July 15. for they already occupied very distant apartments, afraid to give or A.D. 238, to receive assistance, they wasted the important moments in idle debates and fruitless recriminations. The arrival of the guards put an end to the vain strife. They seized on these emperors of the senate, for such they called them with malicious contempt, stripped them of their garments, and dragged them in insolent triumph through the streets of Rome, with the design of inflicting a slow and cruel death on these unfortunate princes. The fear of a rescue from the faithful Germans of the Imperial guards shortened their tortures; and their bodies, mangled with a thousand wounds, were left exposed to the insults or to the pity of the populace.44 In the space of a few months six princes had been cut off by the The third Gordian remains sole emperor. sword. Gordian, who had already received the title of Cæsar, was the only person that occurred to the soldiers as proper to fill the vacant throne.45 They carried him to the camp and unanimously saluted him Augustus and Emperor. His name was dear to the senate and people; his tender age promised a long impunity of military licence; and the submission of Rome and the provinces to the choice of the Prætorian guards saved the republic, at the expense indeed of its freedom and dignity, from the horrors of a new civil war in the heart of the capital. 46 Innocence and virtues of Gordian. As the third Gordian was only nineteen years of age at the time of his death, the history of his life, were it known to us with greater accuracy than it really is, would contain little more than the account of his education and the conduct of the ministers who by turns abused or guided the simplicity of his unexperienced youth. Immediately after his accession he fell into the hands of his mother's eunuchs, that pernicious vermin of the East, who, since the days of Elagabalus, had infested the Roman palace. By the artful conspiracy of these wretches an impenetrable veil was drawn between an innocent prince and his oppressed subjects, the virtuous disposition of Gordian was deceived, and the honours of the empire sold without 44 Herodian, 1. viii. [c. 8] p. 287, 288. 45 Quia non alius erat in præsenti, is the expression of the Augustan History. [Capitol. Max. et Balb. c. 14.] 46 Quintus Curtius (1. x. c. 9) pays an elegant compliment to the emperor of the day, for having, by his happy accession, extinguished so many firebrands, sheathed so many swords, and put an end to the evils of a divided government. After weighing with attention every word of the passage, I am of opinion that it suits better with the elevation of Gordian than with any other period of the Roman history. In that case it may serve to decide the age of Quintus Curtius. Those who place him under the first Cæsars argue from the purity of his style, but are embarrassed by the silence of Quintilian in his accurate list of Roman historians." "Most modern critics place Q. Curtius in the time of Vespasian; but Niebuhr supposes that Curtius and Petronius were contemporaries of Septimius Severus. See Niebuhr, Kleine Schriften, vol. i. p. 305, seq.; Buttmann, Ueber das Leben des Geschichtschreibers Q. Curtius, Berlin, 1820.-S. A.D. 240. his knowledge, though in a very public manner, to the most worthless of mankind. We are ignorant by what fortunate accident the emperor escaped from this ignominious slavery, and devolved his confidence on a minister whose wise counsels had no object except the glory of his sovereign and the happiness of the people. It should seem that love and learning introduced Misitheus" to the favour of Gordian. The young prince married the daughter of his master of rhetoric, and promoted his father-in-law to the first offices of the empire. Two admirable letters that passed Adminis between them are still extant. The minister, with the Misitheus. conscious dignity of virtue, congratulates Gordian that he is delivered from the tyranny of the eunuchs, 17 and still more that he is sensible of his deliverance. The emperor acknowledges, with an amiable confusion, the errors of his past conduct; and laments, with singular propriety, the misfortune of a monarch from whom a venal tribe of courtiers perpetually labour to conceal the truth. 48 tration of The Per sian war, .D. 242. The life of Misitheus had been spent in the profession of letters, not of arms; yet such was the versatile genius of that great man, that, when he was appointed Prætorian præfect, he discharged the military duties of his place with vigour and ability. The Persians had invaded Mesopotamia, and threatened Antioch. By the persuasion of his father-in-law, the young emperor quitted the luxury of Rome, opened, for the last time recorded in history, the temple of Janus, and marched in person into the East. On his approach with a great army, the Persians withdrew their garrisons from the cities which they had already taken, and retired from the Euphrates to the Tigris. Gordian enjoyed the pleasure of announcing to the senate the first success of his arms, which he ascribed with a becoming modesty and gratitude to the wisdom of his father and præfect. During the whole expedition, Misitheus watched over the 47 Hist. August. p. 161. [Capitol. Gordian. Tert. c. 24, 25.] From some hints in the two letters, I should expect that the eunuchs were not expelled the palace without some degree of gentle violence, and that the young Gordian rather approved of, than consented to, their disgrace. 