Conduct of the army and senate after the death of Aurelian. Reigns of Tacitus, Probus, and Carus, and his sons.
Extraordinary contest between the army and the senate for the choice of an emperor.
SUCH was the unhappy condition of the Roman emperors, that,
whatever might be their conduct, their fate was commonly the
same. A life of pleasure or virtue, of severity or mildness,
of indolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave; and
almost every reign is closed by the same disgusting
repetition of treason and murder. The death of Aurelian,
however, is remarkable by its extraordinary consequences.
The legions admired, lamented, and revenged their victorious
chief. The artifice of his perfidious secretary was
discovered and punished. The deluded conspirators attended
the funeral of their injured sovereign with sincere, or
well-feigned contrition, and submitted to the unanimous
resolution of the military order, which was signified by the
following epistle:,
"The brave and fortunate armies to the senate and people of Rome.—The crime of one man, and the error of many, have deprived us of the late emperor Aurelian. May it please you, venerable lords and fathers! to place him in the number of the gods, and to appoint a successor whom your judgment shall declare worthy of the Imperial purple! None of those whose guilt or misfortune have contributed to our loss shall ever reign over us." (1)
The Roman senators heard, without surprise, that another emperor had been assassinated in his camp; they secretly rejoiced in the fall of Aurelian; but the modest and dutiful address of the legions, when it was communicated in full assembly by the consul, diffused the most pleasing astonishment. Such honours as fear and perhaps esteem could extort they liberally poured forth on the memory of their deceased sovereign. Such acknowledgments as gratitude could inspire they returned to the faithful armies of the republic, who entertained so just a sense of the legal authority of the senate in the choice of an emperor. Yet, notwithstanding this flattering appeal, the most prudent of the assembly declined exposing their safety and dignity to the caprice of an armed multitude. The strength of the legions was, indeed, a pledge of their sincerity, since those who may command are seldom reduced to the necessity of dissembling; but could it naturally be expected that a hasty repentance would correct the inveterate habits of four-score years? Should the soldiers relapse into their accustomed seditions, their insolence might disgrace the majesty of the senate and prove fatal to the object of its choice. Motives like these dictated a decree by which the election of a new emperor was referred to the suffrage of the military order.
A.D. 275. February 3. A Peaceful interregnum of eight months
The contention that ensued is one of the best attested but
most improbable events in the history of mankind. (2) The
troops, as if satiated with the exercise of power, again
conjured the senate to invest one of its own body with the
Imperial purple. The senate still persisted in its refusal;
the army in its request. The reciprocal offer was pressed
and rejected at least three times, and, whilst the obstinate
modesty of either party was resolved to receive a master
from the hands of the other, eight months insensibly
elapsed; an amazing period of tranquil anarchy, during which
the Roman world remained without a sovereign, without an
usurper, and without a sedition. The generals and
magistrates appointed by Aurelian continued to execute their
ordinary functions; and it is observed that a proconsul of
Asia was the only considerable person removed from his
office in the whole course of the interregnum.
An event somewhat similar but much less authentic is supposed to have happened after the death of Romulus, who, in his life and character, bore some affinity with Aurelian. The throne was vacant during twelve months till the election of a Sabine philosopher, and the public peace was guarded in the same manner by the union of the several orders of the state. But, in the time of Numa and Romulus, the arms of the people were controlled by the authority of the Patricians; and the balance of freedom was easily preserved in a small and virtuous community. (3) The decline of the Roman state, far different from its infancy, was attended with every circumstance that could banish from an interregnum the prospect of obedience and harmony: an immense and tumultuous capital, a wide extent of empire, the servile equality of despotism, an army of four hundred thousand mercenaries and the experience of frequent revolutions. Yet, notwithstanding all these temptations, the discipline and memory of Aurelian still restrained the seditious temper of the troops, as well as the fatal ambition of their leaders. The flower of the legions maintained their stations on the banks of the Bosphorus, and the Imperial standard awed the less powerful camps of Rome and of the provinces. A generous though transient enthusiasm seemed to animate the military order; and we may hope that a few real patriots cultivated the returning friendship of the army and the senate as the only expedient capable of restoring the republic to its ancient beauty and vigour.
A.D. 275. Sept, 25. The consul assembles the senate.
On the twenty-fifth of September, near eight months after the murder of Aurelian, the consul convoked an assembly of the senate, and reported the doubtful and dangerous situation of the empire. He slightly insinuated that the precarious loyalty of the soldiers depended on the chance of every hour and of every accident; but he represented, with the most convincing eloquence, the various dangers that
might attend any farther delay in the choice of an emperor. Intelligence, he said, was already received that the Germans had passed the Rhine and occupied some of the strongest and most opulent cities of Gaul. The ambition of the Persian king kept the East in perpetual alarms; Egypt, Africa, and Illyricum were exposed to foreign and domestic arms; and the
levity of Syria would prefer even a female sceptre to the sanctity of the Roman laws. The consul then, addressing himself to Tacitus, the first of the senators,(4) required
his opinion on the important subject of a proper candidate
for the vacant throne.
Character of Tacitus.
If we can prefer personal merit to accidental greatness, we
shall esteem the birth of Tacitus more truly noble than that
of kings. He claimed his descent from the philosophic
historian whose writings will instruct the last generations
of mankind. (5) The senator Tacitus was then seventy-five
years of age. (6) The long period of his innocent life was
adorned with wealth and honours. He had twice been invested
with the consular dignity, (7) and enjoyed with elegance and
sobriety his ample patrimony of between two and three
millions sterling. (8) The experience of so many princes, whom
he had esteemed or endured, from the vain follies of
Elagabalus to the useful rigour of Aurelian, taught him to
form a just estimate of the duties, the dangers, and the
temptations of their sublime station. From the assiduous
study of his immortal ancestor he derived the knowledge of
the Roman constitution and of human nature. (9) The voice of
the people had already named Tacitus as the citizen the most
worthy of empire. The ungrateful rumour reached his ears,
and induced him to seek the retirement of one of his villas
in Campania. He had passed two months in the delightful
privacy of Baiae, when he reluctantly obeyed the summons of
the consul to resume his honourable place in the senate, and
to assist the republic with his counsels on this important
occasion.
He is elected emperor,
He arose to speak, when, from every quarter of the house, he
was saluted with the names of Augustus and Emperor.
"Tacitus Augustus, the gods preserve thee, we choose thee for our sovereign, to thy care we intrust the republic and the world. Accept the empire from the authority of the senate. It is due to thy rank, to thy conduct, to thy manners."
As soon as the tumult of acclamations subsided, Tacitus attempted to decline the dangerous honour, and to express his wonder that they should elect his age and infirmities to succeed the martial vigour of Aurelian.
"Are these limbs, conscript fathers! fitted to sustain the weight of armour, or to practise the exercises of the camp? The variety of climates, and the hardships of a military life, would soon oppress a feeble constitution, which subsists only by the most tender management. My exhausted strength scarcely enables me to discharge the duty of a senator; how insufficient would it prove to the arduous labours of war and government! Can you hope that the legions will respect a weak old man, whose days have been spent in the shade of peace and retirement? Can you desire that I should ever find reason to regret the favourable opinion of the senate?" (10)
and accepts the purple.
