, 500 ; 542, 543. Marsus, 156.

Vespasian, 277 ; of Domi- Dorians ; wars with, 406 !>omus, 600 sqq.

tian, 387. \ sqq. ; 421 sqq. \ )oryphorus, 284.

Consules suffecti, 38. 1 Damons, belief in, 570, 576. Drobetaa. 422, 426.

Conventus, 78. Dalmatia, 95, 96 sqq. ; revolt Druids, 259, 267, 357.

Convivia publica, 606. of, 132, sqq., 234, 406. Drusilla, 209, 221, 224.

Coptos, 121. Damascus, 111, 368.

, wife of Felix, 367.

Corbulo, Domitrus. 239, 293 ; , Dandaridse, 242.

Drusus, Nero Claudius, (son

in the Cast, 311 sqq. ; Dardaniaus, 98.

of Livi>i) 46; 52, 84, 85,

memoirs, 468. Darius, son of Artabanus,

93; character, 126; Ger-

Cordus, Cwsius, 192.

209.

man campaigns, 127 sqq. ;

Corinium, 270.

Dausara, 541.

death, 129.

Corinth, 105.

Decebalus, 407 sqq., 421

, son of Tiberius, 51,

Corn supply, 64.

sqq. ; death, 427.

166, 167, 176; 196, 197,

Cornelia, vestal, 391.

Decemviri (stlit. jud.), 39.

204.

CornificiuB. L., 148.

Decennalia, 189.

, so-- of Grermanicus,

Cornutus, Annaaus, 462.

Decianus, Catus, 268.

197, 202, 203.

Corsica, 92, 256. Declamations, 599, 600.

Ducenarii, 42.

Cos, 179, 244.

Decoration of houses, 586

Duras, 407.

Oottii, Regnum, 94; 239,
300 ; see Alpes Cottiae.
Cottius, Julius, 239.

sqq., 601.
Decurions, 440, 442.
Decursio, 586.

Durostorum, 430.
" Dyarchy," the, 15, 189, 563.
Dyme. 104.

Cotys (of Thrace), 100, 184.
(of Bosporus), 242.

Delations, 192. 195.
Delos, 683.

Dynamis, 109.
Dyrrhachram, 10&

(of Lfttle Armenia),

Delphi, 104, 106.

243, 307.

Demetrius, 378.

Crassus, Calpurnius, 434.

Demonax, 571.

, M. Licinius, 99.

Dentheletse, 98.

Cremona, ins, 334, 335, 336,

Designation, not true of the

Eburacum, 400, 401, 403,

341, 343, 344, 345.

Principate, 17.

501.

Cremutius Cordus, 198, 211,

Designator, 615. j Ecdicus. 442.

216.

Deva, 264, 267, 269, 271, 398,

Edessa, 451, 453, 540.

Crescens, 581.

403.

Edicts, legislation by, 36.

Crete, 109 299.

Diegis, 409.

Egeta, 422. 426.

Crispinus, 391, 395.

Dies imperii, 17.

Egypt, 4, 78, 113 sqq. ; 178;

Cteslphon, 452, 453, 541.

Diocles (auriga), 619.

340, 372, 477, 507.

Cugerni, 355, 362.

Dion Chrysostom, 391, 487.

Eleazar, son of Ananias, 368.

Cumanus, 367.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus,

, son of Simon, 370.

Cunobellinus, 261.

161.

Elegeia, 460.

(Jura annonte, 64.

, the periegete, 557.

Eleuthero-lacones, 104.

aquarum. 65.
— — operumpubUcorum, 65.

Diurpaneus, 407.
Divodurum, 361.

Emerita, 332.
Emesa, 113.

riparum et alvei Ti~

Divus, of consecrated Em-

Emona, 97.

btris, 190.

perors, 16.

Emmaus, 373.

viarum, 66. 414.

Dobuni, 270, 271.

Ennia, 210, 220.

Ourator reipublicse,A35, 609,

Dolabella, Publius, 183.

Epaphrorlitus, 392.

538. Dominus, title, 16, 190, 388, Ephesus, 50t.

actorum Senatus, 31. 434. Epicharis, 289.

Epictetus.

Epictetus, 569.

Epicurean school, 567.

Kpirua. 103.

/-.putolae laurtatee, 410.

Kpp< mina, 360.

Eprius Marcellus, 292, 299.

Eques splendidus, 538.

Romanus and Equo

publico, 40.
Equiles ; as constituted by

Augustus, 40 sqq. ; und r

Hadrian, 510, 511.
Erani, 441,
Ergastula, 593.
Ermine Street, 270.
Erucius Clarus, 463.
Esqui ine quarter, 592.
Kunones, 242.
Euphorion, school of, 154.
F.uropus, battle of, 541.
Evocati August f, 73.

P.

Factions (Clrcensian), 620.
Fannia, 390.
Fanum Fortunae, 345.
Faustina, the elder, 523, 528,

INDEX

Kucirie Ukc, 237.
Kufius Geininus. 96.
Fulcinius Trio, 181.
Fulginium, 345.
Kulvia, 578.
Fundnnins. 156.
Furtius. 514.

631
Hyrcauia.

Gesoriacum, 126, 260, 262;

see Bononia.
Geta, Cn. Hosidius, 239,

260.

, L., 248.

Gindaros, battle of, 118.
Gir, R., 239.

, the younger, 523, 530,

547.

Felix, proc. of Judea, 367.
Fenestella, 160.
Fidei commissa, 510.
Fiscus, 36, 37, 436.
Flaccus, Avillius, 228.

, Horatius ; see Horace.

, Verrius, 160.

Flavia Neapolis, 373.
Flavius Clemens, 390, 392,

394, 445.
Sabinus, father; 263,

336. 342, 346, 347.
Sabinus, son ; 385, 390,

392.

Flavus, 134, 172.
Fleet, 71, 498.
Flevo, Lake, 127.
Flevum, 186.
Floras, Ani-ius, 484, 553.

, Gesfiius, 367.

— .Julius, 184,
Fonteius Agrippa, 406.

Capito, 325, 352.

Forum, the Roman, 141 sqq.

Alieni, 342.

