IV. CHA P. his titles erafed from the public monuments, his ftatues thrown down, his body dragged with a hook into the ftripping-room of the gladiators, to fatiate the public fury; and they expreffed fome indignation against thofe officious fervants who had already prefumed to fcreen his remains from the juftice of the fenate. But Pertinax could not refufe thofe laft 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 deferved it 47. Legal jurifdiction of the fe Thefe effufions of impotent rage against a dead emperor, whom the fenate had flattered when alive with the most abject fervility, bethe empe- trayed a juft but ungenerous spirit of revenge. nate over rors. The legality of these decrees was however fupported by the principles of the Imperial conftitution. To cenfure, to depofe, or to punish with death, the first magiftrate of the republic, who had abused his delegated truft, was the ancient and undoubted prerogative of the Roman fenate 48; but that feeble affembly was obliged to content itself with inflicting on a fallen tyrant that public juftice, from which, during his life and reign, he had been fhielded by the ftrong arm of military defpotism. 47 Capitolinus gives us the particulars of these tumultuary votes, which were moved by one fenator, and repeated, or rather chanted, by the whole body. Hift. Auguft. p. 52. 4 The fenate condemned Nero to be put to death more majorum. Sueton. c. 49. Pertinax CHAP. Pertinax found a nobler way of condemning c H A P. his predeceffor's memory; by the contrast of his own virtues with the vices of Commodus. On Virtues of the day of his acceffion, he refigned over to his Pertinax. wife and fon his whole private fortune; that they might have no pretence to folicit favours at the expence of the ftate. He refufed to flatter the vanity of the former with the title of Augufta; or to corrupt the inexperienced youth of the latter by the rank of Cæfar. Accurately diftinguishing between the duties of a parent and thofe of a fovereign, he educated his fon with a fevere fimplicity, which, while it gave him no affured profpect of the throne, might in time have rendered him worthy of it. In public, the behaviour of Pertinax was grave and affable. He lived with the virtuous part of the fenate (and, in a private station, he had been acquainted with the true character of each individual), without either pride or jealoufy; confidered them as friends and companions, with whom he had fhared the dangers of the tyranny, and with whom he wifhed to enjoy the fecurity of the prefent time. He very frequently invited them to familiar entertainments, the frugality of which was ridiculed by thofe who remembered and regretted the luxurious prodigality of Commodus "9. 49 Dion (1. lxxiii. p. 1223.) speaks of thefe entertainments, as a senator who had supped with the Emperor. Capitolinus (Hift. Auguft. p. 58.), like a flave, who had received his intelligence from one of the fcullions. VOL. I. M To IV. СНАР. To heal, as far as it was poffible, the wounds inflicted by the hand of tyranny, was the pleas He endea- ing, but melancholy, task of Pertinax. vours to reform the The innocent victims, who yet furvived, were reftate. called from exile, releafed from prifon, and reftored to the full poffeffion of their honours and fortunes. The unburied bodies of murdered fenators (for the cruelty of Commodus endeavoured to extend itself beyond death) were depofited in the fepulchres of their anceftors; their memory was juftified; and every confolation was beftowed on their ruined and afflicted families. Among thefe confolations, one of the most grateful was the punishment of the delators; the common enemies of their master, of virtue, and of their country. Yet even in the inquifition of these legal affaffins, Pertinax proceeded with a fteady temper, which gave every thing to juftice, and nothing to popular prejudice and refentment. His regulations, The finances of the ftate demanded the moft vigilant care of the Emperor. Though every measure of injuftice and extortion had been adopted, which could collect the property of the subject into the coffers of the prince; the rapacioufnefs of Commodus had been fo very inadequate to his extravagance, that, upon his death, no more than eight thousand pounds. were found in the exhaufted treafury, to defray the current expences of government, and so Decies. The blameless œconomy of Pius left his fucceffors a treasure of vicies fepties millies, above two and twenty millions fterling. Dion, 1. lxxiii. p. 1231. to IV. to discharge the preffing demand of a liberal CHAP. donative, which the new Emperor had been obliged to promise to the Prætorian guards. Yet under thefe diftreffed circumftances, Pertinax had the generous firmness to remit all the oppreffive taxes invented by Commodus, and to cancel all the unjuft claims of the treafury; declaring, in a decree of the fenate, " that he was better fatisfied to administer a poor re 66 public with innocence, than to acquire riches "by the ways of tyranny and difhonour.' Economy and induftry he confidered as the pure and genuine fources of wealth; and from them he foon derived a copious fupply for the public neceffities. The expence of the houfhold was immediately reduced to one half. All the inftruments of luxury, Pertinax expofed to public auctions, gold and filver place, chariots of a fingular conftruction, a fuperfluous wardrobe of filk and embroidery, and a great number of beautiful flaves of both fexes; excepting only, with attentive humanity, those who were born in a state of freedom, and had been ravished from the arms of their weeping parents. At the fame time that he obliged the worthlefs favourites of the tyrant to resign a part of their ill-gotten wealth, he fatisfied the juft creditors of the ftate, and unexpectedly discharged the long arrears of honeft fervices. He removed SI Befides the defign of converting these useless ornaments into money, Dion (1. lxxiii. p. 1229.) affigns two fecret motives of Pertinax. He wished to expose the vices of Commodus, and to discover by the purchasers those who moft resembled him. CHAP. the oppreffive reftrictions which had been laid IV. upon commerce, and granted all the uncultivated lands in Italy and the provinces to those who would improve them; with an exemption from tribute, during the term of ten years12. Such an uniform conduct had already fecured to Pertinax the nobleft reward of a fovereign, the love and esteem of his people. Those who remembered the virtues of Marcus, were happy to contemplate in their new Emperor the features of that bright original; and flattered themselves, that they should long enjoy the benign influence of his administration. A hafty zeal to reform the corrupted ftate, accompanied with lefs prudence than might have been expected from the years and experience of Pertinax, proved fatal to himself and to his country. His honeft indifcretion united against him the fervile crowd, who found their private benefit in the public disorders, and who preferred the favour of a tyrant to the inexorable equality of the laws $3. Amidft the general joy, the fullen and angry countenance of the Prætorian guards betrayed their inward diffatisfaction. They had reluctantly fubmitted to Pertinax; they dreaded the ftrictness of the ancient difcipline, which he was preparing to restore; and they regretted the licence of the former reign. Their discontents 52 Though Capitolinus has picked up many idle tales of the private life of Pertinax, he joins with Dion and Herodian in admiring his public conduct. 53 Leges, rem furdam, inexorabilem effe. T. Liv. ii. 3. were |