VI. CHAP. their interest, and divide the empire between them. The conditions of the treaty were already drawn with some accuracy. It was agreed, that Caracalla, as the elder brother, should remain in possession of Europe and the western Africa; and that he should relinquish the sovereignty of Asia and Egypt to Geta, who might fix his residence at Alexandria or Antioch, cities little inferior to Rome itself in wealth and greatness; that numerous armies should be constantly encamped on either side of the Thracian Bosphorus, to guard the frontiers of the rival monarchies; and that the senators of European extraction should acknowledge the sovereign of Rome, whilst the natives of Asia followed the emperor of the East. The tears of the empress Julia interrupted the negotiation, the first idea of which had filled every Roman breast with surprise and indignation. The mighty mass of conquest was so intimately united by the hand of time and policy, that it required the most forcible violence to rend it asunder. The Romans had reason to dread that the disjointed members would soon be reduced by a civil war under the dominion of one master; but if the separation was permanent, the division of the provinces must terminate in the dissolution of an empire whose unity had hitherto remained inviolate.20 Murder of A. D. 212, ary. Had the treaty been carried into execution, the sovereign of Geta, Europe might soon have been the conqueror of Asia; but Ca27th Febru- racalla obtained an easier though a more guilty victory. He artfully listened to his mother's entreaties, and consented to meet his brother in her apartment, on terms of peace and reconciliation. In the midst of their conversation, some centurions, who had contrived to conceal themselves, rushed with drawn swords upon the unfortunate Geta. His distracted mother strove to protect him in her arms; but, in the unavailing struggle, she was wounded in the hand, and covered with the blood of her younger son, while she saw the elder animating and assisting the fury of the assassins. As soon as the deed was perpetrated, Caracalla, with hasty steps and horror in his countenance, ran towards the Prætorian camp as his only refuge, and threw himself on the ground before the statues of the tutelar deities. The soldiers attempted to raise and comfort him. In broken and disordered words, he informed them of his imminent danger and fortunate escape; insinuating that he had prevented the designs of his enemy, and declared his 20 Herodian, l. iv. p. 144. 21 Caracalla consecrated in the temple of Serapis the sword, with which, as he boasted, be had slain his brother Geta. Dion, 1. lxxvii. p. 1307. 22 Herodian, 1. iv. p. 147. In every Roman camp there was a small chapel near the head quarters, in which the statues of the tutelar deities were preserved and adored; and we may remark, that the eagles, and other military ensigns, were in the first rank of these deities: an excellent institution, which confirmed discipline by the sanction of religion. See Lipsius de Militia Romanâ, iv. 5, v. 2. resolution to live and die with his faithful troops. Geta had CHAP. VI. The crime went not unpunished. Neither business, nor Remorse pleasure, nor flattery, could defend Caracalla from the stings and cruelty of a guilty conscience; and he confessed, in the anguish of a ella. tortured mind, that his disordered fancy often beheld the angry forms of his father and his brother rising into life, to threaten and upbraid him. The consciousness of his crime should have induced him to convince mankind by the virtues of his reign, that the bloody deed had been the involuntary effect of fatal necessity. But the repentance of Caracalla only prompted him to remove from the world whatever could remind him of his guilt, or recall the memory of his murdered brother. On his return from the senate to the palace, he found his mother in the company of several noble matrons, weeping over the untimely fate of her younger son. The jealous emperor threatened them with instant death; the sentence was executed against Fadilla, the last remaining daughter of the emperor Marcus; and even the afflicted Julia was obliged to silence her lamentations, to suppress her sighs, and to receive the assassin with smiles of joy and approbation. It was computed that, under the vague appellation of the friends of Geta, above twenty thousand persons of both sexes suffered death. His guards and freedmen, the ministers of his serious business, and the companions of his looser hours, those who by his interest had been promoted to any commands in the army or provinces, with the long-connected chain of their dependents, were included in the proscription; which endeavoured to reach every 23 Herodian, l. iv. p. 148. Dion, 1. lxxvii. p. 1289. 