Domitianus

Dŏmĭtĭānus, i, m., T. Flavius,

• a Roman emperor, son of Vespasian, and brother of Titus, who reigned 81-96 A.D., Suet. Dom. passim; Tac. H. 3, 86.
• —Hence, Dŏmĭtĭānus, a, um, adj.: via, a road constructed by him, a branch of the Via Appia, running from Sinuessa to Puteoli, Stat. S. 4 praef.; id. ib. 4, 3: mensis, i. e. October, in which the Emperor Domitian was born, Suet. Dom. 13.

1. Domitiānus, a, um, s. 2. Domitiānus u. Domitius a.E.

2. Domitiānus, ī, m., vollst. T. Flavius Domitianus Augustus, Sohn des Vespasian, Bruder des Titus, geb. 51 n. Chr., röm. Kaiser von 81 bis 96 n. Chr., Suet. Dom. 1 sqq. Tac. hist. 3, 86: Plur., Domitiani, Männer wie Domitian, Vopisc. Car. 1, 3. – Dav. Domitiānus, a, um, domitianisch, des Domitian, via, eine Seitenstraße der via Appia, die von Sinuessa nach Puteoli führt, Stat.: October, als Geburtsmonat des Domitian, Suet.

1 Dŏmĭtĭānus, (13) a, um, de Domitius : Cæs. C. 1, 16 || de Domitien : Domitiana via Stat. S. 4, pr., 7, la voie Domitienne [de Rome à Literne].

2 Dŏmĭtĭānus, (10) ī, m. , Domitien [douzième empereur de Rome] : Suet. Dom.

Domitia'nus

or with his full name T. Flavius Domitianus Augustus, was the younger of Vespasian's sons by his first wife Domitilla. He succeeded his elder brother Titus as emperor, and reigned from A. D. 81 to 96. He was born at Rome, on the 24th of October, A. D. 52, the year in which his father was consul designatus. Suetonius relates that Domitian in his youth led such a wretched life, that he never used a silver vessel, and that he prostituted himself for money. The position which his father then occupied precludes the possibility of ascribing this mode of life to poverty, and if the account be true, we must attribute this conduct to his bad natural disposition. When Vespasian was proclaimed emperor, Domitian, who was then eighteen years old, happened to be at Rome, where he and his friends were persecuted by Vitellius; Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, was murdered, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that Domitian escaped from the burning temple of the capitol, and concealed himself until the victory of his father's party was decided. After the fall of Vitellius, Domitian was proclaimed Caesar, and obtained the city praetorship with consular power. As his father was still absent in the east, Domitian and Mucianus undertook the administration of Italy until Vespasian returned. The power which was thus put into his hands was abused by the dissolute young man in a manner which shewed to the world, but too plainly, what was to be expected, if he should ever succeed to the imperial throne: he put several persons to death, merely to gratify his desire of taking vengeance on his personal enemies; he seduced many wives, and lived surrounded by a sort of harem, and arbitrarily deposed and appointed so many magistrates, both in the city and Italy, that his father with a bitter sarcasm wrote to him, "I wonder that you do not send some one to succeed me." Being jealous of the military glory of his father and brother, he resolved upon marching against Civilis in Gaul, in spite of the advice of all his friends to remain at Rome; but he did not advance further than Lugdunum, for on his arrival there he received intelligence of Cerealis having already conquered the rebel.

When his father at length arrived at Rome, Domitian, who was conscious of his evil conduct, is said not to have ventured to meet him, and to have pretended not to be in the perfect possession of his mind. Vespasian, however, knew his disposition, and throughout his reign kept him as much as possible away from public affairs; but in order to display his rank and station, Domitian always accompanied his father and brother when they appeared in public, and when they celebrated their triumph after the Jewish war, he followed them in the procession riding on a white warsteed. He lived partly in the same house with his father, and partly on an estate near the Mons Albanus, where he was surrounded by a number of courtezans. While he thus led a private life, he devoted a great part of his time to the composition of poetry and the recitation of his productions. Vespasian, who died in A. D. 79, was succeeded by his elder son Titus, and Domitian used publicly to say, that he was deprived of his share in the government by a forgery in his father's will, for that it had been the wish of the latter that the two brothers should reign in common. But this was mere calumny : Domitian hated his brother, and made several attempts upon his life. Titus behaved with the utmost forbearance towards him, but followed the example of his father in not allowing Domitian to take any part in the administration of public affairs, although he was invested with the consulship seven times during the reigns of his father and brother. The early death of Titus, in A. D. 81, was in all probability the work of Domitian. Suetonius states that Domitian ordered the sick Titus to be left entirely alone, before he was quite dead; Dio Cassius says that he accelerated his death by ordering him while in a fever to be put into a vessel filled with snow; and other writers plainly assert, that Titus was poisoned or murdered by Domitian.

