another syrian empress
to the thoughtful roman the name of syria must have suggested an abyss of corruption, and the extension of the empire over that swarm of asiatic peoples to whom the name was vaguely applied must have seemed an infelicitous triumph. from the cities of nearer asia, in which the senile energies of the older civilizations seemed incapable of rising above the ministry to vice, luxury, and folly, had come the larger part of the taint that had infected the blood of rome. it is therefore singular to observe that, of the five women whom syria placed on, or above, the roman throne in the third century, four were distinguished for sobriety of judgment and concern for the common weal. the family from which the first four of these women sprang is variously described as “humble” and “noble.” we may reconcile the epithets by a conjecture that the family which controlled the wealthy shrine of emesa descended from some branch of the fallen nobility of the east. both so?mias and mam?a had married syrians, and we may assume that mam?a had done the same. in those circumstances, the public spirit with which julia domna, julia m?sa, and julia mam?a used the great influence they had is not a little remarkable.
of the three—to whom we must presently add a fourth remarkable woman of the east—mam?a had the greatest power, and made the best use of it. she is not blameless, as we shall see; but even if it be true, as is commonly said, that she was unduly covetous of money and power, we223 must at least admit that she employed them solely to restore peace and prosperity to the empire, and prolong the reign of a high-principled ruler.
mam?a entered upon her work with all the shrewdness which we have already recognized in her. instead of claiming the right, which so?mias had enjoyed, to sit in the senate and sign its decrees, she preserved a discreet silence when the senate abolished the innovation, and poured out their long-repressed annoyance on the memory of its author. the senators ostentatiously enjoyed their shadow of power: mam?a quietly possessed the substance. she provided the finest preceptors for the education of her son alexander, who was in his fourteenth year, and selected sixteen of the most distinguished senators and lawyers as a council of state. with these she worked energetically and harmoniously for the renovation of the empire. the palace was purged of the quaint and the loathsome officers that she found in it, rome was relieved of ela-gabal and his ghastly ritual, competent officials were substituted for the ministers to the lust of the late emperor, and the heavier taxes of the previous two reigns were remitted or lessened. in this work, which extends over the thirteen years of the reign of alexander severus, m?sa had little part. she died soon after the beginning of this happier era, and mam?a alone guided the willing hands of her son. it is remarked by all the authorities that alexander was singularly subservient to his mother.
troops and senate had been happily united in the elevation of alexander, and all the epithets of imperial dignity were at once conferred on him. the title of severus he accepted from the soldiers, but he declined the name of antoninus, which the senate pressed on him, since that revered name had been so impiously disgraced by his predecessors. he spontaneously discarded the womanly silks and jewels of his cousin, covered the rough shirts of severus with the roman toga, and gave equal attention to manly exercises, the lessons of his tutors, and the wise counsels of his mother. he thus grew into a224 handsome and virile youth, with the piercing black eyes of his race, but with a moderation of temper that delighted his stoic teachers. when we read the account of his career in the “historia augusta”—an account that might have been written by a xenophon or a fénelon for the edification of a young prince—we are tempted to feel that, either the gossipy lampridius had for the moment a more serious object than the entertainment of rome, or alexander severus was more virtuous than the circumstances required.
mam?a is described by the same writer as “holy, but avaricious.” avarice was a not inopportune vice. elagabalus had squandered the treasury on his follies; the troops, encouraged by him and by caracalla, were becoming more and more exacting; while mam?a had, by lightening the taxes, spared the empire a substantial share of its contribution. in these circumstances it was prudent to cultivate a close concern about money, and no single writer ventures to say that the empress—the senate had at once entitled her augusta—spent much on her personal service or pleasure. it is said that her zeal for the accumulation of money was carried to a stage of offensiveness. but it was necessary for her murderers to detect or invent some vice in extenuation of their foul deed, and the position in which the charge is found in the historians reveals that it came from that tainted source. “avarice” means little more than that she would not yield to the improper demands of a demoralized army.
