of Papinian, the
Praetorian Praefect, was lamented as a public calamity. [282] During the
last seven years of Severus, he had exercised the most important offices
of the state, and, by his salutary influence, guided the emperor's steps
in the paths of justice and moderation. In full assurance of his virtue
and abilities, Severus, on his death-bed, had conjured him to watch over
the prosperity and union of the Imperial family. [29] The honest labors
of Papinian served only to inflame the hatred which Caracalla had
already conceived against his father's minister. After the murder of
Geta, the Praefect was commanded to exert the powers of his skill and
eloquence in a studied apology for that atrocious deed. The philosophic
Seneca had condescended to compose a similar epistle to the senate, in
the name of the son and assassin of Agrippina. [30] "That it was easier
to commit than to justify a parricide," was the glorious reply of
Papinian; [31] who did not hesitate between the loss of life and that of
honor. Such intrepid virtue, which had escaped pure and unsullied
from the intrigues courts, the habits of business, and the arts of his
profession, reflects more lustre on the memory of Papinian, than all his
great employments, his numerous writings, and the superior reputation
as a lawyer, which he has preserved through every age of the Roman
jurisprudence. [32]

[Footnote 281: Papinian was no longer Praetorian Praefect. Caracalla had
deprived him of that office immediately after the death of Severus.
Such is the statement of Dion; and the testimony of Spartian, who gives
Papinian the Praetorian praefecture till his death, is of little weight
opposed to that of a senator then living at Rome.--W.]

[Footnote 29: It is said that Papinian was himself a relation of the
empress Julia.]

[Footnote 30: Tacit. Annal. xiv. 2.]

[Footnote 31: Hist. August. p. 88.]

[Footnote 32: With regard to Papinian, see Heineccius's Historia Juris
Roma ni, l. 330, &c.]

It had hitherto been the peculiar felicity of the Romans, and in the
worst of times the consolation, that the virtue of the emperors was
active, and their vice indolent. Augustus, Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus
visited their extensive dominions in person, and their progress was
marked by acts of wisdom and beneficence. The tyranny of Tiberius, Nero,
and Domitian, who resided almost constantly at Rome, or in the adjacent
was confined to the senatorial and equestrian orders. [33]