[540] The choice of Galba by the soldiers in Spain (68 A.D.) first “revealed the political secret that emperors could be created elsewhere than at Rome”; Tacitus, Hist., i, 4. Trajan, if actually a Spaniard, was the first emperor of foreign extraction.
[541] In the quadripartite allotment by Diocletian, he himself fixed his residence at Nicomedia, his associate Augustus chose Milan, whilst the scarcely subordinated Caesars, Galerius and Constantius, made Sirmium and Treves their respective stations; Aurelius Vict., Diocletian.
[542] Arcadius, as the elder, reigned in the East, a proof that it was esteemed to be the most brilliant position. The Notitia also, a contemporary work, places the East first as the superior dominion. No doubt the new tyrants found themselves in an uncongenial atmosphere at Rome, and the sterner stuff of the Western nations would not tolerate their sublime affectations. They could stand the follies of Nero, but not the vain-glory of Constantine, who soon fled from the covert sneers of the capital and merely paid it a couple of perfunctory visits afterwards. It is significant that the forms of adoration are omitted from the Notitia of the West; cf., however, Cassiodorus, Var. Ep., xii, 18, 20.
[543] About a year, but sometimes prolonged; he could be indicted afterwards for misconduct, unless like Sulla, Caesar, etc., and the aspirants to the purple later, he found himself strong enough to seize on the supremacy.
[544] See Mommsen, Das röm. Militärwesen, etc. Hermes, xxiv, 1889.
[545] Aurelius Vict., Diocletian, etc. After Elagabalus Aurelian was the pioneer in this departure, but in their case it seems to have been not a policy so much as a love of pompous display. It is worth noting that these emperors were men of low origin; Aurelian was a peasant, Diocletian the son of a slave. Yet Aurelian would not let his wife wear silk; Hist. Aug. Aurelian, 45.
[546] The brood of eunuchs (bed-keepers) flows to us from prehistoric times. Ammianus (xiv, 6) attributes the invention to Semiramis, whose date, if any, is about 2000 B.C. They appear to be engendered naturally by polygamy. Isidore of Seville characterizes them as follows: “Horum quidam coeunt, sed tamen virtus in semine nulla est. Liquorem enim habent, et emittunt, sed ad gignendum inanem et invalidum”; Etymolog., x, sb. voc. Hence the demand for such an enactment as that of Leo, Novel., xcviii, against their marrying, which, however, would be unnecessary in the case of the καρξιμάδες.
[547] The names of Eusebius, Eutropius, Chrysaphius, etc., are well known as despots of the Court and Empire. “Apud quem [si vere dici debeat] Constantius multum potuit,” is the sarcasm of Ammianus on the masterful favourite Eutropius; xviii, 4. Ultimately members of the royal family were castrated to allow of their being intrusted with the office of Chamberlain, practically the premiership, whilst unfitting them to usurp the throne; see Schlumberger, L’épopée byzant. au dix. siècle, 1896, p. 6.
[548] See Const. Porph., passim. The emperor cannot even uncover his head without the castrates closing round him to intercept the gaze of rude mankind; Reiske, ii, p. 259.
[549] The use of numerical affixes to the names of monarchs did not exist among the ancients, and hence many cruxes arise for antiquarians to distinguish those of the same name. Popularly they were often differentiated by nicknames. Thus we read of Artaxerxes the Longhanded, Ptolemy the Bloated, the Flute-player; Charles the Bald, the Fat; Philip the Fair, Frederic Barbarossa, etc. The grandson of the last, Frederic II, seems to have been the first who assumed a number as part of his regal title; see Ludewig, Vita Justin., VIII, viii, 53.