17
Whereupon
Pertinax straightway rescued Raetia and Noricum from the enemy.
Historia Augusta
8 He had intended to kill fourteen others also, since the revenues of the Roman empire were insufficient to meet his expenditures.
p285 8 1 Legamen ad paginam Latinam Meanwhile, because he had appointed to the consulship a former lover of his mother's,64 the senate mockingly gave Commodus the name Pius;65 and after he had executed Perennis, he was given the name Felix,66 as though, amid the multitudinous executions of many citizens, he were a second Sulla. 2 And this same Commodus, who was called Pius, and who was called Felix, is said to have feigned a plot against his own life, in order that he might have an excuse for putting many to death. 3 Yet as a matter of fact, there were no rebellions save that of Alexander,67 who soon killed himself and his near of kin, and that of Commodus' sister Lucilla. 68 4 He was called Britannicus by those who desired to flatter him, whereas the Britons even wished to set up an emperor against him. 69 5 He was called also the Roman Hercules,70 on the ground that he had killed wild beasts in the amphitheatre at Lanuvium; and, indeed, it was his custom to kill wild beasts on his own estate. 6 He had, besides, an insane desire that the city of Rome should be renamed Colonia Commodiana. 71 This mad idea, it is said, was inspired in p287 him while listening to the blandishments of Marcia. 72 7 He had also a desire to drive chariots in the Circus, 8 and he went out in public clad in the Dalmatian tunic73 and thus clothed gave the signal for the charioteers to start. 9 And in truth, on the occasion when he laid before the senate his proposal to call Rome Commodiana, not only did the senate gleefully pass this resolution, but also took the name "Commodian" to itself, at the same time giving Commodus the name Hercules, and calling him a god.
Legamen ad paginam Latinam 9 1 He pretended once that he was going to Africa, so that he could get funds for the journey, then got them and spent them on banquets and gaming instead. 2 He murdered Motilenus, the prefect of the guard, by means of poisoned figs. He allowed statues of himself to be erected with the accoutrements of Hercules;74 and sacrifices were performed to him as to a god. 3 He had planned to execute many more men besides, but his plan was betrayed by a certain young servant, who threw out of his bedroom a tablet on which were written the names of those who were to be killed.
4 He practised the worship of Isis and even went so far as to shave his head and carry a statue of Anubis. 75 5 In his passion for cruelty he actually ordered the votaries of Bellona to cut off one of their arms,76 6 and as for the devotees of Isis, he forced them to beat p289 their breasts with pine-cones even to the point of death. While he was carrying about the statue of Anubis, he used to smite the heads of the devotees of Isis with the face of the statue. He struck with his club, while clad in a woman's garment or a lion's skin,77 not lions only, but many men as well. Certain men who were lame in their feet and others who could not walk, he dressed up as giants, encasing their legs from the knee down in wrappings and bandages to make them look like serpents,78 and then despatched them with his arrows. He desecrated the rites of Mithra79 with actual murder, although it was customary in them merely to say or pretend something that would produce an impression of terror.
Legamen ad paginam Latinam 10 1 Even as a child he was gluttonous and lewd. 80 While a youth, he disgraced every class of men in his company and was disgraced in turn by them. 2 Whosoever ridiculed him he cast to the wild beasts. And one man, who had merely read the book by Tranquillus81 containing the life of Caligula, he ordered cast to the wild beasts, because Caligula and he had the same birthday. 82 3 And if any one, indeed, expressed a desire to die, he had him hurried to death, however really reluctant.
In his humorous moments, too, he was destructive. 4 For example, he put a starling on the head of one p291 man who, as he noticed, had a few white hairs, resembling worms, among the black, and caused his head to fester through the continual pecking of the bird's beak — the bird, of course, imagining that it was pursuing worms. 5 One corpulent person he cut open down the middle of his belly, so that his intestines gushed forth. 6 Other men he dubbed one-eyed or one-footed, after he himself had plucked out one of their eyes or cut off one of their feet. 7 In addition to all this, he murdered many others in many places, some because they came of his presence in the costume of barbarians, others because they were noble and handsome. 8 He kept among his minions certain men named after the private parts of both sexes, and on these he liked to bestow kisses. 9 He also had in his company a man with a male member larger than that of most animals, whom he called Onos. 83 This man he treated with great affection, and even made him rich and appointed him to the priesthood of the Rural Hercules. 84 Legamen ad paginam Latinam 11 1 It is claimed that he often mixed human excrement with the most expensive foods, and he did not refrain from tasting them, mocking the rest of the company, as he thought. 2 He displayed two misshapen hunchbacks on a silver platter after smearing them with mustard, and then straightway advanced and enriched them. 3 He pushed into a swimming-pool his praetor prefect Julianus,85 although he was clad in his toga and accompanied by his staff; and he even ordered this same Julianus to dance naked before his concubines, clashing cymbals and making grimaces. 4 The various kinds of cooked vegetables he rarely admitted to his banquets, his purpose being to preserve unbroken the succession of dainties. 5 He used to bathe seven and p293 eight times a day, and was in the habit of eating while in the baths. 6 He would enter the temples of the gods defiled with adulteries and human blood. 7 He even aped a surgeon, going so far as to bleed men to death with scalpels. 86
8 Certain months were renamed in his honour by his flatterers; for August they substituted Commodus, for September Hercules, for October Invictus, for November Exsuperatorius, and for December Amazonius, after his own surname. 87 9 He had been called Amazonius, moreover, because of his passion for his concubine Marcia,88 whom he loved to have portrayed as an Amazon, and for whose sake he even wished to enter the arena of Rome dressed as an Amazon.
10 He engaged in gladiatorial combats,89 and accepted the names usually given to gladiators90 with as much pleasure as if he had been granted triumphal decorations. 11 He regularly took part in the spectacles, and as often as he did so, ordered the fact to be inscribed in the public records. 91 12 It is said that he engaged in gladiatorial bouts seven hundred and thirty-five times. 92
13 He received the name of Caesar on the fourth day before the Ides of the month usually called October, which he later named Hercules,93 in the consulship of Pudens and Pollio. 94 14 He was called Germanicus95 on the Ides of "Hercules" in the consulship of Maximus p295 and Orfitus. Legamen ad paginam Latinam 12 1 He was received into all the sacred colleges as a priest on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of "Invictus," in the consulship of Piso and Julianus. 2 He set out for Germany on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of the month which he later named Aelius, 3 and assumed the toga in the same year. 4 Together with his father he was acclaimed Imperator on the fifth day before the Kalends of "Exsuperatorius," in the year when Pollio and Aper served their second consulships, 5 and he celebrated a triumph on the tenth day before the Kalends of January in this same year. 6 He set out on his second expedition on the third day before the Nones of "Commodus" in the consulship of Orfitus and Rufus. 7 He was officially presented by the army and the senate to be maintained in perpetuity in the Palatine mansion,96 henceforth called Commodiana,97 on the eleventh day before the Kalends of "Romanus," in the year that Praesens was consul for the second time. 8 When he laid plans for a third expedition, he was persuaded by the senate and people to give it up. 9 Vows98 were assumed in his behalf on the Nones of "Pius," when Fuscianus was consul for the second time. 10 Besides these facts, it is related in records that he fought 365 gladiatorial combats in his father's reign. 11 Afterwards, by vanquishing or slaying retiarii,99 he won enough gladiatorial crowns to bring the number up to a thousand. 100 12 He also killed with his own hand thousands of wild beasts of all kinds, even elephants. And he frequently did these things before the eyes of the Roman people. 101
Legamen ad paginam Latinam 13 1 But, though vigorous enough for such exploits, he was otherwise weak and diseased; indeed, p297 he had such a conspicuous growth on his groin that the people of Rome could see the swelling through his silken robes. 2 Many verses were written alluding to this deformity; and Marius Maximus prides himself on preserving these in his biography of Commodus. 3 Such was his prowess in the slaying of wild beasts, that he once transfixed an elephant with a pole, pierced a gazelle's horn with a spear, and on a thousand occasions dispatched a mighty beast with a single blow. 4 Such was his complete indifference to propriety, that time and again he sat in the theatre or amphitheatre dressed in a woman's garments and drank quite publicly.
5 The Moors102 and the Dacians103 were conquered during his reign, and peace was established in the Pannonias,104 but all by his legates, since such was the manner of his life. The provincials in Britain,105 Dacia, and Germany106 attempted to cast off his yoke, 6 but all these attempts were put down by his generals. 7 Commodus himself was so lazy and careless in signing documents that he answered many petitions with the same formula, while in very many letters he merely wrote the word "Farewell". 8 All official business was carried on by others, who, it is said, even used condemnations to swell their purses. Legamen ad paginam Latinam 14 1 And because he was so careless, moreover, a great famine arose in p299 Rome, not because there was any real shortage of crops, but merely because those who then ruled the state were plundering the food supply. 107 2 As for those who plundered on every hand, Commodus afterwards put them to death and confiscated their property; 3 but for the time he pretended that a golden age had come,108 "Commodian" by name, and ordered a general reduction of prices, the result of which was an even greater scarcity.
4 In his reign many a man secured punishment for another or immunity for himself by bribery. 5 Indeed, in return for money Commodus would grant a change of punishment, the right of burial, the alleviation of wrongs, and the substitution of another for one condemned to be put to death. 6 He sold provinces and administrative posts, part of the proceeds accruing to those through whom he made the sale and part to Commodus himself. 7 To some he sold even the lives of their enemies. Under him the imperial freedmen sold even the results of law-suits. 8 He did not long put up with Paternus and Perennis as prefects;109 indeed, not one of the prefects whom he himself had appointed remained in office as long as three years. 110 Most of them he killed, some with poison, some with the sword. Legamen ad paginam Latinam 15 1 Prefects of the city he changed with equal readiness. He executed his chamberlains with no compunctions whatever, even though all that he had done had been at their bidding. 2 One of these chamberlains, however, Eclectus by name,111 forestalled him when he saw how ready Commodus was to put the chamberlains to death, and took part in a conspiracy to kill him. 112
3 At gladiatorial shows he would come to watch and stay to fight, covering his bare shoulders with a purple p301 cloth. 4 And it was his custom, moreover, to order the insertion in the city-gazette113 of everything he did that was base or foul or cruel, or typical of a gladiator114 or a procurer — at least, the writings of Marius Maximus so testify. 5 He entitled the Roman people the "People of Commodus,"115 since he had very often fought as a gladiator in their presence. 116 6 And although the people regularly applauded him in his frequent combats as though he were a god, he became convinced that he was being laughed at, and gave orders that the Roman people should be slain in the Amphitheatre by the marines who spread the awnings. 7 He gave an order, also, for the burning of the city,117 as though it were his private colony, and this order would have been executed had not Laetus,118 the prefect of the guard, deterred him. 8 Among other triumphal titles, he was also given the name "Captain of the Secutores"119 six hundred and twenty times.
Legamen ad paginam Latinam 16 1 The prodigies that occurred in his reign, both those which concerned the state and those which affected Commodus personally, were as follows. A comet appeared. 2 Footprints of the gods were seen in the Forum departing from it. Before the war of the deserters120 the heavens were ablaze. On the Kalends p303 of January a swift coming mist and darkness arose in the Circus; and before dawn there had already been fire-birds121 and ill-boding portents. 3 Commodus himself moved his residence from the Palace to the Vectilian Villa122 on the Caelian hill, saying that he could not sleep in the Palace. 4 The twin gates of the temple of Janus123 opened of their own accord, and a marble image of Anubis124 was seen to move. 5 In the Minucian Portico125 a bronze statue of Hercules sweated for several days. An owl, moreover, was caught above his bed-chamber both at Lanuvium and at Rome. 6 He was himself responsible for no inconsiderable an omen relating to himself; for after he had plunged his hand into the wound of a slain gladiator he wiped it on his own head, and again, contrary to custom, he ordered the spectators to attend his gladiatorial shows clad not in togas but in cloaks, a practice usual at funerals,126 while he himself presided in the vestments of a mourner. 7 Twice, moreover, his helmet was borne through the Gate of Libitina. 127
8 He gave largess to the people, 725 denarii to each man. 128 Toward all others he was close-fisted to a degree, since the expense of his luxurious living had drained the treasury. 9 He held many races in the Circus,129 but rather as the result of a whim than as p305 an act of religion, and also in order to enrich the leaders of the factions. 130
Legamen ad paginam Latinam 17 1 Because of these things — but all too late — Quintus Aemilius Laetus, prefect of the guard, and Marcia, his concubine, were roused to action and entered into a conspiracy against his life. 2 First they gave him poison; and when this proved ineffective they had him strangled by the athlete with whom he was accustomed to exercise. 131
3 Physically he was very well proportioned. His expression was dull, as is usual in drunkards, and his speech uncultivated. His hair was always dyed and made lustrous by the use of gold dust, and he used to singe his hair and beard because he was afraid of barbers.
