ROME. 



He refpeded the ar.cient forms of the conftitution, reftored 

 the fenate to its deliberative rights, and afted by its authority 

 in the adminiftration of all public affairs. Under his reign, 

 and by the arms of his (on Titus, was terminated the war 

 againit the Jews. They had been brought under the yoke 

 of Rome by Pompey, who took Jerusalem. U.ukr Au- 

 rtftus, they were governed for fotne time by Herod as 

 viceroy ; bit the tyranny of his Ion Archelaus was the 

 caufeof his banifhment, and alfo of the reduction of Jud*a 

 into the ordinary condition of a Roman province. In the 

 reign of Vefpafian, Jerufalem was bef.eged, and after a 

 blockade of fix months, taken by itorm the temple burnt 

 to allies, and the city buried in ruins. Vefpafian allocated 

 Titus in the imperial dignity, and foon alter died, at the 

 age of 60, in the year 79 of the Chnllian en. 



In elective monarchies, the vacancy of the throne is a 

 moment big with danger and mifchiet The Roman em- 

 perors, deiirous to fpare the legions that interval of lut- 

 pence, and the temptation of an irregular choice, inverted 

 their defined fucceffor with fo large a (hare or prelent 

 power, as°fhould enable him, after their deceafe, to ailume 

 the remainder, without fullering, as it were, the empire to 

 perceive the change of mailers. Thus Auguitus, after all 

 his fair profpeas had been fnatched from him by untimely 

 deaths, retted his lalt hopes on Tiberius, and obtained a law, 

 by which the future prince was invetted with an authority 

 equal to his own over the provinces and the armies. Thus, 

 alfo, Vefpafian fubdued the generous mind of his eldett Ion. 

 Titus was adored by the ealtern legions ; his power was 

 dreaded ; but as his virtues were clouded by the intempe- 

 rance of youth, his deiigns were liable to be fufpeded. In- 

 itead of liftening to fuch unworthy fufpicions, the prudent 

 monarch affociated, as we have feen, Titus to the full 

 powers of the imperial dignity : and the grateful ion ever 

 approved himfelf the humble and faithful mimtter oi lo 

 ixdulgent a father. 



Vefpafian iiad embraced every meafure that might con- 

 firm his recent and precarious elevation. The military oath, 

 and the fidelity of troops, had been confecrated by the 

 habits of an hundred years to the name and family of the 

 Caifars ; and although that family had been continued only 

 by the fiaitious rite of adoption, the Romans ftill revered, 

 in the perfon of Nero, the grandfon of Germamcus, and 

 the lineal fucceffor of Auguitus. It was not without re- 

 luftance and remorfe that "the Praetorian guards were per- 

 l'uaded to abandon the caufe of the tyrant. The rapid 

 downfall of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, taught the armies 

 to conlider the emperors as the creatures of their will, and 

 the inftruments ot their licence. The birth of Vefpafian 

 was very mean : his own merit had raifed him, in an ad- 

 vanced age, to the empire. " Such a prince," then, fays 

 Gibbon, " confulted his true intereft by the affociation of 

 a fon, whole more fplendid and amiable character might 

 turn the public attention from the obfeure origin, to the 

 future glories, of the Flavian houfe. Under the mild ad- 

 miniftration of Titus, the Roman world enjoyed a trasfient 

 felicity. His character was humane, munificent, dignified, 

 and fplendid. In his reign happened that dreadful eruption 

 of Vefuvius, which overwhelmed the cities of Herculaneum 

 and Pompeii ; and the public loll'es from thefe calamities he 

 repaired by the facrifice of his fortune and revenues. He 

 died in the third year of his reign, and obtained the moil 

 exalted epithet, « Deliciae hutnani generis.'" 



Domitian, the brother of Titus, and fufpeded of mur- 

 dering him by poifon, lucceeded to the empire A.D. 81. 

