Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/161

CHAP. V.
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Disgrace of the pretorian guards.The first cares of Severus were bestowed on two measures, the one dictated by poHcy, the other by decency ; the revenge, and the honours, due to the memory of Pertinax. Before the new emperor entered Rome, he issued his commands to the pretorian guards, directing them to wait his arrival on a large plain near the city, without arms, but in the habits of ceremony in which they were accustomed to attend their sovereign. He was obeyed by those haughty troops, whose contrition was the effect of their just terrors. A chosen part of the Illyrian army encompassed them with levelled spears. Incapable of flight or resistance, they expected their fate in silent consternation. Severus mounted the tribunal, sternly reproached them with perfidy and cowardice, dismissed them with ignominy from the trust which they had betrayed, despoiled them of their splendid ornaments, and banished them, on pain of death, to the distance of an hundred miles from the capital. During the transaction, another detachment had been sent to seize their arms, occupy their camp, and prevent the hasty consequences of their despair^[1].

Funeral and apotheosis of Pertinax.The funeral and consecration of Pertinax was next solemnized with every circumstance of sad magnificence^[2]. The senate, with a melancholy pleasure, performed the last rites to that excellent prince, whom they had loved, and still regretted. The concern of his successor was probably less sincere. He esteemed the virtues of Pertinax, but those virtues would for ever have confined his ambition to a private station. Severus pronounced his funeral oration with studied eloquence, inward satisfaction, and well acted sorrow; and by this pious regard to his memory, convinced the credulous multitude that he alone was worthy to supply his place. Sensible, however, that arms, not ceremonies, must assert his claim to the empire, he left

1. Dion, 1. Ixxiv. p. 1241 ; Herodian, 1. ii. p. 84.
2. Dion, (1. Ixxiv. p. 1244.) who assisted at the ceremony as a senator, gives a most pompous description of it.