in the Forum of Trajan of the Goods of his Houshold He sold the Vessels of Gold Crystal and Myrrh the Royal Services Rich Garments of his Wife 's which were embroidered with Gold and several Jewels which were laid up in the Cabinet of Hadrian The Sale continued Two Months and such a considerable Sum was produced by it that having prosecuted the Reliques of the Marcomannick War with it according to his desire he gave the Buyers the Liberty to return if they pleased their Purchases and take their Money again But whether they did or no he was satisfied and allowed Gentlemen to have their Tables as splendid as himself In the publick Shews which he gave the People at his Triumph he was so Magnificent that he exposed a Hundred Lions together to be shot to death with Arrows Having therefore Reigned to the general Love of all the People who called him by the endearing Terms of sometimes their Brother sometimes Father sometimes Son as every one's Age was he died in the Eighteenth Year Death of Antoninu◠of his Empire and the Sixty First of his Age. The Love of him amongst all the People appear'd on the Day of his interment Because none thought him then an Object to be lamented but assured themselves that as he had been formed and lent them by the Gods so he was returned to the Gods Before his Funeral was well finished a thing which never was known to be done before nor since the Senate and the People in one Body upon the place pronounced him a Propitious Deity This great Man who was so Excellent himself and so ally'd to the Gods both in his Life and Death left a Son Commodus who was so ill on the other hand that it had been happy he had never had him Nay it was a small thing that Persons of all Ages Sexes Conditions and Dignities honoured Marcus as a God for he was judged Sacrilegious whoever had not his Image in his House if his fortune permitted him To this day in many Families the Statues of Marcus Antoninus stand amongst the Houshold Deities and some Persons have firmly and publickly averred that he hath predicted many future and true thing to them in Dreams A Temple was erected to him and an Order of Priests of his own Name appointed him with all other things which to consecrated Persons have ever been ascribed by Antiquity Some say and it is not unlikely that Commodus Antoninus his Successor and his Son was a sort of an Adulterous Birth the Story whereof is represented commonly thus Faustina Story of the Birth of Commodus the Wife of Marcus and formerly the Daughter of Antoninus Pius seeing one Day the Gladiators enter the Amphitheatre fell in love with one of them to that degree that she laboured under a long Sickness upon it till at last she confessed the Cause to her Husband Marcus advised with the Magicians whose Counsel it was to put to Death that Gladiator and that Faustina should wash her Secrets with his Blood and then lie with her Husband This was done and her Love cured But Commodus was born after it more a Gladiator than a Prince because when he was Emperor he fought almost a Thousand Combats with the Gladiators in the publick view of the People as we shall have occasion to say in his Life And that which makes this Story the more credible is this Son of so Holy a Father was a Man of those profligate Manners that no common Sword-player Actor Baiter of Beasts nor in fine no one tho' of the sink of all Shame and Wickedness was like him Others say that he was absolutely a Bastard and that Faustina when she was at the Port of Gajetta chose herself there by the Eye the Seamen generally working naked what Men she saw were the best provided both out of the Sea-men and the Gladiators wherefore Marcus Antoninus was advised by one if he would not punish her by Death to divorce her To which he answered If I divorce my Wife I must return her her Dower But her Dower was the Empire which he had received from her Father who had adopted him at the desire of Hadrian Certainly the Virtue the Integrity the Tranquillity the Piety of a good Prince is a thing of that prevalence that the ill Character not so much as of the nearest Relation can defame him And so it was with Marcus Antoninus who persevering still in his own virtuous way and not changing in any thing upon the whispers or calumnies of the People neither his Gladiator-Son was a prejudice to him nor his impure Consort He is as he hath ever been esteemed a God to this Day and particularly by you O most Sacred Emperor Dioclesian who have a Veneration for him even above the rest of your Gods and are pleased often to say That you chiefly wish yourself like him in his Life and the Clemency which he always exercised tho' should Plato return into the World again he could not parallel him with all his Philosophy The things that passed under Marcus Antoninus after the Death of Verus were these First the Body of Verus was brought to Rome and interred in the Sepulchre of his Ancestors and Ver 〈…〉 made a God Then Marcus thanked the Senate for having Consecrated his Brother but intimated at the same time As if the Counsels by which the Parthians were overcome had been much owing to himself and that now he would govern as it were upon a new and better Foundation The Senate took it in the Sense which Marcus meant and seemed to congratulate that Verus was departed this Life However Marcus provided very honourably for Verus's Sisters Relations and Servants Indeed he was very Curious of his Reputation and enquired always what every one said of him and corrected himself accordingly in such things as they seemed to blame him for with reason Going to the War in Germany he re-married his Daughter to Claudius Pompeianus the Eldest Son of a Roman Knight of a Family of the City of Antioch but not of the highest Nobility He afterwards made him Twice Consul in consideration that his Daughter was so much his Superior which Match however did neither please her nor her Mother The Moors laying waste almost all Spain he Tumults c. quelled employed his Lieutenants against them who reduced them In Egypt the Robbers about the Parts called Bucolia committing divers great Disorders they were also reduced by Avidius Cassius who afterwards set himself up for the Empire About this time Marcus Antoninus whilst he was at his Retreat at Palestrina lost his Son called Verus Caesar of the Age of Seven Years by lancing a Tumour which he had under his Ear. The Mourning for whom was kept but Five Days and then he applied himself again to the publick Business It was the time of the Celebration of the Games of Jupiter which he would not suffer to be interrupted by a more solemn Mourning so he only ordered
down in the Life of Marcus but which is utterly inconsistent with the Virtue of that great Man Others attributed his Death to his own Wife because he was a little too indulgent to the Love which he had for Fabia his Sister whose Power she could not brook And certainly there was that great Kindness betwixt Verus and Fabia that it was also reported that they two had consulted together to kill Marcus but when this was discovered to Marcus by Agaclytus the Servant of Verus Faustina prevented the Murder of Marcus and she herself killed Verus As to his Person he was well shaped with His Personage a good Visage and a Beard before he shaved extraordinary long like a Barbarian tall and a frown upon his Brow that was awful He had yellow Hair which he took a great Care of and used an Art with Gold Dust to make it glitter and look yellower still He was a little slow in Speech a great Lover of Game always Luxurious and in many things a Nero excepting Cruelty and Buffoonry Amongst the rest of his Curious Furniture for his Luxury he had a Crystal Cup that he called Swift after the Name of his beloved Horse and it was of so large a size it held a Draught indeed more fit for a Horse than any thing else He lived Two and Forty Years and reigned Eleven in Conjunction with his Brother His Body was interred in the Sepulchre of Hadrian where his Father the Caesar also lies The Story which I now said is inconsistent with the Virtue of Marcus Antoninus is well known and it is this That Marcus with a Knife empoysoned on the one side of it divided a Piece of a Sacrifice to