ial this
deification was nothing but fulsome flattery, but in the case of the
provincials it was a sincere tribute to the impersonation of the Roman
Empire, as the administrator of good government and the peacemaker of
the world. Even when Rome and Italy smarted beneath his proscriptions
and extortions, the provinces were undisturbed.

Though he took the title of imperator more than twenty times, and
enjoyed at least one triumph, Domitian's military achievements were
insignificant. He defeated the Chatti, annexed the district of the
Taunus, and established the _Limes_ as a line of defence; but he
suffered defeats at the hands of the Quadi, Sarmatae and Marcomanni; in
Dacia he received a severe check, and was obliged to purchase peace (90)
from Decebalus by the payment of a large sum of money and by
guaranteeing a yearly tribute--the first instance in Roman history. His
jealousy was provoked by the successes of Agricola in Britain, who was
recalled to Rome (85) in the midst of his conquests, condemned to
retirement, and perhaps removed by poison. The revolt of Antonius
Saturninus, the commander of the Roman forces in Upper Germany (88 or
89), marks the turning-point in his reign (on the date see H. Schiller,
_Geschichte der romischen Kaiserzeit_, i. pt. 2, p. 524, note 2). It was
speedily crushed; but from that moment Domitian's character changed. He
got rid of all whom he disliked on the charge of having taken part in
the conspiracy, and no man of eminence was safe against him. He was in
constant fear of assassination and distrusted all around him. During the
last three years of his life his behaviour was that of a madman. He
sentenced to death his own cousin and nephew by marriage, Flavius
Clemens, whose wife he banished for her supposed leaning towards Judaism
(Christianity). A conspiracy among his own freedmen--set on foot, it is
said, by his wife Domitia Longina, who knew her own life to be
threatened--cut short his career. He was stabbed in his bedroom by a
freedman of Clemens named Stephanus on the 18th of September 96.

AUTHORITIES. _Ancient._--Tacitus, _Histories_, iii. iv.; Suetonius,
_Domitian_; Dio Cassius lxvi., lxvii.; Tacitus, _Agricola_, 18-22.
Modern accounts by A. Imhof, _T. Flavius Domitianus_ (Halle, 1857),
which, while not claiming any special originality, is based on a
conscientious study of authorities; A. Halberstadt, _De imperatoris
Domitiani moribus et rebus_ (Amsterdam, 1877), an a