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wars: that against the Jews, which ended with the destruction of
Jerusalem, A. C. 70; and a much greater war against the Batavians
and their allies under Civilis, who during the late civil wars, sought to
shake off the Roman yoke, 69; but were reduced to an
accommodation by Cerealis, 70. Expeditions of Agricola in Britain, 78
—85, who not only subdued all England, and introduced the Roman
manners and customs, but also attacked and sailed round Scotland.
D. Vespasianus, sive de vita et legislatione T. Flavii Vespasiani Imp.
commentarius, auctore A. G. Cramer. Jenæ, 1785. An excellent
enquiry, with illustrations of the fragments of the lex regia. The
second part, de legislatione, contains a learned commentary upon
the senatus consulta, during his reign.

Titus, June 27, 79—Sept. 13, 81.

21. His eldest son, Titus Flavius Vespasian, who in the year
70 had been created Cæsar, and reigned from his thirty-ninth
to his forty-second year, gives us the rare example of a
prince becoming better on the throne. His short and
benevolent reign was, indeed, only remarkable for its public
calamities: an eruption of mount Vesuvius, overwhelming
several cities, was followed by a destructive fire, and Dreadful
fire and plague, 79. a dreadful plague at Rome. His early death
secured him the reputation of being, if not the happiest, at
least the best of princes.
Domitian, Sept. 13, 81—Sept. 18, 96.
a complete and cruel despot;
unsuccessful in war;
raises the soldiers' pay;
employs informers.

22. His younger brother and successor, L. Flavius

Domitian, who reigned from his thirtieth to his forty-fifth
year, gives an example quite opposite to that of Titus:
beginning with justice and severity, he soon degenerated into
the completest despot that ever swayed the Roman sceptre.
His cruelty, joined to an equal degree of pride, and nourished
by suspicion and jealousy, made him the enemy of all who
excelled him by their exploits, their riches, or their talents.
The mortifications to which his pride must have been
subjected in consequence of his unsuccessful wars against
the Catti, and more particularly the Daci, increased his bad
disposition. His despotism was founded upon his armies,
whose pay he augmented one fourth; and that he might not
thereby diminish the treasury, as he had too much done at
first, he multiplied the judicia majestatis, rendering it still
more terrible by the employment of secret informers
(delatores), in order, by confiscations, to augment the wealth
of his private treasury (fiscus). By confining his cruelty
chiefly to the capital, and by a strict superintendence over
the governors of provinces, Domitian prevented any such
general disorganization of the empire as took place under
Nero. His fall confirmed the general truth, that tyrants have
little to fear from the people, but much from individuals who
may think their lives in danger.

The foreign wars during this reign are rendered more worthy of
remark by being the first in which the barbarians attacked the
empire with success. Domitian's ridiculous expedition against the
Catti, 82, gave the first proof of his boundless vanity; as did the
recall of the victorious Agricola, 85, from Britain, of his jealousy. His
most important war was that against the Daci, or Getæ, who, under
their brave king Dercebal, had attacked the Roman frontiers; this
again occasioned another with their neighbours, the Marcomanni,
Quadi, and Jazygi, 86—90, which turned out so unfortunate for
Rome, that Domitian was obliged to purchase a peace of the Daci by
paying them an annual tribute.

Nerva, Jan. 24, 96—Jan. 27, 98.

his reign the dawn of a happy period.

23. M. Cocceius Nerva, aged about seventy years was

raised to the throne by the murderers of Domitian; and now,
at last, seemed to break forth the dawn of a more happy
period for the empire. The preceding reign of terror
completely ceased at once; and he endeavoured to impart
fresh vigour to industry, not only by diminishing the taxes,
but also by distributing lands to the poor. The insurrection of
the guards certainly cost the murderers of Domitian their
lives; but it was at the same time the cause of Nerva's
securing the prosperity of the empire after his death, by the
adoption of Trajan.
Trajan, Jan. 24, 98—Aug. 11, 117.
the best of the Roman monarchs.
Restores the Roman constitution;
his frugality and liberality;
conquers Dacia,
Armenia, Mesopotamia, and part of Arabia.