Augnsium, 143, 515.

Hadriani, 501.

Julium, 71, 143, 333.

Trajani, 427, 438.

transitorium, 379, 414.

Fossa Drusiana. 127, 172,
Frisians. 127, 185, 186. 239 ;

eastern and western, 300,

301 ; 353, 364.
Frontinus, Sextus Julius,

398, 404. 468.
Fronto. 492, 528 sqq. , 554.
, M Claudius. 546.

Fuscus, Cornelius. 395, 408, G ladiators, 123, 238, 623 sqq.

409. Glevum, 264, 270, 271, 398.

Golden House of Nero, 286.
Gorneas, fortress, 309.
Gotarzes, son of Ambanus

Hi.. 306 sqq.

Gabinius, P., 239. - Gracilis. ^Elius, 300.

Gadara, 368, 369. Grammatici, 598.

Gades, 88, 605. Granius Marcellus, 192.

Gaetulians, 90. Gratilla, 391.

Gaius ; see Julius Caesar. Grattius, 159.
GAICS, Emperor (Caligula), Graupian Mountain, battle

168, 201, 202, 205 ; 209, of, 401.

210; principate, 214 sqq. ;| Greece, 103 sqq. ; 293, 506,

death, 227 ; 233. 525.

Gaius, jurist, 526. Grinnes, 363.

Galen, 534.
Galilee, 367, 369.

Galatia, 107. 381. TT

GALBA, Emperor. 224, 239,

260 ; 294 sqq. ; reign, 325

Galeria Lysistrata, 529.
Galerianus, 348.
Gallic, Junius, 204.

Gallus, JElius ; see Mlins.
.Annius, 333, 334, 335,

HADKIAN, Emperor, 4T6 ;
principate, 490 sqq. ; jour,
neys, 519 ; extant letter-
520 ; verses, 518, 550, 563.

Hadriane*. 507.

Hadrianopolis at Athens,
505.

Hadrianotherae. 507.

Haliartos, 104.

Hatra, 453.

- , Asiuius, 165, 201, 233.

- , C. Cestius, 320, 368.

- , C. Cornelius, 4, 151, , Helvetii, 331,

152, 153. Helvidius Priscus, the elder,

- , A. Didius, 242, 266. | 291, 376, 378, 390.

- , Herennius. 354 sqq.-,\ - Priscus, ihe younger,
361. 391, 414.

— , Nonius, 126. I Herculaneum, 383. 586, 588.

- , Togonius, 205. j Herennius Senecio, 390.
Garamantes, 90. Hermundnri, 241.

Gaul, 83 sqq. ; visit of Gaius, Herod Agrippa ; see Aerippa.
223 sqq. ; 235 ; 294 ; 357 - Antipas, 112, 218, 227.
sqq. J i - the Great, 6, 111, 112.

- of Chalcis, 243.

Herodes Atticus, 506, 629.

Hetserite, 447.

Hibernia, 400.

Hirpinus, 619.

Hispulis, 332.

Homerus Latin us, 464.
Germanicus, birth, 64 ; 133, Hones tiores, 527.

134 ; 137 ; 138 ; 167 ; Ger- Horace, 150, 154 s^.,593, etc.
man campaigns, 169 sqq. \ Hordenius Flaccus, 327, 353
tiiumph, 175; mission to sqq.
east, 176 ; death, 179 ; Horse-races, 618 .*/</.
family, 209. Hostia, 157.

Germans, life and institu- H»s ilia, 343.
tions of, in first century
B.C., 125 ; at end of first
century A.D., 418 sqq

Gaza, 369.
Gelduba, 355, 356.
Gellius, Aulus, 554, 576.
Gemonian stairs, 204, 347
Genius Augusti, 16, 21.
Geraxa, 369.
Gerba, 92.

Germany, 124
sqq. ; Upper
Germany, 175; 224; 239;

sqq. ; 169
and Lower

Hoi s. s, Roman, 600 sqq.
ffumiliores, 527, 593.
Hyginus, 160, 484.
Hyrcania, 208.

294, 300, 301, 327,
403, 418.

329,

632

lader.

lader, 91.

iapydes, 95, 96.

Iberia, 207, 309, 311, 450.

Icelus, 325, 327.

Iceni. 263, 267 s^.

Idistaviso. battle of, 173.

Ignatius, martyrdom of, 456.

Illyric triumph of Augus-
tus, 7.

Iilyricum, 97, 98.

Imperator, powers and
province of. 13 ; 14 ; as
praenomen, 20; after the

, Emperor's name, 20 ; 377.

Imperium Galliarum, 358

i m-

Imperium proconsulare, 13,
28 ; of consorts, 47 8.

— — mains of the Emperor,
13, 28, 32, 38.

Incltatus, 619.

Indictions, 513.

Inguiomer, 170, 171.

Insulse, 600.

Intercession, of the Em-
peror, 33, tribunes, 38.

Isca Dumnoniorum, 266.

Silurum, 266, 268.

Iseum et Serapeum, 394.

Isis, 394,577.

Isthmus, cutting of, 222.

Italica, 416, 417.

Italicns, son of Flavus, 240.

, Suevian, 341.

Italy, divided into regions,
66; taxation, 226, 414;
agriculture, 415 ; 436, 437 ;
509; 524,538.

Ituraea, 227.

Izates, 308.

J.

Janus, temple of, close*), 8 ;

376.
Jazyges, 241, 341, 406, 407,

410, 429, 499., 542 sqq.
Jerusalem, 3^8 sqq. ; de-
struction, 372, 508.
Jews, 194 ; 228, 236 ; 366

sqq., 394, 445 ; 454, 495,

496 ; 508, 577.
John of Giscala, 370 sqq.
Jol Caesurea, 239.
Joppa, 369.

Joshua, son of Hanan, 371.
Joseph s, 369, 371, 485.
Jotapata, 369.
Juba, 90.
Judea, 111, 112, 227, 228,

243 ; rebellion of, 366 fqq.;

373, 394, 432, 454.
Judices, 34. 42 ; 216.
Julia, sister of Julius Caesar,

1.
, daughter of Augustus,

INDEX.

-Locusta.