48 Duxit uxorem filiam Misithei, quem causâ eloquentiæ dignum parentelâ suâ putavit; et præfectum statim fecit; post quod, non puerile jam et contemptibile videbatur imperium. [Capitol. Gordian. Tert. c. 23.] This name, which is found in Capitolinus, has been justly suspected by modern scholars, to whom it has seemed very improbable that such an appellation as God-hater should have been borne by an individual of eminence. The inscription in which this name is found (Gruter, p. 439, 4) is probably a forgery. Zosimus (i. 17) calls the father-in-law of Gordian Timesicles, and in an inscription (Sponius, Miscell. p. 148) the name of Temesitheus occurs; but it is uncertain whether this refers to the same person. There can be no doubt, however, that Timesicles or Temesitheus is more correct than Misitheus. Of the former two Temesitheus, or rather Timesitheus, which is found both in Herodotus and Xenophon, and, under its Doric form Timasitheus, in Livy and Valerius Maximus, seems to be the most probable. See Eckhel, vol. vii. p. 319.-S. A.D. 243. safety and discipline of the army; whilst he prevented their dangerous murmurs by maintaining a regular plenty in the camp, and by establishing ample magazines of vinegar, bacon, straw, barley, and wheat, in all the cities of the frontier.49 But the prosperity of Gordian expired with Misitheus, who died of a flux, not without very strong suspicions of poison. Philip, his successor in the præfecture, was an Arab by birth, and consequently, in the earlier part of his life, a robber by profession. His rise from so obscure a station to the first dignities of the empire seems to prove that he was a bold and able leader. But his boldness prompted him to aspire to the throne, and his abilities were employed to supplant, not to serve, his indulgent master. The minds of the soldiers were irritated by an artificial scarcity, created by his contrivance in the camp; and the distress of the army was attributed to the youth and incapacity of the prince. It is not in our power to trace the successive steps of the secret conspiracy and open sedition which were at length fatal to Gordian. A sepulchral monument was erected to his memory on the spot where he was killed, near the conflux of the Euphrates with the little river The fortunate Philip, raised to the empire by the votes of the soldiers, found a ready obedience from the senate and the provinces. 52 Murder of Aboras. Form of a military republic. 51 We cannot forbear transcribing the ingenious, though somewhat fanciful description, which a celebrated writer of our own times has traced of the military government of the Roman empire. "What in that age was called the Roman empire was only "an irregular republic, not unlike the aristocracy 53 of Algiers,54 "where the militia, possessed of the sovereignty, creates and deposes 49 Hist. August. p. 162. [Capitol. Gordian. Tert. c. 27.] Aurelius Victor [de Cæsar. c. 27]. Porphyrius in Vit. Plotin. ap. Fabricium, Biblioth. Græc. 1. iv. c. 36. The philosopher Plotinus accompanied the army, prompted by the love of knowledge, and by the hope of penetrating as far as India. 50 About twenty miles from the little town of Circesium, on the frontier of the two empires." 51 The inscription (which contained a very singular pun) was erased by the order of Licinius, who claimed some degree of relationship to Philip (Hist. August. p. 165. [Capitol. Gordian. Tert. c. 34]); but the tumulus or mound of earth which formed the sepulchre still subsisted in the time of Julian. See Ammian. Marcellin. xxiii. 5. 52 Aurelius Victor. Eutrop. ix. 2. Orosius, vii. 20. Ammianus Marcellinus, xxiii. 5. Zosimus, 1. i. [c. 19, p. 22] p. 19. Philip, who was a native of Bostra, was about forty years of age. 53 Can the epithet of Aristocracy be applied, with any propriety, to the government of Algiers? Every military government floats between the extremes of absolute monarchy and wild democracy. 54 The military republic of the Mamalukes in Egypt would have afforded M, de Montesquieu (see Considérations sur la Grandeur et la Décadence des Romains, c. 16) a juster and more noble parallel. "On the position of Circesium, see c. xiii. editor's note on note 77.-S. 66 "a magistrate, who is styled a Dey. Perhaps, indeed, it may be "laid down as a general rule, that a military government is, in some "respects, more republican than monarchical. Nor can it be said "that the soldiers only partook of the government by their dis"obedience and rebellions. The speeches made to them by the emperors, were they not at length of the same nature as those "formerly pronounced to the people by the consuls and the tribunes? "And although the armies had no regular place or forms of assembly; "though their debates were short, their action sudden, and their "resolves seldom the result of cool reflection, did they not dispose, "with absolute sway, of the public fortune? What was the emperor, "except the minister of a violent government, elected for the private "benefit of the soldiers? 