Verus and gave that Part thereof to Verus to eat which was touched with the Poyson which is a Crime impossible to be conceived of Marcus whatever the Life and Actions of Verus might perhaps deserve Neither do we leave it in doubt but wholly reject it as a false and supposititious thing being assured that excepting your Majesty O Dioclesian as yet since Marcus Flattery it self hath not been able to form a better and a more accomplished Prince than he THE LIFE OF AVIDIVS CASSIVS BY VULCATIUS GALLICANUS Addressed to the EMPEROR DIOLESIAN AVidius Cassius was as some think descended His Extraction from the Antient Family of the Cassii but yet this was only by the side of his Mother for his Father was Avidius Severus who from a private Extraction and the Degree of a Centurion raised himself unto the highest Honours of whom Quadratus makes mention in his History and indeed so much to his Advantage that he calls him a great and necessary Man in the State and who had a great Interest with the Emperor Marcus Antoninus in whose Reign he died This Cassius of the Family I say of those Cassii who had conspired against Julius Caesar was one that secretly hated a Monarchy and could scarce endure the very Name of an Emperor He said That no State was so intolerable as an Empire which cannot be put down without another Emperor In his younger Years he had attempted to depose Antoninus Pius It is true his Father being a great and worthy Person covered him against the Charge of that Ambition but yet he was always looked upon as a suspicious Person A LETTER of Verus Antoninus concerning him written to the Emperor Marcus Antoninus says thus AVidius Cassius hath a greedy Eye upon the Empire at least as I think and as some time ago it was known he had under the Reign of Antonius Pius our Father I desire you to take good Notice of him Every thing we do displeases him He grows extraordinary Rich laughs at us both calls you a Doating Philosopher and me a Luxurious Fool. Consider what is to be done I hate not the Man but do you see whether it is not ill for you and your Children to keep such a one in your Army and one besides that the Soldiers love and hearken to with pleasure The ANSWER of Marcus Antoninus concerning Avidius Cassius was this I Have read your Letter in which you are too apprehensive than I would have an Emperor to be or than suits well with our Reigns For if the Empire is allotted to Avidius Cassius by Heaven we should not be able to cut him off if we would You know the saying of your Grandfather Hadrian That no Man kills his Successour But if it is not so allotted him he will fall of himself into the fatal Snare without our Cruelty Neither can we make a Man a Criminal who is accused by none and who as you say is beloved by the Army In Actions of Treason also so it is that even tho' they are proved upon Men the World is apt to think the Sufferer injured which made your Grandfather Hadrian say O the hard Fate of Emperors who cannot be believed that they are Usurpt upon until they are killed I chose to name Hadrian for it rather than Domitian who was the first indeed that said so because when a thing is well said yet if it is the saying of a Tyrant it hath not the Authority with it as it deserves Therefore let Avidius Cassius have his own ways being a good Officer Strict and Stout and of great Use in the State For as to what you urge about the taking Care of my Children if Avidius Cassius shall deserve to be better beloved than they and it is expedient for the Publick rather that he live than the Children of Marcus Antoninus let them perish This is what Verus and what Marcus Antoninus severally wrote concerning Cassius Now we shall explain in short the Temper and the Manners of this Person which is all that can well be known of such whose Lives no one presumes to write to their Advantage out of Respect to those by whom they were destroyed only we shall add something of his assumption of the Empire and of his Death Having in this Design that we are upon proposed to ourselves to take in the Histories of all that in any wise have born the Title of Emperors whether justly or unjustly to the end that your Majesty O Dioclesian should have a perfect Account before you to your own Person of the Events of the Empire of Rome He was a Man of that Variety in his Manners that now he was cruel and ill humored then mild and obliging now he was very Religious then Profane sometimes he drank hard then he was as abstemious sometimes he eat very much another time he fasted as much sometimes he was all for Women then he was all for Chastity so that People were not wanting to call him a Catiline and he said they might call him what they pleased so he but gained his Point of the Dialogist by which Name he meant Marcus Antoninus who was so eminently skill'd in Philosophy that going to the War against the Marcomanni and every body being in fear for him lest any thing ill
the Guards and made one of his Sons Governour of the City of Alexandria which Two were afterwards both kill'd by the Army but it was done against the Will and without the Knowledge of Marcus Antoninus who neither fell into any Passion to hear of the News of the Rebellion nor sought his Revenge upon the Children or Friends of Cassius The Senate declared him an Enemy and confiscated his Estate which Marcus Antoninus forbidding to be returned into his proper Coffers it was paid by the Order of the Senate into the publick Treasury Some pretended which struck a Terror into the City that in the absence of Antoninus Avidius Cassius as he was entirely beloved by all excepting the looser sort of People would come to Rome and expose it to Free-Plunder upon the Account of the Senatours especially who had declared him an Enemy and confiscated his Estate On the other hand the Love of Antoninus himself to Cassius appeared very much in this that when he was killed and every body unless the Citizens of Antioch were contented at it he was not killed by the Command of him for there is no doubt but he would have spared him if it had been in his Power so to do And when his Head was brought to him Clemency of Antoninus he did not rejoyce nor was he elevated at it at all but on the contrary he was very sorry that he was deprived of an occasion to shew his Mercy and said He would rather have had him taken alive to have convinced him of his Ingratitude and then saved him One said That Antoninus was to blame for being so favourable to his Enemy and to his Enemy's Friends and Children and all his adherents Adding That if Cassius had got the better what then Antoninus answered We have not so served the Gods nor so lived as that it should be his luck to Conquer us Upon which he reckoned up all the Princes that had been killed and said That there were Reasons for which they had deserved it for scarce ever any good Prince had been either killed or conquered by an Usurper for Nero deserved it Caligula deserved it Otho and Vitellius were not fit to reign He thought as much of Galba for his Covetousness and said That Avarice in an Emperor is a most bitter Fault In fine not Augustus Caesar nor Trajan nor Hadrian nor Antoninus Pius his Father could ever be surmounted by the Rebols tho' they had many of them but it was the Rebels Fate to be destroyed sometime even without the Knowledge and contrary to the Will of those Princes So he desired the Senate not to animadvert too severely upon the Accomplices of the defection of Cassius wishing that no Senatour might be put to Death in his Reign which gained him an extraordinary deal of Love Some few Centurions were punished and then as for others who were banished he ordered them to be re-called and pardoned them He pardoned the Antiochians who had so firmly adhered to the Usurpation of Cassius together with other Cities that had assisted him For tho' at the first he was very angry at the former so as to take away their publick Games and many other Ornaments of their City yet he afterward restored them to them again He bestowed a Moiety of the Estate of Cassius upon his Sons and gave his Daughters the Gold Silver and Jewels Alexandra who was one of them and Druentianus her Husband had free Power from him