Editing Domitian (section)

===Assassination===

[[Image:Athena ciste.jpg|thumb|According to Suetonius, Domitian worshipped [[Minerva]] as his protector goddess with superstitious veneration. In a dream, she is said to have abandoned the emperor prior to the [[assassination]].]]

Domitian was assassinated on 18 September 96 in a conspiracy by court officials.<ref name="jones-domitian-193">Suetonius, Life of Domitian 17.</ref> A highly detailed account of the plot and the assassination is provided by Suetonius. He alleges that Domitian's chamberlain Parthenius played the main role in the plot, and historian John Grainger cites Parthenius' likely fear over Domitian's recent execution of Nero's former secretary [[Epaphroditus (freedman of Nero)|Epaphroditus]] as a possible motive.<ref name=grainger-16>Grainger (2003), p. 16</ref><ref name="suetonius-domitian-14">Suetonius, Life of Domitian [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Domitian*.html#14 14;16]</ref> The act itself was carried out by a freedman of Parthenius named Maximus, and a steward of Domitian's niece [[Flavia Domitilla (wife of Clemens)|Flavia Domitilla]], named Stephanus.<ref name="Grainger 2003, p. 19">Grainger (2003), p. 19</ref> According to Suetonius, a number of [[omen]]s had foretold Domitian's death.

According to an [[Augury|auspice]] he had received, the Emperor believed that his death would be at midday. As a result, he was always restless around that time. On the day of the assassination, Domitian was distressed and repeatedly asked a servant to tell him what time it was. The servant, who was himself one of the plotters, lied to the emperor, telling him that it was already late in the afternoon.<ref name=grainger-1-3/> Apparently put at ease, the Emperor went to his desk to sign some decrees.  Stephanus, who had been feigning an injury to his arm for several days and wearing a bandage to allow him to carry a concealed dagger, suddenly appeared:

{{blockquote|...he pretended that he had discovered a plot, and was for that reason granted an audience: whereupon, as the amazed Domitian perused a document he had handed him, Stephanus stabbed him in the groin.  The wounded Emperor put up a fight, but succumbed to seven further stabs, his assailants being a subaltern named Clodianus, Parthenius's freedman Maximus, Satur, a head-chamberlain and one of the imperial gladiators.<ref>{{cite book | last = [[Suetonius]] | date = 1979 |translator = Graves | title = The Twelve Caesars | chapter = ''Domitian'': 17| title-link = On the Life of the Caesars }}</ref>}}

During the attack, Stephanus and Domitian had struggled on the floor. Dio Cassius states that Stephanus was killed when those who were not part of the assassination rushed upon him.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cassius |first=Dio |title=Roman History, Vol. 8, Book 67 |publisher=Loeb |pages=357}}</ref> Domitian's body was carried away on a common [[bier]] and unceremoniously [[cremation|cremated]] by his nurse Phyllis.  Later, she took the emperor's ashes to the Flavian Temple and mingled them with those of his niece, Julia.  He was 44 years old.  As had been foretold, his death came at midday.<ref name=jones-38>Jones (1992), p. 38</ref> Cassius Dio, writing nearly a hundred years later, suggests that the assassination was improvised, while Suetonius implies it was a well-organized conspiracy,<ref name=grainger-5>Grainger (2003), p. 5</ref> citing Stephanus' feigned injury and claiming that the doors to the servants' quarters had been locked prior to the attack and that a sword Domitian kept concealed beneath his pillow as a last line of personal protection against a would-be assassin, had also been removed beforehand.<ref name="suetonius-domitian-17">Suetonius, "Life of Domitian" [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Domitian*.html#17 17]</ref><ref name=grainger-1-3>Grainger (2003), pp. 1–3</ref> Dio included Domitia Longina among the conspirators, but in light of her attested devotion to Domitian—even years after her husband had died—her involvement in the plot seems highly unlikely.<ref name="jones-domitian-37" />  The precise involvement of the Praetorian Guard is unclear. One of the guard's commanders, [[Titus Petronius Secundus]], was almost certainly aware of the plot.  The other, Titus Flavius Norbanus, the former governor of [[Raetia]], was a member of Domitian's family.<ref>Werner Eck – Andreas Pangerl, Titus Flavius Norbanus, praefectus praetorio Domitians, als Statthalter Rätiens in einem neuen Militärdiplom, ZPE 163, 2007, 239–251</ref><ref name="Grainger 2003, p. 19"/>