46, 47, 48, 50, 51 ; pro-

Lavinium, 528.

fligacy, 53.
Julia, the younger, 54, 158.

Lazi, 525.
Lectica, 394. 594.

, daughter of Titus,

Lectio senatus, 30.

381, 385. 390.

Legati, Aug. iuridici, 82.

, granddaughter of Tibe-

tegati, Aug. propr., 82.

rius, 202, 277.

Legati, legionary, 69.

, daughter of Germani-

Legerda, 317.

cus, 209, 217, 221, 224,

Legions ; double legions

234.

(<?e»una), 5; names of,

Julianus, 408.

71, 72 ; under Augustus,

— , Salvius, 512, 526.

ib. ; under Claudius and

Julias, 367.

Nero, , 323 ; under Ves •

Julius Caesar, C., the Dicta-

pai-ian, 365, 366, 373, 380.

tor, 1, 32, 192.

Leitus, 615.

— Caesar, C., the Trium- Lentulus Gaetulicus, 223.

vir ; see Augustus. Leon (legioi), 86.

Nicanor, 104. Lepida ; ste Domitia.

Junia, wife of Lepidus, 6. , Emilia, 245.
. Claudilla (wife of 1 Lepidus, M. .Emilius, the

Gaius), 210.

triumvir, 6 : death, 18.

Juniana Latinitas, 193.

, M. JEmilius (son of

Junius Rusticus, 529.

triumvir), conspiracy of,

Juno, worship of, 61.

6.

Juridici of Italy, 509, 524,

, M. jEmilius, husband

538.

of Drusilla, 209, 224.

Jurisprudence, 526.

, Paullus vEmilius, 19.

Jus edicendi, 14.

Leuce C6me, 111, 121.

primes relationis, 14.

Lex Rubria, 66; Julia

— Latinum, 36, 77, 380,

municipalis, 66.

498.

Titia, 9 ; Seenia, 9, 61 ;

Italicum, 76, 429.

JElia Sentia, 63 ; Fufia

trium liberorum, 62,

Caninia, 63.

473, 483.

de imperio, 14, 17 ; text

Justin Martyr, 580.

of, 24 ; 28, 29 ; 36 ; 165.

Juvenal. 205, 248; Satire

Junia Norbana, 193.

iv., 395; 475 sqq. ; 488.

Leges Juliee of Augustus,

593, 595, 597.

62, 63.

Juvenalia, 280.

Liber tini, position of, 63;

67, 193; in politics, 244,

436.

K.

Libo Drusus, 181.

Liburna, 71.

Kainepolis, 541.

Libraries in Eome, 147, 150.

Eostoboks, 525.

Ligures Baebiani, 437.

Lindum, 271, 398, 399.

Limes Germanicus, 403-5,

T,

410, 501.

mjm

Raeticus, 405, 41*. 501.

Labeo, Claudius, 359, 360.

LmgoiMS. 294, 326, 3i2, 357,

— , M. Antistius, 161. ; 359, 365.

Laberius Maximus, 422, 424. Literature, under Augustus,

Labienus (rabies), 161. 149 sqq. ; under Tiberius,

Laco, Cornelius, 325, 327.
-, Graecinus, 203.
Lambae>is, 498, 504, 524.

211, 212 ; under Claudius
and Nero, 458, sqq. ; under
the Flavians, 465 sqq.;

Langcbardi, 131, 176, 543.
Laodicea Catacecaumene,

under Trajan, 475 sqq. ;
under Hadrian and the

108.

Antonines, 551 sqq.

Lares, worship of, 16.
Largus, Scribonius, 461.

Litterator, 598.
Li via, wife of Augustus, 46,

Larisa, 104.

47, 53, 61, 147, 166, 178,

Lateranus, Plautius, 288.

179, 180, 190, 194, 197,

Latiaris, Latinius, 200. 201 ; 217 ; 234.

Latro, M. Porcius, 161. LivJanus, Ti. Claudius, 422,

Latus clavus, 31. 424.

Laugonna, E., 127, sqq. Livilla, 196, 197, 204.

1 .aureolus, 616. Livy, 159, 160.

Lauriacum ; three places of Locus Castorum, 335.
this name, 403, 544. , Locusta, 254, 276.

INDEX

633

Lollia Paulina. 1

Lulha Paulina, 221, 252. 1 Manuus. 452.

Lollius, M., 126. Mantinea, 505.

Londiniutn, 262, 266, 268, Mantua, 151.

270. Marcella (daughter of Oc-

Longinus, 162. tavia), 4, 46, 48.

, Cassius, 209, 461.

Marcellus, C., husbaid of

, Cassius (praef. castr.),

Octavia, 4, 46.

427.
l.opolunum, 418.

, M., sun of Octavia, 46.
Marcia Furnilla, 381.

Lorium, 530. Marciana, 430, 434.

Lucan, 288, 289 ; death, 290 ; Marcianopolis, 430.

292 ; works, 463, 464 ; 471 '• Marcion, 581.

473.

Marcodurum, 356.

Lucian, 659, 560, 571, 573,

Marcomanni, 131, 176, 241,

576, 579, 605.

409 ; 542, sqq.

Lucilius, the younger, 464.

MARCUS AURELTUS, Em-

Lucilla, 548.

peror, 517, 523, 528, 529,

Lucuas, 454.
Lucullus, gardens of, 247.

sqq. ; principate, 533 sqq. ;
death, 559 ; writings ; 534.

Ludi (games), scenici and

552, 570; attitude to Chris-

circenses, 613 sqq.\ Ac-

tianity, 578, 579. •

tiaci, 7.

Mardi, 315.

Seviralts, 41, 68.

Mariba, 122.

• Sseculares, 62, 236, 394,

Marius Priscus, 438, 483.

524.

Marmarica, 90.

see Schools, and Gladia-

Maroboduus, 131, sqq., 136,

tors.

137, 176.

Ludius, 587.
Lugudunensis, 83, 84, 85,

Marriage, legislation on, by
Augustus, 62.

294, 579.
Lugudunum, on Rhone, 71,

Marsi (in Italy), 237.
Marsians. 134, 169, 170, 174.

