and had much loved He was much pleased with the Verse of Horace He read very much also the Life of Alexander the Great whom he endeavoured to imitate but in whom he condemned his Drinking and his Cruelty towards his Friends if yet those Imputations upon him are true because there are good Authors that do defend him as to the one and the other to whom this Prince gave a great Credit After Reading he moderately employed himself in Exercises of the Body as Wrestling Tennis His bodily Exercises Running or Fencing Then he was anointed and afterwards put himself into the Bath which was seldom or never a Bath of warm Water but of the natural Waters of cold Baths where he continued about an hour Fasting he drank about a Pint and a half of cold Spring-Water Then when he had done with the Bath he took a Breakfast upon Bread and Milk and Eggs and Wine After this when the hour of Dinner was come he dined Sometimes he deferred to eat till Supper but for the most part he dined And he was often served with the Oglio which was the great Dish of Hadrian and which Marius Maximus hath mentioned in his account of the Life of that Prince In the Afternoon he bestowed himself constantly to the reading and signing of Letters and Orders to one part or other in which he was attended by his Secretaries and the Masters of the Requests whom if they could not conveniently stand by reason of their indisposition he permitted to sit down whilst the Clerks read over to him the things that they had writ to which he added with his own hand what he thought convenient and changed some Terms for others that he thought were more elegant and more just After these were dispatched he admitted the Company of all his Friends together and spoke to them all but he saw none of them ever alone but his Captain of the Guards and particularly Ulpian whom he had always had near him to give him Light in the knowledge that he professed of the things that concern Law and Justice If he admitted any other privately to him yet it was by the introduction of Ulpian Virgil he said was the Plato of the Poets He had the Images of him and Cicero in his second or lesser Oratory together with that of Achilles and others of other great Men. But for that of Alexander the Great he had consecrated him amongst the Gods of his chief Oratory and the best Persons whom he more especially honoured there He never did an Injury to any of his Friends nor to any of the Officers of State or Servants of his Houshold He always deferred the Judgment of particular Affairs to the Captains of the Guards And a Captain of the Guards he said who hath done any thing to deserve to lose his place ought rather to be secured and arraigned than to be dismissed If at any time he discharged an Officer he ordered it to be accompanied with a Complement That the State thanked him for his Service At the same time he failed not to gratify him in that manner that he might live afterwards a private Life with Credit He furnished him with Grounds Oxen Horses Corn Iron Materials to build himself a House and Marble to adorn it and Labourers to assist him Silver or Gold he seldom gave to any unless it was to the Soldiers saying It would be a Crime in him who was the publick Steward of the People to employ that in superfluities or upon the Pleasures of himself or others which the Provinces had contributed to serve the Necessities of the State He remitted the City of Rome the Duties His Kindness to the City of Rome which upon certain accounts they were to pay into the Exchequer and particularly the Duty which they were to pay to him according to Custom upon the occasion of his elevation to the Empire He constituted fourteen Curators to the several Quarters of the City out of the Persons of the Consular Order whom together with the Governour of the City he ordered to take the Cognizance of the Civil Causes in such sort that all of them or the greater part should be present when any thing was to be done He distributed all the Vintners Victuallers Regraters Hosiers and generally the Persons of all Crafts into Companies and Corporations to whom he appointed Governours and Officers to judge in the Dispatches that might arise amongst them in the Matter of their several Crafts and Professions He never gave to the Players those Gratuities which other Emperors have done He made a difficulty to pay them their Salaries and he took away from them the rich Cloaths which had been given them by Heliogabalus His band of Archers or Pensioners who were a Guard used for Pomp and Shew more than for Service he cloathed not with rich but yet proper and convenient Habits without superfluity nor were his Standards or other Royal Habiliments rich saying It was not for a Prince to seek his esteem in fine Cloaths but to recommend his Reign by Actions of Virtue and Bravery As for himself he wore the coarse shagged Coats of the Emperor Septimius Severus and Wastcoats all plain with no other embroidery of Gold at them and only a single Border of purple In his publick Entertainments he knew not Moderation of his public Entertainments what it was to be served in Vessels of Gold His Cups were ordinary but always very neat All the Silver-service of his Table never exceeded the quantity of two hundred Pound in weight The Dwarfs of either Sex the Jesters the Singers the Actors the Mimicks that had before retained to the Court he gave away amongst the People And for such of them as were of no use he ordered them to be sent to places where they were maintained at the publick Expence because they should not be troublesome in the way of Beggars The Eunuchs whom Heliogabalus had made his great Companions in Lewdness and had promoted them to high Offices he distributed amongst his Ministers with this Order that if for the future they did not return to good Manners it should be lawful for them to put them to death without attending the Authority of the Magistrate Women of a Licentious Life of whom he had heard that the number was prodigious he ordered to be sold and the Burdashes banished with whom that Pest Heliogabalus had taken his infamous and abominable Pleasures Not a Servant in his time at a publick Banquet appeared in a Coat embroidered with Gold To his private Table he admitted either Ulpian or some other Learned Men whose Conversation he said was not only a Pleasure to him but it was Food to his Mind At other times when he eat alone he had a Book with him upon the Table where he read and generally it was some Greek Book though he read also in the Latin Poets His publick Banquets were performed with the same simplicity as his private Repasts and
of Rome with great Prudence and to the equal satisfaction of the Senate and the People They deferred very much to the Senate made excellent and Wise Laws sat in Person in Judicature and admirably ordered all the Military Affairs Maximus prepared all things for a War against the Parthians and Balbinus prepared himself for another against the Germans designing to leave the young Caesar Gordianus behind them at Rome But the discontented Soldiers in the mean time sought an opportunity to kill them but had not yet found any because they were so well guarded with a Body of Germans Some Differences there were betwixt Maximus Jealousies between the Emperors and Balbinus but they were secret and such as were rather to be guessed than seen Balbinus look'd upon Maximus as an Ignoble Man of no Birth and Maximus spurned at Balbinus again as a weak Man of no Policy This gave an occasion to the Soldiers that had Wit to understand that it was easie to kill two such Princes as could not agree betwixt themselves Whilst therefore a great many both of the Guards and the Courtiers were diverting themselves at the Publick Games abroad and the two Emperors were left alone in the Palace with only some Germans near them they Attacked them The Germans were at a particular part of the Palace waiting upon Balbinus The Storm fell upon Maximus who not finding any means to save himself without the succour of the Germans sent to Balbinus to desire him to send him a Guard Balbinus suspecting a Plot against himself out of an ambition of Maximus to Reign Sole Monarch delayed to send him any so long that whilst they stood in contradiction