18. How was the imperial purple next disposed of? 19. Who were the candidates? 20. Who was the successful candidate? 21. Was he acknowledged by the senate? 22. What was his conduct as emperor? 23. What gained him the hatred of the soldiers? 24. Was he a favourite of the people? 25. How did Didius bear this? 26. What new competitor for the throne appeared? 27. How did Didius act on this occasion? 28. Was his offer accepted? 29. What was the event? SECTION II. There's nought so monstrous but the mind of man, When flattering opportunity enticed, And desperation drove, have been committed By those who once would start to hear them named. 1. SEVERUS having overcome Niger', A.D. 194, and Albi'nus, A.D. 198, who were his competitors, for the 1 Percen'nias Niger was proclaimed emperor on the death of Per'tinax; he was of an equestrian family, and served originally as a centurion, but rose by his merits to the first military employments in the empire. He was a gallant soldier, an excellent officer, an experienced general, an illustrious consul, but an unfortunate emperor. 2 Clodius Albi'nus, though a native of Africa, was descended from the most illustrious families in Rome, and distinguished for his learning and knowledge. His martial genius, however, did not allow him to pursue the peaceable profession of letters. He filled many important posts, and was governor of Britain at the time that he assumed the imperial purple. He was extremely severe, never pardoning the least fault, and even crucified the centurions who were remiss in their duty. He is said to have possessed an extraordinary appetite, having ate, at one breakfast 500 figs, 100 peaches, 10 melons, 20 bunches of grapes, 100 beccaficos, and 400 oysters. On being completely defeated by Seve'rus in Gaul, he empire, assumed the reins of government, uniting great vigour with the most refined policy; yet his African cunning was considered as a singular defect in him. 2. He is celebrated for his wit, learning, and prudence; but execrated for his perfidy and cruelty'. In short, he seemed equally capable of the greatest acts of virtue, and the most bloody severities. 3. He loaded his soldiers with rewards and honours, giving them such privileges as strengthened his own power, while they destroyed that of the senate; for the soldiers, who had hitherto showed the strongest inclination to an abuse of power, were now made arbiters of the fate of emperors. 4. Being thus secure of his army, he resolved to give way to his natural desire of conquest, and to turn his arms against the Parthians, who were then invading the frontiers of the empire. 5. Having, therefore, previously given the government of domestic policy to one Plau'tian, a favourite, to whose daughter he married his son Caracal'la, he set out for the east, and prosecuted the war with his usual expedition and success. 6. He compelled submission from the king of Arme'nia, destroyed several cities of Ara'bia Felix, landed on the Parthian coast, took and plundered the famous city of Ctesiphon 2, marched back through Pal'estine and Egypt, and at length returned to Rome in triumph. killed himself; and such was the hatred that emperor bore him, that he rode over his dead body repeatedly, causing his horse to tread it under foot; then leaving it to be torn by dogs, he at last ordered the miserable remains to be cast into the Rhone. His wife and children were likewise inhumanly massacred. 1 Within a few days forty-two senators were put to death, and many other persons, whose only crime was their great wealth. Narcissus, the wrestler, who strangled Com'modus, was thrown to be devoured by wild beasts. All the partisans of Albinus were cut off, and the city was said to have been floating in blood. 2 Ctesiphon, a fine city of Chaloni'tis, the most southern province of Assyria. It was situated on the east side of the Tigris, opposite to Seleu cia. Here the Parthian kings passed their winter: and their A splendid triumphal arch was erected to commemorate his success; it is still in a good state of preservation, and is calculated to give us a high idea of the magnificence of imperial Rome. 7. During this interval Plau'tian 1 who was left to direct the affairs of Rome, began to think of aspiring to the empire himself. Upon the emperor's return, he employed a tribune of the prætorian cohorts, of which he was. commander, to assassinate him and his son Caracal'la. 8. The tribune informed Seve'rus of his favourite's treachery. He at first received the intelligence as an improbable story, and as the artifice of one who envied his favourite's fortune. However, he was at last persuaded to permit the tribune to conduct Plau'tian to the emperor's 1 Plau'tian, or Plautia'nus, was captain of the Prætorian guards, and possessed of vast power and riches. His table was better served than the emperor's, and his equipages far more magnificent. All orders of men paid court to him; and he frequently put to death persons of the highest rank, without consulting Seve'rus. apartments to be a testimony against himself. 