Part 25 (1/2)
Valerian died in captivity, while a crowd of usurpers rose in arms against the weak Gallienus. There were nineteen pretenders to the throne according to Gibbon, but this period is usually known as that of the Thirty Tyrants. This melancholy period was also marked by a pestilence, which raged for fifteen years in every province. Five thousand persons are said to have died daily at Rome for some time; cities were depopulated, and the number of the human species must have sensibly declined. A famine preceded and attended the pestilence, earthquakes were common, and the third century is, no doubt, the most melancholy period in the history of Europe.
Gallienus was murdered in A.D. 268, and was succeeded by Marcus Aurelius Claudius, who died of a pestilence which had broken out in his army in Egypt. Aurelian, a native of Pannonia, was the next emperor. His reign lasted four years and nine months, but was filled with remarkable events. He abandoned Dacia to the Goths, defeated the Alemanni, and drove them out of Italy. But he foresaw the danger of future invasions, and surrounded Rome with new walls about twenty-one miles in extent. In A.D. 272 he marched against Zen.o.bia, queen of Palmyra, who ventured to defy the power of Rome. This ill.u.s.trious woman was not only learned, beautiful, and an agreeable writer, but governed the East for five years with discretion and success. Aurelian was amazed at her warlike preparations upon the fall of Palmyra, and treated her beautiful city with lenity; but the Palmyrenians having rebelled, the city was taken by storm, and its people put to death. The ruins of Palmyra are still among the most remarkable of the ancient world.
Aurelian now returned to Rome to celebrate his triumph. The spoils of every climate were borne before him; his captives were from Germany, Syria, and Egypt, and among them were the Emperor Tetricus and the beautiful Zen.o.bia, bound with fetters of gold. A whole day was consumed in the pa.s.sage of the triumphal procession through the streets of Rome.
But Aurelian, who was illiterate, unpolished, and severe, failed to win the regard of his people, and was plainly more at his ease at the head of his army than in the cultivated society of Rome. He returned, therefore, to the East, where he died, as was usual with so many of the emperors, by the hand of an a.s.sa.s.sin, in A.D. 275. He restored vigor to the empire, and preserved it from instant destruction.
The army, filled with sorrow for the loss of the emperor, revenged his death by tearing his a.s.sa.s.sin in pieces; and they then wrote a respectful letter to the Senate, asking the Senators to select his successor. The Senate, however, pa.s.sed a decree that the army should name the new emperor. The soldiers, in their turn, refused, and thus for eight months an interregnum prevailed while this friendly contest continued. At last the Senate appointed the virtuous Tacitus, who claimed a descent from his namesake, the famous historian. Tacitus, however, who was seventy years old, sank under the hards.h.i.+ps of his first campaign, and died A.D. 276, at Tyania, in Cappadocia.
His brother Florian then ascended the throne, but was defeated and put to death by Probus, the best soldier of the age, who, in six years, once more repelled the barbarians from every part of the empire. He delivered Gaul from the ravages of the Germans, pursued them across the Rhine, and every where defeated them. He suppressed, also, several insurrections, and employed his soldiers in various useful works. But at length, weary of these labors, they put Probus to death, A.D. 282.
Carus, the next emperor, was singularly frugal in his mode of life. When the Persian emba.s.sadors visited him in his tent they found him sitting upon the gra.s.s, clothed in a coa.r.s.e robe, and eating his supper of bacon and hard pease. Carus gained many victories over the Persians, but died suddenly in A.D. 283. His two sons, Carinus and Namerian, succeeded him, but were soon a.s.sa.s.sinated, giving place to the more famous Diocletian.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Court-yard of Diocletian's Palace at Spalatro.]
CHAPTER XLIII.
FROM DIOCLETIAN, A.D. 284, TO CONSTANTINE'S DEATH, A.D. 337.
Diocletian began to reign A.D. 284, and once more revived the vigor of the declining empire, which now seemed more than ever to depend for its existence upon the qualities of a single ruler. It seems, indeed, to have required an intellect of no common order to preserve the unity of the empire, composed of so many different nations, of territories separated by such vast distances, and threatened on every side by innumerable foes; but, of all his contemporaries, Diocletian was best suited to this task. His parents had been the slaves of a Roman Senator, and he had himself risen from this low station to the highest positions in the army. He acted with generosity toward the servants of the former emperor, not only suffering them to remain in safety under his rule, but even to retain their offices. Finding the empire too large to be governed by a single ruler, he selected as his colleague Maximian, a brave, but fierce and ignorant soldier, who, like himself, had risen to a high rank in the army. Maximian, however, always admitted the intellectual superiority of Diocletian. The emperor a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of Jovius, and Maximian that of Herculius. Diocletian also appointed two Caesars, Constantius and Galerius, to aid him in the defense of the empire, which was divided between the four princes. Gaul, Spain, and Britain were intrusted to the care of Constantius, Italy and Africa to Maximian, Galerius commanded the legions on the Danube, while Diocletian reserved for himself Thrace, Egypt, and Asia. The four rulers seemed to have labored together in harmony, but the establishment of four courts in different parts of the empire obliged them to increase the taxes, and every province suffered under new impositions. Even Italy, which had always been favored in this particular, was now heavily burdened, and every where lands were abandoned and left uncultivated because their owners could not pay the taxes and impositions. In A.D. 287 a rebellion occurred in Gaul, which was suppressed by Maximian; soon after, Carausius, having become master of Britain, and possessing a considerable fleet, defied the power of the emperor; but when Constantius was appointed Caesar he prepared to reduce the island to subjection. In A.D. 294 Carausius was put to death by Allectus, a new usurper. Constantius now crossed the Channel and recovered the island, which, after a separation of ten years, was once more reunited to the empire. During this reign the Goths, Vandals, and other northern barbarians wasted their strength in destructive contests with each other; but whenever, in intervals of peace, they invaded the Roman territory, they were driven back by the valor of the two Caesars.
