good princes who have been respected and honoured by posterity. Tacitus speaks of Nerva as being the first person who allied two things before thought to be incompatible, viz. monarchy and liberty.

SEXTUS JULIUS FRONTINUS, an eminent Roman, and city prætor, A.D. 70. He was afterwards a supplementary consul, and distinguished himself by his military talents as a commander in Britain. He is noticed by the younger Pliny and other writers, for the benefit which his country derived from his talents. Under the emperor Nerva, he was appointed to the superintendance of the waters, and in this capacity he brought the water of the Anis to Rome, by means of a splendid aqueduct. He wrote two books on the construction of these works, by the emperor's express order. He wrote likewise upon military stratagems, a work which is still extant. The best edition of his works is that printed at Lyons 1731 and 1779. A work on agriculture, which has been ascribed to him, was probably composed by a later writer. When Frontinus died, he forbade the erection of a monument to his memory, saying that it was a superfluous expence, for his name would live if he had done any thing to merit the honour.

M. ULPIUS TRAJANUS TRAJAN, a Roman emperor, the son of a distinguished commander, under Vespasian in the Jewish wars, was born at Italica, in the Spanish province of Bætica, entered early into the army, and accompanied his father in several military expeditions; acquiring the hardiness, submitting to the discipline, and uniformly practising the duties of a soldier. In the career of public honour, he was first made prætor, A.D. 86, consul A.D. 91, and raised by Nerva to the rank of Cæsar, A.D. 97, being at this time in the forty-second or forty-third year of his age, according to the statements of different writers, and possessing a majestic stature, manly features, and dignified aspect. Upon the death of Nerva in the following year, Trajan succeeded, without opposition, to the imperial throne. He was at this time at Cologne, and remained for some time in Germany. In 99, he set out for Rome, and entered the city on foot, preceded by the lictors as an ordinary magistrate, and followed by a few soldiers exhibiting the demeanour of citizens. Affable in his manners, bountiful in his presents to the Roman people, and anxious to procure a supply of corn by allowing free importation from the colonies, Trajan acquired and maintained a very great degree of popularity. He likewise very much contributed to the tranquillity and good order of the city, by removing to exile the infamous tribe of delators, who had been encouraged by the "tyranny of Domitian," and not sufficiently repressed by the lenity of Nerva, and by issuing an edict with some penalties against all false acHe also reduced the tax of the twentieth upon colla

cusers.

teral successions, imposed by Augustus, and formed a fund for the exercise of liberality by his own economy and frugality. He encouraged merit, and advanced to posts of trust men distinguished by their integrity and talents. He associated on the most condescending terms with persons of various rank and condition, and treated the citizens of Rome in general, more as friends than as subjects. Although his military education and employments allowed him no leisure for acquiring the accomplishments of literature, he was the patron of learned men, and by founding libraries, and, by other methods, he promoted the diffusion of learning. As he was moderate and frugal in his own habits, and in the entertainments he provided for his guests, he checked and restrained the prevalence of luxury and extravagant expenditure in others. By pursuing various methods for rendering the people happy, he obtained, by the unanimous voice of the senate, the title of "Optimus," which glorious distinction he retained through life, and transmitted to posterity. In the third year of his reign he was honoured with a third consulate; and during his exercise of this office, Pliny pronounced that panegyric which is still extant, and which presents to view a finished portrait of a perfect prince. In the following year, when he was again consul, he was engaged in a war with Decebalus, king of the Dacians, from which he returned victorious, and obtained a triumph with the sirname of "Dacicus." Having spent the two following years in an attention to objects that contributed to the improvement of the empire, one of which was the establishment of a port at Centumcellæ, now Civita Vecchia, the close of the latter of these years was rendered important and interesting, by the appointment of Pliny, A. D. 103, as governor of Pontus and Bithynia, and by the correspondence to which this appointment gave occasion, and which pourtrays, in the most pleasing characters, the enlightened and benignant spirit by which he was actuated. In the following year the war with Decebalus was renewed, and on this occasion, Trajan constructed a bridge over the Danube, which was long admired as one of the most considerable relics of antiquity. When Decebalus had despatched himself, after the loss of his capital, Dacia was constituted a Roman province, and colonized from other parts of the empire. Upon his return to Rome, he employed himself in carrying on some works of public magnificence and utility; but success in his military expeditions, unfortunately cherished the innate propensity of war, which seems to have been his most censurable foible; and accordingly the subsequent period of his reign was too ardently devoted to the gratification of his ambition, in extending the boundaries of the Roman empire. In the year A. D. 107, he reduced Armenia, into a Roman province, and all the barbarous tribes situated North of Armenia between the Euxine and Caspian seas, were reduced