85, 129; Gaius at, 229;

Martial, 395, 473-4.

232 ; 300, 384, 579.

Massa Bsebius, 391.

, on Rhine, 129. Mas-ada, 372.

Luppia, R., 127 sqq., 169. Massilia, 83.

Lusius Quietus, 424, 451,

Mater castrorum, 547.

453, 495.

Matttematici, 391, 577.

Lusitania, 86, 88.

Matidia, 434.

Lutetia, 86.

Mattium, 170.

Lutorius Priscus, 194.

Mauretania, 89, 90, 91, 229,

Lycaonia, 108.

239, 495, 497, 504.

Lycia, 108, 241, 299.

Mauricus, Junius, 391, 415.

Lygdamus, 156.

Mausoleum of Augustus,

Lystra, 108.

146 ; of Hadrian, 515.

Maximus, Sex. Quintilius,

M

Meals, Roman, 603 sqq.

JjU-«

Mediolanum, 334.

Macedonia, province of, 103,

Meherdates, 308.

sqq., 192, 241.

Mela, Annaeus, 291.

Macer, jEmilius, 150, 153.

, Pomponius, 461.

, Clodius, 325.

Melissus, C., 166.

, Marcius, 334, 336.

Melitene, 317, 319.

Machaerus, 372.

Mesene, 453.

Macro, Sertorius, 203, 209,

Mesopotamia, 308, 450, sqq.

210, 220.

. nrovince. 452. 493.

Madanra, 554. Messalina, Statilia, 290.

Maecenas, C. Cilnius, 2;

, Valeria, 284, 245, sqq.

character, 3 : 5, 6 ; death,

Messalinus, M. Valerius,

59 ; 60 ; 65 ; 150 xqq.

132.

Msezaei, 133.

Messalla, Barbatus, 85.

Magistrates, election of, 34 ;

, Corvinus, 66, 84.

duties of, 33 sqq.
Maiesias, 194, 414, 512.

, Potitus, 8, 150.
Metilius, Secundus, 504.

Malaca, 380.

Metius Carus, 390, 391.

Malchus, 430.

Metulum, 95.

Malorix, 301.

Mevania, 345.

Manahem, 36*.

Milichns, 289.

Manilius, 159.

Mimes, 615.

Manwares, 452.

Minucius Felix, 556, 581.

27*

Neronia

Misenam, 278.

Missilva, 614.

Mithradates, of Bosponis,

242.

, of Armenia, 306.

Mithras, 514.
Mnester, 247.
Mce^ia, 98 sqq. ; 133, 300,

406, 408, -i22, 429, 430,

442, 443; Upper and

Lower, 409.
Moguntiacum, 128, 130, 137,

330, 353, 354, 356, 357,

361, 405.

Moles Hadriani, 515.
Mona, 267, 398.
Montanus, Julius, 277.

, Sextus, 250.

Monumentum Ancyranum,

120, 139.
Mopsus. 151.
Morini, 126, 355.
Morum legumque regimen,

19.

Mo>a, R., 240.
Mosaics, 589.
Mosella, R., 300.
Mucianus, C. Licinius, 339

sqq., 347, 348 ; 364, 383,

406.

Munatius Ptancus, 142.
Municipium, 76, 77.
Munius Lupercus, 354, 359.
Murena, A. Terentius Varro,

60, 94.
Mursa, 500.

Mnsouius Rufus, 378, 569.
Musulamii, 90, 182.
Myos Hormos, 121.

N.

Nabalia, 364.

Nabatean kingdom, 111, 122;
369, 430.

Nahar-malcha, 452.

Napata, 12a

Napoca, 429.

Narbo, 325.

Narbonensis, 83, 85.

Narcis>us, 244, 245, 246,
248, 250, 254, 261, 275,
340.

Naumacbia, the basin called,
382.

Naupactus, 105.

Nauportus, 95.

Neapolis, 292.

Nemausus, 5, 83, 504, 523.

Nemetes, 240.

Nero, son of Germanicus,
197, 202.

NERO, Emperor, 251 ; adop-
tion, 252, 253; 254; ac-
cession, 255; 256; reign,
274sg<j. ; character, 298,
speech at Isthmus, 303;
387 ; poetry, 458.

Neronia, 280, 293.

634

Nerva.

Nerva, Cocceius 200, 206.
NKRVA, Emperor, 290, 392

413, sqq.
Nervii, 359.
Xieiea, 440, 442.
Xiceph-iriiim, 208.
Nicer, R., 403, 404.
\icolaii9 of Damascus, 162.
Xicomedia, 107, .440; 441,

443, 444.
Nicopolis, 105.
Nig T, Q. S^xtius, 161.
Ninus, 308.

Ni^ibis, 451, 452, 453, 541.
Nola, 138, 21)0.
.Vomenclator, 529,
.Voniinatio, imperial riglit

of. 34.

Norbanus, L. Appius, 390.
Noricum, 79 ; 94 95.
Novae -ium. 354 sqq.
Noviomagus (Nimeguen),

129.

, (Sp^yer), 129, 240.

Nuceria, 300.
Niimidia, 89 sqq., 228.
Niimisius Rufus, 354, 35s.
Xymphidius Sabinus, 296,

326.

o.

Ol.iodas, 111, 112.

Octavia, sister of Augustus,

4. 46, 47, 50; death. 51;

14t>.
- , daughter of Claudius,

234, 251 281. 282, 283.
Octaoia, the, 460.
Octavian (Augustus), 2.
- , C. (Augustus), 2.
O.isum, 395.
Odrvsians, 99.
(Enus, R., 341.
(EiCUb, 430.
Olbia, 109, 525.
Olennius, 185.
Olisipo. 88.
Olympia, 505.
Ombi, 477.

Onias, temple of, 372.
O.iitergium, 342.
O.ipian, 561.
Optimas, title of Trajan, 434.

263

328;

Ordo vices. 264, 398.
Orestilla, 221.
Orkney islands, 401.
Ornospades, 20S.
Orodes, 207.
Ostia, 237, 248. 437.
O roene. 451, 541.
Ostorius Scapula P.

sqq.