24. M. Ulpius Trajan (after his adoption, Nerva Trajan), a

Spaniard by birth, governed the empire from his forty-second
to his sixty-second year. He was the first foreigner who
ascended the Roman throne, and at the same time the first
of their monarchs who was equally great as a ruler, a
general, and a man. After completely abolishing the judicia
majestatis, he made the restoration of the free Roman
constitution, so far as it was compatible with a monarchical
form, his peculiar care. He restored the elective power to the
comitia, complete liberty of speech to the senate, and to the
magistrates their former authority; and yet he exercised the
art of ruling to a degree and in a detail which few princes
have equalled. Frugal in his expenses, he was nevertheless
splendidly liberal to every useful institution, whether in Rome
or the provinces, as well as in the foundation of military
roads, public monuments, and schools for the instruction of
poor children. By his wars he extended the dominion of
Rome beyond its former boundaries; subduing, in his
contests with the Daci, their country, and reducing it to a
Roman province; as he likewise did, in his wars against the
Armenians and Parthians, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and part
of Arabia. Why was so great a character disfigured by an
ambition of conquest?

The first war against the Daci, in which the shameful tribute was
withdrawn and Dercebal reduced to subjection, lasted from 101—
103. But as Dercebal again rebelled, the war was renewed in 105,
and brought to a close in 106, when Dacia was reduced to a Roman
province, and many Roman colonies established therein. The war
with the Parthians arose from a dispute respecting the possession of
the throne of Armenia (see above, p. 304), 114—116: but although
Rome was victorious she gained no permanent advantage thereby.
The especial source for the history of Trajan is the Panegyricus of
Pliny the Younger; the correspondence, however, of the same writer,
while governor of Bithynia, with the emperor, affords us a much
deeper insight into the spirit of his government: Plinii Epist. lib. x.
Who can read it without admiring the royal statesman?
Rittershusii Trajanus in lucem reproductus. Ambegæ, 1608. A mere
collection of passages occurring in ancient authors respecting Trajan.
Res Trajani Imperatoris ad Danubium Gestæ, auctore Conrad
Mannert. Norimb. 1793: and
 Joh. Christ. Engel, Commentatio de Expeditionibus Trajani ad
Danubium, et origine Valachorum. Vindob. 1794.—Both learned
dissertations, written for the prize offered by the Royal Society of
Gottingen; the first of which obtained the prize, and the other the
accessit, i. e. was declared second best.

Adrian.

25. By the contrivances of Plotina, his wife, Trajan was

succeeded by his cousin and pupil, whom he is said also to
have adopted, P. Ælius Adrian, who reigned from his forty-
second to his sixty-third year. He was acknowledged at once
by the army of Asia, with which he then was, and the
sanction of the senate followed immediately after. He
differed from his predecessor in that his chief aim was the
preservation of peace; on which account he gave up (rare
moderation!), directly after his accession, the newly
conquered provinces of Asia, Armenia, Assyria, and
Mesopotamia, and so put an end to the Parthian war (see
above, p. 304.) He retained, though with some unwillingness,
that of Dacia, because otherwise the Roman colonies would
have become exposed. He well made up for his pacific
disposition, however, in seeking, by a general and vigorous
reform in the internal administration, and by restoring the
discipline of the army, to give greater solidity to the empire.
For that purpose he visited successively all the provinces of
the Roman empire; first the eastern, and afterwards the
western; making useful regulations and establishing order
wherever he came. He improved the Roman jurisprudence by
the introduction of the edictum perpetuum. Passionately fond
of and well instructed in literature and the fine arts, he gave
them his liberal protection, and thus called forth another
Augustan age. Upon the whole, his reign was certainly a
salutary one for the empire; and for any single acts of
injustice of which he may be accused, he fully compensated
by his choice of a successor. After having first adopted L.
Aurelius Verus (afterwards Ælius Verus), who fell a sacrifice
to his debaucheries, he next adopted T. Aurelius Antoninus
(afterwards T. Ælius Adrianus Antoninus Pius), upon
condition that he should again adopt M. Aurelius Verus
(afterwards M. Aurelius Antoninus), and L. Cesonius
Commodus (afterwards L. Verus), the son of Ælius Verus.

During his reign a great revolt broke out in Judæa, under

Barcochab, 132—135, occasioned by the introduction of pagan
worship into the Roman colony of Ælia Capitolina (the ancient
Jerusalem).
The especial source for the history of Adrian, is his Life and that of
Ælius Verus by Ælius Spartianus in Script. Hist. Aug. Minores, already
quoted.