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to submission. After the lapse of some years, of which no regular account remains, we find Trajan, A.D. 114, dedicating the magnificent forum, which he had constructed at Rome, and erecting the column on which his exploits are sculptured, and also renewing the war with the Parthians. In A.D. 115 he crossed the Tigris on a bridge of boats, and subdued Adiabene and the whole of Assyria; and having captured Ctesiphon and Susa, he descended the Tigris with his fleet, and had the honour of being the first and last Roman general who navigated the Indian ocean, ravaging the coast of Arabia Felix. He even indulged the ambition of visiting India. On his return he laid siege to Atra, the capital of an Arabian tribe, which he was obliged to raise and to withdraw to Syria. the year A.D. 117, he was attacked with a paralytic disorder, attended with dropsy, and he therefore hastened his return to Italy. At Selinus in Cilicia, he had another attack, which proved fatal. The empress Plotina took advantage of his last moments to secure the adoption of Adrian for a successor, to which measure Trajan had manifested an aversion; and it is said that she practised a gross fraud for this purpose. Trajan died in the sixty-fourth year of his age, after a reign of nineteen years and a half, and his remains were deposited under his own column. The emperor's virtues were shaded by weaknesses and vices. His passion for war has been already mentioned he was also addicted to sensual indulgences, of which intemperance in drinking was the least scandalous. Notwithstanding the blemishes of his character, his memory was long held in veneration, insomuch that two hundred and fifty years after his death, the senators, in their acclamations on the choice of a new emperor, vociferated the wish that he might be more fortunate than Augustus, and better than Trajan."

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POMPEIA PLOTINA, a Roman lady, who married Trajan while he was yet a private man. She entered Rome in the procession with her husband when he was saluted emperor, and distinguished herself by the affability of her behaviour, her humanity, and liberal offices to the poor and friendless. She accompanied Trajan in the east, and at his death she brought back his ashes to Rome, and still enjoyed all the honours and titles of a Roman empress under Adrian, who, by her means, had succeeded to the vacant throne. At her death, A.D. 122, she was ranked among the goddesses, and received divine honours, which according to the superstition of the times, she seemed to deserve, from her regard for the prosperity of the Roman empire, and for her private virtues.

TITINIUS CAPITO, lived under the emperor Trajan, and is mentioned by Pliny as a writer of no mean character. He described the deaths of illustrious men, among whom were

some of his contemporaries condemned, without doubt, by Domitian.

