THE DEATH OF SEVERUS CHAPTER VI. TYRANNY MACRINUS FOLLIES OF ELAGABALUS - - VIRTUES OF ALEXANDER SEVERUS OF THE ARMY GENERAL STATE OF THE ROMAN and discon tent of THE ascent to greatness, however steep and dangerous, may entertain an active spirit with the consciousness and exercise of Greatness its own powers: but the possession of a throne could never yet afford a lasting satisfaction to an ambitious mind. This Severus. melancholy truth was felt and acknowledged by Severus. Fortune and merit had, from an humble station, elevated him to the first place among mankind. "He had been all things," as he said himself, "and all was of little value." Distracted with the care, not of acquiring, but of preserving an empire, oppressed with age and infirmities, careless of fame," and satiated with power, all his prospects of life were closed. The desire of perpetuating the greatness of his family was the only remaining wish of his ambition and paternal tenderness. 1 the empress Like most of the Africans, Severus was passionately addicted to the vain studies of magic and divination, deeply versed in His wife the interpretation of dreams and omens, and perfectly Julia. acquainted with the science of judicial astrology; which, in almost every age except the present, has maintained its dominion over the mind of man. He had lost his first wife whilst he was governor of the Lyonnese Gaul. In the choice of a second he sought only to connect himself with some favourite of fortune; and as soon as he had discovered that a young lady of Emesa in Syria had a royal nativity, he solicited and obtained her hand. Julia Domna (for that was her name) deserved all that the stars could promise her. She possessed, even in an advanced age, the attractions of beauty, and Hist. August. p. 71. [Spart. Sever. c. 18.] "Omnia fui, et nihil expedit." 2 Dion Cassius, 1. lxxvi. [e. 16] p. 1284. 5 3 About the year 186. M. de Tillemont is miserably embarrassed with a passage of Dion, in which the empress Faustina, who died in the year 175, is introduced as having contributed to the marriage of Severus and Julia (1. lxxiv. [c. 3] p. 1243). The learned compiler forgot that Dion is relating, not a real fact, but a dream of Severus; and dreams are circumscribed to no limits of time or space. Did M. de Tillemont imagine that marriages were consummated in the temple of Venus at Rome? Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 389, Note 6. Hist. August. p. 65. [Spartian. Sever. c. 3.] 5 Hist. August. p. 89. [Spartian. Caracal. c. 10.] united to a lively imagination a firmness of mind and strength of judgment seldom bestowed on her sex. Her amiable qualities never made any deep impression on the dark and jealous temper of her husband; but, in her son's reign, she administered the principal affairs of the empire with a prudence that supported his authority, and with a moderation that sometimes corrected his wild extravagancies. Julia applied herself to letters and philosophy with some success and with the most splendid reputation. She was the pa 7 troness of every art, and the friend of every man of genius. The grateful flattery of the learned has celebrated her virtues; but, if we may credit the scandal of ancient history, chastity was very far from being the most conspicuous virtue of the empress Julia.8 a Two sons, Caracalla' and Geta, were the fruit of this marriage, and the destined heirs of the empire. The fond hopes of the father, and of the Roman world, were soon disappointed by these vain youths, who displayed the indolent security of hereditary princes, and a presumption that fortune would supply the place of merit and application. Without any emulation of virtue or talents, they discovered, almost from their infancy, a fixed and implacable antipathy for each other. Their two sons, Caracalla and Geta. Their mu tual aver other. Their aversion, confirmed by years, and fomented by the arts of their interested favourites, broke out in childish, and grasion to each dually in more serious, competitions; and at length divided the theatre, the circus, and the court into two factions, actuated by the hopes and fears of their respective leaders. The prudent emperor endeavoured, by every expedient of advice and authority, to allay this growing animosity. The unhappy discord of his sons clouded all his prospects, and threatened to overturn a throne raised with so much labour, cemented with so much blood, and guarded with every defence of arms and treasure. With an impartial hand he maintained between them an exact balance of favour, conferred on both the rank of Augustus, with the revered name of 6 Dion Cassius, 1. lxxvii. [c. 18] p. 1304 [1. lxxviii. c. 4], 1312. 7 See a dissertation of Menage, at the end of his edition of Diogenes Laertius, de Fœminis Philosophis. 8 Dion, 1. lxxvi. [c. 16] p. 1285. Aurelius Victor. [De Cæs. xx. 23.] 