Antoninus Pius, July 10, 138.—March 7, 161.

26. The reign of Antoninus Pius, from his forty-seventh to

his seventieth year, was without doubt the happiest period of
the Roman empire. He found everything already in excellent
order; and those ministers which Adrian had appointed, he
continued in their places. His quiet activity furnishes but little
matter for history; and yet he was, perhaps, the most noble
character that ever sat upon a throne. Although a prince, his
life was that of the most blameless individual; while he
administered the affairs of the empire as though they were
his own. He honoured the senate; and the provinces
flourished under him, not only because he kept a watchful
eye over the conduct of the governors, but because he made
it a maxim of his government to continue in their places all
those whose probity he had sufficiently proved. He observed
rigid order in the finances, and yet without sparing where it
could be of service in the foundation or improvement of
useful institutions; as his erection of many buildings,
establishment of public teachers with salaries in all the
provinces, and other examples fully show. He carried on no
war himself; on the contrary, several foreign nations made
choice of him to arbitrate their differences. Some rebellions
which broke out in Britain and Egypt, and some frontier wars
excited by the Germans, the Daci, the Moors, and the Alani,
were quelled by his lieutenants.

The principal and almost the only source for the history of
Antoninus Pius, Dion Cassius's history of this period being lost, is his
Life by Julius Capitolinus in the Script. Hist. August. And even this
refers to his private character rather than his public history. Compare
the excellent Reflections of Marcus Aurelius, i, 16. upon this prince.
Vie des Empereurs Tite Antonin et Marc Aurele, par M. Gautier de
Sibert. Paris, 1769, 8vo. A valuable essay on the lives of the two
Antonines.

Marcus Aurelius, March 7, 161.—March 17, 180.

27. He was succeeded by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the

philosopher (aged 40—59 years), who immediately
associated with himself, under the title of Augustus, L. Verus
(aged 30—40 years, † 169), to whom he gave his daughter
in marriage. Notwithstanding the differences of their
character, the most cordial union existed between them
during the whole of their common reign; L. Verus, indeed,
being almost always absent in the wars, took but a very
small share in the government. The reign of M. Aurelius was
marked by several great calamities: a dreadful pestilence, a
famine, and almost continual wars. Nothing short of a prince
like Aurelius, who exhibited to the world the image of
wisdom seated on a throne, could have made so much
misery tolerable. Soon after 161—166. his accession, the Catti
made an irruption upon the Rhine, and the Parthians in Asia.
L. Verus was sent against them. But the wars on the Danube
with the Marcomanni and their allies in Pannonia, and other
The northern nations begin to press forward. northern nations,
who now began to press forward with great force upon
Dacia, were of much greater consequence. They occupied M.
Aurelius from the year 167, with but little intermission, to the
end of his reign. He succeeded, indeed, in maintaining the
boundaries of the empire; but then he was the first who
settled any of the barbarians within it, or took them into the
Roman service. In the internal administration of affairs he
closely followed the steps of his predecessor, Avidius Cassius's
rebellion, except that he was rather too much influenced by
his freedmen and family. The only rebellion which broke out
against him, was that of Avidius Cassius, his lieutenant in
Syria, occasioned by a false report of his and death, 175.
death; but it was quelled by the destruction of that general,
as soon as the truth was made known.

The war against the Parthians (see above, p. 304) was indeed
brought to a successful issue by Verus, the principal cities of the
Parthians falling into the hands of the Romans; Verus left them,
however, to be carried on by his lieutenants, while he rioted in
debaucheries at Antioch. The first war against the Marcomanni,
carried on in the beginning and until the death of Verus, by the two
emperors together, was highly dangerous for Rome, as many other
nations had joined the Marcomanni, particularly the Quadi, Jazygi,
and Vandals, and penetrated as far as Aquileia. M. Aurelius ended
this war by a glorious peace, 174, as he found it necessary to stop
the progress of Cassius's rebellion; in 178, however, the Marcomanni
again commenced hostilities, and before their close M. Aurelius died
at Sirmium. Contemporary with these wars, yet, as it seems, without
any connection with them, were the attacks of other nations upon
Dacia, the Bastarnæ, Alani, etc. who poured in from the north,
probably pressed forward by the advance of the Goths. This was the
first symptom of the great migration of nations now beginning.
The especial sources for the history of M. Aurelius, are the
Biographies of him and L. Verus, written by Julius Capitolinus, as well
as that of Avidius Cassius, by Vulcatius Gallicanus in Script. Hist.
August. The letters discovered in Milan, among and together with
the writings of Fronto, are of no historical service.—His principles are
best learnt from his Meditations on himself.
Ch. Meiners de M. Aurel. Antonini ingenio, moribus, et scriptis, in
Commentat. Soc. Gotting. vol. vi.

