[1: There had been no example of three successive
generations on the throne; only three instances of sons who
succeeded their fathers. The marriages of the Caesars
(notwithstanding the permission, and the frequent practice of
divorces) were generally unfruitful.]
[2: Hist. August p. 138.]
[3: Hist. August. p. 140. Herodian, l. vi. p. 223.
Aurelius Victor. By comparing these authors, it should seem that
Maximin had the particular command of the Tribellian horse, with
the general commission of disciplining the recruits of the whole
army. His biographer ought to have marked, with more care, his
exploits, and the successive steps of his military promotions.]
[4: See the original letter of Alexander Severus, Hist.
August. p. 149.]
[5: Hist. August. p. 135. I have softened some of the
most improbable circumstances of this wretched biographer. From
his ill-worded narration, it should seem that the prince's
buffoon having accidentally entered the tent, and awakened the
slumbering monarch, the fear of punishment urged him to persuade
the disaffected soldiers to commit the murder.]
[6: Herodian, l. vi. 223-227.]
[7: Caligula, the eldest of the four, was only
twenty-five years of age when he ascended the throne; Caracalla
was twenty-three, Commodus nineteen, and Nero no more than
seventeen.]
[8: It appears that he was totally ignorant of the Greek
language; which, from its universal use in conversation and
letters, was an essential part of every liberal education.]
[9: Hist. August. p. 141. Herodian, l. vii. p. 237.
The latter of these historians has been most unjustly censured
for sparing the vices of Maximin.]
[10: The wife of Maximin, by insinuating wise counsels
with female gentleness, sometimes brought back the tyrant to the
way of truth and humanity. See Ammianus Marcellinus, l. xiv. c.
l, where he alludes to the fact which he had more fully related
under the reign of the Gordians. We may collect from the medals,
that Paullina was the name of this benevolent empress; and from
the title of Diva, that she died before Maximin. (Valesius ad
loc. cit. Ammian.) Spanheim de U. et P. N. tom. ii. p. 300.
Note: If we may believe Syrcellus and Zonaras, in was
Maximin himself who ordered her death - G]
[11: He was compared to Spartacus and Athenio. Hist.
August p. 141.]
[12: Herodian, l. vii. p. 238. Zosim. l. i. p. 15.]
[13: In the fertile territory of Byzacium, one hundred
and fifty miles to the south of Carthage. This city was
decorated, probably by the Gordians, with the title of colony,
and with a fine amphitheatre, which is still in a very perfect
state. See Intinerar. Wesseling, p. 59; and Shaw's Travels, p.
117.]
[14: Herodian, l. vii. p. 239. Hist. August. p. 153.]
[15: Hist. Aug. p. 152. The celebrated house of Pompey
in carinis was usurped by Marc Antony, and consequently became,
after the Triumvir's death, a part of the Imperial domain. The
emperor Trajan allowed, and even encouraged, the rich senators to
purchase those magnificent and useless places, (Plin. Panegyric.
c. 50;) and it may seem probable, that, on this occasion,
Pompey's house came into the possession of Gordian's great-
grandfather.]
[16: The Claudian, the Numidian, the Carystian, and the
Synnadian. The colors of Roman marbles have been faintly
described and imperfectly distinguished. It appears, however,
that the Carystian was a sea-green, and that the marble of
Synnada was white mixed with oval spots of purple. See Salmasius
ad Hist. August. p. 164.]
[17: Hist. August. p. 151, 152. He sometimes gave five
hundred pair of gladiators, never less than one hundred and
fifty. He once gave for the use of the circus one hundred
Sicilian, and as many Cappaecian Cappadecian horses. The animals
designed for hunting were chiefly bears, boars, bulls, stags,
elks, wild asses, &c. Elephants and lions seem to have been
appropriated to Imperial magnificence.]
[18: See the original letter, in the Augustan History,
p. 152, which at once shows Alexander's respect for the authority
of the senate, and his esteem for the proconsul appointed by that
assembly.]
[A: Herodian expressly says that he had administered
many provinces, lib. vii. 10. - W.]
[19: By each of his concubines, the younger Gordian left
three or four children. His literary productions, though less
numerous, were by no means contemptible.]
[B: Not the personal likeness, but the family descent
from the Scipiod. - W.]
[20: Herodian, l. vii. p. 243. Hist. August. p. 144.]
[21: Quod. tamen patres dum periculosum existimant;
inermes armato esistere approbaverunt. - Aurelius Victor.]
