Avidius Cassius

Avidius Cassius is said, as some will have it, to have been of the family of the Cassii, but through his mother; he was born of Avidius Severus, a new man, who had led the ranks and afterward come to the highest dignities, and of whom Quadratus makes mention in his histories, and that with weight, when he asserts that he was a foremost man and necessary to the state, and very powerful in the eyes of Marcus himself. For he is reported to have died by a fated lot already during his reign. This Cassius, then, of the family, as we have said, of the Cassii who in the senate-house had conspired against Gaius Julius, secretly hated the principate, and could not bear the imperial name, and used to say that the name of empire was the more grievous because it could not be removed from the state save by another emperor. At length, in his boyhood, he is said even to have attempted to wrest the principate from Pius too, but through his father, a holy and weighty man, his inclination to tyranny lay hidden, though he was always held suspect by the generals. That he prepared a plot against Verus, the letter of Verus himself, which I have inserted, indicates. From the letter of Verus: "Avidius Cassius is greedy, as much as it seems to me too and as became known already under my grandfather, your father, of the empire. I should wish you to order him to be watched. Everything of ours displeases him; he amasses no mean resources; he laughs at our letters; he calls you a philosophizing little old woman, and me a luxurious fool. See what is to be done. I do not hate the man, but see that you do not consult ill for yourself and your children, when you have, among the girded soldiery, such a man as the soldiers gladly hear, gladly see."

The reply of Marcus concerning Avidius Cassius: "I have read your letter, anxious rather than imperial, and not of our times. For if the empire is owed to him by divine will, we shall not be able to kill him, even if we wish; for you know the saying of your great-grandfather: 'No one kills his own successor.' But if not, of his own accord, without our cruelty, he will fall into the fatal snares. Add that we cannot make a defendant of a man whom no one accuses, and whom, as you yourself say, the soldiers love. Then in cases of treason this is the nature of things, that even those against whom it is proved seem to suffer violence. For you yourself know what your grandfather Hadrian said: 'Wretched is the condition of emperors, who about an attempted tyranny cannot be believed save when they have been killed.' But I have preferred to set down his example rather than Domitian's, who is said to have been the first to say this; for even the good sayings of tyrants have not so much authority as they ought. Let him therefore keep his own ways, especially since he is a good general and stern and brave and necessary to the state. For as to what you say, that I must guard against his death for my children's sake: plainly, let my children perish, if Avidius shall deserve to be loved more than they, and if it shall be expedient for the state that Cassius live rather than the children of Marcus." These things Verus wrote about Cassius, these Marcus.

But we shall briefly set forth the nature and character of the man. For nothing more can be known about those whose life no one dares to make illustrious, for the sake of those by whom they have been crushed. We shall add, moreover, how he came to the empire, and how he was killed, and where he was conquered. For I have proposed, Diocletian Augustus, to commit to writing all those who held the name of emperor, whether with just cause or unjust, so that you might know all the purple-clad Augusti. He was of such character that sometimes he seemed grim and harsh, sometimes mild and gentle, often religious, at other times a despiser of sacred things, greedy of wine and likewise abstinent, eager for food and patient of moderate fare, desirous of Venus and a lover of chastity. Nor were there wanting those who called him a Catiline, since he himself too rejoiced to be so called, adding that he would be a Sergius if he should kill the dialogue-monger; meaning by this name Antoninus, who so shone in philosophy that, when he was about to go to the Marcomannic war, with all fearing lest something fatal should befall, he was asked, not from flattery but in earnest, to give out the precepts of philosophy; nor did he fear, but discoursed in order, through the whole scheme of exhortation, for three days. Avidius Cassius was, besides, tenacious of military discipline, and one who wished to be called a Marius.