On the ides of September, A. D. 81, the day on which Titus died, Domitian was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers. During the first years of his reign he continued, indeed, to indulge in strange passions, but Suetonius remarks that he manifested a pretty equal mixture of vices and virtues. Among the latter we must mention, that he kept a very strict superintendence over the governors of provinces, so that in his reign they are said to have been juster than they ever were afterwards. He also enacted several useful laws: he forbade, for example, the castration of male children, and restricted the increasing cultivation of the vine, whereby the growth of corn was neglected. He endeavoured to correct the frivolous and licentious conduct of the higher classes, and shewed great liberality and moderation on many occasions. He further took an active part in the administration of justice; which conduct, praiseworthy as it then was, became disgusting afterwards, when, assisted by a large class of delatores, he openly made justice the slave of his cruelty and tyranny; for, during the latter years of his reign he acted as one of the most cruel tyrants that ever disgraced a throne, and as Suetonius remarks, his very virtues were turned into vices. The cause of this change in his conduct appears, independent of his natural bias for what was bad, to have been his boundless ambition, injured vanity, jealousy of others, and cowardice, which were awakened and roused by the failure of his undertakings and other occurrences of the time. In A. D. 84 he undertook an expedition against the Chatti, which does not seem to have been altogether unsuccessful, for we learn from Frontinus (Strateg. 1. 3), that he constructed the frontier wall between the free Germans and those who were subject to Rome, so that he must at any rate have succeeded in confining the barbarians within their own territory. After his return to Rome he celebrated a triumph, and assumed the name of Germanicus. In the same year Agricola, whose success and merits excited his jealousy, was recalled to Rome, ostensibly for the purpose of celebrating a triumph; but he was never sent back to his post, which was given to another person. [Agricola.] The most dangerous enemy of Rome at that time was Decebalus, king of the Dacians. Domitian himself took the field against him, but the real management of the war was left to his generals. Simultaneously with this war another was carried on against the Marcomanni and Quadi, who had refused to furnish the Romans with the assistance against Decebalus, which they were bound to do by a treaty. The Romans were defeated by them, and the consequence was, that Domitian was obliged to conclude peace with Decebalus on very humiliating terms, A. D. 87. [Decebalus.] Another dangerous occurrence was the revolt of L. Antonius in Upper Germany; but this storm was luckily averted by an unexpected overflow of the Rhine over its banks, which prevented the German auxiliaries, whom Antonius expected, from joining him; so that the rebel was easily conquered by L. Appius Norbanus, in A. D. 91. An insurrection of the Nasamones in Africa was of less importance, and was easily suppressed by Flaccus, the governor of Numidia.

But it is the cruelty and tyranny of Domitian that have given his reign an unenviable notoriety. His natural tendencies burst forth with fresh fury after the Dacian war. His fear and his injured pride and vanity led him to delight in the misfortunes and sufferings of those whom he hated and envied; and the most distinguished men of the time, especially among the senators, had to bleed for their excellence; while, on the other hand, he tried to win the populace and the soldiers by large donations, and by public games and fights in the circus and amphitheatre, in which even women appeared among the gladiators, and in which he himself took great delight. For the same reason he increased the pay of the soldiers, and the sums he thus expended were obtained from the rich by violence and murder; and when in the end he found it impossible to obtain the means for paying his soldiers, he was obliged to reduce their number. The provinces were less exposed to his tyranny, and it was especially Rome and Italy that felt his iron grasp. The expression of thought and sentiment was suppressed or atrociously persecuted, unless men would degrade themselves to flatter the tyrant. The silent fear and fearful silence which prevailed during the latter years of Domitian's reign in Rome and Italy are briefly but energetically described by Tacitus in the introduction to his Life of Agricola, and his vices and tyranny are exposed in the strongest colours by the withering satire of Juvenal. All the philosophers who lived at Rome were expelled; from which, however, we cannot infer, as some writers do, that he hated all philosophical and scientific pursuits; the cause being in all probability no other than his vanity and ambition, which could not bear to be obscured by others. Christian writers attribute to him a persecution of the Christians likewise; but there is no other evidence for it, and the belief seems to have arisen from the strictness with which he exacted the tribute from the Jews, and which may have caused much suffering to the Christians also.