4 The people and senate demanded that his body be dragged with the hook and cast into the Tiber;132 later, however, at the bidding of Pertinax, it was borne to the Mausoleum of Hadrian. 133
5 No public works of his are in existence, except the bath which Cleander built in his name. 134 6 But he inscribed his name on the works of others; this the senate erased. 135 7 Indeed, he did not even finish the public works of his father. He did organize an African fleet, which would have been useful, in case the grain-supply from Alexandria were delayed. 136 8 He jestingly named Carthage Alexandria Commodiana Togata, after entitling the African fleet Commodiana Herculea. 137 9 He made certain additions p307 to the Colossus by way of ornamentation, all of which were later taken off, 10 and he also removed its head, which was a likeness of Nero, and replaced it by a likeness of himself, writing on the pedestal an inscription in his usual style, not omitting the titles Gladiatorius and Effeminatus. 138 11 And yet Severus, a stern emperor and a man whose character was well in keeping with his name, moved by hatred for the senate — or so it seems — exalted this creature to a place among the gods139 and granted him also a flamen, the "Herculaneus Commodianus," whom Commodus while still alive had planned to have for himself.
12 Three sisters140 survived him. Severus instituted the observance of his birthday.
Legamen ad paginam Latinam 18 1 Loud were the acclamations of the senate after the death of Commodus. 2 And that the senate's opinion of him may be known, I have quoted from Marius Maximus the acclamations themselves,141 and the content of the senate's decree:
3 "From him who was a foe of his fatherland let his honours be taken away; let the honours of the murderer be taken away; let the murderer be dragged in the dust. The foe of his fatherland, the murderer, the gladiator, in the charnel-house let him be mangled. 4 He is foe to the gods, slayer of the senate, foe to the gods, murderer of the senate, foe of the gods, foe of the gods, foe of the senate. 5 Cast the gladiator into the charnel-house. He who slew the senate, let him be dragged with the hook; he who slew the guiltless, let p309 him be dragged with the hook — a foe, a murderer, verily, verily. 6 He who spared not his own blood, let him be dragged with the hook; 7 he who would have slain you,142 let him be dragged with the hook. You were in terror along with us, you were endangered along with us. That we may be safe, O Jupiter Best and Greatest, save for us Pertinax. 143 8 Long life to the guardian care of the praetorians! Long life to the praetorian cohorts! Long life to the armies of Rome! Long life to the loyalty of the senate!
9 Let the murderer beº dragged in the dust. 10 We beseech you, O Sire, let the murderer be dragged in the dust. This we beseech you, let the murderer be dragged in the dust. Hearken, Caesar: to the lions with the informers! Hearken Caesar: to the lions with Speratus! 144 11 Long life to the victory of the Roman people! Long life to the soldiers' guardian care! Long life to the guardian care of the praetorians! Long life to the praetorian cohorts!
12 On all sides are statues of the foe, on all side are statues of the murderer, on all sides are statues of the gladiator. The statues of the murderer and gladiator, let them be cast down. 13 The slayer of citizens, let him be dragged in the dust. The murderer of citizens, let him be dragged in the dust. Let the statues of the gladiator be overthrown. 14 While you are safe, we too are safe and untroubled, verily, verily, if in very truth, then with honour, if in very truth, then with freedom.
15 Now at last we are secure; let informers tremble. That we may be secure, let the informers tremble. That we may be safe, cast informers out of the senate, the club for informers! While you are safe, to the lions with informers! 16 While you are ruler, the club for informers!
p311 19 1 Legamen ad paginam Latinam Let the memory of the murderer and the gladiator be utterly wiped away. Let the statues of the murderer and the gladiator be overthrown. Let the memory of the foul gladiator be utterly wiped away. Cast the gladiator into the charnel-house. 2 Hearken, Caesar: let the slayer be dragged with the hook. In the manner of our fathers let the slayer of the senate be dragged with the hook. More savage than Domitian, more foul than Nero. As he did unto others, let it be done unto him. Let the remembrance of the guiltless be preserved. Restore the honours of the guiltless, we beseech you. Let the body of the murderer be dragged with the hook, 3 let the body of the gladiator be dragged with the hook, let the body of the gladiator be cast into the charnel-house. Call for our vote, call for our vote: with one accord we reply, let him be dragged with the hook. 4 He who slew all men, let him be dragged with the hook. He who slew young and old, let him be dragged with the hook. He who slew man and woman, let him be dragged with the hook. He who spared not his own blood, let him be dragged with the hook. 5 He who plundered temples, let him be dragged with the hook. He who set aside the testaments of the dead, let him be dragged with the hook. He who plundered the living, let him be dragged with the hook. We have been slaves to slaves. 6 He who demanded a price for the life of a man, let him be dragged with the hook. He who demanded a price for a life and kept not his promise, let him be dragged with the hook. He who sold the senate, let him be dragged with the hook. He who took from sons their patrimony, let him be dragged with the hook.
7 Spies and informers, cast them out of the senate. p313 Suborners of slaves, cast them out of the senate. You, too, were in terror along with us; you know all, you know both the good and the evil. 8 You know all that we were forced to purchase; all we have feared for your sake. Happy are we, now that you are the emperor in truth. Put it to the vote concerning the murderer, put it to the vote, put the question. We ask your presence. 9 The guiltless are yet unburied; let the body of the murderer be dragged in the dust. The murderer dug up the buried; let the body of the murderer be dragged in the dust. "
Legamen ad paginam Latinam 20 1 The body of Commodus was buried during the night, after Livius Laurensis,145 the steward of the imperial estate,146 had surrendered it at the bidding of Pertinax147 to Fabius Cilo,148 the consul elect. 2 At this the senate cried out: 3 "With whose authority have they buried him? The buried murderer, let him be dug up, let him be dragged in the dust. " Cincius Severus149 said: "Wrongfully has he been buried. And I speak as pontifex, so speaks the college of the pontifices. 4 And now, having recounted what is joyful, I shall proceed to what is needful: I give it as my opinion that the statues should be overthrown which this man, who lived but for the destruction of his fellow-citizens and for his own shame, forced us to decree in his honour; 5 wherever they are, they should be cast down. His name, moreover, should be erased from all public and private records,150 and the months151 should be once more called by the names whereby they were called when this scourge first fell upon the state. "
The Life of Pertinax
1 1 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] Publius Helvius Pertinax was the son of a freedman, Helvius Successus by name, who confessed that he gave this name to his son because of his own long-standing connection with the timber-trade, for had conducted that business with pertinacity. 2 Pertinax himself was born in the Apennines1 on an estate which belonged to his mother. The hour he was born a black horse climbed to the roof, and after remaining there for a short time, fell to the ground and died. 3 Disturbed by this occurrence, his father went to a Chaldean, and he prophesied future greatness for the boy, saying that he himself had lost his child. 2 4 As a boy, Pertinax was educated in the rudiments of literature and in arithmetic and was also put under the care of a Greek teacher of grammar and, later, of Sulpicius Apollinaris;3 after receiving instruction from this man, Pertinax himself took up the teaching of grammar.
5 But when he found little profit in this profession, with the aid of Lollianus Avitus, a former consul4 and his father's patron, he sought an appointment to a command in the ranks. 5 6 Soon afterwards, in the p317 reign of Titus Aurelius,6 he set out for Syria as prefect of a cohort,7 and there, because he had used the imperial post without official letters of recommendation, he was forced by the governor of Syria to make his way from Antioch to his station on foot. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 2 1 Winning promotiona because of the energy he showed in the Parthian war,8 he was transferred to Britain9 and there retained. 2 Later he led a squadron10 in Moesia, and after that he supervised the distribution of grants to the poor on the Aemilian Way. 11 3 Next, he commanded the German fleet. 12 His mother followed him all the way to Germany, and there she died, and her tomb is said to be still standing there. 4 From this command he was transferred to Dacia13 at a salary of two hundred thousand sesterces, but through the machinations of certain persons he came to be distrusted by Marcus and was removed from this post; afterwards, however, through the influence of Claudius Pompeianus, the son-in‑law of Marcus,14 he was detailed to the command of detachments on the plea that he would become Pompeianus' aide. 15 5 Meeting with approval in this position, he was enrolled in the senate. 6 Later, when he had won success in war for the second time, the plot which had been made against him was revealed, and Marcus, in order to remedy the wrong he had done him, raised p319 him to the rank of praetor16 and put him in command of the First Legion.
17 Whereupon Pertinax straightway rescued Raetia and Noricum from the enemy. 18 7 Because of his conspicuous prowess in this campaign he was appointed, on the recommendation of Marcus, to the consulship. 8 Marcus' speech has been preserved in the works of Marius Maximus; it contains a eulogy of him and relates, moreover, everything that he did and suffered. 9 And besides this speech, which it would take too much space to incorporate in this work, Marcus praised Pertinax frequently, both in the assemblies of soldiers and in the senate, and publicly expressed regret that he was a senator and therefore could not be made prefect of the guard. 10 After Cassius' revolt had been suppressed, Pertinax set out from Syria19 to protect the bank of the Danube, 11 and presently he was appointed to govern both the Moesias and, soon thereafter, Dacia. And by reason of his success in these provinces, he won the appointment to Syria.
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 3 1 Up to the time of his administration of Syria, Pertinax preserved his honesty, but after the death of Marcus he became desirous of wealth, and was in consequence assailed by popular gibes. 20 2 It was not until after he had governed four consular provinces and had become a rich man that he entered the Roman senate-chamber, which, during all his career as senator, he had never before seen, for during his term as consul he had been absent from Rome. 21 3 Immediately after this, he received orders from Perennis to retire to his father's farm in Liguria,22 where his father had kept a cloth-maker's p321 shop. 4 On coming to Liguria, however, he bought up a great number of farms, and added countless buildings to his father's shop, which he still kept in its original form; and there he stayed for three years carrying on the business through his slaves.
5 After Perennis had been put to death, Commodus made amends to Pertinax, and in a letter asked him to set out for Britain. 23 6 After his arrival there he kept the soldiers from any revolt, for they wished to set up some other man as emperor, preferably Pertinax himself. 7 And now Pertinax acquired an evil character for enviousness, for he was said to have laid before Commodus the charge that Antistius Burrus and Arrius Antoninus were aspiring to the throne. 24 8 And certainly he did suppress a mutiny against himself in Britain, but in so doing he came into great danger; for in a mutiny of a legion he was almost killed, and indeed was left among the slain. 9 This mutiny Pertinax punished very severely. 10 Later on, however, he petitioned to be excused from his governorship, saying that the legions were hostile to him because he had been strict in his discipline. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 4 1 After he had been relieved of his post, he was put in charge of the grants to the poor. 25 Next he was made proconsul of Africa. 2 During this proconsulship, it is said, he suppressed many rebellions by the aid of prophetic verses which issued from the temple of Caelestis. 26 Next he was made prefect of the city, 3 and in this office, as successor to Fuscianus,27 a very stern man, Pertinax p323 was exceedingly gentle and considerate, and he proved very pleasing to Commodus himself, for he was . . . 28 when Pertinax was made consul for the second time. 4 And while in this position, Pertinax did not avoid complicity in the murder of Commodus, when a share in this plot was offered him by the other conspirators.
