CHAP. VIII.

(Of Rome, 725—Of Christ, 11.)

After the death of Antony and Cleopatra, [1]Egypt was [2]reduced to the [3]form of a [4]province. Cæsar, in the year 725, [5]triumphed three times, for the [6]conquest of [7]Dalmatia, the victory at Actium, and the [8]reducing of Egypt. After which he [9]advised with Agrippa and Mecænas, either [10]seriously, or [11]pretendedly, about the [12]laying down of his [13]authority; Agrippa was for it, Mecænas against it; this last [14]advice he [15]resolved to follow, but [16]brought a [17]bill [18]nevertheless into the senate [19]to divest himself of his power, and by that [20]stratagem got it [21]secured to him both by the senate and the people, in the year 726.

[22]Cornelius Gallus, a [23]Roman [24]knight, [25]governor of Egypt, being [26]banished for his [27]insolence, slew himself. Augustus [28]carried on a war against the Cantabri and Austus for some years, by his [29]lieutenants: that is to say, from the year 729 to 735, in which they were entirely [30]reduced by Agrippa; who, upon his [31]return [32]refused a [33]triumph which was [34]offered him. [35]Phraates, king of the Parthians, about this time [36]restored the Roman [37]standards that had been [38]taken from Crassus.

For two of his [39]friends, Mecænas and M. Vipsanius Agrippa, he had a [40]particular [41]esteem above all others; the [42]former was a great [43]patron of [44]learning and [45]learned men. Augustus made Agrippa his [46]son-in-law, by [47]marrying his daughter Julia to him, whom he had by Scribonia. She had children, C. and L. Cæsars, Agrippa Posthumus, Agrippina married to Germanicus, Drusus’s son, Livia’s [48]grandson, and Julia, whom Æmilius married. He took Livia, when she was [49]big with child, by her former [50]husband Tiberius Nero, by whom he had no [51]issue, though she had by Nero, Tiberius, who was emperor afterwards, and Drusus who [52]died in Germany.

Tiberius having gotten the [53]tribunitial [54]power for five years, was [55]sent to [56]settle the [57]affairs of Armenia. Soon after he [58]retired to Rhodes, where, for fear of [59]falling under the [60]displeasure of his [61]step-sons, he [62]continued seven years. But the [63]occasion of his [64]retirement was his [65]aversion for his wife Julia, who [66]spent her time in all [67]manner of [68]debauchery. Augustus, upon a [69]discovery of her [70]pranks, [71]banished her.

The [72]age of this emperor [73]produced several great [74]men: amongst the [75]Greeks [76]Dionysius Halicarnassensis and [77]Nicholas Damascenus were [78]famous for their [79]talents in writing [80]history; and amongst the [81]Latins [82]Cornelius Nepos, Atticus’s [83]son-in-law, and Sallust, who died four years before the [84]battle of Actium. In this age lived likewise those [85]celebrated [86]poets, [87]Virgil, [88]Horace, [89]Ovid, [90]Tibullus, and [91]Propertius.

Augustus died at Nola, in Campania, in the 14th year of [92]Christ, and the 76th year of his age, having [93]held the empire by himself, from the death of M. Antony, forty-three years; he was an [94]excellent [95]prince, and [96]necessary for those times.

He was [97]succeeded by Tiberius, a prince of a [98]savage [99]disposition, and [100]given up to all manner of debauchery; he was the son of Livia by Nero. He [101]dissembled his [102]vices at the [103]beginning of his reign with [104]wonderful [105]art, through fear of Germanicus, his brother’s son, whom he had [106]adopted at the [107]command of his [108]father-in-law. For, as he [109]gained a great [110]reputation by his [111]virtues and [112]exploits in war, he was [113]looked upon with a [114]jealous eye, as [115]fitter for the empire than himself. He [116]removed him from Germany where he had [117]wonderful [118]success against the enemy, into the [119]East, to [120]fight against the Parthians, in the year 769, having sent at the same time Cn. Piso into Syria, between whom and Germanicus was a [121]mortal enmity. Wherefore Germanicus died, not without the [122]suspicion of having been [123]poisoned by him, for which being [124]prosecuted at Rome by Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus, he [125]prevented his [126]sentence by a [127]voluntary death.

