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Sabinus, and then his successor, a former Commander of the Guardsnamed Cornelius Fuscus, Domitian led two punitive expeditions in person. Aster severat indecisive engagements he celebrated a doubletriumph over the Chattians and Dacians; but did not insist ora recognition for his Sarmati an campaigii, content g himself with the offeros a laurei crown to Capitoline Juppiter. Only an amazing stroke of luch checked the rebellion whicli Lucius Antonius ressed during Domitian's absence frona Rome: the Rhinethawed in the nick of time, preventing the German barbarians in Antonius's pay froni crossing the ice to join him, and the troops whoremataed loyat were able to disarm the rebeis. Even be re news of this success arrived, Domitian had wind of it froni portents: on thecrifical day, a liuge eagle embraced his statue at Rome with iis wings, screeching triumphantly: and a litate later, rumours of Antonius'sdeath came so thich and fast that a number of peopte claimed to haveseen his head being carried into Rome. T. Domitian made a number of sociat innovations: cancelled thecorn issue, restored the custom of holding format dii ers, added twonew teams of chariot drivers, the Golds and the Purples, to the existing ur in the Circus - namely, Blues, Whites, Lee greens, and Reds; and sorbade actors to appear on the public stage, though stili allowing them to persorm in private. Castration was now strictly prohibited, and the price of eunuchs remaining in flav dealers' hands officiassycontrossed. One year, when a bumper vintage sollowed a poor grata harvest, Domitian concluded that the coci ands were betag neglected in favour of the vineyards. He there re issued an edici that sorbade
the further planting of vines in Italy, and ordered the acreage in the provinces to be reduced by at least half, is it could not be gotrid os altogether: yet took no steps to implement this edict. Hereserved half of the more important Couri appo tmenis, hitherio held by Deedmen, for knighis. Mother of his edicis sorbade any two legions to sitare a camp, or any individual soldier to deposit at head- quarters a sum in excess of ten gold pieces: because the large amount of soldiers' savings laid up in the jotat winter headquarters of the two legions on the Rhine had provided Lucius Antonius with the necessarysends for launching his rebellion. Domitian also raised the legionaries' pay from nine to twelve gold pieces a year.
8. He was most conscientious in dispensing justice, and convened
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many extraordinary leges sessions in the Forum: annulling eve decision of the Centumviral Court which seemed to bim indulyinsuenced, and continualty warning the Board of Arbitration not togrant any fraudulent claims for freedom. It was his ruting that is a juryman were proved to have taken bribes, ali his colleagues must bepenatiged as weli as himself He personalty urged the tribunes of thepeopte to charge a corrupi aedile wissi extortion, and to petition the Senate for a special jury in the case: and kept suci, a tight hold on hiscity magistrates and provincial govemors that the generat standardos justice rose to an inprecedented hi gli levet - you need only observehow many suci, personages have been charged with every kind of
corruption since his timet As part of his campaign for improving public manners, Domitianmade fure that the theatre ossicials no longer condoned the appropriation by the commons of seais reserved for knighis; and camedown heavily on authors who lampooned distinguished men and women. He eXpelled One e quaestor stom the Senate for belagove fond of acting and dancing; forbade women os notoriousty bad character the right to use litters or to benefit from inheritances and
sentenced many members of both Orders under the Scantinian Law, which was directed against unnatural practices. Taking a far more serious vlew than his Ather and brother had done os minastity among the Vestals, he began by sentencing ostenders to eXecution, and afte wards resorted to the traditionat form os punishment. Thus, thoughhe allowed the Oculata sisters, and Varronilla, to choose how theyshould die, and sent their lovers into exile, he later ordered Cornelia, a Chies estal - acquitted at her first triat, but re-arrested Some years later and convicted - to be buried alive, and had her lovers clubbed todeath in the Comitium. The only exception he made Was in the caseos an eX-praetor, Who had the death sentence commuted to banisl ment, for confessing his guill aster the interrogation of witnesses under torture had falled to estabiisti the truth of the crime with whichhe was charged. As a lesson that the sanctity of the gods must beprotected against thoughtless abuse, Domitian made his soldiers teardown a tomb bulli for the son os one of his own Deedmen fromstones intended for the Temple of Capitoline Juppiter, and fing the