5 After Commodus was slain,29 Laetus, the prefect of the guard, and Eclectus, the chamberlain, came to Pertinax and reassured him, and then led him to the camp. 6 There he harangued the soldiers, promised a donative,30 and said that the imperial power had been thrust upon him by Laetus and Eclectus. 7 It was pretended, moreover, that Commodus had died a natural death, chiefly because the soldiers feared that their loyalty was merely being tested. 8 Finally, and at first by only a few, Pertinax was hailed as emperor. 31 He was made emperor on the day before the Kalends of January, being then more than sixty years old. 32 9 During the night he came from the camp to the senate, but, when he ordered the opening of the hall of the senate-house and the attendant could not be found, he seated himself in the Temple of Concord. 33 10 And when Claudius Pompeianus, Marcus' son-in‑law, came to him and bemoaned the death of Commodus, Pertinax urged him to take the throne; Claudius, however, seeing that Pertinax was already invested with the imperial power, refused. 11 Without further delay, therefore, all the magistrates, in company with the consul, came to the senate-house, and Pertinax, who had come in by night, was saluted as emperor.
p325 5 1 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] Pertinax, on his part, after his own praises had been recited by the consuls and Commodus had been execrated in the outcries of the senate,34 returned thanks to the senate in general, and in particular to Laetus, the prefect of the guard, through whose instrumentality Commodus had been slain and he himself declared emperor.
2 When Pertinax had returned thanks to Laetus, however, Falco, the consul, said: "We may know what sort of an emperor you will be from this, that we see behind you Laetus and Marcia, the instruments of Commodus' crimes". 3 To him Pertinax replied: "You are young, Consul, and do not know the necessity of obedience. They obeyed Commodus, but against their will, and as soon as they had an opportunity, they showed what had always been their desire. " 4 On the same day that he was entitled Augustus, at the very hour at which he was paying his vows on the Capitolium, Flavia Titiana, his wife, was also given the name of Augusta. 35 5 Of all the emperors he was the first to receive the title of Father of his Country on the day when he was named Augustus. 36 6 And at the same time he received the proconsular power and the right of making four proposals to the senate37 — a combination which Pertinax regarded as an omen.
7 And so Pertinax repaired to the Palace, which was vacant at that time, for Commodus had been slain in the Vectilian Villa. 38 And on the first day of his reign, when the tribune asked for the watchword, he gave "let us be soldiers," as if reproving the former reign for its inactivity. As a matter of fact, he had really used this same watchword before in all his p327 commands. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 6 1 But the soldiers would not tolerate a reproof and straightway began making plans for changing the emperor. 2 On this same day also he invited the magistrates and the chief men of the senate to a banquet, a practice which Commodus had discontinued. 3 But, indeed, on the day after the Kalends of January, when the statues of Commodus were overthrown,39 the soldiers groaned aloud, for he gave this same watchword for the second time, and besides they dreaded service under an emperor advanced in years. 4 Finally on the third of the month, just as the vows were being assumed, the soldiers tried to lead Triarius Maternus Lascivius, a senator of distinction, to the camp, in order to invest him with the sovereignty of the Roman Empire. 5 He, however, fled from them quite naked and came to Pertinax in the Palace and presently departed from the city.
6 Induced by fear, Pertinax ratified all the concessions which Commodus had made to the soldiers and veterans. 7 He declared, also, that he had received from the senate the sovereignty which, in fact, he had already assumed on his own responsibility. 40 8 He abolished trials for treason absolutely and bound himself thereto by an oath, he recalled those who had been exiled on the charge of treason, and he re-established the good name of those who had been slain. 41 9 The senate granted his son the name of Caesar, but Pertinax not only refused to allow the name Augusta to be conferred on his wife but also, in the case of his son, said: "Only when he earns it". 42 10 And since Commodus had obscured the significance of the praetorian rank43 by countless appointments thereto, Pertinax, after securing the passage of a decree of the senate, issued an order that those who p329 had secured the rank of praetor not by actual service, but by appointment, should be ranked below those who had been praetors in reality. 11 But by this act also he brought on himself the bitter enmity of many men. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 7 1 He gave orders for the taking of a new census. He gave orders, too, that men convicted of lodging false accusations should be punished with severity, exercising, nevertheless, greater moderation than former emperors, and at the same time ordaining a separate punishment for each rank in case any of its members should be convicted for this offence. 2 He enacted a law, moreover, that an old will should not become invalid before the new one was formally completed, fearing that some time the privy-purse might in this way succeed to an inheritance. 44 3 He declared that for his own part he would accept no legacy which came to him either through flattery or by reason of legal entanglements if thereby the rightful heirs and the near of kin should be robbed of their rights, and when the decree of the senate was passed, he added these words: 4 "It is better, O Conscript Fathers, to rule a state that is impoverished, than to attain to a great mass of wealth by paths of peril and dishonour". 5 He paid the donatives and largesses which Commodus had promised,45 6 and provided with the greatest care for the grain-supply. And when the treasury was drained to such a degree that he was unable to put his hands on more than a million sesterces,46 as he himself admitted, he was forced, in violation of a previous promise, to exact certain revenues which Commodus had remitted. 7 And finally, when Lollianus Gentianus,47 a man of consular rank, brought him to task for breaking his promise, he excused himself on the ground that it was a case of necessity.
p331 8 He held a sale of Commodus' belongings, even ordering the sale of all his youths and concubines, except those who had apparently been brought to the Palace by force. 48 9 Of those whom he ordered sold, however, many were soon brought back to his service and ministered to the pleasures of the old man, and under other emperors they even attained to the rank of senator. 10 Certain buffoons, also, who bore the shame of unmentionable names,49 he put up at auction and sold. 11 The moneys gained in this trafficking, which were immense, he used for a donative to the soldiers. 50 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 8 1 He also demanded from Commodus' freedmen the sums wherewith they had been enriched when Commodus held his sales. 51 2 In the sale of Commodus' goods the following articles were especially noteworthy: robes of silk foundation with gold embroidery of remarkable workmanship; tunics, mantles and coats; tunics made with long sleeves in the manner of the Dalmatians52 and fringed military cloaks; purple cloaks made for service in the camp. 3 Also Bardaean hooded cloaks,53 and a gladiator's toga and harness finished in gold and jewels; 4 also swords, such as those with which Hercules is represented, and the necklaces worn by gladiators, and vessels, some of pottery, some of gold, some of ivory, some of silver, and some of citrus wood. 5 Also cups in the shape of the phallus, made of these same materials; and Samnite pots for heating the resin and pitch used for depilating men and making their skins smooth. 6 And furthermore, carriages, the very latest masterpieces of the art, made with entwined and carven p333 wheels and carefully planned seats that could be turned so as to avoid the sun at one moment, at another, face the breeze. 7 There were other carriages that measured the road,b and showed the time; and still others designed for the indulgence of his vices.
8 Pertinax restored to their masters, moreover, all slaves who had come from private homes to the Palace. 9 He reduced the imperial banquets from something absolutely unlimited to a fixed standard,54 and, indeed, cut down all expenses from what they had been under Commodus. 10 And from the example set by the emperor, who lived rather simply, there resulted a general economy and a consequent reduction in the cost of living; 11 for by eliminating the unessentials he reduced the upkeep of the court to half the usual amount. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 9 1 He established rewards for the soldiers, paid the debt which he had contracted at the beginning of his reign, and restored the treasury to its normal condition. 2 He set aside a fixed sum for public buildings, furnished funds for repairing the highways, and paid the arrears in the salaries of very many men. Finally, he made the privy-purse capable of sustaining all the demands made upon it, 3 and with rigorous honesty he even assumed the responsibility for nine years' arrears of money for the poor55 which was owed through a statute of Trajan's.
4 Before he was made emperor he was not free from the suspicion of greed,56 for he had extended his own holdings at Vada Sabatia57 by foreclosing mortgages; 5 indeed, in a line quoted from Lucilius58 he was called a land-shark. 59 6 Many men, moreover, have set down p335 in writing that in those provinces which he ruled as proconsul he conducted himself in a grasping manner; for he sold, they say, both exemptions from service and military appointments. 7 And lastly, although his father's estate was very small, and no legacy was left him, he suddenly became rich.
8 As a matter of fact, however, he restored to everyone the property of which Commodus had despoiled him, but not without compensation. 9 He always attended the stated meetings of the senate and always made some proposal. To those who came to greet him or who accosted him he was always courteous. 10 He absolved a number of men whose slaves had assailed them with false charges, and punished severely those who brought the accusation, crucifying all such slaves; and he also rehabilitated the memory of some who had died.
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 10 1 A plot was attempted against him60 by Falco the consul, who, being eager to rule, made complaint in the senate. 2 He, in fact, was believed by the senate, when a certain slave, on the ground that he was the son of Fabia and . . . 61 of the household of Ceionius Commodus, laid a baseless claim to the residence on the Palatine and, on being recognised, was sentenced to be soundly flogged and returned to his master. 3 In the punishment of this man those who hated Pertinax are said to have found an opportunity for an outbreak. 4 Nevertheless, Pertinax spared Falco, and furthermore asked the senate to pardon him. 62 5 In the end Falco lived out his life in security p337 and in possession of his property, and at his death, his son succeeded to the inheritance. 6 Many men, however, claimed that Falco was unaware that men were planning to make him emperor, 7 and others said that slaves who had falsified his accounts assailed him with trumped-up charges.
8 However, a conspiracy63 was organized against Pertinax by Laetus, the prefect of the guard, and sundry others who were displeased by his integrity. 9 Laetus regretted that he had made Pertinax emperor, because Pertinax used to rebuke him as a stupid babbler of various secrets. 10 It seemed to the soldiers, moreover, a very cruel measure, that in the matter of Falco he had had many of their comrades put to death on the testimony of a single slave. 64 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 11 1 And so three hundred soldiers,65 formed into a wedge, marched under arms from the camp to the imperial residence. 2 On that day, it was said, no heart had been found in the victim when Pertinax performed a sacrifice, and when he tried to avert this evil omen, he was unable to discover the upper portion of the liver. And so on that day the great body of the soldiers remained in the camp. 3 Some, indeed, had come forth from the camp in order to act as escort to the emperor, but Pertinax, because of the unfavourable sacrifice, postponed for that day a projected visit to the Athenaeum,66 where he had planned to hear a poet, and thereupon the escort began to return to the camp. 4 But just at that moment the band of troops mentioned above arrived at the Palace, and neither could they be prevented from entering nor could their entrance be announced to the Emperor. p339 5 In fact, the palace-attendants67 hated Pertinax with so bitter a hatred that they even urged on the soldiers to do the deed. 6 The troops arrived just as Pertinax was inspecting the court-slaves, and, passing through the portico of the Palace, they advanced as far as the spot called Sicilia and the Banqueting-Hall of Jupiter. 7 As soon as he learned of their approach, Pertinax sent Laetus, the prefect of the guard, to meet them; but he, avoiding the soldiers, passed out through the portico and betook himself home with his face hidden from sight. 8 After they had burst into the inner portion of the Palace, however, Pertinax advanced to meet them and sought to appease them with a long and serious speech. 9 In spite of this, one Tausius, a Tungrian, after haranguing the soldiers into a state of fury and fear, hurled his spear at Pertinax' breast. 10 And he, after a prayer to Jupiter the Avenger, veiled his head with his toga and was stabbed by the rest. 11 Eclectus also, after stabbing two of his assailants, died with him, and the other court-chamberlains 12 (his own chamberlains, as soon as he had been made emperor, Pertinax had given to his emancipated children)68 fled away in all directions. 13 Many, it is true, say that the soldiers even burst into his bedroom, and there, standing about his bed, slew him as he tried to flee.
