XENOPHON, a physician and favourite of the emperor Claudius, born in the island of Cos, and descended from Æsculapius. For his sake Claudius exempted the people of Cos from all taxes. Yet the monster was so ungrateful as to poison his benefactor, to please the parricide Agrippina.

ALCON, a surgeon of great eminence, acquired considerable wealth in his profession, under the emperor Claudius. He is said to have been expert in the art of reducing fractured or luxated bones, and in curing hernias by incision.

SORANUS, an ancient physician of Ephesus, who flourished under Trajan and Adrian. He practised first at Alexandria, and afterwards at Rome. He was of the sect called Methodists, a follower of Thessalus, Trallian, &c. and was the last and the greatest of that sect.

SORANUS, another physician also of Ephesus, who flourished somewhat later than the preceding, and who wrote a work on feminine diseases, a fragment of which has been published.

ATHENÆUS, a physician born in Cilicia, contemporary with Pliny, and founder of the pneumatic sect. He taught

that the fire, air, water, and earth, are not the true elements, but that their qualities are, viz. heat, cold, moisture, and dryness; and to these he added a fifth element which he called spirit, whence his sect had their name, Pneumatics.

ASCLEPIADES, a famous physician, under Adrian, was a native of Prusa. He wrote several books concerning the composition of medicines, both internal and external.

ARETEUS, a physician of Cappadocia, very inquisitive after the operations of nature. His treatise on agues has been much admired. The best edition of his works which are extant, is that of Boerhaave. A translation by Dr. Moffat was printed in 1786, 8vo.

MARCELLUS, sirnamed Sidetes, from the town of Side in Pamphylia, where he was born, was a physician, and flourished under Adrian and the Antonines. He wrote forty-two books on medicine, in heroic verse, in which among other things, he is particularly mentioned to have treated of Lycanthropy, a disorder in which the patient fancies himself metamorphosed into a wolf. There is a Greek epitaph upon him, which confirms what Suidas says of the number of books to which his poem extended, and relates, that they were all publicly deposited in the libraries of Rome by the emperors, to preserve the fame of

the author.

PERIOD XVII.

FROM M. A. ANTONINUS TO M. A. GORDIAN III.

[CENT. II.]

REMARKABLE FACTS, EVENTS AND DISCOVERIES.

A.D.

103 Dacia reduced to a Roman province. 107 The third persecution under Trajan. 114 Armenia reduced to a Roman province.

115 Assyria subdued by Trajan. An insurrection of the Jews, who murder 200,000 Greeks and Romans.

121 The Caledonians reconquer from the Romans all the southern parts of Scotland; upon which the emperor Adrian builds a wall between Newcastle and Carlisle.

130 Jerusalem rebuilt by Adrian.

132 The second Jewish war commenced.

134 Lollius Urbicus, the Roman general, repairs Agricola's forts, which he joins by a wall four yards thick.

135 The second Jewish war ends, when the Jews were all banished Judæa.

139 Justin writes his first apology for the Christians.

152 The emperor Antoninus Pius, stops the persecution of the Christians. 173 The fourth persecution, under Marcus Aurelius Antòninus, which was at last stopt by that excellent emperor.

155 The Romans send ambassadors to China.

DURING this period the northern parts of Europe and Asia swarmed with fierce and savage hordes of barbarians, already formidable enemies of Rome, and destined soon to crush her pre-eminence, and trample her honours in the dust.

Like every thing human, Rome having reached the meridian of its power and splendour, began to decline. The provinces of Babylonia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, revolted. The Parthians threw off their dependance; and the northern barbarians poured in increasing numbers upon the frontiers. The Parthians, who had ever been severely galled by the Roman yoke, and therefore always restless and troublesome, were at length totally subdued by Persia, which country had been long in subjection to them; but the Romans derived no advantage from this event. The enmity of Parthia to Rome was transferred to the Persians, who continued to infest the Roman territories on the east, while the barbarians reiterated their inroads on the north.

GOVERNMENT.

ROME.

MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS, surnamed the Philosopher, the Roman emperor, born at Rome the 26th of April, A.D. 121. He was called by several names till he was admitted into the 'Aurelian family, when he took that of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus; Adrian, upon the death of Cejonius Commodus, turned his eyes upon Marcus Aurelius, but, as he was not then eighteen years of age, and consequently too young for so important a station, he fixed upon Antoninus Pius, whom he adopted, upon condition that he should likewise adopt Marcus Aurelius. The year after this adoption, Adrian appointed him quæstor, though he had not yet attained the age prescribed by the laws. After the death of Adrian, Aurelius married Faustina, the daughter of Antoninus Pius, who brought him several children. In the year 139, he was invested with new honours by the emperor, in which he behaved in such a manner as endeared him to that prince and the whole people. Upon the death of Pius, which happened in 161, he was obliged by the senate to take upon himself the government; in the management of which he took Lucius Verus as his colleague. Dion Cassius says, that the reason of his doing this was, that he might have leisure to pursue his studies, and on account of his ill state of health; Lucius being of a strong vigorous constitution, and consequently more fit for the fatigues of war. The same day he took upon him the name of Antoninus, which he gave likewise to Verus, his colleague, and betrothed his daughter Lucilla to him. The two emperors went afterwards to the camp, where, after having performed the funeral rites of Pius, they pronounced each of them a panegyric to his memory. They discharged the government in a very amicable manner.