to go whither they would and lived in the greatest Security not like the Pledges of an Usurper but the Children of a Senatour He forbad the Fortune of their House so much as to be cast in their Teeth and some who were rude to them upon that Account were by his Order prosecuted and punished for it Here follows a Letter from the Emperor Marcus Antoninus to Faustina his Wife VErus formerly wrote the Truth to me concerning Avidius Cassius when he said That he had a greedy Eye upon the Empire For I suppose you have heard what the Expresses bring of him So come thou to Albano that we may consider together of Matters by the Will of the Gods and fear nothing This obviates what Marius Maximus says of Faustina who desiring to defame her makes her accessary to the Usurpation of Cassius Her Answer in which she presses him to be very severe was this I Will come strait to Albano to morrow as you command However I now advise that if you love your Children you would prosecute this Rebellion most severely And you may assure your self that unless you oppress them they will you Another Letter of Faustina to Marcus Antoninus upon the same Subject MY Mother Faustina in the time of the Defection of Celsus advised your Father her Husband Antoninus Pius that he should first shew his kindness to his own Family and next to Others Because he cannot be a good Prince who does not take care of his Wife and Children You see what Age our Son Commodus is of Pompeianus your Son-in-Law is already Old and a Stranger Mind what you do about Avidius Cassius and his Associates Do not spare Men who have not spared you and who if they had conquered would neither have spared me nor our Children I shall follow you in your Journey quickly I could not come to Formiae because our Fadilla is Sick But though I find you not at Formiae I shall overtake you at Capua which City may do good both to me and our Children in our Healths I desire you to dispatch Soteridas the Physician to Formiae I cannot trust to Pisitheus he knows not what Physick to give to a young Girl I receiv'd your Letter which you sâ—nt by Calphurnius and I shall answer it if I stay by Caecilius the old Eunuch a trusty Man whom you know and by whom I will send you an account by Word of Mouth what the Wife of Avidius Cassius and Son and Son-in Law are reported to say of you By these Letters one may see that Faustina was not at all Privy to the Enterprise of Cassius upon whom she is so severe What Antoninus writ to her again the following Letter shews us You it is true my Faustina Advise very well in your love to your Husband and Children I have Read your Letter in which you desire me to prosecute the Accomplices of Cassius But yet I shall spare his Children Son in-Law and Wife and write to the Senate to be Favourable to all the Party For there is not any thing that more recommends a Roman Emperour to all the World than Clemency This made Caesar a God This Consecrated Augustus This particularly adorned your Father with the Title of Pious In a word if they had gone according to the judgment of my Advice upon the War not so much as Cassius should have been killed So be then satisfied The Gods protect me my Piety is pleasing to the Gods I have declared our Pompeianus Consul for the next year
was received but the manner thus Trajan sate as in a Council of War in the His Appearance before Trajan Camp After Parthamasiris had saluted him He took the Crown with which he came off of his Head and prostrated it at the Feet of Trajan and stood silent expecting when Trajan would return to him the Crown again The Soldiers seeing this set up an Huzza and Congratulated Trajan as is usual after a Victory For they cryed This was a Victory without a Battel an unbloody Victory to see a King of the House of the Arsacidae the Son of Pacorus and the Nephew of Chosroes King of Parthia stand before Trajan like a Captive without a Crown Parthamasiris amazed at the Noise and thinking that it was designed for an Affront to him and to his ruin turned himself about in a Passion to be gone But as he was so well surrounded that he could not he desired Not to be obliged to speak what he had to say in that Crowd So he was taken into the Tent of Trajan to whom there he offered the Propositions that he had to make but Trajan was not pleased to consent to them Then he threw himself in a Passion out of the Tent and was retiring through the Camp when Trajan sent for him back again and in the Council of War where he had received him at first he desired him to speak what he had to say Publickly in the hearing of the Company because Persons who were ignorant of what had passed betwixt them in Private should not suggest false Accounts of it and misrepresent it to the World Hearing this Parthamasiris could not contain himself longer but with a great Courage amongst other things said That he neither had been Conquered nor taken Prisoner He came thither His Speech in the Council of War voluntarily in confidence that no Injury would have been offered to him and that he should receive his Kingdom of Trajan as Tiridates did of Nero. Trajan answered him what he saw fitting and withal told him That Armenia should be no bodies Kingdom It belonged to the Romans and should receive a Roman Governour As for himself he gave him the liberty to go where he pleased So he sent Parthamasiris He is dismist together with the Parthians that came with him out of the Country under a Guard that he should speak with no one nor attempt no Novelties but all the Armenians that came with him he ordered to abide in their Proper Dwellings as being now his own Subjects Trajan secured the Country with convenient Garrisons and came from thence to the City of Rhoa in Mesopotamia where he saw Trajan ' s Congress with Abgarus King Abgarus whose Seat was there Abgarus had before sent Presents and Persons to him often to Complement him but sometimes for one sometimes for another reason that he pretended he had not as yet waited upon him himself as neither had Manos the Governour of the Arabia next adjoyning nor Sporaces the Governour of Arthemisia in Mesopotamia Now the Son of Abgarus Arbandes was a handsom charming Youth whom Trajan had seen and could not choose but love for his beauty By the persuasion of this Son and partly by the fear which Abgarus had of the presence of Trajan Abgarus met him at his coming to Rhoa and excusing himself to him Trajan received him very well and admitted him to his Friendship His handsome Son was indeed Apology enough for him He entertain'd Trajan at a Banquet in which he brought in his Son to dance before him after the Barbarian Mode The Senate of Rome among other things A new Title decreed him which they decreed in the honour of these Successes of their Prince gave him the Title of Optimus or the Best of Princes He always marched on foot at the Head of all his Army whom against every Expedition he Review'd and Furnished and sometimes marched them in one manner sometimes another If they crossed the Rivers on Foot so did he sometimes he told them a piece of false News and acted the part of a Spy amongst them to make them keep themselves the more carefully to their Duty and to be ready and intrepid against every thing He took the Cities of Nisibis and Ecbatana from the Parthians upon which he was Saluted by the Style of Conquerour of the Parthians by the Army But in none of all the Titles that he acquired did he delight so much as in that of the Best of Princes because this was a commendation rather of his own Nature and Virtues than of his Arms. Whilst he Wintered at the City of Antioch A great Earthquake in Syria a dreadful Earthquake happened which did a great deal of mischief to many Cities in that Country but Antioch was in a more particular manner afflicted with it There was at that time a great number of Soldiers and an extraordinary Concourse of others from all parts in the place either upon Business of Law or upon Embassies or Trade or Curiosity whereby it was so That there was no Nation nor no Province but what had a share in the Calamity and all the Roman World suffered in that one City This Earthquake was preceded by great Thunders and unusual Winds but yet no body