66 "When the army had elected Philip, who was Prætorian præfect "to the third Gordian, the latter demanded that he might remain "sole emperor; he was unable to obtain it. He requested that the power might be equally divided between them; the army would not "listen to his speech. He consented to be degraded to the rank of "Cæsar; the favour was refused him. He desired, at least, he might "be appointed Prætorian præfect; his prayer was rejected. Finally, “he pleaded for his life. The army, in these several judgments, "exercised the supreme magistracy." According to the historian, whose doubtful narrative the president De Montesquieu has adopted, Philip, who, during the whole transaction, had preserved a sullen silence, was inclined to spare the innocent life of his benefactor; till, recollecting that his innocence might excite a dangerous compassion in the Roman world, he commanded, without regard to his suppliant cries, that he should be seized, stripped, and led away to instant death. After a moment's pause the inhuman sentence was executed.55 On his return from the East to Rome, Philip, desirous of obliterating the memory of his crimes, and of captivating the Reign of affections of the people, solemnised the secular games with Philip. infinite pomp and magnificence. Since their institution or revival by Augustus, 56 they had been celebrated by Claudius, by Domitian, 55 The Augustan History (p. 163, 164 [Capitol. Gordian. Tert. c. 30]) cannot, in this instance, be reconciled with itself or with probability. How could Philip condemn his predecessor, and yet consecrate his memory? How could he order his public execution, and yet, in his letters to the senate, exculpate himself from the guilt of his death? Philip, though an ambitious usurper, was by no means a mad tyrant. Some chronological difficulties have likewise been discovered, by the nice eyes of Tillemont and Muratori, in this supposed association of Philip to the empire. The account of the last supposed celebration, though in an enlightened period of history, was so very doubtful and obscure, that the alternative seems not doubtful. When the popish jubilees, the copy of the secular games, were invented by Boniface VIII., the crafty pope pretended that he only revived an ancient institution. See M. le Chais, Lettres sur les Jubilès. Secular and by Severus, and were now renewed the fifth time, on the accomplishment of the full period of a thousand years from the foundation of Rome. Every circumstance of the secular games was skilfully adapted to inspire the superstitious mind with deep and solemn reverence. The long interval between them 57 exceeded the term of human life; and as none of the spectators had already seen them, none could flatter themselves with the expectation of beholding them a second time. The mystic sacrifices were performed, during three nights, on the banks of the Tiber; and the Campus Martius resounded with music and dances, and was illuminated with innumerable lamps and torches. Slaves and strangers were excluded from any participation in these national ceremonies. A chorus of twenty-seven youths, and as many virgins, of noble families, and whose parents were both alive, implored the propitious gods in favour of the present, and for the hope of the rising generation; requesting, in religious hymns, that, according to the faith of their ancient oracles, they would still maintain the virtue, the felicity, and the empire of the Roman people.58 The magnificence of Philip's shows and entertainments dazzled the eyes of the multitude. The devout were employed in the rites of superstition, whilst the reflecting few revolved in their anxious minds the past history and the future fate of the empire. Since Romulus, with a small fortified himself on the Decline of the Roman band of shepherds and outlaws, hills near the Tiber, ten centuries empire. had already elapsed. 59 During the four first ages, the Romans, in the laborious school of poverty, had acquired the virtues of war and government: by the vigorous exertion of those virtues, and by the assistance of fortune, they had obtained, in the course of the three succeeding centuries, an absolute empire over many countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The last three hundred years had been consumed in apparent prosperity and internal decline. The nation of soldiers, magistrates, and legislators, who composed the thirty-five tribes of the Roman people, was dissolved into the common mass of mankind, and confounded with the millions of servile provincials, who had received the name, without adopting the spirit, of Romans. A mercenary army, levied among the subjects and barbarians of the 57 Either of a hundred or a hundred and ten years. Varro and Livy adopted the former opinion, but the infallible authority of the Sibyl consecrated the latter (Censorinus de Die Natal. c. 17). The emperors Claudius and Philip, however, did not treat the oracle with implicit respect. 58 The idea of the secular games is best understood from the poem of Horace and the description of Zosi nus, 1. ii. [c. 5, seq.] 59 The received calculation of Varro assigns to the foundation of Rome an æra that corresponds with the 754th year before Christ. But so little is the chronology of Rome to be depended on in the more early ages, that Sir Isaac Newton has brought the same event as low as the year 627. [Compare Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 271.-M.] |