Chapter XII: Tacitus, Probus, Carus, and the rise of Diocletian
Read it here, here, or here.
1) Good quotes
This chapter has an excellent opening: Such was the unhappy condition of the Roman emperors, that, whatever might be their conduct, their fate was commonly the same. A life of pleasure or virtue, of severity or mildness, of indolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave; and almost every reign is closed by the same disgusting repetition of treason and murder.
Not entirel accurate as some of them (for instance, Carus in this chapter) actually died of natural causes. Allegedly.
And there is another good descriptive passage, this time about the Colosseum, lengthy but worth including here: Posterity admires, and will long admire, the awful remains of the amphitheatre of Titus who so well deserved the epithet of Colossal. It was a building of an elliptic figure, five hundred and sixty-four feet in length, and four hundred and sixty-seven in breadth, founded on fourscore arches, and rising, with four successive orders of architecture, to the height of one hundred and forty feet. The outside of the edifice was encrusted with marble and decorated with statues. The slopes of the vast concave, which formed the inside, were filled and surrounded with sixty or eighty rows of seats, of marble likewise, covered with cushions, and capable of receiving with ease above fourscore thousand spectators. Sixty-four vomitories (for by that name the doors were very aptly distinguished) poured forth the immense multitude; and the entrances, passages, and staircases were contrived with such exquisite skill, that each person, whether of the senatorial, the equestrian, or the plebeian order, arrived at his destined place without trouble or confusion. Nothing was omitted which, in any respect, could be subservient to the convenience and pleasure of the spectators. They were protected from the sun and rain by an ample canopy, occasionally drawn over their heads. The air was continually refreshed by the playing of fountains, and profusely impregnated by the grateful scent of aromatics. In the centre of the edifice, the arena, or stage, was strewed with the finest sand, and successively assumed the most different forms. At one moment it seemed to rise out of the earth, like the garden of the Hesperides, and was afterwards broken into the rocks and caverns of Thrace. The subterraneous pipes conveyed an inexhaustible supply of water; and what had just before appeared a level plain might be suddenly converted into a wide lake, covered with armed vessels, and replenished with the monsters of the deep. In the decoration of these scenes the Roman emperors displayed their wealth and liberality; and we read on various occasions that the whole furniture of the amphitheatre consisted either of silver, or of gold, or of amber.
It is interesting to reflect that this chapter is set at a time when the Colosseum was already two hundred years old; not many entertainment venues last that long, without the benefit of religion. (Of course, being built in stone on a grand scale does help.)
Even when I first saw it, inter-railing back in 1986, the Colosseum made a strong impression on me, and nowadays my favourite long walk when in Rome is to start at the Vatican, cross the river to the Piazza Navona, and then head the length of the Forum to finish at the Colosseum. Gibbon clearly found it just as fascinating.
2) Chapter Summary
Ten years in which at least five emperors reign (Tacitus, Probus, Carus, Carinus and Numerian), with the usual litany of war and murder, though in fairness most of them are relatively good generals and administrators. But we finish with the ascent of Diocletian, of whom we will hear more.
3) Points arising
i) Colour me sceptical
I think that the eight months without an emperor between Aurelian's death and Tacitus' appointment may not have been experienced as a period of tranquil anarchy, despite Gibbon's eloquent portrayal. Belgium has had similar experience recently.
Also I'm surprised that Gibbon makes so little of Carus' military successes in the East. I guess they undermine his previous statement that the Roman Empire did not go in for territorial expansion, and indeed are evidence against his central thesis that the Empire had been in terminal decline for over a century. Despite the rapid turnover of emperors, the ten years of this chapter seem to have been rather successful.
ii) Walls
This passage isn't one of the most glorious bits of prose that Gibbon ever wrote, but it piqued my interest: Instead of reducing the warlike natives of Germany to the condition of subjects, Probus contented himself with the humble expedient of raising a bulwark against their inroads. The country which now forms the circle of Swabia had been left desert in the age of Augustus by the emigration of its ancient inhabitants. The fertility of the soil soon attracted a new colony from the adjacent provinces of Gaul. Crowds of adventurers, of a roving temper and of desperate fortunes, occupied the doubtful possession, and acknowledged, by the payment of tithes, the majesty of the empire. To protect these new subjects, a line of frontier garrisons was gradually extended from the Rhine to the Danube. About the reign of Hadrian, when that mode of defence began to be practised, these garrisons were connected and covered by a strong entrenchment of trees and palisades. In the place of so rude a bulwark, the emperor Probus constructed a stone wall of a considerable height and strengthened it by towers at convenient distances. From the neighbourhood of Neustadt and Ratisbon on the Danube, it stretched across hills, valleys, rivers, and morasses, as far as Wimpfen on the Neckar, and at length terminated on the banks of the Rhine, after a winding course of near two hundred miles. This important barrier, uniting the two mighty streams that protected the provinces of Europe, seemed to fill up the vacant space through which the barbarians, and particularly the Alemanni, could penetrate with the greatest facility into the heart of the empire. But the experience of the world, from China to Britain, has exposed the vain attempt of fortifying any extensive tract of country. An active enemy, who can select and vary his points of attacks, must in the end discover some feeble spot, or some unguarded moment. The strength, as well as the attention, of the defenders is divided; and such are the blind effects of terror on the firmest troops that a line broken in a single place is almost instantly deserted. The fate of the wall which Probus erected may confirm the general observation. Within a few years after his death it was overthrown by the Alemanni. Its scattered ruins, universally ascribed to the power of the Daemon, now serve only to excite the wonder of the Swabian peasant.