suspected from thence the mischief which followed First a mighty Fore-runners thereof bellowing Noise was heard on a sudden from the Earth then followed a Shock which was was so violent that it made all the Earth Bounce and Swell The Houses Danced some immediately fell with the Toss and broke into pieces some reeled to and fro like a Ship in the Sea and took a compass on one side and the other and then fell And the noise of the cracking and bursting of the Timber the Brick and Stones together was most dismal A Dust was raised that it was impossible to see any one or speak or be heard to speak Many who were without their Houses suffered They were so tossed up and then down again as in a Precipice and struck against one another some were wounded some killed Trees were torn up from the Roots But of the rest who were overtaken within their Houses an infinite number perished a great many with the Houses falling upon their Heads a great many were suffocated under the Ruins Others who were held under the Wood and Stones so by any part of their Bodies that they could not possibly recover themselves were in the highest degree miserable they could not live and yet they could not soon expire If out of such an infinite number as were overtaken within their Houses several escaped with their lives yet they were generally hurt their Legs broken or their Arms or their Heads or they vomited Blood Pedo the Consul was one of these who died soon after In short there was no figure of Misery and Destruction but what was to be seen amongst these People GOD shook the Earth for many Days and Nights together The People were
Papinian said that to accuse the Innocent who had been murdered was in the nature of another Murder But all this however does not very well agree Because it was not for the Captain of the Guards to form the Emperor's Speeches and then it is certain that Papinian was for no other reason killed but as he was a Fautor of Geta. As the Soldiers were hurrying him away to his Execution he said That he should be very imprudent who was the Captain of the Guards after him if he did not severely revenge the Cruelty that was shewn to his place Which was afterwards done For Macrinus his Successor was the Author of the Death of Bassianus and was afterwards himself made Emperor in the Camp whose Son Diadumenus was immediately new named Antoninus Diadumenus to gratify the Soldiers because the name of an Antoninus was so dear to them Bassianus Antoninus Caracallus lived Forty Three Years and reigned Six He was Nobly buried and left a Son who was afterwards called Varius Antoninus Heliogabalus the dear Name of Antoninus being so fixt in the Hearts of Men that it was no more to be removed than that of Augustus from the Person of the Emperor He was a Prince of ill manners and crueller than his too cruel Father He eat and drank freely but was hated by his Servants and by all the Men of the Sword only the Guards The Works which he left His publie Works behind him at Rome were the famous Baths of his own Name in which there is one Room so Curious that the Architects say it is altogether inimitable He left also a Portico of the Name of his Father representing the principal Actions of his Father's Life with his Wars and Triumphs He received the Name of Caracallus from a Garment so called which he first brought up and gave to the People of Rome for a Bounty He repaired the Via Nova which is below his Baths so well that you will scarce find a Street in Rome that is fairer than it He erected stately Temples in all places to the Honour of the Goddess Isis whose Sacrifices he celebrated with much greater Reverence than ever had been used before at Rome His Body was interred in the Sepulchre of the Antoninus's that the same place should receive his Reliques which had given him that Name It is now fit that I should relate how it is said that he came to marry his Mother-in-Law Julia she was very handsome and as she happen'd one day in negligence to discover her Body a little naked Ah Madam said he to â—er I would if I might Sir said she again If you please you can you are an Emperor and to give Laws to all the World and not take them from any He no sooner had understood the sense of those Words but his unbridled Passion led him to resolve upon the accomplishment of the Crime and so he really celebrated those Nuptials with her which His incestuous Marriage were in effect the same as to take to Wife his own Mother and to add Incest with his Mother to the Murder of his Brother It will not be improper here to remark a very picquant thing which was said of him As he had ascribed to himself the Titles in his stile of Germanicus Parthicus Arabicus and Alemannicus because of his Conquests over the Germans and those other Nations Helvius Pertinax the Son of the Emperor Pertinax smiling said His Majesty might be pleased to add Geticus Maximus In which word Geticus there is an equivocation with a double relation to Geta his Brother whom he had killed and with relation to the Goths called Getae whom he had overcome in some running Fights in his passage into the East The Death of Geta was prognosticated by several Prodigies as we shall shew by and by in his own Life which follows In the mean time we shall only observe farther that formerly when the Army had proposed Bassianus Antoninus to march at the Head of them in the place of Severus his Father who was so sick of the Gout that he could not well follow the War Severus was then for putting to death th 〈…〉 his Son Bassianus if the Captains of the Guards had not over-persuaded him against it On the contrary others say that the Captains of the Guards were for punishing Bassianus with Death but that his Father was against it because he was not willing that the foolish Rashness of a young Man should be resented so severely as for his own Father to kill him when the Soldiers rather were the great occasions of the Crime However it is this most cruel Prince Bassianus Antoninus Caracallus who in a word was a Parricide Incestuous an Enemy of his Father Mother and Brother was yet by Macrinus that killed him out of fear of the Soldiers and especially those of the Guards after his Death made a God A Temple was given him and an Order of Priests appointed to serve him Even the Temple of Faustina built by Marcus Antoninus at the Foot of the Mountain Taurus was re-dedicated to him and his Son Antoninus Heliogabalus translated the same again afterwards to either Jupiter Syrius or the Sun or himself but to which of the Three I cannot very well assert THE LIFE OF ANTONINVS GETA BY AELIUS SPARTIANUS Dedicated to the EMPEROR Constantine the Great IMP. CAES. P. SEPT GETA PIVS AVG. IMP. CAES. M. OPEL. SEV MACRINVS AVG M OPEL. ANTONINVS DIADVMENIANVS CAES IMP. CAES. MAVR ANTONINVS PIVS AVG. IMP. CAES. MAVR SEV ALEXANDER AVG. MAXIMINVS PIVS AVG. GERM. P. 318. Vol. 1. His other name of Geta was what he had from either his Father's Brother or from his Grandfather whose names were Geta. There were yet other reasons for the addition of that name of Antoninus to this of Geta. Severus would have had it to be a Rule that all Princes in the time to come should be Entitled Antonini in the same manner as they are Augusti Which was the effect of his great love to the Emperor Marcus Antoninus whose Son he was pleased to call himself and whose Wisdom and the Precepts of his Philosophy he always endeavoured to imitate And not only the effect of his love to that Prince who was an Antoninus but by Adoption but of his Love and Honour also to Antoninus Pius the Successour of Hadrian by reason that it was Antoninus Pius who had preferred him from a Practicer in the Law to be the Keeper of the Exchequer which was a happy Rise to him and which had opened him the way to those great Advantages that afterwards he came to attain unto who thought therefore that he could not borrow a name from any Prince better than from one whose Reign had been so happy nor a name more honourable than that that had already run through four Emperors Being skilful in the Doctrine of Astrology as many of the Africans generally are he said one day because he knew the Nativity of Geta I admire