of one another upon that Subject the Soldiers came upon them both and stript them of their Royal Vestments and drew them by violence out of the Palace and abused them and cut them and were hurrying them through the City into the Camp when perceiving that the Germans advanced to relieve them they killed They are both slain them both and left them dead in the Streets At the same time they took the young Caesar Gordianus with them into the Camp whither they retired and proclaimed him Emperor as he was the only Person left at present to be so Triumphing and Insulting over the Senate and the People The Germans having nothing to do to Fight after their Masters were killed betook themselves to their own Quarter which they had without the City Thus died those two good Emperors in a manner unworthy of their Virtues and Actions for nothing was more Brave than Maximus and nothing more Sweet than Balbinus One may be certain of this from the Nature of the thing it self For when the Election is in their own power why should they make choice of ill Princes They were Men that had been exercised before in several employments of Honour and Power The one had been twice Consul the other the Governour of the City of Rome and both were of an advanced Age when they came to the Empire and were beloved by the Senate and though the People at the first apprehended the Reign of Maximus yet finding him more Gracious than they expected even those had begun to lay aside their Fears and to Love him also Maximus and Balbinus reigned one Year Maximin and his Son reigned two or as some say three Years The House of Balbinus is still to be seen at Rome a large and stately Building possessed by his Family to this day There is a great disagreement amongst the Greek and Latin Historians about the Names of Maximus and Pupienus which are indeed but two Names for the same Person But yet the Greek Historians as Herodotus and Dexippus whom I have followed never using the Name of Pupienus and the Latin Historians scarce ever using the Name of Maximus but what the one says was done by Maximus the other saying it was done by Pupienus and making Pupienus and Balbinus to be Emperors together instead of Maximus and Balbinus To avoid this distraction we are only to confide in the Account of Curius Fortunatianus where he tells us that as both the Names understand the same Person he was called Pupienus as by his own Name and Maximus as by the Name of his Father The Letter of Claudius Julianus the Consul at that time in which he Congratulates the Elevation of him and Balbinus to the Empire is directed to him by the Name of Pupienus which is this To their most Sacred and most Invincible Majesties Pupienus and Balbinus from Claudius Julianus YOur Majesties by the good Appointment of the most Excellent and most Mighty Jupiter and the Immortal Gods and by the Judgment of the Senate and the Consent of all Mankind having received the Empire to be by you protected against the Assaults of the wicked Maximin and to be Governed according to the Laws of the Romans though as yet your Majesties have not sent unto me your Advices yet I could no sooner read the Act of the Senate for that purpose which hath been transmitted to me by my Brother-Consul Celsus Aelianus but I must Congratulate the City of Rome for whose preservation you have been Elected I Congratulate the Senate to whom according to the judgment which they had of your Merits you have restored their Pristine Dignity I Congratulate the Country of Italy whose defence you in a particular manner undertake against the devastation of the Enemy I Congratulate the Provinces which the insatiable Avarice of ill Governours have rent and torn in pieces they are raised to some hopes of safety and do wait their deliverance from you I Congratulate also the Legions themselves and the Auxiliaries who from all Parts of the World have their Eyes upon you to Adore you and promise themselves from you a Reign worthy of the Roman Empire There is therefore no Language so Powerful there is no Eloquence so Happy there is no where that Wit that is so fruitful as to express sufficiently the Felicity of the Publick in you We may judge what Great things we are to expect from you by only the beginnings of your Reigns in which you have re-established the Roman Laws and the course of Justice which was before abolished You have made your selves Examples of Clemency which had been also forgotten and you have secured unto the Subject their Lives Liberties Customs and Properties These are things ti is not easie to recount much less is it to prosecute with that Dignity thâ—â— they deserve For how shall I express the sense of the Duties which we owe to you for your having preserved our Lives to us against the Cut-throats sent by the proud and bloody Maximin every where into the Provinces to revenge himself oâ— the whole Order of the Senate Especially weâ—â— may my Inferiour Parts fall below the Dignity of such a Subject when I cannot describe so much as the peculiar Joy of my own Mind to set those two Persons raised to be the Emperors of
time he resolved to adopt Aurelian to be his Son The Letter of the Emperor Valerian wherein he substituted Aurelian in the place of Ulpius Crinitus was this My dear Aurelian WEre there any Person so agreeable to me as you whom I could substitute to command in the place of Ulpius Crinitus I might put his Virtues in competition with yours upon this occasion But do you undertake the War on the side of Nigeboli that the Sickness of Crinitus may not create us a prejudice I do not ask you to do great things but what you can the Army will be at your Command You will have three hundred Iturean Archers six hundred Armenians one hundred and fifty Arabians two hundred Saracens four hundred Mesopotamians Auxiliaries together with these you have the Third Legion and eight hundred Horse in compleat Armour You will be joyned by Hartomundus Haldegastes Hildemundus and Cariovistus The necessary Provisions for you are laid â—n by the Officers in all our Garrisons You in â—our great Prudence and Knowledge of War will â—ake care to Lodge your Men Winter or Summer â—n places where they shall want nothing and also to find out the Camp of the Enemy and to â—nform yourself exactly of the Strength and Numâ—er of them and to see that no waste be made â—f the Wine Provisions or Arms in which consists the Force and Fortune of any War By the help of God I hope for as much Assistance from â—ou as if Trajan was living the Publick would from him Nor are you inferior to him into whose Place and Trust I have chosen you You may expect that I shall appoint Ulpius Crinitus and you â—o be Consuls the next Year from the 11th of the Kaâ—ends of June in the places of my Son and me Your Charges shall be born out of the publick Treasury For it is the fittest thing in the World to ease the Circumstances of such Persons as you who wholly spend themselves not in seeking your own Advantage but in the Service of the State Hence we see further how great a Man Aurelian then was nor indeed does any one ascend the Empire in his Age but who from his Youth raises himself gradually towards it by the steps of Virtue The Letter concerning the Consulship of Aurelian was this The Emperor Valerian unto Aelius Xifidius the Keeper of the Treasury YOU shall give to Aurelian whom I have made a Consul towards his exhibition of the Games of the Cirque because as great and as deserving a Man as he is in all Respects he is poor three hundred Antoninusses in Gold three thousand little Philips in Silver and fifty thousand Sesterces in Brass ten Vests of fine wrought Stuff twenty Linen Vests of the Egyptian Work two Pair of the Cyprian Table Cloths ten Pieces of African Tapestry ten Barbary Carpets a hundred Hogs and a hundred Sheep You shal make a publick Entertainment for the Senators and the Roman Gentry and offer to the Gods two greater and four lesser Sacrifices I have made some mention before of the Design of Ulpius Crinitus to adopt Aurelian to be his Son I hope it will neither be improper nor tedious to insert for the greater Honour of Aurelian a more particular account of that Matter according as I find 〈…〉 the Ninth Book of the Acts of Acholius whâ— was Master of