whose combat with the retiarius formed one of the most lively scenes in the bloody sports of the amphitheatre. The secutor was armed with an helmet, sword, and buckler; his naked antagonist had only a large net and a trident; with the one he endeavoured to entangle, with the other to dispatch, his enemy. If he missed the first throw, he was obliged to fly from the pursuit of the secutor, till he had prepared his net for a second cast.* The emperor fought in this character seven hundred and thirty-five several times. These glorious achievements were carefully recorded in the public acts of the empire; and that he might omit no circumstance of infamy, he received from the common fɑnd of gladiators, a stipend so exorbitant, that it became a new and most ignominious tax upon the Roman people.† It may be easily supposed, that in these engagements the master of the world was always successful: in the amphitheatre his victories were not often sanguinary; but when he exercised his skill in the school of gladiators, or his own palace, his wretched antagonists were frequently honoured with a mortal wound from the hand of Commodus, and obliged to seal their flattery with their blood. He now disdained the appellation of Hercules. The name of Paulus, a celebrated secutor, was the only one which delighted his ear. It was inscribed on his colossal statues, and repeated in the redoubled acclamations of the mournful and applauding senate.§ Claudius Pompeianus, the virtuous husband of Lucilla, was the only senator who asserted the honour of his rank. As a father, he permitted his sons to consult their safety by attending the amphitheatre.

the arena forty senators and sixty knights. See Lipsius, Saturnalia, 1. 2, c. 2. He has happily corrected a passage of Suetonius, in Nerone, c. 12.

* Lipsius, 1. 2, c. 7, 8. Juvenal, in the eighth satire, gives a picturesque description of this combat. Hist. August. p. 50. Dion, 1. 72, p. 1220. He received for each time, decies, about 8000l. sterling. Victor tells

us, that Commodus only allowed his antagonists a leaden weapon, dreading, most probably, the consequences of their despair. § They were obliged to repeat six hundred and twenty-six times, Paulus, first of the secutors, &c. [Dion Cassius records this as an inscription, not as one of the cries, in which he, as a senator, was obliged to join. Lampridius, who furnished Gibbon with this note (Hist. Aug. 1, 114), seems, however, to say, that the shout was called for on six hundred and twenty different occasions, not repeated so many times consecutively. His words "Appellatus est sane, inter cætera triumphalia nomina, etiam sexcenties vicies, Palus primus secutorum."-ED.]

are:

Dion, 1. 72, p. 1221. He speaks of his own baseness and danger.

As a Roman, he declared, that his own life was in the emperor's hands, but that he would never behold the son of Marcus prostituting his person and dignity. Notwithstanding his manly resolution, Pompeianus escaped the resentment of the tyrant, and with his honour, had the good fortune to preserve his life.*

Commodus had now attained the summit of vice and infamy. Amidst the acclamations of a flattering court, ho was unable to disguise from himself, that he had deserved the contempt and hatred of every man of sense and virtue in his empire. His ferocious spirit was irritated by the conciousness of that hatred, by the envy of every kind of merit, by the just apprehension of danger, and by the habit of slaughter, which he contracted in his daily amusements. History has preserved a long list of consular senators sacrificed to his wanton suspicion, which sought out, with peculiar anxiety, those unfortunate persons, connected, however remotely, with the family of the Antonines, without sparing even the ministers of his crimes or pleasures.† His cruelty proved at last fatal to himself. He had shed with impunity the noblest blood of Rome: he perished as soon as he was dreaded by his own domestics. Marcia his favourite concubine, Eclectus his chamberlain, and Lætus his prætorian prefect, alarmed by the fate of their companions and predecessors, resolved to prevent the destruction which every hour hung over their heads, either from the mad caprice of the tyrant, or the sudden indignation of the people. Marcia seized the occasion of presenting a draught of wine to her lover, after he had fatigued himself with hunting some wild beasts. Commodus retired to sleep; but whilst he was labouring with the effects of poison and drunkenness, a robust youth, by profession a wrestler, entered his chamber,

* He mixed, however, some prudence with his courage, and passed the greatest part of his time in a country retirement; alleging his advanced age, and the weakness of his eyes. "I never saw him in the senate," says Dion, "except during the short reign of Pertinax." All his infirmities had suddenly left him, and they returned as suddenly upon the murder of that excellent prince. Dion, 1. 73, p. 1227.

The prefects were changed almost hourly or daily; and the caprice of Commodus was often fatal to his most favoured chamberlains. Hist. August. p. 46, 51. [Herodian (lib. 1, 1. 17) states circumstantially, that Commodus had resolved on putting them to death the following night, and that to save themselves, they anticipated him.— WENCK.]

and strangled him without resistance. The body was secretly conveyed out of the palace, before the least suspicion was entertained in the city, or even in the court, of the emperor's death. Such was the fate of the son of Marcus, and so easy was it to destroy a hated tyrant, who, by the artificial powers of government, had oppressed, during thirteen years, so many millions of subjects, each of whom was equal to their master in personal strength and personal abilities.†

The measures of the conspirators were conducted with the deliberate coolness and celerity which the greatness of the occasion required. They resolved instantly to fill the vacant throne with an emperor, whose character would justify and maintain the action that had been committed. They fixed on Pertinax, prefect of the city, an ancient senator of consular rank, whose conspicuous merit had broke through the obscurity of his birth, and raised him to the first honours of the state. He had successively governed most of the provinces of the empire; and in all his great employments, military as well as civil, he had uniformly distinguished himself by the firmness, the prudence, and the integrity, of his conduct. He now remained almost alone of the friends and ministers of Marcus; and when, at a late hour of the night, he was awakened with the news that the chamberlain

