Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/253

CHAP. VII.
_____the president De Montesquieu has adopted, Philip, who during the whole transaction had preserved a sullen silence, was inclined to spare the innocent life of his benefactor ; till, recollecting that his innocence might excite a dangerous compassion in the Roman world, he commanded, without regard to his suppliant cries, that he should be seized, stript, and led away to instant death. After a moment's pause, the inhuman sentence was executed^[1].

Reign of Philip.On his return from the east to Rome, Philip, desirous of obliterating the memory of his crimes, and of captivating the affections of the people, solemnized the secular games with infinite pomp and magnificence. Since their institution or revival by Augustus^[2], they had been celebrated by Claudius, by Domitian, and by Severus, and were now renewed, the fifth time, on Secular games. A.D. 248. April 21.the accomplishment of the full period of a thousand years from the foundation of Rome. Every circumstance of the secular games was skilfully adapted to inspire the superstitious mind with deep and solemn reverence. The long interval between them^[3] exceeded the term of human life ; and as none of the spectators had already seen them, none could flatter themselves with the expectation of beholding them a second time. The mystic sacrifices were performed, during three nights, on the banks of the Tiber; and the Campus Martins resounded with music and dances, and was

1. The Augustan History, (p. 163, 164.) cannot, in this instance, be reconciled with itself or with probability. How could Philip condemn his predecessor, and yet consecrate his memory? How could he order his public execution, and yet, in his letters to the senate, exculpate himself from the guilt of his death ? Philip, though an ambitious usurper, was by no means a mad tyrant. Some chronological diflSculties have likewise been discovered by the nice eyes of Tillemont and Muratori, in this supposed association of Philip to the empire.
2. The account of the last supposed celebration, though in an enlightened period of history, was so very doubtful and obscure, that the alternative seems not doubtful. When the popish jubilees, the copy of the secular games, were invented by Boniface the eighth, the crafty pope pretended that he only revived an ancient institution. See M. le Chais, Lettres sur les Jubiles.
3. Either of an hundred, or an hundred and ten years. Varro and Livy adopted the former opinion, but the infallible authority of the Sibyl consecrated the latter. Censorinus de Die Natal, c. 17. The emperors Claudius and Philip, however, did not treat the oracle with implicit respect.