the Ceremonies to the Emperor Valerian This Ceremony was performed at the City Particular Honor done to him by Valerian of Byzantium where the Emperor Valerian being seated upon a Throne in the Baths and the Troops drawn up by him and the Officers of the Court attending him together with Memmius Fuscus the Consul for the Year Baebius Macer the Captain of the Guards Quintus Acarius the President of the East waiting on the right Hand of him and on the left Amulius Saturninus the General of the Frontiers against the Scythians Murentius the Governour of Egypt Julius Trypho the Commander on the Frontiers of the East Maecius Brundusinus the General of the Provisions of the East Ulpius Crinitus the General of Illyricum and Thrace and Fulvius Boius the General in Rhaetia In this great Appearance the Emperor Valerian expressed himself to Aurelian thus The whole Empire gives you thanks Aurelian for delivering it from the Power of the Goths Through you we abound with Booty we abound in Honour and all things by which the Happiness of the Roman Name is increased I give you therefore for the Noble Actions which you have done four Mural Crowns five other Crowns of those that are for entring the Enemies Works two Naval Crowns and two Civick Crowns ten Javelins four parti-coloured Standards four red ducal Vests two Cloaks such as are worn by the Proconsuls one Consular Robe one triumphal Vest one triumphal Gown a Mantle of State and a Chair of Ivory which last is the Mark of the Dignity of a Consul for so I appoint you to be this day and I shall write to the Senate to send you the Ivory Staff and the Rods which are the other Ensigns of that Dignity Aurelian after his Majesty had thus spoke approached to him and kissed his Hand and returned his Thanks to his Majesty in the Words following I truly may it please your most excellent Majesty have therefore done and suffered all that hath been in my Power and I have taken all the Pains I could to serve the States on purpose that I might oblige it and at the same time discharge a good Conscience the Sense whereof joyned with the Thanks of the State is alone a Reward sufficient for me But your Majesty hath done much more I give your Majesty thanks for your Goodness and I accept the Consulship at your Hands The Gods grant and particularly our assured God the Sun that the Senate may judge as kindly of me Then all the Company complemented the Emperor and next Ulpius Crinitus stood up and said May it please your Majesty As it was antiently a Custom amongst the best of our Fore-fathers to adopt Persons of Worth and Bravery to be their Sons thereby either to continue their decaying Families or to add a new Honour to them by the means of such a worthy Alliance which hath particularly been done often in my Family in the adoption of Ulpius Trajan by Cocceius Nerva the adoption of Hadrian by Trajan the adoption of Antoninus by Hadrian and others since so it is likewise my desire at this time to adopt Aurelian to be my Son He is adopted by Ulpius Crinitâ—s of whom your Majesty in your Wisdom hath so much approved that you have made him my Lieutenant and put him in my absence to command my Army Your Majesty may therefore please to order it to pass into a Law that Aurelian be the Heir of the Name Goods and all the Rights of what kind soever of me Ulpius Crinitus according as your Majesty hath been pleased to make him also a Consul with me The Emperor complemented Crinitus in
place and was â—illing to seem to mitigate what he had said but this was all one For in fine as we have already said Lucius Cejonius Commodus Verus Aelius Caesar for he was called by all these names died and was buried with all the Ceremonies observed at the Funerals of Princes Honour done him at his Funerals the only Royal honour which he ever had being those at his death Hadrian who regretted his death like a good Father was a long time afterwards dubious upon what he should do at last he Adopted Antoninus the Pious as he was called upon whom he imposed this condition that Antoninus should likewise Adopt Marcus and Verus and should Marry his Daughter not to Marcus but to Verus And this was one of the last things he spoke to He had been used to say that a Prince ought to dye sound of mind Then he grew worse and the Complication of his Maladies carried him off He had ordered large Statues to be set up in all parts to the honour of Aelius Verus Caesar in some Cities and Temples Also he admitted his Son whom he had obliged Antoninus to Adopt into the Royal Family as his own Grandson often saying Let the Empire have all that it can of Aelius Verus Verus the Son brought no small Lustre to the Imperial Family especially by his Clemency This is what I have thought fit to observe concerning Aelius Verus Caesar whom I would not omit because I have made it my resolution to write the History of all those who since Julius Caesar the Emperour have been either called Emperours or Caesars or have been Adopted into the Imperial Family and Consecrated the Sons or Kinsmen of Emperours by the name of Caesars In which though there is no necessity that obliges me to it as some think I shall satisfie at least my own Inclinations whatever I do as to others THE Life and Reign OF THE EMPEROR ANTONINUS the Prous Dedicated to the EMPEROR DIOCLESIAN By JULIUS CAPITOLINUS TItus Aurelius Fulvius Bononius Antoninus called the Pious derived his Origin by his Father's side from Nismes in Languedoc His Grandfather by his Father's side His Extraction was Titus Aurelius Fulvius who through several other Honours came to be twice a Consul and to be the Governour of the City of Rome His Father was Aurelius Fulvius who was also a Consul and a Person of great Virtue and Integrity His Mother was Arria Fadilla His Grandmother by his Mother's side Bojonia Procilla His Grandfather by the same side Arrius Antoninus who was twice Consul and a holy virtuous Man who instead of Congratulating compassionated Nerva to see him advanced to that difficult Station of a Prince His Wife's Father was Julius Lupus a Consul His Sister by the same Venter was Julia Fadilla His Wife was Annia Faustina by whom he had two Sons and two Daughter The eldest Daughter married Zamia Syllanus the yonger to Marcus Antoninus Antoninus Pius was born at a Seat near Lavinia in the Campagna di Roma upon the thirteenth of the Calends of October in the Consulships of Domitian and Cornelius Dolabella which was then the twelfth time of the Consulship of Domitian He was brought up at another Seat called Laurium upon the Aurelian way where he afterwards built a Palace which hath some remains of it standing at this day He passed his Infancy hetwixt his two Grandfathers sometimes with the one and sometimes the other and being very dutiful and observant to all his Relations several of them left their Estates to him which made him very Rich. He was handsome as to his Person full of His Personage and Conditions Wit of a sweet and courteous Behaviour a generous Countenance Easie Eloquent and of a polite Literature He was Sober a great lover of the Country and Agriculture Mild Bountiful not coveting other Men's Goods Discreet and all this without Vanity He was every thing which is commendable and may be very justly compared with Numa Pompilius according to the Opinion of most good Men. The Senate conferred upon him Why surnam'd the Pious the Title of the Pious either because he was used to lead by the Hand in their sight his decrepit Father-in-Law to and from the Senate tho' it would be rather an impious thing not to discharge such a Devoir than it is an Argument of great Piety to do it or because it was he who had preserved the lives of those whom Hadrian in his Frenzy had commanded to be murdered or because he decreed such infinite and unexpected Honours to Hadrian his Father after his death or because when Hadrian would have killed himself he hindred him from it with all the care he could or lastly because he was in his Nature a most mild Person and had done nothing that was disoblinging or Cruel in all his life He lent out his Money at the small Interest of four per Cent. to assist the Poor in their Occasions with that Fortune which he had He was a generous Questor splendid and noble when he was a