This venerable man was sixty-four years old when he was proclaimed emperor upon the death of Domitian. He was a native of the town of Narnia, in Umbria, and his virtues had won him a general esteem. The Prætorians, who had not been consulted in his election, never looked upon him with favor, and Nerva was obliged to act with great caution. He stopped trials for high treason, pardoned political offenders, diminished taxes, recalled exiles, and strove by every honest art to attain popularity. But the Prætorians, becoming mutinous, not only put the murderers of Domitian to death, but forced the emperor to approve of their act publicly. This insult was deeply felt by Nerva, who now resolved to adopt a colleague, in order to increase his own authority. He therefore selected M. Ulpius Trajan, a distinguished general, who was in command of the army of Lower Germany.
We now enter upon the most pleasing period in the history of the Roman Empire. During the next eighty years a general prosperity prevailed. The emperors were all men worthy to command, and capable of giving tranquillity to their vast dominions. Several of them were of the purest morals, of high mental cultivation, and are still looked upon as ornaments of the human race; and while they could not check the decline of their people, these virtuous emperors prevented, for a time, the fall of the Roman Empire.
Nerva, in order to elevate the condition of his people, purchased lands, which he distributed among them, and he sought to make them feel the necessity of labor and of self-dependence. But it was too late to reform the manners of the indolent, licentious plebs, corrupted by the indulgence of their tyrants. Nerva died of a fever, January 27, A.D. 98.
Trajan, the first emperor who was not a native of Italy, was born at Italica, in Spain, and was about forty years of age at the death of Nerva. His memory was so much revered among the Romans, that, two hundred and fifty years later, the Senate hailed the accession of the new emperor with the prayer that he might be happier than Augustus, better than Trajan. He was free from every vice except an occasional indulgence in wine. His mind was naturally strong, his manners pleasing, his appearance noble and imposing. He desired only to restore the simple manners and virtuous habits of an earlier age.
Trajan, after his adoption by Nerva, entered upon his high office at Cologne, and then traveled toward Rome. In A.D. 99 he entered that city on foot, followed by a small retinue, and was received with general good will. He abolished the trials for high treason, judicia majestatis, which had made Rome so often a scene of terror, restored freedom of speech to the Senate, revived the Comitia for the election of magistrates, and bound himself by oath to observe the laws. He punished the principal informers, banishing many of them to the barren islands around Italy, while he at once, by severe measures, reduced the turbulent Prætorians to obedience. His wife Plotina, who was a woman of excellent character, with her sister Marcina, revived by their virtues the dignity of the Roman matron. The society of the city was purified, and the family of the emperor offered an example of propriety that produced an excellent effect upon the manners of the higher ranks.
Among the first acts of Trajan was the foundation of public schools for the education and maintenance of poor children in various parts of Italy. He founded, too, the Ulpian Library at Rome, and adorned every part of his empire with magnificent buildings, roads, bridges, and various useful improvements. He seemed to live, in fact, wholly for his people, and passed his life in devising and executing plans for their advantage.
When Decebalus, king of the Dacians, sent to demand the tribute which had been promised him by Domitian, Trajan refused to be bound by the disgraceful treaty, and, having levied an army of 60,000 men, marched against the Dacians, who had boldly advanced across the Danube. A terrible battle took place, in which the Romans were victorious; but so great was the slaughter that sufficient linen could not be obtained to dress the wounds of the soldiers, and Trajan tore up his imperial robes to supply their wants. He took the capital of the Dacian king, defeated him in various encounters, and compelled him (A.D. 102) to make peace, giving up a part of his territory. Having returned to Rome, Trajan received from the Senate the surname of Dacicus. But in A.D. 104 the Dacians again rose in arms, and the Senate declared Decebalus a public enemy. Trajan led an army in person against the barbarians, and, to provide for an easy access to their territory, built a stone bridge across the Danube of immense size and strength, fortified at each end with towers. He next advanced into the midst of the hostile country, took the capital of the Dacians, and reduced them to subjection. Decebalus, in despair, fell by his own hand. All Dacia, comprising the modern countries of Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania, was made a Roman province; and several Roman colonies were planted among the barbarians, thus for the first time preparing for the spread of civilization in that savage country. Trajan now returned to Rome, to triumph a second time for his Dacian successes. He also began that famous Column in commemoration of his victories which still stands at Rome, and which shows in its rich sculpture the various captives and spoils of the Dacian war.