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 12 1 He was a stately old man, with a long beard and hair brushed back. His figure was somewhat corpulent, with somewhat prominent abdomen, but his bearing was regal. He was a man of mediocre ability in speaking, and suave rather than kindly, nor was he ever considered ingenuous. 2 Though friendly p341 enough in speech, when it came to deeds, he was ungenerous and almost mean — so mean, in fact, that before he was made emperor he used to serve at his banquets lettuce and the edible thistle in half portions. 3 And unless someone made him a present of food, he would serve nine pounds of meat in three courses, no matter how many friends were present; 4 if anyone presented him with an additional amount, moreover, he would put off using it until the next day, and would then invite a great number of guests. 5 Even after he had become emperor, if he had no guests he would dine in the same style. 69 6 And whenever he in turn wished to send his friends something from his table, he would send a few scraps or a piece of tripe, or occasionally the legs of a fowl. But he never ate pheasants70 at his own banquets or sent them to others. 7 And when he dined without guests, he would invite his wife and Valerianus, who had been a teacher together with him,71 in order that he might have literary conversation.
8 He removed none of those whom Commodus had put in charge of affairs, preferring to wait until the anniversary of the founding of the city,72 which he wished to make the official beginning of his reign; and thus it came about, it is said, that the servants of Commodus plotted to slay him in his bath. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 13 1 The imperial power and all the appurtenances thereof he abhorred,73 and he always made it quite evident that they were distasteful to him. In short, he did not wish to seem other than he really was. 2 In the senate-house he was most punctilious,74 doing reverence to the senate when it expressed its good will and conversing p343 with all the senators as though still prefect of the city. 3 He even wished to resign the throne and retire to private life, 4 and was unwilling to have his children reared in the Palace. 75
On the other hand, he was so stingy and eager for money that even after he became emperor he carried on a business at Vada Sabatia76 through agents, just as he had done as a private citizen. 5 And despite his efforts, he was not greatly beloved; certainly, all who talked freely together spoke ill of Pertinax, calling him the smooth-tongued,77 that is, a man who speaks affably and acts meanly. 6 In truth, his fellow-townsmen, who had flocked to him after his accession, and had obtained nothing from him, gave him this name. In his lust for gain, he accepted presents with eagerness.
7 He was survived by a son and a daughter,78 and by his wife,79 the daughter of the Flavius Sulpicianus80 whom he made prefect of the city in his own place. 8 He was not in the least concerned about his wife's fidelity, even though she carried on an amour quite openly with a man who sang to the lyre. He himself, it is said, caused great scandal by an amour with Cornificia. 81 9 The freedmen attached to the court he kept within bounds with a strong hand, and in this way also he brought upon himself a bitter hatred. 82
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 14 1 The warnings of his death were these: three days before he was killed he himself, on looking into a pool, seemed to behold a man attacking him with a sword. 2 And on the day he was killed, they say, the pupils of his eyes, as well as the little pictures p345 which they reflect, were invisible to those who looked into them. 3 And when he was performing sacrifices to the Lares the living coals died out, though they are wont to flame up. Furthermore, as we related above,83 the heart and upper portion of the liver could not be found in the victims. And on the day before he died, stars of great brilliancy were seen near the sun in the day-time. 4 He was responsible himself, it is said, for an omen about his successor, Julianus. For when Didius Julianus presented a nephew of his, to whom he was betrothing his daughter, the Emperor exhorted the young man to show deference to his uncle, and added: "Honour my colleague and successor. "84 5 For Julianus had previously been his colleague in the consulship and had succeeded him in his proconsular command. 85
6 The soldiers and court-retainers regarded him with hatred,86 but the people felt great indignation at his death, since it had seemed that all the ancient customs might be restored through his efforts. 7 His head, fixed on a pole, was carried through the city to the camp by the soldiers who killed him. 8 His remains, including his head, which was recovered, were laid in the tomb of his wife's grandfather. 9 And Julianus, his successor, buried his body with all honour, after he had found it in the Palace. 10 At no time, however, did he make any public mention of Pertinax either before the people or in the presence of the senate, but when he, too, was deserted by the soldiers Pertinax was raised to the rank of the gods by the senate and the people. 87 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 15 1 In the reign of Severus, moreover, after Pertinax had received the full official approval p347 of the senate, an honorary funeral, of the kind that would be accorded to a censor, was held for him,88 and Severus himself honoured him with a funeral eulogy. 2 Severus, furthermore, out of respect for so good a ruler, accepted from the senate the name Pertinax. 89 3 Pertinax' son was made his father's priest, 4 and the Marcian brotherhood,90 who performed sacrifices to the Deified Marcus, were called Helviani in honour of Helvius Pertinax. 5 There were added, also, circus-games and a celebration to commemorate the anniversary of his accession, but these were afterwards abolished by Severus. The birthday-games decreed for him, however, are still observed. 91
6 He was born on the Kalends of August in the consulship of Verus and Ambibulus, and was killed on the fifth day before the Kalends of April in the consulship of Falco and Clarus. He lived sixty years,92 seven months and twenty-six days, 7 and reigned for two months and twenty-five days. He gave the people a largess of one hundred denarii apiece,93 and promised twelve thousand sesterces to each soldier of the guard, though he gave only six thousand. 94 The sum promised to the armies he did not give for the reason that death forestalled him. 8 A letter which Marius Maximus included in his life of Pertinax shows that he shrank from taking the imperial power,95 but this letter, on account of its great length, I have not thought best to insert.
The Life of Didius Julianus
1 1 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] Didius Julianus, who gained possession of the empire after Pertinax, was the great-grandson of Salvius Julianus,1 a man who was twice consul, prefect of the city, and an authority in jurisprudence — which, more than anything else, had made him famous. 2 His mother was Aemilia Clara, his father Petronius Didius Severus, his brothers Didius Proculus and Nummius Albinus; another Salvius Julianus was his uncle. His father's father was an Insubrian from Milan, his mother's came from the colony of Hadrumetum.
3 He himself was reared at the home of Domitia Lucilla,2 the mother of the Emperor Marcus, 4 and through the support of this lady he was elected to the Board of Twenty. 3 He was appointed quaestor a year before he reached the legal age,4 5 and through the support of Marcus he attained to the office of aedile. Again with the support of Marcus he became praetor. 5 6 After his praetorship he commanded the Twenty-second Legion,6 the Primigenia, in Germany, 7 and following that he ruled Belgium7 long and well. Here, with auxiliaries hastily levied from the provinces, he held out against the Chauci (a people of Germany who dwelt on the river Elbe) as they attempted to burst through the border; 8 and for these services, on the recommendation of the emperor, he was deemed worthy of the consulship. He also gained a crushing victory over the Chatti. 9 Next he took charge of Dalmatia and cleared it of the hostile tribes on its borders. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 2 1 Then he governed Lower Germany; and after that he was deemed worthy of superintending the distribution of grants of money to the poor in Italy. 8 In this position he was accused by one Severus Clarissimus, a soldier, of being an associate of Salvius9 in his conspiracy against Commodus. But Commodus had already put many senators and many distinguished and powerful men to death on the charge of treason, and so he was afraid of acting too harshly and therefore pardoned Didius and executed his accuser. 2 Thus acquitted, Didius was sent again to govern a province. Then he governed Bithynia, but not as creditably as the other provinces.
3 His consulship he served with Pertinax; in the proconsulship of Africa,10 moreover, he succeeded him. Pertinax always spoke of him as his colleague and successor; on that day, in particular, when Julianus, after betrothing his daughter to a kinsman of his own, came to Pertinax and informed him of the fact, Pertinax said: ". . . and due respect, for he is my colleague and successor". 11 The death of Pertinax ensued immediately afterwards. 4 After his death, p353 when Sulpicianus12 was making plans to be hailed emperor in the camp, Julianus, together with his son-in‑law, came to the senate, which, he heard, had been summoned, but found the doors closed. 5 At the same time he discovered there two tribunes, Publius Florianus and Vectius Aper, who immediately began urging him to seize the throne; and though he pointed out to them that another man was already proclaimed emperor, they held him fast and conducted him to the praetor camp. 13 6 When they arrived at the camp, however, Sulpicianus, the prefect of the city and the father-in‑law of Pertinax, was holding an assembly and claiming the empire himself, and no one would let Julianus inside, despite the huge promises he made from outside the wall. Julianus then first warned the soldiers not to proclaim anyone emperor who would avenge Pertinax, and next wrote on placards that he would restore the good name14 of Commodus; 7 so he was admitted and proclaimed emperor, the soldiers at the same time requesting that he would not in any way injure Sulpicianus for aiming at the throne.
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 3 1 Immediately thereafter, on the recommendation of the praetorians themselves, Julianus appointed Flavius Genialis and Tullius Crispinus prefects of the guard, and through the efforts of Maurentius, who had previously declared for Sulpicianus, he was attended by the imperial body-guard. 2 Although he had promised five and twenty thousand sesterces to p355 each soldier, he gave thirty. 15 3 Then, after holding an assembly of the soldiers, he came in the evening to the senate,16 and entrusted himself to it without conditions; thereupon, by decree of the senate he was acclaimed emperor and, after being raised to a place among the patrician families,17 he received the tribunician power and the rights of a proconsul. 18 4 His wife Manlia Scantilla, moreover, and his daughter, Didia Clara, were given the name Augusta;19 5 and thereupon he betook himself to the Palace and thither summoned his wife and daughter, who came, though with considerable trepidation and reluctance as if they already foresaw impending doom. 20 6 Cornelius Repentinus, his son-in‑law, he made prefect of the city in place of Sulpicianus.
7 The people, meanwhile, detested Julianus because it had been their belief that the abuses of Commodus' regime were to be reformed by the influence of Pertinax, and he was considered to have been killed with Julianus' connivance. 8 And now, those who had begun to hate Julianus were the first to spread it abroad that on the very first day of his reign, to show his contempt for Pertinax' board, he had served an extravagant banquet embellished with such dainties as oysters and fatted birds and fish. This story, it is generally agreed, was false. 21 9 For according to report, Julianus was so frugal as to make p357 a suckling pig or hare last for three days, if anyone by chance presented him with one; and often, moreover, even when there was no religious reason therefor, he was contest to dine on cabbages and beans without meat. 22 10 Furthermore, he gave no banquet until after Pertinax was buried, and, because of his death, took what food he did in a very depressed state of mind, and passed the first night in continual wakefulness, disquieted by such a fate.
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 4 1 But when the day dawned, he admitted the senators and knights who came to the Palace, and greeted each very cordially, either as brother, or son, or father, according to his age. 2 The populace, however, at the Rostra and in front of the senate-house,23 assailed him with violent revilings, hoping that he might resign the sovereignty which the soldiers had given him; and they even launched a shower of stones. 3 As he came down to the senate-house with the soldiers and senate, they heaped curses upon him, and when he performed the sacrifices, wished that he might not obtain favourable omens; 4 they even hurled stones at him, though Julianus, with uplifted hand, continually sought to calm them. 5 When he entered the senate-house, he spoke calmly and discreetly, and returned thanks because he had been chosen, and because he, his wife, and his daughter, had been given the titles of Augustus and Augusta. He accepted also the name of Father of his Country, but refused a silver statue. 6 Then, as he proceeded from the senate-house to the Capitol, the populace placed themselves in his way, but by the sword, by wounds, and by promises of gold-pieces, the number of which p359 he himself, in order to inspire trust, kept showing to them on his fingers, they were dispersed and beaten back. 7 Thereupon, all went to the games at the Circus; but here, after everyone had seized seats indiscriminately,24 the populace redoubled their insults against Julianus and called for Pescennius Niger (who was said to have already declared himself emperor) to protect the city. 25 8 All this Julianus took with perfect equanimity; indeed all through the time he was on the throne he was exceedingly tolerant. The populace, however, kept inveighing with the utmost violence against the soldiers, who had slain Pertinax, so they said, for money. And so, in order to win favour with the people, Julianus restored many measures which Commodus had enacted and Pertinax had repealed. 9 Concerning Pertinax himself he took no steps either good or evil,26 a fact which to very many seemed a serious matter. 10 It is generally agreed, however, that it was his fear of the soldiers that caused him to keep silent about the honours due Pertinax.