Praetor and Consul in Conjunction with Catilius Severus He lived for the most part in the Country all the time he was a private man but wherever he was he was in great renown So that when Hadrian committed the Affairs of Italy unto the Administration of four Proconsuls he made a choice of him to be one of them to Govern in that part where he had the greatest Estate in which he equally consulted the Honour and the Repose of this great Person He received an Omen of his future Succession to the Empire in the time of this his Administration Omens of his Succession to the Empire For amongst the Acclamations which were made to him as he sat upon the Bench in the Court some cried Auguste Dii te servent The Gods save your Majestâ— Next he was made the Proconsul of Asia where he behaved himself so well that he alone out-did his Grandfather Arrius Antoninus the Equity of whose Government no Person had ever surpassed before In this Proconsulship he received another good Omen of his future Reign The Priests at the City of Tralles in Lydia who according to Custom saluted the Proconsuls upon their arrival there with an Ave Proconsul did not say Ave Proconsul to Antoninus but Ave Imperator Hail O Emperour At the City Ciziqua upon the Propontis a Crown which before stood upon the Head of an Image of a God was translated from thence and found upon a Statue of Antoninus His Statues throughout all the Country of Hetruria were covered with swarms of Bees As he went to Asia he lost his eldest Daughter His Wife they say ' was one that contracted a great many Censures by the too great Liberties which she allowd herself in her Life and Conversation which Antoninus dissembled as much as he could but not without some trouble to support her Credit After his Proconsulship he lived ordinarily at Rome where he was of the
and Civica the Uncle of Verus He went with her himself as far as to Brindisi in Naples and had intended to see her over the Water if the Discourses of some as if he had desired to Challenge to himself the glory of finishing the War and upon that account was for going into Syria had not called him back to Rome He writ to the Proconsul to take care that she was not interrupted by any in her Journey Whilst these things passed Marcus Antoninus Publick Constitutions made a Law which is an extraordinary security to People in cases concerning their Freedom he was the first that contrived it and it is thus he ordered every Roman Citizen who had a Child born to enter the name of the Child before the Treasurers of the Exchequer within thirty days In the Provinces he erected Publick Notaries before whom the same thing should be done upon the Births there as before the Treasurers of the Exchequer at Rome so that when any Person born in any Province hath a Cause in Hand concerning his Freedom he hath no more to do than to bring from that Province a Testificate of his Birth this corroborated the whole Law concerning Freedoms He made other Laws concerning Bankers and Auctions In divers Causes in which himself especially Great Deference to the Senate was concerned he made the Senate the Judge He ordered that Actions having reference to the Freedom or Servitude of Persons Defunct should be brought within five years from their deaths or be excluded for ever No Prince ever deferred more to the Senate than he He delegated to several of them of the degree of Praetors and Consuls the decision of many Affairs only that their command so far in the Law should be a means to possess them with the greater Honour He admitted several of his Relations into the Senate whom he had made Aediles or Praetors He granted to several Senatours that were poor provided that it was without reproach the Offices of Tribunes and Aediles He made no one a Senatour unless he had a very good knowledge of him In this also he shew'd his respect to them that whenever a Senatour underwent a Tryal for his life he heard him first in private before he tryed him in publick and he suffered none of the Order of the Knights and Gentlemen to assist in such a Case He went constantly as much as possible to the Senate though he had nothing to propose to them if he was at Rome but when he had any thing to propose to them he came in Person to do it if it were out of Campagnia He often assisted in the Courts of Judicature till it was night and never withdrew out of the Senate till the Consul himself dismist it He made the Senate the Judge in cases of Appeals from the Consuls He shew'd himself very diligent upon all Judiciary matters He marked out the Law-days in the Kalendar when Business was to be done and Causes tryed In the whole year they were to the number of two hundred and thirty He first gave the Praetors a power to appoint Guardians to Minors who before were appointed by the Authority of the Consuls which he did to expedite the Actions in that case He regulated the excess of the Publick Expences in Feasts and Games He interposed against the Trade of Informers and when he found them false he branded them He contemned the Accusations which were suggested to him to enrich his Exchequer He contrived many things very Prudently relating to the Publick Stores He made Senatours the Curatours to several Cities to extend so much the more the glory of their Order He relieved the Cities of Italy in a time of great Famine with Corn sent from Rome He looked after every thing that concerned the Magazines of Corn. He moderated the Games of the Gladiatours all manner of ways He diminish'd the Gratuities given to or exacted by the Comedians He took a great care of the Streets of the City and the High-ways He appointed Officers over the Provinces of Italy for the Administration of Justice in the Nature of the Proconsuls which had been before appointed by Hadrian He repeopled Spain which was exhausted by continual Levyes with Colonies from Italy In which contravening the Ordinances of Trajan he expressed himself with great modesty and respect to the memory of that Prince He added other Laws concerning the Tax called Vicessima the Tutelage of Servants Maternal Estates and the succession of the Children unto them He ordered that such Senatours who were Foreigners should however buy themselves a fourth of their Estates in Italy He gave power to the Curatours of the Towns and the Highways either to punish or to remit to the Governour of Rome to be punished such as exacted more from any Persons than what they were justly taxed to As to the rest he rather restored the old Laws than created new ones He had Lawyers always with him by whose Opinion and according to whose Forms he gave Sentence in Law and published his Ordinances Particularly Scaevola was one excellent Lawyer that he much used The People lived under him altogether as Moderation of Antoninus in a free-Free-City He was extremely well disposed in all things to deter Persons from evil and to invite them to good He rewarded plentifully and pardoned graciously he made them of ill good Men and of good Men he made them extraordinary good He took a Raillery upon these occasions very patiently One Veterasinus who was of an ill Fame begging an honourable Employment of him he advised him to clear himself first from the Censures of the People Veterasinus answering he saw some that were made Praetors that he had fought Prizes with upon the Publick Stage the Emperor took it and said nothing He was not forward to punish If any Praetor had behaved himself in some things ill yet he did not turn him out of his Praetorship but ordered him to remit his Business intirely into the Hands of his Colleague He never in his Judgments favoured the Exchequer in a Matter of Gain when it hath been upon himself to give Sentence He was firm to himself and his purpose and yet his Resolution was set off with Modesty especially where he was even obliged to give repulse After his Brother was returned a Conquerour from Syria the Title of Pater Patria was given to them both For Marcus had in his absence comported himself to all the Senatours and all People well An Oaken or which is otherwise called a Civick Crown was equally presented to them both and Verus desired that Marcus should Triumph with him He desired that the Sons of Marcus should be also called Caesars But such was the great moderation of Marcus that though he joyned in the Triumph in Company with him he relinquished to him intirely when Verus was dead the Title of the Conquerour of the Parthians and stiled himself only the Conquerour of the Germans which was a Title he