- , M., 264,
• >THO, Emperor, 278

principate, 32» aqq.
Ovid, 100, 157 sqij.
O/.ogardana, 452.

INDEX.

P.

Pacorus, 448.
Paelignu*, Julius, 810.
Paetus ; see Thrasea.

! , L. Caesennius, 317 sqq.,

380.

Pagus, German, 125
Painting, 586 sqq.
Palaces, imperial, 601 sqq.
Palatine bill, 147, 286.
Palatium, 147.
I Palestine, province. 509.
Pallas, 244, 248, 250, 252,
! 276, 284, 367.
Palma, Cornelius, 430, 495.
Palmyra, 113, 431, 507
Palp llius Hisier, 241.
Pamphylia, 108, 439.
Pandateria, 53, 202, 282.
Panhellenion, 506.
Pannonia, 95 sqq. ; revolt of,
132 xqq. ; 167, 422, 429 ;
Upper and Lower, 480;
499, 500, 510.
Pantheon, 145.
Pan icipaeum, 499.
! Pantomimes, 391, 616.
Parasites, 592, 595.
I'aris, 391, 616.
Parium, 106.
Parlals 108.

Parihamaspates. 453, 494.
PartbeiiiuB, 392, 416.
Partliia, 117 sqq., 177, 206
xqq., 448 sqq.; 504, 540

Parthomasiris, 453, 494.

Passennus Pau'lus, 478.

Passienus, 251.

Pater patrise, 18, 385, 496.

Patrae, 105.

Patriciate, 9, 61, 377.

Patrimonium of Emperors,
37.

Paulina, wife of Seneca, 290.

Paullus, Claudius, 352.

Pausanias, 557.

Pax Julia, 88.

Pax Romana (Augusta), 8 ;
(of Vespasian), 377.

Pegasus, 467.

I'egmata, 625.

People, the, political position
of, under the empire, 29.

Peregrini dediticii, 76.

Peregrinus, 571.

Pergamum, 107.

Peristyhum, 601.

Perpetual Edict, 512.

Perrfus, 462, 573.

Pertinax, P. Helvius, 544.

Pervigttiuin V--wris, 554.

Pessinus, 108.

Petra, 111, 121, 431, 507.

Petraea, 431.

IVtronius Arbiter, death,
•J91; works, 465,604.605.
, C. (Ethiopian expedi-
tion), 123.

Pomponius.

Petronius Srcundus, 416.
Tui pilianus, 270, 290,

296, 326, 398.
, (Governor of Judea),

228.

Phaedru.-, 212.
Phaon, 297.
Phara-manes, 207, 306, 309,

310, 316.

Philip, son oi He.O'l, 112.
Philippupolis, 184,544.
Philippus, L. Maicius, 146,
Philo, 219, 228, 485.
Philosophy. 535 567 sqq.
Phlegon, 521, 553.
Phraataces, 120.
Phraatt s iv., 118, 119, 120.
Pinnes, 133.
Pisidia, 108.

Piso, C. CalpurniuB, con-
spires against Nero, 28*

sqq.
, Cn. Ca.purnius, 60,

178 sqq.
, L., in Thrace, 100,

189.
, M. Licinianus, Csesar,

Placentia, 334.
Plagues, 536, 641.
Plat asia, 54.
Plancina, 178 sgg.
Plancus, Munatiu.s 12, 19.
Platorius Nepos. A., 503,

520.

Plautia Urgulanilla, 245.
Plautius Silvanus, Aulus,

260 sqq.. 263.
Silvanus, Ti., 245, 300,

406.

Plebiscita, 237.
Pliny, the elder 383,466, 576.
, the younger, 383, 391,

413, 434, -38, 43*; in

Bithynia, 439 sqq. ; 482

sqq. ; villas of, 602,6(3.
Plotina, 421, 434, 490, 491.
Plutarch, 485 sqq. 571.
Postovio, 95, 98, 341, 430.
Pola, 97.
Polemon of Pontus, 109,

24 .

— of Smyrna, 506, 530.
1 Pollio, C Asinius, 151, 152.

, Cselius. 309.

Polysenus. 557.

Polybius, freedman, 244, 24*,

256.

Polycarp, 579.
Polycletns, 269.
Pomoarium, 236, 427.
Poirpeianu.s Ti. Ciaudi-s

544, 548.

Pompeii, 383, 58!?, 586 sqq.
Pompeii family of. 223.
i Pompelns., Cn.. 234, 262.

I , Cn , (Pompey tho

Great), 442.
Pompeius, Trogus, 160.
) Pomponius Secnndus, 212.

Pomptine.

Pomptlne marshes, 437.

Pens jElii, 503.

-— - jElius, 515.

Pontia, 202,

Ponticus, 159

Pomifex Maximus; Lepi-

aus, 18 ; Augustus. 18,
Pontius Pilatus, 287 302
Pontus, 106, 227.
- — Polemoniacus, 299.
Poj.pasa Sabina, wife of

Scipio, 247.

~~n*0S5btn*' Wife Of Nero-
278,281,282,^83,288,290,

INDEX.

Quadi, 241,409; 542, sqq.
Quadratus. Ummidius 310

*qq. ; 367.

t^Uffistors, provincial 82
Quaestorship, 39.
Quatuorciri, 39.

— agro dividund", 415.
Qmndecimviri, 19, 61 63
Quinquatms, 278, 279, 598
yuintilian, 390, 468, 576.

.w. Qumnius, P. Sulpiclns 90

Porolissum, 422. . , Qulrta«s, L. Sestius, 60.

Portico: of the Argonauts,

M5,orOcUvta,i46,888; R

of Octavius, 146; of

Philippus, 146. Radamistus, 309, 311.

Fortus Lemanis, 270. Raetia, 93, 94, 544.

- — Romanus, 237. Randeia, 317.

Prxfecti (see Prsefectura) • \ Ra'iaria, 430.
aerarii, 70 ; prsetorio, 70, | Ravenna 71,549.
1»1 ; 377, 611. ' i Reate, 383.

Prtefectura alee, 41, 69. I *&&&, the, 142, 285, 394

annonse, 64. Rfgina Castta, 500.

castrorum, 69. Regions of Rome, fourteen

• urbis, 65, 66, 189, 190 66-

• vigilum, 66. - — of Italy, 66.