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 5 1 As a matter of fact, however, Julianus had no fear of either the British27 or the Illyrian army; but being chiefly afraid of the Syrian army, he despatched a centurion of the first rank with orders to murder Niger.
p285 8 1 Legamen ad paginam Latinam Meanwhile, because he had appointed to the consulship a former lover of his mother's,64 the senate mockingly gave Commodus the name Pius;65 and after he had executed Perennis, he was given the name Felix,66 as though, amid the multitudinous executions of many citizens, he were a second Sulla. 2 And this same Commodus, who was called Pius, and who was called Felix, is said to have feigned a plot against his own life, in order that he might have an excuse for putting many to death. 3 Yet as a matter of fact, there were no rebellions save that of Alexander,67 who soon killed himself and his near of kin, and that of Commodus' sister Lucilla. 68 4 He was called Britannicus by those who desired to flatter him, whereas the Britons even wished to set up an emperor against him. 69 5 He was called also the Roman Hercules,70 on the ground that he had killed wild beasts in the amphitheatre at Lanuvium; and, indeed, it was his custom to kill wild beasts on his own estate. 6 He had, besides, an insane desire that the city of Rome should be renamed Colonia Commodiana. 71 This mad idea, it is said, was inspired in p287 him while listening to the blandishments of Marcia. 72 7 He had also a desire to drive chariots in the Circus, 8 and he went out in public clad in the Dalmatian tunic73 and thus clothed gave the signal for the charioteers to start. 9 And in truth, on the occasion when he laid before the senate his proposal to call Rome Commodiana, not only did the senate gleefully pass this resolution, but also took the name "Commodian" to itself, at the same time giving Commodus the name Hercules, and calling him a god.
Legamen ad paginam Latinam 9 1 He pretended once that he was going to Africa, so that he could get funds for the journey, then got them and spent them on banquets and gaming instead. 2 He murdered Motilenus, the prefect of the guard, by means of poisoned figs. He allowed statues of himself to be erected with the accoutrements of Hercules;74 and sacrifices were performed to him as to a god. 3 He had planned to execute many more men besides, but his plan was betrayed by a certain young servant, who threw out of his bedroom a tablet on which were written the names of those who were to be killed.
4 He practised the worship of Isis and even went so far as to shave his head and carry a statue of Anubis. 75 5 In his passion for cruelty he actually ordered the votaries of Bellona to cut off one of their arms,76 6 and as for the devotees of Isis, he forced them to beat p289 their breasts with pine-cones even to the point of death. While he was carrying about the statue of Anubis, he used to smite the heads of the devotees of Isis with the face of the statue. He struck with his club, while clad in a woman's garment or a lion's skin,77 not lions only, but many men as well. Certain men who were lame in their feet and others who could not walk, he dressed up as giants, encasing their legs from the knee down in wrappings and bandages to make them look like serpents,78 and then despatched them with his arrows. He desecrated the rites of Mithra79 with actual murder, although it was customary in them merely to say or pretend something that would produce an impression of terror.
Legamen ad paginam Latinam 10 1 Even as a child he was gluttonous and lewd. 80 While a youth, he disgraced every class of men in his company and was disgraced in turn by them. 2 Whosoever ridiculed him he cast to the wild beasts. And one man, who had merely read the book by Tranquillus81 containing the life of Caligula, he ordered cast to the wild beasts, because Caligula and he had the same birthday. 82 3 And if any one, indeed, expressed a desire to die, he had him hurried to death, however really reluctant.
In his humorous moments, too, he was destructive. 4 For example, he put a starling on the head of one p291 man who, as he noticed, had a few white hairs, resembling worms, among the black, and caused his head to fester through the continual pecking of the bird's beak — the bird, of course, imagining that it was pursuing worms. 5 One corpulent person he cut open down the middle of his belly, so that his intestines gushed forth. 6 Other men he dubbed one-eyed or one-footed, after he himself had plucked out one of their eyes or cut off one of their feet. 7 In addition to all this, he murdered many others in many places, some because they came of his presence in the costume of barbarians, others because they were noble and handsome. 8 He kept among his minions certain men named after the private parts of both sexes, and on these he liked to bestow kisses. 9 He also had in his company a man with a male member larger than that of most animals, whom he called Onos. 83 This man he treated with great affection, and even made him rich and appointed him to the priesthood of the Rural Hercules. 84 Legamen ad paginam Latinam 11 1 It is claimed that he often mixed human excrement with the most expensive foods, and he did not refrain from tasting them, mocking the rest of the company, as he thought. 2 He displayed two misshapen hunchbacks on a silver platter after smearing them with mustard, and then straightway advanced and enriched them. 3 He pushed into a swimming-pool his praetor prefect Julianus,85 although he was clad in his toga and accompanied by his staff; and he even ordered this same Julianus to dance naked before his concubines, clashing cymbals and making grimaces. 4 The various kinds of cooked vegetables he rarely admitted to his banquets, his purpose being to preserve unbroken the succession of dainties. 5 He used to bathe seven and p293 eight times a day, and was in the habit of eating while in the baths. 6 He would enter the temples of the gods defiled with adulteries and human blood. 7 He even aped a surgeon, going so far as to bleed men to death with scalpels. 86
8 Certain months were renamed in his honour by his flatterers; for August they substituted Commodus, for September Hercules, for October Invictus, for November Exsuperatorius, and for December Amazonius, after his own surname. 87 9 He had been called Amazonius, moreover, because of his passion for his concubine Marcia,88 whom he loved to have portrayed as an Amazon, and for whose sake he even wished to enter the arena of Rome dressed as an Amazon.
10 He engaged in gladiatorial combats,89 and accepted the names usually given to gladiators90 with as much pleasure as if he had been granted triumphal decorations. 11 He regularly took part in the spectacles, and as often as he did so, ordered the fact to be inscribed in the public records. 91 12 It is said that he engaged in gladiatorial bouts seven hundred and thirty-five times. 92
13 He received the name of Caesar on the fourth day before the Ides of the month usually called October, which he later named Hercules,93 in the consulship of Pudens and Pollio. 94 14 He was called Germanicus95 on the Ides of "Hercules" in the consulship of Maximus p295 and Orfitus. Legamen ad paginam Latinam 12 1 He was received into all the sacred colleges as a priest on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of "Invictus," in the consulship of Piso and Julianus. 2 He set out for Germany on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of the month which he later named Aelius, 3 and assumed the toga in the same year. 4 Together with his father he was acclaimed Imperator on the fifth day before the Kalends of "Exsuperatorius," in the year when Pollio and Aper served their second consulships, 5 and he celebrated a triumph on the tenth day before the Kalends of January in this same year. 6 He set out on his second expedition on the third day before the Nones of "Commodus" in the consulship of Orfitus and Rufus. 7 He was officially presented by the army and the senate to be maintained in perpetuity in the Palatine mansion,96 henceforth called Commodiana,97 on the eleventh day before the Kalends of "Romanus," in the year that Praesens was consul for the second time. 8 When he laid plans for a third expedition, he was persuaded by the senate and people to give it up. 9 Vows98 were assumed in his behalf on the Nones of "Pius," when Fuscianus was consul for the second time. 10 Besides these facts, it is related in records that he fought 365 gladiatorial combats in his father's reign. 11 Afterwards, by vanquishing or slaying retiarii,99 he won enough gladiatorial crowns to bring the number up to a thousand. 100 12 He also killed with his own hand thousands of wild beasts of all kinds, even elephants. And he frequently did these things before the eyes of the Roman people. 101
Legamen ad paginam Latinam 13 1 But, though vigorous enough for such exploits, he was otherwise weak and diseased; indeed, p297 he had such a conspicuous growth on his groin that the people of Rome could see the swelling through his silken robes. 2 Many verses were written alluding to this deformity; and Marius Maximus prides himself on preserving these in his biography of Commodus. 3 Such was his prowess in the slaying of wild beasts, that he once transfixed an elephant with a pole, pierced a gazelle's horn with a spear, and on a thousand occasions dispatched a mighty beast with a single blow. 4 Such was his complete indifference to propriety, that time and again he sat in the theatre or amphitheatre dressed in a woman's garments and drank quite publicly.
5 The Moors102 and the Dacians103 were conquered during his reign, and peace was established in the Pannonias,104 but all by his legates, since such was the manner of his life. The provincials in Britain,105 Dacia, and Germany106 attempted to cast off his yoke, 6 but all these attempts were put down by his generals. 7 Commodus himself was so lazy and careless in signing documents that he answered many petitions with the same formula, while in very many letters he merely wrote the word "Farewell". 8 All official business was carried on by others, who, it is said, even used condemnations to swell their purses. Legamen ad paginam Latinam 14 1 And because he was so careless, moreover, a great famine arose in p299 Rome, not because there was any real shortage of crops, but merely because those who then ruled the state were plundering the food supply. 107 2 As for those who plundered on every hand, Commodus afterwards put them to death and confiscated their property; 3 but for the time he pretended that a golden age had come,108 "Commodian" by name, and ordered a general reduction of prices, the result of which was an even greater scarcity.
4 In his reign many a man secured punishment for another or immunity for himself by bribery. 5 Indeed, in return for money Commodus would grant a change of punishment, the right of burial, the alleviation of wrongs, and the substitution of another for one condemned to be put to death. 6 He sold provinces and administrative posts, part of the proceeds accruing to those through whom he made the sale and part to Commodus himself. 7 To some he sold even the lives of their enemies. Under him the imperial freedmen sold even the results of law-suits. 8 He did not long put up with Paternus and Perennis as prefects;109 indeed, not one of the prefects whom he himself had appointed remained in office as long as three years. 110 Most of them he killed, some with poison, some with the sword. Legamen ad paginam Latinam 15 1 Prefects of the city he changed with equal readiness. He executed his chamberlains with no compunctions whatever, even though all that he had done had been at their bidding. 2 One of these chamberlains, however, Eclectus by name,111 forestalled him when he saw how ready Commodus was to put the chamberlains to death, and took part in a conspiracy to kill him. 112
3 At gladiatorial shows he would come to watch and stay to fight, covering his bare shoulders with a purple p301 cloth. 4 And it was his custom, moreover, to order the insertion in the city-gazette113 of everything he did that was base or foul or cruel, or typical of a gladiator114 or a procurer — at least, the writings of Marius Maximus so testify. 5 He entitled the Roman people the "People of Commodus,"115 since he had very often fought as a gladiator in their presence. 116 6 And although the people regularly applauded him in his frequent combats as though he were a god, he became convinced that he was being laughed at, and gave orders that the Roman people should be slain in the Amphitheatre by the marines who spread the awnings. 7 He gave an order, also, for the burning of the city,117 as though it were his private colony, and this order would have been executed had not Laetus,118 the prefect of the guard, deterred him. 8 Among other triumphal titles, he was also given the name "Captain of the Secutores"119 six hundred and twenty times.
Legamen ad paginam Latinam 16 1 The prodigies that occurred in his reign, both those which concerned the state and those which affected Commodus personally, were as follows. A comet appeared. 2 Footprints of the gods were seen in the Forum departing from it. Before the war of the deserters120 the heavens were ablaze. On the Kalends p303 of January a swift coming mist and darkness arose in the Circus; and before dawn there had already been fire-birds121 and ill-boding portents. 3 Commodus himself moved his residence from the Palace to the Vectilian Villa122 on the Caelian hill, saying that he could not sleep in the Palace. 4 The twin gates of the temple of Janus123 opened of their own accord, and a marble image of Anubis124 was seen to move. 5 In the Minucian Portico125 a bronze statue of Hercules sweated for several days. An owl, moreover, was caught above his bed-chamber both at Lanuvium and at Rome. 6 He was himself responsible for no inconsiderable an omen relating to himself; for after he had plunged his hand into the wound of a slain gladiator he wiped it on his own head, and again, contrary to custom, he ordered the spectators to attend his gladiatorial shows clad not in togas but in cloaks, a practice usual at funerals,126 while he himself presided in the vestments of a mourner. 7 Twice, moreover, his helmet was borne through the Gate of Libitina. 127
8 He gave largess to the people, 725 denarii to each man. 128 Toward all others he was close-fisted to a degree, since the expense of his luxurious living had drained the treasury. 9 He held many races in the Circus,129 but rather as the result of a whim than as p305 an act of religion, and also in order to enrich the leaders of the factions. 130
Legamen ad paginam Latinam 17 1 Because of these things — but all too late — Quintus Aemilius Laetus, prefect of the guard, and Marcia, his concubine, were roused to action and entered into a conspiracy against his life. 2 First they gave him poison; and when this proved ineffective they had him strangled by the athlete with whom he was accustomed to exercise. 131
3 Physically he was very well proportioned. His expression was dull, as is usual in drunkards, and his speech uncultivated. His hair was always dyed and made lustrous by the use of gold dust, and he used to singe his hair and beard because he was afraid of barbers.