2 Bassianus was his first name, as it had been that of his maternal grandfather. During his reign he assumed the appellation of Antoninus, which is employed by lawyers and ancient historians. After his death the public indignation loaded him with the nicknames of Tarantus and Caracalla. The first was borrowed from a celebrated gladiator, the second from a long Gallic gown which he distributed to the people of Rome.b The glowing character of Julia given by Gibbon is taken from Dion, whilst the other authorities speak very unfavourably of her, and even charge her with an incestuous intercourse with her son Cara calla. See the note of Reimarus on Dion, p. 1304.-S. b Modern writers usually call him Caracalla, but Caracallus is the form found in the ancient writers.-S. Antoninus; and for the first time the Roman world beheld three emperors, 10 Yet even this equal conduct served only to Three eminflame the contest, whilst the fierce Caracalla asserted the perors. right of primogeniture, and the milder Geta courted the affections of the people and the soldiers. In the anguish of a disappointed father, Severus foretold that the weaker of his sons would fall a sacrifice to the stronger; who, in his turn, would be ruined by his own vices.11 donian war, In these circumstances the intelligence of a war in Britain, and of an invasion of the province by the barbarians of the North, The Calewas received with pleasure by Severus. Though the vigi- A.D. 208. lance of his lieutenants might have been sufficient to repel the distant enemy, he resolved to embrace the honourable pretext of withdrawing his sons from the luxury of Rome, which enervated their minds and irritated their passions; and of inuring their youth to the toils of war and government. Notwithstanding his advanced age (for he was above three-score), and his gout, which obliged him to be carried in a litter, he transported himself in person into that remote island, attended by his two sons, his whole court, and a formidable army. He immediately passed the walls of Hadrian and Antoninus, and entered the enemy's country with a design of completing the long attempted conquest of Britain. He penetrated to the northern extremity of the island without meeting an enemy. But the concealed ambuscades of the Caledonians, who hung unseen on the rear and flanks of his army, the coldness of the climate, and the severity of a winter march across the hills and morasses of Scotland, are reported to have cost the Romans above fifty thousand men. The Caledonians at length yielded to the powerful and obstinate attack, sued for peace, and surrendered a part of their arms and a large tract of territory. But their apparent submission lasted no longer than the present As soon as the Roman legions had retired they resumed their hostile independence. Their restless spirit provoked Severus to send a new army into Caledonia, with the most bloody orders, not to subdue but to extirpate the natives. They were saved by the death of their haughty enemy." terror. 12 Fingal and his heroes. This Caledonian war, neither marked by decisive events nor attended with any important consequences, would ill deserve our attention; but it is supposed, not without a considerable degree of probability, that the invasion of Severus is connected with the most shining period of the British history or fable. 10 The elevation of Caracalla is fixed by the accurate M. de Tillemont to the year 198; the association of Geta to the year 208. Herodian, 1. iii. [c. 13] p. 130. The lives of Caracalla and Geta, in the Augustan History. 12 Dion, 1. lxxvi. [c. 12] p. 1280, &c. Herodian, 1. iii. [c. 14, s7.] p. 132, &c. Fingal, whose fame, with that of his heroes and bards, has been revived in our language by a recent publication, is said to have commanded the Caledonians in that memorable juncture, to have eluded the power of Severus, and to have obtained a signal victory on the banks of the Carun, in which the son of the King of the World, Caracul, fled from his arms along the fields of his pride.13 Something of a doubtful mist still hangs over these Highland traditions; nor can it be entirely dispelled by the most ingenious researches of modern criticism; but, if we could with safety indulge the pleasing supContrast of position that Fingal lived and that Ossian sung, the striking contrast of the situation and manners of the conthe Romans. tending nations might amuse a philosophic mind. The parallel would be little to the advantage of the more civilized people, if we compared the unrelenting revenge of Severus with the generous clemency of Fingal; the timid and brutal cruelty of Caracalla with the bravery, the tenderness, the elegant genius of Ossian; the mercenary chiefs who, from motives of fear or interest, served under the Imperial standard, with the free-born warriors who started to arms at the voice of the king of Morven; if, in a word, we contemplated the untutored Caledonians glowing with the warm virtues of nature, and the degenerate Romans polluted with the mean vices of wealth and slavery. the Caledo nians and Ambition of Caracaila. The declining health and last illness of Severus inflamed the wild ambition and black passions of Caracalla's soul. Impatient of any delay or division of empire, he attempted, more than once, to shorten the small remainder of his father's days, and endeavoured, but without success, to excite a mutiny among the troops.15 The old emperor had often censured the misguided lenity of Marcus, who, by a single act of justice, might have saved the Romans from the tyranny of his worthless son. Placed in the same situation, he experienced how easily the rigour of a judge dissolves away in the 13 Ossian's Poems, vol. i. p. 175. 