Page images
PDF
EPUB

VII.

his mother's eunuchs, that pernicious vermin of CHAP. the East, who, since the days of Elagabalus, had infested the Roman palace. By the artful conspiracy of these wretches, an impenetrable veil was drawn between an innocent prince and his oppressed subjects; the virtuous disposition of Gordian was deceived, and the honours of the empire sold without his knowledge, though in a very public manner, to the most worthless of mankind. We are ignorant by what fortunate accident the emperor escaped from this ignominious slavery, and devolved his confidence on a minister, whose wise councils had no object except the glory of his sovereign, and the happiness of the people. It should seem that love and learning. D. 240. introduced Misitheus to the favour of Gor-stration of dian. The young prince married the daughter Misitheus. of his master of rhetoric, and promoted his father-in-law to the first offices of the empire. Two admirable letters that passed between them are still extant. The minister, with the conscious dignity of virtue, congratulates Gordian that he is delivered from the tyranny of the eunuchs, and still more that he is sensible of his deliverance. The emperor acknowledges, with an amiable confusion, the errors of his past conduct; and laments, with singular propriety, the misfortune of a monarch, from whom a venal tribe of

Hist. August. p. 161. From some hints in the two letters, I should expect that the eunuchs were not expelled the palace, without some degree of gentle violence, and that the young Gordian rather approved of, than consented to, their disgrace.

Admini

CHAP. Courtiers perpetually labour to conceal the truth.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

VII.

The Per

sian war,

[ocr errors]

The life of Misitheus had been spent in the A. D. 242. profession of letters, not of arms; yet such was the versatile genius of that great man, that, when he was appointed prætorian, prefect, he discharged, the military duties of his place with vi gour and ability. The Persians had invaded Mesopotamia, and threatened Antioch. By the persuasion of his father-in-law, the young emperor quitted the luxury of Rome, opened, for the last time recorded in history, the temple of Janus, and marched in person into the East. On his approach with a great army, the Persians withdrew their garrisons from the cities which they had already taken, and retired from the Euphrates to the Tigris. Gordian enjoyed the pleasure of announcing to the senate the first success of his arms, which he ascribed with a becoming modesty and gratitude to the wisdom of his father and prefect. During the whole expedition, Misitheus watched over the safety and discipline of the army; whilst he prevented their dangerous murmurs by maintaining a regular plenty in the camp, and by establishing ample magazines of vinegar, bacon, straw, barley, and wheat, in all the cities of the frontier. But the prosperity

[ocr errors]

a Duxit uxorem filiam Misithei, quem causâ eloquentiæ dignum parentela suâ putavit; et præfectum statim fecit; post quod, non puerile jam et contemptibile videbatur imperium.

Hist. August. p. 162. Aurelius Victor. Porphyrius in Vit. Plo. tin. ap. Fabricium. Biblioth. Græc. 1. iv, c. 36. The philosopher Plotinus accompanied the army, prompted by the love of knowledge, and by the hope of penetrating as far as India.

VII.

Arts of

of Gordian expired with Misitheus, who died of CHAP. a flux, not without very strong suspicions of poison, Philip, his successor in the prefecture, was▲. D. 243. an Arab by birth, and consequently, in the earlier part of his life, a robber by profession. His rise from so obscure a station to the first dignities of the empire, seems to prove that he was a bold and able leader. But his boldness prompted him to aspire to the throne, and his abilities were employed to supplant, not to serve, his indulgent master. The minds of the soldiers were irritated by an artificial scarcity, created by his contrivance in the camp; and the distress of the army was attributed to the youth and incapacity of the prince. It is not in our power to trace the successive steps of the secret conspiracy and open sedition, which were at length fatal to Gordian. A sepulchral monument was erected to his me- Murder of mory on the spot where he was killed, near the conflux of the Euphrates with the little river March. Aboras. The fortunate Philip, raised to the empire by the votes of the soldiers, found a ready obedience from the senate and the provinces.

e

Gordian,

A. D. 244,

We cannot forbear transcribing the ingenious, Form of a though somewhat fanciful, description, which a republic.

About twenty miles from the little town of Circesium, on the frontier of the two empires.

The inscription (which contained a very singular pun) was eras, ed by the order of Licinius, who claimed some degree of relationship to Philip (Hist. August. p. 165); but the tumulus, or mound of earth, which formed the sepulchre, still subsisted in the time of Julian. See Ammian. Marcellin. xxiii, 5 +

• Aurelius Victor. Eutrop. ix, 2. Orosius, vii, 20. Ammianus Marcellinus, xxiii, 5. Zosimus, 1. i, p. 19. Philip, who was a na five of Bostra, was about forty years of age.

military

VII.

CHAP. celebrated writer of our own times has traced of the military government of the Roman empire. "What in that age was called the Roman em

66

66

66

66

pire, was only an irregular republic, not un"like the aristocracy of Algiers, where the militia, possessed of the sovereignty, creates "and deposes a magistrate, who is styled a dey. Perhaps, indeed, it may be laid down as a general rule, that a military government is, "in some respects, more republican than mo"narchical. Nor can it be said that the sol"diers only partook of the government by their "disobedience and rebellions. The speeches "made to them by the emperors, were they "not at length of the same nature as those

formerly pronounced to the people by the "consuls and the tribunes? And although the "armies had no regular place or forms of as

66

sembly; though their debates were short, "their action sudden, and their resolves seldom "the result of cool reflection, did they not dis

[ocr errors]

pose, with absolute sway, of the public for"tune? What was the emperor, except the "minister of a violent government, elected for "the private benefit of the soldiers.

"When the army had elected Philip, who "was prætorian prefect to the third Gordian,

Can the epithet of aristocracy be applied, with any propriety, to the government of Algiers? Every military government floats between the extremes of absolute monarchy and wild democracy.

The military republic of the mamalukes in Egypt, would have afforded M. de Montesquieu (see Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Decadence des Romains, c. 16), a juster and more noble 'parallel.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

VII

"the latter demanded, that he might remain CHAP.) "sole emperor; he was unable to obtain it. He "requested, that the power might be equally, "divided between them; the army would not "listen to his speech. He consented to be de

66

graded to the rank of Cæsar; the favour was "refused him. He desired, at least, he might "be appointed prætorian prefect; his prayer " was rejected. Finally, he pleaded for his life. "The army, in these several judgments, exer"cised the supreme magistracy." According to the historian, whose doubtful narrative the president De Montesquieu has adopted, Philip, who, during the whole transaction, had preserved a sullen silence, was inclined to spare the innocent life of his benefactor; till, recollecting that his innocence might excite a dangerous compassion in the Roman world, he commanded, without regard to his suppliant cries, that he should be seized, stript, and led away to instant death. After a moment's pause, the inhuman sentence was executed."

On his return from the East to Rome, Philip, Reign of Philip desirous of obliterating the memory of his crimes, and of captivating the affections of the people,

The Augustan history (p. 163, 164), cannot, in this instance, be reconciled with itself or with probability. How could Philip condemn his predecessor, and yet consecrate his memory? How could he order his public execution, and yet, in his letters to the senate, exculpate himself from the guilt of his death? Philip, though an ambitious usurper, was by no means a mad tyrant. Some chronological difficulties have likewise been discovered by the nice eyes of Tillemont and Muratori, in this supposed association of Philip to the empire.

« PreviousContinue »