4 The people and senate demanded that his body be dragged with the hook and cast into the Tiber;132 later, however, at the bidding of Pertinax, it was borne to the Mausoleum of Hadrian. 133
5 No public works of his are in existence, except the bath which Cleander built in his name. 134 6 But he inscribed his name on the works of others; this the senate erased. 135 7 Indeed, he did not even finish the public works of his father. He did organize an African fleet, which would have been useful, in case the grain-supply from Alexandria were delayed. 136 8 He jestingly named Carthage Alexandria Commodiana Togata, after entitling the African fleet Commodiana Herculea. 137 9 He made certain additions p307 to the Colossus by way of ornamentation, all of which were later taken off, 10 and he also removed its head, which was a likeness of Nero, and replaced it by a likeness of himself, writing on the pedestal an inscription in his usual style, not omitting the titles Gladiatorius and Effeminatus. 138 11 And yet Severus, a stern emperor and a man whose character was well in keeping with his name, moved by hatred for the senate — or so it seems — exalted this creature to a place among the gods139 and granted him also a flamen, the "Herculaneus Commodianus," whom Commodus while still alive had planned to have for himself.
12 Three sisters140 survived him. Severus instituted the observance of his birthday.
Legamen ad paginam Latinam 18 1 Loud were the acclamations of the senate after the death of Commodus. 2 And that the senate's opinion of him may be known, I have quoted from Marius Maximus the acclamations themselves,141 and the content of the senate's decree:
3 "From him who was a foe of his fatherland let his honours be taken away; let the honours of the murderer be taken away; let the murderer be dragged in the dust. The foe of his fatherland, the murderer, the gladiator, in the charnel-house let him be mangled. 4 He is foe to the gods, slayer of the senate, foe to the gods, murderer of the senate, foe of the gods, foe of the gods, foe of the senate. 5 Cast the gladiator into the charnel-house. He who slew the senate, let him be dragged with the hook; he who slew the guiltless, let p309 him be dragged with the hook — a foe, a murderer, verily, verily. 6 He who spared not his own blood, let him be dragged with the hook; 7 he who would have slain you,142 let him be dragged with the hook. You were in terror along with us, you were endangered along with us. That we may be safe, O Jupiter Best and Greatest, save for us Pertinax. 143 8 Long life to the guardian care of the praetorians! Long life to the praetorian cohorts! Long life to the armies of Rome! Long life to the loyalty of the senate!
9 Let the murderer beº dragged in the dust. 10 We beseech you, O Sire, let the murderer be dragged in the dust. This we beseech you, let the murderer be dragged in the dust. Hearken, Caesar: to the lions with the informers! Hearken Caesar: to the lions with Speratus! 144 11 Long life to the victory of the Roman people! Long life to the soldiers' guardian care! Long life to the guardian care of the praetorians! Long life to the praetorian cohorts!
12 On all sides are statues of the foe, on all side are statues of the murderer, on all sides are statues of the gladiator. The statues of the murderer and gladiator, let them be cast down. 13 The slayer of citizens, let him be dragged in the dust. The murderer of citizens, let him be dragged in the dust. Let the statues of the gladiator be overthrown. 14 While you are safe, we too are safe and untroubled, verily, verily, if in very truth, then with honour, if in very truth, then with freedom.
15 Now at last we are secure; let informers tremble. That we may be secure, let the informers tremble. That we may be safe, cast informers out of the senate, the club for informers! While you are safe, to the lions with informers! 16 While you are ruler, the club for informers!
p311 19 1 Legamen ad paginam Latinam Let the memory of the murderer and the gladiator be utterly wiped away. Let the statues of the murderer and the gladiator be overthrown. Let the memory of the foul gladiator be utterly wiped away. Cast the gladiator into the charnel-house. 2 Hearken, Caesar: let the slayer be dragged with the hook. In the manner of our fathers let the slayer of the senate be dragged with the hook. More savage than Domitian, more foul than Nero. As he did unto others, let it be done unto him. Let the remembrance of the guiltless be preserved. Restore the honours of the guiltless, we beseech you. Let the body of the murderer be dragged with the hook, 3 let the body of the gladiator be dragged with the hook, let the body of the gladiator be cast into the charnel-house. Call for our vote, call for our vote: with one accord we reply, let him be dragged with the hook. 4 He who slew all men, let him be dragged with the hook. He who slew young and old, let him be dragged with the hook. He who slew man and woman, let him be dragged with the hook. He who spared not his own blood, let him be dragged with the hook. 5 He who plundered temples, let him be dragged with the hook. He who set aside the testaments of the dead, let him be dragged with the hook. He who plundered the living, let him be dragged with the hook. We have been slaves to slaves. 6 He who demanded a price for the life of a man, let him be dragged with the hook. He who demanded a price for a life and kept not his promise, let him be dragged with the hook. He who sold the senate, let him be dragged with the hook. He who took from sons their patrimony, let him be dragged with the hook.
7 Spies and informers, cast them out of the senate. p313 Suborners of slaves, cast them out of the senate. You, too, were in terror along with us; you know all, you know both the good and the evil. 8 You know all that we were forced to purchase; all we have feared for your sake. Happy are we, now that you are the emperor in truth. Put it to the vote concerning the murderer, put it to the vote, put the question. We ask your presence. 9 The guiltless are yet unburied; let the body of the murderer be dragged in the dust. The murderer dug up the buried; let the body of the murderer be dragged in the dust. "
Legamen ad paginam Latinam 20 1 The body of Commodus was buried during the night, after Livius Laurensis,145 the steward of the imperial estate,146 had surrendered it at the bidding of Pertinax147 to Fabius Cilo,148 the consul elect. 2 At this the senate cried out: 3 "With whose authority have they buried him? The buried murderer, let him be dug up, let him be dragged in the dust. " Cincius Severus149 said: "Wrongfully has he been buried. And I speak as pontifex, so speaks the college of the pontifices. 4 And now, having recounted what is joyful, I shall proceed to what is needful: I give it as my opinion that the statues should be overthrown which this man, who lived but for the destruction of his fellow-citizens and for his own shame, forced us to decree in his honour; 5 wherever they are, they should be cast down. His name, moreover, should be erased from all public and private records,150 and the months151 should be once more called by the names whereby they were called when this scourge first fell upon the state. "
The Life of Pertinax
1 1 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] Publius Helvius Pertinax was the son of a freedman, Helvius Successus by name, who confessed that he gave this name to his son because of his own long-standing connection with the timber-trade, for had conducted that business with pertinacity. 2 Pertinax himself was born in the Apennines1 on an estate which belonged to his mother. The hour he was born a black horse climbed to the roof, and after remaining there for a short time, fell to the ground and died. 3 Disturbed by this occurrence, his father went to a Chaldean, and he prophesied future greatness for the boy, saying that he himself had lost his child. 2 4 As a boy, Pertinax was educated in the rudiments of literature and in arithmetic and was also put under the care of a Greek teacher of grammar and, later, of Sulpicius Apollinaris;3 after receiving instruction from this man, Pertinax himself took up the teaching of grammar.
5 But when he found little profit in this profession, with the aid of Lollianus Avitus, a former consul4 and his father's patron, he sought an appointment to a command in the ranks. 5 6 Soon afterwards, in the p317 reign of Titus Aurelius,6 he set out for Syria as prefect of a cohort,7 and there, because he had used the imperial post without official letters of recommendation, he was forced by the governor of Syria to make his way from Antioch to his station on foot. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 2 1 Winning promotiona because of the energy he showed in the Parthian war,8 he was transferred to Britain9 and there retained. 2 Later he led a squadron10 in Moesia, and after that he supervised the distribution of grants to the poor on the Aemilian Way. 11 3 Next, he commanded the German fleet. 12 His mother followed him all the way to Germany, and there she died, and her tomb is said to be still standing there. 4 From this command he was transferred to Dacia13 at a salary of two hundred thousand sesterces, but through the machinations of certain persons he came to be distrusted by Marcus and was removed from this post; afterwards, however, through the influence of Claudius Pompeianus, the son-in‑law of Marcus,14 he was detailed to the command of detachments on the plea that he would become Pompeianus' aide. 15 5 Meeting with approval in this position, he was enrolled in the senate. 6 Later, when he had won success in war for the second time, the plot which had been made against him was revealed, and Marcus, in order to remedy the wrong he had done him, raised p319 him to the rank of praetor16 and put him in command of the First Legion.
17 Whereupon Pertinax straightway rescued Raetia and Noricum from the enemy. 18 7 Because of his conspicuous prowess in this campaign he was appointed, on the recommendation of Marcus, to the consulship. 8 Marcus' speech has been preserved in the works of Marius Maximus; it contains a eulogy of him and relates, moreover, everything that he did and suffered. 9 And besides this speech, which it would take too much space to incorporate in this work, Marcus praised Pertinax frequently, both in the assemblies of soldiers and in the senate, and publicly expressed regret that he was a senator and therefore could not be made prefect of the guard. 10 After Cassius' revolt had been suppressed, Pertinax set out from Syria19 to protect the bank of the Danube, 11 and presently he was appointed to govern both the Moesias and, soon thereafter, Dacia. And by reason of his success in these provinces, he won the appointment to Syria.
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 3 1 Up to the time of his administration of Syria, Pertinax preserved his honesty, but after the death of Marcus he became desirous of wealth, and was in consequence assailed by popular gibes. 20 2 It was not until after he had governed four consular provinces and had become a rich man that he entered the Roman senate-chamber, which, during all his career as senator, he had never before seen, for during his term as consul he had been absent from Rome. 21 3 Immediately after this, he received orders from Perennis to retire to his father's farm in Liguria,22 where his father had kept a cloth-maker's p321 shop. 4 On coming to Liguria, however, he bought up a great number of farms, and added countless buildings to his father's shop, which he still kept in its original form; and there he stayed for three years carrying on the business through his slaves.
5 After Perennis had been put to death, Commodus made amends to Pertinax, and in a letter asked him to set out for Britain. 23 6 After his arrival there he kept the soldiers from any revolt, for they wished to set up some other man as emperor, preferably Pertinax himself. 7 And now Pertinax acquired an evil character for enviousness, for he was said to have laid before Commodus the charge that Antistius Burrus and Arrius Antoninus were aspiring to the throne. 24 8 And certainly he did suppress a mutiny against himself in Britain, but in so doing he came into great danger; for in a mutiny of a legion he was almost killed, and indeed was left among the slain. 9 This mutiny Pertinax punished very severely. 10 Later on, however, he petitioned to be excused from his governorship, saying that the legions were hostile to him because he had been strict in his discipline. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 4 1 After he had been relieved of his post, he was put in charge of the grants to the poor. 25 Next he was made proconsul of Africa. 2 During this proconsulship, it is said, he suppressed many rebellions by the aid of prophetic verses which issued from the temple of Caelestis. 26 Next he was made prefect of the city, 3 and in this office, as successor to Fuscianus,27 a very stern man, Pertinax p323 was exceedingly gentle and considerate, and he proved very pleasing to Commodus himself, for he was . . . 28 when Pertinax was made consul for the second time. 4 And while in this position, Pertinax did not avoid complicity in the murder of Commodus, when a share in this plot was offered him by the other conspirators.
