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Arrius Antoninus, was intimate with Pliny the younger, and distinguished himself by the sweetness of his disposition, and his attachment to letters. It was in his house that the Titus finished his education after the death of his father. On arriving at manhood, his character displayed itself in the most advantageous manner. To a happy physiognomy he joined a cultivated understanding, eloquence, mildness, and dignity of manners, and all the virtues of the heart. He was perfectly free from affectation and vain-glory, simple and natural in his tastes, and guided by moderation in his sentiments and actions.

In the course of public honours to which his birth and connections entitled him, he rose to the consulate, A. D. 120, and was afterwards chosen by Adrian to be one of the four consulars between whom the supreme magistracy of Italy was divided. In his turn he became proconsul of Asia, in which high trust he acquired a reputation even surpassing that of his grandfather Arrius in the same post. On his return from Asia, he was much in the council and confidence of Adrian, and always inclined to the most lenient measures. He married Annia Faustina, the daughter of Annius Verus, a lady whose conduct was far from irreproachable; but he avoided public scandal, and treated with the greatest respect his aged father-in-law, who was accustomed to enter the senate leaning on his arm. By this marriage he had two daughters. The sons died young. The eldest daughter, married to Lauria Sylvanus, died when Titus departed from his Asiatic government. The other, Faustina, was married to Marcus Aurelius, afterwards emperor.

When Adrian, after the death of Verus, determined upon the adoption of Antoninus, he found some difficulty in persuading him to accept of the succession to so vast a charge as the Roman empire; but having overcome his reluctance, he declared his nomination in presence of a council of the principal senators, on February the twenty-fifth, A. D. 138, and instantly made him his colleague in the proconsular and tribunitial authorities. He next caused Antoninus to adopt the son of Verus, then seven years of age, and Marcus Annius, afterwards Aurelius, a kinsman of Adrian, and nephew to his own wife, then aged about seventeen. He succeeded to the throne on July 10th, 138, with the universal applause of the senate and people. Let us figure to ourselves the throne filled by a true philosopher, adorned with every virtue, and free from every vice; dedicating his whole life to the public good; affecting no marks of superiority; the father of his country, not by a bare title, which has often been prostituted to the worst of emperors, but by actions more honourable than all titles, and we shall have a proper idea of Antoninus. At the beginning of his reign, Antoninus gave a remarkable proof of his clemency, by endeavouring to stop all enquiry into a conspiracy formed against him. "How unfortunate for

me," cried he, "should it be found that I am hated by a great number of my fellow-citizens!" Though he could not prevent the course of justice against the principals, he forbad all inquiry after their accomplices, and took under his special protection the son of Attilius, one of the chief conspirators. Some commotions which arose in various parts of the empire were without much difficulty appeased by his lieutenants. In Britain, the incursions of the Brigantines were repressed; and the boundaries of the Roman provinces were extended by building a new wall to the north of that of Adrian, from the mouth of the Esk, to that of the Tweed. He was not only frugal of the revenue, but looked upon his own possessions as the property of the state. His wife, Faustina, reproaching him with lavishing his patrimony, in order to save the public money, he replied, "Since we attained to the empire, we have no longer any thing that we can call our own." This economy led him to withdraw several pensions which had been given undeservedly; "For," said he, "nothing can be more scandalous and cruel, than to suffer the commonwealth to be devoured by those who have done it no service." With all this he was entirely free from avarice, or the desire of hoarding, and he readily expended considerable sums in works of ornament and utility, and even on the pleasures o the people. On the whole, the reign of Antonius was uncom monly pacific; and he made good a saying of Scipio, which he frequently repeated, "That he preferred saving the life of one citizen to destroying a thousand enemies."

He devoted his whole time and care to the good government of the state in all its parts, extending his vigilance to the remotest districts, and every where protecting the people from oppressions, and promoting their welfare. He loved to lay before the senate the motives of all his actions; and in his mode of living and conversing, he adopted that air of equality, and those popular manners, which had distinguished his predecessors, Trajan and Adrian. The sweetness of his temper was manifested on numerous occasions of indignity offered to himself; and no professed philosopher could surpass him in the forgiveness of injuries. Under his reign, the race of informers was absolutely abolished; in consequence, never were condemnations and confiscations more rare. Various public calamities happened in his time; dearths, inundations, fires, and earthquakes; all which he relieved with the utmost beneficence. Of his buildings, the most remarkable in Rome was a temple in honour of Adrian. It is probable that Nismes was indebted to him for those magnificent decorations which still distinguish it, the amphitheatre and aqueduct. This emperor, like his predecessor, interested himself in the improvement of jurisprudence; and he instituted three decrees, which display a laudable spirit of

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equity. The first was, that no one should be again prosecuted on a charge of which he had been once acquitted; the second, that the children of a person become a Roman citizen, who were not so themselves, should not, as was formerly the law, forfeit their inheritance to the treasury; the third, that a woman, prosecuted for adultery by her husband, should have a right to recriminate. He also issued rescripts in favour of the Christians, to protect them from popular rage and legal injustice. One of these, addressed to the people of Asia Minor, is extant in Eusebius, (Hist. Eccles. lib. iv.) and bears an honourable testimony to their character.

