chapter 24

).] so-called, in Sabine territory. Some, who endeavor falsely to incriminate Titus (among them the emperor Hadrian) have spread a report that he was poisoned at a banquet. Portents had occurred in his career indicating his approaching end, such as the comet star which was seen for a considerable period and the opening of the monument of Augustus of its own accord. When the sick man's physician chided him for continuing his usual course of living and attending to all the duties that belonged to his office, he answered: "The emperor ought to die on his feet." To those who said anything to him about the comet he responded: "This is an omen not for me but for the Parthian king. He has flowing hair like the comet, whereas I am baldheaded." When he at length came to the belief that he was to die, he said only: "Now I shall become a god." He had lived to the age of sixty-nine years and eight months. His reign lasted ten years lacking six days. Accordingly, it results that from the death of Nero to Vespasian's becoming emperor a year and twenty-two days elapsed. I have recorded this fact to prevent a misapprehension on the part of any persons who might reckon the time with reference to the men who were in power. They, however, did not legitimately succeed one another, but each of them while his rival was alive and still ruling believed himself to be emperor from the moment that the thought first entered his head. One must not enumerate all the days of their reigns as if those days had followed one after another in orderly succession, but make a single sweeping calculation with the exact time, as I have stated it, in mind.

[Sidenote:--18--] At his death Titus succeeded to the imperial power. Titus as a ruler committed no act of murder or passion, but showed himself upright, though the victim of plots, and self-controlled, though Berenice came to Rome again. Perhaps this was because he had undergone a change. (To share a reign with somebody else is a very different thing from being one's self an independent ruler. In the former case persons are heedless of the good name of the sovereignty and enjoy greedily the authority it gives them, thus doing many things that make their position the object of envy and slander. Actual monarchs, on the other hand, knowing that everything depends on their decision, have some eye to good repute as well as to other matters. So Titus said to somebody whose society he had previously affected: "It is not the same thing to desire something from another as to decide a case yourself, nor to ask something from another as it is to give it to some one yourself.") Perhaps his satisfactory conduct was also due to his surviving so short a time compared with most rulers, for he was thus given little opportunity for wrongdoing. For he lived after this only two years, two months and twenty days in addition to his thirty-nine years, five months and twenty-five days. People compare this feature of Titus's career with the fullness of years of Augustus, and say that the latter would never have won affection if he had lived a shorter time, nor the former, if he had lived longer. Augustus, though at the outset he had shown himself rather harsh because of the wars and the political factions, was able later in the course of time to become distinguished for his kindnesses: Titus ruled with forbearance and died at the summit of his glory, whereas if he had enjoyed a longer life, it might have been proved that he owes his present fame more to good fortune than to virtue.

[Sidenote:--19--] It is worth noting that Titus during his reign put no senator to death, nor was any one else slain by him all the time that he was emperor. Cases involving maiestas he would never entertain himself nor allow others to entertain, for he said: "It is impossible for me to be insulted or outraged in any way. I do naught that deserves censure and I care not for what is falsely reported. As for the emperors that are dead and gone, they will avenge themselves in case any one does them wrong, if in very truth they be heroes and possess some power."--He also made various arrangements to render men more secure and free from trouble. One of these was the posting of a notice confirming all gifts bestowed upon any person by the former emperors. This also enabled him to avoid the nuisance of having people petition him individually about the matter.--Informers he banished from the city.

In money matters he was frugal and sanctioned no unnecessary expenditure, yet he did not punish any one for opposite tendencies.

In his reign also the False Nero appeared, who was an Asiatic and called himself Terentius Maximus. He resembled Nero in form and voice: he even sang to the zither's accompaniment. He gained a few followers in Asia and in his onward progress to the Euphrates he secured a far greater number and at length sought a retreat with Artabanus, the Parthian chief, who, out of the anger that he felt toward Titus, both received the pretender and set about preparations for restoring him to Rome. (Compare John of Antioch, frag. 104 Mueller).

