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Domitian Biography

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DOMITIAN, TITUS FLAVIUS DOMITIANUS (51-96), Emperor of Rome from 81 to 96 A.D. He was the son of Vespasian, and younger brother of Titus, whom he succeeded on the throne. The earlier years of his reign were, on the whole, advantageously occupied for the public benefit. Many good laws were passed, the provinces were carefully governed, and justice was rigidly administered. As he grew older, however, his ambition, his jealousy, and his pride, wounded by the failure of his campaigns against the Dacians (who were led to victory by their King, Decebalus, q.v.) and the Marcomanni, and by the revolt of Antonius Saturninus, who commanded the armies in Upper Germany, began to instigate him to the most atrocious cruelties. By murder or banishment he deprived Rome of nearly every citizen conspicuous for talent, learning, or wealth. He won the army by greatly increasing the pay of the soldiers and secured the favor of the people by prodigal largesses and gladiatorial shows and games, in which he sometimes took part in person. His cruelties became at length so intolerable that a conspiracy, encouraged by his wife, Domitia, whom he had doomed to death, was formed against him, and the tyrant was assassinated. Consult Imhoff, T. Flavius Domitianus (Halle, 1857), and Gsell, Essai sur le règne de 1'empereur Domitien (1894).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. VI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 170.