T. Commodus, March 17, 180—Dec. 31, 192.

28. By means of adoption the Roman empire had been

blessed, during the last eighty years, with a succession of
rulers such as have not often fell to the lot of any kingdom.
But in J. Commodus the son of M. Aurelius (probably the
offspring of a gladiator), who reigned from his nineteenth to
his thirty-first year, there ascended the throne a monster of
cruelty, insolence, and lewdness. At the commencement of
his reign he bought a peace of the Marcomanni that he
might return to Rome. Being himself unable to support the
burden of government, the helm of state Perennis, † 186. was
placed in the hands of the stern and cruel Perennis, præfect
of the prætorian guard; but who, being murdered by the
discontented soldiers, was succeeded by the freedman
Cleander, † 189. Cleander, who put up all for sale, till he fell a
sacrifice to his own insatiable avarice, in a revolt of the
people, caused by their want of provisions. The extravagant
propensity of Commodus for the diversions of the
amphitheatres, and the combats of wild beasts and
gladiators, wherein he himself usually took a part, in the
character of Hercules, became a chief cause of his
dissipation, and thereby of his cruelty; till at last he was
killed at the instigation of his concubine Marcia, Lætus the
præfect of the prætorian guard, and Electus. 182—184. The
wars on the frontiers during his reign, in Dacia, and
especially in Britain, were successfully carried on by his
lieutenants, generals who belonged to the school of his
father.

The especial source for the history of Commodus is his private life
by Æl. Lampridius, in the Script. Hist. August.—The history of
Herodian begins with his reign.

State of the empire at this period.

29. The disasters under M. Aurelius, and the

extravagances of Commodus, had injured the empire, but
not enfeebled it. Towards the close of the period of the
Antonines it still retained its pristine vigour. If wise
regulations, internal peace, moderate taxes, a certain degree
of political, and unrestrained civil liberty, are sufficient to
form the happiness of a commonwealth, it must have been
found in the Roman. What a number of advantages did it
possess over every other, simply from its situation! Proofs of
it appear on every side. A vigorous population, rich
provinces, flourishing and splendid cities, and a lively internal
and foreign trade. But the most solid foundation of the
happiness of a nation consists in its moral greatness, and
this we here seek for in vain. Otherwise the nation would not
so easily have suffered itself to be brought under the yoke of
Commodus by prætorian cohorts and the legions. But what
best shows the strength which the empire still retained, is
the opposition it continued to make, for two hundred years
longer, to the formidable attacks from without.

D. H. Hegewisch upon the Epochs in Roman History most

favourable to Humanity. Hamburg, 1800—8.
Foreign commerce, so flourishing in this period, could only be
carried on, to any extent, with the east—mostly with India—as the
Roman empire spread over all the west. This trade continued to be
carried on through Egypt, and also through Palmyra and Syria.
Information thereupon will be found in
W. Robertson's Disquisition concerning the Knowledge which the
Ancients had of India. London, 1791, 4to. Often reprinted. And
particularly upon Egypt, in
W. Vincent, the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea. London, 1802, 4to. 2
vols. A very instructive work.
Heeren, Commentationes de Græcorum et Romanorum de India
notitia, et cum Indis commerciis: in Commentat. Soc. Gott. vol. x. xi.
 SECOND SECTION.
From the death of Commodus to Diocletian, A. C. 193—284.