It is not wonderful that the reputation for wisdom and justice, which Antoninus by such a conduct acquired, should spread through all the countries of the German empire, and give him a weight and authority which force could not have bestowed. Some of the neighbouring kings came to salute him! and appointed him arbiter of their differences. The king of Parthia was prevented from making war upon the Armenians by a simple letter from him; and the Lazes, the people of Colchis, elevated Pacorus to their throne,,a his recommendation. His private life was fruga! and modest; his table decent; his amusements innocent and scarcely a spot can be discovered to tarnish the purit his character. Perhaps he was too indulgent towards an urthy wife, who certainly did not deserve those divine honours which he lavished upon her memory. His minute exactness was ridiculed by some who were not aware of the advantages of such a quality in the management of complicated concerns. Soon after his elevation to the throne, he manifested his esteem for the opening virtues of Marcus Aurelius, by marrying him to his daughter, Faustina, and declared him Cæsar. In course of time, he accumulated all sorts of honours upon him, and was repaid by the profoundest submission, and a true filial attachment. Aurelius never left him, and shared with him all the cares of government, without the least umbrage or suspicion on either part. In this state of domestic and public tranquillity he reached his seventy-fourth year, when, in the month of March, A. D. 161, at his favourite country seat of Lori, he fell ill of a fever, the fatal event of which he soon foresaw. Summoning the great officers of state, he confirmed in their presence his choice of Aurelius as a successor, and caused the imperial ensigns to be carried to him. In a delirium which soon ensued, all his thoughts were turned on the commonwealth, and he deprecated the anger of the kings whom he supposed hostile to it. In a lucid interval he gave as a watchword to the prætorian tribune, Æquanimitas, and then placidly expired, having reigned twenty-two years, seven months, and twenty-six days. His ashes were deposited in the tomb of

Adrian, and divine honours were unanimously decreed by the senate to his memory. The death of the father of his country, though at so mature an age, was lamented throughout the empire as a public calamity, and his praises were universally sounded. He made the name of Antoninus so respectable that, for near a century, the emperors assumed it as a title of honour, like that of Augustus; few were capable of supporting it in its native lustre. Marcus Aurelius and the senate consecrated to his memory a sculptured pillar, still subsisting as one of the principal ornaments of Rome, under the name of the Antonine column.

ANNA GALERIA FAUSTINA, the Elder, was the daughter of Annius Verus, and the wife of Antoninus Pius. Notwithstanding her debaucheries, the emperor would not divorce her. She died in 141. Her daughter was the wife of Marcus Aurelius, and exceeded her mother in dissoluteness. She died in 175.

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DECEBALUS, one of the barbarian kings, who contended with the greatest success ag inst the power of the Roman empire. He was raised to the hrone of Dacia on account of his military talents, about the period in which Domitian was sovereign of Rome. In the war that commenced bout the year A.D. 86, he frequently defeated the Ron, with great slaughter; and in one instance prevented, b tratagem, the enemy from advancing to his own capital, by felling a great number of trees, and covering their trunks with armour, so as to appear like soldiers. Shortly after Domitian sought for peace, to which Decebalus acceded, upon condition that he should receive from the emperor's own hand a diadem, and a yearly tribute, under the form and title of a pension, which was regularly paid till the time of Trajan, who not only refused to be tributary to the Dacians, but entered his country with a powerful army, and was completely victorious. Decebalus was obliged to submit to very humiliating terms for the sake of peace; he agreed to give up his arms, and dismantle his fortresses. Scarcely, however, had the emperor departed, before the Dacian king prepared for new hostilities, and defied the power of Rome. Trajan was again successful, and Decebalus, who found himself unequal to the open contest, determined to destroy by treachery and assassination him whom he dared not meet in the field; for this purpose he perfidiously got possession of Longinus, the favourite officer of the Roman emperor, and endeavoured, by bribes and by threats, to make 'use of him as the instrument of his master's death. Longinus preferred the life of his king to his own, and, by poison, freed himself from the power of his enemy. Trajan now built his celebrated bridge over the Danube, completely conquered Dacia, and took possession of its capital. Decebalus, seeing no

chance of escaping from the hands of the emperor, put an end to his own life; and with him terminated the independence of Dacia, which was afterwards a mere Roman province. He had concealed the vast treasures which he had accumulated, but these were discovered to the conqueror, and were found more than equal to the expence of a war. In the early part of life Decebalus had the character of being equally wise in council, and prompt in action; skilful in all the manoeuvres of war, possessed of vigour to improve a victory, and constancy to repair a defeat

RHADAMISTUS, the son of Pharasmanes, king of Iberia. He put to death his uncle Mithridates, whose daughter, Zenobia, he had married. He was defeated by the Parthians, on which he stabbed his wife; for which his father caused him to be put to death, A. D. 52.

BRITAIN.

BRAN, the son of Llyr, and father of Caradog, or Caractacus, king of Britain, is classed with Prydain and Dyn-wall, as the three who consolidated the form of elective monarchy in Britain. When his son was delivered up to the Romans, Bran and his family were carried to Rome, where they embraced the Christian religion, which, at their return, they introduced among their countrymen. Bran died about the year A. D. 80.

CARACTACUS, a renowned king of the ancient British people called Silures, inhabiting South Wales. Having valiantly defended his country seven years against the Romans, he was at last defeated; and flying to Cartismandua, queen of the Brigantes, was by her treacherously delivered up to the Romans, and led in triumph to the emperor Claudius, then at York; where his noble behaviour, and heroic, but pathetic speech, obtained him not only his liberty, but the esteem of the

emperor, A. D. 52. Buchanan, Monipenny, and other ancient Scots historians, make this heroic prince one of the Scots monarchs; nephew and successor to king Metellanus; and say that he was elected general of the united army of Scots, Picts, and Britons.

CARTISMANDUA, queen of the Brigantes, the famous betrayer of the brave Caractacus. She was also false to her husband, Venutius; but at last met with the reward of her perfidies; being taken prisoner by Corbred I. king of Scots, and buried alive about A. D. 57.

BELYN, son of Cynvelyn, a British prince, and chief of one of the three splendid retinues of Britain, because they embodied their troops at their own expence. He served under Caradog, or Caractacus, till that king was delivered to the Romans.