CHAP. IV. The Cruelty, Follies, and Murder of Commodus.--- IV. THE mildness of Marcus, which the rigid CHA P, difcipline of the Stoics was unable to eradicate, formed, at the fame time, the most Indulgence amiable, and the only defective, part of this cha- of Marcus, racter. His excellent understanding was often deceived by the unfufpecting goodnefs of his heart. Artful men, who ftudy the paffions of princes, and conceal their own, approached his perfon in the difguife of philofophic fanctity, and acquired riches and honours by affecting to despise them. His exceffive indulgence to his brother, his wife, and his fon, exceeded the bounds of private virtue, and became a public injury, by the example and confequences of their vices. Fauftina, the daughter of Pius and the wife to his wife of Marcus, had been as much celebrated for her Fauftina; gallantries as for her beauty. The grave fimplicity of the philofopher was ill calculated to engage her wanton levity, or to fix that unbounded paffion for variety, which often difcovered perfonal merit in the meanest of man See the complaints of Avidius Caffius, Hift. August. p. 45. These are, it is true, the complaints of faction; but even faction exaggerates, rather than invents. IV. CHAP. kind'. The Cupid of the ancients was, in general, a very fenfual deity; and the amours of an emprefs, as they exact on her fide the plainest advances, are feldom fufceptible of much fentimental delicacy. Marcus was the only man in the empire who feemed ignorant or infenfible of the irregularities of Fauftina; which, according to the prejudices of every age, reflected fome difgrace on the injured husband. He promoted feveral of her lovers to pofts of honour and profit3, and during a connexion for thirty years, invariably gave her proofs of the most tender confidence, and of a refpect which ended not with her life. In his Meditations, he thanks the gods, who had bestowed on him a wife, fo faithful, fo gentle, and of fuch a wonderful fimplicity of manners*. The obfequious fenate, at his earnest request, declared her a goddefs. She was reprefented in her temples, with the attributes of Juno, Venus, and Ceres; and it was decreed, that, on the day of their nuptials, the youth of either fex should pay their vows before the altar of their chaste patronefs'. * Fauftinam fatis conftat apud Cayetam, conditiones fibi et nauticas et gladiatorias, elegiffe. Hift August. p. 30. Lampridius explains the fort of merit which Fauftina chofe, and the conditions which the exacted. Hift. Auguft. p. 102. 3 Hift. Auguft. p 34. Meditat. l. i. The world has laughed at the credulity of Marcus; but Madam Dacier affures us (and we may credit a lady), that the husband will always be deceived, if the wife condescends to diffemble. 5 Dion Caffius, 1. lxxi. p. 1195. Hift. August. p. 33. Commentaire de Spanheim fur les Cefars de Julien, p. 289. The deification of Fauftina is the only defect which Julian's criticism is able to difcover in the all-accomplished character of Marcus. The dus. IV. The monstrous vices of the fon have caft a CHA P. shade on the purity of the father's virtues. It has been objected to Marcus, that he facrificed to his fon the happiness of millions to a fond partiality for Commoa worthless boy; and that he chose a fucceffor in his own family, rather than in the republic. Nothing, however, was neglected by the anxious father, and by the men of virtue and learning whom he fummoned to his affiftance, to expand the narrow mind of young Commodus, to correct his growing vices, and to render him worthy of the throne, for which he was defigned. But the power of inftruction is feldom of much efficacy, except in thofe happy difpofitions where it is almost fuperfluous. The diftafteful leffon of a grave philofopher was, in a moment, obliterated by the whifper of a profligate favourite; and Marcus himfelf blafted the fruits of this laboured education, by admitting his fon, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, to a full participation of the Imperial power. He lived but four years afterwards; but he lived long enough to repent a rafh measure, which raised the impetuous youth above the restraint of reafon and authority. peror Com Moft of the crimes which disturb the internal Acceffion peace of fociety, are produced. by the restraints of the Emwhich the neceffary, but unequal laws of pro- modus. perty have impofed on the appetites of mankind, by confining to a few the poffeffion of thofe objects that are coveted by many. Of all our paflions and appetites, the love of power is of the most imperious and unfociable nature, fince the pride of one man requires the fubmif IV. CHAP. fion of the multitude. In the tumult of civil difcord, the laws of fociety lofe their force, and their place is feldom supplied by those of humanity. The ardor of contention, the pride of victory, the defpair of fuccefs, the memory of paft injuries, and the fear of future dangers, all contribute to inflame the mind, and to filence the voice of pity. From fuch motives almoft every page of hiftory has been ftained with civil blood; but these motives will not account for the unprovoked cruelties of Commodus, who had nothing to wifh, and every thing to enjoy. A.D. 180. The beloved fon of Marcus fucceeded to his father, amidst the acclamations of the fenate and armies, and when he afcended the throne, the happy youth faw round him neither competitor to remove, nor enemies to punifh. In this calm elevated ftation, it was furely natural, that he should prefer the love of mankind to their deteftation, the mild glories of his five predeceffors, to the ignominious fate of Nero, and Domitian. Character of Commodus. Yet Commodus was not, as he has been reprefented, a tyger born with an infatiate thirft of human blood, and capable, from his infancy, of the most inhuman actions'. Nature had formed him of a weak, rather than a wicked difpofition. His fimplicity and timidity rendered him the flave of his attendants, who gradually corrupted his 6 Commodus was the first Porphyrogenitus (born fince his father's acceffion to the throne). By a new ftrain of flattery, the Egyptian medals date by the years of his life; as if they were fynonymous to those of his reign. Tillemont, Hift. des Empereurs, tom. ii. p. 752. 7 Hift. Auguft. p. 46. IV. mind. His cruelty, which at firft obeyed the CHAP. dictates of others, degenerated into habit, and at length became the ruling paffion of his foul. Upon the death of his father, Commodus He returns found himself embarraffed with the command of to Rome. a great army, and the conduct of a difficult war against the Quadi and Marcomanni'. The fervile and profligate youths whom Marcus had banished, foon regained their station and influence about the new emperor. They exaggerated the hardships and dangers of a campaign in the wild countries beyond the Danube; and they affured the indolent prince, that the terror of his name and the arms of his lieutenants would be fufficient to complete the conqueft of the difmayed barbarians, or to impose such conditions, as were more advantageous than any conqueft. By a dextrous application to his fenfual appetites, they compared the tranquillity, the fplendour, the refined pleasures of Rome, with the tumult of a Pannonian camp, which afforded neither leifure nor materials for luxury. Commodus listened to the pleafing advice; but whilst he hesitated between his own inclination, and the awe which he ftill retained for his father's counsellors, the fummer infenfibly elapfed, and his triumphal entry into the capital was deferred till the autumn. His graceful perfon ", popular 8 Dion Caffius, 1. lxxii. p. 1203. 9 According to Tertullian (Apolog. c. 25.) he died at Sirmium. But the fituation of Vindobona, or Vienna, where both the Victors place his death, is better adapted to the operations of the war against the Marcomanni and Quadi. 10 Herodian, 1. i. p. 12. "Herodian, l. i. p. 16. addrefs, |