[Sidenote:--20--] Meantime war had again broken out in Britain, and Gnaeus Julius Agricola overran the whole of the hostile region. He was the first of the Romans whom we know to discover that Britain was surrounded by water. Some soldiers had rebelled and after killing centurions and a military tribune had taken refuge in boats. In these they put out to sea and sailed around to the western portion of the country just as the billows and the wind bore them. And without knowing it they came around from the opposite side and stopped at the camps on this side again. At that Agricola sent others to try the voyage around Britain and learned from them, too, that it was an island.

As a result of these events in Britain Titus received the title of imperator for the fifteenth time. Agricola for the rest of his life lived in dishonor and even in want because he had accomplished greater things than a mere general should. Finally he was murdered on this account by Domitian, in spite of having received triumphal honors from Titus.

[Sidenote:--21--] In Campania remarkable and frightful occurrences took place. A great fire was suddenly created just at the end of autumn. It was this way. The mountain Vesuvius stands over against Naples near the sea and has unquenchable springs of fire. Once it was equally high at all points and the fire rose from the center of it. This is the only portion of it that is in a blaze, for the outside parts of the mountain remain even now unkindled. Consequently, as the latter are never burned, while the interior is constantly growing brittle and being reduced to ashes, the surrounding peaks retain their original height to this day, but the whole section that is on fire, as it is consumed in the course of time, has grown hollow from continual collapse. Thus the entire mountain, if we may compare great things to small, resembles a hunting-theatre. The outlying heights of it support both trees and vines,--many of them,--but the crater is given over to fire and sends up smoke by day, flame by night. It looks as if quantities of incense of all sorts were being burned in it. This goes on all the time, sometimes more, sometimes less. Often it throws up ashes, when there is a general settling in the interior, or again it sends up stones when the air forces them out. It echoes and bellows, too, because its vents are not all together but are narrow and hidden.

[Sidenote:--22--] Such is Vesuvius, and these phenomena regularly occur there at least once a year. But all the other happenings that took place in former time, though they may have seemed great and unusual to those who on each occasion observed them, nevertheless would be reckoned as but slight in comparison with what now occurred even though they should all be rolled into one. This was what befell. Numbers of huge men quite surpassing any human stature,--such creatures as giants are depicted to be,--appeared now on the mountain, now in the country surrounding it, and again in the cities, wandering over the earth day and night and also traversing the air. After this fearful droughts and earthquakes sudden and violent occurred, so that all the level ground in that region undulated and the heights gave a great leap. Reverberations were frequent, some subterranean resembling thunder and some on the surface like bellowings. The sea joined the roar and the sky resounded with it. Then suddenly a portentous crash was heard, as if the mountains were tumbling in ruins. And first there were belched forth stones of huge size that rose to the very summits before they fell; after them came a deal of fire and smoke in inexhaustible quantities so that the whole atmosphere was obscured and the whole sun was screened from view as if in an eclipse. [Sidenote:--23--] Thus night succeeded day and darkness light. Some thought the giants were rising in revolt (for even at this time many of their forms could be discerned in the smoke and moreover a kind of sound of trumpets was heard), while others believed that the whole world was disappearing in chaos or fire. Therefore they fled, some from the houses into the streets, others from without into the house; in their confusion, indeed, they hastened from the sea to the land or from the land to the sea, deeming any place at a distance from where they were safer than what was near by. While this was going on an inconceivable amount of ashes was blown out and covered the land and the sea everywhere and filled all the air. It did harm of all sorts, as chance dictated, to men and places and cattle, and the fish and the birds it utterly destroyed. Moreover, it buried two whole cities, Herculaneum and Pompeii, while the populace was seated in the theatre. The entire amount of dust was so great that some of it reached Africa and Syria and Egypt, and it also entered Rome, where it occupied all the air over the city and cast the sun into shadow. There, too, no little fear was felt for several days, since the people did not know and could not conjecture what had happened. They like the rest thought that everything was being turned upside down, that the sun was disappearing in the earth and the earth was bounding up to the sky. This ashes for the time being did them no great harm: later it bred among them a terrible pestilence.