24 Geta was placed among the gods. Sit divus, dum non sit vivus, said his brother. Hist. August. p. 91. Some marks of Geta's consecration are still found upon medals. 25 Dion, 1. lxxvii. p. 1307. VI. 26 CHAP. one who had maintained the smallest correspondence with Geta, who lamented his death, or who even mentioned his name. Helvius Pertinax, son to the prince of that name, lost his life by an unseasonable witticism.27 It was a sufficient crime of Thrasea Priscus, to be descended from a family in which the love of liberty seemed an hereditary quality. The particular causes of calumny and suspicion were at length exhausted; and when a senator was accused of being a secret enemy to the government, the emperor was satisfied with the general proof that he was a man of property and virtue. From this well-grounded principle he frequently drew the most bloody inferences. Death of Papinian. 29 The execution of so many innocent citizens was bewailed by the secret tears of their friends and families. The death of Papinian, the Prætorian præfect, was lamented as a public calamity. During the last seven years of Severus, he had exercised the most important offices of the state, and, by his salutary influence, guided the emperor's steps in the paths of justice and moderation. In full assuracne of his virtues and abilities, Severus, on his death-bed, had conjured him to watch over the prosperity and union of the imperial family. The honest labours of Papinian served only to inflame the hatred which Caracalla had already conceived against his father's minister. After the murder of Geta, the Præfect was commanded to exert the powers of his skill and eloquence in a studied apology for that atrocious deed. The philosophic Seneca had condescended to compose a similar epistle to the senate, in the name of the son and assassin of Agrippina ;30 That it was easier to commit than to justify a parricide," was the glorious reply of Papinian," who did not hesitate between the loss of life and that of honour. Such intrepid virtue, which had escaped pure and unsullied from the intrigues of courts, the habits of business, and the arts of his profession, reflects more lustre on the memory of Papinian, than all his great employments, his numerous writings, and the superior reputation as a lawyer, which he has preserved through every age of the Roman jurisprudence,32 26 Dion, 1. lxxvii. p. 1290. Herodian, l. iv. p. 150. Dion (p. 1298,) says, that the comic poets no longer durst employ the name of Geta in their plays, and that the estates of those who mentioned it in their testaments were confiscated. 27 Caracalla had assumed the names of several conquered nations: Pertinax observed, that the name of Gelicus (he had obtained some advantage of the Goths or Geta) would be a proper addition to Parthicus, Alemannicus, &c. August. p. 89. 28 Dion, 1. lxxvii. p. 1291. He was probably descended from Helvidius Priscus, and Thrasea Pætus, those patriots, whose firm, but useless and unseasonable virtue, has been immortalized by Tacitus. &c. 29 It is said tha: Papinian was himself a relation of the empress Julia. 30 Tacit. Annal. xiv. 2. 91 Hist. August. p. 88. 52 With regard to Papinian, see Heineccius's Historia Juris Romani, 1. 330, 33 extended whole em It had hitherto been the peculiar felicity of the Romans, CHAP. and in the worst of times their consolation, that the virtue of VI. the emperors was active, and their vice indolent. Augustus, Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus, visited their extensive dominions llis tyranny in person, and their progress was marked by acts of wisdom over the and beneficence. The tyranny of Tiberius Nero, and Domi- pie. tian, who resided almost constantly at Rome, or in the adjacent villas, was confined to the senatorial and equestrian orders.3 But Caracalla was the common enemy of mankind. He left the capital (and he never returned to it) about a year after the murder of Geta. The rest of his reign was spent in the seve- A. D. 213 ral provinces of the empire, particularly those of the East, and every province was by turns the scene of his rapine and cruelty. The senators compelled by fear to attend his capricious motions, were obliged to provide daily entertainments at an immense expense, which he abandoned with contempt to his guards; and to erect, in every city, magnificent palaces and theatres, which he either disdained to visit, or ordered to be immediately thrown down. The most wealthy families were ruined by partial fines and confiscations, and the great body of his subjects oppressed by ingenious and aggravated taxes.34 In the midst of peace, and upon the slightest provocation, he issued his commands, at Alexandria in Egypt, for a general massacre. From a secure post in the temple of Serapis, he viewed and directed the slaughter of many thousand citizens, as well as