The reluctance of Tacitus, and it might possibly be sincere,
was encountered by the affectionate obstinacy of the senate.
Five hundred voices repeated at once, in eloquent confusion,
that the greatest of the Roman princes, Numa, Trajan,
Hadrian, and the Antonines, had ascended the throne in a
very advanced season of life; that the mind, not the body, a
sovereign, not a soldier, was the object of their choice;
and that they expected from him no more than to guide by his
wisdom the valour of the legions. These pressing though
tumultuary instances were seconded by a more regular oration
of Metius Falconius, the next on the consular bench to
Tacitus himself. He reminded the assembly of the evils which
Rome had endured from the vices of headstrong and capricious
youths, congratulated them on the election of a virtuous and
experienced senator, and with a manly, though perhaps a
selfish, freedom, exhorted Tacitus to remember the reasons
of his elevation, and to seek a successor, not in his own
family, but in the republic. The speech of Falconius was
enforced by a general acclamation. The emperor elect
submitted to the authority of his country, and received the
voluntary homage of his equals. The judgment of the senate
was confirmed by the consent of the Roman people and of the
Praetorian guards. (11)
Authority of the senate,
The administration of Tacitus was not unworthy of his life
and principles. A grateful servant of the senate, he
considered that national council as the author, and himself
as the subject, of the laws. (12) He studied to heal the wounds which Imperial pride, civil discord, and military violence had inflicted on the constitution, and to restore, at least, the image of the ancient republic as it had been preserved by the policy of Augustus and the virtues of Trajan and the Antonines. It may not be useless to
recapitulate some of the most important prerogatives which the senate appeared to have regained by the election of Tacitus. (13)
"The senate," exclaimed Tacitus, with the honest transport of a patriot, "understand the character of a prince whom they have chosen."
Their joy and confidence.
Circular epistles were sent, without delay, to all the
principal cities of the empire—Treves, Milan, Aquileia,
Thessalonica, Corinth, Athens, Antioch, Alexandria, and
Carthage—to claim their obedience, and to inform them of
the happy revolution which had restored the Roman senate to
its ancient dignity. Two of these epistles are still extant.
We likewise possess two very singular fragments of the
private correspondence of the senators on this occasion.
They discover the most excessive joy and the most unbounded
hopes.
"Cast away your indolence," it is thus that one of the senators addresses his friend, "emerge from your retirements of Baiae and Puteoli. Give yourself to the city, to the senate. Rome flourishes, the Whole republic flourishes. Thanks to the Roman army, to an army truly Roman, at length we have recovered our just authority, the end of all our desires We hear appeals, we appoint proconsuls, we create emperors; perhaps, too, we may restrain them—to the wise a word is sufficient." (15)
These lofty expectations were, however, soon disappointed; nor, indeed, was it possible that the armies and the provinces should long obey the luxurious and unwarlike nobles of Rome. On the slightest touch the unsupported fabric of their pride and power fell to the ground. The expiring senate displayed a sudden lustre, blazed for a moment, and was extinguished for ever.
A.D. 276. Tacitus is acknowledged by the army.
All that had yet passed at Rome was no more than a
theatrical representation, unless it was ratified by the
more substantial power of the legions. Leaving the senators
to enjoy their dream of freedom and ambition, Tacitus
proceeded to the Thracian camp, and was there by the
Praetorian praefect, presented to the assembled troops as
the prince whom they themselves had demanded, and whom the
senate had bestowed. As soon as the praefect was silent the
emperor addressed himself to the soldiers with eloquence and
propriety. He gratified their avarice by a liberal
distribution of treasure under the names of pay and
donative. He engaged their esteem by a spirited declaration
that, although his age might disable him from the
performance of military exploits, his counsels should never
be unworthy of a Roman general, the successor of the brave
Aurelian. (16)
The Alani invade Asia, and are repulsed by Tacitus.
Whilst the deceased emperor was making preparations for a
second expedition into the East, he had negotiated with the
Alani, a Scythian people, who pitched their tents in the
neighbourhood of the lake Maetis. Those barbarians, allured
by presents and subsidies, had promised to invade Persia
with a numerous body of light cavalry. They were faithful to
their engagements; but when they arrived on the Roman
frontier Aurelian was already dead, the design of the
Persian war was at least suspended, and the generals who,
during the interregnum, exercised a doubtful authority, were
unprepared either to receive or to oppose them. Provoked by
such treatment, which they considered as trifling and
perfidious, the Alani had recourse to their own valour for
their payment and revenge; and as they moved with the usual
swiftness of Tartars, they had soon spread themselves over
the provinces of Pontus, Cappadocia, Cilicia, and Galatia.
The legions who, from the opposite shores of the Bosphorus,
could almost distinguish the flames of the cities and
villages impatiently urged their general to lead them
against the invaders. The conduct of Tacitus was suitable to
his age and station. He convinced the barbarians of the
faith, as well as of the power, of the empire. Great numbers
of the Alani, appeased by the punctual discharge of the
engagements which Aurelian had contracted with them,
relinquished their booty and captives, and quietly retreated
to their own deserts beyond the Phasis. Against the
remainder, who refused peace, the Roman emperor waged, in
person, a successful war. Seconded by an army of brave and
experienced veterans, in a few weeks he delivered the
provinces of Asia from the terror of the Scythian invasion.
(17)
Death of the emperor Tacitus.
But the glory and life of Tacitus were of short duration.
Transported in the depth of winter from the soft retirement
of Campania to the foot of Mount Caucasus, he sunk under the
unaccustomed hardships of a military life. The fatigues of
the body were aggravated by the cares of the mind. For a
while the angry and selfish passions of the soldiers had
been suspended by the enthusiasm of public virtue. They soon
broke out with redoubled violence, and raged in the camp,
and even in the tent of the aged emperor. His mild and
amiable character served only to inspire contempt, and he
was incessantly tormented with factions which he could not
assuage, and by demands which it was impossible to satisfy.
Whatever flattering expectations he had conceived of
reconciling the public disorders, Tacitus soon was convinced
that the licentiousness of the army disdained the feeble
restraint of laws, and his last hour was hastened by anguish
and disappointment. It may be doubtful whether the soldiers
imbrued their hands in the blood of this innocent prince. (18)
It is certain that their insolence was the cause of his
death. He expired at Tyana in Cappadocia, after a reign of
only six months and about twenty days. (19)
.Usurpation and death of his brother Florianus
The eyes of Tacitus were scarcely closed before his brother
Florianus showed himself unworthy to reign by the hasty
usurpation of the purple, without expecting the approbation
of the senate. The reverence for the Roman constitution,
which yet influenced the camp and the provinces, was
sufficiently strong to dispose them to censure, but not to
provoke them to oppose, the precipitate ambition of
Florianus. The discontent would have evaporated in idle
murmurs, had not the general of the East, the heroic Probus,
boldly declared himself the avenger of the senate. The
contest, however, was still unequal; nor could the most able
leader, at the head of the effeminate troops of Egypt and
Syria, encounter, with any hopes of victory, the legions of
Europe, whose irresistible strength appeared to support the
brother of Tacitus. But the fortune and activity of Probus
triumphed over every obstacle. The hardy veterans of his
rival, accustomed to cold climates, sickened and consumed
away in the sultry heats of Cilicia, where the summer proved
remarkably unwholesome. Their numbers were diminished by
frequent desertion, the passes of the mountains were feebly
defended; Tarsus opened its gates; and the soldiers of
Florianus, when they had permitted him to enjoy the Imperial
title about three months, delivered the empire from civil
war by the easy sacrifice of a prince whom they despised. (20)
Their family subsists in obscurity.
