CHAP. IV.
_____broidery, and a great number of beautiful slaves of both sexes ; excepting only, with attentive humanity, those who were born in a state of freedom, and had been ravished from the arms of their weeping parents. At the same time that he obhged the worthless favourites of the tyrant to resign a part of their ill-gotten
wealth, he satisfied the just creditors of the state, and unexpectedly discharged the long arrears of honest services. He removed the oppressive restrictions which had been laid upon commerce, and granted all the un-
cultivated lands in Italy and the provinces to those who would improve them ; with an exemption from tribute during the term of ten years[1].
and popularity.Such an uniform conduct had already secured to Pertinax the noblest reward of a sovereign, the love and esteem of his people. Those who remembered the virtues of Marcus were happy to contemplate in their new emperor the features of that bright original ; and flattered themselves, that they should long enjoy the benign influence of his administration. A hasty zeal to reform the corrupted state, accompanied with less prudence than might have been expected from the years and experience of Pertinax, proved fatal to himself and to his country. His honest indiscretion united against him the servile crowd, who found their private benefit in the public disorders, and who preferred the favour of a tyrant to the inexorable equality of the laws[2].
Discontent of the pretorians.Amidst the general joy, the sullen and angry countenance of the pretorian guards betrayed their inward dissatisfaction. They had reluctantly submitted to Pertinax ; they dreaded the strictness of the ancient discipline, which he was preparing to restore ; and they regretted the licence of the former reign. Their dis- contents were secretly fomented by Laetus, their prefect, who found, when it was too late, that his new