voted him the Title of Pious Nevertheless at the first upon the News of the Death of Caracallus there was a long silence in the Senate because no body dared to be forward to believe it But it was no sooner confirmed to them that he was really killed but they inveighed against him as a Tyrant immediately they conferred the Proconsular and the Tribunitian Powers upon Macrinus who accepted from them the Title of the Happy instead of that of the Pious and was pleased that the Name of Antoninus should be confirmed by them to his Son And here I may observe that this Name which began in a Prince who was in reality as well as by Title Pious came by degrees through a number of others one after another who impaired its Reputation more and more to end at last in a Man so impious that he was the very scum of the Earth Marcus Antoninus was the only Prince after Pius who adorned it by a Life worthy of it Verus Antoninus his Partner degenerated from it and Commodus Antoninus even polluted it What shall I say of Antoninus Caracallus Or what of Antoninus Diadumenus What shall I say of Antoninus Heliogabalus But as he was the last of the Antoninusses and base born so he is remembred to have lived in the greatest impurity Opilius Macrinus being thus established in the His Parthian Expedition Empire he made great preparations to continue the War against the Parthians and proposed to abolish the infamy of his former Life and the baseness of his Birth by the greatness of his Victories He engaged the Enemy as they were commanded by Artabanus their King who fought obstinately But after this a Peace being agreed upon then Macrinus retired to the City of Antioch where giving himself up to Luxury his Legions took a just pretence from thence to revolt from him to Varius Heliogabalus who was the reputed Son of Antoninus Bassianus Caracallus and who coming with an Army against him defeated him and killed He is slain him after he had reigned but a little more than one Year There was a Lady called Moesa alias Varia a Phoenician of the City of Emissa the Sister of Julia the Wife of the Emperor Severus who after the Death of Antoninus Caracallus was banished the Court by Macrinus but yet she was allowed to take along with her all the effects which she had amassed in the long time of her continuance there This Lady had two Daughters called Semiamira and Mammaea The first and eldest was the Mother of Varius Heliogabalus who was a Priest of the Sun and had taken the Name of Heliogabalus in the Phoenician Language from the Name of the God that he worshipped And being as well by his noble Stature and his Beauty as by his Office remarkable to all that came to the Temple especially the Soldiers his Grand-Mother Moesa alias Varia took her opportunity to say to them that he was the Son of the Emperor Antoninus Bassianus Caracallus which from one to another came to be made known to all And as she was herself very rich and Heliogabalus very prodigal she made such Promises to them in his behalf that she seduced the Legions to a revolt who accordingly received him and his Mother and their followers into a Garrison by Night and proclaimed him Emperor by the Name of Antoninus and invested him with the marks of that Dignity When this Account was brought unto Macrinus at Antioch he admiring at the boldness of the Woman which he could not but slight at the same time sent Julianus the Captain of his Guards with his Legions to besiege her But no sooner did the New Antoninus shew himself in Person to those Men but they were all so marvellously inclined to love him that they killed Julianus their Captain and passed over in a Body to his side Then Antoninus Heliogabalus having formed his Army set himself to march against Macrinus as Macrinus was marching against him and joyning Battel Macrinus was defeated occasioned by the Treachery of his own Soldiers by reason of their Love to Antoninus So he fled with some few in company with him and particularly his Son But both he and his Son were afterwards pursued and killed in a Village of Bithynia and his Head cut off and brought to the Conqueror And all that his Son had gotten by the Empire was his Destiny only to be killed with his Father Certainly Macrinus was in the time that he reigned more rigorous and more austere than he had ever been before thereby hoping to suppress the Reports of all his by-past Actions and to bury them in oblivion on the contrary that Severity did but open a fresh occasion to People to blame him Thus he was for having himself to be called a Severus and a Pertinax And when the Senate had given him the Titles of the Happy and the Pious he only accepted the first and refused the other which occasioned a Libel to be made upon him which was put up in the Forum in Greek and Latin Verse to this purpose That an old ugly troublesome sour and unreasonable Man of a Stage-player alluding to his fighting formerly as a Gladiator pretending to be Happy without being at the same time Pious it was a thing unnatural and irrational for those were two Virtues not to be separated An impious Reign will make his Subjects unhappy and he who makes his Subjects so must be unhappy himself His Temper and Cruelties Macrinus was therefore one of a proud and bloody Mind he loved to govern with the arbitrariness of a Soldier accused the Discipline of former times and praised Severus alone of all the Emperors He condemned his Soldiers to the Cross and always punished them with the punishments of Slaves In any Mutiny he generally decimated sometimes he contented himself to centesimate them which last was a peculiar word of his own when he drew out but every hundredth Man when to execute which he accounted a Mercy he had said they deserved to be decimated or vicesimated Certainly it would be too tedious here to recount all his Cruelties However one I will mention which was not great as he thought it and yet it is something worse than the Barbarities of all the Tyrants that ever were Two Soldiers were reported to have forced their Landlord's Maid against her Will to lye with them at the same time she was one that had been debauched long before He hearing of it by his Spies sent for them and examined the Matter and it appearing to be true he ordered Two vast great Oxeâ— to be opened alive suddenly and the Men to be stuffed into their Bellies there to remain till they died with only their Heads out that they could talk to one another which was a sort of a Punishment that had nothing like it then or in any former times in the case of Adultery itself In his Wars always indeed against the Parthians Armenians and Arabians he quitted himself
him alone but his Son in Conjunction with him who is a Noble Youth for the greater Security of the State It is for you to Concur with Us to the Common Good and Safety to oppose in the mean time the wicked Designs of those that threaten us and as for Maximin and his Friends where ever they are to pursue them to Death We have adâ—udged him an Enemy together with his Son Now the Act of the Senate for Constituting â—he two Gordiani the Father and the Son Emâ—erors passed in this manner On the 6th â—f the Calends of June the Senate being Assem 〈…〉 led in the Temple of Castor and Pollux Junius â—yllanus the Consul read the Letter of Gordianus to them which he had received out of Africa The Letter was this Fathers of the Senate It was altogether against my Will that the People of this Country and the Army to whom the preservation of it is committed have called me to the Empire But with an eye to you I content my self to sustain that Necessity It is for you to consider what you will do For till I receive the Judgment of the Senate I shall be uncertain and full of doubt what course to take As soon as this Letter was read the Senate Answered it in these Acclamations The Gods preserve our Augustus and our Emperor Gordianus The Gods give a happy Reign to your Majesty who hath Delivered us May your Majesty who is our Deliverer Reign in safety The State is see in you We give you all possible Thanks Then the Consul moved the Senate and said Fathers of the Senate what is your Judgment as to the Maximins They cryed Enemies Enemies The Consul moved the Senate again