PUBLIUS ÆLIUS ADRIAN, the fifteenth emperor of Rome. He was born at Rome, A.D. 76, and left an orphan at ten years of age, under the guardianship of Trajan, and Coelius Tatianus, a Roman knight. He began to serve very early in the armies, was tribune of a legion before the death of Domitian, and was chosen by the army, to carry the news of Nerva's death to Trajan, his successor. He accompanied Trajan in most of his expeditions, distinguished himself in the second war against the Daci, and was successively appointed quæstor, tribune of the people, prætor, governor of Pannonia, consul, and governor of Syria. After the siege of Atra was raised, Trajan left him the command of the army, and when he found death approaching, adopted him. Adrian, who was then at Antioch, as soon as he heard of Trajan's death, declared himself emperor, A. D. 117, made peace with the Persians, and from generosity, or policy, he remitted the debts of the Roman people, which, according to the calculations of those who have reduced them to modern money, amounted to twenty-two millions, five hundred thousand golden crowns; and that the people might be under no apprehension of being called to an account for them afterwards, burnt all the bonds and obligations relating to those debts. There are medals still extant in commemoration of this fact, in which he is represented holding a flambeau in his hand, setting fire to the bonds. He visited all the provinces, and did not return to Rome till the year 118, when the senate decreed him a triumph, and honoured him with the title of father of his country; but he refused both, and desired that Trajan's image might triumph. No prince travelled more than Adrian, there being hardly one province in the empire which he did not visit. In 120 he went into Gaul; from thence he went over to Britain, in order to subdue the Caledonians, who were making continual inroads into the provinces. Upon his arrival, they retired toward the north; he advanced however as far as York, where he was diverted from his intended conquest by the description some old soldiers, who had served under Agricola, gave him of the country. In hopes, therefore, of keeping them quiet, by enlarging their bounds he delivered up to the Caledonians, all the lands lying between the two Friths and the Tyne; and at the same time, to secure the Roman province from their future incursions, built the famous wall which still bears his name. Having thus settled affairs in Britain, he returned to Rome, where he was honoured with the title of Restorer of Britain, as appears by some medals. He soon after went into Spain, to Mauritania, and at length into the east, where he quieted the

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commotions raised by the Parthians. Having visited all the provinces of Asia, he returned to Athens in 125, where he was initiated in the mysteries of Eleusinian Ceres. He went from thence to Sicily, to view the phænomena of Mount Etna, and enjoy the extensive prospect from its top. He returned to Rome in 129; and again visited Africa and the east; was in Egypt in 132; re-visited Syria in 133, returned to Athens in 134, and to Rome 135. The persecution against the Christians was very violent under his reign, but it was at length suspended, in consequence of the remonstrances of Quadratus, bishop of Athens, and Aristides, two Christian philosophers, who presented the emperor with some books in favour of the Christian religion. He conquered the Jews, and, by way of insult, erected a temple to Jupiter on Calvary, placed a statue of Adonis in Bethlehem, and caused images of swine to be engraven on the gates of Jerusalem. At last he was seized with a dropsy, of which he died at Baiæ, in the sixty-third year of his age, and twenty-first of his reign. The Latin verses he addressed to his soul are well known. There are some fragments of his Latin poems extant, and some of his Greek verses in the Anthologia. He also wrote the history of his own life; to which, however, he did not put his name, but that of Phlegon, one of his freed-men. He had great wit, and an extensive memory; and understood the sciences, but was jealous of others who excelled in them. He was also cruel, envious, and lascivious. Antoninus his successor obtained his apotheosis; and prevented the recission of his acts, which the senate once intended.

JULIA SABINA, a Roman lady, who married Adrian, by means of Plotina, the wife of Trajan. She is celebrated for her private as well as public virtues. Adrian treated her with the greatest asperity, though he had received from her the imperial purple, and the empress was so sensible of his unkindness, that she boasted in his presence that she had disdained to make him a father, lest his children should become more odious or more tyrannical than he himself was. The behaviour of Sabina at last so exasperated Adrian, that he poisoned her, or according to some, obliged her to destroy herself. The emperor at that time laboured under a mortal disease, and therefore he was the more encouraged to sacrifice Sabina to his resentment, that she might not survive him. Divine honours were paid to her memory. She died after she had been married thirty-eight years to Adrian, A. D. 138.

TITUS AURELIUS FULVIUS BOIONIUS ANTONINUS ANTONIUS PIUS, was born at Lanuvium in Italy, A. D. 86. His family had its origin from Nismes, in Gaul, and had long flourished in virtue and honour. Both his grandfa thers and his father were consuls. His maternal grandfather VOL. II. D