[22: Even the servants of the house, the scribes, &c.,
were excluded, and their office was filled by the senators
themselves. We are obliged to the Augustan History. p. 159, for
preserving this curious example of the old discipline of the
commonwealth.]
[23: This spirited speech, translated from the Augustan
historian, p. 156, seems transcribed by him from the origina
registers of the senate]
[24: Herodian, l. vii. p. 244]
[25: Herodian, l. vii. p. 247, l. viii. p. 277. Hist. August. p
156-158.]
[26: Herodian, l. vii. p. 254. Hist. August. p.
150-160. We may observe, that one month and six days, for the
reign of Gordian, is a just correction of Casaubon and Panvinius,
instead of the absurd reading of one year and six months. See
Commentar. p. 193. Zosimus relates, l. i. p. 17, that the two
Gordians perished by a tempest in the midst of their navigation.
A strange ignorance of history, or a strange abuse of metaphors!]
[27: See the Augustan History, p. 166, from the
registers of the senate; the date is confessedly faulty but the
coincidence of the Apollinatian games enables us to correct it.]
[28: He was descended from Cornelius Balbus, a noble
Spaniard, and the adopted son of Theophanes, the Greek historian.
Balbus obtained the freedom of Rome by the favor of Pompey, and
preserved it by the eloquence of Cicero. (See Orat. pro Cornel.
Balbo.) The friendship of Caesar, (to whom he rendered the most
important secret services in the civil war) raised him to the
consulship and the pontificate, honors never yet possessed by a
stranger. The nephew of this Balbus triumphed over the
Garamantes. See Dictionnaire de Bayle, au mot Balbus, where he
distinguishes the several persons of that name, and rectifies,
with his usual accuracy, the mistakes of former writers
concerning them.]
[29: Zonaras, l. xii. p. 622. But little dependence is
to be had on the authority of a modern Greek, so grossly ignorant
of the history of the third century, that he creates several
imaginary emperors, and confounds those who really existed.]
[30: Herodian, l. vii. p. 256, supposes that the senate
was at first convoked in the Capitol, and is very eloquent on the
occasion. The Augustar History p. 116, seems much more
authentic.]
[C: According to some, the son. - G.]
[31: In Herodian, l. vii. p. 249, and in the Augustan
History, we have three several orations of Maximin to his army,
on the rebellion of Africa and Rome: M. de Tillemont has very
justly observed that they neither agree with each other nor with
truth. Histoire des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 799.]
[32: The carelessness of the writers of that age, leaves
us in a singular perplexity. 1. We know that Maximus and
Balbinus were killed during the Capitoline games. Herodian, l.
viii. p. 285. The authority of Censorinus (de Die Natali, c. 18)
enables us to fix those games with certainty to the year 238, but
leaves us in ignorance of the month or day. 2. The election of
Gordian by the senate is fixed with equal certainty to the 27th
of May; but we are at a loss to discover whether it was in the
same or the preceding year. Tillemont and Muratori, who maintain
the two opposite opinions, bring into the field a desultory troop
of authorities, conjectures and probabilities. The one seems to
draw out, the other to contract the series of events between
those periods, more than can be well reconciled to reason and
history. Yet it is necessary to choose between them.
Note: Eckhel has more recently treated these chronological
questions with a perspicuity which gives great probability to his
conclusions. Setting aside all the historians, whose
contradictions are irreconcilable, he has only consulted the
medals, and has arranged the events before us in the following
order: -
Maximin, A. U. 990, after having conquered the Germans,
reenters Pannonia, establishes his winter quarters at Sirmium,
and prepares himself to make war against the people of the North.
In the year 991, in the cal ends of January, commences his fourth
tribunate. The Gordians are chosen emperors in Africa, probably
at the beginning of the month of March. The senate confirms this
election with joy, and declares Maximin the enemy of Rome. Five
days after he had heard of this revolt, Maximin sets out from
Sirmium on his march to Italy. These events took place about the
beginning of April; a little after, the Gordians are slain in
Africa by Capellianus, procurator of Mauritania. The senate, in
its alarm, names as emperors Balbus and Maximus Pupianus, and
intrusts the latter with the war against Maximin. Maximin is
stopped on his road near Aquileia, by the want of provisions, and
by the melting of the snows: he begins the siege of Aquileia at
the end of April. Pupianus assembles his army at Ravenna.
Maximin and his son are assassinated by the soldiers enraged at
the resistance of Aquileia: and this was probably in the middle
of May. Pupianus returns to Rome, and assumes the government
with Balbinus; they are assassinated towards the end of July
Gordian the younger ascends the throne. Eckhel de Doct. Vol vii
295. - G.]
