They offer the empire to sale. and strangers that filled the streets of Rome; a servile populace, as devoid of spirit as destitute of property. The defenders of the State, selected from the flower of the Italian youth, and trained in the exercise of arms and virtue, were the genuine representatives of the people, and the best entitled to elect the military chief of the republic. These assertions, however defective in reason, became unanswerable when the fierce Prætorians increased their weight by throwing, like the barbarian conqueror of Rome, their swords into the scale." The Prætorians had violated the sanctity of the throne by the atrocious murder of Pertinax; they dishonored the majesty of it by their subsequent conduct. The camp was without a leader, for 'even the præfect Lætus, who had excited the tempest, prudently declined the public indignation. Amidst the wild disorder, Sulpicianus, the emperor's father-in-law, and governor of the city, who had been sent to the camp on the first alarm of mutiny, was endeavoring to calm the fury of the multitude, when he was silenced by the clamorous return of the murderers, bearing on a lance the head of Pertinax. Though history has accustomed us to observe every principle and every passion yielding to the imperious dictates of ambition, it is scarcely credible that, in these moments of horror, Sulpicianus should have aspired to ascend a throne polluted with the recent blood of so near a relation and so excellent a prince. He had already begun to use the only effectual argument, and to treat for the imperial dignity; but the more prudent of the Prætorians, apprehensive that, in this private contract, they should not obtain a just price for so valuable a commodity, ran out upon the ramparts, and, with a loud voice, proclaimed that the Roman world was to be disposed of to the best bidder by public auction." 8 They were originally recruited in Latium, Etruria, and the old colonies (Tacit. Annal. iv. 5). The Emperor Otho compliments their vanity with the flattering titles of Italia Alumni, Romana vere juventus. Tacit. Hist. i. 84. 9 In the siege of Rome by the Gauls. See Livy, v. 48. [c. 29] p. 143. Plutarch. in Camill. 10 Dion, 1. lxxiii. [c. 11] p. 1234. Herodian, 1. ii. [c. 6] p. 63. Hist. August. p. 60. [Spartian. Julian. c. 2.] Though the three historians agree that it was in fact an auction, Herodian alone affirms that it was proclaimed as such by the soldiers. This infamous offer, the most insolent excess of military license, diffused a universal grief, shame, and indignation It is pur- March 29. throughout the city. It reached at length the ears of Didius Julianus, a wealthy senator, who, regardless of the public calamities, was indulging himself in the luxury of the table." His wife and his daughter, his freedmen and his parasites, easily convinced him that he deserved the throne, and earnestly conjured him to embrace so fortunate an opportunity. The vain old man hastened to the Prætorian camp, where Sulpicianus was still in treaty with the guards, and began to bid against him from the foot of the rampart. The unworthy negotiation was transacted by faithful emissaries, who passed alternately from one candidate to the other, and acquainted each of them with the offers of his rival. Sulpicianus had already promised a donative of five thousand drachms (above one hundred and sixty pounds) to each soldier; when Julian, eager for the prize, rose at once to the sum of six thousand two hundred and fifty drachms, or upwards of two hundred pounds sterling. The gates of the camp were instantly thrown open to the purchaser; he was declared emperor, and received an oath of allegiance from the soldiers, who retained humanity enough to stipulate that he should pardon and forget the competition of Sulpicianus. Julian is ac a It was now incumbent on the Prætorians to fulfil the conditions of the sale. They placed their new sovereign, whom they served and despised, in the centre of their knowledged ranks, surrounded him on every side with their shields, and conducted him in close order of battle through the deserted streets of the city. The senate was commanded to assemble; and those who had been the distinguished friends of Pertinax, or the personal enemies of Ju by the senate. 11 Spartianus softens the most odious parts of the character and elevation of Julian. One of the principal causes of the preference of Julianus by the soldiers was the dexterity with which he reminded them that Sulpicianus would not fail to revenge on them the death of his son-in-law. See Dion, p. 1234, [1. lxxiii.] c. 11. Herod. ii. 6.-W. 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 imme diately aggregated to the number of Patrician families." 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 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 The armies of Britain, Syria, and Pannonia declare against Jullau. 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 generals of the respective armies, Clodius Albinus, Pescennius Niger, and Septimius Severus, were still more anxious to succeed 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, 1. lxxiii. [c. 14] p. 1237. Clodius Britain. 16 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.] |