by Eutropius
XIV
He allowed the more eminent men to give entertainments with the same magnificence, and the same number of attendants, as himself. In the display of games after his victory, he was so munificent, that he is said to have exhibited a hundred lions at once. Having, then, rendered the state happy, both by his excellent management and gentleness of disposition, he died in the eighteenth year of his reign and the sixty-first of his life, and was enrolled among the gods, all unanimously voting that such honour should be paid him.
XV
His successor, LUCIUS ANTONINUS COMMODUS, had no resemblance to his father, except that he fought successfully the Germans. He endeavoured to alter the name of the month of September17 to his own, so that it should he called Commodus. But he was corrupted with luxury and licentiousness. He often fought, with gladiator’s arms, in the fencing school, and afterwards with men of that class in the amphitheatre. He died so sudden a death, that he was thought to have been strangled or despatched by poison, after he had reigned twelve years and eight months after his father, and in the midst of such execration from all men, that even after his death he was styled “the enemy of the human race.”
XVI
To him succeeded PERTINAX, at a very advanced age, having reached his seventieth year; he was appointed to be emperor by a decree of the senate, when he was holding the office of prefect of the city. He was killed in a mutiny of the praetorian soldiers, by the villany of Julianus, on the eightieth day of his reign.
XVII
After his death SALVIUS JULIANUS seized the government, a man of noble birth, and eminently skilled in the law; he was the grandson of that Salvius Julianus who composed the perpetual edict18 in the reign of the emperor Hadrian. He was defeated by Severus at the Milvian bridge, and killed in the palace. He lived only eight months after he began to reign.
XVIII
SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS then assumed the government of the Roman empire; a native of Africa, born in the province of Tripolis, and town of Leptis. He was the only African, in all the time before or after him, that became emperor. He was first praefect of the treasury, afterwards military tribune, and then rose, through several offices and posts of honour, to the government of the whole state. He had an inclination to be called Pertinax, in honour of that Pertinax who had been killed by Julian. He was very parsimonious, and naturally cruel. He conducted many wars, and with success. He killed Pescennius Niger, who had raised a rebellion in Egypt and Syria, at Cyzicus. He overcame the Parthians, the interior Arabians, and the Adiabeni. The Arabians he so effectually reduced, that he made them a province; hence he was called Parthicus, Arabicus, and Adiabenicus. He rebuilt many edifices throughout the whole Roman world. In his reign, too, Clodius Albinus, who had been an accomplice of Julianus in killing Pertinax, set himself up for Caesar in Gaul, and was overthrown and killed at Lyons.
XIX
Severus, in addition to his glory in war, was also distinguished in the pursuits of peace, being not only accomplished in literature, but having acquired a complete knowledge of philosophy. The last war that he had was in Britain; and that he might preserve, with all possible security, the provinces which he had acquired, he built a rampart of thirty-two miles long from one sea to the other. He died at an advanced age at York, in the eighteenth year and fourth month of his reign, and was honoured with the title of god. He left his two sons, Bassianus and Geta, to be his successors, but desired that the name of Antoninus should be given by the senate to Bassianus only, who, accordingly, was named Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Bassianus, and was his father’s successor. As for Geta, he was declared a public enemy, and soon after put to death.
XX
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS BASSIANUS, then, who . was also called CARACALLA, was a man very much of his father’s disposition, but somewhat more rough and vindictive. He erected a bath of excellent construction at Rome, which is called the bath of Antoninus,19 but did nothing else worthy of record. He wanted ability to control his passions; for he married his own step-mother Julia. He died in Osdroene,20 near Edessa, while he was planning an expedition against the Parthians, in the sixth year and second month of his reign, having scarcely passed the forty-second year of his age. He was buried with a public funeral.
XXI
OPILIUS MACRINUS, who was captain of the praetorian guards, and his son DIADUMENUS, were then made emperors, but did nothing memorable, in consequence of the shortness of their reign; for it lasted but a year and two months. They were both killed together in a mutiny of the soldiers.