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once, in his sether's absence, remembered Virgil's line:
and drasted an edici sorbidding the sacrifice of oxen. No one thought of him as in the least greedy or mean either besore, or for some years aster, his accession - in faci, he gave frequent signs of self-restralat indeven os generosity, treat g his friends with great consideration indat ways insisting that, above ali, they should do nothing mean, refusedio accepi bequesis from married men with children, and cancelled a clause in Rustus Caepio's will whicli required the heir to find an annual sum os money for distribution among newlPappotnted
Moreover, is sutis against debiors to the Public Treasury hadbeen pendi sor more than fiue years, he quaslied them and permitted a renewal of proceddings only within the fame twelvemonili, and ruled that is the prosecutor should then lose his case, he must go into exile. Although the Clodian Law restricted the private businessactivities of quaestors' scribes, Domitian now pardoned such of themas had brohen it: and generousty allowed former owners of comman-deered land to farm whatever plois furvived the assigraments of small- holdings to veterans. He severely dealt with informers who had increased the public revenue by bringing false charges against property owners and getling their estates confiscaled. A saying attributedio him runs: 'An Eniperor who does not punish informers encΟurages
the actor Paris, and closely resembled him in looks and mannerisnas. Then Hermogenes of Tarsus dled because of some incautious allusions that he had introduced into a historical work: and the flaves whoacted as his copyisis were crucified. Domitian was always down onthe Thracians and a chance remark by one citigen, to the effect that a
Thracian gladiator might be 'a match for his Gallic opponent, but notfor the patron of the Games', was enough to have him dragged Domitis seat and - with a placard lied around his nech readlag: 'A Thracian supporter who spoke evit of his Emperor' - tom to pieces by dogs in
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Domitian put many senators to death on the most trivial charges: among them a group of ex-Consuis, three of whom, Civica Cerealis, Acilius Glabrio, and Salvidienus Arsitus, he accused os conspiracy: Cerealis was eXecuted while governing Asia: Glabrio while in exileon another charge. Aelius Lamia tost his life as a result of some harm-less witticisms at Domitian's expense, made severat years previousla: he had been robbed ostiis wife by Domitian, and when someone laterpraised his voice remarhed drily: 'I have given up sex and gone into trainingi': and then, encouraged by Titus to marry again, asked: What 3 You are not wanting a wisse, too, are youe' Salvius Cocceianus died hecause he continued to celebrate the birthday of the Emperor Otho, his paternat uncte: and Mettius Pompusianus. becauselsis birth was said to have been attended by Imperiat portenis, and because he always carried with him a collection os speeches by tangs and generals extracted from Li and a parchment map of the worldand because he had named two of his flaves 'Mago' and 'Hannibat' lSallustius Lucullus, Governor-generat of Britata, had equassy offended Domitian by allowing a new type of lance to be called 'the Lucullan'; so had Junius Rusticus, by his eulogies of Paetus Thrasea and Helvidius Priscus an incident which led Domitian to banish ali philosophersfrom Italy; and Helvidius the Younger by his farce about Paris and Oenone, which seemed a reflection on Domitian's divorce: and Domitian's own cousin, Flavius Sabinus, by being mistisenlyannounced by the Election Day herald as Emperor-eleci, instead of
Aster the suppression of Antonius's rebellion, Domitian grew evenmore cruel. He hit on the novel idea os scorching his prisoners' genitals to make them divulge the whereabouis of other rebeis stili in hidrig: and cui off the hands of many more. It is a faci that only two leaders of the revolt - a colonet os senatorial rank and a centurion
earned his pardon: whicli they did by the simple expedient of provingstemselves to have been so disgustingly immorat that they could