The perpetual revolutions of the throne had so perfectly
erased every notion of hereditary right, that the family of
an unfortunate emperor was incapable of exciting the
jealousy of his successors. The children of Tacitus and
Florianus were permitted to descend into a private station,
and to mingle with the general mass of the people. Their
poverty indeed became an additional safeguard to their
innocence. When Tacitus was elected by the senate he
resigned his ample patrimony to the public service,(21) an
act of generosity specious in appearance, but which
evidently disclosed his intention of transmitting the empire
to his descendants. The only consolation of their fallen
state was the remembrance of transient greatness, and a
distant hope, the child of a flattering prophecy, that, at
the end of a thousand years, a monarch of the race of
Tacitus should arise, the protector of the senate, the
restorer of Rome, and the conqueror of the whole earth. (22)
Character and elevation of the emperor Probus.
The peasants of Illyricum, who had already given Claudius
and Aurelian to the sinking empire, had an equal right to
glory in the elevation of Probus. (23) Above twenty years
before, the emperor Valerian, with his usual penetration,
had discovered the rising merit of the young soldier, on
whom he conferred the rank of tribune long before the age
prescribed by the military regulations. The tribune soon
justified his choice by a victory over a great body of
Sarmatians, in which he saved the life of a near relation of
Valerian; and deserved to receive from the emperor's hand
the collars, bracelets, spears, and banners, the mural and
the civic crown, and all the honourable rewards reserved by
ancient Rome for successful valour. The third, and
afterwards the tenth, legion were intrusted to the command
of Probus, who, in every step of his promotion, showed
himself superior to the station which he filled. Africa and
Pontus, the Rhine, the Danube, the Euphrates, and the Nile,
by turns afforded him the most splendid occasions of
displaying his personal prowess and his conduct in war.
Aurelian was indebted to him for the conquest of Egypt, and
still more indebted for the honest courage with which he
often checked the cruelty of his master. Tacitus, who
desired by the abilities of his generals to supply his own
deficiency of military talents, named him commander-in-chief
of all the eastern provinces, with five times the usual
salary, the promise of the consulship, and the hope of a
triumph. When Probus ascended the Imperial throne he was
about forty-four years of age ;(24) in the full possession of
his fame, of the love of the army, and of a mature vigour of
mind and body.
His respectful conduct towards the senate.
His acknowledged merit, and the success of his arms against
Florianus, left him without an enemy or a competitor. Yet,
if we may credit his own professions, very far from being
desirous of the empire, he had accepted it with the most
sincere reluctance.
"But it is no longer in my power," says Probus in a private letter, "to lay down a title so full of envy and of danger. I must continue to personate the character which the soldiers have imposed upon me." (25)
His dutiful address to the senate displayed the sentiments, or at least the language, of a Roman patriot:
"When you elected one of your order, conscript fathers! to succeed the emperor Aurelian, you acted in a manner suitable to your justice and wisdom. For you are the legal sovereigns of the world, and the power which you derive from your ancestors will descend to your posterity. Happy would it have been if Florianus, instead of usurping the purple of his brother, like a private inheritance, had expected what your majesty might determine, either in his favour, or in that of any other person. The prudent soldiers have punished his rashness. To me they have offered the title of Augustus; but I submit to your clemency my pretensions and my merits." (26)
When this respectful epistle was read by the consul, the senators were unable to disguise their satisfaction that Probus should condescend thus humbly to solicit a sceptre which he already possessed. They celebrated with the warmest gratitude his virtues, his exploits, and above all his moderation. A decree immediately passed, without a dissenting voice to ratify the election of the eastern armies, and to confer on their chief all the several branches of the Imperial dignity; the names of Caesar and Augustus, the title of Father of his country, the right of making in the same day three motions in the senate,(27) the office of Pontifex Maximus, the tribunitian power, and the proconsular command; a mode of investiture which, though it seemed to multiply the authority of the emperor, expressed the constitution of the ancient republic. The reign of Probus corresponded with this fair beginning. The senate was permitted to direct the civil administration of the empire. Their faithful general asserted the honour of the Roman arms, and often laid at their feet crowns of gold and barbaric trophies, the fruits of his numerous victories. (28) Yet, whilst he gratified their vanity, he must secretly have despised their indolence and weakness. Though it was every moment in their power to repeal the disgraceful edict of Gallienus, the proud successors of the Scipios patiently acquiesced in their exclusion from all military employments. They soon experienced that those who refuse the sword must renounce the sceptre.
Victories of Probus over the barbarians.
The strength of Aurelian had crushed on every side the
enemies of Rome. After his death they seemed to revive with
an increase of fury and of numbers. They were again
vanquished by the active vigour of Probus, who, in a short
reign of about six years, (29) equalled the fame of ancient
heroes, and restored peace and order to every province of
the Roman world. The dangerous frontier of Rhaetia he so
firmly secured that he left it without the suspicion of an
enemy. He broke the wandering power of the Sarmatian tribes,
and by the terror of his arms compelled those barbarians to
relinquish their spoil. The Gothic nation courted the
alliance of so warlike an emperor. (30) He attacked the
Isaurians in their mountains, besieged and took several of
their strongest castles, (31) and flattered himself that he
had for ever suppressed a domestic foe whose independence so
deeply wounded the majesty of the empire. The troubles
excited by the usurper Firmus in the Upper Egypt had never
been perfectly appeased, and the cities of Ptolemais and
Coptos, fortified by the alliance of the Blemmyes still
maintained an obscure rebellion. The chastisement of those
cities, and of their auxiliaries the savages of the South,
is said to have alarmed the court of Persia,(32) and the
Great King sued in vain for the friendship of Probus. Most
of the exploits which distinguished his reign were achieved
by the personal valour and conduct of the emperor, insomuch
that the Writer of his Life expresses some amazement how, in
so short a time, a single man could be present in so many
distant wars. The remaining actions he intrusted to the care
of his lieutenants, the judicious choice of whom forms no
inconsiderable part of his glory. Carus, Diocletian,
Maximian, Constantius, Galerius, Asclepiodatus,
Annibalianus, and a crowd of other chiefs, who afterwards
ascended or supported the throne, were trained to arms in
the severe school of Aurelian and Probus. (33)
He delivers Gaul from the invasion of the Germans,
But the most important service which Probus rendered to the
republic was the deliverance of Gaul, and the recovery of
seventy flourishing cities oppressed by the barbarians of
Germany who, since the death of Aurelian, had ravaged that
great province with impunity. (34) Among the various multitude
of those fierce invaders, we may distinguish, with some
degree of clearness, three great armies, or rather nations,
successively vanquished by the valour of Probus. He drove
back the Franks into their morasses; a descriptive
circumstance from whence we may infer that the confederacy
known by the manly appellation of Free already occupied the
flat maritime country, intersected and almost overflown by
the stagnating waters of the Rhine, and that several tribes
of the Frisians and Batavians had acceded to their alliance.