of the Corn from thence For though the Passage both by Sea and Land was difficult yet it did not seem impossible for Niger to do this especially if he took his way through the Countries of Egypt and Libya In the mean time Niger was in the possession of Greece Thracia and Macedonia when Severus came against him into the East He proposed to Severus that they might be Partners in the Empire with one another but this was slighted on the other hand Severus offered him his Life in Exile but this Niger slighted So whereas he had put to death several illustrious Persons Severus declared him together with Aemilianus an Enemy Then the Captains of Severus engaged first with He is defeated and slain Aemilianus and beat him After which they enâ—â—ged with Niger himself over whom having gotten the Victory he fled but mortally wounded and being taken by a Lake which is by the City of Ciziqua and brought in the Condition that he was in to Severus he expired presently after His Head was carried about upon a Spear and sent to Rome his Sons killed his Wife killed his Estate confiscated and his whole Family extinguished But yet it was not till after the News of the Rebellion of Clodius Albinus that all this was done because till then the Banishment of his Wife and Children had contented Severus who was made much worse and much more unmerciful than he was in this by the next War he had with Clodius Albinus for then he slew an infinite number of Senators and some called him a 〈…〉 African Sylla some a Marius for all that civiâ— Blood which he spilt Pescennius Niger was very tall and well made His Personage as to his Person his Hair curling up to his Ears a Voice so very clear and strong that he could make himself to be heard when he spoke in the Camp if the Wind was not against him a Mile a modest Countenance apt to blush rather fat than meager loved a Glass of Wine eat but little never lay with his Wife but to Conception and then he abstained which made him when he was in Gallia be publickly celebrated for his Chastity In the Arch of the Gallery which is in the Gardens of Commodus we have to this day his Picture done in Mosaick Work amongst the great Friends of that Prince assisting at the Mysteries of the Goddess Isis Niger was therefore a very Excellent Soldier a Valiant Tribune a Wise General an Illustrious Consul happy in his Affairs at home and Employments abroad but an unhappy Emperor He might have been of great use to the State under such a Prince as Severus if so be that he would have served on his side But he was misled by the Counsels of Scevus Aurelianus who had contracted his Daughters to his Sons and who for that reason had urged him on to persist as much as he could to make the Empire his own We may see how considerable a Man he was by this that his Authority and his Credit at the Court was so great that he writ first to the Emperor Marcus Antoninus and afterwards to Commodus when he perceived how much the Provinces were ruined by making too frequent changes in the Persons who governed them that in the first place no President or Lieutenant or Proconsul of His Skill in Civil Affairs a Province should be succeeded by another before the term of Five Years that when that term was expired the said Magistrates should give an Account how they had administred the Power which they had been intrusted with and then that no Persons who were not of good Extractions should be admitted to serve in those high Offices of State Besides this it was a suggestion of his that the Assessors attending upon the Governours and other Magistrates of the Provinces to assist them in Counsel should be preferred in their turns unto the highest Honours which was observed afterwards by the Emperor Severus and thenceforward by many others as appears by the Examples of Paulus and Ulpian who had been both Assessors to Papinian and were both of them afterwards first employed in the Office of Secretaries the one for the Dispatches the other for the Registers and then soon after they were made the Captains of the Guards It is also from him that no body is an Assessor to a Judge but in his own Province and that no one administers that Charge at Rome but what is a Native of the City He added besides that there should be Salaries appointed for certain Counsellors that they might not be a Charge upon those who were the Assessors because a Judge he said was neither to give nor take any thing As for the Soldiers he was so strict upon those that when some of them And Military Discipline who were in Garrison upon the Frontiers in Egypt had asked him for some Wine he answered You have the River Nile there and do you ask me for Wine And certainly the Water of that River is so sweet and so pleasant that those of the Country have no desire at all to drink Wine Others that had been beaten by the Saracens murmuring and being upon the point of a Sedition saying We have had no Wine to drink we cannot Fight He answered For shame when those that beat you drink Water The People of the Province of Palaestine praying that the Tax which was upon their Lands might be abated because they cried they were overcharged he made them Answer You would have the Tax taken off of your Lands but I will tax your very Air that you breath During that great Commotion of the State when there were three Emperors set up at one and the same time that is Septimus Severus Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus the Oracle of Delphos was consulted which of them would be the best for the Publick to carry it The Oracle answered in some obscure Words in Greek but which were understood to signify that Niger was the best Severus was well enough and Albinus the worst of the Three After this their Curiosity lead them to ask the Oracle which of the Three then should be the Person that should at last carry it the Answer was to this effect That the White and the Black that is Albinus and Niger should be killed and an African born which Severus was should possess the Empire of the World Then they asked further who should succeed that African the Oracle answered That he should be one who was of the Name of the Pious Which was not at all understood till Bassianus the eldest Son of Severus assumed the Name of Antoninus who was the only Person of the Title of the Pious and then it was concluded to be meant of Bassianus Lastly it was asked how long a time he who of the Three Competitors carried the Empire should Reign and the Answer was to this effect In twice ten Ships he 'll ride the Italian Sea Or from that Sail let one deducted be
in several Places and only washed once in them and then immediately destroyed them for fear of accustoming himself to any and that he did the same with several Houses and Apartments that he built But I am apt to think that those things and many others which exceed all belief are rather imposed upon him by Persons who have been willing entirely to blacken his memory only to make him so much the better foil for his Successour It is said that he redeemed one Courtesan who was very handsome at the Price of a Hundred Thousand Sesterces and afterwards honoured her as much as if she was a Virgin untouched One asking him whilst he was a private Man being then so Extravagant if he did not fear the becoming Poor he answered What can I do better for my self than to be my own Heir and the Heir of my Wife However he had Estates demised to him by a great many in consideration of his Father He said that he desired to have no Children for fear that it should make him a good Husband Instead of Coals he burnt Frankincense Cinnamon Cassia and other Indian Sweet-Woods for his Fires in his Dining Rooms He never when a private Man travelled with less than a Train of sixty Carnages which made his Grandmother many times to say of him that he would spend all But when Emperor he never went but with a Train of six hundred saying that the King of Persia when he travels employs Ten Thousand Camels and Nero had been attended