Antoninus Geta

I know, Constantine Augustus, that it may move many — and may move Your Clemency — to question why a life of Geta Antoninus too should be set down by me. Before I speak of either his life or his death, I shall explain why the name Antoninus was bestowed upon him as well by his father Severus; for not much can be said about the life of one who was taken from the affairs of men before he could hold the imperial power together with his brother. Septimius Severus, having on a certain occasion consulted the oracle and asked that it be revealed to him who would be his successor when he died, saw in a dream that Antoninus would succeed him. He therefore at once went out to the soldiers and proclaimed Bassianus, his elder son, "Marcus Aurelius Antoninus." When he had done this — whether from his own fatherly reflection or, as some say, prompted by his wife Julia, who knew the dream and saw that by this act he had himself barred the younger son's way to the throne — he ordered that Geta too, the younger son, should be called Antoninus. And so he was always addressed by his father in his private letters; for whenever Severus chanced to be away and wrote home, he would say, "Greet my sons and successors, the Antonini." But the father's precaution had no force, for he was succeeded only by that son who had first received the name of Antoninus. So much for the name of Antoninus.

He was called Geta either from his uncle's name or from that of his paternal grandfather; of whose life and character Marius Maximus has reported at length enough in the first seven books of his Life of Severus. Now Antoninus Geta was so called for this reason also, that Severus had it in mind that all subsequent emperors should be styled Antonini, just as they were styled Augusti — and this indeed out of love for Marcus, whom he always called his brother and whose philosophy and learning he always sought to imitate. Some say that the name of Antoninus was conferred not only in honour of Marcus, since Marcus held it by adoption, but in honour of him who was surnamed Pius, that is, the successor of Hadrian, and this for the reason that he had chosen Severus, under the standing legal formula, to plead for the imperial treasury; for the first steps, or the first omen of office, had been opened to him by Antoninus for advancement to such high positions; and at the same time because no emperor seemed to him more fortunate, for the lending of his name, than that prince whose own name had now run through four emperors. Concerning this same matter Severus, who was skilled — as most Africans are — in the art of casting nativities, and was most expert in his son's horoscope, is reported to have said: "It seems strange to me, dear Juvenalis, that our Geta will become a god, in whom I see nothing imperial at his birth." For Juvenalis was his praetorian prefect; nor was Severus mistaken, for Bassianus, after he had killed his brother and feared the stain of tyranny that comes from fratricide, and heard that the crime could be softened if he should call his brother a god, is reported to have said, "Let him be a god, provided he is not alive." And so in the end he enrolled him among the gods, and on that account the parricide returned, after a fashion, into favour with public opinion.

Geta was born at Milan, in the consulship of Severus and Vitellius — though others have recorded it otherwise — on the sixth day before the Kalends of June, of Julia, whom Severus had married for this very reason, that he had learned from her horoscope that she was destined to be the wife of a king; and this while he was still a private man, though already of the highest standing in the state. As soon as he was born, word was brought that a hen in the palace had laid a purple egg; and when this had been carried in and his brother Bassianus had taken it and, like a small child, had dashed it to the ground and broken it, Julia is reported to have said in jest, "Cursed parricide, you have killed your brother." And this, which was said in jest, Severus took more deeply than anyone present; while by the bystanders it was afterwards judged to have been uttered as if by divine inspiration. There was yet another omen: for when a lamb had been born on the farm of a certain Antoninus, a man of the common people, a lamb that had a purple fleece on its forehead, on the same day and at the same hour at which Geta was born, and that man had heard from a soothsayer that after Severus an Antoninus would rule, and had drawn the augury upon himself, yet feared the warning of such a destiny, he put the lamb to the sword — and this very thing was a sign that Geta was to be slain by an Antoninus, as afterwards became plain enough. There was also another great omen of this crime that came to pass, as the outcome later showed: for when Severus wished to mark the birthday of the infant Geta with sacrifice, the priest who struck the victim was named Antoninus. This at the time was neither sought out nor noticed, but afterwards it was understood.

