The early Principate: a history of Rome, 31 B.C.-96 A.D

§ 1. Octavian Master of the World—§ 2. Universal Desire for Peace—§ 3. Incapacity of Senate and People to govern—§ 4. Tendency of Unconstitutional Commands—$ 5. Rise and Character of the Military Despotism—§ 6. Turbulence and Dependence of the Populus —§ 7. Wide Extent of the Empire: the Need of Centralization—8. Evolution of the Principate from Caesar’s Dictatorship — § 9. Assisted by the Republican Disguise of Augustus’s Government.

§ 1. The death of Antonius left the government of the Roman world once more in the hands of one man. Sulla and Caesar had each essayed the task of controlling that empire. The first had shown how inevitably the course of events tended to monarchy; the second had done something to show how desirable was the change. It remained for Octavian to set the inevitable and the desirable once and for all upon a lasting foundation. He must so far justify his autocracy as to place beyond question the permanency of the monarchy even after his own demise, and stamp out all mistaken conservatism which still dreamed of the restoration of the government of a century before.

2. The desire of the world was for peace. For twenty years the State had been torn by the jealousies of rival generals, the provinces and vassal States from Gaul to Pontus had been drained of blood and treasure to furnish weapons to combatants in whom they had no personal interest. Caesar had ousted Pompeius; the assassination of Caesar had brought into the lists Antonius, Lepidus, Sextus Pompeius, and Octavian; and these had fought to the death for the sole possession of an empire which they would not share, and which was falling into ruins from their very quarrels. The world at large took no interest in any one of the rivals. Senate and people and provincials alike looked on and 'waited to follow quietly the leader whose sword should prevail. War meant for them only confiscation of their lands to reward hired legionaries, the shedding of their best blood in a struggle which could bring no laurels, the ruin of their fortunes in the universal stagnation of trade and industry. Those who still believed in the ancient Gods saw only the working of a series of crimes—the spilling of brothers’ blood—each of which entailed a fresh curse upon themselves and their descendants. Those who had no faith—and they were many— assumed an indifference which was more unsatisfactory and hopeless than disbelief. In the air was a vague prophecy that a peace-maker was about to appear; and when Octavian had proved his right by his might, men saw in him the promised helper and acquiesced gladly in his preeminence.

3. Moreover, every cause which had contributed to the assertion of the autocracy of a Sulla or a Caesar now acted with increased force. That government by the Senate which had conducted Rome gloriously to the close of the Macedonian and Carthaginian wars had sunk into an oligarchic system of jobbery and corruption, and from thence into a system not less corrupt and still more incapable owing to the blow dealt it by the Gracchi. Sulla’s efforts at a restoration lasted only a few years after his death. After his decease the Senate threw itself desperately upon the mercy of one leader after another, regardless of the fact that those leaders, whom it entrusted with unconstitutional powers, might and did use their powers less constitutionally still against the donors. Roman politics had become a death-struggle between the Senate and the people for a supremacy which neither knew how to wield. There is no regard now for the honour of Rome abroad, for the well-being of her subjects, for Rome herself. The two parties fought just such another battle as did Antonius, Octavian, and their rivals afterwards—a straggle for rule regardless of the prize -which -was to be ruled. There were but two ways out of the evil; either the ancient balance of prerogatives must be restored between the Curia and the Comitia, or the jealousies of both must be subordinated to the power of some one master. Even Caesar’s Dictatorship had failed to teach its lesson, and his death found the constitutional government as incapable of harmonious action as before. Once, after his completed triumph, Augustus retired from Home and handed over to the Senate and people the full enjoyment of their ancient privileges (22—19 B.C.), and they used the opportunity as before when Pompeius had sullenly withdrawn his terrorism and left events to the will of Clodius and Milo. To restore the balance was impossible. It remained only to reduce both Senate and people to one level of dependence.

4. Had the two parties been sufficiently temperate to work out the problem in conformity with law—as the old quarrel of Patricians and Plebeians had once been worked out—some other solution might have been arrived at. But the self-restraint of the early days had passed away. Tiberius Gracchus had set the example of attempting reform by unconstitutional means; and thenceforward both parties used expedients as desperate as illegal to obtain their ends. The favourite expedient was that of raising up a leader backed by an irresistible army. Such a measure had been impossible when the constitutional fetters of time and age were respected. It became easy when those fetters were removed and a Marius, a Pompeius, or a Caesar received for years in succession the plenary powers of the ancient annual magistracies; when even the sacredness of the pomoerium was no barrier to the entrance of the paludamentum and eagles into Rome; when no citizen of capacity was satisfied with anything short of virtual monarchy. It was not to be expected that those who accepted illegal commands would scruple to use them illegally, or would lay aside at a word the powers to which they owed their virtual sovereignty, and even, perhaps, their personal security.

§ 5. These special commands, as they were still called when their bestowal had long ceased to be special, amounted to nothing less than military despotisms. A victorious general with a multitude of legions at his back, bound to his service, whether by respect or by pay, was, so long as he had no rival, absolute. He might assume the character of a peaceful citizen, but behind him was the unseen hand of his legionaries ready at a moment to strike. The only check upon one such power was the creation of another; and so the evil went on increasing. The Gabinian, Manilian, and Trebonian laws were all so many attempts to introduce monarchy, in effect at least, though their original proposers may not have foreseen the inevitable result. ‘ ’Tis no good thing, a multitude of kings,’ said Homer; and long before an adviser of Octavian had altered the saying to justify the execution of a rival, it had been acted upon by everyone who held a special military command. Government by the sword commenced with Sulla and found its final avowal in the days of Caligula; but its practice never slept from the days of its first birth. The old patriotism was dead. There was now no citizen-army to fight Eome’s battles for Rome’s sake. The legions were recruited from Spain and Gaul and Asia, and owned no loyalty beyond what was to be purchased by the highest bidder. They would have razed Rome and transferred the empire to Tarraco, to Narbo, or to Byzantium, without compunction. It was no longer a question of the justice of a cause, but of numbers alone.

§ 6. Behind the Optimates, who championed either Senate or people to further their own ends, was the rabble of Rome—the populus—which had long ceased to respect any law but that of force. Since the day when the first blood was shed in a Roman riot, in 131 B.C., there had rarely been any question of moment decided without appeal to open violence. A Clodius or a Milo was the natural outcome of the abuse of democratic liberty; and they had got long since beyond the control of the Senate or the democratic leaders, unless supported by an armed force. Their turbulence was curbed in the early years of the Principate; but it slumbered only, and a fresh outburst led to the establishment of a regular police by Augustus. Even when no election-cry furnished them with a watchword, the rabble were ever ready for a riot about the price of com. There was no starving this ‘many-headed monster thing’ into submission; it must be fed to be kept in good humour. So, at least, thought C. Gracchus and his successors in the government; and even Caesar could find no other mode of action. When Octavian seized the sole power, the masses were already recognised as State-paupers, whose feeding and maintenance and amusement must be the first care of the government, however constituted. A few years later Juvenal spoke of them as happy if they had but ‘bread and the circus’ games.’ Octavian recognised their privileges, and, indeed, made it his especial duty, as did Tiberius after him, to keep the markets well supplied with cheap provisions. Such a policy bankrupted the State, but Augustus did, at least, as much as anyone could do to stave off the evil day; and in any case his measures were attended with a degree of success far beyond anything which could have been attained by the efforts of an incapable, improvident, and divided Senate.

7. If the Senate had been found incapable of maintaining order and sufficiency at home, the state of the provinces was far worse. From end to end of the empire the governors plundered and extorted, and drained their provinces not only of their produce for the present but of their reserves for the future. No justice could be obtained ; for if a verdict were given in favour of the victims it was rarely enforced, and never in such a way as to recoup the plundered parties. Lands lay idle, roads went to ruin, and trade stagnated. In time of war the evil was still worse. What the governors and publicani had left was destroyed by soldiery billeted at free quarters everywhere. Even if peace had prevailed and justice had been enforced, it would have been a formidable task for the Senate in its best days to cope with so vast a mass of work as was implied by the huge empire of 30 B.C. It needed one mind and one hand to guide and curb that empire—a mind which could see that in the welfare of its subjects lay the welfare of the empire, and a hand which had no rival to stay its sure action. The weakness of senatorian government is always the presence of an opposition. Under a Caesar there could be no such weakness, for his will was law to all and was obeyed forthwith, for it was upheld by the swords of the world. No doubt the affairs of the empire were too great for one man to manage in the best way; but what it could see to be requisite the monarchy could execute without failure, and its vision was the clearer in that it was not distracted by partisanship and jealousies. There may have been cases when the governors still plundered; there may still have been some to regret the old Republic. But the good results of the Principate to the provincials at least far exceeded its failings; and while many of them pleaded to be made Imperial provinces, none ever made the opposite request—to be transferred from the Princeps’ rule to that of the Senate.

§ 8. Such were some of the more crying reasons which made necessary the establishment of the Principate. Its establishment was rendered possible by the events of the previous century, which had slowly but surely prepared the Romans and their subjects for the change. The world was all but ripe for it when Julius seized the tyrannis. The fall of Julius with its attendant years of confusion and bloodshed, and its idle vaunt of liberty restored, completed the preparation. The Principate of Augustus was evolved naturally out of the Dictatorship of Julius. It was no new thing. It could even appeal, if need were, to that Dictatorship as a precedent, and there were few points in which the precedent was wanting. Julius was the architect; Augustus the builder; and if the latter in one or two details altered the designer’s theory to suit actual facts, he did no more than every builder does when occasion arises. There will be found later on (Chapter V.) a list of the main features borrowed by Augustus from his forerunner.

§ 9. The Julian Dictatorship fell because it concealed too slightly its absolutism. The self-control of Julius tottered, when it had reached its highest goal, and he allowed himself to appear as monarch in name, not in fact alone. The Romans would still struggle for an idea, though they were ready to acquiesce in its outward realization ; so the tyrannicides veiled their crime under the plea used by Brutus and his colleagues in 510 b.c. Augustus was more wary. To the last he spoke of the State as a Republic still, in which he was merely the high-steward of the traditional Senate and Comitia. He respected the idea which Julius trampled upon, and he was therefore left free to bind more securely year by year the fetters which he never named. It was said that he debated more than once about retiring from his post. The story only proves how well he could disguise his firm grasp of the monarchy, and cloak with the ‘ civilian air ’ his most unconstitutional proceedings.

§ 1. Temporary Settlement of the Affairs of Asia and the East—§ '2. Return of Octavian to Rome: Honours paid him: The Title of Imperator.—§ 3. The Censorship and Cemoria Potestas.—§ 4. His Munificence.—§ 5. He offers to lay down the Imperium, and receives the Imperium Proconsulare for Ten Years.—§ 6. The Title of Augustus.—§ 7. Princeps Senatus, Princeps, and Pater Patriae.— § 8. The Dacian War.—§ 9. Augustus in Spain.—§ 10. Final Sub-j ugation of the Cantabri, etc.—§ 11. The Provinces of Africa and Galatia.—§ 12. Disgrace of Cornelius Gallus.—§ 13. The Arabian War.—§ 14. Illness of Augustus: Confirmation of the Potestas Tribunitia, Proconsulare Imperium, and bestowal of the Right of Relatio.—§ 15. Death of Marcellus.

§ 1. After the battle of Actium, Sept. 2, 31 B.C., and the flight of Antonius to Egypt, Octavian, having disbanded the greater part of his forces, crossed over to Asia Minor. From the Aegean to the rivers Phasis and Euphrates, from the Euxine to the Eed Sea, the whole vast area had been brought under the suzerainty of Rome either directly or indirectly by the victories of Pompeius. That general had constituted the provinces of Syria and Cilicia, while leaving the remainder of his conquests under the control of native princes of his own choice. From that date no alteration had been made in the Pompeian arrangement, and Octavian for the present left things as he found them. Few of the native princes had at heart identified themselves with the cause of Antonius; many had been in secret correspondence with Octavian before the overthrow of his rival. It was therefore the safer course to leave them in possession of their sovereignties until more pressing matters had been dealt with. Cilicia and Asia remained as before, with the exception that the western portion of the former province was handed over to Archelaus, client-Prince of Cappadocia.

The cities of Lycia were left in the enjoyment of their own laws and liberties. Polemo, king of Colchis and that part of Pontus between Cerasus and Trapozus, and Amyntas, King of Galatia, were confirmed in their kingdoms. In Paphlagonia some small principalities continued to exist until 7 B.C., when they were joined to Galatia. Rhodes and Caria continued independent. Beyond the boundaries of Pontus and Cappadocia, the wide and powerful kingdom of Armenia was held in check by the imminence of the Parthian monarchy still further to the eastward, which threatened continually to reduce its weaker neighbours to vassalage or even dependence. The throne of Parthia was now occupied by Phraates, who, having been once expelled by Tiridates, had again recovered his position. The rivals both waited upon Octavian in Asia to sue for his support. Unwilling to involve himself so soon in a war with the conquerors of Crassus, he left Phraates in possession of his sceptre. He took security, however, for his good conduct in the person of his son, and allowed Tiridates to reside in the province of Asia without molestation. Herod of Judaea, one of the most formidable of Antonius’ recent allies, was rewarded for the instant transfer of his allegiance to Octavian by the gift of the territories of Samaria, and the coastline from Gaza to the tower of Straton (afterwards Caesarea). Egypt was taken away from the Ptolemies and constituted a Roman dependency under an equestrian prefect, Cornelius Gallus. Caesarion, reputed the son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, was put to death, as was Cassius Parmensis, the last of the tyrannicides.

2. In the summer of 29 B.C. Octavian returned to Rome and enjoyed his triple triumph (Aug. 13-15). The Roman world lay quiet at his feet, waiting to see the course he would pursue. The one desire of all, save, indeed, the legions whose occupation was war, was for peace, and the new ruler gratified that desire by the moderation of his conduct, and by the public ceremony of closing the gates of the Temple of Janus for the third time since the foundation of the city. There still lingered, indeed, petty wars on the frontiers of Gaul and in Spain; but these were not deemed of sufficient importance to delay the official declaration of Pax Romana—the peaceful attitude of the known world towards Rome. Honours were heaped upon the conqueror of Actium. While yet in Asia he had been presented with the privilege of wearing the insignia of triumph—the scarlet robe and laurel-wreath—on all public occasions. Quinquennial games were instituted in his honour at home and in the provinces; his name was inserted in the prayers for the safety of the Senate and people; his birthday was celebrated with sacrifices; and in the cities of Asia and Greece he was worshipped as a god. A new body of Vestals of Augustus was soon after instituted; and within a few years Horace could speak of the name of Octavian himself as associated with those of the Gods—at least, in private prayer —throughout Italy itself. There is an idle story that at this juncture Octavian debated seriously with his ministers, Agrippa and Maecenas, who had acted as his representatives at Rome during his stay in Asia and Egypt, whether he should resign his power and become once more a civilian. He had never entertained any such idea. He had, indeed, laid aside the title of Triumvir now that it had no longer any meaning; but he was still consul and possessed of tribunitian authority, and his sole aim was, by apparent deference to the old constitutional formulae to induce the Senate to spontaneously offer him the confirmation of the powers which he actually possessed. The symbol and instrument of those powers was the army; and accordingly the first act of the Senate was to decree to Octavian the title I of Imperator. Julius had borne the title after his name; his descendant took it as a species of cognomen to precede his Gentile name and praenomen, though these henceforth disappear. Octavian henceforth was Imperator Caesar Julii filius. By this act the Senate put into his hands for life the entire control of the legions, and laid down voluntarily that exercise of military control which it had usurped from the populus in early times, and which it had maintained by means of its consuls and other officers, until the latter showed they needed no sanction of the Senate to wield the swords of the legions at their pleasure.

§ 3. Augustus more than once exercised the powers without the title of the censorship. As consul, he could not be actually censor according to the old constitution; but Julius had set the example of disassociating a title from its powers, and Octavian could seem to follow a recognised precedent in imitating him. Armed with this authority, he proceeded to revise the Album Senatorium, rejecting unworthy members , who had crept into it during the troubles of the past twenty L years, and in every way endeavouring to restore the ancient prestige of the Senate, in direct contradiction to the conduct of Julius, who had, as the champion of the Marians and the democracy, done his best to degrade the assembly of the Optimates and Sullans. In the year 28 B.C. Octavian used this new authority to make a census of the Homan world—an act repeated in the years 8 B.C. and 14 a.d.; and he revised also the Album Judicum—the list of persons Qualified to serve as jurors, and the Decuriae Equitum—those of equestrian rank liable to the same duties

§ 4. Meanwhile, to cloak his gradual assumption of the supreme power, he indulged all ranks with largesses. The battle of Actium had yielded no spoils, for all had perished in the burning of Antonius’ fleet, or had been carried away in the flight of the Egyptian Squadrons, and the legionaries had been disbanded unrewarded. To restore their good-humour, the victor now presented each with 1000 sesterces e —representing a sum of 120,000,000 sesterces—for which t. the recent spoils of Alexandria gave him enough and to spare. The civil wars had disturbed all the commercial and financial business of the State. To relieve the distress so caused, a largess of 400 sesterces apiece was given to every citizen, children and adults alike. The higher ranks were gratified by appointment to lucrative and illustrious offices. All alike shared in the festivities and shows which accompanied and followed Octaviau’s triumph. The public distribution of corn was continued on a more lavish scale than ever; arrears due to the public chest were remitted, and the deficit supplied from the Emperor’s private purse ; such senatorial families as had sunk into poverty were once more rehabilitated by munificent grants; and throughout the city the historic monuments were beautified and restored, and public works were undertaken on the most lavish scale, chief , amongst which was the famous Temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill, with its museum and magnificent library, in which to have his bust set up, crowned with the bay-| wreath, was the summit of the ambition of the litterateur* of the time.

§ 5. The State was in the full glow of the enthusiasm and gratitude purchased by these indulgences, when, on January 1, 27 B.C., Caesar declared in the Senate that his work was done, and that he would now lay down his imperium. The Senate, restored to dignity and peace, was able, he said, to manage the State for itself as of old But, as he probably foresaw, the offer was greeted with an outburst of dissent. "Whether carried away by the feelings of the moment, or earnestly convinced of the advisability of what they did, the senators declared Caesar possessed of the procoyisulare imptriwn for a space of ten years- taore. HiT’decline'd to receive it for life ; for such anHScr^vould have savoured too much of the perpetual dictatorship, for which Julius had paid the price of his life. Neither would he receive it as valid over the whole Roman world. He handed over to the separate government of the Senate the more peaceful provinces, and retained only such as needed the control of a military force, which he maintained himself in virtue of his imperium. From this year dates the regular Principate—the joint government of the Emperor and the restored Republican Senate.

§ 6. Some weeks later the Senate bestowed upon him the title of Augustus, by which he has ever since been known. Heretofore the name had been applied to no mortal, but only to the festivals and temples of the Gods. By it he acquired something of the awe which still lingered in the mind of the Romans about the Gods of a decayed religion, and it fitted in with the semi-deification already accorded to him by his association with the Gods in the State ritual.

7. After the revision of the Album Senatorium, in 28 e_.c., Augustus, himself of course a senator, received roeltitle of Princess Senatus, or Head of the House. The title hacT’Tseen''m abeyance since the death of Catulus. It implied no special duties or powers, but was merely a complimentary designation of the most illustrious member of the ‘Assembly of Kings.’ Different from it was the name of Princeps, which came to be the Roman equivalent for our word Emperor. It was not of official origin, and did not convey the expression of any formal compliment. It merely described Caesar as primus inter pares, the leading citizen amongst the whole citizen body. One other title, that of Pater Patriae, was conferred upon him in the year 2 B.C. by the acclamation of the Senate ; but this also was an informal one, ratified by no decree, and was used only as a term of studied flattery. It was the name by which another ‘saviour of the State’ had been hailed, Cicero, when he had suppressed the conspiracy of Catiline, 63 B.C.

§ 8. Secure now in the constitutional sanction which guaranteed all his manifold powers, Augustus turned his attention to reducing the western provinces and frontiers to the same peaceful condition as that which prevailed in the east. The mountain tribes on the north and south slopes of the Pyrenees were still in arms, and accordingly in 27 b.c. he left the city to superintend in person the pacification of Gaul and Spain. Before his departure occurred two triumphs. The first was that of M. Crassus, grandson of the triumvir, who had taken up in 29 b.c. the Dacian war of which Julius had dreamed. The Daci were a warlike tribe on either bank of the Lower Danube, whose forays southward and westward upon Macedonia and Dalmatia had long insulted Rome and disturbed the tranquillity of those provinces. Their prince, Cotiso, the successor of Boerebistas, had even designed the invasion of Italy in conjunction with Antonius. Crassus defeated them together with the Bastarnae, and slew Delto, prince of the latter tribe. In the following year (28 b.c/ the Bastarnae returned to the struggle, but were again defeated, and the Roman rule was now extended to the Danube. The second triumph was that of M. Valerius Messala, who had been engaged for two years (28, 27 b.c.) in chastising the Aquitani; he at last defeated them in a pitched battle near Narbonne, and reduced the malcontents to submission.

§ 9. This latter triumph relieved Augustus of part of his intended labours. Nevertheless he passed into Gaul with a large force, detaching as he went A. Terentius Yarro to chastise the irrepressible mountaineers of the Alps. At Narbo he held a conventus, or synod of all the states of Southern Gaul, and there commenced that organization which speedily reduced the conquest of Julius to one of the most tractable parts of the empiie. Iiis work was interrupted by the need of action against the Cantabri and Astures, mountain tribes of the northwestern angle of the peninsula. The war which followed brought little glory. The Spaniards avoided pitched battles, and carried on then, as usual, a guerilla struggle which lasted for eight years. The fatigues of his campaign soon told on Augustus, who retired an invalid to Tarraco, now the capital of all the Spains, and left his lieutenants, C. Antistius and T. Carrisius, to carry on the war (25 B.C.). The Cantabri submitted ostensibly at the close of the year, and the military colonies of Bracara {Braga), Asturica (Astorga), Lucus Augusti {Lugo), and Emerita {Merida), were founded to maintain the submission of the northern and western coasts. About the same time Terentius Yarro almost exterminated the Salassi of the Pennine Alps, and secured his conquest—the first step towards a scientific frontier to Italy—by the foundation of Augusta Praetoria {Aosta).

§ 10. How insecure was the pacification of the Spanish tribes was shown by their revolting again immediately upon the return of Augustus to Pome (24 B.C.). In a short campaign Agrippa once more reduced them; but again in 22 B.C. they took up arms against the oppressions of Carrisius, the pro-praetor. Attacking three Roman armies at once, they were only prevented by treachery amongst themselves from anticipating the Yarian disaster. Carrisius and Fumius at length penetrated to the very heart of their fastnesses, and the latter officer, shutting up the remnant of their numbers within a circumvallation fifteen miles in length, compelled .to surrender all such as did not, like the Numantians, destroy themselves. Still the conquest was not complete. In 19 b.c. some of the survivors of the victory of Furnius raised a final revolt of a more stubborn and sanguinary character than ever. Agrippa, a second time commissioned to the war, could only induce his meu to face their desperate enemies by the severest punishments. He succeeded at length in completing a conquest which had begun nearly 200 years before by transferring the last of the Cantabri and Astures to the lowlands, and so depriving them of their strongest means of resistance. They speedily lost their independent spirit, and fifty years later Spain was the most Roman of all the provinces, and furnished a list of literary celebrities far exceeding in brilliancy those of any other part of the Roman world, Italy not excepted. Lucan, Seneca, Columella, Mela, Quinctilian, and Martial, were all natives of the Spanish peninsula.

§11. In the year 25 b.c. changes occurred in Mauretania and Galatia. The province of Africa, constituted at the close of the third Punic war (146 B.C.), bordered on Numidia, which was made a province by Julius after the battle of Thapsus as a punishment to its chief, Juba, for his partisanship with the Pompeians. Between Numidia and the Atlantic stretched Mauretania, the kingdom of Boc-ehus, a staunch Caesarian. He died in 33 B.C., and two years later Juba, son of the late chief of Numidia, was appointed as suzerain of his native country. Lastly, in 25 B.C., he was made king of Mauretania, including the western portion of Numidia, while the eastern portion from the town of Saldae was incorporated with Africa Proper. Juba had been educated at Rome, and he remained a faithful ally of his patron. The continent of Africa gave the Caesars less trouble than any other of their wide dependencies, and was garrisoned by a single legion. Galatia had remained under the rule of Amyntas until his death, 25 b.o. It now became a province, enlarged by the addition of Pamphylia and Lycaonia, at the expense of the older province of Cilicia. At the end of the year the gates of Janus were again closed, the assumed Pax Romana of four years before being now a reality throughout the world of Roman influence.

§ 12. They were soon thrown open again, but the scene of war was now changed from the West to the far East, to Egypt and Arabia. The first prefect of Egypt, Cornelius Grallus, a man of equestrian rank and the most graceful writer of elegiacs of his day, had allowed his exalted position to lead him into indiscretions. Statues had been set up in his honour and his name inscribed upon the pyramids of Egypt, and his Roman arrogance had even led to serious riots in Alexandria, always a turbulent and unruly city. These failings, in themselves slight enough, derived an especial importance from the jealousy with which Augustus regarded Egypt, whose riches were sufficient to supply ample funds to any disaffected leader, whoso position between sands and seas was exceptionally strong, and whose supplies of corn fed the city which their interruption would reduce to famine. The Senate learnt the ill-will with which Augustus regarded his prefect, and one of them indicted Callus, still absent, for arrogance. The charge was readily believed by the obsequious senators, and its object was ordered to return to Rome. His reception by the Emperor was too chilling to be mistaken. Gallus was disgraced, and, to avoid further and more positive punishment, he committed suicide, 26 b.c.

§ 13. He was succeeded by C.Petronius; and in the year 25 B.C., Aelius Gallus, a subordinate officer, was entrusted with the command of a legion to act in Arabia. Ever since the occupation of Judaea by the Romans, the Nabathaei, who dwelt to the east and south of Palestine, from Damascus on the north to far down the shore of the Red Sea, had been a vassal state. Beyond them, occupying the whole of the southern portions of the Arabian peninsula, lay the Arabians proper. Their nearest tribes were those of Sabaea, or Arabia Felix ( Yemen), split up into small states under petty chieftains. The stories of the wealth of Sabaea were no myth. It was the land of gems and drugs and spices, and through it passed the treasures of India on their way to the Western lands. In old days that commerce had passed through Southern Egypt; now the Egyptian trade was at a standstill, and it was to restore if possible the old route of traffic, as well as to obtain possession of the spice-lands, that Augustus departed from his fixed policy of consolidating what he possessed, and for once took up an aggressive war. But the effort was a failure. Ignorance caused needless risks in the passage by sea southward to Leuce Come (Haura); and when the army at last struck into the centre of Arabia under the guide of Syllaeus, an officer of Obodas, King of Nabathaea, it was decimated by sickness. It did indeed reach Mariba, the capital of a Sabaean tribe, but it retired without having entered that town, and returned to Egypt without laurels or reward, and Augustus refrained for the present from any further action in this direction. Though the expedition was a failure, Aelius Gallus was promoted to the prefecture of Egypt.

§ 14. In 23 B.C., now consul for the eleventh time,1 the Emperor was seized with violent illness. His life was despaired of, and men began to speculate upon his successor. Some named Marcellus, some Agrippa; but Augustus re- -covered, and his recovery was hailed as a relief. He celebrated his restoration to health by a lavish frumentatio and laid down the consulship, which he only resumed on two other occasions, B.C. 5 and 2, and then only for a few days. In return the Senate decreed him anew that proconsulare imperium which he already possessed, and in some JL way extended or confirmed his title to the tribunitia potestas, which lie accordingly dates from this year. It decreed him also the right of relatio in the Senate on all occasions, a step which relieved them of the awkward possibility of moving -anything contrary to the wishes of the Princeps.

§ 15. Whom Augustus had really intended to name as his successor no one ever knew, but the hopes of most were centred in Marcellus, the son of Octavia, scarcely less for his own fair promise than for the admiration which all bore towards his mother. He was high in favour with the Emperor—too high to please Agrippa—and had been in this very year freed from the obligations of the Lex Cincia Annalis, and invested with the office of aedile, though only twenty years of age. Two years before (25 B.C.) he had been married, young as he was, to Julia, daughter of

Augustus. His connections, his popularity, and his character marked him out as the probable heir to the principate. ‘Brief and unfortunate were the loves of the Romans.’ He sickened and died only a few weeks after the recovery of Ids uncle. His funeral was splendidly furnished, and the grief of the Emperor and people alike was poignant. Vergil, the Court poet, spoke of him in the ‘Aeneid’* in words whose recitation drew tears from their auditors, and brought royal gifts upon their author. His death stayed for a while the jealousy of Agrippa, but left the question of succession still open, still a field for intrigue and heartburnings.

§ 1. Aethiopian War.—§ 2. Conspiracy of Caepio and iluraena.—§ 3. Augustus declines the Dictatorship and Perpetual Censorship. The Curatorcs Annonae.—§ 4. He goes to Asia and regulates the Affairs of Parthia.—§ 5. Troubles during his Absence: Conspiracy of Egnatius liufus.—§ 6. Augustus returns: The Potestai Cmxnlaris.— § 7. Advancement of Agrippa; his Mission to Asia.—§ 8. The Ludi Saecttlares.—j 9. Proceedings of Agrippa in Asia.—§ 10. Second Visit of Augustus to Gaul.—§ 11. Disaster of Lollius.—§ 12. Campaign of Tiberius and Drusus in Rhaetia: The Frontier Fortresses and Afjrl lieeumates.—§ 13. Death of Agrippa, and (§ 14) of Lepidus.—§ 15. The German Peoples.—§ 16. First and Second Campaigns of Drusus in Germany, and of Tiberius in Pannonia.— § 17. Further Campaigns of Tiberius in Pannonia: Reduction of the Thracians by Piso : Third and Fourth Campaigns of Drusus in Germany: His Death.

§ 1. About the time when Aelius Callus was busied so fruitlessly in Arabia, his superior officer, C. Petronius, was acting on the southern frontier of Egypt against the Aethiopians. That people, accustomed to making raids upon the upper valley of the Nile during the time of the Ptolemies, continued their forays even when the stronger government of Rome was established in Egypt. The limits of the Roman prefecture were situated some little distance south of Syene (Aftsndn), near the lesser Cataracts, but there was no natural or scientific frontier, and while the Aethiopians found it easy to make incursions into the cultivated lands on the Roman side, the Romans on the other hand met with small success in their attempts to follow the fugitives. Still, Petronius managed to obtain one or two successes, and the one-eyed Aethiopian Queen Candace at length offered terms in the year 23 b.c. The prefect imposed a tribute upon her; but resenting this, she sent envoys to Augustus, who remitted the impost, content to have so inaccessible a people brought to an amicable and equable peace.

§ 2. Successful as he uniformly -was as an administrator, and despite the civilian bearing of the Princeps, there yet remained some sparks of the old republicanism. Men could not altogether forget in thirty years the traditions of their ancient liberties, and a few, perhaps, hated Augustus, as others had hated Aristides, for his very merits. In the year subsequent to his retirement from the Consulship, the Emperor was made painfully aware of his isolation. Two distinguished Romans, Fannius Caepio and A, Terentius Varro Muraena, plotted against his life. Of the details and ramifications of the conspiracy we have no knowledge; it was most probably little more than the scheming of a few fanatical republicans or disappointed self-seekers who dreamed of repeating the exploit of Brutus and Cassius. The plot was discovered, and both the leaders were exerated. Nothing came of their schemes but additional sympathy between the people and their patron.

§ 3. The position of the Emperor was, in fact, extremely critical at the moment. By resigning the Consulship he had placed himself virtually in the power of the Senate, whose officers, the consuls, constitutionally possessed the highest authority in the State, with which the powers of the Emperor, legitimately conferred indeed, but in themselves illegal, might at any moment come into collision. The consul owned but one superior, the dictator; and the friends or enemies of Augustus urged him to accept the dictatorship for life which they now offered him. His friends might see in it a real security against a senatorial reaction. His enemies—and the recent conspiracy showed that he had enemies—saw, with more sinister insight, that it would put the possessor ipso facto in the position to which Julius owed his death, Augustus was wiser than his friends. He absolutely declined the office, as well as that of the perpetual censorship, con-tenting himself with appointing two censors, the last ' citizens to hold that high dignity (22 B.C.). He was finally pressed to accept the perpetual consulship, and refused once more. But the cry for a dictator had come also loudly from the poorer classes, who, trained to gather their bread from Caesar’s largess, resented as an insult the inevitable fluctuation in the price of provisions. To meet this cry he appointed two curatores annonae, superintendents of the market, men of praetorian rank, whose duty it was to watch the rates of sale and to guard against fluctuations of price as far as might be.

§ 4. But the problem of the legitimate combination of his own rule with that of the Senate in the old republican forms was still unsolved. Augustus now played a bold k card. He left Rome, and trusted to events to work out for him the solution he desired. The affairs of - Asia were * still unsatisfactory, particularly in regard to the Parthians, from whom envoys had reached Rome in the previous year. On their representations, and more, perhaps, to console Agrippa in some measure for the manifest preference then enjoyed with the Emperor by the young Marcellus, Agrippa had been commissioned in the early part of 23 b.c. with the settlement of the Eastern States, and had at once fixed his residence at Mitylene in Lesbos, carrying on his duties by means of legates. Thither Augustus also now proceeded, handing over the State entirely to the control of its constitutional governors, the Senate and consuls.

The presence of the Parthian envoys in Rome had been due to the continued intrigues of Tiridates, whom, as has been said, Augustus had, in 30 B.C., permitted to reside in Syria. Torn by internal dissensions, the rival claimants appealed again to the Emperor, and the latter decided once more in favour of the reigning prince, Phraates, exacting, however, as the price of his support the restoration of the standards captured from Crassus on the field of Carrhae. Phraates complied, and did homage for his crown, awed by the presence of Tiberius, the future Princeps, with a large force in Armenia. He had marched thither to place Tigranes upon the throne left vacant by the murder of Artaxes, his brother, the son of Artavasdes. Artaxes himself had been alternately a vassal of Parthia , and Rome. The establishment of Tigranes set up against the possible hostility of Parthia a sovereign who owed his

crown, and therefore his safety, to Rome, and so secured the Euphrates frontier. The successes of Augustus here were further heightened by the arrival of honorary embassies from Pandion and Porus, kings of the Punjab, and from Scythia, bringing presents of the treasures of the far East (20 B.C.).

§ 5. At Rome, meantime, as Augustus had foreseen, events were working out the solution of his problem. The consular elections of 20 b.c. had been attended with violent riots, and the tribes refused to return more than one consul, leaving the other place vacant for Augustus, despite his reiterated refusal to accept it. Moreover, ever since the' retirement of Augustus from that office, prodigies and portents had alarmed the people, pestilence had swept over the city, and an inundation of the Tiber had wrought a more material ruin. Superstitious fears seized the populace, who clamoured for their patron and protector, the favourite of heaven, to resume a share in the chief magistracy. He replied only by sending Agrippa again to administer the city. The latter’s efforts wore in a measure successful; but, on his being summoned to Gaul and Spain to suppress some disorders there, the rioting broke out afresh, and the election of consuls for the year 19 li.c. was attended even with bloodshed. Sentius Satuminns, the single consul returned, was attacked by the partisans of Egnatius Rufus, who claimed the vacant consulship. The Senate, quite unable, as of old in the time of Clodius, to restrain the turbulence of the city, declared the State in danger and commissioned Sentius in the old republican formula, videret ne quid detrimentirespublicu caperet. The consul dared not accept the task, for to do so would be to incur, however unwillingly, the inevitable jealousy of the absent Princeps. Agrippa was still busy chastising the Cantabrians and Astures. Jn despair, a final embassy was sent to Augustus, entreating him to return and allay the troubles, as ho alone could. He was satisfied. He had given to the Romans ample opportunity to prove that they were capable of governing themselves, and they had not only failed to prove it, but had confessed their failure. The Emperor returned to his post with renewed acclamations, and with authority stronger than ever.

§ 6. This access of moral strength was formally ratified by the Senate at the beginning of the year 18 B.C., when it renewed for five years the proconsulare imperium, which 1 had been last bestowed on him in 23 b.c. (Ch. n., § 14).

It is also stated that at this time not only did Augustus receive the cemoria potestas for a period of five years, but that he was placed on a level even in law with the annual consuls by the grant of the comularis potestas, or all the powers, privileges and insignia of a consul apart from actual tenure of that office. Colour is given to this view by the fact that the proconsulare imperium, though perhaps by special privilegium made authoritative within the pomo-erium, took its name from a subordinate office and so was an insufficient authority for one who was in fact autocrat, whereas the constilaris potestas was named from the highest regular magistrates and would endow its possessor with every power belonging to the heads of the old republic. ■ It is probable however (see Ch. v., § 5) that Augustus did not directly receive either the censoria potestas or the con-sularis potestas. His authority rested on the proconsulare ' imperium and the tribunitia potestas, together with various * rights and privileges specially conferred upon him at different times.

§ 7. The death of Marcellus had once more left Agrippa very near to the throne, and his claims on the score of faithful services were augmented in 21 b.c. by the claim of relationship, for in that year he received in marriage Julia, the widow of Marcellus. He returned from Spain towards L the close of 19 b.c., and when Augustus’ tenure of the g tribunitia potestas was shortly after confirmed, Agrippa was associated in it for a term of five years, as also in the 1 duties of censor. The latter was less a favour than a skilful method of turning upon another’s shoulders the odium which was incurred by the Princeps in a new revision of the Senate. But the hopes of Agrippa received another rebuff when, in 17 B.C., Augustus publicly adopted his / grandsons Gaius and Lucius Caesar, the sons of Agrippa jf and Julia. In the same year the disappointed father 1 received the duty of administering the East for five years, f and retired thither with his wife.

§ 8. In this year were celebrated for the fifth time in the annals of Eome the Ludi Saeeulares, an ancient festival of Etruscan origin, supposeil't'o TSiitfr at intervals of 100 or 110 years. Their previous recurrence had been of no particular magnificence. Augustus seized the opportunity to celebrate them with unusual grandeur and so put the seal upon all ho had done for Eome, at the close of the 737th year of her history. Horace wrote for the occasion the Carmen Saeculare.

§ 9. Agrippa found little of real import to exercise him in Asia. The main event of his mission there was a visit to Herod, now the most sedulous of flatterers, under whose directions rose Caesarea as a delicate compliment to his liege lord. The Jews received numerous marks of respect from Agrippa, notably the privilege of exemption from service in the Roman armies; and in return, when in 14 B.C. Agrippa moved from the kingdom of the Bosphorus to expel an upstart calling himself Scribonius, and claiming to be a descendant of the groat Mitliradates, Herod brought up a large force to his assistance. Scribonius was rejected by his own subjects, and his kingdom was given to Polemo, King of Pontus, as a fief of Rome. In 13 b.c. Agrippa returned to Italy, at the same time as did Augustus, after a three j-ears’ absence in Gaul.

§ 10. That absence had been necessitated by the disturbed state of tho Germans beyond the Rhine frontier, as well as of the renewed hostility of the Aljoine tribes. It became absolutely necessary to establish once and for all a firm and tenable frontier line from the Lacus Flevo (Zuyder Zee) to the Lower Danube. Foreign aggressions wore made the more formidable by tho extortions of Licinus, the procurator of Gaul, ^\ho plundered the subjecfp&Oples with a diligence worthy of the closing years of the old republic. His name—he was a mere freedman, a Gaul himself by birth—became a by-word for upstart arrogance, and for once Augustus, we are told (but the story may be a pure fabrication), was bribed into connivance. Licinus escaped unpunished, by means of the treasures his extortions had collected, though in other ways the presence of Augustus, who applied himself diligently to organizing afresh the

internal condition and frontier of the province, was productive of the most permanent results.

§11. The actual cause of his leaving Rome on this third occasion was the defeat of Lollius, Legatus Caemris on the Lower Rhine. The German tribes of the Usipetes and Sugambri, who occupied the northern district of Westphal®. about the river Luppia (Lippe), had crossed the Rhine and endeavoured to establish themselves on the Gallic side. They overthrew Lollius and even captured the eagle of the fifth legion, but hearing of the instant arrival of Augustus in person with large forces, they retired and sent hostages as security for their good behaviour in future.

§ 12. But along the whole line, from the Lippe to the inouth of the Danube, the northern tribes were in revolt. Rhaetia, Noricum, Yindelicia, Pannonia, Dalmatia, and Maesia wore all in disorder. The country about the head waters of the Rhine and Danube (the modern AViirtemberg, Engadine, and TjtoI), was difficult of access, and filled with warlike tribes, whose position broke asunder the otherwise continuous frontier naturally offered by those two great rivers. To remove this Haw in his defences Augustus now j despatched both Tiberius, who had accompanied him into Gaul, and Drusus, who was in command on the eastern side in Dalmatia. The two brothers made their attack simultaneously from oust and west, defeated the Rhaeti, Breuni, and Genauni, and subjugated the whole of Vinde-licia in a single campaign,* 15 b.c. Augusta Vindelicorum (now Augsburg) was founded to maintain the conquest. At the same time was completed the line of fortresses, fifty in number, which remain to this day the military positions on k the Rhine. Basel, Strasburg, Mainz, Bingen, Bonn, Nime-1 guen and Leyden all date from this period. Eastward the | frontier was marked by the modern towns of Passau, Linz, ft Vienna, and Hainsburg (near Pressburg), and so followed the course of the Danube to the semi-subject'peoples of modern Bulgaria. The dangers to be apprehended formerly from the insecurity of the mountain region about Lake Constance were now obviated by the spontaneous inroad of many Roman colonists into the modern Wiirtemberg. They

* They had already been m a measure chastised by Y. Silius in the previous year.

paid a tithe of their produce voluntarily to Rome, and hence the name of Agri Decimates was applied to their territory, which, lying in the rear of the recently conquered tribes, effectually kept them in check. The revolt of Dalmatia and Pannonia was suppressed in the year 14 B.C., and when Augustus, Tiberius, and Agrippa were all once more assembled in Pome at the close of 13 b.c. the empire was again at peaoe.

§ 13. It was a peace of short duration. In 12 B.C. Agrippa had to hurry to Pannonia to repeat the chastis'6-inent-of two years,before. He succeeded in a brief campaign ; but on the way home he sickened and died. He was buried with all pomp at Rome f Augustus himself pronounced over the bier of his ablest minister the funeral panegyric (laudatio).

§ 14. In the same year died Lepidus the Triumvir, who had lived unnoticed since his banishment to Circeii (36 B.C.). His death left vacant the office of Pontifex Maximus, which Augustus forthwith assumed, and so completed the circle of his supremacy in matters civil, judicial, military, and ecclesiastical.

§ 15. This and the three following years are filled by the campaigns of Tiberius, who succeeded Agrippa, in Pannonia, and of Drusus beyond the Rhine. The former were carried out consistently with Augustus’ policy of consolidating what he already possessed, and repeated revolts showed that the reduction of Dalmatia and Pannonia was far from perfect. The campaigns of Drusus, on the other hand, were aggressive, and so far inconsistent with that policy. Nevertheless, it was advisable that the German tribes should be taught that even the Rhine offered no insuperable barrier to the ever-victorious legions. The main tribes to be chastised were the Chauci on the shores of the Baltic; the Cherusci about the Ems (Amisia) and "Weser (Visurgis); the Usipetes and Sugambri already mentioned, with the adjacent tribe of the Tencteri; and further south the Chatti, who extended from the Rhine to the Hercynian forest—the heart of Germany.

§ 16. In 12 b.c. Drusus crossed the Rhine and raided the lands of the Usipetes and Tencteri, while at the same time a flotilla was prepared, in which he meditated attacking the Chauci from the coast. A canal had been cut between the Yssel and the Vecht, which gave him access to the Zuyder Zee, and the Frisii of modem Friesland acted as his guides. But bad weather delayed the expedition, and the army was marched back direct, gaining no advantage beyond the credit of enterprise. In the next year Drusus again crossed to the Lippe, which he bridged, and so reached the Weser, traversing the lands of the Cherusci (Paderborn and Detniold). The defection of the Chatti in their rear alone prevented the combined attack of all the tribes of central Germany. Even as it was, Drusus dared not cross the Weser, and was put in imminent peril during his retreat. He contrived, however, to turn the danger into a victory, whicli left the remainder of his march unimpeded except by casual skirmishes. He constructed a fortress on the Lippe at Aliso (Hamm or Elsen), and another to maintain his communications with the Chatti. He then returned to Eome, where he met Tiberius, just arrived from a second campaign in Pannonia, the successes of which, whatever tliey were, were held sufficient to justify an ovation. The same honour was awarded to Drusus. The province of Dalmatia was, however, now made an imperial province—a sure indication that its peacefulness was as yet anything but assured.

§ 17. In 10 B.C. Tiberius once more returned to Pannonia, where he gained a brilliant victory, and virtually ended the war in that district. Meanwhile, the continued hostility of the more eastward peoples of Thrace and Mo e si a had kept another commander employed. The Thracian Bessi had thrown off their allegiance to Ehescu-poris, a vassal king, son of Cotys, and had driven out both him and his uncle, Ehaemetalces, in 13 b.c. L. Piso, commanding in Pamphylia, took over the war, and after three campaigns was able, in 11 B.C., to declare it ended. Drusus and Augustus both left Eome for Gaul at the same time as did Tiberius for Pannonia. A third campaign of Drusus was expended mainly in constructing roads and bridges, and otherwise preparing for a more

seriouB undertaking in 9 b.c. In that year Drusus was consul. lie marched tUTough the lands of TEfT Ohatti, and, wheoling northward, crossed the Weser, and raided the Choruscan territories as far as the Elbe (Albis). TKfre he-erectCd a and'lurnfed back; but on the march

was thrown from his horse, and received injuries so severe that he died thirty days later at Castra Scelerata. The arch which was built by senatorial decree at Rome, to commemorate his triumphs, still stands. He had reached the farthest limit of Roman advance, and had warred without disaster, if with little real result, in the heart of the most independent of the German tribes. His work was taken up and completed by Tiberius.

§ 1. Second Census and Expurgation of the Senate.—§ 2. First and Second Campaigns of Tiberius in Germany.—§ 3. Death of Maecenas; his Retirement.—§ 4. Tiberius, jealous of the young Sons of Agrippa, retires to Rhodes.— § 5. Introduction of Gaius and Lucius Caesar, and Banishment of Julia.—§ 6. Armenian Affairs settled by Gaius: Death of Gaius and Lucius.—§ 7. Adoption of Tiberius by Augustus.—§ 8. Third and Fourth Campaigns of Tiberius in Germany: Reasons for his lack of Energy.—§ 9. A projected Attack upon Maroboduus, Prince of the Marcomanni, interrupted by (§ 10) the Pannonian Revolt: Troubles at Rome: Suppression of the Revolt by Germanicus.—§ 11. The Claries Variana.—§ 12. Fifth Campaign of Tiberius in Germany.—§ 13. His continued Advancement.—§ 14. Death of Augustus at Kola.

§ 1. Augustus was himself at Lugdnnum (Lyons) -wlien the death of Drusus left the legions of the German frontier without a commander. He summoned Tiberius, freshly home from the subjugation of Pannonia, to assume the vacant command, and himself returned to Rome in the next year (8 B.C.). His imperiwn was again renewed for ten years, and he carried out a second census and expurgation of the Album Senatorium. The latter was always a distasteful function, as it necessitated the censor’s incurring the hatred of anyone whom he branded by degradation. On this occasion the lectio was less rigorously made than on the previous occasion, and many who had lost the money qualification for the position of senators received grants from the Princeps which enabled them to retain their rank. It is possible that he was urged to this leniency by the fact that he had trebled the minimum qualification.

§ 2. The first advance of Tiberius into Germany was a signal for immediate submission on the part of all the trans-Rhenish tribes, with the exception of the Sngambri. Tiberius referred the envoys to Augustus at Lugdunum, and the latter declared that he -would hold no intercourse with them until the Sugambri also sent deputies. The prospect of being made the scapegoats of the whole German nation induced the latter to comply, and Augustus thereupon seized the whole of the envoys and imprisoned them, thus depriving the tribes of their leaders. Tiberius marched unmolested through Germany, and returned to his winter quarters, and thence to Rome, where he celebrated a triumph and entered upon another consulship. In the spring of 7 B.C. he again crossed the Rhine, and once more traversed the countiy without opposition. Repeated invasion had reduced the whole length of the right bank of the Rhine to no better than a desert, which yielded neither plunder nor supplies to the legions. The campaigns of Drusus had exhausted the resources of Gaul. The bankruptcy, which became the greatest of the difficulties of Tiberius when Emperor, already hampered him. There was no glory to be got in any further activity in this quarter, and for the next six years the German tribes lay quiet.

§ 3. In this year died the second of the great ministers of Augustus, C. Cilnius Maecenas. Eor some years he had lived in retirement at his palace on the Collis Esquilinus, surrounded by men of letters, whose society pleased him and whose success was largely due to his patronage. Most famous of his circle was Horace, whom Maecenas first raised from the obscurity of a clerk’s office and introduced to the Emperor. People whispered that Augustus had ceased to love his faithful servant—his right hand in peace, as Agrippa had been in war; and scandal said that Maecenas knewT of and was vexed with tli e open attentions paid to his wife Terentia by the Princeps. Whatever the cause, the two saw little of each other for many years, though Augustus was named legatee in the will of the dead man—a compliment which he regularly looked for and rarely made use of.

§4. The occurrences of the next few years “will be confined, for the most part, to the affairs of the Caesarean family and palace, and might, indeed, be represented in a drama, the scene of which should be a chamber in the imperial residence.” Its plot is that of a j ealous intrigue, wherein Tiberius and Livia are opposed to the young heirs of Agrippa, the grandsons of the Emperor, Gaius and Lucius Caesar. Albeit married to their mother Julia, Tiberius could not but be jealous of the favour in which his stepsons stood. Both had been named Prindpes Turentutis, and Gaius was now consul-designate for the year 1 B.C., when he would make his entry into public office. Lueius would take the same plunge three years later. Moreover, the conduct of Julia, whose profligacy was notorious, disgusted Tiberius, the more as he had been really fond of his first wife, Vipsania, whom he had been constrained to divorce in order to marry Agrippa’s widow. He was eager to withdraw from a court where his marital troubles were common scandal and where he was in daily contact with the boys who seemed to be supplanting him. In 6 b.c. occurred the outbreak of fresh disturbances in Armenia. He declined the commission to settle that country, but accepted the Tribunitia potestas for five years, and withdrew from Eome, leaving behind him his wife and Drusus, his child by Vipsania. He retired to Rhodes, where he professed a wish to study philosophy.* The command in Armenia was given to Varus.

