142 THE DECLINE AND PALL

chap, distinction of every kind soon became criminal.

_^_The possession of wealth stimulated the diligence

of the informers; rigid virtue implied a tacitcensure of the irregularities of Commodus ; im-portant services implied a dangerous superiorityof merit; and the friendship of the father alwaysensured the aversion of the son. Suspicion wasequivalent to proof; trial to condemnation. Theexecution of a considerable senator was attend-ed with the death of all who might lament orrevenge his fate; and when Commodus hadonce tasted human blood, he became incapableof pity or remorse.

The Quin- Of these innocent victims of tyranny, none

tilers b '°" died more lamented than the two brothers of theQuintilian family, Maximus and Condianus;whose fraternal love has saved their names fromoblivion, and endeared their memory to poste-rity. Their studies and their occupations, theirpursuits and their pleasures, were still the same.In the enjoyment of a great estate, they neveradmitted the idea of a separate interest; somefragments are now extant of a treatise which theycomposed in common; and in every action oflife it was observed, that their two bodies wereanimated by one soul. The Antonines, who va-lued their virtues, and delighted in their union,raised them, in the same year, to the consul-ship; and Marcus afterwards entrusted to theirjoint care the civil administration of Greece ,and a great military command, in which theyobtained a signal victory over the Germans . The