Chapter I: The Extent Of The Empire In The Age
Of The Antoninies.—Part I.
Introduction— The Extent And Military Force Of The
Empire In
The Age Of The Antonines.
In the second century of the Christian Æra, the
empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the
most civilized portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive
monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valor. The
gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually
cemented the union of the provinces. Their peaceful inhabitants
enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury. The image
of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence: the
Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and
devolved on the emperors all the executive powers of government.
During a happy period of more than fourscore years, the public
administration was conducted by the virtue and abilities of Nerva,
Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines. It is the design of this,
and of the two succeeding chapters, to describe the prosperous
condition of their empire; and after wards, from the death of
Marcus Antoninus, to deduce the most important circumstances of its
decline and fall; a revolution which will ever be remembered, and
is still felt by the nations of the earth.
The principal conquests of the Romans were achieved
under the republic; and the emperors, for the most part, were
satisfied with preserving those dominions which had been acquired
by the policy of the senate, the active emulations of the consuls,
and the martial enthusiasm of the people. The seven first centuries
were filled with a rapid succession of triumphs; but it was
reserved for Augustus to relinquish the ambitious design of
subduing the whole earth, and to introduce a spirit of moderation
into the public councils. Inclined to peace by his temper and
situation, it was easy for him to discover that Rome, in her
present exalted situation, had much less to hope than to fear from
the chance of arms; and that, in the prosecution of remote wars,
the undertaking became every day more difficult, the event more
doubtful, and the possession more precarious, and less beneficial.
The experience of Augustus added weight to these salutary
reflections, and effectually convinced him that, by the prudent
vigor of his counsels, it would be easy to secure every concession
which the safety or the dignity of Rome might require from the most
formidable barbarians. Instead of exposing his person and his
legions to the arrows of the Parthians, he obtained, by an
honorable treaty, the restitution of the standards and prisoners
which had been taken in the defeat of Crassus.
His generals, in the early part of his reign,
attempted the reduction of Ethiopia and Arabia Felix. They marched
near a thousand miles to the south of the tropic; but the heat of
the climate soon repelled the invaders, and protected the
un-warlike natives of those sequestered regions. The northern
countries of Europe scarcely deserved the expense and labor of
conquest. The forests and morasses of Germany were filled with a
hardy race of barbarians, who despised life when it was separated
from freedom; and though, on the first attack, they seemed to yield
to the weight of the Roman power, they soon, by a signal act of
despair, regained their independence, and reminded Augustus of the
vicissitude of fortune. On the death of that emperor, his testament
was publicly read in the senate. He bequeathed, as a valuable
legacy to his successors, the advice of confining the empire within
those limits which nature seemed to have placed as its permanent
bulwarks and boundaries: on the west, the Atlantic Ocean; the Rhine
and Danube on the north; the Euphrates on the east; and towards the
south, the sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa.
Happily for the repose of mankind, the moderate
system recommended by the wisdom of Augustus, was adopted by the
fears and vices of his immediate successors. Engaged in the pursuit
of pleasure, or in the exercise of tyranny, the first Cæsars seldom
showed themselves to the armies, or to the provinces; nor were they
disposed to suffer, that those triumphs which their
indolence neglected, should be usurped by the conduct and valor of
their lieutenants. The military fame of a subject was considered as
an insolent invasion of the Imperial prerogative; and it became the
duty, as well as interest, of every Roman general, to guard the
frontiers intrusted to his care, without aspiring to conquests
which might have proved no less fatal to himself than to the
vanquished barbarians.
The only accession which the Roman empire received,
during the first century of the Christian Æra, was the province of
Britain. In this single instance, the successors of Cæsar and
Augustus were persuaded to follow the example of the former, rather
than the precept of the latter. The proximity of its situation to
the coast of Gaul seemed to invite their arms; the pleasing though
doubtful intelligence of a pearl fishery, attracted their avarice;
and as Britain was viewed in the light of a distinct and insulated
world, the conquest scarcely formed any exception to the general
system of continental measures. After a war of about forty years,
undertaken by the most stupid, maintained by the most dissolute,
and terminated by the most timid of all the emperors, the far
greater part of the island submitted to the Roman yoke. The various
tribes of Britain possessed valor without conduct, and the love of
freedom without the spirit of union. They took up arms with savage
fierceness; they laid them down, or turned them against each other,
with wild inconsistency; and while they fought singly, they were
successively subdued. Neither the fortitude of Caractacus, nor the
despair of Boadicea, nor the fanaticism of the Druids, could avert
the slavery of their country, or resist the steady progress of the
Imperial generals, who maintained the national glory, when the
throne was disgraced by the weakest, or the most vicious of
mankind. At the very time when Domitian, confined to his palace,
felt the terrors which he inspired, his legions, under the command
of the virtuous Agricola, defeated the collected force of the
Caledonians, at the foot of the Grampian Hills; and his fleets,
venturing to explore an unknown and dangerous navigation, displayed
the Roman arms round every part of the island. The conquest of
Britain was considered as already achieved; and it was the design
of Agricola to complete and insure his success, by the easy
reduction of Ireland, for which, in his opinion, one legion and a
few auxiliaries were sufficient. The western isle might be improved
into a valuable possession, and the Britons would wear their chains
with the less reluctance, if the prospect and example of freedom
were on every side removed from before their eyes.