As in all similar cases, the tyrant's own cruelty brought about his ruin. Three officers of his court, Parthenius, Sigerius, and Entellus, whom Domitian intended to put to death (this secret was betrayed to them by Domitia, the emperor's wife, who was likewise on the list), formed a conspiracy against his life. Stephanus, a freedman, who was employed by the conspirators, contrived to obtain admission to the emperor's bed-room, and gave him a letter to read. While Domitian was perusing the letter, in which the conspirators' plot was revealed to him, Stephanus plunged a dagger into his abdomen. A violent struggle ensued between the two, until the other conspirators arrived. Domitian fell, after having received seven wounds, on the 18th of September, A. D. 96. Apollonius of Tyana, who was then at Ephesus, at the moment Domitian was murdered at Rome, is said to have run across the market-place, and to have exclaimed, "That is right, Stephanus, slay the murderer!"

There are few rulers who better deserve the name of a cruel tyrant than Domitian. The last three years of his reign forn one of the most frightful periods that occur in the history of man; but he cannot be called a brutal monster or a madman like Caligula and Nero, for he possessed talent and a cultivated mind; and although Pliny and Quintilian, who place his poetical productions by the side of those of the greatest masters, are obviously guilty of servile flattery, yet his poetical works cannot have been entirely without merit. His fondness and esteem for literature are attested by the quinquennial contest which he instituted in honour of the Capitoline Jupiter, and one part of which consisted of a musical contest. Both prose writers and poets in Greek as well as in Latin recited their productions, and the victors were rewarded with golden crowns. He further instituted the pension for distinguished rhetoricians, which Quintilian enjoyed; and if we look at the comparatively flourishing condition of Roman literature during that time, we cannot help thinking that it was, at least in great measure, the consequence of the influence which he exercised and of the encouragement which he afforded. It is extremely probable that we still possess one of the literary productions of Domitian in the Latin paraphrase of Aratus's Phaenomena, which is usually attributed to Germanicus, the grandson of Augustus. The arguments for this opinion have been clearly set forth by Rutgersius (Var. Lect. iii. p. 276), and it is also adopted by Niebuhr. (Tac. Hist. iii, 59, &c., 4.2, &c., Agric. 39, 42, 45; Suet. Domitian. ; Dio Cass. lib. lxvi. and lxvii.; Juvenal, Satir. ; Quint. Inst. 4.1.2, &c., 10.1.91, &c.; Niebuhr, Lectures on Roman Hist. ii. pp. 234-250.) [L.S]

Domitia'nus, L. Domi'tius

A few coins are extant in second brass, which exhibit on the obverse a laurelled head, with the legend, Imp. C. L. Domitius. Domitianus. Aug.; on the reverse, the representation of a Genius, with Genio. Populi. Romani.; and below, the letters Ale., indicating that they were struck at Alexandria. We find also a very rare Alexandrian third brass, with a rayed head, and the words ΔΟΜΙΤΙΑΝΟΣ ΣΕΒ. These pieces have been generally supposed to belong to the Domitianus mentioned by Trebellius Pollio, as the general who vanquished the two Macriani, who is described as a man of lofty amnbition, deducing his origin from the son of Vespasian, and is believed to be the same with the Domitianus put to death by Aurelian, according to Zosimus, in consequence of a suspicion that he was meditating rebellion. Eckhel, however, has demonstrated, from numismatical considerations, that the Latin medals, at least, cannot be earlier than the epoch of Diocletian, or his immediate successors, and therefore must commemorate the usurpation of some pretender unknown to history. (Trebell. Poll. Gallien. duo, 100.2; Trigint. Tyrann. 100.12; Zosim. 1.49; Eckhel, vol. viii. p. 41.) [W.R]