Arabia Petræa was also at this time added to the Roman Empire, after which a peace of several years succeeded. In A.D. 114, a Parthian war breaking out, Trajan hastened to the East, and, having passed the winter at Antioch, witnessed a severe earthquake, which shook that city as well as all Syria. He himself escaped with difficulty from a falling house. In the spring, at the head of his legions, he overran Armenia and formed it into a province. He next built a bridge across the Tigris, resembling that upon the Danube, and led his army into Assyria, a country never yet visited by a Roman general. He took Babylon and Ctesiphon, the capital of the Parthian kingdom, and, sailing down the Tigris, passed through the Persian Gulf, and annexed a large portion of Arabia Felix to his empire. The Jews, too, about this time revolted, but were subdued, after a brave resistance, and treated with great severity. His Eastern conquests, however, proved by no means secure, and his new subjects revolted as soon as his armies were gone. In A.D. 117 Trajan entered Southern Arabia to complete the subjection of that country, when he was seized with a dropsy and forced to return to Rome. He did not reach that city, but died, August 9th, A.D. 117, at Selinus, in Cilicia. His ashes were carried to Rome, and placed under the magnificent column which recorded his Dacian victories.
During Trajan's reign, the empire, already too extensive, was made more unwieldy by his various conquests. He was evidently ambitious of the fame of a conqueror, and possessed many of the qualities of an able general. He was also a skillful ruler of his immense dominions, leaving no portion unprotected by his vigilance. The only stain upon his fame is his persecution of the Christians, whom he continued to treat with severity even when convinced of their perfect innocence.
After the conclusion of the Dacian war he celebrated games and spectacles, which are said to have lasted through four months, and in which ten thousand gladiators fought and suffered for the entertainment of the people—a proof that the Romans were yet, in some respects, barbarians. Trajan, however, forbade the performance of indecent pantomimes. Trajan's bridge across the Danube is described by Dion Cassius as of greater importance than any of his other works. He designed it to form an easy access to his Dacian province. It was formed of twenty stone piers, distant about 170 feet from each other, and sixty feet wide: they were probably connected by arches of wood. Trajan also began to make roads across the Pontine Marshes, and founded several public libraries. Pliny the younger, who lived during this reign, was the most eminent literary man of the time, and wrote a fine panegyric upon his friend the emperor. Pliny saw the first eruption of Vesuvius, in which his uncle and adopted father, the elder Pliny, perished. He was a person of great wealth and uncommon generosity, having given 300,000 sesterces yearly to maintain the children of the poor in his native town of Comum. His letters to Trajan show that he was an excellent master, husband, and friend, and we may well believe that in this happy period many Romans resembled Trajan and his learned correspondent.
Hadrian, descended from a family of Hadria, in Picenum, was a military commander, distinguished for his courage and activity. His father had married an aunt of the late emperor, who, upon the father's death, was appointed one of Hadrian's guardians. Yet it is supposed Trajan made no nomination of a successor to the throne, and that his wife Plotina forged the will by which the world was made to believe that he had adopted Hadrian. This will was, however, published, and Hadrian entered upon his government at Antioch, August 11th, A.D. 117, and was there proclaimed emperor. The Senate, to whom he wrote a letter announcing his appointment, at once confirmed him in his power. He now made peace with the Parthians, and restored to Chosroes, their king, Assyria and Mesopotamia. He adopted the policy of Augustus, refusing to extend the limits of the empire. In A.D. 118 he returned to Rome, but was soon forced to march to the defense of the province of Mœsia, which had been invaded by the Sarmatæ and Roxolani. His object being merely to preserve the boundaries of the empire, he concluded a peace with the Roxolani, and probably purchased their submission. He was about to march against the Sarmatæ, when the news of a conspiracy at Rome was brought to him. He seems to have ordered the leaders to be put to death, although he afterward denied that he had done so. Having returned to Rome, he endeavored to win the affections of the people by donations, games, and gladiatorial shows. He also canceled a large amount of unpaid taxes, now due for fifteen years, and promised the Senators never to punish one of their body without their approval. He divided Italy into four regions, a Consular Magistrate being placed over each; and he introduced a new system of administration into the palace, the army, and the state, which lasted until the reign of Constantine the Great.