strangers, without distinguishing either the number or the crime of the sufferers; since, as he coolly informed the senate, all the Alexandrians, those who had perished, and those who had escaped, were alike guilty.35 of disci The wise instructions of Severus never made any lasting im- Relaxation pression on the mind of his son, who, although not destitute of pline. imagination and eloquence, was equally devoid of judgment and humanity.36 One dangerous maxim, worthy of a tyrant, was remembered and abused by Caracalla, "To secure the affections of the army, and to esteem the rest of his subjects as of little moment."37 But the liberality of the father had been restrained by prudence, and his indulgence to the troops was tempered by firmness and authority. The careless profusion of the son was the policy of one reign, and the inevita 53 Tiberius and Domitian never moved from the neighbourhood of Rome. Nero made a short journey into Greece. "Et laudatorum Principum usus ex æquo quamvis procul agentibus. Sævi proximis ingruunt." Tacit. Hist. iv. 75. S4 Dion, 1. lxxvii. p. 1294. 35 Dion, I. lxxvii. p. 1307. Herodian, l. iv. p. 158. The former represents it as a cruel massacre, the latter as a perfidious one too. It seems probable, that the Alexandrians had irritated the tyrant by their railleries, and perhaps, by their tumults. 36 Dion, 1. lxxvii. p. 1296. 37 Dion, 1. lxxvi. p. 1234. Mr. Wotton (Hist. of Rome, p. 330,) suspects that this maxim was invented by Caracalla himself, and attributed to his father. CHAP. ble ruin both of the army and of the empire. The vigour of VI. the soldiers, instead of being confirmed by the severe discipline of camps, melted away in the luxury of cities. The excessive increase of their pay and donatives exhausted the state to enrich the military order, whose modesty in peace, and service in war, were best secured by an honourable poverty. The demeanour of Caracalla was haughty and full of pride; but with the troops he forgot even the proper dignity of his rank, encouraged their insolent familiarity, and neglecting the essential duties of a general, affected to imitate the dress and manners of a common soldier. Murder of It was impossible that such a character, and such conduct as that of Caracalla, could inspire either love or esteem; but as long as his vices were beneficial to the armies, he was secure from the danger of rebellion. A secret conspiracy, provoked by his own jealousy, was fatal to the tyrant. The prætorian præfecture was divided between two ministers. The military department was intrusted to Adventus, an experienced rather than an able soldier; and the civil affairs were transacted by Opilius Macrinus, who, by his dexterity in business, had raised himself with a fair character, to that high oflice. But his favour varied with the caprice of the emperor, and his life might depend on the slightest suspicion, or the most casual circumstance. Malice or fanaticism had suggested to an African, deeply skilled in the knowledge of futurity, a very dangerous prediction, that Macrinus and his son were destined to reign over the empire. The report was soon diffused through the province; and when the man was sent in chains to Rome, he still asserted, in the presence of the Præfect of the city, the faith of his prophecy. That magistrate, who had received the most pressing instructions to inform himself of the successors of Caracalla, immediately communicated the examination of the African to the imperial court, which at that time resided in Syria. But, notwithstanding the diligence of the public messengers, a friend of Macrinus found means to apprize him of the approaching danger. The emperor received the letters from Rome; and as he was then engaged in the conduct of a chariot race, he delivered them unopened to the Prætorian Præfect, directing him to despatch the ordinary affairs, and to report 38 Dion, (1. Ixxviii. p. 1343,) informs us, that the extraordinary gifts of Caracalla to the army amounted annually to seventy millions of drachma (about two millions three hundred and fifty thousand pounds.) There is another passage in Dion, concerning the military pay, infinitely curious; were it not obscure, imperfect, and probably corrupt. The best sense seems to be, that the Prætorian guards received twelve hundred and fifty drachma (forty pounds) a year (Dion, Ï. lxxvii. p. 1307. Under the reign of Augustus they were paid at the rate of two drachma or denarii, per day, 730 a year (Tacit. Annal. 17.) Domitian, who increased the soldiers' pay one-fourth, must have raised the Prætorians to 960 drachma (Gronovius de Pecuniâ Veteri, I. iii. c. 2.) These successive augmentations ruined the empire, for, with the soldiers' pay, their numbers too were increased. We have seen the Prætorians alone increased from 10,000 to 50,000 men. |