He vanquished the Burgundians, a considerable people of the
Vandalic race. They had wandered in quest of booty from the
banks of the Oder to those of the Seine. They esteemed
themselves sufficiently fortunate to purchase, by the
restitution of all their booty, the permission of an
undisturbed retreat. They attempted to elude that article of
the treaty. Their punishment was immediate and terrible. (35)
But of all the invaders of Gaul, the most formidable were
the Lygians, a distant people who reigned over a wide domain
on the frontiers of Poland and Silesia. (36) In the Lygian
nation the Arii held the first rank by their numbers and
fierceness.
"The Arii" (it is thus that they are described by the energy of Tacitus) "study to improve by art and circumstances the innate terrors of their barbarism. Their shields are black, their bodies are painted black. They choose for the combat the darkest hour of the night. Their host advances, covered as it were with a funeral shade; (37) nor do they often find an enemy capable of sustaining so strange and infernal an aspect. Of all our senses, the eyes are the first vanquished in battle." (38)
Yet the arms and discipline of the Romans easily discomfited these horrid phantoms. The Lygii were defeated in a general engagement, and Semno, the most renowned of their chiefs, fell alive into the hands of Probus. That prudent emperor, unwilling to reduce a brave people to despair, granted them an honourable capitulation, and permitted them to return in safety to their native country. But the losses which they suffered in the march, the battle, and the retreat, broke the power of the nation: nor is the Lygian name ever repeated in the history either of Germany or of the empire. The deliverance of Gaul is reported to have cost the lives of four hundred thousand of the invaders; a work of labour to the Romans, and of expense to the emperor, who gave a piece of gold for the head of every barbarian. (39) But as the fame of warriors is built on the destruction of human kind, we may naturally suspect that the sanguinary account was multiplied by the avarice of the soldiers, and accepted without any very severe examination by the liberal vanity of Probus.
and carries his arms into Germany.
Since the expedition of Maximin, the Roman generals had
confined their ambition to a defensive war against the
nations of Germany, who perpetually pressed on the frontiers
of the empire. The more daring Probus pursued his Gallic
victories, passed the Rhine, and displayed his invincible
eagles on the banks of the Elbe and the Neckar. He was fully
convinced that nothing could reconcile the minds of the
barbarians to peace, unless they experienced in their own
country the calamities of war. Germany, exhausted by the
ill-success of the last emigration, was astonished by his
presence. Nine of the most considerable princes repaired to
his camp, and fell prostrate at his feet. Such a treaty was
humbly received by the Germans as it pleased the conqueror
to dictate. He exacted a strict restitution of the effects
and captives which they had carried away from the provinces;
and obliged their own magistrates to punish the more
obstinate robbers who presumed to detain any part of the
spoil. A considerable tribute of corn, cattle, and horses,
the only wealth of barbarians, was reserved for the use of
the garrisons which Probus established on the limits of
their territory. He even entertained some thoughts of
compelling the Germans to relinquish the exercise of arms,
and to trust their differences to the justice, their safety
to the power, of Rome. To accomplish these salutary ends,
the constant residence of an Imperial governor, supported by
a numerous army, was indispensably requisite. Probus
therefore judged it more expedient to defer the execution of
so great a design; which was indeed rather of specious than
solid utility. (40) Had Germany been reduced into the state of
a province, the Romans, with immense labour and expense,
would have acquired only a more extensive boundary to defend
against the fiercer and more active barbarians of Scythia.
He builds a wall from the Rhine to the Danube.
Instead of reducing the warlike natives of Germany to the
condition of subjects, Probus contented himself with the
humble expedient of raising a bulwark against their inroads.
The country which now forms the circle of Swabia had been
left desert in the age of Augustus by the emigration of its
ancient inhabitants. (41) The fertility of the soil soon
attracted a new colony from the adjacent provinces of Gaul.
Crowds of adventurers, of a roving temper and of desperate
fortunes, occupied the doubtful possession, and
acknowledged, by the payment of tithes, the majesty of the
empire. (42) To protect these new subjects, a line of frontier
garrisons was gradually extended from the Rhine to the
Danube. About the reign of Hadrian, when that mode of
defence began to be practised, these garrisons were
connected and covered by a strong entrenchment of trees and
palisades. In the place of so rude a bulwark, the emperor
Probus constructed a stone wall of a considerable height and
strengthened it by towers at convenient distances. From the
neighbourhood of Neustadt and Ratisbon on the Danube, it
stretched across hills, valleys, rivers, and morasses, as
far as Wimpfen on the Neckar, and at length terminated on
the banks of the Rhine, after a winding course of near two
hundred miles. (43) This important barrier, uniting the two
mighty streams that protected the provinces of Europe,
seemed to fill up the vacant space through which the
barbarians, and particularly the Alemanni, could penetrate
with the greatest facility into the heart of the empire. But
the experience of the world, from China to Britain, has
exposed the vain attempt of fortifying any extensive tract
of country. (44) An active enemy, who can select and vary his
points of attacks, must in the end discover some feeble
spot, or some unguarded moment. The strength, as well as the
attention, of the defenders is divided; and such are the
blind effects of terror on the firmest troops that a line
broken in a single place is almost instantly deserted. The
fate of the wall which Probus erected may confirm the
general observation. Within a few years after his death it
was overthrown by the Alemanni. Its scattered ruins,
universally ascribed to the power of the Daemon, now serve
only to excite the wonder of the Swabian peasant.
Introduction and settlement of the barbarians.
Among the useful conditions of peace imposed by Probus on
the vanquished nations of Germany was the obligation of
supplying the Roman army with sixteen thousand recruits, the
bravest and most robust of their youth. The emperor
dispersed them through all the provinces, and distributed
this dangerous reinforcement, in small bands of fifty or
sixty each, among the national troops; judiciously observing
that the aid which the republic derived from the barbarians
should be felt but not seen. (45) Their aid was now become
necessary. The feeble elegance of Italy and the internal
provinces could no longer support the weight of arms. The
hardy frontier of the Rhine and Danube still produced minds
and bodies equal to the labours of the camp; but a perpetual
series of wars had gradually diminished their numbers. The
infrequency of marriage, and the ruin of agriculture,
affected the principles of population, and not only
destroyed the strength of the present, but intercepted the
hope of future generations. The wisdom of Probus embraced a
great and beneficial plan of replenishing the exhausted
frontiers by new colonies of captive or fugitive barbarians,
on whom he bestowed lands, cattles instruments of husbandry,
and every encouragement that might engage them to educate a
race of soldiers for the service of the republic. Into
Britain, and most probably into Cambridgeshire, (46) he
transported a considerable body of Vandals. The
impossibility of an escape reconciled them to their
situation, and in the subsequent troubles of that island
they approved themselves the most faithful servants of the
state. (47) Great numbers of Franks and Gepidae were settled
on the banks of the Danube and the Rhine. An hundred
thousand Bastarnae, expelled from their own country,
cheerfully accepted an establishment in Thrace, and soon
imbibed the manners and sentiments of Roman subjects. (48) But
the expectations of Probus were too often disappointed. The
impatience and idleness of the barbarians could ill-brook
the slow labours of agriculture. Their unconquerable love of
freedom, rising against despotism, provoked them into hasty
rebellions, alike fatal to themselves and to the provinces.