§ 5. In 5 b.c. Augustus held his twelfth consulship, to introduce to the public his elder grandson, Gaius; and three years later, 2 B.C., he held that office for the thirteenth time, on the introduction of Lucius. On both occasions he laid it down after a few days and allowed it to pass into the hands of suffect consuls. The young Caesars were greeted with every mark of enthusiastic popularity;! an<l the sudden banishment of their mother was all the more startling. It occurred in the very year of Lucius’ presentation to the people, and dismissed Julia to the island—or, rather, the rock—of Pandateria, some thirty miles west of Cumae, where she was so closely guarded that none could

* Rhodes, like Athene, was one of the Universities of the Roman Empire, and famous for its schools of rhetoric and philosophy.

t It was on the occasion of this, his thirteenth consulship, that Augustus was greeted as Pater Patriae.

see her, and the commonest necessaries of life were denied her. Her ostensible offence was her outrageous licentiousness, which violated in every detail the efforts of the Princeps to reform the morality of the age. There was possibly a hidden reason of a political value, and the disgrace of several young nobles at the same time points to the fact that she was suspected, if not convicted, of conspiracy. One of her paramours, Julius Antonius, son of Fulvia and the Triumvir, was indicted under the law of Mniestas and put to death. After live years Julia was allowed to reside at Rhegium; but she never again entered Rome or saw her fatuity. She left a daughter of her own name, who suffered a like penalty for similar dissoluteness in the year

§ 6. In the following year (1 b.c.) Gaius Caesar commenced his political career with a commission to settle the Armenian troubles. Tigranes, whom Tiberius had placed upon the throne in 20 B.C., died in 6 B.C., and his sons had ventured to assume the sovereignty without doing homage for it to Augustus. On Tiberius declining the task, Varus drove them out, and placed Artavasdes on the throne. The sons of Tigranes appealed to Phraates, King of Parthia; and when Artavasdes was soon after expelled by a popular rising, the Parthians placed on the throne a second Tigranes. An attempt to resent the insult ended in a disaster to Yarus or his successor; and Gaius was now ordered to reassert the authority of Rome. With him went Lollius, the general who had been defeated in Germany, 16 B.C., as his tutor and as Governor of Syria. Gaius contented himself for the present with sending orders to Phraates to withdraw, and spent this and the following year in a tour of the southern parts of Asia Minor and Syria, where he visited Archelaus, Philip, and Antipas, who had divided between them the kingdom of their father, Herod the Great, whose deatli occurred in 4 b.c. During the course of 2 a.d. Phraates denounced Lollius for selling State secrets, and that governor was condemned. Gaius now held a meeting with the Parthian king, who undertook to make all satisfaction required for his recent aggressions, and to allow the return of Artavasdes. But that prince died about the same time;

and thereupon Gaius agreed to leave Tigranes upon the throne of Armenia, subject to the consent of Augustus. The Princeps, afraid, perhaps, to incur a war with the combined forces of Parthia and Armenia, assented to the arrangement; but nevertheless Tigranes provoked an invasion, in which Gaius advanced to Artagira, which he besieged. The governor, Addon, on pretence of arranging a capitulation, obtained an interview with the young Caesar, in the course of which he treacherously stabbed him (3 a.d.). Gaius withdrew into Syria and lingered a few months, dying at Limyra in the early part of 4 a.d. Two years previously had died Lucius Caesar, of sickness which had attacked him at Massilia when on the road to Spain; and thus, within twelve months, the two ‘props of his empire’ whom Augustus had adopted were both carried off. Tiberius had returned to Pome, at the repeated entreaties of Livia, in 2 a.d., and was once more left the Emperor’s closest relative and supporter. Rumour said that the intrigues of Livia had much to do with the strangely sudden and consecutive deaths of Lucius and Gaius; but there is little probability in the tale, although she was not a woman to stay her hand in advancing the fortunes of her unpopular son.

§ 7. Upon Tiberius accordingly fell all the honours which had lately promised to pass to the dead youths. He was at once adopted by Augustus, together with Agrippa Postu-mus, the surviving son of Agrippa. Tiberius could view such a rival without jealousy, for he already showed a gaucherie and a lack of intelligence which disgusted his adoptive father. The tribunitia poteztas of Tiberius was renewed for another term of five years, and an immediate opening for military exploits was found for him on the German frontier. Augustus did not forget that the Principate had sprung from the power of the sword; and he foresaw that Rome was not yet prepared to welcome a Princeps who could not found his claims on victories and support them by the respect of his legions.

§ 8. As early as the year 1 B.C., the tribes between the Visurgis (Wexer) and the lower waters of the Rhine had again taken up arms. The Roman legions were com-rnanded by Vinicius, who seems, at any rate, to have suffered no disgrace if he made no headway. To end the struggle, Tiberius hurried to the scene and speedily overran the lands of the Bructeri, Canninefates, and Chemsci, all of whom submitted. He spent some months in securing his conquests by roads, bridges, and militarj'- camps, hoping to set at permanent peace a country so often subdued in vain. In the year 5 a.d. he advanced beyond the AVeser and pushed forward to the Elbe. His plans were admirably laid. A large fleet, conveying supplies, dropped down the Rhine, coasted along Friesland, and sailed up the Elbe, where they were joined by the land army, which had struck straight through the heart of northern Germany to that river. The natives ventured only once to make a stand, and were easily defeated. Tiberius received the title of Imperatctr for the third time, for the reduction of the Chauci and Langobardi (the ancestors of the Lombards); but all further action in this quarter was intermitted. In fact, there were not funds to maintain it. It has been said above that the German wars brought no return in booty to recruit the State chest; and the same was true in the case of most of the vast army of legions stationed as garrisons throughout the empire. Their maintenance was a necessity, but an expensive one ; and, combined with the heavy losses annually incurred by the corn-doles, it had already emptied the exchequer.

§ 9. There remained a more formidable power with which to deal. The Marcomanni, on retiring from the Agri Decimates, withdrew to the valleys of the Moldau and Upper Elbe, the modem Bohemia, and there under the command of their chief ilaroboduus, himself schooled in war and politics by a long residence in Rome, they became a powerful federation whose forces mustered 70,000 foot and 4,000 cavalry, trained on the Roman plan. Such neighbours were a standing menace to the Danube frontier, and accordingly an excuse for war was found in 6 a.d. Tiberius, now transferred to the command of the Pannonian legions, marched northward upon the centre of Maroboduus’ kingdom, while simultaneously another army moved to the same goal from the Upper Rhine, commanded by Gn.

Sentius Saturninus whose exploits in the previous year, as lieutenant of Tiberius, had won for him the triumphal ornaments. The two columns were already within striking distance when the news came that all Fannonia and Dalmatia were once more in revolt. A peace was hastily patched up with Maroboduus, who thus lost the opportunity of inflicting a mighty blow upon the empire in conjunction with the revolted nations in the rear of Tiberius’ army.

§ 10. This last and most dangerous revolt of the Dal-matico-Pannoniau tribes was caused by the severity of Messalinus in levying fresh native troops to support the advance of Tiberius against the Marcomanni. There was, besides, the stock grievance of oppression, and now, headed by the Dalmatian chiefs Bato and Pinnes and the Panno-nian Bato, they rose en masse in the rear of Tiberius. The Roman fortresses had been weakened by the withdrawal of so many legionaries beyond the Danube, and the first attacks of the insurgents were successful. They failed as a rule when venturing to assault fortified camps, but they ravaged the country far and near, and the victory of Aulus Caecina Severus which saved Siriniuin from the Pannonians was fully as costly as a defeat. The Dacians and Sar-matians joined the revolt and threatened the Roman lines on the Lower Danube. The Illyrians contemplated the invasion of Italy, which contained no regular garrison save the praetorians.

At Rome there was great alarm. The veterans were called to arms from their allotments in all parts of Italy; the very slaves were armed. The state of the city had for some time been restless. As early as 4 a.d. one Gnaeus Cornelius Cinna, a grandson of Pompeius Maximus, had been detected in a conspiracy immediately after the third lectio senatus which occurred in that year, and had been freely pardoned. Since then the difficulty of providing for the c-orn-doles had increased, and the city had at one time been threatened with a panic. The legionaries, too, had been clamouring for higher pay and privileges, and to meet some part of the expense of his large military establishment the Princeps had established the Aerarium Militare, a fund for providing discharged soldiei's with pensions, the means for which were raised by the institution of two taxes. One was a tax of one per cent, on all sales, the other an impost of five per cent, on inheritances. They were the first direct taxes laid upon the privileged Bomans for more than a century, and met with considerable opposition, which expressed itself in incendiary fires and seditious placards. At this time was established the first urban police or night patrol.

The new troops were put under the command of Ger-manicus, son of Drusus and nephew of Tiberius, who had been adopted by Tiberius at Augustus’ request. In the course of 7 a.d. he recovered part of Dalmatia, while Tiberius again overran Pannonia, and the advance of Severus, the legate of Moesia, pressed the revolted tribes on a third side. The struggle dragged on during two years more, before Germanicus could declare the revolt entirely quelled and its leaders captured or slain. The last tribes to hold out were those of Dalmatia, which did not submit completely until 9 a.d., two years later than the subjection of Pannonia.

§11. Meanwhile Augustus found himself beset on every side with treachery. A slave named Telephus attempted to assassinate him, and a second conspiracy was organized by some freedmen who wished to set on the throne Agrippa Postumus. That son of Agrippa had been banished in 6 a.d. to the island of Planasia, near Elba, more because of Livia’s jealousy than his own shortcomings. In this conspiracy wras implicated the younger Julia, who had inherited her mother’s licentiousness, and was also banished under the Lex Maiestati*. To crown all came the news of a national disaster in the summer of

9 a.d. The command in Germany had devolved upon P. Quinctilius Yarus, who had excited wide discontent by his attempts to enforce too speedily the full exercise of Boman procedure in a province as yet only half subdued. Though many of the Germans had taken service in the legions they still cherished their national systems of law and custom, and when Yarns endeavoured to introduce Boman laws and police and manners, he found himself the object of a conspiracy led by Amiinius (Hermann), son of Segimerus, chief of the Oherusci. He had long resided at Eome, liad been presented with the citizenship, and had become a member of the Equestrian Order. Arminius, who was joined by other chiefs, had married Thusnelda, daughter of Segestes. against her father’s will, and the latter warned Yarns of the treachery which threatened him. Yarus paid no attention to his warnings, but advanced into the wildest parts of Central Germany, the Teutoburgiensis Saltus (Teutoburger Wald). The report of a rising of the southern tribes in his rear induced him to wheel about and endeavour to cross a low-lj-ing district, now rendered almost impassable by the autumu rains. Up to this point Arminius had remained with the legions, disguising his treachery. He now quitted the camp on pretence of seeking reinforcements, and at once placed himself at the head of his warriors, and in person led them to the attack. For three daj's the legions struggled to escape. Then Yarus committed suicide, and the remnant of his soldiers were cut down almost to a man. Three entire legions with all their stores and auxiliaries were thus destroyed, a total of at least 20,000 men, and the three eagles were hung up as trophies in the groves of the German deities. The few who escaped were sheltered bjT Asprenas, who commanded two legions on the left bank of the Ehine, and whose firm attitude alone prevented the invasion of Gaul.

§ 12. This disaster summoned Tiberius once again to Germany. He expended a whole year in recruiting fresh legions and doing everything to replace the loss of Yarus’ army. At last, in 11 a.d., he once more entered Germany. He met with no opposition, nor did he, on his part, seek it by pushing the enemj' to their last strongholds. His army traversed the country for a whole summer without the loss of a man, and at the close of the year, when he returned to Eome to celebrate a triumph for his Pannonian victories, he left behind him no trace of the recent disaster. Nevertheless, Augustus mourned for his legions with a regret worthy of the ‘Father of his Country; ’ nor was it until the reign of Tiberius that Germanicus recovered (15 a.d.) the lost eagles and buried the bones of the fallen legionaries. For the present that commander was left in charge of the combined armies of Upper and Lower Germany, eight legions in all.

§13. Tiberius was now beyond doubt the heir-elect to the Principate. In 13 a.d., the imperium of Augustus was again renewed for five years, and at the same time Tiberius’ tribunitia potest as was prolonged for a like period,-and by a special law the imperium proconsulare was bestowed upon him. This virtually made him partner with Augustus in the government, and indeed the Emperor, now seventy-five years of age, needed someone to lighten the burden of his duties. At the same time was created a regular cabinet council of twenty senators, who held their place for twelve months at a time. There had already existed the nucleus of such a council; but its members were changed every six months, and their authority was less real. It was the policy of Augustus indeed to retain all the nobility of Rome within the city, where they could not escape his watchfulness, and he had amused them by the show of influence which they possessed as his privy councillors.

§ 14. The year 14 a.d. commenced with a new scrutiny of the senatorial list and a general census of the Roman world, at which were returned 4,097,000 inhabitants. Tiberius shared the powers of censor with the Princeps, and then made preparations to resume command of the army in Illyricum. Meanwhile, Augustus employed himself in drawing up a record of his deeds and reign, and copies of this were placed in the public archives. One such has been preserved to us on the walls of a ruined temple at Ancyra, and is hence called Monumentum Ancyranum. An account of this valuable inscription will be found below in Chapter YI. When Tiberius had completed his preparations, Augustus accompanied him as far as Beneventum, but contracted a dysentery during the journey; and though he recovered for the moment, and retired, as usually in the malarious summer months, towards Campania, the sickness returned and prostrated him at Kola. Livia despatched messengers to summon Tiberius; but it is uncertain whether the successor arrived in time to see Augustus alive. ‘Have I played my role well?’ asked the dying man of his friends about him. 1 If so, applaud me at its dose.’ He died August 19, 14 a.d., at the age of seventy-seven years all but thirty-seven days, having been bom on September 23, 63 b.c., in the consulship of Cicero, his predecessor in the title of Pater Patriae.

J 1. The New Constitution; the Princeps.—§ 2. The Proconsulare Imperium.—§ 3. The title Imperator.—§ 4. Bestowal of the Procon-sitlare Imperium.—§ 5. The Princeps and the Consulship.-- § 6. The Tribunitia Potestas.—\ 7. How bestowed.—§ 8. The Censorship.— $ 9. Pontifex Maximus.—§ 10. Legislative power of the Princeps.—

I 11. Judicial power of the Prituieps.—§ 12. Other titles and dignities. —§ 13. Choice of a successor.—0 14. The Republican Magistracies under the Empire: Elections.—§ 15. The Consuls.—§ 16. The Tribunes.—§ 17. The Praetors.—§ 18. The Aediles.—§ 19. The Quaestors.—§ 20. Minor magistracies.—§ 21. New Imperial offices.— § 22. The Senate.—§ 23. The Equites.—§ 24. The Plebs.—§ 25. Division of the Provinces.—§ 26. Finance: The Revenues : Aerarhan and Fiscns.—§ 27. Bankrupt condition of the Aerarhntt.—§ 28. The Dyarchy.—§ 29. Likeness and unlikeness of the Augustan Constitution to that of Julius.—§ 30. Legislation of Augustus : the Lex Maiestatis.—§ 31. Lex Pupia Poppnea.—§ 32. Sumptuary Law.

§ 1. The death of Augustus seems a fitting time for a general review of the new constitution he left behind. Though not free from controverted questions, its general lines are clear. In theory the Emperor was merely a citizen who was primus inter pares, in fact he was a military despot. But the time of the open and undisguised monarchy has not come, and as yet we find, in form at least, the dyarchy of Kmperor and Senate.

Augustus, ever diplomatic, avoided the title rex, which every Roman hated with hereditary hatred; and as the doings of Sulla and of Julius Caesar had left dictator in bad odour, he chose a name with none of these unrepublican associations. Princeps, the Emperor’s distinctive title, not to be confused with Princeps Senatus (see above p. 14), implies no particular power or office, but stands rather for the combination of powers and offices which make him the head of the Roman State, Princeps civitatis.*

•The two following inscriptions (quoted from Fumeaux* Tacitus) give the titles of Octavianus in 29 B.C., and at the close of his life :—

{a) Imp;eratorj Caesar, Divi lull f.ilius), co(n)s(ul) design(atus) sext um , irup(erator) sept(imum).

(6) Imp (era tor) Caesar, Divi Pilius), Augustus, Pontif(ex) Maximus), eon)s(ul) xiii., Jmp(erator) xx., Tribunic ia Pot es tat e xxxvii, P a ter) Patriae).

§ 2. The centre of gravity of the Principate was the proconnulare imperium. The permanent constitution of the Empire begins in Jan. 27 B.C., when Augustus, or Caesar as he was still called, on offering to laj’ down the extraordinary powers which remained to him from the Triumvirate, received the procomulare imperium for ten years, which subsequent renewals made virtually permanent. Unlike the ordinary Proconsul, the Princeps did not lay down his imperium on entering Pome, and so far from being limited to a particular province it was coextensive with the Empire. Moreover, as holding an imperium which was maim or superior to that of the Proconsuls, the Princeps was supreme throughout the Empire. Such an unlimited imperium was not a complete innovation, that given to Pompeius under the Gabinian and Manilian Laws (67 and 66 b.c.) being unrestricted as to area, though as regarded authority only coordinate with and not superior to that of other Proconsuls. How far the proconsular power was exercised in Pome and Italy is doubtful. Probably Rome and possibly Italy were excluded from its sphere. By virtue of his procomulare imperium, of which, strangely enough, the Jfonumentum Ancyranum contains no mention, the Princeps had exclusive control of the army in Imperial and Senatorial provinces alike ; with him rested the levying, payment and dismissal of troops and the appointment of officers, and it was to him exclusively that the legions, and later the whole population throughout the empire, took the sacramentum or oath of allegiance. The supreme command of the fleet and consequent control of the seas and coasts were his. It was he who declared war, made treaties of peace or alliance, and represented the State in all its international relations.

§ 3. Closely connected with the imperium is the title of Imperator, two different usesof which should be distinguished. The word in the first instance means “possessor of imperium" which properly is the highest magisterial power, implying both judicial and military functions. The magistrate is really Imperator on the judicial bench, but the title is never used of him in his civil capacity, and the word imperium tends to indicate merely “ the right to command an army.” After a victory the general was often saluted as Imperator by his soldiers on the field and from that moment he was so addressed and added the title after his name. The Princeps was commander-in-chief of the army, whether actually with it in the field or not, and so any victory gained by his legions was accounted to the credit, not of the legatus in actual command, but of the supreme Imperator, and the troops hailed as Imperator not the officer who had led them to victor}-, — unless he happened to be the Emperor’s colleague in the proconsulare imperium,—but the Princeps whose face they had possibly never seen. Up to the last year of his reign Augustus had been so saluted twenty times. But besides this use of the title, dating from Republican times, we find Imperator used byr Augustus and most of his successors as a praenomen to indicate permanent possession of the proconsulare imperium. Julius had continually called himself Imperator during the last fourteen years of his life, and his nephew and heir seems to have treated the title as part of the name he inherited.

§ 4. It is important to note how this proconsulare imperium, on which the Princeps’ position really depended, was bestowed. Though in theory a power delegated by the sovereign people, the comitia had no voice in the matter, A senatorial decree conferred the imperium and the title of Imperator given by the soldiers to a candidate for the Prin-cipate was strictly invalid till confirmed by the Senate. But before long it was discovered that “an Emperor could be made elsewhere than at Rome.” The legions were not slow to see that they were masters of the situation, and the Senate had no choice but to elect the candidate who had the army at his back.

The Princeps, as holding the proconsulare imperium and the title of Imperator, has the right to allot conquered lands and grant the citizenship to deserving allies; he is always in the position of a victor, and so may wear a laurel crown; he may be attended in the city by an armed guard, like that of a general on service, a praetoria cohors of mercenaries, invaluable for overawing Rome, but at times a source of danger to their master.

Under the early empire the proconsulare imperium is shared with relatives, prospective successors aud even favourites, e.g., by Augustus with Agrippa aud Tiberius and in a modified form -with Germanicus. Blaesus (22 a.d.) was the last subject to be saluted as Iinperator, and by Domitian’s time the title belonged strictly to the head of the state and denoted absolute power. It lost its special signification and became synonymous with Princeps as the Emperor’s title.

§ 5. The Princeps as such was not Consul, nor was Consular power an integral part of the Principate. At the conclusion of his eleventh Consulship in 23 B.C., Augustus laid down the office which he only held twice subsequently (5 b.c. and 2 B.C.), on each occasion for the purpose of introducing a grandson to public life. The common error, finally refuted by Mommsen, that the Princeps possessed the Conmlaru potestas rests on a statement of Dion Cassius to the effect that with the offer of the curet legum et morum in 19 b.c. Augustus received Consular power for life. Of such bestowal nothing is said in the Mommentum Ancyranum, nor is the consularis polentas claimed by any later Emperor. Moreover we know that in 22 b.c. Augustus refused the offer of the perpetual Consulship. Probably Dion Cassius is referring to a decree giving Augustus the right merely to the insignia of a Consul.

§ 6. The proconsulare imperium was too much a power of the sword to satisfy Augustus, who aimed at complete personal sovereignty at home and abroad disguised under Republican forms. His government required a popular element such as was represented by the Tribunes of the People in the days of the Republic. Charged with the duty of protecting poor citizens against the oppression of magistrates the Tribunes possessed inviolability of person, as well as wide powers of veto and legislative initiative. Here, then, was the office in which the Princeps could at once pose as the patron of the populace and-secure the needed complement to his proconsulate imperium. But no patrician, as Augustus was, could be a Tribune, and therefore he refrained from actually taking the office, in the tenure of which, moreover, he would have had the disadvantage of nine colleagues, each with a power of veto. The powers of the office were therefore separated from the office itself, and the former alone conferred on the Princeps. In 23 b.c. (after holding it for nine successive 3'ears) Augustus resigned his Consulship, which now ceased to be a necessary constituent of the Imperial power, and took the full tribunitia potestas which he previously had held in some modified form from 36 n.c. He dates from this the years of his reign, shewing that he regarded his assumption of the full Tribunitian power as the completion of the new constitution. His tribunitia potestas had all the strength with none of the weakness of the old Tribunate. The history of the later Republic had shewn that a Tribune was handicapped by the liability to a colleagues’ veto, by the fact that he held office for a year only and by the lack of armed force to support his acts. From all these drawbacks the Princeps as holder of the tribunitia potestas was free. The Tribunes proper could not veto his acts, he held office for life and he had the army at his back. As ^Tacitus says, the tribunitia potestas was “a title of supreme power devised by Augustus so that without assuming the name of king or dictator he might be elevated above all other authority.” By virtue of it his person was inviolate, he had an almost unlimited right of intercessio or veto, and could summon meetings of the Senate, bring questions before it, and stop its proceedings at will. From the Tribune’s power on appeal to prevent a judicial decision being carried into effect, sprang the important civil and criminal appellate jurisdiction of the Emperor.

§ 7. The fiction of the popular will was kept up in the formalities necessary for the bestowal of the tribunitia potestas, for it was only conferred by the people in comitia passing a lex which confirmed a preliminary resolution of the Senate. The lex de imperio Vespasiani, parts of which are extant, confers not only the tribunitia potestas proper, but various other powers and privileges not belonging to the Tribune’s office, which had been granted to the Princeps.

The Tribunitian power as being, in Eome at any rate, the very foundation of the Principate was rarely shared except with an heir designate. Augustus granted it only to Agrippa and Tiberius for fixed periods, Tiberius only to his son Drusus.

§ 8. The Princeps was not actually Censor. Augustus consistently- refused the office, which would have given him formal control over the constitution of the Senate, and so have destroyed the semblance of senatorial independence which it was his policy to keep up. In 22 B.C. he declined the perpetual censorship, but appointed two censors who were the last citizens to hold the office. Three years later he refused the cura legum et morum which would have included full censorial power. But though not formally Censor, the Princeps had the Censor’s powers ready to hand whenever he chose to assume them. Augustus thrice held a census populi and a lectio senatus, once as Consul and twice in virtue of Consular powers decreed temporarily for that purpose; both he and his successors remove unworthy members from the album senatorium or list of senators, revise the jury lists, hold the census equitum, and undertake other censorial functions such as the charge of public buildings.

§ 9. The death of Lepidus (12 b.c.) enabled Augustus to add to his titles that of Pontifex Maximus. He thus obtained control of the State worship, and added religious authority to his civil and military power. His object, however, was political rather than religious. It was part of his policy to revive the old religion and strengthen his own position by a closer union between Church and State. He was not only Pontifex Maximus, but a member of the other priestly colleges. He built numerous temples and vainly endeavoured to check the progress of the Jewish and other Eastern rites, which were fast superseding the national religion. His successors retained the office of Pontifex Maximus, till a Christian emperor bestowed it on the Bishop of Pome.

§ 10. The legislative and judicial power of the Princeps increased as time went on. As possessing the tribunitia potestas he could from the first introduce a proposal to the comitia, but he had no right to make laws directly. As a matter of fact, however, he tends to become the sole source of law, and ultimately supersedes both Senate and Populus. Special enactments authorized him to bestow (by leges datae') various rights, especially on colonies. The ins edicendi or right to issue edicts which he possessed, soon produced a body of legislation, called constitutiones, and these, though valid only for the life of the Princeps who issued them, were generally confirmed after his death.

§ 11. Not only is the Princeps the source of law, he is also the fountain of justice, both criminal and civil. He might try any case in a private court of his own either as sole judge or with a small body of assessors (consilium) to aid him. This authority, however, he exercised usually only where offenders of high rank were concerned. In all cases he was the ultimate Court of Appeal and the power of pardon, vested in the people by an old law of the Republic, has in effect “passed to the Caesar, as in some sense their representative.” The majority of cases were still dealt with by the Praetors’ Courts or the Senate, but even here the Princeps was all-powerful. In the Senate he could deliver that first sententia which was virtually equivalent to a command to be obeyed by the rest. He scrutinized and revised the list of judices and frequentlj- sat in person in the Praetor’s Court as an assessor. Finally, should any sentence be passed against his wishes, he possessed the Tribune’s right to protect the condemned from the action of the law.

§ 12. In addition to the offices which gave real power, the Princeps possessed various titles and dignities of an ornamental character. The bestowal of the name Augustus has already been noted (above p. 13). It was a title of honour always assumed by Emperors on their accession and borne only by them. A prospective successor might be called Caesar, but never Augustus. The title of Pater Patriae was formally accorded to Augustus (b.c. 2) and was usually given to his successors, though Tiberius refused it. The image of the Princeps appeared on coins, his birthday was a public festival, he wore a laurel-wreath, was attended by lietors, sat on a sella cwulis, was allowed an armed guard, and after his death was worshipped as a god.

§ 13. The Princeps was thus in fact the head of the State, but he was by no means an irresponsible despot of the Oriental type. H e was as yet only primus inter pares, and probably subject to all laws from which he was not expressly exempted. And he could only indirectly select his successor. The Principute was elective, at any rate in theory, and the choice lay with the Senate. The preceding-Emperor could do much to guide the selection of a successor. The person he left as his heir had a strong claim to succeed to his political powers, especially if he had been associated with him in the tribunitia potestas or proconsulare imperium or both, as Tiberius was with Augustus. Practically, therefore, the Principate tends to become hereditary, and, ceteris paribus, the nearest of kin to the deceased Emperor has the best claim to become his successor.

§ 14. The various magistracies for the most part lasted on from Republican to Imperial times unchanged in name and with little seeming change of functions, but although, as ^Tacitus says of the best days of Tiberius, “Consuls and Praetors had their proper state, even the lesser magistrates had their powers in exercise,” yet the offices were “mere names,” and had lost for ever their power of initiative and real control. The elections of magistrates, though ostensibly free, were largely controlled by the Princeps, who could always secure the return of the candidates he favoured. He had the right of commendatio or “recommending” a fixed proportion of candidates whose election was assured, and besides these candidati t'aesarw, who must be returned, he could by virtue of the right of nominatio vested in a chief magistrate declare certain candidates to be qualified to stand, and those so “nominated” would be sure of success.

§ 15. The Consulship, though not subject to commendatio, was entirely reserved for the Emperor’s nominees and occasionally assumed by the Princeps himself. In order to gratify a larger number with the honour, the office was rarely tenable for a year—in later times two months became a favourite term so as to allow of twelve Consuls in the year. Not content with this multiplication of Comules suffecti the Emperor often qestowed the ornamenta consularia, which gave the recipient the title of consular is, though he had never held the office. Though a political nullity the Consulship was still nominally the most exalted of dignities, valuable as an evidence of Imperial favour, and as a stepping-stone to the government of the greater provinces. The Consuls could

still issue edicts to the people, and presided both at the comitia and at meetings of the Senate, whether deliberative or judicial. From the time of Tiberius onwards the Consuls and other magistrates are elected not by the Comitia but by the Senate, au important change which seems to have been very easily effected.

The Censorship as a separate office ceased to exist under Yugustus (see above, § 8).

§ 16. The ten Tribunes of the Plebs, though overshadowed bjr the tn'hmitia potentan held by the Princeps, and at times by his heir designate, retained some show of their ancient power, and might even exercise their intercexxio; but any inclination to act independently and contrary t<J the Emperor’s pleasure was promptly checked. They were generally selected from ex-Quaestors, and Augustus entrusted to them, along with the Praetors and Aediles, the superintendence of the fourteen regiones into which he divided the city.

§ 17. The Praetors, increased by Julius Caesar to sixteen, numbered twelve under the Early Empire. They still discharged such of their original judicial functions as were not transferred to the Senate or the Praefectus Urbis. The aerarium, which under the Republic was in charge of the Quaestors, was by Augustus entrusted to the care of the Praetors, who also received the cura ludorum or charge of the public games, a duty formerly discharged by the Aediles. As leading to the government of the lesser provinces, the Praetorship was ail office much sought for.

§ 18. The tendency under the Empire was to relieve the Aediles of their duties, e.g., the cura annonae passed to the Praefectus annonae and the cura ludorum to the Praetors. They thus retained merely certain municipal powers to regulate markets and prices, to inspect streets, baths, and taverns, and to act as literary censors. This transfer of the more important functions once exercised by the Aediles explains the lack of candidates for the office. Augustus more than once selected persons by lot, and compelled them to serve.

§ 19. The Quaestorship, as admitting to senatorial rank, was always in request. The charge of the aerarium was again given to the Quaestors by Claudius, but once more s. 3i-n. 4

taken away by Nero. From the time of Claudius too, all Quaestors at the beginning of their term of office were required to give gladiatorial games to the people at their own expense,—an arrangement which had the effect of debarring all but the wealthiest men from holding the position.

§ 20, Certain subordinate non-senatorial magistracies held before the Quaestorship, and styled the Viginthiratui, included four boards: (1) Treuiri capitales, who executed capital sentences; (2) Tresviri monetales, who controlled the mint; (3) Quatuorviri viis in urbe purgandis, the road commissioners ; (4) Decemviri st/itibus judicandis, an old court. These were retained, though the Emperor’s praefecti continually encroached upon their province.

§21. Side by side with the older magistracies arose others bestowed by the Princeps and often possessed of far more real power. These wrere filled mainly by members of the Equestrian order. The Praefectm Urbis was a temporary official who in early times acted as the Consul’s deputy during his absence from Rome. Augustus revived the office, which under Tiberius became permanent. The powers of the Praefectm Urbis were wide and formidable. He could exclude from the city any whom he deemed disaffected, and his sphere of authority in certain matters extended to a distance of 100 miles from the city walls. The post of Praefectm Praetorio or Commander of the Imperial bodyguard, as Sejanus shewed, might become the most formidable in Rome. The Praefectm rig Hum, in command of the watch, and the Praefectus annonae, to whom was committed the charge of the com supply, were likewise important officials. The financial interests of the Princeps were attended to by numerous Procuratores.

§ 22. Under the early Empire the Senate takes an important position. Perceiving that a small body would be easier to manipulate than the many-headed multitude, Augustus reversed the policy of Julius, and tried in every svav to restore the dignity and increase the influence of the Senate. He reduced its numbers to 600, and raised the property qualification for membership to 1,000,000 sesterces. Its decrees obtained the force of laws. Under the presidency of the Consuls it formed a supreme Court of Justice. It shared with the Princeps the rule of the Provinces, it had a separate treasury, and under Tiberius, as we have seen (| 15), obtained the right to elect the magistrates, which had hitherto belonged to the comitia. Practically, however, the Emperor controlled the Senate’s constitution and decisions. Admission was obtained either through office, the elections to which he influenced as he chose, or by the nomination (adlectio) of the Princeps acting as Censor. He annually revised the list of Senators, was himself a member, and possessed the right of introducing measures (relatio) and of veto. The Dyarchy of the Princeps and Senate was thus little more than a fiction. ,

§ 23. The Equestrian order was reorganized by Augustus. The qualifying rating was fixed at 400,000 sesterces, and various privileges such as special seats at the theatre and games, and the right to wear a gold ring, belonged to its members. The more aristocratic of their number, who possessed a senatorial rating, but preferred, like Maecenas, to remain Equites, formed an exclusive body known as Equites Splendidi or IJhtstres. The Equites had lost most of the opportunities for money-making which the taxfarming system of the Republic gave them, but certain offices, notably the important Praefecturae considered in § 21, were reserved for them, and under Augustus three-fourths of the judicen were drawn from their ranks. The annual procession, on the Ides of July, was revived and the order honoured by having Gaius and Lucius Caesar at its head as Principes iuventutis.

§ 24. The political importance of the Plebs becomes continually' less. The comitia soon lost all real power, and the Roman populace degenerated into an idle, shiftless mob, clamouring for panem et circemex, and ready to obey any ruler who would feed and amuse them.

§ 25. To keep in his own hands the control of the military forces, Augustus, in 27 B.C., divided the provinces into Imperial and Senatorial. The former were such as needed the presence of a military force, and therefore the exercise of imperium, to protect them from external enemies or to curb their internal turbulence The Senatorial provinces, on tlie contrary, were those which were so peaceful as to need no military establishment, and were, as a rule, the most flourishing and wealthy portions of the empire. If by chance any small body of troops was stationed there, their commander, albeit appointed by the Senate, was entirely amenable to the authority of the Princeps.

The Proconsuls who governed the Senatorial provinces were ex-consuls and ex-Praetors with Quaestors in attendance. They received a fixed salary from the treasury and their extortions were checked by the presence of an Imperial officer—the Procurator Jisci. Of the Imperial provinces the Princeps is the proconsul by virtue of his proconsulate imperium, and the acting governor is his Legatus, who holds office during the Caesar’s pleasure. All new conquests become Imperial provinces, and the distinction lasted till the time of Diocletian, 300 years later.

§ 26. The duality of government extended to Finance. Besides the aerarium, or old State treasury which the senate retained, there was now the fiscus or imperial treasury, into which was paid the revenue from the Caesarean provinces.

The revenues of the State were derived from the old sources. The rental of the old Ager Publicus grew to be a land-tax (trilutuni soli) collected from all parts of the empire outside Italy, and falling on all who possessed any landed property. Its amount, fixed definitely for all, was one-tenth of the produce in grain, one-fifth of that in wine and oil. It was paid in certain places in coin, in others, as in the case of Sicily, always in kind. Such taxable subjects as had no land were taxed under a poll-tax assessed on their incomes (tributum capitis). The old Republican vec-tigalia still continued, duties on imported goods, harbour-dues, commissions on the manufacture of salt, mining-dues, and fees for the enj oyment of the public pastures.

The revenues from these various sources were collected on a double system. In the senatorial provinces the Equites still farmed the indirect taxes and collected them for the senatorial quaestores by the aid of pullicani. In the imperial provinces the collection was in the hands of the Procurators Fisci. The quaestors were, as of old, answerable to the Senate for their levies, which went into the aerarium and were expended in the payment of the proconsuls and other salaried* functionaries, the maintenance of roads and erection of public buildings. The procuratores paid their receipts to the fiscus, which was applied to the maintenance of the imperial administration, and so to the payment of the legions. In time the aerarium was gradually absorbed in the jiscux, and hence it was that the taxable world came to be regarded as the property of the Caesar, and the Caesar as the owner of the world. The nerariitm militare, established by Augustus to provide retiring pensions for veterans, and supported by the 1 per cent, tax on sales (icentemna rerum venaliuni) and the 5 per cent, on inheritances (vicesima hereditatum), remained always a distinct chest.

§ 27. Though the expenses of the aerarium were originally but small, the system of payment which now gradually grew up swamped much of its revenues, and public works and poor relief more than consumed the balance. Augustus found it necessary to subsidize the aerarium repeatedly from the fiscus, and this, too, although the expenses of the latter chest were at the outset far more heavy. On the fiscus fell the maintenance of the whole imperial household, with its slaves, clerks, and secretaries, of the leg at i and procuratores, and of the entire military force, fleets, legions, and citizen troops alike. The management of the aerarium, obviously an important matter, seems to have been continually unsatisfactory, and frequent changes were made (see §§ 17, 19, above).

§ 28. While, then, the ordinary course of government, legislature and justice, went on as in the best days of the Republic, side by side ran a parallel authority, that of the Emperor. The Constitution was now in form a Dyarchy, or government by two independent but harmonious powers. On the one side, the old Republican machinery retained outwardly its full dignity and much of its authority; on the other side, the Princeps, proclaiming himself always the servant of the State, exercised an authority in all its branches constitutional, and yet in fact superior to that of the traditional power. The Princeps moved his laws in the

* The word salary is derived from the charge levied upon the Republican provinces to defray the cost of the salt of the proconsul sal, mlarinm).

Senate just as did any other legislator before him, and the rescripts which he issued from time to time were only conformable to his many recognised powers. The imperial court of justice was in full accord with traditional right, and with the senatorial and praetorian judicature. The same dualism extended to finance, to religion, and to foreign affairs. The Pontificate of the Princeps was merely a piece of the ordinary religious system of the State. His government of the imperial provinces was balanced by the Senate’s control in provinces nou-imperiul. The financial arrangements of the two orders of provinces were divided in the same way. And to keep up the fiction of his entire submission to the ‘ Republic one and indivisible,’ Augustus occasionally consulted the Senate on matters which legitimately lay entirely in in his own control. Nevertheless, as we have seen, he maintained a firm hold upon the slightest action of the Senate and comitia. To him belonged the power of the sword, and very largely the power of the purse, and instead of the soldier-chief in a free state he is a military despot with autocratic power veiled under legal and Republican names.

§ 29. The influence of the example of Julius is traceable in man}’ features of the Augustan constitution. From him came the practice of accumulating in one person many hitherto separate offices, of severing the powers of an office from the office itself, of appointing the succession to the minor offices many years in advance, and of controlling the elections by ‘ nomination; ’ the bestowal of the insignia of an office or rank, such as those of the consulate or a triumph, without the reality; the creation of new Patricians, and admission of foreigners to the Senate; the attempt to diminish the numbers of those in receipt of the corn-dole ; the reappointment of the Praefectus Urbis ; the substitution of edicts or rescripts for formal laws,—all these came from the mind of Julius. On the other hand, it was the originality of Augustus, in contradiction to Caesar’s policy, to aggrandize the Senate; to maintain the fiction of the Republic as still active; to allow of no patent departure from ancient routine in office and administration; and to suppress, at least in public, the deification of himself.

§ 30. The legislation of Augustus was confined mainly to laws regulating social abuses. In other parts of government his rescripts or edicts, while seemingly mere suggestions, came to usurp the place of leges and senatus consul fa, and were afterwards collected as the ‘Constitutions of Augustus.’ The laws, however, properly so-called, passed in due form according to the ancient Republican constitution, were those of Treason (Jfaiestatis), of the regulation of Marriage (Papin Poppaea), and a sumptuary law (de sumptu).

By maiestas (in its earlier and fuller form laesa maiestas) ivas understood any offence against the majesty of the State, any action, that is, derogatory to the dignity of the Roman people. Under the Republic such offences had been provided for originally by the old laws against perduellio, which included the betrayal of armies, collusion with an enemy, and in general merely military misdemeanours. In 100 b.c. the Lex Appuleia, and the Leges Yaria (91 b.c.) and Cornelia (of Sulla, 81 B.C.), extended the name maiestas to other offences; and Julius also passed a law on the same lines. It remained for the Emperors to enlarge the application of the law so as to reach even words, and under Tiberius almost any offence could with a little ingenuity be brought within the scope of the Lex Jfaiestatis. Under it men were accused of conspiracy, of false swearing by Caesar’s name, of defacing statues of Caesar, of immorality with members of the Caesarean house. In this last point Augustus set the example, it was said, in his treatment of his daughter Julia. That he did enlarge the bearings of the law is certain ; but it was an engine of power which he rarely used, and it remained rather an in terrorem weapon than a reality during his lifetime. It became, of course, nothing more or less than a pririlegium enabling the Caesar to veil his own cruelties under the guise of zeal for the honour of the State, since the Princeps was now the embodiment of the State.

§ 31 The Lex Popia Poppaea of 9 a.d. was a sweeping law directed against the growth of celibacy. Even in the days of Julius some legislation had been necessary to check the decrease of population consequent on civil war and the decay of marriage. Augustus found the evil still greater when, in 28 B.C., he first essayed its cure. His measures were, however, so fiercely opposed that he dropped them either wholly or in part; and after a second, half-hearted, attempt by a Lex Julia in 18 B.C., he finally carried the law which took its name from the two consuls of the year 9 a.d. By this law the intermarriage of senators or the sons of senators with freed women was forbidden; a tax was laid upon celibates and spinsters, and privileges and rewards offered to the parents of three or more children ; the citizens of Italian towns could purchase the full franchise by the possession of three children, and, like the Romans, could earn exemption from numerous duties, such as the charge of wards (iutela). Freedmen were included in the law, and could on the same terms obtain exemption from their obligations to their patronus. Divorce was hindered, unlawful marriages invalidated, and immorality heavily punished. Rewards were offered for information which led to conviction under this law, and hence arose the practice of ‘‘delation” so terrible under Tiberius, when it was transferred to offences under the Lex Jfaiestatis. The delator was a public informer, who prosecuted in hopes of rewards from the Princeps or of being bought off by bribes by his victim.

Many of the provisions of the preceding law related to inheritance and legacies, and are sometimes alluded to under the title of the Lex Caducaria.

§ 32. The Sumptuary law was passed in 22 B.C., and aimed fit suppressing the reckless extravagance of the table prevalent amongst the upper classes. Like most other laws of the same kind, it was a failure ; and the evil gradually died a natural death. Nevertheless it was always part of the dream of Augustus to restore something of the traditional simplicity and austerity of Roman manners and morals; and hence arose the severity with which he visited their licentiousness upon the two Julius, and, according to some, the banishment of Ovid the poet, who was dismissed to Tomi (Kustendjeh) on the Euxine, in the year 8 a.d.

§ 1. Augustus not a Conqueror.—§ 2. Extent and Division of the Empire at his Death.—§ 3. Double Method of dealing with Conquered Provinces: The Census and Taxation alone Uniform. — $ 4. Various Grade* of Civic Liberty.—§ 5. The Spanish Provinces.— § 6. The Gaulish Provinces.—§ 7. Egypt.—§ 8. Value of the Military Colonies of the Frontier.—§ 9. The Breviarhon Imperii.—$ 10. The Monumentum Ancyramtm.

§ 1. The process by whieli many new provinces were brought under the Roman rule has been detailed in the earlier chapters of this book. The vast inheritance which the empire received from the Republic was not greatly extended by its first rulers. It was the policy of Augustus rather to consolidate than enlarge his empire; and the few provinces which were added to the empire during his reign came into his hands peaceably upon the death of the vassal princes who had hitherto held them. The Spanish, German, Dalmatian and Pannonian wars were fought for the sake of security, not of conquest; and even the occupation of Rhaetia and Noricum, though it formed an actual extension of the limits of the empire, was necessary rather than voluntary, in order to secure a defensible frontier. Roughly speaking, the boundaries of the empire on the death of Augustus were on the west the Atlantic, on the north the Rhine and Danube, on the east the Euphrates. On the south there was no definite limit, nor was it needed in the peaceful state of the tribes of Africa.

§ 2. The list of the imperial provinces in 14 a.d. com-}.rises Hispania Tarraconensis, and Lusitania ; Gallia Lug-dunensis, Aquitania, and Belgica; the Germanies; Rhaetia and Noricum; Yindelicia, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Illyricum, and Moesia; Macedonia and Achaea ; Cilicia, Galatia, aud Syria with Palestine ; Egypt. The senatorial provinces included Gallia Narbonensis, Hispania Baetica, Asia, Bithy-nia, Crete and Cyrene, Africa, Numidia, Sicilia, Corsica and Sardinia, and Cyprus. But provinces frequently changed hands. Thus Achaea was under senatorial control until 15 B.C., when it was incorporated in the larger province of Macedonia under imperial control, Dalmatia became an imperial province after the great revolt of 6 a.d. Egypt occupied a peculiar position which -will be explained. As a rule it may be said that the Senate enjoyed the government and revenues of all the more peaceful, and therefore more wealthy provinces, while the task of ruling all the more turbulent and less productive regions belonged to the Caesar.

§ 3. The Romans had two methods of dealiug with a conquered country. Either it was treated with indulgence or with severity. In the former case the national customs, religion and laws, and even the local government, were left undisturbed in the main. In the latter case colonization was made use of to plant Romans throughout the conquered territory, and the laws, language, and religion of Rome were enforced by compulsion. In either case the country became gradually Romanized, and if it did not entirely forget its own nationality as in the case of Spain, it accepted the culture and civilization of Rome side by side with its original system, as was largely the case in Gaul and in the eastern provinces. In any case the country was opened up by well-built roads and bridges; its whole area was mapped out and a census taken of the populace at recurring intervals to assist the collectiou of the universal land-tax, poll-taxes and tithes; the Roman traders were encouraged to explore its resources; and the superior attractions of Roman life were set before the eyes of its people in a way, which rapidly brought them into complete harmony wTith their conquerors.

§ 4. Beyond the census and the assessment for taxation the Romans did not carry out any systematic' process of assimilation. Local government retained its distinctiveness in all parts of the empire, only differing in tlie degree of liberty allowed, or according as the province was indulged or coerced. In the latter case the governor of the province took into his own hand the mass of the judicial business of the country, and annually performed a circuit in which he visited the principal towns in succession and there held a eonventus or assize. In the former ease, only the more important litigation was submitted to the award of Roman magistrates. In either case, the bulk of the provincial towns adopted the sysHu of municipal government which had prevailed in Itaty, Where two chief magistrates (duumviri) presided over a senate of the local magnates, and had as their assessors two aediles or quaestors. It wras the chief duty of the duumvirs to send in yearly an accurate return of the population of the town to facilitate the regulation of taxation. Many towns, especially in Spain, received the fuller privileges known as the ius Latii, which had formerly been allowed to the Latin colonies in Italy, and of course the numerous colonies, planted mainly for the purpose of defence, possessed the full franchise as of old. A very few towns, such as Massilia (Marseilles), retained a sort of independence, exempt alike from taxation and from the interference of any Roman officer. Still a few others, which had brought upon themselves the anger of the Romans revolt or by the stubbornness of their resistance, were treated more severely thau the rest, and stood on the level of the old Italian prefectures.

§ 5. With these general rules in mind, it will not be difficult to understand the condition of any particular part of the empire. Nevertheless there are one or twro portions which require special notice. The peninsula of Spain, conquered at last after 200 years of warfare, was divided into three provinces. Of these, Baetica, so-called from the Baetis (Guadalquivir), was the southern portion, the district formerly opened up bj' the Phoenicians, and teeming with all the best products of the soil whether mineral or vegetable. It was the seat, too, of flourishing manufactures, particularly of woollen aud linen goods and wrought iron, and its capital, (Jades (Cadiz), was to the Western Mediterranean what Alexandria was to the Eastern Sea.

This was the senatorial province, governed as in the old days by a proconsul, and only sensible of change in the fact that extortion no longer ran riot. The two other divisions, Tarraconensis aud Lusitania (Portugal and the JS'orth- IVest Highlands) were occupied largely by warlike tribes akin to the modern Basques, and, as has been said, they were held in check by a series of large military colonies like Olisipo (Lisbon) and Caesar Augustus (Saragossa). The great coast road from Italy to Marseilles was continued to Tarraco and thenqq to the Baetis valley and the ocean. It was known as the Via Augusta. Other roads opened on to this, and in fifty years the presence of the legionary and the trader resulted in the complete Romani-zation of the most stubborn of all the subject peoples.

§ 6. In Gaul another system was adopted. If the Spanish provinces were an example of coercion, those of Gaul were equally an example of indulgence. The whole of the four divisions were indeed brought into direct intercourse with Lugdunum {Lyons), a newly founded strategic colon}', as their centre, by means of roads; and the Nar-bonese was planted with Italian colonies in all directions. But the Narbonese had long ceased to be Gaulish. The provinces of Aquitania, Lugdunensis, and Belgica, on the other hand, were still profound® Gaulish. Yet they were allowed to retain their old system of clanship centralizing round separate towns, and the government of these clans remained in its original hands. But there was instituted a parliament of the representatives of the cantons or clans which met annually at Lugdunum, where they were brought fully into contact with the culture of Roman Gaul, while flattered with the semblance of self-government. Lugdunum was further honoured with the privilege of coining gold. Even the Gallic league of 1,500 paces was retained as the unit of measure along the great military roads. But Roman arts and methods of agriculture, the Roman language and religion, pushed themselves so silently and so rapidly, that when Civilis attempted to recover Gaul for the Gauls he found there were no Gauls left; all had become Romans. The land became one of the most flourishing parts of the whole empire, by far the most flourishing of the imperial provinces, and this in spite of the ceaseless drain imposed upon it for men and funds to recruit the legions 011 the Rhine frontier. Military service, indeed, did as much as anything to break down the barrier between Rome and her subjects in all parts of the empire ; in none more than iu G-aul.

§ 7. It has been said that Egypt was placed under a prefect, and so formed an exception to the rule of government either by a legatus Caesaris or by a proconsul. This prefect was always a man of equestrian rank, but not an eques uplendidwt. The reason for this anomaly was that the food of Rome depended upon the supplies drawn thither from Alexandria. To have interrupted these supplies for a fortnight would have been to starve Rome. The provinces of Africa and Sicily furnished large quantities of corn; but Egypt was the real granary of the empire. It was moreover situated in a peculiarly defensive position, forming as it did the ‘key of sea and land’ between Asia and Africa. To have allowed one of the old nobles to obtain an ascendency there would have been to risk a revolt, and Egypt, if not turbulent, was at least rich enough to maintain a lengthy struggle. Hence the choice of an equestrian prefect—a man usually of no claims to ascendency; hence the harsh treatment of Gallus for his abuse of office* there; and hence, too, the jealous rule that no senator should visit Egypt without the express permission of the Princeps. In Egypt Augustus was the successor of the Ptolemies and king in all but name.

§ 8. How the great frontier-line of the north was formed and maintained has already been detailed. The great military camps all became in time populous towns—the centres of the trade and civilization of their respective districts, as they were of the great highways. Here the Germans learnt the art of war under Roman standards, and returned home carrying with them at least one element in civilization—that of order and discipline. Hereabouts settled the discharged legionary after his sixteen years of service, and so gradually occupied the soil with a Roman population. Public buildings sprang up as the governor and his adjutants emulated in the provinces the example of Caesar at home, and to this day the majority of the great strategic centres are busy and important towns. Bej'ond the border, as on the Euphrates, lay perhaps petty states which owned a sort of allegiance to Rome. One by one these lapsed to the conqueror by failure of the royal lino or by testament, or forfeited their independence by r.evolt; but by that date the camps had become cities, well able to maintain their position shoulder to shoulder with the barbarians beyond. In Africa the nomad tribes showed little animosity. The Romans occupied the old domains of Carthage and Numidia, confining themselves to the coast in the main, and a new Carthage arose on the ruins of the old one; but the interior was left to the Gaetulians and their fellows, and, unmolested, the latter were content to be tractable.