635
Senate.

Sabinian school, 161, 467.
Nabinu;Flavius; see Flavins.

, Julius, 357, 599.

, Masurius. 212.

, Oppius, 408.

, Poj.paeus, 184, 192.

— r-, Titius, 200.

(poet), 159.

(tribune). 226, 232.

Sacrilegium, 445.
Sacrovir, Julius, 184^ 294,

Seepta, 145, 221.
Salamis, 104.
Salassi, 94.
Salonaj, 97, 132. 544.
Salpensa, 380.
Samaria, 218, 367, 369, 373
Samosata, 450.
Sampsigeram, 243.
Sardinia, 92, 282, 299, 300,

207, 295, 406,

-- vigilum, 66.

Preetores eerarii, 36.

Pr83torian camp, 191.

1 guards, 70, 191, 231

265, 328.

prefects, see Prtefecti.

- provinces. 81.

Praetors. 38.
Prasmagus, 287.
Premnis, 123.
Princeps, meaning of, 15.

• iuventutis, 63, 215.

— senatus, 15, 31.
"oconsular power ; see Im-

perium.
Proconsuls, 81, 82.

l>vnCTi1*t£*._ fn

Satala, 450.

Satrius Secundus, 203.

"

- — ay, 6.
Regulus, M. Aquilins, 391
—- , Memmius, 221.
ftelatio, 31, 537.
Religion, 528. 575 sag.
Remi, 86. 360. ^
Xes^privata, of Emperors,

Rhjiscuporis, 184.
Rhetoricians, schools of, 658,

573, 699.
Rhcem^talces, 100, 184

~185, 227.

, 107.
Rigodulnm, 361.

* 1UVUIIBU1H, «U,

Procnleius, 60. Rigodulnm, 361

Procnlian school of jurists, j Rif?on!»agU6, 354
161, 461. ' Roma qnadrata, i*/.

fourteen regions, 39 :

Procuius Licinius, 332, 336. j Rome fourteen regions, 39 :
- — , Scribonius, 226, 294. ' buildings and topographv
Procurators, 39, 43, 82. Ml, sqq. ; great fire in

JJ,";;^ «•'«*««.

Roxolaiii, 332, 406, 407, 499
B"Sf» .J"6111^. 281- 288,

, owiiuoiiius, aze, :

Procurators, 39, 43, 82.
Promona, 96.
Pro^rtius, 156, 157.
Propraetors, 81, 82.
Protogenes, 226.
Provinces,

-, Aponius, 341.
, Cn. Sentius, 132, 179,

Scaevina, Flavius, 289
Scapula; sceOstorius.
Scaurianus, D. Terentius,

Schools, 698 sqq.
1 Scribonia, 46.
j Scribonius Rurus, 294.

Proculus, 226, 294

Sculpture, 583 sqq.

Scythopolis, 369.

Sebaste (Samaria), 112.

>ecundus, Pomponins, 231,

Segestes, 134, 170.
Segovia, 608.
Seiopum, 404, 405.
Sejant * '

.--u.vo, Dcimuurun and
imperial, 33, 81 ; govern-
ment of, 74, sqq. • ligt of,
116; 191, 227, 240; 299
380, 438 sqq., 494, 496*
499 sqq.

Prasa, 440, 443.

Ptolemy, Caesarius, 4.

, son of Juba, 90, 227.

. geographer, 557

Pablilius Celsus. 495.

Purpura, Imr)erial, 21.

Puteoli, 222, 300.

Pythodorus, 283.

my, 2»y.
Rnbellius Blandus, 209.
- — Plautus, 277, 281
Rnra, R., 169.
Rusirade, 504.
Rusticus, Arulenus, 390.
, Fabius, 467, 482.

Sabina, 422, 491, 507, 516.

. > 2°8, 306, 307,

Selinus, in Cilicia. 454
Semnones, 176, 548.
Senate, functions of under

+ on *V ' """i^sion

to, 30; number of, so-
senatorial career, 31 .
committee of, 31; func-
tions, administrative, 33
judicial, 33, in election of
magistrates, 34, legislative,
35, financial, 36- under
Tiberius.190 ; under Gains
216; under Claudius 235*
under Nero, 299 ; under
Vespasian, 377 ; under
Doinitian, 386 sqq. ; under
Nerva,4l3; under Trajan

036 INDEX.

Senatorial.

434,435; under Hadrian, Sla,ves, in Italy, 186, 187;
510-512 ; undiT Antoninus, 193 ; in Rome, 592 sqq.
524 ; under Marcus, 537. Sohasmus, 227, 340.
Senatorial provinces, 33. I Soothsayers, 194.
Seneca, the father, 212, 223. Sophon, Lake, 441.

, the son, 238, 246 ; the Soranus. Barea, 291.

Ludus de morte ClauMi, Soza. 242.
256; money-lending, 267 ; Spain, 86 sqq., 380, 504.
trains Nero, 274 ; as min- Sparta, 104.
ister, 275 sqq. ; death 290 ; Sportula, 595.
works, 459 sqq. ; 568 sqq., Statilius Taurus, 66, 87, 97,
i 146.

iStatius. Papinius, 391, 395,
I 450, 479 sqq.
< Statius Primus. 539.
1 Stella, Arruntius, 471, 474.
Stephanus, 392.
Stipendiaria civitas, 76.

594.

Senecio, Claudius, 278, 288.
Septemviii, college of, 19.
Sequani, 294, 359, 365.
Serapis, 52 >.
Serdi, 99.
Serdica, 430.
Servianus, 5 8, 513, 516,

618,520,521.
Servilia, 292.
Servilian gardens, 296.
Setovia, 97.
Severus, Cassius, 161.

, Catilius, 495, 518.

, Cornelius, 159.

, Julius, 508.

.architect, 286.

Seviri (equitum) 41.
Severianus Maximus, 540.
Sextilius Felix, 360.
Sexviri Augustales, 67.
Sicily, 50, 93, 504.
Siculus Flaccus, 484.
Sido, 241, 341.
Sigimer, 135.
Signia, 530.
Silana Junia, 277.