14 That the Caracul of Ossian is the Caracalla of the Roman history is, perhaps, the only point of British antiquity in which Mr. Macpherson and Mr. Whitaker are of the same opinion; and yet the opinion is not without difficulty. In the Caledonian war the son of Severus was known only by the appellation of Antoninus, and it may seem strange that the Highland bard should describe him by a nickname, invented four years afterwards, scarcely used by the Romans till after the death of that emperor, and seldom employed by the most ancient historians. See Dion, 1. lxxviii. [c. 9] p. 1317. Hist. August. p. 89. [Spartian. Caracal. c. 9.] Aurel. Victor. [Epitome, c. 21.] Euseb. in Chron. ad ann. 214." 13 Dion, 1. lxxvi. [e. 14] p. 1282. Hist. August. p. 72. [Spartian. Sever. c. 20.] Aurel. Victor. The historical authority of Macpherson's Ossian has not increased since Gibbon wrote. We may, indeed, consider it exploded. Mr. Whitaker, in a letter to Gibbon (Misc. Works, vol. ii. p. 100), attempts, not very successfully, to weaken this objection of the historian. -M. Death of and acces two sons, February 4. tenderness of a parent. He deliberated, he threatened, but he could not punish; and this last and only instance of mercy was more fatal to the empire than a long series of cruelty.16 The disorder of his mind irritated the pains of his body; he wished im- Severus, patiently for death, and hastened the instant of it by his sion of his impatience. He expired at York, in the sixty-fifth year of A.D. 211, his life, and in the eighteenth of a glorious and successful reign. In his last moments he recommended concord to his sons, and his sons to the army. The salutary advice never reached the heart, or even the understanding, of the impetuous youths; but the more obedient troops, mindful of their oath of allegiance and of the authority of their deceased master, resisted the solicitations of Caracalla, and proclaimed both brothers emperors of Rome. The new princes soon left the Caledonians in peace, returned to the capital, celebrated their father's funeral with divine honours, and were cheerfully acknowledged as lawful sovereigns by the senate, the people, and the provinces. Some pre-eminence of rank seems to have been allowed to the elder brother; but they both administered the empire with equal and independent power.17 and hatred Such a divided form of government would have proved a source of discord between the most affectionate brothers. It was Jealousy impossible that it could long subsist between two implacable of the two enemies, who neither desired nor could trust a reconciliation. emperors. It was visible that one only could reign, and that the other must fall; and each of them, judging of his rival's designs by his own, guarded his life with the most jealous vigilance from the repeated attacks of poison or the sword. Their rapid journey through Gaul and Italy, during which they never eat at the same table, or slept in the same house, displayed to the provinces the odious spectacle of fraternal discord. On their arrival at Rome, they immediately divided the vast extent of the imperial palace.18 No communication was allowed 16 Dion, 1. lxxvi. [c. 14] p. 1283. Hist. August. p. 89. [Spartian. Caracal. c. 11.] 17 Dion, 1. lxxvi. [c. 15] p. 1284. Herodian. 1. iii. [c. 15] p. 135. 18 Mr. Hume is justly surprised at a passage of Herodian (1. iv. [c. 1] p. 139), who, on this occasion, represents the Imperial palace as equal [greater, ens ONEWS Lon-S.] in extent to the rest of Rome. The whole region of the Palatine Mount, on which it was built, occupied, at most, a circumference of eleven or twelve thousand feet (see the Notitia and Victor, in Nardini's Roma Antica). But we should recollect that the opulent senators had almost surrounded the city with their extensive gardens and suburb palaces, the greatest part of which had been gradually confiscated by the emperors. If Geta resided in the gardens that bore his name on the Janiculum, and if Caracalla inhabited the gardens of Maecenas on the Esquiline, the rival brothers were separated from each other by the distance of several miles; and yet the intermediate space was filled by the Imperial gardens of Sallust, of Lucullus, of Agrippa, of Domitian, of Caius, &c., all skirting round the city, and all connected with each other, and with the palace, by bridges thrown over the Tiber and the streets. But this explanation of Herodian would require, though it ill deserves, a particular dissertation, illustrated by a map of ancient Rome. (Hume, Essay on Populousness of Ancient Nations.- M.) |