and said What is your Judgment as to the Friends and Adherents of Maximin They cryed Enemies Enemies whoever kills them shall receive a Praemium Then these Acclamations followed Let the Enemy of the Senate be Crucified Let the Enemies of the Senate in all Parts be destroyed Let the Enemies of the Senate be burnt Alive The Gods save our two Emperors the Gordiani May you both Live May you both Reign together in Happiness We Decree the Praetorship to Gordianus the Third the Grandson We promise a Consulship to the Grandson of Gordianus Let the Grandson of Gordianus receive the Title of Caesar Let Gordianus the Third enter upon the Office of a Praetor When this Ordinance of the Senate was Rage of Maximin upon the News brought to Maximin he who was naturally fierce broke out into such a rage and passion you would think him more like a Lion than a Man He beat himself against the Wall and sometimes threw himself upon the ground He roared extravagantly and drew his Sword as if he would kill the Senate he tore in pieces his Royal Cloaths and struck at such as were next him and if his own Son had not retired out of his way they say he would have pull'd out his Eyes The reason of his Passion against his Son was this He had ordered him at their first entrance to the Empire to go and live at Rome which his Son out of his too great love to his Father having neglected Maximin thought that if but his Son had been at Rome the Senate would never have dared to attempt this Revolt Whilst he was in this extream Passion his Friends carried him to his Bed The next day because he could not otherwise contain himself nor lay aside the thoughts of his Resentments they set him to drown them in Wine which he did The day after he assembled a Council of his Friends to consider what was best to be done They said little some of them in their hearts applauded the Act of the Senate From this Council he went to his Army whom he harangued in a Speech which was full of Passion against Gordianus and the Africans that had set him up and especially against the Senate and then he exhorts them to Revenge their common Injuries The Speech was this My Fellow-Soldiers I am to tell you a Thing His Speech to the Army which you will not think to be any News to you you know the Country so well which is this The Africans have revolted and broken their Faith with me I would fain know when did they ever keep it with any Gordianus a feeble Old Man with one Foot in the Grave hath taken upon him the Empire And our Holy Fathers of the Senate have made his Son Emperor with him Those most Holy Fathers of the Senate who as they once Murdered the Thrice Noble Julius Caesar so now they have adjudged me an Enemy at the same time that I am Fighting for them and Conquering for them Nor is it Me only whom they have adjudged so but You and all that are with me Therefore if you are Men and Men of Bravery and Courage let us march against the Senate and against the Africans and you shall have all their Estates amongst you Having said this he gave them a great Bounty and began to March them towards Rome In the mean time Gordianus in Africa having displaced Capellianus from the Government of the Province of Mauritania because he was a Friend of Maximin Capellianus had put himself upon his defence and gathered together a Body of Men against him Gordianus the Father sent his Son Gordianus to meet and Fight Capellianus They Engaged one another with great obstinacy Gordianus was killed and lost the Battle which his Father much lamenting Young Gordianus slain and knowing that Maximin was very strong and that on the contrary the Africans were a People not sufficient for him to trust to and Old Gordianus kills himself full of Treachery he rather than to fall into the hands of Maximin put an end to his own days and Strangled himself Capellianus made good use of this Victory He slew and proscribed all he found of the Party of Gordianus he spared none as if he acted with the very Soul of Maximin in him He subverted whole Cities plundered the Temples distributed the Booty of the Temples amongst his Soldiers He cut in pieces Poor and Rich together ingratiating himself much with the Soldiers that in case Maximin should dye himself might have a fair hit for the Empire When the News of this was brought to Rome the Senate being more in fear than ever upon it of the Cruelty of Maximin which upon so much provocation given he had Reason as much as it was his Nature to exert they set up Pupienus Maximus and Clodius Balbinus to be Emperors together with Gordianus the Third a Youth who was the Grandson of Gordianus the First So they had three Emperors to support them against Maximin at once The first had been the Governour of the City of Rome had passed through many high Offices with reputation and was one of great Worth and Note but not of Birth As he was of the severer Life so was he the most Prudent and most Valorous of
Daphne and the rest of the time at Antioch All the Syrians made a jest of him and several Railleries which they passed upon him upon the Stage in their Plays are extant He admitted his Slaves to be as free with him at all times as the Custom is to be upon the Feasts of Saturn He went at the solicitation of his Courtiers as far as to the Banks of the Euphrates twice and he came up to Ephesus to meet his Wife Lucilla who was sent to him from Marcus her Father But his design in this last Journey principally was to prevent Marcus that he should not come down with her into Syria and so detect his ill deportments because Marcus had told the Senate that he would bear his Daughter Company into Syria At last when the War was ended he appointed Kings over the respective Kingdoms and gave the Governments of the Provinces amongst his Officers and then returned His return to Rome himself to Rome but much against his inclination though it was to take the honour of a Triumph because to leave Syria was to leave as it were his own Proper Kingdom So he came and triumphed in Company with his Brother and the Senate consirmed the Titles to him which he had before received from the Army He shaved his Beard which he had not done before in Syria only to pleasure an ordinary Mistress that he had gained there which gave the Syrians an occasion to say several things upon him The time of his return to Rome was unfortunate for it seemed as if he brought the Plague with him thither and into the Provinces through which he passed This Plague arose first in the Country of Babylon where out of a small golden Coffer which a Soldier had plundered in the Temple of Apollo proceeded it is said such a Pestilentious stench as spread itself from thence into Parthia and so over the World Not that this was yet a fault of Verus but of Cassius who contrary to his Faith given rased the City of Seleucia after it had received our Forces as Friends At the same time amongst others Quadratus a Writer of the Parthian War Vindicates Cassius too against this accusation and lays the blame upon the Seleucians themselves for breaking their Faith with Cassius the first But however that is Verus had so much reverence for Marcus that he desired to Communicate to him upon the day that they triumphed together the same Titles and Names of Honour which had been deferred to himself But yet after his return from the Parthian War he was not altogether so very observant of Marcus as formerly suffering his Servants to have too great an influence over him and acting in many things by them without the advice of his Brother To which it is to be added that he brought a His other Vanities Company of Mimicks with him out of Syria as if they had been so many Kings to adorn his Triumph The principal of whom called by the name of Paris Then he built himself a famous Seat upon the Via Clodia where he Revelled with great Luxury for several days together in Company with his Servants and such of his chosen Friends whose presence brought no constraint upon him He invited Marcus thither one day to see him who came but it was to shew to him the sanctity of his life which was great and worthy to have been the subject of his imitation Marcus tarried with him five days but employed his time all the while