when we reflect that both her parents were syrians, we notice with some surprise that the portrait-bust of mam?a has a singularly roman face; and in her strength, solidity, and sobriety she recalls the old roman type rather than accords with the general conception of a syrian woman. she had the defect of her type, and an incident that occurred early in her reign is regarded as a grave betrayal of it. it is not at all clear, however, that mam?a acted with the “jealous cruelty” which gibbon sees in her conduct. for the wife of her son she had chosen sallustia225 barbia orbiana—we find the name on coins, though the historians do not give it—daughter of the senator sallustius macrinus. alexander, not an exacting husband, seems to have lived happily with his bride, and her father was promoted to the rank of c?sar. before long, however, we find macrinus executed on a charge of treason, and his daughter banished to africa.
gibbon believes, on the authority of dio, that this was entirely due to mam?a’s unwillingness to share the power and the affection of her son with another woman. the word of an historian and a member of the senate, whom we may almost describe as an eye-witness, must assuredly have weight, yet we cannot ignore the assertion of the other authorities that macrinus was betrayed into acts which easily bore the construction of treason. we may recall merivale’s just warning, on another occasion, that a contemporary roman writer is particularly apt to reproduce the unsubstantial gossip of his day. herodian, who nevertheless believes that macrinus had no treasonable intention, says that mam?a was so cruel to orbiana that the girl went in tears to her father, and he repaired to the pr?torian camp with bitter complaints against mam?a. such a course very strongly suggests a treasonable design. the troops, chafing under the rule of mam?a and her son, whom they eventually murdered, were notoriously discontented; and flying to the camp was commonly the first overt act in a plot to displace the ruling emperor. when we further find that lampridius (“historia augusta”) says, on the authority of dexippus, an athenian writer of the succeeding generation, that macrinus was expressly attempting to replace alexander, we must at least suspend our censures. we know nothing of the character of macrinus and his daughter, and are therefore unable to say how far mam?a’s interpretation of their conduct may have been influenced by her feelings, and how far her harsh treatment of orbiana may have been justified.
the charge against her is further weakened by a circumstance that gibbon has overlooked. lampridius226 says that alexander married memnia, the daughter of the ex-consul sulpicius, and speaks incidentally of “his boys.” it seems, then, that the jealousy of mam?a did not prevent alexander from marrying again, and that memnia must have shared the palace with the empress-mother for a number of years. of her character we know nothing, except that, together with mam?a, she remonstrated with alexander on account of his excessive affability with his subjects. no guards, it seems, barred the entrance of the palace against them. the austere character of the life which adorned it was the only test of the integrity of those who approached him. after a day of exertion he would spend the evening in the refining enjoyment of letters or the exercise of his musical skill. he sang and played well, but guarded his imperial dignity by admitting none to hear him except his young sons. actors and gladiators he avoided, nor would he spend much in exhibiting their skill to the public. his one luxury was a remarkable collection of birds, which included 20,000 doves; his one weakness a delight in the puny and almost bloodless combats of partridges, kittens, or pups. his baths were of cold water, and his table was regulated by the most minute directions, admitting even the slight luxury of a goose only on festive occasions. when a string of costly pearls was presented to memnia, he ordered that they should be sold, and, when no purchaser could be found in rome, he hung them upon the statue of venus in the temple.
julia mam?a
bust in the british museum
from such details as these we may construct a picture of the quiet and temperate life of alexander’s palace, and we shall be disposed to think lightly of the quarrels which are said to have disturbed the relations of mother and son. we can hardly believe that one so frugal as alexander would profess much indignation at his mother’s assiduous nursing of the treasury, nor can we suppose that mam?a greatly resented the young monarch’s accessibility to his subjects. their frugality, indeed, must not be exaggerated, as they were generous in gifts. instead of sending men to extort their incomes from the provinces in which they took227 office, alexander provided them, when they left rome, with an outfit so complete as to include a concubine. his deference to his mother may, in fact, be said to be the only consistent charge against him. the emperor julian (“the c?sars”) insinuates that he showed a mediocrity of intelligence in allowing his mother to accumulate money, instead of prudently spending it. in a sense julian was right; though it was not weakness of intelligence, but severity of principle, that restrained alexander and mam?a from this prudent expenditure. had they lavished their funds upon the troops, the history of rome during the next ten years might have run differently.