[33: Velleius Paterculus, l. ii. c. 24. The president
de Montesquieu (in his dialogue between Sylla and Eucrates)
expresses the sentiments of the dictator in a spirited, and even
a sublime manner.]
[34: Muratori (Annali d' Italia, tom. ii. p. 294) thinks
the melting of the snows suits better with the months of June or
July, than with those of February. The opinion of a man who
passed his life between the Alps and the Apennines, is
undoubtedly of great weight; yet I observe, 1. That the long
winter, of which Muratori takes advantage, is to be found only in
the Latin version, and not in the Greek text of Herodian. 2.
That the vicissitudes of suns and rains, to which the soldiers of
Maximin were exposed, (Herodian, l. viii. p. 277,) denote the
spring rather than the summer. We may observe, likewise, that
these several streams, as they melted into one, composed the
Timavus, so poetically (in every sense of the word) described by
Virgil. They are about twelve miles to the east of Aquileia. See
Cluver. Italia Antiqua, tom. i. p. 189, &c.]
[35: Herodian, l. viii. p. 272. The Celtic deity was
supposed to be Apollo, and received under that name the thanks of
the senate. A temple was likewise built to Venus the Bald, in
honor of the women of Aquileia, who had given up their hair to
make ropes for the military engines.]
[36: Herodian, l. viii. p. 279. Hist. August. p. 146.
The duration of Maximin's reign has not been defined with much
accuracy, except by Eutropius, who allows him three years and a
few days, (l. ix. 1;) we may depend on the integrity of the text,
as the Latin original is checked by the Greek version of
Paeanius.]
[37: Eight Roman feet and one third, which are equal to
above eight English feet, as the two measures are to each other
in the proportion of 967 to 1000. See Graves's discourse on the
Roman foot. We are told that Maximin could drink in a day an
amphora (or about seven gallons) of wine, and eat thirty or forty
pounds of meat. He could move a loaded wagon, break a horse's
leg with his fist, crumble stones in his hand, and tear up small
trees by the roots. See his life in the Augustan History.]
[38: See the congratulatory letter of Claudius Julianus,
the consul to the two emperors, in the Augustan History.]
[39: Hist. August. p. 171.]
[40: Herodian, l. viii. p. 258.]
[41: Herodian, l. viii. p. 213.]
[42: The observation had been made imprudently enough in
the acclamations of the senate, and with regard to the soldiers
it carried the appearance of a wanton insult. Hist. August. p.
170.]
[43: Discordiae tacitae, et quae intelligerentur potius
quam viderentur. Hist. August. p. 170. This well-chosen
expression is probably stolen from some better writer.]
[44: Herodian, l. viii. p. 287, 288.]
[45: Quia non alius erat in praesenti, is the expression
of the Augustan History.]
[46: Quintus Curtius (l. x. c. 9,) pays an elegant
compliment to the emperor of the day, for having, by his happy
accession, extinguished so many firebrands, sheathed so many
swords, and put an end to the evils of a divided government.
After weighing with attention every word of the passage, I am of
opinion, that it suits better with the elevation of Gordian, than
with any other period of the Roman history. In that case, it may
serve to decide the age of Quintus Curtius. Those who place him
under the first Caesars, argue from the purity of his style but
are embarrassed by the silence of Quintilian, in his accurate
list of Roman historians.
Note: This conjecture of Gibbon is without foundation. Many
passages in the work of Quintus Curtius clearly place him at an
earlier period. Thus, in speaking of the Parthians, he says,
Hinc in Parthicum perventum est, tunc ignobilem gentem: nunc
caput omnium qui post Euphratem et Tigrim amnes siti Rubro mari
terminantur. The Parthian empire had this extent only in the
first age of the vulgar aera: to that age, therefore, must be
assigned the date of Quintus Curtius. Although the critics (says
M. de Sainte Croix) have multiplied conjectures on this subject,
most of them have ended by adopting the opinion which places
Quintus Curtius under the reign of Claudius. See Just. Lips. ad
Ann. Tac. ii. 20. Michel le Tellier Praef. in Curt. Tillemont
Hist. des Emp. i. p. 251. Du Bos Reflections sur la Poesie, 2d
Partie. Tiraboschi Storia della, Lett. Ital. ii. 149. Examen.
crit. des Historiens d'Alexandre, 2d ed. p. 104, 849, 850. - G.