Sources. The Extracts of Xiphilinus from Dion Cassius, lib. lxxiii—

lxxx. though often imperfect, reach down as low as the consulate of
Dion himself under Alexander Severus, 229.—Herodiani Hist. libri viii.
comprise the period from Commodus to Gordian, 180—238.—The
Scriptores Historiæ Augustæ Minores contain the private lives of the
emperors down to Diocletian, by Julius Capitolinus, Flavius Vopiscus,
etc.—The Breviaria Historiæ Romanæ of Eutropius, Aurelius Victor,
and S. Rufus are particularly important for this period.—Finally, the
important information that may be derived from the study of medals
and coins, not only for this section, but for the whole history of the
emperors, may be best learnt by consulting the writers upon those
subjects: J. Vaillant, Numismata Augustorum et Cæsarum, cura J. F.
Baldino. Rome, 1743, 3 vols. The Medallic History of Imperial Rome,
by W. Cooke. London, 1781, 2 vols.—But above all, the volumes
belonging to this period in Eckhel, Doctrina Nummorum Veterum.
With the period of the Antonines begins the great work of the
British historian:
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by
Edward Gibbon. Oxford, 1828, 8 vols. 8vo. In worth and extent this
work is superior to all others. It embraces the whole period of the
middle ages; but only the first part belongs to this period.

Pertinax, Jan. 1—March 28, 193.

1. The extinction of the race of the Antonines by the death

of Commodus was attended with convulsions similar to those
which took place when the house of Cæsar became extinct
at the death of Nero. It is true that P. Helvius Pertinax, aged
sixty-seven, præfect of the city, was raised to the throne by
the murderers of Commodus; and that he was
acknowledged, first by the guards, and afterwards by the
senate. But the reform which he was obliged to make at the
beginning of his reign in the finances, rendered him so
odious to the soldiers and courtiers, that a revolt of the first,
excited by Lætus, cost him his life before he had reigned
quite three months. This was the first commencement of
that dreadful military despotism which forms the ruling
character of this period; and to none did it become so
terrible as to those who wished to make it the main support
of their absolute power.

The insolence of the prætorian guard had risen very high during
the reign of Commodus; but it had never, even in the time of the
Antonines, been entirely suppressed. It was only by large donatives
that their consent could be purchased, their caprice satisfied, and
their good humour maintained; especially at every new adoption.
One of the greatest reproaches to the age of the Antonines is, that
those great princes, who seem to have had the means so much in
their power, did not free themselves from so annoying a
dependence.
Jul. Capitolini Pertinax Imp. in Script. Hist. Aug.

Didias Julianus.

2. When, upon the death of Pertinax, the rich and

profligate M. Didius Julianus, aged fifty-seven, had outbid, to
the great scandal of the people, all his competitors for the
empire, and purchased it of the prætorian guard, an
insurrection of the legions, who were better able to create
emperors, very naturally followed. But as the army of Illyria
proclaimed their general Septimius Severus, Pescennius Niger,
Albinus. Septimius Severus, the army of Syria, Pescennius
Niger, and the army of Britain, Albinus, nothing less than a
series of civil wars could decide who should maintain himself
on the throne.

Æl. Spartiani Didius Julianus, in Script. Hist. Aug.

3. Septimius Severus, however, aged 49—66, was the first

who got possession of Rome, and, after the execution of
Didius Julianus, he was acknowledged by the senate. He
dismissed, it is true, the old prætorian guard, but
immediately chose, from his own army, one four times more
numerous in its stead. And after he had provisionally
declared Albinus emperor, he marched his army against
Pescennius Niger, already master of the east, whom, after
several contests near the Issus, he defeated and slew.
Nevertheless, having first taken and destroyed the strong
city of Byzantium, a war with Albinus soon followed, whom
the perfidious Severus had already attempted to remove by
assassination. After a bloody defeat near Lyons, Albinus kills
himself, Feb. 19, 197. Albinus kills himself. These civil wars
were followed by hostilities against the Parthians, who had
taken the part of Pescennius, and which ended with the
plundering of their principal cities (see above, p. 304).
Severus possessed most of the virtues of a soldier; but the
insatiable avarice of his minister Plautianus, the formidable
captain of the prætorian guard, robbed the empire even of
those advantages which may be enjoyed under a military
government, 204. until he was put to death at the instigation
of Caracalla. To keep his legions employed, Severus
undertook an expedition into Britain, where, after extending
the boundaries of the empire, he died at York (Eboracum),
leaving his son the maxim, "to enrich the soldiers, and hold
the rest for nothing."