from an early period in the reign of alexander the attitude of the troops cast a shadow over the palace and the empire. five successive emperors, besides earlier ones, had received the purple from the hands of the troops, and had been compelled either to refrain from pressing the necessary discipline upon them, or to compensate the rigours of discipline with excessive rewards. the soldiers became conscious of their power, and sufficiently demoralized to abuse it. less exercise and more pay led to a lamentable enervation; and the filling of the ranks from the more distant peoples, who had not contributed to the making of the empire and were insensible to its prestige, dissolved in the legions the old spirit of nationality. from the lonely forests, the frozen hills, or the blistering deserts of the frontiers, they sought ever to be withdrawn to the comforts and pleasures of the cities. and when they found that a fresh effort was being made to restrict their indulgences and restore the earlier discipline, when they reflected that it was only the feeble hands of a woman and a youth that would enforce this austerity, they broke into sullen murmurs of discontent.
the most dangerous part of the army was the extensive regiment of pr?torian guards, which, from its camp at the walls, overshadowed rome with its power. over these men mam?a had placed a civilian, the distinguished jurist domitius ulpianus. it was natural that ulpian should228 wish to extend to the guards the valuable reforms which he was introducing into every department of the state; equally natural that the soldiers should chafe under his discipline. the citizens took the part of ulpian and mam?a, who protected him, and the irritation at last erupted in a bloody struggle, in which the populace fought for three days against the soldiers in the streets of rome. the quarrel was arrested, but some time afterwards—not in the fight, as gibbon says—the angry guards put an end to the reforms of ulpian. the statesman fled before them into the palace, and sought the protection of the emperor; but the insolent guards penetrated the sanctuary of the royal house with drawn swords, and murdered, in alexander’s presence, the most eminent and enlightened of his counsellors. the provincial troops were giving little less concern. we take our leave at this stage of the historian dio. his work closes with a mournful lament of the condition of the army, and a just presentiment of impending calamity. he too had endeavoured to enforce discipline on the legions, and had found the authority of the emperor insufficient to protect him from their murderous resentment.
as if this lamentable situation had been communicated to the countless peoples who pressed eagerly against the barriers of the empire, we find a new boldness arising amongst them, and a serious beginning of those raids which will at last put the mighty power under the heel of the barbarian. the tragedy of the fall of rome reaches a more certain stage. it is a singular and melancholy reflection that rome suffered most under its most virtuous rulers. during the reign of marcus aurelius the gods had seemed to make a war upon virtue. the new stoic and his virtuous mother were destined to see the enemies gathering fiercely about their enfeebled frontiers, and to perish tragically in a futile effort to repel them.
the gravest trouble arose in the east. the ancient kingdom of persia revived, and its vigorous rulers determined to regain the provinces which greece and rome had229 shorn from their once vast empire. alexander, and probably mam?a, went to the east. if we may believe the panegyrist of alexander in the “historia augusta,” he displayed an admirable firmness in enforcing discipline upon the troops when he arrived at antioch. gathering their sullen and spoiled officers from the haunts of antioch and the licentious groves of the suburb of daphne, he punished a number of them severely, boldly confronted the drawn swords of their demoralized followers, and set the legions in motion against the persians. but the plan of the campaign was injudicious, and the execution weak. the romans suffered a heavy reverse, and, before they could recover and check the advancing spirit of the persians, alexander was recalled to europe with the news that the germanic tribes were bursting through the northern frontier.
from the sunny lands of their native east the emperor and his mother passed, in the year 234, to the banks of the rhine. they had passed through rome, where the citizens were easily persuaded to celebrate his triumph over the persians. from the capitol they had carried the young emperor on their shoulders to his palace, his chariot with its four elephants walking behind them, and a great wave of enthusiasm went with him as he started for gaul. he was now in his twenty-sixth year, and mam?a must have felt that he was at the beginning of a glorious career. they little suspected that they were going to meet their deaths at the hands of their own troops.
