Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/301

 ANTONINUS. 26-; " could even rccal to life many of the, If who have been " killed ; for revenge in a prince hardly ever plc.iks ; for " even when jult, it is conlulcred too feverr."' Jn i;0, Antoninus vifucd Syria and K " | (t : the kin^- ot thofc coun- tries, and cmbailadors alfu liom I'.nthi.i, ..:me to vilit him. He flayed feveral days at Sinrna ; and .ihcr he l,a I fc tiled the affairs of the Eaft, went t<> Athens, on which city he conferred feveral honours, and appointed public profeflbri there. From thence he returned to Rome with hiv inn Com- modus, whom he chofe conful i<n the year following! though he was then but fixttxn years of age, having obtained a difpenlaiion tor that purpole. On the- 2/th or September, the lame )ear, he gave him the title of Jmperator ; and on the 23d of December, he entered Rome in triumph, with Commodus, on account of the victories gaiiwd over tie Cjer-L.b. Uxi. many. Dion Caffius tells us, that he remitted ail the debts, which were due to himfclf and the public treafurv during forty-fix years, from the time that Hadrian had granted the fame favour, and burnt all the writings relating to thofc debts. He applied himfclf likewife to corredt many enormi- ties, and introduced feveral excellent regulations [oj. Jn 171, he left Rome with his Ion Commodus, in order to go againft the Marcomanni, and other barbarous nations; and the year following gained a considerable victory ov.r them: he would, in all probability, have entirely fubdued them in a very fhort time, had he not been taken with an illnefs, which carried him eft' on the 17th of March, 180, in the 59th year of his age, and igth of his reign. The whole empire regretted the lofs of fo valuable a prince, and paid the greatelt regard to his memory : he was ranked amongft the god?, and every perfon almoft had a fhtuc of him in their houfes. His book of Meditations has been much ad- mired by the beft judges [E]. [D] He moderated the expences laid vinces. He renewed the l.nv tna^f tr ouc on glaJutors ; nor would he lufYer Nerva, (ha no fuitfhoulf be cwied on them to right but with f-.vords vvhiili acainft the dead, bu; within five ycjis were blunttd like foils, fo that their after their Hfce^fc-. H,- n ade dccicc, /kill might be /hewn without any danger that all the I'enitors ftumlH have at Itaft of their livet, He endeavoured to clear a fourth par-, of thtir tft..ie m 1- up many obfcurities in the laws, an.1 Capitolinus gives an acci.un: mitisated by ne* dtcrfes the fcvcriiy cf other teguUtk-ns *'--h hr rO^bl filed. rheoldlaws. He was the firft, accord- [E] It is w.itUn in C.t .k, an-1 con- ing to CapJtolinns (Vit. Anton, tay. ("HIS  n Canrtrborf,
 * o eilab!.(h rublic regfftcrs in the pro- pubUAed fownd ediuoa of h> Iran

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