Two things struck me. First, I am rather surprised that I know so little about the German limes, especially since I worked for several months long ago on an archaeology site in Swabia (admittedly not a Roman one). I suppose that, compared to Hadrian's Wall, the German version a) corresponds much less obviously with today's political boundaries, b) is in what is now much more densely populated territory so has presumably been cannibalised for subsequent buildings and c) was possibly less substantial and successful anyway.
Second, Gibbon's remarks on walls in general remain true. If your border management policy largely consists of a hard security solution, you have already lost - a conclusion that applies equally to Germany before 1989 and the US/Canada frontier today.
iii) The Location of Margus
Gibbon, or rather his source d'Anville, is wrong about the location of Margus, the scene of the fateful battle between Carinus and Diocletian at the end of the chapter. He notes: Eutropius marks its situation very accurately; it was between the Mons Aureus and Viminacium. M. d’Anville (Géographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 304) places Margus at Kastolatz in Servia, a little below Belgrade and Semendria.
Now, going down the Danube from Belgrade, you get to Seone (Mons Aureus), a western suburb of Smederevo (Gibbon's "Semendria"), and then Kostolac ("Kastolatz"). But it's pretty clear from the evidence on the ground that the ruins at Kostolac are of the town of Viminiacum, not Margus. The town of Margus was a little further south, along the Great Morava river (also the Margus in Latin); it is now the site of the modern city of Požarevac, where Slobodan Milošević came from and where he is buried. It's only a matter of a few km but it shows how little Gibbon knew of that corner of Europe.
4) Coming Next
The reign of Diocletian and his three associates. Read it here, here, or here.
1) Good quotes
This chapter has an excellent opening: Such was the unhappy condition of the Roman emperors, that, whatever might be their conduct, their fate was commonly the same. A life of pleasure or virtue, of severity or mildness, of indolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave; and almost every reign is closed by the same disgusting repetition of treason and murder.
Not entirel accurate as some of them (for instance, Carus in this chapter) actually died of natural causes. Allegedly.
And there is another good descriptive passage, this time about the Colosseum, lengthy but worth including here: Posterity admires, and will long admire, the awful remains of the amphitheatre of Titus who so well deserved the epithet of Colossal. It was a building of an elliptic figure, five hundred and sixty-four feet in length, and four hundred and sixty-seven in breadth, founded on fourscore arches, and rising, with four successive orders of architecture, to the height of one hundred and forty feet. The outside of the edifice was encrusted with marble and decorated with statues. The slopes of the vast concave, which formed the inside, were filled and surrounded with sixty or eighty rows of seats, of marble likewise, covered with cushions, and capable of receiving with ease above fourscore thousand spectators. Sixty-four vomitories (for by that name the doors were very aptly distinguished) poured forth the immense multitude; and the entrances, passages, and staircases were contrived with such exquisite skill, that each person, whether of the senatorial, the equestrian, or the plebeian order, arrived at his destined place without trouble or confusion. Nothing was omitted which, in any respect, could be subservient to the convenience and pleasure of the spectators. They were protected from the sun and rain by an ample canopy, occasionally drawn over their heads. The air was continually refreshed by the playing of fountains, and profusely impregnated by the grateful scent of aromatics. In the centre of the edifice, the arena, or stage, was strewed with the finest sand, and successively assumed the most different forms. At one moment it seemed to rise out of the earth, like the garden of the Hesperides, and was afterwards broken into the rocks and caverns of Thrace. The subterraneous pipes conveyed an inexhaustible supply of water; and what had just before appeared a level plain might be suddenly converted into a wide lake, covered with armed vessels, and replenished with the monsters of the deep. In the decoration of these scenes the Roman emperors displayed their wealth and liberality; and we read on various occasions that the whole furniture of the amphitheatre consisted either of silver, or of gold, or of amber.
It is interesting to reflect that this chapter is set at a time when the Colosseum was already two hundred years old; not many entertainment venues last that long, without the benefit of religion. (Of course, being built in stone on a grand scale does help.)