Domitiānus, Titus Flavius

The second son of Vespasian, born at Rome A.D. 51. Vespasian, well aware of his natural disposition, reposed no confidence in him during his whole reign. Domitian, however, accompanied his father and his brother Titus in their triumph at the close of the Jewish War. Upon the death of Vespasian he endeavoured to foment troubles in the Empire and share the succession with Titus. The latter, however, forgave him, treated him with great kindness, and made him his colleague in the consulship, always declaring to him that he intended him for his successor. Domitian is accused of hastening the death of Titus by poison—a charge, however, not warranted by the circumstances of Titus's death. The beginning of his reign was marked by moderation and a display of justice bordering upon severity. His affected great zeal for the reformation of public morals, and punished with death several persons guilty of adultery as well as some vestals who had broken their vows. He completed several splendid buildings begun by Titus—among others an odeum, or theatre for musical performances. The most important event of his reign was the conquest of Britain by Agricola, but Domitian grew jealous of that great commander's reputation and recalled him to Rome. His suspicious temper and his pusillanimity made him afraid of every man who was distinguished either by birth and connections or by merit and popularity, and he mercilessly sacrificed many to his fears, while his avarice led him to put to death a number of wealthy persons for the sake of their property. The usual pretext for these murders was the charge of conspiracy or treason, and thus a numerous race of informers was created and maintained by this system of spoliation. His cruelty was united to a deep dissimulation, and in this particular he resembled Tiberius rather than Caligula or Nero. He either put to death or drove away from Rome the philosophers and men of letters; Epictetus was one of the exiled. He found, however, some flatterers among the poets, such as Martial, Silius Italicus, and Statius. The latter dedicated to him his Thebaïs and Achilleïs and commemorated the events of his reign in his Silvae. But, in reality, the reign of Domitian was other than favourable to the Roman arms, except in Britain. In Moesia and Dacia, in Germany and Pannonia, his armies were defeated and whole provinces lost (Tac. Agric. 41). Domitian himself went twice into Moesia to oppose the Dacians, but, after several defeats, concluded a disgraceful peace with their king Decebalus, whom he acknowledged as sovereign, and to whom he agreed to pay tribute, which was afterwards discontinued by Trajan. Yet Domitian made a pompous report of his victories to the Senate and assumed the honours of a triumph. In the same manner he triumphed over the Cotti and the Sarmatians, which made Pliny the Younger say that the triumphs of Domitian were always evidence of some advantages gained by the enemies of Rome. In A.D. 95, Domitian assumed the consulship for the seventeenth time, together with Flavius Clemens, who had married Domitilla, a relative of the emperor. In that year a persecution of the Christians is recorded in the history of the Church, but it seems that it was not directed particularly against them, but against the Jews, with whom the Christians were often confounded by the Romans. Flavius Clemens and his wife were among the victims. In the following year, A.D. 96, a conspiracy was formed against Domitian among the officers of his guards and several of his intimate friends, and his wife, the infamous Domitilla, herself is said to have participated in it. The immediate cause of it was his increasing suspicion, which threatened the life of every one around him, and which is said to have been stimulated by the predictions of astrologers and soothsayers, whom he was very ready to consult. He was killed in his apartments by several of the conspirators, after struggling with them for some time, in his forty-fifth year and in the fifteenth of his reign. On the news of his death the Senate assembled and elected M. Cocceius Nerva emperor.

The character of Domitian is represented by all ancient historians in the darkest colours, as being a compound of timidity and cruelty, of dissimulation and arrogance, of self-indulgence and stern severity towards others. He gave himself up to every excess and plunged into the most degrading vices. Conceiving at last the idea of arrogating divine honours to himself, he assumed the titles of Lord and God and claimed to be a son of Minerva. Soon after he had succeeded to the government he indulged in that love of solitude which pride and fear combined to render in a very short time the most confirmed of all his habits. In the beginning of his reign, says his biographer, he accustomed himself to spend several hours every day in the strictest privacy, employed frequently in nothing else than in catching flies and piercing them with a sharp instrument. Hence the well-known remark made by Vibius Crispus, who, when asked whether there was any one with the emperor, replied, “No, not even a fly.” Domitian took a delight in inspiring others with terror, and Dio Cassius tells of a singular banquet, to which he invited the principal members of the Senate and equestrian order, where everything wore the appearance of an intended execution. He once even convened the Senate to determine in what way a large turbot should be cooked, whether whole or divided (Juv.iv.). The Senate, after his death, issued a decree that his name should be struck out of the Roman annals and obliterated from every public monument. His career is sketched in detail by Imhoff (1857).