 He was a moil cruel tyrant. A rebellion in Germany gave 

 him an opportunity to fignali/.e the barbarity of his difpoh- 



tion ; and its confequences were long felt in the fanguinary 

 punifhments infliaed under the pretence of juftice. In tin? 

 reign, the fuccefles of Agricola in Britain threw a lutlre on 

 the Roman arms ; neverthelefs Domitian treated this brave 

 commander with the bafeit ingratitude. The emperor was 

 aflaffinated in the fixteenth year of his reign. 



It may not be amifs, before we proceed, to notice, in a 

 geographical fenle, the different divifions of the empire 

 under Auguftus, and which continued during the reigns of 

 the twelve Cxfars, to that of Adrian. When Auguilu- 

 made himfelf matter of the Roman empire, its pofleflions ex- 

 tended almott to all the then known world. He did not, as 

 we have feen, make any attempts to extend the limits of the 

 empire, but took every means, that his great talents could 

 fuggell, to prelerve his own authority, without rendering 

 the fenate and people his enemies. He appeared to fur- 

 render to them their ancient authority and rights, and only 

 to attend to thofe parts of the government which were molt 

 laborious and difficult. He even feemed to divide the pro- 

 vinces of the empire between himfelf and the nation, which 

 provinces he arranged into twenty-fix diocefes or depart- 

 ments. Of thefe lie granted twelve to the fenate and people, 

 relervingto himfelf the other fourteen. He had taken care, 

 in this divifion of the empire, that not only the molt con- 

 fiderable provinces iliould fall to his own ihare, but that 

 they fliould be fo fituatcd, as to give him a decided pre- 

 eminence over the others. With refpea to the departments 

 under the controul of the fenate and people, two were 

 governed by proconfuls, and ten by pretors. 



I. The two departments governed by proconfuls com- 

 prehended Africa, including Africa proper, Numidia, and 

 part of Libya. 



II. The ten departments under the government of 

 praetors comprehended that part of Spain denominated 

 Bcetica; Gallia Narboneniis ; Sicily; Sardinia, and Corfica; 

 Illyria, and part of Epirus ; Macedonia, and part of 

 Greece ; Achaia ; Bceotia, Acarnania, and part of Epirus ; 

 the ifland of Crete ; Cyrenaica, an ancient kingdom of 

 Africa, including the prelent kingdom and defart of Barca 

 and Tripoli ; the ifland of Cyprus ; Bithynia ; Paphla- 

 goma ; the countries about the Propontis and Pontus. 



III. The fourteen diocefes or departments under the 

 immediate authority of the emperor were as follow : Hif- 

 pania ; Lufitania ; Celtiberia ; Aquitania ; the mod im- 

 portant parts of Gallia and Belgica ; Nerica, Vindelicia, 

 and Rhaetia ; Maefia, comprehending Dardania, Dacia, and 

 Thrace; Dalmatia, and part of Illyria; the Maritime 

 Alps; Cilicia, Ifauria, and Lycaonia ; Galatia, Pamphylia, 

 and Pifidia ; Syria, Little Armenia, Mefopotamia, and all 

 the eailern parts of the empire ; Egypt, and part of 

 Arabia ; Italy, from the ifland of Sicily to the Alps. 



Nerva, who fucceeded Domitian, had fcarcely accepted 

 the fovereign power from the murderers of that emperor, 

 before he difcovered that he was too aged and infirm to flem 

 thetorrent of public difirders, which had multiplied to an 

 alarming degree under the long tyranny of his predeceffor. 

 His mild difpofition was highly refpefted by the virtuous, 

 but was treated with great contempt by the guilty. Though 

 he had relations of his own, yet he adopted for his fucceffor 

 a llranger, Trajan, who had commanded with wifdom and 

 fuccefs a powerful army in Lower Germany, and immedi- 

 ately, by a decree of the fenate, declared him his colleague 

 and fucceffor in the empire. Nerva died 111 fixteen months 

 after his elevation to the throne. 



Trajan poffeffed every talent and every virtue that can 

 adorn a fovereign. As a warrior, he raifed the Roman 

 arms to their ancient fplendour, and greatly enlarged the 



boundaries 



