34

INTERREGNUM.

CHAP. XII.

be expected that a hasty repentance would correct the inveterate habits of fourscore years? Should the soldiers relapse into their accustomed seditions, their insolence might disgrace the majesty of the senate and prove fatal to the object of its choice. Motives like these dictated a decree by which the election of a new emperor was referred to the suffrage of the military order.

A.D. 275. Feb. 3.a

A peaceful interregnum

of eight

The contention that ensued is one of the best attested but most improbable events in the history of mankind." The troops, as if satiated with the exercise of power, again conjured the senate to invest one of its own body with the Imperial purple. The senate still persisted in its refusal; the army months. in its request. The reciprocal offer was pressed and rejected at least three times, and, whilst the obstinate modesty of either party was resolved to receive a master from the hands of the other, eight months insensibly elapsed; an amazing period of tranquil anarchy, during which the Roman world remained without a sovereign, without an usurper, and without a sedition. The generals and magistrates appointed by Aurelian continued to execute their ordinary functions; and it is observed that a proconsul of Asia was the only considerable person removed from his office in the whole course of the

interregnum.

An event somewhat similar but much less authentic is supposed to have happened after the death of Romulus, who, in his life and character, bore some affinity with Aurelian. The throne was vacant during twelve months till the election of a Sabine philosopher, and the public peace was guarded in the same manner by the union of the several orders of the state. But, in the time of Numa and Romulus, the arms of the people were controlled by the authority of the Patricians; and the balance of freedom was easily preserved in a small and virtuous community. The decline of the Roman state,

2 Vopiscus, our principal authority, wrote at Rome sixteen years only after the death of Aurelian; and, besides the recent notoriety of the facts, constantly draws his materials from the Journals of the Senate and the original papers of the Ulpian library. Zosimus and Zonaras appear as ignorant of this transaction as they were in general of the Roman constitution.

3 Liv. i. 17. Dionys. Halicarn. 1. ii. [c. 57] p. 115. Plutarch in Numa [c. 2], p. 60. The first of these writers relates the story like an orator, the second like a lawyer, and the third like a moralist, and none of them probably without some intermixture of fable.

This is the date in Vopiscus, "III. Non. Febr." (Aurel. c. 41); but as it is in opposition to other authorities, which make the interregnum between the death of Aurelian and the elevation of Tacitus only six months (not eight, as Gibbon says), it is proposed to read "III. Non. Apr." instead of "III. Non. Febr.," which will place the death of Aurelian at the

end of March. Tacitus was elected the 25th of September. During the interregnum Severina, the widow of Aurelian, appears to have been acknowledged as empress at Alexandria, since her Alexandrian coins bear only the years 6 and 7, and Aurelian died in the sixth year of his reign. See Eckhel, vol. vii. p. 488; Clinton, Fasti Rom. vol. i. p. 312, 313.-S.

far different from its infancy, was attended with every circumstance that could banish from an interregnum the prospect of obedience and harmony: an immense and tumultuous capital, a wide extent of empire, the servile equality of despotism, an army of four hundred thousand mercenaries, and the experience of frequent revolutions. Yet, notwithstanding all these temptations, the discipline and memory of Aurelian still restrained the seditious temper of the troops, as well as the fatal ambition of their leaders. The flower of the legions maintained their stations on the banks of the Bosphorus, and the Imperial standard awed the less powerful camps of Rome and of the provinces. A generous though transient enthusiasm seemed to animate the military order; and we may hope that a few real patriots cultivated the returning friendship of the army and the senate as the only expedient capable of restoring the republic to its ancient beauty and vigour.

Sept. 25.

assembles

On the twenty-fifth of September, near eight months after the murder of Aurelian, the consul convoked an assembly of A.D. 275. the senate, and reported the doubtful and dangerous situa- The consul tion of the empire. He slightly insinuated that the pre- the senate. carious loyalty of the soldiers depended on the chance of every hour and of every accident; but he represented, with the most convincing eloquence, the various dangers that might attend any farther delay in the choice of an emperor. Intelligence, he said, was already received that the Germans had passed the Rhine and occupied some of the strongest and most opulent cities of Gaul. The ambition of the Persian king kept the East in perpetual alarms; Egypt, Africa, and Illyricum, were exposed to foreign and domestic arms; and the levity of Syria would prefer even a female sceptre to the sanctity of the Roman laws. The consul then, addressing himself to Tacitus, the first of the senators,' required his opinion on the important subject of a proper candidate for the vacant throne.