* [A violent retching having discharged the poison, Commodus suspected the fact, and threatened the conspirators, who then sent in the wrestler, Narcissus.-WENCK.] + Dion, 1. 72, p. 1222. Herodian, 1. 1, p. 43. Hist. August. p. 52. Pertinax was a native of Alba Pompeia, in Piedmont, and son of a timber-merchant. The order of his employments (it is marked by Capitolinus) well deserves to be set down, as expressive of the form of government and manners of the age. 1. He was a centurion. 2. Prefect of a cohort in Syria, in the Parthian war, and in Britain. 3. He obtained an ala, or squadron of horse, in Moesia. 4. He was commissary of provisions on the Emilian way. 5. He commanded the fleet upon the Rhine. 6. He was procurator of Dacia, with a salary of about 1600 a year. 7. He commanded the veterans of a legion. 8. He obtained the rank of senator. 9. Of prætor. 10. With the command of the first legion in Rhætia and Noricum. 11. He was consul about the year 175. 12. He attended Marcus into the east. 13. He commanded an army on the Danube. 14. He was consular legate of Mosia. 15. Of Dacia. 16. Of Syria. 17. Of Britain. 18. He had the care of the public provisions at Rome. 19. He was proconsul of Africa. 20. Prefect of the city. Herodian (1. 1, p. 48) does justice to his disinterested spirit; but Capitolinus, who collected every popular rumour, charges him with a great fortune, acquired by bribery and corruption.

and the prefect were at his door, he received them with intrepid resignation, and desired they would execute their master's orders. Instead of death, they offered him the throne of the Roman world. During some moments he distrusted their intentions and assurances. Convinced at length of the death of Commodus, he accepted the purple with a sincere reluctance, the natural effect of his knowledge both of the duties and of the dangers of the supreme rank.*

Lætus conducted without delay his new emperor to the camp of the prætorians, diffusing at the same time through the city a seasonable report that Commodus died suddenly of an apoplexy, and that the virtuous Pertinax had already succeeded to the throne. The guards were rather surprised than pleased with the suspicious death of a prince, whose indulgence and liberality they alone had experienced; but the emergency of the occasion, the authority of their prefect, the reputation of Pertinax, and the clamours of the people, obliged them to stifle their secret discontents, to accept the donative promised by the new emperor, to swear allegiance to him, and with joyful acclamations and laurels in their hands to conduct him to the senate-house, that the military consent might be ratified by the civil authority.

This important night was now far spent; with the dawn of day, and the commencement of the new year, the senators expected a summons to attend an ignominious ceremony. In spite of all remonstrances, even of those of his creatures, who yet preserved any regard for prudence or decency, Commodus had resolved to pass the night in the gladiators' school, and from thence to take possession of the consulship, in the habit and with the attendance of that infamous crew. a sudden, before the break of day, the senate was called together in the temple of Concord, to meet the guards, and to ratify the election of a new emperor.† For a few minutes

On

* Julian, in the Cæsars, taxes him with being accessory to the death of Commodus. + [The senate always assembled during the night, preceding the first of January, to celebrate the commencement of the new year. (See Savaron. on Sidon. Appollinar. lib. 8, Epist. 6.) This took place without any special summons, nor was any such issued on the occasion here referred to. Gibbon's picture of the "silent suspense" of that body is rather imaginary than historical. Dion (p. 1227) only says, that most of the inhabitants of Rome, but still more the governors of the provinces, hesitated to believe the death of Commodus, while they earnestly desired that it might be true. He, who was himself prescut,

they sat in silent suspense, doubtful of their unexpected deliverance, and suspicious of the cruel artifices of Commodus; but when at length they were assured that the tyrant was no more, they resigned themselves over to the transports of joy and indignation. Pertinax, who modestly represented the meanness of his extraction, and pointed out several noble senators more deserving than himself of the empire, was constrained by their dutiful violence to ascend the throne, and received all the titles of imperial power, confirmed by the most sincere vows of fidelity.

The memory of Commodus was branded with eternal infamy. The names of tyrant, of gladiator, of public enemy, resounded in every corner of the house. They decreed, in tumultuous votes, that his honours should be reversed, his titles erased from the public monuments, his statues thrown down, his body dragged with a hook into the strippingroom of the gladiators, to satiate the public fury; and they expressed some indignation against those officious servants who had already presumed to screen his remains from the justice of the senate. But Pertinax could not refuse those last rites to the memory of Marcus, and the tears of his first protector Claudius Pompeianus, who lamented the cruel fate of his brother-in-law, and lamented still more that he had deserved it.*

says, that the senate at once declared in favour of Pertinax; and in this, Herodian, Capitolinus, and Victor all agree with him.-WENCK.]

* Capitolinus gives us the particulars of these tumultuary votes, which were moved by one senator, and repeated, or rather chanted, by the whole body. Hist. August. p. 52. [These "tumultuary votes," as Gibbon incorrectly terms them, were only the acclamations and applauses, so often mentioned in the history of the emperors. The practice originated in the theatre, was adopted in the forum, and passed thence into the senate. Pliny the younger informs us (Paneg. c. 75), that the imperial decrees were first sanctioned by acclamation in the time of Trajan. After the decree had been read by a senator, the assent of the body was given by a kind of chant, or metrical form of approbation. The following are some of these cries, that were addressed to Pertinax and against Commodus: "Hosti patriæ honores detrahantur!" "Parricidæ honores detrahantur!" "Ut salvi simus, Jupiter Optime Maxime, serva nobis Pertinacem!" and others, which it is needless to repeat. This form was often re-echoed, and in some decrees, it is stated how many times it was given; as, for example: "Auguste Claudi, Di te nobis præstant!" dictum sexagies. This custom prevailed not only in councils of state, properly so called, but in all meetings of the senate, for any other purpose whatever; and, according to the character of the reigning prince,

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