in continual Business whilst Verus was either Feasting or providing for his Feasts Another Mimick that he brought with him out of Syria as a Trophy of the Parthian War was one that he called by the Name of Apolaustus but his former Name was Agrippus Memphis He brought with him besides for his diversion Fidlers Pipers Players Buffoons Juglers and of all those sorts of Slaves which Syria and Alexandria are so delighted with that really one would think by his Captives that he had been making War not against Parthia but against the Stage It was not openly visible to the World but yet it was privately whispered that this diversity of his Life to that of Marcus with many other things occasioned an ill Understanding betwixt them Especially this was said upon the Death of Libo who was a Cousin German to Marcus and who had been sent by him as his Lieutenant into Syria where behaving himself more haughtily than a Senatour in that Quality ought to have done and saying That be would write to Marcus to be satisfied if perhaps he doubted in any thing Verus could not take it that he paid no more Respect to him who was an Emperor upon the Place and after this Libo died suddenly with almost the Marks of Poyson upon him From which some thought that he was poysoned by the hand of Verus And though Marcus was not of this Opinion yet the thing served to encrease the rumor of their disagreement Geminas and Agaclytus two Servants of Verus had a great Influence over him as I have already said in the Life of Marcus He married the latter to Libo's Widow although contrary to the desire of Marcus who therefore denied his Presence to the Espousals Codes and Aelius Laetus or Electus were two others of his manumitted Servants He had more besides who were all ill Men enough and whom Marcus dismissed after the Death of their Master only Aelius Laetus he retained who afterwards was the Author of the Death of his Son Commodus In fine when the German War The German Expedition came on because Marcus neither thought fit to send Verus to it alone nor yet to leave him in the Town alone upon the Account of his great Luxury they went both together to it and came to the City of Aquileia where Verus did nothing but divert and enjoy himself whilst Marcus took upon him the Care of all things They crossed the Alps although this was much against the Inclination of Verus and as for what passed afterwards betwixt the Ambassadors of the Barbarians on the one hand begging Peace and our Emperors on the other it hath been already represented sufficiently in the Life of Marcus So the heat of the War being over and Verus urging to return to Aquileia again because he longed for the Pleasures of Rome it was resolved by both to go back to Rome But as Verus was in the Coach not far from the City of Altino he was taken suddenly with an Apoplexy for which lifting him immediately out of the Coach and letting him Blood they brought him alive unto Altino where he continued three Days speechless and then died Death of Verus There was a Discourse as if he had been Incestuous with his Wife's Mother Faustina and that Faustina had contrived his Death by putting Poyson in his Oysters because the Conversation which he had with the Mother he discovered to the Daughter There was another Story made of his Death which I have set
in relation to his Victories over the Goths who were then called Getae but there was an Equivocation in the Word for it also referred to the Murder of his Brother Geta. This sunk deep into the Breast of Bassianus as it appeared afterwards by his putting to death the Author and not him only but those others as I have said above More particularly as to Helvius Pertinax he was willing to cut him off upon the account that he was in the good esteem of all the World and then besides he was the Son of an Emperor which it self was no very safe Circumstance for a private Person The Funeral of Antoninus Geta was so very His solemn Funeral Fine that one would not have thought the same Brother that buried him had killed him He was buried in the Sepulchre of his Ancestors that is to say of Severus his Father which is upon the Appian way In fine it is to be observed that the Caresses of Antoninus Caracallus Bassianus were more to be dreaded than his Frowns He had an unaccountable Quality with him to speak the fairest and the kindliest to those in appearance whom he resolved to destroy And again it was a Miracle to all to see him lament as he did the death of Geta as often as his name was mentioned or his Picture or his Statue came in sight He was therefore a Man of many Windings and Turnings in his Humour and this being accompanied with as much Cruelty as if he thirsted after Blood it made him that he would one time Massacre the Friends another time the Enemies of Geta as Fortune offered them to him so that the loss of Geta by the same means became lamented more and more THE A. Christi CCXVIII Life and Reign OF THE EMPEROR OPILIUS MACRINUS Dedicated to the EMPEROR DIOCLESIAN By JULIUS CAPITOLINUS WHen Princes either have not sat very long upon the Roman Throne or have not been Persons of any extraordinary Characters before their Accession to it so that there is but little to be said of their Reigns for the shortness of them and less perhaps of their private Lives in which they might never have been known if they had not aspired to the Empire It is not to be admired if their Memories should sometimes lye buried in obscurity Therefore for my part what I can find that I do think may be deserving to be committed to Posterity and worthy to be reseued out of the accounts of divers Historians I shall produce it to the World apprehending this to be the Duty of him who proposes to write the Lives of others that is not to recount every thing thâ—t a Man does but with Judgment to make a Choice of what is more particularly deserving of Memory So that I should think that Aelius Junius Cordus who hath taken the Pains to publish the Lives of those Emperors whom he believes to be more obscure and less known than others hath not yet acquitted himself of his Design with the greatest Success Because as short as he is he hath yet reported things that are scarce worth the Labour of the Writing them He suffers not the least trifles to escape him as if concerning Trajan Antoninus Pius or Marcus Antoninus it signifieth any thing to know every time that they went abroad or how they changed their Habits and who every Person was that they preferred and when or when they were served with other Viaâ—ds upon their Table than ordinary all which he recounts and fills his Books with them and so makes his History a Tale of a Tub. Whereas I think that as for things that are so cheap and of no value no mention at all ought to be made of them unless it is when it is proper to give a Judgment by them of certain Inclinations which may be really worth the knowledge and even then it is fit to touch them only in part and to leave the rest to be gathered by the Reader After the Death of the Emperor Bassianus Antoninus Caracallus his Captain of the Guards Opilius Macrinus who had before that been the keeper of his Privy-Purse possessed himself of the Empire A Man of a low Birth His Extraction and Character not a Gentleman born or bred full of assurance both in his Humour and his Looks sometimes he called himself by the Name of Severus sometimes Antoninus but yet every body hated him as well the Soldiers as the People He ingaged himself immediately in the War with the Parthians to take away by that means from the Soldiers the leisure to make Reflections upon him and so to confirm his Power or at least to stop the ill Reports from growing as much as it was possible under which he lay The Senate indeed willingly accepted him to be Emperor but yet it was chiefly out of their hatred to the memory of Antoninus Caracallus in relation to whom they oried out with one Voice Any body rather than a Parricide any Person rather than an incestuous and an impure Homicide any one rather than a Murderer of the Senate and the People It may be perhaps a Matter of some admiration why Macrinus having been the Author of the Death of his Predecessor who was by Name an Antoninus