Stipendium, 76.

Stoicism ; and politics, 282,

378, 390 ; 534, 567 sqq.
Strabo, 122, 162.
Subrius Flavius, 288, 290.
Suetonius Tranquillns, 553.
Paulinus, 239; in

Britain, 267 sqq. ; 332,

334 sqq. 338 ; 458.
Suevians, 125; 176,241.

Sugambri, 126, 127, 128, 130,

396.

Suicide, frequency of, 574.
Sulla, Cornelius, 281, 282.
ISulpicia, niece of Messalla,
156.

, wife of Calenus, 475.

Sumelocenna, 418.
Sunuci, 359.

Silanus. D. Junius, (son of Sura. L. Licinius, 416, 424,
C. Appius Silanus and 434,491.
./Emilia Lepida), 288. ; Sura, battle of, 541.
— , C. Appius, (married Susa, 148.
(1) Emilia Lepida, (2) Syene, 123.
Doimtia Lepida), 246. Syllaeus, 122.

, L. Junius, (son of Syracuse, 93.

C. Appius Silanus), 234, Syria, 110 sgg.,134, 178,380,
251, 262. 432, 541.

, Q. Metellus Creticus,

(leg. of Syria), 177. m

— , M., (proc. of Africa).
210, 220.

, M., 51.

, M., (son of C. Appius),

proc. Asia 275.
Silius, C., 167, 172, 184, 198.
C., lover of Messalina,

247 sqq.

Italicus, 470.

Silures, 264, 266, 268, 398.

Silva Cassia, 169.

Similis, 496.

Simon, son of Gioras, 371 sqq.

Singara, 451.

Singidunum, 406.

Sinnaces, 208.

Sinope, 107, 440.

Siraci, 242.

Sirmium, 132.

Siscia, 96, 500.

Slavery, 436, 637, 529.

Tacfarinas, 182.

Tacitus, Cornelius ; on Ger-
manicus 172, 181 ; on
Tiberius, 212; 250; 257,
321; 395; the Afjricola,
402 ; Germania, 418, 419
439 ; 478 sqq. ; 484.

Tamfana, 169.

Tampius Flavianus, 341.

Tanagra, 104.

Tanaus, 399.

Tapse, battle of, 86 A.IJ.
408; battle, 101 A.D., 423.

Tarentum. 300.

Tarquitius Priscus, 253, 299.

Tarracina, 347.

Tarraco, 87, 497.

Tarraconensis, 87.

Tarsa, 185.

Taunus, Mt., 128, 404.

Tiberius.

Taxation, 37,43; 191 -, 4H.
Temples : —

Apollo (Palatine), 147
236.

Castor, 142.

Concord, 142.

Diana, 148, 285.

Divns Antoninus, 582.

Augustus, 191.

Julius, 142.

Vespasianus, 395.

Fortuna redux, 409.

Herculis Musarum, 146.

Janus, 143, 376.

Jupiter Capitolinus, 376,

» 383, 393.

Custos, 394.

Feretrius 146.

— — Optimus Maximus,
146.

Stator, 147, 285.

Tonans, 148.

Mars Ultor, 143.

Minerva, 415.

Peace, 379.

Rome and Venus, 496,
515.

Sacrse Urbis, 379.

Saturn, 142.

Venus Genetrix, 143.

Vesta, 142, 285, 329.
Tencteri, 126, 127, 356.
Terentia, 60.
Terentius, M., 205.
- Scaurus, 555.
Testimus, 97.
Teutobu'g Forest, battle of,

135, 136; site of, 140;

171.

Thamesis, R., 261.
Theatres, 292, 293 ; of Bal-

bus, 146, 383; of Marcellus,

146 ; of Pompey, 145, 191,

301, 383. 614 sqq.
Thense, 504.
Thermae: 611; of Agrippa,

145, 383 ; Surianae, 438 ; of

Titus, 382 ; of Trajan, 438.
Thespiae, 104, 505.
Thessalonica, 104.
Thessaly, 104.
Theudosia, 102.
Thrace, 99 sqq.. 184, 227,

241, 430.

Thrasea Psetus, 291, 292.
Thubursicum, 183.
Tbumelicus, 173.
"Thundering legion," the,

545.

Thurinns (Augustus), 2.
Thusnelda, 136, 170, 176.
Tiber, 237.

Tiberias, 218, 367, 508.
TIBERIUS (Claudius Nero),

Emperor, 8; birth, 46;

career under Augustus, 51,

sqq. ; conquest of Raetia,

93, 120 ; in Germany, 130

sqq. ; suppresses Panno-

nian revolt, 132 tqq., 137,

IXDEX.

Tiberius.

138 ; prindpate, 164, sqq. ;
death. 210 ; character and

TrisantontJ. 272.
Triumphs, decreed by senate,

policy, 210 sqq. ; will
215; not deified, ib.

35 ; posthumous, 455.
Triumvirate of Caesar

Memoirs, 388.

(Augustus), 8, 9 ; re-

Tiberiu.-, Alexander, 367.

signed, 10.

- Gemellus, 209, 214,

" Troy," game of, 8.

215, 220.

Troesmis, 499.

Tibiscus, R., 422, 423.

Tubantes, 169.

Til>ullus, Albius, 150, 156.

Tucca, 150, 153.

Ticinum, 334.

Turbo, Q. Marcius, 454. 495,

Tierna, 418, 429.

496, 499.

Ttoelliaus, Sofonius, 281

Turesis, 185.

sqq., 285, 288, 290, 291,

Turnus, 475.

296, 327, 332.

Turones. 184.

Tigranes, king of Armenia,

Tutela, 539.

120.

Tutor, Julius, 357, sqq.

Tigranocerta, 315, 316, 322.

Tyras, 109, 300, 499.

Tineius Rufus, 508.

Tingis, 89.

Tingitana, 228.

TJ.

Tiridates, grandson of
Phraates 208.
, brother of Vologeses i.,
310 sqq. ; invested by
Nero, 321.
Titianus, 334 336, 338.
TITDS, Emperor, 340; be-
sieges Jerusalem, 370 sqq. ;
377, 378, 379 ; principate,
381 sqq. ; 465.
Toga, 514.
Togodumnus, 261.