XXII
After these, MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS was made emperor, who was thought to be the son of Antoninus Caracalla. He was however priest of the temple of Heliogabalus.21 Having come to Rome with high expectations on the part of the army and the senate, he polluted himself with every kind of impurity. He led a life of the utmost shamelessness and obscenity, and was killed at the end of two years and eight months in a tumult of the soldiers. His mother Soëmia, a native of Syria, perished with him.
XXIII
To him succeeded AURELIUS ALEXANDER, a very young man, who was named Caesar by the army, and Augustus by the senate. Having undertaken a war with the Persians, he defeated their king Xerxes with great glory. He enforced military discipline with much severity, and disbanded whole legions that raised a disturbance. He had for his adviser, or secretary of state, Ulpian, the compiler of the law. He was also in great favour at Rome. He lost his life in Gaul, in a tumult of the soldiery, in the thirteenth year and eighth day of his reign. He testified great affection for his mother Mammaea.
ENDNOTES.
1 Se civilissimum praebuit. Civilis, applied to a person, properly signifies that he “behaves as a citizen ought to behave towards his fellow citizens,” and may often be rendered “polite, affable, courteous.” Civilitas has two senses; one derived from this sense of civilis, and the other “the art of governing, or directing affairs in a civitas, or free state.” Both these words occur frequently in Eutropius; I have endeavoured always to give them that sense which the passages where they are found seemed to require.
2 A town on the Baetis or Guadalquivir, not far from Seville. It was also the birth-place of Hadrian.
3 So Tzschucke writes the word. As it was a later name of Media, it should rather, it would appear, be written Medena, as Cellarius gives it in his edition of Sextus Rufus, c. 16.
4 Gratia salutandi. “For the sake of saluting or paying his respects to them.”
5 Domitia Paullina — Glarcanus.
6 Boionius. This name is supposed by Casaubon ad Capitolin. Vit. T. Auton. c. 1 and by Mad. Dacier ad Aurel. Vict. de Caes. c. 16, to be derived from Boionia Pro illa, Titus Antoninus’s grandmother, who had made him her heir.
7 Consecratus. See note on vii. 13.
8 The Sallentines were a people of Calabria in Italy; the name of this king was Malennius, according to Capitolinus, Vit. M. Anton. c. 1.
9 Genere. Both having been adopted by Antoninus Pius; see Capitolinus, Vit. Ant. P. c. 4. Hence Verus is called the brother of Marcus by Aurelius Victor de Caes. c. 16; by Jamblichus ap. Photium, p. 242; by Capitolinus Vit. Veri, c. 4 and 11; and by Orosius, vii. 15. — Tzschucke.
10 The territory inhabited by the Veneti, in which both Concordia and Altinum were situate, distant from each other about thirty-one miles.
11 Casu morbi. Glareanus interprets casu by eventu. Casus morbi seems to be much the same as the simple morbus, or morbus subitus. In c. 12 occurs casus pestilentiae.
12 Quantum nullâ memoriâ fuit. The same words are used by Capitolinus, c. 17. The meaning seems to be, that there had been no war with the Germans equally formidable.
13 See c. 10.
14 A town in Upper Pannonia, on the Danube, where Haimburg or Petronel now stands. See Mannert, T. iii. p. 740; also Cluverius and Cellarius.
15 The title of Caesar was now given to the person next in dignity to the emperor, and who was intended to succeed him.
16 Murrhina. What substance
murrha was is unknown. It has been thought to be porcelain, but is now generally supposed to have been some kind of stone. [H.W.Bird: “wine flavoured with myrrh” — RP]
17 He wished, as Tzschucke observes, to have the month of August called Commodus, and that of September, Herculius. See Lamprid. Vit. Comm. c. 11.
18 The praetors had been accustomed to publish each his own edict, as to the method in which he intended to administer justice for his year. The edicts were of course often very different; but by this perpetual edict a uniform course of proceeding was laid down. See note on C. Nep. Life of Cato, c. 2.
