IV. CHA P. addrefs, and imagined virtues, attracted the public favour; the honourable peace which he had recently granted to the barbarians, diffufed an univerfal joy"; his impatience to revifit Rome was fondly afcribed to the love of his country; and his diffolute courfe of amufements was faintly condemned in a prince of nineteen years of age. Is wound ed by an affaffin, During the three firft years of his reign, the forms, and even the fpirit of the old adminiftration were maintained by thofe faithful counfellors, to whom Marcus had recommended his fon, and for whose wisdom and integrity Commodus ftill entertained a reluctant efteem. The young prince and his profligate favourites revelled in all the licence of fovereign power; but his hands were yet unftained with blood; and he had even difplayed a generofity of fentiment, which might perhaps have ripened into folid virtue 13. A fatal incident decided his fluctuating character. 13 One evening, as the Emperor was returning to the palace through a dark and narrow portico in A.D. 183. the amphitheatre ", an affaffin, who waited his paffage, rushed upon him with a drawn fword, loudly exclaiming," The Senate fends you this." The menace prevented the deed; the affaffin was 12 This univerfal joy is well defcribed (from the medals as well as hiftorians) by Mr. Wotton, Hift. of Rome, p.192, 193. 13 Manilius, the confidential secretary of Avidius Caffius, was difcovered after he had lain concealed feveral years. The Emperor nobly relieved the public anxiety by refufing to see him, and burning his papers without opening them. Dion Caffius, 1. lxxii. p. 1209. 14 See Maffei degli Amphitheatri, p.126. IV. feized by the guards, and immediately revealed CHA P. the authors of the confpiracy. It had been formed not in the ftate, but within the walls of the palace. Lucilla, the Emperor's fifter, and widow of Lucius Verus, impatient of the fecond rank, and jealous of the reigning Empress, had armed the murderer against her brother's life. She had not ventured to communicate the black defign to her fecond husband Claudius Pompeianus, a fenator of diftinguished merit and unfhaken loyalty; but among the crowd of her lovers (for the imitated the manners of Faustina) fhe found men of defperate fortunes and wild ambition, who were prepared to ferve her more violent, as well as her tender paffions. The confpirators experienced the rigour of justice, and the abandoned princefs was punished, first with exile, and afterwards with death ". Commo wards the fenate. But the words of the affaffin funk deep into Hatred and the mind of Commodus, and left an indelible cruelty of impreffion of fear and hatred against the whole dus tobody of the fenate. Those whom he had dreaded as importunate minifters, he now fufpected as fecret enemies. The Delators, a race of men difcouraged, and almoft extinguished, under the former reigns, again became formidable, as foon as they difcovered that the Emperor was defirous of finding difaffection and treafon in the fenate. That affembly, whom Marcus had ever confidered as the great council of the nation, was compofed of the moft diftinguished of P. 46. 15 Dion, 1. lxxii. p. 1205. Herodian, l.i. p. 16. Hift. August. the IV. CHA P. the Romans; and diftinction of every kind foort became criminal. The poffeffion of wealth stimulated the diligence of the informers: rigid virtue implied a tacit cenfure of the irregularities of Commodus; important fervices implied á dangerous fuperiority of merit; and the friendship of the father always enfured the averfion of the fon. Sufpicion was equivalent to proof; trial to condemnation. The execution of a confiderable fenator was attended with the death of all who might lament or revenge his fate; and when Commodus had once tafted human blood, he became incapable of pity or remorfe. Of thefe innocent victims of tyranny, none died more lamented than the two brothers of the Quintilian family, Maximus and Condianus; whofe fraternal love has faved their names from oblivion, and endeared their memory to pofterity. Their ftudies and their occupations, their pursuits and their pleafures, were ftill the fame. In the enjoyment of a great estate they never admitted the idea of a feparate intereft; fome fragments are now extant of a treatife which they compofed in common; and in every action of life it was obferved, that their two bodies were animated by one foul. The Antonines, who valued their virtues, and delighted in their union, raised them, in the fame year, to the confulfhip; and Marcus afterwards entrusted to their joint care the civil administration of Greece, and a great military command, in which they obtained a fignal victory over the Germans. Germans. The kind cruelty of Commodus C H A P. united them in death 16. nis. IV. The tyrant's rage, after having fhed the nobleft The minifblood of the fenate, at length recoiled on the ter Perenprincipal inftrument of his cruelty. Whilft Commodus was immersed in blood and luxury, he devolved the detail of the public bufinefs on Perennis; a fervile and ambitious minifter, who had obtained his poft by the murder of his predeceffor, but who poffeffed a confiderable share of vigour and ability. By acts of extortion, and the forfeited eftates of the nobles facrificed to his avarice, he had accumulated an immenfe treafure. The Prætorian guards were under his immediate command: and his fon, who already discovered a military genius, was at the head of the Illyrian legions. Perennis afpired to the empire; or what, in the eyes of Commodus, amounted to the fame crime, he was capable of afpiring to it, had he not been prevented, furprised, and put to death. The fall of a minister A.D.186. is a very trifling incident in the general hiftory of the empire; but it was haftened by an extraordinary circumftance, which proved how much the nerves of discipline were already relaxed. The legions of Britain, difcontented with the administration of Perennis, formed a deputation of fifteen hundred felect men, with inftructions to march to Rome, and lay their complaints before the Emperor. Thefe military petitioners, 16 In a note upon the Auguftan History, Cafaubon has collected a number of particulars concerning these celebrated brothers. See p. 96. of his learned commentary. by IV. CHAP. by their own determined hehaviour, by inflaming the divifions of the guards, by exaggerating the strength of the British army, and by alarming the fears of Commodus, exacted and obtained the minifter's death, as the only redrefs of their grievances". This prefumption of a distant army, and their discovery of the weaknefs of government, was a fure prefage of the moft dreadful convulfions. Revolt of The negligence of the public administration was betrayed foon afterwards, by a new diforder, which arofe from the fmalleft beginnings. A spirit of desertion began to prevail among the troops; and the deferters, inftead of feeking their fafety in flight or concealment, infefted the highways. Maternus, a private foldier, of a daring boldnefs above his ftation, collected these bands of robbers into a little army, fet open the prifons, invited the slaves to affert their freedom, and plundered with impunity the rich and defenceless cities of Gaul and Spain. The governors of the provinces, who had long been the fpectators, and perhaps the partners, of his depredations, were, at length, roufed from their fupine indolence by the threatening commands of the Emperor. Maternus found that he was encompaffed, and forefaw that he must be overpowered. A great effort of despair was his laft refource. He ordered his followers to difperfe, 17 Dion, 1. lxxii. p. 1210. Herodian, 1. i. p. 22. Hift. Auguft. p. 48. Dion gives a much less odious character of Perennis, than the other hiftorians. His moderation is almoft a pledge of his veracity. |