This interminable question seems as much perplexed as ever.
The first argument of M. Guizot is a strong one, except that
Parthian is often used by later writers for Persian. Cunzius, in
his preface to an edition published at Helmstadt, (1802,)
maintains the opinion of Bagnolo, which assigns Q. Curtius to the
time of Constantine the Great. Schmieder, in his edit. Gotting.
1803, sums up in this sentence, aetatem Curtii ignorari pala
mest. - M.]
[47: Hist. August. p. 161. From some hints in the two
letters, I should expect that the eunuchs were not expelled the
palace without some degree of gentle violence, and that the young
Gordian rather approved of, than consented to, their disgrace.]
[48: Duxit uxorem filiam Misithei, quem causa
eloquentiae dignum parentela sua putavit; et praefectum statim
fecit; post quod, non puerile jam et contemptibile videbatur
imperium.]
[49: Hist. August. p. 162. Aurelius Victor. Porphyrius
in Vit Plotin. ap. Fabricium, Biblioth. Graec. l. iv. c. 36.
The philosopher Plotinus accompanied the army, prompted by the
love of knowledge, and by the hope of penetrating as far as
India.]
[50: About twenty miles from the little town of
Circesium, on the frontier of the two empires.
Note: Now Kerkesia; placed in the angle formed by the
juncture of the Chaboras, or al Khabour, with the Euphrates.
This situation appeared advantageous to Diocletian, that he
raised fortifications to make it the but wark of the empire on
the side of Mesopotamia. D'Anville. Geog. Anc. ii. 196. - G. It
is the Carchemish of the Old Testament, 2 Chron. xxxv. 20. ler.
xlvi. 2. - M.]
[51: The inscription (which contained a very singular
pun) was erased by the order of Licinius, who claimed some degree
of relationship to Philip, (Hist. August. p. 166;) but the
tumulus, or mound of earth which formed the sepulchre, still
subsisted in the time of Julian. See Ammian Marcellin. xxiii.
5.]
[52: Aurelius Victor. Eutrop. ix. 2. Orosius, vii. 20.
Ammianus Marcellinus, xxiii. 5. Zosimus, l. i. p. 19. Philip,
who was a native of Bostra, was about forty years of age.
Note: Now Bosra. It was once the metropolis of a province
named Arabia, and the chief city of Auranitis, of which the name
is preserved in Beled Hauran, the limits of which meet the
desert. D'Anville. Geog. Anc. ii. 188. According to Victor, (in
Caesar.,) Philip was a native of Tracbonitis another province of
Arabia. - G.]
[53: Can the epithet of Aristocracy be applied, with any
propriety, to the government of Algiers? Every military
government floats between two extremes of absolute monarchy and
wild democracy.]
[54: The military republic of the Mamelukes in Egypt
would have afforded M. de Montesquieu (see Considerations sur la
Grandeur et la Decadence des Romains, c. 16) a juster and more
noble parallel.]
[55: The Augustan History (p. 163, 164) cannot, in this
instance, be reconciled with itself or with probability. How
could Philip condemn his predecessor, and yet consecrate his
memory? How could he order his public execution, and yet, in his
letters to the senate, exculpate himself from the guilt of his
death? Philip, though an ambitious usurper, was by no means a
mad tyrant. Some chronological difficulties have likewise been
discovered by the nice eyes of Tillemont and Muratori, in this
supposed association of Philip to the empire.
Note: Wenck endeavors to reconcile these discrepancies. He
supposes that Gordian was led away, and died a natural death in
prison. This is directly contrary to the statement of
Capitolinus and of Zosimus, whom he adduces in support of his
theory. He is more successful in his precedents of usurpers
deifying the victims of their ambition. Sit divus, dummodo non
sit vivus. - M.]
[56: The account of the last supposed celebration,
though in an enlightened period of history, was so very doubtful
and obscure, that the alternative seems not doubtful. When the
popish jubilees, the copy of the secular games, were invented by
Boniface VII., the crafty pope pretended that he only revived an
ancient institution. See M. le Chais, Lettres sur les Jubiles.]
[57: Either of a hundred or a hundred and ten years.
Varro and Livy adopted the former opinion, but the infallible
authority of the Sybil consecrated the latter, (Censorinus de Die
Natal. c. 17.) The emperors Claudius and Philip, however, did not
treat the oracle with implicit respect.]
[58: The idea of the secular games is best understood
from the poem of Horace, and the description of Zosimus, 1. l.
ii. p. 167, &c.]