into the Country with Fifteen Hundred Chariots The occasion of which great Train of Heliogabalus was the multitude of his Pimps Bawds Whores Bardasses and his filthy Crew of Men and Women that he had always with him Bathing he was always accompanied with Women whom he most officiously rubb'd and smooth'd and took away their superfluous Hair with a depilatory Unguent made for that purpose and which after them he used to himself and took off his Beard with it and after this he with a Rasour with his own Hand shaved what cannot modestly be spoken of the Men also that he loved and to whom he subjected his Body in the nature of a Mistress for the filthy pleasures that he found in them He strewed one whole Gallery belonging to the Baths all over with the Dust of Gold and Silver regretting that it could not be done with Amber too and this he did often whithersoever he stirred out on Foot if it was but to his Horse or to his Coach as the Custom is to do it with the finest Sand to the Emperors at this day He never wore the same Pair of Shooes twice It is denyed that he ever put on the same Rings twice His best Robes he oftentimes tore and slashed in pieces He commanded Ships to be sunk in the Port that were come in from abroad laden with Merchandises saying that this was a mark of a great Spirit His Closestools were of Gold and his Chamber Pots were of Alabaster and Myrth Had I he said Ever an Heir I would appoint him such a Governour as should oblige him to do all the things that I have done or shall do He had also this Custom with him that one day he would have nothing at his Table but Pheasants and all his Services should be of the flesh of Pheasants drest in several ways Another day nothing but Pullets Another day all of one sort of Fish Another of another Another day all Pork Another day all Oâ— riches Another day all Herbs and so of Fruits and milk Meats and sweet Meats He often said to his Company that he had provided them Mistresses of extraordinary Beauty to lie with as they would find when they went to their Beds But he sent them to Bed in the dark because they should not see their Faces till the next Morning and then who were they but old Negroe Women He put the same Trick upon them with Negroe Boys He laughed so loud in Publick that sometimes in the Play-house no body was heard but only he He Sung he Danced to the sound of the Flute he sounded the Trumpet he played upon the Shepheards Pipe and touch'd very well the Organ He hath gone about in one day to all the Whores of the Cirque the Play-house the Amphitheatre and all parts of the City disguised and giving them every one some pieces of Gold in their Hand without effecting any with them says he Antoninus gives you this but tell no body He invented certain new ways for his Lusts in which he out-did the monstrous Postures of all former times and all the Conjunctions of Tiberius Caligula and Nero. His Fortune was His death foretold foretold him by the Priests of Syria that as he would be a great Profaner of the means that serve to Generation so he should one day come to dye by his own Hands He believed it and provided himself therefore for it For he had provided himself silken Cords if necessity was to Hang himself He had provided himself Swords of Gold if necessity was to Stab himself He had provided himself Poysons which he carried about him in Emeralds Jacynths and other Pretious Stones if any thing ill happened that he could no otherwise avoid to Poyson himself He had built a very high Tower with steps to it of Gold enriched with pretious Stories from whence to throw himself down headlong because he would have his death he said to be as his life was sumptuous there should be a lively Image of Luxury in it and it should be said that no body had dyed so as he But all this signified nothing For he was killed by a Rabble of He is killed by the Rabble For he was killed by a Rabble of Soldiers and dragged most nastily through the Streets and drawn through the Kennel and at last thrown into the River of Tyber with whom ended the Princes of the name of Antoninus A name to which if his Birth as it was Spurious was any Title yet his Life was the last Disgrace to it in the sight of all the World Your most Sacred Majesty O Constantine will perhaps think it strange with others that this Pest which I have given this account of was suffered to Reign so long as almost three whole years and that none appeared in the mean time to rescue out of his Hands the Honour of the Roman Empire because in the Reigns of Nero Caligula Vitellius and the rest of the Princes of this stamp there never wanted a Man to murder a Tyrant But above all things Pardon me if I have been offensive to your modesty in any of the Passages of so dissolute a Life I have willingly suppressed a great many other of his Lewdnesses because I could not name them for shame and as for those that I have named as they are what I have sound amongst divers Writers so I have wrapped them up in as clean a Napkin as I could remembring very well what your
way by Ravenna to deliver it first to the Emperor Maximus and yet he made such haste by change of Horses that he reached Rome in four days which was never known done before The two Emperors Balbinus and Gordianus with all the People were then assembled in the Theatre at the Publick Divertisements Immediately as the Express came into the Theatre before he could have the time to say any thing all the People cryed out with great Joy Maximin is Killed which was a grateful Hearing to the Emperors So the Company rose and every one went strait to the Temples and the Chappels to return their Thanks to the Gods From thence the Emperors went to the Senate which Assembled upon this Occasion as likewise did the People and after the Emperor Balbinus had read to the Senate the Letter which was arrived from Maximus the Senate passed this Decree as follows The Gods Pursue the Enemies of the People of Rome We return our Thanks to thee for the same O most Excellent Jupiter and to Thee O Holy Apollo We Thank the Emperor Maximus We Thank Your Majesties here present Balbinus and Gordianus We Decree Temples to the Honour of the Emperors the Gordiani deceased The Name of Maximin as it hath already been erased out of the Publick Monuments so now let it be erased out of our Thoughts and be forgotten for ever Let the Head of the Publick Enemy be thrown into the River and no Man Bury his Body He that threatned the Senate with Death and Bonds is Killed as he deserved We give our Thanks for it to your most Sacred Majesties Maximus Balbinus and Gordianus The Gods Preserve you We all wish you Victory over your Enemies We all desire the Return and Presence of Maximus The Gods Save Your Majesty Balbinus Your Majesties will be pleased to be the Consuls this Year After this Cupidius Celerimus said thus Having Erased the Name of the Maximins and Deified the Emperors the Gordiani we on the other hand Decree Triumphal Statues with Elephants to our present Princes Maximus Balbinus and Gordianus We Decree them Triumphal Chariots Statues on Horseback and Trophies upon the Subject of this Victory Then the Senate Adjourn'd The Emperors retired to the Palaces and Publick Sacrifices were appointed throughout all the City of Rome THE Life and Reign OF THE EMPEROR Maximin the Second TO THE EMPEROR Constantine the Great BY JULIUS CAPITOLINUS MAXIMIN the Second or the Younger and the Son of the foregoing was a Youth of that extraordinary Beauty that generally the Ladies of Wit were in Love with him some of them even wished themseves a part in his Caresses and to have Children by him He was so Tall that had he lived it is probable he would have reach'd the heighth of his Father But he dyed in the Flower of his Youth in his one and twentieth Year or as some say in his eighteenth He had learn'd the His Learning and Masters Greek and Latin Languages to a Perfection In the Greek his Master was Fabilius who hath several Epigrams in the Greek yet extant and particularly some that he made upon the Picture of his Scholar In the Latin he had the Grammarian Philemon Modestinus the Lawyer and Titianus the Orator The Father of which last was he who hath written a Chorography of the Provinces of the Roman Empire and