[Sidenote: A.D. 80 (a.u. 833)] [Sidenote:--24--] Another fire, above ground, in the following year spread over a very large portion of Rome while Titus was absent on business connected with the catastrophe that had befallen in Campania. It consumed the temple of Serapis, the temple of Isis, the Saepta, the temple of Neptune, the Baths of Agrippa, the Pantheon, the Diribitorium, the theatre of Balbus, the stage-building of Pompey's theatre, the Octavian buildings together with their books, and the temple of Capitoline Jupiter with its surrounding temples. Hence the disaster seemed to be not of human but of divine contrivance. Any one can estimate from the list of buildings that I have given, how many more must have been destroyed. Titus, accordingly, sent two exconsuls to the Campanians to supervise the founding of settlements and bestowed upon the inhabitants money that came (besides various other sources) from those citizens that had died without heirs. As for himself, he took nothing from individual or city or king, although many kept offering and promising him large sums. In spite of this, he restored everything from funds already at hand. [Sidenote:--25--] Most of his deeds had no unusual quality to mark them, but in dedicating the hunting-theatre and the baths that bear his name he produced many remarkable spectacles. Cranes fought with one another, and four elephants, as well as other grazing animals and wild beasts, to the number of nine thousand, were slaughtered, and women (not of any prominence, however,) took part in despatching them. Of men several fought in single combat and several groups contended together in infantry and naval battles. For Titus filled the above mentioned theatre suddenly with water and introduced horses and bulls and some other tractable creatures that had been taught to behave in the liquid element precisely as upon land. He introduced also human beings on boats. These persons had a sea-fight there, impersonating two parties, Corcyreans and Corinthians: others gave the same performance outside in the grove of Gaius and Lucius, a spot which Augustus had formerly excavated for this very purpose. There, on the first day, a gladiatorial combat and slaughter of beasts took place; this was done by building a structure of planks over the lake that faced the images and placing benches round about it. On the second day there was a horse-race, and on the third a naval battle involving three thousand men. Afterwards there was also an infantry battle. The Athenians conquered the Syracusans (these were the names that were used in the naval battle), made a landing on the islet, and having assaulted a wall constructed around the monument took it. These were the sights offered to spectators, and they lasted for a hundred days.

Titus also contributed some things that were of practical use to the people. He would throw down into the theatre from aloft little wooden balls that had a mark, one signifying something to eat, another clothing, another a silver vessel, or perhaps a gold one, or again horses, pack-animals, cattle, slaves. Those who snatched them had to carry them back to the dispensers of the bounty to secure the article of which the name was inscribed.

[Sidenote: A.D. 81 (a.u. 834)] [Sidenote:--26--] When he had finished this exhibition, he wept so bitterly on the last day that all the people saw him, and after this time he performed no other great deed; but the following year, in the consulship of Flavius [Footnote: L. Flavius Silva Nonius Bassus.] and Pollio, [Footnote: Asinius Pollio Verrucosus.] subsequent to the dedication of the buildings mentioned, he passed away at the same Aquae that was the scene of his father's demise. The common report had it that he was done to death by his brother, for he had previously been the object of that person's plot: but some writers state that a disease carried him off. The tradition is that, while he was still breathing and had a possible chance of recovery, Domitian, to hasten his end, put him in a box packed with a quantity of snow, pretending that the disease required a chill to be administered; and, before his victim was dead, he rode off to Rome, entered the camp, and received the title and authority of emperor, having given the soldiers all that his brother had been wont to give them. Titus, as he expired, said: "I have made but one error." What this was he did not reveal, and no one else feels quite sure about it. Some have conjectured one thing and some another. The prevailing impression, according to one set of historians, is that he referred to keeping his brother's wife, Domitia. Others (whom I am for following) say what he meant was that, after finding Domitian openly plotting against him, he had not killed him, but had chosen rather himself to suffer that fate at his rival's hands and to surrender the government of Rome to a man whose nature will be portrayed in the continuation of my narrative. Titus had ruled for two years, two months, and twenty days, as has been previously stated.

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY 67

Domitian's cruel character: his hatred of his father and brother (chapters 1, 2).

He puts aside Domitia: falls in love with Julia: slays the Vestals ( chapter 3 ).

The German war (chapters 4, 5).

Dacian war with Decebalus (chapters 6, 7).

Domitian's nocturnal spectacles and entertainments (chapters 8, 9).

Events of the Dacian war (