In A.D. 119 he began a journey through all the provinces of his empire, in order to examine into their condition, and to discover and amend any faults in the system of government. Hadrian, too, was fond of travel, and was never content to remain long in repose. A large part of his reign was occupied with this important journey. He first visited Gaul and Germany, and thence, in A.D. 121, passed over into Britain. Here he found the Britons already partially civilized, but unable to defend themselves from the incursions of their neighbors the Caledonians. To protect them from these forays, he built a wall across the island from the mouth of the Tyne to Solway, remains of which are still shown to the traveler. On his return he adorned the town of Nemausus (Nismes) with fine buildings, and then went into Spain, where he passed the winter. He returned to Rome A.D. 122, but soon after went to Athens, where he spent three years. During his residence in that city he began many magnificent buildings, and he seems to have looked upon Athens with singular affection and reverence. He visited Sicily, returned to Rome, set out for Africa, whence, after a brief visit, he once more visited Athens, to view the completion of his architectural designs. He finished the Temple of the Olympian Jupiter, the largest and most magnificent in the world, which had been commenced by Pisistratus, and left many other fine works behind him. Then he passed through Asia, inspecting the conduct of the provincial officers, and next traveled through Syria into Egypt, where his favorite Antinous, a beautiful youth, was drowned. This event seems to have filled him with a lasting grief. At length, in A.D. 131, he returned to Rome.
Here he published the Edictum Perpetuum, a codification of the edicts of the Roman Prætors, which was composed by Salvius Julianus, an eminent lawyer. The design of this work was to condense the vast body of the law into a convenient form.
A revolt broke out among the Jews, Hadrian having established a colony called Ælia Capitolina on the site of Jerusalem, and, not content with introducing pagan worship into the holy city, had even issued an edict forbidding the practice of circumcision. These imprudent measures produced a revolt among the Jews, who, under their leader Barcochab, fought with their usual courage and desperation. The war continued for several years, during which more than half a million of Jews are said to have perished. At length Julius Severus came from Britain to lead the Roman armies, and the rebellion was suppressed. The Jews were now forbidden to live in Jerusalem or its neighborhood, and the nation was scattered over the habitable world.
A war which seemed about to break out with the Albanians and Iberians in the East was prevented by Hadrian, who, with his usual policy, sent large presents to his enemies, and thus converted them into friends. He now returned from his travels to Rome, where he built his magnificent villa at Tibur, the extensive ruins of which may still be seen; and he passed the remainder of his life either at Tibur or in Rome. His health had been affected by his incessant labors, and in A.D. 135 he was seized with dropsy. Having no children, he adopted L. Ceionius, under the name of L. Ælius Verus, a young noble, who, however, died on the first day of the year A.D. 138. Hadrian then adopted Arrius Antoninus (afterward the Emperor Antoninus Pius), and presented him as his successor to the Senators assembled around his bed. At the same time he obliged him to adopt L. Commodus Verus, the son of the former Verus, and also M. Annius Verus, the future Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Ill health seems now to have fatally affected the mind and disposition of Hadrian. He became morose and cruel. He put many eminent nobles to death, and is said to have sunk into debauchery at his Tiburtine villa. His disease proving incurable, he several times attempted suicide; but having removed to Baiæ, hoping for some relief in that fine climate, he died there July 10th, A.D. 138, aged sixty-three. He was buried in the villa of Cicero, near Puteoli. When the Senate, enraged at his cruelties in the latter part of his life, wished to annul his acts, and would have refused him divine honors, Antoninus interposed, and excused his adopted father on the plea that ill health had disordered his mind. For this filial conduct he received the name of Pius. The Senate not only numbered Hadrian among the deities, but ordered temples to be erected in his honor. He left the empire prosperous and at peace. During his reign the Senate lost its importance in the administration of affairs, since Hadrian supplied its place by a Consistorium Principis, or council, composed of eminent men, presided over by a distinguished lawyer. Hadrian was fond of letters and the arts, and adorned every part of his empire with fine buildings or useful works. Wherever he traveled he did something for the benefit of his subjects.
This excellent man was born at Lanuvium, September 19th, A.D. 86, but his family came from the town of Nemausis (Nismes), in Gaul. Soon after his accession to the empire he married his daughter Faustina to Marcus Aurelius, procured for him the tribunitian and proconsular power from the Senate, and made him his associate in the labors of the government. His tranquil and prosperous reign is the most pleasing period in the history of the Roman Empire. The world enjoyed a general peace, and the emperor endeavored, by every wise measure, to secure the prosperity of his subjects. Like Numa, to whom he has often been compared, Antoninus was the peacemaker between distant nations, who were accustomed to submit their differences to him, and to abide implicitly by his award. He checked the persecutions to which the Christians had been exposed in former reigns, and to him Justin Martyr addressed his apology for Christianity. He watched carefully the conduct of the provincial governors, and applied the public revenues to founding schools, repairing roads and harbors, and encouraging every where industry and trade. When Asia and Rhodes were devastated by an earthquake, Antoninus expended large sums in relieving the sufferers by that calamity, as well as those who were reduced to indigence by the great fires which nearly destroyed Carthage, Narbonne, and Antioch, in A.D. 153. He appointed teachers of rhetoric in various cities of the empire, conferred honors and emoluments upon men of letters, and in A.D. 141 founded a charity-school for orphan girls, whom he styled Puellæ Alimentariæ Faustinianæ, in memory of his wife Faustina, who had died the year before. Faustina, however, does not seem to have merited his esteem, and the emperor was well acquainted with her faults; yet he generously overlooked them while she lived, and upon her death paid unusual honors to her memory. His piety, his devotion to the national religion, and his various virtues, seem to have won for him universal love and veneration, and his successors during the next century assumed the name of Antoninus as their worthiest title.