was called the Ape of his Age because he Imitated all things He had a Greek Rhetoriâ—ian called Eugenius who was Famous in his time Junia Fadilla a Daughter of the Family of the Princes the Antonini was Contracted to him who afterwards was Married to Toxotius a Senator of the same Family who dyed after his Praetorship and hath written some Poems which we have at this day The Presents which were given to her by Maximin when he Contracted her are particularly recounted by Aelius Cordus A Locket of nine great Pearls a Head set with eleven Emeralds a Bracelet of four Jacynths Garments of Cloth of Gold and all the Ornaments of Princely Attire which were fit for a New Spouse As this Maximin was very Beautiful so he carried a Pride to the highest degree he kept himself Sitting when his Father as Cruel as he was many times rose to Persons of Honour that came to wait upon him He was of a gay Humour Drank little but loved good Eating especially of the wild Creatures of the Field the Wild Boar Duck Crane and the like were his constant Dishes Those of the Party of the Emperors Maximus Balbinus and Gordianus and particularly the Senators were willing to slander him because of his great Beauty Pretending that it was impossible that so charming a Gift of the Gods could be kept uncorrupt So also when he went about the Walls of Aquileia in Company with his Father to persuade that City to a Surrender All that they pretended to object against him was the matter of Uncleanness because of his tempting Beauty which however was very far from him He was so Proper in his Cloaths that no Lady in the World could be more He was extreamly Obsequious to such as were of his Father's Friends that is so far as to give them what was in his power and make them Largesses But when they paid their Reverences to him he received them in a manner which was again as high He gave them his Hand to kiss he suffered them to kiss his Knees and sometimes his Feet which his Father would never do who said The Gods forbid that any free-born Man should lay his Lips to my Feet Having mention'd his Father I desire to insert one pleasant Passage of him He was as I have observed before in his Life Eight Foot and almost a half high Therefore his Shoe or Royal Buskin was given by some to be seen publickly in a Religious House in a Grove which is betwixt the City Aquileia and a place called Arzia which Shoe it is certain is bigger by a Foot than the Measure of any other Man And hence it is become a Proverb to say of one who is of an extraordinary Height without much Wit Caliga Maximini i. e. He is the Print of Maximin He treads in his Shoe But I return to speak of the Son The Emperor Alexander Severus in a Letter to his Mother Mammaea appears to have had some thoughts of Matching this Maximin to his own Sister Theoclia The Letter was this Madam I Would propose to you to Marry your Daughter Theoclia to the younger Maximin did not his Father who is a Commander in our Forces and I assure you a very good one retain something in him that savours of the Barbarian I fear my Sister who is so acquainted with all the Politeness of the Grecian Education will not endure a Father in Law of that Nature Otherwise as for the Youth himself he is Beautiful and Ingenious and seems to be bred and polished to the Mode of the Grecians too This is what I think You may please to consider with
Cecropius a Colonel of the Dalmatians who by his Address and Prudence had much assisted towards the pretensions of Claudius about Milan and his Brother Valerian was also killed with him at the same place whom though some deny to have been honoured with the Imperial Style and some make him a Caesar and some neither the one nor the other yet this is certain that after the Captivity of his Father we find in the publick Registers a Note of the Emperor Valerian ' s being a Consul which can only mean the Son Valerian The Soldiers fell into a great Mutiny upon the death of Gallienus and cried him up for an Useful Brave and Powerful Prince taken off only to serve private Interests But as it is the known way to appease Soldiers to give them Money and great Promises Martianus with the advice of others of the principal Officers having done this and given them upon the spot because they had Money enough at hand twenty pieces of Gold a Man they submitted and were satisfied to have Gallienus entred as a Tyrant upon the Publick Records And then Claudius a good and truly Venerable Person a lover of his Country and the Laws and dear to all of worth acceptable to the Senate and well known to the People took the Empire upon him In this manner lived and died Gallienus who was born to serve his Belly and his Lusts Character of Gallienus He spent Days and Nights in Drinking and Whoring without caring what became of all the State About thirty Persons in his time set up for Emperors to the dishonour of the Roman Name nay even Women-Revolte 〈…〉 His horrid Luxury Governed better than he In the Spring to tell you some of his miserable Devices he made himself Beds of Roses and Pomilions of Apple-Trees and all sorts of Fruits Grapes he preserved three Years He had Melons in the depth of Winter Sweet Wine all the Ye 〈…〉 long Green Figs and Apples fresh from t 〈…〉 Trees in Months which were out of their proper Season His Table Linen was always embroidered with Gold His Services of Gold set with Jewels The Powder for his H 〈…〉 was of Gold dust He often went abroad iâ— a Crown radiated like that of God At Româ— where the Emperors appear always in Gowns he wore a Purple Cloak with Buttons of Jewels set in Gold and a Purple Tunicâ— embroidered with Gold His Belt was beset with Jewels His Shoes were covered with Jewels He Eat in Publick The People h 〈…〉 softned and attracted to him by Largesses He invited the Ladies to the Feast of his Consulship who kissed his Hand and he presented them with four Pieces of Gold of his Coin Aâ— a great Philosopher Xenophon once said wheâ— he had lost his Son I knew that when I beg 〈…〉 him I begat a Mortal so said Gallienus wheâ— he heard that his Father was taken Prisoner I knew my Father was a Mortal For which Saying Annius Cornicula vainly commends his Constancy Going out and coming in he was often attended with Musick Voices and Instruments He Washed in the Summer six or seven times a day in the Winter twice or thrice He drank always in Vessels of Gold scorning Glass because he said nothing was commoner than it He changed his Wine every time he drank never at one Meal drank twice of the same His Mistresses often sat at the Table with him A second Table was always by of Jesters and all sorts of Mimicks When he removed to the Gardens wh 〈…〉 h bear his Name all the Houshold followed him who were admitted to Eat and Bath and Swim with him Women also young and old handsome or unhandsome were often admitted with whom he jested and diverted himself whilst the Empire every where went to ruine at the same time He was extremely Cruel however upon the Soldiers for sometimes he killed three or four thousand of them together in a day He ordered a vast great Coloss to be made of him in the form of that of the Sun which was begun but when he died it was left unfinished He designed to have placed it upon the Esquiline holding a Spear in the hollow of whose Shaft a Child might go up by steps to the top He had ordered a Chariot and Horses in imitation of those of the Sun to be made proportionable to this Statue and to be set upon a vast Basis But the Emperors Claudius and Aurelian who came after thought all this foolish He did also design to continue the Work of the Portico Flaminia as far as to Ponte Molle and to make it with four or five Orders of Pillars But it would be tedious to say more of him Let whoever desires to know any thing more go to Palfurius Sural who hath written a Journal of his Life I shall proceed to Saloninus Gallienus his Son And then I will say something in short of the Thirty pretended Emperors or Tyrants in particular who set up themselves against this Prince I must own I have here studiously pretermitted several things out of a respect to his Posterâ—â—y You know Sir very well what a War a Man many times raises against himself who writes of the Ancestors of another I do not doubt