5 After Commodus was slain,29 Laetus, the prefect of the guard, and Eclectus, the chamberlain, came to Pertinax and reassured him, and then led him to the camp. 6 There he harangued the soldiers, promised a donative,30 and said that the imperial power had been thrust upon him by Laetus and Eclectus. 7 It was pretended, moreover, that Commodus had died a natural death, chiefly because the soldiers feared that their loyalty was merely being tested. 8 Finally, and at first by only a few, Pertinax was hailed as emperor. 31 He was made emperor on the day before the Kalends of January, being then more than sixty years old. 32 9 During the night he came from the camp to the senate, but, when he ordered the opening of the hall of the senate-house and the attendant could not be found, he seated himself in the Temple of Concord. 33 10 And when Claudius Pompeianus, Marcus' son-in‑law, came to him and bemoaned the death of Commodus, Pertinax urged him to take the throne; Claudius, however, seeing that Pertinax was already invested with the imperial power, refused. 11 Without further delay, therefore, all the magistrates, in company with the consul, came to the senate-house, and Pertinax, who had come in by night, was saluted as emperor.
p325 5 1 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] Pertinax, on his part, after his own praises had been recited by the consuls and Commodus had been execrated in the outcries of the senate,34 returned thanks to the senate in general, and in particular to Laetus, the prefect of the guard, through whose instrumentality Commodus had been slain and he himself declared emperor.
2 When Pertinax had returned thanks to Laetus, however, Falco, the consul, said: "We may know what sort of an emperor you will be from this, that we see behind you Laetus and Marcia, the instruments of Commodus' crimes". 3 To him Pertinax replied: "You are young, Consul, and do not know the necessity of obedience. They obeyed Commodus, but against their will, and as soon as they had an opportunity, they showed what had always been their desire. " 4 On the same day that he was entitled Augustus, at the very hour at which he was paying his vows on the Capitolium, Flavia Titiana, his wife, was also given the name of Augusta. 35 5 Of all the emperors he was the first to receive the title of Father of his Country on the day when he was named Augustus. 36 6 And at the same time he received the proconsular power and the right of making four proposals to the senate37 — a combination which Pertinax regarded as an omen.
7 And so Pertinax repaired to the Palace, which was vacant at that time, for Commodus had been slain in the Vectilian Villa. 38 And on the first day of his reign, when the tribune asked for the watchword, he gave "let us be soldiers," as if reproving the former reign for its inactivity. As a matter of fact, he had really used this same watchword before in all his p327 commands. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 6 1 But the soldiers would not tolerate a reproof and straightway began making plans for changing the emperor. 2 On this same day also he invited the magistrates and the chief men of the senate to a banquet, a practice which Commodus had discontinued. 3 But, indeed, on the day after the Kalends of January, when the statues of Commodus were overthrown,39 the soldiers groaned aloud, for he gave this same watchword for the second time, and besides they dreaded service under an emperor advanced in years. 4 Finally on the third of the month, just as the vows were being assumed, the soldiers tried to lead Triarius Maternus Lascivius, a senator of distinction, to the camp, in order to invest him with the sovereignty of the Roman Empire. 5 He, however, fled from them quite naked and came to Pertinax in the Palace and presently departed from the city.
6 Induced by fear, Pertinax ratified all the concessions which Commodus had made to the soldiers and veterans. 7 He declared, also, that he had received from the senate the sovereignty which, in fact, he had already assumed on his own responsibility. 40 8 He abolished trials for treason absolutely and bound himself thereto by an oath, he recalled those who had been exiled on the charge of treason, and he re-established the good name of those who had been slain. 41 9 The senate granted his son the name of Caesar, but Pertinax not only refused to allow the name Augusta to be conferred on his wife but also, in the case of his son, said: "Only when he earns it". 42 10 And since Commodus had obscured the significance of the praetorian rank43 by countless appointments thereto, Pertinax, after securing the passage of a decree of the senate, issued an order that those who p329 had secured the rank of praetor not by actual service, but by appointment, should be ranked below those who had been praetors in reality. 11 But by this act also he brought on himself the bitter enmity of many men. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 7 1 He gave orders for the taking of a new census. He gave orders, too, that men convicted of lodging false accusations should be punished with severity, exercising, nevertheless, greater moderation than former emperors, and at the same time ordaining a separate punishment for each rank in case any of its members should be convicted for this offence. 2 He enacted a law, moreover, that an old will should not become invalid before the new one was formally completed, fearing that some time the privy-purse might in this way succeed to an inheritance. 44 3 He declared that for his own part he would accept no legacy which came to him either through flattery or by reason of legal entanglements if thereby the rightful heirs and the near of kin should be robbed of their rights, and when the decree of the senate was passed, he added these words: 4 "It is better, O Conscript Fathers, to rule a state that is impoverished, than to attain to a great mass of wealth by paths of peril and dishonour". 5 He paid the donatives and largesses which Commodus had promised,45 6 and provided with the greatest care for the grain-supply. And when the treasury was drained to such a degree that he was unable to put his hands on more than a million sesterces,46 as he himself admitted, he was forced, in violation of a previous promise, to exact certain revenues which Commodus had remitted. 7 And finally, when Lollianus Gentianus,47 a man of consular rank, brought him to task for breaking his promise, he excused himself on the ground that it was a case of necessity.
p331 8 He held a sale of Commodus' belongings, even ordering the sale of all his youths and concubines, except those who had apparently been brought to the Palace by force. 48 9 Of those whom he ordered sold, however, many were soon brought back to his service and ministered to the pleasures of the old man, and under other emperors they even attained to the rank of senator. 10 Certain buffoons, also, who bore the shame of unmentionable names,49 he put up at auction and sold. 11 The moneys gained in this trafficking, which were immense, he used for a donative to the soldiers. 50 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 8 1 He also demanded from Commodus' freedmen the sums wherewith they had been enriched when Commodus held his sales. 51 2 In the sale of Commodus' goods the following articles were especially noteworthy: robes of silk foundation with gold embroidery of remarkable workmanship; tunics, mantles and coats; tunics made with long sleeves in the manner of the Dalmatians52 and fringed military cloaks; purple cloaks made for service in the camp. 3 Also Bardaean hooded cloaks,53 and a gladiator's toga and harness finished in gold and jewels; 4 also swords, such as those with which Hercules is represented, and the necklaces worn by gladiators, and vessels, some of pottery, some of gold, some of ivory, some of silver, and some of citrus wood. 5 Also cups in the shape of the phallus, made of these same materials; and Samnite pots for heating the resin and pitch used for depilating men and making their skins smooth. 6 And furthermore, carriages, the very latest masterpieces of the art, made with entwined and carven p333 wheels and carefully planned seats that could be turned so as to avoid the sun at one moment, at another, face the breeze. 7 There were other carriages that measured the road,b and showed the time; and still others designed for the indulgence of his vices.
8 Pertinax restored to their masters, moreover, all slaves who had come from private homes to the Palace. 9 He reduced the imperial banquets from something absolutely unlimited to a fixed standard,54 and, indeed, cut down all expenses from what they had been under Commodus. 10 And from the example set by the emperor, who lived rather simply, there resulted a general economy and a consequent reduction in the cost of living; 11 for by eliminating the unessentials he reduced the upkeep of the court to half the usual amount. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 9 1 He established rewards for the soldiers, paid the debt which he had contracted at the beginning of his reign, and restored the treasury to its normal condition. 2 He set aside a fixed sum for public buildings, furnished funds for repairing the highways, and paid the arrears in the salaries of very many men. Finally, he made the privy-purse capable of sustaining all the demands made upon it, 3 and with rigorous honesty he even assumed the responsibility for nine years' arrears of money for the poor55 which was owed through a statute of Trajan's.
4 Before he was made emperor he was not free from the suspicion of greed,56 for he had extended his own holdings at Vada Sabatia57 by foreclosing mortgages; 5 indeed, in a line quoted from Lucilius58 he was called a land-shark. 59 6 Many men, moreover, have set down p335 in writing that in those provinces which he ruled as proconsul he conducted himself in a grasping manner; for he sold, they say, both exemptions from service and military appointments. 7 And lastly, although his father's estate was very small, and no legacy was left him, he suddenly became rich.
8 As a matter of fact, however, he restored to everyone the property of which Commodus had despoiled him, but not without compensation. 9 He always attended the stated meetings of the senate and always made some proposal. To those who came to greet him or who accosted him he was always courteous. 10 He absolved a number of men whose slaves had assailed them with false charges, and punished severely those who brought the accusation, crucifying all such slaves; and he also rehabilitated the memory of some who had died.
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 10 1 A plot was attempted against him60 by Falco the consul, who, being eager to rule, made complaint in the senate. 2 He, in fact, was believed by the senate, when a certain slave, on the ground that he was the son of Fabia and . . . 61 of the household of Ceionius Commodus, laid a baseless claim to the residence on the Palatine and, on being recognised, was sentenced to be soundly flogged and returned to his master. 3 In the punishment of this man those who hated Pertinax are said to have found an opportunity for an outbreak. 4 Nevertheless, Pertinax spared Falco, and furthermore asked the senate to pardon him. 62 5 In the end Falco lived out his life in security p337 and in possession of his property, and at his death, his son succeeded to the inheritance. 6 Many men, however, claimed that Falco was unaware that men were planning to make him emperor, 7 and others said that slaves who had falsified his accounts assailed him with trumped-up charges.
8 However, a conspiracy63 was organized against Pertinax by Laetus, the prefect of the guard, and sundry others who were displeased by his integrity. 9 Laetus regretted that he had made Pertinax emperor, because Pertinax used to rebuke him as a stupid babbler of various secrets. 10 It seemed to the soldiers, moreover, a very cruel measure, that in the matter of Falco he had had many of their comrades put to death on the testimony of a single slave. 64 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 11 1 And so three hundred soldiers,65 formed into a wedge, marched under arms from the camp to the imperial residence. 2 On that day, it was said, no heart had been found in the victim when Pertinax performed a sacrifice, and when he tried to avert this evil omen, he was unable to discover the upper portion of the liver. And so on that day the great body of the soldiers remained in the camp. 3 Some, indeed, had come forth from the camp in order to act as escort to the emperor, but Pertinax, because of the unfavourable sacrifice, postponed for that day a projected visit to the Athenaeum,66 where he had planned to hear a poet, and thereupon the escort began to return to the camp. 4 But just at that moment the band of troops mentioned above arrived at the Palace, and neither could they be prevented from entering nor could their entrance be announced to the Emperor. p339 5 In fact, the palace-attendants67 hated Pertinax with so bitter a hatred that they even urged on the soldiers to do the deed. 6 The troops arrived just as Pertinax was inspecting the court-slaves, and, passing through the portico of the Palace, they advanced as far as the spot called Sicilia and the Banqueting-Hall of Jupiter. 7 As soon as he learned of their approach, Pertinax sent Laetus, the prefect of the guard, to meet them; but he, avoiding the soldiers, passed out through the portico and betook himself home with his face hidden from sight. 8 After they had burst into the inner portion of the Palace, however, Pertinax advanced to meet them and sought to appease them with a long and serious speech. 9 In spite of this, one Tausius, a Tungrian, after haranguing the soldiers into a state of fury and fear, hurled his spear at Pertinax' breast. 10 And he, after a prayer to Jupiter the Avenger, veiled his head with his toga and was stabbed by the rest. 11 Eclectus also, after stabbing two of his assailants, died with him, and the other court-chamberlains 12 (his own chamberlains, as soon as he had been made emperor, Pertinax had given to his emancipated children)68 fled away in all directions. 13 Many, it is true, say that the soldiers even burst into his bedroom, and there, standing about his bed, slew him as he tried to flee.