9. With this intent the tribune went and amused him with a pretended account of his killing the emperor and his son; desiring him, if he thought fit to see them dead, to go with him to the palace. 10. As Plau'tian ardently desired their death, he readily gave credit to the relation, and, following the tribune, was conducted at midnight into the innermost apartments of the palace. But what must have been his surprise and disappointment, when, instead of finding the emperor lying dead, as he expected, he beheld the room lighted up with torches, and Seve'rus surrounded by his friends, prepared in array to receive him. 11. Being asked by the emperor, with a stern countenance, what had brought him there at that unseasonable time, he ingenuously confessed the whole, entreating forgiveness for what he had intended. 12. The emperor seemed inclined to pardon; but Caracalla, his son, who from the earliest age showed a disposition to cruelty, ran him through the body with his sword. 13. After this, Seve'rus spent a considerable time in visiting some cities in Italy, permitting none of his officers to sell places of trust or dignity, and distributing justice with the strictest impartiality. He then undertook an expedition into Britain, where the Romans were in danger of being destroyed, or compelled to fly the province. After appointing his two sons, Caracal'la and Ge'ta, joint successors in the empire, and taking them with him, he landed in Britain, A.D. 208, to the great terror of such as had drawn down his resentment. 14. Upon his progress into the country, he left his son Ge'ta in the southern part of the province, which had continued in obedience, and marched, with his son Caracal'la, against the Caledo'nians. 15. In this expedition, his army suffered prodigious hardships in pursuing the enemy; they were obliged to hew their way through intricate forests, to drain extensive marshes, and form bridges over rapid rivers; so that he lost fifty thou sand men by fatigue and sickness. 16. However, he surmounted these inconveniences with unremitting bravery, and prosecuted his successes with such vigour, that he compelled the enemy to beg for peace; which they did not obtain without the surrender of a considerable part of their country. 17. It was then that, for its better security, he built the famous wall, which still goes by his name, extending from Solway Frith on the west, to the German Ocean on the east. He did not long survive his successes here, but died at York, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, after an active, though cruel reign of about eighteen years. 18. Caracal'la and Ge'ta, his sons, being acknowledged U.C. as emperors by the army, began to show a mutual 964. hatred to each other, even before their arrival at A. D. 211. Rome. But this opposition was of no long continuance; for Caracal'la, being resolved to govern alone, furiously entered Ge'ta's apartment, and, followed by ruffians, slew him in his mother's arms2. 19. Being thus sole emperor, he went on to mark his course with blood. Whatever was done by Domi'tian or Ne'ro, fell short of this monster's barbarities3. 20. His tyrannies at length excited the resentment of Macri'nus, the commander of the forces in Mesopotamia, who employed one Marʼtial, a man of great strength, and a centurion of the guards, to dispatch him. 21. Accordingly, as the emperor was riding out one day, near a little city called Carræ, he happened to withdraw himself pri 1 Caracal'la was merely a nickname, in consequence of his having introduced a kind of short cassock, called in the Gaulish language, by that name among the Romans. His real name was Bassia'nus. 2 His murderer afterwards ordered that he should be worshipped as a god. 3 Being offended by the Alexan'drians, he commanded them to be put to the sword, without distinction of sex, age, or condition; every house was filled with carcasses, and the streets were obstructed with dead bodies: this was merely in revenge for some lampoons which they had published against him. This place is ever memorable for the defeat and death of Cras'sus. |