220
DOMITIAN,S CRUELTY.
Suabia, as far as the limites, to proclaim Him emperor; but he
was conquered by L. Appius Maximus, and paid for his attempt
with his life. Caligula and Ncro were monsters, the former being
a madman, and the latter, who was not free from madness, being
a degenerate specimen of mankind, whom Aristotle would
have called a being τrapa, φvσι,v, and in reference to whom we
can scarcely speak of vice, for the laws of morality are appli-
cable only to that which lies within the boundaries of human
nature : there are vices which degrade man below his nature,
and by which he becomes a real brute. But Domitian was
not a brute, for his cruelly lay within the bounds of human
nature ; it was that of a thoroughly bad man, and arose from
the human propensity to envy others and to delight in their
misfortunes. His cruelty was not combined with avarice, two
vices which in the east usually go hand in hand. Among the
senators of that time there were men worthy of the friendship
of Tacitus and Agricola, such as Junius Arulenus Rusticus
and Herennius Senecio. The former had written the life of
Paetus Thrasea, and the latter that of Helvidius Priscus.
Their works were true, and were written with a heartfelt
warmth, though they may not have been free from declama-
tion. They contained, at any rate, more life and substance than
the works of the Augustan age; and it was this circumstance
that provoked the anger of Domitian.
Among the men of intellect whom I have just mentioned,
there arose the detestable class of the delatoτes, who enriched
themselves by blood, and the accounts of whom are among
the most interesting portion of Pliny’s letters. These men
too must not be considered as merely contemptible; for they
were not so much degraded in their intellectual as in their
moral condition, and were at any rate not so despicable as the
delatores under Tiberius. Some of them were distinguished
for their declamations, and on the whole they were men of
talent. They belonged to what was called good society, but
their sentiments were of the most infamous kind; and they
used their talents to crush the noblest and most distinguished
persons. But in however bad a light the men of that time
appear in the Satires of Juvenal, it cannot be denied that,
in general, men were not so bad as they had been in the time
of Tiberius; the women, on the other hand, were still as
wanton and dissolute as ever. The long period of suffering
LAST YEARS OF DOMITIAN⅛ REIGK.
221
had made men better. Under Tiberius a certain formality
had been observed, and the emperor took no part in the pro-
ceedings of the delatores and the trials of the accused; but
Domitian did not scruple to attend the trials in person. If
you want to obtain a clear knowledge of these things, you
must read what Pliny says of M. Eegulus16 and others of the
same class. This latter period of Domitian’s ιeign is one of
the most fearful that occur in history, and Tacitus, who
describes it most excellently in the introduction to his life of
Agricola, says that people passed through it in dumb horror.
In tlιis manner the last years of Domitian passed away.
The last three were the most frightful. Had his rage been
directed against good and noble persons only, he might have
indulged it much longer, but he turned it against bad and
infuriated men also,—against the officers of his praetorian
guards, and against his wife Domitia, whom he had offended,
and who offended him. The consequence was that a conspiracy
was formed by the officers of his own court, to which he fell a
victim in A.D. 96. Domitian built the Forum of the palace
(Forum Palladium), which was thus called to distinguish it
from the Forum of Augustus; and there he erected a number
of government offices, tribunals, and the like. A portion of
its walls and of the portico still exist as a memorial of those
times. Many other splendid buildings were erected by him.
LECTURE CXVIIL
The reigns of Nerva and Trajan belong to the comparatively
most obscure portions of the history of the Roman empire,
although the government of these two emperors was a period
of delight to the Romans; one rich in literary productions,
and of which many other monuments have come down to us,
Tacitus evidently did not describe that period; for he says
that he will reserve it for his old age, in order to ex-
cuse himself from writing contemporary history, which he
certainly could not praise unconditionally. Traj an himself wrote
w Pliny, Epist- i. 5.