The naval exploits of Tiberius, ridiculous.

conspicuous than true courage, or a just ambition to support the dignity of the maritime empire, which the Romans had acquired with so much trouble, and so many sacrifices.

21. Tiberius, whose ideas were wholly absorbed in vice and debauchery, possessed no other fleets than those created by Augustus, and which he suffered to decay.(83) Caligula, imitating the folly of Xerxes, as a great maritime exploit, threw a magnificent bridge over an arm of the sea, which separates Baiæ from Puteoli. He rode over it, dressed in a warlike habit, and the next day caused the honours of a naval triumph to be decreed to him, which he could adorn only with cockle-shells collected on the Batavian coast, at the time of his expedition for the conquest of Britain, an expedition stamped with equal folly.(84) Some ships were built by order of this prince, but they were designed not so much for real service, as for the purpose of luxury, and absurd magnificence. In a vessel made of cedar, its stern decked with jewels, and furnished with porticoes, gardens, and baths, he sailed along the coast of Italy, to the sound of melodious instruments.(85)

(83) Suetonius, vita August. et Tiberi. Tacitus annal. lib. 4. (84) Suetonius, vita Calig. § 19.

(85) Suetonius, vita Calig. § 37.

Naval triumph of Claudius.-Vespasian.

22. Claudius, though of slender merit, was not less ambitious of the honours of a triumph. For this purpose, he dispatched a considerable fleet under the command of Plotius, a Roman senator, to make a descent on England. Having met with success, Claudius proceeded to England, to take possession of the country in person, and he returned afterwards to Rome, where he enjoyed a splendid triumph, and acquired the surname of Brittannicus, which the senate had the meanness to confer upon him. He placed a naval crown of gold on his palace, and on the prow of the ship in which he sailed.(86) Nero, after embellishing the harbour, constructed by his predecessor at the mouth of the Nile, engaged in no maritime enterprise, except to cause dust to be brought from Alexandria, for the use of the wrestlers, and in which to bury the victims of his atrocities.(87) Galba and Otho, who both suffered the same fate, were scarcely seated on the throne, before they were hurled from it, and had no time to attend to a marine. Vitellius, who succeeded them, had a fleet for his defence; but by the influence of Bassus, its commander, it declared, afterwards in favour of Vespasian, at that time its true sovereign.(88) Vespasian, on his return to Rome, after his expedition, felt so vain of every thing he performed, that he had a medal struck in honour of himself, on the

(86) Sueton. vita Claud. § 17, 18, 19.

(87) Sueton. vita Nero. Tacit. annal. lib. 14.

(88) Tacit. Hist. lib. 3, § 12. Sueton. lib. 7. § 8.

Trajan revives the maritime power of the Romans.

verse of which, he was represented under the figure of Neptune, having his right foot on a globe, and holding in his right hand the end of a ship's prow, and in his left, a trident, with this legend, Neptuno Reduci. Titus, who had taken part in the expeditions of his father, solely occupied with the care of rendering the people happy by his beneficence, entirely neglected the marine, as did his successors, Domitian and Nerva.

23. Trajan, seated on the imperial throne, revived the ancient maritime glory of the Romans. He constructed a harbour at Centumcelli, now called CivittaVecchia, defended by a castle erected in the sea. This work appeared to be so advantageous and convenient for shipping, that the remembrance of it was consecrated by a medal, representing a port adorned with different edifices, in the midst of which appeared the imperial galley surrrounded by others, with these words, Portum Trajani, S. C. Trajan also built, at his own expence, a magnificent harbour at Ancona, to open a communication from Italy with the Adriatic sea. The senate and people of Rome, desirous of preserving the memory of this useful work, consecrated it by an inscription, formerly to be seen in that harbour, and which has been preserved by Onuphrus. The victories gained by Trajan over the Persians, and various other nations, made so much noise in the world, that many states, and, among others, the Indians, sent

Adrian, and his successors, neglect the Roman marine.

deputies to him. Eusebius, in his Chronicles, (an. 2108) mentions that this prince established a fleet on the Red sea, for the purpose of ravaging the coast of India; in mari rubro classem instituit, ut per eam India fines vastarent. Scaliger, however, on the authority of Dion, asserts that this project was never carried into effect. It is highly probable, that the fear which the Indians felt of his power, induced them to seek his friendship. Adrian, who succeeded him, made no use of the fleets left by his predecessor, except for excursions of pleasure or convenience. He visited England, Sicily, Sardinia, and Africa, for no other purpose than to converse with men of learning, whose praises he was ambitious to obtain.

24. The succeeding emperors did nothing to encourage the marine; but, though reduced, it still preserved to the Romans, their maritime empire, and, it was under that title, that Pertinax remitted the tribute which these tyrants had imposed on the seas. (89)

25. The reigns of the emperors, who succeeded one another so rapidly towards the decline of the empire, furnish the historian with no remarkable circumstance relative to the marine. Instead of augmenting, or, at least, maintaining it on its ancient footing, they suffered it to decay and fall to ruin; so that when the seat of the empire was transferred to Con

(89) Stypman. jus maratim. part 1, cap. 6, § 16.

Progress of the barbarians.-Destruction of the Roman empire.

stantinople, the emperors beheld themselves threatened by the fleets of nations, issuing from the neighbouring countries of Thrace, and the vicinity of the Palus Meotis. The Goths and Bulgarians, notwithstanding the naval victories of Belisarius and Narses, spread terror in every quarter. The Saracens alone, dared to present themselves before this new capital of the world, and would have taken it, had not their numerous fleet been burnt by the Greek fires, an infernal contrivance, which the timid and dastardly besieged, first put into operation. (90)

26. The total destruction of the empire of the Casars, was already written in the book of fate. It passed into the hands of the Ottomans, whom the Romans saw rise into existence as a nation, and who first made themselves known by soliciting their friendship as a favour. They beheld this power in

(90) The Greek fire is a horrid compound of pitch, sulphur, and bitumen, which, instead of being extinguished by water, burns in it with more violence. Callinicus, a native of Heliopolis in Egypt, was the inventor of it. The discovery was kept among the secrets of the empire. Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in his instructions. drawn up for his son, for the administration of the state, tells him, "When the barbarians shall demand the Greek fire, give for answer, that the angel who brought it from heaven, forbade its being communicated to strangers, and that those of our own people who dared to give it to others, had been struck with lightning on entering the temples."

* See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ch. 52......T.