Even when I first saw it, inter-railing back in 1986, the Colosseum made a strong impression on me, and nowadays my favourite long walk when in Rome is to start at the Vatican, cross the river to the Piazza Navona, and then head the length of the Forum to finish at the Colosseum. Gibbon clearly found it just as fascinating.
2) Chapter Summary
Ten years in which at least five emperors reign (Tacitus, Probus, Carus, Carinus and Numerian), with the usual litany of war and murder, though in fairness most of them are relatively good generals and administrators. But we finish with the ascent of Diocletian, of whom we will hear more.
3) Points arising
i) Colour me sceptical
I think that the eight months without an emperor between Aurelian's death and Tacitus' appointment may not have been experienced as a period of tranquil anarchy, despite Gibbon's eloquent portrayal. Belgium has had similar experience recently.
Also I'm surprised that Gibbon makes so little of Carus' military successes in the East. I guess they undermine his previous statement that the Roman Empire did not go in for territorial expansion, and indeed are evidence against his central thesis that the Empire had been in terminal decline for over a century. Despite the rapid turnover of emperors, the ten years of this chapter seem to have been rather successful.
ii) Walls
This passage isn't one of the most glorious bits of prose that Gibbon ever wrote, but it piqued my interest: Instead of reducing the warlike natives of Germany to the condition of subjects, Probus contented himself with the humble expedient of raising a bulwark against their inroads. The country which now forms the circle of Swabia had been left desert in the age of Augustus by the emigration of its ancient inhabitants. The fertility of the soil soon attracted a new colony from the adjacent provinces of Gaul. Crowds of adventurers, of a roving temper and of desperate fortunes, occupied the doubtful possession, and acknowledged, by the payment of tithes, the majesty of the empire. To protect these new subjects, a line of frontier garrisons was gradually extended from the Rhine to the Danube. About the reign of Hadrian, when that mode of defence began to be practised, these garrisons were connected and covered by a strong entrenchment of trees and palisades. In the place of so rude a bulwark, the emperor Probus constructed a stone wall of a considerable height and strengthened it by towers at convenient distances. From the neighbourhood of Neustadt and Ratisbon on the Danube, it stretched across hills, valleys, rivers, and morasses, as far as Wimpfen on the Neckar, and at length terminated on the banks of the Rhine, after a winding course of near two hundred miles. This important barrier, uniting the two mighty streams that protected the provinces of Europe, seemed to fill up the vacant space through which the barbarians, and particularly the Alemanni, could penetrate with the greatest facility into the heart of the empire. But the experience of the world, from China to Britain, has exposed the vain attempt of fortifying any extensive tract of country. An active enemy, who can select and vary his points of attacks, must in the end discover some feeble spot, or some unguarded moment. The strength, as well as the attention, of the defenders is divided; and such are the blind effects of terror on the firmest troops that a line broken in a single place is almost instantly deserted. The fate of the wall which Probus erected may confirm the general observation. Within a few years after his death it was overthrown by the Alemanni. Its scattered ruins, universally ascribed to the power of the Daemon, now serve only to excite the wonder of the Swabian peasant.
Two things struck me. First, I am rather surprised that I know so little about the German limes, especially since I worked for several months long ago on an archaeology site in Swabia (admittedly not a Roman one). I suppose that, compared to Hadrian's Wall, the German version a) corresponds much less obviously with today's political boundaries, b) is in what is now much more densely populated territory so has presumably been cannibalised for subsequent buildings and c) was possibly less substantial and successful anyway.
Second, Gibbon's remarks on walls in general remain true. If your border management policy largely consists of a hard security solution, you have already lost - a conclusion that applies equally to Germany before 1989 and the US/Canada frontier today.
iii) The Location of Margus
Gibbon, or rather his source d'Anville, is wrong about the location of Margus, the scene of the fateful battle between Carinus and Diocletian at the end of the chapter. He notes: Eutropius marks its situation very accurately; it was between the Mons Aureus and Viminacium. M. d’Anville (Géographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 304) places Margus at Kastolatz in Servia, a little below Belgrade and Semendria.
Now, going down the Danube from Belgrade, you get to Seone (Mons Aureus), a western suburb of Smederevo (Gibbon's "Semendria"), and then Kostolac ("Kastolatz"). But it's pretty clear from the evidence on the ground that the ruins at Kostolac are of the town of Viminiacum, not Margus. The town of Margus was a little further south, along the Great Morava river (also the Margus in Latin); it is now the site of the modern city of Požarevac, where Slobodan Milošević came from and where he is buried. It's only a matter of a few km but it shows how little Gibbon knew of that corner of Europe.
4) Coming Next
The reign of Diocletian and his three associates. Read it here, here, or here.