one of the commanders on the rhine was a gigantic and powerful barbarian, half goth and half alan, of the name of maximinus. more than eight feet in height, with a thumb so large that he wore his wife’s bracelet on it as a ring, the giant had made his way in the army by sheer strength. a man who could eat forty pounds of meat in a day, drink a proportionate quantity of wine, and fell you with a finger, had the respect of the barbarian soldiers. elagabalus had repelled him, when he sought office, with salacious questions about his strength; alexander had230 eagerly welcomed him, and put him in command of the younger troops. but alexander had afterwards refused him an honour, which mam?a desired to confer on him, and he probably heard this. he had given his son a good roman education, and mam?a thought that the young man was a suitable match for her daughter theoclea. alexander protested that his sister would find the father-in-law too boorish, and the young maximinus, now a tall, handsome, cultivated, and dissolute noble, married a granddaughter of antoninus pius, junia fadilla.
whether this affront was remembered, or whether maximinus acted from mere ambition, we cannot say. he began, in any case, to spread discontent in the army. when alexander practically bought peace from the barbarians, instead of conducting a vigorous campaign against them, the whispers were changed into open murmuring. these effeminate syrians, it was said, were unable to endure the sturdy north, and were eager to return to the east. the emperor was a maudlin youth, who could not act without his mother’s permission. he had abandoned the war against persia in order to return to her side, and he was again sacrificing the honour of rome out of regard for her comfort. her palace at rome was full of hoarded treasure, while the hard-worked soldiers were insufficiently paid. these complaints circulated freely in the camp during the long german winter. a lavish distribution of money might have defeated the plot of maximinus, and a speedy retirement to rome would certainly have saved the lives of the emperor and empress. but they remained in camp until the middle of march, 235, and then the end came.
they were at, or in the neighbourhood of, the small frontier town which is now known as mainz. one morning, when maximinus rode out to control the exercises, he was greeted with the name of emperor. he feigned surprise and reluctance, but the soldiers—probably in pursuance of an arranged plan—drew their swords, and threatened to kill him if he did not take the power from the hands of231 the effeminate syrians. he consented, promised a liberal donation in honour of his accession, and said that all punishments that had been inflicted on the soldiers would be remitted. he then led them toward the tent of alexander. the young emperor came out to meet them, and made an appeal that seems to have divided the followers of the usurper, as they went away to their tents. at night, however, the guards at the imperial tent announced that the mutinous troops were gathering about it. alexander rushed out, and called upon the loyal soldiers to defend him, making a tardy promise of money and concessions. many of them came to his side, but at last the massive figure of maximinus was seen to approach at the head of a strong body of troops. for the last time the soldiers were urged to choose between the strong, generous man and the avaricious woman and her child. alexander saw the faithful few pass sullenly to the side of maximinus, and he returned to his tent. it is said that the last moments were spent in a violent quarrel between mother and son about the responsibility for the disaster. there was little time for it. the soldiers of maximinus entered at once, and slew mam?a, alexander, and their few remaining friends.
a popular and spirited work of the fourth century described “the deaths of the persecutors,” or the terrible fate which befell every emperor who persecuted the christians. no fate in the terrible series of imperial calamities was so tragic as that of alexander, though he had favoured the christians, and had cherished a bust of christ among those of the heroes and sages in his lararium. no other empress in the long line of murdered women so little deserved a violent death as julia mam?a. during the fourteen years of her son’s reign she had solely studied the welfare of the empire. the one charge that her murderers could bring against her was that she had hoarded money instead of spending it on, or giving it to, the troops. on public buildings, public works, and civic administration she had spent freely; she, or alexander,232 had even expended large sums in providing surer sustenance and more effective transport for the troops themselves. the charge is little, if at all, more than a cowardly subterfuge. but it needed half-a-dozen strong and unselfish generals to restore the efficiency and docility of the legions, and they were not to be found. we pass into a period of anarchy, in which emperors and empresses rise and wither like mushrooms, and rome stumbles blindly onward towards its doom. in that period of confusion, when every section of the army makes its emperor, only two dominant personalities are found, and they are two empresses of barbaric origin.
