VII. CHA P. birth, elegant accomplishments, or knowledge of civil business, was fuffered near his perfon; and the court of a Roman Emperor revived the idea of those ancient chiefs of flaves and gladiators, whofe favage power had left a deep impreffion of terror and deteftation". Oppreffion of the pro vinces. As long as the cruelty of Maximin was confined to the illuftrious fenators, or even to the bold adventurers, who in the court or army expose themselves to the caprice of fortune, the body of the people viewed their fufferings with indifference, or perhaps with pleasure. But the tyrant's avarice, ftimulated by the infatiate defires of the foldiers, at length attacked the public property. Every city of the empire was poffeffed of an independent revenue, deftined to purchase corn for the multitude, and to fupply the expences of the games and entertainments. By a fingle act of authority, the whole mafs of wealth was at once confifcated for the ufe of the Imperial treasury. The temples were ftripped of their most valuable offerings of gold and filver, and the ftatues of gods, heroes, and emperors, were melted down and coined into money. Thefe impious orders could not be executed without tumults and maffacres, as in many places the people chofe rather to die in the defence of their altars, than to behold in the midft of peace their cities expofed to the rapine and cruelty of war. The foldiers themselves, among whom this facrile "He was compared to Spartacus and Athenio. Hift. Auguft. p. 141. VII. gious plunder was diftributed, received it with a CHA P. blush; and, hardened as they were in acts of violence, they dreaded the just reproaches of their friends and relations. Throughout the Roman world a general cry of indignation was heard, imploring vengeance on the common enemy of human kind; and at length, by an act of private oppreffion, a peaceful and unarmed province was driven into rebellion against him ". Revolt in A.D. 237. The procurator of Africa was a fervant worthy Africa, of fuch a master, who confidered the fines and April. confifcations of the rich as one of the most fruitful branches of the Imperial revenue. An iniquitous fentence had been pronounced against fome opulent youths of that country, the execution of which would have stripped them of far the greater part of their patrimony. In this extremity, a refolution that must either complete or prevent their ruin, was dictated by defpair. A refpite of three days, obtained with difficulty from the rapacious treasurer, was employed in collecting from their eftates a great number of flaves and peasants, blindly devoted to the commands of their lords, and armed with the ruftic weapons of clubs and axes. The leaders of the confpiracy, as they were admitted to the audience of the procurator, ftabbed him with the daggers concealed under their garments, and, by the af fiftance of their tumultuary train, feized on the little town of Thyfdrus 13, and erected the standard 13 12 Herodian, 1. vii. p. 238. Zofim. 1. i. p.15. 13 In the fertile territory of Byzacium, one hundred and fifty miles to the fouth of Carthage. This city was decorated, probably by the CHAP. ard of rebellion against the fovereign of the Ro VII. Character and eleva tion of the two Gor dians. man empire. They refted their hopes on the hatred of mankind against Maximin, and they judiciously refolved to oppofe to that detefted tyrant, an Emperor whofe mild virtues had already acquired the love and efteem of the Romans, and whofe authority over the province would give weight and stability to the enterprize. Gordianus, their proconful, and the object of their choice, refufed, with unfeigned reluctance, the dangerous honour, and begged with tears, that they would fuffer him to terminate in peace a long and innocent life, without ftaining his feeble age with civil blood. Their menaces compelled him to accept the Imperial purple, his only refuge indeed against the jealous cruelty of Maximin; fince, according to the reasoning of tyrants, those who have been esteemed worthy of the throne deserve death, and those who deliberate have already rebelled "4. The family of Gordianus was one of the most illuftrious of the Roman fenate. On the father's fide, he was defcended from the Gracchi; on his mother's, from the Emperor Trajan. A great estate enabled him to fupport the dignity of his birth, and, in the enjoyment of it, he difplayed an elegant tafte, and beneficent difpofition. The palace in Rome, formerly inhabited by the great Pompey, had been, during the Gordians, with the title of colony, and with a fine amphitheatre, which is still in a very perfect state. See Itinerar. Weffeling, p. 59. and Shaw's Travels, p. 117. 14 Herodian, 1. vii. p. 239. Hift. Auguft. p. 153. feveral VII. feveral generations, in the poffeffion of Gor- CHA P. dian's family'. It was diftinguished by ancient trophies of naval victories, and decorated with the works of modern painting. His villa on the road to Prænefte, was celebrated for baths of fingular beauty and extent, for three stately rooms of an hundred feet in length, and for a magnificent portico, fupported by two hundred columns of the four moft curious and coftly forts of marble". The public fhows exhibited at his expence, and in which the people were entertained with many hundreds of wild beafts and gladiators", feem to furpafs the fortune of a subject; and whilst the liberality of other magiftrates was confined to a few folemn festivals in Rome, the magnificence of Gordian was repeated, when he was ædile, every month in the year, and extended, during his confulship, to the principal cities of Italy. He was 15 Hift. Aug. p. 152. The celebrated houfe of Pompey in carinis was ufurped by Marc Antony, and confequently became, after the Triumvir's death, a part of the Imperial domain. The Emperor Trajan allowed and even encouraged the rich senators to purchase thofe magnificent and useless places (Plin. Panegyric. c.50.): and it may seem probable, that, on this occafion, Pompey's house came into the poffeffion of Gordian's great grandfather. 16 The Claudian, the Numidian, the Caryftian, and the Synnadian. The colours of Roman marbles have been faintly described and imperfectly diftinguished. It appears, however, that the Carystian was a fea-green, and that the marble of Synnada was white mixed with oval fpots of purple. See Salmafius ad Hift. August. p. 164. 17 Hift. Auguft. p.151, 152. He fometimes gave five hundred pair of gladiators, never lefs than one hundred and fifty. He once gave for the use of the Circus one hundred Sicilian, and as many Cappadocian horses. The animals designed for hunting, were chiefly bears, boars, bulls, ftags, elks, wild affes, &c. Elephants and lions seem to have been appropriated to Imperial magnificence. CHA P. twice elevated to the last mentioned dignity, VII. by Caracalla and by Alexander; for he poffeffed. the uncommon talent of acquiring the efteem of virtuous princes, without alarming the jealoufy of tyrants. His long life was innocently spent in the study of letters and the peaceful honours of Rome; and, till he was named proconful of Africa by the voice of the fenate and the approbation of Alexander ", he appears prudently to have declined the command of armies and the government of provinces. As long as that Emperor lived, Africa was happy under the administration of his worthy reprefentative; after the barbarous Maximin had ufurped the throne, Gordianus alleviated the miferies which he was unable to prevent. When he reluctantly accepted the purple, he was above fourfcore years old; a laft and valuable remains of the happy age of the Antonines, whofe virtues he revived in his own conduct, and celebrated in an elegant poem of thirty books. With the venerable proconful, his fon, who had accompanied him into Africa as his lieutenant, was likewise declared Emperor. His manners were lefs pure, but his character was equally amiable with that of his father. Twenty-two acknowledged concubines, and a library of fixty-two thousand volumes, attefted the variety of his inclinations; and from the productions which he left behind 18 See the original letter, in the Auguftan Hiftory, p 152, which at once fhews Alexander's respect for the authority of the fenate, and his efteem for the proconful appointed by that assembly. |