Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/139

CHAP. IV.
_____ wrestler, entered his chamber, and strangled him without resistance. The body was secretly conveyed out of the palace, before the least suspicion was entertained in the city, or even in the court, of the emperor's death. Such was the fate of the son of Marcus; and so easy was it to destroy a hated tyrant, who by the artificial powers of government had oppressed, during thirteen years, so many millions of subjects, each of whom was equal to their master in personal strength and personal abilities^[1].

Choice of Pertinax for emperor.The measures of the conspirators were conducted with the deliberate coolness and celerity which the greatness of the occasion required. They resolved instantly to fill the vacant throne with an emperor whose character would justify and maintain the action that had been committed. They fixed on Pertinax, prefect of the city, an ancient senator of consular rank, whose conspicuous merit had broke through the obscurity of his birth, and raised him to the first honours of the state. He had successively governed most of the provinces of the empire ; and in all his great employments, military as well as civil, he had uniformly distinguished himself by the firmness, the prudence, and the integrity of his conduct^[2]. He now remained almost alone of the friends and ministers of Marcus ; and when, at a late hour of the night, he was awakened with the news, that

1. Dion, 1. Ixxii. p. 1222. Herodian, 1. i. p. 43. Hist. August, p. 52.
2. Pertinax was a native of Alba Pompeia, in Piedmont, and son of a timber-merchant. The order of his employments (it is marked by Capitolinus) well deserves to be set down, as expressive of the form of government and manners of the age. 1 . He was a centurion. 2. Prefect of a cohort in Syria, in the Parthian war, and in Britain. 3. He obtained an 'ala,' or squadron of horse, in Maesia. 4. He was commissary of provisions on the ^milian way. 5. He commanded the fleet upon the Rhine. 6. He was procurator of Dacia, with a salary of about one thousand six hundred a year. 7. He commanded the veterans of a legion. 8. He obtained the rank of senator. 9. Of pretor. 10. With the command of the first legion in Rhaetia and Noricum. 11. He was consul about the year 175. 12. He attended Marcus into the east. 13. He commanded an army on the Danube. 14. He was consular legate of Majsia. 15. Of Dacia. 16. Of Syria. 17. Of Britain. 18. He had the care of the public provisions at Rome. 19. He was proconsul of Africa. 20. Prefect of the city. Herodian (1. i. p. 48.) does justice to his disinterested spirit ; but Capitolinus, who collected every popular rumour, charges him with a great fortune acquired by bribery and corruption.