Takes possession of the palace. lian, found it necessary to affect a more than common share of satisfaction at this happy revolution." After Julian had filled the senate-house with armed soldiers, he expatiated on the freedom of his election, his own eminent virtues, and his full assurance of the affections of the senate. The obsequious assembly congratulated their own and the public felicity; engaged their allegiance, and conferred on him all the several branches of the imperial power." From the senate Julian was conducted by the same military procession to take possession of the palace. The first objects that struck his eyes were the abandoned trunk of Pertinax, and the frugal entertainment prepared for his supper. The one he viewed with indifference; the other with contempt. A magnificent feast was prepared by his order, and he amused himself till a very late hour with dice and the performances of Pylades, a celebrated dancer. Yet it was observed that, after the crowd of flatterers dispersed, and left him to darkness, solitude, and terrible reflection, he passed a sleepless night; revolving most probably in his mind his own rash folly, the fate of his virtuous predecessor, and the doubtful and dangerous tenure of an empire which had not been acquired by merit, but purchased by money." 12 Dion Cassius, at that time prætor, had been a personal enemy to Julian, 1. lxxiii. [c. 12] p. 1235. 13 Hist. August. p. 61. [Spartian. Julian. c. 3.] We learn from thence one curious circumstance, that the new emperor, whatever had been his birth, was immediately aggregated to the number of Patrician families.a 14 Dion, 1. lxxiii. [c. 13] p. 1235. Hist. August. p. 61. [Spartian. 1. c.] I have endeavored to blend into one consistent story the seeming contradictions of the two writers.b a A new fragment of Dion shows some shrewdness in the character of Julian. When the senate voted him a golden statue, he preferred one of brass as more lasting. He "had always observed," he said, "that the statues of former emperors were soon destroyed. Those of brass alone remained." The indignant historian adds that he was wrong. The virtue of sovereigns alone preserves their images: the brazen statue of Julian was broken to pieces at his death. Mai. Fragm. Vatican. p. 226.-M. : The contradiction, as M. Guizot observes, is irreconcilable. He quotes both passages in one Julianus is represented as a miser, in the other as a voluptuary. In the one he refuses to eat till the body of Pertinax has been buried, in the other he gluts himself with every luxury almost in the sight of his headless remains. -M. The public discontent. He had reason to tremble. On the throne of the world he found himself without a friend, and even without an adherent. The guards themselves were ashamed of the prince whom their avarice had persuaded them to accept; nor was there a citizen who did not consider his elevation with horror, as the last insult on the Roman name. The nobility, whose conspicuous station and ample possessions exacted the strictest caution, dissembled their sentiments, and met the affected civility of the emperor with smiles of complacency and professions of duty. But the people, secure in their numbers and obscurity, gave a free vent to their passions. The streets and public places of Rome resounded with clamors and imprecations. The enraged multitude affronted the person of Julian, rejected his liberality, and, conscious of the impotence of their own resentment, they called aloud on the legions of the frontiers to assert the violated majesty of the Roman empire. The armies of Britain, Syria, and Pannonia declare against Julian. The public discontent was soon diffused from the centre to the frontiers of the empire. The armies of Britain, of Syria, and of Illyricum lamented the death of Pertinax, in whose company, or under whose command, they had so often fought and conquered. They received with surprise, with indignation, and perhaps with envy, the extraordinary intelligence that the Prætorians had disposed of the empire by public auction, and they sternly refused to ratify the ignominious bargain. Their immediate and unanimous revolt was fatal to Julian, but it was fatal at the same time to the public peace; as the gener als of the respective armies, Clodius Albinus, Pescennius Niger, and Septimius Severus, were still more anxious to suczeed than to revenge the murdered Pertinax. Their forces were exactly balanced. Each of them was at the head of three legions," with a numerous train of auxiliaries; and however different in their characters, they were all soldiers of experience and capacity. Clodius Albinus, Governor of Britain, surpassed both his 15 Dion, l. lxxiii. [c. 14] p. 1237. Clodius Britain. competitors in the nobility of his extraction, which he derived from some of the most illustrious names of Albinus in the old republic." But the branch from whence he claimed his descent was sunk into mean circumstances, and transplanted into a remote province. It is diffi cult to form a just idea of his true character. Under the philosophic cloak of austerity, he stands accused of concealing most of the vices which degrade human nature." But his accusers are those venal writers who adored the fortune of Severus, and trampled on the ashes of an unsuccessful rival. Virtue, or the appearances of virtue, recommended Albinus to the confidence and good opinion of Marcus; and his preserving with the son the same interest which he had acquired with the father is a proof at least that he was possessed of a very flexible disposition. The favor of a tyrant does not always suppose a want of merit in the object of it; he may, without intending it, reward a man of worth and ability, or he may find such a man useful to his own service. It does not appear that Albinus served the son of Marcus, either as the minister of his cruelties, or even as the associate of his pleasures. He was employed in a distant honorable command, when he received a confidential letter from the emperor, acquainting him of the treasonable designs of some discontented generals, and authorizing him to declare himself the guardian and successor of the throne, by assuming the title and ensigns of Cæsar." The Governor of Britain wisely declined the dangerous honor, which would have marked him for the jealousy, or involved him in the approaching ruin, of Commodus. He courted power by nobler, or at least by more specious arts. On a premature report of the death of the emperor he assembled his troops; and, in an eloquent discourse, deplored the inevitable mischiefs of despotism, described the 16 The Postumian and the Cejonian; the former of whom was raised to the consulship in the fifth year after its institution. 