If we can prefer personal merit to accidental greatness, we shall esteem the birth of Tacitus more truly noble than that of Character kings. He claimed his descent from the philosophic of Tacitus. historian whose writings will instruct the last generations of mankind. The senator Tacitus was then seventy-five years of age."

4 Vopiscus (in Hist. August. p. 227 [Tacit. c. 4] calls him "prima sententiæ consularis," and soon afterwards Princeps senatus. It is natural to suppose that the monarchs of Rome, disdaining that humble title, resigned it to the most ancient of the senators.

5 The only objection to this genealogy is, that the historian was named Cornelius, the emperor Claudius. But under the Lower Empire surnames were extremely various and uncertain.

6 Zonaras, 1. xii. [c. 28] p. 637 [ed. Paris; p. 608, ed. Bonn]. Chronicle, by an obvious mistake, transfers that age to Aurelian."

The Alexandrian

36

TACITUS ELECTED EMPEROR.

8

CHAP. XII. The long period of his innocent life was adorned with wealth and honours. He had twice been invested with the consular dignity,7 and enjoyed with elegance and sobriety his ample patrimony of between two and three millions sterling. The experience of so many princes, whom he had esteemed or endured, from the vain follies of Elagabalus to the useful rigour of Aurelian, taught him to form a just estimate of the duties, the dangers, and the temptations of their sublime station. From the assiduous study of his immortal ancestor he derived the knowledge of the Roman constitution and of human nature.9 The voice of the people had already named Tacitus as the citizen the most worthy of empire. The ungrateful rumour reached his ears, and induced him to seek the retirement of one of his villas in Campania. He had passed two months in the delightful privacy of Baiæ, when he reluctantly obeyed the summons of the consul to resume his honourable place in the senate, and to assist the republic with his counsels on this important

occasion.

He is elected

emperor;

He arose to speak, when, from every quarter of the house, he was saluted with the names of Augustus and Emperor. "Tacitus Augustus, the gods preserve thee! we choose "thee for our sovereign, to thy care we intrust the republic and "the world. Accept the empire from the authority of the senate. "It is due to thy rank, to thy conduct, to thy manners." As soon as the tumult of acclamations subsided Tacitus attempted to decline the dangerous honour, and to express his wonder that they should elect his age and infirmities to succeed the martial vigour of Aurelian, "Are these limbs, conscript fathers! fitted to sustain "the weight of armour, or to practise the exercises of the camp? "The variety of climates, and the hardships of a military life, would soon oppress a feeble constitution, which subsists only by the most "tender management. My exhausted strength scarcely enables me "to discharge the duty of a senator; how insufficient would it prove "to the arduous labours of war and government! Can you hope "that the legions will respect a weak old man, whose days have been spent in the shade of peace and retirement? Can you desire that

66

7 In the year 273 he was ordinary consul. But he must have been Suffectus many years before, and most probably under Valerian.

Bis millies octingenties. Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 229. [Tacit. c. 10.] This sum, according to the old standard, was equivalent to eight hundred and forty thousand Roman pounds of silver, each of the value of three pounds sterling. But in the age of Tacitus the coin had lost much of its weight and purity.

9 After his accession he gave orders that ten copies of the historian should be annually transcribed and placed in the public libraries. The Roman libraries have long since perished, and the most valuable part of Tacitus was preserved in a single MS., and discovered in a monastery of Westphalia. See Bayle, Dictionnaire, Art. Tacite, and Lipsius ad Annal. ii. 9.

"I should ever find reason to regret the favourable opinion of the "senate ?" 10

The reluctance of Tacitus, and it might possibly be sincere, was encountered by the affectionate obstinacy of the senate. and accepts Five hundred voices repeated at once, in eloquent confusion, the purple. that the greatest of the Roman princes, Numa, Trajan, Hadrian, ́ and the Antonines, had ascended the throne in a very advanced season of life; that the mind, not the body, a sovereign, not a soldier, was the object of their choice; and that they expected from him no more than to guide by his wisdom the valour of the legions. These pressing though tumultuary instances were seconded by a more regular oration of Metius Falconius, the next on the consular bench to Tacitus himself. He reminded the assembly of the evils which Rome had endured from the vices of headstrong and capricious youths, congratulated them on the election of a virtuous and experienced senator, and with a manly, though perhaps a selfish, freedom, exhorted Tacitus to remember the reasons of his elevation, and to seek a successor, not in his own family, but in the republic. The speech of Falconius was enforced by a general acclamation. The emperor elect submitted to the authority of his country, and received the voluntary homage of his equals. The judgment of the senate was confirmed by the consent of the Roman people and of the Prætorian guards."