19 Opus lavacri, quae Antoninianae appellantur. The change of gender and number, as Tzschucke observes, makes the reader suspect that something must be wrong. Cellarius supplies thermae.
20 More frequently written Osrhoene.
21 A Syrophoenician deity at Emesa; hence he himself was called Heliogabalus. He was made emperor through the artifices of his grandmother. Julia Moesa, who pretended that he was the son of Caracalla.
BOOK IX
Maximin successful in his wars in Germany, I. — Three emperors at once, Pupienus, Balbinus, and Gordian; Gordian becomes sole emperor, and goes to war with Persia, II. — The two Philips, father and son; the thousandth year of Rome, III. — Decius suppresses an insurrection in Gaul, IV. — Gallus Hostilianus and his son Volusianus, V. — Short reign of Aemilianus, VI. — Disadvantageous reign of Valerian and Gallienus; several aspirants assume the purple, VII.-X. — Claudius defeats the Goths; his honours, XI. — Quintillus, XII. — Aurelian defeats the Goths, Tetricus, Zenobia; suppresses a rebellion at Rome; his character, XIII.-XV. — Tacitus, Florianus, XVI. — Probus; his acts in Gaul and Pannonia, XVIII. — Carus; his successes in Persia; death of him and Numerianus, XVIII. XIX. — Diocletian made emperor; overthrows Carinus; suppresses an insurrection in Gaul, XX. — Makes Herculius emperor, and Constantius and Maximian Caesars; proceedings in Britain, Egypt, Africa, and among the Alemanni, XXI.-XXIII. — Varied fortune of Maximian in Persia; subjugation of the Carpi, Bastarnae, and Sarmatians, XXIV. XXV. — Character of Diocletian and Maximian; their abdication of the imperial power, XXVI.-XXVIII.
I
After him MAXIMIN came to the throne, the first emperor that was elected from the army by the will of the soldiers, no approbation of the senate being given, and he himself not being a senator. After conducting a successful war against the Germans, and being on that account saluted Imperator1 by his troops, he was slain by Pupienus at Aquileia,2 together with his son who was then but a boy, his soldiers forsaking him. He had reigned, with his son, three years and a few days.
II
There were then three emperors at the same time, PUPIENUS, BALBINUS, and GORDIAN, the two former of very obscure origin, the last of noble birth; for the elder Gordian, his father, had been chosen prince by the consent of the soldiery in the reign of Maximin, when he held the proconsulship of Africa. When Balbinus and Pupienus came to Rome, they were killed in the palace; and the empire was given to Gordian alone.
After Gordian, when quite a boy, had married Tranquillina at Rome, he opened the temple of Janus, and, setting out for the east, made war upon the Parthians, who were then proceeding to make an irruption. This war he soon conducted with success, and made havoc of the Persians in great battles. As he was returning, he was killed, not far from the Roman boundaries, by the treachery of Philip who reigned after him. The Roman soldiers raised a monument for him, twenty miles from Circessus, which is now a fortress of the Romans, overlooking the Euphrates. His relics they brought to Rome, and gave him the title of god.
III
When Gordian was killed, the two PHILIPS, father and son, seized on the government, and, having brought off the army safe, set out from Syria for Italy. In their reign the thousandth year of the city of Rome was celebrated with games and spectacles of vast magnificence. Soon after, both of them were put to death by the soldiery; the elder Philip at Verona, the younger at Rome. They reigned but five years. They were however ranked among the gods.
IV
After these, DECIUS, a native of Lower Pannonia, born at Budalia, assumed the government. He suppressed a civil war which had been raised in Gaul. He created his son Caesar. He built a bath at Rome. When he and his son had reigned two years, they were both killed in the country of the Barbarians, and enrolled among the gods.