Since we have begun to speak of his severity, there survive many indications of his cruelty rather than severity. For, first, soldiers who had taken anything from the provincials by force he raised on the cross in those very places in which they had transgressed. He was the first too to devise this kind of punishment, that he would set up a great post, eighty and a hundred feet high, and would bind the condemned from the top to the bottom, and at the bottom apply a fire, and, with some burning, would kill the others with the smoke, the torment, and the fear too. The same man would order ten men, chained together, to be plunged into a running stream or into the sea. The same man cut off the hands of many deserters, cut the legs and hams of others, saying that it was a greater example to have a criminal living wretchedly than killed. When he was leading his army, and an auxiliary force, without his knowledge, on the authority of its own centurions, had killed three thousand Sarmatians who were acting too carelessly on the banks of the Danube, and had returned to him with huge booty, the centurions hoping for a reward because with a very small force they had killed so many of the enemy, the tribunes being sluggish and ignorant of it, he ordered them to be seized and raised on the cross and subjected to the servile punishment, of which there was no precedent, saying that it could have come to pass that there was an ambush, and that the reverence of the Roman empire would have perished. And when a great sedition had arisen in the army, he came forth naked, covered only with an athlete's loincloth, and said: "Strike me," he said, "if you dare, and add the crime to the corruption of discipline." Then, with all growing quiet, he deserved to be feared, because he himself did not fear; which thing added so much of discipline to the Romans, and cast so much of terror upon the barbarians, that they sought a peace of a hundred years from Antoninus in his absence, since indeed the Romans had seen condemned, by the judgement of their own general, even those who had conquered against what was right.

About this man many grave deeds against the licence of the soldiers are found in Aemilius Parthenianus, who has handed down, from the men of old onward, the aspirants to tyranny in his history. For both men beaten with rods in the forum and in the midst of the camp he struck with the axe, those who had so deserved, and he cut off the hands of many, and, apart from bacon and biscuit and vinegar, he forbade the soldier to carry anything on a campaign, and if he found anything else, he punished the luxury with no light penalty. There survives about this a letter of the deified Marcus to his prefect, such as this: "I have given to Avidius Cassius the Syrian legions, flowing apart with luxury and living after the manner of Daphne, which Caesonius Vectilianus wrote that he had found wholly steaming in the hot baths; and I think I have not erred, since you too may have Cassius known to you, a man of Cassian severity and discipline. For soldiers cannot be ruled save by the old discipline. You know the verse spoken by a good poet and frequented by all: 'On ancient ways and men the Roman state stands fast.' Only do you see to it that supplies be present to the legions in abundance, which, if I know Avidius well, I am sure will not be wasted." The prefect to Marcus: "You have taken right counsel, my lord, in that you have set Cassius over the Syrian legions; for nothing is so expedient as a sterner man for Greekish soldiers. He, indeed, will shake all the hot bathings, all the flowers, from the head, the neck, and the bosom of the soldier. The military grain-supply is all prepared, nor is anything lacking under a good general; for not much is either sought or spent."

Nor did the judgement held of him deceive. For at once he both ordered it to be proclaimed at the standards and fixed an edict on the walls, that, if any man were found girded at Daphne, he should return ungirded. He always inspected the arms of the soldiers every seventh day, their garments too and their shoes and greaves. He removed all luxuries from the camp and ordered them to pass the winter under skins unless they amended their ways; and they would have passed it so, had they not lived more honourably. The exercise of the seventh day was for all the soldiers, so that they both shot arrows and played at arms. For he used to say that it was wretched that, while athletes, hunters, and gladiators were trained, the soldiers were not trained, for whom the labour would be the less if it were habitual. So, discipline being amended, he conducted affairs most excellently both in Armenia and in Arabia and in Egypt, and was loved by all the Easterners, and especially by the people of Antioch, who even consented to his rule, as Marius Maximus teaches in his life of the deified Marcus. For when the Bucolic soldiers were doing many grievous things throughout Egypt, they were beaten back by this man, as likewise Marius Maximus relates in that book which he published as the second on the life of Marcus Antoninus.

This man called himself emperor in the East, as some say, with Faustina's consent, who now mistrusted the health of Marcus and feared lest she should not be able alone to protect her infant sons, and lest someone should arise who, having seized the royal station, would remove the infants from the midst. But others say that Cassius used this device with the soldiers and provincials against the love felt for Marcus, that they might be able to consent with him, by saying that Marcus had met his last day; for he is said even to have called him divine, that he might soften the longing for him. When he had come forth with the spirit of an emperor, the man who had fitted the royal ornaments on him he at once made praetorian prefect; who was himself too killed by the army, against Antoninus's will, the army which also killed Maecianus, to whom Alexandria had been entrusted and who had consented, in the hope of partnership with Cassius, against the will and knowledge of Antoninus. Nor yet was Antoninus grievously angered when he learned of the rebellion, nor did he rage against his children or kindred. The senate called him a public enemy and proscribed his goods, which Antoninus did not wish to be heaped into the private treasury; wherefore, at the senate's direction, they were brought into the public treasury. Nor was terror lacking at Rome, when certain men said that Avidius Cassius, in Antoninus's absence—who was loved exceedingly by none save the pleasure-seekers—would come to Rome and plunder the city tyrannically, especially for the senators' sake, who had judged him a public enemy with his goods proscribed. And the love for Antoninus shone forth in this especially, that by the consent of all, except the people of Antioch, Avidius was killed; whom indeed he did not order to be killed but suffered to be killed, although it was plain to all that, had it been in his power, he would have spared him.