§ 9. The great roads which brought every part of their world within reach of the Romans remain to this day as the highways of trade. Each road was mapped out into sections, the names of its towns and villages entered in a gazetteer, and the distances accurately recorded. Moreover there were added particulars of each town, its size, trade, government, etc., and the whole compilation was known as the Breviarium Imperii—the masterpiece and symbol of Augustus’ consolidated empire.

§ 10. The worship of Augustus, repressed at Rome—at least, so far as to forbid the erection of temples in his honour—flourished in the provinces. To Augustus the provincials owed peace and security, freedom from the horrors of a Verres’ extortions, the revival of trade, agriculture, arts, and wealth. They regarded him as a detis praesens; and to his name, before and after death, they erected altars and temples in numbers. One such temple stood at Ancyra (Angora) in Lycaonia, and on its walls still remain the fragments of an inscription known as the Jfonit-mentmn Ancyramtm. On this Augustus sets forth in Greek and in Latin the history of his doings as Princeps, the dates and characters of the honours decreed to him, his wars and conquests, his arrangements to secure them, his colonies, his measures to aggrandize Rome, the temples he restored and the public buildings which he caused to be built, the largesses which he gave to his people and his legions, his revenues and expenditures, his fleets and forces -—in a word, a succinct resume of his life and work. To this, perhaps the most valuable monument of Homan archaeology, we owe most of that certainty which we possess as regards the history of the first Princeps— a history which is-but scantily recorded in the anecdotes of Suetonius and other writers, and has no historian of its own worthy of the name.

§ 1. Slight Interest of the Reign of Augustus as compared with that of Tiberius—§ 2. Peculiar Difficulties of Tiberius 011 the Demise of Augustus—J 3. Diffidence of Tiberius: its Reasons—§ 4. His Estimate of his Position a Mistaken One—§ 5. First Acts of Tiberius : The Will of Augustus—§ 6. Deaths of Agrippa Postumus and Julia Maior—§ 7. Disaffection in 'the Army: Its Causes— § 8. Revolt of the Pannonian and of ($ 9) the German Legions— § 10. First and Second Campaigns of Germanicus—§ 11. Last Campaign and Recall of Germanicus.

§ 1. With, the accession of Tiberius Roman history once again assumes something of that dramatic interest which characterizes the era of the Gracchi, of Cicero and of Caesar. The reign of Augustus, brilliant as it was, and studded with illustrious names, is yet one of the least interesting epochs in authentic history ; it is simply the narrative of the deeds of Augustus, and of no one else. The Princeps was too strong and too confident to allow of any rivals in the arena of public affairs. Agrippa and Maecenas. Messala and Taurus, Marcellus, the children of Agrippa, Livia and the two Julias, are all so many mutes in the monologue wherein Augustus is the actor. Scarcely any person in history is so little known in proportion to the position he filled as is Maecenas. And it was the same with all the others. Augustus was the head of the world, and in him centred all interest, leaving none to spare for his surrounding court. And yet little as we know of a Maecenas or a Livia, we know scarcely more of the character of Augustus. The years of his reign are mere annals without dramatic life; but the times of Tiberius have come

down to us chronicled in the pages of historians who were masters of character-sketching.

§ 2. Summoned to the deathbed of Augustus at Nola, Tiborius arrived to find himself, at the age of fifty-six years, the chosen successor of his deceased stepfather. The fact that he had been adopted into the family of Augustus was proof that, so far as one man’s choice could decide, he was to be heir to the principate. But the position was one of unusual difficulty. Hitherto there had been no such thing as succession to the position left vacant by Augustus’ death. That position bad been won by the merits of him who filled it, with the assent of nine-tenths of the world ; and he had held it with scrupulous punctilio, only as the servant of the state. Who, then, was to decide upon the course of events now that he was dead ? The evils which had made his autocracy imperative were past; why not restore the republic, which had slumbered, not perished, under his rule ? Or if autocracy must still endure, who was to appoint a second Princeps? By what right could Augustus, himself the servant of the state, devolve the government upon a person of his own choosing ? And if his choice was not to be held valid, who was to name a successor ? Did that power lie with the senate, or with the people, or with both ? And finally, when that point was decided, there remained the most difficult problem of all— who should be chosen? Would the pride of the nobles brook any peaceful succession to that supremacy which Augustus had wielded by virtue of the sword? Would not the populace and armies alike set up their own favourite— possibly Gerinanicus, the son of Drusus ? Last of all, what personal title had the adopted son of Augustus to the principate, the sterner stepson of a stern father, a mere general of more prowess and genius than popularity, not more noble than his fellows of the houses of Domitius, of Metellus, or of CorneUus ?

§ 3. Of all these perplexities Tiberius was well aware. It may be questioned whether he really cared sufficiently for his inheritance to have asserted his right to it by force, had necessity arisen. In his retirement to Rhodes he had shown that at any rate he did not care to play the rival in an old man’s affections to the young Caesars. But whatever his own feelings, those of his mother were decided. She had been working towards this end for years ; and now, when the reward of her efforts was within her reach, it found her fully prepared. She kept secret all news of the demise of Augustus, surrounding herself with guards of her own selection and ordering, until Tiberius himself arrived to take over his rightful duties as son of the dead man and commander-in-chief of the entire military forces of Home, by virtue of his proconsular imperium. The course of events now rested with him rather than with her.

But Tiberius showed no rash haste—indeed, no eagerness —in asserting himself as Princeps. He was well aware how much Julius had lost, how much Augustus had gained, by contempt for, or deference towards, the forms of consti tutional law. Augustus had, indeed, reached the throne by the help of the sword, but his seat thereon had been ratified and determined by the senate in conclave. There was no excuse for violence now, if the senate would but show itself as amenable as before. Tiberius accordingly summoned that body to decide what honours should be paid to the dead man. That point settled, their thoughts naturally turned to his successor. Tiberius expressed no wish for empire. If they would have him as their Emperor, he was ready to do his best; if they desired to follow any other course, he was indifferent. The senators devolved upon Tiberius by regular process all the powers and privileges of the late Princeps, and so established the double precedent that the nomination of an Emperor rested with themselves, and that the validity of an Emperor’s title was secured by the Lex Regia, the Act by which they ratified their choice.

§ 4. As a matter of fact, Tiberius’ hesitation to thrust himself forward had little real ground. It was due to the apprehension that Rome was anxious to restore once more the government of the senate and comitia. But Rome had no such desire. The populace, as a whole, gained too much by the new government to wish for a reversion to the alternate aristocratic jobbery and mob-rule of the later republic. The provinces supported the principate heart and soul, and with far better cause. The army was not yet prepared to disregard the oath by which it had tendered allegiance to the partner of Augustus’ powers, and, in great part, it even loved Tiberius, whose brilliant services in Asia, in Pannonia, and in Germany, had upheld the honour of Rome without reverse. Germanicus was a possible, but far from a probable rival; and the same was true of Drusus, the son of Tiberius by Julia, and so grandson of Augustus. But the good sense of Rome was not yet so utterly dead, that the merit earned by thirty years of indefatigable service had no claims in her eyes. What Tiberius feared was that stubborn aristocracy of blood which Julius had sought to repress by sternness and Augustus by diplomacy. Yet there was no one of them all who could have ventured to assert himself; not one who had at his command anything worthy' of the name of a party; and all were so jealous of their equality that they would have preferred to submit to the supremacy of Tiberius, with its show of claim, however slight, rather than to that of any of their own number—all equally proud, but all equally reduced to acknowledging the late Emperor as their superior.

§ 5. The first act of the new Princeps was to publish and execute the will of Augustus. Continual advances to the aerarium had so far drained the purse of the Caesar that his property was found to be of no extraordinary amount. Nevertheless, he directed large legacies to be paid to the people, the thirty-five tribes, the praetorians, urban-guards, and legionaries, the latter of whom received 300 sesterces each. Personal friends received further testimonies of his good will; and the balance of his estate was divided between Tiberius and Livia, the latter receiving one-third. The funeral was conducted with due pomp, although Tiberius interfered to prevent an excessive show of adulation, saying that he did not wish his own private sorrows to be a burden to his people. In a similar spirit he declined many of the compliments which the senate hastened to lavish upon himself, and while accepting the title of Augusta for his mother, refused to accept for her the designation of Mater Patriae. Por Germanicus he asked the proconsulare imperium; his own son Drusus he was content to see consul-designate for the ensuing year.

§ 6. The commencement of the reign was shadowed by the death of Agrippa Postumus, the youngest and ‘ brutish’ son of Agrippa. He had been imprisoned for some years in the island of Planasia, near Elba, seemingly because of his open disregard for that higher morality which Augustus had striven to inculcate by his own example. On the very day of his grandfather’s death, a centurion, acting on orders brought by Sallustius Orispus, executed the prisoner. From whom the order came can never be known. Probably Livia was answerable for it. A few months later occurred an event which, had it happened sooner, would have amply justified such a measure; and it is possible that Livia, or even Augustus, was aware of a conspiracy* which aimed at setting up such a despicable claimant as a candidate for the principate, for there is a story that the latter gave orders to have his prisoner removed at the instant of his own death. We only know that no inquiry was made into the murder, although Tiberius, on receiving news that 1 what he had ordered was done,’ emphatically denied having given such an order, and threatened that a public investigation should be held. In the same year died the elder Julia, the banished wife of Tiberius. Her death, like that of Agrippa, is unhesitatingly laid to the charge of Tiberius by both Tacitus and Suetonius ; but there is no evidence for the statement, and even if it were true, the fact of her having once intrigued against a strong and settled government is some excuse for severe measures on the part of a new ruler, whose position was, as yet, insecure.

§ 7. But men’s attention was soon turned to the more menacing attitude of the legions. The news of the death of Augustus had been marked by a brief relaxation of discipline in the camps of the three legions which garrisoned Pannonia. Brief as the respite was, it gave time for the slumbering discontent of the veterans to awake. The maintenance of his enormous army had been not the

* There seems to be as much likelihood for the existence of such a conspiracy as for those which are alleged to have centred round the two Julias, one of whom was the mother, the other a sister, of Agrippa Postumus.

smallest of Augustus’ anxieties, and the merely financial difficulties of the question had heen complicated more than once by mutinous murmurimgs at the long service and slight rewards of the defenders of the frontiers. The largesses which had been the expected rights of the legionaries under the command of a Pompeius, an Antonins, or an Octavian, who depended each entirely upon his army, were no longer practicable. There were no more Alexandrias to sack, no more rivals whose offers must be outbidden at any cost. The service was reduced to a monotonous garrison duty in the face of the enemy, varied only by profitless incursions into regions never rich, and long since drained of their scanty booty in previous campaigns. Yearly the difficulty of recruiting the ranks for so uninviting a service became greater, and in place of Italians, the legions were filled by Gauls, Pannonians, Asiatics—even Germans and other peoples as yet unconquererl. A veteran became too valuable to be lost, and the old practice of granting early discharge was evaded upon any plausible excuse. Twenty years was the nominal limit of service exacted by Augustus; but, in fact, it extended even to forty years, and even if discharge was ostensibly granted at an earlier date, the soldier was not suffered to leave the cantonments, but was retained ml vcxitto—a kind of reserve-mnn, freed indeed from the more arduous duties of the common private, but still without any tangible reward for his labours. The few who were so fortunate as to obtain such rewards received not money, or the grant of rich lands in Italy, but uninviting allotments near the frontiers—‘ scraps of marsh and mountain ’— which offered little of rest and ease to their owners. All these grievances were intensified by the contrast offered in the case of the praetorian guards. Thej' enjoyed the sun and pleasures of Pome: they had no enemies to chastise or to guard against day and night; their discharge came without fail at the close of the sixteenth year; and their pay for such trifling toils as they endured was double that of the hard-worked legionary. In a word, they were the pampered and useless pets of an Emperor who allowed his real defenders to starve and toil unrewarded.

§ 8. The three Pannonian legions, headed bjT one Percen-nius, an old hanger-on of the Roman theatres, maltreated their officers, refused to obey orders, and were with difficulty persuaded to refrain from more violent measures, while representatives were despatched to Rome to lay their claims before the new Princeps. Tiberius’ position was critical. The mutineers must be disarmed at all costs, and that too before their disaffection could spread. There was indeed one element of safety in that the Pannonian legions had no high-born or ambitious leader round whom to rail}'; but in Germany there were eight legions who idolized Germanicus, it was said, and he was connected by marriage with that disaffected house of which came Postumus and the Julias, And at Rome there was the ‘ wolf which Tiberius held by the ears,’ the turbulent nobility; and there was no Agrippa or Maecenas in whose hands to leave the home-government while he was absent himself. The Princeps could not lea ve the city in person. He despatched his son Drusus to the Pannonian mutineers with as large a bodj' of praetorians and urban-guards as could be spared, and hade him stay by timely concessions the spread of disaffection. Por a moment it seemed that even his birth and rank would not avail Drusus. He was stoned and insulted, and on the point of abandoning his mission, when an eclipse of the moon intervened. The mutineers, already alarmed at their own violence, saw therein the displeasure of the gods they had wronged. They threw themselves on the mercy of Drusus, who ordered the ringleaders to he put to death.

§ 9. At the same moment the greater part of the Rliine-guard rose in mutiny. Pour legions, the garrison of Lower Germany, whose headquarters were among the Ubii, defied their commander, the legate A. Caecina, and made the same demands as their comrades in Pannonia. Here the sedition was fomented by the rabble of undisciplined townsmen and slaves with whom Augustus had recruited the German army after the disaster of Yarus, and the situation was the more dangerous from the readiness of the German tribes to take instant advantage of the troubles of their enemies and cross the Rhine. Even Gaul was disaffected, worn out and weary of incessant military service, conscriptions, and imposts. Germanicus, commander-in-chief of the entire force, was absent at Lugdunum, where he was revising the census-lists and administering the oath of allegiance to the provincials on behalf of the new ruler. He hurried instantly to the camp, and his presence for a moment checked the outbreak. But on his proceeding to harangue the men, and mentioning the legacy by which Augustus had acknowledged their deserts, he was met with fresh insult, and was constrained to pay down on the spot double that amount, collected as best might be from his own purse and those of his officers. Even then he was unable to restore discipline, and despairing of safety, despatched his wife Agrippina, and her infant son, Gaius, to find what shelter they could with the Treviri. Agrippina was a favourite with the men, and her son—it was here he won his name of Caligula*—was the pet of the legions. Sentiment prevailed where menace and argument had failed. The troops returned to their duties, and left Germanicus free to deal with the rest of the forces.

Stationed about Castra Vetera (Xanten), two other legions had listened to the overtures of their fellows and were giving palpable signs of defection. But Germanicus now felt himself strong in the loyalty of the reclaimed legions, and his legate, A. Caecina, restored discipline without much trouble. In the upper province he did not hesitate to advance as if to do battle with the recalcitrant forces; and the stern measures of Silius, their Implies, who suddenly cut dow n the ringleaders, co-operated with him in securing the allegiance of the remainder.

§ 10. To prevent idleness from still further demoralizing these legions, and to afford them at the same time the opportunity of wiping out by fresh glories the stain of their insubordination, Germanicus at once crossed the Bliine and advanced into the heart of Germany. The experiences of Drusus and Tiberius had shown how little was to be gained by such aggressions; those of Lollius and Yarus had shown how much might be lost. But Germanicus was young and eager, ambitious perhaps to show that a province might

* From culiya, a military boot. This child lived to be the mad Emperor, 37-41 a.d.

still be qaeupied beyond the Rhine; and he had the ready excuse that the death of Yarus and his legionaries was as yet not atoned for. Disregarding the dying injunctions of Augustus, wherein lie bade Tiberius use bis legions to maintain rather than to extend the power of Rome, Gerinanicus attacked the Marsi, crushed them by the suddenness of his onslaught, and turning northwards towards the Bructeri and Usipetes, with difficulty brought back his army intact. No actual success was achieved; rather a dangerous and implacable enemy had been roused afresh. Nevertheless, the senate decreed a triumph to Germanicus, and the advocacy of Tiberius may have been prompted by the desire to conciliate the legions by the show of appreciation. Thus encouraged, Germanicus again assumed the aggressive in the year 15 a.d. While he himself attacked the Chatti in the north, Gaecina advanced from Castra Vetera upon the Cherusci, now disorganized by the quarrels of Segestes and Arminius. The former at once sided with the invaders, and delivered up to their keeping Thusnelda, the wife of his nephew, and numerous other defenceless hostages. Returning from this expedition, Gaecina heard that Inguiomerus, hitherto an ally of the Romans, had once again arrayed himself on the side of Arminius; he received orders to strike eastwards at once to the Amisia (Ems), where his column was joined by that of Germanicus, which had reached the same spot by water. Successful as the actual movement was, it effected nothing of real value. The fatal Saltus Teutoburgiensis was revisited, and the bones of the victims of Arminius’ treachery were duly buried; but that chieftain all but repeated his former triumph, and the legions of Gaecina were compelled to fight desperately for their return. Rumour had even reported their utter loss when they reappeared at the bridge by Gastra Vetera, which Agrippina’s confidence alone had saved from being cut under the influence of panic. Germanicus himself, returning by the way of his advance, lost many men in the sudden inrush of the tide over the low marshlands of the lower Elbe.

§ 11. In the year 16 a.d. occurred the last effort to subjugate the wilderness between the Rhine and the Elbe.

Six legions were moved, as in the preceding year, by way of the Lacus Flevo (Zmjder Zee) and the northern coasts, to the mouth of the Amisia, and thence struck into the interior. On reaching the Visurgis ( JVe&er) they were met by the entire force of the German confederacy under Ar-minius, and were compelled to force the passage of the river. Once across, they were beset on all sides, and a stubborn battle, at a spot called the plain of Idistaviso, left the Romans in possession of the field. Yet the victory could not have been very decisive, for further advance was still contested, and no taugible result had been obtained when the column at last wheeled about and retired. Iudeed, the boasting language of the Romans which claims the subjugation of the north finds its best commentary in the fact that the wrecking of many of Germanicus’ transport ships off the north coast at once aroused the tribes to fresh efforts. Still, thecam-paign ended without further disaster; but whatever hopes of future success Germanicus may have entertained were thwarted by his recall to Rome to act as consul for the year 18 a.d. Whether another campaign would have finally conquered the Germans, and planted the Roman legions on the Elbe, may be questioned. That had been the motive for the campaigns of Drusus and Tiberius—a purpose which if accomplished, would have shortened by many hundreds of miles the immense frontier-line of the empire, and by diminishing its extent, would have consolidated its strength. But Tiberius saw the futility- of the attempt, and had full cause for recalling Germanicus before his rashness could bring upon Rome another disaster like that of Yarus. There was still, perhaps, a possibility that peaceful intercourse would effect what force could not achieve. Moreover, it was contrary to the policy of Augustus to leave one general long in command of the same arm}-; and the reproach of jealousy- with which his recall of Germanicus was greeted is probably unjustifiable. Discretion and policy alike advised it, and the presence of Germanicus was needed elsewhere. Sad jealousy- been the motive for his recall he would scarcely have been at once entrusted with the Asiatic commission which was now thrust upon him.

§ 1. Treason at Rome: Clemens: Libo Drusus—§ 2. Annexation of Cappadocia—$3. Fall of Maroboduus andof Arminius—§-t. Gernian-icus settles the Affairs of Asia—§ S. Tacfarinas and Rheseuporis-$ 6. Conduct of Cn. Piso: Death of Germanicus—$ 7. Rebellion and Trial of Piso—§ 8. Criticism of the Relations of Tiberius, Piso, and (xermanicus—•) 9. Character and Advancement of Sejanus—ij 10. The Revolt of Florus and Sacrovir—§ 11. Drusus receives the Tribunitia Potestas: Impeachments at Rome.

§ 1. The most moderate of rulers might have looked with suspicion on Germanicus, for the mutinous Rhine armies had hailed him as their chief and shouted aloud their readiness to conduct him to Rome and put him upon the throne of the Caesars if he would hut give the word. His tact or his good sense enabled him to treat as they deserved such traitorous suggestions, but the event may well have led to additional precautions on the part of Tiberius, the more as treason was indisputably at work in Italy itself. Iu the very year of the execution of Postumus that measure received some justification in the conspiracy of one Clemens, a freedman, whose resemblance to the son of Agrippa led him into the position of a pretender. For some months he moved mysteriously' from town to town, carefully avoiding all close examination, and industriously spreading the report that Agrippa had never been executed, but survived in himself to claim the throne. Tiberius was too cautious to draw attention to the matter by any show of alarm or violence. His emissarios, by pretending to support Clemens, drew him into their power, and he was privately put to death, 16 a.d. Hut in the very same year Libo Drusus, a member of the Scribonian gens, a relative of

Augustus’ first wife, was brought to trial before the senate on the charge of conspiracy. For upwards of a year Tiberius, it is said, had been aware that the culprit was indulging in dreams of empire, and consulting astrologers with designs as sinister as silly. Nevertheless, he bestowed upon him various marks of honour, including the praetorship. But Libo the more confidently continued in his folly, and was at last arrested by the consuls on the information of Fulcinius Trio, a delator of unenviable notoriety, who demanded a trial before the senators. Disgust might have led Tiberius to make an example of a conspirator whose prosecution was brought on by his fellow-nobles; but, in fact, the event forestalled him. Libo committed suicide before his case was completed, and Tiberius could only express regret that the culprit had not waited to be pardoned. He has gained no credit for his expressed regrets; but it may be noticed that Fulcinius was forced to suicide twenty years later; that Firmius Catus, the false friend «ho first whispered to the Princeps his suspicions of Libo, was driven into exile within eight years; and that the senators and consuls alone were responsible for the commencement and result of the trial.

§2. In 17 a.d. Germanicus triumphed over ‘the Angri-varii*- and all other tribes as far as the Elbe;’ so carefully did public ostentation at home conceal the reality of foreign events. The good auspices of Tiberius were honoured by the erection of a triumphal arch, and a liberal largess gratified the populace, coming as it did from a Princeps who did not conceal his contempt for the shows and games which Augustus had lavishly maintained. The public contentment was further heightened by the reduction of the tax on salesf to one-half of the previous amount, a step rendered possible to an impovished exchequer by the annexation of Cappadocia. Archelaus, the vassal king of that country, had shown signs of contumacy towards Tiberius’ government, and had been summoned to Rome in order to stand his trial before the senate. A Roman procurator, possibly of the neighbouring province of Cilicia, was implicated in the

* This was the one tribe which actually made submission to the Romans after the last campaign of Germanicus.

charge; but the trial ended in an acquittal. Archelaus died, however, in the course of the year, from disgust or apprehension. The organization of the new province was entrusted to Germanicus, who left Eome at the close of the year for Asia; Drusus left at the same time to take the command of the Pannonian legions.

§ 3. The withdrawal of the Romans from beyond the Rhine (16 a.d.) had left Arminius at liberty to (leal with his rival Maroboduus, chief of the llarcomanni. The latter, finding himself worsted and unpopular because of his Romanising policy, appealed for aid to Tiberius. The Pannonian legions were accordingly instructed to protect him, and did so as far as Arminius was concerned. But the Princeps, in accordance with his regular policy, contrived to foment intrigues against Maroboduus, as a dangerous neighbour; and in 18 a.d. that prince was driven out by Catualda, a chieftain of the Gotones. He was granted an asylum at Ravenna, where he died in 36 a.d. Arminius, now the most powerful chief in Germany, forgot his patriotism and tried to establish a despotism. He fell into disfavour, struggled for some time against his enemies, and was finally assassinated about 21 a.d. One of his tribesmen had offered to remove him by poison if Tiberius wished it; and that Emperor had replied by quoting the case of Pyrrhus and his treacherous physician. He argued, doubtless, that it was best to let well alone—to leave the Germans to themselves while they would permit it.

§ 4. Germanicus reached Asia at the commencement of the year 18 a.d., when he also entered upon his consulship. He had been entrusted with powers equal to those exercised by Agrippa on his mission to the same quarter,*' and proceeded at once to settle the relations of Rome with Armenia and Parthia. Those countries had been the scene of continual revolutions since the interference of Gaius Caesar, 3 a.d. The Tigranes whom Gaius had set upon the Armenian throne had been succeeded by various princes of short-lived authority, and even by a princess named Erato. To her succeeded Yonones, that son of Phraates

whom Augustus had retained at Rome as a hostage,* and who, after the death of his father, had for awhile held the sceptre of Parthia. Like Maroboduus however he had disgusted his subjects by his parade of Roman habits, and a sudden rising had resulted in his expulsion in favour of Artahanus, a Median prince. He sought refuge in Armenia at the moment when that country was in a state of anarchy, and was accepted as their prince by its people. But Arta-banus followed up his first success by attacking him in his new kingdom; and when Silanus, Prefect of Syria, seized Vonones, and retained him in custody within the Roman frontiers, matters were doubly complicated by the indignation of the Armenians and the disappointment of Artahanus. At this moment Germanicus arrived. With skilful diplomacy he calmed the feelings of both parties. Artabanus he gratified by removing his ex-rival to a safer distance; the Armenians were persuaded that they could dispense with his rule, and allowed Germanicus to crown Zeno, son of Polemo of Pontus,* as their king. In the following year Yonones endeavoured to escape from the honorary custody in which he was held, was captured, and cut down by one of his pursuers.

The remainder of the year was occupied by Germanicus in the settlement of Commagene, whose prince, Antiochus III., had died in the previous year; and of the territories of Philopater, a prince of Cilicia, left vacant from the same cause and date. The two principalities were now combined under the government of a praetor. Cappadocia was organized as an imperial province, and some abatement was made in the tributes of Judaea and Syria.

§ 5. The preceding year (17 a.d.) was marked by the first appearance of Tacfarinas, yet another example of the manner in which promiscuous recruiting redounded to the damage of the Roman arms. This man, long a soldier in the Roman sendee, deserted, and put himself at the head of the Musulamii, a nomad tribe of the interior, and commenced a series of forays upon the Roman province of Africa. Heretofore, Africa had been remarkable for its quietude, and the exploits of Tacfarinas thus attained possibly

more lustre than they merited. The proconsul, harms Camillus, gained such successes over him however with the small force of one legion—the sole garrison of Africa— that he claimed, and was allowed, the insignia triumpltalia. After the accession of Tiberius there was no such honour as a triumph for any hut a member of the Caesar’s house. Other conquerors could aspire only to the honour now bestowed upon Camillus—an honour whose chief substance was the privilege of wreathing with bays the bust of him who obtained it. Scarcely more important were the events by which Thrace passed virtually under praetorian control, in the year 18 a.d. On the death of Ehoemetalees, 12 a.d., his territories had been divided between his son and heir, Cotys, and his brother, Elp^cuporis. The latter, a man of more ambitious temperament, had received only the more sterile regions of Thrace as his inheritance ; and he at once proceeded to intrigue against his nephew, whom he at length got into his power, despite the warnings of Tiberius, who claimed suzerainty over the kingdom. The latter now ordered the instant release of Cotys, and Bhescu-poris, to avoid compliance, put that prince to death, on the plea that he was guilty of conspiracy. For this he was summoned to Eome to defend his action, and, being condemned, was banished to Alexandria, where he was shortly afterwards put to death. Thrace was divided between his son, Bhoemetalces II., and the sons of Cotys, for all of whom Trebellienus Bufus was named guardian and regent.

§ 6. Having completed his year’s labours in Asia, Ger-manicus indulged in a tour of the coast, extending as far as Egypt. It has been* mentioned that that country was jealously guarded by Augustus. Tiberius was equally careful of its security, and was not slow to remind Ger-manicus that his visit without express permission was a breach of law. But the slight displeasure of the Princeps caused less annoyance to his adopted son than did the continued impertinence of Gnaeus Piso, proconsul of Syria, who had superseded Silanus at the same time that Ger-manicus entered Asia. He was the very type of that nobility of birth which vexed the peace of the Emperor,

and his wife, Planeina, a warm friend of Livia and confident in such friendship, encouraged him in every way to assert his high-born superiority to the ‘Yipsanian puddle’ in the veins of Augustus’ grandson. When directed to move a military force towards Armenia, 18 a.d., Piso ignored the order; and he followed up this passive contumacy by active insults during the winter months, when he stigmatized Germanicus as a very Persian in his manners, and set himself studiously to win the demoralized legions of Syria from their attachment to the young Caesar. Planeina too exercised a woman’s spite in her behaviour towards Agrippina, who had accompanied her husband to the East. All this Germanicus bore at first with indulgence, then with tolerance; but on returning from Egypt he was so incensed at length that he ordered Piso at once to quit his province. Before the latter had done so he heard that his superior had fallen sick, and waited for further events, compromising himself by the vindictive jealousy with which he crushed all show of gladness on the part of the provincials at the receipt of better news. Such covert hostility naturally led to scandal; and when Germanicus died at Antioch at the close of the year, his friends were more than suspicious that Piso had resorted to the services of one Martina, a female poisoner and constant companion of his wife.

The news of Germanicus’ varying health, and the supposed reason of his illness, was feverishly awaited in Rome; and when at length it was known that the end had come, all classes vied with each other in their expressions of grief. The arrival of Agrippina and her children, bringing the ashes of the dead man, was the signal for an outburst of affectionate sympathy which followed her steps from Brundisium to Eome. Alone amongst all, Livia and Tiberius showed no public signs of mourning, and the people eagerly set their coldness down to that jealousy which, they said, had recalled Germanicus in the moment of his success from Germany. All clamoured aloud that Piso should appear and clear himself of suspicion.

§ 7. That officer had at last quitted Syria on the receipt of more abrupt orders from his rival’s sick-bed; but he

withdrew no further than the island of Cos. There lie lsarnt Germanicus’ decease, and instantly returned to Syria. The command had devolved upon Cn. Sentius Saturninus, who prepared at once to enforce the order for Piso’s expulsion. The latter endeavoured to raise a military force, and was joined by a few detachments which Sentius speedily compelled to retire into the uplands of Cilicia. There he besieged Piso in Oelenderis, and compelled him at length to surrender and quit Asia unconditionally. He returned to Rome, and on his arrival was at once impeached. Amongst his accusers were some of the most intimate of Germanicus’ friends; his own supporters, on the other hand, were numerous, and they used their best efforts to secure a trial before Tiberius in person. The Princeps declined to be judge. He preferred to let the nobles treat their comrade at their pleasure, merelv declaring that the real question was not whether Piso had poisoned Germanicus, which he pronounced to be absurd, but whether he had been guilty of treason and military insubordination. The trial was abruptly terminated by the suicide of the defendant before the completion of his defence. The senators expunged his name from the Fasti, and were only prevented by the interference of Tiberius from confiscating his property.

§ 8. The death of Germanicus was ascribed to the actual orders of Tiberius by after ages. The people adored Drusus’ son, whose military exploits in the North, they said, inflamed Tiberius’ j ealousy. Piso had been purposely selected as a bitter foe to accompany him to Asia, and had even received secret orders to compass his death by whatever means. But the whole story seems absurd. Tiberius, if he felt any jealousy for Germanicus, concealed it well. He might have retained him in inactivity at home, had such been his feelings, instead of honouring him with every mark of confidence, and placing at his disposal the entire resources of the eastern parts of the empire. To recall Silanus was consistent with the policy which forbade the same officer to retain the same command for many years together. To select Piso was perhaps a necessity, for Piso was too distinguished to be left without the indulgence of a proconsular

governorship: it was politic, for he might serve as a useful counterpoise to the incautious enthusiasm of Germanicus. Of the two, Piso was indubitably more distasteful to Tiberius; but Plancina was a favourite of Livia, to whose wishes the Princeps always yielded. To have purposely set up Piso to run Germanicus to death would have been to raise up the ‘wolf whose ears he held’ at the expense of his own kinsman. That Germanicus died of poison is a foolish tale. Chagrin, perhaps, aggravated a constitutional weakness. Tiberius did not seriously mourn for the dead man, because lie was capable of little positive love for anybody. He did not love Piso either, but he gave him every opportunity for a fair trial before his peers—a trial which he would not face —and the charge which he pressed was not that of murder, for which there could now be no proof or disproof, but that of insubordination. Piso had tampered with the sword which was Caesar’s only; he had endeavoured to maintain himself by force of arms in his province; he had defied the authority of a Caesar. Had he been a plebeian such an offence would have cost him his life; that he was of the very bluest of the disaffected blue blood of Pome lent an unpardonable weight to a fatal offence.

In Germanicus Tiberius lost his ablest general, one who might have rivalled Agrippa or Drusus had he lived. He had already proved his loyalty in the revolt of Germany; experience might have given him discretion. But the days of conquest wrere for the present over, and there was small field left for the prince whom his countrymen compared with Alexander. He was more than a soldier, something of a litterateur, and fond of peaceful arts; and it was his frank affability that endeared him to the Romans by its contrast with the nervous reserve of Tiberius.

§ 9. It is now time to speak of the man whose influence guided most of the actions of Tiberius during the next decade. It has been mentioned as part of the policy of Augustus to keep about his court the leading nobles of Rome by entrusting them with various duties of an importance only apparent, while in more serious matters he relied, at least during their lifetime, upon Agrippa and Maecenas. He was thus enabled to relieve himself of many of the routine duties of the Principate, while bestowing :i compliment upon his assistants. Tiberius made the mistake of attempting to dispense with such assistance, and to grasp in his single hand the whole enormous mass of business which was the Emperor’s inheritance. His reason was doubtless, in part, mistrust of the nobility, and in part a nervous shyness, which preferred a 113- amount of fatigue to intercourse with men of his own grade. But he must also have the credit of an earnest desire to do his duty, and to act on the proverb that ‘there is no eye like the master’s’; and if he failed in acting up to that maxim, he is rather to be respected for the effort than blamed for its non-success. He applied himself for years to a ceaseless round of business, rarely leaving the city, and even for two whole years never finding opportunity of leaving the palace. But the strain was too great; and when Aelius Sejanus, a man of no ostensible rank or blood, showed himself possessed of the will and the talents for relieving the Princeps, the latter could, without inconsistency, take advantage of the opportunity, and make a confidant of one underling, where many notables would have been an intolerable annoyance. And Sejanus was admirably fitted for the part which he played. Talented he certainly was, but this was his one virtue; of unbounded ambition, yet capable of waiting for years for his opportunity; without a conscience, as keen to see what others concealed as clever in hiding his own secrets, the prince of hypocrites, he wormed himself into the confidence of his master with a perseverance which shirked no labours and shrank from no crime. His father was a Roman Eques only, but on his mother’s side lie claimed descent from the Etruscan lucumones of his birth-place Vulsinii. From the very outset of the reign he attached himself to the Princeps, and now. 20 a.d., was already a recoguised power in the government, and able, by the mere weight of his name, to secure for his uncle, Junius Blaesus, the government of Africa, where Tacfarinus Still evaded capture. Blaesus achieved successes in the course of the two following years, for which he was allowed to accept the title of imperator from his legion—a distinction which none but a Oaesar ever afterwards attained;

hut it was not until 24 a.d. that Tacfarinas was. finally defeated and killed by Bolabella.

§ 10. Meantime, the indulgence which had suffered so many fruitless and costly campaigns on the Rhine was brought to account by a revolt of Gaul. That nation was filled with clients of the great Julius, men trained in the Roman service, well aware of the panic which Yarus’ overthrow had produced at Rome, and of the recent disloyalty of the legions of the Rhine frontier. A widespread conspiracy was headed bj7 the Treveri and the Aedui, the ringleaders being Julius Florus and Julius Sacrovir, a Druid. The youths of the whole nation, collected at Augustodunum (Autun) to receive a Roman education, were secretly armed, and it was only the impetuosity of some of the smaller tribes which prevented a serious and simultaneous rising. As it was, the outbreak occurred piecemeal, and C. Silius, the legate of the province, was able to crush it in detail, assisted by treachery among the northern confederates of Florus. The southern confederacy gave battle a few miles to the north of Augustodunum, and was utterly routed. Both leaders fell fighting to the last with a handful of followers; and Sacrovir, that not even his corpse should fall into the hands of his foes, fired the house in which he was surrounded, and so perished, 21 a.d. Unlike Augustus, Tiberius made no attempt to visit the scene of action in person, even in the character of a pacifier. That duty was left to Silius, who carried it out with a severity, which spared neither the lojTal nor the disaffected. The rebellion had no results. As a protest against the endless exactions of men, horses, monej-, and supplies for the German campaigns, it came too late. Those campaigns were ended; and the trouble must be regarded rather as a legacy left over from the reign of Augustus than as due to Tiberius’ policy. .

§ 11. The only notable event of 22 a.d. was the advancement of Drusus to partnership in the tribunitia potestax with his father. The young prince was not popular. He showed something of that brutalit3’ which had ruined Agrippa Postumus, and was notorious for his intemperance and delight in bloodshed. Nevertheless the senate wel-coined liis rising star with a servile adulation which was, of course, extended to the Emperor in person. The ‘ assembly of kings’ had become an assembly- of slaves. It was useless for Tiberius to maintain that regard which Augustus had shown for the dignity of the order, when the senators themselves trampled it under foot.

In the same year 0. Silanus, the late Proconsul of Asia, brought to trial for extortion, was condemned to exile by the senate. Tiberius declined however to send him to the barren rock of Gyaros, and substituted a less desolate spot. For similar malversation in the Cyrenaica, Caesius Cordus was condemned; but Tiberius refused to allow the prosecution of L. Ennius, who w as accused of maiesta.i in that he had converted into plate f silver statute of the Princeps. Such trivial charges had become the commonplaces of the delators«, though Tiberius showed a sensible contempt for them. Even in the first year of his reign two knights had been arraigned, the one for perjury by the name of Augustus, the other for daring to sell, together witli a garden, the statue of that Emperor which stood therein; and Granius Mi#eellus had been indicted on tho double charge of extortion and maiestas, having forsooth dared to substitute the head of Tiberius for that of Augustus upon a statue of the latter Emperor. The two former cases Tiberius dismissed with the remark that Augustus had not been deified in order to be a snare to his people, and that the Gods could avenge their own wrongs. The charge of maiestas was quashed in the case of Granius, and proceedings taken on that of repetundae alone. Again, in 17 a.d., he declined to hear the case of Apuloia Yarilla, who was indicted for libelling both himself and Augustus, suffering the senate however to proceed with a charge of immorality under the provisions of the Julian laws. The senate found an opportunity' for its own disgrace while Tiberius was taking repose in Campania during the year 21 a.d., when Plutorius Priscus was arraigned and executed for having composed a funeral panegyric in honour of the still living Drusus. Tiberius gently7 rebuked their excess of zeal, and ordered nine days’ respite to intervene henceforth between the condemnation and execution of any defendant in the senatorial court. These instances are here collected as examples of Tiberius’ behaviour during the first and better portion of his reign, which it has been usual to consider ended with the year 23 a.d. _

$ 1. Sejanus centralizes the Praetorians: his Designs — § 2. He destroys Drusus the Elder- -§ 3. Position and Character of Agrippina: Sejanus attacks her friends—§ 4- Tiberius withdraws to Capreae —§ 5. Death of Cremutius Cordus: Other Impeachments—j 0. Tiberius’ Withdrawal a Natural Result of Autocracy—§ 7. Opinion of the Romans: Disasters at Rome—§ 8. Revolt of the Frisii; Deaths of Julia and Li via: Character of Livia—§9. Renewed Activity of Sejanus: Falls of Agrippina, Xero, and Drusus the Younger— § 10. Conspiracy and Fall of Sejanus—§ 11. Punishment of his Partisans: The Reign of Terror—§ 12. Examples of Tiberius’Better Side: The Senate responsible for the Cruelties of the Time—§ 13. Affairs of Parthia and Armenia—§ 14. Death of Tiberius.

§ 1. Ix this year (23 a.d.) Sejanus, now prefect of the city as well as of the praetorians, obtained permission to centralize those troops in one camp. Heretofore they had been quartered in bodies in and around the city; now they were collected to their full complement of 9,000 men in permanent quarters on the outer side of the old wall of Servius, between the Yiminal and Colline Gates. Here Sejanus treated them with an indulgence which bound the entire force to his own interest, and thus felt himself strong enough to proceed with his ambitious designs.

These designs were nothing less than the seizure of the pi'incipate for himself. But he was too discerning a man to imagine that any claims of his own would be listened to, while there yet remained anyone of the blood of the Caesars or of Agrippa. That he was no favourite with the people he well knew, and if lie was to rule at all, it must be by the sword of the praetorians. A coup was, however, as yet out of the question: there were too many to claim the suffrages of the Romans even if Tiberius were removed. Sejanus set himself to get rid of those rival claimants, and his first victim was Drusus, Tiberius’ only child and heir.

§ 2. That prince had be^n retained at Rome for several years, taking no decided part in public business. He was married to Livilla, by whom he had two children; and through her Sejanus made his attack. He found little difficulty in seducing tho wife, and next persuading her to take her husband’s life. Slow poison effected his design, and Drusus died 23 a.d., apparently of a natural decline, leaving-the Prinfieps without a direct heir.

§ 3. More formidable to Sejanus’ prospects were the children and partisans of Agrippina, the widow of Ger-manieus. These children were originally nine in number, but there survived now but three of the sons, Nero, Drusus and Gains. Whatever the failings of the family of Agrippina—and they had failings—they commanded an affection, which the populace had never extended to the son of their Emperor. Tiberius had publicly declared the two elder sons to be the successors to his own dead son’s place. Moreover, there were many nobles and men of influence on 1 he side of Agrippina, men who had stood by her in the arraignment of Piso, and who lauded her as the pattern of all Roman virtue. There is reason to doubt whether their praises were altogether merited; if it were so, then she was a remarkable contrast to the Julias, her mother and sister. That Tiberius had little love for her is certain; but he had no cause to love the brood of his infamous wife, the less as they were the children of another father. Nevertheless, Sejanus dared not attack her directly. He set in motion the clelatores who sought to win his favour no less sedulously than that of the Princeps; and by their means he ventured to assail a cousin of Agrippina, Claudia Pulehra. Accused of immorality, she was condemned; and Sejanus had the double gratification of seeing himself within reach of even nearer kinsmen, and of knowing that Agrippina’s rage vented itself upon Tiberius, and so increased the Princeps’ dislike (26 a.d.). Another victim was Silius, the same who had suppressed the revolt of Sacrovir. His exactions from that reconquered Gauls were sufficient grounds for his condemnation; but tihtanus found additional incentive in the fact that lie was high in the favour of Agrippina, under whose husband he hail served on the llhine. Other impeachments followed, and rumours of treason were perpetually whispered in the ears of Tiberius.

§ 4. In the year 26 a.d. the Princeps left Eome ostensibly to perform some public ceremonies in Canqiania. He never returned. The next year saw him take up his residence permanently in the island of Capreae (Capri), immediately opposite to the promontory of Misenum. Report said that it was fear of treachery which induced him thus to withdraw himself from the reach of his subjects. A more likely reason was the wish for repose, sufficiently reasonable in one who had toiled so ceaselessly up to his sixty-eighth year; and in Sejanus he seemed to leave behind him a fit minister to conduct less important business. It is certain ’hat Sejanus encouraged the design of retiring, hoping thus to be left more free to intrigue at his pleasure, and to guide the hands of the delatores with less f«ir of Tiberius’ interference. He had recently suffered a rebuff in the refusal of Tiberius to countenance his marriage with Livilla, the widow of Drusus. The refusal had been courteously made, and it is probable that a little later it was withdrawn, and the betrothal permitted. Meantime, the increasing contumacy of Agrippina more than counterbalanced this chock in preparing Tiberius for subsequent accusations against her and her children.

§ 5. Public events were few during these years. The same year (24 a.d.) which saw the final overthrow of Taefarinas was marked by an abortive attempt at a slave-war, organised by one Curtisius, an ex-praetorian, in Apulia; but the enterprise was nipped in the bud by the energy of Curtius Lupus, a quaestor. More noticeable was the foi’ced suicide of Cremutius Cordus, the historian, indicted for having spoken of Cassius in his works as ‘ the last of the Eomans.’ In other words, his crime was the use of seditious, language, which compared the old republic too glowingly with the government of the time. Freedom of speech seems to have developed into a licence which Tiberius could not well overlook, for in the same year

(25 a.d.) one Votienus was condemned by tlie senate for libelling tlie Emperor. The latter eagerly expressed his wish to have the charges fully investigated, and to offer his own defence, a course which he was not suffered to follow. Some severe examples were made at the same date of offenders under the Julian laws on morality, and a senator was expelled for refusing to take the oath by which that order hound themselves to maintain the acts of the late Augustus. One Comini us was pardoned, however, for libel; Suillius condemned for selling justice; and a wholesome check administered to delation by the banishment of Eirmius Oatus for false accusation. A similar purpose prompted the passing of a law, on the motion of M. Lepidus, that the reward of a delator should not exceed one-fourth of the convicted person’s property, the remainder to be left to his children. •

§ 6. The transfer of the imperial residence from Rome to Capreae has been said to mark the principate as no longer a disguised, but an overt despotism. Under the republic there was no thought of political life for a Roman elsewhere than in Rome. The magistrates must present themselves in person there for their candidature, must there take the auspices which sanctioned or forbade any public act— must move, in fact, every hour as citizens amidst citizens. Some of them, such as the pontiff, the tribune, or the flamen Dialis, could not on any account leave the city; and when an imperatorial officer passed beyond th< pomoeriitm he could only return and resume his civilian position by forfeiting his imperium. Custom had allowed even the pontiff to dispense with these trammels, and when the powers of the tribunate were conferred upon Augustus, he was able, as he frequently did, to quit Rome without scruple by virtue of being tribune not in person, but in privileges. It was, therefore, a natural development of this exemption from traditional ties which led Tiberius now to abandon for eleven years the capital of the world. In fact, he governed no less diligently from his new residence than beforetime from the Palatine Hill. Capreae is but 130 miles from Pome, and that distance was readily traversed by the permanent post-system now established.

It had always been characteristic of Tiberius to refer to the senate much of the business of which Augustus had retained either personal or deputed control; and during the twelve years already past, the senate had received ample drill in the manner in which the Priuceps would have them act. Now he substituted despatches for his personal attendance at their meetings, and the despatches were sufficiently lengthy to express his own wishes on all points of importance. Sejanus himself moved occasionally to Eome, though usually to be found with his master. It will certainly appear that Tiberius was henceforth less merciful towards those whom the senate brought up for judgment; and it was averred that he no longer kept so careful a watch upon the well-being of the provincials. But he had shown how he would have the Eoman world governed, and in Sejanus he believed himself to have a faithful minister. If things wont to the bad, it was through the treachery of the favourite and the cowardliness of a senate which, as it fancied, was ‘courting the rising at the expense of the setting sun.’

§ 7. Sejanus was now the real governor of Eome, yet none dared to demur. Tiberius, meanwhile, was content to find at Capreae something of the rest he sought. He surrounded himself with philosophers and astrologers, in whose speculations he took a dilettante’s interest. The twelve villas of the islet, named after the twelve gods, were constructed to embrace every luxury and every variety of view. The one approach from the mainland was guarded day and night by a picket of praetorians; and the nobles, conscious that their presence was not desired, soothed their injured vanity with the malignant whisper that they were too good to satisfy the Princeps’ debauched tastes, and that he hid himself from the criticism and presence of better men than himself—that virtuous noblesse of the senate and the dinner-table. Of the opinions of the mass of the populus we have no clear knowledge. In all likelihood they cared nothing about it. Some discontented Pharisees of the political law averred that for the Princeps to quit Rome was an ill-omened event, and found the justification of their presages in one or two distressing accidents which occurred about that time. At Fidenae a wooden amphitheatre fell and maimed or killed upwards of 20,000 victims; and the Coelian Hill -was desolated by a lire which spared only the statue of Tiberius himself.2 The former catastrophe caused the issue of an edict providing for the better security of theatre-goers in the future; the latter drew a magnificent sum from the Emperor’s private purse towards repairing the loss and assuaging the sufferings of the homeless (27 a.d.).

§ 8. in the next year occurred an outbreak of the Frisii, the inhabitants of the modern Eriesland. The tribute of that half-savage people had been collected in the shape of skins of oxen. The procurator, Olennius, had however made such exactions that the leading tribes rose in arms, and cut to pieoes several hundreds of the troops led against them by L. Apronius, the imperial hgatus of Lower Germany. No further efforts were made to reassert Homan authority; advisedly perhaps, for Tiberius had had enough of campaigns beyond the Rhine. The nobles contented themselves with voting him new honours, in which Sejanus was made his equal, and in whispering that their Emperor was a coward, who cared not for the honour of Rome. The death of Julia the younger, stepdaughter of Tiberius and sister of Agrippina, aroused no comment. What little indulgence she had enjoyed was dueito Livia’s influence, and within a few days Livia also died. With her fell one who deserved perhaps to be called the last of the Roman matrons. Scandal said that it was she, not her son, who had governed thus .far ; and certainty she had exercised over him an immense influence. Nevertheless, he could on occasion resist her wishes, and even cany out the demands of justice upon one of her ladies-in-waiting whom she tried vainly to protect. She had spent years in the difficu.lt task of securing Augustus’ favour for her son, and he was fully aware of the debt which he owed her. Much fts she may have domineered over him, he never forgot his duty as a son, and stands in sufficiently marked contrast to Nero on that point. It has been argued from subsequent events that she had been the safeguard of the objects of Tiberius’ dislike, it is fully as probable that in her Sejanus found an obstacle to his schemes, and that it was he, rather than Tiberius, whose malice was curbed by one who could see more clearly than Tiberius through the minister’s hypocrisy and pretended loyalty. Even the severity with which Tiberius in a letter rebuked as woman-worshippers his late mother’s intimate friends, and the neglect with which he passed over the provisions of her will, may have been abetted by Sejanus, who saw in friendship to Livia a silent disapprobation of his own advancement.

§ 9. Erom this point, however, he began undisguisedly to persecute the remaining members of the Caesarean house. On the authority of a despatch from the Princeps, Agrippina iind her eldest son, Nero, were hurriedly banished to Pandateria and Pontia; and a little later the second son. Drusus, who was now residing with Gaius at Caprea$, was dismissed in disgrace to Eome by the intrigues of his wife, Lepida, whom Sejanus had seduced. The servile Senate seized the cue, indicted him as a public enemy, and imprisoned him on the motion of the consul for the year (30 a.d.). At the same time Asinius Gallus, uho had married Yipsania, Tiberius’ first and divorced wife, was thrown into prison. Eight and left the delators struck down the friends of Sejanus’ rivals, and he seemed already within reach of his aims when he was named consul for 31 a.d. and for the four following years bjr tho request of the Princeps, who was himself his colleague in the first year. But here his good fortune faltered. Tiberius, as usual, resigned the consulship within a few days, and required Sejanus to do likewise ; the vacant office was filled by two men known to be personal enemies of the favourite, and other enemies were at the same moment advanced to honour. Most serious of all, Gaius, the last surviving sou of Agrippina, was advanced to the priesthood and informally recognised as the presumptive heir.

§ 10. Sejanus would brook no disappointment. He could rely, he believed, on the praetorians if force were needed; he relied more on his personal influence, and sought an interview. To his alarm it was denied him, and he at once resorted to the desperate aid of conspiracy.