V
Immediately after, GALLUS, HOSTILIANUS, and VOLUSIANUS the son of Gallus, were created emperors. In their reign Aemilianus attempted an insurrection in Moesia; and both3 of them, setting out to stop his progress, were slain at Interamna, when they had not quite completed a reign of two years. They did nothing of any account. Their reign was remarkable only for a pestilence, and for other diseases and afflictions.
VI
AEMILIANUS was little distinguished by birth, and less distinguished by his reign, in the third month of which he was cut off.4
VII
LICINIUS VALERIAN, who was then employed in Rhaetia and Noricum, was next made general by the army, and soon after emperor. GALLIENUS also received the title of Caesar from the senate at Rome. The reign of these princes was injurious, and almost fatal, to the Roman name, either through their ill-fortune or want of energy. The Germans advanced as far as Ravenna. Valerian, while he was occupied in a war in Mesopotamia, was overthrown by Sapor king of Persia, and being soon after made prisoner, grew old in ignominious slavery among the Parthians.
VIII
Gallienus, who was made emperor when quite a young man, exercised his power at first happily, afterwards fairly, and at last mischievously. In his youth he performed many gallant acts in Gaul and Illyricum, killing Ingenuus, who had assumed the purple, at Mursa,5 and Regalianus. He was then for a long time quiet and gentle; afterwards, abandoning himself to all manner of licentiousness, he relaxed the reins of government with disgraceful inactivity and carelesness. The Alemanni, having laid waste Gaul, penetrated into Italy. Dacia, which had been added to the empire beyond the Danube, was lost. Greece, Macedonia, Pontus, Asia, were devastated by the Goths. Pannonia was depopulated by the Sarmatians and Quadi. The Germans made their way as far as Spain, and took the noble city of Tarraco. The Parthians, after taking possession of Mesopotamia, began to bring Syria under their power.
IX
When affairs were in this desperate condition, and the Roman empire almost ruined, POSTUMUS, a man of very obscure birth, assumed the purple in Gaul, and held the government with such ability for ten years, that he recruited the provinces, which had been almost ruined, by his great energy and judgment; but he was killed in a mutiny of the army, because he would not deliver up Moguntiacum, which had rebelled against him, to be plundered by the soldiers, at the time when Lucius Aelianus was endeavouring to effect a change of government.
After him Marius, a contemptible mechanic,6 assumed the purple, and was killed two days after. Victorinus then took on himself the government of Gaul; a man of great energy; but, as he was abandoned to excessive licentiousness, and corrupted other men’s wives, he was assassinated at Agrippina,7 in the second year of his reign, one of his secretaries having contrived a plot against him.
X
To him succeeded Tetricus, a senator, who, when he was governing Aquitania with the title of prefect, was chosen emperor in his absence, and assumed the purple at Bourdeaux. He had to endure many insurrections among the soldiery. But while these transactions were passing in Gaul, the Persians, in the east, were overthrown by Odenathus, who, having defended Syria and recovered Mesopotamia, penetrated into the country as far as Ctesiphon.
XI
Thus, while Gallienus abandoned the government, the Roman empire was saved in the west by Posthumus, and in the east by Odenathus. Meanwhile Gallienus was killed at Milan, together with his brother, in the ninth year of his reign, and CLAUDIUS succeeded him, being chosen by the soldiers, and declared emperor by the senate. Claudius defeated the Goths, who were laying waste Illyricum and Macedonia, in a great battle.
He was a frugal and modest man, strictly observant of justice, and well qualified for governing the empire. He was however carried off by disease within two years after he began to reign, and had the title of a god. The senate honoured him with extraordinary distinctions, insomuch that a golden shield was hung up to him in the senate house, and a golden statue erected to him in the Capitol.
XII
After him QUINTILLUS, the brother of Claudius, was elected emperor by agreement among the soldiers, a man of singular moderation and aptitude for governing, comparable, or perhaps superior, to his brother. He received the title of emperor with the consent of the senate, and was killed on the seventeenth day of his reign.