Agricola had already erected a line of fortresses, probably

between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. These were
changed by Adrian into a wall along the present boundaries of
Scotland. Severus again extended the frontiers, reestablished the
fortresses of Agricola, and afterwards built a wall from sea to sea;
his son, however, gave up the conquered country, and the wall of
Adrian again became the boundary of the empire.
Æl. Spartiani Septimius Severus et Pescennius Niger.
Jul. Capitolini Claudius Albinus, in Script. Hist. Aug.

Caracalla, Feb. 4, 211—April 4, 217.

4. The deadly hatred which reigned between the two sons

of Severus, M. Aurelius Antoninus Bassianus Caracalla, aged
23—29, and his young step-brother Geta, aged twenty-one,
led to a dreadful catastrophe; for at their return to Rome,
and after a fruitless proposition had been made for a division
of the empire, Geta murdered, April 4, 212. Geta was
assassinated in the arms of his mother Julia Domna, together
with all those who were considered as his friends. The
restless spirit of Caracalla, however, soon drew him from
Rome, and in traversing first the provinces along the
Danube, and then those of the east, he ruined them all by
his exactions and cruelty, to which he was driven for money
to pay his soldiers, and to purchase peace of his enemies on
the frontiers. The same necessity led him to grant the right
of citizenship to all the provinces, that he might thereby gain
the duty of the vicesima hereditatum et manumissionum
(twentieth upon inheritances and enfranchisements), which
he very soon afterwards changed into a tenth (decima).—
With respect to his foreign wars, his first was against the
Catti and Alemanni, 215. among whom he remained a long
time, sometimes as a friend and sometimes as an enemy.
But his principal efforts, after having previously ordered a
dreadful massacre of the inhabitants of Alexandria, to satisfy
his cruel rapacity, were directed against 216. the Parthians
(see above, p. 304); and in his wars against them he was
assassinated by Macrinus, the præfect of the prætorian
guard.

The præfect, or captain, of the prætorian guard became, from the

time of Severus, the most important officer in the state. Besides the
command of the guards, the finances were also under his control,
together with an extensive criminal jurisdiction. A natural
consequence of the continually increasing despotism.
Æl. Spartiani Antoninus Caracalla et Ant. Geta, in Script. Hist. Aug.

Macrinus, April 11, 217—June 8, 218.

5. His murderer, M. Opelius Macrinus, aged fifty-three, was

recognized as emperor by the soldiers, and forthwith
acknowledged by the senate. He immediately created his
son, M. Opelius Diadumenus, aged nine years, Cæsar, and
gave him the name of Antoninus. He disgracefully terminated
the war against the Parthians by purchasing a peace, and
changed the decima (tenth) of Caracalla again into the
vicesima (twentieth). However, while he still remained in
Asia, Bassianus Heliogabalus, grand-nephew of Julia Domna,
and high priest in the temple of the Sun at Emesa, whom his
mother gave out for a son of Caracalla, was proclaimed
emperor by the legions, and, after a combat with the guards,
subsequently to which Macrinus and his son lost their lives,
they raised him to the throne.

Mæsa, the sister of Julia Domna, had two daughters, both

widows; Soæmis, the eldest, was the mother of Heliogabalus,
Mammæa, the youngest, the mother of Alexander Severus.
Jul. Capitolini Opelius Macrinus, in Script. Hist. Aug.

Heliogabalus, June 8, 218—March 11, 222.

6. Heliogabalus, aged 14—18, who assumed the additional

name of M. Aurelius Antoninus, brought with him from Syria
the superstitions and voluptuousness of that country. He
introduced the worship of his god Heliogabal in Rome, and
wallowed openly in such brutal and infamous debaucheries,
that history can scarcely find a parallel to his dissolute,
shameless, and scandalous conduct. How low must the
morality of that age have been sunk, in which a boy could so
early have ripened into a monster!—The debasement of the
senate, and of all important offices, which he filled with the
degraded companions of his own lusts and vices, was
systematically planned by him; and he deserves no credit
even for the adoption of his cousin, the virtuous Alexander
Severus, as he shortly after endeavoured to take away his
life, but was himself for that reason assassinated by the
prætorian guards.

† Æl. Lampridii Ant. Heliogabalus, in Script. Hist. Aug.

Alexander Severus, March 11, 222—Aug. 235.