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 12 1 He was a stately old man, with a long beard and hair brushed back. His figure was somewhat corpulent, with somewhat prominent abdomen, but his bearing was regal. He was a man of mediocre ability in speaking, and suave rather than kindly, nor was he ever considered ingenuous. 2 Though friendly p341 enough in speech, when it came to deeds, he was ungenerous and almost mean — so mean, in fact, that before he was made emperor he used to serve at his banquets lettuce and the edible thistle in half portions. 3 And unless someone made him a present of food, he would serve nine pounds of meat in three courses, no matter how many friends were present; 4 if anyone presented him with an additional amount, moreover, he would put off using it until the next day, and would then invite a great number of guests. 5 Even after he had become emperor, if he had no guests he would dine in the same style. 69 6 And whenever he in turn wished to send his friends something from his table, he would send a few scraps or a piece of tripe, or occasionally the legs of a fowl. But he never ate pheasants70 at his own banquets or sent them to others. 7 And when he dined without guests, he would invite his wife and Valerianus, who had been a teacher together with him,71 in order that he might have literary conversation.
8 He removed none of those whom Commodus had put in charge of affairs, preferring to wait until the anniversary of the founding of the city,72 which he wished to make the official beginning of his reign; and thus it came about, it is said, that the servants of Commodus plotted to slay him in his bath. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 13 1 The imperial power and all the appurtenances thereof he abhorred,73 and he always made it quite evident that they were distasteful to him. In short, he did not wish to seem other than he really was. 2 In the senate-house he was most punctilious,74 doing reverence to the senate when it expressed its good will and conversing p343 with all the senators as though still prefect of the city. 3 He even wished to resign the throne and retire to private life, 4 and was unwilling to have his children reared in the Palace. 75
On the other hand, he was so stingy and eager for money that even after he became emperor he carried on a business at Vada Sabatia76 through agents, just as he had done as a private citizen. 5 And despite his efforts, he was not greatly beloved; certainly, all who talked freely together spoke ill of Pertinax, calling him the smooth-tongued,77 that is, a man who speaks affably and acts meanly. 6 In truth, his fellow-townsmen, who had flocked to him after his accession, and had obtained nothing from him, gave him this name. In his lust for gain, he accepted presents with eagerness.
7 He was survived by a son and a daughter,78 and by his wife,79 the daughter of the Flavius Sulpicianus80 whom he made prefect of the city in his own place. 8 He was not in the least concerned about his wife's fidelity, even though she carried on an amour quite openly with a man who sang to the lyre. He himself, it is said, caused great scandal by an amour with Cornificia. 81 9 The freedmen attached to the court he kept within bounds with a strong hand, and in this way also he brought upon himself a bitter hatred. 82
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 14 1 The warnings of his death were these: three days before he was killed he himself, on looking into a pool, seemed to behold a man attacking him with a sword. 2 And on the day he was killed, they say, the pupils of his eyes, as well as the little pictures p345 which they reflect, were invisible to those who looked into them. 3 And when he was performing sacrifices to the Lares the living coals died out, though they are wont to flame up. Furthermore, as we related above,83 the heart and upper portion of the liver could not be found in the victims. And on the day before he died, stars of great brilliancy were seen near the sun in the day-time. 4 He was responsible himself, it is said, for an omen about his successor, Julianus. For when Didius Julianus presented a nephew of his, to whom he was betrothing his daughter, the Emperor exhorted the young man to show deference to his uncle, and added: "Honour my colleague and successor. "84 5 For Julianus had previously been his colleague in the consulship and had succeeded him in his proconsular command. 85
6 The soldiers and court-retainers regarded him with hatred,86 but the people felt great indignation at his death, since it had seemed that all the ancient customs might be restored through his efforts. 7 His head, fixed on a pole, was carried through the city to the camp by the soldiers who killed him. 8 His remains, including his head, which was recovered, were laid in the tomb of his wife's grandfather. 9 And Julianus, his successor, buried his body with all honour, after he had found it in the Palace. 10 At no time, however, did he make any public mention of Pertinax either before the people or in the presence of the senate, but when he, too, was deserted by the soldiers Pertinax was raised to the rank of the gods by the senate and the people. 87 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 15 1 In the reign of Severus, moreover, after Pertinax had received the full official approval p347 of the senate, an honorary funeral, of the kind that would be accorded to a censor, was held for him,88 and Severus himself honoured him with a funeral eulogy. 2 Severus, furthermore, out of respect for so good a ruler, accepted from the senate the name Pertinax. 89 3 Pertinax' son was made his father's priest, 4 and the Marcian brotherhood,90 who performed sacrifices to the Deified Marcus, were called Helviani in honour of Helvius Pertinax. 5 There were added, also, circus-games and a celebration to commemorate the anniversary of his accession, but these were afterwards abolished by Severus. The birthday-games decreed for him, however, are still observed. 91
6 He was born on the Kalends of August in the consulship of Verus and Ambibulus, and was killed on the fifth day before the Kalends of April in the consulship of Falco and Clarus. He lived sixty years,92 seven months and twenty-six days, 7 and reigned for two months and twenty-five days. He gave the people a largess of one hundred denarii apiece,93 and promised twelve thousand sesterces to each soldier of the guard, though he gave only six thousand. 94 The sum promised to the armies he did not give for the reason that death forestalled him. 8 A letter which Marius Maximus included in his life of Pertinax shows that he shrank from taking the imperial power,95 but this letter, on account of its great length, I have not thought best to insert.
The Life of Didius Julianus
1 1 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] Didius Julianus, who gained possession of the empire after Pertinax, was the great-grandson of Salvius Julianus,1 a man who was twice consul, prefect of the city, and an authority in jurisprudence — which, more than anything else, had made him famous. 2 His mother was Aemilia Clara, his father Petronius Didius Severus, his brothers Didius Proculus and Nummius Albinus; another Salvius Julianus was his uncle. His father's father was an Insubrian from Milan, his mother's came from the colony of Hadrumetum.
3 He himself was reared at the home of Domitia Lucilla,2 the mother of the Emperor Marcus, 4 and through the support of this lady he was elected to the Board of Twenty. 3 He was appointed quaestor a year before he reached the legal age,4 5 and through the support of Marcus he attained to the office of aedile. Again with the support of Marcus he became praetor. 5 6 After his praetorship he commanded the Twenty-second Legion,6 the Primigenia, in Germany, 7 and following that he ruled Belgium7 long and well. Here, with auxiliaries hastily levied from the provinces, he held out against the Chauci (a people of Germany who dwelt on the river Elbe) as they attempted to burst through the border; 8 and for these services, on the recommendation of the emperor, he was deemed worthy of the consulship. He also gained a crushing victory over the Chatti. 9 Next he took charge of Dalmatia and cleared it of the hostile tribes on its borders. [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 2 1 Then he governed Lower Germany; and after that he was deemed worthy of superintending the distribution of grants of money to the poor in Italy. 8 In this position he was accused by one Severus Clarissimus, a soldier, of being an associate of Salvius9 in his conspiracy against Commodus. But Commodus had already put many senators and many distinguished and powerful men to death on the charge of treason, and so he was afraid of acting too harshly and therefore pardoned Didius and executed his accuser. 2 Thus acquitted, Didius was sent again to govern a province. Then he governed Bithynia, but not as creditably as the other provinces.
3 His consulship he served with Pertinax; in the proconsulship of Africa,10 moreover, he succeeded him. Pertinax always spoke of him as his colleague and successor; on that day, in particular, when Julianus, after betrothing his daughter to a kinsman of his own, came to Pertinax and informed him of the fact, Pertinax said: ". . . and due respect, for he is my colleague and successor". 11 The death of Pertinax ensued immediately afterwards. 4 After his death, p353 when Sulpicianus12 was making plans to be hailed emperor in the camp, Julianus, together with his son-in‑law, came to the senate, which, he heard, had been summoned, but found the doors closed. 5 At the same time he discovered there two tribunes, Publius Florianus and Vectius Aper, who immediately began urging him to seize the throne; and though he pointed out to them that another man was already proclaimed emperor, they held him fast and conducted him to the praetor camp. 13 6 When they arrived at the camp, however, Sulpicianus, the prefect of the city and the father-in‑law of Pertinax, was holding an assembly and claiming the empire himself, and no one would let Julianus inside, despite the huge promises he made from outside the wall. Julianus then first warned the soldiers not to proclaim anyone emperor who would avenge Pertinax, and next wrote on placards that he would restore the good name14 of Commodus; 7 so he was admitted and proclaimed emperor, the soldiers at the same time requesting that he would not in any way injure Sulpicianus for aiming at the throne.
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 3 1 Immediately thereafter, on the recommendation of the praetorians themselves, Julianus appointed Flavius Genialis and Tullius Crispinus prefects of the guard, and through the efforts of Maurentius, who had previously declared for Sulpicianus, he was attended by the imperial body-guard. 2 Although he had promised five and twenty thousand sesterces to p355 each soldier, he gave thirty. 15 3 Then, after holding an assembly of the soldiers, he came in the evening to the senate,16 and entrusted himself to it without conditions; thereupon, by decree of the senate he was acclaimed emperor and, after being raised to a place among the patrician families,17 he received the tribunician power and the rights of a proconsul. 18 4 His wife Manlia Scantilla, moreover, and his daughter, Didia Clara, were given the name Augusta;19 5 and thereupon he betook himself to the Palace and thither summoned his wife and daughter, who came, though with considerable trepidation and reluctance as if they already foresaw impending doom. 20 6 Cornelius Repentinus, his son-in‑law, he made prefect of the city in place of Sulpicianus.
7 The people, meanwhile, detested Julianus because it had been their belief that the abuses of Commodus' regime were to be reformed by the influence of Pertinax, and he was considered to have been killed with Julianus' connivance. 8 And now, those who had begun to hate Julianus were the first to spread it abroad that on the very first day of his reign, to show his contempt for Pertinax' board, he had served an extravagant banquet embellished with such dainties as oysters and fatted birds and fish. This story, it is generally agreed, was false. 21 9 For according to report, Julianus was so frugal as to make p357 a suckling pig or hare last for three days, if anyone by chance presented him with one; and often, moreover, even when there was no religious reason therefor, he was contest to dine on cabbages and beans without meat. 22 10 Furthermore, he gave no banquet until after Pertinax was buried, and, because of his death, took what food he did in a very depressed state of mind, and passed the first night in continual wakefulness, disquieted by such a fate.
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 4 1 But when the day dawned, he admitted the senators and knights who came to the Palace, and greeted each very cordially, either as brother, or son, or father, according to his age. 2 The populace, however, at the Rostra and in front of the senate-house,23 assailed him with violent revilings, hoping that he might resign the sovereignty which the soldiers had given him; and they even launched a shower of stones. 3 As he came down to the senate-house with the soldiers and senate, they heaped curses upon him, and when he performed the sacrifices, wished that he might not obtain favourable omens; 4 they even hurled stones at him, though Julianus, with uplifted hand, continually sought to calm them. 5 When he entered the senate-house, he spoke calmly and discreetly, and returned thanks because he had been chosen, and because he, his wife, and his daughter, had been given the titles of Augustus and Augusta. He accepted also the name of Father of his Country, but refused a silver statue. 6 Then, as he proceeded from the senate-house to the Capitol, the populace placed themselves in his way, but by the sword, by wounds, and by promises of gold-pieces, the number of which p359 he himself, in order to inspire trust, kept showing to them on his fingers, they were dispersed and beaten back. 7 Thereupon, all went to the games at the Circus; but here, after everyone had seized seats indiscriminately,24 the populace redoubled their insults against Julianus and called for Pescennius Niger (who was said to have already declared himself emperor) to protect the city. 25 8 All this Julianus took with perfect equanimity; indeed all through the time he was on the throne he was exceedingly tolerant. The populace, however, kept inveighing with the utmost violence against the soldiers, who had slain Pertinax, so they said, for money. And so, in order to win favour with the people, Julianus restored many measures which Commodus had enacted and Pertinax had repealed. 9 Concerning Pertinax himself he took no steps either good or evil,26 a fact which to very many seemed a serious matter. 10 It is generally agreed, however, that it was his fear of the soldiers that caused him to keep silent about the honours due Pertinax.
[Legamen ad paginam Latinam] 5 1 As a matter of fact, however, Julianus had no fear of either the British27 or the Illyrian army; but being chiefly afraid of the Syrian army, he despatched a centurion of the first rank with orders to murder Niger.