As a young man he was handsome, of harsh manners but not impious, a follower of love affairs, a glutton, greedy for food and for wine variously seasoned. Of him as a boy this notable saying is reported: when Severus wished to put to death the men of the opposing factions and said among his own people, "I am ridding you of your enemies," and Bassianus so far agreed that he said their children too ought to be killed, if Severus consulted his own interest, Geta is reported to have asked how great the number of those to be killed would be; and when his father had told him, he asked, "Have these men parents? have they kinsmen?" When the answer came that they had, he said, "Then there will be more in the state who grieve than who rejoice that we have conquered." And his opinion would have prevailed, had not the prefect Plautianus and Juvenalis pressed on, in hope of the proscriptions, by which they were enriched. To this was added the excessive cruelty of his brother Bassianus, who, when he was contending and saying, half in jest, half in earnest, that all of the opposing factions ought to be killed together with their children, Geta is said to have answered, "You who spare no one can kill even your brother." And this saying of his was then nothing, but afterwards served as a foreboding.

He was steadfast in his pursuit of letters, holding fast to the ancient writers, mindful also of his father's maxims, ever hateful to his brother, more beloved by his mother than was his brother, somewhat of a stammerer yet melodious of voice. He was most eager for fine clothing, so that his father laughed at him. If he received anything from his parents, he applied it to his own adornment and gave nothing to anyone. After the Parthian war, when his father was flourishing in great glory, and when Bassianus had been proclaimed partner in the imperial power, Geta too received the name of Caesar and, as some say, of Antoninus. It was his habit to set these questions before the grammarians, that they should say how the several animals utter their cries — thus: lambs bleat, piglets squeal, wood-pigeons coo, swine grunt, bears growl, lions roar, leopards snarl, elephants trumpet, frogs croak, horses neigh, asses bray, bulls bellow — and to have these confirmed from the ancient authors. He held most dear the books of Serenus Sammonicus, which that author had written for Antoninus. He had also this practice, that he ordered his banquets, and especially his luncheons, to be arranged by single letters of the alphabet — the servants understanding it — as, for example, the one in which there was goose, wild-boar meat, duck, likewise chicken, partridge, peacock, sucking-pig, fish, ham, and whatever kinds of food fell under that letter; and likewise pheasant, spelt-cake, fig, and the like. For this reason he was even reckoned an agreeable man in his youth.

When he had been killed, that part of the soldiery which was uncorrupted took the parricide very hard, all of them saying that they had pledged their faith to two sons and ought to keep it to two; and with the gates closed Bassianus was for a long time not admitted as emperor. In the end he could not return to Rome until complaints about Geta had been voiced, the spirits of the soldiers soothed, and enormous bounties paid. After this, finally, Papinianus and many others were put to death, men who had either favoured the concord of the brothers or had been of Geta's party, so that men of both orders were struck down — in the bath, at dinner, and in public. Papinianus himself was struck down with an axe, Bassianus disapproving that the deed had not been carried out with the sword. At last it came even to a mutiny of the city garrison troops, whom indeed Bassianus put down with no slight exercise of authority, their tribune being — as some say — killed, or, as others say, banished. He himself, moreover, was so afraid that, wearing a breastplate beneath his senatorial tunic with the broad stripe, he entered even the Senate-house and thus gave the account of his deed and of Geta's murder. At which time Helvius Pertinax — who was afterwards killed by this same Bassianus — when the praetor Faustinus was reciting and saying, "Greatest of the Sarmatians and greatest of the Parthians," is said to have remarked, "Add also 'greatest of the Getae,'" as though it were "Gothicus." And this saying sank more deeply into the breast of Bassianus, as was afterwards proved by the murder of Pertinax — and not of Pertinax only, but of others also, as has been said above, far and wide and unjustly. He held Helvius suspect, moreover, of aspiring to tyranny, because he was loved by all and was the son of the emperor Pertinax — a thing which is not easily safe enough for any private man.

Geta's funeral is said to have been more carefully conducted than was fitting for one who seemed to have been killed by his brother; and he was laid in the tomb of his ancestors, that is, of Severus, which is on the Appian Way, on the right as one goes toward the gate, built in the form of the Septizonium, which Severus had adorned for himself while he was alive. Antoninus wished to kill also the mother of Geta, his own stepmother, because she mourned for his brother, and the women whom, after his return from the Senate-house, he found weeping. Furthermore, such was the savagery of Antoninus that he fawned especially upon those whom he had marked out for death, so that his flattery was more feared than his anger. It seemed indeed strange to all that he himself so often even wept for the death of Geta, as often as mention was made of his name, as often as his portrait or his statue was seen. But so great was the inconstancy of Antoninus Bassianus — nay, so great his thirst for slaughter — that he killed now the supporters of Geta, now his enemies, whomever chance brought before him; and by this deed Geta was the more sorely missed.