but you remember what Tully says in his Hortensius Gallienus with the time that he enjoy'd the Empire in conjunction with his Father reigned it is certain in all Fifteen Years that is Six Years in conjunction with Valerian who then was taken Prisoner and Ten afterwards in which he reigned by himself I mention this because some have said that Gallienus died in the Ninth or Tenth Year of his Reign By which if they mean the Years that he reigned alone after the Captivity of his Father it is true that he died in his Ninth Year But otherwise those Decennial Games which we have spoken of were celebrated by him in his Tenth Year And after them he overcame the Gotâ—â— or Scythians made a Peace with Odenatus and Aureolus fought against Post humius and Lolliâ—nus and did many other things some to his Honour but more to his eternal Shame he even Raked about the Taverns always in the Night and passed the greatest part of his time in the Debauched Company of Pimps Players and Poltrons Gallienus the Second BY TREBELLIUS POLLIO THIS Gallienus was the Son of Gallienus the First and the Grandson of the Emperor Valerian the First There is little to be said of him more than that he was Nobly born Educated like a Prince and at last killed not upon his own account but upon the account of his Father Some call him Saloninus Gallienus because he was born at the City of Salona in Dalmatia or because his Mother's Name was Cornelia Salonina Pipara the Daughter of a Barbarian King who whether she was the Wife or the Mistress of his Father it is certain that she was one that he extremely loved There is extant to this day in Rome a Statue which did
That His Ability at Drinking certainly he was born not to say to Live but particularly to live to Drink That Emperor however long had him in esteem because of his experience in the matter of War And when any Embassadors arrived from the Barbarian Nations of what Parts soever it was the business of Bonosus to drink with them till in their drink he discover'd out of them many times their secrets For Bonosus let him drink to what excess he would was never concerned But on the contrary as Onesimus says in his Life of Probus he was even the more prudent and more discreet for drinking Withal he had this particular Quality with him that as much as he drank it passed from him again It never was any burden to his Stomach or his Belly or his Bladder It happening one time that the Germans had burnt the Shipping which the Romans used upon the River Rhine Bonosus to avoid the punishment which he feared for his Neglect in that matter set up himself Emperor He supported himself with that Quality longer than it was well to be expected He engaged His Defeat and Death the Emperor Probus in a severe Battel but being overcome he Hanged himself and they Jested upon him and said It is a Hogshead and not a Man that hangs here He left two Sons and a Wife The Sons Probus forgave The Wife he was very obliging to and allowed her a Pension to her death For besides that she was a Woman as my Grandfather hath said of Wit and of singular Merit she was a Princess of the Royal Blood of the Goths and one whom the Emperor Aurelian had purposely married to Bonosus that through her and him he might the better penetrate into all the Affairs of the Goths I will give you here a Letter of Aurelian written to the Lieutenant of Thrace concerning that Marriage and the Presents which Aurelian gave upon this occasion The Emperor Aurelian to Gallio Avitus Greeting I Writ to you in my last to Assemble the Persons of Quality of the Goths at the City of Heracla for whom I have order'd an Entertainment For I have a mind that Hunila shall be Married to Bonosus You shall present the Bride with all things according to the underwritten Order and you shall Celebrate the Nuptials out of the Publick Money The Presents were Fine Gowns of a Violet Colour of Silk one of Silk embroider'd with Gold Two fine Smocks and all such other things as are proper for a Lady of Quality You shall give her one hundred Philips in Gold One thousand Antonines in Silver and Ten thousand Sesterces in Brass This is what I remember that I have read as to Bonosus I might have omitted all these four last Persons and perhaps no body would have missed them But because I would not be wanting in any thing to my Trust I have taken the care of intimating as much as I have been able to learn concerning these also The remaining Princes are Carus Numerianus and Carinus For as for Dioclesian and those that follow it is fit that they should be Represented by a better Pen than mine THE A. Christi Cclxxxiii Life and Reign OF THE EMPEROR CARUS BY FLAVIUS VOPISCUS HOW the Power of Fate reigns over the Commonwealth of Rome and sometimes raises it to the greatest heighth and then humbles it again and throws it down as much the other way the Death of the Emperor Probus is a sufficicient demonstration Probus had succeeded to the Empire after Aurelian by the joynt Voice of the Senate and the People and whilst the Laws and the Government were lodged in so just a Hand we seemed secure considering that we had now enjoyed a few good Reigns together of a continued Series of Happiness to relieve the State after all the different Calamities and after so many changes of Fortune with which it had been tossed and varied in the course of time in that manner that it hath suffered almost all the Events which are incident to any Man by the Mortality of his Nature But by a fatal Passion of the Soldiers this so acceptable Emperor Probus was cut off whose loss was so great that we were no less struck at it than a Man in a Fire or in a Shipwrack and the Publick was reduced to that despair as that every one feared the Succession of some Domitian Vitellius or Nero in his place It is natural at any time rather to have Fears than Hopes from the manners of an uncertain Prince But especially well might a People do so whose Wounds were yet green and who not long since had had one of their Emperors Valerian carried into Captivity another Gallienus given up to Luxury and about Thirty pretended Princes in the mean time starting up and rending the Empire in Pieces by a Civil War according as every one challenged the Sovereignty to himself If we take a view of the Changes which the Commonwealth of Rome hath suffered from the Foundation of the City we shall find that never any People hath flourished more by good Fortune nor yet laboured under worse Romulus to begin with him our true Father Various Fortune of Rome under different Princes who as I may say begat founded constituted and confirmed this State had the singular Happiness above all other Founders to leave a perfect City Numa afterwards added Triumphs to this City by his victorious Arms and at the same time strengthened it with Laws of Religion So we flourished to the time of Tarquin the proud and then a Storm fell upon us occasioned by the arbitrary Vices of that King which we revenged but it was not without much hazarding our own Ruine From thence we passed and increased to the War of the Gauls when we were over-run with a Flood of the Enemy the City of Rome excepting only the Capitol taken and we suffered well nigh more hurt now than we ever enjoyed good since our very Foundation However our Commonwealth recovered itself from this Blow but yet it was so plagued with the Carthaginian Wars and the Terror of King Pyrrhus that it could not be at any rest for its miserable Fears At length we conquered Carthage and extended our Empire far beyond the Seas the Sense of which Felicity was extenuated to us by our Social Discords and our Civil Wars under which we spent our time unto Augustus Caesar who repaired the State for us anew if we may call that yet a Reparation which was wrought at the Expence of our Liberty However it is although we were sometime troubled at home amongst foreign Nations our Name flourished and after several ill Emperors that afflicted us the State lifted up its Head again under Vespasian The Happiness of Titus was no sooner enjoyed than lost to whom succeeded the cruel Domitian whose Wounds went deep Under Nerva and Trajan and so to Marcus Antoninus our Condition was better than ordinary but then came the mad and cruel Commodus and excepting