Antoninus made no attempt to extend the boundaries of the empire. The barbarous races who were now beginning to swarm upon the frontiers, the Germans and the Dacians, were held in check; and although the Brigantes made several inroads into Britain, they were defeated by A. Lollius, the Legate, in A.D. 141; and a wall of turf was raised beyond the former wall built by Agricola to check the incursions of the Caledonians. This peaceful reign, however, seems to have increased the general indolence of the people, and the martial spirit of the Roman soldiers declined in the idleness of their stationary camps. After a reign of twenty-three years, Antoninus died, March 7th, A.D. 161, in his villa at Lorium, aged seventy-five years.
He was succeeded by Aurelius, who was born at Rome A.D. 121. This prince is known as the Philosopher; and the wish of Plato that philosophers might be kings, or kings philosophers, seems to have been fulfilled at his accession. Aurelius had been from his youth a lover of truth. His morals and his intellect were trained by the purest and wisest men of his age. He had studied under Herodes Atticus and Cornelius Fronto, two famous rhetoricians, and also under the Stoic philosophers Junius Rusticus and Apollonius; and he had been constantly employed by his adopted father Antoninus as an associate in all his useful and benevolent designs. His health was, however, delicate, and he now admitted to a share in the empire his adopted brother, L. Verus, who possessed a vigorous constitution, but was addicted to licentious pleasures.
The general peace which had prevailed during the reign of Marcus Antoninus was forever passed away, and the world was in future to be desolated by almost perpetual hostilities. The Parthian king Vologeses III. having invaded the eastern provinces, and cut to pieces a Roman legion, L. Verus was sent to oppose his advance; but upon arriving at Antioch, Verus remained there, plunged in dissipation, while his brave lieutenant Avidius Cassius drove back the Parthians, invaded Mesopotamia, destroyed Seleucia, and penetrated to Babylon. Another Roman general conquered Armenia, and restored the legitimate king Soæmus to his throne. At the close of the war, Verus, A.D. 166, returned to Rome, and triumphed. His army brought the plague with it from the East, which now desolated Italy and Rome. Many illustrious men died; but the famous physician Galen (Claudius Galenus), who had come from Pergamus to Rome, was now enabled to exhibit his uncommon professional skill. This pestilence lasted for several years.
Verus died of intemperance A.D. 171, and Aurelius prevailed upon the Senate to rank him among the gods. He now marched against the Marcomanni, but was defeated in a great battle, and, in order to provide a new army, sold the imperial plate and jewels. He now took up a position at Sirmium (Sirmich), and endeavored to wear out the barbarians by skirmishes and sudden attacks, without venturing far from his strong-hold. At length, however, upon one occasion, having been drawn into a defile, the Roman army was relieved by a fierce storm of thunder and rain, which terrified the barbarians. Tradition attributes this sudden storm to the prayers of a Christian legion. The barbarians now submitted, and withdrew beyond the Danube.
Soon after, an insurrection broke out in Syria, where Avidius Cassius, at the instigation, it is said, of the emperor's wife Faustina, had proclaimed himself emperor. But Cassius, by his severity, disgusted his own soldiers, and was assassinated by a centurion. Aurelius lamented this event, since it deprived him of an opportunity of showing clemency to an erring friend. He at once set out for the East, and there freely forgave all those who had conspired against him. He took the young family of Cassius under his protection, and ordered the papers of that officer to be destroyed, lest they might disclose the names of the conspirators. Faustina, who had accompanied her husband to Cilicia, died soon after, it is said, by her own hand.