Maximian, in the mean time, subdued a revolt in Africa; and Diocletian himself suppressed one of those seditions to which Egypt was constantly exposed. The emperor besieged Alexandria for eight months, cut off the aqueducts which conveyed water to the city, and, having taken it, put many thousands of its citizens to death. One remarkable edict which he now published forbade the study of alchemy in Egypt, and ordered all books upon that subject to be burned. He also made a treaty with the Nubians, in order to protect the frontiers of Egypt.
It gives us, indeed, a clear view of the immense extent of the Roman power when we reflect that its commanders were, almost at the same moment, struggling successfully against its enemies in Africa, Britain, Germany, and the East. A war with Persia now arose, in which Galerius was at first defeated, A.D. 296. But the next year he pa.s.sed through the mountains of Armenia at the head of twenty-five thousand chosen men, and, having surprised the Persian army in the night, slaughtered great numbers of them; the booty, too, was immense. A barbarian soldier, finding a bag of s.h.i.+ning leather filled with pearls, threw away the contents and preserved the bag; and the uncultivated savages gathered a vast spoil from the tents of the Persians. Galerius, having taken prisoners several of the wives and children of the Persian monarch Na.r.s.es, treated them with such tenderness and respect that Na.r.s.es made peace. Mesopotamia was now added to the empire, being taken from the King of Armenia, who received in its place a considerable Persian province.
The two emperors returned to Rome and celebrated their triumph November 20, A.D. 303, the last spectacle of that kind which the world has witnessed. Romulus, more than a thousand years before, had ascended the Capitoline Mount on foot, bearing in his arms the spoil of Acron, and his example had been followed by a long line of Roman heroes. In the last triumph, the two emperors were attended by the spoils of Africa and Britain, of the East and the West.
During this reign also occurred the last persecution of the Christians, who were soon to become the masters of the empire. It began A.D. 303, and continued for ten years; and such mult.i.tudes of the Christians perished that the emperors boasted that they had wholly extirpated the sect!
Diocletian introduced an Eastern pomp into his court, a.s.sumed the t.i.tles of ”Lord and Emperor,” and wore a diadem set with pearls. His robes were of silk and gold. He required his subjects to prostrate themselves before him, and to adore him as a divinity.
In A.D. 305, like Charles V., he resolved to abdicate his power, having persuaded his colleague Maximian to do the same: he lived in retirement for nine years, and amused himself cultivating his garden. ”I wish you would come to Salona” (Spalatro), he wrote to Maximian, who sought to draw him from his retirement, ”and see the cabbages I have planted: you would never again mention to me the name of empire.” But the close of his life was embittered by the ingrat.i.tude of Constantine and Licinius, and the dangers of the empire. It is not known whether he died by disease or by his own hand.
Upon the abdication of Diocletian and his colleague, the two Caesars, Constantius and Galerius, a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of Augustus. Constantius retained his former provinces, Gaul, Spain, and Britain. He was moderate, amiable, and lived with Roman simplicity. Galerius, on the other hand, was haughty, severe, and ambitious. He had married a daughter of Diocletian, and hoped that the death of Constantius would soon leave him the sole emperor of Rome. The two emperors now appointed two Caesars, Maximin and Severus, the first nephew to Galerius, and the latter devoted to his interests. Constantius died at York, in Britain, A.D. 306, and his son Constantine was proclaimed Augustus by the soldiers.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Constantine and Fausta.]
This prince, afterward Constantine the Great, was the son of Constantius and Helena, who was said to have been the daughter of an inn-keeper.
When Constantius became Caesar he divorced Helena, and her son was, in a measure, neglected. Constantine, however, soon distinguished himself as a soldier, and won the affection of the army. In appearance he was tall, dignified, and pleasing; he excelled in all military exercises, was modest, prudent, and well informed. He soon attracted the jealousy of Galerius, who would have put him to death had he not escaped to his father in Britain; and now Galerius refused to allow him any higher t.i.tle than that of Caesar.
Maxentius, the son of the abdicated emperor Maximian, was also proclaimed Augustus by his soldiers, and prevailed upon his father once more to ascend the throne. Severus, who marched against them, was defeated and put to death; and Constantine now married Fausta, the daughter of Maximian. Galerius led a large army from the East, but was repulsed from Rome and retreated, leaving Maximian and his son masters of the capital. Galerius next a.s.sociated Licinius with him in his power, and there were now six sovereigns upon the throne.
In A.D. 310, however, Maximian, having conspired against the life of Constantine, was put to death; Galerius died the next year; in A.D. 312 Maxentius fell before the arms of Constantine, and was drowned in the Tiber while attempting to make his escape. It was during this campaign that Constantine is said to have seen the miraculous cross in the heavens.
The Roman Senate paid unusual honors to Constantine; games and festivals were inst.i.tuted in memory of his victory over Maxentius, and a triumphal arch was erected, whose imperfect architecture shows the decline of ancient taste. The Arch of Trajan was stripped of its ornaments to adorn that of Constantine.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Arch of Constantine.]
The new emperor introduced good order into the administration of the West, revived the authority of the Senate, and disbanded the Praetorian Guards; he revoked the edicts against the Christians, and paid unusual deference to the bishops and saints of the Church. The Emperor Licinius, who had married his sister, in A.D. 313 defeated and put to death Maximin, so that the empire was now shared between Constantine and Licinius.