The happiness which the empire began to enjoy under these two emperors was interrupted, in the year 162, by a dreadful inundation of the Tiber, which destroyed a vast number of cattle, and occasioned a famine at Rome. This calamity was followed by the Parthian war, and at the same time the Catti ravaged Germany and Rhætia. Lucius Verus went in person to oppose the Parthians, and Antoninus continued at Rome, where his presence was necessary. During this war with the Parthians, about the year 163 or 164, Antoninus sent his daughter Lucilla to Verus, she having been betrothed to him in marriage, and attended her as far as Brandusium; he intended to have conducted her to Syria; but it having been insinuated by some persons that his design of going into the east was

to claim the honour of having finished the Parthian war, he returned to Rome. The Romans having gained a victory over the Parthians, who were obliged to abandon Mesopotamia, the two emperors triumphed over them at Rome in 166, and were honoured with the title of Fathers of their country. This year was fatal, on account of a terrible pestilence which spread itself over the whole world, and a famine under which Rome laboured; it was likewise in this year that the Marcomanni, and many other people of Germany, took up arms against the Romans; but the two emperors having marched in person against them, obliged the Germans to sue for peace. The war, however, was renewed the year following, and the two emperors marched again in person; but Lucius Verus was seized with an apoplectic fit, and died at Altinum. The Romans were now defeated with great slaughter, and the emperor, not choosing to burden his subjects with new taxes, exposed to public sale the furniture of the palace, the gold and silver plate belonging to the crown, and his wife's rich garments embroidered with gold, and a curious collection of pearls which Adrian had purchased during his long progress through the provinces of the empire, and was called Adrian's cabinet. In 170, Antoninus made vast preparations against the Germans, and carried on the war with great vigour. During this war, in 174, a very extraordinary event is said to have happened, which, according to Dion Cassius, was as follows; Antoninus's army being blocked up by the Quadi, in a very disadvantageous place, where there was no possibility of procuring water; in this situation, being worn out with fatigue and wounds, oppressed with heat and thirst, and incapable of retiring or engaging the enemy, in an instant the sky was covered with clouds, and there fell a vast quantity of rain. The Roman army were about to quench their thirst, when the enemy came upon them with such fury, that they must certainly have been defeated, had it not been for a shower of hail, accompanied with a storm of thunder and lightning, which fell upon the enemy without the least annoyance to the Romans, who by this means gained the victory. The Pagans as well as Christians have acknowledged the truth of this prodigy, but have greatly differed as to the cause of such a miraculous event, the former ascribing it to magicians. In Antoninus's pillar, the glory is ascribed to Jupiter, the god of rain and thunder. But the Christians affirmed, that God granted this favour at the prayer of the Christian soldiers in the Roman army, who are said to have composed the twelfth legion; and, as a mark of distinction, we are told that they received the title of the Thundering Legion, from Antoninus. Moyle, in the second volume of his works, has endeavoured to explode this story of the Thundering Legion, which occasioned Mr. Whiston to publish an answer, in 1726. But as the truth of Christianity does not depend upon such traditions, we may

Mr.

safely dispute the truth of the miracle. In 175, Antoninus made a treaty with several nations of Germany. Soon after Avidius Cassius, governor of Syria, revolted from the emperor; this insurrection, however, was put an end to by the death of Cassius, who was killed by a centurion named Anthony. Antoninus behaved with great lenity towards those who had been engaged in Cassius's party; he would not put to death, nor imprison, nor even sit in judgment himself upon any of the senators engaged in this revolt; but he referred them to the senate, fixing a day for their appearance, as if it had been only a civil affair. He wrote also to the senate, to act with indulgence ra ther than severity; not to shed the blood of any senator or person of quality, or of any other person whatsoever, but to allow this honour to his reign; that even under the misfortune of a rebellion, none had lost their lives, except in the first heat of the tumult. In 176, Antoninus visited Syria and Egypt. The kings of those countries, and ambassadors from Parthia, came to visit him. He staid several days at Smyrna; and after he had settled the affairs of the east, went to Athens, on which city he conferred several honours, and appointed public professors there. From thence he returned to Rome with his son Commodus, who was chosen consul for the year following, though he was then but sixteen years of age. On the 27th of September, the same year, he gave him the title of Imperator; and on the 23d of December he entered Rome in triumph, along with Commodus, on account of the victories gained over the Germans. Dion Cassius tells us, that he remitted all the debts which were due to himself and the public treasury during forty-six years, from the time that Adrian had granted the same favour, but burnt all the writings relating to those debts. He applied himself likewise to correct many enormities, and introduced several excellent regulations. In 178 he left Rome with his son Commodus, to go against the Marcomanni, and other barbarous nations; and the year following gained a considerable victory over them, and would, in all probability, have entirely subdued them, had he not been seized with an illness, which carried him off on the 17th of March, 180, in the 59th year of his age, and nineteenth of his reign. The whole empire regretted the loss of so valuable a prince, and paid the greatest regard to his memory; he was ranked amongst the gods, and almost every person had a statue of him in their houses.

Men of learning flourished during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The emperor himself was a writer, and his "Meditations," written in Greek, have reached our times. They are a collection of maxims and thoughts, in the spirit of the stoic philosophy, breathing the purest sentiments of piety and benevolence. On the whole, goodness of heart seems to have been his distinguished quality, not accompanied with equal strength of understanding. His temper was yielding to excess.

His