DOMITIAN was born upon the ninth of the calends of November A. U. C. 804. [24th October], when his father was consul elect
					(being to enter upon his office the month following), in the sixth region of the
					city, at the Pomegranate, A street. in the sixth region of
						Rome, so called, probably, from a remarkable specimen of this beautiful
						shrub which had made free growth on the spot. in the house which he
					afterwards converted into a temple of the Flavian family. He is said to have
					spent the time of his youth in so much want and infamy, that he had not one
					piece of plate belonging to him; and it is well known, that Clodius Pollio, a
					man of pretorian rank, against whom there is a poem of Nero's extant, entitled
					Luscio, kept a note in his hand-writing, which he sometimes produced, in which
					Domitian made an assignment with him for bad purposes. * * * Thomson omits material here * * * In the war
					with Vitellius, he fled into the capital with his uncle Sabinus, and a part of
					the troops they had in tie city.s But the enemy breaking in, and the temple
					being set on fire, he hid himself all night with the sacristan; and next
					morning, assuming the disguise of a worshipper of Isis, and mixing with the
					priests of that idle superstition, he got over the Tiber, VITELLIUS, c. XV. Tacitus (Hist. iii.) differs from Suetonius, saying that
						Domitian took refuge with a client of his father's near the Velabrum.
						Perhaps he found it more safe afterwards to cross the Tiber. with
					only one attendant, to the house of a woman who was the mother of one of his
					school-fellows, and lurked there so close, that, though the enemy, who were at
					his heels, searched very strictly after him, they could not discover him. At
					last, after the success of his party, appearing in public, and being unanimously
					saluted by the title of Caesar, he assumed the office of praetor of the City,
					with consular authority, but in fact had nothing but the name; for the
					jurisdiction he transferred to his next colleague. He used, however his absolute
					power so licentiously, that even then he plainly discovered what sort of prince
					he was likely to prove. Not to go into details, after he had made free with the
					wives of many men of distinction, he took Domitia Longina from her husband,
					AElias Lamia, and married her; and in one day disposed of above twenty offices
					in the city and provinces; upon which Vespasian said several times, "he wondered
					he did not send him a successor too." He likewise designed an expedition into Gaul and Germany, One of Domitian's coins bears on the reverse a captive female and soldier,
						with GERMANIA DEVICTA. without the least necessity for it, and
					contrary to the advice of all his father's friends; and this he did only with
					the view of equalling his brother in military achievements and glory. But for
					this he was severely reprimanded, and that he might the more effectually be
					reminded of his age and position, was made to live with his father, and his
					litter had to follow his father's and brother's carriage, as often as they went
					abroad; but he attended them in their triumph for the conquest of Judaea, VESPASIAN, C. xii; TITUS, c. vi. mounted on a white
					horse. Of the six consulships which he held, only one was ordinary; and that he
					obtained by the cession and interest of his brother. He greatly affected a
					modest behaviour, and, above all, a taste for poetry; insomuch, that he
					rehearsed his performances in public, though it was an art he had formerly
					little cultivated, and which he afterwards despised and abandoned. Devoted,
					however, as he was at this time to poetical pursuits, yet when Vologesus, king
					of the Parthians, desired succours against the Alani, with one of Vespasian's
					sons to command them, he laboured hard to procure for himself that appointment.
					But the scheme proving abortive, he endeavoured by presents and promises to
					engage other kings of the East to make a similar request. After his father's
					death, he was for some time in doubt, whether he should not offer the soldiers a
					donative double to that of his brother, and made no scruple of saying
					frequently, " that he had been left his partner in the empire, but that his
					father's will had been fraudulently set aside." From that time forward, he was
					constantly engaged in plots against his brother, both publicly and privately:
					until, falling dangerously ill, he ordered all his attendants to leave him,
					under pretence of his being dead, before he really was so; and, at his decease,
					paid him no other honour than that of enrolling him amongst the gods; and he
					often, both in speeches and edicts, carped at his memory by sneers and
					insinuations. In the beginning of his reign, he used to spend daily an hour by himself in
					private, during which time he did nothing else but catch flies, and stick them
					through the body with a sharp pin. When some one therefore inquired, "whether
					any one was with the emperor," it was significantly answered by Vibius Crispus,
					"Not so much as a fly." Soon after his advancement, his wife Domitia, by whom he
					had a son in his second consulship, and whom the year following he complimented
					with the title of Augusta, being desperately in love with Paris, the actor, he
					put her away; but within a short time afterwards, being unable to bear the
					separation, he took her again, under pretence of complying with the people's
					importunity. During some time, there was in his administration a strange mixture
					of virtue and vice, until at last his virtues themselves degenerated into vices;
					being, as we may reasonably conjecture concerning his character, inclined to
					avarice through want, and to cruelty through fear. He frequently entertained the people with most magnificent and costly shows, not
					only in the amphitheatre, but the circus; where, besides the usual races with
					chariots drawn by two or four horses a-breast, he exhibited the representation
					of an engagement between both horse and foot, and a sea-fight in the
					amphitheatre. The people were also entertained with the chase of wild beasts and
					the combat of gladiators, even in the night-time, by torch-light. Nor did men
					only fight in these spectacles, but women also. He constantly attended at the
					games given by the quaestors, which had been disused for some time, but were
					revived by him; and upon those occasions, always gave the people the liberty"of
					demanding two pair of gladiators out of his own school, who appeared last in
					court uniforms. Whenever he attended the shows of gladiators, there stood at his
					feet a little boy dressed in scarlet, with a prodigiously small head, with whom
					he used to talk very much, and sometimes seriously. We are assured, that he was
					overheard asking him, "if he knew for what reason he had in the late
					appointment, made Metius Rufus governor of Egypt?" He presented the people with
					naval fights, performed by fleets almost as numerous as those usually employed
					in real engagements; making a vast lake near the Tiber, Such excavations had been made by Julius and by Augustus [AUG. xliii.], and
						the seats for the spectators fitted up with timber in a rude way. That was
						on the other side of the Tiber. The Naumachia of Domitian occupied the site
						of the present Piazza d'Espagna, and was larger and more ornamented. 