Many senators, 11 umbers of other citizens, joined in his project. He was ready to give the sign which should destroy his master, when his hand was stayed by the arrival of a post from Capreae by the hands of Sertorius Macro, a favourite freedinan, who hinted that it conveyed the writ associating Sejanus with the Emperor in the tribunitia potestas. Quite disarmed by the prospects of what was virtually a devolution of the empire upon himself. Sejanus attended to hear the despatch read. It was long and verbose, and Regulus, now consul-suffect, purposely lingered over its contents. Suddenly, at the very close of the letter, Tiberius named Sejanus as a traitor. It was too late to resist. Grraecinus Laco, captain of the urban-guard, barred escape. Macro was in possession of the praetorian camp, where bribery had transferred to him the interests of the troops. Regulus at once moved that the traitor be arrested, and within a few hours he was strangled in the Mamertiue prison, and his body dragged through the streets amidst the insults of the populace, and the fragments of his own shattered statues:

• Desrondmit statuue restumqucs soquimtur. lpsas deinde rotas bigarum impacta securis Caedit, et irameritis frangnntur crura eaballis. lam stridunt igncs, iam follibus atque caminis Ardet adoratiim populo caput, et crepat ingens

§11. The outburst of hatred against Sejanus swept away his children, relatives, and numbers of his friends. The people and senate vied with one another in their persecutions. Many who escaped for the moment were detained in prison for months, until events should determine their fate. But it was too late to undo the harm of which Sejanus had been the cause. Already Nero had been forced to suicide, and upon Agrippina and Drusus had been brought wrongs which they could never forgive. They could not be released, and for two years more their doom was undecided. Then Drusus was starved to death, so it was said, and Agrippina

ended her own life in despair (33 a.d.); and simultaneously came the decree by which many of the surviving Sejanians were massacred. How many they were it is impossible to say, but the picture of wholesale bloodshed, which the historians have recorded, is a palpable exaggeration. Nor is it easy to say why so stem a fate was at length brought upon them. It is more than probable that Macro was in his turn playing the deadly game in which he had defeated Sejanus, and that to his suggestion were due the executions which now crowded thick and fast upon Home. It was easy to argue that those who had conspired with Sejanus were still dangerous, that the brood of Agrippina were still formidable. Yet we know that Tiberius himself was still regarded with something like attachment by the populace, for when in 32 a.d. he left Capreae, and came up the Tiber as far as the city walls, all the town was prepared to welcome him back to his palace, and the disappointment with which they saw him once more turn and retire to his island was too violent to be assumed.

§ 12. But there are still instances of Tiberius’ clemency and justice. "While he suffered the condemnation of Latinus Latiaris, a notorious informer, he secured the acquittal of Cotta ilessalinus when indicted for libelling the Princeps. Terentius, indicted for conspiracy7 with Sejanus, by his bold defence procured his own acquittal and the punishment of his accusers ; and the children of Blaesus, Sejanus’ uncle, as well as his brother, L. Sejanus, were allowed to live unmolested. Apicata, the wife whom Sejanus had divorced in order the more freely to carry on his intrigues with Livilla (as the younger Livia was often called), now revealed the truth about that intrigue, and the strange death of Drusus, the son of Tiberius. Livilla paid the penalty of her crimes, starved to death in the custody of Antonia, the same who had revealed to Tiberius the existence of Sejanus’ conspiracy.

But, in plain truth, the senators and their instruments would not permit good government. The growth of delation had long ago affected even the nobles, and now nothing stood in their way, neither shame, nor pity, nor the most intimate ties of relationship. Tiberius might, and did, make

one or two more attempts to suppress the terrible engine of Augustus’ creation, and his own fostering. It was in vain; and despairing of further efforts, he suffered the nobles to have their way. Such cases as were of his own institution—and such, of course, occurred—he tried by the aid of his privy council at Capreae. He could grimly smile to see the ‘wolves,’ whom he had once dreaded, now tearing each other’s throats.

§ 13. In the year 35 a.d. troubles again occurred in the East. The Armenian throne had once more been left vacant, and Artabnnus, the Parthian, at once placed upon it a son of his own. The Armenians appealed against such -usurpation, and Tiberius, determined to arrange matters without the cost of Roman blood if possible, secretly prompted Mithradates, the Iberian, to seize that kingdom, while he instructed L. Titellius, legatus of Syria, to set up Phraates, brother of Yonones, as King of Parthia. Phraates died before the design could be executed, but another claimant was found in Tiridates, who advanced upon Seleueia under the escort of Vitellius. Artabanus was unable to resist. His endeavour to prevent Mithradates’ advance upon Armenia had been disastrously defeated. His son was expelled by the Iberian, and in his turn he was himself now driven from Parthia, and his crown passed to Tiridates, 36 a.d. The new king was barely set upon the throne, however, when the Parthian nobles, taking advantage of tha» withdrawal of Vitellius and his legions, recalled Artabanus and drove Tiridates out with little trouble. The latter retired to Syria, and for the present things remained as they were. Vitellius was busied at the moment with the suppression of a revolt in Cappadocia, where the Clitae, long a vassal people, had rebelled against the imposition of regular tribute according to the imperial census.

§ 14. The health of Tiberius had long been failing, and speculation was rife as to who should succeed him. But three members of the once numerous house of the Caesars now remained; one was Gaius, the youngest son of Germanicus, the Caligula of the Rhine legions; the second was Claudius, brother of Germanicus, and so uncle of Gaius;

the third was Tiberius, surnamed Gemellus, eldest and only surviving son of Drusus, and so grandson of Tiberius. Of these three Gemellus was nearest by blood, Gaius the next in relationship. Claudius’ claim was too distant to be of importance, even had he cared to press it; the issue lay between the two younger men. But to those who knew that Gaius was the tool of Macro, there could be little doubt of the result. Tiberius himself was probably aware how small were the chances of his grandson’s safety, ‘You will kill him,’ he said to Gaius, ‘and another will kill you.’ On March 16, 37 a.d., the Princeps awoke from a death-like stupor to find his room deserted. He endeavoured to rise, and the sound of his movements brought Macro, Gaius, and others quickly to his side. But whether they found him already dead, or whether, as it was whispered, Macro guided Gaius’ hands as he heaped the bedclothes over the dying Emperor’s head, is one of the problems to which no answer can ever be given. Tiberius died aged seventy-seven years, and one person possibly mourned for him—his ill-fated grandson, Gemellus.

§ 1. Authorities for the Character of Tiberius: l’rej udice against him probably overdrawn.—§ 2. The Four Stages in his Character according to Tacitus.—§ 3. Difficulties of his Position: Misgovernment rather Senatorial than his own.—§ 4. His Alleged Debauchery.— § 5. His Keserve: His Parsimony and its Explanation.—§ 6. His Treatment of the Provincials : The Abolition of the Comitia dentn-riata, and its Effect on the Provinces.—§ 7. Instances of his Good Government Abroad, and ($ 8) at Home.—$ 9. Opinion of the Provincials on his Reign.

§ 1. The character of the second Emperor of Rome has only of late years received the attention it deserves, and even yet it is far from impartially weighed by most of those who examine it. So firmly was the tradition of the pride and arrogance of the Claudii rooted in the minds of Romans and their historians ancient and modern, that this alone was thought sufficient cause for any atrocities that could be laid to the charge of Tiberius. But ‘the rubbish-heap of tradition’ has been better sifted of late, and there is even a class of sifters ready, Midas like, to convert into gold all that they take up as dross. To strike a balance between the two is, perhaps, the safest, if not a quite satisfactory, course.

Of the four historians who give any detailed account of the reign—Suetonius, Dio Cassius, Tacitus, and Velleius Paterculus—all save the last picture Tiberius as a monster of iniquity. In Suetonius he is merely brutal; in Cassius, brutal, but capable of better things in a fitful way; in Tacitus, mere brutality is replaced by a cold-blooded hypocrisy, a calculating delight in giving pain, which is, as it stands, incredible. He ruled for three-and-twenty years, and died in all likelihood a natural death; and therein is the surest answer to such absolute condemnation. He must have had many supporters, a hand as strong and a wit as keen as cruel, to escape the tyrant’s fate; for Romans were not yet accustomed to an absolutism like that of Dionysius, and the safeguards of an Oriental despot were not yet gathered round the head of the Roman Empire. It is absurd to suppose that even delation could have prevented a coup which should have driven him from the throne, had the citizens hated him as universally as Tacitus would have us believe. We know that he did little to conciliate the friendship even of the legions and praetorians. Yet either these must have held in check the vengeance of the populace, or the populace have restrained the soldiery, or, finally, both classes alike must have been satisfied to endure his government. And many things show that the latter was really the case. The schemes of Clemens and Curtisius met with no support; even Piso, the noblest of the nobles, found no followers in his daring. Those who plotted were consistently members of the aristocracy; and the execrations which greeted the fallen Sejanus are proofs that his conspiracy had no favour with the masses. The very praetorians, whom he fancied to be his sworn auxiliaries, preferred to see him fall rather than to strike the one slight blow which would have made him master of the State.

§ 2. Tacitus distinguishes four periods of Tiberius’ life*; each marked by its own characteristics. The first comprises his entire life up to his accession at the age of fifty-six, a period in which the whole character of the man must have been definite^7 formed, though slight changes ma\ have supervened. Of this period Tacitus says ‘in life and good name he was a pattern.’* What were the events of these years has been shown at large in the history of Augustus’ reign. They were enough in their labours and variable prospects, in the alternate favour and disfavour of the Princeps, to have discovered all that was bad in an ordinary man. Yet Tiberius was a loyal and successful soldier, whose very strictness made him respected by the “Eg^egium vita famaque.’ legions he led to victory; find the chagrin under which he withdrew to Rhodes, when he saw himself superseded by two untried, inexperienced striplings, was surely excusable. The next period, 14—23 a.d., is summarized as one of ‘ dark and craftj' policy, cloaked by the pretence of rectitude,’* due to fear of Germanicus and of his own sou Drusus. Yet his whole treatment of Germanicus was marked by confidence and good policy; and the story that he recalled a successful general from the Rhine through jealousy is based on the false assumption that Germanicus was successful, and is as untenable as the story that Piso was sent out to Asia on purpose to harass, or even remove, the son of Agrippa. As to Drusus, we have seen that he was no great favourite—certainly no rival to his father, f Thirdly, during the years 23—29 a.d., Tacitus merely says that ‘ his mother’s presence kept him half-way between good and evil,and adds that the history of those years is but a naked list of ‘ cruel mandates, ceaseless accusations, treacheries of friend to friend.’ Yet this was the time when there seemed to be a revival of the old regrets for the republic and of outspoken discontent, for which Cremutius Cordus, Yotienus, and Cassius Severus suffered. It was the time, too, when Sejanus’ ascendancy was most marked, and his instruments, the delatores, were increasingly active. Yet we have Tacitus’ own word that the Princeps was active in the maintenance of public morals, quick to punish the sale of justice, and even to investigate in person the scene of an alleged murder, still anxious to curb the headlong adulation of the senate. Convictions were, undoubtedly, more numerous ; but we do not know how far the senate was responsible for them rather than the Princeps. The fourth and last stage was one ‘of execrable cruelty, in which vices, at first veiled, broke out at length, on Sejanus’ fall, into open licentiousness.’§ But the cruelty may have been necessary to complete that security which demanded the removal of Sejanus and Agrippina; and amid the long

t A pretended Drusus appeared in Asia, 32 a.d., but met with no support; he claimed however to be the younger Drusus.

5 * Intestabilis saevitia, sed obtectis libidinibus dum Seianum dilexit timuitve: postremo in scelera simul ac dedecora prorupit.’ list of trials which Tacitus gives there are still instances of pardon and mercy and of undeniable justice, and the historian himself mentions men whose rectitude of life kept them safe even through the perils of that reign of terror. Moreover, the influence of Macro was now little less than had been that of Sejanus, and we know he was hated fully as bitterly.

§ 3. Pliny describes Tiberius as 1 the very saddest of men.’ For fifty-six years he lived in peril and continual disappointment; he succeeded to an empire not yet moulded to tractability, wherein his every word, be it ever so well-meant, was misinterpreted by a conceited nobility that sheltered its own mediocrity behind evil-speaking and perversity; the one man whom he dared to trust abused his Confidence; the senate he strove to keep in honour degraded itself in spite of his efforts; from first to last he lived apart, continually misunderstood, continually disappointed. If he was stern in his private life he earned the name of meanness, and the insinuation of secret vice. If he checked the boasted justice of the senate, he was averred to be trampling on their rights. It was not surprising if at last he withdrew, as Augustus once did, from the scene of such disappointments, and suffered the folly of the nobles to take its own course. The writers of history in the ancient world were always of the noble class; little wonder that theysnw tit to make the Princeps the scapegoat of that cruelty which was their own. It may well have been that disappointment bred cynicism, and that cynicism prompted the sterner hand of his last years. ‘Let them hate, so they approve me,’ he had once said; if their approval was to be won by nothing less than bloodshed, he might fairly suffer them at length to indulge their taste for blood.

§ 4. Of the hideous vices attributed to him little need be said. Capreae was pictured as the scene of outrages which defy description, the Emperor as a monster for whom no debauchery was too horrible. If he drank—and the soldiers nicknamed him Caldius Biberius Mero3—that was but a small sin; and Pliny says, he was sober to asceticism in his later years. But could a man of his age so alter? If he did, could he have lived so long? Unfortunately there have been found at Capreae the painted and sculptured pictures of the very same atrocities with which Tiberius is charged. But after Tiberius came Nero, whose crimes were not even veiled, and Capreae' may have owed its relics to the years of that principate.4 In any case Roman society was too rotten, root and branch, to be able to cast a stone at the moral character of its ruler.

§ 5. Probably Tiberius’ foremost sin was his dislike of society; his second, his affectation of a bygone simplicity which even Augustus had failed appreciably to enforce. Augustus was simple in his domestic habits, but he was sociable; and his table provided conviviality, on no mean scale, to his favourites and acquaintances. But Tiberius was long past the time to grow into the society man when the empire at length devolved upon him; and so his asceticism only gained the name of parsimony, his seclusion that of shame. Even the rabble felt in some degree this seclusion, for they no longer enjoyed the continual and gorgeous shows which the first emperor had carefully kept up. Tiberius was too diffident to court public applause, and rarely showed himself in the theatre or circus. Strange conduct if the sight of human suffering was his greatest pleasure, for a Nero could find his chiefest delight within the arena of the Colosseum or circus. The simple explanation of such public parsimony is that the bankruptcy with which the State had been threatened in Augustus’ time was uow a reality. Abroad were twenty-five legions to be fed, and clothed, and paid; at home was the hungry mob requiring its regular largess of corn. There was everything to pay for and little to pay with. This fact forced Tiberius to withdraw the legions from beyond the Rhine; and the same reason compelled him to forego the public shows. The mob must have its bread, but it must go without its games. Private individuals could and did still supply entertainments at their own cost.

Augustus’ designs for improving Rome. The enormous architectural works which he had projected or begun now came to a standstill because there was no money with which to continue them. The historians saw and noted the fact; belonging as they did to the prodigal, ostentatious nobles, thejT never suggested the reason—necessary economy.

§ 6. If we turn from Rome to the provinces we may find proof enough of the success of Tiberius’ administration. The same blessings which had attended Augustus’ rule continued under that of his successor, in so much that, not content with erecting temples to Divus Augustus and Rome, the provincials raised them now to Tiberius while still on earth. When they made public application for his permission, he could modestly decline if he saw fit—his enemies said forsooth it was the mark of a mean spirit not to seize greedily upon the honours due to a God!—but the nonofficial worship of the Princeps was now a recognised cult. The conduct of later Emperors who proclaimed themselves gods in Rome itself, and demanded adoration as the kin of the Tyndaridae, is in striking contrast to the attitude of Tiberius.

Meanwhile, he kept vigilant watch over the conduct of his legates and of the proconsuls, and cases of prosecution for malversation have been already cited; and it has been remarked that the larger number of such cases are concerned with senatorial governors. In the later years of his reign the old man grew less energetic, and, in contrast to the policj' of his predecessor, allowed the same officer to retain his position for many years. Augustus’ policy had changed them often, and so had provided official prizes for many candidates; Tiberius, in leaving these prizes long in the same hands, diminished the number of those who could win them, and so was charged with slothful negligence. His very sternness iu checking extortion earned him nothing but ill-will amongst the greedy nobility of Rome. His motto was that ‘the shepherd must shear, not flay, his sheep.’ It was not unusual for a senatorial province to petition for its transfer to imperial control, as in the cases of Achaea and Macedonia, 16 a.d. And here it must be mentioned that Tiberius’ control over the provincial officers was more effective than had been that of Augustus—at least, in a negative way. In the very year of his accession he had quietly done away with the last remnant of popular suffrage, the comitia for the election of consuls, etc. The fact that it was so quietly done shows how careless were the people of their time-honoured privilege, and shows too how far Augustus had succeeded in rendering such a step inevitable. The consuls and praetors were now elected by the senate. The candidates ‘ recommended ’ by the Princeps for the praetorship were sure of election, and though direct commendatio for the consulship dates only from Nero’s reign, the emperor’s support was equivalent to a command; and thus the Princeps could control the list of those who would in succession claim the honours of a provincial proconsulate or praetorship. In this one act is summed up virtually the whole result of Tiberius’ principate on the constitution. It w as the natural sequel to the policy of Augustus ; it seemingly aggrandized the senate, while in reality it clinched the fetters with which the Emperor now controlled the entire State.

§ 7. In 17 a.d. Tiberius directed public aid to be given to twelve cities of Asia Minor, which had suffered from a violent earthquake. It was, he said, a national calamity. In 21 a.d. he passed a law allowing provincial governors to be accompanied by their wives, using language which shows him, however, to have been well aware that the wives were even more addicted to arrogant behaviour than their consorts, and less easy to punish. Still, to have forbidden their presence would, he said, be a remedy worse than the disease. In the following year he severely commented on the abuse of the right of asylum common in Eastern towns, and restricted its practice. He carefully reviewed a question of boundary which arose between two small Grecian states in 25 a.d Such are a few instances of his regard for provincial feeling and well-being.

§ 8. He put down the licentiousness of the worship of Isis in Eome; repressed the turbulence of theatrical factions, and forbade the degradation of Eomans by their courting actors, and even in person performing on the stage; expelled the astrologers, and severely punished many of their number.

He passed various sumptuary laws; enforced the Lex Papin Poppaea; visited with ‘old-fashioned’ severity the profligacy of women; assisted certain noble families which had become impoverished, and showed a stern justice in refusing to repeat similar acts of munificence, in cases in which the generosity of Augustus had failed in its object by reason of the unwortliiness of the recipient. He was munificent in his assistance when fires devastated Rome, regulated the price of corn with the usual loss to his own purse, and successfully dealt with a severe financial crisis in Italy. He interested himself in the proper management of the law-courts, in the privileges and duties of the Vestals and the fiamens, and put an effective stop to the licence bred of familiarity with Livia. Such were some of his recorded measures at home.

§ 9. Two writers have left us their verdict on the foreign administration of this reign—Philo and Josephus, both Jews; and both extol it as just, wise, and eminently advantageous to the provincials. And the best corroboration of their words is to be found in the general peacefulness of the provinces. There was but one provincial rebellion properly so called—that of Sacrovir and Florus; and that, as we have seen, was a legacy from the previous reign. The case of Tacfarinas is no evidence on the point; he was merely a nomad freebooter. The roads were maintained, the market-dues fixed, brigandage suppressed, the legions kept in good discipline. Commerce flourished extensively. From Alexandria came the corn of Egypt and the spices of Arabia; from Asia Minor the rich stuffs and art produce of the East. Slavery became less prominent as the slave-hunting peoples were annexed and put under the protection of Rome, while manumission at home relieved the serfdom of domestic life. And all this was the work or the charge of one mind, which shared the burden of its manifold duties with scarce one coadjutor, which abominated a bureaucracy such as relieves most rulers of wide territories, and which has been branded as the vert' vilest of the vile.*

* Tacitus got much of his material from the private journals of Agrippina II., who was of course this Emperor’s enemy. Gaius made a speech to prove that the Senate, not Tiberius, was answerable for the cruelties of the time.

§ I. The Family of the Caesars—§ ‘2. Early Life of Gaius; his Accession—c 3. Tiberius Gemellus set aside—6 4. Popularity of Gaius; Soundness of his Early Measures—§ 5. His Regard for his Kinsmen—§ 6. The Birthday Celebrations ; Gaius falls Sick—§ 7. His Sudden Lunacy and Excesses—§ 8. His Orientalism; he declares himself a God; Mission of Philo the Jew—§ 9. Buildings of Gaius; his Bridge at Bauli—§ 10. His Proscription of the Senators and Nobles; he levies New Taxes on Italy—§ 11. He visits the Rhine and Gaul; the British Expedition—§1*2. Conspiracy of Chaereaand Assassination of Gains—§ 13. Probable Exaggeration in the Accounts of of this Reign : Criticism on the Rhenish and British Expeditions.

§ 1. Tiie family of Germanicus, remarkable for its numbers at a time when even penal laws were unable to enforce the proper duties of paternity, had numbered nine children. Of these three had died in infancy, and two more had perished under Tiberius; but there still remained three daughters, Agrippina, Drusilla, and Livia, and one son, Gaius. Moreover, the brother of Germanicus, Claudius, was still alive; and his sister Livia, the instrument of Sejanus and the murderess of her husband Drusus, had left one child, who bore his grandfather’s name, Tiberius, sumamed Gemellus. Between Gaius and Gemellus lay .the choice of a successor; and the dying ‘lion,’ fain perhaps to make what amends he could for the murder of' the child’s father, named Gemellus co-heir with his cousin. He knew that the younger claimant had little to hope for: ‘ Gaius will kill you,’ he said, ‘ and another will kill him.’

§ 2. Gaius Caesar, now twenty-four years old, was born at Antium, in all probability in 12 a.d., and accompanied his father to the Rhine frontier, where the legionaries

made him their pet and nicknamed him Caligula “little top-boots.” Alter his father’s death he remained at Rome under the care of his grandmother, Antonia, until summoned to Capreae to wait upon his grand-uncle’s failing health. There he witnessed the fall of his elder brothers, Nero and Drusus, and of his mother; but he gave no sign of feeling, and defied by his wariness the spies who watched his everj' movement. Tiberius treated him with little grace, but it was well understood that the Principate must devolve upon him, and Macro hastened to win the goodwill of his future master. Gaius’ character was coarse and sensuous from the first, and Ennia, the wife of Macro, found him an easy prey. It is possible enough that she encouraged him to anticipate Tiberius’ last moments by violence. There is no evidence either way; but in later days Gaius took pleasure in avowing publicly that he had pondered over the murder, and had on one occasion only been frustrated in so revenging his mother and brothers by the sudden awakening of his intended victim. Whatever the fact, the same post which brought to Rome the news of Tiberius’ demise announced also that Gaius was his heir. A copy of the late Emperor’s will, recited in the Senate-house, confirmed the claim of Gaius; a despatch from the latter declared that a joint Principate was the vain fancy of a sick dotard, and that he would be a father indeed to Gemellus, but not his partner.

§ 3. It has been remarked that the question of choosing a successor had been a novelty when the first Princeps died at Xola. It so happened that the Senate had seen fit to ratify the manifest choice of Augustus; but this was by no means equivalent to a formal renunciation of the right of independent election on their part. Xever-theless it was a precedent, and one which Tiberius might feel quite secure in following, particularly with Gaius, the representative of the idolised Germanicus. But to name two successors, to divide the Empire between two heirs, was a different thing. It was an innovation for which the constitution, however hocussed, could give no authority, and must have aroused opposition in the Senate. Gaius saved the senators the trouble of discussing the point. He

was the son of Germanicus; Gemellus was the grandson of a despot who, men said, had murdered Germanicus. There was nothing to fear from such a rival, a mere child of seventeen to boot; least of all when Macro and his praetorians were at the usurper’s back.

§ 4. Even had Tiberius been really popular with the Romans at large, a successor of the house of Germanicus would have easily eclipsed his memory. As it was, the new Princeps found the Roman world eager to forget for ever the reign of his predecessor. Tiberius, said they, had been a recluse, a niggard, a debauchee, and a murderer; the son of Germanicus could not but resemble his father— frank and generous, genial, and, above all, ‘civilian.’ There were whispers of doings at Capreae little to his credit: but that did not matter so long as the Reign of Terror passed away, and the Senate could breathe freely again, and the populace revel once more in its ‘bread and games.’ And the first acts of the new regime augured well. The will of Tiberius was carried out in full;* the donations which it enjoined to populace and praetorians were increased. The will of Li via Augusta, f heretofore neglected, was likewise executed, and the various bequests paid with the accumulated interest of eight years. All state prisoners and exiles recovered their freedom, and the documents relating to the prosecutions of the last reigu were publicly burned, if Gaius spoke truth. The delatores found themselves scapegoats ; the appeal to the Emperor from the tribunals in Rome, Italy, and senatorial provinces was done away with; the judicial courts were reconstituted, and a fifth decuryj was added to meet the stress of business. The works of Cremutius and his fellow historians, proscribed nearly twenty years before, were again put into circulation. The tax on sales, the only direct tax in Italy, was abolished, and the franchise liberally bestowed upon provincial towns,

* Always excepting, that is, the clause relative to the inheritance of Gemellus,

i Sulla had divided the judtces into three decuriae; Augustus, adding a fourth, increased the ■whole Album J ltd i cum to nearly 4,000, but in each year one decuria was allowed exemption from duty. The term decuria has nothing to do with decurioy which means a senator of a colon ia or municipium, whose name tos entered upon the Album Decurionum of his township according to certain variable conditions of age, property, rank, and good character. They formed the Ordo fJecurionum.

while certain vassal-states recovered their funner privileges. The Senate and knights were recruited from Italy and the provinces, and the diminished survivors of the former order escaped without censorship. Finally, the comitia were restored in name, though in fact the restoration was idle, for the people had no interest in the matter, and the candidates were too few to give room for canvassing. Within two years the appointment of the consuls and other higher magistrates reverted once more to the Senate, and was never again offered to the people.

§ 5. Gaius gathered in person the ashes of his mother and brothers, and interred them with all ceremony in the resting-place of the Caesars. He saluted Gemellus as Princeps Iuventutis, associated his sisters with himself in the sacramentum, and asked for Antonia all the honours beforetime bestowed upon Livia. He declined the title of Pater Patriae, and asked for Tiberius those marks of honour which had followed Augustus’ decease; but when the Senate showed little readiness to accede to his wishes, he waived them, and the name of Tiberius dropped out of the public view, undeified and unhonoured. He never won the title of Dims.

§ 6. For two months Gaius laboured at statecraft; and inexperienced as he was—for he had had no sort of training for public life—his work was marked by wisdom, moderation, and a real desire to deserve well of his people. On his twenty-fifth birthday, August 31, he threw off the cares of office, and instituted magnificent games such as had not been seen in Rome since the triple triumph of Augustus in 29 b.c. All business was stayed, and mourning was not accepted as a reason for absence. All Rome poured into the amphitheatre where the Princeps and his sisters provided races and games and wild-beast fights for an audience who sat on cushioned benches, protected from the heat bj-awnings. Such a spectacle was a novelty indeed after the days of Tiberius, and Gaius could afford to be generous, for thal Emperor had left a sum of £21,000,000 sterling in the treasury. The holiday, once commenced, went on without a break. For three months the Romans kept carnival, fed and feted and even clothed by this prince of entertainers, who indulged himself as recklessly as others. He had always been of weak health, and the strain soon told upon him. In November he fell ill and the reign of festival came to a sudden stop. ‘ All the world fell sick with its Emperor; ’ all the world offered sacrifice for his recovery. He did recover; but he rose from his bed with shattered reason. Some said that Tiberius was a madman; but there was method in his madness. Now the world was to make acquaintance with one who had not even that merit.

§ 7. His first act was to compel Gemellus to kill himself: the existence of a possible claimant is always dangerous to a ruler. Macro and Ennia urged their claims upon the Princeps; they paid for their temerity with death. Dru-silla, second of his sisters, and always the object of her brother’s unnatural passion, became his Empress, then sickened and died: Gaius mourned in lunatic despair, showered upon her ashes and memory all the honours which ingenuity or precedent could suggest, proclaimed her a goddess—Panthea; and in the same breath forbade Rome to mourn her, for she was deified—forbade the apotheosis to be hailed with feasting, for she was dead. His grandmother, Antonia, had remonstrated with him for his incestuous marriage: she, too, was shortly removed from the scene—it may be by poison. In earlier days he had married Junia, the daughter of Silanus, now Proconsul of Africa; Junia was dead; Silanus was compelled to follow her. And aft the while the circus and theatres were filled in an unending Saturnalia of shows and feasts.

§ 8. The constitutional monarchy, which Augustus had built up with so much care and patience, had changed rapidly indeed. The Orientalism of Assyria was transferred to Pome. At the side of Gaius during much of his life at Oapreae had lived Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great, and nephew of Herod Philip. Like many others of the claimants to Eastern royalty, he was retained by Tiberius half as a hostage, half as a protege, -waiting to be restored to some part, if not all, of his grandfather’s kingdom. Like Macro, he saw his opportunities, and established a complete influence over Gaius, who rewarded

his perseverance by the gift of a large portion of Palestine. It was not, however, till 40 a.d. that he suffered the Jew to leave Rome; the interval was spent in learning how Eastern sovereigns ruled. The absolutism of such sovereignty captivated the fancy of Gaius. To be the arbiter of life and death at pleasure, the unquestioned owner of the person and property of each of his subjects, seemed kingship indeed. Hence came the crimes and follies of the new Princeps, conduct associated always with Asiatic kingship, but shocking to the graritas of Western blood—above all, to the minds of Romans. From Herod he learnt to overstep the limits of lawful marriage—the one law of morality which the Romans, as a nation, never dared violate—and to feast himself and his people upon the spoils of rich men murdered without trial: to abrogate all forms of justice, to govern as though the Senate had no existence, to levy taxes at will, to squander prodigious sums on enormous buildings, were all portions of the teaching of Herod. Last of all, like any Oriental despot, he declared himself a god. He could not wait to be canonised after death; he would be worshipped now, and as the first and chiefest of the gods. The religion of the Romans had for long been an unreality, and the attempts of Augustus to restore the ancient faith had met with small success; but even Gaius must have wondered in his saner moments to see the ‘lords of the earth ’ worshipping him now in the guise of Apollo, now in that of Hercules, anon as Bacchus. In the provinces it was otherwise: the worship of Augustus or Tiberius, even in their lifetime, conjointly with that of Rome, had rapidly spread over the world; to substitute Gaius was simple enough. Still, their worship thus far had been voluntary, often prohibited by the person whom it was intented to glorify; now, adoration of this bald, hollow-cheeked, wild-eyed boy-maniac was compulsory. One nation only refused—the Jews. They would not even set up the image of their own God in the temple, much less that of a man. The Proconsul of Syria, Petronius, urged compliance in vain. Then he endeavoured to turn Gaius from his purpose, and the Jews despatched an embassy under Philo, the theologian of Alexandria, to interred cede on their behalf. It was useless. The envoys endured the insults of the enemies who denounced them, of the courtiers, and of the Princeps alike. Gaius was busy with some alterations in his palace, and gave them what little attention he could spare from his carpenters and masons. He let them go alive, much to their astonishment; but he sent more stringent orders than ever to Petronius to have the statue finished and set up in the Holy of Holies. This was about 40 a.d. Before the desecration could be accomplished the soi-disant god died, and the Jewish war was postponed for nearly thirty years.

§ 9. Meantime he indulged his fancy for building. ‘ To build is to create, and to create is divine.’ So he commenced an aqueduct fifty miles in length, to bring water from the Sabine Hills to Eome; he carried the palace down the slope of the Palatine to the temple of Castor, which he converted into an entrance-hall; he carried a bridge two hundred yards long over the ravine between the Palatine and the Capitol, on the plan of Herod’s bridge uniting Mounts Moriah and Zion at Jerusalem. He commenced harbours of refuge in the Straits of Messina, completed the great temple of Augustus, commenced a new amphitheatre, sent to make surveys for cutting the Isthmus of Corinth, and talked of rebuilding the palace of Polycrates at Samos, and completing the great temple at Miletus. Finally, to show himself as worth}' a despot as Xerxes, he built a huge bridge of boats from Bauli to Puteoli, paved it like a highway, and marched across it in a triumphal procession. The seizure of so many ships, for the purpose, threatened to starve Eome owing to the lack of supplies; the cost of the freak finally ruined the exchequer: and so many lives were lost on the occasion, by mischance or otherwise, that men said it was a ghastly plot to drown them for their Emperor’s pleasure.

§ 10. When a Herod wanted money he took it; Gaius would do the same. He commenced a ruthless system of proscription and confiscation. He had sufficient cause, he said, for thus treating the senate; ‘You vilify Tiberius, but it was yourselves who spilled all the blood of his reign. You nursed and then slaughtered Sejanus. I liave the documents to prove that the prosecutions and delations were yours, not his;’ and he produced the papers which he professed to have burnt. The ‘assembly of kings’ passed a decree thanking their Princeps for not executing them all forthwith—‘I wish the Romans had but one neck,’ he said on one occasion—and ordaining that the speech should be read to them once a year. Gaius proceeded to decimate them at his leisure; a word or a note from the palace was sufficient: the victim opened his veins and left his goods to be squandered on fresh shows or buildings. Empresses were made and unmade with shameless haste, each giving place to another with a richer dowry. Oaesonia alone retained any influence over her husband. She was a woman of infamous life, but he loved her, and owned himself the father of the daughter she bore, because of the child’s ferocity. He complained however, that paternity was very expensive, aud begged money to enable him to rear the child. His lack of funds led him even to defy the impatience of the mob he had caressed. He levied a tax of two aud a half per cent, on all sums in litigation, others on porters, even on all food sold in Rome—a curious tax to impose upon a rabble which was always murmuring for cheaper rations.

§ 11. In 39 a.d. he suddenly set the legions in motion, and moved to the Rhine. The Legatux there was Len-tulus Gaetulicus, who had been appointed by Tiberius, and who had refused to lay down his command when that Princeps desired it. It is likelj* that Gaius had still sufficient wisdom left to recognise a possible danger from such a commander. His visit was marked by stem measures which restored the discipline of the camp; but there was no enemy to meet, and he withdrew to Lugdu-niuii to collect plunder from the Gauls, leaving Servius Galba as the new Legatuz of Germany. Lugdunum was rich in monuments of the munificence of Augustus, and there were annual literary competitions in his memory: Gaius attended, and forced those whose compositions were bad, to erase the writing with their tongues. Then he summoned from Italy the furniture of some of his palaces, proclaimed an auction, and in person appraised,

and knocked down to the bidders, the wardrobes and hric-d-lrac of the Caesars. In the next year he declared his intention of invading Britain, but got no further than the Straits, where he built a lighthouse, and returned home after gathering up all the available shells on the shore, to be deposited as trophies in the Capitol. On the way he again visited the Rhine legions, and remembering that they had once mutinied against his father, he determined to decimate them. Their attitude made him think better of it, and he returned to Rome, refusing to accept a triumph tardily decreed him by the senate. Against that order he had taken a fresh grudge, and proceeded to visit it with his vengeance.

§ 12. If the senate and nobles had found cause to plot against Augustus and Tiberius, it is matter of surprise that there were not more to conspire against Gaius. When absent in Gaul he had executed Aemilius Lepidus, once the husband of Drusilla, and now suspected, if not actually guilty, of intrigue with Gaius’ remaining sisters, and with Lentulus Gaetulicus. Agrippina and Livilla were both banished at the same time. Shortly afterwards came to light a plot amongst the freedmen and guards of the palace, headed by Cerialis; but the conspirator was allowed to go unpunished, for Gaius seems to the last to have been confident of the affections of all but the nobles, whom he hated. A last plot was more successful. Cassius Chaerea, captain of the guard, headed a band of nobles and others implicated in the previous conspiracy, not for the sake of liberty, but to revenge a personal affront. The conspiracy was widespread, but for long no one dared to strike the blow. At length they fell upon the Princeps and slew him as he passed along a corridor from the palace to the theatre5 on the fifth day of the Palatine Games, January 24, a.d. 41.

| 13. The four books of the ‘Annals’ of Tacitus, which related to the times of Gaius and the early years of his successor, are lost, and the history of the mad Princeps is preserved only in the anecdotes of Suetonius, and in Dio

Cassius. He has had his apologists, and it is not difficult to point to certain acts of his which were beneficent, particularly those of the early months of his reign. It can be argued with some plausibility that his acts have been grossly perverted, just as were those of his predecessor, by the nobility who hated both. But when all is said, the simplest course seems to be to A-ooept the j udgment of antiquity and own that he was mad. Tacitus says he was weak-headed even in his younger days, and he was epileptic ; absolute autocracy was sure to result in insanity in such a case. It is possible to trace some consistency in his conduct; he carried out fully the ideas learnt from Herod Agrippa, pampering and startling the populace at the expense of the upper classes, the ‘taller poppies.’ In his recalling Silanus from Africa, and in his hurried visit to the Rhine, he showed appreciation of the dangers which were soon to come from the frontiers, where men of noble birth or intellect handled a host of obsequious legionaries. The conspiracj7 of Len-tulus and Lepidus was in all probability well organised and formidable; we shall see Gaul the scene of revolt at a later occasion. The British campaign may not have been the fiasco which it appears to be. A British prince, Adminius, driven from his kingdom, had begged Gaius to restore him, and the sea-shells may represent, as Merivale suggests, a tribute or indemnity of the pearls of Richborough, by which the invasion was bought off. The bloodshed and extortion of the reign might have been pardoned by the people, because only the rich and noble suffered, but they could not pardon the taxes which were levied on them. Gaius died the tyrant’s death, find fulfilled to the letter the augury of Tiberius.

^ 1. Incapacity of the Senate to act—§ 2. The Praetorians proclaim Claudius: his Life and Character—§ 3. The Senate accept him as Emperor—§ 4. Failure of the Republican Reaction: the Rebellion of Seribonianus—$ 5. Sound Measures of the New Reign: Restoration of the Senate and Admission of Provincials—§ 6. Popular and Commercial Undertakings—§ 7. Judicial Reforms and Legislation: Draining of the Fueine Lake—§ S. Renewed Military Activity: Conquest of Britain—§ 9. Operations in Africa and (§ 10) in Oer-many : the Campaigns of Corbulo—§ 11. Thrace: Judaea: the Asiatic Kingdoms: Parthian Affairs—12. Condition of the Provinces: Colonies—§ 13. The Rise and Influence of Messalina and the Freedmen—§ 14. Their Leaders, and Malversation—§ 15. Fall of Messalina—§ 16. Agrippina becomes Empress: Burrus and Seneca —§ 17. Intrigues of Agrippina: Death of Claudius—§18. Criticism of Authorities.

§ 1. The news of tlie death of Gaius was announced to the world by the inrush of the Emperor’s body-guard to the theatre, bent apparently on massacre. The assembled people broke up in confusion, and the senate was hastily assembled in the temple of Capitoline Jupiter, the citadel of Rome, where they heard with delight of the success of the plot, and voted honours forthwith to Chaerea. To complete his work, that ‘liberator’ despatched one of his guards to kill Caesonia and her child, Julia Drusilla, and handed over to the senate and consuls the government which he had restored to them.

When another Cassius cut down another Gaius (14 B.C.) it seemed to be expected that, freed from its ,‘tyrant,’ the state would spontaneously revert to the regular and stable conditions of the earlier republican days. So now there had been no provision made in case of success crowning the conspiracy. Tho senate and its officers were for the moment restored to their ancient place, but the novelty of their position paralysed them. All were unanimous in

lauding Chaerea and in insulting the memory of his victim, but there their unanimity stopped. The fact that empire was possible in Rome was an apple of discord to them. Some talked of the free republic and of the abolition of the Principate, just as before had been moved the abolition of the Bidatura for all time; but others hung back and waited, prepared each one to endure the Principate if only himself might be Princeps. Such were L. Annius Vini-cianus, Valerius Asiaticus, and Minucianus. The assembly adjourned without arriving at a decision, and lost its opportunity.

§ 2. Trooping from their camp, the praetorians had rushed to the Palatine to learn the truth of Gaius’ death; and finding it a fact, they plundered the palace. Its inmates fled or concealed themselves, and behind a curtain the looters found Claudius, brother of Germanicus and uncle of Gaius, hiding in terror of his life. They caught him up on their shoulders and hurried him to the camp, saluting him in mockery as Caesar. Others took up the cry, until from jest it grew to earnest. Claudius hesitated. His whole life hail seen him the butt of practical jests and scorn. He was from his birth a weakling, if not actually deformed, and a Roman father never forgave physical infirmity. His own mother scoffed at him, and his sisters treated him as an outcast. Gaius, in his fit of filial piety, had drawn him from the obscurity of his library, where he wrote interminable works on history and antiquities, and had advanced him to the consulate; then grew tired of him and treated him as a butt for his practical jokes. Augustus alone had showed any affection for him, but it was more the affection of pity than of love. At fifty-one Claudius was merely a student, without ambition or experience, long-suffering and timid to excess.

§ 3. Chance gave him a crafty adviser in the hour of his need. The same Herod Agrippa to whom Gaius owed his training was again in Rome, and he hastened to advance himself by advancing Claudius. The latter was prevailed upon at last to accept the allegiance of the guards, and when the senate reassembled in the morning, they learnt with dismay that the praetorians had made their choice,

aud that the people were taking it up. To support themselves they had, they believed, the city-guard, who were jealous of the praetorians ; and inadequate as such forces were, they dreamed of resisting. But their own dissensions prevented the prompt action which might still have saved them. They debated until the city-guard went over to Claudius in a body, and the mob threatened to attack the Curia. Then they crept away one by one to fawn upon the new Princeps and make excuses for their hesitation. Claudius protected them with difficulty from the violence of the guards, whose support he had assured at the price of 15,000 sesterces apiece. ‘He was the first of the Caesars to buy the support of the soldiers.’ It cost him a million and a quarter sterling, and later Emperors successively ran the price of Empire higher and higher.

§ 4. The utter failure of this last attempt at restoring the republican government is noteworthy. The old antagonism between democracy and aristocracy had resulted in the former preferring even the. worst of autocrats to the' government of the senate. The latter order had become the scapegoat of both Princeps and popums. Gaius had roused them to fury by his oppression, and Claudius never forgot that they had endeavoured to abolish Caesarism. He was reminded of the fact in the second year of his reign, when Eurius Camillus Scribonianus, Proconsul of Dalmatia, joined in a plot which centred around Yinicianus, one of the disappointed candidates for the purple on the fall of Gaius. With the support of the legions the conspirators hoped to be able to defy the praetorians. Scribonianus actually wrote to the Princeps a peremptory order to vacate the throne, but when he summoned his troops to assist him in enforcing the mandate, he was compelled to fly, and was eventually cut down by one of his own officers (42 a.d.). Then followed executions and suicides, but Sedition was not crushed. Two other attempts at revolution were made by grandsons of Pollio and Messalla, and a certain Pom-ponius began a civil war; but we have no details or even dates of these events, and we only know that it became a ready means of removing a Roman of position to hint ever so lightly at disaffection.

§ 5. The new Princeps astonished all by the vigour of his administration. To surpass a Gains required, perhaps, no great mind, but Claudius in some ways surpassed Tiberius and recalled the days of Augustus, whom he took as his model. Agrippa he rewarded for the skill wherewith he had treated with the senate by adding Judaea to his kingdom, aud so uniting in his hands for the last time the possessions of Herod the Great. 15ut Claudius took no lessons in government from so undesirable a teacher. He accepted few marks of honour from the senate, recalled all the exiles, aud granted a general amnesty, excepting only in the case of Chaerea and his companions. He allowed the name of Gaius, like that of Tiberius, to drop out of sight; but he recalled his nieces, the sisters of Gaius, and saw that his nephew's half-consumed remains were decently interred. The madman’s assumption of divinity lie utterly condemned, and his prompt decree to that effect prevented the revolt of the Jews.

His first care was to adjust his relations with the nobles and senate. That body could be trusted to remain quiet for some time after their recent humiliating defeat, and the1 Princeps took advantage of the opportunity to institute a lectio both of the senatorial and equestrian lists, though with such moderation that he roused little or no ill-will. The vacant seats he filled up mainly from the provinces, following the precedent established by Julius, who had liberally conferred the ius honorum, which threw open to the recipient those offices that gave a title to the senator-shit); the Aedui were conspicuous among those who now obtained this privilege. In addition he granted the civitas to numbers of applicants. In doing so he was doubtless following up a wis'e policy, for the blood of Home, like that of any other exclusive aristocracy, was rapidly becoming effete and needed fresh infusion, while the bond so made between the centre of the Empire and its outlying members was a step towards representative government, and thus mutually advantageous. A less direct benefit arose from the purer morality and style of living introduced by the new-comers, by ■which it became possible for the luxury and laxity of Eoman society to be gradually shamed into better ways. The senate itself became once more a factor in the government, and laws in its name took the place of the edict or nod of the Princeps. Nevertheless, the Emperor knew the worth of a patrician’s gratitude: ho never dispensed with his guards aud other precautions against the dagger.

§ 6. The masses regarded the Emperor as their servant, better or worse, as fortune might permit. Claudius studied to win popularity, and succeeded so far that a false alarm of his death within a year all but caused a riot. He made some diminution in the disproportionate number of holidays, which impeded business, but he made amends by giving magnificent entertainments, at which, like Augustus, he was himself a regular attendant. He abolished the taxes by the imposition of which Gaius had forfeited the affections of the mob, and he took wise measures to secure the regularity of the corn-supply. Gaius had erected harbours of refuge at Messana; Claudius excavated a magnificent harbour on the northern side of the estuary of the Tiber, to replace the ancient port of Ostia on the opposite shore, whose harbours had long been silted up. He granted privileges also to all who engaged in the corn trade, and to the owners of vessels of extraordinary size, and took the responsibility for all losses at sea incurred in this trade. Only once was mere any prospect of scarcity in Rome during the latter half of his reign of thirteen years, and in that case it was due to bad harvests, not to carelessness on the part of the authorities (52 a.d.).

§ 7. To sit by the praetors on the tribunal had been one of Augustus’ pleasures; Claudius made it a duty. He spent whole days in the law courts, and his patience was inexhaustible, if his law was not always that of the letter. The delatores he banished, and the law of Maiesias slumbered. His is the credit of realising the fact' that slaves were fellow men, and he made the killing of a slave punishable as homicide. He restricted the growing license of the freedmen, and prohibited either freedman or slave from witnessing against master or patron. He protected from money-lenders those who appeared to be the heirs of property, thus discouraging debt and the consequent appeal to poison to secure inheritance more speedily. He endeavoured, by reintroducing the practically obsolete Lex Cincia, to limit the fees of advocates, which had become intolerably heavy, and in the same law aimed a blow at delation by restricting its profits; and he protected women and other helpless litigants from the rapacity of their lawyers.

He employed 30,000 men for eleven years in cutting an outlet to the Liris for the waters of the Fucine Lake, and thereby saved from repeated inundation a large area of the Marsian lands. The cutting was reopened twenty years ago, and has reclaimed nearly 40,000 acres of unhealthy swamp. He completed the aqueduct commenced by Gaius and known as the Aqua Claudia. Gaius had built for show; Claudius’ buildings were few, but they were all eminently useful.

§ 8. But it was in the provinces that the Emperor made his greatest mark. True to the warnings of Augustus, later rulers had avoided war save when necessary to secure a frontier or to avenge an insult. The reigns of Tiberius and Gaius had been for the provincials at large a time of peace, of which they had reaped the fullest benefit. But the inactivity of the legions brought with it lax discipline and the contempt of the nations beyond the borders. Gaius had been obliged to repress with a strong hand the intrigues of Gaetulicus, and Claudius perhaps saw that continued idleness would lead to worse seditions, and that employment must be found for the great armies of the Empire. Besides, he aspired to re-establish the awe of the Roman name, and to earn in the field by merit of his auspices that title of Imperator which he declined to accept from the senate. His reign is marked by general military activity, and by successes which even eclipsed those of Augustus, while there were no disasters like that of Varus to mar its lustre. Twenty-seven times was Claudius hailed Imperator; Augustus received that title on but twenty-one occasions *

* The title of Imperator conferred by the voice of a successful army upon the Princeps under whose auspices they fought must be carefully distinguished from the same word used as a kind of nomen. Augustus, Tiberius, and Gaius used it as a cognomen.

Since tlio time of Augustus there had been no extension of the Empire by conquest. Claudius, in the third year of his Principate, invaded Britain, and at his death left a portion of it permanently annexed to Rome. This was the most brilliant of his achievements, and also the most original; for this he triumphed in 44 a.d.; and the conquest of the island forms the subject of a special chapter.f In other cases the legions acted to maintain, rather than to extend the Empire, and employment was thus found for them in all quarters.

§ 9. The year of Claudius’ accession was marked by a revolt of the Maurasians, a tribe of Mauretania. The post of Proconsul in Africa, left vacant by the recall of Silanus in the last reign, was now filled by 0. Suetonius Paulinus, who here proved his abilities for the first time. He crossed Mount Atlas, chastised the rebels, aud left the completion of the duty to his successor, Cn. Hosidius Geta, when he was recalled. The conquered country was formed into two provinces, Mauretania Tingitaua and Mauretania Caesariensis, the boundary between which was the river Mattua. Colonies secured the conquest, and from this time date the Romanisation of Africa and the extension of Roman trade aud exploration far into the interior.];

§ 10. A little later the Rhine frontier was again crossed and the German tribes chastised afresh. Since the recall of Germanicus and the death of Arminius the Cherusci had remained within their lines, gradually losing strength in internal dissensions. But the Chauci and Chatti, recruited by many years of peace, and fancying that the legions which Gaius had found it needful to handle severely must have forgotten alike their courage and loyalty, again assumed the aggressive. But the brief command of Servius Galba had reorganised the Roman forces, and when, in 45 a.d., he was transferred to the proconsulate of Africa he left able commanders behind him. One of these was Domitius Corbulo, Legatus of Lower Germany, destined to be famous as the only soldier of Nero’s reign. He led his legions first against the Frisii, who had paid

no tribute since their revolt of 28 a.d., speedily reduced them, and left a garrison in their territories. Hg^then turned against the Chauei, whose chief, Gennascus, had for some time insulted the Roman province. Bribery secured the murder of that opponent, but the murder drove his people into open war. Corbulo gained such successes as to aspire to realising the dream of Augustus and finally conquering Germany; but in the height of his career (47 a.d.) he was checked by an imperial edict forbidding his further advance. The prohibition was set down to the Emperor’s jealousy, of course; but it was rather a wise and politic act. Peace and diplomacy were surely, if slowly, effecting what arms could only do with hazard if at all. Already the Cherusci liad consented to ask for a prince from Rome : Claudius sent to them the son of Flavus, the renegade brother of Arminius. Under the name of Italicus, this German had for years resided at Rome, and had learnt Roman manners. His return to his people was soon followed by disgust at his foreign habits, and his struggles to retain his crown kept the Cherusci engaged in those intestine dissensions which were the surest guarantee for the security of the frontier from their attacks (47 a.d.). Corbulo obeyed his Princeps reluctantly, and busied his men in the construction of a work which for centuries has benefited the people of Holland—the great canal joining the mouths of the Vahalis (Mass or Meuse) and Rhenus Medius (Neue Rhein). Three years later (50 a.d.) Pomponius, Leyatus of Upper Germany, concluded peace with the Chatti after some engagements in which he restored to freedom a few survivors of Yarus’ legions ; and the Suevi made overtures for the ‘ friendship ’ of the Roman people.