It is remarkable that this philosophic emperor should have permitted a cruel persecution of the Christians in A.D. 177, perhaps at the instigation of the Stoic philosophers—the only blot upon his general humanity and benevolence. Among the victims of this persecution was Justin Martyr, the author of the Apologies for Christianity, addressed to Antoninus, as well as to Aurelius himself. Toward the close of his reign, having become convinced of the falseness of the charges made against the Christians, Aurelius became once more tolerant and philosophic.
In A.D. 176 the emperor triumphed at Rome for his various successes. He gave a donation of eight pieces of gold to every citizen, and made his son Commodus his colleague. In the mean time the barbarians in the interior of Europe, moved by a general impulse, began to press upon the frontiers of the empire, and from this time seem never to have ceased their inroads until the final destruction of the Roman power. Aurelius marched, A.D. 177, to the frontier, defeated the barbarians in various engagements, and had perhaps proved the savior and second founder of Rome, when he was seized with a fever at Vindobona (Vienna), A.D. 180, and died after a few days' illness. He was the last of the Roman emperors who labored for the welfare of his people. He was, no doubt, the greatest and wisest of them all, and he united the different talents of a man of learning, a fine writer, a skillful soldier, and a benevolent, judicious ruler. His "Meditations," which have made him known to posterity, are among the most delightful productions of the human intellect, while his private character seems to have been no less attractive than his writings.
The depraved Commodus succeeded his virtuous father at the age of twenty. He had been educated with singular care, but was wholly given up to coarse sensuality. The people, however, still hoped that he might be worthy of his father, and received him, upon his accession, with loud expressions of joy. For a short time he concealed his true disposition; but his sister Lucilla, jealous of her brother's wife Crispina, formed a conspiracy against him in A.D. 182, and he escaped with difficulty from the hand of the assassin. From this moment he threw off all disguise, and indulged his natural vices without restraint. He put to death the most illustrious men of the time, encouraged informers and false accusations, and filled Rome with terror. In the midst of these cruelties he often sang, danced, or played the buffoon in public, fought as a gladiator in the circus, and ordered the people to worship him as a second Hercules. His lieutenant Marcellus, in A.D. 184, defeated the Caledonians, after they had passed the long wall of Hadrian, and had ravaged the northern part of Britain; and in A.D. 191 an invasion of the Frisians was repelled. Commodus, however, paid no attention to the affairs of the empire. In A.D. 189 Italy suffered from a pestilence and famine, when the people of Rome rose against the emperor's præfect, Cleander, and tore him to pieces. Commodus still continued his murders, and was at last assassinated by the directions of his mistress, Marcia, whose death he had resolved upon. He died December 31st, A.D. 192. The Senate ordered his memory to be held infamous, and his body to be dragged by iron hooks through the streets, and then to be thrown into the Tiber; but his successor Pertinax prevailed that it should be placed in the mausoleum of Hadrian. Such was the son of Marcus Aurelius.
Pertinax, an aged senator of consular rank, and now Præfect of the city, was summoned by the conspirators, who came to his house late at night, after the murder of Commodus, to ascend the vacant throne. He was one of the few friends and ministers of Marcus Aurelius who yet survived, and, having filled many important offices, had always been distinguished for firmness, prudence, and integrity. The rumor was spread that Commodus had died of apoplexy, and that Pertinax had succeeded him; but the Prætorian Guards were dissatisfied at his election. The Senate, however, confirmed the choice of the conspirators, and Pertinax lived among his own order rather as an equal than a master. His manners were simple, his mode of life frugal, and he sought to revive the pleasing simplicity of the early Republic.
Pertinax administered justice with strictness, released those who had been left in prison by Commodus, reformed the finances and introduced economy, redivided the uncultivated lands among those who would till them, removed oppressive restrictions upon trade, and deserved the respect of the wiser portion of his subjects.
But the Prætorians were never reconciled to his rule, and on the 28th of March, A.D. 193, eighty-six days after his election, they broke into the imperial palace, and struck down the emperor with innumerable blows. His head was separated from his body, and, being placed upon a lance, was carried in triumph to the Prætorian camp, while the people silently lamented the death of this virtuous ruler.
The soldiers, meanwhile, proclaimed from the ramparts of their camp that the throne of the world would be sold at auction to the highest bidder. Didius Julianus, a wealthy Senator, whose age had not quenched his vanity and ambition, offered about a thousand dollars to each man for the possession of the prize. He was declared emperor, and, surrounded by the armed Prætorians, was carried to the Senate, who were forced to accept the selection of the soldiers. But the Senators and the people felt deeply the disgrace of their country, and even the Prætorians were ashamed of their unworthy choice. Julianus found himself on the throne of the world without a friend.