I. See Nero 37 and Vespasian II.
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expensive enterlatamenta and the rise in Army pay, were more than
Domitian could afford; so he decided to reduce expenditure by cut-ting down the military estabiistiment. But, then realiging that this would expose his frontiers to barbari an attach, without appreciablyeasing the financiat siluation, he resorted to every forna os extortion Any charge, however stight - to have spoken or acted in pre judice of the Emperor's welsare was enough - might result in the confiscationos a man's property, even is he were atready dead. An insupported claim that someone had been heard, be re his death, to name the
Emperor as his heir, even though he were unknown at Court, Wassufficient pretexi sor taking over the estate. Domitian's agenis coru
I. See Claudius 34 and Nero 49. a. Titus had ordered that the Jewisti Sanctuary Tax, due stom every Jewthroughout the worid sor Temple expenses Exodus. XXX. I 3: Matthein, xvii. as), should be collected even though the Temple had been destroyed: and that Jews who pald were thereby permitted to practi se their religion. HoweVer, agreat many Greela converis to the Jewisii ethical system, the s called 'God-
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ΤΗΕ ΤWELVE CAESAR Scrowded Court where the Procurator had a niuety-yeamoid manstripped to establish whether or not he had been circumcised. From his earllest years Domitian was consistently discourteous and presumptuous. When Caenis, his sether's former mistress, returned
13. On his accession Domitian boasted to the Senate of havrighimself conferred the Imperiat power on Vespasian and Titus it hadnow merely returned to bimi He also spoke of his action in talangDomitia bach, after the divorce, as 'a recas to my divine bed': and onthe day of his public banquet delighted to heu the audience in the Colosseum fliout: 'Long live our Lord and Ladyl' At the festival of Capitoline Juppiter, when unanimousty implored to pardon Palfurius
Sura, whom he had expelled from the Senate but who had neverth less won the priZe for public speaking, Domitian would not reply and sent a public crier to silence them. Just as arrogantly he began a letter, whicli his procurators were to circulate, with the words: 'Our Lord God instrucis you to do flessi' and 'Lord God' became his regular litteboth in writ g and conversation. Images dedicated to Domitian in the Capitol had to be of either gold or silver, and not below a certainweight; and he rai sed so many arcades and arches, decorated withchariois and triumphat insignia, in various City districis, that someone scribbled farci', meaning 'arches' on one of them - but used Gree characters, and so spelled out the Grech word sor 'Enoughi' He heldseVenteen consulfhips, which was a record. Only the seven middieones formed a series, and ait were sinecures: he relinquished most of them after a few days, and every one of them besore 1 May. Havingadopted the surname 'Germanicus' at his doubie triumph, he renamed September and October, the monilis of his accession and birili, respectively, 'Germanicus' and 'Domitianus'.
fearers', had declined to undergo circumcision which would have made them technicatly 'Children of Abraham' , and were theresere not subject to the taX, though they kept the Sabbath and worshipped Jehovali as the One God. Suetonius probably refers to these rather than the Christians, who rejected the Sabbath and did ait they could to prove they were not JeWS.
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to commit sulcide after everyone else had deserted him.λΙ3. The occasion os Domitian's murder was that he had executed, on some trivial preteXt, his own extremela stupid cousin, Flavius Clemens,' just bes ore the completion os a consul ship: though he had previousty named Flavius's two smali sons as his heirs and changed their names to Vespasian and Domitian.