Ubii, 167, 354, 356, 359.
Ubiorum, Oppidum, 167,
168 ; see Colonia Agrippi-
nensis.
Ulpia Trajana (Sarmizege-
thusa), 429.
Ulpius Marcellus, 526.
Umbrte, 604.
Urbicus, Q. Lollius, 525, 578.
Usipetes, 126, 127, 169.
Uspe, 242.

UtloA. 91

Tolhiacum, 362.

UCA, VI*

Tomi, 100, 430, 499.

Torture, use of, 527.

v.

Trachonitis, 111.

Trajanus, M. Ulpius (father

Vada, 363.

ot Emperor), 381.
TRAJANUS, Emperor, 416;

Vahalis, 363.
Valens, C. Fabiua, 331 sqq.,

principate, 417 sqq. ; Com-
mentaries, 427 ; character,

343, 345, 346.
. Manlius, 266.

434 ; administration, 434

Valentia, 85.

sqq. ; death, 455.
Trajan's column, 427, 585.

Valentinus, Julius, 360.
Valerius Flaccus, 372, 465;

Trapezus, 107.

469.

Trebellius Maximus. 398.

Maximus, 211.

Tres Gallice, 84, 131.

Paulinus, 344.

Tresviri capitales. 39.

Probus, 461.

monetales, 39.

Valgius, 156.

Treveri (see Augu-ta Tre-

Vangio, 241.

verorum), 184, 294, 326,

Vangiones, 240, 360.

356 ; 357 sqq., 365.

Vannius, 241.

Triballi, 98.

Vardanes, 306 sqq.

Trib-ni terarii, 42.

VariuB Rufus, L., 150, 163,

Tribunate, military, 41 ;

158.

semestris, 42.

, 38.

Varus, Alfenus, 152.
, P. Quinrtiliiu, 134 sag.

Tribunicia potestas ;

Vascones, 356.

meaning of, 6 (note) ; im-

Vatican valley, 280, 387.

portance in the constitu

Vectigal, 76, 284.

lion of the princii ate, 14 ;

Vectis, 263.

mode of conferring, 17, 18 ;

Vehiculatw, 414.

rights involved, 28, 29 ;

Veiento, 395, 416.

348 ; 377 ; 385.

Veleda, 359, 364.

Tribunician years of Em-

Veleia, 437.

perors, 18.

Vellajus, P., 184.

Trihutum, 76.

Veileins Paterculiis, 20<»,

Ti- Minium, 602.

211.

Trinovantes, 261, 264, 268.

Venta Belgarum, 270.

637

Vir clarissimus.

Venta Icenorum, 269.
Venutius, 266.
Veranius. 266, 267.
Verax, 363.
Verginiu* Rufus, 296, 325,

337,365.

Verona, 342. 343.
Verritus, 301.

, Veralamium, 261, 266, 268.
VERrs, Kmp ror. 518, 523,

531, 532 ; Augustus, 536 ;

539, 540 fqq., 544.
Verus, L. Ceionius Com-

mo«»U8 (Caesar), 515. 517.
, M. Annuls; see Mar-
cus Aurelius.
Vesontio, 295.
VESPASIAN, Emperor, 260,

261, 263, 339, 340, 347,

348, 365, 366 ; in Judea,

369 ; principals, 375 sqq. ;

404, 406, 407 ; 465.
Vespasian, son of Clemens,

390.

Vestinus.!*, 376.
Vestricius Spurinna, 332,

333, 416.

Vesuvius, 383, 471.
Vetera ; see Castra Vetera.
Veterans, settlement in

Italy, Gaul, &c.. 5, 69.
Vettius Bolanus, 398.

Valens, 250.

Vetus, L., 300. /

Vexilla, vexillarii, «9.

Vezinas 408.

VU Claudia Aug., 2»0.

Via i aja'a. 37.

Viiidia. ^50.

Vibius Mai sus, 243, 307.

Ma.ximus, 467.

Serenus, 192.

Vicesima hereditatum, 436,

513.

Vicetia, 342.
Vici, 65.
Victori. us, C. Aufldius, 543.

, Furius. 543.

i Vienna, 85, 294, 331.
! Vigiles, 65.
Vigimivirate, 31, 39.
Villas, Roman, 602.
Viminaciuni, 422, *23.
Vindelicia, 93.
Vindex, Julius, 294, 295,

365.

, M. Macrinius, 545.

Vindobona, 500, 545, 549.
Vindonissa, 95, 1,8, 354,

404.
Vinicianus, L. Auniiu, 226,

234.

Vinicius, M., 131, 209.
Vinins, T., : 95.
j Violentl », 472, 474.
Vipsania Agrippina, 61.
Vipsanius Laenas, 299.
\ ipstanus Meesalla, 467.
\'u- clarissimuf ; eminfn-

titsimus; Ace., 538.

638

Virgil.

Virgil, 60, 150. 151 sqq. ;
469, 470.

Virocontam. 26*. 272.

Vi8urgis,-R., 12? sqq.

VITELLICS, Emperor, 329
sqq. ; reign, 337 sqq.

Vitellius, L.. in the east,
206. 207, 306 ; censorship,
235, 251 ; 262.

, L., brother of Em-
peror, 3*5. 347.

Vitrnvius, 161.

Vocnla, Uillius, 355 sqq.

Volandum, 314.

Vole®, 83.

Vologes s i.. 297, 308 sqq.t
380,640^.

INDEX

Volgeses iv., 525.
Volusius Msecianus, 526.

Proculus, -289.

Vonones, 177, 206.

ii., 308.

Vota, public, for Rmperors,
21.

w.

Watling Street, 270.

Zion.
X.

! Xenophon, physician, 266.

Y.

Yemen 122.

Zama Regia, 504.
Zeno of Pontus, 178

Women ; their manners and , stoic, 567.

morals under the Empire, Zen .bia, 311.
695, 596, 612, 616, 623. Zenodorus, of Abila, 111.
I Zeugma. 317, 641.
) Zion, 370 *«.

Coin of Antoninus Pius, representing the funeral pyre at his consecratio.

I

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