The armies in the provinces, when they heard of these transactions at the capital, rose in revolt, and refused to acknowledge the authority of Julian. Clodius Albinus commanded the legions in Britain, Septimius Severus those in Pannonia, and Pescennius Niger the army of the East. Severus, more active than his competitors, was saluted by his soldiers as emperor, and marched rapidly toward Rome. Julian, deserted by the Prætorians, was condemned to death by the Senate, and was executed as a common criminal after a reign of only sixty-six days. Severus was acknowledged as their lawful emperor by the Senate, June 2, A.D. 193, and his first act was to disarm the Prætorian Guards and banish them from the capital.
He next marched against Niger, and defeated him in two battles, while he was also successful in a severe contest with Clodius Albinus at Lyons. Both of his competitors were put to death, and Severus, now set free from fear of rivalry, began to show the native cruelty of his disposition. Forty-one Senators, whom he accused of having favored Albinus, were executed, with their wives and children; and many of the provincial nobles of Spain and Gaul shared their fate. Yet Severus was in many respects a useful ruler; strict in the administration of the laws, careful to correct abuses, and restraining his subjects with stern impartiality. Peace returned to the provinces, cities were repeopled, roads repaired, Rome abounded in provisions, and the people were satisfied. Severus changed the constitution of the Prætorian Guards, and filled up their ranks with the bravest soldiers of the legions of the frontier. These barbarians, he thought, would be able to suppress any rebellion that might arise; and he increased the number to fifty thousand men. The Præfect of the Prætorians, who had at first been a simple soldier, now became the chief minister of the emperor, and was at the head of the finances and even of the law. The celebrated lawyer Papinian was appointed Præfect after the fall of Plautianus; and several great jurisconsults, particularly Paulus and Ulpian, flourished under the reign of Severus or his family.
Severus, however, was a military despot, and, despising the feeble Senate, assumed both the legislative and the executive power. The jurisconsults, in fact, from this reign, begin to treat the emperor as the source of all law, the Senate and the people being no longer considered in the state. But this arbitrary rule, introduced by Severus, is thought to have tended more than any thing else to destroy the vigor of the Roman Empire, by leading the people to an abject dependence upon their rulers.
The wife of Severus, Julia Domna, a Syrian lady of great beauty and various accomplishments, became the mother of two sons, Caracalla and Geta, and the emperor hoped that they would prove worthy of the high office to which they were born. They soon, however, showed themselves incapable of any serious study or employment, and were chiefly remarkable for the hatred they bore toward each other. The court was already divided into two factions, composed of the adherents of either son; and the emperor, who in vain strove to remove their rivalry, foresaw that one must fall a victim to the hatred of the other.
In A.D. 208 a war broke out in Britain, and Severus, although now more than sixty years of age, and afflicted with the gout, so that he was carried on a litter, set out at the head of his army, attended by his two sons, and penetrated into the interior of Scotland. This was his last enterprise, for he died at York, February 4, A.D. 211. He left his empire to his two sons, who returned to Rome, and were acknowledged by the Senate and the army.
Their discord, however, still continued, and they planned a division of the empire, a measure which was then distasteful to all the Romans, and which was only prevented from taking place by the tears and entreaties of their mother, Julia Domna. Geta, the younger son, who was of a gentle disposition, soon after, in A.D. 212, February 27th, was murdered by the cruel and relentless Caracalla. Twenty thousand of his friends are said to have been put to death at the same time, and his unhappy mother, Julia Domna, was forced to receive her guilty son with feigned smiles and words of approbation. Remorse, however, fastened upon Caracalla, and the shade of Geta haunted him wherever he went. His cruelties now redoubled. He put to death Papinian, the Prætorian Præfect, the splendid ornament of the Roman bar; and his massacres filled every part of the empire with mourning and terror. In A.D. 213 he left the city of Rome, and never returned thither again; the rest of his reign was passed in the provinces, and wherever he came he indulged himself in endless murders, confiscations, and acts of violence. "He was," says Gibbon, "the common enemy of mankind." He directed a general massacre of the people of Alexandria, who had lampooned him, and viewed the scene from a secure post in the Temple of Serapis. To retain the affections of his army, he lavished upon them immense sums, the plunder of his empire; and he was at length assassinated, March 8, A.D. 217, at the instigation of Macrinus, one of the Prætorian Præfects, who had discovered that the tyrant had planned his own death.