					and building seats round it. And he witnessed them himself during a very heavy
					rain. He likewise celebrated the Secular games, A. U. C.
						841. See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxi. reckoning not from the year in which
					they had been exhibited by Claudius, but from the time of Augustus's celebration
					of them. In these, upon the day of the Circensian sports, in order to have a
					hundred races performed, he reduced each course from seven rounds to five., He
					likewise instituted, in honour of Jupiter Capitolinus, a solemn contest in music
					to be performed every five years; besides horse-racing and gymnastic exercises,
					with more prizes than are at present allowed. There was also a public
					performance in elocution, both Greek and Latin; and besides the musicians who
					sung to the harp, there were others who played concerted pieces or solos,
					without vocal accompaniment. Young girls also ran races in the Stadium, at which
					he presided in his sandals, dressed in a purple robe. made after the Grecian
					fashion, and wearing upon his head a golden crown bearing the effigies of
					Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva; with the flamen of Jupiter, and the college of
					priests sitting by his side in the same dress; excepting only that their crowns
					had also his own image on them. He celebrated also upon the Alban mount every
					year the festival of Minerva, for whom he had appointed a college of priests,
					out of which were chosen by lot persons to preside as governors over the
					college; who were obliged to entertain the people with extraordinary chases of
					wildbeasts, and stage-plays, besides contests for prizes in oratory and poetry.
					He thrice bestowed upon the people largess of three hundred sesterces each man;
					and, at a public show of gladiators, a very plentiful feast. At the festival of
					the Seven Hills, This feast was held in December. Plutarch
						informs us that it was instituted in commemoration of the seventh hill being
						included in the city bounds. he distributed large hampers of
					provisions to the senatorian and equestrian orders, and small baskets to the
					common people, and encouraged them to eat by setting them the example. The day
					after, he scattered among the people a variety of cakes and other delicacies to
					be scrambled for; and on the greater part of them falling amidst the seats of
					the crowd, he ordered five hundred tickets to be thrown into each range of
					benches belonging to the senatorian and equestrian orders. He rebuilt many noble edifices which had been destroyed by fire, and amongst them
					the Capitol, which had been burnt down a second time; The
						Capitol had been burnt, for the third time, in the great fire mentioned
						TITUS, c. viii. The first fire happened in the Marian war, after which it
						was rebuilt by Pompey, the second in the reign of Vitellius. but all
					the inscriptions were in his own name, without the least mention of the original
					founders. He likewise erected a new temple in the Capitol to Jupiter Custos, and
					a forum, This forum, commenced by Domitian and completed by
						Nerva, adjoined the Roman forum and that of Augustus, mentioned in c. xxix.
						of his life. From its communicating with the two others, it was called
						Transitorium. Part of the wall which bounded it still remains, of a great
						height, and 144 paces long. It is composed of square masses of freestone,
						very large, and without any cement; and it is not carried in a straight
						line, but makes three or four angles, as if some buildings had interfered
						with its direction. which is now called Nerva's, as also the temple
					of the Flavian family, The residence of the Flavian family
						was converted into a temple. See c. i. of the present book. a
					stadium, The Stadium was in the shape of a circus, and
						used for races both of men and hotses. an odeum, The Odeum was a building intended for musical performances.
						There were four of them at Rome. and a naumachia; See before, c. iv. out of the stone dug from which,
					the sides of the Circus Maximus, which had been burnt down, were rebuilt.