CHAP.

IV.

Acceffion

peror Commo

dus.

of a grave philofopher was, in a moment, obliterated by the whisper of a profligate favourite; and Marcus himself 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 rash measure, which raised the impetuous youth above the restraint of reason and authority.

Most of the crimes which disturb the internal peace of fociety, are produced by the restraints which the neceffary, but unequal laws of property, have imposed on the appetites of mankind, by confining to a few the poffeffion of those objects that are coveted by many. Of all our paffions and appetites, the love of power is of the most imperious and unfociable nature, fince the pride of one man requires the fubmiffion of the multitude. In the tumult of civil difcord, the laws of fociety lose their force, and their place is feldom fupplied by those of humanity. The ardor of contention, the pride of victory, the defpair of fuccefs the memory of past injuries, and the fear of future dangers, all contribute to inflame the mind, and to filence the voice of pity. From fuch motives almost every page of history has been ftained with civil blood; but thefe motives will not account for the unprovoked cruelties of Commodus, who had nothing to wish, and every thing to enjoy. The beloved A. D. 108. 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

IV.

him neither competitor to remove, nor enemies CHAP. to punish. 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.

Yet Commodus was pot, as he has been reprefented, a tiger 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 slave of his attendants, who gradually corrupted his mind. His cruelty, which at firft obeyed the dictates of others, degenerated into habit, and at length became the ruling paffion of his foul*.

Character

of Comme

dus:

to Rome:

Upon the death of his father, Commodus found He returns himself embarraffed with the command of 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 ftation 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 impofe fuch conditions, 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 Vol. I. H

as

СНАР.

IV.

Is wound

ed by an affaffin.

a Pannonian camp, which afforded neither leifure nor materials for luxury ". Commodus listened to the pleafing advice; but whilft 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 addrefs, and imagined virtues, attracted the public favour; the honourable peace which he had recently granted to the barbarians, diffused an univerfal joy"; his impatience to revifit Rome was fondly ascribed to the love of his country; and his diffolute courfe of amusements was faintly condemned in a prince of nineteen years of age.

During the three first years of his reign, the forms, and even the fpirit of the old administration were maintained by those faithful counsellors, to whom Marcus had recommended his fon, and for whose wisdom and integrity Commodus ftill entertained a reluctant efteem. The young prince and his profligate favourites revelled in all the licence of fovereign power; but his hands were yet unftained with blood; and he had even difplayed a generofity of fentiment, which might perhaps have ripened into folid virtue ". A fatal incident decided his fluctuating character.

One evening, as the emperor was returning to the palace through a dark and narrow portico in the A. D. 183. amphitheatre", an affaffin, who waited his paffage, rushed upon him with a drawn fword, loudly exclaiming, The Senate fends you this. The menace prevented the deed; the affaffin was feized

دو

IV.

by the guards, and immediately revealed the CHAP authors of the confpiracy. It had been formed, not in the ftate, but within the walls of the palace. Lucilla, the emperor's fifter, and widow of Lucius. Verus, impatient of the second rank, and jealous of the reigning emprefs, had armed the murderer against her brother's life. She had not ventured to communicate the black defign to her fecond husband Claudius Pompeianus, a fenator of diftinguished merit and unshaken loyalty; but among the crowd of her lovers (for she imitated the manners ofFaustina) she found men of defperate fortunes and wild ambition, who were prepared to ferve her more violent, as well as her tender paffions. The confpirators experienced the rigor of juftice, and the abandoned princess was punished, first with exile, and afterwards with death 15.

Hatred and

Commodus to

wards the

fenate.

But the words of the affaffin funk deep into the mind of Commodus, and left an indelible impreffion cruelty of of fear and hatred against the whole body of the fenate. Those whom he had dreaded as importunate minifters, he now fufpected as fecret enemies. The Delators, a race of men difcouraged, and almost extinguished, under the former reigns, again became formidable, as soon as they difcovered that the emperor was defirous of finding difaffection and treason in the senate. That affembly, whom Marcus had ever confidered as the great council of the nation, was compofed of the most distinguished of the Romans; and diftinction of every kind foon became criminal. The poffeffion of wealth stimulated the diligence of the informers; rigid virtue implied

СНАР.

IV.

thers.

a tacit cenfure of the irregularities of Commodus; important fervices implied a dangerous fuperiority of merit; and the friendship of the father always enfured the averfion of the fon. Sufpicion was equivalent to proof. Trial to condemnation. The execution of a confiderable fenator was attended with the death of all who might lament or revenge his fate; and when Commodus had once tasted human blood, he became incapable of pity or remorse.

Of these innocent victims of tyranny, none died The Quintilian bro- more lamented than the two brothers of the Quintilian family, Maximus and Condianus ; whose fraternal love has faved their names from oblivion, and endeared their memory to pofterity. Their ftudies and their occupations, their purfuits and their pleasures, were ftill the fame. In the enjoyment of a great eftate, they never admitted the idea of a separate intereft; fome fragments are now extant of a treatise which they compofed in common; and in every action of life it was observed, that their two bodies were animated by one foul. The Antonines, who valued their virtues, and delighted in their union, raised them, in the fame year, to the confulship: and Marcus afterwards intrusted to their joint care, the civil administration of Greece, and a great military command, in which they obtained a fignal victory over the Germans. The kind cruelty of Commodus united them in death ".

The mi

16

The tyrant's rage, after having shed the nobleft nifter Per blood of the fenate, at length recoiled on the

ennis.