(49) Nor could these artificial supplies, however repeated by
succeeding emperors, restore the important limit of Gaul and
Illyricum to its ancient and native vigour.
Daring enterprise of the Franks.
Of all the barbarians who abandoned their new settlements,
and disturbed the public tranquillity, a very small number
returned to their own country. For a short season they might
wander in arms through the empire, but in the end they were
surely destroyed by the power of warlike emperor. The
successful rashness of a party of Franks was attended,
however, with such memorable consequences that it ought not
be passed unnoticed. They had been established by Probus on
the seacoast of Pontus, with a view of strengthening the
frontier against the inroads of the Alani. A fleet stationed
in one of the harbours of the Euxine fell into the hands of
the Franks; and they resolved, through unknown seas, to
explore their way from the mouth of the Phasis to that of
the Rhine. They easily escaped through the Bosphorus and the
Hellespont, and, cruising along the Mediterranean, indulged
their appetite for revenge and plunder by frequent descents
on the unsuspecting shores of Asia, Greece, and Africa. The
opulent city of Syracuse, in whose port the navies of Athens
and Carthage had formerly been sunk, was sacked by a handful
of barbarians, who massacred the greatest part of the
trembling inhabitants. From the island of Sicily the Franks
proceeded to the Columns of Hercules, trusted themselves to
the ocean, coasted round Spain and Gaul, and, steering their
triumphant course through the British Channel, at length
finished their surprising voyage by landing in safety on the
Batavian or Frisian shores. (50) The example of their success,
instructing their countrymen to conceive the advantages and
to despise the dangers of the sea, pointed out to their
enterprising spirit a new road to wealth and glory.
Revolt of Saturninus in the East;
Notwithstanding the vigilance and activity of Probus, it was
almost impossible that he could at once contain in obedience
every part of his wide-extended dominions. The barbarians
who broke their chains had seized the favourable opportunity
of a domestic war. When the emperor marched to the relief of
Gaul, he devolved the command of the East on Saturninus.
That general, a man of merit and experience, was driven into
rebellion by the absence of his sovereign, the levity of the
Alexandrian people, the pressing instances of his friends
and his own fears; but from the moment of his elevation he
never entertained a hope of empire or even of life.
"Alas!" he said, "the republic has lost a useful servant, and the rashness of an hour has destroyed the services of many years. You know not," continued he, "the misery of sovereign power: a sword is perpetually suspended over our head. We dread our very guards, we distrust our companions. The choice of action or of repose is no longer in our disposition, nor is there any age, or character, or conduct, that can protect us from the censure of envy. In thus exalting me to the throne, you have doomed me to a life of cares, and to an untimely fate. The only consolation which remains is the assurance that I shall not fall alone." (51)
But as the former part of his prediction was verified by the victory, so the latter was disappointed by the clemency, of Probus. That amiable prince attempted even to save the unhappy Saturninus from the fury of the soldiers. He had more than once solicited the usurper himself to place some confidence in the mercy of a sovereign who so highly esteemed his character that he had punished as a malicious informer the first who related the improbable news of his defection. (52) Saturninus might perhaps have embraced the generous offer had he not been restrained by the obstinate distrust of his adherents. Their guilt was deeper, and their hopes more sanguine, than those of their experienced leader.
revolt of Bonosus and Proculus in Gaul.
The revolt of Saturninus was scarcely extinguished in the
East before new troubles were excited in the West by the
rebellion of Bonosus and Proculus in Gaul. The most
distinguished merit of those two officers was their
respective prowess, of the one in the combats of Bacchus, of
the other in those of Venus, (53) yet neither of them were
destitute of courage and capacity, and both sustained with
honour the august character which the fear of punishment had
engaged them to assume, till they sunk at length beneath the
superior genius of Probus. He used the victory with his
accustomed moderation, and spared the fortunes as well as
the lives of their innocent families. (54)
Triumph of the emperor Probus.
The arms of Probus had now suppressed all the foreign and
domestic enemies of the state. His mild but steady
administration confirmed the re-establishment of the public
tranquillity; nor was there left in the provinces a hostile
barbarian, a tyrant, or even a robber, to revive the memory
of past disorders. It was time that the emperor should
revisit Rome, and celebrate his own glory and the general
happiness. The triumph due to the valour of Probus was
conducted with a magnificence suitable to his fortune; and
the people, who had so lately admired the trophies of
Aurelian, gazed with equal pleasure on those of his heroic
successor. (55) We cannot on this occasion forget the
desperate courage of about fourscore gladiators, reserved,
with near six hundred others, for the inhuman sports of the
amphitheatre. Disdaining to shed their blood for the
amusement of the populace, they killed their keepers, broke
from the place of their confinement, and filled the streets
of Rome with blood and confusion. After an obstinate
resistance, they were overpowered and cut in pieces by the
regular forces; but they obtained at least an honourable
death, and the satisfaction of a just revenge. (56)
His discipline.
The military discipline which reigned in the camps of Probus
was less cruel than that of Aurelian, but it was equally
rigid and exact. .The latter had punished the irregularities
of the soldiers with unrelenting severity, the former
prevented them by employing the legions in constant and
useful labours. When Probus commanded in Egypt, he executed
many considerable works for the splendour and benefit of
that rich country. The navigation of the Nile, so important
to Rome itself, was improved; and temples, bridges,
porticoes, and palaces, were constructed by the hands of the
soldiers, who acted by turns as architects, as engineers,
and as husbandmen. (57) It was reported of Hannibal that, in
order to preserve his troops from the dangerous temptations
of idleness, he had obliged them to form large plantations
of olive-trees along the coast of Africa. (58) From a similar
principle, Probus exercised his legions in covering with
rich vineyards the hills of Gaul and Pannonia, and two
considerable spots are described which were entirely dug and
planted by military labour. (59) One of these, known under the
name of Mount Alma, was situated near Sirmium, the country
where Probus was born, for which he ever retained a partial
affection, and whose gratitude he endeavoured to secure, by
converting into tillage a large and unhealthy tract of
marshy ground. An army thus employed constituted perhaps the
most useful as well as the bravest portion of Roman
subjects.
His death.
