onarchs (Augustus,
Vespasian, Titus). But few men had a head strong enough to resist
vertigo when they saw themselves so elevated above other men. The
majority of the emperors profited by their tremendous power only to
make their names proverbial: Tiberius, Nero, Domitian by their
cruelty, Vitellius by his gluttony, Claudius by his imbecility. One
of them, Caligula, was a veritable fool; he had his horse made consul
and himself worshipped as a god. The emperors persecuted the nobles
especially to keep them from conspiring against them, and the rich to
confiscate their goods.

2. _Disorder._--This overweening authority was, moreover, very ill
regulated; it resided entirely in the person of the emperor. When he
was dead, everything was in question. It was well known that the world
could not continue without a master, but no law nor usage determined
who was to be this master. The Senate alone had the right of
nominating the emperor, but almost always it would elect under
pressure the one whom the preceding emperor had designated or the man
who was pleasing to the soldiers.

After the death of Caligula, some praetorians who were sacking the
palace discovered, concealed behind the tapestry, a poor man trembling
with fear. This was a relative of Caligula; the praetorians made him
emperor (it was the emperor Claudius). After the death of Nero, the
Senate had elected Galba; the praetorians did not find him liberal
enough and so they massacred him to set up in his place Otho, a
favorite of Nero. In their turn the soldiers on the frontier wished to
make an emperor: the legions of the Rhine entered Italy, met the
praetorians at Bedriac near Cremona, and overthrew them in so furious a
battle that it lasted all night; then they compelled the Senate to
elect Vitellius, their general, as emperor. During this time the army
of Syria had elected its chief Vespasian, who in turn defeated
Vitellius and was named in his place; thus in two years three emperors
had been created and three overthrown by the soldiers. The new
emperor often undid what his predecessor had done; imperial despotism
had not even the advantage of being stable.

=The Twelve Caesars.=--This regime of oppression interrupted by
violence endured for more than a century (31 B.C. to 96 A.D.).

The twelve emperors who came to the throne during this time are called
the Twelve Caesars, although only the first six were of the family of
Augustus. It is difficult to judge the