§ 11. Further eastward, the death of Rhoemetalces6 led to a revolt of Thrace which gave little trouble. The country was reduced to a province 46 a.d. ; and the death of Agrippa, in 44 a.d., had already brought Judaea once more into a like position. Gaius had conferred the recently acquired province of Commagenef upon Antio-chus, hut had deposed him again ; Claudius now restored him. Polemo of Poutus was transferred to a petty kingship in Cilicia, and his place taken, by a Mithradates, who proved fractious and was deposed in favour of his brother Cotys. He endeavoured to recover his crown by force, but was easily worsted. Another Mithradates, an Iberian, and a claimant to the Armenian crown, had been im prisoned by Gaius ; Claudius set him free, supported him with Roman troops, and set him again upon the throne of Armenia, while the Parthians were prevented by anarchy from any effectual resistance. Their King, Arta-hanus, the same whom Germanicus had left upon the throne, died in 44 a.d., and the usual struggle for succession supervened, while, at the same time, the Parthian army was besieging Seleucia. Mithradates drove them out, and they returned under Vardanes to revenge the defeat; but the mere menace of the Legahis of Syria was sufficient- to deter them. Vardanes was assassinated, and Claudius named Meherbates his successor, son of that prince whom Tiberius put on the throne.7 Another assassination put Gotarzes in power, and he made way (51 a.d.) for Vologaeses I., who reigned thirty years.

§ 12. From Britain to Armenia, from the Baltic to Atlas, the auspices of Claudius brought honour and advancement. He could boast that, like Augustus, he had conquered Armenia and given a monarch to the invincible Parthians. He had added fourf new provinces to the Empire, and he strengthened his hold upon them by the foundation of numerous colonies. Those in Africa have been already mentioned; more famous are those which guarded the Eliine and the new province of Britain, Augusta Treverorum {'Treves), Colonia Agrip-pinensis (Cologne, 50 a.d.), and Camulodunum (Colchester, 50 a.d,). Cologne owed its origin to the Empress Agrippina, as will be seen. The administration of the provinces, if not so successful as in the days of Augustus, was nevertheless good, and the case of Felix, who incited the Jews to revolt by his maladministration, in 52 A.D., was nil exception shortly to be explained. To emphasise the authority of the Princeps in all provinces alike, an edict of that year (52 a.d.) gave to the procurators’ proclamations force equal to those of the Princeps. The innovation was intended to act as a check upon senatorial officers; in fact it was a mistake, for it enabled the procurator to abuse his authority, with the surety that his conduct would be protected by the Emperor, ever hostile to the members of the senate.

§ 13. But at Rome itself, despite the various reforms of the Princeps, life was hardly more secure, administration hardly more pure, than uuder Gaius. Well-iutentioned as was Claudius’ even’ measure, he was a ruler more theoretical than practical; he could not govern men. Had the machinery of the state been good, the result would have been excellent; but the machinery was rotten, and the wisest efforts missed their aim, perverted by the interference of a freedman or an Empress ; these were now the real governors of Rome. The power of the freedmen was greatest during the life of the first Empress^ Messallina; then it waned, and the new Empress, Agrippina, became less the wife than the partner, or even the ruler, of Claudius, and so mistress of the world. The Orientalism of Gaius had given place to an Orientalism of another kind—that which governs by the wills of viziers and of the seraglio.

The libertini had now usurped an important piace in Roman society. Even under the republic laws had been passed to check the growth of their numbers and influence, and early Caesars had endeavoured again to reduce their privileges • but everything favoured their advancement, and while legislating against them, Augustus, as well as Claudius himself, encouraged them. Though once slaves, or the sons of slaves, the}’ were in man}’ eases men of exceptional abilities and polish. They crowded the house of every gentleman of Rome, kept his books, wrote his letters and his poems, amused and flattered him. and became at last his intimate confidants. Cicero could say that there had been in more modern days few such pairs of friends as Orestes and Pylades: a Laelius and a Scipio were rare exceptions, and the more remarkable for their rarity. Pride of blood and the laws of an over-strained conventionality prohibited the high-born and wealthy Eoman from fraternising cordially with his fellows, and he found the sympathy or intimacy which he desired in the society of his freedmen. So the latter grew in power and place, knew all the life of Eome far better than their master, and usually profited handsomely by their master’s death. The Princeps was most of all constrained to rely upon his h'bertini, for the nobles were too proud to fill the offices for which freedmen struggled, and the Emperor was too unbending to make associates of his peers. But no amount of patronage could redeem the freedman’s position; though he were chief minister—Emperor in all but name—he still remained branded with the mark of his quondam serfdom, still a ‘starveling Greek.’8 The Princeps could not as yet give nobility; there were still no nobles but those of blood.

§ 14. The men who now ruled Eome were four—Polybius the amanuensis, Narcissus the secretan, Callistus, who received all petitions addressed to the Emperor, and Pallas the steward. Lesser lights were Eelix, brother of Pallas, and by his interest appointed and protected as the oppressive Procurator of Judaea, and Posides the eunuch, the Emperor’s military satellite, who won distinction in the British wars. But the government lay virtually in the hands of the four first mentioned, and while they agreed they prospered. They had but one rival, the Empress Messallina, the third wife of Claudius ; but even her they could control for eight years, winning her obedience by conniving at a profligacy which has, in very charity, been set down to madness. She ruled Claudius, and they ruled her. No one dared thwart the coalition. The Eoman whose virtue repulsed the infamous advances of the Empress was either murdered at the Emperor’s bidding or actually forced to compliance by the same authority. He whose wealth excited the cupidity of the freedmen lost life and property by the same ready means. Such were Appius ‘■'ilanus and Valerius Asiaticus, whose gardens Messallina .coveted. Claudius never forgot that the nobles had tried to restore the republic, and had slain Gaius: it was easy to persuade him that any of their number was guilty of conspiracy, and to hint at such a crime was sufficient; the Emperor waved his hand, and the subject lost his head. All office, privilege, and honour were attainable by the favour of Pallas and his fellows; they sold justice, the franchise, the magistracies, with flagrant openness, while their master was toiling to restore the credit of the courts and the Principate. It was in 48 a.d. that he threw open the senate to the Gauls, and bestowed the franchise on Gallia Comata* at large. Instantly there started up a swarm of claimants to a similar honour. The bestowal of the franchise meant immunity from taxation, and all were ready to buy future immunity by present payment. The freedmen accumulated immense wealth. Whether Claudius was aware how far the traffic went is doubtful. His theory was to recruit the morale of Rome with purer blood, and lie may have found it easy to support his theory by pleading an exhausted exchequer; but to sell the franchise wholesale was to dock his yearly income for the gains nf a day; it was ‘living on the capital of the state.’

§ 15. The freedmen were checked at last. Messallina sealed the sum of her enormities by a public marriage witli one C. Silius, a wealthy Roman, then consul, 48 a.d. Already Narcissus had seen cause to fear her. Now it seemed that she would transfer to Silius not only the treasures of the Empire, but its headship also ; for the consul was not a man to let slip the opportunity, and the crime to which he had been forced drove him to protect himself by the further crime of treason. The freedmau told all to Claudius, and whispered of conspiracies. Weak as he was, the Princeps really loved his infamous wife, and hesitated to act. It was Narcissus himself who gave the order for her execution, and Claudius said not a word.

It is impossible to know the truth of the story of her fall. That she publicly married Silius with all solemn ceremony is incredible except on one ground. It is stated by Suetonius that a soothsayer had warned Claudius that Messal-lina’s husband must die; thereupon he wedded her to

Silius, believing that the doom foretold for himself would thus be directed against another. Herein Narcissus saw the opportunity to secure a rival’s overthrow, worked on his master’s fears, and gained his object.

§ 16. A new Empress must he chosen, and over the choice the freedmen quarrelled. Pallas favoured Agrippina, that sister whom Gaius had banished for conspiracy, and whom Claudius had recalled. Her caresses won her cause, and this reforming Emperor outraged decency by marrying his own niece, though not without demur. ' The senate divined his wishes, and decreed it lawful in his case. But Agrippina came of a house of rulers, and she would not be ruled : the freedmen lost power, and their influence passed into her hands. Narcissus endeavoured to find a counterpoise to her wiles in Claudius’ love for the two children of Slessalliua, Britannicus and Octavia. These he protected and advanced in opposition to L. Domitius, the child of Agrippina by a former husband, but in vain : the Empress carried the day, and her son supplanted the Princeps’ own children. Everyone saw that the succession was destined for Domitius when, in 50 a.d,, he was publicly adopted by Claudius, and took the name of Nero. Still, Narcissus did not give up hope; he tampered with the praetorians, those king-makers of Rome. His rival was too watchful; she secured the dismissal of the prefect, and in his place set up Burrus Afranius, a partisan of her own. At the same time Annaeus Seneca, the philosopher, was recalled from the exile into which Messallina had driven him eight years before, and was made tutor to Nero. Seneca had owed his banishment, it is likely, to his intrigues with Agrippina in the earlier days of the reign, for he was a philosopher whose preaching and practice were seldom at one. The Empress followed up this success by canvassing the favour of the legions, and to gain their goodwill were founded the colonies before mentioned. In particular, Cologne was Agrippina’s boon to the armies, for she founded it in person, and left her name to it.

Finally, 53 a.d., she affianced Nero to Octavia, and thus sought to combine in his person the claims of her own line and that of Messallina.

§ 17. Almost virtuous by contrast with her predecessor, Agrippina has yet left an unenviable name behind her. There was something in the blood of the house of Germanicus which made the early death of its founder a fortunate thing for his fame. This, the last of his daughters, shed less blood than did Messallina, but she knew no mercy. She had driven to suicide, by scandalous charges, L. Silanus, who was unfortunate enough to be already betrothed to Octavia ; and similarly she got rid of Statilius Taurus, a man whose probity was conspicuous in the Rome of that date. One of her rivals for the crown had been Lollia Paulina, another was Domitia Lepida; the former was impelled to suicide, the latter was executed; and this womanly conqueror took up the head of Lollia and bared the teeth, to make sure by their shapeliness that it was indeed the face of her beautiful rival.

Claudius was sixty-four years of age, an age which in his case, brought senility with it. Agrippina sat at his side to mete out justice, hear petitions, or bestow crowns. Her head was figured on the coinage, and her will was law. Yet Narcissus, her foe, was still in favour. If she had aided him to overthrow Messallina, there was the more reason why she should dread a similar fall herself. Her fears were allayed by the death of Claudius, Oct. 13th, 54 a.d. Men whispered that Locusta, the poisoner, had caused it, but if so she did her work too well to leave proofs behind. There is, at any rate, nothing in Agrippina’s life to make the charge unlikely. Seneca, the philosophical libertine, had grovelled at Claudius’ feet in his lifetime, and had addressed him as a god ; now he published a satire, of which the wit and the venom alike suit the character of its author.*

. *This was the Apocoloci/ntosis—a parody of Apotheosis—relating how the dead Claudius’ soul went up to Olympus, was scorned by the Gods, was exulted over by the victims whom he nad sent to death before him, and was finally ordained unheard to be not a god—Divus—but a pumpkin (ko\qkvvty\) or, as another version had it, to play for all eternity with a dice-box that had no bottom. It was said that Claudius not seldom condemned a defendant without hearing the case, but such procedure, if it ever occurred, was probably due to the freedmen and Empresses taking advantage of his well-known absence of mind. Judicial procedure at this date was to a large extent the same as at the time of Augustus’ death. Civil cases went before a Praetor and the Index, or

§ 18. The materials for judging the character of Claudius are scanty. The four lost books of the Annals of Tacitus include the first portion of this reign up to 47 a.d., and the views of Tacitus are distorted by prejudice. Much of the odium which attaches to the names oi all the Emperors, from Tiberius to Nero, may be set down to the Journals of Agrippina—journals which doubtless put false interpretations on man}- good deeds, and branded less wholesome acts with unmerited shame. Even Tacitus used these memoirs as authoritative, and, like all other writers, asserts that Claudius drank, ate, and gambled to excess, that he was in all things unkingly. Nevertheless, the crimes of the reign are those of his wives and their instruments the freedmen, and in matters which escaped the touch of those evil advisers there is every reason to admire the government of Claudius as both wise and vigorous for one who so late in life had ‘ greatness thrust upon him.’

Indices (see p. 108, note); criminal cases before the Qvaestiones Perpetuae. There was, however, in these courts no power over the citizen’s eapvt: this power had been transferred from the Comitia Curiata to the senate and consuls. But these Republican forms wore controlled by the Princeps (i.) by his right of Intercessio ; (ii.) by his right of giving the first sententia in the senate. On the other hand, he possessed positive powers (i.) in virtue of his proconsul a re imperium, which enabled him to exercise ius in caput, and so gave rise to the Privy High Court of Justice in the j>alace; (ii.) by the elasticity of the Lex Ala test at is; (iii.) by means of the I'raefectus t’rbis, whose judicial powers became very widely extended in the Emperor’s interest. ‘ There is now no appeal, but only pardon/*

§ 1. Agrippina guilty of Claudius’ Death—§2. Character and Training of Xero—§ 3. Seneca—{ 4. Ilis Quarrel with Agrippina; her Intrigues ; Murder of Britannieus—§ 0. Death of Agrippina— § 6. Rise of Poppaea ; the Grecism of Xero; Xeitnia—§ 7. Murder of Octavia—§ 8. Government and Legislation—§ 9. Importance of the Senate—{ 10. Foreign Affairs: on the Rhine : in l’arthia and Armenia: Campaigns of Corbulo—§ 11. Fall of Seneca and Change in the Government—§ 12. The Infamies of Xero: the Great Fire and Persecution of the Christians; the Golden House—§ 13. The Conspiracy of Piso and the Reign of Terror—§ 14. Xero in Greece: Death of Corbulo and Outbreak of the Military Revolutions.

§ 1. The facility with which was settled the question of the succession lends probability to the charge that Agrippina was guilty of the murder of her uncle and husband; had she not been well aware of the imminence of his sudden decease, she could hardly have been so fully prepared for the emergency. The appointment of the new Emperor depended upon the support of the praetorians, and it was for this reason that Agrippina had advanced Burrus to the post of prefect. Still, the influence of the commander was powerless if the troops had other wishes ; and had Narcissus been present to champion the cause of Britannieus, Burrus might have found himself outbidden as Sejanus did. As it was, the freedman was away from Rome, so well had fate—or Agrippina—timed the event. Britannieus was detained in the palace while his rival, under Burrus’ guidance, visited the guards and challenged their support. Some few called for the true heir; the majority accepted the usurper’s advances. On the same day the senate accepted him as Princeps and conferred on him the name Augustus. Thus easily did the Principate of the world change hands. The l<|g§ou of thirteen years

before had not been lost upon political thinkers. Then the praetorians had prevented the success of a revolution; now they were utilized to anticipate any attempt at senatorial or popular interference.

§ 2. The new Princeps, by birth L. Domitius Aheno-barbus, bj' adoption Nero Claudius Caesar, was the only child of Agrippina by her first husband. The Domitii were notorious even amongst the nobilitj' of Rome for the brutality of their pride; the Claudii were scarcely] less notable for their hauteur; Agrippina’s character was such as to match well with the savagery of the one house and the insolence of the other. The character of a Roman noble came to him as a kind of inheritance, and even if only adopted into the house whose name he bore, he in-sensiblj- assumed the traditional character proper to the name. Nero was by birth and by adoption fitted to the rdle he filled; but as yet he was a mere boy, the submissive pupil of three teachers—his mother, Burrus, and Seneca. Under their tuition he had received the ordinary training of the time, but he showed little taste for the grave studies of the Roman schools. He had no liking for philosophy, he could not even declaim fluently ; and the small amount of attention which he paid to these and similar serious subj ects was purchased by indulging him in other tastes, such as music, singing, painting, driving, and acting. He believed himself an artistic genius, and possiblj’ he had some small gifts in that direction. If so, flattery soon perverted them and left him without even the merit of excellence to redeem his fondness for pursuits which even the degenerate Romans of that day deemed menial and degrading, the business of slaves, freedmen, and foreigners. Cicero had been at pains to veil his intimacy with Greek literature ; a century later Nero would have Grecized the whole life of Rome. ■

§ 3. To train such a pupil as this to merit his position would have taxed the capacity of any teacher; it baffled entirely the easy-going Seneca. Of Burrus we know little, and he did not pose as the imperial tutor, a function which devolved entirely upon Seneca. A Spaniard of Corduba (Cordova), his father had migrated to Pome and made a fortune as an advocate; the son, L. Annaeus Seneca,* made himself the foremost declaimer of the day, the leading professor of rhetoric, of style, and of moral philosophy. But he never allowed his philosophy to blind him to practical life; he bound himself to no particular sect, gathered sounding commonplaces from all alike, and at the same time made money with a most practical industry. It has been said that he was suspected of intrigue with Agrippina, and other cases soon arose when lie found it expedient to separate preaching from 2>ractice. He was very nearly as virtuous as his position permitted, and no more; he had schemed with Agrippina to secure her son’s advancement, and now proceeded to utilize his position.

§ 4. He was met at once by the hostility of Agrippina. She had dared everything to win the Empire for Nero, but in the assurance that she would be herself his guide and controller. For awhile it was so; she ordered state affairs as in the da3's of Claudius, had the senate summoned to the palace that she might overhear its debates, and offered to seat herself by Nero’s side on the throne of audience. She drove Narcissus to suicide, in her jealousy of his attachment to Britannicus, and poisoned M. Silanus, Proconsul of Asia and brother of her previous victim, the betrothed of Octavia, lest he should try to take vengeance upon her house (54 a.d.). Seneca and Burrus grew alarmed; no longer useful as her instruments, they might be at any moment destroyed if her influence became paramount. Their safety as well as their power depended on their checking her authority, and the palace again became the scene of a domestic intrigue. Nero was weary of his mother’s control, and readily acquiesced in anything which defied it. His tutor led him into an intrigue with Acte, a freedwoman of the Empress, whose anger at being thus supplanted iu her son’s affections only served to excite his resentment. Finding protest useless, she affected sympathy and cajolery. Nero laughed

* There were two other sons, L. Mela and M. Xovatus. The latter was adopted by Junius Gallio, whose name he took. He is supposed to be the Gallio of Acts xviii., 12, Proconsul of Achaea about the years 52-54 a.d. L. Mela was the father of the poet and conspirator, Lucan.

at the transparent trick, aud disgraced the chief of her confidants, the freedman Pallas. Again she lost her temper; Britannicus was still alive, she hinted, and the legions would welcome him as a true Caesar, The confiscations of the late reign had left the Empress rich; she began to augment her wealth still further, and to court the favour of the nobles; with the legions of Germany she -was influential by reason of her recently-founded colonies. Nero took alarm, doubtless at the suggestions of Seneca aud Burrus. They may have hinted that Britanuicus was dangerous, and no more was needed. He was the last of the house of Julius, the brother of Octavia, Claudius’ son; and with a Eoman natural right was superior to any adoptive claim. Nero remembered the ‘food of the gods,’* and bethought him that its inventor was still in prison on suspicion; here was a ready ‘instrument of empire,’! who could purchase immunity for one crime by another. He gave a banquet, and to Britanuicus was passed a cap of hot wine. As usual, the gu$tator% tasted it to prove its harmlessness, but the victim found it to hot for his liking. The few drops of cold water which were added contained so deadly a poison that, as he drank, the prince fell back dead without a cry. ‘An epileptic fit,’ said Nero; but the pyre was already built outside, and the body was borne at once from the banqueting-hall to the flames. Nero sought the sympathy of the senate on the next day, and rewarded Locusta with riches and estates: Agrippina withdrew from the palace, and the triumph of her rivals was complete. Seneca addressed to the Emperor a treatise On Clemency, in which he congratulated him on having reigned a year without shedding a drop of blood (55 A.D.).

§ 5. But the boon companions of the Princeps still urged him to free himself finally from his mother’s censure, even if it were silent, pointing out that she was still

* Referring to the dish of poisoned mushrooms by which Claudius earned the epithet of Divus, i.e., * in Heaven.’

t The name of the attendant whose business it was to taste all food and drink before passing them to his master. He must have participated in the crime in this

busily intriguing for the favour of the nobles. One of these companions was Salvius Otho, a profligate young noble, whose wife, Poppaea Sabina, was the fairest woman in Pome. Nero had never loved Octavia ; in Poppaea he found a match for himself in ambition and lack of conscience. He appointed the husband Governor of Lusitania ; and Otho departed to this honorary exile, leaving his wife as the Emperor’s mistress. Poppaea, however, would brook no restraint or rival: Octavia and Agrippina must die. ‘ The Lion had tasted blood ’ and had no scruples now : still, if possible, he preferred to remove her quietly. Poisons were of no avail against her, for she had had too much experience of them : the freedman Anieetus, admiral of the fleet at Misenum, found a plan. He contrived a vessel which should fall to pieces at the loosening of a bolt, and on this Agrippina was to return to her villa at Antium, after spending a day of festival at Baiae with her son, who professed sorrow and repentance for his undutiful conduct. The machinery failed to act, and the Empress escaped for the moment. Her son saw her escape, and threw off all show of decency. He despatched Anieetus to complete his work with the sword, as Burrus and Seneca declined to undertake the duty. The latter, however, wrote the despatch which announced the event and explained that it was done in self-defence. This account was believed: Nero entered Pome as if in triumph, aud the senate instituted a public festival in honour of his deliverance (59 a.d.).

§ 6. Agrippina had been mistress of the world in Claudius’ time ; she removed Claudius to substitute, as she hoped, a yet more pliant tool in the person of her son Nero. But Seneca and Burrus had resolved to abolish the harem-government of the last reign. The purpose was excellent; the mistake lay in the means employed. To gain their purpose they played upon Nero’s passions, and for the moment they triumphed; but, once roused, those passions found a more powerful hand to guide them in that of Poppaea. She now stepped into the position which Agrippina had failed te reach, aud in her turn she measured her influence against that of the

philosopher and the soldier. These still swayed the Emperor’s judgment in all things beyond court matters, and moreover Oetavia still lived as the Empress. Poppaea laid her plans against both barriers to her supremacy. She encouraged Nero to violate openly the most vital rules of Roman decorum—rules which in his mother’s lifetime he had still observed, at least in daylight. Now she led him to cast off all show of decency and to appear on the stage as a singer and actor, in the circus as a charioteer. Such conduct realised the dearest wishes of the Emperor: it was Grecian, he said; but not even the debaucheries and degradation of two centuries had erased from the minds of the Romans that yravitan of which their forefathers had boasted. An eques mourned his disgrace when forced to appear ou the stage in Julius’ time, and those nobles who had voluntarily done so in the reigns of Augustus aud Tiberius had been publicly punished for their conduct. Now the Princeps himself, the embodiment of Rome’s dignity, ‘played fiddler and coachman,’ and forced knights and senators to accompany him, and even to fight as gladiators. The mob exulted to see the Princeps indeed their peer, for the mass of Rome’s populace now was not Roman, but the scourings of the world, the mingled ‘ barbarians’ of all nations, from whom were derived the gladiators, players, and buffoons of the amphitheatre and circus. Nero found himself too busy with his lyre and stables to give much attention to public matters; daily they grew more distasteful to him, and the influence of Burrus and his coadjutor waned in proportion. The festival of the Juvenaliat9 was instituted in 59 a.d. ; that of the Neronia in 60 a.d. The latter is a landmark in the history of the reign as the consummation of the Emperor’s degradation, and the turning-point of his public conduct. The first five years of his reign, known as the Quinquennium Iferonis, were proverbial for good government.

§ 7. All sense of shame lost, Nero was easily persuaded to elevate Poppaea to share his throne. The paramour would not suffer the wife to live even if divorced; she

charged her with immorality, and tortured her attendants to get corroborative evidence. This time her viBim escaped, for not even the torture could produce the pretence of guilt. Nevertheless Octavia was dismissed from the palace into Campania, and her life would have been sacrificed forthwith had not the very mob for once shown feeling, and forced Nero to recall her. They threw down Poppaea’s statues, offered sacrifice for the safety of her rival, and even threatened to assault the palace. Their demonstrations whetted Poppaea’s malice: she remembered Anicetus, taught him his part, and promised him his reward. He declared that Octavia was guilty of intrigue with himself, and on his evidence the discrowned Empress wsis banished and suffocated. Anicetus was ostensibly exiled to Sardinia, but lived there in luxury on the profits of his two murders. The senate did sacrifice for the happy discovery of a dangerous intrigue and Poppaea was openly married to Nero, and clinched her success by the execution of Pallas and Porypliorus, both of whom had dared to champion Octavia (62 a.d.). Burrus, too, died in the same year. He believed that he was poisoned, and so did the world at large ; and Seneca, seeing that his day was over, expected the same gratitude every moment, yet was not permitted to retire from the palace. The death of the prefect of the praetorians was too opportune to be accidental, and the appointment of two of Nero’s worst satellites to share his post—Faenius Euf us and Sofonius Tigellinusgj—showed that Poppaea had deemed him an undesirable commander for the guards.

§ 8. Thus far vve have seen only the progress of a domestic drama. The great actors have fallen or are dead, but have left behind them their record in the course of events beyond the Palatine walls. While Nero wasted his hours in domestic crimes or courtly follies, Burras and Seneca had governed the world. To them was due the lustre which always clung to the first years of Nero’s reign, and it was only after their fall that the reign of the real Nero commenc-ed. Until then, at any rate, Nero kept the promise which he had made in a speech to the senate upon his accession, that he would keep distinct the matters of the palace and state.

In that speech he, or rather his tutor who had instructed him, had said: ‘The law-courts shall be free again, and there shall be no secret tribunal in the palace; I will allow no trafficking in offices and privileges. The senate shall keej> its ancient prerogatives, and the consuls their j urisdiction: I will concern myself with the armies entrusted to me.’ In a word, he promised to restore the government of Augustus, which hinged upon the dignity of the senate and the purity of the courts. In this spirit was passed, in 54 a.d., a law which forbade the fees or dues hitherto j>aid to judges. Claudius had limited the advocates’ fee to a stated amount, and this wise enactment was kept in force. On the other hand, a law was introduced to abrogate Claudius’ edict re-establishing the shows by which quaestors and aediles had bought their offices under the republic. Such a measure had enabled Claudius to keep Rome well supplied with amusements without trenching upon liis own purse. Somewhat later (58 a.d.) was passed a law forbidding provincial governors from instituting games, since the cost was sure to fall upon the provincials. Tho latter now received particular attention: the procurators were required to give public notice of the scale of taxation, so that there might be no room for extortion; and any suit brought by a provincial against a government official was heard before the ordinary courts of the Forum instead of before imperial, and therefore prejudiced, judges, as heretofore. In the same year Nero introduced a motion for the abolition of all indirect taxes, such as those on exports. The measure would have vastly benefited the poorer and commercial classes, but would have led to increased taxation on property. The senate threw the bill out, for they foresaw its effects on their own purses. Nevertheless, some few small taxes were abolished; and it was decreed that no taxes could be legally claimed at the expiration of twelve months from the date of their falling due.

Some wliose property had fallen below the required standard received grants of money; others, disgraced in the last reign, w ere restored; freedmen were prohibited from membership. So real was the government of the old magistrates, that those offices were again canvassed as energetically as in the days of the republic, and riots even occurred, which the Princeps, or his agents, curbed with prudence. The murder of Silanus passed unnoticed amidst the lawful exercise of the laws in other cases ; for the palace was looked upon as the Emperor’s, to govern as he chose, just as the law of Rome gave to every father the right of life and death over all members of his family. But in public life not rank, or wealth, or interest itduld screen offenders. Senators, equites, and quaestors were banished for forgery of wills ; a tribune of the people was convicted of murder; libels were punished by exile (61 a.d.). The laws worked wisely and well, guided by the hands of Seneca and Buitus, so long as Poppaea kept Nero at her side and suffered those ministers to live and govern in his name.

§ 10. In the field also things went well for Rome. Throughout the reign the frontier, from the lower Danube to the lower Rhine, was undisturbed except by voluntary aggressions. On the Danube Plautius Aelianus chastised the Scythians, repopulated the regions devastated by previous wars, and so opened up a new source for the supply of corn to Rome. The Greek cities north of the Pontus were also united to Rome’s sway. On the Rhine the old policy was continued, and jealousies fostered between the neighbouring tribes, which wore out their strength in internecine war. Thus in 58 a.d. the Cliatti were almost annihilated by the Ilermunduri, and the Romans literally looked on a battle which left 00,000 of their enemies dead. In Britain occurred (61 a.d.) the terrible revolt of Boadicea,*' but it was amply revenged by Suetonius Paulinus; and at the opposite end of the Empire Corbulo once again humbled Parthia and Armenia. Transferred in 55 a.d. to the command on the Euphrates, that general had found Yologaeses and the

Parthians in possession of Armenia. The advance of the legions was simultaneous ■with the attempt of Vardanes, a son of the King, to seize the throne of Parthia, and Corbulo found his course stayed by the withdrawal of Yologaeses, who gave hostages for his good conduct, as did also his brother Tiridates, who was left in possession of Armenia. This arrangement Corbulo only meant to be temporary. He spent three years in reorganising and disciplining his forces; and when, in 58 a.d., he saw Vologaeses hampered by an insurrection at home, he suddenly crossed the Euphrates, traversed the whole of Armenia, and captured its two capitals, Artaxata and Tigranocerta. Tigranes, some time a claimant at the court of Nero, was set upon the throne; but his kingdom was curtailed by the allotment of portions of its marches to the neighbouring chiefs of Pontus, Hiberia, and Com-magene. Tigranes was rash enough to provoke a fresh war with Parthia in 62 a.d., and the latter nation rose in arms for one grand effort against Rome and Armenia alike. Corbulo defended the Euphrates frontier with success; but a second army of two legious, under Caesen-uius Paetus, was surrounded by Yologaeses in Armenia, whither it had been despatched to support Tigranes, and was compelled to surrender. The troops were allowed to retire, but Corbulo, in the next year, fully redeemed the dishonour. He once more swept Armenia, and, finally, dismissing Tigranes, suffered Tiridates to retain the sceptre only on his doing public homage for it, and repairing to Rome for investiture at the hands of Nero (63 a.d.). It was not until 66 a.d. that he returned as King of Armenia ; and the timely chastisement of Parthia stood Rome in good stead when, in that year, the Jews rose in their last revolt and solicited the support of Vologaeses. Corbulo may have been aware of the mischief that was brewing, but, apart from any ulterior reasons, the honour of Rome demanded that her supremacy should once more be asserted and the dependency of Armenia be assured as a bulwark against the Parthian Empire.

of liis ministers; for Seneca, though still liviug, was powerless, and only anxious to escape notice. Their places were filled by the two new prefects, and, led by them, Nero began to govern—rather, to misgovern—in person. The change is abrupt in the extreme, and proves how much Eome owed to the efforts of his ministers to keep palace and state apart.

Continual shows and ceaseless largesses to the people had drained the exchequer, and it became necessary to refill it. At the same time the Princeps was fearful that others might feel something of the satiety which vexed himself, and he grew suspicious. Tigellinus worked upon his fears, for he saw the hopes of plunder. His first victim was Rubellius Plautus, brother-in-law to the dead Tiberius Q-emellus. Even so remote a kinship to the Julians made him dangerous to Nero, who first sent him to reside iu Asia (60 a.d.), and two years later commenced the Eeign of Terror by his execution. At the same time died Cornelius Sulla, a man whose only crime was his name, and the fact that he was living—by compulsion—at Marseilles, too near to the Ehine legions.

§ 12. Rid of these fancied dangers, the Emperor now threw open the palace to the world, and, weary of defying decorum, now outraged all decency. There have been other periods of infamy in the world. The courts of Louis XV. and Charles II. were abominable; but the whole of Neronian Eome was one endless scene of debauchery in which none dared resist, because the sight of better lives roused Nero’s hatred by contrast with his own infamy. In the midst of it all, on the night of July 18, 64 a.d., some wretched booths near the Great Circus caught fire. The wind favoured the flames, and for six days and seven nights Eome burned. Nero was at his palace at Antium ■« hen the conflagration began; he came back, though without hurry, to save what he could ; but already much of his palace was burnt out, and before the fire w*as spent most of the ancieut monuments of old Eome had fallen. Among these were the temple of Jupiter Stator, founded, as tradition said, by Eomulus, the palace of Numa and the temple of Diana on the Aventine, which had been dedicated

by Servius Tullius. Of the fourteen city wards, seven were utterly destroyed and four more lay in ruins. The poorer classes of course suffered most severely. Many of the narrow slums where they congregated were still built largely, or entirely, of wood, which fed the flames. It was iu vain that Nero threw open the granaries and his gardens to feed and lodge the homeless. Men scowled and whispered that Tigellinus had chosen his moment well, and that Nero had revelled in a scene which no Emperor had witnessed before, singing the tale of Troy’s sack while his capital was swallowed up. Herein Nero hardly needs an apologist. Incendiarism may probably have extended the fire when once commenced, but not even Nero would have purposely fired his palace and Home. But at the time men were ready to believe anything, and to save his own popularity Nero caused the Christians to be accused of the deed. There was a small body of adherents of the new faith now in Eome, where they were confounded with the Jews, and shared the odium which always attached to the latter people. Indeed, it is argued, with some probability, that the Jews were the real objects of Nero’s persecutions, -while from the fact that a few Christians suffered with them arose the story that they were the only persons accused. Another theory is that the Jews, aided by Poppaea who favoured their religion, shifted the charge against themselves on to the Christians. Whether Jews or Christians, they suffered for their principles—principles so little understood that even Tacitus speaks of them in the language which Plinj’ transfers to Nero himself—1 enemies of the world.’ Eome rose anew from her ruins, more grand than of old, with straight streets and long porticos of brick and marble in place of winding alleys and hovels, and from the Palatine across the Via Sacra to the Esquiline stretched the lengthy colonnades of the new palace, the ‘Golden House,’ where everything that art and money could give was lavishly collected, until it became a gigantic museum for statuary and other treasures plundered from the Grecian towns. Then the mob, once more housed, were invited to witness the punishment of the ‘incendiaries,’ and the victims of this first persecution were exhibited in the amphitheatre, not as mere gladiators—for they declined to fight, and the sight moreover would have been no novelty—but sewn up in the skins of wild beasts they were worried by dogs. And when evening came the festivities still went on: the Emperor dined and feasted his people by the light which fell from human beings bound to stakes around him, robed in shirts covered with pitch, and set on fire.

§ 13. But Rome’s patience wore out at last, and in 65 a.d. a formidable conspiracy was set on foot, in which many senators and knights and still more of the military class joined. The ostensible head was C. Calpurnius Piso, a man whose sole merits were his nobility and his skill as a chess-player. In all probability his name was used merely as one to rally round, and in the event of success he would have been set aside in favour of a more able man—Seneca, possibly. One of the conspirators, a freed-woman named Epicharis, was betrayed and tortured, but would not divulge her secret. But the world was alarmed; and when a freedman of Scaevinus, the conspirator who claimed the privilege of inflicting the first wound on Nero, gave information that his master was preparing evidently for some perilous eow> on the morrow, tha latter was at once arrested, and forthwith betrayed his accomplices. No confessions could save them; all suffered alike. Eaenius Rufus, prefect of the praetorians and leader of the military portion of the conspiracy, seated himself on the tribunal to condemn his own accomplices, but did not save his life. Lucan the poet, long an intimate of Nero’s, and driven to treason by the displeasure of a Princeps who forbade the recitation of poetry better than his own. tried, it was said, to purchase life by incriminating his mother, who was innocent. She was spared; Lucan fell. He was the nephew of Seneca, who also died. There is little doubt that Lucan was guilty. Petronius Arbiter, the court fop and judge of fashion, fell perhaps because his iufluence rivalled that of Tigellinus ; he composed a satire on his deathbed, ridiculing the Emperor’s court, and died with a ribald jest. The consul Yestinus, the consul-designate Lateranus, with many other nobles and a host of centurious and lesser men, died also. The thinking men of Rome were mostly Stoics now. That creed, with its doctrines of fatalism and stern endurance, had special charms for noble pride. The chief study in philosophy, with the Romans at least, was how to die; how to live troubled theiv easy consciences but little. To the Stoic suicide was commendable; so Seneca, and most of the victims of this period, received the news of their condemnation, opened their veins, and calmly bled to death in their baths, while talking platitudes of virtue to their surrounding friends. Undoubtedly Nero owed his long security largely to the passive attitude taught by this philosophy.

The conspiracy had been formidable, aud it aroused Nero to one continuous course of bloodshed. Executions followed one another unceasingly, and amongst the victims was Thrasea Paetus, the most upright man of the time, and the only senator who dared to remonstrate against the murder of Agrippina. He died calmly, as became a good man and a Stoic; and at the same time fell Barea Soranus, a pattern of honesty in high places, once Proconsul of Asia, and with him his daughter. Nero had realised that to have commanded in an armed province was a possible danger to the throne. He knew that the power of making Emperors had passed from the praetorians to the legions ; and the legions knew it too.

§ 14. In 66 a.d. Nero went to Greece. Rome, he said, could not appreciate its artist ruler; he would win the wreaths of Olympia, Delphi, the Isthmus, and Nemea. The Greeks gratified him by holding all these festivals in the same year and in return he remitted all taxation there and declared the country free, as Flamininus had done before. But Rome, left in the hands of Helius, a favourite freedman, and of Nymphidius Sabinus, successor to Faenius Rufus as praetorian prefect, grew more sullen and restless. From the provinces came daily fresh rumours of defection amongst the legions; and Helius in vain adj ured his master to return. When Nero at last consented to come home, he made a triumphal entry into the city, but his absence had filled the cup of his misdeeds. But lately, long jealous of Gorbulo’s successes, and fearing to appoint him to conduct the Jewish war which had now commenced (66 a.d.), he had recalled him and had him murdered at Corinth on the way home. With like gratitude he treated two of the Scribonii, Rufus and Proculus, commanders of the German armies. At any moment the same jealousy might overthrow the remainder of his commanders. Hardly had Nero set foot in Rome again when he learnt that the legions of Spain had saluted Galba as Princeps and were marching upon Italy.

ft. 31-96

The Military Revolutions—Vindex and Galba.

§ 1. Transfer of the Military Strength of the Empire to the Provincials —5 2. Nero alienates the Provinces and 3. the Armies; his Policy towards his Generals—§ 4. Galba in Spain—§ 5. Vindex heads the Revolt of Gaul—§ 6. He is crushed by Verginius—§ 7. Hesitation of Nero ; he is deserted—§ 8. The Death of Nero— §9. Failure of the Republican Movement; Nymphidius—§ 10. Galba in Gaul; he enters Rome—§ 11. General Discontent; the German Legions—§ 12. Adoption of Piso ; Conspiracy of Otho—§ 13. He is proclaimed by the Praetorians—§ 14. Death of Galba.

§ 1. I5y the constitution of the Empire, Rome was always its most vulnerable point. It had been so under the Republic, when the law forbade the citizen to appear in arms in public, and allowed no soldier to enter the walls without previously disarming. As the frontiers grew, the veterans were removed farther and farther away as garrisons or colonists, and from the conquered territories was drawn by degrees the very army which controlled them. Italy became exempt from service, in fact, if not in name; but the very policy which seemed to promise her peace and prosperity wrought only her undoing. The Roman and his confreres forgot the use of the sword, the discipline of the camp, and lost that power to obey which is the title to government; and his skill, his tactics, and his virtues passed over to the provincials and barbarians. Tacfarinas, Arminius, Maroboduus, are only examples of the prevailing state of things. Whole legions were composed of native Gauls, Germans, or Spaniards, with no security against possible defection beyond their jealousies and their differences of blood and language. Even their commanders were in some cases provincials, and the minor officers—tribunes and centurions—regularly so.

There was small reason to place reliance upon the loyalty of such amiieB. Rome had become Oarthaginian in her policy of employing mercenaries who cared for nothing but pay and privileges, and saw in war only a means of subsistence. Nero had made the blunder of not paying them in full. He had given the now customary donative upon his accession; but reckless extravagance had beggared him, and he could neither repeat the gift nor pay th<‘ regular stipend. This was his first error.

§ 2. Lack of funds led him into another and a worse* blunder: he oppressed the provinces. It was a worst* blunder because the loyalty of a grateful province might have paralysed the treason of a mutinous army within its borders. Thus far the provinces had in general flourished under the new regime, and the first years of Nero’s Principate were as fortunate for them as for Rome. Since then they had suffered oppressions as grievous as those of a Verrel ;* they had been plundered on all hands to rebuild Rome and to decorate the Golden House; they had all seen or heard of the true character of the last of the Julii; they were readj- to hail anyone else as Princeps if he would but leave them in peace. The armies desired only him for an Emperor who would truckle most humbly to their tastes. At Rome there were heard again the nmtterings which followed Gains’ fall—murmurs about the restoration of the Republic and its senate. The discontent was universal; it only needed leaders.

§ 3. Nero believed that he had saved himself by his policy towards his generals, a policy which utilised them to the full and then cast them off in disgrace. That they were able to be dangerous was inherent in their position, with powers second only to those of the Princeps, at the head of a body of devoted troops far outnumbering the pampered and cowardly garrisons of Rome and Italy, and untrammelled by the presence of a jealous circle of nobles. Augustus had foreseen the risk, and had moved them assiduously from one command to another, to prevent

* The revolt of Britain, 61 a.d., is said to have been caused by oppression. Judaea had been for two years in open revolt because of the exaetions of Gessius Floras. See Chap. xvii. ’

too great intimacy with any one army. Tiberius did the same at first, then grow remiss and careless, and already Gaetulieus defied the Emperor before Gaius came to the throne. Gaius forestalled his conspiracy, and Claudius found a new security in once more putting the legions on foreign service. This very activity brought to notice the ablest men of the time, and exposed them to the j ealousy of Nero. Suetonius Paulinus, conqueror of Britain and Mauretania, was disgraced; the Scribonii were executed, and Corbulo driven to suicide, just in time, for already the Romans were thinking of hailing him as Princeps.* Other generals suffered like ingratitude. It was becoming a recognised truism now that the Proconsul or Legatrn might strike for his life, since good service and loyalty would not secure it. He must flatter and caress both legionaries and provincials, that they might in the evil day protect their commander.

§ 4. Sulpicius Galba saw this. He was seventy-two years old, a distant relative of the Empress Livia, and a tried soldier of the Rhine frontier, where he had succeeded to the position of Gaetulieus, and allayed the seditions of 40 a.d. He had been Proconsul of Africa 45 a.d., and in his later years had been thrust away unhonoured to command in Tarraconensis. He was a martinet in discipliue, and he nursed without ceasing the hopes of Empire which the soothsayers had long ago given to him. He had even declined the purple once, in 41 a.d., when the German legions had offered to lead him against Claudius to Rome. He did not mind waiting. ‘ No one can be called to account for what he has not done,’ he said; and he set himself to disarm Nero’s envy by a ‘ masterly inactivit3’, ’ after first winning over the provincials to his side. As Nero’s reign progressed Galba grew bolder. He resisted the imperial1 procurators, protected the people from their extortions, and visited with summary justice even Roman citizens who trifled with the law. In the neighbouring province of Lusitania was Otho, nursing the memory of his gay city life and of

* There is said to have been a conspiracy with this object; but whether Corbulo knew of it is not dear. *

MILITARY REVOLUTIONS-V INDEX AND GALBA. 149

the wife whom the Princeps had taken from him and killed. He too paid court to the provincials and hided his time.

§ 5. Gaul had never forgotten her freedom. Sacrovir’s rehellion failed, and so did Gaetulicus’ intrigues with the Gauls; and then followed mingled indulgence and severity, while Claudius endeavoured on the one hand to stamp out Druidism as a cause of sedition, and on the other to win over the people by the gift of the franchise and other boons. Still the discontent continued. Those Gauls who were drafted to Rome during Claudius’ day shamed the Romans by their simplicity of life ; those who visited the capital in the latter days of Nero were ashamed to be the subjects of such a mountebank. One of these was Julius Yindex, Legatus of Lugdunensis, who early in the year 68 a.d. summoned to arms the Aedui and Avemi. Already he had sent letters to the surrounding commanders, to Fonteius Capito in Lower Germany, Ver-ginius Rufus in Upper Germany, to the Illyrian legions, and to Galba in Spain. The letters were forwarded to Nero, all save that which Galba received. He retained it, and so laid himself open to suspicion; and thus compromised, he heard of the outbreak of the revolt with pleasure. Yindex bade him come and act as Emperor. He appealed to his troops and his subjects, and was hailed Princeps by them on the 2nd of April. Otho saw his way to power, and urged on the old man’s wavering courage. Galba proclaimed himself Legatua Senatm Populique Romani, and began to levy troops against Nero.

§ 6. The rising of Yindex was unexpectedly crushed. Personally he only wished, he said, to replace a tyrant by a wiser Emperor, but his followers paraded higher hopes. They dreamed of throwing off the yoke of Rome, and the legions regarded the revolt as a challenge. Yerginius Uurried towards Aquitania, traversing Belgica without liindrance, because that province was jealous of the more favoured southern Gauls. At Yesontio (Bfsangott) he met V-ndex with 100,000 men. and the two leaders p<u leyed. Both had so far the «ame views that they readily

gitfZed <.

;i greed to unite against Nero.* But the Verginiau legions thought otherwise. They attacked the Gauls, and slew ‘20,000 of them. Viudex himself was either killed or committed suicide, and when the news reached Galba he was with difficult}’ prevented from putting an end to himself. The troops of Verginius hailed him as Emperor; hut he refused the title and led them back to their quarters, while Galba began to negotiate with the victor

§ 7. Meantime, at Home, Nero saw his Empire falling away. On the first news of the Gallic rising he treated it as a jest; then determined to march into Gaul. He had lately dreamed of conquest, and had collected in Italy picked battalions of the German and Illyrian troops, whom he intended to lead to the conquest of the Caucasus or the headwaters of the Nile. These he had put in order to march northwards, when he learnt Galba’s proclamation. Still he waited; and then came the news that the legions of Verginius had declared against himself, that those of Illyria and Pannonia had done the same, that Fonteius claimed to be Princeps in Lower Germany and Clodius Macer in Africa. Nero called the marines from Misenum, and formed them iuto a naval brigade; then said he would go as a suppliant to his mutinous legions, and win them back by tears and singing ; finally talked of flying to ligypt. While he dallied, treachery tampered with the praetorians. Tigellinus’ colleague in the prefecture, Nymphidius Sabinus, by averring that Nero had fled and deserted them, induced the guards to declare for Galba; the naval brigade did likewise. The bribe was the promise of 30,000 sesterces apiece, a sum which Nymphidius knew Galba would never pay. His plan was to profit by thus committing Galba to the fulfilment of an impossible bargain.

§ 8. Nero was deserted. Senators, populace, courtiers, freedmen, slaves, and guards had all abandoned him. One Phaon at last offered him shelter in his villa beyond the walls, and on the night of June 9 the Princeps set out, disguised, for this refuge. The consuls learnt of his

* The story of the parley and agreement is disputed. On another view, Vindex aimed at the liberation of Gaul, and used Galba’s name as a cloak; there was no parley, and the battle was brought on by Verginius.

flight, and summoned the senate at midnight. That bod}'-, on the prompting of Nymphidius, declared Nero a public enemy, and despatched horsemen to bring him back alive or dead. Nero was still alive the centurion entered the cellar in which he lajr dying by his own haud. ‘ What an artist to perish! ’ he cried, and his cowardliness to the last shamed oven his satellites. He was the last of the true Caesars ;* of the hundred and eight descendants of Augustus not one remained. Augustus received the Principate by the fiat of the senate; in Nero that body asserted its right to punish an unworthy servant. Ify the constitution of the Principate the senate gave and the senate could theoretically, take away the purple, but only in the case of Nero shall we find them courageous enough to assert their rights.

§ 9. At Eome talk turned once again upou a possible restoration. The senators sat gravely discussing die itdvisabilty of the move, as though they possessed in Galba a Pompeius to do all their behests, and were not rather at his mercy. The consuls asserted themselves, and even took the old republican privilege of issuing a coinage with the head of Liberty upon it. But the habits of dependence were too deeply engrained to be so easily lost. Prom all sides came rumours of the doings of would-be Emperors and undecided legions, while in the city itself Nymphidius was undisguisedly aiming at the throne, despite the assurauce tHat no Eoman would be so base as to suffer him to sit on Caesar’s chair. He had hoped to be continued as prefect by Galba, but on learning that Cornelius Laco was appointed his successor he threw off the mask. He had already dismissed Tigellinus; many men of rank were his allies. He played upon the praetorians’ jealousies: Galba was too parsimonious to pay the promised donative; the Spanish legions would take the place of the jjraetoriaus in the esteem of a Princeps of their own making. But meantime the news had reached Galba that Nero was dead, and he had at length moved towards Gaul. On

* The name of the twelve Caesars is applied to the Emperors, from J ulius to Domitian; but the title of Caesar eontiuued to be assumed by every succeeding Emperor, and survives in the modern titles of Czar and Kaiser.

the way there met him, at Narbo, the representatives of the senate, greeting him as its elected Emperor. The troops of Verginius, failing to induce their general to aim at the Empire, reluctantly gave their adhesion to Galba, and were followed by the legions of Illyria, Pannonia, and those of Vespasian, the successor of Corbulo in the East.* The praetorians went with the tide; and when Nymphidius Sabinus presented himself and attempted to recover their support, he was torn to pieces.

§ 10. Galba marched in a leisurely fashion to the capital, staying in Gaul long enough, as he thought, to rearrange that province after the recent affair of Vindex. He remitted a fourth of their tribute to the tribes which had joined the revolt, and gave the a'vita* to the Sequani, while at the same time he increased the burdens of the Lingones and Treveri who had aided Verginius. He brought his ‘ antique discipline ’ with him from the tribunal to the throne, and refused to acknowledge by any donatives the conduct of the legions of Verginius in crushing the Gallic rising At the same time he removed their commander, and substituted an old man of no pretentions, Hordeonius Flaccus. Now. too, he heard that Eonteius Capito had fallen in Lower Germany and Clodius Macer in Africa ; and when he at length reached Italy, all the world was again ostensibly united under his hand.

The report of his character had . gone before him, and the rabble were justly alarmed for their shows and doles, while many of them were conscious of crimes committed under Nero’s protection which must no'sv imperil their lives. The naval brigade went out to meet the Princeps, and demanded a donative for their desertion of their late master. Galba refused it, and they thought to terrify his senility into submission, but he ordered his cavalry to ride them down, and marched into Eome at the head of his troops with a stern bearing that gave little to laugh at, despite his baldness and his gout. There followed a brief proscription of the most notorious fol-

*The quiet attitude of the Eastern legions all this time was due to their being engaged in the Jewish wav. Sec Chap. xvii.

lowers of Nero, including Helius, and of those who had supported Nymphidius, amongst whom were a consul-designate and an ex-consul. The praetorians, asking for the enormous gift promised by Nymphidius, were told that, the new Princeps was wont to choose, not buy, his men, and retired to regret at leisure their recent choice.