But, in the prosecution of a favourite scheme, the best of
men, satisfied with the rectitude of their intentions, are
subject to forget the bounds of moderation, nor did Probus
himself sufficiently consult the patience and disposition of
his fierce legionaries. (60) The dangers of the military
profession seem only to be compensated by a life of pleasure
and idleness; but if the duties of the soldier are
incessantly aggravated by the labours of the peasant, he
will at last sink under the intolerable burden or shake it
off with indignation. The imprudence of Probus is said to
have inflamed the discontent of his troops. More attentive
to the interests of mankind than to those of the army, he
expressed the vain hope that, by the establishment of
universal peace, he should soon abolish the necessity of a
standing and mercenary force. (61) The unguarded expression
proved fatal to him. In one of the hottest days of summer,
as he severely urged the unwholesome labour of draining the
marshes of Sirmium, the soldiers, impatient of fatigue, on a
sudden threw down their tools, grasped their arms, and broke
out into a furious mutiny. The emperor, conscious of his
danger, took refuge in a lofty tower constructed for the
purpose of surveying the progress of the work. (62) The tower
was instantly forced, and a thousand swords were plunged at
once into the bosom of the unfortunate Probus. The rage of
the troops subsided as soon as it had been gratified. They
then lamented their fatal rashness, forgot the severity of
the emperor whom they had massacred, and hastened to
perpetuate, by an honourable monument, the memory of his
virtues and victories. (63)
Election and character of Carus.
When the legions had indulged their grief and repentance for
the death of Probus, their unanimous consent declared Carus,
his Praetorian praefect, the most deserving of the Imperial
throne. Every circumstance that relates to this prince
appears of a mixed and doubtful nature. He gloried in the
title of Roman Citizen; and affected to compare the purity
of his blood with the foreign and even barbarous, origin of
the preceding emperors; yet the most inquisitive of his
contemporaries, very far from admitting his claim, have
variously deduced his own birth, or that of his parents,
from Illyricum, from Gaul, or from Africa. (64) Though a
soldier, he had received a learned education; though a
senator, he was invested with the first dignity of the army;
and in an age when the civil and military professions began
to be irrecoverably separated from each other, they were
united in the person of Carus. Notwithstanding the severe
justice which he exercised against the assassins of Probus,
to whose favour and esteem he was highly indebted, he could
not escape the suspicion of being accessory to a deed from
whence he derived the principal advantage. He enjoyed, at
least before his elevation, an acknowledged character of
virtue and abilities; (65) but his austere temper insensibly
degenerated into moroseness and cruelty; and the imperfect
writers of his life almost hesitate whether they shall not
rank him in the number of Roman tyrants. (66) When Carus
assumed the purple he was about sixty years of age, and his
two sons, Carinus and Numerian, had already attained the
season of manhood. (67)
The sentiments of the senate and people.
The authority of the senate expired with Probus; nor was the
repentance of the soldiers displayed by the same dutiful
regard for the civil power which they had testified after
the unfortunate death of Aurelian. The election of Carus was
decided without expecting the approbation of the senate, and
the new emperor contented himself with announcing, in a cold
and stately epistle, that he had ascended the vacant throne.
(68) A behaviour so very opposite to that of his amiable
predecessor afforded no favourable presage of the new reign:
and the Romans, deprived of power and freedom, asserted
their privilege of licentious murmurs. (69) The voice of
congratulation and flattery was not however silent; and we
may still peruse, with pleasure and contempt, an eclogue
which was composed on the accession of the emperor Carus.
Two shepherds, avoiding the noontide heat, retire into the
cave of Faunus. On a spreading beech they discover some
recent characters. The rural deity had described, in
prophetic verses, the felicity promised to the empire under
the reign of so great a prince. Faunus hails the approach of
that hero, who, receiving on his shoulders the sinking
weight of the Roman world, shall extinguish war and faction,
and once again restore the innocence and security of the
golden age. (70)
Carus defeats the Sarmatians, and marches into the East;.
It is more than probable that these elegant trifles never
reached the ears of a veteran general who, with the consent
of the legions, was preparing to execute the long suspended
design of the Persian war. Before his departure for this
distant expedition, Carus conferred on his two sons, Carinus
and Numerian, the title of Caesar, and, investing the former
with almost an equal share of the Imperial power, directed
the young prince first to suppress some troubles which had
arisen in Gaul, and afterwards to fix the seat of his
residence at Rome, and to assume the government of the
Western provinces. (71) The safety of Illyricum was confirmed
by a memorable defeat of the Sarmatians; sixteen thousand of
those barbarians remained on the field of battle, and the
number of captives amounted to twenty thousand. The old
emperor, animated with the fame and prospect of victory,
pursued his march, in the midst of winter, through the
countries of Thrace and Asia Minor, and at length, with his
younger son Numerian, arrived on the confines of the Persian
monarchy. There, encamping on the summit of a lofty
mountain, he pointed out to his troops the opulence and
luxury of the enemy whom they were about to invade.
He gives audience to the Pesian ambassadors.
The successor of Artaxerxes, Varanes, or Bahram, though he
had subdued the Segestans, one of the most warlike nations
of Upper Asia,(72) was alarmed at the approach of the Romans,
and endeavoured to retard their progress by a negotiation of
peace. His ambassadors entered the camp about sunset, at the
time when the troops were satisfying their hunger with a
frugal repast. The Persians expressed their desire of being
introduced to the presence of the Roman emperor. They were
at length conducted to a soldier who was seated on the
grass. A piece of stale bacon and a few hard peas composed
his supper. A coarse woollen garment of purple was the only
circumstance that announced his dignity. The conference was
conducted with the same disregard of courtly elegance.
Carus, taking off a cap which he wore to conceal his
baldness, assured the ambassadors that, unless their master
acknowledged the superiority of Rome, he would speedily
render Persia as naked of trees as his own head was
destitute of hair. (73) Notwithstanding some traces of art and
preparation, we may discover in this scene the manners of
Carus, and the severe simplicity which the martial princes
who succeeded Gallienus had already restored in the Roman
camps. The ministers of the Great King trembled and retired.
His victories and extraordinary death.
The threats of Carus were not without effect. He ravaged
Mesopotamia, cut in pieces whatever opposed his passage,
made himself master of the great cities of Seleucia and
Ctesiphon (which seem to have surrendered without
resistance), and carried his victorious arms beyond the
Tigris. (74) He had seized the favourable moment for an
invasion. The Persian councils were distracted by domestic
factions, and the greater part of their forces were detained
on the frontiers of India. Rome and the East received with
transport the news of such important advantages. Flattery
and hope painted in the most lively colours the fall of
Persia, the conquest of Arabia, the submission of Egypt, and
a lasting deliverance from the inroads of the Scythian
nations. (75) But the reign of Carus was destined to expose
the vanity of predictions. They were scarcely uttered before
they were contradicted by his death; an event attended with
such ambiguous circumstances that it may be related in a
letter from his own secretary to the praefect of the city.
"Carus," says he, "our dearest emperor, was confined by sickness to his bed, when a furious tempest arose in the camp. The darkness which overspread the sky was so thick that we could no longer distinguish each other; and the incessant flashes of lightning took from us the knowledge of all that passed in the general confusion. Immediately after the most violent clap of thunder we heard a sudden cry that the emperor was dead; and it soon appeared that his chamberlains, in a rage of grief, had set fire to the royal pavilion, a circumstance which gave rise to the report that Carus was killed by lightning. But, as far as we have been able to investigate the truth, his death was the natural effect of his disorder." (76)
He is succeeded by his two sons Carinus and Numerian.
