102

CHAP.

IV.

He endea-vours t«reform thestate.

His regu-lations.

THE DECLINE AND FALL

To heal, as far as it was possible, the woundsinflicted by the hand of tyranny, was the pleas-ing, but melancholy, task of Pertinax . Theinnocent victims, who yet survived, were recall-ed from exile, released from prison, and restoredto the full possession of their honours and for-tunes. The unburied bodies of murdered sena-tors (for the cruelty of Commodus endeavouredto extend itself beyond death) were deposited inthe sepulchres of their ancestors ; their memorywas justified; and every consolation was be-stowed on their ruined and afflicted families.Among these consolations, one of the mostgrateful was the punishment of the delators;the common enemies of their master, of virtue,and of their country. Yet even in the inquisi-tion of these legal assassins, Pertinax proceededwith a steady temper, which gave every thingto justice, and nothing to popular prejudiceand resentment.

The finances of the state demanded the mostvigilant care of the emperor. Though everymeasure of injustice and extortion had beenadopted, which could collect the property ofthe subject into the coffers of the prince, therapaciousness of Commodus had been so veryinadequate to his extravagance, that, upon hisdeath, no more than eight thousand poundswere found in the exhausted treasury/ to de-fray the current expences of government, andto discharge the pressing demand of a liberal

* Defies. The blameless economy of Pius left his successors a trea-sure of vicies septies miilies , above two and twenty millions sterling.Dion, I. lxxiii, p. 1231.