§ 11. Indeed, Galba had few friends in Koine. With the best of intentions himself, he suffered his satellites, to abuse their position most flagrantly. T. Yinius, Galba’s fellow-consul, Cornelius Laco, and the freedman Icelus, now made an eques under the name of Marcianus, were the chief offenders. They were all men of infamous character, grasping and venal, but all had served Galba well iu his stroke for power, and all so contrived to establish their own influence. ‘In seven months Icelus had grasped as much as Nero’s worst miuions dared to covet.’ Prompted by these men, Galba offended all parties. He persecuted the lesser ministers to Nero’s debauchery or cruelty. He spared Tigellinus, whose well (lowered daughter was betrothed to Yinius, though the people clamoured for his life. He tried to compel the refunding of all but one tenth of the grants made by Nero, tracing them from hand to hand until recovered ; but the attempt succeeded only in part. He refused to keep up tho Imperial state with the luxury to which the society of Rome was acfcustomed. He would not pay even a portion of the promised donative to the guards. He had offended the nobles and senate by his severity against the Nym-phidians. In the provinces things were worse, for there was the power as well as the will to protest. The legions had been jealous that the making of an Emperor should rest with the praetorians ; but now that the Spanish army had taken the appointment upon itself, the remaining legions were all jealous of that force in turn. Most of them had acquiesced in the election of Galba for want of able leaders; now they stigmatised him as ‘ the choice of Vindex,’ smarting under the sternness which still withheld the largess. The Rhine garrison of Upper Germany, in particular, • were mutinous. They regretted Verginius, despised his successor, deemed themselves unrewarded for lor their victory at Vesontio, and were encouraged in ail their grumblings by the Treviri and other victims of Galba’s recent severity. On January 1, 69 a.d., the legions of Hordeonius Flaccus refused to take the oath of allegiance to Galba. They swore themselves in the name of the senate only and sent a message to the praetorians that they had no fancy for a Spanish-made Emperor. The guards must choose one whom all respected.

§ 12. The news hurried Galba to a course which he had already in mind. He determined to frustrate intrigues b\- the choice of an adoptive son as heir-presumptive. With an assured successor there would be less to dread from rivals in the armies; interests would not be divided. On January 10 he named as his heir before the praetorians Piso Frugi Licinianus, a young man of Eoman virtues, frugal, modest, and severe—qualities which were the echo of Galba’s own, and pleased him according^. The guards scowled, for there was still no donative, and the very gods protested against the adoption by a violent thunderstorm.

The choice set the Emperor’s advisers at variance. They had already made themselves hated by the shamelessness with which they sold all the privileges of the Empire, while at the veiy same moment they were hunting down the creatures of Nero’s misgovernment. The court of Galba was as that of Claudius had been : its chief spirits quarrelled. Laco was jealous of Yinius, who had made a marriage alliance with Tigellinus, and who had supported the claims of Otho to adoption. Otho had never ceased to push his interest with the Princeps. He had assisted him with men, money, and counsel, and never dreamed of being supplanted by a young man to whom Galba owed nothing, a mere philosopher of the Porch, quite unknown to the legions. But the Emperor was perhaps shrewd enough to take the measure of this legacj^-hunter; in an}' case Otho’s habits and character, and even his years, were against him. Yet he had wasted too many years in Lusitania, and had sued too sedulously, to be baffled without danger. He had studied to make himself friends among the guards, and emissaries were

MILITARY REVOLUTIONS-VIXDEX A .VI) GALUA. 155

already intriguing in his interest. The whole body was ready for an emeute, caring little who was Princeps, so long as Galba was not. Within six days of the adoption of Piso the plot came to a head. It was merely a matter of more or less gold, of bidding sufficiently high for the Empire. Otho was ovei whelmed with debt, and knew that he must fall unless tie could seize the Principate, yet he contrived to find money enough to purchase the support of the few guards whose salutation, once made, would win the support of the remainder, or, failing that, would lose Otho his stake and his life.

§ 13. While Galba sacrificed, on the moruiug of Janu-aiy 15, the diviner warned him of an impending danger. Otho stood at his side, and at the same moment was summoned by a freedman with the message that ‘ his architect and contractors were waiting to see him.’ The words were a preconcerted signal; and hurrying to the Forum, Otho found but twenty-three soldiers of the guard to support him. He would have drawn back, but they hurried him to the camp, and there saluted him as Caesar.

While he harangued the troops from the tribunal, news of the event reached the palace. Galba showed no fear, but his action was impeded by the contentions of Yinius and Laco, the former, like a coward, advising him to wait and fortify himself in the palace against attack, the latter bidding him at once go and reclaim his troops by the effect of his presence. It was this which the Emperor wished to do, and his decision was confirmed by the arrival of a rumour purposely set on foot by the revolutionists to draw their victim out in the belief that Otho had been cut to pieces. The city was full of troops, for the picked legions summoned by Nero were still billeted in Rome. To keep these in control were sent three trusted officers, amongst them Marius Celsus. It was useless. The naval brigade, remembering how it had been treated a few weeks before, was the first to join Otho, and it was followed by the entire force, excepting only a company of veteran Germans. The picket of praetorians which was on duty in the palace at the time

hesitated awhile before joining the others. It was the very same company as had seen the murder of Gaius and the flight of Nero, and it ‘ feared for its reputation ! ’

| 14. Ignorant of the universal defection, Galba put on the imperial breastplate, and started for the camp. As he entered the Forum from the Palatine a body of horsemen rode down the opposite hill and fell upon his attendants, who fled without resistance, while the populace, who had thronged to that centre of city life, hurried to climb the surrounding buildings ‘as though to watch a play.’ The Emperor’s litter-bearers stumbled and threw him to the ground by the Lacus Curtius, where his pursuers overtook him. He held up his throat calmly to the steel: ‘ Strike, if it is for the state’s good! ’ Piso was butchered at the very doors of Vesta’s temple, the holiest shrine in Bome. Yinius, Laeo, and Icelus fell likewise, and the heads of the Emperor and his two ministers were paraded on spears through Eome to the camp. Marius Celsus was with difficulty protected by Otho, who convened the senate the same evening, and was by them accepted as their Princeps, with the usual titles of Caesar and Augustus. One hundred and twenty claimants made application for reward for the actual murder of Galba. They lived to be hunted out by Vitellius, six months later, and he put them even’ one to death. Only one man struck a blow for the falling Caesar—Sempronius Densus, who defended Piso with his life. It was of Galba that Tacitus wrote the now hackneyed epigram, ‘All men would have deemed him an able ruler, had he never ruled.’*

* * Omnium con son su capax imperii, nisi imperasset.’—Histories, i. 49.

The Military Revolutions—Otho and Vitellius.

§ 1. The Rhine Legions proclaim Vitellius—{ 2. They enter Italy—

§ 3. Conciliatory Measures of Otho—§ 4. His Forces and (§ 5) their Disposition—§ 6. The Campaign; first Battle of Betriacum--§ 7. Suicide of Otho—§ 8. Vitellius; his Tolerance and his Difficulties—§ 9. Success of his Eaily Measures—§ 10. Misgovernmcmt of his Officers; the Expulsion of the Astrologers — § 11. The Legions of the East declare for Vespasian—§ 12. Disturbed State of the Empire ; Antonins Primus enters Italy—$ 13. Second Battle of Betriacum; Sack of Cremona — § 14. Abdication of Vitellius frustrated; Burning of the Capital and Death of Vitellius.

§ 1. The revolution was accomplished, but it was only to substitute for the ‘ choice of Vindex ’ a candidate of the praetorians. There was still no union of opinion amongst the troops at large, and Otho failed to secure it. He was concerned from the moment of his proclamation to strengthen himself against the impending attack of the Genuan legions. The refusal of the army of the Upper Rhine to take the oath to Galba found answer in the Pinks of the garrison of the lower province, where Aldus Vitellius had succeeded Fonteius Capito. Vitellius was a coarse plebeian, with no idea but of gluttony, and the rapi<lity with which in six months he became the chosen candidate of the whole German army was due to the intrigues of his two advisers, Fabius Valens, and Caecina, the Batavian. These two, in their tarn. 1 undertook and completed the transfer of the Empire, ’ the former because implicated perhaps in the action of Capito, and thinking the merits of the armv of Lower Germany, of which he was a Tegotuss, overlooked; the latter, a Leg a tux of the Upper

anny, because he was threatened with prosecution by Galba for his extortionate behaviour. The two combined for mutual defence, and on January 3 Viteliius was proclaimed Emperor at Cologne.

§ 2. Given a leader, the western armies showed their true feelings with alacrity. Along the Rhine Valley the revolt spread to Gaul, where four legions rose against Galba, and so to Britain. That island had heretofore had no part in the game of prince-making; now it sided completely with Viteliius. No time was lost. The legions had been inactive too long already, and they were hungry for battle, and wreaked their savagery on the Gallic towns through which they hurried on to Italy. While on the march, they heard of Galba’s end and of Otho’s accession, which merely increased their determination to set up a German-made Emperor, and to chastise the temerity of the praetorians. If Galba had had but slight claims upon their loyalty, Otho had none whatever. Even the Aedui and other Gallic states, recently rewarded by Galba, joined heartily the cause of Viteliius. From the Rhine to the ocean no troops were left but the weakest of pickets on the German frontier. Valens crossed the Cottian Alps with 40,000 troops; Caecina, with 36,000, entered Italy rather sooner by way of the Penine Pass, and occupied Milan.

§ 3. At Rome, meantime, the praetorians were suspicious and violent, continually imagining the Emperor they had chosen to be in danger from the plotting of the senate. The latter body and the upper classes generally, while freed from the fear of a proscription which had seemed imminent, yet knew not whom to favour until they could learn which was going to prevail in the coming struggle. The mass of the people of course supported Otho, from ■whose intimacy with Nero they, could hope for a second Saturnalia of indulgence, hailing him by the title of Nero Otho—a title he was wise enough to dispense with. But Otho surprised or disappointed all parties alike. He brought to the throne the ability which had marked his provincial government, and studied with tact to reconcile the two factions of the senate and the guards. lie vet-ailed the victims uf Nero’s cruelty, handed over to the mob Tigellinus, who cheated the wild beasts by suicide, saved Marius Celsus, the consul-designate and loyal friend of Galba, and punished no one for partisanship. He «as well aware that he must fight for his crown, and he studied to win over a party in the provinces. In (Spain he succeeded by conceding privileges to natives and Romans alike; but the rapid defection of the rest of the West carried the Spains with the current, and they lapsed to Vitellius. But Africa and Egypt, the far Hast, and the legions under Vespasian at Jerusalem, with those of Moesia, Pannonia, and Illyria, all declared for Otho. He was actually in the palace of the Caesars ; therefore, Vitellius was, in their view, an usurper.

§ 4. Otlio’s attempts to dissuade Vitellius from prosecuting his purpose met with no success, and ended in mutual abuse, and even mutual attempts at assassination. War was the only course. Tliss Princeps left the citv on March 14, amid evil omens. The veiy Tiber overflowed, and tried to bar his advance.

With the praetorians find other troops recently collected in Home Otho had perhaps 24,000 men, while 8,000 veterans were already on the march from Pannonia and Illyria, as an earnest of larger succours to follow. If he could but avoid a general engagement until their ad\ent he might hope for success, even though the long delay necessary to secure Rome itself had robbed him of the prime advantage of being first in the field, and had allowed the Yitellians to enter Italy. As it was, he felt it needful to carry -with him many of the leading senators and consulars us hostages for the good conduct of their fellows, though nominally as his oouneil. Amongst his generals -was Suetonius Paulinus.

§ 5. While the tieet from Misttnum made some successful feints upon the flank of the Yitellians in Nar-bonese Gaul, Otho aimed at securing the line of the Padus (jPo), and in particular at keeping open his communications with Pannonia by the head of the Adriatic Sea. For these ends Spurinna oiSeupied Placentia;

(jrallus posted himself at Betriacum,* twenty miles east of Cremona. Otho in person remained at Brixellum in the rear, for his advisers compelled him to do so, though his presence was sadly needed to centralize his army, and to end the silly jealousies which divided his troops and set them against their generals. The civil wars of this period are not so much due to the rivalry of limperors as to their soldiers. The praetorians were at issue with the legionaries at large, the auxiliary troops with both alike, and the legions themselves were frantically jealous of each other. It was the soldier, not his officer, who was the important factor now, and the power 1>3T which the legionaries had named masters for the world they now extended to the deposition or appointment of their own commanders.

§ 6. Caecina, anxious to forestall his rival Valens, was eager to meet the Othonians at once and single-handed. On the other side, in vain did the wiser Othonian leaders urge delay; their troops accused them of treachery, and forced them to do battle. Spurinna with difficulty kepi his men behind the walls of Placentia, and even so barely maintained that position. Gallus was in full march to relieve him, when he learnt that Caecina had withdrawn from the assault to Cremona. He established a camp at Betriacum, and there collected the main body of Otho’s forces to await the arrival of the Pannonian legions. Caecina, determined to anticipate such an accession of strength, arranged an ambuscade at Locus Castorum, twelve miles in advance of Cremona, his head-quarters; but the plan was betrayed, and the Yitellians were only saved from a disastrous defeat by the cautious hesitation or treachery of Suetonius Paulinus. The insubordination of the Othonian troops was increased by their success, and they demanded more loudly than ever to be led to a second battle. Otho in person held a council of war in the camp, and was long undecided whether to wait or to give battle. Delay, besides increasing his own numbers, might enervate the Vitellians, who were unused to an Italian climate; but lie feared treason at Rome, and suspense wa« vexatious.

* Also spelled wrongly Bedriacum.

He superseded Paulinus, aud gave tlie commaud to his own brother Titianus, supported by Licinius Proculus, prefect of the praetorians, with orders to fight at once.

Meantime Valens had joined his colleague, hurried forward by his own troops, who feared to miss their share in the coming victor}-. Otho’s new generals were utterly incompetent, and urged on by the impatience of their master, gave battle after a distressing march with an army wearied and encumbered with baggage. A rumour had passed along the lines that the Yitellians were prepared to desert to Otho. Their advance was awaited without suspicion, and when it became an atwpk, the Othonians were quite taken by surprise. The praetorians fled without striking a blow, and no efforts of the remainder of the force could prevent a total defeat. Paulinus and Proculus fled to Gaul; Gallus and Oelsus, deciding that their cause was lost, and that Otho would not wish the struggle to be prolonged, forced Titianus to accede to their views and negotiate with Caecina. On the day following the battle, April 16, the defeated army took the oath to Vitellius.

§ 7. The news of the defeat had been brought to Otho at Brixellum on the evening of the previous day (April 15). He received it calmly, dined, and retired to rest after giving some final directions to those with him. Early the following morning he fell upon his sword. The few troops who formed his guard, left without a leader, turned to Verginius once more to offer him the (uirple. It needed little wisdom to decline it now, somo courage to defy the wishes of the soldier}-. He made his escape in secret, and left the troops perforce to join Vitellius, the first Princeps to rake the Empire by force of war. Martial the epigrammatist compared the death of Otho to that of Cato Uticensis, and many deemed it a noble thing that he had preferred to die rather than to protract for his country the horrors of civil war. ‘ Once he sinned greatly, once he acted nobly,’ says Tacitus, alluding to the murder of Galba and his own suicide ;

‘ and the one deed was just as good as the other was bad.’*

* ‘ Duobus facinoribus, altero flagitiosissimo altero egregio, tantundem apud posteros meruit bonae famae quam malae.—Histories, ii. 50.

S. 31-96. 1 1

Digitized by A

§ 8. The third 1 tragedy-king ’ of the year, Aulus Vitellius, was a man who owed his successes to his vices. He had enjoyed the favour of Tiberius, it was said, for his immorality, that of Gaius for his skill in driving, that of Claudius for his taste for the dice. He flattered Nero so well that he received the Proconsulate of Africa for two years and a high urbau magistracy. In the former he won honour for his integrity, in the latter he set an example of unscrupulous peculation. Appointed to succeed Yerginius as commander in Lower Germany, he won the affections of his troops without effort by his coarse habits and lax discipline, so that Valens found it easy to put him forward as the chosen Emperor of the German legions. He was proclaimed in Cologne January 3, and dated his Principate not from the battle of Betriacum, but from the decree of the Senate after Otho’s death.

The news of that battle and of the submission of the Othonians reached him at Lugdunum {Lyon) whither Caecina and Yalens, already bitter rivals, hastened to bring the good tidings. Eor a moment it seemed that Yitellius would show himself able to command. He treated the defeated Othonian leaders wifli mingled mercy and scorn; Paulinus and Proculus stooped to expurgate themselves by setting down their defeat to their own treachery; Titianus, the victor of Locus Castorum, was left unmolested. The proscription which the senate dreaded did not take place ; those whom Otho had designated for the consulship were allowed that office; there were no confiscations. But the whole Roman world was suffering from the civil war. In Italy the legions and their auxiliaries drew their swords against each other, and Turin was burned in the course of a petty quarrel. The rival troops agreed only in their treatment of the population, whom they plundered and outraged and killed at will. The Pannonian legions, which had failed to arrive in time to act at Betriacum, refused to recognise the Princeps chosen on the Rhine, and murmured threateningly about Yespasianus, the commander in the Jewish war. In Gaul the revolt of Yindex had left

MILITARY KEVOLUTIOXS-OTHO AXI) VITELLIUS. 163

the people sore and excited, and Vitellius had to suppress by force the movements of a native champion who vaunted himself a god. In Africa, the Othouian governor of the Mauretanian provinces, Lucceius Albinus, was said to be aiming at an independent sovereignty; the Rhine and Danube were both crossed by the barbarians from beyond ; a formidable revolt was already begun about the mouths of the Rhin^i the district most denuded by the withdrawal of the legions to support Vitellius.

§ 9. To disband the praetorians, to dismiss to their homes the offensive auxiliaries, to split up the defeated legions of Otho, and quarter them separately, like those of Galba, in distant stations, served to obviate for a time the danger of a new war in Northern Italy. The Pannonian troops were for the moment appeased, and induced to return to their cantonments; the African pretender was disarmed by his own troops; Hordeonius Flaccus was instructed to re-establish the authority of Rome on the Rhine. The most fractious of the legions were weakened by the disgrace of their officers, and by wholesale dismissal on flimsy pretexts ; but the numbers so removed formed a class ready at any moment to rise against Vitellius, and their discontent was shared by the disbanded praetorians, bjr the Pannonian forces, and by the suffering inhabitants of the towns visited by the Yitellians. Wherever that Princeps marched he was followed by a huge retinue of armed and unarmed attendants, without discipline and without scruple, to feed whom exhausted whole townships, and whose tierce pride broke out into repeated acts of plunder and riot. Seven miles from Rome the devastating procession was met by the citizens, and a chance quarrel ended in the massacre of hundreds of the latter. For all this Vitellius found no remedy or redress ; he deemed his duty done when he charged Valens and Oaecina to see to their troops. Even in the Forum and the streets of Rome, the barbarians from Germany—they w$r<S little better— murdered without scruple, to maintain the honour of their uniforms. Vitellius was happy in the enjoyment of a gluttony in which he outdid himself. The commerce of the world was concerned to find, now dainties for his table, and in his brief reign of eight months he swallowed the value of 900,000,000 sesterces. His last care was removed when the legions of the East, still warring before Jerusalem, followed the lead of the Pannonian army and took the oath in verba Vitellii, and' when he had removed by execution one Cornelius Dola-bella, a man who had been a source of uneasinesgg to both Galba and Otho, but who had escaped so far with nothing worse than honorary custody at Aquinum. One good reform, however, should be mentioned; the freed-meu of the imperial service were replaced by Roman knights.

§ 10. His reckless extravagance, coupled with the payment of the promised donatives to the troops and the maintenance of the customary shows in the theatres and circus, .soon exhausted an exchequer which Nero had left all but empty. Viteliius could discover no new means for replenishing it, but suffered his ministers to follow in the path of Nero. He had while still in a private station been overwhelmed with debts, and his creditors did not leave him in peace now that the revenues of the world were in his power. He compelled them to surrender their bonds, which he at once tore up, so that he could in future deny the debts without fear of refutation. He had passed a decree that the property of recalled exiles should be restored to them: the exiles came back, but found Valens and Caaqina in enjoyment of their estates ; not content wherewith, they initiated the confiscations which Viteliius had been too easy going to commence, and plundered like a Pallas or an Icelus. To avoid paying the troops who thronged near the city, the Princeps gave them permission to wander through Rome at will, and saw the men who had given him the crown losing health and discipline while that cajSwn was falling from him. The soothsayers had come to command a dangerous authority over the superstitious society of Rome and Italy; Viteliius ordered their banishment before the 1st of October. They mostly fled, but issued a placard declaring that ere that date their persecutor must cease to exist.

[t did not need a prophet’s fore-sight to see that Vitellius must fall as lie rose, at tha sword-points of the legions.

§11. Heretofore the legions of the East had taken no share in the miseries and complications of 69 a.u. They had been busy with the war in Judaea, to which Nero had appointed Titus Flavius Vespasinnus after removing Corbulo. The new commander was ably supported by his son, Titus. His operations were thorough, if slow, and perhaps they owed their leisurely character to a policy which preferred to keep the troops for another and more ambitious service. Though neither a flatterer like Vitellius, nor so severe a disciplinarian as Galba, Vespasian won the confidence and respect of his troops, and of the officers with whom he had dealings. Titus urged him to accept the offer half made by the legions of Pannonia, after Uetriacum, aud never quite withdrawn. The Eastern armies, in their turn, desired to have a Princeps of their own choosing, and when C. Lieinius Muciauus, the legate of Syria, refused to be nominated, there was no rival candidate. Vespasian debated long with his prompter, but at leugtli, on July 1,

69 a.d., Tiberius Alexander, the apostate Jewish Prefect of Egypt, proclaimed Vespasian at Alexandria, while Vitellius was marching into Rome. Two days later the army of Judaea, and the four legions of Syria—the only efficient military force in the East—enthusiastically echoed the proclamation. Excuses were not wanting: it was said that Vitellius intended to remove the Syrian troops to the place left vacant by the German legions, and, again, that Otho had by letter commissioned Vespasian to avenge his death. The one sufficient reason was jealousy of the Western armies. The legions which supported Vespasian did not even bargain for a donative.

§ 1*2. The withdrawal of the legions from the Rhine had led to a war which threatened to give back Gaul to its people; the revolt of Oivilis was in full flame. The need of exposing the Eastern frontiers to similar risks was obviated by the speedy adhesion of the entire military forces of iloesia, Pannonia, and Illyricum. Vespasian coidd draw what troops he desired for service in Italy, and yet leave behind him sufficient to coerce even Parthia and Armenia. The war in Judaea was entrusted to Titus; Vespasian in person occupied Egypt, in order, if need be, to starve the capital; Mucianus was to march overland and gather the Illyrian troops on his way. Seven legions were there, anxious to take the field for the new candidate ; and Antonius Primus, a disgraced noble but a man of action, pushed himself to the front as their leader. Without waiting for Mucianus to arrive and take command, Primus led the legions into Italy as they had marched a few weeks before to succour Otho. Once more the roads lay open : there was 110 opposition until the troops encamped again within sight of their late battle-field of Betriacum.

§ 13. Yitellius feasted and did nothing; Yalens and Caecina were plotting each other’s overthrow. Yalens was still loyal to his master, Caecina already a traitor at heart. Vespasian had a brother, Flavius Sabinus, actually Prefect of the city, and his suggestions had not been lost upon Caecina. No movement was made to check the Prefect’s action : when the Vitellians at last marched northwards they left Sabinus and Domitian, brother of Titus, to intrigue at will behind them. Caecina led his men by easy marches, which suited their broken strength, to the line of the Adige; Yalens moved along the east coast towards Ravenna. Before he could arrive, the admiral of the Adriatic fleet there stationed, Lucilius Bassus, had deserted to the Flavians,* and Caecina’s men, still loyal, had thrown that leader into chains and given battle to Primus. The first encounter was on the field of Betriacum, where the Vitellians were defeated and fell back upon Cremona. There they received fresh support, and attacked the Flavians. All night the fight (known as the second battle of Betriacum) lasted. In the morning, Cremona, its camp, and the troops in it, surrendered to Primus just as the news arrived of Mucianus’ approach. Primus entered the town, and grumbled that the baths were not hot enough. Instantly the troops, Flavians and Vitellians alike, took up the cue ; Cremona was sacked, and one of Pome’s most famous colonies was treated as

* That is, the party of Vespasian, who was of the Flavia gens.

custom allowed the conquerors to treat a Cartilage or a Jerusalem.

§ 14. Had Vitellius occupied Greece he might have divided the Flavian forces and broken their strength; had he seized Africa he might have prevented the success of an Egyptian blockade; had he held the Adige yet a little longer the swanns of Germany would have poured to his rescue, and fought out, the quarrel for him in Cisalpine Gaul. But he had no mind for anything but the kitchen. Primus played a bold stroke in defiance of Muciauus’ orders, but its success for the present condoned the breach of discipline.

Valens heard of the defeat at Ariminum. He crossed Italy and sailed for the Narbonese, there to organize a fresh resistance. Rough weather threw him into the hands of Valerius Paulinus, a Flavian admiral, and simultaneously the Western world declared for Vespasian.

Primus marched southward and crossed the Apennines without a check. The last army of Vitellius, mainly composed of the re-embodied praetorians, surrendered without a blow. Southward of Rome, Capua alone held out for him; the rest of Campania was in arms for the Flavians, and the war spread into the long-peaceful hills of Samnium. Vitellius made desperate efforts to win support. He lavished, indeed, the lus Latsi and other privileges on the provincials, and named the consuls for several years in advance as an inducement to the nobles to fight for him; but the fleet at Misenum had deserted, and the starvation of Rome was only a question of days. The upper classes, in a body, sided with Sabinus, and bade him treat for an arrangement with Vitellius. The latter offered to abdicate, but the remnant of his Germans and praetorians, and the rabble of the city, would not hear of it. They forced him to rescind his offer, and fell upon Sabinus and his supporters. The latter fled to the Capitol. Vitellius could not prevent his furious partisans from storming the temple of Jupiter, which Sabinus vainly sought to barricade with the statues of its gods. About eight months before the burning of the temple of Jerusalem that of the Capitol was laid in ashes for the second

ueC i.

time.* Sabinus was stabbed and torn to pieces ; Domitian with difficulty escaped. Primus and Mucianus came up to take vengeance. They forced their way into the city, filling the streets with blood, and fighting from house to house. 'I10 he}’ stormed the praetorian camp by regular warfare, and butchered the guards to a man. Altogether fifty thousand men are said to have been slain. The legionaries discovered Vitellius, hiding in the palace, in a dog kennel in a porter’s lodge, and cut him to pieces on the Gremonian stairs. He had few mourners, though his funeral-pyre was Eome itself. ‘ He had such honesty and munificence,’ says Tacitus, ‘asare fatal when unrestrained; and what friendships his liberality might have won, lie forfeited by his lack of character.’! On the 21st December the Flavians were masters of the city, which lay in ashes round its ruined tenqile-hill; but its burning typified the cautery which arrests decay.

* The first occasion \ras in 83 b.c., during the struggles of Sulla, Carbo, and Marius the younger.

+ * Amicitias dum magnitudine munerum, non constantia moruxn. eontineri putat, meruit magis quarn habuit.’—Histories, iii. 8<j.

Vespasian: 69-79 A.D.

§ 1. Mucianus aets us Regent—■} ‘2. Revolt of Civilis: its Causes ami Coarse—§ 3. Failure of the Revolt—{ 4. Character of Vespasian ; Significance of his TrincipHu—§ fl. Attitude of the Provinces— j 6. Military and Fiscal Measures—f 7. Restoration of the Senate and Knights; the Censorship—§8. Buildings of Wfcwisian: his Patronage of Literature; the Colosseum—§ !>. Remaining Events of the Reign, and Death of Vespasian.

§ I. Muoiaxt'S took up the government with a firm hand until Vespasian could appear in person. While on the march to Italy, he had turned aside to chastise the Dacians, who were insulting the Roman Province of .Moesia, and for this the senate decreed him the insiynia triumphalia, at the same time that they conferred upon Vespasian in one decree the full powers of Augustus and Claudius—the legal Principate. The foolish insolence of Domitian, who meted out rewards and punishment as if he were himself Emperor, and the pride of Primus, both required curbing as much as did the turbulence of the still restless troops and the disorders of the demoralized city rabble. But Mucianus was equal to the task. Vespasian and Titus were declared consuls January 1,

70 a.d., and when the Princeps reached the city at length, in July of that year, he found it already reduced to some degree of order. The legions were dismissed to resume their duties on the frontiers, and large forces were drafted for service in Gaul, whither Domitian was now sent with Mucianus to extinguish the last sparks of revolt. At the same moment Titus entered Jerusalem. The account of the Jewish war is given elsewhere; the Gallic war belongs to the year 69 a.d., and must be related here.

§ 2. The measures of Galba to pacify Gaul after the

overthrow of Vindex had rather intensified than lessened the feelings which had produced that revolt, and in particular the establishment of his colony of Augusta Trevirorum had created a widespread discontent throughout all Belgica. The ■whole of Northern Gaul and the Rhine Yalle v was ready for fresh <‘fforts, and when Julius Civilis,*-formerly an officer of the Batavian cohorts associated with the fourteenth legion in Upper German}7, headed the Batavians, the German inhabitants of the modern Holland, and stepped forward as a leader of the blood royal, he found himself backed by the unanimous support of the tribes about the delta of the Rhine. He had personal wrougs to revenge, for his brother had been pul to death by Nero, and he had been imprisoned himself and only saved by Vitcllius’ interference when accused of the murder of Fonteius Capito. Ou hearing of Vespasian’s proclamation, he at once commenced the revolt which lie had long been meditating. His time was well chosen, for the legions had marched southward, Gaul was virtually without a garrison, and those who had followed Vindex in the hope of recovering the liberties of Gaul were now only awaiting a new leader. Civilis declared himself the partisan of Vespasian, just as Vindex had delared himself that of Galba ; but the tribes knew now that they were called to fight for nothing less than independence.

The Frisii and Caninefates supported the Batavians, and the revolt took the form of a national rising of the Germans to which nation belonged all three of these peoples.

To sweep the Romans from their camps and naval stations on the Lower Rhine was Civilis’ first exploit. Two legions, under Munius Lupercus, attempted to recover the lost stations, and were forced to flee to Castra Vetera; and at the same moment the whole force of Batavian auxiliaries serving at Moguntiacum with Yitellius’ legions deserted to the rebel, defeated Herennius Gall us who endeavoured at Bonna to bar their march northward, and joined Civilis in his assault upon Castra Vetera. The legions of Upper Germany, under Hordeonius Flaccus,

* lie is also called Claudius, a freedman either of the Julii or Claudii.

suspected their officers of treating1 with Yqspasiau, and broke into mutiny. Hordeonius was deposed, and speedily murdered ; Didius Yocula, who took his places divided liis forces into three columns. One was captured at Gelduba ; the others remained inactive. The fall of Viteliius followed; and while the legions were still undecided what course to follow, the Treviri, a half-German tribe, the Belgae, and the Lingones, who occupied the Western Vosges, incited by the Druids, rose in revolt, and the majority of the true German peoples openly supported the standard of Oivilis. Two Roman legions swore allegiance to the Gallic Empire at Oivilis’ dictation; those of Castra Vetera at length capitulated, and were massacred. Only two fortresses maintained themselves in all the breadth of land west of the Rhine, Vindonissa and Moguntiacum (JMayence).

§ 3. The tide of success was stayed by dissensions amongst the rebels. Sabinus the Treviran styled himself Caesar, and other tribes disputed his title. Oivilis and two other insurgents, Julius Classicus and Julius Tutor, wasted time in jealous disputes or indulgences, while Q. Petillius Cerialis, whose progress might have been barred by a very small force, crossed the Alps with four legions, and at once recovered all the Rhine fortresses as far as Castra Vetera. The news of the approach of other legions, under Domitian, spread terror amongst the allies, many of whom hastened to submit, -while the renegade legionaries at once went over again to the eagles. Civilis offered the empire of the Gauls to Cerialis, but his overtures were rejected and, after sustaining a crushing defeat at. Vetera, he was forced to fly to Germany. Gaul was to be pacified at all costs: to pursue a helpless foe was waste of time and strength. An agreement, it seems, was made that the Batavi should be exempt from tribute. Nothing is known as to the of Civilis, or of the Gallic Classicus and Tutor. The other tribes -were severely punished, and various ringleaders of the rising were hunted out and executed. The Gallic Empire began and ended within a year.

§ 4. Titus Flavius Vespasian us was by descent a Sabine of Phalacrine near Reate. To the last he retained the

Jl'jiilZtiC £>>

Intxquerie of his country origin ; and just as the admission of the provincials to the senate had done something to stay the decline of that order, so the accession of this Emperor heralded a period of health}' reaction. By nature a man of caution, Vespasian had hesitated long before he ventured to strike for Empire. He brought with him to the throne the manners and methods rather of a long-headed man of business than of a prince. The nobles sneered, but they learnt to prefer the solemn industry of the n@* Princeps to the brilliant terrorism of a Claudius or Xero. The Flavian dynast}’ comprised three Emperors, of whom but one was a tyrant. After the terrible year 69 a.d. the world gradually sank to rest, as after the era of Actium. Henceforth for 110 years, with the exception of a portion of Domitian’s reign, Rome obeyed Emperors of ability. Vespasian resembled Augustus in his character of reformer and reconstructor. His reign, and not less the peaceful succession of his toMe sons, mark the overthrow of the doctrine that the only legitimate title to the purple was blood, or its legal equivalent, adoption.

§ 5. It has already been shown how the Eastern legions, in jealousy and scorn of the puppets set up by their fellows in the West, declared Vespasian their prince, and brought him by the sword to Rome. He was the fourth candidate set up by revolution during twelve months, and he was the only one to make good his tenure. It may be set down perhaps as much to the good fortune of Rome as to the beneficence of her rule, that while the frontiers on all hands lay half deserted of their defenders, there was no general uprising against her. Mucianus easily hurled back the Dacians beyond the Danube when they ventured to cross that river on the withdrawal of Primus towards Italy. The revolt of Civilis was as easily quelled, thougli delay had allowed it to inflict grievous disgrace on Rome. The Parthians were assailed at home by a Scythian invasion, and, moreover, they still remembered Corbulo.

§ 6. The Emperor’s first care was to disperse his army. The ^ itellians were gradually disbanded, the Flavian troops dismissed to various points on the frontier to await the donative which they had not asked, but

naturally looked for. Many were disposed of bv the reconstitution of old colonies such as Ostia, Nola, and Reate. The next anxiety was to recuperate the treasury, long since drained. To this end a fresh census was made (72 a.d.), in which Cilicia, Oommageno, Judaea, and the petty kingdoms of Thrace were all assessed as provinces and the tribute largely increased. Taxes were even levied in Italy and Eome, for it was no longer possible to feed the mob gratuitously. Titus demurred to his father’s contrivances for raising the revenue, but was Rilenced by the retort that so long as the money was good the means did not matter.

§ 7. Titus had returned victorious from Jerusalem at the close of 70 a.d., and in the following year he celebrated his triumph, conjointly with his father. He received the title of Caesar and the prefecture of the praetorians, and was Vespasian’s coadjutor in the censorship of 73 a.d. The object of the Princeps, besides arranging anew the rates of tribute, was to restore the wretched remnant of the senate and the equestrian order. Much new blood was infused into both orders from the better class of provincials, and severe as Vespasian was alike by policy and nature, his censorship aroused little ill-feeling. What odium there was fell upon Titus, who was accused of turning his powers to dynastic purposes and utilising them as a means of proscribing such Romans as he deemed dangerous to his house. He did not content himself with the powers of the censura only, but made use of liis influence with the praetorians to remove objectionable persons, even by assassination, it was said. In this way fell Caecina, the man who had betrayed Vitellius; but it was acknowledged that he deserved it for fresh treason.

§ 8. After his triumph Vespasian closed once more the temple of Janus practically for the first time since the year 10 B.C., and as a further monument of the new era of Roman peace he commenced the Forum Pacis, in the centre of which he erected a temple to a new divinity, Pax. It included also a new hall, or basilica, for the lectures and discussions of philosophers and rhetoricians, who now for the first time received state support in the form of a regular and liberal stipend. This munificence included the litterateurs of the provinces as well as those of Rome, and sufficiently attests Vespasian’s generosity, however far he may have carried his fiscal rigours. From this reign dates a revival of learning and literature, distinguished by the names of Tacitus and Suetonhis, Juvenal and Martial, Statius and Quintilian, and a host of jurists and lawyers. The Princeps’ liberality may have been prompted in part by the desire to disarm the enmity of the philosophic freethinkers, who preached opposition on all hands. It did not succeed at once, for later on he was forced to banish all the Stoics and Cynics from Rome. One of their number, the distinguished Helvidius Priscus, son in law of Thrasea, paid for his obstinacy with his life, a rare instance of severity in this reign, and one which arose, it is said, from a misunderstanding.

The larger part of the Golden House was demolished, and in its stead rose the baths of Titus for the free use of the public. The whole life of the proletariate of this time was divided between the theatres and the baths. The great Colossus of Nero was furnished with a head of the Sun in lieu of its builder’s, and behind it, at the top of the Via Sacra, rose the masterpiece of Vespasian, the Flavian amphitheatre, which still stands. Elliptical in form, rising on three stories of Pilasters and arches, this building could accomodate 87,000 spectators of the wild beast fights and contests of all kinds which were given within its arena ; and its foundations concealed a web of water-pipes, by which the whole arena could at once be flooded and made available for sham sea-fights. Such a building4' could not be completed speedily, and its founder did not live to open it. With unselfish kindness he declined to utilise for its erection some new contrivances which would have thrown out of employ njany of the hundreds who worked upon it. 11 must be suffered to feed my poor people,’ he said.

| 9. It was not until towards the close of the reign that the legions were allowed again to take the field. In that

*It is the so-called Coliseum, a mis-spelling for Colosseum. It derived its name from the Colossus of ^iero which stood before it.

year Agricola commenced his campaigns in Wales and Northern Britain.* We hear also of the Nasamones, a nomad tribe of the Atlas range, making incursions into the Roman province of Africa. Elsewhere the sword was sheathed throughout the Empire. A few alterations took place in the government of the provinces. The dependent kingdom of Commagene was incorporated with the province of Syria. Achaia, which had been freed of tribute bv Nero, was handed back to the Senate. Lvcia and Pampliylia were amalgamated as one province, and so were the two Cilicias.

We know little of this reign, and the chronologv is very unsatisfactory.! At some late period Vespasian at length accepted the tribunitia potestas and the title of Pater Patriae, which lie had heretofore refused, associating Titus with him in the former. He had already declared that prince his heir as well as his partner; and when some one of his friends raised a cpiestion on the point, he answered that, unless it were Titus, he would have no successor at all. Possibly, he meant to imply that he would not willingly suffer Domitian to gain the purple. He had been ill for some months when in June, 79 a.d., he set out to take the cold water batlis at the Sabine Cutiliae, a treatment which had once saved Augustus’ life. It did not avail Vespasian, who grew worse, and died on June 23 at his birthplace, worn out by years—he was seventy years of age—and labour. Nothing would induce him even at the crisis of his illness to relax his heavy routine of business, and in the delirium of the end he struggled to rise from his bed, ciying out that an Imperator should die standing. Alone of the twelve Caesars, Vespasian passed away without hint of violence, and alone of them, also, he was succeeded by his own son.

4 See Chap. xx.

+ The Histories of Tacitus originally included the whole period from the accession of Galba to the death of l)omitian, but as we have them they end at 71 a.h. Their author hoped also to write the history of Nerra and Trajan, but had not fulfilled his hopes. Some particulars of Domitian’s reign are preserved in Tacitus’ Agricola, the biography of his father-in-law. For the rest we have to rely upon Suetonius and various late Greek writers; but Suetonius, always an unscientific author, becomes less and less usefxil as he draws to the close of the Lives of the Ticelce Caesars.

The Jewish Wars.

§ 1. Palestine under Herod the Great: his Descendants—§ 2. Herod Agrippa—§ 3. Roman Indulgence of the Jewish Nation: Antipathy between the Two Peoples—§ 4. Party-feuds of the Jews : their Intrigues with Parthia—§ 5. Palestine under the Romans; Felix and Gessius—§ 6. Vespasian opens the War: Titus succeeds to the Command—§ 7. Condition of Jerusalem—§ 8. The Blockade and Capture of Jerusalem: its Be*4ruction—$ 9. The Christians.

§ 1. When Pompeius captured Jerusalem, 0-1 b.c., he did so to assert the sovereignty of Hyrcanus, vs hom he left installed as King of Palestine. Weak himself, Hyrcanus was supported by Antipater the Idumaean, whom Caesar made King of Judaea, and the second of whose sons, Herod the Great, received, 47 b.c., the tetrarchy of Galilee. Assiduous manoeuvring secured the support of Antonius, and by his agency Herod was crowned King of Judaea in 40 B.C.; and when ten years later came the struggle between Octavian and Antonius, Herod contrived to trim his course so carefully that the conqueror confirmed him in his position. Though Herod rebuilt the temple, he was a zealous supporter of Greek customs, and scandalised the stricter Jews by instituting a musical and gymnastic festival, held every fifth year, and by building an amphitheatre for gladiatorial contests outside the city walls. He died 4 B.C., and left his kingdom to be divided amongst his sons. Archelaus and Antipas received respectively Judaea with Samaria and Idumea, and the tetrarchy of Galilee with the land beyond Jordan; Philip became tetrarch of Tra-(■honitis. Archelaus was banished by Augustus in 6 a.d., after ten years of continuous bloodshed; and Judaea, by

the wish of the Jews, was annexed to Rome, being governed by a procurator stationed at Caesarea by the sea, and subordinate to the Proconsul of Syria.

Such of the children of Herod the Great as received no share in his possessions retired to Rome, where they became part of the crowd of Eastern claimants always waiting for the favour of the Princeps. Of these, Aristobulus left, besides others, a son, Agrippa, whose evil counsels led Gaius astray, and a daughter, Herodias, who married her uncle, Philip, and deserted him to live with another uncle, Antipas. Philip died 34 a.d., and his -tetrarchy was absorbed into the Roman province; Galilee with Samaria had been similarly treated in the previous year.

§ 2. The flatteries of Agrippa failed to obtain him a kingdom during the life of Tiberius, but he met with more success in his dealings with Gaius—dealings winch all but cost him his life, for Tiberius, informed of an unlucky speech in which he had expressed a hope of the Princeps’ speedy demise, threw him into prison. Gaius rewarded his satellite with the tetrarchy previously held by Philip, now dead, to which he added that of Samaria in 39 a.d., Antipas having been banished to Spain. But Agrippa aimed at nothing less than the entire kingdom of his grandfather; and he realised his ambition when, in 41 a.d., Claudius transferred to him Judaea, and withdrew his procurator. He died ‘ eaten of worms ’ three years later, and the whole of Palestine passed again under the direct rule of Rome.

§ 3. Heretofore every concession had been made to the wishes of the Jews, which was consistent with the quietude of the Empire. Beyond interfering to decide between rival claimants, the Romans had done little. The settlement of Pompeius had remained in force until the fall of Archelaus; and when Judaea became a province at that date (6 a.d.), it was at the desire of the Jews themselves. They were granted indulgences which no other provincials received, perfect freedom to practise their peculiar ritual, and entire exemption from military service. The procurator was enjoined to show every respect to their religion, and never to enter Jerusalem without performing sacrifice according to their rites, nor ever to violate the sanctity of the Temple.

Owing to the objection of the Jews to images, the head of the Princeps was removed from the coins circulating in their country. The Herods, indeed, were all devoted partisans of Eome; but though they built temples to Augustus at Caesarea and Samaria (Sebuste), and introduced Graeeo-Eoman habits into the land, yet Jerusalem remained exclusively Jewish. So far was the nation from becoming Eomanised, that the antagonism between Jew and Eoman grew daily more marked. The restoration of the kingdom of Herod in Agrippa’s hands was regarded as a national triumph, and that King, foreseeing the inevitable collision, set himself to fortify his capital against possible attack even more securely than nature and the skill of Herod the Great had done. The ill-feeling had been bitterly accentuated by the conduct of Gaius in attempting to introduce his own worship into the Holy Place, and from that date it grew apace, despite the earnest efforts of Claudius to allay it. Indeed, the Jews as a nation had earned a name for sedition and turbulence wherever they went, and that was everywhere. The riots of Alexandria, Seleucia, and Antioch were pitched battles between them and their hereditary foes, the Greeks, in which thousands fell on either side. Multitudes of Jews dwelt in Babylonia, the descendants of those who had not cared to return from the Captivitj', and though now nominally subj ect to Parthia, they desolated whole cities by their intrigues and violence.

§ 4. Palestine itself passed from bad to worse. There was a standing feud between the Samaritans and the Galileans, who raided and murdered in each other’s territories incessantly. Throughout the country, in Jerusalem especially, the Eoman party were at deadly enmity with the patriotic Jews. The latter were themselves divided : the party of more moderate views was prepared to make the best of Eoman dominion if only their religion were tolerated; the extremists, or Zealots, aimed at nothing less than the absolute overthrow of that dominion. Parthia, too, was abiding her time to drive the Bomans from Asia, and the two nations, virtually conterminous through the continuity of the Jewish communities from Galilee to Babylonia, even came to a tacit understanding and alliance.

§ 5. The incapacity or greed of successive procurators added fuel to the tiames. The revenues of the country were assigned to the fineu/t, and though Claudius might punish one or two of his underlings for extortion or cruelty, yet the influence of his mistresses and his freedman generally secured the safety of transgressors, while it conferred the harvest of plunder on him who would bid highest. The wealthy Jews, the nobility of the country, now suffered because they offered the richest spoils ; and in resentment tliejr turned to their priests, and identified themselves with the national cause rather than, as heretofore, with the Homan party. False ‘Christs’ arose on every side, for the air was full of the promised Messiah’s advent, and every pretender was sure of a blind mob of followers. The Romans termed them robbers, and hunted them down ; the Jews viewed them as martyrs, and did not hesitate to die with them. In 50 a.d. the whole mass of worshippers then collected to keep the Passover in Jerusalem rose against the Roman guard, and were cut down, to the number of

20,000, by order of the Procurator Cumanus. Felix, brother of Claudius’ favourite, Pallas, appointed Procurator of Judaea, exercised his authority with Ttirkish corruptness, setting one faction against another, conniving at outrages at the price of a share in the plunder, and brutally executing such of the 1 robbers ’ as fell into his hands. He was recalled in 62 a.d., but his successors, Festus and Albinus, were equally troubled by the restlessness of the Jews. Gessius Florus, procurator of Judaea in 66 a.d., threw a garrison into the Holy City, the first as yet established there. The Zealots rose en masse, besieged the troops, and their Romanising partisans in Mount Zion ; and when, after seven days, the garrison capitulated on the promise of their lives being spared, massacred the whole number. Cestius Gallus, Proconsul of Syria, with difficulty reached Jerusalem, which he assaulted with some 30,000 men for five days unsuccessfully. The whole country rose in arms behind him, and his retreat cost him the loss of 5,000 of his forces.

§ 6. The Jews believed that the time of their deliverance was come. They relied upon the assistance of Parthia;

but the campaigns of Corbulo (62, 63 a.d.) had effectually quieted the ambition of Vologaeses. Reckless of this, they gathered from all parts of Palestine to Jerusalem, to finally assert their independence. Agrippa II., son of that Agrippa who died 44 B.C., now ruled over Trachonitis and the neighbouring districts with the title of king; but he remained loyal to Eome throughout the war. There was still a powerful party in favour of submission on honourable terms, including a majority in the Sanhedrim, one of whose number, Josephus the historian, was appointed to occupy Galilee, and check the approach of the Syrian legions from the north. Those legions were led by Vespasian, the successor of Corbulo, and they advanced confident in the memory of their recent victories in Parthia. The new general determined to secure his advance once and for all, and he spent the whole of 67 a.d. in the reduction of Galilee and Samaria. Josephus was at heart a Romaniser, but, forced perhaps by his countrymen, he maintained his post with courage and honour, only surrendering his fortress of Jotapata after a siege of seven weeks, when few of his men were left alive. He became a client of his conqueror, and, according to custom, took the name of his patron—Titus Flavius. At the end of the year the whole of Galilee was reduced to desolation; such of its inhabitants as escaped the sword and slavery fled to Jerusalem. In 68 a.d. the legions advanced southward to Jericho, securing their progress by the same system of cruel thoroughness. This was the time when the legions of the Rhine were stirring, and Vespasian stayed his hand to see what came of the emeuie in tho West; he had no desire to waste in a petty war the energy of the veterans who were perhaps to support his claims to the Principate. The falls of Nero, Galba, and Otho followed in rapid sequence; and on July 1, 69 a.d., Vespasian received the expected summons. The support of the Pannonian legions'enabled him to leave his own army under the command of Titus, to prosecute the Jewish war; and in the early spring of 70 a.d. the eagles gathered about Jerusalem.

§ 7. It was the Feast of the Passover, and the whole nation of the Jews was gathered into the Holy City when

the sudden advent of Titus cut off their egress. The immunity from conscription had left them to multiply unhindered, and alone of all the peoples which defied Rome the Jews came to the struggle at the height of their numerical powers. Force of numbers was backed by a fanaticism which nerved them with peculiar fury to resist to the last, confident that their Messiah would appear to save them. Not less than a million souls were shut up within the walls; without were eighty thousand legionaries and auxiliaries, and the entire resources of Rome.

Meantime, the patriotic party had been torn by murderous seditions. The Zealots had cut to pieces the moderate section, and were in turn divided into three factions, each supporting a different leader. Eleazar, with the extremists, occupied the actual Temple, which was converted into a fortress. John of Giscala, with liis Galileans besieged him there. Simon, son of Gioras, held the hill of Zion. Day after day the rivals fought in the streets, John assassinated Eleazar and gained possession of the Temple, and the feud went on between John, reinforced by Eleazar’s followers, and Simon. The advent of the Romans put a stop to internal seditions, and both parties combined to defend the city against the common foe. For six weeks they beat off the assaults of Titus, foiling his mines and burning his engines, In the seventh week began the blockade. The outer wall on the northern side had been earned after immense toil, but there remained two others, of almost equal strength, and within them the actual citadels of Zion and Moriah.* Starvation would act as speedily as assault, and far more surely.