The vacancy of the throne was not productive of any
disturbance. The ambition of the aspiring generals was
checked by their mutual fears; and young Numerian, with his
absent brother Carinus, were unanimously acknowledged as
Roman emperors. The public expected that the successor of
Carus would pursue his father's footsteps, and, without
allowing the Persians to recover from their consternation,
would advance sword in hand to the palaces of Susa and
Ecbatana. (77) But the legions, however strong in numbers and
discipline, were dismayed by the most abject superstition.
Notwithstanding all the arts that were practised to disguise
the manner of the late emperor's death, it was found
impossible to remove the opinion of the multitude, and the
power of opinion is irresistible. Places or persons struck
with lightning were considered by the ancients with pious
horror, as singularly devoted to the wrath of Heaven. (78) An
oracle was remembered which marked the river Tigris as the
fatal boundary of the Roman arms. The troops, terrified with
the fate of Carus and with their own danger, called aloud on
young Numerian to obey the will of the gods, and to lead
them away from this inauspicious scene of war. The feeble
emperor was unable to subdue their obstinate prejudice, and
the Persians wondered at the unexpected retreat of a
victorious enemy. (79)
Vices of Carinus.
The intelligence of the mysterious fate of the late emperor
was soon carried from the frontiers of Persia to Rome; and
the senate, as well as the provinces, congratulated the
accession of the sons of Carus. These fortunate youths were
strangers, however, to that conscious superiority, either of
birth or of merit, which can alone render the possession of
a throne easy, and as it were natural. Born and educated in
a private station, the election of their father raised them
at once to the rank of princes; and his death, which
happened about sixteen months afterwards, left them the
unexpected legacy of a vast empire. To sustain with temper
this rapid elevation, an uncommon share of virtue and
prudence was requisite; and Carinus, the elder of the
brothers, was more than commonly deficient in those
qualities. In the Gallic war he discovered some degree of
personal courage;(80) but from the moment of his arrival at
Rome he abandoned himself to the luxury of the capital, and
to the abuse of his fortune. He was soft, yet cruel; devoted
to pleasure, but destitute of taste; and, though exquisitely
susceptible of vanity, indifferent to the public esteem. In
the course of a few months he successively married and
divorced nine wives, most of whom he left pregnant; and,
notwithstanding this legal inconstancy, found time to
indulge such a variety of irregular appetites as brought
dishonour on himself and on the noblest houses of Rome. He
beheld with inveterate hatred all those who might remember
his former obscurity, or censure his present conduct. He
banished or put to death the friends and counsellors whom
his father had placed about him to guide his inexperienced
youth; and he persecuted with the meanest revenge his
schoolfellows and companions who had not sufficiently
respected the latent majesty of the emperor. With the
senators Carinus affected a lofty and regal demeanour,
frequently declaring that he designed to distribute their
estates among the populace of Rome. From the dregs of that
populace he selected his favourites, and even his ministers.
The palace, and even the Imperial table, was filled with
singers, dancers, prostitutes, and all the various retinue
of vice and folly. One of his doorkeepers(81) he intrusted
with the government of the city. In the room of the
Praetorian praefect, whom he put to death, Carinus
substituted one of the ministers of his looser pleasures.
Another, who possessed the same or even a more infamous
title to favour, was invested with the consulship. A
confidential secretary, who had acquired uncommon skill in
the art of forgery, delivered the indolent emperor, with his
own consent, from the irksome duty of signing his name.
When the emperor Carus undertook the Persian war, he was induced, by motives of affection as well as policy, to secure the fortunes of his family by leaving in the hands of his eldest son the armies and provinces of the West. The intelligence which he soon received of the conduct of Carinus filled him with shame and regret; nor had he concealed his resolution of satisfying the republic by a severe act of justice, and of adopting, in the place of an unworthy son, the brave and virtuous Constantius, who at that time was governor of Dalmatia. But the elevation of Constantius was for a while deferred; and as soon as the father's death had released Carinus from the control of fear or decency, he displayed to the Romans the extravagancies of Elagabalus, aggravated by the cruelty of Domitian. (82)
He celebrates the Roman games.
The only merit of the administration of Carinus that history
could record, or poetry celebrate, was the uncommon
splendour with which, in his own and his brother's name, he
exhibited the Roman games of the theatre, the circus, and
the amphitheatre. More than twenty years afterwards, when
the courtiers of Diocletian represented to their frugal
sovereign the name and popularity of his munificent
predecessor, he acknowledged that the reign of Carinus had
indeed been a reign of pleasure. (83) But this vain
prodigality, which the prudence of Diocletian might justly
despise, was enjoyed with surprise and transport by the
Roman people. The oldest of the citizens, recollecting the
spectacles of former days, the triumphal pomp of Probus or
Aurelian, and the secular games of the emperor Philip,
acknowledged that they were all surpassed by the superior
magnificence of Carinus. (84)
Spectacles of Rome.
The spectacles of Carinus may therefore be best illustrated
by the observation of some particulars which history has
condescended to relate concerning those of his predecessors.
If we confine ourselves solely to the hunting of wild
beasts, however we may censure the vanity of the design or
the cruelty of the execution, we are obliged to confess that
neither before nor since the time of the Romans so much art
and expense have ever been lavished for the amusement of the
people. (85) By the order of Probus, a great quantity of large
trees, torn up by the roots, were transplanted into the
midst of the circus. The spacious and shady forest was
immediately filled with a thousand ostriches, a thousand
stags, a thousand fallow-deer, and a thousand wild boars;
and all this variety of game was abandoned to the riotous
impetuosity of the multitude. The tragedy of the succeeding
day consisted in the massacre of an hundred lions, an equal
number of lionesses, two hundred leopards, and three hundred
bears. (86) The collection prepared by the younger Gordian for
his triumph, and which his successor exhibited in the
secular games, was less remarkable by the number than by the
singularity of the animals. Twenty zebras displayed their
elegant forms and variegated beauty to the eyes of the Roman
people. (87) Ten elks, and as many camelopards, the loftiest
and most harmless creatures that wander over the plain of
Sarmatia and Ethiopia, were contrasted with thirty African
hyenas and ten Indian tigers, the most implacable savages of
the torrid zone. The unoffending strength with which Nature
has endowed the greater quadrupeds was admired in the
rhinoceros, the hippopotamus of the Nile,(88) and a majestic
troop of twenty-two elephants. (89) While the populace gazed
with stupid wonder on the splendid show, the naturalist
might indeed observe the figure and properties of so many
different species, transported from every part of the
ancient world into the amphitheatre of Rome. But this
accidental benefit which science might derive from folly is
surely insufficient to justify such a wanton abuse of the
public riches. There occurs, however, a single instance in
the first Punic war in which the senate wisely connected
this amusement of the multitude with the interest of the
state. A considerable number of elephants, taken in the
defeat of the Carthaginian army, were driven through the
circus by a few slaves, armed only with blunt javelins. (90)
The useful spectacle served to impress the Roman soldier
with a just contempt for those unwieldy animals; and he no
longer dreaded to encounter them in the ranks of war.