But the superior merit of Agricola soon occasioned
his removal from the government of Britain; and forever
disappointed this rational, though extensive scheme of conquest.
Before his departure, the prudent general had provided for security
as well as for dominion. He had observed, that the island is almost
divided into two unequal parts by the opposite gulfs, or, as they
are now called, the Friths of Scotland. Across the narrow interval
of about forty miles, he had drawn a line of military stations,
which was afterwards fortified, in the reign of Antoninus Pius, by
a turf rampart, erected on foundations of stone. This wall of
Antoninus, at a small distance beyond the modern cities of
Edinburgh and Glasgow, was fixed as the limit of the Roman
province. The native Caledonians preserved, in the northern
extremity of the island, their wild independence, for which they
were not less indebted to their poverty than to their valor. Their
incursions were frequently repelled and chastised; but their
country was never subdued. The masters of the fairest and most
wealthy climates of the globe turned with contempt from gloomy
hills, assailed by the winter tempest, from lakes concealed in a
blue mist, and from cold and lonely heaths, over which the deer of
the forest were chased by a troop of naked barbarians.
Such was the state of the Roman frontiers, and such
the maxims of Imperial policy, from the death of Augustus to the
accession of Trajan. That virtuous and active prince had received
the education of a soldier, and possessed the talents of a general.
The peaceful system of his predecessors was interrupted by scenes
of war and conquest; and the legions, after a long interval, beheld
a military emperor at their head. The first exploits of Trajan were
against the Dacians, the most warlike of men, who dwelt beyond the
Danube, and who, during the reign of Domitian, had insulted, with
impunity, the Majesty of Rome. To the strength and fierceness of
barbarians they added a contempt for life, which was derived from a
warm persuasion of the immortality and transmigration of the soul.
Decebalus, the Dacian king, approved himself a rival not unworthy
of Trajan; nor did he despair of his own and the public fortune,
till, by the confession of his enemies, he had exhausted every
resource both of valor and policy. This memorable war, with a very
short suspension of hostilities, lasted five years; and as the
emperor could exert, without control, the whole force of the state,
it was terminated by an absolute submission of the barbarians. The
new province of Dacia, which formed a second exception to the
precept of Augustus, was about thirteen hundred miles in
circumference. Its natural boundaries were the Niester, the Teyss
or Tibiscus, the Lower Danube, and the Euxine Sea. The vestiges of
a military road may still be traced from the banks of the Danube to
the neighborhood of Bender, a place famous in modern history, and
the actual frontier of the Turkish and Russian empires.
Trajan was ambitious of fame; and as long as mankind
shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers
than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever
be the vice of the most exalted characters. The praises of
Alexander, transmitted by a succession of poets and historians, had
kindled a dangerous emulation in the mind of Trajan. Like him, the
Roman emperor undertook an expedition against the nations of the
East; but he lamented with a sigh, that his advanced age scarcely
left him any hopes of equalling the renown of the son of Philip.
Yet the success of Trajan, however transient, was rapid and
specious. The degenerate Parthians, broken by intestine discord,
fled before his arms. He descended the River Tigris in triumph,
from the mountains of Armenia to the Persian Gulf. He enjoyed the
honor of being the first, as he was the last, of the Roman
generals, who ever navigated that remote sea. His fleets ravaged
the coast of Arabia; and Trajan vainly flattered himself that he
was approaching towards the confines of India. Every day the
astonished senate received the intelligence of new names and new
nations, that acknowledged his sway. They were informed that the
kings of Bosphorus, Colchos, Iberia, Albania, Osrhoene, and even
the Parthian monarch himself, had accepted their diadems from the
hands of the emperor; that the independent tribes of the Median and
Carduchian hills had implored his protection; and that the rich
countries of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, were reduced into
the state of provinces. But the death of Trajan soon clouded the
splendid prospect; and it was justly to be dreaded, that so many
distant nations would throw off the unaccustomed yoke, when they
were no longer restrained by the powerful hand which had imposed
it.
Chapter I: The Extent Of The Empire In The Age Of The Antoninies.—Part II.