[128]Ælius Sejanus, a Roman [129]knight, was afterwards [130]raised by Tiberius, who after a great many [131]wicked [132]actions, [133]aiming now at no less than the empire itself, was, by a [134]letter of Tiberius to the senate, [135]thrown from the [136]top of all his [137]grandeur, and died by the [138]hand of an [139]executioner, with all his [140]family, in the 18th year of Tiberius.

About the 18th year of his [141]reign, he [142]retired to Caprea, an [143]island on the [144]coast of Campania, with a [145]design of never returning to the town, where he [146]privately [147]wallowed in all manner of [148]debauchery, and died in the 23rd year of his reign, to the great [149]joy of every one, being then in the 78th year of his age.

[150]Jesus Christ, the son of God, was [151]born of the [152]Virgin Mary, in the reign of Augustus, and [153]crucified in that of Tiberius, being then thirty-three years of age.

Caius Cæsar Caligula, so [154]called from a [155]shoe [156]worn by the [157]soldiery, which, when a boy, he [158]wore in the camp, [159]succeeded Tiberius, being the son of Germanicus and Agrippina, the daughter of M. Agrippa and Julia. He was [160]entered into the five and twentieth year of his age. Great was the joy of the people upon his first [161]accession to the [162]throne, and no less were their [163]hopes that he would be [164]like Germanicus his father, who is said to have been [165]possessed of all the good [166]qualities of [167]body and [168]mind. And indeed as the worst of princes frequently [169]begin well, he gave many [170]signs of his [171]moderation and [172]regard to the good of the public. But soon after, as if he had [173]put off all [174]humanity, he [175]outstripped the most savage [176]creatures in [177]cruelty; and having made sad [178]havoc among all [179]ranks and [180]degrees of men, he [181]killed likewise Macro, [182]commander of the [183]prætorian [184]bands, by whose [185]means he had been made emperor. He also [186]committed [187]crimes with his sisters. Having in a year’s time [188]exhausted [189]immense [190]treasures that had been [191]left by Tiberius, he [192]fell to [193]proscribing and [194]plundering. Among other proofs of his cruelty, he was [195]heard to say, I [196]wish the Roman people had but one [197]neck. In all his [198]buildings, or public [199]works, he [200]effected what was [201]looked upon to be impossible. He [202]ordered himself to be [203]worshipped as a god throughout the [204]world, and [205]temples to be [206]erected to him. At last, he was slain by Chærea Cassius, [207]tribune of a [208]cohort of his [209]guards, and some others, who had [210]entered into a [211]plot against him, after he had [212]reigned three years, ten months, and eight days, and [213]lived twenty-nine years.

Claudius Nero, Caligula’s uncle, and the son of Drusius [214]reigned after him, [215]naturally no bad man, but [216]senseless and foolish. He was not naturally [217]cruel, but only so when [218]instigated by others, [219]especially by his [220]freedmen and his [221]wives, into whose hands he [222]gave up himself and his [223]affairs. His first lady was Messalina, whose [224]depravity and [225]dissoluteness every body [226]knew but himself; till at last [227]venturing to [228]marry one Silius, a knight, she was by her [229]husband’s order slain, together with her [230]paramour, at the [231]instigation of [232]Narcissus, who with [233]Pallas, another of his [234]freedmen, [235]ruled him entirely.

Another [236]instance of his [237]folly is, that after Messalina was [238]put to death, by whom he had his son [239]Britannicus, and Octavia, he married Agrippina Germanicus his brother’s daughter, the mother of Nero by [240]Domitius, in the ninth year of his reign, by the [241]advice of Pallas: at whose and Agrippina’s [242]request, he [243]adopted Nero, and [244]passing by Britannicus, [245]designed him for his [246]successor. He [247]banished the [248]Jews from Rome, and the [249]mathematicians out of Italy: and [250]undertaking an [251]expedition into [252]Britain, he [253]subdued it all in sixteen days time, as Dio says, in the third year of his reign. He died in the year of Christ 54, by [254]poison [255]put in a [256]mushroom by Agrippina. He reigned thirteen years eight months and twenty days, and lived sixty-four years.