17 Spartianus, in his undigested collections, mixes up all the virtues and all the vices that enter into the human composition, and bestows them on the same ob ject. Such, indeed, are many of the characters in the Augustan History. 18 Hist. August. p. 79, 84. [Capitol. Clod. Albin. c. 2, 13.] happiness and glory which their ancestors had enjoyed under the consular government, and declared his firm resolution to reinstate the senate and people in their legal authority. This popular harangue was answered by the loud acclamations of the British legions, and received at Rome with a secret murmur of applause. Safe in the possession of his little world, and in the command of an army less distinguished, indeed, for discipline than for numbers and valor," Albinus braved the menaces of Commodus, maintained towards Pertinax a stately ambiguous reserve, and instantly declared against the usurpation of Julian. The convulsions of the capital added new weight to his sentiments, or rather to his professions, of patriotism. A regard to decency induced him to decline the lofty titles of Augustus and Emperor; and he imitated, perhaps, the example of Galba, who, on a similar occasion, had styled himself the lieutenant of the senate and people." Pescennius Niger in Syria. Personal merit alone had raised Pescennius Niger from an obscure birth and station to the government of Syria; a lucrative and important command, which in times of civil confusion gave him a near prospect of the throne. Yet his parts seem to have been better suited to the second than to the first rank; he was an unequal rival, though he might have approved himself an excellent lieutenant, to Severus, who afterwards displayed the greatness of his mind by adopting several useful institutions from a vanquished enemy." In his government Niger acquired the esteem of the soldiers and the love of the provincials. His rigid discipline fortified the valor and confirmed the obedience of the former, whilst the voluptuous Syrians. were less delighted with the mild firmness of his administration than with the affability of his manners and the apparent pleasure with which he attended their frequent and pompous festivals." As soon as the intelligence of the atrocious mur 19 Pertinax, who governed Britain a few years before, had been left for dead in a mutiny of the soldiers. Hist. August. p. 54. [Capitol. Pertin. c. 3.] Yet they loved and regretted him; admirantibus eam virtutem cui irascebantur. 20 Sueton. in Galb. c. 10. 22 Herod. l. ii. [c.7] p. 68. 21 Hist. August. p. 76. [Spartian. Pescenn. c. 7.] The Chronicle of John Malala, of Antioch, shows der of Pertinax had reached Antioch, the wishes of Asia invited Niger to assume the imperial purple and revenge his death. The legions of the eastern frontier embraced his cause; the opulent but unarmed provinces from the frontiers of Ethiopia" to the Hadriatic cheerfully submitted to his power; and the kings beyond the Tigris and the Euphrates congratulated his election, and offered him their homage and services. The mind of Niger was not capable of receiving this sudden tide of fortune: he flattered himself that his accession would be undisturbed by competition and unstained by civil blood; and whilst he enjoyed the vain pomp of triumph, he neglected to secure the means of victory. Instead of entering into an effectual negotiation with the powerful armies of the West, whose resolution might decide, or at least must balance, the mighty contest; instead of advancing without delay towards Rome and Italy, where his presence was impatiently expected," Niger trifled away in the luxury of Antioch those irretrievable moments which were diligently improved by the decisive activity of Severus." The country of Pannonia and Dalmatia, which occupied the space between the Danube and the Hadriatic, was one of Pannonia and the last and most difficult conquests of the Romans. Dalmatia. In the defence of national freedom, two hundred thousand of these barbarians had once appeared in the field, alarmed the declining age of Augustus, and exercised the vigilant prudence of Tiberius at the head of the collected force of the empire." The Pannonians yielded at length to the zealous attachment of his countrymen to these festivals, which at once gratified their superstition and their love of pleasure. 23 A king of Thebes, in Egypt, is mentioned in the Augustan History [Spartian. Pescenn. c. 12] as an ally, and, indeed, as a personal friend of Niger. If Spartianus is not, as I strongly suspect, mistaken, he has brought to light a dynasty of tributary princes totally unknown to history. 24 Dion, 1. lxxiii. [c. 15] p. 1238. Herod. 1. ii. [c. 7 fin.] p. 67. A verse in every one's mouth at that time seems to express the general opinion of the three rivals: Optimus est Niger, [Fuscus, which preserves the quantity - M.] bonus Afer, pessimus Albus. Hist. August. p. 77. [Spartian. Pescenn. c. 8.] 25 Herodian. 1. ii. [c. 8 fin.] p. 71. 26 See an account of that memorable war in Velleius Paterculus, ii. 119, etc., who served in the army of Tiberius. |