It was an ancient tradition, that when the Capitol was founded by one of the Roman kings, the god Terminus (who presided over boundaries, and was represented, according to the fashion of that age, by a large stone) alone, among all the inferior deities, refused to yield his place to Jupiter himself. A favorable inference was drawn from his obstinacy, which was interpreted by the augurs as a sure presage that the boundaries of the Roman power would never recede. During many ages, the prediction, as it is usual, contributed to its own accomplishment. But though Terminus had resisted the Majesty of Jupiter, he submitted to the authority of the emperor Hadrian. The resignation of all the eastern conquests of Trajan was the first measure of his reign. He restored to the Parthians the election of an independent sovereign; withdrew the Roman garrisons from the provinces of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria; and, in compliance with the precept of Augustus, once more established the Euphrates as the frontier of the empire. Censure, which arraigns the public actions and the private motives of princes, has ascribed to envy, a conduct which might be attributed to the prudence and moderation of Hadrian. The various character of that emperor, capable, by turns, of the meanest and the most generous sentiments, may afford some color to the suspicion. It was, however, scarcely in his power to place the superiority of his predecessor in a more conspicuous light, than by thus confessing himself unequal to the task of defending the conquests of Trajan.
The martial and ambitious of spirit Trajan formed a very singular contrast with the moderation of his successor. The restless activity of Hadrian was not less remarkable when compared with the gentle repose of Antoninus Pius. The life of the former was almost a perpetual journey; and as he possessed the various talents of the soldier, the statesman, and the scholar, he gratified his curiosity in the discharge of his duty. Careless of the difference of seasons and of climates, he marched on foot, and bare-headed, over the snows of Caledonia, and the sultry plains of the Upper Egypt; nor was there a province of the empire which, in the course of his reign, was not honored with the presence of the monarch. But the tranquil life of Antoninus Pius was spent in the bosom of Italy, and, during the twenty-three years that he directed the public administration, the longest journeys of that amiable prince extended no farther than from his palace in Rome to the retirement of his Lanuvian villa.
Notwithstanding this difference in their personal conduct, the general system of Augustus was equally adopted and uniformly pursued by Hadrian and by the two Antonines. They persisted in the design of maintaining the dignity of the empire, without attempting to enlarge its limits. By every honorable expedient they invited the friendship of the barbarians; and endeavored to convince mankind that the Roman power, raised above the temptation of conquest, was actuated only by the love of order and justice. During a long period of forty-three years, their virtuous labors were crowned with success; and if we except a few slight hostilities, that served to exercise the legions of the frontier, the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius offer the fair prospect of universal peace. The Roman name was revered among the most remote nations of the earth. The fiercest barbarians frequently submitted their differences to the arbitration of the emperor; and we are informed by a contemporary historian that he had seen ambassadors who were refused the honor which they came to solicit of being admitted into the rank of subjects.
The terror of the Roman arms added weight and dignity to the moderation of the emperors. They preserved peace by a constant preparation for war; and while justice regulated their conduct, they announced to the nations on their confines, that they were as little disposed to endure, as to offer an injury. The military strength, which it had been sufficient for Hadrian and the elder Antoninus to display, was exerted against the Parthians and the Germans by the emperor Marcus. The hostilities of the barbarians provoked the resentment of that philosophic monarch, and, in the prosecution of a just defence, Marcus and his generals obtained many signal victories, both on the Euphrates and on the Danube. The military establishment of the Roman empire, which thus assured either its tranquillity or success, will now become the proper and important object of our attention.
In the purer ages of the commonwealth, the use of arms was reserved for those ranks of citizens who had a country to love, a property to defend, and some share in enacting those laws, which it was their interest as well as duty to maintain. But in proportion as the public freedom was lost in extent of conquest, war was gradually improved into an art, and degraded into a trade. The legions themselves, even at the time when they were recruited in the most distant provinces, were supposed to consist of Roman citizens. That distinction was generally considered, either as a legal qualification or as a proper recompense for the soldier; but a more serious regard was paid to the essential merit of age, strength, and military stature. In all levies, a just preference was given to the climates of the North over those of the South: the race of men born to the exercise of arms was sought for in the country rather than in cities; and it was very reasonably presumed, that the hardy occupations of smiths, carpenters, and huntsmen, would supply more vigor and resolution than the sedentary trades which are employed in the service of luxury. After every qualification of property had been laid aside, the armies of the Roman emperors were still commanded, for the most part, by officers of liberal birth and education; but the common soldiers, like the mercenary troops of modern Europe, were drawn from the meanest, and very frequently from the most profligate, of mankind.
