Domitianus, T. FLAVIUS

Domitianus, T. FLAVIUS, emperor of Rome from 81 to 96 A.D., was the son of Vespasian, and younger brother of Titus, whom he succeeded on the throne. The earlier years of his reign were on the whole advantageously occupied for the public benefit. Many good laws were passed, the provinces carefully governed, and justice rigidly administered. As he grew older, however, his ambition, his jealousy, and his pride, wounded by the failure of his campaigns against the Dacians and the Marcomanii, in 87, began to instigate him to the most atrocious cruelties. By murder or banishment, he deprived Rome of nearly every citizen conspicuous for talent, learning, or wealth. It was his jealousy that recalled Agricola from his career of conquest in Britain, and most likely caused his death. The horror of the time is reflected in the pages of Tacitus and Juvenal. To win the army, he greatly increased the pay of the soldiers, and secured the favour of the people by prodigal largesses and gladiatorial shows and games, in which he sometimes took part in person. His cruelties became at length so intolerable, that a conspiracy—encouraged, if not organised—by his wife Domitia, whom he had doomed to death, was formed against him, and the tyrant fell under the dagger of the assassin, 18th September 96.