Domitius Nero, [257]mounted the throne after the death of his [258]step-father, being then seventeen years of age. He at first, [259]behaved himself in such a manner, that he might be [260]reckoned among the best of [261]princes; that is, as long as he [262]listened to the [263]precepts of his [264]master Seneca. Afterwards, being [265]corrupted with [266]luxury and [267]flattery, he [268]became more like a [269]monster than a man. He [270]stopped the progress of the Parthians, who had [271]over-run Armenia, by Corbulo, a [272]gallant [273]commander, and a person of great [274]virtue and [275]authority, who [276]recovered Armenia, in the ninth year of Nero, and [277]obliged [278]Tiridates, Volegesis king of the Parthians brother, to [279]come to Rome, and to [280]beg his [281]crown of Nero, in the thirteenth year of Nero’s reign; in which year he [282]recalled Corbulo, and put him to death. He [283]destroyed Britannicus by [284]poison in the very [285]beginning of his reign. He likewise [286]ordered his mother Agrippina to be put to death, after having first [287]disgraced and [288]banished her from the [289]court, which [290]parricide, that nothing might be [291]wanting to [292]complete the [293]unhappiness of the times, the Senate [294]approved of. Afterwards having married Poppæa, whom he [295]took from Otho, he [296]banished Octavia, and at last put her to death. Upon the [297]discovery of a [298]plot, which Piso, and some others had [299]laid against him; he put to death the [300]poet Lucan, and Seneca the philosopher, with several others, in the year of Christ 65, and the same year he [301]kicked his wife Poppæa, when [302]pregnant, [303]to death. He had the [304]impudence to [305]appear upon the [306]stage, and [307]act amongst the [308]players and [309]harpers, and [310]ride [311]chariot-races at the [312]Circensian games; and to [313]represent for his [314]diversion the [315]appearance of [316]Troy in [317]flames, he [318]set fire to the city, and [319]imputed it to the [320]Christians. He [321]became so odious and [322]contemptible by his [323]villanies, that he was [324]forsaken by all, and being [325]sought for in order to be [326]punished, he [327]performed the [328]executioner’s [329]office upon himself, in the 14th year of his [330]reign, and 68th of our Lord.

A little before Nero’s death, [331]C. Julius Vindex, who was [332]proprætor of Gaul, [333]openly [334]rebelled, and [335]persuaded Sergius Galba, [336]governor of Spain, to [337]set up for emperor, which he accordingly did, and [338]put Vindex to death presently after. He reigned about seven months, being very [339]old. He was slain together with Piso, whom he had [340]adopted, after M. Silvius Otho was [341]proclaimed emperor; he reigned only about three months.

In the mean time, Vitellius [342]trusting to the [343]legions of Germany, which he [344]commanded in [345]quality of a [346]consular [347]lieutenant-general, [348]took upon him the [349]name of emperor, and [350]defeated Otho’s army in a [351]rencounter near [352]Bebriacum, who being [353]weary of a civil war, killed himself.

Vitellius reigned eight months after Otho, and was [354]succeeded by Vespasian, who had been [355]sent by Nero to [356]quell the [357]Jews. He reigned ten years with the greatest [358]justice and [359]clemency. He was a great [360]encourager of [361]learning and [362]learned men. The only thing that was [363]blamed in him, was his [364]covetousness, which he used to [365]excuse, by [366]alleging the [367]emptiness of the [368]Exchequer.

The war in [369]Judea was [370]finished in his time, to which he was sent by Nero, as we have [371]already [372]said. It was [373]begun by some [374]seditious [375]people that were [376]headed by Eleazar, the son of Ananias, the [377]high-priest, who [378]took up arms against the Romans, under the [379]pretence of [380]religion. Cestius Gallus, [381]lieutenant of Syria, [382]laid siege to [383]Jerusalem, but was [384]beaten off with great [385]slaughter in the 12th year of Nero. The [386]victorious Jews upon their [387]return to Jerusalem, amongst other generals, [388]made choice of [389]Josephus, the son of [390]Matthias for one. In the year of Christ 67, Vespasian, [391]carrying his arms through Galilee and Judea, [392]took, besides most of their towns, Josephus their [393]commander, who [394]foretold his [395]rise. At last, he [396]fell upon Jerusalem, the [397]metropolis of the [398]nation, which was taken by his son Titus, in the second year of his reign.