Macrinus, Præfect of the Prætorian Guard, was elected emperor March 11, A.D. 217, and the Senate and the provinces submitted without a murmur. But the new emperor was disliked by the nobles on account of his humble origin, and soon offended his army by endeavoring to reform their discipline. The Empress Julia now withdrew by a voluntary death from the sorrow which surrounded her, and the family of Severus became extinct. A rebellion broke out in the Syrian army, who proclaimed Bassianus, the grandson of Julia Mæsa, sister of the late empress, and who assumed the name of Antoninus. He pretended that he was the natural son of Caracalla. A battle took place, in which Macrinus was defeated, and soon after put to death; and Elagabalus, for that is the name under which this monster is commonly known, ascended the throne.
He at once plunged into every vice. The sun was worshiped at Emessa under the name of Elagabalus, from whence the new emperor derived his surname, having been a priest in the temple; and he now introduced the lascivious rites of the Syrian deity into the capital of the world. A magnificent temple of the god Elagabalus was raised on the Palatine Mount, and the grave and dignified nobles of Rome were forced to take part in the ceremonies, clothed in long Phœnician tunics.
It would be impossible to describe the vices of this wretched being, who seems to have sunk to the very extreme of depravity. His cousin, however, Alexander Severus, as if to show that human nature had not wholly declined, was amiable, virtuous, and learned. Elagabalus was murdered by the Prætorians March 10, A.D. 222, and Alexander placed upon the throne.
Alexander Severus seems to have inclined toward the Christian faith, which was now very widely extended throughout the empire. He revoked all former edicts against the Christians, and ordered the words "Do unto others as you would have them do to you" to be inscribed upon his palaces and other buildings. The Persian Empire was now arising in new strength under the house of the Sassanides, and a war having broken out with them, Alexander marched against the Persians, and gained a considerable victory. He returned to Rome in triumph, and entered the city in a chariot drawn by four elephants. Soon after, the Germans having invaded Gaul, he led his army to the defense of the frontier; but, while attempting to reform the discipline of the Gallic legions, he was assassinated by a band of discontented soldiers, and Maximin, a Thracian peasant of great personal strength, who had risen to a high command in the army, was raised to the throne.
Maximin, A.D. 235, began his reign by massacring many of the friends of the late emperor, and even all those who showed any regret for his death. He was a fierce, ignorant barbarian, but was very successful in his wars against the Germans, having ravaged their country, and sent great numbers of them to be sold as slaves in Italy. He also defeated the Dacians and Sarmatians. But his severities produced a revolt in Africa, where the legions proclaimed their proconsul Gordian emperor, then in the eightieth year of his age. The Senate now revolted against Maximin, and ordered all his friends in Rome to be put to death. Maximin now made peace with the barbarians, and marched toward Italy, while, in the mean time, Gordian and his son were defeated and slain in Africa. The Senate immediately elected Papianus and Balbinus emperors, to whom, in order to gratify the people, they joined the younger Gordian, then only twelve years of age. Maximin entered Italy and besieged Aquileia, but his soldiers, weary of the length of the siege, put him to death, A.D. 238. The Goths on the Danube and the Persians in the East now assailed the empire, and at the same time the Prætorian Guards murdered his two associates, leaving Gordian sole emperor of Rome. Gordian was married to the daughter of Misitheus, Præfect of the Prætorians, an excellent minister and commander. Together they marched to the East, and defeated the Persians under their king Sapor, in various engagements. Misitheus now died, and Gordian appointed the Arab Philip his prime minister. Sapor was again defeated; but the Arab conspired against Gordian, his benefactor, who was assassinated in A.D. 244.
Philip, having made peace with the Persians, returned to Rome, where he won the favor of the people by his mild conduct. In his reign the secular games were celebrated, it being reckoned one thousand years since the foundation of the city. Philip ruled with mildness, and was an enemy to persecution. In A.D. 249, however, the Illyrian army revolted, and proclaimed their commander, Trajanus Decius, emperor, who defeated Philip near Verona, and put him to death. His son, who had remained at Rome, was slain by the Prætorian Guards.
In A.D. 250 the Goths invaded the empire. These fierce barbarians came from the north of Europe, and were among the chief instruments of the fall of Rome. Decius, who does not seem to have wanted skill and courage, was finally defeated and slain by them, together with his son. Decius is remembered as one of the most cruel persecutors of the Christians. The innocent victims of his rage were subjected to torture, driven to hide in the wilderness among rocks and forests, and were glad to live among the wild beasts, more humane than man. The Bishop of Rome, Fabian, the bishops of Antioch and Alexandria, and many more eminent in the Church, suffered from the unrelenting severity of this persecutor.