The amphitheatre.
The hunting or exhibition of wild beasts was conducted with
a magnificence suitable to a people who styled themselves
the masters of the world; nor was the edifice appropriated
to that entertainment less expensive of Roman greatness.
Posterity admires, and will long admire, the awful remains
of the amphitheatre of Titus who so well deserved the
epithet of Colossal. (91) It was a building of an elliptic
figure, five hundred and sixty-four feet in length, and four
hundred and sixty-seven in breadth, founded on fourscore
arches, and rising, with four successive orders of
architecture, to the height of one hundred and forty feet.
(92) The outside 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. (93) Sixty-four vomitories
(for by that name the doors were very aptly distinguished)
poured forth the immense multitude; and the entrances,
passages, 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. (94) Nothing was omitted
which, in any respect, could be subservient to the
convenience and pleasure of the spectators. They were
protected 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
broken 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. (95)
In the decoration of these scenes the Roman emperors
displayed their wealth and liberality; and we read on
various occasions that the whole furniture of the
amphitheatre consisted either of silver, or of gold, or of
amber. (96) The poet who describes the games of Carinus, in
the character of a shepherd attracted to the capital by the
fame of their magnificence, affirms that the nets designed
as a defence against the wild beasts were of gold wire; that
the porticoes were gilded; and that the belt or circle which
divided the several ranks of spectators from each other was
studded with a precious mosaic of beautiful stones. (97)
In the midst of this glittering pageantry, the emperor Carinus, secure of his fortune, enjoyed the acclamations of the people, the flattery of his courtiers, and the songs of the poets, who, for want of a more essential merit, were reduced to celebrate the divine graces of his person. (98) In the same hour, but at the distance of nine hundred miles from Rome, his brother expired; and a sudden revolution transferred into the hands of a stranger the sceptre of the house of Carus. (99)
Return of Numerian with the army from Persia.
The sons of Carus never saw each other after their father's
death. The arrangements which their new situation required
were probably deferred till the return of the younger
brother to Rome, where a triumph was decreed to the young
emperors for the glorious success of the Persian war. (100) It
is uncertain whether they intended to divide between them
the administration or the provinces of the empire; but it is
very unlikely that their union would have proved of any long
duration. The jealousy of power must have been inflamed by
the opposition of characters. In the most corrupt of times
Carinus was unworthy to live: Numerian deserved to reign in
a happier period. His affable manners and gentle virtues
secured him, as soon as they became known, the regard and
affections of the public. He possessed the elegant
accomplishments of a poet and orator, which dignify as well
as adorn the humblest and the most exalted station. His
eloquence, however it was applauded by the senate, was
formed not so much on the model of Cicero as on that of the
modern declaimers; but in an age very far from being
destitute of poetical merit, he contended for the prize with
the most celebrated of his contemporaries, and still
remained the friend of his rivals; a circumstance which
evinces either the goodness of his heart, or the superiority
of his genius. (101) But the talents of Numerian were rather
of the contemplative than of the active kind. When his
father's elevation reluctantly forced him from the shade of
retirement, neither his temper nor his pursuits had
qualified him for the command of armies. His constitution
was destroyed by the hardships of the Persian war; and he
had contracted, from the heat of the climate,(102) such a
weakness in his eyes, as obliged him, in the course of a
long retreat, to confine himself to the solitude and
darkness of a tent or litter. The administration of all
affairs, civil as well as military, was devolved on Arrius
Aper, the Praetorian praefect, who, to the power of his
important office, added the honour of being father-in-law to
Numerian. The Imperial pavilion was strictly guarded by his
most trusty adherents; and during many days Aper delivered
to the army the supposed mandates of their invisible
sovereign. (103)
Death of Numerian.
It was not till eight months after the death of Carus that
the Roman army, returning by slow marches from the banks of
the Tigris, arrived on those of the Thracian Bosphorus. The
legions halted at Chalcedon in Asia, while the court passed
over to Heraclea, on the European side of the Propontis. (104)
But a report soon circulated through the camp, at first in
secret whispers, and at length in loud clamours, of the
emperor's death, and of the presumption of his ambitious
minister, who still exercised the sovereign power in the
name of a prince who was no more. The impatience of the
soldiers could not long support a state of suspense. With
rude curiosity they broke into the imperial tent, and
discovered only the corpse of Numerian. (105) The gradual
decline of his health might have induced them to believe
that his death was natural; but the concealment was
interpreted as an evidence of guilt, and the measures which
Aper had taken to secure his election became the immediate
occasion of his ruin. Yet, even in the transport of their
rage and grief, the troops observed a regular proceeding,
which proves how firmly discipline had been re-established
by the martial successors of Gallienus. A general assembly
of the army was appointed to be held at Chalcedon, whither
Aper was transported in chains, as a prisoner and a
criminal. A vacant tribunal was erected in the midst of the
camp, and the generals and tribunes formed a great military
Council. Election of the Emperor Diocletian, A.D. 284, Sept 17 They soon announced to the multitude that their
choice had fallen on Diocletian, commander of the domestics
or bodyguards, as the person the most capable of revenging
and succeeding their beloved emperor. The future fortunes of
the candidate depended on the chance or conduct of the
present hour. Conscious that the station which he had filled
exposed him to some suspicions, Diocletian ascended the
tribunal, and, raising his eyes towards the Sun, made a
solemn profession of his own innocence, in the presence of
that all seeing Deity. (106) Then, assuming the tone of a sovereign and a judge, he commanded that Aper; should be brought in chains to the foot of the tribunal.
"This man," said he, "is the murderer of Numerian;"
and without giving him time to enter on a dangerous justification, drew his sword, and buried it in the breast of the unfortunate praefect. A charge supported by such decisive proof was admitted without contradiction, and the legions, with repeated acclamations, acknowledged the justice and authority of the emperor Diocletian." (107)
Defeat and death of Carinus.
Before we enter upon the memorable reign of that prince, it
will be proper to punish and dismiss the unworthy brother of
Numerian. Carinus possessed arms and treasures sufficient to
support his legal title to the empire. But his personal
vices overbalanced every advantage of birth and situation.
The most faithful servants of the father despised the
incapacity, and dreaded the cruel arrogance of the son. The
hearts of the people were engaged in favour of his rival,
and even the senate was inclined to prefer an usurper to a
tyrant. The arts of Diocletian inflamed the general
discontent; and the winter was employed in secret intrigues
and open preparations for a civil war. In the spring the
forces of the East and of the West encountered each other in
the plains of Margus, a small city of Maesia, in the
neighbourhood of the Danube. (108) The troops, so lately
returned from the Persian war, had acquired their glory at
the expense of health and numbers, nor were they in a
condition to contend with the unexhausted strength of the
legions of Europe. Their ranks were broken, and, for a
moment, Diocletian despaired of the purple and of life. But
the advantage which Carinus had obtained by the valour of
his soldiers he quickly lost by the infidelity of his
officers. A tribune, whose wife he had seduced, seized the
opportunity of revenge, and by a single blow extinguished
civil discord in the blood of the adulterer. (109)