12

The administration of Tacitus was not unworthy of his life and principles. A grateful servant of the senate, he considered Authority of that national council as the author, and himself as the the senate. subject, of the laws. He studied to heal the wounds which Imperial pride, civil discord, and military violence had inflicted on the constitution, and to restore, at least, the image of the ancient republic as it had been preserved by the policy of Augustus and the virtues of Trajan and the Antonines. It may not be useless to recapitulate some of the most important prerogatives which the senate appeared to have regained by the election of Tacitus. 13 1. To invest one of their body, under the title of emperor, with the general command of the armies and the government of the frontier provinces. 2. To determine the list, or, as it was then styled, the College of Consuls. They were twelve in number, who, in successive pairs, each during the space of two months, filled the year, and represented the

10 Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 227. [Tacit. c. 4.]

"Hist. August. p. 228 [ib. c. 7]. Tacitus addressed the Prætorians by the appellation of sanctissimi milites, and the people by that of sacratissimi Quirites.

12 In his manumissions he never exceeded the number of an hundred, as limited by the Caninian law, which was enacted under Augustus, and at length repealed by Justinian. See Casaubon ad locum Vopisci.

13 See the Lives of Tacitus, Florianus, and Probus, in the Augustan History; we may be well assured that whatever the soldier gave the senator had already given.

33

JOY AND CONFIDENCE OF THE SENATE.

CHAP. XII.

dignity of that ancient office. The authority of the senate, in the nomination of the consuls, was exercised with such independent freedom, that no regard was paid to an irregular request of the emperor in favour of his brother Florianus. "The senate," exclaimed Tacitus, with the honest transport of a patriot, "under"stand the character of a prince whom they have chosen." 3. To appoint the proconsuls and presidents of the provinces, and to confer on all the magistrates their civil jurisdiction. 4. To receive appeals through the intermediate office of the præfect of the city from all the tribunals of the empire. 5. To give force and validity, by their decrees, to such as they should approve of the emperor's edicts. 6. To these several branches of authority we may add some inspection over the finances, since, even in the stern reign of Aurelian, it was in their power to divert a part of the revenue from the public service.1

Circular epistles were sent, without delay, to all the principal cities. Their joy and of the empire-Treves, Milan, Aquileia, Thessalonica, confidence. Corinth, Athens, Antioch, Alexandria, and Carthage-to claim their obedience, and to inform them of the happy revolution which had restored the Roman senate to its ancient dignity. Two of these epistles are still extant. We likewise possess two very singular fragments of the private correspondence of the senators on this occasion. They discover the most excessive joy and the most unbounded hopes. "Cast away your indolence," it is thus that one of the senators addresses his friend, "emerge from your retirements "of Baia and Puteoli. Give yourself to the city, to the senate. "Rome flourishes, the whole republic flourishes. Thanks to the "Roman army, to an army truly Roman, at length we have "recovered our just authority, the end of all our desires. We hear "appeals, we appoint proconsuls, we create emperors; perhaps, too, "we may restrain them-to the wise a word is sufficient."15 These lofty expectations were, however, soon disappointed; nor, indeed, was it possible that the armies and the provinces should long obey the luxurious and unwarlike nobles of Rome. On the slightest touch the unsupported fabric of their pride and power fell to the ground. The expiring senate displayed a sudden lustre, blazed for a moment, and was extinguished for ever.

A.D. 276.

Tacitus is acknow

ledged by

All that had yet passed at Rome was no more than a theatrical representation, unless it was ratified by the more substantial power of the legions. Leaving the senators to enjoy their dream of freedom and ambition, Tacitus proceeded to the Thracian camp, and was there, by the Prætorian 14 Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 216. [Aurel. c. 20.] The passage is perfectly clear, yet both Casaubon and Salmasius wish to correct it.

the army.

15 Vopiscus in Hist. August. p. 230, 232, 233. [Florian. c. 5 and 6.] The senators celebrated the happy restoration with hecatombs and public rejoicings.