A son of Decius, Hostilianus, together with Gallus, an experienced soldier, were now made emperors. They concluded a disgraceful, but probably necessary peace with the Goths. But Hostilianus soon after died, and Gallus was defeated and slain by Æmilianus, who was himself assassinated, and Valerian, the Censor, in A.D. 253, was made emperor. A very high character is given of this ruler, whose reign, however, was filled with disasters. Having joined his son Gallienus with him, Valerian vainly sought to repel the attacks of innumerable enemies on every side of the empire—the Goths, the Franks, the Scythians, and the Persians. In a campaign against the latter Valerian was taken prisoner, and for nine years languished in captivity, his unnatural son making no effort for his liberation.
The Allemanni, meanwhile, had entered Italy, ravaged its northern territory, and even threatened Rome. They withdrew, loaded with plunder. To gain allies among the barbarians, Gallienus now married the daughter of the king of the Marcomanni. Every part of the empire seems now to have been laid open to the invaders. Greece was ravaged by the Goths; the famous Temple of Diana at Ephesus was burned by them, together with that fine city; and Sapor, king of the Persians, overran Syria and Asia. He was, however, finally repelled by the brave Odenatus, who, with his queen Zenobia, ruled at Palmyra.
Valerian died in captivity, while a crowd of usurpers rose in arms against the weak Gallienus. There were nineteen pretenders to the throne according to Gibbon, but this period is usually known as that of the Thirty Tyrants. This melancholy period was also marked by a pestilence, which raged for fifteen years in every province. Five thousand persons are said to have died daily at Rome for some time; cities were depopulated, and the number of the human species must have sensibly declined. A famine preceded and attended the pestilence, earthquakes were common, and the third century is, no doubt, the most melancholy period in the history of Europe.
Gallienus was murdered in A.D. 268, and was succeeded by Marcus Aurelius Claudius, who died of a pestilence which had broken out in his army in Egypt. Aurelian, a native of Pannonia, was the next emperor. His reign lasted four years and nine months, but was filled with remarkable events. He abandoned Dacia to the Goths, defeated the Alemanni, and drove them out of Italy. But he foresaw the danger of future invasions, and surrounded Rome with new walls about twenty-one miles in extent. In A.D. 272 he marched against Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, who ventured to defy the power of Rome. This illustrious woman was not only learned, beautiful, and an agreeable writer, but governed the East for five years with discretion and success. Aurelian was amazed at her warlike preparations upon the fall of Palmyra, and treated her beautiful city with lenity; but the Palmyrenians having rebelled, the city was taken by storm, and its people put to death. The ruins of Palmyra are still among the most remarkable of the ancient world.
Aurelian now returned to Rome to celebrate his triumph. The spoils of every climate were borne before him; his captives were from Germany, Syria, and Egypt, and among them were the Emperor Tetricus and the beautiful Zenobia, bound with fetters of gold. A whole day was consumed in the passage of the triumphal procession through the streets of Rome. But Aurelian, who was illiterate, unpolished, and severe, failed to win the regard of his people, and was plainly more at his ease at the head of his army than in the cultivated society of Rome. He returned, therefore, to the East, where he died, as was usual with so many of the emperors, by the hand of an assassin, in A.D. 275. He restored vigor to the empire, and preserved it from instant destruction.
The army, filled with sorrow for the loss of the emperor, revenged his death by tearing his assassin in pieces; and they then wrote a respectful letter to the Senate, asking the Senators to select his successor. The Senate, however, passed a decree that the army should name the new emperor. The soldiers, in their turn, refused, and thus for eight months an interregnum prevailed while this friendly contest continued. At last the Senate appointed the virtuous Tacitus, who claimed a descent from his namesake, the famous historian. Tacitus, however, who was seventy years old, sank under the hardships of his first campaign, and died A.D. 276, at Tyania, in Cappadocia.
His brother Florian then ascended the throne, but was defeated and put to death by Probus, the best soldier of the age, who, in six years, once more repelled the barbarians from every part of the empire. He delivered Gaul from the ravages of the Germans, pursued them across the Rhine, and every where defeated them. He suppressed, also, several insurrections, and employed his soldiers in various useful works. But at length, weary of these labors, they put Probus to death, A.D. 282.
Carus, the next emperor, was singularly frugal in his mode of life. When the Persian embassadors visited him in his tent they found him sitting upon the grass, clothed in a coarse robe, and eating his supper of bacon and hard pease. Carus gained many victories over the Persians, but died suddenly in A.D. 283. His two sons, Carinus and Namerian, succeeded him, but were soon assassinated, giving place to the more famous Diocletian.