216
CHARiVCTER OF DOMITIAX.
As far as foreign countries were concerned, the reign of
Titus was perfectly quiet, and Rome was in the enjoyment of
peace and comfort, only interrupted hy a great fire, which
lasted for three days and three nights, and by the eruption of
mount Vesuvius, which caused the catastrophe of Hercu-
laneum and Pompeii. Ever since the time of the Greek
settlements,that volcano had been at rest; but now it began its
eruptions. Never has the calamity of one generation been
more obviously advantageous to a later one than the burial of
those two towns.
The love of the Romans for Titus became the more decided,
as they had reason to fear his younger brother Domitian,
concerning whom there could be no mistake. He was a bad
son, and a bad brother; he contemplated the murder of his
father, but more especially that of his brother, who never
attempted to avenge himself, but always treated Domitian with
confidence.4 But Domitian is nevertheless one of those men
who are generally looked upon with too much contempt,
because they are bad. There are bad persons in history who
ought not, by any means, to be treated in that way. The
charge of cowardice in war which is brought against him may
be well founded, although there is no positive evidence
of it; his falseness and cruelty however are both well
attested. It is also true that, with all his boundless ambition,
he did not accomplish anything to justify his pretensions, but
he is nevertheless estimated too low; for he was a man of a
cultivated mind and decided talent, and is of considerable
importance in the history of Roman literature.5 Rutgersiuss
has already remarked, and the proofs are manifest, that the
paraphrase of Aratus, which is usually ascribed to Germanicus,
is the work of Domitian. Hc delighted in the name of Caesar
Germanicus, and assumed it, because it was more illustrious
than tire Flavian name; but from the manner in which he
mentions his father7, it is evident that he had not been adopted
by Germanicus. I believe that the poem was written in the
time of Titus; its subject is poor, but it is executed in a very
respectable manner. Quinctilian is full of flatteries towards
4 Dion Cass. Ixvi. 26; Aurel. Viet. De Caesar. 11.
s Sueton. J)omit. 2, 20; Tacitus, Hist. iv. 86.
6 Variae Lectiones, iii p. 276. Compare Grauert in the Lheinisches Museum
vol. iv. p. 347, foil.
7 In the beginning of his paraphrase of theii Phaenomena” of Aratus, Domitian
says, that his father was sovereign, and was honoured v ith the apotheosis.—N.
Literatube in the time of domitian.
217
Domitian8, and in this case he had the misfortune, from cow-
ardice, to act the part of a slave towards a despot. If Domitian
really made the paraphrase, Quinctilian’s exaggerated praise is
the conduct of a servile man, though the blame does not attach
so much to his personal character, as to a despotic court; and
he surely did not praise a work which was quite had, merely
from servile flattery. Domitian’s taste for Roman literature
however produced its beneficial effects. He instituted the
great pension for rhetoricians which Quinctilian, for example,
enjoyed, and the Capitoline contest in which the prize poems
were crowned.9 During this period, Roman literature received
a great impulse, to which Domitian himself must have contri-
buted. Tacitus, the greatest historian, at least in Roman
literature, was then a young man. The younger Pliny was
growing to manhood ; and however much we may blame him,
there were many highly educated persons at the time who wrote
in the same style as he. Statius too belongs to this period;
and his little poems (Silvae) are among the most graceful pro-
ductions of Roman literature.10 Juvenal, a great genius, was
likewise a contemporary of Domitian ; he was a master of pure
Latin, and hated the tyrant with justice. From Domitian’s
poem we see that he was opposed to the false taste of the time.
He had offended Statius; but in this we perceive not so much
partiality as a Correctjudgment.
The frugality in the mode of living at Rome, which had
been restored by Vespasian, still continued, for Domitian too
was not a squanderer of money. It was probably nothing but
his cowardice that induced him to raise the original pay of his
Soldiersfourfold, that is to 480 denarii,—an enormous sum, for
which he afterwards endeavoured to make up by reducing the
number of troops, which was not suited to the circumstances
of the empire.
Rome was involved in various wars during his reign. The
eastern frontiers indeed enjoyed a profound peace; for the
Parthian empire was in the condition into which such eastern
monarchies always sink after a certain period of greatness, and
6 See iv. I. § 2, foil.; x. 1. § 91, foil. 9 Sucton. Domιt. 4.
10 I strongly recommend the study of the Silvae, which aɪe genuine poetry im-
printed Witlrthe true character of the country; whence they make a most pleas-
ing impression, especially when read in Italy. The Thehais of Statius, on the
other hand, is an absurd poem and bombastic in the highest degree. It was
certainly not by this poem that he gained the Capitoline prize.—N.