That public virtue, which among the ancients was denominated patriotism, is derived from a strong sense of our own interest in the preservation and prosperity of the free government of which we are members. Such a sentiment, which had rendered the legions of the republic almost invincible, could make but a very feeble impression on the mercenary servants of a despotic prince; and it became necessary to supply that defect by other motives, of a different, but not less forcible nature— honor and religion. The peasant, or mechanic, imbibed the useful prejudice that he was advanced to the more dignified profession of arms, in which his rank and reputation would depend on his own valor; and that, although the prowess of a private soldier must often escape the notice of fame, his own behavior might sometimes confer glory or disgrace on the company, the legion, or even the army, to whose honors he was associated. On his first entrance into the service, an oath was administered to him with every circumstance of solemnity. He promised never to desert his standard, to submit his own will to the commands of his leaders, and to sacrifice his life for the safety of the emperor and the empire. The attachment of the Roman troops to their standards was inspired by the united influence of religion and of honor. The golden eagle, which glittered in the front of the legion, was the object of their fondest devotion; nor was it esteemed less impious than it was ignominious, to abandon that sacred ensign in the hour of danger. These motives, which derived their strength from the imagination, were enforced by fears and hopes of a more substantial kind. Regular pay, occasional donatives, and a stated recompense, after the appointed time of service, alleviated the hardships of the military life, whilst, on the other hand, it was impossible for cowardice or disobedience to escape the severest punishment. The centurions were authorized to chastise with blows, the generals had a right to punish with death; and it was an inflexible maxim of Roman discipline, that a good soldier should dread his officers far more than the enemy. From such laudable arts did the valor of the Imperial troops receive a degree of firmness and docility unattainable by the impetuous and irregular passions of barbarians.
And yet so sensible were the Romans of the imperfection of valor without skill and practice, that, in their language, the name of an army was borrowed from the word which signified exercise. Military exercises were the important and unremitted object of their discipline. The recruits and young soldiers were constantly trained, both in the morning and in the evening, nor was age or knowledge allowed to excuse the veterans from the daily repetition of what they had completely learnt. Large sheds were erected in the winter-quarters of the troops, that their useful labors might not receive any interruption from the most tempestuous weather; and it was carefully observed, that the arms destined to this imitation of war, should be of double the weight which was required in real action. It is not the purpose of this work to enter into any minute description of the Roman exercises. We shall only remark, that they comprehended whatever could add strength to the body, activity to the limbs, or grace to the motions. The soldiers were diligently instructed to march, to run, to leap, to swim, to carry heavy burdens, to handle every species of arms that was used either for offence or for defence, either in distant engagement or in a closer onset; to form a variety of evolutions; and to move to the sound of flutes in the Pyrrhic or martial dance. In the midst of peace, the Roman troops familiarized themselves with the practice of war; and it is prettily remarked by an ancient historian who had fought against them, that the effusion of blood was the only circumstance which distinguished a field of battle from a field of exercise. ^39 It was the policy of the ablest generals, and even of the emperors themselves, to encourage these military studies by their presence and example; and we are informed that Hadrian, as well as Trajan, frequently condescended to instruct the unexperienced soldiers, to reward the diligent, and sometimes to dispute with them the prize of superior strength or dexterity. Under the reigns of those princes, the science of tactics was cultivated with success; and as long as the empire retained any vigor, their military instructions were respected as the most perfect model of Roman discipline.
Nine centuries of war had gradually introduced into the service many alterations and improvements. The legions, as they are described by Polybius, in the time of the Punic wars, differed very materially from those which achieved the victories of Cæsar, or defended the monarchy of Hadrian and the Antonines. The constitution of the Imperial legion may be described in a few words. The heavy-armed infantry, which composed its principal strength, was divided into ten cohorts, and fifty-five companies, under the orders of a correspondent number of tribunes and centurions. The first cohort, which always claimed the post of honor and the custody of the eagle, was formed of eleven hundred and five soldiers, the most approved for valor and fidelity. The remaining nine cohorts consisted each of five hundred and fifty-five; and the whole body of legionary infantry amounted to six thousand one hundred men. Their arms were uniform, and admirably adapted to the nature of their service: an open helmet, with a lofty crest; a breastplate, or coat of mail; greaves on their legs, and an ample buckler on their left arm. The buckler was of an oblong and concave figure, four feet in length, and two and a half in breadth, framed of a light wood, covered with a bull's hide, and strongly guarded with plates of brass. Besides a lighter spear, the legionary soldier grasped in his right hand the formidable pilum, a ponderous javelin, whose utmost length was about six feet, and which was terminated by a massy triangular point of steel of eighteen inches. This instrument was indeed much inferior to our modern fire-arms; since it was exhausted by a single discharge, at the distance of only ten or twelve paces. Yet when it was launched by a firm and skilful hand, there was not any cavalry that durst venture within its reach, nor any shield or corselet that could sustain the impetuosity of its weight. As soon as the Roman had darted his pilum, he drew his sword, and rushed forwards to close with the enemy. His sword was a short well-tempered Spanish blade, that carried a double edge, and was alike suited to the purpose of striking or of...