When his head had been brought to Antoninus, he did not exult, nor was he elated, but even grieved that the occasion for mercy had been snatched from him, saying that he had wished to take him alive, that he might reproach him with his benefits and save him. At length, when a certain man said that Antoninus was to be blamed for being so mild toward his enemy and his children and kindred, and all whom he had found privy to the tyranny, and when the man who blamed him added, "What if he had conquered?" he is said to have answered, "We have not so worshipped the gods nor so lived that he should conquer us." Then he enumerated all the princes who had been killed, saying they had had causes by which they deserved to be killed, and that no good man was easily either conquered by a tyrant or killed, saying that Nero had deserved it, that Caligula had owed it, that Otho and Vitellius had not even wished to reign. He felt the like too about Galba, saying that in an emperor avarice was the bitterest evil. At length he said that neither Augustus, nor Trajan, nor Hadrian, nor his own father could be overcome by rebels, though there had been many, and that these had been destroyed even against their will or without their knowledge. But Antoninus himself asked of the senate that the accomplices of the defection should not be grievously punished, at that very time when he asked that no senator should in his times be subjected to capital punishment; which won him the greatest love. At length, very few centurions being punished, he ordered the deported to be recalled.

To the people of Antioch, who had consented with Avidius Cassius, and to these and other communities which had aided him, he granted pardon, though at first he had been grievously angry with the Antiochenes and had taken from them their spectacles and many other ornaments of the city, which afterward he restored. The sons of Avidius Cassius Marcus Antoninus presented with the middle part of their father's patrimony, so that he honoured his daughters too with gold, silver, and jewels. For to Alexandria, the daughter of Cassius, and to her husband Druncianus he gave free power of wandering wherever they wished, and they lived not as the pledges of a tyrant but as of the senatorial order, in the utmost security, since he had even forbidden that the fortune of their own house should be cast in their teeth in a lawsuit, some men being condemned for injuries who had been insolent toward them, whom indeed he commended to the husband of his own aunt. But if anyone desires to know all this history, let him read the second book of Marius Maximus on the life of Marcus, in which he says those things which Marcus did alone, when Verus was now dead. For then Cassius rebelled, as the letter sent to Faustina proves, the copy of which is this: "Verus had written me the truth about Avidius, that he desired to reign; for I think you have heard what the orderlies of Verus reported about him. Come therefore to the Alban estate, that we may handle everything, the gods willing, fearing nothing." From this, however, it appears that Faustina did not know these things, although Marius says, desiring to defame her, that with her privity Cassius had taken up the empire. For her own letter too survives, addressed to her husband, in which she urges Marcus to take grievous vengeance on him. The copy of Faustina's letter to Marcus: "I myself shall come tomorrow to the Alban estate, as you bid, very soon; yet I now urge that, if you love your children, you pursue those rebels most fiercely. For the generals and soldiers have grown ill-accustomed, who, unless they are crushed, will crush."

Likewise another letter of the same Faustina to Marcus: "My mother Faustina exhorted your father Pius, in the defection of Celsus, that he should first keep his devotion toward his own, and so toward strangers; for that emperor is not devoted who does not think of his wife and children. You see in what age our Commodus is; Pompeianus, our son-in-law, is both older and a foreigner. See what you do about Avidius Cassius and his accomplices. Do not spare men who did not spare you, and would spare neither me nor our children, had they conquered. I myself shall soon follow your journey; because our Fadilla was ill, I could not come to the Formian estate; but if I cannot find you at Formiae, I shall follow you to Capua, which city will be able to aid both my illness and that of our children. I beg you to send down the physician Soteris to the Formian estate. For I trust nothing to Pisitheus, who does not know how to apply a cure to a maiden girl. Calpurnius gave me a sealed letter; to which I shall reply, if I am delayed, through old Caecilius the eunuch, a man, as you know, faithful, to whom I shall entrust by word what the wife and sons and son-in-law of Avidius Cassius are said to boast about you."