7. His young cousin and successor, M. Aurelius Alexander

Severus, aged 14—27, who had been carefully educated
under the direction of his mother Mammæa, proved one of
the best princes in an age and upon a throne where virtues
were more dangerous than vices. Under favour of his youth
he endeavoured to effect a reform, in which he was
supported by the cooperation of the guards, who had
elevated him to the throne. He restored the authority of the
senate, from among whom he chose, with rigid justice, his
privy council of state, banishing the creatures of
Heliogabalus War against Persia, 226. from their places. The
revolution in the Parthian empire, out of which was now
formed the new Persian, was of so much importance to
Rome, that it obliged Alexander to undertake a war against
Artaxerxes, in which he was probably victorious. But while
231—233. marching in haste to protect the frontiers against
the advance of the Germans upon the Rhine, his soldiers,
exasperated at the severity of his discipline, and incited by
the Thracian Maximin, 235. murdered him in his own tent.
His præfect of the prætorian guard, Ulpian, had already, for
the same cause, fallen a victim to this spirit of
insubordination, which was not checked 222. even by the
immediate presence of the emperor himself.

The revolution in Parthia, whereby a new Persian empire was

formed (see above, p. 304.), became a source of almost perpetual
war to Rome; Artaxerxes I. and his successors, the Sassanides,
claiming to be descendants of the ancient kings of Persia, formed
pretensions to the possession of all the Asiatic provinces of the
Roman empire.
 Ælii Lampridii Alexander Severus, in Script. Hist. Aug.
Heyne de Alexandro Severo Judicium, Comment. i. ii. in Opuscula
Academica, vol. vi.

Maximinus Aug. 235—May, 238.

236.
237.

8. The death of A. Severus raised military despotism to the

highest pitch, as it placed on the throne the half savage C.
Julius Maximinus, by birth a Thracian peasant. At first he
continued the war against the Germans with great success,
repulsing them beyond the Rhine; and resolved, by crossing
Pannonia, to carry the war even among the Sarmatians. But
his insatiable rapacity, which spared neither the capital nor
the provinces, made him hateful to all; and Gordian,
proconsul of Africa, in his eightieth year, was, together with
his son of the same name, proclaimed Augustus by the
people, and immediately acknowledged by the senate. Upon
April, 238. this, Maximinus, eager to take vengeance on the
senate, marched directly from Sirmium towards Italy. In the
mean time, the legions of the almost defenceless Gordians
were defeated in The Gordians. Africa, and themselves slain
by Capellianus the governor of Numidia. Notwithstanding
this, as the senate could expect no mercy, they chose as co-
emperors the præfect of the city, Maximus Pupienus, and
Clodius Balbinus and Pupienus. Balbinus, who, in conformity
with the wishes of the people, created the young Gordian III.
Cæsar. In the meanwhile Maximinus, having besieged
Aquileia, and the enterprise proving unsuccessful, was slain
by his own troops. Pupienus and Balbinus now seemed in
quiet possession of the throne; but the guards, who had
already been engaged in a bloody feud with the people, and
were not willing to receive an emperor of the senate's
choosing, killed them both, and proclaimed as Augustus,
Gordian, already created Cæsar.

Jul. Capitolini Maximinus Gordiani tres, Pupienus et Balbinus, in

Script. Hist. August.

Gordian III. July, 238—Feb. 244.

Syrian expedition, 241—243.

9. The reign of the young M. Antoninus Gordianus lasted

from his twelfth to his eighteenth year. He was grandson of
the proconsul who had lost his life in Africa, and in the early
part of his reign, acquired a degree of firmness from the
support of his father-in-law, Misitheus, præfect of the
prætorian guard, as well as from the successful expedition
which he undertook into Syria against the Persians, who had
invaded that province. But after the death of Misitheus, Philip
the Arabian, being made præfect of the guards in his stead,
found means to gain the troops over to himself, and, after
driving Gordian from the throne, caused him to be
assassinated.
Philippus, Feb. 244—Sept. 249.

10. The reign of M. Julius Philippus was interrupted by

several insurrections, especially in Pannonia; until at length
Decius, whom he himself had sent thither to quell the
rebellion, was compelled by the troops to assume the
diadem. Philip was soon after defeated by him near Verona,
where he perished, together with his son of the same name.
In this reign the secular games, ludi sæculares, were