CHA P. Courtiers perpetually labour to conceal the truth *. Mod day for uht & VII. The Per The life of Misitheus had been spent in the profession of letters, not of arms; yet such was A.D. 242. the versatile genius of that great man, that, when sian war. he was appointed Prætorian præfect, he discharged the military duties of his place with vigour 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 præfect. 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 of * Duxit. uxorem filiam Misithei, quem causa eloquentiæ dignum parentela sua putavit; et præfectum statim fecit; post quod, non puerile jam et contemptibile videbatur imperium. + Hist. August. p. 162. Aurelius Victor. Porphyrius in Vit. Plotin. 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. Arts of of Gordian expired with Misitheus, who died of CHA P. a flux, not without very strong suspicions of poi- VII. son. Philip, his successor in the præfecture, was Pan Arab by birth, and consequently, in the earlier A.D. 248, spart of his life, a robber by profession. His rise Philip. from so obscure a station to the first dignities of the empire, seems to prove that he was a bold 1 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 A. D. 244. conflux of the Euphrates with the little river March. Aboras t. The fortunate Philip, raised to the empire by the votes of the soldiers, found a ready obedience from the senate and the provinces . Gordian. We cannot forbear transcribing the ingenious, Form of a though somewhat fanciful description, which a X 3 celebrated * 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 erased 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. Macellin. xxiii. 5. Aurelius Victor. Eutrop. ix. 2. Orosius, vii, 20. Ammianus Marcellinus, xxiii. 5, Zosimus, 1. i. p. 19. Philip, who was a native of Bostra, was about forty years of age. military republic. CHA P. 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 VII. 66 pire, was only an irregular republic, not unlike "the Aristocracy of Algiers †, where the mi"litia, possessed of the sovereignty, creates and "deposes a magistrate, who is styled a Dey. 66 66 Perhaps, indeed, it may be laid down as a general rule, that a military government is, in "some respects, more republican than monarch"ical. Nor can it be said that the soldiers 66 66 65 only partook of the government by their dis"obedience and rebellions. The speeches made "to them by the emperors, were they not at length of the same mature as those formerly pronounced to the people by the consuls and "the tribunes? And although the armies had "no regular place or forms of assembly; though "their debates were short, their action sudden, "and their resolves seldom the result of cool reflection, did they not dispose, with absolute sway, of the public fortune? What was the emperor, except the minister of a violent government, elected for the private benefit of "the soldiers? 66 66 66 66 66 When the army had elected Philip, who was "Prætorian præfect to the third Gordian, the "latter * 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, "latter demanded, that he might remain sole CHA P. emperor he was unable to obtain it. He re 66 66 66 quested, that the power might be equally di"vided between them; the army would not listen "to his speech. He consented to be degraded "to the rank of Cæsar; the favour was refused him. He desired, at least, he might be appointed Prætorian præfect; his prayer was rejected. Finally, he pleaded for his life. The army, in these several judgments, exercised 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 *. VII. Philip. On his return from the East to Rome, Philip, Reign of 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. CчHAAμPa solemnized the secular games with infinite pomp VIIV and magnificence. Since their institution or red Secular A. D. 248. vival by Augustus*, they had been celebrated by Claudius, by Domitian, and by Severus, and were now renewed the fifth time, on the accom plishment of the full period of a thousand years from the foundation of Rome. Every ciscum stance of the secular games was skilfully adapted to inspire the superstitious mind with deep and solemn reverence. The long interval between them + exceeded the term of human life; and as none of the spectators had already seen them, none could flatter themselves with the expectation of beholding them a second time. The mystic sacrifices were performed, during three nights, on the banks of the Tyber; and the Campus Martius resounded with music and dances, and was illuminated with innumerable lamps and torches. Slaves and strangers were excluded from any participation in these national ceremonies. A chorus of twenty-seven youths, and as many virgins of noble families, and whose parents were both alive, implored the propitious gods in favour of the present, and for the hope of *The account of the last supposed celebration, though in an enlightened period of history, was so very doubtful and obscure, that the alternative seems not doubtful. When the popish jubilees, the copy of the secular games, were invented by Boniface VIII. the crafty pope pretended that he only revived an ancient institution. See M. le Chais Lettres sur les Jubiles. + Either of a hundred, or a hundred and ten years. Varro and Livy adopted the former opinion, but the infallible authority of the Sibyl consecrated the latter (Censorinus de Die Natal. c. 17.) The emperors Claudius and Philip, however, did not treat the oracle with implicit respect. |