should nevertheless order his Son Diadumenus to be called Antoninus Diadumenus Now that which I find upon the Annals as to that matter is this The Oracle of the Goddess Coelestis in Carthage having been consulted by the Proconsul about the State of the Empire and the publick Affairs in the time of Antoninus Pius about the Emperors After other things she particularly repeated the Name of Antoninus eight times whereby it was understood that the Emperor Antoninus Pius should Reign eight Years But when that Prince had out-lived that term so that if any Faith was to be given to the Oracle something else than that was designed by it which time was to produce It was supposed at last to signifie that the number of the Emperors of the Name of Antoninus should be eight and so they are To wit Antoninus Pius the First Marcus Antoninus the Second Verus Antoninus his Colleague in the Empire the Third Commodus Antoninus the Fourth Antoninus Caracallus the Fifth Antoninus Geta the Sixth Antoninus Diadumenus the Seventh and Antoninus Heliogabalus the Eighth For as for the Two Gordiani or Severus or Pertinax or Julianus or Opilius Macrinus who did all of them sometimes call themselves Antonini they are never to be accounted of the number of the true Antonini but only those Eight now mentioned by whom that Name was more retained than any of their own Now Macrinus was willing to give his Son the Name of an Antoninus for this reason because the People should have the less occasion to suspect that the late Emperor of that Name had been kill'd by his Orders and because he knew very well that every one had such an extraordinary Love for that Name that unless the Emperor was called Antoninus they
could scarce think him an Emperor After Opilius Macrinus was also kill'd and the Senate was assured that Varius Heliogabalus the Son of Antoninus Caracallus was declared Emperor by the Army then it was that it was loudly represented in the Senate what an ignoble Person Macrinus was Aurelius Victor Pinnius spoke thus Macrinus a Slave the other day that drudged His mean Original in the servile Offices of the Emperor's Family a Bougre a Hireling He lived a paltry Life â—â—der Commodus Severus thought him not fit at first for the most miserable Employments but turned him out and banished him into Africa where to cover his Infamy he betook himself to Letters and came to plead some small Causes and to declaim and at last to be a Justice Then he was created a Gentleman and so at length arrived to be the Keeper of the Exchequer under Severus by the Favour of Festus who was an infranchised Slave of that Prince This relation however is not so undoubted but that others give us the Steps of his Promotion thus That he was a Gladiator and had sought in that quality publickly Obtaining afterwards his Freedom he went into Africa where he was a Notary and raising himself after that to be the Keeper of the Emperor's Exchequer from thence he succeeded unto the highest Honors Whilst he was the Captain of the Guards he contrived the Death of his Master with that dexterity of Intrigue that it could not be perceived that he had the least hand it it He gained upon a Quirry to give the Blow what with the Money he bribed him with and what with the great Promises that he made him And then it was so ordered that it should be said that he was killed in a Mutiny of the Soldiers because for his murdering his Brother and the Incest of his marrying his Mother he was so odious to them But no sooner was this done but Macrinus Make his Son Caesar possessed himself of his place and made his Son Diadumenus whom he immediately called by the Name of Antoninus Diadumenus his Partner with him in the same Then he sent the Body of the deceased to Rome to be interred in the Sepulchre of his Ancestors and commanded his Captain of the Guards who was his own late Colleague in that Office to take care of burying him in all respects honourably knowing that the Common People loved him for the Habits and the Largesses that he had given amongst them As he was afraid of a popular Emotion and that some body should intervene and hinder his Reign so he was glad to take the Empire as it were by surprise but yet in the mean time he served himself of that common Artifice to pretend that it was against his Inclination Particularly he was jealous of the Captain of the Guards his late Colleague because some People hoped that if he had the Consent but of one Legion he would not refuse an Opportunity in which they would be ready to serve him out of the hatred they had to Opilius Macrinus for his ill Life and for the ignobleness of his Education and Birth He took upon himself as I said the Name of Severus though he had no relation to that Prince which occasioned a good raillery upon both him and his Son Macrinus is a Severus as Diadumenus is an Antoninus Now to put a stop to any Commotion of the Soldiers he immediately gave a Bounty as well to the Legions as the Guards which was more than ordinarily large and as it is the Custom so to do his Money supplied the defect of his Innocence and what he wanted in one he made up with the other by virtue whereof he continued in the Empire for some time although he was a Man of all manner of Vice He writ Letters to the Senate concerning the Murder of Antoninus Caracallus in which he stiled him a God protesting as to himself that he was innocent and had known nothing of it and so he added to the Crime that he had committed Perâ—ury to begin his Reign withal It is fit to know what a sort of an harangue â—t was which he made when he writ to the Senate upon this occasion that we may see â—he Confidence of the Man and the Sacrilege with which he commenced his Reign The Heads of it were these done in the joynt Names of the Emperors Macrinus and Diadumenus We should have been heartily glad Fathers of His Messages to the Senate the Senate to have had our Sovereign Antoninus yet in safety and returning to you in Triumph We should all have been happy in such a flourishing State of the Empire and under a Prince who was a Successour of the Antonini and given us from the Gods But since this Happiness hath not befaln us by reason of a Mutiny of the Soldiers which hath deprived us of it we make you acquainted with what the Army hath done as to us in the first place and next we with your Consents decree an Apotheosis to be given immediately to our late Prince whose Murder the Army hath thought no Man more worthy to avenge than his own Captain of the Guards to whom himself had left it to chastise the Faction had he escaped their hands and lived In another place says he They have presented me with the Empire which I have therefore taken into my Protection and I shall continue it if the same thing be pleasing to you Fathers of the Senate which is so pleasing to them to whom I have given a Bounty and done every thing as the Custom is for the Emperors to do upon these occasions Again My Son Diadumenus whom you know the Army hath made my Partner in the Empire and hath not denied him the Name of Antoninus Indeed they have done him a greater Honour by that Name than by that degree of a Prince which we desire may be approved by you Fathers of the Senate as a good and happy Omen that you shall never want a Prince of a Name which you do so dearly love Again We and all the Army have equally decreed the Honours of a God unto Antoninus Caracallus And though we might with the Authority of Emperors command the same from you Fathers of the Senate yet we rather desire you to do it and to dedicate to him two Statues on Horseback two more standing in Military Habit and two others sitting in a Civil one We dedicate also two triumphal Statues to the Emperor Severus All which Fathers of the Senate you will command to be performed at our earnest Request When this was read in the Senate they took the news of the death of Antoninus Caracallus very well and hoping that Opilius Macrinus would maintain the publick Liberty they first made him a Patrician who was a Man originally of no Family and little known then they made him High-Priest a Title annexed to the Emperors who sometime before had been a Clerk to the minor Priests And lastly they