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pleasest ' The Almighty did, in faci, strie the Temple of Capitoline
Juppiter, the Temple of the Flavians, the Palace, even Domitian'sown bedroom: and a burricane virenched the inscription plate Domthe base of a triumphat statue of this and hurled it into a near-by tomb. The famous cypress-tree which had been blown down but had thentaken root again, while Vespasian was stili a private citigen, now collapsed a second time. Throughout his reign Domitian had made a practice of commending each new year to the care of the GoddessFortune at Palestrina, and every year she had granted him the fame favourable omen: but this year the omen was a dreadfui one, portending bloodshed. Domitian also dreamed that Minerva, whom heworshipped fervently, emerged Dom her stirine to teli him that she had been disarmed by Juppiter and could no longer protect iam. What disturbed him most, however, was a prediction by the astrologer
Ascletarion, and iis sequel. This man, when charged, made no secretos having revealed the future, which he had foreseen by magicalmeans. Domitian at once asked whether he could prophesy the man-ner of his end, and upon Ascletarion's replying that he would very soon be tom to pieces by dogs, had him eXecuted on the spol, and gave orders for his funerat rites to be conducted with the greatest care, as a further proos that ali magicians hed. But while the funerat was in progress a sudden gale scattered the pyre and a pack of straydogs mangled the astrologer's haliaburned corpse. Latinus, the comicacior, who happened to witness this incident, mentioned it at dimer
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bath: whereupon his head valet, Parthenius, mel hina with the news that a man had called on very urgent and important business, and was now watting in the Imperial bedroom. So Domitian disinissed his attendanis and hurri ed there. 17. Ali that has come to light about either the plot or the assasSination is that his niece Domitilla's steward, Stephanus, had been accused os embezglement: and that when he approached the conspirators, theywere atready debating whether it would be better to murder Domitian in his balli or at diuiter. Stephanus offered them his semices, which were accepted: and then, to divert suspicion, seigned an arminjury and went around for severat days with a dagger concealed in
the woollen bandages. Finalty he told Parthenius that he had disco- vered a plot, and was admitted to Domitian's bedrooni, where heproduced a list of names: but suddenly stabbed him in the groin whilehe was reading it. Domitian put up a good fight. The boy who was,
and the doors to the servanis' quarters were loched.
Domitian fell on top of Stephanus and, aster culting his o fingers in a prolonged essori to di sarin him, began clawing at hiseyes: but succumbed to seven further stabs, his assallanta betag a subaltem named Clodianus, Parthenius's seeedman Maximus, Satura head-chamberlain, and one of the Imperiat gladiators. He died at the age of sorty- ur, on I 8 September, 96 A.D., asterreigning not much more than urteen years. The body was carriedaway on a common litter by the public undertakers, as though hewere a pauper: and cremaled by his old nurse Phyllis in her gardenon the Latin Way. She secretly took the rahes to the Temple of the Flavians and mixed them with those of his niece Julia, who had also
I8. Domitian had a ruddy complexion: large, rather weah eyes; and not at ali an imperious expression. He was tali and well-made, except for his seet which had hammer-toes: and so conscious of his handsome seatures that he once told the Senate: 'bsitherio my intentions and my face have been equassy acceptable to you.' Later, he lost his hair and developed a pauncti: and, as a result os protracted illaess,
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liis legs grew spinaeing. He took as a personat insuli any reference, joking or othemise, to bald men, being extremely sensitive about hisown appearance: yet in lais manual Care of the Hair, dedicated to afriend, he wrote by way of mutus consolation: Cannot you see that Ι, too, have a tali and beautilat person and added to this Homeric quotation the following prose comment:
I9. Domitian haled to exert himself. While in Rome he hardlyever went for a walia, and during campaigns and traveis seldom rodea horse, but almost always used a litter. meapons did not interest him, though he was an exceptionalty keen archer. He shot hundreds of wild
dexterousty placed in the head as to resemble horns. Occasionalty hewould teli a flave to post himself at a distance and hold out one hand: then shot arrows be een his fingers with amaging skili. ao. Although, at the begiming of his reign, he went to a great dealostro te and expense in restocking the burne&out libraries, hunting r lost volumes, and procuring transcriptions and copies DomAlexandria, this did not mean that he was a student himself. Nolonger bothering with elther history or poetry, or talang passis to acquire even the rudiments of a style, he now read nothing but Tiberius's note-books and officiat memoirs, and let secretaries polisti his o a correspondence, edicis, and speeches. Stis, Domitian had alively turn of phrase, and some of his remaris are welt worth record- ing. Once he said: 'Ah, to be as good-looking as Maecius thinhs heisl ' and on another occasion compared a friend's red hair, which was
turning white, to 'mead spissi on snow'. 2I. He also cla ed that ali Emperors are necessarily wretched, since only their assassination can convince the public that the co spiracies against their lives are reat. His clites relaxation, at ali hours, even in the moriang and on working days, was to throw dice. Heused to bathe be re noon, and then eat suci, an enormous luncheon
that a Matian apple and a smali pitcher of wine generalty contentedhim at di ner. His many large banqueis were never prolonged past