§ 8. The horrors of the blockade are matter of proverb. Food failed, and there was no means of escape. Honourable terms of surrender offered by Titus, through Josephus, having been refused, those who threw themselves on the mercy of the besiegers were crucified by hundreds, until Titus wearied of his own severity. Whole families starved slowly in their homes, and mothers boiled and ate their

*'/Aon was originally the name of the hill upon which stood the Temple; but after the Captivity it was interchanged with that of the opposite height, Moriah. At this date, then, the fortress of Herod the Great was known as Zion, the Temple hill as Moriah or Aera.

infants. Portents, so it was said, filled the air—armies that fought in the skies, voices that called from the Iloly of Holies, madmen that rambled through the streets unceasingly, crying ‘Woe unto Jerusalem !’ Step by step the Eomans came on. The}’ took the citadel of Antonia aud the outer city; they stormed Moriah; and in the last assault the Temple was fired and burned to the ground, and with it hundreds of its defenders, men and women and children. Last of all Zion, the upper city, was carried, and into the hands of the victors fell the last of the Zealots, including John aud Simon. Titus perhaps would have spared the Temple, but it was not to be. On September 2, 70 a.d., the siege was over, Jerusalem was rased, and the site of its walls turned up by the plough; and the people which had built it ceased to be counted amongst the nations. In the triumph of Titus were carried the golden candlestick and the table of the shew-bread, the trumpets of jubilee and the book of the Law; and these are sculptured on the Arch of Titus in Eome, which still commemorates his victory.

§ 9. In 30 a.d. the Eomau procurator, Pontius Pilate, had suffered the crucifixion of Christ: now the rise of the new creed of Christianity was foreshadowed by the almost synchronous fall of the temples of Jerusalem and of the Capitol. Already, in 64 a.d., the sect had become sufficiently numerous to be made the scapegoats of Nero’s vengeance for the burning of Eome ;* and, as has been shown, this was probably due to the malice of the Jews. It is otherwise impossible to understand why the Christians should suffer, for they were not now, as later in Alexandria, the leaders of riot and rebellion, but a small, unassuming bodj’, of so slight importance that their leader, St. Paul, was kept in the very palace at Eome, a prisoner in name rather than in fact, for two years (61-63 a.d.,). He was absent, probably in Spain as well as in the East, during the years next following, and only returned to Eome in 68 a.d. Tradition says that he there and then suffered martyrdom. That he was tried, we know, but there is no evidence beyond that of late tradition for the time or manner of his death-.

Tacitus wrote at a later period, -when the new creed had grown to proportions so large as to affright the adherents of Paganism. Intercourse with the East had introduced a new leaven into the moribund religion of Eoine; and while it brought with it the worship of the Persian Mithras, the Phoenician Astarte, the Phrygian Cybele, the Egyptian Isis, and a host of others equally impure, and all far more degraded than had been the original creed of the Roman nation, yet it also gave to the latter creed a renewed existence by infusing new and more real ideas of a future life, the immortality of the soul, and its rewards or punishment hereafter. Paganism thus gathered fresh strength for its final struggle with Christianity, and the old tolerance gave place to an extreme bitterness, which vented itself by reviving the ancient and obsolete law to forbid the importation of ‘new and unlawful beliefs,’ and gladly welcomed the precedent of Nero for hunting down its rivals by persecution. It was not, however, until the time of Trajan that the antagonism came definitely to a head. In the time of that Emperor and of his successors persecution was frequent. For the present it died with Nero.

Tacitus confounds Jew and Christian in a careless fashion. The Jew was to Juvenal and his fellows the type of superstition, of meanness, of obstinacy, and turbulency. So Tacitus, after remarking that the Christians took their ‘vulgar’ name from Christ, goes on to characterise their creed as ‘an abominable superstition,’*arising from Judaea, which spread to Rome like every other ‘foui and shameful thing,’f and was hated by all, if only ‘for their own hatred of all mankind.’| A little later the j'ounger Pliny (104 a.d.), then governor of Bithynia and Pontus, was so much perplexed by the repeated appearance before his tribunal of prisoners whose sole offence was their being Christians, that he wrote to the Emperor Trajan, asking what course he ought to follow. He put to death those who persisted in confessing themselves Christians, but he owned that they had no fault worth}' of death, were peaceful and industrious,

* Exitiabilis superstitio.—Tac. Annals, xv. 44.

-f Quo cuncta undique atrocia aut pudenda confluunt.—lb,

X Odio irumani generis convicti.—lb. The words may also be translated, * for the hatred which all men bare them.’ and that their sole positive action was ‘the singing of hymns to Christ as to a God, and binding themselves to do no ■wrong.’ The Emperor’s reply was worthy of so enlightened a monarch : informers were not to be encouiaged, and the Christians were only to be prosecuted when there was no help for it.

Titus: 79—81 A.D.

§ I. Early Life and Character of Titus—$ 2. Alteration in his Demeanour ; his Universal Popularity and Benevolence—§ 3. He declares Domitian his Partner: Popular Entertainments : the Dedication of the Colosseum—§ 4. His Treatment of the Xobles—§ o. Eruption of Vesuvius; Liberality of Titus—§ 6. Great Fire in Eome: Third Burning of the Capitol—§ 7. Mistaken Policy of Titus : his Early Demise fortunate—§ 8. Anomaly of his Change of Character; its Ill-effeqfcs postponed to the next Reign ; the Jewish Legend of his Death.

§ 1. So long and intimately had Titus been associated with his father in the government, that the demise of the one and the accession of the other scarcely marked an era. For the first time since the days of Tiberius, a new Princeps came to the purple without discussion or cavil. Not that Titus’ absolutism was looked forward to with any pleasure by tlie mass of the Romans: on the contrary, they whispered of him as another Nero; they talked of the avarice which he had already betrayed, of the debaucheries to which he was addicted, of his infamous amour with a Jewish princess,* of the ill-omened murder of Caecina. Yet the new Emperor had claims to admiration far in advance of those of most men of his day. His military ability, acquired in the camps of Britain and Germany, had been proved at the siege of Jerusalem ; he was possessed of every accomplishment of the time—a finished speaker in both Greek and Latin, something of a poet and musician; aud the vices which were laid to his charge were only noticed because of his

* This was Berenice, daughter of Agrippa I. Titus treated her as his mistress until opinion forced him to dismiss her, and he never renewed the intimacy even when he was Princeps.

own high position. He had already shown his power of relf-restraint when he dismissed Berenice and his more kingly spirit had done something to relieve the ‘ sordidness ’ of his plebeian father’s government. He had received the title of Caesar, had held the consulship several times, had been the first Roman of non-equestrian rank to hold the prefecture of the praetorians, and had been associated with Vespasian in both the tribunitian power and the censorship. Much of his unpopularity was due, indeed, to the severity with which he had exercised the latter office. Men knew, also, that it was Titus who first pushed his father forward to claim the Empire ; the\r had, perhaps, grounds for fearing his thirst for power.

§ 2. But never were expectations so far from realisation. Once accepted as Princeps, and endowed by the senate with all the manifold powers and privileges of that office, Titus was a changed man. He was an absolute monarch, but so that he combined in a manner heretofore unknown the love of the nobles and the rabble alike. He moved among the citizens as indeed their fellow-citizen, with a fearless confidence in his own innocence which brought him the affection of all. The revels and debaucheries which had been laid to his charge in private life ceased at once, and the ministers thereto were dismissed to obscurity. Never was there a Caesar who so avoided favouritism and was so free from the control of freedmen and courtiers. The reign of Vespasian had nurtured a small and weakly band of delatores, who looked forward to a golden harvest when Titus grasped the sole power; he seized them, scourged, banished, executed, or sold them into slavery. The Chief Pontiff should keep his hands clean, he said; and he shed no innocent blood during his brief reign.

§ 3. His first public measure was to associate Domitian, his brother, with himself in the Principate, an act of fraternal generosity which was ill-deserved, for the younger son of Vespasian never ceased to complain of his own unrequited merits. He hinted broadly that he was, by his father’s will, the partner of Titus, who had tampered with that document, and he was more than suspected of less innocent conduct against tlie Princeps.11 But Titus had so many friends that he could afford to overlook his brother’s malice. The populace were feted and surfeited with shows ; they had but to ask, and now amusements were provided for them. The dedication of the Colosseum gave occasion to an immense festival, among the items of which were a sea-fight, a combat of wild beasts to the number of five thousand, and, more acceptable perhaps than all, the sacrifice, in the arena, of the most notable informers of the time. Then followed a public distribution of tickets for all manner of gifts, useful and otherwise. The rabble had their ‘ games and bread ’ without even asking for them.

§ 4. Even that nobility in whose presence every other Princeps had been uneasy was disarmed by the graciousness of Titus. A law of Tiberius’ time enacted that any concessions made by one Emperor were valid in the reign of the successor only by special ratification : Titus ratified in a mass all the concessions made by his father. As a result there appeared a host of applicants for favour, every one of whom gained his suit or its equivalent. ‘No subject should leave the Princeps’ audience unsatisfied,’ said Titus : and he grieved if a day passed when he could not find excuse for some new act of munificence. Such liberality, combined with a genial hospitality and with the persecution of the delator#s completely conciliated the upper classes. It is true that one plot is recorded, but such dangers must assail even the most virtuous of princes. Two young nobles were detected intriguing against the Princeps, and were summoned to his presence, only to be forgiven and taken into his marked confidence.

§ 5. There were disasters in this reign, but only such as served to illustrate the benevolence of ‘ the world’s darling.’f In the years 63 a.d. and 76 a.d. the volcano of Vesuvius had so far resumed activity as to lay in ruins large portions of the two populous towns of Pompeii and

Herculaneum at the base of the mountain. On August 23, 79 a.d., its pent up forces broke forth in the memorable eruption which buried these two cities beneath many feet of scoriae and mud. Both were overwhelmed utterly within a few hours, so utterly that to this day the excavations are still going on which bring back to light the life and arts and civilisation of a Roman market-town and fashionable health resort of that era. Titus appointed consular commissioners to visit the spot and relieve the distress of the sufferers, aud he decreed that the property of such as had perished intestate should go to the benefit of the survivors instead of to the fiscus. The eruption was notable for another reason—in it perished the voluminous writer, Pliny the Elder. He 'vsas admiral of the fleet at Misenum, and, seeing the unwonted activity of the volcano, lie persisted in visiting the scene in person to examine its phenomena. He perished in his pursuit of knowledge, poisoned by the sulphurous vapours which hung over the ground on which he had lain down to rest. His nephew. Pliny the Younger, had declined to accompany him, aud to him we owe an account of the eruption: the cloud of smoke, in shape like a pine-tree, the showers of hot ashes, the overflow of lava, and the raising of the sea-beach.

§ 6. Again, in the following year (80 a.d.), there broke out a terrible conflagration at Rome, which lasted for three days, and laid in ruins the Palatine Library, the theatre of Pompeius, and even the lately rebuilt Capitoline temple. It was followed by a dreadful pestilence, which ravaged all Italy as well as the city, and carried off perhaps thousands of victims. To remedy the latter, Titus enlisted every device of medicine; to meet the suffering caused by the fire he paid out immense sums from the fiscus, and even sold the treasures of the palace. Heaven’s wrath against a nation’s sins was thought to be exemplified by these disasters, and it was partly as an atonement that the Colosseum was dedicated with such exceptional magnificence.

§ 7. Titus was ‘fortunate in the brevity of his rule,’ said the Roman writers, and we may endorse their opinion.

Such munificence as liis could not but impoverish even so rich a treasury as had been left by the frugal Vespasian, and with need would have followed the inevitable greed, with contrivances for its satisfaction ever more unscrupulous. So it was with Domitian, and so it would have been witli Titus had not a kindly fate saved him from the trial. His genialitjr and liberality were those of the spendthift rather than of the politician: they were the habits of a young aud generous mind suddenly placed in possession of unlimited means, and, like the spendthrift of private life, Titus would have passed inevitably from thoughtless kindness to thoughtless cruelty. In September 81 a.d., he fell ill of a fever, and left the city for the villa amongst the Sabine hills where Vespasian had died. His sickness was aggravated by the cold-water treatment recommended by his physicians; and on the 13th of that month he died,.the one Caesar who carried with him to the grave the love of all his people. In his dying moments he mourned his untimely decease : ‘ I have not deserved to die.’ There was, he sighed, but one deed in his life which lie could regret. What it was he did not say, and modern writers have tried variously to decide. The murder of Caecina, says one; that he left such a brother as Domitian to succeed him, suggests another. It is futile to speculate on such a subject: the Romans explained it by an intrigue with his brother’s wife, in spite of her sworn denial.

§ 8. Equally difficult is it to offer an explanation of the sudden change which turned the expected Nero into a prince of good nature. There was doubtless cause for the severities which marked Titus when the colleague of Vespasian, but was there not as much cause when Titus was sole Emperor? For an autocrat to change, like Nero or Gaius, from good to bad is a common event; but for him to change from bad to good is a marvel indeed. Yet this is what we find, in effect, in the case of Titus, for while colleague of his father he was virtually possessed of unlimited power. To say that he saw the hopelessness of l-uling by terrorism, a lesson learnt by the example of so many Emperors, is to give this impulsive Princeps credit for a wisdom which his prodigal reign does not display. It would almost seem that he felt how soon he must resign his place, and resolved to live merrily while there was time—a Horace amongst Emperors. Home paid for her twenty-six months of carnival in the later years of his successor, and it is to Titus that we must refer something of the gloom which darkens the reign of Domitian. Yet no Eoman saw this: this was not what the historian meant when he said Titus was fortunate in his early death. Eome mourned for another Flavian translated to the heavens. But one voice slurred the fame of the dead Emperor—the voice of the Jews whom he had scattered and dispersed. They saw in his early death—he was hut forty years old—the vengeance of God, and told a horrible legend of the little gnat which, at heaven’s bidding, crept into the nostrils and brain of the destroyer of the Temple, and drove him to madness and the grave.

Domitian: 81-96 A.D.

§ 1. Impatience of Domitian for Power—§ 2. lie disappoints expectation: his Reforms as Censor—§ 3. l’ontifex Maximus : his Private Life: his Regard for Justice—§4. He endeavours to retrench : his Relations with the Legions—§ 5. His Treatment of the People— § 6. Campaign in Germany—§ 7. Position of the Dacians—§ S. The Dacian War—§ 9. Other Campaigns, in Britain and Africa— § 10. Explanation of the Treaty with Decehalus—§ 11. Domitjan’s Buildings, and Patronage of Literature : Banishment of the Philosophers—§ 12. The Revolt of Saturninus—§ 13. Domitian’s Reign of Terror: his Victims : the Crime of Judaism—§ 14. Death of Domi-tian: Lack of Information as to the Later Caesars.

§ 1. Domitian-, the last of the Twelve Caesars and the only one of the Flavians to abuse his power, had long waited with indecent impatience for the Empire which now fell to him naturally, though intrigue had failed to hasten it. His greed of power had troubled Vespasian, who kept him out of all public offices. When Titus succeeded, Domitian declared himself an injured man in that he was only made his brother’s partner, and not his superior. Titus once dead, the impatient aspirant sprang into liis shoes and boasted that he had at length recovered for himself the authority which he alone had bestowed upon his father and brother. So important did he think it to Vespasian’s success that he had been all but slain in the storming of the Capitol, Twelve years of enforced retirement, during which he amused himself with verses and philosophy, had not destroyed men’s recollection of his earlier years. They looked forward to him as to a new Xero—the ‘bald Nero,’*' Juvenal called him—just as there had been some to dread the accession of Titus.

§ 2. But Domitian, like liis brother, agreeably disappointed expectation. If he snatched at his inheritance at once, he held it with a steady hand. In Roman law he was the lawful successor, for Titus left no child save a daughter Julia, and for her to succeed was legally impossible ; she had forfeited, indeed, whatever claim she might have had, and had passed out of the family of Yespasian by her marriage with Flavus Sabinus, her cousin. Domitian had law on his side, in so far that is as the hereditary principle was as yet recognised; he had also the praetorians, to whom he made a liberal donative. The senate obsequiously deified Titus, and declared Domitian possessed of all the powers of Augustus, Claudius, and Vespasian. But instead of tyranny there came a government whose austere conservatism recalled that of Vespasian. The new Emperor was very soon appointed censor for life, and he exerted himself to carry out to the uttermost the reforming policy of his father. He revised the list of senators, and removed from it persons who had degraded themselves in the arena. He declared that not to punish delation was to encourage it, and punished the informers with exile, and even death. He refused to be declared heir to any citizen’s estate where there werp natural successors to the inheritance.

§ 3. As Pontifex Maximus, he instituted a strict inquiry into the conduct of the Vestals, attributing the recent third burning of the Capitol to the divine vengeance upon their unchastity; and three of their number suffered death for misconduct sufficiently well proved. In his own palace he was temperate, at any rate with regard to the pleasures of the table. The same cannot be said of his morals, for he was accused of criminal intrigue with his own niece, whom Titus had wished him to many; but the Roman as a magistrate was a being quite apart from the same Roman as a private citizen, and no one thought of criticising an inconsistency which permitted the Princeps to indulge in the license of a Jupiter, while he ‘made Mars and Venus tremble’ by his public reforms.

Most of all Domitian laboured to secure the purity of justice. Like Claudius and like Augustus, he spent many hours in the courts watching cases with a most salutary care. Nor did his vigilance confine itself to Eome alone : never were the provincials better governed than in th© early days of Domitian, and many a governor who feared to abuse his trust in this reign proved the effectiveness of the Emperor’s control by his peculations and condemnation at a later date.

§ 4. Vespasian bad left a full treasury, which Titus had gone far to exliaust; and though Domitian was no spendthrift of Titus’ stamp, bis expenditure still exceeded his revenues. To diminish the former, he endeavoured to reduce the numbers of the legions, but policy forbade such a measure while the Bhine and Danube were still the scene of continual disturbances, and the soldiers themselves demurred so loudly that nothing came of the plan for retrenchment, while, on the other hand, an additional 50,000,000 sesterces per annum were added to the expenditure by an increase in their rate of pay. Domitian’s government tended, like that of the first Caesar, to rely solely upon the legions. The direction of force was altered now : it was not Eome that stretched out her strong hand to all comers of the world, but the legions on its outskirts that controlled the centre of the Empire. There had never been a time since Actium when it was not so in reality, though it had been long before the legionaries grasped the terrible knowledge of it. Under Domitian it was become self-evident, and hence the caresses which this Princeps lavished on his troops.

§ 5. At Eome, however, the people had no reason to complain of being neglected. Continual shows and festivals, combats of wild beasts, and naval battles in the basin of Agrippa, kept them engaged if not amused. They did not love the new ruler, for he lacked the buffoon’s flugitiousness of Nero and the plebeian good-humour of Claudius ; but they had their games and their loaves, and were content to reward the giver with the name of a young Tiberius and dotard Nero. Particularly were they indignant when the mimes with their indecent ballets were suppressed—at any rate, in public—and fresh outlays from the flscus -were needful to restore them to good-humour.

§ 6. There was indeed, a strong similarity between Nero and Domitian. Each began well, and ended ill in matters of administration; each had a passion for praise which he was incapable of deserving. The same feelings which had prompted Nero to talk of the conquest of the Caucasus led Domitian to leave the city in 83 a.d. for the Rhine frontiers, with the additional motives of currying favour at once with his legions and with the people whom he professed to champion against their foreign enemies. The German tribes were still restless, and the Dacians were active on the Danube frontier. In particular, the Chatti, kinsmen of the Batavi who had followed Civilis, were in a constant state of aggression ; and it was against them that Domitian led the eagles. He gained neither victories nor plunder; his enemy retired before him as usual, and allowed him to do the same when he was so disposed. Then they concluded a treaty with him, and for some years more they remained quiet beyond the limes.12 The Princeps entered Rome with pomp, and assumed the title of Gennanicus ; but he was aware that he had failed to obtain laurels, and he readily seized another opportunity to do so when the insults of the Dacians demanded strong measures of repression.

§ 7. The Dacians were intimately connected with the Getae of the right bank of the Danube, who became Roman subjects when Moesia was made a part of the province of Macedonia in 29 b.c. The boundary between the two peoples was the Danube, along the left bank of which stretched the kingdom of Decebalus,f from the Euxine to the Tisia (Theiss), embracing in its area the Sarmatians and the Iazyges, who occupied the wedgeshaped plain between the Tisia and the Austrian Danube.

Dacia proper corresponded to the modern Wallachia and Roumania, but the coalition of outlying peoples brought within her control Moldavia, Transylvania, and much of Austro-Hungary. On the north-west the country was flanked by the Quadi and the Marcomanni, at present concerned, as usual, with their own quarrels.

§ 8. While Mucianus was marching towards Rome, in 69 a.d., Decebalus had taken occasion to cross tlie Danube and ravage Paunonia in all directions. The appearance of Mucianus, whose legions for the moment took the place of those drawn off to Italy by Antonius Primus, compelled him to retreat; but four years after Domitian’s accession he attacked Moesia, defeated the Praetor Sabinus, and carried off an eagle. The Princeps was slow to take vengeance, partly because it was perhaps necessary to awe the German nations, who might otherwise combine with Decebalus, partly because that prince was not a foe to be conquered easily. He had trained a large army in Roman tactics, and was prepared to do battle with the best of the legionaries. At length, in 86 a.d., Domitian arrived in Moesia. He did not lead his troops in person ; they were led by Cornelius Fuscus, prefect of the praetorians, who was enticed across the river and slain with a whole legion. Tettius Julianus succeeded to the command, and gained a victory at Tapae, and the Princeps in person led a feeble expedition against the Quadi and Marcomanni, who were suspected of Dacian sympathies. This attempt probably occurred in 88 a.d. The war dragged on for some time longer, and Decebalus still remained unchastised. Agricola had been recalled from Britain after the campaign of 84 a.d., and he might have retrieved the disgrace of Rome; but jealousy prevented his appointment to this new command, and a peace was patched up (90 a.d.), and so many presents, including an annual gift of money, were showered on Decebalus, that ill-disposed persons called Domitian his tributary.

§ 9. Certainly the Emperor gained no credit for his campaigns, despite the triumph which he celebrated in 91 a.d. The Dacian war remained an inheritance for a later Emperor, Trajan, who annexed Dacia as a province in 107 a.d.; and whatever credit attaches to the military events of this reign is due rather to Agricola, who, as will be described, had conquered Britain as far as the Clyde and Forth, and had even penetrated to the Grampians. Xewer-theless, distant nations felt anew their ancient respect for ' the arms of Rome, and even the formidable Parthians, bidden in 89 a.d. to surrender a pretended Nero who presented himself for their favour, did so without demur on the mere receipt of the Emperor’s written order. In the same year the Emperor visited Africa to chastise the Nasamones, whose depredations continued to harass Cyrenaica and Tripoli. He left the war to be completed by the Praetor Flaccus, who all but extirpated the tribe, but not until a Roman camp had been stormed and pillaged.

§ 10. In spite of the last-mentioned expedition Domitian was in reality carrying out a policy as old as the days of Tiberius—a policy by -which the border nations were cajoled into the service of Rome, and established as sentinels upon her frontiers. Tiberius had so maintained relations with various peoples merely b\p the specious promise of Rome’s friendship; the value of that friendship had apparently fallen now, for Domitian found it needful to support it by costly presents. So he treated with the Dacians, with the Semnones, and the Cherusci; and, like Tiberius, he preferred to play off one tribe against another to the indirect advantage of Rome. He was wise in not seeking to advance his frontiers: they were already grown too cumbrous for effective defence save at an enormous cost. The conquests of later Emperors were but momentary, and the extent of the empire under Domitian remained the normal extent of the Roman world, now at its maturity, and destined soon to feel the inroads of decay.

§ 11. Meanwhile at home, like a true Flavian, the Princeps continued to build. There was still room for restoration amongst the ruins left by the great fire of Titus. The Capitoline temple rose anew, more costly than ever, its roof of gold, its columns of Pentelic marble. On the Palatine was roared the Flavian palace, in the

Campus Martius and the Forums13 were built new temples, and older buildings, such as the Pantheon, were restored. Literature he patronised so far as to collect men of genius such as Martial and Statius, the epigrammatist and the epic poet, about his jierson, and to establish, in 86 a.d., the Agon Capitolinus, in imitation of the great contests of Greece in her prosperity. At this festival the poets and prose-writers and orators of the day contended once in four years for prizes awarded by the Princeps in person; and at his villa at Alba he established an annual contest on similar lines, in which were included the especially Grecian items of musical and gymnastic competitions. But no poets grew rich at the expense of the fiscus, and Statius had to sell his tragedies for the price of a dinner or two. There was a savour of Nero in these measures, but in the edict of 89 a.d., which banished the philosophers and astrologers once more from the city, there was a direct imitation of Vespasian. The decree of expulsion was not carried out with ilhy rigour, it seems, or a second edict would not have been required in 94 a.d. ; the proscribed persons continued to hover about the suburbs of Eome, and disquiet the Princeps with their theories on free-govern-ment and their casting of horoscopes. Here again this Emperor resembled Tiberius : he was a fatalist, and yet sought to escape destiny by persecuting its exponents.

§ 12. He had cause to be suspicious of them, for they were busily fomenting treason. There had been scattered deeds of violence already in the reign of Domitian ; but as yet Eome had breathed securely. It was the curse of the Caesars that, during the hundred and thirty years of their rule, there grew up no body of custom or of law' to harmonise the Princeps’ power with that of his subjects. Domitian was just as much an usurper in the eyes of the remnant of the old nobility as Julius or Augustus had been. There were fewer now to murmur, for the past century had seen the extinction of most of the ancient families, with their traditions of republican equality and their pride of place. Still there remained a few, and with them the philosophers and astrologers joined to murmur and conspire. The storm broke in the later months of 93 a.d., when Antonius Saturninus, commander of two legions in Upper Germany, once more turned the amis of the legions towards Rome, and invited the barbarians beyond the Rhine to join him. Chance prevented the event which occurred three hundred years later; a sudden thaw frustrated the passage of the Germans across the river, and they could lend no aid to Antonius when attacked by Appius Norbanus, Governor of Aquitania. Antonius fell, and his conqueror burnt all his papers forthwith, in itself a proof that there were other conspirators in the plot. Antonius could not have relied solely upon the moral strength of his boasted descent from the Triumvir and the democratic tribune of 100 B.C., and upon the actual support of but two legions and his German auxiliaries. There must have been others to lend him confidence by tlieir name and rank; but who these were the Princeps could not now learn. Nevertheless, the damage was done, the long-restrained fears of Domitian broke out in a new reign of terror

§ 13. As usual, it was only the rich and the noble who suffered. The Emperor was still a type of his own god Janus, with one face for his friends, another for his foes ; and he still found the former in the legions and the mob, the latter in the senate and nobles. To win the favour of the former, lie gave more magnificent entertainments than ever, and by so doing found another excuse for persecuting the rich in that liis treasury was chronicallj empty. Fear combined with avarice furnished him with motives; he found the means in that very delation which he had heretofore affected to crush. MetiuS' Carus had long hung about the Emperor’s person marking his opportunity. He found it now, and became more infamous even than the delatores of Tiberius’ day. Agricola had died, fortunately for him, in this very year, else he might have shared the fate which now fell upon distinguished men of all classes. The younger Helvidius perished (like his father under Vespasian) for a piece of writing which was thought to satirise the Emperor; Maternus, for declaiming against autocracy ; Lucullus, for allowing a new lance to be called by his name; Salvius, for keeping the birthday of the dead Otho, his uncle. Epaphroditus, the freedman who had at his bidding slain Nero, was now executed for having spilled the blood of a Caesar. The law of JVmestas discovered new offences on every hand. The Jews had been ordered to pay their ancient temple-tax of the double drachma into the fiscus ; the collection had been evaded by a profession of Roman faith, but it was enforced now with new rigour to recoup a bankrupt treasury. It was declared treason to forsake the Roman creed for that of the alien, and the first victim was Flavius Clemens, the husband of Julia, whose riches were a welcome addition to the Jiscus. The Christians, always confounded by the Romans of this era with the Jews, suffered in the persecution, and hence arose the belief that in Domitian’s day occurred the first persecution of that creed as a creed. Still, it was to higher ranks that the ravages of Carus and his associates were mostly confined; senators and consulars were their legitimate prey, though even women fell victims.

§ 14. Like Tiberius, Domitian was hated for his austerity and gloom; like Tiberius he lived apart from the world. His palace on the Palatine was his Capreae, and no auditor could reach him there without being searched aud watched. Yet vigilance cannot be always wakeful; one of Domitilla’s freedmen, Stephanus, had incurred dismissal, and he undertook to avenge the Romans. In spite of every precaution, he was able to give the Princeps a dagger-thrust which disabled him ; yet the murdered man would have slain his murderer had not a crowd of other slaves and attendants rushed in to complete the deed. On September 18, 96 a.d., died the last of the Caesars and Flavians. Of all that series of Emperors, Vespasian alone was by all men believed to have died a natural death. To him we may add Augustus and Titus; possibly also Tiberius. All the rest died by the hand of the assassin or by their own. But a better era was beginning. Henceforward diies the growth of harmony between the ruler and the ruled, the idea of a limited monarchy.

The senate had at length learnt wisdom from their follies of 41 and 68 a.d. ; they struck down Domitian, but they had already chosen the man who should take his place, and for the first time put into action their heretofore untried, but never-forgotten, prerogative of electing their Emperor. Thej' chose Nerva, who is commonly accounted as one of the Antonines, the Good Emperors, whose dynasty of eighty-four years was a period of wonderful prosperity, combining the magnificence of Augustus with the shrewd sense and success of the first of ‘ the Flavian Firm.’

It will have been noticed that, whereas the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius may be detailed from year to year by their incidents, those of later Emperors grow ever more meagre of detail, less accurate in chronology. This is due to two causes : the first is the absence of dramatic interest, the continued growth of the personality of the Princeps to the extinction of all lesser personages, the disappearances of such men as Agrippa and Maecenas, Sejanus and Germanicus ; the second is the lack of sufficient contemporary authorities, and we can only regret the loss of the works which could give life and order to the bare facts which still survive to us.

The British Wars.

§ 1. Influence of Continental Civilisation upon Britain—§ 2. Distribution of the British Tribes—§ 3. Gaius ; Reasons for the Attack of Claudius—§ 4. Campaign of Aulus Plautius aud Claudius, 43 A.D. ; Conquest of the Trinobantes and the Southern Tribes—§ o. Campaigns of Ostorius Scapula and overthrow of Caractacus, oO A.D.— §6. Rapid Growth of the Roman Power: Foundation of Colonia Claudia Victrix—§ 7. Suetonius Paulinus extirpates the Druids; Revolt of Boadicea and Sack of Cainulodunuin, 61 A.D.—§ 8. Seven Campaigns of Agricola, 7S-83 A.D. ; Advance of the Romans to the Clyde : Battle of Mons Craupius and Recall of Agricola.

§ 1. The vaunted tribute which Julius had imposed upon the British at the close his second invasiau (54 B.C.) had seldom if ever been paid. The conquest of the island by force of arms had been beyond his power; but he had introduced the first taste of Roman civilisation, which spread thereafter with wonderful rapidity. The Straits of Dover formed no obstacle to the progress of trade and culture, and the civilisation of Gaul carried with it that of Britain, whose inhabitants were now largely bleuded with Belgae and other Gaulish peoples. Already Londinium (London) was a flourishing port, and each inlet of the east coast, where bands of Saxons and Frisians may already have settled, had its line of truffle with the opposite shores of Gaul and Batavia. In the far West, Isca Dainnoniorum {Exeter) maintained its ancient importance as the centre of the Cornish and Devonshire metal trades. The painted nakedness of the Briton, the dense thickets aud morasses of Caesar’s time, had given way' to a widespread agriculture, settled habits, and a regular system of roads by which Yerulamium (St. Albans), Camulodunum (Colchester), and Londinium, were connected with the ports of the eastern and southern coasts, and with the interior.

§ 2. South of the Thames, in Sussex and Surreys dwelt the Regni; Kent still recalls the name of the Cantii ; Dorset and the south-western counties belonged to the Damnonii. Londinium and the adjacent counties of Hertford and Essex -were the lands of the Trinobantes, the people of Cassivollaunus, and the leading tribe of the island, whose power extended westward to the Severn. To the north still further lay the Iceni (Suffolk, Norfolk), whose supremacj' reached far into the midlands, where it inarched with the power of the Brigantes of Lancashire and Yorkshire, the ancient Northumbria. Beyond the Severn lay the Ordo vices of North Wales, the Silures of the southern parts of the principality. These two tribes, like the Damnonii and the Brigantes, were of more purely Celtic strain than the more easterly peoples ; they took less kindly to the influence of Eome, and were the most difficult to subdue.

§ 3. The first Emperor to bethink him that Britain required reduction was Gaius, for the vague plans of Augustus came to nothing, although he seems on one occasion to have been, if not actually in Britain, at least very near it. Such as it was, the expedition of Gaius lias been already described. Adminius was retained by the mad Princeps as a pledge for the submission of his countrymen. He was a son of Cunobelinus, King of the Trinobantes, and successor to the power of the great Cassivollaunus; and he had two brothers, Togodumnus and the famous Caractacus. The latter was the accepted King of the Trinobantes, and possibly Overlord of most of the island, when in 43 a.d. Claudius decided to attempt its conquest. That such a conquest had been amongst Augustus’ plans was alone sufficient to recommend it to Claudius; but ho was anxious also to stamp out Druidism, the home of which was in Britain, where its teachings nursed a number of factious spirits dangerous to the peace of Gaul. Julius had failed to conquer Britain, because Gaul was in arms behind him : Claudius had that province to support him, and the issue was never doubtful.

§ 4. The immediate excuse for aggression was found in the person of Bericus, an exiled chieftain, who pleaded to be restored. Aulus Plautius, commander in Lower Germany, was despatched with four legions to the conquest. He landed amongst the Eegni, whose king, Cogidubnus, seems to have made no resistance, and was possibly in collusion with the Romans. Plautius advanced to the Thames, twice defeating the Trinobautes; he stationed himself at Londinium, and summoned the Princeps to complete in person the subjugation of this new province. Claudius hurried to the island, put himself at the head of the legions, overthrew Caractacus aud his fellows in a fierce battle at Camulodunum, and received the submission of the entire tribe. He was back again in Rome with the title of Britannicus within six months from his departure.

In the same year, 43 a.d., Flavius Vespasiauus, the future Emperor, pushed westward with one legion, fought his way in thirty battles across Dorset and Devon, and reduced Yectis (Sde of Wight). The Iceni, jealous of the Trinobautes, gladly made alliance with the invaders, and submitted to become tributary. Camulodunum became the headquarters of the new province, which Plautius proceeded to organise, campaigning only ou a small scale in the direction of the Brigantes or the Severn. In 47 a.d. he was recalled and his place was taken by P. Ostorius Scapula. On his return to Rome, he received an ovation, a very rare honour at this time.

§ 5. Togodumnus had fallen in battle, but Caractacus, escaping to the Silures, had there maintained a ceaseless war. The Severn formed a natural defence, and when that was crossed there came the insuperable mountain fastnesses of Wales. Scapula set himself to penetrate even these. Already the Severn had been fringed with a line of march-fortresses ; now the river was crossed, and permanent camps were established at Deva (Chester') and at Isca Silurum (Caerleon) on the Usk. Gradually a road was opened into the heart of Wales, and the unity of the British position was destroyed. In 50 a.d., Caractacus, after nine years of fighting, found himself playing his last stake. He played and lost. The Romans crossed the river which defended his from:,* stormed the hill which he had fortified, and forced the chief to fly to the Brigantes. Petty jealousy did- more than the legionary’s steel to conquer Britain. The Regni had admitted the invader; the Iceni had welcomed him; the Brigantes betrayed Caractacus. He followed as a captive in Claudius’ triumph, but his life was spared, and it is thought that the Claudia whom St. Paul converted was a daughter of the discrowned king.

§ 6. How firmly the Romans 'were already established was proved in this campaign, for simultaneously with the last efforts of the Silures occurred an outbreak of the Iceni, already regretful of their submission, and smarting under impositions. Both risings were quelled with ease. Already, in the early months of this year (50 a.d.), had been founded the colony of Claudia Yictrix at Camulodumim; and so peaceful was the land for the next ten years, that this, the capital of Roman Britain, was not fortified. It was a period of concentration which rendered the island, from the Wash to the Channel, from the Foreland to the Severn, a densely-peopled and prosperous Roman land. Scapula died in 52 a.d., and neither of his immediate successors, Aulus Didius Gallus (52-57 a.d.) and Veranius (57-58 a.d.), achieved anything of note.

§ 7. Still there were wars on the Welsh Marches, and in 61 a.d. Suetonius Paulinus, who had been appointed legatus in 59 a.d., put into execution Claudius’ orders for the abolition of Druidism. In the sacred island of the Druids, Mona {Anglesey), he broke their last resistance, and butchered the priests to a man. The creed was blotted out by one last act of violence. But the Romans, in their turn, had to learn a lesson in suffering. The Iceni had long been oppressed by taxation. They had fallen into the power of Roman money-lenders, who treated them with ruthless rigour, -while the local governor went so far as to scourge in public their queen, Boadicea, and to insult her daughters still more vilely. This event occurred just when Seneca, the philosopher, and one of the largest moneylenders, had called in all his loans. Boadicea appealed to her nation, and the discontent broke out without warning or control. Before Paulinus could return from Mona, the

Iceni liad reached Camulodunum, and had joined with the Trinobantes to sack and burn the colony. Then they turned about and cut to pieces a legion under Petillius Oerealis, which had followed in their rear, passed 011 to Verulamium, which they left in ashes, and so to Londinium, marking their way with appalling ruin and cruelties. Paulinus dared not attempt to defend London ; he must keep up his communications with Gaul, and to do so he reoccupied the now desert site of Camulodunum, and abandoned Londinium, with all its shipping and wealth, to the mercy of Boadicea, who repeated there the horrors of her previous successes. Then she turned again to crush Paulinus. That general chose his ground so well that the numbers of his enemies did not avail them. The Britons were routed utterly. Boadicea died by her own hand, and the revolt was ended. But the labours and results of years were lost, and there was only a wilderness now where there had been villas and towns and luxury. Eighty thousand Britons fell in the great defeat, but not until the revolt had cost the lives of 70,000 Romans and allies.

§ 8. For some years Britain remained quiet, slowly obliterating the traces of that terrible year. Paulinus, recalled in 01 a.d., gave place to Petronius Turpilianus, whose government was devoted to conquest by kindness, and his successors received like orders to rely more upon gentleness and culture than upon arms. During the years of the military revolutions the turmoil of Gaul and Italy had no effect on the island, excepting that some of its legions were drafted for service there, and were replaced by auxiliaries from other nations. Petillius Cerealis defeated the Brigantes in many battles and occupied Lindum (Lincoln'). Sextus Julius Frontinus, the author of an art of war, conquered the Silures in South Wales. In 78 a.d., Gnaeus Julius Agricola was appointed Prefect. He was a Gaul by birth, and the father-in-law of the liistorian Tacitus, from whose biography, the Agricola, we get the details of his seven campaigns. The first and second were occupied in chastising respectively the Ordovices and Brigantes. Neither people gave serious trouble, and Agricola again ravaged Anglesey, aud extended his frontier to the Tyne, where he erected a chain of forts along the line afterwards occupied by the Wall of Hadrian. In 80 a.d. he again advanced, and in the course of the summer occupied the southern part of Scotland as far as the Clota (Clyde) and Bodotria (Forth), where was erected at a later time the wall of Antoninus Pius. There was little resistance in this conquest, for the tribes of Caledonia scarce deserved the name of enemies ; and within two more years the whole region so annexed had become thoroughly Romanised and secure. Agricola, indeed, combined the qualities of soldier and diplomatist in a rare degree, and he owed almost as much to the peaceful conquests of his idle winter months as to the strength of his legions in the summer’s campaigns. In 83 a.d., he moved still further northward, crossing the Forth and penetrating into Fife and Angus. The natives gave more trouble now, and the country became more difficult to traverse. No permanent advance was made, but the campaign was regarded as a merely tentative expedition to learn whether there was anything worth conquest still remaining. The lowland plains were found tempting enough, and in 84 a.d. Agricola for the last time headed his troops. At the Graupian Hill (Mons Graupius), which is quite unconnected with the Grampian Range he was met by Galgacus, a highland chief, with an immense native army. In the battle which followed, the Scots and Piets were overthrown indeed, but the victory was robbed of its fruits by the recall of Agricola. Popular report set it down to Domitian’s jealousy of the success of a better general than himself: it is at least as likely that Domitian had the wiser reasons which had prompted Tiberius to like measures—fear that an almost absolute command, so long protracted, might end in rebellion ; and the conviction that any further campaigns in this quarter involved a useless waste of men and money from which there could accrue not even a small return to the exchequer. Agricola received the insignia triumphalia, retired into private life, and died peacefully nine years later, 93 a.d.

Literature (31 B.C.—37 A.D. .

§ 1. Effects of Autocracy on Poetry—Alexandrine Pfcetrv and its Imitators—§ 2. The Patrons of the Poets: Augustus; Maecenas: Messala—Relation of Patron and Poet—Effects of the Civil Wars on Pootrv; the Palatine Library—§3. Yarius—Minor Poets of the Early Empire—§ 4. Gallus and Marsus—§ 5. Tibullus—§ 6. Propertius—§ 7. Vergil; his Life—The Eclogues—§ 8. The Georgia— § 9. The Aeneid; its Character and Analysis—§ 10. Horace; his Life—The Satires—$11. The Epodis and Odes—The Carmen Saeculare, Epistles, and Art, Toetica—§ 12. Aemilins Macer—Ovid; his Life— The Fasti; Metamorphoses; Tristia—Other Writings—§ 13. Grattius and Manilius—Phaedrus—§ 14. Prose Writing—Cornelius Isepos; Vitruvius Pollio; Pompeius Trogus—Grammarians—§ 15. The Historians; Cordus; Bassus; Strabo—Livy—§ 16. Velleius Paterculus—Valerius Maximus and Celsus—Philo Judaeus.

§ 1. With the Empire tliere came a marked and inevitable change in Roman literature. Democracy is characterized by free-thinking and free-speaking, and when the Republic fell, the laws of libel gradually assumed greater strictness, and the scope of the writer became more narrowed. The political pamphleteer had been a leading feature of the last era; he now disappears entirely, and the same may be said of the orator. Instead of politics, the subjects are mythological fables, society verse, science, and of course love. But the style of the love-poet alters. Augustus would allow no licentious writings, any more than he could permit the glorification of the fallen Republic to his own destruction. Indeed, the sphere of public life was now so limited, that the interest in politics rapidly died away. If dealt with at all, it was only from the historian’s distant stand-point: there were no more Ciceros to whom politics were as the breath of life, for the only politics now permitted were those of the Emperor. The first Princeps collected about him a circle of men of genius, who were prepared to see nothing but good in the new regime, and to preach its excellencies to the world. Particularly was this so with the poets, who became valuable instruments in Augustus’ hands to glorify his able rule abroad and to praise his reforms at home.

The Latin writers had always been imitators. A purely Latin composition is almost unknown. From Greece came the form and ornaments of the book; from Greece, very often its subject. Of late the culture of Greece had centred at Alexandria, and there flourished under the Ptolemies, in the third century B.C., a class of didactic writers and writers of love-poetry who furnished ample materials for imitation. Chief among them were Callimachus of Cyrene, Euphorion of Chalcis, Nicander, Philetas, and Aratus of Soli. So prevalent was the fashion for Alexandrine subjects and style, that Cicero classes the lyric poets of his day in a group as ‘warblers of Euphorion.’ Their school was distinguished by its excess of recondite mythology and erudition, and its overstrained artificiality.

§ 2. Society at large was now the writer’s audience. It was no longer his task to write for a select few, as in the old days. Every Eoman gentleman talked literature, and even the Emperor wrote a little on his own account. He set an example, too, in his patronage of authors—an example which was followed by all wealth}' men, and in particular by C. Cilnius Maecenas and M. Valerius Messala.

Both were men of refinement and exceptional taste; both were writers, though not particularly successful. Eound each gathered a knot of poets, to a certain extent rivals, yet all adopting much the same attitude. What difference there was between the two cliques may be summed up in the statement that while Maecenas’ circle was more avowedly political, more intimate with Augustus in person, and more openly concerned to preach his wishes, that of Messala was more retiring, and concerned rather with poetry as a literary pursuit than as a vehicle for any particular teaching. Maecenas was devoted heart and soul to the cause of his master. Messala, on the other hand, had fought on the side of the Republicans, and later on had joined Antonius, and though after his pardon he became a loyal general and servant of the conqueror, yet he could not feel the same enthusiasm for the new regime as did Maecenas. He died about 8 a.d., having, like Maecenas, outlived most of the poets whom he befriended.

It must be added that the patronage of these great men implies nothing derogatory to the independence of their protégés. The poet did not make merchandise of his intellectual wares in return for office, protection or munificence. It is true that the influence of his patron might obtain a comfortable maintenance for Horace or Vergil; but this was not the fulfillment of a bargain. It was a mark of esteem bestowed freely, and expecting no return. The poet, if he lauded Augustus, did so from his own convictions, and not for the parasite’s dinner or the client’s sportula. Horace and Maecenas regarded each other as intimate friends, not as debtor and creditor; and the same applies to all the authors of their time.

Augustus was aided in the wish to find authors, who would preach his doctrines, by the fact that twenty years of warfare had disgusted all men of genius, and that the few, who had had any experience of the true Republic, had experienced it only at its worst. The poets who praised the Principate had no need to swallow their principles before doing so. And to become apostles of the new regime offered high rewards, not mercenary, but immortal. Augustus built the famous Palatine library, the first in Rome, and held up to the ambition of all authors the prospect of leaving an ivy-crowned bust amongst those of the famous poets of the olden time. This ambition may be traced in the works of most of the poets of the time. They did not want rank, because they disliked its duties; but they longed for fame, and Augustus offered it to them—at a price, of course.

It remains to speak in detail of the authors of the period; and first must be mentioned one or two whose names are not so closely associated with either of the great literary coteries.

§ 3. L. Varius Rufus, born in 74 b.c,, was already intimate with Maecenas when the latter attained his position as chief counsellor of Augustus, and it was he who introduced to the statesman both Vergil and Horace. He was fortunate in establishing his reputation as the foremost poet of Rome before Vergil, a younger man, could wrest from him his laurels. He owed his fame to an epic on the death of Julius ( De Morte), of which Vergil was not ashamed to avail himself, and which approached nearer than any other poem to the style and rhythm of the Aeneid, to judge from the small fragment preserved. When Vergil began to write his Aeneid, Varius turned to tragedy, and the Thi/estes, which he composed for the Ludi Actiaei, remained famous as a masterpiece of Roman dramatic literature. He died in 14 a.d. Horace acknowledged his powers—‘No one writes the martial epic as does ardent Varius’*—in the earlier days of their intimacy; and Vergil, then only a rising poet, owns that he ‘cannot yet sing aught worthy of Varius.’f On Vergil’s death, Varius undertook the task of editing the Aeneid.

In the same passage Vergil is supposed to compare his early efforts to those of one Anser, jestingly remarking that he himself is ‘as a goose (anser) amidst swans.’ This poet was one of the earlier time, transitional between the old and new regime; and from what Ovid says of him we may conclude that he represented the failing school of erotic poets of whom Catullus was the chief. Even less is known of Varus, to whom is addressed Eclogue VI. His nomen is supposed to have been Quintilius, and Vergil pays him a high compliment:

‘Nec Phoc'bo gratior ulla est Quarn sibi quae Vari praosoripsit pagina nomen.’

Two other poetasters of Vergil’s earlier days were Bavius and Mevius. They need only be mentioned here as disparagers of that poet, and as having given its name to the ‘Baviad and Maeviad,’ a satire by William Gifford, in the early part of this century.

M. Furius Bibaculus belongs rather to the previous age, but he lived long enough to satirize Augustus, and was possibly alive in 29 b.c. He was also an epic poet, hissub-ject being the Gallic wars of Caesar; and according to Horace he was turgid and bombastic, though Vergil found in his writings something to imitate. The line ‘ (Iupiter) hibemas cana nive conspuet Alpes ’ is supposed to be quoted from his poem, and the ludicrous metaphor is said to have earned for him the name of Alpinus.

§ 4. Another poet who fell in the earlier days of the empire was Cornelius Gallus, a native of Forum Julii (Fryus), in Gaul, born 70 b.c. He was a man of consider-ble ability, and Augustus, to whose notice he first introduced Vergil, appointed him Prefect of Egypt on the settlement of the war against Antonius. How he abused his position, incurred the emperor’s displeasure, and committed suicide, has been already told.* He was the foremost of the poets of love of his day, and to his mistress, Cytheris, he addressed four books of elegies, all modelled on those of Alexandrine writers; and he made a complete translation of Euphorion. Nothing is left of his writings; but the tenth Eclogue of Vergil is a warm tribute to his friendship and abilities. In it Gallus is represented as bewailing the faithlessness of Lycoris—possibly the same as Cytheris— while the Gods of poetry gather round to listen and console him. Quintilian calls him durior, so that his style was probably less graceful than that of Tibullus, and nearer to that of the elegies of Catullus and his contemporaries. He is never mentioned by Horace, who, perhaps, classed him with the poets who could only ‘ warble Catullus and Calvus ’; but neither does Horace mention Domitius Marsus, who was a member of the circle of Maecenas, and a rival of Gallus in erotic poetry. Domitius Marsus also wrote epigrams and falellae, and an epic entitled Amazonix, of which Martial said fifty years later that it was rarely quoted and not of great merit. He was born about 50 b.c., and outlived both Vergil and Tibullus, to whose memory he composed a graceful epigram of four lines, which is all that survives of his poetry.

We now come to four great poets whose works remain to us—Albius Tibullus, Sextus Aurelius Propertius, Publius Vergilius Maro, and Quintus Horatius Flaccus.

§ 5. Albius Tibullus was born about 53 B.C., and died in the same year as Vergil (19 B.C.). He was by birth a knight and a Roman, and forms a rare exception to the rule that in the literature of Rome, all that was best was the product of provincial soil. Originally a man of some property, he lost almost all in the agrarian distributions of 41 B.C., retaining only a small farm at Pedum in Latium, between which and Messala’s town house he divided his time. He grew rich again, however, and probably recovered his lost possessions by the interest of Messala. His life seems to have been spent in two amours: the object of the first was Delia, and when she proved inconstant, he betook himself for comfort to Nemesis. To each of these mistresses he addressed one book of Elegies; the third and fourth books, which complete his works so called, are of doubtful authenticity. Most critics agree that the third book is the work of an inferior poet, who addresses himself to a lady named Neaera. Like the names Delia and Nemesis, this name is probably fictitious, it being the custom to replace the real name by an imaginary one of the same metrical value and of Greek form. Several of the genuine poems are addressed to Messala, praising his munificence or his successes in war. Others are mere pictures of the pleasures of country life. Tibullus’ poetry is less burdened with mythological details, and is more spontaneous, than that of any other elegiac poet. ‘In no poet, not even in Burns, is simple, natural emotion more naturally expressed.’ Quintilian adjudged him to be the prince of Latin elegiac poets.

