138
CHAP.
XV.
A. D. 180.
THE DECLINE AND FALL
sion of the multitude. In the tumult of civil. discord, the laws of society lose their force, andtheir place is seldom supplied by those of hu-manity. The ardour of contention, the prideof victory, the despair of success, the memoryof past injuries, and the fear of future dangers,all contribute to inflame the mind, and to si-lence the voice of pity. From such motivesalmost every page of history has been stainedwith civil blood; but these motives will notaccount for the unprovoked cruelties of Corn-modus, who had nothing to wish, and everything to enjoy. The beloved son of Marcussucceeded to his father, amidst the acclama-tions of the senate and armies,' and when heascended the throne, the happy youth sawround him neither competitor to remove, norenemies to punish. In this calm elevated sta-tion, it was surely natural, that he should pre-fer the love of mankind to their detestation, themild glories of his five predecessors, to the ig-nominious fate of Nero, and Domitian .
Yet Commodus was not, as he has been re-presented, a tyger, born with an insatiate thirstof human blood, and capable, from his infancy,of the most inhuman actions. 8 Nature hadformed him of a weak, rather than a wickeddisposition. His simplicity and timidity ren-dered him the slave of his attendants, who gra-
f Commodus was the first Porphyrogenitus (born since his father’s ac-cession to the throne). By a new strain of flattery, the Egyptian medalsdate by the years of his life, as if they were synonymous to those of hisreign. Tiliemont, Hist, des Empereurs , tom. ii, p. 752.
* Hist. August, p. 46.