From these letters it is understood that Faustina was not privy to Cassius's design; nay rather, that she grievously demanded his punishment, since indeed she impelled Antoninus, who was at rest and pondering gentler counsels, to the necessity of vengeance. What Antoninus wrote back to her, the appended letter will fully teach: "You indeed, my Faustina, act devotedly for your husband and for our children. For I reread your letter at the Formian estate, in which you exhort me to take vengeance on the accomplices of Avidius. But I, for my part, shall spare both his children and his son-in-law and his wife, and shall write to the senate, that neither the proscription be too grievous nor the penalty too cruel. For there is nothing that better commends a Roman emperor to the nations than clemency. This made Caesar a god, this consecrated Augustus, this especially adorned your father with the name of Pius. At length, if it had been judged about the war according to my opinion, Avidius too would not have been killed. Be therefore secure: 'the gods watch over me; my devotion is dear to the gods.' Our Pompeianus I have named consul for the following year." These things Antoninus wrote to his wife.

But it is of interest to know what kind of speech he sent to the senate. From the speech of Marcus Antoninus: "You have, therefore, conscript fathers, by way of congratulation for the victory, my son-in-law as consul, Pompeianus I mean, whose age ought long ago to have been rewarded with a consulship, had not brave men intervened, to whom there had to be rendered what was owed by the state. Now, as to what pertains to the Cassian defection, I beg and beseech you, conscript fathers, that, your censoriousness being laid aside, you preserve my devotion and clemency, nay rather your own; and let the senate kill no one, let no senator be punished, let the blood of no noble man be poured out, let the deported return, let the proscribed recover their goods. Would that I could raise up many even from the underworld! For never is the vengeance of his own grief pleasing in an emperor, which, if it be the more just, seems the more fierce. Wherefore you will grant pardon to the children of Avidius Cassius, and to his son-in-law and wife—and why do I say pardon, when they have done nothing? Let them therefore live secure, knowing that they live under Marcus; let them live on the patrimony of their parents, given over to them in part; let them enjoy gold, silver, and garments; let them be rich, let them be secure, let them be free to roam and at liberty, and let them carry about, through the mouths of all peoples everywhere, the example of my devotion, of your devotion. Nor is this a great clemency, conscript fathers, that pardon be given to the children and wives of the proscribed. But I ask of you that you defend the accomplices of the senatorial and equestrian order from slaughter, from proscription, from fear, from infamy, from odium, and finally from every injury, and that you grant this to my times, that in a case of tyranny he who fell in the tumult be held to have been killed."

This clemency of his the senate followed with these acclamations: "Antoninus the devoted, may the gods preserve you. Antoninus the clement, may the gods preserve you. Antoninus the clement, may the gods preserve you. You wished what was lawful; we have done what was fitting. We ask a just empire for Commodus; strengthen your offspring; make our children secure. No force harms a good rule. We ask the tribunician power for Commodus Antoninus; we ask your presence, for your philosophy, your patience, your learning, your nobility, your innocence. You conquer your foes, you overcome your enemies, the gods watch over you," and the rest. So the descendants of Avidius Cassius lived secure and were admitted to honours. But Commodus Antoninus, after the death of his deified father, ordered them all to be burned alive, as though caught in a faction. These are the things which we have learned about Cassius Avidius, whose own character, as we said above, was always various, but more inclined to censoriousness and cruelty; who, if he had obtained the empire, would have been not a clement and good, but a useful and most excellent emperor.

For there survives a letter of his to his son-in-law, when he was now emperor, of this kind: "Wretched is the state, which suffers these men, greedy of riches and rich—wretched. Marcus is indeed a most excellent man, who, while he desires to be called clement, suffers those to live whose life he himself does not approve. Where is Lucius Cassius, whose name holds us in vain? Where is that Marcus Cato the Censor? Where is all the discipline of our ancestors? Which long ago indeed perished, but now is not even sought. Marcus Antoninus philosophizes and inquires about the elements and about souls and about the honourable and the just, and has no feeling for the state. You see that there is need of many swords, of many sentences, that the public form may be restored to its ancient state. As for me, indeed, regarding those governors of the provinces—shall I think them proconsuls, shall I think them governors, who believe that the provinces were given to them by the senate and by Antoninus for this purpose, that they might run riot, that they might become rich? You have heard that the praetorian prefect of our philosopher, three days before he became so, was a beggar and a pauper, but was suddenly made rich—whence, I ask, save from the bowels of the state and the fortunes of the provincials? Let them indeed be rich, let them be wealthy: they will stuff the public treasury; only may the gods favour the good party, may the Cassiani restore to the state the principate." This letter of his indicates how stern and how grim an emperor he would have been.