§ 6. Contemporary with Tibullus as the elegiac poet of the rival society of Maecenas was Sextus Propertius. Bom in Umbria, probably at Asisium (Assisi), at some date between the years 58-49 B.C., he lost his patrimony in the confiscations and allotments which followed the battle of Philippi, and does not seem to have recovered them as did his rival. Possibly he did not care for the rural simplicity and contented retirement which it was the fashion of his fellow-poets to affect, and it is probable that he lived in Pome, whither he certainly came to study as an advocate. Fortunately for us, however, he fell in speedily with the lady whom he addresses as Cynthia, and gave expression to his feelings towards her in verse which attracted the notice of Maecenas. Yet he did not improve upon this acquaintance as did Horace and others. He was too fond of city life, with its dissipations and license, to enter cordially into the spirit of a reforming emperor crusading against the decline of morals. He approximates rather to Ovid than to Tibullus in the tone of his writings as well as in their style; and, as we shall see, Ovid’s poetry marked a reaction in the direction of the now forbidden tone of Catullus’ days. He studied to imitate Callimachus and the Alexandrines, and as a result his poems are at times quite incomprehensible from their excess of erudition and mythological allusion. The majority of liis elegies are addressed .to Cynthia, whose real name was Hostia; but there are also descriptive poems, and one or two true elegies— ‘laments,’ that is—on the death of friends and other griefs. One or two fugitive pieces on poetical common-places such as the immortality of poets, addresses to Bacchus, Yertum-nus and Jove, and a number of epistolary elegies to Maecenas, and other friends or rivals, make up the four books which we possess. He was a warm admirer of Yergil; but, to judge from his silence, Horace disliked him. Probably Horace’s calm philosophy did not harmonise well with Propertius’ impetuous enthusiasm. The date of his death is unknown: but it seems to have occurred about the year 15 b.c.

§ 7. Publius Yergilius Haro was born at Andes, in the neighbourhood of Mantua, 70 B.C. When nearly thirty years of age he was deprived of his estate by confiscation (41 b.c.). He had to support him, however, the interest of Asinius Pollio, then governor of Cisalpine Gaul, and so recovered his property. The restoration was only temporary. In 40 B.C., after the Perusine war, came another series of confiscations, and Yergil was again ousted, barely escaping with his life. He removed to Eome, where he had for some years in his early life attended the lectures of various professors of rhetoric and philosophy. He soon became acquainted with Maecenas, and the success which attended the publication of the Eclogues satisfied the patron as to the merits of his protege. He encouraged the poet to ton+inue his efforts, though in a more serious form, and his advice resulted in the composition of the Georgies. The liberality of Augustus and the patronage of Pollio and Maecenas were sufficient to restore the poet’s shattered fortunes, and the later years of his life were spent mostly in a villa which he acquired near Naples. He died at Brundisium, on his return from a tour in Greece, 19 B.C., while still engaged on his great epic, the Aeneid, and was buried at his favourite villa. In his will he left instructions that his unfinished poem should be burnt; but Augustus, for reasons of his own, countermanded the wish, and directed Varius the poet and Plotius Tucca to edit it. "Vergil’s tomb became a centre for semi-religious pilgrimages and offerings, and hence arose the story prevalent during the Middle Ages that he was a wizard. Throughout his later years he enjoyed the very closest intimacy with his patron, and formed one of Maecenas’ companions, together with Varius and Horace, when the minister journeyed to Brundisium in 38 B.C.* to negotiate with Antonius, on behalf of Augustus, for a joint attack upon Sextus Pompeius, the master of the Mediterranean. Like Tibullus, he preferred the life of the country to that of the town, and in this respect he differed from Propertius and Ovid.

In the Eclogues, which were published prior to 39 B.C., the genius of Vergil appears in its native form—politics had no interest for him, nor did he as yet care to grapple with the sustained task of epic poetry. He loved the country, and he found virgin field for his talents in transplanting to Latin soil the pastoral poetry first written by Theocritus. This writer, a native of Syracuse, flourished at the beginning of the third century B.C., and resided long enough at Alexandria to become one of the Alexandrine school of poets. Nevertheless, his subject was original, however much he yielded to prevalent fashion in its treatment. He wrote Idylls, small genre pictures of the life of Sicilian peasants—shepherds, fishermen, and housewives—and his example was followed by Bion and Moschus. But until Vergil’s time no Italian poet had ventured to trespass on this ground, a fact which renders Vergil’s success all the more surprising. In many cases he merely translates from his originals : usually he adopts the dramatis personae—the plot, if one may say so—and fills in the bare outline at his own discretion. But just as Theocritus occasionally appears as a panegyrist, so Yergil in the fourth and tenth Eclogues becomes personal: the poem deals with living persons, while the setting still remains bucolic. The fourth Eclogue has acquired fame, not more from its beauty than from a theory that it expressed a prophetic anticipation of the birth of a Messiah. It was written, as a matter of fact, in honour of the consulship of Pollio; but who was the child whose birth is hailed is, and must always be, a mystery. The tenth Eclogue has already been mentioned as addressed to Gallus.

§ 8. It was the advice of Maecenas that prompted Yergil to take up a greater task in the Georgies. He is said to have dreamed already of putting into an epic the history of Rome, as Ennius and others had done before him, but the magnitude and loftiness of the task deterred him. Erotic poetry and society-verse were not congenial to his taste, and politics had no attraction for him. Still he entered fully into that desire for peace which was prevalent in the minds of all, from Augustus downwards; and he found himself able to contribute to that desire by the production of a work idealizing husbandly. Ceaseless wars had completed the depopulation of Italy which the Gracchi had long ago noted with concern. The old race of yeomen was gone, the fields were untilled, bands of slaves performed what agricultural duties still survived, and the ‘glory of labour as man’s mission’ was no more. The restoration of Italy depended on the restoration of agriculture to its place of honour, and for this reason Maecenas persuaded his friend to write a work which in beauty equalled the Eclogues, but far surpassed them in scope and seriousness of purpose. The Georgies—that is ‘Matters of Husbandry’—comprise four books dealing with crops, trees, cattle and horses, and bees respectively. They form what is called a didactic poem, a poem conveying systematic instruction in their subject under the cloak of verse. The father of such poetry was Hesiod of Ascra in Boeotia, in the eight century B.C., whose poem the ‘‘Works and Days’ was at once the model, and in a large measure the source, of Yergil’s work :

‘ Ascraeiimque cano Romana per oppida carmen.’

He had been followed by Aratus the astronomer, by Nican-der the physician, and a host of other Greeks of Alexandria ; while at Eome the great work of Lucretius, which sets forth in six books the entire system of Epicurean philosophy, was the first of a long series of less famous didactic poems. Vergil had studied Lucretius deeply, and he owed much to him as well as to Aratus. Besides Hesiod’s book, he found prose authorities in Cato and Varro ; and while the Georgies are poetry of the most captivating kind, they contained so much sound instruction as to win a front place in the ranks of manuals on agriculture. A subject at first sight unattractive became, by free use of digressions, by sweetness of rhythm and language, and by that love of nature which rings through every line, a book of which it is difficult to tire. Book IV. closes with the legends of Aristaeus and Orpheus, a somewhat incongruous subject which is said to have been substituted for a peroration in honour of the disgraced poet Gallus. As Gallus died 23 b.c. and the Georgies were published 29 B.C., the change must then have been made in a second edition. The work is dedicated to Maecenas, and seven years were spent in the elaboration of its two thousand lines or so.

§ 9. In the Aeneid Vergil at length realized his early dreams of writing an epic. Augustus is said to have endeavoured to persuade the poet to write the history of his wars, but this Vergil declined to do, as did Horace also. Mere history in verse is a dangerous subject to deal with, and hard realities were no matter for the genius either of the lover of nature or of the society-poet. Still, there was in the Georgies proof that Vergil possessed in a wonderful degree those feelings of patriotism, religious enthusiasm, and moral purity, which the emperor was anxious to make universal. Such talents were too valuable to be lost; and they were utilized in the production of a magnificent poem glorifying the beginnings of Eome, and establishing the connection claimed by the Julian house with Aeneas and, through him, with the Gods. The poem has been called the richest source of our knowledge of Eoman religion and moral feeling. In it the creed of Eome appears freed in great part from the overgrowth of Greek mythology. It is a Roman poem in the fullest sense, for its subjects and its thoughts are alike those of the gens togata. There is of course much that is Greek in the details of the story, and the form is entirely Greek, being borrowed direct from Homer. Nevertheless in subject it is consistently Italian, and if anything could rouse to good purpose the Roman’s pride of race, the Aeneid would have accomplished that, result.

In bare outline, the subject is the landing of Aeneas in Italy, and his war with Turnus for the hand of Lavinia. But varied episodes lend interest and break the monotony of the simple narrative. Book I. opens with Juno, the enemy of the Trojan race, stirring up a tempest to wreck Aeneas and his fellow-fugitives, who are now near Sicily. They are cast ashore on the African coast, and hospitably welcomed by Dido, Queen of Carthage. The appearance of Venus to her son, an account of Dido’s fortunes, and a description of her new city, complete the book. Book II. is filled by the narrative of Aeneas, who, at Dido’s table, recounts the horrors of Troy’s cajrture and his own flight; and his story is continued in Book III., which details his wanderings from place to place, in Thrace, in Epirus, in Sicily, and elsewhere, until the occasion of the storm which drove him to Africa. The fourth book contains the famous description of Dido’s unfortunate love for her guest, his flight at the behest of heaven, and her suicide—a narrative unique in classical literature as a love-novel. Book V. finds Aeneas landed at Egesta, where his compatriot, Acestes, receives him, and where he institutes funeral games in honour of his father, Anchises. A boat-race, and a footrace, matches in archery, wrestling and boxing, and the exercises of mounted boys in the ‘Game of Troy’ are all described. The sixth book contains most that is original in the poem. Hitherto the scenes of the work have been borrowed from Homer or Apollonius Rhodius in great part. Even in this book the idea of making Aeneas visit the lower world is borrowed from Odyssey XL, but the detail and amplification of the idea are independent. Guided by the Sibyl, Aeneas plucks the golden bough by Lake Avernus, wherewith he obtains passage to the world of the dead; and we are told how lie saw the heroes and heroines of old, the good and the wicked, the place of torment and the Elysian fields, and, finally, all the spirits as yet not incarnate, destined one day to live on earth as kings in Alba, and the famous heroes of Home. Each is described, and his mighty deeds set forth as prophecies which reveal the coming history of Home. The seventh book, after describing the friendly reception afforded to the Trojans by Latinus, tells how Juno sends the fury Allecto to rouse the "wrath of Turnus, "whom Aeneas had forestalled as son-in-law of Latinus, and of the commencement of the war with Turnus’ people, the Rutuli. In Book Till. Aeneas seeks help of Evander, the Arcadian, who had colonised the Palatine Hill, and the narrative is garnished with ancient legends of Roman landmarks, and the story of Hercules and Cacus, ending with a description of the armour which Yulcan wrought, for Aeneas, whereon are depicted all the scenes of Roman history down to the battle of Actium and the overthrow of Antonius and Cleopatra. In Book IX. Turnus attacks the Trojan camp, and the devotion of Nisus and Euryalus is related. Books X. and XI. recount the return of Aeneas and his repulse of Turnus in a stubborn battle, wherein figure all the heroes of the Italian nations from Mezentius, the tyrant of Etruria, to Camilla, the queen of the Volsci. In the twelfth book Aeneas is challenged to single combat by Turnus, and eventually conquers his enemy.

The work was commenced in 29 B.C., and was not finally completed in 19 b.c. when its author died. It appears to have been published in 17 b.c. The metre is hexametre, as in all his great works; and so great a master of this metre is he, that it serves him equally well for every scene. It is the metre in which ‘the strong-winged music of Homer’ was written; and after passing with growing elegance through the hands of Ennius, Lucilius, and Lucretius, it reached in Yergil a perfection which was never surpassed.

The Culex (Gnat) and Moretum (Salad), and the Ciris, relating the legend of the Megarian princess Scylla, her treacherous conduct towards her father Nisus, and her transformation into the bird Ciris, are shorter poems attributed with more or less likelihood to the early days of Vergil, when still living on his farm near Mantua, There are also some brief pieces in elegiac verse, of -which one, the Cop a ^Hostess), is a lively descriptive piece. The Catalepton (“collection of trifles”) or Catalecton is a collection of fourteen poems in elegiac and iambic metre and on various subjects. One is an elegy in honour of Messala’s victories, and there is a piece of twenty-five iambics, parodying Catullus’ famous fourth poem (Dedicatio Phaseli).

§ 10. Quintus Horatius Flaccus, born in 65 B.C. at Yen-usia, on the borders of Apulia and Lucania, was the son of a court or, a collector of taxes or auction bids, lately emancipated by some master belonging to the gens Horatia. Though of so humble a rank, the father was able to send his son to Rome to be educated with the sons of senators and knights under the ferule of Orbilius Pupillus. As usual with young Romans, Horace went to Athens to complete his education, and while there heard of the assassination of Caesar. He was made a tribunus militum by Brutus and was present at the defeat of Philippi, where he left his shield behind him, like Alcaeus of old, and returned to Italy under pardon, only to find his father dead and his estate confiscated. Thus left without friends or means, he was glad to accept the post of quaestor’s clerk, and between the hours of business he vented his disgust in the Satires, his first literary effort. He became acquainted with Yergil, who introduced him to Maecenas, and though the latter was somewhat slow to show any favour to the poet, he received him at length into his innermost circle, and in 38 b.c. Horace was sufficient^ intimate to be one of the party which travelled to Brundisium. The reason for such hesitation on Maecenas’ part was the independent character of Horace, who persisted in maintaining his own views about politics—views very unlike those with which Yergil regarded Augustus’ rule. However, hi* Epicurean dogmas —for he was at heart an Epicurean, although he dabbled a little in all schools of philosophy—would not allow Horace to hold very serious views about anything but himself; and finding himself comfortable, especially when, about 31 B.C., Maecenas gave him an estate near Tibur, he accepted the Emperor’s overtures for friendship and assumed an attitude of tolerance at once honest and amusing. It was many years, however, before he published any verses laudatory of the Emperor. The loss of Yergil and Tibullus drew Horace closer to his patron, and ho jestingly vowed that he could not live without Maecenas. The vow came strangely true, for when Maecenas died in 8 B.C., within a few weeks Horace followed him to the grave. He had never been strong, and was more or less a victim to dyspepsia. All these particulars of his life, and much more, we gather from his own writings. Horace and Ovid are alike in sharp contrast with Yergil, and most other Eoman poets, in the frequency of their allusions to their own lives and personal interests. We can reconstruct the ordinary course of Horace’s days from his Odes and Satires, and similarly in some measure that of Ovid’s also ; of other Latin poets at home we know virtually nothing.

The earliest works of Horace were the Satires, which were published about the years 34 and 29 b.c. The two books comprise in all eighteen poems on various social and literary subjects. Horace was a humorist, and saw life through the medium of an irrepressible good-humour. Hence his Satires seldom rise to the dignity of anything beyond mere ‘ talk,’ as their Latin title implies (Sermones) ; and hence the criticism of Drydcn that ‘ Horace ambles while Juvenal gallops.’ In the modern sense the Horatian satire is not satire at all. It consists simply of scenes from everyday life strung together with no definite plan, and made the vehicle for a quantity of good-natured and solid advice. Two of the poems are devoted to literary criticism, and especially to Lucilius (148-102 B.C.), for whom Horace, while fully allowing his merits, professes to entertain a cordial aversion as ‘muddy’ and uncouth. Lucilius was the only master of satire before Horace’s time, and he used his verse to lash rather than to advise. Yarro(116-28B.c.) also wrote books of ‘ Menippean ’ satires, a medley of prose and verse like the later satires of Petronius. In plain fact, this style of writing had no fixity of rules. It was claimed as purely Eoman by the Bomans, but rather as a mode of thought than a style of composition. It always remained more prosaic than poetical until Juvenal, at the close of the first century a.d., fitted to it the full strength of the hexameter. Its name (connected with satur, ‘ full ’) is suggestive of the variety of its scope—life in all its manifold forms. To turn it to the criticism of literature was a purely Horatian innovation. Other subjects with which Horace deals are discontent, lax morals, pedantry, the bore (supposed by some to hint at Propertius), his own critics and detractors, a dinner with a society butt, and his journey with Maecenas and Yergil to Brundisium.

§ 11. The Epodes were published about the j-ear 30 b.c. The name was applied, at any rate in later times, to any short poem, other than elegiac, in which long and short lines alternate. Seventeen in number, they consist mainly of personal attacks on various persons objectionable to the poet—attacks which come much nearer to the modem idea of satire than any of the Sermones. There are also one or two addressed to Maecenas, and two to the Eoman people. The latter of these (Epode xvi.) is the most pleasing of all, and clothes old poetical platitudes with a new and vigorous beauty, recalling the Eclogues, though, as a whole, they are rightly ranked below the Odes.

Of the Odes there are four books, three of which appeared at once about 23 B.C., while the fourth is supposed to have been published as late as 14 B.C., and is marked by a feeling of admiration for Augustus which is not expressed in the earlier books. The various Odes were written at very different dates, and only slight inferences can be drawn from their inclusion in any particular book. In this branch of writing Horace claims to be unique. He took as his models, not the Alexandrines, but the earlier poets of Greece, the lyric writers Alcaeus and Sappho, who flourished in Lesbos about 600 b.c. Heretofore no Eoman had trespassed on the domain of Lesbian metres and style. Two metres, named the Sapphic and Alcaic after the writers who chiefly used them, are the favourites with Horace. The subjects are various; but, speaking broadly, love and wine are the main themes, while short odes to Gods and Goddesses, light exercises on social sins, and half-epistolary addresses to a host of friends, make up the remainder. The fourth book differs in the tone of panegyric in which the various members of the imperial house are spoken of, and the fourth ode of this book, celebrating the successes of Tiberius and Drusus in Rhaetia, has been considered the finest of all. With the appearance of supreme facility the Odes carry with them the marks of hard study and restless elaboration, and no verse is harder of imitation than this.

The only other lyric composition remaining is the Carmen Saeeulare. This was written in 17 b.c., at the special command of Augustus, and was sung by a choir of twenty-seven boys aud as many girls in honour of Apollo and Diana. It contains many references to the reforms of Augustus, in particular to the Lex Pctpia Poppaea.

Two books of Epistles and the essay De Arte Poetica complete the list of his writings. The latter is sometimes reckoned as part of the second book of Epistles. It is a conversational address to two young Pisos, treating in a cursory and unmethodical way of a great number of literary points, particularly the appropriate subject and style for each metre, the drama, and taste in general. It is certainly not a finished poem, but is valuable as giving a poet’s own views on his art. The Epistles, addressed to various friends, such as Maecenas, Tibullus, and Lollius, are twenty-one in number, that to Augustus being of great length. It contains a great deal of valuable literary criticism, and, while professing to be an explanation of the poet’s infrequent appear-auce at the palace, really asserts his independence. The others are merely poetical letters ; but they show their author in his most natural mood, and are written with a polish and fluency that show no trace of artificiality. The first book is supposed to have appeared in 20 b.c. ; the date of the second book is most probably 13 b.c.

§ 12. In 16 b.c. died Aemilius Macer of Verona, a friend of Vergil. We have none of his writings, and only know that he favoured long didactic poems in the manner of Nicander the Alexandrine. Valgius Rufus was a friend of Horace and Tibullus, a poet of some ability in epic, erotic, and grammatical subjects. He was consul in 12 b.c.

The last and greatest master of elegiac verse was Publius Ovidius Naso, who was born at Sulmo, 43 B.C., on the day of the battle of Mutina. His father was an equex, of which the poet boosts rather needlessly; and the family was sufficiently well off to provide Ovid with the means to enjoy society life in Some. He came thither avowedly to study law, but found the subject little to his taste. His every thought would run into verse, he says; and at length he gave himself over entirely to his muse. He studied a little while at Athens, and, returning to Rome, published the Amores (9 B.C.), most of which are addressed to an unknown mistress whom he styles Coiinna, These were followed by the ITeroides, (love-letters of the heroines of ancient mj'thology, such as Ariadne, Penelope, etc.), and by the Ars Amandi, in three books. The latter poem declares itself to be a complete director}- to all such looseness of living as Augustus was strenuously endeavouring to suppress. It raised so much opposition that the author thought fit to publish two years later (a.d. 1) the Remedia Amnris, an ostensible recantation, which was, however, little better than the work which it professed to decry. Ovid now seems to have felt uneasy and anxious to make atonement. He devoted himself, as far as he could, to a different stylo of writing, and worked simultaneously at the Fasti and the Metamorphoses. But his repentance came too late. In the middle of his new task he received orders to quit Eome at once and retire to Tomi (Kustendjeh), a wretched outpost of Roman civilization near the mouth of the Danube, on the shore of the Black Sea. He left his poems unfinished—tried even to destroy what was already written—and withdrew, 8 a.d. He lived nine years in exile, writing in this period five books of Trixtia, and four of Epistles from Pontus; but all his prayers for pardon were ignored, and he died at Tomi 17 A.D.

"What was the actual cause of his banishment is unknown. Certainly his doctrines, directly antagonistic to those of Augustus’ court poets, were a sufficient reason; but the particularly objectionable work, the Ars Amandi, had been published ten years when punishment overtook its author. The most probable explanation is that he was involved in the intrigues of Julia II., who was banished in the same year. All he tells us is that he ‘had seen something which he ought not to have seen.’ His talents were indisputably misapplied; and though in powers and finish lie far surpasses his friends and fellow-poets, Tibullus and Propertius, he loses his advantage in the depravity of his subjects. His life and writings are summarized in the criticism that he was ‘an incorrigibly immoral, but inexpressibly graceful poet.’

The Fasti, or Calendar, which Ovid intended to consist of twelve books, was completed only as far as the end of the sixth. Each book contains a detailed account of the days of one month, the feasts, dies fasti et nefasti, and the zodiacal changes ; this rather uninteresting subject being relieved by digressions on the legends connected with various holy-days, and by various passages of a panegyrical and patriotic tone, evidently written to curry favour with an offended Emperor. The MetimtorpJmes consists, as its name implies, of the legends of mythological persons changed into other forms, such as Actaeon, Niobe, and a host of others. It is written in hexameters, unlike the poet’s other works, and even in its unfinished state, comprises fifteen books. The Trivia are elegies in the truest sense, bewailing the reverse of fortune which banished the poet, entreating pardon from the Emperor or help from influential friends, and describing the miseries of life amongst the Getae and Sarmatians. The Epistles are written in a more resigned tone, and are mainly letters to friends, such as the younger Messala (son of the patron of Tibullus) and the two poets Ponticus and Tuticanus.

Besides the works mentioned, Ovid also wrote a tragedy, Medea, highly praised by Quintilian, but now lost; Medi-camina Faciei, a mocking treatise on cosmetics and the toilet, of which only a fragment remains; the Ilalieutica, a description of the fishes abounding at Tomi; the Nux Elegia, a lament about ill-treatment purported to be uttered by a walnut-tree ; and the Ibis, a virulent invective against an unknown false friend, who in some way damaged the poet. The authenticity of the Nux Elegia is, however, doubtful; and the Consolatio ad Liviam, or Epicedion Drusi, a funeral panegyric on Drusus, the brother of Germanicus, is certainly spurious. With Ovid’s works are also published three Epistles, which take the form of letters, replying to three of the Heroides. They were said to be the work of Aulas Sabinus, who wrote replies to the whole series of the Heroides, as well as a successful epic entitled Troczen. All his works are lost, however, and the three so-called Epistolae are now regarded as forgeries.

§ 13. Grattius was a friend of Ovid, and wrote a dull work on hunting (Cynegetica), of which some considerable fragments remain. It is a didactic poem, and not more interesting than the majority of such works. Another such book is the Astronomy of M. Manilius. Little or nothing is known of the author, but from the style of his writing it is supposed that he was an African, aud allusions in the work show that it was written during the later years of Augustus, and, in part at least, as late as 22 a.d. The work reaches to a fifth book, which is, however, incomplete. It bordered in subject too closely upon the forbidden science of astrology to be a safe pursuit; and hence, perhaps, its unfinished state. It contains a good deal of philosophy, all directed against the Epicurean teachings of Lucretius, and advancing the views of the Stoics.

Last of the poets is Phaedrus, the writer of Fables (Fabulae Aenopiae) in four books and an appendix. They resomble their originals in being short tales in verse, wherein various animals are represented as speaking and reasoning. The author was a Macedonian of Pieria, who became a slave of Augustus and was manumitted by him. He prided himself on his literary abilities, but no other writer mentions him save Martial. Apparently his fables at times contained veiled political allusions; and at this Sejanus took offence, and (according to one account) had the poet put to death on a fictitious charge.

§ 14. The same causes which changed the character of poetry in the days of the early empire affected in a like manner the prose of the period. Latin prose-writing was always closely related to oratory, and oratory had been the centre of the education of every gentleman under the Republic. To prosecute and to defy prosecution with success was the passport to politics and to the upper ranks of political society, and every young man went through a uniform course of declamation and rhetoric with a view to this. But the liberty of the law-courts was not to be tolerated by an absolute ruler. It indulged too freely in criticism, and treated with too little courtesy the chiefs of the government; in a word, it was too personal and democratic. With the empire came the cessation of public pleading as a means to fortune, and in its place remained only scholastic declamation dealing with non-political subjects. The schools of rhetoric still flourished, but the subjects debated were now ‘why Hannibal did not march on Eome after Cannae,’ or ‘in what words Leonidas addressed the Spartans at Thermopylae; ’ and in lieu of the audiences which listened to the speeches of a Cicero, the declaimer of this period was constrained to deliver his composition in his own house or in a building which he bired for the purpose —hiring his audience, too, sometimes, perhaps. And with prose-writing it was the same. It must not deal with the present unless in a laudatory strain; there must be no regret for the old times. So it betook itself to ancient history, to science, grammatical inquiry, or to collecting anecdotes, and found a vent for its authors’ rhetorical abilities in the speeches put into the mouths of a Hannibal or a Tarquinius.

Cornelius Nepos, an intimate friend of Atticus, Cicero’s companion, and of most of the eminent men of Cicero’s time, belongs rather to the previous age. He was a native of Cisalpine Gaul, born perhaps near Verona, about the year 100 b.c. He lived into the reign of Augustus, dying 24 B.C., at the age of fifty years. We know him from his collection of lives of eminent men (De Viris Illustribus'), similar to those of Plutarch. In its complete form the book seems to have extended to sixteen volumes, of which eight dealt with the great men of Rome and eight with those of other nations, especially Greece. The work was long believed to be a mere compilation or digest of much later date, but is now generally regarded as genuine.

Vitruvius Pollio wrote ten books on architecture and engineering. He was bom about 64 B.C., and died about fifty years later (14 b.c.), being a member of Augustus’ literary circle, though not particularly intimate with the Princeps. He had served in Caesar’s Gallic campaigns, and only took up the pen in his later years. His book was epitomized at a very early date, and it is this epitome which survives. From it we gain almost all our knowlege of the Roman canons of architecture in temples, aqueducts, and houses, and of the military engines of the period.

Pompeius Trogus was a freedman of the great Pompeius who wrote a universal history (Hidoriae Philippicae) in forty-four books. It began with Nimis and the history of Nineveh, and was continued to 9 a.d. About four centuries later it was abridged by Justinus, and we possess his abridgment, which is brief in the extreme, but exceedingly useful in some points.

Amongst the writers on grammar and language were Verrius Flaccus and Julius Hyginus. Both were freedmen, the latter being at one time keeper of the Palatine library. Flaccus wrote an immense dictionary {De Verborum Sitjm-ficatu), of which we possess portions of an abridgment by Festus, who lived in the fourth century a.d. The abridgment alone comprised twenty books. Hyginus was a Spaniard and an intimate friend of Ovid, the author of a large number of works, mostly on mythological subjects. A digest of his Oenealogiae, in four books, still remains under the title of Fabulae. He also wrote, like Manilius, on astronomy.

§ 15. Of writers on history there were many, and in particular those who endeavoured to write the history of the civil wars were a numerous class. Pollio did so, and was warned by Horace that he ‘ trod on smothered fires.’ Many still lived, and not least of them the Emperor, ready to take sharp offence at a careless epithet or a detail which bad better been suppressed. Yet Maecenas, and even Augustus himself, were continually importuning Vergil and Horace to essay the task in their verse ; and Maecenas himself attempted something of the lcind. The most successful of these attempts was perhaps that of Cremutius Cordus, whose forced suicide has already been mentioned; but Aufidius Bassus, a writer whom Tacitus quotes as authoritative, also completed a history of the period. Both these historians belong rather to the days of Tiberius. Strabo wrote actively during the whole of the reign of Augustus, and part of that of Tiberius. He is known to us from his geograpliical work in seventeen books, complete with the exception of the seventh, of which we have, however, an epitome. He was a great traveller, and was with Aelius Gallus, the general who led the Arabian expedition of 24 b.c. Besides this he wrote a history of Eome, commencing at the close of that of Polybius (146 B.C.), and continuing to the battle of Actium ; of this nothing remains. His date is 54 B.C.—24 a.d.

One historian of the time of Augustus remains to us in considerable bulk, Titus Livius Patavinus. He was of good birth, to judge from his tone and aristocratical opinions, and his birthplace, Patavium (Padua), was one of the most flourishing and populous towns of Italy, the capital of the Yeneti in Cisalpine Gaul. The exact year of his birth is unknown, but it was probably about 59-57 b.c. It is a deplorable fact about most Latin authors, that they tell us little or nothing of themselves—a point in which, amongst writers of this period, Horace, and in a less degree Ovid, are valuable exceptions. Livy came to Rome to be educated, and probably went through the usual course of rhetorical training; such training, at any rate, shows itself in much of his writing. He was, as an aristocrat, of course a Republican at heart, but he lived apart from politics, and retained the friendship of Augustus, if to no very intimate extent. In his preface he tells us that he has two reasons for essaying the gigantic task of writing a continuous history of Rome : the first is the hope of producing some new information ; the second that of forgetting the troubles of his country, meaning thereby the civil wars. He must have begun the work very soon after the battle of Actium. It was planned to reach fifteen decades, but was probably not completed. We have intact thirty books, and portions of five others, together with an epitome of the entire work, as far as the one hundred and forty-second book. The remaining eight were probably never written. The first book contains the history of Rome’s foundation, and of the monarchy, and the work then proceeds continuously. It is the best model of Latin historical narrative which we possess, and its vivid style, approaching the poetical, gives it an interest which few such works can boast. He was not, however, a critic ; and such material as he had he used more with an eye to effect than probability. He made large use of earlier writers, from Fabius Pictor and Alimentus downwards, but he paid little attention to archaeological evidence, and, like his predecessors, relied largely on legendary sources. This is peculiarly the case with the earlier part of his work, for there was probably no monumental evidence for events in Rome prior to the Gallic invasion of 390 b.c. For the subsequent years he utilized the archives of pontiffs and censors, ancient laws and inscriptions, and the State Fasti, or yearly record of magistrates and important events. Livy died in the same year as did Ovid, 17 a.d., full of years and honours; for we read that a Spaniard came all the way to Rome to see him, and, having seen him, went home again at once.

§ 16. For many years after the death of Livy, historical writing was reduced to mere ‘court scandal.’ It is usual to call Velleius Paterculus a writer of such matter, and to censure him for his extravagant adulation of Tiberius. He was born about 18 B.C., and he served eight years under Tiberius in Germany and elsewhere, being rewarded for his services by the praetorship in 14 a.d. He admired his general as a soldier should, and in consequence his book betrays much flattery. Nevertheless he is valuable as the sole witness, amongst Roman writers, to the better side of Tiberius’ character. His work was an abridgement of Roman history in two books, much too brief to be of value until the period of Tiberius’ wars. It then becomes fuller and more interesting. He seems to have studied his subject with care, and to have drawn largely from good writers who preceded him. He had intended to write a histoiy of Tiberius, but was prevented by his death, which occurred in the year 31 a.d., when he fell amongst the partisans of Sejanus, with what justice we do not know.

Valerius Maximus is supposed to have written during the reign of Tiberius. His work was the Facta et Dicta Memorabilia, a collection of anecdotes extending to nine books, and intended to furnish declaimers with a dictionary of subjects and parallels. It was abridged by one Julius Paris in the fourth century, who added a tenth book, and later writers repeated the process, until nothing but the barest facts remain.

Equally unknown in personal life is A. Cornelius Celsus, a scientist in the widest sense of the term, who wrote on rhetoric, law, farming, military tactics, and medicine. The latter treatise survives, and is still to some extent a standard work, particularly in the parts which treat of surgery.

Of Philo Judaeus, the philosopher and theologian of Alexandria, we know little, except the fact that he conducted an embassy to Eome in the time of the Emperor Caius, 40 a.d., to secure for the Jews exemption from the mad Princeps’ edict that all the world should worship him. He was an old man even at that date, so that he must have been in full manhood during the reign of Tiberius. He has left us a work in which he endeavours to reconcile Judaism and the law of Moses with the mythology of Greece. His is the last name we need mention. For whatever cause, the reign of Tiberius yielded but a poor harvest of genius. It is usual to attribute the fact to the Emperor’s tyranny; but though he did not patronise literature as his predecessor had done, he did not persecute it; and something must be accredited to the indisputable fact, that a reaction always follows periods of exceptional brilliancy, and in this case the reaction had long since set in when Augustus died.

Literature (37-96 A.D.).

§ 1.—The Silver Age: the Senecas—§ 2. Calpumius Siculus and Lucan—§ 3. Statius, Valerius Flaccus, Silius Italicus—§ 4. Persius, Petronius, Juvenal, Sulpicia, Martial—§ 5. Quintus Curtius, Josephus, Tacitus—§ 6. Columella, Jlela, Quintilian, Frontinus, the Plinies.

§ 1. The Golden Age of Latin Literature was now over. The language henceforth declines in matter and still more in form. Excepting Tacitus, Juvenal, and Pliny, few of the authors of the Silver Age are read for their own sakes. Originality disappears, and decadence hears its customary crop of compilers, copyists, and critics. And debarred from active interest in the outer world, men turned upon themselves and consoled themselves with philosophy—the second-hand and mostly soulless pomposities of Roman Stoicism.

Chief of the Philosophic writers was Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a Spaniard of Cordova, born 4 a.d. His father, Marcus (or perhaps Lucius) Anuaeus, was well known in Rome as a teacher of rhetoric and composer of Controversiae and Suasoriae, respectively imaginary law-pleadings and declamations intended to exemplify the purpose of rhetoric according to Greek notions, viz., the means and methods of persuading an audience, irrespective of the intrinsic merits of the subject. Lucius, his second son, found his way into the Senate and into Caligula’s court, was banished by Claudius at Messalina’s instigation in 41 B.C., and recalled by Agrippina to act as tutor to her son Nero, 49 a.d. He was consul in 57 a.d., and for some time the actual ruler of the monarchy. That the pupil profited so little by his teacher’s precepts is perhaps to be attributed less to Seneca’s lack of sincerity than to his weakness of will and incapacity to train others. After some five years of favour he made the mistake of indulging his pupil too far, and thereby lost all control. He retired into private life, but did not thereby escape ; for Nero took advantage of the conspiracy of Piso to find an excuse for driving him to suicide (65 a.d).

His writings are voluminous, mostly philosophical, but in part poetical. Amongst the former are treatises on various ethical subjects such as the Be Ira and Be Benejiciis; the Quaestiones Natwrales, disquisitions on a variety of physical phenomena regarded as so many texts for the conveyancc of moral lectures; and a great number of Epistulae very similar to the ethical treatises above mentioned, but put into the form of letters to a friend named Lucilius. His poetical works were nine tragedies, valuable as the only Roman tragedies remaining to us. As their titles indicate—Phaedra, Oedipus, &c.—the subject of all is taken from the Greek. Neither as a philosopher nor as a poet was Seneca a man of the first rank, but he wrote good Latin, if somewhat declamatory in style. In fact his style superseded that of Cicero as a model for later authors—an example of the general tendency of the times to desert the older and more severe idiom for one that was more diffuse and ornate.

§ 2. In poetry there was the same tendency, albeit Vergil still remained the professed model. Thus T. Calpurnius Siculus wrote Eclogues in imitation of those of Vergil: we have eleven which go by his name, of which only seven are genuine. Wo have also a poem styled Aetna, describing an eruption of that volcano, which is attributed to him, but which was perhaps really the work of Seneca’s friend Lucilius, for some years procurator of Sicily. Of Calpurnius’ life we know absolutely nothing. Twice he alludes to a new Princeps who is to regenerate the world, and it is conjectured that this was the young Nero.

More important is M. Annaeus Lucanus, born 39 a.d., a nephew of Seneca. Like the latter he found his way to the Roman court and for some time enjoyed the friendship of Nero; then being out of favour, he sought revenge by joining the abortive conspiracy of Piso, which cost him his life at the age of twenty-six (65 a.d.). His life was too short to admit of his genius attaining to maturity, but even as it was lie accomplished a notable 'work in the Phursalia, professedly an account of the overthrow of the Republic, but in reality an attack upon the Emperor. It is an Epic poem in ten books, largely imitative of Vergil, and although far behind its model, it is the biggest and the most effective piece of sustained declamation which Latin literature can show; but plot, character-drawing, and consistency of thought, are all alike sacrificed to theatrical effect. Few books, however, are more 1 quotable ’ thau this, and considering the youthfulness of the writer, his force, command of language, and power of sustained eloquence, are marvellous. It was said that Lucan owed his disgrace to his superiority over the poet-emperor, his death to the Republican sentiments expressed in the Pkarsalia. He wrote also ten books of Silvae, fourteen Mimes, and a tragedy styled Medea.

§ 3. Somewhat later dates another group of three poets, namely Statius, Valerius Flaccus, and Silius.

P. Papinius Statius, by birth a Neapolitan, was the son of the tutor of Domitian, and was bora about 45 a.d. He was already about middle life when he became famous as the greater of all the post-Augustan poets; but beyond the fact that his literary activity was mainly confined to the years of Domitian’s reign, nothing is known of his life. Of his writings, however, there remains a large volume. The poem by which he became famous is the Thebais, an epic in twelve books, dealing with the themes of the Theban Cycle. He is said to have spent twelve years over this work. The Thebais has been praised as “faultless in epic execution,” but the language is frequently mere bombast, and the repetition of battle scenes makes it wearisome as a whole, albeit pleasing enough to read for an hour or two. But the poem seems to have taken Rome by storm: ‘'all Rome was delighted,’’ says Juvenal, “when Statius deigned to give a recitation.” Thus encouraged, Statius proceeded to write an AehiUeis— an epic on the Trojan Cycle—but failed to complete even two books; which was perhaps as well, for no one could have waded through a poem so large as it threatened to be. He wrote also five books of Silvae (short improvised pieces), and another epic on Domitian’s German Wars. The last-named is now lost. Statius died about 96 a.d.

C. Valerius Flaecus, a native of Livy’s birthplace of Patavium, undertook an epic on the story of the Argonauts, based on the work of Apollonius of Rhodes. It runs to ten books, the last being unfinished; and even in this shape it tells but a portion of the whole legend. The temptation to be diffuse was too great for Flaccus, as it was for Statius. The poem was commenced apparently about 80 a.d., for it alludes to the eruption which destroyed Pompeii in the preceding year. Its author is said to have died in 88 a.d. The language, while frequently recalling Vergil, is flat and artificial, not at all comparable with that of Statius. Flaccus is believed to have been a man of good birth, and a member of the XV.-Viri, but in plain fact we know nothing at all about his life.

Last and worst of the three—worst indeed of all Latin poets—was Tib. Catius Silius, sumamed Italieus. This man was consul 67 a.d., a favourite of Nero and Vitellius, and pro-consul of Asia under Vespasian. Like many other rich men of the period, lie amused his leisure with verse-making ; he was less fortunate than his fellow amateurs in that his verses have survived. His poem, the Belhtm Punicum, was intended to glorify the famous struggle with Hannibal; but throughout its seventeen books it is consistently dull, pedantic, uninspired, and uninspiring. Silius Italieus suffered from feeble health, and a pedant to the last, starved himself to death in the approved Stoic fashion (101 a.d.), in order to be quit of the ills of this life.

§ 4. A group of four writers represent the progress of Latin satire, namely Persius, Petronius, Juvenal, and Sulpicia.

A. Persius Flaccus was a native of the Etruscan Vola-terrae, born 34 a.d. He spent the few years of his life in Rome, studying rhetoric and philosophy, but died at the age of eight-and-twenty. He seems to have been the very type of a student, and his writings—six satires on the decay of morals, religion, and literary taste—betray everywhere a student’s familiarity with Horace and with the Stoic teaching of the day. Had he lived to mature his genius he would probably have reached a higher level: as it is his work is so involved in too much learning as to be always difficult and often almost incomprehensible—the work of a boy whose thoughts and whose language are equally beyond his control. Nevertheless his work remains the purest in tone of all that Roman satirists have written.

Petronius Arbiter was his complete antithesis—a boon comrade of Nero and a sort of Beau Nash to the most flagitious court the world ever saw. Indeed his success as arbiter elegantiarum proved his ruin, for it awakened the jealousy of Tigellinus, who drove him to suicide in 66 a.d. He seems to have lived a double life, indulging in the worst license at his prince’s pleasure, and secretly scoffing at such degradation. Such at least is the impression left by the remains of his writings—fragments of two out of a large number of Menippean Satires—which describe the social life of the time with the naivete of a debauchee and the detail of a past-master, while holding them up to ridicule with the wit of a gentleman. The book is peculiar too in being the onty representative in Latin literature of the modern novel in the style of Smollett or Fielding. It is couched in the form of a narrative in which a Greek lilertus relates his experiences in various towns of southern Italy, and is especialljT valuable for the light which it throws upon the condition of life and language in that region. Of the surviving fragments the longest is known as the Supper of Trimalchio—a witty description of a dinner given by an ignorant and tasteless millionaire.

But of all Roman satirists Juvenal is the greatest. D. Junius Juvenalis lived throughout the worst and most troubled years of the first century a.d., and though he could not venture to utter his feelings in the days of a Nero or a Domitian, yet he treasured them up to be published in the more peaceful days which came after— days in which, as Tacitus has it, “a man might have his own opinions, and express them in his own way.” Of Juvenal’s life we know only that he was born at Aquinum, of a good family, and spent much of his time in military service. Tradition says that he was banished for satirizing the power and venality of the actor Paris ; and that his place of exile was Egypt or Britain. It seems certain that lie must have visited Egypt, but there is nothing to prove that he was banished thither. It fact it is almost certain that he did not commence to write until after the death of the man whom he is said to have offended: he says himself that he is concerned only with a past generation. Of that generation—the generation which lived from Claudius to Domitian—he furnishes the most elaborate and effective series of pictures which we possess. Of his sixteen remaining satires—the last only a fragment—each deals with some special social point; and although now and again the coarseness of the language is not tolerable to modem ears, yet as a whole they are amongst the most vigorous and most interesting of Latin poetry. Naturally they are largely declamatory, but now and again the writer shows himself a true poet, especially in the earlier part of his work : for he seems to have continued to compose to the last, with the result that his late -work shows the traces of failing vigour. The date of his death is uncertain : it may approximately be placed in 130 a.d., when he had passed the age of eighty.

Of Sulpicia, the wife of one Calenus, all that need be said is that she wrote a satire upon Domitian’s attempt to expel philosophy from Rome, 93 a.d. Only seventy lines of it survive. She is not to be confounded with an earlier namesake, Sulpicia, daughter of Servius Sulpicius, a love-poetess, of whose work some few specimens have found their way into'the collection usually attributed to Tibullus.

M. Valerius Martialis, a Spaniard of Bilbilis (43-101 a.d.), won the favour of Titus and Domitian by the abject character of his flatteries. He was a friend of Silius, Juvenal, Quintilian, Flaccus, and the younger Pliny, and an enemy of Statius, with whom he had a personal quarrel. He came to Rome when quite a young man (perhaps in 64 a.d.) and stayed there for thirty-four years, when he returned to Spain. It may be conjectured that his poetry did not meet with approbation under the new regime inaugurated by Nerva and Trojan. He was not a poet in any sense but that of a verse-maker, and his sole style was that of epigram. He wrote fourteen books of so-called epigram®, some few of them clever and pleasing, many clever and unpleasant, and very man}’ not worth, the paper they were written on. But so long as he could make a point, Martial was content to go on manufacturing his ineptitudes. His work is only valuable for the light which it throws upon the life of the time. The estimate of his verse given above is rather better than his own: in fact his only commendable trait is his candour—rather his lack of all positive traits.

§ 5. After Livy’s time history had disciples in plenty, amongst them Emperors such as Claudius, but few masters. Only three names need be noted here, aud of these one is a Jew who wrote in Greek.

Quintus Cnrtius Rufus wrote a Life of Alexander the Great (De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni). His date is not known exactly, but he probably flourished in the reign of Claudius. His work ran to ten books, of which the last eight remain. Like his pattern Livy, he wrote rather to please his contemporaries than to correct their knowledge, and though little read, his language is simple and easy.

Flavius Josephus, 37-100 a.d., wus a Jew, who distinguished himself by holding the town of Jotapata in Palestine for eight weeks against the forces of Vespasian. He surrendered in time to obtain Vespasian’s favour, as well as that of Titus and Domitian; and it was as a protege of their house that he took the name of Flavius. His writings were lengthy, but being in Greek the}' are not really a part of Latin literature. They include a work on The Antiquities of the Jews, from the Creation onwards, in five-and-twenty books; an account of the Jewish War* in seven books; aud an Autobiography. They are of great value with reference to the history of Western Asia generally.

But the historian of the century was Cornelius Tacitus (54-120 a.d.), of good family, and married to the daughter of Agricola, the conqueror of Britain. His praenomen is not known for certain, but it was probably Publius. He seems to have been born at Rome, for though Interamna has been suggested, the assumption only rests on the fact that this municipium was also the birthplace of the Emperor Tacitus, who claimed descent from the historian. He took an active part in public life, beiiig praetor in 88 a.d., and consul nine years later. His first work was the IHalogus de Oratorilus, valuable as a specimen of the criticism of the age, and in form modelled on Cicero’s works, such as the Be Oratore. Tliis was published early in Tacitus’ life, and for some years subsequently he wrote no more. When at last he recommenced authorship he had formed for himself an entirely new stjde, characterized by a marvellous concentration, which makes it one of the most difficult styles to render into English and quite impossible to imitate. In this peculiar idiom he wrote a Vita Agricolae, a panegyric on his father-in-law; the Germania, a treatise on the geographical and social condition of the Germany of his lay; the Histories, a narrative of events from the accession of Galba to the death of Domitian; and the Annales, a similar history of Rome from Tiberius to the death of Nero. Unfortunately there remain to us only four complete books of the 1Tistoriae, and some twelve out of the sixteen books of the Annales. The Histories onty deal with the years 69 and 70 a.d., while in the Annals, the whole of the reign of Caligula, and parts of the reigns of Claudius and Nero are lost. He also intended to write an account of the reign of Augustus but was prevented by his death, which occurred about the year 120 a.d. As an authority for the period of which he treats, Tacitus is simply invaluable, although his work seems to bo ruled by a bias veiy little like the impartiality which he claims. Of his attitude towards Tiberius, for example, something has been said already,* and it seems certain that he allowed himself to treat as historical evidence a good deal that was merely personal opinion, not to say scandal. Nevertheless he remains unique amongst Latin historians for his concise and sententious grasp of his subject, and for the picturesque vigour which pervades his most concentrated pages.

§ 6. There remains a number of authors who treated of individual themes. L. Junius Columella, a Spaniard of Gades, wrote twelve books upon Agriculture, of which the tenth is in verse in the manner of Vergil’s Georgies. His work deserves to be more widely known, for his language is uniformly pleasant and the idiom good, albeit he was certainly not a poet. He was a contemporary of Lucan, Persius, and Seneca.

Another of the numerous Spanish authors of the period —and the literary vigour of Spain is one of the peculiar features of the time—was Pomponius Mela, of Tingentera, who flourished in the days of Claudius. He compiled three books on geography—the T)e Situ Orlis or Choro-graphia—consulting the best authorities and providing a Latin substitute for the Greek work of Strabo. His facts are, so far as they go, sound, but his style is much inferior to that of Columella.

Better known is the work of M. Fabius Quintilianus, usually styled Quintilian, the great critic of the century. He also was a Spaniard of Calagurris, bom 35 a.d. He was educated at Eome, and for a long time taught eloquence there. Subsequently he acted as tutor to the grand-nephews of Domitian, by whom he wTas made consul, and to the younger Pliny. His work, On the Training of an Orator, in twelve books, is an exhaustive treatise on the whole system of education of the would-be rhetorician from infancy to realization, with an elaborate critique of previous masters in that art and on past literature in general, and a full discussion of the machinery of rhetoric, style, and figures of speech, memory and enunciation, and even the moral character of the perfect rhetorician. He was an admirer of Cicero, whom he imitates, as a protest against the new and more popular style introduced by Seneca. His great work, of which the Latin title is Institutio Oratoria, was published in 93 a.d. Others which he wrote are now lost.

Sextus Julius Frontinus (40-103 a.d.) was a writer upon various scientific subjects, such as land-surveying, irrigation, and military tactics. He took part in suppressing the rising of Civilis in Gaul, and afterwards succeeded Cerealis in Britain. He was thus well qualified to deal with military tactics, and he treated the subject in three books, which furnished material for the work of a later and more celebrated scientist, Yegetius. Frontinus modelled his language upon that of Caesar, but is better known perhaps as one of the Prefects of Britain than as a literateur.

Two writers bear the name of Pliny, related as uncle and nephew. The elder, C. Plinius Secundus (23-79 a.d.), was bom at Comum (Como), and won distinction as a man of science, as a soldier, and as a traveller, visiting in the latter capacity the little known and savage tribes dwelling along the shores of the German Ocean. His passion for physical science proved fatal to him; for chancing to be in command of the fleet at Misenum in the year 79 B.C., at the time of the famous eruption of Vesuvius which destroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii, he ventured too near the scene and was overpowered by the showers of ashes. His surviving work is the Jlistoria Naturalis, a collection of “20,000 facts from 500 authors,” arranged in 37 books, invaluable as an index to the scientific knowledge of the times. This work he presented in 77 a.d. to Titus, although he continued to revise and improve it until his death. Besides this, he composed a History of the German JJ'ars and a History of Home. The latter was a continuation of the History of Aufidius Bassus, and embraced the years from the accession of Nero to the fall of Jerusalem. Both are lost, as also are less pretentious works on grammar, tactics, and rhetoric. He was a man of vast learning and painstaking to a commendable degree, so that the loss of his Histories is perhaps one of those most to be deplored in this period.

His nephew was named C. Plinius Caecilius Secundus. Born in 62 a.d., he lived far beyond the present period, and was alive in 113 a.d. Master of a brilliant style, he had but small genius to feed it, but practised with success as a pleader in Eome, and attained to the dignity of the consulate and of a provincial governorship under Trajan. It was as legate of Bithynia that he wrote (between 97 and 108 B.C.) those many letters to the Emperor which constitute our best means for realizing the condition of the provinces at the commencement of the 2nd century a.d. Amongst other matters upon which he consulted his master was the treatment of the Christians and their “perverse and boundless superstition.” The letters fill nine books. He has left also a I>ane;iyric on Trajan as an example of his rhetorical powers. lie was a friend of Tacitus, and affected an admiration for Cicero like that of Quintilian. As Juvenal is our best authority for the external appearance of society in this period, so Pliny best reveals to us its internal shape. His Letters are curiously modem in their manner, and the writer also approached the modern fashion of thought in his keen appreciation for the beauties of nature—an appreciation rarely felt by the ancients, if often affected.