deceive the people by an image of civil liberty, CHA P. and the armies by an image of civil govern- III.

ment.

I. The death of Cæfar was ever before his Image of eyes. He had lavished wealth and honours on liberty for the people. his adherents; but the moft favoured friends of his uncle were in the number of the confpirators. The fidelity of the legions might defend his authority against open rebellion; but their vigilance could not fecure his person from the dagger of a determined republican; and the Romans, who revered the memory of Brutus", would applaud the imitation of his virtue. Cæfar had provoked his fate, as much by the oftentation of his power, as by his power itself. The conful or the tribune might have reigned in peace. The title of king had armed the Romans against his life. Auguftus was fenfible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his expectation, that the fenate and people would fubmit to flavery, provided they were respectfully affured that they ftill enjoyed their ancient freedom. A feeble fenate and enervated people cheerfully acquiefced in the pleafing illufion, as long as it was supported by the virtue, or even by the prudence, of the fucceffors of Auguftus. It was a motive of felf-prefervation, not a principle of liberty, that animated the confpirators againft Caligula, Nero, and Domitian. They attacked the per

27 Two centuries after the establishment of monarchy, the Emperor Marcus Antominus recommends the character of Brutus as a perfect model of Roman virtue.

CHAP. fon of the tyrant, without aiming their blow at the authority of the emperor.

III.

Attempt

of the fe

nate after

There appears, indeed, one memorable occafion, in which the fenate, after feventy years of the death patience, made an ineffectual attempt to reaffume of Caligula. its long-forgotten rights. When the throne was vacant by the murder of Caligula, the confuls convoked that affembly in the Capitol, condemned the memory of the Cæfars, gave the watch-word liberty to the few cohorts who faintly adhered to their ftandard, and during eight-and-forty hours, acted as the independent chiefs of a free commonwealth. But while they deliberated, the Prætorian guards had refolved. The ftupid Claudius, brother of Germanicus, was already in their camp, invested with the Imperial purple, and prepared to fupport his election by arms. The dream of liberty was at an end; and the fenate awoke to all the horrors of inevitable fervitude. Deferted by the people, and threatened by a military force, that feeble affembly was compelled to ratify the choice of the Prætorians, and to embrace the benefit of an amnesty, which Claudius had the prudence to offer, and the generofity to observe 28.

Image of government for

II. The infolence of the armies infpired Auguftus with fears of a ftill more alarming nature. the armies. The despair of the citizens could only attempt, what the power of the foldiers was, at any time

25 It is much to be regretted that we have loft the part of Tacitus which treated of that tranfaction. We are forced to content ourselves with the popular rumours of Jofephus, and the imperfect hints of Dion and Suetonius.

able

III.

able to execute. How precarious was his own CHA P. authority over men whom he had taught to violate every focial duty! He had heard their feditious clamours; he dreaded their calmer moments of reflection. One revolution had been purchafed by immenfe rewards; but a fecond revolution might double thofe rewards. The troops profeffed the fondeft attachment to the houfe of Cæfar; but the attachments of the multitude are capricious and inconftant. Auguftus fummoned to his aid, whatever remained in those fierce minds of Roman prejudices; enforced the rigour of difcipline by the fanction of law; and, interpofing the majefty of the fenate between the emperor and the army, boldly claimed their allegiance, as the first magistrate of the republic During a long period of two hundred and Their obe twenty years, from the establishment of this artful fyftem to the death of Commodus, the dangers inherent to a military government were, in a great measure, fufpended. The foldiers were feldom roufed to that fatal fenfe of their own ftrength, and of the weakness of the civil authority, which was, before and afterwards, productive of fuch dreadful calamities. Caligula and Domitian were affaffinated in their palace by their own domeftics: the convulfions which agitated Rome on the death of the former, were confined to the walls of the city. But Nero involved.

29

29 Auguftus reftored the ancient severity of discipline. After the civil wars, he dropped the endearing name of Fellow-Soldiers, and called them only Soldiers (Sueton. in Auguft. c. 25.). See the use Tiberius made of the fenate in the mutiny of the Pannonian legions (Tacit. Annal. i.).

dience.

CHA P. the whole empire in his ruin. In the space of

III.

Defigna, tion of a fucceffor.

eighteen months, four princes perished by the fword; and the Roman world was shaken by the fury of the contending armies. Excepting only this fhort, though violent, eruption of military licence, the two centuries from Auguftus to Commodus paffed away unftained with civil blood, and undisturbed by revolutions. The emperor was elected by the authority of the fenate, and the confent of the foldiers 3°. The legions respected their oath of fidelity; and it requires a minute inspection of the Roman annals, to difcover three inconfiderable rebellions, which were all fuppreffed in a few months, and without even the hazard of a battle ".

In the elective monarchies, the vacancy of the throne is a moment big with danger and mifchief. The Roman emperors, defirous to fpare the legions that interval of fufpenfe, and the temptation of an irregular choice, invefted their defigned fucceffor with fo large a share of prefent power, as thould enable him, after their decease, to affume the remainder, without fuffering the empire to perceive the change of

3o These words feem to have been the conftitutional language. See Tacit. Annal. xiii. 4.

31 The firft was Camillus Scribonianus, who took up arms in Dalmatia against Claudius, and was deserted by his own troops in five days. The fecond, L. Antonius, in Germany, who rebelled against Domitian; and the third, Avidius Caffius, in the reign of M. Antoninus. The two laft reigned but a few months, and were cut off by their own adherents. We may obferve, that both Camillus and Caffius coloured their ambition with the defign of reftoring the republic; a task, faid Caffius, peculiarly reserved for his name and family.

masters,

masters.

III.

Thus Auguftus, after all his fairer CHA P. profpects had been fnatched from him by untimely deaths, refted his last hopes on Tiberius, of Tibeobtained for his adopted fon the cenforial and rius. tribunitian powers, and dictated a law, by which the future prince was invefted with an authority equal to his own, over the provinces and the armies 32. Thus Vefpafian fubdued the gene- Of Titus. rous mind of his eldeft fon. Titus was adored by the eastern legions, which, under his com mand, had recently atchieved the conqueft of Judæa. His power was dreaded, and, as his virtues were clouded by the intemperance of youth, his defigns were fufpected. Inftead of liftening to fuch unworthy fufpicions, the prudent monarch affociated Titus to the full powers of the imperial dignity; and the grateful fon ever approved himself the humble and faithful minifter of fo indulgent a father 33.

The good fenfe of Vespasian engaged him in- The race deed to embrace every measure that might confirm his recent and precarious elevation.

of the Cæfars and The the Flavi

military oath, and the fidelity of the troops, had an family. been confecrated, by the habits of an hundred years, to the name and family of the Cæfars; and although that family had been continued only by the fictitious rite of adoption, the Romans ftill revered, in the perfon of Nero, the grandfon of Germanicus, and the lineal fucceffor of Auguftus. It was not without reluctance and remorfe, that the Prætorian guards had been

31 Velleius Paterculus, l.ii. c. 121. Sueton. in Tiber. c.20. 33 Sueton. in Tit. c. 6. Plin. in Præfat. Hift. Natur.